Love Generosity More

So we've been looking at more and learning to love the things of God more.

And this morning we're going to be talking about generosity.

And we read for our sermon text two different stories out of Luke.

And here's what they are they're two stories of greed and generosity.

We have these two men, and they're both wealthy.

One we don't know the name of, Jesus just says he's a ruler, and that he has this great wealth about him.

Another one is Zacchaeus.

And Zacchaeus has great wealth about him too.

He's a tax collector, and he has stored up for himself treasure, just like the ruler.

But we see these two very distinct responses to who Jesus is in both of these stories.

The ruler goes from greed, uh, responds from a place of greed.

Zacchaeus, he responds from a place of generosity.

But I don't want us to just look at this from a lens of greed and generosity.

Here's what I want to try to submit to you early on, and then try to work to prove this throughout the text.

What I want us to try to submit to is this isn't just about greed and generosity.

This is fundamentally about a faith that is rooted in works versus a faith that's rooted in grace.

And I believe that what the Bible shows us is that when we have a works-based faith, we are going to be tempted to be greedy.

But when we have a grace-based faith, we're going to be tempted to be generous.

So let's dive into the text this morning as we try to uncover the truth of the scriptures and how God desires us to love generosity more.

When we look at chapter 18, verses 18 through 21, what we see is that we have this kind of summary of a good teacher and a life of good works.

A good teacher and a life of good works.

So we enter into the scene where this rich young ruler engages with Jesus about trying to discover how he can obtain eternal life.

But there's something very fundamentally flawed about the initial engagement of this rich young ruler in Jesus.

What does he call him?

If you got your Bibles open or if you're looking in the text, what does he call him?

He calls him a good teacher.

So as this rich young ruler approaches Jesus, he says, Good teacher, I got a question for you.

Fundamentally, he's already starting from a place of flawed nature because Jesus actually rebuttals him.

He's like, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except for God.

And so Jesus actually proclaims the nature of his deity.

He's trying to help this young man understand, I'm not just a good teacher, I'm God sitting in front of you.

But the rich young lord is unable to see that.

He says, Good teacher, how do I inherit internal life?

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

Now this guy is working from an even greater deficit.

Because not only is his relationship with Jesus flawed, because he's referring to him as just a good teacher, but he's asking him the wrong question.

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

This guy's working from a position where he is trying to, he's lived a life striving to accomplish for himself what it would take to acquire and gain the life that he seeks after.

What he was really looking for was this.

If we break down the way that he actually asks the question, he's asking, what one thing do I have to do to inherit for myself the eternal life of which I long for?

And Jesus, he kind of starts listing off, well, you know, you know, you're you're a Jew, you are versed in the law, and he gives off five of the commands, right?

He gives off like half of the ten commands.

He he talks about, hey, well, you know, don't murder, don't steal, don't bear false witness, uh, honor your father and mother.

And what was the ruler's response?

Well, I've done all this from my youth.

All these things that you're telling me to do, uh I've already done.

He had already believed that he had lived a life of good works.

And so what did he really communicate in his response to Jesus?

All these I've done from my youth.

He he communicated this: that the law of God was both overly simplistic and insufficient.

That wasn't satisfying to him.

Jesus said, Well, you've heard it, right?

You should do these things.

And he said, Well, yeah, I've done it.

And he's still searching, even in his own self-belief that he has been able to live a life that accomplished the keeping of these things, he still finds them as insufficient to acquire for himself the eternal life he longed for.

So what does he do?

He seeks after a good teacher who can give him the key to obtaining the eternal life his heart desired.

But now the good teacher, he's going to lead this ruler to a devastating self-discovery.

And when we look at verses 22 through 27, we see what is impossible with man is possible with God.

What is impossible with man is possible with God.

Jesus responds to the ruler's self-affirmation of a life of good works and begins to extend to him what he is truly after, right?

Oh, the one thing that you are looking for, the the the like key reality of secret of how you can obtain this eternal life, I'm gonna give it to you.

Are you ready?

And he says this the one thing you still lack, sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

Now, what's Jesus doing here?

It's important for us to really try to work to understand the way that Jesus is leading him into this self-discovery.

What Jesus is not doing is giving this universal command for all believers to follow, right?

