Good morning. Once again, it is my honor and my privilege to read scripture. I will be reading from the Old Testament this morning and the New Testament out of the ESV. The Old Testament is a prophecy and the New Testament will be the fulfillment of that prophecy. And I'll be reading from Zechariah 9, verses 9 and 10 in the Old Testament. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, a colt, a foal of a donkey. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem. and the battle bow will be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea, from river to the ends of the earth. And then from Matthew chapter 21, one through 11, the fulfillment of that prophecy. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, the Mount of Olives, Then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a coat with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord has need of them, and he will send them at once. And this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophets saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on him and spread and he sat on them. Now most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches and trees and spread them on the road. And when the crowds went before him and those that followed him, they were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. This is the inerrant and infallible word of almighty God. You may be seated. Good morning, church. Think of those words from the New Testament that we just heard echoed from your Old Testament. Behold, your king is coming to you. Behold, your king is coming to you. We have the privilege of living between two presentations of King Jesus. Actually, all people on the earth right now are living between two presentations of King Jesus, whether in awareness or not. And it's those who are grounded in the realities of his first presentation that we read of here in Matthew 21 that enable us to live rightly toward His second. This morning in Matthew's gospel we read of the first presentation of God's Messiah to his people. It's very familiar to us. Some of you are thinking already it's not very Christmassy, it's more Easter-y. Let me just say this is where we are in our study of Matthew's gospel. But I think you will agree with me that there are some similarities and responses to Jesus that we can relate to today. Matthew shows us Christ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, and he is celebrated enthusiastically by multitudes. Not unlike today. To some, he is a curiosity, a vaguely known celebrity. Such that people get caught up in a moment about Jesus, but that moment is just that. A moment. Fizzles. Parallels to today's attitudes towards Jesus are easy to spot in the text. You know, we've entered that time of year, Advent season. Do you realize Christmas is really close now? Some of you are in denial about this, aren't you? And we see these same responses to Jesus in our community, but also all around the world and in every language. Short-lived enthusiasm, curiosity, wonder that fades quickly into disregard. But here's the thing, I don't want to focus on that this morning. I want to focus on the responses of God's people to the King who has come and is coming again. Among God's believing people, I'm speaking of Christians now, There is a joy that comes to us in this record of our King's first presentation. Because this same Jesus is coming again to reign over an everlasting kingdom. And so we live, Christians, in this reality of what the prophet declared. Behold, your King is coming to you. Christ has in his first unveiling accomplished a great victory for his people. He has done all that is required for us to participate in his future eternal reign. Do you ever think about that? His eternal reign. Your participation in this eternal reign. He set us free so that one day we will live an unhindered, uninhibited, unending life as his image bearers, and we who know Christ as King will live this life together. And it's in responding rightly to Jesus now, today, in light of what is revealed in his first presentation, that we find assurance of our share in Christ's victory. And church, this is what sets the Christian in our community apart from those with fleeting enthusiasm for Jesus this time of year. It's what sets us apart from those for whom Jesus is a historic celebrity, remembered warmly and yet ultimately set aside as not relevant. And so I urge you to pay close attention to Christ as he is presented to us in scripture. Do you recognize this king who is coming again in such a way that he'll remember you when he comes favorably? Well, that's a bit of a windup, isn't it? Look at verse one. And when they had approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there in a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. I want you to just notice with me the commands. Jesus says to the two disciples, go, untie them, the donkey in its full, bring them to me. Go, untie, bring them. But what kind of king Is this Jesus? Well, as with any king, Jesus has authority. I ask you this morning, is Jesus, for you, an authority? Do you know Jesus this way? He says things to his subjects, and those things are meant to be carried out by his subjects. He says, go. And the two unnamed disciples go. And so Matthew is showing us then, Jesus is the king who commands. He has the right of command. He has the authority of command. And what we've seen throughout Matthew's gospel is that our Jesus, our King, has an authority that is unlike any other authority that mankind has ever seen. Jesus commands not only a band of true followers at this point in Matthew 21, disciples. Jesus commands creation itself. Matthew has shown us this. One day, says Matthew, Jesus' disciples got into a boat with him and there was a storm at sea. Remember reading about this? Right. And the storm raged on the Sea of Galilee, and certain death in the depths of that sea was just around the corner for those disciples, were it not for Jesus commanding the storm to cease, commanding the wind, commanding the waves. And I remember when we were looking at that passage in Matthew's gospel, asking ourselves, well, how long do you suppose it would take the sea, a big lake, really, in northern Israel, to calm down once the wind stopped? Well, it would take a while, wouldn't it? And yet, that's not what the scripture tells us happened. Every molecule in that sea just ceased its agitation. It was instantly calm at the command of Jesus. This king commands his people. And this king commands creation. And this king, Matthew has also told us, commands disease and even demons. Be cleansed. Jesus had commanded and a leper was cleansed. Go, the king commanded. And two men who had been possessed by demons were set free from those demons. The king ordered those demons into a herd of pigs and off they went down into the sea. Who commands people and creation and disease and demons but God himself? And so Matthew has been very deliberately, you're still listening, very deliberately showing us in his gospel that this Jesus is the King who commands all things, all things. Is this your Jesus? Now there's one thing for a king to give orders to people, but to command the demonic, to command in such a way that sin's curse evidence in creation itself is stilled, brought into submission. This requires not only authority, but it also requires the power to control. It requires ability. And so here is Matthew showing us Jesus is not only the king who commands all things, Jesus is the king who controls all things. What do I mean by all things? I simply mean all things. There is nothing that happens in our world that is circumstantial. It's all providential. There's nothing random. It is all ordered and ordained by the King who holds all things in his hands. And so I just ask you again, is this your Jesus? Controlling the very circumstances, or I should say providences, you're experiencing at present. Even the unwanted stuff. So I urge you not to pay too much attention to those who will say to you, well, you know, Jesus must have, I'm looking at verses two and three, Jesus must have, you know, made arrangements ahead of time to have this donkey thing work out the way that it did. Maybe some money was exchanged, that sort of thing. I don't think you need to go into that kind of thinking about this at all because, you know, Verse 4 says what? This took place in order that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled. That was our key verse leading up to this Sunday because it's the key to this whole account of what Jesus is doing here as he enters Jerusalem. Jesus is the king who commands and controls all things. God's people have a sovereign who is truly sovereign. This has never happened before. I was reading in the news over the weekend what's going on in Syria. It's sad, really, what's going on in Syria. The country, as you know, or maybe you don't know this, the country is actually run by a dictator named Al-Assad. And he inherited the dictatorship from his daddy, who was also a creep, as it turns out. And I imagine when this fellow says he wants something done, it gets done. But if you've been reading in the news lately, you realize he doesn't even control his own country. It's been overrun by all sorts of different interest groups. He's not much of a sovereign. maybe except in his own mind. And this is common in the world today, but it was common in Jesus' day too. Think of King Herod. And there would have been those who related to King Herod as something of a sovereign, but what was the deal with Herod? He was just a puppet who moved according to the whims of Rome's Caesar. Our king, Jesus, is not like that at all. Our king, our Jesus, commands and controls all things. And so here he is shown directing all things in such a way that God's long-anticipated promises regarding a king who would deliver his people from sin's curse are being fulfilled in real time. carried out precisely as promised. This took place, verse four, in order that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled. What was spoken through the prophet? Well, our elder Dave Coldy just read this to us from Zechariah 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and endowed with salvation, lowly and mounted on a donkey, even a colt, the foal of a pack animal. And Christian, listen, you are privileged to live your life right now under the security and confidence of your King's command and control over all things. You have no need to doubt that whatsoever. What God has promised in his word concerning your king, you can and must bank on and live in, in the nitty gritty details of life. You have a king who makes promises, and he always keeps his promises. And so you can, and you and I must, take him at his word. You experience the best life, the most productive life God has for you when you live on his promises. Let me just give you a few examples here. He's promised to be with you always, and he is. He's promised never to leave you nor forsake you, and he has not and he will not. He's promised to prepare a place for you And in the meantime, prepare you for that place. We'll come back to that. But he's keeping this promise. So that the perplexities and difficulties and even tragedies, what we call tragedies in this life, are all tools in your king's preparatory hands. He's preparing you to live and reign with him. and all of God's people forever. And this eternal home for all of us who know Christ is just around the corner. That's not morbid. It's just that the Bible says, what is your life? It's a vapor. And Christ is even now fulfilling his promises as he prepares us for this home. And you look at what happens here in Matthew's account of how these disciples responded to the command and control of Jesus. And you start to get the impression that they're beginning to believe. Look at verse 6. The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them. Well, I'm just spitballing here. But I'm thinking that this is the sensible response to actually believing that Jesus is a king who commands and controls all things. And so often we focus on the first disciples' failures, and we like to do that, Peter in particular, because in Peter we see hope for ourselves, right? So we kind of focus on Peter's hollow bravado, you know, I'll never deny you, Lord. Or we focus on Thomas' doubt. I think you could say fatalism. You know, Thomas was the one who said, We might as well all go to Jerusalem then and die. You know, that's not the guy you want at your party, is it? I mean, or the Sons of Thunder. Remember them more recently in our time in Matthew. James and John jockeying for preeminence in the kingdom right after the king had spoken to them about what? His coming to serve them in humility and calling them to serve in humility. Disciples then, just like disciples today, get it wrong sometimes. Colossally wrong sometimes, speaking from my own personal experience. And we, like them, tend to have too much confidence in ourselves. We tend to be self-reliant. We tend to be pessimistic, maybe even fatalistic, rather than living with hope. in the promises of our King. But these first disciples get it right in this instance, and I think we're meant to not miss that. We're meant to take note of that. Because this whole text really begs a question of you, and me too. How do you respond rightly to the King who commands and controls all things? You go as He says. You do what He commands, just as He's instructed you. These are not complex things. And I wonder, Christian, is this the nature of your relationship to Christ as King? And I'm speaking in generalities. Let me move to some things that are more practical. Those of you who name Christ, He's commanded you to be baptized. Have you obeyed this command to profess Him publicly as your Savior and your King? Your king commands you to go and make disciples, whether you go next door or to your children or to the next county or the next country, maybe it's Tanzania, and he instructs you in his word how to go about doing this so it's not a mystery. Are you heeding your king's command as he's instructed you? Is there anyone in your life at present whose relationship with them could be described as disciple-making? The king commands his people not to forsake gathering together as is the manner of some. We're not to view physical attachment to the body of Christ as optional or seasonal or therapeutic in a time of felt need. We're referred to as members of his body. And yet it is very common in our culture for those to assemble on a Lord's Day morning who are not members of any local body, let alone this one. And yet you just have to ask yourself, why? If we are the people who would nod our heads and say, yep, Jesus is king. He has authority to command. He has ability to control. The king commands you to flee sexual immorality, to avoid so much as the appearance of evil. He commands us to not live primarily for material things, the things of this world. He commands us to be set apart from the world and its ideas and its ways and its beliefs and its practices. Be holy, for I am holy, says the king. So how do you respond rightly to the king who commands and controls all things? Well you go as he says and you do what he commands just as he's instructed. And so we're meant to just stop here at verse four and just ask ourselves is this my relationship to King Jesus? And I simply ask this because I think the text begs this question, but this is one of the major differences between a true disciple and the Jesus enthusiasts so commonly seen and heard this time of year. It isn't just