our comfort in Christ. And I'm taking the primary text from 1 Chronicles 7, verse 22. And Ephraim, their father, mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him. Or, I think in the New King James Version, they use kinsmen instead of brethren or brothers, which is an appropriate translation for that. The breakdown of the chapter, and just as a reminder, we're looking at we're looking at certain tribes that are numbered, and by their number you can see that David is mentioned, and so this is applied to the numbering of the people of Israel. And knowing the history as we looked at 2 Samuel and 1 Kings, you know, within a year or two ago, as we're walking through and marching through and we see the life of David, David was move to number the people. And we'll end up seeing that Satan moves him to number the people in Chronicles, but in Kings it was the Lord moved him to number the people and he shouldn't have done so. However, we see it in Chronicles that here are the numbers from David's day. We see this particularly under Ishakar where David is mentioned. But Abraham has a son, Isaac. He has several sons, as we've seen in Chronicles. Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob, and Jacob named Israel by the Lord, Israel's sons. We have Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. And then Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. when they went down to Egypt during a famine in the days of Joseph when he was sold into bondage and was there 13 years until there was seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine, that the whole clan came down and When Jacob was on his deathbed, he blessed the sons of Israel, his sons, but before that he called Joseph's sons, who were Manasseh the oldest and Ephraim the younger, and he blessed the younger over the elder. Manasseh was named Manasseh, which means forgetfulness. because Joseph now has forgotten all the troubles that he had being sold into bondage and the jealousy of his brothers. That caused him to forget those, so he named his oldest son Manasseh. And then he has a second son whom he names Ephraim because he's the number two ruler in all of Egypt. And the Lord has blessed him to fruitfulness. And Ephraim means fruitfulness. And those sons were blessed by Jacob. Ephraim crosses his hands to bless the younger over the elder. And we've been looking at those. Last week in 1 Chronicles 6, we looked at the tribe of Levi, which is the priesthood. They didn't have an inheritance in the land because the Lord God was their inheritance, as they were able to serve in the tabernacle, as they were able to serve the Lord They received their inheritance by their service. They had that privilege to serve the Lord as opposed to the stewardship of having a possession within the land passed down from generation to generation. So as we get to chapter 7, then we have some remaining sons. We have Issachar in verses 1 through 5, the sons of Issachar. And certainly not all of them are named. And Teagan certainly did a wonderful job reading those names. But when you think about those names, you know, Hupum and Shupum, and the Daughters of Zelophead. Or how about Tola, as I mentioned last week? Tola, how'd you like that name? That means worm. Yeah, come on over here, worm. Tola, he was a judge in Israel in this tribe of Issachar, but this Tola may be a different Tola because of how the generations are seated. And not every single generation is mentioned as you look at these tribes. We have the tribe of Benjamin and they're not mentioned in order. Obviously, because Benjamin, Benjamin, son of the right hand, he was the second son of Rachel, who, when Rachel died in childbirth, she named him Benoni, which means son of my sorrow. But Jacob, or Israel, he named him Benjamin, son of the right hand. And Benjamin is the last, but he's mentioned right after Issachar in verses six through 12. And Benjamin also, the tribe of Benjamin, will be mentioned next week in a little bit more detail because Saul, the second king of Israel, was under the tribe of Benjamin. And notice that I said second king of Israel. That's a trivial question for you. Because the first king of Israel, for those of you who remember the book of Judges, was a man named Abimelech, who installed himself as king for three and a half years. That was the first king of Israel. Though he was not the rightful king, and he did so by himself, Abimelech, meaning my father is king, Abimelech made himself king, and he only lasted for three and a half years. Saul was the installed person that the people desired to have king. And David is the king of God's choosing, a man after his own heart. And then Solomon is the one who is born king unto David. So we have these four kings. They are installed as kings in different ways. And there's a gospel message there, but we won't get into. Then Naphtali, which means my wrestlings. The Naphtali only has one verse, verse 13. He's only mentioned there. And then Manasseh, which is Joseph's son, his eldest son, he's mentioned in verses 14 and 19. And then verses 20 to 29, we have Ephraim, the younger son who is blessed to be greater. And the fruitfulness of his life is shown here in verses 20 to 29. And I want to take some time there because our Key verse comes out of this section. The sons of Ephraim, Shuttalah, Bered and Bered his son, Tahat his son, Eldah his son, Tahat his son, Zavod his son, Shuttalah his son. It sounds almost repetitive, doesn't it? In verse 21, and it says, and Ezer and Eliad, whom the men of Gath, who were born in the land, killed because they came down to raid their livestock. And Ephraim, their father, mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him. In verse 23, it says, and Ephraim went into his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Beriah, because disaster had befallen his house, which means it can be translated with evil, Beriah. So verse 24, his daughter was Shaphera, who built both lower and upper Beth-horon and Uzen-shira, which is interesting because now it's talking about the promised land. And it is a female, a daughter that has built these, and even a place that is named after her. And verse 25, Repho was his son, or Reshaph his son, Tila his son, Tahan his son. Verse 26, Ladan his son, Amichud his son, Elishema his son. Verse 27, Nun his son, and I think in the Old King James Version it's spelled N-O-N, Nun, which in Hebrew it's pronounced Nun anyway, Nun. his son, and then Joshua, or Yehoshua, his son, verse 28, their possessions and settlements were Bethel, and its towns, and to the east, Naaran, and to the west, Gezer, and its towns, Shechem, and its towns, and Aya, and its towns, verse 29, also in the possession of the Manassites, Bethshean, and its towns, Anak, and its towns, Megiddo, and its towns, Dor, and its towns, In these lived the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel. So there was kind of an overlap between the Manassites, which are the tribe of Manasseh, Ephraim's brother, to the Ephraimites. And there's a little bit of an overlap. Now it's really confusing because the generations don't add up. We know that Joshua is who led the children of Israel into the promised land across the Jordan River. And that would have been generations later. But here are these people of Gath, and we know that Gath is the people whom Goliath came from. He and his four brothers, and Goliath is the one, Gilead is the one whom David slew with a sling when he was probably between 17 and 19 years of age. And so they being close, and to give you an idea of where close to Ephraim, now Ephraim died in Egypt. He died in Egypt, so this couldn't be him going into the promised land. So there's some problems in figuring out this whole passage of scripture. The Gath was pretty close, and the land of Goshen, I believe, is on the east side of the Nile River Delta. They're not inward into deep into Egypt. The place that they're given is somewhat separate. It would be the part of Egypt which is known as the Sinai Peninsula, which is not where Mount Sinai is. It's just called the Sinai Peninsula. for a lot of reasons we won't even get into, that's a part of Egypt. And so they probably, the land of Goshen was on the east side of the Nile River Delta, which would have meant that the Gath and the land of the Philistines, they were very close. So there were some Southern Gathites that were down there, or Gittites that were down there, and that they killed one of Ephraim's sons. or excuse me, killed, took his cattle, killed his, it says, Ezer and Iliad were slain by these men from Gath. And the Iliad, Ezer and Iliad were the men that were born in Egypt, born in the land. And their livestock was taken. Now Iphraim is sorrowful. Some suggestions are that this is a different Iphraim that was later. or that it was, one other explanation is that it's the tribe of Ephraim but that doesn't make sense because he is comforted by his brothers and he goes in unto his wife and has another son and then he names them Bariah. So it doesn't make sense that it would be a tribe. Another explanation is that it was a different Ephraim, a descendant of Ephraim, which still raises some difficulties. And my explanation is, is that it's a mystery couched in this chapter so that we can trust in God. That's my explanation. Some people will even say, well, we'll wait and we'll ask it for him when we get there. I won't even have to ask it for him because I won't be interested. My only interest is looking upon the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when I get there, whatever questions I have will either be answered or I'll be content. So it doesn't really bother me that it can't be reconciled. I know that it's there for a reason, and that will unfold as these things are present. Joshua named later, you know, if you try to check out the genealogies. Also, here's another interesting thing about the Hebrew when it says it uses the term Banu, which is his son. When he uses that there, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's strictly chronological. It could be that several of them were Ephraim's sons, because he is named fruitful after all. And he had many sons there, and it wasn't a strict chronology of his son after him, his son after him. It's using that term as Ephraim's son, his son, and his son, and his son. And so they're all stacked up as these are all Ephraim's sons. So there's a possibility there. Then we have verses 30 through 40, which are the sons of Asher. And