Good evening, good to see you all again. Please turn to the Gospel of John, Chapter 21, and we'll seek to close out the gospel this evening. As you'll notice, I'm somewhat conspicuously skipping over John's purpose statement for his book, That's something I normally, when I preach the Gospel of John, tackle at the beginning of the Gospel of John, and so as we look and consider the resurrection of Christ and how we live in light of that, I'm going to hop over that, but that's a great section to consider the purpose that John is writing all of these things to draw our attention to the risen Jesus, that this Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah that Israel was waiting for, centuries, and it is the Anointed One that we put our trust in, this risen Savior. It's in His name that we have everlasting life, because this Jesus has been raised from the dead. Now because of the length of the passage and for the sake of time, I'm actually going to read this text as we go through the sermon to try to condense our time a little bit. So with that in mind, let me pray for us as we begin, and ask the Lord's blessing again. Our Lord in heaven, we do thank You for Your Word and for what it shows us about our precious Savior. And we pray this evening as we think about these last moments that Jesus has on earth with His disciples that we would have a firm picture in our mind of the heart of our Shepherd for us. And that You would reorient and refocus our minds and our hearts to look upon Him in the way that You have displayed Him in Your Word. and that You by Your Spirit would give us the faith to rest in this Jesus. We pray, Lord God, You would use this jar of clay for Your glory's sake. And it's in Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Well, we've come to the end of John's account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on earth. John had recorded most recently the second appearance of Jesus with the disciples after His resurrection. He expressed in that passage most recently how the wounds of Jesus convey all sorts of blessings to God's people, preeminently peace to his people. The marks of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf brings peace to us and strengthens our faith in our hearts. Now as he moves on to some final moments with his disciples, and as we read through and look at this particular passage, there are only three main points that I would like to draw your attention to this evening, although there are a whole lot more things that could be said about this chapter. And the first one is the excitement and serenity of Jesus' presence. See that in verses 1 through 14. Secondly, a love for Christ motivates a life for Christ, verses 15 through 19. And then thirdly, the sovereignty of Jesus over our lives. Verses 20-23. So again, there's a whole lot more that could be said about this passage, but we're going to just focus on these three this evening. So, first, the excitement and serenity of Jesus' presence. And we see that beginning in verse 1 of chapter 21. After this, Jesus revealed Himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. And he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. And Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. And they said to him, we will go with you. And they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. And just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, Yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, Children, do you have any fish? And they answered Him, No. He said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, It is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. And when they got on the land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread. Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net to shore full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. And Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. Now, none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? And they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time. that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. Well, in this scene, we see that Peter, along with some of the rest of the disciples, decide that it was time for them to go fishing. And you might be asking yourself, why do the disciples go fishing? Well, those of you who like to fish don't have to ask that question. Who doesn't like to go fishing? But the real question is, Why here? Why now? Why after all that they have experienced, have seen, have heard, why do they decide to go fishing here? Well, perhaps they're waiting for Jesus' promise to be fulfilled. He says in the Luke account that they were to wait in Jerusalem for the power to descend from on high on them, and so now they're just waiting for that. And in order to pass the time, they decide to go fishing while they wait for the Holy Spirit's coming. Another reason could be that simply they're hungry. They need food and so they need to provide for themselves. Some of them are married, they have families and they need to provide for their families. While they were following Jesus there had been people who were supporting them and encouraging them and providing for them but now that Jesus has been crucified perhaps that support has been withdrawn or dwindled for fear of the Jews. They're trying to distance themselves from the disciples, so now they need to support themselves. But many tend to think that it's at this point that Peter really begins to doubt himself. You remember that night that Jesus was betrayed. Peter had denied Jesus three times, and even though Jesus has appeared in his resurrected state and has commissioned them in that small degree in that earlier meeting to go and preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name, you have to imagine that there's a part of Peter's thinking that says, you know, I am unfit for this ministry. How is it that the Lord could use me for this? I'm not qualified to carry out this message, this gospel of Jesus Christ, because I denied Him. How could Jesus ask me to do this? And so many people think that it's here that Peter begins to turn his back on that calling and go back to his former profession. But whatever the case may be, Peter decides that he needs to go fishing. Maybe it is simply to block out the remembrance of those denials from his mind. But he, in a way, essentially asks the other disciples to come with him by saying, I'm going fishing. Kind of like, anybody want to come with me? And they all say, well, sure, yeah, fine. We'll come with you this time. And so they all go into the boat, and they spend all night trying to catch fish. And yet they don't catch a single one. Remember, some of these guys are professional fishermen. And they don't catch a single one. It's interesting to me to see how in God's sovereignty, he orchestrates it so that they can't catch any fish. God is in a way saying, no, boys, this isn't what you're supposed to be doing. I've called you to be fishers of men, not fishers of fish. And so I'm not going to let you catch any fish. But they spend all night trying to catch these fish. And undoubtedly, they're exhausted. They're grumpy. They're miserable. Perhaps they're starting to bicker back and forth with one another. You smell so bad the fish aren't coming anywhere near the boat. Oh, you're making too much noise. Quit your whistling, whatever it may be. They're irritated because they can't catch any fish. But as morning comes and as the sun arises in the sky, the sun walks on the shore. And Jesus, standing there, calls out to them, children, you have any fish? Well, they don't know that it's Jesus. John tells us they're about a hundred yards away from the shore, a football field away. They can't see him all that well. They don't expect him to be there. So they're just thinking there's some guy walking on the shore, seeing them out there on the boat, thinking they've been out there all night. Surely they have caught something. You boys have anything to eat? You can imagine the disciples being tired. They answer with just one word, no. They're really upset by this whole thing. You can imagine them being pretty upset by this whole situation. But then the man on the shore says, well, try throwing your net on the right side of the boat. Right side of the boat. Who does he think we are? We're fishermen. We know what we're doing. Throw our net on the right side of the boat. And yet, there was something about the way that man said that that causes them to obey immediately. Maybe something comes into their minds that they're remembering. Yes, something like this has happened before, hasn't it? Luke 5 gives us the account. A similar situation occurs. They're having trouble getting fish, and then Jesus directs them and tells them what to do, and then they have a whole bunch of fish. Maybe it's John who comes to realize it first. He seems to be quick in catching on to things. Whatever the case, they cast their net in, and all of a sudden they have all of these fish. And John recognizes, yes, It is the Lord. This is just like what happened before. It's Jesus. He's doing it again. He says, Peter, it is the Lord. And Peter's so filled with excitement, he throws on his clothes and he jumps into the water. Wait a minute. That's backwards, isn't it? You're supposed to take off your clothes and then jump into the water, not put off your clothes and jump into the water. So what's happening here? Well, it was common in those days, when you were out fishing for your profession or fishing with your fishing buddies, to take off your outer garment. Because your outer garment tended to be longer clothing, almost like robes. And you didn't want those sorts of things to get caught in the netting or in the rigging. It would be in the way. And so you would take the outer garment off. and be left in a tunic or loincloth, somewhat like your underwear, while you're fishing. Which is OK. You can fish in your underwear when you're with your fishing buddies, right? Anybody do that? Don't answer. But anyway, when he goes to meet Jesus, he doesn't want to meet him in his underwear. And so that's why he puts on his outer garment and then dives into the water. That's why he gets dressed before he jumps in. But the point is, he's so excited to meet his Lord, he just He literally cannot wait to row to shore. He just wants to get to Jesus. And besides, he'd have to drag all of those fish with him. He just wants to get to Jesus because his heart is filled with so much excitement to meet his Lord. Well, the others bring back the catch. 153 fish. And you know, there are many who try to figure out what John is trying to communicate to us with this very specific number here with the 153. And you know, numbers have significance in the Scripture. The book of Revelation is full of numbers. They often carry some level of significance. And so what is it that John is trying to communicate to us with this 153? Is there something behind that that we're supposed to understand? And so as I've studied this and researched this, spent a lot of time thinking about these particular numbers, 1, 5, 3. I think I've come up with what I think John is trying to communicate here. I think what he's trying to say is that there were 153 fish. That's what he's saying. There were a lot of fish. And John's an eyewitness to these things. He saw how many there were. But the point is, before, they had nothing. Now they have an abundance. Without Jesus, they could do nothing. Apart from me, you can do nothing. But with me, you'll have more, almost, than you can handle. You'll have an abundance of blessing, and they bring the catch to shore, the net so big that it should have broken the net, but it didn't. God miraculously providing again. They bring it to shore, they all arrive, and Jesus is waiting for them and notice John points out that it's a charcoal fire that he has the food set out over. There's only one other place that that charcoal fire shows up, and it's whenever Peter is standing over the charcoal fire warming himself, and he's denying Jesus. Here we see Jesus meeting him again at a charcoal fire, and he's going to do something very special for Peter, and we'll look at that in a little bit. But the point is, Jesus makes breakfast for them. And I just want you to step back and notice the scene