Well, if you will, if you're in Judges 6, let's read the first 10 verses together. Again, to remind you, we're transitioning now from Barak and Deborah. There was praise, there was victory, then there's praise, lifting high the name of God who went before his people to conquer, as he promised, but they also needed to be faithful. They needed to act. And Deborah, the prophetess, praises God, and even praises those who did stand up and go together, come together to defeat the enemy. And they had rest for 40 years. Now we're transitioning again with that spiral, that circular spiral down. We're going into what we know of now of repetition, the repeat. They're repeating where they started in rebellion against God. Verse 1. The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel. And because of Midian, the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them. They would camp against them and devour the produce of the land as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents. They would come like locusts in number. But they and their camels could not be counted, so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you. and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, I am the Lord your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But you have not obeyed my voice." Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our good and gracious Father, we thank you for your word, how we have already been rightly saturated in your word to prepare us to hear you. and I humbly ask, Lord, that your spirit would make our ears and hearts and minds attentive, that I would not be heard, but Christ would be heard, even through the folly of my own intellect, Lord, that your word would go forth, that your people will be built up, that we would see that it truly is a garden, where it flourishes is up, it truly is an armory that reloads for the battle, and we would see our armor there and we would praise him and we would be joyful that he is so kind to condescend and to encourage us and refill us and to build us up by his grace. Lord, we ask all these things for Christ's namesake and for the good of your body, amen. As I said earlier, this is the transition again that you're used to and you'll be so used to the further we get into Judges. But it was so good to just stop and meditate on these first 10 verses and not get too quick into Gideon because again, like I said, we don't wanna misapply certain things with Gideon. Because we missed the opening. The final words of this prophet is what is the motivator for the sermon today. But you have not obeyed my voice. He speaks. Do we listen? We open up his word. They had his word. That is so often forgotten. Even with people who are trying to write books, they forget that they had his word. He didn't necessarily need a prophet, but the Lord condescended. The Lord in his graciousness sent them a prophet. Though they had his very words, they knew exactly what their marching orders were. So what does the Lord do? He sends the Midianites. These Midianites, to give you some background, this will be a snapshot. I've put all the areas of which I'm pulling this information from on the handout. So feel free to read through this. It's really good. It's actually very helpful. But I'm not going to give you in full. I just want to give you a snapshot. The Midianites are also sons of Abraham. However, they are from his second wife, Keturah, and this is out of Genesis 25. It was the Midianites whom Joseph was sold to, and then they then sold him to Potiphar in Genesis chapter 37. Moses fled from Pharaoh to Midian and married a Midianite woman in Exodus chapter 2. It was the Midianites and the Moabites who paid Balak to curse Israel in Numbers chapter 22. They eventually seduce Israel with false worship and fornication also later in Numbers chapter 25. Because of this evil upon people of Israel the Lord told Moses to make war with Midian and to strike them down. This is Numbers chapter 25 where the Lord tells him this and they actually do it in chapter 31. So already, just from a quick snapshot. I mean, that's very, very quick because there's a lot of information there. But I want you to see that this is, if you will, distant cousins coming in that have already, as you see repetitiously throughout the judges, they're already a thorn in the side of Israel. But the Lord is now using them as that thorn because they are doing evil as it starts there at the beginning, because they are doing evil in the sight of God. He's using their own family, distant family, to be a thorn in their side, even though the Lord is very much against the Midianites, He is still utilizing him for His good purposes. They're being used as God's rod of His anger against an adulterous nation. Again, a theme that a lot of people go later within Israel to highlight, but it starts early. that God is utilizing other people to oppress and hold down and to even sanctify, if you wanna use New Testament terminology, which, again, that's justifiable. He's still building up his people. He's still molding them. But he brings in this, if you will, enemy to judge his people temporarily. Again, that is the constant theme of scripture. But now you see that this is a constant early theme as well. It just grows throughout their history. As you see in our opening there in verses 2 through 5, we're given what the Midianites do. They overpower these people. They overpower them so much that now Israel's leaving certain areas that they would normally live in, and now they're moving into the caves and the mountains and the strongholds. They're having to essentially retreat. Every time Israel plants a crop, they come in and they take it. Them, the Amalekites, and the people of the East, they come up against them. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. They're coming in precisely to just agitate them. Just think about that. You labor as a farmer over your crop with your animals, with your land, and as soon as it's ripe and ready for harvest, someone else is coming in and taking it from you. To the point that now you have to find other means of doing it, which again sets you up for where Gideon is found in a wine press. taking care of the wheat. It just sounds, once we get there, we'll explain that a little bit more, but that's almost a very odd scenario, because that's not a place that should be done. But he has to, because he's trying to take cover from people who are coming in and gonna take their good harvest. But this is the Lord's hand. And they come in and they see, in verse five, they lay waste to the land as they come in. They're a terror to these people. These same people who also teamed up with the Amalekites, they also did this earlier with Eglon. The Midianites, the Amalekites, and Eglon all teamed up together earlier when we learned about that with Ehud. So again, they're constantly coming back as a thorn, but now we're giving spiritual insight that it's God who's doing this because his people do evil before him. Israel is now being brought low because they're being overpowered by God through the Midianites. Because they did evil, and verse 10, verse 1, they did evil, and verse 10, because they did not obey His voice. Those bookmarks, or bookends, are squeezing everything else together so you see what's holding this whole context together. They are sinners. They have abandoned their Lord. Why? They did not listen to His Word, or put it to action and obey Him. This should remind us of the psalmist in Psalm 119. Because what is happening here is exactly what the psalmist says. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now I keep your word. What he's telling us in this psalm is that before he was afflicted, therefore the text is telling us that he was then afflicted at some point by God, so now he'll keep his word. So you can see God's divine hand underneath the affliction that God is moving to sanctify his people, to set them apart, to make them a holy nation. We're going to go more into this downward spiral as we go into Gideon, when we come back to Gideon, that is. So we'll see more of how this is pressing on them. I want to take this section and tie it in similarly with the last section of Deborah's and Barak's song. And I want to bring in how we have a prophet being brought to the people of God. We have a before a prophetess who's singing with the people of God and the structure or the the content. Actually, the content of her song was one that pointed to God. Who is God? What has he done? What is he commanded and promised? Now, when the people of Israel do evil, He sends them an unnamed prophet. And His content also mirrors who is God, what has He done, and what has He promised or commanded. This prophet has sung these things with the people. Now an unnamed prophet speaks these things to the people. Again, that spiral. At one time, they're all rejoicing together in the will of God, grateful and thankful. They turn away from that. And you could say that joy that may come with the praising, the sinful flesh takes hold of that, and that's when they go off into sinning. The sinful flesh loves it when you're happy, because then the evil comes in. And if you're not seeing that rotation yet, pay more attention to yourself because you're going to see the flow of scripture is that God, like we just sang, brings affliction to humble you because He doesn't want you hoping in the things of this earth. He wants you hoping in God, in Christ. He wants you leaning on His grace, not your feelings. Though He also cares about those things, but He wants them trained. He wants them honed in on Christ. So we're gonna follow this structure very simply, very straightforward. Who is God? What has he done? And what has he commanded or promised? First and foremost, who is God? From what we're seeing out of the prophet's mouth and even the context surrounding that, who is this God? Well, first and foremost, we see that they cry out to God and the Lord acts on their cry. So what does that tell us about God? God hears. It's so obvious, but that's so helpful and so hopeful. Even though their cries may not be true and right repentance, I say may, I'm not judging them, because I know holistically, I've said before, holistically, they are a sinful people. But within that, he's always had his remnant who are truly turning to him. There's a both and going on here. So when they cry to the Lord, he hears them because he is a God who hears his people. He is a God of mercy because he condescends. In his hearing is a condescension that he's willing to listen to sinners. That should rock our world. He's willing to condescend to people who do not deserve to be heard for one second. He could have easily shut his ears and justly shut his ears, but what does he do? He acts. He hears the cries of his people, as we're reminded in Exodus 2, if I'm remembering properly. He hears his people, and he goes and does something about it. Also, we see who this God is. He is a God who is intimately connected to His people. I'm not saying that they're intimately connected to Him. That ebbs and flows, right? I am saying, who is this God? He is one who says, these are my people. Thus says the Lord, verse 8, the God of Israel. Verse 10, I am the Lord your God. He is intimately connected to his people. He loves his people. Moving forward, keep it simple. What has he done? What has he done in his great love and condescension and his hearing and his actions? What has he done? He sends a prophet to to bear the voice of God to his people. He sends a prophet. He knows what these people need. So therefore, what do they need? They need to hear from their God. He knows what his people need, so he sends them a prophet, because they need the voice of God amongst them. And he reminds them as well. He is a God of reminders. We've stated this a few times, and I even believe our brother Steve said that. Or it was actually maybe even Ryan, too. Maybe they both said it, actually. I was hearing it so often that we need reminders. We need to be reminded of who this God is. They need this reminder, we need these reminders, because this is what fills us up. It's the voice of God, not our own voices talking to us in our head. We need the voice of God among us. So he, in his great love and condescension, because he's connected to his people, he knows what they need, so he sends them a prophet, and this prophet reminds them, and he reminds them of a God who is their salvation. Within his reminders, he reminds them of his salvation. Though it's theirs to be had, the scripture wants us to know that it's His salvation. He does this. Because look at this. We'll skim through this real quick. You'll like this. Look at the text yourself. Verse 8. Who sent the prophet? The Lord did. You keep looking in verse 8. What does He say? I led you up from Egypt. All these verbs. I brought you out of the house of slavery. Verse 9, I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you. Verse 9 again, I drove them out before you. Verse 9, I gave you their land. Ending in verse 10, I said to you. He's reminding them by sending the prophet is a reminder in and of itself. When someone walks up and is like, thus says the Lord, they should have been reminded. Oh, that's right. We have a God that we've abandoned. But then he goes on to say, but look how he structures this. You'll see this in Paul. You'll see this in Peter. They start with reminders of God's grace. Don't they do that? Once a people, far off, now He's brought you near. And then He goes into, therefore, do something with this information. Go to action with this information. But He starts with grace. Look at what God has done for them. And they continually, on rotation, as history shows us through the Scripture, they continually forget Push away. Move a different direction. Serve the false gods. Give in to their lusts. But it's the Lord who says, I've done this for you. He's not forgotten. And He's not going to let them forget as well. How marvelous. What a gracious God that He won't let us forget. That is a grace, people. Oftentimes people don't like rebuke, but in even a rebuke is so much grace to be had because it should be coming from a source of a God who's, look what I've done for you, but you're falling short. But look what I've done for you. Remember what I've done for you. Get up, continue the race. But look at what he's also within here, moving to a third point. What is he commanded and promised? What has He commanded or promised? Well, you see in verse 1, you also hear, we are reminded that He's also promised something. He's promised to send His justice to a rebellious people. He's promised his justice. He says, where he says, the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. That's also a reminder that he's told them earlier, if you do not obey, my justice is coming after you. And I'll remind you of what they should have known in Joshua chapter 23, Joshua standing before the people of Israel before they go into their inheritance. Here's what Joshua says to them. But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things until he has destroyed you from all this good land that the Lord your God has given you. If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you. and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you." So even from the start, we see a God who's promised, who's enacting on what he's promised. If you run away, I will come after you, but it will be on the chariot of justice. He will do this. We know, repeated throughout the scriptures, What comes to the house of the Lord first? Judgment. Because he's connected to his people and he wants his people to be a pure and holy people. It does not necessarily mean eternal judgment because the term, as we've talked many times before, is used vastly. It's temporal and it has eternal effects with it. But I believe, I want you just to think through this, think of it as temporal for the context for us listening today. He will come, He will judge, He will purify His church. He will do that. He's promised He would do that. And it may come through extremely hard times in order to wake us up. You can also see within this prophet being sent that this is a God who's promised His covenant. He's promised specifically to remember His covenant. And this is where the grace begins to come in. He's giving them a hard word, but within that word he's also showing them that I have not forgotten my promise. Listen to Exodus chapter 2, I mentioned this earlier. But this ties in even now to what we're talking about today. Exodus 2, chapter 2, verses 23 and 25 through 25. During those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. That's exactly what He's doing here. The reason He's heard is because He's already promised to hear because He has a covenant that He will not break with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Isn't that marvelous? Here's a recap from the psalmist in Psalm 108. It gives us a recap that fits perfectly with judges. Psalm 108, verses 40 through 45. Whose heritage is it? It's his heritage. What does that sound like? Where we're at today. Their enemies oppressed them and they were brought into subjection under their power. Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity. Here's the grace. Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress when he heard their cry. For their sake, he remembered his covenant and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love. The reason I want to go and discuss Baptist covenant theology is so that you may know God has mercy on you because he has not forgotten his covenant. He shows you mercy because he is a God of mercy and he makes that and acts that in time and space to show you, I will show you mercy. Despite you, I'm going to show you mercy. This is so good that we think covenantally because they should have been thinking covenantally. They should have been like, why is God showing? We didn't even want to hear Him. We abandoned Him for other gods. That God's faithful to His covenant. Not them, He is. He is faithful to His covenant because He loves Himself and His people. He's faithful to Himself. He could swear against nothing but Himself. So that shows that He trusts Himself, not man. He's going to act on His covenant. And that's what He's doing right here. He's promised His covenant, so He doesn't stay silent. He opens His mouth through a prophet. And through this, we learn that He commands obedience. The Lord our God commands obedience. That's how he ends right there, right? Verse 10, but you have not obeyed my voice. When he states there, I am the Lord your God, you should not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. This should have pointed their mind back to Joshua. The reason I say that is because Joshua says the same thing to them. In Joshua 24, verse 15, listen to this. That's the same language that this prophet's using, the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And then the transfer over to now is now they've chosen to not serve the Lord in the land of the gods of the Amorites. And they're fearing them when they should not have been fearing them. You may already know this, but I want to ask it anyways. Do you know that fearing God and serving God are two sides of the same coin? You can't remove one and hope to get the other. You need one in order to have the other. You can't separate. Let me use what God said about marriage. What God has brought together, let no man separate. The concept being that the Lord is teaching us through his word that these things go together. Don't try to knock one out because you don't like the sound of it initially. Fear. Don't draw a deaf ear to that. Don't hate that. Don't despise that. Listen to what the Lord wants to utilize in us through those avenues of fear and obedience. Again, I remind you, Joshua 24, right before he says to choose this day, he tells them, now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. In sincerity and in faithfulness. What helps promote that? Fear and service. But put away the gods of your fathers, that your fathers serve beyond the river in Egypt and serve the Lord. In the very law, in Deuteronomy 10, the same concept, fear and service, are put together. In Deuteronomy 10, verses 12-16, And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Take that to heart. What does He require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good. Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart and love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. The Lord requires fear of him and obedience. And that's exactly why they're being rebuked, correct? You did not obey. So therefore, it's properly assumed, you did not fear me. You did not listen to what I told you about me bringing justice upon you. I'm doing that now. But I'm also here to remind you of my covenant, that I will not abandon you. So I ask a question. Does God still demand obedience? Hot topics, right? Does he still demand obedience? I'll give you a very simple answer, but I'm going to open up a little bit more about it. The simple answer is yes, he does. But again, just like he's faithful in his covenant to not abandon his people, he's faithful in his covenant to bring about all of which he's promised in his covenant, which is also obedience. I wrote you a paper back, I believe it was July, if I'm not mistaken, of last year, when I was going through faith and I wanted to write, broaden out a little bit more, even though I reread it and I realized this could really use some tuning up. It's always funny when you revisit your papers, you're like, ooh, I should have rechecked that like five more times. But I wanted to hone in on Romans with the obedience of faith. Because some take it one way, some take it another way. I want to keep it simple for you, because I believe it's very simple when you see the whole flow of what Paul is talking about. The obedience of faith are one and the same. It is one and the same, because the gospel