It's my hope and prayer that
God himself would be your teacher, that I would just be the vessel,
and that God the Spirit would take the word and make it effectual
to every heart. That's always the prayer of God's
man, is not to be exalted, but that Christ be magnified. And
this is only the work of the Spirit. That's it. There's no
work here. Only the work of the Spirit can
make any message effectual. And I do praise for your comfort.
I know you need comfort. There's no believer that doesn't
need the comfort that's found in the Gospel of Christ. It is the only anchor for our
souls. Christ. You take your Bibles
and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter
5. We're looking at verse 1 and
then subsequently verses that follow. But this will be where
my springboard, my text this morning. I've entitled this message,
Dear Children. Dear Children. The Scripture says, Be ye therefore
followers of God, listen, as dear children. dear, beloved
children. The Apostle Paul here sums up
the chapter in this one verse. Be ye followers of God. How does
one follow God? Well, we only follow God as we
follow Him through faith in Christ. By nature we were aliens. By nature we were not in fellowship
with God. But you remember what John says,
he says we have fellowship with Him, and our fellowship is with
God and His Son, Jesus Christ. And we have fellowship with God
through faith in Christ alone. Now all believers know, I know
this, you follow God. You follow God, and to follow
God is simply this, faith in Christ, to believe on Jesus Christ. It is to believe that His blood
and righteousness are your only means of acceptance with God. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. You cannot follow the Father.
You cannot come to the Father except by Jesus Christ. He is the only access that we
have to God. He is the only access. All men
by nature are sinners, born dead in sins. When we come into this world,
we're full of sin. But all the Father has, and will
quicken, come to Him by faith in Christ. We believe on Christ
and we follow God this way. This is the way you follow God,
through faith in Christ. Now there are different ways
the scripture pictures us following God. One way is sheep. Jesus said, my sheep hear my
voice and I know them and they what? They follow me. We follow
him as sheep. He is our shepherd and we are
the sheep of his pasture. We are chosen sheep, we are redeemed
sheep, we are called sheep, we are his sheep. Are you a follower of Christ
today? Are you a follower of God? Do you know Christ as your
shepherd? Do you follow the shepherd as
a beloved sheep? But in our text, we have more
of an intimate picture than a sheep following a shepherd, don't we?
We have that of a son following a father. It's a more intimate
relationship, isn't it? Be ye followers of God, how? As dear children. As dear children. The Scriptures are clear that
all who follow the Father, follow the Son and the Holy Spirit,
we who are saved. This is true of every one of
you who follow Christ, who believe in Christ. You are a son of God. A son of God. You are His dear
children. His dear children. How are we
to follow God? As dear children. I want us to
see that we are to follow God according to our position. Isn't it delightful? Isn't it
a delightful position? We are dear children of God.
If we believe on Christ, we are dear children of God. And He
says, follow Him according to your position. not a slave, not
a servant, as a son. Follow Him as a dear child. If you're a follower of Christ,
then listen, God is your Father, you are led by the Spirit of
God, and you are a son of God. Paul says this in Romans chapter
8, for as many as are led by the Spirit. Where does the Spirit
lead you? Who does the Spirit speak of?
Jesus said, when the Spirit shall come, He shall testify of Me. And so when the Spirit leads
you, He leads you only and always to Christ. Have you been led
to Christ? Do you believe on Him and trust
Him? You are led by the Spirit. And what does He say about you?
He says, as many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God. They are, without
doubt, the sons of God. Now listen, it's a common error
in our day to say that all men are God's children. That is a
common error. Matter of fact, it is a lie.
It is not the truth. Not all men are children of God. They are His creatures. He demands
their reverence and obedience and He will judge them accordingly.
He is their judge. He is their maker. He is their
creator. They are His servants. They do
as He pleases with those people. But not all men are His children.
One missionary was teaching the Lord's Prayer to a Hindu woman,
and he said, Our Father which art in Heaven, and she stopped
him, and she said this, If God is our Father, that's enough.
