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1 Samuel 16
16:1 The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2 And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3 And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” 4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5 And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.” 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen these.” 11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest,1 but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” 12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
14 Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the LORD tormented him. 15 And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. 16 Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.” 17 So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.” 18 One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the LORD is with him.” 19 Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.” 20 And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul. 21 And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. 22 And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.” 23 And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.
(ESV)
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If you would, open your Bibles to 1 Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16. And we will take time to read the entire chapter. Listen carefully. This is God's word.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send to you Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for whom I have provided for myself a king among his sons. And Samuel said, how can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.
Jeffrey Heine:And the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord, and invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you. Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, Do you come peaceably? And he said, Peaceably, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, surely, the lord's anointed is before him. But the lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees.
Jeffrey Heine:Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. Before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these.
Jeffrey Heine:Then Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here? And he said, well, there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, send and get for him for we will not sit down till he comes here. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.
Jeffrey Heine:And the Lord said, arise, anoint him for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Rama. And And Saul's servant said to him, behold, now a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. And let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the liar.
Jeffrey Heine:And when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it and you will be well. So Saul said to his servants, provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me. One of the young men answered, behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the lord is with him. Therefore, Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me David, your son, who is with the sheep. And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David, his son to to Saul.
Jeffrey Heine:And David came to Saul and entered into his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse saying, let David remain in my service for he has found favor in my sight. And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray with me. Our father, we ask that you would bless the very reading of your word. Your word is more important than anything I have to say. So now through your spirit, I pray that it would begin working into our hearts, working into our minds, transforming us to look more like your son, Jesus. Holy spirit, come into this room and have your way in our midst.
Jeffrey Heine:I pray now in this moment that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and be remembered no more. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Well, after a couple of weeks, we finally get to the life of David.
Jeffrey Heine:Outside of Jesus, there are more pages devoted in the bible to David than any other person. As a matter of fact, any historian can tell you that there is more biographical material on the life of David than any ancient figure. This is the largest biography we have of an ancient figure. So David left his mark on history. Now, this isn't why we are looking at him though just because he's a great historical figure.
Jeffrey Heine:We're studying the life of David because David teaches us about Jesus. David points us to Jesus and so if we want to understand Jesus who was born in the city of David, who was called the son of David, who will someday sit on the throne of David, we need to understand who David is. The reign of David points us towards the reign of the king of kings. Well, the story that we read tonight, it begins with the prophet Samuel grieving over King Saul, who's been rejected as king. And this had to this had to hit Samuel especially hard because Samuel had anointed Saul king.
Jeffrey Heine:And in many ways, Samuel had kinda become a father figure to Saul. He had told Saul at one point, far be it from me, thou should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, but I will instruct you in the good and right way. And Samuel did. He cared deeply for Saul. And when Saul was rejected as king, he grieved.
Jeffrey Heine:He grieved over Israel. He grieved over Saul. And God says, the time for grieving is over. It is time to go find a new king. He looked like what you would expect a king to look like.
Jeffrey Heine:But he was removed because he did not obey the Lord. And now, god says, I'm going to find for myself a king, somebody after my own heart. The language in verse 1 is extremely important to understand the entire chapter. It sets the stage for what follows when when god says, I have provided for myself a king. That word provided there is the is the Hebrew word seen.
Jeffrey Heine:I have seen a king for myself. And that is what this chapter is about. It's about the person that God sees as king worthy versus the person that we see as king worthy. There's a reason that he doesn't tell Samuel, I want you to go to Bethlehem and I want you to find a young man named David. He doesn't do that.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, I want you to go to Bethlehem and I want you to find a man named Jesse. He doesn't tell him to go to go find David, but find Jesse because he wants to start teaching Samuel how to see how he sees. He wants to start parading different people in front of Samuel and saying, no. No. No.
Jeffrey Heine:You're looking at the wrong things. Let me show you how you can see people like I see them. And so he's teaching Samuel this to see how he sees. So, Samuel goes to Bethlehem The elders of the city meet him and immediately, they are terrified. They know something's up between Samuel and Saul at this point.
Jeffrey Heine:They they know there's a rift there and so they don't want to commit political suicide and so they come trembling. Samuel says, I'm I'm just here to give a sacrifice. Now let me just tell you, there is nobody naive enough to believe that to think that the great prophet Samuel is coming to the little town of Bethlehem in order to make a sacrifice. He's, he's likely saying this, so they'll have deniability, but they, they certainly couldn't have believed this. They had to know that something huge, something important was going on.
Jeffrey Heine:This was the one who made and broke kings. He was in their midst, But they decide to join him on this mission. And so Samuel gathers everyone together. He gathers the elders, he gathers the family of Jesse. And then he asked Jesse to introduce to him his sons.
Jeffrey Heine:And so we see this in verse 6. It says, when they came, he looked at Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed is before me. Eliab is, he's he's the tall, strong, good looking type. He he he's the one who looks just like a king. And so Samuel, he's getting his oil out.
Jeffrey Heine:He's like, we don't have to look any further. Here's the first born. Here's a guy looked like Saul. And and God says, no. No.
Jeffrey Heine:This is not the one. It's like Samuel. You you look on the outside. You look at the outward appearance, but that's not what god looks at. He looks into the person's heart.
Jeffrey Heine:I want you to look into the person's heart. He's saying the person's outward appearance is really a non factor to me. Now let's be honest. Every person here in this room struggles with that. If you are a single guy or a single girl and you go to some social gathering, you eliminate 85% of the people there as a potential spouse or even a potential date just on-site.
Jeffrey Heine:This is what we do. Parents, look at how you praise your children. You know, you praise your children all the time and usually it's something like, you are just so cute. You are so beautiful. A matter of fact, this is what all adults do.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, you you see a child like you're cute as a button. You're the most gorgeous little thing. Oh, you look lovely in that dress. We spend almost all of our time praising what? Outward appearance.
Jeffrey Heine:And we begin teaching our child, our children, even from the earliest age, this is what we find praiseworthy. This is what we notice. This is how the world works. We we all do this. I I have 3 little girls, which means I have watched the movie Cinderella approximately a 1000000000 times.
Jeffrey Heine:It's interesting though. The original version of Cinderella, it was written in 18/12, and it's a lot different than the Disney version. The original Cinderella, the evil stepsisters were beautiful. They were absolutely gorgeous. And then, you know, Disney is going to rewrite this and, like, well, people don't like to think of beautiful people as evil.
Jeffrey Heine:They're never going to, like, root against them. And so we're like, we got to change these evil stepsisters to really be ugly on the outside so people won't like them. They knew what we wanted. And so they turned a story around, which was really about, you can't judge a book by its cover. Just because you're beautiful on the outside doesn't mean you have inner beauty, and they completely change that story around so that these evil stepsisters would have the appearance to match.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, I found I did college ministry for about 10 years. And there's always there's always some college student, you know, who wants to dress like a bum, who wants to be like a bum. And so they, they don't bathe for days. They have that disheveled hair look, their clothes have got holes in them. They they want to smell bad, look that way.
Jeffrey Heine:And they actually are the ones who usually care the most about their appearance. They're the ones who look most in the mirror who are like, I gotta get my hair the amount of disheveled. So it looks like I don't care. And so I I can't just have holes in my jeans. I have to have holes in my jeans just in the right places.
Jeffrey Heine:And so they're usually the ones who are most aware of their appearance, trying to give off that whatever it is, the bum look that is so attractive. And god sees all through it. He sees what you put so much stock in. Appearance, wealth, prestigious job, good home. And he says, that doesn't matter to me.
Jeffrey Heine:This makes me think of the story of Jesus. Do you remember when he's looking at people giving money into the temple offering? Remember that story? And so there's all these, you know, people putting in tons of money, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, throwing all the coins down. And then there's this little old widow and she puts in 2 little copper pennies and he stops and he says, disciples, look at her.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. So this is what god looks at. This is what he looks at. He says, look at her. You want to see something praiseworthy?
Jeffrey Heine:You want to see what we, what what famous people look like in heaven, what we cheer for, what we admire? Look at her. Because God could see into her heart and saw that she was giving everything as an act of worship. Let me tell you what some of the most insignificant people in our eyes are the ones they will throw parades to in heaven. Those are the ones that are celebrated.
Jeffrey Heine:And we see this here in this text, God rejecting the outward appearance. And so when Eliab comes, God tells Samuel, not impressed. And so 1 by 1, Jesse's sons come before him. And each time it's no, it's no, it's no. And finally, all 7 sons have passed by and Samuel's a little perplexed.
Jeffrey Heine:I was like, do you, do you have any more children? I mean, 7 was even the number of completion. This, this you would have thought it had been there. And we read verse 11. Then Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here?
Jeffrey Heine:And he said, well, there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep. Now, the ESV, which is what I'm reading from, phrases this really nicely. It does have a footnote on the word youngest saying that that word is really the smallest, but it's actually the pejorative term for smallest. What Jesse is saying, yes, there is the runt of the litter. There's the runt of the litter, David.
Jeffrey Heine:And he's just out keeping sheep. You could tell this is how Jesse thinks of David because when Samuel asked him, bring your sons to worship, he doesn't even consider bringing David. He's not even asking for a king at this point. Just bring your sons to worship. Doesn't even include him.
Jeffrey Heine:He sees 0 potential in that child. He's the runt of the litter. And yet Samuel says, get them. Get them. It it's it's unusual.
Jeffrey Heine:As a father, it's kind of hard to understand this because fathers see their children through rose colored lenses. I mean, you always think, wow, my my child's like a star athlete's probably the best athlete out there. And, you know, my kid's the smartest person in school. And you know, my, my you're, you're always, they're going to be president of the US you're thinking these things, but Jesse didn't have this. Not at all.
Jeffrey Heine:Samuel, when he says bring them, he then says something really awkward. He says, and stay standing until he comes. That's really awkward. All right. They're all just standing around and he's like, keep keep standing.
Jeffrey Heine:Now that means the, the messengers, they had to go back to Jesse's property. Then they would have to go out into the fields. They would have to try find where David is. They would have to bring him back. This could have been ours that they're standing, but standing in this culture was a sign of tremendous honor and respect.
Jeffrey Heine:They were saying, we will stand until the runt of the litter comes in because this is the man that god is going to honor. Bring him. And so David arrives, and it's here we're thrown a little curve ball. I mean, god has just said, I don't care about the outward appearance. The outward appearance doesn't matter at all.
Jeffrey Heine:And so, you're expecting this really ugly little kid to come in.
Speaker 2:And you
Jeffrey Heine:get to verse 12. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the lord said, arise, anoint him. This is he.
Jeffrey Heine:It's almost embarrassing to read. He he's not just handsome. He's got beautiful eyes. Now I I've never commented on another guy's guy's eyes, but he's got like the, the, the author is kind of gushing. He's got a rosy complexion.
Jeffrey Heine:He's got, he's got beautiful eyes and it, man, he's he's really handsome. All of this right after God says, looks don't matter, But that's the point, actually. God's teaching, Samuel, you know what? Looks don't matter. You don't have to be ugly to be used by God, and you don't have to be pretty to be used by God.
Jeffrey Heine:It doesn't matter. I use the ugly, and I use the pretty. I use the wealthy, and I use the poor. It doesn't matter. What I'm just saying is don't judge people by what you see.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm free to do with people whatever I want to do with them. And I'm going to use this little boy and all of his beauty for the lord. And then we come to verse 13 and verse 14 which mark the pinnacle of all of 1st Samuel. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.
Jeffrey Heine:And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. Now the spirit of the lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the lord tormented him. Now everything changes because of these two verses. It's the pinnacle of the book. Actually, if if you're to lay first Samuel out between 13 and 14 is the dead center of the book.
Jeffrey Heine:And so you you can think of it almost as as as a peak. Everything before verse 13 is rising up to it, and then David is anointed. And then everything after 13 is everything that flows out from David's anointing right here. But everything changes when the spirit of god rushes upon David and leaves Saul. Now, all of the other times you find in scripture that the spirit of the lord rushes upon someone, you see something pretty incredible happen.
Jeffrey Heine:There's only a few instances of it. You have the spirit of Lord rushing upon Samson and, Samson tears a lion to shreds. Then Samson, the next time the spirit of Lord rushes upon him, he kills 30 people. Next time the spirit of Lord rushes upon him, he he breaks, you know, fresh ropes just like they're they're wax, it says. When Saul, Saul actually had the spirit of the Lord rush upon him after his anointing, it says he immediately began to prophesy.
Jeffrey Heine:And they're like, is is Saul among the prophets? And here, David is anointed. And then the spirit of God rushes upon him. And look what happens. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,
Speaker 2:and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,
Jeffrey Heine:and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, He just goes back to watching sheep. That's what he does. He, and he gradually just lives his life and then things began falling apart. Before the spirit of god had actually rushed upon David here, David lived a a obscure, but comfortable peaceful life. But once the spirit of god rushed on him, pain is going to be a regular part of David's life as it unfolds.
Jeffrey Heine:He's gonna be a man on the run eventually. People are gonna start trying to kill him. He's gonna have to start living in caves. He's gonna be dependent upon other people's charity. His his entire life is gonna fall apart after he is anointed.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, one of the reasons that God is doing this and and and fills him with the spirit and then makes his life falls apart is because he's trying to make David a man of character. David is now, in many ways, his son and like a son, he's going to discipline him. Like a son, he's going to teach him. You know, when Saul became king, he's anointed in 1 Samuel 10. He is presented as king in 1 Samuel 10 right afterwards.
Jeffrey Heine:Here, David is anointed as king. You have to wait 17 chapters before he is ever presented as the king of Israel. 17 chapters of chaos, 17 chapters of pain, 17 chapters of teaching. God disciplining him like a son, creating in him humility, teaching him trust, teaching him to love God, not for the gifts that he gives, not for the throne that he gives, but teaching him to love God for who he is. This is what happens when he is filled with the spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:He lives life, pain comes his way, and he patiently awaits for the throne. I want you to just just think through this story from David's eyes. We don't know exactly how old David was, but, you know, perhaps he's, perhaps he's 12 or so or 13. We're not really sure. Samuel, the great prophet comes to him.
Jeffrey Heine:Elders of the the town surround him. This is a big huge thing. What the heck is going on? Samuel anoints him with oil and says, you know, you're gonna be the king. And and then everybody just leaves.
Jeffrey Heine:Actually, there there's not a word spoken just other than in Samuel's mind, it says, this is he, but it says he just took the oil and he anointed him and then they just kind of left. David's gotta be wondering, what the heck just happened? What happened? What was this all about? And then he just goes back to being a shepherd.
Jeffrey Heine:He doesn't try to be like, alright, now I'm gonna claim the throne. Now I'm gonna go after the throne. He just begins living his life.
Speaker 2:And then all of a sudden, you know, he's like, alright, now I'm gonna claim the throne.
Jeffrey Heine:Now I'm gonna go after the throne. He just begins living his life. And And then all of a sudden, you know, he's he's invited to be a part of Saul's court. You know, Saul gets sick, and he has the best physicians at the time. And they're like, you know, you need somebody.
Jeffrey Heine:You need a musician to come and to play for you because, because court. And he's gotta be thinking, well, maybe this is what all of that was about. You know, rise up to now I get to serve the king, and so he serves the king as best he can. And then the king says, I want you to be a permanent part of my court. It was like, great.
Jeffrey Heine:And so he gets to serve the king even more. He never tries to take the throne. He's never trying to seize this. He becomes great friends with Jonathan, the king's son. He's like, wow, you've blessed me.
Jeffrey Heine:But he doesn't use that for political gain. And this is how David's life unfolds. This is what the the spirit of god does with us. When when he when he fills us with his presence, he doesn't fill us so we have to go off and try to do and manufacture some great thing. We go off and we live life.
Jeffrey Heine:We serve and we love people, and we watch God's plan begin to unfold before us. You don't force it. This is what David's doing here. And when he finds himself before king Saul, I love what it says in verse 23. Says, and whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand.
Jeffrey Heine:So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him. This word refreshed in Hebrew is Rawah. The Hebrew word for spirit is Ruah. Actually, they're the exact same consonants, A little Hebrew lesson. Hebrew doesn't have vowels.
Jeffrey Heine:We just kind of make them up, put them where we want. And they're the exact three consonants, same three consonants is refreshed as spirit here. And so the the author is is making a pun here about the spirit. He is saying that David, when he played, would come and bring the spirit of god to Saul and would refresh him. And so what you're seeing here is when David has the spirit of God rush on him and he begins living his life and serving others and loving others, one of the first things you see is David begins to act as a mediator between the Lord and Saul.
Jeffrey Heine:He he's acting like a priest, and he's mediating God's presence to Saul. And this is one of the things that the spirit of God inside of us as Christians calls us to do. Like David, we're to be agents of healing into the world. We're we're to go to those who are hurting and we're to allow the spirit of God through us to minister to them. We're we're to go to the anxious souls, and we are to bring them peace.
Jeffrey Heine:We're to go to those in despair and we're to give them hope. We are to rub shoulders with those who are hurting or those who are oppressed. And just by rubbing shoulders with them, they in a sense encounter God. This is what David did. And, of course, David doesn't do it perfectly at all.
Jeffrey Heine:Because David is just pointing us forward to someone who does. He's pointing us forward to the greater king, the greater servant, the greater mediator, Jesus. You know, Isaiah in chapter 53 describes Jesus as having no form of majesty that we should look upon Him. No beauty that we should desire Him. Meaning Jesus didn't look the part.
Jeffrey Heine:You didn't look at Jesus and think, Hey, here's a king. No. A matter of fact, like David, his own family didn't recognize Him. Jesus' own brothers didn't recognize Him as being the Messiah. I thought, not not Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:He's a little too ordinary. They never saw his potential. Never saw it. And Jesus, after he was anointed by the spirit as as his baptism, immediately he begins entering a life full of suffering. A matter of fact, right after that, he goes into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Jeffrey Heine:Pain becomes a regular part of his life. But Jesus proves faithful. Just like a faithful son You look at Jesus' life after he fed 5,000 people, said the people tried to You look at Jesus's life after he fed 5,000 people, said the people tried to make him king by force. Jesus said, no. Uh-uh.
Jeffrey Heine:I will become king when my father declares me king, when my father exalts me at his right hand, but I will not take it by force. And now that Jesus is king, now that he has been declared by king and he is seated at the right hand of the father, it says he lives to make intercession on our behalf. Jesus is now mediating his spirit to us, filling us with his presence, refreshing our souls. And so we see Jesus being the true king, Jesus being the true healer, Jesus being the true mediator into whom David points. And let me tell you, when we see this, we we begin to be transformed and we become more like him.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, Saul had David. David did a pretty good job. He did a pretty good job as mediator, but we have Jesus mediating on our behalf that should utterly transform us.
Connor Coskery:Pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:God, we need eyes to see you and to see the way you do. We cannot even recognize you, Jesus, as the anointed one, as the messiah, unless you give us eyes to see you. So open up our eyes. Jesus, you've given us your spirit so that we might be agents of healing into this world, so that we might find our enemies and love them instead of persecute and hit them and curse them. That we might mediate your presence to them.
Jeffrey Heine:Show us how. Show us how we can see the world as you see it. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.