Psalm 45, please give your full attention now. This is once more the word of God. The choir master according to the lilies, I’m a skill of the sons of Korah, a love song. My heart overflows with the pleasing theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. You are the most handsome of the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty. Your majesty, ride out victoriously. The cause of truth and meekness and righteousness. Let your right hand teach you awesome deeds. Your arrows are sharp in the hand of the king’s enemies. The peoples fall under you. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia from ivory palaces. Stringed instruments make you glad. Daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor. At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Hear, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your Lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her with joy and gladness. They are led along as they enter the palace of the king. In place of your father shall be your sons. You will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore, nations will praise you forever and ever. The word of the Lord. Amen. May he add his blessing upon the preaching of that word at this time. You may be seated.

Let’s pray and ask the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of the word at this point. Let’s pray. Gracious God and our heavenly Father, we confess once more this is your word. And in it you say that you give us light, and that in your light we see light. And so Lord, your word is truth. And you said that you would sanctify us by that truth. And so we ask, Lord, as we sit before your word at this time this morning, we ask that you will do all that you have sent it forth to do, and that you would work in the hearts of your people, and that you would draw all peoples to yourself, and that you would magnify your son, And in doing so, magnify your own name. For we ask, Lord, through this Son, this Christ, we ask it in his name. And all God’s people said together, amen. Amen.

Well, this is a love song. As I said, we had a wedding yesterday, glorious, beautiful time for all. The book of Psalms, of course, as we know, gives us a wide variety of emotions. We have laments, sorrow, pleading, we have confession, we have thanksgiving, and we have praise. They relate to all the shades of feelings and emotions that we experience in this life, including love, like Psalm 45. Psalm 45 is a love song, happiness, celebration, joy, all those emotions that we find related to a wedding day. But the wedding of Psalm 45 isn’t just an ordinary wedding. This is a royal wedding. It’s a really big deal. It’s written, of course, as we heard, for the king of Israel and for his bride. Verse one says, we aren’t told who this king was specifically, likely Solomon, but we can’t be certain. And notice the name isn’t given to us. Because at the end of the psalm it says, in verse 17, I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations. And we’ll see the importance of this, of course, a little later on in the Sherman. But we see in this psalm that it is a love song. It is written for a royal wedding. When we study and read this psalm with the complete lenses of the full revelation of God and his word, we see that it points us to something far, far more glorious and far greater than a royal wedding that took place historically between a king and his bride. It points us indeed to the one who said, something greater than Solomon is here. So we’ll see that it points us to that king whose throne is forever and ever. It’s one who came and laid down his life for his beloved bride, his people, the church. So let’s look at Psalm 45 now, and we’ll see that we have here, and then we’ll back out and see where in redemptive history it fits, right, in light of the New Testament, the completed canon, the full revelation of God. When we look at Psalm 45, we see that there are two stanzas, essentially, two stanzas that speak of, in the first stanza, verses one to nine, the king’s praise, and then verses 10 to 17. The second stanza, we have the bride’s presentation. So we have the king’s praise, and then the bride’s presentation. Stanza one, king’s praise. It opens up, says, my heart overflows with a pleasing theme, I address my verses to the king, my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. You remember the scribes, of course, right? Not just the scribes that we read of in the New Testament, those who are having conflict with the Lord Jesus, as we’ve been going through Mark, we’ve seen again and again. But scribes generally, broadly, were copyists, right? They would copy documents from one source to another. to make a copy, to carry on whatever that document might be. And in ancient times, they would use, of course, something like vellum or papyrus, skins of various animals to write on. They didn’t have the luxury that we do of paper everywhere. Of course, it is ubiquitous for us, paper is everywhere. But vellum, for instance, was very expensive. so much the case that some alphabets developed special characters to save space when they would write, given the value of the vellum. We remember things like in Spanish, there’s the Ñ, right? That’s the Ñ with that wiggle above it, that tilde. That’s just a double Ñ and it came to be shortened into one letter to save space. And so they used great care when they had these documents because of their value. They were meticulous in their work, the copyists. They would transcribe letter by letter, one copy to another. And so the psalmist says, that’s how I’m writing right now. I’m ready to give praise to the king like a scribe ready to write scripture. And after this introduction, or this brief setting, he breaks forth and prays for that king in verses two to nine. And notice here what he praises the king for. For what does he praise the king? He praises him for his godly character. We see in verse two, it doesn’t seem to strike us, apparently, immediately, you are the most handsome of the sons of men. And so we would think this has to do with his looks, right? He’s a handsome man, but it’s not. He’s the most handsome, not primarily because of his appearance, but because of his character. It’s his character that is attractive. Recall Israel’s first king, Saul, you’ll remember. They picked him, Saul, because of what? Because he was the best-looking guy there, the tallest. But his heart, regardless of his looks, was black. His heart was black. And who was the king after God’s own heart? who had a heart for the Lord. It was David, of course. And how is David described? He was the, that word that we don’t ever use, he was the ruddiest of his brothers, right? The ruddiest. He’s never praised for his looks or for his handsomeness, but our psalmist praises the king here, not only for his outward appearance, but for his inner attraction, his inner beauty. It says grace is poured upon your lips. And here we see how he is handsome, right? Grace. is poured upon your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever. And so this speaks of grace, it speaks of his integrity, it is attractive, it is appealing. In verse three, gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty. And we know something of this that shouldn’t strike us as wholly foreign, right? We know something in our own time. We know a number of, Not that long ago, we had Queen Elizabeth of England, of course. She was the queen for most of my parents’ generation, my generation. She reigned as queen of England. But now a king will be coronated, and she is passed on, and she’ll be coronated, crowned over that kingdom. In royal garb, he will be, in ceremonial sword, as protector and defender, right? And so in our psalm, we see something of this. The king is set for his wedding in his royal attire, robes that identify him as the king of Israel. And he has on his thigh what? It’s a sword strapped to his thigh, it says. And he goes out in splendor and majesty, great pageantry of the wedding procession, girded with the sword as defender of the people of God. And so the psalm moves on with praises for the king and his victories in battle, right? It speaks of something very important for a king. It says, in your majesty, write out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness. Let your right hand teach you awesome deeds. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies. The peoples fall under you. And so we see here not only what we would expect in military affairs, military dealings, right, the victory, truth and righteousness. But we see here a word that most of us would strike as odd. It’s not only truth and righteousness, but meekness, right? It’s not something we usually bring up or point out or aspire to in regard to military mooring or victories, meekness. It’s an interesting thing. But this is the quality that Israel’s kings were supposed to exhibit. They were mandated to be meek, meekness, particularly at their coronation. Remember the anointing of Solomon in the history of Israel. He came out riding, you recall, not on a mighty horse, but on a donkey. And this was the way of the kings of Israel. It was their way to ride on a donkey during their coronation because it was a symbol of their lowliness, of their meekness, of their humility. their office and that the true King of Israel is God. Theirs is a derived reign, it is a derived power. God has appointed for the people a righteous steward over those people to serve them. The king is a servant leader, is leading in service, not in dictatorial and on a dictatorial manner. And so that king is to lead them in majesty and splendor. And also he is to be what? Shepherd, a shepherd. This common picture for the kings of Israel, the servants of Israel in the Old Testament. The shepherd what? Who cares for his people, who comes to the aid of his people. And so we get it. We see kind of the picture that’s being painted for us. He was to be a shepherd king committed to truth and righteousness, in meekness and humility, restrained power, serving the people. So there the king goes in this royal procession to get his bride. And all this excitement and celebration and rejoicing is thick. It fills the air. We have to see and understand something of the ancient Near East culture, Israel’s culture indeed, in regards to the weddings. They’re not entirely like ours. We know this from God’s Word as we read it. Remember in the wedding where we in our day kind of push all these things together, but for them at first there would be this Betrothal, right, we know this, we’ve read about this, where vows would be taken and the parents who would arrange the wedding and the couple together and the families were involved and this betrothal would happen, betrothal. And even sometimes before the bride was even at an age to marry, it was something that was set long ago. before their knowing really, and this was often, and this was when they were engaged to each other, right? So we still separate those two, but unlike our engagements, in our wedding, the complex of those events, for us, those engagements are kind of private, they’re intimate between two people, right, when they get engaged. But in the ancient Near East, and for Israel in that culture at that time, Their engagement involved planning and legal vows between the families. And often there would be long periods of time between the betrothal, right, with this legal commitment, the vows and uniting them together, and the wedding day. I think it would be far apart. And of course, after which, after the wedding, the marriage would be consummated. But imagine the great anticipation in this complex, in this day, this complex of events, between the betrothal and all that that was, and all the time before the wedding day, and all the celebration that the two families would have. The bride on that day would make herself ready, along with her family and her friends. She would be made up. beautifully and ready, and the groom would prepare himself, making himself ready. And he would proceed to his bride’s home, down the street in long procession, the family with instruments and joy and song. And he would go and he would finally arrive to get his long-anticipated bride. And she waited in anticipation, so long for this to happen. And the day had finally come And soon he would be there with her to take her. And he arrives, and he takes her from her home, leaving her family, back, back now to his home, to their home. And there would be this great celebration, not only for an hour or two in a reception like we would, but for days and days and even weeks sometimes would be the celebration that they would have. That’s a lot of celebration. And so we get why. given this case and having this background, we get now why there’s this massive amount of wine at the wedding of Canaan, right? We read in the early chapters of John, 50 or 60 gallons of water that Jesus changed into fine wine. It’s a celebration. It’s a feasting that went on for a long time, a very long time. And the psalmist paints this picture for us. The king in regalia, sword strapped to his side, going to get his bride, bringing her back, blessed by the Lord. And then we come to verse six, and we wonder, what happened there? Verse six, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is the scepter of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. And then it says, therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And so there seems to be a shift going on, or indeed there is a shift that takes place. Who is the subject? Who’s the subject here? Why this switch from addressing God to addressing someone else? The psalm began addressing the king, right? I address you, I’m sorry, I address my verses to the king. And we read all the pronouns that followed. They’re in the second person singular, right? Your lips, your sword, your splendor, your majesty. your right hand, your arrows, all to the king. And then it says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And so what’s going on there? Well, if we turn back to our New Testament reading from Hebrews 1, Hebrews, by way of a reminder, of course, is written way down the timeline of history. from the Psalm that we’re looking at today after the coming of Christ, of course. And it was an anonymous writer is writing to the Jewish Christians who are under this persecution and therefore temptation to leave the faith and to return to their old way of worship and their old way of life to avoid this persecution and have it to end. And the Hebrews, the book begins by explaining how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. And that the whole Old Testament is ultimately speaking of Christ, and that he is the greater prophet, priest, and king. He is the fulfillment of those offices, those roles. And so listen once more to Hebrews, what it says here. And with your mind tuned to these roles that it’s giving, it’s telling us that Christ comes and he fulfills these things in perfection, in ultimacy. It says, long ago and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, in priestly language, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. So you see these roles, prophet speaking forth the word of God, priest making purification, and then as king, sitting down, reigning at the right hand of the father. in glory, and so Jesus is greater than all that had come before him. He’s greater than all the prophets. He’s the climax of God’s revelation, the heir of all things. He’s the ruler of all. He’s the redeemer of sinners. And then the author of the Hebrews quotes Old Testament passage after Old Testament passage, one after another, beginning in verse 5, and then in verse 8, he quotes our psalm. We’re looking at Psalm 45. But of the Son, he says, your throne, of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved uprightness, righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Right, and so we see that here, this anointing. The clear subject of Psalm 45 is the King. but also God is addressed there. So who’s the king and who is this God? Well, according to Hebrews, I hope you’re noticing, they’re both Jesus. Of course, it is a messianic psalm. All the scripture is Christocentric. We just heard it, right? Of the son, he says, you’re a throne of God is forever and ever. Therefore God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And he’s quoting Psalm 45, and he ascribes it to Jesus, declaring him to be Messiah, redeemer of sinners, the one who upholds his creation, the one who upholds the universe, all that was made by his power. And this one person, Jesus, in two natures, God and man, Jesus the Son is more excellent. He’s greater than all that came before him, greater than the angels, because he is God indeed. And so we must keep in mind that scripture, as we look at it, particularly from different perspectives and epochs in history, there are very often multiple horizons, multiple focus, right? You think of a, it’s been said well, of a mountainscape from afar, and it looks like a flat plain. But indeed, as you get closer, the mountains are miles apart. This is something of what we see in the Old Testament, right? The proclamation of what is can seem to flatten out until we get the close-up, clear picture, high definition in the New Testament explaining this closer vision. And so the psalmist, he begins this love song for the king and his royal wedding, but here he looks to the greater king, greater king, beyond Solomon, beyond all other kings, all those kings of Israel, you will remember, they would be what? The priests and the prophets would what? They would anoint them. Anoint them. And you know this word. I don’t think this is new to most of you. If it is, I’ll explain. The king would come to be known by that word, the anointed one. the Mashiach, the Messiah, is what this means, the anointed one. And so the psalmist is looking beyond the earthly kings of Israel, beyond all those kings, and indeed they pointed forward to the king of kings, right? The ultimate Mashiach, the Messiah, Jesus himself. And he says of that king, he says to that king rather, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you. And he speaks of the one who came into his own creation, took on real flesh, a real soul. He is the true, great, and ultimate last king. He’s the king and he’s the God, Psalm 45. That’s the first stanza, the king’s praise. Yes, Solomon. Yes, all of the other kings of Israel. But ultimately, it’s about Jesus, the Messiah, this Jesus who has come, taken his bride for himself. And that’s where the psalm goes to next, the second stanza, the bride’s presentation. Verses 10 to 15, verse 10 says, Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear, forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty since he is your Lord, bow to him. The bride is there at home in her father’s house. She has readied herself. She’s made herself ready for the royal procession that’s about to come for her and she will leave her father and her mother and will cleave to her husband. That’s the Lord’s prescription from Genesis, you’ll recall, right? They’re to leave their homes and to cleave to one another and then begin their new home, their new family together as one flesh. And so she unites herself to him in the union, that’s what we call it, the union of marriage. And he takes her to himself and she takes his name. That’s her new identity. And the Lord tells us in Ephesians 5 how this works out, right? You should read it and refresh yourself with that chapter, perhaps later this Lord’s Day. Reflect upon your own marriage or reflect upon your marriage to come if you’re not married. Reflect upon those whom you know, who you love, who are married. You should read and we read about this mutual submission in the earthly marriage. He has to love her, she has to respect him. They are to sacrifice themselves one to another. And in all of it, marriage is the lived out metaphor, the pointer to the church of Christ with his church. I’m sorry, the union of Christ with his church. Verse 13 goes on. All glorious is the princess in her chamber. With robes interwoven with gold and many colored robes, she is led to the king. with joy and gladness, they are led along as they enter the palace of the king. We’ve all been to weddings, I think most of us, it’s safe to say. Some of you were at a wedding yesterday. But even you who have not been to a wedding, you’ve probably seen the preparations in culture, right? Especially of the bride, right? This is big business, the bride. And despite the commercialism of it all, It’s a special thing, right, the preparation of the bride for her bridegroom. Every woman she knows, busy making her beautiful, busy with her hair and her makeup, and all the excitement and the preparation and anticipation, and it’s glorious and it’s fantastic. I remember the first wedding that I ever performed. Right before the wedding, I went to check on the bride and the bridesmaids, and I peeked into the room where they were kind of queued up and waiting, and there they were, and it was beautiful, these young women praying together. It was sweet and pure, and then I went to check on the groom. I think I mentioned this to most of you before, and the groomsmen, and I peeked in that room, and they were wrestling, and they were throwing their suit coats around, and there was a football and a beach ball involved, and they’re slamming into walls, and, you know, it was kind of a picture of the stereotypes we have of young men and young women, but quite the contrast. Not the picture of the king here in the psalm was the groom there. Of course, I love them and they’re dear to me. But the brides on their wedding day, such care and beauty are given, such care and preparation, glowing and ready for that day that they’ve dreamt about for the whole of their life. And that’s the picture here, something of the picture in these verses. before us in Psalm 45. The king arrives to get her and take her back, and we know it. She’s in that beautiful dress. There’s something of a transformative power of a wedding dress. It’s flowing behind her, like, as they walk, rejoicing in procession, back to become one. And this is why, by the way, at weddings, the bride walks down the aisle. It’s a picture of this procession. It’s to depict that very thing. It’s a picture of the church walking down the aisle, ready for her groom. We know the verse. Holy Scriptures say, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared, how? As a bride adorned for her husband. That’s where that comes from, right? The dwelling place of the king and his bride, right? God has prepared it. That day the bride has longed for. Longed for it, and they will be one with certainty. It is coming. It is coming, that’s the picture. And what will that place be like? What will that place be like, does scripture tell us? Once again, back to the word. 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. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore for the former things have passed away. The glory of that. May we never have a ho-hum, mundane attitude towards that very thing. Develop a reflex of awe in that very thing, that promise prepared for you, that day that is to come. Jesus the King, he rode out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness, you see. And he did this when, on a donkey, he came to Jerusalem. It’s not just some random weird factoid of Scripture. This is what’s behind that. Riding a donkey to Jerusalem, riding in as a king, people waving palm branches, saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And his royal wedding procession began there. in meekness on a donkey into Jerusalem and in rejection and in the brutality of Calvary and Calvary’s cross where he gave his life for you and for me and for all who give their lives to him in faith. Where he wasn’t wearing a sword in that first procession. He was pierced with the sword. He rode in. hung on a cross, and he rose from the dead and ascended and now rules forever from his throne in glory. This king will come again for his bride. Many, many people deny this. Many, many people just want him to go away, but he’s not going away. He’s coming back. He will come again for his bride. It is a certainty, and on that day, It will be with splendor and majesty for all to see, and for his family, rejoicing, celebration, and song. And at that time, his sword will be with him, and he will protect his precious bride, eradicating forever his and her enemies’ sin and death. And take them to the home prepared for her. He will bring her to behold their God in Christ’s beautiful face forever, for all of eternity. Rejoicing in glory, that’s what it’s all about, you see. King Jesus, the husband. All of history from beginning and forward was driving to that day. The Bible knows no cyclical history, right? Nothing of life just round and round it goes. History isn’t a circle, history is a line. It has a beginning, and praise God, it has an end. And God’s work to redeem his people is to come as the glorious husband king and take his precious bride united to her, to the glorious home he has prepared for her, his most treasured possession. And if that’s not the center and the end and the goal of all of history and life, what’s the point? What’s the point? We’re just dragging ourselves painfully, suffering meaninglessly through this life, obsessing on whatever will take our minds off of the suffering and the idols to fulfill the cruciform holes in our hearts. Life is meaningless, it’s futile. It’s meaningless and futile if what the psalm and the gospel speak of, if the end isn’t a wedding. It’s been said, rightly, that because this is true, the whole of human history is indeed a love story. It’s a love story. It’s the story of Jesus, God, and King coming into creation for his bride to accomplish for her what she could never, ever do to make herself ready. Regardless of the anticipation and the joy and the frenzy and the help, she could never do it for herself to make herself ready. And knowing this, we know why the name of the king isn’t mentioned in the psalm. Verse 16, in the place of your fathers shall be your sons. You will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore, nations will praise you forever and ever. The name there is not mentioned. But the New Testament tells us the name. It tells us that king, that king is Jesus. His name is remembered generation after generation after generation and forever. That name is declared to be above every name. And through the gospel, by the Spirit, sons and daughters are what multiplied, multiplied and will fill that new heaven and the new earth. And this king does all of this. How? By his death in our place on the cross. He gives us his perfect righteousness, making you acceptable before the Father like you could never do for yourself. And even went far from home and became like his bride to get her. lifted her from the pit of filth and sin and cleansed her and readied her, gave her life and cleansing. He didn’t scorn her or see her shamefully, but he loved her and suffered for her to the point of death. And that flesh that he took on for her, bearing the marks of cruelty and murder for her, that is you, the church. and he will have those marks forever, forever. This is the Lord Jesus. This is what he did for you and for me, his bride whom he loves. So congregation, brothers and sisters, rejoice in your husband king, the Lord Jesus. He is faithful, he’s a faithful husband. He is kind and he is gentle and he is able. He cares for you and will wipe away all of your sins to where you’re spotless. to be presented on that day, even as he will wipe away your tears forever. So may we, brothers and sisters, strive in our marriages to reflect this love and sacrifice and care. And may we all remember all that he did to give us life. That goal, that day is coming, dear people. It’s coming. May we long for it. ever increasingly in anticipation and praise, and may our lives reflect that husband’s love, that love, Jesus, shown to sinners and rebels, saved by grace, like you and like me, in all the name, the name of Jesus. Rejoice, brothers and sisters. He’s coming for you, his bride. May it all be for his glory. Amen.

Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you and we love you, we praise you. We’re so often overwhelmed at your love for us. Sometimes there’s more than we can seem to bear. We pray, Lord, that we could bear it. We praise you that you do love us. Praise you for the sacrifice of your son in our place, that we would have life. forever with him, Lord. We pray that you would help us to believe what we have heard concerning you, concerning Jesus, our great husband, King, and that he is not only bold and able and powerful, but that he is tender, and that he loves and cares for us. Help us to believe what you tell us, Lord, that we’ve died to sin and we’ve been raised to walk in newness of life. Oh, Lord, help us to walk that walk faithfully, and more and more. As we look to Christ, our King, Lord, we pray for this church. We pray that you would indeed continue to bless us, continue to give us a spirit of love. Lord, love and care for one another. Lord, we pray that you would continue to grant us the blessing of praying for one another. Lord, and we do pray that you would, especially, you know all of our needs, Lord. For those with particular physical needs, Lord, we pray that you would grant them relief, and if it’s your will, Lord, not to do so until glory, we pray that we would abide our suffering well, knowing that you love us, rejoicing in suffering, because we know the terminus of this life, and we know that the death that we will all undergo is the death that leads to life, true, full life, Lord. We thank you for the peace granted to us by virtue of our union with Jesus. He is our peace and our life. Lord, we pray that you would help us and guide us, Lord, as we look to facilitate the expansion that you’ve blessed us with here at this church, this local outpost of the kingdom of heaven. Lord, we pray that you would indeed Help us to be cognizant of that leading as we meet later that she would indeed be with us in that meeting as we discuss the future. Lord, we are so delighted and we give you praise for all of these things. Lord, we ask that you would continue to be with us for the remainder of this service. Lord, change us, encourage us, refresh us, challenge us, Lord, and help us to know our King, Lord, and help us to long for that day of his return. We ask this all in Christ’s name, amen.