God's Will (John 7:1-24)

So, like I said, we're in the Gospel of John, chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

We're going to be starting chapter 7 today.

If you need a Bible, please raise your hand.

We would love to bring one to you so you can follow along with as we go verse by verse and uh chapter by chapter through the Gospel of John together.

And today we're picking up uh we finished chapter 6 last week, and we have this long narrative today in our passage that takes place after many of Jesus' disciples left him after his uh teaching in the synagogue of Capernaum.

And that's where we ended last week, and then we're gonna start off right here in chapter 7, verse 1.

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

Chapter 7, verse 1.

After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since he did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him.

The Jewish festival of shelters was near.

So his brothers said to him, Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples can see your works that you are doing.

For no one does anything in secret while he's seeking public recognition.

If you do these things, show yourself to the world, for not even his brothers believed in him.

Jesus told them, My time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand.

The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me because I testify about it, that its works are evil.

Go up to the festival yourselves.

I'm not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.

After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee.

After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly, but secretly.

The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, Where is he?

And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds.

Some were saying, He's a good man.

Others were saying, No, on the contrary, he's deceiving the people.

Still nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews.

When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.

Then the Jews were amazed and said, How is this man so learned since he hasn't been trained?

Jesus answered them, My teaching isn't mine, but is from the one who sent me.

If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.

The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Didn't Moses give you the law?

Yet none of you keeps the law.

Why are you trying to kill me?

You have a demon, the crowd responded.

Who's trying to kill you?

I performed one work and you are all amazed, Jesus answered.

This is why Moses has given you circumcision.

Not that it comes from Moses, but from the fathers.

And you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.

If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses won't be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath?

Stop judging according to the outward appearances.

Rather, judge according to righteous judgment.

Let's pray.

Lord, as we do every week and we will continue to do, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for all that you have for us here today in this passage.

I pray, God, that you would fill each one of us with your Holy Spirit to teach us here this morning and to use your word to carve on us.

Lord, to shape us more and more into your image.

So I pray that we would come before you with willing and humble hearts and we would allow you to accomplish exactly what you want to do here today inside of each one of us.

So Lord, would you challenge us?

Would you encourage us?

Would you convict us with your word here this morning and accomplish your perfect will, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So today's passage is going to lead us from Galilee to Judea, from the north to the south part of Israel.

We have a map here just to kind of show you what's going on.

Jesus, we last saw him in Capernaum in the synagogue, but now we're going to see him traveling all the way down to the southern region of Israel and particularly right here to Jerusalem, where the temple is.

Also in chapter 7, we're going to see Jesus begin to say that his time has not yet arrived.

Or the language will say, his hour has not yet come.

Referring to the hour of his death, resurrection, and his ascension when he would be glorified and go up to sit at the right hand of the Father.

So at this point, Jesus is about six months away from his crucifixion.

So we'll see Jesus in the verses and chapters to come leading up to the cross.

He'll either be very careful not to put himself in a situation where he can be killed by these Jewish leaders, or we're going to see God supernaturally protect him in ways that it's not really described, but where they'll we'll see, like they'll pick up rocks and then Jesus kind of disappears from them and they're not able to enact what they're hoping to do.

We're going to see this in verse 30 of this chapter where it says, Then they tried to seize him, yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.

So this chapter is the beginning of this language that we see here in John.

And then lastly, today in chapter 7, we're going to see Jesus draw a contrast between him and his ministry and the Jewish leaders and their ministry.

And that'll kind of be the second half of what we're looking at here today.

He's going to contrast his personal actions, his motives, and the fruit of his ministry from those of the Jewish leaders.

And we're going to see Jesus really brush up against the Jewish leaders at this festival.

And he's going to point out their hypocrisy, and he's going to point that out in public to everybody that's willing to listen.

And we're going to see at the end of today that these Jewish leaders had put themselves in a place of judges for God that ultimately leads to them judging God.

Scary stuff when you think about it.

So let's jump in chapter 7, verse 1.

After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee since he did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill him.

But the temperature is rising in the southern region, especially around Jerusalem, with these Jewish leaders that not only want to persecute him, but now they want to kill him.

Jesus knows it's not his time just yet.

