Ecclesia Princeton
Ecclesia Princeton
7 Signs: Lent 2025- Ian Graham: Nothing Is Wasted
Pastor Ian Graham explores the fourth and fifth signs that Jesus performs in John’s Gospel.
We are in the midst of the season called Lent, which is an extended time of preparation and purification leading towards the celebration that is Easter, and throughout the course of this season we have been in John's Gospel, and John very explicitly outlines seven signs, what we often would call miracles, but John labels them signs of Jesus's expression, of what it means when the world is remade, when new creation comes, and so today we're going to encounter I messed this up in the first service the fourth and the fifth signs. I started trying to account for the numbers in my head and just had to give up Four and five as we are leading towards Easter and Good Friday, and as we encounter what Jesus has for us, and we're going to be in a chapter in John, chapter 6, which contains two of the signs of Jesus and John, and John 6 is this extended narrative, and it doesn't do well to sort of take it apart, and so we're going to try to hold it together. And so there's going to be a lot of scripture on the screen behind me, and so I invite you to follow along. If you have a paper Bible, these relics from a bygone age, please open them. But also, if you don't, that's okay. We have the words behind you on the screen. And while we're walking through John 6, as I'm very aware, one of my pastoral goals and I tell you this is to be interesting.
Speaker 1:I once had a professor start a week-long intensive. We were going to be in there for 12 hours a day and he said from the very beginning he's like you're all adults here, I don't mind if you're on your laptop sending emails, doing everything you have to do, because most of us had taken a week off of work in order to be at this class. But he said if I can do my job and be interesting, then I invite you to pay attention. You know, if not, do all the stuff you have to do. He knew what he was doing, he was super interesting, and so I've always taken that as a little bit of a challenge, but also the acknowledgement and the humble awareness that you may think about other things while you're in here, and that is okay. But I'm going to sort of, in a way, try to guide that thinking if your mind wonders, as some of us are prone to do with some questions for reflection. So, craig, do you mind putting that first slide up? These are four questions that will perhaps be guides for us today and I invite you, if you're taking notes, you can just kind of capture those in whatever shorthand are helpful, you can take a picture of them. But these are kind of framing questions, reflective, exploratory questions as we encounter the word that God has for us today and hopefully they will both make more sense in how they're tied together, but also hopefully they'll meet you where you need to hear from God here this morning. So in John chapter 6, we're going to kind of tie all these threads together.
Speaker 1:Jesus in John 6 re-narrates the story of Israel's liberation from Egypt but, as we will see, he's going to reverse the order of events and center the entire story not on the people but on the work and the person of Jesus himself. John tells us in verse 4 of chapter 6 that the Passover is drawing near, ensuring that we don't miss the setting. The story of the Passover is a subversive, epic tale of the undoing of empire and it's like this beautiful irony that in the midst of Roman-occupied Jerusalem that each year during the course of Jesus's earthly life there would be pilgrims that would gather. And they would gather to tell the story of the end of empire, of God's liberating power, and I love. The irony here is that the Romans are saying we are trying to colonize your mind, your culture, your values. And these Jewish people are gathering in Jerusalem once a year and telling an alternative story, a story about a world not defined by power and might, but a world defined by God's power, his might. And so oftentimes we'll see throughout Jesus's earthly life, especially in John, that Jesus goes to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. But here we have him outside of Jerusalem. But John wants to make it clear that the Passover is drawing near. And John writes that the crowds are following Jesus because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick are following Jesus because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.
Speaker 1:Jesus has been working again what we would call miracles, and those miracles have developed for Jesus a reputation as a miracle worker. And we've all been in different settings like that, where something out of the ordinary is happening and you want to see what's happening. The most base version of this is somebody yells fight and you're like, yeah, I'll see what's happening here, fight. But if somebody is doing miraculous things or somebody's just yelling on the street, usually, unless you're a New Yorker, you're going to kind of pause and see what's going on. New York, you guys have those muscles built up. You don't pay attention to anybody or anything which I respect you, anybody or anything which I respect you.
