Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, go therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to go teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through australian and international speakers.
And here is today's presenter, Pastor Andrew Russell.
Can I just invite you to bow your heads for an added word of prayer? Let's pray and seek the Lord, loving Father. We want to thank you, Lord, that we can come to that time now where we can sit at your feet again and listen to your holy word. Bless us Lord, with your holy spirit.
Grace us with your presence. Help us now, Lord, to have our eyes single to you, our ears single to you. Lord, may we put aside any distractions and receive of you that which you have purposed to be a blessing for us.
And we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. The title of our message today is the value of Christ's Virtue.
The value of Christ's virtue. You know, one of the unseen tragedies of our time has been rising medical costs. This is one of those unseen tragedies of our time, the inability to afford medical care.
Victoria's Herald Sun. That's in the state of Victoria here. Victoria's Herald Son reported doctors fees rise as 2 million Aussies can't afford medical care.
2 million. That is a significant amount when you think that our population is just over 25 million or so. One example given of rising costs and out of pocket expenses was where women with breast cancer who are privately insured so they have private insurance.
This was stated in the article. They still have an out of pocket expense of around $7,000. That's quite incredible.
That's quite a significant amount and no doubt would make it very difficult for many. NBC News in America reported that medical debt is engulfing more people as pandemic takes its toll. They cited one example here.
Her name is Andrea Ceressa who contracted Covid and she said that she had paid off $23,000 in medical bills. You think about people suffering with medical care, medical bills. She also had to fork out $133,000 for hospital costs because of the need to treat her long term COVID 19 symptoms.
She raised $26,000 through GoFundMe. You know that fundraising page. She reached out for help.
She ran a GoFundMe campaign and she did that because as she said in her own words, the choices were that I either lived or died. Andrea also said that bankruptcy was our only option. Being unable to pay those kind of costs involved with the medical care.
Today, we're going to reflect on the biblical account of a woman who was also bankrupted by ongoing medical costs and who faced the prospect, the very real prospect of. Of losing her life. The Bible says that she turned to Jesus as her only source of help and that Jesus gave us something that he is willing to give you and me today.
And so I'm going to invite you to open up your Bibles to the account of this woman, to the book of Luke, chapter eight. So turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 8. And we're going to read this account from verse 43 to verse 48.
And I want you to notice that this woman has been bankrupted and because of medical costs, and she's in a desperate state here. So Luke chapter 8. What verse did I say? Everyone at home.
43, 48. Notice it says here. And a woman having an issue of blood, 12 years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, that's doctors, neither could be healed of any.
Came behind him and touched the border of his garment. And immediately her issue of blood stanched. That means stopped.
King James Bible uses the word stanched. And so this woman spent all her living upon doctors, and none of them were able to bring her the healing that she needed. And so she came behind Jesus there and touched the border of his garment.
And the issue of blood stopped. Verse 45. And Jesus said, who touched me? When all denied Peter.
And they that were with him said, master, the multitude throng thee and press thee and sayest thou. Who touched me? They couldn't understand. Multitude of crowd around you here, everyone's touching you.
Verse 46. And Jesus said, somebody hath touched me. For I perceive that what virtue is gone out of me.
Virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling and falling down. We have a mic swap.
There we go. She came trembling and falling down before him. She declared unto him, before all the people for what cause she had touched him and how she was healed immediately.
And he said unto her, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace.
Go in peace. You know, in today's medical terms, we would describe her issue of blood. And we've got Kristen here in the church, and I'm sure she would agree with me.
I hope she'd agree with me, being a nurse and all. But we would describe her medical state as the condition of haemorrhaging or bleeding. It can refer to blood loss either inside the body or outside.
Of the body. To haemorrhage means to bleed. It can happen as a result of traumatic injury or a particular medical condition.
And I want to share with you just so we can better sympathise with this woman. We can have a better understanding of her situation. I want to share with you some of these medical conditions as we find them even today.
One of them is haemophilia. Haemophilia is a bleeding disorder where excessive bleeding, external and internal, can take place and usually occurs after any injury or damage. So it's excessive bleeding where the bleeding seems like it, it's not going to stop.
Then we have also leukaemia. Leukaemia is cancer of the blood cells, and bleeding and thrombosis, that's blood clotting of the arteries, are major risk factors for early death. In patients with acute leukaemia, there's liver disease.
A failing liver cannot make enough clotting factors leading to bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract. And so that's internal bleeding or haemorrhaging. We also have menorrhagia.
This is heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding. And a woman has a menstrual cycle. In fact, we can read about this in the Old Testament, where a woman on her menstrual cycle was deemed to be ritually unclean.
And you could imagine a woman that may have been suffering from this condition on an ongoing basis, that no man was allowed to come near her because of that ritual uncleanness in terms of that menstrual cycle. And perhaps if this woman was suffering because we don't know exactly what her condition, the Bible doesn't detail in specifics what she was suffering from. But if she certainly suffered from this condition, then then no man would want to come near her.
We also have Von Willebrand disease. I've actually got an image of it here to give you an idea of perhaps what it looks like. Von Willebrand disease is a deficiency in a type of protein that helps your blood to clot.
So we can see that she was in quite a state. If she had one of these conditions, maybe something else, maybe a blending of things we don't know. But she was in a tremendously poor state of health.
In fact, the Bible told us 12 years she had had this issue of blood. So there was 12 years of suffering and pain. And she has searched and spent all that she had looking, looking for an answer to her condition, looking to find healing.
But the Bible tells us, to no avail, to no avail. And the Bible Reveals because she has spent everything she has, that she is now poor. Her condition has made her most likely very, very weak and possibly even facing the prospect of death.
And so what does she do? She comes searching for the Lord Jesus Christ. She comes searching for the Lord Jesus Christ. The book of Mark captures both her motive and intentions.
Go with me to the Book of Mark. As Mark talks about this Mark, chapter five, we're going to read. Mark talks about that gives the exact same account.
It gives a little bit of extra detail here. Let's look at Mark, chapter five. And let's look at verse 28.
We don't get this in the account we just read, but we do get it in Mark. Look at mark 5. 28.
It says, for she said, if I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole. So she said, if I. In other words, she thought, or she said in her heart or in her mind that if I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole.
Her motive is healing, isn't that right? Her motive is healing. But what's her intention? Her intention is to have an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a calculated encounter of faith that we are reading about here.
A calculated, a thought out, a reasoned encounter of faith that we are dealing with here. When we read of this woman. The Bible indicates that this encounter was by no means an easy encounter.
Let's read Mark, chapter five there. While we're there. Let's read from verse 29 down.
Let's read to verse 30. It says, and straight away the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus immediately, knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press and said, who touched my clothes? Notice that he turned about himself in the press.
What's that talking about? That's talking about the multitude of the people that were around him, pressing against him. And we find that in order for this woman to actually encounter him was going to be a very, very difficult task. That's what we see here.
In fact, it was impossible for this woman in her poor state of health to get near him. And so it must be that as he was making his way in the midst of those crowds, that she attempted to, but perhaps thrust in her arm, thrust in the arm through the hordes of the people that were around about him, believing, believing by faith that just if she could even just touch the edge of his garment, even just the hem of his garment, that she would find healing. That she would find healing.
You See, unlike any of Christ's other miracles that we read about here in the Gospels, this woman didn't get a chance to reveal her condition to him. She didn't get a chance to petition him. And now she was challenged to trust that pity and healing from Christ would be hers.
Just through the touch of faith. Just through the touch of faith, you know, Christ knows. Christ knows the longing of the soul long before we even reach out to him.
Christ knows the longing of the soul. He knows that there is need for men and women to encounter him. It's often the case.
And we know this within the church and within church ministry, we often find that men and women that have exhausted every avenue in their search for peace and certainty, that once they turn to Christ or encounter Jesus, all of a sudden they find the peace and certainty that they were searching for. They find the peace and certainty that they were searching for. My friends, if you have that longing in your soul for peace and certainty, Christ already knows.
He knows the longing. But this Bible story here, this Bible narrative, gives us an example of how we can reach out by faith. Reach out by faith.
This woman never got a chance to talk with him. This woman never got a chance to personally know him. But he answered her reaching out of faith.
He answered her touch of faith because the Bible says that virtue went out from him. Isn't that wonderful news? I believe that's wonderful news. It was in that moment, in that touch that Christ became her agent of healing as she reached out with unwavering faith.
