So we'll go ahead and get started.
If you'd like to follow along, please turn to 1 Timothy. Book
of 1 Timothy chapter one. I want to begin reading in verse
12. And I thank Christ Jesus our
Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. Who was before a blasphemer and
a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did
it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. How be it for this cause
I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show
forth Long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting Now unto the king eternal immortal
invisible the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever
Amen, I'm gonna stop right there These are the words of the Apostle
Paul and the apostle to the Gentile, written under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. He starts off this book writing
to Timothy, my own son in the faith, that's
what he calls him, my own son in the faith. But he says three
words, grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus
Christ our Lord. What I wanna preach about today,
if I can, is this is a faithful saying. A faithful saying. But I wanna tell you this before
I get started. This faithful saying is full of grace and mercy
and peace. Just like what he addressed this
letter to Timothy. Because listen, without grace,
there is no mercy. Without grace, there is no peace. We can't preach man too low,
Christ too high, or grace not free. But grace, with grace,
there is mercy. With grace, there is peace. And here's the thing. whether
we know it or not. Even when we didn't know him,
there was grace and mercy and peace to us. Walter, I couldn't understand
that. Wouldn't have believed it if you'd have told me at the
time. But here's the thing. Understand, we say it, we mean
it. God never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and today and forever. That is absolutely true. So, if God has grace and mercy
and peace towards you today, he always has. He always has. Especially when we didn't know
it. God is eternal. The people don't understand why
God doesn't change. God doesn't need to change. Understand? We change all the time. We change
from being this big to being this big and this wide. We have to grow. We have to change. We have to learn. We have to
be taught. And that goes for secular stuff
as well as the truth of God. But you understand, God's not
learning anything. He knows all. He's declared all. And that just hit me. If he's
got grace and mercy and peace towards you, he will have forever. Forever. What? Till he come. Till he come. But
this faithful saying, I'm telling you this, is full of grace, it's
full of mercy, it's full of truth. And it's full of peace. And this
is what Paul starts out, verse 15's what I'm gonna talk about.
He starts out with these words, this is a faithful saying. Now,
notice very carefully, he doesn't say this is the faithful saying.
Because he uses this three more times. Four times in his epistles. He uses it twice more in Timothy,
and one time in Titus. But this is, what it means, this
is a truthful saying. This is a steadfast saying. That's what the word means. This
is a trustworthy statement. A trustworthy statement. And
those are the words of the apostle to the Gentiles to Timothy. and to us, and to us. Paul is
writing a saying here that is, and the word is pistis, faith,
faithful. What's that mean? Full of faith. And this is a saying for those
who have like precious faith as the Apostle Paul. Because
I can tell you this, If you don't know Christ, you won't understand
this verse. It's not possible. You might
have a grasp of the meaning of the words, but this is the thing,
you won't be able to feel it. Paul is writing a saying that's
full of faith, and how? Well, he told us what I read.
Verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, Who hath enabled me? You have to be enabled in order
to understand a faithful saying. You have to be enabled in order
to relate and to relay truthfully a faithful saying. Paul, he told us right after
that, he said, I was, I was a blasphemer. I was a blasphemer. I was a persecutor. I was injurious. But Christ enabled
me. But Christ enabled me. And enabled by Christ Jesus,
Paul is faithful. He is faithful. He is counted
faithful. What did he say? He hath enabled
me, for that he counted me faithful. We're not as faithful as we think
we are. We're not. And here's Paul telling
us, Christ Jesus counted him faithful. What? Putting me into the ministry.
Because Paul the apostle, he's called himself the apostle to
the Gentiles. But you understand, Paul ministered to Gentiles and
Jews alike. What do I mean by alike? I mean
he told them the same message. Now he may have pointed out a
little different things to the Jews, but he knew their background
better than they did. Because he knew it from the full
truth of the gospel revealed to him by Jesus Christ. You understand,
the Old Testament is a closed book if you don't know Christ. Walter's looking at Leviticus
now. Burn offerings, sheave offerings, wave offerings, the tabernacle. You understand? That makes no
sense other than a butcher shop without the knowledge of Jesus
Christ. I had a rabbi tell me, you know they really didn't kill
all those animals. That's what he told me. Now he
was a reformed rabbi. I have no idea what that means.