We have nothing left to fear. If that's all that woman believed,
she had everything to fear. She had everything to fear. God
is not your father. The only manifestation that God
is your father is faith in Christ. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you trust Him alone? If you do, you are the Son of
God. You are a Son of God. The Pharisees,
our Lord told them, they are of their father. Who? The devil. They had a father, they're their
father, the devil in the works of your father you will do. I know this, that we as believers,
we are the sons of God, we had our conversation in time past.
of walking according to the lusts of our flesh, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of what? Disobedience. In other words,
you could not tell us from them. You could not tell the child
of God from a child of the devil. You couldn't tell us them apart.
Until when? Until God made the difference.
Until God manifests the truth that you are His Son. You are His children. How do
we know this? We are His children. John chapter
1 and verse 12. As many as receive Him, to them gave He the right, the
privilege, to what? Be called the sons of God. Now how in the world did you
become a son of God? How did you receive Him? You
received Him as many as believed on Him. To receive Him is to
believe on Him. Trust Him. How did you do that when others
have not? Which were born? You are a born
son. A born, how? Not of blood. Not of kinship, not of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You were born of the will of
God, therefore you received Him. And you that received Him are
sons. You have a right. We believe on the only begotten
Son as our Savior and have received Him by faith, which is an act
of sovereign free mercy, sovereign free grace of God, not by our
blood or our will. Is this not the most humbling
thing in the world? What did you do to become a son
of God? Nothing. How did you merit to
become a son of God? No, you didn't. It was an act
of God's free mercy. You became a son of God. It's humbling to know that just
as we had nothing to do with our physical birth and our physical
family, we had nothing to do with this. Nothing whatsoever
we did merited this. It was all the goodwill and pleasure
of God. As we discuss salvation, there
are many aspects of salvation, aren't there? So many ways you
look at salvation. Justification. There's one. Justification. What a great term that is. You
who are saved, you're justified. You're justified. That means
you are completely innocent of all charges before the eyes of
a holy God. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is He that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather He's risen again. It's all the
work of God. Who in the world could condemn
you or charge you? You're justified. That's a good
way to look at salvation, isn't it? Redemption. We have been
bought. We have been bought with a price.
The precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been bought
as a slave out of the slave market of sin. We have been purchased
by His blood. He paid the ransom due to God's
justice and God was satisfied with His redemption price. We've
been set free. We've been set free in Him. Sanctification
is another way to look at salvation, isn't it? We've been made holy. We've been given a holy nature. We've had the righteousness of
Christ both imputed to us and imparted to us. We've been set
apart by God in election, set apart for the worship of God
and the service of God. Sanctification is a way to look
at salvation. But all of these wonderful truths of salvation, if you were to just look at them
without this understanding of sonship, you leave the heart
of the gospel out. It becomes just a dry doctrine. To be bought as a slave is one
thing, isn't it? To be pardoned from the guilt
and penalty of sin is another. But that is not all that God
is determined to do. He didn't just determine to pardon
you. He didn't just determine to bind
you and set you free. God did something much more than
that. He determined that you be His children. Not just His
servants, not just His slaves, but His children. These were the means by which
God could fulfill His ultimate purpose. Justification, redemption,
sanctification. All of that was done for a purpose. And this is the purpose. That
you should be His sons. That's the purpose of God from
eternity. To adopt you as His sons. As His children. That's what
John said. He couldn't hold it anymore.
1 John 3, verse 1 says, Behold what manner of love the Father
hath lavished upon us." Well, John, what are you going to talk
about when you talk about the love of God being lavished on
us? Justification? Sanctification? No. Listen. Behold
what manner of love the Father bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God. That we should be called the
sons of God. Behold the manner of love! Behold! Is there any love like His love?
to take the most unworthy children and make us sons of God. If we were by the Spirit of God
to trace back the purpose of God for you and me, it was to
become His sons. This is the pinnacle of divine
purpose for us so that we can worship Him and love with the
love of a son and not the love of a slave. I like that verse,
he said, you shall no more call me Bilali, but you shall call
me Isha. You see, you're no longer going
to call me master, you're going to call me husband. You see the
difference? You are children of God. You
have a special relationship with the Father. God is your Father. You have been given the highest
privilege. to become the sons of God. And this was always God's purpose
for you. Go to Ephesians chapter 1, look
over a couple pages, you can see, you know this very well.
Ephesians 1 and verse 3. He said, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world." You see, all spiritual
blessings are due to our union with Christ. God puts you in
union with His Son. Made His Son to be your high
priest, your representative, your surety. He puts you so that
all that Christ is and all that Christ does is yours. Now God did that before there
was anything. There was nothing but God and God did that. And so all spiritual blessings
are due to our union with Christ and our union with Christ is
how? By sovereign election according
as He had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Now look at this word, that. Now here's a purpose. He's going
to tell you why. You should be holy. God put you
in Christ for this purpose. You should be holy and without
blame before Him. Now let's look at the motive.
In love. This is His motivation. In love. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children. Now how in the world is He going
to do that? By Jesus Christ. To Himself. according to the
good pleasure of His will. Now you know the main pinnacle
reason, the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the
glory of His grace, where He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. The cause of our sonship, our
holiness, our union with Christ is the glory of God. You are
made a son so that you should praise the glory of His grace. Election and adoption go hand-in-hand. I like that. Don't you see that?
People don't like adoption and election. They don't like adoption.
They go hand-in-hand. You were chosen to be sons. I don't like that. Well, you don't like being a
son. I do. They go hand-in-hand. He elected
us to be holy, predestinated us unto adoption. God in eternity
past chose us unto adoption. He just as much as He ordained
the end, our adoption, He ordained the means by Jesus Christ. That's how you're adopted. You sometimes look for something
in you as a cause for you to be adopted? There's nothing there. God didn't
look inside of you to find anything to merit this adoption. He said,
I'm going to do it by Jesus Christ. The end is your adoption. The
means is Christ. The means is Christ. God from all time, all eternity,
predestinated us for this purpose that we should be conformed to
the image of His Son. Now what He said in Romans 8,
29, He said, for whom He did foreknow, those He chose to be
sons. Listen. He also did predestinate
for this purpose to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. You see what our Father did?
Our adoption was on purpose. It was on purpose. God chose
you to be sons. And not only that, Jesus Christ
came to purchase that adoption. He came into this world as a
man so as to buy our adoption. We could not be holy without
blame before Him, except in our representative. Except He come
and bear our sin in His own body on the tree, suffer the justice
of God for us, we could never be sons. We couldn't come near
unto God without being holy, But you see Christ has made you
holy by removing your sin. He removed it by burying it in
his own body on the tree. Is that not love? The greatest manifestation of
love is the Son of God being crucified so that you might be
a son. Burying all your guilt, all your
shame, Enduring the wrath of God, what
did it cost for you to be a son? It cost you nothing. You had
nothing to pay. Oh, but what did it cost Christ? And so effectual was that purchase
that when he died, he said, it's finished. He stamped His blood
on the adoption papers. And you were sons. You were sons
in purpose. But listen, you're also sons
in purchase. He bought you so that you might
be sons. Redeemed you. Justified you. But this sonship is not yet complete,
is it? It actually has to be realized. It has to be realized. The adoption
is presently realized, eternally purposed, purchased by Christ,
but it also must be presently realized by every son. By every son. We were foreordained
to be adopted, but this had to take place in time, didn't it?
Matter of fact, everything God purposes always takes place in
time. Always. Christ was the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world, but He must in time literally
be the Lamb slain. He must have. He did. And so when we were adopted from
eternity in the mind and purpose of God, it must be accomplished
in time. When Jesus Christ died on the
cross and paid the price of our adoption, we were then sons But
it was not yet manifest until the God, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, weakened us from the dead, until He produced in
us the spiritual birth. An example of this, you have
a young woman, she's pregnant, and a couple wants to adopt that
unborn child. So they purpose to adopt it. They fill out all the legal paperwork. They pay the adoption price before
the child is even born. That child is theirs. But what are they really waiting
for? They're waiting to hold it. They want to take it to themselves. Even so with God. God purposed
our adoption. Christ purchased it. And the
Spirit must bring us forth. We must be born again. Adopted in eternity, paid, but
we must, the Spirit must come in power to deliver us. When he told Nicodemus, when
Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again, he wasn't telling
him something he must do. He said, Nicodemus, you've gone
out there and you've got to be born again. That's not what he's
saying. He's saying, Nicodemus, you must be born again because
God purposed it and I purchased it. You must and you will be
born again. You must. Same with us. Why are you born
again? You must. It was necessary. You must be born again. And you
were. If you believed on Christ, listen,
that's the evidence of life, isn't it? Faith in Christ is
not the cause of life, it's the evidence of it. And I want you to know this,
everyone who is born again, you are full grown sons. It's a mystery
here. Listen, I know this, when you're
born again, in the spiritual birth, you're born babes in Christ.
And we must grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. And
so there are different stages in a believer's life. There's
babes, and then there's young men, and then there's full-grown
believers, mature believers. So there are different grows.
But what do I mean by full-born sons? I mean this. The moment
you are born again, you have full rights as sons of God. Full rights. as the sons of God. I'll show you this in scripture.
Go to Galatians 4. Go to Galatians 4. Look at verse 4, it said, But when the
fullness of time was come, When the fullness of time has come,
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law, for what purpose? That
we might receive the adoption of sons. That phrase, adoption
of sons, has the idea of heir, of being a full-grown heir. At the very beginning of this,
He said, Though we were heir of all things, we were kept under
tutors and governors until when? Until the appointed time. You
know, you take a child and his father dies and leaves his son
everything, and in our country at 18 years old, it's only then
he receives the inheritance. Now the inheritance is his. It's
all his. But it's not yet received by
him until he's a full grown man. Get this, when you are born again,
you are fully capable of receiving all the inheritance. All the
rights and privileges of sonship belong to a babe as well as to
a full mature believer. All rights and privileges. I'm
going to give you some of them. Listen to this. If you're a child
of God, listen. You have the right to approach
unto God at any time. Why? your son. And then what Paul says, let
us come boldly before the throne of grace, that we may be able
to find mercy and grace in time of need of hell. Who doesn't
need that? When do you get to do that? Do
you have to wait until you're mature to do that? No. At the moment you're born again,
you have full access to God. Full access to God. That's a
right of sonship. Secondly, you have the privilege
and the right to ask for forgiveness and receive it. Whoso confesseth
his sins, God said he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Now when does he do that? As
a babe and even as a full grown believer. You have all the rights
of forgiveness. Why? You're a son. But yet we have responsibilities,
too, as sons of God. In that passage our brother just
read in Matthew, he said, you are the light of the world. He
said, what good is a light if you put it under a bushel? You
put it on top of a canopy, that it may shine forth. Guess what? You are a son of God. This is
our responsibility, to shine forth. witness and preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ to every creature. That's the responsibility
of a full grown son. Now why would you ever be ashamed
of that? Would you ever be ashamed of
being called a son of God? That's foolish, isn't it? We are sons
of God. Don't shy away from that. Why? God purposed you to be a son.
Christ bought it. The Spirit applied Him. If you're
led by the Spirit, you are a son of God. And you have all the
rights of sonship, but we are to be responsible. We are to
follow our Father. And that's another thing. As
sons, we follow Him. That is our responsibility. Follow
Him. And I want you to know this.
This adoption is also future. This adoption was passed, this
adoption was accomplished by Christ, this adoption was realized
by the Spirit of God, and we now have full access and all
the benefits of being sons, but yet this adoption is not yet
fully complete, is it? This adoption is yet future because
we have still the need of the redemption of the body. Go to
Romans chapter 8. Look at this. Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8 and look at
verse 22. For we know, we know something here. We know the whole
creation groaneth and travaileth together till now. And not only
they, but listen, we ourselves which have the firstfruits of
the Spirit. What are the firstfruits of the
Spirit? Faith in Christ. Love toward Christ. Hope in Christ. That's the firstfruits of the
Spirit. You're to receive Christ. You have sonship. You have the
firstfruits of the Spirit. But something is going on. We
groan. We ourselves groan within ourselves. Why do we groan? We've grown
under trouble, we've grown under tribulation, we've grown under
trials and grief and sorrows and sins. Have you not found
that to be true, you sons of God? It's because you're a son
of God doesn't exempt you from trouble. Matter of fact, it guarantees
it. If you're a son of God, you're
a guaranteed trouble. You're guaranteed to do this.
You're guaranteed to groan within yourself. We've grown within ourselves,
waiting for what? What are we longing for? What
are we waiting for? Look what he says, we're waiting for the adoption. Wait a second, we've already
been to, yeah you have, but you're still waiting for the culmination
of the full adoption. There's something yet future,
all the benefits and spiritual blessings are yours, and yet
we've grown. We suffer. We hurt. Sin is still mixed with all we
do and it causes us great pain and sorrow and grief as a son
of God. You through much tribulation
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. It's guaranteed. But
what are we waiting for? What are we earnestly longing
for and groaning for? The adoption to wit? What? The
redemption of the body. Life is full of suffering and
pain and trouble and hurt, and the longer we're here, the more
we see it. Isn't that right? The more you grow in grace, the
more you suffer. When we first come to Christ,
I think we think the opposite. We think that when we come to
Christ, everything's gonna just get better. It doesn't. God does this for a reason, so
that we would long for the adoption. We would long to be with Him.
He weans us from the things of this world and moves our hearts
to Him through suffering, through pain. But this is our hope that
one day He will appear and culminate the full adoption. We are adopted,
but this is veiled in flesh. I see through a glass darkly.
But then, at the adoption, what? Face to face. John said this,
Beloved, now are we the sons of God. But it does not yet appear
what we shall be. Look in the mirror. Does it appear
what you shall be? Look in your own heart, does
it appear what you shall be? It doesn't appear. It doesn't appear what we shall
be, but we know this, when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He is. What a blessed privilege
of sonship. There is a future adoption. We
now, the sons of God, And we're waiting, waiting for the full
culmination of our adoption. Now, knowing that we are the
children of God, he exhorts us now in our text, go back there
real quickly. He exhorts you, our dear children. your children by adoption according
to the election of grace, your purchased children by the sacrifice
of Christ, you are born again children by the Spirit of God,
you have all the blessings and privileges of sonship, one day
you're going to be brought to Christ. But now, you have a responsibility. Here is an exhortation for children
of God. Follow God. That word follow
means be imitators of God as dear children. You take a little
child and he's walking behind his dad and you see him trying
to mimic his father. He's trying to mimic. They try
to mimic. We do that with our parents.
We try to mimic them when we're young. We don't know that they're
just that they're sinners. We don't know that when we're
young. We think they're everything. We try to mimic them, and he
says, well, as dear children mimic their father, even so you
should mimic your father. How do we do this? How do we
follow him as dear children? Listen, in humility. Humility. Go to Philippians chapter
2. Philippians chapter 2. How do
we follow him? In humility. Philippians chapter 2 and look
at verse 5. Let this mind be in you, you
that would follow God as your children, let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So being in the form of
God, the nature of God thought it not proper to be equal with
God, but what did He do? What was His mind? He made of
Himself no reputation, took upon Him the form of a servant, and
being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion
as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Now let that mind be in you.
Though you are a son of God, let this mind be in you, not
a mind of pride, but a mind of humility. Why? What did you do to become a son? What do you have above anyone
else? Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Or what hast thou thus not received?
Let that mind be in you. Not a mind of arrogancy. Verse
15, that you may be blameless and harmless the sons of God.
Not that you should merit being a son of God by humility, but
that you should show yourself to be a son of God by humility. Without rebuke in the midst of
crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as light's
help, holding forth the word of life. Let this mind be in you, a mind
of humility, a mind concerning the word of God. Hold forth the
word of truth. That's how you follow God. Hold
forth the word of truth that you may rejoice in the day of
Christ. Be like-minded as Christ. Humble yourselves. I like verse
14. I didn't mention this verse 14.
Do all things without murmuring. You want to follow God? Do that. Are you as dear children? Did
Christ murmur? Let that mind be in you. A mind without complaint. God help us. God help us to follow
Him in such a way. If you're to follow God, if you're
to walk in love, look at the back of your text. The back of
your text. Verse 2, walk in love. Walk in
love. How? As Christ hath loved us
and hath given himself for an offering and sacrifice to God
as a sweet-smelling Savior. How are we to love? As Christ
loved you. See, you have all the privileges,
but you do have responsibilities. And you love not to be loved.
You love because you are loved. If you love to be loved, you'll
fail. If you love because you're loved,
you can rejoice. And we love. We love Him and
we love the brethren. We love Him. Paul said, if I'm
without love, I'm nothing. We're not just to love God and
each other, we love our enemies. Now here's a tough one, isn't
it? Were you not an enemy and God
still loved you? Love your enemies. Bless them
that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. Pray for them which despitefully
use you to persecute you. that you may be children of your
Father, that you might manifest His love. That's how He loved you. Are
you His children? Then imitate Him. Imitate Him. How? Love. Love Look at verse 7, walk in the
light if you're going to follow Him. Be not therefore partakers
with them. That's the ones that walk in
darkness. Those who are fornicators and
covetousness and filthiness, foolish talking, jesting, not
convenient, but rather giving of thanks. He said instead of
partaking with them, that's not following Christ. That's not
following God. Be you partakers of walking in
light, in truth. and truth. For you were sometimes
darkness, but now what are you in the Lord? You're light. You
are light. I don't see it. Doesn't matter.
You are light. You are the light of the world.
Why? You're sons of God. You bear His image. You are light. So how in war? As children of
light. Not in darkness. not in deceit, not in sin, walking
after Christ in righteousness. Isn't that your desire? Blessed is he that hungers and
thirsts after righteousness. Where do you find that? I find
it in Christ. I find it in Christ. And I desire
to be like Him. And thirdly, we're to walk carefully.
To follow God is to walk carefully. Paul said, walk circumspectly. Carefully. Wisely, not as fools. I believe a lot of us are presumptuous.
We just pursue that, well, I'm a child of God, this, you know,
if I just, if I toy with this and it's not gonna bother me.
Oh yeah, it will. It will. We must walk wisely. How do we, where's wisdom? Here's wisdom. You know, God's Word's not complicated.
It's just we, the flesh don't like it. They just don't like
it. But if we're children of God,
I do like it. And there's a struggle in it.
There's a struggle to follow God. That's why you're exhorted
to do it. Because there's a struggle to
do it. If there wasn't a struggle, he wouldn't even exhort you.
Be you followers of God, you dear children. Walk circumspectly.
Walk and not compromise. To follow God is to not compromise. I'll end with this little story. There was a hunter went out to
hunt bear. He found this large bear and
he raised his rifle and shoot the bear. All of a sudden, the
bear turned around and he says, is it better to talk than to
shoot? What do you want? Let's negotiate
the matter. Lowering his rifle, the hunter
replied, I want a fur coat. And the bear said, good, good. That's a negotiable question.
All I want is a full stomach. Let's negotiate and find a compromise. And they sat down after a time.
The bear walked away alone. Negotiation was successful. The
bear had a full stomach and the hunter had a fur coat. Satan says, let's negotiate.
The flesh says, let's negotiate. And you always lose. Instead, consider your sonship. Consider your position. Consider
what it cost Christ Consider the power of God and the grace
of God and the love of God to make your sons. And then, after
that consideration, follow God. Be imitators of God in love,
in mercy, in grace, in truth, not walking in darkness, not
compromising the truth. And get this, he's my father. He's my father. Wow. And all he has is mine. We are heirs and joint heirs
with Christ. One. unheeded. Our gracious Father, dismiss
us with your blessing and mercy. Pour upon us your spirit of grace,
reveal to us the truth of our sonship, so that we might
give glory and praise to Christ our Savior. And today, our Father,
help us to walk in truth, in love, having the
mind of Christ. I beg you for this in Christ's
name.