We Beloved, we gather here because we want to worship God as He has called us to worship Him. That is to say, we want to worship God the way God wants Him to be worshipped. We come here with that in our hearts. We come with that as our desire. And this is a good thing. We even structure our liturgies in such a way so we keep all the elements, lest we forget or lest we push one aside. We structure our liturgy in such a way that we protect ourselves to keep everything that God wants us to bring in worship. We do this in how we pattern our lives too. We read God's word and we seek what he wants and we let him conform us by his word day by day. By this way, we know we have confidence because God tells us that we have comfort in coming to Him. But today, we are looking at a passage that's the opposite. This man did the opposite of what we naturally hear of God's people desire. It's an example and a warning to us of a man who disregards the second commandment entirely. The guiding principle found therein, he doesn't even seem to consider. Jeroboam, the main man of the passage, will be revealed to us as a false king who establishes false worship. Our theme then will be based upon Jeroboam's actions throughout this passage as false king and false worship is established. Again, our theme will be false king, false worship. He's revealed to be the king standing against the true king who has promised to come. He forms himself as an anti-king against the kingdom of God. He's making for himself an anti-kingdom of God then. He is revealed not as a servant of God, but as a servant of the kingdom of darkness and the one who rules over it. He serves that commander. And some of the things he does, we may look at it briefly and think, oh, this is small. But we will see that this is a war for souls in this passage, a war of kingdoms, one that is trying to rip people away from the line that is promised, the one true king who would establish the kingdom of God for God's people to come into his presence gladly. Our proposition then for us today is to let us keep worship pure, as God instituted, because God will bless it as he blesses us. We'll go through three points today. First, we'll look at the fall of a king, fall of the king Jeroboam specifically. Our first point will be this fall of the king. Our second point will be a good commandment, a good commandment. As we're looking at how the second commandment is God given to us, this safeguard, a net of security. As God has made one way of salvation for his people, he also gives a commandment, a guiding principle for us to stay on the narrow, straight path for worship. And thirdly, we'll look at the good news. Most of this passage is gonna be focusing on Jeroboam's folly But we will end by talking about the true king with pure worship. Our final point will be true king, pure worship. Beginning our passage looking at the fall of a king. He, Jeroboam, that is, has just taken the 11 tribes from Rehoboam, yeah, 11 tribes from Rehoboam, who has been acting as a fool himself. And even in the house of David, a rebellion was rising. And Rehoboam had mustered up troops to try and retake what God had given him. But the Lord sent a prophet and say, no, don't fight against your brothers. I will deal with them. And he sends, we'll see even after this passage that we're reading today, he sends a prophet to go speak to them, to call them to repent. But what we see Jeroboam doing here is he's established as a king of these 11 tribes. And that's where we find ourselves in verse 25 where it says, then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and he lived there. And again, this action may seem innocent at the front because it seems like he's doing what any natural king would do. He'd be building a place for himself to live. He'd be building up cities. He'd be making fortifications for his people, granting them security. This is what a king ought to do. These are natural things that a king would do. The problem isn't necessarily that it's wrong to build a fortification, it's why. Why is he building up these fortifications? Why is he establishing a place like Jerusalem now in Shechem? It's because he desires a permanent separation from the house of David and the promises therein. What promises? We should note these promises, one namely from Abraham, which has been developed into David's covenant, one that a seed would become a blessing to all nations. And that seed is from the house of David, the one who would establish an eternal throne and a kingdom of God's people with his presence living among them comfortably forever. This promise, Jeroboam is being shown to be turning his face on and even desiring or fearing that those promises will come to pass because he's building his own kingdom right now. Throughout the rest of this passage, you're gonna see Jeroboam made in quotation because he is the one who's doing it, it's not God. Jeroboam made, Jeroboam made, Jeroboam made. He's building his own kingdom, not God's. He is turning his back on the promises of David. And if we keep reading, the next few verses, rarely do we see in scripture the insight into the heart of a man. But here God gives us the insight to what Jeroboam was saying in himself. Jeroboam, from his heart, said this. If this people, sorry, now the kingdom will return to the house of David. If they go up, and offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem. What is his fear? The Lord has given