Fireworks in Reverse - Breakthrough Faith

Let me uh let me just begin a little bit.

We're gonna look at at what we've looked at some different books of the Bible over the years We've been in Exodus and we've been in Ezra and people wait for Ezra?

What's in Ezra?

And then we did that and we've done some small books of the Bible.

We are taking on.

Perhaps the favorite book of more people in the Bible, because it's God's fault for the last six months That is where I have been living is walking around in the chapters of this book.

And some of you already know where we're going, but uh first of all let me let me just talk to you about places you have been that you would say had a breathtaking view.

Now some of you had a chance to travel a little bit.

Tell me about a beautiful breathtaking view.

Where was it?

What comes to mind when I say unforgettable view?

Rio de Janeiro.

Oh boy.

I was going to say Bayonne, New Jersey, and I don't want to say what's that?

Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon.

More of us have probably been there.

Where else?

Where?

No Cap Mountains in Alaska.

Oh boy, see some of us, this is a little exotic for some of us, but what's the name of the mountains?

Snow capped.

Snow capped.

Oh the snow cap's the official name.

The snow capped monster.

I think I've seen that.

And uh w what 's another breathtaking view, Connie?

Well the Flathead Rest.

The Flathead Reservation in Montana.

We've seen some pretty cool stuff on some reservations.

Well, I remember uh one of the, you know, I I was a big deal for a kid from Chicago.

I was meeting the lady that I want to introduce to you right now.

And I'm going to tell you a story about her in a minute.

But first, I have had the privilege to do life with the woman God picked out for me. and who's played such a was was key in the starting on Eagle's Wings.

It was a dream in many ways born in her heart.

And this whole ministry doesn't really exist humanly speaking. speaking without the wonderful partner.

And I want you to meet for those of you who have had not, I want you to meet those that she is known affectionately to our native young people as Mama Hutch.

You should not call her that, uh, but you can call her Karen.

That's okay, you don't mind.

I want you to meet my wife, Karen, right here.

Because I'm gonna tell a story about her When we were in Chicago going to Moody, we had uh the tallest building then in Chicago. was the actually the the top of a barn.

No, the the tallest building back then.

It was a long time ago.

The tallest building was the prudential building.

Now it's dwarfed on the Chicago skyline.

But we went up there for a date.

I never could afford much.

We were poor college students, especially the Moody students are poor.

And we went up to the top of the prudential building. and and I got this beautiful view of Chicago.

I knew the neighborhoods pretty well.

I worked with young people in the neighborhoods, but it was really neat to go up there and kind of get this kind of beautiful Chicago from upide.

I was so moved by the view up there That I decided that might be a good time to try to give Karen something I hadn't given her before.

A handshake.

No, uh it was uh I was gonna kiss her.

Is this okay if I tell this any?

It's a little late now.

There's no turning back.

Okay.

Karen, God bless you.

And this is one her name means pure and she lives she's always lived up to it.

And she had made a standard that she said, I'm never going to kiss a guy till I know him well enough to love him and love him well enough to spend the rest of my life. with him.

I was hoping we were sort of at that point, so I must tell you I turned and I kissed her right next to her lips.

I didn't miss, that was intentional.

And she just very sweetly turned and went and moved it back to her cheek.

Apparently we did not have the same view from the Prudential Building.

We saw things a little differently from up there.

But uh so that's my that's my beautiful view.

And then we then New York.

Now before the World Trade Center was tragically removed from the New York skyline, we were there with people many times.

And uh we when you go up, when you're down in the neighborhoods of New York, it could be a pretty gritty, grimy, even dangerous place.

But when you get up there and you can see this panoramic view and all the cars are so small and the people are so small and even the Empire State Building looks a little small from there.

And you would see now the Liberty Tower is there, and I'm sure you can have the same experience and you go out one window and there's New York Harbor going out to the ocean and Lady Liberty is there and you look over to Queens and the Bronx and Brooklyn and And uh see all it's just it's a it's a commanding view.

But then that's nothing compared to what the first astronauts got When the astronauts went to the moon, Buzz Aldrin said that they were about halfway to the moon in orbit, and he took his thumb.

And he put it over the window and he said the earth disappeared.

We're such a big deal, aren't we?

He said it was like a thumbprint from just in orbit, not even to our moon yet in a hundred million galaxies.

Now we've got the Hubble telescope.

Now most of us have not seen that view up close, but we've seen it on the IMAX screen or somewhere. and now we have we've got a whole commanding view and it just it gives you a whole new perspective.

What God's word does for us and what it is about to do for us this weekend and what it's been doing for me tremendously the past few months.

It's giving us, lifting us out of some of the things Brad talked about.

It is a disturbing world we are in right now.

There is a moral earthquake going on that we never could have imagined.

It is so politically disillusioning.

Look at the anger and disillusionment in our own country.

It is a tinderbox politically.

Who knows where it goes?

Nobody can make everybody's predictions have been wrong so far.

And you look at the fact that Israel seems more surrounded and embattled than it has in in a long, long time.

And you those of us who watch it through the lens of God's word and prophecy, I keep saying to Karen, just watch the news from the Middle East.

That's the news that really matters, is the news from the Middle East.

And that is more and more troubling.

Terrorism and violence and and uh brutality that we never could have imagined in our lifetime.

But then you get into God's word and what happens is you begin to be taken up to a very high view where you get a view.

That makes big things that seem so big look a lot smaller and changes your perspective on so many things and it lifts you above and for you personally We are going to take a trip on the the express elevator to the top floor right now to take a look at our lives and take a look at our future and take a look at our planet and to take a look at your family From that high view where we're above the mayhem and the noise and the violence to a cosmic view.

It changes everything.

You see in your notes, the ultimate big picture, the breathtaking agenda of God for this planet, for creation, for our lives.

We'll get this book is all about that, and you'll see that.

As we look at it, what I consider to be a key verse in understanding it It is like rocket fuel that takes a rocket as a Christian that may have gone to the first stage and the second stage, but this is the rocket fuel that will take you for the rest of your life to the third stage that takes you into the orbit we were all meant to live by live by live in since Jesus died for us.

