Well, good morning. If you would go to Haggai chapter 2. Haggai chapter 2, beginning in verse 6. Haggai chapter 2, beginning in verse 6. Hear the word of the Lord. For thus says the Lord of hosts, yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in. And I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place, I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. And so Father, one more time, we ask for your special blessing on the word. Help us to see the glory of what you are doing now and in the future. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, this week will be our final week of a short three-week study on the prophecy of Haggai. In the first two weeks, we saw some of the major themes that arise out of this prophecy. And the Lord is speaking to this remnant of Jews who he has graciously brought out of exile and back into the land. And we saw that even though these words were spoken to old covenant saints around 2,500 years ago, these words are binding and have much application for our lives as New Testament Christians. And I trust that today will be no different. As we jumped into this, this study has become somewhat of a study on the Christian life. and handling the things of this world as a Christian. And one of the things that I hope that we have seen from this teaching ministry over the years, and that I hope we will continue to grow in, is that all of God's revelation is God-breathed. All of God's revelation, all 66 books of the Bible are inspired by God and they are binding on the life of Christians today. So every word in the Old Testament is God's word and it has authority over New Covenant Christians. However, there is a very important interpretive principle that we must keep front and center when we read the Old Testament. And that principle is what has been called the analogy of faith. The analogy of faith is essentially that we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. And we could say it a little bit more specifically, we allow the clear teachings of Scripture Specifically, the clear teachings in the New Testament to interpret more difficult, more obscure passages in the Old Testament. The Westminster Confession and the Second London Baptist Confession are nearly identical on this point, and it says this, the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself. And therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, which is not manifold but one, it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly. Now, the reason I bring this up is, number one, we should all be reading our Bibles daily and weekly. And so as we study the Word of God, we need to know how to interpret what we're reading accurately and apply it accurately to our lives. But also because when we come to places of Scripture that seem more challenging to understand, And when we come to places of Scripture like we just read that seem a little bit more obscure, we have to allow this principle to guide us and to guard us because interpreting a text like prophecy in the Old Testament wrongly can lead us into some really dangerous places. And this is especially necessary when we get into the realm of interpreting Prophecy, especially those prophecies that seem more eschatological in nature, meaning they go beyond their temporary circumstance and they're looking more toward the future, more toward what God is doing as he's moving human history toward the eschaton, the end of all things. And if you think about it, all of scripture is eschatological. All of scripture is moving us toward the end, toward the goal. We aren't just off as humans existing on the earth Just however we decide to be, right? It's not like this whole thing you hear in the news. Well, if we can figure out how to preserve the earth, and if we can figure out how to get along, we'll be sustained and we'll live here for a while and have some sort of meaningful existence. And if we don't, we'll burn the earth up and we'll all disappear. That's not how the Bible deals with human history. Rather, the Bible speaks as of human history moving toward a goal. We think about the creation, fall, redemption, consummation paradigm. God created everything, and there's an end of all things. And God has revealed what that end is, and He's told us very clearly that He will have victory over all His enemies, and He will rule and reign over all creation, and His people will rule and reign with Him. And it is vital for us to see ourselves and interpret our existence in light of God's eschatology. It is imperative that we make meaning of ourselves, our circumstances, our families, our bodies, in light of what God is doing in His history. This is exactly what we find in the book of Haggai. in light of their current circumstances, which we have seen the last two weeks, appear to be very hopeless in them. And they have driven the people into discouragement. God encourages them to press on and to do the work by giving them a promise of hope for what He is going to do in the future. Or what we said last week, He gives them a promise of future glory. and they work in their current circumstances in light of future glory. It's what he's doing when he speaks about this latter temple. So I want to focus this morning on the theme of temple. Because the temple in Scripture is much more than just a structure. It's more than just a building. It's the place where God dwells with His people. It's the place where worship happens. It's the place