Speaker 1:Jesus will begin the setting of John 6 where the story of the Exodus, one movement of that story, ends. Jesus is teaching on a mountain, god himself teaching the people, and as the crowd begins to accumulate and multiply, jesus is looking out on this vast expanse of people, thousands of people, and I love what Jesus does in verse 5. He leans over to one of his closest friends and disciples and confidants, a man named Philip. He says Philip, where do you suppose we're going to gather food to feed all these people? And Philip is like hey, jesus, food to feed all these people? And Philip is like hey, jesus, we couldn't buy a scrap of food for all of these people if we had 200 days wages. But it says that Jesus knew what he was going to do. But Philip is dismissive. He says we don't have enough, we don't have the resources. But then Andrew, peter's brother, pipes in and I gotta say I love the sons of Jonah, peter and Andrew, these men who are brothers. These are good friends and they often say things that maybe they shouldn't say. They often say things before they've fully articulated the implications of what they're about to say in their mind and they just say it. And so, as Jesus is asking Philip, hey, where are we going to get food to feed all these people? Philip is saying, hey, 200 days wages would not account for all these people.
Speaker 1:Andrew then pipes in. He says there was a little boy who had five loaves and some fish. And then it's almost as he catches himself. He's like but what are they amongst so many? Again speaking out before he'd really fully thought about the implications of what he's saying, because again we're talking about a very meager amount of food for a vast amount of people. But Jesus is like that we can work with. Barley was the bread of the poor. So we're reminded that the people that Jesus is ministering to, and among these are peasants, peasants living in a subsistence agrarian economy, these are not people that have pantries full of food. These are people for whom the thought of food, the pursuit of food, is often a daily struggle.
Speaker 1:And so Jesus takes Andrew's cue. He says arrange all the people in small groups. And then Jesus takes the loaves and the fish and he blesses them and has them distributed. And he blesses them and has them distributed and the people eat from the hand of God, in an obvious way echoing the manna that God provided to the people in the wilderness. And just in case we're still missing the point, john tells us that when the disciples gather up all that is left over, there's enough to fill 12 baskets, 12 being the number of the tribes of Israel, 12 being the number of the apostles. 12, in the biblical vocabulary and imagination, is a symbolic number symbolizing the people of God. It's why, when you read in Revelation, there's all these numerals of 12, 144,000. 144,000 times 12,. Like, john is trying to capture this number as an expression of the people of God, the city of God, the temple having 12 pillars and the names of the apostles in the tribes of Israel. So there's this unique thread that is woven throughout the biblical story and 12 has this significance. And so John is trying to say Passover manna, people of God. He's trying to cue our senses towards this story.
Speaker 1:And Jesus then, after everybody's had their fill, tells the disciples to gather all that's left over, and he says this that nothing should be lost. This is one of those phrases that's always captured my imagination. This makes sense to us, of course. Jesus is not living in a consumerist, plastic world like we live in. These were ingenious, creative people who made the most of everything they had. But I don't think Jesus's statement here is merely practical, pragmatic hey, let's not waste any of this miraculous provision of God. But I think Jesus' statement here is a theological statement as well. God will waste nothing. He will gather up the fragments, the shards of our lives into a mosaic of beauty and goodness. If we scroll ahead in our passage today, jesus gives us more insight into what he's saying when he says that nothing should be lost.
