Predict, Predict, Predict, Prepare

Good to have you here. If you haven't opened yet,

please grab your Bible, open up to the book of John.

We're going to be in chapter 12. I've got a feedback in my ear

there, Manuel. Thank you.

That's much better. I know sometimes it's the voices

in my head fought to tell these days.

I don't know if you know this, but you know, I said turn to

John, chapter 12. There weren't chapters in the in

John 12 · chapter mention

the Bible originally. They were only put in there in

12/27 ID which you didn't know that.

I'd like you to know that it was a guy named Stephen.

They put it in there. You're welcome.

He also seems to have come from the bluff because he didn't

think to put verses in. It took about 300 years before

they put verses in the Bible. Only around the 1500s that they

start indicating just theme changes through verses.

But what I want to get draw your attention to if you have one of

these old school hipster Bibles is take a look at the fact that

you also have headings in there. Now, none of this is holy, but

all of this is helpful. And the reason why I want to

turn your attention to the headings is because those

headings, apparently Martin Luther was the guy who used to

scratch in the side of his Bible some of the like, you know,

major thoughts of the the sections in the Bible.

But those, those are there because they help you see a bit

of an overview of what you're about to read or what you've

just read. You know, as you go through

John, as Matt has encouraged you to before you get into the

chapter, like chapter 12 says, Jesus anointed at Bethany.

It's not just so that you can find your place easily.

It's these Bible scholars that have kind of given you a bird's

eye view, and I want to use those headings to give you a

bird's eye view of what we are going to go through today.

I've actually taken photos of these portions in my Bible.

Literally, you can put up the first one.

So this is my first heading. Chapter 13, verse 18, Jesus

predicts his betrayal. And then the next one a little

further down in my Bible says Jesus predicts Peter's denial.

And then in John 12/20, it says Jesus predicts his death.

So this is great sort of milestones for us to see what

Jesus is about to encounter. But what I want to show you is

that he knew it was coming. He predicts his betrayal.

He predicts his denial by Peter, and then he predicts his death.

And that got me wondering. I wonder if he prepared for it

or if you just went headlong into it.

So we're going to look at this and how he prepared for it.

But first, I want to, I just want to add some weight to these

three sections, his betrayal, his denial, and his death.

Because I think sometimes we can become so familiar, just like

we've become familiar with baptisms.

We become familiar with these stories.

You know, you heard them from Sunday school.

And now we revisit it and it's like, yeah, blah, blah, blah,

Judas and what have you. So I want to add just a little

bit of weight to these things before we look at how Jesus

prepared to encounter his betrayal, his denial and his

death. So starting off, firstly, Jesus

predicting his betrayal. Now this is obviously the

betrayal of Judas right? Now, I want to show you a

picture. I'm sure you're very familiar

with this, unless you went to high school on the bluff and you

don't have a cultural bone in your body.

But this is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci of the Last

Supper. Now, there's a whole lot wrong

in there. It's daytime.

Those aren't look like Scandinavian elderly men.

But what I want to draw your attention to is the table,

right? That is historically incorrect

by many, many yards. And you lose a lot of what's

going on simply because of the table.

I want to show you actually, they would have been around a

triclinium. We've got a photo of a

triclinium and that's that's kind of, you know, an

archaeological dig of a triclinium.

Now, this is the way they used to do dinner.

So you would see in John 12, it actually says reclining at the

table was because they didn't sit there.

They used to lie at the table. And I think that's because, you

know, kept their feet as far away from the food as possible,

but they also used to lie on their side, not on their

stomachs. They used to lie on their left

side. And that the reason for that was

because back in those days, and it's the same, I believe today

in the ancient Near East, your right hand was for putting the

food in, your left hand was for taking the food out.

But the last thing that I want to show you is there was also

specific seating arrangements around this table.

And the reason why I raised that is because people have been

asking, I wonder if we would be able to figure out who said

where. And Jesus was betrayed.

And knowing this adds substantial weight to that

moment. So I just want to we're going to

geek out a little bit. I hope that's OK.

You know, I'm never one to shy away from rabbit holes, but this

was a fun one. So Matthew, Professor Matthew

Gray basically plotted where the the disciples were sitting.

Lily, you can pop up our very first slide.

So this is my little 2D rendering of that.

So on the next slide you'll see this is traditionally where the

host would sit. So the host always used to sit

there. It gave easy access in and out.

