Matthew 6, verse 9, not verse 9. Yes, verse 9. Oh, because I looked wrong at it. These glasses are not nearly as strong as they ought to be. In verse 9, Jesus is in the midst of a great message, a sermon we call the Sermon on the Mount. He presented this at least once, perhaps twice. Luke records a similar message on a similar occasion. It may be the same one or it may be a different occasion. But this was something Jesus taught with His disciples close to Him. They were already His disciples and believers, and then a great multitude beyond them. So sometimes when we listen to the teaching of Jesus, we need to think about who He's teaching, who He's talking to. And in this particular message, I'm going to try to help you understand this message wasn't, it was certainly for them, and it's certainly for us, and it contains principles that we need, but it is especially appropriate for a certain group of people, those disciples represented, but we're not. And that will be those who believe in the Savior during the Great Tribulation period, during the period of seven years and then the final three and a half years where the Jewish evangelists left on the earth win a multitude to the Lord but are not able to take the mark of the beast and can't buy and sell and a lot of bad stuff is going on. Jesus, God, the Lamb, the wrath of the Lamb is being poured out on the earth. And the enemy has been thrown from heaven to earth, and he says he knows he has but a little time. And so we've got great evil happening on the earth. And this prayer, I think, Jesus was teaching for those tribulation saints. Now let's read it. Verses 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. Jesus said, after this manner, therefore, pray ye, our Father, which Art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. I am of a generation and an age that When I went to the public school system in this country, in Michigan and in Florida, at least in Florida, we recited this poem daily in the public school. All my elementary years. Yeah, very familiar. It was often repeated in the denominational church I attended when I was forced to do so as a young boy before I was saved. It's familiar. It's part of the Roman Catholic Church's procedure when You are seeking forgiveness of sins, and you've confessed your sins to some man called a priest, and he says, you go and say so many Hail Marys and so many Our Fathers. This is the Our Father. But that's not what Jesus said. He didn't say, go repeat this, go recite this. I'm glad I got it in elementary school. I'm okay with people repeating it, but that's not what he says. He starts off with, after this manner, therefore pray ye. What's he mean? Do it this way, not quote these words religiously, not put them on a prayer wheel and give it a spin. Not vain repetition, he's already taught against repeating like the heathen do, but pray like this. Now, let's see if we can see what some of the ways are that he prays here. If you've got the notes from last week, this is on those notes somewhat. This is an example, not for rote recitation. Start off something like this. Our Father which art is in heaven. Identify who you're talking to. You can pray to Jesus if you want to. One of the shortest prayers in the Bible was addressed by the Apostle Peter to the Lord Jesus as they went for a stroll on the lake. And Jesus was doing fine, and Peter was distracted by the storm and the boisterous wind and seas. And as he was beginning to sink, he cried out a very short prayer, Help, Lord! He was praying to Jesus. Jesus answered him, and that was good. But identify who you're praying to. It's okay to pray to the Father. I don't mind if you pray to Jesus. I wouldn't even get upset if you prayed to the Holy Spirit. There's no jealousy in our one God with three persons. You can pray, but as you pray, let God know who you're talking to. And Jesus went on to say, our Father, which art in heaven? Identify him by the place of his throne. Do you remember he, earlier in this same message, identified heaven when he was telling people not to swear. In verse 34 of the previous chapter he says, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool. Heaven is where God hangs out. Heaven is the place of his throne. He is everywhere present, but heaven's his place. You know, come on over to my place. Very common to say, Father in heaven. Very common among the ancient Jews, according to the commentaries that I read. And then the next manner in which Jesus suggests we pray, or they pray, is, hallowed be thy name. Hallowed. The word behind this is a Greek word, hagiadzo, hagiadzo. In Greek, when a word begins with a vowel, you have to put a breathing mark over it that either says you say an H sound or you don't. If it's a smooth breathing mark, you just say agiadzo. If it's a rough breathing mark, you say hagiadzo. So this is pronounced hagiadzo, because there's a rough breathing mark over it. The letter alpha in Greek, we'd call it an A. When you put it in front of a verb or a noun, it means a negative, not, not. And some of you might recognize in giadzo the name of the earth goddess, Gaia. This very literally is saying God is not of the earth. Not of the earth. It's recognizing his holiness by saying he's not from here. He's not of the earth. He and his name, hallowed be his name, is