Tonight we are coming to the end of a few weeks of studying a subset of 1 Peter that's dealing with rich and deep theological truths. Things that are putting the attention and focus on God Himself, on Jesus Christ His Son. But not just that, it's also showing us as believers where we fit in all of this. When times are hard, this portion of Scripture is reminding us what we have in Christ. I've reiterated over and over the overarching theme, I believe, of 1 Peter is that we're to be holy as God is holy. But we understand that is hard. It's easy conceptually to understand, but if you've lived the Christian life for any length of time, you know it's difficult. It's especially hard when the world around us is not our friend and is not sympathetic to us. It's bad enough that we have to fight our own flesh and the battles of our own heart, but then we're dropped into a world where Satan with his wicked schemes and the envelopment of our culture with unbelief creates an environment where it's very difficult. And it's not just difficult, it's tiring. We grow weary. And yet, despite all of this, despite how hard it is, the reality is we can't get away from it. Until the Lord calls us home, this is what we deal with. Because the world is difficult, because things are hard, we don't get a break from the calling of God to be holy as He is holy. Peter knew all of these things. Peter understood the challenges because he was writing to a group of people who were suffering. Injustice was rampant. They were not popular. Their beliefs caused them to be the target of scorn and ridicule. They lived in a hostile culture. They had at times a hostile government. Unbelievers did not understand them and they were outraged because the Christians wouldn't just, so to speak, get with the program and just follow along with the rest of us. And at this point in redemptive history in America in 2020, we're experiencing this. When it comes to the life of a true believer and the challenges we faced in a sin-filled world, what the Bible says is true. There's nothing new under the sun. Certainly things according to scripture go from bad to worse, but the human heart hasn't changed. We're surrounded by sinners and the hostility is growing. I feel like at times that I am always dwelling on doom and gloom and I'm not, but I'm just a realist and I look around. And when I see America and I see the world around us, I don't see less darkness, I see more darkness. And the darkness doesn't seem to be decreasing, it seems to be increasing. And the turmoil of this year that we all want to forget, and the pandemic, and the election season, seems to just be an icing on the cake, and all these things are coming together. But tonight, I want to try and help us through these Scriptures, lift our eyes above this, because despite all of that, We are blessed. We are privileged. The physical world and its difficulties are real. God knows it. He gives us his scripture. He gives us his spirit. But there's a spiritual world that we don't always see that is just as real, has greater significance at times to us. And we have spiritual privileges because of Jesus Christ that I pray tonight will encourage you. One of the reasons that we gather together, according to the Scriptures, one of the reasons we can't forsake gathering together is because we need encouragement. I thought it was interesting this morning, Pastor Steve, talking about encouragement and the Apostle Paul, because I knew what I was going to be speaking on. Hebrews 10.25 says, Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. So that's my goal tonight. In the midst of societal darkness and the doom and gloom that seems to surround us, I want us to be encouraged by God's Word. So as we finish this section of 1 Peter in chapter 2 verses 4 through 10, as I've done the last couple of weeks, I'm going to read the entire section, but tonight we're going to focus on verses 9 and 10. So if you have your Bible, follow along as I begin at verse 4. And coming to him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, But as choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in him will not be disappointed. This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. For they stumble because they are disobedient to the Word, and to this doom they were also appointed. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So tonight I have broken this down. We're focusing on verses 9 and 10, but it's just a little three-part outline. I use that as a teaching tool. We're going to see tonight three encouragements in times of darkness. Three encouragements in times of darkness. And the first one is this. God chose you to be part of His royal family. God chose you to be part of His royal family. This is one of those times where I fear my abilities as a communicator can't keep up with what God is saying. Verse 9 puts us in a context. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. building up the privileged status that we have using various imagery and various Old Testament texts to let us know where we stand. And the key for that is that beginning word, but you are. And the contrast there is with the judgment of unbelievers that he was just talking about in verses 7 and 8. Those who reject Jesus Christ, they reject the cornerstone, they're disobedient to the Word, And as we learned last week, there is judgment for them. There is a real doom for them. But you are. In other words, if you're part of the family of God, the word translated you here is a plural, but it has individual purpose for us. If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, this is you. You're a part of the group of people, according to the Scriptures, that will never be disappointed, never be ashamed because of your faith in Jesus Christ. And that doom of destruction that God set out to judge unbelievers is not our fate, but you. We're an entirely different world. Peter is really, in this section, he's sort of