The Bible indicates that the moment she touched him, he was healed. And virtue, I want to stress virtue. What is virtue? Virtue left him, virtue departed from him and she was healed.
You know, the dictionary defines virtue in a few ways. Let me share a couple of statements here with you. Number one, behaviour.
Behaviour showing high moral standards. That's what virtue is. It's a behaviour showing high moral.
Moral standards also goes on to say it is an excellent trait of character, a disposition well entrenched in the possessor. So their virtues are excellent traits of character, well entrenched in the person that possesses them. That's what virtue is.
This is what flowed out of Christ to this woman. What was it that passed from Jesus into this woman that brought her healing? My friends, when you understand God through the person of Jesus Christ, you will know that it was divine pity that left him in response to that touch of faith. It was divine care that left him in response to that touch of faith.
It was divine mercy that left him in response to that touch of faith. It was divine strength, divine power that left him in response to that touch of faith. It was divine love that left him in response to that touch of faith.
Got a bit emotional. That's what flows out of God, through Christ, toward those who reach out to him in faith. You know, I looked up a chart on virtues and I found this chart.
This is actually a business chart, but it gives us a good indication. It talks about when there is deficiency in virtues and when there is excess in virtues. And it describes it as vice.
On the left hand side of the column there you can see vice as a deficiency. The deficiencies of virtues. Notice the vices here.
Cowardly, cowardly, addictive, stingy. This is what we possess. When we don't have the virtues that Christ has.
We have these kinds of virtues instead. Cowardly, addictive, addictive behaviours, stingy, self deprecating, boorish, quarrelsome, melancholy associated with depression and so forth. Right.
Self deprecating is always putting ourselves down, never finding a value for our souls. Envious, mean, lazy. Can we see that? That is in contrast to the virtues that God possesses and Christ possesses.
If we jump to the other side, to the far right column, we see that people can be excessively rash, ascetic, excessively extravagant, boastful, buffoonish, basically behaving like a fool, bootlicking, boisterous, loud. That is differential. When it's boisterous, loud and attention seeking, differential, retributive, in other words, wanting to take revenge, wanting to hurt those who may hurt you.
No mercy. Okay? Self sacrificing. This is in the negative.
In the negative. Not understanding that sometimes we're willing to sacrifice our own morality for vice. And single minded, just.
Just thinking about yourself all the time. The mind is always dwelling on self. But if we look in the virtue in the middle column, which says virtue, you get these kinds of traits of character.
Brave, temperate, generous, truthful, witty, friendly, spirited, conscientious, indignant, benevolent, industrious. They're the kinds of virtues that we ought to have. They're the kinds of virtues that characterise what kind of person we are.
And my friends, we may have some of those and we may have some of the others. So what does that characterise us as, my friends? What is triumphing? What is triumphant in life? Vice or virtue? Because when vice is having triumph, when vice is triumphing in our lives, then of what real value of those few virtues that we might possess? And so my friends, when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ and we reach out with the hand of faith, every good virtue Flows out from Christ, flows into our life. And I love the way the Bible puts it, talks about through Christ, overcoming evil with good.
Those virtues as we receive them from God, as we receive them in relationship to God, who helps us to understand the value of those virtues, the value of Christ's virtues. We then overcome cowardice, addictiveness, stinginess, quarrelsomeness, buffoonishness, boastfulness. We can overcome those things through Christ.
Isn't that wonderful? Virtue flowed out of Christ. You know, I remember a long time ago and I'll give you an example of when I had this experience. I wasn't in the church, I wasn't a churchgoer really at the time.
I believed in God, a very nominal belief, kind of believed he was there. But at that time I was partying hard, I was drinking, I was doing drugs. And I remember one night doing drugs with a friend.
And I began to. What drug addicts or drug users would know this term. I began to trip out and I began to trip out, I began to hallucinate.
And I had an injury at the time on my body that occurred at work. And the drugs just took me away. And I felt as if this injury was getting worse.
I began to panic, I began to have an anxiety attack. And I didn't know what was happening to me. And I couldn't stop it because I was under the influence of drugs.
And I remember being in such a terrible state. I had a friend there, he was trying to calm me down and I just. There was nothing I could do.
