I pray that God will speak to our hearts today. Matthew chapter 26. We're going to start reading in verse 45 for our text this morning. Verse 45. Of course, I'm going to ask those who are willing and able to stand with me please as we share together the reading of the Word of God. While he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came up, accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs, who came from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he who was betraying him gave them a sign, saying, Whoever I kiss, he is the one sees him. Immediately Judas went to Jesus and said, Hail, Rabbi, and kissed him. And Jesus said to him, Friend, do what you have come for. Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, Put your sword back into its place. for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword? Or do you not think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled which say it must happen this way? At that time Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me, as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place to fulfill the scriptures of the prophets. Then all the disciples left him and fled." Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the truth of Your Word. We thank You for the record of the life of Jesus Christ. We thank Heavenly Father for His absolute, total, and complete submission to doing your will, even though He knew it would cost Him His life in the end. But He had His eyes on greater things, which was the salvation of my soul and the salvation of every soul that would repent of their sins and put their faith in You and trust You as their personal Savior. And our hearts are are true this morning to the fact that if there's one here without Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, that that person would be so deeply convicted of their sins that they would immediately repent, put their faith in Jesus Christ, and know Him eternally as their Savior and have the hope of eternal life. But we pray also, Father, those of us who know you personally this morning, that we will be revived in our hearts to submit to you whatever your will may be, for we know that you are a good God and you cannot absolutely make any wrong decisions for our lives. Now God, clear out anything that would interfere with our understanding of your word today. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Thank you and please be seated this morning. And so we got to get the context of what's going on here a little bit. I always feel like the context is king. I tell you that all the time. So when you study the scriptures, you will know exactly what it says, not take anything out of context. You take it out of context. You can make it whatever you want to say. We try not to do that. I trust you try not to do that as well. So Jesus Christ is in the garden of Gethsemane. He's been there for a while now, and he is setting forth what exactly is going to happen next. He's retired there with 11 of his disciples. Judas is gone. He enters into Gethsemane, the garden of Gethsemane, where the olive trees are. He leaves eight of his men at the gate, and he takes three of them with him further and deeper into the garden. Peter, James, and John. Matthew does not tell us who they are by name. He simply says they're the sons of Simon Zebedee, but Peter and James are the ones who takes, and John is the ones he takes deeper into the garden with him. And he tells them and he commands them, I want you to stay awake. He commands them to stay awake. He doesn't give them an option. He says, this is what I want you to do. I want you to stay awake. This is my command to you. And I'm telling you this because you're going to enter into temptation. Now, Jesus has already told us that Peter, that Satan has already asked for Peter to tempt him. I believe this is indicative not only of Peter, but I believe it's indicative also of James and John as well, because I believe all three of those men were the leaders of the disciples at that particular time, and so they were under intense scrutiny by Satan. And so he takes these three with him deeper into the garden. He commands them to stay awake and to pray. He says, you need to pray that you fall not into temptation. Why does he worry about them falling into temptation? Because the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. This is the problem that Jesus saw. That the flesh was weak. He knew that would be the temptation for them. So he commands them to get on their knees and to pray so they would not fall into the temptation of the flesh. So Jesus himself goes further into the garden. He leaves the three behind. He's got the 11 at the gate. He's got three there somewhere in the garden. Then he goes further into the garden, deeper into the garden. He goes alone into the garden. Normally, Jesus would take all of his disciples with him. Because, you know, one time they said, teach us to pray, Lord. And so Jesus would take his disciples and teach them how to pray. He didn't do that this time. Why not? Because when he goes deeper into the garden, he says, I'm going to pray, Father, not my will, but thy will be done. In other words, what he's going to pray when he goes deeper into the garden is this, I want to go do your will, even if it means I'm going to the cross and die for the sins of these people, or die for the sins of your creation. Peter, James, and John couldn't get a hold of that. There was no reason for Jesus to take Peter, James, and