Okay, I'd like you to turn with
me in your Bibles back to John chapter 6. And I wanted to look at what
it is. We looked briefly at what it
was for the Lord Jesus Christ to be a prophet earlier, and
I want us to look at his response to these men who seemed to honour
him when almost no one else that we have met with in the religious
world had brought honour to the Lord Jesus Christ. But listen
to what these men say in verse 14, having seen all the miracles,
when then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus
did, said, this is of a truth, that prophet that should come
into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived
that they would come and take him by force and make him a king,
he departed again into a mountain by himself. You might recall
in the other Gospel accounts, he actually dismissed the crowd
and sent them away, the five, possibly 10,000, possibly more. You can do the mathematics of
the 5,000 men. We don't know how many others
were there, but nevertheless, it was a vast crowd, and the
Lord sent one lot away. He sent his disciples into a
ship to go across the Sea of Galilee, and he went up himself
onto a mountain. The question is, obviously, why
did he not accept their generous offer? No one else had said,
we want to make you a king. They would have, according to
their estimation of things, marched the Lord Jesus Christ down to
Jerusalem. It was a Passover that was coming very, very soon,
and they would have marched him into Jerusalem and declared him,
he is our king. We can be fed now and he will
reign and rule. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
did something which I pray that he never does to us ever. He departed. Often in the gospel
accounts we'll hear that the Lord Jesus Christ left them.
Left them. He is a king. He is a great king. We've been looking at Malachi
and one of the... declarations he makes in Malachi
1.14, he says, Cursed be the deceiver which has in his mail
a flock and bow, and sacrifices under the Lord a corrupt thing,
for I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name
is dreadful among the heathen. The heathen, of course, in the
scriptures are all those that aren't Jews. By name, by birth, I mean. He's a great king. He's a king
of great magnitude and great extent. His name is dreadful. That means his name is to be
revered. It's to be stood in awe of. It's to be honored. It's to tremble
at his word. I love what Isaiah 66 says about
this great king for all these things he says in verse 1 he
says the heaven is my throne the earth is my footstool where
is the house that you'll build under me and where is the place
of my rest for all those things has my hand made and all those
things have been sayeth the Lord but But in the midst of all of
that, but to this man will I look. I want him to look at me, I want
him to look at you. Even to him that is poor and
of a contrite heart and trembleth at my words. You go on there and you'll see
that the Lord Jesus Christ is a great king and he does have
a remarkable relationship with his people. I want to begin and
finish at the same point. There are some wonderful declarations
in the scriptures of the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Bible begins with, in the beginning, God. So therefore everything
else that ever happens flows from He who is the Great I Am. If He is the I Am, then everything
else must necessarily flow from the I Am. But Graham read to
us earlier out of Psalm 2 and I love the personal pronouns
in the scripture. Martin Luther made a statement
many, many years ago, obviously over 500 years ago, he said many
people, many people go from this world to a dark and terrifying
place because they're not able to use personal pronouns regarding
God. And I want the Lord Jesus Christ
to be as God declares him to be. He says, I have set my king
on my holy hill of Zion. God calls him my king, and his
people call him my king. Psalm 5 verse 2, Hearken unto
the voice, my cry, my King and my God, for unto thee will I
pray. Psalm 44 is glorious where it
says, Thou art my King. Thou art my King. That's why
when we're preaching the gospel, I want you to say, I want you
to think and ask the question of yourself. Stand in the ways
as we saw earlier from Jeremiah chapter six. He is a great king. Is he my king? Thou art my king. Listen to what my king does in
Psalm 44 verse 4. My king, O God, command deliverances
for Jacob. It means command salvation for
Jacob. What on earth did Jacob ever
do in himself to cause that? It's just a picture of the grace
of God. Command deliverances. You command
salvation for this Jacob. This Jacob who can't do anything
for himself. Deliver. Deliver me as promised. Psalm 68 verse 24. They have
seen thy goings, O God, even the goings of my God, my King
in the sanctuary. That word goings is the word
ways. We have seen the hand, we've
seen the footsteps, we've seen the handprints, we've seen the
marks of the Lord Jesus Christ over all of our ways, if you
are a child of God. For God is my King. My King of old, working salvation
in the midst of the earth. And there's that lovely Psalm
84 where it speaks about the sparrow has found a house, and
the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young.