I call it the glory road.

And it's in one of the most beloved books of the Bible, with some of the greatest statements in the entire Word of God.

I am sure you know at least one verse from the Gospel of John. 21 amazing chapters that have changed so many lives.

Think about the pro the statements that are like anchors for Christians around the world for centuries.

John 3. 16, you know, that's the one we know so well.

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

How about he must increase and I must decrease?

That's the Gospel of John.

How about you will know the truth?

Say the rest of it with me.

Truth will set you free, right out of the book of John.

You've heard it at how many funerals.

I am the resurrection and the life.

He who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Though he were dead, yet he shall live.

That's the gospel of John.

By this will all men know that you are my disciples.

That you go to more meetings than anybody else.

No.

That you have Love one to another, that's exactly right.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father except through me.

Gospel of John Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends, the Gospel of John.

It is amazing, so rich, but we are going to find a key.

That will lift us, perhaps, from to a view we have never seen before, which is the agenda of the Apostle John.

Now I have to tell you, I have lived with this book a long time.

When I was in high school, Youth for Christ had a very Actually, Time magazine wrote about it.

Program, a Bible quiz program.

And there were tens of thousands of teenagers involved in studying whole books of the Bible And uh we have a couple former Bible quizzers here in the room, and I am one of them.

And I had the privilege, uh in those days now we had it was a little harder to study the Bible on the stone tablets.

It was very heavy carrying those things around.

But we studied the Gospel of John the year that I knew every verse in the Gospel of John by the end of the year.

That's the only way that our team made it to the the state finals and the regional finals and all the way to the national championship.

There were 10,000 people there for the national champion thing broadcast on radio.

It was a big deal.

I was 16 years old And we had the privilege to win the national championship that year.

I had the privilege to be the captain of that team.

And uh Jim Whitmer was on a team earlier than that.

No, you all after that.

Wait, Jim, that's not fair.

No, that's not fair.

Yeah, he was many years later, of course.

And uh Georgia, where's Georgia?

Georgia, where are you sitting?

Georgia was a Bible quizard back then.

Um do we have this is this is unbelievable.

I've only seen this once.

And uh if you will keep an eye on the fat boy number three On the s at that time the St.

Louis team, uh I don't even remember exactly what this looks like, but I know that we have dug it out of the archives.

There we are.

Question number three, St.

Louis.

Well what did the soldiers cast lots?

Jesus Garment Right.

Oh my heaven.

You had to finish the question.

So they go whoa and you feel wa you know who who did God so love?

I you know, you said to know it so well you could even finish the question Well, I knew the book of John in my head.

I knew every verse in the book of John at one time But man alive, I had no idea what that would do to my heart.

And what it's done even in the last few months.

So a guy with a head full of the book of John comes to you with a heartful of the book of John at this retreat.

I have a friend who had a friend, he's in heaven now, but he was head of the uh of an International Bible Society, and he said that one of their Bible distributors in Africa, a guy, actually named Zimbabwe, they named the whole country after him.

But he was a Bible distributor, and their plan was that they didn't just give the Bibles away.

They made people pay a small amount so they would value it.

And he tried to sell it to this guy, and the guy said, I'll tell you what.

He said, I want to buy one.

He said, okay, I'll give it to you.

And the guy said, well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to be honest with you.

If I have a Bible, I'll smoke it.

Because the paper turned out to be perfect for rolling cigarettes.

The guy said, I'll tell you what, the Bible distributors said, the bow boy said to him, I'll tell you what, if you will agree to read it before you smoke it This is a fairly unusual way to get a Bible.

I will I will uh I will give it to you.

The guy said it's a deal, I will.

He sees the guy a few weeks later.

Guy comes back to Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe says, you've been reading the Bible?

He says, yep.

He said I read Matthew and I smoked it.

I said, I read Mark.

I smoked it.

I read Luke.

You want to finish it?

I smoked it.

He said, and then I read John 3.

16.

And I haven't smoked since.

And that man came to Christ.

He got as far as John 3. 16, and his life was changed.

That's how far Bill Hadley got.

Bill Hadley was a hopeless drunk, even though he had a great job as a telegrapher back in his day.

The equivalent of having a great computer specialty job.

Bill Hadley had a praying mother, but man, it looked like her prayers would never be answered.

He got so desperate for alcohol, an alcoholic from the age of ten, when they started to give it to him at the little store he would go to. for his mom and the boys would have such fun watching him lap it up like a kitty.

Eventually he was in prison he learned about cocaine because he committed a federal crime, robbing a post office.

They said you need to try cocaine.

You got the shakes.

He dug the fillings out of his teeth to buy cocaine Finally, out of prison, downtown Chicago, walking along South State Street.

He's headed for Lake Michigan to drown himself or potentially Just stand in front of an Illinois Central Train until it runs over him and kills him.

He will die that night.

He walks past Pacific Guard mission.

And he hears a song coming out.

I think he may have recognized it from something his mother used to sing when he was little.

And someone came out, one of the personal workers invited them in, and she started to quote John 3.

16.

Somewhere in his memory banks, he finished it for her.

And that night he gave his life to Christ.

He said, I am not a reformed alcoholic.

He said, I am transformed.

Never alcohol, never drugs again.

Went to work at Moody Bible Institute, ended up having a little church on wheels with his wife, traveling across the country, even to Indian reservations.

My wife and I have been. to and I'm so glad he came to Christ that night because he's my wife's grandfather and there's no caring but for God intervening in his life with for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

Take a look at this picture.

This is the little church on wheels, and that's the little baby I married.

And that's her mama and daddy.

For God so loved the world.

He went across the country preaching the good news that he found in the Gospel of John.

The Gospel of John is unlike any other of the four Gospels.

There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

But John is very different.

There's no Bethlehem, there's no manger, there's no transfiguration, there's no parables.

There are eight miracles in the book of John.

But only one is on in the other gospels.

Seven of them only are in the Gospel of John.

The only one that's in all the four Gospels is the feeding of the 5,000, which we will touch on tomorrow morning.

No, we're not going to do it.

I mean we're going to, yeah, we won't, no, we don't, with that over there, I don't think so.

And uh John is, here's here's how it's a different gospel.

When Matthew writes, Matthew's writing for Jews.

Each one of these Gospels is trying to introduce Jesus, who's new to the world, to a different part of the world.

So Matthew writes the stuff that the Jews would care about, like genealogies and all of that.

And then Mark is writing for the Romans.

And so if you notice, Mark is very fast-paced.

The key word is immediately.

Everything's happening, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, for the fast-paced Roman Empire.

Luke, the Greek, the only non-Jew writing in the Bible, Luke is writing for the Greeks, the scholars, the philosophers.

John is writing for the whole world.

And he says that.

He is introducing Jesus and including what he thinks is important for the whole world to know about Jesus.

In fact, one-third of the Gospel of John is devoted to the last 24 hours of Jesus' life.

There's a lot he doesn't include.

He was the last one to write.

So he knew what a lot of the other guys had written about.

But he was the one that was going to let people know who was behind all of these events and who this Jesus was.

Here's the world he was writing for.

It won't sound familiar to you at all.

It was a world where people were pretty clueless about Jesus. knew little or nothing about him, and if they didn't know about him, they had wrong ideas about him.

It was a world that was increasingly hostile toward this new group called Christians In fact, John wrote this book, wrote his last book, Revelation, in exile, because of Domitian the Emperor, who was demanding he was God and everyone would worship him.

So he is writing at the time also, Christianity has been around just long enough.

Jesus has been gone for about 60 years now.

And the in these and it's been around just long enough, there's already bad ideas growing.

And people in using the Bible are beginning within the Christian community. to come up with some pretty unbiblical ideas.

Now again, nothing here that sounds anything like our world today, right?

But that's the world he is writing to.

That's the book he is writing for those kinds of people.

You'll notice in the book of John, when there's a Jewish custom, he explains it.

The other writers don't do that.

It's like I'm not assuming you know what I'm talking about.

Passover, and so on, and so forth.

So he explains it.

Now, John is also an author, your notes say this, like no other author in the Bible.

He's the youngest disciple.

Some think he may have even been a teenager when he started to follow Jesus.

He is the last one to die.

He's the only one to die a natural death.

He's the only one who lives to be an old man.

So he has the long-range perspective.

He is Jesus' first cousin.

He's family.

Mary's sister was Salome.

And John's mother , that was John's mother, wife of Zebedee.

They had fairly a fairly apparently fairly profitable fishing. business, which John left to follow Jesus.

And so he is Jesus' first cousin.

He is the one to whom Jesus entrusts the care of his mother from the cross John 's a fascinating figure, and unlike any of the other Bible authors, he's the only disciple to write five books of the Bible.

As you know, John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation.

And he is the only one of the disciples who watches Jesus die.

The rest are gone somewhere.

Only is it any wonder then that his gospel, one-third of it, is devoted to the last 24 hours of Jesus' life Because he saw it.

And you'll be able to see in any of the things that he writes, even the book of Revelation, he has never gotten the memory.

Of the cross.

For him, it is not something he heard about.

It is something he saw to the very end.

He's the only one who heard the words.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

He's the only one who heard, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

He's the only one of the disciples who heard it is finished.

Only John.

He's our author.

So this is a book like no other.

And John's introduction, look in your notes, to the great agenda of God is summarized.

In five little words.

We're going to go to John 1.

14.

John 1.

14.

The word, and we've now heard it from John, he starts right out.

Like I said, no baby in Bethlehem, no three kings, no shepherds.

He just says, in the beginning was the word, the expression of everything God is.

The word was with God, and the word was God.

There's nothing that was created.

It wasn't created through him.

Now the word, the creator of everything, became flesh. and made his dwelling among us.

And that um that little word made his dwelling in the Greek means literally lived in a tempt.

Pitched a tent in our world.

He wouldn't have a home because he wasn't here forever, but he pitched a tent in our world.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

As John introduces Jesus To a lost world, to a clueless world, to a hostile world.

He says, what I want you to know about Jesus is he was grace.

He was truth wrapped in grace.

Did you get that?

Jesus was truth.

Wrapped in grace.

By the way, that's what he expects us to be.

Don't you get a little tired of hearing angry Christians all the time who may be speaking the truth, but where's the grace?

Those of us who follow Jesus are to also be truth wrapped in grace, never giving up the truth because of grace.

And never giving up being giving grace to people because of truth.

We don't get to choose.

Jesus was full of grace, and he was full of truth.

But now the five little words and you saw, let's go back to the scripture, John 1.

14.

After he has dwelt made his dwelling among us, I want you to read the next five words with me out loud.

We have seen his glory.

Now we're gonna we're gonna do this like that is an amazing statement.

Oh it is Let's say it again.

We have seen his glory.

John says, I have seen the glory of the one and only Son of God Listen, when you go to the fireworks displays on the 4th of July, it's amazing.

I mean you ever see what they come from?

It 's a little package.

I mean it's like you would never believe what's going to come out of that package.

And they detonate this little package and it becomes a splendoriferous Colorful, amazing.

Ooh, ah, you can hear it.

Ooh, ah, you know, it's displayed.

Jesus is fireworks in reverse He is all the splendor and all the glory of the God of the cosmos, the creator of a hundred billion galaxies, pepped into a Jewish baby.

Pecked into a man on a cross, walking around, loving, crying, calling.

He has fireworks, God's fireworks in reverse.

And I said, God, show me a key to this book of John that I have been in.

And he said, Ron, it is the book that will help us see his glory.

John says, I have seen his glory and I want you to, and I want everybody in the world to know the glory of Jesus, because if they could see him, they would run to him.

And they would understand what they could be if they were full of his glory.

We have seen his glory.

The words glory or glorify are used 42 times in the book of John.

You know what word is used 43 times?

Believe.

That's the other key word Put those two together and John is the only one who wrote a gospel where he actually told you his mission in writing it.

He actually tells you why he wrote the book.

You gotta get to the end.

It's like get to the end to see that, oh that's what you're up to John 20, 31.

He said, I've written these things that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

And then by believing, You will have life through his name.

