The Glory of Christ's Incarnation

I have to tell you, not too long ago there was an individual visiting our church and the person, I went up to them and said, I don't think I've met you before.

! And the individual said, well, no, actually I was here two years ago.

Well, my memory, short-term memory of what it is, it's like, yeah, okay.

The individual said, the truth of the matter is, is when I came here about two years ago and you were preaching and you got emotional, I thought it was pure drama.

And I just thought you were putting it on.

And it was pretty disgusting.

The person said, you know what?

I don't think it is.

I have to tell you that because my heart is full.

And we are going to get to John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

But I want to start somewhere to kind of help you understand the glory of the passage that we're going to be in.

Turn in the book of Revelation to chapter 5.

And listen as I read it to you.

And I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals.

And no one in the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.

And one of the elders said to me, weep no more.

Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and the seven seals.

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw the Lamb.

Standing as though one who had been slain with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song.

The reason we have Revelation chapter 5 is because we have John chapter 1.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention John 1 · chapter mention

And I want you to understand the connection between the two.

And as I take up this passage in John chapter 1, verse 14 through 18, I have to tell you that as a shepherd and a sower of the seed, there is a part of me that as I have studied this week and as I've prayed for our time together in the Word of God today,

John 1:14–18

there has been a portion of my heart that has been conflicted a little bit.

Because I realize that in the sowing of the seed, and that's what preaching is.

In the sowing of the seed, there will be some seed that falls on hard and stony ground.

And there's some of you going to walk out of here just as bitter, just as unforgiving, just as stubborn, just as unrelenting in your sinfulness as when you came in.

And there's some of you that are going to respond for a moment.

And perhaps by just the effect of our time together and the prompting and plotting work of the Spirit of God, you're going to have a moment of softening.

And there will be a little bit of fruit spring up, but it will soon be stifled and squashed by the life that you live.

But there will also be some that will fall upon good soil that's been prepared by the Spirit of God.

And as you behold, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are going to be changed from glory to glory by the Spirit.

Now listen to me.

I want you to hear me.

The God who sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to be the Savior of lost mankind,

once in particular that believers, those who know the Lord Jesus Christ,

do not spend the remainder of their time here on this earth as grumpy, unhappy, broken, disconsolate, discouraged individuals.

And being other than we are by nature is not something that happens merely because we take a pill or we decide to change.

If salvation is of the Lord, so also is transformation.

And if there's anything that changes the heart of a believer, it's seeing Jesus.

Do you understand that?

And so if you're sitting here and the truth of the matter is, is that the Spirit of God is already prompting you and saying,

stop, stop, I have the perfect remedy.

And it is you, by the work of the Spirit, with all humility, pleading with Him, saying,

hey, Jesus, I know you saved me.

I don't want to stay this way.

You asking that He would open up His word and that you, by His grace, would behold wondrous truths out of His law.

Well, as we look at John chapter 1, beginning there in verse 14, it says,

John 1 · chapter mention

the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And so let me begin this morning by just kind of reminding you that in this passage,

and we're going to take from 14 and work our way through to 18,

that what we are really dealing with is the Bible statement, the Word of God that tells us,

Christ Jesus chose to become man.

Christ Jesus chose to become man.

I want you to recognize, as you look at that passage,

that these nine verses that we have here at the very beginning of verse 14

are really, in some ways, the most profound words that we've heard so far.

It is true that Christ is the creator of the universe.

It is true that He is the light and He is the life.

And it is true that coming into this world, many rejected Him.

But overarching and superior to all of that is the reality that at the very heart of His coming

is the fact that He came to be our Savior and He came to reveal the Father to us.

And so what we find in this text is that the Word tells us the second person of the Trinity,

Christ, took on for all eternity the flesh and nature of His fallen creature, mankind.

I want you to understand that there is no other religion in the world

that rests its faith on the complete humiliation of its God.

I remember a number of years ago as I was on West Broad in H.H. Gregg.

It used to be Sun TV before that and H.H. Gregg after that.

And now I don't know what it is.

But I was in there, I think, getting speakers for a stereo or something.

That tells you how long ago it was.

