Cornerstone PLUS

John chapter 3 versus 1 to 21. Now there was a pharisee, a man named nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, rabbi, We know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no 1 could perform the signs you are doing, if God were not with him, Jesus replied, very truly, I tell you. No 1 can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

How can someone be born when they are old? Nikodemus asked. Surely, they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born, Jesus answered. Very truly, I tell you, no 1 can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit, flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying you must be born again.

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone, born of the spirit. How can this be, nicodemus asked You are Israel's teacher, said Jesus. And do you not understand these things?

Very truly, I tell you. We speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things, and you do not believe How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No 1 has ever gone into heaven except the 1 who came from heaven. The son of man.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up. That everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his 1 and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For god did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already.

Because they have not believed in the name of God's 1 and only son. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into it into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. Thanks, Dean.

And as ever, if you could keep that bible passage open in front of you, that would be that would be great. My name is Tom, and I'm the assistant minister here at the church, and a very warm welcome to you if you're visiting with us this morning for the for the first time. As has been said a couple of times so far, we have read as a church family all of John's gospel this week, and you might remember if you were in some of those small groups and were reading through John, that 1 of the questions that we were asking, or things that we were considering, was how does each part of John's gospel, help us to understand the overall theme, which is that we may believe in Jesus. So John tells us right at the end of the gospel, that the reason he wrote it was so that people like you and me might gather up all the evidence and then trust and believe in the Christ that has been presented presented to us. So you might imagine John as just a big evangelistic tract that is to be given out that we may believe in Jesus.

And at the end of the media fast after thinking about that theme all week, we're going to spend some time looking at these famous words in John chapter 3, which perhaps are 1 of the best chapters in the whole of John, in fact, the whole of the bible, which describe God's mission and what it's all about and what people must be due to be saved, and what our role is in in that in that mission. So let's bow our heads and pray together and ask for God's help. When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. But will have the light of life.

Father, we thank you that you sent your son the lord Jesus into this world to be alight. That he came into a world of darkness and sin, and he showed the truth. He showed the way to know you as our heavenly father. We thank you that only through Jesus can we come out of the darkness of our sin, can we be free from the condemnation that our sin deserves, and can we come into the light of life? And father, whether we have read these words in John 3 many times before, or whether it's our first time looking at them, We pray that you would just amaze us with Jesus this morning that we might see him and his glory and his light and that we might hate darkness and want to run from it and to walk in the light of Jesus.

And we ask these things in his name. Amen. Well, 311 years ago, on this exact day, February the ninth 17 o 9, in a small village called EPworth, which is in Lincolnshire, there was a terrible fire. And it almost certainly was not an accident. In fact, the fire was caused by some angry members of community of the community who were wanting to take their revenge on this particular person.

And what makes it quite surprising is that the house belonged to the local vicar, So that's 1 way of expressing criticism and feedback, isn't it, to set the vicar's house on fire. And in the house, there were 8 children. Some of them just babies. There were lots of servants. There was a heavily pregnant mother.

And and the vicar. And once the fire, they knew the fire had started, all of them managed to get out, and they were on the lawn, But to their horror, they then looked at who was there and realized that 1 of the children, a 5 year old boy, was still stuck in the house. In the attic, and the father upon realizing that tried to run back into the house several times, but at that point, the landing was completely ablaze. The stairs had lost all their strength, and he couldn't get up the stairs to the to the attic to rescue the 5 year old son. And so the family gathered around on the garden and they watched the house ablaze, and they knelt down and they prayed, and they committed the soul of their son to the lord.

