Description / Transcription
Our Father in heaven, as we come before Your Word, we pray, O Lord, that You would be glorified in the preaching of Your Word and that You would give us Your Holy Spirit. I pray that You would shape my words to be the words that You would speak to Your people. We pray by Your Spirit they would be applied to our hearts. We pray that in Christ’s name. Amen.
As you might imagine in our staff meeting Tuesday morning, we were talking about this whole dynamic of so you’re going to be on the floor, you’re not going to be in the platform. So people asked me, am I going to take free rein or free license just to wander out into the congregation and maybe pat some of you on the shoulder or what not. I don’t have plans on that, but if you have a habit of dozing off in the service, I’d suggest you stay alert. You might find me right beside you.
The title of this sermon is ” Children of God – Destined for Glory.” I took that from Martyn Lloyd-Jones famous sermon series. Many of you have read that on 1 John. I figure you can’t go wrong with Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Because the title of this beautifully captures our scripture this morning so well.
Just a little bit of context if you’re visiting with us. We’re going through a series of 1 John and in 1 John he’s getting at the core of the Gospel. It’s all about the core truth of the Gospel, who Jesus is and what He came to do, who we are, who you and I are, in light of who He is and what He came to do. John gives his readers some markers, some markers, both theological and practical, to discern truth from error, to discern genuine Christianity from a false profession of Christianity. He’s doing that by going into the core truth of the Gospel and the core truth of Christian practice.
It’s relevant to us because he’s addressing pastoral concerns, concerns of our assurance, of our confidence, and our hope in the life of faith.
So this morning’s passage is related to all of those things. With that in mind, I’ll give you the outline.
We’re going to look at three things. We’re going to look, number one, at what it means to abide in Christ, what it means to abide in Christ, and then we’ll look at our identity as children of God, and then our destiny as believers. What it means to abide in Christ, that’s related to our confidence and our clarity. Our identity as children of God is related to our assurance. Then of course our destiny is related to our hope and our joy in Christ.
So with that let’s pick up 1 John chapter 2, the end of chapter 2, beginning also in the beginning part of chapter 3. Hear the Word of the Lord.
“And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself even as He is pure.” Amen.
John gives his readers a simple recognition and a simple admonition. The simple recognition is he calls them little children, and you’ve heard us talk about that throughout this series. He uses that over and over again. We’ll come back to that in the second point, but he gives them a simple admonition as well, abide in Him. Abide in Him.
John has told his readers that they are surrounded by many antichrists, many people who would deny Jesus either by denying His humanity or denying His divinity, or people who would deny Jesus by not living out of His commands. So the Church is in this context of being surrounded by people who on the one hand they’re twisting the truth but they’re also denying the truth as well. In that context, John’s pastoral advice is simple. He says, “abide in Him.”
So the first point I want to talk about is what it means to abide in Christ, and then I want to give you two results of abiding in Him.
In short, abiding in Christ is about two things, it’s about faith and it’s about practice. It’s about faith and practice. But let’s talk about faith first. Let’s be honest. We don’t really use this word “abide” very much today, do we? If I were to ask you what did you do yesterday and you say, “Well, Derek, I was abiding at my neighbor’s house.” Or “I was abiding at the community pool.” Or “I was abiding at the beach last week.” We’d think that’s a little bit strange. I’ve always thought about, as I’ve read that word, it’s not very familiar to us.
But Jesus emphasizes this word and John emphasizes this word. It must carry some great significance for the Christian life then, this word “abide.”
In Greek, this word means “to remain.” So it’s John’s admonition to them, essentially saying, “Don’t move. Stay in one place. Just stay there.”
Michelle and I were able to go to the Master’s a few months ago and that was such a highlight, a great experience. If you’ve ever been there, you know as you look around Augusta National just how immaculate and how beautiful it is. It’s just mesmerizing. You just look at the golf course and just aside from even watching the golf, you could just walk around and stare at the grounds all day long. We did a lot of that. I told people that we talked 6 miles that day, from hole to hole. If you’ve been at the Master’s, you know it’s like the garden of Eden basically. Close to it.
