For scripture this evening, we'll turn to Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two on page 1,088. And I'm going to begin with verse 14, six. Acts chapter two and verse 14. But Peter, taking his stand with the 11, raised his voice and declared to them, men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel. And it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind. and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will grant wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. and it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. This man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says of him, I saw the Lord always in my presence, for he is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue exalted. Moreover, my flesh also will live in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow your Holy One to undergo decay. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh suffer decay. This Jesus, God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this, which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore, Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. And I'll stop there. Well, congregation, this evening we would like to consider, again, something from the Apostles' Creed, that form of sound words which our fathers have given to us many centuries past. Last time, we considered the first name that is given to Jesus, I believe in Jesus, and we considered Jesus as He is our Savior, and all what that means. But you'll notice tonight, and I put on the outline there, and I underlined the part that we hope to consider tonight, is the second part of Jesus' name, Christ. And that's all really that our catechism is focused on this morning. I'm sorry, this evening, is that word Christ, which is not so much a name as it is a title. Jesus being his name, but Christ being a title that is given to our Lord and that is full of meaning and significance. You never can believe all what's bound up in these titles that is given to Jesus. And so our catechism asks us then, why is he called Christ, meaning anointed? Now, if we can just stop there. Christ, of course, is a Greek term. Christos, in Greek. Christ, in English. And that comes from the Hebrew, to anoint. So, the Hebrew word, masa, means to anoint. And masiyach is the noun form, the anointed one. So, these are the terms that are now coming from Hebrew, then into Greek, and now into English. So, Christ, anointed, And those are all synonyms. And now the Catechism gives us this answer. Because He has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our Chief Prophet and Teacher, who fully reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our salvation. Second, our only High Priest, who has redeemed us by the one sacrifice of His body, and who continually intercedes for us before the Father. And third, our eternal king, who governs us by his word and spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the salvation he has won for us. So Christ is anointed, and he is anointed to three offices, prophet, priest, and king. And this, dear friends, is how our catechism wants us to think about the work of Christ. What is it that Christ does on this earth? Because to be anointed by somebody, and in the Old Testament, to be anointed means to be anointed to some office. In fact, I'd like you to connect those words in your mind. When you hear the word anointed, you should think office. Anointed, office. Kings were anointed, prophets were anointed, priests were anointed. And of course, the symbolism there, right, is the picture. of that oil being poured on the head of the person as a picture and as a symbol of the Holy Spirit himself coming on that person for the purpose of equipping him and empowering him to do the office, the task, which God has given him to perform. And when we think of office, we should think of task. We shouldn't think so much of like a, like say we consider today the office of the president or something, right? but the office in the Bible is a function. It's a task that a person performs. So then naturally the question is, well, to which office is Christ anointed? And our catechism says that he's anointed to all three of the offices that were given in the Old Testament. He's anointed both as a prophet and as a priest and as a king. Well, let's consider that then. The catechism is teaching us that Christ is our prophet to teach us, our priest to redeem us, and our king to govern us. And as always, we want to take this now to the word of God. So let's consider then in the first place, prophet, Jesus as a prophet. Now, again, we'll do a lot of flipping through the Bible this evening, you know, give me a, It would help tremendously if you would follow along here and read these verses with me. But in Deuteronomy 18, let's turn there first. Because in Deuteronomy 18, there is a prophecy. And if you drop down to verse 15, so Deuteronomy 18 and verse 15, I'm on page 204 here. Deuteronomy 18 and verse 15, God promises Through Moses, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen. You shall listen to him. Now this is a remarkable prophecy that God is gonna raise up a prophet, he's gonna be one of the Jewish people, and he's going to be like me, or like Moses. Now when you think back to the great prophets of Old Testament times, you think of Samuel and Elijah and Elisha, and all the prophets afterwards, but none of them rise to the level of Moses. So God here is making a prophecy to the Israelites that he's going to raise up for them a prophet like Moses. Now naturally, one of the questions that arose in the minds of the Israelites is given us in verse 21. So look at Deuteronomy 18 and verse 21. You may say in your heart, how will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? Because of course, wherever there's a true prophet, there's bound to be a hundred false prophets. And the Israelites need to know, how are we going to discern? How do we know who's telling us a real prophecy from you? Now, let's stop right here because already we can see what a true prophet or what any prophet does, right? A prophet speaks on behalf of God. A prophet receives a word from God. and he speaks it to the people. Now, of course, a false prophet claims to have a word from God, but he doesn't really have a word from God. He's really giving his own word. But a true prophet hears from the Lord, and he speaks that to the people. And what a blessing that was in the time when there was no written scripture as we have it today, or at least not as much as we have today. So a prophet was a great blessing. But again, the Jewish people have this question. How can we know? and God gives an answer. Verse 22, when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. In other words, you shall not fear him. That prophet has made up a word. That word didn't come from me, that came out of his own mind. And so you need to respect him. That's how you will know. If it comes to pass, he is a true prophet. If it doesn't come to pass, he's a false prophet. So that is the test by which you can discern a true from a false prophet. Now quickly turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 13, because here we see another test of the true prophet. But in Deuteronomy 13, we read, and I'm in verse one, If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true concerning which he spoke to you saying, Let us go after other gods whom you have not known and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. So again, now Deuteronomy 18 is qualified by an additional mark. Even if what the prophet says comes true, but he says, now let's go worship Baal, or let's go worship Ashtoreth, or let's go worship Dagon, the god of the Philistines, right? Or Baal, the god of the Babylonians, or the hundreds and hundreds of gods that the Egyptians had. Stop. No true prophet will ever tell you to contradict what I've already told you. Even if his prophecy comes true, you're not to follow him. That's not a true prophet of the Lord. In fact, it may very well be a test from me to see once how loyal you are to the word that I gave you in days past. Now this, dear friends, then, is what a prophet is. A prophet receives a word from God and he delivers it to the people. Now, Jesus is a prophet. When we turn to Luke 1 and verse 76, there's a lot of verses in Luke chapter 1, and in the 76th verse, this is the prophecy of Zechariah. Zechariah is rejoicing in the birth of Christ. And in Luke 1 and verse 76, he prophesies, and you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways. And what does a prophet do in verse 77? To give to his people the knowledge of salvation. by the forgiveness of their sins. That's what a prophet does, to give to his people knowledge. And specifically here, it's the knowledge of the gospel, how their sins can be forgiven. This is what a prophet does. And now Zechariah rejoices in saying that Jesus is the prophet, the prophet to end all prophets, who is going to teach his people the knowledge of salvation. If you flip forward to Luke 7 and verse 16, you'll see that the people are already beginning to rejoice and to recognize. Some of them are beginning to rejoice, but all of them are beginning to recognize that Jesus is something special. And in Luke 7 and verse 16, we read, Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, a great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people. So they're beginning to recognize in Jesus of Nazareth that he is a prophet. And now Acts 3 makes explicit the connection between what we read in Deuteronomy 18 and Jesus. So in Acts 3 and verse 22, Acts 3 and verse 22, Peter is preaching again. Now this is not the sermon that he gave at Pentecost, that's what we read together. But now in his second sermon, we read in verse 22, Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. To him you shall give heed to everything he says to you. Now, there you have it, friends, that Peter is explicitly pointing to Jesus and saying, this is the prophet that Moses prophesied about. Moses said, I'm going to raise up a prophet like me from amongst your countrymen, and Jesus is that prophet. So, congregation, when our instructor in the catechism tells us that Jesus has been ordained by God the Father and anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher, then we know from scripture that that is correct. That is the teaching of the Bible. That Jesus was the prophet, the chief prophet, that was, that prophecy that was promised was given to Moses in Deuteronomy, and that is now the prophecy that is given, and Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy. Well, let's move on then to consider Jesus as priest. Jesus as priest. Now, Here, we'll turn in the first place to John 1 verse 29. John 1 and verse 29. Now, first of all, let's think about a priest, because a priest and his function is the opposite of what a prophet is. A prophet takes a word from God and brings it to the people. But now a priest does something else. He takes the gifts of the people and he offers them up to God. And we see that in the second part of our catechism, or the definition for a priest. He says he continually intercedes for us before the Father. But a priest does something else. A priest takes the sacrifices, he offers them up to God, but he also performs the sin offering. He also performs the sin offering by which the animal is killed as a substitute for the guilty person. And that, of course, is what our catechism is referring to when it says, our only high priest who has redeemed us by the one sacrifice of his body. Now, when we go to John 1 and verse 29, we have those joyful words of John the Baptist when he sees Jesus coming. And what does he say? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now my friends, the Lamb of God, right? It immediately takes us right back to Old Testament worship. When the Lamb was taken and offered as a sin offering for the sins of the people. The Lamb of God. There you have very clearly John the Baptist identifying Jesus as the great priest who brings his own life as a sin offering to God the Father. Well, you have other verses, Matthew 20 and verse 28. And of course, this is, in many respects, so foundational for the gospel, isn't it? Matthew 20 and verse 28. Christ as priest. Jesus says, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Well, that is the work of a priest. Jesus is a priest who brings his own life as a ransom, as a substitute for the people that he's making atonement for. Christ dies and is punished. God's people are set free. Now, my friends, the whole book of Hebrews is a book about, the whole book of Hebrews is a book about Christ as a priest and as a better priest. Remember I told you the theme of the book of Hebrews is Jesus is better. And Jesus is a better priest. And so much of the book of Hebrews is about Jesus as a priest. I'm just looking at Hebrews chapter 3 here, and even in the Pew Bible that I have here, which I think you also have, the heading put over chapter 3 is Jesus, our high priest. Then when I come to chapter 4 and verse 14, therefore, since we have a great high priest, chapter 7, All of chapter 7 is comparing the priesthood of Jesus to the priesthood of Melchizedek, and saying that a priest that comes from the order of Melchizedek is a much better priest than a priest who comes from Levi. Now again, I can't go into detail on all these things, but the whole book of Hebrews teaches us that Jesus is a priest, and a better priest. It's again in Hebrews 10, really the whole chapter of Hebrews 10, is that Jesus is a priest. Well, I'll leave it at that then. Clearly, our catechism, again, is expressing a biblical truth when it says that Jesus was anointed to be a priest. Now let's look at Jesus as king. Well, here we can go back to our sermon series on Genesis because we saw that already the very first promise that God makes of his grace to fall on mankind is that the seed of the serpent, that the head of that dreadful beast will be crushed by the seed of the woman. So there already is a promise of a conquering king who would come into this world and crush the serpent's head. Now that is a kingly function, right? Because a king conquers. A king protects and preserves and governs. And so already in Genesis 3 and 15 we have this promise of a conquering king. You can see it again in Psalm chapter 2. Psalm chapter 2 is about God raising up his son to be the king. The kings of the earth take their stand, we read in Psalm 2 and verse 2. But verse 4, he who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. And then in verse 6, but as for me, that is as for me, the second person of the Trinity, I'm sorry, the first person of the Trinity, I have installed my King, the second person of the Trinity, upon Zion, my holy mountain. I have installed my King, and Jesus is that King. You see this thread all the way from Genesis, that there's a coming King who is going to restore the kingdom back to God the Father. In 2 Samuel 7, we learn something else about this King. In fact, you don't really need to turn there. In 2 Samuel 7, this is the promise that God gave to David, that David's dynasty would never end, that there would always be a son of David sitting on his throne. So we learn from the previous passages that God is going to raise up a king to crush the head of the serpent, and from 2 Samuel 7, we learn that it's gonna be a son of David. And in Matthew 1 and verse 1, What are the very first words that we read from Matthew 1, verse 1? The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David. Why? Because Matthew wants to teach us who Jesus is. And that's why the very first thing he does is give a long list of names to show you that Jesus is a son of David. because Jesus is the coming king, promised in Genesis 3.15, promised again in Psalm 2, shown in 2 Samuel 7 that he promised that he was gonna be a son of David, and now Matthew says Jesus is that king. And he's going to show that to us in those verses by giving that genealogy. Then in Acts 2, and this is the passage that we read tonight, and that is our text, in Acts 2 and verse 36, Acts 2 and verse 36, where we read, Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him, that is Jesus, both Lord and Christ. Both Lord, that means he's divine. He's divine. He is the equivalent of God Almighty. And Christ, as we've already explained, means anointed. He is the king. This Jesus, whom you crucified, is Lord and Christ. Christ. And since we started in Genesis 3, let's end in Revelation chapter 19. And in Revelation chapter 19, we read these words. Revelation 19 and verse 11. Revelation 19 and verse 11. And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on it is called faithful and true. and in righteousness he judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood." A hint there that this is also a priest. His robe is dipped in blood. And his name is called the Word of God, and there a hint of his prophetic office. He's the Word from God. and the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Well, Jesus is the king, and he's the king of kings, the king over all other kings, and the Lord of lords. And so our catechism, again, is certainly biblically correct when it teaches us that Jesus is the conquering king who saves his people, protects and preserves them from all their enemies, and who will one day bring them in glorious victory to a new heaven and a new earth. My friends, the application that we make upon these points is actually very simple, isn't it? Very simple to understand, much more difficult to actually put into practice. But I ask you tonight to follow