Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Good morning, everybody.
Everyone has survived the Christmas week. Glad to see you here at Living Hope Church. We are glad you're here and excited to worship with you today. And so we welcome you and thank you that you want to be here with us. If you're visitors, don't worry, people will see you and they will shake your hand and say hello because they love you. And if they don't, let me know and then we'll make things better for that. But we just want to come together and just worship God and just praise his wonderful holy name. And so let's just start off with almost like a closing prayer, but we're going to open with this prayer from Paul speaking to the church in Thessalonica says, now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Let's pray. Father. We thank you so much, Lord, that we can come together in your name, Lord, that through your word, Lord, through your spirit that works within us, Lord, that our love for you would just grow.
And with that, Lord, we know the effect of our love for one another here in the body of Christ, Lord, the love for our city, the people who are lost and who need you. That our love would abound, Lord, that we would be dedicated, directed, moved, compelled by you and your love, Lord, to be ministers of your gospel in this city. Father, thank you for this time that we gather to worship you, to say thank you for the wonderful grace, the love you've shown us through your son, Jesus Christ. You provided a way for us to walk with you, to have a relationship with you, Father. Lord, forgive us when we fail to love you as we should, when we tend to put ourselves first and put other things first before you, Father and Lord, this time we just want to lay those before you and know that you are faithful to restore us as we repent from those sins and just want to draw close to you and to love you, Father, we ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Thank you, gentlemen. Now, you may not believe this, but I've been thinking this week. I sure wish Rick and Gary would sing that song.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: You got it.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: The Holy Spirit works in our lives.
How would you get that anyhow? God does that. All right, we're children now. Ages 3 to 5 can be dismissed to go to their Time of children's worship in time and learning about Jesus.
Now, in Western Christian tradition, January 6th is celebrated as a term we call epiphany. And the Sunday before January 6th, which actually is next Sunday, is Epiphany Sunday. Now, next Sunday is when you generally talk about these things, but Pastor Duba took off this week, and I asked him if he was gonna do something for Epiphany Sunday, and he said he hadn't even thought about it. So I said, well, I know what I'm gonna do, so I'm happy to share that with you today. Epiphany means to show, means to make known, to reveal.
It remembers the coming of the wise men, or we call them the Magi, who follow the light and they bring gifts as they visit the light of the world and king of Kings and reveal Jesus to the world as Lord and king. So it's also a day that many focus on baptism because they celebrate the baptism of Jesus as he was officially announced into the world by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God and then baptized. Now it's a popular day for baptisms in the Middle East. This is a really big day. And especially the Eastern countries, they celebrate this as Baptism Sunday. And I was fortunate on two occasions to be in Jordan on the baptismal site, side of the River Jordan. And there's on this day, and there was thousands. Thousands of believers from all over the world had gathered to celebrate the baptism of Jesus. Now they do this. It's a Catholic gathering, and they do this by the hyssop. And one of the lead men there in the Catholic Church, he's being carried on the shoulders.
Everyone, the crowd is gathering around. He goes down to the Jordan river and he gets his. A bucket of water. And then he has his hyssop. And as they're carrying him around, he's doing this.
And everyone who is hit by the water is baptized.
And for many, they believe this will get me into heaven. And, well, I got hit by the water.
And my Catholic priest, Fred, was there with me. I think I've shared this before.
He says, congratulations, you're now a Catholic. And he got on the bus to go back, and he got up, he said, I want to make an announcement to everyone.
Pastor Carl has decided to become a Catholic, and he will be called Father Carl from now on.
That's a big joke. We made a big laugh out of it. But. But it is a big day, and it's also a day remembers the first miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding in Canaan and you can imagine what happens on that day. Not water turning into wine, but a lot of people get married that day, especially in Cana. There's a line to get in. So. But today we're going to look at the meaning of Epiphany Sunday related to the wise men or the Magi. Now, we have no idea when they arrived at Bethlehem, but it was at least 40 days after the birth of Jesus. They were not there. Get that out of your mind. They were not there on the night that Jesus was born. There was at least 40 days after, because according to Luke, Mary and Joseph had gone to Jerusalem for Mary's purification ceremony on the 40th day after Jesus birth. And they had not left for Egypt yet because they don't leave until after the visit of the Magi, which on that very night. So according to the internal evidence of scripture, it could have been up to two years later, because that's Herod. He decided, oh, I'm going to kill all the baby boys 2 years old and younger, just to get all my bases covered. So I'd like to read chapter two, verses one through 12, give you a little bit of comment as we go, and then get into some things that we can relate to and apply to our lives. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, well, right there we see its past tense. It's after Jesus had been born, the Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, where is he who has been born, King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the East. We'll talk about the star later on. But they didn't look to the east and see it because they're from the East.
That'd been problematic, wouldn't it?
So they looked, they saw it while they were in the East. Just keep that in mind. They didn't see a star that everybody else saw. They saw it in the East.
And I'll talk about the star. And it says, we have come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, of course, because anything that related to a new king, he was concerned about because he was an illegitimate king of the Jews, he was new to me and wasn't even Jewish.
And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them when the Messiah was to be born. And they said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what was written by the prophet. That prophet was Micah. And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah. For out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. That's a prophetic word from Micah the prophet. And everybody recognized it's talking about the Messiah to come. And then Herod secretly called the Magi. Now, see, he had not met with the Magi yet. He had met with the other guys yet he had just heard about what was going on in Jerusalem, that these guys were asking, where's the King of the Jews? Where's the King of the Jews? And in his mind he's saying, hey, I'm the King of the Jews. What are they talking about?
Then Herod secretly called the Magi. He determined from them the exact time the star appeared. That's where we get the two years later on, and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child, and when you have found them, report to me so that I too may come and worship him. And after hearing the king, they went their way. And the star which had been seen in the east, went on before them. See, they didn't follow a star to Jerusalem. It didn't appear until they were in Jerusalem. Then they were able to follow it.
They came to Jerusalem because it's a logical place to go to see the King of the Jews.
And it says, and after coming into the house, they charged, well, there it is. It's in a house.
He's a child. Word's party on there, I think, and that means it could be a young child. And they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell to the ground and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another way. Now, so what do we know about the Magi?
Actually, not too much.
Basically what I just read is what we know about these Magi. We aren't sure what nation they were from.
Personally, I believe they were from Iran, Iraq, Elamite, because the Elamites were known for their wisdom. And the Magi were quite known there, around the area of Babylon, actually even farther away than Babylon. The Elamites were known for their wisdom and they were east of Babylon and they were well educated. We know they studied the heavens for direction from God or gods. And they were probably influenced by the teaching of Daniel, the prophet in the Old Testament, who became very influential during his period during the Babylonian captivity and who became somewhat of a leader of the magi, Daniel chapter two says that he was head over all the Magi, and he could easily have introduced the study of the Old Testament and what the Old Testament said to the other magi. And this is probably still circulating now. He sees of the.
There's a prophecy that we know about. His name was Balaam, remember him? He was back in Numbers 24. There's a prophecy from Balaam. He was a seer. He's pronounced a seer, but he's a magi. He was one of these men who were looked upon for their great wisdom and probably classified as a type of magi. And he sees a vision of the Almighty. And in it he says, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come forth from Jacob. So this understanding of a star related to the coming of the Messiah out of Jacob was even known back in the time of Moses. So even at this very early point in the Bible, people are predicting the coming of Christ and Balaam is saying it's going to be accompanied by a star. And we know they were influential in the appointment of kings, and that is why they are called kings in some translations, although they were not actually kings.
And how many? Well, what does Tradition say? Three. Why?
Three gifts. And that's the only way we arrive. Well, there is something else.
It could have been more, but many later on believe that there were three in order to represent the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth. I don't know where they got that, so I guess from the Bible. Shem, Ham and Japheth. But we know this.
There could have been many, many more. No one traveled with three, with all those goodies, alone in the desert, a thousand mile journey without having a lot of other people there. They would not have traveled alone, maybe with a large entourage of bodyguards and servants. Because when they entered Jerusalem, they made quite a stir, didn't they? Everybody heard about it all the way up to the king. And they entered Jerusalem because word got to King Herod and he had a private audience with them, as we see, as we read earlier, they. They were the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus for who he really was. He was king of kings, He's Lord of lords, and the Messiah of the Jews. They remind us that Jesus came for all people. Jesus came for all nations, all races. And that the work of God in this world would not be limited to only the Jewish people. Aren't you glad about that? I'm not Jewish. As far as I know, some of you are. But I'M glad I'm included. Now, what is this about? We will get to. You have an outline there. And I. It's kind of a strange outline. Just a bunch of words.
Guess that's what they all are. But. But the message that we want to see, we learn a lot of messages from these men. And the first one is that they followed God's lead. I'm hoping that's consistent with what we had. Hey, how about that? It's working. There's a message that the safest place to be in the world is where God leads us. That's where you're safe. And you can always feel safe when you're living according to God's will and in God's will. And that's not to say that bad things are not going to happen to you.
Who knows what happened to these men along their journey? Took a long time to get there. But God is in charge. And everything that happened in the Christmas story that you read about was all planned out by God beforehand. And the safest place, again, you can be is in the center of God's will, where whatever path you take in life, God knows where it's going to lead and how much better it is to follow the path that he lead you down, knowing he's in control. Now, how do we follow God's lead? First thing you'll see next is by listening. And I think that's next point.
See if we get the idea of listening there. Yeah. Now you got four points right there. You can copy them down. How about that?
I think that's according to my outline. Okay.
We learn it by listening. Now, God always speaks loud enough for a willing ear to hear. And God can and does speak to us anywhere, at any time, in any way that will get our attention.
We need to be open to him when he speaks and be aware that he constantly speaks to us.
We follow God's lead first by listening to scripture, and that's the next point there.
If we read verses two through six, it's interesting there because it says, where is he who has been born, King of the Jews?
For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. Herod the King heard of this. He was troubled all Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. And they said to him, bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the prophet and you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah. For out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. So where did they find the answer to their question? Where did Herod find the answer to his question? And where did the scribes and other leaders and the scholars find the answer to the question of the question? It's all found in the Word of God. And the point is that Herod and the chief priests and scribes and the Magi all went to Scripture for their final answer, the correct one. They found that the answer concerning Jesus by consulting Scripture. And when the Magi started out, they had received a message from God, not through Scripture. So very well, partially, I think about a star, but through a bright star. And when they made it to Jerusalem, they found out the true direction in the Word of God.
The Old Testament, Micah the prophet, was it 500 years earlier?
Now Scripture, the Bible, is God's word. And I recognize it, and I think most of you do too. It's your resource to know God's direction for your life, wherever that leads. Now, Herod's response to the Word of God was typical of so many. We have three responses to the Word of God in the Bible. He was hateful. He wanted only to destroy Jesus. And he used the Bible for his own advancement. By fighting it, he knew the truth. And he said, I'm going to fight this.
I'll just get rid of all those boys, the priests and scribes. Their response was quite different. They know the story, but to them it's only a story.
It's kind of an indifference. If they believed in the Word of God, you've heard this talked about before, I'm sure. Why didn't they seek out their Messiah, if that's where the Messiah, why wouldn't they go? They could care less.
But then you have the Magi response, a bunch of Gentiles who accepted it, they believed it, they followed it and worshiped the one that they found.
So I apply this to our lives. Have you lost your way recently or have you lost it in times past? Are you just. You feel like your life is just going in circles instead of trying to figure everything out on your own or even consulting a friend or some godless teacher or counselor who probably know less about God than you do? Why not look to God's Word and if you find a friend or counselor, make sure they apply the Word of God to what they tell you. It's very important. Well, they follow God's lead by allowing God to speak to them in many and various ways. And in their case, we have the star, a personal Star. And I put the word personal in there because it's important. Now what was this star?
The Greek word says something like ah, and then aster, a stare. I guess if you're from the south, you'd say a star. Okay, so it's a star. I was from the south, I can do that.
And it's Astaire. Astaire. And it means to what we call stars in the sky.
The word can also be used in other Greek writings.
Excuse me, the rain.
It can describe anything that is a bright light to illumine the way. And the Magi in the east, they saw something in the heavens, alerted them to the fact that the Jewish Messiah was born.
So the Magi, they do not call the star the star of Bethlehem. What do they call it?
His star.
See that? They said we saw his star when we were in the east. That means there's a possession there, it belongs to Jesus, it's his personal star.
And they refer to it as that since it was assigned to them that this king, his star was born. So the star prompted the Magi to travel to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. And again, this would be the logical place to go and to start looking for the birth of a king would be in the capital of the Jews. For someone who did not understand or know Micah's prophecy about a king being born in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem, the Magi's visited King Herod and were told that the new king they were looking for would be born in Bethlehem, not in Jerusalem, where you think a king would be born. So the wise men, they then left Herod's palace and the star of Bethlehem, his star, Jesus star, appeared to them once again. In fact, the star then went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. And that's an indication this was not a star that you see in the heavens.
Most of the stars, I think are bigger than the earth.
How does that land on top of a house, a particular house?
It wasn't something like we think of as a star. It was his star, it was his glory. And it's an indication that the light was similar to what the Israelites experienced in the wilderness, as the light of the glory of God went ahead of them and led them. I think this was the Shekinah glory of God.
And isn't that appropriate that you have the king of Kings, Lord of lords, in fact, God himself in the incarnation come as a man, that his glory would be there. Now this would be when they the reaction here. I'm going to get a Drink of water. I bring this up here for something. I might as well open it up.
This would be an indication of the reaction here is that they saw the star. And verses 9 and 10 says they were overjoyed.
Matter of fact, they actually says that they rejoiced. They exceedingly rejoiced. And with great joy they rejoiced.
There's a triplicate there. There's three times it's emphasized to emphasize the fact that, man, they were really excited about this. They were so excited. It was not only double joy, it was triple joy. And the star of Bethlehem, which was apparently mobile, led the Magi to the precise place where they could find Jesus. Now, whatever that bright star was, it certainly got the attention of the Magi, didn't it?
And they were so excited about this. So we move on here to learn a message there for you. Don't be surprised at what God will use in order to get your attention.
You don't need to look far from where you already are. He used their occupation to give them the sign of Jesus Christ.
He can use a star if you're into stars.
He can use a book, if you like books. He can use a conversation with someone else. He can use a movie. He can use a song. He can use the local news, even a sermon sometimes, okay.
To lead you to the understanding of Jesus Christ. Now, they were also led by detours in life. And you'll see that's the next one there.
Now, our plans and God's plans make may not always be the same. Matter of fact, sometimes the future that you think you are preparing for is not what the Lord has in mind for you. And I've done that how many times? When I was in college, I changed my major three times. That was my first six weeks. Okay. And I ended up not being any of those things.
And I'm sure that the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus for Mary and Joseph were not what they had in mind. Okay, read Luke to understand that. But it started them on a new lifelong journey of real meaning. After the visit of the Magi, the Mary and Joseph are told to flee to Egypt. And that wasn't on their agenda either. The Magi had not planned on a quick escape in the middle of the night and going by a different way than they came. Now, that's kind of tricky. I tried to trace what would be the different way. They had to go way out of their way to escape going through Jerusalem. They were trying to avoid Jerusalem, but it is possible. But it added on a long Time and some places where you had to really space your water. It was a very difficult thing for them. They were actually fleeing from a madman. Now, that was not on their agenda. They did what God wanted and they accepted it. They saw meaning in God's direction. And it's. Think about this. It saved their lives, and it saved Mary's life and Joseph's life and baby Jesus life simply because they had a dream that said, go this way, don't go that way. And they went that way and it saved all those lives. Now, you may feel that you're in the middle of a detour in your life. Things just are not going the way that you anticipate. Have you been there? Things just didn't go the way you thought they would go. You say, well, how many times?
And you wonder what's going on. You thought your life was headed in one direction, and now you find yourself on a detour. And. And maybe it's a divine detour.
So. And I can't tell you what God's doing in your particular situations, but I can tell you that you need to look for God in it, no matter what it is. You got to say, where you at in this, God. I have had, as I said earlier, many detours in my life. And as I look back, what may have seemed really disappointing at the time, and I may have shed tears or got angry about it worked out just right for me. And you got to concentrate many times in your Life on Romans 8:28 and the surrounding verses. And it says, we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purposes. Purpose. And God calls us to change our course in life when we decide to follow him, every single one of us. Your course in life was changed when you came to Jesus Christ. You went from sin and death to life. Now that's a big change.
You went from meaninglessness to real meaning. That's a really big change. You went from sorrow to joy. Aren't you glad about that? And you went, as we sang earlier, from darkness into light.
Wow. That's the change that's worthy of looking at and rejoicing in. Now we know a scripture that emphasizes that. 2nd Corinthians 5:17 says, if any man is in Christ, be in Christ. He's got a new position in Christ. He's a new creation. Now, what does that mean? It means the old things, your former life is passed away. And it is. It's gone. And you got to accept that. Behold, all Things have become new. And from here on, everything that happens, you have to ask, what are you doing, God?
Where you lead me here? Well, that leads on to something else. Let's go to the next point. The Magi show us the importance of worship, because worship is not an option with Jesus Christ. We need to worship him. He wants it. He desires it. He demands it. And once the Magi reached Jesus, the first thing they did was what? They fell down. It's literally, it means fall down. It means to drop.
I presume they fell on their knees. I can't imagine just falling flat on their face. Or they may have gone to their knees to their face, but they fell down and worshiped. The shepherds. They did the same thing, didn't they? We don't have them falling down. We don't read that. But Luke says they went back glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen.
So the Magi, they bowed down and they worshiped. Now, one way to worship was to bow low before another. And it signaled one's submission to another as having authority over them. So this happened quite, quite a bit in those days.
Today we say, I'm not going to bow before any man, that type of thing. Well, they did then. And it's many of you, when you pray, you bow your heads and you say, why do I bow my head? It's a sign of your submission to God. And some of you will raise your hands when we sing songs or when we're praying or what does that mean? Why do you raise your hand? It's a way to say to God, these hands are yours to do with and to do whatever you want and to do your work and to honor you. You see, the hands are extension of you. It's what you do, your strength. And you say, this is yours, God. So make sure when you raise your hands, you know what you're talking about.
So. And that's what you're doing. And it's a good thing to do.
Now, worship will never call attention to yourself. It will only offer glory to God. And it's an outward, outward physical expression of a grateful heart within. So that's why these Magi Magi were there. Now, the Magi shows us next point is to show us how to respond in faith or by obedience. I hope I got that as the next point. Anyhow, they put commitment to their conviction. They said, we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. You see, they were willing here to take appropriate action.
These men had made a Long journey that forever changed their lives. They actually, they put feet on their faith. You've heard that expression before. They didn't just sit and stare at this wonderful phenomenon of this type of glory of God experience they had appearing before me. When they got their sign, they took action.
Now, they also show faith by doing something next point, and that's by appropriate giving.
If you see what they did, they bowed or they kneeled, they fell down.
And this was a posture that showed their humbleness before a king. But they worshiped in another way, didn't they? They presented offerings as a sign of worship. Now why do we give offerings today?
It is an act of worship. It isn't because we so convicted? Because there's a need? No. Whether there's a need or not, we still give as an offering to God. So it's an act of worship. And the gifts of the magi that they brought were valuable and appropriate and had great meaning. Just real quick. The first one was gold, as mentioned, and that would be a treasure deserving of a king. They had. The second one was what? Frankincense.
That was an expensive fragrance. It's a resin that was offered to God by a priest during a sacrificial time of worship. It was a symbol of prayer. It spoke of his divinity. And the third was myrrh. And that was another expensive resin used as an oil many times to prepare a body for burial. And some have said that Jesus was received that for the day that he would die. There's even questions, did Mary save that for the day Jesus died and that was part of the oils used? I don't go that far. I have no idea. But he would someday die and be buried and then rise again to new life for all of us. Now, the magi, they didn't know this, but their gifts not only were gifts that they felt they should give, but this was in the plan of God. These gifts had a practical value as well. And they didn't know this. They were going to provide funds for a poor family, funds necessary for Joseph and Mary to make their long journey to Egypt that very night and then come back later on and even have money to live while they're there. We never know how God will use the gifts that we give him.
Don't even look for it. You don't even know. There are times in life when God calls us and we must respond and we must worship him regardless of the cost. Let's get to the final point, and this is a strange one. We show our faith by acceptance of the providence of God. Now what do I see? I see the providence of God all over this Christmas story. Providence is not a term or subject that we use too often today or know about today. Providence is the doctrine that teaches that God is in control of every detail in the universe. I believe that with all my heart. He not only has control of all the big details, but he also has control of the minutest details of life.
Everything in the universe fits under his great master plan. And that includes your life as well.
Everything is important. Everything that happens in your life is important. And look for God at work in everything that happens. Now, these men met God in the midst of their work and in a way that they would understand. And now these astrologers were doing their jobs when God spoke to them, using that area of expertise. The same thing happened to the shepherds. They were out in the fields doing their job, and they were on the job, tending their flocks in the field at night. And God will do the same thing in your life.
Be ready to hear from him every day of your life.
Don't ignore the opportunities. That's why Sundays, when we gather together, that's why you're not to forsake the assembly of yourself together. One of the best places in the world to hear from God is when you're with other believers in worship and learning about Him. So I try not to miss anything. Even when I go on vacations, I try to go and hear a message from God.
Hear it. It might just be only for me that day. And I don't want to miss it. And we don't either.
And so you. It's a great thing to understand that you need to be where God wants you to be. And it's in the providence of God. I believe that you're here today.
It's all a part of his plan. Now this will be a great time for you to receive the gift that's offered to you from God. That's forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. Because what Jesus did for you when he died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins, when he shed his blood so that that would pay the penalty, he took your judgment upon himself and bore that for you. And so it's important for us to ask the question, won't you now believe that he did that for you?
That that's in the providence of God as well? Won't you allow the work accomplished on the cross to. To be applied to you? Won't you believe that Jesus was raised up from the dead to make it possible for you to go to heaven when you die, you see, will you then continue to confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior throughout the remainder of your life? Now, these are heavy questions, aren't they? But they're questions we all got to deal with. You're dealing with them right now. The answer is still Jesus Christ.
The answer always points to Jesus Christ. Now we're going to sing a closing song, but there are several, I'm sure, who are here today who would love to pray with you. I know Les is here. I'll be here. There'll be a couple in the back, I think, who's there today?
Okay, Tom, you'll be there. And someone else. Let us know who you are so we know who will be back there. Okay, thanks. My right eye wasn't focusing.
So Kate will be there and they'll be back. And if you want, pray and you say, I don't want to go in front of anybody, but I need to pray with somebody. I need to learn how to come to know Jesus. I learned to know about this thing going on in my life. I need help with it. Well, take it to them and they'll pray with you.
And you may not want to come up front, but the back's easy to go to, and that's where they'll be. But this is a time when we get these things right with God, and I challenge you to do so. And even while we're singing a closing song today, which I think is very fitting for the occasion, as we move into New Year, let's pray. Lord, bless us now as we think of the magi and what they did and how you bless them and the message we received from them and the truth about them, and help us to understand that and apply it to our own lives. And Father, if you are speaking to us, and I'm sure you are, there's some things we need to make right and get right with you in relationship and experience. We pray that you'll lead us in that and help us to understand that and guide us in that. Today we give our lives to you to be used by you under all circumstances, all the time, and we want to hear from you every day of our life. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
