Amen. Wonderful hymn. You can turn to 1 Peter 2 verse 4 to verse 8. And this evening it's more of a tour through the life of the church. This morning, I'm sure my brain fold expanded, and this evening God has for us this text that is more like a tour guide. One that should encourage our hearts as we gain this panoramic view of the local church and Spurgeon put it this way when he speaks about the city London, if you were to speak of how to get around London, and you're looking for a tour guide, Spurgeon says, don't you know that every town in London And every village in England, wherever it may be, there's a road that gets you to the heart of London. And then Spurgeon says, with that truth in mind, if there's a road anywhere in England that gets you to the heart of London, Spurgeon says, regarding the Bible and the tour guide into the Scriptures, he says, so it is with every text of Scripture, that there is in every page of Scripture this road that leads us to Jesus Christ. And I begin there because as we look at 1 Peter 2 verse 4 all the way down to verse 10, we get this two-word guide explanation of the church by the Apostle Peter. And what I don't want us to miss is that the centerpiece or the road that we're going to look at, every road that speaks of the church, It always gets us to the same endpoint. It gets us to Jesus Christ, and we miss the whole point of the church if we miss Jesus Christ in the text. So Peter, in verse 4 to verse 8, he's showing us the people of the church, and at the heart of the people of the church is the Christ of the church, and then he'll show us the purpose of the church. And the whole purpose of the church is glorifying the Christ of the church, and if we forget the people and who we are to be and who we are to reflect and if we forget our mission well we've forgotten the the road of every part of scripture that it leads us to Jesus Christ and we actually have a bad tour guide but Peter here he wants us to see the track that leads us to Christ and you'll look in your bibles this evening and there's two verbs In 1 Peter 2, verse 4 to 5, that shows us two different roads that lead us to Christ. And the first road is through this verb, come. And then the second verb is being built up in verse 5. And this is the different roads that Peter uses to tell us about Christ and the church. So let's read our text, 1 Peter 2, verse 5. For the first road, Peter says, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious. Here's the second road. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And then he quotes these two Old Testament texts we'll get to shortly. But he's saying that here are the two roads that lead us to our Savior. The first, verse 4, is about the people. Who are the people of the church? What are the characteristics given by Peter but through the Holy Spirit's inspiration that describe Christians, describe you and I? Peter says in verse 4, it's remarkable, if we're in Jesus Christ, you're described as those who come to him. And you could look at this in two ways, but the immediate context here is not speaking individually. That verb in the English, come to him, it's in the plural. And the pronoun there, you, that's in the plural as well. We often have this, I don't know, individualistic mindset in the West. We think that here in this text is speaking simply about an individual coming to Christ. That's true if it's speaking about conversion. We know individually we need to come to Christ on our own. We need to repent of our sins and turn to Him by faith individually. We're not saved collectively, but individually as sinners coming to Christ for mercy. That's what conversion is. But here, Peter's not talking about conversion as you come to Christ. But he's speaking about this plural, this corporate coming of Christ. He's saying, as you could say in the American lingo, as y'all, you could translate it that, as y'all come to Christ, this living stone rejected by men but precious in the sight of God, Something happens. He's speaking about this people that come corporately, that assemble together as one flock, the redeemed, who have been converted and have come to Christ. But now the church, this primary characteristic, is one of gathering together, that we deliberately come together as one people for this great purpose, to worship the one who was rejected by men, but is chosen and precious by God. So what is Peter getting at when he talks about this people of the church, the people of Christ? He says, we're a coming people. That's this characteristic. And I want you to think of this coming in two ways. First, it's a coming in worship that I've just mentioned, and you can see the context. Isaiah in verse six is quoted, Isaiah 28. Verse 16 is quoted in verse 6 to ground this all and you can see that he's speaking about believers, so those who've come to Christ in conversion but now are assembling together because he says in verse 6 of 1 Peter 1, For it stands in Scripture, this is what I'm speaking about. Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone, and we'll get to who that stone is in a minute, but look at the people. This stone, he's a chosen cornerstone, precious. And it says, here's the people, it's whoever believes in him who will not be put to shame. That's the people that come to him in worship. It's a people that will not be ashamed on the day of judgment, Peter says, because their shame of sin and the guilt of sin has been done away with through their Savior that they believed upon. And Peter says it's whoever believes in him, whatever kind of sinner you were before you came to him in conversion, You're the one that worships him with a gathered people. At one time, chapter 2, verse 10, you were not God's people. You did not receive mercy. But when you came to him by faith, you're now God's people. You've now received mercy. You're marked as one who's believed in him and who has no need of shame. The world says you need shame. The world says, aren't you worshiping and coming together and setting apart your time to worship one who was rejected and crucified? Well, Jesus says, and the scriptures say that if we're worshiping the one who was rejected by men but chosen and precious by God, we have no need to be ashamed. We're the ones that ought to boast in glory in what God's done. There's believers mentioned in verse 6, and then if you look in verse 7 and verse 8, another text is quoted, Isaiah 8 verse 4 and Psalm 18 verse 22 is quoted, and again in reference to believers, those who are coming together as the redeemed in worship. And verse 7 of 1 Peter 2 describes it this way. So the honor, or you could translate that preciousness, the Christ that you worship is precious for those who believe, is a translation I believe the King James uses. The honor, this great value, is for you who believe Peter saying, this is what I'm talking about. I'm talking about those who have no need of shame before God because they believed upon the Savior. I'm talking about those who have this great value attached to them because their value and their worth is attached to the one whom they've believed upon. And I'm not talking about those who have not believed in this Messiah. I'm talking about those who've obeyed the Word, not those who have disobeyed the Word. This is the people that I'm talking about. The church consists of those who've obeyed the gospel call. That's what Peter's speaking about, obeying the Word and disobeying the Word. These people have believed the claims of who they are as sinners and who Christ is as a Savior, and they've come. Now, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2 describes Christians this way. Paul is writing and he says, both their Lord and ours. Paul's saying the same thing that Peter's saying. Christians in the church are described as those who call upon the name of the Lord together. There's not this individualistic aspect of Christianity in the life of the church, but when we've been converted as an individual, we're added to a redeemed people to call upon the name of the Lord together. And that's God's design for this gathered people that come and worship. The second aspect you could think about in verse 4 is the one that we worship, the one that we come together to esteem and glorify together. Who is he? What's the significance when it says this one that we come together toward as a church is the one who's rejected by men. 1 Peter 2 verse 4. Is there any significance to our worship when we come and the world despises us? And we see men and women's hearts turning away from the Lord in our culture? What's the significance? Is the evaluation of the worth of Christ whom we come together to worship every Sunday Is it actually one of rejection and shame? Or is it one of infinite worth and preciousness? Because we want to rest on what God says is infinitely precious and beautiful in His sight and reject what the world esteems. And if you look at verse 4, There's a contrast. The world, while they reject Him, and that's nothing new, it's encouraging to understand that this is the sinful nature of man. When we see men and women reject our Lord Jesus Christ, the problem's not in Jesus Christ. The problem's not in the message that His church preaches. It's not if it's rightly handled and if it's applied to men's consciences and they still reject Jesus Christ. The problem's not in our Savior that we freely offer to sinners. but the problems in the natural sinful heart of men." That's what Peter's saying. He's rejected by men. It's this stumbling block. If you look at verse 8, this Christ is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Why? What's the root? Unbelief. That's why they stumble over Jesus Christ and take offense at him. The root is unbelief and rebellion against Christ. Verse 8, it says, they stumble over this Christ. They have a heart hardened towards Christ because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. This is a heart of unbelief that Peter's getting at. And if you look for a moment at another example, 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 18 to 25, we see... the stumbling block that this Christ is to the Jews, but then also the folly Jesus Christ is to the Gentiles, and the root of unbelief for whether it is a Jew or whether it is a Gentile is unbelief. It's disobedience to the word. They hear of Christ, and they don't like something of Christ, and they don't like something of his message, and so they stumble over him. They take offense at him, and that's nothing new. Even in our day when we see a hostile culture, this is the stumbling block of Christianity. And God's actually designed it that way for His purposes to display His power. And if you look in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians 18, this is the wisdom of God to make our Savior, who's precious and chosen of God, to be a stumbling block and an offense to both the Jews and Gentiles. But this is the power of God unto salvation. This is the paradox of this people that gather and worship this rejected Christ, though precious in the sight of man. 1 Corinthians 1.18, Paul puts it this way. He says that the word of the cross, this crucified Messiah, is folly to those who are perishing. That is what is the symptom or the root issue of those who reject Christ, that they're perishing. It's folly to them. And then he says, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Why is this the case? For it's written, I will destroy, the Lord says, the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart Where is the one who's wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debtor of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, but, he says, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. He's saying that it is the wisdom of God for Jesus Christ to be an offense to unbelievers in their sin and unbelief. And it's this wisdom of God that is a stumbling block to the Jews. Why? Well, he says in verse 22 of 1 Corinthians 1, Why? But it's to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, This is what Peter's saying. This rejected Christ is one of infinite value. The problem's not with him, it's with men and their unbelief. Whether a Jew, it was an offense to them because you're saying that this crucified Savior, the Messiah that was promised in the Old Testament who would reverse the curse of sin and death. He was crucified on a Roman cross. His name was marked, Hail the King of the Jews. And he was put out in the outer courts. He wasn't even respected or represented well as a Jew. But he was put where the criminals and the pagans go outside to die a Roman crucifixion. And Paul and the apostles, they said this is the Savior of both the Jews and Gentiles. Well, the Jews took great offense at that. It was a stumbling block. How can the Messiah How can He be the crucified Savior? How can He save His people from their sins when He died such a criminal and horrific death under the Romans? That was the wisdom of God, to humble the pride of man. But for the Gentiles, if you look in church history, The Gentiles, the pagans, actually called Christians atheists. They took an offense at this in the sense that they thought it was pure foolishness, because the pagans were polytheistic. They worshipped multiple gods, and the Christians, well they were known as monotheistic. They worshipped one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They worshipped a crucified, dead, buried, risen Christ. They said these Christians are atheistic, they're rebellious, they're a stench, they're the scum of the world. So whether a Jew or a Gentile, they were hated, they were mocked, they were persecuted, they were seen as a threat. But Peter, he reminds us, this is just the rejection of men. There's nothing wrong with this Savior that you come together and give your life and give your church life to and worship. Because this Savior, if you go back to 1 Peter 2 verse 4, He doesn't end there. He doesn't end with stooping and moping and the rejection of men for the Savior. But He says, though He is shamefully rejected by men, He's actually a living stone. They're rejecting this living stone, verse 4, that we've come to. And in the sight of God, this living stone, He's chosen and He's precious. He is this living stone, a quotation of Psalm 118. We saw that a week or two ago, a week ago, and I won't spend time there, but what He's saying is that this rejected one, though rejected by men, He was crucified and rejected in that sense, but this text is telling us that he is the exalted one. That's what this living stone is referencing. He's the risen Christ, rejected by men, crucified, but risen and alive and reigning and exalted. So we ought not to fear those who reject him because we worship this risen and reigning Christ who lives forevermore. That's what Peter's saying. When you come, you're worshiping one who is alive right now with the Father's right hand. The one who is interceding for you right now and ruling and reigning even through the rejection of men. Even through Psalm 2 when kings plod and try and tyrannicize everything that God has in this world. He who sits on the throne laughs. He holds them in derision. He mocks them. Why? Because he's a living stone. And then also in verse 6, Isaiah 28 picks up on this. He's a living stone. He's a cornerstone. Verse seven, he's a cornerstone according to Psalm 118. What Peter's getting at is he's the foundation as well. He's the risen reigning king who rules over his people, but he's also the foundation of everything that the church does. This church is not about you and I, it's not about how nice we are as living stones, but it's about the Savior who's risen on our behalf and who's the foundation of everything we do. And that's what governed the apostles' minds. Paul says in Athens, he's speaking to pagans, and he quotes their literature and says, this reality is true. Though you're worshipping this unknown God, I'm going to disclose who the known God is. And he says in Acts 17 verse 28, We live and move and have our being. Because Jesus Christ, though rejected by men, is the living stone, alive and reigning in him, we know that we move, we live, we have our being. Everything as the cornerstone is attached to him. And then it also is telling us that he's the sum and substance, the foundation, the builder of all we do. And we say, well, Well then how do we respond to the rejection of men? Well in some ways we just let it go off our back. We just let them mock Him and pray for them and show them the preciousness of Jesus Christ and set Him before them and plead that the one in chapter 1 who came to us in very great great mercy and caused us to be born again to a living hope would do the same thing for them. We were those at one time who didn't see his beauty. We were those that Peter's speaking about that rejected him at one point. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, we had this blindness over our eyes and we didn't see the surpassing worth of God. He's in the sight of God chosen and precious. What Peter's saying is that he was the appointed Messiah through his death Well, he's the chosen one to bring about life everlasting, and he's precious in the sight of his Father. But he also says in verse 7, this honor is for we who believe. But that phrase, I think, is better translated, precious. He's precious towards those who believe. This is why we come together, Peter says. Not only is He precious in the sight of God the Father, and that's enough reason for us to worship Him, though He's rejected by men, but God has done something in our soul that we see in Jesus Christ's infinite treasure. We see Him as precious, verse 7 says. This preciousness is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, well, He's simply the rejected cornerstone. So why do we do this? What's the point? If Jesus Christ is not precious, Peter is essentially saying, you better pack up your bags. If He is not of infinite worth to give everything that you have, then pack it up and go home and be among those who reject Him. But if He is truly precious, and if He's opened your eyes to see His preciousness, Well, that's something glorious, that we love to come together to sing about Him, that we sing these songs of praise that magnify Christ. Think of the one hymn, All I Have is Christ. It says, I once was lost in darkness night, yet thought I knew I had the way. The sin that promised joy in life had led me to the grave, yet you alone, a rebel to your will, If you had not loved me first, I would refuse you still. That hymn writer says, all I have is Christ. Why do we love to sing that? Because we see his preciousness. We see him for who he is, and yet he's still the incomprehensible one that we haven't even scratched the surface of his preciousness. Why do we love to sing? Because he's precious. Why do we love to read his word and hear his word? And why do we love to tell others about him and his word? It's because he and the sight of God is chosen and precious. That's this mark of the redeemed people. And Peter first says, if you want to understand that every road in England leads you to London, I want you to understand that even a sermon on the doctrine of the church, those who come to him and worship, it just leads us to Christ. That's why you're here. The people of God are the people of Christ. But then he also says, I don't want you to forget this other stoppage point. Don't only think of the people leading the lives of the church to Christ, but also think of the purpose, the mission of the church as one that leads us into the presence of Christ. and sits at the throne of God's mercy through the mediation of Christ. And you can look at that at verse 5, connecting to verse 4 in 1 Peter 2. We come to him corporately to gather, verse 4, and this is what God's doing. Here's another road in our corporate worship that leads us to Christ. He says, as we come to him as a gathered people, Though he was rejected, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. This is what God's supernaturally doing even this evening. And he says, you yourselves, plural again, the church, the gathered assembly of God, you yourselves like living stones. Here's the second verb, you're being built up, present tense. as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Peter is saying this is astonishing. Not only do you get to come to Jesus Christ as a redeemed sinner and fellowship with the living God, but you get to come together in the presence of Christ with a redeemed people. And not only that, but God has made you a holy priest with God's people that you can come into the presence of the living Christ and offer up spiritual sacrifices that go as an aroma in the presence of Christ. He's saying that this is the purpose of the church, it's worship. The people come in Christ to Christ for the greatest end of worship. John Piper put it this way, that missions exist in the world because worship of Jesus Christ does not. Why do we support missionaries to go to the nations and to go to a people who have not yet heard and live in rejection of Jesus Christ and see no beauty in him? It's because we want to see worshippers of Christ. We want to see missions go forth so that worship can extend from sea to sea, so that the preciousness and beauty of our Savior may spread from shore to shore, as Isaac Watts says. And Peter says, well, this is the heartbeat of God's purpose for the church. It's to engather worshipers of Jesus Christ through his death, burial, and resurrection, that there would be a priesthood among the nations that offer up what was lost in the garden to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with the praises of God and those made in his image. And through Christ, the image of God's restored. And one day there will be this new