Go ahead and remain standing. We will read God's Word. If you would, take out God's Word and turn to the book of Genesis. We're gonna go back to the beginning today, all the way back to the beginning, to the very, very, very beginning, the beginning of all things. So if you would turn to Genesis chapter one, and as you are turning there, I would like to thank you all, thank Pastor Sampson for that incredibly warm announcements and invites, and I just wanted to say, What a blessing it has been to be here, to be a part of the church. It was roughly a year and a half ago that I preached here last and I did so as a guest. And the one thing I took away from this church was how warm you all were, how warm the invitation, how warm you made me and my family feel, how Welcomed we were and now that we are here numbered amongst you that welcome has remained and that warmth has remained and so we praise God for each and every one of you and Pastor Sampson was right. I Do love you, and I thank you for your love for me for my family Thank you from the bottom of my heart. So we praise God for each and every one of you so if you have the Word of God open and And you've turned to Genesis chapter 1. We will focus our attention on verses 14 to 19. We'll be picking this up at day 4 of God's creation. And as our pastor loves to say, beloved, this is the Word of God. Chapter 1, verse 14. And 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 lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over 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. Amen. Let us pray. Our blessed Creator God, everything that exists in creation exists because You created it. And here, Lord, because You have revealed it to us, we have it set forth in Your Word, the creation of this world, of this universe. Oh, Lord, what is set before us here in these words. Oh, how can we grasp them? We need Your help. God help us. Help us, we pray, grant us understanding. And then, Lord, we pray that as we leave here later on today, we might leave encouraged, indeed, that this would have a sanctifying effect upon our lives. God, write this upon our hearts, we pray. And we give you the praise and the thanks for it. May you be glorified. For we pray and ask it through Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. So I've titled this message, the awe-inspiring creative glory of God. The awe-inspiring creative glory of God. And I have to admit, I struggled. Struggled for quite a while trying to arrive at a title. Title to a message should sum it up. It should give you basically what the sermon's all about. Get to the heart of what's being communicated. And I have to admit, I struggled to try and sum up this subject. As we all read earlier in the service, and as was just alluded to in the prayer, the heavens, King David says in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. The heavens declare the glory of God. And so as we consider God's creation, as we look at this passage and consider the marvels that are recorded here, we are considering the glory of God itself. We see the glory of God expressed here in His creation. And so how do you even begin to adequately describe that? Well, after much thought and internal debate, I went back and forth. I considered this phrase, I considered that word, I finally landed on this phrase, the awe-inspiring creative glory of God. Awe-inspiring. The Oxford Dictionary defines that phrase as arousing awe through being impressive. And God's creation certainly is that. It is very, very impressive. Formidable. It is that as well. or magnificent. Oh, God's creation is magnificent. Other words that I considered? Astounding. That would have worked. God's creation is indeed astounding. Breathtaking. Shocking. As we look out into the cosmos, we are shocked at what we find. Bewildering. Trying to grasp what is there. It's very bewildering. Stupefying. That would have worked. And mind-blowing. I really, truly thought about calling it the mind-blowing glory of God. And for those of you who like to text, if you have a smartphone, Maybe you have used that little emoji in your phone. It's a little guy's head popping off of his head. It looks like his head's exploding. That's the emoji for mind blowing. You blew my mind with that statement. Well, that would work here. As we consider God's creative glory, as we see God's glory expressed in the cosmos, in this universe, in the expanse, it blows our minds. It's hard to grasp. And so, I finally just had to settle on something awe-inspiring. And so, this morning we will look at this subject in three parts. And if you like to take notes, you'll want to write this down. Three parts. Number one, an awe-inspiring creation. Number two, an awe-inspiring Creator. And finally, number three, an awe-inspiring Savior. So again, quickly, an awe-inspiring creation, an awe-inspiring Creator, and finally, an awe-inspiring Savior. So first, we'll look at an awe-inspiring creation. And again, we pick this up at day four. Day four is God creates all that is. We look at our text. We consider this account. God here is telling us how this came about, how he created everything. If we look back and just consider the previous three days, day one, what did God do? He created light. He said, let there be light, and light obeyed. Light came into existence. and He separated the light from the darkness and He created day and night. Day two, He created the expanse and the sky. Day three, He created the dry land and He filled it with vegetation, things that are beyond our ability to grasp, fully grasp and understand, hard to comprehend. But now on day four, Day four, God forms the rest of the universe. Verse 16 of our text. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. What is that? Well, that's the sun and the moon. He created the sun. In one day, He created the sun. the greater light. And He created it for one purpose, to rule the day. He created it for us here on the earth. And then He created the moon to rule the night, to light the night. And of course, we only now truly understand how important even the moon is. Tides and all of life exists because of the moon. God created it all in one day. But where I want to focus, where my heart truly lies in this text, oh, it has captured my imagination so much this week. Those three little words and the stars and the stars. It seems almost as an afterthought, doesn't it? God created the sun. God created the moon. Oh, oh, yeah. And he created the stars. Just think about that. We acknowledge, of course, these are God's words. This is God's account. No one was around when God did this. No man existed yet. But it's been understood throughout time that this was given to Moses. Moses undoubtedly was the one who recorded these words over two millennia after these events took place. Jesus Himself attributed the words of Genesis to Moses. So we have it on very, very good authority. And so we can stop and just consider for a moment, what would have been Moses' view of the stars? Moses didn't have access to huge telescopes, modern technology. He would walk out of his tent at night, look up into the sky. What did he see? Now, many people would say, well, you have to understand, very primitive man, very primitive man. They just saw little tiny points of light, that's all. And so he said, oh, and the stars also, that's all. There's little tiny pinpricks of light up there. Well, just stop and think about that for a moment. We live in a modern age, we know better, but even without the help of a telescope, if you walk out into your backyard, even with all of the light pollution of Phoenix, you look up, you see stars, you know they're more than just little pinpricks of light. You know there's far more up there than just little tiny dots of light. You know they fill a great expanse. Moses knew that. He didn't know how expansive, he didn't have access to all of the modern technology that we do, but he knew that God created all of that, the stars also. And so as he recorded these words, oh, how he too must have marveled at them, the stars also. Now, God could have given Moses line upon line, sentence after sentence, detailed description of all that is up there. But God chose not to do that. No, instead, he simply sums it up. The stars. The stars and the stars, literally in the Hebrew, that's what it says, and the stars. Now, did God miss something in this? No. No, I believe that the reason for this short little phrase, and the stars, is because God is putting His glory on display. God is emphasizing His glory. To create all of that was no great effort for God. to create what we now are just beginning to see and just beginning to grasp how great an expanse it is and what God has placed up in the universe. It was no great effort for God. He didn't have to take a break or wipe His brow, as it were, or take a breather. No. It was no effort at all. But here's the question. Here's the question, just how awe-inspiring is it? Just how mind-blowing is it? The question I have for all of us here this morning, are we ready to truly grasp that? Are we ready to try and dive into the creative glory of God? I did some calculating this week. It's hard to try and sum up or communicate what is found here in these words in that short, short little phrase. So I did my best. Let's begin with our next door neighbor, cosmologically speaking, the moon. I mean, it's right there, very, very close to the earth. 240,000 miles, give or take. The Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon, it took them three days to get there, but they were traveling very, very, very fast. To put it in perspective, I wanted to do a little bit of a thought experiment. Imagine, if you can, a freeway, a freeway going from the Earth to the moon, a freeway with no traffic, a wonderful freeway, would love to drive on that freeway, No stops along the way, however. No gas stops, no bathroom breaks, no place to stop and eat. Just a freeway, freeway speed, 75 miles an hour. You drive all day, every day, nonstop. You never stop. Never stop even for the kids. 75 miles an hour, constant speed, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. How long would it take you? Four and a half months to get there. Four and a half months. That's right next door. That's quite the road trip, however. But now imagine if you tried to do that going to the sun. How far away is the