It’s good to be with you this morning. I hope you had a very Merry Christmas.

My house looked like I had robbed a toy store the next day. All of Darcy and Dawson’s toys was like covering a wall. I’m like, oh my gosh, this is just crazy, all the stuff they had. But we had a good time. Some folks traveling this morning and some folks out sick. So hopefully we’ll be back with this next week, but it’s so good to be with you. We’re going to take a break from Matthew’s Gospel this morning, and I want us to look at a passage in Genesis. So if you have your Bibles, I would ask you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 24. And we’ll be in verses 1 through 9. Genesis chapter 24, verses 1 through 9.

It says, Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son Isaac. The servant said to him, Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came? Abraham said to him, See to it that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, to your offspring I will give this land, he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine. Only you must not take. My son back there. So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter. So it’s that time of the year when everyone starts making these things we call New Year’s resolutions, right? Usually it’s I’m going to eat better, I’m going to start exercising, I’m going to stop smoking, stop spending so much money, whatever it is. But I have this, this wonderful mint condition elliptical next to my bed that proves those things are often just romantic ideals.

They’re very idyllic. And you see this better version of yourself and you’re going to go for it. But you get into it and you realize this is hard and this is work. And it’s really difficult to be faithful to the smallest things in life that we’d like to see changed about ourselves. It’s February, it’s March, and you’re eating whatever again and you’re slurping, sleeping in and not running and not exercising. So I think the bigger question for us though is if we as human beings struggle to be faithful in the smallest things of life and just day-to-day human activity, how can it be for another year of life, much less the rest of our lives, how could it be that we’re going to be faithful in spiritual things? How could it be that we could be faithful to God? That seems to be a pipe dream that’s impossible. What we’re going to see this morning is that Abel, Abraham has a God who is faithful to him. But Abraham is also faithful to his God. So I want us to consider this morning, how do we have any chance, how do we have hope of being faithful to this God who is faithful to us? Back at verse 1.

Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his house, who had put charge of all that he had, said, put your hand under my thigh that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. So Abraham, here’s two things. He’s very old and he’s very blessed. He’s around 140 years old. He’s lived a very long life. And Abraham’s been through the fire of trial and tribulation and through it all, he’s known God to be faithful. The faithful God of the promise when way back when he called Abraham and Sarah to leave behind everything that they knew for the promised land. He endured such a very long season of waiting for his aged, barren wife Sarah to get pregnant. He faced danger from surrounding nations many, many, many times. But here Abraham is in the last chapter of his life with ample provision, with a son and an heir, and the surrounding nations, and the nations are afraid of him because they know God’s hand of protection is upon him. So I think Abraham has then perhaps what we don’t and we need. And here’s what Abraham has. He has an acute sobriety. Abraham has a one-track mind to be ever faithful to the God who has always been so faithful to him. And his son Isaac, his one and only son, is around 40 years old now. And Abraham, as his father, but also as the father of the promise, means for his son, who is the son of the promise, to marry the right woman. So he requests of his servant, hey servant, I want you to enter into this binding oath with me. This isn’t just some servant. This is his top guy that’s in charge of all of his affairs, of his household. He says, I want you to, in the presence of the Lord, in the sight of God, I want you to swear by an oath. And we talked about this several weeks ago when we looked at Proverbs. Proverbs, words in the ancient world, were much weightier than they are today. It was the most legally binding thing you could do was to give your word to someone. So if your word was bad, it meant your character was bad. So him having his servant enter into this word agreement is going to be binding upon the servant to do this. And he says to his servant, hey, I want you to say it out loud in my presence and put your hand under my thigh, most likely recognizing Abraham’s place as the progenitor of the family of the Jewish nation. What I want you to say out loud is that you will not take, a wife for my son from among these pagan Canaanites. Don’t agree that you will not do that. And I think you have to ask, isn’t Abraham kind of being overzealous? Isn’t that a little much to ask such strict adherence to his direction about who Isaac can and can’t marry? Couldn’t Abraham loosen up a little bit? That’s like strict and that’s so suffocating. I don’t think so at all. And I want us to see why it is not so. So the first, the first thing that hinders us from faithfulness to God, one is compromised conviction. One is compromised conviction. Abraham’s son Isaac and his soon-to-be wife Rebekah, they’re going to experience in their son Esau, so Abraham’s grandson, what Abraham is trying so hard to prevent in his son Isaac’s life. I want you to see it in Genesis 26, verse 34. It says, when Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Beeri, the Hittite, to be his wife, and Besameth, the daughter of Elan, the Hittite. And they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. And then in Genesis 27, 46, it says, then Rebekah said to Isaac, I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me? So what is the big deal for Abraham? What’s his problem? What’s Isaac and Rebekah’s problem? Why can’t the boys just marry whoever they want to marry? God says so explicitly if we look forward to the law in Exodus chapter 34, verse 12. See what God says to the people. Take care lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their asherim. For you shall worship no other god for the Lord whose name is Jealous. Jealous is a jealous god. Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice and you take of their daughters for your sons and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods. There’s the problem.

Abraham is a very old, time-tested, battle-worn servant of God knows that man, he’s profoundly aware that man is both willing to and struggles to compromise on conviction of who God is and what God has said. So servant, put your hand under my thigh, say out loud in the presence of God, you will not let my son be in situations and circumstances where compromise of truth about God is inevitable. Don’t let my son be in places of susceptibility to sin. So here’s a very discerning godly man. His chief, his first priority is just this, faithfulness to God. In the fight to be faithful, ever faithful, there is ever present the temptation to compromise. Now, they were just going to say that as plain as possible. We’re fooling ourselves if we think we can dance with the devil and win. Can’t do it. Abraham, Isaac, anyone who truly is of the Lord, we have by faith a God-given discernment, understanding, hey, this is right, this is wrong. God approves. Who’s of this? God does not approve of this. But friends, not in this lifetime do we have an invulnerability towards the power and the allurement of sin and Satan. Satan is crafty. He’s a strong man. He’s cunning. He would crush us in a moment’s time in our frail, fragile, sin-sick condition. And I’m not praising Satan. Like, look how great he is. Just when I size Satan up against myself, I realize how weak I am and how easily I would be crushed. So we cannot dare dream in this life of, of facing the enemy alone, intermingling in the places and with the people he currently lords over and think that we’re not susceptible to the poisonous fumes and noxious gases of sinful pleasure. Yes, by the cross of Christ, Jesus has done away with our sinful flesh. But as one theologian says, our sinful flesh has not yet expired. As long as we’re in these bodies, the flesh is constantly going to be warring against us, trying to get us to comply with the means and manners of the enemies, the domain. So here’s what faithfulness is.

Faithfulness is not your ability to coexist with sin, get as close to it as you can and not sin. That’s not it. Godly humility recognizes this. Faithfulness to God is your determination to stay away from it altogether. That’s godliness. Consider, consider King David. God said, this is a man after my own heart. You think if anyone could get close to sin and not do it, it’s David. Yet David fell so hard because in his pride, he did not guard himself. And he went on that roof and he knew what was there and hard was his fall. And still, if you’re not convinced of that, see the cut and dry words of the prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah chapter 4 verse 22, the prophet says, for my people are foolish. They know me not. They are stupid children. They have no understanding. They are wise in doing evil. But how to do good, they know not. So there’s a Sunday morning encouragement. You’re stupid when it comes to doing good. Friends, we’re great at doing wrong. That’s just part of our fallen human nature. Remember what the Lord said in Exodus. Take care. Take special care so that you don’t fall into sin. That warning’s been issued to us. People who are in the fallen line of Adam. The Holy Spirit is not at our disposal so we can create trouble. The Holy Spirit is there to preserve and keep us when the God-ordained battle, when the, God-ordained test comes. That’s why we have the Holy Spirit. And if we don’t see it that way, you know what we are. We’re guilty of committing the sin that Jesus resisted in His wilderness experience. Remember what Satan said? We looked at this a few weeks ago in Matthew. He said, hey, you’re Jesus. You’re Son of God. Throw yourself out of the temple because the Bible says that the angels will catch you. But what did Jesus recognize? He recognized that to be a test upon God’s mercy and grace reserved for trial, not so He could create trouble for Himself. So the person, the person that regularly walks in the sin, regularly surrounds himself with temptation, that person’s a compromising disciple of Jesus, a compromising child of God. And let me ask you, a compromising child of God, a compromising disciple, is that not a manifest contradiction? And you think about that old adage, you’re supposed to be in the world, but not of the world. And that’s true, but you have to agree there’s a real difference between meaningfully, purposefully, praying up, knowing who and how you’re reaching in the world, yes, you’ve got to be around lost people, yes, you’re influenced. That’s very different from just mindlessly surrounding yourself with all kinds of worldly values and lusts that are certainly going to do you in. If we are to remain faithful, we must refuse to compromise, and that means running from all sins and all ungodliness. You think about what the Hebrew writer says. He says, throw off the sin that so easily entangles, throw off the weight and run the race. Run the race. You know what? Run the race. You know what race means in the Greek? What it means to run the race? To run. That’s what it means. It means to progress from the place you are to the place you’re supposed to be. Joseph didn’t say to Potiphar’s wife, hey, I can’t commit adultery with you, but let’s just be friends. Can we just be friends? He didn’t even walk away. What did Joseph do? He ran. The faithful run. Refuse to compromise on conviction. It’s not a mix and match game. See how Paul says it in Titus 2, chapter 2, verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. Why? It’s training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. And it’s at that place I see the erring Christian holding up the flag of legalism. Let’s not be legalist about things. You can’t say what we can and can’t do. Legalism is so often used as a very cheap, unconvincing mask for the person that just doesn’t want to be serious about pursuing holiness. It’s just covering laziness up is what that is. Yes, Jesus bled on the cross for all of our sins and took them away, not so that we can sit back and be lazy, but we can passionately pursue holiness knowing that with the power of the Spirit we will attain it. So that’s a perversion of grace. God calls us to run and to be very serious about holiness and unholiness, righteousness, and wickedness. So as far as the church, in the year 2018, almost 2019, is concerned, who’s discipling who? Is the world teaching us how to compromise on convictions?

Or are we radiating faithfulness unto God by our refusal to do so? Are we running? Are you running? There’s a very popular Christian blogger a couple years ago.

He really posed the question, if you’re a Christian, do you really watch… HBO has a popular show called Game of Thrones. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It has very graphic sex scenes. In fact, a porn website, instead of making their own porn, however you do that, they were copying and pasting sex scenes from Game of Thrones and putting it on their website because they were so graphic enough. And so they were sued by HBO.

And so Kevin DeYoung asks, would you want to be caught watching Game of Thrones when Jesus comes back?

And believe me, he had a lot of pushback from Christians about why he’s wrong and it’s okay. And he had to do a follow-up article to re-emphasize his case about how ridiculous it is to make the argument. And see then on the other hand, we say, how come the church is shrinking? How come we don’t see a rise and tide of godly young people in the church? How come there’s no reverence for God in the public square anymore? Well, because when the world sees the church doing this funky balancing act where I’m trying to have all of Jesus and I’m trying to maintain what the world sees and values as well, what are they supposed to want? What are they supposed to love? That doesn’t make a difference. All that is is hypocritical. Where’s the difference? Well, I know I shouldn’t have that conversation and gossip about the boss like everybody else, but he is a jerk. Well, I know I shouldn’t watch that on television. It’s got this and that in it, but hey, it’s a good show after all. Well, hey, I know I probably should wake up and be involved in the local church and give more time, but hey, I work hard and I’m sleepy on the weekends. Friends, that doesn’t make a difference. God says, I spit the lukewarm out of my mouth. What you see, what you hear, what goes into your mind and heart, it affects you. It changes you. It influences you. Friends, we must look at Abraham and see a man that stood on conviction and did not move. We must be different. Different. Isn’t that the theme of the whole Old Testament? God’s people were supposed to be different in the way that they lived. We’re supposed to be different and we’re filled with the Spirit and we’re following Jesus. Be different.

Verse 5 with me.

The servant said to him, Perhaps a woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came? Abraham said to him, See to it that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred and who spoke to me and swore to me to your offspring I will give this land. He will send his angel before you and you shall take a wife and my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine only you must not take my son back there. So don’t let him marry anyone here, but don’t you dare take him back there is what Abraham’s saying. The angel of the Lord go before you, you’ll find the wife, you’ll have success, but if not, he reemphasizes, don’t take Isaac back there. And you have to ask yourself why.

Notice Abraham said that the Lord took me from my father’s house. Now what does that mean? Very different from today. You never would have left your father’s house. If you grew up, you’d get married, you’d have added to your father’s house. You would have kept it big. Your father’s house was largely your identity. It was your belonging. Today people go to college. It’s very normal. It’s very normal for someone to move across town, move across country. That would have been very strange in the ancient world. You wouldn’t have wanted to lose the identity, the belonging of your father’s house. So when Abraham left Haran, he didn’t just leave behind his identity for himself. He left behind his identity for Isaac. And more than that, it says he took me from my native land. God did. Haran would have been a very developed, commercially driven city. Given its location on the Euphrates River in ancient Mesopotamia. But here in Canaan, Abraham and Isaac, they roam around like nomads on a land that they’re not even going to inherit in their lifetime. So you see again how faith compels Abraham to ask this servant to enter into this serious oath. He knows that if his son returns, the temptation to stay would be too great. To identify with his father’s house again. Sense of belonging to blood family. Hey, these people look like me. This is where my family is. The temptation of comfort and convenience would be too great. And the ease with which Isaac could part with God and his promise would be far too tangible.

Abraham’s faith then teaches us surely what we need to know this morning. Servant, put your hand under my thigh. Say out loud, you won’t let my son drown in the comforts and conveniences of this life that renders faithfulness to God impossible. Not to the child of the promise.

Remaining faithful to God then is not a passive, effortless endeavor. It’s the most uncomfortable, inconvenient thing you could ever do with your life. If it wasn’t following Jesus, it would be easy and everyone would do it. If it was, Abraham wouldn’t have been called a stranger in a strange land, but as he was. And he was a stranger in a strange land with his family. And more than that, he chose it and he was glad for it. Now what causes a sane, rational, man to suffer and be glad for the suffering? Well, Abraham saw something. By faith, Abraham understood something. You could even say by faith, Abraham had already apprehended something. What was that that by faith he possessed that made it uncomfortable, inconvenient in life? Not tolerable, but joy-filled. The Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews 11, verse 9, he says, By faith, he went to the Lord, he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. Why? He was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Abraham had his eyes on forever, not the temporal moment. Let me say this to you then.

The unchangeable nature of the brevity of life and the unchangeable nature of God. The infinitude of eternity are so easily and often smothered beneath sinful man’s desire to apprehend immediate pleasure, he gladly sacrifices the permanent on the altar of the immediate. Let me say it again. The unchangeable nature of how short this life is and the fact that eternity goes on forever, that’s so easily and often smothered beneath sinful man’s desire to apprehend immediate pleasure, he gladly sacrifices the permanent on the altar of the immediate. By God’s grace, Abraham sees it. Not everybody will see it. His imparted faith has empowered him to detach himself from the comforts, the conveniences that the world values so that Abraham doesn’t miss out on what he could gain for an eternity to come. His faithfulness is apparent in his willingness to part with things that aren’t flagrantly sin. They’re not wrong. It’s just what God told him to part. Blood family, native lands, those aren’t bad things, but they were the things standing in the way of Abraham receiving the greater blessing. And we’ve talked about this a little before, but oftentimes it can be the good things in life that keep us from the godly ones. So it’s not just a matter of what’s technically wrong or technically right. It’s a matter of what is God specifically calling you to and from in your life and whether or not you’ll let the comforts and conveniences you desire stand in the way of that. Abraham is a good father. He sees that for himself, but he sees it for his son Isaac. And that’s why he’s going to these links. Abraham desires not meaningless suffering and pain for Isaac. He desires Isaac to have a faith in the suffering that will well up to eternal life, knowing and being known by Christ. The apostle Peter, I think, says it very well. 1 Peter 1.6 He says, And in this you rejoice. Though now… For a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I was on a mission trip several years ago, and I was just talking to the missionary about, you know, how often do you go home? Is it weird to go home? He’s down in Guatemala. And I was like, what’s the hardest thing about going home? He said, actually, the hardest thing about going home is everyone says to us, hey, when are y’all going to come back and get on with the rest of your life? When are y’all going to be done in Guatemala and just get on with your life? And he said, the hardest part of it was the spiritual mentors in my life that led me to be a full-time missionary are the ones that are asking me these questions.

Friends, it may not be full-time mission work, but the Lord is calling you to an uncomfortable, inconvenient life. For His name’s sake. Joy-filled, but uncomfortable nonetheless.

And I know we all like to say, well, I don’t have time. I work, and I’ve got kids, and I’ve got this, and I just don’t have any time. I know we’re busy, but if we’re followers of Jesus and we’ve surrendered our life to Him, should we not be meticulous with our schedules? Lord, how and where am I not using my time wisely for You? How can I use my time to invest in another believer? How can I use my time wisely for Your kingdom to invest in a non-believer? Lord, how can I not be meticulous with my schedules? can I use my conversations well to talk about Jesus in my neighborhood, in my family, in my workplace? Lord, the money that I have, am I giving you the money that you want because it’s not mine, it’s yours in the first place? How am I sacrificially giving? Lord, am I serving the local church? Am I loving your body the way that you love your body? How are you dying to sell? How are you sacrificing? How are you inconveniencing yourself for the kingdom of God? Friends, Christ Jesus inconvenienced himself on the cross for you. Should we not give our all back to him?

We ask the Holy Spirit then for a recalibration in our heart concerning the things for which we are most affectionate. And it’s very strange because if you go back to the era of the industrial revolution, you had believers singing about heaven. They wanted to die. You were impoverished. You got paid nothing. There was dangerous working conditions. It wasn’t a good time to be alive. It’s the opposite today. People love their air conditioned homes and heated seats in their cars and computers. Like we’re just so comfortable. I think a lot of people just want to hit the repeat. If I just keep living, you know, just my middle ages over again, you’d be happy. And we’re fooled by the enemy and thinking that this is the greatest thing there is when Christ is calling us to an eternal glory. Do we as followers of Jesus have our eyes on the right things, our affections and our delights? Are they here? And what will pass away? Or are they rooted in Christ in eternity?

To be ever faithful. Verse nine.

It says, so the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master,

and swore to him concerning this matter.

So the servant enters into this binding. The oath with Abraham as he’s requested. Abraham requires the oath because Abraham understands the meaning of what it means to be faithful to the Lord. He understands the dangers that keep us from it. He understands what we must. To be faithful to God. Friends, we must be obedient to all that God has required of us. That’s what it means to be faithful. You cannot be a faithful follower of Jesus. You cannot be a child of God and not see that to mean obedience to everything that God is and suffer everything he’s called so that you don’t lose anything. You don’t lose any of what he has said. You don’t lose any of Christ. But that doesn’t solve our problem. Because our problem was we’re incapable of doing that which we should from exercising, certainly to the spiritual things. So then the question becomes, how is it possible for Abraham to obey, to be faithful to God, not just in spurts, but for the long haul? That’s the question.

What Jesus gives us the answer to that question plainly. In John chapter 8 verse 56, Jesus says, your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. When God called Abraham out of his home country to go to the promised land, Abraham did not acquire a new religion. He didn’t require, he didn’t require a new religion. He didn’t require a new religion. He didn’t require a new religion. He didn’t require a set of rules to follow. Because if what Abraham gained was just a religion with rules and do’s and don’ts and look this way and act this way, Abraham would be doing the New Year’s resolution thing every year. How am I going to try and fight and scrap to be a better version of myself for this God, this religion I’ve been pulled into? That’s not what Abraham got. Abraham by faith, Jesus says, saw the Messiah. When Abraham was called by God to go out, what Abraham experienced was the knowledge of God’s very real love for him. He saw how God loved him. And in this person, Jesus, this Messiah to come, he would be saved and he would be loved. And when we get a vision of Jesus, the way that Abraham did way back in the Old Testament, though Abraham wouldn’t have been able to say Jesus’s name. He would have been able to say Jesus’s name. He would have been able to say Jesus’s name. By faith, he saw the love of God and that this Messiah would come and this Messiah would stand on conviction. He would stand on the truth of who God was completely. This Messiah, he would suffer wrong. He would suffer all wrong for our sake and make all things new. Abraham gained a knowledge of God’s love. He gained a very real relationship with God. And when you gain that loving relationship with the God of the universe that fiercely loves you and you see it in how he sent his one and only son, you see it in how he sent his one and only son. to die and bleed on a cross. Friends, that produces in you a love back to this God. And I love this God so much and I love this Jesus so much. I want to obey him. Jesus says the one who loves me obeys me. And I’m not willing to lose any of this Christ because this Christ is so precious and this Christ is so beautiful. It’s not about keeping these rules. It’s about knowing this person. And I want to know this person and I’ll sacrifice anything just to keep this person. That’s how Abraham for the long haul was faithful to God. He loved Jesus by faith. And so he didn’t want to lose. Jesus. So what is the most important question in life become for you and me?

Do you love Jesus?

Is it not worth it to you to compromise on conviction because you don’t want to lose any of Jesus? You’re willing to suffer wrong. You’re willing to suffer evil because you want to do it for this Jesus and obey this Jesus and be with this Jesus. One of my favorite old hymns says it like this, blessed are the eyes that see Him. Blessed the ears that hear His voice. Blessed are the souls that trust Him and in Him alone rejoice. His commandments then become their happy choice. Is obeying God and following Jesus is that cold dead rules or is it your happy choice to suffer the temporal loss so you don’t lose an eternity of knowing and being known by Christ to live in the eternal city built and designed by God. That was Abraham’s joy. That was what Abraham was looking forward to. So he lost nothing of it. He suffered everything for it. Friends, that’s the only question for us in this morning. Do you love Jesus? Do you love Jesus? Let me say to you that He loves you. And if you’re not convinced of that, I could only say look to His bloody cross where He was humiliated and He bore your sin and He died a gruesome death so that you would not have to. No one loves you the way Jesus loves you.

I just want us as a church to grow in the knowledge of that love. That we could grow in obedience

and just end up in eternity with Him someday. And that would be our only

joy. So, let’s pray.

Lord, this morning

we have to be just square honest with the fact that we’re not enough.

And if we tried to live for You and obey You in our power, Lord, we would come up so short.

Lord, we pray by Your Spirit that just the reality of grace would come upon us, that we would know

Lord, that we have unmerited favor with You and Your Son Jesus. That we’re made holy, we’re made righteous, we’re justified in Your sight because of what Jesus did.

That in Jesus, because You’ve loved us in Christ, Lord, You’ve given us new hearts. You’ve taken out the heart of stone and You’ve replaced it with the heart of flesh and You’ve given us spiritual eyes to see and to understand.

So God, we don’t want to just go about the game of religion. We don’t want Christianity to be just some world religious system. We want it to be knowing Jesus and being changed by Jesus. Lord, let that be true for us this morning, I pray. Guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Keep us from our sinful flesh. Keep us from a world that pulls us away. Keep us from Your enemy that is always trying to divide us. Cast us down, Lord. Would You just give us spiritual strength, spiritual wisdom, spiritual understanding in Christ, that we would run the race.

And all along the way, just have the simple joy

of experiencing Your love in Christ, but also loving You and loving others with the love with which You have loved us. That’s our desire, Lord. So we just bless the name of Jesus this morning. We ask that You work in our hearts, Lord, as we need it, that we would repent, that we would be right before You.

And this we pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen.