Foundation for Living Lesson
2
How shall a young man cleanse
his way? By taking heed thereto according
to Thy word; Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against
Thee. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path. Jesus prayed
to the Father, sanctify them in truth; Thy word is truth. The grass withers and
the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.
Before we begin our study of
God’s word this evening let’s make sure we are in fellowship, ready to study,
concentrate and focus on His word.
Let’s
bow our heads together and go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we thank you so much
that we have You to come to. We have Your
word that reveals to us the nature of reality.
We have Your word that tells us about Yourself. We have Your word that informs us about Your
love, Your character, Your compassion and Your grace for us. We haveYour word, above all, that tells us about our salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ and the new life You give us at the instant of faith
alone in Christ alone. Father, now, as we continue our study of what it means
to live the abundant life, what it means to have a life established on the
foundation of truth, we pray that You would challenge us with these things, so
that we would recognize the importance of assimilating all of this into our
daily life and our daily thinking. We
pray this in Christ’s name. Amen
Last
week we started the second part of a basic series. I divided it into two segments. The first section had ten lessons and this
section will probably have ten to twelve lessons. The first section focused on who God is,
specifically, the nature of truth. That
truth, by its very definition is exclusive, and, since it is grounded in the
thought of God as the Bible expressed, that means there can be only one way - that
which is consistent with truth. There
cannot be multiple truths, multiple realities.
This, in turn, means that if we are going to have a path of salvation,
whatever it is in any sort of religious thought, it has to be an exclusive path
that is consistent with the character and revelation of God. All of that was to give us that framework of
understanding that when the Bible makes the claim that Jesus is the one and
only way to salvation, that this is not some sort of arrogant claim, but is
totally consistent within the framework of the definition of truth itself. In essence, those first ten lessons focused
on the gospel. Moving into the second
series we are answering the question, after I trust Christ, then what? Now that I am saved, what do I do? This series is grounding us in the nature of
our Christian life. In Luke 6:46-49, our
Lord gives a parable to illustrate the point of the importance of our
foundation. He says, “Why do you call Me
Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?” This is reminiscent of James’ point to be a
doer of the word, and not just a hearer only.
It is not about assimilating a lot of doctrine into your doctrinal notebooks,
but letting the truth become full knowledge, or epignosis,
in your soul that transforms the way you think and live. If we are going to
trust Christ as our Savior, and if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, there
is a path to follow subsequent to that, in terms of spiritual growth and
maturity. Christ says in verse 47,
“Whoever comes to Me (analogous to faith alone in Christ alone, trusting Him as
Savior.) and hears My sayings ( that relates to post salvation spiritual growth ) anyone who comes to Me (and anyone can
come to Him on the basis of simple faith, trusting Him for salvation, it is not a matter of works, it is not a matter of ritual, it is
simply a matter of trusting in Him. And then hears His sayings and does
them. That is not works salvation, it is
application of the principles of Scripture so that you can grow and mature as a
believer. He says “I will show you whom
he is like” (in other words, let me give you a down home illustration) “ he is like a man building a house, who dug
deep and laid the foundation on the rock;
and when the flood arose the stream beat
vehemently against that house and could not shake it, for it was founded upon
the rock.” This may have particular
resonance with those who have lived in the midst of the hurricane zone in the
last few weeks. By contrast, verse
49: “But he who heard and did nothing, (that
is, the one who hears the word and does not apply it, make it a part of their
soul, doesn’t use the word when trials and tests of adversity come) is like a man who build a house on the earth
without a foundation against which the stream beat vehemently and immediately
it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
Let’s look at the
illustration in a little more detail.
Building a house is analogous to constructing our life. What is your philosophy of life? Everybody has a philosophy of life. You have either thought it through, and it is
consistent, or you have not thought it through, and you are inconsistent. I
remember back in seminary saying that everybody has a philosophy of life and
someone said that they were not a philosopher.
I told them they were not a very thoughtful philosopher but every one has a philosophy of
life, everyone has certain values, everyone has a framework within which they make decisions, determine
priorities, address the issues of life and handle the problems and heartaches
that come our way . Every man builds a
house on something, there is a foundation. The first man is one who digs deep, he
is thoughtful, he plans. He has worked
out the implications of what he is constructing. He knows that what he has constructed has value. So he lays the
foundation on that which has stability.
