Jacob's Faith, Part 3

Hebrews 11 verse number 21 again, that's right. Hebrews 11 verse number 21, just one verse. But listen, I'm letting you off easy because I could preach seven sermons on Hebrews 11, 21. Sermon number one, by faith.

Sermon number two, Jacob. Sermon number three, was dying. Talk about death. Sermon number four, bless. What does it mean to bless your sons? Sermon number five, the sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. Sermon number six, Joseph. Sermon number seven, worship. See that? I could take one verse and preach seven sermons and still not be done. I believe it's very important to understand everything about the text. I'm a word guy. I'm not a paragraph guy. I'm not a sentence guy. I'm a word guy. Taking one word at a time, preaching on that word because every word of God is pure, right?

Every word of God is inspired by God. Every word is important. And I think so many times we just brush over something and think, oh, well, no big deal. Let's just get on to Joseph and let's get on to Moses' parents and then get on to Moses and get on to everybody else and just read through Hebrews 11. You can't do that. Can't do it and do it justice because you need to understand what's going on. And Hebrews 11, 21 says these words. By faith, Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped leaning on the top of his staff or literally leaning on his bed.

And you might leave here thinking today, well, I can worship in bed. Jacob did. If Jacob worshiped in bed, why can't I? Why can't I just stay home and watch TV and get my coffee and get my bagel, sit back in my bed and worship as Jacob did? It doesn't work that way. Jacob's dying. Jacob's old. He can barely see. He's on his deathbed. He's about to die. And yet Jacob worships. And you know, as I thought about this this past week, I realized there is so much to say about this because in today's society, we have misunderstood worship.

I wish we truly understood it, but we don't. And I could spend literally weeks, even months talking to you about what the Bible says concerning worship.

The Bible says that God seeks true worshipers, those who worship him in spirit and in truth. In other words, they worship from the inside out. There's something about them on the inside that's been transformed by the truth of the living God. They worship in spirit and in truth. They worship the God of truth in sincerity of heart. Bible says in Philippians 3, verse number three, we are the circumcision.

We are the marked ones, okay? This is the definition of a Christian. We are the marked ones who worship God in spirit who take no confidence in the flesh and glory in Christ Jesus. That's the definition of a Christian, Philippians 3, 3. We worship God in spirit. God seeks true worshipers. In fact, over in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 14, the Bible says, then I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, and having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.

So during the tribulation, there's gonna be an angel that flies in mid heaven. I don't know how this is gonna happen. I don't even know what this is gonna look like because I'm not gonna be here because I'm gonna be in glory with the Lord. But it says in verse number seven, and he said with a loud voice, fear God, give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water. The gospel is worship God, revere him, honor the Lord God of Israel.

So because Jacob worshiped on his bed, what was it about Jacob's worship that gives us an understanding of what true worship looks like? This is very important. We just pass over words in the scripture and think that we know the meaning, but we really don't know the meaning. So what does it mean that Jacob worshiped while leaning on his bed as he blessed Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph? I wanna give you some principles. I won't be able to go into great detail with all of them. I wish I could.

Time does not permit or we would never get out of Hebrews 11. So I wanna be able to give them to you. I probably won't finish them today. So that's okay, we'll finish them in two weeks. But you need to understand them. True worship initiates with a retreat from the world. Can you remember that? True worship initiates, begins with a retreat from the world. You can't worship God and be in the world. You can't do that. God has called us out. Exodus chapter five, verse number one, God says to Pharaoh, let my people go that they might worship me, that they might celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness.

They can't worship you in Egypt. Egypt is symbolic of the world. So let my people go that they might be able to worship me in the wilderness. Let them go. Jacob retreated from the world. How do we know that? Hebrews 11, what's it say? It says, all these died in faith without receiving the promises, but I have seen them and welcomed them from a distance that having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. This is Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were looking for a better country, a better city.

