Matthew 26:14–25 | John Messerly

[0:00] All right. Good morning. Good to be with you guys for the third Sunday in a row. We've been blessed by being able to be fellowshiping with you while we're helping out day spring and pleased to have the opportunity to open the word of God this morning.

[0:17] And I'll be continuing the series you guys have been going through in Matthew for at least a year. It's been a while you guys have been going through it.

[0:28] And I thought that I would just do start off with a little bit of a recap as to where we are. So again, the book of Matthew, it portrays Jesus as the king. So there's the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

[0:42] Matthew is portraying Jesus as the king and talking to a primarily Jewish audience. And ever since I look back, it was February when Palm Sunday happened, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

[0:57] We're covering the last week of Jesus's life right now. And so February was Sunday, the triumphal entry. On Wednesday, the chief priests and elders were plotting to seize him by stealth and kill him, which was covered in Matthew 26, 3 and 4.

[1:16] And now today is Thursday or Maundy Thursday, the day of Passover too. So we're going to be looking at Matthew 26, 14 through 25 today.

[1:34] And I'll go ahead and read that, then we'll open in prayer and we'll see what God has for us. It says, Now on the first day of the unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?

[2:03] And he said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The teacher says my time is near. I am to keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. The disciples did as Jesus had directed them and they prepared the Passover.

[2:18] Now when evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the 12 disciples. As they were eating, he said, Truly I say to you that one of you will betray me. Being deeply grieved, each one began to say to him, Surely not I, Lord.

[2:33] And he answered, He who dipped his hand with me in the bowl is the one who will betray me. The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

[2:45] It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. And Judas, who was betraying him, said, Surely it is not I, Rabbi. Jesus said to him, You've said it yourself.

[2:56] Dear God, Heavenly Father, we just pray that you would open your word to us. This morning, use me as a channel to do that, Father. I pray that we would have our ears open and our hearts open to receive your word, Father.

[3:11] That we would learn from it. That we would grow closer to you. That we would have it change us in our lives, Father. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. So, this is the, if you're reading through the book of Matthew, there aren't any spoilers about what Judas is going to do.

[3:35] This is really the point where you're, you know, other gospels like John will say, Oh, Judas, you know, he had the, you know, he was a treasurer. He had the money bag and he would take out of it.

[3:47] Well, he's like, okay. Judas is kind of seen as like a, you know, maybe bad character. But if you just started in Matthew and read through it, this would be the, oh no, the gut punch.

[3:58] And, you know, we, we see betrayals portrayed in popular culture a lot. You know, you think about the, the Lion King in that moment where Scar grabs Mufasa and says, Long live the king.

[4:14] And all of a sudden you're like, whoa, you know, what happened here? Or in Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, where Lando Calrissian is walking them through. And all of a sudden the door opens and then there's, chair turns around, it's Darth Vader.

[4:29] What? How could you have betrayed us? Or in, in Frozen where Prince Hans, who's this dashing, all of a sudden like out of nowhere, this betrayal. And we see here that Judas is betraying the Lord Jesus.

[4:45] But compared to all those, you know, when you watch those, you get that kind of pit in your stomach. I remember the, the worst I had was watching the, the TV show 24. There was this woman who was a good, you know, on the, on the same team.

[4:59] And then all of a sudden she flips and nothing happens right away. But you realize, oh no, she's a double agent. She's, you know, and it's just that churning in your stomach. And this betrayal is far worse than any of those.

[5:14] We, we read in the book of Luke, that, that portion that says when Jesus, when Judas went to the chief priest, it says that Satan went into him.

[5:27] That this was not just a betrayal, but this was a cosmic warfare. This was spiritual warfare going on.

[5:37] This was Satan coming into Judas. And, you know, to speculate on what that might have been, maybe it was, and we don't know.

[5:47] This is my speculation, but my, what if, you know, it's like being with Jesus, you know, he was such a good guy. That even Judas couldn't betray him on his own.

[6:02] Like you think about the qualities of the Lord Jesus. Jesus, never saying a bad word, always being loyal, always being kind, always showing love in every situation.