He's saying if you could ever see his glory, you will believe in him.

The only reason you would not believe in him is you've not seen his glory.

But I'm going to suggest to you that you could follow Jesus your whole life and not really have seen his glory.

And John wrote his gospel so we could take a trip into the glory of Jesus and have our lives changed like his was once forevermore.

So realize John is less about the story.

And more about what?

The glory.

It's less about the story.

And more about the glory.

And John writes a book so we can see his glory for Jesus is so much more than we have ever imagined.

Mount Palomar, they say sometimes at the observatory there and looking through their their huge telescopes, they sometimes have trouble picking out the constellations because of the lights of LA and San Diego and the West Coast.

And the lights of earth are blinding them, obscuring.

Glory of what's out there.

That happens to us.

And as believers in Jesus, we got it cognitively.

This is not a cognitive issue.

We got it right.

But have we been blown away?

Is Jesus something emotional, passionate, overwhelming for us?

That's what happens to you when you touch his glory.

One author said, glory is the dazzling, jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring showcase of God to a world that has been darkened by sin.

So we're going to take the elevator to the top floor.

You ever been in some of those the some of the tallest buildings in the world?

You ever been in those elevators?

You think your ears are going to explode?

You're like, I was just at 30 Rock in New York last year and I mean the elevator is like supersonic and suddenly you've gone from ground floor to this fantastic view.

We're going to take the Gospel of John elevator to the top floor where the view changes. how everything looks.

You know, as we read the Gospel of John, you know where the glory of Christ shows up best?

Not church.

Glory of Christ seems to show up in everyday places.

That's the place he shows off.

A well.

A wedding reception.

A festival.

That's where we see the that's where we're going to see his glory.

Oh, and that also shows up best against the dark backdrop Because John says it shows us the glory of Christ.

Not where you'd expect to find it.

You find it in the cemetery.

We're going to see the glory of Christ in the cemetery.

And the glory of Christ on a bloody Roman cross.

The glory of Christ is at its brightest in the darkest places in Roman. life.

Were any of you alive when 3D movies first came out?

Any of you that you want to admit that?

You remember the crazy glasses, the with the goofy plastic glasses?

You don't remember.

Don't look at me like that You you you know some of you know about those.

They're back, they came back, didn't they?

I think there were in some other 3D movies.

All I know is I went to a movie my parents should have never let me see as a little kid.

It was a scary movie.

But I I never had the monster jump into my lap.

I mean this was this was a scary thing.

You put on those glasses and you you saw things in a way you never saw.

I take them off and the monster was staying on this screen.

He would jump into my seat when I was wearing the 3D glasses.

In a way the Gospel of John is 4D glasses.

To be able to put them on and see Jesus in a way we may have never seen him before.

And when you do, you'll see yourself and the things in your life as you've never seen them before.

The book of John is the glory scope.

I want to take a glory tour.

And I will tell you what will happen.

It lifts you out of whatever immediate stuff you're thinking about right now.

And it links you into the eternal.

And when you see the events of your life against the eternity backdrop, they're never the same again.

So you see in your notes the supernatural effects of seeing the glory of Christ.

Here's some of the things we can look forward to.

When we talk about miracles tomorrow morning, you cannot talk about the book of John without talking about miracles.

Before you leave tomorrow morning, you will know the three kinds of miracles that there are.

And it will explain so much in your life.

But we're going to see some of the amazing possibilities if we understand the glory of Christ.

And how you could have some personal miracles you maybe are that close to having.

We don't know how to get prayer answered.

When you see the glory of Christ, you figure out, you find out how you can be a go-to person that everybody you know trusts you and looks to you.

We're going to find out how to have joy through the hard times and how you can live your life calling for whatever life you have left.

Now here's here's the the supernatural effects.

Number one, you're overwhelmed by his glory.

When you see his glory, you're overwhelmed by it.

In Exodus chapter 40, here's what happens.

A few times in the Old Testament, the glory of God comes down.

The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Moses could not enter the Ten of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

In other words, when the glory of the Lord came, there wasn't room for anything else.

Moses couldn't even go in.

The glory of the Lord, when you have it, when you see it, when you touch it regularly, absolutely pushes out everything else It is overwhelming.

1 Kings chapter 8 verse 11.

Now when the temple is built and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, we were sorry, we didn't show up for work today.

Why?

The cloud?

The glory of the Lord took over.

This, when you see his glory, it takes over.

And there's no part of you that isn't his.

No compartments.

Everything revolves around him.

Colossians 1.

18.

All things were created by him and for him.

There's something consuming. about the glory of Christ.

Let me just show you one example of it in the book of John.

What happens with his glory?

I happen to think this is an important amusing part of scripture.

Let's go to John 18.

So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers.

And some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees.

Now look, we have got a whole military detachment to come and arrest one guy.

They are carrying torches.

They are carrying lanterns.

They are carrying weapons.

Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them.

Who is it you want?

Jesus of Nazareth, they replied.

I am he, Jesus. said.

Judas a traitor was standing there with him.

Now Jesus says three words, I am he.

When Jesus said I am he They drew back and fell to the ground.

We've got a whole detachment of soldiers.

Jesus just goes, I'm him.

Boom!

They're down.

That's the power of the glory of Christ.

That's the power of the authority of Christ.

That literally a whole detachment of soldiers is on the ground because he just says, I'm he.

Three words, boom, they're gone.

The Bible says wherever Jesus goes, the demons fall down.

They know the glory of Christ.

Secondly, you're not only overwhelmed by his glory, you're launched by his glory.

What I mean by that is that's how you begin your day.

You begin your day.

Moving out of the junk and out of the grime and out of the stress and out of the relative trivia compared to his glory and you move into the tent of meeting and you touch His glory before you touch your day.

You touch his glory before you touch your day. and it changes your day big time.

Ezekiel, or Exodus 33.

Exodus 33.

As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud wouldn't come down and stayed at the entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses.

Whenever the people saw the pillar of clouds standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped.

Each at the imagine they're all like, wow, Moses is touching the glory right now.

Each at the entrance to his tent.

And the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend.