But what they didn't know was that this son had actually woken up much earlier and had realized the house was on fire. And upon trying to escape, he realized that he couldn't, but he got his chest of possessions and put it by the window, and he stood on it, and opened the window, was shouting for help, and there were 2 neighbors who happened to be on the other side of the house who saw and heard this boy shouting for help, and they went and they stood on each other's shoulders, and this little 5 year old was able to get up the window and come back around and join his family. And the name of that little boy was John Wesley, And, John Wesley is probably 1 of our most famous evangelists in this country, if not the world, who lived in the eighteenth century, and reflecting upon that moment as a young boy, which he never forgot. He saw that as a kind of parable of his salvation, that in the lord Jesus Christ, he had escaped the fire of hell, that the roof of God's judgment, which should have collapsed upon him and killed him, had been averted, and that he had been saved, his life had been spares.

When he wrote about it later in life, he described himself, and this scene as a brand, which means a piece of smoldering wood, in this case. A brand plucked from the burning. I was as a brand plucked from the burning. He saw that as a description of his salvation. And not just for him personally, this experience was behind much of his preaching.

It seemed to motivate him as an evangelist, for his life. And after he was converted, he he traveled far and wide, trying to persuade others of that simple message. That they too were in a burning house because of their sin, that the judgment of God, his wrath, was going to collapse upon them, like a burning roof, but there was a savior called Jesus who stood at the window and said, come out my son and be saved. And I will spare your life. He saw that as a as a motivator to tell others about Jesus.

And of course, although when it comes to Christian salvation, there is there is much more to say about the fullness of it. It's definitely not less than that image, is it? It's not less than that. Jesus came to rescue us from danger. This is what we're told in verse 17, isn't it?

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world. Through him. In other words, Jesus hasn't come to the blazing house of our lives in order to block up the exits stop us getting out, bar the windows, and leave us to our condemnation. He did not come that first time to condemn the world but to save the world. He came to plead with sinners and to stand at the open window and say, My the house is on fire.

Come out. I'm gonna save you. Throw yourself into my arms and I will spare your life. If you come out to me, you will be able to breathe the air of eternal life. And I don't know, but when you when you think of it like that, and you imagine salvation with that house fire image.

It's strange that anyone would say no, isn't it? I mean, we all did at 1 time, but why why would anyone say no if that's true? You imagined John Wesley, the 5 year old, standing as his house is on fire, seeing the neighbors ready to receive him, and saying, I'm okay. I think I've got this. The danger's bound to pass soon.

I'm sure I can find a way out. Thanks for your concern, but actually I don't think the problem is as bad as you're making out. Imagine if he'd said that strange. Why would anybody in such peril say, no. And of course, there are lots of reasons that people do give, but On another level, there's only really 1.

And it's what makes Mission here in Kingston impossible for you and me. This reason is what makes mission impossible for you and me. If it was just a matter of intellect, then we could learn what we needed to know in order to persuade them. If it was just a matter of having clever arguments, then we could rehearse them, and then people would be convinced into the kingdom. But according to Jesus, there's 1 reason why we'd rather stay in the house.

Have a look at what he says in verse 18 and 19, and this is the first point if you want to write them down. Mission is impossible. This is the verdict Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness. Instead of light because their deeds were evil. This is the verdict.

Light has come into the world but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Now, if you take an illustration from the natural world, that is quite hard to understand, isn't it? Because normally, when you enter a dark room and you're looking for something, you don't say, oh, great. It's dark, and I can't find what I'm looking for, how convenient, how wanted the darkness that's not going to help me to find what I need to find. We we know that would be strange.

It's not a wanted thing, darkness in most areas, or you think about walking home late in the evening. It doesn't it doesn't matter how how old we are, I guess, there there is always something about walking home in the dark alone, which is just uncomfortable about, isn't it? We don't know what is in the dark. It's amazing how the darkness transforms how we behave at home. You know, if it's the middle of the day and you hear a noise at your front door, it doesn't bother you at all.

You just walk down in broad daylight, who's there, open the door or look through the peep hole, but when it's dark, It's terrifying, isn't it? You don't know what it could be. You know, there's it could be anything, could be robbers, patrolling downstairs, even if it's just a little fox, at your bins, it suddenly takes on a frightening edge, doesn't it? And that's what the darkness does. So in lots of most areas, we we it's unwanted darkness.

