Immanuel Sermon Audio
Luke 24:13-35
"Grab a Bible and find Luke all the way to the end." Luke chapter 24, there is an outline in the bulletin. Luke 24, "Our passage this morning is verse 13 to verse 35. We only have two more weeks in the Gospel of Luke." That includes this morning. So today, Luke, next week, Luke, and then after that, several people have been asking me, "What are we going to do next? What are we going to do next?" And after Luke, we're going to do the book of Psalms. And we have picked about 27 different Psalms. We're going to start in Psalm 1, and we're going to end in Psalm 150, and then in the middle there, not in any particular order, we're going to work through about 25 other Psalms. And you're going to get to hear from some of our other elders in that series, and it's going to be a great time studying in the book of Psalms. So I'm excited about that, but we have to finish Luke first. So we're in Luke 24. Luke 19, "10 is still the driving verse for our study in Luke. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." We've been talking about that for a week, after week, after week. And now this morning, we've sort of reached a transition. We're on the other side of the cross. All the way through the Gospel of Luke, we've been building up. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. That's going to happen at the cross. Now we're on the other side of the cross. We're on the other side of the resurrection, and we're going to look at a story that is only found in the Gospel of Luke and is actually one of the longest stories that Luke tells. When you compare all the different stories that Luke decides to include in his Gospel, he gives more attention to this story, more words to this story than almost any other that he tells. And so let's start with the big idea. It's really a simple story and a simple thought. It's through the knowledge of the Scriptures that we come to understand and experience God's plan of salvation. If you want to understand God's plan of salvation, if you want to experience that plan of salvation, it must be through an understanding of the Scriptures. That's where it has to begin in your life, in my life, and in the lives of the people that we're going to read about this morning. When I put that up on the screen, and I say through the knowledge of the Scriptures, we understand and experience God's plan of salvation, I just want to remind you of something I tell you from time to time, but I remind you and I tell you over and over because it's important, when I stand up on this platform, or when Ron, or Cory, or Chris, or one of the other elders, somebody stands up and preaches on a Sunday morning, our goal is not just to fill your head with facts. Our goal is not to impress you with how much we've studied this week and how much we know about the Bible. Our goal is not to entertain you, to give you the funniest, most enjoyable, most pleasurable 30 minutes that you've had all week long. Our goal, very, very simply, is to make the text of the Scripture plain and clear to you, so that you understand it. You want to be clear about what the Word says, because we believe this. When you get it, it leads to an understanding of salvation, and also to an experience of salvation. And so we take that seriously, and I hope you take it seriously, and you see it in a great story here in Luke 24. We're going to read beginning in verse 13, so you follow along, we're going to read verse 35, that very day, two of them were going to a village named Amaeus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all the things that happened. And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing Him, and He said to them, "What is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still looking sad, and then one of them named Cleopus answered, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that happened there in these days?" And He said to them, "What things?" And they said to them, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death and crucified Him." But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel. Yeah, and beside all this, it's now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some of the women of our company amazed us, they were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find His body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see, and He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?" In beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them and all the scriptures that things concerning Himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if He were going further, but they urged Him strongly, saying, "Stay with us for it is toward the evening, and the day is now far spent." So He went in to stay with them. When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road while He opened to us the scriptures?" And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven, and those who were with them, gathered together, saying, "The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon." Then they told what had happened on the road and how He was known to them in the breaking of the bread. Let's pray. Father, help us to understand this story. Help us to see the importance of it and the truths contained in it. Whether I pray for myself and for the people in this room that this would not just be academic exercises, not just a time where we gain more Bible facts, but is where we also experience your plan of salvation. We understand it, we