Springs Lighthouse Church

Pastor Brian Michaels: Turn with me to Matthew chapter 17, if you would please. We left off at verse 24, so that is where we will pick up in our study this morning.

Lord, we pray that as we approach your word, you would allow our hearts to be settled before you, our minds to be settled before you. Father, that we would be able to hear clearly from your spirit. Lord, we ask that you would be the one who is our teacher and that you would do whatever work you desire in our hearts. Lord, there may be something here that challenges us or convicts us, and Lord, there may be something here that warms our hearts and encourages us and strengthens us. Lord, in any case, whatever it is, we invite your work in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Matthew chapter 17, we come close to the end of the chapter and Jesus and the boys, the 12 disciples, have now come back to the area around the Sea of Galilee. Jesus has been telling them about his coming crucifixion and then his subsequent resurrection. He's talking about going to Jerusalem, that he's going to be arrested, that he's going to suffer there, that he's going to die, and then the third day he would rise from the dead. But none of this is making any sense to the disciples. They are probably now at this point in Jesus' ministry more confused about everything that's going on than they ever have been.

That's saying a lot because they've been confused a lot during Jesus' earthly ministry, haven't they? So now they're dealing with this reality that he's telling them about, and it so blows their minds to the point that Peter pulls Jesus aside at one point, remember, and he began rebuking him, telling God how he had it all wrong. Never a good thing when we're telling God how God got it all wrong. Amen? Okay, three of you have learned that. The rest of you are in for a treat as God reveals this to you.

Verse 24: "When they had come to Capernaum." This is again where Jesus had basically set up his headquarters, a little seaside town along the shores of the Galilee. "When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, 'Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?'" This is interesting. There are a number of things that interest me here. Number one, clearly it seems they've given up on challenging Jesus directly. How has that gone for them when the religious leaders came and challenged Jesus?

The group that everyone else in society put up on a pedestal, the spiritual elite, every time they come and challenge Jesus, they walk away looking like imbeciles. Jesus ties them in knots with the scriptures that they should have known, but they didn't know. And of course Jesus being the one who wrote them, knows them quite well and is able to deal with any accusation that they bring against him. So now it seems they're going to try a different tactic: we'll come and we'll question Peter.

I have to give them their props, that's probably a good idea. If I'm going to choose any of these guys to challenge, let's choose Pete. But the temple tax that they're talking about was a tax that was put on those who came to worship at the temple, and it was basically equivalent to two days' wages a year. This tax was used for the upkeep of the temple, for the maintenance of everything around the temple, perhaps even the temple instruments. Whatever they needed for the upkeep of the temple grounds was provided for by this temple tax that equated to two days' wages for the average laborer.

What's interesting about this is that this account, what happens here in these next few verses, is only recorded in one of the gospel records, and it's Matthew's, the tax collector. No wonder it caught his notice, right? So Matthew records they now come to Peter and they're like, "Does the teacher pay the temple tax?" And Peter said, verse 25, "Yes." But look at the next phrase. "And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, 'What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes? From their sons or from strangers?'"

When I read this, I can't help but get the idea where it says Jesus anticipated him, that these guys come to Jesus, "Does the teacher pay the temple tax?" He says, "Of course he does." And then he goes inside the house, and you know what he's going to say. "Lord, do you pay the temple tax? Because I told them yes, because I just kind of assumed you did." But Jesus anticipates him and says, "Let me ask you a question about this tax that is on your mind, Peter. From whom do the kings of the earth take customs? From their sons or from strangers?"

Peter said to him, "From strangers." Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free." Now this is interesting because what Jesus is explaining to Peter is Jesus didn't have to pay the tax. It's the idea that within any kingdom on the earth where there is a sovereign, where there is an all-powerful potentate, where there is a king, which by the way we do not have in our country, just want to establish that. This whole no-kings thing is such a farce to me. We haven't had a king since we booted the last one out 250 years ago. We're still excited about that, apparently. Okay.

