Father, we do thank you that you are our Father and you watch over and keep your people. We do pray particularly this morning for Christi that you would be drawing near to her and showing her your fatherly compassion for her. And we do pray, Lord, that you would meet with us this day as we gather together as your people and that you would show us, Lord, more of your glory and more of your grace and your mercy to us in our Lord Jesus. And we pray in his name. Amen. All right, well, John is not actually finished with his series on the covenants and chapter 7, basically, and the confession. He's going to have one more next week. So this is going to be sort of an interlude a little bit. What the plan is, is for the month of January, I'm going to be teaching through chapter 8, the Confession which is about Christ and the Mediator. It's really glorious material. And then in February, Lord willing, we're going to have a a series of sort of just practical parenting class in February. It may trickle over into March as well. So that's kind of the plan. And I want to give a little bit of a taste of chapter eight this morning. In your handout there, you might see it. I'm just going to read through these first two paragraphs. It's not the Bible, but it's pretty good. And you can have a real sense of the greatness and the glory of God, it seems to me, and the glory of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus, in these two paragraphs. So I just want to read it, and then we're going to come back to that first statement in paragraph one and just kind of begin to think about of the Lord Jesus and His mediation. That's the principle truth of chapter 8 in our confession. So paragraph 1 says this, it pleased God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus. His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both." So we're still kind of in covenant language here in chapter 8. According to the covenant made between them both to be the mediator between God and man, the prophet, priest, and king, head and savior of His church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world. Unto whom, that is unto Christ, he did from all eternity, the Father from all eternity, gave a people to be his seed and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified. So in that paragraph, we're really taken back to before the foundation of the world, which we'll look at a few scripture passages that teach us that. We're sort of drawn. And then I wanted also to read paragraph two because it's reminding us of what happened on what we celebrate as Christmas, what happened at Christmas. It says, The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with Him who made the world, who upholds and governs all things He has made, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon Him man's nature. with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof," that is, he was a true human being, yet without sin. being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowing her, and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David, according to the Scriptures. so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ the only mediator between God and man. And I think we could stop for a moment and just worship the fact of the Lord Jesus coming into the world and who he was, taking upon himself our nature. And then, of course, at the cross, taking upon himself our sin in order that we might be redeemed. He's the one mediator, the one only mediator. that we have between God and man. And wonderful, and I think our confession says it about as well as it can be said in terms of who he is. So we want to go back to paragraph one and this notion or this language of covenant that was made between the Father and the Son. We've been talking about covenants and how God deals with His people and how He is shown in the scriptures that He deals with His people according to His covenant. We've seen there, number one, the covenants of promise. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2 for just a moment. We're going to come back to this passage in a little bit more fullness. Paul is speaking to these Gentile Christians and speaking to them about what a wonderful thing has happened to them, that the gospel has come to them even though they're not Jewish, they're not the so-called people of God. And yet they've become the people of God, they've been made the people of God. And so he says in verse 11, therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, again he's writing to these Christians, these new believers, first generation believers, you know, in Ephesus. At one time, you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision, which is by what is called the circumcision. It was sort of a derogatory term that the Jews used to talk about Gentiles. They're those uncircumcised barbarians over there. They were looked down upon. by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands." That's a significant statement there that God, when He saves, actually does a circumcision. He does a circumcision upon the heart. And the circumcision in the flesh really amounts to nothing. It's just a physical thing. It was important in the Old Testament. It was a mark. It was a sign of God's covenantal dealings with Israel as a people and the offspring of Abraham. But I think Paul is drawing attention to the fact that in the new covenant circumcision doesn't mean anything. And then remember that you, you Gentiles, were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, that is the people of God of the Old Testament, and strangers to the covenants of promise. That's the phrase I want us to think about a little bit. the covenants of promise. And what he's speaking about are these covenants that John has labored to take us through, the covenant with Adam in the garden, the covenant with Abraham, Genesis chapter 12. 15 and 17, sort of working out of that, the Mosaic Covenant, which was kind of the establishment of the covenant with Israel, and then the covenant with David, and that covenantal language that runs right through the Old Testament. And here Paul calls them the covenants, plural, referring us back to Abraham and Moses and They were all covenants of promise. That is, they were all of them pointing us forward to something, to someone who was going to come. And that's the argument that Paul is making, is that you've been included, you're not a second class, second category of the people of God, but you are the receivers of this promise that had been going on for hundreds of years. The covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. What a terrible place to be. No hope and without God in the world. But now, now, in Christ Jesus, Again, our confession will say is the mediator between God and man, all men, by the way, not just Jews, but everyone. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Don't you love that language? That's what the Lord Jesus does when he saves, when he gives grace. You've been brought near by what Jesus Christ has done. You were once for all if you've been brought now. And then he goes on. He himself is our peace and so on and so forth. But all of those Old Testament covenants are covenants of promise. They were looking forward, right, until the time when Jesus Christ would come in the fullness of time that we heard Christmas Eve. So what I want us to do is just look at one passage in the Old Testament, in Isaiah chapter 42, and we're just going to sort of walk through this. And there is some covenant language. Sometimes people will say, We don't, in this first statement in paragraph one, says it pleased God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both. That is, what's implied there is before anything was, before the foundation of the world, there was a covenant between father and son. And the theologians call this the covenant of redemption, or in fancy language, the pactum salutis, you know, in Latin. But this pact, this covenant. And sometimes people will say, well, I don't see that in the Bible. Some would say that, but Isaiah 42 actually points it out to us. It shows us this before the foundation of the world, and there are other passages as well that we will go to. But look at Isaiah 42. And we just begin there at verse 1. It's almost like Isaiah is saying, whenever you see a behold in the scriptures, what is that telling us to do? Behold. Pay attention, look carefully. There's something absolutely surprising here, absolutely wonderful here that I'm about to say to you. So behold, check it out. Open your eyes, open your ears, okay? And that's how Isaiah begins. Behold, but actually, Isaiah, the prophet is not speaking here. This is God speaking, right? Because He's speaking of His servant, right? So the prophet is speaking for God, and God is speaking, and we can say God the Father. is speaking about now his son, the Lord Jesus. And remember, Isaiah is writing 800 years or so before the Lord Jesus ever came. It's truly wonderful. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, there's that language of of something that happened before the foundation of the world. My chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. Just stop right there and look at a couple of passages in the New Testament that kind of use this language of the father sort of choosing the sun before the foundation of the world. Look first at 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy and chapter 1. We'll look at three places, but 2 Timothy chapter 1. And after the intro there, verse 3, verse 3, I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, Paul's speaking here to Timothy. I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I'm reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and now I'm sure dwells in you as well. There's a little note there for parents and grandparents that Timothy was affected. Timothy was influenced. It was the Lord's work. It was the Lord's grace and mercy to him. But the faith was passed down, okay, from generation to generation. We know it's the Lord that does that, but he uses means, right? And he used Lois and his mother Eunice in young Timothy's life. That's a little side note there for you. And now I'm sure dwells in you as well. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control." Timothy's seeming... It seemed like Timothy was a bit timid sometimes, had stomach issues, and maybe had a lack of confidence sometimes. And Paul's saying, God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control. And so the upshot of that is, so go do it. Go do it. He's encouraging this young minister. Now here it is, verse 9. but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began." That's that language of something happening, a consideration, a pact, if you will, between the Father and the Son, giving a people If that doesn't blow your mind, I don't know what would. made open, made clear, shown clearly through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. So when Christ came into the world, that was really not the beginning of things. The beginning of things was way back before the foundation even of the world. made appear, manifest, made its appearance, so to speak, in the fullness of time, as Paul will say in Galatians 4, in the Lord Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher. And he goes on to encourage Timothy and the ministry because of what God has done. And that it is the truth of who God is, what he has done in Christ that fires our own imaginations and our own zeal and our own work for the Lord, okay? The Bible is not a do, do, do. There is do in it, but it is based upon what God himself has done, right? And so, Paul is encouraging there young Timothy. And then go to Titus. Titus, right next door. Again, the intro, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, connection there between our understanding the truth of the gospel and then a life of godliness. Okay, those two go together, they are in accord. It's actually kind of a musical term. It goes, it fits together, okay? Those two things, the truth of the gospel and godliness. In hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. It is before there was anything, before there was a creation, before there was anything, before the ages began. And at the proper time, it's a similar kind of thought as in 2 Timothy, at the proper time manifested in His Word. In 2 Timothy he speaks about the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, but here he's speaking about the declaration of that, the proclamation of what Jesus has done, the importance of the preaching, okay, the proclaiming of the gospel. At the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I've been entrusted by the command of God, our Savior. And speaking again to this, we don't know how much about Titus, but to, again, to encourage him with the truth of what God was doing, that God the Father and God the Son together, of course the Spirit as well, but the two mentioned, before the foundation of the world and made manifest in the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, now telling Titus this is a word that needs to be proclaimed. This is what needs to be preached. A lot of times people will say that when you are preaching the Gospel or when you are declaring the Gospel you don't want to talk too much about what we would call Calvinism. You know about the the truth of what God has done before the foundation of the world. But that's not what Paul says here, is it? He says proclaim it. You proclaim that truth. You proclaim that God is a sovereign that before the foundation of the world, He had a people for Himself. He gave those people to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished their salvation at the cross, and then the Spirit of God applied it to people, you know, as they heard the gospel. Okay, that's the gospel. That's good news. And if we hold that back, we're not really being faithful to the gospel, right? So we want to preach a full gospel. We want to declare a full gospel, that God has had his people from all time, a people given to the Son. Then one other place, John preached on this a few weeks ago, John chapter 17. He'll use a similar language. When Jesus had spoken these words, this of course is the night before the crucifixion, I'm thinking that John 17 is not actually in the upper room, but is on the way to the garden, okay? There was a time there in the upper room, and then they're making their way to the garden. And when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Okay, and think about that. From before the foundation of the world, this plan and the purpose of God to give a people to the Lord Jesus, and for the Lord Jesus to come and make his appearance and live his life, and born as a child, but living his life, that perfect life, and then going to the cross. And now Jesus is saying, now the time has come. We're just right on the cusp. of the deliverance of your people, of the covenant made between father and son coming into reality, right? And so the hour has come. There's a good sermon in those few words right there. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you. Sometimes when we're thinking about the gospel, we put a lot of stress upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It's right, it's true, it's true. He reveals, but He's revealing the Father. He's revealing the love of the Father. He's revealing the plan and purpose of God from before the foundation of the world. The hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. When we think of Jesus Christ, we need to think about the Father and the plan and purpose of God. This is why, again, we preach a whole gospel. that's not simply focused, use that word carefully, simply focused upon the Lord Jesus, right? He's the centripetal, He's the manifestation, He's the appearing, but there's a lot behind that as well. And the Father's giving a people to the Son. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh." That's what the Father has given to the Son, right? In this covenant, we would say, this agreement, this pact, if you will. Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. Okay, that again implies this transaction, this giving of a people to the Son from before the foundation of the world, as Paul said in 2 Timothy. And this is eternal life, that they know you. What is eternal life? It's knowing Jesus Christ. It's knowing Jesus Christ, right? Communion with Jesus Christ. It's not simply understanding some facts Right? It's knowing a person, the Lord Jesus. This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. And notice here the language. is that they know you. Jesus is praying that they know you. So our knowledge of our coming to faith in Jesus Christ has within it a knowledge of the Father, a communion with the Father, right? Through the Lord Jesus Christ. Spirit, obviously, working in there, showing us. But there is communion, this is what Owen's great work is, the communion with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, right, in our Christian lives. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, the Father, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do." See, there's the agreement. There's the pact, so to speak. There's the covenant. You gave me a work to do, Father, to the Son. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. There's a question that could be asked, what was going on before there was anything created? And there was this love and communion with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. that was going on for all eternity, okay, before we came into being, before the world came into being. That was what was going on, the Father loving the Son, the Son loving the Father, Spirit of God enabling that, and there was a lot going on before you and I came into the world. And so I think this paragraph one, it really takes us back It pleased God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man, okay? So those passages there help us to see that. So turn back to Isaiah 42 again, and what Isaiah, the language that Isaiah is using just fits right into this, doesn't it? Because the Father is saying, behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, okay, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. Okay, now, when did that happen? Or at least, when was that revealed to us? at the baptism, okay, when the Spirit of God came down. Keep your finger here and turn over to Matthew. This is a Bible study, so we're gonna flip, doing some flipping. In Matthew 3, Jesus coming, verse 13, coming from Galilee to be baptized and And John, I need to be baptized by you, do you come to me? Jesus answered, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness, okay? There was a lot in that statement. This needs to happen, I need to be baptized, I need to be identified with the people that I've come to save, you know, for all eternity, really, and he's, And the baptism really signifies that, among other things. Then he consented. When Jesus was baptized, immediately went up from the water. Behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Okay, so the Spirit given to him. And I think there's, you could say, well, did he not have the spirit before? Sure he did, sure he did. But this is a visible sign. of the reality of what the Lord promised in Isaiah 42. This is a visible sign to the people. I think this is more for the people than it was for the Lord. But the Spirit of God descending upon him. Then notice what happens next, which is very important. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. to be tempted by the devil. That seems strange, doesn't it? Spirit of God descending upon him, baptism, wonderful, wonderful. Okay, now, boom, he's plunged into the wilderness, okay? And it's the spirit who leads him there. It's a sign, isn't it? This is the mission that was given to the Lord Jesus. This was what the Father had given to the Son, their agreement. This is what Jesus would do. Jesus would enter into the world and do battle. This is battle that's going on in the wilderness. It's significant that it's in the wilderness. That's where the children of God were in exile for their sin, and the wilderness was too much for them, the wanderings and so forth. But Jesus entered into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. A lot of times when we read this passage, we can think, well, this is how. You know, when it talks about how Jesus parried, sword fought with the devil. And what was the sword that Jesus used with the devil? It was the word of God. He quoted the word of God. That was his sword. Okay. And a lot of times you'll hear preachers preach that this is how you deal with temptation. And that's true. Okay. That is true. But that's a secondary truth. The main truth. is that Jesus did that. Jesus entered into conflict with the devil and he won. You and I, we should use the sword and we can win some battles, but we'll lose some too, won't we? We lose some. sometime. He never lost. He defeated. Right. And he he's our bulwark. He's our trust. He's our he's our hope. It's not in what we do. And so you know using the sword in our temptations is a wonderful application. But the main truth is that Jesus won. Jesus won, he entered in and he won. So, I put my spirit upon him. Again, we're back in Isaiah 42. We are gonna get through this passage today. I put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. Notice he says there the nations, okay? Not just for Israel. He did not come for Israel. This is a new thing. This is a new covenant. And I want you to also notice the grammar, so to speak, of what Isaiah is saying here. I have put my spirit upon him. You say, now wait a minute. That's 800 years in the future when the Messiah will come and you will put the spirit upon him. We read that in Matthew. That's 800 years in advance. Why is he speaking as though it's already happened? Because it will happen. It will happen. It's guaranteed to happen. Theologians sometimes call this a prophetic perfect. It's a perfect tense. You can get my English grammar here, but in the Hebrew, it's a perfect tense, which means when we say something like, I have gone to the store, okay? It's something that was done in the past, it's completed, it's done, it's a done deal, okay? That's a perfect tense, right? These are perfect tenses here. And so Isaiah is speaking of something that's going to happen 800 years down the road, and it's as good as done. It is as good as done. There's a lesson here, I think, for us as believers, is that we live our lives based upon promise. Not what we can see all the time, but upon the promise of God's word. We live upon the promise. The proverb says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. That's living upon the promise, right? And I think this language here. really does help us in that way. It is a done deal. And I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. That's the future, okay? He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. This is the character of the one who is coming. He's going to be easy to get to know. Okay, he's not going to be a hard taskmaster for his people. He's going to be someone you can talk to, you can identify with. He identified with you, right? A bruised reed, he will not break. You come to Him in your sorrows and in your hurt and in your pain. These are just describing the character of the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity and His coming among us. A bruised reed, he will not break. A faintly burning wick, he will not quench. Isn't that a lovely picture? You know, it's the pictures of a candle that's just barely giving light and it's flickering. And it would be easy to just go up to it and snuff it out. And he says, he will not do that. little faith, tiny little faith that we have, if it is connected to the Lord Jesus Christ, it's like the strongest chain that could ever be because of who Jesus is. compassion and love for his people. A faintly burning root, he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. This is the one we celebrated his birth last Wednesday. He will not grow faint or be discouraged. There was a lot that Jesus could have been discouraged about, wasn't it? Had these disciples and they were always you know, unbelief and their weakness. But he will not grow faint or be discouraged till he's established justice in the earth. The salvation of God is a just salvation. We're gonna talk about that a little bit later on. Till he's established justice in the earth and the coastlands. That's another word for the nations. And Isaiah's making the point here, as he's made before, that this gospel, when Jesus comes, when this one who comes, this chosen serpent comes, he's going to be for the whole world. He's going to be for the nation. Not just Israel, but the whole world and the coastlands was just a sort of Jewish way of saying, you know, all the stuff out there, right? Maybe what they would maybe think of as the uninhabited world, you know, what was out there, the coastlands, wait for his law. Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it. Isaiah is always careful to speak about the glory of God the Father and the glory of the creation, the greatness. These twin themes that go on in the book of Isaiah. One is cease for man, whose breath is in his nostrils. And then the other is look at God, right? Look at God, the glory of God. Created the heavens, stretched them out, spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, your very next breath. Nathan just took a breath. He yawned and just took a breath. His very next breath is because of what the Lord has done. Sorry, Nathan, didn't mean to pick on you there. who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. I am the Lord. I've called you, speaking the Father, speaking to the Son, right? I've called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people. There's the language there, covenant. This agreement between the Father and the Son. And this covenant is for the people. Again, that language there is for the whole world, the people, but particularly which people? His people, the ones that He had given to the Son before the foundation of the world, who will come to faith in Him in the preaching of the Word. It's amazing. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations. To open the eyes that are blind is kind of the language of Isaiah 9, isn't it? The light in the darkness. To bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in darkness. Sin is an awful prison and Jesus Christ came to give Light and life. I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Again, hundreds of years before the Lord Jesus would come, Isaiah's announcing coming of the Savior. The one He entered into covenant with, you know, before the foundation of the world. A people given to Him. The Son then to carry out that mission, saving grace mission for His people. It's wonderful, isn't it? Your thoughts? I have a question here in the late part of verse 6. In this version it says, I will appoint you as a covenant to the people. What should I read out of that? It would be easier for me to understand simpler language like, I've made a covenant between you and the people, or I've made a covenant between me and you about the people. actually as a covenant? Yeah, that's a great thought. When we think about the new covenant that's spoken to us and taught us in the scriptures, the new covenant is Christ. What does he say? We'll say it in communion today. Jesus said, this is the new covenant in my blood. So he himself is the cover. He's the surety. of all of the promises, all of the blessings, all of the grace and mercy that will come to us, it is because of Him. It is wrapped up in Him. And the Father giving the Son as a covenant. The language is exquisite, really. Did that help at all? Then in 1 Corinthians 11, which we'll read today, where he will say, this is the new covenant in my blood. So we could say, you know, like the new covenant is, you know, this covenant was made with Abraham, this covenant, but the new covenant is Christ. It is in Christ himself, the promises of God. Something else, Johnny? Yeah, I appreciate the way that Isaiah, among others, but he's particular about calling God the Lord of all capitals. And this is his covenant name. This is, and it just, when I read that, my mind goes to the greatness and the bigness and the glory of God. You know, there is none else, he says, in Isaiah. And so it helps us. We exist, we live quorum deum in the face of God. We live our lives before his face. And we need to have that understanding of God as compared to us and his greatness. The other thing I really appreciate about Isaiah was prophecies is that they're Trinitarian in nature. We have it here in Isaiah 42, don't we? It's a real picture. Behold my servant whom I have chosen, I will put my spirit upon him. That's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Which the Old Testament doesn't do that a lot. And we kind of have to read back into the Old Testament for what the New Testament teaches us about the Trinity. But Isaiah is full of Trinitarian language, the glory of God. even that little phrase that we'll look at today where he speaks about the Lord of hosts, okay, you could translate that the Lord of armies, but it's also this, some think of it as a kind of early way of pointing to the greatness and the glory of the triune God, you know, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. all power, all authority, all sovereignty given to him that he has. Father, again, we thank you for your revealing yourself to us and showing us, Lord, the glory of our salvation. And it humbles us, Lord, to think that that we were in your mind before the foundation of the world, before there was anything, Lord, and in the glory of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that you had us in mind to give to the Son and that He would labor and fulfill and complete the glorious mission of redemption for our sakes. And we thank you for that. Lord, we pray that you would work mighty grace in us, that we might be real trophies of that grace as we walk in the world. Help us, we pray, prepare hearts for worship, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.