Moses would return to the camp, but his young age Joshua son of Nan did not leave the tent.

He couldn't even leave the glory.

It was so magnetic.

So you see that that there is this this Moses the leader of these people the only way he can pull it off is if he go in and it goes in and touches the glory in the morning.

That's the only way you can pull off your day.

If you abask in let Jesus happen to you.

Not facts about Jesus, not information, but a deeply moving experience with him.

It changes everything.

Thirdly, you reflect the glory.

This is exciting.

Look at this.

You reflect his glory when you actually see the glory of Christ, you start to reflect him.

Look at this from from Corinthians.

And we who with unveiled faces, referring back to Moses coming down off the mountain with the glory of God, who with unveiled faces all what's those words say read them out loud reflect the Lord's We reflect we reflect the Lord's glory you know people who have spent a lot of time touching the glory of Jesus.

And they radiate him.

And there is a love, and there is an authority, and there is a power, and they're reflecting.

You hang out with Jesus and you start to glow like he does.

You start to radiate as he does.

You reflect his glory.

Spiritually radiated, you come out carrying his glow with you.

You know what happens?

You know how you can tell these people?

When you're with them, they make you feel like Jesus would make you feel.

That's what happens.

You make people feel like Jesus would make them feel in that same situation because you've touched the glory and the glory has touched you.

Timothy Keller has said very powerfully in his book on prayer, if the beauty, this is very powerful, if the beauty and glory of Christ do not capture our imaginations , dominate our waking thought.

Now think, does that describe you?

The glory of Christ dominates your thinking.

It's pretty much what you evolve around all day long, then something else will.

And He said, we will be continually ruminating on something or some things as our hope and joy.

Whatever those things are, they will frame our souls and transform us into their likeness.

If we don't behold the glory of God in the face of Christ, something else will rule our lives.

We will be slaves.

I'm not interested in your theology at this point, not interested in the meetings you go to, or your Christian reputation.

The point is whatever possesses your thinking most of the day will shape you.

You see it in your notes.

Whatever dominates our heart and mind transforms us into our image.

And if you are fixated, if you are obsessed with, if you are overwhelmed with Jesus, you will become like him.

You will become like whatever you spend your thinking time on.

Whatever you whatever is your if you if you worry all the time, if you're negative all the time.

If you're stressed all the time, if you're thinking about other people all the time, that's what will shape you.

You will become like that.

You'll become dark.

You will become bitter.

You will become frustrated.

You will become stressed.

Because you will become like what you spend time with.

Last of all, you reflect this, and when you see the effects of the glory of Christ, you spread his glory.

You spread his glory.

I have Isaiah.

Remember what happened to Isaiah?

Now I'm going to tell you a secret, I bet you didn't know about Isaiah.

You've heard this, somebody's preached on this, you've heard it In the year the king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Let me tell you what John shows us.

John tells us in John chapter 12, Isaiah saw Jesus' glory and spoke of him.

Isaiah had no idea what he was seeing.

He was seeing the glory of God.

He was seeing the glory of the Son of God 700 years before he came as a baby to Bethlehem.

So what this passage, every time you hear this passage, now realize this is Jesus.

This is your Jesus.

This is the Son of God, seated on a throne, high and exalted, the train of his robe.

Here we go again, fill the temple.

It's overwhelming.

What's the what where does this end up with Isaiah?

Let's go a few verses in.

I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?

And I said, here am I, send me.

He said, go and tell this people.

You know, earlier in the chapter, Isaiah says, I have seen the Lord, the king all the king, the Lord Almighty.

And God says, well, you're surrounded by people who haven't.

You've touched the glory.

Now give them a chance.

You spread his glory.

It's contagious.

How many of you know somebody who has been pretty hard to reach for Jesus.

They got they're pretty w not they're not they're not there yet.

And you pray for them.

Anybody got somebody in your life like that?

Like this is taking a while on this one.

I I sometimes wonder if they ever will.

Do you know somebody like I hope you do know somebody like that Can I tell you why they haven't come to Jesus yet?

2 Corinthians 4. 4 will tell you the devil's strategy to keep people from the one who will keep them out of hell.

2 Corinthians 4.

4.

The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

They are blind.

Now in just a minute, I'm going to ask you a question.

I'm going to ask you what you were blinded by before you came to Jesus.

What blinded you to him?

You're on the happy side of it today.

Would you have to get past?

Okay.

So they cannot see.

Read this out loud with me.

The light of the gospel of what?

The glory of Christ.

We have seen his glory.

He says, I can't let them see his glory.

If they see his glory, I've lost them.

So I will I don't care if they want Jesus the baby in Bethlehem, little baby, that's fine.

Sing all the Christmas carols you want.

I don't care if they believe in Jesus, the great teacher, the great prophet, the founder of the Christian religion.

I don't care if they go to church every week to a church that's all about Jesus.

I just don't want them to see his glory.

If they see who he is, I've lost them.

John said, I'm writing about him, so you'll see his glory, and you will believe in him.

You will run to him if you know who he is.

So the primary strategy to keep people lost is to never let them see the glory of Christ.

And it's up to us to live in such a way that they see it.

How you doing?

Before you came to Jesus, what did the devil use to blind you?

you his in his motto is anything but jesus i don't care anything but jesus what blinded you before you came let's get some answers what blinded you just going Church, isn't that interesting?

That probably that's one of his greatest finders.

Church, thinking you got it.

This must be it, right?

Bill?

Money.

Money.

Yep.

Spoken like a banker for sure That's somebody else's money, bro.

Okay, what else?

What blinded you?

Activity.

Activity.

Activity.

Just busy.

Yep.

What else?

Selfishness.

Selfishness.

What blinded you?

You'd have come to Jesus sooner, except you were blinded by pride.

Pride.

Pride, how did pride keep you from him?

Who said that?

I did.

Oh yeah, that's what I thought.

Well, how did pride keep you from?

Wanting to build yourself up before a man Okay.

It might matter more much more to you what people thought of you.

Yeah, God's opinion of you didn't matter much.

Anybody else, what were you blinded by?

What?

Fear a man and what they would think.