[6:14] There's no, no wonder why all the masses flocked around him and loved him. And maybe it was that Judas couldn't have done it by himself. But regardless of the motives behind it, Satan entered into Judas.

[6:26] We also read in Luke 22 that the chief priests and elders weren't just, okay, it says that they were glad. Some translations say that they were delighted.

[6:40] When you look at the setup that this man is going to come and say, hey, I'm going to stab my best friend in the back for some money. They didn't say, you know, later on they were disgusted with him.

[6:53] Later on they were like, we're not going to take your money back, you know. But in the moment, they were glad. And it's just a thoroughly wicked betrayal.

[7:06] That he would go and offer to betray them, betray the Lord Jesus to them for mere money. The CIA, when they're dealing with trying to turn double agents and trying to make people into traitors against their country, they say the best spies are the ones that do it out of ideological reasons.

[7:32] You don't have to give them money. They just want to do it out of ideological. But Judas didn't even have ideological reasons. He just wanted a payout. He just wanted money. He just wanted money. There, you can go back and forth and try to decide, was this a lot of money or a little money?

[7:50] And it's not really clear because it's pieces of silver. It doesn't say denarii or shekel or talent or anything like that. And so some scholars think that it wasn't a lot of money.

[8:03] I am inclined to think that it was just purely because it says they weighed out 30 pieces of silver to him. If it was, you know, 200 bucks sort of sum, you know, you're not going to go through and count every single one of those.

[8:16] You're not going to weigh the silver to make sure that it's genuine. But if it's something significant, you'd say, hey, okay, let's make this weighed. But either way, it's the fact that they weighed it out meant that it was meaningful to Judas.

[8:28] He didn't even take them at their word. He's like, we've got to make sure that it's precise, this payment. He was so taken up with getting every last little bit of money out of the transaction with no thought for the betrayal.

[8:42] And from then on, he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus. It said that Satan had him looking for those opportunities in one of the other Gospels.

[8:59] And it was probably, and we read later that after Jesus gave him the morsel, that Satan entered him again. And so the thought of Satan entering Judas was probably a progressive entering that as he opened himself up more and more to Satan's influence in his life, that Satan had more and more sway over him.

[9:21] But we see that this was Satan's way of attacking the Lord, like I say, spiritual warfare. Satan probably saw Jesus as a political ruler or a spiritual leader and saw this as his last chance to stop him.

[9:36] Think about all the ways up till now that Satan had been trying to fight against God and corrupt God's plans. First, he led the rebellion and he convinced a third of the angels to try and follow him in revolt against God.

[9:49] And then when that failed and he was cast out of heaven, then he went to the garden and tried to corrupt all of mankind. And God stopped that with the flood because he was on a path to do it.

[10:03] He said that wickedness was so great that God had to wipe all of them out except for eight souls and start over. And then you see that he tried to annihilate the Jews in the book of Esther.

[10:17] How he went and tried to get the king to officially sanction genocide. And yet the Lord stepped in with Esther and saved the Jews.

[10:30] We see in the early portion of Matthew when he is a baby and the wise men come to worship him, that Herod, through satanic influence, tries to kill all the babies, tries to kill Jesus then as a child.

[10:46] It was stopped. They tried to take Jesus to throw him off a cliff. He escaped through their midst. There's just been... He tried to corrupt Jesus spiritually when Satan took him out in the wilderness and tried to say, let me tempt you with this, let me tempt you with that.

[11:03] And now this is the last chance. He thinks that everything is perfectly... He said, Jesus is getting too big. I've got to stop him now. And you see this real battle going on.

[11:19] But in the midst of the battle is Judas. And he's the one I'd kind of like to focus on this morning. It's just his... What was it like for him?

[11:29] What was he... You know, what was he thinking through this? What was he experiencing? What was his whole story? What was he saying? It's important to realize that this came totally out of the blue for the disciples.

[11:45] They didn't have suspicions about Judas. So, you know, there's sometimes when you see, you know, in pop culture or whatnot, you looked at Scar and the Lion King.

[11:57] You're like, that guy looks kind of shady. Like, he's a smooth... You know, there's like something about him is a little off. But Judas was an outstanding, upstanding member of the disciples' community.

