The Triumphal Entry - Life of Christ Part 70

Now, I don't know if you can remember back when you were a kid. I don't know what kind of town you grew up in, but I grew up in a town down in Portsmouth, Virginia. It was a military town, and every year at July 4th, we'd have a parade right down Main Street, and the bands would turn out. The high school bands would march. The military units would be there. We'd have dignitaries that would ride in the convertibles. Did anybody else grow up in a town like that?

Huh? Well, you know, that's kind of small town America stuff, and small town America is kind of disappearing. So I don't know how many of those parades there are anymore, but even in our modern big world, there's still some parades, aren't there? There's the Rose Bowl Parade. There's Macy Thanksgiving Parade. There's the St. Patrick's Day Parade, and the parade we had right here in Washington after Desert Storm. Hey, look, everybody, as the song says, loves a parade. Well, in the Bible this morning, we're going to see a parade.

We don't know it as a parade. We call it the triumphal entry, but really it was a parade, a parade that had Jesus Christ at its center, and I think around which there's some life-changing truth. So I want us to look at it together here in Luke chapter 19, and let's begin at verse 28. It says, And after Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. If you're following Luke's gospel, you know that Jesus has been in Jericho, and now he leaves Jericho, and he heads to Jerusalem for the very last time in his earthly life. Now, the road between Jericho and Jerusalem is a road that's only about 15 miles long. It was a Roman road. The Romans had built it. As a matter of fact, if you go to Israel today, part of that road still exists.

A few of the bridges that they built over big caverns still exist today. When the Romans built a road, the Romans built a road, and Jesus was walking this Roman road. It went 15 miles, but in that period of about 15 miles, it went up 3,500 feet from Jericho to Jerusalem. So it was quite a climb. I'm always interested at the little caricatures of Jesus that you see that kind of present him as a 90-pound weakling.

You know the ones I'm talking about? Friends, if you think Jesus was a 90-pound weakling, you go to Israel, you start in Jericho, and by foot, you walk that road and complete the whole journey in the morning. And then you tell me if you think Jesus was a 90-pound weakling.

I want to tell you, this was a strenuous climb and no 90-pound weakling makes this climb. Jesus was a physical specimen, as indicated by his ability to make that climb in just part of a day. Well, it says in verse 29, and as he approached Bethpage and Bethany, those are two little towns on the road just before you get to Jerusalem, at a hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and sent them on an errand. Now these are two villages Jesus comes to, and then about a mile past Bethany, the Mount of Olives crests, and there right in front of you in all of its splendor is the city of Jerusalem. The temple sat right on the wall near where Jesus crested the Mount of Olives. Those of you who've been to Jerusalem know exactly what I'm talking about.

And there in all of its splendor, glistening in the sun, Jesus would have caught a full vision of the city and the city wall and the temple on the corner of the city wall. And when he got there, he stopped for a minute and he said, now guys, I got a little errand I want you to run. And he said to them, go to the village ahead of you and as you enter it, you'll find a donkey tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie the donkey and bring it to me.

And if anyone asks you, why are you untying it? You tell him the Lord needs it. Those who were sent ahead went and found everything just the way he had told them. And as they were untying the donkey, its owners asked him, where are you going with our donkey? And they said, well, the Lord needs it. And so they brought the donkey to Jesus through their cloaks, their outer garments on that donkey and put Jesus up on it. Now, when I say the word donkey, for most of us, the word donkey does not bring to mind an exalted animal. I mean, if we watch Western films, you know, the heroes in Western films did not ride donkeys.

You know, John Wayne never rode a donkey in his life. And of course, Roy Rogers had Trigger, thank you very much. I mean, this is Americana here folks. I mean, this is basic Americana.

All right. And the Lone Ranger had Hi Ho Silver. That's correct. Can you imagine Zorro jumping on a donkey? I don't think so.

No, it doesn't work. But in the ancient Near East, a donkey was not a lowly animal. It was not a meaningless animal the way it is in our folklore. In fact, when King David proclaimed his son Solomon, the next king of Israel, the Bible says 1 Kings chapter 1, that they went and got David's personal donkey, put Solomon on David's donkey and led him through the streets of Jerusalem proclaiming him as the king. They didn't put him on a horse, they put him on a donkey. Kings rode donkeys. And so Jesus gets on this donkey, and he begins riding down the Mount of Olives towards the city of Jerusalem. And it says, and as he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

Man, this is like Sir Walter Raleigh, except about 1800 years apart. Anyway, and when he came near the place where the road goes down to the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. And they began crying out, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in the highest and glory in the highest.

Hosanna to the king. Now, why did Jesus do this question? Why did he do this? I mean, he said, well Lonnie was tired of walking and he needed to ride.

No, no, no, no, that's not the right answer. I mean, he was going downhill now. No, this is not why he did this. He said, well then why would he stop and go to all this trouble to go fetch a donkey? Why didn't he just finish walking on into the city? He was already there.

Well, there's an answer to that. In fact, in Matthew's gospel, you don't need to turn there. But in Matthew chapter 21, listen to the answer. Matthew says, and this took place to fulfill what was spoken in the Old Testament through the prophet Zechariah when Zechariah said, say to the daughter of Zion, see, your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey. By doing this, I hope you understand, Jesus was referring back to what the prophet Zechariah had written in the Old Testament and he was proclaiming himself to be the king of Israel, proclaiming himself to be the fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy that Israel's king would come riding to her on a donkey. Now, what's really interesting is that this is the only time in the entire New Testament where Jesus permitted people to proclaim his kingly right.

Every other time they tried, he shunned it. Every other time they wanted to proclaim him as king, he ran away from it. In fact, in John chapter 6, after feeding the five thousand, you know, with the bread and the fish, the Bible says that knowing that the people intended to come and make him a king by force, Jesus withdrew from that place alone and went into the mountains. But now, as he approaches Jerusalem for the very last time in his earthly life, Jesus allowed people to proclaim him as the king for two reasons. Number one, to fulfill Old Testament prophecy. Jesus said, I came to fulfill the law and he did it. And second, to provoke his enemies to action.

So what do you mean by that? Jesus knew that he had to die this coming week in Jerusalem. He had to die at the Passover feast, which was coming up starting on Thursday night. And Jesus knew that his enemies wanted to wait until after the Passover feast and not start any trouble while all the crowds were in Jerusalem for Passover, and he and his sovereignty knew they needed to be provoked into action that week. And so by doing this, he provoked them. Look, verse 39, and some of the rabbis in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. Stop your followers from doing this.

Don't you understand what they're doing? They're declaring you to be the king of Israel. They're declaring you to be the Messiah. They're declaring you to be God in the flesh. This is blasphemy.

You got to stop this. And Jesus said, I tell you, if they were to keep quiet, the stones themselves would cry out. No, I'm sorry. I'm not going to tell them to be quiet. Well, how do you think this affected the rabbis? You think this made them happy campers?

No, I don't think so. As a matter of fact, in John's gospel, it says right after this, so the rabbis said to one another, see there, this is getting us nowhere. This backing off and waiting and not dealing with him isn't getting us anywhere. The whole world is going after him. Just look at this parade, would you?

We're losing it. And it says from that point on, they plotted how they were going to kill him. Now this was Sunday afternoon, friends, Sunday afternoon. In five days, Jesus will be dead. In seven days, Jesus will be raised from the dead. And in 12 months, we'll be through covering this last seven days of Jesus's life. That's about how long it's going to take us. So it will take 12 months to go through seven days, but we're going to have fun and we're going to learn a lot. So this is the beginning of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ.

This is Sunday afternoon. He rises from the dead the next Sunday. So as a church family now, as we study our way through the Gospel of Luke, we're beginning the last week of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, okay? Now this is the end of our passage, but it makes us ask a really important question and that question is what?

So what? What difference does this make to you and me right here in 20th century America? We have been to Jerusalem, most of us. We've never ridden on a donkey. We really don't have any great desire to ride on a donkey. We're not going to crest the Mount of Olives on some donkey. And we're certainly not the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy in any sense.

So what does this difference make for us? Well, listen, friends, what's really interesting, as I said earlier, is this is the only time in the New Testament Jesus ever presented himself to the world as the king. Certainly he is the king. He's the king of kings and the Lord of lords. And he could have presented himself this way and been absolutely valid in presenting himself that way, but he never did. Actually, Jesus presents himself another way throughout all the New Testament.

He presents himself over and over and over, not as king, but as servant. On both sides of the triumphal entry, and I'm going to show you this, on either side of it, Jesus, like bookends to the triumphal entry, Jesus presents himself as a servant and challenges us to make ourselves servants and not kings. Now, I want you to go back with me in the Matthew chapter 20. That's page 697 if you're using our copy of the Bible. First, we're going to look at Jesus presenting himself as a servant just before the triumphal entry.

This is the bookend right in front of the triumphal entry. Matthew chapter 20, verse 20. It says, then the mother of Zebedee's sons. Now, Zebedee had two sons.

You know their names? James and John, right. James and John's mom came to Jesus with her sons. You know, she had her two boys there.

That was kind of nice. And kneeling down, she asked a favor of Jesus. And Jesus said, what do you want? And she said, what I want is for you to grant that one of these two sons of mine sit at your right hand and the other one sit at your left hand in your kingdom when you come in your glory.

Well, now that's a pretty presumptuous request, huh? But that's what she wanted. And if Jesus had granted that, I think the next thing is the two boys would have scrapped over which one got the right hand instead of the left hand. These were guys who were seeking preeminence. These were guys who were seeking prominence and position and they got their mom, somehow they talked their mom into doing the dirty work for them and going and asking Jesus for what was really in their heart. How did the rest of the disciples respond?

Well, let's look, verse 24. And when the other 10 heard about it, they were indignant at the two brothers. They were really upset. And you know why they were really upset? They were really upset that they hadn't thought of using their mom before these other two guys did.

Because they had the exact same desire in their heart for the prominence and the position. And Jesus could see the whole group of disciples just coming apart here with fleshly self-ambition. And so he says to them, he says, guys, come here, come here, everybody come here. All right, we're going to huddle.

Everybody come here. He says, verse 25, he called them together and said, now you know that the rulers of the Gentiles, they lord the authority they've got over their people. Verse 26, but this is not the way it's to be with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you needs to become your servant.

And whoever wants to be first must become slave. Jesus said, you want real spiritual greatness, guys? I'll tell you how to get real spiritual greatness. Don't try to be a king. Don't try to be prominent.

Don't try to get position. Be a servant. And let me remind you, Jesus didn't say that servanthood leads to greatness. Jesus said servanthood is greatness. And then look what he says about himself. He says, verse 28, just as the Son of Man.

Who's that? Well, that's Jesus Christ. Just as I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. How does Jesus present himself right before the triumphal entry?

As a servant. Now I want us to go right after the triumphal entry and watch the other bookend, the one on the back end of the triumphal entry, and Jesus presents himself the same way. John chapter 13.

And if you're using our copy of the Bible, it's page 763. John chapter 13, where a couple days after the triumphal entry, Jesus is having his last meal with his disciples. We commonly call that the last supper, sure. DaVinci painted it, but this was happening in real life here. And Luke 22 tells us that right in the middle of the supper, they get into another fight about who's the greatest.

Can you imagine this? They're in the middle of the last supper. Of course, I don't think they knew it was the last supper.

It hadn't been named that yet. But anyway, they were in the middle of the last supper, and they're still fighting about who's the greatest. And so as a response to that, John chapter 13 says, verse 4, that after dinner, Jesus got up from the meal, he took off his outer clothing, wrapped a towel around his waist, and after that poured water in a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. This was a courtesy in the ancient Near East in this time to give people water to wash their feet when they came into your house, when they were a guest. People wore open-toed sandals, they wore no socks, and they got the mud and the dirt and the grime and all the assorted crud off the streets of the city all over their feet.

And so when they'd come to your house, you'd give them some water. Now, usually a person washed his own feet off. Occasionally, if it was a very honored guest, you might have one of your servants come out and wash their feet for them. But what makes this unusual is that the host, the master, the Lord himself, gets down and washes their feet for them. I was at a home a few years ago up in rural Maryland of some people who went to a church where they still do foot washing. Now, I don't know if you've ever been in a church like that or grew up in a church like that, but there are churches who still have a foot washing ceremony. And it was on a Wednesday night, they were getting ready to go, and I was kind of watching as they got ready to go to this foot washing ceremony. And the woman went back and took a bath, got all cleaned up, and then she put perfume all over her feet. The guy cut his toenails and changed his socks, which for us guys is about the equivalent of putting perfume on our feet. And so, and the reason they did that is because what they didn't want to do is go to church and have their friends at church have to wash feet that smelled like feet.

Yeah. Now, this is not what's happening here, my dear friends. The disciples had no idea this was coming. They had not washed their feet, cut their toenails, put perfume on or anything else. Their feet were bona fide feet that had been in everything the roads of ancient Near East had to offer. And, you know, in our 20th century spic and span America, we can't even imagine the odor and the bacteria content that were on these people's feet. This is why Peter reacted the way he did. He said, Lord, do you know where these feet have been? Do you know what I stepped in today?

Do you know you're not going to wash these feet? Jesus said, Yeah, I am, Peter, because I need to teach you guys a lesson. And what's the lesson? We'll look at verse 12. And when he had finished washing their feet, he put his clothes back on and returned to his place. And he said, Do you guys understand what I just did?

You call me teacher and Lord, and you're right, because that's what I am. Now, if I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, then you guys should be willing to have the same humility, the same lowliness of mind, the same servant attitude to wash one another's feet that I had to wash your feet. Is Jesus asking us here to have foot washing ceremonies in churches?

I don't think so. I don't think he's interested in a ritual. I think he's interested in an attitude, an attitude that says, lowliness of mind, servanthood, and humility is what makes greatness in the kingdom of God.

And this is the bookend on the back of the triumphal entry. This is why the Bible says that Jesus always presented himself as a servant. This is the way he lived. This is the way he acted. Philippians chapter 2 says that he did not consider being God something to be grasped onto, but he humbled himself, taking on the form of a servant, and came to earth and was obedient to death on the cross.

Why? Because that's what we needed for eternal life, and that's what he was willing to do. Friends, Jesus could have said, me, go down there into that cesspool with Peter and James and John and their mother. Go down there and do it. Forget it.

I'm staying up here with Michael and Gabriel and all the angels. I'm not going down there and dealing with those people. Send somebody else. But he didn't do that. He said, I'll humble myself. I'll take on the role of a servant.

And because they need me, I'll go down and serve their needs. And the most important need he served was the need to die on the cross so we could have eternal life. That's what it says in the Bible. My dear friend, if you're here and you've never trusted Christ in a real and personal way as your Savior, if you're thinking that there must be other ways to get eternal life and get to heaven other than simply relying on the blood of Christ shed on the cross, if you're thinking you can work your way there, earn your way there, religiously perform your way there, if you're thinking that you can sacrament your way there, if you're thinking that some other religion will get you there, my dear friends, if any of that is true, Jesus Christ was a fool. He was a fool. To leave heaven and come down here and live for 30 years as a servant and die the excruciating death on the cross that he died, if there was any other way to get to heaven, and certainly as God, he would have known it. And for him to have given all that up and come to be your servant, he was a fool. I'd like to submit to you Jesus Christ is not a fool and that the reason he came is because he knew none of those other ways works. That's what he says in the Bible.

They don't work. They'll never get you there. And if you're here and you've never trusted Christ in a real and personal way, trust in what he did on the cross plus nothing for you to get you to heaven. I'd like to suggest to you today, unless you're prepared to say Christ was a fool, that you need to jettison all those other things you've been relying on and grab a hold of Christ because that's why he came for you.

I hope you'll think about that. Now, what's the point in this for us who are Christians? Well, the point from my point of view is that the reason the triumphal entry stands out as so unusual is because Jesus Christ didn't go around proclaiming himself as a king. He went around proclaiming himself as a servant and this is what he says is the way he wants us to live. And he promises if we live this way, he'll reward us. Luke 6, verse 38, Jesus said, give, give, give, and I'll give back to you, press down, running over. I'll fill your cup so full you won't know what to do with it.

Give, give, serve people like I did. You say, Lon, listen, I mean we love you, Lon, and you know, you're sweet, but you were so out of touch it's not even funny. I mean, in the real world out there, buddy, when you walk out the door in the morning, you got to lock and load. I mean, this is the real world. It's not church out there. And out there, you know, you go out there and you live like this. You show people a soft underbelly out there and they will gut you and eat you for lunch. I mean, this is great church talk, pal, but it doesn't work out there in the real world.

Time out. I'd like to respond to that. I got two things I want to say. Number one, saying this is right except for one thing, and that is you left God out of the equation. See, you're right.

You go out there and show people a soft underbelly and try to live like this and they will try to take you for everything you're worth. But the problem is that they didn't figure God into the equation because God says, I'm bigger than they are. I'm bigger than your boss. I'm bigger than the world system. I'm bigger than the neighbor.

I'm bigger than your husband, bigger than your wife. And I said, if you give, I will give back to you pressed down rich and running over. And there's nobody out in that world who can stop me from doing that. Don't worry about what they do.

Trust me. I'll give to you more than you ever give away. And the second thing I'd like to say is the world might say living like this is stupid, but would you please look at who the world holds up as its greatest heroes? The world holds up as its greatest heroes, people who live the exact way Jesus said to live. They hold up people like George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Albert Schweitzer, Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa, the nurses in Vietnam, Corey Ten Boom, Abraham Lincoln. It's not the Rockefellers. It's not the Hitlers.

It's not the Donald Trumps who took and shoved and pushed and got and had and controlled. It's not those people the world honors. The world honors the people who live the way Jesus Christ said to live. See, there's a big difference between success Washington style and success God style.

And please tell me why if the world understands so well how to live successfully, the world is so messed up. I'm telling you that Jesus Christ is calling us to a different way of living. He's calling us to a higher way of living. As Christians, He's calling us to a way of living that the Spirit of God wants to produce inside and through us, a way of living that makes us a blessing to other people, a way of living that brings the blessing of God onto our life, a way of living that makes our life fulfilling and rewarding and satisfying. And it comes not from taking, it comes from giving. It comes not from being a king, but from being a servant. And I want to tell you no matter where you go and you know this, servants stand out. Man, they stand out and they win your heart. I just got back from Florida and I was down there for four or five days with my oldest son, Jamie.

My oldest son's graduating from high school this year. It's a real emotional deal for me. He keeps telling me, would you stop, you know? And I'm like, well, you just don't understand, man.

One of these days you'll understand. But anyway, his varsity baseball starts this coming week and this was, once that starts, we're done. And so I wanted to get one more little trip in with him and we talked about it and decided that we were going to go scuba diving.

So he wanted to be certified. We took the course up here and then we went down to Key West to do our referral dive. So I looked around, you know, I said, I got to keep the cost down on this, you know, and I had some friends that worked out some arrangements for me to stay down there. And then I decided, well, you know, how am I going to do this airfare because I can't have a Saturday night stay because I need to get back to be here this morning.

So I called around and I discovered, guess what? Value jet. Yes, sir. Value jet. No Saturday night stay, no tickets, no advance reservation, 69 bucks to Miami.

This is a Hebrew's dream. You understand what I'm saying? So I said, Jamie, we're going value jet. He goes, value jet? When did they start flying? And I said, well, don't worry about it.

For 69 bucks, we'll take our chances, you know. Let's just hope it's not a biplane. And so anyway, we got there, we get on value jet, we got our suitcase and we got this dive bag full of all of our equipment. We get to Miami, we go down to the luggage check-in, right, and we're standing there and little things going around, around, around, around, around our suitcases come out and we're just standing there kind of waiting for the dive bag and waiting for the dive bag and waiting for the dive bag and pretty soon we're the only people standing there with the empty thing going around, around, around, waiting for the dive bag and guess what? No dive bag.

No equipment. I turned to Jamie, I said, well, isn't this the way to start a vacation? And he said, Dad, you get what you pay for.

Can you say homicide? I go up to the ticket area and I'm saying to myself, okay, now, be cool. Try not to lose your testimony now. He's probably going to ask you to fill out a form.

On the form you're probably going to have to put your occupation down. So just, you know, be calm now here. Don't blow it. So I go up to the desk and I go, you know, this is not good. You know, all our equipment's in there.

A lot of it's borrowed. I mean, we're talking hundreds of dollars of equipment that I got to replace and I'm going off and finally this sweet lady, they buzz, I guess they have an emergency button under the counter they hit when somebody goes off like that. This woman shows up and says, sir, would you, you know, come over here with me.

You're kind of disturbing the counter over here. Come over here. And she said, now tell me the problem. So I go through the whole thing with this young gal.

She's about 21, 22. She said, well, it's not here in the airport. She said, I will find it. I said, well, you got to find it.

Are you going to pay for it if you don't find it? I will find it. I said, well, maybe somebody stole it.

She said, nobody stole it. It's somewhere. Well, I know it's somewhere.

I'm smart enough to know it's somewhere. So she said, look, where are you going? I said, I'm going to Key West. She said, go rent the car and start driving. And she said, every couple hours stop and here's a number.

You call me and I'll let you know what the status is. I said, well, now how long are you going to be at this number? She said, I'll be at this number until I find your dive bag.

I said, yeah, but when do you get off? She said, I get off when I find your dive bag. I said, I'll go home.

Oh, I like this. She said, I do this all the time. She said, I will not go home today. My job today is to find your dive bag.

You will have it before the end of the day and I will not go home until I find it. You call me. So this woman looked all day for my dive bag. I called her at two, no dive bag. I called her at four, no dive bag.

I called her at six and she said, guess what? I found it. Where is it?

It's in Orlando. Great. She said, now let me tell you what I'm doing. She said, it's flying in. I got it on another plane. I'm going to go down and pick it up myself. I'm going to personally transfer it over to Gulfstream airline that has a flight that comes into Key West at midnight. I'm going to stay in there until I make sure they put it on the plane.

I'm going to put a special ticket on it and you will have it at midnight tonight in Key West. And so I went to the airport at midnight and guess what? There was the dive bag. Now I'm going to write this woman supervisor a letter because I think this is exceptional service. That woman spent her entire day, nine o'clock at night, she's still handling my dive bag. And I look at her and I say, I don't know if this woman's a Christian or not, but she's sure living like one. You see, this is the way Jesus Christ wants us to live. This is the kind of servanthood for people that Jesus Christ wants us to have. And friends, we don't like living like this. I'm sure that woman had things she could have done.

I'm sure her shift didn't go to midnight. But friends, we find out how much of a servant we really are by our reaction when somebody treats us that way. Now here at McLean Bible Church, what's the greatest need we have? Say, we need more parking.

No, that's not our greatest need. We need more facility space. We need more programs. We need more Bible studies. We need more staff.

We need more money. No, not our greatest need. The greatest need of McLean Bible Church is more servants. What's the greatest need in your family? The greatest need in your family is not more money, not a new car, not a bigger house, not more furniture. The greatest need in your family is to have people be more servants. What's the greatest need in the U.S. Senate and Congress? Say, Lon, I can think of a lot of them.

Yeah, but I'm telling you the bottom one. We need more servants up there. What's the greatest need in your office? More servanthood. You say, my boss definitely needs that.

Yeah, but so do you. What's the greatest need on the streets of Washington, D.C.? More servanthood. And yet we don't want to be servants. We want to be kings. We want people to wait on us.

That's the natural thing. Folks, let me just tell you, if you want to be a king, we don't have a lot of job openings here for kings. But if you want to be a servant, we've got plenty of positions available. If you want to be a king, you're going to have a tough time finding a spot in the kingdom of God because they've already got a king. But if you want to be a servant, the kingdom of God has lots of opportunity for you.

And I'd like to challenge you. Are you a giver or are you a taker? I mean, the world's full of one or the other. Servants are the givers. Jesus said He rewards them.

Man, I'll tell you, the takers don't have a lot of cars in their funeral procession. Which are you? And if you're not as much of a giver as you wish you were, I've got news for you if you're a Christian. The Spirit of God can change you if you want Him to. He can change you if you want Him to.

You ask Him and you watch what happens. I hope God will take what we've talked about and change your life with it today. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the Word of God to our hearts this morning. Use it to change the way we see our lives, change the way we see our purpose in this world, change the way we see our mission. Change us, Lord, so that we can be used by you to make a difference in this world. Change us so that we can enjoy the rich blessing of God upon our life. Make us servants. May the Spirit of God alter us from the inside and make us servants. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.