And ended up being serviced by a very likable Somali salesman.

And he was the most affable, congenial man.

And guess what we ended up talking about besides speakers?

What would you think?

I mean, I got a Gospel of John in my pocket.

It's like, hey, while we're doing this, if I'm going to buy something from you, just listen to me.

And so we're talking about our religions, you know, and we're getting into it.

And he's being respectful.

I mean, after all, he wants to sell me something.

And he's, you know, how many of you have been involved in conversations where you're really not tracking?

It's like, uh-huh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you're completely there.

You're somewhere else, you know.

And he was going through the routine.

And I remember getting down to the point of explaining that God sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, here to the earth.

And God became flesh.

You know what he did?

He laughed in my face.

Salesman, hoping to sell some product, just began, I can't believe, you can't believe that.

God doesn't do that.

I said, yes, he does.

Yes, he does.

In fact, the reason that I know I have complete forgiveness for all of my sins is because God sent his son to make complete payment for my sins.

Do you know how the Muslim, Islamic person pays for his sins?

It's kind of on a basis of, hey, you do a little bit of good, you kind of pay off a little bit of bad, right?

It's kind of on the installment plan.

A lot like the idea that Catholics have about purgatory.

I think I shared with you, my sister, Michelle, lives in Egypt.

And one day she was working in the kitchen and cut her finger.

And in ran her Muslim helper.

And she said, hold your finger towards heaven.

Hold it up.

Hold it up.

Hold it up.

God will see the blood and he'll wipe out an extra sin.

Well, I'm a diabetic and I prick myself four times a day.

It's like...

You know, it's like...

I want to tell you something.

I don't make fun of the fact that Jesus is the one who satisfied the debt of my sins.

But the world doesn't understand that God, seeing our complete inability,

sent his son into the world to become flesh and to die for us.

And so in using this name, the word, in verse 14,

he is kind of calling back into mind all that we saw in those opening verses

where he announced the deity and the glory of Christ

and recognized the absolute majesty, the supremacy of the second person of the divine Godhead.

And as we think about the fact that Christ came into the world and became man,

I want you to understand that our faith rests completely on the fact that Christ became completely man for all eternity.

He is 100% God and he is 100% man.

Now, can you tell me how that works mathematically?

The answer is, it's a matter of faith.

And I don't make that to be overly simplistic.

It's just a fact.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is all man and all God, and he's not 50-50.

It's not just in John that we find this doctrinal truth.

And I'm going to have you track with me.

We're going to look at several different paces where it is true.

Turn into Philippians.

Go to Philippians 2, verse 7 and 8.

Philippians 2:7

And let me track with you there what we read.

It says,

Now, there's another passage that I want to reference here in 1 Timothy 3, verse 16,

1 Timothy 3:16

as the apostle is kind of putting together the mystery.

And in the scriptures, a mystery is different in terms of what the Bible means by a mystery and what we mean by a mystery.

A mystery, in our sense of thinking, is something that's a secret that we're trying to figure out before the TV show ends.

Whodunit.

In the Bible, a mystery is something that God reveals to us that we would never figure out apart from that.

And so when Paul says what he does, there in verse 16,

Indeed, great, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.

In other words, it is just beyond our capacity to understand the unbelievable revelation of the truth.

Speaking about God,

He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory.

The Savior that I worship is all mankind, entirely human.

He understands my frame and my frailty and yours as well.

And He took on for all eternity the clear character and person and nature of man.

Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14.

Hebrews 2:14

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things that through death.

Why did He take on flesh and blood?

He took on flesh and blood so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death.

That is the devil.

Do you know why I have victory over death?

It's because Jesus died in my place.

And He's gained victory over death.

Well, let us go a little further into the text in John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

We look there in verse 14.

It says,

The word became flesh.

And in telling us that it became flesh, it's telling us what we've talked about here, that Jesus is entirely man.

I want us to take a little bit of time to think about this little word dwelt.

Some of you may have the word tabernacled.

And I have to say that I understand the word tabernacle here to not refer to what many have commonly thought is a reference to the tabernacle in the Old Testament where the glory of God was revealed.

You see, when John chose to use the word tabernacle in the Old Testament.

