Beholding the Lord through His word, part I

We're, for the month of March, going to be taking a look at... I know this is going to put some of you into shock. We're going to be taking a look and doing a topical study for the month of March. Beholding the Lord Through His Word. And we'll be introducing that here. Anyway, we're going to begin our kind of four-week series on Beholding the Lord Through His Word.

2 Corinthians 3.18, of course, will be our passage here this morning. We'll be moving to a different passage each Sunday. If I fade in and out by sound, hopefully I won't fade in and out visually. If that starts happening, please let me know. I'm not sure how you will, but let me know. Anyway, we are introducing this series, and here's the way it'll be.

This week, 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all be holding the glory of the Lord, be the focal point there. The next week will be John... Yeah, I agree. Okay. John 1, verses 1-18.

We saw His glory, full of grace and truth. This is the Gospel of John written by John, so far as we know, the last living apostle, recording his own personal testimony. And it's interesting, each of the major works that he wrote, the Gospel of John, Book of Revelation, 1 John, he began it with a testimony. almost an illegal certification kind of testimony, and yet at the same time, not lacking, but instead full of spiritual depth. We'll take a look at that, of course. 1 John 1, 1-4, we have seen with our eyes the word of life. There's this testimony again. And then finally, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus.

Now you may say, why would we do such a thing? Especially a topical like this. And I don't want you to be in shock, so let's explain that. 2 Corinthians 3.18, it talks about being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. We'll certainly go into the detail on that.

John 1.1-18, of His fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. The fullness of the Lord, His fullness.

In 1 John 1.1-4, He puts this potent point, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. It's fellowship is the focal point here. And finally, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, there is a practical, right now, consequence of fixing our eyes on Jesus, and that is running the race that is set before us.

Now as we look at this passage here, 2 Corinthians 3.18, I want to bring up a few slides. These next slides are not like these things you see here in the picture, that's just for fun. But they're from the doctrinal statement on the Holly Hills website, www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org, if you want to take a look at that. Probably a few of you are equipped to do that right at the moment, but that's fine. The first one is one that starts off the starts off the quotes here, and if you're visiting us here, this is the page number that you'll see in the lower right-hand corner.

And it says about the Bible, we believe that all the authors of the entire Old and New Testaments wrote by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that is, verbal inspiration. These books are completely inerrant and infallible in the original writings, and they are the final authority for faith and practice and What do we say?

And the means through which believers behold Christ. We, interestingly, bring that up again farther on towards the end of the doctrinal statement. It talks about the life and walk of the believers. We believe that every believer possesses the life of Christ and grows in the grace and knowledge of Christ through the Holy Spirit. who fills the believer with the things of Christ. This occurs how and when? As the believer beholds Christ and the Word of God, as we do that here this morning.

And finally, we believe that scripture is to be interpreted according to the grammatical and historical context. One of the things we do to point that out is we want to look at Scripture clearly. What does Scripture actually say? Not just how do I feel about it or what do I think. What is the message that the Lord intended to bring across to us here?

Now, this guy here, between about one and two is the age of that picture of that guy. And that guy had blurry vision. But you can tell he's happy about it. And he's also happy about dinner. You can tell about that too. Well, that's me between ages one and two. And everything was blurry. I mean, I was, I guess, born or soon after birth, got this thing. Everything was blurry and I was just happy. You know, it's time to eat dinner. You look for the middle of the blur and then you grab for the food, right? Okay. That's the way mooses look, right? That's just the way they were.

Think about our beholding the Lord. We want to, certainly the direction of Scripture is to behold the Lord clearly. What does God's Word say? Since we're beholding the Lord through His Word, just like we could take the analogy of this picture. Here is our Lord upon the cross, bearing our own sins. We want to see that clearly, don't we? If there's not clarity, it might look something like this. You start to lose something, don't you? Or maybe like that. Perhaps like this.

Clearly seeing the Lord in what the Lord has revealed for us in order that we understand the words of Scripture. That's God's intent. We want to take a look for a few moments here at understanding Scripture clearly. And the four steps, you have this on the middle of the bottom part of page one of your handout. is we observe things about scripture.

We'll talk more about what that means. Then, after we observe those things, we interpret, or as we come to say, what does this mean? We then look to application. And then there's a fourth step, and that's the appropriation. This is not something to be passed over, but it is something that takes place over time, doesn't it? We learn over time what things mean. And the Lord Himself is the one who is working in our lives so that we appropriate the truths of God's Word. So, the critical first step we call observing means looking at language and the literary context.

It means we read the passage. It means we read through things to make sure we understand it. What was the Apostle Paul meaning? What did Isaiah really mean when he wrote that? So that's why we seek to understand the original meaning of the words in the context. Read it through carefully. We look at grammar and sentence structure. We read the verses before and after the verses that we're studying so that we get the big picture. We also look at the historical and the sequence context.

It matters that Christ died on the cross, and when did he do so? He did that after Adam sinned. After Adam sinned. So that's why we look for the historical sequence of things in scripture. What happened first, and then what happened next? And why did this happen next? Example, Christ died on the cross for our sins. He was buried.

Right sequence, correct? And he rose again to new life on the third day. And the sequence matters, doesn't it? The sequence matters. We look to the key events in Scripture that change things, that follow after these events. What happened next? What caused what? The Lord said, you need to wait until the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall receive power. See?

There's a sequence, and there's a cause and effect. Because history matters. God is the God of the past, of the present, and of the future. When God says, this is going to happen, he means it. He is the God of history. It's been put, it's his story. And finally, the cultural context. Just moments before starting the service this morning, I was talking to Steve about an important cultural point.

One particularly we happened to talk about was the phrase, like, a thief in the night. It's quoted all the way from the Gospels to the very end of the Bible. And one of the things we talked about was the fact that in New Testament times, they didn't have a police force like we would think of, and protecting yourself against a thief was your own personal responsibility. You didn't call 911 and get some help. You had to be the one to take care. So being careful of and being prepared for that thief in the night, that was your own job. Interestingly, it wasn't even a crime for somebody to break into your house and steal. You had to be the one to enforce it.

How about that? So we look at things like the culture of the nations and the regions and the community in the Bible. We look to cultural insights into the meanings of words in Scripture. We're going to see that here this morning. We check to see there are applications in our lives and into the churches because of the context of the words in each Bible passage. So the critical first step in observing means looking at language, literary context, historical and sequential context, and the cultural context. Together, these allow us to arrive at the true meaning of the text. We look at those things.

We observe, interpret, apply, and appropriation is over time, as the Lord works in our lives to bring those truths home. So that we see things clearly and not fuzzy, like I used to, sometimes do. Here is an example of beholding the Lord clearly. Paul in his last letter that we have any possession of, his last letter to Timothy for sure that we have, says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed accurately handling the word of truth.

Now what does that mean? These Greek words translated accurately handling here, rightly dividing in the King James, means to cut straight. There are a couple of different applications of that used in New Testament times that might be helpful to us here.

One is Roman roadway design and construction, and the other one is intent making. So let's take a look at those. The Romans had roads going about the empire, by the end of the empire, enough to go two times around the globe. Over 50,000 miles of hand-built road, built by the Roman soldiers themselves. They worked hard. Roman engineers would go with, this was their version of some sort of a transit, with four plumb bobs. I don't know what you do with four, but four plumb bobs. And so they would say, here's how you need to cut the road straight. Make sure it's in the right place.

And so they would build roads like this. Roads that in many places are still in use. Not only still in existence, but still in use. The one that goes through ancient Philippi. All they did was take the old Roman road and pave it. Still in existence, still in use.

They would have the soldiers, no matter what the ground was like, dig down like this. Three feet down by hand. and 23 feet across, more or less, digging down, building it up like this. Fine material and up to coarser material and stones atop. They would do that. They did that for over 50,000 miles all by hand. Here's another instance.

Here's Paul in Acts 18, 1 through 3. And it says that Paul and his couple of his friends here were tent makers by trade. So Paul, when he spoke to Timothy, when he wrote to Timothy, would talk about rightly dividing or accurately handling the word of truth. You can imagine, Paul and Timothy spent a lot of time together, right? And a lot of that time you can imagine Paul talking while he's making tents.

And what would he do? He would cut the tent pieces along the pattern line. and you want to cut it accurately, cut it right, so that when you sew the pieces together, there's no flaps or gaps. So that was cutting along these lines, and he used that word when he wrote to Timothy, the final time that we know of, to tell him about accurately cutting the Word of Truth, so that when you put all the truths together, it all fits, it all makes sense. No flaps, no gaps.

Now, some reasons not to pursue accurately handling the Word of Truth. Can you imagine that? Let's think of one. To greatly improve your arguing skills. We don't do it for that reason. So that you can be right all the time. We don't study God's Word in order to be right all the time. so that we can have a biblical basis for being impatient with the people in the church as well as those in the world.

Don't you know? Because it improves our own self-image and how others look at us, right? Is that helpful? Not exactly. Or finally, so that you can know lots of Bible stuff and win trivia games and get lots of cash on Jeopardy. No, these are all reasons that don't cut it, that don't count.

Now, let's look at some Biblical reasons to pursue accurately handling the Word of Truth. The call to diligence, that is our accurately handling the Word of Truth, is done before God. Notice how Paul puts it. You're looking to be approved before God, not before men, not before human beings. It's not so other people will be pleased with you. It's so that the Lord is pleased. He is, to put it in figurative terms, our singular audience. It's before Him, not to impress others.

The next thing it puts here, every time God calls for something from us, it's by His empowerment and enabling. He doesn't say, accurately handle God's Word, interpret it rightly, and do a good job and kind of touch base with me later, and we'll see how you did. No. Colossians 1, 28 and 29, here is what Paul says. He says, We proclaim Him, admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

Sounds like he's doing a lot of hard work. And notice this, for this purpose, Also, I labor." And that word labor, kapia'o, means labor to exhaustion. He works hard at it, striving according to, ah, key insight here. While he put forth a great effort, an athletic level effort, an effort that exhausted him, the empowering, the ability to pull this off was from God's doing. It was God's energizing. God himself was the source of Paul's exhaustive effort. Not Paul's best efforts. The Lord's efforts in and through him. Here's Philippians 2, 12 and 13.

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation, not work for, but work out your salvation with fear and trembling. So here's the believer being told, work out your salvation. But notice what this is.

It is, as we discussed when we were going through this passage in Philippians a few years back, It is a working out of the believer's position in Christ to its ultimate conclusion right now as we walk with the Lord each day. Now, is that just our job to do on our own and at the end when life's all done we go back and check with the Lord and see how we did? No. As Paul wrote this, work out your own salvation, he assured them that God would be the one working in them. He told them even that God would be willing it's coming about.

Isn't that amazing? You work out your own salvation. Your position that you have because of faith in me. But I will be right there empowering and even willing that's coming about. Maturity in the believer is made evident by a healthy spiritual diet, along with a well-trained application of God's word, showing itself, as the author of Hebrews puts it, in true discernment.

Hebrews 5.13-14, you have this on page 2 of your handout.

For everyone who takes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant, but solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Milk is exactly the right thing to give a young child, right? That's why when we brought our kids home from the hospital we didn't lay down steak and potatoes and vegetables dinner in front of them, right? No. Spiritual milk is exactly what they need. But there is a time when solid food is the right thing too.

Eating this solid food is appropriate for those who are beholding the Lord through the scriptures, intended for those who have matured in the Lord. So how did that maturity come about? It came about by training. This word trained is translated from the Greek word that means athletic training. It is a disciplined training. It is a consistent training. It is a training towards a goal. Now, finally, beholding the Lord clearly is the Lord's means of transformation, not just something sort of about Jesus, but God's Word specifically.

Now, take a look at this passage, 2 Corinthians 3.18.

One of the things we want to point out about it, remember how through Isaiah for months and months and months, and I hope you've been able to tolerate it, we've talked about these chiasms. Remember that? This sort of mirror image in writing. Well, guess what? There's a chiasm pattern in 2 Corinthians 3, 17 and 18. And it goes like this. The glory of the Lord is the center of that. And typically, the center point is the emphasis in these chiasms that we've been pointing out, these literary mirror images.

Next we see, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, that's a process, isn't it? That's our action by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Even that, even though it's something we do, it is something that the Holy Spirit ministers to us to carry out, doesn't he? And then, we have this next one, this next part of the process, We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. That's also a process. It's happening now.

It is God's action as we behold His glory. God is the one who is transforming us. Ever try to be transformed? Ever try that? It doesn't work so good. I can try it right now. See, it just doesn't work. Transforming is the Lord's doing. That's the process he carries out. And finally, what Paul starts and ends this passage with is an emphasis upon the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's ministry in all of this. So as we look at this passage, we want to see things clearly.

I'm not sure all those glasses help. We don't want to see things fuzzy and foggy. Some of you, that may not make much difference, right? But anyway, we don't want to see things fuzzy and foggy like I used to. Notice as we start into the verse, what does it begin with?

But we all, with unveiled face. This word pair, we all, refers to all believers, every single one. Just the same thing that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10.17, and James wrote it in his book in 3.2. Paul is applying this then to all believers. This is not just for a couple of us. It's not, oh yeah, we all, that just means the elders, and, no. This is all the believers. Every one of them. Every believer here this morning is included in what Paul has to say. No exceptions. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ this morning, this applies to you.

With unveiled face, in the earlier part of the chapter, Paul had been talking about how Moses had a veil and that wearing the veil meant being under the Mosaic law. And the veil over the heart, as he said just a couple of verses before, was and is removed when a person turns to the Lord in faith. calling upon the Lord's grace.

Not, in sharp contrast, not upon the works of the law. So the believer's beholding of the glory of the Lord isn't enhanced by the law at all. Isn't that interesting? The law doesn't help our beholding the Lord. Understanding it in terms of why it was given? Yes. There were many ways in which the law pointed to Christ, but the people who attempted to live under it were not able to behold the Lord by trying to follow it and do it of their own power.

Beholding as in a mirror is the next phrase that pops up here. Now these four words are translated from just one word in the Greek, so it's actually one word that means beholding as in a mirror, it's an action. but specifically points to the mirror. It's interesting, Paul wrote two letters that we have to the church at Corinth. Both of them mention mirrors. And that's interesting because he never mentions mirrors in any other writings to any other church or person. Only to Corinth and one in each of his letters. There's a reason for that and that's that the people at Corinth were famous for their mirrors.

We've got a couple of pictures of them here that are museum pieces. Mirrors that they have, we call them first surface. They would take a piece of metal and polish it. Some of them even had a little polishing rag or polishing instrument attached to the mirror because you had to keep polishing it all the time to keep it shiny.

Paul also used the word for mirror in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, and James did in James 1, 23. We want to take a look at that briefly, because here is where we make the point that in each of the three cases that the New Testament talks about a mirror, it's talking about God's Word, God's written Word. We see in all three passages the mirror represents God's Word. When we think of a mirror, we typically think of something, it's a mirror where there's a piece of glass and there's a reflective surface behind the glass, a second surface mirror. And we tend to think of, you look in it and you get this reflected image back that's kind of the same but the reverse of what you're looking at. And so we tend to think of a mirror like that.

Paul's using it in a little different way, and there's a little picture here I'll put up that might give a little better sense of what Paul is trying to represent. That we behold the mirror, and what the Lord is growing us towards, transforming us towards, is something other than what we would see if we were just simply and directly looking at a mirror.

So we are beholding the glory of the Lord, not ourselves, but the glory of the Lord in the mirror of God's Word. The glory of the Lord is the center of Paul's chiasm, as we pointed out here. It's typically the center point. Paul's focusing in this passage on the glory of the Lord. That's the focal point thought.

Beholding. Beholding the glory of the Lord. Gazing upon him. Occupied. Notice it's not a quick glance. It's not a look once and you're done. But he puts it as a present process. the glory of the Lord being occupied with that and with Him. As we look at this chiasm here, we have the glory of the Lord right in the middle. That's because He wants us to center on that and to look at that.

Now, what is glory? Glory isn't when the Broncos win the Super Bowl, although that might seem glorious. Glory is the radiant essence of who God is. The radiant essence of who God is. All glory is derived from God. God is the source and definition of glory.

Glory isn't some sort of a commodity. We can't go to the store and say, give me a pound of glory. I'll take it in a box. Glory is not like that, is it? It's not just a thing. Oh, here's some glory I have left over. I'll hand it off to you. Glory pertains to God Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one whom we are called to behold and to gaze upon and to be occupied with. His glory. Who He is. Glory has to do with who He is. Not just a thing. Not just a pound of glory. Not some glory that you can hand off from one person to the next. Think of it this way.

Here is our Lord in the last hours of His earthly life. John 17, 26. He says, Father, I desire that they also, he prays for his disciples and thus for us as well, whom you have given me, be with me where I am so that they may see my glory which you have given me. The Lord's glory. The Lord, here he is, it's his last hours in his earthly life. What does he care about? What does he pray about? He says, I want them to see the glory that you've given me. That's what I care about.

That's important. That's high priority. And it has to do also with intimacy. Notice we look at this beholding as in a mirror, our being transformed, The Greek word translated beholding is a present tense verb. It goes on right now. That's an action on our part. We behold the Lord. It's by the ministry of the Holy Spirit that we do so. But we're beholding the Lord. The second part of that is that our being transformed is a present passive indicative. What do we mean by that? It's also right now. It's also ongoing. But the transformation is something that God does. It's not something that we do or try hard.

It's God's ongoing action upon us by the Holy Spirit's ministry. Each and every believer, remember? We all, each one, every one of us. This our being transformed here, this beholding us in a mirror, the glory of the Lord through His written word, is something we do by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It's not something, okay, you do this, it's all your job, it's all yours to pull off, you do it.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is directed in that way. Why? The Holy Spirit was given to draw attention in our hearts to Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the being transformed isn't something we do at all. It's not something that is done by us at all. It is something that is done to us, and that is also by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

This word is metamorpho. It is a word talking about change. It's transformation. It is a change, as we'll see here, from glory to glory. The Lord is doing this transforming in the believer. There are some passages here that are parallel And important for us to look at here in Romans 8, 28, and 29, Paul writes about the position, the process, and the completion. Where is this headed?

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good. Does that mean everything feels good? No. He causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. to become conformed. That ultimate conformity is what he's focusing on.

Romans 12.2, the Romans elective, we'll get there yet. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. There's a transformation that he points to again here.

In Philippians 3.10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. right now. A present process. And finally, a future transformation that Paul points to in Philippians, just farther down in that same chapter.

For our citizenship, if you're a believer here this morning, that's where your citizenship is, bless you, in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory. That means You don't have to put up with these things forever. And that's a good thing, especially for me. But for all of us, we don't have to look forward to the Lord will conform our body to His resurrection body. That is another future transformation, conformity, that we can look forward to. Add to these all the references to spiritual growth, the process that the Lord is working on in our lives. This transformation is something that actually Paul's readers had heard about.

The pagan Greek myths had stories about gods being transformed into some physical entity. I give examples of dragon's tree. They have stories about being transformed into mountains and things of that sort. And the pagan mystery religions, remember when we were going through Ephesians and Colossians, we brought up the mystery religions and their musterion, the mysteries. They claim to transform those who went through their initiation process into some god-like form.

So the idea was out there in the culture. What's interesting is the early church authors, it seems almost to avoid appearing like the pagan process. They wouldn't talk about these verses we just looked at. Not very much. You have to look really hard to find places where they actually wrote about it. They shied away from it. But I think Paul's exhortation to Timothy, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. There is much for us to gain from these passages and to learn from them. Not to shy away, but instead to teach them because they're in God's word and we grow from them and learn from them.

Here is into the same image. Now what does that mean here? The words into the same image refers to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, as it does similarly in Romans 8.29. So, what does the same image mean?

You ever think about that? What does that mean? Does it mean that we will all end up looking like a 30-year-old first century Jewish carpenter from Nazareth? Is that what it means? If that's the case, a few of us here might be in good shape. Others of us have a tough time trying to fit into that mold. Is that what he means?

No. We're not trying to look like Jesus as a first century Jewish carpenter. No, instead, let's explain it here. This New Testament word, it's A-Kon. As a matter of fact, we have our word I-Kon. If you're familiar with that, we use it all in computers. It means to have a representation of something. This represents something and it has some similarity to, but not meaning identical to.

An example, remember when they asked Jesus, should we pay taxes to Caesar or not? What was his answer? He said, show me a coin. Notice that he didn't have one. Show me a coin. And so he asked the question, whose image, whose icon, Whose representation is on this coin? So they answered, Caesar's. That's whose representation it is. So what does this mean to us?

The word used here in 2 Corinthians 3.18 and Romans 8.29 talks about being changed into Christ's spiritual character. Christ's spiritual character. That's the transformation that's taking place. Not His earthly appearance at His first coming. We are being made in spiritual character like Him.

That's what Paul is pointing to here. From glory to glory. From Glory to Glory is Paul's expression of increasing from one level to another, something that he does just a couple chapters earlier. He talks about an aroma from death to death, an aroma from life to life, increasing one level to another. There is a handout that talks about God's eternal purpose that we made available about a month ago. There's additional copies printed out on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room.

And this explains God's eternal purpose in revealing His glory, to share His glory, and that is what 2 Corinthians 3.18 is talking about. It is a part of God's eternal purpose, to share His glory with us.

Amazing. Amazing. He does so as we behold the Lord, are occupied with Him, as we gaze upon Him. And finally, it's to His glory. that He shares His glory with us. Justice from the Lord the Spirit. This growing glory isn't something that's a result of our really working hard to try to make it happen. Really putting a lot of effort to pull it off. It's instead resulting as a ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Him who brought the Word of God to us. How do we have the Word of God? It's by the Holy Spirit's ministry that it's inspired, right? Peter wrote, those who wrote were carried along by the Spirit. But it is also the Holy Spirit's ministry to bring us to the truth of the Word. So the Holy Spirit is working in both ways. We are thus transformed, not by our own efforts, but by the Holy Spirit's ministry working in our lives. He is the one who carries out the transformation process.

Here we see the 2nd Corinthians 3.18, that we all with unveiled face, beholding, continuing to do so, gazing, being occupied with the Lord as an emir, the glory of the Lord.

Now, here's the expanded and explained, and I won't explain why I'm expanded here. Okay. But, here it is. This is rather wordy, but the idea is to get across the meaning of the verse. But all of us who are in Christ, with a faith that is not veiled by the law, we're not trying to enhance our view of the Lord with the law. It won't help. Unveiled. Having died in relationship to the law, and living by God's amazing grace, are right now continuing to behold as we read and hear the written word of God.

Seeing as one who looks into a mirror the glory that is the radiant essence of who God is. The glory that comes from Christ himself. And we are in fact in the very process of being changed and transformed into the same spiritual character. What spiritual character? The spiritual character of Christ. growing from one level of Christ's glory to the next. And every part of this beholding and transformation is from the God-given ministries of the Holy Spirit. It's God's doing. It's God's work. It's God's accomplishment all the way. He is the one who gets the credit.

There's no value in memorizing Scripture just so you can win the Jeopardy games. But instead, it is beholding the Lord by His doing. by His provision, by the ministry of His Holy Spirit. Let's go to the Lord now. Lord, as we look at this passage, we just pray as we've looked at some of the details that You would indeed draw us to behold our Lord Jesus Christ, to gaze upon Him, not for just a moment here and there, but to continually to look to Him through Your Word. that by ministry of the Holy Spirit, again, we might be transformed as your accomplishment, sharing your glory to your credit. For that, we give you thanks. In Jesus' name, amen.