For all of us to pursue poverty, for all of us to sell our possessions and distribute to them poor.

Should we live generous lives?

Absolutely.

Should we live lives of open hands?

Absolutely.

But that's not the goal of what Jesus is doing here.

He's not trying to establish this universal command that if all of us just sold our possessions, distributed to the poor, then we could have eternal life also.

Jesus is not adding works to our ability to obtain the life we long for.

But he's revealing the self-deceit of a life of good works.

Because it's fascinating what Jesus does.

In his first interaction with the ruler, he lists off the portions of the Ten Commandments that relate from person to person.

Don't steal, don't murder, honor your father and mother.

You see, the back half of the Ten Commandments really lays out for us how we should love our neighbor as ourself.

But what does the front half of the Ten Commandments lay out for us?

Well, it really defines for us what is the primary law of God.

To love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then to love our neighbor as ourself.

And the Ten Commandments portrays for us what a life looks like that seeks that end.

And the first half tells us how we should relate to God in our pursuit to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And the back half helps us to understand how we should love one another as we would love ourselves.

And so here's what Jesus is doing: He's setting him up to help him understand that his life of good works has been futile because he forgot the first one.

Love God.

Have no other gods before Yahweh alone.

It's important to see that Jesus responded to his question initially with the sections from the Ten Commandments about how we relate to one another.

He's unable to inherit eternal life because he does not love and worship the only life giver.

He's showing that he's much more interested in acquiring life than intimately knowing the giver of it.

And so, what do we see exposed here?

Was he able to not murder, not steal, honor his father and mother?

Absolutely.

But was he able to have no other gods before Yahweh?

No.

His treasure was his God.

And he was unable to part with it.

And he served it rather than serving the giver of life.

And so the ruler walked away from this exchange with Jesus in sadness, it says.

And Jesus witnessing this makes one final remark.

He says, How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

And the people who are around him hear what he's saying.

They see the exchange, they see the ruler respond in sadness, they hear the words of Jesus that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to inherit the kingdom of God.

And what is their response?

Well, then who can be saved?

Who in the world can be saved?

You see, they had such a prominent place for wealth in their worldview.

They had a salvific place of wealth in their worldview.

And they look at this.

If this guy can't get saved, if the wealthy, it's harder for them to come into the kingdom than for a camel to go through the eye of the needle, then who can be saved?

And what does Jesus proclaim?

What is impossible with man is possible with God.

It's not impossible for a rich person to inherit eternal life.

As we're going to see in the story of Zacchaeus in just a moment, we actually see what happens when God steps in and changes the heart of an individual.

But this exchange between Jesus and the ruler and those who are listening in isn't over yet.

We see in 28 through 30 that the kingdom promises no regrets.

The kingdom promises no regrets.

You gotta love Peter here, right?

Peter is the that bold dude who always comes out guns ablaze in.

And he's always like one of the first ones to fail, or he's the first ones to do something amazing.

He's just always gonna come out.

And here's Peter on the sideline.

He goes, Jesus, I've done everything, right?

I've given up home, I've given up this.

He kind of inserts himself.

Well, look at me, I've done it all.

And Jesus is like, okay, that's cool.

He says, See, we have left our homes and followed you.

And Jesus shares with him a kingdom promise.

Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time in the age to come, eternal life.

What is Jesus promising him there?

He's promising that a life lived of generosity with open hands for the kingdom of God will be a life of no regrets.

Because we will obtain, even in this life, in the life to come, eternal life.

Many times more.

The blessing of God, the relationship of Jesus, the inheritance of our King is infinitely greater than any wealth that we could store for ourselves in this life.

And Jesus is promising that if you give up what you're so white-knuckling here and now to have me, it will be a life without regret.

And here he sets us up for a transition to witness the heart response of a man who is the great beneficiary of the possible salvation of God.

There is no regrets for those who give up everything for the kingdom, because in the end they've gained eternally more.

As we look at verse 1 through 10 of chapter 19, we enter into the scene of a man named Zacchaeus.

And what we find here in this story is a son finds his great treasure.

A son finds his great treasure.

So here's what's happening.

Jesus is coming into town.

Zacchaeus, he's a little dude, he can't really see real well.

So he climbs up in a tree.

And as Zacchaeus is in the tree, Jesus is coming by and he says, Hey, we need you to uh come down, so I'm gonna dine at your house this evening.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector.

And they they they say that there's grumbling happening as Jesus invites himself over to Zacchaeus' house for dinner.

There's grumblings that's happening from the crowd around him that he's going to eat with the sinner.

They know who Zacchaeus has a reputation.

He's a tax collector.

And the Jewish people really despise tax collectors because they extorted them.

And they would take more than they needed to, and they would fatten their own pockets, and and they were just well known for being really despised and hated with inside of that modern culture.

And so Jesus looks up to this sinner, this one man who everyone knows is a criminal heart in nature.

He says, I'm going to dine with you this evening.

Zacchaeus comes down, and there's this exchange that happens so beautifully with Jesus and Zacchaeus.

And here's the first thing we need to realize in the exchange.

The first thing we need to see is the way that Zacchaeus understood Jesus relationally.

Where the ruler looked at Jesus and said, Good teacher.

Zacchaeus looks at Jesus and says, Lord.

Fundamental, huge difference between those two exchanges.

The way that they understood one another relationally.

The ruler understood Jesus as just a wise man, a good teacher, someone who could help show him the way, a guide.

Zacchaeus knew him as Lord.

And then what's Zacchaeus' response?

Zacchaeus wasn't, what can I do to obtain?

Zacchaeus was, here's what I am going to do because I have obtained.

And what does he say?

The half of my goods I give to the poor.

And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

You see, I love Zacchaeus' response here because the first part of his response, it wasn't guilt-ridden.

If you can imagine, there's kind of two banks that Zacchaeus is working from his own wealth, and then the wealth that he's acquired wrongly from exploiting people in his profession.

And the first part of his response is just the wealth that I have, I'm going to give it away.

It wasn't motivated out of guilt or shame.

It wasn't motivated out of necessarily repentance.

It was motivated out of grace.

Because he had known Jesus as Lord.

And because he, a son, it says here in the end of the text that today's salvation has come to this house, since he is also a son of Abraham.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Zacchaeus was not a Jew by blood, but by faith through grace.

He became a son of Abraham, and a son found his greatest treasure, and he found it in Christ.

And what was his ex what was his response to that?

Behold, Lord, because I have found my treasure in you, I give away half of my wealth.

And then you see this repentance of Zacchaeus.

And if I've wronged anyone, fourfold what I have taken from them, I will give back.

He was generous because he had encountered the saving power of grace.

Through the powerful grace of God, the impossible became possible.

And instead of a slave of works hoarding the only treasure he will ever possess, Zacchaeus became a son.

And he found his great treasure in Jesus.

So what I want us to walk away from is this this morning.

A faith of works will tempt us to be greedy, but grace frees us to be generous.

A faith of works will tempt us to be greedy, but grace frees us to be generous.

When we believe that the life we've always desired, we've always wanted, is only going to be attainable through our own accomplishments, do you think that we're going to have a response of generosity or greed?

Greed.

When the life we've always longed for, we believe is going to come through our own hands, we're always going to be tempted to be greedy.

That worldview will only cause us to be self-centered.

Because we live in such a way where we are utterly dependent on self to gain for us the life that we desire.

Yet the opposite is true of a life fully surrendered to the dependence of grace.

That life is finally free to be generous.

Because nothing they possess gives them any benefit toward the life that they desire so they can live finally with open hands.

Think about this, right?

All of us have some kind of thought of what our life could be like, or we desire for it to be like.

And many of us, we get captured within the things of this world.

And a lot of us, we don't really have an eternal lens on the way that we understand life.

Many of us feel like this life, or we at least function in a day-to-day basis as if this life is the only life we're going to live.

And so to have the best life that we possibly can, it's going to have to come through our own accomplishments.

And so when we have a works-based faith that to obtain the life we truly desire is going to come from our own striving and effort, we're going to be tempted to be greedy because those resources are what enable us to actually live the life we desire.

But when we are ransomed by grace, and this is the beauty of what grace does for us in the gospel of Jesus.

Jesus hands over to us a life that we could have never imagined that we even wanted, something eternally more beautiful, something of treasure of greater value than this earth can ever offer.

