Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: I want to talk about single women today. We're doing a series in Women in the Life of Jesus, and I'm going to talk about Mary of Magdala today. Mary Magdalene. And I've been saving Mary. I could have used her in many ways. I could have used her in the study that we did on sick women. I could have used her in the study on sorrowing women. I could have certainly used her and I sort of mentioned her in the study on successful women, because she belongs there, in Luke Chapter 8.

But basically speaking, I saved her because she is such a precious member of the close circle of the Lord Jesus' companions that I wanted to look into her life in a little more detail. Her name Mary, from which Miriam, Mara, (M-A-R-A-H, M-A-R-A) all these derivations come from. Very popular name in the Bible days. It means bitter, means afflicted. The waters of Mara, the waters of bitterness, do you remember the children of Israel came along and found some waters that turned bitter when they drank them? Miriam means bitterness or affliction, and I suppose Mary of Magdala could say, "That's me."

Do you remember when Ruth and Naomi came back to the city that they had left? Naomi had gone out full and the Lord brought her back bitter, and they said, "Is this Naomi? This wizened little woman, this poor little thing? Is this Naomi?" And she said, "Don't call me Naomi, which means pleasure. Call me Mara, or Mary, which means bitter. I went out full and the Lord has brought me back empty." And so the name means bitterness.

Magdala, what does that mean? Well, that's the town she came from. There was a tower, there was a castle there. In the time of Christ, it was popular, it was thriving, it was on the coast. It was about three miles from Capernaum. And so I'm sure that Mary of Magdala heard about the Nazarene as he began his ministry, as strange stories began to circulate about this wonder worker, this miracle maker, who lived and worked just down the coast away from her.

There were dye works in the place, primitive textile factory that contributed to the wealth of that particular community. Many people think that Mary was connected with this business because there is no question about it: Mary was a very wealthy woman. There is no record of her married status or her home life, but she was free to follow Jesus on the road in his travels as he ministered, and this leads us to believe that she was at this point in her life, at any rate, a single woman and did not have the responsibilities at home that would keep her from following Jesus. She was not the same lady as the sinner lady in Luke 8. She was not a prostitute.

And perhaps this needs to be really underlined because for years, that's what I thought Mary was—that she was a bad lady, that she was a prostitute. And many, many people think this. The story of Mary, or the first mention of her, follows the story of the sinner woman, and that's one reason that a lot of people have linked her. In Luke Chapter 7, you'll find the story of the sinner woman who broke the little alabaster box. She is called the sinner of the city, and everybody knew who she was. Do you remember that story? Jesus anointed by the sinful woman, Verse 36 of Luke 7.

And then as soon as that story finishes, it says in 8:1: "After this incident, Jesus traveled about from town to town, from village to village, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. The 12 were with him and also some women who'd been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out, Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod's household, Susanna, and many others. These women were helping to support them (meaning the disciples and Jesus) out of their own means."

When we have seen the sinner woman bring her little particular gift to Jesus, she is described in a way that cannot fit the character of Mary of Magdala. It never is inferred that Mary was a sexual sinner in that sense of the word. She was not a prostitute. She is always heading up the list of those around Jesus, of the elite group of women that ministered to him. And she is spoken of as being seven times possessed, and seven, of course, was always used as a number of completeness.

And perhaps this is to indicate to us that her malady, her infirmity, her problem was absolutely complete. She was completely obsessed, completely possessed. She was insane. She was gone. She was just an absolutely wild woman, but she was not a prostitute. And we need to get that in mind. Perhaps the idea of Mary being a prostitute has come down to us because in the early centuries, houses of prostitution were named after her by the Roman Catholic Church—not because the Roman Catholic Church believed she was a prostitute, either, but they just named their houses for unfortunate women Magdala Houses.

And so the system has continued the thought that this woman was indeed a sexual sinner. But she was, I am sure, very highly thought of as the other successful women were thought of and had a great deal of influence, as we will see. 14 times in the Gospels, she is connected and mentioned with the other women, always heading up the list, except around the cross where it is fitting that his mother and his mother's cousin are mentioned first.

