I'm gonna move up here, get a little bit closer. We're gonna have our time in the word. If you would grab your Bibles and actually open up the book of John. I won't tell you quite where in the book of John yet. I'll let you wait a few moments. Then I'll tell you where we're gonna be in the book of John after a little bit of introduction. Actually, we're going to do a lot of quoting scripture, a lot of moving around in scripture. So, we're basically going to have a Bible study tonight. And so, Psalm 115.3 says this, it says, Our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. Psalm 135.6 says this, Whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and on earth. So this speaks of the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God. And the New Testament affirms this as well. If you know Ephesians 1.11, it says this, it says that God works all things according to the counsel of his will. So we know that God is in control of all things. And he's moving all things, history, to his desired end. He's in control. History really is his story. So we even see in scripture down to the smallest details. The feeding of the birds, right? The numbering of the hairs on your head. Even when a sparrow falls, God is in control and he knows. He knows all things and really no one can thwart God. He doesn't share His sovereignty with anybody. It's not like God is sovereign and Satan is co-sovereign. No, God is sovereign alone. He alone is in control of all things. He doesn't share His sovereignty with men. with you or me or angels, no one. He is absolutely sovereign. And we heard Brother Mark even talk about that God's sovereignty and how he's been trusting in God's sovereignty. Well, this as in any area is true also of the area of salvation. God is sovereign in the area of salvation. Listen to Jonah 2.9. It says, salvation belongs to the Lord. So salvation belongs to God and He dispenses it. He chooses to dispense salvation wherever He sovereignly wants. Listen to 1 Corinthians 1.30. It says, and because of him, or a better translation could be, by his doing, you are in Christ. So God sovereignly ordered the events of your life so that you would be in Christ. He's in control. James 1.18 says this. It says, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. So of his will, of his choice, he brought us forth as new creatures in Christ by his will. He sovereignly ordained it. So God had a sovereign plan before the world began to save a people that would be for his own, for his own name, for his own glory, for his own majesty. And he is working out that plan right now, even as we speak in the world. God is, He is sovereign. He is a sovereign God. He is in control. No one can thwart His plan of salvation. Those set aside for salvation in the mind of God, they will be saved. And God is also sovereign in another aspect. He's also sovereign in the act of preserving his people. This means that he's not just able to get people saved, but he's able to keep them saved and bring them all the way through life to glory. He preserves his people. Listen to 1 Corinthians 1, seven through nine. It says, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you till the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." God is faithful. He's going to get you to be with Him in heaven one day. He's not going to lose any of His people. He's sovereign in His preservation. Listen to Philippians 1.6. You probably know this one, right? He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus." That's a done deal, it's going to happen. Listen to 1 Thessalonians 5.23 it says, may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And here's this verse 24, 1 Thessalonians 5, "'He who calls you is faithful. He will do it.'" He will do it. He will bring you to glory because He's sovereign in preservation. He's able to save His people initially and He's able to keep them in that relationship and bring all the way to glory. God is that sovereign. And really that's what the verse that we're going to look at tonight speaks about. It's God's sovereignty in salvation and God's sovereignty in preservation. And we're going to look at John 6. So I know I told you to go to the book of John and you've all been waiting with bated breath, where in the book of John? It's John 6, verse 37. And I've entitled this message, God's Sovereignty in Salvation and Preservation. God's sovereignty and salvation and preservation. So tonight's vital verse is John 6.37. So let's look at that. It says, and I'm reading from the NIV, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. Now some of you also have the ESV, so I'll read that one. It's fairly similar. The only thing that's different from the NIV and the ESV is the very last couple words. So the last two words in the NIV were drive away. See if you can catch the difference in the ESV. It says, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. So the only difference in ESV and NIV is drive away and cast out. Similar ideas, just expressed in different words. Now, in studying this verse, I prefer the Holman Christian standard translation. So I just think that it preserves the emphasis of the writer just a little bit better. than the NIV and the ESV. So let me quote that one to you as well. It says, Now, the only difference in that translation and the couple, the NIV and the ESV, was the phrase whoever. You see that in the NIV? Whoever. And also in the ESV, whoever comes to me. Well, the Holman says, the one who comes to me. Now, whoever makes it sound like the emphasis is on human responsibility. You know, whoever comes. to me I will never cast out. So that means whoever, it opens the gates to whoever and the gospel call is forever for whoever. Now I totally believe that, that is true. The gospel call is a universal call. Whosoever shall come to the Lord come. Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. The Bible teaches that. I just think that having the whoever there, it gives more of an emphasis to the human responsibility. And actually the word whoever is not really in the Greek. It's really the one, the one who comes. So that's just for those of you who like little details about verses. It's just a little detail. But I believe that the emphasis in this verse is on God's sovereignty and salvation and preservation. And I think you'll see this more as we go through this verse. So in this passage, we're gonna look at two facets of God's sovereignty. They are God's sovereignty in salvation, God's sovereignty in preservation. Now let's briefly take a little bit of a time to talk about the context, because we just got one verse here. We wanna make sure that we have the context, because a text without context is pretext for a proof text, which means you get in a lot of trouble. You want to get this in context to make sure that what the verse is saying is really saying what it's saying in context. So, let's talk briefly about where this passage is. It's in the book of John, correct? Now, the book of John, it presents Jesus' miracles. Now, it doesn't present all His miracles. It presents only a small portion of miracles. And it also presents His deity. which miracles only would come from someone who possesses deity or who's influenced by deity. So it presents Jesus' miracles, it presents his deity, and the reason why John does this is that he wants his readers to put their life trust, their faith in Christ as Lord and Savior. It says that in John chapter 20. He says explicitly, hey, this is the purpose of the book. This is why I wrote the Gospel of John right here. In John 20, 31 it says, but these things are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So, lest anyone think that salvation is merely a human decision, John's gospel then, he has a heavy emphasis on the teaching on the sovereignty of God in salvation. It teaches the fact that those who respond in faith to Christ are those that God is already sovereignly working in according to his plan. So let's look at this a little bit in context in the book of John. Go back to John chapter one. Look at John one. And this is a perfect illustration of this. John one, 12 and 13, it says this. It says, yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Wonderful. Respond in faith to Christ and have life. Well, why would somebody do that? Well, it's because of the sovereignty of God. Look at 13. Children not born of natural descent nor of a human decision or a husband's will but born of God or born by God. It's agency there. It's born by God. God is working in and through them to believe the message. Look down at John 1.43. John 1.43, it says, the next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said, follow me. Did Philip follow him? Yeah, we know that, historically he did, yes. But who found Philip? Who really found Philip? It was the Lord, wasn't it? He set out, it said right there in the verse. Jesus found Philip, finding Philip. He went on a mission to find this man. Look at chapter three. Jesus says there in chapter three, verse three, says, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again, unless he is born from above. given life from above. So God has to sovereignly reach in to time and space and to our history and activate new life in somebody. Has to give them a new heart so that they can even see the kingdom of God. He has to bring them to life in a sovereign way. And then chapter 11, don't turn there, stay where you are, but just chapter 11 when he raises Lazarus, when Jesus raises Lazarus, that becomes an illustration of giving new spiritual life. Just as Lazarus was given new physical life, Jesus gives new spiritual life. God sovereignly gives new spiritual life. Then you get to chapter four. Go to chapter four of John. And you see the woman at the well, and she responds in faith, doesn't she? But then you have to actually notice that Jesus went completely out of His way to have a purposeful encounter with this woman. You see, Jews of the day, when they were coming from Jerusalem and they were going north, to say Nazareth or Galilee, they would go all the way around and go up the Jordan River instead of travel on a straight line through Samaria. So Jesus totally denied the Jewish tradition of His day, and He went through Samaria to get to where He was going in Galilee. Why? Because He had a sovereign appointment with this woman. He had an appointment with this woman, and He was going to keep it, and He was seeking her out, and He was going to save her. Look at John 4.23, it proves it. It says this, the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. Who's seeking? The Father. The Father is the seeker. Who sought whom? God sought out this woman and sovereignly saved her. Then in chapter five, you can go there, Jesus heals a man at the pool of Bethesda. And he does so sovereignly again. And he does this as an illustration of what he can do in a life spiritually. Jesus' miracles in the physical world often and always had a spiritual application. That he gave new life to Lazarus was an example of his giving life in the spiritual realm. Healing. people gave an example of healing in the spiritual realm, that he can bring healing in the spiritual realm. Oftentimes, Jesus did both at the same time, right? Remember the man, he said, your sins are forgiven? He healed him spiritually. And they said, well, how do we know? It's easy for you to say that, nobody can see that happening. Jesus says, well, then I'll heal the man. Rise up and walk, and the guy walks. So a lot of times Jesus' miracles were to show that he was sovereign in the spiritual realm, through being spiritual healing and new life. And so this man, he had absolutely no faith at all, did he? I mean, if you look at verse six. He had no idea who Jesus was. Jesus asked him, he said, do you want to be healed? Do you want to be healed? He just came up to this guy at the pool of Bethesda. And there's probably, I don't know, maybe hundreds of people there at the pool of Bethesda because they thought that the waters at the pool had magical powers. And so there's maybe