And then in the next slide it will show you that that

obviously is where Jesus is sitting.

And on the next one, something to keep in mind was the guest of

honor always used to sit next to the host.

So he looked at this and he said, OK, so if we know this is

where Jesus was sitting, how could we plot where everyone

else is sitting? Well, one easy 1 is where John

was sitting and can show you that.

So that's where John was sitting at the while reclining at the

table. And we know this because the the

Bible actually says in John 1325, when Jesus says I'm going

to be betrayed, says leaning back against Jesus, Jesus.

So he's on his left elbow and he's leaning back against Jesus.

So that's where John is sitting. And another one that we do know

well guesstimated best is Peter. Peter would be sitting over

here, reclining over here. And the reason why they said

that is because when Jesus says, you know, I'm going to be

betrayed, everyone's going like, is it me?

Is it me? And Peter's like looking across

at John OO who it is. And also when Jesus washes their

feet, apparently comes to the table and it says coming to

Peter. So they assume that Peter's

sitting there. Now this has got nothing to do

with the sermon, but it's a lovely rabbit hole.

That is the lowest seat to the table.

Remember when Jesus was saying, hey, listen, whatever you do, he

tells the parable, whatever you do and don't you know, think too

much of yourself and sit at at the head of the table or the

seat of honor. But just now you know, the host

comes along and says, sorry for you.

I know you thought you were going to sit to table number one

at the wedding, but actually you see the table just by the toilet

door. That's where you need to go.

And that seems to be what what Peter got.

And if you follow that rabbit hole, I really think Jesus was

preparing Peter for the the authority in the government and

just the life changing ramifications of his ministry.

And he was trying to teach him subconsciously the greatest

among us needs to be the servant of all.

And so he is actually sitting in the servant seat.

But I digress, let's get back to our rabbit hole.

So that leaves one last one that they kind of assume they know,

they figure us best guess where Judas was sitting.

And they look at the scripture and they look at John and they

see that Jesus was saying when when John leaned back against

him, Jesus basically referred to this guy that is breaking bread

with me and dipping his bread in the bowl with me, the one I'm

handing this dip bread to. And in the ancient Near East,

they used to share bread and bowl between two or three people

Max. So that leaves one seat for

Judas. This is where Judas was sitting.

Judas would have been seated the seat of honor.

And I'll show you that because this is the guy who is not just

a friend of Jesus, not just in the inner circle, but this is a

guy who has only ever been loved by Jesus and honored by Jesus.

This is the one that betrays him, that cuts, and it cuts

deep. This is the one who has only

ever been so honored by Jesus that when he says 1 of you is

going to betray me, they don't go like, yeah, Judas.

Yeah, Vomos. Yeah, It's like, typical.

Now you're going to betray him as well?

They had no clue because of how Jesus had treated him.

This is the one who had tasted for himself the water that Jesus

turned to wine. This is the one that was there

watch the bread and the fish be multiplied, multiplied as Jesus

fed the 5000. This is the guy with his very

two eyes saw Jesus walk on water, and last week was there

when Lazarus came back from the dead.

How do you prepare for that kind of betrayal from that person?

Do you have someone like that in your life that you've poured

absolutely everything into? How do you prepare for those

moments? So he knew it was coming.

He also knew his denial was coming.

To cut a Long story short, I'm sure you're very familiar with

it. Jesus gets arrested, and he's

not taken to be sentenced. And Peter follows and he's sort

of standing around by the fireplace and someone says, hey,

aren't you? Didn't I see you at 3 CR with

him? And no, no, no.

And he changed his fireplace and like, hey, I know you, you were

there when it's like, no, it wasn't me.

And hey, guys, I'm sure this is one of his disciples.

And he says in Matthew 26, he says then he began to call down

curses and swore to them, I don't know this man.

And he add a little bit of weight to what's going on here.

And when it says they called down curses, I think like a

typical South African, I think like, I swear, but I didn't do

that to your Bucky. I swear.

You know, it's like it's not what he's saying.

It's not like, believe me, it says he called down curses.

Now that is a transitive verb. And if you're paying attention

in high school, a verb is a doing word.

The transitive verb is when you do it to someone.

So essentially it should say he called down curses on Jesus.

Now that's that's shocking in and of itself, but we lose a lot

of that weight because we aren't part of an honor shame culture

like they were in the ancient Near East.

