Good evening, everybody. Good to be here with you. I hope you're energized and get ready to worship the Lord by receiving the Word. I know that you would like to really meditate and some of you like nod, yes, amen, while you're hearing the Word of God. And that's how I would like to think of it. But if you get super tired and you need to take a nap, it's okay. I won't be offended by that. I'm excited to share God's Word with you tonight. But before we do, as we normally do, we have a lot of things to bring up before the Lord corporately in intercessory prayer. So would you join me in a moment of prayer as we bow our heads together? Father in heaven, we give you thanks and praise for gathering us together, keeping us safe and secure in your sovereign love and provision. We know that the world is chaotic and things are spiraling out of control into prophetic proportions and yet you are sovereign. You reign over all the affairs of the earth. We are like grasshoppers before you. We thank you that you are a mighty God and we serve an everlasting God who is our Abba Father. We come before you to the throne of grace through our Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. We recognize His high priestly intercessory role As we come before you with prayers and petitions of our hearts to you, we ask that you would strengthen our brethren, that you would keep them from the attacks of the enemy, that you would encourage the saints and help them to look upward and help them to have an eternal perspective in all that they do. Help them not to get sidetracked and distracted by the temporal things of this world. Help them to rejoice in their salvation. Help them to daily count their blessings and not look to the world and somehow fall prey to the deception of the enemy and to be envious or covetous or take their eyes off the cross. Lord, I pray that you would cause all of us to commit to prayer of the things that really matter for time and for eternity, your kingdom and your righteousness that we would commit to seek first before anything else. And so as we see your glory, that is, displayed here in the church, we ask that you would also use us to display your glory among the nations. We thank you for the gospel ministry you've given to us to share not only on the campus and in the workplace, in this community, but also to the outermost parts of the world. We thank you for the opportunity for us to share the good news of the gospel. We thank you for the opportunity for this congregation to plant churches and We continue to ask that you would open opportunities for us to do greater things for your great honor and glory. As we submit our brothers and sisters to you who labor diligently and joyfully both here and abroad, we give you thanks and praise for the kingdom that you are building even in the midst of us. We are expectant of what you will do in the fall semester as you will impart the gospel and the training and equipping of men and women for gospel proclamation through our brother, J.M., we ask that you would keep him safe and secure, vigilant in prayer, humble in disposition, and joyful in his attitudes as he continues to yield his life to be molded by you. We thank you for our brothers, Ben and Dennis, who are coming back and rejoining our fellowship on the 20th of this month. We expectantly await their return, we ask that you would give them a good and safe transition. And we thank you for our brother Matt and his ministry at EBCT. And we continue to look to you for a brother who would co-labor besides him. We ask for your sovereign provision and protection for EBCT, that you will hold that church together in biblical unity and love. We ask for your spirit of humility and spirit of cooperation and unity in the heart of our brother Leo and brother Jeff and sister Estella and others who are visible and who are the older members of the church and you would minister to them in their spirit they would yield themselves in humble service to you and co-laboring along with Matt and with Sani. Lord, we give you thanks and praise for our tent makers. We thank you for your faithful work and our brother Scott. And we thank you for our sister Hazel. We ask that you would keep them and guard their hearts, help them to to always be focused on the eternal things of God, since they have tasted that you are good and help them to apply themselves on to our service in your kingdom. We thank you for our sister Jen Lau, who has served so faithfully in Taiwan and is now taking a short excursion here. We ask that you would just richly bless her and enrich her life with the joy of your salvation, of knowing that none of our labors is in vain, but all is accounted before you. Would you richly bless her, pour out your blessing. shake and stir, press down overflowing that even she cannot contain it and she would have to overflow in the lives of others for your glory. We continue to lift up our sister Gina and Clara to you and ask that you would continue to strengthen them and help them to have a solid year of service and lift up their spirits that they would see themselves as ministers of your love and as short-term missionaries there edifying and encouraging the saints through their labors and their service. Father, we give you thanks so much for your work in Taiwan. We know that you will do mighty things. And as we look to you for a mission center in the future, we believe and trust that you would continue to raise up men and women for the work of the ministry, that you would provide a place for worship and for housing our short-term missionaries. And we just ask that you would, in due time, in the right way, that you would provide. We continue to ask that you would open doors in Korea, that we would continue to send teams toward a church plant. We know that a nation has a lot of cultural churchianity, but very few biblical Christian churches and where so many people are running to and fro without a shepherd. Lord, we know your heart and you desire for them to be in a community of love and biblical church where they can grow and serve and reach the lost. And we ask that you would allow our church to be part of that. And we continue to look to you in prayer. We ask that you would give us the nations and so many of the people, the billions who are in Asia. Lord, we ask that you would grant us the opportunity to plant churches that honor and glorify You, that win souls, that bring the saving knowledge of Christ. We give You thanks, Lord, for our church here, our 150 or so members who faithfully love You and serve and give and grow, who desire to be used by You, who desire to even raise their children here in the fear and admonition of the Lord. While You are building Your church, Lord, would You build their lives that we would continue to maintain unity in the bond of peace, and that we would also use our corporate unity to continue to thrust into the world where the gospel is not reached. Would you strengthen our mission's zeal as you strengthen our unity, that our members would not be scattered, but that we would be united and continue to build upon what you are doing here. We pray for the campus. We pray for this fall, as you would bring many new students, freshmen, incoming transferring juniors, and others grad students and many others that you would allow us to share the good news of the gospel. You would allow us to equip the saints. You would allow us to continue to reach out to that mission field that the campus is. And we ask for your rich blessings upon ECF and all the instructors as they prepare for another exciting semester of ministry. Lord, we pray for pregnant moms. We give you thanks and praise for our families and the family ministry here that is burgeoning, that is growing. We thank you for our sister Tammy and her pregnancy. We thank you for our sister Kathy and her pregnancy. We continue to look to you and ask that you would richly bless these moms, keep them healthy, and that the baby and the mother would be safe and sound, and