Good morning, everyone. All right. So, you'll all be very happy to know today is the day we finish Covenant Theology. We're going to wrap it up. All right. But before we start, let me open us up in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this Lord's Day. We thank you for the cold front that you have brought our way this far south. We thank you for the cool weather. We thank you for the opportunity to, again, open your word, to study it, to conclude our study of covenant theology, to learn more about you, Lord. and the work that you have done, this work of grace in our salvation. Pray that you would be with us this morning in our fellowship and our worship of you. We pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen. So last week we concluded and I mentioned that I wanted to finish up covenant theology by looking at Christ's work on the cross. Because to best understand the substance of Christ, which is what our question is focused on at the end there, and His atoning work, we have to look at the cross, naturally, right? But to do that adequately, we need to talk about God the Father. We need to talk about God the Father. Turn with me to Romans chapter 8. We're going to be here a little while. Romans chapter 8. I want to look at verse 32. Romans 8 verse 32. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? And here's why I love covenant theology, right? Because it gives us so much. And one of the things covenant theology teaches us is a robust view of the atonement. This passage from Romans 8 is a classic example that you can't do justice to Paul's teaching on the atonement if you don't understand Paul's teaching on the covenants. Paul was a covenant theologian. It's all throughout his writings. Covenant theology is the gospel. I heard one theologian, he put it this way, covenant theology is not merely a prop for sacramental theology, it is the marrow of divinity. I love that. And you see it on display here with some great covenantal truths that Paul lays out for us. I want to take a look at four in particular. First is the involvement of God the Father in our salvation. One of the things covenant theology helps us do as you present the gospel and explain it, particularly the atonement, is to specify the involvement of God the Father. The eternal love of the Father must be specified if we're going to get the gospel correct. The work of Christ on the cross all began with the Father's love. And Paul hopes to see that here in verse 32. Because who's being spoken of here? It was the Father, right? The Father who doesn't spare His own Son. He delivers Him up and with Him freely gives us all things. Paul's focus here is on the love of God the Father and what is happening on the cross. Now, what I'm about to say, what we're going to talk about doesn't minimize the love or the sacrifice of Jesus at all in any way, but it's the Father's action which is on the Apostle's mind right here. Sometimes we have misconceptions about the work of the Father and His role in redemption. Some are tempted to think that our salvation rests begrudgingly in the hands of a reluctant deity. Maybe you've heard of the illustration that, you know, I hate this, Jesus is your lawyer, right, and God the Father is the judge. Yeah, he's an angry judge and Jesus is pleading your case, right? He pleads it on the cross. No, no, that's not what's happening. That's not what's going on. That's not the picture of the cross at all. It all begins with the Father's love. And in the final analysis, it's the Father's love in giving His Son. And again, this is not to say that the Son of God is not working on the cross. He absolutely is. He certainly is. We all memorize John 3.16, right? That's one of the first passages that we memorize as Christians. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. But who is it that's doing the giving there? Well, it's the Father. So when John 3.16 says, God loved the world, who is John primarily speaking of in that passage? Well, it's the Father. We're so quick to think of Jesus in that text, and I mean, that's okay, we love Jesus, but John is primarily talking about the love of the Father. The same emphasis is made in Acts 2.23, Isaiah 53.10 of the father offering him up, right, or bruising him. This is so important because if we miss this, we miss the richness of Calvary. When we think about Jesus on the cross, we are rightly moved, but we often forget how the father was moved and what he caused to happen. You know, when Abraham takes Isaac up to Mount Moriah to be sacrificed, every father in this room knows what he's thinking and how he's feeling. We know that Abraham's heart was breaking at the thought of sacrificing his son, at what he was about to do. Right? Yet, I think we often forget, at the cost of God the Father, sacrificing his son. Or think of 2 Samuel 18. Right, 33, Absalom's rebellion is quelled, right? Joab tells David that Absalom's hair gets caught in the great oak tree and he's been hung by it. David doesn't rejoice, right? He tears his garments and he says, oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would I have died instead of you? Even for someone like Absalom. Right? A wicked and wayward child. We can understand David's fatherly love and his reaction. Right? The pain that he feels there. But Jesus, Jesus was not like Absalom. He was a perfect son. Right? He had no sin in him. And we don't pause often enough and consider what it costs the father to deliver his own son. the spectacle on Calvary of having your perfect son delivered over for wicked sinners. Not only what's happening, but what he's causing to happen, right? And when the son utters that terrible cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You'll never understand the cross until you understand that God the Father longs to answer that cry, but he can't. The whole glorious principle of divine compassion is a reflection, not only of the incarnate Son, but that the Father Himself has borne the cost of giving His Son for you. He remembers that we are dust. He knows our infirmities. And when we say, Abba, Father, when we pray, Our Father, let us know that our Father truly loved, right? How He bore the pain and how He delivered in our salvation. The covenant of redemption makes this abundantly clear. Before the world began, God reaches out to sinners. That's what Paul is emphasizing here. Here's the second thing. The preciousness of the son in his obedience to the father. The obedience of the son to the covenant of works informs our theology of the gospel. Notice how Paul emphasizes the divine glory of the son in his obedience in our verse here. He did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us. In that phrase, his own son, right there, Paul is emphasizing the unique and mutual relationship between the father and the son. The son was loved as no human son has ever been loved. and he was loving as no human son has ever loved. Jesus is routinely referred to as the beloved son. We need to remember the father and the son's unique and mutual relationship and the love that they share for each other. And it's interesting when we get to the cross because there Jesus is viewed two different ways. By his captors, he's seen as a man, right? Slave, condemned, a criminal. But that's not what the father saw. He saw his own son, his precious, beloved son. And despite turning his back and pouring out his wrath on his son, the son is excelling himself in love. He's exceedingly precious to the father in that moment. In the glory of his obedience, He's surpassing in all that he's ever done. Greater love has never been seen. Now, he was always a glorious son, right? And the father had manifested his pleasure in the glory of his son, even audibly, right? At his baptism, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And it happens again at the Mount of Transfiguration, right? Be quiet, Peter. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. And here at the cross, the son is surpassing himself in glory. And the father longs to point to the son and say, look, look at my son. Look at what he's doing for you. There's no one like him in the universe. He's laying down his life for hell-bound sinners who deserve to die. Look how glorious this is. But at the cross, unlike the rest of His ministry, there's no word of assurance. There's no word of the Father expressing His love for His Son. There's no word of help. When Abraham gets to the top of Mount Moriah, right, there's a word from heaven, right, don't touch the boy. When the angel is destroying people in 2 Samuel 18, there's a word from heaven, stop before you get to Jerusalem. But at the cross, there's no word from heaven. The cry goes up, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There's no answer, there's no help. There's only curse and divine abandonment. The catechism says this, that on the cross, Jesus felt and bore the weight of the wrath of God. And we need to understand why the Father could not spare even in the preciousness of the Son and in the glory of His obedience. It's because of the demands of the covenants of works. The Son was offering an obedience at the cross to fulfill the requirements of the violated covenant of works. The Father could not spare the Son because Christ was bearing the punishment of sin. He who knew no sin became sin in that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Or in the language of Galatians 3.13, He became a curse for us. Jesus perfectly obeys the covenant and yet pays the price of it being broken by us. And He pays it for us by being damned, cursed, outcast, delivered up, Right? Be derelict and abandoned. You will never understand the cross if you don't understand the intense love of the Father for His Son on the cross. And how glorious the Son's obedience is to the Father at the cross. The value of God's only begotten Son in His obedience to the covenant of works must be rightly understood. Or we'll sell the whole thing short. But it's not just about the negative action of Jesus' abandonment. There are positive actions in the Father's decision. What do I mean by that? Well, Isaiah 53 10 says, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. Or some translations say he was pleased to bruise him. And let me offer this careful theological balance to what I've been saying, okay? Don't misunderstand what I've been saying up to this point, that God the Father is just pining or crying over His Son at what's happening at the cross, and He longs to do something and save Him, and He just can't. Okay, that's not what I'm saying, and that's not what happened. I've been talking about a sacred, divine love shared and expressed between the Father and the Son. But in that divine love we also have God's love for His people. And so there's that balance between God's internal love and glory within the Godhead and God's love and desire to save