Immanuel Sermon Audio
Luke 13:10-30
We're in the Gospel of Luke this morning, so you can find Luke 13. Our verses are verse 10 to 30. There's an outline in the bulletin. If you'd like to follow along on the outline, we're going to pick up right where we left off a few weeks ago. If you have forgotten or if you weren't here, let me remind you of the theme verse of the Gospel of Luke. It's Luke 19-10, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." That idea governs everything that we talk about in the Gospel of Luke. And the big idea of this passage, if it's underneath that, the big idea is very simple. The Son of Man is the king of the kingdom of God. The Son of Man, the one who came to seek and save the lost, he is the king of the kingdom of God. Now talk about the word king, most of you I think have some understanding of what we're talking about. We don't live under a king, but you've read about them, you know other nations that have them, you've studied history, you can wrap your mind around a king. Sometimes we get a little bit off track and a little bit confused when we start talking about this idea of the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? And there's a couple of reasons that this can be a tricky thing to think about. One reason it's hard to wrap your mind around the kingdom of God is that there's some passages in the Bible, in the New Testament, Jesus is speaking, Paul is speaking, there's some passages where it sounds like the kingdom of God has already come and is here. And then you read some other passages and it sounds like the kingdom of God is coming in the future, it's not here yet. For example, Jesus, in Mark chapter 1, he begins preaching and his messages repent and believe because the kingdom of God is at hand, it's here, it is now. Jesus talks to his opponents, the Pharisees, when he's casting out demons and he says, "I'm doing this and you know that I'm casting these demons out by the power of God and the kingdom has come upon you." So he says, "The kingdom is here right now." On the other hand, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us to pray and one of the things he teaches us to pray in what we call the Lord's Prayer is what? We pray that your kingdom would come and you say, "Well, has it come?" Is it already here? Or is it coming? And the biblical answer is, "Yes, it's come with Jesus and we're awaiting its fullness in the future." Paul talks about the exact same thing. Paul says to the church in Colossae, "You have been moved out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus Christ." God did that for you, you're in the kingdom. And then elsewhere, Paul tells the Corinthians, "We're waiting for this kingdom to come." And they're both true. If you're a follower of Jesus, you have entered the kingdom of God and you experience the kingdom of God. At the same time, we're awaiting it to come in fullness and in completion. It's here, but it's not yet here. Sometimes we get confused about the kingdom of God because we forget that Jesus is the king. So sometimes people start talking about their own particular church as if that is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is bigger than your church. Sometimes we start talking about our own denomination as if it were the kingdom of God, but you can't bottle it down and squeeze it all in your denomination. It's bigger than that. Sometimes people start talking about parachurch ministries as if they're the kingdom of God. But Jesus didn't leave behind a parachurch ministry, left behind a church. Some people start talking about their country, the United States, or maybe another country, the nation of Israel, and they start talking about them as the kingdom of God. None of those things are the kingdom of God. When you listen to Jesus and you listen to Paul, the kingdom of God is the rule in the rain and the sovereignty and the power of God. That's what it is. In any place, any realm, any life where the rule and the rain and the power and the sovereignty of God is recognized and enjoyed, that's the kingdom of God. And Jesus in this passage is talking about the kingdom. And he says some things that we really need to hear as we think about what does it mean for us to follow a king? We need to know what kind of kingdom we're a part of. So you've got your Bible ready. We're going to read in Luke 13 beginning in verse 10. Just flip back to the left. Look at Luke 951 just to remind you of where we're at in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 951 is a hinge, things shift with this verse. And Luke 951 says when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. The time had come, Jesus knew exactly what was happening. And Luke says he sets his face, he makes the intentional decision to go to Jerusalem. He knows where he's headed and he knows what's waiting him in Jerusalem. This there's going to be a welcoming party at first but what he's really going to Jerusalem to do is to die. The Son of Man is going to seek and to save the lost. And at this point in the Gospel everything is shifted. Everything Jesus says and does is sort of on this last march to Jerusalem before he dies for sinners on the cross. So look at Luke 13. The story begins in a synagogue. As far as we know this is the last time Jesus ever stepped foot in a Jewish synagogue. And the story goes like this, Luke 13 beginning in verse 10. Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who had a disabling spirit for 18 years. She was bent over and she could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her he called her over and said to her, "Woman you are freed from your disability." And he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, "There's six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed and not on the Sabbath day." Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites. Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it. And ought not this woman a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for 18 years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day. As he said these things all of his adversaries were put to shame and all the people rejoiced at the glorious things that were done by him. He said therefore, "What's the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It's like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden and it grew and became a tree and the birds of the air made nests in its branches. And again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?" It's like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flower until it was all leavened. Now he went on his way through the towns and villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" And he said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow door for many I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able. Then once the master of the house has risen and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, 'Lord, open to us.' Then he will answer, 'You, I do not know where you come from.' Then you'll begin to say, 'We ate and drank in your presence. You taught in our streets.' But he will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart for me all you workers of evil.' In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from the east and west, from the north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold some who are last will be first, and some are first who will be last. Let's pray. Father, we listen to the words of Jesus we read about the things that He did, about the miracles, about His teaching. And we believe that we are confronted with a man in this book who was more than just a mere man. We believe that this is the Son of Man who came to seek us and to save us. We believe that this is the King of your kingdom, and we pray that you would open our hearts and our minds to your Word this morning, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. We pray in the name of our King Jesus, amen. Very simply, I want you to see seven thoughts about the kingdom of God. Some from the story of the woman, some from the parables that Jesus told, and then some from Jesus talking about this narrowed door. Ten thoughts about the kingdom of God, about the rule in the rain and the power and the sovereignty of God in your life. Here's the first thing I want you to see. The kingdom of God cannot be reduced to man-made religion. Can I be reduced to man-made religion? Okay, let's be honest about this first part of the story is Jesus is in the synagogue. Luke makes a point to say he's in the synagogue, and it is the Sabbath, okay? That means the day before was not the Sabbath and the day after was not the Sabbath, okay? Jesus could have very easily healed this woman, not on the Sabbath, day earlier or a day later. Her life was not in grave danger. She'd been suffering for 18 years. We feel sorry for her, but she was probably going to make it one more day. Or she probably wouldn't have mind being healed one day earlier. Jesus makes an intentional decision on the Sabbath in the synagogue with all the people present in the Pharisees looking on, and in that setting at that time he says to the woman, "You're healed." He heals her intentionally when he does and where he does, and he does it to make a point. He's making the point that the Pharisees and all of their man-made rules, they missed it. They're a million miles off base. You see, the Pharisees had a rule that you could heal somebody. If you were a doctor, if you were administering first aid or life-threatening care, you could do that on the Sabbath if somebody's life was at risk. If they were in danger of dying, then you could help them on the Sabbath. Otherwise, you might work on the Sabbath and you didn't want you to do that. Now interestingly, Jesus points out the irony that the Pharisees had made another rule that said, "Well, you can take your donkey or your ox or your cow or your horse and you can untie it and you can take and lead it to water." That's okay. That's not work. You don't want your donkey to die, do you? So you take it and you lead it to water. And literally what Jesus is pointing out, Luke uses the exact same word twice. He says, "Your rules say it's okay to untie a donkey, but not for me to untie this woman from her suffering." That's what you're telling me. And he looks at him and, Jesus, you've got to love him, he's very blunt. He just tells him exactly what he thinks about it. He says, "You're a bunch of hypocrites." You remember, this is in church. This is in the synagogue, right? They're gathered together on the day of worship, to worship Jesus heals a woman across the room and then he looks at the leader and he says, "You're just a