That was at the very center of the camp of the nation of Israel does not really communicate accurately the imagery that this verse tells us.

You see, the word became flesh and set His tent up with us.

Now, I know one of the things that happens in the summertime is some of you go camping.

And I happen to like camping.

It took me probably about 40 years of marriage to persuade my wife that it was something that was a good idea.

You guys, when you go camping, and Judith and I, when we go camping, we do it a little differently than some.

We go camping most of the time down at Old Man's Cave.

And we go, listen to me, we go after Labor Day and we go before Memorial Day.

That's because all the natives have cleared out between those times.

Last winter, Judith and I camped in Old Man's Cave in December.

And besides the squirrels and the deer and the raccoons, we were pretty much on our own.

Camping, for some of you, is a pop-up with a propane stove.

And you better have A.C.

And God bless you.

Have a good time.

But that's not camping what this passage is telling us about.

Listen to me.

Camping is gritty business.

It really is.

Growing up in India, and that's why I was fully persuaded that my wife should love camping,

we would go.

We had three-day vacations and ten-day vacations.

And we thought that camping was the best way to get away from that hovel that was our boarding school.

And we would pack and we would be gone the minute we were legally allowed to leave the property.

And we'd go.

One place was about a 15-mile hike and the other was about 26.

We'd set up a tent and we'd stay.

One case was three days and the other was ten days.

Now let me tell you something about tenting together when you've been ten days together

and it took you 26 miles to get there walking, carrying a 45-pound pack.

Guess what you smell like?

A goat.

And not only that, but after you sat around the campfire,

we didn't have propane stoves.

We didn't have kerosene stoves.

It was just plain old ordinary wood smoke.

Do you follow that?

And about the third afternoon, as we were beginning to cook supper,

there began to have this little conversational rift running through the camp of,

hey, you're not sleeping in my tent.

And you're not sleeping in my tent.

And so everybody would go down to the cold mountain stream.

Let me tell you something.

Himalayan mountains, 8,000 feet.

Even in July, the streams were not tolerable.

But the choice of sleeping outside or inside, we would dip temporarily,

lather up generously, and then dip temporarily.

Do you follow what I'm saying?

Here's my point.

Now, when this passage tells us that the Word became flesh and set its tent up among us,

what it's telling us is that he was willing to leave the glory of heaven for us

and set his tent where we are

and to do it forever.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.

In order to be slain as the Lamb, he had to be willing to come and tent where we are.

And I've got to tell you that the gritty reality of tenting in this world doesn't compare

to what happened when the Father sent his Son down here for us.

Allow me just to speculate just for a moment,

but I want you to kind of think about the angels kind of sitting around

as they're watching Jesus leave heaven.

Now, this is not, I'm not going to write a book, okay,

since I taught Sunday school like I did, you know,

but I want you to just imagine one of them says to the other one,

where's he going?

He's going down there.

What?

To visit?

No.

He's going to live there forever.

He's, you know what it says in Peter,

it says that the angels kind of look at this business of Christ's relationship with us

and it says that they try to pull the curtain back

so they understand and they can't figure it out.

He came here to be completely man,

to be subject to hunger and to thirst and humiliation

and endure the extreme suffering of the cross.

And as it says there in this passage,

it says,

the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

There's a reason

that so much of our singing

magnifies the wonder of the incarnation.

As I was studying this week,

I found myself repeating the words to the song

that we actually sang last week,

how deep the Father's love for us,

how vast beyond all measure,

that he should give his only son.

Why?

To make a wretch his treasure.

Do you follow that?

Why was God willing to send his son to this earth to tent with us?

It's because we need that.

And so I want you to understand that John then goes on in verse 14,

not only to explain the fact that Jesus came here,

but also to announce that Christ came not only to take on flesh,

but to show us the full glory of the Father.

Look at the second part of verse 14.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,

and we have seen his glory.

Glory as the only son from the Father,

full of grace and truth.

Now, I'm going to beg your indulgence,

because of the focus of this passage,

to not spend time dealing with the uniqueness of the sonship of Christ,

only begotten son.

