Well, we're in Romans chapter 11 again this morning, and if you will find your place there in your Bibles, we've been learning, pardon me, that the message of Romans 11 is to help us understand the setting aside of Israel, the setting aside of Israel. And we learned that last week, we learned that this setting aside is only partial. It's not everyone who is a Jew has been set aside. Only part of them have been set aside, and that's even today true. We also learned that it's passing. It's something that is temporary. It's not permanent. And we also learned that it is purposeful. There is a design, a divine plan behind this setting aside, and we'll see some of that here today. Last Sunday, We saw that the setting aside of Israel is only partial. We began to develop that idea and we have Paul giving us three illustrations here in Romans chapter 11 of that. Maybe you remember them. The first one was, do you remember who the first illustration was? It was himself, right? It was himself that we call the author. And what does he say there in verse number one? I ask then, did God reject his people? He says, by no means, no way, absolutely impossible. God has not rejected his people. And the first proof was the writer himself, Paul. What does he say? I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. Paul was saying God could not have totally set aside the Jews or I wouldn't be redeemed, right? He is the first proof that this is a partial setting aside. So he's living proof of that. The second proof, Where we spent most of our time last week is in the idea of a remnant. Do you remember that? Verses 2 through 6. It said, God did not reject his people whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah? And remember, we went back to that incident that took place in 1 Kings chapter 19. You remember Elijah's there moaning, I'm the only one left. You know, there's nobody else. I'm the last true prophet of the Lord. I'm the only one who wants to obey you. Everyone's against me. Jezebel's coming after me. Even though God just did this tremendous work and all these prophets of Baal were killed at that the altar where the fire came down from God and Elijah says, I'm the only one. And you remember what he was reminded that the Lord had a few more than just Elijah. In fact, he had how many? 7,000 that had not bowed their knee to Baal, right? And Paul says, notice it in verse five here, so too at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. And the principle that we taught is that God always has a remnant. And that was the second point that Paul gave us. God has not rejected his people because there is a remnant still to this very day. And let me remind you that it's a remnant that, as the scripture says, is chosen by grace. And that's how we finished up last week. The reason Paul says it that way is because he wants to emphasize that God is the one doing the choosing when it comes to the remnant. He's not denying that salvation comes by faith. We've seen that in chapter 10 quite clearly, haven't we? But he's emphasizing his sovereignty to say, hey, this is my plan. I am in charge. My will will be done. God is not sitting up in heaven, you know, twiddling his thumbs and saying, boy, I hope people get saved so I can have a remnant. That's not God's approach, right? God is choosing the remnant. These people are chosen by grace. And it's demonstrating really God's ongoing love and commitment. to the people of Israel. So the first six verses we looked at last week tell us that God is not finished with the Jews. He's not done with the Jews. This is a partial setting aside of Israel. And then there was a third proof that this is a partial setting aside, and that's where we're going to pick up today. We saw the writer, Paul, was the first proof, and then the remnant, and then now the third proof is the Revelation. So let's pray together and then we'll look into the Scriptures. Our Father, we come to You this morning as we have just sung, You are the Lion of Judah. You are the Lamb of God, the Lion and the Lamb, the One who takes away the sins of the world. Father, we are only here this morning because in Your great mercy, You saved us. And in Your great love, You sent, You gave Your Son to be the propitiation for our sins, to be the covering for our sins. You who knew no sin took on our sin so that we who had no righteousness could have your righteousness. And Lord, that great exchange is something that that makes all the difference in the world. It gives us all the hope for now and for eternity. And Lord, it's the reason we gather here this morning to hear from this God who loved us so much and showed us grace and mercy in this way. We want to hear from you. We want to know you. We want to know what your mind is. We want to please you all the days of our life. And Father, as we look into these verses this morning, would you, through your spirit, do your work of illumination in our hearts that we would see, that we would understand, Lord, just a little bit more about your divine plan in this area of salvation, in this area of the setting aside of the Israel nation and the blessings that have come to us as a result. We pray all of this in the name of our Savior, Jesus. Amen. Well, our text here this morning is verses 7 through 12, and our need this morning is to rejoice in the great riches that have come to us Gentiles through Israel. The great riches that have come to us Gentiles. through Israel. And in this passage Paul continues to prove to the believers at Rome that God's Word has not failed Israel. Remember that? That's what this is all about. Going back to Romans chapter 9, it is not as though God's Word has failed. And remember, this is one of the reasons that chapters 9, 10, and 11 are so important for us. They seem like they're so deep and they're so heavy, and they are so deep and so heavy. But they're also grand and glorious for us because these verses tell us the fact that God has brought, even to the Gentiles, a great salvation. And so what we see in these verses is that as God is keeping His word to Israel, we know He will keep His word to us as well. We're learning about the faithfulness of God. We're learning about the mercy of God. And keep that in mind as we go through some of these deep and dark and difficult sections still to come here in chapter 11. And from this passage, We should learn to trust in the plan of God for our lives, for His glory, because God is a sovereign God. His will will be done. So how do we know that God is faithful to Israel, despite her being set aside even to today? And as I mentioned, we've looked at the writer, the remnant, and now this morning, let's look at the revelation. Notice verse seven. Paul says, what then? What Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain, but the elected, the others, were hardened. Let's take that phrase there that says, what Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain. What is that saying? The word there for sought is an interesting word. It's a word that means to seek, but it has a preposition on the front of it, which in the Greek language means that it's an intensifying of that word. So it's not just a seeking, it's a diligent seeking. It's a constant seeking. and the Jewish people were fanatically religious, weren't they? I mean, that's one thing we know about them, right? Would you remember back in chapter 10 in verse 2, probably right there across your page, Paul says, for I can testify about them, the Jews, that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Now what are they seeking for? Paul says that they were seeking for something really, really earnestly. What were they seeking for? They were seeking for righteousness. That's the point of chapter 10 and verse 3 that I just read. They're trying to be right with God. They're trying to establish their own righteousness, but as a result they didn't submit themselves to the righteousness of God. Who is the righteousness of God? Jesus Christ, right? Look at verse 4 of chapter 10. Christ is the end of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. But Israel would not submit to God's righteousness in the form of Jesus Christ, their Messiah. So the Jews are always seeking to be right with God, which they can't do on their own, which we can't do on our own. And that's what Jesus basically said. You remember back on the Sermon on the Mount, back in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20, he told the nation of Israel, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, the point was that nobody's righteousness could exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and the scribes in a human sense. I mean, they were the most devout. They were the most intense about their religious devotion to the law. And that was the point. You can't get it on your own. So Paul says Israel didn't obtain it. Back here in 11 verse seven. Israel sought for it. They sought for it diligently, earnestly, constantly. They didn't get it. Now look on at verse seven. But the elect did. Who are the elect? We've already learned that, right? The Jews who are, what? Chosen by grace. Those who were redeemed. Those who were the true Jews. Remember how Paul described them back in chapter 9 and verse 6? He said, not all who are descendants from Israel are Israel. Remember when he said that back in chapter 9 in verse 6? The elect Jews did obtain righteousness. They got it. They were redeemed. But how does verse 7 finish? The others were hardened. The verb hardened is in what we call the passive tense. If you're an English person, you know what the passive tense means, whether a verb is active or passive. And this verb is in the passive tense. That means that these people were hardened by some force outside of them. They didn't harden themselves, they were hardened by someone else. Well, who is that someone else? Who hardened them? Well, they were hardened by God. This is a heavy topic. Does God harden people? Well, you remember chapter 9, right? Do you remember chapter 9, verse 18? Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. And who was the illustration of that truth in chapter 9? Do you remember? It was Pharaoh. Do you remember Pharaoh? So we went back at that time, we went back to the book of Exodus, We read, we saw God hardened Pharaoh's heart. But we also read that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And the idea here is that when God hardens someone's heart, it's a response to those who are rejecting him over and over. And then God comes in with a final, judicial, permanent hardening. But here's the other side of this. Let me give you a different example. Listen to the words of Luke chapter 22. Here's verse 21. Jesus says, he's at the Last Supper, but the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine at the table. Who's he talking about? Judas. Verse 22 of chapter 22 says this, this is interesting, the Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. Now do you think that it was decreed before the world began that Jesus would go to the cross? Sure, we have scripture that says that, right? So does that make Judas a hero? You're getting it done, Judas. No, no way. The verse goes on, verse 22 of chapter 22. The son of man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him. Yes, it's the plan of God that Jesus was to go to the cross, but woe to the man who betrayed him. And there again we have this mysterious balance that we've been looking at, this balance between God's sovereign choice and yet still man's responsibility. So what I would tell you is that God's hardening, when we're talking about Romans 11, God's hardening is never separated from man's hardening. We can say that it's the judgment of God on a person and it's that person's own fault. So Israel has rejected God's righteousness. And what does the Bible say? They're hardened. Those who are not elect, those who are not chosen by grace, they're hardened as a result. But there is a remnant to prove that God is not done with Israel. So now what Paul does is he goes back to the Old Testament again, and he quotes from the law to show us that, hey, guess what, guys? This shouldn't be a surprise. He does this over and over, right? Takes us back and shows us it's been there the whole time. It's been there the whole time. So, verse eight says, as it is written. So that tells us what? We're going on a journey, right? Back to the Old Testament. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see, and ears so that they could not hear to this very day. Now verse eight is kind of interesting because what Paul does is he takes two different Old Testament verses and he puts them together here in this verse. The first verse is Deuteronomy 29 and verse four, which says this, but to this day, the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. Sounds familiar, right? But it's not Romans. It's Deuteronomy chapter 29. The second half of verse 8 comes from that particular verse in Deuteronomy. Now the first half of verse 8 comes from Isaiah chapter 29 and verse 10. And the first part of that verse says this, the Lord has brought over you a deep sleep. And that's the idea of being in that spirit of stupor. It's almost like you're unconscious. You can't figure out what's going on around you. Your senses are dulled. So he takes this passage from Moses, and he takes this passage from Isaiah. By the way, what do we call that? The law and the? prophets, right? Moses and Isaiah, that's indicative of the Old Testament, symbolic of the Old Testament as a whole, the law and the prophets. He takes a portion from each one of them and he says what? He says that this is showing that God himself is the one who has kept his own people from spiritual understanding. Now look at it. Who gave the Jews the deep sleep, the spirit of stupor? Isaiah chapter 29 says the Lord. And who is it that made eyes that wouldn't see and ears that wouldn't hear? Well, according to Deuteronomy chapter 29, it says the Lord. So in other words, the unbelief of Israel Even to this day, even to Paul's day, and I would say even to our day, the unbelief of Israel does not, listen to this, it does not change the plan of God. It is the plan of God. It is the plan of God. So when the God of the Old Testament made his promises to Israel, you're gonna have a land, you're gonna have a seed, you're gonna have all of this, these blessings. When God made those promises, those promises that he will not break, at the same time, he also planned for Israel's rejection. So we could step back and say, oh, well, the promises are canceled then. Because Israel rejected God, right? So no more promises for them. They broke their end of the bargain. But that's not possible. Because God's promises are always kept. He doesn't break His promises. And that's what Paul is saying. God's not going to break His promises. He made the promises. He's going to keep them. And this is what you see in the nation of Israel. This is part of His plan. So don't be sidetracked. This is all part of his plan, his sovereign plan. Paul says, look, just because I look around and I see my people who are rejecting Jesus Christ, who are rejecting the righteousness that comes from God, doesn't mean that he has permanently set them aside. I'm living proof that he has not set them all aside. And the remnant is still out there. And this is no surprise to the plan of God. It fits into his plan because God himself is the one who is doing the hardening in response to their unbelief. But then he goes on in Romans 11 and he quotes another Old Testament patriarch. This time it is who? Verse 9. David, right? It says, and David said, may their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution to them. May their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and their backs be bent forever. That comes from the Psalms, from Psalm 69, 22 and 23. A great Psalm, by the way, talks about the Messiah. So the judgment that's come to Israel, what are we learning? It fits right into the prophetic picture. It fits right into the plan of God. Moses said it. Isaiah said it. David said it. Let's take a look at David's quote here. It's kind of an interesting quote. Most of us wouldn't think that when we're sitting down at our own table that we're in danger, right? What does he say? Their table becomes a snare and a trap to them. Well, what is the table? Table's a place where we do what? We feast, right? It's a place of blessing. Well, what we have pictured here is the Jews at the table. And what is the Jews' food? What would the Jews say his food is? What are they all about? The law, right? The law of God. And it's that very law that becomes the trap. By the way, the terms here, the first term snare, literally means trap. And the word there that says trap, literally means a net. It was the kind of a net that was used by hunters. They would throw it over their prey. So there's a trap and a net. Those are the terms being described there. The third term, the stumbling block, is anything in which a person is caught. And here's the point, they think they're feasting on what? On the law, right? They're feasting on the law, they're feasting on the word of God, but the word itself becomes the trap that catches them. So then we start thinking in our human minds and we say, well, why would anyone, especially God, Why would he do that to his people? Why would he wish this on anyone? We'll look at the end of verse nine. It says it's a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a what? A retribution. It's a payback. for the way that they have dishonored Him and His Messiah. And God is paying back a disobedient, hard-hearted people. And then verse 10, the psalmist goes on to say, may their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, their backs be bent forever. The picture of the bent back here is the picture of pain. It's also a picture of someone who is blind, who is always groping forward to try to find their way. And here's the psalmist, he's crying out, he's saying, oh God, blind them, bend their back, trap them. And he's speaking of those who will not be obedient to God. And of course the tragedy of that is, was that prophecy fulfilled? Yeah, it sure was. And is being fulfilled even in the history of Israel, even today. This whole idea of darkened eyes and deaf ears, it's all over the New Testament. It's all over the New Testament. And Israel is blind. But the point is, this is part of the plan of God. Now, that brings us to the end of this discussion of the fact that the setting aside of Israel is partial. Now I want to move into the second, and we'll just begin it today, we'll finish it up next week. The second of our main thoughts is that the setting aside of Israel not only is partial, but now secondly, it's that it's passing, or it is temporary, and it's not permanent. And we're going to see this in verses 11 and following here. In other words, it's a temporary thing. So we're gonna break this down like we did the first point. We're gonna break it down into three little sub points as well. And that is purpose, premonition, and promise. So let's just look at those three things and we'll be done here this morning. First of all, let's look at the purpose. Notice verse 11. Again, I ask. So he just talked about a stumbling block, right? Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Not at all. And by the way, that not at all is the exact same phrase as what he used back in verse 1 of chapter 11, where it says, by no means. It's the very same Greek construction. Meganoita means may it never be. Never, never, ever. So he says, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? No way. Not possible. Now, Has God rejected his people? No. Did they stumble so as to fall? Not at all. This is a partial setting, and now we're gonna see it is a passing, it is temporary. And this is a wonderful testimony to God's grace, as the first point was, because if you look at the end of chapter 10, what did he say back in the end of chapter 10? He talks about the fact that Israel, in that very last verse, is a disobedient and an obstinate people. And that's judgment language. When you are disobedient and when you are obstinate to God, guess what's going to happen? You're going to be judged. And we've just come through this section in verses 8 through 10 where he's talking about the fact that they're blind and they're deaf and their own table becomes a snare and a trap. All of this is judgment language. And right here in the middle of all this judgment talk, he comes back in verse 11 and he says, so did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? And the answer is, no, they didn't. No, they didn't. It's not a permanent falling. Let me just give you a couple of explanation of a couple of words here in verse 11. The word stumble is interesting. It just means to stumble, like you would, like you kind of trip up. But the word to fall in the word is a different word, and it means to fall. It's a situation where you can't get back up again. You fall and you're debilitated. You can't get back up. So what Paul is saying is, did they fall? so that they could never be able to come back, never be able to get up again? Is their stumbling complete? Is it irreversible? Is it a permanent falling? Is national Israel dead? Are they not going to receive the promises of God? And the answer is, not at all. Not at all. Look at verse 11. Because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious." Look at that little word, rather. It's an interesting word. It's an important word. It means totally the opposite of what I just said. They did not stumble in order to fall permanently. Instead, in complete contrast to this, They stumbled in order to fulfill a marvelous purpose of God. Listen, the fall of Israel, the stumbling of Israel, the setting aside of Israel has a definite purpose. And it is a threefold purpose. The first part of the purpose here is for Gentile salvation. Do you see that? In other words, in the fall of Israel, there is even a gracious purpose, and that is the salvation of people who are not Jews. When Israel fell away, the gospel was taken to who? The Gentiles. And so, in their stumbling, in their falling, the world has been incredibly enriched with the gospel, part of the plan of God. And you remember, what would Paul do when he was on his missionary journeys? He would go into a town, Philippi or Ephesus or Corinth or wherever he was, where was the first place he would go? He would go to the Jewish synagogue and he would preach the gospel there. And what would happen? He was mostly rejected. And then what would he do? Well, in Philippi, what did he do? He went down to the river and he met Lydia, right? and then they were put in jail. He met the Roman jailer. He would go to the Jews first and then the Jews would reject him and he would go to the Gentiles and he would see a rich harvest of evangelism. We then, as well as Gentiles, listen to this. This is one of the reasons that this section applies to you and me. We, you and I, are redeemed. The reason you and I know Jesus Christ, that we have the blessing of eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, one of those reasons is because it's the direct result of Israel becoming blind. It's heavy stuff. Look down in verse 25. of the same chapter. Paul says, I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. In other words, this temporary partial blindness on Israel is for what purpose? To allow the gathering in of the full redeemed group from among the Gentiles. This is a very important truth. So back to verse 11. Has God allowed them to stumble so that they should forever fall? No. But because of their transgression, Through their sin of rejecting Christ, salvation has come to us. It's come to the Gentiles, to all the nations. The second part of the purpose, this threefold purpose, is Jewish jealousy. So we saw Gentile salvation. Now see Jewish jealousy here. Look at verse 11. Salvation has come to the Gentiles. Why? To make Israel envious. Now you have to understand this, and we'll hit this again next week even more specifically. You'll never understand the heart of the Apostle Paul if you don't understand this. He says, the purpose in God allowing the Jews to stumble was not to destroy them forever, but to bring about Gentile salvation, which is going to do what? It's going to make the Jews envious so that they too might be saved. The purpose of God was to save Israel through their stumbling and not to destroy them. The word envious here is used in a positive way. It has to do with admiration. In other words, Israel would see the Gentile church. Israel would be drawn when they see how blessed it is to know Christ. And you know what? That is happening all over our world. There are Jews today who are coming to faith in Jesus Christ because they see how God has brought salvation to the Gentiles. They see the joy. They see the peace. They see the fruit of the gospel. And eventually, as we'll see, all Israel will be saved. So the Lord has humbled his people Israel here for a positive reason. He allows their stumbling, not that they should forever be destroyed, but so that the Gentiles should be redeemed. And the Gentiles who are redeemed, they become the testimony to the Jews. And the faith of the Gentiles is what the Jews desire to emulate. So by blinding the Jewish eyes, and by hardening the Jewish hearts, and by deafening the Jewish ears, God brings salvation to all of us. And the lives of us, we who are redeemed Gentiles, our lives should be joyful and peaceful and hopeful testimonies of what God can do so that that will be attractive to Jews who have rejected the Savior. Go back to chapter 10 for a moment, verse 19, picks up the same idea. Chapter 10, verse 19, again I ask, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, I will make you envious by those who are not a nation. I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding. And he's quoting from Deuteronomy 32 here. And all the way back there, God had already told them that someday he's going to make them envious with the Gentile people. So this setting aside of Israel had a very definite purpose. And then there's the third element in this purpose. The first was Gentile salvation, Jewish jealousy, and then the third is world blessing. Notice verse 12. back in Romans 11, if their transgression, but if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, and those first two phrases there are just what we call parallel phrases. They're just restating the same thing, okay? Transgression and loss go together, and the world and the Gentiles go together. It's just the same way of saying the same thing. Their transgression means riches for the world. Their loss means riches for the Gentiles. Now, how much greater riches will their fullness bring? How much greater riches will their fullness bring? This is a great point. What are the riches for the world? The same as the riches for the Gentiles. So if their transgression and their loss has brought about these riches, and what are these riches? Salvation, right, to us. If their sin, if their transgression, if their rejection of Christ and his righteousness, if their loss has brought about this kind of riches to us, then look at the end of verse 12. How much greater riches, if their sin accomplished all this, how much will their righteousness accomplish? That's his argument. If they accomplish so much in a negative way, it's hard to even imagine what will happen in a positive way. If negative can produce these kinds of results, what can the positive produce? And Paul talks like this a lot, right? We've seen this kind of argument before. You remember back in chapter 5 of this book, verse 10, he said there is a great statement, if when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? Paul argues like this all the time. If we could be redeemed by his death, just imagine how we are maintained by his life, is Paul's argument there. If a dead Savior can redeem us, a living one can certainly keep us, right? How much more? He loves this way of arguing. How much more, if the unbelief of Israel brought us salvation, how much more will the faith of Israel bring? And all of this, the faith of Israel, by the way, as a nation, as a whole, begins in Revelation chapter 7. And the first thing that begins to happen is that the Lord sets apart 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from each tribe. And this happens during the tribulation period. And these 144,000 Jews, they go out into all the world to evangelize it. Revelation 7 says that as a result there is an innumerable number of redeemed people out of every tongue and tribe and people and nation. They're all crying out praise to the Lamb who has saved them. The fruit of the work of those 144,000 Jews is going to be worldwide salvation all over the place. And ultimately, as we'll see even later in Romans 11, the whole nation of Israel will be saved. We'll get to that here in the weeks to come. So Paul says, look, they didn't stumble so that they should be permanently destroyed. They stumbled for three reasons. They stumbled for Gentile salvation. They stumbled, and that Gentile salvation brings Jewish jealousy, and then literally it will bring world blessing through the faith of Israel. Well, we're going to stop there for today, and I'm going to ask the praise team to come on back, and we'll prepare for some songs here. And I'm also going to ask those in our leadership team and our pastors if you'll come to prepare for the Lord's Supper. But let me just say a couple things. It's kind of a rough way to break the message up today, but what is our response to this kind of information? This is over our heads, and And we can't reconcile all the truths that we hear, the sovereignty of God, the responsibility of man. We can't sort all this stuff out in our minds, but we have to believe them both because they're both there and they're taught in the scriptures. Let me just suggest the end of Romans chapter 11 to you. We'll get there in a few weeks here, but in Romans 11 verse 33, here's how Paul responds. Now get this, he has just been, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Romans 9. Okay, Romans 9. Remember Romans 9? Romans 10. Now Romans 11 and it gets to the end of it. And what is Paul's conclusion? What is Paul's response to all of this deep, dark? Listen to what he says. Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments. And his paths beyond tracing out who has known the mind of the Lord. Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. Our response to this is, first of all, as we sang this morning, how great is our God? How great is our God? We don't understand how all this works. His ways are past our ways. His thoughts are past our thoughts. But how great is our God? And secondly, we should say, how thankful we are. that in the wise and mysterious plan of God, he made a way possible that we, who were outside the law, outside of his special people, we could come to know the Messiah. We could come to know the righteousness of God. At their expense, And you should feel a sinking, small feeling. Who am I that you should be mindful of me? How great is our God? If you're here this morning and you need a Savior, to forgive you of your sins. I would ask that in just a moment as we conclude our service, you go over to our prayer room located over here to your left between the two trees. A counselor will be there. Counselors will be there after the service to show you from the Bible, from God's Word, how you can find forgiveness and eternal life through the work of Jesus Christ.