hundreds of people. He comes up to just this guy, says, do you want to be healed? And the guy, He didn't even know who Jesus was, and he makes some reference to the water, saying, well, I don't have anybody to take me down to the water. See, he didn't know who he was dealing with, did he? He didn't know the one standing next to him could give him that healing. and had the sovereign power to do that. He thought that the power was in the water. And so Jesus just heals him. He heals just as he does in salvation. So it makes total sense now that as we come to chapter six that the sovereignty of God is mentioned. And really the concept never leaves the book of John. Listen to these verses. John 6.44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6.65, and he said, that is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. You don't have to turn here, you can stay in John chapter 6. But John chapter 10, 10.16 says this, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Sovereign prediction, they will listen to my voice. John 10.29, it says, my Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my hand. John 15, 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you. He said that to his disciples. Just like he sought out Philip, sovereignly selected Philip, he sovereignly selected all of his disciples, just as he has sovereignly selected all of us who are in Christ Jesus. And notice in some of these verses also, there's the concept of sovereignty and preservation that are there together in one. And really, if you think about it, it's the same side of a coin, basically, God's sovereignty and salvation, preservation. It's really one idea, God's sovereignty, and there are two sides of a coin. I mean, if God saves, then God keeps, right? God can't and doesn't undo what he does, does he? If he saves you, you wouldn't undo it. He isn't powerless. It's not like he's powerless to save in this life, and then, whoops, lost you in the next, sorry. Hey, I had you saved here in this life, but boy, when you died, I just lost you there. I couldn't bring you all the way to heaven. I'm just not powerful enough. No, that's not our God, is it? That's not our God at all. Listen to them again, it says, Your fruit should abide, John 15. No one is able to snatch them out of My hand, John 10. I will raise them up on the last day, John chapter 6. So this idea of preservation and the idea of salvation, they're two sides of the same coin. And you know, I really don't understand, maybe you do, I don't understand people who say that you can lose your salvation. I don't understand that point of view at all. I mean, I do understand the fact that you could be a phony. Like Judas, he was a phony. The whole time he claimed to have faith in Christ, and he never really did. He was just a phony. He was kind of along for the ride, and he wanted to be one of the right-hand men when Jesus came into his kingdom, meaning when he overthrew the Romans. He thought Jesus was going to overthrow the Romans that Judas was going to be right there, you know, as one of the rulers of the new kingdom on earth. No, he was a phony. He never really had true faith in Christ. So I understand that. But I don't understand people who say that true Christians can really lose their salvation. I mean, it's pretty simple, isn't it? What did Jesus say? He said, eternal life, right? John 3.16 says, for God loved the world in this way, or God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, and whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. It's eternal life. You see, think about it, think about eternal life. How long is eternal? It's forever, it's everlasting. Does it ever end? No, it never ends. Is Jesus a liar or something? He said, I give you eternal life, but then you can lose that somehow. No, you can't lose eternal life, it's eternal. You can't lose your salvation. Even just in the words, eternal life. You have the concept of preservation, you have the concept that you can't lose your salvation. So I really don't understand that point of view. So maybe if you do, you can talk to me afterwards and you can tell me how you can understand that. But I don't understand how people say that you can lose your salvation. Alright, so the immediate context of this verse in John chapter 6 is Jesus has just fed the 5,000. He's just done with the feeding of the 5,000, and he's talking about himself as the bread of life. He says, I am the bread of life. So he's fed them bread, and now he said that I am the bread of life. Now his point to the people is that they don't need him to make meals for them every day, but they need him as their savior from sin. He's arguing that as they took in the bread, it nourished them, correct? So they need to take him in spiritually and let him nourish them spiritually. That's what he's saying about the bread of life. Now, the majority will have nothing of this. We know that, right? We know that the majority, they basically rejected Jesus, did they not, the Jewish leaders? They rejected Him. The majority rejected Him. And they will have none of Jesus being the bread of life. And so Jesus is explaining why this will happen. Why the majority will reject Him. So in the context, that's what He's saying. And He's saying because they weren't granted this by the Father. granted this by the Father. The Father instead of choosing to save them is choosing to judge. Yes, they are humanly responsible. but the Father is choosing to reject the Jewish leadership and all those who followed Him. So God is expressing here His sovereignty and salvation. Now let's quickly run through this and see how these two facets play out in our verse. Facet number one, God's sovereignty and salvation. Look at our verse again, it says, all that the Father gives me will come to me. Now I want you to stop there and take notice of that word, all. The very first word, all. There is a group of people in the mind of God that will come to Christ in salvation, all right? The first word in the sentence is, and this is totally