We'll now read from God's Word, so I would ask you to please stand with me and turn with me to Psalm 34, as we read verses 1-9 together. Psalm 34, verses 1-9. Beginning in verse 1, I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him. Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints. There is no want to those who fear Him." May God add a blessing to the reading of His Word. And now would you turn with me in the New Testament to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. And we'll just read verses 5 and 6. Hebrews chapter 11, verses 5 and 6. By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God, But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. All flesh is like grass, and all of its glory is like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever." And all of God's children said, Amen. Please be seated. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is a lamp unto our feet. And we thank you, Heavenly Father, that we are now given the privilege to look into it and to discover what it means and to apply it to our life. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that like children, we would simply hear from you and believe you. Pray, Heavenly Father, that you would work in our hearts, our minds, and our ears. We pray these things in your precious Son, Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. I'd like to invite you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 5. Genesis chapter 5. I have... Entitled this sermon walking with God walking with God Genesis chapter 5 verses 1 to 32 I'd like to begin this morning by reading for you the chapter verses 1 to 32 Beginning in verse 1 chapter 5 this is the book of the genealogy of Adam and In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them and called them mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were 800 years, and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died. And Seth lived 105 years and begot Enosh. After he begot Enosh, Seth lived 807 years, and he had sons and daughters. So all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died. Enosh lived 90 years and begot Canaan. After he begot Canaan, Enosh lived 850 years, 15, excuse me, and he had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. Canaan lived 70 years and begot Mahalal. After he begot Mahalal, Canaan lived 840 years, and he had sons and daughters. So all the days of Canaan were 910 years, and he died. Mahal lived 65 years and begot Jared. After he begot Jared, Mahal lived 830 years and he had sons and daughters. So all the days of Mahal were 895 years and he died. Jared lived 162 years and begot Enoch. After he had begot Enoch, Jared lived 800 years, and he had sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared's Jared were 962 years, and he died. Enoch lived 65 years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years, and he had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Methuselah lived 187 years and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had sons and daughters. In all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he died. Lamech lived 182 years and had a son, and he called his name Noah, saying, This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed. After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and he had sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth." May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. I know that reading all of those names was as exciting for you as it was for me, amen? A list of names that make up genealogies such as we have here in chapter 5 is not the most exciting portion of Scripture in the Bible. But when Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.16 that all Scripture, including the genealogies, is given by inspiration, to teach us doctrine, to reprove us, to correct us, to instruct us. Therefore, these genealogies play an important role in redemptive history. Genesis chapters 1 through 11 contains four chapters that are such genealogies. You can find them in chapter 4, you see it here, chapter 5, and again in chapters 10 and 11. The main purpose of these genealogies is to show lines of progression in redemptive history between one era and another that link historical and significant events whereby God is continuing on in the work of or through the covenant of grace. Remember, we talked about the eternal covenant of redemption, where God, the Trinity, before creation had been created, discusses amongst themselves what each of the members of the Trinity will do to bring about this people that God is electing that will be His people. They will call Him their God. who will be saved, regenerated by the work of the Spirit, and therefore live as His people until He calls them home. The Father elects these individuals to this salvation. The Son purchases their salvation on the cross, and the Spirit works in our hearts. He began it here, in the book of Genesis, and it is by this same work that God continues to call sinners from their sins into this glorious relationship with Him. Genesis 5, going back to Genesis 3, verse 15, is the direct result of the Father who has chosen certain individuals to be His sons and daughters who are looking forward to the day that the Messiah will come into this world, He will live a sinless life, He will suffer and die, and then the Father will raise Him where He now sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, whereas we who come after the resurrection of Jesus Christ also trust the promised Son. Jesus Christ will come into the world, he will suffer and die for us no differently than these people looked forward to when he finally arrived. It isn't a philosophical idea simply that God is choosing certain individuals to make His people. The idea here of Genesis 5 and the family line of Adam, including Seth and all of his kids and grandkids and so on, it is reality, that this is the way God works. God works in the hearts of both individuals through the proclamation of the Gospel and through families, where the patriarch preaches the Gospel to his family, and we see through love and kindness and affection and so on, we see our children, although not every time, but our children and our grandchildren come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And what we're looking at here in Genesis chapter 5 is God working by His grace according to the covenant of grace in this family. James Boyce describes these men and women in both the Adamic and the Seth genealogy. He says, these men and women were pillars of faith in an increasingly godless age. They stood for God with such tenacity in such a way that their names have been preserved for future generations. So this issue that we are tackling, I realize that genealogy texts are not what you would call the most exciting texts in all of scripture. They are nevertheless important precisely because God in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 made the promise to the serpent that there would be a seed that would come from his lineage who were doomed to go to hell with him. They were also, though, going to be a seed that comes through the woman who would be called out of the darkness of this world and live for His glory. They would trust in the promise that God the Father will send the Son to purchase the salvation of the elect. So this is important, amen? Some of the names are hard and I would encourage you to work on your reading skills at home and learn to pronounce those. They're hard. It's interesting here, this family that is called out by the Lord also perseveres because of the Lord. You see a contrast in Genesis beginning, or at the very beginning, with this line of Canaanites, the family of Cain. Cain kills his brother Abel, and God sends him away. See from chapter 4, verse 6 to 24, that God sends Cain away, And you see this family that he begins to build becomes progressively worse, more rebellious, and they are in fact flagrant, in fact, in their godlessness. At the same time, the other side of this corner is that there is a line of Seth's family And they persevere. They come to know the Lord. In fact, it says, chapter 4, verse 24, And as for Seth, to him also son was born, and he named him Enosh. Then man began to call on the name of the Lord. So there is the Canaanites who are living a godless life. They are the reprobate. They are depraved. There is no desire within them to follow after the Lord. And then there is the seed of the woman who is the family from Seth who does, in fact, repent and believe. One family, two very different trajectories. It's interesting, we look at Matthew chapter 15 verses 3 through 9, you look at the testimony of Pharisees and scribes, men who had been born into the nation of Israel, who prided themselves on their understanding of the law, their ability to take you down through the Mosaic law and to explain it to you point by point, but at the end of the day, even though they had been raised up in this environment, were a group of people that may have intellectually understand the law of God, did not understand the heart of God, that was being taught through the law. Jesus is standing before these men who have done something very tricky. See, in their day, because of the fifth commandment to honor your father and your mother, the men, the families were encouraged to save up money so that when the time came, mom and dad needed more help, you would be able to financially provide for them. You'd be able to take care of them. So what these men knew, they knew the law, excuse me, they knew what they were supposed to do, and instead of keeping that money so that they could honor their father and their mother, do you know what they did? They instead gave it to the local synagogue. You know why they gave it to the local synagogue? Because it made them look pious and spiritual. And so Jesus Christ stands before them saying that although you have grown up in this environment where your spirituality and understanding of me and of the Father in heaven and of God the Holy Spirit was nurtured, you were not called to be mine. So the idea here that We live in a time where Christianity is ostracized. We are hated. point remains that our Father in heaven has still called out his remnant people, the elect of God, and his son Jesus Christ still purchases the salvation of the elect, or he did it once, and the Spirit continues to work in the hearts of his beloved, and what we see here in the family of Adam is that process at the very beginning. Listen to how R.C. Sproul describes this. He says, true Christians can have radical and serious falls, but will never totally and finally fall from grace. You see, people in the faith going through difficulties and lots of questions and pains and frustrations and difficulties, The Lord who has called us from darkness and into this glorious light does not leave us to fend for ourselves and even in this genealogy we see that. Moving forward, although it's difficult to go through point by point through a genealogy, there are nevertheless four emphasis in the genealogy of Adam to Seth and then ultimately to Noah. The first emphasis that we see here is that Adam's true legacy is found in the spiritual heritage he passed on to his descendants through their shared faith. You'll notice, for instance, how this begins. Verse 1, this is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. This word genealogy is the book of the genealogy. Some versions have the word generations. It comes from the Hebrew word Toledot. In English it's T-O-L-E-D-O-T. The point here is that these genealogies, or generations, are the marker of the ten main divisions in the book of Genesis. We see a first one in chapter 2, verse 4. It's entitled, This is the History of the Heavens and the Earth. And now, from chapter 5, verse 1, to chapter 6, verse 8, we have the genealogy of Adam. It is, as we said at the beginning of our study of Genesis, that there are ten stages of history that continue on to this day in which God, in His settled purpose of redemption, God is bringing a people to Himself who will be His people, and to us, He will be our God. This list