Now, Christ saved her. He touched her life. He cast out those demons. He liberated her to be part of the blessing of his life. He liberated Mary, and she in turn served her Lord Jesus as perhaps no other single person is depicted in serving him throughout the scriptures. She left her home to follow him. She gave of her means, she gave of her money, she gave of her considerable talents, I'm sure, and her devotion was always unquestioned. We believe she was in Pilate's Hall and saw Jesus scourged.

We know that she was at the cross. We know that she was in the garden tomb. And so Mary made it her business, Mary of Magdala, to be where Jesus was. She used her singleness to minister and to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And for that reason, and that particular reason, I've chosen her today to represent to us the single woman. Now, I want to say that I'm going to link this story of Mary with a passage in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, and so you'll need to have that open as well: 1 Corinthians Chapter 7.

Many, many times when I'm traveling, I'm asked to speak to the position of the single woman. And of course, in our society, there are more and more single women. Single who have never been married, single who don't want to get married, single who have been married and would like to still be married but aren't married, single of their own choosing and making, single in the sense of being a widow, single again after being married. Many, many single people around.

You go to cities like Houston, Texas, where the city is built for singles: the hotels are built for singles, the condominiums are built for singles, and it is becoming a single society, so we are told by the sociologists. Many, many single women. What does the Bible say to the subject of the single woman and singleness? Well, you can't really find out just in a couple of passages in half an hour talk, but I'm going to zero in on some places in the scriptures that you might want to examine further at your leisure.

1 Corinthians Chapter 7. Let me give you a little bit of background on this passage. Paul has been addressing a whole bunch of people who live in a very secularized, sexual, sensual society where immorality and Eros sex is worshiped, and we touched on this when we talked about sexual women. But he writes a letter to the little group of believers, and he tries to put singleness and marriage in perspective. And this is one of the places he tackles the problems that are arising in the local church concerning the behavior of women, whether in marriage or outside.

I do not want to touch on the married portions of this particular letter—it would take hours to really take that apart for you—but I want to pick out what he says about singleness. And in the end of Chapter 6, he says: "Now, flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually, sins against his own body. Do you not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You're not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body."

And he goes on, that's the preamble to Chapter 7. "Now, about the matters you wrote about." And these people had been writing him saying, "What about marriage? Is it good to marry, or is it good to stay single?" And so he begins to address this subject. "It's good for a man not to marry, but since there's so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, each woman her own husband." Then he goes on into a little bit about the husbands and the duties of the wife, talking about self-control, saying that even if you're married, there should be self-control concerning sexual matters in your marriage.

You don't just get married and let anything go, he says. The idea is to be self-controlled, whether you are single or whether you are married. And then he picks it up at Verse 8: "Now, to the unmarried and to the widows, I say it's good for them to stay unmarried as I am. As I am." Here Paul was single. He is saying, "At this point in my life." There are some people that believe Paul was married and that his wife left him when he became a Christian. And there is some evidence to that, that he could not be a member of the Sanhedrin unless he was married.

But at this point in his life, whether that be true or not, he is speaking as a single person. "If they cannot control themselves, they should marry. It's better to marry than to burn with passion." And then he goes on again to the married; he gives this command. And then in Verse 12, he says this: "To the rest I say this: I, not the Lord." Now, this isn't Paul saying something that isn't scriptural, just his opinion as some have suggested.

What he is saying here is: "The Lord has not spoken to this matter. We do not have anything that we can find from the apostles that Jesus said to the subject of singleness. And so seeing Jesus didn't specifically address the matters to which you're writing to me about, I am addressing them." So to this matter, I speak. The Lord hasn't said anything about it. That is the meaning of that little bit: "I, not the Lord." Which many have taken to say, "Oh, well, that's only Paul then, it isn't scriptural, it's just his opinion, let's throw it out."

You can't do that. This is just as much inspired as the things the Lord said. Paul said many things that Jesus didn't say because he was chosen of God to explain in practicalities the life that we are to live that Jesus had lived out for us in model and exhortation. "So, to the rest I say this: I, not the Lord. If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she's willing to live with him." And he goes on about divorce and remarriage for a little bit. Then he gets down to 17.

