Luke 8:1-15 with Aaron Searles

Transcript

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Okay, for for some of you, you may still be in school, some of you may be far away from school, but maybe you all remember a pop quiz. I recently gave a pop quiz, and I was not treated well in my classroom. There's respect, but they were not happy with me. And it wasn't for a grade. I did lay off, you know, backed away from a harsh grade and a pop quiz. But remember pop quizzes. I have a pop quiz for you this morning, okay? More rhetorically or reflective, you know, not actually asking you to answer this, but I just want to kind of jog your memory a little bit and ask you who is Theophilus? Who is Theophilus? Maybe if you were at our first sermon, uh, I talked a lot about Theophilus. And I'll also ask you what uh historical evidence do we have of him and his granddaughter? So again, if you weren't of that first sermon, it's gonna be hard to remember. But I talked a lot about this to introduce this sermon series, kind of giving us historical context and evidence. And I highlighted again Theophilus and his granddaughter. And also we highlighted what scripture says and how Luke referred to him. Do you remember how Luke referred to Theophilus? So I'm gonna jump into Luke chapter 8. I'm gonna go through the first three verses, and then I'm gonna talk a little bit about my pop quiz. See what kind of grade you got. That's three points. You get one wrong, you get a D. So it's not a great, great point scale there. All right, let's let's jump in. Luke chapter 8, verses 1 through 3. Soon afterward, Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the good news about the kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons, Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's business manager, Susanna, and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples. So I want to highlight for you, so there's just a summary of kind of the continuing ministry of Jesus, but I want to highlight for you a slide that we have. Let's turn to that slide. This is what I was referring to. This was the pop quiz, and you might be wondering what in the world is that? That's an ossuary. And so I'm going to read a quote from a website that's there's a book being written about this. Um, and this is what we talked about that first week. So an ossuary dating back to the first century was discovered a few decades ago near Jerusalem. This ancient burial box belonged to a woman named Yehuhannah or Joanna, who was the granddaughter of Theophilus the high priest. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote about a man by that name who served as the high priest from 37 to 41 A.D. And since Luke dedicated his gospel to a most excellent Theophilus, many scholars over the past few centuries have suggested that this could be the individual he specifically had in mind. But what's particularly intriguing is the fact that in two places in the Gospel, Luke also mentions a disciple of Jesus named Joanna. I just read it, Luke chapter 8, verse 3. So, so in this gentleman's book, Luke's Key Witness, I make the case that the Gospel of Luke was written to Theophilus, the Jewish high priest, and that his granddaughter, Joanna, is presented as the central witness to Jesus' empty tomb. So on this inscription, on the inscription on this ossuary, this is a bone box. This is how the Jews, this is their coffin in a sense. It says this, Yehuhannah, Yehuhanna, daughter of Yehuhan, son of Theophilus the high priest. So we we have Joanna mentioned here in Luke 8, verse 3. Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's business manager. And forgive me if I mispronounce any of those names. But again, we believe that, again, we have some reasonable understanding that this woman was the granddaughter and also a granddaughter of the high priest who this gospel was written to, who probably, likely, if this is the same person, paid for Luke to do the research, to do the interviews, to write an orderly account. Imagine writing a gospel. Again, he he was essentially, it's my understanding, he was paid, he was employed to write this gospel. And we have it here today. And the person who, again, some believe, we can't be totally sure, paid for it was Theophilus, a high priest. So again, very interesting. And I don't want to like present this as like 100% fact, you know, you can't do that, but it's interesting to me to highlight. And I want to just highlight the fact that, you know, there's this, there's biblical artifacts and evidence and archaeology that's done that we're they're still finding stuff all the time in Israel. They just keep finding more and more things in Israel, finding these artifacts, finding these this evidence that this book that we're reading is not made up stories, but it's history. It's the truth, it's what happened. And that's what we're reading today. And so, again, I want to highlight Joanna, also pronounced Yehu Hannah, because I highlighted her when we started this series. I'm highlighting her now because her name's mentioned right now. And she's also going to be mentioned again in Luke 24 as a witness of the empty tomb. So the granddaughter of this high priest, who now this gospel is written to is a witness. So make the connections. There's relational connections, there's evidence, there's there's eyewitnesses. This