is the line that goes back to Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. The seed of the woman who are yet another group of who God is bringing to himself are his people. The point is that like he did Cain, Adam is introducing Seth to the Lord our God. But unlike Cain, who was the son of the devil, the reprobate, who did not adhere to his father Seth, I'm sorry, Seth, who was the son of Eve, did listen. He was regenerated by God the Holy Spirit. He was called to be a child of God, and because of the regenerating work of the Spirit in Seth, did believe upon the coming Christ. You'll notice that what is known about Cain and his sons, although he had many, was not a relationship with the Lord, but of their own accomplishments. We go back to chapter 4, verse 16 to 17. We're told that Cain builds a city. A city is ordinarily built to protect yourself and the family and the group that you are creating. He did this, you'll remember, as a means of protection, although God promised to protect him by a divine protection. In other words, Cain decided to build this city because he believed he could protect himself better than our Father in Heaven could. You remember Cain had grandsons and great-grandsons, one of them by the name of Lamech who took two wives. The idea being the beginning of polygamy was that he didn't ask for their hand in marriage, he arrogantly forced them into marriage. It says he took wives. One of their sons, verse 20, was by the name of I'm sorry, one of his wives by the name of Adah had Jabal, and he becomes the father of those who dwell in tents. That is to say, he somehow created in his shepherding job a tent, and he had children and grandchildren who also lived in tents who shepherded the sheep. Verse 21, you meet Jubal. He was the father of those who played the harp and flute. That is to say that he created harps and flutes, and then he had children and grandchildren who also played the harp and the flute. Verse 22, he had a son by the name of Tubal-Cain, who crafted bronze and iron. That is, he had the ability to somehow create bronze, or work with bronze and iron, The issue for this family in Cain is that not that these things were bad in and of themselves, the issue is that they created such things out of a desire to be seen, to be praised, to be important. That's Cain's line. The reprobate. Well, what does it say about Seth's line? Verse 26, chapter 4, then men began to call on the name of the Lord. This does not somehow imply that everyone lived exactly how they ought to live. It doesn't mean that these people didn't innovate as Cain's children did. It does, however, mean that as God faithfully continued in the midst of growing depravity, raised up Adam to teach his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, and his great-great-grandchildren the things of the Lord, and for whatever reason, according to his promise in chapter 3, verse 15, moved in this line that they might know him as their Heavenly Father, that they would look forward to the day where the Son would come and to rescue sinners from their sins. The point here is that Adam faithfully taught his lineage about the Lord. Look at verses 2 and 3 of chapter 5. It says, He created them male and female, that's God, and blessed them and called them mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. Adam is created in the image of God, and so Seth was created both in Adam's likeness, but ultimately is in God's. Even as sin and depravity grows in the world, and the number of people who are depraved grows, all people are still created in the image of God, and God, as He is now, is still very much in the business of bringing His remnant to Himself. That is one of the themes that you see here in the book of Genesis in chapter 5 in the genealogy of Seth. It may not altogether be all that exciting or all that encouraging, except that God didn't make a promise long ago in chapter 3, verse 15, or before the foundation of the world had been created, and then look at us and see our depravity and say to Himself amongst the Trinity, I can't do it. But in reality, because of who he is and his covenantal faithfulness, decides to work in the hearts of men and women, regardless of what it looks like in the world today. There is a hope there for you and I. Amen? that God has not somehow abandoned us. He did not lie by way of deciding that these people are too emotionally distraught or too easily discouraged that I can't work in the hearts of. And what you see as a result of that is Adam's continued desire to proclaim the excellency of his Father in Heaven and the coming Jesus Christ. The point as we look at this. is at the same time not a point regarding guilt parents ought to feel as they look at children who have walked away from the Lord. In other words, parents who are looking to do their best to honor God, who may not have all of the theological lingo or know all of the verses of the Bible, they may not have a perfect amount of patience, and they raise their children by faith, looking to teach their children the way in which they ought to go, nevertheless, we'll sometimes see their children grow up to live in rebellion to that. The point to what Adam did and what Seth did isn't to make us feel guilty because we don't see all of our children come to know the Lord. The reality is that the Father chooses whom He desires for His glory. We simply give of ourselves to our children. We serve them. Sometimes, in the worst pain that we could possibly feel as we see them walk from the Lord, we are nevertheless to lose sight of the fact that God uses us, as flawed as we are, to bring about his purposes. We try We try over, and we try over, and we try over, even when it hurts, because we know that God is still working in the hearts of those whom he has called. Amen? We do this by faith. The second emphasis then that we see in the genealogy of Seth is God's preservation of his remnant people, and that he knows us with an intimate love. Listen to how John Calvin writes concerning the remnant. Quote, in the great prodigious multitude of men, there was always a number, though small, who worshipped God. And this number was wonderfully preserved by celestial guardianship, lest the name of God should entirely obliterate it, and the seed of the church should fail. The issue, as frankly as it was in the first emphasis, is that God sovereignly protects and calls out a remnant people to be his own, even though this world is increasingly becoming more and more evil. We look at this genealogy from Seth to Noah, and we have to realize here that God is the one who is carrying out His great work of salvation, and He is the one who is accomplishing His deeds in history. What would leap out at us is calling them, regenerating them, saving them, does not happen arbitrarily. That means that God doesn't close His eyes and He points down at someone and says, you won today. And then He points down at someone else and says, bingo, you won today. He actually does it knowing the absolute sinfulness of our hearts. He doesn't do it randomly. He rather does it knowing our every in and out, our every thought, our every motivation, every thing we say. He calls us to be His people even though He understands these things about us. One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 139. It says, you have searched me and know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. The point is that these people that God is calling to be his remnant people in a world of increasingly darkness, he calls us, he chooses us, knowing who we are and loving us anyway. John 6, verses 38-40, Jesus says, For I have come down from heaven not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me. that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up in the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up in the last day." Do you understand what that means? that as Jesus Christ leaves glory in heaven, He comes knowing that He is going to suffer and die for this group of people who up until the Spirit works in them is as sinful as everyone else, and He makes the promise that as He dies for them and the Spirit works in them anyway, that He's going to protect them and cause them to persevere and that none of them can be swiped out of His hands. You'll notice this. It says that Adam lived, chapter 5, verse 4, 930 years. Seth, his son, verse 8, 912. Methuselah lived 969 years. The point is that like God knows them, he knows you and I. with as much intimacy as he has known anyone else. He knows our hurts. He knows our victories. He knows our struggles. We may not be known or popular in the world in this side of eternity, but God, the maker of heaven and earth, knows you eternally better than you will ever know yourself or anyone that you care about. John 10, verse 28, And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. Psalm 34, verses 7 and 8, Angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him. God knows us. It may, again, not be that new of an idea, but do you ever take the time to realize that Him knowing you and I as intimately as He does and yet loves us anyway ought to be the most encouraging thing we get to hear? The third emphasis in the genealogy is that like Enosh is close to the Lord, we too are called to be close. Listen again to what Hebrews chapter 11 verses 5 and 6 says about Enoch. It says, that he did not see death, was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God, but without faith it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." You know that Enoch is the seventh figure in the Seth line. And he is one of the Bible's best examples of what living and saving faith looks like. Look at verse 22, chapter 5. It says, "'After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and he had sons and daughters.'" Excuse me, verse 23. "'So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.'" You know this word, walked, that we see a couple of times here in the text, comes from the Hebrew word halak, H-A-L-A-K, halak. It's a word that indicates something very interesting to us. It indicates that Enoch had a very particular communion or intimacy with God. We know theologically, although it doesn't say it here, that the reason that Enoch has this relationship with God is because of the Spirit's work of regenerating in him. But what's interesting about this word in the Hebrew is that it reflects that because of that work that God worked in him, in his heart, that what actually grew was this passionate desire to follow God wherever God was going to go. In other words, it wasn't simply enough to be led by God in some general direction. He wanted to specifically know what God would lead him to do, and he wasn't passive-aggressive about it. He went. He desired to go with God. He desired to learn from God and hear from God. This does not imply or mean that Enoch was somehow without sin. We know that's true because Romans 3.23, Paul writes, all have sinned. But he was a sinner who was regenerated and he had a passionate desire to walk closely with the Lord. Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 to 25, the Apostle Paul writes, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, and if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." In other words, because we have the Spirit, we can have a greater degree intimacy with the Lord. You'll notice here again verse 24 it says, "...and Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him." God took him. The idea is that the Lord in his profound mercy decided to take Enoch up with him before he had died. Elijah was also spared of death. The point here is that like Enoch, who had faith in God, he had faith in the promise of the coming Messiah, was raised up, the resurrection, so to speak, taken up to God in heaven, those who are in Christ Jesus, we will also be raised. We can have that hope. Calvin explained things this way, he says, "...God designed to elevate the minds of His saints with certain faith before their death and to mitigate by this consolation the dread which they might entertain of death, seeing they should know that a better life was elsewhere laid up