Go ahead and take our Bibles and let's turn together to Proverbs chapter 18. Proverbs chapter 18. And if you're kind of fumbling through there, it might be easier to find a page number. At least in my Bible and a few Bibles, it's on page 540. Page 540. We're going to read this chapter today, and again, you may want to follow along, or you may just want to listen. But I want to encourage you as you read, remember that these are, I've called them the Solomonic one-liners. These are single-sentence proverbs. There doesn't seem to be any particular connection between the verses. So the verses really are designed to stand completely on their own, to be quoted just as a single verse, as kind of a wisdom saying in the midst of our everyday lives. And yet, we also see that they are clumped together sometimes, and that there are similar themes that run through various ones of the Proverbs. And so today, I'd like you to read, to be thinking as we read, especially the second half of this chapter, which is really where we're going to be focusing today, on the times of difficulty and of trial in your life. The times when things that you don't want to move are moving. The times when the things you want to move aren't moving. And the times when there's frustration and there's questioning, there's doubting. During those times, God's word has some very practical, concrete things to say to us. Let's read together today Proverbs 18. I'll read the entire passage. So again, the chapters are a little artificial here. It's just jumping in in the middle of this long list of Solomonic one-liners, but consider these today because they are the word of God. Proverbs 18, verse one. Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. He breaks out against all sound judgment. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. When wickedness comes, contempt comes also, and with dishonor comes disgrace. The words of a man's mouth are deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook. It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice. A fool's lips walk into a fight and his mouth invites a beating. A fool's mouth is his ruin and his lips are a snare to his soul. The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels. They go down into the inner parts of the body. Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it and is safe. A rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his imagination. Before destruction, a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor. If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear? An intelligent heart acquires knowledge and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before the great. The one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him. The lot puts an end to quarrels. and decides between powerful contenders. A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle. From the fruit of a man's mouth, his stomach is satisfied. He is satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. The poor use entreaties, but the rich answer roughly. A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me as we seek the illumination of God from this text. O Lord, how we thank you that you have given us your word. How we thank you, O Lord, for the ways that it guides us through our lives. How we thank you, O Lord, for the way that it interrogates us and it goes down into our hearts. And we pray, O Lord, that even as we look at this passage today, that you would search our hearts, that you would see our hearts that, Lord, you would grant us that gift of integrity that we might live out of hearts that are fully submitted to you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, for starters, I don't know what it will look like, but I'm reminded of the horror movie I once saw, where I began to realize that all the light that was coming in the movie was shining from below, and the faces looked really creepy. And so if I look like I'm a monster or something as my iPad shines from the bottom here, I apologize. But I think it is, I was comforted at least that I wouldn't have to be huddling under a light during my sermon. So we want to consider today Proverbs 18. The title of today's sermon is When Life Presses In. And I particularly point you to the subtitle today, which is weathering frustrations, factions, and friendships. Now, two of these things we automatically regard as bad or as undesirable or as difficult, but particularly, we wanna get to the third point today and wanna consider this matter of friendships. The Bible tells us that friendships are a blessing, but the Bible also tells us that at times, friendships can be difficult. Today we want to think about those seasons of life that we could describe as winter. We're in a time right now where all around us we're seeing the spring, we're seeing new life, we're seeing the flowers and the trees flourish. And children, you need to know that there are times of life that are absolutely delightful, and you make tons of new friends, and you have new experiences, and you go new places, and everything is cool. But you need to remember that you haven't lived very much of life yet. And that part of life, just like part of the seasons, is springtime, but part of life is wintertime. And when you begin to see the leaves fall, and you begin to feel the chill, and you begin to hope that your heater's going to work when you turn it on in the fall, Consider that there are also times of difficulty and that that's an ordinary