Why don't you go ahead and turn your Bibles to John chapter 12.
This is one of those passages, guys, I'll be honest, when I was
studying, I felt like skipping just moving on to John chapter
13. But the Lord would not allow me
to do that. And so I needed to study, be
faithful to it. And hopefully you guys will be
blessed this morning. But I I titled the message why
Jesus calls us to come and die. So it's not necessarily one of
those like feel good messages. I'll just say that on the front.
And that's probably why I wanted to skip it.
God would not allow me to do that because what I, I saw
something different in this passage that I, that I'd never
seen before. And I want to share with you
guys that as I was studying this morning, that I think will be a
source of encouragement, even though we're talking about a
hard topic called come and die. So you ready?
It's kind of one of those strap on the seat belt kind of
messages and we're going to go for a while ride.
All right, so the first, the first part, we'll just read
this, I'll read the whole thing and then we'll go back and look
at it. So verse 12, this is all in the
same context to remember John, he what he's doing is he's he
spends about 70 ish percent of more than the other guys, more
than his friends, right? Matthew, Mark and Luke.
This what's called the synoptic gospels.
So he's spending more time on the last week of Jesus than than
his friends. So John cares a lot about his
last, his last seven days of his life before he dies and raises
from the dead. So all right, we'll start off
with verse 12. So he's headed towards Jerusalem
like, like Tyler was saying, and he is coming and he's willing to
die in our place. So no one's forcing him.
No one took the life of Jesus. It's very important to know and
it's very important to understanding the love of God.
If you have a struggle in this morning, if you struggle, we're
like, man, I don't know if God really loves me.
He came to Jerusalem knowing he was going to die for who?
Not for himself, for you. So sometimes it, you know, we
all struggle with the love of God.
All of us do, every single one of us.
But it's silly at the same time because the Bible is so clear of
his love for us that no one took his life by surprise in in fact,
many times there people were trying to take his life and he
it was elusive, right? He just kind of duck out of the
way or, you know, people are trying to throw rocks at him or
throw him off a Cliff or kill him in some other way.
And it wasn't his hour. And we're going to see that he
now begins to say, now is the time.
And so that time is to die, and for you and for me.
And so verse 12, it says this. On the next day, the large crowd
who had come to the feast, and this is the feast of the
Passover, they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
So they took branches of the palm trees and went out to meet
him and began to shout, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, Even the king of Israel.
Jesus, finding it a young donkey, sat on it, and it was
written, Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is
coming seated on a donkey's colt.
These things his disciples did not understand at at first, but
when Jesus was glorified, they remembered that these things
were written of Him and that they had done, He had done these
things to him, that they had done these things to Him.
So the people who were with him, when you call Lazarus out of the
tomb and raised from the dead, continue to testify about him.
For this reason also the people went with him, or I met him,
because they had heard that he had performed this sign.
So the Pharisees said to one another, this is hilarious, you
see that you are not doing any good.
Look, the whole world is going after him.
That is good. They just were jealous.
Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to
worship at the feast. These came to Philip, who was
from Besadia and Galilee and began to ask him, saying serve,
we wish to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew,
Andrew, Philip, Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus, and
Jesus answered them, saying this is the tough part.
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Truly, truly. I say to you, unless a grain of
wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.
But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
And he who loves his life will lose it.
And he who hates his life in this world will keep it to
eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must
follow me. And where I am, there my servant
will be also, if anyone serves me, the Father will honour him
and we'll stop there. All right, so first I got a math
equation that I got another thing to share with you guys.
I just want to, you know, when you, when you study the
scriptures, there's something so profound.
You want to look for Jesus, you want to look for the glory of
God. That's what Moses asks.
He's like, I want to see God's glory.
I want to see like I, I, I, I want to be, I, I want to see in
him and his in his glory. I want to experience God.
I want to know him. That's what he was saying.
And so as you're reading the scriptures, don't just read a
check off a box in the morning. Don't just fly through the
scriptures and then forget, right?
It's so easy to forget. And James says that right?
You look in the mirror and then you forget your appearance.
Slow down. And when you slow down and you
see the scriptures and you ask God, God, reveal yourself to me.
If you're new this morning and and you're like, man, I don't
really understand the scripture. I, you know, there was a time in
my life 25 1/2 years ago, I didn't understand it.
And, but I, when I opened up the Bible because God changed my
heart, I was beginning to change my heart.
I began slowly and over time to understand the Scriptures and
it's amazing. I mean, God's word is
incredible. And I want to show you this,
that when he came into Jerusalem, it was the 10th of
Nissan. We're not talking about
vehicles. OK, So that was, that was the,
the way the Jewish calendar was, right?
So the 10th of Nissan, that was April 6th, OK.
And we know that Passover, Passover happened on the 14th.
So this is Sunday. So if you're doing the math, OK,
and this is not the math problem yet, but if you're doing the
math that is, that is a Thursday.
So as I was reading this, I realized, OK, wait, Thursday
don't make sense. But didn't Jesus die on a
Friday? But wait, he died on a Thursday,
most likely. That doesn't change anybody's
theology, by the way. Everybody doesn't change your
salvation. You don't have to go through no,
OK. But I'm just, I'm just for the
sheer fact of showing you that this this happened.
The family would choose on the 10th, they would choose a lamb.
So the family would come to Jerusalem and they would choose
a lamb and then they would have to go get it inspected.
It's almost like your car, your vehicle, you have to go like
the, you know, you have to go get it tested, right?
To make sure that it for the emissions test at least up north
of you. How to do that?
But so they would be they would they would check for any
blemishes and it had to be the lamb had to be without blemish
in order for it to be killed for your sin, right.
So think about Passover, right? All these millions of people are
coming into town. You're hearing the bleeding of
sheep, right? It's noisy, it's smelly, it's
crazy, it's chaotic. And, and then the priest
inspected closely from the 10th and the 14th and then on the
14th, it was crazy like on the 10th, when, when the, when the
inspections would be happening, Jesus arrives as the Lamb of
God. I mean, I don't know about you
guys, but I just, I, I told you guys this last week, I think
we're not wowed anymore because we have AI it No, for real.
Like it's true, like you just know everything, right?
