I just want to remind the congregation of the words of the Apostle Paul to his student. He said, give attention to the public reading of Scripture. So we're definitely going to follow that example today in this 54 verse long reading. grateful, happy to read for us. And so we're very grateful for her as well. Let me pray for us and then gird up the loins of your mind and listen to this long reading from the book of First Samuel. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your servant who will read to us. And thank you for our being here, clothed and in our right minds. And we ask that you would bless now the reading of your word. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Today's reading is from 1 Samuel chapter 17. Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle, and they were gathered at Soko, which belongs to Judah. And they camped between Soko and Ezekiah in Ephesadam. Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and camped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array to encounter the Philistines. The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side, while Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with the valley between them. Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and he was clothed with scale armor, which weighed 5,000 shekels of bronze. He also had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam and the head of his spear weighed 600 shekels of iron. His shield carrier also walked before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, why do you come up to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us." Again, the Philistines said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse. And he had eight sons. And Jesse was old in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men. The three older sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, and the second to him, Abinadab, and the third, Shammah. David was the youngest. Now the three oldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's flock at Bethlehem. The Philistine came forward morning and evening for 40 days and took his stand. Then Jesse said to David, his son, take now for your brothers an ephah of this roasted grain and these 10 loaves and run to the camp to your brothers. Bring also these 10 cuts of cheese to the commander of their thousand and look into the welfare of your brothers and bring back news of them. For Saul and they and all the men of Israel are in the Valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. So David arose early in the morning and left the flock with a keeper and took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the circle of the camp while the army was going out in battle array shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines drew up in battle array, army against army. Then David left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper and ran to the battle line and entered in order to greet his brothers. As he was talking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath, named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines. And he spoke these same words, and David heard them. When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid. The men of Israel said, have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely he is coming up to defy Israel. And it will be that the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him saying, what will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God? The people answered him in accord with this word saying, thus it will be done for the man who kills him. Now Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger burned against David. And he said, why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart, for you have come down in order to see the battle. But David said, what have I done now? Was it not just a question? Then he turned away from him to another and said the same thing. And the people answered the same thing as before. When the words which David spoke were heard, they told them to Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail on account of him. Your servant will go and fight with his Philistine. Then Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth. But David said to Saul, Your servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him and rescued it from his mouth. And when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God. And David said, The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, go, and may the Lord be with you. Then Saul clothed David with his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor. David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. So David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them. And David took them off. He took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in the shepherd's bag, which he had even in his pouch. And his sling was in his hand and he approached the Philistine. Then the Philistine came on and approached David with the shield bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth and ruddy with a handsome appearance. The Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field. Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword, a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted this day, the Lord will deliver you up into my hands and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth. that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands." Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his head for it. And the stone sank into his forehead so that he fell on his face to the ground. Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and he struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in David's hand. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. The men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the valley and to the gates of Ekron, and the slain Philistines lay along the way to Shaarim, even to Gath and Ekron. The sons of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines and plundered their camps. Then David took the Philistines' head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his weapons in his tent. Now, when Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, Abner, whose son is this young man? And Abner said, by your life, O king, I do not know. The king said, you inquire whose son the youth is. So when David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine's head in his hand. Saul said to him, whose son are you, young man? And David answered, I am the son of your servant, Jesse the Bethlehemite. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I love this church. We have so many really gifted people and good listeners too. This week we were debating how much of the passage to put in the bulletin. And I said, I think people will like the long reading. It will be like a bedtime story. And Alexa said, do you really want a bedtime story right before you breathe? So I trust you to stay awake now. We've been looking at the history of ancient Israel and the time as Israel was rising in power and the time that is called the development of the monarchy. And this was around 1000 BC. Within the story is found perhaps one of the most developed and complex complete, detailed biography handed down to us from antiquity, and that is the life of David, the once and future king. Today's episode is undoubtedly, even in a culture that is losing its biblical literacy, Even in our culture, still, this is definitely the most famous episode from the life of David. And if you describe a situation to people that is a David and Goliath story, people know what that means. They know it means an underdog who has a reversal of fortune. If you know the way we approach the Bible here at Park Road, You won't expect today a sermon on how you can go out and defeat the giants in your life, because we're careful not to moralize the Bible's message or turn the Bible into a kind of life hack or a series of, you know, principles for successful living. It's not how we look at the Bible. We are supposed to see something bigger. in this story, something grander. It's not simply a story about going out with all the courage you can muster and being brave against all odds, but something truly majestic that fires our imaginations and helps us to see the bigger story, the story that encompasses every story, the story into which our stories have fallen and our stories are swallowed up in the great story of the cosmos, the great story of God. But question I want to raise this morning as we come to this very familiar passage. Do we have to choose? Is this a morality tale, something for us to emulate in our own lives, or is it a picture of the grander story? Do we have to choose? And sometimes we have to admit we've misused this story in the church and as a bedtime story for our children. And we've used it as a kind of go out there and conquer the world kids story, which it's not. But is it only an illustration of the bigger story, or are there moral principles here to follow? And if there are, how do we follow those moral principles? So today, David and Goliath, an example to direct us, an emblem to delight us, and an engine to drive us. All right, one more time. David and Goliath, an example to direct us, emblem to delight us and an engine to drive us." This is part of a contrast that we've been reading. I thank Lucas for filling in for me last week and also so that Phil could work on his doctoral dissertation, Defense, which he did this week and successfully defended it. So Dr. Phil will be in the back. If you have any ailments that you want to talk about he'll Phil, if you have any like joint pain or anything, Dr. Phil will tend to you in the narthex after the service. So again, it's a part of a contrast in two kings that we've been seeing for the last couple of weeks. David, God's choice, is contrasted with Saul, who is the people's choice. And they're different. They stand in contrast. Saul worked with donkeys. And in time, he acted the part. And he made a donkey of himself. Stubborn and mean. And David, in contrast, worked with sheep. And he became sheep-like, tender and protective, like a shepherd. He saw himself as a sheep, and he saw that the Lord was his shepherd. David played the harp. for King Saul's violent mental anguish as David had played for the skittish sheep in the pasture. David was tender and protective, like a shepherd, and also artistic. He was a poet. Saul, on the other hand, was big, head and shoulders above the crowd. He was presidential, tall and strong. David was the forgotten runt. Not the first born, not the second born or the third born, but the eighth born. Like after seven, the number of completion, the one that we kind of don't really need. Disrespected and overlooked by his family. And now, the moment has come. where the Philistine champion, the strong man, he's called in the passage over and over again, not really the champion, but the man. And the representative of the persistent enemy of the Israelites, Goliath of Gath. He's mocking Saul and mocking his armies and says, send me your champion. And if he beats me, you win, we'll serve you. If I beat him, we win and you will be our slaves. And Saul is apparently desperate because this has been going on for a time. And so he promises wealth and even the hand of his daughter. He promises a bride to whoever can defeat this enemy of Israel and kill this mountain of a man, this Goliath of Gath. But there are no takers because Goliath of Gath is big, really big. He's a giant. He dresses like a dragon. I don't know if you noticed, but it says he wore scale armor, like this invincible dragon. His weapons are not just the weapons of a man, but they're like industrial strength weapons. So they're compared to a weaver's loom. And all the weight of his armor is calculated. He's like a human tank, but the quality in David that stands out for us as an example, and I wrestled with a number of ways to put this, but I think the best way to put it is David had a lust for life. He had zeal. And Saul and the troops and David's own brothers look out on this valley of decision. And they see this giant. In our translation, it says that he could have been over nine feet tall. The Septuagint, the Greek translation, says that he was six feet nine inches. We don't really know which way to look at this, but in any case, he was in an immense mountain of a man, and he's mocking the troops, and he's trash-talking Israel, and he's defying God. And it says, as the people of Israel looked at him, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. And we can only imagine how this mockery, this trash talk continues for 40 days. 40 days, of course, reminds us of the period of a journey in the Bible. And they are journeying deeper and deeper into fear. And the Israelites are demoralized, and they're contemplating what's gonna happen next in our national life. We're going to be slaves of these cruel people. and they are awaiting slavery and they are frozen in fear. And then in contrast, David has this kind of put me in the game coach perspective. Says he rises early in the morning. He tends to the sheep. He puts his sheep in good hands, the hands of the sheep handler. He stows his baggage with the supply manager of the army. And again, verse 22, he ran to the battle line. When David sees the giant and he hears the news that the Israelite warrior who defeats this giant will earn tax-exempt status for his family in perpetuity. I mean, how many of you would like that? He will earn great riches He will vindicate the name of God and he will receive a bride so that in one fell swoop, any Israelite could go from, in David's case, being an unknown shepherd to being the son-in-law of the king. And when David hears this, he looks around and he's completely baffled. Like, why aren't all the troops? running to enlist, taking this opportunity. And he turns to the troops. We just read it. He says to the troops, is this offer real? Has anyone heard this offer actually made by the king? And all the troops say, yeah, it's real. That's exactly what he said. Riches, tax exempt status, vindication of God's name, hero in Israel, and a bride, the son-in-law of a king. And so, it's as if he says, well, where is the long line that I can apply? And they say, well, there are no applicants, because human tank is what we have to fight. And apparently, no one is worthy to break the seals and open the book. But I'm getting ahead of myself, moving from example to emblem. The point is, When we tell our children, or when we use this passage to teach people, you can do it. Get out there and be courageous. I'm not even sure that courage is the thing we ought to be emulating in David. You know, they say courage is when you're really afraid to do something, but you do it anyway. But in David, you don't find that he was afraid to do anything from the start. It's not really bravery or courage in David. It's a thirst for life. David lives with a sense that he is involved in a sacred relationship with God that leads to a daily adventure. because David has seen the trustworthiness of God. Yahweh, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will also deliver me from the hand of the Philistine." And Saul said to David, go, and may Yahweh be with you. Like, we don't have anything to lose. If you're a fool enough to go out into the valley of Elah, then have at it. And then Saul says, well, as long as you're going out there, I need to do my part. And he puts his own armor on the young man, because that's what you do. You're not going to fight someone in all this armor without any armor of your own. So he puts all this armor, because that's the conventional way that these kind of battles are fought. David politely declines. Can't walk in this stuff. Not the way he rolls, as we would say. Instead, he picks up five smooth stones and he approaches the Philistine, who feels insulted that they sent out a kid, and Goliath curses David, but David gives it right back to him. And David boasts, not in his weaponry, but in God, in Yahweh. You rely on your size, on your equipment, but the battle belongs to the Lord, not to swords and spears. And so with apparent fearlessness, David, in total dependence on God, verse 48, again, ran. You see how David is always running in these passages, getting up early, taking care of things, running here, running there, a zeal for life. He ran quickly to the battle line to meet the Philistine and he commits the stone. He doesn't use a sword where you have to hold the sword and the sword is kind of under your control. He throws the stone into the air as if to say, Lord, I throw it. You determine where it lands. And it sank into the forehead of the giant. And because David has no sword, He uses the sword of Goliath to finish the giant off. He severs the head of the Philistine, and all of a sudden, the Philistines run, and the Israelites, they're now in a position to be like David, in that they are consumed by zeal, seeing the victory of God, and they run. And they are lifted out of their malaise and despair, and they rise up and they pursue the Philistines all the way home, and they take all the plunder they can carry. And finally, David, it says, kind of a weird note, he takes the head of the giant to Jerusalem. Again, it's kind of a weird thing to include. There were a lot of things you could or would perhaps not want to include in this long narrative. It's interesting, isn't it, that he says the head of the giant was deposited in Jerusalem, whether that was right then or to follow. We don't know. There's some break in the sequence. And the passage ends with Saul asking, whose family does this kid come from? It's not that he doesn't know David. It's that he forgot his parentage, and he has to know that because he promised tax-exempt status for the family. Now, if we want to use David as a role model and follow his example, I'm okay with that. He who would valiant be. I think we can look at this as long as we see David for who he was. Not a