part of the Christian life. Again, I wanna push back hard against what I've called many times here in this place, the health and wealth gospel. God has a great plan for your life. It's your own fault that you're having trouble. And if you would just name it and claim it, then you would have a great life. What's wrong with you? Why are you sad? Don't be sad, be happy like me. We need to remember that there is a false gospel, friends, that does not adequately synthesize into its thought the fact of the fall. And today I want to remind us that the book of Proverbs is written after the book of Genesis. And that the book of Proverbs is intent on helping us to integrate into the practical part of our life the fact of the fall. The fact that we do not live in an ordinary unstained world. In other words, that there will be times of winter as well as times of spring. The wisdom of Proverbs, I want to introduce you to a new word today if you haven't heard this before. The wisdom of Proverbs is for, quote, post-lapsarians. Okay? If you've heard the term lapsarian, this is used a number of different ways, but a post-lapsarian is someone who lives after the fall. Okay, so all Orthodox Christians affirm that every single human being is a post-lapsarian. That is that we are descended from Adam and that in Adam all died. In Adam all fell into, if we can say it this way, an abnormal place. That there is something fundamentally wrong with the world. And so we shouldn't be surprised When the world is violent, when the world is unjust, when the world is afraid, when the world is in conflict with one another, we shouldn't be surprised because we need to remember that people who were given the book of Proverbs and us today live after the fall. This affects the way we think about the decrees of God, as the decrees of God are fixing what's wrong in the world, as we think about who is man, that on one hand, all human beings are made in the image of God, they have inherent dignity, value, and worth, but it's also true that they are totally depraved, that there's something deep down that is twisted and perverted And it's as easy to be a fool as it is to be wise. It's as easy to be at odds with God. In fact, even to deny His existence and His providence. All of this means that the book of Proverbs is not a pie-in-the-sky theory. It's not Pollyanna playing the glad game. Well, let's just be happy all the time. The book of Proverbs leads us to a realistic assessment of the condition in which we live. We are not what we once were, but neither are we yet what we shall be. The good old days are not behind us. Well, maybe they were before the fall, but the good old days are in fact ahead of us. They're ahead of us for those who are in Christ, who are awaiting His coming, when He will put all things to right. You might remember the Chronicles of Narnia, where it's always winter and never Christmas, and then Aslan comes. And all of a sudden, it's Christmas time, and the snow begins to melt, and all of a sudden, Narnia does things that no one who's alive has ever seen it do. And it goes from the dead of winter to the fullness of late spring in a matter of a few hours. Imagine what a creation that is not under the curse will look like. Friends, this is where we must begin today. Because the reality is that Proverbs is written to post-lapsarians. It's written to those who live in a fallen, sinful, depraved world, and at times that fallenness rolls over us like waves. And at times we find ourselves where life is pressing in, where we feel trapped, where we feel broken, where we feel ignored, where we feel ashamed, where we feel guilty. Consider how ignorance, guilt, and corruption manifest themselves in a fallen world. And then I want to encourage us today to persevere by looking to Jesus Christ, who I think is the ultimate fulfillment of the last verse of this chapter. There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. We wanna look at this passage today under three points. The first is that God calls us to persevere through periods of frustration. Through periods of frustration. Consider the emotion of frustration. I watch my own children, I watch my own wife, I watch myself. go through periods of frustration and you know that emotion where you need to do something and do it fairly fast or you're going to break out into anger and do things that you'll later regret. Look at verse 12 in our passage today. It says, before destruction, a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor. And so imagine that you get up and you're doing your thing. One day things are going wonderfully and then something happens in my heart and I become haughty. Something happens. There's a shift in my perspective It involves forgetting who I am in christ forgetting both the The privileges that I have as a son of the king, but also the duties that I have as his son But something changes and I become haughty Proverbs 16 18 says that a haughty spirit comes before a fall Here it says It says in verse 12 that before destruction, a man's heart is haughty. We think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, and then all of a sudden, something happens in our life, and the spring becomes winter, and the peace becomes conflict, and the hope becomes despair. What is it that brings on these periods of frustration? Friends, this is often the time. when you need the church the most. I've seen it, if I've seen it once, I've seen it a thousand times, that when somebody enters into one of these periods of frustration, that's the time they stop coming to church. That's the time they stop talking to their elders. That's the time they stop spending significant times of prayer with their friends. It's as though they go into the fetal position and they cut everyone else off and then wonder why it's so hard. Seasons of frustration lead us to haughtiness. Consider that playing the victim is a form of being haughty. Oh, it's not my fault. I'm the victim here. I didn't do anything wrong. I'm the victim. Consider that anxiety can come from a haughtiness. Oh yeah, I'm afraid, and the reason I'm afraid is because God is not king of all the earth anymore. He was yesterday, but not today. I'm afraid, I'm anxious, and I want to hang on to my anxiety at all costs. Why is it that a haughty spirit comes before a fall? That's because to quote James God opposes the proud But gives grace to the humble verse 12 is a very a very interesting verse to meditate upon before destruction before destruction a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor and Isn't this true? Isn't it the the people that you love to honor that you love to respect our people who are humble and People who don't go around parading themselves, oh, look at me, didn't I do a good job? Now, give me some honor. And you're like, whatever. Consider that the people that we love to honor are people who are low, people who do not think of themselves more highly than they ought to, but who view themselves as servants, who view themselves as trying to help where they can. Again, I want to point out to you that one of the ways that God works this humility in us is through the ministry of the local church. And I would encourage you, when was the last time that you had a friend over to just talk about the difficult things of life? When was the last time that you approached your shepherding elder and said, would you come and visit me in my home? I'd like to host you and I'd like to talk with you about some things. When was the last time you said, pastor, would you come visit me? It's sort of an overwhelming thing to think about all the people in the church and where should I be putting the limited time and the limited focus that I have. It's very meaningful when someone says, I'm going through a tough time, would you come and visit me? I think you'll find myself and our elders to be responsive to those sorts of things. Jerry Bridges has written a book. I quoted from it last week. I'd like to quote from it again today. I'm not going to hold it up because you can't see it anyway. But it's called Respectable Sins. And this is where Jerry Bridges takes on some of these more subtle heart issues that often are very much neglected in terms of the ministry and even the discipline of the church. Bridges writes this the opposite of trust in God is either anxiety or frustration Jesus has a lot a lot to say about these things The most prominent passage is Matthew 6 verses 25 through 34 in which he talks about anxiety six different times We are not to be anxious about what we eat drink or wear or even about the unknown circumstances of tomorrow Another expression Jesus uses is do not be afraid Paul picks up this admonition When he says in Philippians 4 6 do not be anxious about anything And Peter adds his exhortation, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Now this was the insight for me as I was thinking about frustration this week. When you or I say to someone, don't be anxious or don't be afraid, we're simply trying to encourage the person. It's the kind of work that a coach does when they come alongside the athlete and say, keep it up, finish strong, jump higher, shoot better, whatever it may be. It's a form of encouragement or it's admonishment in a helpful way. But consider that when Jesus or Paul or Peter, who are writing under divine inspiration, says to us, don't be anxious or don't be afraid, it has the force of a moral command. In other words, it is the moral will of God that we not be anxious. or to say it more explicitly, anxiety or frustration is a sin. And so you can't live there. You can't live perpetually in the winter because God is a God of hope. He's a God of life. He's a God of peace. He would not have you stay in that sinful place. In other words, you need help. In other words, go after the means of grace that your faith might be renewed, that your life might be brought back into the way of righteousness. Well, let's go on then and look at verses 16 through 19. The second point this morning, persevere through the emergence of factions. The emergence of factions. Verse 18 has some interesting things to say here. It says, the lot puts an end to quarrels and decides between powerful contenders. Some of you may have seen or heard about the movie recently called Divergence. And there's this entire society that's set up around the idea of factions. And there's these different groups of people who have different propensities, and they are supposed to live together in harmony within their factions. And it seems to work for a while, but as the movie goes on, you begin to discover that, in fact, while there is a surface level of peace underneath There's competition, there is jealousy, there is distrust. Friends, one of the very difficult, one of the very tragic things that happens is sometimes despite your best intentions, factions break out. sometimes we live in factions and we don't have to think about them for a while and then something