building a crescendo. It's getting louder. It's getting greater, the privilege that we have. And he phrases this in several ways. He first says that we're part of a chosen race. Now, the idea of race here has, of course, nothing to do with skin color, which is how we tend to define things. Peter was drawing on an Old Testament text that originally would have applied to the nation of Israel. In Isaiah 43, 20, it says this, The beasts of the field will glorify me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I have given waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people. That's one of many places that's referencing the nation of Israel as God's special people. He chose them out of all the other people because He set His love upon them. But too, due to their disobedience and their rejection of God, they never fully realized all the privileges of being God's chosen people. They're still a future for the nation of Israel. Romans chapter 11 makes that clear. But for now, what Peter is doing is he's showing us using Old Testament imagery that we have that privileged status. Race in the context is really talking about descending from a common ancestor. And for us, because God caused us to be born again, unlike Israel that traced their ancestry to Abraham, we trace our ancestry in this context to Jesus Christ. We are truly a family. Regardless of where we've come from, God has created something new and we're a part of it. Revelation 5, 9 says this, and they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. That's what God's done with us. Now we're a part of this race But the fact that we're part of the same family, it doesn't overlook how that happened. We were chosen. We're a chosen race. And the idea is that God was the one who chose us. Peter has already alluded to this multiple times in this book. But we understand that we're not a part of this chosen race because of anything we did. In John chapter 15 verse 16, Jesus said this, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you. particularly in times of darkness, particularly when we see the world thrashing about, and they're blinded, and they don't even understand what's going on, and they're heaping up more and more judgment upon themselves, we have to be careful not to inadvertently pat ourselves on the back and say, well, we know better. No, we were chosen. God opened our eyes. We're not a part of God's chosen race because He looked down and saw that we were smarter, or that we were wiser, or that we were more righteous, or that we were really secretly looking for Him even when we were dead in our sins. None of that. What I want to reiterate tonight is the reality of what that word chosen indicates. God loved you because God loved you. 1 John 4.10 said, and this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. It's almost incomprehensible. And again, it's not because we were the who's who of the league of sinners. He didn't look into sinful humanity and say, well, these are the best and the brightest. According to Scripture, that's not how He works. In 1 Corinthians 1, beginning at verse 26, For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world, and the despised God has chosen the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. but by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. I don't really know of anything more encouraging when we look at these dark times, but to know that the God of the universe loves us. He cares for us. Even when we were sinners, He sent Christ to pay the penalty for our sins. He knows your name, He knows my name. And as Peter is building this picture, not only are we part of a chosen race that God reached down and did that, He made us a royal priesthood. Now again, this is borrowing language from the Old Testament. I'll reference many of these, but in Exodus chapter 19, we'll see this come up because several of Peter's references come from here. But it says this in Exodus 19, beginning at verse 5, Now then, if you indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. So again, as with all of these passages that Peter is talking, their original target audience was the nation of Israel, but because of their disobedience, they didn't fully realize these blessings. And what Peter is saying that was when God created the church, when He built this spiritual house in Christ of which we are a part, we have become this royal priesthood. Again, he already talked about us being a part of a holy priesthood in 1 Peter 1, 2, 5. We read that earlier. But for us, being a part of a holy priesthood is significant, a royal priesthood. Because royal has to do with the king's household, the palace. We get glimpses of royalty on TV because some nations still have kings and there's pomp and circumstances and it's all about bloodlines and you either are or you aren't a part of the royal family. What God did was He took us from the gutter and put us in the palace. We are surrounding the throne. And the idea of priesthood here is just that we are all carrying out the function of worship. He already talked about the spiritual sacrifices that we offer up to Him. It's just this picture that we have access to God. We directly go to Him. When He created the church, this chosen race, this common family, He made us part of His royal household with the function of worshiping Him directly, not through intermediaries, through Christ. Furthermore, because we're royal, because we're part of the King's household, In a sense, and I'll talk about this more in just a moment, we become His ambassadors. We become His representatives to the world. We have an elevated status because we are part of royalty. In fact, one day, in ways that I can't fully comprehend, because I think on these things and I just give up because I can't go beyond Scripture and I can't truly get my hands around it, we'll reign with Christ. In Revelation 26 it says this, Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. You are a part of the royal household. And he keeps going because he's building all these together and these are interrelated. He says, next, we're a holy nation. Now, holy, of course, we understand. We've been talking about holy. We're set apart in this context. Certainly, we're supposed to be holy as God is holy, but when God created us as a nation, He made a community of individuals who have the same laws, the same customs, the same mutual interest, all from Scripture, all in Christ, And we are set apart. One of the things that the nation of Israel was to be for God was different than everything else. That's why they weren't supposed to intermarry. That's why they weren't supposed to follow after the pagan gods. Because they were supposed to be distinct and unique. And that's the privilege God's given us as the church. And again, There's a holiness that we have to work towards, be holy as God is holy, but there's also a holiness that God gives us at the moment of our salvation, which is a part of the church, this holy nation being in existence. In Philippians 3, 8 and 9, the Apostle Paul talks about the fact that we have Christ's righteousness. He says, more than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith." So the point of all of this is that God has pulled us into something special. We have a unique place. We're now part of a holy nation. Do we still live here on earth as citizens? Of course we do. But we have a heavenly citizenship that should be our focus that transcends anything going on on this earth. Philippians 3, 24, Our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the final part in verse 9 of this picture of Peter building up this idea of who we are. We're not the unbelievers who are doomed. We have these great privileges. A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and finally a people for God's own possession. This also comes from that passage that I already read in Exodus 19. But we see other language like this, for example, in Malachi 3.17. They will be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I prepare my own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Peter drew on a rich history of God saying, these people are mine. And he's applying it to us because we've been bought with a price. Peter in chapter 1 verses 18 and 19 made it clear, we became God's possession not through some business transaction, but with something far more valuable. Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. We are the precious possession of the Lord. Again, when you look at the world around us, we are forgotten. That we're not important enough. Nobody cares about us, so to speak. Our family does, but we're not movers and shakers. We're not changing the world. And when the world does look at us, if you're like me and you have conversations from time to time with unbelievers, they can't understand us. They would tell us we're fools. We've surrendered judgment and reason, we don't think. They think we're to be pitied, and the reality is they couldn't be more wrong. Understand this, whatever is going on in your world, know what Jesus did for you. Know what God has done and what He's given you. We are the prized, treasured, purchased possessions of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and we're a part of His royal household. Whatever else is going on out there, let it encourage you that God chose you to be a part of His royal family. There's a second encouragement in times of darkness. First, God chose you to be a part of His royal family. Second, God chose you to be His official ambassador. God chose you to be His official ambassador. It's interesting how Peter phrases these things because he's making it clear we're all of these things for a purpose. Verse 9, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that, this is why, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him. Again, this ties in with the idea that we're royalty, we're ambassadors for the King. Isaiah 43, 21 says this, the people whom I formed for myself will declare my praise. God saves us with a purpose. It's not just to redeem us out of all of the darkness, although He's done that and we praise Him for that. It's not just to save us from ourselves, which He has done, and we praise Him for that. But He's given us a charge that He's made us all of these privileges, statuses. He's given us all of these privileges so that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him. The idea of proclaim is simple enough. It's just telling out. It's being a herald. It's being the one that sounds the word, gives the word. Almost like advertising or something like that. We are the heralds. We're crying out. Certainly how we live needs to be a witness to a lost and dying world. But there's a verbal proclamation that God calls us to do to point those in the darkness to He who is in the light. And what is our message? What do we proclaim? The excellencies of Him. It's about His greatness. His preeminence, His worthiness, His majesty. You could go through the Scriptures for the rest of your life and just tell people what the Scriptures say about God and you'll never run out of excellencies to proclaim. This is all part and parcel of us being God's witnesses. In Acts chapter 1, Verse 8, Jesus said this to His initial disciples, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth. This is really all the same thing. We are going everywhere to proclaim to a lost and dying world that there is a God and He is the King And He's wonderful. He's marvelous. He is majestic. Now certainly, part of the proclamation about God is personal. Because at some point, if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you encountered His excellencies, in part, through His mercy He shows sinners. Through His Son, Jesus Christ. So part of the excellencies that you proclaim is that God did this for me. But at the end of the day, even that proclamation isn't about me. It's about the