How to Experience the Joy of Sanctification (John 17)

In a world filled with uncertainty and distractions, how can we find true joy? This Sunday, we will explore the transformative process of sanctification—being made holy through God’s power—and how it leads to lasting joy in every area of our lives. Discover how God’s Word, His protection, and following Jesus’ example can bring you closer to Him and fill your heart with joy. 

NOTES:

Rockwell Church     Sept 22, 2024     Pastor Chris Teien
How to Experience Sanctification that Leads to Joy
John 17:13-19

#1 Sanctification Comes Through God’s WORD (John 17:17)

#2 Sanctification is a Lifelong PROCESS (John 17:19)

#3 Sanctification Protects Us from the WORLD (John 17:14-16)

#4 Sanctification Prepares us to be USEFUL to God (John 17:18)

#5 Sanctification Leads to True JOY (John 17:13)

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

I want to talk again about sanctification and following Jesus. And I'm going through the book of John, and we've landed in John chapter 17, and we're in Jesus' high priestly prayer. And so in that it was kind of divided into three parts glorification, sanctification, and unification. And so last week, because we were having a membership meeting, I talked about uh being unified as Christ followers, unified as the church. Jesus had prayed. This is a prayer time that he's having with his father because he knows that his time here is basically done. So after the prayer, he's gonna head out. Judas Iscariot is gonna give a snitch on his location and get the ball rolling towards the crucifixion. But Jesus is praying. It's a great example to us that no matter what stage we are in life, that we should constantly be praying, praying about the future, praying for our needs, praying that God would be glorified, praying that the people around us would grow in Christ. People around us would continue to pursue Christ. So Jesus prays to be glorified, Jesus prays for his disciples, Jesus prays for all believers. So uh first I'm gonna read the passage of John chapter 17, verses 13 through 19. So Jesus is praying to his Heavenly Father, like I said. So Jesus says, I am coming to you, Father, now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. All right, sanctification comes through God's word. So the passage says that we should talk about sanctification, and actually did talk about sanctification on March 5th, 2023. There was a message on Romans chapter 6, a great passage to talk about sanctification that you could reference and go back to if you want. So uh, you know, I have like, I don't know, 150 messages on the Rockwell um podcast and video platform. So I've also carried about 177 messages from the past that are available on Spreaker, like speaker with an R, Spreaker.com, that can be accessed. And the reason that I do it is because I don't have time to cover every topic over and over again. So sometimes people might want to hear about marriage, sometimes people want to hear about heaven, sometimes people want to hear about creation, and they can go back and reference that stuff because it's there. And so it's from a voice you can trust, mine. All right, anyway, it's it's it's a resource. You know, just just real quick, um, we don't get a ton of listens on the Rockwell podcast site. Um, in my other church, we got a lot more listens, but we didn't do video. And here we do video, and so maybe that's why it's less, don't really know why. And I was just thinking, you know, oh, it's kind of a lot of work, you know, why bother? But then we got this thing on our website from this girl in California that said, I'm a teenager, and I was struggling with sharing my faith, and I just want you to know the messages on your website have encouraged me to share my faith. Thank you. So it's like, yeah, we'll just keep paying the$12 a month because that's worth it to somebody. So it's out there. And all right, but sanctification is a big deal. Sanctification is us being set apart to God. So it is uh the Greek word means to set apart or to make holy. Jesus is asking the Father to set his disciples apart for a holy purpose through the truth. All right, so sanctification comes through God's word. Sanctification comes partly through, you know, what the Spirit does in life, partly through the choices that we make, but the information that we need to be sanctified in Christ, to be set apart to Christ is found in God's word, and we need to spend time in God's word so that it transforms us, so it changes us, so we have the information that we need. It's really easy for us to copy someone else's Christianity. You know, a lot of kids in their homes will do what they know to do to make peace in the house. You know, they know the rules, they know the Christian subculture in which they live, and in which their parents, you know, expect that we pray before meals and we, you know, uh have devotions and everything. And so they will assimilate that to keep everybody happy, but they may not have true Christian faith. So they might just be going through the motions, imitating what they see without a true faith in Christ. And then when they get on the on their own, then you start to see if they truly do have faith in Christ or if they are just trying to follow after their parents' expectations to keep peace in the