Principle Lesson Text this morning is from 1 Chronicles chapter 28. If you're using your own Bible, you can find the Psalms and go back a few books. If you're using the Bible in your seats, you'll find that on page 306. I'll give you a moment to find that so that you can follow along as I read. First and second Chronicles covers the time of the kingship in Israel, from the time of Saul, the first king, through to the last king, and at the end of 2 Chronicles we approach the end of first Chronicles, which ends with the death of David in chapter 29. The last thing David did in his life was gather and make all the preparations necessary for the building of the temple and he hands the kingship off to Solomon with his charge to Solomon to build the temple with his strength and might and to the charge with the charge of the people to do the same. As David has assembled all these people together, he charges Solomon and the people to build the temple and to follow his son Solomon. And there we go, that begins chapter 28 of 1 Chronicles, we'll begin in verse 1. This is God's Word, eternally true, 1 Chronicles 28. David summoned all the officials of Israel to assemble at Jerusalem. The officers over the tribes, the commanders of the divisions and the servicemen, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. Any officials in charge of all the property and livestock belonging to the king and his sons together with the palace officials, the mighty men, and all the brave warriors. King David rose to his feet and said, listen to me, my brothers and my people, I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord for the footstool of our God. And I made plans to build it, but God said to me, you are not to build a house for my name because you are a warrior and have shed blood. Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me for my whole family to be king over Israel forever. He chose Judah as leader and from the house of Judah he chose my family and from my father's sons. He was pleased to make me king over all Israel of all my sons and the Lord has given me many. He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me, Solomon, your son is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving and carrying out my commands and laws as is being done at this time. So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and of the assembly of the Lord and in the hearing of our God be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance dear to your descendants forever. And you my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father and serve him with whole hearted devotion and with a willing mind for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now for the Lord has chosen you to build a temple as a sanctuary, be strong and do the work. Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its store rooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms, and the place of the tonement. He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the Lord and all the surrounding rooms for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things. He gave him instructions for the divisions of the priests and Levites and for all the work of serving in the temple of the Lord as well as for all the articles to be used in its service. He designated the weight of gold for all the gold articles to be used in various kinds of service and the weight of silver for all the silver articles to be used in various kinds of service, the weight of gold for the gold lampstands in their lamps, with the weight for each lampstand in its lamps. The weight of silver for each silver lampstand in its lamps, according to the use of each lampstand. The weight of gold for each table for consecrated bread, the weight of silver for the silver tables, the weight of pure gold for the forks, sprinkling bowls, and pitchers, the weight of gold for each gold dish, the weight of silver for each silver dish, and the weight of the refined gold for the altar of incense. He also gave him the plan for the chariot, that is, the charibum of gold that spread their wings and shelter the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this, David said, I have in writing, from the hand of the Lord upon me, and he gave me understanding in all the details of the plan. David also said to Solomon his son, be strong and courageous and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you into all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. The divisions of the priests and Levites are ready for all the work in the temple of God, and every willing man skilled in any craft will help you in all the work. The officials and all the people will obey your every command. Hereins are reading, let's now respond in thankfulness to the Lord. We have a written response in your bulletin of thankfulness. The word of the Lord, thanks indeed, let's pray, our Father, we are grateful to you for your word. We're grateful that you haven't just left us to try to figure things out out of our own minds and hearts, for we have sinful minds and hearts and we need an objective standard that teaches us about you, who you are. What you have done for us, and how we are to respond and live, how we are to respond and live not only for our good, but for your glory, how we are to live our lives so that we have satisfaction through following you. We ask, Lord, now, Jesus, that you would preach to us through your word and spirit that you would give us understanding, and we ask that, Jesus, in your name, amen. Have you ever had the quality of your life or the result of something that you really needed or wanted or would have made your life very good, depends on one person or one thing, something specifically happening with that one person or one thing. We all know this from growing up, whether it was just our Father or just our mother or both parents working, the quality of our lives as kids in terms of material things were dependent on that person, the breadwinner, for those of you who are Star Wars fans, I think of the Phantom Menace, the first prequel episode one of Star Wars, and there is this scene where it were Qui-Gon, who is a Jedi knight, played by Liam Neeson, I always get mixed up, is it Neeson? Is that right? Played by Liam Neeson, who, by the way, I think is one of the most admirable characters in the whole, in the whole, what would you call that, a sexology series, thank you. That works. Six, five of which that have been made, two trilogies, thank you, Allison. He