This morning we're going to be reading from the Bible, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 1 through 10. 2 Corinthians 12, 1 through 10. This week, as our elder Dale prayed for him, this week is Evan's last week with us here. The time with you, Evan, has gone very quickly. And personally, I'm a person who really has a hard time with saying goodbyes. I don't like seeing people move on. But one of the things that's been a great easing of the pain of departures for me is that I'm convinced of this. Between Christians, parting is never permanent. We will say our goodbyes to you today, but we say it knowing that it is not forever. Christians will be together. We will be together never to be parted again. And so, Evan, I don't know when we will next enjoy the pleasure of your company, but I know it is coming. And I know that this time away is only temporary. Look forward to hearing where the Lord is sending you and what he's calling you to do. You've been faithful, you've loved people here, you've encouraged people here, you've been a wonderful example for us. And so we thank you, we thank the Lord for for using you in our lives, and I know that the Lord has other people in other places now that you will be blessing, and we look forward to hearing about it. All right, now, 2 Corinthians 12, one through 10. It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows, such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows, how he was caught up into paradise. and heard inexpressible words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one I will boast, yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities. For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above. what he sees me to be or hears from me. And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me, and he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." This is the word of the Lord. This morning we are looking at flawed and scarred lives and where to find hope. flawed lives, lives with scars, and where to find hope. This is the section in 2 Corinthians where Paul is continuing to defend his own ministry to his own church, defending it against contempt and comparisons that are coming from outside influencers. These people are ultra-apostles, they're actually false apostles, and they've got the ear of the church in Corinth. They've come in and they've been boasting about themselves. They've come in and they've been mocking Paul, mocking Paul's weaknesses, mocking his weak personal presence, saying that Paul's a weak speaker, and Paul, it's been, getting so bad that he's at the point where he has to answer them. But instead of bragging on himself to respond, Paul just embraces the charges of weakness. Paul boasts, but not about his attainments. Paul boasts in his weakness. Paul boasts in his disasters. Paul, in fact, goes so far as to reveal things, details that nobody is going to envy. Nobody's gonna wish they were like Paul or had what Paul has to face. And so we see more of this today, and we see three things in the text, three things. First of all, how God exalts us, how God exalts us. And then secondly, how God humbles us. how he exalts us, how he humbles us, and then thirdly, how to find pleasure in enduring it. How he exalts us, how he humbles us, how to find pleasure in enduring. Let's start with how God exalts us, verses one through six. This is the part of the letter where Paul has now come to visions and revelations. In those times, some people would claim that God had spoken to them. They would arrive, they would try to gather a hearing, and they would say, I have seen God. God has shown me something. God has given me a message, either through a vision or a dream or some direct encounter, direct communication with God. And what do you do when people come with that kind of claim, when they claim to have had a vision, claim to have had a revelation? three typical ways that you might respond. You first may think that, well, this is a person who is deluded. They really believe what they're saying, but they've been misled. Maybe you don't think they're deluded. Maybe you think they're deceptive. They know what they're saying is not true. It didn't happen. They're making up things to manipulate people. You may think that they're deluded. You may think that they're deceptive or Third likely response is you respect them. You respect them. Because most people don't have visions and direct verbal encounters with God. And if they're not misled or if they're not misleading, if it's true, you respect what they have to say. But you're wondering about it. Paul did receive visions and revelation from God. And not just one, not only one time. Before Paul was converted, you remember, Paul was militantly, militantly persecuting Christians. He hated Christians. He hated Christianity. And it took a direct encounter between Paul and Christ to completely change Paul's mind. to completely diffuse the animosity, the hostility that he had. He ran into a blinding light from the skies, an earth-shaking voice from above speaking to him, and it completely removed all the hostility and hatred he had towards Christ and