house so that they can get their allowance, so that they can get the privileges they want, and so they can, you know, keep everybody happy. And so if you can find a way to make sure that your Christian your kids' faith is their own before they leave your house, that's a great thing. A godly um professor at Crown College said that a lot of kids growing up in Christian homes will go through spiritual adolescence where they like push back, they like rebel, they question if what they've been taught is true. You know, sometimes it's kids, sometimes it's teenagers, sometimes it's people in their 40s and 50s that do that. But there's a time when they question, there's a time when they wonder, there's a time when they struggle with their faith. And he said, while it might be embarrassing for me, a Christian college professor, to have a rebellious kid, you know, going through his spiritual adolescence, I'd much rather have it happen in my house while he's with us, that younger age, so we can know one, it's going so we can know what's going on, and two, we can, you know, address it and help them through it, as opposed to them living on their own, you know, being far away where we can't do anything about it. So I don't know if you should pray for your kids to go through that period uh while they're in your house. That sounds kind of tough. But on the other hand, um, do everything you can to make sure that your kids know what it is to truly know Christ. We try to uh teach that to them in Sunday school and the youth group and stuff like that. And so it is good when we can influence students and all young Christians, whether however whatever their age is for Christ. So um don't have many products to share. It's always the same ones over and over again. I mean, I know lots of great books and lots of great audiobooks and everything, but as far as buying them by the case, uh it would get overwhelming. So we're back to the How to Find God New Testaments, in which it is packed full of notes. And if you wanted to take a new believer and help disciple them, you could literally use this$3.50 paperback book to help them to grow in Christ. And as they read through it, there's all sorts of notes to help them to understand. It's in the New Living translation, which is easier to read. And the reason that it's good is because it helps the reader to apply it to their life, it helps them to see what scripture says in a way that's understandable and then to know what they need to do, know how they should apply it to their life. And that's why it's a handy tool. And then we have lots of other translations that they can, after, you know, maybe they started on this, they can move up then to like the Christian Standard Bible or the English Standard Bible, the New American Standard Bible or the ones that are more um uh translated word for word, like the Greek word says this and the English word says this. It's not as easy to read, a little harder to understand, but sanctification comes through God's word. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. We live in a society where it's really hard to tell what in the world is the truth. I watch the news now and I just don't know what's true. It seems to me that the newscasters are reading a script, but the script has been sent across the nation and across the world. I've literally seen some news story, and then I've searched it and I found all the news and networks and the newspapers and everything all have the same headline. It's like, so is it true or isn't it? Are they trying to spin a reality in an election season? What is truth? God's word is truth. We can trust God's word is truth when it's rightly interpreted, rightly divided, rightly applied. Jesus wanted his disciples and those who would come after them, the future disciples, to be sanctified, to set up to be set apart to God through the word. And we have the word, and it is a great thing. It is a great thing to have the word of God. Hebrews 4 12 says the word of God is alive and powerful. It's sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Have you ever had times when you're in God's Word and you're like, oh, I definitely need to change something in my life, or this definitely is a motivating verse to get me off of my seat and to do something radical to serve Jesus. It really is a passage that speaks to me. The Holy Spirit helps apply and convict and help you to take that word that you read and use it, to stand on the promises of God, to be self-correcting because of the things of God, to live out the word of God. So it's sad when we don't spend any time in the Word of God. Satan wants to do everything he can to keep you from reading God's word, because he knows it will transform you and change you and sanctify you. In Psalm 119, verse 9, it says, How can a young person stay on the path of purity by living according to your word? I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. You know, spending time in Scripture, even memorizing Scripture, can really help you. It can help give you confidence in your time of need, can help give you the right words to say to other people that are around you that God is going to use you to help. Sometimes the Holy Spirit brings verses that you've memorized or are familiar with to mind during that time. It is a good thing. And so