Jesus Chooses Ordinary Men To Change The World | Week 19

Let’s go ahead and open up our Bibles. We’re gonna be in Mark chapter three. That’s where we’re gonna land this morning. Mark chapter three is where we’re gonna be today. And we’re going to look at a very interesting section of scripture in the Ministry of Jesus.

I’m quite excited to be back up here.

It feels like I haven’t preached for a while. This morning with the understanding of what I was going to preach about, I was just fired up, just really excited to be back up here sharing God’s word and especially what I’m talking about today, because what we’re going to talk about really has it’s not a major complex passage. It’s not really a doctrinal passage. And yet I believe what we’re going to read this morning is one of the most encouraging scriptures in all of the Bible. And here’s why. This is a picture of the 1998 New York Yankees. That’s right. I am a big baseball fan, and I’m a huge New York Yankee fan.

This is one of the best teams that ever played the game.

This is not a joke. They won 114 games, which is the second highest ever to be won on their way to a world Championship. Some of the best players ever to play the game played on this team.

A guy you may know by the name of Derek Jeter, played on this team, Mariano Rivera. Anyway, they were all on this team. And I show you this team because stories have been written about the way this team was put together. It was meticulously selected. You can read the stories, the history of the building of this team and it’s amazing. Through millions and millions of dollars of spending and detailed player analysis, the New York Yankees selected the most talented possible baseball players to help them win a World Series. Not one of these guys, at least the starting line up, was anything less than amazing.

There’s this baseball they call it advanced metric. It’s called the Ops Plus. And I don’t have to explain it to you, but anyway, basically what it does is it ranks MLB players and it says whether or not they’re below average, their average or they’re above average. And every single one of these players was well above League average. Every single player on the team. Every full time hitter, was above League average.

Every one of them.

They were kind of the definition of a great team. These guys were wildly talented, and they were meticulously selected to be a part of this incredibly talented team to help them win a World Series.

Now, let me tell you what we’re going to talk about today. Today we’re going to talk about the people Jesus selected to help him win the world. And in a humanistic term, there will not be a single one of these guys that is above average. As a matter of fact, all of these people would be considered well below average, comfortably below average. These men, none of them were talented. They were selected to help win the world. The Yankees were selected to help win the World Series, which really doesn’t matter.

And these guys are selected to bring the gospel of God to the whole world.

And if you were going to pick them out in a crowd, none of you guys would have picked any of these people. When you think about the Twelve, especially if you come from kind of like a high Church mentality, maybe you come from a Catholic background or Anglican background or maybe you’ve been to Europe and you’Ve seen those stained glasses. You might think that these men are some kind of like elevated, transcendent people. That they’re like just below God. And there’s an assumption that they are the highest, that they’re the best, that they’Re the classiest, that they’re sort of religious ascendants with them.

But let me just tell you this. Nothing could be further from the truth.

These guys were not the cream of the crop. They were not the highest, not the noblest, not the best. They’re not the best educated. They’re not the most highly skilled. They weren’t even really gifted. The truth is, they basically are designated by one thing, and this is what it is.

They were ordinary.

They wouldn’t have made the roster of any religious team. They’re perfectly ordinary men. When you look at history, you’ll realize that not one of them was known for their scholarship or their erudition, their ability to speak. They weren’t good orators. There weren’t theologians. There were outsiders in the religious establishment. They had no particular natural talents. They had no particular intellectual talents. Jesus one time called them dense. They were, on the other hand, prone to mistakes, misjudgments, misgivings, bad attitudes. Sometimes they had lacked faith. They were prone to bitter failures. Every single one of them abandoned Christ in the moment of his need. They were argumentative. Jesus said that they were slow learners. There was nothing special, nothing Noble about them.

And yet these men, the Bible said, turn the world upside down.

And their Ministry, their Ministry is happening through us today.

So let’s look at this text. Let’s see what we can learn from these guys. And then we’re going to kind of look at it one time and then we’Re going to piece it out. Are you guys with me?

All right, mark three, verse 13.

It says Jesus went on by the mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

These are the Twelve he appointed. Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. To them he gave the name Boanerges, which means son of Thunder, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas James, son of Alfius, Thaddeus, Simon and Judas Iscariat, who betrayed him.