I guess it means you don't believe in the Old Testament sacrifices.
But you understand, that happened. And every single one of those
sacrifices point to Christ, or it makes no sense at all. Because,
we're told in the New Testament, those sacrifices never took away
one single sin. but the sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus Christ, whom they pointed to, did take away our sins. This saying, this faithful saying,
a faithful saying, is the truth of Christ Jesus for all. Because there's not one truth
for the Gentiles and a different truth for the Jews. You understand? There's only one body. There's
only one head over that body. Now I don't care if you're a
Jew or Gentile, you're either in that body or you're out. Without
Christ. Because there's only one body. No, this is a faithful saying.
But then Paul expands it even more. He writes, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all Acceptation This is part of what I got to
thinking about Paul wrote this is a faithful
saying and then he tells you it's acceptable You understand
he's telling you the same thing twice two different ways and
adding to it There's not only is it a faithful saying it's
acceptable. I And they're both together. You can't separate them. Now
Paul's not saying he's worthy. He's saying this faithful saying
is worthy. Paul's not saying that this is his saying. It's
a faithful saying. It's full of faith. Paul is writing
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This faithful saying
is worthy of all acceptation. All acceptation. So to whom is
this saying acceptable? Well, it's acceptable to men.
It's written to men, by a man. It's acceptable to sinners. Because you understand, he was
before blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious. This is one sinner,
right here, writing to another sinner, Timothy, and in essence,
writing to every single one of us. This faithful saying is worthy
of all acceptation to men sinning men. Sinners, men. I understand. All men won't believe. I know. But it's still worthy
of all acceptation. Whether we believe it or not.
Whether anybody else believes it or not. This is a faithful
saying. It's worthy of all acceptation,
but man, as he is born, will not have it. It's still worthy
of acceptation. Worthy of all acceptation. Because
I can't help those that won't, don't, or can't. I'm preaching
to those that will. I'm preaching to those who have
ears that hear. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. This is a faithful saying and
it's worthy of all acceptation. It's totally and completely acceptable. Because I'm preaching to those
that will, and those that will find this worthy of all acceptation. Why? When will they do that?
We'll do that in the day of his power. My people shall be willing
in the day of my power. We know who the power is. I know
who the power is. It's Christ Jesus. The Father's
given him power over all flesh. What? That he might give eternal
life to as many as you have given me. So this is a faithful saying
worthy of all acceptation to men. And I'll tell you this,
it's a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation of the angels.
You know, there's things the angels want to look into. Things
they didn't get. And you know what one of them
was? Christ Jesus coming into the
world. They don't get it. I can't blame them, because for
23 years, I didn't get it. I didn't understand, I still
don't grasp it all. But the angels, this is a worthy saying, worthy
of all acceptation. Paul's not letting anybody out.
Because if an angel comes down and preaches any other gospel,
Paul said, let him be accursed. So if an angel comes down and
says anything different against this faithful saying, let him
be accursed. They wanted to know about God
manifest in the flesh, the coming and the life of Christ Jesus
on earth. We've been told things angels wanna look into. And this is a faithful saying,
worthy of all acceptation. Now this might sound a little
strange, but I do wanna, if you would, give me a listen. This
is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation of Satan. I know it's a little weird. We
don't talk a lot about Satan, and that's mainly because we
don't know a whole lot about Satan. And he's not the message. He's never the message. Christ
Jesus is the message. But I can tell you this, Satan
is not happy about any faithful saying. But he knows who's in
control. He knows who's in control. There's
a few things we do know. You understand, Satan now, recognizes
that there's a hedge around us. You know why? Well, part of it's
because of this faithful saying. We'll get into it, but I didn't
say Satan likes a faithful saying, but he knows it's worthy of acceptation.
