Hosea chapter 8, we want to continue our study here. And I'd like to share a quote. It's in your notes as we begin our Bible study. This is from a wonderful book called the Prophecy Knowledge Handbook. And Dr. Walvord, when he was here on this earth, attempted to comment on every prophecy in the Bible. It's an amazing work. And here's what he says in part about Hosea. Though the work of Hosea may be outlined in various ways, it is probably most clarifying to consider his prophetic ministry as revolving around three themes. The sins of Israel and Judah, the punishment from God because of their sins and their ultimate spiritual and political restoration. And you may think as we go through Hosea, wow, this just seems so judged, full of judgment. It's so negative and hope is coming. Hope has already been shown in the book, but restoration will come and it will end very well as is God's plan. But we need to understand all that he says. He demonstrates that there are five series of indictments in Hosea against the nation of Israel or against Ephraim and each is followed by restoration. So where we are today in chapter eight would be in the fourth series of indictments chapter 6 verse 4 all the way through 11 7 it's the longest section of God's delineated judgments on his people but there is restoration coming chapter 11 verses 8 through 11 so let me read these six verses for today set the trumpet to your mouth He shall come like an eagle against the house of the Lord because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. Israel will cry to me, my God, we know you. Israel has rejected the good. The enemy will pursue him. They set up kings, but not by me. They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them. From their silver and gold, they made idols for themselves that they might be cut off. Your calf is rejected, O Samaria. My anger is aroused against them. How long until they attain to innocence? For from Israel is even this, a workman made it, and it is not God, but the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. Notice first of all in verse one that the Lord warns Israel of judgment and its causes. Notice he says, set the trumpet to your mouth. Like that. We're all awake now? That hour of sleep you lost, you just got it back. You need it again? This is a shofar. This is a trumpet. That's the word here, the Hebrew word, trumpet. A piercing sound, a call to alarm. of wake up. And so Hosea says here, set the trumpet to your mouth. Or the Lord says to Hosea, set the trumpet of warning to your mouth because judgment is coming. The shofar sounds the alarm. It gets the attention. And notice this, an enemy descends like an eagle. The he, he shall come like an eagle or like a vulture. eagles are majestic in their flight and some take this to be the Griffin vulture that's in parts of the Mideast and I saw some pictures of these and a little video of them flying really amazing like our American bald eagle but they are birds of prey and they can swoop down and get their prey and take them away in no time. They can dive into the water or on top of the water and pull out their prey from the water. So this is the picture that the Lord is giving to Israel, the 10 tribes to the north, to Ephraim, watch out because your enemy is coming. He's gonna swoop in on you. And that enemy was Assyria, a nation to the north. They had tried to make packs help with Egypt, with Assyria. They were like that silly dove that we considered last time. And he says, no, the enemy's coming. He's going to swoop down on you. And indeed that happened. In 722 BC, Israel fell to Assyrian power. The enemy will come suddenly. And notice it says in verse 1, he will come against the house of the Lord. there are two possibilities for house of the Lord. One, it could be actually talking about the temple, though that didn't happen till 586 BC, but house of the Lord probably here is an expression for the whole land of Israel. He's going to come on the house of God's people, those that are supposed to be God's people that have had covenant with the Lord, but have departed from him. And then I love the clarity of the prophet here. He tells us exactly why this is happening. Why is this judgment coming on the people of Israel? See the word because in verse one, halfway down, because they have transgressed my covenant. Going back to the Mosaic covenant, the Ten Commandments, the laws of God given on Mount Sinai. They have gone against that. They've disregarded it. And he further defines it like this. They've rebelled against my law. They have spurned my law. They've stepped across the boundaries of my law. And so that's why judgment is coming, Israel. Wake up and watch out. A very tragic turn of events here for those people that were led out of Egypt by a colossal miracle of God. They were brought into the promised land, another great miracle, where the Jordan River was stopped up. And God had given them his word. It appeared to Moses, gave them great leaders, and gave them the prophets. and they turn to idolatry, to spiritual adultery, turn away from God and choose false gods. They've rebelled against my law. We will make some pointed applications for all this at the end and some along the