It's my pleasure to open the Word of God with you this morning to John 7, verses 25 through 52. Let's read the Word of God. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, is not this man whom they seek to kill? And here he is speaking openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, you know me, and you know where I come from, but I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him You do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me." So they were seeking to arrest him. But no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, when the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done? The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me, and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, you will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come? On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. For as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, some of the people said, this really is the prophet. Others said, this is a Christ. But some said, is a Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was? So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, why did you not bring him? The officers answered, no one ever spoke like this man. The Pharisees answered them, Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?" But this crowd does not know the law is accursed. Nicodemus, who had gone to him before and who was one of them, said to them, does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does? They replied, are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee. the Word of God. Today's passage picks up right after last week's passage. It is still the Feast of Tabernacles, this week-long commemoration of Israel's time in the wilderness and the celebration of God's faithfulness to them during this time. It's also a celebration of harvest and of spiritual renewal. There are tons of Jewish pilgrims in town from all over Judea, from Galilee, and the dispersion or the diaspora that we read in the text. These are the Jews living among the Greeks. This is one of the three feasts for which all the Jewish Jewish people are required to pilgrimage for and as such is one of the busiest times of the year in Jerusalem. So picture old friends and families coming together to celebrate. They're building these tabernacles, which are dwelling places in which they would fellowship, and they would even perhaps spend the night during the week. And they're building them, and as usually men do when they're building things, they engage in conversations, maybe talking a little bit more than they would if they were face-to-face. these conversations would probably contain what dominated the headlines of the time, which is Jesus. Now, wondering what these headlines would read, I asked ChatGBT to generate what tabloids, according to each chapter, would have said. So, listen to this. In chapter 5, for example, it would have said, Heavenly Healthcare, local man calls Yahweh dad and cures 38 invalid on a Sabbath. Or in chapter 6, miracle meal, local hero turns snack pack into a feast for thousands. Bread and fish magically multiply, leftovers galore. Or following that, divine delicacy debacle, the Nazarene declares himself today's manna, claiming to be heaven's latest recipe for salvation, and et cetera. There are plenty of more tabloid headlines that we could make with all of the news that Jesus is generating. Anyway, in the past few weeks, John has drawn us into these episodes of Jesus' ministry in which His fame is rapidly expanding. This is mostly due to His miracles, the signs that He is performing, but also the bold teaching that He is giving, both of which have brought many in as His disciples, but the latter, the teaching, having also estranged some now former disciples including his siblings, and most notably some Jewish authorities. Now, who are these authorities? Think of these as the influencers of the day. These are the ones with power. These are the politicians, the Pharisees, the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. And some of these powerful ones formed what was called in the day the Sanhedrin, which served as a supreme council or court for the Jewish people, for all Jewish affairs, even under Roman occupation and authority. So whenever we encounter this word, the authorities, this group of people described as the authorities in this text, this is who we should think of, of the legal and religious experts, the leaders and the scholars of the time. So among the buzzing and murmuring of the city, these authorities continue to openly discuss and plot Jesus' assassination. Its public knowledge, we read in 25, they were planning to kill him. The idea of that originated back in chapter five, yet there's no hitmen hired, so to speak, yet. Nothing really happening to advance this because the time has not yet come. But the interesting thing about this is that their hesitation to get this plan going makes the people wonder. It builds margin for the people to speculate. Could it be that the authorities really believe that this man is the Christ? And that is our first point for today. Jesus reveals ultimate reality. So, people in all ages have been fascinated with