Nick at Night Part 3: The Snake

So this sermon is called Nick at Night, Part 3, The Snake.

That's why I get paid the big bucks.

Alright, so the text that we're reading is this in John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

It says, And Moses, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Alright, so this is one of the coolest texts that you can find in the Bible.

Jesus himself, he's picking a story out of the Old Testament, and he's saying, This is all about me and what I'm doing.

So you guys remember what we've been talking about is Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, so that's why it's called Nicod Night.

And he has been, you just got it.

This is third week.

That's okay.

We love you.

Okay.

Lots of people are laughing.

It's okay.

Um and the last thing that Jesus was talking to Nick before we left off last week is Jesus told Nick, hey, I'm gonna tell you a bunch of heavenly things.

I'm gonna un I'm gonna unfold to you heaven and what it's all about.

But if you don't, if you can't understand me when I'm talking to you about earthly things, how are you gonna understand me when I talk to you about heavenly things?

And so this is where he's revealing the main heavenly thing that he wants to help Nick understand is the crucifixion.

The cross is the heavenly thing.

The cross, we think of the cross that it happened on earth 2,000 years ago, but the Bible says that the cross also happened before the creation of the world, that he was crucified before the foundations of the earth.

That in God's economy, remember, God is not restricted by time and space and matter.

God created time and space and matter for us to be able to experience reality, he's outside all those realities.

So as far as God is concerned, Jesus was crucified outside of time and space and matter, and inside of time and space and matter, so we could see it, but also the sacrifice was made in heaven.

The blood was sprinkled in the heavenly world, and it purified our heavenly reality.

So this is a this is a mighty important thing, this heavenly thing.

Uh so spoiler, this serpent being lifted up is gonna be all about the cross.

He says, even as Moses lifted up the serpent, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.

So that serpent story was way back in the wilderness, okay?

And what happened, and I'm gonna I'll just summarize it briefly.

Uh, God provided salvation for his people by simply looking at a snake made out of bronze that was put on a wooden pole.

That's basically let me just read it to you, but I want you to understand this one contextual part.

The reason all of this bad stuff was happening was because of unbelief.

Okay?

The people were struggling with unbelief.

What do you think the opposite of unbelief is?

Belief, right?

Or, you know, the fancy faith, we could say, is the opposite of unbelief.

But well, I'm gonna go back to Numbers chapter 21.

Numbers 21 · chapter mention

It's one of those first Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.

Alright.

And it says in chapter 21, verse 4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the soul of the people became very discouraged along the way.

Okay, so what's going on?

Remember, the people of Israel were rescued by God out of slavery in what country?

Egypt.

Exactly.

You guys are brilliant, you don't need me.

So they came out of Egypt and then they went right up into the promised land, right?

No, they didn't, right?

They didn't believe that God was for them, that God loved them, that God was gonna take them through.

And so they struggled with this unbelief, and so they ended up wandering in the desert for how long?

40 years exactly.

So this is now at the end of those 40 years, and they're like, okay, we're gonna go in, and then they start doubting again.

Could die.

God said, Okay, if you're gonna doubt me and you're gonna doubt my salvation, you're going to die in the desert.

You're not gonna experience all the blessings that I want to give you in the land that I'm taking you to.

So they all had to die.

And all these people were just growing up, waiting for grandpa to die, so we can go in.

So this was a major problem, what was happening here.

They're going around right around the red to get right about to go into the promised land, and then their hearts become discouraged.

It says very discouraged.

Their hearts, they start.

This is a major problem.

Okay, they were on the threshold closer than anyone in the previous generation had been.

They were just about to go in, but then now they're starting to get attacked with the same unbelief in their heart, or or if God doesn't take care of this now, something worse is gonna happen to them.

Something drastic is gonna have to be done.

So God is gonna do something drastic to save them.

Because not all pain is bad.

Did you know that?

Sometimes pain can rescue your faith.

Sometimes fame, fame, pain can correct what you've been falsely putting your confidence in.

Oh, this TikToker told me to take this poison and it would make me feel better.

That happens in the world today, you know that's Doctor.

Okay, so sometimes pain is a gift from God to rescue you from trusting in your flesh.

