John chapter six is where we're at this morning. John chapter six. And if you were able to stand with me, I would encourage you to do so as we read God's inspired, inerrant, and infallible word. We will begin reading in verse 22. I hope you brought a Bible, and if you don't have one, we have Bibles on the seats in front of you. John chapter six, verse 22. God's word reads, the next day the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there except one, and that Jesus had not entered with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples had gone away alone. There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they themselves got into the small boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answered them and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes. but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give to you, for on him the father, God, has set his seal. The grass withers and the flower fades. The word of our God remains forever. You may be seated. There are three headings that I want to give to you this morning to help us work our way through these few verses. And the first is in verses 22 through 24, the intriguing circumstance, the intriguing circumstance. It says in verse 22, the next day. Now, what happened the day before? This is almost like when the Bible says, therefore. Whenever you see a therefore, you ask, what's it there for? You should look back and remind yourself, what happened? What went on? Well, you can find that information in verses one through 13, when Jesus saw the crowds, felt compassion on them. Mind you, when he himself needed rest, he was not just fully God, but he was fully man. He was experiencing weakness from not having enough food. He was weary. He had, at this point, done immense ministry, more than any of us probably would ever do in our lifetime. He was needing time to be alone to meet with his father to pray, and he and his disciples were growing weary. And so as they went on their own to find a place to be by themselves, Jesus now saw a mass of people, a huge crowd coming to him because they'd heard about this man who heals people, who causes the lame people to walk and causes people who were sick even for decades to be well in an instant. These people, primarily Jewish people, were thinking to themselves, could this be the Messiah? Could this be the one that Moses had even spoken of, the greater prophet who would come after him? And maybe in their thinking, as they were thinking this, they maybe had a skewed idea of who Messiah was. Maybe they had political agendas attached to this Messiah. Maybe this man will free us, like Moses did, from our captives. or from our captors, I should say. Maybe when Moses led us out of slavery, maybe that's what Christ will do with these Romans. And so as the people came to him, Jesus, knowing what he and his disciples needed, instead put those things aside and took this opportunity to serve this crowd of probably 15 to 25,000 people. You talk about a crowd. That's a lot of people. And so he begins to ask these questions to his disciples. How are we gonna feed everybody? And he knows what he's gonna do before he asks the question. He actually asks his question in that way so that he can get the disciples to come to the only answer that's necessary. This is impossible, Jesus. How can we feed this many people? And that was the point. Jesus wanted his disciples and all people to know this is a situation that is impossible for man to solve on their own. You need someone from above to solve this, to satisfy you in this way. That's what Jesus came to do. Of course, we know it's looking to a greater problem, more than just desiring food. We have a greater problem, every single one of us, a problem that we can't solve on our own, we can't satisfy. It's a sin problem. And God sent Christ to satisfy that problem for us through his life, death, and resurrection by taking our sins upon himself and dying in our place on the cross. before Jesus gets to that ultimate spiritual reality he does this great miracle he gives a sign and so many people get caught up on signs and miracles and so many people today want signs and miracles and they want words and visions and dreams we don't need any of that because we have the scriptures signs are given to point you to something. If you drive down Muller Road, you're going to see a sign that is yellow, and it will have a small stop sign on it. It won't say stop, but you'll know the color and the shape. That's a stop sign. It don't have an arrow. It's pointing. There's a stop ahead. That's a sign that's pointing you that you need to stop at some point when you see the stop sign. By the time you get to the stop sign, you know I need to stop. These signs were no different. They were given by God to point to something greater. And so in this great act, Jesus finds a young man, excuse me, a young man is brought to him who has five barley loaves and two fish. What's that modern day? We talked about it two weeks ago, I think. It's about five crackers and two sardines. Not much for 15 to 25,000 people, would you say? And yet Jesus, in only the way that he can, it says in verse 11, Jesus then took the loaves, having given thanks, he distributed to those who were seated. This is where we get the term Eucharist from, giving thanks. We don't know what he did in this action because that's not the point. The point is he took something that couldn't satisfy and made it. He turned something, or excuse