will happen and those factions will flare up and Suddenly we don't feel a part of the one body of Christ. We feel a part of this click or this group over here or more often we feel outside of a click or a faction Consider that there are quarrels, there are powerful contenders. Look at verse 17. The one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him. This verse speaks of the practice of intense cross-examination, possibly in a context of distrust. These verses assume a divided, factious, and possibly litigious environment, when all of a sudden the language shifts from language of love and trust and oneness to the language of a lawsuit. What do you do then? What do you do then? Our first instinct is, out of our fear, to run to the civil authorities and get myself a lawyer. Because I feel like that person has their boxing gloves up and is about to give me a punch, and so do I do. I put on my boxing gloves, and I crouch down and prepare to fight back. Meanwhile, there's the church saying, wait, wait, wait! Slow down, guys! What's going on here? Why are you gonna beat on each other? Nothing's gonna come out of this. You're gonna get to the end of this process. This is a personal matter. This is a faction that has broken out in the church. Stop. Love your brother. Love your sister. Friends, how often is it that the reconciliation that is offered and that is available through the ministry of the church is discarded. And two brothers go running off to the civil magistrate where there is no biblical framework for justice, where there is no reconciliatory view of justice, but where you enter into a contending into a competitive view of justice. And oftentimes, that justice rings very hollow. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul laments the presence of factions. He regards the presence of factions in the Corinthian church as a sign of immaturity. He does recognize that truth does divide in a sense. But the purpose of truth dividing is that people might come to a knowledge of the truth and that the church might be unified in truth and in Jesus himself who is truth made personal. Such divisions can, at times, be overcome. And I wanna encourage us to persevere through those times of faction, through those times when I am at odds with one another. Don't give up. We need to get over, and I've seen this many times in conflict, that the very first thing we do is begin to question each other's salvation. And I'm like, I don't know, If you've lived in a family, I've lived in a family. And I have sons and I have daughters, and they're brothers and sisters. And the fact that they fight doesn't undo the fact that they are brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters fight sometimes. There are factions, and instead of being unified, we do get a bee in our bonnet, we get a burr under our saddle, and all of a sudden things are out of whack. We need to remember the call to persevere in the midst of frustrations. At times, such divisions can be overcome, but I want to warn you, and I want to point you to verse 19 in our passage today. Verse 19 says, a brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle. If you've entered into a quarrel, think back to a time when you've entered into a quarrel and you watched the bars of offense go up around the heart of someone you love. This is what we talk about when we talk about being offended. And some of us live life in fear of offending other people. We need to be careful that we not cause offense, but we also need to see the deep and lasting unity that there is in Christ's church, in the gospel. That in our union with Christ, we're together. We're together for life. We're together through this world and on into the next world. There are going to be family reunions. I also think there are gonna be church reunions in heaven, the likes of which we have never seen. Have you thought about 125 years of Topeka RP church members in heaven making the coolest, yummiest barbecue party that you've ever had? And you walk through the gates of heaven and they say, hooray, another one is here with us. And we live in perfect unity, waiting for the return of Christ. How long, O Lord, until you judge your enemies? But we will never be in the situation where we are now. The church, friends, is an eternal, abiding community of love. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor. as yourself. This leads us then to the third point this morning. We want to persevere through frustrations. We want to persevere through factions. And finally, we want to persevere through seasons of friendship. Again, our passage today has some very interesting things to say. In verse 20, It talks about the fruit of a man's mouth. We usually think of fruit as coming forth from the vine or from the ground, but Proverbs is very intent on helping us think about the fact that fruit comes from what we say. The fruit of a man's mouth, by that, your stomach is satisfied. He is satisfied with the yield of his lips. Consider the fruit of your mouth, the yield of your lips. Consider the power of the tongue. Those who love to consider carefully how they speak will eat the fruits of self-controlled speech. Look at verse 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. And I've thought this week about what is the it there? Those who love it. I think it's a reference back to the word life. And those who love life will eat its fruits. That is not life in this world, but eternal life. Who are viewing their