so here are some brief considerations from the chapter. It mentions these mighty men and so it speaks of warfare. We know that the tribes of Israel went into the promised land and they had wars to fight. And so when I end up bringing to you a message, our comfort in Christ, and I'm spiritualizing this, I've been criticized by other pastors, especially when I was down in the Bible Belt, you spiritualized things too much. I said, well, no, this is an historical account. I don't doubt that, and I don't say that it's not an historical account. These things actually happen. But think about this, I say to those pastors now, as I said to those pastors then. Every battle that was fought by the Israelites was a spiritual battle. When they were unfaithful, did they win or lose? They lost. When they were faithful to Yehovah Elohim, when they were faithful to God of their fathers, to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they won. By God's grace they went forth and by God's grace they received. It's all a spiritual warfare. It's all a spiritual battle. Everything that they did was of a spiritual nature. It was to present unto us the blessings of God. And though it is an historical account, if we get nothing spiritual from it, it does us nothing. It's no good. Everything from Genesis to Revelation is a spiritual truth. And though there are historical accounts, these are historical. They actually happen. There was actually a man named Adam. There was actually a woman named Eve. And it goes on and on. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the sons of Israel, these are actual people, real people, whom God, by His grace, gave birth to. But the things that are included here in the Bible are for us. These things are for us, and they are of a spiritual nature. The warriors of Christ, it's mentioned in verse, mighty warriors in the English Standard Version, or mighty men of valor in your King James, in your New King James Version, mentioned in verses 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 40. They were mighty men, they were actual men that some of them, they were men as we'll end up seeing a little later on with David's crew. He had mighty men that fought with the left hand showing that, hey, they were skillful in battle no matter what hand that they were using. but it's also a spiritual reflection of who we are. Does not 2 Timothy 2 3 says that we should share in the sufferings as good soldiers of Christ Jesus or endure in the old King James Version, endure hardness. New King James Version, I think it says endure hardships. That we are to be disciplined because we fight spiritual battles. Ephesians 6 10-12 tells us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. that we are to put on the whole armor of God to be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places, and the rulers of darkness of this age. And then furthermore, Paul mentions to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 10, verses three and four, that though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not flesh, but divine. They're spiritual. They have a divine power to destroy strongholds. And so we see that that reflection there is an encouragement to us that they were mighty in battle because God was with them. And God ministered to them. And He equipped them spiritually so that they could be strong and courageous in battle because they had an eternal perspective. That though I die in this battle, I am yet alive. in Jehovah God. And so there is that spiritual aspect and spiritual dimension even to them historically. And it should be for us. The death for us is nothing but just a doorway in which we pass into the eternal. And so we are tremendously encouraged by the truth that God gives us through this spiritual dynamic. And here's another question. Where in the world is Dan? The tribe of Dan, though mentioned once as one of the sons earlier on in 1 Chronicles, as far as the possession goes, as far as the mighty men goes, since Reuben has been mentioned, Judah has been mentioned, Levi has been mentioned, Dan is interestingly absent. And interestingly, also, is that he's absent from Revelation chapter 7, verses 4 through 8. Levi is actually mentioned. Joseph is mentioned. And one of his sons is mentioned. But when you go through that there are 144,000, remember that when you look at that, it's translated poorly in your old King James Version and your new King James Version, that when it speaks of 144,000, it's thousands in the Greek. 144,000, how much is that? That's a lot. And then the 7,000 of the tribe of Judah, the 7,000 of the tribe of Reuben and so forth, it's 7,000s, plural. It's all plural. But the interesting thing is, is that Dan's not mentioned. The tribe of Dan is not mentioned. I have suspicions concerning it and I could be wrong. Why is it there? So that you could trust in God regardless of what the reason is. Like I said, I have suspicions. I'm not even going to go over them because we have other things to cover right now. More important things. The blessed application from our text. Verse 22, it says, An Ephraim, their father, mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him, his kinsmen. Because he had one brother he had Manasseh as a brother if this is the Ephraim that is the son of Joseph So all the other brothers the kinsmen everybody came to comfort him through this raid that came down seemingly upon him and because of the comfort of that the brothers bring, I believe that it foreshadows the comfort that is in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The comfort that comes from brotherhood. This brotherhood that the Lord speaks of. And the first thing that we should go to always is the comfort for Christ. That Jesus Christ, this perfect man, foreshadowed even perfectly what this brotherhood should look like. And we see two instances in particular of the Lord Jesus taking brethren along with Him. You know, He was born as a Jew, and so He has these disciples who are also Jews, and they would be called brothers. The same as what we see with Ephraim, who's covered by his kinsmen, his brothers. In the Mount of Transfiguration, and I use the Gospel of Mark because if you read the Robert Murray McShane Reading Plan, we know that we've been in Mark recently, and in Mark 9, verse 2, that Jesus takes with him Peter, James, and John up into this mount, and he's transfigured before them. It says in verse 2 of Mark 9, and there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Luke's gospel actually tells us in Luke chapter 9 verses 30 to 31, tells us what they were talking about. Luke 9 verse 30 and 31 says, and behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. In other words, they were speaking to him about his death. They're speaking to him about the things that he would suffer, that he was going to be tortured, that he was going to go to the cross, that he was going to die, that he was going to suffer God's wrath for sins he did not commit. And so he took along with him, as weak as they were, because they were fallen upon sleepiness, getting a little tired, and then all of a sudden they see Jesus in translucent, bright apparel, as if glorified, and they're about ready to fall asleep. But Jesus is comforted to bring about these men with Him, brothers with Him, to hear this news. Though Elijah and Moses are there speaking with Him, and He enters into the eternal And so the truth of the law and the prophets is there. That which is speaking to Him of what He must go through, that He has the comfort of those disciples that were closest to Him. Peter, James, and John by His side. Because that's what we must look for. He did so though He is perfect, sinless man. And when He faces the truth of the cross, that he should be comforted as well. We know this to be true because when he did go to the other mount, the mount of troubling prayer, the mount of olives, where is the garden of Gethsemane, that as He prays in Mark 14.33-34, it says, "...And He took with Him Peter and James and John, the same three, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And He said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death, remain here and watch." He wanted the comfort of those disciples to be with Him. Because He's going to face the cross. He's going to face God's wrath. He who knew intimacy with the Heavenly Father greater than any man could ever know is now going to know the forsakenness of the Father greater than any man could ever imagine. And so He takes with Him those three disciples whom He was closest with, the ones He was pouring out His heart to. He takes them unto Himself. And though sleepy as they are, He can be comforted. Even in their failure, it says that the angels ministered unto the Lord Jesus in Luke's Gospel, in Luke 22. And in fact, in Luke 22, verse 44, it says that he was in agony in the English Standard Version. He agonized in prayer over this that he was about to do. And as I tell you time and again, he must pray that prayer. Let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine. Because he's going to drink down the wrath of God, and he's going to die a death, an actual physical death. He can't rush headlong into death unless it is by the Father's approval. For him to not pray that prayer would have been a sin. But he receives comfort and strength by bringing men along with him, brothers, to help uphold him, to pray along with him. to just be there even though they're sleepy and they can't even keep their eyes open. They're there. And that brings a comfort to our Lord. The shepherds saw Him that we know in Psalm 23. In verse 4, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. And here, the Great Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, who kneels before prayer kneels before the Lord, excuse me, in prayer, that the rod, the discipline, the rod of discipline which he will take, the one that is due to those men who were sleepy over here and the guiding staff like the walking stick or the scepter. Those comfort Him. Those things that they should receive but are not going to, that they're along with Him. There is a comfort there that when Jesus is praying, He's in the valley of the shadow of death, though He's on a mount, because the depth of His agonizing. We can see this also in Hebrews 12, verse 2, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. For the joy set before him, there was a joy there because of the comfort that came, because these men who deserve that wrath, who would not receive that wrath, were there along with Him because it foreshadowed that which we should embrace as the blessed truth that God has given us through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a comfort in Christ. This is what the church is about. This is what we are. This is what we are. one body in Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 25 says, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care one for another. And in verse 26, as I quote often, if one member suffers, we all suffer together. But when one member is honored, we rejoice together. There is this unity that is in us and a comfort that comes because we are in Christ. that the encouragement that we receive from one another as one body is a blessing that the Lord Jesus Christ, having fulfilled even in these little things that He did when He was at His lowest points and even at His most troubling times, He brought brothers with Him so that we can remember that we should bring brothers with us, that we should be that we should be filled with the kind of fellowship that allows us to be as close together as drops of water, to be glued in the temple of the living God as lively stones with the crimson cement of Christ's blood. To kind of paraphrase Charles Spurgeon from this morning's Sunday school lesson, he used the word vermilion. But I say crimson so that you'll understand the crimson blood of Jesus Christ is a cement that glues us together. that what he prayed before he went to the garden in John 17, that we would be one even as the Father and He were one. And from that, we have a comfort from Christ unto others. To one another, certainly. And in this, it becomes a witness that though the word is unheard by those that don't know. And we read this this morning in Isaiah 52, that the kings who had never heard, they understand. The kings who had never seen, they see. They see the gospel. And how do they do that? Before they've even heard the Word, they see it in our lives, in our loving one another. In John chapter 13 and verse 35, by this all people will know that you are my disciples, the Lord Jesus said, if you have love one for another. And then a few chapters later in chapter 15 and verse 12, he said, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Well, how did the Lord Jesus love those disciples? How does he love you? He left the unspeakable I can't even speak myself. I'm getting just emotional thinking about our Lord. He left the unspeakable glories of heaven's eternity to dwell among sinners and to befriend and teach sinners and to lay down His life for sinners. This is the importance of church fellowship, which we do enjoy. Sometimes we might even take it for granted a little bit because we almost don't leave for hours after a service, not just the morning service, but the evening service and the Wednesday evening prayer meeting or even game night where the poor Quinlan family is up until two in the morning cleaning up after we've We've all left at 9 or 10 and they're still cleaning up after the fun that we've had. And all the things that we do to get together. This is the importance of the church fellowship, the importance of church membership. To be committed unto one another because Christ was so committed unto us. It proclaims the glorious gospel of Christ to others before they even hear a word of Christ's precious blood shed for us, of the wrath that He had suffered, of His bearing our sins upon Himself as if they were His, taking them on Himself. They see that in our love for one another, this miracle of how we do love each other. That Christ has done that in us. And supernaturally, it will be evident. That we love our neighbor. The second great commandment, the first one is, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Taking from Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, Mark 12, verse 31, which we just read this week, it says, the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Speaking of the first commandment, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second, love your neighbor as yourself, quoting from Leviticus. The blessing to the world is our witness that Christ's love extends through us to those of other denominations as well. Now, we might not get together and do something co-denominationally, and in fact we won't because our bylaws say that we can't. And just because we disagree on certain elements doctrinally, if they have a confession of faith in Christ, and we have a confession of faith in Christ, they're our neighbor, they're our brothers and sisters in Christ, and that we extend to them that same love. And so there is a uniqueness there that the world should see. And sadly, sometimes denominations kind of, even Baptist denominations, the Southern Baptist against the Fundamental Baptist, and we being kind of independent on our own, and being where we are in the Nelchik. Oh, forget about them. Some people will take that attitude, but it shouldn't be. And then finally, loving our enemies. loving our enemies. And we just read this, this week, Romans chapter 12 and verse 20, that says, to the contrary, Paul says, rather than taking vengeance upon an enemy, this is the extreme that we should go. To the contrary, Paul says, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. He's not saying anything different than the Lord Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Love your enemies. Pray for them that spitefully use you and persecute you. Paul's quoting Proverbs 25, verses 21 and 22 in making his point concerning the kindness of the enemies of the cross and the enemies of Christ Jesus, our Lord. People that despise the gospel and oppose the gospel, we are to love. Not with a different love that we love one another. Not with a different love that we love Christ with. It doesn't mean that we condone their sins. On the contrary. And in fact, the burning coals are, from our perspective, a blessed and hopeful act. The ore in the minds of unbelief like the metal. That fire, and I know that there are other explanations for it, some good, some bad, whatever. But as we recognize that the ore that is in our minds that's un-mined and has not been through the smelter's fire, it needs those burning coals so that the impurities can be brought to the top and scraped off. an unbeliever will certainly have that kind of mind, an ore that's unmind and unrefined. Well, therefore, every holy act of provision and refreshment unto the unbelieving soul is an evidence of God's grace through us. If our kindness to reprobate unbelievers should prove ineffective, for his or her salvation, then it's not our place to render final judgment. Because the Scripture says, vengeance is mine, I shall repay, saith the Lord. It doesn't say vengeance is mine, I shall repay, says the sinner, by grace. It's not yours and mine to do. You see, We are not to be conformed by the beggarly elements of this world, because verse 2 says to be not conformed to this world. That's what the world will do. They will pervert justice by taking judgment into their own hands. But we know that judgment is in the Lord God's hands. It's in the Lord Jesus' nail-pierced hands. It's not in ours. And so our judgments, our discernments, and our decisions Our decisions concerning our enemies, or the enemies of the cross, they must be sober and humble, for we are not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, as Romans chapter 12, verse three tells us. Our good, kind, and loving provision unto our enemies does not condone their evil, but rather it overcomes it, which is what Romans chapter 12, verse 21 tells us, when we do well unto them. And in fact, to withhold kindness from them would be insincere love, as opposed to the genuine love we're commanded to dispense according to Romans chapter 12 verse 9. Because disingenuous or hypocritical love does not rejoice in hope, because we're told to rejoice in hope in Romans chapter 12 verse 12. So since Romans 12, verse 20 exemplifies God's grace in Christ, because this was our condition before we were saved by God's grace. Romans 5, verses 6 and verse 8 says that we were weak, godless sinners. And then Romans 5, verse 10 says that we were enemies of God before Christ saved us. So by grace through faith in Christ, God fed us with the bread of life, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he gave us to drink while we were enemies, when we were unsaved. God through Christ gave us spiritual drink to quench our parched thirst with the Holy Spirit, the living water. And so when we love our enemies, those people that oppose the cross, vehemently, even to the point of criticizing you, that when we love them and show them Christ in our lives and give them the bread of life, and even if need be, buy them a sandwich, give them a drink of water, that we're bringing to them the blessing of the Lord and the Lord is using us to do so. Hallelujah, what a Savior, right? That he will use us to do so even to those who oppose the cross because he did that through others so that we might be saved. And this is the kind of Lord we have. This is the blessing and the blessedness of fellowship and brotherhood that that is given to us because everything is a gospel picture. Everything is. Before, in the Old Testament, it was a gospel picture of that which is to come. And since Christ has come, everything is a gospel picture of that which has come in Christ. Marriage, family, fellowship, all these are to preach Christ and Him crucified. Let's pray. Our most blessed and gracious Father in God, you've given us a privilege of salvation in so many ways, so many pictures, so many truths from Scripture. You give us this brotherhood, this fellowship of one another. Father, forgive us that we have failed so much that sometimes we see one another difficulty. We see our children sometimes as a hardship. We see our parents sometimes as an annoyance. We see our family of God as an inconvenience, and it should not be. Forgive us, Lord. Our flesh rises up in order to strangle those things that you have given to be the tremendous blessing of our lives, so that we may see Christ in it, see his gospel from it, and exalt him so that you are glorified. Give us strength today, Lord, that as we look at this, that we may rejoice, we may shout from the housetops of our souls the blessing that you've given us in the comfort of Christ through the brothers, through the sisters, through our family of God. In Jesus' name and for his sake we thank you. Amen.