me, he turned nothing into something. It says in verse 12, when they were filled, that is, all of the people who came, he said to his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments, those same disciples who said, there's no way this is possible. You can't do this. You remember Philip, Philip was from Bethsaida, the same area where this was happening, and he's going, I know this place, I know these resources, I know the logistics, it's not gonna work. And then Andrew said, hey, I got this young guy here. He's got these crackers and these fish. Andrew's always bringing somebody to Jesus. But even Andrew, in his faithfulness to bring people to Jesus, he even said, how can so little satisfy so much? It's humanly impossible. And again, that was the point. So as Jesus made something so small turn into something so great to satisfy this enormous crowd, he actually had so many leftover fragments and he gave them, 12 baskets full, a basket to each of his disciples. Even in our unfaithfulness, God remains faithful. And he says, I'll provide for you too. What I have to give is sufficient for you. Don't let this pass you by, disciples. I'm satisfying even your needs. It says in verse 14, therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, this is truly the prophet. That's Deuteronomy 18. That's when Moses said, there will be one who comes after me who is a greater prophet. The prophet. And now you can start to think what this crowd was thinking. If he's done this, what else can he do for me? What else can he do for me? And I'll have to tell you, that's actually not a bad question to ask. But if it's asked with the wrong desires and the wrong heart, that's when it turns bad. So Jesus, verse 15, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone. It says in other texts where we have the same narrative, the same account, in Matthew and in Mark, it says that Jesus knew what these people were intending to do, and he also knew that his disciples couldn't handle this. They were gonna be going, many of them, from fishermen, the bottom of the rung, to the top if he became king. So what does Jesus do? He says, I'll lead you disciples to get into a boat and to get out of here and I'll take care of these people and I'll send them away and then I'll find myself alone again on a mountain to pray. So that's exactly what he did. Verse 16, now when evening came his disciples went down to the sea and after getting into a boat they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark and then Jesus had not yet come to them. So there's problems happening here. Even for many of these individuals who are fishermen, born on the sea, knew everything about a boat and how to fish, how to handle the waves and the waters. Things were getting rough. It says in verse 18, the sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. Just came out of nowhere. Then when they had rowed about three or four miles, and the idea is a long distance and a long course of time, hours had passed by of them straining at the oars, is what the other accounts of this same narrative suggest, just working tirelessly to get nowhere. They saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat, they were frightened as any of us would be but he said to them in their fear he speaks to them it is I more literally translated I am I am is with you Yahweh is right here right now do not be afraid so they were willing to receive Him. The other accounts say that they worshiped Him in the boat. They received Him not only because that was their Savior, that was their friend, that was their Lord, but because even in just a small way they recognized only God can create water, command water, walk on water. This is God in our midst. And immediately the boat was at land to which they were going. They were straining at the oars for hours on end, getting nowhere. And yet when Christ shows up, they're safe. They're saved. He did something for them they could never do for themselves in the same way that he did something for the people in which they could never do for themselves. Do you see what this is pointing to? Christians, of course you know. This is pointing to what God and Christ has done for us. If all of us are born sinners, dead in our trespasses and sins, following the course of the pattern of this world, the prince of the power of darkness, as Ephesians 2 says, if that's all of us, if we agree with what Romans says, that no one's good, no not one, and that's actually quoting the Psalms, if we agree with the Bible, with what God says, that no one seeks after God, it's impossible to seek after him unless he seeks after you. And we would say, yeah, we know what this is all about. We may not have been stranded at sea, but we were dead, and God in Christ saved us. By grace, you have been saved, and this is a gift of God, so that no one may boast. After all that, the next day, The crowd that stood on the other side of the sea, these 15 to 25,000 individuals that Jesus somehow got to just relax and say, you go over here, I'll go over here. We could refer to that situation as a mob. The next day, this same crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except one. and that Jesus had not entered with his disciples into the boat. So now they're starting to do some math here. Things aren't adding up. Okay, there's one boat over there. Disciples are there. Jesus is here? But yet, we thought he was here, but that he's there. What's going on? How's this all work? What happened? How did he get by us? Jesus had not entered with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples had gone away alone. There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Now this situation is just getting more and more intriguing, because now you've got a whole crowd of people who are very perplexed, who are going, this doesn't add up. He sent them away alone, But now he's there with them. How did he get there if there's only one boat? It doesn't make sense. While they're thinking of these things, now there came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Now it's as if a whole bunch of other people, and maybe even businessmen who owned boats, now they'd heard about this interaction, this exchange. A man who had taken care of this entire crowd. And now they're starting to say, hey, there's a business opportunity here. Let's get them to keep going where he is. It would take them a long time by land to get to where he's at. Let's go over to them, have them use our boats, we get paid, they go be where he is. There's intrigue from a lot of different angles here. People who want more of what Jesus can give them and the people who want to use others because of what they want to get out of Jesus. Oh, but that only happens in Bible times, right? You see? This still happens today. God forbid it happens in buildings called churches, but it does. It truly does. Verse 24, so when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the small boats. The planned work, the business owners of those boats said, yeah, we're gonna take advantage of this. You have a problem, we got the solution. Let's all be happy together. The people took the bait. They themselves got into the small boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. And you say to yourself, well, they're seeking Jesus. This narrative will go on to tell us it was not for the right reasons. Many people seek Jesus. You just, you say to yourself, Pastor, you just said no one seeks God. No, not one, you're right, because there are two different types of seeking. There's a seeking God knowing I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. You can't do that unless God reveals to you that you're a sinner in need of a Savior. You say to yourself, but I know that I genuinely sought God, yes and amen, because of the work that God did for you. You had that responsibility and you did that action. But before God, before God, before, excuse me, before God does something in your life, no one seeks God. No one. Instead, what do we do? We seek what will benefit us. What will build my program? What will create my kingdom? What will satisfy me? If going to church will do it, sure, I'll do it. If praying a prayer will do it, sure, I'll do it. If repeating a rote line will do it, why not? You see how this happens all the time? This was not something that only happened then. These same sinful characteristics are still happening today. So these people are seeking Jesus, many of them, for the wrong reasons. This is an intriguing circumstance. Look secondly at verse 25. Look at the question the crowd raises, the crowd's question. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, teacher, when did you get here? Now, if I were part of that crowd, that's probably not the question I would be thinking. I'd be thinking, how'd you get here? How'd you do it? It doesn't make sense. But the question they ask gives kind of the motivation, it gives the heart behind what they were really after. How'd you get from under my thumb? I was keeping tabs on you. I didn't see you leave. How'd you get over there? When'd you get here? You're here to serve me. So what happened? This question by itself demonstrates the radical depravity that's in each one of us as human beings. This question represents not a spiritual perception of I don't know how you did that, but somehow you made it to the other side of the sea in the midst of a crazy storm, unharmed, without a boat. You didn't go by land. We would have seen that. The only person who can control the sea is Yahweh. Instead of recognizing that and humbly submitting to Him as Lord, falling on their face, they instead look at Him and say, hey teacher, teacher, when did you get here? Could have told us. Maybe I'm looking into that a little bit too much. But the question promotes this idea of we didn't know about this. This isn't according to our agenda, our plan. It demonstrates a heart of pride. Hey, what you just did was out of my control and I don't like that. I'll never forget the day that I met with a biblical counselor and he sat me down, he said, what's going on? I expressed to him the anger that I was feeling. And he said, well, I think there's a number of things going on, but I think biblically I can say this to you and it'd be true. I think you have a Messiah complex. I kind of chuckled to myself, I thought, what? What'd you just say? I said, I've heard that phrase, but I don't know what that means. He said, you wanna be in control of everything all the time. And when stuff's out of your control, you don't like it. And you let everybody in your world know about it. I said, wow. You just nailed me down. In our pride, we want to be in control of situations. We want to be in control of events. We want to be in control of circumstances. When things don't go the way that we want, we begin to ask questions. We show our heart. We show the pride within us. We start to get angry. We start to lash out. I'm not saying this hypothetically. This is real life stuff. but in order to maintain an atmosphere, an image of pomp and circumstance, we'll ask questions. When'd you get here? Why aren't you serving me? You see how the question reveals the heart? Notice in verses 26 and 27, the Lord's answer. The intriguing circumstances, the crowds questioned the Lord's answer. Jesus answered them and said, I love when Jesus does this sort of thing. He gives them an answer, but not to the question that they asked. Do you know why? Because there's a greater reality, there's a greater problem that they need to be thinking about. It's not, when did he get here? It's not even how did you get here? It's who are you? Who are you? Because no one can do the things that you do unless God is with them. That sounds like what Nicodemus said, right? Jesus answered them and said, now notice how he answers, truly, truly, I say to you, AKA, what I'm about to tell you is the most important thing you've ever heard in your life up to this moment. Do not let these words pass you by. with the same authority that Jesus spoke those things to that crowd on that day as his word goes forth by the power of his spirit every time this word is read. And those words, truly, truly, I say to you, whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian, you need to be listening. You need to be like that dog at home when you say, treat. I'm engaged. I'm actively listening. Don't let this pass you by. He said, truly, truly, I say to you, I believe four or five times in this one account. This is one of those instances. Don't let these words pass you by. This is God speaking to you. He says, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled." He was pointing out their materialistic motivation. And also pointing out their glaring blindness to these spiritual realities. He says, you want me, you seek me, you desire me, not because of who I am, but because of what you want. This happens all too often today. People don't want to be filled with the truth of who God is and all of his holiness and his desire to save and his power to save and his son who saves. They don't want to hear about sin. They don't want to hear about hell. They don't want to hear about repentance. I just want you to fill me with good things. Give me candy. My son, he's six, pray for him, he has to go get a filling. And my wife and I went back and forth, we're going, it's baby teeth, what's the big deal? He's gonna lose them anyways. And we thought, no, this would be best. He goes, dad, why do I need a filling? Because you eat too much candy. He said, I eat too much candy. I just watch what you and mom do. Yeah, okay. Different story. Do as I say, not as I do. It's what we want. This tastes better. It feels better. It looks better. It'll make me happier. Why would I want to eat broccoli when I can have sour Skittles? Why would I want to hear hard truth? Why would I want to take the hard truths of the gospel, like taking down those sour, that sour medicine that will bring healing to your soul? Why would I want to go through that pain and that discomfort when, Pastor, you could just tell me about how to be prosperous and how to make every day a Friday? You're not here to make me feel bad, Pastor. You're here to encourage me. I'm here to give you the truth. And as much as people say, I want the truth, I want the truth, I want the truth, and people, we live in a world that's relativistic, and people say, well, that's your truth, this is my truth. You can have your truth, I'll have my truth. We'll all just be a people of the truth. We deny the truth of the gospel, the truth of God, and the truth of our sinfulness on a consistent basis, because we want candy. Paul says to Timothy in one of his last letters, he says, just be mindful, be ready. In the last days, people are gonna have itching ears. They want their ears to be tickled. They don't want their ears full of hard things. They want their ears full of pleasing things. Is this not what happened in the very beginning? When the serpent came, Satan himself and tempted Eve. Adam was right there. Letting it all just happen. Oh, Eve, you can't do that. Then step up. Do something. Lead. Oh, no, this is her. This is her. This isn't me. That's that woman that you gave me, Lord. Blame shifting. Pride. This is exactly what Satan himself did. He tempted Eve with something far less but packaged it in such a way that made it look so much better. Something that won't satisfy. She took the bait. Adam went right along with it. And the rest is history. And what did Satan do? He promised something greater by giving a lie. That was the first example of the prosperity gospel. It was right there. Here's something that's not true, but it sounds really good. Just take it and run with it, and your life will be great. We saw how that worked, and we feel the effects of that every single day. This interaction is no different, and Jesus is calling these people out right where they stand, and he does this out of his love, out of his desire that they would be saved, that they would come to repentance and faith. He gives the truth, and he's not partial about it. He gives it to everybody. If there's anyone who could say, I know you're gonna believe, I know you're not, it would have been Jesus. But Jesus didn't pick and choose. Jesus said, all of you need this truth. Many of you will reject it. Some of you will repent and believe. Some of you will take it to heart. That's why he often said to those who have ears to hear, let them hear, and those who have eyes to see, let them see. eyes and ears that have been given by God, demonstrating a heart that has been changed. Jesus answered them and said, truly, truly, I say to you in a rebuke, you seek me not because you saw signs, but why? Because you ate of the loaves and were filled. You came all this way not because you know of your need, but because you want more of what can't satisfy you. This is what so many people do today, right? Maybe what you and I have done. Maybe even what you and I are still doing. We're treating Jesus like a genie. Like he's our servant. Lord, I prayed all the right prayers, now do what I tell you to do. God forbid. That's blasphemy. And yet there are churches and pastors who promote this message. Oh, you're not getting what you're not getting because you don't have enough faith. You know how damning that is? You know how twisting of the Scriptures that is? It's exactly what Satan did. And here is a man who not only does miraculous signs that point to a greater reality, but he also in his love says, This is what you need and this is what you're doing and you have to know who you are before you can be saved. You have to know who you are, who you're sinning against before you can be saved from the one that you're sinning against. So he gives him a hard truth. Then he follows it up in verse 27 with, A promise and an assurance. A command, a promise, and an assurance. He says, do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life. There's the command. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life. Don't live for what will damn you. Live for what will save you. Jesus says do not work. Does that mean he's promoting laziness? Absolutely not. Faith always works. That's why James says, if you say you have faith, but you don't have any fruit or works to demonstrate that faith, your faith is dead. Faith is always working, but it's not working to earn salvation or to keep us in right standing with God, to keep our salvation. We couldn't work hard enough for that. Instead, faith promotes good works in our lives that are motivated by the love of God as seen in Christ on the cross. Motivated by his love to motivate and encourage, produce obedience. Not to check a box, but to say this is what I was made for. I was made to serve him, to love him, to worship him, to obey him. So Jesus is saying, you're obeying your stomach. You're obeying your feelings. You're obeying your heart. And ultimately, it's because you're obeying your master, the devil. Everybody has a master. Everybody. Everybody in the world has a master. It's either the devil or it's God. And God in human flesh is now saying, look what you're doing and don't do it any longer. But he doesn't just say don't do something. He's compassionate and merciful enough to say, but do this instead. Work for the food which endures to eternal life. What is that work? We'll see it next week. It says in verse 29, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom you have sent. And attached to that belief, that saving faith, two sides of the same coin is repentance. Repent and believe. That's the work. He promises them something, he says, which the Son of Man, the one who has all authority, all power, given by God, will give to you. The Son of Man, as promised in Daniel, will be the one to give you eternal life when you work for the food which endures to eternal life. When you repent and believe, God in Christ will save you. He will give you the life that you could never gain for yourself. He will cause a dead man to rise, to be made alive unto God, to be justified, sanctified, glorified, as Romans 8 says. Then he follows that with an assurance. For on him, the Son of Man, the Father God, has set his seal. A seal would have been known in this time. Kings, people in authority would set a seal on something. It would not only mean I'm giving approval to this thing, I agree with this thing, I believe in this thing, but it was authenticating the thing that was then sealed. This is right, this is true, this is what it is described, and I, the king, no one higher, am putting my stamp of approval on it. Is there anyone higher than God the Father? Absolutely not. And Jesus Christ, the Son of Man says, He has set His seal on me. He has sent me out of His great love. He's authenticated my work through the Word, through the prophets, through my baptism. He will authenticate my work on the cross. You will authenticate everything that I've done for he already has. I'm the only one who can save. I'm the only one who can give you what you so desperately need. And if you're a Christian, that's exactly what he's done for you. He's given you himself. And he came from heaven by his father. His father, as Ephesians 1 says, He chose you in Him before the foundation of the world. And no, that doesn't mean that God looked down the corridor of time and said, I wonder if they're gonna choose me. Yep, I'll choose them. That would mean God learned something that He didn't already know. Do you understand that? That would mean God is not omniscient. God is not omnipotent. I mean God's not God that would mean your salvation depends on you not on God but God sent his son Jesus in the name Jesus it means Yahweh saves Jesus is salvation he came to save his people from their sins in his very name it demonstrates his people can't save themselves So God sent his son, authenticated everything that his son was and what he did, and he said, you are being sent to save my people. And you will live in their place, and you will die in their place, and you will rise for them. And all who put their faith in Christ will be saved. But before we move on and say amen and go on with the rest of the service, I just want you to think about the masses of people, the billions of people in this world right now who work for the food which perishes. Just think about them. They are working tirelessly They are, as the disciples were, straining at the oars, getting nowhere. They are in a constant storm, but they think everything's fine. And these scriptures reveal to us everything is not fine. You, in fact, are not fine. You're working. And some of them are doing great things. Providing food for individuals, giving money to people who lost everything in those fires. Those are great things. But they're not working for the food which endures to eternal life. They don't know Christ. They are anti-God. Scripture says they're an enemy of the cross of Christ. And yet God sent his son. And every time the word goes forth, every time the gospel goes out, anyone who hears has now heard about the way to be made right with God. It's one thing to say to yourself, man, I'm glad I'm out of that storm. Man, I'm glad I'm not working for that anymore. I'm glad I won't perish. And don't miss that word perish. the food that perishes. He was not just talking about a shelf life. He was talking about an eternity, an eternity. Do you see? He was talking about hell. Just think, as you leave today, you're gonna be driving next to somebody who's working for food that perishes. You're gonna be going to work, dealing with a difficult person, but you need to be reminded, it's probably because they're working for the food that perishes. A family member that you've prayed for, or maybe even that you have put a stiff arm out to and said, I don't want anything to do with you anymore. Are they working for the food that perishes? Or do they know Christ? Christians, since you've been saved, You need to see people differently. And you need to have sympathy and empathize with the worst of the worst because that's what you and I were. Paul says, it's a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am for most of all. I'm the chief of sinners. Your mentality should not be a mentality of partiality, as James says, James 2, of I don't wanna talk to them, I don't wanna deal with them, I don't wanna look at them, I don't wanna be around them. They don't deserve what I have. Or to do like so many reformed people do, I don't wanna throw my pearls to swine. I'm thankful God in Christ did not do that for these individuals. Did not say that. I'm thankful He didn't say it to me. Instead, we need to be an impartial people who now sees people in the way that they actually are. Whether they're at the top of the food chain or the lowest of the low, if they're outside of Christ, they need Christ. We need to give them the truth that brings salvation. Just like our Savior did. It's amazing to see all the things that our Savior did in these accounts. John says if we wrote down everything that he did, not all the books in the entire world would be able to hold all the records of the accounts that our Savior did during his time. We see so many things that he did, but it often makes me think about the things that he didn't do. He didn't pass these people by. Instead, He answered the real question. He got to the heart of the matter for their good, whether they realized it or not. That's how faithful of a Savior that we have. And that's how we need to be with every person that we come in contact with. Everybody's working. but some are working for food that'll perish. Which one are you? Are you living for yourself? Are you living to please yourself, to build your own kingdom? Are you living for your feelings? Are you, God forbid, coming into a building like this, being surrounded by saints and saying, I'm just here to hear more of the scripture, but not actually do what it says. Because I want to feel good about myself. I want to be able to say I've got more Bible underneath my belt. God forbid. God forbid if that's us. Instead, what we ask every single week is that the Holy Spirit would use His word to transform us. Everybody can get more information. We are after transformation. We want to be conformed in the image of Jesus Christ. And a part of that is recognizing who we were, what God did, and now looking at people with the lens of they're either in Christ or they're not. What have I been called to do? Let's pray. Lord, would you continue to give us strength to do what your word says? Would you continue to make us thankful and grateful people? Thankful that we have a savior? who spoke words that were not always so nice to hear but were exactly what we needed. Thank you that your spirit changed us. Thank you that you've sealed us with your spirit or help us to live by the spirit in these ways. To be grateful for all that we've been given in Christ. to minister to others, and even through our good works, to demonstrate what God and Christ has done for us. Not to promote ourselves, but to give all glory and honor back to you, Father. Lord, for the one who's never believed in Jesus, I pray, God, that you would do for them what they could never do for themselves. Draw them to yourself right now. Give them the gifts of faith and repentance. and help them to know that they have a savior who is willing and able to save. We ask all this in the strong name of Jesus, amen.