The lesson this morning is out of Judges 2, verses 1-12. Judges 2, verses 1-12. And the title of our lesson is, Make No Covenant. Let's hear the Word of the Lord. And the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers And I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? Therefore, I also said, I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you. So it was, when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept. Then they called the name of that place, Bochem, and they sacrificed there to the Lord. And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land. So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord which he had done for Israel. Now Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was 110 years old. And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath-Harith, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gash. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them, who did not know the Lord, nor the work which He had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them. And they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. May God add His blessing to the reading of His Word. Let's pray. Father God, we come before You this morning humbly acknowledging that we are no different. than the children of Israel. That we, Father, are prone to sin. That, Father, as long as we are in this flesh, that the flesh will lust against the Spirit no matter how many years that we have walked in Your ways and followed You, Father, we will still be in this struggle. And, Father, help us to understand that but for Your grace, we too would be falling away. We too would be pursuing after other gods. And Father, this morning we realize that there may be some among us, there may be many among us who are struggling with recurring sin, just like the children of Israel did, following after other gods and doing that which displeases you. And Father, we would ask this morning that you would plow up the hardened ground of all of our hearts, that, Father, we might receive with meekness your engrafted Word, that we might receive with meekness the Word of Hope, the Gospel that there is indeed a great Savior. Even though we are great sinners, Christ is a great Savior. Father, be pleased to meet with us this morning. Have pity upon your children. We ask this in our Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen. We're continuing this morning in our study through the book of Judges. As I told you several weeks back when my wife found out I was going to preach through Judges, she gave that groan of sadness because guys like Judges. There's a lot of glittering swords and that kind of stuff. But to my bride, it shows the ugly side of mankind. I hope and pray that as we continue, through this book of Judges, we not only see that we live in a fallen world, but we also see glimpses of the salvation that is to come in Christ. Most of us that have been in God's Word for any length of time realize that the folks in the Old Testament weren't saved through their works, and then the folks in the New Testament saved through faith in Christ. But salvation is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. That salvation came for those Old Testament saints. They looked forward to the Messiah. They saw in those sacrifices an identification with that animal whose life was to be given. It's difficult for me when I read in the Scriptures how the priest was to lay his hands on the head of the animal that he was going to slay. There was an identification that you are going to die. You are innocent. You'll never see a lamb or a goat or a bullock rob a Circle K or do any of the thousands of evil things that we do. But he would lay his hands on the head of that animal, identifying with that animal, understanding that this animal was going to die. And it was a picture of his sins being paid for by the innocent one. And so in the Old Testament, they saw glimpses. It's like driving in a fog. Any of you been out through Riverside? and driven through a fog out there. You can't see the end of your hood. And in the Old Testament, those folks were in a fog. They could barely see this image of what the Messiah was going to be. They could barely understand that there would be an innocent one who would give His life for them. And we see this when we come into the Gospel of John. Behold the Lamb of God. who takes away the sin of the world. So when we're in the Old Testament, when we're in books like the book of Judges, it's not all about people whacking each other with swords. But it's about the sinfulness of man. We live in a fallen world, and as each judge comes forward, we see in that judge a glimpse of who Christ was. Just a brief picture, a shadow as it were. of the true Messiah. So keep that in mind, especially next week when we're dealing with Eglon and Ehud. That's sort of a gory story, but the neat thing about it is a champion that comes to save God's people as a picture of Christ, our champion. So stay with me as we go through the book of Judges. This morning's lesson In Judges chapter 2 verses 1-12, it's interesting in Judges, as we enter into chapter 2, it gets sort of confusing. Let me just briefly read the first few verses in Judges 2. Then the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochem and said, I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land, but you shall tear down your altars. But you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? And it continues down to verse 6 and it says, Joshua had dismissed the people. Did you notice that? Two weeks ago when we were in Judges chapter 1 verse 1, it says, now after the death of Joshua. Then it gets sort of confusing. Didn't Joshua die in chapter 1 verse 1? Why are we reading about Joshua dismissing the people? Well, what we have in these verses as we get into chapter 2 is a recap of the end of Joshua's years as Israel's leader. And so chronologically, chapter 2, the events in these first verses of chapter 2 actually precede the events in chapter 1 where the children of Israel go out and they try to conquer the land that God had commanded them to conquer already. That's why we see Joshua alive in chapter 2, okay? And in this account, there's two important events that are introduced, and we're going to spend some time on these two events. One is that the angel of the Lord addresses Israel. In verses 1-3, we don't see this, one of God's prophets coming to Israel, but it's the angel of the Lord comes and addresses Israel himself. And we see that in verses 1-3, and then in verses 10-12, we see where Israel unfortunately enters into what's sadly referred to by many as the spin cycle. It's the cycle of Israel being oppressed, and then they cry out to God, and God sends them a deliverer, And the children of Israel are filled with joy and they're thankful. Oh, thank you, Lord, for delivering us from those who would oppress us. They enjoy a season of peace and blessing. And then the next generation forgets God and they begin to serve other gods. And lo and behold, the Lord sends another oppressor who crushes them down underneath His heel, and the children of Israel cry out again and say, Lord, please save us. And we see this recurring theme throughout Judges. Some of you have known family members. that they're on top and they're going, thank you Lord, praise you Lord, life is great, and they just can't stand success. And they go, well, I think I'll see what happens when I fall back into sin. And they crash again. And we're going to be dealing with that momentarily. But this cycle of Israel being oppressed, crying out, being delivered, And then shortly after this season of peace, they fall right back into sin again. It's a recurring theme that we're going to see through Judges. But every time it happens, God brings another Deliverer who is another picture of Christ Jesus. And we'll begin to see, through all these Deliverers, we're going to begin to see shadows of Christ emerging out of the Old Testament. Before we enter into the actual lesson, a word of caution is in order. As we watch the Israelites in the spin cycle, there's a temptation on our part to be self-righteous. There's a temptation to say, well, those bunch of dummies, couldn't they figure it out? God had gotten them out of the pig pen. He had washed them off. They were clean. Why in the world would they go back into the pig pen again? And I imagine some of you have had those same thoughts wander through your heads. Folks, to be in the grips of a besetting sin, we don't have a lot of folks in this church that went through a period of heroin addiction or a period of being involved in pornography or being involved in alcoholism. But folks who have been through that and by the grace of God have been delivered, they'll tell you getting free from those chains is no easy thing. Those of us who would look down our nose at those who are involved in that spin cycle, we're actually in a worse predicament than they are. At least the heroin addict knows that he's a sinner. But the person who is caught in the grips of spiritual pride, they think they're doing just fine. You've got to remember, in Mark chapter 7, Jesus listed pride right in there with adultery, with murder, with a number of other sins. When we look clinically, as we look at Israel under the microscope, beware, lest pride begin to fill your heart and go, I'm not like him. I know better. Because folks, but for the grace of God, there goes you and I. Okay? We're going to be looking at this morning's lesson There's several different headings. The first heading is clear direction, where God gives clear direction to the children of Israel. The second is the appearance of toleration. And I find it interesting, as I was doing the study, there's this appearance that everything is okay. The third heading is judgment pronounced. And then the fourth heading is a good start but a bad finish. And then the fifth heading is application. So clear direction, the appearance of toleration, judgment pronounced, a good start but a bad finish, and then finally the application. God had not stuttered. When we look at God's command to the children of Israel, He said, I'm bringing you into the promised land, and you are to make no covenant with these people. You are to run them out. He had not stuttered. His direction to Joshua had been clear. In Joshua 23, verses 12 and 13, Joshua says, Or else, if indeed you do go back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go into them, and they to you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you, that they shall be snares and traps to you and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord God has given you." That's a stern warning. God says, don't make a covenant with these people. When you come into the promised land, it's what we call harem warfare, and that's one of the really hard things that we see in the book of Joshua, we see it in 1 Samuel. Harem warfare is where you go in and wipe out everything. Man, woman, child, animal. You just make the place a parking lot. And a lot of folks really have a hard time when they're reading the Old Testament. I've had people tell me, Pastor, I don't like to read the Old Testament. How can God be a God of love? Well, we're going to find out. Why God told them go in and exercise this harem warfare? Because if you leave one, if you leave one, it will come back and begin to eat at you. Clear direction. God had not stuttered. His direction had been clear. If you mix in with these nations, they will destroy you. Canaanite worship, and a lot of folks have a heartburn, as I said, with the thought of harem warfare. I think it comes from not having an accurate understanding of what Canaanite worship was like. where they would burn their children alive, where they would be involved. They had temple prostitutes in their worship services. They had homosexuality in their worship services. God did not want the children of Israel to be infected by these pagan practices. The real reason for harem warfare, this complete destruction of the enemy, is not primarily military, but it's spiritual. Only removing part of a spiritual thread can be compared to only removing part of a cancer. There is no time for half measures. You have to deal with it in its entirety. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but how many of you men, when you asked your wife to marry you, how many of you men said, I want to keep my little black book, but I'll only keep half of it? Wouldn't go over well. How many of you men would be overjoyed if your wife said, well, I only want to be married to you three weeks out of the month. Would you go for that? No. No. The answer is we cannot allow even the tiniest bit wedge of sin in our spiritual lives, because it will begin to grow. It will begin to grow outwards. God's Word is clear. He is a jealous God. And in Isaiah 48, God says, I will not give my glory to another. He wasn't about to share the throne with any other Canaanite gods. If you coexist with the Canaanites, soon you will be worshiping with them. And Yahweh will be just another of the many gods you serve. The Lord God of Israel alone is worthy of our worship. He said, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The second heading after clear direction, the second heading is the appearance of toleration. Now this, most of you who either are teenagers or can remember when you were teenagers will be able to relate to this. Whether from laziness or fear, the scripture doesn't really say it, the Israelites allowed the Canaanites to stay in their land. With Joshua, they came in and they conquered the land. They came in in a military, just a blitz. They came in and they came into the land. But they hadn't really settled the land. A lot of the Canaanites were still in that land. So they conquered, but then they sort of lost enthusiasm and, well, we'll deal with the rest of these Canaanites after a while. Sort of like in spring cleaning, we get a burst of enthusiasm and then we sort of, yeah, I'll deal with that later. Then we see in our lesson this morning in chapter 2 verses 1-3, the angel of the Lord comes, and he rebukes them, and we see a repenting, and we see a renewed effort. We saw in chapter 1 where Judah said, okay, we'll go up first and we'll go against the Canaanites. But eventually the next generation came along and they were comfortable with sin. And they just sort of settled in. Sort of like a college student's apartment. They're sort of comfortable with those conditions. And most of us parents, we open the door and we go, napalm is the only way to deal with this child's room. The next generation, they were comfortable in their sin. Israel had grown in strength and number as we saw through chapter 1. Israel had grown in strength and number and they eventually brought the Canaanites under tribute. They hadn't killed them, but they placed them under tribute and they were taxing them, which kills them slowly. Folks, it's not quite obedience. God told them, Wipe the Canaanites out. Remove them from the land. Drive them out. And the Israelites, instead of driving them out, they said, well, we'll just tax them. Not quite obedience, but for them it was close enough. The Israelites probably figured out pretty quick they'd get a better return on captives than they would on corpses. But God's Word tells us In 1 Samuel 15-22, that obedience is better than sacrifice. God had told them, this is what I want you to do, and it's almost as if they said, well, yeah, we know that's what you said, but this is actually a better idea. Just because you don't hear thunder doesn't mean there's not a storm gathering. And God, in His long-suffering, had let the Israelites go on and on and on. But we're about to see the storm gathering. Judgment pronounced. In chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokhem and said, I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers. And I said, covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice." Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you." Judgment pronounced. The angel of the Lord. Now most commentators hold this to be a theophany. I believe When we see the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, it's what we call a theophany or a pre-incarnation of Christ. We see the authority in His voice when He says, I led you up. In chapter 2 verse 1, I led you up from Egypt. He doesn't say the Lord led you up from Egypt. He says, I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers. This is said with the authority of Christ. And he begins with a recital of God's goodness to all his people. This is interesting because the angel, he didn't just come in and say, I thought I told you to drive the Canaanites out. He comes in and he begins to recite his goodness. He says, I brought you out of the land of Egypt. You were under slavery. You were toiling. And not only did you have to make bricks, but you had to go out and gather straw to make the bricks, and you worked long, hard hours under Pharaoh's whip. And I brought you out of that land. I brought you out of toil and out of slavery, and I brought you into Canaanland, a land of rest and liberty. All you had to do was obey me. And then there's a recital of God's requirement of His people. Make no covenant with these folks. Tear down their altars. Now, I'm sure in the back of the Israelites' heads, if we tear down their altars, they're going to get mad at us. I had a husband tell me that one time. He said, well, if I start exercising biblical principles in my house, my wife will get mad. I said, well, yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it turns into a rodeo when you do that which is right. But you have to. You have to. God's requirement. Make no covenant with them. Tear down their altars. And then comes the arraignment. You have not obeyed. Why have you done this? And this judgment that falls on them, and this is interesting, this judgment that falls on them is your sin will be your punishment. Did you guys notice that? Your sin, the very thing that you chose to do, that gets to be your punishment. You won't get rid of them, so guess what? They'll stay. They will stay and they will make you miserable. I don't want to show of hands, but how many of you got caught smoking a cigarette out behind the house and your mom made you smoke the whole pack? You want to smoke? Let's smoke. And then you got green and there's smoke coming out your ears and your mom goes, no, no, there's still five more. You need to smoke those too. God took that which the children of Israel wanted And he said, guess what? I'm going to give it to you in spades. You won't get rid of them, so guess what? They're going to stay. And they're going to make you miserable. Their gods will be a snare to you. Then we see, and this is interesting, we see what appears to be genuine repentance in verse 4. It says, So it was when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voices and wept. Then they called the name of that place Bochem, and they sacrificed there to the Lord. And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land." It doesn't say they just went home back to situation as usual, but they went to possess the land. And that's what we saw a couple of weeks ago in chapter 1, where Judah went up to possess the land. Verse 7, So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord which he had done for Israel. So we see what appears to be a genuine repentance, which leads us into our next segment, a good start, but a bad finish. Starting from a repentant heart, we see the following evidences. If somebody tells you they're repentant, That's not enough. God's word shows us through John the Baptist, bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance. Fruits befitting repentance. And so we're going to see in this, we're going to see some genuine fruits befitting repentance. Starting from a repentant heart, we see the following evidence. Number one, tears. They wept loudly, but it didn't stop there. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, that famous old Welsh preacher, he said, it's easy to make a Welshman cry, but it takes an earthquake to change his mind. I thought that was a neat observation. You know, they'll shed a tear and then they'll go right back to their same old sins. They wept loudly, but it didn't stop there. They entered into sacrifice. God's Word says they sacrificed there at Bochem, giving up their worldly goods to honor the one who is worthy. And then the third thing, and this is the real proof, is in the pudding in verse 7. So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua. It's easy to have a spiritual spasm and go, oh Lord, I'm going to follow you. And then shortly it drops off and our enthusiasm fades away. I've oftentimes quoted that movie, The End. It was an old Burt Reynolds movie. where he says, Lord, he swims out in the ocean and he gets out there a ways and he's going to drown himself. So he swims all the way down as far as he can and breathes out and all of a sudden his lungs fill with water and he goes, Whoa, I'm dying here. So he swims up to the surface and he goes, Lord, if you'll get me out of this, I'll follow you the rest of my life. Everything I have is yours. And so he's swimming and swimming and he's getting closer to land and he goes, 50% Lord, 50% of what I have is yours and I'll go to church on Sunday. And he finally gets to the shore and gets up on dry land and he goes, 2% Lord, that's it. Take it or leave it. And all of a sudden Dom DeLuise pulls out a gun and starts shooting at him. And Burt Reynolds is going, 100% Lord, 100%. And it's a real good picture of the way we are when we're panicked, when our lives are in distress. We have this spiritual spasm. But as soon as we get into the shallow water, we go, okay Lord, I really wasn't that serious. But we see in the children of Israel, not just the spiritual spasm, but they continue to serve, it says in verse 7, all the days of Joshua. There was a renewed effort to obey God's command. We saw in chapter 1, Judah said, we will go first. And they went up to try and conquer the Canaan land. Unfortunately, the next generation failed to finish the job, and the Canaanite influence spread through Israel like yeast through a lump of dough. What a shame. What a shame to have godly parents, and the next generation, those children go right back into that sin. What's the application for us? You say, Pastor, you're reading to us about things that happened thousands of years ago. What's the application to us? The first thing is that the appearance of success doesn't necessarily mean success. God is long-suffering towards His people. But God's Word tells us, seek ye the Lord while He may be found. We're to be about our Father's business. Secondly, make no covenant with sin. Charles Spurgeon had an interesting observation. He said it's easier to kill a serpent while it's still in the egg, because once it hatches out, It's hard to catch. And guess what? A lot of our sins that we should have dealt with while they were in the egg, they go to wiggling. They're hard to catch. They're hard to deal with. Any of us that have lived in Arizona any length of time know what a black widow egg sac looks like. It looks like a little round marshmallow. Well, you don't put them in your chocolate. But they look like just a little round white ball. Man, there's a zillion little spiders come boiling out of it. That's why you shoot them with WD-40, because that brings them to the Lord immediately. Shoot them with that and then light them up. But the whole idea is that you kill the serpent while it's still in the egg. You deal with sin while it's still easy to deal with, instead of having to shed a lot of tears later on down the road. It's much easier to prevent a catastrophe than to repair it. I used to, when I worked a lot with the kids at my former pastorate, I would take a couple of rare earth magnets, and in every congregation there's a little tough guy, there's a little guy five, six years old that You know, he can do anything. And I'd get the little tough guy out of the congregation and I'd say, son, why don't you hold these two magnets and hold them out at arm's length. Can you do that?" And he'd go, yeah, I can do it, Pastor. I said, well, boy, that's a tough guy. I said, why don't you bring him to about, oh, about that far apart. Can you hold that? And he'd go, yeah, Pastor, I can do it. I'd say, okay, now bring him a little closer. Yeah. And he'd get him to about an inch and a half apart and those magnets would just leap out of his hands. And it would scare him. It had happened so quickly. And I said, son, there's a lesson there. When we're this far from sin, it's pretty easy to hold it apart. But when we get this close to sin, it jumps out of our hands all too quickly. God was showing the Israelites, get as far from sin as possible. Get as far from that pagan worship as possible. Because the closer you get, the harder it's going to be to deal with. The third point is, and most of us that have read God's Word for any length of time, we understand that our regeneration, our new birth, is not decisional. It's God's working in us. God has to make us alive so that we can hear the Gospel message and be drawn to Him. But although the new birth or regeneration is not decisional. Our sanctification is. Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's a conscious decision. It's a conscious decision by one of God's people to say, I will follow God. I will serve the Lord as for me and my house. We will serve the Lord. And it's a conscious decision that's made after weighing out the full ramifications of serving God. We read about the lives of the martyrs. It's a conscious decision on their part. They say, will I accept freedom? Or will I honor God by standing? It's a conscious decision. If you weigh out the full ramifications of serving God, it may cost financially, it may cost emotionally, it may cost our lives, but we say, I will follow God. Jesus said in Mark 8 34, whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Once again, it's a conscious decision to embark on a life of honoring God. Matthew Henry notes that if we will not resist the devil, we can't expect God to tread him under our feet. The Israelites, I'm sure, wanted a life that was free, a life of honoring God, a life of being at peace with God. But God required of them to crush that serpent under their feet. And they chose not to. They made a conscious decision. Now, if I was one of the Israelites, I suppose I'd be tempted to worry too. If we go to war with these Canaanites, they have some big boys. That's the Goliath of Gath came out of that strain. We go to war with them, we could lose life and limb. We go to war with them, we could suffer financially because we're taxing all these people. They're giving us tribute. They're our slaves. We're going to lose financially if we follow God's Word. There would be, in a lot of cases, there would be an emotional cost, because many of them had married Canaanite wives, and their children had married Canaanite wives. And so to put away that Canaanite wife, that's going to tear your household up. But they forgot, we serve an awesome God. If He calls us to do something, We are to do it. He'll take care of the finances. He'll take care of the emotional strain. He'll take care of whether we lose life or limb in the war. It's far better to honor God than it is through unbelief to say, Lord, I'd really like to help you out. I'd really like to do what you called me to do, but it's just not going to happen today. It's just not going to happen today. Folks, we serve an awesome God and He calls us to do something for His glory. The bottom line is unbelief is our real problem. We have to trust God to conquer the giants. We have to trust God to supply our needs. Here is how a generation gets out of the spin cycle. You trust wholly in God and then make straight paths for your feet. James gives us the simplest formula in James 4.7. Submit to God and resist the devil. Now if you resist the devil in your own strength, well guess what? He'll come around and blindside you. If you submit to God but you don't resist the devil, then every time the devil sticks out his foot, he trips you. There's two sides to the equation. Submit to God and resist the devil. Israel in Judges, our last point this morning, is Israel in Judges is to a great extent a snapshot of the life of the believer. We become enamored with the world. And then God makes our crops fail, and He opens the eyes of our understanding, makes us alive, and He reveals to us Christ. He makes Christ known to us. And in our spiritual bankruptcy, we cry out to Him. I love what John Newton said, I know two things at the end of my life. I'm a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior. Folks, that's all you need to know. Our children often have to go through the same spin cycle. We see how the Israelites, they went through that spin cycle and by the grace of God, they began following Him. But because we are living in Christ, it doesn't mean our children are necessarily going to grow up and that automatically will be absorbed. We hope for it. We pray for it. We do everything we can. But it doesn't necessarily guarantee that our kids won't go through that spin cycle. Fortunately, along with our leadership and along with our prayers, we can give them this good solid counsel. Make no covenant with sin. Make no covenant with sin. As long as you keep those magnets out at arm's length. It's pretty hard to get addicted. As long as you keep those magnets out at arm's length, it's pretty hard to fall into adultery, pretty hard to fall into pornography, pretty hard to fall into sin after sin after sin. You fill in the blank. But when we fall into that and the magnets slam together and our lives are desolated, We have an awesome God, and we can go before Him, and we can cry out to Him, Lord, please deliver me. Please help me. And then we have to put our feet to our prayers. He won't crush Satan under our feet if we're too lazy to lift our foot. Okay? Let's go before the Lord in prayer. Father God, we thank You this morning for the lessons that we receive out of the Old Testament. We thank You, Father, that You show us glimpses and shadows of Christ's salvation. as we look into Your Word. Father, we hope and pray that, Father, if there was anything that came from me rather than from You, that You would let it fall to the ground. That, Father, only Your Word would go forth. That only You would be glorified. Father, prepare our hearts. Fit us for heaven. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.