is coming forth, and it's the power of THE gospel that wakens dead people to life. So I want to read some portions from that just to kind of draw on this a little bit more. Romans 1, 5, here's what Paul says. Through whom, that's Jesus Christ our Lord, through Him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Paul is to spread the news of the risen Son of God and it is also to produce, that is result in the obedience of faith within all the nations and the Roman recipients. As Christians we trust that the Gospel is rooted in the Old Testament promise of what God will do to show His grace towards sinners. This is within Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, We'll be talking so much more about all those things. However, we'll keep moving. After the Lord speaks of His coming promise to bring His people to life through the prophet Ezekiel, that's in chapter 36 by the way, He then gives us an example of what that looks like in the very next chapter, verse chapter 37. He says, speak to these bones. At first He asks them, can these bones live? Only you know God. He says, speak to them. What happens when he speaks the word of God to them? These bones start to creak. These bones start to move. Flesh and muscle begin to form upon these bones because what happens? They come to life through the avenue of the word. Bones are brought to life through the speaking of God's word given to the prophet, and then spoken over those dead bones. This aligns perfectly with Paul's words from Romans 10, verse 17, that faith comes from hearing, that's life, new life comes from hearing, and that hearing is only given through the word of Christ. We can tend to put our own working into some of these verses. However, it is actually telling us where the true hearing comes from. It comes from the word that brings life. If someone's not hearing, the word hasn't penetrated them. It may be an aroma of death, like Paul said. That's God's prerogative, God's sovereignty. We have to stomach that and accept that in faith. But for those who hear, that's the word of God awakening them to life. The power is in the word of Christ and from the word. People hear and are given faith that is acted upon. You can also see this from a, that's a positive avenue, right? The word coming, waking them up, excuse me, bringing them to life, right? We can see this from a negative angle. We can see in scripture that disobedience to the truth is a basis for judgment. Paul makes clear that those who love unrighteousness, they are sent, this is in 2 Thessalonians, they are sent a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false. in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." They did not believe, but they acted upon their pleasures. That means they would have acted on their belief had they believed, but instead they rejected and acted upon their pleasures. So action is happening. but it's also coupled with belief or rejected. So therefore, judgment will come upon them because they rejected what they should have obeyed. Peter agrees in stating that those, the Apostle Peter, agrees in stating that there are those who stumble over the rock of offense, which is Jesus. And they stumble because, from 1 Peter 2, 7, they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. Jesus himself also states that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Look how he couples that belief, then action, right? Because if you're alive, You walk, right? What does a baby do? It wants food, so it cries for that food. What does it do when given that food? It takes it in, and it grows, because it's alive. This is regeneration. The Word, the Spirit of God, through the Word of God, is awakening us to obedience, because we have faith that He grants us. He grants that. These are all granted by His sovereign hand. Therefore, through this, even a negative of judgment, we can see that there's obedience of faith is talking to something that it's you believe and you go to action on that belief. You don't just sit on that belief. I love I've said this before, but I love to say it. If someone's hit by a Mack truck, do they forget about it the next day? It's kind of like, it's a weird analogy, they die. Well, yeah, something happened, right? They're not going to get up and be like, oh, man, that hurt. And they move on with their life. If they're hit by a car, their life has changed. From that point on, their life will never be the same. That's the idea of being met by God. If the living God moves inside of you through His Word, you will no longer be that same person because if you're in Christ, you are a new creation. Not a new idea has been placed in you. A new creation has been birthed within you. The Gospel comes with a divine command that goes out into the world and has been since the Lord Jesus' earthly ministry. Some of the very things out of the mouth of Jesus during his earthly ministry are, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel. The repent and the believe are imperatives. They must be done. There are no other options to choose from. There are no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. To utilize the message of the gospel as an option, one must choose from instead of a command is to distort the message. Jesus is king of all of heaven and earth. As ambassadors of Christ, we must bring that proper message, just like the prophet is now bringing the message for which at that time he wanted to deliver to his people. Even through that message, they could glean so much of God and his character, even though it's a rebuke. Even in the rebuke, a reminder and a rebuke, They can know so much of a gracious God who still has not abandoned them to their ways. This weighs on us when we stand before the people of God. These things ought to weigh on us. Anyone who dares take God's word on their lips must strongly consider what they say. That's heavy. Because we are not only accountable to what we say, we're also accountable to whether we are actively trying to live according to it. So not only are we supposed to present the Word of God to you, our lives ought to mirror that. I remind myself, and you get to hear it, 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24-27. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air. And here's the clinger. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. So not only is a prophet bringing the word and rebuke and reminders to his people, he's also gonna follow suit with that. He's part of these people. And we're going to again see this. The Lord continues to come to people, speak through them to lead the other people within his people. And they also are following suit with all commands that God has laid out for them. And the same is for us today. The call of the gospel is to turn from your evil ways. That's a movement. I was here, I do a 180. But how do you do the 180? God speaks. He awakens your dead bones. Your ears begin to hear. Your heart begins to beat, blood begins to flow, hunger begins to turn in your belly. I need more of this word because I want to take steps forward. It's so basic and even to the nature of God's creation that we shouldn't be surprised that when we hear of the sovereignty of God and salvation, it's hidden within nature, if you will. but we are called even today to obey the word of God and not grow a deaf ear. Do not harden your hearts as in the day of rebellion. Salvation is today. If you've already claimed it before, claim it again. That's fine. Don't be deaf is all I care about. Shout with praise that God will be so willing to say, don't forget that I won't forget. I love you with an everlasting love. Be ye separate from the world. Follow my commands. Because why? Because He loves you. And He's made that love known through His Son. And His Son will never leave us or forsake us because He is our God of our covenant. He is the mediator of our covenant. He said He will not forget that. He said that He will see His offspring and He will be satisfied in His offspring when He sees them. A man who never married sees his offspring. That is a spiritual work of God that only He can do. But guess what? That looks like something. Does that look like me leaving today and forgetting everything that we got to enjoy together? No, I'm motivated to live for Him because He's fed us right now. Mother's Day, you mothers work like nobody's business. Words fail me to praise God for who you are. And you're probably in your mind already thinking, well, you haven't seen how much I've failed. That's why we have grace. But you mothers are so special to the body of Christ. You, more so than even the dads at times, get hands on in shaping future generations. What do you want to do? Are you going to let them go their own way and be ashamed to their mothers, the Proverbs would say? Or are you going to train them in the fear and discipline of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you going to obey out of love and joy? I trust you will, because I've known most of you for a really long time. And there's still, even if you look backwards and you see a lot of dead bodies in your wake, guess what? You're not alone in that. We remind ourselves, because it's the Lord reminding us, He has not given up on His promises. He will not give up on His promises. He will hold you until the end, and Christ Himself will present you purified, blameless, pure, holy, untainted, he will do this. He will present you this way. Once again, you'll be essentially kind of a reminder of wedding, the white dress signifying purity. He will present you again that way, fully and completely, because he will not forget his covenant. So may we not forget His covenant. May we remember He will love us with an everlasting love. So because He loves us, I will obey Him because I'm motivated by His love. Praise the Lord. Let's go to Him in prayer. Our good and gracious Father, we thank You for Your great love that You have not forgotten Your covenant, that You will not abandon us. Even if we abandon You, Lord, You are faithful. You cannot deny Yourself. Lord, you have spoken, you will surely do it. Our hope is not in man, our hope is in God. Lord, we praise your name because you are the one who is faithful. Lord, we thank you that you call us to faithfulness and you therefore equip us to be faithful. You are our armor. When we are fatigued from battle, Lord, we rest in Christ. He fills us up that we may continue in that race. Lord, the wealth of your word is so good. It leaves nothing behind. Lord, would we think on these things daily as we walk by the way? Would we share them with our children? Would we share them with our co-workers, our friends, our family? Would we be faithful servants of Christ? Lord, we thank you for Christ Jesus, our Lord. We wait for him, but our waiting looks like battle. May we do it faithfully. And Lord, may we stand before the throne and hear, well done, good and faithful servant. We ask this for Christ's name's sake. Amen. Are there any reminders