Psalm 37, we take as our sermon text this evening, the verses 18 and 19. Psalm 37, like its reverse Psalm 73, is about, in part, the prosperity of the wicked and the confusion it may cause believers, but especially the grace that God reminds his people of that they have in him. Psalm 37 of David, the word of the Lord. Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong. For like the grass, they will soon wither like green plants. They will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will do this. He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause, like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath. Do not fret. It leads only to evil. For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. A little while and the wicked will be no more. Though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace. The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright, but their swords will pierce their own hearts and their bows will be broken. Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked, for the power of the wicked will be broken but the Lord upholds the righteous. The days of the blameless are known to the Lord and their inheritance will endure forever. In times of disaster, they will not wither. In days of famine, they will enjoy plenty. But the wicked will perish. The Lord's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish, vanish like smoke. The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously. Those the Lord blesses will inherit the land, but those He curses will be cut off. If the Lord delights in a man's way, He makes His steps firm. Though He stumble, He will not fall, for the Lord upholds Him with His hand. I was young, and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely. Their children will be blessed. Turn from evil and do good, then you will dwell in the land forever for the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom and his tongue speaks what is just, the law of his God is in his heart, his feet do not slip. The wicked lie in wait for the righteous, seeking their very lives, but the Lord will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned when brought to trial. Wait for the Lord and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it. I've seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil, but he soon passed away and was no more. Though I looked for him, he could not be found. Consider the blameless. Observe the upright. There is a future for the man of peace. But all sinners will be destroyed. The future of the wicked will be cut off. The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord. He is their stronghold in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them. from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him. I read once more verses 18 and 19, which we take as our sermon text here. The days of the blameless are known to the Lord and their inheritance will endure forever. In times of disaster, they will not wither. In days of famine, they will enjoy plenty. May God bless that word to us tonight. Congregation of Christ, as you're well aware, we're living in an interesting economic times. We've heard for some time about a diminished housing market. We've seen failures of companies and banks, government intervention. We've watched this past week a plummeting stock market. We have heard about the so-called credit crisis. These are the things that have captured the headlines, the things that occupy the attention of the people of our land. And perhaps it makes some of us nervous or scared, a bit anxious or perhaps angry in some ways or embittered. It may be upsetting for those approaching retirement or in retirement to see their their investments devalued and wonder now how they provide or or whether their dreams will be lost. It may be quite discouraging for those who who may be seeking work. Maybe you've been seeking it for some time and you you wonder now where will you find a job and how will this go? We've heard a good deal of wondering lately about the situation and what will become of it. We've heard this language of economic uncertainty, economic uncertainty. And even one of the presidential candidates ends his his debate this past week by confessing that what he doesn't know is what everyone else doesn't know. That is the future. What will become? But whatever one feels about this situation, whether you're quite nervous or whether you think that the news media are alarmists, whatever one thinks in terms of economic philosophy, whether you like government intervention or you scorn it, Whether this seems like a big deal to you now or not, whatever the case, the word of God we come to tonight is a word of instruction, a word to teach us to understand our lives and perspective as we live in the midst of a wicked world and often wonder what of the prosperity of the wicked and what of often the poverty, oppression or suffering of God's people. We all face these issues of life at one time or another if we don't feel them heavily at the moment, we feel the need to provide, of course, For family, for loved ones, we wonder of our work and of our situation in this world. And tonight, God gives to his people the kind of confidence they are to have, the kind of security that should be ours as we live in this world. I've heard a number of radio announcements lately, maybe you