[12:11] He was, first of all, as I mentioned earlier, he was the treasurer. You know, if you look for someone who has the position of the utmost trust and responsibility, that's the person you make treasure. And so he was given that high place.

[12:26] Like, Simon had been told that, you know, on this rock I'll build my church. So we had that. And, you know, John and James, their mom came asking for them to have the high place.

[12:39] And Jesus said, that's not for me to give. But Judas was given this high place in the disciples. He had the treasurer in, you know, as we find out later, that he would take from it.

[12:54] But all this was written after the fact. So the disciples didn't know at the time that he was stealing from the bag. They looked back after he had killed himself and said, oh, yeah, he was taking from the bag.

[13:07] That's why when he was talking about, which we heard last week, you know, when the perfume was poured out and we read in the other Gospels, he said, well, this should have been sold.

[13:20] And the money given to the poor because he wanted to steal the money for himself. They only figured that out after the fact. We see this in other places, too. So in verse 22, when Jesus says that one of them will betray him, rather than everybody kind of like looking at Judas like, yeah, we thought so.

[13:39] We saw this coming. Instead, they are all looking inside at themselves. They're fully convinced that everybody else around them, it's not even like they look to somebody else besides you.

[13:51] They don't look to anybody else. They think, is it me? Could it be me? They don't think Judas is the one that's coming. They don't have a target on his back. In John 13, when it describes it, it says that all of them began looking at one another at a loss to know of which one he was speaking.

[14:13] That they didn't say, oh, Judas is the one that's coming. And the clearest example of this is in John 13, when, I'll just read it real quick so we get the full impact of it.

[14:25] It says, So Simon Peter gestured to him, or to John, and said to him, Tell us who the Lord is saying will betray him.

[14:38] Who is it? And Jesus then answered, That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him. So when he had dipped the morsel, he took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into him.

[14:51] Therefore Jesus said to him, What you do, do quickly. Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this to him. Like, to us, it's like obviously clear.

[15:01] Like, the one I dip this and give it to him, that's him. But they thought, well, it couldn't be Judas. And then do what you do, do quickly. It says, Even with that blatant, It wasn't like they were idiots.

[15:24] It was like that Judas was above reproach. And everything that Judas did, remember, Jesus sent the disciples out two by two to go spread the word, to cast out demons, to do good works in his name.

[15:36] Judas was one of those. Judas went out with somebody. One of the disciples got paired up with Judas and was seeing him do all these works. Judas, there was nothing that made him stand out to be, Oh, he's kind of a shady guy.

[15:52] He's the one you've got to keep your eye on. So while it's important for us to realize that it was out of the blue for the disciples, that there was nothing that made Judas stand out, it's also important to realize that this didn't come out of the blue for Jesus.

[16:10] The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. So what that means is that he was fully omniscient.

[16:21] He knew that Judas was the one who would betray him. In Psalm 41.9, there was a prophecy written. It says, Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

[16:36] And lifting up the heel is either that picture of when he's down, kicking him when he's down, or else the thought of livestock, that here's a horse that you've been caring for and you've been feeding and doing all this stuff for, and as you walk behind it, it'll just reach out its leg, kick you when you don't see it coming for no reason, out of the blue.

[17:02] Either way, it's that my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. And in Zechariah 11.12-14, there was a prophecy talking about 30 pieces of silver that would then be given as wages and then will be thrown in the temple to the potter.

[17:20] As a foreshadowing of what's going to happen, I don't want to steal whoever's thunder that is, but he throws, Judas throws it down in the temple and then it gets used to by the potter's fields.

[17:31] It goes from the temple to the potter. But besides these prophecies, Jesus was also, it wasn't just the prophecies in the abstract, and sometimes these prophecies, it's not until they're fulfilled that you really see, oh, this is what it was about.

[17:48] But Jesus knew the whole time. So I'd like to take us to John chapter 6. And a little unusual to be speaking out of Matthew and reading an entire chapter in another book of John.

[18:01] But I'd like to read the whole chapter for us today and just think about Jesus' omniscience, about Judas' betrayal, and think about Judas hearing all this, seeing all this, and then in light of what would happen afterwards.

[18:18] So, John 6 says, Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, this was near.

[18:42] This was a year before the Lord's crucifixion. So, if there are people who are naming dates, thinking of dates, this could have been, you know, a year before Palm Sunday, a year before Maundy Thursday, almost right in that same time frame.

[19:02] You know, it could have been the same day because dates progressed, and so, but it's right in that, the Passover was near. Therefore, Jesus, lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that these may eat?

[19:18] This he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do. Already we see his omniscience here. Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.

[19:36] One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people? Jesus said, Have the people sit down.

[19:48] Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, he distributed to those who were seated, likewise also the fish, as much as they wanted.

[20:01] When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost. So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.

[20:14] Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, This is truly the prophet who is to come into the world. So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone.

[20:30] Now when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea began to be stirred up because of a strong wind that was blowing.

[20:43] Then when they'd rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, It is I. Do not be afraid. So they were willing to receive him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

[20:56] The next day, the crowds that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there except one, and that Jesus had not entered with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples had gone away alone.

[21:09] There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the small boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus.

[21:22] When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answered them and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

[21:38] They were only concerned with material things, with the bread. They wanted another meal. They wanted something tangible, something material. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on him the Father God has set a seal.

[22:01] Therefore they said to him, What shall we do so that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him who he has sent.

[22:13] He makes it clear what he's looking for is belief. Belief. Not doing something, not getting something, belief.

[22:28] So they said to him, What then do you do for a sign so we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? They keep going back to works, to tangible things. Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness.

[22:39] As is written, he gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Hey, how about a handout? How about some more bread? How about some food? Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.

[23:01] For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. So he gives them their answer, and again, what do they say? They said to him, Lord, always give us this bread.

[23:15] They're back on the bread. They're back on the tangible. They're back on the physical. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.

[23:34] But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out.

[23:44] For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.

[23:56] For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. I'll just pause here.

[24:09] What a great verse. Everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life.

[24:21] It's not saying that they will have bread to sustain themselves. This life comes from the Lord. He is the source of life. The bread, forget about the bread.

[24:33] You don't need bread to have life. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. He is the life. He is the bread. But what happens?

[24:45] Therefore the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. They wanted bread. So obsessively focused with the physical, with the tangible.

[24:58] They were saying, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down out of heaven?

[25:09] Jesus answered and said to them, Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. And it is written in all the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God.

[25:23] Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

[25:35] I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna, ate the bread, in the wilderness, and they died.

[25:48] This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. Eternal life. Eternal bread. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.

[26:02] If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

[26:15] Again! The physical. The bread. They want bread. They keep saying, okay, he gave us bread. He's not, we're getting the point. Get manna? Bread? Bread? It's like a, it's almost like a, bread?

[26:29] Bread? Bread? They keep saying, bread? Bread? Bread? Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.

[26:42] Bread's not going to do you any good if you don't have the Son. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

[26:58] He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me.

[27:13] They didn't get it. They took this, this is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.

[27:28] These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. So this wasn't out in the wilderness anymore. This was in the synagogue, in a church, something like this.

[27:39] Many of his disciples when they heard this said, this is a difficult statement. Who can listen to it? They were so consumed with consumption.

[27:52] And he was saying, I'm the one you want. You want a relationship with me. That is the life you need. It's not bread for your stomach for another day.

[28:03] You ate bread yesterday, and guess what? You're hungry today again. You want an eternal relationship, something that will satisfy forever. But his disciples said, this is a difficult statement.

[28:16] Who can listen to it? Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said, does this cause you to stumble? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It's the Spirit who gives life.

[28:28] The flesh profits nothing. The words I've spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe.

[28:40] And who it was that would betray him. This betrayal of Judas didn't come out of the blue for Jesus. And he was saying, for this reason I've said to you that no one can come to me unless it's been granted him from the Father.

[28:56] As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore. They said, the bread ran out. I've got to go someplace else.

[29:10] So Jesus said to the twelve, you do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall, and I'm going to point this out, we, to whom shall we go?

[29:23] You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Peter was a leader. He was speaking for the whole group.

[29:34] He said, we believe this, Father, or Lord, we believe this. But Jesus needed to clarify a point here. He said, Jesus answers them, did not I myself choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?

[29:50] Now he meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. Judas didn't leave that day, but he might as well have, because he was focused on the bread.

[30:07] He wanted the money. Philip talks about, where can we go to buy bread? Well, Judas said, here's the bread of life.

[30:18] I can't eat him. I won't eat him. I'm going to sell him. I'm going to get money that I can use to buy bread. He exchanged the bread of life for money to go and buy the bread that will run out the next day.

[30:34] And I think this is the most, the most crucial part here, is that there are many people today who come to the church or come to Jesus because they want something physical.

[30:58] people. They want community. They want a place to belong. They want to be shown love.

[31:10] They want to receive attention and care from people. They want to have their material needs meet. If I come to church and I ask them for money to go, you know, get a cab ride back home or for money to pay my rent, maybe they'll pay, they'll give me some money.

[31:27] Or maybe even worse than that, maybe they see Jesus as, oh, here's fire insurance. I don't have my fire insurance policy. I want to make sure that I protect my home against storm collision and my soul against fire.

[31:44] I just want Jesus to give me a fire insurance policy. That was Judas' problem is he saw the physical.

[31:54] He saw what he could get. He didn't see the Lord. He never understood Him. You know, when you look at how he addresses Him, all the disciples are looking introspectively at themselves and saying, is it I who's going to betray you, Lord?

[32:07] Am I the one? But they call Him Lord. Judas says, is it I, Rabbi? He saw Him as a teacher.

[32:19] He didn't see Him as God. He didn't see Him as the bread of life. And so this prophecy, even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, all he wanted was the bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

[32:36] And when Jesus sees Judas, He dips that bread and gives it to Him. And John records that after He received the bread, He went out.

[32:53] He got what He was looking for. He got the physical bread. Jesus is more to us than all of His benefits.

[33:08] It's Him. He's the one we want. He's the one that we've been given. Colossians says, He is our life.

[33:21] In Him, we move and breathe and have our being. It's that relationship with Jesus, being able to go to Him with every concern we have, being able to have someone who sees us, all of us, all of our bad things, all of our good things, and yet loves us intensely despite all of that.

[33:45] One who took all of our sins and all the punishment that they incurred and took it on Himself so we could have life and become sons of the Father.

[33:58] Judas was so close to kiss Him and yet he missed the relationship.

[34:13] 2 Corinthians 13.5 says, Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Last, two weeks ago, Sirian was talking about the sheep and the goats.

[34:28] There's the parable in Matthew 13 about the wheat and the tares. There may be somebody here today who thinks, oh, I'm a Christian.

[34:42] But you might be like Judas. You're along for the benefits that are here. And you're looking at the physical. You're looking at the tangible. You're not looking at the Lord. At Him.

[34:54] Are you able to say, I'm satisfied with Him? Put aside the golden streets. Put aside, you know, I want Him.

[35:07] He is our bread. He is our water. He is our everything. It's not the bread that perishes.

[35:19] Judas didn't get it. The Lord Jesus invites us to a relationship with Himself. To commune with Him every day of our life and every day of eternity beyond.

[35:33] If we aren't experiencing that relationship, we're missing out. So let's turn our eyes upon Jesus today.

[35:46] Let's look away from the earthly things, the things that pass away. Let's focus on Him. Judas couldn't do that. Judas saw the bread and saw the bread and saw the bread.

[35:57] Let's turn our eyes on Jesus. Our God and Heavenly Father, we just want to come to You and we thank You for the Lord Jesus Christ, Father. We look at this betrayal. Father, it was so wicked for someone to turn You in and then break bread with You and then come and kiss You, Father.

[36:17] but what grace the Lord Jesus had even for Judas to wash his feet, Father, to share a meal with Him knowing He would betray Him, Father. Your love is boundless.

[36:31] We thank You for the Lord Jesus Christ, for Him, for that relationship and pray that You would help us to grow in that relationship today and every day. We pray this in Jesus' name.

[36:42] Amen. Amen.