Speaker 1:John 6, verse 35,. Let's read this together. Jesus said to them I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away, for I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And Jesus, as he sometimes does, will then exposit just exactly what is that will? And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my father that all who see the son and believe in him may have eternal life. And I will raise them up on the last day. And I love Jesus's phrasing here because it is so expansive Nothing and no one will be lost. Verse 37 tells us that everything the Father gives to me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away. And then he says for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And again, what is that will? Just to drive the point home, jesus says let me tell you that I should not lose, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
Speaker 1:The language of raising up, in the context of John's gospel, is the language of resurrection, which means if there's a resurrection, then that which preceded it is death. That which is to be raised up to be resurrected has previously died and, friends, we know the death that runs rampant in our lives. We are aware of it Death of relationships, death of dreams, the slow, subtle death of waste, regret, distraction. And Jesus says to us all of the ruins of our lives will be gathered up, that nothing should be wasted, will be raised up into his careful hands, that nothing will be lost. And the people experienced this great miracle. And it says in verse 14, when the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world. Remember, our setting is largely people for whom food was a daily struggle. And here is Jesus effortlessly providing them with the nourishment that they need, with the echoes of the Exodus story in their ears and the promises that Moses said to them that God would again raise up a prophet like Moses, that the Passover story was merely a glimpse into a greater story that God was going to bring about. And understandably, they want to enthrone Jesus immediately. They're seeing all that they're seeing, they're hearing what they're hearing and they're saying you're our guy, please keep giving us bread and we will follow you wherever you go.
Speaker 1:Verse 15, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king. He withdrew again to the mountain by himself. So we have this divergence point. The crowds want to make of Jesus a king. They want to enthrone him upon their adulation and their exaltation. And Jesus will have none of it. He withdraws to the mountain by himself.
Speaker 1:A theme throughout this story and others in John is that Jesus will not enthrone himself upon our platforms, our aspirations, our ambitions. Just because we label something with Jesus's name does not mean that it is of Jesus. Leslie Newbigin says this. He says Jesus will not be the instrument of any human enthusiasm or the symbol for any human program. To say Jesus is king is true if the word king is wholly defined by the person of Jesus. It is false and blasphemous if Jesus is made instrumental to a definition of kingship derived from elsewhere. Jesus has come to proclaim liberty to the captives, but he will not become the mascot for a people's movement of liberation. Jesus, in the face of their wanting to make him king, withdraws by himself.
Speaker 1:And as evening draws near, the disciples got into a boat to sail across the sea to Capernaum. And Jesus is not with them yet. I'm gonna put up a picture. This is by a Russian painter, master of maritime painting, ivan Ivan Ivanosky. Thank you, lana. The beautiful thing about Princeton is almost anything you're talking about. About Princeton is almost anything you're talking about. There's an expert in the room. Thank you, just as a way of kind of inviting us into the story. It was now dark, john writes, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat. They were terrified, but he said to them it is, I Do not be afraid. Then they wanted to take him into the boat and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
Speaker 1:If you remember the story of the Exodus, or if you're sort of vaguely aware of it, or you've seen the Prince of Egypt, or, if you're older, the Ten Commandments, it was the crowds who passed through the waters by the wind and power of God, and here it is simply Jesus Walking, not through the waters but on top of the waters, echoing Genesis 1, where the Ruach Elohim hovers over the surface of the deep. Here is Jesus in the midst of the Exodus through the life of Jesus. There's a slide here that just kind of parallels these two. You see, in Exodus, when Moses encounters God at the burning bush, who, shall I say, has sent me? And the voice responds I am that, I am Yahweh. And then we have the people being led through the sea, god providing manna in the wilderness, and it all ends on a mountain where God invites in Exodus 19 and 20, the people to be a kingdom of holy priests and to keep his words, which are not just baseline commandments but signifiers that God is up to something in the world, undoing the fall and the curse, undoing them by the power of his unfailing love, his steadfast, covenant love. And then in John, we start on a mountain, we see the provision, we see Jesus himself walking on the waters and then we have the name.
Speaker 1:This is another sermon series for another time, but there are also several I am statements in John's gospel where Jesus will say things like I am the bread of life, I am the living water, and here he just says it is I. In the Greek the phrasing is the same ego ami, I am. And Jesus, as he's walking on the water and the disciples are terrified, is declaring and revealing his nature to these disciples and we're all invited into this beautiful revelation by the artistry of John, the writer of the gospel. But the crowds aren't privy to any of this, the insight that we gain as readers and hearers. And it's here, in the midst of the fourth and the fifth sides of John's gospel, that we're invited to the point of friction between what we know we need and what God, who cares for our needs and also knows what we need, is doing in our lives, and also knows what we need is doing in our lives. And I want to acknowledge that often this is a tender place, because often we are very aware of what we need and subsequently somewhat unaware of what God is doing in the midst of that need. Verse 22,. The next day the crowd that stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not gotten into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. But some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
Speaker 1:It is often our deep and desperate clawing need that sends us frantically searching for Jesus, and Jesus doesn't bemoan any of that. These crowds literally set sail looking for Jesus. It's hard for us, when we come with that gaping need that is so obvious to us, to find that Jesus is up to something more. He's not spiritualizing our need away, but he's often deepening it. This is often the grounds of profound disappointment with God, and I've seen this in so many ways throughout my own life and throughout my life as a pastor. We bring our aching need to God, our disillusionment with the people of God, our longing for freedom from things like addiction, our loneliness, our bitterness and cynicism, our despair, and in one way we find healing. We find the person of Jesus. We find that Jesus both meets us in our need, without patronizing, without obfuscating or spiritualizing. But there is more. There is more than healing that God is up to, more than healing, that God is up to More than liberation, more than bread alone. There is Jesus, verse 25.
Speaker 1:When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them very truly. I tell you, you're looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of man will give you, for it is on him that God, the Father, has set his seal. Then they said to him what must we do to perform the works of God? Jesus answered him. This is the work of God, that you believe in him, whom he has sent. The people find Jesus and they address him Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus says well, I've got a story about that, but I'll tell you later. Jesus seems to rebuke them and it's something that's consistent throughout the signs that are present in John's gospel.
Speaker 1:There's always this kind of tension point. Jesus is not cuddly when he's performing these miracles. Oftentimes there's this dialogue that seems to put the people that are asking for the thing at arm's length. He says to them in verse 26 through 28,. Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves, which is a very understandable ambition. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of man will give you, for it is on him that God, the Father, has set his seal. The people respond earnestly what must we do to perform the works of God? Echoing the woman at the well, sir, give me this water always.
Speaker 1:Jesus reorients their question with the question of discipleship in John. The persistent question in John is will we trust him, will we believe in him? The people then display their misunderstanding or their belief that is built on something other than Jesus, verse 30. So they said to him what sign are you going to give us, then so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. The people are reminding Jesus of the story. The people are reminding Jesus of the story just in case he'd forgotten, hey, listen.
Speaker 1:In Exodus 16,. When the people come out of slavery, they're given wilderness provision, manna from heaven. They're chapter and versing Jesus, which Satan does elsewhere in the text, verse 32,. Again, jesus clarifies it wasn't the presence of Moses or the prophet that gave the people bread in the wilderness, it was the presence of God. Jesus then sets them up, just as he did the woman at the well. Just as Jesus is the living water, so he is the bread of life Verse 35,. Jesus said to them I am the bread of life. Again, ego of me. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. Go ahead to verse 41.
Speaker 1:Then the Jews began to complain about him, because he said I am the bread that came down from heaven. They were saying is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say I have come down from heaven? The crowd that wanted to make Jesus king just a few verses ago then begins to turn on him. The one that they were so convinced was so special, the chosen one, the prophet that is to come, as he distances himself from their vision of the kingdom and their demands, is now nothing more than a Jesus, then ups the stakes Verse 50. And then he's going to really challenge their presuppositions.
Speaker 1:And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh Verse 52. And why would he? Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life and I will raise them up on the last day, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them, just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father. So whoever eats me will live because of the Father. So whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate and they died, but the one who eats this bread will live forever. The Jewish people famously practice incredible table discipline about what they will eat and what they will not eat. A lot of very meticulous rules about not eating things, especially with blood. And here's Jesus saying eat my flesh and drink my blood.
Speaker 1:Talk about God shaking up your paradigms. He's like just coming right for them, right? Jesus tells them not only is he the bread from heaven, but that his followers must eat his flesh and drink his blood. Jesus tells them not only is he the bread from heaven, but that his followers must eat his flesh and drink his blood. Disappointment, disillusionment, disorientation however you want to capture it what we have here are two vastly divergent views of the story and how it should go. And this is not just something that happens to faceless crowds who can't quite square their expectations of who Jesus should be with who Jesus actually is. No, this is a crossroad that we who decide to follow Jesus at one point will come to over and over again throughout the course of our lives.
Speaker 1:What do we do when the demands of discipleship, when the call to holiness or sacrifice or contentment is an equation that won't balance with our own assumptions about Jesus or our own preferences of what Jesus should say? At the end of John 6, we're left with disciples who are not comforted but are perplexed and deeply disturbed. And then two responses are put forth. First, there are those who simply fall away. Look in verse 60. Responses are put forth. First, there are those who simply fall away. Look in verse 60. When many of his disciples heard this his insinuation that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood they said in an understatement this teaching is difficult, who can accept it? And because of this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. And there are so many times in our life where the temptation is to shrink back, because the initial encounter with what it seems that Jesus is asking of us is hard, or the disappointment that we experience from participating in the life of church is hard, and we see that people shrink back. But there is another option Verse 67. So Jesus asked the twelve Do you also wish to go away?
Speaker 1:I think John, very intentionally, will portray Jesus as consistently in charge. He is directing the order of events. We see this explicitly when Jesus encounters Pontius Pilate at his trial and crucifixion. It becomes very clear to the reader that it's not Jesus who's on trial but Pilate, and Pilate's trying to hold on to his claim Don't you know? I have power to crucify you. And Jesus is like well, guy, you would have no power over me if we're not given to you from heaven. Jesus encounters Pilate and takes control of the encounter and we see this throughout John's gospel. John is wanting to portray Jesus as in control, as sovereign, as powerful, but we also see these incredible moments of pathos from Jesus. The last sign that we'll get to tells us that Jesus wept. And we see here.
Speaker 1:I don't think Jesus is just cavalierly asking the question to his dearest disciples as he turns to the twelve, as he watches these multitudes walk away. I don't think he's just saying are you guys going to go too? I think it's a quite different tone. I think he turns to his friends and says are you going to leave too? And again, those sons of Jonah man, we've got Andrew at the beginning, like there's a kid with five loaves of fish to feed 5,000 people. And Peter, where else would we go? Where else would we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. We've come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. The sons of Jonah are good friends. I don't think Peter and the twelve are any less disoriented by all that they've heard Jesus say. But they've tasted and they've seen of Jesus's goodness and wonder.
Speaker 1:It will remain clear that they don't fully understand Jesus's mission or his work. This is not a turning point for the disciples. Will they all of a sudden understand what Jesus is claiming, what he came to do? But the question is not whether we fully comprehend God or can articulate all that he's up to in the world. The question is, will we persist in trusting him, all that he's up to in the world. The question is will we persist in trusting him? Jesus tells us that he is the bread of life. It's a metaphor that, especially as he tells us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, begins to stretch the bounds of our comfort. But this is the call to discipleship to feed on Jesus. This doesn't spiritualize all of our real needs for food or minimize them. Jesus, challenging these people who are looking for bread is a severe call indeed. Again, these are peasants and Jesus is saying there's something more than that visceral hunger that you are feeling. It's a wonder that Jesus never gave into the demands of the people or the temptations of Satan to turn stones into bread. The demands of the people or the temptations of Satan to turn stones into bread. It would seem like the most pragmatic project for God to undertake. God walking the earth just to start feeding people, and yet somehow he resists.
