Living Water (7:37-53)

John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

We're going to be going verses 37 through 53 and finishing up.

You know, this has been four weeks that it's taken us to get through John chapter 7, and uh we get to finish it today, but today's gonna be a little more technical, a few more cross-references uh than we normally do, and talking a little bit more about history uh as we see this because it all comes into play, and it's all very important to really understanding what Jesus is doing and what Jesus is saying here on the last day of the feast.

John 7 · chapter mention

So if you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's Word?

John chapter 7, verses 37 through 53.

John 7:37–53

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

The one who believes in me, as the scripture has said, will have streams of living water from deep within.

He said this about the Spirit.

Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, This truly is the prophet.

Others said, This is the Messiah.

But some said, Surely the Messiah doesn't come from Galilee, does he?

Doesn't the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David's offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?

So the crowd was divided because of him.

Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

Then the servants came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, Why didn't you bring him?

The servants answered, No man ever spoke like this.

Then the Pharisees responded to them, Are you fooled too?

Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him?

But this crowd which doesn't know the law is accursed.

Nicodemus, the one who came to him previously, and who was one of them, said to them, Our law doesn't judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he's doing, does it?

You aren't from Galilee too, are you?

They replied.

Investigate, and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.

Then each one went to his house.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

Lord, we thank you for these passages that we have here this morning.

And we pray that you would do your perfect will through these scriptures in our hearts.

That you would accomplish what you desire in each one of us, that you would shape us and mold us, that you would convict us and encourage us, and that you would do whatever it is that we need to leave here being more like Jesus.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So, excuse me, I can't clear my throat this morning.

Before we jump in to today's verses, I think it's a good time for us to review why we teach the Bible the way that we teach the Bible here at Abide.

Why we go through whole books at a time and why we go verse by verse.

You know, Sunday mornings are about worshiping God together as a church body.

You know, and the time that we spend right here while we're going through our Bibles, it's time for us to become more like Jesus, just like I was praying.

And in this time on Sundays, it's the application of God's word that makes us more like Jesus.

So we really try to teach God's word in a way that you understand it for yourself.

And then you have the ability to apply it for yourself.

You know, and the hope is, you know, at least when I'm preparing a sermon or when I'm delivering a sermon here, is that you can sit here, that you can understand what the Bible's saying, and then apply it for yourself.

And then, after that, have the ability to turn around and have the understanding to teach this passage to maybe somebody in a Bible study this week or sitting at a coffee shop or whatever it might be.

You know, that's why you so often hear me say how much I love to see people highlighting and underlining and writing in the margins of their Bible and taking notes.

You know, that tells me that you're trying to grasp and remember these scriptures so that hopefully you can better understand them for yourself.

You know, and then first apply self-application and then have enough understanding to teach somebody else so that they can then apply it to themselves as well.

You know, we're not here to gather fun historical facts, and we're not here to say, oh, that was interesting.

I hadn't heard that before.

You know, this time is set aside for God to carve on us, to fashion us so that we can become more like Jesus.

And hopefully we can then help others become more like Jesus as well as we understand it and apply it to ourselves and then help others to do the same.

Okay, so that's why we teach the way we do, and that's going to come into play at the end of this message.

But first, let's talk about this week's verses specifically.

We've seen in the last few weeks, here in chapter 7, that Jesus is in Jerusalem and he's there for the festival of shelters, or the feast of tabernacles, you may have heard it referred to.

You know, the historian Josephus wrote, so this is just from his perspective, that this was the greatest of feasts that Israel celebrated all year long within their religious year.

You know, what it's one of the three feasts we've talked about in Israel, where all able-bodied men and most of their family would come to Jerusalem, they would live in these temporary shelters made out of branches, and they basically camped for a week.

So we have these huge crowds of people that invade Jerusalem, and everybody's camping.

You know, so it's it's a good time.

There's jubilation, there's celebration for all that God has done within their year of harvest, celebration for all that God did for Israel and their time in the wilderness.

Um, and so it's just this big camping party.

So, do you have that mental image?

Because mental image is going to be important here this morning of what's going on there in Jerusalem.

Now, all of this in chapter 6, uh chapter 7 is taking place about six months before Jesus is crucified, before his burial and his resurrection.

So about six months before then.

You know, we saw that Jesus came into Jerusalem quietly for this feast.

He came in without fanfare.

Because everybody is looking for him, and the religious leaders are trying to kill him.

You know, about midway through this feast, we see that Jesus stands up and he begins to speak publicly in the temple and starts to teach publicly.

And then the second half of this week that they're in, you know, there's all this discord about who he is.

There's all this discord about whether he's a messiah or the messiah or whether he's a demon.

