Now I want to continue the reading of chapter 2 in Hebrews. I'm going to start at verse 10. This is our next section of this book that we're going to look at, continuing what was said above. Verse 9, which ends that section, lets us know that we don't see everything under Jesus' authority when we look around right now, but we see Him, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus. We see Him crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone, dying for us. Death is a penalty that It lies upon every human being who is lost without Jesus. Death comes to us. And we're not talking now about the first death. We're all going to die in the first death if Jesus tarries. If He doesn't, then we'll meet Him in the air, but that's good. But the second death now we're going to miss if we're in Christ Jesus. He saves us from it. by taking the death that we deserved, paying the price for our sin, making it possible for us to stand before God and be accepted in the beloved Son. He's the one who took our place, made it possible for that to happen. Verse 10, For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, and bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. Make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children God has given me. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest." Now we're going to hear that word, that name, high priest, a lot in the next few chapters, because we're just now getting the first mention of it in the text. But it is Jesus, the Christ, who will who will be the high priest that matters. And we're going to see a lot of that. "...so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." Let me read another translation Just listen to these words. They're very similar to that one, but I want you to hear the variations. "'In bringing many sons to glory, it was appropriate that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the champion who secured their salvation perfect through suffering. For the one who consecrates human beings and those whom he consecrates are all of one origin. That is why Jesus does not blush to call them his brothers. When he says, I will declare your name to my brothers in the presence of the congregation, I will praise you. He also says, I will trust him. And furthermore, here am I and the children whom God has given me. Since the children have a mortal human nature, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil. and liberate those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For, of course, it is not angels that he takes hold to help, but Abraham's descendants. This means that it was essential for him to be made like these brothers of his in every respect, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation with regard to the sins of the people. Because He Himself suffered death, having been put to the test, He is able to help those who are being tested." You followed that perfectly, I know, right? Right alongside the other text. Good. It's interesting when you begin to read this text to realize that Jesus had to be made ready. for the work that He was coming to do. He had to suffer in the same kind of testing positions that we all go through. It was the Father's plan for Jesus to come and suffer and die in order that the many sons He determined to bring to glory could be brought along through Jesus' work. It was the love of God that put the plan together, because there was no other place to go in order to have a Redeemer who could redeem people and a high priest who could make it possible for them to stand before God acceptably in Himself and bring a sacrifice, a praise. Christ's suffering was planned by God. And we get the great heart of God in this. It's the love of God that makes possible a redemption. And it is the Son of God who yields to the Father's plan in order that we might have salvation and be completely and totally free from the wrath of God. All seen in some of these verses. The Creator and Sustainer of all things in the universe directs His Son along a path of suffering, And he's in pursuit of a goal for mankind. He's going to bring many sons into glory. Many sons in the glory. The many sons that he's talking about here that he's glorifying are the human beings who will be restored from the effects of the fall, finally. And will be achieved by the captain. Notice that in the translation I read, it's captain. not the ESV. Now the ESV is, or it was champion actually in the other one, but in the ESV it is founder. Let me give you a little background on all of that. You'll have a text that says something. Does anybody have a different word for the captain or the founder or the author in that first verse? Anybody? In verse 10, it is fitting that He for whom and by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation, the founder of their salvation perfect, complete through suffering. champion is an interesting one the only way i remember champion anymore as we grace and i uh... what's these veterinary shows out of the that the bbc produced uh... reaching back into the forties fifties uh... thirties whatever it was when the vet doctor harriet was taking care of things over in in england and great characters very simple great characters and every once in a while you'll find a kid or an adult and they'll say something about it, looks like he's going to be okay. Champion! That's champion! Anybody notice that? Ever see that? You know the English talk like that in certain parts of England? Champion! That's champion! All that means is, that's good! So champion, if you're going to refer to it as a word for good, it wouldn't be the best word, would it? We're champions in America when we're winners! We run and we win. Whatever we do, we win. We are the champs. Jesus didn't just win. Champions, for me, is not the best word. I think author is perfect. I like that one. Originator is basically what He was. He was making a way for us to be saved, making a way for God to bring a bunch of people into the kingdom through His Son who has spoken to us in these last days and is doing that work in us. It's got to be achieved by the founder or the captain or the champion or the leader or the pioneer. All those words are used in the Scriptures. And Jesus the Son became a trailblazer in respect to salvation. He opened up the way to God in heaven. He opened up the way for men and women to enter into the presence of God as a part of His family. Made a way, made it possible for us to get there. And there is no suggestion in any of this that Jesus had defects. Although when you read it you might think that's what's here. For it was fitting that He for whom and by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. I think that's a lot of the time what He does in us. That He works on us in the hard place to shape us more and more into the image of His Son. And sometimes, because we don't like that, we miss out on the growth associated with it, because we don't want anything to do with suffering, because that can't be helpful. Well, Jesus suffered in order that we might be saved, that He might save us, actually. We follow Jesus, and Jesus didn't have any dross that had to be pulled out of Him. You know that, right? Jesus didn't have anything in Him that had to be pulled out. He didn't have anything in His heart that was contaminated and anything in His body that was contaminated. He was here for a purpose and He was without sin. No defect at all. So what in the world is He saying when He said He had to be kind of Completed. Let me read it again to get it just right. "...which made the founder of their salvation perfect." Mature? No, not quite. Perfect? Complete? What's it talking about? In order for Him to do what He was going to do, He had to be equipped to walk in that place. Death was going to come. He had to go to the cross. To get there, He had to walk through all those things He suffered. He had to deal with every temptation. That was God's plan. If He's going to help me in my temptation, He's going to have been through the temptation and will know what I feel and how to help me. Somebody said, I don't think God cares. Yeah, God cares. He may be letting you sit and stew for a while, but He cares. You ever had to sit and stew for a while? I'm the only one sitting there, aren't I? Yeah, everybody else said, I'm complete already. It's great. Perfect through suffering. I'm glad He suffered for us, and I agonize with some of that when I read it. When I think of the cross, that place, the highest act of man took place in that place. That was love. That was God's love and full sacrifice in the person of Jesus Christ. That was an amazing love. I didn't deserve any of that, did you? Did we deserve to be redeemed? Did we deserve to be His? No, it's not about desert. It's not about deserving. It's about love, the love of God that reaches out to sinners. And He had a plan to bring many sinners, many sons into glory, to glorify human beings in His kingdom and make them His children. And Jesus had no defects, nothing that was necessary to get out of Him. He was simply learning to obey God to the end. Let me read something. Chapter 5, Hebrews 8 and 9. We'll run into this pretty quick. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. and being made perfect there we are again in verse nine of chapter five and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him being designated by god a high priest here we go after the order of Melchizedek we have brother Melchizedek here Melchizedek I like your spelling the way your name is spelled He learned obedience by what he suffered. What was he doing? He was obeying the Father. You know how Jesus said it, I don't do anything except it's the Father's will. I do today, I get up today and I do what the Father wants. I say what the Father wants. I don't operate on my own. I'm here with a purpose. I can't go off on a track somewhere and think that I'm doing God's business when I'm doing my own. We're good at this. We're good at planning something and then asking God to bless it. We're not sure He wanted it, but we're certainly wanting it blessed, aren't we? You have to start with asking God what He wants and then taking one step. He's not going to give you the whole plan. He's going to teach you to walk by faith and not by sight. He's going to teach you to keep loving Him when it doesn't look like He's there. He's going to teach you that when it's finally over, you are going to be I still need a little help with that, don't you? Some areas I think every once in a while, you know, I've grown up here a little bit. And then the next day or so I get a chance to realize I hadn't