We turn in the word together to Psalm 1 and then to Luke chapter 8. Let's stand together. Psalm 1 reminds us, among many other things, as it is the picture of the perfect man, and first and foremost, the picture of the perfect king, the second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, reminds us that part of what it means to be human is to delight in God's law, to receive his word, and to bring fruit to his glory. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. And now to Luke chapter eight, and beginning at verse one. It came to pass afterward that he went through every city and the village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and the Twelve were with him. And certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for him from their substance. And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to him in the city, he spoke by parable. Sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock, and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold. When he had said these things, he cried, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Then his disciples asked him, saying, what does this parable mean? And he said, to you has been told to have no root, who believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. The ones that fell on the good ground are those who having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. This is the word of the Lord. We turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter eight. And this morning looking at the parable of the sower. The parable of the sower. I don't know if you've noticed this, but it's been true in my life and continues to be true today, that the Bible is a different book than any book in my life for a number of reasons. And one of those reasons is the following. Well, you know how easy it is sometimes when you're tired. To do a lot of things that are easy, let's say, scroll through your phone. Let's say you had two choices, you could scroll through your phone or you could pick up your Bible. And one is a lot easier, isn't it, than the other. There's something about the word. which Jesus teaches here in this parable, the word and the centrality of the word in the Christian's life and in his kingdom, it involves power. Powers. Matter of fact, there are two great powers. Every time you hear the word read, you hear the word preached. Power of God. and the power of the kingdom of darkness that would have you not hear or listen to the power and grace of God in His Word. And that the reason why sometimes so many other things are so much easier to do, even for the believer who loves the Word and loves Christ is because every time you come to the Word or hear the Word preached, you are standing at the forefront or the edge of a great spiritual warfare, the warfare of the ages. This is what Jesus reveals in the parable of the sower. The parable of the sower comes to us in Luke chapter 8, and it comes to us when Jesus is teaching about his kingdom. If you look in verse 1, you'll see this in a moment, he was bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and in verse 10, Jesus again talks about the mysteries of his kingdom. At the beginning of his ministry, he announced his kingdom like this, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. announcing that his coming as the great king was a coming to rule and to vanquish another kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, and to crush Satan, the prince of the power of the air, the prince of this world, and ultimately, at the end of his work, to cast out and away and to utter darkness and judgment, the bottomless pit, Satan and all of his hosts, and restore Righteousness, light, and life for His people perfectly forever. And the reading and preaching of the Word is the place where God has ordained that the two great tectonic plates, as it were, of those two kingdoms come up against each other. Now we know that there's no doubt at all that the kingdom of our Savior will triumph because He has triumphed. But there is something spiritual, powerful, supernatural about this book, about the Word preached, and God's dealings with your hearts, every time you come to it. Which is sometimes why we might be drawn to it powerfully in trouble as the Spirit helps us, and other times where we in weakness might not turn to it as we ought. It's different than any other book. There's a great spiritual warfare attached to it. It's that great principle that runs through our text here this morning in Luke chapter 8. And we're going to see a few things from Luke chapter 8 for those of you who like me to announce my points more clearly. And I know a lot of you do, and I don't always do it, but the text we're going to look at in a couple of ways that are pretty simple. And the text breaks down like this. There's a scene that is described first. And in the Gospel of Luke, it's quite detailed. The scene of Christ the preacher and those He's preaching to. And in that scene, they're named and described from some particular individuals, the twelve, a number of women, and then all at the end, cities and towns coming to Him, a great multitude. Then there's a parable that Jesus tells. And he tells in the context of that multitude. And the parable at first might seem to be a jarring shift of scene. But then there's an explanation or the revelation of what that parable means. And