Our scripture lesson tonight comes from the book of Isaiah chapter 30. Isaiah chapter 30, hear now the word of our God. Stubborn children, declares the Lord, who carry out a plan, but not mine. and to make an alliance, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin, who set out to go down to Egypt without asking for my direction to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation. For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanaz, everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace. An Oracle on the Beasts of the Negev through a land of trouble and anguish from where come the lioness and the lion the adder and the flying fiery serpent they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels to a people that cannot profit them Egypt's help is worthless and empty therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still and now go write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever, for they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord, who say to the seers, do not see, and to the prophets, do not prophesy to us what is right, speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel. Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them Therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall bulging out and about to collapse Whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant and it's breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly That among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth or to dip up water out of the cistern For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you were unwilling, and you said, no, we will flee upon horses. Therefore you shall flee away. And we will ride upon swift steeds. Therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one, and at the threat of five you shall flee till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem. You shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, Be gone! And He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water in the day of the great slaughter when towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun and the light of the sun will be sevenfold as the light of seven days in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow. Behold, The name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with his anger and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of fury and his tongue is like a devouring fire. His breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray. you shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept and gladness of heart as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord to the rock of Israel and the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire with cloudburst and storm and hailstones the Assyrians will be terror stricken at the voice of the Lord when he strikes with his rod and every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. For a burning place has long been prepared, indeed, for the king it has made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it." This is the word of the Lord. I've been suggesting over the last couple chapters that chapters 28 through 35 are really all about the futility of trusting in Egypt. And well, here you start to see it was all done in pictures in 28 and 29, but in chapter 30, oh, there's a lot of pictures here, but it's made more explicit. Don't trust in Egypt. When you face difficulty, when you face trouble, when you're in the midst of the brokenness of this life, where do you turn for help? It's so easy to turn to Egypt. It's so easy to turn to the powers of this age because Assyria is coming. It's the relentless theme of really chapters 1 through 35. This was the message of Isaiah in the early years of his ministry. Assyria is coming. and your only hope is to trust in the Lord because He alone can deliver you from their hand. Tonight we are looking at the woe to the stubborn children and there's a sense in which chapter 30 summarizes the three woes that we've heard in chapters 28 and 29, making explicit what was implicit in the first three woes. Because of the stubborn children, because these stubborn children here are the leaders of Judah, because of this, the house of David is turning away from the Lord. God had said of Israel, Israel is my son, my firstborn. But now, Israel is a stubborn son, a rebellious son. They carry out a plan, but not mine, says the Lord. They make an alliance, but not of my spirit. They prefer to take refuge in Pharaoh rather than in their God. And if you think about what we celebrate at Easter and the backdrop of the Passover, it's really a silly thing to trust in Pharaoh. In Deuteronomy, God had said not to return to Egypt, which, sure, it was included literally in terms of don't go back to Egypt, but it meant don't trust in Egypt, don't put your hope in Egypt, don't look to them for your military support. Now, it's worth remembering I think it's easy for us to forget we live in the most powerful country in the world so we don't really think of if we're feeling like we're sort of small and insignificant and threatened by foreign nations, who would we turn to? So just imagine yourself in a small country surrounded by enemies and where do you turn? Who do you look for and who does your king look to? Who do your leaders look to when they're in trouble? Because the Assyrians are coming. Jerusalem does not have the political or military power to stand up to Assyria. What should they do? Should they surrender? Or should they look for allies who can help them? Those look like the two options. And from a human standpoint, those are the two options. Either you, well, I guess there's a third option. You could just get squashed. But if you take that option, you're all gonna die. So that's not an