11 beginning at verse 27. And it happened as he spoke these things that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the wound that bore you and the breast which nursed you. But he said, more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, he began to say, this is an evil generation. It seeks a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah, the prophet. For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the son of man will be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And indeed, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And indeed, a greater than Jonah is here. No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a bushel. but on a lampstand that those who come in may see the light. The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. And when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore, take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light. as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light. That's our focus today. Also in the light of the passage beginning at verse 14, which we saw a couple of weeks ago. While blessed are those, says Jesus, who hear the word of God and keep it. When Jesus pronounces a blessing, Boy, we better have our ears up. What does it mean to bless? We often hear that word quite a bit. Right? What is blessing? What does it mean to be blessed? Well, in the Bible, to be blessed means to be happy. Happy in the sense that you're full. Right? You have nothing more that you need. It's related to contentment. We heard that this morning in the 10th commandment. It's related to contentment, being fully satisfied when we are blessed to the Lord. That's the sense that God wants to communicate to us. It's a happiness that really comes from the favor of the Lord. God coming to us with his favor, God turning his face toward us. with his favor. And, yeah, material blessings, right? Material blessings are certainly included in God's favor. But the Bible gives such a fuller meaning, a richer meaning, to the word blessed. Think of the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, one of the words that Jesus uses again and again in Matthew 5, 1 through 11. It's well known to us. There he shows that to be blessed is a spiritual state of well-being, right? It's a deep, joy-filled contentment that God gives, which cannot be shaken by poverty, grief, persecution, war, or any other trial or tragedy we face in life. That's how one person put it. So the sense here is that Even though they don't look like blessings, blessed are the poor in spirit. Does that look like a blessing? Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who are persecuted. They might not look like blessings, but because we belong to Jesus, God actually blesses his people in those circumstances. Okay. So true blessing, true blessing. If we want blessing, true blessing can only come through a right relationship with God. and our Lord Jesus Christ. And that involves so many things, listening to Him, following Him, hearing Him, obeying. You want a blessed life, said Jesus? Here it is. Follow me. And don't fool yourself in thinking that you'll have a blessed life without me. You're just not going to have it. there is no blessed life. He's very clear. When he says this, he's saying it to the entire crowd. Blessed are those who hear my word, the word of God, and keep it. That means obey it. So we're going to see this morning, we're going to tie it all together, these three parts of the passage that we read. Blessed are those, Jesus gives the beatitude here, blessed are those who obey the word of God. And how does that come? It comes by believing His sign. See that in verses 29 to 32, by believing His sign and living in the light. We see that in 32 to 36, but it's all focused on, on obeying His word. That's where the blessing comes. But yeah, we need to come to the, we need, we need to come to him. We need to believe in him first of all. And second of all, to live in the light in order for that to occur in our lives. You know, Christ came to his own people. First of all, the Jews, right? 4,000 years in the waiting. And finally the Messiah has come. He's come to his own. Hey, they did not receive him. He came to bring heaven to earth. He came to bring the blessings of God and all the joys of salvation in himself. He came to reverse the curse, the curse that we brought upon ourselves in Adam, right? The curse and its effects that we see all around us in the world. there just weren't a lot of people coming to him. Well, they were coming to him, but they didn't want to put their faith and trust in him. Some of the crowds, as we saw two weeks ago, were slandering him. They were saying bad, evil things about Jesus. People will do that. They say bad, evil things about Jesus. Oh yeah, he casts out demons by the power of Satan. He's into black magic. others are saying oh let's let's go ahead let's ask him to put on a show like a magician hey let's get him to do all kinds of healings healing this person this person we can just go yay how Jesus must have suffered he came he came to meet them in their need he came to save them from their sins, from their unbelief. He came to restore. He came to bring blessings, true blessings. And once in a while you see a victory. It's so neat when you see a victory in Christ's kingdom, when someone's coming to faith. Well, in the midst of the