Jesus the Mediator (1 Timothy 2:1-7)

First Timothy chapter two starting in verse one.

First of all, then I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

This is good, and it pleases God our Savior.

He wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and one mediator between man and God, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.

For this I was appointed a herald, an apostle.

I'm telling you the truth.

I am not lying, and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for the opportunity to come together today, to pray, to sing these songs of prayer to you with hearts of gratitude and thanksgiving, to be able to open your word so freely as we are right now in different translations, and we probably have more at home.

But thank you for the freedom we have to open up your word and to study it together.

Lord, I pray as we do this today that you would speak to our hearts collectively and individually, that you would accomplish everything that you desire to accomplish in each one of us.

And as a church, Lord, teach us and shape us and mold us.

I pray we wouldn't hear this and walk away and never remember it again, but that there would be true heart change taking place here this morning.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

It's good for us to remember, I think, that we are studying a letter right now.

First Timothy's a letter, a physical letter that Paul wrote and sent to Timothy and to this Ephesian church.

And it's good to remember that it was meant to be read front to back in one sitting.

Just like if you received a letter in the mail, you would sit down and you would read it.

You wouldn't say, okay, I'm going to read the first paragraph today and another paragraph tomorrow and another paragraph tomorrow.

These people in Ephesus and Timothy would probably read it in one sitting, and then they would probably go back to it and then break it down and discuss it and say, hey, what about this and what about that?

And oh, we how do we apply this to our life and things like that?

That's why we always encourage you before we start a book, read the letter front to back.

It really helps to understand the flow of the letter, the context of the letter, the big themes of the letter.

Like we're gonna see, we're coming on a big theme of authority here in 1 Timothy chapter 2.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

But I point that out because sometimes we can get so far removed from a passage, but really it's not that far away.

You know, on Sundays we we break things up so far.

So I want you to turn to chapter 1, verse 5, because this is our thesis statement of the book.

This is what everything else is going to point back to throughout this book.

You know, we're now three weeks removed from this verse, but it's only 15 verses away.

You know, that's really not that far, but it might feel like it's really far away because we've taken so much time to go through this to the point.

But I want you to look, chapter 1, verse 5.

It says, now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

And really today we'll see this transition in Paul in this letter.

Talking about the people that were causing all the troubles in this church in Ephesus.

He was talking about some encouragement to Timothy, but now we're gonna switch to how this church should be functioning.

Really, it's like Paul saying, Timothy, this is how things should be set up, and this is what people should be doing within the church.

And as we'll see over the next three weeks, the whole section has to do with authority.

He starts off chapter two here with praying for those in authority, and then he lays out what authority should look like within the Christian church.

You know, towards the end of this section, actually, why don't you turn there as well?

Keep us all in context.

Chapter 3, verse 14.

Paul ends this section on authority with this specific instruction.

So look, chapter 3, verse 14, he says, I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon.

But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

So this whole next section, the next three passages that we're gonna be going through, is really about conduct within the church.

And I say that because we need to be careful.

This isn't not about conduct in your work.

This is not about conduct in government or in school.

This is strictly about the conduct within the Christian church.

So keeping all of that in mind, this kind of launches off into this new section we're in today.

So go back to chapter 2, verse 1, and we'll start to break this down little by little.

It says, first of all, then I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.

Really, this is saying pray, pray, and then pray some more on top of that.

And remember the context here is praying for others.

So this is saying, pray for others with petitions.

And that's really asking God for the needs, and in this context of others.

Prayers, the word we see here, is simply anything that's addressed to God.

So anything that's addressed to God for others.

Intercessions is praying on somebody's behalf, but really like coming alongside of them in prayer, but specifically on their behalf.

And then the last one here is thanksgivings.

That's coming to God with a thankful heart, full of gratitude.

And simply thanking him for X, Y, and Z.

Thanking Him for Jesus, thanking God for being God and for loving us the way that He loves us.

But in this context, it says thanksgivings are to be made for everyone.

Anybody notice that?