His people. And that's where we get Isaiah 53, right? It pleased the Father to bruise the Son. So it's not just that the father abandoned the son, but that he bruised him, he bore his wrath out on him intentionally. It was his will, it pleased him. Well, how could it please the father to do this? In what way is that possible? In what way could that be his will? Well, these questions can only be answered when you understand covenant theology. The pleasure of the father is not in his son's suffering. but what he will accomplish in his death. At last, he will have accomplished his mission and be able to say, John 19, 30, it is finished. And another answer to this comes in the glory of the son's sacrifice, and that's our third point. Romans 8 emphasizes the totality of the son's sacrifice. And this is where covenant theology comes into play. This is how it can be the father's will. The penalty of the covenant of works is the price of the covenant of grace. Say that one more time. The penalty of the covenant of works is the price of the covenant of grace. What did it cost God to show you grace? Well, it cost him his son. If we don't specify in our gospel theology that Jesus bears the penalty of the covenant of works in our place, then again, we sell the whole thing short. Notice how Paul emphasizes the totality of the son's sacrifice. He did not spare, but delivered him up. These words emphasize the utterly unreserved sacrifice of the son. The sacrifice of the son is unlimited. It's unreserved. Okay, he delivered him up limitlessly. Can't get that out. He is left alone. From eternity past and up to this point, the son has been in the father's presence, right? Received love and favor from his father. But all of a sudden at this moment, it's stripped away. He is separated from his Father and receives nothing but complete and perfect divine displeasure. The term delivered up, that's technical language. It means to be handed over to your captors for destruction. And Jesus had been teaching about this in the Gospels this whole time. Matthew 26 verse 2 says, you know that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. He says in Matthew 10 for that Judas would be responsible for it. But in Matthew 27 verse 46, Jesus cries out. We've read this multiple times. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So Jesus makes it clear here that it wasn't the disciples. It wasn't even actually Judas or the chief priests, scribes, whoever you want to say that delivered him up to the cross. It was his father. And Peter doesn't forget this either, right? He says in Acts 2, verse 23, this man delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. God delivered him up by his foreknowledge and purpose. Ungodly men nailed him to the cross, put him to death. They are certainly responsible for his death, but God the Father delivered him up. As we look at the cross, we can't go where he went, we can't stand where he stood. He didn't stand in this abandonment and dereliction with us. He stood there for us. And listen, listen, in your darkest hours and blackest nights, when you feel like the Lord can't hear your cries, OK? You are never standing where Jesus stood. OK, because he stood there for you. You can never say that you've gotten what you've deserved and that you've been utterly forsaken. It's a solemn thing to think about. When we walk the streets of glory, you may meet every person in heaven and you will never meet a saint who was forsaken by God apart from one. Because he endured that curse and cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? so that you wouldn't have to. You will never cry those words of forsakenness because he cried them out for you. So with the cross and in his death, Jesus endured the penalty and the full covenantal judgment on behalf of his people. In Jesus's death, our debts are not canceled. They are liquidated. And here's the last point I want to make about the cross. Paul displays the vicarious atonement in the context of the covenant. Substitutionary atonement is emphasized here. You can't understand the theology of the gospel if you don't understand substitutionary atonement. I think most of us know this. The covenant of grace is beautifully displayed in the work of Jesus' substitutionary atonement, right? His death for us, right? He did not spare his own son, but he gave him up for who? For us. But to best understand this, we need to face the cross in its brutalness. The cross is monstrous, horrific, wrong even, right? There's never been anything more wrong in the universe. It's the greatest, almost injustice ever. Well, how can you say that, right? Because at the cross, the wrath of God is striking in the one place in the universe that it has no right to strike. The combination of Jesus and the cross, it doesn't make sense. Now, had it been you or me or anyone else hanging up there, Yeah, that makes perfect sense. But the sinless Son of God bearing the wrath of God, why makes no sense? And one of the great horrors of the cross is that Christ is accursed by his own Father. The Son of God, the Lord of glory, Prince of Peace, bears covenantal anathema of the Father. The Son is banished, cut off. put in the place where there is no love, life, peace, meaning, no assurance of victory. It's darkness. We have to ask why, what's going on? Why is God bruising his own son? That's why we need this little phrase, for us. He became a curse in Galatians 3, for us. This little phrase links Jesus with his people and renders him vulnerable. to their verdict and the cross is redeemed from injustice. Because the father in his love says, I will give my son for you. And the son in his love says, I will take that person's place. And the spirit in love says, I will devote myself in applying Jesus' redemption to you. The delivering up of Christ for us is a reminder of the sheer extravagance of God's love for us. In the cross there is no injustice, quite the opposite, right? Romans 3.26, it was to show God's righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. It really is quite beautiful. God still shows himself to be just because the penalty for sin has been paid in full by Christ. But he is also the justifier in that he is the one who provides justification by faith in the Son. Christ is given our sin and we receive his righteousness. at the cross God's love and justice meet. The Apostle Paul is teaching us that within covenant theology we see the love of God manifested in a way that has never been seen before. In the cost of the Father's Son, in the preciousness of the Son, in the substitution of Jesus for us. Remember, Paul is preaching to a group of people who are about to experience life with Emperor Nero. A period in history where the church experienced some of its worst tribulation and suffering. And people are going to start to ask, has God abandoned us? Does God still love us? Does He care for me? And Paul says, here is the measure of God's love. Look at the cross. If God who has given His only Son for us, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? We need to understand the love of God as it culminates in these covenants, right? As it reaches its peak at the cross, the love of God is essential for our assurance, our maturity. All right, let's end with John 17. This is versus 22 and 23. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them that they may be one, even as we are one, I and them and you and me. that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. So Jesus prays to the father, right, that we receive the glory of God and manifest his excellence in our lives, that he will not love you any less than he loves him. You need to understand that this is life changing truth, right? In this new covenant of grace, your savior praise to his father that you would experience the same love of the father that he experiences. You know, families are breaking down across our culture all throughout the world in every facet, in every way. And there's no human answer to fix that problem, right? There's no government fund that can fix it. There's no special program that you can sign up for. There's only one answer, the covenantal love of God the Father experienced through the son. When we understand the gospel in the framework of covenant theology, our faith matures. Our Bibles come alive in a new way, right? The work of the triune God becomes palpable. You experience the redemptive, covenantal, saving love of God. Covenant theology opens your eyes to things you might otherwise miss. Okay. That wraps up covenant theology. I know everyone is very happy. Does anyone have any questions? Okay. We still got a little bit of time, so I'm going to move into the next question. And look, by the way, pastor told me during the summer that he wanted to do something different when we got back into the swing of things for Sunday school. So going over the Covenant Theology and just kind of tying it into the Catechism seemed like a nice little compliment. Best of both worlds. And only a Reform nerd like myself can spend, what, four months on two questions? So... all good things must come to an end. But let's move to question 36. And the focus in this question is to identify our mediator, which as many of us should know by this point, right? Jesus Christ. But the divines do more than simply just name him. They go deeper in the answer and they provide a complete picture of who Jesus is. They describe his mediatorial role as it relates to his Trinitarian nature. And so we're going to take a look at that. Let's read. I'll read the question and then let's answer together in unison, please. Who is the mediator of the covenant of grace? the only mediator of the covenant of grace is the Lord Jesus Christ who being the eternal Son of God of one substance and equal with the Father in the fullness of time became man and so was and continues to be God and man in two entire distinct natures and one person forever. Very good. Now, let's start out by talking about that word only in the beginning there for a minute, because it just might be the single most important part of this answer. For there can only be one. No, Highlander? Nobody? Really? I know some of y'all know Highlander. All right. The only mediator of the covenant of grace is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I wouldn't put it past the divines that if they were typing this answer out, they would underline this. They'd put that in bold, be red. increase the text size, OK, because the qualifier only really is necessary for a couple of reasons. Number one, it puts a definitive timeline on Jesus's role as mediator. OK, it's not as if Jesus is the mediator for a little while and then someone else is going to come along and take his place. OK, nobody's going to get promoted over him. First Timothy 2 5 says, for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man. the man Jesus Christ. No one else will ever do what Jesus did and what Jesus continues to do. Secondly, it reveals important truths regarding our salvation. Jesus says in Matthew 4.10, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Well, how does a person faithfully serve and worship God? How's a person made right with God? Well, they repent and believe. Well, who do they repent and believe in? The only begotten Son, John 3, 16, right? So it's clear that only is not just important in the catechism answer, but throughout scripture as well. For Jesus Christ is the only Redeemer of God's elect, Acts 4.12. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, which we must be saved. And man, I really love this verse, particularly that last phrase, we must be saved. Man must be saved. There's nothing new under the sun, right? Everyone is born in sin. Everyone has a sin problem. Everyone is born at enmity with God. Yet, Jesus says, John 14, 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Or put another way, Jesus is the only way to the Father. Jesus is the only way man can be made right with God, the only way we must be saved. And if we deny him, Jesus says, we deny his Father who sent him. Now this word only, it's important for another reason. It eliminates the possibility of any other false religions. And let me be clear, when I say false religions, I mean any religion that does not faithfully preach or teach the Trinitarian God of the Bible. Full stop, okay? There's a modern ecumenical movement for the inclusivism, okay? And it has seeped into the church. It's somewhat of a transformed idea of a universalist view of salvation. The idea of kind of being, you know, if you're earnest and you're sincere, then there's a saving truth for anyone out there in all religions. You cannot believe this as a Christian. G.I. Williamson, he notes in his book on the catechisms how this has affected missions for churches, especially in the World Council of Churches. Instead of going out and preaching repentance and faith, missionaries are listening and they're dialoguing with people so that they can learn as well as teach. And what you end up with may very well look nothing like Christianity. It could be a whole new religion altogether that they end up preaching to people. Let me bring this idea a little bit closer to home. You ever see those coexist bumper stickers on cars? I better never see a Christian driving around with one of those because it blasphemes the Lord. As Christians, we are not called to coexist with idolatrous pagan religions. Now, on one hand, yes, Paul says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Romans 12, 18. But he is not condoning pacifism in regard to the lordship and authority of Christ, even within the civil sphere. Okay, because this is the same Paul who walked unashamedly into Athens in Acts 17, right? And he says, yeah, these religious statues that y'all got here, yeah, they're false gods. So let me tell you about the one true God, okay? And y'all need to repent and believe because, by the way, the times of ignorance are over, okay? We are sons of the living God. Yes, and we are soldiers for Christ. We have been enlisted into God's spiritual army. And as Christians, we are about the advancement of God's kingdom. And part of that mission is to say Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. He is actively working in this world to bring his enemies under his feet. First Corinthians 15, 25. Making his enemies his footstool. Hebrews 10, 13. I will make his fight my fight. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, I will help bring the kingdoms of God's world into submission and make them Christ's kingdom. They will be an authority to His kingship. To acquiesce, to coexist, is to bow the knee to Baal. And by the way, it's not just other religions that are an issue. This world has made idols and false gods out of some terrible things. The godless leftism in our culture today has prescribed a mandatory celebration of sodomy for an entire month. The LGBTQ community has infiltrated and practically overrun every aspect of our civilization. The political system, the media, the evangelical church, the public school system, and with little resistance, going right after little children. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble and sin. This cannot be. We should not be willing to coexist and accept this as commonplace, content to do nothing. Why? How can you say that? Because this world belongs to Christ. This world belongs to our Lord, the only mediator between God and man, the one whom we must be saved. And so we need leaders, we need Christians to be courageous. We need God's people to engage and say, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus is king here. That's not acceptable. OK, or to use the classic Phil colloquialism, we don't do that here. Right. We need to be faithful in what we believe. Well, Travis, you're not being very nice. You're not being very tolerant. Well, thank you, Karen. I fear God more than I do, man. I desire God's people to be saved. I desire Jesus's rule and authority to be established on Earth as it is in heaven. And our Lord says, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few. Matthew 7, 14, this world. And I'm making it any easier. OK, do not be content to coexist with the false religions and false idols of this world. Just the opposite, denounce them and demand a godly rule and structure for your church, your home, your land, all of it. For this is the narrow way, it is the hard way, but it leads to life. We desire to see God glorified and people saved, not people led to destruction. Now, the catechism goes on to help us answer the why to that question, but it's pretty long and I don't know that I want to go on anymore. I think we're going to end a little bit early today. And we'll call it a day there because the rest is pretty long. And I don't really want to stop in the middle of that. So does anyone have any questions? We're going to end about two or three minutes early. Yeah, what you got, bud? So the divines were asked to write the confession by the local magistrate, the local government at the time, and they wrote the confession systematically. And so they went through, you know, started creation, and then they kind of worked their way through. So that they're getting to the point now where they're past the covenant theology aspect of it. And so now they need to talk about the mediator of the covenant, right? But they have to specify that Jesus is the only mediator. And so that's actually kind of the next portion. Why does it have to be Jesus? Why is he the only mediator, right? Could it be anybody else? Well, no, it can't. So does that kind of answer your question? Oh, I see. Probably not. Yeah, I don't know that Rome would say that Mary is a mediator, right? or that the Saints are mediators. I mean, because the idea behind the confession is that we would have a reformed Catholicity, you know, one voice say, this is what we believe, right? Jesus is the mediator. I don't know if there was anything particular going around at the time. Can you answer that, Pastor? Right. Right. Right. She had an intercessory role. Right. Right. Yeah. Good question. Yes. How does it fit with the verses about Satan being the prince of this world, and he's a roaring lion that drives you mad? I feel like that some of my Christian friends feel like they were waiting for Christ to be king, like for him to come back, to be king, because of these verses about Satan, or because you look around and evil is rampant. So how do you reconcile the evil that we see everywhere? So Christ is ruling and reigning now in heaven and on earth all authority has been given to him right the authority that Satan does have He only is has Because Christ has given it to him so and we see a good example of that in Job right the beginning of Job any power and authority that Satan exercises is only because it's under the sovereign control of Christ. And any evil that does occur, we know God uses it for good and his perfect will. God doesn't, or Christ doesn't, what's the right way to say this? Let's speak carefully about how God uses evil. God uses, I'll leave it there. God uses evil for his good, right? He doesn't cause the men to do evil. He uses it for his will. But we also got to look at this from a long time period, right? We don't want to just look at it in a narrow window of time, right? We tend to look now and see, oh, well, things are really bad now. Therefore, that can't be the case. So, but if we look at the church throughout a longer redemptive historical period, we see the church growing. We see people coming to faith. We see, yeah, there's dips. in the period, right? But we see, in general, more Christians, the church building, the church growing. It's easy to get focused on just like a little narrow window in a period of time. But in general, we see this trend happening. Yes, please. Regarding the problem of evil, too, and God's in his perfect and infinite wisdom and for the show of his power and his justice and for his glory. And for his power, for his might, for his sovereign dominion to be displayed even as he rules as king over the kingdom. He allows this to happen in order for these specific and timely ways by which each of those things can be seen and evident, even to men, to be a testimony to him, of him, and his attributes, and his glory, and his sovereignty and kingship. I think there are some specific aspects of that that also are helpful for people to understand, especially those who may wonder and say, well, how can that be true if we look around us and we see all of this here? We do not understand the mind and the will of God. We are not. We are not him. And we never will be. And we are creatures. But he shows us these things, and he allows these things to display certain things that we would praise him and give him glory. Any more questions? Good discussions. All right, let me close this in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. We thank you that you, Lord Jesus, are indeed king, that you sit enthroned in power at your father's right hand, ruling with authority over heaven and earth. And we do pray, Lord Jesus, that you would return, come and consummate your kingdom. And we pray in the meantime that you would use us as servants, stewards of your word in this world, that we would facilitate your glory and that we would be ambassadors for your kingship, that we would take up our mantles and our swords Help us to worship you well this morning in spirit and in truth. We pray for our pastors. He brings your word to us, Lord. May we have attentive ears and hearts that are ready and willing to receive your word. Please bless our fellowship and our conversations this morning. May they be fruitful and encouraging. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.