hypocrite." You know he really is a hypocrite because he's mad at who, he's mad at Jesus and what does he do? He talks to the people. He wants to rebuke Jesus for what he did but he's a chicken, he's a coward, he's passive aggressive and so instead of rebuking Jesus, he looks at the people and even when he rebukes the people or Jesus through the people, he says, "What? You should come on one of the other days to be healed, meaning who he's really mad at is the woman." The sick woman, at the end of this exchange, she gets the blame for it. He looks at her and says, "You know really, this is your fault." Stooped over woman, suffering woman, you've been suffering for 18 years, this is really your fault. This is on you. I hope you feel good about yourself. And Jesus looks at him and says, "You're a hypocrite." Not only are you too afraid to talk to me but you have in essence made a rule that makes donkeys more important than people. You understand, if you try to bring your man-made rules and impose them on top of the kingdom of God, that's exactly what you will do. You will make donkeys more important than people. And when you look at it on the surface, you say, "It's absolutely ridiculous. It's insanity." Who would make a silly rule like that? Listen, we have to be careful about the exact same thing. You cannot bottle up the kingdom of God into a bunch of man-made rules of do this, don't do that. Listen, what's the big idea of this passage? Jesus is the king of his kingdom. He's not looking for legislators who make laws. He's not looking for Supreme Court justices to review laws. He's looking for subjects to obey them. He doesn't need you to bring your rules and to throw them on top of the kingdom. When you do, you make donkeys more important than people. Don't miss this point, the kingdom of God cannot be reduced to man-made religion. Number two, the kingdom of God offers wholeness that's W-H-O-L-E, N-E-S-S, wholeness to those who suffer. Some of you are suffering. You're hurting. You're in pain physically. You're in pain emotionally. You're confused. Your life is in chaos. In the story that we read in Luke 13, it's the woman who has been stooped over for 18 years, she has suffered. Luke tells us that it's on the Sabbath. We're in the synagogue. You remember Luke is a physician and his diagnosis is she has a disabling spirit. Later Jesus is more explicit and he says Satan has afflicted this woman for 18 years. She's not looking for Jesus. She didn't go to the synagogue to find Jesus. She doesn't walk into the synagogue and make a beeline to Jesus. She doesn't ask Jesus to do anything for her at all. She's just there and Jesus sees her and he speaks to her and he goes over and he lays his hands on her and she's healed. 18 years, she suffered with this affliction. 18 years and in a moment Jesus makes her whole. It's a picture really of you and I and our need for grace and that we're not really looking for Jesus. The Bible's clear about that. The Bible says in Romans 3, "There is no one on the earth who seeks God. No one goes to God for wholeness on their own." Paul says the same thing in Ephesians 2, he says you're all spiritually dead. We're all dead spiritually. We're not out looking for God but God's grace finds us and God's grace gives us life. God's the one who moves us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light and he makes us whole. And sometimes like in this story that wholeness comes immediately. Sometimes in your life that wholeness may come gradually over time. And sometimes in this life that wholeness may be waiting for you on the other side of eternity but it's coming. And if you're in the dark night of suffering and you say there's no light at the end of the tunnel for me, there's no hope for me, there's no end to this, Jesus is saying and Luke is reminding us there is wholeness waiting for those who suffer in the kingdom of God. He's offering it to you and it may come immediately and it may come gradually or it may be waiting in eternity but he's promising you wholeness. And when you're suffering you can't imagine what wholeness would even feel like. You can't imagine what that would be like. You can't imagine that it would be true for you and Jesus is saying in Luke's reminding us wholeness will be real for those who are part of the kingdom of God. He's offering wholeness. Number three, kingdom of God, it motivates worship and it creates joy. When you experience it, it motivates worship, it moves people to worship and it creates joy in people's lives. Look at verse 13. He laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight in what she glorified God. Her immediate response is to worship. Look down at verse 17. As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame and the people rejoiced. That's the idea of combining worship and joy. They rejoiced at all the glorious things that were being done by him. Listen, when you experience the kingdom of God in your life, it will move you to worship and I don't just mean what we do in here when Tyler and the group are up on the stage leading music. I mean that, singing songs, in church, worshiping, yes, but more than that, when you experience the kingdom of God, your life will be moved to worship and you will stop thinking about worship as a duty or an obligation or a responsibility and you'll embrace it with