We don't want to be in the dark, but no Jesus says that when it comes to him, and the light of his truth, we don't come because we love darkness. We want to be We want to be in the dark. This is the verdict, he says, in verse 19, light has come into the world, but people loves darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. I don't know if you've ever had this experience where you've been on WhatsApp or another messaging service, and you've you've written a message that is meant for somebody, and maybe it's a bit of an embarrassing message, or a personal message, or even worse, maybe you're wanting to say something nasty or unkind about another person in the message, and then you write it out and you press send And to your horror, you discover that you've accidentally sent it to somebody else, or worse to the very person you were talking about.

It's terror terrible because something in that moment has come out about you. Something about your character has gone public, something that you hoped to keep in the relative dark has come out into the light, and if we think about it, what troubles us in those moments is not what we actually wrote, but it's the fact that someone else has seen the kind of thing that we might say. And so there's a sense in which someone has seen a window into the real me, which I was trying to keep blocked up, so they couldn't see it. We're annoyed not because of what we wrote, but because we've been exposed, and we've been found out. And in a small way, that is something of what Jesus is saying here.

The reason that we love the darkness is because we don't want to be exposed. I mean, there are corners of my loft, now, which are so dirty and so full of junk and so stuffed with old rubbish, that I actually deliberately never look there anymore. Even though I know what it's like, I don't want to look at it. I don't want to put the light on it for fear that it will be exposed for what it is. I would rather just leave it there, and in a sense ignorance is bliss, you know, I I would just rather not know than discover what is there.

And that is true with God. Because if I come into the light of the gospel, I have to realize something about myself. I have to turn the light upon my own heart. I'm going to be exposed for what I am, and I'm going to discover that I'm not a nice person. And that I'm not a good person.

In fact, by nature, I'm a I'm a god hating sinner, who wants to run my own life and to do evil in the darkness. I'm like a reverse moth which is not drawn out of darkness to light, but is drawn away from the light into the darkness. And so are you? That is who we are. But who of us wants to admit that?

It's better to stay hidden, isn't it? Better not to listen to that, better to pretend that it's not true. And particularly if you're new to the bible, this sort of thing may just sound unbelievable. I heard a story just this week about a friend who visited our church recently, who was who was very interested in coming to church and in the Christian faith, but was not a believer. And apparently, this this person didn't didn't like the time at the church, for only 1 reason, and it wasn't the music, or the welcome, or the coffee, or the building, or the facilities, it was because she felt that in all of what we were doing, we were just too down on people.

That there was too much about us being sinful and weak and needy, which in reality is untrue because we're strong Alright people, most of us, aren't we? And so you can imagine the language of verse 19 is not popular. Normally, we only use words like evil to describe the very worst of people. We reserve the word. In fact, it still has a special place in our language, doesn't it?

And it only belongs to to the worst of humanity. And therefore, the idea that nice, polite, people like us who try to do our best most of the time, don't we? Our doers of evil screams against everything that we've been told. It is the opposite of what we have grown up to believe about ourselves. But God says, no, this is the verdict.

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. And perhaps if we are being honest with ourselves, we do see something of the truth of that, don't we? Just think about the ways that we speak to other people sometimes, or at least the thoughts that go through our mind about other people. Could they not be described as as evil? Or think about some of the things that we do in the darkness.

When we don't think anyone will see or ever find out about them. Could they not be described as evil? And then you think of that 1 thing, which we have all done, seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, in his glory, and his beauty, and his kindness, and turning away from him as if he was an irrelevance, as if he was a burden, as if he was inconvenient, as if we didn't need him, could that not be described as evil. Oh, the verdict is true. Light has come into the world but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light, for fear that their deeds will be exposed. So why is mission impossible? Is it because we don't have enough reasons to convince people, not enough arguments to persuade them, no, it's not. It's because by nature, we do not love the light. We want to hide in the dark, pretending that we're fine, not wanting to be exposed, for who we really are.