Because Satan knows this is true. At one time, every single one
of us, the gospel was hid to us. What's it say? Whom the God of this world had
blinded their minds. And right now, if Jesus Christ
has brought you out and brought you to himself, given you life
and faith and repentance and love, your mind's not blinded
anymore. And you know, There's another
place where it says Satan takes people captive at his own will.
Guess what? He can't do that to us anymore.
You understand? This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. He knows that he don't like it,
but he knows it. He knows there's a hedge about
us now, and he tries to touch us, but he's only allowed when
God says so. Read the book of Job. You know? Have you considered my servant
Job? I'm not trying to make light of any trials or tribulations
that anybody's going through, but you understand this. You're
going through nothing that was not accepted by the Father. Not by the expressed permission
of God. The very hairs of your head are
numbered, no matter how few they are, no matter how many they
are. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You are precious
in the sight of God if you are in his son. And Satan hates that. Because
it's God's word and it's God's work. And the last person it's
acceptable to, I wanna put out here, is this is a faithful saying
worthy of all acceptation by God himself. We don't talk about
this much. But you understand, this is God's
word. We say it, Paul was writing on the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. What's that mean? It is God-breathed. It is true. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation. Why? Because God said it. God said it. And it's in total
accord and in total agreement with every other scripture in
this book. There's only one message, one message. This faithful saying
is worthy of all acceptation by God because they're his words. And God honors his word. Our Lord Jesus Christ called
the word became flesh. What? And dwelt among us. Dwelt among us. A faithful saying. is worthy of all acceptation
to everyone. That's the point. Most people will not get it. But what is the saying? Well,
this is where it starts. That, this is the faithful saying,
that Christ Jesus came into the world. The wonder of wonders. God dwelt
with men. God dwelt among men. I mean,
we talk about the pre-incarnate Christ, and rightly so. We talk
about who spoke with Adam in the garden. We talk about Melchizedek,
who I also think is what they call a Christophany. We talk
about Joshua and the captain of our salvation being a Christ
come down. But here, this is different.
This is all totally different. The eternal son has come into
the world and interacted with men. God manifested himself in the
flesh. Isaiah wrote it, prophesied it
years ago. Hundreds of years before it happened.
A child is born. A child is born. But a son is
given. Oh, I like that. And so Christ
Jesus came into the world. The son who revealed himself
as Jesus came into this world. because Christ Jesus is God manifest
in the flesh. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He lived here with us. He lived
here with us. You understand, this faithful
saying here has a lot seeming in common with the mystery of
godliness. God manifests in the flesh. Man. He came and dwelt among
us. And look how Paul wrote this.
You understand, he wrote here at the beginning, right? Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ. Unto Timothy, grace, mercy, and
peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. But then
when you get down here, in verse 12, he says, I thank Christ Jesus. In verse 15, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that, Christ Jesus came into
the world. He's telling you who he's talking
about. Because Christ is the anointed one. Christ represents
his deity. His deity. He's the Messiah,
the anointed one. In the Old Testament, he's called
the Holy One of Israel. He's called what? The Redeemer.