joy. Jesus didn't have to tell this woman to worship God for what had happened to her. She just did it. Jesus didn't end His sermon about the hypocrites and the Pharisees by saying, "Now you need to respond and glorify God and rejoice in it." They just did it and when you experience the power of the kingdom in your life, it will happen. You'll be moved and motivated to worship and joy will be part of your life. What a tragedy that so many people who claim to follow Jesus and claim to be part of the kingdom are flat out miserable people to be around. Not an ounce of joy. I don't mean bubbly and just excited and peppy and everything's cheery and rosy. That's not necessarily what we're talking about. But there's just some people, they claim to follow Jesus and you know Him. You just don't want to be around Him. They're just grouchy. They're pitiful and miserable and they just drag you down and you spend five minutes with them and you think, "Oh, I need to take a nap or curl up in a ball." Would it be possible that some of those people that you know and I know really haven't experienced the power of the kingdom of God? We're going to talk about people like that in just a minute at the second part of this passage, but I think that's a very real possibility. Maybe they're a lot like the Pharisees. Jesus said, "Look outwardly, you look great, but on the inside you're full of dead men's bones. You missed it. The kingdom hasn't come into your life. When it comes, it motivates worship and it creates joy. That's true for David in the Old Testament. That's true for this woman in this story. That's true for you and me today. That's true in the book of Revelation when the kingdom finally comes in all its fullness. Motivates worship and creates joy. Number four, I like this idea. The kingdom of God grows quietly but steadily, quietly but steadily. You see the two parables in the middle of the passage, both about the kingdom of God? What's the kingdom of God like? What do I compare it to? Jesus said, "It's like a grain of a mustard seed, a small seed." You go, you plant it in the garden and it grows and it becomes a tree, big enough for birds to come and be in the tree. Start small and then it grows big. He says, "What's it like?" Verse 20, "What do I compare it to?" It's like a little bit of leaven, just a little bit of leaven and the woman goes and she puts it in three measures of flour and it leavens all of it. She takes just a little bit of leaven, puts it in the flour and all of it, it just spreads and it grows. That's what the kingdom's like Jesus says. I don't know what you're looking for, Pharisees, Jewish people, folks in the synagogue, if you're looking for me to overthrow the Romans tomorrow but that's not how the kingdom grows. It grows quietly and it grows steadily. Here's the most beautiful picture of it, it's not even necessarily in the parables. Look at verse 18, "He said therefore," remember we talked about the word therefore not too long ago, when you see it in the Bible you ask yourself a question, "What's it?" Therefore, well it's therefore because he just told a story about a woman who was healed. A poor, pitiful, unnamed, unknown woman who just showed up to the synagogue one day, been stooped over and sick for 18 years, Jesus heals her in the backwater, backwoods, rednecked part of the Roman Empire. He just doesn't make a big deal about it, he just sells her, you're healed and he touches her and she's better. That's the kingdom of God growing. Sometimes we get way too hung up on the spectacular. 5,000 people got saved on this mission trip. So-and-so came to town and preached a city-wide crusade and 10,000 people trusted in Jesus. That's great, but if you listen to Jesus himself what he says is, "Can I tell you how the kingdom really grows?" Quietly, instantly. Quietly, instantly. It's the fourth grader that comes to VBS, they don't go to church but their parents drop them off and they hear about Jesus and they come to know Jesus at Vacation Bible School. This is the kingdom of God growing, quietly and steadily. It's the kid that goes to youth camp and they've listened to Corey preach the gospel a thousand times on Wednesday night. But they go to youth camp and all of a sudden it's a light bulb goes off, "Ah, I get it." The kingdom just grew. It's the family that wakes up on Sunday morning for summaries and they can't explain and they say, "We ought to go to church today, hadn't been to church in ages, let's go." And they go and they hear the good news and they're encouraged and they have people who care about them and they get plugged back in or they get plugged in for the first time the kingdom just grew. That's not big fanfare, nobody's going to put that on a billboard around town, we're not running commercials about that, but that's how the kingdom grows. It's a husband and a wife who say, "You know what? We've made a mess of this marriage, but we want to honor God in it and we want to do what's right. We want to repent and fix it instead of just throwing it away. The kingdom is growing quietly and steadily. One woman, no one knows her name, healed of this affliction that she suffered for for 18 years and Jesus says, "That's the kingdom growing, spreading." And then He says, "Let me explain to you what you just saw. You just saw this woman healed. Therefore, let me tell you about the kingdom." It's like a tiny seed. You put it in the ground and all of a sudden you wake up months later and it's a tree. How did that happen? When did that happen? We planted tomato plants at our house and put these little tiny, weak-looking pitiful plants out in the ground and now they're just overflowing the box, laying out in my yard and messing my grass up. You say, "When did that happen?" And if you don't just wake up one day and it's there, it's quiet, but it's steady. Jesus says, "That's what the kingdom's like. Don't look for the spectacular. It's going to grow quietly and steadily." Really could it be any other way when you think about who the king is? How did he come? Manfare, trumpets, parades, public service announcements, commercials, movie trailers. No. He just comes to a quiet part of the country on a quiet night and he tells it to of all people a bunch of shepherds and he's born in a barn and he grows up in a carpenter's home and he grows up and he learns a trade and then when he's about 30 he goes out and he starts preaching. Just a carpenter turned preacher and when he dies he's got a few dozen people with him in Jerusalem who believe in him, who are scared out of their mind but they believe in him and it grows quietly but steadily. Jesus says, "That's how the kingdom grows." No. 5. The kingdom of God is an exclusive kingdom, it's exclusive. There's a question in verse 23 and the question is, "Lord will those who are saved be few?" And to be honest and upfront Jesus never answers that question in this passage. What he does do is look at the person who asked it and forces them to think about where they stand in relationship to the kingdom. And look at verse 24, Jesus says this. He says, "There is one door and it's narrow." Well those who enter be few, he doesn't answer that question but what he says is there is one door into the kingdom and it's a narrow door. Our culture hates that. Only one door and if you're going to give us one, couldn't it be a big door? There's only one door and it's a narrow door. It's really kind of strange that we don't like that because we don't ever complain about the number of doors in anything else we do in life. You go over to your friend's house to watch the football game, you're excited, it's college football or it's the Dallas Cowboys, whatever you go over, you knock on the door, don't go to the window, go to the door. You don't go into the living room and say, "Man, I hate that door. You need to bust a hole in the wall, I want a door right here," you just, you go in the door. This is the door. I want to go in and watch the game. Use the door. You don't say, "Whoever designed this house is an idiot, you only have one front door." You go in the door. You come to church, you pick a door, you don't say, "I want to walk through the wall." Use the door. Jesus says, "There's a door." It's a narrow door. It's only one and can we just admit that the problem is really not with the number of doors? If God gave us two, how many would we want? Probably three. If he gave us a hundred doors, we'd probably complain that there wasn't a hundred and one. The problem is not the number of doors. The problem is us and the problem is that we don't like to submit to a king and when the king says, "There's a door and it's a narrow door and you're going to have to strive to enter the door," we don't like that. But that's what Jesus says and what he's saying is, "This is an exclusive kingdom." Look what he says in verse 24, "Many I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able." Does that sound like a strange thing to come from the lips of Jesus? Look, there's one door, it's narrow and a lot of people are going to try to come in the door and they won't be able to do it. You listen to that and you say, "Is he saying that there's people who will want to be Christians want to go to heaven and they won't be allowed to come in?" That's not what he's saying. He explains it in the following verses, verse 25, 26, 27, 28, and here's his explanation. On the last day, there's going to be a lot of people who try to walk in the door and Jesus says the door is going to be shut. And they're going to knock on the door and they're going to say, "We're here, you've been waiting on us, did you forget we were coming?" And Jesus is going to say, "I have no idea who you are or where you came from. I don't know you. All I know is that you're workers of lawlessness. I don't know you." And they're going to say, "Well, we know you, we ain't with you. You taught in our street, we listen to you teach. Don't you remember us? We were there." And Jesus says, "I'm sorry, I don't know you." It's sort of a strange thing that when you want to know if a person's a Christian, sometimes we say, "Do you know Jesus?" Because these people knew Jesus. What really matters is does Jesus know you? And he says to a lot of people on this last day, many people, how many? I don't know, but Jesus describes them as many. Many will come on this last day and they'll say, "Hey, well, we knew you. We were at VBS. We heard the lesson at VBS and we went to Sunday school and we did the youth camp thing. And remember, remember we put our money in the box every morning when we came to -- we know you." And Jesus says, "I don't know you. You did a lot of things, but I don't know you." And he says, "The door will be closed." And he's telling us it's an exclusive kingdom. Here's the flip side to that. It's also a global kingdom, a global kingdom. So he's in a synagogue. He's talking to Jews and look at verse 29. He says they're going to be people from the east and the west and the north and the south. In other words, as he's talking to a bunch of Jews in a synagogue, he's saying, "They're going to be people from all around you that come into the kingdom." And he's warning them that they're in danger of missing it. And he's trying to get it through their skulls. It doesn't matter what your DNA says or what your ethnicity says or what your skin color is or what your passport says. That's not the point. And you see Jesus almost in frustration wanting to say, "Look, go back and think about these examples in the Old Testament of Ruth." She didn't have your DNA. She got in the kingdom. She's in the line of the king himself. That doesn't matter. This is a global kingdom from the east, from the west, from the north, and from the south. Revelation confirms that. At the end, the king is on his throne and there's people from every tribe, every language, every nation gathered before the king. So it's an exclusive kingdom, but it is a global kingdom. All are invited to enter. Last idea is this. The kingdom of God, or you could say the king of the kingdom of God, defines greatness. Verse 30, "Some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last." That's not the wisdom of this world. That's not the wisdom of dog eat dog. Look out for number one. Take care of yourself. Make yourself great. Self-promotion. How many likes can you get on Facebook? How many friends do you have? How important are you? How much do people respect you? Jesus says, "You want to understand what true greatness is and you want to be part of this kingdom. You're going to have to take all that and flip it on its head." Some, he says, are first and they will end up being last and some now are last and they will end up being first. Again, could it be any other way when you think about who our king is? The king of heaven, who was first, whether we acknowledge it or not, first, willingly laid aside being first and became last. That's Luke 19, 10. The son of man came. That ought to just knock your socks off every time you think about it. The king of heaven, the creator of everything, laid it all aside and the one who was first willingly chose to be last, to be born in a barn, to walk on our dirty dusty earth, to preach to people who were so thick-headed that it just couldn't get it through their skulls sometimes and then to die in shame for the creatures that he originally created in his own image. That's the first becoming last. And Jesus says, if you're going to be part of my kingdom, you have to take your ideas of greatness and flip them on its head. If you want to be great, it's not about self-promotion, it's not about having your way, it's about being a servant. And he not only talks to the talk, but he walks to the walk and he sets the example for us here. And listen to all these things that Jesus had to say about this kingdom. I hope the kingdom has come in your life. I hope you're part of the kingdom. I certainly hope you know the king, but most importantly I hope the king knows you. And I hope that his power and his reign in his rule is real in your life. I hope that it's a joy in your life. I hope that it motivates worship in your life. I hope that it redefines greatness. As you think about greatness in your family, in our church, in your job, in life. I hope it takes everything that this world tells you and flips it on your head. And I hope that Luke 19-10 is not just the theme verse we throw up on the screen every week and we talk about the Son of Man came to seek and save the loss. But I hope it's your theme verse. I hope that you embrace that and say that's the kingdom that I'm a part of. The kingdom that I have no claim on left to myself, but that I have been brought into because the king himself came to seek me and to save me. I want to pray for you. You bow and let's pray. Father, we're grateful for your word and we're grateful for these truths about our king. We acknowledge that we are unworthy to be a part of your kingdom and that it is only through the Son of Man who came to seek us and to save us that we are part of your kingdom. Father, we want to understand what it means to say that we've been brought into your kingdom or that your kingdom has invaded our life, that it's changed us, that it's saved us. Father, we pray this morning for those who are here who have never entered through the narrow door and we pray that they would do it today, that they would stop looking for a window, that they would stop looking to make their own way, and that they would simply acknowledge that Jesus is who the Bible says He is. He is the only way that we can enter into your kingdom and that they would submit to Him, that they would trust Him, that they would love Him more than the sin in their life, and that they would follow Jesus as their king. Father, those of us who have experienced that are joyful to respond to you in worship and to sing about our king and to give him glory and to give him honor and to give him praise. Be honored as we lift our voices together, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.