option. And yet Isaiah is telling you, trust the Lord. He'll deliver you. Isaiah, have you seen these armies? They've squashed every other country and we're this little itty bitty tiny country. We got no military. We got a little military, but it's not much. Nothing to stand up against the Assyrians. How are we going to withstand this? And the Egyptians? The Egyptians have been fighting off the Assyrians for centuries. They've got the military. They've got the strength. So this is where it's really easy to look around you and see, ah, this power, this will support me, this will strengthen me, this will help me. But the shelter of Egypt shall turn to your shame. Verses 3 and following. Because everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace. And this is where when we put our trust, I think it's easy to see the sort of the political parallels. When you put your trust in a political party, when you put your trust in sort of that this is what, if only we elect this politician, then that will save us. Yeah, well, that's the way that Jerusalem is thinking right now. And Isaiah says, no earthly power is able to rescue you. Verses six and seven then give a vivid picture of the futility of Egypt's assistance. The oracle on the beasts of the Negev. The Negev is the southern part of Judah. It's basically you have to go through the Negev to get to Egypt. So the oracle on the beasts of the Negev is when you send your caravan down to Egypt in order to give them whatever gold and silver, in order to say, hey, can we ally with you? Will you come protect us? You're going to send a caravan of beasts. So the beasts of the Negev, this is the caravan that Jerusalem sends down to Egypt. through a land of trouble and anguish from where come the lioness and the lion as you're going to the Negev. The Negev will have wild animals, adders, flying fiery serpents. They carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, their treasures on the humps of camels to a people that cannot profit them. Egypt's help is worthless and empty. Therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still. Now, probably when you see Rahab, you're thinking, Rahab? Wait, isn't that the Canaanite woman who, the prostitute who wound up believing in the Lord and being saved, spelled differently? It's not the same Rahab? Rahab is the name of a mythical beast. Later on in Isaiah 51, Isaiah will refer to God slaying Rahab as a way of referring to God's triumph over Egypt at the Red Sea when he dried up the sea to allow his people to escape the land of death. So to call Egypt Rahab is to speak of the might and power of Egypt. Imagine, if you will, a great sea monster lying in the Nile River. That's actually the image that Ezekiel will use in Ezekiel 29. There's a great sea monster, which in the ancient mythologies of the ancient world, they would talk about these sea monsters doing battle against the gods. Now, nowhere in scripture does it suggest that these sea monsters could actually battle God. In fact, In Genesis, God talks about creating the Tananim, which were the great sea monsters. And yet, in Genesis, they're just playing and frolicking in the depths. They're not challenging God. They're God's creatures. But some of God's creatures are pretty nasty. Not for him. but for us. And so these great sea monsters that terrify us, just imagine this great sea monster in the Nile River that's just sitting there doing nothing. Rahab who sits still, the great sea monster who kind of never gets around to doing anything. It's as scary as a stone dragon. Which means to enter an alliance with Egypt is, well, to make a covenant with death. as we heard in chapter 28, that cannot possibly succeed because this sea monster is not going to protect you. This sea monster won't be there for you. And so God tells Isaiah, now go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. We heard this morning about the book of the covenant and the blood of the covenant. Now here is a book being inscribed as a witness against Israel and it's written down here in the book of Isaiah. We have this book showing that Jerusalem did not heed what God was saying. It's a problem that won't go away because that maybe it's for the time to come as a witness forever, it is still a problem for us. We still have the same tendencies. That's why these warnings in verses 9 through 11 need to be heard by us, not just as, oh, that's what they did, but as a warning to us. For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord. This is the word Torah, the law of the Lord. Children who are unwilling to hear the book of the covenant that we heard about in Exodus 24. They're not willing to hear the law of the Lord. They're unwilling to hear the Torah. Who say to the seers, do not see. And to the prophets, do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us smooth things. Prophesy illusions. Leave the way. Turn the path. Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel. Do we want to hear the truth? I'm tempted to say, I forget whose line this was, but you can't handle the truth. But isn't that so often the way we are? We don't want to hear the truth. We want to hear smooth things. We want easy, comfortable sermons that encourage us to just live the way we want to live. Or do we want to hear what the Holy One of Israel actually calls us to do? And we keep hearing about the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah brings back this name of God which he uses more than anybody else because he was the one who saw the vision of the Lord in the temple. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And as the Holy One, yes, He is high and exalted, but Isaiah is also the one who sees that as the Holy One, He draws near to us because He is determined to draw us near to Himself. The problem is our sin has distanced us from Him. Because if you ignore the Holy One of Israel and despise His Word, therefore thus says, verse 12, the Holy One of Israel, because you despise this Word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them. Notice what happens when you despise the Word. When you despise the Word of the Holy One, the result is invariably that you will trust in oppression and perverseness. It's striking how universal this is. Think about what's happening in our culture. Okay, our culture has agreed. We don't care to hear from the Holy One. So therefore, we want to make the world a better place. Okay, we know how we can make the world a better place. But then there's all these people who are getting in our way. Okay, we've got to stomp them out of the way so that they don't get in the way of making the world a better place. It's one of the things, as I teach my students about Marx, Marx was right when he said that the whole of human history is a history of class oppression and class warfare. Undoubtedly that's true. Here's the problem. It's true. And that's where some people don't seem to have realized that This means that when somebody gets in power, they're going to oppress the people who aren't. It hasn't not yet happened. And so what do we see? Well, the people who are in power now are oppressing the people who don't like what they're doing. It's what happens when you don't trust in the Holy One and hear Him because That means that you've got your own vision of what's right and how to get there. And you will wind up trusting in oppression and perverseness. Perverseness means to go crooked because the only straight path is the path of the Holy One. And so when we rely on crooked paths, when we don't hear His word and we insist on finding our own paths, we leave the straight way and we go down bent ways, crooked ways. And therefore, Isaiah says, this iniquity shall be to you, verse 13, like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. And then he draws back on the language of the potter that he had used in the previous chapter. Its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth or to dip up water out of the cistern. Ordinarily, when a clay pot breaks, it's like, okay, well, okay, there's certain pieces that aren't that useful anymore, but the fragments are still, you could scoop some off the hearth, and the bottom part, well, you could still dip some water out. No, there's nothing left. This shattering of Jerusalem is going to be so thorough and so complete that there will be nothing left. Jesus will use this language of not one stone shall be left on another. The clay vessel, the clay vessel made by the potter, that God himself made, will be so painstakingly crafted, but now is smashed into little pieces. We hear Paul echoing these words in Romans 9 when he asks, What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even for us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? Paul remembered what Isaiah had said about Jerusalem. It was a clay vessel destined for destruction. So, what hope is there? How can we be saved? The answer is found in verses 15 to 17. For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you are unwilling. And you said, no, we will flee upon horses. Jerusalem's only salvation is found in repentance. Turn away from the Egyptian alliance and rest in the Lord. Jerusalem is trusting in the Egyptians and their horses, but the Assyrians will be even faster. Leviticus 26 had promised that if five of you chase a hundred, Five of you could chase a hundred if you're faithful, but Deuteronomy warned that if Israel rebelled, one enemy soldier would put a thousand Israelites to flight. And that's what will happen. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you shall flee till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain. There's a slight inkling of hope. There will be a remnant. Something will be left of Jerusalem. And that's why verse 18 promises that the God of justice will be merciful. Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. Notice how Isaiah says this. The Lord waits to be gracious to you. I know, sometimes you're like, God, you're waiting a little too long. But He understands. He sees the big picture. He looks at everything that's going on. And therefore, He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. Showing mercy is what exalts God. Showing mercy is what exalts the God of justice. Notice that's the next line. For the Lord is a God of justice. So a God of justice who is exalted by showing mercy. Because mercy and justice are not opposed to each other. After all, mercy does not mean letting people get away with murder. It is not merciful to let someone get away with murder. If you think about it literally, that's really, really true. If somebody goes around killing people, it's not merciful to him or to the people he's killing. There's nothing merciful at all about letting people get away with murder. And the same thing is true of sin generally. It's a point that I've often made when you think about if God was tolerant Merciful is important. Tolerant, not so much. If God was sort of like, oh, you know, sin's not a big deal. Just, you know, keep sinning. Do whatever you like. Then we'd be living in a miserable world forever. And there would never be any end to the misery. It is not merciful to let people get away with murder. I mean, what happens to a child if you are merciful and just let him push people around? Well, that's not mercy. It's not merciful to let a child grow up to be a bully and then as he gets older become even worse. No, if he doesn't learn his lesson, he'll face worse trouble later. This is what God is teaching Jerusalem. He is a God of justice who has to discipline Jerusalem for their rebellion, but He is a God who exalts Himself by showing mercy. Because it's not to let Jerusalem get away with murder, it's because He's going to change Jerusalem's hearts. He's going to turn their hearts to Himself. Because what will happen if God lets Jerusalem continue on their wicked path forever? Well, they'll think they don't need God and keep trusting other nations. It's why the Lord waits to be gracious to you. Because the Lord of all the earth will do right. Now, it may take longer than you were hoping for, but blessed are all those who wait for Him. Just as God waits to be gracious to you because He understands that He needs to take you through the process to get to the end. He understands this. We oftentimes don't like the process, and so we went out. Let me off, this world's spinning too fast. But God waits to be gracious to you, so therefore, blessed are those who wait for Him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, Verse 19, God will restore his city. You shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yes, the adversity, the bread of adversity, the water of affliction, this is what God is giving you at the moment. Yet, your teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your teacher. The word shall become flesh and dwell among us. This is how Isaiah is beginning to see where the story is going. And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. When you turn aside to the right or when you turn to the left, when you've strayed from the path, you'll hear the voice, Notice that waiting upon the Lord is not a passive thing like we saw this morning. Waiting means crying out to the Lord. Waiting means turning to Him. Waiting means hearing the word of the Lord. This is the way. Walk in it. And then turning to walk in that way. Because after judgment will come blessing. God will not forget His covenant. He will be gracious to His people. For though He afflicts His people for a time, He will again lead them in paths of righteousness. And verse 23, He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground and bread the produce of the ground which will be rich and plenteous. God will restore the land. He will restore His people. He will restore creation. And on every lofty mountain and every high hill, verse 25, there will be brooks running with water in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall. When the towers fall in the day of the great slaughter, the Lord will begin to renew all creation. And this is what he began in the resurrection of Jesus. in the same way that judgment is described as the light of the sun and moon being darkened, so also God's blessing is described as the sevenfold light of the sun, that God will shine His light even brighter than before, because the Lord promises that He will bind up the brokenness of His people and heal the wounds inflicted by His blow. Again, yes, it is the Lord who has brought this trouble, because His purpose is to bring healing. You see, in this life, we don't achieve a full measure of healing. In this life, there is a beginning of healing. But there is a beginning. It's not just that we're sort of sitting around waiting for, whenever Jesus gets back, then he'll heal us. He begins the healing even now because he has raised up his son and seated him at his right hand. Therefore God begins the healing of the nations because in that day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow. And together with this portrait of blessing, there is also a promise that God will destroy the Assyrians without Egypt's assistance. Verse 27, Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with His anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a devouring fire. The imagery here is just thick and fast. There's this language of smoke and fire. But then, verse 28, His breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck. It switches the imagery. "...to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction." And it shifts again. "...and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray." After all, the king of Assyria is coming. And God is going to put a bridle on him that will lead him astray. He will sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. His breath is like the overflowing stream The language has been used already of the Assyrian army like this great flowing tide, this flowing up the mountain. And now we hear, no, but God's word, God's breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck. This language that God is using is the sort of language that ancient kings used of themselves Indeed, the Assyrian kings would use this language, that they're thundering towards Jerusalem in order to inflict their wrath, and so the king of Assyria says, I'm burning with anger, and with my thick rising smoke, my lips are full of fury, here I come, haha! But in fact, he is thundering toward the grave. So, what are you supposed to be doing in all this? Singing. singing. You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept. A holy feast. A night of a holy feast. When in all of Israel's history was there a night of a holy feast? Right. Passover night. When, of all places, they're in Egypt. When they're under Pharaoh's thumb. And there was a night when God told them to sacrifice the Passover lamb and put the blood on the doorposts and the angel of death would pass over. What are you supposed to do? Sing, worship God, praise Him, trust Him. In the middle of the crisis, go to the house of God and worship the Lord. God had called Israel to do this on that Passover night. when Pharaoh, king of Egypt, loomed large in the background, and that Passover imagery of the cloud of fire has already been used. What is God telling us? Well, in the midst of the darkness of this present age, sing. Think