way, but here is a warning from the prophet Hosea of judgment to come. And you know I like to apply this on different levels and one warning that I like to, one way I like to apply it is certainly to our nation, the United States of America. How blessed we have been as a nation. Why is it, tell me this, why do people want to come here from all over the world? Because there are many blessings here. higher standard of living many times. And you can have opportunity and education and all sorts of things. And my heart is heavy when I hear many of you describe what it was like back in your country just Wednesday night on June. It was said that in school you learn to be attitudes. Would to God that were the case today. But imagine this, a protest because the Ten Commandments is posted on the wall of the school. Oh, can't have that. Separation of church and state, which is a big lie. There's not a separation of God and morality from American society, but that argument has been used over and over. Do you know that has nowhere in our Constitution? What is there is that Congress will not prohibit the free exercise of religion. And so we're free to practice our religious beliefs and convictions. And it's amazing how far we have turned from the Lord. I reminisce about my fourth grade and Miss Carol Mosker. What an impression she made on me. She was a large lady in control of her class. said this before. Her name was Mosker. She said, you can call me Miss Monster if you want to. She had control of that class. I remember on the report marking period, she sent a note home about me to my mom. I think Woody would do better if he would not sit by Bobby and talk. Something like that. Things changed after that. But here's what I remember most about Miss Mosker. She would open the Bible and read it to us at the beginning of class. What a wonderful thing to do. It was right around the time that that was changing. And so we can't do that anymore in our schools. The Lord warns Israel of judgment and its causes. So now what are our school systems preoccupied with? Teaching little boys that they could be girls, girls that they could be boys, that this is acceptable, all of this. What a way to mess up a kid's head. There's a case right here in New York State of a young girl that was depressed and her Parents went to the school and said, is something going on here? Oh, no, everything's fine. Everything's fine. Found out there were people in the school trying to convince this daughter that she was a boy and trying to make it happen. And they filed a lawsuit against the school board, covering it up. Loudoun County, Virginia, a boy puts on a skirt, says he's a girl, goes into the girl's bathroom, molests a young lady there. There's a school board that covered it up. School board covered it up. The father goes to the school board meeting, and he got rather irate. And he got arrested. That's been overturned, thankfully. You say, what a bizarre world. And this student who perpetrated this crime against a young lady went to another school. What are we coming to? What happened to reading? What happened to mathematics? What happened to science? And what happened to basic morality and the fear of the Lord? So I see all of that and I step back and it's a prayer for God to turn the heart of the nation back to him or we will face his judgment. We will face enemies coming against us and devouring us. Well, notice what Israel does in verses two and three. Israel will cry to me. But how? My God, they will say, we know you, but it is not genuine. Their cry is insincere. Now notice this. They've transgressed my covenant. They rebelled against my law, but they will cry out to me. How is it that people have no use for God when trouble hits all of a sudden get really religious? And they start calling out to God. We know you. We know you. Calls the Lord my God. They claim the Lord as their God. They claim to know him. Now they cry out to the Lord when they are in trouble, but what about when life is going smoothly? There's an old expression that says, for military folks, there are no atheists in the foxhole. When trouble comes, people cry out to God. They pray. They seek after the Lord. But it's not genuine here because it's not from the heart. It's not heartfelt. May we be people who call out to the Lord all the time, not just when we're facing trials and difficulties. May we cry out to the Lord out of a heart relationship to Him. May we call out to the Lord like a little child that comes and takes hold of the leg of the father or the mother and looks up at them, help me, daddy, help me, mommy. May we be like those behaving ourselves like a weaned child with its mother, as the Psalms said. They claim to know the Lord. You know, it's a sad thing when people claim a knowledge of God but have no relationship with God. Many will say in that day, have we not done this? Have we not done that in your name? And he says, I never knew you. I never had a relationship with you. depart from me." How very tragic that is. Now notice this, they'll cry to me, they have a form of religion, a form of piety, but they don't really know the Lord. Because notice verse 3, they reject the good. Israel has rejected the good. Isn't that interesting? So it's sandwiched between, they've transgressed my covenant, they've rebelled against my law, they've rejected the good, but in the middle, they're crying to me. There's this form of religion. They're crying to me, but it's not sincere, it's not genuine, it's because they're in trouble. They've rejected the good. This is an intriguing line. They rejected the good. Who is the ultimate good? God is, absolutely. And let's look at that in scripture. Go back to Psalm 25. Psalm 25 and verse eight. Psalm 25 and verse eight. Good and upright is the Lord. therefore he teaches sinners in the way." Isn't that great? The humble he guides in justice and the humble he teaches his way. But did you catch this verse 8? Good and upright is the Lord. The Lord is good. Look at Psalm 34 verse 8. Psalm 34 verse 8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him. Taste and see that the Lord is good. You can experience the goodness of the Lord. They had rejected it. The Lord is good. And I love this beatitude, Psalm 34, eight. Blessed is that man, that woman who trusts in Him. And I often quote Nahum 1.7, the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. And he knows those who trust in him. Yes, God is good. Israel rejected the good. Now look at a related idea, Romans 2.4, Romans 2.4, Romans 2 for or do you despise the riches of his goodness you're despising the riches of God's goodness his forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. God is good and this quality of goodness is all about him and it leads us to repentance. How foolish it is to reject the good. But keep in mind, when God's goodness is rejected, something will come in its place. God's goodness is satisfying. God's people are to do what is good. Notice Romans 13, this illustrates this. Romans 13. Romans 13, verses one through four. Let every soul be subject to governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. He is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. God has established authority in government for the preservation of society for the good of its citizens. He says you don't want to be afraid of the authority then do good works as believers, do the good thing, do the right thing, not the evil thing. What about if a government chooses to do evil? Here's what they get, more evil. If they put their stamp of approval on evil, then they're gonna attract evil. They've broken God's laws, they're gonna attract law breakers and go toward a system of anarchy. We talk often about the Christian life and the law of replacement, where if I'm seeking to overcome some sin or some habit, I need to replace it, put that away and put in its place something good. The scripture to memorize it, to meditate on it, to use the sword of the spirit against the attacks of the evil one. The law of replacement. If I'm trying to get rid of gossip or lying, I need to replace that negative destructive speech with kind words, with words that edify, that build up. But I think the law replacement works in reverse as well. So here, you replace the good. You say, we don't want that good. So what does that get replaced with? Evil. and that's what Israel had done. They had rejected the good. It makes no sense. And you look at things going on in our society and you say it absolutely makes no sense. Why are we replacing that which is good for something that is evil, something that is perverted? And just look at morality. Look at what God has established. God's plan, God's pattern. From the book of Genesis, one man and one woman for life. Oh no, it can be whatever you want. Marry the bridge if you want to. No, that was an actual situation. Can you imagine? No, God's plan works. And we need to go back to God's plan. Why replace that which is good and beneficial and blessed of God with something that's evil and negative and perverted? It makes no sense. Makes no sense whatsoever. So Israel was doing that. They rejected the good. Now go back to Hosea 8 verse 3 and look at what happens. They receive consequence. The enemy will pursue him." Wow, that's going to happen. That's why I said blow the trumpet. The eagle is going to swoop down. The enemy is going to come. There will be consequences because of your actions Israel, Ephraim. The enemy will pursue them. We've had some bizarre things happen in our nation. We do all kinds of trade and business and Amazon deals and everything else with China. But we need to understand this, China is a communist nation, denies the existence of God, has incredible slave labor today, persecutes people, not just Christians, but they persecute Christians. They don't have good intentions for us, and so they sent a spy balloon over our nation. They want to build things near our military installations, buy up property. Clever. Spy balloon, collecting stuff about us. Make a connection here? a communist nation that has no use for Christians, persecutes Christians, does not want the Bible to be circulated, is that an enemy that God will use to America? I don't know. I'm not saying it is necessarily, but I'm saying this, we have some big enemies. We have some in the Mideast that want to get rid of us, that want to destroy, and that are glad to chant death to America. We must turn to God that we not face his judgment and receive the consequences. In the mercy of God, Lord, deal with us, please, in your mercy, in your mercy. Well, Hosea 8.4, Israel sets up rulers. What a fascinating set of details here for this section. Remember last time we talked about the kings that were killed, assassinated. They went through kings. You know, one comes, another one assassinates him, he's the king, then he gets killed and so on. Maybe he's also talking about that here. They set up kings, but get this, but not by me. They made princes, but I didn't acknowledge them. I didn't know about them. One of the lessons that I learned being in the military was, I think it was in the chaplain school, they said to us, they taught us, don't surprise your boss. Let your boss know what you're doing. Don't surprise your boss. I never forgot that. I think it's very wise. Well, Israel surprised their boss here. humanly speaking. They set up kings, I didn't know about it, wasn't by me. They made princes, I didn't acknowledge them. They did it on their own. What was the problem? They left out the Lord. This is really important. The rulers of the land, they set them up one after the other. One would assassinate one and set up one, but I wasn't a part of it. Kings are set up. I'm not consulted. The princes are established. But I didn't know it. Take that in context. God is omniscient. He knows everything. He's saying, I didn't know about it. You didn't come to me. You did not seek my wisdom. As a Christian, have you ever done something, made a decision, and it did not go well? And then you realized, wait a minute, I didn't really seek the Lord. I just kind of stepped out on my own and did my own thing, and it didn't go so well. And now I'm coming to the Lord. And many times in His mercy, He cleans up the mess. And sometimes he allows us to suffer the consequences, but let's seek the Lord in his wisdom and not leave him out of the decisions of our lives and make those decisions in the spur of the moment, the emotion of the time. No, we need the Lord. We need to consult him. His ways work. His ways are wise. His ways are good. And the devil just loves to tell you that God's ways are not good. that he means you harm. When he does not, he means you good. So they didn't consult the Lord. And what do they do then? They have these rulers, but then look how it goes into idolatry. Verse four, from their silver and gold, they made idols for themselves. They make idols. Go back to the book of Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32 and verse four. Remember Moses is with God, he's receiving God's instruction, God's law, and the people wonder about Moses and who is this Moses? And so Aaron makes a golden calf for them. Notice Exodus 32 and verse 4, and he received the gold from their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf. There's that calf again. The Egyptians had a sacred bull. The Israelites are imitating the people of the world, Egypt. And so here Aaron is making this molded golden calf. And look at what he says in verse four. Then they said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. He got pious. We're gonna celebrate. We're gonna join this calf worship with the worship of the Lord. This is your God. Can you get your head around that? The calf idol did not bring them out of Egypt. The God of Israel parted the Red Sea. Another saying, Israel, this is your God. What foolish words they make idols. Now look at 1 Kings chapter 12. 1 Kings chapter 12. And Jeroboam, the standard of evil in the northern kingdom, He did a similar thing. 1 Kings chapter 12 verse 28. Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold. What's better than one calf of gold? Two. Or I should say, what's worse than one calf of gold? Two. So the king asked advice, made two calves of gold and said to the people, it's too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, oh Israel. which brought you up from the land of Egypt. You think we just heard that? That's right. And he set up one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. And so now a couple of hundred years later Hosea is addressing this horrific idolatry and he's talking about the idols of Israel and the calf idol. You're silver and gold, you made these idols. Hosea 8.4, there are two little words that really are telling. They made idols for themselves. When God is, who is good, is rejected, something will come in its place. And so they make these idols for themselves. But notice, he says, that they might be cut off. Those are gonna be destroyed. They will not endure. They will not last. Well, then we come to verses five and six. The Lord rejects Samaria's calf idol. So Samaria, the capital, the northern kingdom, the northern tribes, and he just says right out, it's an outright rejection, Your calf is rejected, or your Bible may say, he rejects your calf, O Samaria. I take it to be the Lord is the one who rejects it. It's very clear. He's rejecting that calf idol. We think about our hearts and our lives. and we see that we have allowed something to become more important to us than the Lord himself, he rejects that. He's not good with that. He's not compatible with any other gods. And notice it says in verse five, my anger is aroused against them. Jesus went into the temple. They were buying and selling, making merchandise, abusing people with their high prices and all this. He got a whip and became whippingly mad. And he starts driving them out. And you see these pictures of Renaissance art of Jesus, and he looks sort of effeminate. That's not the picture I get when Jesus has a whip and he has been in the carpenter's shop. I imagine he had some muscles and he's whipping these people out of the temple. No one's stopping him. And he says, the zeal of your house has consumed me, has eaten me up. Yes, the gentle Jesus who died on the cross for our sins here is showing his zeal for the holiness of God and for the temple of God. He was angry. a righteous anger. That's an anger we don't want to face. My anger is aroused against them, the Lord says about his erring people, Israel. And then this question, verse 5, how long until they attain to innocence? Kind of a perplexing statement, and I believe it means this, their innocence is short-lived, meaning punishment is going to come. How long are you gonna maintain that innocence? Punishment is surely to come. And then in verse six, it's a lesson in folly. For from Israel is even this. This is what Israel did. They did this foolish thing. And he summarizes, a workman made it, this calf idol. and it is not God. A workman made the idol, a human being made the idol out of things that the God of creation made and people are worshiping that and so Hosea adds rather emphatically here, it is not God. And may I say that any so-called deity that does not acknowledge the God of creation who sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and rose again the third day is not God. They don't acknowledge that, they're not God. And any idol that grows up in our hearts, it is not God, it does not deserve our devotion, only Jesus does. I love the plainness of this. It is not God. The devil tempts people to think that many different things are God. I've probably told you this story before, but in Malcolm Grove Medical Center at Andrews Air Force Base, Malcolm Grove Medical Center is a hospital on the base, and they had a program for overcoming addiction. Part of that was a spirituality track, and that's an oblong blur kind of term, spirituality. But the chaplain that was in charge of that asked me one time, he said, I need to be gone, would you fill in for me in the spirituality class? I said, sure. So it's about being spiritual, but not about, you know, knowing Christ as Savior. I never will forget this young airman in the back of the class. He raised his hand, he said, do you believe that your deity, your God, could be anything? And he's referring to the higher power that the 12-step programs talk about. He said, do you believe it could be anything? I said, well, what do you mean? He said, well, like the doorknob. I said, absolutely not. When have you ever heard anybody cuss and say doorknob? And they kind of chuckled. They got the point. Imagine that. Your deity can be anything. It could be a doorknob. No, it cannot. It cannot be the doorknob. There is one true God, and any idol that's raised up is not God. And may we keep that in mind as our age becomes increasingly religiously pluralistic. Ethnically pluralistic, wonderful. Religiously pluralistic, not wonderful. In God we trust, not in however you want to fill in the details on that God. So keep that in mind. And look at what will happen. God says through Hosea, last part of verse six, but the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. I'd like to finish before our applications with Psalm 115. Psalm 115. Psalm 115. Verse 3. And this speaks to God's infinity. Psalm 115 verse 3, but our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. Does that remind you of Psalm 135? He does whatever he pleases. He's sovereign. Their idols, notice the contrast, our God, their idols. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. And look at this satire, this mockery. They have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes they have, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear. Noses they have, but they do not smell. They have hands, but they do not handle. feet they have, but they do not walk, nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them. So is everyone who trusts in them. Mute, deaf, blind, dumb, how sad. Those who make them are like them and so is everyone who trusts in them. So look what he says in verse 9. Oh Israel, trust in the Lord. We get to Hosea's day and this is exactly what they're doing. They're not trusting in the Lord. They're praying to these gods, these idols. They have replaced the true God who is good with these false idols who are evil and absolutely worthless, and powerless. So how do we apply this? I'd like to suggest three applications that have two parts, a negative and a positive. We'll start with the negative. But I want to make sure I hit the positives. If you want to jot these down, these three all begin with the word rejection. The rejection of God's principles brings severe consequences. I believe that could be borne out from Genesis to Revelation. Rejection of God's principles brings severe consequences. Paul said it like this, Romans 6.23, the wages of sin, what is sin? Missing the mark. It's rejecting God's principles. The wages of sin is what? That's right. And here's the positive part of this. Accept God's principles and live. Oh, we would all be on our way to a Christless eternity in hell if Romans 6.23 had a period, but the wages of sin is death, period. It has a comma and a disjunction, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Praise the Lord. So when it comes to God's truth in our Christian life, may we follow his principles. Lord, teach me your ways. That should be our prayer. I want to know your truth. I want to follow your truth. Because it's a true statement, Old and New Testament, true principle. Whatever a man sows, he will also reap. So Lord, let me sow goodness and righteousness and truth to reap the same. Second application Rejection of God's goodness means replacing it with lesser things, or God's. Rejection of God's goodness means replacing it with lesser things, or God's, small g. Think of the gospel, God's salvation, a demonstration of God's goodness, if it is rejected, Some way of being saved will be sought, but in vain. All over the world, people are trying to save themselves, have a right relationship with God by their works, by their religion. So the gospel is pushed out of the way, and they have gone to a lesser thing, but it's in vain. So I challenge you today, if you've not trusted Jesus to save you, Don't replace that, run to the cross, believe the message, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, Acts 4.12. Don't replace the gospel with something else, a lesser thing. And so positively, Accept God's goodness and rejoice. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. You know what that means? Experience the goodness of God, just like you sit down to experience a delicious meal. You enjoy that, you taste that, you savor every bite. Go to the cross and savor the goodness of God. God is good and he's good all the time. And number three, the rejection of God's counsel brings confusion. Positively accept God's counsel and have peace. Psalm 32.8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Let's not reject God's counsel and then experience that confusion. Let's accept it and have peace. James tells us, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that gives to all liberally and upbraids not, and it will be given to him. Let's not set out on our own and be like Demas and forsake the work of God because we love this present world. Bad advice, bad counsel. God's counsel brings peace. Let's pray together. Dear Father, we thank you for these words from the book of Hosea. And Lord, we again ask for your mercy as we apply it to our nation. So many things that you call abominable are being viewed as things to be celebrated. We pray have mercy on this nation. But Lord, I think of our nation religiously and I see how there are denominations, there are churches, there are pastors who departed from your ways. They've sought other lesser gods, as it were. Oh God, we pray for revival in this land. We pray for revival of the word of God. We pray for hearts to be changed from the highest to the lowest places. Lord, we pray then for our own lives, that we will not reject your counsel, that we will accept and rejoice in your goodness. that we will accept your principles and live. Dear Father, I pray for any who have not yet trusted Christ, that you will show them it's vain to try to be saved any other way. It's vain to try to be fulfilled in life in any other way than through Jesus Christ. Show them, Lord, that Jesus said, I've come, that they might have life and have it more abundantly. so that may they run to you and say, Lord Jesus, I'm trusting you. I'm believing in you for my salvation. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, maybe there's someone here. And you see your need of Jesus. You see your need to call on the Lord and be saved. I urge you right now, in your heart, to God. Tell him, you know you're a sinner. You know Jesus died and rose again. And ask him to save you. Oh, Jesus, save me. Forgive my sins. Give me eternal life. If that's what's going on right now in your heart, you're placing your trust in Christ to save you, give you eternal life, would you just offer an upraised hand as an acknowledgment of that? Just say, yes, I'm asking the Lord Jesus to save me, to give me eternal life. Pray for me. Dear Father, we thank you that you are so merciful to us. We pray, dear Father, that your grace will draw our hearts to you according to our need. Wherever this message goes, we pray that it will reach some heart that has not yet believed in Jesus. and they will understand the gospel and call on the Lord to be saved. I pray, Lord, for all of us who believe that there will be no idol in our life. Lord, those times that we've been so quick to make a decision and then it hasn't gone well, will you forgive us? And will you give us wisdom to wait on you? and to not have the idol of self-reliance and self-trust and pride against you, may it not be. We thank you, Lord, for your truth, for your word, for how you're working in our lives. In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.