we need to spend more time in God's Word. Y'all know that. Um, but you can listen to God's Word. Uh the U Version Bible app does a good job of you pick a plan and then you can read it, or you can listen to it, or both, and then you can do the little check boxes. Say it's a seven-day reading plan, you can check it off. And if you don't check into the app, it will send you a reminder and say, hey, don't forget to read your Bible. And then if you for some reason fell behind, because sometimes that happens, you can push the button that says catch me up, and then it will like reset itself and you can keep going that way. There's just so many different ways. You can print out a Bible reading plan with check marks and things like that. But spending time in God's word is transformational. Spending time in God's word can change your life. We need to prioritize Bible reading and scripture memorization and allow God's word to change us and transform us. You know, Timothy in the New Testament, Timothy grew up learning the scriptures which shaped his faith and character, and Paul reminded him to continue in the truth of God's word as a source of strength and sanctification. So that's in 2 Timothy 3, 14 to 17. But I'm not going to read that because I need to move on to sanctification is a lifelong process. Sanctification is a lifelong process. So there is the initial or positional sanctification. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, he is immediately set apart to God permanently once for all. Sanctified, set apart to Christ positionally. Then there's the progressive sanctification. The true believer makes a determined and disciplined effort to allow the Spirit of God to set him apart day by day. The Spirit of God takes him and conforms him to the image of Christ more and more, and this growth takes place as long as the believer walks upon this earth. And then there is the eternal sanctification. The day is coming when the believer will be perfectly set apart unto God in his service without any sin or failure whatsoever. That day will be the great and glorious day of the believer's eternal redemption. So we are in the progressive sanctification part, the part where we know, well, hopefully, we know that we need something more. We need something more than just salvation. Some people see salvation as like a fire insurance, like Jesus died on the cross. I'm glad he did, because I heard that if I uh confess my sin and receive him into my life, that I'll get, I'll escape hell and be with Jesus for all eternity in heaven. Uh there's really no other options that I've heard of. That's a pretty good deal. I think I'll do that. Um, but as you are in the Word, as you spend time with God and hopefully other influential Christians, um, you might end up like I did. I wasn't really totally led into it, but um I was in high school and I just felt it was the right thing to do. One day I just prayed. I'm like, Lord, thank you for saving me. Thank you for coming into my life and starting to change me. I want more of you. I know that you are Lord, but I want to make you the Lord, King, ruler, guide of my life, and I want to do whatever it is that you want me to do with my life. I commit my life to whatever that is. And to my great shock and supply and surprise, uh, shortly I felt like God was calling me to be a pastor of some kind. I didn't even know what that really meant. You know, youth pastor, associate pastor, pastor, pastor, I don't know. But the process started with me saying, Lord, I want more of you. I want to set myself apart for you. I want to uh live in your way. Please guide me and direct me. I want to go where you want me to go. I want to serve where you want me to serve. So and so they've taken me to Iowa, and I quickly repented of being in Iowa, and I shot back into Minnesota, far into the northland, into Chisholm, and then we strayed back down south of the cities again. Actually, God was leading us to these places, and then 20 years exactly to the date he brought us right back up to the Iron Range where God's people live. So, and here we are. Here we are. It's been actually three years now that uh I showed up here, and I'm still in the process. I'm still growing, I'm still learning. We all are. We all are. Sometimes our experiences can make us bitter and sad and make us want to quit. And other times our experiences, even the hard ones, make us more enduring, make us more resolute, make us more powerful to do the things of God. And sanctification is a lifelong process. Jesus says, For them I sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified. Jesus did everything the Father wanted him to do. Jesus was the perfect example. Jesus lived a perfect life. Jesus is the perfect example of holiness. And when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we don't just get a free pass to get to heaven, a free ticket to heaven, and a free escape from hell card. Instead, we receive Jesus Christ's righteousness and holiness as he takes our sinfulness. And the question is, is what are we going to do with that? Are we going to act upon that? Are we going to live as if our lives matter, as if we have been changed? In Philippians chapter 1, verse 5, Paul writes, For you've been my partners and spreading the good news about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ returns. As a Christ follower, if you are truly in Christ, following Christ, you should see that your life is progressively changing. You should look back and be able to see that the things that you used to do or you didn't know weren't holy or whatever, um, that the Spirit convicted you of that and you've changed and you're constantly becoming more like Christ. Hopefully, that's the way that it's working. You're you like get some sin on you and you confess it. You um were heading the wrong direction, uh, you're kind of wandering around, and then you got back on the straight and narrow. You were following Christ, and hopefully, as you spend each and every day of your life, you'll find new reasons and new ways to honor God through the things that you choose to do with your time. You might be stuck at home watching because you can't get to church, and maybe you are active in ministry before, but now you can't be. So maybe now your ministry is prayer and calling people and encouraging people and um doing what you can do. So maybe you have opportunities that you didn't have before. If you're retired, you have more time to do things for the kingdom of God, or maybe your work situation has changed and you've gone from being the um like entry-level employer, employee that you know nobody respects to being the boss. And you all have opportunities to do things, to help people to find Jesus, to help people to grow in their faith, to help them to grow in their knowledge of the things of God, to pray about it and see what the Lord brings to mind. It was a good thing to do. So, but we're sanctified through the truth, we're sanctified as we choose to follow after Christ, we're sanctified through the spirit. And it is awesome when we can follow after Christ. The people around us in the world that don't know Christ, um, it's kind of not a hundred percent their fault because their eyes are veiled. They're not, they don't see the spiritual things, they don't understand the spiritual things because they haven't been made a new creation, they haven't received Christ as their savior, they haven't received the Holy Spirit. Second Corinthians 3.18. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord, and the Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image. Do you reflect Christ? Do you follow after the Lord and glorify him in everything that you do? Do you see how the veil was removed and now you can see spiritual things? Just, you know, as time has gone on and my thoughts have changed about things, I the movie at Christmas time is coming up, and you know, it's a wonderful life, is a pretty good movie overall. Matter of fact, the first time I ever saw it was at a Bible college at Tennessee Temple University, a independent Baptist Bible college. But as the years have gone on and I watch the movie, I'm like, you know, it's really not that great of a movie. You know, the Clarence the Angel really has some self-esteem and theology issues, and Georgia has a drinking problem, and um, you know, it's just all this stuff kind of rolls out. It's like it's not that great of a movie. So, but compared to the movies that were being offered, and compared to my experience with movies at the time when I first saw it, I was like, this is the greatest movie ever. And so I don't know what you think about movies like that, but um just know that as you continue to grow in Christ, that your insight, your knowledge, the things that you think, you know, might might change um for the good. So number three, sanctification protects us from the world. So as you know, uh I've been with the Baptist General Conference or Converge, you know, my basically my whole adult life, but I took a 20-year stint to go plant a church for the Christian and missionary alliance, which was planted by A. B. Simpson, a missionary. And those people, they didn't, they're not Simpsonites, they don't follow every word A.B. Simpson ever said, but he is the one who started uh a movement of missionaries and churches. Actually, the missions, uh the people there are reaching for Christ weren't really welcome in their local churches, so they kind of like started their own fellowships. And what would come of that is the Christian and missionary alliance and the assemblies of God. They both Kind of went in different directions because one group said, Well, you might speak in tongues. Another group said, No, you will speak in tongues. And there was a divide over that. So both of those groups look at A. V. Simpson as their founder. A guy that was just basically faithful. Faithful to proclaim Christ to the immigrants, the Italian immigrants on the docks of New York and in other places. Anyway, in his book, Holy Sanctified, he writes, sanctification means our voluntary separation from evil. It is not the extinction of evil, it is the putting off, the laying aside of evil by detaching of ourselves from it and placing an impassable gulf between us and it. We are to separate ourselves not only from our past sins, but from sin as a principle of life. We are not to try to improve and gradually ameliorate, never use that word, our unholy condition. We are to put off the old life, acting as if it were no longer ourself, and separating it from our sinful self as the wife is divorced from her husband, and as the soul is separated from the body by death. We are to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, just as much as though we were no longer the same person, and the old heart was no longer that true self. And I talked a lot about that in that mention in that message that I mentioned at the beginning from Romans chapter 6, and I don't have time to cover that again. But sanctification protects us from the world. Jesus says again, I've given them your word, and the world has hated them, and they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. So it's not the individuals in the world and the land around us on the planet Earth. It's the world system that is the problem. It is the godless world system who does everything to do everything they can to go against the things of God and to promote humanity and everything else, or selfishness, or greed, or whatever. And so when we're truly sanctified in Christ, that helps us to live as citizens of heaven. That helps us to live separated from the world. Now, some people take separated from the world a little too far, like maybe Amish people or some Mennonite people who say, you know, we don't want any worldly frills, so we're just not going to participate in that. And, you know, maybe that's a peaceful way to live. I don't know. I don't really know how they choose uh what they're gonna take from the world or not, because I see these Amish, and I'm not sure, you know, what group of Amish they are, but you know, I see Amish out there and they're old cars and they're like, we're not using technology, but we're fixing the barn, so we better get some of those big hydraulic lifts because those are important. And it's like, okay, how did you decide that the that the big hydraulic lift was not a frill? So, but it is it is a good tool to use. So anyway, I think that we should be in the world, but we don't have to accept its worldly system. So we can dress in a way that people don't ridicule us, but we should dress clean and modestly. We can um, you know, enjoy the arts and things of the world without getting sucked into it or the evil side of it. So um Jesus says, My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They're not of the world, even as I am not of it. And just to remember, our place, our place is in Christ. So we participate in the world. I think that you should still be good citizens. I think that you should still vote if you have opportunities to lead our country and in politics or education or anything else, you should get involved in that. So you should do everything that you can to be an ambassador for Christ as you live among the people in the world, but not get sucked into the world system. In Romans 12, too, we're told to be not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. So we do that. We think about that. We think about okay, um, how is the word of God transforming me? How is my life being modified and changed as I am being set apart for the things of God? And it is a good thing to know who we are in Christ, in our position in Christ. So number four, sanctification prepares us to be useful to God. Sanctification prepares us to be useful for God. So Jesus prayed, As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. So see, we're still supposed to be serving Christ in the world without accepting the world system. So the question is, is what do you want to do? How do you want to be used by God? Is there something in you that wishes, that desires that God would use you to do something great? How will you live your life? Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 20, he says, In a wealthy home, some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you'll be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the master to use you for every good work. Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. Again, I say don't get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. So it's kind of a list of the way that you should live your life. Do you want to be that clean, honorable utensil that God is ready to use for good things? So do you think about, you know, the things that you choose to do? Is your life the way that you live your life? Can God bless that? Can God use you? There's a lot of people that seem to be, we read in the news, or at least Christian news, um, pastors getting disqualified for things that they that they're doing that shouldn't be done. Um, I know a kid in our youth group um grew up to become a pilot. And so soon, after he got all of his hours, soon he was flying a commercial airline pilot. He went from flying packages to people. And now I think that he's making like international flights or whatever. And so we were talking, and he was telling me that he needed to get a bunch of hours, you know, to become a pilot. So he found that by teaching other people to fly, he got more hours and everything. And I said, What about being a crop duster? And he said, I was warned by other pilots that if you're a crop duster, that you won't get hired by the commercial airline because they'll think that you're a risk taker and that you're not reliable. So he didn't do that. You ever seen the crop dusters come fly down on the fields? You know, they're like flipping around in the air and down and around, and it's kind of fun to watch. Um, helicopters and planes. Actually, I saw when they were spraying Virginia. I don't know what they're spraying Virginia with. I don't know if I should be worried because I was right there when it went overhead and it was spraying. Nonetheless, to think about that, think about okay, what what is it? How can I be used? In our house, there are two scrub brushes. So there's a scrub brush that, from what I understand from upper management, my wife, that one scrub brush is to be used to clean off the dishes, you know, like get the dirty stuff off the dishes or whatever, and the other one is to actually be used to clean the dish, and it sits like in a little special little receptacle and everything. So I'm still working on that. So I just like the one that just sits there and I'm a one for everything kind of dish scrubber. Besides that, we have a dishwasher, so it should be safe. But nonetheless, what kind of person do you want to be for God? How do you want to live your life? Do you want to be greatly used by God? Then there are certain things that you need to do, certain things, certain ways that you need to be set apart for the things of God, certain things that you must learn, certain things that God wants you to do to be faithful. Think about that, pray about that. It is a good thing. So know that God doesn't save you because you are such a great perfect person. Instead, God saves you by Ephesians 2.8. It is by grace you've been saved through faith, and it's not from yourselves, it's the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. And then it says, For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. So God takes us sinful people and he makes us righteous in Christ. So we're sanctified by the Spirit, uh, but in the progressive sanctification of life, uh, we can be better, we can do better, we can serve better, we can grow more as we are constantly in this process. But nonetheless, so we're saved because of what Jesus did. Uh, we're forgiven because of what Jesus did. So we don't do the works so we can be right with God. We do the works because we are right with God, and it is an act of worship and it leads to joy. Sanctification leads to true joy. You find joy in sanctification because you know that you're doing right. You know, in the process of growing in Christ, wouldn't it be great if you receive Jesus and all of a sudden you're just transformed? Everything about you is perfect. Um, no, there's a process. And I read that a teacher once assigned a student a complex math problem. The student struggled and became frustrated and sometimes even crying, but the teacher patiently guided him through each step. By the end, the student had not only solved the problem, but had also learned more than he ever expected. Sanctification can often feel like an overwhelming test prepared by God to teach us deep truths about ourselves. Just like the student, we might might not appreciate the trials until we realize they are leading us into greater understanding and faith. And in that experience. When we started out, Jesus says, I'm coming to you now, but I say these things while I'm still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of joy within them, full measure of joy within them. So we're leading a life that leads to joy. Why do we have joy? Um, because we're daily in scripture, and that is transforming our life, and it's exciting and it's life-changing. And sometimes sometimes we don't get a lot out of it, sometimes we do, sometimes we read too much, sometimes we little read too little, sometimes we don't think about what we're reading, but timing God's word leads to joy. So when we're obedient and we're doing the things that God wants us to do, when we don't we don't have that guilt and shame and fear, um, it leads to joy. As we pray that the Holy Spirit would sanctify our hearts and minds daily, as we pursue holiness and spiritual maturity, it brings joy in our daily routine. As we seek other Christians to be accountable to, and as we live a life that we never thought imaginable on our own, it leads to joy. Hebrews 10 24 says, Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another. And it brings us joy when we live distinct lives in the world. So we're in the world, but we're still living for Christ. And we're used as ambassadors for Christ. Sanctification transforms us through God's word, uh, transforms us over time, protects us from the world, makes us useful for God, and ultimately leads us to true joy through our spiritual growth. So the next time we get together, we're going to talk about how to live in the power of Jesus' name. And I'm going to pray in the worship team can come on up here. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your spirit. I thank you for those who have gone before us that have written great things about how to live the Christian life and how to stay strong in persecution and um how to keep moving forward when we feel discouraged and um how there's forgiveness when we mess up. Lord, I pray that we would choose to pursue you. I pray that we would want everything that you have for us and that we would pray that you give it, that you give us um everything that we need to complete your purposes and to fulfill your plan and to do great things with the time that we have on this earth. So we thank you for everything in Jesus' name. Amen.