Even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. It's speaking of being in fellowship
in that sanctuary, isn't it? So our great King commands deliverances. Our great King has goings and
ways that his people can find. They're old. Our great King works
salvation in the midst of this. He's my King. is my King. And one of the things that causes
my blood to boil and causes me to be stirred of more than many
other things is that when the King, when the Lord Jesus Christ
is dethroned, and He's dethroned by religious people all over
the world, isn't it? And the religious people of the
world are pictured in the Lord Jesus Christ and His interactions
with the religious world of his day. Nothing has changed. Our God doesn't change. People don't change. God's dealings
with people don't change. Now listen to what verse 15 says
of John chapter 6. When Jesus therefore perceived
that they would come and take him by force to make him king,
he departed again into a mountain. He perceived. They didn't have
to say a word. People don't have to speak for
the Lord Jesus Christ to know exactly what's going on in your
mind and mine, and God's children love it that way. everything
about me. He knows I'm dust, he says in
Psalm 130. He knows I'm dust. He knows I
have nothing to bring him. I'm a beggar. I'm a beggar at
his mercy, at his throne of mercy. He knows our thoughts. Just as
in Jerusalem many believed on his name in chapter 2 verse 23,
and they saw the miracles that he did, but Jesus did not commit
himself to them. He wouldn't entrust himself to
men, because he knew all men, and he needed not that any should
testify of man. He doesn't need a testimony from
men about men's activities, for he knew what was in man. He knows our innermost thoughts. As I said earlier, he then says
he departed again into a mountain by himself alone. He departed
to pray for hours with his father. Continually he was departing
and praying. What a precious thought it was.
What was he praying for? You can read about it in John
chapter 6. wasn't he? He was praying for
his father's glory. He was praying for the glory
of his salvation. He was praying for his people.
He's praying for his people. It's a great needy thing for
the children of God is to take themselves away and just be quiet. You and God together. You'll never be lonely. You'll
never be lonely if you go away. Find a quiet place. Just you
and the Lord. He departed. These men actually
made a proper conclusion, didn't they? Which is better than a
lot of other people. They started well, these men
here, didn't they? They wanted to make him king.
They had discerned that this was the prophet that Moses spoke
about. We read about that earlier. They were a long way ahead of
the people in Jerusalem. These men saw miracles and they
calculated correctly. And the Lord Jesus Christ was.
the prophet who was to come into the world. In fact, that's the
declaration that the apostles make in Acts chapter 3. This
is the prophet. And people will listen to him.
His people will hear his voice. His people will listen to him.
But the lesson, of course, is that the Lord Jesus Christ departed
from them. He wasn't going to be made and
declared by them. See, people can speak well of
the Lord Jesus and speak correctly of him and be lost. He is a great
king. He departed again. Why? Why did the Lord Jesus Christ,
when they when he perceived that they would come and take him
by force and make him a king. Why? Why did he depart again? Why did he go? Surely he's a
good king. Surely King Jesus reigning over
that nation would have been a lot better and certainly for these
people he would have been a lot, lot better than the Romans reigning
over that nation. They had every reason to think
that he would be a much, much better king, but he departed
and he rejected. Why did he reject their honouring
him, as it were, in this way? The first thing we need to have
in mind and we need to write it down and we need to underline
it and highlight it and embolden it and repeat it again and again
and again to ourselves is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ said
to Pilate. Pilate brought the Lord Jesus into the judgment
hall. It's interesting when men take the Lord Jesus into the
hall of judgment. It's not the Lord Jesus who's being judged,
it's men who's being judged, of course, isn't it? He says
to Jesus, John 18.33, Jesus answered him, sayest thou
this thing of thyself, or did others tell you of me? Pilate answered, he said, am
I a Jew? You can imagine the scorn on
Pilate's face as he spoke about that. Thine own nation and chief
priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Verse 36 is the one that I want
us to contemplate. This is why he wouldn't accept
their honouring him in that way. He said to Pilate, My kingdom
is not of this world. Write it down. My kingdom is
not of this world. If the professing Christian world
would get some sort of a handle on that and just write it down
somewhere, a whole bunch of what goes on in the name of what men
think they're going to do by honouring the Lord Jesus Christ
would be taken away in a heartbeat, wouldn't it? My kingdom is not
of this world. Do you think of the kingdoms
that have been set up in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ?