Now, think about some people you know who don't know Jesus, maybe family members, maybe friends or co-workers.

What do you think is blinding them?

How has the devil got them so they're not looking at Jesus?

What's finding them?

Christ doesn't work for life and raised the world 's right.

Many times a Christian is the is the word he's using the blind, isn't it?

interesting and sobering for us huh?

What else?

What's your use of blind lost people?

Science.

What?

Science, yeah.

That's big.

That's right.

What else?

Their own pain.

Their own pain.

That's right.

They're focused on their pain.

And they can't see Jesus for all of that.

In fact, they may blame God for it.

Well remember this.

Our job is not to change their lifestyle.

Our job is not to condemn them.

Our job is not to get them to go to our church.

Our job is that they can see and hear from from you how unbelievably breathtaking Jesus is.

John 20, 30 and 31, if you can ever see how amazing Jesus really is, you'll believe.

And if you can begin to grasp and live the awesomeness of your savior, you can live bigger and bolder than you've ever lived before.

I went to a an Air Force base and did some outreach there a few years ago.

They sent me to Minot, North Dakota.

In the winter.

How do you get guys psyched about being at the Minot Air Force?

I forget the temperature.

I didn't even want to know.

Oh, I think they said warm today.

I saw the front page of paper.

It was warm today.

It was gonna be 20 It's gonna be a warm day there.

Just sweat it out.

Wore shorts.

They take guys off the off the uh, they said they take them off the flight line at 80 below windshield.

That's merciful.

Well, they have a sign.

Only the best come north.

Yeah, right.

I'm sure the guys must say, yeah, right, thank you.

Well While I was there, I had the opportunity.

The assistant commander of the base was uh was a Christian guy.

He took me all over and he showed me the we drove past farms and I'd see this this field and he'd go, that's one of the missiles I just look, I see cows and a field.

But you know, they're underground silos.

And uh, and and and there was just a little You can see if you walked over there, you see a little concrete dome there.

And underneath that in the ground was a nuclear-tipped missile ready to go.

And I said, um, I just look I'm a I'm a civvy, I don't really understand all this.

How do you get the missile out of there?

Because it's got these tons, I forget how many tons of concrete over the top of it.

It's on this farmer's land, all the cows are around it.

He said, well, we detonate explosives, we blow that lid off, and then it can go on its mission.

I'm just trying to picture this.

Blow the lid off.

Whoop!

Whoa!

Can you just see the cows?

I mean it's gonna be buttermilk from there on.

Man!

And that rocket taking off out of there.

I just and I thought, you know what?

This is so what happens when you understand understand the glory of the Christ you belong to because it blows the lid off so you can finally fulfill for the rest of your life the mission you were put here for and be all you were created to be. be to be as it says in the return of the king, go and become all you were born to be.

That's what the book of John is about.

You know, um I'm gonna dare to ask you this question.

Is your Jesus too small?

If you've been having spiritual blaz lately, you're going through the motions and you're doing all the right things.

You still believe all something wrong?

It just isn't exciting anymore.

The fire's not there like it was.

It's more official.

Practiced.

Routine.

Christian Groove, you need to touch the glory.

And you will.

As we walk down the glory road with you Apostle John.

John 14, 12, when I said about blowing the lid off your life, look at what Jesus said to the men who said, we have seen his glory.

Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.

He will do even greater things than these, than Jesus did.

Jesus never preached a sermon, as far as we know, where 3,000 people came to him.

Peter did.

Even greater things than these, because I'm going to the Father.

Yeah, he can blow listen we're talking about supernaturalizing the rest of your life in a little I hope you're not content with where you are.

This is why your heart is restless.

For what happens when you touch the glory.

Now, what we'll look at in our time together is what I call six holy passions that are in the book of John to ignite your life.

I want to spend our last few minutes on first. the first passion and it's the place to begin.

Loving Jesus for his inconceivable sacrifice.

Nowhere will we see his glory like we do at the cross.

I have been introduced by lots of different people, lots of different places.

I always tell people saying they come up to me and they go, hey , I'm introducing you.

Like what is the hey part?

Brian, for example, tells people he was a teenager in my my my my youth club back in New Jersey.

That's great.

Just wheel them out.

Fresh from sunny acres, Ron is here with the special permission.

You have to be back in an hour and get back on oxygen again.

But I've been introduced a lot of different ways.

I've been Well, when I spoke for the New York Giants, we were talking about this over dinner.

This is crazy.

I go to speak for them when we I'd spoken a lot of times for them.

And they were in a stretch years ago where they had lost about 10 times in a row to the Cowboys.

Shh, quiet Texas people.

And just control yourself.

We're trying to be spiritual.

And I'm introduced by their chapel leaders who say, well, we're playing the Cowboys today, but we're glad we have our undefeated chapel speaker.

Those words should never go together.

What is an undefeated chapel speaker?

Crazy.

They won that day So, I mean I've been introduced a lot that was that was pretty rare.

That was a miracle right there.

And then I was introduced I remember when I was introduced to the high school assembly.

The principal just met me.

I guess.

He said, well, we have a guy who's going to talk today.

His name is uh Ron um Hutchhog.

So I mean there's a lot of different kind of introductions you get John the Baptist has the assignment from God to introduce the Son of God to the world.

Jesus has been largely in a private world for 30 years.

He comes to where John is baptizing. and John is going to introduce the Son of God, the visitor from not another planet, the visitor from heaven itself, how will he introduce him?

Ladies and gentlemen, the King of all kings, ladies and gentlemen, the Lord of all lords.

Ladies and gentlemen, the anointed Messiah has come.

Ladies and gentlemen, the ruler of the world and the ruler of the universe. has come.

His introduction of Jesus and his introduction to us is stunning.

No one could have ever expected how Jesus will be introduced in the book that's supposed to show us his glory.

John 1.

29.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look The Lamb.

Not the king.

Not the Savior.

Not the Messiah.

Look!

The Lamb.

The Lamb of God has a lamb.

Did you know that Look, God's Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world.

Remember, he's writing to the world.

Everybody's sin.

That word take away I row in the Greek means to pick something up, put it on yourself and carry it away.

It's used when Jesus says to the man who's been, it's in John, it's used again later when the guy's been 38 years at the pool waiting for somebody who wants to get healed, and he says, uh and Jesus says, pick up your mat.

And walk.

He says, pick it up, take it with you, and carry it away.

But this says Jesus will bear the most unbearable burden Ever conceived by man, and that is that the sins of billions and billions of humans.

He will pick them up and he will carry them himself.

And he will carry them away.

God's Lamb has come.

That's the introduction to the glory of Christ.

Not the king, the lamb.

And he will carry that crushing burden.

1 Peter 2.

24, Peter will tell us in his book, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. every dirty thing, every proud thing, every lying thing, every damaging thing, every murderous thing, every violent thing ever done, we might die to sins and live for righteousness by his wounds. have been healed.

Now this has a long history because if you're a Jew back then and you hear the lamb who takes away sin you know what that means because you just sacrificed one Last week at the temple.

You went there when they slit its throat and bled it out.

So for that period of time, you would not have to deal with the anger and the wrath of God for sin.

Go back with me to understand the Lamb of God to Mount Moriah, where Abraham has been asked to show his devotion to the Lamb of God the to the Lord by taking Isaac his son up, thinking he was going to sacrifice him.

And Isaac spoke up and said to his father his Abraham, Father, uh, yes my son, um the fire and wood are here.

But where?

Where's the aren't we missing something for a sacrifice?

Where's the lamb?

Where's the lamb?

For 2,000 years that question will hang.

Where is the lamb?

Where is the lamb?

Let's go on.

Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.

And the two of them went on together.

Now, he says to Abraham, you have not withheld your son, your only son, fast forward 2,000 years, to another part of Mount Moriah.

Col Golgotha.

The place of the skull.

The garbage dump of Jerusalem on the main road into the city.

And the question, where is the lamb?

God himself will provide.

God himself will provide the lamb, but there will be no substitute this time There will be no one to take the place of his son because no one can take the place of his son.

Let's go to Egypt's darkest night.

But before they are liberated, Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.

When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway.

He will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

And now we go fast forward to the New Testament and we go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

Look at the last part of the verse.

For Christ, our Passover Lamb.

Has been sacrificed and of course sacrificed for us.

You know, um, when Jesus dies on that hill, He is actually dying, standing dying on a mountain of lambs that have died over the centuries.

Back in the Old Testament, they said a lamb must be without defect, or don't bring him to God.

And they also said that the hand must be placed on the head of the lamb Before he is sacrificed.

Because before this lamb could be counted as an atonement for your sin, you had to appropriate that for yourself.

I must tell you this.

Our churches have sitting next to one another.

Jesus said wheat and weeds.

Over here is someone who knows all about Jesus. and does not know him, though they could answer every question about him.

They know all the beliefs.

He is in their head, and they think they know him because they've been around him so much, they must have osmoted him.

But until you have put your hand on the sacrifice, until you have gone to the cross where the Lamb of God is and said, For me , it took Thomas.

Three years of hearing every sermon, seeing every miracle, he still didn't get it.

Until he sees the wounds and says, my Lord, that's the word my.

It's possible.

In this group of wonderful Christian people, there is someone here who missed that personal appropriation.

Jesus said there would be people who preached in his name, who cast out demons in his name, who knew all the verses, and he will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you.

Are there any worse words in the Bible?

Depart from me.

I never knew you.

Great church people.

People surrounded by Jesus.

On a Friday night on the south side of Chicago, I went in a church.

I'm standing at the front of my church with my buddies, and one pretty girl after another comes up the center aisle.

There's only one I'm waiting for.

And there is Kieran.

And we hear the strains of Here Comes the Bride.

There's no Here Comes the Groom song, by the way.

Grooms don't even have to go.

Nobody even knows if the groom was there.

But anyway, so send a phone in.

But here comes, she comes down the aisle, and there we stand in front of the minister.

I walked out of the end into that church that night, not married, and I walked out, not married Because it was the rehearsal.

On Saturday night?

No, that's another story.

That night I walked out of the into that church not married and I walked out married for life and I'll tell you why because that's when I committed my life to her And our churches have in them in this room they have someone in it.

And you've done the rehearsal and you've been through all the motions.

But somehow you've missed that heart, that giving of the heart to Jesus once and for all.

And that's why it's never really worked for you as hard as you've tried.

Because they said in the Old Testament, you must put your hand on the Lamb to make it for you.

The final sacrifice on Golgotha.

John Piper expressed it wonderfully When he said, God took the record of all your sins that make you a debtor to wrath, and instead of holding them up in front of your face and using them as the warrant to send you to hell, he put them in the of world. his son 's hand and nailed them to the cross.

Loving Jesus for his inconceivable sacrifice.

Isaiah 53, 7 makes it so vivid.

He was oppressed and afflicted.

Yet he did not open his mouth.

He was led like a lamb, like a lamb to the slaughter.

My daughter-in-law, as you know, Anna, is Navajo.

And they have Navajos have a lot of sheep.

I'll get this right before tomorrow.

She has a lot, they have a lot of sheep.

She's seen sheep slaughtered many times.

She said, Ron, a dad?

I could never look them in the eye.

Right before they slaughtered them.

And I'm thinking of God's lamb.

Slaughtered is the word the Bible uses.

Crushed.

Afflicted.

Pierced.

Butchered.

The Son of God, the creator and sustainer of it all, has become flesh for the very purpose of doing that.

In a great church in Memphis for many years, an iconic pastor R.

G.

Lee was there.

And he made his first trip to Israel.

And he couldn't wait until they went to the site of what many Christians believe to be the hill where Jesus died.

I've had the privilege to be there.

It is an unbelievable feeling.

And the guide was walking with the group and all of a sudden Pastor Lee started to run ahead.

And the guide chased him and he said, excuse me, he said, Pastor, he said, are you okay?

He said, yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine.

He said Well have you been here before?

Dr.

Lee teared up.

He said, Yeah, I've been here.

It's here almost 2,000 years ago.

Because that was for me.

My pastor in New Jersey said his favorite hymn verse of all was this.