about how Paul says in Colossians and Ephesians to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. He's actually not talking about worship services in those passages. It's great for us to sing. I mean, how else do we learn the song? It's great for us to learn to sing here. But he's actually saying, in your homes, in your daily life, sing. In the midst of the great crisis, sing. In the midst of the darkness of this present age, gather before the Lord, give praise to Him. You shall have gladness of heart as one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the rock of Israel. It seems like the strangest and most crazy thing to do. Oh, okay, so there's a great crisis and there's all this trouble and God tells us, no, go sing praises to me. That may seem like a very odd thing to do in the middle of crisis. And yet, this is precisely You think about the picture in the book of Revelation when Christ comes in judgment and he's got this great army clothed in white. And what do they do in this great battle at the end? They sit there and look pretty as the word of the Lord goes forth from his mouth and destroys his enemies. What do they do? Why are they there? They're there to sing. Singing is actually far more important in battle than one often thinks. Listen to how God describes this in verses 30 to 33. The Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire with cloudburst and storm and hailstones. He doesn't need us to go to war for him. The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord when he strikes with his rod. And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. You see, we do something very important in this battle. It's not fighting. It's singing. Because, you know, we're the rhythm section, you might say, and God is accomplishing his great delivery to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Do you believe that your Lord Jesus is able to defeat all his and our enemies? And you see the picture of hell in verse 33, for a burning place has long been prepared indeed for the king of Assyria. It is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide with fire and wood in abundance. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. In Revelation 19, John says, I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. He has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." As Assyria fell, so will all the nations that arise against the living God. As Isaiah spoke of the role of the people of God as worshippers who praise God for his great victory and who accompany the battle with their singing, so also does Revelation, because the armies of heaven are there simply to praise the King of heaven. Isaiah and John are calling you to remember that God is the sovereign Lord of creation and redemption. You may think that you see the enemies of Christ in power, that God's purposes somehow aren't coming to pass. Although as soon as you say it, you realize, well, that can't be possible because his purposes are always coming to pass. Because God remains the potter who molded all things. Yes, he has molded some vessels for destruction and others for glory. And your call is to hear his voice and to praise and worship him and walk in his paths, giving thanks for the great redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ, our Lord. And that's where this is the way in which he brings healing to the nations. It's really true. that it's through singing that he brings healing to the nations. It's actually partly the way he built creation, the way that sound works and brings healing. Even you think of King Saul being healed by the sound of the harp. There's a way in which God made the world to work this way. And when we sing praise to him, it begins to bring healing both to us and to all the nations. And through that, God brings his great judgments on all the earth. So let's pray. Oh, Lord, our God, have mercy. We thank you that you are the God of justice. And so therefore we may have confidence that your mercy will exalt you because you are faithful and you are just to forgive us our sins because of the atoning death of your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that you do not leave us in our sin and misery, that you do not leave us to perish in our afflictions, in our troubles, but that you sent him who knew no sin. to become sin for us, to become that sin offering that removes our sin and brings us to you that we might dwell in your presence. Oh, Lord, our God, have mercy on us. Because we are forgetful and we forget your mighty word and we think that we can fix things and we turn to the powers of this age, your hand rules all things. Your hand rules all things. And so, Lord, help us to come to you. Help us to sing to you. Help us to sing your praises all the days of our lives that we might ever rejoice and be glad because we are no longer our own, but we are bought with a price. And so we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who has freely paid for all our sins assures us in such a way that we know that not a hair will fall from our heads except our Heavenly Father know it. Lord, help us to have such confidence in you that whether we live or die or whatever we do, help us to do all things for the name of your Son, our Savior. Lord, help us and As we encounter the trials of life, as we encounter the troubles of everyday life in our homes, in our workplaces, and in all the situations we face, Lord, give us eyes to see Jesus. Give us ears to hear what your word is calling us to do in this situation, that we might do that which you say. Walk in this way. Do what is right and good. Help us, Lord, to hear. and to turn, to repent, and to do what you call us to, that we might live before you as your people. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.