Psalm 15:1-5

Psalm of David. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to his own hurt and does not change, who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

The word of the Lord. Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

Opening Prayer

Let’s pray now and ask the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching and the reception of that word. Let’s pray. Our great God and heavenly Father, we confess once more this is your word written down, breathed out by you expressly as you have done so. Breathe it out and we pray, dear Lord, that as we hear it read and we hear it preached this morning, that you would bless this word as it goes forth. that it would go forth in truth, that it would go forth even with the affection that you would accomplish in your desired will by it, and Lord, you would have your full way with us. And we pray, Lord, that it would also be heard and received in a manner worthy of the God who speaks and is not silent. And so, Lord God, we come, we pray, give us hearts that are ready to hear. Help us, Lord, to bend our lives and our wills towards you. We pray that the instrument of your word this morning and the meditation of all of our hearts would be acceptable in your sight, our dear Lord. We pray this all in Christ’s name and we all as God’s people said together, amen. Amen.

The Question of the Worshiper

We often hear people talk about a mountaintop experience. It’s kind of a term that’s come in vogue a mountaintop experience, and it’s usually referred to as kind of a generic spiritual high or a sense of connectedness to God or to spiritual things. However, that might be defined, and it is so often the case that many have pursued this experience by man’s means or by fleshly ways and in ways not ordained by God in his word. Far too often, God’s ways have been abandoned for more purported exciting methods to deep spiritual experience.

The True Mountaintop Experience

We see in Psalm 51 this morning, I’m sorry, 15 this morning, a discussion of one who sojourns in the tent of Yahweh the Lord, one who dwells or abides in the holy hill or the mountain of God. Psalm 51 is a discussion of the mountain dweller, right? The one who dwells on the mountain. And we’ll see that true mountaintop experiences are not to be merely special moments gifted to some, but the mountaintop experience is to be the way of life for the people of God. They’re very living. It is to be their life, their dwelling place in the presence of God, he with his people and they in his presence. The mountain dweller is the one who is with God in his presence, the one who worships God.

The Biblical Significance of Mountains

As we look at this psalm, we’ll see the question that is asked of David, right, the question of the worshiper. And then we’ll see in the middle section there, verses 2 to 5, the worshiper’s character, right, the character of the worshiper. And then finally, at the end of verse 5, we’ll see the worshiper’s confidence, right, his confidence. What is it that he’s confident? But first, let’s look briefly at the discussion of mountains in the Bible, something that’s overlooked by many, don’t give much time to it. But the mountain theme motif in scripture is prominent, right? Why the mountain? Why go to the mountain? Why sojourn or dwell on the mountain? Why is that even important? You might have never thought about that, but there are quite a number of references, as I said, to mountains in God’s Word.

Mountains as God’s Strength

Throughout the Psalms, mountains are used to describe God himself. For instance, in Psalm 36, it says, your righteousness is like the highest mountain. And the Psalms tell us it is God, in Psalm 65, who establishes the mountains by his strength, being girded with might. And speaking of God’s control and might over creation, Psalm 104 tells us, you covered it with the deep as with a garment. The water stood above the mountains. That Hebrew word for mountain is used 571 times in the Old Testament. Har is the word, Har, mountain, or sometimes it’s translated as hill. It’s used 63 times in the New Testament.

Eden as a Mountain Temple

And when we look at it closer, it’s not simply the number of times the word is used, but thematically, canonically, the whole Bible usage and flow. We see something quite amazing when we look at this. As you know, the best interpreter of Scripture is Scripture itself. And when we think about the beginnings of our Bibles, right, Genesis, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, it doesn’t give us there in that first context all the details of that garden. But if we follow God’s Word as it unfolds and we look at all that it has to tell us, we see that the Garden of Eden was indeed the meeting place of God with man. The garden was the temple of Eden. It was where man was to worship, and to execute the priestly function that it was created to execute.

We don’t have time to look at all of this, to unpack this, all of what Scripture says about mountains in detail, but we read in places like Ezekiel, it says regarding Eden, and we can learn there from places, we can learn from places like that. The significance of this this morning we see for us is because we see a confirmation that Eden itself, the temple of Eden, sat atop a mountain. We read in Genesis 2 that a river flowed out of Eden, right? Water, of course, does not flow up. It flows down from higher to lower. But we have a more explicit reference to this in Ezekiel 28.

Ezekiel’s Imagery of Eden

It’s there that we read in Ezekiel, he’s pronouncing judgment against the kings of Tyre, and he uses imagery of the garden. And the construction, the parallel construction that we see there is this, Ezekiel 28, verse 11. It says, moreover, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. I placed you. You were on a holy mountain of God. In the midst of the stones of fire, you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence in your midst. and you sin, so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you. All right, so here the description, the repetition. Ezekiel uses them interchangeably. Eden, the garden of God, the mountain of God.

Mountains in God’s Redemptive Plan

In this point, that Eden was the temple set atop a mountain prepares us for all the other mountains that we encounter in God’s unfolding plan. Think, for instance, of Abraham. He’s called to offer up Isaac on a mountain, on Mount Moriah. This is the same place that Solomon would build the temple. God met with Moses where? On Mount Horeb, or Sinai, as it is called, when Moses leads Israel out of bondage and leads them to the foot of this mountain. And Moses does what? He takes the elders, and he goes up a little further to the presence of the Lord. God comes down to meet with Moses, and there was smoke and fire and lightning.

This, of course, is what we see later in the temple, right? The temple in Israel is filled with the presence of God, shown by the smoke that filled that temple, the glory of God there with them. It was also on the Mount of Olives that Jesus went and gave the greatest commandment, right? That was the summary of the law he gave to Moses way back in Exodus. And while Moses’ time on the mountain rendered his face, remember we read in the first Corinthians, his face shining from the reflected glory of God as he comes down, it’s Jesus, his brilliant glory was derived not from a reflection of what he had encountered, but from his own self, his own divine

And then we have the Mount of Transfiguration, right? It was the mountain upon which Jesus gave an inbreaking, a prefiguring of his eternal glory. It was upon Mount Calvary that Jesus was humiliated and murdered that led to his eternal glory. And Mount Zion. is the eternal antitype of all the mountains that we come to in God’s Word. Mount Zion is the place of eschatological consummation, of final, ultimate culmination.

The Question of Psalm 15

The study of the mountains, the mountain motif in Scripture is a massive one. But for now, I want you to see that the Scripture is taking us somewhere. It’s leading us somewhere. Scripture is not disconnected from itself. And to grasp any part fully, we need to see it in light of the whole. Again, when we come to Psalm 15, we see reference to Yahweh’s holy hill or his holy mountain. You must consider the magnitude of what’s being said there.

Ever since man was ejected from that garden temple of Eden, that place of God’s presence, man has been trying to return reflexively as something within himself. We see this in places like the Tower of Babel, you’ll recall. That was one such attempt. Or another, the other high places that we read about, like Babel, the attempt was to build a way to God on man’s terms. It was an attempt to ascend the mountain to meet with God or with gods, depending on those around Israel.

Adam and Eve, you see, sinfully sought to dwell in the presence of God by their own design. And the builders of the Tower of Babel sought access to God by their own designs. Israel also sought to dwell in the presence of God by their own designs, through syncretism and other things. But unlike them, Psalm 15 asks the questions about just who can dwell in God’s holy mountain, who can dwell on God’s holy hill eternally in God’s presence. Just who is it that can ascend to God’s mountain and abide there forever, right? Who is that? That’s the question that comes, and we see we have this in verse one. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell in your holy hill?

God’s Eternal Dwelling Place

Well, we know from Psalm 2, we had time, we’d read it, but we’re not going to. Perhaps reflect upon Psalm 2 later as well, Psalms 1 and 2. And we know from Psalm 2 that while God’s earthly dwelling place was the tabernacle, God’s eternal dwelling place was indeed Mount Zion, his holy mountain. And remember the relationship and description of God’s word that we have. Heaven was God’s what? God’s throne and the earth was what? The tabernacle, the temple was his footstool.

