Heidelberg catechism question and answer 113. We're only going to read this one question and answer What is God's will for you in the tenth commandment? That not even the slightest desire or thought Contrary to any one of God's commandments should ever arise in our hearts Rather with all our hearts. We should always hate sin and and delight in all righteousness. Amen. Psalm 73 verses 25 and 26. Here, of course, just for the sake of context, Asaph is explaining why he had become envious of the wicked and all the temptations that his heart had been drawn to. And he had lost sight of who God is and of his true desire. And it wasn't until he enters the sanctuary of God and there sees not only the end of the wicked, but sees his great Savior and Lord, that he's able to say these words once more. And I trust that in Christ Jesus, you will strive to say these words, not only say them, but to believe them in your heart of hearts. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Amen. Let us ask God for his blessing upon our time. Let us pray. Father, gracious Father, do help us and bless us now in this time as we lay before you. Father, search us and know us. And Father, as the psalmist prayed later in Psalm 139, see if there be any hurtful way in us and lead us in your way everlasting. Father, we want to do your will, we want to do what is right, and yet we find in us, as Paul says in Romans 7, another principle at work the enemy within our fallen flesh and our fallen desire that has been corrupted by sin. And yet, Father, we pray, help us to love you. Help us to love Jesus Christ, to treasure him, and to, Father, downgrade our value and worth of anything and anyone here on earth. that our desire, that our heart would be renewed again and again, and do so even now, we pray, for we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. An interesting thing happened in 2020. And no, I'm not talking about COVID. That was very interesting. But I decided to start planting a garden. I've not really done that before. We have a little backyard. If you've been to our place, you know that. Just a little backyard there. And I said, you know, We got all this time on our hands because of the lockdowns and all the rest. Let's see if we can plant some vegetables, some tomatoes, some peas, snow peas, some broccoli, some squash. and let's really give a go at it. It's not just throw seed down, let's look on YouTube, right? YouTube is very helpful for these sorts of things. Let's find out how to do it, best practices. What must we do to ensure that we have a good crop later on in August, September before the frost hits? And so what I learned was, and of course this might seem very obvious and you might know this already, you may have been born with this knowledge, but I didn't, I wasn't. It's not just a matter of monitoring the fruit, the tomatoes, right? You could do that, that's good, that's important. But to ensure a good fruit, a good crop, you got to monitor the tomatoes. But you also have to monitor what they're connected to, the stems, the branches. And that's good. You have to do that as well. And then you even have to make sure that the roots of your tomatoes are good. There's enough ventilation there. They're not rotten. But at bottom, You also have to ensure that the soil from which your tomatoes are growing are good, are rich in nutrition, are getting sunlight. It's not just a matter of looking at the fruit. It's not just a matter of looking at the stem and the tree or the plant, the trunk or the roots, but what are the roots synced into? And that's the question before us today. We can look at our character, we can look at our actions, our thoughts, the words we say, and all throughout the 10 commandments, we've been doing just that. But you see, this 10th commandment is different because it's more penetrating. Our heart with all its desires is the soil from which everything will grow. And so you not only have to monitor and take stock of your thoughts, your words, your actions, your motivation, you have to take stock of your heart's desire, the soil of your life. And that is the focus of this commandment. I want to, in almost a kind of Bible study way, we're gonna look at some other texts. I want to look at three points with you today. I want to look at what coveting is. I want to look at you and me, and then I wanna return to Psalm 73 and look at the Lord Jesus Christ. So first and foremost, coveting, what it is. This is perhaps to many of us very similar, a commandment compared to the first commandment. It's very similar to the first commandment. The first and the 10th commandments are very similar. They're not the same, but they are a kind of bookend that both and each deal with the same issue. The first and 10th commandments are bookends that deal with the same issue from slightly different angles. The first commandment asks, what are you worshiping? And the focus of the first commandment is God and his worship and our faithfulness to God, analogous to, for instance, the faithfulness a spouse is to have to their husband or wife. Do you worship God alone? Are you faithful to him alone? The 10th commandment returns to that same issue, but from a different angle. The angle and the perspective of the 10th commandment is not the worship of God. It's actually you. You are the focus of the 10th commandment. What are you desiring? What do you love? What do you truly want in life? Another translation of Exodus chapter 20, where we find the 10 commandments first listed and first given, recorded for God's people, verse 17, Exodus 20, 17, right? You shall not covet, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you should not covet your neighbor's male servant, female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor, right? Another way of translating that verse, that 10th commandment, is simply, you shall not set your desire on anything contrary to what God has commanded, contrary to what God has given you. You shall not set your desire on anything contrary to what God has commanded or what God has given you. The focus, you see, is your love, my love. What do you love? What do you desire? It's not here in this 10th commandment a matter of whether you actually stole something or whether you actually took possession of something. The issue simply is what have you desired? What have you lusted after? What have you set your heart upon? And if you look over at James chapter one, you realize that that is continually the focus of all the commandments. James chapter one tells us, after Hebrews comes James, that we are to take stock not only of the fruit of our lives, not only of the stem and plant or the roots of our lives, but of the very soil of our lives. James chapter 1 verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. I mean, how many times do we do this, right? This is such a common temptation for us, right? He made me do it. She made me do it. That thing made me do it. He provoked me. I'm a peaceful person, but this thing, this circumstance provoked me, right? The issue is never me. I'm never the sinner. It's not within me that the problem is to be found. It's always out here. And then what do we do with God? We say, it's God who tempted me. And James says, hold on a second. No, he didn't. Don't look to God to blame God for your temptation. Where does temptation come from? Continue to read with me. Verse 14, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. You are enticed by your own desire, by your own soil, by your heart's desire, and then that gives birth to a plant, and then it gives birth to fruits, to sin when it is fully grown. Before you commit any sinful action, say any sinful word, before you think any sinful thought, you have a heart that is corrupted. You have a heart within you that is not attracted to Christ and to the obedience of Christ and to his word, but attracted to self, to sin, to the world. And James says, know that about you. You would be a fool to go through your whole life and not know that that is the cause of your sin. So in other words, in this first point, coveting then is not simply desire, but corrupted desire. It is the fallen, twisted, perverted desire inside of every person that's ever lived. Coveting is not simply a yearning, but a yearning for what is evil. Coveting is a discontentment and a frustration with God in our hearts that no one might ever see. And yet it lurks within. a frustration with His Word, a discontentment with how He has called us to live, with how He has created the world, with His provision for us, a discontentment and a frustration with others. This is the lesson I learned in planting my garden in 2020. It's the lesson that we all must learn in guarding our hearts and cultivating Christlike habits, Christlike character, Christlike desire, and Christlike fruits. It's not just pay attention to the fruit, pay attention to your habits, pay attention to your character, but pay attention to the very soil of your heart. This is what sets the 10th commandment apart, because you see, it's summarizing the previous nine commandments, and it's telling us that all throughout each of the commandments that God has revealed to His people, He doesn't want simply behavior modification. He has always wanted the same thing, which is your heart, which is your desire, which is your love. but inside of us we have a sinful desire. We have what in theological parlance we would call and has been called concupiscence. This is a very good word that we need to recover as reformed Christians. If you know Spanish and if you grew up with La Reina Valera and excuse me, Me, pardon me for those who don't know Spanish, didn't grow up in a Spanish speaking church with a Spanish Bible. But concupiscencia is a word that occurs repeatedly throughout the Spanish Bible. Unfortunately, it doesn't occur in our ESV Bibles. If you look at the King James Version though, it's there. It's all throughout the older versions of the English Bible. Concupiscence means that our desire is twisted and perverted. There are some today that might say, well, listen, your desire is fine as long as you don't act on it, right? That's the issue, as long as you don't act on it. No, the Bible says your desire is the problem. It's not just, yeah, the actions, the sinful things you do, that's of course a problem, but it's your desire that's corrupted. It's your concupiscence. Think of it this way, a little thought experiment. And this is hard for us to think about because it's impossible, but thought experiment. If after the fall of man into sin, into disobedience, and under God's condemnation, his just judgment, if man had never again sinned, I know, an impossibility, would man be liable to eternal wrath and hell? If he never again sinned, would he be liable to wrath and hell? Yes, because he's corrupted from within. Because inside of him lies an enemy, concupiscence, a sinful, warped, twisted, perverted desire. And that is enough to destine man to hell. As Christians, we know that we have been made born again. We have enjoyed and come into the reception of that kingdom that requires a renewal of heart and of mind, of soul. So within the Christian, within your life, you don't only have this enemy within, but you have been given a new heart, a new mind, new desire. And yet even as Christians, we need God to speak to us at the level of our desire because if we were to be honest, beloved, who here loves God fervently without fail at all times? Who here yearns and desires to do God's will perfectly without fail? Beloved, our love for God is so tepid It's so weak. It's so frail. If salvation depended on the fervency of our passion and love for God, oh boy, we would be hopeless. We so easily disregard God's commandments. We so easily downplay how exhaustive and comprehensive His will is for our lives. How many of us, I dare say all of us, we check out of the Christian life, we have greater interest in God's will, we more fervently desire and love something or someone else. How often do you believe that that thing or that person or that event or that action or that lifestyle or that decision is what will give you true joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, peace, goodness. If you have escaped God's other commandments and have patted yourself on the back, God does not let any of us escape this commandment. It is here that so often our righteousness is shown and exposed to be what it is. It's not righteous at all. I wanna show you this from God's word in two passages. Again, looking at that first point, what is coveting? God points out, look at Mark chapter 10, verse 17 and following, two places in the New Testament that show how our covetous desire, our concupiscence lurks underneath the surface of our righteousness. Mark chapter 10, verse 17 through 22. This is the story of the rich young ruler. And we know he's a ruler because of the parallel account in Luke. And he goes up, we're told in verse 17, he ran up and knelt before him and asked Jesus. So he has the right posture, bodily posture to God. He kneels before Jesus. But he calls him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Here, what Jesus is doing, what he's saying is not that he's not God or he's not good. He's telling this rich young ruler, if you want to treat me like any other man, then hold on a second. Only God is good. Recognize that if I am to you just another teacher, another mere rabbi, then I'm not good. This man says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother. Here is an exemplary man. He's a ruler of the synagogue, possibly, and more than likely a ruler of the Sanhedrin, which was the body, the ruling body of the Jews at the time. And they had final authority. They were kind of like the Supreme Court of Jewish religion at the time of Jesus. And no doubt we would look at such a man and say he was morally upright, the kind of person we would want to be around. And he tells us as much, right? Jesus has just listed the commandments. And what does this rich young ruler say? Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth. He wants to know how to inherit eternal life. And Jesus tells him that perfect obedience is the entrance into heaven. You want to inherit eternal life, then you must have perfect obedience. And he lists out the commandments of the second table of the law, right? Commandments five and onward. Honor your father and mother, do not steal, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness. And Jesus is absolutely right. Perfect obedience is absolutely necessary to enter heaven. But there's one commandment that Jesus leaves out. It's the 10th commandment. You shall not covet. And why does he leave it out? Jesus tells us, the word of God tells us in other passages that he knew what was in man. He knew what was in man. And Jesus says to this, Rich young ruler, one thing you lack. One thing you lack. Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. It's not one thing you like in the sense of one little thing, one insignificant thing. It's the most central thing. You have missed the boat, rich young ruler man who has come to me with his righteousness. You lack the most important thing. You lack a desire for God. You lack a true love for God. And you see rich young ruler, your earthly treasures as your greatest treasure. And the way to deal with a concupiscent heart, a covetous heart with a twisted desire is to be rid of that which you would treasure and follow Jesus. And that's why Jesus tells this rich young ruler, Go, sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and come and follow me. All seemed well in the life of this young Pharisee until Christ gets underneath the surface of his righteousness and points out his covetous heart. He could point to the fruits, the branches, the roots of his life seemed fine. except the soil of his heart, his desire was all poisoned because his treasure was something other than Jesus Christ. Look at another passage, Romans chapter seven. It's not every time that covetousness is tied to the love of money. It is very common. These are associated. One appears and the other appears. But we need to take stock that covetousness is general as well. And here Paul tells us of his own heart. Verse seven, eight, and nine. What then shall we say that the law is sin? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, notice the commandment he points to. You shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the law, when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. Paul here is reflecting on his life as a Pharisee, as Saul of Tarsus, before he comes to Christ. And in case you wonder, well, that's, yeah, we're Christians here, Sam. That's the life before Christ, the life of sin. He's going to go on and talk about the conflict that still lives within him. And we'll get to that in a moment. In the book of Galatians, there's a lot of autobiographical details of Paul. He says that he was advancing in Judaism. Among those of his age, he was way ahead of everyone. He was at the very top of his class, the very 1% of the 1% of the top 1% of Pharisees. He was so extremely zealous for the traditions of his fathers. He tells us in Galatians 1, verse 13 and 14. Had you looked at Saul of Tarsus, you would have seen a Pharisee of Pharisees. You would have seen an example in the Jewish community of obedience to God, of righteousness, of conformity to God's law, Philippians 3 tells us. Of all the things and the sorts of things we would look at and say, wow, that's an extremely morally upright person. And in this, Paul was strikingly similar to the rich young ruler. In fact, I'm not gonna preach this, don't hold me to it. There has been in recent years in scholarship, a greater openness to saying that that rich young ruler was Paul. was Saul of Tarsus, a young 20-something-year-old Saul who was so impressed with this rabbi of Nazareth, who knew way more than he did, that he came to Jesus to ask Him, what else must I do? I've done everything, Jesus. What else must I do to be saved? The parallels are striking. Notice what Paul says in verse seven. The law is not sinful, right? We wanna be careful that we don't ever say that there's something wrong with the law of God. No, Paul later on in verse 12 says, the law is holy, righteous, and good. The problem is not the law. The law is great. The law shows you one of its functions is to show you your sin. No, but Paul says, if there were no law, I would not think of myself as a sinner. He says in verse seven, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. I would not have been confronted by my corrupt desire if the law had said, do not covet. Until the law of God came, until the 10th commandment came, until the Lord and in His law pierced through to my heart, verse 8, I was fine. My sin, he says, was dormant. But when the spotlight of the 10th commandment came and was put on it, my sins started thrashing about like a monster. And my sin, not the law, my sin produced in me all kinds of covetousness. In the King James Version, all manner of concupiscence, all manner of sinful desire. I thought I was fine. Verse 9, he says, I was once alive apart from the law. I was good. I'd kept all the law of God, but when confronted with this commandment, you shall not covet. When confronted with my corrupt heart, with my true treasure, my sin became alive and I died. And all of a sudden, he says, I became so acutely aware, not that I was great or a good person or morally righteous person, but that I was a sinner. I became acutely aware of all those inclinations and desires that live in me. What Jesus said, To the rich young ruler, he says to Paul, one thing you lack, one thing you lack, not an insignificant thing, not a little itty bitty thing of no consequence, the central thing, the most significant thing, you lack a love for Christ. You've missed the boat, Saul, Saul of Tarsus, because your heart is without love for Christ and has rejected Christ. And Jesus here, Paul tells us, puts his finger on Saul's heart that was contrary to God's commandments. It may have been a love for money. He may have been the rich young ruler. We don't know. But we know that he had a covetous heart. He had a desire to be better than Stephen the deacon. We're told in Acts, he raged against the church. He loathed Christ. He loathed all those early church Christians. And he wanted to put them to death. And he consented. He co-signed the death warrant of Stephen. Such was his corrupted heart. And it wasn't until the Lord confronted him with this commandment that Saul then begins to know that he is not well. That's what coveting is. It's our corrupted heart that misses the one thing that we lack. But secondly, what about you? What about you? What about me? The 10th commandment, when it's first given and recorded in Exodus 20, lists a number of examples of what a corrupted desire grabs hold of and wants and lusts. And these, of course, apply to that original audience of ancient Israel, which was an agricultural people, right? So the commandment goes on to say, you shall not covet your neighbor's spouse, your neighbor's house, a spouse would have been the co-worker, the co-laborer in the household economy. Don't covet your neighbor's house, his property, his land, his farm. Don't covet his male, female servants, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. And to be sure, many of these examples don't resonate with us. We're not an agricultural people. You know, there's not a lot of farmlands around us. I don't know about Florida, but here in North Jersey, it's not quite the garden state. You gotta drive a little bit west, a little bit south to see it. And even if there were farmlands, how many of us are tempted to desire farmland above Christ himself? How many of us covet an ox, a donkey, a beast of burden, right? Okay, that's fine. Those examples don't resonate with us. but you fill in the blank, you fill in the blank of what your heart's desire is. What do you covet? What do you love? What do you treasure? What do you put above Christ? Where is your heart? Where do you neglect God and his commandments for your desire, for your will? Is it something about marriage? About your marriage? Is it work? Is it family? Is it children? Is it parents? Is it your home? Is it your neighbors? Is it something about this country? About your age in life? Is it something about your schedule? About time? About your resources? About your money? about your stability in life, about your maybe credentials in life, your education? Is it the ability to get your own way no matter what happens? That's your desire. And you're good at it. And no one knows that. Search your heart, search your desire, inspect the soil of your life. But thirdly, what is the way forward in Christ? As we confess in the Heidelberg Catechism, as it reflects the teaching of God's word, what are we to do as Christians? God comes to us. He comes to you as his beloved people, not as unregenerate unbelievers, but as his people, renewed by his grace, renewed in your desire and in your heart. Well, what you are to do, two things. that you should put off anything, anything, as small as it may be, as small as the catechism says, the slightest desire or thought contrary to any one of God's commandments. Those motions, those flutterings of the heart that are invisible, imperceptible to everyone that are inside of you. You are to put that off. You are to starve that concupiscence. You are to starve and to strangle your desire away from God for your will. And this, you see, requires you to know that there is in you as a Christian, as a member of the body of Christ, a conflict, a conflict. The conflict doesn't exist in the life of the unbeliever. I know you know this, right? The conflict between good and evil, to want to serve the Lord, to love the Lord, and then to put off my desire. There's no such conflict or battle or spiritual warfare in the life of the unbeliever. The unbeliever is settled. in peace. He has made his peace with his sin. He lives an untortured life. Your life is tortured because you not only have an enemy within, you have the spirit of God within. You need to know that. You need to know that there is a conflict inside of you, and that doesn't make you less of a Christian. That is what the Christian is. It's one who has a sinful desire. and a new heart. We'll see this next week, but the catechism goes on to say and ask, but in question 114, can those converted to God keep these commandments perfectly? No, in this life, even the holiest have only a small beginning of disobedience, of this, obedience, not disobedience, this obedience. Nevertheless, with all seriousness of purpose, they do begin to live according to all, not only some, of God's commandments. This is the conflict that even the holiest Apostle Paul, the great Apostle Paul, the paragon of piety and love for God, this is what he says. If you have Romans 7 open, look there. Verse 15. This is the regenerate, Christ-loving, saved by the power and grace of the Spirit, apostle speaking. I do not understand my own actions, verse 15, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate, verse 19, for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. There is a conflict inside of you, and you must know that. You must starve and strangle your evil desire and not let yourself do what you want. Part of starving your concupiscence is feeding your renewed heart and desire for Christ. And how do we do that? Psalm 73 tells us, as we conclude Psalm 73. There Asaph says, a man who knew what this conflict was like and had been like, so torturous in his soul, whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. What Asaph says is, oh God, you are my desire. And this is what the Holy Spirit of God invites you today to say and to believe and to be convinced of. Oh God, you are my desire. Take this world, take the silver, take the gold, take all the riches, take all the things a man can hope for and can desire. All I desire is you, O Christ. You are my true love. You are my true life. Your word is my nourishment. Verse 26, my flesh and my heart may fail. but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. He says, when I look out at this world, I grow weak and frail. When I look at this world, I am tempted. My resolve just melts away because I see what the wicked have. If you look over at verse three, I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. And then from verse four on to verse 12, he describes the wicked. They have no pain. They're always on the up and up. They're always prospering. They're rich, they're wealthy. They seem to be very healthy. Their lives seem to be elongated, whether organically or artificially. I see how warped and twisted they are, and yet they're prospering. How can this be? I serve you, God. Is the Christian faith not profitable, not advantageous to me as a person, to my health, to my wealth, to my bank account, to my pension, to my status in life, to my education, to my credentials? And I became envious of the wicked. My heart and my flesh failed. And then I thought about the Christian life. He says in verse 13 and 14, this life of loving and serving. And I realized that as I was looking at the world and tempted by the world and envious of their riches and their prosperity, that I became neglectful of you, oh God. And I thought all this Christian life doesn't pan out. It's not worth it. It's so vain. It's of no worth. It doesn't pay me anything. until verse 16 and 17. I came into your sanctuary, and by faith I saw you. And in your sanctuary, O Yahweh, I worshiped you, and my heart was once more renewed and turned to you. And then I saw not only the end of the wicked, I saw what becomes of their lives. Verse 18, 19, and 20, all that they have is a mirage. It's swept away as like a flood in a dream. They're utterly destroyed in a moment. You set them in slippery places. I saw what becomes of all this that I envy. But then I saw you. I saw you, oh God, once more. And I saw that you are what is of true worth. You are my treasure, he says. You are my life. You are my delight. You are my true love. My soul was embittered. I was brutish and ignorant like a beast toward you until I saw that you are my desire. And this is what we are called to say, to believe, to be convinced of. This is what is to be in the soil of our hearts. When I have everything, but I don't have you, oh God, I'm a pauper. I'm a pauper. I'm the poorest of men. But when I have you, Jesus Christ, I may not have a lot. And you know that's not true. The Lord provides you with so much. The Lord has never abandoned any of you. So this idea that you have to make it out on your own without God's blessing is nonsense. is nonsense, that you have to worship your riches and your money and your work and your wealth is nonsense. God has never abandoned you. But even if you had nothing, even if you had nothing, and all you had was Jesus Christ, you would be the wealthiest person on earth because you would have the true treasure of treasures. And this is what Asaph says, and this is what we are to say, and this is what we are to believe and to be convinced of. That I am loved by the God of heaven and earth, who is my Father through Jesus Christ, my Savior, and He is my portion and my inheritance forever. You strangle and starve your evil desire for sin, your concupiscence by feeding your heart with the reality of Christ's salvation and love of you. By feeding your heart the fact that there is no reason to ever be discontented with God, by feeding your heart the fact that you owe everything you have to God. What do you have that you have not been given? And now, having been given not just Jesus Christ, but graciously all things in Him, you are to live for God. You are to love God. You are to serve Him and serve others around you in the love of Christ for you. Amen? Let us pray. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, You are so good to us, but do help us, Lord, and recalibrate our priority in our hearts this day and this week, that, Lord, we would be rich with you, and, Father, seek first the kingdom of heaven, and put you, Father, in the place that you belong our supreme desire, our true love, and that in the love of Christ, Father, you would rightly order all our subordinate loves, our love of our family, our desire for self-preservation, our wanting to be stable materially in this world, not just us, but also our children and our progeny after us. But Father, it all begins with our hearts. Help us, Lord, and forgive us where we have gone astray and where we have loved things and people more than you, where we have loved money and wealth. Father, which is a root of all manner of evil, forgive us, cleanse us, renew us, that Father, the enemy within, would be weakened and that our inner man in Christ would be strengthened as we feed off Christ and his love for us and his work on the cross for us in his death, but also in his resurrection. We thank you, Lord, that you have never abandoned us. and that you are with us to the end of the age. Help us now to live in love for you and in gratitude, for you are the God of our salvation. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.