And we pick up here this morning on the last day of this festival.

So look at verse 37 with me.

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out.

Now, before we go any further, there's debate about whether this is day seven or eight of this festival.

Because Leviticus 23, 35 says this.

It says, There is to be a sacred assembly, this is talking about the Feast of Tabernacles, on the first day.

You are not to do any daily work.

You are to present a food offering to the Lord for seven days.

On the eighth day, you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord.

It is a solemn assembly.

You are not to do any daily work.

So there is the first seven days that we see, which is considered the feast.

But the eighth day is actually a sacred assembly, a holy convocation.

Which is why sometimes you'll see the feast referred to as seven days, and sometimes you'll see it as eight days.

You know, sometimes that eighth day is lumped in as a part of that feast, the closing of that feast.

So when John says the last and most important day of the festival, is it day seven or is it day eight that he's talking about?

It really doesn't matter in the end.

It doesn't change the way that we understand this, but we don't know for sure if this is day seven or day eight.

But, okay, now hang in there with me.

I told you this was going to get a little bit technical.

Um, but this really plays a part into how we understand what Jesus is saying and what he's doing in this passage.

So the Jews had added a ritual to this feast, to the Feast of Tabernacles, that was not handed down by God in the law and is neither good nor bad.

It's just an extra thing that they added over the years.

And we don't know a ton about this ritual because it's not laid out for us in the first five books of the Bible.

So we have to look at some extra biblical history, some history of what they would do during this festival with this added ritual.

So this added ritual would take place every morning of the feast, where the priest would bring forth a golden vessel.

There would be this procession from the temple to the pool of Soloam.

The vessel, this golden vessel would be filled with water, and then it would be brought back to the temple with jubilation.

And it would be poured out either on the altar or in the basin there that's in the temple.

You know, it said that the words of Isaiah 12, 3 would be sung during this time, which says, You will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation.

It said that they would sing parts of Psalm 113 and 118 as an act of praising God for his provision, which is what the feast was all about, right?

Praising God for his past provision and then praising God for his current provision as well.

This happened right at the end of their harvest season.

So, you all hanging in there with me?

Kind of understanding what's going on?

Okay.

So this added ritual is going on, we know, on every day of the first seven days of the feast.

But on the eighth day, the sacred assembly, there is debate over what would happen on this eighth day.

One camp claims that they did one, they did this all one more time, going down with the vessel, coming back, pouring out the water, the whole procession.

The other camp claims instead of this ritual, they instead prayed for water.

For future water, for God's future provision for them.

And since this is extra biblical history, we don't know for sure if this is day seven or if this is day eight, and whether they just poured out water or whether they're praying for water.

But either way, this is all about water, and it's all about God's provision.

Can you see that?

You got the mental picture here of what's going on.

Huge crowds in Jerusalem.

You know, this day seven or day eight of this feast, it's all about water and praying for water.

Now let's look at verse 37 as a whole now.

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

The one who believes in me, as the scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.

See how that all comes into play now?

You see what Jesus is doing here?

He's saying, all of this that you're doing through this festival, it's all pointing to me.

And the word drink here, it's used in this, when it's used in this form, it means to continually drink into the soul what serves to refresh, strengthen, nourish it unto life eternal.

So when you see this word drink, think a continual spiritual refreshing.

By Jesus declaring this at this moment in the feast, he's claiming that he is the fulfillment of this feast.

He is the fulfillment of what they have been praying for.

He's the Messiah, the provision they are celebrating and looking forward to.

He's saying, I'm here.

Everything that you're doing, I'm here, you guys.

And he does this in front of this huge crowd that's already in this mode of celebration all week long.

You know, this is the last day of the last feast of the religious year.

And it's the last day of the last feast before Jesus' triumphal entry, six months later, into Jerusalem.

And he, I think what he's doing is he just wants all to have the chance to believe in him.

You know, he had tried to keep a low profile in Judea to this point, but he just blew the doors wide open on this thing.

You know, he's used words like this, as we've seen as we've gone through John privately, but now he's shouting it out.

You know, in 4.14 of John, he said, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.

In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.

And we saw Jesus say similar things to Nicodemus.

He said, Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

And we've already talked a lot about over the last few weeks, you know, this feast is a celebration of God's provision.

But specifically remembered here is God's provision for Israel during their 40 years in the desert, where God provided for their thirst water from a rock.

Now Jesus is saying, I'm the rock from which the water comes.

You know, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10 4, he says, and all were baptized into Moses, into the cloud and in the sea.

They all ate the same spiritual food, and they all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

You know, and John explains this for us.