have, too, for these financial seminars that go on in the weekend seminar. area here and elsewhere, financial seminars that that promise to teach you how to hold on to your money, how to play it safe and in difficult times, or how even to make money in a down market. They promise to tell you which securities to invest in, which stock to buy, how to figure it out, how long to hold on to it and so forth. I'm sure there's seminars that have gone on even today around the country in this regard, and and perhaps some of them are useful, perhaps some of them are helpful, perhaps some of them should be attended. But not today. Right. Not today. Today is the Lord's Day. Today, the Lord calls us to his seminar, as it were, to to his instruction, to have him tell us what are the best securities in all of the world, ones that you wouldn't trade the whole stock market or your whole investment portfolio for the securities of belonging to the Lord. In verses 18 and 19 of this psalm, I think there are three securities that the Lord would set before us and call us to make much of. The first one is this, that the Lord knows your days. The second one, this, that the Lord guarantees your inheritance. And the third one in verse 19, that the Lord will satisfy. He will take care of all of your needs. First of all, the Lord knows your days. That was good news for the people of the psalmist today, as it is good news for us today, because in David's day as well, they they understood perplexities. They had an economy that was perplexing in in many ways. David lived among a people who who often walked around and noticed that the wicked prosper and the righteous don't always fare so well. They don't have the kind of success that others do. Many a faithful must have recognized, as the psalm tells us, that that the wicked hold their lives in their hands, as it were. Maybe they are employed by an unbeliever or a man who's nothing but a hypocrite. Maybe they recognize that they could have their money or land taken away in a crooked court case overnight. Maybe they know they could have their things stolen under the cover of darkness. Many ways in which a person might lose out on life, so it would seem, but the psalm calls us to find our refuge in the Lord, our security in Him. This security, first of all, in our text, that the Lord knows your days. Verse 18, the days of the blameless are known to the Lord. If you consider the depth of that comfort all by itself, that the days of the blameless are known to the Lord. God doesn't merely know a few of your life experiences, a few of the major happenings, but the Lord says in this text that He knows you in the midst of all your days. He knows you in your day-to-day walk. He knows everything about you. He walks with you. We have a God who takes a particular notice of His people, constant attention. He's never distant, never unconcerned, never too busy to look upon His saints. But He knows your days. Well, you can't get that kind of attention from a financial advisor or investor, no matter how devoted, no matter how diligent. Perhaps if you've gone to such a person, they began by having you fill out a questionnaire and try to get to know you in terms of your financial situation, in terms of your goals and your retirement dreams and your family needs. And then perhaps they even follow up with you and they occasionally call you and ask if you want to move money around or something. I don't know how it goes exactly, but But no matter how devoted that certainly doesn't compare to what the Lord is speaking of here. Every moment of every day, God knowing his people inside and out from beginning to end, there's not a single danger of which the Lord doesn't know we may be harassed in various ways, may be distracted by various kinds of trouble. But in the midst of it all, God knows you as a congregation, knows you as the Church of Christ, even knows you as individual sheep. The Lord's not ignorant of anything, nor is he taken by surprise. The great English preacher Charles Spurgeon said it like this. Ever is this our comfort that all events are known to our God and that nothing in our future can take him unawares. No arrow can pierce us by accident, no dagger smite us by stealth, neither in time nor in eternity can any unforeseen ill occur to us. The dive in the stock market hasn't taken God unawares. Anything you've lost is not unknown to the Lord your God. The bills left unpaid at home, the concerns for the future, the sickness suffered by yourself or a loved one, young people to struggle to get the schoolwork done, or to find friends who are a godly influence. The Lord knows it all. Not just the good times and prosperity, but all times. He's not just a friend for days of sunshine, but He's your friend in the midst of clouds and dark skies. The darkness and the light are alike to God, and should you settle even on the farthest parts of the sea, even there, God shall lead you and His right hand hold you fast. God knows all things, for He's ordained all things. He's determined all things. Before even we were born, He's planned everything in perfection by His love and wisdom, and now He's executing it to perfection. And notice something else as well. When the psalmist speaks here of the Lord knowing the days of His people, he's not speaking of some kind of bare knowledge of the facts that he's a