He's called another thing. The Lord of hosts is his name. That's Christ Jesus. You understand? Then in Jesus we have Savior. Savior. Christ Jesus came into
the world. The God man. The God man. His name denotes deity and his
humanity. Because The name of his humanity
is what? Joshua, Yeshua, however you wanna
say it, Savior. Savior. So who we have here that
came? Christ Jesus is what? The anointed
Savior. The anointed Savior. The God-man. Guess what, folks? 2,000 years ago, we were given
the near kinsmen we needed. You understand? Because somebody
had to die. The soul that sentence shall
surely die. And either he died as your representative
or you're going to die on your own. And that's all I got for
you. And what do we say? We say, believe
him. Yes. Believe him. Oh my. that we were given the near kinsmen,
this is the great thing about the Book of Ruth, I am able,
I am able to redeem them. And I will to redeem them. Oh, see, Christ Jesus came into
the world, the Messiah, Savior, who was willing and able to redeem
his people. Oh, I love that. He came with
a purpose. And Paul, in this faithful saying,
tells us his purpose. Christ Jesus came into the world
to, that one little word, two letters, T-O, that's a statement
of purpose, to save sinners. Sinners, to save sinners. This is why Christ came into
the world. This is a faithful saying and
it's worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. There are a lot of people running
around, they think Christ saves good people. Well, just the fact
that there aren't any really proves the point that they don't
know what they're talking about. But here's the thing, Christ didn't
come to save bad people either. He came to save sinners. He's
pointing out something very special here in this. He came to save
sinners. Because you understand, there's
a difference here. Because we say it, all men are
sinners. Every man on this planet, without
exception, woman, child, baby, is a sinner. Why? Because in Adam, all were made
sinners. Many were made sinners, but all
of us were made sinners. Made sinners. Sinner is what
we are. What we do is a function of what
we are. In our heart of hearts that nobody
wants to talk about and nobody really understands, thank goodness,
otherwise we'd all be depressed. In our heart of hearts, we are
nothing but depraved, rotten, dead sinners. Until this one came. And this one comes to you. Oh,
he has a purpose. Paul tells us of his work, which
reveals his purpose. And Christ Jesus came to save
sinners. The angel told Joseph to call
his name Jesus, why? For he shall save, wait a minute,
his people from their sins. Now wait just a minute. If you
put them two verses together, the faithful saying and what
the angel said, you're saying that God's people are sinners. That's exactly what I'm saying.
That's exactly what Paul says. You understand? Jesus Christ
told us himself, in his own words, I came not to call the righteous,
but who? Sinners. Ah, to repentance. To repentance. Oh. Now, how are you gonna repent
of something you don't know what you are? Is that bad English
or what? But it's a good thought. Yeah,
it's a good truth. You understand? You can't repent
of being a sinner if you don't know you're a sinner. That is also what Paul was saying
here. You understand, he could have
said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save his people. That's
a good statement. But that's not his point here.
You understand, he came to save sinners. And guess what, Paul
just said before this, who was before a blasphemer, talking
about himself, and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained
mercy. Why? Because I did it ignorantly
in unbelief. Now you understand, this is Paul
the Apostle talking about himself as Saul of Tarsus, before his
name was changed. And what did he say about himself?
Well as according to the righteousness of the law, I was blameless. And, now he's saying, I was a
blasphemer. I was a blasphemer. You couldn't
point your finger at the Apostle Paul and find something that
he had done wrong outwardly. But he says what? I was a persecutor
and injurious. To who? The people of God. The
people of God. But here, Paul's saying, I was
a sinner, and this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came to save sinners. Save sinners. His people,
the people of God, God's elect, however you want to talk about
them, whatever title you want to use, they're sinners. Each and every single one of
them. And guess what? They're still
sinners. They're still sinners. I didn't
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Verse 12, Paul wrote this, and
I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me. Now, one of those things that
enablement means, right here, before we go any further, it
means that he let Paul, Saul of Tarsus at the time, know he
was a sinner. He knocked him off his donkey,
blinded him, and said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And here's this Pharisee of Pharisee,
a Hebrew of Hebrews, according to the law, blameless, who looks
and can't see, and says, who art thou, Lord, that I would
persecute you? I am Jesus. Whoa, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. who was before a blasphemer,
God called him a persecutor. You weren't persecuting my people,
you were persecuting me. Understand, as a sinner, what
you find out is your sins may offend someone else, but the
big offense is to God. Anything wrong, we're nothing
but sinners. You know, even when we think
we're doing good stuff, we're doing stuff against God. This letter was written from
one who knows he's a sinner to another who knows he's a sinner. I like that. Because knowing
you are a sinner is a work of grace and mercy and peace. You're not gonna have any peace
till you know you're a rotten, wretched, miserable sinner. Now
does that make sense? Not to the natural man, but it's
the truth of God. It's the truth of God. There
is a spirit of bondage again under fear. We're not gonna get
it, but there is a spirit of bondage under fear. You're not
put under the spirit of bondage again under fear. But you understand,
you do fear. You do fear. Knowing you're a sinner is a
work of grace and mercy and peace. It may not feel like grace or
mercy or peace at the time. But see, it is even when you
don't know it. The beauty of it is when you
get to come to know it. But let's be clear here. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the world To
help sinners, no. No, he didn't come to help anybody.