I want you to understand that it is a foundational theological truth,

but in the flow of the passage that we're looking at,

as I'm going to lay it out for you here with the focus on his coming,

we're not going to deal with that, which is a very important truth.

But I want you to understand that Christ came to reveal the full glory of the Father.

Why did Jesus come?

It's so we can see God.

So we can see God.

And so the second point that I want you to understand this morning,

as we look at this text,

is that Jesus fully reveals the invisible God.

Now, I'm going to kind of step on the pedal here,

and put together,

we took quite a bit of time on the first part of 14,

and we're going to press the rest of it together,

and explain it in simple parts this way.

Jesus came to fully reveal the glory of the Father,

who is our God.

And in the last part of 14,

what we find is that it explains to us

that John wants us to clearly understand

that Jesus is the glory,

and we can see it.

We can handle it.

If you were to go at another point into 1 John,

as 1 John kind of begins to lay out the argument

about the Lord Jesus Christ being God the Son,

he talks about the fact that our hands have handled,

and our ears have heard,

and our eyes have seen,

talking about Christ.

I want you to look at what it says here,

in essence,

that John wants us to grasp,

is that Jesus lets man see the fullness of God's grace and truth.

Because of the Lord Jesus Christ,

we have everything that is needed for us to comprehend

just how gracious and just how truthful Christ is.

As we look here in the passage,

pick up now, if you will,

in verse 14 or 15,

it says,

John bore witness about him and cried out,

this was he of whom I said,

he who is coming after me ranks before me

because he was before me.

In essence,

that passage tells us that John the Baptist's ministry

was to be a formal announcer of Christ's coming.

How many of you remember last week

when Aaron Holopeter played Hail to the Chief?

The purpose of that was to remind you

that John's ministry was this formal task

of letting people know,

hey, he's coming,

he's coming,

he's coming,

he's coming.

That's what John the Baptist did.

And John the Baptist's ministry

is stunning

for the tremendous impact that he had,

and he never did

the kind of miracles

that we find Moses or Elijah

or Jesus doing.

The miracle of John the Baptist's ministry

was the power of the Holy Spirit

taking his preaching

and using it

to hammer at the issue

of a need for repentance.

And people were drawn by that.

And so here,

what we find is that

John the Apostle

wants us to understand

that John the Baptist's ministry,

verse 15,

was to bear witness to Jesus,

and when John the Baptist

saw Jesus,

guess how he responded?

John the Baptist announced the truth.

This is him.

This is him.

He'd been saying,

he is coming,

he is coming,

he is coming,

and when John the Baptist

saw with his eyes

for the first time

the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,

do you know what he said?

behold,

the Lamb of God

who takes away the sins

of the world.

I mean to tell you,

can you imagine

that kind of statement

being made

among those Jews

who were expecting

the Messiah to come

and who had been listening?

They'd been hanging on

every word

of John the Baptist,

and then he stands back

and he says,

that's him

pointing to Jesus.

There's no wonder

that some of his disciples

packed up and left that time.

Bye, John.

That's him.

I'm gone.

And by the way,

when some of the other

little small-minded disciples

came to John and said,

do you realize

we're losing the crowd?

And what did he say?

He says,

well, let's get this right.

He must increase,

imperative.

It's an absolute necessity

that he increase

and I decrease.

Well, as you look at

verses 16 through 18,

we find that John the apostle

lays out three remaining truths

about Jesus.

Number one,

Jesus is the full revelation

of the glory of God.

Verse 16,

and from his fullness

we have received grace

upon grace.

Jesus is the full revelation

of God.

The word full that is used here

is the word pleroma,

which is talking about

having it packed into the point

that nothing else will fit.

Full.

And when you stop

and think about that statement

of his fullness,

he then goes on

because he just doesn't want us.

He's not satisfied

with just,

it's the full deal.

He goes on and says,

and grace for grace.

And when he uses

that little phrase

in verse 16,

grace upon grace,

he is talking about grace

that is packed

on top of grace.

Let me remind you

a little bit

of the fact

that in the scriptures

before the time

of highlighting

or bolding,

what was used

and particularly

was used

in auditory communication

is that when you

wanted to make a point,

you repeated it

immediately.

