Not the Plan, Still the Story - 9/13/2026

Several years ago, I was leading a mission trip of high school students to Mexico, and it was just across the border in the Tijuana area.

We were serving with some uh missionaries there, and we had a great week.

I got to see God do some really cool things.

So our hearts were full.

The week was over, it was time to go home.

And we were flying out of San Diego.

So early in the morning, we had to get up, drive across the border, and then we had a morning flight, and we got to the airport.

And as we were going through security and checking the boards, we saw that our flight had been delayed.

No big deal, 45 minutes, like a little extra time to go get some breakfast.

And so we did that.

Uh, but then it got delayed again, and then again, and it got delayed seven times, and then at 11 p.m.

after being at the airport all day, got canceled.

And maybe you've been there, you've experienced that.

You know, I've got all these high school kids there, and it's just this debacle.

We've got to go figure out hotel vouchers, and we're gonna be in the hotel for like six hours to sleep before to be back at the airport at 7 a.m.

And so I'm just in a bad mood, if I'm honest.

I mean, I just like I loved these high school kids, but I'd also loved them all week, and it was like, you know, enough.

Uh, and I was just ready to go home and sleep in my own bed.

And so, you know, I'm just grumpy and I'm frustrated.

And then I looked at these high school students, and how do you think they had responded to the news that our flight had gotten canceled?

They were elated.

Uh, they had been in a prayer circle praying that Jesus would cancel our flight.

Like they wanted the adventure of going, you know, staying in the hotel uh airport and getting all your meals comped.

And then they found out that they had travelers insurance and our luggage wasn't coming back, so they got to go buy new clothes for free, you know?

Like it was the best thing that had ever happened to them.

And I was resenting them a little bit for the prayers that it would be canceled, but it was a good reminder that, you know, you can experience the same thing in very different ways.

Your perspective can transform quite a bit about what happens to you in life.

And we had very different perspectives that day.

And we're gonna see an example of that in our passage this morning.

The book of Philippians, chapter one.

We're gonna look at part of this letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Philippi.

And it is about having a different perspective.

It's about looking at something a different way.

And it's a little bit of a heavier conversation, if I'm honest, because what Paul is gonna talk to us about is how we look at our setbacks and our sufferings.

And what he wants us to see in this passage this morning is this that seeing our lives as a part of Jesus' story can transform how we view our setbacks and our suffering.

Paul knows what he's talking about here.

He's writing uh under arrest in Rome, waiting trial that could end in his execution any day.

And so he is writing about his circumstances, and what he wants us to see is that if you can see the bigger story, if you can see how God's at work even through the hardest things in your life, then you may be able to take a different perspective when you think of the hardest things that happen to you.

We're gonna jump into that together here.

And the first thing that Paul is gonna want us to see in this letter is that God uses circumstances that you wouldn't choose.

God uses things that happen in your life, the things that you say, I would never want this to happen.

I can't believe God let this happen in my life.

And yet God uses even those things as well.

You are gonna face setbacks and suffering in your life.

It's just it's a guarantee.

The question is, will you be able to see how God is at work through those things?

And this is what Paul reflects on as he writes these next uh verses to the church in Philippi.

We're gonna start in verse 12 of chapter one.

Says, now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, what has happened to me has actually advanced the gospel.

So that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is because I am in Christ.

What's Paul saying here?

He's saying, Look, I I want you to know about the things that I've gone through.

He talks about, you know, what has happened to me.

And I've told you a little bit of that.

He's under arrest, uh, he's on house arrest, he's chained to a Roman soldier at all times.

Um, but that is actually, you know, just a small part of what has happened to Paul in the last season of his life.

You know, he's been preaching about Jesus in the known world, going all over the place to tell people about the gospel, and it has been anything but an easy path.

Okay, what has happened to Paul?

Well, in the last several years, he has been imprisoned multiple times.

He's received the punishment of 39 lashes with a whip on five different occasions, he was beaten with rods three times, he was stoned and left for dead, shipwrecked three different times.

He has lived through seasons of abject poverty.

He has been rejected and betrayed by his closest friends.

He's he's been slandered even by fellow Christians.

Like when Paul speaks about suffering, he knows what he's talking about.

And when he says to us that God uses things that we wouldn't choose, he's seen that in his own life.

And I just want to make sure we recognize that because sometimes when we talk about suffering in the church and the way that God uses it and how God is still good even when we suffer, I think it can feel a little bit trivializing, possibly, you know, like as if you're going through really hard things and God's answer is just kind of like patting you on the head and saying, like, don't be so sad about it, you know?

Uh things are good.

Like, look at the bright side, that kind of stuff.

And I just want you to hear from Paul, like, he's not trivializing anything.

Uh, he has been through it, he he knows the darkness.

And he's not saying, like, hey, Christians are never in grief, or Christians never mourn, or you shouldn't ever be angry, or you know, any of that.

That's that Paul's experienced all of that.

All he's saying is, look, I I want to show you something about how God's at work even through those things as well.

Paul says, uh, I want I want to talk to you about what's happened to me.

As we open up the scriptures this morning, as as we ask the Holy Spirit to work in our lives today through what Paul is saying here, I wonder if you can come to God this morning with the list of what has happened to you.

We just read Paul's list.

What's on your list?

If you're honest this morning, what's on the list of things that have happened in your life, the circumstances that you found yourself in that you would never allow, that you would never choose.

The hardest stuff you've had to walk through.

And as we bring that to Jesus this morning, uh, would you let him work?

I I know that there are real things going on in this room right now.

You know, I sit down with people every week who are sharing the list of what's happened to them, you know, people who have have lost jobs unexpectedly, people who are walking through divorces that they don't want at all, people who have lost uh childs, people dealing with chronic illnesses where there's no good news coming from the doctors.

Like there are real things that you're gonna walk through in life.

And God's not, you know, dismissing that.

He's not trivializing that, but I think he is inviting us to say, look, I I can work in even those things as well.

That's what Paul says.

He says, Look, uh, my hardships have served to advance the gospel.

People are hearing about Jesus because of what has happened to me.

He says the entire imperial guard has uh learned the story of Jesus in Paul's life.

And I want to tell you a little bit about how Paul's imprisonment worked because it'll explain what he's talking about.

If you were awaiting trial by Caesar in Rome, uh you were uh in the the hands of what Paul calls the Imperial Guard.

It's also known as the uh Praetorian Guard.

Uh, and if you're a Star Wars fan, uh, we're not talking about that Praetorian Guard.

We're talking about this Praetorian Guard, the ones that wear brooms on their head.

You know the ones.

Uh, and they look a little silly, but they were actually among the most elite soldiers in the Roman army.

They were actually really important people.

You can kind of imagine a mixture of the Secret Service, the Navy SEALs, and like elite political lobbyists.

That was all things that the Praetorian Guard were.

They were highly, highly trained.

They were Caesar's personal bodyguards, but then they also were really active in the political life of Rome, and they had a lot of influence over what happened in the Roman Empire, so much so that Caesar actually was constantly thinking about whether or not he had the Praetorian Guard on his side.

And there was one particular reason for why Caesar cared so much.

It was because every once in a while the Praetorian Guard would assassinate Caesar and put somebody else in charge.

So what they thought was pretty important and they were influential people.

And the way that this, you know, imprisonment works is Paul's on house arrest, and 24-7, he's chained to one of these guardsmen.

And it was four-hour shifts.

So every four hours, uh, they unshackle, you know, the one guard who is chained to Paul, and he leaves, and a new one comes, it gets shackled.

And for the next four hours, Paul has literally a captive audience to tell about Jesus.

And that's what he would do.

Every guardman who showed up, he would say, Hey, here's my story.

Here's what here's what Jesus did in my life, here's what Jesus has done for you.

He's sharing the gospel.

And what Paul has seen is, you know, over the weeks and months of this imprisonment, he's been able to talk to basically everybody in the Imperial Guard.

Paul says, Everyone now knows the story of what has happened to me in Christ.

Now, that is not said to negate his suffering.

Paul's not saying, and therefore, I never feel angry or upset about what's happened to me.

I never feel, you know, mourning for what I've lost.

He doesn't say that at all.

He just says, look, I want you to see there's been a purpose in it.

The gospel is being spread because of what has happened to me.

He goes on to say something else that God has done.