But if you slow down enough and just, you can have an encounter
with God every time you study the scripture, it's up to you if
you want that. It's just amazing when you think
about like, and here's what's more amazing, most of the
people, 99.9% of the people had no clue that the Lamb of God was
coming in the the true unblemished lamb was coming into
town and every, all the back, you know, like the whole like
just noise, noise, noise, noise, noise.
It's our world. It's literally our world.
Like if you don't understand, it's like our world, it's crazy.
But in the midst of like all the chaos, Jesus is right there
saying I want to meet with you. I want to meet with you.
And it's crazy to think about that.
Like if we if we could just put our phones down for two seconds
and just meet with God. You know, sometimes like I just
want to say this, you know, like we have the, the fear of the
fear of missing out FOMO. Like who's got FOMO?
Like all the college students, y'all have FOMO, right?
It's like some guys over there and you're over here and like I
want to be over there, but yeah, I want to be over here.
Like I don't want, you don't want to miss out on anything.
But what if FOMO, what if FOMO was literally like we have a, we
have FOMO a missing out on hearing God.
Like what if we actually live that way?
Like, wow, like because you're so busy, because you're like 13
times in one hour, you touch your phone.
So what if you're like, you bring out your phone because
you're bored, right? You're in line or you're on an
airplane or whatever. You're just sitting there.
You're checking something, whatever you check like you're
checking like again, you're like kind of like anxious or whatever
and you don't even know why you're anxious.
You don't even, but you're taking it out and you're like
you're flipping and you're doing whatever, checking e-mail or
text, sending a text. Nothing wrong with those things.
I'm not saying there's any inherently wrong, but we're
like, we're so upset, like missing out on a, some social
thing that what if, like what if you just got FOMO and missing
out? And what, what is God saying in
the moment? Because God's wanting to speak
to you through his word in your heart, through other people.
When's the last? I like the other day I was just,
I was sitting there and, and I was, I was like, man, I feel
like I got to, I, I want to read, I want to read this book.
I want to get, you know, like just, I'm a type A person.
So I want to accomplish things. I want to check things off and
and and and I was just sitting there and and I'm I'm reading
this book about just like kind of this left brain, right brain
thing while I'll get to you in a second.
If I forget it, please somebody remind me, Right, Brad, just
point to your head like this and I'll remember.
OK, So I want to tell you guys something about that, that I
think it would be helpful. But I'm sitting there and the
the this guy like just cut down his tree and you have no idea
how noisy. You have no idea.
Like the entire tree, like a big oak tree, fully grown mature
grandpa oak tree, the thing it's just, you can hear like it like
a big thought. I'm like, Oh my goodness.
Like the whole house literally shook.
I'm not no joke. And and so I, I'm as I'm seeing
that now, now he's got to like clean up the stump and stuff.
And, and so the whole week it's just been one big noise thing.
And I'm like, I don't want to be like, you know, a grandpa
neighbor and be like, you know, And so stop.
And I just sat down. I'm like, wow, like it was
beautiful out. You could hear the wind.
When's the last time you heard the wind?
When's the last time you were so bored that you enjoyed hearing
the wind? Dick, you like that, don't you?
Did you hear the wind this week? Yes, like and as soon as I heard
the wind saying, you know, and you you're like, oh, I want to
like get I want to get my phone out, you know, like I want to
check something. What am I going to check?
Just relax and look out the window, you know, And I'm like,
I feel like I'm at a nursing home or something.
You know, nothing wrong with that.
But just, you just feel like this, you feel wrong almost, you
know, by looking out the window, this guy like doing the little
stump thing, you know, But in that moment, it's like God can
speak to you, you know what I'm saying?
What if like instead of having fear of missing out on like
what's going on on the phone, you fear a miss out, missing out
on what's happening in heaven and what's happening in your
heart. Like God wants to speak.
Isn't that amazing? Yes, hello.
Does anybody have a want that? Because where we're about to go
is like man, we need to pay attention because God is about
to speak something new. Maybe not this morning right
now, but he wants to do that. He wants to do it in our lives.
And so anyways, that was like a huge detour.
I have no idea where I'm at right now.
OK, so Nissan cars. Yeah.
OK. No.
So anyways, so, and then not only that, but listen to this.
This is crazy. Now, this is where Pabon comes
in. OK, so he's a mathematician,
math major. What are you?
Stats. OK, so there's stats in the
Bible. I think you know this Jesus came
in at the exact same time of Daniel's prophecy.
This is crazy. It's going to blow your mind.
OK, so March 14th, 445 BC you're like what in the world?
So do you know when Daniel 9 you could go back and look at it
Daniel 924 to 26. It speaks of, see, it sounds a
little confusing, but hopefully this makes sense.
Seven weeks of seven weeks and 62 weeks.
So you saw about 69 weeks. I know that may mean nothing to
you, but you take the 69 weeks and you times it by 7 from that
prophecy and you go from 445 BC, which is when the temple is
being rebuilt. And this is, this is the the
prophecy to the time of the Messiah's arrival.
He predicts the Messiah's arrival literally from March
14th, 445 BC. If you do 483 years from there,
you get to April 6th, AD 30. That's when Jesus comes into
Jerusalem. Four days later, he dies.
Hello. Like seriously.
Better than AI. Like way better.
Like than anything else you can find out.
This is good news. This is amazing.
This is incredible. This is incredible.
Because this matters. This matters more than anything
else. Why?
Because the Word of God is true. You know, so many people
literally like trying to debunk the word of God.
You know why? The number one reason, number
one reason why they try to debunk the word of God so they
can live the selfish lives that they want to.
But when you know this word is true, you're like, the only
thing that's the only thing that you want to do in the morning is
get on your knees and be under the word of God.
And not only get then not, not to stand up and then let the
word of God go below you, but to be under it for the whole day,
24 hours. It's so good.
And if you're not, you cannot hear you will, you will live for
the glory of man versus the glory of God.
And I'll show you why it is so important that we come and die.
So he rides on a donkey. This is from Zechariah 99, which
is so cool in itself. If you read through Matthew, all
you do is see over and over and over again.
This happened because the scriptures were fulfilled in
order for the scriptures to be fulfilled.
And then in big block letters, I don't think that's, I don't
know, is it on the screen big block letters?
Is that verse 15? Is that in big block letters 15?
Nope. Nope.
I don't know where you're going. OK, John, chapter 12, verse 15.
OK, there we go. Oh, yeah, they are.
OK, so the big block letters means, OK, you that's Old
Testament. And so you're you got to be
thinking to yourself. Hold on a minute.
If you're not daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming
seated on a donkey's colt. What does that mean?
What why is that in big block letters?
You know, like, you know, when you text somebody something big
block letters, you really want them to understand what's going
on. Come home.
No, it's like, OK, so my wife does not do that to me.
No, she never, I don't think ever has given me block, big
block capital letters. Tyler writes in that like you
write in that all the time. That's just natural because
you're an engineer. But you should stop, pause and
say, OK, what is happening in this passage?
What is happening in this passage?
Well, Jesus is fulfilling something that happened hundreds
of years prior. He's here and nobody understands
what's going on. They're like, wait, why is he
not on a War Horse? Why is Jesus not on a War Horse?
Because he came as a lamb to be slaughtered.
They weren't interested in their sins being forgiven.
They were interested in conquering Rome.
They were interested in the glory of man.
They're interested in what we're interested in and being
successful. Our glory, right, everything
working out right, everything like like a utopia, perfect
perfection. We want to live in a in a
country that eat, drink and be merry all the time, never have
any problems. This is their mindset.
This is the crowd. This is the people.
This is a large crowd who had come to the feast.
They heard that Jesus was coming and they came because primarily
remember, they came to see the miracle.
They, they were still latched onto this incredible miracle
that happened with Lazarus. And that's amazing.
I mean, if anybody like literally, if John McKeon died,
which we don't want him to, but if he died and then all of a
sudden the next day, like he just somebody just prayed over
him and he rose from the dead, people would be like, this is
amazing. We're all going to Oviedo and
there would be like cars parked out here and it'd be amazing.
Like the seats would finally be full and it'd be incredible.
Like I think the, the buzz on the campus, we'd have to do like
5 services and I'd be exhausted by the, you know, the fifth one
and, and like, it would just be amazing.
And everyone like, and then when that kind of wears off, it's
back to normal. We were like, we're not
interested in the glory of God, We're interested in the glory of
man, right? So that's what's happening.
People are like, whoa, this is exciting.
I got to go, where are you going?
I mean, I'm going to Jerusalem for the Passover.
What's going on over there? Well, this is what we do every
year, But also there's something really cool happening.
Lazarus just rose from the dead. Never going to believe it.
And that's great. But so people left and then
there's another crowd here, right?
I love this. It says it says they, they were
with them because they performed the sign in verse 19.
So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are
not doing any good. Like, look, the whole world is
going after him. Like these people we're you have
the, you have the jealous people and then you had the people or
they're just after a miracle. And then there's a few people
that actually understood what was going on.
And so they put palm branches on the floor.
And I'm just trying to set up a picture that no one had a clue
what was going on. And like, they were just,
they're putting palm branches with just this symbolized
victory. It was just like this king is
coming. And it looked ridiculous because
the palm branches were on the ground with their coats on the
ground. And they're just waving in this
king. And it's this confused picture
because the guy is on a donkey, not a War Horse.
And you're like, this is a little awkward.
But maybe they couldn't find any horses.
I mean, maybe there was no horses, maybe they were gone and
they, you know, they instead of riding a Lamborghini, you know,
like you needed a Lamborghini and then you got my O 5 Toyota
Corolla. That's all they could find.
They're like, you know what, that works.
There you go. I mean, this will do.
As long as you take out Rome, we're good.
Well, he did not do that, but one day he is going to do that.
I want you to turn with me real quick.
All right, we're going to do a lot of flipping here.
But Revelation, I think you know where I'm going with this.
Revelation 19, verse 11, totally different scene, radically
different. This says the coming of Christ.
And this crazy John, the same guy, he's at Patmos.
This guy, I don't know where he wrote this.
He probably wrote it Patmos too, but he he writes this, but
reminiscing about what Jesus did and he's like, man, now I get
it. You know, it says the disciples
did not get it. It says it right there in ink
black and white did not get what was going on.
And John later is like now he's banished in the island of
Patmos, very beautiful island. By the way, don't feel very
sorry for John. But verse 11 says this.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a White Horse.
Not a donkey, a White Horse. Who sat on it is called faithful
and true. He did it.
He. Did it.
He came as a. Lamb, He did not come for the
crown, but for the cross. There is no crown without the
cross. You have to understand that that
is the life that we are all called to live.
And in righteousness He judges and wages war.
His eyes are a flame of fire. And on his head are many.
Deodiums. It just means crowns, many
crowns. And he has a name written on him
which no one knows except himself.
He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called
the word of God. And the armies which are in
heaven, clothed in fine linen, white, white and clean, and were
following him and white horses. This is the accompany of the
believers. The people have gone before.
From his mouth comes a sharp swords, the word of God, so that
with it he may strike down the nation's and he will rule them
with a rod of iron. This is what they're all looking
for. They're all looking for this.
They're like what? Come on, let's take out robe.
Let's do this. Let's get the sword come out of
your mouth. This is amazing and he treads on
the winepress of fierce wrath of God the Almighty, and on his
robe and on the high on his thigh.
Jesus had tattoos. And he has a name written, King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Isn't that amazing?
That's the scene they were all looking for, but that comes
later. We are looking for that day.
One day when He's going to come in glory, the glory of God will
come. But you know what it you think,
OK, then that is the glory of God.
That is what we want. Amen.
You know what this, what you see here, right?
Him riding on a donkey is the glory of God entering Jerusalem.
That is the glory of God. And I will show you what the
glory of God ultimately does in our lives when we can see, when
we can actually see, when the veil's taken off and we can see.
He instead he. Came and conquered his enemies.
Through what? How did he conquer his enemies?
What does Hebrews 214 say? What are you all scared of?
Death. He came to conquer.
That not through a sword and not in a Lamborghini.
He came to conquer that. By dying.
So that you would not. Fear death.
By him rising from the. Grave.
He defeated his. Enemies by dying and by Isaiah
53 by being a despised broken. Who cares about his?
Appearance. King.
He is the king he is. He is the king of the Jews.
He is the king of our lives. He came, but he came differently
and he's going to come back differently.
He came as a lamb, He comes back as a lion.
Ready to judge? And so in.
Verse 20 we move on, says this now there were some Greeks,
some. Greeks among.
Those who are going up to worship at the feast and these
then they they came to Philip. And why did they come to Philip?
Probably because he was from the Decapolis.
He spoke Greek that he was easy, you know, to talk to you.
Probably Peter, James and John and Andrew, they were, you know,
with Jesus doing something cool. But.
They came up to Philip, which. Is one of the 12.
It was from Visedia. Galilee spoke Greek and began to
say, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. So the Greeks wanted to see
Jesus. So they asked Philip.
They're like man, we want to see the glory of God.
We want to see like wow, like we want to see like the the raising
of the dead. Like can somebody die and raise
him from the dead? This would be amazing.
This is what Jesus tells him. He gives them this answer.
Which is crazy. When you think about it, we
don't know Jesus as much as we think we do.
Because as I'm reading this. I'm like this is not how I would
probably answer that but OK. Sir, we wish to see.
Jesus and Phillip came and told Andrew.
And Andrew. And Phillip?
Came and told Jesus. So you probably want to say
Andrew, because Andrew had an inside information.
So he's like, hey, look, let's go find out what's going on here
because he's a little confused because he understands that
Jesus had told him for so many months leading up to this point,
go to the Jews first, go to the Jews first, go to the Jews
first. So maybe he's like, I don't
really had fear, man. Maybe he's like, I don't want to
tell the guy, hey, Greeks aren't included.
And Jesus says. This.
The hour has now. Come for the Son of Man to be
glorified. Wow, what does that mean?
He's saying, look, I want to answer your question and how I'm
going to answer your question for the Greeks to see the glory
of God. My hour has come.
This is the first time we see now.
My hour has come. What is the hour?
The hour of his death, what Jesus is about to do and him
dying is going to go so far beyond the border of Israel that
the glory of God is going to go so far beyond the borders of
Israel, right? You're going to be my witnesses
to where? Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and
the ends of the earth. You're sitting here right now
because of what Jesus just said and did.
Isn't that amazing? You're literally, I hope right
now the Holy Spirit by his mercy is opening up your eyes to this
beautiful scripture. Because when you're, when you
get to see this, you're like, wow, I'm included in like I, I
am the Greeks asking Philip, Hey, are we like, can we see the
glory of God? Oh, you will.
It's just that the way you think, I'm not just going to do
whatever you want. I'm not just going to give you a
boatload of cash and show you my miracles and show you my power.
I'm going to show you my glory, and that's through my death.
So that you Greeks. Might live.
I'm bringing both. Parties together in my death.
I'm breaking the barrier wall finally.
It was always my plan to save the whole world, but it's
through death to do that and I love this.
They still didn't really understand what's going on.
Luke 2425 to 27 says this. I'm going to kind of paraphrase,
shorten it a little bit here, but oh, foolish men, slow of
heart to believe all that the prophet spoke.
Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things?
This is after he rose from the dead and he's walking on the
Emmaus road, right with some of his disciples, some of his
followers. Isn't it right for the Christ to
suffer these things that enter in glory?
You know what he did? He used the Scripture starting
with Moses, the prophets. He used the Scriptures to show
them that all along. If you would have just, if you
could just humble yourself and not care about your glory and
your comfort and your life, you will see my glory.
It is always been. Prophesied that I'm coming to
die, but yet how did 90 some percent of the audience and
crowd there think he was coming to take down Rome?
You know, for the longest time. I'm thinking, oh, maybe that's
in the scripture somehow because, you know, how did 90
some percent believe that he was going to take out Rome?
I mean, how did they get that? Guys our.
Church can become like that pretty quickly if we get off the
rail of His Word. If we get off.
Track and all of a sudden we just start doing our thing.
We will become like the 90 some percent that had no clue what
Jesus was doing. We will.
So what did he say then? He says this truly, truly, I
say. And anytime you see truly,
truly, you want to pay attention to whatever is coming after
that. That's basically what that
means. That's the caps.
Truly, truly, I say to. You, unless a grain of wheat,
he's talking about himself, falls into the earth and dies.
It remains alone, but if it dies, it bears fruit.
He says he who loves his life, he's talking to the Greeks, he's
talking to us, but he's saying, look, if you want to see my
glory, this is how you find my glory.
You die if you love your. Life, of course, it's talking
about the world. If you love your life, you love
all the life, all that life has. You know, first, John, you know,
215 to 17, you can read that on your own, right?
The pride of life, the lust of the eyes, the pride of I mean
just like the world and all in office, you know every day of
your life. Every day I'm not.
Kidding. Every day of your life you are
told to love the world somewhere.
Do you know which advertisement you get in one day?
Even Sarah's kids are getting advertisement every day because
they sent me this ridiculous picture.
You know, the Todd Minor, you know, like the what is the
attorneys? The attorneys are like, you
know, Orlando's full of them. They're all like competing with
Morgan and Morgan, you know what I mean?
So Todd Minor is this bald headed guy and the kids are like
Papa John. It's Papa John.
See, they're even getting advertised for any in case mom
and dad get an accident or whatever.
Hey, call that guy. No, every day you are, you're
being told by the enemy you're a heart, the flesh, the devil,
whatever, love the world. And he's saying if you do that,
you will lose your life. But he who hates his life and.
I'll get to that in a second. What he means.
He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal
life. And if anyone serves me must
follow me and where I am my there, my servant will be also
and anyone serves me, the father will honor him.
So what does he mean by hating? Hating means this.
It's it's, it's a Jewish understanding of giving
preference for something over something else.
So it, it so there's let me let me rattle these off here because
if you're new and you're like, this is crazy.
I I, I, I just want to say come and see, come and see, come and
see. Just keep asking questions.
Come and see, come and see. But if you've been walking with
Jesus for a while, you understand to come and see.
And Jesus has a challenge for all of us in the room.
If we want to grow and see more of the glory of God, we must
come and die. There's no fruitfulness.
It's almost like the it's like we hit this wall in our
Christian walk and it's like, why am I miserable?
I have everything I'm. Going to bust this wall.
And I will find happiness, no? You can't go around it.
It's too tall. You can't go over it.
You must die. You must go into the ground.
You must die. To what?
What is he saying? He must.
You must prefer Christ over everything.
That's not an easy message. To digest.
I understand that, but what is he saying?
Choosing Jesus over what family if.
You don't believe me, I'll read a passage.
And you'll understand pretty quickly what he means.
Family desires, your desires, your plans, possessions.
Matthew 10393739 says this. He who loves his father or more
mother more than me is not worthy of me.
Are you supposed to call up? Like look at so Mother's Day
happens, Mother's Day comes and you know, your wife's like, hey,
you should probably text your mom me and say happy Mother's
Day. I'm not because Jesus said hate
my mother. No, do not take that.
That's not good. Mother's Day is coming up.
Do not do that. You say when it it.
Because your love is so intense for God, your life is literally
locked in for God that it almost looks like everything else is
almost looks like hatred, do you not?
Do you hate your? Mother and father, I cannot
believe you know and some. Of you guys have gotten that.
Right. I mean, like, whether it seems
like sometimes going on mission or maybe your loyalty to God and
his mission, his church. I mean, some of you guys have
such a contrast. You left as a senior in high
school, now as a freshman in college.
Your life's gotten rocked by Jesus.
I've seen it over and over again.
You know, parents are like, what?
What's going on here looks like? Do you hate your parents?
Do you not love your parents? Yeah, Yes, I do.
And maybe you need to show more of that love and that more of
that kindness and all those things.
But when you are locked in with God, it looks like everything
else is secondary. It looks like hatred.
It looks like that. And he's saying this.
He's like he who loves his father or his mother more than
me is not worthy of me. If you have.
Any other love? Including family.
You're not worthy. Of following Jesus.
He who loves son or daughter. Now parents Can you imagine?
Like This is why like some parents have made their kids
into idols. You've idolized your kids.
And God's saying no, no, no, no, your allegiance.
Your allegiance, which we should play that.
Song by the way, at the end, allegiance is to Jesus alone.
Otherwise you're not worthy. He who does not take up his
cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
He who has found his life will lose it.
He who has lost his life for my sake will find it very similar.
Do you know I'm doing this on purpose?
And I want you to see this all over.
Not in the same order. Literally.
I've had to cut a lot on the chopping block before writing
the sermon. He says this over and over and
over and over again. And all of us reading the
scriptures and wanting to know God, this matters to him, this.
Is the call to. Follow Him.
This is what it means to radically follow Jesus, and it's
for every follower, not just some.
Matthew 1624 to 26. If anyone wishes to come after
me, he must deny himself, take up His cross and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life, Self preservation, that's
what that means. If you are living your life for
yourself and you're trying to preserve yourself and your
health, to somehow live long or whatever, to be in control of
your life, that's what he's saying.
You'll lose it. It's elusive.
No one could add to their life one day from subtract from their
life one day. God is.
Completely sovereign over. Your life.
But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
For what is the profit? A man to gain the entire world
and lose his soul. Luke 1426 to 33.
I won't read the whole thing, but if anyone comes after me
does not hate his own father and mother, wife, children, brother,
sister. So he had some more family
members there. Yes, even his own life.
His own life. That means there are times.
Where you know, yes, your health might, might, might get the best
of you, but you got to keep going.
You have to keep going because what matters, right?
It's, it's, it's not the, the, the goal of this life.
If you look at the ads that like watch, watch the Masters, watch
the, watch football, the Masters, golf, whatever you want
to watch, just watch, watch the commercials.
Everything is meant to preserve your life.
I mean, outside the McDonald's commercials and everything else,
you know, but the, you know what I mean?
Besides those, right? And the cat commercials, my
goodness, you know, But the they eat better than we do.
It looks like sometimes I'm like yeah, but.
It's all to preserve. Your life, I mean, did.
You ever see the like the? What are those things called?
Like the pharmaceutical commercials?
My goodness, man. And then the guy, you know, it's
nice. It's always nice and slow.
It's like, you know, couple walking, you know, happy.
I'm like, what do they have? What problem did they have?
Did they not have now, you know, you know, just wondering.
And I never know the drug names because I'm not into that world
and I have no idea. And the dogs like all happy and
everybody's happy, happy, happy. And then at the very end, they
somehow, I don't know why they do this, but they somehow speed
up the guy's voice at the very end.
Why? Why do they speed up the guy's
voice? And I want you to know that
part. What is it?
What's the guy? What did you say?
It's like the. You might have sudden.
Bloating. You might.
You might, you might have like, he's like.
You're my sudden death. Wait.
Hold on a second. And then the commercial's done
and it's on to the next thing. I'm like, wait, hold on, slow
down. Why I I want to know what and I
want to I want to compare. Do I want to take the drug or do
I want to deal with these horrible side effects that might
cause death, death or death? And then everybody chooses the
numb. Out pattern.
You know, that's why we all numb out, right?
OK, OK. So Matthew 2312 it.
Says whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles
himself will be exalted. Key phrase, huge.
We're going to come back to that in a second.
Jesus. OK, so.
Kind of to understand this a little.
Bit you can't see this in the English, but in the Greek life
the love your life. OK, so if you look right here,
it says in verse 25 he who loves his life.
Loses it, and he who keeps. Hates his life.
Life and life, two different terms.
The first life, the one you're supposed to not love.
Is from the word. Psyche, which is means soul if
this all what this means is your aspirations, your plans, your
ambitions. Jesus is saying die to this.
If it is anybody in the room that has to understand this,
it's probably the 18 to 25 range.
You have to understand your. When you OK I the last time I
checked I could be wrong but on a UUCF application it does not
say surrender this to God. And if you have any issues,
please go. Talk to a pastor.
Is that on the application? I don't know.
I could be, I could be wrong. It's probably not on the
application. So here's the deal.
What you need to do is go to God right now and just say God, my
life is not my own you. Are the king of the universe.
You created this life and you're coming back in Revelation 19.
It's something totally different than what you wrote into
Jerusalem. I want to deal with the lamb,
not the lion. And what?
He's saying is if you. Take your life and be like, you
know what, I'm going to go to church.
But ultimately I am the controller of my own destiny.
You're a fool because you will lose your life.
The life he's saying that you get to keep is Zoe.
It just means eternal life. Do you understand this
incredible exchange? Who in their right mind would
not want to do this? He's saying, look, if you just
surrender your life, the life that you did not create, the
life that you did not save, if you surrender your life
completely, surrendering it fully to me, I will give you the
life you never dreamed of. Which is way better than what
you dreamed. Of.
He wants to give you life. That is.
The that is like the. Come and die is is not fun.
But ultimately we get to see the glory of God.
And none of those people in Jerusalem saw that in that
moment. Even the disciples, they had to
wait until afterwards. They're like, oh, now I think I
get it. This is our life.
This is our message now. First, John 26 says this.
The the one who says he abides in him ought to walk in his
ways. He's not looking for perfection.
Guys, but what he's looking for is direction and affection.
That's what Jesus is looking for affection and direction.
What do you what do you think is I want to I I'm not perfect.
I want to start. I want to make a conscious
effort. I want to move in his direction.
I want to say God, Jesus, you are the Lord of my life.
You're not just savior of my life.
You're the Lord of my life and I will follow you wherever you go.
Do you understand that is the only way that you will be
honored. That is the only way that you'll
actually receive life, the real life.
That's why we're all that's why most of the world is so
miserable. And I'm talking about not just
I'm not talking about the unbelievers, unbelievers
obviously they're on miserable. I'm talking about believers.
The people that profess Jesus in the church are still empty.
Because they're not fully. Surrendered.
They've and because. They're not fully surrendered.
There's a way in this way in which this works.
If you're not fully surrendered, you will not see the glory of
God. And if you do not see the glory
of God, he will not reveal himself to you in his plans and
what he has for you and his. And not only his plans and his
direction, but also his empowerment.
He gives you power, the Christian life.
Yes, it's to come and see, yes, it's to find rest.
You're like, well, wait a second.
Didn't he say like, come to me all who are weary and I'll give
you rest? Yes, but it's also to come and
die. It's to pick up the cross and
not build your own Kingdom, but His Kingdom.
It's not for you to live. Your life, it's always funny,
like I'm always asking people this, I'm always challenging
college students like, hey, what is God calling you to do?
And it's like they have this whole plan written out and then
they're like, I hope God blesses that plan.
That's not how it works. How it works is you.
Fully surrender and you bless God's plan.
George Mueller said this. They asked why are you so
successful? George Mueller had an incredible
orphanage where he just fed thousands upon thousands of kids
over the years and he had no money.
I mean he just get knocks on the door.
Who's that food just. Arrived and they were just
praying for that with nothing at the table.
I mean, he, God, God showed up in that man's life.
Like never a time before. Why?
And they're like, why is this why?
Why does he do? Why?
Why does George Mueller get that kind of life?
And I don't this is what he said.
There was a day when I died, died to George Mueller, his
opinions, his preferences, his taste, his will.
I died to the world. It's approval or censure.
I died to the approval or blame of my friends and I now I only
desire to show myself approved to God.
That is a life fully surrendered and I would say that is not a
life lacking any joy. You have to.
Understand that is the joy. Set before Jesus that he endured
the cross. It is always joy.
It is never to die so that you're miserable.
No die so that you have joy. Do you understand, like Jesus is
offering the fullness of life. I was going to tire this message
something totally different the the the life you always wanted
or you know that what why surrender matters?
You know, I, I mean, there's so many different ways to title the
deal, but ultimately the come and die is a great message, is
the message of joy and fruitfulness, you know?
When Nicole and I were first came.
To the church, we realized early enough, we said, look, if we
don't die, there will be no life.
Death in US life. In you.
One of the things that brings us.
Great joy is when we get to see this playground, you know, like
there's high walls, you know, theological high walls and
there's protection over the church.
We just came into the season saying May God and this season
of growth protect us from the enemy schemes.
And that's why we went through that whole series on spiritual
warfare. And it's awesome to see all this
fruit, the fruitfulness of a life, right lives laid down now
for the glory of God. So how can we follow him?
There's a few. Practicals, self denial.
Just surrender. Your time your.
Hobbies, whatever it is, just surrender.
Just fully surrender. Self denial is Galatians 220
says it like this, that it's not I who lived anymore, but he who
lives in it through me. Secondly, it's selfishly
sacrifice. Selflessly, not selflessly,
selflessly sacrifice and serve. And what I mean is it just
practically find ways to to serve the least of these.
I think you. Guys are great at that.
But just continue to do that in the people.
I just love what, you know, just all week people are serving one
another. It's incredible.
But just continue to do that. I love what?
Spurgeon says this a. Proud man has a desire to preach
a new doctrine, to set up a new church, to be an original
thinker, to judge, to consider, and to do anything but obey the
Lord simply. And then just set yourself.
Apart actually desire to become more like him like holiness and
then he promises this. What does he promise he has two
different promises and this is incredible and it just comes
from verse 36 right. If anyone serves and follow me,
do you understand that this is the life you die to yourself so
that you might serve who? The king.
The true king who's coming in, riding on a donkey and then
eventually coming on a White Horse, a War Horse.
But can you see this, this one now, who came riding on a
donkey? Humble.
Almost despising. Like what is wrong with this
man, you know? Like he could had the power.
We could have done this. Like, you know, Judas is like we
could have done this. Come on.
Like we could have taken this evil.
We could have taken Putin out. Let's go, you know.
What I mean it's like. That we could take him out and
the world would have peace it. Comes on a stupid.
Donkey. This same Jesus comes.
Back on a War Horse. But the same Jesus will reward
you and honor you for the sacrifices you make in following
Him. But that doesn't humble you.
I'm sorry. I.
Don't even know what will. As we close, I want to.
Just share a few thoughts. I I want to just say this, that
I think as a church that in the midst of success.
We could lose. Mystery.
We could lose. The mysterious we could lose
hearing him, that quiet place that only happens through
suffering, that only happens through when things aren't going
well. And I want to just share with
you guys one last story here, if you want turn with me to Isaiah
before we close. Turn with me to Isaiah 6.
Very familiar passage. I won't go through the whole
thing here, but Isaiah 6. It says this that.
In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on
the throne, lofty and exalted, with a train of his Rd. filling
the temple. Seraphim stood above him, each
having 6 wings. With two he covered his face,
with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew, and one
called out another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. And the foundations of the.
Thresholds trembled at his voice of him who called out while the
temple was filling with smoke. And then I said, woe is me, for
I am ruined. I am ruined because I'm a man of
unclean lips, and I live among the people of unclean lips.
