It is a joy to be with you all, truly. I know most of your faces and have loved getting to see you again. Some of you I look forward to seeing and getting to know just in the few moments we have afterward. But I, most of all, am excited to open the very Word of God with you this morning. So before we do that, would you pray with me? Our God and Father, we are looking to you for help. We cannot understand your word without you, and so we look to you for aid. By your Spirit, illumine our eyes to know you. Help us see Jesus. We want to know you more. Give us ears to hear hearts that are fresh and soft to the voice of the Spirit, that we would respond, that we would not just be hearers of the word, but we would be doers. Sanctify us in the truth, Lord. Your word is truth. Do this for the greatness of your name, for our good and for your abundant glory. We pray in the mighty, righteous, and faithful name of our great King Jesus. Amen. When I was a little boy, I woke up and ran eagerly to my parents' bedroom across the hall. And I banged on the door and said, Dad, what shirt are you wearing this morning? It might seem like a rather odd question for you, but it was common for me because my dad has worn the same thing since the 70s. It's pretty much a solid t-shirt, blue jeans, white socks. And so it wasn't too hard to guess what he was wearing, I just needed to know the color. Because I had in my dresser a broad variety of colored t-shirts. So he would say something like, oh, purple, and I'd go put on the purple shirt, and we'd be matching for the day. Because I wanted to match my dad, down to the last detail. I even had the dad shoes, like little tennis shoes, which seemed rather odd on a nine-year-old, but I loved it. And I wanted to dress like him. I wanted to sing hymns like he did. I wanted to walk like him. I would try and keep my pace with his long legs and basically jog in my short little legs as fast as they could go. Because I wanted to be like my dad. And I think that's common for most kids. They want to be like their dad. They love their dad and they want to resemble him. And today we're going to look at how Christians relate to God as Father. and how that changes their lives. Specifically, there are three truths we're going to explore this morning. First, we'll look at how God's love makes us children. Second, we'll see how being a child of God makes us one day look like Jesus. And third, we'll look at how being a child of God, who will one day be like Jesus, stirs us up to be like him now. Turn with me to 1 John chapter 3. while you're turning there. If you were to sum up the message of 1 John, it addresses two main ideas. First, who can have fellowship with God? It's the first question of 1 John. Who can have fellowship with God? And second, how does a person who has fellowship with God live? The people who have fellowship with God, John goes through in the first couple chapters, live like God. Another way he puts it right before our passage in verse 28 is that the one who abides in God lives in anticipation of his coming. The one who has been born of God lives righteously like God. And then we come to verse one of chapter three. Follow along as I read. Dear saints, this is God's word. Listen carefully. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. As we just noted, John has been going through the letter trying to explain what it means to have fellowship with God and what it means to live in light of fellowship with God. And in the end of verse 29, he mentions that the one who practices righteousness has been born of him or God. And it's almost as if these thoughts trigger an exciting notion for John that he just has to get out, almost like a kid on Christmas unveiling his favorite present. He says, see, it's the first word in our passage, see. And before we get to what we're supposed to see, I want us to realize that John is trying to get our attention. He says, see, look, notice this. And we notice. that there is a special kind of love the Father has given to us. We're supposed to see God's love as the focal point, the emphasis, the highlight of this sentence, the highlight, the focal point, the emphasis of this entire passage. If we miss the very beginning, we miss all of it. We have God's love as the first thing in our passage that John is highlighting. As he's excitedly talking about those who are born of God, he says, see what kind of love the Father has given us. So first, dear ones, look, see, God has given us his love. God has given us his love, love that makes us children of God. And if you look, he almost explains why the love is exciting and how the love is manifested when he says, see what kind of love, who? The father. The father gives us his love. He refers to God as a father. And what does a father call his offspring? Children. It's like a little boy saying, look at how my dad loves me. He calls me his son. And that's what John is saying. Child of God, see what love the Father has shown you that he calls you a child of God. But as amazing as that is, and it is amazing, John is saying even more. It's not just that God loves us. It's not just a love that makes us children. He says, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. This is some kind of love because of who he made his children, us. It's amazing because of who we were and what it took to change that. Christian, do you remember what you and