Look at verse 39, what's going on here.

He said this about the Spirit.

Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

You know, as we saw in chapter 6, Jesus is the bread of life.

He's our spiritual sustenance that we talked about for eternal life.

And now we see how the Holy Spirit is the water that Jesus gives.

That will not only satisfy our thirst, but will be streams of living water within us.

You know, I think the word within here is the key.

Both in 414 and verse 38 here, Jesus talks about the Spirit being within.

And John adds some commentary here.

You notice that?

Because he wrote this book well after these events took place.

When he was able to see all of this come to fruition and be able to look back on all of this and how it played together.

So now he can add this explanation for us to read here today.

You know, at the time, who knows what he was thinking or if he fully understood this or not.

He may not have known what was happening when Jesus stood up and said this.

But he got to witness firsthand the fulfillment of this.

When the followers of Jesus received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Fifty days after Jesus' resurrection, ten days after Jesus' ascension.

Now look at um, I'll put it up behind me, Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 4.

Acts 2:1–4

It says, When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.

Suddenly a sound like that, a violent rushing wind, came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.

They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them.

Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

This is what Jesus is talking about to this crowd in Jerusalem on the last day of this feast.

The coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell within anyone that believes in him.

Jesus says, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

This is an open invitation to anyone for all time to come to him, the bread of life, and receive the Holy Spirit inside of them, the living water within them.

All the spiritual sustenance we could ever need.

It all starts with Jesus.

The bread of life providing the living water.

But go back to that word drink.

You know, the definition says to receive into the soul what serves to refresh, strengthen, nourish it unto life eternal.

You know, remember how we talked about this being a continual drinking, the way that this word is used right here?

You see, when we start to follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within us.

But Paul tells us in Galatians that if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

We can have the Holy Spirit inside of us as believers in Christ and still ignore him.

We can be saved, but not exude the fruits of the Spirit as we should be.

Walking by the Spirit, it's this continual yielding of our Spirit to the Holy Spirit, allowing him to live through us and be that stream of living water within us.

You know, here's an example.

So have you ever sat with God in prayer, in his word, you know, maybe at church, you know, just being with him and just yielding yourself to him.

And you experience a peace and a calm and a joy that can only come from God.

And then you go outside, and you sit in traffic, or you have to put up with a boss that you really don't like.

Or then, you know, you turn on the news, maybe.

And that peace and that calm and that joy that only God can give, you just kind of feel it just fading off and fading away.

There's a continual yielding and drinking that needs to take place for every follower of Jesus Christ.

For that refreshing and that strength and that nourishment that we need, as that definition said, unto life eternal.

That we need not only when we're sitting with the Lord, but that we need to yield to while we're in that traffic, while we're at that job, while we're watching that program, whatever it might be.

You know, Psalm 42, verses 1 and 2, it says, as a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you, God.

Psalms 42:1

I thirst for God, the living God.

When can I come and appear before God?

You know, we have to continually choose to drink from Jesus of the Holy Spirit.

If we don't, we're gonna try to quench that thirst that we have with everything else in the world, with things and with substance and with relationships, with power, with money, whatever it might be.

And those things are never going to satisfy us.

We're gonna find that they instead actually lead to the opposite of drinking of the Holy Spirit.

You know, it leads to pursuing those things of the world, trying to quench that thirst with anything else that's not Jesus.

It leads to exhaustion, it leads to frustration, it leads to a lack of purpose, you know, never finding lasting satisfaction in anything.

What it leads to is emptiness.

You know, we could have everything that the world has to offer and still have a huge void and dissatisfaction in our life.

Only Jesus can fill and satisfy that void.

So he stands up at this feast and he shouts, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

The one who believes in me, as the scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.

The Holy Spirit inside of us, living water filling and flowing from the deepest places within us.

That's what Jesus is doing here at this feast.

You know, and John notes here that the Holy Spirit dwelling within believers was not yet the case when Jesus said this in verse 39.

Because he says the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

He had not yet resurrected into his glorified state.

Jesus had not yet made his followers righteous in the sight of God, he had not yet cleansed us with his blood to forgive.

Forgive us of our sin.

He had not yet prepared us to be the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit could dwell.

Those things had to be done before the Holy Spirit could dwell within us.

And those things had not yet been done.

Now in verse 40, we'll see how these words of Jesus divide this crowd.

Maybe I should say continue to divide this crowd.

Look at verse 40.

When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, This truly is the prophet.

So notice it doesn't say a prophet, it says the prophet.

So they're waiting for somebody.

Maybe it's the prophet that Moses talked about in Deuteronomy 18.

They could be referring to the predecessor of the Messiah that's seen in the Old Testament.

We now know that that was John.

They didn't probably back then.

We don't know for sure, but they were waiting for a prophet.

So they're saying, maybe this is the prophet.

In verse 41, it says, Others said, This is the Messiah.

So just outright, this is him.

This is who we've been waiting for.

But the second half of verse 41 says, But some said, Surely the Messiah doesn't come from Galilee, does he?

Doesn't the scripture say that the Messiah comes from David's offspring and from the town of Bethlehem where David lived?

So these dissenters in this crowd are referring to Micah chapter 5, verse 2 here.

Micah 5:2

His origin is from antiquity from ancient times.

So what this crowd doesn't realize is that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but he was raised in Nazareth.

And you can see Bethlehem is kind of by Jerusalem.

It's way down here.

Nazareth is way up here in Galilee.

So they're expecting the Messiah from here, but they know that Jesus is from up here, not realizing that he was born here but grew up in the northern region of Israel.

But their prejudice against Nazareth and Galilee, you know, the northern region, is keeping them from seeing that Jesus is the Messiah.

You know, and I often wonder, like, why didn't they just ask him?

Why didn't they just say, hey, where were you born?

I sure don't think that Jesus would have withheld that information from them, but this particular division, notice, is not based on something Jesus said or taught or did.

It's based on a wrong assumption that they made.

You know, something that they don't have all the information for.

So this division arises where a simple question could have put this to bed.

And I think we can learn from this.

You know, if there's a division, especially within the body of Christ, make sure you have all the information.

Ask questions as needed before you, you know, act on something that you don't have all the information for.

Look at verse 43.

So the crowd was divided because of him.

Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

You know, as Ben mentioned last week, God was not going to allow anyone to move his timeline along faster than he wanted it to.

Until it was time for Jesus to be crucified and resurrected into his glory.

God wasn't going to allow anybody to do that prematurely.

So again, it doesn't say how God does it, but they were not able to arrest Jesus because his time had not yet come.

Look at verse 45.

Then the servants came to the chief priests and Pharisees who asked them, Why didn't you bring him?

The servants answered, No man ever spoke like this.

So imagine in your mind these temple servants, and how many teachers they must have heard.

You know, the best teachers in all of Israel would come to the temple and teach.

And there's no doubt that these servants had heard all of these people teaching probably for years and years, and they say, no man ever spoke like this.

And who do they say it to?

The best teachers in Israel.

I'm sure there's probably just a little jealousy that popped up when they said this to the best teachers in Israel.

This is uncharted territory for everybody.

They don't know what to do with Jesus.

And these servants seem to be mesmerized by his words and found themselves unable to bring Jesus back with them to these religious leaders.

Look at verse 47.

Then the Pharisees responded to them, so to the servants.

What are the religious leaders saying?

You know?

The litmus test for us here today and for all of history should be what does Scripture say?

Not what do the religious leaders think, no matter who they are.

And I'm talking about present day, I'm talking about me up here as well.

We need to be in the word for ourselves.

We need to know the word for ourselves and how to apply it for ourselves.

And that doesn't mean that we can't learn from others, that we can't ask questions, that we can't look at what Bible scholars have to say about a certain issue, whatever that might be.

But our dependence needs to be upon the word that we look at for ourselves.

It shouldn't be on another human being.

We shouldn't look to another human being to tell us what we should be thinking.

You know, in verse 48 here, the servants to the religious leaders knew more than the leaders, didn't they?

The common folk knew more than the Bible scholars in this instance.

Say all of that, as I said at the very beginning, to encourage you to read your Bible and to understand it for yourself.

Now look at how the Pharisees see this crowd.

Verse 49.

But this crowd, which doesn't know the law, is accursed.

Knowing Scripture does not always mean proper application, does it?

Knowing Scripture doesn't mean that you automatically have the right heart, does it?

The believers in Jesus in this crowd appear to be the uneducated commoners.

But they have a spiritual discernment beyond the religious leaders that have memorized the law.

This is not an excuse to not study your Bibles, to not memorize Scripture.

You know, I'll just walk by the Spirit and hope for the best.

That is not what we're teaching up here.

This is simply a warning to not just believe somebody that knows Scripture better than you do.

You know, so often knowledge of Scripture with a lack of God's heart leads to legalism.

Just like we're seeing with the religious leaders right here.

You know, and that can lead to, well, my knowledge of scripture makes my discernment better than your discernment.

So you need to do what I say.

Which is the heart of what's happening with the religious leaders right here.

They're saying, you commoners don't know what you're talking about.

You need us.

But the commoners were right.

Warren Wearsby has this famous quote where he says, Truth without love is brutality.