Speaker 1:Henri Nouwen tells the story of going to the bedside of a man dying in his 60s, the man, still relatively young, dying of cancer. And throughout his life this man had always been a leader. He was a CEO of a company, a family man. He took care of his employees well, his family. He served and led in the church. He was a good man. And this is not the tale of a deathbed regret or a life not fully lived. But as Nouwen approaches the man's bedside, the man says to him Father, you have to help me. All of my life I've been the one in charge and now I can't even help myself. I have tubes in my arms. I can't get up, I can't go to the bathroom on my own.
Speaker 1:And Nouwen realized that anything he was going to say in that moment was going to fall short. And then together they read from the passion narratives of Jesus there will come a point in our life, and ultimately the moment of our death, where the only thing that we have to trust, the only source available to us, is Jesus, either through despair or disappointment and disorientation, or when all of our accomplishments don't matter anymore, when the level of physical health or culturally assessed beauty begin to fade, when his ecclesiastes reminds us that food, sex and ambition have lost their ability to drive us. In that moment all that we will have available to us is Jesus. And the point of the story about the man at his bedside is that's not just a future story. All of the control that we proclaim to have in the present is simply an illusion. Control that we proclaim to have in the present is simply an illusion. All that we do to nourish ourselves in the here and now is simply an illusion. Jesus is inviting us right here and right now to be nourished, to be sustained, to be fed by his life, to feed on the life that God has for us. The call that Jesus was putting forth to these people in John 6 and that he puts forth to us now is that we don't have to wait. The bread of life is not only available at the end of our lives, at the end of our ropes. It is available, with all of God's goodness, right now. Isaiah 55 says this.
Speaker 1:I'm going to invite the worship team to make their way forward here. Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for that which is not satisfied? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good, delight yourselves in the richest of foods, incline your ear and come to me. Listen so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. I'm going to invite Craig.
Speaker 1:Can you put those questions back up from the beginning? Thank you, sir. What are you demanding of Jesus right now? When was the last time that Jesus confronted you with a deeper version of himself? How might your disappointment be an invitation to see Jesus and find freedom? Is Jesus enough? And Ecclesia? I assure you, I ask those questions without any heavy-handedness, without any leading, but just as a mere call to introspection to allow the Holy Spirit to do His searching work in us. Because as we see Jesus, we see that he is ultimately the one who would be blessed, broken and given.
Speaker 1:For us, this one that, in John 6, avoids the throne of exaltation that the people tried to hoist him upon, will indeed accept a throne that we will make for him, but that throne will not be fashioned of gold. It will be fashioned of wood. That crown will not be bejeweled with diamonds, but will be thorny and sharp and placed upon his brow For the bread of life. We fashion a cross, a throne of contempt, bitterness and suffering, but by the love of God, that which is given will not be exhausted and nothing will be wasted. He will gather up the fragments of our lives in his outstretched arms on the cross. When he is lifted up, he will draw all people to himself.
Speaker 1:We pray come, holy Spirit. God, we come to you with all of our motivations about what we want you to do for us. Our ambitions, god, and those are a mixed bag. They're not all bad. Our senses of our needs are not all wrong. The people need food.
Speaker 1:But the persistent question throughout all of that is not about results, not about success. The persistent question that is put to us is will we trust you? And it is a question that we can only answer by first seeing you that you are the bread of life, and then taking that life into our own life. With the power of the Holy Spirit. You come and make your home with us, god Spirit, you come and make your home with us.
Speaker 1:God, you are fashioning in us something far beyond that which we would dream up for ourselves. And so, jesus, we come to you and we lay our lives at your feet. God, may we see that you are nourishment, you are goodness. May we taste and see that the Lord is good. In this place, we ask and we declare and we pray all of these things In the name of Jesus. We pray Amen Because, see, I'm going to invite you to stand for just a moment and just in a posture of allowing the Holy Spirit to continue to minister to you. Whether it's those questions, whether it's something else that God is bringing forth, there's so many layers to this story. God has something for you today, and he's ministering and speaking to invite you, as we worship, just to keep your focus, your attention, on what he might be saying to you. Let us worship together.