constructing or identifying or even theorizing about reality or realities in different ways, but all with the intent of understanding or transforming or even transcending or trying to transcend life's complexities or what we perceive as our reality. Some of these attempts include the materialistic worldview, for example. You see everything out there, this is what it is, there's nothing more to it, so that is driving a consumeristic appetite. Indulge in everything because this is all that there is. Or others, on the other hand, hold that everything is an illusion. and reality is purely spiritual and all the things that we see are just manifestations of that or an alternative to that is that everything is a simulation, right, as some theorize. This fascination also explains people's voyeuristic obsession with, depending on your generation, reality TV in the early 2000s or nowadays live streaming platforms and social media offering to offering the possibility to explore and craft perfectly curated platforms and profiles, and now even virtual reality and augmented reality, expand that further, blurring the line between the digital and the physical. And then on top of that, equally compelling are the inner realities of each individual, our psyche, our emotions, our spirituality, which are deeply personal experiences that shape our perception, our decisions, and our priorities. And these form the very essence of who we believe to be. This morning, however, Jesus is interested in showing us real reality or ultimate reality, one that, when fully engaged in, is able to deliver on the promises of satisfaction, of profound joy and human flourishing that the lesser realities fail to deliver. Jesus clearly believes, he knows that he is the Christ, right? He's been speaking openly about it to those who have ears to hear. He continues to speak openly, authoritatively, and he's even willing to offend others for the sake of delivering this transformative truth. And in light of that, the authority's silence is kind of suspicious. Especially for the locals, because they know their MO. They know that if the authorities want something done or someone gone, it's usually a done deal. It will happen. So chapter 7's lingering question remains, who is Jesus? Or more specifically, could he be the Christ? Well, to answer that question, we need to know what the Christ means. First of all, Christ is not Jesus' last name, right? Mr. Christ or Jesus Christ. It's not his last name. It's a title. It's the equivalent of Messiah in Hebrew. It literally means the anointed one, as kings were anointed, anointed to deliver and to rule. And now we also read in verse 40 of another title people were giving Jesus, which is of the prophet. Some of the first century Jews, for some of them, the Christ title or figure and the prophet figure were separate people in their minds. And we see that distinction in 40, verses 40 and 41, where some people say he's a prophet, others say no, he's a Christ. And this is because there are different expectations for each of these titles. The expectation for Christ or Messiah was basically that he would be a ruler, right? That's where we understand the baby born to bear the government on his shoulders. Or the shoot from Jesse Stump who will rule in righteousness and justice, right, from Isaiah. Or the branch from David's line who will reign as king and execute justice from Jeremiah. The prophet, however, was the one Moses spoke about, Moses prophesied about him, telling the Israelites that God will raise up for them a greater prophet from among their own people. Isaiah also speaks of a prophet anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to proclaim good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness the prisoners. Jesus, by now, had established enough street cred, so to speak, to be considered a good candidate for being the prophet. And after the feeding of the 5,000, which we read a few weeks ago, the people had really high hopes and even the real intention of making him the Christ. But there's hesitation. Everyone's looking to the authorities to see what they have to say. And the problem is that they're not saying much or anything at all. One commentator mentioned that they've probably gone silent because, in the privacy of their own hearts, they're arriving at the conclusion that, in all likelihood, Jesus is the Christ. Why then wouldn't someone stand up and say something? Why wouldn't they gather or convene to discuss this possibility? Well, because even today, out of the three possibilities of who we can consider Jesus to be, either insane, or a fraud, or the Christ, the first two options have eternally devastating consequences, which you won't have to face in this life, but rather after judgment. However, acknowledging him as Christ yields an immediate and profound impact that will initiate a total overhaul of your life, and often in ways that you might initially resist. The authorities suspected this and had no intention of reshaping their reality. Christ means Lord, ruler, and it's not only of a faraway spiritual kingdom, ruling over magistrates but removed from the people. Quite the contrary, his rule is personal. We read in verse 37, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me. It's a one-on-one, and his rule comprehensively covers all of our life and all of our endeavors and all of the entire cosmos. There's a Dutch theologian named Abraham Kuyper who has a famous quote. There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence, or our realities, over which Christ, who is so sovereign over all, does not cry, mine. This is why the authorities couldn't acknowledge this as a group. Their rule and authority would collapse at this acknowledgement, and they loved their power, they loved their status, the influence, and they weren't just about to give it all up, especially during this massive feast that they are practically hosting just to entertain the idea of a long-awaited Messiah's epiphany. Now, all of us either have or will eventually need to wrestle with this question ourselves. Who is Jesus? And if he is Christ, what does that mean for us? Keep this question in mind as we continue in the passage, and it's one that we do well in pondering daily as we go in our lives. But as we continue in verse 27, things get kind of weird. There was this rabbinic tradition that held so tightly to language found in one of Malachi's prophecies describing Messiah's appearance that they interpreted it as a very sudden self-disclosure, as a surprise almost, such that even though they held that Messiah was a man, no one would have a clue from where he appeared from because he just appeared, right? Now this was a problem, a doctrinal problem, and sometimes you see denominations, churches, or even individuals that are so concerned about this particular doctrine that they fail to hold all of God's doctrines together as an eternal, omniscient, and sovereign God has knit it, so be careful out there. Not that any one of you is gonna go church shopping anytime soon, but be careful of that. But naturally, the experts thought they knew better, and claimed to know exactly where Jesus was from, meaning that he couldn't possibly be the Messiah. But Jesus' reply is magnificent. He's like, oh, so you know me, and you know where I'm from. And then in verse 28, he lays it down. He reveals ultimate reality. He says, you know me and you know where I come from, but I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true. In this case, the Greek word for true is not in the sense of faithful, but rather real. However, not meaning that God exists because no one would have argued against that in that context, but rather that God corresponds to reality. He is the essence of reality. God is ultimate reality from which all real things originate and under which all real things thrive. Jesus says, of this ultimate reality of God, you know nothing of. Now, he said this either because of their unregenerate heart or their ignorance or their foolish opposition, but they fail to get a grasp of ultimate reality. And as you can probably tell, this is extremely offensive to them, especially for this group. After all, the Israelites were God's chosen people. God had revealed himself most powerfully through the giving of the law, right? And the ironic thing is that Jesus had already affirmed that the law was pointing to him. This is the group that prayed the Shema daily. This prayer, hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. So yeah, this hit hard. You know nothing of Him. And I believe our cultural moment can relate to this interaction. As 21st century Christians, we hold to biblically revealed truth claims that are increasingly rare in our secularized society, such as the value of life, or two biologically defined genders, or marriage as the covenant between one man and one woman. And I'm sure you can come up with many others, but These truth claims knock the wind out of non-believers and are considered hate speech because of how much it offends people. This kind of truth reveals constructed realities as constructs. This is why the authorities did not want to reckon with the truth. If their constructs were to be exposed as such, be it their addition to the law or their false assumptions and presuppositions about Christ, it would render them irrelevant and powerless. Whenever we unwillingly crash into reality, we have two options. We either accept truth for truth, together with all its implications, or we begin to construct an alternate reality, now no longer out of ignorance, because we faced truth. but rather out of opposition. And that's exactly what the authorities, and now the people, increasingly continue to do. We're gonna jump a little to verses 30, 31, and 42 to see how. In verses 30 through 31, the authorities decide to issue, finally decide to issue a warrant for Jesus' arrest, right? Many people believe in Jesus. They affirm his ministry, checking the boxes of profit, and perhaps Christ But then, and possibly persuaded by the authorities' constructed reality, they ask, but when the real Christ comes, will he do more signs than this guy? Meaning that they're missing the point entirely. Mistaking a meal for thousands or a formerly disabled body being healed and other signs for the salvation of their souls. Mistaking apparent solutions for their parched realities for ultimate reality. In verse 42 and forward, we see the constructs abstracted even farther away from reality. Again, John highlights the absurdity of this all with his irony, but these studious men have failed to thoroughly research their subject, and rather they assume that they know that there's all to know about Jesus, and they question his origin, ignoring their false assumptions. Why false? Because while Jesus grew up in Galilee, he was actually born in Bethlehem, the city of David. In addition to that, Jesus was a legal descendant of David through Joseph, and he was a blood descendant of David through Mary. So he was definitely not from Galilee. Back to verse 32. With the people muttering and entertaining this idea of ultimate reality, the authorities felt that their power was being threatened, so they finally issued the arrest warrant that this was pending since chapter five. And as they do, Jesus announces that the hour is coming. His father's appointed time for him to go back to his presence is on the horizon, and of course, no one will be able to join him there. And this too flies over everyone's head as they try to find lesser reality explanations for it. Now, one thing about this ultimate reality that I don't want it to go without saying is that this is not a platonic distinction of the material versus the ideal or the conceptual. Neither is it a dualistic or gnostic material versus spiritual kind of understanding. This is a declaration that there is no secular-sacred divide when it comes to reality. Everything we are, everything we think, everything we do is a spiritual endeavor. As humans, we were created in the image of God to participate in this way with reality. Paul tells us to live our lives as spiritual sacrifices in Romans, and to eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God in 1 Corinthians. And this way, living this way, our jobs suddenly become callings, our recreation suddenly becomes forms of praise and our relationships living and embodied prayers. And this is how we thrive in ultimate reality. It is things as God sees them. Ultimate reality is things as God sees them. And if that's true, then ultimate reality is things that are revealed to us in Holy Scripture. This is why we ought to be obsessed with this book. This is why it's a very good idea for you to come to Sunday School to Mike Bossenbrook's Doctrine of Scripture class on Sunday mornings, because this reveals ultimate reality in God. This is the only way to get exposed to ultimate reality and learn how to love it. A very simple way we've tried to capture this at home with our kids lately has been asking them, what is the most important thing about blank? And that blank could be literally anything. This weekend, it was long division. What's the most important thing about long division? And the answer to all of these blanks is God. We've used, what's the most important thing about feelings? What's the most important thing about sin? What's the most important thing about mac and cheese or Paw Patrol? It's God. Everything worth thinking or talking about or doing Any reality that we experience is worth submitting to the ultimate reality of God. And this is exactly what Jesus does next in our second point. Jesus offers living waters for parched realities. So let's explore the Feast of Tabernacles a little further. Each day of the week, before and after the offerings, the singing, the dancing, and the feasting, of course, two rituals were performed that, while not part of the scriptural instructions for the feast, they did function as liturgical bookends, one at the beginning of the day and one at the end. These were the water pouring rite and the light ceremony. We're going to leave the light ceremony for when we come across Jesus' statement, I am the light of the world, in chapter eight. But the water pouring rite, which happened each morning, consisted of the high priest filling up a golden pitcher with water from the pool of Siloam, followed by a large procession of people behind him, singing halal psalms, waving palms, rejoicing with loud shouts and giving thanks to the Lord for the rain needed to reap such bountiful harvest. They then poured this pitcher out in a stream of flowing water, symbolizing God's provision both in this season of harvest, but also remembering the exodus from Egypt and their wanderings in the wilderness, where God provided them not necessarily what they wanted, onions, but what they really needed to learn how to depend on the Lord through manna, quail, and water from rocks. So on the final and great day, we read in verse 37, picture everyone gathered to look upon the last day that this water will be poured. in this year, and I can imagine the agricultures and the shepherds looking at that water flowing and praying, oh Lord, may this be another year of good rain. Our economy, our grain silos, our health and prosperity all depend on this. And right then as that is happening in the middle of the multitude, Jesus stands up and he cries out. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Imagine the shock. This is someone on the event organizer's hit list, so to speak. That to say this is a pretty bold move. No wonder the officers in verse 46 say, this man speaks as no one would ever dare to. But Jesus, apart from being the eternal, omniscient God before his incarnation, now in the flesh, he has been around enough to experience for himself the broken, unfulfilling, never-satisfying, shame-collecting, parched realities that people construct for themselves. And this is exactly what he has come to redeem. Isaiah, in our scripture reading that Josh read so wonderfully for us, was offering this drink. Come, come for free. Stop spending your time, energy, and resources on any other reality. This is it, this drink. And this is Jesus. Jesus is saying, I am the drink. What Jesus offered privately to the Samaritan woman in chapter four, he now offers publicly to literally anyone because everyone thirsts. Do you know why the Jewish authorities didn't want to reckon with ultimate reality? Probably because they were thirsty for power, for recognition, maybe intellectual satisfaction or respect among peers or status as leaders and who knows what else. Do you know why the majority of the people couldn't reckon with ultimate reality? Because they too were thirsty for justice, for liberation from oppression, for righteous rulers. What Jesus offers even to us today is to quench all our various thirstings. In ultimate reality, all of our thirstings are for Christ. What can you identify as realities or areas in your life where dissatisfaction has crept in, where spiritual fruit has withered, and where it feels like a dry and scorched land? Our thirst can take the form of powerlessness, of loneliness, of fear, alienation, shame, apathy, anxiety, Our constructed realities to face that kind of thirst could be a smaller, controllable kingdom to rule over, like the Jewish authorities had built, or a curated and expanded moral code like the Pharisees had built. or, for us, the right politics, or the right way to school children, or the right way to dress in the right social circles, or even choosing to find security in our bank accounts, or pleasure in our appearance or intimacy through our screens, et cetera. There are an infinite number of ways that we seek to construct realities that we hope would quench our thirst But we rather end up believing them, we end up being shaped by them, and we suddenly find ourselves shackled to them as slaves, living for these realities. It's no different than the slavery Israel suffered under Egypt. And we have Jesus now as God saying, let my people go. I am the bread. I am the light. I am the rock from which water flowed in the wilderness. And I am still here. And whoever drinks from me will never thirst again. Get rid of those shackles. Forget about the onions. Everything you have been thirsting for in its ultimate form is me. There's a great quote often attributed to G.K. Chesterton that captures this. The man knocking on the door of a brothel unconsciously does so seeking God. Or St. Augustine in his Confession suggests a right ordering of reality, stating, you, God, have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Jesus' invitation, therefore, is to come, quench your thirst with him. However, in the Greek, the word come is in present continuous form for the grammar nerds out there, giving us the idea that we ought to keep coming over and again, once, time and time again to Jesus for this life-ordering gulp of ultimate reality. But there's a problem with that. We read that Jesus said we wouldn't be able to find him. There will be a time that we wouldn't be able to find him. Verse 39 helps clarify that. Sipping continually on Jesus and embracing the ultimate reality revealed to us in His Word is enough to receive by faith the Spirit of God, which in turn becomes rivers of living water that spring from inside us. There are numerous prophecies from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Zechariah, including this week's assurance of pardon that we will hear later on, where the people of God are promised the indwelling presence of God's Holy Spirit, the tabernacling of the Spirit in our hearts. And the imagery used for this promise is fresh, moving water. God's accessible and life-giving presence is often portrayed this way in scripture. Eden's river of life splitting and flowing into four corners of the world is one example, or Psalm 1 out of several other psalms. Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law, ultimate reality, day and night. That person is like a tree planted by Streams of water which yield its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do, they prosper. And we have many Old Testament prophets speaking of drawing water from the well of salvation or the pouring of water as the pouring of God's Holy Spirit or fountains springing and streams flowing through parched lands or cleansing the land. And the New Testament does something amazing. It introduces water baptism as a sign and seal of the Holy Spirit poured over those who would come to participate in the covenant of grace. And most notably in the New Testament, it all circles back to Revelation, when we read the river of life now in the new Jerusalem, bright as a crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. And our last point, Jesus is the firstborn for ultimate reality. You see, God's desire for us is Ultimate reality is Himself. He wants to give Himself to us. He wants ultimate reality to be fully revealed in the entire world. But if that were to happen right now, this moment, it'd be catastrophic. The sheer radiance of God's glory, of His holiness, would consume us all, according to what God told Moses. And this is due to our resistance to ultimate reality, which is what we commonly refer to as sin. So Jesus, God incarnate, came down to live among our parched realities, to commiserate with us, to suffer the consequences of our constructs, all while mediating the Father's presence to us in himself. For whoever has seen the Son has seen the Father. And this he did until our sin, until our resistance put him on the cross, where the debt of the sins of those who would believe in him would be paid for at the cost of his life. Not only did He offer a perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sin, but then He rose again, having conquered death and sin on our behalf, so that just as He rose up in glory, we may also one day rise into His presence, of which we will feast off of into eternity. And this is great news. Eternity is secure. But what about now? What about tomorrow? Well, after Jesus rose and ascended to heaven, he delivered on the prophecies of old. After he was glorified, as we read, he delivered on the prophecies and to the promises that he made his own disciples. And he did so by sending a helper, the Holy Spirit. And this is what he said about the Holy Spirit works in a believer's heart. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. What's the purpose of this water? Because our thirst is already quenched as we sip on Christ, as we engage with Christ. But the fresh, moving water that we get once we come to faith and are indwelt by the Spirit, it always flows. It's not stagnant. It flows, and it's meant to reach others. One of the prophetic passages pointing to our passage this morning is in Ezekiel, and it states that water flowing from the temple, which is the image using there as God's presence, water flowing from the temple reaches the sea. And the sea in the Old Testament represents chaos and unbelief. And you know what the fresh water does to the sea? It makes it sweet. I don't know if that's a word. Not salty. It changes the nature of things. So if we have these overflowing rivers of water in us, our duty is to share this water with parched realities. Now we can't guarantee the outcome, but we can put ourselves to the task of proclaiming the truth of the gospel. of Jesus Christ, of God's ultimate reality, so that by the work of the Holy Spirit, many would become partakers of Christ and become indwelt. by the Holy Spirit. As Christians, in this time of political polarization, of people talking at each other instead of communicating, and terrifying intolerance wherever we go, this is where the real stakes are and where, in ultimate reality, there are only two kinds of people, those who believe in Jesus as a Christ and those who don't. those who will spend their lives and even eternity feasting off Him, and those who will spend eternity shocked and terrorized by the ultimate consequence of their own constructs. And this is what causes the division amongst the people in the following verses, 40 and following. There are those who thought of Jesus as a possible Christ and continued to sip on Him until by grace they were granted faith. There are those who disregarded Him and thought of Him only as a decent prophet. There are the authorities who opposed Jesus because of how threatening the idea of Him being Christ was to their own constructs. And then there were authorities like Nicodemus who would go on to continue to sip on Christ until coming to faith. There are some who simply ignored him, and those like the officers who haven't been told, given the instruction to arrest him, couldn't bring themselves to do it. Possibly because the more they zipped on him, the more they realized how their lives could be different if they turn from their constructs and indulge in the living water Christ has offered. May we grow in our ability to distinguish our parched realities from God's ultimate reality. May we turn away from these and towards Christ, who offers us himself to drink and be thirsty no more, so that we may pursue others equipped with the Holy Spirit until the day we will feast reunited with Christ in glory. Let's pray. This is Psalm 36. How precious is your steadfast love, O God. Lord, we are so thankful for loving us so much that you would open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts to embrace you and the truth of your word. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Where else would we go, Lord? Thank you for your mercy. They feast on the abundance of your house, May we never take it for granted nor forsake coming to your house, Lord, for the means of grace and the fellowship we enjoy in your presence. And you give them drink from the river of your delights. Give us more of you, Jesus, we pray. For with you is the fountain of life, hallelujah. In your light do we see light. Continue, Holy Spirit, to illuminate our hearts and our path, we pray in our great Savior's name, amen.