So I came face to face with honor shame culture a few years

ago. I was asked to baptize the young

girl. She had come from the Middle

East. She was an exchange student.

And while she was here she got radically saved and I had the

privilege of baptizing her the day before she flew out.

And we did it in her teachers pool of all places.

But it came with very strict rules and regulations.

You weren't allowed to take any photos, you weren't allowed to

post it on Instagram or anything like that.

When I asked her why she said because if my dad finds out

he'll kill me. And I thought it was just

hyperbole. But then I read a book written

by one of the Saudi Royals about the atrocities caused under this

religious regime. And time and time and time

again, the book mentions how a father would drown his own child

for bringing shame on the family.

And I realized that she was being serious on a shame

culture. Let that sink in.

A father drowning his own child because of shame.

Now, if you take those two and you put them together,

essentially what Peter is saying when he calls down curses on

Jesus, it's like he was saying given to me, I'll kill him

myself. I don't know that man.

Give them to me, I'll kill him myself.

How does anyone prepare for that?

You're closest and it always says Peter, James and John, the

very first mentioned disciple when it groups those together,

the inner circle, Peter, James and John, Richard Balkam says of

this. He says this account is one of

the most horrendous and egregious betrayals of

friendship, trust and loyalty that has ever been written.

And Jesus knew he saw it coming. How did he prepare for that?

And then the last one that he knew was coming was his death.

We're nearly through. OK, come to church, They said it

will be fun. They said it's the war.

I'll just say this, if you've seen the Passion of the Christ,

then you have an inkling of what Jesus went through.

But here's the crazy thing. He knew not just that he would

die, but he knew how he would die.

In John 12 it says, if I'll be lifted up, I'll draw all the men

unto me. And right after that it says he

said this to explain how he was going to die, which I think is

the reason why Jesus was sweating blood in the garden of

get 70. He knew what is was coming.

He had walked past men being crucified for years and this was

coming his way. How do you prepare for that?

Well, the best better question is I was like, why on earth

would you preach on this? You know, I'm wearing my Sunday

best. I made the effort to come in on

a long weekend to church and I'm just hearing about death, denial

and betrayal. Two reasons why this is so

important that we touch on it. Firstly, Jesus predicting his

betrayal and his denial and his death.

We find in these three the full weight of every trial and

suffering the human soul could ever endure.

Anything you might go through, He has experienced.

That's the first reason. The second reason why I felt to

deal with this, to lean in on this is because this portion of

Scripture closes where Jesus says, I've told you these

things. I've told you I'm going to be

betrayed and denied and put to death.

I've told you these things because in this world you will

have many troubles. Says I'm telling you this

because you also need to prepare.

You need to do like I'm doing and prepare for betrayal, denial

and death. And as my wife highlighted to me

this week, it doesn't say you might have some troubles, it

says you will have many troubles.

So how did Jesus prepare? Well, this might surprise you a

little bit. I want to show you one verse in

John 11. Verse 54 says the following says

therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly.

The back story to this is what we heard last week where Lazarus

was raised from the dead. The heading in my NRV Bible says

the plot to kill Jesus. So therefore Jesus no longer

moved about publicly among the people of Judea.

Instead, this is how he prepared for what is coming.

He withdrew to a region near the wilderness to a village called

Efrain, where he stayed with his disciples.

That's it. Now it's sort of hidden in plain

sight. If you've done like Matthew,

Matt has been encouraging us to and read through the book of

John, you might be able to join some dots when you see there

that Jesus again is withdrawing to the wilderness because right

at the very beginning you found before he even started his

ministry, Jesus withdrew for 40 days before even praying for a

single sick person before preaching a single word before

his ministry. He withdrew came back in the

power of the Holy Spirit after ministry of the days of

ministering in crowds and miracles and all the rest of it.

We see the Bible says early in the morning, Jesus withdrew to a

quiet place to pray at the heart of his ministry when the crowds

wanted to make him king, wanted to give him the corner office

when you know, with Gaza saying, listen, if we could bottle that

wine, you know, we could sell it on Timu.

And then it was demanding to make him the be all an end all

of all their passions and desires and he could we find it

says Jesus again withdrew before his ministry during ministry,

the heart of ministry and the depths of pain and grief when

when John the Baptist was beheaded, Jesus withdrew before

he chose his 12 disciples or some major decisions.