Such as

Isaiah chapter 6,

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

holy,

holy,

holy.

holy.

Oh.

Or Jesus,

one of the things

that he would say

occasionally,

if he said it

in King James,

it would be

verily, verily.

If he said it

in ESV,

it was truly,

truly.

And what he was saying,

it was kind of

a double tap,

you know,

bang, bang.

This is really

right.

And so here

is John

using that same

principle

of emphasis

to say

grace

upon grace.

Second thing

we see there

in verse 17,

it says,

for the law

was given

through Moses,

grace and truth

came through

Jesus Christ.

And what we

understand that

to mean is that

Jesus is better

than the law.

We will see

later that Jesus

didn't come to

replace the law,

that's not what

he came.

He fulfilled

the law.

But we understand

that the purpose

of the law

was principally

to expose

several very

important key

features

in our

understanding.

One is

the holiness

of God.

What does

the law

tell us?

It tells us

that there

is a God

who has

holy standards.

And standards

don't change.

I was getting

ready to go

visit my mom

and dad

and Pastor

Saul told

me in advance,

he says,

by the way,

I want you

to know

there's a

semi-truck

that tipped

over here

on the

on-ramp

going on

to 270

off of

Roberts.

Do you

know why

semi-trucks

tip over?

Huh?

There's a

little lesson

in physics

in case you're

wondering.

It's when you

have too big

of a load

and you're

going too

fast and

guess what

happens?

And it's a

sharp dug,

am I right?

You've never

tipped one

over, right?

Praise God.

But there

it was,

sprawled all

over the

road.

And I

thought to

myself,

I'm going

to be smart,

I'm going

to avoid

this,

and then I

got on the

phone and

guess what

I did?

I'm just

following

habit and

the next

thing I

know is

I didn't

come back

and tell

Pastor Saul

immediately.

I was like

but here's

the truth.

There's a

reason why

when you're

driving on

those on

ramps,

they have

these little

pictures of

trucks tipped

over.

Do you

know why

they put

those there?

It's not

to let

trucks know

that that's

the right

place to

do it.

It's

to say

to truck

drivers,

please don't

do this.

And so

Jesus came

to make

clear the

sinfulness of

our hearts,

but he's

better than

that.

And what I

don't mean

like the law

is bad,

but there's

more to

the glory

of God

in his

care for

us than

the law.

In

addition

sin is

grace and

truth.

And Jesus

came and

he opened

up so

that all

of us

could see

that despite

the reality

of the fact

that the

law condemns

us as

sinners who

have every

reason to

expect eternity

in hell,

God in

his undeserved

kindness sent

the Lord

Jesus to be

our Savior

and deliver

us from the

ugliness and

the bitterness

and the

darkness of

our soul.

Furthermore,

as we see

here in

verse 18,

it says,

no one has

ever seen

God.

I remember

while we're

on the

heaven is for

real deal,

I remember

a friend who

came to me

once and

had a picture.

He was a

truck driver,

Doug,

I want you

to know

that.

And he

came to me

and said,

you have to

see this,

it was a

Polaroid.

How many

of you

remember

Polaroids?

If you're

old enough

to remember

Polaroids,

it's like you

also remember

horse-drawn

carriages,

close together.

And I

remember this

guy said,

no,

no,

I've seen

God.

And he

had a

Polaroid,

he'd been

driving somewhere

about their

Pilot Mountain

in North

Carolina,

and he'd

seen this

cloud formation

and he was

convinced it

was God.

God was in

the cloud.

Do you

follow that?

God,

and he,

I mean,

heaven help

me.

I stared at

that thing

for I didn't

want to

disrespect the

guy.

He was

quite a bit

bigger than

me.

And it was

like,

that's God?

God,

no,

I don't

see it.

Okay?

Here's what

the Bible

says,

it says,

no one

has ever

seen God.

And I'm

of the

private opinion

that we

will never

see God,

the Father.

But we

will see

Jesus and

we will be

satisfied in

seeing him.

God.

And so as

we look at

this majestic

declaration of

the reality of

the coming of

the Lord Jesus

Christ, it

tells us that

Jesus makes

the invisible

God fully

known.