He did help some people, but that's not what he came for.
Not according to Paul, not according to this faithful saint. He didn't
come to help sinners, he didn't come to aid sinners, he didn't
come to assist sinners. He didn't come to try to save
sinners. A lot of people got that going
around, you understand? Christ has made salvation available. No, that's not what he said.
He came to save sinners. Now understand, Paul's not saying
it here, guess what? Do you think Jesus Christ did
what he came to do? Paul's not even, that's not even
worthy of question. You understand? He's talking
about Christ Jesus, God-man, God-savior, came into this world
to save sinners. What do you think he did when
he came into this world? Well, I'm gonna tell you something.
He saved sinners before he left it. Boy, this is a lie. And it's not a lie. He saved sinners before he left. Because he redeemed us with his
precious blood. And he went and made himself,
took himself to God, the Father, and was accepted. And his sacrifice
was accepted, and his blood was accepted, and guess what? My
blood doesn't have to be shed now. If I'm in him, If you're
in him, your blood doesn't need to be shed now. Because your
blood could never take away sin. Not any better than a bull or
goat. He came to save sinners and he
did. Then Paul puts in this last statement.
Five words. I love this. Of whom I am Chief. You understand? This is a faithful
saying, too. Now, I'm not telling you that
Paul was the worst sinner there ever was. I'm not saying that. Paul said that. You understand? Because that's exactly how Paul
felt. That's a truthful saying. I was a blasphemer. While I was
a religious leader, I was a blasphemer. While I was a Pharisee, I was
a blasphemer. While I was putting believers
in jail, holding, watching the cloaks while they stoned Stephen
to death. I don't think Paul ever got over
that. I think he remembered that to the end of his days. He was
consenting unto the death of Stephen. That's what he said
in his own words. Yeah. Of whom I am chief. I remember
telling Earl years ago, you know, back when we wasn't too long
after we first met, maybe five years or something like that.
And I says, well, I, you know, I think I take issue with Paul
there. I think I'm the chief of centers. And Earl said, Yeah,
you are. You know, he get you by agreeing
with you because here's the thing. I am chief center and that's
the way I feel about it. And this is something I have
learned and I want you all to learn if you haven't learned
it. Listen, nobody, no other center is worse than you. No
other sinner's worse than me. No other sinner's worse than
the apostle. Because you understand, you can't get any worse than
dead. You understand? Dead is dead. So no matter what you do when
you're dead, it's unacceptable to God. Why? Because he's not paying attention
to what dead people do. It doesn't matter. It's all sin. Even our, what is it, Isaiah,
even our best deeds, the best deeds that we have are filthy
rags. And yet we want to put them on
and parade around in them. Look at me, what I did, you know?
I gave filet mignon to the food bank, you know? Whatever. You know, it's wonderful things,
some of them are, as far as men go, but you understand, in the
sight of God, without his blood, the blood of his son, it's nothing. It's a sin. It's a sin. Oh my. Paul was sincere in the
Jews' religion, and a blasphemer. Paul was sincere, dedicated in
the Jews' religion, And he was a persecutor. A persecutor of Jesus Christ. Paul's not exaggerating. Paul's
not using hyperbole. Because Paul, and here this is
the thing, Paul is still a sinner. You understand, he didn't say,
after he said, I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor, and I was
injurious. That's all past tense. But what's
he say? Well, he came to save sinners
of whom I was chief. No, that's not what he said.