grown quite enough. Something happens, something changes, and I'm just whacked one more time. It is the qualification for his entry into the high priesthood that he has to be prepared for. He has to obey God. Both the priest who sets apart the people and the people who set apart must be all of one. That's what we get in verse 11. For he who sanctifies, that is, he who makes holy or he who sets apart, and those who are sanctified, those who are holy and set apart, all have one source. are, to put it simply the easiest way in the Greek is, are all of one. Meaning that it is the Father out of which all this comes. Some translations say it that way. That we all have the same Father. We, the one who's reaching out and changing the lives of those who are coming in and the ones that are coming in, all holy, by the same life, by the same life, Father. He came to sanctify believers as their priest, which is what Jesus will come to do. And the humiliation involved in His becoming one of them and dying for them didn't stop Him. He's suffering one with them. His suffering is one with them and for them had been prophesied. I like this beautiful statement in verse 11, He is not ashamed to call them brethren. those who are sanctified, set apart. Were they perfect? No. No, He's being equipped. That's what the perfect part of that is for Jesus. Those that are following have to be changed. We have to have, with our heart changed, a lot of other changes shape us to fit the plan. If He quits, we're in trouble, but He won't. He's going to get us all the way home. He's going to get us there as His, and it's going to be glorious. He's not ashamed to call them brethren. You know, if you check out even the line out of which Jesus came, murderers, adulterers, liars in His family line, All you've got to read is the genealogy. Jump in there at Matthew, if you like that part. Go back to Luke, get that one. Take a look at both ends of it. And when you look at it, you're going to realize, hey, there's some characters in here! Didn't he get contaminated? No, that's the amazing thing about his birth. God preserved a virgin. Now, this I believe. Now, people are doing away with that idea of the virgin bearing a child, but when you do that, you lost a lot in Scripture. I believe it. And you know, when we get it as a little kid, it's a lot easier to hold on to. I'm so thankful for the growing up days because when they told me the stories, I said, yes, sir, that sounds like God. And at the time that started, I never had a... I hadn't really said anything about belonging to God. I just listened to the teacher and read those stories and walked around in the woods at home and said, somebody did it. Somebody made this. I knew where the flying squirrels were. I knew where the deer were. I knew where all the fences went. I could walk for miles and did. And I thought as a little boy, there's a God that made all this. This is not... Of course, we weren't hearing quite as strong a message about evolution. In fact, we weren't hearing it at all at school. The first guy that came to our school to teach evolution, or to even be an evolutionist, almost got run out of town. And that's in Tombaugh. Gold! Now, since that was my school days. But it's amazing how God does His work through His Son, preparing Him, equipping Him to be the High Priest, preparing Him, equipping Him to make us what He wanted out of us, to lead us as His while we're in this world and all the way home. Wow, we've got a life to live, a job to do, a place to be as we live this for Jesus. What a beautiful statement, he's not ashamed to call them brethren. He was not ashamed of all those hoodlums in his lineage. He was thankful for the brothers who were coming in, bringing many sons to glory. as is stated, God shaping their lives. They weren't perfected and they weren't holy looking sometimes, but they were in. I'm glad he identified with us. The first part is about the perfection or the equipping of the high priest in this brief text. The second part of it is the fact that there's a brotherhood in the context of the story surrounding Jesus, that we are one with Him, that we are in Him and His Spirit dwells in us. We are His. He is our Savior and our Lord and our Redeemer. And He's God and He's man. Here's how Hebrews started. I want to give this to you just briefly one more time. We're going to get far enough away from it in another week. I won't go back to it maybe. But in the third verse of chapter one, he's the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature. He upholds the universe by the word of His power, makes purification for sin. He appointed the heir of all things. He created the world. That's the one we're talking about at the beginning of this book. Wow! Sounds like God, doesn't it? Well, He never quit being God. He's just a God who was prepared for Him was a body, and He's going to be around as man from now on. I used to hear that, and I thought, no, it can't be. He's not going to do that, surely. Two nature teaching here, God and man. Like someone said, you know, it may not be, it's probably not fully God and fully man, it's probably really God and really man. Really? Yes! He sits on the throne at the right hand of the Father, looks like a man. He took with Him what He had taken upon Him. in coming into this earth as a Savior and Redeemer. He took that up on Him. When He hung on the cross, He cried out when He recognized the Father wasn't there for a moment, or however long it was. He said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He never had that. In the intimacy of the triune God, there's marvelous stuff going on there. That's what we have with Jesus. I can't explain how we read the Bible in different, understand the Son and the Father and all of that. I don't try to. I just say when the Son shows up, the Father's here. And the Father is always planning the plan, doing the plan, doing it through the Son, doing it through the Holy Spirit, doing it by the power of His Word. Why hast Thou forsaken Me? Now that's the first verse of Psalm 22. Now let me give you the 22nd verse of Psalm 22. Listen to this. I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you." This reference is to the very Messiah who had come, the one who was coming to save us. And here we can say, of that Messiah becoming High Priest, He said, I want to get with those brothers of Mine who are not perfect. Father, God, the one you cried out to and said, You've forsaken me in the first part of the psalm, it's recorded now in the 22nd verse and forward. He's saying clearly, this is what I want to say to you. I'm going to tell your brethren about you. I'm going to reveal to your people who you are. I'm going to stand up for you. I'm going to sing in the congregation with them. Oh, by the way, that's what's recorded right here in the second chapter. In verse 12, "...I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation, and I will sing your praise." That is the reference that comes in right here. "...Not ashamed to call them brothers, saying..." Puts it right in the mouth of Jesus. saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation, and I will sing your praise." Years ago I preached a series on worship that had to do with Jesus being the worship leader! And He stood among His brothers and sisters, and He sang praises to Almighty God. The high priest does that! The high priest is the one who takes the blood once a year into the Holy of Holies, pours it out there above the mercy seat. The blood of animals is what it was until now, or until Jesus sat on the throne. And now the animal blood is no good, because the one who offers the blood without contamination has come and died and spilled blood. And if we could get our minds shaped around it, we could see ourselves lifted up every Sunday morning into the presence of the living God, and we could behold the Lamb of God's leading worship, recognizing that these are His sheep, and He's the High Priest, and the blood that's been poured out is not a goat or a sheep, but a man's who came from God to do just that. Beginning with 22, the lament of the psalm is followed by words of thanksgiving. The same Jesus that lamented His abandonment by God while on the cross bearing our sins is seen in this psalm, a messianic psalm, by the way, 22. praising God for deliverance in the middle of His brethren, praising God out of the middle of His brethren. Now, we're not here today trying to be any way but open to the Lord. But what I want us to understand is that His people, the seed of Abraham, and the seed of Abraham, when you follow it out, is not just from the Jewish community, but from the Gentiles as well. We too, in Christ, are the seed of Abraham. And whenever we get together and we worship Him, He's in the midst of us. He's the leader who lifts us right into the presence of God. He has no limitation. No sin. Here's the next thing that he has placed in his mouth in verse 13. Here is Jesus, or the high priest himself, saying, I will put my trust in Him. This comes from Isaiah. Isaiah, in that eighth chapter of Isaiah, makes a statement about his trust in God. He's the prophet that nobody wants to listen to. Did you understand that Isaiah got to preach for forty years or so, or more, and NOBODY LISTENED? Well, they listened. They just didn't repent. He knew it was going to be that way, and he gave us some of those great prophetic words that have to do with the coming Messiah and the fulfillment of that, and marvelous parts of Isaiah all along the way. But Isaiah declares, in the middle of a people who will not declare it, Isaiah declares a trust in God. And that's what Jesus does when He's with His brethren. He determines to trust in God. Now, let me give you a little background to this, because the next part of it is, "...Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given Me." That's in verse 13 as well. Down again, here's the first thing they put in the mouth of Jesus, and the second thing is, I'll put my trust in Him, verse 13, and again, Behold, I and the children God has given me, all in the mouth of Jesus. Ah! Oh, by the way, if you go back and look at Isaiah, there's a warning about an Assyrian invasion coming. Nobody pays attention. They're not going to repent. They're not going to trust God. They're not going to listen to Isaiah. But Isaiah has in his arsenal, his preaching is there. He has his children. Oh, I like their names. Isaiah is not too difficult. That's Yahweh, Jehovah's salvation. Jehovah's salvation is the name of Isaiah. That's a preaching, isn't it? Every time they say Isaiah, they're going to be saying that God is salvation, the God they're not listening to. And then there is the next son, or whatever this person is, a son or a daughter, son I think, Shear Yashub. How do you like your child's name? You know, a name like that would be good, wouldn't it? Can't you just hear yourself calling them for dinner or something? That means a remnant will return. promise of a remnant and they haven't been carried away yet. But they're going to be. That's how God works. God's timing is so different from ours. I got to thinking about this this morning early. God took a lot of time to get that Messiah in place, didn't He? I mean, the fall of man was in that first beautiful garden God put them in. At the very beginning And then we got all these stories right through Noah. Man, what a great day that was. Only eight people able to get in the boat. And Noah was the worthy one. Probably his kids needed help. But it just keeps on going. You get Job down the line sometime during that period of time. I don't know when exactly, but you got all this stuff all through the Bible. Then you come to the New Testament. You know how long it took just to get the New Testament part done? just to get Him where He needed to be, just to bring redemption to humankind, where they could trust in Jesus and have their sins washed away by the blood of the Lamb. And the beauty of how God did it through His Son's death and the shedding of blood is this, you cannot be prepared for eternity by a fiat of speech. You're not able to stand up as God and say, I forgive your sin, no problem, go on in. Nope, you still got a contamination. It had to be a blood-washed reality and the blood could not be contaminated and it had to be a person without sin and it had to be one who could please God Himself. Only Jesus. Only Jesus. A remnant will return. Oh, here's the last name for you, Meher Shalahashbath. Meher Shalahashbath means speed plunder, hasten the prey, spoil speeds. These are Isaiah's kids. their sermons to a people who won't believe that what's been prophesied is true. And the professing Jewish Christians who were in danger of rejecting the Son when Jesus came along were to look to the meaning of His name, Jesus, Savior! He's the Savior of man. And the Son And His children, those mentioned in verse 13, Behold, I and the children God has given me are those who put their trust in the Lord. The head of the church and those who believe in Him, trust in the Lord. Trust Him, no matter how many, no matter when. We're still trusting in the Lord, aren't we? People are still coming to trust in the Lord for their salvation. And if you're not His, I don't think you really just want to play around with that. I know we always use things that soften that, but let me just not soften it today. If you do not know Jesus, you have not surrendered to Him, or if you claim to know Him and you're living like the devil, you better start looking at your life. Because we will give an account to God, and people are saying, I think it's the end time coming. Well, if it is, I think it's time to get ready, don't you? We have to do that. We have to think about that. if we want to be right with God. So when I look at these list of things, I will tell, I will sing, I will put my trust in. Behold, I am the children God's given me. That's what we're going to do. We're going to trust God. We're going to have our life yielded to Him. Everything necessary to becoming high priests, Jesus yielded to. He had to step into the full orbed reality of the human condition. He had to be willing to be the man. Had to be. Oh, and Jesus, when he came, had a purpose that included destroying the devil's work, which it says right here in these texts. In the 14th verse, "...since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things." Flesh and blood. The next part of that says this, "...that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil." Don't give the devil so much credit. He's marked. He's been defeated. He's overcome. He still operates because we fear or because we are so lackadaisical about dealing with our relationship to God. We're not cultivating any kind of intimacy that builds strength in us or gives us the ability to obey. But the devil is done. When you get through all the rebellions in Revelation, the last warfare, where does he go? Into the lake! Burns, fire and brimstone. The great dragon is done! I kind of like walking hidden under the arm of Jesus, don't you? I see those western pictures and some guy's got his, you know, puts his gun back like that. Oh, man, as a kid, I loved that. I was quick. And then when I was pastoring here, the first time I met some couple, a man and his wife, who were the state champion fast draw experts. They got the gun out and shot so fast I didn't even see the hand move. It was unbelievable. And though I was just the pastor instead of a little kid, I acted probably like a little kid. You know, I liked it. Do it again! Do it again! It's better just to walk under the arm of Jesus Just to walk up close and say, Lord, I trust you. I believe you. I thank you for your redemption. I thank you that you're coming again. I thank you that we do not lose. I thank you that even now, though we're struggling and figuring out things, we are not alone. We're not. Came to destroy the devil's work. Now, here's one