Like the garden of Eden, there is one rule at the Master’s, there’s one rule, and that rule is thou shalt not bring your cellphone onto the grounds. They are serious about that rule. So that was emphasized to us and we left our phones in the car, just kind of walking around looking, do they have surveillance cameras or secret police or something, just watching for people with their cellphones? Just a word, don’t do it. Don’t do it. People who dare to do that are like people who dare to go to the Bermuda Triangle. They just disappear and you never hear from them again.
Now obviously you think about going without your phone for just an hour is difficult, but we’re talking about going without our phones for a day and it was great. It was wonderful. I recommend it. There was one difficulty that we did not anticipate, and I bet you haven’t thought about this, and that is how easily you can lose touch with one another when you’re in a crowd like that. We take for granted you lose touch and you’re going to call each other on your cellphone. So what we found is that we were always saying, you know you just kind of stop and you say, “Okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to duck into this little golf store and I’m going to pay $200 for a golf shirt. And you stay right here at this tree, this oak tree. I mean, don’t move.” People were just going everywhere. “Just stay right there and when I come back, I’ll be back with my $200 golf shirt and we’ll all be happy and we’ll be back together again.” We were constantly saying “remain where you are.”
John says, “Don’t move.” He says, “Don’t move. Do not depart from what you have received.” He says, “Don’t go wandering around looking for some ultimate truth somewhere else. Don’t go wandering around looking for some ultimate meaning somewhere else or some value somewhere else.” He says, “Remain where you are.”
John pulls no punches about what the Church is facing. In fact, we could say it this way: There’s going to be challenges to your faith. There’s going to be many antichrists. They might seem like the antichrist, we picture someone with horns or what not. No, no. There will be many people, many ideas, Christ-denying things, many who deny Christ in our world today. John knows that. It’s going to be a challenge.
There’s also going to be a temptation, as Zach said last week, to take the things of this world and look to them and to make those things, to love them, to make them ultimate in our lives. But John says, “But listen. Hold fast to what you have heard.” Verse 24, chapter 2, just backing up, he says, “Let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you.” What have they heard from the beginning? The simple, profound Gospel. The simple profound Gospel that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh to save sinners, that He was sent by the Father, that He is their advocate. John is emphasizing these things. He’s emphasizing them over and over and over again. Here’s what he’s saying: Abide in these things. Don’t just hear them and just let them wash over your soul and out of your soul. Abide in them. Don’t move on. Stop right there.
Now that’s hard for us. It’s hard for us to abide anywhere because we live in such a frantic and restless society. We’re always on the move. But one of the applications could be slow down, Christian. Slow down. So many times we’re like Jet-skis just skimming across the waters of truth when really we should be like submarines diving deep and dwelling deep in the waters of truth.
That’s the scriptural admonition as Paul would say, “Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you.” That would be another way of saying it. So he’s saying talk about it, sing about it, make much of it. Let it be front and center in your life. Abide in Christ by remaining in His Word.
That’s why things like weekly worship is so important. What we do every week, the preaching of the word, praying, singing, the creeds. What are we doing there? We’re affirming the faith. Right? We’re confessing the faith. We’re confirming the faith. We’re affirming it with other believers. We’re coming back to it over and over again. Even if your wrestling with it, you keep coming back to it. Daily time in the Word as well. What’s the point of all those things? We’re here this morning to do what? To praise God and that His Word might dwell in us, that we might internalize it.
So abiding in Christ involves letting the Word of Christ dwell richly in you, and the Word of Christ is the Gospel itself. It can become commonplace. We can look for other things, but John says, “No, the answer is in front of you. The answer to the challenges of your life, to the trials of your life, are in this, that Christ Jesus has come into this world to save sinners, that He is your advocate. Come back to that over and over. Let it take root in your soul. Let it nurture your faith.”
If I could just say this, here’s what John knows. John knows that have no shot, no shot at resisting the world unless the Word of Christ is abiding in them. I would tell you the same thing. Unless the Word of Christ is abiding in you, you have no shot. You will follow the world unless the Word of Christ is abiding in you.
So we abide in Christ by faith, but we also abide in Christ in our practice as well. It means obeying the Word. John is speaking to an unbroken kind of fellowship that comes by way of obedience to Christ.
Look again at the beginning of chapter 5 and the latter half of chapter 2 and the latter half of verse 5. He says, “By this we know that we are in Him. Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way.” Jesus says again in John 15:10, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love just as I kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
So we abide in Him by the practice of obedience or keeping His commandments. Now we should note that this is not talking about perfection. It’s talking about faithfulness, faithfulness.
Marriage is a good example at this point. I don’t have to be perfect to remain in Michelle’s love, thankfully. But I do need to be faithful. I need to value that relationship. I need to value that fellowship so much so that I keep promises, that I adhere to vows, that I practice fidelity.
Similar was Christ. The idea is keeping His commands, practicing obedience.
So abiding in Christ involves faith and practice. They go together. But here’s the glorious thing that I want you to see about this. You might think, “Okay, I’ve got to do this. This is kind of me pulling myself up by own bootstraps.” But the glorious thing is this: As we remain in Him, He is at work in us. What is He doing? As we remain in Christ, He’s at work in us and what is He doing? Matthew Kirk said it so well last Sunday night. He said this, listen to this. He said, “The work of the Holy Spirit is not to show us something new, but to take what we know and to make it real.”
There’s a difference between knowing something intellectually and it becoming real to you and that’s the work of the Holy Spirit, that’s what He’s doing, so that we know by experience that His Word, that His will, that His love begins to take up residence in us. It begins to form and it begins to shape us. And wonder of wonders, I find that as I am abiding in Him, He is abiding in me. That’s the fellowship that John is talking about.
So what happens when we abide? There’s two effects from this passage. One, we grow in confidence; and two, we grow in clarity. He says, “Abide in Christ.” Why? So that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink back from Him at His coming. The word for “appearing” is “parousia.” It’s a usual expression for a returning king. So in ancient times a king would leave the city, might be gone for a while, and the people would be preparing for his return.
So is the picture of the Second Coming. Christ the king, He’s ascended, He’s coming back. We’re preparing for His return. John says there will be two kinds of people at His coming. There will be those who are confident, waiting for Him, and then there will be those who shrink back. Two kinds of people.
If you’re a father, you might recall and have found memories, if you have older kids, you might recall coming home from work every day. Do you remember that? How much of an event that was? You walk in the door and it’s, “Wow, Daddy’s home!” and it’s a big party and there’s drawings and there’s gifts and “Look at what I’ve done today” and there’s all these different things that are happening. You’re welcomed, you’re warmly welcomed. Why? Why are you warmly welcomed? Because you know them and they know you. Because you love them and they love you. There’s relationship, there’s fellowship. Your presence has actually been missed throughout the day and there’s all these things that fuel the anticipation of your arrival throughout the day. That’s similar to the Christian, the one who’s abiding in Christ, waiting for him.
Now when your kids get older, you don’t walk in to drawings and gifts and exclamation. You walk in to dirty dishes. There they are in the sink for ya.
Juxtapose that with a stranger pulling into your driveway. What do you do when a stranger pulls into your driveway? Who is that? Why are they here? What are they doing here? What do they want from me? They’re not welcome here. You think of door-to-door salesman. You can see them coming down the road. What do you all do? You __ in the house and you lock down. You dive behind the sofa. You scramble. You turn the lights out.
A couple weeks ago I was out working in the front yard and I saw them. I saw two guys up the road. It doesn’t take much to know. Oh, boy, they’re selling something. They’re going door-to-door. And I just, I couldn’t, the dread of the moment of them coming up in the yard. I just went ahead and got it over. I just walked down there to them and just told them “no” right there. I wasn’t very nice. If you go door-to-door in sales, you’ve got a hard job. More power to ya. But we’re hiding, we’re scrambling. Strangers are not welcome. At times, strangers can even be feared because we do not know them.
So it begs the question, “What will God’s appearing be like for you?” What will it be like for you? Will it be like a familiar father appearing or it will be like seeing a terrible stranger? Will we welcome Him back in the driveway, as it were, or will we shrink back because we’ve lived a life estranged from God? Either by rebellion or just through indifference to Him. What will it be like for you?
We should know here this confidence that John is talking about. It’s not a boastful confidence, like I’ve done enough good works, I’ve checked the box, I’ve done all those things. No, it’s the kind of confidence that comes from intimacy and closeness with God. Closeness breeds confidence, and that comes through abiding in Him. When we abide in Him, we also grow in clarity as well, with regard to ourselves and with regard to others. How do we know who’s been born of Him? He says in verse 29, “If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.”
So what is the identity marker of someone who’s been born of God? It’s the practice of righteousness. So if that’s true, we need to ask what is John mean by practicing righteousness? Once again we know he doesn’t mean perfection. He’s already said if we say we have no sin we lie and the truth is not in us, so he’s not talking about sinless people.
Well, if practicing righteousness doesn’t mean perfection, what does it mean? And I think a good way to look at it is to think about the word “dominion.” Dominion. Dominion has to do with what controls us, what controls our motives, our thoughts, our life, our action, what dominates our hearts. That’s what he’s getting at. What is in control? Is it the things of the world or is it the things of God? What’s in control of our lives?
By righteousness, John does not mean just a general moral impulse. You know? I kind of want to do good, do right things. I want to be good to my neighbor. That’s fine. But ultimately John is connecting righteousness to the character of Christ Himself. He says earlier in chapter 2, he says, “Everyone who keeps His commands is born of Him.” He goes on to highlight the new command that he gives, which is the same command that Christ gave the disciples, that they love one another.
He’s connecting righteousness to the character of Christ. It means, among other things, the practice of loving, not hating our brothers. As John says elsewhere in chapter 4, “Everyone who loves has been born of Him.”
So what is this about? This practicing righteousness? This is about the love of Christ coming to have dominion in our hearts. The love of Christ being resident in our hearts and growing over time and taking control.
You might think of Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the merciful, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Those are Christ-like characteristics. Or the fruit of the Spirit. Ultimately, Christ-like characteristics. These things, that’s righteousness growing in our lives. They bring great clarity about ourselves and about others and ultimately, I know who’s been born of God because I see Christ-like character being formed in them.
Abiding in Christ brings confidence and brings clarity.
That brings us to our next point. We grow in assurance as we realize our identity as God’s children.
Look at what he says in the beginning of chapter 3. He says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”
John wants his readers to know the Father’s love. He says, “See.” Other translations say, “Behold” or to “perceive” the Father’s love.
Now think about someone really wanting you to see something. You think about the moon at night, when it just illumines the sky, and someone says, “Come here, come here, you’ve got to see, you’ve got to see the moon.” “Well, I’ve seen the moon.” “No, no, no. You haven’t seen it like this before. It’s such a clear night.”
Have you seen the news stories about the color of the water off the coast of South Carolina this summer? If you haven’t seen it, Google it. The waters off the coast of South Carolina is beautiful, clear, tropical blue. It’s striking. It’s amazing. We were in Myrtle Beach a few weeks ago. Michelle said, “Look at the ocean.” Well, I’ve seen the ocean. “No, no, no, you haven’t seen it like this.” It’s a striking, clear blue. And I read that the ocean has been unusually calm this year so the sediment from the ocean floor is not being kicked up and making the waters murky. What’s remarkable to me as I read that article is it said the color you see now is actually the true color of the water. You believe that? Who would have thought it? Dirty Myrtle Beach is like the Caribbean. We’ve all been wasting thousands of dollars going to all-inclusives, you can just drive 3 hours down the road. There you are, sitting in tropical paradise. Myrtle Beach.
What’s happened? We see the water for what it really is.
Friends, similarly, the sinful sediment of our hearts, the sinful sediment of the world, can be kicked up and it can cloud our vision of the Father’s love so that we don’t see it for what it really is.
John wants us to see. He wants us to see, not just look but marvel.
So let me give you three things about God’s love to marvel at. Three things.
Number one. God’s love is unique. God’s love is unique. Some translations say how great the Father’s love for us. Actually the language denotes something that’s foreign, that’s alien, that’s other worldly, like where did this come from? What is it? It’s unlike any other love.
Now those of you that are married, you know, maybe you had relationships before you met your spouse and then you meet your spouse and what do you do? All of a sudden you say, “I’ve never known love like this before. I thought I knew what love was. Not until I met her, not until I met him, now I really know what love it.” Or think about when you have a child and that experience of love for that child. You think, “Have I ever really known what it is to love someone like I love my child?”
Friends, the message is the highest human love is but a poor reflection of God’s love. God’s love is the highest form of love. It’s not fickle, it’s not conditional, it’s not tainted with sin. It’s pure, it’s compassionate, it’s faithful, it’s kind, it’s patient, it’s infinite, it’s inexhaustible, it’s unlike any other love that we know. God’s love is the source of all true love and the very definition of love and that’s what John says in chapter 4. God’s love is unique.
Number two. God’s love is given.
John says, “See what manner of love the Father has given to us.” Other translations say that He has bestowed it upon us, or to borrow the language of Ephesians, that He’s lavished on us in Christ. It’s given. It’s unmerited love.
1 John 4:10: And this is love, not that we have loved God but that He has loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
It is unearned. It is not a reward for good works. It is freely given to us in Christ. It is a gift. John says, “Marvel at that.”
The third thing to marvel at is God’s love is transformative. God’s love is transformative. He says, “See what manner of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God.”
Zach’s sermon mentioned how many times love is all over this letter of 1 John. Well, it’s the same thing he keeps saying “little children, little children,” he keeps repeating that over and over again. There must be something that John wants his readers to absorb, to soak in, to sink in. There must be something he wants them to internalize, and that is in Christ we have moved from children of wrath to children of God. He says, “Marvel at that. In love the Father sent His Son to redeem us, to justify us, to adopt us, as His children.”
So you have this radical transformation of identity that has occurred. John 1:12 says, “To as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” Everyone does not have this childlike status. It is to those who have received Him. So as we receive Christ, we are united to Him by faith. We are justified, we are forgiven of our sins, and we are adopted as children of God, all because of the love of God, this adoption. Adoption, like justification. I must come to see, here’s a key to you absorbing this, I must come to see that He is the divine agent taking the decisive action. It is God.
The glory of the Gospel, friends, the glory of the Gospel and the doctrine of adoption is this: It is not we who have made God our Father, it is He who has made us His sons and daughters. Do you see the difference?
As one writer said, “He has called us sons because by faith we are in the only begotten Son.”
Now some of you know the joy of adopting a child. You know that joy. That child did not act to become your son and daughter. Rather, you in great love, you acted to make them your child. You know all the joy and love that comes from that. Some of you know what it’s like to be the recipient of that love. If that’s true of us, how much more is God’s love in the act of adopting us to be His children, friends? The One who has given us His Spirit by whom we cry Abba Father. John wants his readers to soak this in. He doesn’t want this truth to just fly over our heads to be some kind of abstract thing that we just sort of affirm. No. He wants them to soak it in. He wants them to marvel at the Father’s love in making them children of God.
He even makes it more emphatic. He says, “And that is what we are.” It’s almost as if he is saying to his readers, “I’m not being hyperbolic. I’m being serious. This is reality. This is who we are.” How many of us live in that reality? This conscious awareness of this remarkable identity of being a child of God? Listen, you might be rich, you might be poor, you might be tall, you might be short, you might buy your clothes at Brooks Brothers or get your clothes at Costco, you might think of yourself as beautiful, you might think of yourself not as beautiful. If you are in Christ, you have a greater identity than all of those things. You are a child of God.
In terms of status, you might aspire to be a doctor or a lawyer, a great athlete, a president of an institution, president of the country. Whatever it is, the Christian message is this: You can be much more than that. Did you know that? You can be so much more than that. You can live as a son or daughter of God, to have the peace and security and love that that status brings.