I were before we met Jesus? The Bible says in Ephesians 2, we were children, not of God, but of wrath, just like the rest of mankind. Because of our sin, our parentage was wrath, our destiny was wrath, and our inheritance as children of wrath is the wrath of God or was the wrath of God. Our family, if you were, was a wrath family. At a fundamental level, our connection to God was only as enemy and stranger. And I spend time emphasizing the wrath not because I just woke up today and decided to ruin your afternoon with dismal thoughts, but because I care about the truth. And I would be a bad friend and a bad Christian if I didn't tell you the truth. But also I think it's important to clarify because there's a common misconception about God. A lot of people read in their Bibles or hear that God is love, and He is. Just a few verses after our passage, John says, God is love. He's the definition of love. And it can be easy to assume that God loves everyone in the same way, that God loves those who aren't His children the same way He loves those who are His children. But that's not what the Bible says. And even though it can be easy to fall prey to the idea that being human is what makes one a child of God, God has declared in his word that being human does not make you a child of God. Being born of God makes you a child of God. Jesus explains this to Nicodemus in John chapter three. Nicodemus comes to him late at night and asks Jesus and just tells him that he's a good teacher, and they begin to have a conversation where Jesus tells him, I tell you that you must be born again, which is an odd phrase, and Nicodemus says so. He asks, how can one be born again? Do I go back into my mother's womb to be born again? Every mom says, thankfully, no. The concept is confusing at first. But Jesus says you have to be born again, born of the Spirit, born of God, or you're not a child of God. That is the reality. You're a child of wrath like the rest of mankind. If you do not know God, if you have not turned from your sins, if you have not trusted in Jesus as your only hope of salvation, then the Bible says this is your destiny. You are without hope, you are without God, and your final end is eternity under the wrath of God. So then to Nicodemus' question, how does one become born of God? And the answer is short. But it is far from simple. God makes you a child of God. How does that happen? Galatians 4 tells us. We were slaves to sin, children of wrath, but Galatians 4.4 has amazing news. It says, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. God sent his son to make his enemies sons. He sent his beloved son Jesus to take the wrath we deserve, to bear the death we were destined to, and to give us life in himself. God put the fullness of his wrath on the son whom he loves in order to make his enemies have the fullness of his love. God put the fullness of his wrath on the son whom he loves in order that his enemies might have the fullness of his love. John 1.12 says this, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. To those who believe in the name of Jesus, who trust in his sacrifice alone to rescue them from their sins and from God's wrath, God gives the right to become children of God. And how does this happen? Again, John makes it clear, it doesn't happen by natural birth processes. It doesn't happen by trying really hard or by hoping your good outweighs your bad and giving it your best go ahead and hoping you squeak by at the last day. No, it happens by God and only God. We are born of God by God and who else can do this except the holy God. No one but God is able to make children of God. No one has the ability to change our name, our identity, our fate, or our destiny. It's much like in the movie Finding Nemo, when Dory, a little blue tang fish, discovers a jellyfish, and she happily declares, I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. The only thing is Squishy does not know or care that she has made him her own because Dory has neither the ability to name him, change him or call him her own. If you woke up this morning wondering what reasons you might have to praise the Lord, I have one for you, if nothing else, and there are many. But one might be God is not a royal blue tang fish named Dory. He is the one who has made us in his image, who named us, who rescued us, who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light and named us children of God. This is what John hints at when he says we should be called. We didn't name ourselves. We didn't call ourselves children. God calls us children. He is the one who rescued us. He is the one who called. He is the one who welcomes us into his family. It's all of God. So then, with that context, with that in our minds, we go back to 1 John chapter 3, And if you're in Christ, you can only echo yes and amen. See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. This is no ordinary love. Dear ones, this is great, amazing love. Love divine, all loves excelling. The hymn writer wrote it well when he said, amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? And if you've ever seen kids get picked up from an event, you might have seen the coordinators point to a particularly rowdy kid, which was usually me, and say, who does this one belong to? And the parents, again, usually mine, would sort of half shrug and say, yeah, that, he's ours. But God's not like that. And even