crowds, there's this little woman. We don't know her name. I don't know if she was little or not, but it was an anonymous woman. and she's listening and she's listening and you know what she has to crowd out all the other noise of slander and all the false adulation but she's drawn she's drawn to the word of God she's drawn to the beautiful enriching words of Jesus and It's like it started bubbling up in her heart, and not being able to restrain herself, she shouts out. You ever hear somebody shouting on the crowd? It almost sounds like you could get embarrassed by that, but this was a big crowd, thick crowds, and she shouts out, and she says, blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breast which nursed you, right? So there's a praise here. She's giving praise to whom? First of all, she's giving praise to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and indirectly or implicitly also giving praise to Jesus because she's drawn to what he's saying. That's what she says. She says it out of excitement and she's right. Remember Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary? when Mary came to visit Elizabeth, she said the same thing about Mary when she was pregnant at the time. Right? In Luke 1.42, what did Elizabeth say? Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Jesus does not deny what she says. You know, the light of his word is beginning to penetrate in her heart. You see how Christ is pursuing people. And this was just a woman without a name, an ordinary woman. And you know how Christ responds? He doesn't say, well, you're not quite right. You know, no, he's not like that. He, in a gentle and a very loving and a very gracious way, he, you could say, tweaks her answer a bit. It's not, she doesn't have the full light of the revelation. but he tweaks her answer and without discouraging her, you know, by the way, this is the only place where you find this story is in this gospel right here in Luke chapter 11. And boy, you think about Jesus response, what a lesson for all of us on how we can deal with one another, right? You kind of add, you kind of expand, continue to encourage. But Jesus says in verse 28, he adds this, He says more than that. That's what he says. More than that. Or you could say, but better still, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. You know what Jesus is saying? to this mother, or to this lady, in the light of all the crowds, that he's more than merely the son of his mother. It's a great thing to be a son of your mother. But Jesus is saying, I'm more than a son of my mother. Better still, I'm the savior of people. Mary is personally blessed. Why is Mary personally blessed? Not, first of all, because she gave birth to the Messiah. Not, first of all, because she gave birth to Jesus. But, first of all, because she listened to God's Word, she believed it, and she acted upon God's Word in faith. Remember when she heard the news that she was going to give birth to the Son of God, what was the first thing she did? She submitted. She submitted to the word of God. What did she say? What did Mary say? Let it be to me according to your word. You notice that in his response, Jesus includes not only his mother. Yes, his mother also needs to believe in him, but he also includes believers. Blessed. He says that is blessed for you. Rich are you? Happy are you? All those who hear the word of God and keep it, who walk in the way of God's covenant, who walk in the way of the relationship that I have come to establish with all who trust on me. Early in a parable in Luke 6, Jesus says that all those who hear his word and put his word into practice is like whom? He's like a man building a house. And what did he do? It cost a lot of time. It took a lot of sacrifice. But he dug deep and deeper and deeper until he hit the foundation. And then he laid the foundation on the rock. And then by doing that, when the floods came, when the streams of cesarean went vehemently against the house, did the house fall? It stood firm. What? What a blessing. What a blessing to hear and obey the word because it can withstand all those forces and all those demonic forces in life. It will stand. It will stand securely. That man is blessed. Psalm 1, does not walk in the way of sinners or sits in the seat of scoffers, right? But his delight is in the law of the Lord. That's where green grass grows, right? By the rivers, by the waters. The desert is dead. It's cursed. I mean, it reflects the curse. Boy, you want growth and greenness and richness? Oh, go by the water. Go by Jesus. That's what this man did, right? He dug deep, built upon the rock. That person is rich, is full, he's blessed. And Jesus is showing that The mother-son relationship here is not the most important. What he's saying here, what is most important is that we are spiritually connected to Christ. Spiritually connected to Christ through faith. When asked at one point about his own mother and brothers, remember when his own mother and brothers came to him? Jesus turned away from that. And he looked at the disciples in front of him and he says, Who are my mother and my brothers and my sister? How did he answer that? He says, here are my mother, here are my brothers, here are my sisters. Whoever does the will of God is my brother, is my mother, is my sister. Beautiful, right? It's those faith ties. Faith ties are stronger than blood ties because When you're spiritually connected to Christ, it's a bond that never breaks, not even by death. That bond continues. Faith ties are very powerful, very strong. We are brothers and sisters of Christ, right? We call ourselves brothers. We call ourselves sisters. Who is our older brother? Jesus, Hebrews chapter two. He is our older brother. We are a family of Christ, a spiritual bond in Christ that we do not have with those who do not believe and who do not obey. Some of us have family members, right? Physically related, and we respect, but it's not on the same level, is it? Because in Christ, it's a much deeper level. It's a richer level. It's eternal. It's It's we belong to Christ, the one who came to bring the blessings of heaven, who comes to bless us. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Boy, if you're a follower of Jesus, consider it a privilege. He didn't have to work in our hearts, but he did by the grace of God. He pursued and he continues to give life to all those whom the father has given to him from all eternity and And he gives us the grace to listen, to hear, to put into practice. Oh, it's a struggle. It's a struggle, but thank God for the work of his spirit who enables us. Obeying his word, obeying the word of God. How does that come? We're not saved by obeying, right? We're not saved by obeying the word of God, but a saved person will obey the word of God. So, How is it? How is it that we obey the word of God? Well, it comes, first of all, by believing in him, by believing in Christ. And that's what Jesus brings out in verses 29 to 32, right? By believing, he calls himself the sign. The sign. We'll look into that a little bit more as we look at these verses. But what is the sign? The sign simply is this, the crucified and risen Christ, the one who's risen from the dead. What is the sign? The tomb, the grave is empty. Sin has been put to death. Jesus is alive. The only one in history, the one sent by God to accomplish the salvation for us. Jesus Christ is himself the sign of God, God's sign to the world. Do we need more signs? We don't need more signs than that. It's sufficient. We have everything we need in the death and resurrection of Christ. The reason why I say that is because the crowds in Jesus' day, like many today, were seeking from Jesus signs. In this case, a sign from heaven. They were craving. We want to see more miracles. We want to see more signs and wonders. They were looking for physical signs and wonders. That was not ignorance on their part. It was willful unbelief. Instead of believing Jesus and his word and depending upon his word, They wanted something thrilling, something exciting, something sensational. You know, Christianity today has those kind of people, right? They have some... Christianity has sign seekers today. And when you have sign seekers, boy, you could fill up the Rogers Stadium. You have some middleman who puts up his hands and goes like this and this and, and wow, it's thrilling, right? We call them sensational sign seekers. That's what Jesus is dealing with here. Verse 29, Jesus calls these sign seekers evil. Well, that's very strong. He calls them evil. He says, this is an evil generation. It seeks a sign. Why is it? as evil, because they request a sign when Jesus just performed a sign before their faces. Remember the sign he performed? Confirming that he is the one who brings the blessings of heaven. He cast out a demon and he made dumb man speak. A double miracle. Second, they had been witnessing all kinds of miracles and signs. Sometimes people say, well, you know what? If only they see a miracle, a physical miracle happen, then they'll believe, right? We must pray for a miracle, then that person will believe. But these people saw all kinds of miracles, physical miracles, and still they weren't believing. And now they say they want to see something more spectacular. They say, we want to see a sign from heaven. Wait a minute. Who came from heaven? Jesus. The sign from heaven was standing right before them. Standing in their midst. God in the flesh. They didn't see that. That was not exciting to them. That's because they didn't believe. When you believe, then you say, wow, but they didn't see that. They missed him. So it's almost like they were saying, we want, they were craving after a picture of the bread, but not the bread of life itself. What would you rather have if you're hungry? A picture of the bread or the bread itself? They were just running after pictures, right? Christ knew what brought the crowd together. They came seeking a sign. They came to gaze. They came so that they could talk about something when they came home. Something sensational. Noah says, Jesus, verse 29, he says, no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah, the prophet. He says, I'm going to give you one sign. And that's in your scriptures. He's talking to people who have the scriptures. I'm going to give Jonah the prophet as your sign. And he explains it further in verse 30. For as Jonah became assigned to the Ninevites, so also the son of man will be to this generation. How was Jonah assigned to the Ninevites? Remember, Jonah was called to go preach the gospel to Nineveh. There is no way Jonah was going to go to Nineveh. These people were enemies. They were cruel. He says, no way. They don't deserve the gospel. I'm not going there. So he goes the