Parables: Week 1

Welcome to Church at the Crossing. My name is Andrew. I'm the associate

teaching pastor here and if this is your first time or if you're new to

Church at the Crossing, I'm so glad that you decided to be here today

because we are starting a brand new message series that we're calling Parables, and

so I want to start by just sharing what is a parable. Well,

basically, a parable is a short story or a metaphor that might be made

up or like fictional, but it's to prove a point or to share some

kind of truth. And we know that Jesus shared a lot of parables.

If you're familiar with the Gospels, you might know some of the parables like

parable of the Good Samaritan, or parable of the Lost Sun, or the

Lost Sheet, parable of or all these parables. Because stories have a way

of staying in our mind almost better than anything else that we can remember.

Stories grab your attention and they touch your emotions, and they train support us

into the reality of the characters and the story that we're hearing. Stories are

very powerful, and Jesus knew that, and that's why he shared parables.

We read in Matthew thirteen. It says, Jesus spoke all these things to

the crowds in parables. He did not say anything to them without using a

parable. As we begin this series and we'll be looking at these parables for

several weeks, I want us to remember one thing to keep in mind that

Jesus's parables reveal the heart and values of the Father. Jesus's parables show us

God's heart. These stories reveal the values of God. They reveal what the

Kingdom of God is like and how you and I can participate in the Kingdom

of God. And since we're talking about stories, let me share a story

from my own life. So many years ago, I would every Christmas I

would get sick. A day after Christmas or two days after Christmas. I

would always get sick. I would wake up with a sore wrote or a

stuffy nose, some kind of virus or a cold, just every year right

after Christmas. And then I finally figured out why. At that time,

I was serving out a different church in Pennsylvania, and that church had multiple

Christmas Eve worship services, sometimes four, five, six services in one day.

You know, hundreds and hundreds of people coming through these services. And

one of my responsibilities there was to stand in the parking lot and welcome everybody

to church and shake hands and hug people out in the cold, and so

somewhere along the way, after several hundred handshakes, I would pick up a

germ or some kind of cold and I would get sick every Christmas. And

then one Christmas, Lauren gave me a Christmas Eve survival kit and inside there

was handwarmers for the parking lot. I think maybe hot Tea or some of

those immune booster drink mixes. And there was a bottle of hand sanitizer.

It said kills ninety nine point nine germs. So I was ready and I

went out to my station in the parking lot, and as people were coming

in, I was shaking hands, giving hugs, Merry Christmas. After everybody

went inside and worships started, I took out my hand sanitizer and drenched my

hands and hand sanitizer. Then the next service came, people came in,

Merry Christmas, good to see you. And after that service started, I

washed my hands with more hand sanitizer. I think that bottle of hand sanitizer

was completely empty by the end of the day. You know what, happened.

I still got sick that year. It was that point zero one percent

germ that got me that year. The title of today's message is clean Hearts

and Dirty Hands. Clean hearts and dirty hands. And for the rest of

our time together, we're gonna look at a passage in the Bible in Mark

chapter seven, and it's a little bit of a lengthy passage, and we're

gonna kind of work our way through sections of this passage, and I'm gonna

share little bit of the context, and we're gonna understand how what Jesus says

in Mark seven can help us live lives to honor God. So let's take

a look at Mark seven. Starting in verse one, the Pharisees and some

of the teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and

saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is,

unwashed. The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give

their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders when they

come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash, and they

observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pictures, and

kettles. And in verse five, so the Pharisees and teaches the law,

ask Jesus, why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders

instead of eating their food with defiled hands. Now, when I read this

story, I immediately thought about a meme that I saw on the internet re

recently. It says employees must wash hands, and someone wrote, I waited

forty five minutes and no employee offered to wash my hands. Now, what's

going on in this story in Mark seven? I don't think this has to

do with hygiene. I don't think that the disciples are picking their nose or

wiping snot off their face and then double dipping in the chips and salsa.

This is not about germs. This is about religion and traditions and man made

ceremonies. And so let me share a little bit of the context around this

passage. Have you ever heard the expression cleanliness is next to godliness? Well,

the Pharisees believe this one hundred percent. Just very briefly, let me

share a little bit of history around the Pharisees and the Israelite culture. So,

God gave Israel very strict rules for their worship leaders, like their priests

and Levites. Before they were to go into the temple, they were supposed

to wash their body as a reminder that God is holy and his people are

holy. But these rules were meant for the Levites, for the priests.

But then somewhere along the way, the leaders of Israel extended these rules to

everyone, so the entire population. And here's why. Over their history,

the Israelites rebelled against God, and their hearts turned away from God and they

started to serve pagan false religions. And when they started following the corruption of

paganism, God removed his protection from Israel, and so inevitably, the enemies

of Israel invaded their lands, conquered the people, destroyed their temple, deported

many of the Jews into exile, and they were corrupted by paganism. Well,

after many generations of exile, the Jews came back to their homeland and

the leaders were so traumatized by that pagan corruption that they set up all these

rules to make sure that their people would never be corrupt again. And so

if a Jew went to the market and they shook hands with a non jew

they would wash their hands ceremonially and say, look, we are not being

corrupted. Or if that incidentally touched something from paganism, they would wash their

hands. Look, we're not going to be corrupted. So when the Pharisees

see that Jesus and his disciples don't do this ceremonial washing, they panic and

they think they're corrupting are people. But let's look at what Jesus says and

how he responds. In verse six, he replied, Isaiah was right when

he prophesied about you, you hypocrites. As it is written, these people

honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their

hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings are

merely human rules. You have let go of the commands of God and are

holding on to human traditions. Jesus says, your hearts are far from God.

You got good, clean hands, you observe the traditions and the rules,

but your hearts are far from God. You can have clean hands and

still have dirty hearts, because clean hands don't make clean hearts. You can

have a lean exterior, but what's on the inside can still be corrupt.

I recently came across the documentary called Shiny Happy People, And if you've seen

this documentary, you know that it's a little bit strange. It's it's a

little bizarre. This documentary follows modern day Christian families who are a part of

a Christian organization or this group that has some really strict rules and some really

strict standards that they've got rules about the rules of men and women in the

family, and rules about what you should wear and can't wear, and child

discipline and just this, this whole curriculum, this, this whole organization.

Now, on the outside, these families look perfect. Their kids never act

out there, there's no fighting or arguing, They speak to each other kindly.

Mom and dad seem to be happily married. It all looks good on

the outside, but there are some problems on the inside. Behind the scenes,

it's a different story. Some investigation with this documentary covers reveals that there

are serious claims of use and harassment. There's some like fear tactics and manipulation

used in this organization, and there's a lot of financial impropriety. It's just

a mess. Because you can look good on the outside and still be corrupt

and evil on the inside. Clean hands don't make clean hearts. So in

our text, in verse fourteen, Jesus shares a parable to outline what he's

teaching. He says in verse fourteen again, Jesus called the crowd to him

and said, listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside

a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it's what comes

out of a person that defiles them. Jesus says, it's what's on the

inside that directs your whole life. It's what's on the inside that influences your

life. Holiness begins in the heart, Jesus saying, holiness begins in the

heart. It doesn't begin with our hands. It begins in the heart.

You can live a holy life. Christians are to be people who are holy,

who are following God, who are obeying God. We are to be

people who remove sin from our lives. But we can't do that with our

own hands, with our own power, with our own man made rules.

We need the power of Jesus to be holy. We need the Spirit of

God in our lives. To be holy. We need his grace and his

power to obey him. Starts in the heart. Holiness begins in the heart.

In verse seventeen, Jesus explains what his parable means. After he had

left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.

Are you so dull? He asked, don't you see that nothing that

enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn't go into

their heart, but into their stomach and then out of the body. And

saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. He went on, what comes

out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within,

out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come, sexual immorality, theft,

murder, adultery, greed, malice, to see, lewdness, envy,

slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and

defile a person. Holiness begins in the heart. Last month, a big

windstorm knocked out the power in my neighborhood, and we didn't have electricity for

several days. And after some time I noticed that there was a puddle of

water beneath my refrigerator in the garage because there was something wrong on the inside.

The power had gone out and the refrigerator icemaker was leaking, and when

I opened the door, more water came leaking out onto the ground. Whatever's

inside of your heart will leak out into your life. It leaks out into

your life. Look closely at our text. In verse twenty three, Jesus

says, all these evils come from inside and defile a person. In Greek,

this expression come from his one Greek word, and it can be translated

as proceed, burst forth, or flow out. It means what's on the

inside of your heart will leak out into your life, and it will leak

out onto other people. It will leak out in messy ways. What's leaking

out is a sign of what's going on in the heart. So when somebody

overreacts and anger or rage are leaking out in their life, it might be

a sign that inside their heart there's some insecurity, or there's a wound that

they're dealing with. When somebody is leaking out they're unmotivated, or there's depression

leaking out in their life, it might be that inside their heart there is

grief and they need healing. You know, addiction can leak out symptoms like

paranoia, erratic behavior, Your mood swings can be leaking out things like greed

and deception can leak out of a heart that is fearful, or a heart

that is envious and jealous. But whatever it is, what is inside your

heart will leak out onto other people. It'll leak out on the people closest

to you. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus once said this, a

good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart,

and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his

heart. For the mouth speaks with the heart is full of I think that

most of us don't want to leak out unhealthy things on the people around us.

I think most of us don't want to leak out toxic things or unholy

things. I think most of us we want to be a blessing to our

friends. We want to be a blessing to our families and encouragement to those

around us. Is so, we need God to do a work in our

hearts. We need God to clean our hearts. We need God to get

his hands dirty to do a transformation in our hearts. Last month, I

was visiting my relatives in Pennsylvania, and my father in law owns some property

and he's got some big machinery and large tractor lawnmowers, and one of these

lawnmowers had broken down. And if you've ever owned or worked with one of

these, it can be super expensive to replace one of these mowers. And

so my father in law was trying to fix it. And when I went

to the garage to say hello to him, I reached my hand out to

greet him, and he said, no, you do not want to touch

me. I'm filthy. And he was up to his elbows in grease,

he had swept through his shirt, he had oil and dirt on his face.

He was filthy. By the end of the day, he fixed whatever

was wrong with that tractor, and he was on top of it and driving

it and mowing it because he got his hands dirty and fixing it. The

Pharisees in Jesus Day didn't want to get their hands dirty. They wanted to

keep their hands clean, and so they did not want to associate with sinners

or people with poor reputations. They avoided the sick, they avoided people who

were broken and hurting, even people with disabilities, because they were unclean.

They wanted to keep their hands clean. But Jesus gets his hands dirty because

Jesus seeks out sinners. Jesus goes to the sick, the hurting, and

the broken, and he meets them with compassion. The Gospel of Jesus demonstrates

that God gets his hands dirty to transform our lives. We read in First

Peter two twenty four Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the cross,

so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his

wounds, you have been healed. God saw our greatest need. He saw

that our hearts needed cleans. He saw that our hearts were broken and needed

to be healed. He saw you in your disobedience. He saw you in

the filthiest part of your sin. And what did he do when he saw

you in your brokenness? Did he distance himself from you? Did he ignore

you? No? He rolled up his sleeves and he got his hands dirty.

He got on your level. He got into our lives, into the

filth of our sin, by sending his son Jesus to be a sacrifice,

a substitute for our sin. There is nothing more filthy and more disgusting than

death by crucifixion. And God and braced it because he gets his hands dirty

to transform your life. Because Jesus died and he rose from the dead,

you can live in power, You can live in victory. Your heart can

be transformed. You are set free from addiction, you are healed from hurt,

you are cleansed from the power of sin in your life, and you

can live for righteousness because Jesus has transformed your life. That's the power of

the Gospel. And there's a lie that man made religion and rules will try

to tell you about the Gospel. And that lie is that you need to

clean up your life before you can be loved by God. That lie says

you need to get your act together, clean up your mess before God will

accept you. That is a lie. What you need is to be washed

by the blood of Jesus, cleansed by the grace of Jesus. Think of

this when you take a shower. Do you first wash your hands in the

sink before you take a shower? Probably not? Probably not for most of

us. When my home was without power, that windstorm knocked down a tree

in my neighbor's yard, big massive tree, and we spent the afternoon cleaning

up the branches and using chainsaws and cutting it all up. And I was

filthy, I was covered in sweat, I was sticky, and sawdust was

sticking to my body. And I needed clean So I went home and I

left my shoes outside of the house, and then I threw away the socks

that I was wearing, and I got in the shower. I didn't stop

by the sink to wash my hands. My whole body needed washed and cleansed.

When you come to Jesus, he washes every part of your life.

He washes your entire heart, your entire life, Every part of you is

washed in the grace of Jesus. So don't believe that lie that you gotta

wash your hands or clean up some part of your life before God to accept

you. He cleanses all of it. And when Jesus transforms your heart,

when he cleanses your heart and then he invites you into his mission, Jesus

expects you to get your hands dirty. That's why this message is called clean

hearts and dirty hands. Clean hearts make dirty hands. We are to be

a people with clean hearts and dirty hands. Church at the Crossing as a

church with clean hearts and dirty hands. We've got clean hearts, We love

God, we obey Jesus, the honorgyes, we repent from sin. We

have clean hearts and we've got dirty hands because we serve the poor. We

meet the knees, we go to brokenness. We walk with people in their

grief and in their sorrow. We serve even when it's messy. We get

our hands dirty. And so what are the characteristics of a people with clean

hearts and dirty hands? What are the trademarks of clean hearts and dirty hands.

Well, one is that we embrace the mess. We embrace the mess.

When I was a youth pastor, I trained our volunteer adult leaders to

love students and meet students the love of Jesus. And I would use this

teaching. We said embrace the mess, or sometimes we would say embrace the

squiggle, and we would use this illustration where I think most of us adults

think that spiritual growth should look like this. On the left side, we're

living our life and then we come to Jesus, and then after that we

become more and more like Jesus. As the years go by, you know,

we're moving up into the right. You know, we're becoming more like

Jesus. Maybe we have some ups and downs, but by and large we're

moving up and to the right. But with teenagers and students, it often

looks a little bit more like this. When you come to Christ, it

just kind of looks like this. It's a squiggly mess. Embrace the squiggle.

And so most people, when they look at this, some of them

will will be overwhelmed or intimidated by this. But when I look at this,

I'm not intimidated. I think to myself, how can I mess this

up? It's already a mess. So we embrace the squiggle. We embrace

the mess. We listen, we love, we encourage, we pray,

show Jesus. But if we're being honest, every single one of us has

lives that look like the one on the right. We're all a mess.

Whether we're young or whether we're old, whether we're men or women, We've

got messes in our lives, and so to be people with clean hearts and

dirty hands, we embrace the mess. We welcome new people into our small

groups and into our Sunday groups. We don't try to fix somebody's political opinion.

We love, We embrace somebody who looks different than us. We embrace

the immigrant. Even if there's a language barrier, a smile, a hug,

a handshake overcomes a language barrier for some of us. You're embracing the

mess literally in serving in children's ministry. It is messy there. There's snot

and boogers and diapers, and it's messy, but it's holy. It's holy

work because we're sharing Jesus with the next generation. I think about our volunteer

teams when our church gathers and we share meals together. Our church loves to

eat and have relationships around meals, and we have volunteer teams who are preparing

those meals, who are setting up early and cleaning up late, and they're

embracing the mess. It'd be really easy for us to spend a lot of

money and have those kind of things catered, or would be convenient for us

to maybe charge some admission cost, but we don't do that because we don't

want to set up any barriers. We want everyone to be welcome, everyone

to have access, and so our volunteer teams embrace the mess. Clean hearts

and dirty hands, we embrace the mess. The second characteristic is that we

embrace God's word. We embrace God's word. If we have clean hearts and

dirty hands, we embrace God's where we hold on to God's word. If

we let go of God's word, then we lose our mission and we lose

our identity. Notice what Jesus says in verse eight. He says to the

Jewish religious leaders, you have let go of the commands of God and are

holding on to human traditions. And then Jesus goes on in verse nine to

give an example of how they've let go of God's word, and he uses

this Jewish tradition called corbin. There's a word called corbin in this text.

What is corbin? What is Jesus talking about? Well, imagine it this

way. Let's say you sold property or sold a home, and you had

profit from that sale, and you decided that you wanted to give that profit

in that money to the Lord, dedicated to the Lord. So you might

put it in an account or in an escrow account and say this is dedicated

to the Lord for a future time and a future purpose. And it's dedicated.

But then what if your parents come along and they need help. Maybe

they're having some medical issues and they need help with their medical treatment, or

they need assisted living well, the Bible says, honor your mother and father,

or take care of your mother and father. Can you use the money

that you've set aside on that account to help honor your father and mother.

Well, the Jewish religious leaders would say, no, you can't. You've

set that into corbin dedicated to God. And then therefore your dison honoring your

parents are disobeying the word of God. We have to hold on to the

word of God. We have to embrace the word of God and obey the

word of God, not human traditions or human barriers. I could give you

story after story of people in our church who are embracing God's word and holding

on to God's word. There's the family who struggle to trust God with their

finances and they're struggling to make ends. Me is very stressful. But then

they made the very difficult decision that they were going to tie the portion of

their income back to God. Why did they do that because they are embracing

God's word. They want to obey God, and they'll tell you how God

has provided for them, how God has increased their faith through this. And

then there's that one young man that I know who just started following Jesus,

and his job schedules him to work every Sunday morning, and he tries asking

off work every Sunday morning, but he doesn't get Sunday mornings off. So

what does he do. He quits that job and tries to find another job

so he can have Sunday mornings to worship and be in church. Why because

he's embracing God's where he's obeying Jesus. And there's the young couple I know

who got engaged and then they bought a house together, and then they moved

in together, and then when they started following Jesus, they've made a difficult

decision that they were going to live in separate bedrooms of their home and they

were gonna put their sexual relationship on pause until they got married. Why because

they love Jesus. They're embracing God's word and they want to obey God's word.

When we embrace God's word, in one hand we hold the Bible and

in the other hand we hold hands with people, even when it's messy.

So people with clean hands, clean hearts, and dirty hands, we embrace

the mess. We embrace God's word. And the last trait is that we

embrace vulnerability. We embrace vulnerability. And let me be really clear what I

mean by vulnerability. Vulnerability means choosing to be real and honest and authentic about

who you are. Vulnerability means that you don't hide your weakness or your insecurity.

Nability means that you don't try to be something that you're not. And

I believe that the American Church will grow if we embrace vulnerability. The Church

in the United States will experience revival when we embrace vulnerability and reject this idea

of being perfect and squeaky clean. But if we repent from sin and turn

to the Lord and vulnerability with one another, that's where revival happens. As

I was looking at this passage in Mark seven and thinking about the Pharisees,

I gotta imagine that the Pharisees resisted vulnerability. Vulnerability didn't come naturally for them.

And then I was thinking even more, I wonder if the Pharisees felt

unsafe around each other. I wonder if they were an environment where they were

unsafe with each other and they couldn't let their guard down with each other,

that they didn't want to appear weak or appear insecure around each other. And

so they had these these defense mechanisms, because vulnerability grows in safe relationships that

you trust. I remember not too long ago, I was in my small

group, and the guys in our group we were praying for each other at

the end of our time together. And at that time, I was struggling

with holding a grudge and some bitterness and unforgiveness towards somebody, not somebody in

my group, but somebody else in my life. And I was tempted to

say to my group, pray for me because I'm struggling with something difficult.

But that's still vague, that's not vulnerable. So I stepped out of vulnerability

and I said I need prayer because I'm struggling with this bitterness and unforgiveness toward

this person. And I named that person. And you know what happened next.

Another member in my group told me about a story in his life where

he was holding unforgiveness against somebody, a relative in his family. My vulnerability

was met with vulnerability. It was not met with judgment or criticism. It

wasn't met with even a good hearted well, let me tell you how you

can fix that. And it certainly wasn't met with gossip, you know someone

texting, or you won't believe Pastor Andrew. Vulnerability begets vulnerability. Vulnerability grows

in community. There's too many fake Christians out there trying to be squeaky clean,

holier than now. Put up this perfect and there's a possibility that as

you're listening to this, maybe you've been hurt by somebody who has said that

they're a Christian or that they follow Jesus. But you've realized that they've got

clean hands. But but the heart isn't always there. I want to tell

you today that God wants to heal that wound. God wants to transform that

wound, and you can be vulnerable about that wound. Maybe for you today,

your first step in vulnerability is to get into community. Vulnerability grows in

community. If you're not in community, might feel like you're on an island

by yourself. Try a small group, try serving team, Get around people

who are gonna walk with you. We want to be a people with clean

hearts and dirty hands. And today I want to close this message with a

parable about a family who recently moved to Indianapolis. Mom and dad have a

young boy and a young daughter, and they bought a great home in a

nice school district. The dad has a new job in Indie, and the

boy he's athletic. The daughter gets good grades at school, and everything on

the outside looks good. They're a happy, kind family. But on the

inside, in the home, there's just something off. There's something missing.

