Tag Archives: Treasure

The Gift of Time – Sermon on Luke 16:1-13 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Luke 16:1–13

1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The scam was over. His gig had been discovered. The pink slip was coming because this manager’s Ponzi scheme had been reported to his boss. Now, the rich man was going to cut ties with his crooked manager. But rather than sitting around and stewing about how everything had gone wrong, instead of denying the charges, fighting the accusations, or making excuses, the manager gets busy. His paychecks had dried up, but the manager recognized that he had something much more valuable than his salary. He had time, and he was going to use that time to his advantage.

This scoundrel manager scrambles to make sure that he’ll still have a bite to eat and a place to stay now that the gravy train had made its last stop. He calls in all the people who owed the rich man a debt. We only get to hear two of the conversations, but all of them get called in, and you can imagine those debtors were nervous and afraid as they are brought into the office one by one. No one likes calls from the debt collector.

The manager knows their fear, and he uses it to his advantage. He asks all of the debtors, “How much do you owe? Ufda. Yes, I can see why you’re worried about that. Well, I have some good news for you. I’m going to make things easier. Take that debt, and lower it.” And all these debtors leave the office with a lighter burden, feeling better about their own future, and extremely grateful toward this soon-to-be jobless manager. And he will go home at the end of the day with no job and no prospects but a lot of new friends. Of course, those friends were gotten by deception and cheating, but they had become his friends.

Now, this is probably Jesus’ most confusing parable. It’s one of only a couple times that Jesus holds up someone who does bad things as an example. Another one comes later in Luke 18:1-8 where Jesus tells the parable of the unrighteous judge who grants justice to the widow who keeps badgering him for justice. In that parable, Jesus teaches that bad people will sometimes do the right thing. But here, Jesus teaches that bad people do bad things and sometimes get good results – at least for themselves.

To help make sense of it, let’s try an analogy. If I said, “Barry Bonds hit a lot of home runs,” what would you think of that statement? Honestly, it doesn’t matter what you think because it’s true. Bonds stands alone at the top of list of all baseball players in history for hitting the most home runs. It’s undeniable. Of course, the reason he hit a lot of his home runs is that he cheated by taking steroids, but he still hit more baseballs over the fence than anyone else. But that doesn’t, necessarily, mean that other players who hit lots of home runs are cheaters. Managers will still encourage their players to hit the ball far and hard even though some do it by cheating. Jesus wants you, Christian, to be shrewd. That doesn’t mean He want you to cheat. But He does want you to be shrewd in ways that invest in the kingdom of God.

We still probably wonder, “Why wouldn’t Jesus use a different parable with a character who is more respectable to teach us to be shrewd?” Honestly, I don’t know the answer. From the rest of the Gospels, it’s clear that Jesus isn’t in favor of theft and cheating. He doesn’t approve of this guy’s stealing and dishonesty (see Mt. 5:17-37). The manager is a crook, thief, and scoundrel. But Jesus does want us Christians to imitate and emulate this manager’s shrewdness. Simply stated, it all boils down to these three ways he is shrewd: One, the manager recognizes who he is. Two, the manager recognizes he temporarily has at his disposal things that will not last or endure. And three, he knows how to use things that are slipping away to secure a future for himself. Let’s dissect each of those.

First, Jesus wants us to be shrewd like the manager and rightly recognize who we are. When the manager heard that his pink slip was coming, he recognizes that he’s about to lose all of his income and that there’s no one to blame except himself. But more importantly, he recognizes that he either can’t or won’t do certain things. He isn’t strong enough to work in construction, and he’s too ashamed to stand on a corner holding a cardboard sign with a sad story which will move people in such a way that they give him money. The guy is brutally honest with himself about himself and his situation.

Jesus wants us to have that same shrewdness. Christ wants us to recognize who we are as sinners. We do this here every week with our confession of sins. We confess that we are, by nature, sinful and unclean and have sinned in thought, word, and deed. We confess that we need to flee to God’s infinite mercy which He freely gives for the sake of Christ’s death and resurrection. It is good and right that we do that here and receive Jesus’ forgiveness which He gives to all of us through the absolution (Jn. 20:23). And it is good to confess our sins each and every day and hear God’s sure, certain promise of forgiveness and mercy.

Second, Jesus wants us to be shrewd like the manager by recognizing what does not last. The manager’s career was fleeting. He’s in the process of being fired, and because his career doesn’t last, his income isn’t a stable fixture either. The only thing he has is time, but that won’t last either. Eventually, the rich man will send guards to bring the paperwork back to the headquarters. So, the manager acts quickly. He sees that every second is a gift, so he uses every precious second. This manager shrewdly recognizes that time is a lot more valuable than money.

Dear saints, time is always short because time is always a gift. We take time for granted, but we strive for money. This is backwards. If you found a $200 recurring charge on your bank account had no idea what that $200 was going toward, you would investigate. But how much time do we waste each day or week or month and barely even notice?

Your income of time doesn’t and can’t increase. The amount of time everyone has is the same. You can’t save time to use later in your retirement. Still, time flies away, and we think little about it. The gift that you always have the same amount of is time. So, what are you doing with it? In the parable, the rich man realizes how intelligent and shrewd this manager was in his use of the gift of time. The manager used his time to secure a future for himself by treating the time he had as something incredibly precious. Jesus wants us to do the same. Which leads us to the third way Jesus wants us to be shrewd like the manager and that is to use things that are fleeting – especially the gift of time – to our advantage.

You don’t have any guaranteed time. None at all. Every second you are breathing in and out is a gift. What are you doing with that gift? Are you investing your time in things that last like hearing God’s Word, growing in your faith, training your children, and building up your brothers and sisters in Christ? Stop acting that you are in charge of your life. Be reconciled to God now. If you have accounts to settle, if you have something to confess to God or to someone else, now is the time to do that. If you have something important to do, today is the day for that very thing. The only things that will last are what God says will last. Everything else will fail.

Jesus wants us children of light to make friends for ourselves by means of ‘unrighteous wealth,’ in other words, Jesus wants us to make friends by means of things that will not last, by means of things that will fade away. A time will come when you have to speak to the Master and explain what you have done with the temporary gifts that He has given to you.

Dear saints, as you see everything else fail and fade, also see that the cross is not going away. Jesus’ hands are still wounded for you. Christ’s blood has still paid for all of your life. God’s will for you in Christ Jesus is that you be reconciled to God. Jesus is the same today, yesterday, and forever (Heb. 13:8). Time doesn’t touch Jesus, so your time with Him cannot touch you. Invest in Him. Put your time in Him, not in things that fail.

You, child of God, be shrewd. Pour yourself in lasting things. Confess, forgive, love, and receive the promises of God knowing the time is precious. Invest in what lasts, and you will reap a rich and lasting reward because Christ and His kingdom will never fail. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Steward – Sermon on Luke 16:1-13 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Luke 16:1–13

1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Psalm 24 opens by saying, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” Simply stated, everything and everyone belongs to God because He created it all. There is nothing you can see, hear, feel, taste, smell, or experience that isn’t God’s. It all belongs to Him.

The only reason we think the stuff we have belongs to us, and the only reason we imagine the people in our lives are ‘my husband, my wife, my kids, my parents, my friends’ is that God is so deeply generous. He is a giver. 1 John repeatedly says, “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8, 16). In other words, if God ceased to be loving and generous, He would no longer be God. That is why you have everything and everyone you have. God loves you, and He loves to give you good gifts.

Let’s take that one step further because this isn’t true only for Christians. It’s true for everybody. Everyone is the recipient of God’s generosity. From the body they have, to the clothes they wear, to the food they eat, to the house they live in, to the people in their lives – everyone received all of it from God’s loving, generous, giving hand. The remarkable thing about all of this is that most people never have and never will acknowledge God’s provision, generosity, and love. But that doesn’t stop God from giving it.

Now, with that understanding, we can go to the parable. It’s a difficult parable because it’s one of those parables where Jesus uses the actions of a bad, sinful character to make His main point. A rich man had a manager working for him. This manager was a steward of the rich man’s accounts; he was in charge of the books. This manager was crooked enough that he had to be fired. But instead of putting him in chains to be escorted straight to prison, the rich man is generous. He tells the manager to go back to the office, assemble the books, and turn them over. In other words, the rich man, even though he has fired the steward, gives the steward the gift of time. To properly understand the lesson Jesus is teaching with the parable, our main concern is to understand what the steward does with that the rich man’s generosity.

The manager calls in the rich man’s debtors one by one, and you can imagine that they are all terrified of this meeting. They aren’t just getting a phone call from a debt collector; they get brought into his office. Each of them knows they owe these debts, so they’re afraid. And their fear plays right into the manager’s hand.

I imagine the interactions go something like this. A debtor enters the room, and the manager says, “My boss wants to know: what is your plan for this debt you have?” And you can imagine the debtor saying, “Yes. I know. I’ll try to shift things around a bit. Would it work if I got half of it to you by the end of the month and get the other half next month? I’ll do my best to get everything taken care of as soon as possible.” And the manager pretends to be compassionate and says, “Here, let’s just make this a little easier. I’ll talk the rich man down. Write a new debt here, and we’ll just call it good. Let me take some of that stress off of you.” How those conversations actually went we don’t know, but it is clear that the manager knows how to use these people and their stress to his advantage. His plan is to take care of them now so they will take care of him later – let him stay in their vacation houses after he’s left out on the street.

Is it unrighteous? Yup. Absolutely. He’s cancelling debts he has no authority over any longer. Or, to put it another way, he’s giving away someone else’s money. But here’s why it is so shrewd – the rich man, the manager’s former boss, is such a generous person that he isn’t going to reinstate those debts. The rich man is going to hear the whole town singing his praises for having lowered their debts, and if he were to reinstate them – which, by the way, he would have had every right to do – his reputation of being generous would be tarnished. The rich man would rather eat those losses than have his mercy and generosity doubted. The manager knows this about his former boss, and he bets everything on it in the hope his connection to the reduced debts will make people generous toward him later. That is what Jesus is commending.

Christ is saying with this parable that you can bet everything you have on God’s love, mercy, and generosity. Our Lord concludes the parable by saying, “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when (not ‘if’ but ‘when’) it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

Now, this is one of the most difficult things that Christ said. We know from everything else Jesus says that the unrighteous wealth can’t refer to things that you get in an unrighteous way like this manager did. Jesus clearly teaches against cheating and stealing. So, I think the best understanding of what Jesus means by ‘unrighteous wealth’ is just the stuff that God gives you that doesn’t deliver you God’s mercy and forgiveness – i.e. what we would refer to as ‘1st Article gifts.’ That is all the created blessings that God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth gives to you. Yes, your money, but also your house, your job, your relationships, your time, your talents, etc. Use those things to make friends for yourself, but not just any kind of friends. Jesus here refers to the kind of friends who receive you into the eternal dwellings.

I think that is an important clue to understand what Jesus is saying here. You can give your stuff away and gain a lot of friends. But the way you get friends to dwell with for eternity is for them to become Christians. In short, Jesus is encouraging us to be as shrewd as this scoundrel of a manager and use our 1st Article gifts to promote the preaching of the Gospel.

So, what does that look like? Well, there are billions of possibilities. So, I can’t tell you exactly what to do in every situation. But I’ll try a few.

It might mean you learn that your neighbor or coworker likes a certain food that you enjoy making. So, you invite that person over to prepare your grandma’s special recipe. You invest in that relationship and invite that person to come with you to church so they can hear the Gospel and believe.

It might mean that you use your talents to make things that you can donate to an auction that supports the Women’s Pregnancy Center or Riverside so a mom who is in a bad situation can get help that will also point her to the Gospel and so Christian children can be built up through their education to be lights in the communities they will eventually live in.