But when a king ruled over a nation, do you think that their children paid taxes? Of course they didn't. They lived off of the people's taxes, didn't they? So it's not the sons who pay the tax if they're living within the king's land. They were exempted from taxes in the king's land, sort of like our diplomatic immunity, only a little different because it deals with taxes. So here's Jesus' point: whose temple is it? It's God's temple. Who's the Son of God? Jesus. Jesus did not have to pay taxes for his temple. That's the idea.

However, verse 27: "Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money. Take that and give it to them for me and you." Now, your mind probably doesn't work the way mine does, and for that you should thank God every day. But I read this and one of the first things that occurs to me is what are the other 11 standing there saying? "What about my temple tax? Are you going to pay mine too? Why Pete? Why does Peter get you to pay his temple tax?"

But this is interesting how this all works out. Jesus looks at Peter, the fisherman. You've got Matthew the tax collector being the only one that records this instance about taxes. Then you've got Peter the fisherman, he's told to go down to the Sea of Galilee and throw in a hook. That's interesting because generally their fishing was done with nets. This was their business. They weren't catching one fish at a time. They were going out and catching large loads of fish in their nets, especially when Jesus showed up.

And he tells him, "Go just cast in a hook, and the first fish that you take," indicating maybe he was going to stay for a while, "but the first one that comes up, you're going to find a coin in its mouth." The Greek word that is translated coin is the word stater. It is equivalent to the temple tax for two individuals. So that temple tax, the didrachma, that was for one person, equal to two days' wages for that person, that temple tax is represented for two people in the stater. You're going to find one coin that is worth enough for you to pay, Peter, your taxes and my taxes.

So I look at this and I say, "Well, I've got to teach this, Lord. What is our application for the fellowship? Is there an application specifically for men in the fellowship?" And here's what I came up with: every early April we should all go fishing. See, there you go. And there's something here for all of you that are of the strict Reformist theology, those of you that are strict Calvinists. I want you to know that this fish was predestined to pick up this coin and have it ready for Pete.

Now, in all seriousness, there's actually application to be made here, and it wouldn't be what you think necessarily. I don't think that there is anything in this passage that is specifically applicable to paying our taxes. That's not what Jesus is dealing with. I think it's much more simple than that, and I think it's much more touching. I will say this, there are other passages in the scripture that clearly instruct us that we are to pay our taxes. That's a command in the scripture. Listen, I don't like it any more than you do.

It's one of those pages I would just as soon just take out of my Bible where it says that we are to submit to the governing authorities. But clearly Jesus told us to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Now he doesn't say we have to pay one cent more than is required. But whenever you start to come up with an argument about, "Well, I don't think I have to pay all these taxes to an ungodly, humanistic government that is so corrupt and evil," think about the government that Jesus and Peter were living under at the time that they made these kinds of comments. When Paul says submit to the governing authorities, the governing authorities were Rome. Brutal, self-centered, hard on the people, evil in the things that they did. And they were told to pay taxes.

So we can't get out of it that easily, but I don't think this passage has anything to do with that. This has to do with the simplicity of God's provision. And I think this is really important for us. I think when I sit up here and I hear Leona share about her ministry and the way that God has provided for her—and again, if you're able to tune into the radio show this week, we're going to talk more about this—there are times in our lives where God steps in to provide for us in ways that maybe to a lot of other people around us might seem even insignificant. But you know how it impacts you because you realize, "Lord, you did this just for me. You did this just for me. You didn't have to do this. And I had just this weird little thing over here that I wanted and Lord, you provided."

I think about this often in terms of my opportunities to go to Florida. I know that I get these questions all the time: "When are you moving to Florida?" And there is no plan to move to Florida, okay? If my wife passes away before me, then start asking me. But until then, she's not moving to Florida. And I'm fond of her, so I'm not moving to Florida. Guys are killing me. But one of the things that I ask the Lord is, "Lord, you know I love the beach, you know I love the sun. Can you provide a way that I can a couple of times of year get there to just rest my mind and rest my heart and rest my spirit?" And he doesn't have to do that for me.

But every time he does, I'm so incredibly grateful that God would give me a blessing that I don't deserve and is not a need; it is strictly a want. And for the Lord to say, "Here." You have those times? And they're a blessing to us, aren't they? "Hey, Pete. Go down, throw in a hook, catch a fish. Look in its mouth, because that's something we often do, search for coins in a fish's mouth. And you're going to find a coin there, and go pay the temple tax for both of us."

Chapter 18, verse 1: "At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, 'Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'" Here they go again. In fact, Mark tells us when he records this account that they had been arguing over this previously, then Jesus comes along and they're like, "Oh, we'll get this settled. Lord, who's the greatest in the kingdom?" Remember, this is why his talk of crucifixion bothered them so much. They still think in their mind, he's the Messiah, but what Messiah looks like and what Messiah will perform is he's going to go into Jerusalem, he's going to set up his kingdom there, and we're going to be his cabinet members.

But who gets to sit on his right hand and who gets to sit on his left? And if Jesus won't tell us, James and John are thinking, "We're going to send mommy to go ask him," because they do that eventually. "Who is the greatest among us?" And I think, "Okay, what sparks this now? Is it because Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to the Mount of Transfiguration and didn't take the rest of the boys?" Are Pete, Jimmy, and Johnny like, "Hey guys, we got to go up on the mount with Jesus. What we saw there was so amazing, but Jesus said we can't talk about it until the resurrection, whatever that means."

"Well, what happened?" "We can't tell you. We'd love to tell you, but then we'd have to kill you." Can you imagine the conversations with these guys? So is this why they're now coming? "Lord, tell us who's the greatest." Or "It's probably Peter, right, because you just paid his temple tax." "Who of us is the greatest among us?" And here's how Jesus responds. I love this. Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them. "Little child," the Greek word translated there "little child" is very specific in the sense that it could be an infant or a toddler, but only in that age range. So this is not a ten-year-old kid running around, this is not a teenager. This is a little child. Probably not an infant, because the idea of taking an infant from its mother and laying them there in the midst kind of bothers me. But probably a toddler, a young child.

He sets them there in the midst of them, and one of the things that interests me, we see a couple of times where Jesus reaches out to a child or he has some kind of relationship or conversation with a child, and children were never afraid of Jesus. Children were never afraid of Jesus. Think about that for just a moment, because I've seen children afraid of a lot of things that we didn't really expect them to be afraid of, haven't you? You take your kids to Disneyland and you're thinking, "This is going to be so exciting for them. They're going to love this. Let's go get a picture with Mickey." And they see some giant mouse with massive hands walking towards them like this with a big smile and they're like, "Waaah!" and they freak out.

I've seen kids afraid of Santa Claus, kids afraid of the Easter Bunny. Okay, so who wouldn't be? I've seen kids... Every once in a while a child is afraid of me. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen where I get down on a knee to speak to a child. I can tell they're really timid, and I get it. I'm sure they're looking at me going, "His head's on upside down. The hair's on the wrong side of that face." I get concerned when I see someone that children are habitually afraid of. Because there was something about Jesus that he could have the intensity on his face that he could walk through the courtyard of the temple with a whip and he could drive out the money changers and those who bought and sold in the temple and flip over their tables with animals and coins going everywhere, and no one dared try to stop him.

And yet he comes into the presence of a child, and the gentleness and the sweetness of his communication and his conversation with them, they're never afraid of him. And what a picture of what God intended for a man to be. To be able to have the intensity and sometimes, let's face it, in some situations probably far less than we would like to choose, but guys, there is a time where violence is acceptable for a man in defending our families, in taking care of what God has given to us, in protecting others. When I put that cop hat on, violence sometimes is a necessity. But to also be able to flip that switch where we can be tender and we can be compassionate in the places where God intends us to be tender and compassionate, particularly with our families.

Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted," unless you experience a change of direction from your lunacy of "who among us is the greatest," "unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." They're worried about which of us is going to be on the top of the heap of the twelve of us. And at this point they don't know it's certainly not going to be Judas. But they have no idea of any of this. "Who of us is the greatest?" Jesus says, "Let me reset this for you. If you don't become like a child, you're not even getting into the kingdom you're talking about being the greatest in. You need to be like a child. Not childish, guys, childlike."

What does that mean to become like a child? I think the simplest answer is dependent. Dependent. To trust in the Lord where we understand our dependence upon him, that without him we can do nothing. Yes, with him we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Amen? Whatever he's got in store for us, we can do through the strength of Christ. But without him, we can do nothing. That offends our sensibilities, especially as men. But I think for ladies too, we like to think that somehow we're really pretty capable.

But even in our own capability of our flesh, with the strengths and abilities that God has given to us, our talents, where did those come from? From the Lord. I wasn't born with anything that God didn't give to me. And so even if I'm operating in my own strength, in the power of my own flesh, my own wisdom, even then if something is accomplished through it, it's what God did in the sense that he gave those faculties in the first place. Do we understand our complete and total dependence on the Lord?

A little child is just dependent on their dad. When my kids were little, before I gave them a reason not to trust me, which I think every dad does at some point, right? Stephen loved being thrown up into the air and me catching him until I bounced his head off the ceiling. Then he wasn't so sure after that. Explains a lot, doesn't it? But you know how dependent our kids are on us. When your child was three or four, did you ever lay them in bed and have them ask, "Mom, will we have a house tomorrow? Dad, where's tomorrow's meals coming from?" They don't think about it. They trust you to provide for them.

In the same way, we grow in our understanding of our dependence upon the Lord. That's what Jesus is saying. There aren't going to be any proud, self-sufficient people pressing their way into the kingdom of God. Just not going to happen that way. Remember the Sermon on the Mount? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When we realize there is nothing in me that God didn't put there, and there's nothing in me that I can accomplish that will last for eternity unless God ultimately does the work, and we depend on him completely, especially for our salvation. Because I can't do anything to earn it. I can't do anything to merit it. Amen? It's all on account of what he did at Calvary, but beyond that, even still we learn dependence on him, don't we?

Therefore, verse 4: "Whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." If that's not upside down. Greatness in the kingdom of heaven is found in humility. Esteeming others better than ourselves, loving others and giving ourselves to serve them. And he says in verse 5, "Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me."

I want to take a moment and talk about this because I think this is important. I want every one of you that are Sunday school teachers, that you minister down in the Kids' Cove, I want you to take note of this. "Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me." And those of you that are feeling maybe a stirring to get involved in Kids' Cove, our children's ministry, and you're thinking, "Man, I don't know. Is that the ministry for me to get involved with?" Start the process. Because every time that a parent brings that child and checks them in and sends them down into your classroom, whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me.

I hope you take that to heart, because when you work in children's ministry, it is likely that you will receive very little notoriety in this life. It is highly likely you will receive very little reward here on this earth. But what you gain in heaven is priceless because God loves those little kids. How many of you love your children? There are times, but mostly. Well, mine are adults. I don't know if I can answer that question. How about your grandchildren? Have you noticed, or great-grandchildren? Some of you have great-grandchildren. Why is it that every successive generation of kids we seem to love them more? I don't know if it's a factor of our age getting older, but it just seems like there's a greater affection that we have, because I think we're not trying to figure out the discipline and discipling part and all of that and where that balance is. We just get to enjoy them, right?

But we love those kids. Here's the thing: God loves them more than you do. And he cares about them so much that he gives us this contrast. So first of all he says, "You receive one little child in my name, you receive me." That's huge. Conversely, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin..." The word translated "sin" is skandalon. It means to stumble. "Whoever causes a little one to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea."

And the word there that is translated sea, it's a different word from what we saw earlier when Jesus tells Peter to go down to the sea and throw in a hook. That's one that refers to the Sea of Galilee. This refers to the Mediterranean. Much deeper. If you're going to offend a little child, if you're going to cause them to stumble, you're going to cause them to sin, it would be better for you that a millstone... You know what a millstone is? It's that big giant stone that an ox or a donkey would turn that would grind up their grain. It would grind their grain into meal. It's that large stone weighing sometimes more than a ton. That they would have that wrapped around their neck and drowned into the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. This sounds much less like God the Father and much more like The Godfather, doesn't it?

This is harsh. But it tells you how much God loves those kids. Might explain for some of you why I've shared this before: I pray every once in a while occasionally in my prayer time when I'm thinking about kids' ministry, I pray that if there's ever anyone who comes into our fellowship and tries to work their way in a backhanded way around our background checks and all of those kinds of things, but comes in with an attitude that they want to hurt one of those children, that God just strikes them dead on the spot. I don't make any apologies for that prayer. That may offend some. It always does. Somebody writes to me like, "I just think that was really harsh." It's not harsher than what Jesus says here. It's a lot easier to be struck dead on the spot than have a millstone wrapped around your neck and drowned in Lake Pueblo, which we can arrange.

There are some that will be offended, and then there are some who will applaud. We call those parents. God cares about those kids, and we in the ministry here care about those kids as well. "Woe to the world," verse 7, "because of offenses. For offenses must come." Wow. Don't like that either. Jesus is no longer talking just about children. I think he's obviously talking about all of us in our Christian walk at this point. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come.

Perhaps I don't know if you're in that habit, maybe you need to underline that in your Bible. Maybe you need to highlight it. Maybe you need to put a little star next to it so that you remember that Jesus promised this. We live in a culture that looks for opportunities to take offense, where the scripture says we should be looking for options not to take offense. Everything in our culture flies in the face of what God tells us. Offenses will come. You will be offended. You don't need to look for offense; they're going to come. And especially if we're talking about stumbling blocks. They're going to come into our lives.

But woe to that man by whom the offense comes. See, this is where we learn to let God deal with those that are the offenders. Trusting again, trusting, dependent on him to help us with the attitude of our own hearts when someone offends us, so that we don't become unforgiving and bitter because that's our natural tendency, but rather we're looking for God to intervene. "Lord, you take care of them and their offenses. I'm just going to trust you."

Verse 8: he says, "If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you." Please don't leave now. You need to hear the explanation of this. Don't want anybody running out here like, "I've got to go take care of my hand." "If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire."

Love this. Jesus doesn't just say if your hand or your foot or your eye causes you to sin, cut it off or pluck it out. He says cut it off or pluck it out and then take the other hand and throw it as far away from you as you can. That's pretty crazy, isn't it? You thought he was being tough dealing with those who would harm a child. This is pretty extreme. So what is Jesus saying? That we get rid of our worship team because next week they'll all be only one-handed? Is he saying that he wants us to have a congregation of lame, maimed people? I don't think so. Please do not go home and start chopping off body parts and plucking out eyeballs.

I do not believe that Jesus is calling us to literally do that. "Pastor, you've said in the past that you believe we should take the scripture literally unless there's clear reason to do so." Yes, I believe that. There is clear reason to do so. To take this as illustrative rather than a command that is to be taken literally. Why? Well, just process this through for a moment. If my right hand causes me to sin by stealing... Can we all agree together stealing is sin? "Thou shalt not steal." Now can we all agree together that stealing is sin? You were scaring me there for a moment. So we can all agree together stealing is sin. So I go in, I take something with my right hand. Then I start getting convicted. "Lord, I stole. I grabbed something with my hand. I took it." So I cut off my right hand. Does that deal with the problem? No, because what's going to happen next time? I'll steal with my left hand.

See, so it's illogical. If I were to punch someone in the face just because I didn't like the way they looked at me... Okay, let's say I haul off with my right hand and I punch them in the face, not as a cop but in my regular life. Want to clarify that, because that'll be on body cam. If I just don't like the way they looked at me and I haul off and I pop them in the nose and I'm thinking, "Oh man, I should not have done that. That was sin. I let my anger get the best of me." I cut off my right hand. What's going to happen when that person looks at me the same way the next time? I'm going to hit them with my left hand. And if I cut off my left hand, then I'm going to kick them. And if I've cut off my right foot, I'm going to kick them with my left foot, and then I've got to cut that off. And when I see them again, I'm going to headbutt them. And I'm not sure once I cut my head off how I'm supposed to cast it far from me.

So obviously, logically, this is not what God's telling us literally to do. If you sin with your right eye... Now when we talk about sinning with our eyes, generally covetous comes to mind, but I think it's more specific than that. We talk about sinning with our eyes, first thing that comes to our mind in Western culture is lust. When was the last time you lusted with one eye? Right? When was the last time you drove down Academy Boulevard on a hot summer day and there's some gal out there with a sign, "free car wash in a bikini," and she's like, "free car wash," and you're like... "I want to save at least one eye for church next week."

And do you think for a moment that blind men can't lust? Or blind women can't lust? So obviously he's not telling us literally to start mutilating our bodies. But I think what he says is still really hard because what he's telling us is that we need to deal radically with sin in our lives. We need to cast it far from us. And here's where it gets really tricky for us because we understand that we are in an age of grace. And we understand that we're not saved by what we do and God's pleasure in us is not merely a function of how we behave or how we serve. He loves us because we are robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And we stand before him in that grace. But we cannot allow that grace to become a doormat where we trudge through the muck and the mire of the world all the rest of the week and we come to worship and we wipe our feet on the grace of God and we come in and we worship and then we just go out to live our lives however we desire. That doesn't show that we truly understand what grace is. But when we look at our lives and we realize, "I've got these trouble spots, I've got these things that I just wrestle with again and again," he says, "Cut it off. Get it away from you." And what he's saying is that it is okay, it's not legalistic to put boundaries up in your life.

The rest of the world may laugh at you; they will mock you. In fact, some other believers may mock you for your boundaries. But we have to set different boundaries in place. It becomes legalism when the Bible doesn't give a clear boundary, I set one for myself and then set it for all of you as well. That's legalism. It is not legalistic for me to place boundaries in my life as to what I will watch, what I will read, what I will look at, where I will go, what I will partake in. All of these things are things that the Holy Spirit of God is going to work in our hearts because we don't want to offend the holiness of God.

Does that make sense? It's an issue of radically dealing with areas in our lives where we struggle, where we don't look at a passage like this where Jesus says, "If your right hand offends you, cut it off; if your right eye offends you, pluck it out," we go, "Oh, that's gross," and we get so caught up in the grossness of it—chopped-off hands and plucked-out eyeballs, "Ew, I can't believe I came to church today"—and we get so offended at the grossness of what Jesus says that we miss the point of how gross our sin is in the sight of God. Because we serve an infinitely holy God, far surpassing anything we can ever hope to contemplate and understand in these earthly bodies. The angels around the throne cry out, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." And anything in my life that offends that sense of his holiness, may the Lord teach us to deal with it radically. That's the point.

So Father, we thank you and we praise you for your word this morning, even in the moments when it cuts us to the quick. Lord, I pray that every one of us in these next few moments as we worship, as we meditate upon the things that you have spoken to us, Lord, I pray that you would do business with us in these areas of our lives. Lord, search us and try us. See if there is any wicked way within us. And Lord, reveal those things to us so that we can take the opportunity to radically deal with our sinful condition, to take those things that are displeasing to you and deal with them, Lord, not to obtain your favor but in appreciation of your favor. Lord, just minister to the hearts of your people today. Remind us of the forgiveness that is ours in Christ, but help us at the same time to learn what it means to set boundaries so that we stay far from the edge, that our lives would in fact be lived in your glory, to your glory, and to the benefit of others.

Lord, I pray for anyone in this room today that for the first time needs to give their heart and life to you, needs to come into relationship with you. Father, perhaps there's one here this morning that would say, "That's me. I need a relationship with the God who cares about me this much." Father, you have provided that way through the sacrifice of your Son at Calvary, taking our sin upon himself and dying in our place, and then conquering sin and death in his resurrection. And Father, I pray that there would be those right now that would say, "Lord, forgive me. Cleanse me. I believe that salvation is found through Jesus Christ, and I come to you through his sacrifice right now. Accept me as your child. I turn from my old life, I turn to you. Lord, cleanse me from anything that separates me from you on the basis of what Jesus did for me at Calvary." And Father, for those that would pray that prayer, we welcome them into your family. Lord, I pray that you would seal them by your spirit and begin to mark out your path for them, that they might serve you and walk with you and enjoy sweet fellowship with you. We pray all of this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen. Would you stand with me please?