Can This Be the Christ?

We're continuing the gospel of John. John has one main point that you would believe that Jesus is the son of God. We are focusing on the one main point. The goal of John is that we would see Jesus is God. He is the son of God. And again, where we're still in the we're still in chapter seven, we still have the same scene, the same setting and really the same point. It just continues that Jesus is confronting the religious authorities as we are looking at who Jesus is. He is the son of God. And the focus precisely is the fact that Jesus has divine authority. He is the supreme king. He is the only true king. He has all authority and all power. He demonstrates the authority of his teaching. In the section last week, he tells the Pharisees how to interpret Scripture. He's telling them, I know what Scripture says because I am its author. The true word of God has come to tell them how they should be interpreting the law. And we see that as Jesus, he continues to teach. He confronts the crowd, he confounds them that they don't know how to respond to them, and he continues to correct them. Our message this morning is the same that John will continue to repeat. We must believe Jesus is the son of God. The specific focus, again, is on his divine authority. If you look to chapter seven of John, We will be finishing most of this chapter. We'll see four things this morning, three things Jesus wants to know about himself, and then our final concluding point. First, Jesus teaches us where he is from. He's teaching us where he is from. He is from the Father. The second thing we see in verses 33 through 36, Jesus will be teaching where he's going. He's going back to the glory he had with his father. The third thing who he will send, he'll be sending the Holy Spirit. And then versus 40 through 52, we'll see the confusion that the crowds have, the confusion that that sinners have when Jesus teaches God's holy truth. So our structure this morning is where I am from, where I am going, Who I am sending, then confusion for sinners. First, where I am from. Jesus whole point is what we continue to hear. He has come from the Father. His divine origin is one of the main witnesses to his divine authority. verse 25, and if you're using a few of a Bible, there's a few Bible in front of you. John seven, where we are, should be found on page eight. Ninety three. We're in John, chapter seven, beginning verse twenty five, we're still at the Feast of Booze that was similar to what Mike read from. Some of the people of Jerusalem, therefore, said, is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is. Speaking openly and they say nothing to him, can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from and when Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, you know me and you know where I come from, but I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true in him. You do not know. I know him. For I come from him, and he sent me." So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, when the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done? The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. First thing we see here is that the crowd is quite confused. They don't know what to do with Christ. They hear his authoritative teaching. They hear what he's saying in front of the Pharisees and the chief priests and the authorities. And they're looking around and saying, is this the Christ? Do they know this is the Christ? There's something so unique and different about him. And isn't this the man they're seeking to kill? Now, the same crowd earlier asked Jesus when he said, you're seeking to kill me. They said, well, you have a demon who's seeking to kill you. Well, here they some group recognizes. Is this not the man they want to kill? Yet here he is in the temple during one of the most celebrated and well attended feasts he's teaching openly. They begin to wonder, is this the Christ? Is this the Christ that the Jewish authorities are telling us? So there's lots of irony in this particular story. We have to appreciate John and one of his great tools is irony. They're asking, do the authorities, do the Pharisees, do they know this is a Christ but yet aren't telling us? As we'll see, the Pharisees are the furthest from knowing who the Christ is. They're putting their trust in the wrong authority, and that is the Pharisees. As we'll see later, they're the farthest from knowing who the Christ is. So they present a test. One of the tests in this time was they understood this is not from Scripture necessarily. They say, well, when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from. He'll disappear miraculously and suddenly. This seems to be an assumption. No one will know where he comes from in verse 27. Well, there's irony here as well. They think they know where Jesus is from. He's from Galilee. That's where they think he's from. Later on in verse 40, they're going to say, well, Jesus, the Messiah doesn't come from Galilee. He comes from Bethlehem. And so they try to use this as an argument against Jesus. Well, the irony is they don't know anything about Jesus because he was born in Bethlehem. He was born in the city of David. He is from the right line. He's from the right city. But they're confused. They don't understand it. Do we not know where he's coming from? They don't understand where he truly is from. You see, Jesus being born in Bethlehem, that was a