And undoubtedly, it is it is hard hitting stuff, isn't it? That Jesus says here. Sometimes we forget that the beauty of John 3 16 is actually followed by John 3 17 to 21. But this is what Jesus says, and you know, praise God for it. Praise God, because think of it this way.

How how loving would it have been for those neighbors? To have seen John Wesley in the fire, and for them to have said to him, John, I think you're gonna be okay. I think you're gonna be alright. The fire looks like it's passing. You could probably get out by yourself.

There is no danger why not go back to bed? Would that have been a kind, loving thing to have said? To that 5 year old 3 11 years ago. Praise God that he loves us enough to be honest with us. About what we're like.

Praise God that he gives us a gospel, which is gonna remove our shame and our sin. But which first confronts us with who we are. A gospel which tells us that The big problem we have is not just knowledge. It's to do with our hearts. We we love the wrong things.

And we hate the right things, and we don't want to be exposed. And unless God can overcome that, It is always going to be mission impossible for us. So that's the first point. Why is mission impossible? Because we love the darkness.

Secondly, mission is essential. Have a look at what he says again in verse 18. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of God's 1 and only son. And just as a cross reference, if you have a look at John 5, verse 24, just a few chapters on. You can see Jesus says something similar.

John 5 24, very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life. And this is something that comes up in John's gospel quite a lot, and you may have noticed it this week, that to believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord isn't just about a great future, and the home where you will be with God, it is about that, but it actually starts now. That is what Jesus says. The moment that we believe in Christ We cross over from death to life in this life. The moment that we embrace him as our Savior, we enter into eternal life already.

We begin a kind of new spirit life, even though we're still waiting for it to be fully revealed. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it? But as Jesus says here, the reverse is also true, to not believe in Jesus, doesn't just mean condemnation on the last day, it means that for as long as we continue in unbelief, We are under God's judgment now. Not just then, now. We are under his judgment.

It's phrased slightly differently at the end of chapter 3. If you have a look at chapter 3 verse 36, It says, whoever believes in the sun has eternal life, now present reality, but whoever rejects the sun will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them, which is another way of saying to not believe in the sun is to live under God's condemnation. So being under his judgment and being under his condemnation in this life are the same thing. So it's like if you imagine it this way, if you've witnessed a crime, Let's say you've witnessed a crime of some kind, which I'm sure some of you have, and the evidence is clear. The criminal has been caught on camera, maybe on 1 of those dash cams that you might have in your car.

The man is guilty, the evidence is in, He's even admitting that he's guilty and saying I did it, he says to his lawyer, look, there's no point trying to get me off here, can we submit a guilty plea? Everything in the whole case says guilty, it's all there and it's all in, but there is a sense in which until the judge brings down his gavel and condemns the man, the final verdict hasn't been passed. He is both condemned and not condemned at the same time. And it's the same kind of thing here. Unbelief in Jesus is like the evidence that is mounting against us.

To reject Jesus is proof that we are under god's judgment now, but this life is not the end. There will be a day in court when the judge will bring down his gavel and the verdict will be made public, and we will be seen. Condemned now, condemned later. And so you can see why mission is so so essential. If to receive Jesus Christ now, is to cross over from death to life.

It is to enter into the joy and peace of God, as you are in this life. With a glorious future to come, but to reject him is to remain under God's judgment What we do with Jesus here and now is the key issue. For eternity and for this life. See how JC Ryle, the old Bishop of Liverpool puts it? I hope you can It's not too small.

Other sins may be scarlet, filthy, and abominable. But not to believe on Christ is to bar the door in our own way, and to cut ourselves off entirely from heaven. Has been truly remarked that it was a greater sin in Judasyscariot not to believe on Christ for Pardon, after he had betrayed him than to betray him into the hands of his enemies, to betray him, no doubt, was an act of enormous covetousness, wickedness, and ingratitude, but not to seek him afterwards by faith. For pardon was to disbelieve in his mercy and his love and his power to save. To not believe in Christ now is to bar the door in our own way.

