things and you brought the truths new to us truths, but truths that have always been what they are. And we thank you, Lord, that we can look at this and know that there will come that time when you will be doing things. And even as we read and we think we get this picture, but we only get a little bit of it. But Lord, let us rejoice in that. And let us make the proclamation that we wait longingly for that day when there will indeed be no more pain and suffering or mourning or crying when those first things have clearly all passed away and we will have nothing but a delightful eternity with you and each one of your saints. And we pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen. Wanted to use this passage and some others today to illustrate the goodness and the joys of eternal blessing that we already have been promised to us by God, and to some degree, they are already taking place in our lives. Now, you notice in some of the Psalms, you've heard the new Psalm, You've heard the new things that are come. Obviously I am in this new year preaching once again to caution us on new things. I want to illustrate to you again this afternoon that sometimes new is good. Clearly what we're seeing here and what we sing, that's true. And sometimes new can be bad. I also want to bring once again this important area in our lives that needs to be dealt with because when we look at new and the need for new, what we're often looking at at the same time is contentment. And we know that when, as we've looked at it and we read that, we know that as we look at all the things that he said in Revelation 21, one through five, that we will be absolutely, fully, completely content with God's goodness. But until that day, we struggle. We struggle because we're still sinful people. We are blessed by God. We are called of God. We are rejoicing in God. And yet we are still sinful. We still try to hide from God sometimes like he can't see us. And I know I remind you of that probably more than I should, but that's because we do it more than we should. And much of understanding and rejoicing in new things, in the right new things, at least depends in part upon our understanding of the blessings that God is already pouring out in our lives. Sometimes, as I said, new things can be a blessing, but sometimes they can be a curse for us, and they can lead us into sin where we never want to go. Some of you can remember, well I hope so, or recall at least to a season when you first understood, when you first understood, not when people first started telling you, but when you first understood your need of salvation and what God was doing. And all the words of the Bible were fresh and they were new to you. They were jumping off the pages as it would be, and sometimes they still do that. But this was where it would be, and you could never get enough of it almost. The wonderful work of your salvation was new to you then, and you were excited. Is it still that way with you? Is it still that way? I know I've asked you this question a couple of times too, because it's important, because if not, we have to ask, what happened? Did God goof up? Did he miss something? Or is something amiss with us at times? Well, let me say this, just to clarify for you. God did not goof up in anything ever at all. I wanna just tell an interesting little story in light of this, because the night before this, my nephew was sitting out, it was what was supposed to be the last fire of last year before I left. And we were talking about, it was good that he brought it up, the providence of God and trusting God, because I'd been talking to him about it through the week. And, I want to tell about the near breakdown because, again, I was leaving on Tuesday morning so I could get back here and get things done that I needed done. And God knows I needed to get them done. And I prayed, Lord, get me home safely. But is it a case, as so often is, especially for me, I only got like three miles down the road and the car was going, making weird noise. It wasn't horrible. I'm thinking, this is not right. And I'm praying, oh, Lord, make it right. Fix it. It got worse. So at 10 miles, I just said, that's enough. Thank you, Lord. And I did praise God for his goodness and bringing that to my mind. Thank you, Lord, for not letting me get 150 miles down the road on the last day of the year. Because finding accommodations and help would be hard. So my prayer changed. No, now it's not getting me home. It's getting me back to Jesse's home. And by God's grace, he did. But let me tell you, as much as I trust God and I trust in his providence, I was not a happy camper. I was not content with what God was doing in my life. And for each of those days that I was stuck there, which was another four, I kept not being happy about certain things. And Jesse kept reminding me, are you trusting God? And I kept reminding myself, are you trusting God? But that doesn't mean, sometimes when you trust God, it doesn't mean you have to be happy about it. You just have to trust him, that he knows exactly what he is doing. Again, in God's providence, Jesse had a good mechanic he was able to take me to that gave me what was expensive, but I called a fair price for doing what he did. And the guy got to work on it that day, the day before New Year's, and worked on it as quickly as he could to get me out of town because I told him I'm a pastor, I got to go back home and preach to my church. So he got me done. Again, I learned a lesson there. trusting God in the little things, because that's not a big thing. That's not a life or death thing. It's something that can be fixed. The worst that could happen is you would have all been meeting here today in a prayer meeting or something. And we even covered those contingencies. And as I was thinking about those blessings and again, praying for God, always something new and something wonderful, working out my life, Lord, Sometimes it comes with little pains. And I was thinking about a number of years ago as I was doing these things because I'd like to think about what happened. And when I used to go to the Grand Canyon regularly, the first time, how many of you have been to the Grand Canyon? I hope all of you. And wasn't it beautiful? And how many of you have been to the Grand Canyon many times? Just a few, okay. And this is it. And so when I'd been there for like my sixth or seventh time, and the young, I had just a couple, three girls with me on that trip. And they were excited, they were filled with excitement and joy, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's really beautiful. I'd lost some of it. I wasn't seeing it quite the same. And I think that sometimes, For me, fresh or new gives a greater excitement. And I think that may be the case for some of you too. But we shouldn't place our joy and even our excitement in just the new. I mean, obviously it's not quite as fresh, but we need to remind ourselves of what God has done. Just a few nights ago, it must be a few nights ago now, the whole world, well most of it anyway, was bringing in what we call the new year. It's a calendar thing, the changing over from one day to the next, and that's all it is. One day's the same as the other, but it's marked different. And because of the way we mark our days, it begins a new cycle, a new year as we call it. And from the way that many act, even many Christians I talk to, you would think that We are each year starting a brand new, fresh slate, and that all our old strife, all our tragedies, sicknesses, and problems, even sometimes our old debts are just going to go away and be no more. Well, that's not the case. That's not the case. In fact, by the way, that actually does happen in some sense, though, to the Christian, or for the Christian, as we have just read, but not just yet, and it doesn't happen when the New Year bell rings, when everybody kisses everybody, and they all wave their hands in the air, you watch thousands of people in New York, and they're going crazy, and then as soon as the bell drops, about a minute and a half later, You can feel the disappointment. It's all over. Now what? Now we get back to our lives. Our God, in his infinite wisdom, I think, allows us to see the consequences of sin in our life, while at the same time, he more fully displays the greatness of the promised blessings and goodness to his saints. And as I said, some people think we get a new slate. Well, for the Christian, that's very true. We got that when we came to Jesus. For the rest of the world, they just had to go through it. And for us, we still have all the things we have to deal with. But I feel that it often brings a sad, hollow feeling with it. And I've heard people say this. Well, you gotta wait till next year again. Why? It's only a day. We're rejoicing in a new year and hoping that it will be good by God's blessing. And the truth is, is no matter how it turns out by God's blessing, it is good indeed. It just may not be what we want. It's kind of like, do any of you make new year's resolutions? You don't have to say so if you do. I quit doing that many years ago. Because we never see them through, or hardly ever. I've seen one or two people that have made a New Year's resolution that has carried it through for more than three months. And then it slowly drops off as well. How quickly. we tend to forget things, even a thing like that. And what's sad is for us, we tend to forget the great things that God has done, that he is doing in the past year. Again, what are we waiting for? We're waiting for something new. But are we waiting for something new while rejoicing in what is already been fulfilled. Remember the people of God at one time were waiting for them. They were waiting for a king. Remember when they wanted a king, they got a king. Then they got tired of that king and they got tired of other things. And then they wanted the real king. And then the real king came in Christ Jesus. And then what'd they do? They killed him. how quickly we forget the goodness of God. Not only on things that he has done, but what he has promised he will do. God tells each of us he will care for us, for all of our needs. And I was thinking to myself, wouldn't it be interesting if you just sat down over a couple hour periods and wrote down just the blessings, the many blessings that God had done for you that you could call to mind just from the last year, not going back any further. How many would they be? How many would you be able to recall? Even as I brought up at our prayer meetings, we often prayer for many things. How often do we give praise when they're fulfilled? Sometimes we just forget that quickly. Even today, when my wife called me, and she's telling me, and before I hung up, I had to say, wait, wait, let me pray for you. Let me pray for you. This is something I know to do, and yet sometimes it gets lost in the way things go. So how many of you, more specifically, I'll talk to the young people here, are going or planning to make the new year a better year. Now this applies to the other people, older people too, but we tend to forget these things, all the work and the craziness of life. But for younger people, as they think about these things, what can you do to make this year a better year? And I think I've said some of them even in my prayers today. But you need to pray about this, and you need to work at it. You need to be asking God, God, what would you have me to be and do in this coming year? As I said, we are already only five days into the year and most of the joy and excitement has left most everybody and people are back to what we call business as usual and looking forward to what, the next holiday or event to re-energize them once again. But we have a holy day every week. God in his goodness and his faithfulness to us has blessed us with this day. And do we treat it every week as if it's indeed a gift instead of just an obligation? We are called to be here worshiping. This is a command by God, and we must do it. But it's a gift. It's a time where we come into his presence as a group to worship Him and to praise Him. And it should be a time that, and truly, more than anything else, again, sometimes we wait for the Lord's Supper, just a normal worship with a normal means of grace. We should be looking to that to re-energize us and to build us up. It saddens my heart greatly at times when I think in my 45 years as a Christian, I can say that now, that I've seen the people of God, even in the best of congregations at times, they tire of the wonderful blessing that God has given us in the ordinary means of grace. and they even tire sometimes of the blessing of the sacraments of baptism in the Lord's Supper. People tire of plain preaching, and at times, even the sacraments when they're not understood as they should be, and that should never be the case among God's people. And I don't always call the teachers to task for that, but just as often, it's the individuals in the congregation who aren't paying enough attention to themselves nor paying enough attention to God. Sometimes, clearly, this might be the fault of pastors and teachers. But other times, it's just a poor attitude. And I know I've told some of you this story that I've had people come up to me and they say, I didn't really get much out of the sermon today. And when somebody says that to me, my response is generally this, oh, Let me ask you a question. Have you been spending time in the word of God? And have you been spending time in prayer? And almost always they'll say, well, not as much as I should be, but they're saying in such a way of saying, I'm not hardly spending any of it. And so I encourage them. I say, well, you know what I would like you to do for the next couple of weeks is spend time in prayer, especially. but in the Word of God and asking God to make this time of worship a blessing for you. And almost in every instance, they come back and within two weeks, and I will tell you that one of the young ladies one time after I preached that day, she told me that was the best sermon she'd ever heard in her life. And some of you know this young lady, Linda Shirey. I thanked her. I was delighted. And then the next week she said to me, that was even better than last week. Oh, I should have been excited, but I became cautious and I told her right then, it just doesn't keep going up and getting better. There will be ups and downs and sometimes it'll be me and sometimes it'll be you. but be steadfast, persevere. But when you see yourself, and I say this to you, I use that, if you're not getting much out of the sermons or the worship at all, or the psalm meditations or the readings or the time of prayer, ask yourself, am I spending time, and I mean not just a little time, quality time, not a large amount of time, but quality time with God? Because if you do, and in His Word, you can go and listen to the worst sermon of all time, and if the Word of God is being preached at all, if it is in there at all, you should be getting some blessing out of it. But like I say, people tire of those plain preaching and the sacraments. Another passage I want to share on this, and today's sermon will probably be a little longer than normal, but I'll try not to go overboard too much. In Acts 17, 19 through 21, by the way, I'm sorry for some of you. I did this in the New American Standard today, so I know most of you are using King James or New King James. This is pretty close. And it reads this way, and they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is you are proclaiming. For you are beginning, bringing strange things to our ears and we want to know therefore what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new. Again, this is speaking of Paul the apostle when he went to proclaim the good news of the gospel to them. And this is important because he was indeed bringing them a new teaching. Now, as I said, we have to be careful here. Because sometimes new teachings can be good and sometimes they can be really bad. And there's a lot of new teachings going around in the church today that are not good. Today in this time and day in the church, it seems that nothing has changed and that many people, Christians, are always wanting to hear only the latest and greatest new teachings, and from new teachers, while others sometimes cling as it would be so tightly to just plain old tradition, and I'm not talking good tradition, that if something old and worthwhile were brought to their attention, it would never even rate consideration. Now I'm saying that especially for those who delight in always one year they're looking at this teacher, oh, he's the best. And I'm talking in the reformed churches, folks, not just in the charismatic and the evangelical. This happens around, across the board. Oh, we're so excited. This guy's the best ever. Two years later, oh, I quit listening to him. I'm listening to this guy now. And he's saying, And for any of you who've known me for the time that I've been preaching in the church, I often tell people if I ever really try to bring you something new, other than when I say I'm going to do something new, if I bring you a new teaching, run. Run either out the door or run quickly to me and tell me, this is not right. But we need to not just seek after because Sometimes new is good, but generally, as many theologians have said, if you're bringing something new into the church, it's probably not new. You just haven't studied it enough to see how many other people have already written about that. And I think R.C. Sproul was the one that impressed that upon my mind the most many years ago. Galatians 1, 6 through 8 says the same thing. I am amazed, you all know this, you can almost recite it. I am amazed you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. Which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. And that's what a new one is. It's a distortion. But then the warning, and this is a good, clear warning. Well, what happened? What do we do? But even though we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Second Timothy 4.1 says, but let me just stop there for a second because that's important and we take that into account what he just said there. If somebody brings you this kind of teaching, you don't just say this is a bad teacher. You have to acknowledge it for what it is and you need to be able to go to him humbly, privately, generally not the same day unless you'll never see him again and say, hey, There was a problem here, and it's not a little problem. Little problems can sometimes be overlooked, but a big problem, because this new teaching you're bringing us is not a blessing to us, but instead, it's a curse. 2 Timothy 4.1 reads this way. Going down, the same thing. Some of you may know where I'm going with this before I even get down to that verse. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound teaching, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and they shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of the evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." What were they doing? They're at itching ears for what? New teachings. Didn't I tell you today this would be about new things, how they're good and they're bad? More often, we find a lot of new things cannot be that good for us. Thinking about new toys. You hear me talk about this often, new toys. Many of us are prone to this sinful manner of life. Again, just talking to my nephew this week, he was telling me how he really wanted to get another motorcycle. And I'm like, you got a perfectly, really good, beautiful Harley Davidson sitting out there. What do you need another one for? Aren't you content? And he knew where I was going and he just said flatly, well. Kind of not really, is what it came down to. But this is where we're at. And I'm not talking about just desiring new things in life, but then so quickly disregarding them. This is even as bad because it's unthankfulness in our lives. Disregarding those things that we want so far, and children are the worst for this. Although, now let me say, let me, Take that back. Children aren't always, you may pray for something fervently and you may seek your parents for it. Oh, I need this. I must have this. And then when you get it, oh yeah, I'm happy. But for how long? And I remember watching kids, when I was a kid growing up, and birthday parties and such, they'd get a present, and oh, I'm so delighted, that's exactly what I wanted so much. And three weeks later, it was in the corner someplace. We get discouraged, and then, because they are not perfect, and no gift is perfect, as we envision them, we lay them aside and look for something new. Now I said this with new toys, but this can be with a new church. How many people do you know that hop around or like hop along Cassidy from one church to the next? They're there for a little bit and then they're at the new one because that one wasn't perfect. New jobs. Now, some of us need new jobs. Some people just like, well, I like this job. And remember when you first got that job sometimes? You loved that job. It was a great job, but I'm getting tired of it now because I see the realities of it. And this is with anything, by the way. New jobs, new cars, new home. Next week, a better time. I'm really praying for next week. We live too much in the future in some ways, in the wrong ways, and not enough in it in the right ways. We should always be looking forward to the great promises of God, but we shouldn't be always living in the future saying, oh, I can't wait till this happens. Wait for it. Enjoy the now that God has given you, because you're not gonna bring that next week any faster if you keep doing that. Something for new children. A new pastor, I had to throw that one in, a new pastor. We need a new pastor. I know that after 19 years for some of you of being your full-time pastor, and for others just even to last year, the novelty of having a pastor who's just a little bit outside of the norm, outside of the box. You know, with that, when I first came, I was a little rough, a little more rough than I am now. That wears off. That excitement. Some of the stories that I tell, and I know some of you, when I say them, they used to make you laugh. They might now only bring you on. Ah, yeah, I've heard that story or one just like it before. I have a story like that. And this is natural. Well, let me say it's natural in our sinful condition. But for us to lose the love and the great zeal for the word and the blessings of God is another thing completely. When you lose contentment with things, it's one thing. When you lose your contentment with the blessings the Lord has given you, and blessings come in different packages, that's another thing completely. I'm sure, as I said, after many years for some of you, looking at the Wilson clan especially, in the last year almost for the rest of you, that the freshness of my upfront and pretty plain preaching may have greatly dissipated, and that my own sometimes, sometimes, try not to make it too much, gruff manner, may sometimes cause you to be embarrassed for me, thinking, I hope nobody listens to this, That can be the case. And sometimes we think just a change, just a change of this sort will make things better. And the truth is, sometimes it does. That's what I was hoping for when I stepped out of the pastorate. Sometimes it does. And hopefully when we get a new pastor here in the months to come, or whenever it happens, that it will be delightful. The only problem is that perhaps at times we want something outside of God's plan. In other words, yes, we need a pastor. We need a full-time pastor. When's God going to bring us that pastor? Anybody know? Yeah, you know, at exactly the right time, at exactly the right week, the right guy that he's been preparing his heart all along will say, yes, I will accept this call. As imperfect as it might be, because God has been laying it upon his heart. Sometimes, It's the pastor, getting this new pastor, who is excited about a new church. Also, sometimes we have the problem, we get excited about coming to a new church. I know, I said about the people getting tired. Sometimes we do this and we meet these wonderful new people, all their lives are so wonderful, only to find out within sometimes months or even weeks, We find them not to be quite as strong and solid Christians as we were hoping for. And sadly, far too many pastors have left churches for such reasons, looking for something new, for something better, instead of being content with what God had given them for the time that he had given them. And the list goes on and on. I could spend a whole day here, but you all get really hungry and people will come for the psalm singing. We love new things and then tire them, often in no time at all, and always within a certain amount of time. Children plead with their parents. I mean plead. Hopefully most parents in their goodness say nope, nope, nope, continue no. And don't give in because they are pressured. But only give in when it's proper. And I don't want to give the idea again that children are the only ones to do this because many children, they ask for stuff and they love it forever. They'll grow up with it and they'll still have it when they're 25 years old because it has special meaning to them. And so it is even this way that the many great blessings of God, that God has given us, and many of them, the very ones that we prayed for, when we're no longer looking at it that way, when we're no longer thanking God for them. And new people in the church are example. How many times we've been praying for new people, haven't we? Again, for some of you, I gotta tell the story. I belonged to a church when I was a Pentecostal. And we wanted new people too. And we had about 75, maybe 100 people there, but we wanted, but we didn't want just new people. We wanted the people that nobody else wanted. And let me tell you, after a couple of weeks of praying for this, God started bringing people in off the streets. Homeless people, blind and with mental problems, We found out within a month that we didn't want them either. Thankfully, by God's grace, he revealed that to them, to us, that you don't want them either, do you? And so we quickly repented, we embraced these people. Most of them were still in that church, even when the teaching got worse and worse, for 25 years or more. And mostly they stayed because of the love that had been shown to them at the very first, when they came into the church, because nobody else had wanted them at all. I've seen this oftentimes with bikers. And I've had it where I've went into a church before when I was traveling and people just looked at me like, oh, what do we got here? Well, I was a new Christian, but I was a Christian. I love Jesus. I just wasn't dressed the way they thought I should be dressed. And so I find, and as much as I tell bikers, I don't believe in biker churches, I absolutely understand why they started them, because nobody else wanted them. I always told them, come to my church, we'll love you. Everybody will love you there. Most of them don't take you up on that. And so we see this as part of the sinful and selfish nature of men. that we often lose our joy in the things of the Lord. And worst of all, we lose our joy in the Lord himself. And this is where we must catch ourself, because it can have detrimental effects on your life and in your walk with Christ. Listen to just a couple of passages. I'm getting close to done. Psalm 33, one, sing for joy in the Lord. Oh, you righteous ones, praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with a lyre. Sing praise to him with a harp of 10 strings. Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully and shout with a shout of joy. This should be the attitude of us all the time as we come to the Lord. Again, Revelation 5, 9, and 10 reads, and they sang a new song. You know, they may actually have a new song at that point. Worthy art thou to take the book and to break its seals, for thou was slain and dispurchased for God with thy blood, men of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. For thou hast made them to be a kingdom, a priest of our God, and they will reign on the earth. Are we still delighting in that? Are we looking forward to this? Do we sing the Psalms always in our own hearts as if they are new? How many of you have memorized all the Psalms? God's gave us 150 of them. We've broken them down in sections. Until you've learned all 150 of them, you'll be learning new songs. But hopefully you can delight in them. And I was looking back from Revelation 21 to Isaiah 65, 17 to 19, where it says the same exact thing, but it was understood differently at the time. For I will create a new heaven and a new earth and the former thing shall not be remembered or come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing. and her people for gladness. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and will be glad in my people. And there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying." Remember, he's talking to Isaiah about a people who have deserted God time and time again. But he said, be glad and rejoice forever in what I, because what I'm doing, of what he's doing, and there's a remedy for us who are in Christ if we find ourselves lacking, lacking in the joy and the reverence that we should have in our hearts and in our lives for the Lord Jesus. Ephesians directs us, Ephesians 4, 21 through 24, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus, that in reverence to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God, having been created in righteousness and holiness. of the truth. I was listening to Sinclair Ferguson on the way down today, and he was speaking to this thing. Whenever God tells us something we need to stop doing, he doesn't just leave us hanging. He always tells us then what we need to be doing instead of that. Colossians 3, 8 through 10 says the same exact thing. Take off the old self with its evil practices and put on a new self. who is being, on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. In 2 Corinthians, I'm not gonna read it, it's 5.16 through 6.1, it's about seven verses, but anyway, it speaks that anyone that's in Christ, he is a new creature, and sometimes we don't feel like we're that new creature. And God brings new things, and it's him that brings them. The last stanza, it says in 21, chapter 5, it says, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God. When you hear that passage, do you take great delight? and the work that God has done, that he is doing, and that he has promised that he will continue doing in your life. If there is something that we are able to do that would make this the most wonderful year in our service to him, then we need to do it. If we just follow the passages that I've just read to you, and I know there were a bunch of them, and you're going, that's too much, Pastor John, that's Bible overload. If you just look at them, and there's a bunch more that I didn't bring to you, if you look at them and you read them and you meditate upon them, and some of them each day of the year are a different one than others, then you will indeed have a most blessed year this year. And then the other, the new that I love, the one, a new commandment that I give to you. that you love one another just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Friends, if we truly love one another, we should act like we love one another. And people in the world will know that when they see us one with another. and how we treat each other, how we treat each other in the good things and in the bad things. We have that new commandment. And what today we'll be partaking of the Lord's Supper and we'll take that new covenant. I hope we never ever get tired of the new covenant of God. Again, Psalm 191, almost the last one, and closing out that says, sing to the Lord a new song and his praise and the congregation of the holy ones. Let me close today with the same passage that I started with and give attention once more, Revelation 21. Verse 1, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first seven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. My friends, we are the bride of Christ, and we are most blessed to be that. And so, this week, this month, and through this year, let us more fully act like that, and just as importantly, let us truly believe that. Let's pray. Father God, thank you. Thank you for all the things you give us, not just the new ones, but the old ones as well. and help us to remember that even the old ones were new at one time for us, and to rejoice in your goodness, to rejoice in the sweetness of that everlasting love you have bestowed upon us, we who deserve nothing but eternal damnation. Oh, Father God, help us, help us to not only hear us