Our Dying King

Luke chapter 23, we're going to begin reading at verse 32 and read through verse 43.! Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.

! When they came to the place called the skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, the chosen one. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.

There was a written notice above him which read, This is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him, Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other criminal rebuked him. Don't you fear God, he said, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.

Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, I tell you the truth today, you will be with me in paradise.

We've come again this morning to fix our eyes upon Jesus as our king. I trust it's your desire as it is mine to come to appreciate more of how it is that he saves us as our king. And just to appreciate how blessed we are to have him as our king and to belong to his kingdom.

Now the kingdom of God is a unifying theme in the Bible. It's like a bow that ties the whole together.

Consider that. That if you would understand how the Old and New Testaments relate to one another and are prophesied of and fulfilled in one and the other. Consider the kingdom of God as that unifying theme.

The Old Testament kings pointed forward to a king that was coming whose kingdom would never end. The Old Testament prophets said the king is coming. The New Testament opened saying the king is born.

The virgin born baby is none other than the son of David who is to reign on David's throne. Thirty years later, John the Baptist announces the king is here. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Yes, God's kingdom is here because God's king is now here. His one and only unique king who is not only man but is God himself.

Yes, the king and the kingdom is here. And then for three years, the Lord Jesus, the king, went about preaching the good news of the kingdom of God.

Calling men to enter the kingdom by repenting of their sins and trusting in him. At the end of the kingdom of God.

Calling men to enter the kingdom of God. Looking like a helpless victim of Roman rule. And so the king is killed. Shockingly.

He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's born. He's here. He's killed.

He's killed. And yet far from thwarting his saving mission, it is precisely by his death that he saves his people.

It's by his death that this king reclaims rebels and makes them honored citizens of his kingdom. So today we want to look at the reception that the king received when he came into his world.

Now all through the ministry of Jesus, his focus then is upon the kingdom of God. His preaching is summarized as preaching the good news of the kingdom.

This is the gospel. The one and only gospel there is. Salvation through this king. His parables were mostly about the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is like. And on goes the parable. His miracles and healings were markers that he was this king. It was prophesied that the king would heal the sick and raise the dead and cure the lame.

And here he is. His miracles are saying the king is here. They were markers of the king and his kingdom. But they were also a sneak preview of some of the blessings that abound wherever he reigns.

Clearly Christ had come to establish his kingdom. But what kind of kingdom would it be? The common expectations of the Messiah king was that he would save the nation of Israel from foreign domination by the Romans.

They were tired of Roman oppression. The Jews were tired of being under the heel of Rome. Physical, financial, and political blessings are what they craved.

Rome is the obstacle to all of that. Rome is the enemy that they expected their Messiah king to save them from. But Jesus taught that his kingdom was not like the kingdoms of this world.

That it was rather within you. That his kingdom at present was primarily spiritual. That the greatest enemies that they needed to be saved from were spiritual enemies of sin and Satan and self.

And that's why this king is called Jesus. Because he would save his people. He would deliver, rescue his people. From what? From their sins. He had come to set up his kingdom in the hearts of men who submit to him as king.

Who repent and believe on him. That's why we see in the gospels that to enter the kingdom is to be saved. That's what salvation is.

It is becoming a citizen of Christ's kingdom. And you enter the kingdom by conversion to Christ the king. That's the gospel of the kingdom.

That's the good news that Christ preached. But that wasn't the message that the people wanted to hear, was it? That's not the kind of king and kingdom that they were interested in.

And that's why when the king came to his own, his own received him not. We will not have this man rule over us, they said.

Now before we go any further in tracing out the ministry of Jesus and the reception of him in Israel, we need to understand something about this kingdom of God that Jesus makes plain in his teaching.

And that is that there are two stages to his kingdom. He speaks of it as some, sometimes he speaks of it as something present. Other times he speaks of it as something future.

His kingdom had come. And people were entering it, even while he was on the earth. And yet his kingdom is yet to come. And we're to pray, your kingdom come.

So it's already, it's both already here and it's not yet here. Furthermore, these two stages of the kingdom correspond with the two comings of the king.

His first coming was the kingdom begun, established in the hearts of sinners, conquered by the king's grace.

And it was chiefly spiritual, inward. His second coming is the kingdom completed. What was begun on his first coming will be completed at his second coming, when at the end of the age he'll return in power and great glory, putting all of his enemies under his feet, finally, once and for all, perfecting his kingdom in a new heaven and a new earth where there is only righteousness.

And it would be at his second coming that the physical blessings of his kingdom would overflow. And there will be no more curse and no death and no suffering and sickness and sorrow or pain.

No unmet needs in a perfect world at his second coming. Now, the Old Testament prophecy did not make clear that the king was coming twice.

It simply pronounced, He's coming. He's coming. And it lumped everything together, both the sufferings and the glories of this king.

He's coming. But the New Testament makes clear that there is, in fact, two separate comings of the king. Let me seek to illustrate it this way.

That as they saw Christ coming from the Old Testament perspective, it was like looking from a distance and seeing what looks like one mountain with two peaks.

But as we come closer, we see that there's really two mountains. It's not just one mountain with two peaks, but rather it's two mountains and one is before the other.

So what looked like one coming of the king in the Old Testament is, in fact, seen to be two comings in the New Testament. That's progressive revelation, that we know more in the New Testament than we knew about it in the Old Testament.

So we would expect to see things more clearly in the New. He came the first time to establish his kingdom in the hearts of his people by grace. Then he went back to heaven, and he will return someday to complete his kingdom at his second coming.

Now, I think understanding that helps us to understand at least some of the reasons there were so many false expectations about the king when he came.

When he came the first time, they expected the completed kingdom. They expected everything that they had heard about the coming king to be true at once upon his arrival.

But as Jesus taught about the kingdom, it becomes clear that many of those blessings of the kingdom and the perfection of his kingdom would only occur at his second coming.

So, for instance, when Jesus was miraculously healing the sick, they flocked to him in great numbers, didn't they? And Jesus saw the crowd of 5,000, and he miraculously feeds them so that everyone was satisfied.

He did it with five small barley loaves and two small fish, and they gathered up 12 basketfuls of leftovers. Listen to how John records the response of the crowd to him that day in John chapter 6.

After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, Surely, this is the prophet who is to come into the world.

Because that coming Messiah is both prophet and king. They expected a prophet king to come. And they're saying when they see his miracles, Surely, this is him. Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

You see, they saw the miraculous powers of Jesus, and they say, What a king he would make. He can multiply food. He can heal our sick and diseased.

With powers like this, he could surely liberate us from Rome in no time. And so they were ready to crown him Messiah king at once, on the spot.

But Jesus would have nothing of it. You see that. He would have nothing to do with their earthly kingdom mentality.

For their interest in him was for all the wrong reasons. But I ask you if it is not the same today. Many today, like them, simply wanted to use him to further their own ends.

They wanted to get from him what they wanted. And they saw him as a means to their end. But they had no interest in him saving them from their beloved sins.

They had no interest in Jesus as king saving them from sinning. They sought him because their bellies were filled, and they wanted more from his hand.

And so Jesus refuses to be such a king to them. One commentator notes the irony of the situation. He says, He who is already king has come to open his kingdom to men.

But in their blindness, men tried to force him to be the kind of king they want. And thus they fail to get the king they want and also lose the kingdom he offers.

They came out losers because they would not take him as he was offered to them, as the king to save them from their greatest enemies.

Do you want Jesus to be your king? Do you want him to rule over you and to defend you? Do you want him to save you from your sin? That's just the kind of king he is.

And he offers himself to you. That's the reign he brings to the hearts of all who bow in faith. Well, the Lord's three years of preaching the good news of the kingdom quickly passed.

His last great miracle that demonstrated the power of his kingdom was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. It showed that death no longer reigns where Jesus reigns.

He is the resurrection and the life. These are the blessings that he will bring at his second coming when he will forever destroy death, the last enemy in the final resurrection.

Well, this miracle of raising Lazarus was widely known. Lazarus had been dead for four days. That's the kind of news that travels fast. And we're told that there was a great crowd there that day that saw it with their own eyes.

And many more heard about it as they went everywhere telling everyone, just as you would if you had seen it happen. And so many, many people heard about this raising of Lazarus from the dead by the Lord Jesus.

It stirred up great interest in Jesus Christ. The chief priests and Pharisees were so bothered by it that they called a meeting of the Sanhedrin, the high Jewish court.

And they challenged the present policy of just verbally denouncing Jesus. No, much more must be done than just speaking against him. What are we accomplishing, they asked.

Here's this man performing many miraculous signs. Look how the whole world has gone after him. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. And then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

So from that day on, they plotted to take his life. Interesting, they not only plotted to kill Jesus, but also to kill Lazarus.

Because on account of Lazarus, many were putting their trust in Jesus. Well, this miracle then, you see, sets off a tsunami wave of nationalistic enthusiasm during Passover festival.

Jews from all over the world were in Jerusalem. And remember what the Passover celebrates. It celebrates their past deliverance from 400 years of being under Roman bondage.

And every year they gathered to think back of how God set them free from the foreign domination. That's why they're in Jerusalem.

And it only fueled their thirst for present deliverance from the Romans who held them in bondage. Luke records their expectations at this time, Passover week.

It says, He, Jesus, was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. In the full glory of his perfected kingdom, they were expecting everything they had read about the coming of the king to happen then and there in Jerusalem.

It was kingdom hysteria. A large crowd went to Bethany, just two miles away, the home of Lazarus.

So a large crowd leaves Jerusalem and goes to Bethany to find Jesus. The next day, so here's that great crowd looking for Jesus in Bethany. The next day, the great crowd that has come from the Passover heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.

So they took palm branches and went out to meet him. So here are these two large and excited crowds in festive spirits merging together into one great crowd as Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem.

He's riding a borrowed donkey and her colt. And Matthew records, This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet.

Say to the daughter of Zion, See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The massive crowd carpeted the road with their coats and palm branches and were joyfully shouting because of all the miracles that they had seen.

Do you know what they were shouting? Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel! Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! All Israel is abuzz with messianic hysteria.

At last we have a king. And they were expecting the kingdom of God to appear at once with this king. Hosanna! Hosanna!

But not always well. For as the crowd is shouting for joy, we find the king sobbing. As they come to the place in the journey toward Jerusalem, where they come over the, a little break in the, the mound, there is Jerusalem below for all to see.

And they're really swept up with this hysterical shouting about their king. And Jesus breaks into sobs. It doesn't say that he had some tears well up in his eyes.

It says that he wept. It was audible. You heard him sobbing. Did you get the picture? The throng, rejoicing, shouting praises.

And the king himself is sobbing. Not for himself, but for them. Because he sees right through their cries of Hosanna.

He sees what's in their heart. And it is a rejection of his rule. His kingship. He knows that all this enthusiasm on Palm Sunday was soon to evaporate.

How soon? Within five days, many of the same lips that were shouting Hosanna would be shouting, crucify him. And he weeps. He sobs at the sight.

Because he sees in his mind's eyes the judgments of God that are going to come upon them because of what they will do to their king. All because they did not recognize the time of God's coming to them.

You see, in the coming of Christ the king, God was coming to them. To offer them peace and salvation through faith in him, their king.

But they knew it not. And they received him not. And so he weeps for their sakes. And that's exactly what happened.

As it became apparent that week that he was not going to throw off the Roman yoke, but rather die in weakness upon a cross at the hands of the Romans, they wanted nothing to do with him.

Not the sword of king that they desired. And I want you to see something this morning. I want you to see how that all through the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, the note of kingship is being hammered home.

The kingship of Jesus Christ. We've seen it already, haven't we, on Palm Sunday. The theme of his kingship. He'll come to you riding on a donkey.

They're shouting the praises of the king. And it just continues to grow as we come through the trial and the crucifixion.

It's a theme pounded home by all four gospel accounts. Let's notice it together. First, the Jewish leaders. They need a serious enough charge to get the governor, the Roman governor, Pilate, to crucify Jesus, to give him the death sentence.

Now, they had their own reasons to give him the death sentence. He had blasphemed. He had claimed to be God. That's blasphemy. It deserves death. They had their Jewish reasons in their courts.

But remember, they're subject to the Romans. So how can we get the Roman court to put him to death? Well, they accused him of claiming to be a king, which indeed he did.

That would be the way they'll get him crucified. It was his claim to be a king. As if he was stirring up a rebellion against the Roman Caesar, as if he wanted the Jews to revolt and to overthrow the kingdom.

When it was that very week that he had taught them, give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but to God what is God's, when they asked him, should we pay taxes to Caesar? Yet that would be their charge.

He's a king. And stirring up a revolt against Caesar. So Pilate asked him when he met him, are you the king of the Jews? Yes.

It is as you say, Jesus replied. But my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.

You are a king then? Pilate said. Jesus answered, you are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born. For this reason I came into the world.

To testify to that truth. And upon examining him, Pilate finds no basis for a charge against Jesus. He may not agree with him in everything that he said, but he says, I don't find any reason for a charge against him.

But then he learns that Jesus was from Galilee. And that comes under Herod's jurisdiction. So since Herod was in Jerusalem, Pilate sends him over to Herod. And though the Jews were falsely accusing him before Herod, Jesus answered not a word to the great discomfort of Herod.

He hoped to hear something from Jesus. So Herod and his soldiers dressed him up as a king and mocked him.

They put an elegant robe upon him and then sent him back to Pilate. They treated Jesus' claim to be a king as a good joke.

Worth a few laughs. That's all. And that day, Herod and Pilate became friends, sharing a good laugh about this supposed king, Jesus.

Well, Pilate knew the Jewish leaders were just envious of his popularity. And so Pilate tries to set him free. His custom each year at the feast was to release one of their own prisoners, whichever the people chose.

So he asked them, Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? That's a leading question. He's wanting to get Jesus off. Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?

But the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas instead, a prisoner, guilty of insurrection against Caesar, guilty of murder.

Well, what should I do then with the one you call the king of the Jews? Pilate asked. Crucify him, they responded. Why? What crime has he committed?

asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, Crucify him. So Pilate took Jesus then and had him flogged. That was enough to kill some men.

Pilate's soldiers, after flogging him, took Jesus into the praetorium and they gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. King Jesus is now going to be cheap entertainment to some bored Roman soldiers.

and they stripped him. A king should have a robe, a crown, and a staff. And so they put a scarlet robe on him.

They twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and they knelt in front of him and mocked him. Hail, king of the Jews.

They spit on him and took the staff out of his hand and struck him on the head again and again. Remember, those long thorns were now on his head as they struck him with the staff.

And once more, Pilate brings Jesus now out to them, now wearing the robe and crown of thorns.

He was a bloody mess of a man mockingly dressed as a king. Here's your king, Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, Take him away!

Take him away! Crucify him! Shall I crucify your king? Pilate asked. We have no king but Caesar, the chief priest answers as if they were so loyal to Rome.

Pilate further tries to set Jesus free but the Jews just kept shouting, If you let this man go, you're no friend of Caesar because anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.

And finally, their shouts prevailed and Pilate handed him over to be crucified. And so on Golgotha, the place of the skull, Jesus was crucified between two robbers.

Calvin says he looked like the worst of the robbers. He looked like just another one of them but the worst, the ringleader because he's in the middle. The shame of it all.

The king treated as a low-down thief. And Pilate then had a sign prepared and fastened to the cross and it read Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.

And many of the Jews read the sign because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.

And the chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews but rather that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.

And Pilate answers, what I have written, I have written. Can you hear God's voice behind that?

What I have written, I have written. I have crowned my king on Zion's holy hill. It will not be undone. And though it was a way of revenge for Pilate to get back at these chief priests who forced his hand to crucify a man he didn't want to crucify, by it he was showing I have the power to write what I want.

Yet it declared the truth, didn't it? What I have written, I have written. Again, the irony should not be missed that the very man who used Christ's claim to be a king to get him crucified by the Romans became the cause of Jesus' kingship being proclaimed in three languages to multitudes of people who walked by the cross that day.

Remember, they're from all over the world to be in Passover this week. And there they see the sign, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.

Three languages as if to proclaim that he is a king for all peoples. But many use the sign to just heap further abuse and mockery upon his claim to be king.

He saved others but he can't save himself, the chief priest said. Let this Christ, this king of Israel, come down from the cross that we may see and believe.

And the soldiers joined in. If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. And so dies the king of kings amid the mocking taunts of his claim to be king.

Be astonished, O heaven. Be amazed, O earth. Never was a king more despised and rejected by those he came to save. Never did thorns compose so rich a crown.

Two lessons. The first is that the death of Jesus was a kingly act. What do we learn from this? Why the emphasis in the trial and crucifixion of Jesus upon his kingship?

To not let us miss the four gospel writers do not want to let us miss this all-important note about what's happening that the one dying on the cross is none other than the king.

God's anointed king in God's kingdom. The one who had been promised is there dying on the middle cross on Golgotha on Good Friday.

Believers, when you think of Christ crucified, do you think of him as a king? You see, he's not only the prophet, the one hanging there is not only the prophet who came to teach us the only way to heaven.

He's not only the priest who is there making a sacrifice, an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. The one hanging there is our king whose death on the cross won our salvation.

He is there defending us against our worst enemies. Do you think of him as your king on the cross?

I love those hymns. When I survey the wondrous cross upon which the prince, that's who's there, the prince of glory dies, my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride.

Thrown upon the awful tree, king of grief we watch with thee. Oh Jesus, we adore thee upon the cross our king.

You see, can you look beyond the mocking crown of thorns, the blood-streaked body glory of Jesus of Nazareth and see the glory of the king.

We must because the death of Jesus was a kingly act and by that we don't just mean that it was a king dying but we mean that his death was his greatest achievement for his people.

We mean it that this is the king doing the greatest good that he's ever done for his people. It was by dying that he conquered our greatest enemies of sin and Satan death and hell.

It was the greatest triumph of any king as he rescued a multitude of sinners from their sins. So far from his death disproving his claim to be a king as the mockery suggested and perhaps even as his disciples feared.

rather the reason he does not save himself is so that by his death he might save his people. You see he either saves himself or he saves his people and he's come the reason the king has come is to save his people from their sins.

Whereas many kings serve their own benefit at the expense of their people our king serves the benefit of his people at the expense of his own life.

At the expense of his own being damned in their place put under the curse of God for them. So if we're to think correctly about the cross we must see it as the mighty victory of our good and gracious king.

Here he is making a public spectacle of our enemies triumphing over them by his cross and it was all when we were sinners bent on rebellion against his rule that this king died for us to deliver us from endless torments.

no wonder his people glory in the cross no wonder his people glory in this king who dies for them there on the cross we love to sing around our king and praise you blessed Jesus so would you have your love for Christ grow consider the love of your king on Calvary oh Jesus we adore thee upon the cross our king this is where love grows as we adore him our king upon the cross and then his commandments become our happy choice as we serve him and offer ourselves up in his service so let the people of Zion be glad in their king Psalm 149 for the Lord takes delight in his people he crowns the humble with salvation let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds rejoice the Lord is king your Lord and king adore rejoice give thanks and sing and triumph evermore his death is a kingly act and secondly it's it's faith in the king that brings salvation to the worst of sinners it's faith in the king that brings salvation to any sinner one of the most amazing conversion took place on Golgotha that day you remember there were two criminals that started out mocking Jesus but something happened to one of them that very moment this criminal had lived a life of sin just like the other and at last the law had caught up with them both and he is now receiving the greatest punishment that Rome offered for the greatest crime crucifixion torture of crucifixion and as he's hung up to die it's behind beside

Jesus with they can talk to each other he can hear what Jesus is saying that day and he can see and read the notice board above his head and he joins in mocking his kingship but as the hours pass he sees how Jesus treats his enemies and those abusing him he hears him say father forgive them they do not know what they are doing and right there on his cross he's born again he repents of his past you can see it in his words to the other criminal we're getting what we deserve but he has done nothing wrong and he trusts in Christ here's a rebel against Christ's kingdom he spent his whole life in revolt against the laws of King Jesus and now just hours before he dies his heart is subdued beneath the rule of Christ and his grace and he puts his faith in him and gains entrance into God's kingdom now Jesus already told us in John chapter 3 in his interview with

Nicodemus that no one can even see or enter the kingdom of God unless they're born again that's what happened on the cross that day to this king in his latest or to this thief in his latest hour he was born again he was given new eyes to see he was given faith to see what few others think of the crowd that saw this scene that day all those passing by all those gathering around all those participating what did they see this man saw something that few that day saw that Jesus really is king and he really does save his people but it was perceived only by faith they saw no glory in this one he sees glory in Jesus the king so he looks over he sees Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews but think what he saw with his physical eyes there was nothing there that looked like a king you say well there was a crown yeah of thorns mocking his kingship he heard them mocking the claim of king his face was beaten and so disfigured that he did not look like a human being his beard was plucked out of him his body and face was streaked with blood he's dying in weakness amid the taunts of his enemies nothing kingly about that and yet with his new eyes of faith he sees a king indeed and he says

Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom by faith he sees that he is a king and that by trusting in him he can get him into that kingdom and there on the cross he cries for mercy and puts his trust in Jesus the king and then he heard the most comforting words any dying man has ever heard today you will be with me in paradise today you with me the sinner with the savior together because that's why he's come you see to seek and to save that which was lost and to save us from our worst enemy of sin and so on the cross isn't it wonderful that a trophy is given to king Jesus right there in his dying cross a trophy a star in his diadem is given in this thief who is converted is saved how through

Jesus suffering and accomplishment on the cross he saves this rebel from sin and hell and brings him into his everlasting kingdom the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day and there have I as vile as he washed all my sins away do you see the glory in that king it's here that he's saving his people by laying down his life and if you will come and submit to him this day he will receive you into his kingdom what grace few saw it that day do you see any glory in this Jesus is it not his glory that he dies for his people is it not his glory that today he has sent his ambassadors into the world to beseech you I'm one of those ambassadors to beseech you to plead with you to beg you to implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God because God has made him to be sin who knew no sin so that you might become the righteousness of God the reconciling work has been done in Jesus on the cross now receive that reconciliation receive

Christ as king and so from his throne above he sends out his ambassadors into the world to say make peace with God enjoy the peace that I've come to bring what a king what a king let's pray Lord Jesus we we've never seen grace like this we've never seen love for enemies like this we've never seen power displayed through such weakness power to change this man's eternal destiny from hell to heaven and to do it not just for him but for a whole multitude of sinners who would look and live who would look away from self and trust in Jesus the king oh teach us to love him father holy spirit spread abroad in our hearts more and more of his love that we would be compelled to no longer live for ourselves but to seek first his kingdom and righteousness and to offer ourselves up afresh this day to be servants of this king and of his kingdom gather others in send them home citizens of this king we ask in

Jesus name amen