So this is all mixed up with the married and the single, and I'm just picking out the single bits here. "Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him, to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches." And then he says: "If you're already circumcised when you became a Christian, stay circumcised. If you're already a slave, stay a slave because you're now the Lord's freeman. God will set you free even if you're a slave."

And then he says: "Now, if you're given the chance of freedom, take it and use it for God. But if you are not given the chance of freedom, don't seek it, don't run away. Be a good slave. Be the best slave that there is in the whole street, so people say, 'What's up with this slave? He serves his master so well.' And then you can tell them it's because I've become a Christian." So if you are a Jew and you're a circumcised Jew, stay a circumcised Jew.

"If you're a slave when you became a Christian, don't let it trouble you," he says. "Although if you can gain your freedom, do so. He who is a slave when he was called by the Lord is Christ's slave." So he uses two pictures before he comes to the issue of singleness, Verse 25. "Now, about virgins. Here again, I have no command from the Lord, but I give you judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy." In other words, he's not saying Jesus didn't think this way.

He's saying Jesus didn't speak to this specifically issue—but I am under the inspiration of the Spirit giving you my spiritual judgment on it. "Because of the present crisis, I think it's good for you to remain as you are. Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. But if you do marry, you haven't sinned. If a virgin marries, she hasn't sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on, those who have wives should live as though they had none, those who mourn as if they did not, those who are happy as if they were not, those who buy something as if it were not theirs to keep, those who use the things of the world as if not engrossed in them. For this world and its present form is passing away. I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs, how he can please the Lord.

But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world, how he can please his wife, and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs. Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world, how she can please her husband. I'm saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. Undivided devotion to the Lord."

And let's stop there for a minute and think about this. First of all, Paul is saying that singleness is good. Stay single if you can hack it, he says, if you can control yourself. If by the Spirit of God you know what it is to have good self-control, this is a good boat to fish out of. Being single is a great boat to fish out of. You do not have the responsibilities; you might have some responsibilities to your parents or to children, but if you are single without children—and in this instance, when he says virgins, that's what he's meaning—if you are single without children, he says, that's a good place to be.

Not only is it a good place to be, it's a gift. It's a gift. "Each man has his own gift from God," Verse 7. One man has this gift, another man has that gift. He says the gift of marriage is a gift from God. The gift of singleness is a gift from God. And what are we supposed to do with a gift? Accept it. And this is a real problem with single women. They don't want to accept it. Have you ever been given a gift you didn't want?

When Stuart and I are traveling, he likes to travel with a little tiny case for about three months, a little attaché case, and he looks in horror at my one middle-size case. I'm sure he would contradict me if he heard me describing it as a middle-size case, but it usually is a middle-size case. I tell him that he could have a lot bigger case than this to cart around. But when we go abroad, people give you gifts, and they give you gifts from the area, which is very nice.

You often are given a gift that's just too heavy to carry, so you get rid of it as soon as you can because you don't really want it. And that's how I find that singles often treat the gift of singleness. Stand up and make a speech about it, I'd even share your testimony in a small group about it. "God has given me this wonderful freedom by being single, and I'm so happy about it and I've got such joy in my heart." It's not true, and you're just trying to figure out how you can get rid of it at the first opportunity. "Who can I give this to? Who'd want it? I mean, God, I want the gift of marriage."

You might even stand up and give a nice speech to God, but of course he's not fooled. And the Bible says that singleness is a good place to be and that singleness is a gift. "Each man has his own gift from God." Be very careful what you're doing with that gift of singleness. Why not unwrap it and discover the joys that God has given you wrapped up in that gift of singleness? Accept it. Verse 17: "Each one should retain the place in life that the Lord has assigned to him, to which God has called him."

Did you know that singleness was a calling? Not only a gift, but a calling? God has called you. It's a vocation. It is a privilege, not a punishment—a privilege. And whether in the future God will ever lean out of Heaven and give you another gift, a gift of marriage, is really in your future, not today. Today you have a gift of singleness. Whatever you're given tomorrow, today is his day, and today you are single. And this is the day the Lord has made. You do not have tomorrow; you only have today. Today you are not married. Are you going to spend the whole day wishing that you were, leaving the gift behind you?