And love without truth is hypocrisy.

Chew on that one for a little bit.

I'm gonna read it again.

Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.

These religious leaders were missing love for God, and they were missing love for people.

And they missed the purpose of why they were studying God's word in the first place.

That knowledge that they gained just puffed them up.

Look at verse 50.

Nicodemus, the one who came to him previously, and who was one of them, one of the religious leaders, said to them, we're just gonna stop right there.

In chapter 3, we saw Nicodemus.

You know, he came to Jesus and he said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.

And then he had this long conversation with Jesus, and we don't know what he's been up to, kind of in between these two instances here, but it seems he's definitely not against Jesus.

And at some point he will become a follower of Jesus.

But Nicodemus continues on verse 51, and he says, Our law doesn't judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he knows what he's doing, does it?

So this is his response to these religious leaders.

Nicodemus is a religious leader that is not overcome with pride.

You see that?

He's being very reasonable here.

His heart is soft, and he doesn't seem threatened by Jesus like the majority of these other religious leaders do.

Now the religious leaders are going to respond to Nicodemus.

Look at verse 52.

You aren't from Galilee too, are you?

They replied.

Investigate, and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.

So the rage of these leaders is really clouding their judgment.

It's already clouded, but even more.

Jonah, the prophet, is from Galilee, Gathephere.

Elijah, you know, most of his ministry took part in the northern part of Israel, and there's evidence that he was born in the region of Galilee as well.

There's good evidence that Nahum and Hosea and Elisha were all from northern Israel as well.

But in their rage, in their clouded judgment, they make a statement just like this: Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.

And they say this to Nicodemus, one of, if not the, most revered teachers in all of Israel.

And they tell him to search the scriptures to find out that they're actually wrong.

And it doesn't even matter because Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the first place.

So, again, why didn't they just ask Jesus where he was from?

But anyway, verse 53.

Then each one went to his own house.

And we're going to get into verse 53 and then the first 11 verses of chapter 8 next week.

We're going to talk about the different manuscripts and how all of that works and how we should uh should look at it, but that's for next week.

But today, what is our takeaway?

How are we going to allow this to affect us and change us?

How are we going to apply this to our own lives, our own understanding?

I think the first thing, know the word.

And know it for yourself.

And allow it to shape you so that you can become more like Jesus.

So that you can understand it in a way which you can then help others to understand it and apply it as well.

I think the second thing that is our takeaway is drink of the living water often.

For refreshing, for strengthening, for nourishment, for our daily walk.

So that we can, number three, walk by the Spirit, yielding to Him at all times and allowing Him to flow through us.

Where the fruits of the Spirit become what we're known for as followers of Jesus Christ, as we become more like Him.

The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

As followers of Jesus Christ, with the Spirit within us, this should be what we're known for.

When people think about us, or somebody says, What's that person like?

These are the things that should be coming out of their mouth.

You know, those, the fruits of the Spirit are a result of drinking of the living water.

And drinking of the living water is a result of believing in Jesus.

That he is the savior of the world.

That he died and was buried and was resurrected for our sins and to bring us into relationship with the Father.

See how it all goes back to Jesus.

Being that rock that we then drink from.

Would you please pray with me?

Lord, we are so thankful for the gift of Jesus.

That he is the bread of life, that he is the spiritual sustenance that we need, Lord, to exist spiritually and eternally with you.

And we thank you so much that he is that spiritual rock that we get to drink from.

And that drink being the Holy Spirit that quenches the deepest parts of our soul, of our life.

Lord, every single void that we have, that we've tried in the past to fill with other things.

That even now, following Jesus, we still try to fill with other things only to be left empty and struggling.

So, Lord, I pray that we would yield every part of our life, the deepest places, the darkest corners of our life, that we would yield those places to you, that we would submit those things to you, whatever they might be, and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and to flow within us in those deepest places.

Lord, show us how we need to yield to you right now and in the next moment and in the next moment.

And then tomorrow, and then next week, Lord.

Show us how to yield and how to walk by your Holy Spirit.

Lord, we thank you that you've given us provision for salvation and then to walk in that salvation.

So would you teach us how to do that more?

Would you teach us how to know the word and apply it for ourselves?

Lord, and would you just continue to help us in this process?

We're weak, we're gonna fail, we're gonna continue to try and fill those voids with other things, Lord, as we sin.

But we thank you that through the cleansing blood of Jesus, that our sins can be forgiven and that you don't give up on us.

Lord, we thank you so much for all that you are and all that you provide for each one of us, and that you love us so deeply that you call us your sons and your daughters.

Lord, and I pray that we would gladly call you Father.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.