experience it, maybe for the first time or maybe we could just continue to rejoice in it this morning, but Father, we want to taste and see that you are good. And we ask that you would help us to see that this morning and we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So I was struck this week as I studied reading books and reading commentaries. All of these Bible scholars kept talking about all of these different paintings about this story. And so I'm going to put a few of them up on the screen, and it was just interesting to me that such a simple story, such a really almost an obscure story, only found in the gospel of Luke, none of the other gospels, that it has inspired so many works of art. And there's something about this painting that captures our attention. There's something in this story that sort of gets our creative juices flowing or resonates with us, and these are interesting, interesting to look at. The details are important so that you understand the setting. Luke says that these guys are walking to a town called Amaeus, and he says it's about seven miles from Jerusalem. So depending on how fast you walk, that's a pretty good little trick. It's not going to be completed in five, ten, fifteen minutes. You're going to be on the road for a while. So these guys are walking, and Luke tells us this is the evening of Easter Sunday, right? He says in verse 13, it's the same day, what just happened, the resurrection, it's the same day, and he says in verse 29, it's almost evening. They beg Jesus to come in and to sit down with Him because it's almost evening. So it's evening of Easter Sunday, the day that Jesus rose from the dead. We know one of these guys, if you look at verse 18, his name is Cleopas. We don't know the other, and there's all sorts of speculation about who was with Cleopas on the road. We know there was two of them, it was Cleopas, and who wasn't. Some people say it was his wife. There's a reference in the Gospel of John to a person named Cleopas, C-L-O-P-A-S, in his wife Mary, and some people say it's probably the same guy, just a variant on the spelling. Other people say no, it's a totally different name, and some people actually say the second traveler was Luke. This would be the humble way of Luke putting himself into the story, sort of without drawing a lot of attention to himself. The truth is we have no idea who the second traveler is, it's Cleopas and somebody else. We do know that they're talking as they walk, literally what Luke says is they're debating, or they're arguing, that's up in verse 14 and 15, they're debating all the things that have taken place, and we know later when Jesus shows up that they're talking about Jesus. So they're talking about Jesus, this guy from Nazareth. They're talking about all the different things that he taught. Do you remember when he said this, what do you think he meant by that? They're talking about the miracles. Well, I heard he did this. Well, I was there when he did this. Maybe they're talking about the triumphal entry. Maybe these guys were in Jerusalem for the Passover, and they saw the triumphal entry, Jesus' writing, in fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy, writing into Jerusalem on a donkey. Maybe they saw that, and they're talking about that. He came writing in on a donkey, just like Zechariah said he would. Maybe they're talking about Jesus going into Jerusalem and clearing the temple, saying, I can't believe he did it the first time a couple years ago, but he did it a second time. They're talking about the debating in the temple precincts, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes. They come and they're trying to trap Jesus, and he just makes them look foolish, and so maybe they're talking about that. Maybe they're talking about the crucifixion and how he was betrayed by a friend and arrested at night, and it was all completely illegal. Then they're talking also, we know, about these women. The women say they went, and they saw an angel in that he's alive, and they just can't wrap their minds around all of it, so they're debating and they're discussing. And Luke seems to indicate that as they're walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a third man comes up and sort of overtakes them from behind. He's speed walking, so he catches up to him. Here he comes. We know it's Jesus. Luke just simply says their eyes were kept from seeing him. They didn't know who he was. And they're arguing, they're debating, so you can hear it if you're on the road. Jesus walks up and he says, hey, what are you guys talking about? We're talking about this Jesus of Nazareth and all the things that have taken place. It's amazing, Jesus says, what are you talking about? Huh? What? What things? What's going on? What happened? And Cleopus makes his one claim to fame in the Bible with what might be the dumbest question recorded from Genesis to Revelation. It's really stupid, right? You can just see Cleopus, he's got this frown on his face, and he just turns and looks at Jesus. And what does he say? He says, are you the only person in Jerusalem who doesn't know what happened? Are you the only idiot that doesn't know? That's what he means. He doesn't say that, but you know, sometimes your kids say something to you and they mean something different than what they say or somebody at work. They mean something, not exactly what they say. What he means to say is, are you such a fool, have you been hiding under a rock that you don't know what happened? What kind of idiot are you? Are you the only one in Jerusalem who doesn't know? And the irony is just slapping you. He's the only one that knows. The only one who understands the significance of it, and Cleopus says, you're the only one who doesn't know what's going on. So they start to discuss, they start to debate, they start to talk, and I just want you to see these details. Look at verse 15. We know that it's Jesus, Jesus himself drew near and he went with them. Verse 16, their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Some scholars say it was because they were walking towards the sunset and they just, the sun was right there on the horizon and it was blinding them and they couldn't see. Look, they just, they didn't recognize him. We're going to talk about that in a minute. They didn't know who it was. And then verse 31, at the end of the story, as they're sitting down for dinner, it's like Jesus says their eyes were opened. So as you think about this whole deal, they didn't recognize him and then their eyes were opened. It made me think this week and just stop and reflect. Why go through the whole thing with these guys? I mean, why do the whole thing where they didn't recognize him and then their eyes were opened? Why not just show up and say, hey, it's me, Jesus, I know you don't recognize me, but it's me. It's your eyes. God opened their eyes. It's me. I mean, I don't think it happened just so that we have this story in the Bible, right? Really doesn't add a whole lot of what we understand about what Jesus did on the cross, the significance of it, the importance of it. We would know all of those things without this story. Why not just show up and say, it's me, I'm alive. That's what he did with other people, right? He appeared to other folks at different times and he didn't sort of play this almost like a game of who is it? You don't recognize him, open your eyes and you do recognize him. But there's a very important reason that Jesus did this with these guys at this moment. Here's the reason. Why did Jesus go through with the process with these disciples on the road to Emmaus? He wanted their faith to rest on the promises of God. He wanted their faith to be built on the foundation of the promises and the prophecies and the word of God. He didn't want it to be based on some sort of spiritual experience alone. He wanted it to rest on solid foundation and that foundation is the word of God. So think with me just for a minute. You remember Luke chapter 16? There's an interesting parable in Luke 16. It's only found in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 16, Jesus tells a parable about a rich man and a guy named Lazarus, right? Lazarus is the poor guy, rich man is the rich man. We don't know his name, but they both die and you remember the rich guy dies in the parable and he goes to hell and he's in torment and in this parable, right, you're just following along with the parable, the rich guy is talking to Abraham and do you remember what he says to Abraham? First, he shows that nobody repents in hell because he says, hey, tell that poor guy Lazarus to bring me some water. He still thinks that he's in control and that Lazarus ought to serve him. So he's totally unrepented. And then he says, hey, Abraham, he's still barking out orders, this rich guy. He says, hey, send somebody back from the dead to warn my brothers that they need to repent. I don't want them to end up here. Send somebody back from the dead to warn them and Abraham says, do you remember? They should just read the Bible. They have Moses, they have the prophets and the rich guy says this, no father Abraham. If someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. If they had this experience, then they'll repent and look what Abraham says. If they don't hear Moses in the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. A spiritual experience is not a foundation for anything in your life. The promises of God and the Word of God are a rock solid foundation for anything you need in your life. And as Jesus is interacting with these two on the road, he could show up in a ball of light and a big trumpet blast and big fanfare and angels and say, it's me, I'm alive, I won. I defeated sin, I defeated death, hooray for me. But that would just be some big special experience. And he's talking to these guys, taking them from where they're at saying, look, why are you so slow to believe what's written in the Bible? Look what he says, Luke 24, 24, 25, foolish ones. These guys don't know who he is, this dirt guy just comes up to us on the road and he's calling me a fool, foolish ones. Why are you so slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken? Jesus wants their faith to rest on the Scriptures, on the promises of God, not on some kind of crazy spiritual experience. And listen, he wants the exact same thing for you. There's a lot of people chasing a lot of different sort of spiritual experiences. Well, I want this revelation to come or I want this miracle to happen or I want this or I want that. And sometimes I just think we need to step back and say, won't you just listen to the Bible? We just listen to what God has told you in his word. That's got to be the foundation of your faith, not the shifting sands of, well, I had this experience today, well, I had that experience the next day, well, I had this experience, cut through all that stuff and Jesus is saying, look, I want your faith to be on solid rock. On the foundation of God's promises. That seems a little counterintuitive, right? Be honest. Don't give me the Sunday school answer. Be honest. You think, and I think, I don't know, would I be more convinced by a Bible study on the walk to Emmaus or would I be more convinced by a big light show of angels on the road to Emmaus? I think the angels would convince me. I think that would really give me strong, unshakable faith if I could just see something like that. Jot this verse down and look it up later. 2 Peter 1, 16 to 21. Read it later. What you're going to find in that passage is Peter says, look, I've had amazing spiritual experiences. I saw Jesus revealed on the mountain of transfiguration in all his glory and he says, I have something even more sure and even more certain than that experience. That's the word of God. That's the foundation. Peter says this word was breathed out by God. It was written by men who were, he says, carried along by the Holy Spirit. So he says this is the foundation, not some sort of crazy experience. So Jesus wants them to have faith that rests on the promises of God. What do we need to understand from this story about Jesus and the promises of God? Five simple ideas. These are on your outline. What do we need to understand about God's plan of salvation? Number one, Jesus was the one who redeemed God's people. They're so close to the truth in verse 21 where they say, sad face, we hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem God's people. He was the one who came to redeem God's people. They missed it. They missed it because when they thought about redemption, they thought about the Exodus. They thought about God redeeming his people from suffering. What they had to understand is that Jesus came to redeem his people through suffering. The Exodus in the Old Testament was a great thing. It was something that the people looked back to and they hung their spiritual hat on for years and years and centuries and centuries. But this is a greater Exodus. You remember on the mountain of transfiguration in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus is standing there and he's talking to Moses and he's talking to Elijah? You remember what Jesus and Moses are talking about? They're talking about Jesus' coming Exodus. That's the word. I've got a better Exodus. I've got the true Exodus. Not just removing you from suffering but redeeming you through my suffering. Look at this verse, Peter writes it. Oh yeah, let's go to this one first. Luke 1. This is a good one too. His father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit prophesied saying blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people. If you've read the Gospel of Luke, you know this is coming because this is Holy Spirit inspired words from the father of John the Baptist when his son and Jesus is about to be born and he says this is a great day. God has come to redeem us so you know that redemption is coming. Now put up the verse in Peter. Peter says you were ransomed. Same word is redeemed, exact same Greek word. You were redeemed, you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. Not with perishable things such as silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. That's redemption not just from suffering but through suffering, through the blood of Christ. So he was the one to redeem God's people. Secondly, it was necessary that the Christ suffered, that the Messiah suffered. Luke 24, 26, Jesus says after he calls him fools for not believing the Bible, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? He says why was it necessary that it happened? Well on the one hand it was necessary because God had said that it was going to happen. The promises and the prophecies had to be fulfilled. There's even a deeper reason than that, a more foundational reason. Paul says that God is holy and the Bible says that you and I are not holy. And in biblical language, holy and not holy don't go together very well. How are you going to come back into a relationship with the holy God if you're a sinner? The Bible says not just that it won't happen but that it can't happen. There must be the shedding of blood we read in the book of Hebrews. There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. It's necessary that it happened. It must happen. The sinless one had to become sin for us so that we, the sinful ones, could become sinless and righteous. It was necessary. There is no other way for sinful people to be brought into a relationship with the holy God. And so Jesus says it was necessary. You need to understand that. Remember when Jesus was praying in Gethsemane, what did he pray? If it be your will, let the cup pass. And Matthew, it's a slightly different version. He says if there is any way that the cup can pass, let it pass. And the answer was what? There is no other way. In fact, we read in Isaiah 53, it was the will of the Lord to crush Him. That was the plan. That was the plan because it's the only way that sinful people could be brought back into a relationship with the holy God. So Jesus was the one who redeemed God's people. It was necessary that the Christ suffered. Number three, the scriptures are one story pointing to Jesus, one story pointing to Jesus. It's not just a random collection of stories about our spiritual heroes. It's not just about, oh, Noah did this and then there was this guy named Abraham and then there was this guy named David and just you need to be like these guys. They were pretty good guys. You should try to be like them, try to be faithful like Noah, try to be trusting like Abraham. You should try to be brave like David. Not the point. It is not the point. The point is Jesus. From Genesis 1-1 all the way to the end of Revelation, it's the story of Jesus. And if you come to this book, you ever heard the little acronym? What is the Bible, B-I-B-L-E? Basic instructions before leaving earth. You ever heard that little silly thing? It's way more than that. Basic instructions before leaving earth, that's just like do this, don't do that. Stay out of this mess. People get into this one, try to be a good person. That's basic instructions before you leave earth. It's way more than that. It's a story of Luke 19-10 from beginning to end, how the Son of Man came to seek you and save you so that when you leave this earth, you can be with Him forever. That's what the Bible is. It's not just a little sort of cheeky collection of instructions of how you can have a better life. It's one story pointing to Jesus. Number four, this is a big one you need to see. And I pray that God would help you see it. God must open your eyes to the truth. What do we need to understand about God's plan of salvation? You have to understand that if you're going to get it, it's because God has opened your eyes to the truth. When these guys sit down with Jesus, it's really verse 30 to 35. You talk Jesus into coming in, stay with us, the day's almost over, they sit down. They have this meal. They're not having the Lord's supper, okay? This is not communion. This is dinner. They still don't know who He is. But the text says twice that in the breaking of the bread, they realized who they were eating with. It says that when it happens and then they report that to the apostles when they go back to Jerusalem. In the breaking of the bread, they got it. So some scholars say, look, Jesus sat down and He blessed the food and He broke it. It sort of sounds like when He fed the multitudes, do you remember that story? He took the little boy's lunch and He blessed the food and He broke it and He distributed. And some scholars say, they got it. That's when they got it. Jesus started breaking the bread for dinner and they said, we've seen this. He's done this before. That's how Jesus did it. Other people say no, it was maybe like something He said, a prayer that He prayed, the blessing. Or maybe it was something in His accent. They heard it and it just sort of tipped them off to, this is Jesus. Other people say, no, it was like a gesture or a mannerism. You know how different people move and things that they do and they said these guys had been around Jesus and He just, He did something and they just saw it or they caught it. Some even say when He reached out across the table to pass them the bread, they saw the marks in His hands, the scars. I wouldn't really discount any of those things as possibilities, but just look what the text says. Okay? Look at verse 16, their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. And then look what it says in verse 31, their eyes were opened. Verse 16 and verse 31, both passive verbs, meaning they were not the ones who kept their eyes closed and they were not the ones who opened their eyes. And you want to know what I think happened, I think, because God wanted to teach us this important lesson and these two guys, that you've got to rest your faith and build your faith on the scriptures, not some crazy experience on the scriptures. He decides to keep their eyes closed and He decides to open them and He can do both. Listen, if any lost person is going to come to faith in Jesus, this has to happen. Let me show you a verse from the book of Romans, chapter 3. It says, "None is righteous, no not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they become worthless, no one does good, not even one." It's a direct quote from the book of Psalms and you know what the funny thing is? It's in Psalms twice. We're going to look at that when we get to the book of Psalms. Two chapters, almost identical in the book of Psalms and then Paul quotes both of them in the book of Romans. It's in the Bible three times, almost word for word. Listen, if that's true and it is true, the only way that anybody's going to come to faith in Jesus is if God opens their eyes to the truth. I can't preach a sermon good enough to open your eyes. Your Sunday school teacher can't give you a lesson good enough to open your eyes. All these books you buy at the Christian bookstore, no one can write a book good enough to open your eyes to the truth. God can open your eyes. He does it to sinners all the time. He did it to Paul who wrote these words quoting the Old Testament. He did it to these two guys walking to Emmaus sitting down with Jesus. He can do it. I cannot do it. My prayer for you week in and week out when I stand up here is God help me to be clear and you open their eyes. You open their hearts. My job is to make it clear God's job is to open eyes and to change hearts. God must open your eyes to the truth. If you want another example of this, go look up Luke 16. You can read that later today. Luke wrote, excuse me, Acts 16, Luke wrote Acts 16 and there's a story in Acts 16 about a lady named Lydia and it just says in there, God opened her heart to believe. It's her heart to listen to what Paul was saying so you can read Acts 16 later. Here's the last thing you need to understand about God's plan of salvation. Those who know about Jesus are compelled to share Jesus. I'm going to talk more about this next week but I don't want you to miss it in this passage. Luke 24, verse 33, they realize who Jesus is, their eyes are opened, God opens their eyes. Jesus vanishes. Verse 33, they rose that same hour and they returned to Jerusalem. You remember how far that walk was? Seven miles? It's a pretty good hike both ways in one day especially when the sun's down and it's not exactly safe outside but these guys get it, their eyes are opened and they say we got to go tell somebody what we've seen, what we know, what we believe. When you get it, you will be compelled to tell people what you get. Does that mean you're going to share the gospel with every single person you see on a daily basis? Absolutely not but it does mean you're going to tell somebody because in the Bible when people get it, no one has to twist their arm into telling someone else about it. They just go do it. When you get it, you will be compelled to tell somebody else. Look that happens anytime you experience something beautiful in life. You experience a great sunset in West Texas, what do you do? Take a picture and you put it on Facebook. Why? Because you say everybody look at this, there are beautiful things here in West Texas. I want you to know it's so great, you have to tell somebody. Your kids do something cute and amazing, what do you do? Take a picture of it and you put it where? On Facebook. Why? I want everybody to know what my kids did, it was so great. You go to a great concert, you go tell your friends, oh it was the best show, they played my favorite song, you tell people it was fantastic, it was amazing. When you get it, you will be compelled to tell somebody else. That's true for these guys and it's true for us as well. The funny thing is when they go to tell the apostles, they go to tell the 11 minus Judas, they don't even get to talk first because they show up and before they can say anything the 11 say, guess why do you appear to Simon? They couldn't hold it in, compelled to tell somebody else what they had experienced. How do we experience it? We've talked about what you need to understand, how do you experience it? Three things that need to happen in your life. Number one, you've got to understand the scriptures. You don't have to be Bible jeopardy champion of a manual Baptist church. You don't have to know all the facts and names and dates and references and all of it, but you've got to get it. Look, there's a reason I hammer Luke 19 10 into your brain every single week. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. It's a beautiful summary that will help you get it. When you begin to look through the scriptures as not a story of what God expects you to do but of what God has done to save you, the light bulbs go off. You've got to get it. No one is going to be saved who doesn't hear and get it, so you've got to understand. Secondly, repent and believe. Those are the Bible words. And from your sin and turn to Jesus, repent and believe. Lastly, follow Jesus, follow Jesus. I put that on there just to remind you of what we talked about last week, that Christianity is not a religion of pray this prayer and you get to go to heaven someday. It's way, way better than that. It's repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus. And when you do that, you will go to heaven someday. But right now, in tomorrow, in the next day, and for all eternity, you get to have a relationship with the one who came to seek you and to save you. Please understand that we very much want you to get it. We want it to make sense. We want you to understand. And we also want you to experience it. We don't want you to just be able to answer the right questions and have it all up in your head. We want it to be something that truth then drives you to an experience of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Let me pray for you. Father, for the folks in this room, I ask that you would open their eyes, that you would open their hearts. Father for myself, I pray the same thing. Help us to understand the truth. Give us eyes to see it. Father, I pray that we would be people whose lives are marked by repentance and faith, that we would constantly turn from sin, and that we would continually turn to Jesus in faith. And Father, that as individuals and as families and as a church family, that we would faithfully follow Jesus. Father, we pray for those who are here this morning, maybe who have never got it. Maybe the light bulbs have never gone off, their eyes have never been opened, they've never understood. Father, we pray that today would be the day of salvation in their life, that they would get it, and that they would grab hold of it, that they would run to the one who came to seek them and to save them. Father, we believe that you can do that. You can save sinners. Father, for those of us who do know you and are following Christ, we pray that you would help us to build our faith on the solid foundation of your Word, not on the shifting sands of experience, but on the solid foundation of Scripture. Father, as we lift our voices and sing to you and worship you, we pray that you would be honored and we pray that your Spirit would work in our hearts to convict us where we need to be convicted, to open our eyes if they need to be opened, to encourage us and strengthen us where we need that. Father, we ask that you would work in us and through us, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.