The most powerful nation on planet earth doesn't have an army, doesn't
have a navy, doesn't have an air force. It has the tiniest
parcel of dirt. It's called Rome. It's immensely
powerful, isn't it? It's an earthly kingdom. It's
a satanic kingdom, but it's an earthly kingdom. My kingdom is
not of this world. Listen to what he goes on to
say. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants
fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom
not from hence. How many servants is the Lord
Jesus Christ God? One angel outside Jerusalem in
the days of Hezekiah in one evening killed 185,000. He's got tens
of thousands of angels. He has servants galore. Pilate therefore said unto him,
aren't thou a king indeed? This is the Lord Jesus Christ
is the true king. Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am a king to this end, this is the purpose, that I was born. And for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. He is a king, and the king who
bears witness unto the truth, the truth of who God is, the
truth of who he is, the truth of who man is, the truth of what's
going on in this world, the truth of salvation, the truth
of this spiritual kingdom that he's talking about. And listen
to what he goes on to say. This is the king speaking. This
is the king speaking. Everyone that is of the truth,
that word of is origin, everyone that is born of God, everyone
whose citizenship is in heaven, everyone that is of the truth,
heareth my He's the king and the prophet.
He's the king that brings the word of God. So much and almost all the activism
that's done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is not about
that spiritual kingdom at all. Don't you love his kingship in
that previous section of scripture in John chapter 18, in the Garden
of Gethsemane the Lord Jesus Christ had bowed his mighty head,
he'd taken the cup that the father had given him. And as he looked
into that cup, according to Psalm 40, he saw all of the sins of
all of God's people that were laid on him. And he looked into
that cup and he broke his heart. And great drops of blood. fell
to the ground as the Lord Jesus Christ was in anguish and astonished
the angels. How much could they have done
to stop that in a heartbeat? But he was a king, wasn't he?
He was a king. And he finally gathered his disciples
and went out as a king to meet Judas. And those hundreds of
soldiers, they came with their man-made lights and their man-made
spears and their man-made weapons to arrest the King of Glory. They came in the darkness with
their man-made lights to arrest the light of the world. Listen
to how the Lord Jesus Christ dealt with them. He went out
to them. He says, whom seek ye? And they
answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am. He said to them, I am God. I am king. I am. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them. And as soon then as he said unto
them, I am, they went backwards and fell to the ground. This
is King Jesus. He did not go to the cross as
a victim. He went to the cross and he went
to Pilate's hall as a king, as a king bearing all of the sins
of all of his people to the cross of Calvary. He was a king. He
was a king. They fell backwards. Some estimate, given the title
of the Roman leader of this band with Judas, that there were 750
men. Imagine a crowd of 750 armed
men with spears. and they all fell to the ground
backwards. The miracle of the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ
in that situation is that they were able to get up again. How
did they get the energy to get off the ground and stand again?
Who bound whom that night? He went as a triumphant king
with 750 men who said, this guy is not to be played games with.