John with him further into the garden. It would have been useless because they could not have prayed like Jesus wanted them to pray. They were doing everything in their power to keep Jesus from dying. Jesus was doing everything in his power to die. So they were opposite ends of the pole. He couldn't take them with him into the garden. They wouldn't understand what he was praying about. He was praying about going to the cross. He was praying about dying as the savior of the world. He was praying about giving his blood there. They were not interested in Jesus Christ dying on the cross. And so for them to go with him would have been meaningless to them. They wouldn't understand. They couldn't comprehend that. And so Jesus knew he had to go alone. He had to die alone. He had to go alone. He had to pray alone because of what he was praying for. So we find him going into the garden alone. Notice what it says. Well, let's back up a little bit. I probably needed to back up a little bit in chapter 26 here. We find that Jesus is praying about the will of God being accomplished in his life. Let's back up again to verse 42. We'll skip a little bit. Back up to verse 42 where he said, he went again a second time and prayed saying, my father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done. He goes back, he finds him asleep a third time, and then the third time he goes back and he prays the same thing, father, if this cannot pass, your will be done. That was a prayer that was impossible for these men to pray because they were thinking that Jesus Christ was the King who was going to set up His Kingdom upon the earth. They could not comprehend this. What Jesus was praying here, Thy will be done, in my mind would be comparable to your son coming up to you and saying to you, Mom, Dad, I believe that God is calling me to be a missionary to Iran. I believe God wants me to go to Iran or Iraq and I believe God wants me to be a missionary there. Now immediately when your son tells you they're going to be a missionary there, your mind is going to say, no wait a minute son, I don't know what you, I don't think that's a good thing. I don't think you need to go there. I don't think you need to be a missionary because there's severe danger in Iran and Iraq. If you go there and be a missionary, more than likely you're going to be tortured. More than likely you're going to be killed for your faith. Son, I don't know about you going there. You see, We kind of pause a little bit when God's will is upon the hand of our son to go someplace where they might be killed. Or if your daughter comes up to you, she's married to a missionary, your daughter says, you know, my husband and I, God is leading my husband and me to go to Iran or Iraq. Could you pray that God's will be done knowing that you're going to send your son or send your daughter and son-in-law into a place like Iran or Iraq knowing probably they are going to be at least severely persecuted in prison if not killed for their faith in following the Word of God. Could you pray, God I want your will to be done in my son's life no matter what it is. That would be a hard prayer to pray. It would be a hard prayer to pray. If you knew your child was going to be beaten for their faith or flogged for their faith or stripped of their dignity for their faith, could you pray, God Not my will, but your will. You will be done, God. If you knew your wife or your husband or your child was going to be tortured for their faith and for their stand for God Almighty, could you pray, God, your will be done. Not my will be done, God, but your will be done in my husband's life if he takes a stand for Christ and he's going to lose his life. Your will be done. If my wife takes a stand for Christ and I know that she's going to be tortured or treated indignantly, could you pray, Father, your will be done, not my will be done, whatever you want. Be hard to do, the people that you love. Well, Jesus' own disciples were not ready to pray what Jesus was praying for. They were not ready to join Jesus in the prayer that he was praying for. Jesus knew they could not pray like he was going to be praying. Now, a little bit later on, things changed. They came to an understanding of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and they began to put their faith in God a little more, and they began to pray, you know, not my will, but thy will be done. But this particular time, they couldn't reach that aspect of Christ's prayer. As we transform, transition from the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was praying, not my will be done, but thy will be done, into where we are today, which is the arrest of Jesus Christ, let me summarize what Jesus' three prayers amounted to. Those three prayers that Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane amounts to one word, submission. That's all you need to know. about what Jesus Christ was praying in the garden. He talks about it being an image of drinking from a cup. Now, the image of drinking from a cup is nothing new. It's used often as a metaphor for submission to God's will. And what's in the cup was some incredible suffering that his submission to God would require. You say, well, what was in the cup? What was in the cup? If you were able to look into God's cup, what you would see is the eternity of hell. If you were able to look into the cup that Jesus Christ was talking about here, you would see the cost of being brought into unity with God. If you were able to see into the cup, you would see the eternity and suffering of an eternal hell. If you were able to look into the cup, you would see all of the wrath of a holy God being poured out upon sin. If you were able to look into the cup, you would see just how much God hates sin. That's what you would see in the cup. The cup was boiling with every kind of sin imaginable, and Jesus was going to drink of the cup. He's going to drink of that cup. And while what was in the cup was certainly offensive and violent, and while what was in the cup was repulsive and revolting, the final struggle actually came down to this, not my will, but thy will be done. Now Christ looked into the cup. He saw what was in the cup. He knew what was in the cup. He didn't describe what was in the cup, but instead what he said, here's my final struggle. It's not what's in the cup. My final struggle is not my will, but thy will be done. That was the final struggle that Jesus Christ was facing at this particular time. This was the obstacle that he had to overcome. He didn't detail what was in the cup. He didn't detail the suffering that was in the cup. Isn't it interesting that at the end of the life of Christ, it comes down to this, thy will, not my will, but thy will be done. Jesus didn't argue about the love of God. Jesus didn't argue about the justice of God. He didn't argue about the mercy of God. He didn't argue about the grace of God. He didn't argue about the righteousness of God. He struggled with the will of God. Isn't that interesting? He's the Son of God. He is equal with God in every way. He has, as the Son of God, He has His own will. He has His own individual will. And you say, how do you know that? Because the Trinity, the three in one, is made up of three persons. In order for you to be a complete and total person, you must possess your own will. Jesus Christ possessed His will, God the Father possessed His own will, and God the Holy Spirit possessed His own will. And all three of them lived in perfect harmony and unity and oneness. They operated in perfect unity and harmony and oneness at all times. You say, how is that possible? I don't know. I don't know. I don't understand the Trinity. And I'll be honest with you, when I get to heaven, I'm probably still not going to understand the Trinity because I will always be and forever be a finite person and God Almighty is infinite in every way. I'll never, will never understand God because of His infinity and our finiteness. There's a line there that cannot be crossed. Even in eternity, folks, we're not going to be like God. without beginning, without end. Not going to be there. Even though I believe Jesus had a choice, and He did, His faith in His Father is going to triumph. And that's what we're going to see from this point forward until the time that He breathes His last breath on the cross. And that's called submission, which demonstrates itself in obedience. You don't have submission without obedience. There's no such creature. Doesn't happen. Doesn't exist. Not gonna be there. The Bible says, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself. Did you hear what he said there? Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. even death on the cross." You see those words there, three words, he humbled himself. What you could write there is submission, because submission led to his obedience, even death, to the point of death, death on the cross. When you surrender your will to another, you surrender control over your life to someone else. When you surrender your will to someone else's will, that is called being obedient. When you surrender your will, you cancel your will, you abandon your will, you revoke your will, you terminate your will, you die to self. That doesn't mean that your will ceases to exist. Your will is part of your being as a creation of God. You're always going to have a will. But what we're talking about here is that will being in submission to another person. You purposely choose to bring your will in alignment with the will of somebody else. You purposely will to have your will commandeered by somebody else. Jesus said this, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work, John 4, 34. Again in John 5, 19, Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. And then finally in John 6, 38, For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." Therein is our struggle. What would it be like for you to give yourself into total control of somebody else? You ever thought about that? What would it be like to give total control over your life to your wife. What would it be like for you to give total control of your life over to your husband? Total! I mean, you don't argue, you don't discuss, you just say, whatever your will is, that is exactly what, what would it be like for even children to give total control over themselves to their parents? We all got that argumentative nature within us when somebody wants us to do something we don't want to do. But what would it be? What would that be like? What would that look like? That is probably, I'll be honest with you, from my own perspective, one of the scariest thoughts I've ever had. I'm telling you the truth. I love my wife. And she's sweet and kind and nice and all that. But the thought of giving her absolute, total, unquestionable control over my life still bothers me. You know, no arguing from me, just whatever you say. You know, no question from me, whatever you say. Oh, man. We really don't understand what I'm talking about. We don't. And we never will. There's one who did. His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. And he gave himself so completely over to God. He didn't question God. He didn't argue with God. He sought completely the will of God. He melded his will with his Holy Heavenly Father above. That is what makes him so righteous. When he gave his will over to God, he knew that God would never tell him to do anything wrong and that everything he did was right. Therefore, that equals righteousness Jesus Christ was the only one who could ever accomplish what we would never be able to accomplish and give himself totally over to God and die on the cross for our sins and take that righteousness that he had as a result of obedience to the will of God to us only one only one and his name is Jesus that was able to accomplish that he submitted completely Pick the scene up in verse 47. Pick the scene up in verse 47. While he was still speaking, behold, Judas one of the 12 came up and accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs who came from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he who was betraying him gave them a sign saying, whoever I kiss, He is the one, seize him. Immediately, Judas went to Jesus and said, hail, rabbi, and kissed him. And Jesus said to him, friend, do what you have come for. And then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized him, seized him. What I want you to see is how Jesus Christ gave God control over all of His relationships. Did you notice that? Jesus was giving God control over all of his relationships. It was the will of God for Jesus Christ to go out here and pick Judas as one of his disciples. That was God's will for Jesus to do that. Jesus already told us, I don't do anything in my own initiative. I only do what the Father's will is. And the Father's will was for him to go out here, find Judas, pick Judas, knowing that when he picked Judas, Judas was going to betray him. He knew that from the very beginning when he picked Judas. He knew that. There was no doubt in his mind Judas was going to betray him. He knew that. He knew it. Jesus submitted to his father's will even in this relationship with Judas. Now, I am not suggesting that God wants you to go choose friends to be with people who will betray you. That's not what I'm suggesting. I don't believe that that is what this particular passage of scripture is teaching you. But I do believe that what we're learning here is that God does have principles by which we are to pick and choose our relationships. It's very important. James made this observation. He said, "...you adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." James 4 and 4. We cannot be intimate friends with lost people because the world, i.e. lost people, is an enemy of God. There's hostility between them and God. Lost people do not share your view of life. They will never share your view of life. Christians try to ignore this principle. They become intimate with the lost person. And before you know it, the lost person says, we need to have sex because everybody else in the world is having sex. And so that lost person has a different total view of sexuality than you do as a child of God. And so often Christians get caught up in that. Immoral sexual life because they become friends with a lost person and they have to pay the price for that Christians ignore that I've had I've had I've had church members come up to me and say you know what I want to get married to so-and-so over here and I talked to so-and-so over here and you know what so-and-so over here is lost and I have to tell that church member who's gone to church I can't marry you you're gonna marry a lost person I refuse to do that Bible says that we are not to be wed together like that Unequally yoked You know, there's some very very nice and kind and gentle lost people out there in the world who want to be your intimate friend No doubt about it But they don't have the same view of God that you have and I don't care how good they are I don't care how stable they are. I don't care how much money they make I don't care how attractive they are or how stable they are that they have a core that's different from you because you are lost and You're lost. They're lost. You're saved. You're a child of God. They are an enemy of God. You don't date a lost person. And you teach your children. They're not going to date a lost person. There is no ifs, ands, and buts about this. This is the will of God. You put your foot down and say, this is it. You're not going to go any further. You're going to do this. It's not God's will. You know it's not God's will. Submit to the will of God in all of your relationships. Don't go with your gut feeling. Don't go with your desires. Don't go with how attractive somebody is. Don't go with how much attention they pay to you. They're lost. They're lost. Verse 51. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels? Did you notice how Peter responded here? Matthew doesn't tell us who it is, John tells us that it was Peter that took his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest. When Peter saw what was happening, he understood what was going to happen, that Jesus Christ was going to be arrested and maybe worse. He became very anxious and he took things into his own hands. What you're looking at here is a man who is fearful. As a result of his fear, he took things into his own hands. At that point, he had a sword. That's what he used. Fear will always make you try to take things into your own hands. Fear will always try to make you take control of the situation. Taking control out of the hands of God and putting control into your own hands. Peter was not submitting to the will of God. He was submitting to his fear. But you say this was a terrible situation. Something should have been done. I'm telling you that if Peter would have really understood what the will of God was, he would not have pulled out his sword and he would not have cut off the ear of the servant. But he didn't understand what the will of God was. He had no idea what the will of God was. So he takes things into his own hands. And comes up with what? His own solution. And that's what we do. when fear sets in. Do you think when these guys came up and Judas kissed him and he saw all the lanterns and the torches and saw the clubs and the garrison of the Roman army, do you think Jesus for one second, for one second, do you think Jesus was sitting there scared out of his gourd? I don't think so. What I see here is a man who has calmness. I see a man who's not worried, who's not anxious, who's not upset, and who's not fearful. But I see all the opposite in Peter. All the opposite in Peter. Jesus, I believe, is at peace. I believe He's calm. I believe He's tranquil. He was at peace with the will of God even though it meant suffering and pain and ultimately death. Paul warned us. He said, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ, are you ready? Will be persecuted. You ready for that? That is the truth. That is what is going to happen. That is your reality. That is your future. It is the Word of God. It is what is going to happen. It will happen. There's no denying it. It has happened. It will happen. How are you going to get through that? How are you going to get through that reality? Jesus was confident that he was going to suffer according to the will of God. We must have the same confidence when it comes to facing hard, difficult, and painful times in our own lives. Jesus said this, he said, blessed are you, blessed are you, that means happy, joyful. Joyful are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. So, how settled are you with the economy right now? You happy about the way things are going with your money? You happy about all this inflation? You happy about what the future might have for you? Are you happy about what you got in your retirement account? You a little worried about what you got in your retirement account? You afraid you might not have enough in your retirement account? You a little concerned about the economy crashing? How about it? What's going to happen? What about the coming food crisis? What about the coming election? Who is going to be the President of the United States of America? See, folks, if we're getting all shook up about all this kind of stuff, it's because we are not doing exactly what Jesus Christ is teaching us to do here, which is to pray His words, not my will, but your will be done. Now, forgive me. Forgive me, and I don't mean to be crass. Okay, sometimes I can be, and sometimes I am on purpose, but that's not this morning. But you're a fool if you think you control anything in this world. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. Anything in this life or anything in this world. The Bible says this, he who trusts in his own heart is a fool. That's the Bible. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. Proverbs 28, 26. Fools trust themselves. Fools trust themselves. Fools believe that they are in control. A fool believes he's in total control. He's a fool. Don't you fall in that category. What did the Bible say? The Bible says and said you ought to pray if the Lord wills. If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or do that. You don't know what a day holds. You've got your plans, but God's got your steps. The Lord knows what the day holds. God does everything according to his will. And peace and contentment and joy is only found in the sovereignty of a holy God. Verse 54, verse 54. Then how will the scriptures be fulfilled which say this must happen this way? At that time, Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place to fulfill the scriptures of the prophets. And all the disciples left him and fled. So Jesus says all of this is in accordance with prophecies. My future was foretold. My future was laid out. My future was all planned out by God. And not only is God therefore in control of the here and now, we find that God is also in control of our futures. And I'll be honest with you folks, the futures don't look good to me. I love America. I love living in America. But I'm telling you, the future, if we continue to go down the road we are going, we are going to be headed for socialism. If we continue to go down the road we are going, we are headed for extreme sexual impurity and perversion in every way unimaginable. You cannot even, we're at a place now that I can't even imagine where we are. We're going down a road today where people actually say, you know what, it's alright for you to kill a baby. I mean to kill a baby. They know it's a baby. They know it's got a heartbeat. They know that it is alive and they're still going to kill it. You know this whole AI stuff that's coming on? It's going to change everything. They're going to be able to charge you with things that you did not do, and you're going to look like you were as guilty as sin of having done it. They're going to take your bank accounts. There's going to be a one world government that's going to be ruled by Satan. He hates God and everything about God. As a Christian, you are going to be denied your medical attention. And I got to get that. What did Jesus say? Let me remind you again. Rejoice and be glad. For your reward in heaven is great. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. That's not some pithy little saying that Jesus said in order to boost our morale. Jesus is manifesting this very principle in the way that he was living and the way he was in the garden and the way he came out of the garden and faced his persecution and his death on the cross. The Bible says this, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Listen, Jesus was not rejoicing about being on the cross, but he was rejoicing about what was on the other side of the cross. which led him to rejoice through the cross. There's a difference. Jesus looked ahead and he firmly believed that he was going to be resurrected. And he says, I'm going to sit down at the right hand of God or the throne of God. And that promise brought him joy. He believed that. He believed that because he believed he was going to be resurrected. I believe that Jesus was resurrected. And because Jesus was resurrected, beloved, I believe with all my heart There's a new heavens and there's a new earth. And I believe that there's a new city of Jerusalem that's going to come from heaven and it's going to set up its place on the new earth upon which I am going to be. And I believe that Jesus, the Lamb of God, is going to be on the new earth. And I believe He's going to be with men, He's going to dwell with men, and His light is going to be the light of lights. And I believe with all of my heart that it says that he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will no longer be any death and no longer any mourning or crying or pain for the first things have passed away. I believe that is the future that God has for me. With all my heart. Giving someone control over all of your life is not easy. When we submit to the will of another person, we become that person. Their thoughts become our thoughts. Their desires become our thoughts. What they love becomes what we love. They dictate every aspect of our life. That's what obedience is. Beloved, that's God's desire for you. If you don't measure up to that standard, you're a sinner. You've broken God's laws. There's a place called hell that's waiting you for breaking His laws. But Jesus did everything the Father wanted done and He lived a righteous life. He died on the cross a righteous man with your sins upon Him to take your place to be your substitute so that you could have eternal life. And He offers that to you this morning. You say, what convinced Jesus to exactly do what he did? Because he believed that God was good, that God could not make any mistakes. If he placed his life into the hands of God, that God could not make any mistakes and that God would do exactly what God said he would do and that God had the power to do what he said he would do. God will do that if you'll repent of your sins and put your faith in him, he will save you. He died an eternal death that you would not have to die. He paid hell for you, and He wants you to repent of your sinful, absolutely good, empty life. You don't have anything good to offer Him today. Brother R.D.' 's going to come, and Adalind, we're going to prepare for an invitation hymn this morning. You're not going to make it on any good works because you don't have any good works. Every work if you've ever done that you thought was good is tainted with selfishness. We're all self-centered. That's the bottom line. We all want to do our will. That's the bottom line. That's what makes you a sinner. Your will not aligning up with God's will. You're a sinner because of that. And he sent Jesus Christ to Be perfectly obedient. Accomplish His will. Accomplish the righteousness that you need this morning. I want you to stand with me please. Brother R.D. is going to introduce our hymn. We're going to pray and then we're going to sing. 519. Heavenly Father, we come before you once again this morning. We've read your word now. We've understood what happened to Jesus Christ when he died on the cross. Not only do we understand the physical aspect of him being nailed to the cross and his blood actually coming out of his body and his heart actually stopping beating, but more than that, we understand that that old dead, limp body died in our place. He suffered all of hell. You poured out your wrath on Him on the cross. All the wrath that my sins deserved, all the wrath that the world deserves, Jesus Christ bore it all on the cross. And all we can do now is stand before you and praise your holy name and say, thank you God that I have eternal life because of Jesus. and His obedience, His submission and obedience to you that I could never accomplish. So, God, come into us now among this assembly today. Draw us close to You. And even those who are saved who think they're so good, I pray, Heavenly Father, that You would convict them of their selfishness and sinfulness and get right with You. But we also pray for the lost again, that somehow, someway, their old stony, cold heart would be broken And the warmth of the Spirit and power of the Spirit of God would fall upon them in such a way that they would almost literally fall on their faces and cry out, God save me. Save me from my sin. I trust Jesus and His blood on the cross. In His name we pray. Amen.