 The title of my sermon this morning is Fruitful Seeds for His Glory. Fruitful seeds for His glory. And speaking of the word fruitful, are you a fruitful person? Are you a fruitful person? Are you a fruitful Christian? Have you ever thought of what it might mean to be fruitful? Like what does that mean to be fruitful? Generally, when we think of bearing fruit, we think of the fruits of Christian character. We think of texts like Galatians 5, Galatians 5, 22 to 23, like the fruit of the Spirit, right? It's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. It's fruits of the Spirit, genuine fruits, and these are good. Those are Christian fruits. However, in this text, the text that I just read to you and the text that I'll be preaching from, there's a type of fruits that Christians bear that we don't always think about. But today we are going to think about it. And as we think about it, I'm going to make specific application to the work in Daha Buon in the Dominican Republic. So where is this text set, right? I'll read it again, starting at verse 20. Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee and asked him, sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. So where, what's the setting to this text? This is Passion Week. This is the last week before Jesus' death. And this is also Passover week. This is the time when the Jews are celebrating the Passover, the greatest holiday on the Jewish calendar, mandated to them by God in the book of Exodus. And there's a special atmosphere when the week of Passover is going on. You have thousands of Jews, thousands of Jews that descend upon Jerusalem. It's a noisy environment. Passover can only be celebrated in Jerusalem. You can't celebrate Passover anywhere else. Only in the place where the Lord has put his name is Passover allowed to be celebrated. There's also many sacrifices that need to be made. So you can imagine that to sacrifice lambs and goats were allowed to, unblemished. Unblemished lambs and goats allowed to be sacrificed during the Passover. You could likely hear the bleeding, the loud bleeding of lambs and goats all throughout the city. It's a noisy environment, an exciting environment. And there's also an extra special excitement to this year's Passover because Jesus has recently raised Lazarus from the dead. And when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, they honor him, he arrives triumphally. The triumphal entry recognized as Israel's king, the son of David. If you look with me in your Bibles, a few verses before in chapter 12, verse nine, starting at verse nine, it says this. When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. There's a double excitement. There's an excitement of fascination with what Jesus has done. And there's an excitement of exasperation from the wicked religious leaders in Israel. Take a look at verse 17. It says, the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, "'You see that you are gaining nothing,' they would say to one another. But look at what they say here. Look, the world has gone after him." They said that in exasperation, but we're going to see that it was pretty prophetic what they said. It's a double excitement, fascination and hatred, fascination and exasperation. In the midst of all of this excitement, all of this excitement, there's a turning point that happens. And that's gonna bring us to our text here. In our text, we're gonna see three points. Our first point in verses 20 through 22 is going to be the field is plowed and ready. The field is plowed and ready. Our second point we'll find in verses 23 to 24. See Christ the fruitful seed glorified. See Christ the fruitful seed glorified. And lastly, in verses 25 through 26, we're going to see that we are His fruitful seeds for His glory. We are His fruitful seeds for His glory. Verse 20 says, now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida and Galilee, and asked him, sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. So you might ask the question, who are these Greeks? Who are these Greeks? They're not necessarily Greeks from Greece. So it's a bit of an idiom to refer to Gentiles. These people are either Gentile God-fearers or they're Gentile proselytes. A Gentile proselyte would have been someone who converted to Judaism, someone who would have gotten circumcised, basically becoming a Jew, although being born a Gentile. A Gentile God-fear would be someone like Cornelius or the Ethiopian eunuch who has a fear of God. They have an appreciation for God's word, God's law and a fascination with it as well. And they would come and they would too in whatever way they could participate in worship. Some people think that these could be Hellenized Jews, but they're likely not Hellenized Jews due to the wording that's used. There's that specific wording that is used to refer to Hellenized Jews. So these are either Gentile God-fearers or Gentile proselytes. In the end, these are Gentiles. And what's their posture? What's their posture here? Well, the text tells us what they came to do. They came to worship in verse 20. They had an esteem for the God of Israel. They came humbly. Notice that