though my parents only did that a few times that I can remember, God never does. He does not begrudge calling us His own. He does not owe us anything. And out of His great love and joy, He calls us His own. God calls everyone who believes in Jesus his child. He says to the believer, you are mine. You belong here. You belong with me. As Philippians 3.12 says, Christ Jesus has made us his own. He has sheep who know his voice. He has children who he calls his own. Now I know for many of us, a broken relationship with our earthly father can often cloud the image of God as our father. Perhaps the term father is not a friendly or loving term for you. If that is the case, dear ones, without ignoring the pain that you bear, I hope you can see the holy otherness of God. When you look at the cross of Christ, it can change your view. Because at the cross, God has given us a picture of love that is whole and perfect and far surpasses any love or lack thereof of an earthly father, exemplary or not. Whatever your past experience has been, God is the most loving and most kind and wonderful Father anyone can ever have or dream of. But even with that, here's how much sweeter it becomes. Look at the next part. See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God and what? So we are. So we are. The way the sentence is worded in the Greek is not just describing a one-and-done drop-off of God's love. When it says the love we have been given and we should be called, those are both actions that have happened in the past, but that does not mean that it has no effect on us today. These two actions in the past have created our present state. So we are. We were given love, we were called, and we are still God's children now. The love God has given is still ours now. What God has made cannot and will not ever be undone. Regardless of where you have been or what you have done, God welcomes the repentant as his child when you repent and believe in Jesus. That's part of the story of the prodigal son. What chance of returning home does the prodigal son have after he looks his dad in the eyes and says, Dad, I just want your money. Do whatever you need to, just give me the money that I want. None. What chance does he have when he squanders all the wealth that his kind father gave him? None. What hope does he have when he sits in the mud and filth of a pigsty, hoping that he might just eat the pig slop? And that's his biggest dream right now, is to eat the pig slop. And even that people won't give him. There's none. So when we fast forward to the end of the story, why do we see him dressed in fine clothes, welcomed in his father's house and presented with a feast? Because of the love of the father. The prodigal son knew he had no chance of that. He was not worthy to be called a slave, much less a son. And saints, this is our story. We squandered the common grace of life that God had given us. We lived in our sin, effectively declaring God dead and ourselves rulers in his place. And we found ourselves with nothing but the mud and filth of our own doing and our own sinful ways, but God. God runs to us, he rescues us, he slays not the fatted calf, but the unblemished lamb of his son, Jesus Christ, and brings us into his house as the true sons of God. And that is what we are. So we are children of God. And this is because of a great and unending love from a great and gracious God. This is some kind of love. So what does that mean for us? Look at the second half of verse one. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. At first glance, it might seem like a rather odd way to continue on a subject of the love of God and being a child of God. But it simply means this. Being a child of God means being unrecognizable by the world. Being a child of God means being unrecognizable to the world. Another way to say it, based on verse 13, just a few verses later, is that the world will hate us. Being a child of God means the world hates you. Why? Because they did not know Jesus. Jesus told them that he was the son of God, God himself, who came to seek and to rescue sinners and make them his own, and they still didn't get it. In fact, people today don't understand or know who Jesus really and truly is. And this is why they don't know us, because we belong to Him. As one commentator wrote, it should be no surprise that a world that rejected Christ should also reject His followers. When we live as God's Word commands us, we won't be recognized. As Philippians 2 says, when we do not grumble or complain, for example, we shine as lights, children of God in a crooked and ungodly world. When we live as God calls us to, they will know that we belong to God, that we are his children. When we love one another, they will know that we are his disciples. And yet, They will not know us because they have no understanding of what it means to be a child of God. They know that we belong to Christ, but since they don't really understand who Jesus is, they won't recognize us. They know that you read your Bible, that you are crazy enough to get up early on a Sunday morning when you could just sleep in and instead you go to church. They know that you are kind to others, that you call Jesus God and that's important to you, apparently, but they have no idea why that matters. They see you as just another human who happens to care about religion or spirituality, but they don't see you for who you really are, a child of God. If you are in Christ, the world will never know you as God knows you or sees you as God sees you, but whether or not the world approves or understands, You have a primary identity, and that is child of God. What's wonderful is that the world doesn't need to know us. We have been known by God the Father. That's why John repeats his statement in verse two. Beloved, we are God's children now. We are known as a child of God, regardless of who understands or not. So one of the results of being a child of God is that the world won't know us. Secondly, the result of being a child of God is that we will be like Jesus. Look at verse two with me. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Going back to verse two, we are God's children now. And at the same time, what we will be has not yet appeared. In essence, we have all the rights and privileges of being children of God and heirs with Christ right now, but we have not fully experienced all the benefits that those privileges we have are. We can approach the throne of grace with boldness because of Christ. We are fully righteous right now positionally before God. God has won the victory, and yet we still battle with the tension of sin in this world. John says, what we will be has not yet appeared. We aren't what we will be yet. This is the tension of the already not yet reality of being a child of God. We are the children of God right now with full benefits, rights, and privileges of being the child of the King of Kings and being a joint heir with Christ, but we have not experienced the full weight, the full reality of those benefits yet. Which to pause for a moment, that's good news. Your aches and your pains are not your new state. When you wake up and go, ow, it's just a reminder that this isn't home. Saints, this isn't our final form. We ain't home yet. And all God's people said, amen. Praise the Lord. This isn't it. This is not our best life now. John continues, what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we know that Jesus is coming back. He's promised. John doesn't say, if God appears, then fill in the blank. He says, when he appears, we know that when Jesus comes back, There's a scene in the movie The Incredibles where Bob Parr, who happens to be the superhero Mr. Incredible, is struggling with the day-to-day toils of life. And he is particularly wrestling with this in front of his driveway when he notices a neighborhood kid sitting on his tricycle behind him. And frustrated, he looks at him and goes, well, what are you waiting for? And the kid, taken aback, goes, I don't know, something amazing, I guess. Saints, what are you waiting for? Something amazing. But you don't have to guess. We know He's coming back. Despite all the news you may have heard, despite all the doubt that our heart is tempted to be filled with, the world has not been left to spin alone on its axis. God is on the throne and He's coming back for His own. God is on the throne and He's coming back for His own. Write it down, hang it up, Jesus is coming. We don't have to worry. We don't have to wonder. Jesus is coming back soon and he will appear in glory. I pray that West Sand Lake would be a church and would be known as a people of God who are eagerly awaiting his return. May your conversations be filled with eager talk of his coming. May you look for ways to encourage each other all the more as the day draws near. Look for ways that you can remind your own soul and the souls of others around you the reality that is yours in Christ. It is so easy to get caught up in the minutia of the day-to-day that we forget that we live for eternity. Have you forgotten? He's coming back. He's coming back really soon. Just a moment now, we're passing through and then we're going home. I wonder, have you ever seen anyone decorate a bus stop? Probably not. I bet you have never seen a woman stopping to decorate the bench with doilies and daisies, or a man pulling out frames and a hammer to decorate the advertisements as their wall decor. And I almost certainly guarantee you've never seen someone bringing out a lazy boy in a TV to kick up their feet and enjoy the moment at a bus stop in a busy street. Because they're not there for very long. The bus is coming, and then they're going to crowd on and leave. And the same is true with us. The world is our bus stop. We are on a transfer station to eternity. He's coming back, our king will appear. Be ready, live in anticipation of that. May our lives be marked with an urgency to live for a king who is coming soon, one who has made us children of God. And when he comes, what will happen? Eventually, the curtain will be pulled back, the trumpets and fanfare will sound, and our king will descend on the clouds, and John tells us, we will be like him. We will be like Jesus. This is incredible. Because we are children of God, we will be like Jesus. Despite our past sins or our current failures, one day we will be like Jesus. We have been rescued from our sins, and one day we will be fully freed from sin's presence. However you may feel in your current battle against the flesh and against sin, know that God will finish what he started. As Philippians 1.6 says, I know that he who began a good work and you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. He is making you like Jesus and he will conform us to the image of Christ even when we don't feel like we have represented the image as we ought. As Puritan pastor Richard Sibbes wrote, the prodigal would not say he was no son, but that he was not worthy to be called a son, and so we must not judge ourselves according to any present feeling. Praise God, my sanctification is not based on how I feel that day. He will finish what he started. He loves me with an everlasting love. He loves his children with an unending love. One day we will be like Jesus. And why will we like him? Look at verse two again. We know that when he appears we will be like him because we shall see him as he is. We will be like him because we will see him. When you see Jesus in all his glory, you're automatically transformed. You don't see a perfect God and go, well, that was nice, kind of a fun thing to see today. Back to life. No, it's like Isaiah 6. When Isaiah stands before the presence of God, he is in awe and recognizes immediately who he is and who God is. When we see fully, we will be as fully like Him as God designed. We will not be equal with God, but we will be like God. When, as Philippians 3.21 says, He transforms our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself. This, dear ones, is what our entire lives have been building towards and are leading up to. Every suffering we endure, every challenge we face, is both to conform us to the image of Christ and to prepare us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. And John says it's going to happen at the same time. We will be like Jesus and we will be in glory. As Paul says, when Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. Can you imagine that? We will be like Jesus and we will see him as he is, in glory. We've gotten glimpses of God. Romans 1 tells us that creation displays his divine power and attributes. and Christ came to earth so people could see God in flesh. The Mount of Transfiguration gives us just a glimpse of what he is like in glory. Hebrews tells us that we see Jesus reigning by faith, and by faith, we have our eyes open to see Jesus as Savior when we were converted. But all of these are just glimpses. We see dimly in a mirror, as 1 Corinthians 13 says. We see through a veil. but the veil will be gone. Oh, in just a moment, he's coming back. We will see Jesus face to face. We walk by faith now, but soon faith will be made sight. One day we will see Jesus as he is. I love the words of that old hymn. Only faintly now I see him with the darkened veil between, but a blessed day is coming when his glory shall be seen. What rejoicing in his presence when our banished grief and pain, when the crooked ways are straightened and the dark things shall be plain. Face to face, oh, blissful moment. Face to face, to see and know. Face to face with my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who loves me so. These are the glorious promises, the glorious truths that God has given us. So what do we do with all of this? Look at verse three. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who has this hope. To be clear, the way that the world around us and the way we tend to use things in modern English is not the way that the Bible uses hope. We tend to use it in the sense of wish or desire, as in, I really wish it doesn't rain on my birthday. I hope that it will be sunny. I would like it to be Florida instead of New York in February. There might be a possibility that New York magically turns into Florida in the middle of February. Probably not. I want this, but I have zero basis for it. on which to expect it. But that's not what God's word means when we see the word hope. When you see the word hope in your Bible, think confident expectation. Confident expectation. We know, we expect this to happen, and we are confident that it's sure to happen. It hasn't happened yet, But it might as well have happened because it's so sure and guaranteed to happen. That is why John says, everyone who thus hopes in him. God's promises are rooted in God's character. And thus they are as true as God is true. And his promises are as sure as God is sure. And our hope and our confidence in God's word is as ill it is confident in God himself. So what do we do with this hope? If God has called you as child and you were hoping in his sure coming, then you purify yourself as he is pure. One day we will be fully like him, but now we work eagerly to purify ourselves to be as much like our beloved Savior as we can in this world. That is what 2 Corinthians 7.1 says when it says, Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. We have great promises that fan the flame of our desire to be like Jesus, to stir up holiness in ourselves and be done with sin. We will one day be done with sin forever, so why would we want anything to do with it now? We have been cleansed by God's grace, so why would we do anything that would put us near the mud pit of our former sins? To quote one pastor, we have been saved from sin's past, we are being saved from sin's power, and one day we will be saved from sin's presence. It was God's grace that gave us Christ's righteousness at the moment of salvation. It is God's grace that is giving us the ability to fight sin and pursue holiness now. And it is God's grace that will see us safely home. And some might say, well, hey, if I'm eventually gonna be like him, why bother? but that is just a completely backwards way of looking at it. It's not God will keep me to