And what's

the value of

that?

What's the

benefit that we

receive by

understanding that

Christ is the

one who

completely satisfies

the longing of

our heart to

know the

Father?

Father,

there is

something in

our heart that

desires to

know, and

Christ satisfies

that.

So let me

get intensely

practical as we

bring things here

to a close.

If you're a

sinner here this

morning and you

are under the

terrifying burden

of your sin,

I have no doubt

that some of the

things that are

happening to you

today, your

thinking are just

kind of strictly

the outstakes

outcome of

mistreatment or

consequences, and

you may be

sitting here and

just not getting

the memo that

God in His

holy judgment

will eventually

deal with sin.

I want you to

know that Christ

Jesus came into

the world to

give you hope and

to draw you to

the light.

He came to

die in your

place and to

satisfy the debt

of your sin.

sin.

And I just

cannot understand

how you could

turn away from

a loving God

who willingly

would sacrifice

His own son

for you.

I don't want

you to be bad

soil.

There are some

of you here that

are believers,

and there was a

point in your

life where you

were under that

pall and under

the burden of

your sin, and

you were

convicted of

the absolute

misery and

the certainty

of judgment, and

you came to the

Lord Jesus, and

you had all your

sins forgiven, and

do you know what

that felt like?

It was like, the

burden's been

lifted.

But as it says in

the book of

Revelation, you've

forgotten your

first love.

Can I tell you

that as we read

through the book

of John, John's

gospel is, for

one, profoundly

evangelistic, because

it will say over

and over and

over again, God

sent His Son to

save lost, broken,

ruined sinners.

John's gospel is

also profoundly

edifying, because

as we see in

the gospel of

John, the

heart of

Christ, and

the love of

Christ, and

the wisdom of

Christ, the

believer's heart

that is not

sour-sucking on

self-centered

thinking, how's

that, is going

to find comfort

and hope

love and

affection,

patience,

joy in the

Holy Spirit.

God.

I'll close with

one other

passage.

You know, if

there's anything

that I am

persuaded that

God is doing in

the lives of

those who are

truly believers,

that He is

changing us.

Would you

agree with

me?

Huh?

If you're a

child of God, you

can't stay the way

you are.

Everybody say

yes!

Okay.

Hey, if you're a

child of God, you

can't stay the way

you are.

You can come

easy or you can

come hard, but

He's going to

take you there.

Now, listen to

me.

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 3:18

chapter 3,

verse 18.

And we all,

with unveiled

face, beholding

the glory of the

Lord.

That's what we've

seen this morning.

The Word became

flesh and dwelt

among us.

And we have

seen His glory.

You follow that?

It says,

beholding the

glory of the

Lord are being

transformed into

the same image.

If you're sick and

tired of staying

where you are,

then you put your

eyes on Jesus a

little harder and

keep locked on,

because here's what

happens.

As you stay focused

on Christ, the

truth of who He is

begins to change

you.

And as it says,

transformed into

the same image

from one degree

of glory to

another.

For this

comes from

the Lord who

is the Spirit.

I like that.

Let's close in

prayer.

Father God,

your prophet

Zechariah penned

under your

direction, these

words,

not by might

nor by power,

but by my

Spirit,

saith the Lord.

And it has

been my desire

this morning that

people would see

the glory of the

Lord Jesus

Christ.

That those who

are here today

and are under the

burden and the

despair of their

sin would cry

out and say,

I need Jesus to

save me.

And those who

are here who are

believers,

believers whose

lives are

complicated by

unforgiveness and

bitterness,

by an

unrelenting

bout with

self-focus and

depression,

that are

consumed with

anxiety,

would be

resolute this

morning to set

their eyes upon

the Lord Jesus

that seeing

Him,

they would be

changed from

glory to glory.

glory to

the Spirit.

And so we

understand that

you put us on

the spot this

morning of

responding in

some way.

Some of us are

going to be bad

soil.

Others of us,

by the grace of

God and the power

of the Spirit,

are going to

produce fruit.

And we plead

with you to be

gracious in your

precious name.

Amen.

Let's stand

together as we

close.