And, even more simply, return a portion of God’s money that He has given and entrusted to you by putting it into the offering plate to support the preaching of the Gospel and the ministry of God’s Word that takes place here. It isn’t as though God wants you to fill the offering plate apart from Him. Instead, it is that God Himself wants to fill the offering plate through you, so you become generous, giving, and loving like He is.

And know that the unrighteous wealth Jesus talks about here isn’t just about money. It’s about all the 1stArticle gifts that God gives to you. Be a shrewd steward of everything God gives to you – your time, your talents, and your treasures – to make friends for eternity. By doing that, you become more and more conformed to the image of your giving and generous God.

As children of God and stewards of God’s gifts, be imitators of God by being merciful, loving, kind, giving, and generous. And the reason you can be generous with your 1st Article gifts is that God has given you His 2nd and 3rd Article gifts along with your 1st Article gifts. You have the true riches. You have God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, and holiness freely given to you because of what Christ has done for you by dying and rising again. Those things will never fade, fail, or diminish. They are yours, Christian, now and for all eternity. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Your Good Things – Sermon on Luke 16:19-31 for the First Sunday after Trinity

Luke 16:19–31

19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

If you had to choose, which character in this parable would you rather be? The rich man is clothed like royalty and has daily feasts. Sounds like a pretty good life. Lazarus has nothing. He apparently can’t walk; he has to be laid at the rich man’s gate. He’s poor and diseased. He’s so hungry he wants to the garbage that falls from the rich man’s table. And he can’t even fend off the dogs who come and lick his sores. But then, both of them die, and everything changes. Lazarus is escorted by the holy angels to paradise and bliss. The rich man dies, is buried, and goes to hell and eternal torment. So, which character would you rather be?

Most of you are probably thinking Lazarus. No one would choose to be the rich man. But a few of you smarties out there would say, “I’ll be Abraham. He was rich during his earthly life, and he went to heaven.” Very clever of you.

Today, we are going to focus on v. 25 of the parable where Abraham says to the rich man, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.”

That response is a little surprising to the eternal torment of the rich man. We expect that Abraham would tell the rich man, “You didn’t believe in Jesus,” or, “You didn’t love the Bible,” or even, “You received good things.” But Abraham doesn’t say any of that; instead, he says, “You received your good things.” It’s almost a little sarcastic as though Abraham is saying that the rich man received things that he thought were good – the clothes, the feasts, the expensive house, etc. All of those are good things and are gifts from God’s hand, but those aren’t God’s best things.

The rich man didn’t receive God’s steadfast love and salvation (Ps. 13:5-6); he didn’t receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. The rich man didn’t care about those things during his life, and he didn’t even care about them while suffering in hell. In hell, the rich man only desired relief from his suffering, and, when he couldn’t get that, he wanted his brothers to avoid the suffering. The rich man’s problem is that during his life and even in hell he rejected the means to avoid that suffering which is God’s mercy, steadfast love, and salvation which is delivered through the Bible – through the word of Moses, the prophets, and the apostles.

The devil wants to twist this parable so we think that we have to choose between two different existences. On the one hand, we could love God and go to heaven, or, on the other hand, we could love money and stuff and go to hell. So, we suppose, “I guess I’ll pick God” and go grumbling through this life. But the idea that you can only have either riches and hell or poverty and heaven is a false dichotomy.

God is the One who gave you the desire for nice things. The Scriptures even teach that God promises to fulfill the longings you have. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

So, Christian, do you care about living in a fancy house? Yes, you do. Don’t lie. Remember Jesus promised, “In My Father’s house are many mansions, and I’m going to prepare a place for you” (Jn. 14:2). When you go to heaven and Jesus shows you the mansion He prepared for you, are you going to tell Him, “Meh. I don’t really care about that”? No!

Christian, do you care about good food and feasting? Yes, you do. How many times does the Bible talk about eternal life as a lavish feast (Is. 25:6; Mt. 22:1-10; Rev. 19:9)? God promises that feast because He knows that it is appealing to you. It’s something you want from His hand.