lives in the light of eternity. The enemy of friendships is selfishness, and that presents a serious problem. Consider some of the friendships in your past, maybe particularly a friendship where you've had a falling out over something. Consider the role that selfishness plays in disrupting friendships, in replacing a friendship with a faction. Jerry Bridges writes, one has only to observe preschoolers to see that we are born with a selfish nature. How many times, moms, how many times have you said, Billy, share your toys with Bobby, or Bobby, you must not grab toys from Billy like that. As Billy and Bobby grow older, they learn such obvious acts of selfishness are socially unacceptable. So their selfish acts become more subtle. But the problem is still there. Selfishness is a difficult sin to expose, in part because it's so easy to see it in someone else, but so difficult to recognize it in ourselves. Consider how selfishness manifests itself in your interests, in your time, in your money, in your inconsiderateness to others' needs. And here I want to particularly apply this truth about friendship in a specific way. Because that's what our verses do today. Look at verse 22. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the most important friendships you will ever form is a friendship with your spouse. Notice in verse 22, the positive expectation of marriage and how the favor of the Lord is laid hold of when you lay hold of a spouse. Notice that God is inviting us to consider the calling of marriage. Notice how the favor of the Lord is there for the taking for those who would step into Christian marriage. And notice the goodness of the married state. It's part of where God continues to work in me and in my heart. He continues to strip away the layers of my own selfishness. And he reminds me again and again that I didn't date so that I could marry and then just be married. but that rather I'm married by the grace of God and by the purpose of God so that I could have a friend in my dear wife, Sue. Consider that he who finds a wife, guys, do you see that you're put in the driver's seat? He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. God has designed us men to be initiators. God has designed us men to come back again and again, to seek the good things that God has there, to find the favor of living together in unity of oneness and purpose and intimacy as a husband and wife. This, friends, in many ways, is one of the core friendships that God would have us to pursue. Now, God doesn't call us all to marriage. That's very clear and evident from the Bible. And we all ought to view friendship, this is a broader category than simply my spouse. But nonetheless, the principles of friendship need to apply to the relationship that I have with my spouse. Men, we need to pursue friendship. with our wives. Wives, when your husband initiates as God calls him and commands him to do, are you responding in warmth, in reciprocation? Are you the wind in his sails? Are you the encouragement to him? God has a plan. That plan is under assault today, friends. And part of the reason it's under assault in our culture is because I think in many circles in the church, we've forgotten the centrality and the goodness and the beauty of marriage. It's because of marriage that the creation mandate can be fulfilled, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. It's through Christian marriage that the Abrahamic covenant is being fulfilled. Through you, Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. One of the ways that God does that is by generation after generation bringing forth Christian young people as the fruit of Christian marriages. And so no matter where you are, no matter what your station in life, consider the calling of friendship. This is the opposite of offenses. It's the opposite of factions. That God is in the business of taking people out of their factions and putting them together in the body of Christ. And so that rather than us being separated, we learn to live in unity with other people who are sinners. with other people who are not what they once were, but are not yet what they shall be, who are living in between. And part of this involves putting up with each other. It involves being friends. It involves not focusing on the things that separate us, but focusing on the things that unite us. And that's where Christ and his gospel become the heart and the core and the pulse of the body of Christ. We don't all perform the same functions. We don't all have the same gifts. We all don't even have the same opinions or convictions, but we have Christ. And in Christ, the church is full. In Christ, the church is beautiful. In Christ, the church is pursuing the calling that he has given to us. And so what is? the solution to the friendship eroding acid of selfishness. In a word, it's the name of the Lord. And I wanna point you back to Proverbs 18 and verse 10. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it and is safe. Notice that in verse 22, The writer of Proverbs inserts the name of the Lord. Indeed, we could say the name of Jesus here because Jesus is Lord. That's what we confess to the salvation of our souls is that Jesus is Lord. If you want to obtain favor from the Lord, you need to know the Lord. You need to know the Lord who revealed himself. At the burning bush, you need to know the Lord who revealed Himself to Samuel and to David and to all the prophets. Friends, this is the Word, the Word of the Lord, the Word who became flesh in the person of Christ. It's because in the Lord that you know truly who you are. You are not the God-like sun. You do not exist as the center and the apex of your universe. You are a planet called to revolve around God in your mind, in your lifestyle, even in your emotions. Friends, have you learned to rein in your emotions? To think through the things that you need to say before you say them? To say enough but not say too much? To put up with each other? If we're going to live together as friends, if we're going to be united in the body of Christ, we need to learn that the name of the Lord is a strong tower. That the righteous people, those who have been declared righteous because of Jesus Christ, can run into that name. The same way that we would run into a fort, or we would run into a panic room, or we would run into our basement if there was a tornado. That we run into that place, and in that place, in the name of the Lord, we are safe. And isn't it interesting that this passage concludes by once again pointing us to all of these things. Verse 24, a man of many companions may come to ruin. If you have friends just for the sake of having friends, it's going to be difficult. Children, this is where I would remind you that having a friend on Facebook is not the same as having a friend. There was a point. I'm dating myself shortly after Facebook came out where it was like wow I can like know everybody friend friend friend friend friend friend friend And pretty soon you began to realize oh wait a minute this doesn't mean friendship a Man of many companions may come to ruin What are the voices that are speaking into your life? What are the voices in your head that? A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. That is, there is someone who is connected to you in a spiritual, in an emotional, in a communal way that goes deeper than the biological brotherhood or sisterhood that you have with your siblings. There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. And as we conclude today, I'd like to point you and remind you that Jesus is a friend of sinners. That Jesus says, whoever keeps my commandments is my friend. He speaks of the Holy Spirit as being another comforter. Jesus, the friend, Jesus, the brother, says, I'm going to send another helper, another comforter, another friend. And truly, the way all of these things come together, the way that this power for perseverance comes into our lives. that the way that we endure through frustrations and come out the other side, that the way we endure through factions and see substantial healing, the way that we endure through all the seasons of friendship with our husband or our wife, with our brother or our sister, with our friends in the church, the way that we endure, the way that we persevere, the way we attain to the full enjoyment of God and of all his blessings in eternity, It's through the friend that we have in Jesus Christ. Let us close together in prayer. Oh Lord, how we thank you that there is hope when life presses in. Lord, how we thank you that we can weather the storms. How we thank you that after the winter comes the spring, that after seasons of discouragement comes seasons of hope and of renewal. Lord, I would pray for those who are here today, for those who hear this message that find themselves in the midst of trials and struggles. Lord, that find themselves in discouragement and despair. Oh Lord, may they remember you. May they run the way soldiers run into a fort and find safety. Lord, may they run and find that the name of the Lord is their strong tower, that they can find safety, that they can find peace, that they can find joy, that they can find repentance and renewal in the name of the Lord. Lord, help us to always remember who we are and to run to that place of safety. Help us to not stay stuck in relationships. Help us not to give up when factions arise. Lord, help us to endure and to persevere. O Lord, how we thank you for the wisdom of Proverbs. How we thank you, O Lord, that you have designed this book for post-lapsarians. The Lord, we who live after the fall, that we who live in a fallen, broken, at times unjust and sad world. that, Lord, you have given us hope, the hope of the gospel, the hope of Christ. O Lord, how we pray that in the midst of all the bad news, in the midst of all the discouragement and anxiety, Lord, in the midst of the fear of terrorists here and terrorists this and terrorists that, that, O Lord, you would help us to stand firm in the strength of the Lord. That you would help us to not be drawn into the endless cycle of partisan politics about everything, but oh Lord, that you would help us to stand in who we are in Christ. And Lord, that you would give us wisdom as we sort through the messages that we hear. That you would give us joy as we simply live another day and enjoy the little blessings that come to us. Oh Lord, help us to live in the light of eternity. Help us to get outside of ourselves, to hold our lives in our hand and see that we are human beings made in the image of God, that we are those who have been redeemed, those who have a destiny beyond this present evil age. Oh Lord, I thank you that when Jesus left us, he said, I am with you always to the end of the age. And Lord, that on into eternity, we are united to Christ. Lord, bless us in this day. We thank you, oh Lord, for your presence with us in this service, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.