us an insight into his heart, and it says his fear is that the people will return to the house of David where the promises are if they keep pure worship. If they continue to worship God as God has instructed for their time, they will return. He's afraid of authentic worship. It shows in his heart, confirming what I was saying about him, his concern is not for the things of God or the plan of God. His concern is for himself and his kingdom. His fear is to self-preservation. What we see in this passage, positively speaking, is God has promised to bless true worship the way that he has instituted it. God will bless it. He will return, heal hardened hearts, even against Rehoboam, it says. He will cause men to repent and turn unto him if his covenant is administrated properly in truth and sincerity. Jeroboam here has an excellent opportunity as he sees the people worshiping as they've been called to say, this is not how things are supposed to be. I hope, I pray, Lord, return this people to a good and righteous king. from the house of David, who will reign as promised in righteousness and justice for all men, that all the nations would be blessed and come to fear him and be blessed underneath him in his reign, and that God would dwell in his people forever. That should have been his hope. But his motives, as we see, were directly opposed to the kingdom of God and the plan of God. Instead of delighting to see what God being worshipped, the living God that is, being worshipped truly and purely. He's putting his all now to change that. So instead of restoration, he conspires. Look what he does next. It says he consulted, obviously with earthly men, as we see what his plan comes to be as he's making golden calves, but he conspires against the Lord and his anointed one in the house of David. Reminds me of Psalm 2. The nations, the world, seems to do this against the Lord and his anointed. So as any standard false king with false wisdom, he seeks earthly wisdom now to save himself, and he perverts true worship. We can see it hindsight. a heinous evil of his ways. We can see that this was not wisdom. It was not just a turning away from the promises of David, but it was just pure folly. No fear of the Lord before his eyes. He's standing in scripture, and he's hoping against the hope of the promises of God, hoping that God will not complete what he has promised, essentially. He's establishing a fake Jerusalem with a heart of fear for true worship, with earthly wisdom for things that perish, continues to show himself to be a servant of the kingdom of darkness. As we see, he continues on building these golden calves fashioned by his own hands. Not a true living God, but a golden calf. As we read Exodus 20, verses four through six, it very plainly, explicitly says, you shall not make an image of God, anything in heaven above, on earth below or under the earth, in the waters beneath. Jeroboam's explicitly breaking this command, disregard for God's commandment on how to be worshiped. He made these two calves because he needed to draw the people to something that would stir them away from the living God. And look at the words that he uses. Look at the words that he uses to draw them away. persuasive comfort. Comfort is what he uses, but a deceitful comfort, right? Too long have you gone to Jerusalem. It's too much for you to go to Jerusalem. Isn't that a long distance? Look, I will make for you a place for you to go. I will make a God that you can see and come to here in Bethel and in Dan. These persuasive words of comfort led the people astray. Not only is he a king going into sin himself, but he's a king seeking to lead the kingdom into sin. And so the passage says here, it became a sin. This thing became a sin to the people. Verse 30, what does it mean it became a sin to the people? Well, it should be ringing hopefully in our ears, the events of Exodus 32. Moses had gone up to the mountain with Joshua, Mount Sinai, to receive the tablets from their Lord, who was making the covenant with them. Moses tarries a little while, and the people come before Aaron, and they demand, give us a God to worship. Moses has surely perished, he's gone, he hasn't come back to us. Well, Aaron goes ahead and fashions a God of gold for them, a God of man's making. Moses comes down that mountain, and what happens? Joshua says to him, I hear a sound of war. And surely it was, spiritually speaking. Moses says, I do not hear a sound of victory, but a sound of defeat. I hear them singing. Moses declares that they're singing in the camps. Their joy before this false form of worship was of defeat before the kingdom of darkness. And the consequence we see not only just temporally for these men, but those who were hardened in their ways, who stood with the idol instead and wanted to keep in their ways. It says the Lord responded in judgment and they were written out of the Lord's book of life. They were written out of the Lord's book. So we see this is no small thing that Jeroboam's doing either. He's leading the people into grand judgment that should they not repent, they will have separated themselves from the living God for a God of gold. We see this, the nothing other than kingdom warfare, spiritually speaking. Jeroboam continues to serve this kingdom of darkness as we see here as he not only gives them this God of gold like they did in Exodus 32, but now he goes and proves himself more as a false king as he establishes a house or a temple, a dwelling place for this false God. Of course, bottled after Jerusalem like everything is. And priests, not of the sons of Levi. Again, we can see with this new priesthood that he's creating, it's nothing different than the rebellion of Korah, thinking that we can be the true priests. And again, what did the Lord treat? How did the Lord respond to Korah and his rebellion in number 16? He did two things. He gave a testimony to the truth of the ministry of Aaron and said, life comes from him as he has life budding on the staff of Aaron of a dead rod. But death came from the faulty priests of Korah as the earth swallowed them whole. God gave a sign there for the people. Life comes from the true priesthood, not from the rebellious one. And sadly, what Jeroboam does doesn't end there. He keeps going. He must pattern everything, so he has an entire religion looking just like, just like the one that's established in Jerusalem. Jeroboam is a false king, now with false worship to a false god, with a false temple, with false priests, now, establishes an entire new false religion with its own festivals and times, and new sacrifices for them. We see, you can scour the scriptures for this feast on the eighth month of the 15th day, there is none. There's no festival to be done on this day. The only thing relatively close, especially with the passage saying, like the one that was in Judah, is the one that was on the seventh day of the 15th month, or excuse me, the seventh month on the 15th day of that month. This is him basically making a disregard for the Day of Atonement that was being celebrated in the Feast of Tabernacles. The Day of Atonement had just occurred and then the next celebration that comes right after it, it's the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. which is a reminder of the deliverance that God brought the people out of Egypt, atoned for their sins, and then led them through the wilderness, 40 years, and into the promised land. He disregards this, makes his own, changes times and seasons, like Daniel 7.25 speaks of, an enemy of the Most High, intending to change laws, times, seasons, in other words, the festivals. Daniel perhaps looking back and forward at the same time, the man of lawlessness, the true enemy of God's people, the king of the kingdom of darkness, the devil himself. Jeroboam shows himself a shadow, a type, one who is giving himself as a servant to such reign and putting the people into such bondage to that darkness. But not only the festival, we look that he himself led led up a sacrifice on this religion that he made. A false king with false priests, with a false temple, with a false festival, now with a false sacrifice. Bringing a strange fire before the altar of God is a dangerous thing. We've learned that from a Leviticus 10. Nehab and Abihu who brought this strange fire were consumed. And all Aaron could do in response was to keep his peace. As he complained to Moses, he said, you're right. He did not obey the Lord. All this shows us how deep the fall of Jeroboam was by neglecting one command, the second commandment and the principles that are therein. He did not heed the warning that God was a jealous God. He alone is worthy. honor and praise. He did not heed the implicit command, the implicit command, that we should not worship God in any way that God did not prescribe. We should not add nor take away from what he has given for us to do. This gives us all the concern and care in our hearts today, beloved, that we should learn and heed the danger of persuasive words of comfort, of things that are lookalikes, And we should be zealous to keep God's worship pure as a way that he's instituted because he will bless it as our passage has said. And we can see also the danger of the warning of what Jeroboam has just done. We see that this people was in bondage. for over a thousand years because of this. Israel is never recorded in the Old Testament to return to Jerusalem. We see that it lasted even to Jesus' day. John 4, 24, a woman at the well, what's her question? It's this problem right here. The damage that Jeroboam caused was catastrophic, and it led a people into bondage to be away from their God. to ensnare them into the kingdom of darkness grasps, deceived by the lie. Let us, beloved, heed this warning and be zealous for the truth and the pure worship of our God, for God will bless it, and God will keep his people pure as we worship him in purity, according to the truth that he has revealed. I want to move on to the second point, a good commandment, good commandment. And I want to use the confession to help us as we look at this. Specifically, question, Hatterberg question and answer 96. It asks for us, what is required in the second commandment? This answer says that we in no way make any image of God, nor worship him in any way other than has been commanded in God's word. We see the catechism is taking the principle, one that I read earlier in the scripture reading. It's taking the principle that is laid out for us. It's through Deuteronomy, Moses is explaining God's law to the people once again. And as he comes to Deuteronomy 12, 31, he's giving them a warning. God has given you a way to worship him. Abide by it. Don't think that you're wiser than God, is our confession, question 98 says. Don't think that you should be wiser than God and create your own form of worship, but seek to know how to worship him as he has given to you. Do