There's joy missing, there's peace, and relational connection is just missing because you

see, Dad is really stressed out with this new job, and when he

gets stressed, his temper gets short with the kids. And ever since the

move, Mom has been struggling with loneliness and some depression, but she doesn't

want to bring this up around Dad because he's stressed out. Well. Then

a neighbor invites the family to church at the Crossing, and they come to

church at the Crossing and the kids get involved in youth ministry and children's ministry,

and then not too long, mom and dad try to decide to try

a small group with other couples, and they're a little bit hesits in a

little standoffice, you know, being around new strangers Christians. But they realize

that these other couples, they're vulnerable with each other, they share their weaknesses,

their struggles. They're not squeaky clean, holier than now Christians. But

then things take a turn for the worst at home. The young boy gets

in trouble at school and there's some serious consequences he's facing. When Dad gets

that call, he just loses it. He loses his temper. Everybody's walking

around on eggshells around him. And then mom discovers some text messages on her

daughter's phone that are troubling, and she discovers that her daughter's struggling with some

self harm and it's just but she's not gonna bring this up to Dad because

it is his temper and it's just overwhelming. This pressure is just mounting in

their home, and so they stop going to church because they just feel this

shame like things aren't right at home. And then they start pulling away from

their small group because they just can't deal with this. And after some time,

another member in that small group just feels prompted to reach out just compassionately.

Hey, how you doing it? I've missed you. And that's all

it took for that mom and dad to just open up and let it all

out. What do you think that small group leader does? They roll up

their sleeves and they get their hands dirty. They go right over to that

family's home. They embrace mom and dad. One of the other dads in

that group starts mentoring that young boy and helping him with some of his challenges.

Some other women in the group surround that daughter with love and support and

encouragement. Pretty soon mom and dad decide that they want to try some marriage

counseling. And it's messy, it's painful, but healings happening in their marriage.

And then after some time goes by, Mom and Dad are at Church

of the Crossing on a Sunday morning, and they're soaking wet because they just

got baptized, and they're getting ready to baptize their children. The young boys,

a leader in his small group, and his high school small group,

and the daughters inviting her friends and bringing them to church. It's a family

that's been transformed by the grace and compassion of Jesus. The truth about that

story is that every single one of our stories is somewhere in that parable.

Now that the details might be different, the circumstances might be different, the

ending might be a little different, but somewhere in that story, you and

I can identify our story and I don't know about you, but I don't

want that to just be a parable. I don't want that to just be

a story. I want that to be reality. I want that story to

be a true story, a living parable. I want to hear stories like

that coming out of our church and out of our community. Because we are

a church that has clean hearts and dirty hands. We embrace the mess.

We love people. We don't run away from people when they struggle. We

run two struggling people because we have clean hearts and dirty hands. Can I

pray for us? Father, God, we thank you for your grace,

and we thank you that you got your hands dirty, that you came to

us in our mess, and that your grace has transformed us. And so

God, I want to pray right now that your favor would increase upon us.

First, I want to start with the homes. God. I want

to pray for every family that's represented, every marriage that's represented, God,

that your favor would increase in those homes and in those families, that your

favor of grace and vulnerability would increase. God. I want to pray for

our church, starting with our youngest ministries, the nursery and the preschool,

all the way up to our adult classes and our adult groups. God,

that all through those life stages, that your grace and your favor would rest

upon our people. And God, we pray an expectation for the lives that

are going to be transformed, for the people that we have not met yet,

the neighbors that we have not encountered yet, but the ones who are

already working in their hearts. God, You're already working in their hearts,

in their minds, that you're going to do a transformation. We pray with

expectation that we will see more people come to faith, more people transform,

more families healed. God, thank you for your grace, and most of

all, we thank you for the gift of Jesus. And in his name

we pray Amen.