in ancient Jerusalem that there was a big party thrown by a bunch of people who later discarded Jesus. This happens every year. about this time of year. And it lasts until, say, the 26th of December. Something important we wanna take note of here, you still with me? Matthew tells us that both the donkey and its colt are taken by the disciples as Jesus instructed them. And I got stuck on that, so you're stuck on it too. for just a little bit. Verse two makes this clear, so does verse seven. The disciples brought the donkey and the colt and laid their garments on them and he sat on the garments. Why do we need to know a little detail like that? Why? That the foal's mom was taken too. One reason seems to me To be very simple, this little creature would more likely be at ease with its mother by its side as it carried out the purpose for which the king called it to. Behold your king, says Matthew. What is he like? This king commands all things. This king controls all things. But commanded control is a cold thing. In fact, it might even be a terrifying thing. But not as exercised by our King, Jesus. Here is the King who cares. His authority and power are exercised with compassion. Jesus is the King who cares, who acts with compassion. No matter how life seems to you in any moment of time, this is always true. And if you're worried that, well, I think the pastor's spent too much time with turkey because he's preaching now on donkeys. No, I'm not gonna go there. I just don't want us to miss the nature of Jesus that comes out in this text. He cares and therefore shows compassion for this little creature that would otherwise have been yanked from its mother to be ridden for the first time. That says something of the nature of our king. Our king, who cares for all of his creatures, I'm saying Jesus is God who created all things and sustains, cares infinitely more so for God's image bearers, the people he's come to save. Matthew has already told us this. In Matthew 6, Jesus said, Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? You see, it's the King's care for his people. It's the King's compassion for his people, let alone this little donkey. that compels him to make his way into the city of David as we see here in Matthew 21. It is for us, we who are his people, that Jesus fulfills this prophecy of arriving in Jerusalem in such an unlikely way. Listen, to belong to a king who has authority to command and power to control still would be a terrifying thing if that king did not care deeply for you and exercise compassion for you according to his infinite wisdom. And this is precisely what Jesus has come to display at Calvary. And this is precisely the nature of your king that you're meant to see here in Matthew 21. Jesus is the king who wields his divine authority and his sovereign control only to the benefit of his people. You mean in all things? They're working? in the wisdom and power of Jesus for your benefit? Absolutely, absolutely. Even the stuff in your life right now that you don't really like, yep, he's using that too for your ultimate benefit. And he's got complete control over it. Do you believe this? How do you relate to such a king? We've seen this care and compassion of Jesus time and time again in Matthew's Gospel. Two blind guys, remember that? Blind Bart and his friend cry out to Jesus. They are as blind physically as the people cheering Jesus on in this moment in Matthew 21 are blind spiritually. And what do they say to him? Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. They believe who Jesus is. They believe Jesus has the authority and the power to give them sight. They trust that he will wield this power and authority for their benefit, and Jesus heals them. And then Matthew has repeatedly been showing this, this compassion of Jesus. This is how the Messiah, the always King, relates to his people, mercifully, with compassion. In fact, says Matthew, Jesus commanded his disciples this very disposition in their own ministry. Because that is his manner with his people. Matthew 20, 28, as you know, Jesus said, the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Behold your king. And it's this giving his life a ransom for many that necessitated his going up to Jerusalem at this time we're reading of this morning. The Son of Man, says Jesus, will be betrayed to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and will deliver him over to the Gentiles to mock and flog and crucify him. And on the third day, he will be raised up. This prophecy Jesus gave to his disciples three times before the events we're reading about this morning. It is the backdrop then for this journey into Jerusalem on a donkey. He's to be a crucified king before he is to be a conquering king. And it's a great irony. In fact, it's the irony of this that we so often focus on when we're looking at these gospel accounts of what we call Palm Sunday. The people fawning over Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem. The crowd streaming out of the city to welcome him. They all longed for a king who would command this and control that in such a way that he would accomplish what they most wanted. You don't have to look far at all to find those who relate to Jesus in this way still today. And they remembered something of Zechariah's prophecy. You can say that for them at least. So they're picturing in their minds the coming of a great king as they see Jesus on this donkey. They saw and even unwittingly contributed to a spectacle that seemed to be congruent with their preconceived notions of who Jesus is. Look at verse 8. Most of the crowd spread their garments in the road. Others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. And the crowds going ahead of him and those who followed were crying out, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Their words are a fulfillment of Psalm 118. One of the Psalms of Ascent. But here's the thing, Hosanna, which means save now, or Lord save, can also be, for these people, a sort of nationalistic cheer. Kind of like people might say, God bless America, and actually give very little thought to God. Or God save the king, you know, that sort of thing. Or just say, for example, having in your purse or your wallet some currency upon which is written, in God we trust. So we know what it's like for people to use religious language, even write religious language in a way that doesn't really mean what it seems to mean. There's a bit of that going on here in Matthew 21. We know that these crowds really want from Jesus. They want to see him use his power and his authority to fulfill their wants, to fulfill their own expectations. And by the way, this is why I thought to call this message, Taking God at His Word. Disciples must learn by experience, walking by faith, to live on what God has promised, not our preconceived notions of what we hope God will do. There's a big case of that here in Matthew 21. We're meant to live on this reality that the Jesus who controls all things, who commands all things, and is compassionate to meet our greatest needs according to his infinite wisdom, does this his way. How do you respond rightly? to this king who commands and controls all things only for the benefit of his people. Only for the benefit of his people. What is our greatest need? Our greatest need is to be restored to God. Our greatest need is to be saved from sin's penalty, the eternal wrath of Almighty God that awaits sinners. We need to be rescued from that. We cannot rescue ourselves. We need to be saved from sin's power to be the dominant influence in our lives. So that we're not image bearers who live by base instincts and feelings and the spirit of the age and all of that sort of thing, but are led to live more and more under the influence of the spirit of God. We need to be saved from sin's very presence. Do you realize, Christian, that there is a day coming in which that will be true of you? Saved from sin's very presence, sin in you, sin around you, all of it gone. So our King's command. And our king's control and his compassion all are aimed in the direction of him going to that cross outside of Jerusalem to accomplish this great task for which he came. And yet it was not what the masses wanted. He didn't fit their preconceived expectations. And I'll skip the history lesson about the Maccabeans and all of that sort of thing. You're familiar with that. Why the people would have expected yet another zealot to come and make another run at throwing off the yoke of bondage to Rome this time. It was Greece before. And they imagine that this Jesus is the one who's gonna foot their bill for that kind of military deliverer, and they could not have been more wrong. And the thing of it is, is if they had only remembered rightly the rest of Zachariah's prophecy, rather than just the parts they wanted to remember, I beg you to pay attention to this, because there's a tendency among God's people still today to remember the stuff we wanna remember and forget the rest. What would they have remembered? God says what? I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the bow of war will be cut off. This king has come to establish peace, not to make war. And this explains why Luke records for us in his gospel Jesus weeping over Jerusalem as he looks upon the city. Listen to what Jesus said about all of this. And as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he cried over it, saying, if you knew this day, even you, the things which make for your peace, but now they have been hidden from your eyes. Don't miss this. People like you and me, we have limited time to accept Jesus as he truly is. Not as we imagine him to be. Not according to the preconceived notions we have. But as he truly is. We have limited time to embrace what he has come to accomplish for us. We have limited time to cooperate with him, to live in and live out the works that he's prepared in advance for us to do. If we delay, I mean, just consider the text this morning, if we delay, we do so with the danger that we may not see him rightly again. This time, for some here in this room, is a time of visitation in that sense. Meeting in scripture the Christ, the King, who's come to save. How do you respond to such a King? There's a hint of this truth being hidden, I think, here in the text, look at verse 10. And when he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, who is this? And the crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. Notice what happens when people are pressed on this matter of who is Jesus to you. Do they say he is the Messiah? Do they say he is Yahweh's anointed king? The son whom you must kiss, lest his wrath be kindled just a little. The son in whose shelter you are safe. According to Psalm 2, they don't say any of that. Do they say that he's the promised king who commands and controls all things with compassion only for his people's benefit? No. They say he's that prophet from Nazareth. And let me just remind you, something you already know, calling him that prophet was honorable for sure, but pointing out that he's from Nazareth was a bit of a jab. Because people on that day would point toward Nazareth and say, you know, can anything good come from Nazareth? They see Jesus as a great man, come hopefully to do their bidding, but nothing more. And so they honor him superficially. And I want to end with this as a caution. but also as an encouragement. And I'll start with the caution. A superficial response to Jesus is eternally consequential. And you say, well, that sounds like something a pastor would say. Well, it's not my material. And I urge you to be attentive to this. Misguided enthusiasm for Jesus will lead to everlasting ruin. I'll show you this in scripture in a moment. Listen to Zechariah's prophecy once more first. His reign will be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. The Euphrates River sometimes as a waypoint is given in scripture. But the point is what? That there will be no part of this earth over which King Jesus does not reign one day. We're reading of his first presentation as king He's coming again. And in his second presentation, if you will, his second coming, nobody's going to miss the memo. Nobody's going to misunderstand what is going on. You say, well, that hasn't happened yet. No, it hasn't. But Christians, we live, do we not, according to the promises of God's Word. Our King is coming again. And he's coming to rule. And he's coming to reign and he's coming to rid all evidences, all traces of the curse of sin. And he'll not be riding a donkey. this next time around. Listen to the language of John's Apocalypse, the book of Revelation. And in righteousness he judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, having a name written on him which no one knows except himself, and being clothed with a garment dipped in blood. His name is also called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. And from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of the wrath of the rage of God, the Almighty. And he has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. So how different will this second presentation of the King, King Jesus, be? Christ comes at first to bring peace between God and sinful man. Are you at peace with God? How do you respond to a king? who commands and controls all things and yet with compassion calls to you this day to repent of your sinful ways and turn to Him and live in allegiance to Him. What compassion we see in our King. because he's coming again to judge sinners who have rejected the peace he paid for on that cross with his own blood. Jesus is the king who completes God's promises to rid his world and his people of sin. That's the caution. But Christian, that's also the encouragement, don't you think? You and I, think about what we just sang. Come thou long expected Jesus. Oh, that's wonderful, that's a Christmas song. Well, it's a second coming song too, isn't it? In fact, you really can't sing that hymn without thinking deep thoughts. This sounds like it's talking about something that's yet to happen. It's because it is. We live between two presentations of King Jesus. He commands all now to repent and believe in Him. He controls all things, and He does so for your benefit, Christian. He cares for you. His compassion is infinite. It's immeasurable, and it's inexhaustible. And be sure of this, he will complete the mission he came to fulfill. He's ridding his world and his people of sin. Isn't it interesting to think that there is a day coming in our future, believers, there's a day coming in our future when it will be said of all that Christ has done from today forward, all this took place in order that what God has spoken would be fulfilled. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this wonderful record of you coming humbly into your city, where you accomplished your work for your people and your world. And Lord, I pray that you would stir our hearts to faith in you as our sovereign, our compassionate sovereign. Lord, will you find those who belong to you faithful so that as you instruct us to go, we go. As you instruct us to do, we do for love's sake. for gratitude for all that you have done for us in our doing now and have promised to do for all eternity. And Lord, I pray if there's anyone here this morning who came through the doors alienated from you that you would, Lord, do that work of softening a rebel heart to turn to you as Savior, to run to you as our compassionate King. And Jesus, we ask you this ultimately for your namesake. We ask you this for your glory, let alone our benefit. Amen.