the end so I'll just live however I want. One of the means God has given us to keep us firm to the end is our own pursuit of holiness. It'd be as silly as a major league baseball player who has just signed the contract of his life going, great, next thing on my agenda is the couch and ESPN, batting cage is no more, working out is no longer necessary. pretty surefire way to get off the team real fast. Our working towards purity is not a means of salvation. It is a method of displaying our salvation in Christ. It is by God's grace that we are saved, and it is by His grace that we look to heaven. It's almost like a bride waiting to get married. She doesn't say, well, I'm gonna be married someday, so I'll just live however I want with whoever I want. No, she's going to work on faithfulness to her spouse-to-be. Have you ever seen them writing their soon-to-be new name? My mom said she filled pages writing out her new name. Most brides are just excited about the concept of being married and their new name, whether it's Mrs. Darcy or Mr. Doug Holes or John Doe or what have you. It's exciting, and no one counts it, no bride excited and in love with their fiancé counts it a responsibility of love as drudgery, as, I have to love this guy. And similarly, we the betrothed to Christ are desiring to be like Jesus, to be united to Jesus, to see Jesus. And so we live in holiness by His grace alone. To change the imagery, we live to make our Father proud. Just like I wanted to match my dad in his clothes and the way he walked, we ought to want to live like our Father lives, to live and represent the family name well. We're children of God, so we live like children of God. Until our hope becomes reality and our faith becomes sight, and we will one day be like Him, we live to make Him proud. We work to be more and more like Jesus as God conforms us to the image of His beloved Son. So, practically, how do we do this? How do we renounce ungodliness and live zealous for good works, as Titus 2 says? How do we purify ourselves? where we cannot live purely or zealously for good works or wait for our blessed hope without God's grace any more than we can save ourselves without His grace. So we first seek God in prayer every day, asking Him to rid us of our sin, to keep us dependent on Him, and then from that dependence flows God's grace into our pursuit of holiness and our zealousness for good works, We look for opportunities to be patient and bear with one another in love. And I promise you, opportunities are coming really soon. We look to do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. We love one another as He has loved us. Dear ones, look around you. This is your family. These are the children of God, and we look to love each other. If you are in Christ, you love those who love God and look forward to the blessed hope of his appearance. We lay down our lives for each other, and we care for each other's needs. We consider others more important than ourselves. Kids, this applies to you too. Do you try to get your own way every day? Or do you think of others as being more important than yourself? Do you let others have the better toys, the better chance of getting the nice thing, the better slice of dessert? Dear ones, do you consider how often you and I are wrong? Are you humbly looking for where you might be wrong? Are you quick to admit it? When you sin against others, are you quick to repent and ask forgiveness, no matter what anyone else has or hasn't done? When you are wronged, do you forgive out of love that God has shown you and I the forgiveness and grace he has given us? Do you work to be pure in the way you talk, looking at what you say or don't say to resemble the purity of Christ? Are you excited to be like Jesus or is it drudgery for you? Go back to the cross, remember what he's done, that it is more important to be conformed than comfortable. God is making you look the way Jesus looks. We ought to want to want what Jesus wants, to look like Jesus looks, to love how Jesus loves. Paul says, yes, we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord So whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. We aren't home yet. We want to be home. But until then, we make it our aim, our goal, to please our Father. God has given us a great love. He has made us children of God. Because of this, we wait in an eager expectation and anticipation of becoming like Him when we see Him face to face. and because of who we are and what we are basing our hope on, we purify ourselves to be like him until he takes us home. Would you pray with me? Our Lord and God, our Father, we thank you for making us children of God, that you have loved us with a great love, that you are not done with us yet, that we will one day see Jesus in all his glory face-to-face, and you will make us like him. You are making us like him right now, Lord. And so we ask that you would encourage our hearts, that you would strengthen us for this day, this week, that we would love you more, that we would long to be like you more, that you would conform us to your image, that we would say, yes, Lord, do whatever you need to to make us more like Jesus. We love you. Help us love you more. We long to see you. Until that day, strengthen us. Give us great hope and confidence in you until we see you face to face. We pray all these things in the mighty name of our coming King Jesus. Amen.