Of course, the only thing that has stability is the truth of God’s word. It is the word of God that never changes
because it is based upon the eternal, unchanging thinking of God. He lays that
foundation on the rock, he builds his life.
He constructs his marriage, his family, everything he does, upon a
foundation. He thinks about that foundation. As believers, we think about that foundation
of truth and we work out the implications of what we believe, in every area of
our life, from our life as an employee or an employer, as a husband, father, mother,
wife, what ever it may be. Our day to
day decision making is going to be built on the foundation of the truth of
God’s word.
“And when the flood arose”, the
flood represents the adversities of life, major or minor. The minor adversities are those such as the nitpicking
little pains we put up with everyday. We experience the irritations of living in a
fallen world with fallen spouses, fallen children and fallen coworkers. We start up in the morning with our to do list of ten things, and at the end
of the day, we’ve been very busy, we’ve accomplished a lot, but at 5: 30 we
still have those ten things to accomplish.
We can’t figure out what happened during the day, and it makes life
frustrating. We have all experienced
that, it is reality. We live in a world
that is fallen, and we constantly face those minor adversities. Then there are those major adversities you go
through. Those times when perhaps you
are out of work, you are dealing with major illness, in your own life or in the
life of a family member. You have
elderly parents to take care of. Or you
have children with debilitating health problems you have to deal with. Whatever it is we face, it is the framework
of Bible doctrine that provides us with the tools to use, so that when we want
to react with anger, bitterness, resentment and handle that problem by getting
out there and doing something that we know involves sin, whatever it may be, rather
than yielding to those internal pressures from our sin nature, we turn to Scripture. As we have studied the Scripture we know that
you can boil down the basic skills of the Christian life into what I have
defined as the ten stress busters, or we call them, the problem solving
devices. These are skills that the Holy Spirit
uses, when we apply those doctrinal principles.
The Holy Spirit then uses that to produce spiritual growth. When those adversities come, another term for that is testing, when those
tests come, rather than trying to handle the situation through a variety of
sinful mechanics, we use the word of God.
When we don’t it is the picture of the last man who has built his life
on shifting sand. He has not thought
about what he is doing, he has not applied doctrine, he is using whatever
psychobabble skills there are today. He
is going to some church that is telling him he is really wonderful, everything
is positive, let’s just all do our best, whatever it may be. Founding his life
on some human viewpoint system that may sound good, that may be logically
consistent with his Darwinian presuppositions, or his religious
presuppositions, or his positive thinking presuppositions, whatever it may be. But when the pressures of life come, it does
not ultimately work. It may work for
awhile. It may provide a certain level
of benefit and peace. I heard one man say,
years ago, that if you think that stability or fun or pleasure in life comes
from having a lot of women, a lot of booze then why don’t you just take a vacation and get a lot of booze
and women. You may have a lot of fun for
awhile. But eventually, it won’t solve the
problems of life. Unfortunately, most
people don’t allow themselves to get pressed to the full conclusion of their
assumptions about life. That is why you have to think about it. That is why we are presenting the basic
series, to establish what those foundational principles are for the Christian
life.
We started with
salvation. That is the starting point
because it is the work of Christ on the cross that takes care of the greatest
problem we have in life which is sin. It
is on the foundation of Jesus Christ that we are able to handle all of the
other issues in life. Moving beyond
salvation, we recognize that at salvation all sins are forgiven. The believer is cleansed and sin is no longer
an issue between the believer and God. Last
week we looked at that in terms of the doctrine of cleansing, which is really
the starting point for being able to grow in the Christian life When we try to handle the adversities of
life by our own methods, efforts, strengths, the Bible defines that as the flesh. That always entails sin at some point. At salvation we are forgiven of all sins and
the Bible pictures that as a bath. The
last time we saw that, it was foreshadowed in the imagery of the Old Testament
by the bath that the high priest took when he was inaugurated into office. At the point that the high priest entered
into office, he took a bath from head to toe; he is bathed. Subsequent to that bath, as he functions in
his responsibilities as high priest going into the tabernacle, later the
temple, he would have to wash his hands and feet as a symbol of the fact that
we do things and we go places where there is sin in our life, and there must be
ongoing cleansing when we go forward in the Christian life. The ongoing cleansing is fulfilled in the
principle of confession of sin in 1 John 1:9.
It says that if, and that is a third class condition, indicating, maybe
we will and maybe we won’t. The Greek expresses
conditions, that is ‘if’ statements, hypothetical statements, four different
ways. Actually, classical Greek has a
fifth that is very rare. In fact the fourth condition is debated, used maybe
one time in the New Testament The
third class condition is, if we confess,
maybe we will, maybe we won’t, it is an
option for every believer. Whenever you
sin you have to decidewhether or not you will confess
your sin. The word for confession is homologeo, it means to admit or acknowledge sin. It does not mean to have remorse. It does not mean to feel sorry for your
sin. It does not mean to impress God
with your guilt. It simply means, as if you were standing in a courtroom, to
admit or acknowledge guilt. It means to
admit or acknowledge your sin. And the
result is, when we do this, if we do this, He, God, is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And because of what is stated in the second
part of the verse, we say that this is a promise. The promise is that if you do X, God will do
Y. Everytime. You do X, God will do Y. That is a promise. When you confess your sin, God will, on the
basis of His immutable character, and His perfect justice, He will forgive us
our sins. Not only the sins we remember
and confess, but also cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is what we studied last time and that is
the foundation for the Christian life, because as long as we are out of
fellowship, as long as we have the sin nature controlling our life, then the Holy
Spirit’s ministry of growth, of spiritual advance, is shut down. Paul uses two different phrases, grieving the
Spirit, and quenching the Spirit. Last
time we looked at the doctrine of cleansing ending with the promise of 1 John
1:9. Learning to apply this is
foundational to the Christian life. It
is the first skill we develop. *** Here
is a chart, foundational spiritual skills.***
We start with the basic childhood skills. That is all I am going to cover in this basic
series. I will spend one Sunday on each
of these five skills. Then we will go
into ministries related to our priesthood, and that lays the foundation for our
Christian life. The first one we studied
last time dealt with confession and cleansing.
All confession does is put us back into a position where we can grow and
advance. It does not move us forward. It is analogous to the ballplayer who has
been out on the field playing, he messes up some way, and the coach pulls him out
of the game and he seats him on the bench.
He can’t play, he can’t go forward, he can’t advance his career, he
can’t demonstrate anything about what he has learned. He is benched and stagnant. If he stays that way, and he doesn’t play,
eventually his skills will erode. And
that happens in the Christian life.
Confession simply gets you back in the game. It gets you back into action. But it does not carry you forward. There is no forward momentum associated with
confession. It is a restoration to a
position where God the Holy Spirit is going to be able to work in your life,
take the doctrine in your soul and use it as you apply it. He will use it to advance you forward
spiritually. That is what we will look
at in our study this evening. We will
talk about two key ministries of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy
Spirit and walking by means of the Holy Spirit. I prefer to emphasize the
second of those 2nd phrases, walking by means of the Holy Spirit. The reason I use the phrase ‘by means of’, is
because it is a more precise way to communicate the instrumental nuance of the
dative case of the noun spirit. It shows
that the Spirit is the means of
spiritual advance. It is the work of God
the Holy Spirit that is the crucial element in spiritual advance. It is not our decisions, not our doctrine,
but it is the Holy Spirit who produces growth. Not that your volition and your learning of
doctrine is not important, it is the tool that the Holy Spirit uses. Let me give you two illustrations. The first is that of eating and working
out. As we get older we begin to learn
some things about nutrition, diet. We get
a member ship to a gym, we try to get back in shape, like we hopefully were when
we were younger. Anybody can understand
this analogy. Anybody can eat. I look around and everybody here has
demonstrated that they have excellent eating skills. how much you eat, when you
eat is all determined by your volition.