sign. It was a sign of who the Messiah would be, but it's not the main point. So Jesus doesn't correct them. Look at verse 28. What does Jesus emphasize? So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, you know me and you know where I come from. Now, my text has a period here. That could be a question mark. You know me. Do you know where I come from? I think Jesus is more rhetorically asking a question here. It's not a sentence as if he's affirming that they actually do know him because they don't. It's not affirming that they know where they come from because they don't. The text can be interpreted as a question mark. And I think that's the better way of understanding it. Do you know me? Do you really know where I come from? And the point is, I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true. In him you do not know. I know him for I come from him and he sent me something we have seen over and over again. His origin coming from the father that is essential to understanding who Jesus is. He is the son of God. He is God himself who came down and took flesh. The God is three. The father, the Holy Spirit, but it's one God. That's a great mystery that we clearly confess while never pretending to completely comprehend. But here he's pointing out he is the son of God. He is from the true God. When he says you sent me is true, he's not trying to argue as atheist. He's not saying there is a God. He's saying he's truthful. He's he's he can trust him. He's worthy of your trust. The confrontation is that they haven't really been looking at the right source. They have been looking for the right origin. So much is packed in in one statement there in verse twenty nine. I know him, for I come from him and he sent me. We saw in John one, no one has ever seen God, but the one true begotten God, he has come and he has made him known Jesus Christ. He knows God perfectly and completely and fully because he's a son of God who was with the father for all of eternity. And now he has come. from the Father to make him known. He has a mission. He has a purpose. What we need to know about Jesus Christ is right there in that those three phrases. He knows God. He has come from God and he is on a mission from God. He has been sent. Now, we have some narrative explanation of verses 30 through 32 that are really worth pausing on. John is a good storyteller. He builds up. He helps us see what's happening and how it's happening. Here, it's quite remarkable. So, they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. They're seeking to arrest him. He's speaking openly in the temple. He's telling the Pharisees and the chief priests in the temple that they've got it all wrong. They want to kill him, but no one lays a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Now, beginning of chapter seven, when the brothers ask Jesus, are you going to go to Jerusalem? Are you going to go to Jerusalem and really prove yourself once and for all? And finally, and Jesus says, my time has not yet come. Now, time was much more of a general reference. He is saying, it is not my time to yet go to Jerusalem, but I will follow secretly without you. Here, our has a much more specific reference in the Gospel of John. It always refers to the time of the cross. The hour that John always references is when Christ will be crucified. That is the hour the entire book is moving towards. This is the last time Jesus will be in Jerusalem before he is put on trial and killed and crucified on the cross. No one touched him because in God's sovereign plan, according to God's sovereign time, It was not yet his hour to die. He has one more year to live, he has one more year to teach, he has one more year to walk freely. God protected him. There's a couple of things we can walk away from this text with that simple commentary on why he's not yet being arrested. First, God is sovereign over sin. God is sovereign over sin. Friends, this is the great news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He came from God. He was sent from the Father to conquer sin. He is this great defeater. The whole gospel is pointing towards that hour when he would once and for all conquer sin and death. We can't lose the importance of this. The entire gospel is pointing to the cross. This points that we must trust him. Our sin is our greatest enemy. That sin that resides in our hearts, the anger, the lust, the perversion, the corruption, all that resides within us, that is our greatest enemy. It brings about God's judgment against us. And Christ has come, first and foremost, to conquer that sin. He has conquered that sin by dying in our place so that the judgment of God is no longer on us if we believe in him. Because he was judged in our place. He has given us a spirit so we can overcome the sins that entangle us. If you're a believer. See here that God kept the authorities from even touching Christ in the temple as he's teaching them what the Bible really means. That authority that he has. is best and clearest seen when he dies on the cross so that our salvation is secure. And now we know that when we feel enslaved and entrapped by sin, when we feel beaten, when we feel overwhelmed with guilt, we look to the cross and we know that he has absolute authority over sin. He has the authority to say, you're forgiven. That's much powerful than your feelings of guilt. He has authority to say, you're free. That's more powerful than sin, barking orders as