8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time1 the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
[1] 1:11
(ESV)
1 Peter 1:8-12
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time1 the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Hey, everyone. So today is Pentecost Sunday, 50 days since we gathered in this place for Easter Sunday. Hey. How's it going? And we celebrated the resurrection of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:And today, we, celebrate as as the the church universal of when the spirit came to bear witness to our lord and savior Jesus Christ, to, empower us to bear witness to the gospel. And so we come, keeping that in our minds as this celebration today happens, and as we come to god's word. And so let let us listen carefully from first Peter chapter 1, for this is god's word.
Speaker 2:Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you.
Speaker 2:And the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Things into which angels long to look. This is the word of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word, and we trust you with this time that by your spirit you will open our hearts and our minds to receive your truth. Lord, whether we know it or not, everyone in this room is desperate for you. Every soul is restless until it rests in you, and so God, I pray that in this time, you would confront us with your truth, that you would comfort us with your truth, that you would send us out in your truth. Help us to be attentive with our minds and our hearts.
Jeffrey Heine:Help us to think about hard things. Help us to be honest with ourselves and with you. Transform us, Lord, into the image of our savior, Jesus Christ. We pray these things in and for his name. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:In 1997, Kay Jamieson, released her autobiography. It was a story of her life. In her late twenties, she was diagnosed, with a mental health disorder. She was diagnosed as bipolar. That affects about 7,000,000 people in the United States.
Jeffrey Heine:And just as a quick aside, I know it's early to have an aside, the church should be a place, where people who are suffering, from mental health issues can can feel safe, can be comforted, can be cared for, loved, and encouraged. But Kaye Jamieson was one of those folks who was suffering, and she wrote about it. She wrote some really sad moments, some really scary moments, where in one manic episode, she went in debt $30,000 in a couple of days. She would buy compulsively. And then in some more, winsome stories, one of the, shopping sprees, she was in a bookstore and saw, you know, the penguin publishers, and saw all the penguins that are on the spine of the books, and she felt like she needed to form a colony of penguins, and so she bought all of them and took them home, so the penguins could be together.
Jeffrey Heine:She she told stories of tragedy and and some humorously stated. One of the interesting things about Kaye is that when she was diagnosed as bipolar, she had completed her doctorate in psychology. She was a professor of psychology at UCLA, she's now at Johns Hopkins, and she was very far into her career. She knew a lot of knowledge about mental health, but applying it to herself and seeing herself through that lens was very difficult. And I think in some ways, as Christians, we have a similar kind of challenge.
Jeffrey Heine:We can have lots of knowledge, but really looking at ourselves, who we are, really can be quite difficult. Because we can come into places like this, and we can nod our heads, and fifty days have passed since we were in here celebrating that Jesus is alive, and I would imagine that if you're anything like me, and I'm afraid to say that you probably are, that we forget these things, or we don't live in light of them as we ought. Peter spends a lot of time in this first section here in chapter 1, addressing who his readers are. He really wants to emphasize that. Before he gets to all the business of doing, the instructions for doing, of living, obeying, He wants to be very clear about who his readers are.
Jeffrey Heine:And one of the reasons for that is because the gospel first addresses who we are before we get to the business of doing. It addresses who god is and who who we are in light of what he has done, before it gets to the business of what we need to do. Now, in a couple of weeks, we're, in the beginning next week, really, we're gonna get into the calls to be holy. Peter is one of the most explicit authors in the new testament on that particular issue. That believing in the gospel leads to a living of the gospel.
Jeffrey Heine:And in a couple of weeks, you're probably going to think, like, gosh, is this entire letter just about do this do this do this do this? And so I I this is a good time for us to pause and look back at what he's been saying, reminding his readers who they are. Peter will get to the issue of doing, but right now, we need to take a hard look at who we are, and this good news. You see, contrary to popular belief in our culture of how we assess who we are, the Bible says it's not from what you do. We are not what we do.
Jeffrey Heine:Now what we do matters, and it says a whole lot about who we think we are. But fundamentally, what we do is not who we are. We have to get to the business of being before we get to the business of doing. And Peter does that. I mean, so far in these last couple weeks, as we've been studying first Peter, we've we've looked at a number of things that Peter says, as to who his audience is.
Jeffrey Heine:I I mean, in in here in chapter 1, we see, he calls the readers the elect, the exiles, those who are born again, those whom god is guarding by power through faith for salvation, and last week, we looked at joyful sufferers. He spends a lot of time on identity, knowing clearly who we are. In verses 8 and 9, Peter describes his audience with these words. Look with me. In chapter 1, verses 8 9.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 8. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the the salvation of your souls. He says, though you didn't see him in the past, like I did, I saw him in the past. I I've seen him.
Jeffrey Heine:I beheld him. I was there, but you weren't. And though you didn't see him then when I did, you love him, just like I love him. And though you don't see him now, and Peter's saying, I don't see him now either, but but we believe in him. And we're filled with rejoicing.
Jeffrey Heine:And we are filled with this faith that leads to salvation. He he's emphasizing who they are, and then he says something really scandalous, very provocative. Peter states that their love and their belief in Jesus is a faith that leads to something. There's an outcome from that love and from that belief. And from that outcome, we can infer something scandalous and provocative.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a reality that all evidence attest to, and all egos strive to deny, and that is that we are fundamentally a people who need salvation. That is who we are. He's saying, that's what the outcome is. So why do we why do we need this salvation? If that's really who we are, why is that the case?
Jeffrey Heine:In Ephesians 2, Paul talks about how we are dead in our sins and our trespasses, and in Romans 8, he talks about how those who are in the flesh cannot please God. And here, Paul is describing the deadness that is within all of us. Every person. As I've heard one pastor put it, the problem isn't that we are in the doghouse, but the morgue. We're not merely in trouble, we are dead.
Jeffrey Heine:That's a different starting point. Apart from Christ, we are desperately in need. And that is contrary to our popular culture's beliefs on human flourishing, that really there are just these obstacles in the way, obstacles of education, or freedom, or if we have innovation or technology, but if we advance in some of these things, if we can progress past the obstacles, then human flourishing comes, and that's when we become who we are supposed to be, and that's who we are. And fundamentally, Peter is starting at a different place. Me and you, that we are people who are in need of salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:Dead in our sin, and in need of saving. And why is this so critical to understand? Why can't we just move along to the business of doing? Why can't we just get to morality? Why can't we just distract ourselves with politics, or culture, or entertainment?
Jeffrey Heine:Why can't we just feed on those things, and distract ourselves from the fact that we need a savior? Because that's what many of us do. If we can just distract ourselves with the latest trends, if we can just distract ourselves with controversy, who's in, who's out, who's up, who's down, if we can just distract ourselves with all of these things, then we don't have to come to the paralyzing reality that we are dead in our sins and our trespasses, and desperately in need of a savior, because that's too much to bear. And Peter says, the gospel starts there. Because that's who we are.
Jeffrey Heine:So why is it so critical to be reminded of this? I went to a conference not too long ago, and I listened to a pastor, and he said, one of the problems that we have as a church is we keep going back to the cross. I said, I think you're crazy, Except for there are a lot of people between me and him, and I don't think he heard me. So I just started yelling it, and they escorted me out. None of those things happened, except for the first part.
Jeffrey Heine:He said that. He said that that we the problem is we keep going back to the cross, and that's hindering us from going out on mission. I just thought, that's crazy. Because the that that's what we come back to. That's what that's what the life of the gospel is, is of repentance, and coming back to the fact that I know I need a savior, and if I get on with my business thinking that I don't go back to the cross, then I start filling the role of savior, and I'm going to fail every time.
Jeffrey Heine:Or maybe even worse, I'm going to start looking to some of you or my family to be savior, and you're going to fail, and I'm going to be mad at you. And I'm gonna distance myself a little bit at a time, until I'm gone. This is what we do. Peter says this is where the gospel starts. Another reason why we need to be reminded of this is I've seen in my own life that when I have a low view of my need for salvation, a low view of sin, and my deadness in my sins and trespasses, when I have a low view of salvation, I have a low view of my savior.
Jeffrey Heine:Those are connected. When I don't think I really need salvation, I don't really think I need a savior like Jesus. When I undervalue salvation, I undervalue my savior. Those are tied together. A way of diagnosing that in our own lives and hearts, if you find yourself not wanting to go to the lord in prayer, callous don't care.
Jeffrey Heine:If you find yourself with zero desire to get in his word, or to worship him in spirit and truth, or to go out and to tell the gospel to people in your life. I would encourage you to examine, to think about your view of your own sin and need of salvation. I'm not calling you out, I'm calling us out on that. Okay? If you if you lack those things, if you feel, like those things are missing in your heart and in your life, that desire or that passion, I would encourage you to look over there.
Jeffrey Heine:To look at your need for salvation. That's that's why this is an important place to begin. And this is where Peter starts. And this starting point also reminds us that Christ is not an additive or a commodity to our lives. You see, if the only reason a person ever needed Jesus was to be happy, if a person is happy without Jesus, then they surely don't need him.
Jeffrey Heine:And if the only reason a person ever needed Jesus was to be successful, and a person is already successful without Jesus, then they surely don't need him. But if the person realizes that they are dead in their sins and trespasses, in need of new life and salvation, to be born again, And they can't have that apart from Jesus, and they surely and certainly need Jesus. This is who we are. This is the outcome of our faith, that love, faith, as Peter defined it there, that love and belief in Christ. Not faithfulness, mind you.
Jeffrey Heine:Faith, love and belief in Christ. The outcome of that is the salvation of our souls, and souls right there just means the whole person. Your whole being. We need salvation. So what do we do?
Jeffrey Heine:1st Peter 10 through 12 walks us through 3 matters, 3 truths concerning this salvation. 1st, salvation was prophesied. Salvation was prophesied. Secondly, that salvation has come. And thirdly, salvation is being announced.
Jeffrey Heine:First, salvation was prophesied. 2, salvation has come. And 3, salvation is being announced. First, salvation was prophesied. Look with me at verse 10.
Jeffrey Heine:Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, your NIV might say, come to you, searched and inquired carefully. Inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the suffering of Christ and the subsequent glories. So what was prophesied? What was prophesied? What was promised by God through the prophets?
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna look at 3, kind of in quick succession. If you just want to write the citations down as I read them, unless you're you've still got those Bible drill skills that are up and running, you you can make it. Or if you've got a computer Bible, you might be able to keep up. But here, Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18.
Jeffrey Heine:Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Jeremiah 246 through 7, God says this, I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down.
Jeffrey Heine:I will plant them and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. Zechariah chapter 10, verses 6 through 9. I will strengthen the house of Judah. I will save the house of Joseph.
Jeffrey Heine:I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them. For I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them. Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad. Their hearts shall rejoice in the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:I will whistle for them and gather them, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before. Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries shall they remember me, and with their children they shall live and return. These are the promises that were made through the prophets. So how was it prophesied? How were these things promised?
Jeffrey Heine:It was the prophets who prophesied, but specifically it was the spirit of Christ in them. This is one of the more explicit places in the scriptures that talks about how the spirit is responsible. The spirit of Christ taking credit for the words of the prophets. A beautiful passage here that declares the role of the spirit in the promises of the prophets. And the verse describes how the spirit led them to write, in such a way that they inquired and examined those writings, written with their own hands to understand what God was saying.
Jeffrey Heine:Do you see that? They wrote with their own hands, and then they read it and they examined it, and they said, what is god saying? They carefully inquired. Why would they why would these men inquire so carefully if they were not unattended authors? Why would they examine these things, and go over them, and and wonder what God was doing, and what God was promising, if they were just coming up with these things on the fly.
Jeffrey Heine:No. It was the spirit of Christ in them declaring the promises of God. The prophets saw salvation at a distance. They wrote down the promises of God, that he would do a mighty and effective work, that God would bring his disobedient children back to himself, and that such a work would only come about if God himself did it, if he accomplished it and made it happen. They hoped in salvation to come, just as we hope that salvation has come.
Jeffrey Heine:That brings us to truth number 2, that salvation has come. Look again at verse 10. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, the grace that was to come to you, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. How did the grace that was to be yours come to you? How did this grace come to us?
Jeffrey Heine:How is this promise fulfilled? The suffering of Christ and the subsequent glories. He suffered to save. And he suffered to enter into glory. The resurrected Jesus on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 says these words to the men he was traveling with.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh foolish ones and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into glory. And beginning with Moses and all of the prophets, he interpreted them, in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. These promises that the prophets prophesied, because of the work of the spirit, the spirit of Christ in them, concerning salvation. It has come, and the way that it came to us is through the suffering, through the subsequent glory of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:The suffering of Christ is the crucifixion. Crucifixion of the son of God. And not just the crucifixion and the physical pain, but the reality that he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. That he would take on our sin, that he would bear that wrath. And Paul says to the Thessalonians in 1st Thessalonians 5, for god has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our lord Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:That is the promise. To the elect exiles, the those who are receiving this letter back in the 1st century and and here today, the elect exiles, this is the promise that we have. Subsequent glory is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and his ascension to the right hand of god's. Peter spoke of the suffering and the glory on Pentecost, in his sermon on Pentecost, recorded in acts 2. He talked about how Jesus had to suffer and god would raise him up so that this salvation would come to us.
Jeffrey Heine:This is how grace of god has come. No. No other way. This is the only way that it could come to us. This is the only way that we can receive this.
Jeffrey Heine:So if we come to the realization that we are not merely in the doghouse, but in the morgue, that we are not merely wounded or sick, but dead in our sins and trespasses, and we know that there must be a way of salvation. This is the only way it comes to us. This is our only hope. It was necessary for him to suffer, for him to die. It was necessary for him to be raised.
Jeffrey Heine:It was necessary for him to ascend. Which is why Peter says to his readers that they can't see him now. Have you ever been in in one of those, scenarios in your life where you you have cried out that, god, I would I would have a greater faith, I would have a deeper faith, if you would just show yourself to me. You know, like like the wicked witch of the west just flying through the air with her broom, like surrender Dorothy, just, like, right in the sky for all of the magic city to see. Like, if we just had this big sign, if we just had that, then my faith, oh, Ferocious.
Jeffrey Heine:Sometimes we fool ourselves like that. Sometimes I fool myself like that. But Jesus ascended for glory, That he might come again in glory. And that we might not see him, but love him. Not see him, but believe in him, and longingly await him.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what these readers, these readers of Peter's letter, he says, you haven't seen him, but you love him and you believe. Why? Why did they love and believe? Because they heard. They heard because salvation is being announced.
Jeffrey Heine:The third thing. Look with me in verse 12. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you. And the things that that that have now been announced to you, through those who preach the good news to you by the holy spirit sent from heaven. Things into which angels long to look.
Jeffrey Heine:Peter is saying that the spirit revealed to them, meaning the prophets, that they were not prophesying of their own good or their own time, but they were doing a work for the apostles' time. They were doing a work for future generations. That that work was coming into fruition much later. They were serving those who would hear what is now being announced and preached. This makes me think, this longing, this as they look forward in realizing that this was not for their time, but the prophets longed for that day, reminds me of Simeon.
Jeffrey Heine:Simeon, who was at the temple, he was a righteous man, a devout man, who was awaiting the consolation of Israel. He was awaiting the messiah. And the spirit told him that he was not going to die before he saw the Messiah come. And so there he was at the temple, and he saw Mary and Joseph walking up with the Christ child baby. Very, very small baby, I would imagine, unless he was a giant baby.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't know. I don't have any records of that. I'm guessing a small baby, he's brand new. So little baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and they're making their way into, to give an offering, to worship, to be thankful to god for the gift of the child, in accordance with the law of of the lord, and so they go in, and they're going to offer 2 turtledoves. That's where it comes from, if you were wondering.
Jeffrey Heine:2 turtle doves. That's what they come in to offer, and and Simeon sees them, and he says these words, as he takes baby Jesus into his arms. Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people, Israel. Now what did Simeon see really?
Jeffrey Heine:A baby, not too uncommon. A new mom and dad, also not that uncommon. Coming into worship, not uncommon. That's where people did that. Bringing and offering, not uncommon.
Jeffrey Heine:Commonplace, common time. A place that was where everyone came to worship. For a long time, it had just been rebuilt about 150 years previously. I mean, this is where people worshiped. That's what they brought.
Jeffrey Heine:And they come into the common place with an uncommon child, And Simeon sees salvation. It's phenomenal. What he had been longing for, based upon the words of the prophets. The promises that God had announced to the prophets, and through the prophets, that Simeon had hung his life on. That these things would be true.
Jeffrey Heine:The consolation of Israel, that that the messiah would come, that salvation would come. He says, he sees it in this baby. Salvation has come, and is being announced. Peter attributes the good news that the readers have heard and what the readers believe to 3 sources, the prophets, the preachers, and the spirit who is speaking through both. Preachers of the day, preaching the gospel, preaching the good news.
Jeffrey Heine:It's through the preaching of the good news by the spirit. This is how it's being announced, That the promises of God are being fulfilled. That salvation has come. And that we might trust in him. The good news has been announced to you through the preaching of the gospel by the spirit sent from heaven.
Jeffrey Heine:Sent from heaven. It's fitting that Peter would use these words, and that we would meditate on them today, on the day of Pentecost, because he saw this. He saw the spirit come down from heaven, And that this is how the good news of the gospel would go forth. This is for us today as well. This is how we go out into a lost and dying world, to bear witness.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus said in John 15, he was going to send the spirit who would bear witness to him. And this is what we are called into today. That we would bear witness. We would bear witness to Christ. And the angels, like the prophets like the prophets who long to see salvation come.
Jeffrey Heine:That angels long to see the fullness of the kingdom of Christ. They long to see that come into fruition. Come into the fullness of reality. The prophet saw it at a distance and anxiously awaited. The angels look upon it with delight anxiously awaiting, and we experience the good news, the hope of salvation today.
Jeffrey Heine:Think of this. Before you even knew that you needed salvation, it was promised and accomplished. Think of that. Before you even knew that you needed salvation, before you even knew that that was who you are, it was both promised by the prophets and accomplished in the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. And that promise made its way to you, through the preaching of the gospel, through the preaching of the gospel by the spirit of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:This is how it's made its way to us. And this is how we learn who we are, in need of salvation. And salvation was promised by the spirit in the prophets, and it has come in the suffering and glory of the son, and announced by the spirit in the good news, the gospel. Now this is a very dense text and a very dense walking through of these things. I know that, and I have spotlights on me making me even hotter than you are, believe it or not.
Jeffrey Heine:I was in here on Tuesday night for the movie night with, the kids from Canaan, and, no ac, no one complained. How about that? Well, I say no one. I was here, and I complained. So maybe one one person.
Jeffrey Heine:Did. And I know that this is a lot to process through. CS Lewis said this, the glory of god and the salvation of human souls souls are only means of glorifying him. The glory of God and the salvation of souls is the real business of life. And I want to ask you this, is this the business of your life?
Jeffrey Heine:Follow-up question, really? Is this the business of your life? There's so many things that make up the business of our lives. Things that keep us busy. The things that take our attention.
Jeffrey Heine:The things that fill our time, and our money, and our hearts, and our attention. So many things, but the glory of God and the salvation of souls is the business of life, so says Clive Staples. Is this the business of your life? Ought to be, it ought to be, but is it? And I would want to trace back to doctor Jamieson.
Jeffrey Heine:She had all of that knowledge, all that learning, skill, great skill. I mean, she's gone on to accomplish so much in her career. It took a long time for her to see herself rightly. I think that there are some parallels, where we can come in and nod our heads on Easter Sunday, and the 50 days go by since then, and we come here on Pentecost Sunday, think back to the joy and anticipation you felt coming into this place, if you were here 50 days ago, to celebrate our risen Lord. Still resurrection Sunday today.
Jeffrey Heine:Still ascended Jesus at the right hand of god the father, seated, not like the priests who are up making sacrifices, but seated. Our king on his throne. Is this the business of your life? And I don't care how many programs you might attend at a church, or how many books you might tick off the theological reading, or or or how many small groups you are in, or how many any of those things, any any Christian activity you might do, we can't make this the business of your life. The church can't do that.
Jeffrey Heine:But what we do is we come together, week in week out, and proclaim the gospel. We announce it. We announce it one to another. We say it back and forth. That we will remember, that we might know, so that we might That we don't see him, love him.
Jeffrey Heine:Though we don't see him, we believe in him. And in our hearts, in our souls, like Simeon, we would behold salvation himself. Let's go to him in prayer. God, you are good. You're good because we don't deserve to know any of these things.
Jeffrey Heine:We don't deserve to open up your word and to hear your promises. We don't deserve to receive the grace poured out through the suffering and glory of Christ. We don't deserve your spirit to comfort us, to witness to us, to lead us to all truth. We don't deserve these things, but by your grace and your mercy, you richly pour these things out on us. Help us to view ourselves rightly.
Jeffrey Heine:Help us to know, help us to love, help us to believe, and help us to go from this place, empowered by your spirit, to proclaim and to announce that salvation has come. The deepest desires and longings of our hearts, our longings, our fears, all these things, that we find salvation and hope in Christ and Christ alone. Help us to take seriously and to think deeply about who you are, and who by your grace you have called us to be in Christ. Spirit, lead us to your truth, even in this very hour. We pray these things in and for the name of Christ here and around the world.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.