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Foreign. Sower Nation. It is Friday, April 3rd, in the year of our Lord 2026. Good Friday. I'm John David Walt and this is your wake up call. Well, it being Good Friday and Jesus here meeting with us, seems like we should jump right straight in this morning to consecration. Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body as a living sacrifice to you, Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right, well, not getting my own air sign to come on air. We'll have to look into that later. Well, it's Good Friday and I want you to imagine with a sanctified imagination all day long that Jesus as he's being lifted up on the cross on the third hour, 9am as he's crying out from the cross in the sixth hour, 12pm noon, high noon. And as he breathes his last in the ninth hour, 3pm I want you to have that sanctified imagination that Jesus is saying, I belong to you. So let's dive into today's entry. It is entitled the Good Friday Question is this for looking at. Our text is John chapter 1, verse 29. Hear now the word of the Lord. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the word of the Lord. Now consider this. Today we come to the day known to history and eternity as Good Friday. One of my best and favorite teachers for all his life so far has been my oldest child, David. One day when he was about 4, he walked into my study and over to my desk. On the desk was a small figurine of Jesus on the cross, a crucifix. David picked the little statue up and began to study it, turning it over and around in his small hands. Then he asked me this question. Dad, what is this? What do we use this for? As I prepared to respond to his question, he said these words I will never forget. Or dad, is this for looking at. As he lifted the little statue of Jesus on the cross up in front of his eyes and my eyes too. I responded, yes, David, you are exactly right. This is for looking at the secret to the answer to transformational question number two. Do I really want to change? Is all wrapped up in David's answer. The change that is transformation does not come from trying harder to do more to be better. It comes from beholding. Yes David, this is for looking at. I cannot change myself. Jesus is the change agent. John knew it that day. John the Baptist said it best. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Sin has us stuck in the brokenness of our fallen selves. We can't get free. Jesus is our freedom. He sets the captives free. Freedom comes through the daily walk of lifting our hearts to him, setting our minds on him, fixing our eyes on him and offering our bodies to him as a living sacrifice. Beholding Jesus, belonging to Jesus, becoming like Jesus. We bring the beholding, he brings the change. And what does the change look like? It looks like the movement from darkness to light, from death to life and from chaos to new creation. It looks like the movement from the slavery of self interested survival to the freedom of life giving love in that light. I think I really want to to change. You may be thinking, but this feels too easy. This is not how change works. But what if it is? What if real change is completely different than we thought? What if it is not up to us to do the changing? What if it is up to Jesus? What if transformation is about getting off the treadmill of functional religious activity and finding ourselves perfectly fitted with the yoke of Jesus? And what was it he said about his yoke? I believe his word was easy. My yoke is easy. Here the text again. The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples. And he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, behold the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus. That's John 1:35 to 37. Yes, David, this is for looking at. Let's pray. Our Father, thank you for your son Jesus and Lord Jesus. What joyful freedom it is to know you and to know the change that actually comes from knowing you. From belonging to you and beholding you and believing you and by your abiding grace becoming like you. Fill us Holy Spirit, with the presence of the person of Jesus praying in his name on this Good Friday. Amen. The journal prompts today. What does beholding mean to you? How do you behold? And what might it mean to shift the focus from your activity to Jesus person and presence? We're making the. We're making the shift team. We're making the turn. We're shifting from all the burden on us to all the burden on Jesus. Isn't that what he's done? Isn't that Good Friday? He took it on himself. And he asks us to learn to live in the receptive posture, the posture of receiving. I think the word for it is abiding and completely leaning in, completely trusting. You see the picture? I've got it right over my, my right shoulder. It's to your left of the screen, I believe. If you're looking this, if you're watching this on YouTube, if you're not watching. Over my right shoulder is a, it's, it's a picture and it's a, it's actually, it looks like a painting. Kevin Sparks, my, my dear friend, painted this years ago. It's entitled Darkness Tries to Comprehend Light. And it's not even a painting, it's a carving. You see the, the body lifted up of Jesus Christ over a black background. The background actually is not black. It's just so deeply red that it's turned black. I love. One of my favorite sort of realistic act aspects of this piece is it's got blood, Red blood is dripping over the bottom of the frame, the gold frame. And it's just simply the crucifix, the, the, the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I, I, I keep this in my prayer room, except during Lent, I take it over to our church every Sunday. And of course, I have it here in the, in the seed house. I mean, for, for most of the history of the church, saints, holy ones, they just spend hours looking at this image because this. Yes, David. This is for looking at. Yes, sir, nation. This is for looking at. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died My richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. All right, are you ready to sing today? We're going to sing that when Dad's here with me. All right, everybody, welcome to the most. I don't know, do you call it the most significant? Do you think Good Friday, dad, is the most significant day in world history, or is it Easter Sunday?