Uh, he says this in verse 14 Most of the brothers have gained confidence in the Lord from my imprisonment and dare even more to speak the word fearlessly.

So there's this church in Rome who knows of what's going on with Paul.

And this young, fledgling church, apparently it had been under persecution, and people had begun to kind of shrink back.

People didn't want to talk openly and with boldness about Jesus and to tell their friends and their neighbors about who Jesus is and what he's done.

And what Paul says is that this church has seen his imprisonment.

They've seen Paul stay faithful and they have gained confidence in the Lord.

They've seen Paul and they've seen God sustain him.

And they said, okay, if Paul can do this, if he can preach the gospel from prison, then I can preach the gospel in my neighborhood.

I can tell people about Jesus too.

And Paul says, This is a this is a cool thing that God has done even through my hardship.

God uses circumstances that you wouldn't choose.

And it's true in your life too.

There's gonna be all kinds of things that go on that you just would never pick.

And yet God is faithful to show up even those hard things, also.

Paul is gonna kind of transition here.

He's gonna start talking about a different kind of suffering that he has experienced.

And this isn't the suffering of circumstance, it's not the suffering of like of outside oppression from the Romans.

Paul's gonna begin here to talk about the suffering that actually comes from other believers, from people in the church.

Paul's gonna tell us about some things that have been going on that have been hurtful to him.

And his second point here is that not only does God use circumstances that you wouldn't choose, God uses people that you wouldn't choose.

I don't know if you know this, but uh not every Christian leader is walking super closely with Jesus all the time.

We want to believe that's true.

We want to believe that our heroes in the faith and the people who have taught us and poured into us, that they have this relationship with Jesus that's just of another quality, that they're just always on fire for the Lord, they're always obedient, they always do the right thing, and that just isn't true.

And, you know, we think that maybe this is a a modern phenomena, that in our world there's there's leaders in the social media, you know, era and there's scandal all the time in the church.

But actually, this has been going on for a long, long time.

And Paul has been experiencing personal hurt because of leaders in the church who are not walking super closely with Jesus.

This is what he says.

This is a really interesting thing.

It says, to be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.

These preach out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

The others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment.

It's this fascinating thing that he's he's talking about.

What is he saying?

Saying, look, so I I told you there's this really cool thing that some people have been emboldened because they've seen my faithfulness and they love me and they are encouraged in their faith.

And so they're preaching about Jesus, like they're preaching in love.

That's a that's a great thing.

But then there's also this other group of people, this other group of preachers, these other leaders in the church, and they've also been emboldened to preach about Jesus more, but for a totally different set of reasons.

They're preaching because of envy and rivalry and selfish ambition.

What on earth is going on?

Well, uh, apparently there were certain people who were opposed to Paul.

And uh you can kind of see why people might have been opposed to Paul if you get to know him well enough.

You know, he's pretty strong-willed.

Uh, he uh has no problem opposing people to their face, and he's made an enemy here and there.

He also has a bit of a checkered past, if you know his history.

Uh, before he became a Christian, he was a part of groups who were persecuting Christians, even part of groups who were killing Christians.

And so you can imagine people in the church who look at Paul and they go, This guy?

Like, we're all following him.

And it would have really rubbed in the wrong way because Paul was famous at this point.

I mean, Paul was beloved, he had been planting churches all over the known world.

Uh, everyone knew the story of Jesus showing up to him in power and knocking him off of his horse and blinding him and all of that, you know.

And so when Paul showed up in town, people came out to church.

They wanted to hear this guy talk.

And if you're some other Christian leader who no one knows their name, and you know, you've been day in and day out working with these people, and everybody loves Paul more than you, you can see some of the envy, some of the rivalry and how that might have started.

And these people apparently saw Paul's imprisonment as an opportunity.

They saw that Paul was chained up and not able to do the ministry that he's been doing.

And for them, it was like, this is our moment.

Like, we're gonna preach the gospel, we're gonna step into the shoes that Paul had, we're gonna fill them, and like we're gonna develop a platform for ourselves now that Paul is chained up.

And and likely they were kind of slandering Paul.

They were they were looking at his imprisonment as a sign that God was not giving Paul favor.

This is like what Paul had coming to him.

He's finally getting what he deserved, and they're trying to you know take people from being followers of Paul in their mind and and get people to follow them.

And this is a really hurtful thing to think about if you're Paul.

I mean, put yourself in his shoes.

You have been faithful to obey Jesus, right?

Like wherever Jesus is called you to go, you've gone and you've preached the gospel to your own detriment.

He is suffering because of his faithfulness.

And now, at one of his lowest moments, other Christians are rubbing it in his face, and they're trying to take advantage, hoping to make Paul envious and jealous, right?

Hoping to make trouble for him in prison.

And now Paul is writing this letter to the Philippians, right?

He's got the platform, he's got the stage.

It's time for him to take his shot, get his side of the story out there.

Like, name names, you know, make the podcast expose the whole thing.

Like, if you're Paul, like, are you not gonna like say, hey, these are all the people who you shouldn't follow, they don't have the right motives, they're not in it for the right reasons, like cancel them.

It's really fascinating.

That's not what Paul does.

These people, they're preaching out of selfish ambition.

And then what does he say?

What does it matter?

Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice.

Amazing.

I mean, it's worth noting here, make sure we're clear.

Like, Christ is being proclaimed.

These aren't false teachers, he's talking about.

These aren't people who aren't believers.

No, they're believers, they believe in Jesus, they're preaching the gospel, their motives are just all mixed up.

They're trying to promote themselves more than they're trying to promote the kingdom.

And rather than call those people out and try to tear them down, Paul says, you know what?

I don't even care.

I'm just grateful that the gospel is being preached.

I'm thankful that Jesus is powerful enough to use even these broken, jacked-up people.

So praise God that Jesus is still at work, even through these people who are against me.

Man, are you grateful that Jesus uses broken people?

They're the only people that Jesus uses.

Exclusively, in fact.

God only uses broken people.

It's all he has to work with.

And that's true of you, and it's true of me, and it's true of the people who've had the most influence in your life.

God only uses broken people.

And so Paul says rather than highlight their brokenness, rather than try to tear them down, I'm just gonna be thankful for the work of the gospel that's going forward.

Any leader you follow is gonna be a sinner with mixed motives.

It's just it's just true.

And if you want to find reasons to tear them down, you will be able to.

Or you can change your perspective, you can praise God that God is at work even through that.

You know, I it's true even of me.

You know, why why do I do what I do?

Well, it's because I love Jesus and I love his church, and I want to see people's lives transformed, I want to see people come to faith, and I want to see the Holy Spirit work to help us grow and to be a light on the hill.

Like all of that is true.

That those are my motives.

Are those the only things going on in my heart?

Of course not.

Of course not.

I mean, is there a part of me that also wants to be successful?

And ministry is a way to pursue success?

Like, yeah, that's in there.

Is there a part of me that really desperately wants your approval and preaching on Sundays is a way to get it?

Yeah, that's in there too.

You know, is there a part of me that just wants to make a living for my family and ministry has been a way for me to do that?

Like, yeah, that's real.

You know, uh what Paul says is like, look, whether through false motives or through true, it is an amazing thing that Jesus is big enough to use the broken to get the gospel out.

I'm gonna praise God for that.

Now, does this mean we don't hold leaders accountable?

Absolutely not.

That's not the point.

Does it mean that your motives don't matter?

Also, no.

Uh, doing things from the wrong motives can cause all kinds of pain and hurt.

Paul's experiencing that himself right then.

So it isn't to minimize that, but to say, there is a bigger story here.

And it's a story of God redeeming and using even us at our worst moment.

God uses circumstances that we wouldn't choose, he uses people that we wouldn't choose.

So, where does that leave us?

If that's true, then how do we change our perspective or suffering because of those things that God is still using?

And I think the truth that Paul wants us to see is that we don't get to choose who or what God uses, but we get to choose our perspective.

You don't get to choose what God's gonna allow, and you don't get to choose who God is gonna use, but you do get to choose how you think about it, how you talk about it, how you pray about it, how you experience it.

And this is really what Paul does at at the end here.

He kind of summarizes what he's been saying.

This is this is how he ends this section.

He says, Yes, and I will continue to rejoice because I know this will lead to my salvation through your prayers.

And help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything.

But now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

Also, I'm I'm going to choose a perspective.

I'm going to choose to rejoice.

And he says, uh, listen, we'll go back and look at this.

He says, I know this will lead to my salvation.

It's a really interesting sentence, isn't it?

It almost sounds like Paul is saying that if he stays faithful, if he does the right thing, that maybe he'll go to heaven one day, that he'll be saved.

But that's not how Paul thinks about the gospel at all.

That's not the gospel.

The gospel is that Jesus has already achieved your salvation and it's it's taken care of at the cross, that all you can do is receive it.

This isn't Paul saying, you know, I know that if I do well enough, I'll get to go to heaven.

This is saying, look, I know that I'm going to be saved from this suffering that I'm experiencing from these setbacks.

This isn't going to be the end of the story.

Uh, I am going to be vindicated one day.

In his perspective, it comes from this reality that he says, you know, uh, my eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything.

There is this day coming when Paul's going to stand face to face with Jesus.

He says, Look, here's my perspective.

When I'm there with Jesus and when I'm looking back at my life, I don't want to regret how I lived.

Uh I I don't want to be ashamed for the choices that I've made.

And so whether in suffering or in moments of prosperity, like my my hope and what I'm living for, my perspective is that I I want Jesus to be honored in my life.

See, Paul, he he just asks different questions from a place of suffering than I think we often ask.

At least I know the questions that I ask when I'm mad at God, when something's going on that I can't imagine why God would allow, you know, and there might be the questions that you ask too.

I think the questions that we ask when we're in suffering, often it's questions like, how could God allow this?

If God is good, if he's real, if he's all powerful, how how could this have happened?

You know, it's questions like, what did I do to deserve this?

How is this fair?

Uh questions like, how do I get out of this?

Like, how how do we just end this season that I've been in?

I I know I've asked those questions.

I imagine you asked those questions too.

Uh I don't think you should feel bad about that.

These are human questions to ask from suffering.

I have no doubt that Paul asked these questions too.

But these are also usually not the most helpful questions to ask.

And the reason is because they're almost always unanswerable.

You know, how could God allow this?

We don't know why God allows what he allows.

His ways are higher than our ways.

Sometimes we get a glimpse of an answer, but we never see the full picture.

You're not gonna know the answer to that on this side of eternity.

You know, what did I do to deserve this?

That's not even really how it works.

Sometimes you deserve exactly what you have coming to you.

A lot of times the suffering we experience in life, it's not because of anything that we did.

How do I get out of this?

Sometimes there's an answer to that, sometimes there's not.

Uh, Paul asks all these questions, but he clearly is asking some other questions as well.

When he reflects on what he's gone through, on what God has allowed to happen in his life, he's asking some other questions.

And I wonder what we could be asking in suffering as well.

Like, could we ask, how can God use this?

That question is clearly on Paul's mind as he looks around.

He says, Oh, look, look at how God used what I went through for the benefit of the kingdom, for the message of the gospel.

Look at how God has encouraged others through what I've experienced.

How could God be using what I'm going through?

Where can I see God's grace in this?

Even though I hate this, even though I would never choose this, where can I still see the evidence of the grace of an amazing God who loves me and never leaves me?

That's how Paul can talk about rejoicing even from this lowest moment.

Can I look for where God's grace is in this?

And what does God have for me in this?

How is God trying to grow me?

How is he shaping me using even these really hard things?

You know, Paul he talks about this conviction, this desire that when he sees Jesus face to face, he doesn't want to live a life.

That's a shame.

Like that hope is something that God has ingrained in him, that the Spirit has impressed on his soul through the suffering.

That is how actually Paul has that eternal perspective of the day that he's going to see Jesus, is because he's had to grow in his trust through the really hard stuff.

You know, how can God use even the stuff we wouldn't choose as he grows us and draws us closer to himself?

There's more than one perspective you can take in the midst of suffering.

And that leaves us with one last question.

It's an important one.

How do we shift our perspective?

It's much easier said than done if we're honest.

You know, I can stand up here all day and tell you like, you know, think about God's goodness, think about how God can use it, and we can talk about it.

But how do you actually do it?

I mean, when you're in the midst of something really hard, the emotion of that can be overwhelming and you can't choose your emotion.

I mean, you can't choose to just not be angry or to not be in grief, or and yet that's not how human beings were made.

Uh and yet, when that emotion is so powerful, it can feel like there's nothing we can do to shift our perspective.

And that actually isn't true either.

What does Paul point to in this verse?

He says, you know, I'm I'm sure that it's gonna lead to my salvation, that God's gonna rescue me from this current suffering.

He thinks of the, you know, the day he's gonna stand with Jesus face to face.

He points to two things that have helped him with that confidence.

Did you catch it?

He says, It's gonna happen through your prayers.

He's talking to the church in Philippi.

He says, I know that you guys are praying for me, that you're in this with me, and I'm so grateful for you helping me in this moment.

He says it's through your prayers and it's through the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

It's the family of God, and it's the Spirit of God.

That is how we can change our perspective.

And I just wonder if we have those same tools that Paul had.

Do you have the people in your life who are walking with you, who know the real stuff, where you can say in your hardest moment, I am so glad that you're praying for me in the middle of this.

I could not get this get through this if you weren't in this with me.

That's what the family of God is all about.

You know, do you have the habits and the practices in your life that are helping you to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit in you because of Jesus?

Because it isn't Paul's willpower, you know, it isn't his cheerful disposition that is giving him this different perspective.

He says, No, this is the Spirit of God working in me.

You know, this is what what church is all about is this these habits of the family of God and the spirit of God.

And so I hope that that you've found that here at Alderwood.

But if you haven't, I just want to invite you to take the next step of faith to lean in.

And maybe for you this morning, it's that that step of faith of just saying, you know what, I do need this.

Like I need to just come to church every week.

And maybe that hasn't been your habit.

Maybe you're one of the, you know, once in a blue moon kind of people, and that's okay.

But maybe this is the spirit of God inviting you to more than that.

You know, if you're gonna have an eternal perspective on life, you might need the encouragement of the family of God and the spirit of God through the word of God more than once every eight weeks.

Uh, and and so maybe that's the invitation.

Or maybe it's like, you know, I do come to church, but I don't have those relationships with the family of God.

I I don't have the people who I can say, I'm so glad you're praying for me.

Because the only way that that comes is if people really know your real life.

If they're in your life, if if you're you're sharing the real stuff, and if if you don't have that, maybe the step is to find that right now.

Or maybe it's those habits of helping you rely on the Holy Spirit.

It's getting up in the morning and opening up your Bible and spending even 10 minutes just reading the word, listening to the voice of the Spirit, reminding yourself that there's a bigger story than just what is is happening in your day that day.

You know, maybe it's it's giving your time away and serving here at Alderwood.

You know, that's actually a huge part of what serving is.

It's saying, uh, in this way, in this moment, in this time, I'm gonna step out of my story and what's going on, and I'm just gonna do something that's all about the story of God's work around me.

Whether that's holding babies in the nursery or welcoming people into our lobby or serving communion or you know, any of this stuff, like it's I need the reminder that there's something bigger than me going on.

Whatever it is, if we're going to live together following Jesus in a way that points the world to the reality of who he is.

If we're gonna endure even the hardest things in our life, not with despair, but with hope, then we're not gonna do it on our own.

Paul says, I uh I'm so grateful for the prayers of the family of God.

I'm so grateful for the Spirit of God in me.

Let's ask God to work in our lives in that exact same way as well.

Jesus, we come to you this morning and we come asking for a different perspective.

Um we bring you the hard stuff, uh the stuff that we wouldn't choose, and the stuff that's given us even doubt and anger towards you and all of that.

We know that you're big enough to handle it, God.

And so we ask by the power of your spirit in us um, would you help us not to ignore that reality, but also to believe that there's a bigger story, that you haven't left us, that you'll never forsake us, that you're at work even now, using everything in our life, the good and the bad, for your glory and for our good.

And and God, as we encourage one another in that, as we as we walk together, would you help us to build a community here that that you can use to draw people to yourself and to point to that eternal reality that you're real, that you're present, that you're redeeming the world, that your grace is real, your forgiveness is real, your future is real.

We need that more than anything.

And so we ask for it in the name of Jesus.

Amen.