I'm hungry, I'm not happy, I'm not in control, sometimes God has to get in there right there and remind you through pain of what the truth is that you can't always be in control.

We're gonna pause our story in um numbers, and I'm gonna fast forward to Hebrews, which is a commentary on our story in Numbers.

Okay, so this is like a sermon inception.

You guys seen the movie Inception?

It's like a dream within a dream.

Well, this is like a sermon within a sermon within a sermon.

So we're on level three of our inception sermon.

Hebrews chapter 3, 16 says, For who having heard rebelled?

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

So he's now the the author of Hebrews is taught teaching us about the people going through the promised land or going through the desert, not going in the promised land, who having heard, they heard God's word, but they rebelled.

Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses?

Now with whom was he angry for forty years?

Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness, and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, those blessings, but to those who would not obey, trust him, believe in him.

So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief.

The whole problem, the author of Hebrew, says, is that they couldn't go into the promised land because of unbelief.

They should have been free already.

You know what it says in the Bible?

It gives you the timeline.

They should have been able to walk from Egypt to the promised land, which is just right up the coast, right there, right where Israel is, in 13 days.

That's how long it should have been.

That's how long.

And yet they wander for 40 years because of unbelief.

They should have been living in the promised land for these past 40 years, enjoying all that God wanted to bless them with, but they refuse to trust in the word of God that they heard at the beginning, and now this new generation is in danger of falling right back into that fleshly life again.

So even though they're saved out of Egypt, they're in danger of falling back to the flesh again.

And do you think this applies to your life and my life?

Absolutely, it does.

Because once you come to know Jesus, we are in the process of leaving Egypt.

He saves us from our sin, but we have to enter into the promised land of the victorious Christian life.

Where we're no longer struggling against sin, constant victory, where we're serving the Lord and living with the blessings he desires for us.

Where and how does that happen?

It only happens by faith.

Some people think, well, the more I go to church, the more I'm gonna see the promised land.

The more I do this, the more I do that, but that is gonna keep you wandering.

Not that going to church is bad, but faith in what I do is what keeps me wandering in the desert instead of faith in him, which is where how we enter into his promised land.

So they're in danger of falling out of faith.

I'm not saying they're losing their salvation, but I'm saying they're they're gonna be walking in the flesh, which keeps them in the desert.

Because faith is deeply important and personal to God.

God is offended when we choose not to trust in him.

It's kind of like when my kids were growing up, and we would be maybe at a pool or something, and I would put them up on the side, and I'd go in the water, and I would say, jump! And they would say, Screw you, dad, you're not gonna catch me, I'm out of here.

No, that would offend me.

I'd be like, what are you talking about?

They're like, You're unreliable.

What?

How can you say, I'm gonna catch you?

I want you to have fun, I want you to be blessed in the promised land of my pool.

And and you see, it's it actually offends you when someone doesn't trust you.

That's sad.

So people tend to think faith is oh, it's my faith, it's my decision, what I put my faith in.

No one can critique me about my faith.

It's a deeply personal thing.

You hear that?

That's a very common postmodern philosophical perspective.

Well, to God, it is so much more than that.

And it is offensive to God when we willingly choose to withhold faith from him and from his son and the price that his son paid to offer you this salvation.

He's like, You gotta trust me.

I want what's best for you.

If we are trusting something else, we're choosing another God.

That's called spiritual adultery, betrayal.

It's it's sin of the highest degree.

They call it the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

And you know what?

It's the exact same thing that Satan sold to Adam and Eve way back in the Garden of Eden.

What did he tell them?

Hey, Adam and Eve, God put you in this whole thing.

His command to you was, you know, to be fruitful and multiply, to enjoy this, but really he doesn't love you.

He's keeping something from you, and you would be better if you disobeyed him.

And so this whole philosophy was sowed right there, and it has grown.

And in our world, it's the predominant philosophy that God is not a God of love, that he wants to restrict your life when all those things are straight up lies, and God's like, if you trust me, you'll see.

I care more about your good your your blessings than you do.

I care more about your comfort and your life than you do, even though it's not always about your comfort, but I want you to experience real life, and it's only gonna be the way I do.

So, yes, don't sleep with the person before you get married.

What he's restricting me.

Guys, he cares about your this is usually when I'm talking to like a youth retreat or something.

But um he cares about your joy, he cares about where your blessings are gonna be found, and he knows if you go and do this before the time, you're gonna ruin a lot of things that you don't understand.

But he wants to bless you in it.

He he says there's a person there, I have it, but you gotta trust me, you gotta be patient.

That's how this works.

There's a blessing God has for you, and he cares deeply about you, and he's asking, he's demanding that you trust in him, no matter what the situation for you is.

I just picked one.

Okay, so back to our our numbers text.

It says, and the people spoke against God and against Moses.

So, right there, they're teetering on the edge of a cliff of disaster, saying, You why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?

For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.

Yeah.

I'm offended too.

They were choosing to look at their situation through unbelief.

And I want you to see how unbelief screws with your brain and all your senses.

Okay, what's going on here?

They it says they they said, we have no food.

Was that true?

No.

God had literally woken up every day, had the angels deliver angel food to them called manna, and every morning it was there for them to pick up and eat.

God had been supernaturally providing them food this entire time.

So, but they're like, it's not food.

That's a lie, right?

They had manna.

No one is starving.

God had provided for them.

Then they said, We have no water.

That's also a lie.

You know, there was this rock, this big rock that was following them, literally a rock following them, and Moses just had to speak to the rock.

He had to hit it one time, but he would speak to it after that.

He kind of messed that up one time, but we'll talk about that another time.

So we speak to the rock, and the walk rock would give water.

Water would come out, and they would have all the water they needed.

So that's a lie.

God had always provided.

And then they say, here's the real secret to their the truth of what's going on inside them.

Our soul loathes this worthless bread.

We hate your provision, God.

We hate your provision.

It doesn't taste like what the world offers us.

Remember, what are they thinking about?

They're thinking about in Egypt, when they were slaves, they had a little leeks and onions or garlic or whatever they had to eat.

And um, that's the real issue.

They're comparing what the world offered them, and they're saying, if God loved me, he would give me the same thing that the world offers me.

They didn't believe God was leading them to a place that would really satisfy them, even though he told them over and over, this is a land flowing with milk and honey.

Trust me and you'll enter in.

Follow me and you'll get it.

But they refused.

Why?

Because of unbelief.

He's just making my life difficult.

He's just taking things away.

That is 100% unbelief.

He's working all things together for your good.

That's the truth.

That's the promise of Scripture.

That's the gospel.

That's what Jesus says.

I'm working all things for your good.

Sin is working out things to destroy you, and that's all that the enemy cares about.

That sinful relationship that you think is meeting your needs is actually destroying your soul.

That sinful indulgence that you think is numbing the pain is actually just spreading the infection deeper in your heart.

When God commands us to repent, it's for our good and our health, and it lines up with our new identity in Christ.

So what does God do?

Verse 6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died.

Oh, here's our God of love sending fiery serpents.

Wow, God wouldn't do that.

Well, he did.

What does fiery serpents mean?

I don't know.

But maybe poisonous, maybe when they bit you it felt like fire.

Maybe they were literally serpents that were on fire chasing people.

I don't know.

That would have been crazy, right?

Why did he do this?

Because unbelief, the sin of unbelief, must be dealt with because it's cancer.

What do we send after cancer?

We use poison to try to kill the cancer sometimes.

Sometimes it works.

But the sin of unbelief is so much worse than dying.

It must be destroyed with no mercy.

So that's what's going on here.

This all becomes a perfect illustration of the love of God for us.

He sends snakes.

Snakes always represent what in the Bible?

Evil and sin.

Absolutely.

So with this picture, your sin has poisoned you.

That's what's going on here.

When we're not believing, we're getting bit by the snake of sin, and it has poisoned us, and we're under a death sentence.

We will die.

The life choice that we've made of sinning will lead to death.

So we have two choices: die or repent.

Repent or die.

And many, it says here, chose to die.

Why?

Why would they choose to die?

Because they're so prideful, they're so angry, and they're so sold on this lie that God doesn't love them, that even when his snakes come in to say, this is the reality of where you're at, they still won't repent.

Because they're just mad at him for being involved in their life.

Verse 7.

Therefore, when the people came to Moses and said to him, We have sinned, and uh, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you, pray to the Lord that He takes away the serpents from us.

So Moses prayed for the people.

So this is the good choice of faith.

They're repenting, and it's not difficult at all, except you have to do the most difficult thing in the world, which is humble yourself and renounce your pride and say, I got myself into this mess.

God, will you save me?

God will you rescue me?

And that humility is nearly impossible for human beings, especially in 2026.

No matter who you are, no matter which side you're on, no matter any it is so difficult for us to humble ourselves.

And only God knows how.

He gets us to say, Save me, help me, God, turning to him.

And what does it lead to when people choose humility?

It leads to prayer.

Did you see that?

Have you ever wondered sometimes why don't I ever pray?

It's because we're still just wandering in the desert, bitten by our snakes and not really sensing how much we need.

We don't feel the bite yet, we don't feel the fire yet.

And when we feel that, when we repent, it leads us to prayer.

And what does God do when we pray?

He answers us every time God answers us.

Look at verse 8.

Then the Lord said to Moses, pick a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and it shall be everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.

So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, and so it was if the serpent had bitten anyone when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

This is incredible.

Now you gotta understand how deep this goes.

Because metals all have a different meaning in the Bible.

Gold is the medal of God, it's the divine, uh silver is a medal of redemption being bought back.

Bronze is the medal of judgment.

So there was a bronze bowl in the in the uh temp tabernacle and the temple where they did the sacrifices where sin was judged.

Okay?

This is a bronze snake.

So it's it speaks of judgment.

Serpent snake speaks of sin.

And then pole made of wood.

What do you think that speaks about?

The cross.

Absolutely.

So when you look at it, you have a snake being judged on a tree, and if you look at it, you'll be completely healed of sin.

Wow.

You're like, wait a second, there's one big problem with that.

Jesus was the good guy, he wasn't a snake.

But it says in the Bible that he who knew no sin became sin for us.

That we may become the righteousness of God in him.

So he did become the snake.

All of this is a preaching of the gospel 3,500 years before Jesus came.

It's amazing.

It's incredible.

And Jesus is bringing this up.

And by the way, have you seen on those uh ambulances?

They have the pole with the snakes going around it.

Boom.

That's where this is from.

So keep that in mind as we go back to what Jesus was talking about.

Okay, so John chapter, well, let's read our text again.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man, Jesus is talking about himself, be lifted up.

That whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So Nick would have thought about this lesson through a law-based mindset.

Remember, Nicodemus was a Pharisee.

He was in charge of the people of Israel and their spiritual lives.

And so his mindset is this: if I do bad things, God will punish me.

God wants to hurt me.

Because he's more concerned about holiness and righteousness and me being pure than he is about loving me.

That's the law-based mindset.

I'm not pure enough for God.

I'm not pure enough for God.

And Jesus flips that entire way of thinking upside down and he reveals God's true heart.

It's if I turn to Jesus in humility and faith, God will save me.

I've already been, you know, it's sin alone that that uh brings the snakes.

And it's not God's will to abandon me there or leave me there, but to save me.

And Nick, Nicodemus is gonna have to see this: that the thing hanging on the pole was a snake, and so Jesus must become a snake.

He must become our sin and hang on a tree in order for us to be saved from our sin.

And what does he say we have to do?

He says, all we have to do is look.

Look.

All they had to do when they were bitten was bing, look at it, and they would be set, they would be healed.

That's when he says that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Well then how do I look at him?

How do I do that?

I I mean, do you guys see Jesus anywhere?

How do we look at him?

Well, is he talking about our eyeballs?

No.

Because if you were blind, you'd have to go to hell.

And that's obviously not the situation.

So it's not talking about your eyeballs.

He's talking about looking through faith.

Through faith.

So remember, in Numbers, the people were saved not by doing anything, but simply by looking at the serpent.