we read, He went through every city and village preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. This is what he is doing. He is preaching, he's proclaiming. This is the, in the Greek, the word for the official proclamation of a herald and specially used in the New Testament for the act of preaching of Christ and his apostles by the power of the Holy Spirit. The authoritative proclamation of the word, which is happening right now in history again by Christ's ordination. Cherex is the word there. Also, bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom. This is the word where we get, the word evangelize or the evangel, the good news. He was proclaiming and evangelizing. He was proclaiming the authoritative entrance and power of the kingdom. And with that is the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, the very proclaimer. He's preaching, he's preaching the gospel authoritatively, powerfully, and centrally, he is preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. That the triune God in history was exercising his power and rule through the incarnate Jesus Christ, especially in the act of preaching. So we have a preacher in the scene. Second thing we have is the hearers. And we have the 12, the inner circle of the apostles. Then we have this interesting description of certain women. Verse two, Mary Magdalene. These women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, or perhaps illnesses, they had been... Very needy. And Christ had come to them. This is actually where we have an extension of the previous chapter where we have the sinful woman who came to Christ. And these women are listed especially by name as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read of Mary Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, a case of significant demon possession. Joanna, the wife of Chusa, and it appears that her husband, who is Herod's steward, and by being listed this way, that he did not share her faith, because he's not listed as one who believes, and so she is on her own having heard the message of the kingdom, the good news, she's believing in Christ. And then we have another, Susanna, name by name. And then many others who provided for him from their substance. And we have something here of how Christ, the Son of Man who had no place to lay his head. These are faithful disciples, men and women who have seen in Christ salvation and life and are willing to go against the court of Herod and to give of their own and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Many others who supported him are listed there. A little note here, this follows on the previous chapter and will run all the way to the end of the gospel, the women who gather in a great number at the cross and the women who anoint the body of Christ after burial, that there is this strong gospel and New Testament theme of the women who are faithful disciples of Jesus Christ and faithful witnesses to his resurrection, his ministry, and his cross. Which goes against, as an aside here on this topic in the New Testament, the New Testament has this great emphasis on believing women, actually in the book of Acts as well. Think of Lydia. There's many others that are name by name. Paul in his letters names men and women at length, specifically by name as contributors to the kingdom of heaven. And here the New Testament stands against the Roman ethic, thought women and children to be Nothing. Property. And here, co-heirs of the grace of life, as Peter would say, and marriage. And addressed throughout the scriptures, men, women, and children are addressed by the Lord as he looks over his people. And to hear these women respond to the gospel. The New Testament here is standing powerfully against a Roman ethic which would have said that their allegiance to him and their response to him and their love for him and their witness to him would have been worthless, not in the eyes of the Lord. Acts is the same thing. I just mentioned Lydia. I think of Ephesians where the word addresses men and women and also children. And I think of Galatians where Paul reminds us that in Christ there's Neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free, all one in Christ. And I would also say one more thing here before we get back to the main, is that those who would point to, for example, Ephesians 5, and God's very clear order for marriage and the differences between men and women, who shy away from God's created order and his commanded roles, I actually deeply underestimate what the gospel came to bring to men and women and families in the New Testament and all of history, actually. God was ordering and shaping and restoring both men and women, both as individuals who needed salvation and into a believing community and homes and families, according to his creation pattern, and that this was good news in an era where you could leave your child out to die or you could simply send your wife away hungry. But this was a major change in ethic. Those who want to argue from these things against nature and for an egalitarian view of men and women are wrong. But those who would forget to see Christ's mercy and grace to men and women together as the same in his saving mercy would also be wrong and we ought not to go to either extreme which both would be unbiblical. But back to the crowd. The 12 men, these women, many others who provided for him, verse four, and then a great multitude gathered, and when they come to him from every city, he spoke by a parable. And here we have the picture, Christ preaching everywhere, a sea of hearers, the faithful, and he's doing it indiscriminately to all who gather, and he's proclaiming the love and power of the kingdom of God. As he's doing this, he begins to speak by a parable, verse four. And this is where I said there might be an abrupt jump of the text. It's not an abrupt jump, but we move from this scene to this parable. You'll see in a moment in verse 9 that the disciples didn't quite understand why the parable at this point, but first the parable. Again, there's a climactic gathering. The other gospels we know that Jesus taught this parable near Capernaum and hills around the lake. If you know anything about ancient Israel, it would be filled with fields and many would be farmers and own vineyards. And everything that Jesus says in this parable would have been common and close to the people, instantly understood. If you're a gardener, this parable is plain to you. You understand it. If you were in agrarian Israel, You would understand it and it would be close to you. Jesus is speaking at least in the image of things that are commonly known, easily understood. He spoke by this parable which was a teaching illustration. We have a sower. Spreader of seed. You would do this by hand. Not with a tractor and a seed drill, but you would do this by hand if you were a farmer. It's manual labor. You have the seed itself. Note the second element of the parable. And then you follow the sower as he travels in the act of casting the seed. And there is the action then of sowing as he sowed. We're still in verse five. And then the rest of the parable is a differentiation. As he travels along, some fall on a wayside, and you watch the birds of the air snatch it away. Some falls on thin, rocky soil. It maybe springs up for a short time, and then the heat of the sun dries the soil. It dies. Some falls in thorns and weeds, and the competition of the preoccupied ground means that there's never really a fruitful seed that grows to a crop, but then there's this great field of fertile soil, which is filled with the seed, and it springs up and bears a crop a hundredfold. And this is a simple picture. But why? Why at this point? Basic, understandable, accessible scene, the whole of it. It's interesting that when he had said these things, he cried something, and this is a first key. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Which didn't seem to help the disciples, because the next thing they said is, Lord, what does this mean? But remember that. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. The disciples then after this ask him the question. An invitation here, which is at first perplexing, and it would have been to them. If you know your Bible, you know the end of the story, but they didn't yet. So his disciples, verse nine, ask him saying, what does this parable mean? Let me just take a little excursus here for a moment. Strange things, and I don't mean strange as in unusually odd or not good, but things beyond our understanding happen when God speaks in history. There's mysteries. Jesus speaks in His answer, verse 10, of the mysteries of the kingdom of God. When preaching happens, or when you read your Bible at home, Things rooted deeply in the eternal sovereign purposes of God are happening. During preaching, as Jesus was preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God, powerful supernatural events are happening deeply rooted in the eternal purposes of God for His glory. Question and answer about the parable. The question is, we don't understand. The answer is, it's a revelation for my people, to you. The disciples, those who follow Him, love Him, and believe in Him, even though they're seeing dimly at this point, to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand, which comes from Isaiah's call in Isaiah chapter 6, where God said to Isaiah, as I send you out as a preacher, there will be salvation in life and there will also be judgment. It's what Paul says later to the Corinthians. There's this mystery. For as I go, I am the aroma of life unto life for some and death unto death for others. That as I carry this word as an ambassador of Jesus Christ, who before me is the great sower, that as the word goes out, things are happening rooted in God's eternal purposes, the mystery of the kingdom of God. And they will always and ever happen every single time. What's happening? Jesus says a gift is being given to some. And a judgment is falling on others. A judgment is falling on others. Now things are getting clearer. The parable is the overlay of the scene. If you were to think of the text, Jesus preaching. The scene, the parable rather, is over this. The sower went to sow his seed. The explanation that is coming now brings light and glory and connects the parable to the scene. Follow along for a moment here in the text. Verse 11, now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Verses 12-15, the soils, or the different landing places, are the hearts of men and women, and boys and girls. It explains what happens during the preaching of the Word, and it explains that there will be different types of hearers. And it explains who you are right now under the Word and what is happening in your heart. It's the revelation of the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, of the power of the word, the effect of the word, the reality of the word in history, and of Christ, the great preacher of the word. And the kingdom of God, we're to learn here in the first place, advances by the preaching of the word. The kingdom, the mysteries of the kingdom are being revealed here. This great battle I said in the beginning between light and darkness that began in Genesis, where the seed of the woman was I'm going to be in a battle with the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman would triumph. This great battle of history is emerging in the ministry of Jesus Christ through preaching. The same word. God said, let there be light, and there was light is the word that's reverberating through history. The same word that Ezekiel preached, you heard a few weeks ago from Pastor McGraw, the valley of dry bones, that made dry bones live by word and spirit is being preached here by the Lord Jesus Christ. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is being unsheathed by our Savior here in the preaching of the word. It is able to Living and powerful. It is able to penetrate the heart. It does divine work and divine activity. It's inspired and infallible. And Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 connects the original declaration. Let there be light and there was light. The creation of all things out of nothing. To the preaching of the word that brings light to our hearts by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that every time this happens, God is working. So what happens when the word goes out? It's complex. Jesus gives four common effects. Four different results. And when he does this, he's gonna teach you something about how to sit under the word. And the central lesson will be this, that the way you receive this word, will determine which kingdom you belong to. Ultimately, it is the defining determination of citizenship in the kingdom of heaven, how you receive the word. To put it more pointedly, how you listen now. Next week, wherever you go, every time you open your Bible, That that Word, which is living and powerful, is doing something. Christ is riding through history as the King. Declaring, proclaiming good news of salvation. First response to the Word. Verse 15, those who are by the wayside are those who hear and then the devil comes and takes away the Word out of their hearts. Interesting phrase, lest they believe and be saved. The Word is a Word of salvation. And the devil does not want salvation. So one of his primary means is as it's falling, as quickly as it falls, to erase it from your consciousness so that you would not think on or remember it. This is the hard heart if this continues on. This is no response to the kingdom. This ultimately describes all natural and unconverted men. Hardening, interestingly, comes to the one under-sowing, which is very important to remember. Moses came to Pharaoh again and again, let my people go, this is the word of the Lord. Pharaoh hardened his heart, one more day with my sin. Felix, you almost persuade me to be a Christian to the apostle Paul. It's under-preaching that many have turned away from Jesus Christ. The word then has also an inherent power. It never returns to God void. It always accomplishes that which is to send out to do. There's no neutrality. Be careful against a hard heart. And note also the supernatural activity of God in preaching is opposed by the kingdom of darkness. Here it's explicit. I mentioned it earlier. The devil comes. He snatches the Word as it falls. So what you should do is as the Word falls, you should lay hold of it so it would not be snatched away. You should lay hold of it, meditate on it, confer over it, lay it up in your heart, practice it in your life. There's an active receiving of the Word. The devil is doing the opposite, trying to take it away. Receive the Word. Preaching has power. A hard heart is dangerous if you do not lay hold of it and believe to salvation and it is snatched away, no kingdom citizenship. Second picture, a temporary effect of the word, verse 13, but the ones on the rock are those who, listen to this little phrase again, when they hear. There's some level of hearing without understanding. Seeing they may not see, hearing they may not understand. There's some level of engagement with this word. There's some level of hearing. What happens? When they hear, there's initial response with joy. A lot of people say, boy, I could use the forgiveness of sin. I'll take that. This is offered in the gospel freely to all those who believe. But then when the heat gets turned on and your life gets hard and rough, and it might be rough because of your own mistakes, it might be rough because of the sadnesses of this world that come to you in ways indecipherable to you in the sovereignty of God, but they come. And now you've been asked the question, is this Jesus and His salvation? Will I hold on to Him? Will this shake my faith in Him? And Jesus, as some people will say, I'll leave him." Temporary response. Jesus said in Matthew 24, he who endures to the end will be saved. He also said, all those who follow me will have tribulation. Paul said the same thing when he preached. All those in this kingdom will have trials. It's a guarantee. Those trials will be the test of the nature of the reception of the word of the gospel. How do you respond under trials? Believer says, Lord, I need more of your word. Years ago, I had friends, some very close friends who had a son who was born with heart problems. And they're lovely friends. Their son is still known to our family. He had some surgeries and he's doing great. He's in his 20s. We didn't know when he was born if he would live or die. And we wondered and we prayed and we're in the hospital. I never forget that they had the word open and they're reading the Psalms and they said, this word has never been more precious to us. The heat was on, the instinct of the believing heart is to grab the word and to say, Lord, teach me right now. And they did. Jesus said, there's a possible second response that at that point you would turn away. That's a warning. We need a heart of, not stone, but a heart of flesh ready to receive the Word of God, and that's the promise of the Gospel. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone, that stony heart that does not truly receive the Word of God, and I will give you a heart of flesh. Third response the Savior anticipates. Well, let's go back to the second. A temporary response, no kingdom citizenship. Third, a lukewarm response. Things here, in this case, choked the ground. The seed falls amongst thorns. Thorns sprang up with it and choked it off. Now, these are the ones who, when they hear, they go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life. Cares. Instead of take no thought for tomorrow, they are worried. If you're a worrier, repent. You have nothing to worry about. I don't know if, I probably used this line from the pulpit before, I think of it probably every two weeks. Thomas Brooks, Christian's best day is his last day. Which means, you think, what's the worst thing that could happen to you? If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you could die. That's not even the worst thing. Thomas Brooks says, the beginning of the best that you could ever imagine. That's the gospel, sin's forgiven, eternal life. We aren't afraid. If you seek first the Kingdom of God, we believe all things will be given to us. We don't love riches or money. And we do not live for the pleasures of this world. All of those will choke out the Word. And so we will bring no fruit to maturity. We do not love the world or the things of the world, lest we come under this condemnation that the love of the Father is not in us. A third response, this preoccupied heart that loves the world is not a citizen of the kingdom. You might think, Pastor, you're being a little hard on us. I want to ask you a question that I often ask in Jesus' parables in the preaching of the same. Who is Jesus speaking to? The 12, the women who loved him, and the multitude. And He's sowing the seed to all. And He's reminding all without distinction of the reality of the sinfulness of our hearts. And then here in the last soil, what He's calling us to in the Gospel is a believing, warm-hearted response of love and faith in Him. The last here is a fruitful field, good ground, a crop that yields a hundredfold, a springing up, a good heart. Look at verse 15, a good heart. Those who heard the word with a noble and good heart. A heart opened by the Spirit of God, and they keep the Word, and they bear the fruit, and they have the gift of patience. They have a Spirit-cultivated and fertile and fruitful heart, and they bear much fruit. What makes the difference? Back to Ezekiel 37, the mighty Spirit of God with the Word opens their eyes to the mysteries of the kingdom under the preaching of the Word and makes them fruitful. What's the fruit that must exist? You repent of your sins, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you live to his glory. Life, true life is the fruit that God gives. The true Christian is marked by this. When the word is preached, you lay hold of Jesus Christ offered in the word. When Satan comes, You hold fast to the Word and you say no to the devil. You resist him firm in the faith. When trials come, you say, Jesus is worthy. And I'm willing to die for Him, to lay down my life for Him. Whatever He brings to me, He is worthy. And when the passing empty pleasures of this world are offered to you, you say, no, I have someone better, something better, everlasting life. And you say, no. And you say, Lord, I take your word, the glad tidings of the gospel, the gift of salvation. Jesus is preaching this here. The one who died and rose again for sinners. I embrace you. I hold fast to you. I want to live for you. This is a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Some lessons for the church. What is the seed? I'm gonna go back to the beginning of the chapter and just point out a few connections. It is the word, which Luke calls, when Jesus preaches it, the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. It's good news. There's a savior for sinners who's Christ the Lord. It's the best news, the fundamentally, at the end of the day, the only good news that exists in this world, Jesus Christ himself. And that's what He proclaims with power. The glad tidings of the Kingdom of God. That there can be reconciliation with a holy God by faith in a living Savior who would lay down His life when He preached this, but has laid down His life. We're on the other side of the cross in the empty tomb. This Word has power. Again, 2 Corinthians 4, God said, let light, let there be light in the midst of darkness. The same light has shone in our hearts. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ comes in the preaching of the gospel, penetrates the heart. That word is life-giving, powerful, it's good news, it has an effect. Centrally, the advance of this Kingdom is Jesus Christ Himself, the Living Word, the Revealer of the Father, and who by the gift of the Spirit proclaims the glory of the saving work of the Triune God and takes Word and preaching of that Word by the power of the Spirit and drives it home to dead hearts to give life. The centrality of the word, the seed is central here, the sower, Christ. Christ himself, the good news of the gospel. The Lord of glory who descends, and I was thinking this morning, I was meditating on this text, I was thinking about Jesus' baptism and transfiguration. I was thinking about the witness of the father to the son. This is my beloved son. What does the father say? Hear him. And the son says, I've come to reveal the father. And then the Spirit is given that we might take the word of the Son who reveals the Father into our hearts and bear fruit to God's glory. And this is the triune God in history, revealing and pressing that glory into our hearts. The communication of the love of God to humanity, especially in the preaching and declaration of the gospel to be received with faith. Third focus, the variegated crowd. Preaching's an interesting thing. If you do it for a long time, some years, some around here have done it longer than me, a few much longer, we must believe something is happening. It's not in the preacher. It's a jar of clay, a human instrument, but a messenger called by God. Every week again, same thing happening, same thing. Why? Jesus Christ went proclaiming the glad tidings of the kingdom. And this is the way that he works in you and in me to bring salvation and life and carry you home. There's something supernatural happening. Something glorious. It's Christ's kingdom action in history. There's an existential reality, a profound reality of sitting under preaching every week. Something happening every time. This is why Jesus said this at the end of the parable. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Listen, he's saying, and live. A laser focus. There's only one saving response to the Word. Some will have ears to hear and others will not. If you're here this morning and you have not believed, I don't know your heart, Jesus preached indiscriminately the message of the Kingdom and He gave this to sift the hearts of those who listen and to say, Believe. Hear. Remember. Believe what I have to say. And then with that, this simply, and have life. The way you receive the Word brings life. What are your great spiritual dangers? Who are you up against? Satan. Snatch it out of your heart. Take it away. Your own flesh, your desire for the things of this world and money and pleasure. The world calling you another way, all these great enemies. Christ the living word this morning proclaims himself to you in grace and mercy with power as a supernatural act in history to advance his kingdom. If you haven't embraced him, embrace him now. How does a Christian finally use this? But when Jesus says there's these realities, Word is opposed by Satan in the world and you still have a remnant of sin within you. And when you come to worship, because of that remnant of sin, you can expect to be even bombarded in preaching or in reading at home or wherever you are up against the Word and you come to the Word and you read the Word and receive the Word of spiritual warfare. So you pray, Lord, cast away Satan. Warm my affections for you. Give me perseverance. The common ways that I might stumble yet because of my remaining sin, give me grace to overcome them. Lord, give me grace to take pain for you, but to always and only receive your gospel with faith and love. Help me depend on your Spirit who gives life with the Word. And then every time you hear, believe. Believe and receive the glad tidings of the kingdom of heaven. Every time the word comes, God is feeding his people. He's saying, the father is saying, I've sent my son, here is my son. The son is saying, come to me, all you laboring or heavy laden. I will give you rest. The Son is proclaiming his goodness and his grace and his power and his mercy and his love that you would be fruitful in the kingdom. Hear, remember, believe, and live. Let's pray. Lord our God, we thank you for your word. We pray for your spirit's help that we would hear with true understanding. We pray that you would give us a keener eye for the advance of your kingdom in the world and the support of the same through preaching. Lord, we ask that you would give us greater comfort in your promises and in your faithfulness to continue to speak to us as your people. We also pray, O God, that the kingdom of darkness which labors against the advance and understanding and reception of this word would be frustrated, especially here this morning. Take your word again today as a token of your love to us, your kindness towards us. We pray that we might honor you by it as you continue to advance your kingdom, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Look up now and receive the blessing of the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. Amen.