if you have to obey. The second thing we see in this brief commentary on what's happening, the hour had not yet come. God is sovereign over all governments. God is sovereign over each and every government. The authorities want to kill him. They want to arrest him. They can't touch him unless God permits it. Now, in a year, he's going to permit it. In a year, he's going to give them over to their own sin and they're going to crucify him. God's going to permit it in a year, but here God's not permitting it. We can see he's sovereign over every authority because he has all authority. God has been sovereign over Rome, over Russia, over Germany. He's sovereign over the United States. We can praise God for this because we can see that he is permitted and been patient with our evil as a nation and as a people. We can praise God because he's blessed us from not being as evil and perverse as we could be. He continues to use America and every other nation in his great plan to bring about one people, one holy nation that will praise him and him alone. The whole plan is we heard that this retreat this last week, the whole plan is for a people to be gathered from all the peoples that will glorify God. We can trust that no matter what we see happening in our government, in another government, in our nation and other nations, God is in control and God is bringing about his plan of salvation just as clear as we can see him bringing about his plan of salvation to take Christ to the cross at the right time. We know that everything that happens is happening now so that God is bringing about his plan in its right time. We have to recognize our citizenship is way beyond being an American citizen. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our citizenship is being a people of God under the name of Christ, the one and only true King. We just had elections this week, so this is timely. In God's sovereignty, he has us reading this text as many either had their men win in a certain election or lose. Regardless of the outcome of an election, we rest in Christ. We rest in him, we rest in his absolute authority to do with us whatever he wants for his glory. We know his kingdom will come. That's the hope of the Christian. Now, many are blowing trumpets that this nation is crumbling, many are blowing trumpets that this nation should be in despair. There's a lot of reasons to look outside and think, yeah, this nation is going the wrong way. But our hope is in a different citizenship. We must be responsible to praying for our king, praying for our president. We must be responsible for praying for him and for God's will to be done through the government officials. But most of all, our hope is in Christ. The last verse would strike the contemporary hearers of John, who would read this in the days right after Christ. Look at verse 32. The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. The chief priests and the Pharisees, they didn't get along. They're both parties vying for allegiance. of the people. They're both parties claiming to have absolute authority. They didn't really get along that well, and so for them to come together and work has actually been one argument for why folks have said the Gospel of John can't be authentic because those two parties never came and did anything together. Well, it's amazing what having a common foe will do. They both hate Christ because Christ is undermining their sovereign claims to authority. So they're going to work together to kill him. Now, this is where John, he's a brilliant writer. This is a helpful build up to what we're going to hear next, because here he is, Jesus in the temple. He's teaching the people from the temple that he has a real authority, that these other guys, the listeners, they don't know what they're talking about. So they go to arrest him and you're on the edge of your seat. You want to know what happens next. What happens when they go since they couldn't lay a hand on him because it's our night had come. What happens next? Well, John doesn't tell you yet. Because he's going to emphasize Jesus' next teaching, what he wants us to hear as he has us on the edge of our seat, as he has our attention. He wants us to hear that Jesus is telling the people not just where he's from, but where he's going. Look at verse 33. Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying you will seek me and you will not find me and where I am? You cannot come. Well, the guards are coming to get Jesus, he's there teaching, and he's not just teaching to his authority as the divine son who's been sent, he's now saying, I'm going to go where you cannot find me. The reference is that he's going back to his glory. After he dies on the cross, he will rise again and then he'll be ascended to the right hand of the father. He will be there in heaven with the father in glory. And he's saying that then you will seek me and you cannot find me. He's going back to his glory. He has come to save sinners. He has come to redeem us from our greatest enemy. And then he's going back to glory. Now, one thing I want to point out here is that Jesus didn't come to teach a prosperity gospel. Jesus didn't come to make this world the best world it could possibly be now. Jesus does not intend for you to have the happiest possible life that you can think of here and now. Jesus came to save you from your sin. And one day when you die or he returns, you will have all your sin removed as we