So he's spending some more time up in Galilee, away from Jerusalem.

And Jesus knew that he was going to die.

But it was going to be on his terms, and it was going to be in God's timing, not the Jewish leaders.

Look at verse 2.

The Jewish festival of shelters was near.

So you may have heard of this as the Feast of Tabernacles, is another way that it's referred to.

And this is a feast that was ordained by God for the Israelites, where they would make these temporary shelters out of branches, and then they would basically camp for eight days in and around Jerusalem.

You know, it started on a Sabbath, it always started on a Sabbath.

It went through the week and then through the following Sabbath as well.

So it's this eight-day festival that took place at the end of September or sometime in October.

And it was a celebration of two things.

The first being it was the end of harvest for them.

So they were celebrating God's provision from that year.

And it was also a time of remembrance of Israel's time in the wilderness, living in temporary structures as they traveled to the promised land and celebrating and remembering God's faithfulness.

This feast was to do that, to celebrate and remember God's faithfulness and provision to their ancestors in the wilderness.

So this was also one of the three feasts that required all able-bodied men to come to Jerusalem and to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to the temple specifically.

And they were often accompanied by their family whenever possible.

So all that to say, Jerusalem and the temple are bustling during this festival.

There's just people and crowds everywhere.

There's these structures, you know, all within Jerusalem and outside of Jerusalem as well.

So it is just a chaos of crowds, really, at this time.

And we'll get into some more details of this festival as we get deeper into this chapter.

But first I want to draw your attention to where we just came from in chapter 6.

You know, Jesus being the bread of life, Jesus being our provision and everything that we need for eternal life.

And now John takes us to the feast of shelters, which is a celebration of God's provision in remembrance of how God provided food and water to Israel in the wilderness.

And we're going to see later in this chapter, in verses 37 and 38, Jesus will bring up water.

Once again, he just talked about bread.

He's going to bring up water again, just like he did with Nicodemus, just like he did with the woman at the well.

So John is camping on this theme of provision as Jesus is telling them in every way that he can, the leaders and the crowds alike, over and over again, that all that they need is found in him.

And really, like at all the feasts, you know, this festival of shelters, it's pointing to Jesus.

And it has been for all of these years, which is going to come into play in this chapter.

So back to our narrative.

On comes Jesus' little brothers, his little half-brothers in verses 3 and 5.

Look at that with me.

So his brothers said to him, Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples can see your works that you are doing.

For no one does anything in secret while he's seeking public recognition.

If you do these things, show yourself to the world.

For not even his brothers believed in him.

You know, I can imagine it would be hard to grow up in Jesus' shadow, wouldn't it?

And I can imagine how hard that would be to have a perfect sibling.

You know.

It doesn't seem like they're thrilled here that their brother is claiming to be God, does it?

So they challenge him, really.

Which is interesting because Jesus, when you think about this, he has never wronged them.

You know, did any of you grow up with a perfect older sibling?

Don't all raise your hands at once.

Jesus never told them that they were a dork.

He never forced them to smell his feet.

You know, things like that.

My older brother used to pin me on the ground, and he would let spit come out of his mouth.

And right before it hit my face, he would suck it right back in.

Jesus never did anything like that.

These guys were the only siblings in history that had a perfect older brother.

And it doesn't look like they appreciated it much right here.

And you know, we don't know a ton about Jesus' brothers and his sisters, but we do see that they changed their tune in Acts chapter 1, verses 14.

Acts 1:14

As they see them, as we're gonna uh as you see them in Acts, they're gonna be praying with the church as they waited for the Holy Spirit to come.

So something changed in those siblings.

And we see that his brother James would actually become a pillar in the church in Jerusalem as well.

But right now, it looks like they're still very highly skeptical of their older brother at this point.

So Jesus responds to his brothers.

Look at verse 6.

Jesus told them, My time has not yet arrived.

You know, this word time here, it's translated in a couple different ways, but it's translated as season, opportunity, and due time.

So his time to be made known, his time to be arrested and crucified has not come yet.

Again, you know, Jesus was on God's timeline.

So he wasn't going to say or do anything that would prematurely speed up that timeline.

Jesus goes on at the end of verse 6.

He says, But your time is always at hand.

The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me because I testify about it that its works are evil.