Friends, the question is do we believe this? Have we internalized this? When we really grasp this, it’s transformative, because it will change how you see God. Not merely as a judge who pardons our sins, though He’s that, but He’s not just that, but as a loving Father who welcomes you, He seeks fellowship with you, and that will transform how you pray, that will transform how you see others, it will transform how you love, it will transform how you see yourselves. You will no longer live as an orphan searching for value and meaning and security in the things of this world, but you’ll live as an adopted child of God who knows this other worldly kind of love.
In closing, I know I’ve got to wrap up, he moves from our identity to our destiny, from our adoption to our glorification.
Verse 2. He says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now and what we will be has not yet appeared but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.”
He first says what we will be has not yet appeared. What does that mean? You ever look at the temperament of a child? You’ve seen this with some older. Say you have a 5-year-old and you have a new baby and there’s an older brother or sister, older sibling, and they go and they kind of mother or father that child, just sweet demeanor. As a parent, you think, “Man, I wonder what that’s going to be like when they grow up, when they mature. What’s that going to be like?”
Or physically, you think of an athlete. Coach might look at a young football player and say, “Wow, he, that guy is 6′ 5″, 200 pounds. Can you imagine what he’s going to be like when he fills out that frame? When he’s 6′ 5″ 260, do you know he’s going to wreak havoc on the other team? What’s he going to be when he grows into his body? What a day. What a day that will be.”
Similarly right now we are children of God but one day, brothers and sisters, we will all be spiritually grown up. That doesn’t mean we won’t be His children anymore, but all the seeds of virtue that are in our lives and growing now will come into full flower and full maturity, and we will be like Him. We won’t be Jesus, but we will be our glory selves, our true selves without sin.
So that’s one sense of being like Him, but ultimately I think this is a reference to Christ’s glorified body and our glorified body. He says you will be like Him.
Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 3:21. He says that Christ will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.
Our bodies, our bodies, your body that I’m looking at right now, will one day be glorified. What will that be? How radiant. We don’t fully know. It’s going to be great when I get my glorified body. Maybe I’ll be able to see over the pulpit here at Christ Covenant. You all can come watch that. It’d be nice. Look forward to that.
But notice our focus in not on ourselves. What’s our focus on? Rather it is on seeing Jesus. He says, “Destiny, you and me, we will see Him as He is.” That’s our destiny.
Made me think of Tim Keller, who influenced so many. A few days before he died, his son tweeted this out, and it just struck me. You’ve probably heard this, but he says, “In prayer, he,” that’s his dad, Tim Keller, “said two nights ago, ‘I’m thankful for all the people who have prayed for me over the years. I’m thankful for my family that loves me. I’m thankful for the time that God has given me. But I’m ready to see Jesus. I can’t wait to see Jesus.'”
I wonder if that’s just a gift from God that He gives to believers, and maybe it doesn’t happen for everyone in the exact same way, but as we get older in our life, that becomes that eternal horizon begins to clear just a little bit for us. What a testimony of anticipation.
Here’s what I would say to you. God wants you and me to live with that eternal horizon in view. He wants us to see the promise of that, that we will see Jesus, not only have we been adopted, we will be glorified. We will be with Him. We will be like Him. We will see Him and John says and everyone who has this hope in Him purifies Himself as He is pure.
You remember what Jesus said in the Beatitudes? Blessed are the pure in heart for they will… What? See God. That’s the promise for the believer.
John knows these things will be sanctifying. He knows these things will be assuring. He knows these things as we come to believe them and grow in them more and more, will be joyous. So as we abide in Christ, we grow in clarity and confidence.
The application for you and for me this morning is this – it’s remain in His Word. As we realize our identity, we grown in assurance of God’s love, the application for you and me this morning is that we marvel at His love. As we look toward our destiny, our joy is enlarged, our hope is strengthened, and the application for you and for me is to fix our eyes on Jesus for one day, brothers and sisters, we will see Him as He is.
Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we thank You for these blessed promises. Lord, we ask that You would help us to believe them, to grow in them, to abide in them. We pray that You would do Your work, take Your Word, make it fruitful, in our lives, in our hearts. We ask in Christ’s name. Amen.