Jesus withdrew before he faced the toughest week of his life

and ultimately his death. Jesus withdrew, and when you see

that, you see there's this constant withdrawal and then

return, a retreating and a returning and a retreating.

And it's not a retreating out of like retreat, retreat.

The enemy is coming. It's a retreat to seek the face

of our heavenly Father, to root himself in his word and his

ways, to remind himself, as we've been doing in worship of

who this God is. You're a God who does great

things. And having retreated, then he

seems to return to the ring. And this retreat and this return

is so profoundly important for you and I, because just as he

said he's going to be betrayed and denied and be put to death,

he's also said that you and I will face many troubles.

And if we are not people who are retreating and returning and

retreating and returning, we're going to die in the ring.

So what does this look like? 3 very simple practical

applications of a life of retreat and return.

And I want to apply it to our heads, to our hearts, and to our

homes. So firstly I want to ask you the

question, is there a habit of retreat and return?

Is there a habit of getting into the Word of God, pressing into

His presence, putting a life before Him?

If not, I can tell you one of the first places that you're

going to be undermined by the enemy, and that is in your head.

I discovered recently that apparently we think 6200

thoughts a day. Now by thoughts, they define it

as a distinct shift in focus. Now we're a bright bunch, but

6200 shifts in focus in a day. But here's the crazy thing.

They say 80% of those shifts in focus our thoughts from our past

influencing our presence and changing our future. 80% is

literally on repeats like it was.

It's almost like a pre loaded scripts to come and undermine

everything that God is doing is like, yo-yo, yo, hey, I've got

this opportunity. Yeah, but you know, I don't

really deserve it. This thing just comes and washes

and undermines over and over and over again.

And without a retreat, we don't get the renewal of our minds,

you see, Because here's what's important, right?

Your thoughts forge your beliefs.

Your beliefs dictates your decisions, and your decisions

shape your actions. OK, so if your thoughts are left

unchecked because you're always in the ring, you're never

retreating. Your thoughts essentially are

shaping every decision that you make these thoughts on repeat.

And here's the crazy thing, the Bible says I will remember your

sins no more. Which means that we're living

remembering things that God doesn't remember.

We have been shaped by things that God has cleansed us from

and renewed us from. Which means what's so important

is we need our mind. We need the mind of Christ.

We need our minds to be renewed. And so one of the reasons why

you end up getting absolutely trashed in the ring is simply

because you're not retreating. You're not allowing the word of

God to come and renew your mind. And instead you carry those

things that happened in your teen years and the way you were

rejected by your primary school teacher and your father didn't

say, I love you enough. And those things never get dealt

with. And you take an absolute

hammering in the ring. And God will never entrust on

you something that is going to fall apart because of the

foundations, the cracks in your foundations.

And so you live like this anemic, empty life of dry bones,

as Matt was saying, simply because, well, you know, I'm not

really a reader, You know, I'm a guy.

I know the ladies like how they love highlighting their Bibles

and it's a cup of coffee and it's a lovely Instagram, but I'm

not really that person. But Jesus was.

What's your excuse? Yeah, I read this morning.

This is my retreat. You know, we, I'm sure you know

the Bible says in Romans chapter 3 that all have fallen short,

Romans 3 · chapter mention

all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Now when you're rehashing your past, that thing can come back

at you. You know, all have sinned and

fallen short of the glory of God.

You know, I'm going to be preaching.

I'm thinking like you're Lord my past.

If anyone knew, I sort of genuinely, I need to flee the

city kind of a thing. You know, we're we're well aware

of that. And then I read this morning in

Hebrews 12, it says, see to it that you don't fall short of the

grace of God. And it was like God came in

there and just said, Hey, my boy, just wake up.

Stop being so fixated on the things I've forgiven you of the

things I've delivered you from. You are actually in, in essence,

falling short of the grace of God.

The fact that I love you, that I pursue you, that I'll be there,

I'll help you preach this. And it requires a retreat.

And when you retreat and return. But because we burn ourselves

out here in our own strength, the enemy has an absolute field

there. And I want to add some weight to

that because the second thing is it's not our heads, it's our

hearts. When we were in the Middle East,

Auntie Kendall was preaching on the betrayal barrier.

I don't know if you've heard that sermon, but I had the

privilege of having lunch with him.

And I was asking him a little bit more about this betrayal

barrier because if you don't know RT Kendall, he's an

unbelievable Bible scholar and preacher and teacher.

And he has been in the ministry, I think almost 70 years.

And so we're talking about this betrayal barrier.

And he said something fascinating.

He says, you know, what he has found in ministry is that people

just like you and I, Jesus loving church, attending Bible

reading, Christians who face what Jesus faced, these

betrayals and denial and death. Those of us who face these kind

of things without a retreat and return pattern.

He said he is found in his ministry. 9 out of 10 people

that face that fall away from God, fall away from the faith.

Have you ever said, yeah, I won't go back to that church

because he says all it is is a sign of a lack of retreat and

return because in our retreating, we are preparing to

climb back into that ring to face that betrayal and the

denial and the death of Jesus face in our retreating.

We're getting to understand the heart of God like he had to redo

with me this morning. Get reminded that he's he's for

you. I know it doesn't look like

that. I know you've lost that big

clients, but the God is still in there.

He's still fighting your battles.

He still works for those who wait, and in the retreating we

get to understand His ways, that His ways are higher than our

ways. His thoughts are higher than our

thoughts, and we get to see something of His plans and

purposes in the thick of the battle and we get to discern the

way through. One of my favorite chapters that

God drags me back kicking and screaming time and time again is

Psalm 5. It says morning by morning.

I lay the pieces of my life on your altar.

This is the retreat. Morning by morning I come, and

like Lord, this is my day. It's Monday again.

Morning by morning I lay the pieces of my life on your altar.

Here I am, your invited guest. I'm waiting for fire to fall,

and I'm waiting for direction to get me through enemy lines.

Psalm 5. Look it up, memorize it, live by

it. I'm waiting for direction to get

through enemy lines and having had the download, having had God

speak, having had something of the whispers of his plans and

purposes, then I can return in the strength and power of the

Holy Spirit and the knowledge of his way forward.

But because none of I mean, I say none of us because so many

of us hard behind the excuses of well, I'm not a reader.

The Bible is too complex. You know, the the big guy up

there don't quite know what to say because we don't even start.

We never get to the point where he can show us and give us

direction through enemy lines. And instead we walk straight

into time and time and time again.

And according to RT Kendall, 9 out of 10 of us end up being

punched drunk because we're unprepared.

And we never darkened the door of the church again.

And that Bible remains closed. And so I'm fighting for your

futures. Because if we don't, you know,

they say statistically just joining a life group makes it

500% more likely that you'll still be in church in five years

time, 500% more likely that you'll still be here.

Why? Because in life group you get

this moment where sometimes if you're not retreating, you can

at least drink from and draw from others.

Retreats 500% more likely just in adding to your relationship.

Time of retreat and return and retreat and return for our

heads, for our hearts, and then for our homes.

I love. I love me a good rabbit hole.

And so this week we've been chatting.

We got a trauma psychologist friend and just the wealth of

wisdom and insights into human psychology and our ways and

tendencies and everything like it.

We went down a proper rabbit hole this week.

But what I've discovered literally has changed my life

and and changed my my view of myself and situations and

everything like, you know, I want to in closing, I just want

to share what what she shared. And I'll frame it like this.

I don't know if you've ever had that experience where you had a

really good friend and all of a sudden they just kind of cut you

off. You know, blue ticked, you

ghosted you, you know, you get a thumbs up or AK.

You know, you send a nice long Hey, how's it?

And it's just so click, click for hours.

Or maybe a colleague, you know, a colleague who always used to

be in your corner and now all of a sudden it seems like they're

just undermining you and criticizing you.

And you don't quite know where's this come from?

You know, that person who really was, you know, fanboy or your

cheerleader. And now it just seems like they

don't like being around you. I don't know if you've ever had

that. And and she was saying in those

moments, what often happens is we begin to sort of navel gaze,

like, what have I done? You know, it's obviously my

fault. I've said something, I've done

something. What what's gone wrong?

And how did this happen? And she essentially said

actually that hostility, it's far more complex than than we

imagined. That hostility is not

necessarily. And most times she says it's not

because of you, but because of what's hidden deep within them.

So follow me on this. So she's saying what they've

done because they don't have a retreat in return, instead of

bringing it before God, what they've done is because they

haven't dealt with these things in their quiet place, they've

ended up burying that brokenness and that darkness and that guilt

and shame. So they've they've got a

repository of rejection, maybe that buried shame or unspoken

fears. And then you come along.

The best way to describe what you do to them and what they do

to you. My dad always tells us the story

of when he was wanting to build our jungle gym when we were

kids, he went to the backyard and he used, I think it's called

a guala. It's like a steel pole of the

shop. And, you know, you jab it in the

ground to sort of like lift the soil before you dig holes.

And he put that guala in. And the first time, he said it

felt like he had been shocked because this thing just

reverberated through his spine because he later discovered that

when they built the house, they dumped all the rubble in the

backyard. And, you know, it's just sort of

level things out. And he just hit this, this piece

of stone underneath there and it sends shocks through his system.

And she was saying essentially that that's what happens.

You have an encounter with someone and they've got

something buried down deep inside because they lack the

retreat part of their relationship with God.

And you come along and you're the trigger and you get the

backlash. Because essentially she says

what happens is you come on the scene and you're like a mirror

to that brokenness. The the very thing that they're

trying to hide, the very thing they're trying to suppress, you

expose. And she said, for example, your

confidence highlights the insecurities.

Or maybe you're really disciplined and it highlights

and, and shows up some of the really bad decisions that

they've made in life. Or you're super compassionate

and they're like, yeah, oh, you're just trying to make me

look bad and cruel. Or you are free and full of

faith and joy in life and they're full of fear.

And she said, basically what happens is you're walking on the

scene and you become that mirror.

And instead of dealing with the darkness, instead of dealing

with that, they rather destroy the mirror.

And so they destroy the relationship.

They create distance. They they'll sabotage anything

like that just to get rid of this thing that you're exposing

in their lives. Now, when I heard that, it made

a heck of a lot of sense for a lot of dissonance within

relationships that I've had over the years.

And she ended with us. She said just knowing that helps

you deal with that situation with wisdom rather than

woundedness right now. That makes perfect sense.

It's document documented psychologically.

It's in the textbooks. And we can go, yes and Amen to

that. But here's the problem.

You and I are them and they, because you and I are the ones

not retreating. You and I are the ones that have

buried these things, our darkness and our disappointments

instead of dealing with them, instead of bringing them to

Christ. And a lack of retreat and return

means that we walk around and instead of being like Jesus,

retreat and return. We're like Judas come out

fighting. We destroy relationships, we

undermine, we distance because it hasn't been dealt with.

We're talking about this and my wife said let's drop the mic

moment. She says in light of this, if

we're like Judas, she says if we don't deal with our demons, they

will raise our children. If we don't deal with our

demons, they will raise our children because what is not

transformed gets transferred. And so it's so heavy, but this

is your future we're talking about.

This is your family we're talking about.

This is what comes next generationally.

And we treat it like another Monday morning quiet time.

I mean, he's got time for that really, because we are so

insular and so small minded and so short sighted that we do not

realize the power and the example that Jesus set in a

constant retreat and return. Retreat and return for your

head, your heart, your home, for your family, for their futures

in a simple, easy to especially in these days.

I mean, you can find a Bible reading plan for ADHD, color

blinds, left footed, Western province supporting Christians.

There's hope for all in this day and age That you have access to

the greatest minds who have ever applied themselves in unpacked

scriptures. That if you come here on a

Sunday and you haven't got a clue what this bluffo is saying

and you can go home and you can find the best of the best to

unpack and allow you to be delivered from set free from

empowered by the Holy Spirit and time of retreat.

But we look down on it because I'm not really that guy.

So this is my charge. Very simply, taking 30 minutes

to make one point. Could we become a people who

retreat and return and retreat and return and we retreat and we

get into the Word of God that is living and active, the Word of

God that can give life to those dry bones and bring dead things

to life, The word of God that cuts between spirit and soul.

We retreat into the presence of Jesus.

You know what Jesus says in Isaiah 61?

He says this is what I was anointed to do, to bind up the

broken hearted free captives, release prisoners from darkness,

to give a crown of beauty instead of ashes, oil of joy

instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of

despair. And he just says, come retreat

with me. Let me work on you.

Let me set you free. Let me strengthen and encourage

you. Come retreat.

Let me deal with those scary ungodly thoughts in your head.

Let me set you free from the chains in your heart.

Let me bring my Kingdom into your home so that you can return

free from your past, free from your prison, but filled with the

Holy Spirit and with power, so that you can lay hold of that

foods. Christ has laid all of you.

Amen.