not of the earth. Jesus says his name is holy, is not of the earth. And I want to look at some of the other passages that go that way. You can follow in your Bible if you want to. The next reference is Genesis 4, verse 26. It's on the screen if you can see the screen. Genesis 4, 26 says, to Seth, to him also there was born a son, Cain, Abel, Seth, Adam and Eve's third boy, third born. Abel had been killed by his brother Cain, Cain had been sent off, and so Seth is the one there with dad and mom, and to Seth was born a son, and he called his name Enos, and then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Well, that's nice, that's what they ought to do. In chapter 12 of Genesis, just gonna go through the book a little bit, The Lord in verse 7 of chapter 12 appeared to Abraham and said, excuse me, appeared to Abram and said, unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. What a special thing. God, the creator God, appeared to Abraham and talked with him. And that's unusual. That's still unusual today. It was very unusual. Abraham is called the friend of God because of the unusual relationship he had with him. Well, Abram removed from thence to a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east. And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. What did he do? He prayed. Abram kept up his relationship with God by calling on his name. In the next chapter, in verse 4 of chapter 13, well, verse 2 of chapter 13, Abram was very rich in cattle and in silver and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the south, he'd gone down south for the winter, even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Hai, unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. He went back to the place where he'd been before and said, I remember this is a good place to talk to God. You ought to have a place to talk to God. In chapter 21, I'm sorry, I got to scroll down at verse 33, Abram planted a grove in Beersheba. and called there on the name of the Lord the everlasting God, the everlasting God. There are some names of God that we teach in Bible doctrines. Two of them are confusing if you don't have some way to remember the difference. There's the everlasting God and fiddle. Elion and El Olam. Oh, Elion looks like a Y in my mind, and that's the most high God, and El-olam sounds like it's long, so that's the everlasting God, and that's as much Hebrew as you're gonna get this morning, I'm sorry. Chapter 26, in verse 25, gotta scroll again, too far. He builded an altar there, where's he at now? He back there in Beersheba, the Lord appeared to him again in the same night and said, I am the God, oh, this is not Abram, this is Isaac. I am the God of Abram, thy father. Fear not, I am with thee and will bless thee and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And Isaac built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants digged a well. Called on the name of the Lord. That's what Jesus recommended. Hallowed be thy name. In Exodus chapter three, we go leaving Genesis and go to Exodus. That's not Exodus. Oops. Exodus chapter three, verse 13. Once I had a dentist in my mouth and he said, oops, that's not a good thing. Another story for another time. Moses said to God, here's another person talking with a man, another special thing, Moses. Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you and they shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am. I am that I am, and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am have sent me unto you. We call that the self-existent God, I am. And verse 15, said moreover unto Moses, Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me unto you, and this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." Do you notice in your King James Bible, he calls himself the Lord, with all capital letters, Lord, God of your fathers. God is the rather generic word Elohim that means mighty one or strong one, the putter forth of power. It's plural, indicating maybe three persons, one God. But when you see it in all caps, Lord, That is the King James translators choosing to put the personal name of God, which you could say Jehovah or Yahweh. It's like the visitors to the Hawaiian Islands arguing whether the name of the place where they were visiting is called Hawaii and Hawaii. And so they've met a fellow on the beach that appeared to be a native Hawaiian. And they said, sir, do you say Hawaii or Hawaii? And he said, Hawaii. And they said, thank you. And he said, you're welcome. So we can say Yahweh or Yahweh or Jehovah. It's all just what the different vowels would have been. But that's the name of God. And it means I am. It is the self-existent one, the one who inhabits eternity. The beginning and the end, he's called in the New Testament. He always has been. He's outside of time. Dr. Cameron, the Bible doctrine teacher, used to say, time is an island. And he'd draw an oval on the board. An island in the sea of God's eternity. God invented and created time. We live bound by time. We start, we end, we're done. We draw a line to indicate events in history on a timeline. God's not on the line. He's everywhere. He sees the end from the beginning because He's not bound by time. He is the great I Am. Let me see if my next bookmark is correct. Nope, not correct. Okay. We're gonna go to Isaiah chapter 44 now just because that's where I thought I put the bookmark. Isaiah 44, boy there's a lot of chapters. 44 and verse 6, "'Thus saith the LORD,' all caps, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, The Lord of hosts, the Redeemer of Israel, the King of Israel, says this, I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. What about Jesus? Jesus is Jehovah. The name Jesus is a shortened version of Joshua, which is Jehoshua, which is Jehovah Yeshua. Jehovah, we just explained. Yeshua means savior. The eternal self-existent one who saves and keeps and defends. That's who Jesus is by the meaning of his name. Call on his name. Call on the name of Jesus. When I was a 15-year-old kid in January of 1970, I went to a meeting where the gospel was presented, and heard what Jesus had done for me, and how that my religious efforts wouldn't help me, and if I wanted to go to heaven when I died, if I wanted to have eternal life, I needed to believe in Jesus. The gentleman running the meeting gave an invitation where those with heads bowed and eyes closed, where those who were there and heard this and maybe trusted in Jesus, believed in Jesus for the first time, could raise their hand so he could pray for them privately without embarrassing them. And so I'm sitting with my friend and head bowed, eyes closed, and my hands firmly locked under my armpits because I wasn't going to do nothing like that. And my friend is head bowed, eyes closed like this, kind of peeking. And so as soon as he saw that I did not raise my hand at the end of the meeting after they said we can all stand up and leave, He took me by the arm and led me up to the man that was leading the study and introduced me to him. I don't know if you know this is a secret thing about Christian meetings, but if somebody ever does that, that means the person that's being introduced needs to hear how to be saved. Not saved yet. Wouldn't want to take his time up for anything less than that. And so he took me, he said, do you have your Bible? I said, yes. I opened my little Bible, had a zipper on it and pictures and all. And he looked at it and he said, why don't you use my Bible? And he had me hold his Bible. I was like a bachelor with a new baby. I didn't know how to hold a regular, you know, big old Bible. And anyway, I got to 1 John chapter 5, verse 13. It's on the screen there. He said, would you please read that to me? I said, sure. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. He said, you believe that? I said, well, it's in the Bible. You've persuaded me the Bible is true. It was a good meeting. I guess it's there. I guess I believe that. He said, good. Do you know you have eternal life? I said, no, I think if you're interested in that, you do the best you can all your life. And when you die, you see how things balance out to good against the bad. I thought that was pretty brilliant. He didn't argue with me. He said, would you please read that again? These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. He said, do you understand that? I said, yeah, okay. So this is written to, he says it's written to a certain group. Who? The ones that believe on the name of the Son of God. Does it have a purpose? Yeah, okay that you may who's you the ones that believe on the name of the Son of God What's the purpose that you may know that you have that you can know you have something? What is it that you can have if you're in the group that believes in the name of the Son of God? You can not only have it, but you can know that you have it. What is it life? What kind of life eternal life? If you're in the group that this is written to the ones that believe on the name of the Son of God are God's purpose in writing this was that the ones in that group can know that they have eternal life, and also to persuade them to believe on the name of the Son of God if they're not there yet. That's pretty cool. He said, do you understand that? I said, yes, I understand that. You said to believe on the name of the Son of God means believe Jesus was God who saves, and you explained that. He says, good, and you believe that. I said, it's in the Bible. Do you know you have eternal life? No, I think when you die, if you're interested in that, God weighs out the good against the bad and sees how it comes out. He did not argue with me. He didn't call me stupid. He just, would you please read that verse again? I will save you the seven times that I went through that verse with this very patient man. But on the seventh time through, I said, I see what you're trying to get me to say. And he said, I'm not trying to get you to say anything. And he explained it one more time, and somewhere in the midst of that last, you can know, you have eternal life, light bulb went on. And I realized that what Jesus had done was for me, and that this was written to me, because I did believe that everything I'd heard about him was true, and he'd offered me this, not only the gift of eternal life, but the knowledge of the gift of eternal life. Four or five years later, I was in Bible college, and a speaker came into chapel, and he was an outside speaker, and presented what he said was the difference between head belief and heart belief. He said, some people are going to miss heaven by this distance, because they believe with their head, but they don't believe with their heart. And that bothered me. I didn't want to miss heaven. That night, when I was free of other obligations, I went for a walk, and I walked for three or four hours, reliving in my mind what I had done that night in January of 1970. And it took a few hours, but at the end of the few hours, I came to the conclusion that at that point in the conversation, I knew that it was true. all of it. And somehow this made sense to me. If you know that something is true, that's a definition of believing it. And I never doubted it again. I knew it was true, so I believed it. If you believe that, You have eternal life and you can know you have eternal life. And why are you quibbling about the difference between head and heart? It's not a real difference. In the Protestant Reformation, some of them tried to make a third step that you had to know and accept or believe or know that it's true. They put a third step in there that said you have to do something about it. That's not part of the meaning of the word believe. It just is not. That's a lie. So on we go, back to the prayer, back to the prayer of Jesus. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed not of this earth, be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Well, you know, the disciples wanted the kingdom to come, and he was saying it's a good thing to ask for the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, he called it in Matthew, to come on earth. That's a good thing. When will it be a desperate prayer? Just before it happens, when the Antichrist is reigning on the earth. Those guys are gonna not be saying, oh, it'd be nice if Jesus would come someday. They're in trouble. And they're instructed by the Lord, pray, thy kingdom come. Pray for his returning kingdom. We really do pray for that as well, not the kingdom itself, but the rapture of the church. Come Lord Jesus, the last prayer in the book of Revelation chapter 22. That's for us, that's not for the tribulation saints, that's for us. Paul, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, describes his comfort to the Thessalonian believers that were worried about the ones that had died, and they thought the Lord hadn't come back yet. They're gone. And he said, he's coming back for them and for us. and will ever be with the Lord. So comfort one another with these words. Pray for the Lord's return. They will in the tribulation. And the next part of verse 10, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. We'd like that. But think about the Antichrist and what's going on on the earth during the reign of the Antichrist, terrorizing the believers, terrorizing them, killing them. beheading them, a great multitude dying for their faith. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Now, some people teach that God's will is the only thing that ever happens, right? Those people believe that the sovereignty of God extends too far that not a thing happens except God wills it. That's awful. That's not my God. Dr. Jim Scudder up in Ohio, he's in heaven now, Ohio, he's in Illinois, not Ohio, but when he was in Illinois, he would have his grace conference and every, one of the evening meetings, he'd have his two grandda, his daughters or daughter-in-laws come up with the two babies that they'd just had within weeks of each other. Little infants in arms and he'd look at the one and he said, darling, that little child of yours was determined by God before the foundation of the earth, before the foundation of the world that he'd go to heaven someday. And he'd look at his other granddaughter and he'd say, darling, that little baby of yours was determined by God before the foundation of the world to go straight to hell. And then he'd look at the congregation and he'd say, that's not my God. That's not the kind of God we have. Thy will be done is an appropriate prayer because there's times when it's not done. And we want God and his will to be done because it is good. The book of Romans in chapter 12 says you can prove what is that good and excellent and perfect will of God. You can know it by experience. But Jesus said, pray for it. Not that you can figure out what it is, but just that it'll be done. You do it. Encourage people around you to do God's will. How do we know what God's will is? The book of Ephesians says, God works everything in accordance with the counsel of his own will. His will has a counsel. That is, it gives advice, if you will. What is the advice that God's will gives us? What do we have of God's will in our hands to look at and to read and to hear? It's this book. And God doesn't do anything divergent from what this book says. If you want to do the will of God and encourage others to do the will of God, you get in this book, and if it says do something, you do it, and if it says don't do something, you don't do it. And God's Word is pretty clear about the things that we are to do and some of the things we are not to do. I'm digressing from the message. We're not going to get all the way through the prayer this morning, but there's a verse in Proverbs that says there are seven things that God hates. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood. Anything come to mind? Abortion? And then there's pornography described in the next verse. There's some things God hates. We should not be involved in those. We should hate them ourselves. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Pray that the men of the earth will be submissive to the will of God. Verse 11 says, give us this day our daily bread. Well, we do ask for that. We thank him when we sit down to eat. But who's going to desperately be praying for that because they can't buy or sell? That would be those witnessing, believing Jewish evangelists in the tribulation period and those, I mean, give us, we can't, give us what we need. Give us our daily bread. It doesn't say store up emergency fund, it just says give us what we need right now today. Verse 12, even clearer that this is not for the church, it says, forgive us our debts, or in the other version, our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, or we forgive our debtors. What economy is that? What dispensation is that? That's law. The law says, forgive and you'll be forgiven. You want to be forgiven, you forgive. But here in the church, we have been forgiven. Those who believe in Jesus, we have forgiveness. We have forgiveness, we don't have to forgive others in order to be forgiven, we've already been forgiven. In whom we have forgiveness, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, we have it, it's a possession. Now 1 John 1, 9 says you should also confess your sins and he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we're reminded of that each time we sit down to the communion supper, that we still sin, and we should get right about that. We should agree with God. When it says, confess, it's hamalogeo. Logeo is the word to say. Lagos is the noun, word, logeo is to speak. And homo, you know, is the same kind, speak the same, as opposed to hetero. Homo logeo is to speak the same thing. When you confess, you're agreeing with God. You're not saying, oh, I messed up. I'll do that again after we get this done. No, you're agreeing with God. You change the way you think about what you've been doing that was against God. You agree with him and he forgives our sins and he cleanses us from all unrighteousness. There's a family forgiveness, if you will. We've already got forgiveness for eternity. But when you hurt somebody, you ought to go to him and make it right. It's not in order to get forgiveness by God, but we need forgiveness. But this prayer is most especially for those in the tribulation. They are under the law again. It's not the church, it's the law. Verse 13 says, lead us not into temptation. If you can't buy or sell without taking the mark of the beast, it would be extremely inconvenient. And so the daily temptation is, I gotta get food, my family's starving, I don't have a job, just don't lead us into temptation. Now that's a good prayer for us too. We want to be kept from the temptation. The book of James, it says, God doesn't tempt any man. He doesn't solicit us to evil. But we are tested. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation when he has tried to receive a crown of life. But a prayer, an appropriate principle in prayer is that we be kept from temptation. And then he says, deliver us from evil. In English, we don't always put the word the in, where there is a word the in the Greek New Testament. This is one of those places. This very literally means, or says, deliver us from the evil one. Oh, does that make it sound a little different in your ear? Rather than deliver us generically from evil, deliver us from the evil one. Oh, especially in the tribulation when he's represented on earth by the Antichrist and the false prophet, both of them empowered by Satan himself, deliver us from the evil one. This is a prayer for the tribulation saints primarily and good for us too. And then he says, close up with thine is the kingdom. Thy kingdom come, thine is the kingdom. We're not there yet, but we want it. And the power, you've got it, you can do this, and the glory forever. Amen. Amen means I believe it. It's not just another word that means dig in at the beginning of a dinner or something. Amen, I believe it. The Jews' pronunciation, amen. I probably messed that up. And that's the end of the model prayer. Pray for provision, pray for forgiveness, and be forgiving. Pray that such temptations as you face will not hold sway over you. Pray for deliverance from evil, especially from the evil one. And there's a list in the notes that I copied from somebody else. When you're praying to be delivered, pray to be delivered from impotent men and from impotence, from an evil man and an evil chance, from an evil affection, from an evil companion, from an evil neighbor, from Satan the destroyer, from a hard judgment, and from a hard adversary. That was a list that a Jewish rabbi named Judah had made up, and I thought that's kind of a good way to think about who we need to be delivered from. Thine is the kingdom. Acknowledge his sovereignty. Acknowledge His great power, acknowledge His glory, so very right for Him. Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, and acknowledge His eternity. Those are the points and the principles of the model prayer. Think just with me for a second about a model. Any of you ever make a model with a plastic model? I did when I was a kid. generally are not as big as the real thing, right? If this is your only prayer that you recite, well, there's a whole bigger thing that you're missing, where you're actually communicating with God. An architect might make a model, it might be pretty good size, might fill a room about what he's planning to build that'll be great and vast, but the model is not the real thing. The model's not bad, But it's not the real thing. After this manner, therefore, pray you. You search through the New Testament after Jesus gave these instructions. He gave them for the 12. He gave them for the rest of the multitude that was there. These are the people that lived out the book of Acts. Did anybody pray this prayer again? This prayer, these words, our Father, which are not in my Bible. So why do we do that? I don't think that's an appropriate application of this. We have a few moments left here. Let's look at the next verse. If you, Jesus said, if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. That's not our instruction. That's not grace. That's law. It's pretty good practical truth, though. Not so much to get the Father's forgiveness, but to get along with other people, whether in the church or out of the church. Somebody messes you over, and you want to restore the relationship, try forgiving them. If you don't, they're not going to be nicer to you later. And he goes on from forgiveness to several kinds of things that are both appropriate and inappropriate. In the notes, I'm just looking ahead here. First, from verses 16 to 18, appropriate and inappropriate fasting. In verses 19 to 21, there's insecure treasure and there's secure treasure. And then 22 to 23, there's the single eye, and the chapter does go on a little bit. We'll just look for a second at the appropriate and inappropriate fasting. What is fasting? Fasting is not speeding. That's a different thing. You get a ticket for speeding. For fasting, you don't have to have anything except a closed mouth. Fasting, it's doing without food. There's another word like fasting that you don't recognize as much. It's called watching. Watching is doing without sleep. When you stay awake, you're watching. Fasting is doing without food. Watching is staying awake. And they are exercises that you can participate in for a spiritual purpose. There's no magic in fasting, except you might lose some weight. That'd be a good plan for me. the religious among whom Jesus was teaching, the crowd there, the Jewish leaders, would fast and show off their fasting. And so in verse 16, he says, moreover, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces. Oh, I'm so hungry that they may appear to men to fast. Thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret. And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." They have their reward. They have their reward, the same poor purpose that we saw earlier in the lesson the other day. Your Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. We developed that the other day about God seeing in secret and openly rewarding. Well, there's just a moment or two left. I would like to remind you of 1 John 5.13. I just think it's especially important to remember. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God." Anybody listening that does not know that they have eternal life, God says it's possible, you may know that you have eternal life. God says it's written in the Bible this way so that you can get to the place where you know you have eternal life. What's the condition? Be in the group. Calvary Community, no, not Calvary Community Church, not that group. That's a good group, but it's not that group. the group that believes on the name of the Son of God. Just believe on the name of the Son of God. I remind you of John chapter 11. I do this often, but Lazarus is dead. Jesus wasn't there. Lazarus' loving sister, when Jesus shows up, comes to Jesus and said, Lord, if you had been here, verse 21, My brother wouldn't have died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha says, well, I know he's going to rise at the resurrection. It's the last day. I kind of like him now. She didn't quite say that, but she sure hinted at it. And Jesus said unto her, I am. That's God's name. That's the great I am. I am the resurrection and the life. It's very emphatic in the Greek New Testament. I, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? That's what he wants people to believe. And she says, in answer to his question, do you believe this? She said, yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living, the Son of God, which should come into the world. You're the promised one. And he said, that's good. I like that. He asked her to believe some things about him. And she said, I believe in you. And that's the truth. You don't have to get it just right. You just have to believe in Jesus. He is the one who saves everyone who believes in him. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as we Get ready for our special morning here with guests and music and food. We pray that the pastor will have boldness to present the gospel and it'll be done clearly and understandably and perhaps many of the guests who are even now on the way will believe in Jesus as their Savior. We ask these things because that's what Your will is that men would hear and believe. And we pray Your will be done in this place this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen.