Second Samuel chapter 7 you can follow along in the back of your bulletin or behind me on the PowerPoint a few weeks ago we looked at as Alex was teaching that as David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem there was this huge worship festival and one major lesson we learned a few weeks ago is that we can't worship God any way we choose and And this particular passage, chapter 7, really can be viewed as sort of the climax of David's career. This is probably the peak between chapters 5 and 7. We see David establishing worship. We see him bringing the ark back to Jerusalem. We see him in chapter 5 crowned as the king of both Judah and Israel. And here we will see David attempt to build Gana house. But God reverses it and says to David that he's going to build David a house. We'll see God's goodness and his faithfulness displayed really in an eternal, unconditional covenant with David. I'll just say this at the outset, that this is one of the most important chapters in all of the Old Testament, really in all of the Bible, because of this covenant that God makes with David. So let's begin in verse 1 of chapter 7. Now, when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. Now David had, we've seen in the past, handled failure. We've seen how he's handled Saul chasing him and pursuing him, and this has been 20 years. And really, for the most part, David has passed the test. He's done well. But how is he going to do in success? How will David do as he is at the top of his game? And that's a whole other question, isn't it? It's one thing to see how we do when the suffering and the pain comes, but it's a whole other issue to see how we do when there is success all around us and prosperity. And we also see here that David is ambitious for the Lord. Essentially, he feels bad that he lives in this house of cedar, but that the Lord or the Ark of the Lord is in this tent of animal skins. and he aspires to build the Lord a house. In a sense, David takes pity on God. We'll see a mild rebuke come out of this, but David, it almost seems, wants to help God out. Well, God gives a revision starting in verse 4. But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan. Go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord. Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. But I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all the places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? Verse 8, Now therefore, Thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts. I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I've been with you wherever you went and I've cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people, Israel, and will plant them, so that they will dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly." And so we see here God's revision from verses 4 through the first part of verse 11. And this is a minor application point, but I think it's worthy to bring about. David really essentially has a broken dream. It's hard, is it not? It's hard to hear from God that your dream is not God's dream. It hurts when God says, no, this is just a difficult human experience. It could be a business venture, it could be a job, it could be a spouse. and a very good friend of mine who proposed to a young lady She was studying to be a medical doctor and her parents said, you know what, a couple months after she had said yes, we're just not comfortable with you marrying this man. He was a preacher. This was in Africa. And they said, you know what, we'd prefer that you would marry a lawyer or a doctor, someone who is going to have more of a steady income. And so obviously my friend was utterly devastated from this. And about four or five years later, he is in the States studying at a seminary. He meets another young lady, a Christian lady. She, on the other hand, wants to be in the mission field and she's excited about being the wife of a traveling minister. And she does say yes. And a few weeks later, she brings the ring back and says, I'm sorry, but I just don't sense that this is God's leading for me. So two times in a row, my friend, as you can imagine, was devastated the first time and he goes again and is devastated a second time. It is difficult. It is difficult to hear that God's plans are not your plans. Chuck Swindoll has said, when God says no, it doesn't necessarily mean discipline. It just might be redirection. And that's what's happening here with David. It's a mild rebuke. It's not a full-fledged rebuke, but there is a sense in which God is rebuking David. Eugene Peterson puts it this way. He says, there are times when our grand human plans to do something for God are seen, after a night of prayer, to be a huge human distraction from what God is doing for us. That's what Nathan realized that night, Peterson says. God showed Nathan that David's building plans for God would interfere with God's building plans for David. There is also, I think, another minor lesson that we can learn here, and it's this. Let's not forget who is serving who. We need to be careful how we worship the Lord. We saw this in chapter six. God has been teaching this lesson to the nation of Israel. We need to be careful not to belittle or demean him in how we talk about him. There is a sense in which David was God's servant. In fact, the Lord even mentions that in this passage. There is a sense in which we serve God. But there's another sense in which he cannot be served as if he needed anything. I draw you to Acts 17.25. When Luke says, the God who made the world and everything in it, I'm sorry, this is Paul preaching to the Areopagus, the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven, of earth and earth does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. Since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything, We need to be careful not to take pity on God as though He needed to be served, as though He needed anything. I think of Romans chapter 8, when the Apostle Paul says, Chapter 11. Oh, the breadth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God. Listen to this climax of the gospel at the end of Chapter 11. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again. Listen to these words for from him And through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever. He is utterly sufficient. He doesn't need our help. He doesn't need our pity. Well, right after this is the famous Davidic covenant starting in the second part of verse 11 through verse 17. This is a very, very important passage as God makes a covenant and a promise with David. Look at the second part of verse 11. Moreover, the Lord declares to you, that the Lord will make you a house. See the reversal? I want to make God a house. Well, God turns it around and says to David, the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, And he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Verse 16, a very important verse. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. So God here makes a covenant, an everlasting covenant with David. Now, real quickly, what is exactly a covenant? Let's just give a definition to what a covenant is. It is a bond or a promise or a serious agreement between two parties. Wayne Grudem defines it as this. It's an unchangeable divinely imposed legal agreement between God and man that stipulates the conditions of their relationship. But I want you to hear me on this. God's covenants are not just contracts. Like some of you have cell phone contracts, have a contract with T-Mobile, and they really don't care about the relationship with me. They're just concerned about maintaining the contract. And if I were to break the contract, or if you were to break your contract with AT&T or Sprint, you would have to pay $250, $300, or $200, and then you would be free to go. It's not just a contract that God is making with David. This covenant has overtones of love and compassion and relationship. God desires that we enjoy a relationship with him. He's inviting us. There is concern and care. It's really an enormous loudspeaker in the Bible to us that he has mercy on us and desires us to be in a relationship with him through specifically these covenants that he's made. So I want you to note the relationship aspect. I remember hearing this a while back about Albert Einstein. He actually made a contract with his wife, and I have it in front of me, not the original. He says this to his wife, A, you will make sure that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order, that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room, that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only. Part B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Listen to this. What a romantic Einstein is. Specifically, you will forgo my sitting at home with you, my going out or traveling with you. Part C. You will obey the following points in your relations with me. You will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way. You will stop talking to me if I request it. Wow. You will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I requested. And lastly, part D, you will undertake not to belittle me in front of our children or through words or behavior. I won't comment on Albert Einstein, but let me just say this. That's not how God operates. It's not a contract, not making a contract with David. void of relationship. This passage bleeds relationship. God desires to show you mercy and compassion. And He does it. We can trace it. We will trace it all the way back through Abraham. He desires to bless, not just as some cosmic God who's far removed from any sort of relationship, but one who is intimately incarnated As we see manifested in our Lord Jesus Christ, there were different types of covenants. Some covenants were of men with men. Some covenants were of man with God. Some covenants were of God with men and had conditions. But other covenants, these covenants were of God with men and they had no conditions. They were unconditional. There were many covenants, are many covenants in the Bible. I want to give you four major covenants that are in the Bible. The first one, the granddaddy of them all, is the Abrahamic covenant. The covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, when he says, and I will make of you a great nation. It was confirmed over and over again in chapters 13, 15, and 17. But we see essentially that Abraham's posterity was to be made into a great nation. In him, Galatians 3.16, through Christ, all the families of the earth were to be blessed. There were two dynamics of this covenant. One was a land promise that was unconditional, and the other was a seed promise that was unconditional. Then came along the Palestinian covenant in Deuteronomy chapter 30. And this was a further development of the land portion of the Abrahamic Covenant. It said in verse 5 of chapter 30, And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. So the Palestinian Covenant is a development of the Abrahamic Covenant, the land portion. Just a couple weeks ago, I saw in the New York Times Israel and Palestinians set goal of a treaty in 2008. Maybe you remember this, where the prime minister of Israel and the president of Palestine came together with George Bush, and they're talking really essentially about Deuteronomy chapter 30, trying to negotiate and come up with a treaty. This is very relevant even today. But then we see the passage that we're looking at, the Davidic covenant, just a pithy way of saying God's covenant with David. And this was a further development of the seed aspect of the Abrahamic covenant. It is fulfilled in Christ as the world's savior and Israel's coming king. And as Dwight Pentecost has said, it will ultimately have its eventual literal fulfillment here on earth at the second advent of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So yes, it is spiritually fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, but it will be literally fulfilled here on earth during the millennial reign. And then there is the New Covenant. The new covenant was really a covenant of unconditional blessing based upon the finished redemption of Jesus Christ. It was the fulfillment of all of the covenants. It's unconditional, it's final, and it is irreversible. And there is a sign of the covenant that we celebrated this morning, the Lord's Supper. The Lord Jesus, who made this covenant with his own blood, mind you, said this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. The Lord's Supper is like a mini sermon that speaks to us and says, don't forget the blood, the life that Jesus Christ gave up. Don't forget the cross, just like baptism. Remember, keep this as the main core remembrance in your minds. Remember this, because this is what the covenant is all about. Jesus Christ crucified for sinners, as 1 Corinthians 15 3 says, and I delivered you. over what was of first importance, that according to the Scriptures, Jesus Christ died for our sins. Don't forget it. That's what the New Covenant is all about. Now, I want to just give you some implications of the Davidic Covenant, but I want to read it. I'm sorry, we've already read that. Let me just draw this out. In 716, we read, And your house and your kingdom, that verse I told you to note, And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. There are four main words here that are really noteworthy house. This was David's physical descendants, the kingdom, not so much the material throne, but rather the right to rule and the throne, the political body that David would rule over in which David's descendants would successfully reign. And they did. And also the word forever. Now, everyone agrees that Jesus is the fulfillment of this covenant. There's nobody that disagrees about that. In fact, I want to show you why. Matthew 1 1, we read the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the very first words in the new covenant or the New Testament, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Make no mistake about it. Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience and he's making sure they know very clearly that this is the promised one, the son of David. And in Luke chapter one, this is a great passage for you to note. Thirty one through thirty three. I'll just read it. And behold, you will conceive in your room and bear a son. Listen to the words that match. And you shall call his name Jesus. And he will be great and will be called the son of the most high. Listen now. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There will be no end. In other words, it will go on forever. Now, when and how this covenant will be fulfilled is where people will disagree. And we believe that there will be a future millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ. And that is what God is speaking to David about. We believe that this covenant is not just spiritual, but it will literally be fulfilled. Again, I quote Pentecost, who says, the problem of fulfillment does not arise out of the question of whether Christ is the one who fulfills the promises, but rather in the issue of how Christ fulfills the covenant and when he fulfills it. And we believe, again, that this will be during the millennial reign. He's promising to David. Now, the importance of God's covenants. They show us a couple of things. First of all, they show us that God, My brothers and sisters is faithful. God is faithful. And the other thing they show us is that we are not faithful. We time and time again drop the ball. Humans continually mess up the covenants that God that God has made. That's why they are unconditional. Praise the Lord for that. Even in the church age, we have dropped the ball just like salvation. It's not dependent upon us all throughout the history of Israel. We see Israel's unfaithfulness. It's amazing to me. And all throughout the pages of scripture, we see God's covenant faithfulness. As he says in Psalm 89, 35, I will not lie to David. He is a God of his word. God desired a people who would be holy as he is holy, a lamp unto the nations as to God's glory and holiness. He wants the same thing in the church. A people who would be holy as He is holy, that the world would look at the church and say, who is your God? Yet we have failed, yet God has remained faithful. And covenants prove God's love and His faithfulness. It again shows God's desire for us to enjoy a relationship with Him. I want you to get out of your minds this idea that God is this insecure God who ordains us to worship Him, to make Himself feel better. because he's a needy God. That's not it at all. He invites us to enjoy his glory and his splendor. The Trinity is perfectly sufficient in and of itself. It's out of God's mercy that he calls you in to a relationship with him and desires that you be reconciled to him. Isn't it wonderful to know that God desires us to be in relationship with him? Isn't that wonderful? Imagine again a marriage that where your spouse said, I'd like you to abide by these rules. We're not going to relate. We're not going to have any sort of emotional intimacy or sexual intimacy. We're just going to have this contract. And as long as you abide by these rules, everything will go great. Maybe cohabitation, we could call it, but it wouldn't be marriage. And yet God, we see God as a relational God calling us out to be in relationship with him through his covenants. I think of the culmination of it all in Revelation 21. Here's what it's all pointing to, my friends. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. Can you wait for that? He will dwell with them and they will be His people and God Himself will be with them as their God. We long for that. Maranatha! May it come! That we will be physically with the Lord. He will be our God and we will be His people. Oh, I long for the day. Well, after this, after God gives this revelation through Nathan to David, we see a beautiful response in David. It's a wonderful response, a humble response. He says in verse 18, then King David went in. Just imagine him hearing this. I don't know where he was at. Maybe he was in his his own house. He hears this and maybe in shock, he walks to the tabernacle and enters and says to the Lord, who am I? Maybe just falling down in a space we don't know can envision him on his knees or prostrate on the ground. Who am I? Oh, Lord God. And what is my house that you have brought me thus far? I'll take note of it. Take note of it. This is a model of humility. Who am I? Oh, God. And what is my house? that you have brought me thus far. Sometimes people think that God ought to get on bended knee and beg them to come to him. But here's a proper response. Who am I? Oh, God, who am I? You've created me, I'm yours. I mean, I imagine David referring back in his mind to the days when he was just a measly shepherd boy. It's almost hilarious when you think about it. Here he is. He's the youngest of his family's household. He's not even the oldest. He's out tending sheep. He's a farmer, so to speak. And yet God takes him, the least of the clans, the least of the tribes, and from the ash heap raises him up all the way from the dunghill. And here I am, O Lord. Who am I that you have sought? It hasn't been because I've done a bunch of merits. It's certainly not because of my family name. He takes no credit for it. He acknowledges that it's solely on the grace of God. Bob Diffenbaugh made a great observation when he said, David sees himself as Israel should have seen herself. It's not due to her greatness, not due to her size, not due to her merits that God chose to bless her. It is his sovereign, sovereignly bestowed grace. Apart from works are merit. to see David as a man who is humbled before a gracious God. Well, he goes on and just in an outburst of praise, as you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while, he goes on to mention all that God has promised to do, repeating it, saying in verse 23, And who is like your people, O Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people? Making himself a name for and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt a nation and its gods Who are you Lord? You're unbelievable. You're majestic. You're powerful. You can deliver us from slavery. You can do anything He goes on and on to worship the Lord. I Want to draw some lessons from? Our passage in the first really is where we left off. David models a humble response to God's word. He reacts to God's goodness and mercy by asking the wonderful question that we should all ask. Who am I? Who am I? Think about where you would be seriously now if God had not intervened. Those of you who are in Christ, you're walking with the Lord. You're born again. You've been saved. You've been credited with the righteousness of Christ. You have all spiritual blessings. Just imagine for a moment. Seriously, now, where would you be if he did not intervene? It certainly wasn't because you were smart enough or good looking enough or thought something up or were creative enough to come to God. It's solely because of his mercy and grace. You were, just like me, a self-seeking, self-sufficient, prideful wretch. And yet God has, like David, sought fit to intervene. I think of those wonderful words. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. How could anybody be prideful next to the cross? As Carl Henry said, how can anyone be arrogant when he stands beside the cross? It's impossible to be arrogant. Poor contempt on all of my pride. So how do we, practically speaking, cultivate this heart of humility? This is the root, as Andrew Murray said, the root of all the graces. As pride is the root of all sin, and from pride all sin manifests and flowers. So it is with humility all the graces are manifested. You need to realize your lowliness, your total inadequacy without God. C.J. Mahaney gives us some helpful tips in his book on humility when he says, Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness. We are, as Philippians 2 wants to do, what the Apostle says, in humility consider others more significant than yourself. Here's some suggestions he gives that I thought were helpful on how to weaken pride and cultivate humility. He says this, first of all, always reflect on the wonder of the cross. And then he gives some weekly practical helps. He says, begin your day by acknowledging your dependence upon God and your need for God. He says, begin your day by expressing gratefulness to God. Another one is practice the spiritual disciplines like prayer, study of God's word, worship. Seize your commute time and memorize and meditate upon scripture. Here's a great one. Study the attributes of God. Calvin has said, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God. and come down after such contemplation to look into himself. That'll get you humble. Or study the doctrines of grace, calling and election. There's no room for pride there. Salvation has been all of God. Here's another great one. I think you'll like this. Play as much golf as possible. That'll get you humble. You want a lesson in humility, start playing golf. Here's a great one. Laugh often and laugh at yourself. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said, proud people don't laugh. Cultivate humility, invite and pursue correction, and respond humbly to trials. The great Jonathan Edwards has said, the pleasures of humility are really the most refined, inward, and exquisite delights in the world. Now, another lesson that I think we can draw from this passage is God's zeal for his own glory. his zeal for his own glory. We saw in 723 that God desires to make himself a name through the nation of Israel. Sam Storms gave a great quote when he said, God comes to you in his word and says, here I am in all my glory, incomparable, infinite, immeasurable, unsurpassed. See me. Be satisfied with me. Enjoy me. Celebrate who I am. Experience the height and depth and width and breadth of savoring and relishing me. Does that sound like a God pursuing his own glory? Yes. But it also sounds like God loving you and me perfectly and passionately. Listen to this. The only way it is not real love is if there is something for us better than