He put himself into the hands of them. He came as a suffering
servant. He came as the sacrificial lamb
of God. He wouldn't accept He wouldn't
accept them making him king because his kingdom is not of this world
and he wasn't seeking worldly honours from men. He's not interested
in seeking worldly honours and he won't accept any honours from
men unless it comes as he's ordained and in his particular way he
came to save sinners. Sinners, whose one big issue
is not the slavery and bondage of sin. Sinners
whose one big problem is that they will meet this same Jesus
when they leave this earth. The minute you leave, this millisecond
you leave this earth, you are in the very presence of this
King who commands all things. Also, he wanted again and again,
the Lord Jesus Christ is always speaking to his people. He always
has lessons to his people. That's what he said to Pilate,
don't they? Those that are of the truth, they'll hear his voice. He was wanting them to see that
this book of the scriptures that we have in our laps is a spiritual
book. It's not a rule book for living
in this world. It's not a book about making
this world better. Without any doubt whatsoever,
it would be much better if this world lived according to the
dictates of this book in every possible way. That's always been
the case. But nevertheless, his kingdom
is not of this world. He doesn't seek the honor of
men. And the other thing is that if men can make him king, the
second reason is if you can make him a king, who really is the
king? If you can make him a king, you
can unmake him a king. People say, make Jesus Lord of
your life. I'm very, very sorry. It's way
too late for you to do anything like that. He's been Lord of
your life from before the foundation of the world. He's Lord of your
life now. He's Lord of your thoughts. He's Lord of your actions. He's
Lord of everything else that's going on in this world. It is
the great comfort of God's people. King. See, men are happy to make
Him King and men are happy to do anything they like with the
Lord Jesus Christ as long as they can have some part and some
seat on the throne themselves, that they can have some rule
and some authority. King makers have more authority
than the king that's made. It's so demeaning of his glory. You don't make him anything.
Imagine you going over to the Queen Elizabeth and walking up
to Buckingham Palace and knocking on the door and seeing me get
in and talking to the Queen and say, I want to make her Queen. It's nonsense, isn't it? It's
as much nonsense as people these days saying, I want to make Jesus.
He is king. He is king, and he's not going
to be made king by men. And he's going to have a kingdom,
and he does have a kingdom. He has a kingdom in this world,
and it's a spiritual king. He is a spiritual kingdom and
he reigns and he rules over all things and he reigns and he rules
in the hearts of all of his people. They that are of the truth will
hear his voice and all that hear will come to him. They'll hear
the voice of the shepherd. He's a great shepherd. All he
has to do at the time of love is call his sheep by name and
like Lazarus out of the tomb they'll come. They'll come and
they'll rejoice as they see him. Make him king. We don't make
him anything whatsoever. Your opinion about him is absolutely
irrelevant. It has absolutely no impact on
him whatsoever. He is what he is, isn't it? Our
declaration is the declaration that he makes of himself, isn't
it? That is saving faith, isn't it? is believing the Lord Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah that came into the world
and that everything in these scriptures that we have and read
and delight in is true of Him and we love His character as
it's revealed in the scriptures. The rest of John 6 will go on
to describe the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ and the character
of His kingship and the way He deals with people. You read it
and you'll find that everywhere in all of that declaration, as
it is throughout the scriptures, He's just saying, I am God reign and rule over all things,
for my glory, the glory of my Father, and for the good of these
my children." See, once again, the Lord Jesus Christ is, by
example here, directing His followers to shun popular applause and
worldly pomp and ceremony. The Lord Jesus Christ, as I said
earlier, is the King in every way. He's the King of everyone.
He's the King of everything. He's the King of kings and He's
the Lord of lords. He creates all that exists and
He sustains all that exists. He's the King and He reigns and
He rules. The King's heart, the King's
hearts of this world, the Kings of this world, their hearts are
in His hands and He directs them wherever He likes. Do you rejoice
in a king like that? I rejoice. I rejoice in the kingship
of the Lord Jesus Christ. King Jesus. Doesn't that sound
nice? King Jesus. Jesus Christ is God. He's a king because of who he
is. He was a king before the incarnation. He's a king incarnated. He was a king as a baby in his
mother's arms. And listen to what Paul says
of him. He's called in 1st Timothy 6.15, he's the blessed and only
potentate, king of kings and lord of lords. That word potentate
means the one with all authority. He's the only one. It's not the
highest. He's the only authority. He rules everything. Who hath,
verse 16 of 1 Timothy 6, who only hath immortality, dwelling
in light which no man can approach unto, whom no man has seen nor
can see, to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. Here's the blessing, and
I only patentate. And this is the blessing for
all believers, isn't it? he reigns. In John 6 he reigns
over the loaves and the fishes. They delivered the five loaves
and the two fish into a hand of a man called made a multitude have a feast
with so much left over he reigns as we see later in John chapter
6 he reigns over the ways of the sea he reigns over the multitude
you can just tell them to go and he can depart and is he harmed by or damaged
by the rejection of him Never is his glory impinged by the
rejection of him. Never, never is his church damaged
in any way by the multitudes that walk away. Never is a mighty
king, is a mighty king. No harm ever befalls the righteous. The demons have to ask his permission
to do things. The devil is God's devil. Wicked
men devise all of their scheme and plan. And the conspiracy
that Graham read of in Psalm chapter two is the conspiracy
that's going on throughout the world, isn't it? We're not gonna
have this man to rule over us. We're not gonna have this man
to rule over us. I'm very, very sorry he rules over you regardless
of your thoughts of him. It doesn't matter. It does matter,
of course. It matters enormously to the
children of God. rules. He rules in the hearts
of his people, they that are of the truth will hear his voice. I love Psalm willing in the day of his power. He draws his people to himself
as he's lifted up and the cross is dealt with with clarity. Who died? Why he died? Who put him to death? What are
the issues as we read in Psalm 68 from his death? He draws people
to himself. He draws them by the power of
his grace, doesn't he? He makes his people willing in
the day of his power. Just turn with me briefly to
Hebrews chapter 1 and listen to God's description of God's
Son. Hebrews 1 is just a glorious, glorious picture, isn't it? It
starts in verse 1, God who at sundry times in a diverse manner
spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. Now hath, in
these last days, spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed
heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds, who being
the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power. You're
sitting on a seat at the moment, sitting on a floor. It's upheld
by the word of His power. That sun is up there beyond the
clouds, upheld by the word. Billions and billions of stars
are hanging and planets are hanging in nothing, it says. Upheld by
the word of His power. Listen to where this power comes
and touches us. When he had, this is one of the
most lovely phrases in all the scripture, when he had by himself,
this is our king, by himself purged our sins, that means to
take something that's dirty and filthy and make it perfectly
sparkling clean so there's not a single hint that it was ever
there, purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high, that's where he is now, isn't he? He's purged all the
sins of all of his people and he's sat down. That pictures
someone who's at rest to me, doesn't it? He's not pacing around
heaven trying to work out how on earth does he get all this
whole business sorted. He sits, he sits, but listen
to what, go down to verse eight with me, this is what the Father
says, this is what God the Father says, but he said, but unto the
Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, has anointed
thee with the oil of gladness. Above thy fellows and thou, O
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of thine hand. They shall perish,
but thou remainest. They shall all wax old as doth
a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall
be changed, but thou art the same. He's above creation, brothers
and sisters, doesn't he? He sits on a throne. Thou art
the same, thy years shall not fail. Under the sun, he says,
thy throne, O God, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. God the
Father calls his son. He's not God because God declares
him to be God. He's God because he is God. He is a mighty king, and he does. He does as a mighty king does. He reigns and rules, and he commands
in this spiritual kingdom of his by his word of power. And his word of power is the
declaration of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and him
crucified. See, they didn't crucify the
Lord Jesus Christ. these Jews because he was a prophet. They rejoiced in some of his
words sometimes. And they didn't crucify him because
he was a priest. They didn't know about him being
a priest. Why did they crucify him? What did Pilate write above
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, on top of the cross? Jesus of
Nazareth, King of the Jews. And God, in his absolute sovereignty,
it was remarkable, as those Jews were offended by that, they said,
just put it up there that it was his opinion that he's King
of the Jews. I love what Pilate was caused by God to say. He
says, what I have written, I've written. I've written it. God's
written it. This is the King of the Jews.
You're crucifying your King. Your King. I want us to look briefly at
the King's words, and that glorious word of his from the cross is
where we'll probably have to finish here. What did he shout
when he died? What was those last words before
he said, into my hands, into your hands I commit my spirit?