sun? Imagine a freeway, of course. Obviously, that wouldn't work. Things are in motion in space. I realize that. But let's just imagine, on average, a freeway going to the sun at that speed, 75 miles an hour. How long would it take? Over 141 years. It's immense. The space is immense. Now let's turn the car around. Let's head out into the outer solar system. Let's head to the planet Neptune, the last official planet in our solar system. If you could build a freeway on average, I realize again, everything's in motion. This is just an average. How long would it take? 24 hours a day, seven days a week. How long would it take to get to Neptune at 75 miles an hour? 4,260 years, and you wouldn't have even left our solar system yet. You're still in the neighborhood, cosmologically speaking. What about our nearest star? Heading out of our solar system, going to, you know, the town next door, as it were, the next town over, the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, Well, that's where this illustration starts to just fall apart. The distance is so vast. 25.6 trillion miles away is our next nearest star. To put that number, trillion, trillion, how big of a number is that? I mean, we hear our deficit, our national debt all the time. We think trillion, oh, that's no big deal. It is huge, far more than we can comprehend. 25.6 trillion miles, that's over 25 million million miles. And again, if you really wanted to try and push it, try this illustration again one last time, 75 miles an hour, you wanted to try and drive there 24 hours a day, how long would it take? 39 million years to get to our next door city down the street. God's universe is big. It is huge. And this, I have to say, is where language breaks down, because that does not even begin to adequately describe it. And how does God describe it? How does he communicate it to us? And he created the stars also. He created the stars also. All of that, God simply created. And he did it in one day. For God, it's not a major accomplishment. He puts his glory on display. But again, I say he was not exhausted by this. This was not real effort on God's part. We sit in stunned silence as we consider this, but for God, He simply created the stars also, and of course, all the planets that go around those stars, asteroids, comets, nebulae, black holes, all of the things that we are just now starting to really see and grasp. He created all of that. How great I ask you, how great is our God? He is that great. If I create anything, it's a major accomplishment. I put a picture up on the wall. I have to grab my wife, Olivia. I have to say, come on in. You've got to see this. I even put a bubble level on it. It's level. I can promise you it's not crooked. And she walks in and she says, oh, it's crooked. I said, no, it's not. I'm proud of it. Hey, kids, come in here and look at this. I want to put a sign out on the street. Neighbors, come in and look at what I did. God. God created the stars, he created the sun, he created the moon and the stars also. A.W. Pink comments, God was under no constraint, no obligation. No necessity to create that he chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on his part caused by nothing outside himself, determined by nothing but his own mere good pleasure. In other words, God created because he was pleased to create. It brought him joy to create. Oh, the creative power and the creative glory of our God. Amen. And so that takes us to the second point, an awe-inspiring creator. An awe-inspiring creator. And so we now consider this one who did the creating. Or better, specifically who? We know what He did, but specifically who did this? And to dive more deeply into that, if you would, turn to the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John. We'll look at the very first chapter, those opening words. And I hope as you turn there, maybe you see why I've struggled. this week as I have meditated upon these things. How do you begin to put this into perspective? I can't grasp this. I can't wrap my mind around these things. How then can you adequately describe it? You can't. But what we see here in this text, again, is truly mind-blowing. John chapter one, verse one, in the beginning was the word in the beginning was the word in our K in the original Greek, in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. If you go to Genesis chapter one, verse one, you see the exact same words, the same opening, the same beginning in the beginning in our K. Now, that wasn't just a happy little coincidence. The Apostle John did that deliberately. He chose those words on purpose. He wanted his readers to be drawn to the book of Genesis, to be drawn to those opening words in the beginning. Moses wrote those words in the beginning. He wrote them in Hebrew, of course, but he attributed it to God. Here, the Apostle John writes that it was the Word, the Word who was in the beginning. He created everything. And John continues, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And so the question that immediately comes up is, who is this Word? Who is this Word? If you don't know, that's a question that would be forefront on your mind. Oh, who is this Word? Well, John tells us in verse 14, if you drop down. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory is the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Who is that? Well, there's only one who that can be, Jesus Christ, the very son of God. This is Jesus that John is talking about. And so if we go back to verse three of John's gospel. He writes, all things were made through him, that is through Jesus, all things were made through Christ and without him was not anything made that was made. Beloved, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is the agent of all of creation. Everything that exists in creation exists because of Jesus Christ. Without him. Was not anything made that was made. And so again, going back to Genesis 1 in our minds, Moses tells us again that God spoke creation into existence. And then he says the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. He hovered over the face of the waters. Here we see the Apostle John. He attributes all of creation to the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And so we see it as a triune work. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And John tells us that nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing came into existence apart from Jesus Christ. And so again, just stop. Stop and think about that. What is upon us this time of year? Like it or not, the Christmas season is coming. In just a few days, as a matter of fact, some of you, maybe you're like me, you rejoice and are excited about the Christmas season. Some of you maybe just want to crawl in a hole and wait for it to pass by. Either case, you can't help but know that you can't help but be reminded that Jesus Christ, He came. He was born. were automatically brought to that cattle stall, that animal stall, where that little babe was born in the most humble of circumstances. He was wrapped up and he was laid in a manger that is a feeding trough. He was born like any other child, swaddled by his mother, cradled, nursed, just like any other child. the very one who created all of that, the stars also. Mind-boggling thought. Considering the universe that Christ created, so large that astronomers Measure it not in miles, as we've seen, it becomes far, far, far too large to try and measure in miles. No, they measure it in light years. Light years. A light year, how far does light travel in one year at unbelievably fast speeds, 186,000 miles a second? How far does it travel in one year? Well, six trillion miles. Six trillion miles. And so to put that in perspective, the Milky Way galaxy in which our planet and our solar system reside, our home galaxy is roughly 100,000 light years across. So that is to say a beam of light starting on one side of our galaxy would take 100,000 years to get across, traveling at the speed of light. The galaxy, this one single galaxy, is unhathenably large. If you wanted to write that number out, again, I have to share this with you because I did it this week and I was so excited. It's a six followed by 18 zeros. The number is massive. But of course, the Milky Way galaxy is not alone. It was believed to be alone. For a very long time, everyone thought that that's all there was. They knew we existed in a galaxy, a cluster of stars, but that's all there is. There's nothing beyond that. Well, back in 1924, astronomer Edwin Hubble, he published his discovery. He found that there are indeed other galaxies beyond our own. 72 years later, it was very fitting that the famous telescope that would bear his name, the Hubble Space Telescope, far out in outer space, produced what is now known as the Deep Field Image, a very famous picture. Many of you, perhaps, have seen it. As I understand it, I heard that this was done during the holidays. NASA's workload was dropping, they didn't have a lot lined up for the telescope, and so someone said, you know what, can we focus the telescope while people are away, let's focus it on that tiny, tiny little speck out there, a little dark speck of space that we have never seen anything in before. As far as we know, there's nothing there, just darkness. And so for 10 consecutive days, the telescope just focused on that little speck of space and just looked and drew in any light that it could. 324 separate exposures were taken. And then what they saw was amazing. in what they thought previously had been just an empty bit of space, actually included roughly 10,000 galaxies. Not just stars, galaxies. The image is breathtakingly beautiful. Galaxies of all different shapes, colors, amazing picture. Every single thing you see in that picture is a galaxy. And so that, of course, immediately raises the question, how many galaxies are there in the universe? Well, there are estimations. Of course, it's impossible to count, but there are estimations. Scientists say there are anywhere from 200 billion galaxies to 2 trillion galaxies. And, of course, each galaxy, well, roughly, give or take, 100 billion stars. That is to say then that the visible universe, what we can see, contains an upwards of 10,000 million, million, million stars. It's a lot of stars. That is to say there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the earth. God created it all. He created it all. And in Genesis, it gets this simple little phrase, and the stars also. Our God is awesome. Oh, the creative glory, the awe-inspiring glory of our God. And this time of year, that name comes to our minds again and again. We sing hymns about Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus entered his creation. He became flesh. We read that in John 1 14. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. The one who created all of that. As the Apostle Paul says in Colossians chapter one. Verses 16 and 17, all things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. In Jesus Christ, everything exists. He created it, he created it for his glory, and he holds it, currently holds it all together. We often feel like we have lost control. Crazy schedules, horrible traffic, pressure. We feel like we have lost control of this part of our life or that part of our life. So much of our modern experience is trying to gain control over our lives. God has never experienced that. He has never lost control. He is in perfect control of everything in the universe. The Son of God has the whole universe under his sovereign control. There is a star near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. I love its name. It's named UY Scuti. UY Scuti. It's a funny name, but it's known not just for its name. It's actually known because it is the largest known star in the universe. It's what's known as a hyper giant red star. It's absolutely enormous. How enormous? Well, its radius is 1,700 times that of our sun. And of course, our sun is mind bogglingly big. But this star, it's so large that five billion of our suns could fit inside of it. If you were able to remove our sun from the solar system and drop UY Scuti in its place, it would envelop the planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Thankfully, thankfully this star is 9,500 light years from Earth. It's not even close to us. But the Scripture tells us, the Word of God tells us, God tells us that Jesus Christ is there. He is there holding every single atom of that star together. He sustains that star and every other star. Every Adam in this universe exists because of Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ. Now I ask you, is Jesus powerful? Is He powerful? Is He able to answer your prayers? When the bottom of life falls out, You fall down upon your knees, you cry out, Oh, Christ, help me. Jesus, hear my prayer. Is he mighty enough to hear your prayer? Yes. Now, the greatest of all questions, is he able to save? Is he powerful enough to save? Is he powerful enough to save the worst of sinners? the one who created all of that. Well, that takes us to the third and final point, an awe-inspiring Savior. So again, I ask, can Jesus save you? Yes, He is able to bear all of our sins. Endure the Father's wrath on our behalf. All who look to Him in faith. Can He save? Yes, He can. To the uttermost. That should fill us with awe. That should fill us with awe. What should be our response? How should we respond to that? If you would, turn to a hymn of the early church. Philippians 2. The words of the Apostle Paul. Beautiful, beautiful passage of Scripture. Philippians 2, starting at verse 5. Again, it's believed that this is a hymn of the early church. And it begins with these words. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus." And so, what should be our response? As we consider Christ our powerful, awe-inspiring, creative, glorious Savior, what should be our response? Well, Paul says, have this mind, have this attitude among yourselves which was also in Christ. Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, the One through Whom and the One for Whom all things are made. What mind is that? What attitude is that? Well, it's humility. It's humility. And it's love. Look at the text again. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Verse 6, Though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped. That is a thing to cling to, a thing that would keep him from fulfilling the father's will. No, no, Paul says. But he emptied himself, verse seven, by taking the form of a servant or in the original Greek doulos, a slave. He took the form of a slave. And what does a slave care about? What does a slave invest himself in? fulfilling His Master's will, serving His Master. And so Christ came as a slave, taking the form of a slave. He served by being born in the likeness of men, Paul says. Verse 8, and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus Christ. humbled himself to death, the one who created all of that, spoke it all into being, the one through whom and for whom all of that exists. If you were to take a grain of sand, put it on the tip of your finger, You hold it out at arm's length and then close one eye and just focus on that little grain of sand anywhere in the sky. Just hold it up to the sky. Focus on that little grain of sand. Look at the tiny little speck of sky that you're covering up with that grain of sand. What you are hiding behind that grain of sand in your eye You know how many galaxies you're hiding behind that little grain of sand if you could look out into space? Roughly 10,000 galaxies. Billions upon billions upon countless billions of stars. Jesus Christ created all of that and yet he humbled himself. entered into his creation, bore the sins of his people and was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cruel, horrific Roman cross. Why would he do that? Why would he do that? Love. He did it for love, love for his heavenly father. Yes. Love to obey the father. Absolutely. But He also did it because He loved every single one for whom He died. Every single one whose sin He bore, He did it because He loves us. Every one of His people. It was love. It was love that drove Him to that cross, and it was love that kept Him nailed to that cross. May none of us, none of us, don't ever, ever, ever say that you are not loved. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, do not ever say in your lowest of moments, whenever it may come, do not say ever. Well, nobody loves me. God forbid such a thing. You are loved, loved beyond your ability to comprehend. A love that took Jesus Christ from the glories of heaven, the one who created everything, to enter his creation and die on your behalf. That is love. Again, language betrays us. It's impossible to fully, truly communicate the enormity and the glory and the majesty and the splendor of this. But we see that glory put on display even as we consider how horrific a scene it must have been. Our blessed Savior nailed to that cross. He gave his life for us. First John 3.1 says, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. And that love was put on display in his son, Jesus Christ, upon that cross. Again, mind blowing, awe inspiring. But again, to Paul's words here, this early hymn of the church, or again, a hymn of the early church, I keep reversing that. Verse 9. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so I ask each and every single one of you, have you bowed the knee? Have you bowed the knee before Jesus Christ? Have you confessed Him as Lord? Hebrews chapter 1 says of Jesus Christ, He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. And He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Jesus Christ, who upholds the universe by the word of his power, likewise made purification for sins. Purification for sins. Not in general. He made purifications for my sins. For everyone's sins who look to Him in faith. And so, we are to turn to Him and believe. Turn to Him in faith. And so again, I ask you, have you done that? Are you looking to Him in faith? Do you truly believe? I plead with you. If you have not do it, go to him, cry out to him, confess your sins. Is he faithful? Yes. Is he powerful? I think we've answered that question. He is infinitely powerful. He created the stars also. I want to close with this. I love reading The Valley of Vision. Perhaps some of you have that little book. It's a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions and poems. This particular one that I want to read to you I think is very fitting. It's titled Christ is All. Christ is all and it's a prayer. Hear this prayer. Oh lover to the uttermost. May I read the meltings of thy heart to me in the manger of thy birth, in the garden of thy agony, in the cross of thy suffering, in the tomb of thy resurrection, in the heaven of thy intercession. Bold in this thought, I defy my adversary, tread down his temptations, resist his schemings, renounce the world, and valiant for truth. Deepen in me a sense of my holy relationship to thee as spiritual bridegroom, as Jehovah's fellow, as sinner's friend. I think of thy glory in my vileness, thy majesty in my meanness, thy beauty in my deformity, thy purity in my filth, thy righteousness in my iniquity. Thou has loved me everlastingly, unchangeably. May I love thee as I am loved. Thou has given thyself for me, may I give myself to thee. Thou has died for me, may I live to thee in every moment of my time, in every movement of my mind, in every pulse of my heart. May I never dally with the world and its allurements, but walk by thy side, listen to thy voice, be clothed with thy grace, and adorned with thy righteousness. All I can add to that is a hearty amen. What a glorious, awe-inspiring Savior we have. Amen? Let's pray. Our blessed, glorious God. Oh, things so far beyond our mind's eye to even begin to comprehend, and yet they are communicated here clearly in scripture. You created the heavens and the earth. You spoke it into existence. You created the stars also. We, even with all of our modern technology, are only now beginning to see what is there. And as we look out into the universe, Lord, it does not get more simplistic. We don't start to see the edges of anything. No, it gets far more glorious, far more wondrous. Oh, Lord, it's an expression of your glory. Thank you for telling us, for teaching us, for showing us that it is you who created everything, that it is Jesus Christ through whom and for whom everything exists. Help us to live in light of that this week. Help us to be humble servants. Even as Christ was a humble slave, may we be as well, seeking to fulfill your will in everything we do, looking to Christ in faith. God help us. God bless us. For we pray and ask it through Jesus Christ. Amen.