point that I wanted to make before I run out of time and I'm close. Well, I don't think we need it. We better not. We'll be out there too far if I go that way. By the high priest's sacrifice and position now, we're covered by the blood. The mercy seat, that's propitiation. The mercy seat was sprinkled with blood. When our high priest went in, it was with his own blood to satisfy the wrath associated with sin and the blood that was pure. He could do that. This one who wore our nature back into the throne room, human nature. His true humanity is real as His deity. Came as man, ascended to heaven as man, and intercedes for us. It's coming again. Now when you see Him and I see Him, if He looks like He does at the opening of Revelation, it's not going to be exactly like man you expect. Eyes like fire, Judgment hanging on the boots, feet, bronze. Looked like an overcoming warrior. He is that. For us, He's compassionate, faithful in His high priestly work. He doesn't leave us out of it once He's made us His. That's the beauty I like about it. Propitiation is this, according to John Owen. Now, John Owen's hard to read, and has a long set of books, and I've read pieces of it, but I haven't devoured them all. I haven't devoured the pieces. I just chewed on them a little bit. But it's great material. And he talked about propitiation, and in the use of the word, he said, this is always understood. Number one, first, there is an offense. To need propitiation, there has to be an offense of some kind, some debt, some guilt, whatever, maybe all put together. Secondly, there has to be a person offended, someone offended, someone that has to be atoned for, reconciled, pacified. Thirdly, there has to be a person doing the offending, a person who needs to be pardoned and accepted. And finally, he said, number four, you have to have a sacrifice, because the offender can't do it. The offended can't do it. It takes a sacrifice in between. And that's true, propitiation has to do not just mere forgiveness, but with satisfying the wrath of God. What? Does God have anger? It's not like anger like we think of anger. It's like sin being unacceptable in the kingdom. It's like sin marking a life, cannot go in with it, cannot live with it, it's not going to stay. You have offended holiness! And we're dealing with God. The blood of the Lamb. The blood of Jesus satisfies, satisfies that steady, sure wrath that comes there in your life. Satisfies. What happens is that the wrath that comes from the sin In your life, I remember when it started in mine, is placed on Jesus. Why? Because God's Son was willing to go down, come down to this earth and take our place as sinners. And the sin is dealt with in Him. His death is sufficient. His resurrection and newness of life justifies us, raised for our justification. It is not only the death that counts, it's the resurrection that counts, so that we are justified before a holy God just as if we had never sinned against Him. We had, we did, but God had provided a way through His Son. that we would no longer have the specter of death in front of us. And that's why in some of this scripture, and I don't have time to get into it, it is made clear that there's a bunch of people in the earth unsaved, do not know God, who are afraid of death. Is it still as bad as it used to be, you think? You know, back in the days when people didn't have a lot of information about what was out there. There was a lot of things that went on in regard to the end of your life or death. There was so much fear. Now a person is either afraid when death is approaching and they have no hope, or they stay so busy and so loud and so aggressive they don't have to deal with it. That's in our day. There's so much you can entertain. You can almost make your conscience sleep. Why do you keep doing what's wrong? Well, I think about it. You know, all week long, and certainly last night, this morning, I thought about what a privilege it is to belong to Jesus. To roll out of bed in the morning and know This is not me in charge. This is Jesus in charge of me. I want to yield to that. I want to know Him with the intimacy that He brings to bear on our lives. How about you? Beautiful life in Him. Just get up, kind of let His arm be over you and walk with Him a little bit. Sense His presence. Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you for your presence with us today. That's what matters in this place, is that you are here. And when you work in our hearts and our lives, we are not the same. We're not the same as we were when you lift us up and let us go, sending us back out into our workplace and our life place. We're not the same. We who once tasted and saw that you We're so good. Continue to draw near in order to know You better as You work in us. May it continue. May You make us and of us what You want. Get glory from we folks who have learned to love You without ever seeing You face to face. It's as if we know You and we do. And best of all, Lord, is the understanding that you know us. Oh, to know that you know us. You know our temptations, you know our struggles, you know our needs, and you walk there. In our temptations, you come alongside to encourage us in the walk. Thank you for all of that. Bless your people, work in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.