opposite direction, goes on board a ship. And what happens? A storm comes. God sends a storm. And the sailors, being all worried and upset, they throw Jonah overboard into the stormy seas. And who does God send? A great fish. And the fish swallows Jonah. How long is he in that whale? How many days? Think about the sign here and the sign pointing to Christ. Three days. Three days in the belly of a great fish. And then God made the great fish spit him out onto dry land. And then God sent him, sent Jonah, said, now you go to Nineveh. Now you can imagine what kind of sign he was. He was one who was as though dead, come to life, and now preaching the gospel to Ninevites. So likewise, here. So also the son of man will be to this generation." It's in the future tense. Remember, Jesus has not died and risen yet from the dead. He says, you look back to the sign of Jonah and you're going to see it in me. He's going to die. He's going to be buried. And on what day will he rise again from the dead? To life on the third day. God is saying, Christ is saying, that's the sign. That's the sign. It's sufficient. It's enough. You don't need any more signs. No other sign is needed. You know, and Jesus, what he does next in the next couple of verses, he hammers, because he loves them so much, he loves them so much, he hammers home their guilt, the guilt for not believing. And he gives two examples. He says, okay, but look at those foreigners. What about, What about you who have the word of God? And he gives two examples from the foreigners. The one he gives is the, um, the queen of Sheba from first Kings chapter 11. You can read first Kings 10. You can read about that, that, uh, story there. She was a foreigner and she was a true seeker, not a seeker of signs. She was looking for wisdom. She was prepared to take a long, difficult journey. She came from the ends of the earth, it says there in 1 Kings chapter 10. For what purpose? To hear. It's almost like someone coming from three hours away says, I want to come to hear the gospel. She came, a queen, to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And now Jesus says, wait a minute. Now indeed, one greater than Solomon is here. Sorry, yeah, than Solomon is here. He's the one who's standing in your midst. He's the very wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 10 31. He's our wisdom of God. The people there didn't even have to make a journey like the queen did. And Jesus says, you know, in the judgment, the generation, This generation will be condemned by the Queen's example. Foreigners. He says, look, you have it all. I'm in your midst. Believe in me. Second, the people of Nineveh. They were also foreigners, right? Brutal, cruel people. They had chariots that had knives sticking out 18 inches so they could just kill people's horses. Brutal people, the kind of people you say, No wonder Jonah didn't want to go there. But God made sure he went there. And did they listen? Oh, you bet they did. The entire city of Nineveh repented, hearing the word of God. They weren't looking for extra signs and miracles. They saw the sign. They saw Jonah, the one who God had kept alive. They heard his preaching. And yet Jesus says, in your generation he says this generation that was listening to him they have no regard they're not interested in listening they don't want to listen like the Ninevites did they're not amazed by the word of God they're not startled they're not turning from their ways their sinful ways as Ninevites did likewise Jesus says in verse 32 the Ninevites too will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. So very, very powerful. So God here is, remember Christ here is warning that generation. He came to them first, 40 years, right? He's giving them time to, to repent and to believe in Jesus because he's interest, Christ, Christ is going to build his house, his church using Israel as a base. And they're the very ones that are saying, no thanks. not for me. Sometimes I think people, we'll put it this way, we need, there is no need for more signs today. What do we have today? We are so much blessed because we live in the days after the Gospels. We live in the days where Jesus died and rose again from the dead. He's the sign. He's a sign that was there in that generation. And he's a sign that comes to us every Sunday through the preaching of the gospel. Remember in Galatians chapter 3, you know how Apostle Paul says, you know, he says, you know, Christ was portrayed before you, not in pictures, but through the word, portrayed before you as one who was crucified and risen from the dead. To all who believe, You know, the beautiful thing is he's the sign. And it's power, the power of Christ, the sign today is visibly seen in changed lives. You want to see signs? Signs are seen in changed lives, changed by the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, who brings the life of Christ and the sinners coming to faith in him, who believe God's word, who trust a limp man alone for salvation, And yeah, beautiful. No wonder. This is true blessing because all who come to him, all who come to the Lord through faith in Christ, what's the promises? Forgiveness of sins? Not only that, God promises never to hold any of the sins you committed against you. Because in a certain sense, you could say he held it against Christ. Christ atoned for it. And finally, he says, I'm going to clothe you with my righteousness. That is blessing. That is security. Not only from birth, but all the way to death and through death and into eternity. Can you find any blessing on earth like that? Truly blessed. Sometimes I think people look for more signs and wonders. Why? Because they're not secure in Christ. That's really a hard thing to see when people are looking and looking and say, please, Lord, another sign, another miracle. They're not finding their security in Christ. They want to see. They don't want to believe. They don't want to believe. They want to see signs, not believe. And that's why often evil and corrupt lifestyles follow. You see a lot of the preachers that do this kind of stuff, a lot of evil and corrupt lifestyles, because they're not really believing. They're not believing in the message of the gospel, not believing in the sign that's being portrayed to the gospel. They just want to see. They want people to see. Sensational, frivolous, shallow, and above all, it hurts the people. It hurts the listeners. It brings great discouragement. I can tell you a little story. I remember visiting a lady in a nursing home, Norma. Norma was her name. 29 years old in a nursing home. She had multiple sclerosis, neck down, in her bed. And go there weekly just to minister the gospel. And she's just comforted just to know that she wouldn't be in this state forever, because when Jesus returns, she will have a complete body again, and she'll be jumping and leaping and praising God in heaven. Right. So in a sense, in a certain sense, you're preparing her for a good death. Well, one of those times, one of these faith healers came into a room and she yelled at her. and said, Norma, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you, get up. She couldn't. She said it a second time. In the name of Jesus Christ, I tell you, get up. She couldn't. You know what that faith healer told her? You have no faith. That's damning. Who is the one who has no faith? It takes more faith to accept Norma's condition, and that lady who said those things. She's not a believer. Not a true believer. No. Norma had the true blessing. She trusted in Christ for her salvation, and she trusted that Jesus forgave her of her sins. Though she came out of a non-Christian background, she was believing. That lady's corrupt. She's evil. for doing that, because it's so damaging to people, and many people lose their faith because of it. Jesus comes with his word. It's sufficient. No more signs needed. If Jesus chooses to use a sign, certainly he may choose to do a miracle, but there was no middleman needed. It's the prayers of his people that he uses. No more signs, said Jesus, just the sign, one sign, needed. And that is you proclaim the sign, the sign of my death and resurrection. You could proclaim the grave is empty. Jesus is alive. You know what? Even then Jesus knows our weakness. He knows that sometimes we don't always feel secure in our faith, in our salvation. And so he gives us extra props. He gives us extra aids. And that's why we have two extra signs that Jesus commanded to have in the church. Those two signs are baptism, and the Lord's Supper. Jesus says, OK, I want you to see the gospel now. You hear it all the time. I want you to see it. The water in baptism symbolizes the cleansing away of sins. And the bread and the wine symbolizes Christ's finished sacrifice on the cross for our sins. We see the gospel. We taste the gospel. Enough. No more needed. Find security. You find your security in the promises of God. That's what God wants. Take him at his word. Believe him at his word. Trust him. He will never, ever, ever fail in his promises. He will keep every promise that he has given in his word. Hearing and obeying the word. How does that come? By believing the sign. That's where it comes. By believing the sign, by believing the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, that the tomb is empty. He has come to life. And you know, when we come out of the grave of our sins, what happens? We enter into the light. That's the verses 33 and 36, right? Living in the light. That's also what's necessary in order to begin to obey God's word. Jesus says in verse 33, no one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on the lampstand, and those who come may see the light. What he's saying here is no one lights a lamp and then you decide, okay, I'm going to put it under my car. What? Or I'm going to put it under my sofa. No, it doesn't make sense. Well, who had the light? The crowds did. Jesus, the light was standing before them, and he was shining. His works shine forth, right? His words were the light, shining brightly. And so who's at fault for them not believing? They are. The light is shining, but they're in darkness because it's their own fault, right? By rejecting Jesus, they're choosing to live in darkness. And to live in darkness means that the search continues, the search goes on. Behind Jesus' strong words, he's making his appeal here. He says, you know, think of Jesus, you know, with his outstretched arms. He says, permit, permit the light to come into your hearts. You don't, don't let there be obstacles in the way. And yeah, thank God he's more powerful by the spirit of God. He removes those obstacles so that we believe. I mean, that's all testimony to the sovereign grace of God in our lives. Likewise today, God does not hide the light. He shines through his word. Christ shines through his word. He shines through the preaching of the word, right? That's his way of of coming into our midst is through the word. It's the power of God unto salvation. That's what converts. That's what changes lives. That's what gives people assurance and security. Oh, you trust the promises of God. He will never fail on those promises. Scripture speaks of those whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the glory of Christ should shine on them. But by coming, by coming to Christ, what happens? You see the light. And by the light, you can see everything else in life. Jesus gives a simple illustration in verse 34. He says, the lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body is full of light. What's that mean? He says, when you have this light, when your eye is good, you can see 2020. You can see where you're going. You can see where you're walking. You can see what you're doing. You can, You can know that you're not going to bump into a door. You can bump into a wall. You'll walk in a way that you'll always be safe. Well, likewise, living in the light of the word, listening, obeying, you begin to discern right from wrong. Oh, this is going to lead to death. Oh, this is going to lead to life. You can discern truth. You can discern truth from error, from falsehood. That's true blessing. True blessing is to be in the truth, is to be in the light. Christ is the one who removes the darkness. He says, do you see? And beautiful thing is he continually removes the blinders from our eyes so that we can see more and more clearly. But the opposite is also true. Jesus says in verse 34, but when your eye is bad or evil, Your body is full of darkness. You don't know where you're going, what you're doing, or everything is sort of aimless. And you're thinking, what's the point of it all? And so Jesus exhorts us in verse 35 and 36 with a therefore. He says, therefore, take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. He says, watch out about this. If you have no concern, he's saying to Krauser, if you have no concern for living in the light, if you have no concern for holiness, if you have no concern for uprightness, you have no concern for obeying the Word of God, don't automatically think you're in the light. He's talking to covenant people here. But it could be darkness. But he says when you believe the sign, he brings you into the light, and you'll have all the light that you need for making decisions, for raising your families, for raising your children, for carrying out your work, for facing the corporate world. you'll have everything you have all the light that you need everything that you need doesn't mean it won't be challenging doesn't mean there won't be struggles all that will be there but he'll give you the light that you need the whole body will be full of light that's when the bright shining light of a lamp gives you light says here so here too Christ holds out his promise you have the light you need to live that blessed life in him a blessed life of of trust and obedience, right? Trust and obey, for there's no other way. One day, it's going to be really bright. No more dark spots, no more darkness. Where is that? In the new heaven and a new earth. The sign will come down with power and glory from the clouds of heaven, right? And full of majesty and awe, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he will usher in his people, all who trust and obey him. into a new heaven, new earth, where there's love, joy, peace for all eternity, not a dark spot. True blessing. Just a couple of applications, encouragements. You know, Jesus is speaking here to people who had the light and said they didn't want it anymore. But we have to remember that there are many today who are coming out of darkness. and coming into the light, coming to Christ. And here we can see Christ's great, great comfort. We're going to sing a verse, a song afterwards, and it says this, anxious and despairing, right? Anxious and despairing. Many walk at night, but those that trust the Lord God, God will send his light. Beautiful words. This is His promise. His grace. Second thing here is, well, we did something for Mother's Day. We made a quick application. We'll make something for fathers too. Okay. Say one little thing here. Fathers, the best gift, the best gift you can give to your children is what? to train your children in the fear of the Lord, to train them to hear the word of God, to keep it. How? By leading them to the sign, that they may believe the sign, to crucify and risen Christ and live in the light of his word. And there is no greater blessing than for a mom and dad to see their boys and girls walking in the way of God's covenant. That is, you talk about blessing, that is the number one blessing, way better than Elon Musk. Elon Musk's 450 trillion or billion dollar, that's nothing. That goes in the garbage can. but sons and daughters, right? Giving praise and thanks to God. Boy, if you boys and girls, you can thank your parents for that, right? You walk in his ways and that is true, true blessing. You have everything you need for your life and all the difficulties and all the hardships in life. God is faithful. God is good. Amen. Let us stand as we sing, but let us first pray also for the Lord's blessing upon the offering that we are about to give.