Singleness is a gift. Each man has his own gift from God. One has this gift (he's talking about singleness), one has that gift (the gift of marriage). Then, of course, Christ loved single women, it's obvious. He allowed single women to share his ministry. He taught that singleness is good and that singleness is a gift, didn't he? Jesus was single himself. Jesus never got married for his own divine reasons.

And in essence, I believe he said to the single world: "Singleness is good. It's hard sometimes. It's a good place to be. Now I can give my undivided devotion to the Lord." He models singleness as a good thing and as a gift. It was his gift. God gave him the gift of singleness, and he bore it proudly and joyfully until he went back to Heaven. So both married and single women should live single-mindedly.

And I know what some of you are thinking: "It's all very well for you, Jill Briscoe, to stand up there and talk about singleness. You're married. Don't you hate talks on singleness by married people? Don't you hate talks on parenting by people that have never had kids?" And so I'm absolutely sure that some of you are saying, "What do you know about it? You were only—what were you? 23 when you got married? So you only had 23 years to be single."

Well, that's true. I do not know what it's like to live a whole life in singleness. But there's a little verse in here that tells me that both single and married women should live single-mindedly, and that means me. And the verse, of course, is one that's heavily underlined in my Bible because of the ministry that God has called my husband and I to. Verse 29: "What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on, those who have wives should live as if they had none," and vice-versa, those that have husbands should live as if they had none.

Now, this doesn't mean that you just pretend you're not married, but this is where it's at for the Christian married woman: to live single-mindedly. Single-mindedly. I haven't heard ever a sermon on that verse. I have given one or two at times because it's right in there: that whether we be married or whether we be single, we use the particular gift and place and station and calling that God has given us for him. For him.

And many people would say, "Yes, Stuart Briscoe has lived as if he didn't have a wife." Many people would say, "Yes, Jill Briscoe lives as if she didn't have a husband." We are very well aware that we are married, and we thoroughly enjoy each other, and we are very deeply in love, more in love than we have ever been. But we try and remember that the Bible says the time is short. The time is short.

Why do we live like this? Because of the present crisis. Paul said the time is short, the persecution's coming. "I would spare you the trouble of seeing your children thrown to the lions or set on fire for Nero's dinner parties." There are certain things that I think you can bear better as a single person. Have you ever thought of that, those of you that are married? Have you ever wondered what would happen if persecution came to our country and you were put against the wall?

I've often wondered when you go through a missions conference like we've gone and hear the tales of the people being lined up in the church and the communist coming in and saying, "Each one of you will spit on the photo of Christ as you go out the door." And they lined up the deacons first, and each of the deacons spat on Christ's picture and went out the door. And a little girl, 15 years of age, a Korean girl, came to the picture and took her dress and wiped off the spittle off the picture and turned around, took the picture down and put it against herself and said, "Shoot me. I'm not going to spit on this picture of my Lord." And the communist said, "You can live. You'll make a good communist. You're committed." And they killed everybody else.

Heard that story many times and I've thought: "What would I do? What would you do? If all these doors were suddenly shut and people came in here and said, 'All right, spit on the picture of Jesus.'" What we would do if we were single is probably what we would do if we were married, I wonder. It's one thing to make your own decision. What happens if your kids are in here with you? "I would spare you," said Paul.

There are advantages to not being married. The trouble, the trial, the agony is doubled when families go through persecution in tough times. And Paul was talking to this issue. And thank God we do not stand in that place. We do not face at this moment—and who knows what the future holds—this sort of situation. But because of the present crisis, because the time is short, because of the future prospects, Paul says, "Listen up. There is no time. The world is busy going to Hell."

And we've heard the statistics. Half the world will never hear the Gospel. They will go to a lost eternity without Christ, without God, and without hope. They will never hear. And all the statistics are in, and we know in every country of the world how the church is faring, or if the church is there at all. And so we know that nine out of ten people are lost, that three-quarters are yet to hear once the name of Jesus. Once!