And then in the same turning of events, he displays for us that the fullness of that life is only found in Him.

What does that do to our hands?

It stops them from being close fists to saying, take it.

Take it all.

Because Jesus is going to give me a life greater than my heart could ever even be able to desire in the first place.

And then in the radiance of his beauty and majesty and glory, he shows us that the ability to have it is found in him.

So I don't have to white knuckle anymore.

I don't have to walk around with closed fists.

I can just say, take it.

This isn't going to obtain for me what I long for.

I've already got it in Jesus.

Grace liberates us.

The grace of God and the identity it brings as a child of the Father liberates us to be a generous people.

We no longer have to operate out of fear, causing us to live in self-centeredness.

It is by the grace of God that we discover in him all that we could ever think or imagine we might need or want.

So all of our material possessions become useless in the pursuit of the life our hearts long for.

Because the resources to obtain it are in him.

By grace, he freely gives it to us.

Isn't that a beautiful reality of the gospel?

The life you long for, the life that your heart even has difficulty dreaming up.

You can sit there and think through the most radical life you could imagine, right?

What God desires to give to His children is something infinitely greater than what your mind or heart is even capable of dreaming up.

And then the gospel says you could never accomplish it on your own.

You could never obtain it through your own strivings and work and clawing and scraping along in this life.

And so I'm going to freely give it to you.

That's the heart of the Father.

That's his love for his children.

Why does God love generosity?

Because it proves a life completely ransomed by grace rather than one still dependent on self-accomplishment.

You think God cares about your money at all?

He owns a cattle on a thousand hills.

Every atom in this universe is able to be declared his own possession.

God does not care about your money.

You won't find throughout scripture where God cares about your money.

God cares about your heart.

That's what he cares about.

And what is gen, this is here's what I'm trying to submit to y'all is what the scriptures show us is that generosity proves a life that's been completely ransomed by grace.

Where greediness shows us that we're still trying to accomplish the life we long for through our own capabilities.

We're still self-dependent.

It still matters on our own works to get what we desire.

Many of us live in a way that's rooted in a works-based faith that lends itself to a greedy life.

Some of us we express our greed in hedonism.

We express our greed in hedonism.

Deep down, some of us believe this is the only life we're going to live.

And if this is the only life that we're going to live, then you better believe we better be obtaining and getting everything we ever desired.

Right?

It's up to us to ensure that everything that we ever desired is called our own.

We lack a generous heart because we are self-dependent on having the life we always dreamed of.

We fail to realize that this life, even if lived out to the fullest possible extent, is still eternally found wanting.

You see, this is a huge issue with us where we fail to have contentment in our hearts.

Some of us really wrestle with contentment because we actually function in a worldview where the life that we ever wanted, if we're going to have this life that we've dreamed of and have have fabricated in our own imagination, it's going to have to be through the obtaining of stuff, right?

Through our own accomplishments, through our through our own accumulation of wealth so that we can live this lush life where we get everything we ever desired.

And so we fail to be content.

Like a life of grace is a content life because it doesn't need anything else to make its life better.

You've already got for yourself the king of the universe.

You already have for yourself the savior of the world.

You already have the treasure of the cosmos is yours.

But we fail to believe that.

And so what happens?

Our heart becomes discontent, and then in a hedonistic pursuit, we just start spending money we don't even have.

Why do you think that this nation is so riddled with debt?

Why do we spend above our means?

Why do we live paycheck to paycheck?

Why do we do these things?

It's not just the economy.

We were doing this well before this presidential election.

We were doing this because we had discontentment in our heart.

And so we had to live hedonistically if we were ever going to actually have the life that we desired to have.

But that's a works-based worldview rather than one that's rested in grace.

If this life really is all that we truly have, then we should be radical hedonists.

Let's just obtain for ourselves every pleasure that this world has to offer.

Living every moment in greed-filled, lush living.

But that's not what the Bible communicates to us.

That's not what the Bible reveals to us.

We're just sojourners.

This is a vapor.

This is a mist.

This is here and then it's gone.

It's a grass that fades and withers.

We are only here momentarily.

And God is setting us up for something eternal.