great historian or he does a good job observing his people and knowing what's going on. But it's a It's something far greater than that. You know, the word no in the Bible is used in much deeper ways to speak of that love that God has for his people. You know, it's used to speak at times of a husband knowing his wife intimately and and it's used within the covenant of God, knowing his people in terms of having a tender compassion and intimate love for them as his saints. There's a sense, of course, in which God knows the wicked. You can't read the psalm without knowing that God knows he knows they're scheming. He knows they're evil. He knows they're wicked desires and he knows the end that they're going to be destroyed. And so he can laugh at them. But that's not the same kind of knowledge God has of his people. He loves them. With tender care, he has the shepherd in Christ knows his sheep and knows them by name. The Lord knows the days of the blameless. The word that's used has the sense of wholeness, the entirety, that which is sincere, complete, the one who loves God with his heart, who walks in faithfulness with him. The wicked will be cast aside, but God knows the blameless and he's committed to the good of his people, not because we as God's people deserve it. And and by our faithful walk, we merit these things of the Lord. No, we know tonight that we fail our God. We're ashamed even as we come to the house of the Lord, thinking back on the past week, the ways we betrayed our Lord. But God, who knows us. has taken away our sin in Jesus Christ and promised that for those who are in Christ, there is no condemnation. And now there's a bond of law that cannot be severed by anything in all creation. And that's an astonishing fact that should give to us much comfort tonight, because if we know that God knows our days, then surely one of the implications here is that God knows our sin. He knows our sin. He knows it better than we do. He knows its evilness. He knows how much more prevalent it is than we even imagine in our lives. But all that forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. Whom God sent to know us in our sin and to die for us to take away our sin. That's a great, great reality because surely one of the temptations that Satan impresses upon us and sets before us is this thought that perhaps in this particular circumstance of my life, I can't call upon the name of the Lord God because I did this to myself. Perhaps in the financial area, to wonder, can I really ask for God's mercy when I know that my debt is what I foolishly ran up? with my undisciplined spending? Can I really call upon God when I know that it's the consequence of my sin, my expensive sins that have run me into this hole? Can I really call upon God now and expect to find a friend? Satan says, no, forget it. You're on your own with that. You're on your own with that one. God says, no. Even in that, I know you. And I know you in love. God says, look to Me. Turn from your sin and call upon Me, for I sent My Son to know you in your sin, to bear the curse against you. Turn. Turn back to Me and find your Father to be a friend in all seasons. A God who gives you grace even in the consequence of sin. A God who knows you, who loves you, who does not forget you. We so often feel forgotten, don't we? Wonder where is the Lord and what's going on here? God says, no matter what you feel, trust my word, I know you. And perhaps you've you've had that experience when when you find a kindred spirit, that there's someone who knows you in the particular circumstance you have, maybe you. You're financially needy and you start talking to somebody else and they can relate, they've been through it, or maybe you. lost someone, a husband, a wife, a child, and in beginning to speak to somebody, there's someone who's experienced it and they can finish your sentences and tell of things you haven't even told them. They know you. But no one knows you like the Lord your God through your compassionate High Priest, Jesus Christ. Through your brother of your flesh, your God knows you. Rejoice in that tonight. He knows you in adversities. He knows you in successes. He knows you in all things. That's the first security that you can take hold of here tonight in the text. But the second one is this, that the Lord guarantees your inheritance. He doesn't just know you, but he guarantees for you a future. The days of the blameless are known to the Lord and their inheritance will endure forever. You think of the financial world, there's a lot of promises these days and sometimes there's even guarantees. If you can find a guarantee, you better seize it, they say. And so many people have have checked out this guarantee of the FDIC and how they they ensure the funds you deposit in the bank. It's become a big deal, hasn't it? It's talking to our neighbor who works at a bank and asking her last week how it was going. The people are flocking in and pulling out their money or what? She said no, but there's sure a lot of questions. Everybody wants to know how far their money is insured and what's it mean? A guarantee. But there is no guarantee, people of God, that compares to this, that your entire inheritance is guaranteed by the Lord God Himself. You say, well, what is the inheritance? What does that mean? What does that entail for the people of the Lord? Well, surely in David's day, the first thing that comes to mind, the most obvious thing is the land. And you read through the psalm and over and over again, you find the righteous will inherit the land. That land was a big deal as God brought his people into Cain and as he portioned it out to the tribes and to families and each person got their piece of land. Important, of course, for growing crops and raising a family and so forth. But much more than that, it was one stake in the community. It was one stake in Israel. It was one piece of land where the Lord God dwelt in the land of Israel. His house was built. And more than that, it was the piece of land upon which to wait the coming of the kingdom, the fullness of salvation, the arrival of the Messiah. And not surprisingly, therefore, every family was concerned with their heritage, every family concerned with their inheritance, with their allotment and very concerned with anything that might jeopardize this, might mean the loss of it. And in this psalm, it's especially that work of wicked men who are reaching out their arms to take what doesn't belong to them, to slay the wicked, to kill the sons, to break the family line. Many different methods used, but you think only of Jezebel and her plotting, the lying witnesses, the murder of Naboth to take what doesn't belong. And you begin to get the idea that even in the land of Israel, there was wicked theft of one's inheritance. But the Lord says. That's OK for the time being, because I guarantee your inheritance, the wicked will be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land. And when we see, brothers and sisters, that God is the keeper of our lives, the keeper of our future, then indeed it liberates us to live for the glory of the Lord and to put away the worldly methods of self-protection. The worldly methods of the angry voice, of the threatening word, of pushing others around. The worldly methods, the unbelieving methods of taking advantage of people, of cheating them, of saying, you do this to me, we'll all fight back with the same tactics. No, we can rest ourselves in the Lord and looking to Him. And we can so rest ourselves in the Lord that we can be the kind of believers spoken of in this psalm who are able to give generously to others and to lend to those in need. Not those who selfishly and unrighteously protect merely themselves, but those who care for the lives of others. Our inheritance is guaranteed by the Lord, our earthly inheritance, our life below, whatever it is, but especially our heavenly inheritance. To which that great land pointed, the new heavens and the new earth, where we will dwell with the Lord God. If you had to, Summarize your inheritance, your future inheritance in one word. What would it be? Earth, new earth, that's two words, I guess, heaven. The psalmist says in Psalm 73, my heart and my my flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion. It's the language of inheritance, my portion. Forever. God is my portion forever. That's my inheritance. That's what I get. God Himself. Friend and fellowship. And the one who has that has no reason to envy the fleeting happiness of the wicked. This is the inheritance that can never be taken from us. Not by a lawsuit. Not by a gun to our head. Not even by the scheming of Satan himself. It is secured. It is guaranteed by the Lord. You know well that language of 1 Peter 1. This inheritance through Jesus Christ, an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. And then Peter says of you that you are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Your inheritance safely deposited above, guaranteed by the great keeper of heaven and you upon earth preserved by the Lord for your inheritance, that God will safely bring you there. Indeed, a far, far better guarantee than any government insurance. And so you see tonight the joy of the Christian, perhaps you go tomorrow to work beside unbelievers again, and as you know, they're lining up their insurance policies, they're figuring out the wisest investments, they're plotting for their future. And indeed, there's a place even for the believer to be wise with money. But you know that God is guaranteeing your life below and He has guaranteed your inheritance above. And it can't be lost. The wicked, verse 20, the wicked will perish. They've grown up like the beauty of the fields, but they will vanish. They will vanish like smoke. The only guarantee they have is of destruction, swept away. But the days of the blameless are known to the Lord and their inheritance will endure forever. What a great comfort. But more than that, because that is your comfort, that your inheritance is guaranteed by God and like the land of Israel, it's been apportioned to you by God. You can say with that other Psalm, Psalm 16 at all times, not just that the Lord maintains your inheritance, but you can say the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance. Every Jew could say that. Every believing Israelite could say that. I have a good inheritance. Whatever my portion of land, whatever I have here below, I have a stake in the kingdom of the coming Messiah. I have a good inheritance. I have the Lord God as mine forever. I have a good inheritance. Remember what the writer of Hebrews tells those Christians who had suffered persecution sometime earlier, he says, you you joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you believed you knew that you had better and lasting possessions. You could endure the difficulty here below because you knew what you held in trust, what God held for you, better and lasting possessions. We must learn to see this life below in the light of this reality that we have an inheritance stored up that cannot be lost ever. And so many things upon earth that seem to diminish our earthly heritage are designed to prepare us for the enjoyment of the eternal inheritance. Can't you imagine a family who's been Very diligent with finances. Worked hard. Stored up. Come to a point in life that they're very content, that they're financially secure. Then to see the Lord sweep it away. Lost in the stock market. Lost with medical bills. Lost in some way. And now they wonder, how is this for our good? We've got nothing left. Nothing to depend upon. But could it be that the Lord is saying, I want you to learn that you have but one thing to depend upon. It's not your money. It's me, your God and your inheritance. Can you imagine a couple in retirement experiencing a loss in the market and seeing their funds devalued and wondering now, what of all of our dreams? We're going to travel. We're going to travel the world over and do all of these things. But certainly the God who knows them in their days, knows their needs and showers them with love as his people certainly has a good purpose. Perhaps it is that he wants to keep them close to their children and grandchildren, that they might learn from them or teach them. Maybe he wants to keep them near to the family doctor so that they'll go to the doctor and have something diagnosed that can be treated early. Maybe God wants them to have the blessing of serving in his church. And He wants them to enter the heavens above with the joy of having poured themselves out for His kingdom on earth below and delighting now in the privilege of having served their Master. Certainly, the Lord who reigns over all has good purposes for His people. And we could think of many scenarios tonight, not just made up ones, but ones from our own lives. The kinds of trials or troubles we faced and yet the possibilities of what the Lord is doing. Many things threatening our future, it seems. And yet God says, no, it's not threatened. I'm guaranteed that it can't be lost. Our heritage will not evaporate. I know you in your days. And I ensure your heritage upon Earth, especially in the new heavens and new earth. The wicked will be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land. They will live with God. That's the second security God would hold out to us in the text, but there's one more, and it's this, that the Lord will satisfy all of your needs. Verse 19. In times of disaster, they will not wither. In days of famine, they will enjoy plenty. It's not just hope for the future, for the Christian. God says to his people, as you live upon earth, as you go through times of trouble, I'm right there, I will open my hand to you and give you your needs. But you notice what verse 19 doesn't say or any part of this psalm, it certainly doesn't say that the righteous will escape all trials, that the Christian will have an exemption, a pass from all suffering upon the earth. No, we live upon earth mixed with the unbelievers, don't we? We live in this world mixed together with the unrighteous and we we endure the common adversities, the common trials of life with them. And in many ways, our lives look the same. It's not a Christian stock market and a secular stock market. We are mixed together. But the distinction is in this. The believer is known to the Lord and cared for by God, while the ungodly has no right to expect anything good from God. And in the end, ultimate destruction. And though he receives for a time mercy, sunshine and rain and so forth. In the end, it will be shame upon him, weeping and gnashing of teeth. It will be shame upon him. But verse 19 says in times of disaster, they will not wither. Or literally in times of disaster, times of evil, they won't be put to shame. They won't be put to shame. What a blessing that is. To have the Lord God proclaim that to us, that if we trust in Him, we won't be ashamed we did. We won't be disappointed in the end and say, boy, that was a bad choice. Boy, banking on the Lord, that was a bad investment. I wish someone had warned me. Won't happen. Will not happen. Satan will come to you and say, hey, you ought to be embarrassed. You ought to be ashamed. You're a fool. The guy at work, he got the promotion because he fudged his statistics and sales and you were honest. And now look who's sitting in the corner office. You're a fool. And the next door neighbor may say to you, look, I got a boat and a nice car. You keep giving all your money to the church and the Christian school. You're not going to have anything. You're a fool. God says. The righteous will not be put to shame. Won't be put to shame. Won't be embarrassed at work after all these years of saying, God will take care of me. And now I have all these needs yet. Don't need to be embarrassed. God will be faithful to you. And when the wicked droop their heads in their shame, whether in this life or at the appearing of Christ Jesus, the righteous will still shine because they've committed to the Lord their cause. They've trusted him. And now he makes their righteousness shine like the dawn and the justice of their cause, like the noonday sun. Be patient and wait on the Lord. No, you will not be put to shame. Certainly, our Lord Jesus Christ is a supreme example, isn't he? Because as He hung upon that cross, they wagged their heads, they shook their heads, they cursed Him, they laughed at Him, they spit on Him. And indeed, there's a sense in which Christ did bear shame. He bore the shame of our sin heaped upon Him. The nakedness, the shame of our wickedness. But so far as He was the man of Psalm 37, clinging to God in faith, trusting the Lord, waiting patiently on Him, there was no shame. fulfilling his work, what happens? But he's raised from the dead and exalted to heavens and seated on the throne that every knee might bow and every tongue confess to the glory of the father, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Because Christ has taken away our shame. We in covenant fellowship may cling to our God and know that we shall never be ashamed. May we rest ourselves in God's promises and know that our sacrifices, our confession of faith, our waiting on the Lord, our putting aside the wicked worldly methods of self-defense, none of it, none of it will cause us shame. But even in the days of famine, God will supply His people with plenty. He will literally satisfy them. He will give them what they need. Though the righteous often seem to have far fewer resources, they're perhaps not so well connected. God will take care of them. And the psalmist can say, by way of personal experience, in verse 25, I was young and now I'm old. Yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. I've lived in the midst of the church. I have watched the righteous. I have seen them lend and give and trust in their Lord. And I've never seen a child of the righteous begging bread. God supplies. He may give us modest means, but it's enough. And in some circumstances, he may even cause the righteous to suffer hunger, but then he'll fill them with the grace like the apostle would be content. And even sometimes the Lord may call some to a martyr's death by starvation. But even then, the Lord will care for their needs, sustaining their heart that they do not curse God, but cling to him upon their death. What a wonderful comfort. Whatever lies ahead of us as God's people, whatever lies ahead of us as a nation. But even in days of famine, should that ever come? The people of God will be sustained. I love the testimony of older saints. I'm sure you have those in this congregation too. I can remember entering the ministry, and even still, as I talk to them, I love the old stories. Many of them saying, you know, we didn't have much, but we always had enough. We don't know where the Christian education came from, the funds for that, but somehow it was always there. God was always faithful. They can look back and muse as the psalmist did and say, I don't know how it happened, but I never saw the children of the righteous begging bread. Always enough. And they can say with the psalmist, better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of the wicked. We wouldn't trade our life for anything. We wouldn't trade it for the whole stock market. We wouldn't trade it for the CEO office. Better the little we had with God. with a clear conscience being able to sleep at night. Better the little we had with God in living fellowship with Him. Better the little that we had with God knowing all of our sins were taken away. Better the little we had with God knowing that we have an eternal inheritance. Better the little we've had with the Lord. And so, so much that many have tonight without Him. How gracious God is to bring us to his seminar. In the midst of all the people saying, choose wisely your securities, invest wisely in the right stocks, make the right choices in real estate, your God comes to you and he says, I've already made the investment for you. I know your days. I guarantee your inheritance. And I promise I will satisfy all your needs upon Earth. Those are your securities. Those are your portfolio. But take them up. Prize them. Rejoice in them. And rest your heart in your God. Amen. Let's pray together. Gracious Father in Heaven, we are glad to be your children. Overwhelmed with the wonder of your love, the perfection of your care, The heights of your wisdom. Oh, God, you are good and we deserve none of it. We thank you that you have drawn us to yourself and that you are the great guarantor of our lives. We pray, Lord, that as we seek to act wise and responsibly, more than anything, we might act Christianly as those who are confident in their God. It's those who have heard the call of Christ to set aside worry, knowing that our Father in Heaven knows our needs even before we ask. Give us the grace to seek first your kingdom, the joys, the peace, the purity of it. We might honor you as your children upon Earth. God, let us not shame you through excessive worry, denying who you are and what you've promised to us. But let our lives in the midst of this world be a bright testimony. That even many will ask, what is the reason for our hope? And that to many we might be able to speak and call them away from trusting the things of this earth to know the true securities of the God of grace. Father, hear us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.