Benefits of Loving God's Word

Speaking briefly with John Bowman before the service, and he asked me why Psalm 119. And I told him in part, which I guess I should have shared earlier, some of you were wondering, you said, well, you moved here because of the church. That's nice. What do you do? I'm a freelance writer, and so I write primarily for Christian magazines and mostly on the topic of spiritual disciplines. And so the spiritual discipline of Bible intake is one of the primary ones we're going to be talking about that this morning a little bit more. And so this just seemed a great jumping off point for me. And to be perfectly honest, Keith asked me to teach on the topic of God's wisdom Wednesday after next. And so this is one of the wisdom psalms. And so I thought this might do a little bit more of my work for that as well. So we're going to be looking at Psalm 119 this morning. In a sermon delivered five years after Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation, he explained his role this way. I simply taught, preached, wrote God's word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And then while I slept, the word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. The word did it all. John Calvin, the leading theologian of the Reformation, held a similar view of Scripture. He said, we owe the Scripture the same reverence which we owe to God. Because it is proceeded from him alone and has nothing of man mixed with it. In his first sermon as pastor of this church, Keith said that Scripture, quote, is the only foundation we have. Scripture alone is God's Word. Psalm 119 presents the biblical basis for the vital doctrines of the inerrancy, the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture. I see Keith laughing over there. He likes being lumped together with Calvin and Luther. Last month, Keith preached on Psalm 1 and Psalm 119 is an expanded treatment of the blessed man of Psalm 1. whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. As Keith noted then, Psalm 1 is one of the wisdom psalms. The wisdom psalms teach us practical guidelines for godly living and give us pointed direction for righteous living in the pursuit of God's will. There are three wisdom psalms. Psalm 1, Psalm 37, and Psalm 119. Some of you are wondering, pray tell, why did you choose the longest of the three? Well, before I answer that question, if you have not already, please take the Bible that you have brought with you or the one at the end of the pew. And by the way, anyone in the middle of the pew that needs one, just hold your hand up and I'm sure it'll be passed down to you. Turn it to Psalm 119. It is found in page 329 of the pew Bibles and page 650 of my Bible. If you're not used to reading the Bible, the larger numbers refer to the chapter numbers. The smaller numbers after them are the verse numbers. And so you want to find your way to the large 119 in the Psalms. And then after you find your way there, make your way down to the small number nine just beneath it. And this is where we're going to begin this morning. Psalm 119, verse nine. Brian Davis asked me last week after the service, he said, Are you going to preach on all 176 verses? Let's see. No, I'm not. The title of this Old Testament book is the Book of Psalms, which is how Jesus referred to this book in Luke 20, 42. It is how Luke referred to this book in Acts 120. Like Psalm 1, Psalm 119 is anonymous. Now, because this is the longest psalm and some of you would like to eat another meal or two today, we're just going to focus on four of the 22 stanzas in this psalm. And speaking of these stanzas, if you take a moment to scan this psalm, you'll notice that each stanza has the name of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order over each stanza. This is because the psalm, which was originally written in ancient Hebrew, What is it is an acrostic, which means that the first letter of each line of each respective stanza begins with that letter in Hebrew. Now, unfortunately, translating these Hebrew words into English ruins the visual effect of the acrostic, but the meaning is still God's powerful word. Amen. So there is great profit for us in reading, hearing, studying and meditating upon it. Well, let's dive in with verse nine. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart, I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. With my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies, I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. The first thing I want you to see this morning, and I think it comes clearly from these verses, is that God's word cleanses your heart. God's word cleanses your heart. When the psalmist originally wrote these words, he likely had the law and perhaps the prophets as well in mind, as they comprised most of written scripture at that time. Yet in light of what God has since revealed in verses like 2 Peter 3, verses 15 to 16, which states that Paul's New Testament letters are part of the scriptures and 2 Timothy 3, 16, which states that all scripture is breathed out by God. We are right to regard all 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament books as the completed canon of God's written word. And while we're on the subject of God's word, we speak of it today as the scripture or the Bible. But the psalmist referred to it as your word, your commandments, your statutes, your testimonies, your precepts, your promise, your law, your rules, and your words. But whatever phrase you use to refer to God's word, the psalmist reinforces what Don Whitney refers to as the spiritual discipline of Bible intake. Whitney says no spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God's Word. Nothing can substitute for it. Bible intake includes hearing God's Word, reading God's Word, and studying God's Word. You must hear or read scripture to memorize it or meditate upon it. Hearing, reading, and studying the Bible should all lead you to apply it to your own life. I've got a question for you. Would you like to sin less? I would. Psalm 119 verse 11 provides us with the answer. The way to avoid sin is to store up God's Word in your heart. Bible memory fuels Bible knowledge. Calvin said among scholars, those whose knowledge is confined to books, if they have not the books always before them readily discover their ignorance. Put another way, it is fine and helpful to have God's words printed in a Bible, a bulletin or Sunday school literature, but it also needs to get in your head and on your heart. The insert in your bulletin contains two tools that might help. On one side, you probably already noticed the masterpiece that drawing. OK, that is a pictorial reminder of Psalm 119, 11. And I realize that not everyone can draw as well as I can, but you might be able to come up with something that would help you as a memory tool. When you're doing this, just taking a plain white card and depicting a verse of scripture with a picture sometimes is helpful and helpful aid in memorizing that scripture. Now, if you're done admiring my artwork, you can flip it over on the other side. On the other side of the insert, there are some specific scriptures that you can memorize to help combat specific sins. If you sin in what you say, memorize Ephesians 4.29. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. If you're a guy for whom lust or pornography is a problem, memorize Job 31.1. I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustily at a girl. If you are struggling with any kind of harmful addiction, such as alcohol, narcotics, tobacco or, gosh I hate to talk about this because it's so touchy for so many of us, food, gluttony. Memorize Romans 6 verses 12 to 14. If you are a child and haven't memorized any scriptures, why don't you start with Ephesians 6.1. Children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Our son has memorized but not yet applied this verse. But he knows it well. Or, if you simply want a Scripture that will help you do what Keith reminds us to do so often, that is namely to preach the Gospel to yourself, memorize Galatians 2.20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live and the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Well, anyway, I think you can start to see how God's Word cleanses your heart. You and I should pray that God would teach us His Word. This was the psalmist's prayer in verse 12. You cannot truly learn God's Word unless God Himself becomes the teacher. In John 14, 26, Jesus told His disciples, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things. Meditation, we talk about the idea of meditation and some people immediately think that they need to stand like this and maybe sit in the lotus position. Unfortunately, the Eastern religions have dominated our thoughts about what meditation is. Meditation, it is merely the activity of prolonged mental reflection on God and His truth. The psalmist told God, I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. The way to figure out how any Scripture applies to life situations is to meditate on that Scripture. I discovered just this morning, it's interesting, for months of listening to Keith preach, he would share, well, I just read this morning, or just last night, and I thought, really? But I understand now, again. R.C. Sproul, I read this just this morning. R.C. Sproul suggests asking yourself two questions as you meditate or mull over a verse or passage of Scripture. And I think these are good. Number one, why is the passage superior to the accepted ways of the world? Do you believe that God knows better than everyone else? I do. And so we contemplate that we ask yourself, why is this passage, why is this scripture superior to the accepted ways of the world? And number two, how can I make this teaching a perpetual part of my life? As Ben pointed out just prior to reading the scripture today from James, we need to not just hear it and know it, we need to apply it to our lives. We need to make it a perpetual part of our lives that we would be, as James said, doers of the word and not hearers only. Let's move over to Psalm 119, verse 49. Remember your word to your servant in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort and my affliction, that your promise gives me life. The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law. When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord. Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning. I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law. This blessing has fallen to me that I have kept your precepts. The second thing I want you to see today is that God's word encourages your heart. God's word encourages your heart. The psalmist spoke to God in ways, well, in ways that I don't. I think the ideal attitude or posture is a combination of humble submission and persistent boldness. Let me repeat that. I believe God wants you and I to address him in prayer with a combination of humble submission and persistent boldness. Is anyone else struck by the apparent paradox? Humble submission and persistent boldness. But I believe that's what the Bible counsels us to do. That's the way we're to approach God. And again, I don't know about you, but I struggle with this seeming tension. And because I don't want to be irreverent or presumptive, I tend to err on the side of humility. And as a result, I got to be honest with you, I've never felt the need to remind God of anything. After all, Numbers 23, 19 says, God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? Yet the psalmist somehow felt compelled to tell God, remember your word to your servant. I need to tell you, the commentaries were particularly unhelpful with this verse. One commentator speculated that the psalmist was sure God would remember his words, but if you're sure, why ask? Let's move on to verse 50. Does this verse speak to your present circumstances? Let's look at this verse 50. This is my comfort in my affliction that your promise gives me life. Does that speak to your present circumstances? Are you going through a difficult time right now? Is there a relationship, a financial hardship, or physical affliction that is weighing heavily on your heart? What's important is not that you escape your suffering, even with God's help, but that you trust God and prove God to be a genuine source of comfort, even when you're going through the trial. The Lord knows whatever affliction you may be going through right now, and he promises to encourage your heart. His word can revive you in your affliction, and I pray that he will revive you now through the comfort of his word. The bedrock doctrine that God led me to believe, even before conversion, was a simple and abiding trust in the Bible as the word of God. Because God led me to have absolute confidence in His Word, all that was needed to build upon that foundation was further teaching on the overarching story of the Bible. And I hope by now that that's been very clear from Keith's preaching and from the teaching in Sunday School classes that the overarching message, it is all about Jesus. Now, for this reason, it hasn't mattered who mocked me. or my beliefs over the years, whether it was a parent, a close friend, a former girlfriend, a college or seminary professor, or a board of deacons. I have learned the truth of this saying by John MacArthur. You cannot be faithful and popular, so take your pick. By God's grace, my confidence in God's word has not wavered. To the contrary, public challenges to my faith has led me to study the Bible more in depth to discover the biblical basis of doctrines like inerrancy, authority, and the sufficiency of Scripture. Some of you can recall a time when a song lifted your spirits and gave you encouragement when you were depressed, discouraged, weak, or hopeless. In verse 54, the psalmist suggested that the Scriptures are like songs, even in adversity. A few years ago, the exuberance my wife, Andrea, and I felt about her first and we were later learned only pregnancy gave way to the emotionally and psychologically devastating shock of her sudden miscarriage. When the words of others were unintentionally harmful or lovingly insufficient, God's word encouraged our hearts and eventually brought healing to our shattered dreams. We can testify today that clinging to our belief in God's goodness and sovereignty or what saw us through both the trials of infertility and years of waiting for a successful adoption. God's call for you to obey him will not end at the conclusion of this service or even after lunch in the fellowship hall. You are not called just to obey until 5 p.m. on weekdays. Your commitment to obey does not disappear when the sun sets each day. Though living through a different time, the psalmist understood this. Instead, he wrote, I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law. We'll turn back to verse 17. Look at verses 17 to 24. Deal bountifully with your servant that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I'm a sojourner on the earth. Hide not your commandments from me. My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times. You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones who wander from your commandments. Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies. Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servants will meditate on your statutes. Your testimonies are my delight. They are my counselors. The third thing I want you to see today, and I think, again, it comes clearly from this passage, is that God's word consoles your soul. God's word consoles your soul. Owning a Bible. is not enough. You actually have to read or hear it to become aware of the wondrous things that come out of God's word. Are you discovering wondrous things in God's word? I pray you are every day. Ted Tripp says that he reads three Psalms at the beginning of every day because he wants to start every day amazed by God. Indeed, spiritual understanding does not come from merely passing Bible pages in front of your eyeballs like a barcode scanner. John Piper puts it this way. No one can see these wonderful things for what they really are without God's help. We are not naturally able to see spiritual beauty. When we read the Bible without the help of God, the glory of God in the Bible is like the sun shining in the face of a blind man. Not that you can't construe its surface meaning, but you can't see the wonder of it such that it wins your heart. If you are here today, and not a Christian, I hope you will take the Bible at the end of your pew. Yet if you are not a Christian, your greatest need is not for the Bible at the end of the pew, but on the Jesus that that Bible reveals. The Jesus of history who is God but became human. The Jesus who then grew up to adulthood and lived a perfect life and died a painful death for your sins and mine. The Jesus who was buried in a tomb, but whom God the Father raised from the dead on the third day. The Jesus, this Jesus, is the one that you must trust as Lord and follow. It is Jesus to whom you must turn and repent of your sins. But whether you are a Christian or not, you must keep in mind that the Lord gives spiritual understanding by opening your mind. During his testimony last week, prior to his ordination, Ron Pantuck shared that the Psalms have informed his prayer life. Whitney notes that praying your way through a verse of scripture intensifies your spiritual perception. A good habit to practice before you read the Bible is to pray that the Holy Spirit would instruct you and grant you insight into what you are about to read. I might add that verse 18 is a great prayer for both yourself and for Pastor Goad. You can pray for Keith that God would open his eyes to behold wonderful things out of his word, that he would give a clear interpretation so that we would understand the scriptures he is preaching each and every Sunday. But as we pray this prayer for ourselves, you and I should become what the BD calls expositional listeners. This wonderful little book, and I know our church has it and would probably be happy to make additional copies available to you, as I believe they did at one time, to new members or prospective members. This book is called What is a Healthy Church Member? And I want to borrow straight from there. Well, one slight alteration, I think you'll notice it. Anyway, what is it to be an expositional listener? And how is being an expositional listener, how does that encourage faithful pastors like Keith? What can we do? One of the things we can do is we can meditate on the sermon passage during our personal or family devotions. Sometimes it changes a little bit during the week, but generally speaking, we know what Keith is going to preach on the next Sunday. That's one thing you can do, meditate on the passage and pray for him. You can also invest in a good set of commentaries. Again, there are a lot of good ones. The Bible Speaks Today, they've been edited by John Stott. They're very good if you don't have anything else just to start with. And if you're not used to reading commentaries, it's a great place to start. This is something else I know that many of the members do as well, is to talk and pray about the sermon after the worship service. The whole point of the discipleship questions is to get you thinking about and applying the word to your life. throughout the week. Another thing you can do, and I know Asher does this, I don't know if he does it every week, but listen to and act on the sermon throughout the week. And you say, well, I already heard it on Sunday, I don't really need to listen to it again. It is amazing what you can forget between here and when you actually open the car door, you know, just walk out the parking lot. And you're going to do that today because you're staying for lunch. But normally, that would be something that would be a difficulty. Another thing you can do, and this isn't in the book, okay, but it's almost like a free commercial. Send additional questions about the passage that were raised or not answered by the sermon to Asher for his Q&A with the pastor. And the final thing that you can do is just cultivate humility. It's really a valuable thing for us that we cultivate humility in our own hearts, that we think about our own relationship to God, and as someone who has stood behind the pulpit for many years, it is great when people actually approach you in humility. Now, there's a great movement in America towards simplifying. It is assumed that a simpler life will be a happier life, and there are certainly benefits to learning to live with less physical and mental clutter. Yet, as we simplify, in some regards, We must not reduce what God wants us to obey to the Ten Commandments or even the two greatest commandments. Encompassing as they may be. Instead, you and I must be sure that we do not ignore any portion of God's word, particularly his commands. In Amos 8, verses 11 to 12, God declared, Behold, the days are coming when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. Well, in light of this scripture and Psalm 119 19, we must pray that God would not hide his word from us. One of the greatest things about being a part of this community of faith is that when Andrea or I need wise counsel from someone, there are literally dozens of wise men and women that we can and do turn to for guidance and counsel. Prior to moving to Charlottesville, we both benefited from multiple sessions with a biblical counselor. It wasn't really a counseling about the move, but anyway. We probably would have benefited from that as well. But during my pastoral ministry, there were other things that were helpful to me. The written resources of the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation, those wonderful little booklets that they print up, they were helpful both to me and the people that I ministered to. Psalm 119 verse 24 suggests that as helpful as these kinds of things are, there's an even better place for you and I to turn. The Scriptures are our counselors. our companions. And unlike professional counselors, God's word doesn't require copays or appointments during limited office hours. Indeed, God is the only counselor who neither slumbers nor sleeps. God's word consoles your soul. I'll look down to verse thirty three. Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain. Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways. Confirmed your servant, your promise that you may be feared. Turn away from the reproach that I dread for your rules are good. Behold, I long for your precepts in your righteousness. Give me life. What we see in these verses is that God's word counsels your mind. God's word counsels your mind. When I read the psalmist write phrases like, I will keep the way of your statutes to the end, and I may observe your law with my whole heart. I don't know whether to be impressed by this guy's obedience or conclude that he's promising something that he can't deliver. I don't know about you, but I'd be hesitant to guarantee God from my death that I will keep your way to the end. Personally, I find it much easier to relate with Paul, who wrote, for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Well, whether the psalmist was able to make good on his promises or not, I commend him for having the good sense to recognize that the only way it would be possible, even from that moment on, was if the Lord gave him understanding and taught him the way. Yet when I read over these verses, there is only one person who can make these claims and then back them up. The only one who kept God's law and observed it perfectly with his whole heart was Jesus. The only one who always kept the way of God's statutes to the end and from the beginning, I might add, was Jesus. Because Jesus was sinless, he was able to offer himself as a pure sacrifice for you and I. And because God raised Jesus from the dead, our faith in Him is not futile, and we are no longer in our sins. Amen? But while our faith must always depend on Jesus and what He did for us, that does not mean that obedience to His Word is optional. 1 John 2 states clearly that while Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Whoever says he lives in God ought to live his life in the same way in which Jesus did. So since you and I ought to observe God's word as Jesus did, we have to first know it. James Montgomery Boyce put it like this. It is necessary to have an intellectual understanding of God's ways before the application, simply because you cannot apply what you are ignorant of. You and I should pray that God would incline our hearts to his word. By nature, we are not inclined to read, meditate upon, and memorize scripture. Our human will always prefers to avoid anything that requires us to expend prolonged effort or undergo suffering of any kind. So we must intentionally pray as Jesus did to the Father when the consequences and the circumstances were far graver. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Let's finally look at verse 97. Keith, one of the things that I noticed having the opportunity of actually sitting here and listening to someone, all the critique I got for years, people would say, why do you say finally when there's like 20 minutes left in your sermon? And I'm not saying there is, but maybe. Verse 97. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts, I get an understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way. The final thing we see from the passage we've looked at today is that God's word satisfies your heart, soul and mind. God's word satisfies your heart, soul and mind. The psalmist said to God, oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. C.S. Lewis confessed how strange it seemed to him, especially when he was a new Christian, that the psalmist loved God's law. He understood how you could respect a good law and even try to obey it, but felt loving the law was like loving getting your teeth pulled or loving getting shot at it on the battlefield. Yet, while we can and should love the whole Bible and not just its first five books, I think the psalmist was on to something. He loved the law because he figured out that God's specific commands warned him against committing specific sins. As an evangelist wrote on the flyleaf of his Bible, this book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book. Do you love God's word enough to memorize it so you can meditate upon it? If you memorize scripture, it will be on your heart and in your mind, even when you don't have one hand free to flip through your Bible or your Bible app. The psalmist was wiser than his enemies and had more understanding than his teachers, because God's word was always with him due to the time that he spent meditating upon it. If you think you don't have enough time to memorize or meditate upon scripture, perhaps it's time to stop updating your Facebook status so often, reading so many blogs, watching so much TV and a host of other optional but time consuming pursuits. The Hebrew of verse 102 is best translated by the NIV, in which the psalmist explains the reason that he fared better than most of us. I have not departed from your laws for you yourself have taught me. You and I should take this lesson to heart. Though we acknowledge that folks like Moses, David, and Paul wrote various portions of the Bible, we should read and hear every portion, not as the words of a particular man, but as the words of God Himself. And both the Word of God, collectively, and the words or specific sayings of God satisfy our heart, soul, and mind because they are sweeter than honey. You know, there's a reason there is a one-year Bible and not a one-day Bible. For starters, if you did nothing but read or listen to the Bible from beginning to end, it would take you not one day, but three. Yet, even if you did give up sleep in order to read it straight through for three days, you'd be unlikely to master it by reading it that way. A better way is to take the specific sayings of God and to learn to love them one by one. Sayings like these, which probably many of you know already. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. And when I hear this last one, it makes me want to sing. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. Wouldn't you like to fill your heart with something beautiful like that? Try memorizing one of these scriptures. Or perhaps the entire letter to the Colossians. The psalmist compared the spiritual discipline of Bible intake to the sweet taste of honey. Bible intake isn't like trying to choke down a bland, bitter, stringy vegetable. Bible intake shouldn't be a dreaded chore, but an anticipated delight. Calvin put it this way, God requires from us no slavish service. He will have us come to him cheerfully. And this is the very reason why the prophet commends the sweetness of God's word so often in this psalm. But when God's Word satisfies your heart, soul, and mind, He will grant you the ability to discern between good and evil. Boyce put it like this, discernment is the only real test of wisdom, and hatred of evil is the only ultimate proof that we love God. Are you indifferent to the Bible? Do you find it boring, unattractive, If so, you will not be kept from sin or from what is ugly and offensive in this world. You will make your home in it. Don't do that. Instead, read, study, learn and meditate on God's word, and you will find that it grows sweeter and sweeter to your taste. Equally important, you will learn that sin is to be avoided at all costs. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Psalm 119. We thank you that Psalm 119 indicates that we're all sinners that need your grace and favor to keep us from stumbling. But we do acknowledge that your word is truth. That you sanctify us by truth. That to walk with you is to walk with you by your word. And that means not only its instructions and commands, but its glorious promises as well. But it also teaches us, having been saved by grace, how to live. How to walk with you. Lord, as a congregation, make us love your word more. Not just so that we know more things than other people know, but so that we become more like Jesus. Better witnesses to him and better followers of him. And we ask all these things in his name. Amen.