geeky, but just work with me on this, it's neuter accusative singular in the Greek. Okay, that's way too much information for this time of night, I know. But, did you get that, the singular? Did you get that? Now tell me, the word's all. Is that kind of incongruous? Singular meaning one, but yet he uses the word all. See, in your mind you're kind of going, what's up with that? Well, you have what's called here, a collective singular, it's called a collective singular. And basically the group is being thought of as a whole. So it emphasizes the idea that there is this group of people in the mind of God that will come to Christ. Jesus is thinking of them as a whole group. What if I say something like this? I'm all here. I don't know if that's good grammar. I'm all here. What would you think? What would you think about that? You'd probably think, okay, he's here in all his parts. All my parts are here, right? I don't have an arm outside and a leg over in the youth hall. I'm all here. I'm thinking myself as a collective singular. I'm thinking myself as parts, but yet one being here. Now, that's the use of all there. It just emphasizes, again, the idea that there is this group of people in the mind of God that will come to Christ. All that the Father gives me will come to me. Every one of this certain group that the Father gives to Christ will come. And did you get that? They will come. They will. And here's another geeky term for you. This is called the predictive future. The predictive future. There's no doubt about this. This is going to happen. He's predicting the future, telling this will happen. This group of people that are destined for salvation will come to Christ. They will come because God is sovereign, and God is in control, and He's working all things to the counsel of His will. There's no doubt, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. They will come to Christ. Now, who's the one giving them to Christ? It's the Father. It's the Father, and it assumes that they are his to give. Well, how are they the Father's to give? Well, by virtue of his sovereignty. He's sovereign over the hearts of men. Listen to this, Proverbs 21.1. The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. Now it's not talking about the king's will, it's talking about God's sovereignty and that the hand of God basically controls all things, controls the events of man. Now, this brings us to a very interesting question about the sovereignty of God that some people ask. Okay, here's the question. If God is sovereign like this, then doesn't that make man a robot? Ever heard that question asked? Are man's choices really real? Do they matter? The answer to that is no. Man is not a robot, and yes, man's choices are real, and yes, they do matter. God's sovereignty doesn't work apart from human decisions. He works within human choice. He's that sovereign. We relatively do what we want, right? People relatively do what they want. But they never are able to choose outside the will of God. Because God is so sovereign that he uses the free choices of people even to accomplish his ends. He's that sovereign. He's that big. He's that awesome. That's hard for our minds to wrap around. But God is that big. He's that transcendent. And when someone comes to Christ, they really come willingly, don't they? Think of your coming to Christ. It wasn't like this, it wasn't, oh no, oh no, you know, you're robotically, I'm becoming a Christian, oh no, oh no, please, somebody please stop me, oh no, I just repented of my sin, oh no, please stop. It wasn't like that, was it, for you coming to Christ? It wasn't you were a robot, somebody please stop me. No, you came willingly. God worked in your heart and your mind so much that you saw your sin, you saw God and His holiness, and you saw Jesus as that great Savior, and you ran to Him. You willingly went to Him for salvation, for forgiveness. So God worked in and through you. It's God, He's wooing us to Him in His sovereignty. And so we say that we basically, we want to follow the Lord. It isn't working against our wills, and it's in and through our wills that He works. But also, if you think about it, There is an element of rebellion in that question, if you really think about it. I mean, usually people who ask that question secretly value their own free will over God's free will. They secretly value their sovereignty over the sovereignty of God. It's as if they're saying something like this. I don't like your decisions, God. I think I could do better. And basically, I want to do better if you just let me. Now, that's not being a submissive creature. We need to let God be God. And we need to be the people that we were made to be and be submissive to God. And to tell you the truth, to tell you the truth, a true Christian says, Lord, I would love to be your robot. Wouldn't you like to obey perfectly? Doesn't that frustrate you that day in, day out you trip, you fall, you sin, you don't want to do it. Oh Lord, I just wish I was a robot. I wish I got this thing down. Right? It wouldn't be a problem for you as a Christian to, Lord, I wish you worked in me that much to where I was more robotic, right? So we wouldn't wanna shed God away and say, well, that just makes me a robot. Hey, bring it on, Lord, I wanna be your robot. I would love to be your robot, God. So if that is the attitude of somebody, then the question needs to be examined a little bit more. And man's free will is not really the dominant paradigm of the universe. The dominant paradigm of the universe is God's And sooner or later, you know, we've got to come to grips with that. And it's a whole lot easier when we do, when we know that God is sovereign. Things become a lot more easy. We don't chafe against Him so much. We, like Brother Shoemaker's attitude, we're like, Lord, You brought this into my life. I'm going to glorify You anyways. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So that's God's sovereignty and salvation. Let's look at the second aspect of God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty and preservation. And it's the second part of the verse. So if you look down at your verse. says, and whoever, or like the Holman says, the one who comes to me, I will never drive away. This is beautiful. This is, you know, this is what you need to take home tonight. The one who comes to me, I will never drive away. So out of that large group, God is determined to save in his mind. People come one by one to Christ through the sovereignty of God. And when they come, they are permanently His. When the verse says about the one coming, it says I will never drive away, it's using the strongest negation in the Greek language. And here's another geeky term for you. It's the emphatic negation subjunctive. It's the strongest negative that you can use in the Greek language. It's a very intense term right here. There's a lot of emotion, pathos, and it's very intense. It piles up the negatives in a string in the Greek. In a very wooden literal sense, let me tell you what it says. It says, not no casting out out. Not no casting out out, that's what it would say in a literal sense. So, if he will not drive them away, ever, never, that also means he has the power to save, right, and to keep. So if you never drive somebody away, what do you do? You're keeping them. You're preserving them. That's where we talk about preservation. Listen to John 10, 28 and 29. It says, Jesus says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. This is like a double lined trash bag. Okay, maybe that's a little irreverent. But you know what I'm saying, this is double strength. This is the power of the Father. This is the power of the Son. There's nothing, is there anything stronger? than the Father, anything stronger than the Son, nothing to overpower. If you are in Christ, there's nothing that can touch you. It's amazing protection power. I think that's something to get excited about because if you're like me, you hit points of your life where you're, you know, you struggle. You struggle, but to know that God is sovereign in preservation, that He's going to keep you to the end. That's something to get excited about. He will bring you into His presence one day. That is exciting. And the classic text on this is Romans 8, 33 through 39. Just listen and soak it in. It says, Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised? Who is at the right hand of God? Who is indeed interceding for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is protection power. That is God's sovereignty in preservation. Well, I just want to bring your mind to two examples, just in closing, two illustrations of this. You think of Abraham and you think of Lot. Abraham exemplifies God's sovereignty and salvation. Remember him? He's in Genesis Chapter 12 and God all of a sudden just talks to him. Abraham, or Abram at the time, get up and go to this land. God could have selected any number of people, but He selects Abram sovereignly. and tells him to go, and he's going to be the father of this great nation, this nation that he has chose as his own people, that he will bring his Messiah from, to continue his people to be even the Gentiles like us. That's God's sovereignty and salvation. And then you think of his nephew, Lot. He is an example of God's preservation. Because this guy, if you know this guy's life, He did everything, in my opinion, to get himself out of the kingdom, basically. He did not have an exemplary life. First of all, he selfishly chooses the best land for himself. Remember, Abraham let him choose. Well, he said, okay, great, I'll take it. He didn't say, oh, no, no, no, you decide. No, he said, hey, great, I'll take the best land. I'll take the first pick and I'm gonna pick the best land. Well, he selfishly did that. Then remember he moved closer and closer to Sodom? Not good. And he allowed his family to be corrupted by Sodom, the Sodomite culture. And then he even loses his wife. basically to the influence of Sodom, that she loved that more than she loved God. And she looked back and she became a pillar of salt as God was destroying Sodom. And then, even before that, he offers his daughters, to the mob for them to do with as they please. You think, what kind of a father does that? I mean, this guy is running away from the kingdom, and so his life is not exemplary at all. It's very much of a struggle and tripping all over the place. But listen to this. Listen to 2 Peter 2, 7 through 9. I mean, this guy's life was a train wreck, but we read this. And if God rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Verse nine, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials. and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the Day of Judgment. So the point there is that God, even though there was this wicked culture around Him, He was able to preserve one of His own, even in the midst of that, even in the midst of all of Lot's tripping and sinning and falling, that He was able to keep lot righteous, so to speak. Obviously not Lot's own righteousness, but a righteousness which comes from God. So, if you're here tonight and God has sovereignly brought you to himself, through faith in Christ, then he will bring you to the end. He will do it. God is faithful. He will do it. You may have train wrecks in your life. You may have train wrecks all around you, so to speak. But God, he is able to do it. He has sovereignly decided to set his love upon you in Christ, and he will sovereignly bring you to himself. And that is something that is very, very encouraging. So hopefully you can take that with you this week, that God is sovereign in salvation and He's sovereign in preservation. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank You for this message that You are absolutely sovereign, that You are absolutely able to bring us to Yourself. Lord, we know that in Jude it says this, Your Word says this, it says, Now to Him who is able to keep You from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. And we pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.