Why does the world hate Jesus?

It's because he doesn't tolerate and accept their sin.

Then and now today as well.

He loves the world so much that he won't tolerate their sin.

He won't tolerate them being separated from God for all of eternity.

So Jesus speaks the truth in love and they hate him for it.

You know, the world hates those that are counter to popular opinion, don't they?

Jesus was counter to popular opinion.

But his brothers were not, apparently.

And look at what they're doing.

They were depending on the world's acceptance of Jesus as a litmus test of if he was the Messiah.

Instead of holding him up to Scripture, they held him up to popular opinion instead.

And that never leads to truth.

I've never seen that lead to truth before.

Because popular opinion will always hate Jesus and will always hate Jesus' teachings.

You know, if you don't believe me, just turn on the news.

And then shut it off and read your Bible.

So that you can discern the truth on your own, the truth of God's word from public opinion.

Because those two things are never going to match.

You know, love and uncompromising truth is what Jesus is all about.

And what we keep seeing over and over as we study this gospel, and that's what he's called us to be about as well.

Love and uncompromising truth.

Jesus goes on to answer his brothers further in verse 8.

He says, Go up to the festival yourselves.

I'm not going up to this festival because my time has not yet fully come.

Jesus is going to the festival, but not with a great fanfare and not with a big group of followers.

You know, think about it.

If he came in publicly with his disciples and with all these people that are following him, this could lead to the triumphal entry six months before God wanted it to happen.

You know, obviously God would have stopped that, but Jesus is doing his part to not rush the timeline that God has him on.

And as we learn in verse 11, the Jewish leaders were already looking for him at the festival.

Now, the other thing that we see here in verse 10, it begs the question, did Jesus lie to his disciples?

You know, verse 10, because he does end up going to the festival.

Well, we know that Jesus can't lie, so what's going on here?

Well, other manuscripts have the word yet in them.

And most translations have a note about that.

If you looked at your Bibles right now, it'll probably have a note.

The New King James actually puts that in and says, I am not yet going up to this feast.

And that is what is implied in our text.

Not that he wasn't going, but that he wasn't going with them and he wasn't going publicly.

He's going to hang back a little bit.

He's going to travel by himself.

And the Bible tells us that Jesus was of no form or comeliness.

You know, he could walk by himself to Jerusalem, and nobody would really notice because he looks like just this normal-looking Jewish man that everybody's talking about, but you couldn't decipher him by his looks.

The narrative continues in verse 9.

It says, After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee.

After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but secretly.

Now, before we read these next verses, remember John refers to Jewish leaders as the Jews, and he refers to everybody else as the crowd.

Okay, because that can be a little bit confusing as we're looking at who is this, but the Jews equal Jewish leaders, and then the crowd is pretty much everybody else.

So look at verse 11 with me.

The Jews, so the leaders, were looking for him at the festival and saying, Where is he?

And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds, so everybody else.

Some were saying he's a good man.

Others were saying, no.

On the contrary, he's deceiving the people.

So the Google reviews on Jesus were mixed, weren't they?

They were either five stars or they were one star.

And it doesn't seem like there was much in between.

You know, he's either this good, godly man, or he's Satan himself in the eyes of this crowd.

And regardless, they wanted to see him, regardless of what their thoughts.

They wanted to see what he does.

They want to see what happens next, because this is the biggest news story in Israel at the time.

You know, they're almost like paparazzi, it seems like.

You know, good or bad, they wanted the scoop.

They wanted the latest.

They wanted to see what was gonna happen next.

So everyone's asking, have you seen him?

Have you seen him?

I haven't seen him.

Is he here?

And there seems to be one of two things that the majority of uh these crowds continue to do.

They either grumble or they murmur.

Have you noticed that as we've been going through the Gospel of John?

The same thing that their ancestors did in the wilderness when they decided that God's provision was not enough.

Or that God's provision was not what they wanted.

You know, I know I'm guilty of this.

How about you guys?

You know, we cannot roll our eyes at these crowds like there's some dense group of people that we can't relate to.

We do it.

And I think we actually do it worse because we actually have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.

You know, I think if anything that makes us more guilty, you know, we have these attitudes of, oh, you know, if I could only have a little more provision in my life.

Or if my provision was a little different than what God is giving me right now.

And I want to tell you this: if you're a follower of Christ, he's giving you everything that you need in this moment to do what he's called you to do.

And I think the sooner we figure that out and stop complaining, the better off we're going to be as followers of Jesus Christ.

And that doesn't mean that we're never gonna be in need, that we're never gonna need help from somebody else.

That's not what I'm saying.

But we need to be satisfied with the provision that God's given us because he's gonna give us enough to do what he's called us to do.

Look at verse 13.

Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews, the Jewish leaders.

They were afraid of the Jewish leaders.

So the crowds, the everyday Jewish people, are afraid of their leaders.

They're afraid of saying something that'll get them kicked out of the synagogue or make them outcasts of society, which these Jewish leaders had the ability to do.

So they talk about Jesus in hushed whispers.

Have you seen him?

Or what do you think about him?

Well, I think he's this.

Well, I think he's a you know, here comes the Jewish leaders, you know, close your mouth, don't say anything.

Look at verse 14.

When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.

So in God's timing, in God's place, Jesus began to speak, as we'll see, and he begins to speak with boldness.

You know, he may not have entered the city with fanfare, but when it was time, he starts to do what God tells him to do.

Verse 15.

Then the Jews were amazed and said, How is this man so learned since he hasn't been trained?

You know, Jesus didn't come up like these other rabbites.

Rabbis did through the traditional ranks and following another rabbi for all of those years to learn from them.

You know, surely he was qualified, but he didn't.

And they're amazed.

And notice what they do.

They can't poke holes in his teaching.

So they try to poke holes in his training.

But regardless, Jesus starts to teach and they're like, this guy's good.

How did he become so good without us?

Is really, I think, what it comes down to.

If you remember in Acts 4.13, something similar happens to his disciples.

When they observed the boldness of Peter, it says, and John, and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.

These leaders get baffled when somebody speaks intelligently about God without them coming up through their ranks.

And this is when Jesus, in verse 16 here, this is when Jesus starts to compare and contrast his ministry, his motives, his actions, his fruit, and he starts to compare all those things with the Pharisees.

Look at verse 16.

Jesus answered them, My teaching isn't mine, but is from the one who sent me.

You know, this would definitely ruffle some feathers, wouldn't it?

You know, their feathers are already ruffled.

You know, he's claiming to be sent from God.

He's bypassed their rabbinical system that they had put in place, and now he's claiming that his words are coming directly from God.

So, question for you.

Is he trying to turn the temperature down and compromise the truth for the sake of peace here?

It sure doesn't look like it, does it?

He just keeps going.

Look at verse 17.

If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.

The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

You know, things are escalating, and now Jesus points to motivation here.

You know, whose will and whose glory he is seeking versus whose will and glory they are seeking.

And we're going to start to keep this chart up here.

Um I think we should be on three, just so we can have this running list of comparing and contrasting.

Uh, there we go.

So he tells these Jewish leaders that if they truly wanted to do God's will and bring him glory, you know, if that was their main motivation in ministry, that they would be able to discern that his teaching is from God.

You know, notice he points to motivation here.

He doesn't point to, you know, if you studied more, if you understood Scripture more, if you sacrificed more, if you served more, if you did these things, then you would understand my teaching and where it's from.

No, he simply says, if you wanted to do God's will, you know, he really goes down and he gets to the root of this problem that they didn't even want to do God's will.

As they were posing to be men that did God's will more than anybody else in this country.

They were so concerned with position, they were so concerned with the appearance of doing God's will that they lost focus of actually doing God's will, of actually wanting to do God's will.

You know, these are some huge accusations that Jesus is bringing.

And the Jewish leaders are not used to being talked to like this.

You know, I think in my head I picture them just red in the face at this moment of how dare you talk to us that way.

And then Jesus takes it one step further in verse 18 and says that there is no unrighteousness in him.

And that they should recognize that because he's not seeking his own glory, but he's seeking God's glory, unlike them.

Remember, everyone else is speaking in hushed tones right now, right?

So the leaders here, I think they're just red in the face.

They have to be angry because everybody's speaking in hushed tones, but Jesus refuses.

He's saying this in front of everybody.

Look at verse 19.

Didn't Moses give you the law?

Yet none of you keeps the law.

Why are you trying to kill me?

He just told the Jewish leaders that none of them keep the law.

Right after he tells them that there is no unrighteousness in him.

You know, these guys that have devoted themselves to the study of the law, to the teaching of the law, to obedience to the law.

And they've worn this mask of doing this in excellence.

That's what the masses believe, that these Jewish leaders have done this in excellence.

And Jesus tells them, none of you keeps the law.

You know, in this particular instance, God says, you know, do not murder, and they're trying to kill him.

He's pointing out their hypocrisy, and he calls them hypocrites in public with boldness in front of these crowds.

And then he asks, you know, why are you trying to kill me?

So the Jewish leaders were plotting to kill him.

We learned that in chapter 5, verse 18.

This was after he healed the man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, and then he told the guy to pick up his mat and walk.

So he healed this man, and the leaders accused Jesus of doing work and commanding work to pick up the bed and walk.

And they completely missed what happened.

They completely missed what Jesus did, the sign of healing this man.

So Jesus is helping draw the conclusion that the unrighteous are trying to kill the only one that is righteous.

But it seems at this point the crowds didn't know that the leaders were trying to kill him, right?

They were shocked.

So they say in verse 20, You have a demon, the crowd responded.

Who's trying to kill you?

You know, when these crowds see the supernatural, I think in their mind it's either the Messiah or it's a demon.

You know, like we said, it's either five stars or it's one star.

They don't know what the Jewish leaders are plotting, so they do the reasonable thing and they accuse Jesus of having a demon.

But Jesus doesn't answer the crowd.

Notice, he just keeps talking to these Jewish leaders.

Look at verse 21.

I performed one work, that's the healing at the pool, and you are all amazed, Jesus answered.

Verse 22, this is why Moses has given you circumcision.

Not that it comes from Moses, but from the fathers, think Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.

If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses won't be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath?

So you read this and you say, How on earth did this conversation take a left turn into circumcision?

Right?

I mean, it's like that seems a little bit out of left field.

In our house we call that conversational whiplash.

You know, where somebody's talking about something and all of a sudden somebody brings up something else and it completely goes in a direct a different direction.

But this is all going to point right back to the leader's hypocrisy.

You see, these Jewish leaders had to make a choice.

If a male child's circumcision day landed on the Sabbath, circumcision was ordained by God to take place on the eighth day from the birth of a male child.

God gave this command to Abraham, and it predated the law of Moses.

God also ordained for them to observe the Sabbath and to not do any work as part of the Mosaic law.

So what happens when the eighth day from birth landed on the Sabbath?

What were they going to do with that?

Which command of God were they going to choose to keep, and which command of God were they going to choose to break?

So they had to decide which law do we break?

So they decided to circumcise on the Sabbath.

And we need to understand that God didn't corner Israel into a place where disobedience was required.

They chose to add requirements to the Sabbath that God never intended, and they cornered themselves in doing this.

Which should have been an indication that something was wrong when they took two commands of God and then had to decide which one they were going to follow.

You know, God's heart, this whole time in the Sabbath, in the Sabbath, was for them to rest and not worry about working.

He didn't want them worrying about their own provision and food and money on the day that they were resting.

They wanted him, God wanted them to trust him for that provision that was going to take place by them working one less day a week.

So I want to ask you, was circumcision work that would give them personal gain and increase on the Sabbath?

No, right?

You see, God never intended for them to not circumcise on the Sabbath.

They're the ones that declared it work in the first place.

You see, Jesus uses their own wrong interpretation of the law to teach them this lesson.

So here's Jesus' argument.

If you circumcise on the Sabbath, why can't I heal a man on the Sabbath?

You know, healing was not for personal gain or provision either, was it?

Carrying your mat was not for personal gain or provision.

So Jesus is just pointing out their hypocrisy once again.

If they really wanted to do God's will, they would know this.

And they would know how to interpret the law as God intended them to interpret the law.

Look at verse 24.

So Jesus tells them, Stop judging according to outward appearance.

Rather, judge according to righteous judgment.

The judgment they are making on Jesus' healing on the Sabbath is based off of what they saw and how they have incorrectly interpreted the law of Moses.

You know, at their first glance, they saw it as wrong and they condemned Jesus.

He's telling them to look beneath the surface, to look at this really logically and without any preconceptions.

Their incorrect interpretation was not based on righteousness, but on trying to please God through works.

Trying to please God really through legalism.

And in doing that, they missed God entirely.

They were too caught up in their pride, which led them to judgment of others.

Which led them to judging the Messiah.

Because legalism always ends in judgment of others.

And in their case, judgment of Jesus.

Judgment of God Himself.

I was talking with one of you earlier in the week, and how we as Christians are not called to judge one another, but instead we're called to be fruit inspectors of one another.

You'll recognize them by their fruit.

Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

You know, if these religious leaders would have done this, they would know that Jesus is genuine.

They would have seen amazing fruit for God's kingdom as Jesus sought God's will and as he sought God's glory.

But they do the opposite.

Because, as we look a little deeper, they're actually the ones that Jesus is warning about.

Their fruit, if you look behind me, is the right column.

They let their pride make their decisions for them as they sought their own glory.

Which led to them placing themselves in God's seat as judge.

You know, we need to look at these columns, I think, that are behind me, and really evaluate ourselves here this morning.

You know, look at the left column.

Where's Jesus' focus?

It's on God.

It's on God's will.

It's on God's glory.

It's on righteousness.

Now notice the right column.

Where's the religious leader's focus?

It's on self, right?

It's on their own will, on their own glory.

It's on their own self-perceived righteousness.

You know, following Jesus is about becoming like him.

Him being our rabbi and us being his disciples.

And if Jesus, you know, God the Son, if his focus was on God and not on self, that needs to be our focus as well.

Following Jesus is about taking the focus off of ourself and dying to self.

You know, something that these religious leaders were not willing to do and were not doing.

Jesus says in Mark 8, verse 34, calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Mark 8:34

You know, the answer to denying self and following Jesus is to stop focusing on self, to stop focusing on self-glory, on self-will, on self-comfort, self-love, self-promotion, just all of those things.

And to focus on God's glory.

God's will.

God's love.

The promotion of God and God's kingdom.

What's the greatest commandment?

Love God, love others, right?

What's missing in love God and love others?

Self.

You know, you've heard there's no I in team.

There's no I in love God and love others either.

The answer to so many problems we have is to get the focus off of ourself.

When we're loving God and loving others, when we're serving God and serving others, it's hard to have a pity party, isn't it?

It's hard to complain about provision when we're doing those things.

And it makes it really hard to judge others as well.

You know, so I just want to encourage each one of us to ask God to show us how to get the focus off of ourself in our daily lives and get it onto Him where it belongs.

Get it onto His kingdom.

Let's pray.

Lord, we're not good at this.

We're selfish.

We like comfort.

We like to think about ourselves.

We like to worry about our provision and all of those things.

So, Lord, I pray that you would help us, that you would show us how you want to crucify our flesh, the part of us that is not eternal.

Lord, would you show us how to say no to the desires of the flesh?

And to place our focus fully on you, honoring and glorifying you, but living according to your will that you have for each one of us.

Would you point out, would you give us a little nudge, a little tap on the shoulder when we're not doing this?

Lord, your spirit lives inside of us.

Your spirit convicts us.

So would you convict us, starting today, of just those things that we're doing for self, that we're doing for selfish reasons.

Not because we love you, not because we want to do your will, not because we want to glorify you, but because we feel like we need something.

We feel like we deserve something.

We feel like we have the right for something.

So, God, would you do that work in us?

Would you bring that conviction where we need it?

Would you show us how to love you better and more completely and how to love the people that are sitting around us right now better and more completely as we love you and as we love others?

Would you teach us how to do this in a way that glorifies you and honors you, Lord, in a way that doesn't bring us to judgment against people around us, but at the same time that we'd have a heightened sense of awareness, Lord, for the wolves in sheep clothing, for um the people that claim to follow you, but there is no fruit.

Lord, would you give us that wisdom and that uh discernment at the same time?

But help us to never put ourselves in in the place of judgment.

Lord, asking you to move out of your seat so that we can we can sit there and take over that position for you.

Show us how to balance that and to do that while we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.