where God's glory and splendor were seen in the world. It's where people worship and pray. It's the place where atonement for sin took place under the old covenant. The temple is one of the major themes of biblical history. And we see the theme of temple running from the very beginning to the very end. G.K. Bill and others have shown that the Garden of Eden is described with temple imagery. Adam was called to be a priest of that temple. And God says to keep and to work the temple. Those are commands given later on to the priests of the tabernacle. There were rivers flowing out of the garden. There was gold in the garden. There were all these different stones in the garden. And after the fall, we see cherubim guarding the tree of life from sinners being able to come to it. And then later on in the tabernacle, what do we see? We see cherubim being woven into the temple curtain, symbolizing that sinners cannot come behind this curtain into the Holy of Holies. And in the end of the Bible, we see the new creation being described in temple language. The temple is an incredibly important theme in Scripture, and it was incredibly important in the lives of Jews. for them not to have a temple meant something was terribly wrong. I mean, think about this. They were 70 years or nearly 70 years without their system of worship. Without their religious system. And it showed God's covenantal curses rather than the blessings that they should have been receiving if they were obedient. Many of us remember during the COVID season, just a few weeks away from the gathered people of God. just a few weeks away from the preached Word of God in person, just a few weeks away from worshiping on the Lord's Day, had devastating consequences spiritually. And these Jews were almost 70 years without their temple. Many of them had never experienced life with a temple. And the ones who were old enough to remember the former temple, looked at the new one that was being built, and it was nothing. in their eyes. Yet, God gives them a promise about the future glory of the temple. God gives them a future promise so that they can live faithfully and optimistically in their current situation. So to Israel, it appeared that the nations had triumphed over them because they were small. and weak and poor and liable to attack. But God says, in a little while, I'm going to shake the nations. To Israel, it appeared that they didn't have sufficient resources to rebuild the temple. But God says to them, the treasures of the nations are going to come in, and you're going to use the nation's treasures to rebuild the temple. And to Israel, it appeared that this new temple was nothing compared to the former one. Yet God says to them, this latter temple will be far more glorious than Solomon's. And that would have been utterly shocking to them to hear because Solomon's temple was utterly glorious. And so to hear Haggai prophesy and to hear God say to them, this temple will be more glorious than the former one would have been incredible for them. It would have been astonishing as they looked around and saw their current circumstances. Yet, God provides them with a promise that would have resulted in optimism. And despite the bleak situation they found themselves in, they had permission to be optimistic about the future because God had spoken to them and revealed to them what He was going to do in the future. And this optimism was related to the glory of the temple. And I want to suggest this morning that we should likewise, because of what God has revealed in His Word about what He is doing and about what He is going to do in the future, we should have an optimistic outlook on human history and on where we're going in the future. We should have an optimistic eschatology. We should have an unfailing hope. Now, I know some of you are hearing and you say, all right, what do we mean by that? What is optimistic? What are we optimistic about? And this is what I mean. We should have an unfailing hope that every promise of scripture will come to pass. We should have an unfailing hope that the gospel of Jesus Christ will triumph in the earth. And that every person that God has chosen for salvation will hear the voice of the Son of God and believe and come into the kingdom. We should have an unfailing hope that Jesus Christ will reign over every one of His enemies. And that He will allow us by His grace to reign with Him. We as the people of God living in these last days should have a forward focus on redemptive history that is soaked with optimism. Why? Because God is building His glorious temple. And He's building it right now. And He will complete it in the future. And I want to spend the remainder of our time unpacking that. We saw briefly last week that in some sense, some aspects of this prophecy did come to fulfillment in history. We looked at the decree from Darius in Ezra 6, where he says to the governors of the surrounding lands, the cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from beyond the river. And he says, whatever is needed, give it to them. So in some ways, God did provide for these Jews to build that temple from all the surrounding nations. He did do that. However, It is clear, and it is just absolutely clear, that when we look at the second temple, as it is usually called, and we look at what God has said here in Haggai chapter 2, and we look at the rest of Scripture, it is clear that that temple was in fact not as glorious as Solomon's temple. In fact, we never get a narrative of God's presence filling the temple like we do the first tabernacle, in Exodus 40 and the first temple in 1 Kings 8. In both of those narratives, we see a cloud that represents God's glorious holiness and splendor coming into the temple and filling it so that Moses or the priest couldn't even go in there to minister because it was so glorious. And we don't see this temple being filled that way in Scripture. And we know from the intertestamental period that the Jews had struggles to have peace. And they were always fighting, always having difficulty. We know in 168 BC that the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes IV invaded Jerusalem and captured it. And he actually went into the temple and sacrificed a pig to Zeus in the temple. And we know later in 63 BC, the Romans took control of Jerusalem and Pompey the Great actually went into the Holy of Holies. Josephus tells us this. And even in the time of the New Testament, the temple had gone under significant repairs and updates. But Herod, the one who carried out all those repairs, was anything but godly. And he was more of a poster child for the Romans. And we see Christ predicting that the temple was going to be destroyed and not one stone was going to be left on another. And we know that God, in the fullness of His judgment, destroyed that temple through the hands of the Romans in 70 AD. This prophecy simply cannot be realized in the second temple. It just cannot. And so because of that, many have taken the view that this prophecy is about a future literal temple in a future literal Jerusalem during the millennial period. And this isn't the thrust of my focus this morning, but I want to quickly say that I think there are a lot of problems with that view. And let me give you just one that I think is a major problem. If there is going to be a new literal temple constructed in the future, the conclusion of that is that God is going to take us back, take his people back to a system that he tore down. To a system that the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 8.5, he calls it a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. And he goes on to say in Hebrews 8.13, in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. And so to believe that God is going to have his people build a new literal temple is to believe that God is going to resurrect, in a sense, the old covenant system of worship. with all its Levitical priesthood, and all its sacrifices, and all the worship ceremonies, and all the laws. And that presents a host, and I mean a host of problems exegetically. And the biggest of which I think is that it simply devalues the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Because we know that Jesus Christ is the sacrificial lamb. And there's no more sacrifice for sins from animal blood. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Levitical priesthood. And He sat down at the right hand of God. Whereas the Levitical priests had to stand yearly because of their own sins. Jesus Christ is the temple of God as we will see in just a moment. It is clear, brothers and sisters, that the old covenant temple system has passed away and it is not coming back. So again, we have to interpret the symbolic prophetic passages in light of the clear New Testament teaching. And when we do that, I think this is clear. However, the metaphor of the temple is carried into the New Testament where we get the ultimate meaning of the temple. And when we look at the New Testament we see three metaphorical uses of the temple. For Jesus Christ, for the church, and for the new creation. I don't think this prophecy in Haggai is about a future literal temple. When we bring the rest of Scripture to bear on this text, this prophecy is ultimately about God manifesting His glorious presence in the person of Jesus Christ. And through Jesus Christ, in His temple, the church. And one day in a new creation. And therefore, this prophecy that is meant to be forward-looking is not intended to be looked through a pessimistic lens, but through a lens of optimism. And there are certain eschatological systems that are very pessimistic in their outlook on redemptive history. There are certain eschatological systems that teach that the church is going to get weaker and weaker and weaker until it's almost non-existent, as the world gets worse and worse and worse, and then God is going to secretly take that remnant out of the world before it gets really bad. But I want to argue this morning that the Scriptures would lead us to have a very optimistic view of the future, despite the fact that one could rightly, I think, argue that we live in the most unprecedented time in human history. Despite all of that, we should have an optimistic outlook on what God is doing and will do in the future. And it's not built on wishful thinking. It's built on the very promises that he has given in his word. And it starts right here with these verses. He says, I will fill this house with glory. That's God speaking. And he says, the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And again, the New Testament gives us keys to understanding what that means. First, the New Testament clearly teaches that the person of Jesus Christ is the embodiment of God's glorious presence. John 1.14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt, or tabernacled, among us. And we have seen His what? His glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. There's no other glory that compares to glory as of the only Son from the Father. Does it get more glorious than that? The fullness of deity, the glorious presence of God, coming to the earth, in the flesh, and people saw Him, and they touched Him, and they ate with Him. John 2.19, Jesus says, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And John goes on to comment, and he says, but He was speaking about the temple, the temple of His body. Hebrews 10, 19 to 20, therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place, which was in the temple, by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way open for us through the curtain of his body. Jesus Christ came to this earth and manifested the glory of God. And in his first coming, he inaugurated his messianic reign. wherein He would build His temple, the church. The New Testament consistently speaks of the church of God as the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 3.16-17, Paul says, Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy and you are that temple. And the you in that passage is plural. Paul is speaking to the whole congregation, saying to the church, you are God's temple. God's Spirit is in you. Ephesians 2, 19-22, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. And listen to this language, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. This one is really interesting because Paul is teaching that both Jew and Gentile will make up God's glorious temple. This latter-day temple of God will not be built on ethnicity. It will not be built on wealth or nationality. or any of these things, it will be built with its foundation, the teachings of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ being the major part of that foundation. And on that foundation, it will grow up. God will grow it up as people come into it. And I think we see this from our text this morning. Verse 7, I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations shall come in. Part of God's building plan for His temple, His church, is that He shakes the nations geographically and geopolitically. and we see viruses, and we see wars, and we see earthquakes, and we see all the stuff that goes on in the world, and there's times of peace and prosperity, and then there's times of great tallmalt. But simultaneously with all of that, God is shaking the nations and bringing in His elect from all the four corners of the earth. At the exact same time. And so while the nations are raging, there's missionaries going into the four corners of the earth. preaching this message of the gospel. And people are being saved. And God is building His temple. We say it every Sunday, Jesus said about His church, my house, my temple, shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. And Zechariah, who prophesied alongside Haggai, and shares many of the same themes and concerns, he prophesies that the Messiah would build the temple of the Lord. Listen to this. Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold the man whose name is the Branch, that's an Old Testament title for the Messiah, for he shall branch out from his place and he shall build the temple of the Lord. It is He who shall build the temple of the Lord, and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on His throne. Now let me ask you, do we ever see Jesus Christ building a literal temple? He actually predicts that the one that's built is going to be destroyed. No. It's clearly talking about his church. As the Messiah rules and reigns in royal honor, he builds the temple of the Lord. And what's astonishing about this prophecy in Zechariah 6 is that just a few verses later, after prophesying that the Messiah would build the temple, he says this, and those who are far off shall come and help build the temple of the Lord. And then Paul, I already read this in Ephesians 2, says this, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So Zechariah is saying those who are far off, they're gonna help build the temple of the Lord. Paul says, those of you who are far off, you've been brought near by the blood of Christ. This temple will include people from places far away from Jerusalem. And I think it's being fulfilled right now as the Gentiles are coming into the church of Jesus Christ in this age. And perhaps someone might hear this and say, well, it just really seems like you're spiritualizing this text. Let me give a couple of rebuttals to that. Number one, everyone, no matter how literally you claim to read the Bible, cannot fully read the Bible literally. No one believes that an actual dragon with seven heads and 10 horns is actually going to pursue a pregnant woman into the wilderness for 1260 days, or that that actually happened in history. Nobody really believes that a real beast is going to come up out of the sea and lead people astray. So no matter how literally you read the text, you have a category for metaphor and symbolism. But another thing, guys, this is the hermeneutical principle that the apostles give us in the New Testament. And the apostles in the New Testament interpret these texts as finding their fulfillment in the first coming of Christ and fully consummated in the second coming of Christ. We could read the first four chapters or so of the book of Matthew and just see over and over and over Matthew taking a prophecy from somewhere in the Old Testament that has a literal or seems to have a literal historical fulfillment. And yet Matthew says the scriptures being fulfilled in Jesus's life. This is the hermeneutic of the apostles. And that's good enough for me. And when I say we should be optimistic about the success of the gospel and the success of the church, even that, brothers and sisters, is not merely spiritual. There are going to be tangible results in this age that the church is being grown into a glorious temple and that the gospel is prevailing throughout all the earth. I mean, think about just a few things. Just the sheer number of Christians in the world Just a few thousand years ago, we started with 120. And now there's at least millions in the world. The church is not limited to one location or people group. There's no way to explain the church as some socioeconomic phenomenon. It extends into all the cultures. All the places. Rich, poor, and in between. All peoples. The same thing is happening. People are bowing the knee to Jesus Christ and they see His glory in this book. It can't be explained. According to the Wycliffe Global Alliance, the scriptures have been translated in full into over 700 languages, which make up about 80% of the global population. and at least some portion of scripture has been translated into over 3,589 languages, covering up to 97% of the world's population. Now they say there's got to be some qualifiers in how we understand that data, but still, that's simply amazing. In just a few hundred years, we've been able to translate God's Word into almost every language that can be understood in the world. There have been historically documented revivals, including one in our own nation, where God has supernaturally blessed the preaching of His Word and thousands of people have been saved quickly. And the church has been sanctified speedily and great glory and great conviction over sin has come to the church. And then people have gone on to do more missions, and they've been fired up to interact politically and socially, and they preach, and they've planted churches, and they've gone into the ministry, because God has worked powerfully. And here's the thing we all need to remember. Guys, our focus is so narrow, isn't it? We tend to think in terms of, just like these Jews, and Haggai 2, we tend to interpret all of existence in terms of my life, my problems, our finances, our family, and our church. Maybe our city and maybe our nation, but it really doesn't go much further than that usually. We're guilty of this. Guys, we have no idea what God is doing around the world. We have no idea what God is doing in the East. and in the global south, where thousands, and I think we could say millions of people are coming into the kingdom and being added to the church. Make no mistake about it, the gospel success that I'm talking about is not merely spiritual, not merely heavenly. And the church success that I'm talking about is not merely heavenly. There has been and there will be ongoing tangible success that you can see that the kingdom of God is advancing in the earth. as the church goes forth preaching the gospel and administering the sacraments by the power of the Holy Spirit. And God is saving His elect from all over the globe. This is how He is building His glorious temple. And the Lord Jesus Himself promised to do this. He said in Matthew 16, 18, And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church. And he says, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. How can we not be optimistic with a promise like that from our Lord? Who is ruling and reigning far above every authority and dominion and power now. How can we not be optimistic? He says, I will build my church, that glorious temple that will consist of people from all the nations. I will build it. He promised to build it. And he says the gates of hell will not prevail against it. What do gates imply? They imply defense. If one kingdom wants to keep another kingdom from breaking in, what do they do? They build a gate. They build a wall. Yet Jesus is here saying the gates of hell will not prevail. They will not withstand my church. The church is on the offensive. That's why we say the church militant. The church is going forth into the dark places with the light of the gospel. And alluding to this prophecy in Haggai 2, the author of Hebrews says to the saints in Hebrews 12, 28, therefore, let us be grateful. Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let me ask you this. Is that your view of human history? That the kingdom of God will not be shaken? Is your view of human history that God will build His church and that He will empower His church to proclaim His gospel and that the kingdom of darkness will not prevail against it? Is it your view of the church that every person, every sheep that is scattered abroad in all the nations will hear the voice of the shepherd and believe? Do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus will build His church? Do you believe that she will be what He wants her to be? I know this is not the way many of us were raised in church to think. And I would simply ask you to search the Scriptures and see if these things are so. And lastly, this passage has in its ultimate view the consummation of the messianic kingdom. When the king returns to the earth and every rule and authority that has raised its head in opposition against him and his kingdom will be crushed and brought to nothing. As I said earlier, the messianic kingdom was inaugurated in the first coming of Christ when he defeated death and hell in his resurrection and he defeated sin and Satan and he took back the authority that Adam forfeited and then he ascended into heaven where he now sits reigning at the right hand of God as he by his spirit builds his church through the successful preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments yet at the very same time that Jesus reigns and builds his church the forces of darkness often operate through governments, through ideologies, and through beliefs of this age. They will oppose and seek to destroy that kingdom. But listen to Daniel 2.44, And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end. It shall stand forever. Christ's kingdom will advance now in this age as He builds His church. but make no mistake about it, He is coming to this earth again. And this is how Psalm 110, 5-7 describes His second coming. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of His wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide. What an awful and terrible day that day will be for the enemies of Christ. And I bring that up to drive this point home again, that if you are in Jesus Christ, if you have been washed by His blood, if you are part of His bride, the church, you will not lose. Every enemy will be crushed under His feet and under your feet. as you rule and reign with Him in a new heaven, in a new earth. We sang it this morning. To reign with the Son as a kingdom of priests. This is where I'll end today. At the end of human history, at the consummation of all things, when all the enemies of Christ have been judged, God will make His eternal abode with His transformed new people in a transformed new creation. And the theme of temple is once again picked up and brought to its ultimate fulfillment in Revelation 21. And if you have been going through a difficult time, if you are suffering under trials and hardships and discouragement, let this text wash over your soul as I read it. Then I saw a new heaven, heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city of New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he goes on to describe this new Jerusalem in Edenic temple language. And he says in verse 22 and 23, and I saw no temple in the city. You hear that? I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light, and the Lamb is the lamp. This is where human history is heading, brothers and sisters. This is the church's ultimate destination. To dwell with God, to dwell with the Lamb in a new creation, free from sin, free from enemies, free from all the corruption forever. He is building His church, His temple, now in this age. Right now, He is building His temple. and He will bring His temple to its full intention in the age to come. How can we not be optimistic? How can we not be optimistic? Now, that is not to say there are not problems. There are. That is not to say that there aren't threats. There are. I am not trying to convince you that things are all great and fluffy. I'm not trying to convince you that things are better than they really are. I see the same things you see. I see false doctrines being propagated in the church. I see apostasy. I see secular humanism. I see all the attacks. I see that many are committed more to numbers and success than they are to gospel preaching and membership and purity in the church. I see that holiness and moral and doctrinal purity for so many doesn't even matter. We see these things. And at one level, The scriptures tell us there's nothing new under the sun. However, at another level, again, I think you could make the argument that we live in the most unprecedented time in human history, a time where the whole world, because of technology, can unite itself together to oppose Christ and His church. Yet, in spite of all of that, none of that, None of that should cause us to doubt that our Sovereign Lord will not build His temple. He will be faithful to His promise. He who began the good work will complete it at the day of Christ Jesus. Amen? Amen. As we transition to the table here. This is where we renew our minds in this truth. That in His first coming, Jesus Christ died. And He dealt with our sin. And He finished the work. And He gives us this table to commune with Him. To remind ourselves of His glorious death. But also, it reminds us that He's coming again. And that there will be a great marriage supper. And so if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and you've been baptized and you're committed to a local church where you could take the supper at that church, we would gladly ask you to come and take the supper with us. And if not, we would ask you to just remain in your seat and you can pray the prayers that are in our bulletin if you need those. And so take just a few moments after I pray, come with joy, come with optimism, Look around at one another and rejoice that God is building His temple. Amen. Let's pray. Father, again, we thank You for Your faithfulness to reveal these things clearly in Your Word. And I pray, Lord, that You would work in us the ability to see what You are doing. The ability to see in the Scriptures what human history means to You. and what You are doing and what You are going to do. And Lord, help us as we go from this place to interpret everything that we do in our lives in light of Your goal for humanity. And as we come to the table, help us to rejoice in all of Christ's finished work. We thank You for Him. We pray all of this in Jesus' name, Amen.