They had to trust in something seemingly foolish, and trust that doing that seemingly foolish thing would save them.

And that's weird and childlike and almost seems magical, but this is the way of faith.

You trust in the what someone else has.

So, this is what believing in Jesus is.

It's simpler than it sounds.

It really is that simple.

It's trusting in him and who he is and what he did rather than in my religious resume.

Are you going to heaven?

Is the question.

You have two ways to answer it.

I don't know because my life isn't done yet, and I don't know all the bad things I've done and all the good things I'm gonna have to do to outweigh the bad things that I've done.

Or I don't know if I'm gonna do really super bad things that maybe God can't forgive.

There's that way to answer it.

Or there's, I know that I already have eternal life because it's a free gift to all who believe in Jesus Christ and have accepted him.

I know.

You can know God wants you to have assurance of your salvation.

And it's literally one of the most simple things that anyone can have assurance.

If my son would have jumped into the pool with confidence, that means he has assurance in my character that I will save him, that I have love for him, that I will meet his need, and he'll have fun on the way.

The New Testament teaches this believing like this.

Believing is something like this.

In your heart, you say, Jesus, you are my savior.

I trust your death and your resurrection for my forgiveness and my new life.

It's that simple.

It's not a transaction, it's faith.

It's not something you can say, at this moment, I started to believe.

Maybe you can point it to a moment, but for 99% of people, they grow in faith over time.

We just start to realize God loves us, and in my heart, I'm starting to believe his word when I hear it.

So it's important to remember that believing isn't one more ladder on the rung that you're climbing to earn acceptance.

Believing is everything.

It's the jumping, it's the falling off the cliff, it's all in.

That's what believing is.

Believing is simply responding.

29, Jesus says this.

And we'll get there in four years, okay?

Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent.

So many people say, What are you doing to serve God?

What are you doing to impress God?

What are you doing?

And then we ask the question, What am I doing?

And then Satan reinforces it, you're not doing anything, you're not doing enough.

And if we just listen to Jesus, he says, This is the work of God, believe in me.

That's doing the work of God.

Our response of believing is our work, our side.

There is no deed that can be done, but it impacts all of our deeds.

It impacts everything that we do and how we do everything we do, but it don't ever get it mixed up.

It's not what you do, it's how you do it, through faith or through self-faith.

Faith in Jesus or faith in self?

Romans 4, 5 says, But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies them godly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

The Bible tells us exactly how all your sins are washed away.

Stop trying.

That's what it means.

And start believing in him.

That's the only way.

The moment you say, okay, I believe that he washed me clean, then you're washed clean and you're forgiven of everything.

Righteousness credited to the one who believes.

That is the only requirement to be saved.

You don't have to go around the world telling everyone, stop sinning.

You tell everyone, we are sinners, and we can believe on Jesus and be saved.

And that is the truth.

In fact, the only real requirement for you to be offered salvation is one thing.

You have to be ungodly.

Well, we're good at that.

We qualify.

Who doesn't qualify?

People who don't think they need to be saved.

People who grew up in church and think that their citizenship or their politics or the way that they grew up makes them better than someone else or not in need of God's salvation.

Oh, I'll be fine.

I've done so many good things, and I didn't do all the bad things that I don't like that other people do.

I didn't do any, I don't really need to be forgiven.

That person cannot be saved until they're broken.

Hmm.

Notice that this is all a response.

Believing is a response to something God does.

What do I have to do to get saved?

Stop asking that question, guys.

It's not that question.

Your salvation, he accomplished.

And all you have to do is respond by saying, I believe it.

I believe it.

Look at how he does it in Isaiah chapter 45, verse 22.

Isaiah 45:22

It says this look to me and be saved.

All you ends of the earth.

For I am God, and there is no other.

We might be willing to do all kinds of things to get saved.

You know, maybe there's if there were good deeds we had to do, if there was a mountain we had to climb, some heroic beast we had to conquer, we'd be like, okay, this is how to get salvation, I'll go for it.

And there's all kinds of these philosophies out there, but none of them work.

Because everything we do has already been snake-bitten, it's already been poisoned, it's already been tainted by sin.

There's like nothing you can do works.