David longed for this fuller, eternal dwelling in God’s presence. He longed for the ultimate. fullness of that and those earthly things pointed to something more and David longs for this something more in his heart from his heart. He longs for this and that longing question shows a heart that wants more than a temporary momentary access for a time before God’s presence in the type in the shadows. David’s heart wants to go beyond that. He wants to go above that to the very place where God dwells on the mountain. And not only again for a time, he wants permanent residence there to be in God’s presence as his dwelling place.

Access to the Heavenly Temple

And so he asked the question, how can a person dwell in that heavenly temple eternally? Well, who could enter the earthly temple? What needed for that earthly temple to be done to enter into that place? What had to happen? Well, if you’re familiar with the Old Testament, there was purification rites. One must be a Levite. And just as Eden was guarded, the cherubim guarded the outer court of the tabernacle from the inner, that is the Holy of Holies.

And so virtually no one could enter the Holy of Holies. It was indeed, in fact, as you know, Only the high priest, properly prepared and purified, and only once a year and then only for a moment. Only he could enter and come into God’s presence and only for a time. This is why the Day of Atonement was such a huge deal and so important for Israel. Everything had to go right. If it didn’t go right, they had to go the whole year in their sins and to be out of accord with God, living outside of the presence of God in their uncleanness.

The Day of Atonement’s Gravity

And when we read things like non-biblical external rabbinic writings, we see they describe the great detail and care that was taken because this was such a big deal. They were very specific. The high priest, we read, was made to stay awake leading into the day of atonement. He couldn’t sleep. Why couldn’t he sleep? It was because he might sin in his sleep, right? And then he would be unclean to do the task. So he was made to sit and to listen to scripture being read. And he’s prompted to stay awake, right, if his eyes grew weary.

And the high priest would have bells, you probably read this, on the bottoms of his robes. This is so people outside could hear the priest moving around, doing his work. They knew he was working. They could have confidence that he was doing this. And if the bells stopped, they knew that something wasn’t right. Did he have a heart attack? Was he slain in the spirit? Struck down by God because he had sinned?

But if the bells stopped, for whatever reason, they had another problem. Somehow they needed to get the priest out, right? And you can imagine the horror of how that conversation would have gone, right? No one can win but him and he’s done. What do we do? Now we’re stuck in this state. Right, and think of how the discussion on the outside would have gone. I can’t go in because I’m unclean, right? I’m impure, I’m broken. Maybe I have a back problem. Maybe I’ve recently touched something that’s unclean. I can’t go in because I’ve sinned and no one could go in. That was the point.

So to solve this dilemma, what would they do? We read that they would tie a rope around the ankle of the high priest so that they could drag him out without entering the holy place if they heard him stop and something was awry. All of this, remember, was to approach the footstool of God’s temple. One man, once a year, for a limited time. They did not take it cavalierly because it was serious business.

The Longing for Permanent Dwelling

And so think of Psalm 15 and the question that David asked regarding that worshiper, O Lord, O Yahweh, who can sojourn to your tent and dwell on your holy mountain? Not merely to have a momentary experience like that, not merely to journey and then go home. David is asking who can do this? What would it take? for this to happen. What is true of the one who can abide and dwell permanently in the presence of God and who shall never be moved?

Those are the questions for the worshiper, for he or she who longs to dwell on the mountain of God. And we look at the words that are used there. There’s movement in those two verbs, right? Sojourn and dwell. Sojourn is the language of a resident alien. It’s not your land, you’re moving through to that place. It’s a reference to one who enters and remains in the presence of God. So they have no inherent right to be there. They’re only there because of the privilege that they’ve been granted to them.

And then to dwell, right? To settle, to inhabit, to live, to abide. This has a more permanent sense and nuance to it. And so David is seeing, longing, trusting beyond the current reality of Israel’s situation. And I can’t help but see here a similar distinction between those who settle for a momentary exposure or experience with God on the one hand, And those who have a longing for God that is only satiated in walking in union and communion with Jesus Christ for all of their lives, even into the next one.

The Danger of Ritualistic Faith

There are many, sadly, who are satisfied and deceived, frankly, by mere rituals. This is the desire of the flesh many times. They falsely satisfy this true in-built need to worship with what? With not the truth, but with small, numbing, deceptive, temporary moments, and then they go on like all is well. We see this in many. We see it very often. You probably know people yourselves, those who, think they’re giving a hat tip to God, just coming to church, right, when it’s socially required, maybe at the end of the year, or maybe during Resurrection Sunday, or maybe for a wedding, or maybe for a funeral. And they think, again, they’re doing a favor to God in these important moments. They might even feel like they’ve done their duty, right? I’m good. Or even that it’s all that God desires of them.

And there are much worse examples that could be given in this regard. And sadly, many in our culture are convinced that just meeting standards that they themselves have set is really the good end for which they were created. Using their own criteria and longing for nothing more. And they miss out on the very thing that God is pointing them to and offering to them.

The Heart of the True Worshiper

But those who have been given new hearts, those who have been granted life in Christ, who’ve entrusted themselves upon the one alone who can give life and alone can reconcile us to God, those new hearts long for Christ. They long for closeness to Christ. They long to be nearer. They long to abide and dwell in the presence of their great God and Savior. They’ve been granted permission to do so by Jesus, who died for their sins and was raised for their justification. This one whoever lives to intercede for them.

And I pray that describes all of you this morning, brothers and sisters. I pray that your hearts long to be in the presence of God, not as a hat tip, not to mark off something on a list. but that they long to be and to dwell with Him, and long for life after this life, to dwell and be with Him fully forever. Because, you know, if you have no interest, John Owen would say, if you have no desire or interest in Christ or in God or the things of glory in this life, why would you think you would have them once you get there? And that’s a good question to ask.

Longing for Christ Amid Suffering

Do you think little of Jesus? Do you desire at all to be in the presence of God? Is that the aching of your heart? This is part of the suffering that Paul talks about. The suffering and longing to be done with all of this, to be in the presence of God. Because death is real, brothers and sisters. Sin is brutal. Do you long and yearn to be with Jesus and to know more of Jesus and to live in him? This one who lived and died and rose that you could have that very life in him.

Trust him, it’s his command to you even this day. Do not delay, do not play games with God. Life is short and you will find that Jesus indeed is your all. when you do cry out to him, and this is the state of your heart.

The Character of the Worshiper

And so we come and we look at this psalm of David, and he asks that question about the one who will dwell in the presence of the Lord, the one who would dwell on the mountain, and then he gives some answers in that middle section in verses two to five. And this is the character of the one, the one who is to come and to dwell, the one who can indeed sojourn and dwell in God’s mountain, God’s mountain.

I’ll just read these again for you. Rather than unpack them all, we don’t have time in detail. But what’s the answer to that? It says in verse two, who can do this? It’s he who walks blameless and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart. who does not slander with his tongue, and does no evil to his neighbor, and who takes up a reproach against his friend, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear Yahweh, who swears to his own hurt, and does not change, who does not put out his money and interest, and does not take a bribe against the innocent.

The Righteousness Required

But then notice there in verse five, in the second half of verse five, it says there quite gloriously, he who does these things shall never be moved. And literally the way that translates is the doer of these things will not be shaken forever. The doer of these things will not be shaken to eternity. Isn’t that glorious, right? For these people, they will stand firm forever and not be shaken.

You may notice a similar difficulty when we step back and we look at the character of the worshiper and what’s required. Who’s the one who will dwell on the mountain? And we think about these things that are being described here in this psalm, and we might notice a similar difficulty to that which we see in verse in Psalm 14 that comes right before it. And what’s that difficulty? There are no such people. There aren’t any.

The Problem of Human Sinfulness

Remember Psalm 14. There are none who do good, not even one. They have all together become corrupt. In Psalm 14 and 15, they’re kind of fleshing out of Psalm 1, and the two ways that are set forth there in this introduction to this altar, Psalm 1. Psalm 1 is the gateway to the rest of the book of Psalms, and there it is laid out for us, the blessed man, the righteous man, and the wicked, on the other hand. And Psalm 14 discusses broadly the fool, the wicked, the evildoer, the one who speaks in his heart and says, what? Remember, there is no God. And then Psalm 15 deals with the righteous one, the one who is blameless, the one who speaks truth in his heart.

And the problem we perceive is not only the declaration that there are none who are righteous, but we also in our own experience, we know that this is true, right? Unless you’re a truly self-deceived or a robot or dead inside, you know that you are not righteous and that you are not blameless. You know that you are not these people described, the character of the worshiper, the one who can come in the answer to the question and dwell in the presence of God.

You don’t have that intense longing and yearning for Christ and the things of God, at least not as you should. And neither do I. We know full well that our satisfaction is found far too often in things apart from Christ and apart from the ways of God. We do sin and fail and we set up idols in our hearts. And for those of us who care, we undergo this conflict. Paul talks about this conflict in the book of Romans. We who experience this know it is painful and it’s awful and it hurts. and we rightly hate it, and we know the pain of our own unrighteousness.

No One Meets the Standard

We know that we all fall short of the standard described in Psalm 15, and that in ourselves, we don’t have access to the temple, the sanctuary, the presence of God, right? We know this, but praise God, brothers and sisters, praise God, that the doer of righteousness mentioned in Psalm 15, 2 is not us. It’s Jesus Christ. It’s Christ himself. He is truly the doer of righteousness. He has access to the sanctuary of God.

The Confidence of the Worshiper

And as we look at this and we see that these characteristics answering this question about and from the worshiper, these characteristics are prototypical of Jesus Christ and they are fulfilled in Christ. That’s why Paul tells us in First Corinthians. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

And because of Christ’s righteousness imputed to you who believe in him, who have faith in him, God sees you as those who do these things. Isn’t that glorious? Isn’t that an amazing thing? It truly is. It’s mind blowing. But listen, there’s more. For these people, those in Christ, clothed with his righteousness, God not only sees you as doers of righteousness, but you actually become doers of righteousness and doers of the word, as James says.

Assurance Through Christ’s Righteousness

And that’s the comfort of the worshiper, right? That is the comfort of the worshiper. Not that troubles and shaking will never come. But that through all that the world, the flesh and the devil may bring, you will not be shaken or shattered or moved or undone. You will never be thrown or ejected from that mountain of God in the presence of God, cloaked with the righteousness of Christ. You’ll never be turned away or disqualified from his holy presence.

And why is that? How can we have that comfort? The answer is that because it’s not you who makes you able to abide and dwell there in the first place. It’s Jesus Christ. And because your dwelling place is that mountain sanctuary of God, and it is so because of God’s invincibility, right? His strength and might. It’s stability is your stability. In the unconquerable nature of that place, the presence of God comes not from the mountain, but from God himself, from God himself, in the promise to be that mountain, that rock for his people.

Worship in Spirit and Truth

And as we heard from our New Testament reading this morning, it is no longer this place or that place where God resides and where we worship him. It is rather what? It is any place where he is worshiped in spirit and truth. You cannot ascend into the presence of God on your own. You cannot sojourn into the presence of God on your own. You cannot dwell and abide in his presence on your own.

It’s all about the gospel, brothers and sisters. Psalm 15 points to, it foreshadows, it describes Christ himself, even as the holy mountain of God from Psalm 15 points to and foreshadows the heavenly mountain. That’s the verse, Hebrews 12, 22, that we have in our liturgy. I’ll read it again. That’s what Hebrews is telling us. You have not come to that mountain which can’t be touched, but you have come to what? To Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to heavenly Jerusalem.

And what are those who are there doing? You have come here and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. And then the warning, see that you do not refuse him who is speaking.

A Foretaste of Eternal Worship

And this, brothers and sisters, is nothing less than the very thing that we do Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day, even here in Fort Wayne, Indiana, wherever it is that we meet. It’s a breaking in, a foretaste of that eternal dwelling where we will worship Jesus for all of time. Jesus with us, right? Emmanuel.

And I know we’ve discussed this quite a bit, but how could we not? It is so prevalent in scripture, God with his people, us dwelling in the blessed presence of our God forever. And it’s all right there in Psalm 15. And notice, wonderfully, this theme carries right on through to the very end of Holy Scripture, to the end of your Bibles.

The Culmination in Revelation

We see this imagery as well in the book of Revelation. The culmination, the fulfillment of that thread that pulls through all of Scripture, that promise and that longing of us before our God, God, God is our God and we as his people. The book of Revelation chapter 14 says, then I looked and behold, On Mount Zion stood the Lamb, right?

And then Revelation 21, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain. And he showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. And then in Revelation 22, it says, no longer will it be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it. And his servants will worship him. And they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and nights will be no more. They will need no light, or lamp, or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Fleeing to Christ

This is why His presence, our dwelling with Him, is such a big deal, brothers and sisters. Do you struggle with these things in your hearts? Do you struggle in the honesty of your head on the pillow with these very things, and your own inadequacy in these things, and you’re falling short of these very things that are required of you? because that is the honest reflection, right, in our own hearts.

But the answer is to flee to Christ. Dwell with him in his presence. In Christ, you have forgiveness and the freedom from the bondage of your failings. He frees you from the bondage of your sins. He frees you from the guilt of those sins. He frees you from the punishment of those sins, and he frees you to put them aside and move away from them and towards righteousness in and by his power. That is his promise, and that is what he does.

Living as Mountain Dwellers

So as you go back down from the mountain of worship, from the experience of worship with him in corporate worship this Lord’s day and into the world, remember these things, brothers and sisters. Remember what Jesus has done to give you residency on that holy mountain. Remember what Christ has done to secure you and to provide eternal comfort from being shaken and crumbled by your sins and by the world all around you.

Remember and rejoice. brothers and sister, that by the Father’s decree and the Son’s accomplishment and the Holy Spirit’s application, if you are His, you indeed are blessed. You are the blessed mountain dweller in the presence of God for eternity that will never be shaken. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Our almighty and loving God, we praise you and we thank you for the gift, this gift of your word. We pray now for the grace to believe what we have heard. Lord, it’s so hard for us in our failings and in our sin and the ongoing flesh that’s so close to us. We pray that we would live in ways that honor you above all, as we do believe. Give us faith, Lord. Increase our faith.

We praise you for the wonder and love and great mercy that you’ve shown us in your work in renewing your people. Father, we pray, help us to believe the truth that you tell us in your word, the glorious that is beyond our finite minds, and that is that we are truly united to Christ. We are truly indwelt with your Holy Spirit. We are new creations.

Father, help us to live and to thank and to pray in a way that brings honor to your name. Dear God, we do pray that as your word has gone out, that it would, have its full, its powerful effect, not only here, but around the world. And we pray for those who suffer in our midst. We pray, encourage them. You grant them the comfort of your spirit and the peace that you say transcends all human understanding.

Or we pray as we walk in this world, We would grow in grace, as we struggle against sin, that you would grant us victory, that we may truly see who we are in Christ our Savior, and that is dead to sin once and for all. And Lord God, that we may truly, truly live and walk in newness of life.

Dear Father, we all have people in our lives that we love, that do not know you and are maybe agnostic towards you or even hostile towards you. And we do pray, Lord, as it is your will, if it is your will, that you would soften their hearts, and that you would grant them faith and repentance, and that they would cling to you for their very lives, and love and live for you, for your glory. We entrust them to your infinite mercy and your love.

We pray, Lord, give us faith that exceeds our fear. Use us, Father, we pray, to witness to the truth of the gospel. Lord, it is impossible for us to express these things enough to you in our love and our gratitude for you, Lord. We ask all these things in the name of your Son, our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.