here, because you have this king of heaven and earth. You have the resurrected Jesus Christ, the radiance of the Father's glory, the one before whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord, coming and meeting with these men in this way. Jesus meeting with them, having breakfast with them on the shore of the beach. Water lapping up on the shore, a cool breeze blowing over the water on them. Jesus having this simple meal with His friends. What an amazing picture we have of Jesus here. Often we think of Jesus high and lifted up, exalted, the Holy One, His glory, the Holy One of Israel. And yet here He comes down and meets with His friends just to eat with them, just to meet with them. Jesus has such concern for his people that he would meet with them in this way. And I really think John is painting a picture of heaven for us here, isn't he? The excitement that's gonna fill our hearts every time we see Jesus and the new heavens and the new earth. We'll be like Peter, we'll wanna dive in the water just to get to Jesus. Our hearts will flutter and fill with such joy and excitement to see Jesus face to face. And when we get to him, this great King, He'll embrace us and receive us as friends. To have communion with us as brothers and sisters. When we get to Him, what a peaceful, intimate relationship we will have with Him. It will be as though we are friends because we are. What wonderful hope we have in the risen Jesus Christ. But friends, this isn't just to wait for heaven. This is your Jesus now. This is the character of your Savior toward you now. He's not some distant God. He's not some distant king, but He is a close friend and companion of ours. He is our Savior and our friend. I know, shouldn't that cause our hearts to well with excitement to see Christ, to pray to Christ, to have communion with Him and experience that peacefulness in communion with Jesus? the excitement and serenity of Jesus' presence. We'll notice, secondly, how a love for Christ is to motivate a life for Christ. Love for Christ is to motivate a life for Christ. Verse 15 to 19. When they had finished eating breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon son of John, do you love me? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you were old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, follow me. Well, after breakfast, Jesus has a moment with Peter. He says, come here, Peter, let's go for a walk. They get up and they start to move away from the fire and have a conversation. And many people call this interaction between Jesus and Peter, Peter's restoration. As I said before, there's that connection with the charcoal fire, but also that night that Jesus was betrayed, Peter denied Jesus three times. And you read in this portion of Scripture that Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him three times, as if He's trying to reaffirm Peter's love for Him, to wash away, in a sense, to put away those denials, to say, Peter, you really do love Me, don't you? Giving Him an opportunity to say, yes, Lord, I do. Jesus is meeting this broken disciple, reminding him that yes, He is indeed fit for the ministry. He's qualified for what Jesus has called him to do because he loves this Savior. Jesus asks him firstly, Peter, do you love me more than these? I don't think he's talking about the fish or the boats or his former profession. It's do you love me more than these men? These disciples? You remember you said to me on that night, even if all forsake you, Lord, I will not Forsake you. Peter, is it true? Do you love me more than these men do? He gives Peter an opportunity to express that love to him. And Peter says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And Jesus says, then feed my lambs. Each time Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, Peter gives his response of affirmation. And then what does Jesus do? He gives him a task. He sets him to be the shepherd of God's people and under-shepherd of Jesus Christ. But he gives him a work to do. And in this, he shows Peter that his love for Jesus Christ is to be the motivation for his service to Jesus Christ, for his obedience to Jesus Christ. Remember here, Jesus is the King of heaven and earth. He could have come down and said, Peter, I am your Lord, feed my lambs. I am your king, tend my sheep. I am your master, feed my sheep. And what would Peter have had to do? He would have had to have obeyed, right? Out of obedience and duty to his king, to his Lord, to his master. But that's not the way God interacts with him. That's not the way Jesus relates with His people. Jesus doesn't intend or want the motivation for our service to Him to be out of fear or out of duty alone. He wants it to be out of love. And so He says, Peter, do you love Me? Yes. Yes, I love you. Then live your life for Me. Do what I've called you to do. Brothers and sisters, that's to be our motivation as well. We shouldn't just serve the Lord out of fear. or out of duty. We need to serve Him out of love, because anything else ends up becoming a serious burden. It would be wearying to serve God only out of duty, and His commandments are not burdensome. If you love Me, Jesus says, you will keep My commandments. We serve the Lord. We live our lives for the Lord out of love. And let us pray that would be the case for us in our lives, that we live our lives out of love, not out of fear or out of duty. But then notice the last time that Jesus speaks to him about love. Jesus goes on to talk about the suffering and the death that Peter's going to experience. When you were younger, Peter, you used to go where you wanted to go, do what you wanted to do. You could dress yourself. But as you are older now, men are going to take you where you don't want to go. And they're going to stretch out your hands. They're going to tie you up and make you do something that you don't want to do. This was a euphemism, a description of stretching out your hands, of being crucified. Peter, Jesus is saying, is going to be crucified. And church history confirms that Peter was indeed crucified, and yet crucified upside down because he didn't consider himself worthy to be crucified like his savior. But again, notice Jesus ties Peter's death, his suffering, his sacrifice with love. Love must motivate Peter's sacrifice for Jesus Christ. And likewise, love needs to motivate our sacrificial living and suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when we're called to live for Jesus, we're called to forsake so much in this world, aren't we? To give up so much of its pleasures, its passions, the glory this world provides, perhaps even some of the joys that we could partake in. We're called to forsake those things to follow the Lord. Take up your cross and follow me, Jesus says. And again, if we just do that out of duty, how wearying and burdensome that will be to us. We might do it, but do so begrudgingly. Okay, fine, yes, I have to do this. And you know, that's when Satan steps in. He says, you see, you see what this Lord is making you do? He's making your life miserable, isn't he? He's making your life so hard, so difficult, so painful. He's a cruel Lord. He's a cruel taskmaster. Life would be so much easier and fun, more fun, if you followed me or just relaxed a bit. Give yourself over. See, the Lord doesn't want us to have our motivation for the giving up of ourselves to be simply out of duty. out of fear. That's not what God wants for us. That's not what Jesus wants for you. He wants you to base your obedience and the forsaking of this world, the suffering you experience in this life, out of love. Love for Jesus. Love for what He has done for you. And so as you think about all of the things that you were called to give up in this world, as you think about the suffering you experience in this life, continually try to unite that with truly who Jesus is and what He has done for you. That this Jesus has left the realms of glory to enter into the misery and suffering of this world for you. To bear the cruelty of man, the curses of men, and the curse of God for you. To suffer the pain of death and the pains of hell for you. And to be raised from the dead and enthroned in heaven for you. This Jesus did this for you. Live your life out of love for this Savior. Sacrifice yourself out of love for Jesus as Peter will do for his Savior here. Let that motivate your love and sacrifice for Christ. Well, before we move on to our third point, I just want to identify one more thing in this short passage here that we really We don't pick up on all that well in our English translations, and it has to do with the words that Jesus and Peter use as they're talking to one another about the love question. And Jesus says to Simon, he says, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And when Jesus says, do you love me, he uses the word, the verb agapao, which is the noun is agape. You've heard that. term for love before, agape, love. You're familiar with that word for love. It's the wholehearted love. It's the all-that-I-am sort of love, a high form of love. It's the kind of love that you yoke together with the idea of loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It's all that you are. But it's interesting to me to see how Peter responds to these elicitations of love. Peter, son of John, do you love me? With your whole being, Jesus is asking, with all that you are. And yet Peter responds with another word altogether. He says, yes, Lord, I phileo you. And it's a different word, and it's a word that's been described by theologians as a lesser form of love, more of an affection for someone else. A brotherly affection, if you will, for someone else. emotional attachment kind of love for someone. Not that wholehearted devotion and desire for someone or something. And so, if I can read this again using these understandings, just listen to how this conversation goes. Simon, son of John, do you love me with your whole heart, with all that you are, your whole soul more than these? Yes, Lord, You know that I have affection for You." He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me with all that you are, with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength? Yes, Lord, You know that I have affection for You. But then listen to what Jesus says the third time. John tells us that he said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you have affection for me? Jesus changes the word to what Peter has been using the whole time, and Peter was grieved because Jesus said to him the third time, do you have affection for me? Instead of that other kind of love. Peter says, Lord, you know all things. You know that I have affection for you. You know, I think Peter had come to the point where he, well, he just realized he was utterly humbled. He wasn't that great, proud Peter anymore. He was a broken man because of his experience. He had denied Jesus three times. He knew that he wasn't that great anymore. He knew that he had to be honest with himself. honest with His Lord, with Jesus, saying, Lord, I know what kind of love You want for me. I know You want me to love You with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. But Jesus, in and of Myself, this is all I have. All I have is this weak, imperfect love to give You a lesser love. I can't conjure up more than that in and of Myself. But what's incredible to me is that even though Peter responds in this way, what does Jesus do? He still says, feed my lambs. He still says, tend my sheep. He still says, feed my sheep. You see, Jesus is about the business of using imperfect and weak and flawed people to carry out His purposes on the earth. Even people like Peter. who had this weak faith, who had this failing, this falling, even though he thought himself unworthy, Jesus says, Peter, you were with Me and I am with you. You can do this. Even if you have an imperfect love for Me, Peter, I will still be with you and use you in an incredible way in My kingdom. And I don't know about you, but this brings me great comfort. Because when I look at my own heart and think about my love for Jesus. It's not what I want it to be. I often find a weak love. I don't love Him perfectly. There are so many times in my life when my love for Him is so weak, so broken, so failing, and yet Jesus calls Peter to continue to live for Him, to serve Him, even to suffer for Him despite that. And the same is true for me, and the same is true for you. How wonderful it is to have this Jesus as your Lord. The one who loves you so much to continue working with you, using you, even when you're weak and broken. A love for Christ, even a weak love for Christ, motivates a life for Jesus Christ. Well, thirdly and finally, the sovereignty of Jesus over our lives. Look at verses 20 through 23. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, following them the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? And when Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? And Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. And so the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not going to die. Jesus did not say to him that he was not going to die, but if I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" Well, after Jesus tells Peter about his fate, Peter turns around and notices John following behind them, and interested in the destiny of his close, intimate friend, Peter says and asks, Jesus, what about him? What about John? What's going to happen to John? You said that I'm going to have my arms stretched out. You said that I'm going to die for you. What's going to happen to John? And Jesus says, don't worry about John. Just worry about what I have called you to do. You follow me. Jesus said, if I will that he remains till I come, so be it. Essentially, it's no matter to you, Peter. But in saying that, there was obviously some misunderstanding among Peter and the other disciples. They thought Jesus meant that John was going to live and remain until Jesus returned from heaven. And I find this hysterical. It was so common that John, in his gospel, actually has to correct it. And he gives this corrective statement at the end of his gospel here, saying, no, no, no, no, I'm not gonna live until Jesus comes back again. And we know that John dies. But it is interesting, isn't it, that John did get to see Jesus come again in a way? It was to John that God gave the revelation of Jesus Christ and the vision of him coming again in glory. So, in a way, John did live and remain until Jesus came again. At least he got to see the picture of it anyway. But notice that Jesus says, if I will that he remain. Jesus is expressing his sovereign determination over John's destiny. Jesus is the one who orchestrates John's life. Jesus is the one who controls everything that happens in his life and even controls the end of his life. Jesus is the one who will take him out of this world. It's to Jesus that's given the keys of all things, of death and Hades and hell. He has that power over the grave. He's risen from the dead. He controls the beginning, the middle, and end of our lives. Jesus orchestrates Peter's life to his very death on the cross, and he controls John's life, and he controls your life, and he controls my life. Jesus orchestrates your life. He's sovereign over it. Everything that comes into your life comes from the hand of Jesus Christ for your good. It all comes from Him. And I pray that that is a comfort to you as you think about your life and what you experience in your life. When your life doesn't go the way that you thought it would, or you planned it to go a particular way, and yet it takes such a sharp turn in another direction, in a place, in a direction that you hadn't even conceived or thought was possible. And yet you find yourself there and it seems like such a disaster to you. Not so in the mind and heart of Jesus. The One who does all things well, even your life. And so friends, trust that Jesus is exercising His sovereign dominion and determination over your life, working all things together for good for you who love Him and are called according to His purposes. The excitement and serenity of Jesus' presence, a love for Christ, motivates a life for Christ, and the sovereignty of Jesus over our lives. Three things that you can draw from this passage. But not just three things in this passage. There's a whole lot more to be seen in this one chapter, let alone the rest of the Gospel and the rest of Scriptures. It's amazing, isn't it, that 2,000 years later, books are still being written about the Word of God to express and expound the Word of God, trying to explain who Jesus is and the magnitude of what Jesus has done? Is it any wonder that John closes his Gospel saying, now there were also many other things that Jesus did, were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books. that would be written. Friends, I don't think that's hyperbole. I don't think that's an exaggeration. Because really, how do we finite creatures, living in a finite world, try to record and quantify all of who Jesus Christ is and the magnitude of what Jesus has done? To reconcile us and the world, all things to himself. We can't do it. There would not be enough space in the world to record who Jesus is and the magnitude of what he has done for you, which is why you would need something like eternity to reflect on all that Jesus has done. And friends, you will have eternity to plumb the depths of your Savior, Jesus Christ, because he is raised from the dead and he will raise you up as well. And you will be reunited to your Lord in glory. and you will spend all of your days reflecting on the beauty and glory of this risen Savior, and you will never, ever get tired of it. What a wonderful hope we have in the risen Savior, Jesus Christ. We will never cease learning of His glory. Praise be to God. Let's pray. Our Lord in Heaven, we thank You so much for all that you have accomplished for us through Jesus Christ. And we thank you for this Jesus. This Jesus that we have been reflecting on over the last several weeks. This precious Savior, the one who loves His people so much and so well, who is so acquainted with them and is so concerned for them, so concerned for us. We thank you for this Savior, this kind and glorious Shepherd. Fill our hearts with love for Him. Increase and strengthen our weak love for Him. And may we rest in Him as we walk after Him all the days of our lives into eternity. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.