We're going to draw our attention now to the word of God. This morning we began with the beginning and now we're returning to the end. So we will look at Revelation 22 and probably part of 21 in just a moment. But first I'm going to read Psalm 8 and this will tie together some of the themes we looked at this morning with creation and some of the themes we'll look at tonight with redemption. We see in Psalm 8 how things should have been if we had not fallen into sin, and how things shall be in Jesus Christ when he restores everything by his grace. So with that in view, let us stand together. Let us give our attention to the word of God. Just so everyone's not confused, the Bible I have with me tonight is the ESV, so I apologize for that in advance for not matching the Pew Bibles, but you know at least why it's different. To the choir master, according to Gittith, or from Gath, a Psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes. You're still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, the stars that you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, or angels, and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. And now let us draw our attention to the end, taking us to Revelation 21 and 22. I'm going to draw our attention to the first five verses of chapter 22, but 21 and 22 are really one long vision and picture of heavenly glory. and fellowship with God. So I'm at least going to pick up here in verse five and read through verse eight and then verse 22 and read through our text. Keep in mind, they're seeing the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, which is the church of God, the Lamb's wife. And he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, write this down, that these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. And the one who conquers will have this heritage. And I will be his God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. And then dropping down to verse 22, as John is seeing the vision of the city unfold and see its gates and its streets, now he says in verse 22, I saw no temple in the city. for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and honor of the nation. but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Then the angel showed me the river, the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also, on the other side of the river, the Tree of Life, or perhaps Trees of Life, with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for healing the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, or better yet, no longer a curse. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and night will be no more. They will need no lamp or light or lamp of the sun. For the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever. Thus far our reading of God's holy word. I mentioned this morning in these last two sermons, at least in this church of 2018, I chose to preach on the beginning and the end. It began with Genesis 1, 1 through 5, and now we're in Revelation 22, 1 through 5. And the reason for this is these things remind us of who God is, who we are, and how and why we need to know him. And there is nothing more important that we can learn this year and know every year that the Lord grants us to live in this world. These are the great realities that are before us every day. And I hope this is a good note to leave us on, not only this Lord's Day evening, but as we look forward to beginning a new year. Who knows, this may be the year that Jesus returns as we look forward. I confess to you, as I read the scripture reading tonight, I was virtually dumbfounded because I mentioned this morning how in Genesis 1 we have almost a summary or implication of virtually everything the Bible has to say thereafter. everything about God, everything about who we are, everything about how we understand our world, our relationship to God. And now as I read this text in the book of Revelation, I'm struck by the fact how our author here almost summarizes everything the Old Testament has ever said about all the promises of God and all the blessings that culminate in Jesus Christ. I haven't counted it, but there are virtually two to three Old Testament references in every single verse that I read. And in this glorious and beautiful way, the Lord is summing up everything in Jesus Christ. He is showing us where things should have gone in the first place if we had never sinned, and where things are going because of the Savior. And he leaves us with this glorious picture of the heavenly city where there is nothing but life, there is nothing but light, there is no sin, There is no curse. There is nothing to mar the beauty and the joy and the majesty of the place. But as we just sung a few moments ago, it is the lamb that is all the glory of Emmanuel's lamb. This isn't the introduction I intended to give you, but I'm reminded of Luther saying that he would rather be in hell if Jesus was there than in heaven without because Christ himself is the heaven of heavens. And the greatest blessing and the greatest joy and the highest end we could possibly be brought to is to dwell with this God in this place that we've just read of. The glorious description of the place itself, namely heaven, the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city, whatever you want to call it, is simply the appropriate stage on which our fellowship with God is set. There are great things the Lord has set before us here in the beginning this morning, but also at the end this evening. The message of the text is actually quite simple. The Lord is promising in Jesus Christ to remove all the effects of sin for his people. through the work of Jesus Christ, he is reversing the ruin that Adam brought upon us. And he is not only reversing it and turning the clock back, but he is making things better than they ever would have been, ever could have been, if there had never been such a thing as sin. We begin the Bible in a garden, and we end the Bible in a garden. But as Richard Baxter once said, in the original garden, There is a way out, but no way back in. And in this garden, there is a way in, but no way out. Because we are safe in the presence of God and in Jesus Christ. And what I've done now is I'm preaching the sermon before the sermon. but it's a glorious picture, isn't it? We should read this text, and it should stir something in our hearts. It should make us long to see more than we've already seen, to know more of the glory of God than we can know now, and to look forward to it, and to hope in it, and in light of it, to transform everything we think, everything we do, everything we say, as individuals, as families, as a church, now, in this world. So the message is simple. When Jesus returns, he will reverse all the effects of sin. He will restore creation, he will restore his people, and God will dwell with us. How does he do this? And this is where our text explains a little bit. He does it really in three ways. First of all, he gives life. That's what we see in verses one and two. Secondly, he removes the curse. That's what we see in verse three. And then lastly, he makes his face shine on us. So let me put it differently. He gives light, or life rather, he takes away the curse, and he gives light. Light was supposed to be there, but I put it at the wrong end. The Lord gives life, the Lord takes away the curse, and the Lord gives light, namely the light of his face, his smiling presence upon us. Well, let's consider the first part of this. In verses one and two, the Lord Jesus, or God and his son, removes the effects of the fall by giving life. And one of the great things about preaching the book of Revelation is, in a sense, it really illustrates itself, doesn't it? I have heard so many pastors tell me that they have preached through the book of Revelation and as soon as they do their scripture reading, everyone from the oldest to the youngest child is enraptured because they wanna know what is he gonna say about all these dreams, all these visions, all these vivid images that are coming before us. Well, this is no exception. What we have before us is the picture of a great city. And the city, as it were, is coming down from heaven. and coming down to dwell among men, so that heaven and earth are actually made one. This city is described as a person. It is the spouse, it is the lamb's wife, and what is this great city? It is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, his bride, who is, as it were, brought down from heaven because she is now ready for the wedding ceremony. Everything is made perfect, everything is right, and now she is coming to dwell with her bridegroom forever. The description of a city marks the fact that God is there, God is living there, we are living there, and we are together. Things are as they should be. There is no angel with a flaming sword pushing us out of paradise, but there is a God with open arms bringing us into his presence and causing his glorious face to shine upon us. There are a lot of parallels here to the Garden of Eden, aren't there? If you've read Genesis 1, you'll start seeing, and if you've not, I'll describe it. There were three rivers there that went out from Eden to water the whole earth. There was every kind of plant there that was necessary for Adam and Eve to eat. And there was the tree of life in the midst that promised to them eternal life. If they trusted God, if they obeyed God, if they loved God, if they lived with God, they would have everlasting life. And that tree of life was to them what the Lord's Supper is to you and I as Christians. We come to the Lord's Supper not because it magically transforms our souls or turns on a magic switch in our hearts to do something we wouldn't have otherwise, but to direct us into the arms of the Savior. Where Christ comes to meet us, where we come to meet Christ, and by believing Christ, by feeding on him by faith, we have everlasting life. And so Adam and Eve were in a garden with a tree of life. And there it was, with all the promises of God embodied in it. Fellowship with him, life. And we know everything went wrong. And in a certain sense, where we live and how we live right now shows that everything is wrong. But I wanna say more about that under the curse in the second point. What I wanna say now is what God is saying to us is in this future world, in this time when Christ returns, when he receives his bride to himself and the heavenly Jerusalem is fully built and fully complete, there will be the tree of life. There will be a river there to water it. And it will bear fruit every season of the year. Now this is a vivid pictorial way of saying what Jesus tells us in John 10. He says that I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for my sheep. I've come that they may have life and that they may have it abundantly. In other words, apart from Jesus Christ, we are dead in our trespasses and sins and in Jesus Christ, we have life. Apart from Him, we are separated from the fellowship of God. Through Him, we know God. Apart from Jesus Christ, we are left to darkness. We're left to despair. We bear the marks of death in our bodies right now. We're all growing older, second by second, minute by minute. Where we sit, where I stand, right now. And all who have ever lived except for rare exceptions, have died and put off this body. We bear the marks of death in us now, don't we? And how do we cope with it in our world? Well, we say death is a natural part of life. It's the way of things. We wouldn't be able to evolve without it. It overpopulated the planet. We didn't die. And so it's just our time. And some people convince themselves that this is true. And they lull their consciences to sleep. And they think, we cannot deal with these types of concepts like guilt. That's outdated. It's outmoded. It's not something that's relevant to me. I just need to live my life. I just need to enjoy my time. And I'm just like the rest of the animals. And I need to live in harmony with others. And I just need to accept the fact that death is a natural part of life. Well, if that is what you think tonight, then I want to say something to you. You know better. You know it's false. You know you're deluding yourself. And whether you're young and you have your whole life ahead of you and you can't wait to see what's going to happen next, what friends are you going to make at school, what job are you going to get, where are you going to move, what's going to happen in your life, or you've gotten to the end of life and now your body is breaking down, you're tired, and you're ready to give up, and you're ready to say, my time is over. We need to recognize that there is something shockingly wrong about the whole process, isn't there? We're not supposed to get old. We're not supposed to get weak. We're not supposed to get sick. And maybe some are even listening to this at home with the flu today. Some are not able to make it. We're certainly not supposed to die. Do you hear the alarm bells going off? Do you recognize that all of these things, every circumstance of life is screaming, it's not what it should be, we should live. And now what is the Lord saying? that those who are believing, remember it was the cowardly, the unbelieving in the text that I read that end up in the lake of fire, but those who are believing, those who are resting in the Lord and trusting in his promises are like those who are eating the fruit of the tree of life by the river all year long. Now here's the good news. If you're a Christian, The fullness of life is yet to come. But it's already begun now. Jesus doesn't say, does he? Whoever believes in me will have eternal life when I come back in God's appointed time. He who believes in me will not die. He will live, and though he dies, he will live. Because death has no sting. It has no dominion over us. If you are not trusting in Jesus Christ, you ought to tremble in your seat today. It ought to disturb you, it ought to trouble you, that you are looking, as it were, through the gates of the city. You see the river, you see the trees, you can smell the blossoms, but you can't eat the fruit. You are outside, and there is nothing for you but death and despair and misery, and this is your best life now. And what a tragedy it is. But dear Christian, in Jesus Christ, you've already begun to eat from the tree of life, which is fed by the river of life. There is a river in this city. No enemy can besiege it and cut off its water supply and take it over. The water is always there. It is always nourishing the tree. There is not simply a tree of life, but I believe the plural is correct. There are trees. The life given is even more abundant and greater and more glorious than anything Adam and Eve ever knew. Before the fall. And in God and the Lamb seated on the throne. And in the perfect work of the Savior. We have life. We have abundance. Do you have eternal life in Jesus Christ? Have you believed in the name of the Son of God? Do you know the life of God in your soul now? Do you look forward to these things in the future because you already know them to some extent? You have life. Does this transform your life and everything you do now? We all have those times, don't we, We look at our lives and we really say, what's the point? And maybe I do a good job at my work, but there's someone else that does better, who gets paid more, who seems to be happier. And when I'm gone, nobody's going to remember me. And we all think that way. I've written 20 books this year. Joel Beeky's written 100. There's always somebody else. And you know, in all possible respects, in 100 years, no one cares anymore. Do we live in Christ? Does this transform our life now? You see, what really matters is it's not what we do, but who we do it for and how we do it. Do we know God? Do we have everlasting life? Are we living in light of it? Is it touching our parenting? Is it touching our work? Is it touching everything we do in life? Because we know the Lord. I mean, in a certain sense, nothing else really matters. And children, I really hope the best for you and I pray for you all. But I can honestly say for all of you, not just my children, the only thing I ultimately care about is do you have life in Christ? Nothing else matters. And I want you to hunger for it and thirst for it. And if the spirit enables me to do nothing else tonight but that, then I feel that he's blessed us great. We have life. I'm leaving out the Old Testament references. We could be here all night, and I don't want us to be. But the picture comes from Ezekiel. The water is flowing there out of the temple, going out, healing all the nations. And you have the idea of the leaves healing the nations here. But notice that the water is not coming out from the temple, but the throne. Because there's no temple anymore. It's gone. God's there. You don't need a symbol. You've got the reality. No more children's books! No more pictures! But God himself, and the Lamb, seated on the throne. Abundant, overflowing life. Well, the second thing, and you can see these overlap a bit, but it is important to distinguish them to some extent. The second thing is, there's no more curse. Now I have to say, the ESV weakens this a little bit by saying, no longer will there be anything cursed. I think it's actually better to say no more curse. Because the term curse is pretty broad, isn't it? You ask, what does it mean to be under a curse? Well, obviously it means something bad, doesn't it? What's cursed in this case? Everything. Everything is cursed. There's a show that aired not too long ago called Once Upon a Time, and by using the illustration, I'm not endorsing everything in the show, so don't take it that way. But the premise is interesting. There are a bunch of people who live in one world, in one land, and they are transferred to our world, to a different land, and they are cursed. They don't know who they are. They don't know who they're married to. They don't know what jobs they're supposed to do. They don't know anything. In fact, they think that their version of reality, who they're married to, where they're working, what their names are, is the right thing. And you know what happens? Somebody wakes up and they try to break the curse and they get frustrated because they just can't see it. Nothing's cursed. I got up today, I went to work, I kissed my wife. I did everything I was supposed to do. There's no curse here, everything's fine, everything's great. Isn't that exactly what's going on? If you ask what is the curse, where is the curse, where do we feel it? It is so thorough, it so saturates and permeates everything in life that most people never see it. Because it's there. I guess I'm reminded here of C.S. Lewis' short story, The Man Worn Blind. And he suddenly gets surgery and gains sight. And you know what troubled him more than anything else in the world? Was light. And he'd start asking his friends, where's the light? Well, it's everywhere. Is the light the piano there? Is it the person sitting in the pew? Is it the chair? Is it this? Is it that? No, no, no, it's light. And it literally begins to drive the person crazy. He can see, but he can't see. He sees everything around him, and everyone else is taking everything for granted. They see the light all the time, but they can never describe it. They never know what it is, they never actually see it. And now that this man finally sees, he's saying, where is it? Well, it's everywhere. What is it? And it's almost meant to be a frustrating story. It's fairly realistic. We see the curse everywhere and we never see it. We become so used to it. I've already given one example, haven't I? Death is a natural part of life. Aging, dying, sickness, disease, it's all just normal. Part of natural selection, part of evolution, part of the way things are. But what else? Are we not cursed in every aspect of life, every step we take? Yes, we have many blessings, and I'm not denying that now. We have many things to be thankful for, and that is the grace of God. But we see broken marriages, don't we? We see rampant sexual immorality ruining marriages. We see conflict at home. We see children learning early on that they can divide mom and dad against each other. And if they get mom and dad fighting against themselves, then maybe they're off the hook. We see people trying to work as little as possible, and get away with as much as they can, to do what they really want to do with their lives. We see people finally reaching retirement, longing for that day, only to fall into absolute, abject depression. Because they don't know what to do with themselves anymore, and they don't know who they are. And yet they don't have the energy to keep working like they did. We see most people dissatisfied with their jobs. We see those who like their jobs complaining about them. We see people who have things wanting more things. You kind of get the picture, don't you? Families are under the curse, including marriages, including children. Our work is under curse, the ground resists us. You know, this is at the point where I think sometimes maybe as Christians, we're a little bit naive too. when we think about the environment. You know, people talk about environmental crises and sometimes I think we act like we have to go to one or two extremes. Either we're environmentalists and we worship the earth and we're all part of this mother nature and we're all basically the same with the animals and we have this horrible pagan philosophy, or we just say, well, we have dominion over everything. We do what we want with it. We destroy it. We don't care. Let me ask you. Should it surprise us if we do things that destroy our environment when Adam already destroyed it by eating the fruit? Should it surprise us that we have trouble living in our world and with animals and with other human beings and with nations? You see what's going on? We are cursed! And all we have to do is look around to see it. All we have to do is open our eyes. Are some of you blind tonight? Do these things sound strange? Do they sound radical? Or odd? Crazy? My dear friend, I implore you, look at the curse. See it in yourself. See it in your world. See it in all that is around you. And again, I'm not saying that we don't enjoy what we do, and we can't. And we don't enjoy many things in life, and we don't have many blessings that God has given us every day. But in order to see the blessing Christ is giving, we need to feel the weight a little bit of what's happened and where we are. We're about to sing Joy to the World, and in that hymn, we're going to use the words that he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. That's the simple message here, verse three. There will be no more curse there, but the throne of God and the lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. That is a summary of the purpose of the whole Bible. I'll be your God, you'll be my people, and I'll dwell among you. And here he is, isn't he? The throne is there. The lamb is there. His father is there. The spirit is the river of living waters within us, nourishing us. And there's no curse. There is no curse because there is God. No strife among people, no nations at war anymore. No fighting against our environment. No being devoured by wild beasts or attacked by pit bulls or whatever shows up in the news. It's gone. No aging, no illness, no death, no dying. But the capstone, really not just the capstone, the sun shining forth in its full strength that eclipses everything else is the throne of God the Lamb. God dwelling with his people. It's a glorious thing, isn't it? Have you felt the weight of the curse? Do you see the darkness around you? Do you see the darkness within you? There is hope, dear friend. He does come to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. He will restore his people. He will save them body and soul. They will be resurrected. They will live with him forever. He will dwell with them even as he walked with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day. and there will be no curse there, for the throne of the Lamb is there. Well, this takes us to the last thing. And it both repeats and emphasizes what I've already been saying. Namely, that the face of God will shine upon us. Notice what he says in verses four and five. There are images piled upon images here, and I think it'll be easy to explain them, but I'll have to pick them out one at a time and then push us back into the big picture. Notice what he says in verse four. They will see his face. There's some ambiguity there. Whose face? The one on the throne, the God, or the Lamb? Yes, they will see his face. They will see him as he is and be like him. and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light or lamp of the sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Let's look at these one at a time. First, they'll see his face. Hold your thought there for a moment, and then it'll come back to the shining face of God in just a minute. But then he also says his name will be on their foreheads. People have done really strange things with this. I'm gonna go out on a limb and think that everyone in this room has heard of the Mark of the Beast. What is the Mark of the Beast? Well, if you're looking for something literal, and you're looking for some physical thing that people make or have made at some point, then I'll say I don't know. People say we're gonna get computer chips in our heads and our hands. I hope I'm not. But is that what the Bible is getting at? Well, not really. The mark is something like this. It's a stamp of ownership. Where was the mark in Revelation? I'll start there, then pull back and come to this text. The forehead or the hand. Why? Because in everything I think or do, I'm loyal to the beast. In other words, I'm serving him, not God. It's a sign of loyalty. It's not a literal mark. Go back to the Old Testament. What does God say about his law? They shall be as a sign or frontlets between your eyes and on your right hand. And you know, the Pharisees were the first dispensationalists who over-literalized the idea because they literally put a box of commandments on their head and on their hands. I'm almost tempted to think God was mocking them for their own stupidity. They're supposed to be loyal to God. In everything they think, everything they do, they are to live to His glory. They are to know His name and make His name known so that the nations around them say, who has a God so near to them as these people? Who has such laws as great as these laws? Because they are loyal in thought and in behavior. in everything that they do. And we must be one or the other. We are either loyal to evil, to Satan, to sin, to ourselves, or we're loyal to God. And so it shouldn't surprise us at the end, the people who end up in heaven have the mark. They're loyal to Christ. They follow the lamb wherever they go, wherever he goes. They've denied themselves, they've taken up the cross, they've died daily, they've said, I'm not my own, I'm bought with a price. And I must no longer live for myself, but for him who died for me and rose again from the dead for me. That's what the mark means. That's what he's getting at. Is that you? Have you lost your life that you may gain it? Have you given up all that you may have Christ instead? Is he greater to you than all of your wealth and all of your riches, all of your achievements, all of your accomplishments, all of your pride? That's what the mark on the forehead means. They have the mark and they see his face and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or the sun. The Lord God will be their light. It will reign forever and ever. And most of you, if you've been attending church regularly, have a key to understanding what he's saying. What happens at the end of the worship service? At least many of you. The pastor stands up, he raises his arms, and he says what? The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And when the priest did this in number six, he placed the name of God on the people as though God is saying, I'm standing behind the words. My face is shining upon you. My blessing is with you. I'm not turning my back to you, I'm looking upon you. And as you look at my glorious face, you receive all the blessings of knowing me. my fellowship, my protection, my guidance, my direction. And now what we see is God himself pronouncing the benediction in person. Now that's one of the great joys of receiving the benediction at the end of worship. It really is as though God is speaking from his word from heaven and saying, I am placing my blessing on you. This is why we lift up our heads. This is why we look with our expectation to heaven and we believe. God, I trust you. Your face shines upon me because your son shines upon me. Your face shines upon me in blessing and presence and I trust you and I believe you. But now what we really see in Revelation 22 at the end is God's personal presence is the benediction. It is now, isn't it? People ask me the question sometimes, is Jesus present in the Lord's Supper? And sometimes I just say, well, if he wasn't present in the preaching or in the singing or in the prayers, I'd go home. We need him there. And we want more of him there. The Lord is in glory. He has ascended into heaven. And we long to see him as he is and to be like him. And now what John is saying as Christian, are you weary in your labors? You have the feeble knees and the hands that hang down, are you discouraged because of your own sin? Are you discouraged because of temptation? Are you discouraged because of the struggles that you face and all the evidences of the curse that are still in you, in your family, in your lives? Face of God shines upon you now. and will only shine more brightly in the Lord. We have to remember, I think, the Lord gave this book to help suffering Christians persevere. So what do you need to make it through all the hardships, all the difficulties you face in life, especially if we suffer for righteousness sake? We need the hope to see the face of God shining upon us in the Lord. that all things will be right, and here's where I can start wrapping together all the pieces and bringing them into one resolution here. What do we really see? We get life, and life abundantly in Jesus Christ. We lack nothing in him, we're complete. But we also have the removal of the curse, it's beginning now. Someone in Brazil sent me a message recently and was self-conscious about his English, And he called me a good man and then corrected himself and said, well, there's none good, there's no not one, I didn't mean to say that. And I said, well, I am a good man, but not fully yet. I hope to get better by the grace of God. Because that's what God promised. And that's what God is doing. We're shining more brightly unto glory. And we're looking forward to the day when we see God's face in heaven. Abundant life, no more curse, the shining face of God and the presence of God. Do we see the light today? I mean, I have to say, I struggle to bring this to a resolution because part of me feels as a Christian, how can you get to the end of this and not be longing for more? longing to see more, to know more, to have Christ peel back the veil and come now. You know, it's not that long after this, in this very chapter, John says, even so, Lord Jesus, come, come quickly, because he's got the vision before him. Isn't this exactly what we need? Isn't this what we need to persevere in a difficult marriage, in a difficult job? With children going through hard phases of life? Maybe children with your parents and their struggles in life? Isn't this exactly what we need as we pray for the persecuted Christians in China and Eritrea and other parts of the world? The reason why we have such an emaciated Christianity at our present day is we have such a low view of God and the glory of Jesus Christ. It's really what it comes down to. Shame on us that our favorite Christian books to read, at least if Amazon is an indicator, are about Christian dieting. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. And let us prove it with our purchases on Amazon. Do we see something of the glory of God? Do we long to see more of it? Do we behold the glory of God in the face of Christ? Do we have life? Do we rest on Christ for it? Do we look for Him to remove the curse? Do we seek His shining face? Let us pray. Almighty God, we do thank you for being kind to us and gracious. We thank you for gathering us in your presence again this evening to worship, and we pray that you would stir up our zeal for your glory and help us to long for the return of our Savior even as we live for him now. We ask it all in Christ's name, amen.