for them. See, what's encouraging here is that because Enoch had faith with God, he knows that the Son will be sent into the world to suffer and die, that the elect might go to be with him in the resurrection. He took his eyes off of this world and he set them, therefore, on the grace that is to come. Beloved, as things get darker in this world and we see the number of people truly repenting and believing, it can become quite discouraging, can't it? Well, as soon as it does, we fix our eyes upon the author and the perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ, knowing that the day will come where He will take us home. Finally, We see the reality that God will hand out judgment upon sin. A big part of what makes this line the godly line of Eve is the expectation that God will deal with his people's sin on the cross of Christ. His people know, according to the gospel of Christ, that Christ has come into this world to suffer and die, that we, His people, can live in the freedom that our sins are forgiven. We have the promise that there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. There is no work that we can perform that will save us. There is no spiritual ladder of memorizing verses of the Bible or good works that will merit our salvation. There is but trusting Jesus Christ. And we know that. We understand that. We understand, as the people of God, according to the gospel of Christ, that He will bear the full weight of the elect's sins and rebellions against God. The other thing that that does is make it painfully obvious that if someone doesn't know Jesus Christ, that they will receive the full weight of his wrath against them and their sins. Let me show you something that I found rather interesting. Turn with me in the New Testament to the book of Jude. What you'll remember is the last book before Revelation. Jude only has one chapter in it, so Jude chapter 1 And look with me, if you would, at verses 14 through 15. Another wondrous thing about Enoch and his character is desire to see others come to know the Lord our God as he does. Jude chapter 1, verses 14 and 15. It says there, Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Because Scripture interprets Scripture, it sheds light on what other passages that may be more difficult to understand mean, what we see here in Enoch is not only is Enoch described as having an intimate relationship with the Lord, but he was a proclaimer of the coming judgment upon those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Messiah. He proclaims the coming of the Lord with 10,000 of His saints. The picture here of Enoch proclaiming the word of the Lord is not only what is coming in Genesis chapter 6 with the flood, but that the Son of God, the Messiah, will come, and when He comes, He comes to take His bride home with Him, and He is a judge on the living and the dead of those who don't know Him. The idea here is that not only are you and I supposed to live in this day and age living by faith, looking to bring our minds and our hearts into conformity with Jesus Christ because he is worthy of our work in that direction. It is that you and I are also called to proclaim the coming of the Lord. Because by faith in that, we are calling sinners to repent and trust Jesus Christ. To wrap this up very briefly, We see in the genealogy of Genesis, of Adam to Noah, the marker of God continuing on in His calling of His people to be His people, to whom He will be their God. We see that God has called us as parents and grandparents and great-grandparents to fight the good fight of faith and teach our children all that God has revealed to us in His Holy Word. And realizing that, we see that the outcome of that responsibility is not ours to ensure. We are simply doing so by faith. Secondly, that God is faithfully bringing His people to Himself, and there is and always will be a remnant people of God. And we can rest in the fact that although society may look like it's growing in wickedness, God will nevertheless cause us, His people, to persevere and to come to Him in faith. Thirdly, that although the number of His elect may be small, our names may not be listed somewhere in the Bible, that we are as important to God as these people are. And finally, that God will judge sin, and like Enoch, we are called to proclaim the coming of the Lord. I'd like to add one other thing here by way of application One of the things that made this group so profound is how utterly different they were than the world around them. Look at the lineage of Cain, the Canaanites, as they're called. And the people of God look nothing like the people of the Canaanites, those who are following after the wickedness of the devil. But how differently are we living our lives than the world that we live in? We can't miss this in all of this. God isn't looking to clobber us. He isn't looking to beat us down because of our shortcomings. What He is, however, looking for us to do as we examine God's Word is to humbly and readily admit that we do, in fact, fall short of His glory because we're never going to live up to everything that we're called in His Word. But do we even want to? Is that even on our radar? Do we even have a soft heart when it comes to sitting at his word and hearing it proclaimed or taught? Are our hearts and minds ready to submit ourselves to the authority of Jesus Christ? Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what you have called us to be. We ask, Heavenly Father, that you would allow us, by your grace, to humble ourselves before you if we need to, and to, as always, start again. Lord, that it would be said of us that we do, in fact, live very differently than the world, that we are fully and completely aware that it isn't by our work that we're persevering, that we have seen radical transformation in our hearts and minds, and that we do live differently, not because of something we've done, but because of His grace. I pray, Heavenly Father, that it would be to Your glory. We pray that You would help us to honor You. For it is in Your precious name we pray. Amen.