creation of people from every nation But now the church's mission is to engather, to bring people into the fold through Christ so that there will be more worshipers of Jesus Christ in the world. And if you look at verse 5, you see the nature. of this church and then the work of this church, it's astonishing. Peter says, you ought to know who the church is. The church is like a living stone. He says, remember, Jesus Christ is the living stone. Jesus Christ is the one who's alive and risen and reigning. He's the foundation of everything. And he says, if you're joined by faith to the living stone, You're like a living stone. If the risen one who is alive forevermore dwells within you, you have resurrection life right now by virtue of union being joined to Jesus Christ, the living stone, by faith. And he says the nature then of the church It's like living stones. You can think of everyone next to you, and we're all various little stones that Jesus Christ has redeemed and stamped the living stone image upon. And then he adds us to a local assembly, where we come together in locality, time, and space. Out of our various geographical regions, we come together for this great purpose of worshiping Christ. And he's saying that he does something supernatural. When we as living stones, like living stones, come together as one people, God is building a spiritual house, literally, a spiritual temple where he specially dwells among when his people gather so that his praises would resound through his son Jesus Christ. Peter's saying, that's why you can't substitute gathering for online stuff. We've seen that over past years. The definition of the church is ecclesia, gathered, assembled ones. Why? Because this is God's blueprint for his bride, for how he ought to be praised among the nations. It is living stones, embodied living stones, as it were, in Christ, the living stone, They come together, and when they come together in bodied form and fashion, Christ is dwelling among them in a special way that does not happen when we worship alone, but there's this special gathering we'll see in a minute where Christ, he dwells among the congregation of God's people in this supernatural way when the living stones come together. But the purpose is as we come, he says we're being built up, verse five, and that verb is present. So it's always happening. Whenever we assemble together, God is building us up. We know it's God's work because it's in the passive. So we're not coming together ultimately and saying, I'm going to build myself up. No. Peter's saying, when you come together with God's people, it is God. You're really passive in the praises of God, though active in the moral responsibility sense. But God is fashioning you, shaping you, molding you, building you up. so that he would dwell among you, that you'd reflect his beauty more as God's people. He's building us up, but then also he's given us this work to do. We're being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer sacrifices acceptable through our Lord Jesus Christ. What does this look like? I'll give you an example. If you look at Hebrews 2, Verse 11 to verse 12, what is God doing through his design in the church when we gather? Why can it not be substituted? What happens when we, like living stones, assemble as a spiritual house to offer up sacrifices to God? Well, the pastor or the elders, we're not the ultimate worship leaders. Jesus Christ is the living stone is present as the worship leader when we worship him as living stones. And you see this in Hebrews 2. It's astonishing. He says in verse 11, of Hebrews 2, for He, God who sanctifies, who calls us out of darkness to light, brings us into Christ, and those who are sanctified, growing in the likeness of Christ, they all have one source. Where's our spiritual life? It's from the living stone, Jesus Christ. And then he says, this is why He Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call them, we, the church, his people. He's not ashamed to call us brothers. And what is he saying? Look what he says. This is what Jesus Christ is saying when he's not ashamed to call you and I brothers before our Father in heaven. He's saying to his Father, I will tell of your name, Father, to my brothers, your people, the church, where in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise again I will put my trust in him and again behold I and the children of God has given me Jesus here is speaking to the father and what he's saying is this promise that when we come together as living stones this congregation Jesus Christ by the spirit of Christ in us especially declaring the Father's name in our adoption that Christ is our brother and God is our father. When we sing those truths and hear his word and exhort one another, it's Christ, the living stone, saying something to us. He's saying, I'll tell of your name. My Father, I'll speak of your character, is what he's saying. I'll tell them of all your beauty and your glory and your majesty. I'll hallow your name in their soul. I'm present among the gathered people of God, is what he's saying, speaking by the Spirit, impressing the heart. And he's also the one singing in the midst of the congregation, the assembled ones. Jesus is saying, I will sing your praise. So when we sing and our heart yearns in the Spirit of God within us, as Paul says in Romans 8, cries out, Abba, Father, testifying to our adoption, Jesus Christ is saying, that is me living in you, leading you to worship the true and living God. And it especially happens when you gather with the redeemed. That is this purpose. It's for your spiritual blessing, and it's this work. The apostles set before us the reality of the priesthood of all believers, and that was crucial in the Reformation, because you don't need a pope to come to God the Father, but Peter says it's through Jesus Christ. Our Lord that we offer up together as God's people, both individually but also corporately, these sacrifices of praise. And the priesthood of all believers shows us that everything we do as a church in this context is sacred work. There's not the holy and the unholy. It's not only holy to be up here preaching the word and not holy for you to be sitting and hearing the word and having Christ say, I'll tell of your name to my father. For the believer who has the living stone living in them, Everything we do as a church is sacred work. We all are priests in God's kingdom, and so you may be just doing the fellowship whole hour and trying to bake cookies and put the coffee together. That is sacred work, where Christ is forming and fashioning fellowship in His church for a great end, that the church would be built up into a greater spiritual house. That's not mundane, unsanctified, unholy work, but that is precious in the sight of God. Why? Because that's a priesthood doing that work there. Or you could think of even the logistics of opening and closing the church so that we can come together as living stones. That is spiritual work that God says, it's through these logistics that my people gather and worship my great name. In other words, I mentioned this before, but Schaeffer says we ought to think in different categories. thinks that, well, if Christ is truly precious, there ought to be people flooding the doors, and there ought to be all these trinkets and things like that. And if there's not, and we see great refusal of Christ in our day, the problem must be with him. Schaeffer says you gotta think in different categories. If you're thinking in those categories, that preciousness and growth and health is all attributed to numerical growth, That's just what a CEO thinks of, but Christ and His economy, Schaeffer says, thinks of consecrated and unconsecrated work. God doesn't have a bend towards, well, if it's not busting over the seams in the world's eyes, it's useless. No, Schaeffer says, there's no little people in God's economy, no little places, no little work in God's sight. only consecrated, only unconsecrated. That's what he's saying, what Peter's saying. You're a priest in God's kingdom. God only cares and you only give an account for the work you've done in the body. And was it consecrated work? Was it something of Lord? Here's a little little sliver for your glory and I pray you'd bless my effort Lord you took five loaves of bread and two fish and fed five thousand would you use my little efforts and bless them and cause them to multiply and Peter's simply telling us to not lose heart you're a priest in God's kingdom the world It's unknown, your activity, this church is unknown in the world's eyes. It's seen by God. It's precious in the sight of God, because Christ is the one that holds us together. And so whether we have the eyes of others, Jesus says it this way, He says, your Father who sees in secret will reward you. The bulk of work that we do in this church, the people, the purpose, It's unknown to the world in a large degree. Jesus says it's like a mustard seed. But then one day it's going to spread from shore to shore like this wonderful oak tree. So, as we conclude here, if you're thinking of a tour of the church and you say, well, I'm just lost in the weeds of the people and of the purpose. Peter and Spurgeon reminds us, don't stop there. Don't say, well what about these people and what about this purpose and what about that? Go from that road of the people that dwell in our church and the purpose of this church to the Christ of this church. And Peter reminds us that we, by God's grace, are Christ's people. And that's something astonishing to glory in. And not only that, but he says we exist. We exist to glorify Him together and enjoy Him together. And if that is the only purpose of our existence, that is a life and an eternity that is well spent regardless of whether men reject Him or see Him as precious in their sight. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would dwell among us and continue with us as your people as we embark in 2025, Lord. We think of Moses in Exodus, Lord, needing your presence, needing your spirit to tangibly go before and guide your people. And Moses resolved, Lord, that if you do not go before us, we will not move one step. We thank you, Lord, that as your people here this evening and as the purpose of the church in this world to offer up sacrifices of praise to you, Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that in the mundane activities of our own Christian life and in the church life, we pray, Father, that we would see the eternal value that we as your people have the wonderful privilege of making the greatest investment of knowing you, of serving you, of worshiping you and making you known We thank you, Lord, that our Savior is the one who's infinitely precious, and that you've opened our eyes and removed the scales, that we would join and sing the Redeemer's praise both now and forevermore. And we praise you in His name. Amen. Amen.