1 Peter, 1:13-16

Okay, 1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 13 through 16. Everybody got a copy of the handout there? You covered? One of the things that we did several weeks ago was to distribute this sort of overview. We had 1 Peter and 2 Peter at a glance. You may possibly have that with you. We're just stepping into the second section. here on the bottom, in 1.13, sanctification, our salvation's process. We'll continue that up until into the middle of chapter 2. That theme will continue, okay? What we've done is to go through the passage and break it apart into sections that make sense, sections that fit together, and that's certainly the case this morning. So, let's take a look here.

1 Peter 1.13 is the first one we'll take a look at and then proceed on to 14 through 16 because that's a separate set of verses, separate thought.

1 Peter 1.13, therefore prepare, and I'm going to skip over the Greek tense and such, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now there are two things that we want to take a look at right at the outset in order to gain the most and properly understand this verse.

It begins with therefore, so he isn't just suddenly dropping an idea out of the air. Why does he put a therefore in there? What's the therefore therefore? The therefore is therefore for what? For what was there before. The therefore is therefore because it was what was there before.

Wow. Okay, this was looking back. In other words, he's not just suddenly dropping in a new thought out of the air. He is basing it on everything he's talked about before, which he's talking about their salvation. And one of the points that we've made previously is that as Peter presents the salvation that the believers have, he is very forward-looking in this perspective, right? He looks ahead. to the salvation, to the aspect of salvation that is coming up for the believers.

Second thing here is the Greek words behind prepare and keep sober. Actually, participles, we mentioned this previously, that the Greek words are written as an action in progress, frequently in Peter, rather than what might otherwise be written as an imperative. You've got to do this. Peter is inclined towards writing, not always, but inclined towards writing the verbs in action, in progress, happening. Peter was a man of action. Sometimes in his earlier life, actions he wished he hadn't made, but nonetheless, a man of action.

Let's take a look at there. Preparing your minds for action. Notice I put the ING in there. Preparing your minds for action. This word, prepare, gird up your loins, and by the way, the King James is not a mistake, it's actually more literal. It's a word that means to gird up the loins, and let's talk about what that means. Someone in biblical times, you frequently see pictures in biblical times of people having robes that are lengthy, go down below the knees and even down to the ankles. When they would get ready for some kind of a physical activity, something where they were expected to exert some effort, move around, they would pull those up into their belt and sometimes even put on a special belt just for, like for example, traveling. And so they would pull that up. And so Peter used that word, that verb, for getting ready for action.

And that's why it says in the King James, gird up your loins, and in other translations, prepare, because prepare is what it meant in our sense of things, but actually girding up the loins, pull the robes up, get ready to move. And if you need to, get a special belt on in order that you've got this loose robes not hanging down there, not holding you up, not encumbering you, but out of the way so you're ready to move.

Make sense? Okay so far? Nobody's doing it. Oh, anyway. Okay. What's that? Yeah, yeah, I think it'd look funny on my pants. Anyway, I'd be kind of like I'm going waiting or something. All right. There are other places in scripture where this is used, and I give several examples from 1 Kings into Acts. So this was a long-standing biblical practice. What's interesting here, he uses this figure of speech regarding what? Gird up your loins, does he mean it literally or what's it talking about? What do you gird up? What are you girding up your loins for? What are you preparing? Preparing your mind. How many of you have a belt on your head? Sometimes you feel like it's a little too tight, right? Get your minds ready for action.

Now, key thing, this word for mind here, see these things? Deanoia. Deanoia is the word for mind. It's the active mind. It's the mind in action. So he not only used, get your mind ready, and he used the word ing, it's an active verb, but it's a mind, and it's interesting, the Greeks had a word, and that's the word that he chose, it's a mind that's moving. It's a mind that's doing something. It's the active mind. So he is really focusing on action here. He is really putting the focus in both the word that he used in the verb and even the word for mind.

Moving, action, getting going. Then, keeping sober in spirit. Notice I put the ing ending at keeping because that also is a participle, not a noun. An imperative. Now, he's not just saying, don't get drunk. As a matter of fact, he doesn't actually say anything about that. What's his focus here? Why would he have sober in spirit?

Does that mean Christians are supposed to be just as somber as all get out? What's that for? Tom? Yeah. All right, this is, you know, think about what is this sober and spirit? This sober and spirit means, it means that there is self-control. It means you're able to respond to the environment. You're able to deal with things as they are.

Nancy? Clear-headed. Okay. Clear-headed. That's a good way to put it. Having a real sense of things. But one of the difficulties if someone is inebriated is they just don't they don't they have a hard time being aware of what's around them. They have a hard time moving in the environment around them. Pardon? Like the airport. Yeah.

The focal point here is seeing things from a full sense of the spiritual realities, not losing touch and being able to respond, not being distracted by the things that are less relevant, nor viewing things in a distorted manner, which is always a problem with inebriation.

Galatians 5, 22 and 23, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Isn't it interesting that it's said as self-control, but it is the fruit of, is it the fruit of self? Isn't that interesting? The fruit of the spirit looks like self-control. The spirit's work in the believer's life looks like self-control.

Paul and Peter are quite agreed on this point. Yeah, yeah. Nancy and I brought that forward because those verses, these verses we just looked at were some that were ones that we were examining when the church we were in Carson City insisted on singing the song that kind of made us decide to depart. Make me drunk in your Holy Spirit. So that just didn't fit. Wait a minute. The fruit of the spirit is what? And Peter, of course, says be sober in spirit. So it didn't quite click. What Peter had told his readers is not that they could never sleep or never relax or never express humor, but they should be having a larger perspective that is based on seeing the things of life with spiritual insight and discernment. Even this recent disclosure with Hal is, what's the big perspective here? What's the big perspective? What's that? The big perspective is that, boy, are we going to miss Hal? Yeah, unless the rapture happens before the Lord takes Hal home alone. But Hal will stand before the Lord. The fulfillment of everything that the Lord has promised that Peter has been pointing to will be a reality in a short period of time.

There's a really good statement by St. Bob in a word, there's a really good proposition that we want to try to make happen. It's better, better by far, to be with the Lord. This whole world just can't commit with the joy that we find there. Heaven is better by far. Yeah, there are things that Hal has been bothered with longer than this leukemia that won't be a problem. And I've got several of those same problems.

Anyway, the driving verb here is one that we made focus on right at the outset here in hope. The prior verbs conveyed action and progress and are not actually imperatives in the Greek. It doesn't actually say, be sober, it says being sober, keeping sober. It doesn't actually say, better prepare, or you prepare, it says preparing.

This one, however, is actually an imperative, fix your hope. That is an imperative. So the idea here is, fix your hope. What goes along with that is the preparing and the keeping. Those other actions in progress go along with fixing your hope, but the imperative is indeed fix your hope.

Yes? Is that all one word in the Greek? Is that why you're saying it's a verb? Because I would think that hope would be a noun. It is a verb, and it is, if you were to put it, you must be hoping. More literally, you must be hoping. But there's a reason why it's translated, fix your hope here.

We'll get to in just a couple paragraphs. Titus 2, 11 through 14 is one that the Women's Study covered just recently. For the grace of God has appeared. Is that a what or a who? Yeah, it's ultimately a who, isn't it? For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. Which, incidentally, great God and Savior in the Greek construction are the same. Jesus Christ is the great God. who gave himself up for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds." Our great hope, the blessed hope, this word that's translated completely, this is where the idea of fixing your hope comes from in here. the idea of completeness, teleos. This is the only place in the New Testament that this particular form of the word is used. It means the believer doesn't have a backup hope. I've not got 90% of my hopes here, but just in case it doesn't pan out.

You always got to keep your bases covered. So just in case it doesn't pan out, I've got some backup hope somewhere else. Yes, doing works. Good point. Doing works can be a backup hope. What are some instances that would be ways that a believer would have a backup hope, a just-in-case hope? Jack, you're grinning. You're shaking your head, too. We don't need a backup hope. Okay?

What do you need a backup for? We'll be touching on this in the main service too. What do we use backups for in this world? We do use them. Redundancy. If this system goes out, I've got another one. Yes. Yeah. Computers, they do that. Well, they have two of them running in parallel. And if one goes down, the other, you know, continues up the job and helps restore the first one. What are some other reasons we have backups? In case the cake falls.