that you would continue to knit these beautiful human beings in the womb that you would bring forth so that they would be able to hold and love and disciple. deliver them and render them unto you as living sacrifices for your glory in the next generation as we wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to return. Father, we come before you with excitement in our hearts for the Word of God. We know that we're privileged people, but we know that many generations have desired to know your Word, and they have not. Many people have hungered for the things above, and yet they went as paupers. And yet, Lord, we are filled, filled to the brim, and you deliver to us rich, deep things of God so we may understand the God that we serve and that you may richly bless those who hear and who submit to your word. Would you bless this church? Would you bless this congregation? Would you bless the saints in their hearing as they put them into practice and they become vessels of blessing in your honor and for your glory? We commit ourselves to you and ask your spirit to be the teacher tonight. Would you hide your servant behind the cross? Would you cause all of us to rejoice in your salvation as we revel in your grace? It's in Jesus' precious name we ask and pray all these things. Amen. Amen. Would you have your Bibles open to Exodus chapter 23 and would you stand with me as we read portions of God's word together? It is a long chapter, there's 33 verses. I would like to just highlight a few passages for the sake of time and then we'll read the rest as we exposit through this chapter together. Our goal is to get through the whole chapter. And as you've already seen in the previous sections of scripture beginning with the Ten Commandments, God is displaying His character through His law. And in this section of Scripture, from verses 1 to 19, we find God is displaying something about the compassion in His heart, that even His justice is encompassed with His compassion, His love. And verses 20 to 33, we find that He makes a divine a powerful conditional statement that if you obey my word and my commands, I will bless you. If you disobey, I will curse you. And I want you to know that that conditional component of the Mosaic Covenant was for Israel. Here's where many, many Christians make a mistake. They think that they are Israel. We will never be Israel. We have never been Israel. We are never going to be Israel. So let's put that aside. And as New Testament Christians, we have something to learn from the Old Testament saints who received and accepted the Word of God. Why? Because the moral commands of God are eternally binding. And it is the same because God's character doesn't change. And so we need to separate the ceremonial from the moral. And I want us to clearly see that as we go through this section of Scripture together. For the sake of time, let's read a few passages together. Would you focus your attention on chapter 23? Let me read the first three verses. This is the reading of God's Word. You shall not bear a false report. Do not join your hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice. Look at verse 9. You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger. For you also were strangers in the land of Egypt. Look at verse 12, 6 days you are to do your work but on the seventh day you shall cease from your labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest and your sons of your female slave as well as your stranger may refresh themselves. Now look at 14, 3 times a year you shall celebrate a feast to me. Look at verse 18 and 19. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the fat of my feast to remain overnight until morning. You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God. You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. Look at verse 20. Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into a place which I have prepared. Look at verse 29. I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate, and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. Look at verse 33. They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. Amen. Please be seated. Every passage that we read thus far displays God's compassion and His justice. And these two themes are interwoven through all these passages. And so in this section of Scripture, we're going to look at three major components. The compassion that God has, His holy compassion that He wants us to implement in our daily lives. And then secondly, holy consecration. God wants us to be separate from evil unto righteousness. A holy consecration in our daily lives. And then finally, divine compensation. For being faithful and obedient, God is going to divinely compensate with blessing. For being unfaithful and disobedient, God will bring chastisement. And so there's divine compensation at the end of this section of scripture. Your Bible and the NASV should have a heading of chapter 23, sundry laws. That means that there are laws that are not interconnected. There are various and diverse laws. And I'm going to try to weave these three themes into this section of Scripture so that the themes will help you guide and see God's character. And that's what God's commandments portray. God's commandments show us God's holy character. We can never meet and fulfill all of His commandments because we're sinful. But thankfully our Lord Jesus Christ did fulfill. He died for us on the cross. We're covered by His grace. Therefore, we enter into heaven by faith, based on the finished work of Jesus, not by obeying every one of these laws, because we can't. If we can obey God's laws perfectly, why do we study them? Because our hearts that is regenerated still want to obey. Even though we can't obey perfectly, we rejoice in God's laws and we want to obey them. And there is a wonderful tension here, that the desire of our heart is to obey, but in reality we find ourselves falling massively short of the glory of God. And that's where we experience the great grace of God, the rich compassion of God, that His righteousness still shines pure. We still long for it, and yet it seems unattainable. And God uses that to further fuel the desire in us for more righteousness, for perfect righteousness, and for perfection. This is the path of sanctification that the Old Testament saints went through when they cried out, Lord, how I love thy law. And he wanted to be dwelling in the house of the Lord forever, just like David said. That's where we're going to be perfected. So really, these things portray the heart of God, and then we desire to be where God is. We desire heaven. We desire the eternal destination. And so that's what the law of God is designed to do, is to help us to know God's perfect law, tutor us to show our imperfections and our sinfulness, to get us to Christ and to see that He has fulfilled the law and He promised to take us there, right? So every day we live in the joy of His salvation, and in the meanwhile, we rejoice with God's laws. We say, thy law is perfect and sure. So much of the laws that related to Israel as individual commands for them to check themselves and their hearts also became a family dynamic because the entire family is held accountable before God. But more than that, for Israel, it was a civil law that was supposed to be enacted because they were under a theocracy. God was the king, they were the subjects, they were under the law of God. So the entire nation was to function this way. Contrary to what many Muslims in Islamic countries go through, that they're forced to pray five times a day, they're forced to fast in the month of Ramadan, they're forced to wear the burqas, they're forced to behave in a certain way, and inside their hearts are unchanged. But the Christian is very different, right? God gives us the Law, but He transformed the heart, and we desire to worship Him. We desire to obey His Law. Our hearts are anxious until we find our perfect place in God. We feel unright and uneasy when we don't meditate on the things of God. We cannot rest in peace when we have bitterness and anger and unconfessed sins in our hearts. It's because God has given us a new heart and the Holy Spirit is teaching us to be like His people. So as Christians, we are to learn several things from God's law. First, God's unchanging character demands that we apply the very principles into our lives. The eternal principles are always binding on everyone at all times and all cultures. Changing times and conditions do not excuse us from neglecting God's eternal character exemplified in His laws. So God's moral laws are binding on every believer, both the Jew and the Christian. The Jewish saints recognize God's perfect moral character and so must the Christian in every generation. To avoid confusion of the Old Testament Jew and the New Testament Christian while clarifying God's perfect moral will for both the Old Testament Jew and the New Testament Christian is the art that we must develop as we study God's law. Not neglecting God's millennial program for restore Israel where God's law will be perfectly enacted and perfectly practiced albeit with help from the Lord Jesus Christ as their King by faith of a redeemed people. So God's law will be enacted, will become again part of the theocratic kingdom in the millennial kingdom when Christ will reign and rule and the redeemed Israel will rejoice once again in these laws and it will keep them. Many people make huge mistakes in this area. Case in point, the Seventh-day Adventists. Even though they're Gentiles, They're led to believe that they're the Jews. They're the New Covenant Jews. So they need to keep a kosher diet. They worship on a Saturday, not on the Sunday. They have all these legalistic things and many of them have erred because they set a date for the Lord's coming. Now if you get some parts of the doctrine of your Christian life wrong, chances are other parts are going to suffer too. And many of the Seventh-day Adventists are full-blown cults while others still remain Orthodox. To a lesser degree, the Reformed Covenantal Brethren, they confuse the Old Testament law and they only extract the blessings, the positive things, and they apply it to the Church. Well, if you look at it very clearly, there are clear consequences of rejecting and disobeying God's law. You can't just take the positive and neglect the negative. That's poor exegesis. So, it's important for us to get this Jew and Gentile, Church and Israel dichotomy right, because it's very clearly laid out in Scripture. And so, what applies? Eternal principles and God's moral character and moral law. The ceremonial and the civil and the cultural do not apply to the New Testament Church. Jesus fulfilled all that, and only in the New Covenant era in the Millennial Kingdom, in the future 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth, over His subjects in the theocratic kingdom, where Jesus is the King of kings, Lord of lords, and the redeemed Jews that pass through the tribulation period, that are refined, are going to keep these laws. Both the ceremonial minus certain components that are already exactly fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the civil and the cultural, the Jewish aspects. So we'll see that. But right now, let's study God's law as we understand His character. The first component is the compassionate component of God's justice. God's justice is not cold, blind, uncaring justice. It's a compassionate justice. Look at verse 1 and verse 7, what God thinks about a malicious witness. It's basically a reiteration of the ninth commandment, do not bear false witness against your neighbor. You will see a consistent pattern that this is a second-person singular noun and is a second-person singular verbs. Therefore, it is supposed to be heard and applied by the individual person. It is not a general principle. And he gave these commands as a motive to check the people's hearts to see if there's any malice there. A malicious witness is literally a witness of violence. It's interesting that the Hebrew is witness of Hamas. It's kind of interesting. I don't know if Hamas is an Arabic term but that word in the Hebrew means violence and so that's the name of a terrorist group you know very well in Palestine. Either driven by personal profit or for revenge or even out of fear, out of fear of retribution or negative consequences. A malicious witness can be fatal to the defendant and a corrupt judicial system will allow malicious witness. So it is expressly forbidden and God holds the court system, the individuals, and all the nation accountable against malicious testament. Look at verse 1 and verse 7. You shall not bear false report. Do not join your hands with the wicked man to be a malicious witness. You've seen God's character. What's the application therefore? God hates malice. He sees all, and He will bring all to account. Therefore, we must never practice malice, nor should we vouchsafe for someone else's malice, and we can certainly, therefore, not be an accomplice in someone's malicious motives. And that is eternally binding. Look at verse 7. Keep far from false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty." Do not take God's graciousness and His compassion for granted. There are some boundaries that one must never cross because there is no remedy. Someone who presumptuously assumes that God will forgive him for any kind of sin and based on that presumption sins maliciously with full awareness of God's omniscience and His omnipresence is himself testing God and is in thin ice. He is before the Almighty Judge and if such a man does not have fear, he is either a fool or he is a wicked, satanic man. God speaks clearly, I will not acquit the guilty. Then God warns those who may fall under public pressure. This may include all leadership including both public and political leadership, as well as in the home and in the business sphere. Verse 2, You shall not follow the masses in doing evil. The majority do not make right. Nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice. Public pressure is often what corrupts leaders. No God-fearing Israelite is to follow the public sentiment in doing evil. This requires individual conviction and discernment. Regardless of public sentiments, God says the godly must not buckle under pressure to do evil. No excuse for pressure. Verse 3 and 6, God says no partiality. Verse 3, Nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute. Verse 6, You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. It's easy to become partial for various reasons. In verse 3, it is economical reasons. And you know the old adage, we've been all brainwashed and bombarded by our socialist training in the university. The rich are always crooked. Therefore, they must pay. Isn't that the typical class warfare? The poor are always oppressed, so they need to be rewarded. That's the typical socialist dogma, isn't it? We tend to be biased when we fit in the class that is being mentioned. But we must not be. Why? What is at stake? Nothing less than the very character of God exemplify in the individual, in his family, in the society, in a nation. As people become partial and biased, there goes the nation. Leviticus 19, verse 15 and 16, the Word of God says, You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor defer to the great. But you are to judge your neighbor fairly. You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord." Verse 6, it is not economical partiality or bias, it is familial. It's easy to be biased when someone is close to you. My friends can do no wrong, while my enemies can do no right. It's the typical bias. God says no such thing can be a part of His people. And that is the character of God because His justice is fair and impartial. He is no respecter of persons. He cares not for a person's position. He only cares about the condition of their heart which He is going to judge ultimately. And so His people must reflect that character in all areas of witness. Verse 4 and 5, God