In the blessed beauty of his presence and glory forever, where we live in the light of the Lamb, where the treasure of the universe is ours, to just enjoy and find pleasure forevermore.

When you read through the Psalms and the ways that they understood the relationship with the Lord, it was so intimate.

The pleasures of God that He gives to His people, the joy that fills them, the peace that overwhelms them, the delight that they have in His presence.

Man, where is your heart?

Do you live in such a way where you express your greed in hedonism?

Or are you like some others who express your greed in hoarding?

You express your greed in hoarding.

Some of us, man, we live a life of fear and worry and anxiousness.

Because here's what we really believe.

At the end of the day, if we're going to be taken care of, we're going to have to take care of ourselves.

If we're going to be taken care of, we're going to have to take care of ourselves.

And what is that?

That's just the other side of the same coin.

It's a works-based faith that really shows no confidence in the Father to care for us in the way that He's promised, His children.

There was all you almost saw this childlike faith of Zacchaeus, where he was able to walk with open hands because a son of Abraham was made that day.

He really believed that in that moment, I'm not saying Zacchaeus didn't like struggle with this for the rest of his life, but in that moment it appears that he believed that he was now in relationship with the father who loved him and would care for him.

And so he didn't have to hoard his wealth any longer.

I don't know about you, but I don't have the ability of Zacchaeus to like give half my stuff away and then four times as much as dudes I've wronged.

I don't think I've wronged many people in my life, financially, at least.

But I don't have those means.

This dude had to have like a cave of money.

I don't know how much what he was sitting on.

He was short.

Maybe he just had a throne of like shekels because he was a short little man.

But this guy was able to just live generously.

But the recklessness of his faith is something to behold.

Like a child who just believed his father would care for him.

Many of us we can't live with an open hand of generosity because we have to white knuckle our stuff to survive, to live.

We fail to understand our relationship to the Father and the loving care that he has for his children.

Jesus spoke to this, right?

Jesus says, Why do you worry about what you wear?

Why do you worry about what you eat?

Did you not know your father loves you?

Does he not love you more than the birds of the air?

Does he not love you more than the lilies that cover the ground?

What is he trying to help us understand?

Grace.

Because he said, the birds, they don't work, but the father feeds them.

Some of us just need to be receivers of a free gift.

Some of you can't take it, some of you just have a hard time receiving gifts.

And grace is the most costly gift that the Father hands to us because it was purchased by the blood of his son.

But it shows, it affirms for us, it proves to us he would go at any length necessary to take care of us.

Is that not reassuring for your heart?

Does that at all allow you to open up your hand a little bit more and say, God, none of this is mine?

Throughout all of the scriptures, we see that really our stuff is not our own.

It's not something that we can lay claim to as if it's some type of security or comfort for us.

We are called to simply be stewards of the things God gives us.

My marriage is not mine.

It's the Lord's.

My 401k, I don't even think I have that.

I think I have a simple IRA.

If you uh are in money and you want to help me figure stuff out, that'd be great.

Um it's not mine.

It's the Lord's.

I'm not called to hoard it, I'm called to steward it, and I'm called to steward it for his glory and the good of others.

But how many times do we think of our possessions that way?

How many times do we think about our stuff that way?

Oftentimes we probably think of our stuff in a way that builds comfort, security for ourselves.

Because we live in fear, we live in anxiousness.

And some of you right now, like in the last several months, have been tempted to be more hoarding because of the economy that we find ourselves in.

Who cares?

Genuinely, who cares what economy we find ourselves in?

Is the Lord not still Lord over all of this?

Is the king still not sovereign sitting on the throne, ruling and reigning over all?

Do you think this surprise guy, like, oh, I didn't see this one coming?

No, he knew.

And his church will still prevail.

He will still care for you because you're his child in Christ.

Church, we have to get through this through our head.

At Sacred Mission, we don't care about your money.

You guys are generous.

One thing I want to do real quick is celebrate the pattern of generosity that we see within this church.

I don't care about your money.

I care about your heart.

And there's a lot of times where us as elders will approach members of our church about giving.

It's not because our bank account's depleting.

It's because we want to know where your heart is.

And it's a marker for us.

It's a flag that goes up and says, hey, what's going on?

Are you afraid?

Are you worried?

Are you anxious?

Are you being hedonistic and you're just spending all your stuff on other things because you can't be content in the grace of God that's given to us through the gospel of Christ?

What is going on in your heart?

I don't care about how much you're giving or how frequent you're giving.

I care about where your heart is.

Because as soon as we see that money going somewhere else, we know that there's something going on in our own chest.

And I hope that we can walk away from this with more open hands.

Not because you were coerced into giving more of your finances, but because you were captivated more richly and deeply by the grace of God that He gives to us in Jesus.

And that's the beauty of the gospel, isn't it?

Jesus was given to us that we might be a generous people.

Jesus was given to us that we might be a generous people.

God gave us everything so that we could be people who can freely give.

Because we don't need our stuff anymore.

We don't need our stuff to be safe.

We don't need our stuff to be protected.

We don't need our stuff to be satisfied.

We don't need our stuff anymore.

That's what grace does for us is that it gives us everything in Christ Jesus so that we can live with open hands of generosity.

Christ was given so that we might be a generous people.

That the inheritance of everything, seen and unseen, is ours to declare for our own possession.

That we with him are seated at the right hand of the Father, that we are exalted into the highest place, that we have intimacy and oneness with the Father so much that, as Hebrews declares, we can with boldness approach the throne of grace, that we can be called a son or a daughter, that we can have the life your heart and mind could never even fathom or dream up.

We are rich.

So do we get to be generous.

Because your wealth is not rooted in your possession.

Your wealth is rooted in him.

So my hope and prayer for us as we walk out of here this morning is that we would discover the freedom of generosity.

That we would discover the freedom of generosity.

Here's what I want to lay before you.

When Christ Jesus is our greatest possession, we can live with open hands.

We can live with open hands.

When we can be like Job and say, though you slay me, I will worship you.

Man, that heart.

Some of us we like, we we get mad and refuse to worship God because our day just didn't start off right.

You know what I mean?

Like we are so fickle in the ways that we just try to be faithful to the Lord.

That if things don't go our way, we're like, well, you know, you gotta fix things before I'm gonna come back to you, God.

Job, this heart of even though you slay me, even though you take everything from me, I'm still going to worship you.

Because I feel like Job understood that the greatest possession that he could ever have would be his savior.

If for us, what if the economy does come out and just wipe you clean?

What if you lose your house and your possessions?

What if it's taken from you in a moment?

Is Christ sufficient?

But not only if it's taken from you, what if he calls you to give it away?

What if, like the ruler, he calls to you, hey, give all that away?

Are you gonna sit there and say, I can't?

I can't, because I don't trust you, because I don't believe the promises that you've communicated to me.

So I've got to hold on to this because I'm just not sure about you.

Man, I've lived that way.

I don't want to live that way anymore.

I don't want to be afraid, I don't want to be anxious, I don't want to worry, I don't want to feel like the stuff I have dictates the quality of life that I've always dreamed of.

I want Jesus to be such a great possession in my heart that I let go because grace has freed me to be generous.

There was a pastor author, he was with the Christian Missionary Alliance.

His name was A.W.

Tozer, and he developed these five vows for spiritual strength.

And I encourage you to read through them.

Look them up, five vows for spiritual strength.

Uh, but one of his vows was this never own anything.

Never own anything.

And I just want to read for you as we close this morning his unpacking of this vow.

I do not mean by this that you cannot have things.

I mean that you ought to get delivered from this sense of possessing them.

This sense of possessing is what hinders us.

All babies are born with their fists clenched.

And it seems to me it means this is mine.

One of the first things is mine in an angry voice.

That sense of this is mine is a very injurious thing to the spirit.

If you can get rid of it, so that you have no feeling of possessing anything, there will come a great sense of freedom and liberty into your life.

And I hope that we can walk away with these words.

They're in the sermon notes on the app.

If you want to cop, maybe you've got a cubicle and you're next to your fall y'all uh sign, you can put this up and read through that while you're drinking your PSL.

Um and maybe you can just meditate on these words, but man, I I want to say less of mine.

Mine.

And I want to extend those words and exclusively use those words for Christ.

He is mine, and everything of this uh world can fade and burn and be taken from me because Christ is mine.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray.