Please take your Bibles this morning and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 30. Deuteronomy chapter 30. Last week we got started in chapter 29 and 30. They're a unit, but we couldn't cover it all in one time. So today this is going to be the final look at the covenant renewal on the plains of Moab part two. Now you remember the context when we're in chapters 26 through 28 we're kind of bouncing back and forth between the renewal on the plains of Moab and that that would take place after they get into the promised land. But now we're definitely back at the plains of Moab. So in 29 and 30, this is a conclusion of Moses' appeal to the people as they're poised to go into the promised land. You remember in chapter 29, you can just glance back there, chapter 29 is built around two commands. The first one is in verse nine, therefore keep the words of this law. And the idea that therefore is because of all the things you have seen God do for you, keep the words of this commandment, this law. And then the second commandment is down in verses 18 and 19. Let me just read them again for you. Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit One who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall be safe though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. You see that beware twice. It's just reinforcing that message. Watch out that your heart does not turn away and look out for that person who might bear poisonous and bitter fruit even while convincing himself he's safe while walking in the stubbornness of his heart. So after those stern commands, now we come to a new section, and this section is going to be about hope, great hope. I included in your bulletin a little outline, second page down at the bottom, a little outline of chapters 29 and 30, just so we see our place, and we're going to do the second part of that this morning. So let's begin by reading in chapter 30. Let's read the first 10 verses. Deuteronomy 30 beginning in verse 1. And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice and all that I commend you today with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If you're outcast or in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this book of the law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Father, this morning, I pray that you speak to us again out of this section of Deuteronomy. Lord, it was good last week as we went through chapter 29, and Lord, I pray that we'll find this chapter refreshing, that you'll give us the grace to be able to apply it to our own lives and not look at it as just an old story. Thank you, Father, that you have given us your spirit as our teacher. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So in verses 1 through 10 we have hope of restoration. Now listen again to verse 1, and when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you. Now this is a reference back to 28 when he gave the blessings and the curses, and you remember he elaborated on the curses at length. Now it's obvious that they're going to remember these things. Who could forget what they heard from chapter 28? But notice where they are or where they will be when they call these things to mind. Notice again in verse 1, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I've set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you. So that's where they're going to be. Now when he says, being driven among the nations, he's speaking of the curses, not the blessings. That's pretty obvious. We see all through these chapters this tendency toward evil, even among God's people. Now, we would ask, so is Moses actually saying that those people will indeed be driven out of the land and scattered among the nations? Now again, I keep pointing this out. We're going to come back to it at least one more time. Most people that you will read who've studied this, they caution us, don't see this as a prophecy. This is all conditioned upon disobedience, even though it doesn't say it here. as plainly as back in chapter 28. But the truth is, however you take it, this is what would actually happen to the people. God set the blessings and the curses before them, and eventually they would choose the curses. But we're getting ahead of our story. So come back, and let me start again in verse 1, and read 2 with it, because you can't start in 2. And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice and all that I commend you today with all your heart and with all your soul, So now he looks beyond their disobedience and they're being scattered among the nations and what we see now is a return to the Lord and obedience to him with all their heart and soul. This is exactly what we find when we read the prophets in the Old Testament. Have you ever noticed you go and you read one of those prophets and it seems like it's just judgment, doom, doom, judgment, and then all of a sudden There's this ray of hope that comes out of nowhere. That's exactly what we're seeing here in Deuteronomy. Yes, it's going to be bad, but there is hope. Verse 3, Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you." Now the King James is more literal, and it says, he will turn again your captivity. He also says this in Psalm 126. But it comes out about the same places. He's going to be merciful. No matter, and he goes on to say in these next verses, no matter how widely you and your offspring are scattered, The Lord will bring you back. What a promise He gives them. Despite their stubbornness and disobedience, He will restore. He will bring them back to the possession of their fathers, back to the Promised Land. Isn't it amazing? Before they ever go into the promised land, the Lord tells them, you're gonna go in there, you're gonna be scattered, and I'm gonna bring you back. They haven't even gotten in there yet, but they know all these things. The Lord's telling them through Moses. Now come to verse six. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring. Now consider that, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart. Now circumcision, of course, was a physical procedure that a Jewish male would experience when he was how old? Eight days old. Unless a person came, let's say you had a foreigner and later he's a proselyte and he comes and he wants to be a part of the Jewish nation, they would circumcise him as an adult. But for a Jewish-born male, he was circumcised on the eighth day. That was the common procedure. But circumcision is also used in a figurative way, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Would you turn for a moment back to Deuteronomy 10. Deuteronomy chapter 10. And I want to read you this section. We've been there before, but it's been a while. Verse 12. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord which I'm commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and heaven of heavens, the earth and with all that is in it now verse 15 yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them you above all peoples as you are this day circumcised therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords the great the mighty and the awesome God who is not partial and takes no bribe He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing." Now, he commands them in this passage, circumcise your heart. He tells them to do something. But here in chapter 30, you will notice it's very different. He does not give them a command. He says, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart. as one author puts it, he will cut away the selfish ambition and stubbornness which cause spiritual insensitivity and lack of devotion. So this is a work that the Lord himself will do. Now we're going to come back to this come back to this later, but just remember for a minute, read on in verse six. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Now, we read it earlier, Norman read it in Deuteronomy 6. We remember that great command. Jesus referred to it as the greatest command. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. But when you look at that, who can obey that? But now we are told in verse six, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Just try to think about that. He Himself will enable us to obey the command that He has given us. What seems impossible, He will enable us to do. And then the last part of verse 6, that you may live. Now think about that, that you may live. Ultimately, real life is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. I mean what is greater than that? That's the reality, that's where real life is. And what will be the results of such life? He tells us in verse 7, and the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. So instead of you having the curses, God will put them on your enemies and they will have to bear them. When God has done this work in them, they will obey his voice and keep his commandments, it says in verse 8. Then the Lord will prosper them in the fields, he will give them abundance of children, cattle, and harvest. And it says, this is in verse 9, he will delight in prospering you as he took delight in your fathers. And when he's talking about their fathers, he's probably going back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now verse 10, when you obey, okay let me start in the second part of 9, last part of 9, for the Lord will again take delight in prospering you as he took delight in your fathers when you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this book of the law when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul so the when at the first part of verse 10 it functions in the same way as if it could be if but he says when so it's parallel to verse 10 you will return up to verse 2 you will return to the Lord your God you and your children and obey his voice and all that I command you to do with all your heart and with all your soul so it's kind of like all of these things are bookend between verse 2 and 10 these conditional statements So what great hope we see. Even though they will be driven out of the land and scattered, God gives them hope. He says, you will return. I will work in you so that you will obey my commands. Now, that brings us to the, the last section of this chapters 29 and 30 in verses 11 through 20. I'd call this last section, this is the crucial decision. He's been leading up to this all through chapters 29 and 30, and I'm going to divide it into two parts. Verses 11 through 14, he's going to say, God's covenant is accessible to all. And then 15 through 20 is a call to commitment. So let's start by reading 11 through 14. For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say, who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it. But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it. The gist of the paragraph is in verse 11. Let me read it again. For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. Now, he's telling them this in order to get them ready for the call to commitment in verses 15 and 20. He tells him two things about this command that he's going to give. It's not too hard for you, and it's not far off from you. It is in your reach. You can obey it. Then in verses 12, the last part of 12, and verse 13, he's going to give a couple of illustrations to uphold his point that it's not too hard for you, and it's not too far off. Verse 12, it is not in heaven that you should say, who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. So though God is in the heavens, And he has even spoken from the heavens, as in when he gave the Ten Commandments. He has clearly commanded his law through Moses. Remember, they even put it on stones so they could read it. He's simply saying to them, it's not way out there somewhere. it's near to you verse 13 he goes on neither is it beyond the sea that you should say who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it you don't have to reach way out this is another way of communicating and saying to them you don't have to go searching for this commandment rather verse 14 but the word is very near you It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it. One author comments like this. Let me see if I can find it. The choice had been set down in the clearest terms. The law had been stated and expanded. The history of God's dealing with his people had been called to mind. The basic operating principle of love had been enunciated. The potentialities of the future, with both blessing and cursing, had been declared. But in the last resort, the matter came down to a decision that had to be made. God and his ability were not for one moment in question. The responsibility now rested on the people themselves. The key issue facing them in this decision is to love God so wholeheartedly that they will live in accordance with his revealed will as outlined in his written revelation. Now, we're going to get to that in a minute, but before we get there, There's an author, I like this, he tells of a common story in Near Eastern religion, and it went like this. The Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh, following the death of his intimate friend Enkaidu, set out on a quest for life, a quest that was in many ways fruitless. In the course of his quest, he had to cross the sea searching for can't pronounce this, up Napashtim, the survivor of the flood whom Gilgamesh hoped might provide him with an answer to his quest. So in other words, this individual, he's looking far and wide for the answers in life. In contrast to that, Moses says to the Israelites, you don't have to do that. This command is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. Now, that gets us ready now for the call to commitment in verses 15 and 20 so let me read it to you beginning in verse 15 follow along see I have set before you today life and good death and evil If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I commend you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in His ways, by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17. But if your heart turns away and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him. For he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. Now, this paragraph is not difficult to understand. First, he gives them a clear choice in verse 15. The choice is between life and good versus death and evil. Moses tells them they must make a choice. And then he lays down those conditions in 16 through 18. Again, it's that if you obey this is what the Lord will do. Verse 17, but if your heart turns away and you go after other gods, this is what the Lord will do. And of course, they will perish if they so do. It says, if then that we've encountered again and again and again. So verse 16, if you obey the commandments of the Lord, and how are they to obey the commandments of the Lord? tells him right there in 16 by loving the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by keeping his commands and his statutes and his rules just what Jesus said if you obey me you will keep my commands conversely if their hearts turn away and they will not hear and they go after other gods then they will perish not living long in the land now come to 19 call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death blessing and curse now this idea of witness we've encountered it before when they made treaties these in these near eastern lands back in those days and secular treaties The two parties of the treaty, what they customarily did, they would call upon their gods to be witnesses. This guy, he would call upon his god to witness, and the other would call on his god to witness. Well, of course, the Israelites rejected this concept of many gods because it was false. Nevertheless, there is the witness theme. Moses says, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today. He says, I call the greatness of God's creation to witness either the faithfulness or the unfaithfulness of you, God's people. this witness language runs throughout the old testament it's another way that moses is saying listen to me this is a solemn occasion this is not some spur-of-the-moment emotional decision that i'm calling on you to make uh... but this is serious business you i'm calling on you to commit yourself to a life a lifelong uh... faithfulness to god Now, listen to the middle of 19, or the last of 19. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days. Now, hear Moses. Now, I mentioned this last week, but I want to emphasize it again. Moses is not some disinterested person who just comes and says, well, I got a little message to deliver to you. Here it is. Moses is pouring out his heart as he appeals on behalf of his God to these people that he loves and he cares about. He's led these people. years and years and years he cares about them and he's saying won't you hear what I'm telling you therefore choose life can't you just hear the quiver in his voice probably tears streaming down his face as he urges them to do what he calls him to do choose life and then he describes that life what is that life verse 20 loving the lord your god obeying his voice and holding fast to him for he is this is a life i'm calling you to You can see that this is really about a spiritual life. This may be Old Testament, but he's not calling them primarily. He gives them promises about prosperity, but that's not so much what he's promising them here. He says, choose life, and then he describes it. Loving God and obeying God, for God himself is your life. Now, when you think of Moses pleading with those people, I hope it kind of reminds you of our Lord Jesus. So Jesus walked among men and women, and you remember, he comes along, y'all have looked at it in Sunday school, there's Peter and Andrew, and he says, follow me! And then Levi, he says, follow me! And then he deals with people, and he says, we read it earlier this morning, if anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. And at other times he was tender, you remember he says, come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. The call of Jesus was a life-changing call. You know what Jesus was saying in so many words? Choose life. Choose life. Isn't that the call that we want to give to people around us? Don't we want to say to people, choose life? Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Jesus. But here's a question. Maybe that's too difficult for some people. Or maybe that's too mentally demanding for some people. They just can't understand what that means. I want to take you back now to where we've been in Deuteronomy chapter 30. I want to take you back again to verses 11 through 14, where Moses says, this is not too hard for you. You don't have to go searching for it. Verse 14, but the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it. Now, I have a question for you. Those words, those basic words in verses 11 through 14, have you ever heard those before? Besides right here in Deuteronomy 30. Now think about it a minute. If you know, give everybody else a little bit of a chance. Have you heard those words before? Hint, New Testament. Yeah, where? Yeah, Romans 10, that's it. Now some of you, if you have footnotes, that's kind of cheating, but not really, that's why they're there, to point us to other scripture, that's a good thing. Romans chapter 10, I'd like you to turn there please. Romans chapter 10. And I want to read to you, so let me give you a little context. After Paul has explained that though the Jews were zealous They weren't zealous according to knowledge, and they tried to obtain the righteousness of God in their own way, and so they did not truly submit to the righteousness of God. Then he says, beginning in verse 5, For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. Now, that's a great promise, isn't it? If you do the commandments, you will live. The trouble is, who can do them? But now verse six, but the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. He is saying, you do not have to scale the heights of heaven to find Christ and salvation through him. nor do you have to go down into the abyss to find him." Now, Paul, as he sometimes does, he takes some liberty in the way he quotes this, but he gives the essence of Moses' message. But when Paul gets to verse 8, Romans 10.8, now he's going to quote Moses word for word, spot on. But what does it say? The word is near you and in your mouth and in your heart. This is the very message that Moses had proclaimed, and now Paul is proclaiming it, but he is applying it to the Lord Jesus himself. Now, when Moses said, the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, he wasn't just kidding. What did they do every day? What did a Jew do every day? He repeated what was in the Shema, and part of that was, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your strength. They said this every day, and that was not all, there was more. We saw when they would come together, on a seven-year basis, then they would read the whole law. And there were other times when they gathered that the law was presented, it was near them in their mouth and in their heart. Paul is saying now, believing in Jesus Christ does not take great intelligence. You don't have to be a scholar to understand this. Nor does it require great labor. I've got to go and I've got to do this and do this and do this before I get good enough for God. No! He says in verse, at the end of verse 8, that is the word of faith that we proclaim." He said, Moses said it, the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. And then in parenthesis he says, that is the word of faith that we proclaim. And then what is that word of faith that he proclaims? Verse 9. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart one believes and is justified and With the mouth one confesses and is saved now Most all of us have heard verse 9 and 10 and probably many times. The key to this is this, it's not what we can attain, what we can do so that we can get the righteousness of God. It's trusting the one who is perfectly righteous, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is not a one-time confession. Romans 10, 9, and 10 has sometimes been reduced. We tend to reduce the gospel. And sometimes the gospel has been reduced down to Romans 10, 9, and 10, maybe a couple other verses that goes with it. Like some of you, you know the Roman road. And I'm not trying to be critical, but we have to be real careful reducing the gospel. Like when it talks about confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. What comes to mind of many of us who grew up in churches is you go down to the front and you confess mainly to the preacher that you believe in Jesus Christ. you can't take this confession and reduce it down to a one-time thing in a prescribed meeting like this. He's talking about a lifetime of confessing Jesus Christ. Wherever we are, whatever we're doing, confessing the Lord in Scripture could never be reduced to one-time thing. It's as we believe and we're justified then with the mouth one confesses and is saved." And I take that as saved as meaning probably talking about saved in the end, justified. We believe and we're justified. We are declared righteous in the sight of God. But remember, salvation has three tenses. In the past, we were saved. In the present, we are being saved. In the future, we will be saved. And as we confess the Lord Jesus, we will be saved in the end. This is not a one-time thing. Just as with Moses, when he told them, choose life, he was not saying, well, today I want you to make a decision, and then after that, well, whatever. No, he was saying, I want you to choose loving the Lord, obeying the Lord, walking in His ways the rest of your life. That's what I'm calling on you today. That is exactly the context of Romans 10. This is not some one-time thing. Yeah, it begins at a point in time, I understand that. But if it's real, it continues and continues and continues. Now, Before we conclude this morning, I want you to go back to Deuteronomy 30 verse 6. I must say some more about this because this is so magnificent. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart. Now we talked about it, but I want to talk about it some more. Moses says that when you return to the Lord with all your heart and your soul, He will circumcise your heart. Now, I want you to turn, we've already turned there once this morning, Ezekiel 36. I cannot read this without going to Ezekiel 36. When you get to Ezekiel 36, this is hundreds of years later, and by now this forsaking of the Lord and being scattered among the nations, it's happened. They profaned the name of the Lord. You read it here in Exodus 36, in Ezekiel 36. They drug His name through the mud. And yes, God would rebuke them for that, but that is not the end of the story. Now I'm going to read in a minute, and I want you to watch for something as I read. Number one, Watch for God vindicating His name, and number two, watch for the mighty work that God is going to do on the inside. I'm going to begin in verse 22, Ezekiel 36, 22. Say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among you. In other words, I will lift my name up. I will let everybody know that it's a glorious name. And the nations will know that I'm the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. Verse 24, I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land, just like he said in Deuteronomy. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh pause. What he's talking about here is circumcising their hearts. He doesn't use a word, but that's exactly what he's saying. This is Deuteronomy 30, verse 6, put in different language. Verse 27, and I will put my spirit within you, now listen to this, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. I just find that amazing that God sets down his commandments for us and we can't do them. But he is so amazing that he works in us and gives us both the motivation and the power to obey him. I'll tell you if he hasn't done that in your life you cannot obey his commandment beginning with the great commandment love the Lord your God this is part of the deep mysterious work of God he tells us to obey we have no power to obey so he works inside us so that we want to obey and we can obey Philippians 2 13 see if I can quote that For it is God who works in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. He does both. He gives us a motivation and He gives us a power. to be obedient. Now let's be clear. It will never be perfect in this life. OK. But he does such a thorough work that we have the grace to live the kind of life that demonstrates he is our God and we are his people. Brothers and sisters. I hope that when we think about this amazing work that we want to praise God It seems impossible that he could do such a thing, but this God so circumcises our heart that we want to love him with all our heart and soul. Moses said, therefore choose life. When we follow Jesus, we are choosing life. Jesus said what? I am the way, the truth, and the life. Last week, Drew read Colossians 3, 1 through 4. If then you have been raised with Christ, set your eyes on things above and not on the things on the earth. And then he says, for you died and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. Jesus is our life, if we know Him. To those who are yet outside of Christ, I would simply say, choose life! Repent and believe the gospel. Trust in the One who came and laid down His life and absorbed the wrath of His Father on behalf of his people. Choose Jesus. Choose life. Follow him. Repent and believe the gospel. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the way you have arranged things and the things that you do. We hear that word all the time, it's overused. We hear people talking about awesome this and awesome that. But oh God our Father, you are an awesome God. And you do amazing things that are beyond our understanding. How you can do such a work in our hearts. that we who rebelled against you and hated you now we want to love you and we're able to love you though imperfectly in a real way we give you all the credit for that lord we didn't do anything you did it all praise your holy name and lord our prayer is that we would continue day by day to choose life as we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow you. Thank you, Lord, that you give us paths to the gospel all through your word, Old Testament or New Testament. Keep pointing us to Jesus. And oh, Lord, thank you that many of us here, you have led us to believe in you, Lord Jesus, as our Lord, and to confess your name in this world. Praise you for that. And Lord, we pray for those who are here today who haven't yet come to that justification, that being declared right before you, oh God, lead them to repentance and faith. And O Lord, we pray that no one would be deceived by the enemy who is the master of deception. By your Holy Spirit, reveal to us the truth, convict us of sin, and give us hope in the Lord Jesus. Now I give you some time to meditate this morning. Father, our prayer is that you will keep impressing the truth of gospel on our hearts and minds day by day. May we be your faithful, humble servants, in Jesus' name, amen.