If You Know, You Know

Today's message is called If You Know, You Know.

We didn't work that out, but that was perfect.

Well done, John.

All right.

Okay.

So I get this question a lot.

This is actually a pretty common question.

What does it actually mean to believe?

How do I know if I believe?

How do I know if I'm saved?

What is the what is this?

And then how do how do miracles and when I'm praying for something?

And how am I supposed to pray for miracles?

I hear I'm just supposed to believe God and pray, or pray and believe God.

How does this work?

Is it like Santa Claus where you put your miracle request into God and once a year he decides if you've been good or bad?

And is that how God works?

No, is it good?

Thanks.

Thank you.

You just answer that.

Thank you.

That was great.

Or is it like the miracle worker preachers that you see on TV?

Have you guys seen these um weirdos?

They uh they they use emotions, they get you really revved up, they're a lot of times really loud.

Say, oh they they think the loud that like somehow God is deaf, he's hard of hearing, and the louder you are, the more it shows you really mean it.

Is that what we're supposed to be all about?

They repeat phrases and words like mantra, like just over and over and over again.

Or man, are they trying to convince God to hear, or or worse, are they trying trying to twist his arm into giving a miracle?

And is this how it's supposed to work?

I want to I want to set the stage by just reminding you of last week we saw the Samaritans, Jesus came to the woman at the well, and the Samaritans they just believed.

And they believed, they truly believed in Jesus because of his own word.

Do you remember that?

They said, Yeah, we heard the woman, but be we believe because we heard your word, the Samaritans said.

And these are the last people that the Jews would have ever thought would uh believe or or obtain God's grace, right?

Um, and we're gonna see that today contrasted with the Galileans, who were like Jesus' uh neighbors.

That's where he grew up, basically.

And another person who you another believing person you may not expect towards the end of today.

And so John is gonna teach us today what it means to really believe.

He's gonna answer this question for us.

And the lesson that we're gonna learn today, I'm gonna give you right up front.

You don't have to wait till the end.

So if you want to check out now, and you can learn it now.

The word that gives life.

That's the lesson.

We'll see what it means as we go along.

Okay, so John chapter four, verse 43 is where we kick off today.

It says, Now, after two days, he departed from there.

Remember, he's in Samaria, you know, he's been visiting the people that the Jews hate.

And so he departed from there and went to Galilee.

For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

Okay, so Jesus is going to his own country, and he already knows, and we're gonna see this is the story, he gets rejected by his own people.

Verse 45.

So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also had gone to the feast.

So we'll pause right there, because it sounds like he's saying they received him.

But we'll see, they actually just received him at a surface level, not with their heart.

So that so we're learning about what is real believing, and we're gonna find out it's deeper than just a surface level, which we're gonna see is actually kind of connected with just wanting to see miracles.

Because that's what they that's what they saw in Jerusalem.

Okay, so Jesus leaves Samaria, you know, where they believed in in God through his word alone.

Jesus did no miracles in Samaria.

He didn't do any, he just talked to them and they believed.

And then he goes up to Galilee.

So he's in G Town now, where he grew up, and and they all know Jesus as the awkward teen, right?

Who, you know, he was also a carpenter who made suspect chairs, maybe, I don't know.

Who had brothers and sisters, and they didn't believe that this kid that they saw grow up was the Messiah.

They did not believe that.

They're like, that's just too hard to believe.

But Jesus has been getting really famous around the whole country.

There is no denying that.

So he's kind of like their claim to fame.

He's kind of like the Freddy Fender of San Benito.

Even so, Jesus, you know, they eat they even saw Jesus do miracles in at the feast this last year.

He did all kinds of signs and miracles, and and uh so like in verse 20 John 2, 23, it says this when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many people believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did.

Okay, so many people believed, but again, what kind of belief is this?

Well, we're we got to investigate, we got to figure out what's going on.

These people from Galilee, you know, they still don't think he's the life-giving Messiah.