Christian, do you care about nice clothes? Yes, you do. The Bible promises that you will have extravagant, dazzling robes that are washed white in the blood of the lamb (Eph. 5:26-27; Rev. 7:13-14).

Christian, do you care about living a pain-free life? If you don’t now, just wait a few years and you will. You care about a life without pain, and God has promised that one day your body will be raised incorruptible, glorified, imperishable (1 Cor. 15:42-44) and you will have no more pain (Rev. 21:4).

Being a Christian doesn’t mean you have to give up your desire for nice things. You don’t have to have some Buddhist or monastic attitude toward the blessings that God gives you. Instead, you can and should give thanks and praise to God who gives every blessing. The Bible talks about the mansions, feasting, spectacular clothing, and escape from pain and suffering because God knows that it is a draw for you – it’s something you desire. You long for those things, and that isn’t a problem – not by itself anyway.

What is a problem is trying to get those things apart from God’s giving of those things. When you’re narrowly focused on living a comfortable earthly life, it becomes easy to forget about eternity. When you are focused on temporal mercies, you quickly forget about eternal mercies. Do you want your enjoyment of all those nice things now for the fleeting moments of this life? Or would you rather have them just a little bit later and retain them forever?

I know this sounds like some of the prosperity preaching you might hear on TV. To be clear, the health and wealth preachers are heretics, and I’m not becoming one of them. Those preachers are wrong – not because they promise health and wealth – but because of when they promise it. They promise it now when God makes no such promise in the Scriptures, but God does promise you will have it for eternity. 

The point of the parable is that the rich man loved those blessings more than he loved God and His Word. The rich man found his joy in the God’s gifts more than in the God who gives those gifts. The parable wants us to consider this question: What are my good things? Are your good things the temporal, fleeting pleasures of this life? Or are your good things the steadfast love, mercy, and salvation of God?

No one here is as destitute as Lazarus, and no one here is as wealthy as the rich man. You are all somewhere in between. The point of the parable is not for you to make yourself poor like Lazarus was, and the point is certainly not to make yourself like the rich man. The point of the parable is to get you to take your eyes off of the earthly things you either have or don’t have and focus on the eternal things that God gives you in His mercy which cannot be taken away. Remember, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Mt. 6:21).

Our call to worship helps us have the right focus. Psalm 13:5-6 says, “I have trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.” Christian, you have God’s steadfast love; you have His salvation. God be praised! That is more than enough. God has dealt bountifully with you because of what Jesus has done. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, you have an eternal inheritance that surpasses anything that the richest person could even dream of having.

Recognizing that you have the riches of Christ’s death and resurrection is the main point of the parable. And the parable has something to say about the riches you have in this life.

All of us are richer than we know. Even the poorest in our country would be the envy of most kings throughout history. Again, you aren’t the wealthy like the rich man, but you aren’t destitute like Lazarus. You’re somewhere between.

Don’t think to yourself, “If I were a little wealthier and closer to the rich man, I would be more generous with my things.” Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Jesus praised the two small copper coins that the widow gave, and not the fat checks of the rest (Lk. 21:1-4). Even though that widow’s gift was nothing in earthly comparison to the large sums put in by others, it was much more in Jesus’ eyes than all the other offerings combined. And remember, Lazarus didn’t want the rich man’s house, fancy clothes, or lavish feast. Lazarus only wanted what fell from the rich man’s table.

So, no; you probably can’t set up a trust fund that would cover the annual expenses of our congregation. Fine. But you can give your tithe. You probably can’t give a donation to pay for a new addition of a fellowship hall. Fine. But you can come and vacuum the sanctuary and scrub the toilets.

Dear saints, share your crumbs. They are more valuable than you know, and God will bless you as you give them away.

Hebrews 10:34 says, “You [Christians] joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” In other words, whatever blessings you might lose in this life, they pale in comparison to the eternal blessings and treasures God has in store for you. So, if you lose something here, don’t worry about it. Your eternal inheritance cannot be taken from you.

Dear saints, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness – which God freely gives through His Word – and every other blessing will be added unto you (Mt. 6:33). Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.