Thank you. All right. Good morning, everybody. So, Lord willing, we're going to finish up question 36 today. There's handouts up here on the table, by the way, if you didn't get them when you walked in. It's the same handouts from last week for question 36, but they are up there if you would like them. So, last week we started question 36 looking at who is the mediator of the covenant of grace. Of course, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. We talked about how He is the only mediator and how that puts a definitive timeline on Jesus' role as mediator, of course, that being eternity itself. It reveals important truths regarding our salvation and how only Jesus being the only mediator eliminates the possibility of any other false religions. And so today we're going to dive in a little bit more into the rest of the question, specifically really getting into the hypostatic union, because the answer does. But before we get into all that, let me pray for us. Our good and gracious Father, we thank you for this day, your Lord's Day, our day of rest, our day of praise and worship of you. We thank you that you have set aside this day, this one day in seven, our Sabbath day, that we can worship you and glorify you. Thank you for this snap of cool weather this morning. It was brisk and enjoyable. We pray, Lord, that you would sustain us this day, that we may worship you in spirit and in truth and glorify you. We pray for this Sunday school hour that you would be with us as we seek to learn more about you and your son and this great mysterious nature that is the hypostatic union. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. Alright, so, let's reread the question real quick, just so it's fresh in our minds. I'll read the question, please respond in unison. 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. Why is Jesus the only mediator of the covenant of grace? In other words, why Jesus specifically? Could someone else have done it? Well, of course, the answer to that question is no. But the reason why Jesus specifically is pretty much the rest of our answer here. And the short answer is the hypostatic union. Now the Catechism has specific questions later on on why Jesus had to be both God and man. Here I want to focus more on understanding the basic theology of the Hypostatic Union. Because that's going to be really our groundwork. It's going to be real important later on. I want to look at some Christology. That's the study of Christ. Just walk through the Catechism answer. So, Jesus alone is qualified to be our perfect mediator because of His eternal deity and His true humanity. Let me say that one more time. Jesus alone is qualified to be our perfect mediator because of His eternal deity and His true humanity. But, let's stop and think for a minute. What does that mean? What are the implications of that? First and foremost, it means that Jesus is God, okay? And that can't be overstated. And I think in our Christian worldview, we presuppose that, which is fine, there's nothing wrong with that, but especially when we're talking to other people. In other words, we just naturally believe Jesus is God. Well, yeah, of course, but unbelievers don't, right? And don't forget that. So you need to be able to show them from Scripture that their mediator, because he is their mediator, he's everybody's mediator, is God. Okay, so how do you do that? If you tell someone, Jesus is our perfect mediator because he's Lord, he's God. Here he is, he's God himself, right? And they say, great, how do you know that? Prove it. I want you to be able to do it. I want you to be able to pull out your Bibles and prove it, okay? Because at a very basic level, we see this spelled out for us in Scripture, I think at least in four different ways. Number one, Jesus is called God. I think a lot of people think Jesus isn't actually referred to God in Scripture. It's inferred, or it's kind of hinted at a little bit. Allow me to correct that here. After Thomas puts his hands in Jesus' wounds, he cries out in John 20, verse 28, Paul says in Titus 2 verse 13, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And I think I listed all these in your handout, these references. Hebrews 1.8, but of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever the scepter of uprightness, is the scepter of your kingdom. In 2 Peter 1.1, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. I could go on and on, there's more examples, but I think you get the point, right? Multiple authors, multiple witnesses, all verbally identify and address Jesus as God. The scriptures speak clearly on this point. He is Yahweh. God of the Old Testament. Same God. Number two, Jesus has the attributes of God. The attributes of God. That means every way we describe God, the same is true of Jesus. And what is God? What is He? I'm going to pick on my daughter. Annabelle, do you remember what is God? He's a... Very good, that's my girl. He's a spirit, he doesn't have a body, just like man, that's our children's catechism answer right there. Adults though, you should know this one too. What's the longer version of that? Do you know the shorter catechism answer? Who knows the shorter catechism answer? Goodness and truth. My man, good job. Excellent. Very good. Jesus possesses all the attributes of God, right? That means in his divine nature, all these wonderful attributes we just listed, right, are true of Jesus as well. And just by way of reminder, right, theologians speak of these attributes, and I'm pretty sure we've talked about this, right? as incommunicable attributes and communicable attributes. Incommunicable attributes, those are the ones that we don't share with God, right? Like his immutability, right? God doesn't change. We change, right? Communicable attributes, those are the ones that we do share with God, right? An example would be love. Right? We imperfectly love. God loves perfectly. Okay? So when we look at Jesus, we have to remember he is both fully God and fully man. Right? And we'll discuss this in more detail in a minute. But what does that look like in regards to displaying the attributes of God? Well, in his divine nature, Jesus shares in the incommunicable attributes of God. Say that one more time. In his divine nature, Jesus shares in the incommunicable attributes of God. But in his human nature, because he is without sin, he demonstrates perfectly for us how to display the communicable attributes of God. Everybody track with me on that? Okay, anybody need me to repeat that one? Okay. Let's take a look at an example of his incommunicable attributes, okay? These are the ones we don't share with God. Turn with me to John chapter two. We're going to start in verse 23. It's John 2 beginning in verse 23. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name. when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man." So here we see in verse 23 that there was an affirmation of Jesus, right? It says they believed in his name, yet Jesus didn't entrust them. Why? Well, because it says in verse 24 that Jesus knew all people. In other words, He knew the people's hearts despite their verbal profession. This is an affirmation of His divine omniscience. Jesus is showing us, in His divine nature, an incommunicable attribute. Let me put this in plain language here. Jesus is showing us how, because of His divine nature, He knows all things. In this case, the heart of the people. Knowing all things is not an attribute that we share with God. Everyone tracking on that? And actually, this section serves as an introduction to Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman in chapters 3 and 4. They're going to put up a good front. But like these people at the Passover feast, He'll quickly discern their hearts as well. And we see plenty examples of Christ communicable attributes throughout scripture as well, right? The communicable attributes, the ones that we share with God, right? His love, His compassion, anger, right? Wisdom, so on, right? So it's in our sanctification that we plead with the Holy Spirit to transform us into the one who does these things perfectly. Here's the third way that we know Jesus is God. He performs the mighty works of God. Performs the works of God. Now, there are a lot of different categories that we could put under this header here, but I'm thinking specifically of Jesus' work during his earthly ministry. Jesus performs many wonderful miracles, but I think one of the grandest is the resurrection of the dead. One of the powers reserved exclusively for God is the permission to grant life and death. John 5.21, for as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will. Now, there are multiple resurrections in Scripture. There are four times that we see Jesus exercise this power. He raises the widow's son in Luke 7. He raises Jairus' daughter in the very next chapter, Luke 8. He resurrects Lazarus in John 11. And then, of course, Jesus himself is raised from the dead, right? Jesus says, I lay down my life of my own accord, and I have authority to take it up again. John 10, 18. So let's just take a look at one of these. Turn with me to Luke chapter 7. Luke 7. Let's start at verse 11. All right, Luke 7, verse 11. Soon afterward, he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. Then he came up and touched the beer, and the bearers stood still. And he said, Young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people. And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. Now, it's no accident that this comes at this point in the narrative. Just before this, at the beginning in Luke chapter 7, Jesus has demonstrated he has the power to heal with the centurion's servant. Now, Jesus' power to heal is demonstrated with a great miracle at this point. He's raising the dead. And it's no coincidence also that this parallels the narrative of 1 Kings 17. There, God brings back to life a widow's son through the prophet Elijah. As Jews are witnessing Jesus perform this miracle, they're undoubtedly thinking about that. They're recalling that event. They would have known that only Yahweh has the power to do something like this. So let's look back at our text. I want us to notice a couple of things. In verse 13, it's the first thing. In verse 13, Jesus looks at the woman and he has compassion. Our text says, here we see in Jesus' human nature, okay, this communicable attribute is perfectly displayed. He looks on the grieving widow who is in pain. He sees her pain and he acts. He acts with compassion. That is what biblical compassion does. Every time we see Jesus show compassion towards someone, He doesn't just feel pity for them. He acts for their good. This is just one way Jesus models for us the attributes of God. Secondly, in verse 14, it says, Jesus came up and touched the beer. So a beer, by the way, is just like a plank that kind of holds the open coffin. It was used to carry the dead bodies. And notice that Jesus is unconcerned about ceremonial cleanness. Because if you touch something like this, or you touch the dead body, that made you unclean. And He's not concerned about that. He does it again also in Matthew chapter 9. Why? Why doesn't this make Jesus unclean? Because when He raises the dead, He takes away that person's uncleanness. And so Jesus says, young man, I say to you, arise. And the man sits up and he starts talking, which is proof, by the way, and that's very important, it's proof that the miracle occurred. Third thing we need to take note of, at the end of verse 15 it says, Jesus gave him to his mother. That phrase is the exact same phrase we read in the Septuagint in 1 Kings 17, 23, when this happens with Elijah. in the raising of the widow's son. After he's raised from the dead, Elijah, quote, gave him to his mother. Same phrase. Again, the parallels being drawn in the Jews' minds at this point would have been startling. It would have been striking. This is the same God who raised that boy so long ago that we read about all the time. Fourth thing, the last thing that we need to note is in verse 16, fear seized them all and they glorified God. In recognition of God's powerful presence, the people immediately began to worship. They feared God and they started to worship. This is without a doubt the appropriate response in this situation. Now, we do have a, I'll call it a slight problem here. As you continue in the verse, you'll notice that the people say, a great prophet has arisen among us and God has visited his people. So, they're certainly not wrong to call Jesus a prophet, right? He is. But they still haven't identified him yet, right, correctly as God incarnate. And it's actually why I love the scene when Jesus calms the storm in the very next chapter. He and the disciples, they're out on the boat, Jesus falls asleep, and a big storm picks up, and the disciples are freaking out, so they wake up Jesus. He gets up, and Luke 8, 24 says Jesus rebuked the wind and the raging waves and seas. He rebukes it like a child throwing a tantrum, and it just calms right down. And the disciples, their jaws hit the floor. And then Luke 8.25, they were afraid and they marveled saying to one another, who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him? So what's the takeaway from that text? Is it the classic evangelical application of what storms do you have in your life that Jesus can call? No. No, that's not it, right? The takeaway is that Jesus is God. That's what's been building up this whole time in the text. Only God has the authority and the power to raise the dead, to calm the storms and control the weather. That is what the disciples just realized. And as a consequence of these miracles, Jesus is given the worship of God. And that's our fourth thing here. That's how we know Jesus is God. He's given the worship of God. Or to put it another way, because Jesus is God, He is due the glory, honor, and worship of the living God. And we see it as early as his birth, right? The pastor preached on this not too long ago, right? In the beginning of Matthew, the wise men, or the magi, right? The ones who study the stars, right? If you remember Pastor Sermon, right? It says in Matthew 2, 2, I don't want to rehash Pastor Sermon here, but you get the point, right? From his earliest years, He is rightly identified as God and King. And therefore, He's worshipped accordingly. This requirement for worship continues into Jesus' adulthood and His ministry, right? All with the Apostles in Matthew 14, okay? There Jesus is walking on water in Matthew 14, and He calls out to Peter, right? He says, come to me. And Peter starts going out to Him, but he starts to have doubt, right? So he sinks. He cries out, Lord, save me. And Jesus immediately saves him, and that's where we get our famous verse, right? O you of little faith, why did you doubt? But here's the real takeaway, right? Verses 32 and 33 in Matthew 14. When they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshipped him, saying, Truly, you are the Son of God. But it doesn't end there, does it? It doesn't end in Jesus' earthly ministry, or His earthly life. The worship of Jesus continues throughout eternity. Revelation 5, verses 13 and 14, And I heard every creature in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them saying, To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing, and honor, and glory, and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders fell down and worshipped. These are the four basic ways that we see in Scripture that teach us that Jesus is God. He's called God, he has the attributes of God, he performs the works of God, and he is worshipped as God. Now, are there other ways that we could prove this? Yeah, sure. But I think these are crucial, and this is a very good basic way to do it with somebody. But here's another important thing that you need to keep in mind, that we need to understand Jesus's divinity. When we're talking about the fact that Jesus is God, we need to understand his divinity within our Trinitarian theology. Our Catechism answer helps us out with that. It tells us two crucial bits of information. Jesus is the eternal Son of God, and he is one substance and equal with the Father. Let's take a look at that first one, Jesus being the eternal Son of God. Now, some of you might be thinking, dude, I got this, okay, I already know this, this is old hat, okay, you don't need to go over this again. Do you though? Because what we're saying here is that one of those persons is the Son of God who is one person with two natures and who has existed forever and really there's nothing simple about any of that. So, why don't we start with something small, like the eternality of Christ. Turn with me, please, to a well-known passage, John chapter 1. Now, honestly, we could probably do a whole class just on John chapter 1. Actually, I have in seminary. It took like six classes. But anyway, this is a fantastic passage. Let's focus on just two verses. The first two. John 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. So John starts his gospel in the same manner as Genesis 1-1. Right? In the beginning. And he does this to identify the Word's existence. Right? The Word being Jesus. That he was in eternity past with God. Now here's a question for you. Why does John use the word Word? John says Jesus is the Word. He's the Logos. Why? Why does he do that? Is he just trying to be cool? Like, Word? No. In calling Jesus the Word, John is telling us several important things. Number one, Christ is the communication between God and man. Look at verse 18. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made Him known. Let me put it this way. Christ is the one who exegetes God. He is the one who reveals the Father to us. He is the one who explains God to us. Secondly, this is why John uses the word Word. Going back to the creation account, God is the one who speaks things into existence. How did God create all things? By the power of His Word. And we read in verse 14 that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the Word who speaks all things into existence. And just as a side note, that phrase, dwelt among us, in verse 14, it comes from the Greek word skenao. And a very wooden way to translate that is that he pitched his tent. It's an allusion to God dwelling with his people in the tabernacle and throughout redemptive history. So the idea is that in Jesus, God pitched his tent in human form. That's why you'll sometimes hear people, or you'll read texts, which I think is a really good translation, that God tabernacled among his people. It's really cool. Now, none of these things could have occurred apart from the eternal relationship with God the Father. If Christ was not eternally God, He could not communicate God to us. He could not create the world or tabernacle among us. His eternality is critical. Past, present, and future. John chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 are a clear explanation of Christ's pre-existence and His divinity. Now, let's take a look at Christ's Sonship. There are several passages we could turn to for this, John 3.16 being one of them, but take a look at the rest of verse 14 here in John chapter 1. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The references to God's glory refer back to Old Testament passages narrating the manifestation of the presence and glory of God in theophanies. Now, theophanies are just the appearance of God, that's your big five dollar word for the day, okay? Examples would be like the tabernacle, or the temple, or the glory cloud, right? Now, that glory is reflected in the Son of God. the only Son from the Father. And this, of course, doesn't mean that Jesus was created or born. We'll talk about that more in a minute. This doctrine of eternal Sonship recognizes that Sonship is not merely a title or a role that Christ assumed at some specific point in time. It is the essential identity of the second person of the Godhead. Christ is and always has been the Son of God. And there are so many biblical passages that support this doctrine. We've already seen, right, in the beginning of John, Jesus is the Son who created all things. He manifests His glory with the Father. I mean, you could look at Galatians 4.4, 1 John 3.8, Hebrews 13.8. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. But I think one of the strongest arguments for this doctrine exists in understanding the triune nature of God and the eternal relationship that exists between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What's really important is the unique relationship between the Father and the Son that can only be captured by understanding the eternal Sonship of Christ. And this relationship is crucial to understanding the full measure of God's love for those whom he has redeemed through his Son's blood. And I think we see that well in Ephesians 1. Turn with me there. Ephesians 1. Let's look at verses 3-14. Ephesians 1, beginning in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, and we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth, In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory." The plan was, according to this text, for God the Father to take His Son, whom He loved, from before the foundation of the world and send Him to be a sacrifice for our sins. But why? What are the implications of that sacrifice, of that plan? Well, it's a pretty long list if you were listening. Allow me to read it back to you. The implications of that are that we might be blessed, chosen, holy and blameless, loved, adopted and declared sons, redeemed, forgiven, lavished with grace, given insight to His will, receive an inheritance, predestined, first to hope, saved, and sealed with the Holy Spirit. We are forgiven our sins and declared sons of the living God that we might receive the full inheritance of Christ. That is the implication of Christ's eternal sonship for you. It is a sweet and beautiful doctrine. Yeah, you can go to scripture all day long and prove this doctrine, it's easy. but when you fully recognize the implications of it and understand its importance, it's mind-blowing. Now, the Catechism goes on and it says that Jesus is one substance and equal with the Father. I want us to look at each one of these individually First of all, He is one substance. What do the divines mean by that? I mean, we say it all the time, right? In the Nicene Creed, Jesus is begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father. I think people get tripped up on that sometimes when they get to this language, especially that word begotten. the whole phrase, that whole phrase really is articulating the same, kind of the same point. Actually, in defense against some early church heresies, which we're going to talk about, for Jesus to be begotten is to be of the same nature and essence of his Father. It's to be of the same nature and essence of his father. He has all the same attributes of his father. Jesus personifies that father-son relationship within the Godhead. And don't forget, even with this word begotten, we have to remember what we've learned already previously about analogical discourse, anthropomorphic language. This is God using our language to try to convey some incredibly difficult spiritual realities here. There's only so many words that we can use. And it's incumbent upon us to take those words and understand them properly. And the Greek word for begotten here, monogonous, can actually have a couple different meanings depending on the context. For example, in Hebrews 11, 17, when the author calls Isaac Abraham's only begotten son, it's to denote that he's one of a kind or in a specific relationship. Because don't forget, Isaac wasn't Abraham's only son. Right? But Isaac was his only son by Sarah and the only son of the covenant. So Isaac was unique among Abraham's other sons in that way. Right? Isaac was the monogamous, the begotten. Okay? But that's not really what we mean when we're referring to Christ. The other definition of monogamous is being the one and only of its kind or being in a unique class. Being unique and kind, that's really key. This is the meaning in passages like John 1.14, John 3.16, when you read those in the KGV and in our creeds. It's used to highlight that Jesus is uniquely God's Son, sharing the same divine nature as God. This is in contrast to believers who are God's Son by adoption. Jesus is God's one and only Son. We are God's sons by adoption. And so scripture is clear. Jesus was not made or created. Look at John 1, 3. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. As we've already said, God the Father carried out his creative works through the activity of his Son. This verse disproves any suggestion that Jesus, the Word, was created. Otherwise, the Father would have been the one doing the creating. And John says, no, no, no, no, no. Things weren't created that way. For without Him was not anything made that was made. Do you see the flow of the logic there? The Son is eternally begotten by the Father. And this generation, or begottenness, never had a beginning. So that's what it means for Jesus to be begotten, to be one substance with the Father. Now, the Catechism also says that He is equal with the Father. And consequently, because Jesus is one substance with His Father, He is also equal with Him in every way. The Shorter Catechism answer says all members of the Godhead are the same in substance, equal in power and glory. And so whatever power and glory we ascribe to the Father, we render unto the Son. For Jesus says in 1030, I and the Father are one. What makes the three persons of the Godhead, the persons of the Trinity, differ is not their attributes, but their relationship to one another. The earliest Orthodox teachings of the Church, and we confess today the same thing, the Father is unbegotten. You can read that in the prologue. John 1, that's John 1-18, we get that from there. The Son is begotten of the Father, that's John 1-18. And the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. You can get that in John 14-26, John 15-26. And these are all unique personal properties belonging to each respective member of the Godhead. So when we speak of Jesus as the only mediator of the covenant of grace, there are some Christological doctrines that we affirm with that. He is God. He is the eternal Son of God. He is one substance, and he is equal with his Father. Okay? All right. Sanity check. This is a deep theology that we're talking about here. We're about halfway through this answer and we've only talked about Jesus's divine nature. Is everyone still with me? But this is important stuff. And I don't want this to go over anybody's head because these are doctrines and truths that we need to understand, that we need to affirm. Everybody still with me so far? Okay. Okay, everybody. I don't know if I want to cut this short because we're about to go into the next big section. So the Catechism says, in the fullness of time he became man, and this is the second half Of what I mentioned earlier that Jesus alone is qualified to be our perfect mediator Because of his eternal deity and his true humanity Okay, so that's where we're gonna be headed. I don't know that I want to dive into that at this point because it's kind of like the second half of this animal that we need to wrestle and It's 942 so I Does anyone have any questions? I think I'm going to stop it there. Does anyone have any questions about what we've gone over? Yes. Hang on. I got it here. I'm not going to answer that without just looking at here. I think it's M-O-N-O-G-N-E-S. Where'd it go? There you go. I'll get that for you. M-O-N-O-G-E-N-E-S. All right. Then, oh, you got a question? Yes. I think we go over that. Oh, maybe we go over. Hang on. I might table that question just because we are going to talk about being born in Philippians, being born in the likeness of man. I tell you what, hold off on that one, and after we go over Philippians, and Philippians 2, if you're still confused, we'll talk about that one. It's a good question though, because next week we are gonna talk about Jesus becoming man, and the implications of that, and what that looks like, and what the text means, what it doesn't mean, all that good stuff. Yes, Jerry. Oh, yeah, the heresies? Yeah, we just didn't get to it today. Yeah, we're going to do that next week. Yeah, it's on the docket for sure. I will definitely talk about that. Those are some good stuff, some good things to go over. And those heresies are just Christological heresies, too. There's another laundry list of Trinitarian heresies. And those are fun. All right, any more gripes, complaints, concerns? Cool. All right, let me close this in prayer. Our good and gracious Father, we thank you that you are King and Lord, and that you have sent your Son to sit at your right hand and throne in power, where he reigns as our King and Lord, who is truly God and truly man for all eternity. And we thank you that you have sent him to live and to die for us, for our sins, and that we may be forgiven and adopted as your children. Father, please bless us, be with us in our time of fellowship and our hour of praise and worship of you as our great Trinitarian God, the one true and living God. We thank you, Lord. We love you. We are so grateful that you have called us and that you love us as your children. Please be with Pastor Miller and bless him as he brings your word. Open our hearts. May we be receptive to it this morning. Pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.