God says this is the only way.

In 1850, on January 6th, there was this young man, he was about 16 years old, he was 15, almost 16, walking through the village uh streets in the town where he lived, just outside of London.

And it was a bitterly cold day, and there was snow, you know, falling.

And uh he was really struggling.

He was deeply concerned about his soul.

He was worried about dying and going to hell.

He wasn't, he had no confidence in his relationship with God or that he was saved.

And as he made his way through the street with snow falling, he felt uh it was too far to go to the church that he normally would walk to.

So he turned around and started walking back home, but then he saw this little, you know, chapel on the side.

And he heard them singing, and it was, you know, so he sat down, he went in, and he sat down towards the back, and it was as cold inside as it was outside there.

It was a cold, you know, they didn't have any heat or anything.

And there was only about 13 people in this little church.

Well, five minutes after the sermon was supposed to start at 11 o'clock, the regular preacher still hadn't showed up because he was been delayed because of the weather.

So one of the deacons came and uh tried to rescue the service by conducting, you know, a little a little sermon.

And he read this verse.

He said, I'm just gonna read this verse.

He said, Look unto me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none other.

And the deacon didn't really know anything, so he just spoke for about ten minutes, and none of it really made sense.

But he just kept reading over and over again.

And the young man, his name was Charles Spurgeon, who later becomes the greatest preacher in the history of the world.

Um, and this he tells he himself tells what happened here.

He says, I had been wandering about seeking rest and finding none, till a plain, uneducated preacher among a primitive group, primitive group of Christians stood at a pulpit and read this text.

Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the world.

He didn't have much to say.

Thank God, for he compelled, uh, for that compelled him to keep repeating his text, and there was nothing else needed by me at any rate, except his text.

Because I remember how he said, It is Christ that speaks.

I am in the garden in an agony, pouring out my soul to death, I am on the tree, dying for sinners.

Look unto me, look unto me.

This is all you have to do.

A child can look, an idiot can look, a criminal can look.

And if anyone looks, however weak, however poor, however evil, if anyone looks, the promise is that he will be saved.

Then stopping, he pointed to where I was sitting in the back row, and he said, That young man looks to be very miserable.

And I expect I did, for this is how I felt.

And then he said, There is no hope for you, young man, or any chance of getting rid of your sin, but by looking to Jesus.

And then he shouted, and I think as only a primitive man can shout, and he said, Look, look, young man, look now.

And I did look.

And when they sang hallelujah, before they went home, in their own earnest way, I'm sure that I joined in.

Because it happened on that day as the snow was falling, and I was on my way home, that the words of David kept ringing into my heart, Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

And it seemed that all of nature was in one accord singing over me, that I had been washed of all my sin by a single moment of looking at Jesus Christ.

Look to me and be saved, all ye ends of the earth.

For I am God and there is no other.

God's claim is exclusivity.

Jesus says, I am the only way to heaven.

There is nothing you can do, there's no other religion, there's no other anything.

It's me, me alone.

That's the claim.

And that's what we preach.

That's what we believe in.

He's the only God, right?

Institutions are not from God.

The church, as man builds it up, it doesn't necessarily mean it's from God.

Pastors are not God.

We have to look to God, to Jesus alone, because He alone is God.

We don't look at anything else.

We look just at Him.

And that's what this snake on the pole represents.

So one last Spurgeon quote.

Spurgeon quote, Spurgeon quote.

Whoever I am, however far off, it just says look.

It does not say that I'm supposed to see, it only says look.

If we look on a thing in the dark and we we can't see it, but we have done what we were told.

So if a sinner only looks to Jesus, he will save him.

For Jesus in the dark is as good as Jesus in the light.

And Jesus, he just says, only look.

I have been trying to see Jesus this year, but I've not seen him.

It doesn't mean you have to see him.

Just look to him.

Father, this is our heart laid out on the on uh the altar before you.

God, we need you.

We look only to you.

And I pray for anyone in here who has had any doubt, any struggle, any burden.

God, I pray that they would have the greatest sense of peace and joy, of knowing that your righteousness has been given to them as a free gift, and that they have been completely forgiven.