Well, tonight I want to talk about 1 Samuel, and I know the bulletin says chapter 7, and I say chapter 7, verses 3 and 4. So we're not going to take the whole chapter, just those two short verses. But I'll be honest with you, we're going to spend most of our time somewhere else, many other places throughout the Scriptures, as we try to put this important text into the context of the whole of Scripture. And when we look at 1 Samuel, so many important events happen in the book of 1 Samuel. And right here at the end of chapter 7, we're leading into one of the most pivotal times in Israel's history, where they've been under the judges and they are transitioning into a monarchy. And we all know the events surrounding the monarchy the displeasure with which God met the request of Israel to have a king and to replace him as their king with a human king. So in order to do that, in order to find our place in the whole narrative of the Old Testament, I want to cover the whole narrative of the Old Testament very briefly. How many of you have ever done a walk through the Bible course? All right, some of you are going to know exactly where I'm going with this. I find this outline to be so helpful. I was just thinking about this 13 years ago, and I still remember some of the hand motions and some of the flow of what the Old Testament is about, just because of the key highlights that they give in this walk through the Old Testament. So I'm just going to cover very quickly, even quicker than the very quick manner in which the walk through the Old Testament covers it. So we're going to go fast. But of course the world began with creation and then we get into the fall of man, the flood, and followed with Babel and the dividing of the nations. 4,000 years ago or so, God came to Abraham and gave him his plan, his plan for how the gospel was going to get spread throughout the entire earth. And we know the story as it relates to Sarah and Abraham and Lot, and of course, with Ishmael and Isaac, and then moving on through time into Esau and Jacob. Of course, Joseph ended up down in Egypt And God used that for such a horrible thing in the life of Joseph. He used it for an amazing thing in the life of Israel. And in Israel, and those of you who've been part of the walkthrough courses, you know how important this number is. 400 years is this repetitive number that always seems to find its way into scripture. And so 400 years, the Jews were in Egypt in bondage. Moses said, let my people go. Pharaoh said no. And he didn't let them. So, of course, 10 plagues and the Passover and then the the exodus of Israel through the Red Sea and on to Mount Sinai. And that's where, of course, God gave the law and the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle and covenanted with his people. Interestingly, we're going to come back to this a little bit later. They had forgotten so much from the Red Sea till the time that Moses went up into the mountain and came down. And what were they doing? They were worshiping some other God that they had just fabricated out of gold or using that to replace God. As for this Moses, where did he go? They lost track very quickly of what God had done. God divided and through Leviticus gave us the Levites and priests and the offerings and feasts. There were the twelve spies on the verge of going into the promised land. And they went in and ten were bad, two were good, right? And two were the only ones who were faithful, so of course, the whole of Israel had to be wiped out. except for those two spies, Joshua and Caleb, throughout the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Moses, of course, almost made it into the Promised Land and he died right on the verge of it, just looking in and seeing. And as Moses died, Joshua took over as the leader of Israel and had been told by God to conquer all of the inhabitants of that land and to wipe them out We're going to spend some time covering that tonight and how well that went for Israel. So Joshua crossed the Jordan, went into Jericho, walked around the city a few times, and begun the conquest of the land of Israel and divided and conquered a lot of it, or even most of it. And they settled the land and divided it into their twelve tribes and then God ordained for judges to rule over Israel. And that lasted for how many years? Four hundred years. The judges ruled over Israel. And of course, Deborah and Gideon and Samson and all the other judges and everyone. The key verse there is everyone did what was right in their own eyes and except arguably Ruth and Samuel. And after Samuel, who was the last judge, Samuel appointed his sons to be judges. But I think of him as the last judge. And interestingly, he's not in the Book of Judges, but he is the hero of our story today. And he was the transition point between the judges and the monarchy. And of course, appointing the first king over Israel who was Saul. And I love their description in walk through the Bible, walk through the Old Testament. They describe Saul, the first king of Israel, as having no heart for God. Secondly, the second king of Israel, David, they describe as having a whole heart for God. And the third king of Israel, Solomon, is having half of a heart for God. They each ruled in a different respect as it related to God. Then it didn't take long after David was such a great king and his grandkids wrecked the kingdom. They split it and divided between north and south, ten tribes in the north and two in the south. The kingdom of Israel was divided for how many years? 400 years it was divided. And there were a lot of kings. And there weren't a lot of good kings, right? How many good kings were in the north? Zero. How many good kings were in the south? Eight. Not a great track record over the course of all those kings. And so God came and wiped out Israel. And as Assyria came and destroyed the northern twelve tribes of the country. And God gave a reprieve though. And he allowed them after that destruction of Assyria in 720 to have some time to collect themselves. And yet they weren't able to repent even after seeing all their brothers taken away. And so later Babylon came in 586 and wiped out the southern kingdom. And the people of Israel were taken for 70 years and returned in three ways with Zerubbabel and the temple and Esther. And of course, in the second wave, Ezra and in the third wave, Nehemiah and the walls being rebuilt around the city. And after that, silence. For how long? 400 years. So we really fit into the middle of that whole story of the Old Testament as we look into what God was doing with Israel as an overarching 30,000 foot overview of what God was doing in the life of Israel. And there were some patterns, some patterns that we can pick up on and some patterns that I know I can relate to. And I think we can all relate to good patterns a lot of the time. And so we're going to look at that tonight as well. Before we get into First Samuel, let's let's stop for a pause for a moment and pray. God, we thank you. For the work that you did in the life of the nation of Israel and how you taught them so many things and by extension, You have taught and are teaching us so many things by the way that you interacted with that chosen people. People that you loved and yet people who rejected you. And I pray, Lord, that we would be people who are like David. Who had a whole heart for you. That, Lord, we wouldn't merely be as Solomon was with half a heart for you. Pulled in by the things of the world maintaining something of a relationship with you on the side. Let us be completely and wholly devoted followers of Jesus Christ and, Lord, intent on seeing the Gospel shared and Your name exalted and lifted up. And we thank You in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, interesting facts about the book of Samuel. It was originally Not 1st and 2nd Samuel, it was all one book and it was divided for the sake of being divided onto sheets of paper that weren't long enough to cover the entire book. So they divided it into 1st and 2nd Samuel. Interestingly though, at one point the book of 1st and 2nd Samuel was referred to as 1st and 2nd Kingdoms and what we know as 1st and 2nd Kings was 3rd and 4th Kingdoms. So you had all these four books which really cover the same story of the kings of Israel. And it's broken up the way that we have it today, though, into 1 and 2 Samuel. Samuel, interestingly, the hero of our story, he was a kingmaker. What's better than a king? Someone who God appoints to make a king. You know, Saul and David, they got all the the the honor and recognition of a king. And yet Samuel played such a huge role in the shaping of Israel and God used him not to appoint one king, but to appoint two separate kings and had that significant position of honor as the last judge and the appointer of kings under God's direction. So in that respect, Samuel was even superior to to the kings. Samuel probably did not write the entire book, as a lot of it happened after he died, so he wouldn't have known about those parts. But most scholars agree that he had significant input into at least the first 24 chapters. Samuel covers, as we said, Samuel's ministry and Saul's reign and also David's reigns. David reigned for 40 years, Saul for about 35 years. And Samuel, interestingly, had his life paralleled that of Samson. And so when Samuel was born, Samson was judge over Israel. The link is made very clearly in First Samuel, but it does fit into the timeline of the Old Testament. And so Samuel got to see a lot of different leaders of Israel, one leader before him and two kings after his judgeship was over. Well, God gave instructions of Israel. to go in and conquer the land of Canaan and take it for themselves. The land flowing with milk and honey. This wonderful place that God had decided that they needed to be delivered to out of slavery and bondage in Egypt. And so God gave in Exodus 23 instructions in verses 20 and following. for Israel to conquer the land. Behold, I'm going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice and do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, since my name is in him. But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries." Interestingly, God's Declaration that he will be their adversary is conditional. It's conditional on whether Israel will obey or not. Verse 23, For my angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jejubites, and I will completely destroy them. You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars in pieces. But you shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst." This is a pretty good deal. And all they have to do is obey. Verse 26. There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come. And I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. I will send hornets ahead of you and they will drive out the Hivites and the Canaanites and the Hittites before you. And I will not drive them out before you single year the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field too numerous from you but I will drive them out before you little by little until you become fruitful and take possession of the land and I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines and from the wilderness to the river Euphrates, for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand and you will drive them out before you. You will make no covenant with them or their gods. They shall not live in your land because they will make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare for you." Isn't this a picture of what's to come? Doesn't everything that God says and mentions in a bad way that might happen, doesn't that happen? I don't want to get ahead of myself in an application, but could we say the same thing now? Could God tell us the way that we're going to become ensnared into our sin? The way that we're going to fail? Could we predict it? Will sin become a snare to us if we engage it? and devote ourselves to it, it sure will. Okay, so places not conquered. In Deuteronomy 13, and I'm going to race through some of these places, God says in verse 12 of Deuteronomy 13, if you hear in one of your cities which the Lord God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that some worthless men have gone out from among you and seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, let us go and serve other gods whom you've not known, Then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly if it is true that the matter, the matter established that this abomination is being done among you. You shall surely strike the inhabitants of the city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword. Interestingly, God's Command of destruction isn't just for the Hibbites and the Hittites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites who are worshipping other gods in Israel. It's for anyone, including Israelites, in the land of Israel, who are worshipping false and other gods. God loved Israel, but He had no patience for the worship of other gods. Joshua 13, in the first two verses there say, Now, Joshua was old and advanced in years when the Lord said to him, You are old and advanced in years, and very much of the land remains to be possessed. This is the land that remains all the regions of the Philistines and all those of the Gerashites. And it's interesting. The list goes on and on and on. And God specifically draws out each of the places that had not yet been conquered. And as if, hey Joshua, in case you weren't keeping score or keeping track, I've been keeping track. Here's the list. Your to-do list. It's not done yet. You've gotten a long way. But there's a lot more to do. And God gave them the very specific things that they needed to do. But in Judges 1, we find out that God's getting a little more firm and a little more strong on these commands that hadn't been fulfilled. So Judges 1 and verse 27, But Manasseh did not take possession of Bethshean and its villages and many others. And the Canaanites persisted in living in that land. Verse 28, And it came about when Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely. Verse 29, Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites and the Canaanites lived among them. Verse 30, Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron and the Canaanites lived among them and became subject to forced labor. Interesting. They enslaved the Canaanites. They had full domination over these people. You don't go into forced labor willingly. Not unless, of course, the alternative is death. But the alternative was death. And it should have been death. And Israel, it wasn't that they couldn't defeat these pesky inhabitants of the land. It was that they lusted over the free labor that could be done by these people instead of them. They thought they had a better plan than God had. Verse 31, Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Bacchus. or the inhabitants of Sidon. So the Asherites, in verse 32, lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Naftali, in verse 33, did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, and the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, and became forced labor for them. They became enslaved. Then verse 34, the Amorites forced the sons of Dan into the hill country for they did not allow them to come down into the valley, yet the Amorites persisted in living. But when the power of the house of Joseph grew strong, they became forced labor." Again, this awful practice of disobeying God and replacing partial obedience with a new plan that seems better in the eyes of the creation. Chapter 2, now the angel of the Lord came from Gilgal to Batchim and he said, I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers. And I said, I will never break my commandment with you. And as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars. But you have not obeyed me. What is this you've done? Therefore, I also said, I will not drive them out before you. but they will become thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you. When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. So they named that place Baachim." And there they sacrificed to the Lord. Baachim means weepers. And the people hadn't learned their lesson still. As we get in later in the book of Judges in chapter 13 and verse 1, Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. And that was during the reign of Samson. Philistines come up in Scripture a lot, don't they? They were the arch nemesis of Israel. The constant thorn in the side. And God didn't want that to happen. He gave them the way that they could have full possession of the land. And yet, they did become a thorn in their side. It's amazing when you look back into the history of Israel, and I'm not making any kind of political statement, but it's obvious that Israel has never had rest in their land. Even all the way back to this time. And it was supposed to be a land of rest for them. The book of Hebrews refers to it consistently as a land of rest for the people. And there wasn't rest because of their disobedience. So that brings us to 1 Samuel. And in the chapter before this, the Ark of the Covenant had been stolen by the Philistines. And of course, wherever it went, it wiped out the people in that place. And even when it came back to Israel, it wiped out people who treated it without reverence and looked into it. And God wiped out those people because they didn't worship Him in the way that He had so clearly told them and instructed them to worship Him. So we get to this point and we're coming right up on our passage. 1 Samuel 7, verse 1, And the man of Kirith Jerim came and took the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill and consecrated Eleazar His son to keep track of the ark of the Lord. From the day the ark remained at Kirith-Jerim. The time was long, for it was 20 years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord." And here's where I want to focus for tonight. Then Samuel spoke to the house of Israel saying, if you return to the Lord with your heart, Remove the foreign gods and the Ashtoreth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtoreth and served the Lord alone. That is a wonderful thing and I don't want to take away from that at all. But that is the seventh time that happened in the life of Israel where God said, through His judge or His prophet or whomever. Israel, repent. Take down the high places. Get rid of the Ashtoreth. Stop worshipping the Baals. And I will deliver you from your enemies. And they did. Six times in the book of Judges alone that happens. One time in the book of 1 Samuel. It was an interesting cycle. Apostasy. Oppression. Repentance. deliverance repeat over and over and over again throughout the course of the life of Israel. And it always goes back. What picture does that paint of God? God is a wonderful deliverer. God is a pillar of forgiveness and mercy and grace. What's the picture that it paints of Israel, His chosen people? All the opposite of that. Faithless. And self-centered. In the next chapter, the Lord said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people in regards to what they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. They had asked that there no longer be judges, but that there be kings to judge. And God took that so personally and so strongly. And He told Samuel not to take it hard because it wasn't really directed at him. It was a full-scale attack on the Lord who had delivered them from Egypt, for whom they had repented so many times and who had accepted their repentance and delivered them so many times. And so God says, like all the deeds which they have done, since the day that I brought them up from Egypt, even to this day, in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods, so they are doing to you also." God didn't forget all of the disobedience that had so followed Israel and had so tainted their time Judgeship and even their time from the Red Sea to the land of Canaan, which became Israel. So I've got here a laundry list of Israel's lack of trust in a faithful God. I couldn't think of a better title. This is just a long list of different passages of scripture where Israel rejected God. God had a pretty strong case against Israel, and it started in the book of Exodus. Chapter 14 and verse 11, they said to Moses, is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you've taken us to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt saying, leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in this wilderness. They hadn't gotten very far at that point. Exodus 16, verse 3, Would that we have died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full. For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger. They were hungry and they weren't trusting. God was taking them. Where was Moses taking them? To the land flowing with milk and honey. Far better than anything they had in slavery and bondage in Egypt. Chapter 17 of Exodus and verse 2. Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? Exodus 32 and verse 1. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a God who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him. They were quick to forget they had no loyalty to God. They had no loyalty to Moses. after they had seen amazing things. Ten plagues. The Passover. Their firstborn all being spared of an untimely death in one night, whereas the entire land of Egypt lost all of those children. They walked through the Red Sea on dry land, looked up at walls of water on either side, could undeniably say that they had seen the work of God in the most powerful and vivid way perhaps described in Scripture. And it wasn't that God gave them a pretty good head start against the Egyptians. It wasn't that that was a shortcut. God wiped out the entire Egyptian army right behind them to show that this wasn't some freak act of nature, some bizarre occurrence of the planet but that it was a divinely enacted deliverance from Egypt and a crushing of the Egyptian army, fully delivering them from their enemies. Numbers 14, verses 2-4, all the sons of Israel grumbled, would that we have died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in the wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt. They went pretty far. They tried to break up the assembly and go back. Deuteronomy 9. God answers and says in verse 24 of chapter 9, you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you. And God gives them over to their foolishness. In Judges 2, in verse 2-3, and as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars, but... He was quoting himself. But you have not obeyed Me. What is this you've done? Therefore, I also said, I will not drive them out before you, and they will become as thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you." Judges 2, verses 20 and 21, So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and they have not listened to My voice, I will also no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died. And Judges 4 says, And the sons of Israel did evil, in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. And Judges 6, and the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years. Judges 13, now the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines forty years. Even the Psalms look back and keep track of what Israel had done. Psalm 78. In verse 56, "...yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies, but turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers. They turned aside like a treacherous bow, for they provoked Him with their high places and aroused His jealousy with graven images. When God heard, He was filled with wrath and greatly abhorred Israel." These are a stronger word than abhor. How much stronger is it when you greatly abhor something? God had no kind words for the disobedience of Israel. God hates sin with every part of Him. He hated it. And He abhorred Israel. Psalm 106. I'm sorry, Psalm 95, verse 10, for forty years I loathed that generation and said they are a people who err in their heart and they do not know my ways. Psalm 106, verse 14, But craved intensely in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. So He gave them their requests, but sent a wasting disease among them. When they became envious of Moses in the camp and of Aaron, the Holy One of the Lord, the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan. and engulfed the company of Abraham. And a fire blazed up in their company and the flame consumed the wicked. They made a calf and horrib and worshipped the molten image. Thus, they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God their Savior who had done great things in Egypt." Psalm 106, verse 34. They did not destroy the peoples. And the Lord commanded them as the Lord commanded them. But they mingled with the nations and learned their practices. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons and shed innocent blood. The blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with the blood. Thus, they became unclean in their practices and played the harlot in their deeds. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people and He abhorred His inheritance. And finally, not only in the Old Testament do we find Benjamin in Acts 7. Verse 51, you men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You who received the law as ordained by angels and yet did not keep it." We have a special place in our hearts for the people of Israel. The Jews. And yet, God has no patience. for anyone who rejects Him. Revelation says in hyperbole that all Israel will be saved and that will be a wonderful time. And yet, we should never be deceived into thinking that anything other than the name of Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation. No heritage, no lineage, no father, no ancestry. The only thing unites us with God and saves us from our sin is the precious and atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross, His blood shed for us and His resurrection into eternal life. It's easy to walk far from God, knowing who He is, acknowledging Him, having seen the wonderful and wondrous things that He can do. Have we not all witnessed amazing things? The transformation of a heart is something that I believe only God can do. Completely changing someone through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not as amazing as maybe looking up at the walls of Egypt, at the walls of the Red Sea in Egypt and leaving Egypt. But it's more profound and more important for the believer to see the work of change that God does in each of our lives. Brother and sister, we cannot pretend to be perfect. We glance back at the history of Israel and see that mankind is incapable of perfection. Even God's chosen people. Even people who had every reason to obey. And don't we? Don't we have every reason to obey? Don't we have every reason to believe in the deliverance of God? And sometimes we pretend that we don't sin. Sometimes we pretend that we're immune to temptation. We act as though, well, I'm a Christian. I could never struggle with that thought. I could never buy into that temptation because that's not who I am. Brother and sister, it is who we are. It is who we are to be distracted by so many temptations. And when we pretend that we're not tempted, then we ignore the sin in our life. We put it aside. We bury it. And to do that is to rob Christ of His atoning sacrifice. To say, God, I've got it. I figured it out. I have all that I need. And when we do that, when we pretend that we don't sin and we cover up our own sin, We reject the sacrifice that He gave. Brothers and sisters, we need to embrace the sacrifice of Christ. I need to be quick to acknowledge my sin, to look deep into my soul, find the worst things about me, and love the process because I get to see the glory of Christ every time I see a sin revealed in my heart. I get to ask forgiveness of that sin from God. The reason that Christ came and died and sacrificed His life was for that sin. And He would have done it just for that. Let's not be afraid to expose the places and the hidden places in our hearts and allow the Gospel to work for us each and every day. Pastor Rob talked about stolen thunder this morning. He got right into my thunder for tonight. So he's just passing it right along and I'm probably taking it from the next person in some way tonight. But the gospel is for us as believers as much as it is for any unbeliever. We don't get the gospel and then forget about it. We consistently and constantly need to apply the gospel of Jesus Christ into every nook and cranny of our life. I want to close with a quote from Ephesians. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him, in love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ Himself according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. Let's pray. God, we thank You for the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and for the transforming power of Your Word. Lord, let us not get caught up in endless cycles of false repentance, of emotional repentance, Lord, which seeks to repent on our own power. But Lord, let us embrace the work that You have fully done, admitting our sin and vowing not to do it again. Lord, being convicted about the hatred that you have for our sin. It's not a reason to hide it, but to expose it. To give it over to you. To embrace forgiveness and the salvation that Jesus Christ worked so hard for. I pray that we would never attempt to share or show others that we're perfect, but that we would always be models of imperfection, showing that Lord, the only good thing that can happen in our lives has happened because of Your perfection. That's the Gospel. And that's the message that the world needs to know. Not that we're better than them. Not that we're different in any other way than except that we bear the name of Jesus Christ. And we want to share that with them. God, let us all have a heart of evangelism. as we go out and share the truth. And Lord, let us have a heart of repentance that's convicted and convinced of our own sin, transparent with it, and ready to seek forgiveness every time we do. God, we thank You in Jesus' name, Amen.