I am chief. You understand, once you learn
you're a sinner, you'll never get out of that. Welcome to the
wide, wonderful world of grace. You understand? You're a sinner,
and you're gonna stay that way until he comes and puts you in
his likeness. This mortal's gotta put on immortality,
because this is not gonna last. This corruption's gotta put on
incorruption, and guess what? I can't do either one. But I
know who can. I know who can. You know, Paul
was a writer of all these epistles, and yet, well, I am a sinner. I'm a sinner. Right now, I quit persecutin',
I've quit, no, but I am chief. Because this is where you are
to be. Understand? You can't preach
God too high, Christ too high, and man too low, because we are
still just as depraved as we always were. And that's what
Paul's tellin' us. I mean, he was the apostle to
the Gentiles, and yet a sinner. He was a great evangelist of
the gospel. Founded churches all over, yet
a sinner. You know what Paul said? He had
no confidence in the flesh. Let's bring it down where it
belongs here. He had no confidence in his flesh, in his own flesh. But, Paul has all confidence
in Christ Jesus who came to save who? Sinners. Sinners. Oh. I agree with the Apostle
Paul. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. That and six dollars will get
me a coffee at Starbucks. But it makes me feel good. You
understand? I know where he is. And that's
what I told Earl. I know what Paul felt because
that's the way I feel. You understand? We are to esteem
others better than ourselves. You know why? Because you're
supposed to know yourself better than you know them. See, because
if you're busy picking out their faults, you don't know nothing
about your own. Now, I understand people can
be irritating, and I apologize for it. You understand? But here's the thing. I think
more highly of you all than I think of myself. And you ought to think
of me more highly than you think of yourself, so there. I'm not asking for it. If this
is the way you feel, because this is the way the Apostle Paul
felt, guess what? He's a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe. I agree with him. I'm not gonna
fight with him, because I think we both can be chief of sinners.
I think we can both consider ourselves to be chief. There's plenty of room at the
bottom. There's plenty of room at the bottom, I like that. Here's
the point. A truly repentant sinner does
think and comes to know that no sinner is any worse than any
other sinner. not in God's sight. We were all gone out of the way.
We were all what? Unprofitable. And that's being
kind. Guess what? We all murder with
our tongues. We all murder with our thoughts. I'm not going to tell you who,
but I'm guilty. I'm not kidding. People have
made me so mad sometimes, I'm glad I didn't have a gun in my
hands. Or pointed at my television. We all covet in our minds. We defy and rebel against God,
his Christ, his law with our hearts. Because our heart is
still Still, what? Desperately wicked. And deceitful
above all things. We worry over everything we think
and do because we know we are sinners. I worry about preaching. Because I don't want to mess
it up. I don't want to make a mistake, although I know I do. I definitely
don't want to be an error, although I'm sure I have been. But you
understand, if I find out I'm in error, I get out of it. Okay,
the bad part is if I don't know I'm in error. The believer knows that being
a sinner, being full of sin, doesn't end with being brought
in by Christ into his fault. He picks us up. and he carries
us back to his fold and he puts us in. You understand? And you
know what we still are? We're still a dumb sheep. He's
gotta be our shepherd or we'll just wander off again. Oh, that
was my part. I said that a few weeks ago.
That was my part of my salvation. I wandered off. He had to come
find me and bring me back. I was lost. The opposite of loss is found. And guess what? The lost sheep
doesn't find himself. The shepherd's gotta find him
and bring him in. Do you know you are a miserable
sinner? And I threw miserable in there
because everybody said, oh, we're all sinners. Well, do you know
you're a miserable sinner? Do you know that in and of yourselves,
you can't do a thing right? And you never have. That's the kind of sinners Jesus
Christ come to save. That's the kind right there.
Henry used to say it, Earl said it, a sinner is a precious thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. You understand? It's not natural
to know you're a really miserable sinner. That's part of that grace and
mercy and peace. That he has promised what? To
sinners. To sinners. This is a faithful
saying. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of
whom I am chief. It is a faithful saying our heavenly
father. We're thankful again for this
time this place God Give us the grace to go on in
this world Surrounded by nonsense and blasphemy and tribulation
We need your help to walk in this present world We need you
to lead and guide us in the way you would have us to go. Teach
us so that we learn. And we'll give you all the praise
and the honor and the glory now and forever. In Christ's name,
amen.