It is to cut ourselves off from heaven. It is to remain under God's wrath. And it is to disbelieve in his power to save us. And that is why mission is essential, isn't it? Because like all of us at 1 time, most of Kingston is in that position.

The only problem is that most of the time I just live as if that weren't the case. When I think about some of the people on my street and I look out at their houses, I don't see houses on fire. I mainly see happy, healthy, friends. And that is the reason that for the past 2 years of living on that road, I've hardly said anything significant about Jesus, to any of them. Because I don't realize that their houses are on fire, and that they have barred the door in their own way, and that there is someone who can rescue them.

If I could just remember that whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of God's 1 and only son. If I could remember that, I might realize that mission is not only possible, impossible, it's essential. It's why when we sing things like from cowardice, defend us, and from lethargy awake. That is the kind of thing that we're praying. Wake us from lethargy.

Help us to see what is true. So, mission is impossible. Mission is essential. And thirdly, lastly, our only hope our only hope for mission. Have a look at verse 20 with me again.

Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed, but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. Now, in John's thinking to live by the truth is to respond to the truth. To live by the truth is to respond to the truth. So if we can take our fire illustration again, If you discover in the middle of the night that your house is on fire and your roof is about to fall in, That is the kind of knowledge which demands a response of you. Okay?

And we know that instinctively. If we were in that situation, we wouldn't think that information was coming to us, just as an interesting nugget of news. We would know that that information means I've got to respond. I've got to do something about it. Knowing it won't be enough to save me, unfortunately.

I need to live by that truth, or I will burn. And it sounds obvious, but it is possible to do that when it comes to the gospel. That we can read John 3 16, that God so loved the world that he gave his 1 and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life, to understand what it is saying, To even admit that it's true, but then to not live by it, to hear it like a 5 year old John Wesley would hear your house is on fire, and then to go back to bed rather than living by the truth that we've heard. And for some of us, that is going to be the key issue. It might be that you come here very often And, actually, you you sit most weeks and you listen, and you you agree largely with what is being said, certainly doesn't provoke any great hostility in you.

You you know it, you can see that it's true, but you don't live by the truth. You don't jump out of the window into the hands of a loving savior who's going to spare your life. And say, God, please, I want this gift of Jesus for myself. And yet according to verse 21, that is what's got to happen. Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, It will be painful because it involves seeing ourselves for who we truly are.

But it is the road, the only road to life and joy and peace with God. Tim Keller says this in 1 of his books, although he may may have borrowed it from somewhere else. He says, the gospel is this. We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe. Yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

We are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe. Yet at the same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus than we ever dared to hope. God loves us. And he wants us to know not just what John 3 16 could be saying to someone, but to live by it, to come out into the light, to live by the truth that he presents to us in his word. And of course, when that does happen, when someone does come out into the light, there's only 1 explanation for it, and it's in verse 21.

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. And if you just have a look on the screen, there's another translation, which I wanted to compare with there. If you look at the Christian standard bible on your right, it puts it this way, but anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God. And I think that is a helpful way of putting it, which doesn't come across so clearly in the NIV, but it but it ties everything together. Mission is essential.

Okay? We've seen that, but it's also impossible because we love darkness, And therefore, when somebody comes into the light, when somebody starts to live by the truth of John 3 16, There's only 1 explanation for it. God. God has accomplished something, in the life of this person. Does that mean we bear no responsibility?

No. If we're in the burning house and we're told to get out, and we choose to stay in, there's only 1 person to blame for that. But in order for it to happen, God has got to, at the same time, accomplish something in our hearts, and to bring us out into the light. And by the way, this is why, as Dean was saying earlier, we we should come to the baptism service this evening. Because baptism services proclaim these 2 things, perhaps better than anything else.

There is a testimony There is a story about how someone has come out into the light, and their lives have been changed by Jesus. And who gets tired of hearing testimonies? No 1. It is wonderful to hear how people in their own way have been saved from the burning building, isn't it? But who is the hero of every baptism?

God is the hero of every baptism. Because despite their differences, they all want to say, God has accomplished something in my life. God has brought me out from dark into light. God has turned me from lies to truth. God has done this.

What has been done, has been done by him. Paul puts it this way in colossians 1. For he has rescued us, from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves. In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And so although mission is impossible for us, we have a great hope in God, who is the 1 who takes people from darkness and brings them into the light of his son.

He accomplishes is that through our weak efforts. So brothers and sisters, I hope I hope we can be encouraged at the end of this week. In the mission that we have. It's impossible, isn't it for us? It's jolly impossible, but it's essential.

And God is our hope. And it might be that you're here, lastly, and you haven't you haven't yet trusted Jesus and asked him to be your Savior. What can I say to you, please, will you put yourself into John Wesley's situation? Will you realize that your house is on fire? That the roof of God's judgment is going to collapse upon you, but there is a God who stands at the window of your house and pleads with you to come out, have your life spared and be saved.

Pleads with you come and breathe the air of eternal life. Get yourself out of that smoky darkness and come into the light. And this is this is the thing. It it doesn't matter it doesn't matter how great our sins are. It doesn't matter how dark our darkness is.

Jesus died for you. And to this morning, There is no unwillingness on God's part. There is no unwillingness on God's part. He stands ready to save. If we will come out into the light and trust in Jesus as our lord.

This very moment, if you will believe in Christ, all your sins will be wiped away, all of them wiped away And in that very moment, you will come in to an eternal life and a righteousness that is a gift to you. And so I thought we would finish just by giving an opportunity to do that. This I'm gonna put a prayer up on the screen. And there's nothing particularly magical about these words, but this is the kind of thing that someone might pray. If they wanted to receive the rescue that Jesus that Jesus offers.

I'll read it first and then give a moment of quiet for for you to pray. Loving father, I know that I am not worthy to be accepted by you. I don't deserve your gift of eternal life. I am guilty of rebelling against you, loving the darkness, and hating the light of your gospel. I need forgiveness.

Thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ to die for me so that I may be forgiven. Thank you that he rose from the dead to bring me out of the darkness and into the light of eternal life. Please forgive me and change me. That I may live in the light with Jesus as my ruler. Just a moment to look at those words and perhaps for the first time make that prayer your your own.

Father, we thank you that you sent your son into this world who came as the light of the world and who came to bring grace and truth. We thank you lord that you love us enough to tell us what our hearts are really like. We thank you for reminding us this morning that we are not the good nice, lovely people, which we think that we are, but that we are those who naturally love darkness hate light, do evil, and reject you. And all we know that for that, we deserve not just to be under a condemnation in this life, but to face an eternity in hell. Under your wrath.

Father, we thank you, though, that there is hope. And that Jesus Christ came. And on that cross, he went into that burning house for us. That he ran in and gave his life in order to spare ours, that he went into the darkness of your judgment and he came out victorious 3 days later. And we thank you that in him and only in him, can our lives be spared?

And can we come into eternal life? Father, we ask that you would help us not just to see this truth, as something that is interesting and and plausible, but that we would live by the truth. That we would come out into the light, that we would take Jesus as our rescuer while we can. And father, for those who already know that glorious rescue, we pray that you would help us as we've now finished reading John's gospel to to be aware of people's true condition all around us, that you would forgive us from our cowardice, and awaken us from our lethargy, that we would see people for who they really are lost in need of rescue. And that we would say something about Jesus and invite them to come out and be rescued.

Father, we need your help in these things. We need your spirit because by nature, we just cannot do this. And so please help us in Jesus' name, amen.