They saw themselves as exiles and strangers on the earth. They didn't see themselves as part of the world. They saw themselves as separate from those in Canaan. They saw themselves as separate from those people of the world. Jacob didn't see himself as a part of the world. He was a stranger. He was just passing through. So worship, true worship, initiates with a retreat from the world. What did Paul say in Galatians chapter six? I am crucified to the world. I've died to the world. Christ said in Luke nine, you wanna commit to me?

You gotta deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. You gotta die to self. You gotta die to the world. You gotta die to the worldly ambitions. What did Christ say through John's pen in first John two, verses 15 and 17?

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes are part of life. They're of the world, but not of the Father. And he who loves the world is in deep, deep trouble because he's passing away, he's passing away. You can't love the world and worship the king of kings and Lord of lords. So John would say in first John five, 21, flee idolatry.

James said in James four, he who's a friend of the world is an enemy of God. You can't be a friend of the world and a friend of God. Abraham was a friend of God, right? Abraham was a stranger and an exile in his land. So was Isaac, so was Jacob, so was Joseph, these great patriarchs. They would retreat from the world, they would back away from the things of the world because they knew that the world would envelop them and cause them to turn away from the Lord. Over in second Corinthians chapter six, the Lord said these words, for we are the temple of the living God.

Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you and I will be a father to you. You should be my sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. These be a clean break, a separation from the things of the world. Psalmist said these words in Psalm 24. Who may ascend to the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?

He was clean hands and a pure heart who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood. He has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, even Jacob, even Israel. Seek the face of God. So let me illustrate this for you.

Turn back at me, if you would, to the book of Exodus, the 20th chapter. Exodus chapter 20. In Exodus chapter 20, you have what is commonly called the 10 commandments. You know what those are, right? The implications of those commandments are huge, huge. Now listen carefully. There is only one commandment of the 10 that has a penalty attached to it. Just one. That would make it significant, would you not think? I would think so. Just one commandment that has a penalty attached to it. None of the others do, but one.

So the Lord says, verse one, then God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. In other words, I have bought you because I sought you, and now I've brought you. I sought you, I bought you, I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I took you out of slavery. I bought you out of where you were and redeemed you. Christ does the same thing for us when he saves us, right? He seeks us, he buys us, right? Having bought us, he brings us into his fold.

And so Christ says, look, this is what I've done, okay? So he says in verse number two, or verse number three, you shall have no other gods before me.

I'm the priority. There cannot be any other God that takes place over me. But he says this, you should not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You should not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. God makes it very clear, I am a jealous God. I don't want you to carve anything that you will worship. I don't want you to crave anything that you will worship. Not just carve it out of stone or out of wood.

I don't want you to crave something other than me. Why? I am a jealous God. Now God can say that because God is jealous for your purity. God is jealous for your holiness. God is jealous for all there is about you because he bought you, right? You're his. He's jealous for you. He doesn't want you going after anything or anyone else. Now think about this. Let's say, as a husband, you walk into the church one day and you find your wife in the arms of another man. And he's caressing her hair, hold her tightly toward him.

And she looks up and she sees you, her husband. And she says these words, oh honey, it's okay. Because when I felt his arms, they reminded me of your strength. When he touched my hair, he reminded me of your sensitivity. As he embraced me, I was thinking of you the whole time. Who buys that? Nobody buys that, right? Why do we expect God to buy that? Why do we expect God to buy that? Oh Lord, you know, everything about what's going on here just reminds me of you, everything. See, the problem with us today is that we don't revere God enough to worship in His presence the way He's designed it.

He wants all of us. He doesn't want part of us. He doesn't want some of us. He wants all of us. He's a jealous God. We think of jealousy as a bad thing, but it's not a bad thing. Because God has a monopoly on being God. There are no other gods. We just set up things and people and objects and situations as gods in our lives because we give them all of our attention, all of our affection, all of our admiration, and we want everything to be poured into that element or that person or that situation.

And God says, wait a minute, I'm your God. I'm the only God there is. I gotta be the priority. And I need your loyalty. Now listen, next to what he says. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children on the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.

Wait a minute, what do you mean those who hate you? What does that mean? We're showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. In other words, if you're not willing to keep God's commandments, you have this effect that you hate God, not love God, right? He makes it very clear that he is to be worshiped. He is the only God to be worshiped. And if you worship God improperly, you're going to lead your family into iniquity. I'm going to visit that sin upon the second, third, and fourth generation.

My friends, this is so powerful, we miss this. We miss this. How many times have we told you that the most important decision you ever make in your life is not getting married, not having children, not where you work, it's where you go to church. It's where you go to church. It's where you worship. Choose poorly, it will destroy your life. Guaranteed, I've been in ministry for over 40 years. It's never one time failed. Choose poorly the church you attend. It will affect how you worship and how you worship will affect your children.

So you know what the Bible does? It gives us a living illustration of this. So I'm gonna show it to you. That's how important this is. Worship initiates with a retreat from the world. There is only one God. It's a true God of the universe. It's the Lord God of Israel. And once you draw your attention away from Him and pour it elsewhere, and you refuse to worship Him as He has been designed to be worshiped in spirit and in truth, this one sin will affect your family like no other sin how you worship, when you worship, where you worship will affect your family more so than any other thing you ever do.

I can't emphasize that enough. I just can't. There are so many churches in America. The most of them are not even worth attending. The people go to them all the time. And you shouldn't be there because God's not honored. God's not put on display. The word of God is not opened. And therefore, when you go, you're entertained but you're not enlightened. Big difference, right? You leave feeling comfortable, but not convicted. If you leave comfortable, you're in the wrong church. If you leave church comfortable, you're in the wrong church.

You leave always convicted. And therefore, you know exactly what God calls you to do. There isn't one person in scripture who met the living God who left comfortable. They all left convicted. Every one of them. So let me give you the illustration.

Turn with me in your Bible to 2 Chronicles chapter 26. An illustration of Exodus chapter 20, verses three and four. Or four, five, and six, excuse me. Verse 16 of Exodus 26, Uzziah is the king. When he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly. He was unfaithful to the Lord's God. For he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Then Azariah, the priest, entered after him. With him, 80 priests of the Lord, valiant men. They opposed Uzziah the king and said to him, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense.

Get out of the sanctuary for you have been unfaithful and will have no honor from the Lord God. Wow. Uzziah goes to the temple of God. Know what Uzziah's attitude is? You know what, I can go to the temple of God and I can worship God any way I want. There are no rules for how I worship God. I can just show up and I can do what the priests do because I'm the king. I don't have to have a set of rules on how to worship or when to worship. I just go in and do what I want to do. Arrogance on Uzziah's part.

It's the symbol of people today who go to church. So you know, don't tell me how to, I can worship God any way I want. Don't begin to tell me how to worship God. I have my way of worshiping God. Well, if it's not God's way, it's the wrong way. So Uzziah goes in and goes to the temple of God and says, you know, I can do whatever I want. So Azariah goes in with 80 valiant men, 80 gods, said, you can't do this. You're out of line. You just can't worship God any way you choose. You gotta worship as it's been prescribed for you, Uzziah.

Verse 19, but Uzziah, with the center in his hand, burning incense, was enraged. And while he was enraged with the priests, the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord beside the altar of incense. Azariah, the chief priest, and all the priests looked at him and behold, he was leprous on his forehead and they hurried him out of there. And he himself had also hastened to get out because the Lord had smitten him, King Uzziah, as a leper, to the day of his death.

There is a fleshly part of me that would wish that God would give every pastor leprosy who led his people wrongly in worship. I wish God would do that. I really do. But it's the grace of God, the mercy of God, that he doesn't, right? But here's Uzziah, willing to worship God his way, right? And God strikes him with leprosy. He's gonna offer incense on the altar anyway. So you have a king, Uzziah, who decides to worship God his way, right? He has a son. It says, verse one of chapter 27, Jotham was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem.

And his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However, he did not enter the temple of the Lord. So you have a father who's king who decides to worship the Lord any way he wants. He loves the Lord, but he decides to worship the Lord any way he wants. And now you have a son who follows him and decides, you know what? I'm not gonna even enter the temple of the Lord. I saw how the Lord treated my father.

I saw the people treated my dad. You know what? I'm not even gonna go in to the temple of the Lord. So Jotham has a son. His name is Ahaz, chapter 28, verse number one.

Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. He did not do right in the sight of the Lord as David, his father had done, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel who also made molten images for the Baals, verse number 24. Moreover, when Ahaz gathered together the utensils of the house of God, he cut the utensils of the house of God in pieces and he closed the doors of the house of the Lord and made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem. So you have a father who loves the Lord, but says, I can worship God any way I want.

I don't care what anybody says. He has a son who decides, even though he loves the Lord, to no longer enter the house of the Lord. Who has a son who decides to cut up the utensils and nail the doors to the house of the Lord shut. That's not over. Because it says this in verse number three, chapter 28.

Moreover, he burned incense in the valley of Ben-Hinnom and burned his sons in fire according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel. He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills and under every green tree. What did he do? He burned the great-grandsons of Uzziah on an open. When God says, if you worship me improperly, then what's going to happen, it's going to infect your children in an unbelievable manner.

There was one sin, fathers, listen carefully. There was one sin that has family repercussions unlike any other sin. It's when you worship God your own way, not his way. There's your living illustration. Uzziah, Jotham, Uzziah loved the Lord, but wanted to worship God his way. Jotham loved the Lord, but refused to enter the house of the Lord. Ahaz just decided to cut the utensils and nail the house of the Lord doors shut, and then take the great-grandsons of Uzziah and offer them up as a sacrifice to Baal.

When God says he visits the iniquities upon the second and third and fourth generation, he's serious.

He's serious. Worship is crucial. The reverse of that, the reverse of that, it's very simple. When he says, he shows loving kindness to thousands, do the math, four generations or thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. Fathers, listen, love the Lord, keep his commandments. Fathers, listen, take your children to a Bible-believing church. Take your children to a church where the word of God is held in high esteem, and the worship of God is a priority to the people in the church, and they live in line with what the word of God says.

Take your children there, and if that's the only thing you ever do, it is the most important thing you will ever do with your family and for your family. But if you take them to the wrong church, take them to a church that minimizes worship, or says that you can worship God any way you wanna worship God, just as long as you're here to show up and do what you wanna do. Bad news. Bad news. Jacob retreated from the world. Did not wanna have anything to do with the world. That's why he could sit on his bed and worship God purely and wholly.

Was his worship perfect? No, no one's worship is perfect. That'll happen when you get to glory, right? All of our worship is going to be imperfect to some degree, right? So we need to understand what God has designed us to do and follow his commandments, follow his word. But we worship God in spirit and in truth. We worship him with sincerity of heart. We worship him with all that we have because we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength.

That's who we are, right? So if you wanna worship God, it begins with the retreat from the world. So principle number one, worship initiates with retreat from the world.

Principle number two, worship effectuates from a revelation of God. Worship effectuates from a revelation of God. You must see and hear the truth of the living God. You can't worship without truth. You can't worship. When Jacob took the sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, sons of Joseph, and when he took his sons in Genesis chapter 49 and blessed them, he blessed them according to what the revelation of God was. Okay? And so worship comes forth from a revelation of the person and nature of the living God.

And so Jacob would know how to bless his sons because he knew what God said. You can't worship God unless you know who he is. You can't worship God ignorantly. You worship God because you understand who he is. You can't even sing without understanding God. The Bible says in Psalm 42, verse number seven, sing praises with understanding.