But I want to ask you, do you give thanks for everyone?

There's some people that it's easy to give thanks for, right?

Maybe some good friends or you know, family, hopefully leaders in your church, you know, things like that.

But what about those that are hard to love?

When's the last time you gave thanksgiving for those that are hard to love?

What about enemies?

What about politicians that stand for everything that you're against?

When's the last time, I'm I'm right there with you, that we gave thanks for them?

But it says here, everyone.

Jesus told us directly to pray for our enemies, didn't he?

And it's like, okay, okay, Lord, I'll I'll pray for them.

Pray that fiery coals rain down on their head and that, you know, justice comes and they get what's coming to them.

But there's something that I think is even harder than praying for our enemies that we have in our text here this morning.

It says to offer thanksgiving for everyone.

You know, this really convicted me this week because I don't know if I've ever done this.

Offered thanksgiving for enemies.

Thanksgiving for people that stand against everything that I ever have, or my values, or whatever it might be.

So the question for me as I've been studying this over the weeks is how do we do that?

How do we do that in the context of this passage?

And here's what I think.

The book of Daniel points out multiple times how God establishes and removes kings.

Daniel 2.12 says, He removes kings and establishes kings.

Daniel 4.17 says, This is so that the living will know that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms.

He gives them to anyone he wants, then he sets the lowliest of people over them.

Romans 13, 1.

Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.

So knowing this, I think it's going to help us answer that question of how do we give thanks for enemies?

Or those in authority that might stand against everything that we stand for.

What does this look like?

Well, we can thank God that maybe a certain enemy increased our prayer life.

Right?

Has maybe increased our knowledge on an issue.

They might be going the opposite direction than we are, but maybe it brought up an issue that we need to be more aware of.

Or maybe our dependence upon God has grown.

Maybe our trust in Him had to grow because of them and their opposition.

I mentioned recently that one of the fastest growing churches in the world is in Iran.

Also, one of the most hostile governments towards Christians in the world.

Think about that.

Praise the Lord that that church is growing, right?

We can praise God for that, can't we?

You know, Psalm 50, it's very interesting, and I really want to encourage you if you have time to go read it this week.

You have time.

Go read Psalm 50.

It's short, it's not that long.

Go read Psalm 50 this week.

Because it's about how God desires a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

More than something that we can physically give him.

He desires a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

And I think a sacrifice of thanksgiving is something that we're not very good at.

I don't think any of us is really good at that.

I know I'm not good at that at all.

But God desires that from us.

Thanksgiving that sounds like, thank you, Lord, because my enemies are keeping me on my knees in prayer.

I think that's what a sacrifice of thanksgiving looks like.

Thank you that a hostile government can actually help grow a church.

Thank you that this is a really hard circumstance that I'm going through right now, but it's helping me realize what's really important in my life right now.

Or I thank you that this sickness or this disease or this physical pain or disability is teaching me that your grace is sufficient and that your power is perfected in my weakness.

Hard, hard prayers to pray.

They're not second nature, they're not human nature for us to have that attitude.

But I think this is what this is talking about.

What a sacrifice of thanksgiving should be and what it should sound like.

I think in any circumstance we can find things to praise the Lord for.

And I think this is what this is talking about here.

I know I really need it to work on this: that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.

I really need to grow.

I think we all really need to grow in that manner.

You see, I think God's desire, and what this verse is getting here to today, is that prayer really needs to be second nature for us.

God desires this continuous conversation with him.

That we always have this continual awareness and conversation going with him.

It says in 1 Thessalonians 5, uh, 16 through 18, it says, rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything.

There it is again.

For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

You know, our prayers don't have to be these long, drawn out, you know, two-hour events.

It could be as simple as, oh Lord, can you help that person?

Lord, can you provide for that person whatever they're going through, whatever their need?

It could be hours long, and it could be just as simple as throwing phrases to him, having this constant awareness.

The thing is, just pray and just continue to pray.

You know, if you have trouble, I hear people say a lot, and sometimes I run into this too, if you have trouble praying for long periods because your mind just starts to wander off, and before you know it, you were praying, but now you're thinking about next week's events or whatever it might be.

Something I've learned that helps is to pray out loud.

Even if it's just under your breath, but there's something about praying out loud that really kind of helps keep your mind on track because we don't usually, usually, lose our concentration when we're talking to other people.

Um, but I think when we're having our thought prayers to the Lord, sometimes that can be hard.

Just under your breath.

You know, just start, you know, praying like that.

Get up in the morning, just start praying.

You'll see that it really helps you keep your train of thought.

But anyway, something that you can uh try out.

And then also something that I learned recently that I wanted to encourage you in as well, and I'll just ask you this question Do any of you ever wake up in the middle of the night for whatever reason, and then your mind starts racing about who knows what?

Could be the next day's events or something you did in the second grade, or you know, something like that.

But you start to stress out and you start to worry, and then your heartbeat goes up, and then you find that you just cannot fall back to sleep.

That was happening to me as my family was approaching summer.

It's just a really busy time, a lot going on in the beginning of June and things like that.

Um, none of them bad, all things that we're looking forward to, but it was just a lot of things one after another.

We had to put a lot of ducks in a row, a lot of planning involved.

And I found myself that I kept waking up to these details, you know, and thinking about them, and then I couldn't go back to sleep.

And my brain would race, but I started thinking about how do we stop this?

Like, this isn't right.

How do I stop all of this stuff from going on in the middle of the night?

And I just want to share with you something that the Lord uh showed me, I feel like, and it really worked well.

I decided that if I woke up in the middle of the night for whatever reason, that I was gonna immediately, before I could think about anything else, start praying for four different people, just in that order.

Just those four people immediately, and I wasn't gonna stop until I fell back asleep.

You know, because it gives your brain and the enemy no time to gain traction if you just let your thoughts start wondering when you wake up in the middle of the night.

And what happens is sometimes we wake up and we think, oh, well, I'm kind of freaking out about this.

I need to pray about this.

But then we pray about it, and then we're just thinking about it more and thinking about it more and stressing about it more, and that doesn't really help.

Jesus even said, let your tomorrow worry about itself.

So I said, I'm not even gonna pray about all this stuff, not at this moment, I'll do it later in the morning, but I'm just gonna pray for these uh people.

And it really worked.

Like it worked incredibly well.

And I think the enemy hates it too, because if he knows, you know, if there's spiritual warfare involved in waking you up, if he knows that you're just gonna start praying for other people, that he's probably gonna leave you alone.

But if you struggle with this, I just want to encourage you, just have a list before you even fall asleep of people you're gonna start praying for immediately, so that if you wake up, you just start praying for them immediately.

And I think you'll see the stress and all that stuff.

You know, if you feel weird about falling asleep while you're praying, some of the sweetest moments as a father were when my kids fell asleep on my lap.

And I don't think our father has any wish you uh any issues with that as well.

But I'd be curious how it works out for you.

Give it a try and uh let me know.

I'm curious to see because it worked really well for me.

Anyway, uh after Paul says to pray for everyone all the time for everything, he says in verse 2 here, he gives us some specific people to pray about.

He says, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

The early church was falsely accused of a lot of things under the Roman government, especially at this time.

They're accused of being anti-Rome and being accused of anti being anti-Caesar because they didn't see him as a god and they didn't pray to Caesar like the other Romans did.

So they had to fight against this, having to remind the Romans that they were good citizens, that maybe didn't pray to Caesar, but they did pray for Caesar.

An early church leader named Tertullian, maybe you've heard of him, he wrote Apologeticus, which was this defense about why Christianity should be treated the same as other religions within the Roman Empire.

And he said something that was interesting.

He said that the early church would pray for those in authority, specifically to accomplish all of their just desires.

Think about it.

That all those in authority would accomplish all of their just desires.

And I thought, I can pray for that.

I think we can all pray for that, that they would accomplish all of their just desires.

That's a really a win-win prayer, isn't it?