In Scripture, there are four of these lists of the Apostles. You have it in the book of matthew and Luke and Mark, and then again at the very start of the Book of Acts.

And just reading these lists, you get some interesting information. Notice that the names here are both given names and also some nicknames. And to me, that just shows the intimacy of this group.

These names were nicknames given to these guys by Jesus, and they are eternally put here in the scriptures as their nicknames. It’s pretty cool there’s something warm about that, isn’t there?

It was Jesus who gave Peter or simon the nickname Peter, which means Rock. It was Jesus who gave John and James the nickname Son of Thunder. Thaddeus, by the way, which is right here, is also a nickname.

And here’s an advice to all of you parents or new parents, don’t name your son Thaddeus.

Now, if your name is Thaddeus, I want to say sorry to you before I explain what Thaddeus means, because Thaddeus is the equivalent of saying Heart child.

Which is a euphemism in the first century for saying, Mama’s boy. I’m not even kidding. You can look it up again. No judgment to anyone here named Heart Child. I love you. You’re awesome. But maybe don’t continue that legacy. Anyway, you have the intimacy of this little group, right? The other thing, like you noticed it, right? It’s like nicknames.

This is a bunch of guys who are hanging out, hey, I’m going to call you Rock. I’m going to call you the Son of Thunder. I’m going to call you heartchild, because you know why. Man, what a close-knit group that Jesus had constructed. The other thing you might notice by just reading the list is that there are twelve men, and you wonder why there are twelve of them and here’s the reason why.

Well, it’s because the choosing and the commissioning of the twelve was a statement against the corruption of the religious leaders.

I don’t have time to unpack all of this, but here’s the short answer to the question, why there are twelve. It’s because the twelve Apostles are going to replace the leadership of the twelve tribes of Israel.

That’s what the Bible teaches us. It tells us this in Luke, Chapter 22, verse 29 30.

And I confer on you, this is Jesus speaking a Kingdom, just as my Father conferred on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom and sit on the throne judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Each of these Apostles is going to be kind of a divine leader, divine representative of the twelve tribes of Israel. Matthias taking the place of Judas.

Revelation, chapter 21, verses twelve and 14 also kind of paint this picture of where they’re going to be. It says their names are going to be in the foundation of the new Jerusalem, embossed in the Jeweled City. Pretty amazing. They are the spiritual leaders of Israel.

Jesus, in a way, is saying to the Jewish establishment, all your education, Jewish establishment and all your religious pedigree and all of your institutions, all of that stuff has failed to produce real leadership. And so what I’m going to do is select and then elevate these nobodies and give them the position of leaders over Israel.

It’s pretty amazing.

Let’s go back and digest the text a little bit more. Verse 13 says Jesus went up on the mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. Here it says, he chose those he wanted.

Notice they did not choose him. He selected them.

And you can just imagine the scene, can’t you? We’ve been talking about this idea that there have been multitudes following Jesus up into this point.

And Mark, Jesus begins to heal people. In Mark chapter two and Mark chapter three, Jesus begins to heal people. And all of a sudden, the crowds have become so large that they can’t even meet in a house anymore because they’Re just basically overflowing the outside of the courtyards of the house. And so as Jesus goes anywhere, everyone follows. We call that group the Multitudes.

So the multitudes have been following Jesus for the entire, basically first year of his Ministry. And here Jesus gets up on the mountainside, and he kind of moves to the top of a mountain or top of one of these little Hills. And below him are all of the people who have been following him for several months now.

And he looks out at the crowd and he begins a roll call. He says, I want Simon to join me. And Simon looks around and he goes and he pushes through the crowd. I want James and I want John and I want Judas Iscariat, and I want the one they call Mama’s Boy. And these guys, they shuffle through the crowd and they approach Jesus, and everyone is looking at them, wondering what qualified them to be chosen by this great master, this great healer.

All the while, these guys are totally unaware that it’s their lack of qualifications that made them qualified. Not one of these guys was a Rabbi. Not one of them was a scribe or a theologian, an academic, a priest, a Sadducee, a Pharisee, not one.

And you might ask yourself, why wouldn’t Jesus pick the best? Why wouldn’t Jesus go on a tour and go you are educated at the best schools. You did your ACT perfect, and you got an SAT, you went to Harvard? Oh, goodness. Why wouldn’t he select the strongest and the mightiest and the people who had it all together?

Why wouldn’t he pick the best?

And this is the part of this lesson that encourages me so much.

And this, I would say, should encourage you, because what we’re going to discover here is just something that is absolutely incredible.

It’s this, that the selection of the ordinary to do the extraordinary is a part of God’s divine strategy, and it’s something that needs to take root in all of our hearts this morning. Why do I see this story as so personally encouraging?

Well, it’s because God selects the unqualified to do amazing things.

This is a part of his divine strategy. In other words, God can use anyone to change the world. See, this account proves something to me that maybe you wrestle with.

And it’s this. I don’t have to be the smartest guy in the world to be used by God.

I don’t have to be the most talented person in the world to be used by God. I don’t have to be good looking to be used by God. I don’t have to be rich. I don’t have to have a perfect family. I don’t have to have pedigree. I don’t have to look a certain way or act a certain way. I don’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to know it all or be wise beyond my years. I don’t even have to be able to read to be used by God in a great way.

And I love this because I could never be selected by the New York Yankees to play baseball in the MLB. But with God, I can work for a Kingdom that never spoils or fades, that endures forever. Isn’t that encouraging for you this morning?

Isn’t it encouraging?

About a month ago, I was with William Galicia. We were playing golf, and periodically I like to get out and William and I play together. We’re both terrible.

But we went out we found out that our playing partner was somebody that worked for Tiger Woods. He was like his, I don’t know, his physical therapist for his son or something like that. He worked in his family.

And so it takes talent to work for Tiger Woods. Tiger woods is maybe one of the most popular athletes in the whole world.

You have to be talented, you have to be smart, you have to be strong. You probably have to be quite resilient, right?

Anyway, so William knew the guy, or at least knew the story of the guy and so when we got paired up I was sitting next to William. William turned to me, and his face is all like is glowing.

He said, do you know who that guy works for?

And then I turned to William and I said, William, do you know who we work for?

We work for the person that made Tiger Woods. He knew Tiger Woods when he was in the womb, you know. I don’t know. And that wasn’t trying to make me sound like awesome. It’s encouraging, right? It doesn’t make me special because the power is not in the person.

The power is with him. That’s amazing, right? And by the way, that’s often why Jesus selects the lowly is because if he selects the lowly, then there’s never a question where the power comes from.

First Corinthians chapter one gives us insight into this. It says this, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to you who are being saved. It is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligence I will frustrate. Here the Apostle Paul, borrowing the language from isaiah 29, verse 14, explains that God isn’t interested in using the wise and the clever of the world. Because if he was, then people would think it was not dependent upon him. But instead he uses the lowly things.

In fact, this chapter goes on and I want to read you some of it because it’s both discouraging and encouraging. Here, let’s read it. Brothers and sisters, you, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many of you were influential.

Not many of you were of Noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him you are in Christ Jesus, or you have any power or authority who has become for us wisdom from God. That is our righteousness, Holiness, redemption.

Therefore, as it is written, let the one who boast in the Lord.

In other words, look around. Like, look around for just a second.

Not one of you sitting here or watching online. Not a single one of you has it all together. All of you are a bunch of messed up people. You’ve got real issues. I mean, I’m looking at all of you and I can tell. You’re messed up and I’m messed up too, right? And I love it.

Jesus didn’t pick among the intellectual elite. Or from the wise, or among the influential or the powerful or the mighty, or from those of high birth or from lofty or Noble parts, but rather he chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. The weak things to shame the strong.

I like what it says. He chose the things that don’t exist.

Think about what that means for you.

What is he saying? You and I we’re nothings. And see, I just want to lean into this for just a second. We are ordinary. Our society at this point is so obsessed with self esteem and self image. It’s obsessed with self expression, too. And the idea is that you and I need to think of ourselves as having it all together.

Like you look in the mirror and you go, I can do it. And I’m somebody and I’m brave. And all these types of things and all that selftalk is not the message of the gospel.

The message of the gospel is something actually that’s opposite of that.

It’s this. You’re ordinary, you’re nothing, you’re foolish, you’re weak, you’re insignificant. As far as the world is concerned, you’re nonexistent. And just to be clear, you don’t need an increased self esteem.

Because the fact is, really, if you try to prove to yourself that you’re more than nothing, you’re really just being a fraud to yourself. I don’t need to build my self esteem. What I need is I need an esteem built upon the heart of my God that believes that in his hands, I can be somebody, but apart from Him, I am nothing at all. With Him, I can change the world. But apart from Him, nothing.

So that those who boast, what does it say? They boast in the Lord. They don’t boast in their talents, they don’t boast in their abilities. They don’t boast in their riches. They don’t boast in the fact that they have a private jet, that they can go to the mountains.

They don’t boast in any of that stuff. But those who boast, boast in the Lord. That’s the message of the gospel. You are nothing but with God, you can do something remarkable.

Jesus chose rather a bunch of nobodies. Acts, chapter four, verse 13. It’s a really interesting story. The elite in the religious establishment, they’re wondering what’s happening in Acts chapter four. Because all of a sudden these men have just taken over religious society.

And the Bible says that they noticed that they were untrained and ordinary, uneducated people. And this is what it says. It says, the only explanation that could be given by the religious elite was this.

Act four, verse 13. They were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

That was all they could say. You know what? Obviously these guys have no talent and ability, but they were with Jesus.

To me, this is so encouraging because I think about my own life, like, who am I? That I could have the amazing privilege of leading God’s people?

Who am I? That I could be blessed by the opportunity of preaching the gospel of the one who created the world? Who am I that I could be called from darkness into light? That I could work for the one who created the universe? What a great benefit that I could be part of God’s family. And here I am, right? I stand before you again with no pedigree. I don’t even have a College degree.

And yet God, for his purposes, can make something out of someone who has nothing to offer. That’s not only the explanation of my life, but I bet you it’s the explanation of your life too. Of my family’s life. Look, I got Jesus, and that’s enough explanation for why I am blessed beyond measure. I have Jesus, right?

And look, it’s your job, and it’s my job it’s our job, then to live in such a way that his power is not blocked by our pride and our arrogance, but instead gets to work through us because we are willing, humble servants.

People like the Twelve, right? And I love the Twelve because on the day of Pentecost you see these ordinary men stand up. There’s the Twelve and Peter stands up. He’s kind of the leader of the bunch. And 3000 people, after he preaches, are baptized that day. They profess Christ as Lord. And within weeks, thousands upon thousands upon thousands, 5000 people and then 1000 more, and then a thousand more. Then all the Gentiles and all the Samaritans come into the Kingdom of God.

Because of these unschooled ordinary men who had been with Jesus. They don’t know what’s going to happen yet, but what they do know is that they’ve been called and they’ve been called for a very specific purpose. Verse 14 of Mark three, he appointed the twelve, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.

Let me just say this. I would love to unpack this, but we don’t really have the time for it. Let me just say this. Your job, your calling is exactly the same.

To be with him and to proclaim the gospel. You’ve been called for this. You should be in Jesus presence as often as humanly possible.

You should think less about the stock market and more about Christ. You should think less about your work and more about Christ. You should think less about your husband and more about Christ.

You should be with him as often as you can and as you’re with him and your life is utterly changed because you got a taste of the life that could only come from Christ, then you proclaim the gospel and you talk to people about Jesus.

You talk to people about his message and you invite them to join you in worship. This should be our life. This is the same thing we’ve been called to to be with him and to proclaim the gospel.

Let’s just keep going we’re going to talk about these guys. Verse 16. This is what it says. Verse 16 introduces the guys here are all of them. I just gave their first names here but I wanted to give you some general observations, some things that might be cool. If you like to study the Bible, maybe you can note these things.

The first thing is that the four lists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts all have the same guys. There are no discrepancies. Here’s the thing that if you’ve ever read it or studied it, you might find strange is that sometimes the given names are used and sometimes the nicknames are used, but the names are always the same. And the other interesting thing is that they’re always in three groups. Every single time these three start their respective groups. And every time these men are in their respective groups. Group one has the same four guys every time group two and group three. Group one is always led by Peter. Group two is always led by Philip. Group three is always led by James, the son of Altheus.

And here’s something else. Peter’s name in the list is always first. And as you go down, the last name is always Judith Iscariat, for obvious reasons. Here’s the other interesting thing. There’s a lot of factoids here. We know a lot about these guys. We know a little bit about these guys.

We know almost nothing about these guys.

These guys were with Jesus the most, and the rest were kind of who knows? They all preached, they all lived out the gospel, obviously, other than Judas. But, man, these men were just amazing people.

And so I want to talk to you a little bit about everything we know about each of them. Quickly, let’s talk about Peter.

Peter is given this nickname Peter. His name was Simon. He’s given the name Peter, which means rock. He’s the spokesman. He’s the leader upon that Church. The statement of Peter, the statement of this rock, God is going to build his Church, and God did some amazing things. He’s the main preacher in the Book of Acts up till chapter twelve.

And then we begin to have the Apostle Paul as the primary speaker. He’s ordinary. He’s a fisherman. Again, we don’t know much about his past beyond being a fisherman, but we know that he helped change the world.

We could talk about James and his brother John. These brothers were met in Mark, chapter one. I remember the calling of these guys, but they actually weren’t first met there. They were first probably Apostles of John the Baptist. And so they met Jesus early on in his Ministry, and then we’re called. James, and John had a father. His name was Zebedee. We don’t know a lot about Zebedee, except that about half a dozen times James and John are called the Sons of Zebedee. Now, the fact that he so often mentioned maybe means that Zebedee is kind of an important guy. We know that in John, chapter 18, the high priest knows John. Maybe it’s because of Zebedee. We actually don’t know, but there’s a chance there. Jesus gave these two guys a great nickname, Son of Thunder, sons of Thunder, which would translate today as hot heads, hot heads.

So you have the rock and you have the hotheads. He called in that because in Luke chapter nine, the people don’t want to repent and James and John say, Should I call down fire from heaven and destroy all of these guys? They’re supposed to be evangelists and they’re acting more like terrorists.

So, yeah, you have those guys, then you have Andrew and Philip. As I mentioned, Philip is the leader of this group. We don’t know a lot about Andrew, except that these two guys are brothers. We know that they’re from BethsaidA, and there’s a lot written about Philip’s early life, rather Philip’s life before he was called at first.

Then we have Bartholomew. Bartholomew is not a name. Barr means son of. And Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy.

So Barr Tholomew.

He’s the son of Ptolemy. His real name is Nathaniel. We’ve met Nathaniel a different time, but here we have his name, Bartholomew here, the son of Ptolemy.

We have Matthew, then. Matthew, we met Matthew a couple of weeks ago, didn’t we? He was the tax collector who was hated by everyone, probably hated by the 11, at least at the start of his Ministry.

And then you have Thomas. Thomas is sometimes named Didymus. He’s called that in John, chapter eleven. Didymus means twin, which means he probably was a twin. Duh.

Then you have James, the son of Altheus. We don’t know anything about Altheus. Frankly, we don’t know anything about James. But he’s the leader of that third group. His mother’s name was Mary. She was a follower of Christ. We find that out in Mark, chapter 15, verse 40. There, by the way, his name is called James the Less. That’s another nickname. James the inferior or the inferior James. The word inferior there actually means little guy. So it’s possible that James was just short.

And so imagine Jesus again. He’s like, I’ll take Mama’s boy, sons of Thunder and little guy again, just amazing. I absolutely love this.

Thaddeus. Again, don’t call your son Thaddeus. His real name is Judas, the son of James. That’s the name he’s given in Luke chapter six. And also in Acts, chapter one. He’s also referred to one time in the Bible. I think it’s in John, chapter 14 as Judas, not Iscariot, which is a good name. He also has given the nickname Labius. It’s the same thing. Heartchild, same kind of idea. Then you have Simon the Zealot. He’s a political guy. He fought against the Roman occupation. And the last guy we have on the list is Judas. Judas is the saddest human being who ever lived. The greatest opportunity squandered. Imagine three years, 24/7 with Jesus, and then you sell them out. Man.

Anyway, this is the group. Nobody would have predicted that they would have changed the world. Nobody. And yet they are the examples of virtue and they’re the examples of power. And they’re the examples of men that can be turned from nothing into some things. They are a seed that took root in the heart of God, and God grew them into an amazing plant that provides fruit for all eternity.

In the Bible, they’re called the Holy Apostles. We also find out that it’s on their teaching that the Church is built. They’re going to reign over the twelve tribes of Israel, and they are the foundation stones of the New Testament. And before the story is all over, in Acts, chapter 17, verse six, they will say, These men turn the world upside down. Ordinary men. Layman’s laborer, prone to all the sins that you’re prone to errors, bad judgments, bad attitudes, lapses of faith and failures. And they were given the highest calling and the highest Commission that has ever been given. And I tell you, as believers today, you stand in their heritage because really the great Commission is now yours. It’s been passed on to you.

So you may ask the question, well what happened to these guys? According to tradition, handed down from us from the early Church, the same fate befelled all these men except for the Apostle John. Peter was crucified upside down at his request, feeling unworthy of being crucified the way the Lord had been.

His brother Andrew reportedly was also crucified tied instead of being nailed so that his death could take longer. James, the son of John, is the only Apostle whose death is recorded in Scripture. King Agrippa killed him.

Philip was said to have been stoned to death in Asia Minor.

Matthew burned at the stake.

Thomas likely reached India, where some traditions say that he was killed by the spear.

James, the son of Alfius, was stoned to death by the Jews for preaching Jesus.

Simon the Zealot, according to tradition, preached the gospel in North Africa, especially in Egypt. And there he was martyred, sawed in half like Elijah.

Thaddeus was a preacher of the gospel in modernday Turkey. And we found from the early Church fathers that he was clubbed to death. This group gave their life for this message, gave their life for this message.

That sometimes to my shame, I’m afraid to share. Ordinary in every single way like you and me, and yet faithful and brave because of the one they spent time with. They were changed men because they had been with Jesus, because his calling was for them. His calling is for us as well. Hey, let me just say this there is no backup plan.

God chose these ordinary men and said, bring this message to the world. And then God chose all of you ordinary people and said, bring this message to the whole world.

There is no backup crew. Like the twelve, you have been selected by God to win the world.

And you may say I’m nothing special. I can’t do that. I don’t know enough. I’m not good enough. I have no accolades. I don’t have no pedigree. I have no education. And I would just tell you, welcome to the club. Because those are the only type of people that Jesus ever used to change the world.

I want to leave you with the practice. We don’t ever do this in our church, but I want to kind of push up against this kind of nature and this tension for us to be Sunday churchgoers. I want to encourage you this week. This week in honor of the twelve why don’t you pick twelve people that you can invite to Church, lean in. And give it a shot. Be a little bit afraid. Do it. Because what these guys did is really supposed to be a legacy that we’re supposed to own up to. Don’t be discouraged because you’re ordinary it’s because you’re ordinary people in God’s hand that God can do extraordinary things with you. Let’s pray for Communion.

Father we come before you with just a great encouragement from these men, Lord. Who would have known like first off who would have chosen these people apart from Your divine sovereignty? Who’d have chose men that were prone to arguments and men that were so weak? Lord it’s that idea that just encourages me so much, God because here I stand before you not being very confident, not feeling like I have it all together and yet realizing that in your hands if I stay with you you could do extraordinary things with me. And Lord, you’ve already done extraordinary things with so many of us here. Dad, I pray that we’ll take on the challenge of being willing to share our faith, being willing to get open being willing to invite someone to worship with us.

I pray that we’ll take that on as a just as something that we have to carry as being called by you to preach the gospel and to impact people’s lives.

Dad, let us be brave and courageous. Let us not be afraid of the world but instead live in a sense of awe and wonder towards you. Dad, as we embark on taking Communion here I pray that we’ll have a moment of reflection as we take the bread that represents your body and the juice that represents the blood poured out. I pray that we’ll remember the sacrifice that Your son made for us so that we could have life and have it to the full. We love you, dad. We praise you in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.