You can decide, as I did
yesterday. After a funeral, as is
typical in
But what Paul emphasizes in
Galatians 3 is that there is a contrast between living the Christian life by
means of the Holy Spirit, and doing it by your own effort. He says the same kind of thing in 1
Corinthians 3:3, which is in the context of a contrast between being spiritual
and being carnal. He says, “For you are
still carnal (you Corinthians are still
fleshly, literally, you are still operating on the flesh, on the sin nature;
you are trying to live on the basis of your own ability instead of the basis of
God’s) for where there is envy, strife and divisions among you, are you not
carnal and behaving (what?) like mere men?”
Literally, just like men. In
other words, you are trying to live the Christian life on the basis of human
effort alone, and you have left the Holy Spirit completely out of the
equation. And the result is
failure. Even when you start off trying
to live the Christian life on the basis of morality, because you are living
apart from God, it is a self righteousness produced by the sin nature. The end result is always going to be
converted into overt sin, mental attitude sin, or sins of the tongue. That is what happened in
As we do this we develop a
skill. Now there are all kinds of skills
in life. The bedrock of developing a
skill is discipline. I don’t know what
king of background you had growing up.
Some of you were in homes or situations were you played sports as a kid,
some of you were involved in music, some of you were in theater, others of you
were in dance. But all of these
different things involved discipline.
They involved practice, developing skills. When I was growing up, I took piano lessons a
couple of times every week and my mother made sure that I practiced the piano
for thirty minutes every single morning.
Whether it involved playing the piece that I was learning or just playing
keyboard technique, it was all designed to develop muscle memory, discipline
and skill, so that I could improve in my piano playing. The same thing happened later on when I was
in junior high and high school, I played trombone in the band. I would have to go in two or three times a
week, and we would just play technique, over and over and over again. Nothing, to my mind, was more boring than
playing the exercises in the technique book.
There is no melodye. I remember playing different sports. You have to get out there and practice certain
techniques. If you play football you
have to learn blocking techniques, and running techniques, and all these
different kinds of things. And if it is
dance, you have to learn other techniques.
But, it is practice, practice, practice.
And that is how the spiritual life operates. We have these different spiritual skills we
are going to learn about, but you have to practice them when you get into a
position of adversity.
When you fail, and get into
sinning, overt sins, mental attitude or whatever it is, you have to confess. You have to practice that, over, and over,
and over again. Some of us do it three
or four thousand times a day, but it is practice. You think, okay, I’ve got to get back in
fellowship.
If you are in a really
difficult situation, where you are tempted to worry or to have anxiety and that
is the weakness of your sin nature, then every thirty seconds, you have to say,
Oh Lord, I am worrying again, I am fearful again, or there I am gossiping
again, or whatever it may be. Then we practice
confession over and over again, sometimes we feel as if that is all we ever
do. But that is how growth takes
place. There are skills that we develop
as time goes by. It trains us to think
about life, and to think about those habit patterns, and to think about facing
adversity from a Biblical viewpoint. Not
just to think of it in terms of , this is just another rotten situation in life
that I have got to get through, and if it doesn’t kill me, it will make me
stronger. It is the idea that I have got
to face this, and handle this through the doctrine the Lord has given me
through His word, and through the Holy Spirit who indwells me, who has filled
me with this doctrine and is using it to produce spiritual growth. And if I am not engaged in the process of
applying it, then the Holy Spirit won’t be engaged in the process of making me
stronger. Your application does not make
you stronger, but your application gives the Holy Spirit the tools He uses to
build that strength and endurance, James 1:2-4.
So the physical act of walking becomes the metaphor for the Christian
life. Now we have various passages that
utilize this. 2 Corinthians 5:7: “We walk by means of faith, and not by
sight.” That is faith directed to the
principle of the word of God. That is
not faith in faith, this is not mysticism.
It is faith directed to the principles, promises and procedures that are
outlined in the word of God. Colossians
2:6 gives us an analogy to salvation.
“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”
How did you receive
Christ? You believed a promise. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will
be saved. It was not just faith in faith. It was faith in a particular revealed promise
that God gave in relation to salvation. In
the same way, we advance in the spiritual life, by believing the promises of
God and implementing them in our life.