But I think we have to ask in this verse, how does this lead to a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity?

Because it says it right there in our verse.

You know, Scripture calls us to be good citizens in a lot of different places.

It calls us to be good citizens in every way that we can possibly and biblically be good citizens.

Obviously, not if we're asked to sin, then we should rebel against that.

But in every other scenario, we need to be good citizens as far as the Bible allows.

You see, if we're the ones causing the headaches to those that God placed in authority over us, and it's not a sin issue, we're obviously doing something wrong.

And that's what um tranquil and quiet is pointing to here.

They seem like the same idea when you think of tranquil and quiet in the English at first glance, but quiet in the Greek here, it carries a connotation of lightening the task of the heads of state.

Interesting, isn't it?

Quiet here means lightening the task of the heads of state.

We as Christians shouldn't be adding to the problems in our society, I think is what this is getting to.

We shouldn't be the ones adding headaches to those that are in authority over us when it's over non-biblical issues.

We should be examples to the world of good citizens, examples of good employees, examples of good children, examples of, you know, being good church members as well.

We should all be trying to lighten the load of those that are in authority over us, not add to it as much as we possibly can biblically.

And I think this also means that we pray that the government wouldn't interfere with our faith or with us practicing our faith.

I think those are good prayers to pray, that we could continue to lead these tranquil and quiet lives without having to rebel against our government.

I think the Holy Spirit through Paul is telling us here, obviously, pray, pray for everyone, pray for those in authority, lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity under those that God has appointed to be in authority over you.

Because, look at verse 3, this is good, and it pleases God, our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

You see how those two things are being married together here?

When we're good citizens, when we're praying for everyone, when we pray for our leaders, it's for a purpose to be fishers of men.

For the sake of God's kingdom, for the sake of the expansion of God's kingdom.

You know, it means being an example of Christ to those that don't know him so that they can see him in us.

The way we're living our life, the things that we're saying, how we're citizens within the world that we're in.

So part of our prayer needs to definitely be for salvation for those that are in authority over you if they're obviously not already following Jesus.

We need to pray that all would come to the knowledge of the truth of the gospel, so that they can then be led into all of the other truth of God's word as well.

And verse 5 tells us exactly what truth is being talked about here.

Look at verse 5.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.

This is the message of the gospel, isn't it?

Found here in verse five and six.

Speaking Of one way to salvation.

And I really want us to take a moment to look at the word mediator here because we hear these terms about Jesus and sometimes can forget what they what they really mean, what the origin is.

It's actually a legal term that was used by the Hellenistic Jews.

And when we look at mediator, it's not really any different than what we think about today in our modern day court system.

You know, people often in our modern day court system, um, they will seek mediation before going to an expensive trial.

You know, I wanted to just give you a quick example if you're not familiar with how this works.

If two parties are going to trial, let's say party A accrued debt that they couldn't pay, so party B comes in and they want to sue party A because there's just this debt.

They owe them a ton of money, they're not paying it, they gotta seek some legal help here.

They're set to go to trial, which is extremely time consuming, it's extremely expensive.

So party A says before the trial, let's go to a mediator, let's go to mediation and see if we can figure this out before we have to take it to trial.

So a mediator comes in, listens to both sides, they suggest an outcome that they think would be fair, that maybe both sides of the of this trial would be able to agree to.

And then each party can take it or leave it, or they can negotiate through this mediator.

But we need to think of it: mankind is party A.

We accrued a debt that we could not pay in sin.

And we accrued this eternal separation from God, eternal separation from everything that is good.

The difference is with us and with God, you know, mediation is usually to try and come up with a compromise between the two parties before the trial.

But we are so guilty.

We don't have a leg to stand on.

We literally have nothing to bring to the table, even in mediation.

And we accrued this debt.

And we did it when we started choosing our own way over what God knew what was best for us, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

True mediation between us and God would have looked at us like, you are so guilty.

There's nothing that you can offer party B.

You need to go to trial because there's really nothing we can do here.

There's no compromise that can be met.

But God, think about this.

