Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: 1 Peter 1:14-17

HEALTHY FEAR IN THE NATURE OF CHRIST PT.2

A couple weeks ago, Steve Anderson brought to us out of 1 Peter, verse 17, and he really talked about this word, phobia, and fear. It shows up here, and it began a conversation, just with us as a teaching team, and internally, just about how strange this word is, because a lot of times when we talk about the Fear of the Lord, it’s a different word, it’s a word that means reverence and respect and awe. 

And the word Peter here uses is the word for being afraid of something, and I want to read verses 14 through 17, and we’re just going to talk through it, and because we’re going to, we’re going to continue where we started last week. 

He says, “as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts, which were in your ignorance,” and we talked about that last week. The idea of being conformed means to let something shape you or mold you, and he says, don’t let your old life pattern shape you and mold you. So Peter’s assuming that we’re in this position right now where we’ve let go of our histories and our natures, and we’re no longer letting those shape us. 

He says, “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.” The first thing I want to say here to us is Peter wouldn’t say be holy if holiness wasn’t an option available to us. A lot of times we approach this as if it’s never going to be something we can grab onto, never going to be something we could attain, Oh, I’ll never be holy, and yet it says right here to be holy. 

So we have to come at the Scriptures with the assumption that what the Scriptures teach us to do are possible for us to do. Does that make sense? Otherwise, it’s a mean-spirited father that says, I’m going to invite you to a standard that I know you can’t get to, and a lot of times we view the Father that way, and it’s just not who He is.

He says so, “but like the holy one who called you.” I love that, “but like the holy one,” because Peter’s instant statement is, you’re not going to ever look in the mirror to figure out what holiness looks like, you’re going to look at Him. So he’s instantly shifting their perspective to a different pattern. 

“Be holy yourselves in all your behavior.” Say all. What does all mean? All, okay, “because it is written: “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” I love this. Again, it’s the Father saying, because of Christ, because of what I sent my son to do, you now have my DNA in you. You’re now my legitimate children, and because you have my DNA in you, you should be able to know that you can grow up and look like me, and I’m holy.  Again, it’s an invitation to align with Him. It’s not an indictment against who we are. 

1 PETER 1:17

And then in verse 17, this is the verse we really are going to jump from. “If you address as Father, the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work.” We reminded ourselves last week that what this means is that our life work will be judged before Him. A lot of times, especially if you spend any time on the internet, which I don’t recommend. I mean, it’s necessary for some things, but really dumb for others. Don’t get your theology from the internet, that’s what I’m getting at. 

There’s a lot of conversation out there about, oh, there’s.. it’s all grace, it’s all love, there’s no judgment, and yet Paul will teach emphatically different that we will stand and give an account for our lives. Is it an account that begins in grace, for sure, but it also begins with with an understanding, and that’s really what Peter’s going to dig into, and it’s why we’re landing here, because Peter’s going to really dig into what the understanding we should live with is based upon, what we’re going to give a stance, we have to give a standard for. 

“The one who partially judges according to each one’s work,” and he says this, “conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth.” “Conduct yourselves in fear.” Phobia is the word he uses. I shared my love for the movie Transformers last week. One of my favorite lines is the math teacher who says to Witwicky, the main character, there’s a pop quiz tomorrow, sleep in fear. Peter’s statement here is, “conduct yourselves in fear.” 

What’s he, what’s he getting at? Does he want the church to run around and be scared? No, he’s drawing the church’s attention to a reality, and here’s what I think that reality is, that we’re going to stand before the Lord someday and give an account to what we did with the nature of Christ. Better stated, what did we do with our opportunity to carry the nature of Christ? 

I think he’s challenging the church to be afraid of missing the life that Christ made available to them, and we live in a moment in our culture where the vast majority of the church cannot even describe to you what the nature of Christ is, and yet it’s the thing the scriptures call us to. 

John Stott makes a statement, John Stott was an Anglican theologian, and he makes a statement in the latter days of his life, where in the circles he was in, the Westminster Shorter Catechism was something that people would speak and quote a lot, and that goes like this, “man’s chief end is to love God and enjoy Him fully.” And Stott, at the end of his life, will come to this statement, he says,I disagree with the Westminster Shorter Catechism. I do not believe that’s man’s chief end. I actually think the purpose of God for humanity is to carry the nature of Christ. 

That’s why we’re here. Have you ever considered the garden? Have you ever considered the fact that the original intent of the garden is, we were to bear the image of God? They were image bearers, correct? Have you ever considered what the enemy was most after?

Remember the statement that we read in Ezekiel. If you’re familiar with it, there’s a prophetic word that talks about the fall of Lucifer, and there’s this statement that he makes in it, “I will be like the Most High,” that the image and the identity of God was the thing the enemy was after, and yet what God does is place His image into humanity. From the beginning, the goal of God was that humanity would carry His image. 

I would offer that the reason He doesn’t just take us out when we get saved, because that would just be so much more efficient, if the moment I gave my life to the Lord, it was like, you know, that Thanos moment in the Marvel movies, where everybody just disappears. They’re instantly translated, and there’s no more problems. Why would He leave us here? Is it possible that there’s this beautiful thing that happens when we come into the Kingdom, and we get saved, we give our lives to Jesus, and now begins the real game, so to speak. And the game is, will I choose Him over me for the rest of my life? That’s what Peter’s talking about here. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES

So we looked last week at this biblical calling to Christ-likeness, and I want to continue this week with just asking the question, what does the New Testament teach about carrying the nature of Christ? I want to begin this in 1 John 2:4, where John will say, “he who says he abides in Christ ought to walk,” say that with me, “ought to walk in the same way as he did.” 

Ought to walk is an incredible phrase. The word “walk” here is a word that they would use in the ancient world to describe an everyday path, like a commute. I know we don’t walk to our jobs, at least most of us don’t. We now drive, but we have a systematic path. I would bet within very few changes, you’d drive the same path every day to get there, because it’s what you know, it’s what you can predict. Unless you’re just wildly creative, and you just think getting lost is fun, you probably don’t just randomly take a different path to work. And if you do, we got problems. That’s why you’re showing up late. It’s a word that describes their everyday path. And so it’s in context, what Peter’s saying is to take the same route.

The word “ought to” here isn’t the way we would say, if I said to you, Hey, we ought to do that. Nobody in the room takes it as that has to happen. We take it as, Oh, he’s thinking about that. It’s something we should do, almost like we were thinking about a concept. The word “ought to” here in the Greek means to be obligated to something. 

Let me put it in a context we understand more. How many have ever bought a house? How many signed themselves into a mortgage? At the moment you signed yourself into that mortgage, you signed yourself into ought to. You’re now obligated to pay it. That’s what it means here. It’s obligated to repay a debt. 

So, 1 John says this, “He who says he abides in Christ,” to put it in Greg Sanders’ terminology, so it’s easier, if you claim to follow Jesus, you’re obligated to shape your behavior to be like Christ. If you claim you follow Jesus, you’re obligated to shape your behavior to be like Christ and live as He did. 

Well, what does that mean for us? It means that if we see behaviors and attitudes in us that are not in Him, if we see response patterns in us that are not in Him, if we see belief sets in us that are not in Him, we admit it, we repent of it, and we make restoration to those around us. That’s what it means to live Christ-like in this way. 

That’s our ought to, is that we owe a debt, I want you to hear this, we owe a debt of Christ-likeness to the world around us. I want you to grab onto this mindset that, from the Kingdom point of view, you and I owe the people we interact with Christ-likeness. It’s not something we do for extra credit. 

How many believe that He was love? How many believe the Scriptures teach that God is love? Did you know that Romans will say that you are to “owe no man anything,” “except the debt of love,” and then it adds this parenthetical statement that’s awful, which you will never be able to repay. In other words, from this moment forward, you’re going to love people nonstop, and you’re never going to be able to get the debt paid, so start loving. Some of us right now are like, well, I’m way behind then. 

WE ARE TO BE LIKE CHRIST IN HIS INCARNATION

So the New Testament, there’s some things I want to draw out, the things that I think that the New Testament teaches about what it is to carry the nature of Christ, and one of them is that John Stott will say it this way, and I grabbed this out of his teachings, I thought it was just so important, we are to be like Christ in his incarnation. That’s an interesting idea, in his incarnation, what is the incarnation of Christ? It means that Christ left his deity, he left his godliness, He comes into the world, he takes on the form of humanity, He becomes human, He’s incarnate. 

Well, how in the world do we mirror that and model that? Are you telling me, oh, we can become like Christ? Differently, I want to offer a simple thought. The thought is this, that just in the same way that Christ came into the earth and took on our humanity, we are to take on His nature into the world. So it’s an inverse. He took on our nature, so He could redeem us, and now we take on His nature, so we can reveal Him. That’s what it means to live in His incarnation. 

Now, how do we do that? Philippians 2 is important. It’s one of the most difficult passages in the Scripture, and I don’t know why churches don’t do an entire year on just this verse. If I said to you hey, we’re going to show up today, you’re going to show up today, and I’m going to teach you the mentality that God told you to live with, how many would pay attention? 

Hey, there’s an attitude and a mindset that you are to live with, and it’s the one Jesus says to live with, and if you do it, it’s going to shape your life. You’re like, okay, I want to know what that mentality is. Okay, so let me read to you Philippians 2, “have this mind in yourself, which was in Christ.” The word “have this mind” is a word phrase that means grab onto it and appropriate it. It doesn’t mean think about it. 

He is calling for us to take on the exact same mindset, “which was in Christ, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped for his own selfish enjoyment, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”

Now you know why it would take a year to go through that verse. So what we see is this incredible incarnate concept. This is Jesus becoming incarnate in the flesh, and what did He do? The number one concept that comes through this is that He humbled Himself. So, the first thing we understand is, if we’re going to live this incarnate life, where we grab onto the nature of Christ, and we live it in the world, the first thing that has to happen is humility. 

I would say it this way, humility is the foundational aspect of Christ-likeness. What that means is we choose to follow His example of letting go of our rights, our desires, and our perspectives for the station or the position of preferring others. I would love to just offer that we are called to step into a position or a station or a status. What is that? My status is I prefer others. We take on the role of the form of servant, and we serve them over ourselves. 

There’s a guy named Balthazar who Dustin brought up in a teaching team meeting, so I went and researched a little bit about what he said, and he gives this concept called theosis through kenosis. Theosis through kenosis. I’m like, that’s awesome, that’s above my pay grade. 

Let me put it to you in different ways. It’s man becomes like God through the emptying of self. You see, the first place we have to walk into, if we’re going to become like Christ, is we have to let go of us. Not just let go, we have to empty it. 

How many have ever emptied the garbage? How many have ever let go of the garbage? Very different concepts. One is active to get rid of something, the other is to let go of it from yourself. They both removed the garbage from you, but one was a willful, intentional decision to put it where it belongs. 

Could I offer that emptying ourself is a willful, intentional decision to put it where it belongs? It’s not just us letting something go because we have to, it’s us making a decision, I am emptying myself of this. Why? Because I cannot have this in me and Him. 

Too often we want to believe that Christ-likeness or the nature of Christ is an addendum to us. It’s not. It’s a replacement for self. The incarnation was God becoming man through Jesus, and this incarnate life we speak of is us becoming like God through the taking on of the nature of Christ. That we decide the godliest thing we can ever do is grab onto His nature and let go of ours. 

How many would agree with me that at this point in your life you have learned my nature is kind of terrible? How many are still super excited about your nature? If we give an honest assessment of self, we will always come to the conclusion that our sin nature is not that awesome, and it leaves us in a place where we can defend it, we can ignore it, or we can replace it. 

Maybe let’s say it this way, you don’t have to be stuck in your stupid. You can put on Jesus instead. You can just say, I’m emptying that, I’m done, that one’s going in the garbage where it belongs, I’m grabbing what’s awesome and putting it on. 

WE ARE TO BE LIKE CHRIST IN HIS SERVING

The second thing the New Testament teaches is a weirder, be like Christ in his serving. I want you to consider the upper room with me, where Jesus spent the last evening with his disciples, and we see it in John chapter 13. There are just some phrases I want to look at. 

“He took off his outer garments, he tied a towel round him, he poured water into a basin and washed his disciples’ feet.” Okay, so this is a – this is a very poignant picture. We’re not accustomed to it. Washing of feet is not something we do a lot. Maybe you’ve sat in a foot-washing ceremony or something, and I’ve been in a couple of those, and then they’re beautiful, and they’re fun, but this is a moment in their culture that was a regular, everyday task. 

And so Jesus is doing something here, but I want us to focus on what happens after He’s done. Because “when He had finished, He resumed His place and said,” what was His place? His place at that moment was probably at the head of the table, because He was teaching them, He’s coaching them. 

They would have never in their lives have seen the head of the table, the one who was the boss, the leader, ever remove themselves from that position to go wash feet. That would have been new. It would have never happened. Because it was anathema in their culture for that to happen, because that was a position that was reserved for slaves, it was reserved for people that they didn’t really care how gross and dirty what they did was. 

How many have ever been around somebody who wore the same pair of chocos all summer with no socks? Think about how gross this foot washing moment is. Think about the life they lived in the dust and in the dirt and in the sweat and an arid climate. Think about these cracked feet. I doubt they had manis and pedis going on at this moment. 

Just think about this, this is a very dirty, probably smelly, visceral moment. And Jesus looks at him and says, “If then I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet, for I have given you an example.” I want you to notice that phrase, “I have given you an example.” What does it mean? Does it mean for the rest of our days we are to begin our gatherings with foot washing ceremonies? I don’t think so. 

I don’t think he was actually after the washing of feet. Do I think it was excluded from it? No, I think what he was after was that we are expected as disciples to take his example of serving and actually live it towards our culture. Because what Jesus performed here in his culture was the work of a slave. What he did in that moment was the work of a slave. 

I want you to consider that for a second, not with a greeting card kind of consideration, like, oh yeah, Jesus took on the form of a slave. Oh, wait, time out. Jesus actually, how many have ever watched Dirty Jobs on TV? Into some of those gross, nasty jobs, and you know that guy, Mike Rowe, he was doing those on TV because he was getting paid to do it. What Jesus does here was make an intentional choice to go into the dirtiest job He could find for the purpose of serving someone else. 

So, if we are to align with this nature, it means that we live in our culture with a mindset that regards no thing too menial or degrading to undertake for the purpose of serving another. We take on the position of a slave and a servant towards others. 

This is not conversational language we enjoy. This is wildly anti-American. It’s wildly anti-modern to say, we’re going to live our lives, here’s the call of God on us, we’re going to live our lives towards each other. Who are the others? Look around, it’s others. In your home, it’s your family, in your marketplace, it’s the people you work with. We’re going to live with a mindset towards everyone, I’m here to serve you. I’m actually here to be whatever you need. 

Well, where are my rights? That’s the thing, He laid down his rights, that’s the phrase. He willfully laid down his rights, which means everything He could grab onto that was His right to grab it, He just said, I’m laying it down. Why? Because I’m going to serve. 

I want you to notice that we take on this position. It’s not forced upon us. Jesus will never tell you you are forced to serve people. He will always let you choose to become like Him and serve. But if you want to carry the nature of Christ, you have to be willing to grab on to that, to take it on and model it, because it’s the way He lived. 

Here’s my question that I think we should tackle, two questions for each of us. Where does the serving that Jesus has put in front of me offend my nature? It’s great if there’s places he’s called you to serve, and you don’t mind it. 

You see, the nitty-gritty is when the place he’s called you to serve is offensive to your heart, and it causes you to feel some sense of identity being removed from yourself because you’ve been asked to serve in this place. That’s the place that we have to learn to empty ourselves, regardless of what this causes in me, Lord, I’m going to do this unto you because of you, because that’s what you did for us. 

The second question would be, where do I find myself rebelling against this invitation to go low? How many have ever felt yourself rise up in pride? They can’t ask that of me, they can’t put that on me, I deserve better than that. What we see Jesus do is empty Himself, take on the position of a slave. 

In other words, and I love this. He’s like, nobody’s going to make me do this. I’m choosing to do this. But why would you do this? Because the Father asked me to. Because I love Him, I’m going to serve Him. I would offer that in these areas, the ones where we want to rebel, the ones where we want to not serve, these are great places for us to discover new glory with the Lord. 

What do I mean? It means we strip off the outer garments the way Jesus did, we let go of those things we think have identified us, and we find new places to identify with Him as a servant. When you choose to love those around you like Christ, through serving, you’re learning to take on the nature of Christ. 

The cool part about that is, when we take on the nature of Christ, it has an effect on our nature. The more you and I will take on the nature of Christ, the more it erodes our core nature. The more He chips it away, and over the course of time, we become like Him. That’s what it means to be changed from glory to glory. We’re becoming like Him by taking on His nature. 

WE ARE TO BE LIKE CHRIST IN HIS LOVE

Third thing the New Testament teaches about the nature of Christ is that we are to be like Christ in His love. Ephesians 5:2 says, “walk in love as Christ loved us.” Okay, time out. “Walk in love.” The word walk here means to live, it’s the path of life. Walk in love as Christ loved us. How many think just that alone is a pretty high, high standard? 

At what point, when we read that, does it give us any excuse to do anything except lay our lives down? Because the standard we’re being called to is, hey, look at Jesus, look at the way He loved you, now make that your model. But he goes on, and just in case we didn’t get it, “and gave himself up as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

So, there’s two parts here, one is the call to walk in love, which is an injunction that all of our behavior should be characterized by love, but the second part of the verse says He gave himself for us. Now, it’s not this continual giving, the word is in the aorist in the Greek, what it means is it’s pointing to a one-time action in the past. 

Paul’s pointing to the cross, so he’s saying, I want you to look at the cross as your model for love. The cross isn’t exactly like lovey-dovey. It’s a tough picture if you really look at it. It’s a picture of death, it’s a picture of blood, it’s a picture of someone dying a sacrificial death, but that’s the picture that Paul says when you go to love people, that’s the picture I want in your mind. That we live with this self-sacrificing love that Jesus shows on the cross.

So there’s three ways that Paul urges us to be like Christ in this, emptying ourselves and taking on His nature, humbling ourselves by learning His lifestyle of serving, and then we lay down our lives in sacrifice. 

WE ARE TO BE LIKE CHRIST IN HIS PATIENT ENDURANCE

The fourth thing the New Testament teaches about carrying the nature of Christ is that we’re to be like Christ in His patient endurance. In chapter 2 of 1 Peter, Peter will urge Christian slaves, it’s a really interesting passage, he will urge Christian slaves that if they’re dealt wrongly with, they’re unjustly treated, to stay quiet and refuse to repay evil for evil. 

How many would agree with me? That’s a tough one. What Peter says to them is, you’re going to be wronged, and you were actually wronged, and I want you to say nothing and embrace it. I want you to let it happen. Was he saying that because they were slaves? No, they actually had a legal right, when unjustly treated, to raise a flag. And he says, I don’t want you to do that. I want you to just go low and be quiet. 

What’s he calling them to? He’s calling them to the example of Christ, because Jesus allowed himself to suffer wrong and did nothing. There are places in the scripture that teaches that Jesus could have at any moment called ten thousand angels down because He was rightfully being wronged. He could have called for a stop, and it would have stopped, right? 

And then we see Him on the cross being wronged, being actually made fun of by another dude dying, which I’m like, you’ve got a lot of gall to be on a cross for a crime, making fun of another dude for dying. And Jesus’s response, Hey Father, not just to him, but to all the people around him, just forgive them, they have no idea what they’re doing. 

What if we learn to say that to the people that hurt us? In our hearts, we just say, Lord, there is no way they actually know what they’re doing. Lord, there’s no way they intend the hurt I’m feeling right now. There’s no way they intend the abuse I’m feeling right now. I’m going to let it go, would you please forgive them for that? Don’t hold it against them. 

So see the call to Christ-likeness and suffering unjustly is probably the most difficult thing we face. And we are going to be invited to suffer in multiple ways in our lives, some of that’s in our relationships, some of it’s in the marketplace, it’s in culture, and what suffering with Him means is staying in the nature of Christ and refusing to react from our sin nature when we’re wronged. It doesn’t mean I don’t have a right to, it means I refuse to, that I’m laying down my right in favor of what’s right. 

WE ARE TO BE LIKE CHRIST, CONTINUING IN HIS MISSION

The fifth thing we see in the New Testament about carrying the nature of Christ is that we are to be like Christ in how we continue His mission. In John 20, Jesus says, “As you, Father, have sent me into the world, so I send them into the world.” Who’s He talking about? The disciples. 

We’re disciples of Christ. We understand through Scripture that this is one of those verses that does lateral to us as a direct statement. In John 17, He says, “Father, as you’ve sent me into the world, so I send them.” He looks at them and says, I’m going to send you the same way He sent me in. What’s he getting at? He’s saying to them, I want you to understand: I was sent for you, and now I’m sending you for them. 

He’s doing a very clear exchange: our mission in the world was to resemble His mission. We’re just to pick it up and take it and go. This is what Jesus did, and now we’re grabbing it, and we’re doing it again. 

Authentic mission in this way, I want us to think about this, He came into the world, was incarnated into the world to carry out a mission. We now grab onto His nature in this incarnate life, and we go out in the world to reveal Him. And when we do that, when we’re like Christ, when we live missional, we realize that the world, or more specifically those that are in the world- who’s the world? not just the globe, I’m talking about the people in your homes, talking about the people in your jobs, in the marketplace, everybody you come in contact. 

Here’s what I want us to understand. Just like for Jesus, that we were the reason for “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.” Now those around us are the reason we live. There’s this wild replacing of selfishness in this. I’m no longer the center, they’re the center. 

John Maxwell makes a statement that I love in his book, Winning with People. He said, “the world, with one small exception, is comprised of others.” Church, Jesus lived with others as His focus, and if we’re going to follow Him, we have to shed every vestige of selfishness and decide I’m here for them. I’m here to be sacrificial, I’m here to serve, I’m here to carry his nature, I’m here to lay my life down. 

Stand with me, please. Sometimes after teaching like that, you just have to go hoorah. What would it look like if we, the church, decided we’re just going to carry His image, no matter what? We’re intent on this one thing, that the world around us is going to see Him in everything we do, and they’re going to hear Him in everything we say. 

I don’t think we can look at this treatise in the New Testament and not come to one conclusion. This is the call of God on the people of God, to allow their nature to be shaped and replaced by His, to choose Him instead. In your marriages, difficult as it is, it will be the place that’s tested most, as in your marriages and with your family. This is the place we learn to carry His nature. 

I’d love to offer a thought. What happened if, instead of just trying harder, we learned to ask more questions? What would it look like if you asked the people that you love and you live around, Hey, can you give me an assessment? How am I doing with the nature of Christ? Some of us laugh, like, I don’t want to hear that. That should be a quick indication. 

But what happens if we just take the sting out of it? We say, hey, would you help me and give me feedback? I want to carry the nature of Christ, because I know it’s who He’s called me to be. Will you give me feedback on how I am doing? Do you see areas I need to work on now? If you get asked that question, be nice. But what if we partnered together to say, you know, His calling on us is to be people that reveal His image. 

Here’s the hard part about revealing His image, when somebody goofs up, it’s really hard to do much when you reveal His image, because you just grace them and love them. I think accountability, proper accountability, begins with the person who wants to be assessed. It doesn’t begin with somebody saying, I need you to be accountable to me. 

Parents, why don’t you ask your kids, hey, will you give me an assessment? How am I doing with the nature of Christ towards you? You’re like, what?  Yes, consider it, because then they’ll learn to ask you, hey, will you guys give me an assessment? How am I doing with the nature of Christ towards you? It won’t happen soon, don’t worry about it, don’t hold your breath. But what happens if we take all the ought to and angst out of this and go, let’s just come to the table as a family, we’re a people intent on carrying his nature, this is what’s going to look like. Let’s pray. 

Jesus, we love you, we honor you. Holy Spirit, thank you for this morning. Thank you for your goodness, thank you for your kindness, thank you for this word, tough as it is. Every time we truly assess the Scriptures and let them say what they say, there’s a lot, and we need it. So, as we digest this today, and we consider it, and we ponder it, my prayer is that we, as a people, with purpose in our hearts to carry your image, to be a people that follow your example, that go low, live sacrificially, live for others. We’re going to be tested on it this week. We know that, Lord, would you lead us and guide us? Holy Spirit, would you whisper in those moments whatever we need to hear individually that will cause us to push pause and choose the nature of Christ. We love you, and we honor you. Jesus’ name, amen.