one who saved me. It's interesting. In our country, we have ambassadors even now. We have representatives of our government that go out around the world and they live in most countries. They have nice embassies living with other diplomats. And in America, quite often, that's a political position. In other words, if you supported a candidate enough in office, or if you had enough money, or if you had the connections, then somebody gets to be an ambassador. But you or I aren't going to be ambassadors for the United States. Not in that sense. We won't have official status because we're not giving all the money. We're not the important people. We're not currying favor with all of them. But the point is this. God reached down into the mess of our individual lives and gave us the status of His ambassadors, His representatives. We have the privilege of telling others about Jesus, about what He's done, about what heaven is like. Let me encourage you, when you start getting a little bit down with yourself, Perhaps life is really difficult. Perhaps things seem to be stacking up against you. Perhaps you feel like you've been behind the proverbial eight ball for so long that you can't see anything but black. That's not reality. Because God has loved you. And not only has He taken you and placed you in His spiritual house, to give you that elevated status, but He gives you the privilege of being His official representative to a lost and dying world. Don't take that for granted. Don't overlook the privilege you have in Christ of being able to proclaim the excellencies of Him. That leads us into a final encouragement. In times of darkness, God chose you to be part of His royal family. God chose you to be His official ambassador. And then finally, God chose to give you mercy that you did not deserve. God chose to give you mercy that you did not deserve. Finishing out the end of verse 9, He says, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. For you once were not a people, but now you're the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." Again, this is talking to all of us, but from a personal standpoint, nothing could be more encouraging than being reminded over and over again of what Christ did for you. It's interesting because, and I divided this this way, but when he says you proclaim the excellencies of Him, of God, it's quickly reminded again of God's initiative to save us, who has called you out of darkness Again, when you start seeing Scripture and you realize how gracious it was for God to call you, to choose you. Jesus said in John 6, verse 44, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. Out of the mass of sinful humanity, you understand God called you He called you because He loves you. He called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. It's a picture over and over that Scripture uses to distinguish life in sin versus life with the Lord. The sin-filled world versus the realm of a holy God. Jesus coming to earth was a graphic portrayal of the contrast. John 3.19, this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. This sums up sinful humanity in relation to a holy God. We are dead, we are blinded, we're living in darkness, Generally, we're not even aware of it. Darkness likes darkness. And when the light comes, most of the time, darkness runs. And the darkness is compounded because we have an adversary in Satan who wants to see humans destroyed. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 describes something of this this way, beginning at verse 3, And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. There's a sense when you're in that state of blindness It's almost like when you turn on a, if you've ever been in a place that's filthy, and you turn on a light and the roaches scatter. That's not too far off of what the cesspool of humanity is like. We see the light and we run to the corners to get away from it. Here's the miracle and here's the encouragement. God called us out of all of that. Not just a general call to everybody, He called you individually. He opened your eyes to see. And instead of being repulsed by the light of the gospel, because God showed kindness to you and because His love was set upon you, you didn't flee from the light. You eventually came to the light for salvation. The Apostle Paul described the transaction this way in Colossians chapter 1 beginning at verse 13. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. I don't know of anything more encouraging than that. I think people, including me at times, we overlook the lengths to which God went to save us. We almost lose the marvel of the saving of a soul. I love when we have baptisms. It's one of my favorite parts of church, when we get to hear people's testimonies. In essence, they're proclaiming the excellencies of Him, and they're explaining how they were called out of darkness into light. And if you're like me, when there's a particularly dramatic testimony, it really catches my interest. Somebody that was ensnared by drugs or ensnared in alcohol or they were so steeped in immorality and we think, wow, it's a miracle they were saved. And it was. But that salvation is no more miraculous than the child that grew up in a Christian home and wasn't out doing horrible things in our world. and wasn't by our definitions a wicked person or a bad person. I think at times the good kid or the good adult, the responsible kid, the responsible adult being saved is actually more miraculous because quite often they don't understand the depths of their depravity. But here's the point of all of this. One of the excellencies that you had the privilege of proclaiming is how He called you out of darkness into light. That's ultimately what we want for unbelievers. But tonight, this isn't me trying to make you feel guilty because you don't evangelize more. We can all beat ourselves up. I want to encourage you to recognize what God's done for you. In a world that is spinning out of control, God reached down into the darkness, and He knew your name. And He took you out of it, and He brought you into His light. And Peter finishes this little section describing what God has done. For you once were not a people, but now you're the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Again, Peter's borrowing Old Testament imagery that originally applied to the nation of Israel. God called them out to be His people, but they never fully realized because of their rebellion what we have in Christ. God chose us and He gave us mercy. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Peter already has described that mercy in chapter 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. What is so incredible is that we could never have earned God's mercy. It's by definition something that we didn't deserve. There's a sense for us as humans, and it doesn't go away when we become Christians, where we have a keen sense of justice. Now it's perverted and warped by sin most of the time, but if you think of the times where we get really upset, it's because something happened to us that wasn't fair. That wasn't right. Maybe in the workplace, you didn't get the promotion, or you didn't get the accolades, or you had slaved over a project, you didn't even get credit for it. Or maybe in a marriage relationship, you've sacrificed and you've done, and then your spouse didn't even pay attention, didn't even notice. Or you gave your life to make sure your kids had everything they could possibly need, and then they don't express gratitude, they express entitlement. Even in our country, one of the things that gets us aggravated is we see things happening on a national level and things and we're saying, wait a minute, that's not right. Be careful about wanting justice. I'm not saying justice is bad, just be careful. Because if we got justice, we would be in hell. The wages of our sin is death. But we received mercy in Christ. Justice was done, but we didn't pay it. Jesus did. In a world swirling with unfairness and injustice, be thankful that you didn't get what you really deserved. And as you see people around us, keep referencing the election season because that seems to be what gets my heart agitated. But as you see these people that you see and you think to yourself, if they have power, it will be a disaster. If they have power, things are going to be bad. You may be right. but pray for them to have God's mercy. Pray for there to be a way to proclaim to them the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His light and who you can pray will call them out of darkness into light. If there's no other encouragement, be encouraged that you did not get what you deserve for your sin and that every day you have God's forgiveness because of Christ. and He chose to give you His mercy that you didn't deserve. I don't know all of your struggles. I know for me personally this has been a hard year and I'm not alone. I know my struggles because I'm me. I lived them. But you have your own struggles and they're real. You know the sins you're battling Even today, this week, you know the trials that you are enduring. You know the pain, both physical and emotional, that may be your burden to carry right now. Whatever the case, let me encourage you this week, take your eyes off of your trials and place them on your Savior. Because whatever is going on in your world, it doesn't change the reality that God chose you. He loves you, and you received His mercy. I'm gonna close with a scripture that in my own heart and mind I go to over and over again, and I think it's appropriate when we think about the world around us and we get caught up in the things that seem to be bad for us. because it's a reminder that we have it all in Christ. Romans chapter 8 beginning at verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who's against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies, who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword Just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long, we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Please join me in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray for each one of us who are your children here tonight. Lord, it is so easy to take our eyes off of you. We inhabit bodies of flesh still. We look forward to when we have a glorified body, but it's not yet. We inhabit A world filled with darkness. And Lord, it seems to be intruding ever closer to us in what we do. Lord, our nation is adrift. Things seem to be careening from bad to worse. And if we're not careful, we can focus so much on here that we lose sight of what you've already done for us. I pray tonight, Lord, will be a time for each one of us to rest in you, to be encouraged by what you've done for us, the privileged status you've given us. Lord, to be reminded that for however difficult things are, you loved us. And I thank you, Lord, that no matter what happens with this pandemic or whatever happens with the election or whatever happens, with our health or whatever happens in our communities, none of that can separate us from your love. Lord, I pray that tonight we would be encouraged. But I'm mindful, Lord, that not everyone who hears my voice is a part of your kingdom. There are some who are still living in darkness, I pray that tonight you would lift the blindness from their eyes and you would call them to yourself. Pray, Lord, that they would see before a holy God how lost they are. And they would see that through Jesus Christ, who came and died for sinners, they can have forgiveness. Lord, I pray that you would speak to their hearts so they would understand The supply of your mercy is not exhausted. There's still room for sinners. Lord, we love you, and I pray that you would encourage our souls so that this week we will proclaim the excellencies of you who called us out of darkness into your light. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.