He cried out from the cross, it is finished. It is finished. In his absolute
sovereignty over wicked and evil people he caused Balaam, when
Balaam was employed by Balak, to actually curse Israel. And Balaam couldn't curse Israel,
he had to bless Israel. But there's a glorious description
of this king and his words. Balaam said, God hath not beheld
iniquity in Jacob, neither has he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him,
and the shout of a king is among them. The shout of the king is
among them. Why doesn't God behold iniquity
in Jacob? Because there is no iniquity
in Jacob to behold by God. There is no iniquity to behold. That's what it is to be justified. They're the issues from death,
isn't it? In the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, all the sins of all of God's people were laid on him.
And when he cried out, it is finished, it says, paid in full,
all the debt I owe to God. All the debt I owe in obedience
to his holiness, in obedience to his law. All the debt I owe
because of all the sins that I've committed. Paid in full. That's the shout of a king. That's the shout of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's paid in full. That's the
rest that we spoke of earlier, isn't it? I owe God nothing. And I owe him absolutely everything. There is no iniquity in Jacob. He's speaking of his church,
he's speaking of his elect. Everyone that the Lord Jesus
Christ died for is saved. Everyone the Lord Jesus Christ
died for must be saved. That's what it is for him to
be a king and the rest of John chapter 6 will just be highlighting
that in the most glorious ways. If the king died for me, I'm
saved. It's as simple as that. This
king cannot fail. Don't you love that in Isaiah
42? He shall not fail nor be discouraged. He will see the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. Our king, the shout of a king
is the shout of a joyful king. For the joy set before him, he
went to that cross. scorning all that shame, scorning
all the mockery of men, for the joy set before him. He'll see
the travail of his soul. God the Father will see the travail
of his soul. He will see the travail of his own soul, and
he'll be satisfied. Our King. sits on a throne. Our king has finished his work. Our king is now, as we read in
Psalm 68, our king is now distributing the bounties of his grace to
his children throughout this world, gathering them to himself. He came as a mighty king, he
was resurrected as a mighty king, and he's sent into heaven as
a mighty king. And when he returns, he'll be
a mighty king. In fact, the scriptures finish
in Revelation in chapter 1, Behold, he cometh. Do you rejoice in
that? He's on his way back, brothers
and sisters. He's gone to prepare a place
for you. In that day of judgment, he'll
be there as a mighty king. And as a mighty king, he'll be
declaring all of his people perfectly righteous, perfectly just, perfectly
free from sin, perfectly fit according to the holiness and
justice of God to dwell with him forever in the new creation,
the home of the righteous. So let's go back to where we
started. I love to think of my king. May he calls you to hear his voice. What do you do
before a king? You bow before a king. One day you'll bow, every knee
will bow before this great king. You can read about him in Philippians
chapter two. You'll bow, you'll bow before
his glory now or you'll bow before the glory of his holiness on
that day. What else do you do for a king?
I love what Esther did when she had to go in and plead for her
own life and plead for the life of all the Jews. She said, if
I go into this king's throne room without his invitation,
I'm dead. She goes in before this king. didn't she? And the great King
Ahasuerus put out his scepter, he put out his royal scepter
and says, you're welcome, you're welcome, bring your requests
to me. So people, the children of God
bow and they never stop bowing. The children of God are mercy
beggars, always, and we never rise above a mercy beggar. And the command of this king
is to repent and believe. Change your mind about who he
is and how he saves sinners and who you are. He commands to believe. Your warrant for coming and your
warrant for believing is his command. Thou art my King, O God. Command deliverances for Jacob. Command salvation. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank
and praise you for the time we have in this world. by your spirit
and by your grace to speak back to you the glory that's written
about your dear and precious son and the wonders of salvation
and the remarkable thing, Heavenly Father, that your son came into
this world to save sinners like us and to make us a kingdom,
a kingdom of priests before him, a kingdom of those who reign
and rule. with him in glory. Oh our Father,
we thank you and praise you that the Lord Jesus Christ said, fear
not little flock. It's the Father's good pleasure
to give you a kingdom. We have a kingdom because of
an inheritance that's earned entirely and completely by your
dear and precious Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us to rejoice,
Heavenly Father. Cause us to find submission to
him, the delight of our lives. May he, by his word, reign and
rule for his glory and for the good of all your people, for
we pray in Jesus' name, in his glory.