I was thinking I needed to go to hospital. And I ended up running out the door and running through the streets. And I was so desperate that at that time there was nothing left for me.
There was nothing I could do. And I remember calling out to God, saying, God, please help me. And you know what happened? Peace started to flood into me.
All of a sudden this anxiety and this feeling and this, these physical feelings that I felt I was having all dissipated, dissipated. And I came within moments into my right mind, into my sound mind. I remember that.
I can share that with you today because it was one of those hallmarks that helped me to continue to believe in God. Because I believe he heard that cry in my absolute panic and desperate state. And I came into my right mind right there on the street, probably 1:00 in the morning, all by myself.
What virtue flowed out to me then? What virtue came from God? It was probably pity, wasn't was care. He was there. I didn't know he was there.
He's always been There. He's always been there in each of our lives, though we may not have even had the experience of reaching out to him by faith. But I was so thankful and I'll always remember that.
You see, there's life giving power that flows from God. And when we say life giving power, we're talking about true life giving power, not, you know, that life giving power that gives value and purpose and meaning to life. Life, a life that is worth living is a virtuous life.
Without those virtues, what benefit is life? What's life really all about? We just remain self seeking and boastful, arrogant, addictive. But from Christ flows life giving power to each of us. I want to read from as we continue here in Mark chapter 5.
Turn with me and let's reflect on how Jesus addresses this woman in verse 32. Now verse 32 to verse 34 the Bible says and he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him and told him all the what all the truth.
Notice she was fearing why. She was fearing because of what had happened in her and what had happened in her. Remember verse 29.
And straight away the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of the plague. She realised that that something had taken place and she had been healed. Her weakness gave way to strength, her pain dissipated and she was made whole.
Even her sorrow had turned to joy. But in the moment when Christ looked around, looked at the crowd and then looked at her and said, who has touched my clothes? This woman feared and fell down before him and told him all the truth. And what that means is, friends, is that now he was addressing her.
Have you ever had someone turn around suddenly and address you when you weren't quite ready for it and you kind of get startled by it? This was her experience and it was particularly her experience because she hadn't had the opportunity to speak with him, to get to know him. Isn't that right? We often value getting to know someone first before we ask them for help. And at this moment she felt as even like maybe she had done the wrong thing.
She wasn't sure. But she begins to tell him, look, I've had this issue of blood for 12 years and I've spent all my money, I've gone everywhere seeking to find help. I've gone from doctor to doctor, the doctors of the day.
I've probably taken every potion available that they've given to me, so called Medicine to find healing and nothing's happened. And I came searching for you because I heard about you. I heard of what you have been doing amongst the multitudes of people and I came searching for you and I couldn't get to you.
But I reached out and I thought if I could just but touch the hem of your garment. What does the Bible go on to say happened? Notice it says in verse 34, and he said unto her daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and be whole of thy plague.
So did he commend her for her faith? Absolutely he did. Absolutely he did. He saw the certainty of her faith.
Here, you know, Sister White writes in the book the spirit of Prophecy, Volume 2. I've missed the S there in the title. Doesn't matter, but notice it says the blessed Redeemer could distinguish the touch of faith from the casual contact of the careless crowd.
Isn't that amazing? You see, Jesus is able to distinguish between those to come to him with a nominal faith. You know what I mean by nominal faith? Oh, kind of, yeah, believe he's there. Yeah, believe God, believe Jesus.
But they have no real firm resolve. There's no maturity to that faith. There's no absolute trust.
Jesus can distinguish between how we reach, between those who reach out to him in absolute faith, as this woman did, and those who kind of like, yeah, you know, a bit more casual about things. What's your religion like? Is it a casual religion or have you found a firm resolve in Christ? Bible says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusts in him.
We ought to have a firm resolve and we will never experience that until we begin to really reach out in faith to, to seek and to search for Jesus as this woman did, to seek and to really search for him. And it's not a one time thing, friends, it's to seek him daily. And he will answer that.
Faith goes on to say, he well knew all the circumstances of the case of her case. He well knew it and would not pass such confidence and trust without comment. He would address to the humble woman words of comfort that would be to her a wellspring of joy.
He would. He couldn't just keep on walking, no, he had to turn around and before everyone address that woman's faith and commend her for it. Notice here goes.
On looking toward the woman, Jesus still insisted upon knowing who had touched him. Finding concealment vain, in other words, she couldn't hide. She came forward trembling and knelt at his feet.
In hearing all the multitude she told Jesus the simple story of a long and tedious suffering and the instant relief that she had experienced in touching the border of his garment. Jesus commended her action, saying, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
Go in peace. In these words, he instructed all present that it was no virtue in the simple act of touching his clothes that had wrought the cure, but in the strong faith that reached out and claimed his divine help. You know, many people struggle with the idea of miracles today.
Do you know why we struggle? Because. Because we operate in what we believe is the natural realm, isn't it? And what we're reading about here is very unnatural in the sense of what we know and what we have experienced. It seems to be very unnatural.
But my friends, that's not the paradigm that we need to frame what has happened here in. It's not that it's not natural, it's that it is supernatural. Friends, what Christ is able to do in the life is supernatural.
And many people struggle to understand the faith of the Christian. Why? How could you believe in someone you don't see? Well, my friends, it's because we've all been supernaturally touched by the hand of God through Jesus Christ. We can all testify for those that have had this experience.
We can all testify to Christ having touched our lives supernaturally and brought healing, brought peace, brought certainty into our life. You know, when it comes to the, you know, the physical healing of sickness or malady, we find that the Bible does counsel us. You know, the early church was counsel, if there be any sick among.
You can read that in the book of James, let him call for the elder. But guess what? You got to call in faith. You got to call in faith.
And the elders of the church will come and do a special anointing. So it's still available to us today, God's healing touch. And we ought never to question what God has put in place for our physical healing.
But what is even more important to God than the. Than the physical healing is the healing of the heart, friends, the healing of the life. And the only way that healing takes place is when virtue and all the virtues of Christ and all the virtues of God flow out from God to us through his divine love, through his divine mercy, through his divine care and his divine touch, flow out into our lives and we begin to reflect those same virtues.
You know, you ever heard the saying, birds of a feather flock together? Ever heard that saying? Yeah. You know, drug addicts like to hang out with other drug addicts, right? Drinkers like to hang out with other drinkers. Isn't that true? But my friends, when you take company with God through Jesus Christ, you begin to become like him.
It's a supernatural thing. But when you spend time in the presence of God, you'll be beginning to reflect the same virtues of his character. You know, we call out to God for various reasons, like I did when I was running through the street.
I want to share with you what Sister White says in regard to this, the manner in which we call out. She writes, it is true that Satan frequently creates in the heart of the suppliant, that's the person that is praying or calling out to God. Satan frequently creates in the heart of the suppliant such a conflict with doubt and temptation that strong cries and tears are involuntarily forced from him.
And it is also true that the penitent's sense of guilt is sometimes so great that a repentance commensurate with his sin causes him to experience an agony that finds vent in cries and groans which the compassionate Saviour hears with pity. I don't know about you, friends, but I know I've had that experience. What it's saying, there is saying, you know, sometimes, you know, we allow rather than walk with God in faith and hold to his word and to his promises, Satan kind of uses us as a punching bag.
He puts so much doubt and temptation before us that, you know, we get so overwhelmed by it that we end up crying out to God. Guess what? Jesus hears those cries. And then she says, and sometimes our sin becomes so grievous to us, the sense of guilt that we carry, that even that causes an involuntary cry out for help.
Guess what? Jesus answers those cries. But this is what she goes on to write. But Jesus does not fail to answer the silent prayer of faith.
That's the prayer that Christ is most interested in. That's what he desires. Just silent, simple faith as expressed with this woman.
He who simply takes God at his word and reaches out to connect himself with the Saviour will receive his blessing in return. Amen. Oh friends, let us search and resolve ourselves to Christ.
Just last week I was praying with a friend of mine. I have a couple of friends I've known since college and 5am or so in the morning we pray every day and we pray for our church, we pray for one another, pray for our families and so forth. And we bring various people into, you know, we bring them before the Lord in prayer.
One of these gentlemen, we'll call him Scott for privacy reasons, but 10 months ago, we brought Scott before the Lord in prayer. And last week, my friend, who was Scott's carer, he's a psychiatric nurse, told me that he visited Scott and Scott was a changed man. Now, let me tell you what happened.
