Well, dear friends, it's good to see you as we're gathering now around the Word of God. And I'm very grateful for the warm welcome I've already received. And I look forward to spending the next few minutes in God's Word together with you. My Bible passage today is found in the book of Daniel and chapter 3. So if you have a Bible, would you please turn that with me? Daniel chapter 3. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to read the entire chapter. just now. Daniel chapter 3 from verse 1 to the end. Let's hear then the word of the Lord. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its breadth 6 cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come up to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And the herald proclaimed aloud, You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the hornpipe, lyre, trigonharp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. and whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshipped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Therefore, at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever! You, O King, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." Then Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?" Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O King. But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated, and he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning, fiery furnace. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning, fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the king, true, O king, He answered and said, But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace. He declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Ebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own god. Therefore, I make a decree. Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Let's pray. Lord our God, we are grateful as we're gathering around the Word of God this morning, that you have given us this precious gift to have the Word of God. We thank you that it is sufficient for us. We thank you that it is your authoritative and inerrant Word. And Father, we pray now that by your Holy Spirit, you would help us not only to understand what it is that we're reading, but Father, that you would apply it to us, that you would help us to grow in faithfulness, that you would help us to be faithful to you in all things. And we pray this in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Well, the book of Daniel is about faithfulness, how God is faithful to his people, but also how we, in response, should be faithful to him. And this is set in a really difficult circumstance. If you know a little bit about Old Testament history, you will know that the people of God, who were divided at that time. We have Israel, who was led into captivity much earlier, and then Judah was eventually brought into captivity by this very, very powerful country at that time called Babylon. And they were led by this very, very powerful man called Nebuchadnezzar, whom we have met in this chapter. And so he leads captives back into Babylon, and he puts some of them into different political roles. And that's how the book of Daniel begins. And in fact, Daniel is not going to be mentioned in this chapter at all. We're dealing with those three friends of his, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And the big thing that happens in this chapter is that Nebuchadnezzar sets up this image, and he demands that all people in his kingdom would fall down and worship him via that image. but our three friends from Judah refuse. Now you fast forward in history a little bit, and if you like to read history, you read about the faithfulness of God's people at all times, and you come across someone, for example, like Paul Schneider, who was a pastor in Germany at the time of Adolf Hitler. The Nazis didn't like him because he preached the good news of the gospel. He trusted that what the Bible said was true, and so he proclaimed it very boldly, and that got him into trouble, and he was eventually arrested and put into a concentration camp. And on Hitler's birthday, all the prisoners in that concentration camp were supposed to remove their hats and to salute Hitler, and Schneider refused. He said, I cannot salute this criminal symbol. and he was killed the next year. Paul Schneider, like all three friends in Babylon, refused to bow down to the image. Now, we do not currently face the same pressures that our friends faced in Babylon at that time, but there are some pressures that we have as Christians. Of course, dozens of countries where Christianity is actively persecuted, where if you are associated with a church, you will be locked up in prison, where you might face being executed for your faith. But even here, we have pressures in school to conform what is being taught. We have pressures in the workplace to affirm what the culture and the world is telling us. We might face pressure among our friends and family whether or not to be faithful to Christ. But the message of Daniel chapter 3 is clear. No matter what, be faithful at all times. Be faithful at all times. Jesus said that more than outward religious observance, faithfulness matters. This is how you know that you belong to Jesus. And this is evidence of the Spirit's work in your life. And this chapter in the book of Daniel, then, will help us to grow in faithfulness. And what I want to do for the remainder of my sermon this morning is to unpack the question, how can we grow in faithfulness? And I have three answers to that question from our chapter. And the first one is that you should recognize the emptiness of anything other than God. Recognize the emptiness of anything other than God. There is real pressure in this chapter, and there's a real threat in this chapter, and it's spelled out for us in verses 4 to 6. Let me read them to you again. And the herald proclaimed aloud, You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the hornpipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace." And this caused our friends from Judah to make a choice. They could bow down to the image, which is what everybody else is doing, or they could remain faithful to their God. Now, it's very important that we read this chapter with the backdrop of the entire Bible in mind. And if you've read the Bible a little bit, you may have heard about what's called the Ten Commandments, a very, very important passage first found in Exodus chapter 20, where God lays out the rules that are to govern his people. The first commandment there is that they shall have no other gods before them. But here's the second commandment, and you'll see it's very important. in terms of the background for our passage today. So here's what it says there. God says, You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me. and keep my commandments." The worship of the people of God was to submit to what you've just heard. They should not make an image, like all the nations around them, and they certainly should not bow down to any image of any foreign god that we have. And in fact, this is part of why Judah is in Babylon to begin with, because there's clear evidence throughout the times of the Old Testament. that the people were not faithful to their God in the ways prescribed in those Ten Commandments. So that's one side of the argument. Be faithful to God. The other is this, verse 6. Whoever does not fall down in worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And that is the choice that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were facing that day. That is the choice they had to make and it's a choice that all of us have to make. Will we be faithful to God or will we be faithful to something or someone else? Imagine. You are at school or you are at university and you're hearing things taught that are worldly, maybe in relation to gender or sexuality, and you are asked to conform. Do you in that situation sit there and nod your head or, and of course apply wisdom in those situations, will you stand firm in your biblical convictions? You have to make a decision. Will I be faithful to God or will I bow down to the pressure? Or again, imagine that you are at work and someone mocks certain biblical convictions you might have. Will you join in? What if they ask your opinion? Will you stand up and say what you believe or will you simply seek to bow down to the pressure of those around you? You have to make a decision. Will I be faithful to God or will I bow down to depression? But here's what you need to know. Anything other than God is basically empty. It is void of real and lasting meaning and that is certainly true for sin. And I've come across this quote that I like a lot. I don't actually know who said it. But it is that sin overpromises but underdelivers. Sin overpromises but underdelivers. Whatever sin and temptation you're facing, you might look at it and say, man, this looks really, really shiny. But has there ever been a moment in your life where you have given in to temptation and sinned against the Most High God where afterwards you felt, yeah, that was the right thing to do? Yeah, that satisfied me. That was really, really good. No. There is emptiness. Sin over promises but under delivers. Sin will always disappoint and everything in this world can offer, anything the world can offer, will in the end disappoint. Now listen to me. In light of the temptations that we face, in light of the world being what it is, you need to hear this. God will not be mocked forever. and sin will not be found among God's people forever, and the nations of this world will not be around forever. In fact, if you read Daniel chapter 2, that is the big take-home message of that chapter, that Daniel helps Nebuchadnezzar interpret certain dreams, and the message is clear. Babylon, the massive, great, powerful kingdom at that time, will come to an end, and all the kingdoms afterwards will come to an end. And we need to realize that the great superpowers today, whether you think of the UK as a superpower or not, or you think of other countries in the world, they will all come to an end. But the Kingdom of God will stand forever. Now, we face real pressure not to be faithful. There are real temptations, but they are ultimately empty because whatever causes them is not eternal. That's true for us, and that's true for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In the end, the worst that can happen is that you lose your life. And if you're a Christian, then that's not such a bad thing in the end. Paul says that is far better. And remember what Jesus said, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. And that is the perspective we need. In order to grow in faithfulness, start by recognizing the ultimate emptiness of anything other than God. And then secondly, remember God's power. Remember God's power. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego remained faithful. And that got them into trouble. They were reported. Let's look again at verse Verse 8, therefore at that time certain Chaldeans, Babylonians, came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever. You, O King, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." Now, in response to this, Nebuchadnezzar is furious, and you might understand why. He has put them in that position. He has put them and given them some manner of political power, and now it is those people who refuse to bow down to the image. And so he calls them in and he asks them, is the report true? Perhaps there are jealous people in my government who are trying to accuse you, and we know that's true, are trying to bring you to a gruesome end. But perhaps they're lying, perhaps they're scheming. Perhaps the truth is something different. And then he gives them one more chance, verse 15. Now, if you are ready when you hear the sound of the hornpipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? He gives them another chance. But notice the question he asks at the end of verse 15. Who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? And that leads us to the center of this whole chapter. Verses 16 to 18, the response of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And what they say here is so important. They answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hands, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Now in saying this, They affirm that the Lord might not save them. But he can. He absolutely can. Because the God that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego follow is the Almighty God, the one true God, the Most High God. The God they follow is the God who created the world in a display of marvelous intelligence and marvelous design and marvelous power, creating the world out of nothing. something that should astound us and cause us to worship. This God is all-powerful. Consider Job 42, verse 2. I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be stopped. Or consider Psalm 147, verse 5. Great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. And consider the things that God has done so far in the Bible. If you read everything up until the book of Daniel, You read about the Exodus, how God has sovereignly and powerfully led his people out of what was, again, a very powerful nation at that time, Egypt. How he defeated Israel's enemy, even if those enemies were superior. God once let the sun stand still. God is almighty, and Nebuchadnezzar and his fake gods do not have a chance against him. Unlike your pastor, I'm not a giant football fan. But I did go to one professional football game in my lifetime. And it was a very interesting matchup between a... I'm from Germany, by the way. A matchup between a Bundesliga team, which is the highest league in Germany, which has some very, very good professional teams, and a local village club that I might be able to join. And this took place in the town that my dad lived in at that time. And so he bought us tickets and we went along and it was just a pitch that wasn't a stadium or anything and we just all kind of gathered around the pitch and we watched that Bundesliga team destroy the local team of a town you've never heard of. And that's what God's power is like. It's far greater than anything that we could face in this world. And the point at which that analogy breaks down is that that Bundesliga team was far more powerful, far greater, far more skilled than the local team. But God isn't just far greater than anything we could face. He is infinitely greater than anything we could face. Now you know how the story ends. God indeed rescues our friends and Nebuchadnezzar answers his own question, who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Well, listen to him again in verse 28. He says, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own god. Therefore, I make a decree. Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way." Now, we need to remember who God is. And let me ask you a question. Are you a Christian? Well, if you are, then you'll believe the words from Jesus when he says at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He is the Almighty. And as he gives us that charge to go forth and to all nations and to all the world to make the Gospel known to all peoples, we need to remember that the God whom we serve and the God who commissions us is the God who is the all-powerful and Almighty God. And so no matter what situation you're in, remember God's power. Remember that Jesus has all authority and no matter who you're up against, whether bullies at school, whether Islamic terrorists that we might face in this country increasingly, whatever it is, Jesus is infinitely more powerful and he will do and can do as he pleases. So remember God's power. So as you recognize the emptiness of anything other than God, and as you remember God's power, thirdly, resolve to remain faithful no matter what. Resolve to remain faithful no matter what. God indeed saved these men, and he did so in a powerful way. Nebuchadnezzar threw them into the fiery furnace. He ordered it to be extra hot, so much so that the people who throw our friends into the fire are killed themselves. And this is surely the end for Daniel's friends. But Nebuchadnezzar discovers that it is not. He was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the king, true, O king. He answered and said, but I see four men, unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt. And the appearance of the fourth is like a sun. of the gods. And so they're let out, they come, and we learn in verse 27 that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of these men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. This is how God rescues. Nebuchadnezzar had nothing on the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now if you do your math, as Nebuchadnezzar did, you realize that while three men were thrown in, there happened to be a fourth. And there are a great many godly men who study the Bible very intently. They'll say that what we have here is a Christophany, an appearance of Christ who guards these people. Now, I'm trying to be a very humble man. I'm not sure if this is what happened. But certainly, we see evidence here of God saving and rescuing his people. He kept them from harm. The fire had no power. God rescued his people. But the point of this chapter is not focused simply on that rescue. It's not simply about what God did as much as it's about faith and what God can do and then a resolution to remain faithful. And that's what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did. Let's go back to verse 18. And you'll remember me saying a few minutes ago that verses 16 to 18 are very important. In fact, I think they are the center of this chapter. And here's what they say in verse 18, but if not, if God were not to save us, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Now, let me ask you a question. What if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had died in that furnace? Would that change the power and the truthfulness of verse 18. Would that change how we should respond to verse 18? I don't think so. We cannot impose conditions on God in regard to our faithfulness. And it's in relation to this point. I want to read something to you. One of the commentators on the book of Daniel wrote, he said that there are three men who do not worship in Nebuchadnezzar's totalitarian state is a miracle of God. The miracle that we'll see later on in the confessing church. That is the church that resisted the Nazis during World War II. That the three were not devoured by the fire is no greater miracle. Suppose the fiery furnace had consumed them, the real miracle would have happened just the same. And that's the miracle that where everybody bows down to the image, some people remain faithful. And that matters to us. We cannot simply say, hey, let's be faithful as long as God gives us the job that we would like to have. Or so long as God gives us a spouse or children, success in the workplace, success even as a church. No, faithfulness means being resolved to always be faithful, always be willing to live and to act for God. And I like how the Marines in America, there's one branch of the military there, have that motto of Semper Fi, Semper Fidelis, so always be faithful to the commitment they've made to the Church. Well, how much more reason do we have as God's people who have received so much grace from Him? And we've just sung about it a few minutes ago, and I hope you paid attention to all the different verses of that song, because we're not just repeating the same thing over and over again, but we're singing about the great grace of God in our lives. And if we've received so much grace, how could we not be faithful to God in all things? He has done so much for us, and as a Christian, you recognize this. And let me quote from one of my favorite hymns that doesn't get sung anymore, and it's by another German named Paul, Paul Gerhardt, and it's a hymn called Extended on a Cursed Tree. Any of you know it or have ever heard of that hymn, Extended on a Cursed Tree? Well, part of the hymn goes like this. He says, too much to you I cannot give, too much I cannot do for you. Let all your love and all your grief graven on my heart forever be. That's how we remain faithful. And that's not easy. And maybe if you're not a Christian, this causes you to pause because I'm preaching an entire sermon here about how being faithful to God might mean that you come to a very difficult end. And that's true. Being a Christian is not an easy thing. Being a Christian might mean that you are alienated from your friends, family members or co-workers. It might mean in many places in the world that you will suffer, that you will be marginalized, that you might die for the confession that you have made. And yet becoming a Christian at the end is still the easiest decision that you could ever make. because we're talking about a God who sent his son into the world to live and die in our place, so that through him we might have forgiveness and acceptance with God, that we might be adopted into his family. And while that means that we suffer for a short time, it also means that we have an eternity of blessedness to look forward to in God's presence. But it is a challenge for us to remain faithful. We are struggling with sin and temptation. We're dealing with the pressures in this world. And what we need to take away from this is that faithfulness here is about an attitude rather than about something specific. You don't become faithful in an instant. Rather, you grow in faithfulness throughout your life. Imagine someone walks in here right now. or at any future Sunday services, and pulls out a rifle, and he asks you, are you faithful to the Lord, or do you recant your confession of faith? Well, you don't become faithful at that moment, but if you are faithful, then you can withstand the evil person. And here's what you need to have close to your heart in order to choose faithfulness. In light of our chapter, recognize the emptiness of anything other than God, remember God's power, and then resolve to remain faithful no matter what. And you do that not in dependence on yourself, you do it in dependence on God's Spirit. Faithfulness matters. Here's what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10. He says, everyone who acknowledges me before men I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." Let's resolve to remain faithful, but let's also remember that Christ was perfectly faithful to his Father, and that matters because our sins can be forgiven. And as Christians, your sins are forgiven, and no matter how many times you struggle to be faithful, which you will, your faithfulness never qualified you for heaven to begin with. It's not your faithfulness that comes first. It is Christ's. And so we look to Jesus. He has saved us so utterly and completely, and He has now motivated us to be faithful to Him, to do what He says, and to declare His goodness. And that's what many are doing today. That's what many of you are doing today. And that is what many have done throughout history, followers of Jesus, like Paul Schneider, whom I've mentioned at the beginning of my sermon. And just a little historical fact, back in the 1930s and 40s, there were essentially three responses you would have in German churches to the Nazis. So you would have people who welcomed them, who welcomed, for whatever reason, the powerful and evil regime, and tried to work with them, tried to get along with them. perhaps to use them to gain a more powerful advantage themselves. So that was one approach. And then a second was silence. It was an attitude that says, well, I don't want to get into trouble. And if I'm quiet and don't make too much of a fuss, then maybe I could go on being a pastor or having a church. And then, of course, there were those who protested, the confessing church, who stood up and publicly declared that what was going on at that time, what was being done by that regime, was evil. And they didn't do it because they had an opinion. They did it because they were convicted, in light of the Word of God, that what was going on was evil and that they, as the Church of Jesus Christ, needed to stand up to darkness, to be a light, where there wasn't much light around at that time. And that's where Paul Schneider belonged to, that third and final category of protest. But he did not become faithful in the moments in prison where he was ordered to salute the Führer, where he was ordered to remove his hat, where he was ordered to affirm the evil he had protested. He didn't become faithful in those moments. He was faithful. And so God helped him in those moments to be faithful, even when it meant that he would be killed. He took the words of Revelation 2, verse 10 very seriously, be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. That's what Jesus said, be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. And my question for you is simply this, are you willing to do the same? Let's pray. Lord our God, we come before you now with weak hearts, recognizing how often we fail in our faithfulness. How often we yet sin against you, who's done so much for us. How often we rebel and do what we want to do, rather than what you have commanded us to do. Worse, that we would do what you have commanded us not to do. But Father, we recognize at the same time that you've given so many of us in this room a growing measure of faithfulness. That as your Spirit is at work in us, you are helping us to be faithful to you, even where this is proving very, very difficult. But Father, we pray for more. We pray for an increase in faithfulness, so that we might, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and so many others throughout history, whether reported in the Bible or elsewhere, have remained faithful to you. We pray you would help us do the same. Father, at the same time, we pray for anyone here who is not a Christian. We certainly pray for all the children who are not yet in Christ, who are gathering here, that you would give them that gift of eternal life. and that they would not seek to earn your favor by being faithful to your commands, but instead they would look to Jesus Christ, the perfect and faithful Savior in whom we have our salvation. Father, give them that gift of eternal life and help all of us who have received it to grow in faithfulness and in love for you and in love for our neighbor. Hear our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, we're going to appropriately saying, not about our faithfulness, but we're going to sing about God's faithfulness. So let's stand as we sing our closing hymn now, Great is Thy Faithfulness.