Uh maybe he's a cool wizard or something, but he's our cool wizard.

So they're they they they kind of like him.

He's the talk of the town.

Everyone's like, Have you heard about what Jesus is doing?

This is crazy, you know, and they're kind of like, people are finally talking about us.

You know?

It's like, will the cowboys ever win a playoff game?

I don't, you know, maybe they'll talk about them then.

Welcome to the first weekend of football, where I will joke about the cowboys for the next 20 weeks and go Broncos.

Okay.

Like most people, okay, uh, they are looking for a spectacular deliverer as a messiah, with uh they're hoping smoke and lasers.

You know, they're they're hoping power.

They want to crush Rome, they want to get out from this tyranny that they've been living under.

And it seems like this Jesus guy is always concerned with pesky internal character issues and love and even loving enemies.

And this is not like he's just not even close to for these Galileans of what they're picturing when they so, in other words, you know, they are looking for flash and they miss out on who Jesus actually is.

They want blessings without relationship, they want signs and wonders and miracles, but that not the message that he brings.

They don't want to listen to his words.

They want miracles only he can do, but they need the life that only he can give.

And I'm gonna show you how this connects with the other three Gospels.

So we're gonna break away from John.

We're gonna go see how this exact same situation is described in the other three gospels, because it's gonna give you more insight, more understanding and context to what's going on.

So we'll start in Matthew chapter 13, verse 54.

Matthew 13:54

When he had come into his own country, Galilee, G town, he taught in their synagogue.

So they were astonished and said, Who where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?

Is this not the carpenter's son?

Is not his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and his sisters, are they not all with us?

I thought Mary had no other kids.

No, she actually had lots of other kids, as we see in the Bible.

Verse 56, and his sisters, are they not all with us?

Where where did this man get all these things?

So they were offended at him.

But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.

Now he did not do many mighty works because of their unbelief.

When you only want Jesus for what he can do for you, he can't do very much for you.

When you want Jesus only for what he can do for you, he can't do very much for you.

He wants to, he's his intended goal is to bless you, to provide for you, to care for you.

But all of that is kind of locked behind this thing called relationship.

Specifically, a relationship of grace.

He loves to provide for his children, but the only way God works is through faith.

That's how grace works.

So if we do not truly trust him, we're not gonna see the gracious miracles God wants to do in our lives.

It all has to do with trust.

Everything God wants to give you is obtained by trust.

Everything God has already given you is accessed by trust, by faith.

It is never based on what you perform, how you how you religious you are, or the things that you you give up or sacrifice.

That's not, you can't twist God's arm by yelling and screaming or smoking lasers.

It does not work.

He sees to the heart of every person, and he knows our hearts.

It's never about performance, it's never about earning miracles, or it's never about our religious works, it's never about the boxes that we check.

Miracles do happen, and they're a byproduct of a deep, patient, tested, exclusive faith and trust in Jesus.

That's what they how they work.

It's how it works.

And when we have something we need, our only option is to bring it right to Jesus and ask him for his help.

And I'd like to share with you guys a personal story, not my personal, but of a story I heard literally 10 minutes before we started this service today.

And, you know, uh our brother Brett, where are you, Brett?

Hey Brett.

Brett Brett came in, Brett's been coming for a while, and we've been spending time in the Word, and um, but as you know, Brett has a disability where he's he's blind and um mostly like 99% or something.

And um, but he's had this major, major, major pain in his eyes.

Major pain.

And um he was telling me a story that uh we we've been chatting about this, and we've been spending time connecting him with Jesus and learning about God's grace, and and so that's that's he's invested in that relationship, and and he's learned that I, you know, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, and I trust in the Lord.

Um, but he had this pain, and so he decided I'm gonna start asking Jesus to take this pain.

And he says he just prayed and he had a lot of pain.

I mean, he said it was debilitating, really, really bad pain in eyeballs.

And I can't imagine eyeball pain.

That's probably the worst kind of pain, you know, that it's very, very awful.

And he just, you know, laid on his bed and just prayed, and for hours he said, just prayed.

And he felt the pain go away as an as an answer to his prayer.

And fully unbelievable.

And this is where people say, Amen.

Praise the Lord, amen.

Right?

Praise the Lord.

Jesus, thank you so much for doing that for Brett.

And I share that story, and you can go talk with Brett, and he will certainly tell you the details of it and how flabbergasted he was, and how how uh, but also how confident he was that Jesus loved him and was not doing this to hurt him, but to reveal his own power in Brett's life.

And I know that's that's Brett's attitude about it.

And uh, so I encourage you, talk to Brett.

He's a he's a beautiful young man of faith.

So um, okay, well, let's now go to Mark and see how Mark talks about this situation.

In Mark 6, it says he went out from there and came to his own country, and is remember, this is Galilee, and his disciples followed him.

And when the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things?

And what wisdom is this which has been given to him, and such mighty works are performed by his hands?

Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon?

Are there not his sisters here with us?

So they were offended at him.

But Jesus said to him, A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, in his own house.

Now he could do no mighty work there, except he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

And he mar this is the the key word, verse six, and he marveled because of their unbelief.

Then he went about the villages in a circuit teaching.

He marveled because of their unbelief.

I grew up with you guys.

How can you not know who I am?

Jesus would say How could you not uh you grew up with me?

Did I ever steal your baseball?

Did I ever say an um did I ever sin?

And and and this is like they knew him as a teenager, which is mind-blowing.

This would be the greatest testimony in the world.

He literally never sinned, he was God in human form, even as a young man.

But here's the problem Jesus never drew attention to himself.

So yeah, they knew who he was, but Jesus never tooted his own horn.

He never said, Look how amazing I am.

He was truly humble.

And that is just not normal for humans.

Even though he's the picture of humility, that's why people didn't recognize him.

Because for them, they're looking for someone pride, someone who has authority in a way that's revealed through pride.

I'm the boss, I'm gonna deliver you all, I'm gonna take care of business, I'm gonna kick out the Romans, I'm gonna do all these things.

And Jesus refused to behave in any way that lifted himself up.

Because they didn't recognize him.

Now in Luke chapter 4, same story, different words, he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as the custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up and read.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

And a book was handed to him of the prophet Isaiah.

And when he opened the book, he found the place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because it he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

Then he closed the book, gave it back the attendant, and he sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

And he began to say to them, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

So all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.

And they said, Is this not Joseph's son?

And he said to them, You will surely say this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself.

Whatever we have done in Capernaum, do whatever we have done in Capernaum, do also in your country.

So what is he saying?

He's saying that they're they're getting jealous of him, they're gonna get jealous of him, because he's getting famous in all these other parts of the world.

Verse 24.

Then he said, Assuredly I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.

But I tell you, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land.

But to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarehpath in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow, and many lepers in Israel were in the time of Elisha the prophet, and to none of and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and they rose up and thrust him out of the city, and they led him out to the brow of a hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff.

Then he passed through their midst of them and went his way.

So Jesus' home church tried to murder him.

That's what happened.

When Jesus insists, I am the Messiah, and I'm gonna heal your broken hearts, and I care about everybody, and I even care about those smelly Gentiles.

I care so much about them.

I have come to heal everybody.

I am the only source of life, Jesus says.

I'm the only source of life.

These people, his people cannot receive that message because they're stuck looking for a miracle.

They're not hearing the words, they're looking for a sign and a miracle.

Smoke and lightning is what they prefer.

Not a humble man who loves the whole world.

That guy doesn't check their boxes.

You know, Jesus has come to them, he's revealed himself to them, but they will not believe without another miracle, even though they already saw him do miracles, even though he's already proved that.

Why do they need just another, just one more miracle?

Because they already don't believe.

They won't receive.

That's the problem.

To be honest, a miracle isn't gonna help them anyway because they'll just say, well, show me another miracle.

Well, but if you but then you could show me another miracle, and then you could show me another miracle.

You see, miracles don't matter, they don't make people believe in the heart.

Now they can be logical, you know, it can it can affect you, affect you, but it doesn't touch the heart because belief comes from the heart.

But when someone else hears about Jesus, his actions prove that he already believes.

Look back at our text in John.

He says, So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine.

You remember that was the first miracle in the book of John.

This is now going to be the second miracle in the book of John.

This doesn't mean it's the first miracle in Jesus' life, it's just in the book of John, because John was written in a very specific way.

He gives us seven miracles that show seven things.

Okay.

So there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum, 30 miles away.

30 miles away.

Remember that.

30 miles away.

How far is what city is 30 miles from here?

Brownsville?

Okay.

Great.

And when he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him.

He went to him is a very short three words in English.

But I want you to picture, he got up and walked from Brownsville to here.

That's a long walk, right?

That would take you a full day, if not more.

He went to him and implored him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

Then Jesus said to him, Unless you people Well, that's interesting.

That's an interesting way to phrase it, Jesus.

Who's he really talking to?

Is he talking to this guy?

No, he's not talking to this guy.

He's talking to the Galileans who were watching all this happen.

Okay.

Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.

So he's talking to them.

You have a belief problem, guys.

Verse 49 the nobleman said to her, Sir, come down before my child dies.

Okay, so he's back in Cana, right?

Where the first he did the first miracle turning water into wine, uh, where that symbolized transforming the entire church.

Jewish religious system that was based on rules and laws, and there was the purifying pots of water, and you had to do all these things to be cleansed.

And he transformed the whole thing into life-giving wine.

So it was just new life, is what it represented.

I'm going to change the whole dead system of religion and I'm making it into a new system of grace.

It was the new grace order that he was bringing.

And so it was all about new life, the new covenant of new life.

And this rogue life giver is back and in Cana, which is very unique.

And this nobleman has a crisis.

So he needs life.

So he walks 30 miles to ask Jesus for life.

Okay.

Not for himself, but for his son.

That's faith.

Okay.

So this nobleman already believes because you don't walk 30 miles for no reason.

Have you ever walked 30 miles?

If you added up all the walking you did in the last year, is it 30 miles?

I don't know.

Maybe not.

My dad is like an addicted to walking and he walks like seven to ten miles a day.

So last year he walked like 1600 miles or like from Hobbiton to Mordor.

That entire way.

Lord of the Rings, quote number two, today.

All right.

Okay, so 30 miles.

And let me say, let me tell you and promise you, you do not take one step on that journey unless you believe that there's something there.

Unless you believe that Jesus is who he said he is.

Because every step you take towards Jesus is a step away from what?

Your son.

The miracle that you need.

But the problem is if you stay there, the only help your son has is you.

And you don't have the power to give life.

So you have this immediate severing of self-trust by taking a step towards Jesus.

You have to say, I can't help that.

I cannot bring life.

I cannot deliver, I can't do the mirror, I can't bring what's needed in the situation.

So this guy had 30 miles of steps to be like, Jesus can help.

Jesus will help.

I believe.

Because anytime he didn't believe, you know what he did?

Ah, I gotta go back.

I'm gonna go to Jesus.

Ah, I gotta go back.

Does that remind you of your life in any times?

That's why Jesus says come to me.

All you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

But guys, we have to step away from trusting in ourselves.

Sometimes we have to walk 30 miles.

Sometimes our self-trust is so dominant in our life that God's like, keep coming.

Come here.

Keep coming.

We gotta get all the way over here.

Come on, all the way over here.

Why do you make me come so why do you make me go so far where I'm uncomfortable, where I'm not in control, where all I have is you.

That's why.

We have to let go of our self-sufficiency.

And that is the door of his grace.

That's the door we walk through, is when we say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna come to you.

We go through this door of grace.

And you call that we call that humility.