superhero. And isn't that the point? Look at me. I'm no hero. I'm a runt. I'm forgotten. I come from a little town and I come from the smallest clan within the tribe. He was a runt who believed God and had no sword. If David was special, it was only because God had made him special. And David would want us to see that. This is anything but a celebration of human willpower and determination. And the way we use David's example is all important in the process of applying the Bible to our lives. David would not want us to see David as the focus of this story. He wasn't the focus. He said over and over again, in other words, the battle is not mine, it belongs to the Lord. But before I try to show us how we should use David's example in our daily lives, let me look at David, not so much as an example, but as an emblem. In other words, David is a kind of picture or representation, a symbolic representation of something bigger than himself. As we read the life of David this winter or fall, all the way up to Christmas time, we'll notice that the life of David is haunted. And on every page of the life of this second human king in Israel, there are sightings of another anointed king. And as we read about David, we'll find these whispers and symbols and reminders and promises and glimpses of the one who would come and sit on David's throne and rule the whole universe forever. And in this scene, this Valley of Decision, between two mountains, the Valley of Bless, or the Mountain of Blessing and the Mountain of Cursing, or from Joel, multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision, a place that is consequential, a place where things happen and they come to bear on all of our lives. They determine the course of our living. Two riders were approaching and the wind begins to howl, two champions. are pictured here. We meet them, not in the symbol, but in who they really are in the first pages of the Bible. The seed of the woman who will be bruised on the heel, but will in battle crush the head of the other character, the seed of the serpent. Goliath represents the seed of the serpent. He looks like a dragon. And since our congregation just looked at the dragon in the book of Revelation, we see from Genesis to the very end of Revelation, the serpent or the dragon appearing again and again. And here he appears in the person of Goliath. He looks like a dragon. David represents God's people. David is an emblem, a pointer, To another greater champion, from David's own line and lineage, Jesus Christ, the last Adam, the representative of God's people, is also pictured in the scene. He is the one worthy to open the book and break its seals. He is the champion, Jesus Christ, who lives, dies, and rises in the place of all God's people, representing us as our champion. And he, Jesus Christ, And this is where I want to bring out that little note and show that it's there very deliberately. He, Jesus Christ, is crucified right outside of Jerusalem on a hill. Do you know the name of that hill? It was called Skull Hill. Three of the four gospel writers, all four gospel writers include the fact of where Jesus was crucified, Three of the four, excluding Luke, mention that its name in Hebrew is Golgotha. And we can't help notice that Golgotha would be a very fitting contraction of the name Goliath of Gath. Golgath, Golgotha. Is it possible that God planned for the head and skull of the dragon man to be buried in Jerusalem? Reminding us that just as David stood with the enemy's own sword and stood over him in victory, Gol of Gath, Goliath of Gath, so Jesus Christ would be lifted up on Golgotha, place of the skull, and would crush the skull of the dragon as he was prophesied to do in Genesis chapter three. Why else are we told this weird fact that David brought the skull of Goliath to Jerusalem? And for slaying the dragon with the dragon's own sword, Jesus Christ defeating death by death itself becomes our champion and is declared worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing in the same way these things were promised to David's ancestor or to Jesus' ancestor David. And on top of these things, Jesus Christ wins a bride. I'm looking at her right now. We are the bride. Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy, you. For the joy that was set before him endured the cross, mocking the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." In other words, we are the bride that Jesus Christ won in the same way that David won the bride from the hand of Saul the king. We are the joy of Jesus. for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. He went to the cross, he defeated death by death, and he did it for us. He is our champion. And if we don't see that in this passage, we really missed the main thing. He was sent from the Father, Jesus Christ, to refresh and to nourish, to give shalom to his brothers. But like David, when he came to his brothers, he came to his own, but his own did not receive him. And like David, so Jesus is ridiculed and rejected by his own brothers. The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. And you see, this is how we read the Bible. I'm not just saying this is how we read the Bible at this church. I'm making an assertion, this is how the Bible ought to be read. The Hebrew Bible, the Torah, the prophets, the writings are all about him, our champion, Jesus Christ. The whole Old Testament is about Jesus Christ. He said it himself. Moses and the prophets and the Psalms all testify to me. And as we read what we call the old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, we find flashes of him and promises and signs and symbols and sightings of Jesus Christ everywhere. You look from Genesis to Malachi and we have to learn to find them. It's a delightful process to do it. It's an emblem that delights us. The story of David and Goliath is so much more than a pep talk on how we can go out and defeat our giants and overcome the adversity in our lives if we're just brave enough. David is an example to us most of the time, not all the time. And we should follow that example from this passage, and we should exhibit a similar lust for life like he had, a zeal to know God and running every day into this adventure with God that's called life in the spirit, trusting him. But it's more than an example. And if we don't see the bigger picture in David's story, we're missing out on the main thing. In fact, we could say, and this is kind of a hinge in the sermon, so let me repeat it twice. The emblem is the engine for the following of the example. Let me say it again. The emblem, David as symbol, is the engine for following the example. You get that? The emblem is the engine for following the example. Let me just unpack that for a moment. When we see and celebrate that David is an emblem, that David is pointing us to Jesus Christ, and the whole history of the Bible prior to the coming of Jesus all points us to him, when we see that, That drives us to a new and living way of life. We begin to see that the life, death, and resurrection of the one to whom the Bible points on every page, Jesus Christ. We begin to see the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the spirit that he gives to everyone who believes in him. This is God's plan for life. God is not waiting for you. to be good enough or determined enough or brave enough. That kind of striving, where you're doing stuff to get God to like you, to get God to bless you, where you're doing enough to qualify for God's blessings, that kind of life eventually leads to a slavish kind of fear. Instead, God wants us to see, as David saw, that the battle belongs to the Lord. And the Lord is Jesus Christ, the general of the hosts of heaven. And it's when we believe that, because we see it ultimately in Jesus, that he is the Lord and he fought the battle for us. as we see Him championing us at Golgotha. When we believe that, that trust leads to a new zeal for living and a lust for life. I wonder, and this is like a technique you can use as you try to apply the Bible to yourself, to try to find yourself in the story. What character in the story that Marilyn just read to us so well that it elicited applause from the congregation? When you read that story, with what character do you most identify in the story? In other words, do you perhaps see yourself as Goliath, relying on your own resources? sometimes even opposing God and even mocking God. Or do you best identify, say, with Saul, who's trying to do things the conventional religious way, a kind of one-size-fits-all, but it really doesn't fit at all? Or do you identify with David, like a super strong hero of the faith, and he goes out to represent God's people as the champion, and it all depends on David. If he wins, we win. If he loses, we lose. Do you ever see yourself in that way, like it all depends on you? What character are you? Well, I'm gonna tell you. I think we're the ones in the bleachers. You get it? I think we are the fearful, cowering, paralyzed troops. And we look at the world, and the world seems to be getting scarier and scarier. And we are paralyzed by all the scary stuff that's going on in the world, some stuff that's going on in our families, stuff that's going on related to the pandemic. that we look at the world and see the opposition coming at us, the world, the flesh, and the devil, relentlessly opposing us. And I imagine those troops. Can you just put yourself in the story for a second? As the troops are all gathered, like maybe thousands of people, and all of a sudden, a little kid runs out onto the playing field? Like, are you kidding me? And they're talking and they're saying, really? This is the best we could do? And this little kid is running out there and he's got his little pouch that's flapping up and down and he's running out and everybody's looking at him and there's some snickering going on. And we're thinking, this is our champion? Man, we're going to be slaves by the end of the day. My wife is going to be taken away from me. My kids are going to be taken away. We're going to be under slavery. And then as the champion stops and the sling goes around and around and all the snickering stops and every eye is fixed and every mouth is closed. and people's heads are craning like this. Watching everything hangs on that one smooth stone and everyone's getting dizzy. And the stone releases and it flies through the air and thousands of eyes are watching the stone the stone and this little kid is all that stands between us and slavery and death and then the giant falls and the whole crowd goes so loud they erupt in tearful shouts of joy and relief. The men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines. Zeal has returned. A lust for life is distributed among all God's people. Jesus Christ has done that for me. I sat there outside of that tomb. And I was just hoping. And sure enough, the stone rolled away and my champion came out alive. And all of God's people applauded, just like we did for Marilyn, but even bigger. He is worthy. Jesus Christ is our champion. And to the degree that you see that and bank on that every day and celebrate it and trust it, that sense of relief Then his victory brings us to our feet and we run into battle with a lust for life, praising the champion because he is worthy. Let's pray together. Thank you, Father. We're grateful for this story. So engaging. All these years after our childhood, and we're still amazed when we hear it read. And Father, as we see Jesus in it, we're even more amazed. And Lord Jesus Christ, as you have run to do the Father's will, and as you have defeated our enemy and beheaded death itself, by your resurrection. We want to run after you. And we want to be, as you said, zeal for my Father's house has consumed me. We want to be consumed by that zeal so that life in the Spirit, life in Christ, becomes the most important thing about us. Holy Spirit, now enliven us and awaken in us zeal and lust for life. as you are the Lord and giver of life. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.