they didn't go directly to Jesus. Instead, they went straight to Philip. They went to Philip who's from Bethsaida. And they're coming to worship. They're likely coming because it's Passover week. If they were proselytes, they were able to participate in the Passover feast. If they're God-fearers, they're cut off, but they could probably stay on the outside like in the temple, the Gentile, the court of the Gentiles on the outside of the temple and still observe some of the worship. But either way, they came to worship and they came humbly. They didn't go directly to Jesus. They didn't come thinking that they had any station with him. They may have gone to Philip because Philip is one of the only two disciples with a Greek name. And John calls out that he's from Bethsaida, one of the towns in Galilee. In Galilee, there are also a number of Gentile settlements, number of Gentile towns. So Philip's Greek was probably very good. Consider the effort of these Gentiles too to come down to worship. They would have had to have traveled great length to get to Jerusalem. There's a possibility of great danger. They didn't come in cars. They didn't come by train or bus. You had to walk. You had to walk, a long walk. There's thieves, bandits on the road. And being Gentiles, at this time, Roman law forbade conversion to Judaism. They weren't allowed legally to convert to the religion of the Jews here. They likely had to make great expense to take this trip. As they were going there, there's probably not much opportunity to make money on the way there. They would have had to save money to get here. Think of the desire of these Gentiles. What does John say here that they asked Philip? They said, sir, we wish to see Jesus. And when they say that they wish to see Jesus, they're not merely trying to see Him with their eyes. Anyone in that area could see Him. They wished to speak to Him. They wished to know Him. They wished to interview Him. They were timid, and Philip was likely timid too. Notice that Philip didn't go directly to Jesus. Philip went to Andrew. And then Philip and Andrew together went to Jesus. Philip may have been thinking of the separation between Jews and Gentiles. He may have been thinking of Christ's command to them not to go into the Gentile cities to evangelize the Matthew 10. Philip understands that these people don't belong. Very likely, very likely. So what can we take from this? Well, one thing we can take is that Christ's message at this point has spread abroad. All of the works, all of the words of Christ, now others are hearing them and are interested. This is not a Jewish secret at this point. There is no Jewish secret. His fame is spreading. Others are beginning to see and are beginning to become interested in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's also interesting too that at this particular time, the Jews were looking at Jesus Christ the opposite way. They were becoming exasperated with him. The Pharisees were so exasperated that they were complaining that the whole world has gone after him. So you have the Gentiles, those who are cut off, those who are from the outside, they want to know him. And then you have these religious hypocrites. They see him, they hear his words, they see his works. They are literally looking at the Son of God. When they see Christ's face, they see God and they want nothing of him. And they complain. You know why? Because they wish they were God. They wish they were God. But consider the heart of these Gentiles. Consider your heart, right? Consider what you would do, take a long distance to do or to get. People travel long distances for a new job, but they won't travel a few minutes to go to a good church. People seek danger for a thrill. They'll jump out of airplanes, they'll jump off buildings, they'll climb mountains and cliffs, but they won't risk anything to see and hear Christ or to do his work. There's always a lion in the streets. Always a lion in the streets to do Christ's work. But when it's a cheap thrill, they'll take it. People will go to great expense for their leisure. They'll go to great expense. They'll fill up their credit card accounts. Some of you may have filled up your credit card accounts for your leisure, but they will spend very little. They will spend very little to hear the word of God, to learn from it. You know, that's the type of person who would spend a lot of money on some subscription service. And then when there's a good biblical book that they can buy or it's time to buy a Bible, they won't do it and no claim is too expensive. Or they'll claim the gas money is too much to go to church, right? We get our priorities all out of whack. But see, when you really want to see Jesus, you will do great things, would you not? Absolutely, absolutely. So what ought you to do? If you're in here and you're not a Christian, I entreat you to come to him. You should say to yourself, I want to see Jesus. And you don't have to do like these Gentiles did. You don't have to go through hops. You can go straight to him. Go straight to him. You can open up his Bible and understand it. You can come to a church where the