This morning we're delving into the fourth of the Songs of Ascents. And I have to say that I've actually changed my mind about the interpretation of this psalm over the past couple of weeks. I had read it, partly due to the translation of the New King James Version, as we'll see, as referring to the contempt and scorn that believers were tempted to have or feel toward the arrogance of the unbelieving community. And that's what led them to ask for the Lord's mercy. But I've come to see that no, it's actually the contempt that was displayed toward them by the unbelieving community that led them to ask for the Lord's mercy. And I'm glad to say that most translations agree with that take. on it. In fact, that's what wised me up to it. It's always good to check other translations. Because I think the way they've taken the Hebrew is better than the way I was taking it. But I'd like to read the passage, and then we'll dive into the text and see if we can't understand what it is the Lord wants to say to us through it today. We're reading Psalm 123, beginning of verse one. We read, unto you I lift up my eyes, O you who dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God until he has mercy on us. They're describing looking to the Lord and waiting until his mercy comes. He goes on to say, Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorn of those who are at ease with the contempt of the proud. Let's take a moment to pray. Holy Father, I do thank you so much for your word, and I thank you, Lord, for the great comfort we derive from it. I thank you, Lord, that In this increasingly relativistic and pluralistic world, we have an anchor for our souls. And we thank you that you've given us your Holy Spirit, that we might understand your word as we should. And we ask today that you would fill us anew with your spirit, every believer in this room, that you would just fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit and with wisdom to understand your word and to see how it applies to us and what you want us to learn from it today. what you want to say to us through it. And Lord, for anyone here who does not know you, we pray that you would do for him or her what you've done for us, that through the power of your spirit, you'll open their eyes to the truth. We ask these things for your glory, for our good, and in the name of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. As many of us, if not most of us, No, one of the most important aspects of the Christian life is learning to wait on the Lord. In fact, as one considers the lives of believers throughout scripture, it is safe to assume that learning to wait on the Lord has been a crucial part of the spiritual life of every single believer who has ever lived. In fact, when you get to the New Testament and you look at the fruit of the Spirit, patience is in there, right? And when you look at why we endure trials, it's so that we can learn patience, which leads to proven Christ-like character. This is just built into the Christian life, this need to learn to wait on the Lord. So we're not surprised then to find David, for example, in Psalm 27, 14, calling on believers to wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. We're also not surprised to find, following a very beautiful passage from the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 40, verses 28 through 31, where he writes, have you not known, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Of course, he uses imagery there also that is applied to the life of a believer. It's called our walk with the Lord. So it's obvious then that learning to wait on the Lord is not only a crucial part of the life of a believer, but given what we've just read, particularly from Isaiah, it also brings with it great blessing. But we also know that it is not always easy to wait on the Lord. In fact, it hardly ever is. Most of the time, it's a difficult thing to wait on the Lord. In fact, that's why we realize we're waiting on him, right? When things get tough, usually. It's difficult to wait on the Lord, especially when we're suffering in various ways, such as the believers are depicted as suffering in this psalm. But as we'll see while we make our way verse by verse through the passage, at such times of difficulty, it's even more important than ever to wait on the Lord and to learn to wait on him because he's our only source of hope and strength. Ultimately. And we'll also see that prayer is a very key part of waiting on the Lord. In fact, this whole psalm is actually a prayer. offered while waiting on the Lord. And that's evident from the very first verse, in verse one, where we read, unto you I lift up my eyes, O you who dwell in the heavens. And there, the word for dwell means to be seated and can refer to being seated on a throne. And that's why the ESV, the LSB, which is the Legacy Standard Bible, and the NASB also all have enthroned here. And that's probably, I think, the right nuance here of the word. So I think I'll take it that way. Unto you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens. Now, in the scripture we find a number of different postures taken while praying, such as kneeling. Daniel famously did this every day. We know it from Daniel 6.10. Bowing down is a common thing, Psalm 95.6. Or standing and spreading one's hands toward heaven, for example. This is what Solomon did when he prayed at the dedication of the temple, and that's recorded in 1 Kings 8.22. But sometimes people prayed with their eyes lifted toward heaven, as we see in our text. That's what he means when he says, I lift my eyes. To the Lord is who he's lifting them up when he says, unto you I lift up my eyes. You who sit enthroned in the heavens as the Lord. In fact, our Lord Jesus is said to have prayed this way on at least two occasions. Sometimes people might be seated. Apparently our Lord was standing on at least one of these occasions. The first is found in John's account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. I'm going to these examples to show you that you can pray this way, but also that that's what's being talked about here, and it's clear from the context of the rest of the Psalm as well, that this is a prayer