Luke 12:35-48 | Parables in Practice

Listen to this week’s sermon, Parables In Practice preached by Pastor Jason Dunn from Luke 12:35-48.

Transcript

Welcome And Prayer Of Illumination

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 0:06

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City Orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.

Gospel Reading From Luke 12

Gina Fickett 0:20

Please stand and join me in the prayer of illumination. Gracious God, by your spirit, kindle our hearts that we might be a hopeful people. Through your word, keep us from growing weary, that we may not miss the glory of Christ's appearing. Even so, come quickly, O God. Amen. Today's gospel reading is from Luke 12, beginning in verse 35. Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants to whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants. But know this that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, My master is delayed in coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not get ready or act according to his will will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. Every one to whom much was given, of him much will be required. And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. This is God's word. Please be seated.

Lamps Lit For The Master

Joy, Desire, And Loving Christ

Certain Return, Unknown Timing

Faithful Stewardship In God’s House

Control And Comfort Without Readiness

Judgment Language And Covenant Stakes

The Stunning Promise Of His Table

Open The Door While You Can

Final Prayer And Sending Hope

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 3:03

What shapes you most? The past, the present, or the future? Some of us in this room, we live in the glory days, right? You're like back in '82. I could throw a football quarter mile. Like if I could just go back, I'd win states. That's where you kind of live most of the time. Some of you, you live for the here and now. I mean, everything's just about living for the moment. Others of you, you're you're like a cat chasing a laser pointer. You're always trying to figure out where the thrill and the future is going to come, but as soon as you get there, it kind of elusively slips through your fingers. So which one shapes you most? The past, the present, or the future. There's a psychologist at Harvard named Daniel Gilbert, and he says in his book, Stumbling on Happiness, says it like this the human being is the only animal that thinks about the future. So he goes on to say that our brain is basically an anticipation machine, and we're constantly making the future in our imaginations, and it's probably the most important thing that we do, according to Dr. Gilbert. Now, psychologists call this ability to predict how we will feel in the future, affective forecasting. And so, whatever your predictions of how you're gonna feel in some place and time in the future, whatever those predictions are, they actually shape your behavior and your attitude and your decisions here and now. It's significant. And so in our text today, Jesus tells a parable. And when he's telling this parable, he's not trying to help you predict the future, but he is trying to prepare you for the future. He's trying to help you develop a readiness for what's to come. And that word come actually repeated, is repeated ten times in our text, and it's the main point of what we're getting after here. So here's what I want to say. If Jesus is coming back, then we want to be ready for his return, steady as his stewards and served at his table. Ready for his return, steady as his stewards and served at his table. Those are my three points. Let's look at the text together. If you have a worship guide, a Bible, advice, get Luke chapter 12 in front of you, starting in verse 35. We're going to look at how we want to be ready for his return. Luke 12, 35 says this stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning. And be like men who are waiting for their master to come, here's that word, to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. This is significant. This phrase from the wedding feast, it cues us to a cultural context that's a little different from our own. You see, the master of this household was going away to get married. He's going into another town or country, getting married, and he was gonna come back, and he was gonna bring his bride home with him. And when he and his bride came back, it was expected that the servants of the house would be prepared to meet him when he comes. You see, I don't know if some of you remember this, but um I grew up in the late 1900s, and back then, back then you'd have to tell people, you'd say, Hey, I'll meet you at the mall. It's another thing we'll talk about later. I'll meet you at the mall, and you'd have to tell them a time and a location, and then just assume they're gonna show up. And if you got there before that person, you just waited patiently for them to get there, and nobody got mad about it, actually, interestingly. Well, go even further back. There's no clocks, there's no find my friends, there's no GP, there's no way of knowing when the master was gonna come back from the wedding feast. And so the servants needed to stay awake, they needed to stay ready. In fact, not only that, but they had to go out maybe a mile, two miles from the house with lanterns prepared in case the master would be coming, and and they could greet the master and his new bride and walk with them towards the house so that they were greeted with light and people. And so the household had to stay awake. And that's exactly what Jesus says in verse 37. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Now, this word blessed, it occurs three times in our text. Blessed is a word that means flourishing, fully alive, or just simply happy. Happy are the servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. How is it that this expectancy, this wakefulness, creates happiness? How does that work? Well, all happiness comes from being present with whatever you love. All happiness comes from being present with the object of your love, your beloved. I actually get this from Augustine of Hippo in his magnum opus called The City of God. He has this brilliant theory of emotion and love, and he says that every one of us has four core emotions. The four things that we feel are desire, fear, sorrow, and joy. Now, desire is the pursuit of what you love. Okay? What you love is not with you, but you're pursuing it. That's desire. Fear is when what you love is being threatened. I believe anger comes from that as well. Sorrow is the felt sense of the loss of what you love. And finally, joy is the possession of what you love. You see, when you're in the presence of the object of your love, whether that be a person or a promotion or a vacation, you feel blessed. That's the word in our text here. So why is it that the servants are happy, joyful, blessed when the masters come, when the master comes back? Because they love his appearing. They long for him, they are eagerly awaiting him, they are anticipating his return. You see, this is significant to us because Jesus is currently absent from us in body, and we feel that, and we desire his presence. That's why we pursue him. And so we've been waiting, we've been keeping the flame of our affections lit by the oil of the Holy Spirit as we anticipate and stand ready for him to return. How do you know if you're a Christian? We live in a cultural context where being a Christian doesn't really mean much of anything. How do you know if you're a Christian? Well, because the deepest ache of your heart is, Come, Lord Jesus. We long for you, we have affections for you, we desire you. Peter says it like this in his letter. He says, Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him. You see, that's what Jesus is getting at. And then in verse 38, he says, If he comes in the second watch or in the third, now notice Jesus is telling us that there is a possibility of delay in the master's return. If he comes, maybe in the second watch, maybe in the third, and he finds them awake, blessed. Here it is again, happy are those servants. But know this that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. And here's the principle you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Verse 40 summarizes this whole first half of our passage. It summarizes it by giving us two truths and one response. The first truth is this Jesus' coming is certain. Verse 40 says this the Son of Man is coming, full stop, period. It's he's coming back. The second truth is this Jesus' timing is uncertain. So the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Those are the two truths. So what's the right response to that reality? Therefore, be ready for his return. Cultivate an anticipation for Jesus. Captivate yourself with the possibilities of when he comes back. Have a readiness of heart and of life about you. What does this readiness look like in practice? Does it look like circling the wagons, grinning and burying it, just waiting for the end of all things and letting the world go to hell in a handbasket? Does it look like coming home unable to find anyone and panicking because you think you got lost in the rapture? Does it look like watching the news, looking for the signs of the times, predicting Jesus' ETA? Some of y'all have been Iran, Russia. Come on, I'm just saying, hey, listen, all of those have been wrong, by the way. Those predictions, all of them. And that's because Jesus isn't asking us to know when he was returning. Jesus is telling us to be ready for his returning and that that will shape our lives. How? Well, our Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 33, on the last judgment, which I know some of y'all are reading devotionally this week. That's a joke. Uh, says this because Jesus' coming is certain, because his coming is certain, it confronts us in our sinning and it comforts us, it consoles us in our suffering. We have this confrontation with our sin because we know that that the reality is that no task is missed, but also no tear is wasted. Jesus remembers, he sees it all. This is the basis of the fear of the Lord. This this reality that God is everywhere present and always aware of what's going on in our lives, and it confronts us in our sin and it comforts us, consoles us in our suffering. That's what we get for the from the reality that Jesus is coming. But what about the fact that Jesus' timing is uncertain? Well, what it does is it keeps us vigilant and watchful, waiting, anticipating, which actually is the antidote to complacency and compromise. Some of us have in this room have settled into a lazy Christianity. And Jesus is saying, be ready, cultivate watchfulness, anticipate. I'm coming. You don't know, you know it's happening, you just don't know when it's happening, and he's intentionally trying to stir us up. You see, Christianity is the only religion, the only worldview where it is actually good to stay awake, to be ready, to think rightly about reality. What do I mean by that? Well, every other worldview needs to kind of block out, bracket out some of its beliefs. For instance, if you're a secular materialist, somebody who doesn't believe in any kind of transcendence beyond the material universe, the reality is our sun will burn out, our universe will grow cold and dark, and everything in your life is ultimately meaningless. Most secular materialists don't keep that in front of their mind on a day-to-day basis because it would be depressing. But some of us in here live as if meaning in our lives is just simply self-created. Like you're the master of your own destiny. You just kind of create whatever meaning matters for your existence. And here's the thing: those fictions will not withstand pain. Now, even other religions don't really offer the future that we need in order to live meaningfully in the present. One of my favorite examples of this is from G.K. Chesterton. He says, if you if you compare and contrast the art of Christians throughout history and Buddhists throughout history, you notice something. He says it like this No two ideals can be more opposite than a Christian saint in a Gothic cathedral and a Buddhist saint in a Chinese temple. The Buddhist saint always has his eyes shut, while the Christian saint has them very wide open. The Buddhist saint has a sleek, harmonious body with his eyes heavy and sealed with sleep. The medieval saint's body is wasted to its crazy bones, but his eyes are frightfully alive. He says the Buddhist is looking with a peculiar intentness inwards. The Christian is staring with a frantic intentness outwards. If we follow that clue steadily, we shall find some interesting things. What is it that we'll find? Well, we'll find that the return of Jesus not only gives us a future, but it actually shapes our present. Because if Jesus is coming back, then we want to be ready for his return, but also steady as his stewards. Steady as his stewards. That's point two. Look with me at verse 41. Peter says it like this Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? Peter's asking a good question, a question many of us ask when we read the Bible, which is, is this relevant? Is this relevant for me? Now here's the thing the context, the audience of Jesus' teaching was often to his disciples in the midst of crowds. It actually shapes our preaching and teaching here. I assume there are people in this room who do not know Jesus, who do not belong to Jesus, who what we call not yet disciples, you're welcome. We love having you here. I hope you feel no more welcome anywhere in the city of Orlando on a Sunday morning than right here with us. I assume that that's the case because Jesus assumed that was the case. That's why Peter asks the question Hey, is this for your disciples or for like everybody? And in kind of textbook Jesus fashion, he doesn't really give a direct answer. Instead, he just kind of elaborates on his story. He goes on, and and and he does this thing where he actually separates kind of four different types of responses. Only one of them's good, three are bad, we only have time for two. So the two I want to look at are the faithful and the wise in verses 42 and 44, and then the faithless and the foolish. So look with me at the faithful and the wise stewards in verse 42. And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time. Now, notice here's the test. Not only ready readiness for the master's return, but steadiness, faithfulness as the master's steward. Now, this word manager here, it's an important word in the Bible. It's the word oikonomos, which is where we get the word economics from. You'll notice in the text the manager is set over the master's household. And first century households were they're different from what you think about as a household. When you think household in this context, think Downton Abbey, not nuclear family. All right, that'll help you a lot. And so the households were large and complex. They had three or four generations living there. It was the source of economic production. There were servants that worked in the house as well. There were offices and workshops, right, built into the house, into the home. Like COVID didn't invent working from home. That's actually the way it used to be. And so when we see this household, this manager, this oikonomos, we see that he's kind of like a chief of staff over the master's house. But he really has two things under his care: the master's stuff and the master's staff. What I mean by that is he, this oikonomous, this master, this I'm sorry, this manager of the master's household, set over his household, manages the master's possessions, like food and drink and money, and manages the master's people, like male and female servants, even the master's children. Look at verse 42. And the Lord said, Who then is this faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household to give them, here's the here's the task, to give them their food, their portion of food at the proper time. Blessed, there it is again, happy is that servant whom his master finds, will find so doing when he comes. So you notice there's there's two tasks here, two things that matter to the master when he comes. One, what did you do with what I gave you? Two, how did you love those around you? What did you do with what I gave you? How did you love those around you? There's a book called Imagine Heaven by a guy named John Burke. And what he did was he compiled hundreds, maybe even thousands, stories of near-death experiences, what are called NDEs, people who have been dead for minutes, sometimes long times, and they have these experiences where they're caught up into a spiritual reality, and then they come back, they're resuscitated, and they have stories to tell about what they experienced when they were dead. It's an amazing book. Imagine having. And in chapter 17 is my favorite chapter in the book. It's called the Life Review. You see, what he does is he basically draws out themes from these stories, countless stories. And one of the themes is that people experience what they call a life review. Christians, non-Christians, they all experience a lot of them experience this thing. Basically, what happens is they stand before Jesus, and Jesus' eyes are like a flaming fire. In other words, he cannot be deceived. You can't manipulate this man. But his eyes are the kindest eyes they've ever seen. And they experience this thing that happens where their life flashes before them almost like they're watching a movie reel. But it's interesting because some things are there and some things are omitted. One guy tells the story about how some of the points of his most proud accomplishments, like having a winning an award or making partner in his firm, are just totally omitted. But moments where he said things out of self-protection, moments where he did things out of self-promotion, they were on the script. And you see, at the end of this life review, they were asked two questions. What did you do with what I gave you? How did you love those around you? And so the reason why I say that is because our text is helping us here. Jesus is loving us. We don't need a near-death experience to know that you're going to give an account for the life that you've lived. We have it in the Bible right here. Jesus is telling you right here, what does it look like not to waste your life? Well, let me ask you, what do you think it looks like to waste your life? He talks about that too. Look at verse 45. This is the faithless and the foolish steward. Verse 45 says this but if that servant says to himself, pause for a moment, Pastor Jason talked last. week about internal dialogue and the things we say to ourselves. This is a common thing that happens in Jesus' parables. This guy's talking to himself and and the reason why is because where do you where you direct your attention is like your first and most basic freedom. Where you direct your attention might be one of the most important things about you. And one study says that we actually internally talk to ourselves at a rate equivalent to about 4,000 words per minute. That means your inner voice is giving you 320 State of the union addresses every day. And my hunch is, I'd be curious, what does your heart have to say to you? My hunch is it's probably not King Jesus is coming back to make all things new. My hunch is it's probably strategies for self-protection and self-promotion, just like it was for this guy. So it goes on, but if that m if that servant says to himself, my master's delayed in coming and begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk. Pause for a moment. If the wise and faithful use what they have to serve others, then the faithless and foolish use others to serve themselves. That's what Jesus wants us to see here. And if you don't live with a readiness for Jesus's return you will be tempted in two ways. You'll be tempted to control and you'll be tempted to comfort. Notice that that's right here in the text. He begins to beat the male and female servants. This is a coercive control and to eat and drink and get drunk. This is a source of comfort. You see if you don't believe that Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead judging all things in righteousness to console the afflicted to punish the wicked to hold all people accountable then you will be tempted to coerce others and comfort yourself. This life is hard. I'm going to get what I want in my way. Now we see this in our cultural moment. This is actually exactly what we see because we lack a sense of transcendence and so we think we can control things like the current arms race for the first company or country to get to AGI or the the commitment to transhumanism to basically defy human mortality let me just give you a spoiler alert the problem of human mortality's already been solved. Come back next week okay now here's the reality it's not just coercive control it's comfort it's it's this attempt you know there's this movie um about I think it maybe it's called Bohemian Rhapsody it's about uh the the way in which Freddie Mercury was living it up and having a great time there's this scene when his the one of the only people in his life actually loves him well comes to the front door he opens the door she walks in she looks around and sees cocaine and alcohol and he's just been binge partying and he looks back at her and he says to her the human life requires a little anesthetic we all are going to be tempted in the nihilism that comes from thinking nothing matters. There's no eternal reality there is no God in heaven if you live under that you will be tempted by the nihilism to just eat and drink and get drunk and to get a little anesthetic in your life that's the faithless and that's the foolish. And so Jesus kind of brings this all to a conclusion in verse 48 when he seems to finally answer Peter's question from verse 41 Lord are you telling this for us or for everybody? Verse 48 everyone to whom much was given of him much will be required and from him to whom they entrusted much they will demand the more so is this for the disciples or is this for everyone the answer is yes. The answer is yes because the reason Jesus paraphrases Spider-Man's uncle here and says you know with those who have great power requires great responsibility the reason he paraphrases him there is because he's trying to get at this reality that underneath everything is what what you could call the givenness of reality God is a giver. Doesn't matter if you're a Christian or a non-Christian all that you have has been given by you. The apostle Paul says what do you have that you did not receive if then you received it why do you boast as if you did not receive it Jesus is getting at that here he's saying everyone everyone has been given a lot everyone will be held accountable to what they've been given. And so here's the thing this this question of is this relevant for me it has immediate relevance and eternal significance because everyone in this room everyone in this world is either faithful or faithless wise or foolish knowing or ignorant willing or willful and these have real outcomes what is the result what does the future hold for the faithful and the faithless look at verse 44 truly I say to you he will set this is the faithful the faithful and wise manager over all his possessions I love this this is liberating because Jesus doesn't care if you've got beauty or wealth or status what he cares about is what did you do with what I gave you and how did you love those around you and he will reward you by letting you sit on his throne and have authority over all things. Recently I read Isaac Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk and and the core drive behind everything that Elon Musk does and will do is his his commitment to make humanity multiplanetary. I just want to see that man and say brother it's already happened. King Jesus the one who holds all things all of the universe together by the word of his power will set his faithful and wise managers over galaxies. Like I just think about Jesus tells this story and it's as if you're standing before him and Jesus says hey you remember that time you gave a cup of cold water in my name? You're like yeah Jesus I remember that and he's like Andromeda galaxy it's yours and you're like whoa it was just a cup of cold water he's like I don't care I'm rich and I love giving people authority over things. That's what it means for humanity to become multiplanetary steward what God has given you and Jesus will set you over all things. That's what he says here in the text. Dallas Willard says it simply he says you are a never ceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God's great universe. It's important to think about what you'll be doing in 10,000 years and to prepare for it now. Now if this seems like sci fi or fairy tales where do you think they got it from you see it doesn't matter if it's Tolkien or Asimov the truth is not just stranger than fiction it's better than fiction this is a reality for us but the faithless and the foolish they also have something coming look at verse 46. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful I have a friend this week who asked me hey what are you preaching on this upcoming Sunday I was like oh it's the watchful servants and he's like isn't that the worm where they get cut in pieces? Yes it is that's exactly what the passage says here and and I was as offended by it as you might be but I've learned to pause where scripture gives me pause to assume there's something there. If I'm offended by it I don't assume the Bible's the fault at fault I assume I am. And so I try to lean in a little bit more and this language actually significant cut him in pieces is about covenant unfaithfulness. You see this language comes from the way in which master servant treaties were made in ancient Near Eastern culture called covenants. And what would happen there's one we see actually in Genesis chapter 15 God tells Abraham to take an animal to cut it in half to lay the pieces opposite of each other and then to walk between the pieces and the purpose of it the meaningfulness of it is may I become like these animals if I break this covenant? May I be cut in pieces if I'm unfaithful. So when we read that in the text to cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful it means that there was a covenant that was mutually consented to that's now been broken and there must be consequences. Listen everyone in this room has been unfaithful. Everyone in this room has broken covenant with God. Every single one of us if God dealt with us strictly on the basis of our faithfulness would stand under this judgment. But there's good news in Genesis 15 because God is the only one who walks between those pieces. Abraham never does. And what that means is that this is exactly what we see in Jesus you see at the cross Jesus is the one who is torn. Why? Because he was unfaithful? No because you were unfaithful. You see Jesus was the one who was torn so that we could be brought in so we could be treated as if we'd been faithful all along and so that not only that not only that would be good news if he treated us like as if we were faithful to the covenant all along that would be amazing but it goes on because not only do we lack the readiness for his return we're supposed to have not only have we failed in our steadiness as his stewards but but because of the cross of Jesus Christ we can actually anticipate being served at his table. Look with me at verse 37 blessed are those servants happy are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes truly I say to you he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table and he will come and serve them. You see in verses 41 and 42 both Peter and the narrator that's Luke called Jesus Lord. It's actually the same word for master so you could translate verse 41 Peter said Master are you telling this parable for us or for all? In verse 42 and the master said so there is no confusion who the master is in these parables what's going on here? Well if Jesus is the master of this text then what Jesus is doing is deliberately subverting the social class system of his day. He's stepping in as the master par excellence and taking the role of the servant. You see what he's doing? Because when he says that he will we will recline at table and he will come and serve us what he has in mind is what is called the end time messianic banquet. It's talked about throughout the Old and New Testaments let me give you some selections verse uh Isaiah 256 says it like this the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples all peoples Jews and Gentiles men and women rich and poor moral and immoral all peoples the Lord will prepare a feast of rich food a feast of well aged wine of rich food full of marrow of aged wine well refined only the next chapter in the Gospel of Luke it says this in verse Luke 1329 and people will come from the east and the west from the north and the south and they will recline at table in the kingdom of God even as we come to this table here which is just a foretaste of that table there Jesus gives us this table in Luke 22 and he says this for who is the greater one who reclines at table or one who serves it is it not the one who reclines at table but I am among you as one who serves. Do you believe that Jesus is among us this morning serving us taking the form of a servant serving us through speaking to us serving us through feeding us at his table he goes on he says you are those who have stayed with me in my trials and I assign to you as my father assigned to me a kingdom that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel have you ever been at a dinner or an event or an environment where status kind of mattered? Like everybody's just kind of evaluating each other appraising who matters more in the room based on whatever the metric might be listen Jesus is the most high status the most high net worth person who's ever existed and he says I will dress myself for service and I will have you recline at table and I will come and serve you. Do you see what this does to earthly conceptions of who matters who has status who has net worth Jesus is flipping it all upside down. The master becomes the servant and the servants become the served what does Jesus want from you today what does he want from you today well in verse 36 it says open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks in Revelation 320 he says if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he with me this is happening right now. Jesus spoke those words to his church then he's speaking those words to his church now you see the question for you is do you hear his voice can you hear his knock we are uncertain when Jesus will come back but we are certain that he will come back C.S Lewis talks about it like this he says Christians think that Jesus is going to land in force we do not know when but we can guess why he's delaying he wants to give us the chance of joining his side freely God will invade but what is the good of saying that you are on his side then when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else comes crashing in something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left. It will strike irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature and it will be too late then to choose your side there's no use in saying that you chose to lay down when it is impossible to stand up. So turn to him now ask him for the faith to anticipate his coming because if Jesus is coming back then we want to be ready for his return we want to be steady as his stewards and we want to be served at his table. Let's pray yes Lord Jesus come quickly Holy Spirit we know that that's your groan in the hearts of all who belong to you come Lord Jesus make all things new Jesus we praise you that we can look to that day with joy and anticipation because we look back at the day on the cross what we call Good Friday what a good day it was when you purchased us for yourself so now we have great hope of enjoying a feast with you in your kingdom we pray this all in your name Amen