See from his head, his hands, his feet.

Sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose, so rich a crown Without the shedding of blood, Hebrews 9. 22 says, there is no forgiveness of sins.

Here is the ultimate price Jesus paid.

John 12, and we're Well, in the finish line with this, right in the last stretch, my heart is troubled.

What shall I say?

Father, save me from this hour.

No, no, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.

Father, here we go, glorify your name.

Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it.

And when your hour comes, in the next few days, my son, I will glorify it again.

That will be a glory event.

It will look glory to the world, but it will be glory.

But when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.

He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

I have preached the cross around the world. in almost every conceivable culture.

Nothing translates.

My humor doesn't even translate here.

Stories, illustrations that you guys like to hear me tell.

Don't mean much overseas.

The one thing that's crossed every culture. is the cross.

The one thing that has silenced the rowdiest, most out-of-control groups of teenagers is when I have started to talk about the cross.

And somehow it is so true that when Jesus and his cross are elevated and they see the glory of what he did and the price that he paid.

It is a magnet.

There is a magnet in that old hunk of wood.

That's the way Charles Spurgeon called it God's magnificent magnet.

Now here's what I mean by the price.

I want you to look at this statement in John 17, 5.

Jesus is praying right before he's arrested.

Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

A great Greek scholar translated it this way, the glory I was constantly having with you before the universe existed.

That glory nailed to a cross.

Every time Jesus talks to God, he calls him Father, except one time.

It is on the cross.

When he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Because the Lamb of God was taking away the sin of the world and a holy God turns his back on his own son, so he would never have to turn his back on you and me.

This is the love that captures your heart, this unspeakable, un unincalculable sacrifice that he made to give up the glory for to have literally in a sense the Godhead ripped apart by this.

That's what it took to forgive my sin.

That's how bad it is and how much he loves me.

He traded all that for a cross.

He's the only one who could pay the price.

Has done it once for all.

So much wasted spiritual energy across the planet.

See, this is why Jesus said, I am the way The truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me.

I was cut off from my father.

So you could come to my father.

He hasn't changed on this Acts 4. 12, there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be rescued.

We must be saved.

This is, there's no other possible way to get to God.

Not when God's Lamb has carried the sins of the world.

No one else did, no one else could pay the death penalty for our sin.

One of our young men who does a lot of our gospel wrap-ups on the on Eagles Wings team on the reservations, again, in a very hostile atmosphere to Jesus.

Says, you know, you have heard among our people, I've heard it many times, that there are many roads to the top of the mountain where God is And you can take many roads to get there.

And night after night this summer I heard him say to people, and it hit hard.

He said, but I will tell you that Jesus is the only God who came down from the mountain.

Forget us.

Those roads don't lead to the top of the mountain.

Only the one, you gotta let the one who came down from the mountain rescue you This isn't about Christianity being the best religion.

It's about there was one sacrifice made for our sin.

There's many religions.

There's only one rescuer So Jesus is all the truth worth knowing.

He's all the way worth going.

He's all the life worth living.

And we will be judged by his message.

Listen to John 12, verse 48.

There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words.

The very word which I spoke will condemn him in the last day.

This very gospel meant to save us, if we have not grabbed Jesus, will be what we will be judged by.

So The next 48 hours we will go on the glory tour together.

We're going to see the way to miracles.

We're going to go through some of some of life's darkest valleys and how you can have eternity encounters every day of your life in the everyday stuff you do.

I will take you to the other book John wrote to wrap up tonight, Revelation chapter 5.

This is a stunning scene.

I looked and heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand.

I think my calculator broke on this one, but I think it's a hundred million angels, any which of which could incinerate Branson, Missouri in a moment.

These awesome, powerful beings, a hundred million angels encircling the throne with the living creatures and the elders.

What are they doing?

In a loud voice they sang, would you say it with me?

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.

In heaven, they have never gotten over the cross.

It is what they sing about all day long.

They saw the Son of God when he left the throne to come down here.

They saw him come back with only one thing from earth.

Scarfs in his hands and feet, nail prints.

And they can't get over it.

Can you?

The glory of Christ in heaven revolves around him being the Lamb of God.

God's lamb.

Where's the lamb?

God will provide one.

And he did.

Is it any wonder that God's lamb is the magnificent obsession of heaven and the center of eternity's praise, get used to praising the Lamb of God.

And I just picture an angel saying, Ron, Wants to move over?

We got room for one more.

And I so want to join them.

But before I get there I want to join them and be overwhelmed.

With love for the one who made this inconceivable sacrifice, we see his glory on a cross.

And they're inviting us to join them, I believe, to say, would you worship with us?

So I want you to close your eyes right now, and I want you to pray a foreword prayer.

That Moses spoke at a turning point, a changing season of his life and that of his people.

He prayed four words.

He said, show me your glory.

If you dare.

This is something that will radiate your personality, your mind.

It is mind-blowing.

It is jaw-dropping, it is life-changing, it blows the lid off.

If you could say with John, I have seen his glory Would you pray aloud with me, if you want this, for these next 48 hours, show me your glory.

Think for a minute about it.

I will tell you I am incapable, I told Karen, no human should try, even it seems like to try to plumb the depths of the Gospel of John.

No one is worthy, no one is adequate.

Surely words fail.

I'll just take you for a walk down the glory road.

And I hope you will catch it from God's word.

Show me your glory.

If you want that.

Even desperately?

Let's pray it.

Show me your glory.

If you want that, let us pray it together.

Show me your glory.

For thine is the kingdom.

Nine is the power, and thine is the glory forever and ever Time to turn our eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in his wonderful face.

That day what will happen to the things of earth?

They'll never look the same.

They'll go strangely dim.

The light of his glory.

In the light of his glory. and grace.

Lord, we pray that you would overwhelm us and radiate us with a look at the glory of our Jesus.

Our family will never look the same.

Our world will never look the same.

Our pain will never look the same.

Our issues will never look the same.

Our future will never look the same.

I can't.

I can't get us there, Lord.

But I know you'd like to take us there, and I pray you will.

Take us to the top floor to get the view.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.