All right. Extra frosting. Yeah. OK. Yeah. Pardon? Spare tire in the car. Right. And matter of fact, pardon? Alright, you've got an alternate route. Detours. Here on planet earth where things are uncertain, backups of every sort make a lot of good sense, don't they? It is a common thing to do. As a matter of fact, it's a wise thing to do here on planet earth.

Spiritually speaking, when it comes to the Lord, Peter says, forget it. Fix your hope completely on the Lord. Not on the Lord and, not on the Lord plus, not on the Lord and, by the way, in my back pocket, I got this other optional activity. Yeah, forget about it. No alternatives.

Yes. And isn't this, wouldn't this be kind of addressing some of the pagan ways of thinking? Obviously he wasn't writing to pagans. Yes. But people who had seen pagan theology where I worship this God, but just in case I'm going to do a little bit of stuff for this God. Yes. Remember in Acts, I think it's Acts 17, Paul is speaking and he says, I see that you're very religious. You have an altar to what?

The unknown God. That was just in case they hadn't got all the gods figured out. They didn't want to offend any. So the God that we didn't know, just in case, we got an altar to that one too. And by the way, those are found all throughout the Roman Empire. It wasn't just there in Athens. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, we got a gazillion backup plans, right? Yeah, just in case. And what Peter says is, no, you don't need that. This is a God of such character that backup plans make no sense at all. No emergency deity. No deity congeniality. None of that.

Peter finished verse 13 with, "...the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Christians use this word grace differently than the rest of the culture. We pointed this out as we were going through Ephesians and Colossians. The culture used the word grace. That was for a favor you did for a friend or a relative where you expected nothing in return. How did this get expanded among the Christians? The Christians took the word, expanded upon it, By saying grace goes beyond just a favor you do for a friend or a relative, Christ died for us while we were what? Yet sinners, not friends. Certainly not related. And yet He died for us at that point, expanding the word grace beyond any bounds that they used in the culture. Tom? I didn't know there were any hillsides in Kansas. Okay, all right. You have a ladder to look at the hill? Anyway, never mind. Okay. Okay.

When is the revelation of Jesus Christ? It's Christ coming for us known as the rapture, although this verse may also include the return as well. this entire set of events that's the Second Coming. When Christ comes for His church, what's He looking forward to? To bring us to be with Himself. We point out here one of the last things that Christ is quoted as saying in Revelation, the last book.

Behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me. He cannot wait to reward us. I think that's a neat thing as we consider Hal and look at, hey, here's a short period of time. You know, the Lord just saying, Hal, I just can't wait to reward you. Isn't that neat? I can't wait to reward you. I'm eager. I'm coming quickly. And, you know, it's just like Hal's looking. He says, well, the last times that I have, I want to pick to do the things that really count. And the Lord has the last words that He's got to say in all of the Bible, and what does He say?

I want to reward you. Isn't that neat? Isn't that neat? I want to reward you. He can't wait to reward Al and us. The Lord's looking forward to reward us, and Scripture makes it clear to reward us fully. Do you have a handout here? Okay. Next page, top of page 3, this gets us into verses 14 through 16. Like before, there are a couple of key insights here that will help us understand.

Both conformed and be are passive verbs in this set of verses. So don't be conformed, interesting, it's passive. So it has the idea of something that's going on, And it has sort of an implied imperative. It's not an imperative, but it's a passive. And this be, in the sense of be holy, is also a passive. We'll talk about that in a minute. What's the idea of a passive? What does a passive verb mean? It's done to you, right? It doesn't mean you just lay around. It's done to you. You're the recipient of the action.

So we'll see in a minute what that means. The next thing, this word conformed in verse 14 is a participle and does not directly convey with force an obligation upon your part, but leans toward describing an ongoing action. So here's the ongoing action that makes sense for you as a believer. See, that's the way Peter writes. The word to be is an imperative, which is the controlling and driving verb in the passage, but even it is in the passive voice. How do you carry out an imperative that you receive an action? Whoa. We'll take a look at that, okay?

This phrase, as obedient children, is one I want us to take a look at here. It's smoother for English readers. King James and the New American Standard, which I typically am using, use it, but it masks a distinctly Jewish figure of speech. be better brought across as children of obedience. The American Standard Version, translated roughly a century ago, put it that way. As children of obedience.