Romans 6:4: “Therefore, we were
buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so also, we should walk in newness of
life.” The first part of that verse
describes what happened at the instant of salvation. We were baptized by means of the Holy Spirit,
which means we were identified with Christ in His death, burial and
resurrection, so the power of the sin nature was broken at that point. The result is that we should walk in newness
of life. Again, it is optional. It depends on whether or not you are going to
engage your volition to get into fellowship, walk by means of the Spirit and
apply the principles of God’s word.
Roman 8:4: “That the righteous requirement of the law
might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according
to the Spirit.” Again, we have that
contrast. Every instant in our life, you
are either walking according to the sin nature, or according to the
Spirit. One, or the other. We have to determine that. When we are walking by the Spirit, we cannot
fulfill the lust of the flesh, but as soon as we quit that dependence on the
Holy Spirit, the walking by mans of the flesh kicks in as the default position
of the soul, and we start going backwards.
We have to then utilize 1 John 1:9, get back in fellowship, and start
applying doctrine. Ephesians 4:17: “This I say, therefore, and testify in the
Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. ” How do they walk? Some of them are immoral, but others of them
are moral. Just think of some of the
folks who are members of cults. Now, Mormonism,
as you know, is a cult. But they do not know that anymore. There is a recent cover story in Newsweek
magazine that identifies Mormonism as just a different Christian
denomination. I hope you all are smart
enough not to fall for that. It is just
a perversion of idolatry, and just another one of these Gentile pagan morality
religions. There are a lot of Mormons
and Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many other religious people who are very upright
and moral. They have tremendous
integrity and honor, and sometimes it far surpasses that which you find among
Christians. But the mechanism by which
they live their life, that is, what they are walking by, has no eternal value
whatsoever. It is not spiritual, it is
just their own flesh, their own sin nature.
So Paul says, don’t walk like the Gentiles, even the good, moral
Gentiles. That is just emptiness. We have to walk in the light. “for once you
were darkness” , he says in Ephesians 5:8, “but now you are light in the
Lord; walk as children of light.” That describes our new position in Jesus
Christ. We are children of light, and
God has given us His Spirit, and we are to walk by means of His Spirit. In fact, the results of walking as a child of light, as given in Ephesians
5:9, are identical to the fruit of the Spirit given in Galatians 5: 22 and
23. Now we go back to Galatians 5 to
wrap up. After Paul gives the command to
walk by means of the Spirit, he then says, which gives us an idea of what it
means to walk by means of the Spirit,
“but if you are led by the Spirit” and it is a first class condition,
indicating that yes, you are, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
led by the Spirit, “it you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the
Law.” There is a contrast between the
Spirit and the Law and the Law lines up with the flesh. But being led by the Spirit lines up with the
truth of God’s word and walking in dependence on the Holy Spirit. But how are you led by the Spirit? You have some folks who come along and say,
you just have to think about, you have to feel the Holy Spirit. How objective is that? How do you know it is the Spirit and
not? How do you know it is not just
liver quiver? How do you know you just
did not have too many jalepenos on your burrito at
lunch? How do you know it is the Holy
Spirit and not just your emotions? Well,
you don’t. There has to be some sort of
objective criteria. Remember, when Jesus
prayed to the Father, He said, “Sanctify them by truth, Your word is
truth.” Now, what is God’s word? It is the objective revelation of God. Let’s
plug that into the concept of walking and leading. If I am being led somewhere, there is
somebody in front of me, who is giving me a clear path to follow. I don’t have to guess, I don’t have to
wonder, does he want me to go this way or that way. If I am being led by somebody, if they are doing there job, then they are
laying out a clear path. You know what I
am talking about. You have had to follow somebody on the freeway before,
follow them to a restaurant, or to somebody’s house, and they do not know how
to lead at all. You get behind them and
fifteen seconds later, they have let six cars get in front of you, they have
made a turn, and you have no clue as to where to go. Then there are other people who know how to
lead. They make sure that if some other
car gets between you and them, they slow down so that car gets frustrated and
goes around them, they turn on their direction signal a quarter of a mile before they make the turn
in order to make sure you understand that you have to be in that lane and make
a turn. They lead you, there is clear
information, objective information on where you are supposed to go. Now, if you are being led by the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit reveals His word to us, it has been enscripturated
by the prophets and the apostles, so
that the path the Holy Spirit is leading us down is not some subjective path
related to our feelings, but it is the clear trail established in the
Scriptures, the prohibitions and the imperatives of the word of God. So, if you are led by the Spirit, and you are,
because He has laid the path down in front of you, you are not under the
Law. Then we go through several verses
that contrast the flesh and the Spirit, and their ultimate production. And in the conclusion, Paul says in verse 25,
“But if, (again, it is a first class condition, if and it is true) “if we live
by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
In the previous verse he said, if we are led by the Spirit, we are not
under the Law. If, and as a believer, we
are led, first class condition, if, and it is true, you are all led by the
Spirit, we are all led by the Spirit, and here it says if we live by the Spirit,
what does that describe? It describes
regeneration. If we live by the Spirit,
yes, that is true for every one of us.
If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are regenerated by
God the Holy Spirit at the instant of
faith alone in Christ alone. So,
“If you live by the Spirit”, that is, if you are a believer, he then says, “let
us walk by the Spirit.” Or, we all
should, or must, live by the Spirit. It
is a third person imperative. We don’t
have that in English, so I try to translate it a little stronger. “We must also walk by the Spirit.” And here there is a different word for walking. It is not peripateo,
which emphasized that step by step process of dependence, but it is the Greek
verb stoicheo, a military term. It means to stand in order, to advance in
rows, or in ranks. But in the New
Testament, it is used figuratively, to mean to walk in an orderly manner
according to some external rule or direction.
What is that external rule or direction?
It is the word of God. It is the
clear, objective guidance given from the word of God. So, if we live by the Spirit, we walk by the
Spirit, and that word for walking by the Spirit here emphasizes following an
external guideline that is objective, knowable and understandable. That is the rule by which we live. Following the prohibitions and the positive
imperatives and mandates of the word of God.
So, this is the first skill we have to develop, and that is to follow
the leading of the Spirit through the word of God. Now, I’m going to briefly tie this together,
because these passages, at least this passage, is familiar to most of you. Ephesians
They are the two that come
together. It is the Spirit that produces
growth in your life, but ultimately it is your volition that determines whether
you are rightly related to the Holy Spirit or not. When you are rightly related to the Holy
Spirit, you are walking by means of the Holy Spirit. As you walk by the Spirit, you will be
learning the word of God, He will be filling your soul with the word of God,
and He will be using in and through your application to produce spiritual
growth and spiritual advance. So what is
the key? The key is staying in right
relationship with the Holy Spirit. That
begins by confessing your sin, whenever you sin. But it doesn’t end there. It is not just a matter of saying, God, I’ve
been worrying, I’ve been fearful, I’m vindictive, whatever the sins may be,
I’ve been gossiping, I’ve been slandering, and then that’s it. Once you’ve confessed your sin, the issue is
to stay in fellowship. To keep
walking. Jesus used the phrase, abide in
Me. It is not just a matter of making
sure you are back in fellowship, it is a matter of staying in fellowship. Walking by means of the Holy Spirit. So that 1John 1:9 is not an end in itself. It is just a means of recovery so you can
keep going forward. When your are an
infant, a spiritual baby, sometimes you are just in and out, in and out. You confess and you are back in fellowship,
and then you sin. We have all gone
through that. But the goal is to stay in
fellowship, to abide in Christ, to walk by means of the Spirit. It is when we are in right relationship to
the Spirit, that God the Holy Spirit produces the growth that takes us to
maturity.
With our heads bowed and out
eyes closed.
Father, we do thank you for
the opportunity to study these things.
To try to understand how these passages fit together, basic dynamics of
the spiritual life. That God the Holy
Spirit is the One who takes Your word, and produces growth. That He is the One who uses Your word, who
reminds us of what we have learned, who
stores it in our soul, and then, when we apply it, He takes that application
and He produces strength and endurance and growth in our life. It is not on the basis of who we are, or what
we have done, it is not simply a matter of confessing our sin. It is a matter of staying in fellowship,
applying Your word and moving forward in our Christian growth. Father, we pray that You will challenge us
with the things we have studied this evening.
We pray this in Christ’s name.
Amen