Up in India, in one of those tribes I was telling you about, they walked in, told them about Jesus Christ, and they thought he was a new brand of cigarettes. They'd never heard the name of Jesus once! And that's a place you can get to in localized civilized world. Nine out of ten are lost, three-quarters are yet to hear, half will go to eternity and they will never have a chance. They will be born lost, and they will die lost. And that's why we've got to say: "My singleness or my marriage has to be a single-minded affair." And those that are married have to live as though they are not, for the sake of Christ and his Gospel. And if there is one person that depicted this, not from the marriage point of view but from the single, it is Mary Magdalene.

Because of the future prospects which seemed pretty bleak as Jesus began to get into more and more trouble, because of the divided loyalty that perhaps would have been there if she had been married, she chose to remain single and serve the Lord Jesus. And that's the problem, that's what Paul addresses, isn't it? He talks about husbands as blessed distractions. As blessed distractions.

He says: "Those that get married do well, but those that stay single do better." That's quite a statement. That's quite a statement because there's no question about it: as a wife, they can be a distraction. You can fight with divided loyalty, says Paul. That's what the married has to do. He said, "What a wonderful thing it is when you can attend upon the Lord without distraction." I love that verse. "You can attend upon the Lord without distraction." That's what the gift of singleness is all about.

So because of future prospects, because of divided loyalty, because of present problems, Paul suggests that the gift of singleness is a great gift to accept and to enjoy. You can serve the Lord unencumbered with great freedom. He who is unmarried seeks to promote the interests of the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. He that is married, he's concerned with the things of the world, how he may please his wife. He's distracted. All this I say that you may assuredly serve the Lord without distraction.

Serve the Lord without distraction. This is what Mary did. In those urgent, evil days, she stood in Pilate's house, didn't she? And watched them scourge her King.

Scourge my King, a plaited crown,

Runs the blood of God head down,

Wet the cheeks, the beard pulled out,

Ripped the skin and rued the shout.

Scourge my King in soldiers' den,

Exposed to beasts who dressed like men,

Smelt the blood of prey soon caught,

Set my Jesus all at naught.

Scourge my King and fool of made,

God in Heaven, what price you paid.

And all because of my ill-health, she said.

All my sin and all the wealth

Of stupid, dirty, darksome horrors,

Passed to meanness, black tomorrows.

Scourge my King, a plaited crown,

Runs the blood of God head down.

You see, Mary was able to be there, wasn't she? And she was there, we believe, in Pilate's Hall. She was a support to Jesus. She gave him of her substance, but she gave him of her support. And when Peter denied Jesus with oaths and curses, and it says Jesus turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter remembered all his big words and his big mouth: "I'll never deny you, I'll die before I deny you." And then with oaths and curses he said, "I never knew the man!" And Jesus turned and looked upon Peter.

I can't imagine what that look looked like, can you? I know Peter never forgot it till the day he died. When he'd finished looking at Peter, where did he look next? Probably at Mary, whose mouth was shut, tears running down her cheeks, who stood with the soldiers too, her head held high. There because of the prominence that she had, the ability to get into such a place, respected. And she didn't deny him. She supported him. Mary loving him, caring, saying, as I'm sure she would have done if she had been born in another age in a Korean body: "Don't do that to my Jesus. Shoot me. Crucify me. I'm ready."

She was free because she was single to take that sort of thing from the people that were doing it to Jesus. And that's the challenge of being single: to use our singleness. Those of you that are seeking jobs, that are seeking future, which way is it going? What a wonderful opportunity to go to places where Christ is reviled, where Christ is crucified daily, perhaps. Some of you may be working there right now.

And because of your singleness, you have the opportunity to say: "Don't say that about my Jesus. Don't do that to my Jesus. I won't let you do that. Shoot me, crucify me. I belong to him." That's the joy of being able to not only attend upon the Lord without distraction, but being able to give your ministry to him out there where it matters, where the people are dressed like men but behaving like beasts about your Jesus.