See, 10 months ago, Scott, Scott was diagnosed as a psychotic. His behaviour was irrational. He was also a drug addict and an alcoholic.
Scott had destroyed his relationship with his wife, his children, and he was been destroying his life as well. And, you know, one of the questions that a nurse in that particular line of work, you know, being psychiatry and mental, mental illness would ask is, you know, do you have a faith? Now, the reason why a nurse would ask that is because psychologists and research have shown that generally people who have a faith do better, generally speaking, do better than those who don't. And so he asked him.
Well, Scott, he couldn't identify with that concept. And over the 10 months he came to know. He came to know my friend better and better.
And my friend had to ensure that he was taking his medication. And eventually he went back home and he'd be visiting him in his home and making sure that he was doing the right thing. Along the way, the issue of believing in God came up again.
And there were moments when they talked, but Scott still couldn't comprehend it in view of the brokenness of his life and the suffering that he had been experiencing. But on this particular day when my friend turned up, Scott was rejoicing. Scott was overcome with a joy and a sense of peace.
And my friend was taken aback and he bid my friend, come in, come in. You know, I got to tell you what's happened. I've got to tell you what's happened.
Well, that week, Scott, in his brokenness, was impressed to consider God in view of all that he had done. And just in the moment, just in a moment of that consideration, uttered the words, God forgive me for what I have done, even to my family and so many others. And he got a sense of God's forgiveness in that moment.
This is supernatural, my friends, but virtue flowed from God into this man's heart where he felt forgiven. And he told my friend that this was something that he had never experienced before. And that afternoon, with this new sense of forgiveness and this new sense of God's presence, he rang up a woman that he had really hurt in his life.
And he called her and he spoke to her. And the exact words that he said was, I believe in God. I don't know if you believe in God, but I believe in God.
And I just wanted to Ask if you would forgive me for what I had done. And she said, I believe in God too, and I forgive you. Isn't that incredible? And here healing began to take place in Scott's life.
So that when my friend came around, he said with absolute assurity and joy in his heart, he said, I didn't understand what you were talking to me about before. I didn't understand grasp the concept of God. But now I get it.
Now I get it. And things are changed in my life. Things are changed now.
And my friend said, God has heard our prayers for Scott. God has heard the prayer of faith. My friends, when you reach out not with casual, let's not make the religion of Christ casual, but let's reach out with a firm hand of faith.
God will work in your life. And the greatest work that you will ever experience is a full conversion of heart where all of his good virtues, his love, the abundance of his goodness will flow into your life. And I wonder where you are at this moment in time in terms of your standing and the virtues that are playing out in your life.
Is advice or is it virtue? The story that we read today in regard to this woman as she encountered Jesus tells us that vice will give way to virtue when we reach out to Jesus. And I pray that that's your prayer moving forward from this day onwards in your life that you would say, lord, I don't want the vice anymore. I don't want the vices that destroy my life and destroy my relationships.
I don't want those ugly vices, Lord, that have become a part of my character, Lord, I want the virtues of care, mercy, love. I want those virtues, Lord. And I believe that as I reach out to Jesus with a firm faith, believing that he will hear my prayer and he will touch my life.
Is that your desire? Because that's my desire every day. And if that's your desire, I'm just going to invite you to bow your heads with me for a word of prayer. Loving father.
Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for these accounts, Lord, of where people were supernaturally touched by the ministry of your son, Lord. Supernaturally touched, Lord, in such a way that virtue and healing power, Lord, flowed from Christ onto those who encountered him.
Not casually, Lord, but with faith, a sure faith. And Father, we desire, Lord, for vice to give way to virtue, Lord. And so do this supernatural work in our lives.
And forgive us, Father. Forgive us for the vices, Lord, that have hurt our own person, our own characters, and have hurt so many others, Lord. Forgive us, Lord.
Take pity upon us. Have sympathy toward us, Lord, for Christ's sake, Lord, who died for our sins and for the sins of the whole world, so that we may have Heaven's forgiveness. And we thank you Lord, for your outstretched hand toward us.
Touch our lives is our prayer. In Jesus name, Amen.
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