God. Something more beautiful than God. That He can show us. Something more pleasing and satisfying than God. With which He can fill our hearts. Something more glorious and majestic than God. With which we can occupy ourselves for an eternity. But there is no such thing. anywhere, ever. So why is he? This is debated today, even on the blogosphere. This has been debated recently that that God seems to be a narcissistic God, that he would be obsessed with himself. But if he wasn't, he would be lying. And he invites us into the enjoyment of himself again. Forgive me. I've given this quote before, but it's applicable at this point. If there were a person in this room infinitely beautiful, infinitely worthy, infinitely valuable, infinitely satisfying, the most loving thing for that person to do would be to get attention from all of us and say, look at me, look at me, look at me. But there's nobody here like that. There's one being in the universe like that. There's one all-glorious being, one infinitely valuable being. One all beautiful being, God in Christ, crucified and risen and reigning and coming. And therefore, in order for him to be loving, he must say, look at me, look at me, look at me. And he does that through this covenant to the nation of Israel. And he does it with us to the new covenant to the person and work of Jesus Christ, which leads to the last point. God is a covenant God. Another way of saying that is he's faithful to his word. He may not be faithful to your agenda like with David, but he's faithful to his agenda. He's faithful to his word as he gives us in scripture. His word was literally fulfilled in the Old Testament, and it will be literally fulfilled when Jesus is reigning for a thousand years. His kingdom will endure forever and ever. They've been waiting nine hundred and fifty years and Jesus came. We've been waiting a couple thousand years. And yet God's word is true. He's faithful to his word. And he's made a covenant with you in the person of Jesus Christ. Look at how it made David feel. That's really our cue. Take your cue from David. He was humbled by it. He was thankful for it. He worships God for it. He was in awe of the Lord. Again, I think of the Lord's Supper. This is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. the forgiveness of sins and eternal life offered through Jesus Christ. That's the new covenant. This is good news for the world that we celebrate in Christmas. Glad tidings, which are for all the people. It's not according to our works. I think of that incredibly important passage in Romans four when the Apostle Paul is explaining justification by faith. He uses David and he says now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as is due. One of my favorite lines in scripture. Into the one who does not work, but trust him who justifies the ungodly. Doesn't justify the righteous, he justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. And he quotes David, who says, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. As I'm preaching this, I'm welling up with joy that I get to preach a gospel that covers sins. I'll receive it this morning. I end with a story by Robertson McQuilkin, the former president of Columbia Bible College. He faced a major decision a number of years ago when his wife, Muriel, entered the advanced stages of Alzheimer's. He was a gifted speaker and a leader. Many people urged him to arrange for her to be cared for in an institution so that he could continue on with his duties as the president of this Bible school and as a traveling speaker. But in March of 1990, Dr. McQuilkin announced his resignation with the following letter, quote, My dear wife, Muriel, has been in failing mental health for about eight years. So far, I've been able to carry both her ever growing needs and my leadership responsibilities at Columbia Bible College. But recently it has become apparent that Muriel is contended most of the time she is with me and almost none of the time I am away from her. It is not just discontent. She's filled with fear, even terror that she has lost me and always goes in search of me when I leave home. It is clear to me that she needs that that she needs me now full time. Listen to his words. The decision was made in a way 42 years ago when I promised to care for Muriel in sickness and in health till death do us part. God has made a covenant with us. We don't bring much to the table like we don't bring anything to the table. And yet God maintains his covenant with us apart from any condition on our own. This is the gospel. Feast on it, remember it, glory in it. God is a covenant God who doesn't just give you a bunch of commandments, which, by the way, are because he loves you, but he relates with you through his covenant. And oh, for those who are in Christ, the glories and the riches of enjoying his presence and glorifying him by doing that for an eternity with him, with his holiness so bright, we need new bodies to experience it or we would fall apart and disintegrate for eternity with our Lord forever and ever with Christ as our King and we as his people. Oh, the exquisite pleasures that will only expound and increase from one degree of glory to another for an eternity. The enjoyment of God. And we see the most brilliant, shining glimpse of it in the person and in the work of Jesus Christ and the new covenant. Please pray with me. As your heads are bowed and eyes are closed, I invite those of you who have been rebellious and have not obeyed the gospel and received the forgiveness and mercy of Christ. The only reason is because of your own pride and sin. But would you pour contempt, as the hymn says, on all your pride and receive His mercy and forgiveness and be born again and be made new? He justifies the ungodly. Blessed is that person. For those of you who are in Christ, let your soul feast and be well fed on this gospel. He is a covenant God that keeps a relationship with you. You will enjoy it for the rest of your life. Rest in that in Jesus name. We thank you, Lord. Amen.