Sing praises with understanding. First Corinthians 14 says, I will sing with understanding. People wanna sing songs to the Lord without having no understanding to the words or the meaning of the song. You can't worship God just emotionally, closing your eyes and just having a swaying back and forth about a good feeling, a good emotion. You sing with understanding. Singing is a cognitive exercise. It's an intellectual exercise more than it's an emotional exercise. You sing with understanding. And the understanding is rooted in the knowledge of the true and living God.

You must know who he is. We worship in spirit and we worship in truth. In Genesis chapter 28, when the Lord God came to Abraham, I mean to Jacob, and Jacob saw the staircase to heaven, and he understood that God had appeared to him and he understood the way to heaven. And then in Genesis chapter 32, when he wrestled with God, he saw God face to face, a place called Peniel, which means face to face. He had seen the face of the living God and God had touched him and injured his hips when he limped the rest of his life, always being reminded that he needed to depend upon God for everything.

There was a revelation of God that Jacob was able to grasp. He understood who his God was. That's why he could worship on his bed as he blessed his boys, because he knew God. He understood God. He lived in accordance with that understanding. The Bible makes it very clear that we are to worship God based on who he is. Worship is the human response to divine revelation. That's why I love what it says over in 1 Corinthians 14, these words. Therefore, if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you're all mad?

But if you prophesy, and an unbelieving or ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring God is certainly among you. How does a man who's an unbeliever know when he comes into the assembly of the believer that God is among you? Because you teach the truth of God. You open the word of God, you teach the truth of God. When you do that, the man is convicted, the secrets of his heart are revealed, and he falls down and he worships God.

What a great testimony to the power and authority of the word of God in someone's life. That's what God does, see? But unless there's been a retreat from the world, you'll never understand and see the revelation of the word of God. So worship initiates with a retreat from the world. Worship effectuates in a revelation from the word of the Lord. And number three, worship predicates a recognition of my need.

Worship predicates a recognition of my need. In other words, it affirms and declares I have a need. Now listen, you came today and you had a need. The chances are it was more of a felt need than a fallen need. You came with a felt need, a need for fellowship, a need for joy, a need because you're lonely. Maybe you have a financial need, but you came because you had a need. Think of all the people who came to Christ. Lepers came because they were lepers. That was their need. Blind people came because they were blind.

That was their need. Deaf people came because they couldn't hear. That was their need, right? They all had needs. A paralyzed man had a need, I wanna walk. Jairus, whose daughter died, needed a resurrection. They all had needs. But the ultimate need is the relationship with the living God. If you come to church to worship the Lord with any need outside of a fallen need, you'll always leave with your needs unmet. But if you come with a fallen need, knowing that you are separated from God, knowing that you're a sinner, you deserve nothing from God, but you long for a relationship with the true and living God, guess what?

You never, ever leave dissatisfied. Because you see, the Lord said to Hosea the prophet, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. My people are destroyed because they don't know who I am. That's why they're destroyed. That's why Jeremiah said, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom or the mighty man in his might or the rich man in his riches, but let him boast in this, that he understands and knows the Lord God of Israel, who exercises loving kindness and righteousness on the face of the earth and mercy.

This is the God they need to know. You wanna boast in something, boast in the fact that you know God. Paul would say, oh, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings. The cry of the heart of a worshiper is, Lord, I wanna know you. If you came today, not wanting to know the Lord, you came with a felt need and not a fallen need. You must come because you want to know the true and living God. And the only way you know him is if the word of God is open, preached, taught, read.

So you see him for who he is, right? That's why 2 Corinthians 3.18 talks about that we behold is in a mirror the glory of the Lord, right? And we are being changed from one level of glory to the next level of glory, even as by the spirit of God. When God's word is opened, you see who? The glory of the Lord. When God's word is open, you see the glory of the Lord. I gotta tell you, I am so offended when you go to a church and the pastor uses an iPad. That is so offensive to me. That is so, what's the word I want to use?

