I would like to invite your attention this
morning to a word that is found in
the third verse in the first chapter of
Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
Praise be to God, the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual
blessing in Christ.
Praise be to God.
Christian praise.
Now this remarkable document, the letter that Paul
wrote to the Ephesian church, has been called
the Queen of the Epistles.
And that not without reason, for its teaching
is unquestionably of the rarest, richest variety.
Its six chapters are a veritable goldmine of
spiritual truth.
If there are young Christians here this morning,
I would advise you to try and memorize
as much as you can of this delightful
letter that Paul wrote to the Ephesian church
of old.
It's a very wonderful document for a young
Christian to meditate upon.
I'll assure you of this, of course, you'll
not get all the meat out of Ephesians
in one reading.
And you will find that however often you
come back to this document, you will always
see something more in it, and something greater.
For it is veritably a feast of good
things.
Now this, our text this morning, is the
first of many such expressions of praise that
we find interspersed throughout the letters that the
Apostle Paul wrote, and which we have in
the New Testament.
Over and over again the Apostle would be
moved, as it were unrehearsed, and just suddenly
he would break off his line of reasoning.
In order to praise God, you have it
in so many places.
So that his writings are interspersed with this
kind of thing, all indicating the gratitude that
welled in his soul as he contemplated the
amazing grace of God.
And really, you know, I believe that this
is surely one of the things that distinguishes
a true believer from an unbeliever.
If we really do behold the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ, if
God has really come to us and is
continually coming to us, in and through his
Son and by his Holy Spirit, if we
are in fellowship with God and we are
really touching reality, then we shall have to
praise him.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon said that God has no
dumb children.
Now that may be a strange way of
putting it, but this is what he meant.
The man or the woman that is touching
God, or who is being influenced by God,
to whom God is real, has of necessity
to give expression to gratitude and to worship.
If you and I can go through a
day, let alone a week, without having to
gather our thoughts together and turn Godward in
a teal of praise, then it means that
we are scarcely touching the realities of the
New Testament.
The desire within our hearts to meet on
the Lord's Day is indicative of the quality
of our spiritual life.
And our desire to meet with God alone
in our own quiet places is equally so.
The man or the woman who knows nothing
of praise to God is surely a man
or a woman who is blind to the
goodness of God and can hardly be tasting
of the good things of God's grace.
Now, this is indeed a remarkable passage that
we have before us this morning.
It's a paean of praise and it continues,
if you will care to read on at
your leisure.
It will continue right through to the end
of verse 14.
That's what Paul is doing here.
It's not only the opening verse, the verse
of our text, this is not the only
one that speaks of praise, but he continues
in the attitude of pouring out his great
soul to God in thanksgiving and more than
that.
He is here as a kind of soloist
in the first place who is trying to
unite the Ephesians with him to make a
choir.
All to the praise and the glory of
the God of all grace and the source
of all mercy.
Now, I want us to look at two
or three of these, of the main things
that emerge here this morning.
For I believe that in a time, even
such a time as this in world history,
one of the things that ought to characterize
our lives if we are the Lord's people
is this.
It is the praise of God.
For God's grace is to be experienced not
only in sunny days, but in dark days.
And if we know anything about his presence
with us and his joy given to us
and his peace, then we need to be,
we need to be and we ought to
be a praising people.
Now, look at the song upon the lips
of this apostle Paul.
Praise be to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing
in Christ Jesus or in Christ.
The one word which Paul uses and is
translated praise be or blessed be, expresses what
ought always to be a Christian's heartfelt emotion.
Gratitude, thanksgiving, bursting the banks of the heart.
What do you know about this?
The apostle had to give expression to it
and he does so right at the beginning
of his epistle.
Now, he's not the only one to do
this in the New Testament.
We won't go after others this morning.
Though in our midweek service here in the
Winchester room we have been thinking of Peter
as well as Paul being involved in this
same kind of praise offering ministry to God.
Something that goes on all the time even
in suffering according to Peter.
Praise has always been a feature of biblical
religion.
The choir have reminded us of that this
morning by their rendering of Psalm 150.
But that's only an illustration of a principle
in the Old Testament.
Job says that at the creation, right back
at the very beginning, the morning stars sang
together and all the angels shouted for joy.
Turn over the pages to the book of
Exodus and you come to chapter 15 where
you hear Moses and the people of Israel
praising God for his redemption from Egyptian bondage.
And the whole community seemed to be, seemed
to be jubilant with a sense of gratitude
that God should have delivered them after 400
years in bondage.
Heard their cry, come to their rescue.
They have to praise him.
Solomon was not only a person who uttered
3000 Proverbs but we read in 1 Kings
4 verse 32 that his songs were a
thousand and five.
We read in 1 Chronicles These are the
men whom David put in charge of the
service of song in the house of the
Lord after the ark rested there.
You see, in the ark was the law
of God and Aaron's rod that budded and
a pot of manna indicating the goodness of
the Lord to the people in the wilderness.
Now you can't have these things in the
midst of you and you can't have the
covenant symbol of God in the midst of
you without having to praise him.
You can only have such things in the
midst of a congregation if they are thoughtless.
Then if they are thoughtless they can cease
from praise.
But the thoughtful will always want to trace
the goodness and the mercy of God to
its source.
Elihu speaks of God as one who gives
songs in the night and the Psalter was
not only the product of Old Testament religion
and Old Testament faith it was indeed the
veritable hymn book of the Old Testament church.
But when you turn over the pages into
the New Testament you find that it is
even more so.
Praise is even more evident here in the
New Testament.
It is an inevitable accompaniment of the experience
of saving grace in the soul.
The whole atmosphere of the New Testament is
charged with such emotion as love, joy, peace
and thanksgiving in consequence.
You remember that Jesus said to the woman
at the well who was an outstanding sinner
in her day that God does not only
seek to save that which was lost.
He does that.
But God seeks men and women to worship
him.
He seeks worshippers.
Has he found the worshipper in your heart,
in your life?
Has he opened the fountains of the deep
in your soul?
Have you ever had a moment when you've
been caught up with God so that you
have to give up all to him?
Recipients of the good news cannot other than
join the chorus of the ransomed and the
redeemed.
They need not be cajoled or persuaded to
praise God who are living in conscious relationship
with God.
I always think of new Christians as, in
terms of that man in Acts chapter 3
you remember he'd been lying by the gate
of the temple for many years and he
was lame.
And people brought him there at the beginning
of the day and they left him there
and he was begging.
But Peter and John came and he was
healed.
And he was there to walk again.
And we read of him going in with
Peter and John into the temple walking and
leaping and praising God.
Not a very, not a very, not the
kind of spectacle that many people might like
to see.
But a very beautiful one.
You see you didn't need to persuade that
man to go into the temple to worship
because he had received something from God and
he knew that he'd received it.
If you are on the receiving end of
God's saving grace and you know you're receiving
it, surely it must move your soul.
Now this is, this is the logic of
the New Testament.
If we learn to fellowship with God, if
we recognize the source of all grace and
of all mercy, then in the depth of
our hearts there should always be the sense
of indebtedness which is the key to praise.
It's not surprising therefore that every evangelical awakening,
personally and socially, leads to an added impetus
to Christian praise.
And evangelical revivals, properly so called, have invariably
led to new hymnories appearing in the church
of Jesus Christ.
Now this is true.
This is historically true.
Where you have men and women coming to
a knowledge of God, they have to sing
because they have to praise.
And so many of our hymn books were
originally brought into existence or were brought into
existence by the original impetus of a renewal,
of revival of religion in the soul.
Clouds may gather around us, but the undertones
of the believer's experience should always be one
of praise.
Now that spirit of praise is evidently and
eloquently illustrated in the words of our text
today.
No sooner has Paul tend his Christian greeting
and begun to think of the theme of
the gospel than he has to praise.
Praise God.
Can you think of the gospel?
Can you think of the cross?
Can you think of the incarnation?
Can you think of the glory that your
Savior left behind?
Can you think of the humiliation of God
incarnate and the working out of your redemption?
Can you think of it all without wanting
to praise God?
And there's something wrong.
Something's awfully wrong.
Praise be to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
He can't keep it in.
And he would have all the Ephesians join
him as his mind moves from one divine
boom to another.
The apostle seems to catch fire.
Now it may not be evident actually in
the English.
You notice that there are a number of
sentences in the English translation.
But as a matter of fact, in the
Greek of verses 3 to 14, we only
have one sentence in the Greek.
One long meandering sentence.
And it's a very, very long one.
Moving from one step to another like the
gushing of water released from a dam that
has given way.
And one writer, William Hendrickson, speaks of it
in this way.
Let me just quote a few words from
him because it's very true to fact.
The sentence begun by the words, Blessed be
God, rolls on, says William Hendrickson, like a
snowball tumbling down a hill, picking up volume
as it descends.
Its 202 words and the many modifiers which
they form, arranged like shingles on a roof
or like steps on a stairway, are as
a matter of fact like prancing steeds pouring
forward with impetuous speed.
That's exactly it.
Have you ever caught yourself there?
You just have to sing praise.
Brothers and sisters, we don't know enough of
this.
I remember preaching with Dr. Paul Rees of
World Vision now who has occupied this pulpit
a number of times.
I remember Dr. Paul Rees saying how praise
could change a service of worship.
And he referred to a lady that he
knew very well in the United States.
I believe she was a black lady, Amanda
Smith by name.
It's one of the names that registered here
with me.
Who used to sing in conventions and conferences.
But she was a deeply, deeply spiritual woman
and very sensitive to the goodness of God
and had a marvelous voice.
Well, he had been involved with her in
various conferences and conventions and had come to
know her.
He said the first time he sat on
the same platform with Amanda Smith, he said
the preacher wasn't really getting on very well.
You know what that is?
When his throat gets dry and his thoughts
begin to wander and he's not quite sure
where he's going and where he's going to
end.
And everything's rather cold and tepid.
There was Amanda Smith listening to him and
it seemed he was going nowhere.
But out of the depth of her big
soul when he said the words, Jesus Christ
our Lord, praise the Lord, she said.
And the man was taken back in his
stride.
And he thought, well, there's somebody being blessed
here.
And he said, that was one of the
greatest meetings I've ever been in in my
life from that moment forward.
It seemed as if an anointing from the
throne of God came down upon the people.
Now, said Dr. Paul Rees, and I must
give you the end or you'll think it's
something ordinary or something queer.
Amanda Smith knew how to control herself.
For on another occasion, he said, and we
were together and the minister in the pulpit
or behind the rostrum was having a very
good time and the Lord was evidently blessing
him and people were in rapt attention.
I saw Amanda Smith physically beginning to move
with praise, he said, and adoration.
She put her hand over her face and
she would move her head, but she didn't
say a word.
And ultimately, he said, I saw her opening
her purse and taking her handkerchief out and
pushing it into her mouth.
And I asked her afterwards, what were you
doing?
Oh, she says, when the Spirit of God
is unmoving, I didn't want to disturb him.
But you see, there was wisdom there along
with a spirit of gratitude and praise that
has to overflow the bank sometime.
Have you ever found yourself exploding with gratitude
that you couldn't keep to yourself?
That's what honors God.
And I was very thrilled when I heard
from one of our young sisters here of
Hager Lee in hospital just a couple of
nights ago before her second major spinal operation,
writing a little note to the Lord to
thank Him for all His goodness to her
and saying that if He calls her home,
she willed everything to Him.
Hallelujah.
Bless Hager.
You'll be glad to know the hand of
the Lord is upon her.
Do you know anything of that, my friend?
Do you know anything of that?
Now, the substance of the boon that excited
the Apostle Paul here is too much for
us to consider this morning, but we are
going to consider what he says about it
in verse 3 only.
Praise be to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us
in the heavenly realms with, notice, every spiritual
blessing in Christ.
The blessings that gladdened Paul's soul are spiritual
in nature.
I'm not suggesting for one minute that Paul
wasn't grateful for material gifts that came his
way.
He was.
And you only have to read his references
of gratitude to the Philippian church, for example,
for supplying some of his material needs in
order to recognize that.
Paul was grateful for those who helped him
materially and made it possible for him in
certain cases and at certain times not to
go along working with his hands but to
have freedom to preach the gospel and teach
it from dawn to dusk and even later.
But ultimately, what really made this man praise
God was not the fact that he had
adequate material provisions but rather the spiritual benefits
that God had placed at his disposal in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
The word translated spiritual blessings puts the emphasis
where it ought to be.
The benefits that really bring the song from
the soul of the apostle are the spiritual
blessings that have been made ours in our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Now you will doubtless detect a considerable difference
of emphasis between what we have here and
what we often have in the Old Testament.
There in the Old Testament in the days
of shadows and types the material was often
symbolic of the spiritual.
Let me say what I mean a little
clearer.
In the Old Testament days to be materially
blessed was more than simply to be materially
blessed.
The material benefits were symbolic of the fact
that God had seen fit to bless us
in that way.
And the spiritual benefits of God were symbolized
by his material kindness or material benefits given
to men.
Now you can see this in a number
of ways.
Canaan for example, the land.
The children of Israel, the spiritual among them
did not so much praise God that they
had so many acres promised them in the
land.
It wasn't the acreage.
It was the fact that God had promised
them a land for them.
It was the divine promise that was the
big thing.
And the land was symbolic of God's pleasure
and of God's grace.
When you come to the tabernacle in the
first place and then the temple of course
they thanked God for these material edifices.
The one that they could dismantle in the
wilderness and carry on and erect it again
and the other a static building, an edifice
in Jerusalem.
But ultimately it wasn't for the material edifice
either the tabernacle or the temple.
They were really praising God because it was
God's dwelling place.
That was the big thing about it.
It was symbolic that God wanted to be
among them and dwelt among the cherubim and
by the blood of atonement the high priest
could represent them at least once a year
in the very shrine of God.
That was the cause of their praise.
And so if they were blessed with cattle,
kind or children all were the benefits and
the gifts of God to them.
They were symbolic you see.
So the rich man in the Old Testament
was invariably the good man.
Now in this connection it is interesting and
instructive to note that though Abraham was given
the promise of the land and promised the
land for himself and his seed as an
eternal inheritance when we come to the New
Testament the New Testament has very little to
say about that.
And actually the New Testament says next to
nothing about Abraham and the land.
You have to go back to the Old
Testament.
Well what was Abraham grateful for and praising
God for according to the New Testament?
Ah, listen.
By faith he made his home in the
promised land as a stranger in a foreign
country.
He lived in tents as did Isaac and
Jacob who were heirs with him of the
same promise.
Well I can understand there's nothing strange about
that you say.
He was a stranger there because he'd come
from another land Ur of the Chaldees.
That's not what the epistle to the Hebrews
says.
Listen.
He was a stranger there for this reason
not because of where he had come from
but where he was going to.
For he was looking forward to the city
which has foundations whose builder and architect is
God.
Abraham was rejoicing not in the land but
in the city that he saw beyond the
land.
The land was symbolic of something beyond itself.
And he was a stranger in the land
even when he was there.
His home was not there.
He was a pilgrim there.
He was a lodger there.
He always saw beyond the fertile plains beyond
the hills beyond it all even the river
Jordan.
The land was not his goal apparently.
His eyes were beyond the land was a
symbol of something beyond itself.
Here in Ephesians however the material has receded
more and more into the background and the
spiritual has become everything.
You see when once we see and recognize
this our values become altogether different.
Once we see that God's ultimate is spiritual
we shall hold material and carnal things in
proper perspective.
Every gift of God is to be prized.
Every gift of God is to be accepted
with gratitude.
But oh when we have known something of
his spiritual benefits in Christ these are the
things that warm our hearts for our whole
understanding will have been changed by his grace.
Lest there be anyone who doubts the supremacy
of God's spiritual gifts however let me put
it like this which I trust will solve
any difficulties you may have.
God could bring the vast complicated cosmos in
which we live with all its material wealth
into existence by the mere word of his
mouth but God could not give us one
spiritual blessing without the work of his Son.
He could bring creation into existence and give
it to mankind to rule within it and
to be blessed by its produce by the
breath of his mouth but his spiritual blessings
had to be purchased by the blood of
his Son.
That's the difference between the material and the
spiritual.
The breath of God brought the creation into
existence the blood of Christ and nothing less
was required to bring into existence these spiritual
blessings.
Now the composition or nature of the boon
that makes the apostles so full of praise
then is this God's spiritual benefits in Christ.
But notice he's got his eye on the
comprehensiveness of what God has done for us.
He's got his eye on the fact that
God has given us everything every spiritual benefit
conceivable in Christ.
Praise be to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us
in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing
in Christ.
Now I don't know whether we really take
this in but this is what makes us
praise God if anything does that everything that
we can conceivably need in this world at
any given time every spiritual blessing that we
shall conceivably need is already given to us
in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now if you're tempted to doubt that well
let me remind you that Peter says exactly
the same thing.
In 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3
we read His divine power has given us
everything we need for life and godliness through
the knowledge of Him who called us by
His own glory and goodness.
Now there are two things there that we
need to notice.
God has given us every spiritual blessing in
Christ.
The second is this.
He's already done it.
Paul uses here a tense of the verb
the aorist tense which refers to a finished
act in the past a completed act and
what the apostle is saying is this that
every Christian man and woman who is in
Christ has already been blessed as an act
of sovereign grace in the past tense it's
finished and done with because God has done
it everything has been given to us.
You say that's incredible.
What does that mean?
Well if you read this passage Paul will
go back and tell you that before the
world was made in eternity God actually did
this.
It is as precious and as profound as
that.
No spiritual benefit that we shall ever need
has been omitted.
Not one.
Every spiritual need that we can ever encounter
has been given to us in promise in
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now those blessings are not necessarily in our
possession today but they are in the heavenly
realms in Christ Jesus.
You see there's a world of difference between
what a man or a woman has in
his pocket or in her purse and what
he or she has in the bank.
Isn't there?
You may have very little in your pocket
this morning or in your purse just enough
to get along with I suppose for a
week or two.
But that does not mean to say that
you have nothing more in the bank.
Now what the Apostle Paul is saying here
is this that Christ is the treasury of
grace and God has actually put to our
account in Christ every conceivable spiritual benefit that
we shall need to go from the world
of sin into glory.
Everything we need it's in Christ.
And he's put it there.
It's there already.
It's in your name believer.
He's chosen you to be holy and without
blame before him in love.
And that means that he's made provision for
holiness and blamelessness in Christ Jesus.
He's put everything in Christ.
It's a blessed thing to be able to
wake up every new day and even if
you can foresee some of the problems of
the day from your bedside to be able
to say before you go out into the
world God has already given me grace for
this in Christ.
Oh this is wonderful.
I'm going to see some people today who
are suffering.
I'm going to visit some people today who
are in terrible trouble.
I'm going to meet some people under terrifying
burdens today physically, morally, spiritually.
But in Christ his saints have been blessed
with everything already and it's only a matter
of coming to our Lord Jesus Christ and
making those provisions our own by faith and
trust and obedience.
You see this is really the difference between
one Christian and another.
Unfortunately many Christians are unaware of what is
theirs in the Lord Jesus Christ.
They come up against the difficulty in life
and they think that God's left them alone.
There's no way out.
They have to live under the clouds.
There is no light in the darkness.
You've never seen this that God has already
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
And others well they've learned the lesson and
they know the truth they know the doctrine
nevertheless they do not bother to come to
our Lord from day to day with all
their needs and make their requests known with
thanksgiving.
And so they live try to live today
on yesterday's blessing and on yesterday's experience of
the grace of God.
Now that's wonderful as far as it goes.
Let yesterday's faithfulness on God's part inspire us
for today.
But God doesn't want you to live on
stale bread.
He wants you to gather your manna every
day.
He wants you to live on the fresh
provisions of grace coming from the Father, through
the Son, by the Spirit every day.
This is to what we're called.
A Christian's riches then must not be computed
by what he has in his pocket but
by what he has in Christ.
You and I ought to be ashamed that
we are living like paupers all too often
when God has so lavishly endowed us with
all things necessary for life and godliness.
Lastly I conclude.
Now you notice Paul traces the source of
such substantial benefits to God the Father.
And so his praise and his thanksgiving here
is specifically, specifically centered in God the Father
though the Spirit and the Son come in
as we read in the context.
Praise be to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us
in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing
in Christ.
The source of our every spiritual blessing then
is God the Father throughout Lord Jesus Christ.
In the person and the coming of Jesus
we see the deity of God as well
as his paternity.
And these are the two things that are
stressed here.
God is God.
He's the Father of our Lord Jesus.
In the sending forth of his Son to
be our Savior we see the deity of
God, the reality of God, the power of
God, the might of God as well as
his mercy.
He promised him.
In the Old Testament he promised him in
Eden.
He had planned to send him before man
was created.
So we're told in this passage.
But he promised him.
He promised him to our first parents.
And the promise was reiterated.
And in the fullness of the time he
came.
And God prepared a virgin girl called Mary.
And by the Holy Spirit he separated her.
And he kept her to himself.
No man touched her.
And then the Spirit of the Lord came
upon her.
And there was conceived in her womb the
Holy One, the Son of God.
And God became incarnate of the virgin.
You see it.
God sent forth his Son.
That's his deity.
He can promise beforehand.
And he can fulfill what he's promised.
And he comes.
That's not all.
Having come, our Lord Jesus set his face
steadfastly to do what the Father had given
him to do.
My Father worketh hitherto, he says, and I
work.
They wondered why he was performing so many
miracles.
Why he was continuing to do this and
to preach that.
Wherever he went he was doing the Father's
will.
My Father's at work, he says, and I
have to work with my Father.
We are in fellowship together.
My Father worketh.
And I'm working with him.
And because the Father and I are one,
this is why I do this.
This is why I go there.
And this is why I will not turn
back until I lay down my life for
the sheep.
Can you see this?
The deity of God.
The glory of his Godhead.
And over and above that, I shouldn't say
over and above that, but equal to that
is this concept of his paternity.
The Father of our Lord Jesus.
I do not only need to know that
God is God.
Oh, we need to know that God could
be a father to his child.
And in the life of our Lord Jesus
we see this.
We see how he always spoke of God
as his Father.
Always a Father who was wise.
Always a Father who could be trusted.
Always a Father who could be sought in
all kinds of circumstances for all kinds of
needs.
And a Father who remained when every other
Father had gone.
A Father in heaven.
You and I need to see the deity
of God and we need to see his
paternity for the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ becomes our Father in him.
And he blesses us not simply as the
divine creator of the universe, but as the
divine Father of his people.
There's a warmth in his blessing as well
as adequacy of provision.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ is to be praised because in Jesus
Christ he has blessed us with everything.
Brothers and sisters, this is where we close.
I just want to ask the question, do
you feel that you are a worshipper of
God?
Does your life bear testimony in his presence
this morning that you're in tune with the
hosts of heaven who ever sing praises to
God and the Lamb?
Would you be at home if you were
transported into heaven this morning?
For the praise of God and the worship
of God is the main thing that goes
on there.
Would you be like a fish out of
water?
Or would your heart be at home because
your heart has been set on holy things
and on the pleasure and glory of God
as you've pilgrimaged along the pilgrim way since
God called you to himself?
Oh, I beg of you, let's look at
ourselves this morning.
In vain we say so much that is
true and right as we seek to witness
in a world of fallen men and women.
In vain do we say so much unless
we can speak of God and of his
Son and of his Spirit out of a
heart that is full of it all because
we're living at the receiving end of all
things that God has given us freely out
of sheer grace in the knowledge of his
Son and by the ministry of his Spirit.
God forgive us that we are not more
praising.
God make us a people that will be
to his praise in life and in death,
in speech and in service.
Amen.
Let us pray.
Our God and our Father, you do make
us conscious of our inadequacies and of our
unworthiness when we come into your presence and
we acknowledge that again today for we cannot
contemplate a passage such as this and a
teaching such as this without having to confess
that our lips are so utterly preoccupied with
the praises of men or the blame of
men and so little with the praise of
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Lord forgive us.
We pray that you will lead us to
the realization of what you have done for
us that by the reading and the study
of your word, by fellowshipping one with another,
by daily launching out in trust and in
faith in you, we shall discover more and
more from our own experience what we read
to be true in your word that everything
is given us and that we can make
our own those things which are already ours
in our Savior and therefore live more than
conquerors in the midst of a world gone
mad.
Oh Lord, teach us, teach us how to
grow in grace and in the knowledge of
yourself and thus in worship and praise of
you alone.
Write this truth upon our hearts.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with you all now and
until Jesus comes again and then forevermore.
Amen.