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
This is the same king that rode on a donkey into Jerusalem to
die, the one who's coming back. Then one of the seraphim flew
with me, and with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken
from the altar with tongs, And he touched my mouth with it, and
said, Behold, this is it says, Touched your lips, and your
iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.
And then I heard a voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send,
and whom will go for us? And then I said, Here I am, send
me. And he said, Now go to the
people. Keep on listening, but do not
perceive. Keep on looking, but do not
understand. Render the hearts of the people
insensitive. Their ears are dull, their eyes
are dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with
their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be
healed. So what's going on here?
I don't think. I've ever saw this in the
passage before, but it says this in the verse one it says it says
this that in the year. King.
Uzziah's death. I saw the Lord sitting on the
throne and I thought to myself, well, why is that so important
that Uzziah dies before Isaiah gets to see the glory of God?
You know what I Uzziah? Stands for stands for the pride
of man. See in Chronicles chapter 26.
It shows a man who's 16 years old 16 becomes king.
Does everything right. Humbles himself.
Exalted. Until one day he.
Decides I'm good. I got this self-sufficiency,
selfishness, pride, He goes into the.
Temple which he. Had no business doing, no king
to do this. There's too much blood on his
hands. God never meant it for the kings
to go and burn incense. He decides I'm going to go do
that. We got to get the show on the
road. Hey, we're successful.
Got to get moving. Get the next thing going.
Come on, we're successful. We're Antioch, Orlando.
We got this. He says this, he sends people to
him, right? He God, with his mercy and his
love, he sends people to Uzziah. Valiant man, actually it says he
goes to me. He says Uzziah had no business
doing that, giving him a chance to repent, giving him a chance
to hear and see the glory of God.
Doesn't take it. I.
Got this. I got this.
I don't need. Hey, I've had.
My I've had my. Seasons.
I've had my sufferings, I've had my.
This is time for success. Do you understand?
I'm the king. I can do what I want.
Boom. Leprosy and all over his body
and he dies. Prideful people always want to
blame. Their problems on somebody else
always think everything's OK all it has to do right all I mean
all you have to do is recognize the time when somebody comes up
to you during a successful time or thing during things when
things are going well to say hey, have you ever thought of.
Doing this or have you? Ever.
Noticed that you do this. And maybe whatever it is,
whatever people are confronting you on whatever it might be,
you're like, wait, how dare you successful.
Dang good. I've.
Realized we have so. Much I've I've so much success
there's I'm good. No need to be corrected.
You know what Pride, ultimately. Blinds us from.
Seeing Jesus afresh. Again.
You know what? It's interesting.
Doctrinal pride happened two years ago, and so we are growing
in knowledge, growing in knowledge, growing in the things
of God. It was great.
It was in a sense it was good, but then it turned rotten,
right? Because it became about what we
know rather than experiencing the living God and obeying him.
So God had to take us to himself.
But it's when seasons like this, when things are going really
well and things are moving into place and it seems like wow,
things are happening. Things are couldn't be better,
couldn't be better. It's when we can't.
Hear God and the little things throw the net on the other side
of the boat. No, thank you.
People don't fall, guys. In dry and difficult times, but
in prosperity, do not forget this.
It is easy to lose sight what God wants you to do next when
everything is going well. What Isaiah saw and.
What Mary saw were the only two that people that I see in John
12 and in this passage when Uzziah dies, when pride dies,
when there's a life laid down like Mary.
And just throughout the all the scenes, it's almost like you
could see all the scenes in a movie, right where all like the
disciples are like Whoo high 5. We're going to change the world,
be awesome. And then Mary's like, you know,
the fools are all over there, you know?
Yeah. And I'm like, there's only one
person that has a clue of what's happening on that road where
Jesus is on his donkey riding on palm branches.
And she's like, yes, he is victorious.
They're going to be offended in about two seconds.
But I'm not because I understand why, because I'm at his feet.
We need more discerners. We need more Marys in this life.
We need more people that are not.
Interested in just success and building their own Kingdom.
We need people that are like I just want to see his Kingdom
build. I just.
Want to see what he. Does in my life.
I want to see what he does in other people's life.
And Mary is so beautiful. I'm just going back to the last
chapter, right? Because she's the only one.
Guys, this scene is so loud. It is so loud and there's only
one who gets it. Do you want to be that in a?
Loud world, do you want to be the one who's like, I think I
understand what this is all about.
Uzziah is God to die so I can see the glory of God and what
the next steps are and when he finally understood.
Who God was. Do you understand who God is?
The holiness of God means the otherness.
The other than this, the the wholesomeness, the wholeness.
There's only one who's whole. There's only one who is whole.
Do you understand that? There's.
No one in this room. Who's successful?
But God? If there's anybody who gets
saved, it's because of Him. If there's only one, if there's
only, if there's people in this room who've gotten freed from
sin, do you understand? It's Him.
Any success that comes? From this house is because of
God, not because of us. And Isaiah had to encounter this
God in order to move into his calling.
Do you know that? There's a few times in the Bible
that. A woe is.
Given to. Woes are given to who?
Evil, wicked people like if you study woe, go study woe, go
study woe because woe is the Pharisees.
Woe. Who are your whitewashed tombs?
You're full of dead man's bones. You're full of religion.
Woe. Do you know who else pronounced
woe over himself because he saw the living God?
Isaiah. He said, I am done.
I'm done. I'm you can say you can say it
another way. I am screwed.
I'm done for it. Have you ever met with God?
In such a way where you're like, I am done, O foolish man that I
am, who can deliver me from this body of death.
There's only one place. All of us belong and that is
under our Neath and what we need is an an encounter with God to
slow us down and say where are we going?
Where are we going? What are we doing?
What is happening right now? We won't even get close to send
me. We're so quick to there's God
send me. We don't like the middle.
The middle is when we're. Disintegrated on the floor,
literally it says, it says woe is mean.
That means to be disintegrated, that means to literally like if
you have a piece of glass on a beautiful piece of glass, like
an an ornate piece of a base boss, whatever you know on the
top and that thing falls to the ground and shatters.
That is what it means to come in the presence of God.
You do not come in hole, you do not leave hole after you've met
with God. You leave disintegrated, right,
or at least until he fixes you and then it's amazing.
Then the Seraphim came right and he just as when he thought like
I am done, I'm done, I'm done. He's like, I just go like I want
to crawl under this stupid thing because I don't even want to see
God. I I'm done.
He revealed who I really am compared to him, who I.
Really am compared. To him, it's crazy.
I just want. To crawl under something.
I I mean don't say one more word, God is.
That what your quiet time looks like.
Or you're so quick to be like and in that moment where you
felt like woe is me. No one pronounces that over.
Not one disciple pronounced that over himself.
And they met with the living God.
For 3 1/2 years and he literally on the floor the seraphim comes
and says look you know I know you have a you, you have a mouth
on you but I will cleanse him and he cleanses him and he.
Finally conceived. The glory of God, The glory of
God is death to self. So.
That he might live. Through you in a powerful way
that everyone in this room knows.
Oh, that's God. I think we've lost the mystery,
the problem with left brain and right.
Brain deal is, the left brain is.
All about facts. It's all about knowledge and
every time you look at your phone, you're engaging in the
left brain part of your brain. Right left brain, left brain,
left brain, left brain, left brain, distraction, distraction,
distraction. Facts, facts.
Loud. Loud, but as.
Soon as we just. Pause and say, God, I want the
mystery back. I want to engage in my right,
the right side of my brain, which, by the way, everybody has
a left and right brain. Unless you're not.
You're probably not living if you don't.
She has nothing to. Do with your right brain.
I'm left brain, everybody. Has a right.
Brain that you need to engage with God with so you can
actually have an encounter with him again.
And meet with him in. The mystery.
There's a mystery. The mystery is this, that when
you close. Your eyes even right now.
You can meet with them, Laura. I don't know how you're going to
do it. But I just know that.
That when you're in the room, something.
Changes and you are here. There's people in this room that
just just need a touch from you or I just pray, Father, right
now you would touch them, but would you reveal your holiness?
You're holy, holy, holy Lord. I pray, Lord, that whatever it
is, whatever distractions there are, whatever those things are,
Lord, would you, would you put them to rest so that we could
see, We could see what Isaiah saw, the glimpse of your glory,
so we could. See what the people?
In the crowds in Jerusalem did not see the glory of God coming
in. It is for this hour that I will
reveal my glory, and that glory is to come on a donkey that
headed towards death and he. Said Lord that.
You would never experience life without death.
Isaiah got to experience. Life.
Because he died. Woe is me, a man of unclean
lips. But we ask you right now to
reveal yourself. We want eyes to see.
We want to be like Mary. We're just in the chaos of life,
finds a space to meet with you. Isaiah, through the chaos of
Israel, finds a space to meet with you.
Jeremiah, who says if I if I don't speak, the fire will will
burn in my bones, found a space to meet with you, the disciples
eventually because they they were with you meeting.
With you got to literally. It says in Acts 17, turn the
world upside down. So Lord, we just ask you right
now, God, that we would meet with you, that we would be
seers, we would see the glory of God.
We would see we would be a remnant.
As it says in Isaiah. There were so many who rejected.
They were, their eyes were dull, their ears were dull.
They, they couldn't hear. They, they, they could hear, but
not hear. They could see but not see.
Lord, let us that not be us. I pray for a remnant in Oviedo.
I pray for a remnant in the US right now.
I just pray for a remnant right now all across this land, people
and services. Lord, I pray just for, for those
you just pick and choose, right? Even I pray for the whole room.
It'd be awesome. But we always know there's a
remnant. We always know there's a it's
always a few. It's always a few who get it.
It's always the Marys. It's always the few.
And I pray, Lord, right now, I pray that that would be me.
It would be us that. We would have.
This incredible insight into what you're doing because we're
with you. And when times get harder down
the road, we're like, we know what's going to come, that Jesus
is going to come back on a White Horse, a War Horse.
And he's coming back with a sword in his mouth and the eyes
blazing like fire. He's coming back.
He's coming back for us and we can see it clearly in the midst
of so much noise, so much knowledge and.
That we can retain that mystery. In this church that people are
like but God, but God but God. You want to see his glory?
Look at the nails in his hands, Church.
There's no victory without death, no crown without the
cross. His glory is His death, and
that's ultimately will be our glory of the death of our self.
For greater things, so he might live.
We're just going to continue to encounter.
God, but we're going to encounter him through communion
and just want to say if you have truly chosen to not only just
give your life to Jesus, but to surrender him yourself to him
both as what these guys did not understand and what we
understand hopefully is that Jesus didn't come to conquer
politically. He came to conquer your sin,
you. Need forgiveness more?
Than anything else the greatest need for everyone in this place
is forgiveness. That's what we need.
And that's the glory that came into Jerusalem that's the glory
that's in this room right now. The glory is that we need
forgiveness, and that's. What communion is all?
About you're taking the bread, He broke the bread, which he's
about to do in about a week. He broke it and he said.
This is my body. Which has been given to you.
And then he took the cup symbolizing his blood.
Blood would shed and literally that blood would wash our sins
away. And by taking this we remember
what he did for us 2000 years ago and in this passage what he
was about to do in a week. The glory of God and.
As we take the Communion. Just have the side aisles come
down, take the communion that you could dip the bread in the
wine and then go or the juice and then go back through the
middle. But don't take it quickly right
away. Just take a moment and do
business with God as it showed in Isaiah 6, and allow God to
really show himself to you to have that woe is me
disintegrated moment and let him touch your lips, forgive you of
your sin, wash you clean, and then send you out these doors
like he did with Isaiah to do the work that God's called you
to. That's what he wants to do with
everybody. Again, I believe that this
morning. Amen.
Let's die so that you might live.
Through us. So, Father, thank you for what
you've done this morning, Your word.
And Lord, we just ask you right now that God, that you would
move in power. We're revealing your humility to
all of us, what you did for us, none of us deserve forgiveness.
None of us deserve your kindness, Your grace.
We know that when we finally do encounter your grace and your
forgiveness, but we're ready to hear you.
We're ready to hear when pride dies.
We're ready to hear. We're ready to hear whatever you
have to say for us next as individuals.
Corporate lazy church. So that you might live.
In and through us, that we might die to our plans, our ambitions,
our selfishness, our self preservation, that you might
live in and through us. In Jesus name, Amen.