me now as we take, as we reverse course through these three offices. Because the question that I want to put to you now, at the close of this message, what does it mean to exercise faith in Christ? Last Sunday evening, what does it mean to exercise faith in Jesus as Savior? But tonight, what does it mean to exercise faith in Christ the anointed one? Well, my friends, let's start at the beginning. I even wonder to myself why the catechism starts by calling Jesus prophet. Seems like it would have been better to start with Jesus as priest, because this is the first place. This is, you might say, first base. This is where we have to begin. We have to begin with Christ as priest, because we have sin and guilt on our record. This is what we considered last week. We have sin and guilt on our record, and until that is resolved, there's no point in talking about Christ as prophet, and no point in talking about Christ as king. Our sin problem has to be resolved. That's why, my friends, in all our evangelistic endeavor, the fundamental point is this, you must be made right with God. You are not right with God, and you must get right with God. You must be right with God through faith in Christ, or you can never make the least progress in the life of faith. You must be right with God. You might say, you must first meet Christ as priest. You must come to this bleeding Savior, this bleeding priest, this priest who was nailed to a cross for the sin of his people. you have to begin at the foot of the cross. You have to begin, when you believe in Christ, with Christ as priest. I want you to consider this evening, it says on the notes, Jesus and Nicodemus. I meant Jesus and the publican. Jesus and the publican. We must take our place with the publican, my friends, and to say, God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's where we have to start. That is foundational to everything else. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, says the Apostle Paul to the jailer. And then it says he took him to his house and he taught him all these things. First, Christ as priest. I say less on that this evening because we were so strong on that in the last week. But now, congregation, we move to Christ as prophet. The question before us is what does it mean to exercise faith in Christ? First, to come to Him as priest. But second, to come to Him as prophet. Christ as prophet. My friends, if Christ is a prophet, if God has anointed Christ to be a prophet, anointed Him with the Holy Spirit, and set up Christ as a prophet and as a teacher, maybe I can say it this way this evening, if God has set up a school, and Christ is the teacher, then what does it mean to believe in Christ? Well, at the very least, congregation, it must mean that we enroll in that school as fast as we possibly can. Get enrolled in that school. Sit at the feet of that teacher. This is what it means to exercise faith in Christ in a life of faith and walking with God day by day. That means we come first to Him as priest, but having come to Him as priest, having confessed our sins and having them forgiven in the blood of Christ, we come to Him as prophet and we say, Lord, teach me. We come to Him as the psalmist did in Psalm 25 as we read it previously. Lord, be my teacher. Guide me, teach me, show me the way. My friends, this is what it means to exercise faith in Christ as prophet, that we hear. And my friends, I have to start there. That in the first place, we have to hear the teaching of Christ. You have to get into the school. To make that very practical, you have to come to church. You have to hear the word of God. You have to read the scriptures. You have to hear it. You have to, first of all, get it into your mind. and all the different things that we do to sit at the feet of Jesus, to hear his word. But we have to believe it. That's what we're considering this evening in these points of application. What does it mean to exercise faith in Christ? We have to embrace it for ourselves. We have to make that teaching our own. We have to own it. This is what it means to be a believer in Christ. Third, and especially for those of us who are families today, we have the responsibility to pass that teaching on. to teach our children so that they in turn can teach their children. And so that many years down the road when this church we pray to God is still functioning, long after I'm gone and you're gone, that our children will be standing here in our place, and the word of God will continue to be proclaimed from this pulpit, and people will continue to hear Jesus as prophet, will continue to sit at his feet and learn from him. My friends, this evening I want you to consider Jesus and Mary. Jesus and Mary were told in Luke 10 that Jesus came to Mary and Martha's house. And Martha, bless her heart, it's hard to say anything against Martha here. She right away goes to work in the kitchen. She's got all these people to feed. But Mary, she sits at the feet of Jesus. And in Luke 10, verse 41, Jesus says, Martha, Martha, You are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary. And Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Martha was doing a good thing, my friends. She was doing a good thing. But Mary was doing a better thing. Mary sat at the feet of Christ because she believed in him as her prophet. and she sat at his feet to receive his instruction. Who this evening, dear friends, who this evening would like to take their seat with Mary at the feet of Christ and to hear his teaching? My friends, I hope you didn't come here to hear me this evening. You'll be sadly disappointed. But if you came here with an earnest prayer in your heart, Lord, speak to me. Remember what I said many months ago, that we would put, as it were, above the door, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Is that your prayer when you come to the house of the Lord? Because that's a person who believes in Christ as prophet. Speak to me, Lord. Speak to me. I take my place with Mary. at the feet of Christ. My friends, what does it mean to exercise faith in Christ as King? Well, my friends, we said that if Christ has set up a school, that we should make haste to enroll and to be students in that school. And in the same place, my friends, when I come to you now and say that Christ has set up a kingdom, He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, then what does it mean to exercise faith in Christ, but certainly that we make haste to be citizens in that kingdom? Get out of whatever world you may be in and get into the kingdom of Christ. That's the place to be. Submit yourself to his rule and to his governing. Know what the commands of Christ are and do them. Congregation, this evening I ask you to sit at the feet of Jesus and to see Jesus and the two builders. Jesus and the two builders. In Luke chapter six, we read that story. Jesus says to those to whom he is speaking, he says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock. And when a flood came, the torrent burst against that house and it could not shake it because it had been well built. But the man who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation, and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great. Here's what Jesus says, that the man who hears my words and acts on them, that is the man that if you dug down, you would find that that man's house is set on a rock, on the rock of Christ himself. That's the man who has faith in Christ. That's the man who recognized that Jesus is anointed to be king, that he has a kingdom. And now that person hears and he acts. As James says, he's not just a hearer of the word, he's a doer of the word. O congregation, what a blessing it is for our pastors and for elders and for the leadership of a church to see the members of the church making the connection between what they hear in the pulpit and their own daily life. A great deal of stuff is taught you here from the pulpit. A great deal of things we learn as we read the scriptures. But the true Christian connects his life on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with what he reads here. He's changed, he's the better for it. You see, the person that his house is built on sand is the person that hears and he leaves And there's no connection between what took place here and what takes place out there. That's the kind of Christian, my friends, that the devil has no trouble with. The devil has no problem with people coming to church, just so long as it has no impact on their life. But the devil trembles when a person hears and acts. when he's not just a hearer, but a doer. And that, my friends, is what it means to exercise faith in Christ as King, to be willing to submit yourself to Christ, to be ruled by Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. Well, my friends, many months ago, we set out on this path of life, the path of life that took us through our misery, our sin, and our guilt. It led us to the feet of Jesus. And tonight, my friends, we learned this, that the path of life, the path that leads to life, is a Christ-centered life. It is a life where we come to Christ daily, as priest, as prophet, and as king. This is the life of a Christian. It is a Christ-centered life. It is a life where we deny ourselves, We take up our cross and we follow him. My friends, this is the path of life. And those people who are Christians and who are believers are walking on that path. And that's a blessed and happy path, my friends. It's the only path to be on. It's the only path that leads to life. And what a blessing it is that our catechism instructor will have us to be firmly positioned on that pathway. so that we know when we veer from Christ, we veer away from the path of life. The path of life is a Christ-centered path. That is a life, my friends, where we live out of Christ. You understand that language? We live out of Christ. That Christ is my prophet, Christ is my priest, and Christ is my king. Christ is my past, my present, and my future. He's my all and in all. And that's why, my friends, the Reformed preachers have always insisted on a Christ-centered gospel and a Christ-centered life. And this is what it means. This is, you might say, the nuts and bolts of a Christ-centered life. My friends, I pray that the Spirit of God would lead us again and again to circle back through these offices of Christ, to find him to be our priest, to sit at his feet as our teacher and as our prophet, and to be led by him as our king and ruler. That's a happy life, my friends. May God grant it to each one of us for his name's sake. Let us pray. Lord, we come before you in this evening hour Lord, we desire to walk upon this path of life. Lord, we hate the fact that oftentimes we veer away from it. We think to take this shortcut, or to take this path, it looks so much more promising, it looks so much more easy. But Lord, bring us back to that straight and narrow path which leads to life. That path where we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow our prophet, our priest, and our king, through life and into eternal life. Lord, if there is anyone here who's not on that path, perhaps someone here who thinks he's on the path and yet is not on that path, Lord, I pray that by the power of your spirit, you would bring them to step firmly and resolutely into this path and to say, Jesus, I take thee as my priest, I take thee as my prophet, I take thee as my king, and I want no other. Oh God, minister to us then, out of Christ this evening, Grant that we might live out of him on Monday and Tuesday and all the days of the week beside. And may our lives reflect the fact that we live Christ-centered lives from beginning to end. And all these things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.