Oh, the joy of singleness. I well remember my college days and I remember them and thinking: "I will never again have the chance I have being in this college, living here on the campus, to reach girls of my age in this way. I've got my own little home, I've got my own little ability to reach out to my friends and win them to Jesus." And I have never again had that opportunity, because I was single and because it gave me this huge freedom of my own time, my own decisions, to use for him, to attend upon the Lord without distraction.

This I see in Mary of Magdala, and never more, of course, than when we see her in the garden. And as she walked around the garden, beside herself, and we read about this in John Chapter 20—we won't read the scriptures because they're so well known. Absolutely distraught. She ran to tell the disciples: "They've taken away the Lord's body. They've taken away the Lord's body."

And as John and Peter ran to see if it was so, and looking into the cave saw the grave clothes lying flat, as if a body had come right out of them. And that's what convinced them of the resurrection: the clothes weren't unwound, they'd just fallen flat. And the body had obviously come right out through them. Convinced, they turned around and went back to the other disciples. But Mary stayed still in the garden, beside herself, and she came upon the gardener, so she thought.

Poor Mary. She knew he was dead. She'd watched him die, hanging between the Earth and the sky. She knew he was dead. She'd heard him scream as the guilt of her sin had come in between his God and himself as the punishment rod fell to chastise his choices price. She knew he was dead, so pardon her for thinking him only the gardener.

He called her name. He was just the same,

Save the holes in his hands and his spear-pierced frame.

The love and the fire in his eyes were too much,

The strength and the thrill of his risen life touch.

Dear Lord, dear Lord, oh, pardon her

For thinking you only the gardener.

Many folks that I know have a Jesus of gloom,

Alive yet confined to his garden tomb.

Yes, he came alive but was never the same;

He never called them by their very own name.

He lives in his tomb and he tends his grave,

Confined and helpless to seek and to save.

Look into his face, let go of his feet,

Stop trying to wrap him in that winding sheet.

He isn't the gardener, a ghost or a fake.

He's Rabboni, your Master, and he rose for your sake.

The gift of singleness enabled Mary Magdalene to be the very first human being to see Jesus Christ risen from the dead. What honor! Jesus, the Bible says, appeared first to Mary of Magdala. Why? We don't know. She was there. She was able to be there because she was single. That's one reason. Very obvious reason. She was there. She was able to be there because she was single.

That says all sorts of things to me, and I suppose basically it says that Christ rewards the single girl or the single lady, renewing his faithfulness to them by presenting himself alive every day of your life. And you can know resurrection morning as a single person every day of your life. And he can present himself to you alive, and you can attend upon him without distraction in your singleness.

And you can go out of that garden time with him every morning of your life, saying: "Thank you for the singleness that is a gift. Now I will use it. Oh, yes, I will use it to serve you. To serve you in a world that's hostile, in a world that wants to crucify you over and over again. I'll be your Mary. Thank you for the gift of singleness." I have a feeling that some of you need to thank God for a gift that you've not really wanted to receive. Have you ever done that? Have you ever dared to do that?

Let those who are married live as those that are not, but seek not a wife or seek not a husband. And the word is "pursue." Don't pursue it. Accept the gift, whatever it is today, that God has given you. Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for Mary's life, and even though we have been in Corinthians instead of the Gospels, we know the story of Mary so well, and we thank you for her. And we see her bowed at your feet, beside herself with supernatural joy. She was a support to you. She was so faithful. You were such a marvelous surprise to her on that resurrection morning. You rewarded her faithfulness and her devotion.

And I pray for every single woman in the sound of my voice that for the first time, she may be able to get on her knees and look in your face and say: "All right, Jesus, this gift of singleness you give me for today, whatever be tomorrow, I know not. But for today, I accept this gift, and I thank you for it. And I would ask that I may unwrap it and find in it such joy in serving Jesus that I am quite beside myself, even as Mary was on that resurrection morning.

Teach me to be content, to be where you put me, in my situation, and not to make the initiatives to change things. Lord, if thou wilt have my situation changed, let it be. But may my hands be off it, may your hands be on it, and let's go from here. Help me to serve you. Help me to serve you. I ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen.