Genesis chapter one, verses 14 through 19. Then God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the great light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He made the stars also. And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth and to govern the day and the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. Let's pray. Well, Lord God, we pray that you would open your word to us, that we might behold wonderful things from your word. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. NASA tells us that long, long ago when Earth was young, it is thought that something big hit the Earth and knocked it off kilter. So instead of rotating with its axis straight up and down, it leans a little bit. By the way, they say that big thing that hit Earth is called Theia. I hope you don't have that name today. I don't believe that there is anyone by the name of Thea or Thea here, but Thea was its name. It blasted a big hole in the surface. That big hit sent a huge amount of dust and rubble into the orbit. And most scientists think that that rubble in time became our moon. This is as much a fairy tale and wishful thinking and the creative mindset of man run amok as it is to believe that Marduk and the gods of the Gilgamesh epic, or Ra and Amun created the moon and the stars and the sun. The fact is that God in very simplistic terms clarifies for us exactly how, as the only eyewitness that there ever was of the days of creation, communicated through Moses, God speaking and clarifying for us that the world was created by his own declaration. He speaks and it was so. Now, we may be asking as we come to this passage today, we see that the planets and the stars and the sun and the moon were all created. Now, we equate those things with the passage of time. And you might ask, well, did time begin on day four of creation? And I would say, no, it didn't. It began when in the beginning was God. In the beginning was God. You see, in the beginning is a marking of the line of the beginning of the progression of time. Light begins and then after the first day of creation, and there was morning and there was evening the first day. So at the beginning of that morning, on that first day, when God spoke and began to create, that's when time begins. But now on this day, on day four, we do see the beginning of the measurement of time. Prior to that, there was little measurement of time. There was morning and evening as created by the light which God provided and sustained the new creation with. But now God marks for us the ability to mark days and weeks and months and years. Well, God creates on that day, not just the stars, but all interplanetary bodies and movements and together with them, all the various laws of interplanetary motion and of physics and those things that govern those interplanetary bodies, the elliptical orbits of those individual bodies and the movements of the stars and of light coursing through the universe itself. God creates on that day, all the other solar systems, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, dwarf planets like Pluto. I still believe that Pluto is a planet. I was raised that way and it's not going to change. It created asteroids and comets and exoplanets, galaxies, nebulae, black holes, dark matter, radiation, dust, and man-made objects even as we, not yet at that point, but in the night sky we see in addition to that man-made objects like satellites and space junk and space station coursing through the night sky. So there's a lot out in that sky and all the things which God created and filled the sky or filled the firmament with of the heavens, he created on that given day. But then there is specific mention of the moon and of the sun. God creates the sun and the moon and he doesn't name them here, does he? He simply says, the lesser light and the greater light. I think there's a reason for why he does that. In fact, we'll see that there's a much later portion in scripture where they are actually named. But he simply calls them lesser light and the greater light. When we get names to objects, we tend to personify them. If you buy a car. and you buy a Kia Sorento, you begin to call that, you think of that Kia Sorento in either one of two different ways, a male or a female. You do. She's a good car. He's a good truck. He's been really good to me. We personify things like that, don't we? We do. We tend to do that. Sometimes we personify other inanimate objects and we tend to think of things according to our own experience. Maybe you don't realize it, maybe you're not aware of this fact, but since the beginning of creation itself, mankind has been personifying the sun and the moon and has been attempting to worship the sun and the moon since the very beginning. And I think that God is in some small way guarding, initially at least, mankind against that tendency by saying, I'm not even going to name them. It's the greater light and the lesser light. In fact, in Deuteronomy 4, verse 19, God is speaking through Moses to his people and he says this, Moses, and beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven. and to see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the hosts of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole of heaven." We are all together far too quickly, rapidly engaged in the work of adoring, reverencing, and worshiping God's good gifts. And the Lord is warning against that in Deuteronomy chapter 4. Well, what the language here says is that God sets them in the firmament of the sky, and he gives them their declared purposes. And so he identifies here three quick purposes. They are separation, signs and seasons, and to give light upon the earth. And those are stated in verses 14 and 17. In verses 14, they are laid out in a particular direction or order. And then in verse 17, that order is reversed. It's a chiastic structure. It's the reversal of what is said before, each corresponding in the outer, inner, and then the immediate inner circle of that dialectical device three purposes separation it's acknowledged in verse 14 and verse 17 to separate the day from the night and then in verse 17 place them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth to govern the day and the night and to separate the light from the darkness so light from darkness day and night This is this idea of separation. God is separating, delineating with clear markers as to what is what. He will do so on day six, male and female. He has done so on day three, the plants and the seas marking out their boundaries. He is doing so here in the firmament. He places those heavenly bodies and he clearly marks day and night, and that is their purpose. They are to mark out. They are to delineate. They are to clarify what day and night is. They are designated for the passage of time, clear designations for when work is to be done, when mankind's mind is to be engaged, and when rest is most welcome and is to be engaged in as well, day and night, light and darkness. This is, I think, the first God-designated time to mankind. or for mankind. He has already identified morning and evening and day, but now he is clarifying that there will be a marking of those days for our measurement and our participation in it. There will be a 24-hour rotation of the earth as it revolves around the sun. The second thing is signs and seasons, days and years. God designates this passage of time now in the course of days, weeks, months, years. And those things are marked by the phases of the moon and the rotation of the earth around the sun ultimately. But how often does he equate the various obligations within the religious calendar of the Israelites to the new moon? a new moon Sabbath, and the new moon's harvest, and the necessity of beginning Passover on the first day when there is a full moon. That commences Passover itself. They still, Jews today, still hold to a lunar calendar and not a heliocentric or a sun-driven calendar by days. The earth rotates around the sun in a year on a tilted axis. And the tilt is what causes our seasons as it continues to go around the sun 365.5 days, I believe it is. And it's always pointing in the same direction each day, rotating on its own axis, giving us our days as the sun reflects upon the earth. Now, as we think about it, I had to look this term up, but it's perihelion, which means the point closest to the sun is 91.4 million miles from the sun. It's, I have to work on this one, aphelion or aphelion is the point where it is farthest from the sun is 94.5 million miles. So as the Earth continues in its yearly ellipsis around the sun or orbit around the sun, it is moving progressively further and or closer. And in those variations, we see and feel to some extent the variations of our closeness or nearness to the sun. You know, it's interesting that bright stars pique the interest of the Magi, or these kings, these wise men of Matthew 2. And they declare the fulfillment of Old Testament scriptures, marking a season, the Messianic season, by those stars. They have discovered that those stars are telling them where the Messiah is. They have acknowledged that the Old Testament speaks hopefully of the coming of the Messiah, and they see in the stars the signs and portents. And God states here twice in this passage that God provides the stars and the planets and the lesser light and the greater light for the sake of the marking of days and seasons, ultimately culminating in the marking of the location of the Messiah, the Son of God. It's an extraordinary thing that God gives when he creates the world the necessary tools for the ultimate location of the Messiah millennia from that point in time. The third thing that these interplanetary bodies do is to give light upon the earth. There is a priority for the heavenly bodies that God has given to them, and that is so that they would light the earth. It's extraordinary how God cares for what he creates and how he makes provision for his creation. Their purpose, the heavenly bodies, when you go out on a warm summer night or a crisp winter evening and you look up at the stars, I think they are more crisp and more beautiful. Certainly, Orion is in the sky and Orion's belt. and Cassiopeia, and the North Star, and so many other constellations. You can look up and you see the resplendent glory of what God has made. Be reminded of the fact that God placed them there for the purpose of lighting the Earth. Well, these two great lights are also there for that purpose. And the sun isn't named until Genesis 15, 12, when Abraham goes into a deep sleep. And the sun goes down and God comes and he walks between the carcasses and he establishes the covenant with him. And then the moon is not spoken of. Well, let me tell you what the sun is called. It's called Shemesh in the Hebrew and in the Hebrew, the moon is not named until Genesis 37, 9. It's Yareach. It's Joseph who is speaking to his brothers and he says, I had a dream. And in that dream, the sun and the moon bowed down to me along with 11 stars. And of course, God ultimately brings this to fruition. Well, the sun and the moon are often designated in scripture and they're designated for exactly what they are, the sun and the moon, the greater and the lesser light. Psalm 74 and Psalm 104, Psalm 136, they all speak of this. But there are other mentions of the moon as a time-measuring agent marking out seasons and feasts and offerings and the necessity of making those offerings and holding those feasts at the specific times outlined by the continued rotation of the moon around the earth in its various phases, whether quarter moon or half moon or a full moon. There are mentions of the sun and Job in Job's book. It is mentioned four times. One, its proper name. Particular aspect of the sun is named as it burns or itches. We all know what a sunburn feels like. And Job references that in the name that he gives to the sun when he speaks of it, because he is feeling it on his skin. And then there is, thirdly, the heat that comes from the sun. And he uses that to name the sun. And then lastly, he names it for its light. But four times, he acknowledges the sun in the book of Job. because the sun can, in fact, be harmful at times for us as human beings. In the New Testament, the sun is called Helios, and the moon is Selene. Well, God creates in the space of six days, and here on the fourth day, he creates all of the interplanetary bodies and the sun and the moon. So what do we take from this? We've acknowledged that God is created. We've said as much as we can, I think, although a scientist could say much, much more about the process of the sun and the moon and how they were created according to his own theoretical understanding. But we understand and we believe and we affirm this morning that God created in the heavens and the earth and all that, according to the Heidelberg Catechism, all that in them is. It's never good to end a statement with a preposition, but I think that's a very effective ending with a preposition. I love how it says it there. So what do we make by way of application? First, there's this. Christianity is a religion of history. Christianity is a religion of history, and it's an important point to make. We live in a day and age when we are told that religion is a matter of the heart. It's really all about my heart and my emotional connection to God. God helps those who help themselves. That's a popular phrase for such a mindset. The idea that really Christianity is not about obligation or obedience and or worship or reverence. It really ultimately is about my feelings and my own spiritual appetites, my own spiritualism. People love to describe themselves in this day and age as I'm a spiritual person. What does that mean? I find that when people say that they are demonstrating their religious ignorance, They're demonstrating their ignorance of the Word of God because never is anyone mentioned in Scripture as identifying themselves as spiritual persons. Think of the Apostle Paul there before the great thinkers of Athens. Paul doesn't say, I stand before you as a man of great spirituality. No, he proclaims what? He doesn't proclaim even his own testimony. If anything, his testimony is all intended to point to God. And so when he stands before the people of Athens, he points to a statue and he says, this statue to a God who is not known, I want to tell you about that God. You see, our understanding of Christianity, the religion that the Bible portrays and communicates to each of us in a known language is that God is the God of history, that God has spoken into history and has created history itself and God has accomplished his purposes. God's story of creation and redemption and fulfillment and salvation and consummation, all of this is God unfolding for us redemptive history. So this idea that somehow the our emotional grasp of God, our decisions for Him, our faith in Him, even to our shame, His faith in us. I've heard that phrase used. I know that I believe and I'm going to heaven because of God's faith in me. God doesn't believe in you. God has promised grace to you. He has promised salvation to you. Not because He's believed that you could save yourself, but because He knows your condition fully and He knows you cannot. And that's why he has given us his son. This pagan spirituality, really it is, it's pagan. It's unbelieving and it's pagan. This idea that mankind should or could do his or her best to discover God, to form a relationship with him. God is lonely, I've heard. This is what I've heard, I swear. God is lonely and he desires a relationship with you. We don't read that here. In the beginning, God. God created the heavens and the earth. And we are, if we're a student of the Bible, we will see that the apex of God's revelation is his provision of his son, his intention to glorify the son and to save sinners through him. God's fundamental commitment above all things is to glorify the son of God, Jesus Christ. God created the world to glorify his son. God saved you to glorify his son. God sent his only begotten son into the world for one purpose, to glorify him. Christianity debunks those hedonistic and pagan ideas. God is not only created and provided for his creation, but when we sin, Provision has been made for us. We have and we do, we do sin. We realize though that God has not only created us, but he rescues us from the consequences of our rebellion against him. That's what the biblical story unfolds. That we have made a muck of all of it. That the one opportunity that we had when Adam and Eve stood in a state of innocence before God in the garden, what did they do? They sinned. And when they sin, they cast all of God's creation into a position of being fallen. So all that God had created and made degraded instantly and has continued to degrade. It is less than what God has created and made it to be. In Romans, Paul says that all creation cries out and groans for redemption. You see, God's intention is to glorify himself, to glorify his son in fixing the consequences of our rebellion by recreating and making all things new. And Christ comes with glorious and good news. Behold, I am making all things new. That's what our Savior does. That's what he has done. And God rescues us. He rescues us from our sins. The second thing that we see by way of application in this story is not only is Christianity a religion of history, it is, but also God gives us, God establishes his purposes in these heavenly bodies and they help us to understand why God has given us these heavenly bodies in the heavens. There are a number of them. Humans have need of refreshment and renewal. We do need it. We need rest at the end of the day. We need to wake up to a new and fresh morning. We need this. We need refreshment and renewal. Can you imagine if we didn't have nighttime and daytime? Christine and I, on our 25th wedding anniversary, went up to Alaska, and we flew into Alaska. And I'd love to go back, but Christine will never go again because she will never fly again. It was not horrible. It was actually a very even keeled trip. It was a good trip. But for her it was, she struggles with motion sickness and it was agony all the way out and all the way back. But I kept her distracted with good movies and she was okay. She made it home. I was on the verge of thinking that the only way we were going to make it back is if I rented a car. But nonetheless, when we were there, we went down to the lower portion of Alaska, and then we went all the way up to the top, from one end to the other end. We drove, and we drove, and we drove, and we drove. We drove so much so that it was the full light of day, but it was 3 a.m. There was no darkness. Down in the lower portion of Alaska, there was darkness and there was light, a little less darkness than we're used to. It was kind of like a dusk. But once we were reaching up toward the upper portion, it was just perpetual light. And so at 3 a.m., we pulled over in the full light of sun and we went to sleep at night because we needed to sleep. But we had no idea what time of day or night it was until we looked at our watch. Thankfully, we have our watch. But if we didn't have our watch, we would have no concept whatsoever of when we're supposed to go to bed. People say that that is what needs to happen when you go out in submarines in the Navy or when you're caught in a circumstance where you're not able to go out and see the full sunlight. You need the references of time that watches and telephones give us because otherwise we begin to neglect sleep and rest altogether. God has given us what we need. He has given us the marking of the seasons. for refreshment and renewal. But further, he has given us these heavenly bodies and the light that they provide for the ordering of a human week. We are commanded at a later point, he will clarify for us, that we are to work for six days and then on the seventh to rest. And so there's one day in that week. And of course, in light of the New Testament and the coming of Christ and the resurrection of our Savior on the first day of the week, we worship the Lord on the first day of the week. We give a day unto God to rest, to worship, to revel in one another's fellowship together in the Holy Spirit, and then we work six days, and then we renew in that cycle yet again. Further, God has given us the light to remind us of God's provision and care and faithfulness. Each sunrise should remind us of God's immense mercy to us. When the sun comes up and pokes over that horizon at about 6 or 6.30 right now in this current season that we are in, we should, when we first open our eyes, even if we open our eyes at a later point, when we open our eyes and we see that the new day has come, the first thing that should flow from our lips is, thank you, God. Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of the new day. Thank you, Lord, for another day that I might live before you. Each sunrise should remind us of the faithfulness of God. It is a gift. Each day is a gift from the Lord. There is no certainty that we will be given another. This morning, I came from visiting at the hospital early this morning, and I saw three individuals, none of whom had any idea that today before the day is out today, they would pass from this world. But they will. They will die today. Most likely. Maybe another day or two. No one knows absolutely on anything. But the fact is they will die, most likely. They, in fact, are actively dying. One's a 28-year-old young man, and he had no idea. Another is a 94-year-old woman. Another was an 84-year-old man who was told yesterday that his cancer was in remission. He's the one who's not likely to make it two hours. I think he's dead now. My point is not in telling you anything necessarily beyond what God's word is saying, and that is that the days which God provides us and the sun that comes up on that horizon is a gift from the Lord. God has not promised that you would live even one more day. So this is the day that the Lord has made. This is the day for you and me to rejoice in it. This is the day that is God's extraordinary gift to us to live, to move, and to have our being in Christ Jesus. Do not make an assumption about tomorrow. Today is the gift that God has given to you. God has given us these lights also for another purpose. There are new beginnings that are given to us each. which is intended to encourage us. Think about it. You've had a terrible day and you've gone through all sorts of things in one day. You spilled your food all over the lunchroom table. You came home and the car is broken in the driveway. Or your parents got really angry with you because you misbehaved. One way or the other, the day has been absolutely terrible. Someone you really cared about is separated from you. Or maybe someone has left your home. One way or the other, it's been a bad day. At the end of the day, you can put your head on the pillow and go to sleep. and get rest and refreshment and awaken in the new morning with a new understanding or a new approach to all that happened the day before and with the bright prospects that God in fact may address your circumstances and bring you relief. But one way or the other, Each day marks a new beginning in it, and it gives to us the blessing of being able to put the past behind us, to be renewed in the mercies of God, to pray and say, Lord, I'm going to begin a new day. And I sinned in this way yesterday. Lord, forgive me. I repent of that sin. Be my strength, be my rock. Help me today to not do what I did yesterday. Forgive me, I repent. Be my strength that I might not sin against you today. Each day represents the renewal of God's mercy. In fact, he tells us in his word that each day his mercies are renewed each and every day to each and every one of us. So we can leave behind our mistakes and sins and we can be renewed each morning in the fight to serve and fear the Lord above all things. There is a weariness that that attends our way as we get into our beds at night. We are tired. Our bodies are weary and our mind is at an ebb. But with the new day, God has given a renewal in our flesh and of our mind, of our strength, a renewal of our fellowship with him. We get up, we mark the day in refreshment and in renewal with our God. And most assuredly, it is a new day. There's a third point to make, too. Just to clarify, the first one was Christianity is a religion of history. The second was that there are multiple purposes for which God has given us the heavenly bodies. Thirdly, with each new day, We should mark each day with Thanksgiving and to mark the faithfulness of God. We are to remember who we are and to worship he who has given us these days, this week, this Sabbath. But as we do, we don't need to be afraid of the moon and the stars and the sun. God has created them. He has given them purpose. He has given them to us. He has given them and placed them in the firmament in the heavens for the purpose of giving light to the earth. Psalm 136 is a theme that just sounds over and over again of the faithfulness of God. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his lovingkindness is everlasting. To him who made the great lights, for his lovingkindness is everlasting. The sun to rule by day, for his lovingkindness is everlasting. The moon and stars to rule by night, for his lovingkindness is everlasting. You see, God calls all the interplanetary bodies and the stars by name, Isaiah 40 tells us. And if God knows all the stars, and that includes our star, the sun, then surely we need not fear any such thing, and we need not fear any malevolent force that could be wielded from the sun or through the sun, because the sun is in God's hands. This is where astrology really doesn't make any sense, and astrology really needs to be left behind. It is a foolish and pagan thing, and I hope you don't make use of it. I don't care if you're Aries or Pisces, none of it matters at all, not a whit. And anyone who tells you that there is any significance found in those astrological signs has a fear of the sun, but not a fear of the God who made the sun. We should abandon those pagan ideas. Fourthly, and finally, and in conclusion, the light from these heavenly bodies is intended to remind us of the covenant of God. After the great flood, what did God do? He set in the heavens a rainbow and he said, let this be a sign in the heavens that I will never destroy the earth in a similar way, that he will never flood the earth again and destroy it through a universal flood. You see, God reminds us of his covenant in the interplanetary bodies themselves. The fact is they're in the clouds. They're in out in space. That is where they are. And it is God who holds them there when he takes Abram out into the field at night and the sun is going down and the moon begins its rule of the night. And he looks and he sees the stars in God direction. Lift your head and look at the stars. I will make your seed just like them. And so when we look at the stars, we should say surely God has caused his seed to abound and surely the people of God are as numerous as the stars in the heavens. God has promised it and God will do it. It should remind us too that one day is coming when the light of the lesser light and the light of the greater light, the sun and the moon, will cease. That's what we are told. Jesus, in speaking about the future judgment, and this is the reality of the text, that there is a necessity for us, each of us, to prepare our souls for that end. Jesus is speaking in Matthew 24, but immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the son of man will appear in the sky and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of sky with power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet. And they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other. Psalm 89 makes that covenant connection for us, my covenant, I will not violate. nor will I alter the utterance of my lips. Once I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His descendants shall endure forever and is thrown as the sun before me. It shall be established forever like the moon and the witness in the sky is faithful. The sun and the moon and the stars in the sky tell us that God is raising up a people whose number cannot be numbered. They tell us that God will one day, though the light shines now, one day the light from those interplanetary bodies will cease. They will cease for two reasons. One, God is coming in judgment. And all souls, all men and women, boys and girls, must be prepared for judgment on that great day. And to give an answer to God for what we have done with our lives and to give an answer for whether or not we have believed in his beloved son, whether or not our trust and our faith is stored up in Jesus Christ and not in our own righteousness. But the second reason for why God will do this is because judgment is coming and so the earth will melt away and be destroyed and the sun and the moon will no longer shine and God will come in awful judgment, and he will judge the wicked, and he will destroy the wicked on the earth, and he will send them ultimately after having judged them, after seeing whether or not there is a righteousness that they have brought to effect by their good works, which they cannot do. And then he will consign them to the eternal lake of fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. But the sun and the moon in the sky today tell us that today is the day of salvation. For all who believe, for all who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for all who can affirm that Christ died and was raised and is at the right hand of God the Father and is the only salvation, the only means by which we can achieve the righteousness which God commands, that only he can wipe away sin. If you believe those things, the sun and the moon and the stars in the sky this very day and this very evening affirm for us that God's promise of salvation is true. And they warn us. the day is coming when that offer will be retracted and it will no longer be available for all who will see him coming in the clouds. 2 Peter chapter 3 tells us this about the day of the Lord, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? You see, Peter's looking at and he's preaching about this. He's saying, since we all can see that the sun and the moon are still up, there's coming a day when they will no longer shine their light. And the earth that we have built our homes on and upon which we walk and drive every day, it will burn up and be destroyed. And so in light of that knowledge, since you've come to an understanding of that fact, What kind of a person should you be right now, right here, today, in light of that future circumstance and certainty? What kind of a person ought we to be with regard to obedience and holy conduct and godliness? Pursuing the righteousness of God? Pursuing Christ-likeness? Boldly asking the Holy Spirit, conform me to the image of Christ. Transform me into His image. Enable me to be more and more like my Savior. Work salvation in me. Enable me to hate sin and to love righteousness. Take away my appetite for the things of this world and give me a greater appetite for heaven itself. What manner of persons ought you to be? in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat. But according to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless, and blameless. My dear friends, we are encouraged in this passage to pursue godliness, to pursue sanctification. But mark my words, Peter and I both know that spotlessness and blamelessness is not achievable by our own works. It only comes by virtue of the blood and righteousness, the perfection of Jesus Christ. That alone can make us clean. We heard played earlier on the piano, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash all that corrupts me from within? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash away our guilty stain? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And so as you look up at the moon and the stars, give thanks to God and praise him for his faithfulness, and then remind yourself there is going to come a day when those lights will go dark and Christ is coming again. And therefore, if you have faith in Christ, the promises of God are to you and they are yes and amen. And even though those lights will cease, the light of Christ is shining in your heart even now, and you will behold the light of Christ on that great day come in resplendent splendor. And if we proceed that day, we will see him. because as soon as we pass from this earth and we die and the silver cord is snapped and our soul ascends to God, who will you see but the eternal Son who gave himself for you and for me. Let's praise and give thanks to God as we think for a moment and pledge and pray and then I'll lead us in prayer following. Oh Lord, your word is sober. We are commanded in the word to meditate on the word of God. We are to take in that word and to think about it. But so often we don't think about anything. We're content to watch things, but not think about things. We are content to listen to things, but not to think about things. And meditation is a concept almost altogether beyond our understanding. But to meditate for a moment on what we heard is important because you've commanded it. And it forces us for a moment to be serious about life. Oh, Lord, as we think about what the word shares with us concerning this fourth day of creation and the passages that have relevance to our current passage today as we've read them. Will Lord God help us to think about this world that you have made and to be serious about thanksgiving and uttering the sacrifice of thanksgiving and acknowledging your faithfulness and giving thanks, especially in this season of thanksgiving, We pray also, Lord, that you would teach us not only of your care and provision, but also of the reality that one day the fact that you are coming again and the light from those heavenly bodies will cease. Help us, Lord, to prepare for that great day. Well, Lord Jesus Christ, be our light. We affirm with our lips and our hearts that you are the light of the world. You have illumined our path. No one can come to God except through you, but you have made the way plain and clear. Oh, Lord, we have not discovered you by our own spiritual excellence. We have not discovered you by our own spiritual inquiry. We have come to be known by God and you have made yourself known to us. For by grace we have been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God. Lord, we give thanks to you for your gifts. Keep us from ever worshiping your gifts. Keep us worshiping you, for you alone are worthy. It is in your extraordinary Son's name, the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the only living and true God, we give thanks, amen. Will you turn with me in your Trinity hymnal to number 252, This Is My Father's World. We'll stand together and sing. This is my father's world, and to my listening ears, All nature sings and round me rings The music of the spheres This is my father's world I rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas His hand the wonders wrought This is my Father's world The birds their carols raise The morning light the lily white Declare their Maker's praise This is my Father's world He shines in all that's fair In the rustling grass I hear Him pass. He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father's world. Oh, let me ne'er forget. That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father's world. The battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven be one.