says you must be responsible. If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. And a biased person may say, well that's my enemy's, now it's mine. Or that's my enemy's, I'm not going to do anything to it, I'll let that property perish, burn, die. suits him right, my enemy. Verse 5, if you see the donkey of one who hates you, by the way, donkey, ox, you can imagine this to be like a pickup truck or your sedan. Very important commodity back in those days. It's equivalent to that kind of possession today. If you see the donkey of one who hates you, lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him. You shall surely release it with him. You know, it's such a bogus thing for the Jewish leaders to teach their people, you can love your neighbor but hate your enemy. No such thing is found in the Old Testament. They did that because they were under the pressure under Rome. And it's easy to pick on your enemy. That comes naturally. But our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5.44, But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. The character of the Lord does not change. God always desired that His holy people live in a completely different manner and with higher standards, standards that reflect His perfect and holy character. Willful and deliberate negligence is abhorrent to God. God demands that His people live in a holy way, even caring for His enemies' welfare. Now it's easier to say that than to actually practice it, right? How many of you have disputes among your roommates? They're your roommates, they're not even your enemies. And you have disputes. Married people have disputes. Family members have disputes. And it's hard to practice this. Even caring for your enemy's welfare? Yeah. This flows from the heart of God. Because why? While we were yet enemies, God sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to die for us. He cared for His enemy's welfare. That's why He can demand this, because it flows from His character. But you know, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do this. And that's what's exciting about Christian life, is that what is impossible for us in the flesh, what was impossible for our ancestors, it is possible for us who are in Christ Jesus. And when this comes, it is nothing but supernatural. Where in the world did John Shim get this heart of compassion to forgive and to love and care for his enemy? It is certainly not from within. It is alien. It is foreign. Righteousness. Where did that come from? It came from the Lord. When it does happen, it is marvelous. And when that witness is exemplified in lifestyle, it is super marvelous because that witnesses, that testifies to the Lord whom we worship. And this honors the Lord when we are responsible people even toward those we do not even like. This is the will of God for us. Skipping over to verse 8, bribery. You shall not take a bribe. Oh, it's easy to take a bribe, isn't it? As a matter of fact, I was told, I never experienced this, but I was told that in South Korea, people violate traffic laws so regularly and the police, especially the traffic cops, are so frequently receiving of bribes that in many parts of the city, in many districts, that the motorcycle, typical motorcycle cop is replaced after three months. because if he's not replaced from that same position, he will learn to manipulate his position to be in a place where he can ticket most amount of people and every motorist knows that you slide a $10 or $20 bill right underneath your license as you give it to the officer and he takes the money and he returns the license and says, be careful next time, sir. and he drives off. That's how he makes his fortune. And I was told this while I was traveling in Korea. It's easy to take a bribe. I think we would be very naive to think that the judges of our nation don't take bribes. It would be so foolish to think that the politicians of our nation do not take bribes. Why else, why else would they leave their multi-million dollar business to run for an office that only pays him $80,000 or $120,000 or the president's salary, $220,000 a year. Why else? Because there's a lot more money to be made elsewhere and a lot more power. And it corrupts the nation. It corrupts people. Look what the Word of God says in verse 8. For a bride blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just. This bribe comes in subtle forms and it comes in overt forms. It can be as just as simple as, let me buy you lunch. And then slide in unrighteousness and try to convince that person to be complicit in injustice and unrighteousness. It could be as simple as, here, I got a nice gift for you. Take this. And all the while requesting. that the person looked the other way. The godly prophet Samuel had two sons who did not follow the path of their father. Prophet Samuel was one of the godliest leaders in Israel's history. Yet God's word says very clearly, unequivocally and unbiasedly, 1 Samuel 8, verse 3, His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice. God says it like it is, right? Just because the Father is just and upright and godly does not mean necessarily that His sons will be. And God says it just like it is. And it can impact even family relationships. Sin can. Unrighteousness can. God forbid that we train our children to be unrighteous and neglect compassion, pervert justice, God forbid. Who are you today? Are you biased men and women? Are you people prone to flattery? Are you easily swayed by public opinion? Do you turn a blind eye to justice? When some Calamity evil happens to someone as your heart aches with compassionate concern. We cannot neglect compassionate justice. It's in the very core of the heart of God. Look at verse 9. We must not take advantage of those who are vulnerable. Verse 9 says, You shall not oppress the stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger. For you also were strangers in the land of Egypt. You know. You were once an unbeliever, weren't you? And even if you say that you were raised in a Christian family, when you start living for the passion and glory of the Lord, you know. You know what it means to feel alienated, to be rejected by those people who think that you're just too much. Right? Are you too saintly? You don't have to push your religion that much, and you're automatically alienated. You feel like a stranger. You go back to some sort of reunion, and everybody is doing their own thing, and you feel like a stranger, and they isolate you because of who you are. And if you all sense that kind of alienation as being strangers, the Israelites, no doubt, they knew clearly. They were captives, enslaved, and racially prejudiced over because of their Jewish condition in Egypt. So loving a helpless alien in their midst is what God wants for His people. Why? Because there is a common bond between the stranger and me. And that common bond is that both of us experience a deep fellow feeling of alienation and we have both experienced, or we long to experience, the saving grace, if we haven't already. Because I have experienced saving grace, I need to extend that kind of compassionate grace toward those who are in places of disenfranchisement. Godly people must sympathize and help, not take advantage of and exploit people. Put yourself in other person's shoes. That's a good paraphrase of verse 9. And this comes from the heart of God. This is God's compassion. God's compassion is not devoid of truth. God's compassion is not devoid of purity. It includes that because it is necessary to His compassion. So we've seen God's call to holy compassion because He is righteous, just, and compassionate. We must also be that way. Now let's look at verse 10 to 19. God calls us to daily consecration, a holy consecration in daily life. Let's take a look at verses 10 and 11, God's ecological system. That's what I call it, ecological system. Verse 10, you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield. But on the seventh year you shall let it rest and live follow, so that the needy of your people may eat, and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove." Now, the field, vineyard, olive grove were places of business. It's an agrarian economy. This is where they made their livelihood. This is the place where they made money. In other words, our equivalent would be the place of business, your job, your business, your livelihood. What is the Lord saying? He's saying that He's given Israel an ecological system. If they obey Him, He would bless the land. They would be richly blessed if they just follow Him. This command, however, required that every one of the Israelites to keep this command, live by faith. Work for six years in the land and the seventh year just leave it alone. Let all this precious crop just grow and not harvest anything and give it to a bunch of strangers who didn't do any days of work and come and the beasts of the field. That's exactly what God demanded. The poor had no means of making a living in that agrarian economy. So the Lord graciously made a way for them to be helped. And He also wanted to take care of the animals, the wild animals. And it came in the form of the sabbatical year, where the poor will be helped, and they can help themselves, and perhaps as a means of helping themselves, they could get out of their poverty. God would also take care of some of the animals and provide for the land to enrich itself. We all know that consistently farming the same land over and over and over again would require tremendous amount of fertilization. The very precious topsoil in our rich land is slowly disappearing because, of course, we have done what God told Israelites not to do. For our profit, we have really been poor stewards. Well, God says to Israelites, God will take care of them. Our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6.26, look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? Also in Luke 12 verse 24, consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, and they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them. How much more valuable you are than the birds. Jesus uses common experience in nature as illustrations to teach very important spiritual lessons, and that is that God is the ultimate provider. You need not worry. You don't have to worry or hoard or take unspiritual methods because God will take care. This was God's ecological system for His people. It was only possible if the people directly obey God's Word and His laws. They had to be filled with trust in their hearts to receive this great provision. The 70 years of captivity in Babylon was a direct result of Israelites disobeying this command for 490 years. God's provision or man's choice or methodology. And this was what God laid before His people. It was a very unique way of ruling his people. I think you would have to agree with that. God chose a very unique way to test them to see if they would truly submit to his laws. So this was a test. Verse 12 we see his benevolence reflected here. Six days you are to do your work but on the seventh day you shall cease from your labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of your female slave as well as your stranger may refresh themselves." And that key word there, refresh, you see, this is God's benevolence. God says, leave the land alone because it will refresh itself. It will become more valuable and more precious without all these fertilizers that we use today that may be ultimately harmful for our consumption. God had a very sound ecological system that He gave to His people for the land to refresh itself. He also gave a day of rest within a week so that they can refresh themselves. Notice who benefits. The laborer, the owner-master, the animals, and the employees, and the foreigner. Everybody benefits from a God-centered work week. To finish work by the Sabbath would mean that everyone needed to work around the Sabbath to make sure that their work week ended before the Sabbath so they can take a day off. So they have to work around the worship schedule, not around their self-schedule. Again, this was to get Israel to dwell on eternal things, that they can trust in God. It's to live by faith, not by sight. This is where most Christians fail too, because God tests us too, you know. God tells us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Our Lord Jesus Christ told us that. Then He will supply all that we need. And yet we don't want to seek that first. We want to seek that second, third, fourth, tenth, last, not first. God's benevolent system would bless the obedient people, not just for temporal things like jobs and money and house, but for eternal things, eternal joy. God's system of ecology and economy and the financial dealings flowed from His very character. You see, God works and yet He also rested. So He will provide a pattern for us that we would desire to enter into His eternal rest. See, this sabbatical year and sabbatical day idea all comes from the eternal rest of God. God wants us not to toil and labor under the sun of this fallen planet. He wants us to be prepared for the new heaven and new earth, His kingdom. He told us to pray that His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He told us to seek first that kingdom, His rule over our lives, over everything. And I tell you, Christians, this is an area where many of us fail. But His desire is that we would submit under His benevolent system. Verse 13. God's protective system. Look at verse 13, Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard, and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth. You see, the blessing of God is directly tied with God, not apart from Him. You can't be blessed apart from your worship and your allegiance to God. The Lord knows that the greatest danger for us is in spiritual danger. And that spiritual danger comes in the form of Satan's deceptive system versus God's protective system. Satan's deceptive system comes through, primarily, false religion. False religion is anything that says that this is more important than God. The surest way of receiving God's judgment, rather than His protective blessing, is to fall prey to false religious system, idolatry. And this is how Satan deceived Israel to depart from their sovereign and supernatural origins through marvelous miracles through the Exodus, God's protective provision through the wilderness journeys, and the promised land all prepared for them. They forsook all that and did exactly the opposite of what God told them to do. So the best way to revitalize and rejuvenate one's spiritual walk is through consecrated worship. See, worship is the perpetual rejuvenation system for our soul. And as our soul is well, it flows with joy, so everything else will fall into its place. Verses 14-17, God's gracious system. God's gracious system. Here you will find in these verses three major feasts. They all flow around the calendar system. The two are in the spring and one is in the fall. The Feast of the Unleavened Bread follows. It's a seven-day feast right after Passover in our March-April season. And the Feast of the First Fruits is what we would call Pentecost. It's 50 days after Passover. And the Feast of Ingathering, which is what we call a feast of tabernacles or booths that happens in the September October of our month so it's the fall season so with that let's read verse 14 three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to me notice it is to God Israel is to remember God in their economic system Again, agrarian economy, verse 15, You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you at the appointed time in the month of Aviv. For in it you came out of Egypt, and none shall appear before Me empty-handed." So the Feast of the Unleavened Bread was to celebrate God's historical redemptive act in history and they are not to come to the Lord empty-handed. They're supposed to bring a thanksgiving sacrifice commemorating what He has done. Verse 16, Also you shall observe the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of your labors from what you sow in the field, also the feast of the ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. Why all your males? Because they're supposed to be the head of the house. and they're supposed to set the pace for everybody else. These feasts were to teach Israel that there is a direct relationship between Israel's worship and her economic prosperity. The first mandatory feast, unleavened bread. Why unleavened? Signifying no sin. Get rid of all the leaven, you clean up your life and get ready for the rich blessings of God. It's exactly what happened at Pentecost. Who came in the New Testament era at Pentecost? The Holy Spirit of God. The blessing whom Jesus our Lord promised. Who will be indwelling, who will be our teacher, our comforter. He came to permanently indwell every believer. What a blessing. The richest blessing. A second mandatory feast is the coming of the Holy Spirit here. Pentecost or the first fruits. Third mandatory feast is the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles to celebrate God's protection and provision during the wilderness journeys. All three of these feasts highlight the fact that God provided for His people. God provided for His people. This was completely different from what the Canaanites did. They lived for themselves and when they offer sacrifices and did things of religious rituals, it was to enhance their lives. It wasn't a feast unto the Lord, it was feast for themselves. It was usually a fertility rite, a ritual that is followed by horrible acts of immorality. It was all for them. Me, myself, and I. That's the reason why they worship. You see, Satan has a wonderful way of deceiving the people who fall away from God. tells them that they're the most important people, not God. God is not the most significant, real, and important individual, but they are. The Creator is more important than the Creator. He flips that around and then he says, you need to watch out for number one, numero uno, because who else will? And yet, the people of God says, God is the most significant, He's the most real, the ultimate reality, and He is the greatest, I live for Him. And then we say, I don't live by sight, I live by faith, I know that God is my provision, He's the provider, I live in faith. The secular man is the complete opposite. So were the Canaanites. All the religion was just a sham to celebrate themselves and to ask for more blessing for themselves that had nothing to do with honoring. and glorifying God. And after all, they did it before demons, not before God. I skipped a few verses. Verse 18 says, You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with unleavened bread, nor is the fat of my feast to remain overnight until morning. The corrupting influence of leaven must be gone, or the neglected articles that are unfit for sacrifice used in worship. Again, it exemplifies His holy character, not like the Canaanite worship. You can do whatever you want. Verse 19, You shall bring the choice firstfruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God, and then there's a separate commandment, I'm going to just pause here. Notice the Lord demands the best of the best. It's ultimate test of our fidelity. In an agrarian economy, you'd save the best of the best for the next year. That's what you use to harvest. That's what you use to do animal multiplication. The strongest, the healthiest. Those are the animals that you make. And that's what's going to make you money for the next year. God's saying, hey, give that to me. That's the ultimate test, isn't it? The Lord doesn't need anything. Everything is His already. The reason why He demands it from His people is to bless them, strengthen their faith, and get their mind off of the temporal things and help them look at the eternal things of God. Not to just be enamored by the provision, but to love the Provider Himself. That lesson had to be learned through economics. You see, God always tested His people through economics. As the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6, verse 24, No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You see, when God gives you money, that's a test. What are you going to do with that money? Is it your money? Or is it God's money? Has it ever been your money? Has it always been God's money? That's a test. Sometimes it's a pop quiz, sometimes a midterm, sometimes it's a final exam, but it's a test. And it comes in the form of economics. So the call to Israel to participate in acceptable sacrifice was God's extension of His wonderful grace to invite Israel to the place where God's blessing was dispensed, at the very place where the worshipper and his God meets. And in that relationship of faith is where God dispenses His eternal blessings. That is perhaps the most pivotal truth that we must never, ever forget. Let me tell you why. And here's a marvelous quote, and I want you to hear it. Out of worship comes love, and love is a genuine response from a free heart. Then it can never be coerced. It is the supreme ethic, love of God and love of your fellow man. I love that quote. Let me read it again. Out of worship comes love, and love is the genuine response from a free heart. Then it can never be coerced. It is the supreme ethic. Love of God and love your fellow man. When God demands that you give up your best of your possessions, God is saying, do you love me more? And we say, yes, Lord, I do. I give joyfully to you. And we say, if you love me, then I want you to love your neighbor. I want you to love even your enemy. How do you do that? Practically. Beloved, let us not love with word or speech, but with indeeds and in truth. Let us love. And then the second part, you are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. This esoteric passage, first appearing here in Exodus 23, later on appears in Leviticus and Numbers, I believe, this esoteric passage is what the Jews take to justify their kosher diet. That's why still today Orthodox Jews would not have a cheeseburger because it has meat and a milk product in it. They will not mix the two. They believe that this is what God's Word says. And they're so meticulous to keep the letter of the law in that sense, well, they neglect the weightier matters of the law. about justice, righteousness, compassion and mercy, right? That's the kind of stuff that God hates. It's ritualized worship and religion that is devoid of a heartfelt, heart-led commitment to loving God and loving our fellow man. Boiling a young goat in his mother's milk was a pagan fertility ritual by the Canaanites. Canaanites believed that the milk in the milk, in the mother's milk was the seed of life. So they took a baby goat, basically the goat's produce or procee, and took that produce, boiled it in the mother's milk, so doubly exemplifying this soup here, is brimming with life, it's boiling with life. This is the life source that came from this mother and this milk is the life source that comes from the mother. We just boil it together and they took that extract and they took it and they sprinkled it on their plants and on their trees and served it to their gods as a fertility ritual so that they would have an abundant harvest for the next year. It was dripping with demonic and satanic, sadistic religious ritual that is dripping with superstition. This is how Satan deceives people. There's absolutely no bearing on it whatsoever. There's no scientific data whatsoever, but this is what they believe. I believe that the Lord said, don't do this for two reasons. Number one, basically don't copy what the pagans do. No matter how sincere they may be in their religion, don't do it. And secondly, look at the act itself. You take a young goat and you boil it in the mother's milk. And you keep doing that, there's something going on spiritually where you're neglecting the very source of life. You take the life, the product of this mother, and the milk, and you boil it, you kill the young goat in its mother's milk. You neglect life. You exalt death. There's a massive confusion here. The Canaanites celebrated death. God's people must celebrate life. That's why God says, don't do it. Something happens when you do something like that. Your heart becomes callous to life. Something happens when you look at horrendous things and you just kind of, hmm. And it doesn't bother you. It doesn't grip you. I believe that that's the second reason why God says don't do it, to protect the heart of His people from becoming calloused to such pagan rituals that does not celebrate life but destroys life. So we've seen God's call to holy compassion, holy consecration, that they must be completely separate, do things differently, set apart, and submit themselves under God's protection, His grace, His benevolent And finally, holy compensation for daily living. This section of Scripture contains comforting promise about God's blessings of the promised land for Israel. At the same time, it contains promises of curses for disobedient people. Let's look at verses 20-23, the angel of the Lord. Angel of the Lord. You know, in so many passages of the Old Testament, specifically Genesis 16.10, the Angel of the Lord said to her, I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they shall be too many to count. Now who's saying this? Angel of the Lord, Malach Adonai. I say Adonai out of respect, just like the Jews, but it's Yahweh. Malach Yahweh. This is to Hagar and her son Ishmael. So the Malach Adonai, Malach means literally a messenger. Here it says Angel of Yahweh. This angel, this messenger, takes on a first personal authority. He says, I will multiply your descendants. That's interesting. He doesn't say the Lord will bless you, he says I will. Genesis 22, 12, you know the context. Again, Angel of Yahweh, Malach Yahweh. from heaven says, do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. It clearly says Malach Yahweh and then it says, now I know you have not withheld your son from me. Again, this angel of Yahweh, this angel of the Lord in the English translation, takes on the first person position. And to Balaam, same thing. Malachiahweh, Numbers 22, 32. Because your way was contrary to me. And the angel rebukes, not contrary to the Lord, contrary to me. Judges chapter 2. The context is, of course, the book of Judges. And Malachiahweh shows up and he just takes on a first person role again. It just appears like that all the way through the Old Testament. You see, this angel, I believe, is the pre-incarnate theophany of the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, before his incarnation. And notice what he says. This angel of Yahweh says, Behold, I am going to send an angel before you, to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. He will be a guardian and He will lead you. He's a leader. Verse 21, Be on your guard before Him and obey His voice. Do not be rebellious toward Him. Obey His voice. That means Malachi, that means the angel of the Lord, this messenger, will speak, will give commands. Obey His voice. And notice what it says, Do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression." Oh, there it is. That's the mark of deity right there. He will not pardon your transgression. Somehow this angel has the ability to pardon somebody's sins. Now we know this can't be a human leader because Moses is the human leader. This angel is some divine force. Since my name is in him, you and I know that the biblical term name represents the entirety of the inner character. And so the Lord told us to make disciples and baptize them in the name, singular, of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. But if you truly obey His voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For my angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, the Mosquitobites, the Termites... No, they're not there. There are so many of the Ites there. and I will completely destroy them," the Lord says. Angel of the Lord. Now, that's just a long teaching on that section. We can go on and on. But I just want you to know what God says He will do. That this angel will be primarily a guardian and a leader. That our Lord Jesus Christ, He said that I am the Great Shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd. He is our guardian and He is our leader. We need to follow His voice. It's the Lord's intimate presence and leadership and guardianship. When people arrived in the land of Canaan, God promised to wipe out our enemies. He said He will completely destroy them. Look at verse 23. Then he said, But while I am destroying them, I will protect you. Look at verses 24 to 26. You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars in pieces. Verse 25, But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst. Verse 26, There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days." What a marvelous promise. Protection, provision, rich blessings while he is wiping out, completely destroying the enemies of God. Pagan, immoral people who are crying out for judgment like people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Worshipping and obeying God will result in their health, wealth, prosperity, bounty. Let's look at his provision, verses 27 to 30. I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come. Notice, there's a psychological operation going on here, even before the physical. And I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. That means they're flying, they're flying away from you, they're escaping, they're flight, I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hibbites, the Canaanites, the Hittites before you." Hornets is an insect that stings. So God is saying that he's going to take care of the people that's there. Now notice how benevolently he does that. He does this By judging the nations who are begging for judgment, incidentally, if you think that the idolatrous, immoral, materialistic, godless nations are being preserved for future blessings, you're gravely mistaken. One person asked me, well, what about Japan? I mean, they're number two in the world in the economy. They have a thriving economy. They live really well. Their citizens make more money than the citizens here in the United States. They seem to be really being blessed and they're all like they have 5,000 plus gods in that nation. They're ungodly people. Why are they being blessed? Another person asked me, what about China? These people are communist, atheistic. Russia, their economies are growing. Ah, but you fail to recognize biblical history. The reason why the Philistines and the reason why the Midians, the reason why the Assyrians were so-called blessed, and they weren't blessed at all. They were given much resources so that it can be used to chastise God's people, Israel, for their disobedience. No, no, no. This is a false comparison when we look at the pagan nations, including ours, and we expect there to be further blessing. God says no. You see, when we understand about the eternal character of God, and governments and nations that beg for God's judgment will get it. And we are begging for His judgment. And so were they. Canaanites, Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, all these pagan nations, verse 29, I will not drive them out before you in a single year. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? Why not, Lord? You're almighty and powerful. You just crushed Egypt in a single year. Why not these people? That the land may not become desolate, and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you." You know why he's doing what he's doing? He's doing it so that he will provide and protect his people. He's going to drive them out in phases, in steps, in several waves, so that as they are driven out, all the infrastructure is left untouched. so that his people can just come in and occupy. So the vineyard is not devastated, but is ready for harvesting and planting the next year. So the olive groves are not devastated, but they can be harvested and planted the next year. They do no work and they have all this blessing. God says He's going to do it that way. Verse 30, I will drive them out before you little by little until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. That's the Lord's marvelous provision. I think we can understand a little bit about the Lord's strategy when he tells us to go and make disciples. Why isn't there an all of a sudden worldwide revival all at the same time? Why is there a soul-by-soul, person-by-person, city-by-city, country-by-country evangelization so that through these people, God's elect can understand the protection, the provision, and the joy of the Lord. Because when all the people have been reached for the gospel, then what must come? Matthew 24, 14, then the end must come. And the end must come. So how will those people in God's sovereign plan, who must be reached, will be reached, when the Gospel all of a sudden reaches all the nations all at once. Little by little, phase by phase, then we can understand a little bit. Verse 31, I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the Sea of Philistines and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates, for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. Now, imagine those of you who went through walk through the Old Testament. Imagine now, Red Sea, that's North Africa near Egypt, the Sea of the Philistines, that's above that, that's the Mediterranean, the wilderness, the river Euphrates, where that is, that's Iraq today. And so we're going from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea to Iraq. You see the west, east, north and south boundaries. God says I will give you all this land to you. Verse 32, you shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. Notice, they and their gods are inseparable. They shall not live in your land. Notice, it's now their land, because God gave it to them. Who owns everything God does? Because they will make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. That's exactly what happened, isn't it? The boundaries that God laid out were given technically, territorially to Solomon. However, they were never occupied by Israel completely. 1 Kings 4, verse 21 says, Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the river, that's Euphrates, to the land of the Philistines, there it is, Mediterranean, and to the border of Egypt, there it is, Red Sea, Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. You see, Solomon went into an international treaty with these pagan nations, but he never occupied these lands with his people. What does that mean? That this covenant promise will not be fulfilled until the Millennial Kingdom. Today's Israel, who is now fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon is not in an obedient state with God. They do not submit to the Messiah, Lord Jesus Christ. God is not blessing their military effort. They are a humanistic and secular Israel. However, that nation is what God is going to reprove, rebuke and redeem and purify. Only a remnant from that nation will be left for the tribulation and through the tribulation for the millennial kingdom. So right now that Israel nation is an apostate state in a relationship with God and yet they are being prepared for the future tribulation where God will refine them as gold is refined in fire through the tribulation. So as we pray for Israel, we pray for their redemption. We don't pray that that secular nation of Israel right now will be prosperous and they will conquer their surrounding lands and live. This prophecy will not take place until the Millennial Kingdom. And yet the presence of these enemies in the land at that time, and even now, is a constant menace to Israel. as God had predicted. Joshua chapter 9. It's very clear that they are not to make a treaty, and yet Solomon did, and so they are now. The people are inherently tied with their gods. Exodus chapter 34 verse 12. And we'll conclude with this. Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst. failure to drive out the enemy would result in their causing of Israel to sin primarily through their idolatry. And Israel's later history proved that to be true. Israel won't occupy the land that they desperately want until the Lord returns and redeems Israel first, get them ready spiritually, and then He will give them their land. They will not occupy their land on their own. It will be given to them by their King. Only when they say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Only when they say, The Prince of Peace cometh. Only when they say, Rejoice, O daughters of Zion. Your King comes on a foal of a donkey. That was already fulfilled when Jesus went in their triumphal entry in Jerusalem, yet they rejected Him. Only when they say again, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, will they receive their land back. One final application before we wrap everything up. Worldliness and worldly people have always been detracting God's people from being faithful to Him. You see, when God's people accommodate evil and sin and unrighteousness, false religion, false views, worldliness sets in. That's what destroys God's people's effective witness. You know, the reason why Israel became such a poor testament to the world of who God really is, is because they accommodated the world and its people around them, instead of being a separate people, set apart for God. And the same danger eludes us today. The same danger knocks on our doors and says, I want to come in, would you entertain me? Worldliness and the relationship of the world. What must we do to remain faithful to God? How do we want to finish our life? What will the history of you and your family and this church look like in a few years if the Lord so tarries? Will we be known for our accommodation of the world and worldly lifestyle and a horrible and poor testimony to the world of who God really is? or will we remain faithful to the Lord by being holy, set apart, consecrated unto Him, living life by faith and not by sight, and yet refreshingly attractive to a pagan world that has lost its meaning and its purpose, its destiny? And we have all those things, and yet will we taint our testimony through worldliness? God can't bless a worldly people. He can only bless the consecrated people. And brothers and sisters, we must become committed to a holy life and a consecrated lifestyle because those are the only people that God can bless and that God can use to testify of His greatness in the world. And it is my desire that as you learn about God's character, both in the Old and New Testament, that you would want to be more and more like Him in all your ways and that you would reflect Him well. When the world sees you, they'll see you as a wonderful mirror that reflects their own sinfulness that they are driven toward a humble, repentant attitude toward the Lord that you, my brothers and sisters, will be used by the Lord in this generation as a holy consecrated mirror for this world to see of their moral and spiritual bankruptcy that the Lord Jesus could pour out his blessings through us to them for his glory. Let's pray together. Father, we give you thanks and praise for reflecting your character in your law and teaching us that you are a compassionate God and you desire us to be compassionate. You are a holy God and you want us to be consecrated and separated, and that you are a just God who demands that we obey what we know we ought, and that you are a just God who must punish sin. You will not leave the guilty unpunished. You will not acquit the guilty. And we know your perfect moral character. Lord, help us to live in, therefore, humility and in fear, and in love and in adoration, and in that perfect harmonization between the love of God and the fear of God, where we find our great joy. And may our hearts overflow with joy and thanksgiving for your salvation that comes so freely through Christ. And may we become your adequate witnesses into this dark world where they need to know who you are, that they may worship you as they ought. As in Jesus' precious name, we ask it. Amen.