that's being uttered. But in John 11, beginning in verse 40, we read that Jesus, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. And Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, Lord, by this time there's a stench, for he has been dead four days. And Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. and I know that you always hear me. But because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent me. So apparently he's standing there and ordering that the stone be taken away, and then he lifts his eyes to heaven and speaks to the Father. On another occasion, he also lifted up his eyes while praying, and that's in John 17. This is often called Jesus' high priestly prayer, where he's ultimately praying, not only for his disciples then, but everyone who will believe. And it says in John 17 verses one through three that Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, so he's praying, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son may also glorify you. As you have given him authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So on these two occasions, these were very important prayers. I think for Jesus, all prayer was important, right? But how did he pray? He lifted his eyes to, as the psalmist would say here, the one who dwells or sits enthroned in the heavens, calling him his father. But why did he do that? Why did the psalmist do that? Why lift up one's eyes to heaven when praying? Well, the answer would be that this is a way to symbolically recognize and remind oneself that this is where God dwells, as it were, as the sovereign of the universe who exists beyond our physical reality. You see, there's a reason for all the different postures of prayer in the Bible, if you think about it. Why do you bow down when you pray? Well, because you're before a holy God when you pray, right? There's different reasons that we pray the way that we do. And in this case, I think it's an acknowledgement that God exists beyond our earthly reality, is the one who reigns over everything. This aspect of God's sovereign rule comes out even more clearly in other modern translations, as I've said, which typically render the verse in a manner similar to that of the ESV, which says, to you I lift up my eyes, O ye who are enthroned in the heavens. So, as I said earlier, although the New King James Version renders the Hebrew word dwell, which it can mean that, rather than enthroned, I think The rendering of the ESV and other modern versions is a better way to take the Hebrew term here. No translation is perfect, even the best one, the New King James, right? I know I'm biased there. With this in mind, I think we can see that Steve Lawson gets the point of the language right when he says this in his commentary on the text. This song of a sense is the fourth in this collection of 15 psalms, which chronicle the journey of believers to Jerusalem to worship God. But as they come to celebrate their festivals, they look up to the Lord on high, beyond the earthly temple to the heavenly throne. This should always be the upward vision of worshipers, even today as they gather together in the church. We should always have in our hearts that God exists outside of this creation. even though he indwells it, right, because he's omnipresent. He's also transcendent and rules over everything. This should indeed be our perspective. But we should also remember, I think, that the heavenly throne to which we look may be approached as a throne of grace. And this is, I think, a powerful thought, that we can actually approach the throne of the sovereign of the universe in prayer, as a throne of grace, counting on him to be gracious to us. The author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 4, beginning of verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest, speaking of course of our Lord Jesus, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This idea of looking to the throne of God as a throne of grace, where we might find mercy, I think is exactly what is happening in this Psalm, in Psalm 123. They're looking to the God and throne in the heavens for what? Mercy. And that's exactly what the author of Hebrews says we should do because those of us who trust in God as our savior, for us, that throne isn't a fearful place. It's a place where we know that God loves us and wants to be gracious to us so we can come with confidence, we're told, to that throne of grace. And I think we see this very clearly, as I said in this psalm, beginning in the next verse, in verse two, where he says, Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God until he has mercy on us. Now, obviously, the psalmist is using metaphorical language here to describe prayerfully waiting on the Lord for his mercy. Our eyes look to the Lord, he says, praying for this mercy. And so he imagines a servant looking to his master or a maidservant looking to her mistress, waiting upon their hand to move, it says. That's often how directions were given. Go do this, go do that, right? More importantly, if they got something to eat, it was from the hand of their master. We have to keep in mind that servants in those days were dependent on their masters for their sustenance, for daily provision. And that's probably the idea that is in mind here when the psalmist uses this imagery. So the analogy is fitting since believers are also dependent on the Lord for their welfare. just as a servant was dependent on their master for their welfare. And in this case, they were looking for mercy, which is emphasized even more in the next verse, in verse three, where twice we read, have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us. So what's happening while they're waiting on the Lord for mercy? They're praying for mercy. You're praying for what you're waiting for, right? So waiting for mercy doesn't mean praying for it once and then stopping and just waiting. It's an active kind of waiting when you're waiting for the mercy of the Lord, right? You're constantly asking him for his mercy. And he doesn't mind this. In this psalm, he's encouraging this for believers. He wants us to do this. This is the way we keep it in our minds constantly that he is a merciful God who reigns over the universe, and that he wants us to come to him and ask him for mercy, but also to wait for it. Those of you with other translations may have noticed a difference here in verses 3 and 4 between your version and the New King James version that I'm using. And the difference has to do with how to properly translate the Hebrew word shavah, and I've given you some notes on this, I think, in your handouts. This word is rendered filled in the New King James version. in the phrase filled with contempt here in verse three. And in verse four, the phrase filled with scorn, that word filled is this Hebrew word shavah. The word typically means to be satiated or to have had enough, i.e. a food or drink. but it can have another sort of meaning figuratively. The theological word book of the Old Testament says this, in addition to the idea of nourishment, the word is used to connote fullness and other areas of life. David and Jehoiada were full of days when they died, and the trees of the Lord are full of sap. It goes on to add that sometimes one is full of the wrong things. In these instances, the word is used censoriously to denote excess. The psalmist's soul is full of troubles, And the people have had their fill of contempt and scoffing. And that's our verse there, our passage in Psalm 123. Sinners are rightfully filled with shame. Jeremiah is filled with bitterness. Yet it is good for a man to be filled with shame so that he may trust in the Lord. And the Lord will gorge the beast with Pharaoh. He'll fill them with Pharaoh. They'll get a meal of Pharaoh, in other words. So this word can be used in different ways. And it's paired here with a word that means greatly or exceedingly filled. So you're filled, but you're overfilled is the expression. So you have a word that means to be filled or satiated, fully fed in a way, but then a word greatly or exceedingly is added to it. So you're more than. You're greatly more, exceedingly more than full. You're fed up. is what it means, I think, in our parlance. This is why that Legacy Standard Bible translates verses three and four this way. Be gracious to us, O Yahweh, be gracious to us, for we are greatly saturated with contempt. Saturated, I don't think, is really quite the nuance here. That's different than being filled, but it's close enough, probably. We say in the Navy, close enough for government work, right? It was a joke. We were very precise in our work, actually. But our soul, it says, is greatly saturated with the mockery of those who are at ease and with the contempt of the proud. The ESV translation makes the meaning, I think, even more clear when it's clearly not, see, the New King James is being quite literal, but that quite literal translation kinda leads you astray if you don't really delve into the Hebrew and look at all these other usages. Whereas the ESV says, well, then, to translate it better, we need to eliminate that problem. and I think they were right to do so. They translate these verses, have mercy upon us, oh Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, the contempt of the proud. I think they're grasping what the language was intending to convey, the Hebrew text, and I think how an ancient Hebrew reader would have taken it. So the writer pictures his fellow believers as being so fed up with enduring the contempt of the proud that they feel that they can't take it any longer. That's what's going on. And of course, the contempt expressed toward the faithful community would not have stopped with merely contemptuous attitudes toward them, would it? but would almost certainly have led to contemptuous actions as well. As Alan Ross has aptly observed in his commentary, contempt is an arrogant, condescending attitude that considers something worthless. It is manifested by contemptuous acts. They did things to show their contempt. In the Psalms, contempt is often verbal ridicule, but occasionally persecution and mistreatment. And he's saying that's implied here. probably at least a verbal ridicule would be implied. Derek Kidner has suggested that, quote, it is illuminating that contempt is singled out for mention. Other things can bruise, but this is cold steel. It goes deeper into the spirit than any other form of rejection. In the Sermon on the Mount, it ranks as more murderous than anger, and that's where Jesus talks about the sin of calling your brother a raka or a fool. In fact, the psalmist goes on to describe the persecution that the believing community has been enduring as something that shook them to the core, to their very souls. This is what he says in verse four. Our soul is exceedingly filled, or better yet, has had more than enough, of a scorn, or the mocking, of those who are at ease. These people are untroubled, they're undisturbed in some way. with the contempt of the proud. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease with the contempt of the proud. With this understanding of the verse in mind, notice a couple of things that the psalmist emphasizes here. First, the psalmist speaks of the scorn of those who are at ease. Now, I struggle with that a little bit, When he speaks of scorn, that wasn't so hard to figure out. He was referring to those who mock the faithful Israelites who are going to worship the Lord. But what does he mean when he refers to them as those who are at ease? Well, in the context, it would certainly be those who aren't making any effort to go worship the Lord like the faithful are doing. They're not having to work hard at doing that, so they'd be at ease in that sense, I would say. But I think an examination of this phrase in a couple of similar contexts will help us to further answer the question, what he means with his terminology. The first example comes from Isaiah, in which the prophet pronounces a judgment upon Israel. This is a judgment passage. Beginning in Isaiah 32, verse nine, he says this, rise up, you women who are at ease. That's the same Hebrew term here. as in Psalm 123. Hear my voice, you complacent daughters. Give ear to my speech. In a year and some days you will be troubled. So they're untroubled now, they're complacent, they're at ease. He says, in a year and some days you will be troubled. And again, he calls them, you complacent women. For the vintage will fail, the gathering will not come. Tremble, you women who are at ease. Be troubled, you complacent ones, once again. Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth on your waist. That's a sign of mourning and repentance for your sin. The judgment's coming, trouble's coming, because of their complacency. A sinful being at ease, a sinful complacency is going to be judged. And so they should take action. And that's what the sackcloth means. People shall mourn upon their breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. On the land of my people will come up thorns and briars, yes, on all the happy homes in the joy city, because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted. This is certainly a judgment that's coming, right? So in the larger context of that passage, the Lord pronounces judgment on the women of Israel who obviously here are standing in for the nation as a whole. It's not just the women who are gonna be judged. But I think he highlights the women in a case like this because women can't live this way unless there's a lot of prosperity. And God's gonna take that away. You can't fall into the sin of this kind of being at ease and complacency without being very prosperous. And this is a way of describing taking away to prosperity. All the husbands of these women are gonna be going, uh-oh. It's a judgment on them too. But the judgment's coming due to their complacency and living at ease while so many others are suffering and enduring trouble. but they're gonna be made to care, too, when they enter into the judgment of the Lord. They'll know trouble then. A similar example, a second one, comes from the prophet Amos. And he says this in Amos 6, beginning in verse 1. Woe to you who are at ease in Zion and trust in Mount Samaria, notable persons in the chief nation to whom the house of Israel comes. Go over to Chalna and see, and from there go to Hamath the Great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory? Woe to you who put far off the day of doom, who caused the seed of violence to come near. You lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on your couches, eat land from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall. who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments and invent for yourselves musical instruments like David, who drink wine from bowls and anoint yourselves with the blessed ointments, but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. See, there's a time when being at ease and being complacent is positively sinful. When, as we say in our day and age, the world around you is going to hell in a handbasket, right? Complacency shouldn't be your attitude. It was their attitude. They thought they were better than other nations in the prosperity that they'd achieved in those days. Therefore they shall now go captive as the first of the captives, and those who recline at banquets shall be removed. The Lord God has sworn by himself, the Lord God of hosts says, I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his palaces, therefore I will deliver up. the city and all that is in it. This is primarily Samaria that he's talking about. So in both of the cases that we've looked at here, those who were at ease were unbelieving Israelites who apparently did not take God's word seriously and did not care at all about whether or not he was being obeyed or about the suffering of those Israelites who did trust in the Lord. In fact, at least in the days of the psalmist, they actually mocked the faithful, as we've seen in our text. This referring to them being at ease, we've seen also, is a way of referring to sinful complacency, which is pride. It's pride, it comes down to that. And that should not surprise us, for the psalmist in our text emphasized the same thing. Secondly, the psalmist repeats the complaint that he and his fellow believers are fed up with the contempt that they've been experiencing, but here he adds that such contempt is directed at them by the proud. He specifies that. Why? Well, because it's a way of referring to unbelievers. He doesn't say, however, whether the proud are among their fellow Israelites, as we saw in the case of Isaiah and Amos in those passages, or among the Gentile peoples surrounding them. But we, I don't think, have any reason to assume it wouldn't have included both. That any time in the life of Israel you could have sung the psalm, and one of those two things would probably have been true. Either people in your own, unbelieving people in your own area, are mocking you as you go to worship, or you're passing through areas where there are Gentiles who are doing it. I think Jack Collins is very helpful in summarizing these points when he writes in his commentary on the Psalm that, Psalm 123 has been gathered into the songs of ascents and thereby connected with the ascent to the central sanctuary. In Israel and Judah before the Judean exile, this would have been applicable. since the journey would take the worshipers from their homes through territory under the influence of greedy Israelite aristocrats, for whom those who were at ease and the proud were fit designations. Or even, at times, through lands ruled by unsympathetic Gentiles. After the exile, the latter would have been especially possible. The psalm enables the pilgrim to pray for safety and for relief. It also sharpens their commitment to the journey, costly and dangerous as it might at times have been. It's a good psalm to sing when you're going on a journey where you're gonna experience these kinds of things, in other words. But as we conclude our study of this passage, I would just like to point out that we too may pray this psalm. As we wait on the Lord in our times of trial, particularly when we face similar types of contempt or derision for our faith, I mean, It doesn't take much looking around to see that a lot of people in our culture think what we're doing here this morning is silly, foolish. It's easy to see that, isn't it, all around us. We just don't pay much attention to it if it's not people actually spitting on us as we're walking in the doors or something. But it's out there. It's in the air we breathe in this culture. It's everywhere. But we too may look with the eyes of faith beyond our circumstances to the sovereign Lord above. As Steve Lawson again helpfully writes in his commentary on this psalm, every Christian needs to be peering beyond an overbearing boss, beyond a dying parent, beyond an unfaithful friend to the Lord himself. He must be looking beyond an unexpected expense, beyond a rebellious child, beyond a stagnant ministry, and beyond a passover promotion to the Lord himself. This is the upward vision of faith, a focusing on God for all our needs. The eyes of faith are always looking up to God for life, direction, protection, and provision. I think he gets the point pretty well. And as we continually look to the Lord for his mercy in our times of trouble, I think we should be encouraged by the words of our Lord Jesus in his parable of the persistent widow. This is recorded for us by our departed brother Luke in Luke chapter 18. And I'd like to read this text for you beginning in verse one of Luke 18. Then our Lord Jesus spoke a parable to them that men ought always to pray and not lose heart. He knows we're tempted to struggle to wait on the Lord, to lose heart. And he wants to encourage us not to do that, not to lose heart. So he said, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Some judges like that in our culture too. Now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, get justice for me, for my adversary. and he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And then our Lord Jesus said, hear what the unjust judge said, and shall not God avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears wrong with them? He's making argument from the lesser to the greater. This wicked judge, will finally listen to someone, even though He could care less about her, how much more will our Heavenly Father, who has chosen us and who loves us, listen to us? Of course He will. Of course He will. And He says, I tell you, He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? And in this context, He means this kind of persevering faith that doesn't give up. keeps trusting the Lord, keeps waiting on the Lord. You know, we live in a culture that in every way tries to almost teach us not to wait on the Lord. We have a culture that tries to drum patients out of us, if you will. It's a culture with microwave ovens and fast food restaurants and drive-through just about anything, right? The only place you're taught patience in our culture is the DMV, right? Right? Everything is about quick and convenient. Everything in our lives is about quick and convenient. You're banking online now to make it quick and convenient. Instantaneous buying things in Amazon or whatever. Everything in our culture, it seems, pushes us to be impatient. And that's terrible for us. It's a terrible environment to be, for anyone, but especially for a Christian for whom patience is such an important thing. It's one of the most important things we could possibly learn, to wait on the Lord. Look through your Bibles. I've already suggested some things, passages about trials and enduring trials and how important they are in teaching us patience and bringing out Christlike character. It's all over the Bible. It's the fruit of the Spirit. This is a key thing for Christians to learn, to wait on the Lord and be patient. We have to be patient to even begin learning it. We need some patience to even start. And so where do we go for that? Well, we go to the Lord. We wait on the Lord to learn to wait on the Lord. And we ask Him to give us the power we need and the self-control we need to overcome this atmosphere of constant impatience that we live in. And sometimes we're like the old frog in the kettle and we don't realize how impatient we're becoming. That is opposite to what sanctification entails. Sanctification means waiting on the Lord, so may God teach us to wait on Him more and more. Most of us are learning that, have learned it to some extent, but guess what? The whole Christian life is learning it more and more. You never stop having to learn patience. About the time you think patience is one thing I'm not struggling with, boom, you're hit with something that makes you impatient. So all we can do is pray and ask Him to work in us this kind of patience and a desire for it in a culture that makes us not desire it at all, but makes us want everything quick and easy. And then when we pray for Him to do that, Get ready for things that will make you wait and have to cry out to him for mercy a lot. It's for your good. It's for my good that he does this. This is how we become more like Christ. And there's no better thing for us than that. Let's pray. Holy Father, I hope I've been able to encourage my brothers and sisters as well as my own heart here today to just want to be a patient people, patient with one another, patient with your plans for our lives. Help us to see that when we're impatient, we're really just not trusting you. It's that simple. We're really just not happy with the speed with which you're doing things. And that's a bad thing. Help us, Lord, to repent of those kinds of attitudes and to walk out of here today knowing that it will be hard to learn how badly we need to learn to wait on you and crying out to you to help us do it, to learn that more and more. Like the servant whose eyes are in the hand of his master, help us to keep our eyes on you. Lord, for anyone who has not yet come to know you as his or her Savior, it is our prayer that you would help him or her today through the power of your Spirit to understand and believe that Jesus Christ, who was born of the Virgin Mary and lived a perfectly sinless life, died on the cross so that their sin might be forgiven. And he rose from the dead that they might have everlasting life. Help them to realize there's nothing they could do to earn this. and you don't expect it, they must receive it as a free gift by your grace. Help them to trust Christ today, I pray. And embark with the rest of us on this life of waiting on you and all the blessing that comes with it. I ask all these things in the name of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. Thank you once again for your kind attention.