The reason is that the Jews had a pattern of speaking to be a son of, or children of, or even daughter of, was the idea of to have the nature or character of. So, for example, Christ said that he was both the Son of God and the Son of Man. He had a nature and a character that was of God and a nature and a character that was of man.

Sons of Disobedience. This is from Ephesians 2, the first three verses. What would that mean? Sons of Disobedience? They have a character and nature of disobedience. So that's the intent. Children of God, also used in 1 John 3.1, a similar idea in Ephesians 5.1. Children of God, what does that mean? Having the character or nature of God. Isn't that interesting? So being the children of God is not just talking about relationship, Certainly that's there, but focusing upon the character.

So when he says here, it isn't the idea of as obedient children, or even as one translation, well a couple of translations put it, to be obedient, it's not an imperative. As those who are by nature, by character, obedient. Why would that be? Why would he describe it that way? He's writing to believers. Why would they be of a character or a nature obedient? It is because as believers we are in Christ. It is because as believers we have a new nature. His nature. So that's the focus. As those who by character and nature, because of having been placed in Christ. That's how he's really starting the thought here.

This word translated conform is the same one Paul used in Romans 12.2, and those are the only two places. But Paul warned against being conformed by the external pressures coming from this world system. Paul says don't be conformed, pressed in by this world system, and therefore conformed.

This conformity doesn't come from outside, it comes from where? From inside. What's doing the conforming inside? Let's take a look. Don't be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance. The ones you used to have. Now isn't that interesting? Paul would warn about the outside pressures that conform us. Peter warns about the inside pressures that conform us.

Between the two uses, there are Romans 12.2 and this, it's the only way it's used.

There's something that years ago, because I've done about 12 different occupations, I worked as a mechanical engineer working in injection molding and things of that sort. There's a technique that they use, you've seen them in plastic milk jugs, it's called blow molding, where they make the mold and they blow... on this molten plastic to fill up the inside of the mold, so there's air pressing on the inside, and then there's the mold shape on the outside. So think of it as this, the world defines the outside shape, the lusts define the inside shape. Between the two, there's a conforming process to the lusts that Peter warns about, and the world that Paul warns about. Between the two, they're both speaking truths, they're just different pressures. different forces upon the believer to put the believer into the world's mold and into the mold of the lusts of the flesh.

So both of these guys are giving us a perspective here. Notice that this, from the sin nature, This conforming comes from inside in the form of these powerful lusts. When we were ignorant of the Gospel, Peter said we shouldn't be allowing those to conform us any longer.

Notice it's a passive, but the idea is that you're not doing it. You're not allowing the sin nature to call the shots. Does that sound like something else we've read about? Romans 6, right? Don't let the sin nature call the shots. The message of Romans 6, 11 through 13. The sin nature from within wants to call the shots on conformance. Peter is saying here, similar message to Romans 6. He says, that's not to be what's conforming you.

Let's turn to the next page here. There's a pivotal word between verses 14 and 15. The word but at the start of verse 15. In the Greek, this word is Allah, and you might look for it if you ever happen to look for Greek words somewhere. It is a word that means a strong contrast.

If I said, you know, Nancy and I are not going to have sandwiches for lunch, but we're going to have lasagna, that wouldn't be a strong contrast. That would be a minor change or contrast, right? This is a word that means strong contrast. Great contrast. He says this is the one process, this conforming that comes from the lust from within. In strong contrast to that, now this other thing. Let's see what he's contrasting here. Peter doesn't immediately point to some contrasting behavior or even internal passions that run counter to the lust. He doesn't say, here's this other force.

Instead he points to God himself, the Holy One who has called you. The Holy One referred to God or even to Christ himself, that's in John 6.69, the Holy One referred to Christ, who is of course full deity. that Peter tell the believers they must just by an act of will be holy like God is by nature. Is that Peter's message? You need by an act of will to be holy like God is just by willing it. Is that what Peter is saying?

I'm hearing a no. What? Why not? Doesn't that sound like a good idea? What's the problem? Yeah, Norm's point, it may be a good idea, but it doesn't work, right? Yeah, it doesn't work that way. It's really what people try to do in the flesh. Yes. I'll try to be good. I'll try to be holy. What they're studying right now, over in the Romans elective, in the red carpet room, is Romans chapter 7. The last half of Romans chapter 7, Paul is saying, I've tried willing to do the right thing. Just do the right thing by will. It doesn't work. He says it briefly in Galatians 5 as well. If you try to just simply will to do the right thing, it simply does not work.

And as we see towards the end of Romans 7, the exclamation of Paul, you know, how am I going to get freed from this body of death? I've been trying and trying and trying to just will the right thing to happen. Peter makes the imperative of this passage a matter of what process one is being subjected to.

Ah, there we go. Notice that he doesn't say, hey, just be holy. Get holy, folks. What does he say? He puts it in the passive voice. He says, you need to be being made holy. Ah, big insight. This is not my best efforts and strong, powerful will to be holy. It is instead the Lord's action upon us. The Lord's action. Interesting here, it is the Lord's doing and it's an imperative.

Peter makes the imperative of this passage a matter of what process one is subjected to. Is that what Paul does in Romans 6? He puts it as an imperative, right? You must reckon yourselves dead to sin. There is an imperative there. That is a God-performed process that is not merely hypothetical or internal, but expresses itself in our outwards life. Notice that Peter isn't saying, I want you to be real downright hypothetical. I want you to be just real theoretical here. No. He says this needs to be a real life, but it needs to be a conforming process that God does, that you are the recipient of the action of, Is there an imperative there? Yes. The imperative is that God does it, not you. Okay? Sound okay? So that's the imperative. You must allow Him. Okay? You must allow Him. That's what it amounts to. Now, last paragraph there.

Peter's exhortation of the believers regarding God's carrying out of his process that results in practical holiness. Again, Peter is a man of action. He frequently and often, as we pointed out, has verbs in action, in process and in progress. He is not interested in hypothetical and theoretical. He is a man of action, but is rooted in the basic holiness of God himself. It's God Himself, and it's God's action in the life of the believer. That's what the believer is to be submitting to, is the Lord's action, not my own determination. Boy, I'm going to be a good Christian today. I'm not going to sin from now until the sun goes down. None of that. Hey, turn on half the cable TV stations. You'll get it. Okay.

As Peter draws v. 16 from the Old Testament, there's Leviticus 11, and by the way, there's other passages, but that's just one. He founds our holiness upon God's holiness. That is not to say that Peter is laying down the law. He's drawing from Leviticus. But the be holy in the Old Testament was a you-do-it. Be holy in the way he does it with the passive as God does it. Isn't that something? He draws from the Old Testament passage but uses a different tense in the verb.

Isn't that interesting? Towards the end of the letter, Peter will make it clear that the believer is in Christ. That's 1 Peter 5.14. So he hasn't lost sight of that. That God has multiple ministries in the life of the believer.

1 Peter 5.10. Peter also wrote about grace seven times in this one letter. And he's all about grace, which we'll get to in a minute here.

So he's not promoting holiness by law-keeping. Got that? He isn't saying, be holy, now get the law book out. And here's ten of them for starts. Rather, he was placing the focus of verses 14 and 16 upon the process of being made holy by God. The very definition of holiness for eternity. It's God's process of making us holy.

He says, be subject to that. Not the lusts. That's also passive. Don't be conformed. Look at it this way. As a believer, it is not our place to simply choose this or that outward behavior, or even an attitude. It's a matter of, what are you going to be conformed to? What are you going to be made holy by? Same message as Romans 7. You're either going to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God, or the sin nature is going to reign. You're going to be subject to something. Bottom line.

So that's the believer's choice. The believer's choice is not to decide, I'm going to be holy today. But instead, To look at, this is the Lord's process for my life. This is what God is doing in my life. And I need to recognize that. Not to give it my best efforts. To give your all to Jesus. None of that. Let's take a look at something else here.

You have as the last three pages, if I haven't distracted you too badly, Yeah, there's the last three pages, this set of handouts here. What this author has done, and I have not checked it through enough to say, hey, this is some sort of a doctrine. But very interestingly, he has laid out that it appears that Peter denied the Lord. You got that in the last three pages there? Peter denied the Lord more than three times. that the three times was simply a part of his series of denials, and the author seems to lay out seven denials of Peter.

How about that? Now, why would I bring that out? Certainly, it isn't to come down harder on Peter, but just the fact I brought out that seven times in this letter, he mentions grace. And what this does is it brings out... Peter blew it more than we thought. And so Peter was more acutely aware that God's grace is indeed amazing.

Okay? Even more acutely aware. Repeatedly having denied the Lord. Tom? Peter hit the max, didn't he? Yeah, Peter hit the max. And so, real interesting, God's grace is indeed amazing. Here is this Peter guy, a man of action, often times actions he wished he hadn't taken. who appears to have denied the Lord more than the conventionally understood three times. And all that does is it doesn't throw any condemnation on Peter. It doesn't mean that he's somehow less than saved or less than a saint. But it means he is a man who knows God's grace perhaps even more than we first thought.

Isn't that a good thing? Isn't that neat? That's good stuff. It's neat to see how the Lord was so phenomenally and unfathomably gracious towards this man. Okay, now this is extraordinary. We're actually done on time. Any questions, thoughts, jubilations? Yes, but I could tell you're just ready to jump up and down your pew. Yes, okay.

I see that in Peter so much, and so many of my alumni, that he's kind of a reflection or a warning of what is wrong with living the life of Christ. He fell for these things, and we think, well, maybe the Lord just overlooked it when I do it, or didn't overlook it, he just used it as a teaching. Yes. Peter is a life lesson, isn't he? He's a life lesson. That's one of the reasons, as we've gone through this, I wanted to bring forward. Who's this Peter guy? What's he like? What was his life like and what did the Lord teach him?

Randy? Yeah. Yeah. Randy brings up the point. Peter is a man of action. Peter is a man who is inclined towards action and doing. But here, notice the passive voices. This being holy isn't something that I just go out and decide to do. But that instead, my decision is to submit to God's work in my life and to submit to the Lord's action upon me and in me. And that's a radical difference. And what a neat thing Peter is conveying here to us. What powerful truths. Good. Other thoughts? Yeah.

I think both the lives of Peter and Paul show us that We don't have to clean up our lives before we can come to salvation. Ah, you get that? We don't have to clean up our lives before we can come to salvation. I've got to get good enough for God to save me. Yeah, good point. A lot of people will say, you know, well God can't save me, I'm a drug addict, an alcoholic, immoral, whatever. Yeah. and that's not the issue. Yeah. Paul a murderer and Peter a betrayer. Yeah, yeah.

Salvation does not depend upon personality type. Is that something? Yes, Bev. I was just really interested in Peter's church in Jerusalem by Mount Zion and on the very top, you can see it all over, is this cock, this rooster. Huh, yeah. Yeah, the denial. In fact, what he keeps talking about is God's grace. God's grace. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going fishing. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Other thoughts? Yes, Bob? Yes.

And that being an imperative? Conformed is actually not an imperative, but the B in Be Holy is an imperative. I was kind of thinking, is that a command to God, to conform? Well, it's interesting because it's passive. Our directive is don't be conformed, because this conforming is a warning. Don't be conformed by the powerful lusts of the sin nature. Instead, be being made holy.

And so it's a question for the believer of which process am I subjecting myself to? Which process am I subjecting myself to? Because it's actions that he puts the focus on here. As those who are by nature, by character, To be obedient is to listen and to place yourself under what is being heard. So even that is a subjecting oneself to.

So for the believer it really becomes very much a question of which process am I being subjected to, either the sin nature's process, which is terminal, which has no permanent value, or the Lord's process, which has eternal value and glorifies Him for eternity, and is the very thing that He says, I can't wait to reward you for. Other thoughts? Well, let's actually end sort of on time and pray. Thank you, Lord.

As we look at this precious passage, As we look at the words that this brother whom you appointed, this man who in his human nature was impetuous and even perpetually unfaithful for a time. Lord, we look and see what you taught him. and what he learned and we we pray that the insights that he's provided us here might sink deep into our minds and hearts and that we would be girded up in our minds for prepared for the action that you have the process that you have going on in our lives because you love us and care for us and because we're in you we thank you lord for these marvelous blessings marvelous insights in jesus name amen