Saying, I can't fix this problem is humility.

And humility is always linked to faith.

That's that's what what it means to be a Christian.

Humility and faith, humility and faith, faith and humility, F and H, however you want to remember it.

Faith and humility.

That's how this all works.

It says, I cannot save myself, but I've come to you because I believe you can.

How many miracle teachers that are out there by their preaching actually cause you to think about yourself more than you did even before?

Test your teachers, test the preachers that you listen to, test it.

Is this causing me to go into Jesus' presence and exclusively trust in him?

Or is this causing me to think about my life, my difficulties, and all the things I really just need God to prove himself to me?

This is not a polished religious performance that this guy is bringing to Jesus.

He comes with a real need, and Jesus does not require him to become worthy or to promise him, you know, I'm gonna go to church all the time or I'm gonna give this money.

He doesn't promise perfect behavior or to complete some ritual.

Jesus never does any of that stuff.

He simply speaks life to this guy with, and here's our lesson today.

His words, the words of Jesus, don't just speak life, but they actually deliver life when he speaks them.

And life is actually the thing that's needed.

Look at verse 50.

Then Jesus said to him, Go your way, your son lives.

Life.

Life.

So then the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and they went his way.

The man believed the miracle or the word.

The man believed the word and he went his way.

He believed the word and went his way.

And as he was going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Your son lives.

Then he inquired at the then the hour that he got better, and they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.

So the father knew that it was at the same hour that Jesus said, Your son lives.

And he himself believed, which we already knew, and his whole household.

That's new.

And this again is the second sign which Jesus did when he had come out of Judea into Galilee.

So this is what happens when the authoritative word of Jesus is spoken.

Jesus does not need to touch the child, he doesn't need to travel to Capernaum or perform a ceremony.

His word is enough.

We're saying that with meaning.

His word is enough.

The Samaritans, remember, yes, last week, the Samaritans took him at his word and they believed and they received life.

The Galileans focused on signs and miracles, and they got nothing.

He said he could do nothing really miraculous there.

The nobleman believed, this nobleman believed his word, and he also received the miracle that he needed at the same time.

And I can prove it to you because the time it says it was seventh hour yesterday, that means it's the next day.

He could have already been home if he was rushing.

But you know what?

He was chill.

He's like, I'll take a day getting back.

That was a long walk from Brownsville.

I'm gonna take my time, I'm gonna eat at White Sands and stay the night at the Casa Rosa.

Don't ever stay there.

Um churches focus on getting the miracle.

Other churches focus on teaching God's word.

Choose wisely.

Choose wisely.

I'm not saying miracles are wrong.

Like I want signs and miracles are supposed to follow belief.

Faith.

And we should absolutely pray with the most faith for signs and for miracles.

Ask God to do.

But we have to seek him in his word first.

In John chapter 20, John teaches us why he wrote it this way.

John 20 · chapter mention

He says, And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

Why not?

I you know what I always think when I read that?

Well, I wish he would have written them down because I'd like to know about all the miracles because they're fun, they're cool.

But he says, But these, he wrote seven in his book, these seven are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.

Believe.

Not surface level, but I need you to believe that he's the Christ from the heart, the Son of God, and that believing, now he so believe was in the past, and then believing is now in the present tense, you may have life in his name.

So this is the second of the seven miracles in John, and it's written so you can believe Jesus is the source of life, and you have the opportunity to believe in him today.

If anyone believes in him, you get life.

That's how it works.

Believing gets life.

And the life is delivered through his word, not through your actions, not through your deeds, not through your commitment.

In your heart, if you say, I believe, Jesus, you are the source of life.

I believe in your sacrifice for me, he delivers his life to you at his word.

And life in all its forms.

Joy is a description of life that Jesus gives.

Purpose is a description of the life that Jesus gives.

You have a purpose.

You are fulfilled, you are satisfied.

That is a description of the life that Jesus gives.

You start to serve God's body, the people around you, your family.

That's a description of the life Jesus gives.

You have great pleasure in all that you do.

That's a description of the life that you have a family now in the body of Christ.

That's a description of the life that Jesus gives.

Any other expression of life that you can think of is yours in and through Jesus alone.

Because he is the life and he is the word.

And if you know, you know.

If you know him as your life, you know his word.

And if you know his word, you can know him as your life.

You're like, that's weird.

It's like circular reasoning, but I'm telling you, this is how to think about it.

Look at first John chapter five.

He says, He who believes in the Son, you know, has the witness in himself.

And he who does not believe, God has made him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his son.

So there's this if you believe, you believe in your heart that Jesus is true, then that's that's what we're looking for here.

And if you don't believe, it's it's not real on the inside.

Verse 11 and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son.

That's what we believe.

If you believe it, you have it.

If you know, you know.

If you believe Jesus is the source of life, that life is given to you.

Then he says, verse 12, he who has the Son has life.

He who does not have the Son does not have life.

These things I have written to you that you may believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may continue, uh, that sorry, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

So here he says there's a really important word continue.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I I made a decision in 1995 to believe in Jesus.

Great.

But you're a jerk now.

Why?

Well, there's a continue part.

We have to continue to believe.

God's not going to abandon you.

And we're not talking about losing salvation, but we're talking about your life producing the fruit that it needs to produce.

What does it mean to continue to believe?

What does that mean?

Where do you delight?

If you delight in the presence of Jesus, in the presence of God, you're making a decision to walk those 30 miles to seek life at the feet of Jesus.

Believing is a continuous thing.

It's a continual thing, it's a present-tense thing.

It's not that Christians must continually produce stronger faith to persuade Jesus to act or bless us or transform us.

What this shows us is that Jesus is trustworthy and it's his word that gives life.

So, yes, you believed in Jesus when you first became a Christian.

You believed his word.

But when was the last time you went back to him for his word and you said, I'm gonna believe what I read here, I'm gonna believe what I hear.

Those continual decisions are the gym that we go to to work out our faith muscle.

God wants your faith to grow, to grow strong.

And it always happens through his word, through his word.

And not just reading it like it's my chore, but reading it saying, what does it say?

And am I going to choose to believe it today?

Am I gonna choose to believe it?

It says, Do not worry.

Well, that's for other people.

I'm not gonna believe that for me.

I'm gonna make the choice to continue to worry.

It says, blah, blah, blah, you just take him at his word and say, Am I going to believe it today?

His word gives life to all who believe it.

If you want to know how to get God's blessings and God's miracles and how to see that in your life, the answer is read the Bible, hear it, and believe it, and the blessings will flow.

It's always by faith that we obtain what God has given us.

Salvation itself is received by believing in Him, not by earning everything.

So all the blessings that we can have, as we wrap it up here, are obtained simply by His Word giving us that life.

So you don't have to seek miracles.

You don't.

Seek to believe his word with your whole heart.

And watch what the word of God will do to deliver you.

It will deliver God's grace into your life.

The word of God is so vital for us.

It will be miraculous.

If you know, you know.

Father, we give our our attention to you and to your word as we as we come to church on Sundays.

Not because this is our religious duty, not because we um need something from you.

God, we need everything from you.

We need our whole life to be flowing from you.

You are the source of every good and perfect gift.

You are the source of life, and your word delivers that to us.

And God, I thank you so much for every single person here who has taken the time to hear your words and to um, and and Lord, we let just your spirit just test us.

Are we one of those people like his friends that we've gotten so familiar with Jesus, that Jesus is just the guy we go to on Sundays?

Jesus is just a guy.

But no, Jesus, you are the source of life.

And I pray that this would not be like your hometown where we're just too familiar with you, where we can't put our hope in you, we can't, we can't come to you and and throw ourselves before you and say, Give me life, like the noblemen did.

Jesus, keep us from being too familiar with you, but help us, Lord, to truly know who you are and believe it.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.