God initiated mediation.

He knew the payment for sin was death.

He knew we could never pay that on our own, but loved us too much to let us suffer the eternal consequences of our sin.

So, for God so loved the world, he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life.

You see, God not only wanted mediation, he wanted to provide the payment to make things right between mankind and himself.

Because he knew we had nothing to bring to the table.

The payment was Jesus.

So Jesus was not only our mediator, he was also the payment.

Jesus said in John 14, 6, most of you probably have this memorized, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

It's through the mediator that we come to God, and it's the only way that we can come to God.

You know, in our modern court system, having a mediator come in and then hear both sides, and then the mediator's like, oh, I'll pay the debt for the defendant.

That's just ridiculous to think about that uh an impartial mediator would come in and do that.

But to offer to put themselves in the place of the defendant in a capital punishment case, that's even more absurd, isn't it?

But that's exactly what Jesus did.

That's why all roads don't lead to heaven.

That's why there's only one way, and it's through the man Jesus Christ, as our text here says today.

I want to read you this quote from the enduring word commentary because it is just so right on.

So just listen up to this.

It says, Many people think that God would be unfair or narrow-minded to have only one way to salvation.

But the thought needs to be turned over.

To say that God is unfair for this, one would have to look at Jesus dying on the cross, the spotless Son of God, came from heaven and lived humbly and died in horrific agony, both physical and spiritual.

They'd have to look at Jesus on the cross and say, Thanks, God, I appreciate the gesture.

But that isn't enough.

You're gonna have to do a little more than that because that is only one way.

And if you are fair, you will make several ways.

When you turn it on his head like that, it seems absurd, doesn't it?

If we're to look at what Jesus did and say, that's it, that's the only way?

How narrow-minded can God be?

Think about it though.

God initiated the mediation, and then he gave himself to be the payment, to get us off of the hook for the sin that we chose in the first place.

When you think about it that way, it's really hard to say that's it.

It's really hard to say there's only one way after all that God did for us.

You see, Jesus being fully God and fully man was the only way that this could happen.

So God did it for us because we did not have a leg to stand on.

And it was through, as it says, the man Jesus Christ.

And I just point that out about our mediator, because Romans 5.19 says, for just as though one man's disobedience, Adam, the uh just sorry, for just as through one man's disobedience, being Adam, the many were made sinners, so also through the one man's obedience, Jesus, the many will be made right.

Because one man messed it up, one man had to fix it.

That's really what it's saying.

So God became flesh eternally to fix it.

That is love, isn't it?

Think of the humility.

Think of what Jesus did simply of, not even simply, but being born of a virgin in a manger, humbly walking on this earth for 30 years, suffering abuse and ridicule, every form of persecution that you can imagine, the temptation, all of those things.

Lived perfectly and humbly, and then took on our sin, sacrificed himself to pay the debt that Adam initiated, and we only added to.

We can't put it all on Adam.

We've only added to that original sin.

Also, he could be the mediator and the payment for us.

He goes on in verse 6, speaking of Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.

You know, Jesus said himself, greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

And then Jesus went and he did that.

You know, when I see that Jesus gave himself as a ransom, as it says in our text here, I think of a movie scene.

And you've probably seen movies like that as well, where a child maybe is about to be taken hostage or something like that for whatever reason, and then the parent steps up and they say, Take me instead.

Please take me in their place.

Just let them go.

Let me trade places with them.

You can take my life, just don't take theirs.

That's the heart of Jesus.

That is the heart of Jesus.

That's how much he loves us.

He gave himself as a ransom for us in our place.

Look at the next part of verse 6.

It says, a testimony at the proper time.

For this, meaning the testimony of the gospel, I was appointed a herald, an apostle.

I'm telling the truth.

I am not lying.

And a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

You know, when we think of the word testimony, I think in our Christian world, we can all often try to think in the context of this is who I was before Jesus, this is how I came to Jesus, this is who I am after Jesus.

A lot of times that's how we think of testimony.

But we need to continue to think about it in the context of the court of law.

It's evidence that is provided, a testimony, is evidence that's provided by a witness.

This is what I saw, this is what I heard, this is what I experienced, this is what I know, either from firsthand experience, or this is what I know as an expert witness in the case.

Now, an apostle was literally, that just means a sent one.

Somebody sent to spread the message of the gospel, to spread the testimony of Christ.

Paul's really like an expert witness.

I think we can think of him like that.

And then he was appointed and sent by Jesus himself to go out and to spread that testimony that he had, both as an eyewitness, I think, and as an expert witness as well.

Timothy knew this, right?

He followed Paul around forever, served with him.

He knew that Paul was an apostle and a sent one by Christ to spread the testimony of Christ.

So I really think this is written specifically for the Ephesian church.

A reminder to them to listen up.

You know, this isn't just my wishes.

Paul here.

This is from the Lord.

I was appointed, I was chosen to do this and to give you this very instruction that you're receiving right now.

He goes as far as saying, I'm telling the truth, I am not lying.

I think the rebellion in Ephesus against Paul and Timothy must have been pretty bad for Paul to actually have to write this down kind of mid-sentence for them.

When you think back to some of the other letters that we've studied, when we think back to Thessalonians and things like that, Paul didn't have to write anything like this to the Thessalonian church.

It was just like, hey guys, it's Paul.

And then he just went and, you know, and he encouraged them and all that kind of stuff.

But here in Ephesus, he's really having to be like, you guys need to listen up.

Here's the authority I've been given.

I'm telling the truth.

I am not lying.

And I think it must have been for those that we already read about earlier in Timothy that were causing the trouble, that were stirring things up, that were bickering over certain words and things like that.

Those that were not living a tranquil life as we just learned about.

Those that were making things harder for the authority that God had placed in their life.

And that kind of leads right into what we're going to be talking about next week.

But for today, I think here's what we need to walk away with from these verses today.

I think first, pray for everyone all the time without ceasing.

Just constantly praying to God all the time.

Let your thoughts be that constant awareness and conversation with God.

And we can be encouraged to pray always when we gather as a church as well.

We try to integrate church in, or integrate church, integrate prayer into church often during our services.

There's a lot of times where we stop to pray.

But as a pastor, as one of your elders here, one of my favorite things to see here is before church or after church, people just praying for each other.

Like I just love seeing that.

We just need to continue to pray all the time.

Whenever you're here, even if you're not here, just take the time.

Ask somebody, can I pray for you?

And then just take that time right there.

It doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to be eloquent, just praying together.

Pray always, pray without ceasing.

And I think the second thing to walk away with today is to live a life that shares the gospel.

Both in word and in deed.

As a citizen, shine the light of Christ to everyone that God has put in authority over you and shine that light to everybody that you come in contact with as you are an example of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much again for your word.

Some hard stuff in here today, but would you teach us how to pray constantly for everyone in all of those different ways?

Would you teach us what it looks like to give you a sacrifice of thanksgiving?

Even, Lord, regarding our enemies, even those that rise up against us, that that try to take things in complete opposite directions of your scripture.

Would you show us how to uh to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving?

Thank you, Lord, that this is causing me to get on my knees.

Thank you that this is causing me to trust you more.

Would you help us to flip that perspective in our mind and to be able to see how you can use every authority that you've placed over us for your kingdom?

Help us to be good citizens, Lord, to uh to vote, to get out there and do our portion so that we can try our best to get those in authority that are have biblical values.

But when those don't win, Lord, help us to not be discouraged.

Help us to realize that, well, this must be how God's going to grow his kingdom.

But help us to be responsible in that way.

And Lord, I pray that you would show us how to bless our neighbors, how to bless our city, to be a light, to be a beacon, to be an example of you in the way that we live our life.

So, Lord, would you help us to do these things?

Show us how, by the power of your spirit, Lord, would you tap us on the shoulder when it's time to put one of these things into practice?

God, we love you so much, and we just pray that we'd continue to become more and more like Jesus each day.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.