is all interesting and proving true and giving us Christ is our confidence. He's our certainty. As we go through this series. I also think it's interesting because it says, and many others who are contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples. You know, how did Jesus ministry? How did he feed? You know, we know how he fed sometimes. We'll get into that later, miraculously. But the you know, the day-to-day expenses of providing for this on tour ministry that was going on. Well, Joanna is married to Chusa, that's how I'm pronouncing it, who was Herod's business manager. You can imagine the most powerful, I would imagine, rich political figure. I mean, someone in Herod's like entourage and his circle is paying for Jesus' ministry. Okay, history nerd, that's just cool to me, okay? Maybe that's interesting to you. Okay, nerd nerding over. Transition here. So, but today we're talking about. I want to introduce again to give us confidence, give us certainty in what we're we're learning about. But you know, I don't really want to focus necessarily today on your mind. I want to focus on your heart. And there's a question that I will ask this church from time to time, and I'm gonna ask it again today. It's a simple question. It's a question I I've asked on men's retreats that I've led, and it's just a simple question. And it's a question for you. What do you want? What do you want? So I encourage you to ask that question today. I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit, to ask Jesus as we saturate in God's word, continue to saturate in his word, to ask that question. What do you want in your life with the breath that you have, the energy they have, the strength that God's given you today? What do you want? Like clear the slate. Today's a heart check today. We gotta clear the slate, we've got to clear the mind, clear our whatever's going on in our life, slow down and ask this question. What do you want? What is your heart's desire? What are you pursuing? What are you striving for in this life? And I think asking this question gives us something that's important self-awareness. We want to surrender that to the Lord. We want to be in relationship with God, we want to be tender towards the Lord, and we've got to filter our thoughts through this question, but it's ultimately a question we ask Jesus. You know, what do I want? That's in dialogue with God. So continuing on now. Now we're going to jump into kind of the main part of this passage today. So Luke chapter 8, verses 4 through 8. One day Jesus told a story in the form of a parable to a large crowd that had gathered from many towns to hear him. A farmer went out to plant his seed as he scattered it across his field. Some seed fell on a footpath where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it. Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants. Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted. When he had said this, he called out anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. So Jesus told parables. He told stories to teach, to make points, to make critical truth claims, to reveal his truth to the crowds that were following, to his disciples, to us by extension, by having God's revealed word, from having his authority right now. And so he told stories. And I just, I love that about Jesus. I love that he told stories. And again, that for me just helps me understand when you have a story to communicate a truth. But you know, this is in Mark chapter 4, a similar, you know, the kind of parallel of this story. And it's understood that, you know, this was the crowd was so great that he had to get in a boat to kind of preach to the crowd. So imagine that that natural amphitheater now that Jesus is preaching to this large crowd. And he's keep this in mind, the context of what he's saying. He's talking to these people, he's talking to a large crowd. And he uses this parable about a farmer planting seed, and there he highlights the different locations where the seed falls. So just again, recap that. The thorns, they get choked out, and then there's the fertile, the good soil, which has a hundred times multiplication. So we get four options here, four places where this seed from this story falls. So Jesus ends this story. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Like I would paraphrase this as like pay attention. This is really important. Listen up. Stop thinking about whatever you're thinking about and understand this. Okay, this is serious, is what Jesus is saying. And I think Jesus is saying this to the crowd, this is God's word. So we want to apply it to our lives today. So hopefully that ignites you a little bit. So Jesus knew a lot of the crowd was just checking him out. They were just, they were just kind of coming in, like, what is this? What's the big deal? What's going on? Just kind of like, who is this guy? And Jesus knew that. Jesus knew that this was the different in a sense. There are people in the crowd that were their hearts weren't in it. They weren't really interested in a new king. So I'm sure you have had moments in your life, and there's probably gonna be another one, another fad, another movement, another thing that comes along, and this happens in evangelicalism as well. A new TV show, a new book, a new emphasis in a certain area, whatever. Or maybe it's something trivial like a diet or or whatever. We all get exposed to things. We all things happen in the news and happen in our lives, and we're kind of like, what's that about? Let me check that out. You know, and you get on the fringes of it and you realize, like, not for me. Hard pass. That sounds interesting, and you know, whatever, but we've all had these experiences in our life of this. Maybe, maybe you had a timeshare meeting, or or again, a new book or a new diet or whatever. Again, we we've all had these moments, but again, Jesus is obviously the most important thing. So, what's interesting in this story, and this is a quote from a commentary, within every seed, so Jesus talks about a farmer casting seeds. Within every seed, there's almost infinite potential for life. And so Jesus will later tell us that it's God's word. This is the excellent thing, because it can sprout forth eternal life. This is the potential of the seed that the farmer is casting into these different types of soil. This soil represents, again, another quote, this soil represents the varying conditions of human hearts on which this seed is tossed. So again, why we're talking about the heart? Why are we talking about maybe your heart and what's the condition of your soil and your heart today as it relates to hearing God's word and your response to it. Okay, continuing on, verse 9 and 10. His disciples asked him, What is this parable? What this parable meant. He replied, You are permitted to understand the secrets of the kingdom of God. But I use parables to teach the others so that the scriptures might be fulfilled. When they look, they won't really see. When they hear, they won't understand. So, I want to talk about parables, though, and biblical interpretation and how we do that. How do we interpret? How do we understand? How do we apply stories that we see in Scripture? So, one key important thing is when we see a parable, a story, in Scripture, we need to kind of focus on the point of the story and not pull it apart. But like Jesus was telling a story to make a point. Well, what's the point and focus on that point? Sometimes, Bible nerds, you know, theologians, we can start over-analyzing and over-complicating and being like, well, what's the rock represent? And what does the moisture represent? And what kind of birds were involved in that, you know. No, it's just a story to make a point. So we've got to focus on the point. We've got to focus on how God's word is convicting us and transforming us and change us and not get caught up into all the kind of maybe symbolism or whatever. We don't want to overcomplicate it. So the story's being told again to make a point. And in this case, this story has sub-points. So it's important to notice what Jesus is doing. There are subpoints in this story. And Jesus teaches in this way. Again, I just think it's amazing. God wired us this way, and this is how He teaches. So, what is the point that Jesus is making in the story about a farmer and the various conditions of the soil in which the seed falls? I also just stop and think, it's just interesting to see that what Jesus says to the disciples, they're permitted to understand the secrets of the kingdom of God. So God is revealing his truth. God is revealing who he is and what it's all about. And these disciples have the privilege and the honor to receive, to get this deeper understanding. And I would say, praise God, we get this because we have it as well. So we get to be transformed and understand the secrets of the kingdom of God. So I want to go back to what Jesus is doing in this moment. So again, so when we are interpreting a story, we want to make sure we know the point. And Jesus does something else. He quotes the Old Testament. And anytime a New Testament author quotes the Old Testament, it's really important to understand the context of that reference. So what is Jesus referring to here? He is quoting Isaiah chapter 6. So what's the context of Isaiah chapter 6? So what happens in the beginning of Isaiah is Isaiah has a vision. He has a vision of the throne room of God, and he sees the train of God's robe filling the temple. This is also the moment where he realizes, like, I shouldn't be here. I'm unholy. I'm not worthy. I shouldn't be here. And then the angel and the coal from the altar and touches his lips, and God, in a sense, you know, purifies him in that moment to, in a sense, make it okay for him to be there. But why is Jesus quoting Isaiah? Again, he quotes this from Isaiah 6, 9. So Isaiah's called out. He's 700 years before Christ. He's the revelation. He hears from God and he tells the people. It's this really neat story, this vision, and then he says, Here I am, send me. How inspiring. Inspiring to me this day. Like, I want to be like Isaiah. Here I am, send me. And he sent to a people. But God tells him what kind of mission, what kind of ministry he's going to have. And Jesus is quoting this again. God sends Isaiah to a people who would hear but not understand. He sends them to a people that will see but not perceive. He sends them to a people with, as God says, with dull hearts, with heavy ears. And then just to make it abundantly clearer, blind. That's who God sent. You know, Isaiah sent, was sent to those people. And Jesus is now quoting that. He's making that connection of what his ministry is going to be like. And maybe by extension what our ministry is going to be like. So he's putting this connection together. And so we also just need to recognize there's the big story, the macro story, what's happening with you know the percentages. But there's also the micro. The twelve disciples. Joanna, Susanna, Mary Magdalene. There are those who are in. So there's the big story, and we can focus on that. We can look at the big percentages of those who are not, or just the crowd, in a sense, that aren't receiving, but are those who are the micro, like Isaiah. Isaiah's an example to us. So Jesus continues to explain this parable next. So this is all of the scripture we'll be getting into today. 11 through 15. Here we go. So he makes this point, he makes this point about Isaiah, quoting Isaiah now 11 through 15. This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is God's word. The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved. The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don't have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation. Verse 14 The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity. And the seeds that fall on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God's word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest. So let's let's talk about this. Let's unpack this a little bit. Again, so Jesus is the farmer, he's casting the seed, which is God's word. He's casting the truth of his word, his revelation to mankind, to the crowd, to the different soils. And so there are different conditions of hearts, you could say. Again, this is referring to the heart. The hearts are the different kinds of soil. There's a hard soil, there's a shallow soil, there's a infested with thorns soil. You know, our hearts can be infested. And then there's good soil. So I would refer to this as you know, busy, distracted, or hardened, divided hearts, you know, kind of different poles of loyalties with the heart. Again, I ask you, what do you want? What is your soil? What is your heart condition as it relates to God? And a passage of scripture came to mind, so yes, I'm only in Luke 8, 1 through 15, but I need to read this passage. Because this passage makes more sense if you think about what Jesus is saying. And it is counterintuitive, it is counter this world, it's counter-mentality of what this world is. And it's from James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. I mean, how contrary to the American culture, world, context that we live in to be joyful about trials. I don't know about you, but that's not the first thing on my mind about being joyful about. But if we look at what Jesus is saying in this parable, in this story, and the different conditions of the soil, I want to be the good soil. I want to have a heart that's completely, totally aligned. And God's word is saying to be joyful about trials because that makes you steadfast. Whereas Jesus says, that gives you patience to produce a huge harvest. What a different level of maturity to get those deep roots to, in a sense, want trials. As I prayed, to identify blind spots, to send those roots deeper and deeper into the things of God so that we can remain steadfast in Christ no matter what. No matter what this world throws at us. So again, these are the different soils. And as Jesus unpacked this, I'll just talk about this a little bit and just highlight some things. So the footpath. This is this is the seed that falls on the footpath. It's trampled and eaten by birds. Again, those who hear God's words, but who interferes? Satan, the devil. And so this is the scary part of the sermon to say there is spiritual warfare. We are in a world that is seen and unseen. And as Christians, we try to not weird people out with that, but that's the reality that we're in. And that's the reality of doing ministry and recognizing that we are spiritually at war. And there are implications and realities of that. And I would say read Ephesians chapter 6. Talks about the armor of God and the war that the spiritual warfare that we're having. So I would say our focus as it relates to that is that can sound kind of scary because one, it's unseen and can feel like we're not in control. The emphasis would be prayer. When you feel like you don't have control, we pray. When we feel like we're not seeing the fruit that we want to see, or we're not having the steadfastness and the patience and whatever the outcomes that were in our own hearts first and in the hearts of others as we're trying to multiply, we pray. Again, we've been memorizing this scripture like God's the one who's going to strengthen us. God's the power, God's the one. And so we just pray for that. That's how we do spiritual warfare. That's how we call upon an infinitely powerful God to reign and rule in the natural and the supernatural in our lives. Now moving on to the second thing, the rocky soil. So again, the dried up, you know, the moisture, lack of moisture. So it's a shallow faith. Again, it's initially received as faith, you know, both of these stories. It might, from our perspective, as we see people, they might initially respond with faith. It may look like they're responding to God, but it's not deep. And then temptation comes, as Jesus says. Their faith fades away and they don't believe. Again, I would argue temptation, spiritual warfare. You know, the schemes of the enemy tempting you the way that Satan knows how to tempt. Tempt you and tempt those you're trying to reach. Then the thorns. So it looks good. Everything's great. And then the weeds, the thorns, which Jesus calls the cares, the riches, the pleasures of this life. They choke out faith. They choke out the true belief in God. And they're crowded out. And so this to me is our world. This is where we live. You know, the things that we take for granted, the keeping up with the Joneses, you know, the comforts, the casual, the convenience that we all have pressing in on us like no other time in history. And sometimes we get in the fish bowl and we can't even see it. We're just in it. But it's the cares, the riches, the pleasures of this life. And that keep us from growing deep roots in maturity with Jesus. The busyness, the priorities other than Jesus. This is our threat. This is what we face in our world. And we all need to be real with that. Finally, the good soil, the hundred times growth, the honest, good-hearted, clinging to God's word and patiently producing a huge harvest. You know, Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters. You know, the elders this week we met and talked about this passage and just wanted to be clear about what we were going to say. And so we highlighted, you know, is this interesting? Because I read this scripture and, you know, as we discussed it, like what was highlighted, I was like, oh, now I see it. The kingdom of God. There's a bigger picture here, there's a theme here of the king is on the move. Again, Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters, and we clearly see as Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God. Well, guess what? If we're talking about the kingdom of God, the king is on the move, and his name is Jesus. And what does it mean? He is in authority, he's in charge. He's the farmer. He's casting the seed, and he's our certainty, as we've been talking about in this sermon series. And so we, I don't know about you, but I want to be good soil. And the reality of what Jesus was dealing with, and you see this in this passage, and you see it later in the triumphal entry, Jesus was speaking to a people that wanted a king like David that was going to kick out the Romans. They were shouting Hosanna to him at the triumphal entry, and then he clears the temple. I'm sure they wanted him to clear out the Roman, you know, fortress in Jerusalem. They wanted to reign and rule in the natural, but Jesus had infinity, eternity, heaven, the kingdom of God in mind. That was the most important thing. And that's the reality that we face as we apply this truth is this focus on the eternal kingdom of God, on surrendering and submitting to our King Jesus Christ. Not getting complacent with the temptations and the polls of different loyalties other than our true King Jesus. And letting go of this world, letting go of the temporary, and have a full surrender towards Christ. This is what it means to be the good soil. It's completely, totally surrender to our King. And I just want to think, I just want to focus on this. Jesus could have come in might immeasurable. Jesus could have come in a majesty that we dream about. But even in this parable, he highlights the character of God in the flesh. He's the farmer, the humble farmer. This is the story that he's telling us. This is who our God is. And I love what Jesus says in Matthew 11, 29. He says, I am gentle and lowly. I don't know if you heard me say this, but I've say this a lot. This is who our God is. This is his character. This is how his secrets are being revealed to us. He's a farmer. He's gentle and lowly, winning our hearts with his humility, with his compassion, with his love. So, in conclusion, I want to talk about three points of application for you today. Again, remembering his audience, remembering his explanation, remembering the context of the story. Again, thankful for the disciples asking the questions, what does this mean? What is this about? And we, by extension, receiving the revelation of God's truth through his word. So here's the first thing I would like you to surrender and submit to Jesus' conversations in your life in this moment. It's what I pray for us, what I pray for me. That God would reveal our blind spots, that God would reveal where he's working on us. So the first thing I just want to highlight is a personal conviction. Which soil are you? If you've given your life to Christ, which soil are you? We can see things on the surface, what can happen? Again, this isn't about the gospel collective. This isn't about anything but just Him, just God. Your heart fully surrendered. And that's why we started off by asking, what do you want? What do you want? Do you want the cares and the riches and the concerns of this world? Do you want or do you fall into the traps of temptation and distraction and busyness? Where are you at in your maturity? Do you want? I know it's crazy to say this. Do you want trials? Because you know what you get. You get steadfast faith. Resilient faith. Our flesh is revolting at that thought. But God at work in us is saying yes to deep-rooted faith. That is temptation, care, rich, temporary resistance. And I think sometimes it's just a confession to say, God, I'm not there. Help me. Help me be there. Help me want trials. Because I recognize this as true. So that I can be faithful, so that I can be steadfast, that I can be patient, because it's all for your glory, it's all for your multiplication in my life. To be motivated and living for our eternal King. To set our minds and our hearts on Jesus, who's anchored behind the veil, who's holding us and interceding for us. So that's application one. Something to think about. Your personal conviction. Where is God working on you? Where do your roots need to go deeper into the things of God? The second thing to highlight for application, and that is spiritual warfare. Those two soil conditions, you know, in you, in your life, and in your ministry. Again, we've got it up on the wall, everyone on mission. I believe this to my core. I am so excited when I hear the stories about how God's using you to share the gospel, how God's using you to invite people to church or to house church or how God's using you to start a Bible study. You are on mission. God is working through you, but recognizing the necessity of prayer and spiritual warfare. So there's just the first reality of that, of just awareness to it. I know it can sound scary, but there's this awareness of that and just the prayer life. And it's become a habit of mine when I pray for this moment, when I pray for our gatherings, I pray for physical and spiritual protection. I don't understand it. Again, I don't see it, but I pray for it for this church. I have no way of knowing or being in control. I know I'm not in control. So I ask for God to protect us physically and spiritually. So we need a priority of prayer, praying and discerning the spiritual warfare. Again, the devil, I would say, is mentioned twice in two of these conditions of soil. We need to be in prayer. So that's just my encouragement to you: the awareness and the focus of prayer. Finally, I'll say this: to be ready. Be ready. To recognize even if people hear it as you share God's word, and it can and be ready that it might appear that they've received that they're good soil. It may appear that way. But just to be ready, this is going to happen. The three types of soil are going to happen. To be ready. And we don't have to look far in Jesus' ministry to see it happen in his ministry. His name is Judas. He betrayed Jesus. I think his allegiance was to a temporary king, a David-like king that would kick out the Romans. That's what he wanted. That would be my understanding. So we we see that kind of soil. The thorns crept around Judas and choked out his faith in an eternal king, a salvation for all eternity. His theology was corrupted. So the reality is we have to have thick skin. We have to be ready for drift. We have to be ready for setback and people falling away. We have to be ready for disappointment. And our aim, despite those challenges, despite those hard times, our aim is deep-rooted discipleship. Deep-rooted discipleship. We have to be first and foremost a deep-rooted disciple and make deep-rooted disciples. That is our aim, to help people in that area. And I think to do that, we have to have transparent, genuine confidence and go through life and talk about real struggles, not surface level conversations, but to trust and to have deep conversations about what's really going on in the matters of the heart, because that's where we want those deep roots. So to end today, I want to just have a moment of quiet, to listen to the Holy Spirit, for you to talk to Jesus. And I felt led to motivate or to remind you as you meditate to think about. This is going to sound kind of counter to everything I've been talking about, but to think about how much God loves you. To think about our Heavenly Father, who loved you so much that he sent his only Son to die for you, to be a way for you to be in relationship with Him forever. Think about, allow the Holy Spirit to receive how much God loves you, and you cannot fathom it. As we think about what kind of soil we are, I think it's important to think about how much God loves us and how busy we are and how distracted we are. But just that's our strength, is God's love. And having that and receiving that and believing it and knowing that you have been adopted into the family of God forever. And He loves you beyond your comprehension. So let's just take a moment as you reflect on these applications. Think about how much God loves you. I'm going to pray. We're going to have a moment of quiet and I'm going to pray again. So, God, we just take this moment just to settle our hearts, God, to have a conversation with you, Jesus. To ask you and to open our hearts up to you, God, to listen, to ask you to search us, to search our heart, to confess. God, we pray for your revelation in this moment. God, we pray for your transformation. So we just take this moment, God, just to listen to you and to receive and to meditate on your love for us, God. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. God, that is our prayer. We surrender our hearts to you, God. I pray that your children in this room, God, their roots would go deeper today. God, we pray for protection physical. And spiritually, God. And God, I pray that you would send us. Send us resilient to the temptations of the devil and this world and the cares and the riches and concerns. Send us, God, in your love. For your glory, for your harvest. We love you, Jesus. Your name we pray. Amen.