Daniel 7:9-14 • Letter from a Babylonian Jail
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
What we are doing in our worship, you may remember, is we are going through the Bible in a year.
When I was little, watching Saturday morning cartoons, when there'd be a long commercial break, do you remember what they would say as you came back to the cartoon? They would say, "And now back to our story." So "And now back to our story." Daniel chapter 7, Daniel chapter 7, where we are in the large story, even as you look the graphic, is telling the story of God's moving us by grace to glory. God made everything good, a world, a creation, humanity that would honor and glorify Him that was spoiled by human sin.
God was not done. He ultimately said, "I will provide a Redeemer," from the very earliest pages of Scripture, "from humanity itself will come one by the blessing of God who would save God's people." How would it happen?
Not by the hands of man. Through Abraham we learn by faith God is going to provide for His people. And Abraham, the father of faith, would be a blessing to nations through a nation who would honor the God in whom faith should be put.
But it was not an easy path. The people often rebelled against God. They ended up in slavery in Egypt, but God said, "Though you are slaves, I'm not done." He rescued them with Moses, who sinned against God, but at least got the people to the Promised Land. And there were prophets, priests, and kings who you think set the people on a good path. And it was a good path for a while. The apex king, King David, the most unlikely of kings, a shepherd boy who becomes a king. Not because he's got the rights, not because he's got the ability, because he's a man after God's own heart. He loves the Lord. And you would think, as God says now to David, "I'm going to bring the Redeemer through you, your line," that David and his children would follow the Lord.
Instead, jealousy turns the children against one another. They divide the kingdom that God has made, and the people turn to other gods, even sacrificing their own children in fire to placate the gods that they think will be bribed by human sacrifice.
God's had enough.
He puts the people back in slavery again in Babylon.
And even though the people may think, "Well, we're done," God says, "I'm not done.
You've been faithless.
I am faithful." And He begins to send prophets to the people, even in their captivity, in their incarceration, in their prison to say, "I remember you, and I will send a Redeemer."
That's the book of Daniel. So let's look at Daniel chapter 7.
Daniel chapter 7, I'll begin at verse 9, as Daniel begins to tell a people in captivity
what God will yet do. Let's stand as we honor God's Word and read this vision of Daniel, where he explains the work of a faithful God.
Daniel says in Daniel 7.9, "As I looked, thrones were placed, and the ancient of days took His seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool.
His throne was fiery flames. His wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before Him. A thousand thousands served Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking.
And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.
As for the rest of the beast, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like
a Son of Man, and He came to the ancient of days and was presented before Him.
And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and is kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." Let's pray together. "Holy Father, You tell us of a King who has a universal and an eternal kingdom." He is our King.
We serve Him and want to know what His presence and His coming means to our lives this day.
So teach us that we might honor You and have the hope that You intend. This we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.
When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his letter from a Birmingham jail in 1963, he had been roughly arrested and put in jail not knowing if he would survive the experience.
Deprivations were put upon him. He was not allowed things to write, and yet he wrote the letter from a Birmingham jail beginning in the margins of a newspaper that had been allowed into his jail cell.
What he wrote was not only a defense of the nonviolent protest method, but a demand to the churches of Jesus Christ that they could not be silent or passive in the face of a persecuted people, that it was their biblical obligation to be concerned for all who were persecuted because, in fact, their forefathers too had been captives and slaves and foreigners and refugees, and therefore it was the obligation of Christians to be concerned because King Jesus demanded it. Not only did King Jesus demand it, but the same King Jesus who demanded it was going to come to rescue those who, despite their sin or dire circumstances, might have given up hope on Him.
What Martin Luther King, Jr., said in that famous letter was, "These words, the church must understand injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny."
It's ultimately what Daniel is saying too from a Babylonian jail. He and a people, slaves in captivity saying, "But we are tied together in a single garment of destiny. We with all the peoples of the earth will ultimately stand before the King of the universe who will save those who put faith on Him, and therefore we are required to care for one another even as we honor Him."
Why should we honor Him? Particularly if there is sin in our lives that might have put us in captivity of circumstance. If there are people who are oppressing us or others in such a way that we think there's no hope, there's no chance.
Daniel is writing to those enslaved by sinners circumstance saying, "There is hope. Hope is alive, and one reason is because our God is so great. He is above and beyond all of this." Daniel writes to a people who already have spent two generations in captivity in Babylon. And yet he knows what is going to happen that will give them hope. He had a glimpse of it before. You remember in the time of Nebuchadnezzar when the king of the pagan country was having dreams. At some point he had a dream and he called his wise men to interpret and they said, "Well, tell us the dream and we'll interpret it." He said, "Oh, no you don't.
You tell me what the dream is, and then when you interpret it, I'll know you really know something." They said, "No one can do that."
But Daniel says he would interpret as well as give the dream.
Daniel says, "King, this is what you dreamed of a great statue, head of gold, shoulders of silver, belly of bronze, legs of iron, feet of iron and clay.
And a rock cut without human hands strikes the statue at its feet, topples it, and then the rock itself expands over the whole of the earth in dominion.
This is what will happen, O king. Each of these elements of the statue represent succeeding kingdoms of man, which will ultimately be succeeded by the kingdom of God, which will be greater than them all." It's mysterious. It's hard to understand. And now Daniel himself has a vision in Daniel chapter 7 giving greater specificity to what was described in the earlier vision. Just earlier in the chapter that I read to you, Daniel describes four beasts coming out of a churning sea. Verse 3 of Daniel chapter 7. Did you see it? Four great beasts come up out of the sea different from one another. The first beast, verse 4, was like a lion that had eagle's wings. Even to this day in the flag of Iraq is the symbol of the lion with the eagle's wings. Iraq is the territory of ancient Babylon.
The nation of Babylon would rise to power, but it would be succeeded by yet another kingdom. If you look, verse 5, "And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear, was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and it was told, "Devour much flesh."
Following Babylon, Persia, that defeated the rulers of Babylon with much bloodshed, a wicked and vicious kingdom that followed. But now, that's in Daniel's lifetime. Following that, you read as well, there was another kingdom that was coming. Verse 6, "After this I looked, and behold, another like a leopard with four wings of a bird.
After Babylon and Persia, the nation that rose to such power and speed was Greece. Under Alexander the Great, the boy king who conquered the world before he was 30 years old, this beast of great strength, like a leopard with eagle's wings, is able with great repetitive and frequency to move across the world in great conquest, and yet it is not the most terrible of the beast.
Great to come is the one that is still to be described in verse 7, "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth. It devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it. It had ten horns.
The ancient world, oxen, or a bold beast of great strength with two horns. If an animal has ten horns, it must have amazing strength, but not just strength, terror, teeth of iron, as the Roman world with its Roman short swords defeated all that were before them and rule with greater cruelty and strength than any nation before." This hasn't even come in Daniel's time yet. He's looking centuries into the future and says, "Here is going to be the succession of the kingdoms." And you must know, if you were in captivity in Babylon, you would think, "Is there ever going to be any relief? I mean, we were hoping to have some vision of hope of a future that was good. When will it come?"
Daniel's vision is not done until he goes into verse 9 and following, he says, "But these succeeding kingdoms of humanity are not the final story." Verse 9, "As I looked, thrones were placed, and the ancient of days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, the hair of his head like pure wool, his throne was fiery flames, its wheels burning fire." This is the description of the God of the universe, the ancient of days, who comes with great wisdom.
His hair is white.
He is the ancient of days. He has seen the kingdoms come and go. Nothing surprises him. Nothing perplexes him. He has seen it all before. He's not just got the wisdom of years, he has got the wisdom of eons.
And this God is the one who now comes after all of the others. And he not only has great wisdom, he has great righteousness.
Hair that is pure white, robe pure white, like that of a priest purified for priestly service.
So pure is he that his throne breaks into flames as though the purity is so radiant, so cauterizing that flames burst from the throne. And it's not just purity that's on display, this righteousness among them, but great power. The throne has wheels of fire, and fire runs as a stream out from the throne as though we are learning this ancient of days with all his wisdom and all his righteousness has power that is unstoppable. It knows no boundaries. It's not confined to the royal courtroom. No, this God has the ability to move in power and purity and wisdom wherever he chooses to accomplish whatever he intends.
And what does he intend?
There are thrones put in this courtroom, but as a court seated in judgment. The end of verse 10, "The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened."
Now not the Lamb's Book of Life, but the books of judgment wherein are recorded all the deeds of humanity, including every hidden thing, whether it be good or evil. And as the multitudes stand to honor the God of such great power and righteousness and purity, the judgments are meted out.
Those judgments culminate in verse 11, "I look," says Daniel, "then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking, and as I look the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire." Strange words to us. In the ancient world, a man or a nation of great power described as a horn, like the horn of a beast, the thing that gives it power and distinction. But the horn that is being described here has already been presented to us in verse 8.
In verse 8, among those 10 horns of the Roman Empire includes this early, "I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were the eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things." I'll say a mouth speaking arrogant things. We struggle to know what's being described here. But if you take that 10 horned beast with the iron teeth to be the Roman Empire, here is the hurly manifestation of it. Right after Alexander the Great has conquered the world, he dies as a young man. Four of his generals divide up the known world at that time, taking control of the four quarters.
But there is one, Antiochus Epiphanes, who by deceit and power defeats the other three and becomes the sole ruler as the Roman Empire is beginning to grow up. He wanting to compete with the Roman Empire tries to go and take Egypt. And as he gets to the border of Egypt, the Roman government says to him, "You cross that border and you die."
And Antiochus Epiphanes, in embarrassment and rage, turns back and goes to Israel.
And in his rage puts Zeus in the temple of God.
In his arrogance he puts a pig on the altar of Jehovah, and he kills every Jewish child so signified by circumcision.
It is the greatest horror and dread and decimation that Israel has ever experienced. And here we are told that it is that beast that is slain ultimately by the judgments of God. The New Testament writers will pick up the same engine and say, "This is the antichrist of the end times," as God himself will have the final word. But what Daniel is saying to his people of his time and the centuries to follow is, as awful as it may be, evil may have its day, God will have the final say. He will judge all the misdeeds of man and he will free his people. We are captives in a strange land, but our God is so great we should trust him. Why trust him?
He's not just great, he's so good.
The goodness is expressed as God is reminding his people that he will be faithful to provide the redeemer he always said he would. From the very first pages of Scripture, I will put enmity between the woman and Satan, between her seed and his seed. He's going to strike the heel of her son, but he the son is going to crush Satan's head.
And now God is saying, "I will in fact do it." How will it happen? Look at the expression. Verse 13, "Even as Daniel is seeing all the succession of kingdoms, he sees this after the great horn of arrogance is destroyed. Verse 13, "I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of the days and was presented before him."
There came one like a son of man.
Those of you who know a little bit of Hebrew know that the word man in Hebrew is just Adam.
"There came a son of Adam." No, not quite that, not the son of Adam, one like the son of Adam.
He's like us.
Those of you who like C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Tales know that if you're a girl, you're referred to as a daughter of Eve.
If you're a boy, you are a son of Adam.
There came one like a son of Adam, like a son of man, like, but not quite the same.
Why? Because you remember he comes on the clouds of heaven. He's like us, but of divine origin. He comes from the clouds of heaven himself, always when God has presented himself to his people in power and great glory.
Sinai in the desert?
And ultimately when Christ rose from the dead, you may remember it was in the clouds of heaven. Even after the resurrection, remember the angels who stood by the grave said, "Why do you stand looking into heaven?
Even as you saw Christ ascend in the clouds in like manner, he shall return."
There is this great promise that the Son of God will return in power and great glory, even Jesus, before His crucifixion, speaking to His disciples, says to them, "And the Son of Man shall come again in clouds, in power and great glory." And now here is Daniel centuries, centuries before, saying, "This is what's going to happen. You're in captivity. You're in this jail of Babylon, but that's not the end of the story. Your God who is so great is going to come after all the kings of man, and ultimately He will by one who is like you, but of divine origin conquer all."
And what will He accomplish? Verse 14, "To Him was given dominion and glory in a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." His kingdom is both universal for all peoples, not just Abraham's people, all peoples, and it will be eternal, never destroyed, never put aside. God is saying, "I will provide through my Son this one who's like you, but of heavenly origin a universal and eternal kingdom as I promised to David, as I promised to Moses, as I promised to Noah, as I promised to Adam and Eve. I will be faithful."
It's the message to a people you have to perceive who are in slavery and captivity. Their cities, their nation has been destroyed. They're not even in their own land anymore, and they are being told there's still hope.
Our God is great, and our God is good. Trust Him. However dire your circumstances, however much they are a consequence of your own sin.
Trust in the God who saves, and there is hope for tomorrow.
Okay, you take a breath, I'll take a breath.
What do we do with all these amazing prophecies from the past?
I mean, I recognize even as I repeat them to you, the intricacy and the precision and the timing of these — it's just amazing.
But for so many of us in this day and age, the prophecies of the Old Testament can be like the way we use our wedding china. You know what I mean by that? Kathy and I were giving wedding china over 40 years ago, and we're saving it for a special occasion.
You know, it just sits in the cupboard, and we admire it, and we look at the design, and we're grateful for the people who gave it, and it just sits there. And at some point we said to ourselves, "What are we saving it for? I mean, put it in the dishwasher, you know. Just use it."
And there is a reason that these prophecies are here, not just for the ancient people as God is saying to those in captivity and slavery who are refugees.
God still has a plan. The Apostle Paul says everything that was written in the past was written for us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. I mean, why are we supposed to understand God is making promises to a sinful, captive, enslaved, foreign, refugee people? What are we supposed to do with that? Actually, the Bible is pretty clear what we're supposed to do with that. One thing we're supposed to do is have empathy for people in like condition.
Over and over again in the Bible, we are told that if God so cares for the forefathers of the people of faith who are slaves and refugees and sojourners, so we should love and care for those who are now. Deuteronomy 10, 19, "Love the sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt yourselves."
And it's not just an attitude.
There are actions that are intended to follow that with the empathy is an ethic of caring for others as we ourselves have been cared for. It says, "Moses, to his people, you shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. Just as you recognize you have come out of persecution and hurt and bondage, so you should care for others who are going through the same thing." And we recognize this as a particular measure for us today when we are dealing in a time of the greatest displacement of people in the history of the world right now in our generation and as the church is trying to find its way through political measures, economic measures, charitable measures, how do we do what we are being required because we will not ignore the Scriptures.
Consider after all what Moses said in Leviticus, "When foreigners reside among you in your land, do not mistreat them.
The foreigner you must treat as native-born, love them as yourselves because you were foreigners
in Egypt."
I mean, it's just the golden rule, "Love others as you would have them do unto you."
Well, what if they're foreigners?
If they have been given into our land, then we have responsibility.
Why?
Because there was a time that our forefathers in the faith were also those who were deprived, enslaved, refugees, immigrants. Most of us are children of immigrant populations ourselves. And as we consider that, we think, "What is our responsibility? What are we called to do?" The Bible is clear, Deuteronomy 10.
God executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and He loves the sojourner, giving Him food and clothing. Therefore, love the sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
I still love it that while we were on vacation, some of you were singing to Kathy and to me, news reports of friends of ours who are in China right now who've been driven out of church and had of home, and some are imprisoned even now. Why do you do that?
Because it is in your instinct as a believer to say, "We recognize that we are to love as we have been loved, to care for those who cannot care for…" What is grace in its essence?
Providing for those who cannot provide for themselves. If we have been so provided, then we provide for others as much as God gives us ability. I rejoice in a church that is willing to offer English as a second language to those who are foreign in our community. Do you know more than 40 nations now have been in this church, learning English as a second language? And you know now, we are seeing some come to faith in Jesus Christ as a consequence of faithful believers whose instincts are taking over and saying, "We could be in such a situation. We are the new moral outlaws as Christians in our own land, recognizing the challenges to speech and ethics and understanding of what we believe about morality and gender. We could ourselves well be those who are hurting the future. So what are we called to do to extend the heart and the grace of Jesus Christ as much as we are able for those that God calls us to reach, just as God loves the widows and the fatherless? So the Scriptures say, "Love the foreigner as native-born, as your own responsibility, because God loves them, so do we." Now listen, we can all say, "Oh, just political correctness, just social justice progressiveness."
You must understand this is politically incorrect, the reason we are doing it. Why do we believe it is our responsibility to reach across ethnicity and faith boundaries? Because we believe we are expressing the gospel of Jesus Christ for the conversion of souls. We are not just in the do-goodism movement. We are in a movement that says, "Jesus Christ is king." And you need to recognize that, and the way you will recognize it if there's something different about us, if the national and ethnic prejudices don't just characterize us, but the way we act says there's something different in us. And what is different in us is we have been changed by the God of grace who took those who were slaves, who took those who were foreigners to the covenants of God and said, "You're mine.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is providing for you, and you will know a greater grace than you can possibly imagine." What we are being told by the Apostle Paul who takes the same imagery of physical slavery and speaks to us about how ministering across such boundaries will take the gospel. You were once, he says to those at Rome, slaves to sin.
But now you have been set free.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Those who are sexually immoral, those who are idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers, they will not inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you. But you were washed.
You were purified. You were sanctified, justified, set free.
Now that you know who you are, care for others. You are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making His appeal through you. Always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you. Why? Because we were once slaves. We were once foreigners to the covenants. We were once refugees from God. And we were claimed by the king of the universe who comes to conquer all in the name of Jesus Christ. We represent Him in the way that we speak and act and live, and it is our calling.
I rejoice to be a church that you rejoice when Pastor Claude White comes or Pastor Devereaux Hubbard that we have these united worship services across prejudices and ethnicities and boundaries of humanity. Why?
Because we're saying we have been saved from our own prejudices and difficulties and sin, and we want the world to know that we will not recognize the boundaries that will displace the grace of God.
We are not going to let sin have a victory. We are not going to have prejudice have a victory. We want Christ to reign in our souls and our families and our communities.
Sin shall not win here because we will be the people of God who says we want Christ to be known in the way that we deal and teach and deal with one another. Is it really our responsibility to be these encouragers of the grace of God beyond all lines and all ethnicities?
Look at verse 27 of Daniel chapter 7. It is remarkable.
You may remember that when the ancient of day comes to take his seat in the royal court,
it's not just one throne that is brought.
We were told thrones are placed in the court. Why plural? Who's going to be sitting on those thrones? Verse 27 of Daniel 7. And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall
be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.
Their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom and all dominion shall serve and obey them.
Right now we are co-laborers with Christ in this creation.
In the new creation, we are co-rulers with Christ.
Meaning that His purity, His righteousness, His love, His forgiveness goes to all kingdoms across all ethnicities, across all languages. Kyle read it earlier today in the worship service that from every tribe and language and people and nation we will gather around the throne and we will say, "Worthy is the Lamb to receive glory and honor and praise." Why? Because with His blood He purchased men for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation. And it's not just Christ work, it's our work. Do you recognize we are practicing now for eternal rule? We are practicing now for what God is calling us to do in eternity and that is to express the nature and the name and the power and the goodness of Christ for all people. Why?
Because there are people who are in our community who say, "I don't belong in your church because you're white, you're Anglo, you're American." And we want to say, "No, no, listen. We translate these messages in outline form into four languages every Sunday.
We invite people to our social gatherings across our neighborhoods, in our schools to come to hear the message of Jesus Christ because He is Lord over all. And we want to express what we know. When I was a sinner, He saved me.
When I was a foreigner to the covenant, He called me family.
And that is the same thing I'm being called to represent for Christ in every place I go." This isn't just for the church leaders, it's not just for Jesus. It's what we are doing as we are preparing to be the co-rulers of the new creation. We are expressing in heart and love to family, to those who may not deserve it, to those that our culture says, "Don't talk to them."
We say, "No, this is Jesus.
He changed me. When I had no right, He claimed me. And I want everybody to know that."
For me and for Kathy, vacation is getting away, and for me in particular, it's fishing a little bit.
It's also visiting family.
So last week I visited my mom and my brother in prison.
So I went with my mom, drove the two hours to the prison, and we got processed the way you have to do to do your visitation. I think of my 88-year-old mother being searched and frisked with the rest of us. And then because my brother is in a separate medical ward because of strokes and EMS now that's part of his life.
We had to get on a kind of dilapidated van to go to the distant medical ward.
And the driver kind of throws a milk carton at my mother's feet to help her get into the van. Doesn't position it, doesn't help her. And they were their bad ankle and their bad hips. She's trying to think, "Mom, what do you do when I'm not here?
You visit him twice a month. How do you do this?"
And then we go out to the facility where he is held and they don't see us coming.
And so my mom waits under the Mississippi sun with me, beating down on her.
And she tries to get the attention of the people in the facility so they'll throw the electronic gate and let us in. And after a while, she gets tired and she just rests against the chain-leak fence, her arm up getting balance and support by the fence.
Finally they see us, they let us in.
We go in, hard seats, concrete floor, marred tables.
And my mother, the former nurse, takes the pulse of my brother, touches his head to see his temperature, looks at him over.
And then as my brother and I talk, I look at my mother, begin to circle. To the other tables, to take the pulse of other people, to speak a word of encouragement, to ask about a child or a grandchild, to care for other people. And at some point one of the men says to her, "We're all your sons, aren't we?"
And I think if they're all her sons, they're all my brothers.
And if I'm your brother in Christ, they are your brother in Christ. No, no, no, no, don't deserve it. They are criminals.
Such were some of us.
And by the grace of God, we have been saved. And as I think of my mother leaning against the chain-leak fence, I think if you would just follow her hand, I think I caught a glimpse of the Son of God coming in power and glory
because my mom and the people of God are saying, "Our God reigns. He is so great, and He is so good, and He sends His people with the message. Tell friend, tell neighbor, tell co-worker, bring them in. We want people who need the Lord Jesus here. And when we do that, whether it's Babylon or Birmingham or a jail cell in Mississippi, the kingdom of God comes. It comes right here, right now. I praise God for you. Let's live for Him who saved us from our sin and tell the world of the goodness of the King of heaven. Amen. Father.
Amen.
We struggle in our own hearts to believe that you could love us sick, sinful, sore, wounded, failing in so many ways. But you told a long, long story to say that slave or prisoner, refugee, immigrant, foreigner, whatever it be, you would not recognize that as a boundary to your love. Teach us what it means to be a people of faith who love others for the sake of the Savior who loved us. If there are those right here, right now who say, "He can't love me, not with my past, not with my family, not with my difficulty," teach us of the God who is so great and so good that He rules over all. His kingdom is everlasting and universal for all who would trust in this Jesus. Make us ambassadors for Christ. Teach us of a grace that conquers all, even our own prejudices for Christ's sake. Use us for Jesus Christ, we pray, in His name. Amen.