I guess I can't use that word. It's just so bad. Why? Why? It devalues the authority of God's word. We want you in your Bible, turning in your Bible to where the Bible says this, so you can cross-reference, so you can see that what is said in the Old Testament instead of the New Testament is right there in front of you, right?

But we want to be, listen, so relevant, we are irreverent. We want to be so relevant, we have thrown reverency out the window. We want to use our iPads because we're cool. We want to bring our cup of coffee up on stage and set it on a table because we're cool. We go to Starbucks on Sunday morning. We want to show everybody how cool we are. We want to show you Christ. Forget about how cool I am. We want to show you Christ because if you don't see Christ, don't come. If you don't come to see the Lord and we don't show him to you, that's on us.

You need to go someplace else because it's all about the living God, the truth of the living God. So you have all these people who go to church and they're more concerned about being relevant than irreverent, that's a problem. But worship predicates a recognition of my need. I come to God because I have a need. I have a fallen need. I am separated from him. But I come because I want to know him because everything about my life centers on knowing God. You're with us on Wednesday night, the book of Daniel, Daniel 11, 32.

Those who know their God, what? They display strength and do great exploits. Only those who know God can display strength and do great exploits. Those who don't know God cannot display any strength because they don't have any. No spiritual strength that is. And they can't do great exploits for the living God because they're so consumed with self. You've got to know God. Everything in scripture points to knowing God. God wants you to know him. He knows you, he purchased you, he wants you to know him.

And those who worship him in spirit and truth seek to know him for who he is. They may honor and glorify his name. My friends, this is so important, so important. You need to understand this from the get-go. And if you're a young family and you're a young father, you realize from the very get-go, man, this is what I got to do with my kids. I got to make sure they're in the church, hearing the word of God, memorizing scripture, singing the songs of God, honoring God, looking to God. You got to make sure that happens.

If you're an older father, if you're a grandfather and you have grandkids, think of Uzziah and Jotham and Ahaz and Uzziah's great-grandkids. Think about all those, think about the family. Just because Uzziah decided to go to church one day and worship God his way. You got to worship God his way, not your way. You got to go to honor the Lord and praise his name. So important. I know my time is gone. Just let me give this to you.

I learned this this past week and I was so taken back by it. William Hendrickson has done a study in the Old Testament about the people who worship the Lord. In this study, he found this. There are four times in the Old Testament where people bowed their heads. There were six times when people stood in reverence. Nine times where they lifted their eyes toward God. 12 times where they kneeled in adoration. 14 times where they lifted their hands. 28 times where they would lie prostrate on the ground.

Now, if you look at that and you ask yourself, did God do it that way on purpose? His word, he spoke into existence, right? And you look at those examples, we've got them reversed.

In terms of the frequency in which we do things, we'll bow our heads 100 times a day, but never fall prostrate on the ground before our God. It would do us well to learn to see God for who he is and fall down on our face, prostrate before him and realize he is a holy God, worthy of our worship, worthy of our reverence, worthy of honor, glory, and praise. And my prayer for you and for me is that we would learn to worship God truly in spirit and in truth as it's done in Scripture. I got some more to say, but I guess I have to wait two weeks to give it to you.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today and the opportunity you give us to worship your name. You are a great God and worthy of praise. Our prayer, Father, is that, Lord, you would use us in a mighty way for the glory of your kingdom. I thank you for everybody who's here today. They're here by divine appointment. Nobody's here by accident. And Lord, our prayer is that every one of us in the room would be true worshipers. That's who you seek. And that we'd wanna worship you in spirit and in truth.

Our prayer, Father, is that we would live for the glory of your kingdom. That you'd be honored in our lives. You have to be one among us today who doesn't know you. We pray that today would be the day of their salvation. They'd want to come and cry out to the living God and pray that you'd save their soul as only you can. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.