sing and come thou found where we will get to see him with uncorrupted and unpolluted eyes will glorify him. His goal is where he's going. And that he's going to get he's going to take us with him If we believe in Him, He's come to save us from our sin. He's come to take us into the true kingdom, a kingdom we do not know here, a sonship we do not fully experience here, a glory that we only can capture a glimpse of here. This is the message. There's a glory beyond this life. There is a glory beyond this life. We must believe that Jesus came. He taught this. He died. He rose again. And he's in that glory. And he's bringing us into that glory if we believe in him. This is why we're not committed to a life of eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. Because there's a future life and a future glory. Paul makes this very clear. If there is no resurrection, let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. The point being, if we are living as if the world Longing for every little possible sensual pleasure in our presence, living for the now, we're demonstrating we don't believe in the resurrection. If we're living for what we can get out of the world today and not storing up treasure, we're living as if Jesus isn't resurrected. Does your life represent a faith that Jesus is alive? We believe in a lie. We live in a world that's constantly pressing in us a lie. Live in the moment. Live for the now. Friends, the gospel saves us from that pathetic lie. How depressing is it to think all you have is right now? There's no purpose in life. There's no end in life. There's no ultimate goal in life. There's nothing beyond this life. All you have is this. This is unsatisfying. This doesn't quench our thirst, as we'll see. This is unsatisfying. God tells us there's a true end. He came to give us life as God commanded it, as God created it. If Jesus came to save us from this world, why do we still live in it? As we see in verses 35, 36. Something that continues to run through John 7. The crowds are confused. Well, where is he going? Is he going to the dispersion? Is he going to go to the Gentile speaking Jews who the Aramaic speaking Jews hated? Or is he going to go even a step further? Is he going to go to Greeks themselves? Well, the answer is yes. He's not going to go there himself. He's going to send us. He's going to send his church to those who are in the dispersion, who are who are there. One of the keys we have to see is that we must believe in Jesus Christ in order to find him where he is going. As he goes, he teaches. Who I am sending. Look at verse 37 on the last day of the feast, the great day. So here we've been at the Feast of Tabernacles for a week. This is the last day. This is a great day. The feast is celebrating the bringing in of the olives and the grapes. That's the harvest they're celebrating. They're looking ahead and thanking God for his provision he's going to give next year. They're also remembering that in the wilderness, God kept them. They lived in intense, they lived in booze for for 40 years and God kept them in the wilderness and they're living in booze again for just seven days to remember God's faithfulness, not just the harvest, but in redemptive history. On the last day of the feast of the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out. If anyone's thirst, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as a scripturist that out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this, he said about the spirit whom those believed in him were to receive, for as yet the spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Jesus has to die. He has to rise from the dead, he has to ascend to heaven, and then he will send the Holy Spirit. He actually says this is to our advantage, as we'll see in John 14. It's to our advantage that he's conquered sin and death on the cross. It's to our advantage that he's at the right hand of the Father. It's to our advantage that now God dwells in us. Now he points us to that future hope. Now, the last day was the most celebrated day. It's the most festive day. And it's important to know what was happening on that day to really capture what Jesus is saying here and saying, come to me if anyone is thirsty and I will give him drink. So what happened on that day? The high priest would take a golden pitcher He would go to the pool of Siloam, and he would take the pitcher, he would fill it up, and then he and all the priests would march back into the temple. And as they entered the gate, three trumpet blasts would sound off. And then they would begin to sing from Psalm 113 to 118. The climactic event being Psalm 118, where, as you read as a call to worship together, the people would say, give thanks to the Lord. for steadfast love endures forever. That will be the climactic ending of the procession. And then they would take the water and they would take a wand and they will pour it over the altar, mixed together from two different pictures. Now, keep that procession, keep that ceremony in mind, because Jesus, by declaring, come to me who all thirst, Let him come to me and drink. That ceremony is taking place as Jesus crying this out. He's pointing out everything that's happening here today is pointing to me. John 5, Jesus already said, Moses wrote of me. He'll say also, Moses spoke of me. Here they're coming to celebrate God's guidance in the wilderness. Here they're coming to celebrate God's care for their needs. Here they're proclaiming trust in God. Jesus is saying, I am God's greatest blessing to you. One of the places that one of the reasons they bring the water in is to remember when they were thirsty. God told Moses to hit the rock and water came gushing out and they they drank and they were full as they're pouring out the water. It's a remembering of how God provided water and he provided bread. I believe Jesus is saying, I am the rock that will be crushed to quench your thirst. I am the one who will be crushed by God in judgment so that your thirst will be quenched. We can also see the water and blood mixing over the altar, pointing forward to John 1934. When they would crucify someone, they would oftentimes break their legs afterwards because they would continue to push themselves up with their legs so they wouldn't suffocate. When they came to Jesus, they were going to break his legs. They realized, no, he's already dead. There's no reason to break his legs. They pierced his side and out came water and blood mixed and mingled. His death is how our thirst is satisfied. But it's not the thirst we oftentimes try to quench. Jesus is pointing to the deep thirst we all have. And that is a right relationship with God. We are all unsatisfied. We are all out of rest. We are in unrest because we do not have a right relationship with God. When he speaks of thirst, it's not just any thirst. Some of us, well, you may be thirsty right now for actual water. Many of you have longings and desires. Are you longing for a better house, a better family, a better job, better health? Let me be very clear, these are not the promises that God has put at the forefront for his people, that we would have a better life now. The promise is that he's going to give us the best thing for us, and that is a right relationship with God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. That's the promise. Blessed are those who long to be in a right relation with God. Blessed are those who are reconciled with God. Blessed are those who long to know their maker, the one they've sinned against, and to have peace with him because they will be satisfied. You see, we thirst for things of this world. We truly need to be thirsting for the thirst we should be seeking to quench is our longing to be done with sin, a longing to live, a longing to know God and his blessing. Challenge here. What are you longing for? What is that thing that you think, if I only had it, I would be so happy? If it's not Jesus Christ and if it's not a right relationship with God, it's not going to make you happy. So I'm going to make you more thirsty. We should be thirsting for righteousness. Christian, I ask you, are you satisfied in Christ? So are you happy with your first answer? Yes, Christ died for my sins. I know I have peace with God. Is that the foundation of your well-being? Can you say with absolute confidence, my peace comes from Christ? As we see here, tied to the peace of Christ is the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you're not experiencing the peace of Christ and the right relationship with Christ, it's either because you've never believed in Christ. Or you're not walking in the spirit. We're thirsty. Are you longing to quench that thirst with sinful living, by obeying the desires of your flesh? To walk in the Spirit is the only way to enjoy the peace of Christ. It means we set aside our idols, our selfish ambition, and we seek Him in His Word. When you're trying to quench your thirst with sin, it's like trying to quench an actual thirst by drinking out of the ocean. It makes you more thirsty. It dehydrates you and actually makes you sick and can kill you. Christian, know that you're either quenching the spirit by living in sin or you're actually quenching your thirst by living in the spirit. There are only two ways to live. Our final section. Again, the emphasis being what we've already seen, there's confusion. Who is this? Is it the Christ? Why are they arresting him? Is this not the one they're trying to kill? Where is he going to go? Well, he focuses in on a large section that discusses the great confusion that still takes place. Verse 40. When they heard these words, some of the people said this really is the this really is the prophet. Others said this is the Christ. But some said is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was? So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. It gets a little dicier now we return back to our guards who are going to arrest him. The officers then came to the chief priest and the Pharisees who said to them, Why did you not bring him? The offers answered, this is very important. The officers were under the authority of the chief priests of the Pharisees when they come back empty handed and ask, why didn't you bring him? Look at verse 46. No one ever spoke like this man. You should hear the things he's saying. The guards are telling those who are the teachers of Israel, no one's ever spoken like him. He's way better than you guys. He has so much more authority. He has so much more clarity. He's speaking the word of God. And while they may not have the faith yet to believe it, they recognize it. These are the guards. They're always in the temple. They've heard the greatest teachers come to the Temple of Jerusalem and teach over and over and over again. But now the true prophet has come. And they can't bring themselves to arrest them because they recognize something's different. The Pharisees answered them, and here you just hear the hubris. Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees Believed in him. Until we give him the syllable approval, how could you possibly believe in him? Last week, we pointed out Jesus' argument for himself is circular. If you believe the father, you believe me, that's a circular argument. But what other authority is Jesus going to appeal to? He's not going to appeal to the Pharisees. He's not going to say, look who's believed in me, you should believe in me too. No, the father, almighty God, he sent me. The Pharisees and their arrogance. We have not yet set our seal of approval on God's Messiah. How could you believe in him? Look at verse 49. But this crowd. Their people. They'll be like me as a pastor referring to you as this church. You're not this church. We're God's people together. This is arrogance. This is speaking against their people as if there's some others out there, this crowd. That does not know the law is a curse. Are you like those ignorant brutes who do not know anything about the law and you're believing in this deception? As we said earlier, there's great irony here. Those who are supposed to be authorities over the law, they're farthest from understanding it. If you're following the trajectory here, Christ is the right interpreter of the law. He's a true prophet. The crowds, they're getting closer. The Pharisees are the farthest away. And it's their arrogance, it's their hubris, it's their claiming to have an authority over themselves and their understanding of the law that keeps them so far. We see one of the Pharisees that we've seen before, and he's one of the most interesting characters in Scripture because it's to him that Jesus said, God's the love of the world that he sent his only begotten son, Nicodemus, verse 50. Nicodemus, who had gone to him before and who was one of them, said to them, does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does? Nicodemus not really standing up quite yet and saying he has faith, but he's trying to appeal to the law. How can we make such a harsh judgment when we have not yet heard him? And they respond to him. Are you from Galilee, too, as if he's just rooting for the hometown kid? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee. And. Well, again, there's confusion, some ironic, almost hilarious confusion of Where they think he's from and how much they think of know they know of Jesus. If you think about this. The chief sin that we need to recognize in this tax is being challenged is our arrogance. Our assumption that we have an authority of Christ. He is absolutely the Lord of all, he is the supreme king. He alone can speak God's truth and we get to hear it. Are we assuming like the Pharisees that we have some authority? What we have to do is go beyond even what the guards did and what Nicodemus did and not just defend Christ and not say he's a powerful teacher. Believe in him and submit to his perfect and absolute authority. If you're not a Christian this morning, could you tell me what the gospel of Jesus Christ is? If you're opposed and against the Christianity, could you actually sit down with a Christian and tell them what Christianity is or have you created some idea of what Christianity is that's not from Scripture? Do you know who Jesus Christ is? Have you actually done what Nicodemus is saying we should all do and hear him for himself? If you're not a Christian this morning, we have little booklets in the back. It's the Gospel of John. You can read it in an hour. I challenge you, if you're going to reject Jesus Christ, at least know who he said he who he claimed to be, who he said he was, what he said he did. If you're going to reject Christ, hear him. From him comes the words of life. From him comes the confrontation of our sins. From him comes a forgiveness of sins. And I pray you will find that. There's also a correction for us Christians. It's easy for us to impose upon God what we really want. It's easy for us to think we've got authority over this particular area of life. We must come to God's word Seeking to submit to him and his authority completely because he is the one absolute authority. Our king. We pray with me. God, we praise you because you're the God who speaks. Forgive us for being so slow to listen. Forgive us for being so forgetful. Forgive us for just outright rejecting You. We thank You for Your faithfulness. We thank You that while we were still rejecting You, You sent Your Son. We thank You that while we were still rejecting You, You sent Your Spirit to change us so that we can have eyes to see who You truly are. Lord, if there's anyone here who doesn't know You, help them, Lord, to see That you are a holy and just God. And that you have sent your son to die in the place of sinners so that we can all have forgiveness and that we can know you. Lord, as a church, help us to always be submissive to you, our one king, our one authority. Help us, Lord, to be built upon your word. Help us, Lord, to set aside our preferences. As we all have preferences, Lord, help us, Lord, to set aside and consider the good Well, first of all, your glory, what can we do together for your glory and how can we encourage one another? We thank you, Lord, for your word. Help us, Lord, to be disciples who deny ourselves, take up our crosses and worship you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.