gospel is preached to you. You can go to a brother who will explain to you and show you to him in his word. Come to Jesus if you're not one of his. And if you're a Christian this morning, which can you learn from these Gentiles? You need to consider if you have stopped coming to him for a time. You need to consider if you have lacked in your coming to him. If you have grown lazy. If now all of a sudden there's a lion in the streets. And now the zeal that you once had for him is waning. You too come to Jesus and wish to see him. The Christian life is a continual seeing of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a one time seeing and going on your way. These Gentiles were coming to know him. Would you come to continue to know him Christian? But again, these Gentiles, these Gentiles, they represent the world. The whole world is going out to see him. The whole world. And that brings us to our next point. Point number two. See Christ, the fruitful seed glorified. It says this in verse 23. And Jesus answered them. The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. That's an interesting answer to some Gentiles who go to Philip and say, I want to see Jesus. You notice that we have no idea whether they talk to him. Not a bit. So what that tells us is obviously not important for us to know whether they did. There's an even more important theme here that Christ is getting at. The important thing is that his hour has come. His hour has come. Now, he mentions his hour a number of times in the book of John. He mentions it at the wedding in Cana in John chapter two. Do you remember that? When his mom, she, they're at a wedding and they run out of wine and she goes to Jesus and she says, we're out of wine. And he tells her, woman, don't do that, don't call your mom, woman. But he tells her, woman, my hour has not come yet. The woman at the well in John chapter four. Jesus alludes, you see, is getting closer. He talks about his hour coming. He even says at one point the hour has come but it's now here. But he's still talking of it in a future way. The hour is still future, this hour that he speaks of. Even when they try to arrest him and kill him in John chapter seven and eight, they could not arrest him. They could not kill him. Why? Because his hour had not yet come. His hour had not yet come. So what is this hour? What is this hour? This is the hour of his death. That's what the hour is. John chapter 13 verse one, one page to the right says this. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, our what? Had come to do what? To depart out of this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. This is the hour of his glory. There's a glory in his death. His hour has come and this hour is his death. And there's a glory in this hour. And that's why he's able to say the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. He looks very positively at his death. He looks very positively at this hour. And think of this, in his lowest moment, in his lowest moment is his greatest glory. In his lowest moment is his greatest victory. From his lowest moment is his greatest fruit. Jesus is most glorified in your eyes when you see him on the cross. And he tells us now in verse 24, he says, truly, truly I say to you, he's trying to get your attention here. He wants you to ponder something. He wants you to stop and think. And he's gonna give you a picture now of a grain of wheat. He says, truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. He is likening himself right now to a grain of wheat. And this grain, this grain must die. This grain of wheat must die. And we're not talking about a scientific death of grain here, but this grain dies to itself. It dies to itself. It must be buried and it must cease to be a grain of wheat. When you plant the grain of wheat, you plant it in the ground and you water it and it sprouts. If you dug up that plant, are you gonna find a grain of wheat under there? No, you won't. That grain of wheat has died. But from that grain, from that grain, you have a new creation. You have a new life. You have a new plant. You have a new stock. From that grain. And so there is life produced from this dead grain of wheat. But he doesn't just tell us that there's a new stock, a new plant, does he? He says that there's more about the life that comes from this grain of wheat. There's more about the life. He says this, that if it doesn't die, it remains alone. If I were to have a grain of wheat in my hand and I were to leave it on this pulpit, it could stay there forever and it will remain alone. It will be one grain of wheat, period. That's it. But if it dies, it grows into a plant. And what does he say at the end of verse 24? It bears much fruit, much fruit. What is the fruit of wheat, of the grain of wheat? More grains of wheat. More grains of wheat. So we see that Jesus produces an offspring. He produces an offspring. And what is that offspring? That offspring is the church. It's each of you who are a genuine believer here. You too are a grain of wheat. A new creation that comes from the original grain of wheat. And this follows the pattern of creation that God set out in the beginning. Each bears according to its kind. Each bears according to its kind. Now I also want you to remember that Jesus' death was a total death. He actually died. It was a real physical death. This is a picture that we're talking about, but it's a picture signifying something that is real. He died not only in the finality of his death. His whole life was a life of dying. He was the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. His death was a death of shame. He didn't die any death. He died the death of the cross. The seed that was planted was spent. He died completely. And he glories in his death. It's not much to say if one of us dies, is it? Because we're wicked, sinful people. We deserve to die, but does Jesus deserve to die? Jesus never committed a sin. Jesus perfect in every way. Not only did he not commit a sin, it was impossible for Jesus to sin. He is perfect in every way, glorious in every way, but he dies, he dies. And it's not just the death itself that is glorious. What makes the death so glorious? What makes it glorious? Jesus shows us here it's the fruit that comes from it. It's the fruit that comes from the death that makes the death glorious. So consider, consider, if you're a genuine Christian, he died for you. He died for you. Consider the shame in his death. Consider how that was your shame. Consider the sin that was put into his account. That was your sin. Does he not deserve a reward for his work? Consider what he gave for your redemption. Consider all of the humility in it, the humility in his incarnation, even just in his taking on a human flesh, the humility of that, the humility throughout his entire life, the humility of his death. He is to be highly exalted because of his work. We pay for goods received. You receive something, you pay for it. In fact, we find it odd if someone works in our society and doesn't receive a reward for their work. You go to work, you expect a paycheck. In fact, we rightfully get angry when a reward is refused. Jesus deserves a reward for his suffering. He deserves a reward for his suffering. And this, the fruits that he bears is his reward. Consider how the life that you live, I'm not merely talking about your physical life. If you're a Christian, the eternal life that you have is from his death. It's from his death. So what is the means by which he gets what he deserves? What is the means by which he gets his reward? He gets it by you being a seed, a faithful seed for his glory. By you being a faithful seed for his glory. Remember what I said about the pattern of creation. Each produces according to its kind, like produces like, like produces like. If like produces like, what does that look like? What does that look like? And that leads us to our last point, point three. We are his fruitful seeds for his glory. Look with me at verse 25. Whoever loves his life loses it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the father will honor him. Now, why would Jesus say this about us after speaking of his own death? Why would he make this hard statement after talking about, after giving us this picture of a grain of wheat dying and bearing fruit? Why would he do that? That's because he requires you to die too. You must die. His death is a model for your life. Your life is to be a life of death, a life of dying. The reason Jesus would say this is because he's implying that you're a seed. You're a seed too. And just as he was put into the ground, so must you be put into the ground. And just as he bore much fruit, so should you bear much fruit. And Jesus makes a contrast in this text. He makes a contrast here between earthly life and eternal life. He says, whoever loves his life loses it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Two kinds of life, an earthly life or a physical life, rather, and an eternal life. Your physical life, it's full of desires, appetites, pleasures, and these desires and appetites, they seek pleasures regardless of what God's will is. If you're hungry, your body wants food, regardless of whether it's God's will for you to eat or not, right? Now, and you have eternal life. And what does Jesus say in John 17, the high-proofed player of what eternal life is? It's to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Eternal life is definitely eternity in terms of time, but there's a quality to eternal life. There's a quality, there's perfect fellowship and knowledge of God. So what is this loving and hating of life that Jesus talks about? What He's showing is that it's possible to love one of these lives at the expense of the other. You can love your earthly life at the expense of your eternal life and vice versa. You can love your eternal life at the expense of your earthly life. And quite frankly, you really can't have them both. You really can't have them both. You're gonna be forced to love one over the other, one over the other. Those who love the things of this earthly life at the expense of eternal life, at the expense of knowing Him, following Him, loving Him, doing His work, you will lose all of your life. You will lose your earthly life and any prospect of eternal life. You will lose all. Your so-called eternal life, your timeless existence, you will exist, but you will have no fellowship with God and you will endure the torment of His wrath for an eternity. But all those, all those who would love eternal life at the expense of earthly life, they receive the greatest of promises here, the greatest of promises. This is a call to anyone who would follow Him. This is for whoever would lose, would love His life. Which one will you love? Which one of those lives will you love? He demands genuine allegiance. He says in verse 26, if anyone serves me, he must follow me. There's no real relationship with him outside of obedience to him. To follow him is to be his disciple. You must die in your life as he did in death. You must live your life as he lived his life. It's to do what he does and as he commands. That's what it means to follow him. There's no allegiance outside of that. You can't say I am Christ and not live for him, but there's also a promise of honor. He says, if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. This honor, it doesn't come from men. It doesn't come from accolades that you would get from your family or your friends or your coworkers. This comes from the Father. So when a lot of people look at this losing of life, this loving one and hatred of the other, they think of this as a morbid thing. They say, oh man, that's a hard statement, Jesus. That's a really hard statement that you would tell me that my earthly life, I have to suffer that my earthly life, I have to love this eternal life at the expense of my earthly life. And it's only morbid if you're looking at it with the wrong glasses on. Because in eternal life, you have the Lord Jesus Christ. You have the greatest treasure in him. This eternal life is an imitation of Christ. Some think of this imitation of him as only addressing personal character, like I mentioned in the beginning. They think of, okay, what does it mean? What does it mean to hate my earthly life? It means that I must deny myself in all aspects of personal character. I'm commanded not to become angry. I'm commanded to be kind. I'm commanded to love my wife. I'm commanded to train my kids well. Amen to all of that, right? But does it stop there? No, not at all. It's not merely in the personal character. In fact, Jesus isn't addressing personal character here necessarily. The dying that Jesus is talking about in this text is the dying to produce more fruit. And what is the fruit that he is talking about dying to produce? More seeds just like yourself, more grains just like yourself. Jesus, the grain of wheat, dies to produce more grains of wheat. You, as a grain of wheat, are called to die here to produce what? More grains of wheat. That's the dying that Jesus is talking about. He's talking about the dying to, the dying to yourself to overcome the fact that you know that if you preach the gospel to such and such a person, they're gonna hate you for it. He's talking about the dying of making time in your schedule to preach the gospel to strangers. He's talking of all of the matters of dying in your personal evangelism, every bit of it. And any of you who personally evangelize faithfully, you know it involves a dying, doesn't it? But there's more, especially considering what our focus is today in four admissions. There is a dying to see church is planted. Is there not? There's a dying to see churches planted abroad like we intend to do in Dajabon. There's a dying in your finances, giving up pleasures that you would otherwise want to keep so that more grains of wheat will be produced. There's a dying for some of you who should probably consider coming with us. There's a dying that it would take for you to think through of giving up some of the comforts that you are used to in a country like ours where we expect so many good and nice things. There's a dying that it takes to go somewhere where those comforts are fewer than what you have right now. There is a dying, but it produces much what? Fruit, it produces much fruit. This is jet fuel. This is jet fuel to your work, to your work in personal evangelism and this is jet fuel to our work in Dajabon. This is why you're here, brother. This is why you have been produced. You have been produced to produce. You have been produced to produce. Comfort and safety, those things are secondary. They are secondary. They're secondary in your personal evangelism and they are secondary in the work of missions. They're completely secondary. And you need to be able to say to yourself, you need to be able to look into the mirror and say, I do not want my seed to die, to remain alone. I do not want my seed to remain alone. I want my seed to die and to be planted and to bear much fruit, much fruit. You need to be able to say, forget my life, forget my comforts. And you have to be able to say that wherever you are, not just if you go out on the mission field to another country. You need to be able to say that in America. You need to be able to say that with all that you have, forget my life and forget my comforts. You need to be able to say that my reward is being a faithful offspring of Christ. That is your reward, brethren. That is your reward. And your honor will come from the Father. Your honor will come from the Father. Would you participate in that work? Have you been participating in that work? Do you think of yourself in that way? Do you think of your life in that way? Or is your life in a massing of comforts? Is that the way you think of it? Enjoy as much as you can until you die. That's not life. Unless, unless you find your enjoyment in the work that bears much fruit. So there's always an objection, isn't there? There's always an objection. So someone might object and say, you know, Pastor Jerome, don't you have a vested interest to tell me this? Don't you have a vested interest to use this text and to call me to bear much fruit? And I will say, you know what? You got me. You got me. I do. I definitely have a vested interest. We need your money. Yep. I'm not afraid to say it. I want friends to come down. I want companionship. I have a vested interest. But you know what? So do you. You have a vested interest. You have a vested interest. Because I'm not the only seed. My wife isn't the only seed. You are a seed. And you too must die to prepare, to bear much fruit. Your death, your death as a seed may look different. May look different. But in the end, your seed needs to be spent. Your seed needs to be spent. Another objection. You know, Pastor Jerome, are you trying to guilt me? Are you trying to guilt me? Are you trying to guilt me into giving you some money? Are you trying to guilt me to come down and move with you? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. But not in the way that you think. Not in the way that you think. This is not to be self-serving. But I want you to see your role in the kingdom of God. And I think if we're all honest, all of us, to a man to a woman, if we look at the way that we look at our comforts, we think too much of them, don't we? We think too much of our comforts. And too often, we don't see them as secondary. We see them as primary. Well, someone else might say, well, isn't this difficult? This is extremely different. This is hard, man. And I would say, you know what? You're right. Quite frankly, I think it's too difficult. This is scary, right? It's scary in many ways. And not just to go out on the mission field. Many of you know the fear of speaking to a loved one, the gospel, not knowing how they might respond. Many of you know the fear of speaking to a coworker. Some of you have experienced the persecution, even recently, for being a faithful preacher of the gospel. Is this difficult? Absolutely, it's difficult. Sometimes it's too difficult. Sometimes you look at the difficulty and you don't know how it's gonna get done. We are inadequate. But who is it that makes us adequate? This isn't a work done in our power. This isn't a work done because we've planned it out and we've figured out that we have a 99% chance of success if we follow these specific rules. This is a work done in faith. The Lord is the one who will make us adequate. Why is Paul able to say, I do all things for the sake of the elect? Why is he able to say that? It's not because Paul could see with his literal eyes the elect. If Paul were looking with his literal eyes, he would have stopped at the first beating. He would have stopped at the first rejection. Paul looked with the eyes of faith. Would you look with the eyes of faith? When Jesus says that the fields are white for harvest, do you see it that way? Are you looking with your physical eyes? Are you looking at the sizes of churches? Are you looking at the number of rejections? That's a foolish thing. Let's look with eyes of faith. But in the end, what is the end? What is the end? The end is a field of wheat, a field of wheat. One grain seed produces more grains and from those grains, more grains. And from those grains, more. And thousands upon thousands of grain, an innumerable multitude, worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as Abraham was to look at the stars, would he be able to count the stars? No, no. There's a grain field, a grain field of the elect worshiping Christ for eternity. That is the end. And that is why you ought to be a fruitful seed for his glory. So if you are not one of his, come to him. Come to him, just like those Gentiles came to him. See the Lord Jesus Christ and see that he is a fruitful grain of wheat that bears much fruit. And also see, because of that grain of wheat, you, as a grain of wheat, you, part of his new creation, you too must die. You must die and bear much fruit for his glory that he might receive the reward for his suffering. Amen? So let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, I pray that your son would receive the reward for his suffering. That all of the grain would be gathered, a large silo of it that all people, that all tribes, tongues, and nations will worship your son. And Lord, what a privilege that we get to be involved in this work. Help us, Lord, to bear much fruit, not just the fruit of personal character, but the fruit of soul's Lord. Help us in this work. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.