Our Living Hope April 5, 2026

Well, good morning, church. I want to say Happy Easter to you, and I want to say that this is the day that the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it. Before we dive into the message this morning, would you do me a favor here in the room? Would you just turn to somebody around you and say, You look nice today. Just tell them that for me. You look nice today. Yeah. You look nice today. Yeah. Got your Easter clothes on today. You look nice. Yes. Well, it is our privilege and joy to be together, and whether you are in the room or online, we're grateful that we get to connect together today. If you're a guest with us, maybe you were invited by friends and family. Maybe this is your first time being here with us, or however you came to be at Fellowship today, we're so glad you're here. My name is Justin Bilson. I'm one of the four teaching pastors here at Fellowship. We are one church in seven locations, and so across central Arkansas today, we are worshiping as one family collectively and teaching through God's Word today. And so I want to invite you as we look on this Easter Sunday to the Word of God, I want to invite you to Luke chapter 24, the Gospel of Saint Luke chapter 24. We're going to read verses 13 through 35 as we consider this beautiful narrative on the road to Emmaus, where Jesus reveals himself and meets these two travelers on the road to Emmaus. Again, Luke chapter 24, verse 13 through 35 is where we're going to read today. And so it'll be on the screen if you don't have it in front of you, but listen to the writer as he shows us, gives us a bird's eye view into this beautiful account. Beginning there in verse 13, he says, that very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes, verse 16, were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, what things? And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed in word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. Verse 21, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes. And besides all of this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early

in the morning. And when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him, they did not see. And he said to them, Oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with Moses and all the prophets. He interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he was going further, but they urged him strongly saying, stay with us for it is toward evening. And the day is now far spent. So we went in to stay with them. And he was at the table and he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Verse 31 and their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road while he opened to us the scriptures and they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together saying the Lord has risen indeed. And it's appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking. It's the word of the Lord to us this morning. Beautiful story, found in Luke chapter 24, verse 13 through 35. Today we're gonna talk about, as you saw there, and we've been saying it throughout the day, and you've seen it on the bumper there, the quick video before I got up, but we wanna talk today about our living hope. That's who Jesus is. He is our living hope. That's what we're gonna talk about today. So let's pray over our time in God's word. Father, thank you for the rich joy today that we get to celebrate today what we should celebrate every moment of every day,

and we do, but we also acknowledge the gravity and the beauty and the weight of today. Today is the day that we celebrate our resurrected Savior. Thank you that we are not gathered in nice clothes and enjoying Easter day and brunch later, all to acknowledge just a Savior who died. Thank you that we celebrate today a risen Lord. So Father, as we approach this text, I thank you that your word speaks to us, and Lord, I pray that if there's someone here or watching online who has never heard this story before, let it come alive today. Let it leap off the page. Let it capture their heart. And Lord, for those of us in the room who have heard this story time and time before, who have been to so many Easter services, we've lost count. Lord, I pray that you would give us fresh eyes, fresh ears to hear, to see, a heart to be opened by what you wanna say, that we would never get so familiar with this, that we lose sight of how important this moment is, how important the resurrection is for every part of our life. So Lord, I thank you for what you're going to do and what you're going to say today. In Jesus' name, amen. Church, our text this morning comes on the heels of the resurrection account as recorded by the gospel according to Luke.

Luke chapter 24, verse one through 12, we see that a group of Galilean women went to the tomb with spices and oils to anoint the body of the Lord in adherence with Jewish custom. Among those women were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, who the Bible says walked to this tomb with hearts filled with sorrow and unrelenting grief because they saw their Lord. They stood in the distance as he was crucified. They saw him suffer in agonizing pain. They heard him cry out from the cross. They saw him breathe his last breath and they even saw the soldiers take his lifeless and bloodied body down from that cross. They could not erase that image from their minds and all day Friday and all day Saturday, they were forced to face the gravity of life because Jesus, their savior, their Lord, their teacher, their rabbi was dead. But thank God that on Sunday morning, they got up early and went to the tomb and when they arrived, the Bible says that they saw that the stone had been rolled away and suggests to us that they feared that Jesus' body had been stolen and so they went in to check and they saw two angelic figures who comforted them with good news. They said to them, he is not here.

He is risen as he said. They heard the angel's message and their sorrow turned into joy and they ran back to tell the 11 what they had seen but yet they did not believe them. So the Bible says that Peter and some of them went to verify and when they arrived, Peter saw that the linen cloths, the burial cloths that wrapped Jesus' body had been left behind and now they walk out of this empty tomb wondering what happened. This is the account of the evidence of the resurrection. That's what we see in verses one through 12 and again, that is beautiful and wonderful and we should give our focus to this. However, today, I want us to look at what happened after. Verses 13 through 35. Let me remind us again of what we just read. We see here Luke shifts the attention of the reader away from Peter who is now wondering what happened to the body of his Lord and we see now two travelers on the road to Emmaus. It's suggested that Emmaus is at least seven walking miles from Jerusalem and Luke says that these men, these disciples are conversing back and forth over what has happened the past few days when a stranger approaches them. Now, we know that the stranger is in fact the risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but to them, he was a stranger and this stranger approaches them and says,

what are you talking about? And Cleopas, one of them who is named, he says, are you the only one who? He has no idea what has happened in Jerusalem over these past few days. He then begins to share with him what has happened. And isn't it interesting, church, that he is talking to Jesus of Nazareth about Jesus of Nazareth. If you look at the text, he has no idea. To him, this is a stranger, and he is telling him what happened to Jesus of Nazareth, but he doesn't realize yet that he's talking to the one he's talking about. Because he says in verse 21 that we had hoped. We had hoped desperately that he would be the one to redeem Israel, and now here we are, 36 hours after his death, and there are rumors circulating that he is still alive. But it must be a hoax, it must be a conspiracy, because the women from Galilee, they went to the tomb, and they did not find his body. That's what they told this stranger. And then the Bible says we see that he rebuked them. He rebuked them, and he says to them that you have failed to believe what the ancient prophecies have spoken. He reminded them that everything from Moses to the prophets speak of this suffering servant who will come to save his people from their sins.

He shared all these things with them. The Bible says that by the time they finished talking, they reached the city of Emmaus, and Jesus acted as if he was going further, and they said, no, nightfall is coming. Will you please stay with us? Stay with us, eat with us, talk more, let's keep talking. So Jesus obliged, he went into the house, and something powerful happened. The Bible says that he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. That's important, we'll talk about why that matters in a moment, but after the breaking of the bread, the Bible says their eyes were opened and they recognized him. They saw that this stranger was in fact their resurrected Savior and Lord, and the moment they recognized him, what does the text say? He vanished from their sight, and they went back to Jerusalem. They went back, that seven-mile walking journey, now in the dark, went back to Jerusalem to tell the 11 and those there what they had seen. They had a visitation from the risen Lord. This is what takes place in the story, and this is a beautiful and a profound story, and there's so much to consider in this text, and so as I was processing it, and the teachers, we were talking through

because we're teaching from this text across all of our campuses today. So initially, in my own study, in my own reading, I was drawn to verse 21. Initially, I was drawn to verse 21 because I love that past tense. It says that we had hoped. We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. It suggests by the use of the past tense word, not hope, H-O-P-E, but hoped, we had hoped, it suggests that whatever expectation, whatever anticipation they had of Jesus being their Messiah died when he died, and even to still make matters worse, if there was any glimmer of hope left, it must have now quickly faded because it's the third day, and there's been no definitive sighting of Jesus, and then to complicate things even more, Luke says that the women and Peter reported that when they went into the tomb, there was no body. There was no body in the tomb. This leaves these travelers in tension between despair and disbelief and disappointment. There are so many things swirling around, and they don't know what to believe, and yet, as I sat with that text, I thought it was beautiful, but for some reason, as I kept reading church, the Holy Spirit kept leading me back to verse 16, because in verse 16, we see something profound.

In verse 16, it says that their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Why does it matter, Justin? I'm glad you asked. Here's why it matters. Because when we look at that, it doesn't just say that they couldn't see him or that they failed to see him. It says that their eyes were kept, suggesting intention, suggesting something was keeping them from recognizing him. And I thought about it. Was it their sin? Was it their unbelief? Was it their pride? Was it their self-centeredness? What was it that kept them from recognizing him? Church, I had to do a little studying. I had to do a little deep dive into this, and I found, interestingly enough, that this word kept is actually a Greek literary term that means a divine passive, a divine passive. Why is it important? A divine passive suggests that God is the unstated doer of the action. What does it mean, Justin? Here's what it simply means, that if the text is telling us what it's telling us, then it was God who kept their eyes from recognizing Jesus. Wait a minute, hold on, pause.

Justin, what? Are you saying that God kept them from recognizing Jesus? Why would God keep them from recognizing Jesus? Here's the thing, church, the text doesn't give us a clear answer. And I'm not gonna try to theorize why I think God kept their eyes from recognizing Jesus, but instead, here's what I think. I want us to consider as a principal truth, and here's the truth, that these disciples, they marveled at his ministry, but they failed to recognize his mission. They marveled at his ministry, but they failed to recognize his mission. Why? Because like many believers, like many believing Jews at the time, they had this perception and this perspective based on what they saw in the scriptures, based on what they were told to believe, that they had their image of what they wanted their Messiah to be, that he would come into Jerusalem as a conqueror to consummate the era of salvation for his people. They knew that the scriptures said that he would vanish their enemies and he would subject the surrounding nations to his rule, and they wanted their Messiah to come and sit on his glorious throne to judge the kings and the rulers of the earth.

They had this messianic figure in mind based on what they had read and what the prophecies had said and what they believed, and yet here comes this Jesus who does not match the expectation of what they were looking for. And so they marveled at his ministry, but they failed to recognize his mission, and that, church, is why he rebukes them. That's why Jesus rebukes them, because again, he rebukes them for failing to understand the importance of the mission. The mission is laid out in scripture. Notice he says, from Moses to the prophets. Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 21 says that anyone who is hung on the cross is cursed by God. The prophets, Isaiah 53, if you were here on Good Friday, my teammate Ben Parkinson talked about Isaiah 53. Isaiah, the prophets said that Jesus was pierced for our transgression. That servant who would come, he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed. This is what was prophesied. And Jesus proved that his suffering was necessary, because he did not just suffer as any mortal man. No, he came as the suffering servant to seek and save the lost, to give his life as a ransom for sinners,

and that is why I'm glad that in spite of the darkness of his suffering on Friday and the resounding silence of his absence on Saturday, it gives way to the light of hope through the resurrection on Sunday, because Jesus opened their eyes. God opened their eyes that they would see, and not just see him, but the text says that they recognized him. One writer puts it like this, I love it. He says that this was more than just a mere recognition of his facial features. They instantly connected all the dots. They came to recognize Jesus in all his significance as Messiah and suffering servant and son of God and risen Lord. Church, this is the moment when I realized this. This is the moment when the scripture came alive for me, and I know all my type A people in the room had been saying since I started, is he ever gonna get to these fill-in-the-blanks on this bulletin? Yes, I promise. Let's go, here we go. So here's what you need to write down. So here's the central truth of the sermon. This is the moment when the sermon comes alive for me, and that's this, that the power of the resurrection opens our eyes to see Jesus, who is our living hope.

Power of the resurrection opens our eyes to see Jesus, who is our living hope. Give it to you again. The power of the resurrection opens our eyes to see Jesus, who is our living hope. Jesus is our living hope. That's what we're talking about today. That's the whole theme of this weekend. That is what we wanna lift up and to be reminded of that Jesus is our living hope, and we see this hope in the text because of how he reveals himself. I wanna offer you three things to consider before we end today. First thing is that Jesus reveals himself, I love this, as the savior who meets us where we are. He reveals himself as the savior who meets us where we are. Verse 15 says something profound. It says, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Now, what blesses me about that is not that Jesus just casually or haphazardly start walking with them. No, there's intentionality, and it suggests that he was willing to meet them on the road. He could have easily met them in Emmaus. He could have easily met them anywhere else, but he walked with them on the road. Why?

Because he is the loving savior who graciously meets people on the road of life and walks with them every step of the way. That's what he does. And you do know, he does. didn't just start doing this in Luke 24. As a matter of fact, if you were to scan the entirety of the gospel of Luke, you will see that throughout this book, Jesus has a habit of meeting people in hard moments. Luke chapter four, Jesus meets a demon-possessed man and frees him. Luke chapter seven, Jesus is walking and he sees a widow who has now lost her son as well and she is grieving and walking out of the city of Nain to bury his body and Jesus has compassion on her and he touches the bear which is lifting up the dead body of her child and he brings him back to life. Jesus meets the needs of those who are hungry, those 5,000 in Luke chapter nine, by giving them food to eat. Luke chapter 13, Jesus meets this woman who's been disabled and bent over for 18 years and he heals her. Luke 17, he meets the 10 lepers and he cleanses them. Luke 18, he meets this blind man on the road to Jericho named Bartimaeus and he heals him. Friend, I could give you story after story after story but what I want you to see is the truth that our Savior meets us where we are

and not only does he meet us where we are but he transforms us and he walks with us. These disciples were wrestling with despair and discouragement and doubt. They were holding on to fading hope but here we see the joy in the text that the living hope shows up. And maybe just maybe you're here today on this Easter Sunday morning and yes, you look nice and you've got your good Easter clothes on and you're smiling and you're looking forward to taking your picture or maybe you've already taken the picture and you're going to Easter brunch and you're gonna have a great day today but let's be honest for a moment because maybe there's a part of you in your heart that you realize and wanna be honest with God that you feel like your hope is fading. But I need you to know that the living hope is here today. That Jesus is your living hope. He walks with you and there are people in this room who are evidence and who can tell the story and testify that Jesus walks with us. He walks with you. He will walk with you through hard seasons of grief and pain and uncertainty and doubt and discouragement. He will walk with you and if you are here and you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, we're glad you're here today. We want you to know that we serve a savior

who desires to walk with you. He wants to walk with you because he's a savior who meets you where you are. Not only that, we also see that he is the servant who suffered and sacrificed his life. He is the servant who suffered and sacrificed his life. It's interesting, Jesus in verse 25, 26, he corrects them, he rebukes them. He says, oh foolish ones and slow of heart. That's interesting phrase, slow of heart to believe. All the prophets have spoken. Why does he rebuke them? Again, he rebukes them because they have failed to recognize what the scripture said. Why? Because in their minds, they could not wrap their perspective and their mindset around this idea that the Messiah must suffer and die so that he could reign as king. They could not wrap their minds around it. Why did it have to happen that way? Jesus reminded them that the passion was a necessity. I love what one author says. He says it like this. The passion was not simply a possibility that might or might not actually happen depending on the circumstances, but it was a necessity. The passion was a necessity. It had to happen the way it happened. And this is why Jesus rebukes them

because he says, even after all you've seen, even after all you've heard, even after all you know, you were still slow of heart to believe. And for them, it wasn't a head knowledge. It was a heart transformation because they failed to understand that his suffering and his death was the means by which they would receive redemption and hope. In other words, it had to happen that way so that scripture would be fulfilled. And Luke says, even in the midst of all this, they were still slow of heart. Can I pause just for a moment in the sermon to ask you to consider, as I considered this week, are there areas in my life that I have been slow of heart? Slow of heart to believe, slow of heart to trust, slow of heart to see him as he truly is because I've allowed thoughts and feelings and emotions and circumstances to get in the way? Have I been slow of heart to believe and live truly as if I know that Jesus's sacrifice was enough? Because for some of us, we know it up here, but it's the transformation here that we still need to work on because that inner striver, and I get it because that's me, that inner striver in my heart says, I still need to prove, I still need to make you proud, but I have to. Remind myself that at the end of the day,

there is nothing that I need to add to his sacrifice. I don't deserve it, I can't. It is a free gift. And I received this gift. That is the truth of the gospel that I have received, that I have a savior who meets me where I am. And he doesn't leave me there, but he meets me. I have a savior and I have a servant, the servant who sacrificed and suffered the necessity of his suffering. He even loved me enough to challenge me when I'm slow of heart. But there's one more thing, and I give this to you, one more thing. Not only is he savior, not only is he servant, but he's also son. He is the son who lives, who lives as undeniable proof of resurrection power. He is the son who lives as undeniable proof of resurrection power. The beauty of what we see in this text and what we know to be true today is that Jesus is risen. I'll say it again, Jesus is risen. And he appeared to these travelers on the road to Emmaus. And again, I wanna go back to that setting for a moment to show you something powerful, because again, as we're back on the road and we see them walking and getting closer to the city of Emmaus and the sun is setting,

the Bible says that Cleopas invites Jesus, who is a stranger to him at that point, into the house. It's safe to assume that Cleopas is the owner of the home and possibly they're walking to Emmaus because that's where he lives. So he is the, if in fact he's the owner of the home, that means he's now the host. He's the one that invites Jesus into his home. And according to Jewish culture and custom, the host was the one that would take the bread and bless it and break it and give it. That was Cleopas' job. But that's not what happened in the text, because the Bible says Jesus is technically the guest. Cleopas is the host, but Jesus switches it and he takes the position of the host and takes the bread and blesses it and breaks it and distributes it. And what's interesting is the Bible says that in that moment, they recognized him. And again, I had to pause and ask and wonder, okay, what was it about that moment? What happened? I wish I could be a fly on the wall to know what happened in that moment that they recognized him. Was it that when he broke the bread and passed it to them, did they have a flashback to remember when he fed the 5,000? When he handed them the bread, did they see the nails, the nail scars in his hand? I don't know, I wish I knew.

But what is interesting to me, remember what I told you in verse 16, that phrase divine passive? Divine passive, God kept their eyes from recognizing in verse 16? That phrase divine passive is also present in verse 31. Because in verse 31, it says their eyes were open, which suggests that the same God who kept them from recognizing Jesus in verse 16 is the same one who opened their eyes in verse 31. Why is it important, Justin? It's important because it shows us that when God opens your eyes, it is not a work of our human striving, it is a work of his spirit. He opens our eyes, which is also a work of grace because he opens our eyes and he reveals and Jesus chooses to reveal himself. And it's encouraging to us for those who are praying because I believe all of us have someone in our life that we're praying for that needs to know the truth of the gospel. They need to know that there is undeniable proof in the empty tomb. They need to know that there's undeniable proof in the proclamation of the angels. They need to know that there's undeniable proof in how the risen Christ revealed himself to his disciples. And you know what else? They need to see that there is undeniable proof

in your story because yes, what happened in Luke 24 is good, but you do realize that you also have proof in your story because of how Jesus saved you and rescued you and redeemed you. He found you in your sin and your brokenness and your pride and your self-righteousness. He found me, he found you, he saved us, he redeemed us, he rescued us. We are living proof of the power of the resurrection because the power of the resurrection that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in our lives. And that truth, like the disciples, sets our hearts ablaze. It sets our hearts ablaze that we would share this eternal truth that Jesus is our living hope. He's hope for our past. He's hope for our present and our future. He's hope for your singleness. He is hope for your marriage. He is hope even if you're here or watching me and you are grappling with the pain of divorce or loss or death, he is hope for your parenting, hope for your grandparenting. He is hope for your broken heart and your anxious mind and your sick body. is hope for your business. He is hope for his church. He is hope for our schools and our communities and our state and our nation and our world. Jesus is our hope. He is our hope and he sets our hearts ablaze.

Also that we can tell the world the words of that song that we used to sing in my church growing up in Syracuse. Maybe you sang this song in your church like we did, but the song is very simple. It just says, I serve a risen savior. He's in the world today. I know that he is living whatever men may say. I see his hand of mercy. I hear his voice of cheer. And just the time I need him, he's always near. He lives, he lives. Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives, he lives. Salvation to impart. You ask me how I know he lives. Church, help me finish it. He lives within my heart. He lives within my heart because Jesus is our living hope. He is your, he is my, he is our living hope. So today as I wrap up, I wanna extend a gracious invitation to you that requires a response. If you're here today and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, we are so glad you're here. If you're watching online and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, you've not placed your faith in Jesus Christ, listen, I would love for today to be the day that you make Jesus Lord of your life. You can actually, right where you are,

pray the prayer of faith. Why, because again, remember I told you in the message, we have a savior who meets you where you are. So right where you are, you can pray and say, Lord, I ask that you come into my heart. I need a savior. I am a sinner and Jesus, I know you died for my sins. Please be Lord of my life. You can pray that prayer. Maybe you would say, Justin, today I need to recommit my life to the Lord. I've not been walking with him as I should. I've not been following him as I should. I remember, even as I'm talking, I remember hearing something my mother used to say when I was younger. She used to tell her story of how she came to faith and she said that she grew up in church, but church didn't grow up in her. I didn't understand it as a child, but as I grew up, I got older, I realized what she was saying was, yeah, she did all the things. She checked all the boxes and crossed the T's and dotted the I's, but she did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It was here, but it wasn't here. Maybe you need to recommit your life today. Maybe you say, Justin, I wanna sign up for baptism. And I get, yes, we're gonna have baptisms in a moment. I know you say, well, I don't wanna get baptized today

because I got my Easter clothes on. I don't have a change of clothes in the car. I understand, that's fine. We got T-shirts for you, but here's the thing. Even if you say not today, but I do wanna sign up to get baptized, we would love to talk with you about that. Maybe you would say, you know what? I've been coming to this church for a little while and I really wanna get connected to fellowship. Again, we would love to talk with you. So if you have a bulletin in front of you and if any one of those four decisions you wanna make today, you can check off one of those four boxes at the bottom of the bulletin. There's a tear off tab. You can tear it off and put it in the offering boxes before you leave, those black boxes by the doors before you leave. But here's one more thing I want us to do because all of us can do this. Maybe you would say, well, Justin, I'm walking with the Lord, praise God. I've been baptized, praise God. I'm committed and connected to fellowship, praise God. But here's a question we can all answer and it's at the bottom of the bulletin. It says this, who do you need to pray for? Who do you need to pray for? As we think about and hear this message

that Jesus is our living hope, who in your life needs to know of this hope that is found in Jesus? Maybe it's a child or a grandchild. Maybe it's a relative. Maybe it's your parent. Maybe it's a neighbor. Maybe it's a sibling. Maybe it's a coworker. I don't know. But who do you need to pray for is what I'm gonna ask all of us to do. If you have a pen and you wanna write that name down there as a sign and symbol, you can do that. Or if you wanna make a note in your phone or just a mental note, probably all of you, your mind is jogging right now. You're thinking of a name or maybe one or two, but I want you to get that name or those names in your mind. And I want us to make space right now before we end the message to pray for those names, to pray for that name, to pray for those names and ask God to open their eyes. Because remember, when he opens their eyes, it's not a striving work of my flesh. It's not me doing it. He is the one that does the work. And so let's take a moment collectively right where we are. Let's pray and then I'll come seal the moment.

So pray for who you know in your life needs their eyes opened to the truth of the gospel. Let's pray together. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Father, our heads are bowed, hearts are humbled. Lord, these names, those who are on our heart, many of us, Lord, are burdened because we so desperately want them to know the truth of your word. Whoever it is in our life, Lord, that is on our mind and on our heart right now, thank you that we don't just love them, but you love them. As a matter of fact, you loved them before we ever met them. And, Lord, we pray that you would open their eyes to see the truth of your word, to see that you love them, that you care for them, that you are for them, that your grace is enough, that your goodness, that your sacrifice, the sacrifice of your son is enough. I pray that you would free them, draw them to yourself. May your glory be displayed in their life, and may they continue to be a shining example of your grace and glory to the watching world. Lord, we thank you for those in our lives, and thank you that today as we leave this service, we're not done yet, but, Lord, as we leave the service,

would you set our hearts ablaze afresh, that we would leave and go out into the world, into the workplace, into the schools, into our neighborhoods, and be like those disciples that our hearts would burn with the truth of your word, that we would be passionate, give us that flame back, so that we would be actively sharing the gospel with others, not assuming that they know, but being bold enough to ask the question and to show and share the good news of Jesus Christ, who is our living hope. We thank you, and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Thanks again for listening to the word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com contact. Have a great week.