towards Christians. Now, that's something that you could boast about. If that happened to you, you could boast about that. Paul could take these ultra-apostles who are criticizing him, and he could say, top this. Have you had visions, supernatural contact like this? Can you beat this experience that I've had? But Paul says here, he says that kind of boasting, that kind of comparison, it's foolish, it's idiotic. He says, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna engage in that. So verse one, he says, this kind of boasting is foolish. It would be like boasting about who is the most charitable donor. It would be like boasting about who can pray the longest, or who can love people with the most intensity. It's just not profitable to boast about that kind of thing. It's foolish. Verse six, again, he says, and though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will speak the truth. He's saying, I don't brag about what I've seen. I don't brag about what I've learned. He says in verse six, I refrain, lest any one should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me. What you see about me, Paul is saying, what you've heard me say, my life and my words. Paul says, judge me by my character. Judge me by what I actually do. Judge me by what I actually say. That's what he says he should be judged by. Verse six, here where he says, what he sees me to be or hears from me. Paul is saying this, the way that you speak to people, the way that you speak to people, that reveals your character. This little hole at the top of our bodies on this little oblong thing, that little hole, the things that come out of it, that reveals a lot about you, the way you talk to other people through that. Jesus teaches us, Jesus teaches that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And that means if your words, if your words hurt people, You have a hurtful heart, a harmful heart. If your words scare people, you've got a harmful heart. It could be spoken words, it could be texted words, whatever are words. Your words reveal you. James 3, 10, out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing? My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? Or can a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. So what are your words? What are your words saying about you? How are your words affecting the people around you? Your words, the Bible says, your words will either justify you or your words will condemn you. Jesus teaches that every word, every word matters. On the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. Now having said that, Paul says, that's how you should judge me, by my words, by what you see me to be, by how I act. But now he's going to talk about visions and revelations that he received, but he's going to refuse. He refuses to show off about it, to use it as a bragging point. And so the way he reveals his supernatural experience, he does it indirectly here. Verse 2, he says, I know a man in Christ, 14 years ago, who was caught up to the third heaven. Now, Paul is clearly talking about himself here. But he speaks as if, I know a guy. I know a guy who was taken up into heaven. Few people have had that kind of experience, taken up into heaven. You know, people write books about, they coded on the table, and then they were in heaven. but they resuscitate and they come back and they tell people about it and they write books, they give talks. Few people have had this kind of experience in this life. Paul is saying here, God lifted me up into the third heaven, that's the highest heaven. It might have been in a trance, it might have been in just bodily elevation. He says, I don't know, God knows how it happened. Then in verse three, he reveals more. He says, and I know such a man, how he was caught up into paradise. And not only was he in heaven, it says, I heard inexpressible words. I heard inexpressible words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Paul says, God took me up into heaven. I'm not sure how, but it happened. And while I was there, he showed me things, wonderful things. I heard things that I can't repeat. Well, what were they? They were wonderful things. Maybe it's what he refers to in 1 Corinthians 2, verse nine. There is a heaven, and it's a paradise. It's the place where God dwells, and you can be certain that you will like it. that it's a place of pleasure, of delight. It will be like your best day. It will be an endless best day. There's more to reality than what you've experienced so far. There's more to reality than what can be measured in the electromagnetic spectrum. There's more to reality than just what we can experience with our senses. And why shouldn't there be? If you're listening to this and you're not a Christian, you're very welcome here. We're very glad that you're with us. And let me offer you a question to consider. Do you sense? Do you sense that life could be better? Do you sense how life ought to be? How things should be? For instance, do you sense that being lonely, do you sense that loneliness is a tragedy? Do you sense that suffering, it exists, and suffering should not be senseless. Do you sense that there are evil things done and evil things should be punished? If so, you can conceive, at least in your head, you can conceive of how things ought to be. Now, can you conceive of a being who is powerful enough to construct it? Can you conceive of a being powerful enough to build that universe where things are as they ought to be? Can you conceive of a being powerful enough to restore a reality to where they once were and where they ought to be? Can you conceive of that kind of being? That's the God of Christianity. Could such a God Exist? Could he? Does he? So God took Paul into heaven and there he revealed unutterably wonderful things to him. And then Paul returned back to earth. He came back 14 years earlier from when he wrote this. Do you want to peer into heaven? Do you want to see this paradise? The Bible just gives us glimpses of heaven, just references to it. If you want to read about it, you can read about it more in places like the book of Revelation, in places like Matthew 25, in places like 1 Corinthians 15. There's more to be revealed. It's not comprehensive. It's not exhaustive, just glimpses of it. But more generally speaking, As you, as you employ and exercise just regular old Christian practices, prayer, seeking the Lord in prayer, as you read the Bible, read the scriptures, and you reflect on the scriptures, you will have times where you feel close to God, times when he lights up something in your perception of him. Times when he reveals his presence when you thought you were alone. Times when he gives light and clarity when you're looking for direction from him. You'll experience being in his presence even if you're not bodily or spiritually taken up into heaven. Times where his Holy Spirit will prick your conscience and convict you of things. things that you've been trying to forget, things that you have forgotten. He'll convict you. He'll urge you to change a sin that you've been ignoring or even you've been suppressing. And because of that, you can ask God. You can ask God. You could be a child. You can ask God, God, would you show me yourself? You can ask God, Lord, I want to know you. Your face, Lord, I will seek." Now, in your lifetime, before your last day on this earth, maybe you won't experience being taken up into heaven like Paul was, but you can. You can meet with God. You can sense God living in you, living with you. This is true especially if you're a child. You're not too young to know the Lord in this way. This is true for people who are in middle school, who are teenagers. This is true for you. You can know the Lord. You can begin to see him and sense him and walk with him. The Bible says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Humble yourself in his sight and he will lift you up. Now, Paul goes through all of this indirection. because he's refusing to brag about this sublime and this singular experience that he's had. Well, why does Paul bring up this trip to heaven? Why does he bring up his trip to heaven if he's not boasting about it? Why is he bringing it up? Paul brings it up because this experience, this exalted experience he's had, it's the cause of one of the great pains in his life. It's the cause of one of the greatest sources of suffering and frustration in his life. We've looked at how God exalts us, now let's look at how God humbles us. This is verses seven through nine. Paul says, I am bringing up this extraordinary paranormal experience, not to brag, but because it brought great weakness into my life. This surpassing divine revelation that happened to me, it brought terrible pain to me. And it's in that pain, it's in that weakness, that I will boast. That's why he's brought this up. So verse seven, Paul explains, and here it's very clear that this revelation and this weakness, they're his, they're not some other guy that he just knows. He's talking about himself. Second Corinthians 12, seven, and lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me. a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure." Paul says, so that I would not get fat-headed about this, God humbled me. God brought a thorn into my flesh. What is this thorn in the flesh? If you've had a garden, if you live near rose bushes, you know what thorns are like. They're very strong, they're short, they're very thick, and if you accidentally, inadvertently grip too hard on the stem, it will pierce you. It's very painful. It's like a bee sting, but it's a sting that's so wide that it's very painful and it draws blood. Nobody likes a thorn in the flesh. You notice a thorn in the flesh. What is Paul's thorn in the flesh? Well, he's deliberately vague here. Maybe for him it was a medical problem. Commentators have debated possibilities. Maybe he had a problem with his vision. Maybe he had splitting headaches. Maybe he had chronic abdominal pain. But maybe it wasn't a medical problem. It might have been emotional. It might have been mental. He could have suffered from bouts of depression. Maybe it was spiritual. Maybe it was unceasing, lustful temptations. Maybe it was relational, the opponents in the church that just seemed to always be flaring up, or this aggressive persecution. Whatever it was, he's deliberately vague. Let's briefly look at several things here. The giver of this thorn, the agent of the thorn, the degree of pain from the thorn, and the purpose of the thorn. Whatever it is, the giver of the thorn, the giver of the thorn is God. God, he says, gave him the thorn in the flesh. That's not what we'd like to hear, but he's very upfront about this. But then how about the agent of the thorn? Whatever it is, this thorn in the flesh, Paul says the agent of the thorn, the one who delivers it, it's the devil, Satan. Satan, this thorn is a messenger of Satan, sent from Satan. How about the degree of pain caused by this thorn, whatever this thorn was? Verse seven says, it buffeted Paul. The word there describes rough handling, beating, like when they buffeted, when they struck Christ on the face. And whatever this thorn is, what's the purpose of it? Paul says the purpose of the thorn is to keep Paul humble. It's so that Paul will not become proud. God sends pain into Paul's life, whether it was medical, whether it was emotional, whether it was spiritual, whether it was relational. God sends pain into Paul's life to prevent Paul from becoming conceited. God makes Paul weak so that Paul won't lord himself over other people. Now isn't that strange? Isn't it strange that a person could receive something precious like a vision of heaven, a trip to heaven, words that he heard in heaven? Isn't it strange that a person could receive something precious from God and have it turn into pride? But you know how that works. You know the danger. of success, even if we're talking about just on a professional level, what happens when you get a certification or you get a degree or you get some high score or you achieve some higher rank? You feel superior. You want to be recognized for that. You want people to respect you for that. You begin to believe that your experience or your attainment makes you better than other people. It can happen in work. It could happen in your spiritual life. You could start saying, I really know the Bible well, or I'm more reformed than those people, or I'm more self-disciplined than that guy or that woman. I'm more scrupulous. I'm more humble. You see how that works. But God is kind. God gives us gifts, and God gives us guardrails with the gifts. Sometimes we're suffering. And it's because we've sinned. We've brought the suffering on ourself. We cheat, we get caught, and there are consequences, and we suffer for it. Sometimes that's where suffering comes from. But sometimes we suffer not because we've sinned. Sometimes we suffer to keep us from sin. Suffering makes us weak. Suffering tenderizes our conscience. Suffering humbles us. Suffering can even kill your appetite for sin. There's a well-known story of the early Christian teacher and leader, Augustine. It's said that he suffered from terrible, crippling headaches. And he prayed for the Lord to remove the headaches, and the Lord removed the headaches. And then he was extremely embattled with lustful thoughts. It was so bad that he said, Lord, Lord, give me the headaches back. And the Lord gave him the headaches back, and the temptation for the lustful thoughts, it was just, it was gone. Suffering can make you compassionate. instead of condescending. Suffering can make you grateful for just very little things instead of becoming grandiose in your own head. Fourteen years later, fourteen years later, Paul is still suffering, enduring this thorn in his flesh. And he recognized, for 14 years, I needed this thorn. I needed this thorn to keep me from looking down on others. I needed this thorn for 14 years to keep me rightly looking at myself. I needed this. Do you, I wonder, have something that's a thorn in the flesh? And here, it's just a thorn. Like, a thorn is not an amputation, but it could be an amputation, but it could just be something very small. Do you have a thorn in the flesh? A running sore in your life that just won't heal? Migraines, depression, or crippling anxiety, trauma in your past, or just some lingering sore point in your family or in your friendships? And it's a thorn in the flesh. It makes you weak. It keeps you humble, though. Maybe it's keeping you from hubris. But look at this also. Look at how Paul responds to having this thorn, this long-standing thorn in his flesh, how he responds to the pain of it, how he responds to the slapping about by the devil. Verse eight, concerning this thing, this thorn, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. How did Paul respond to the thorn in the flesh? He responded by praying. When you're weak, when you've got this wound that won't heal, pray. Plead that God would remove it. Plead that God would heal your wound. Plead that God would drive away the tormentor. There's mystery in this. We're casting ourselves, when we pray, we're casting ourselves into the care of God. God, the very same God who instrumented this thorn to humble us. This same God who allows the devil to buffet his own children at times. This teaches us several things about prayer. First of all, it teaches us this. Sometimes God will say no to your prayers. You will pray and you will pray, you will pray a third time. Sometimes God will say no. The Lord declined Paul's prayer. And so after three times, Paul hears an answer from the Lord and the answer is no. God says no to Paul's prayer, and that's worth pausing right now. Are you okay with praying to God and having God be God? Are you okay with entrusting yourself to God, saying no to what you have asked him? Are you okay with believing that God's no could be better than yes? Are you okay with that? Second thing in prayer, we learn this. In prayer, ask and ask again. Pray for something and plead repeatedly to the Lord. In this case, Paul stopped asking after three times. Now, why? Is this teaching us that you should only ask God three times? No, that's not what he's saying here. Paul stopped after the third time because that was when God answered. The first time he asked, there wasn't an answer. The second time he asked, there was no answer. The third time he asked, God answered, and God said no. Verse nine, and he said to me, after this third time, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Sometimes, sometimes when you are praying for something, maybe you're praying that God would give you a friend. Maybe you're praying that God would give you healing. Maybe you're praying that God would call back a loved one who's wandering. Sometimes you pray for a long time and then God finally answers. We're urged to pray like that. We're urged to pray like the beleaguered widow, almost nagging the judge. Now, you don't want to pray using empty words, vain repetition. Our prayers must always be sincere. We must mean what we pray. And you can ask him just once, or you can ask him over and over until he lifts that burden, until he answers your prayer. The third thing that this teaches is about prayer. Prayer reveals where your strength truly lies. Prayer reveals your real strength. Why pray? Why pray? You pray because only God can heal. Why pray? Because only God gives real wisdom. Why pray? Because only God can raise the dead. Prayer, in the truest sense, expresses your dependence. Prayer is an expression of what you're actually depending on, your dependence on God or your dependence on something else. Prayer reveals where your dependence is resting. You don't pray for something that you can do. You don't pray for something that someone else can do other than God. You don't pray for what you already have. You pray for what you can't do. You pray for what no one else can do. You pray for what only God can do. Prayer is dependence. For what are you praying? What kinds of things are you praying about? Is it a sin that needs to be slain? Are you praying for a relationship that has become as dead as a rock? Or are you praying about an enemy? An enemy who's buffeting you and you can't think, you can't sleep, you can't get away. Are you praying? Are you praying? Prayer reveals where you're really finding your strength in this situation. Now we've looked at how God humbles us. He weakens us, he gives us a thorn that we didn't ask for. Now let's end with how. we endure and find pleasure in it. How we find pleasure in enduring it, verses nine and 10. Here's Paul, he's got this lifelong thorn in the flesh. He's got something that will always make him wince, a tender part of his life that's always still unhealed, something that's gonna always make him sense he's weak. What's Paul's response? Notice two things here. First of all, he boasts, verse nine. I will boast in my infirmities, He says, I'm gonna talk about it. I'm gonna talk about this. He reveals his weakness to others. His problems are not private. Now, sometimes when we reveal weakness, when we tell others about the thorn, the weakness in our lives, we're actually grumbling. We're actually complaining, and that's not good. That's not what we're talking about. But sometimes when we reveal weakness in the way that Paul is here, It's just humility. It's being open with your weakness, with a hard thing that God has given you. Now secondly, not only does he boast, He also finds delight and contentment. It's a real thorn, but he somehow is finding delight, contentment. Verse nine, he says, most gladly, most gladly, I will boast in my infirmities. Verse 10, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distress. He's generalizing the whole thing. In any of these kinds of things, I take pleasure in it. Gladly? How does he take pleasures in infirmities, in being reproached, in having needs, in having things that you can't pay the bills, in being persecuted, in distress, in being troubled? He boasts about his wound. He boasts about his thorn. He finds some way to be delighted and to be content with an unrelieved 14-year strong thorn. Yeah, that's what he's saying. Well, how? Verse nine. It's because God gives grace to the weak. Verse nine, my grace, it's God's grace. God is speaking, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Verse 10, Paul now is speaking, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul's saying it's when you are scarred, it's when you've been whipped and wounded, it's when you're troubled and weak that God will show you his power. It's when you're struggling, and when you're desperate, and when you acknowledge, I'm without power, there's nothing in me, I'm helpless, I'm hopeless, it's then that God gives enough grace, sufficient grace to you. It's when your life is falling apart, it's when you're falling apart, that the grace from God comes. Are you wounded and weak? You're in the right place. You are in the pre-arranged delivery zone for God's strength and his grace. You know, there's one thing that you see in humanity, in the history of humanity, you see this over and over. Even the best of lives, the best of them, they bear some kind of wound, some kind of scar of sorrow, some kind of scar from suffering. No matter how rich the person is, no matter how talented the person, no matter how righteous the person is, every life is scarred. Greatness is always punctured by some thorn in the flesh. Think about it. It's even in the Bible. Think about it. Abraham, the father of God's people, the father of the faith. He was painfully childless even into old age. Think about Jacob. He was the inheritor of the nation. He suffered a dislocated hip in wrestling with God for all of the rest of his days. Think of Joseph, the one who saw heavenly visions He was sold into slavery. He was betrayed by his family. And those relationships, even though there was some restoration at the end, there was still always some suspicion, some fear. The love wasn't able to be completely relinked again. Think about Abigail, the virtuous woman, the beautiful woman. She was married to a fool. Daniel, think of Daniel. He was castrated. Think of Job, all his children killed. And then think of Paul, buffeted, given a thorn in the flesh. And in the gospel, Jesus Christ given, not a thorn in the flesh, given a crown made of thorns pressed into his flesh. And the Son of God, the King of heaven, instead of being taken up into heaven, he came down from heaven to receive that crown of thorns. And here's the shocking thing, Jesus Christ was buffeted, not by a messenger of Satan, he was stricken, he was smitten of God. carried our sorrows. He was bruised for our iniquities. It was by his scars that we are healed." Now you hear all of that and maybe you hear this and you're a Christian and so you have come to believe the message of the gospel that Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God who became man and he bore your sins, he took the penalty of your sins so that you wouldn't have to be punished, and he gave you his righteous reputation. You believe that? That's what you're holding on to. But you're now experiencing your suffering. You're experiencing a thorn in the flesh that's grievous, and it's gone on for a long time. And you're wondering, is God punishing me? Is God punishing me for my sins? Well, here's how you know. Here's how you know the answer to that question if you are a believer. God is not punishing you for your sins. Three times Paul asked for the thorn to be removed, three times Jesus asked for the cup of punishment to pass, and God said no to Christ. If you believe, He took the cup for you. Your sins rest on Christ's head so that sufficient grace and power can come onto your head, not punishment. Grace, grace is the merciful kindness of God. grace and power were perfected in the weakness and in the crushing of Christ. And so if you believe, if you believe on that, if you see that connection there that Christ took on himself, that gives you hope. That can give you a strength in your own weakness as you're suffering. Jesus became weak for me so that God's strength will keep me from being crushed under my suffering now. What do you do? What are you doing with your weakness? Weakness doesn't drive you to Christ. Weakness sets you next to Christ, seated next to Him. I don't know who's distressing you if you've got that going on in your life. I don't know what sin is besetting you if you're wrestling with that in your life. I don't know what sickness might be tormenting you. But believer, if you are a believer in your wounds, in your weakness, the power of Christ rests on you. Like the pillar of cloud that came and dwelt God dwelling among his people. That's what's resting on you now. His favor is resting on you in your weakness. He will send his angels to minister to you in your wilderness while you're in your wilderness. And today if you are a believer, you can say, When I am weak, then I am strong. In Christ, let's pray. Lord Jesus, we pray that your grace, your sufficient grace would come to those today who may be struggling and hurting under a thorn that you have chosen to give and you have chosen not to remove. I pray, Lord, that they would know, we would know, that your grace is sufficient for today and it will be sufficient for tomorrow and for all of our days. We pray in your mercy and your wisdom that you would remove it if that would be good. We pray you would keep us from pride and that you would keep us from sin. And I pray, Lord, for those who have no knowledge of this Christ, that Christ is not theirs. I pray that they would seek him and would find him and would love him as he has loved us. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.