not add to it or to take away from it. And we should observe where we are in this catechism too. The Hatterberg Catechism, we have reached the gratitude section. Why I say this is a good commandment Why it's a good commandment is because of what we know has come before. We are a sinful people. We cannot come before God on our own. We need God to redeem us. We need God to purify us, to cleanse us, to cure us of our sinfulness and our sinful hearts that are often going astray, that are often, as Calvin says, factories for idols. We need God to cure us. We need God to defend us. We need God to cleanse us. We need God to save. And God has given away, but his law was given also as a tutor to us to tell us the way we ought to go and the way we ought to do this. Until we look to the perfect one who came and completed that deliverance. We should not then seek to make any custom of our own a law that must be made for worship. We can see that good intentions can be detrimental in our worship because it would lead astray if it's not found according to liberty given to us in God's word. We also see within the commandment, God is a jealous God. If you read it, he gives a reasoning behind this commandment. As to why, as the Hatterberg Catechism says, we shouldn't add or take away, it answers why in the commandment itself. Because I am a jealous God. Meaning, he seeks the worship that he is worthy of. Romans 11.36 says this, all things are of him, through him, and to him. To him be the glory forever and ever, amen. This God, the living God, is the only one worthy of our praise and honor. So God gives this commandment then, because he's a jealous God, and he's the only one who's worthy of being praised. And he gives it then as a protection, a safeguard, a net for you and me, because God is trying to keep us away from the self-destructive worship which invokes judgment, because it's actually, even though it could be with good intentions, it's actually idolatry, a fake form of religion. We see that God states his fervent zeal for his own worship as he sees worship in any other form than the way that he's instituted, a spiritual prostitution, as the Westminster says. And so, beloved, we ought to seek to keep it because he's a jealous God, but also, Not just because of that, but because we in the New Testament have a very clear picture of the true King and the pure worship that has been given through Christ. This law is a safeguard in the sake that it points us to Christ. The law points us to our Savior. It's a good commandment in this way, and why we would not want to add or take away as the catechism says, because by it we look to Christ. I want to look at the Westminster Larger Catechism, question and answer 34. If you want to look at it, it's on page 943 in your Trinity Psalter hymnal. I don't plan to be there very long, but I think it has a good element to help us understand this comparison of Jeroboam and how he broke this adding or taking away, as our catechism says. and how awful it truly was, because this is, in the Old Testament, this is how God instituted it. The question is, how did God institute the administration of the covenant of grace in the Old Testament? The answer is, by the promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, and Passover, along with all the other ordinances which did foresignify Christ, then to come. They were at that time sufficient to build up the elect in the faith, in the promise to Messiah, by whom we have complete remission of sin and eternal salvation. What this is saying is that the commandments given, the ordinances given of God in pure worship, were given by God in the Old Testament, and likewise with the new, not these same elements, but different elements, were given by God to build up their faith. And so we look and we compare what Jeroboam's doing to these things that we see, the promises. What did Jeroboam do? He feared the promises and turned away from them. He turned the people away from the promises as well, hoping that they would never again return to the house of David where the promises lie, where the one true King would come, the Christ who is foresignified through that promise, who would establish the kingdom eternal and a people dwelling with their God forever. Again, what does Jeroboam do? Does he promote the living God? No. No, instead of pointing towards the true king who has the living God dwelling among them, he does what? He acts as a false king and makes a new temple and new gods within it. Instead of a living God, they have dumb idols that can't even speak, with prophets that can't prophesy truth. in his making of the new altars, the new places for sacrifices, we see he rejects the one true place where Christ would come, a temple, not made by human hands, but where he would shed his precious blood to atone for our sins, and there before the Father would continue to intercede for us eternally. By anointing different priests, he denies the priesthood that would be appointed to Christ Saying he can appoint himself. Denying what Hebrews 5 says about it, no man appoints himself. Forsaking the promises, such as Psalm 110, he's a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Or even Isaiah 42. He is, there is a servant coming, the anointed one, in whom my soul delights, says the Lord. Who will preach the gospel, bind up broken hearts, We see in his new sacrifice and festival, he's blatantly, again, breaking all this, as he is rejecting that in the fullness of time, there would be a true king with a perfect sacrifice to atone for sin. And he has led the people against every one of these administrations that would forsignify Christ and build up the elect in their faith, and he's turning them against them. We can relate this to the New Testament in this way. All these ordinances, obviously, have passed away as Christ has fulfilled them, and we look to Christ who has done them already. The New Testament, as the West, excuse me, the Hatterberg Catechism, question 98, alludes to, it says we ought not to be wiser than God. It says this, he wants the Christian community in what? Through the living preaching word. The word of God is one of, not the only, but the preaching God's Word, the reading of God's Word, is to be administrated in this New Testament era, and it is effectual to build up the elect in faith, and to cause the nations to turn to this one true King. And we, beloved, can have confidence, which is why we're here. We can have confidence that God's Word will do what it's accomplished. It will not return to Him void. Again, we also see a God instituted in the New Testament, covenant of grace, the administration of the sacraments, pure and proper. Two sacraments, baptism in the Lord's Supper, no more, no less. And so these two things, along with prayer and singing, of course, there's this reciprocation of our communication, dialoguing back and forth in our worship together with God. As he speaks to us, we respond in praise. These elements of worship cannot be neglected. Jeroboam, in his time, what he is doing is essentially removing the Word of God by appointing false mouths to speak God's Word as false priests and false prophets in God's place. God is removing the sacraments, or excuse me, Jeroboam the servant of the kingdom of darkness, is removing the sacraments by turning to different sacrifices, implementing lookalikes, you could say, lookalikes of the sacraments that were proper. And instead of true praise to God, it's a praise of their own self, their own kingdom, their own making of religion. Beloved, we see these kinds of things today, and we should beware. We should beware, because there are, and I have talked to men, who see no value in the preaching, no value in God's Word coming forth. Instead, they apologize for God's Word being proclaimed, and they say, in just a moment, I'll give you this movie, but just for five minutes, let me speak. Let it not be. Or they turn aside to cheap entertainment on a stage. Let it not be. I've seen men, who've decided that they have the ability and the right to add new sacraments. I personally, and I did participate and I repented of this, but they came and they brought this big old wooden cross and they told them that by this sign and this new seal, they have a new assurance that if they were to write all their sins down on a piece of paper and nail it to this wooden board that he brought in, they would be saved. It's idolatry. It's idolatry. I learned from that. We cast down the idols. And we also have men who come as wolves with sheep's clothing, leaders that speak to us with persuasive words, words that we want to hear, that make us feel good. But they are not willing to speak God's word, God's truth, and proclaim to you what you need to hear. That would pierce your hearts that you might live. Our chief love, beloved, is God. And we want to worship him in truth and in spirit, a spirit made alive by his power for his glory. So beloved, I hope as we're looking at this, we can see the goodness of our God to give us his commandment that keeps us safe, fixing our eyes on Christ. I also hope that we have the zeal for God's pure administration in the New Testament too. I also pray and hope that among us, we would be aware of the subtle tricks of our enemies. To speak persuasive words like Jeroboam is too difficult for you. We would not be given into new sacraments that seem really good because they're lookalikes. They tell us about, you know, the one who saves, but they're entirely new implements of worship that were not instituted by God. The evil one wants to pervert the truth. He wants to pervert true worship. So let us stand firm with the word of God and say, thus saith the Lord. Let us work for his kingdom, pointing to the true Savior and the true King, which is our final point. Our final point, the true King, pure worship. We can look around today, be dismayed by some of the things that we hear from other churches that have gone out by themselves or some non-denominationals or some even churches that we were once acquainted with. And we can be dismayed by some of the errors that they're going into now as they've disregarded God's word and God's institution and government for his church. We can be dismayed and ask, is there hope? Is there good news? What about them today who have gone in the way of Jeroboam's kingdom? What about them who have forsaken the pure administration of God's covenant of grace? There is good news. There is good news for us because there is a true king who's not done yet. There's a true king who is constantly, by his word, administrating pure worship. He gives us the spirit, of course, to be with us and empowers his believers to break down that kingdom of darkness by the preaching of the living word of God. And unlike Jeroboam, we have a true king who established true worship, who came to like that woman at the well, and does come to people like that woman at the well. And the bondage of the kingdom of darkness comes to set them free. unlike Jeroboam and those of Jeroboam's kingdom and his ways who try to build fortifications to try to keep God's people out of the true promises and away from true worship. Our King Jesus comes down tearing every wall and barrier that our enemy has built up. Our enemy being the devil, of course, perverting and twisting the truth and deceiving men, blinding them. He tears down those walls. He breaks through the fortifications. He pierces into the hearts of men to set them free. He himself did this when he came. It says in Colossians 2.15. He disarmed all the rulers and principalities and gained the victory, bringing them all to open shame. And he does it today through those whom he has made alive by the Spirit to preach his word. Unlike Jeroboam's kingdom and Jeroboam's ways, who was a concern only for himself, our king came as a true servant for you and me. He came humbled beyond belief, beyond what you and I can compare. He was humbled to the point of death, obedient to the point of the cross, serving his father and washing us clean. He comes as a servant king. Not like Jeroboam. And Jeroboam's kingdom and pattern, which is self-preservation in selfish ways and leading the people to do the same. He comes to unite us to the true living God, who unlike Jeroboam, has set the people to worship a dumb idol of gold. And Jesus, as he prays in John 17, we see this. He has come to unite you and me Our God and King in heaven, our Father in heaven, that He would be one, we would be one with Him, even as the Father is one with Him. That we would walk in righteousness with Him. And we can be assured of this, that as sure as we know that God has the power to break through the kingdom of darkness and release even people today who have gone astray, cause them to repent, cause heart and hearts to be set free, we who have been set free, we know that no sin, no war, no sword, no ruler, no principalities, no deceiver, no heights nor depth, Not even death nor the gates of hell can keep us from Christ Jesus and our King in heaven. We will never be lost nor forsaken. He will keep us forever for nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. He has come as a champion of our salvation, a servant for me and you, to draw us away from dumb idols on earth that we would give our lives for, to live for the living God, who is worthy of all of our praise and honor. He comes as the true priest, appointed by God himself, according to the order of Melchizedek, to offer the spotless, pure blood of himself before the temple, before God in the temple, not made with human hands, in heaven, Unlike Jeroboam's kingdom, which would tear you away, Jesus did not despise the cross for you and me. But as the servant king, as the great high priest, he makes a true sacrifice for sin. And this perfect king makes this perfect sacrifice that will wash all of our sins away. And those for tomorrow, too, who hear this word, too, they can be set free from that kingdom of darkness, too. We have seen God's word today, that God blesses proper worship, and he will use it, and Christ who came is the one who applies it by his Spirit. Let us then keep in conclusion, let us keep pure administration of Christ that he has established for us, the pure worship that he has given us. For he will bless it and he will continue day by day to cause the hearts even of evil men or deceived men to turn unto the Lord in fear and be saved. He will cause the hearts of children to return to their father. He will lead us into life everlasting with Him. He will bring us into His kingdom of glory that is coming. And He will conquer all His enemies. He will hide us, beloved, in the shadow of the Almighty, that no threat could endanger us. Our enemy can conspire and turn against us, but we have a champion of a king who will defend us. Let us always guard and protect our ways to be true, looking to him at all times, for he is the one who guards and protects you. Amen. Let us pray. God, you are an amazing God, full of glory and strength. You came to save people out of a kingdom of darkness into your glorious light. I pray that we would be confident in your sacrifice for us and your power to save those in the kingdom of darkness still today. Lord, I pray that you would take this word, put it in our hearts, that we might not sin against you. I pray that we would see your commandment as one that is good for us, that we would not seek to add or take away anything that you have given us to do. Lord, I pray that you'd put a zeal, make our hearts be a blazing fire, that we would be proclaiming the excellency of you who brought us out of darkness into your marvelous light. We ask this for your glory's sake. In Jesus' name, amen. Let us respond in praise and faith to our God and King. Trinity Psalter, hymnal 22D. 22D. The ends of the earth shall hear. The ends of all the earth shall hear, excuse me. 22D. You. ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ Alleluia. Alleluia. ♪ O say can you see, by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ The Lord is come ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ so Pray for God's parting blessing as we go. Lord, that we ask that you bless us and keep us. Lord, make your face to shine upon us and be gracious to us. Lord, lift up your countenance upon us and give us peace. We pray this in the name of Jesus, amen.