comes and he lands on Tatooine, which is later the land that Luke grows up in, and his space cruiser has come in need of repair, you can't get off Tatooine unless he has certain parts, so he goes into this town and he goes to a parts dealer who is kind of like this horse fly kind of animal thing, and this guy has this part but the part is too expensive and the Jedi tricks of, you know, this will be enough, do not work on this planet, and so what Liam Neeson comes to, Qui-Gon comes to is that he finds out that the people here on this planet are betting people, and so what he does is he bets everything on this one little boy, you see there's a race coming up, and this little boy likes to race these vehicles, where are they called, pods, yes, pods, and they race these pods, and this little boy Anakin Skywalker, he finds out it comes to be the father of Luke, Anakin has Jedi reflexes which allow him to see things before they happen, just split second before they happen, so they can race these pods without fear which go at incredible speeds without fear of running into things, and Qui-Gon bets everything, he bets his space cruiser and his fate, it's whether he has to be stranded on this planet or whether he gets this part on Anakin Skywalker, if Anakin wins this pod race then Qui-Gon gets the parts and the freedom of Anakin, if Anakin loses, then according to this bet the space cruiser goes over to this parts dealer and Qui-Gon is left stranded on Tatooine, everything, the blessing so to speak, the well-being of Qui-Gon knows who are with him, Queen Amidala is with him, rests on Anakin and his pod race, this passage we see something similar, nothing to do with Star Wars, but a similar principle, the principle that everything are a blessing, the blessing that any person could hope to receive being in the favor of God relies on one thing, not a pod race, but one person, who is that person, is it of dad, a mom, a wife, or husband, sometimes we can think that in our lives, we can think that my life will really be good if I have this one thing, maybe it's this one kind of house or this one kind of car, or if you're not married, this girlfriend or this boyfriend, if I have that person in my life will be good, my life will be blessed, or if I have this particular job, my life will be blessed, but this passage points us to something deeper, and what it says to us, what God says to us this morning, your point number one, if you like to follow along in an outline, you're welcome to do that this morning, you don't have to, but it's there for you, if you like, God says to us this morning, first of all, that our blessing, that our ultimate quality of life, the deep down quality of our life is dependent upon Jesus. This passage speaks this to us, God speaks to us, in this passage to alert us to this fact, that our blessing, that our deep down quality of life is dependent upon Jesus. We see in this passage that Solomon King over God's people, has a number of stipulations placed upon him by David, stipulation is something that's a law, you do this, and then this happens. If you have a bank loan from for a car, if you keep making payments, you can eventually get the title to this car, that's the stipulation, you have to keep making these payments. If you don't keep making these payments, we'll send our guy out at 3.30am and he will tow your car away. It'll be repossessed. There are a number of stipulations that face Solomon that will determine not only blessing for Solomon, but blessing for the people of God who are under Solomon's kingship. Look in your your Bibles to chapter 28 where we are looking to verse 7. God says, I will establish His kingdom forever, if here's the stipulation, if he is unswerving, unswerving and carrying out my commands and laws. Look down the verse 8, David charges Solomon in the side of all Israel and of the assembly of the Lord and in the hearing of God himself, here's the stipulation. Be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God. If you do, you will possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever. In other words, I won't exile you. If you as king are careful to obey all my laws and commands, then you'll be able to stay here in the land of promise and the land is flowing with milk and honey and you'll continue to be at peace. Verse 9, more stipulations. David says, in you my Son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your Father, this expression in the days of Solomon across from nation to nation that's acknowledging your God and other nations that were false God and they've spoken in these terms of acknowledging their God. It meant an acceptance of the covenant stipulations placed upon the king. David says to his Son Solomon, here, acknowledge that there's stipulations here that God is in covenant with you to be your Father and for him to be your Son and if you obey his decrees, his laws, that you will be blessed. David says that to Solomon, acknowledge the God of your Father and serve him or worship him, same word, with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind. Skip down until the next sentence there. If you seek him, if you seek the Lord, he will be found through you but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Stipulations here, the extent of whether the kingship would stay with Solomon or be passed on to one of his descendants or even one of his brothers in the line of David, were dependent upon Solomon's particular obedience to the Lord. The kingship would remain in the house of Judah and the house of David but whether Solomon participated in the blessings of it, depended upon Solomon's obeying the laws of God and if Solomon didn't obey these things, there would be bad consequences for the people as he obeyed these things, God's people would be blessed. So David says to him, be strong and do the work. If Solomon failed, he could wind up forsaken and rejected the king over Israel. If he fulfilled the stipulations, the commands, the universe eight, look there, the land would be possessed, the good land would be possessed by Solomon and Israel and they'd be able to pass it on as an inheritance to their descendants forever. The end of verse 11, if Solomon fulfilled the stipulations, the temple and the place of atonement would be an experience that the people of God would be allowed to have. Why was this important? Because just like us as God's people, they were people of sin. We sin every day, they sinned every day. God was going to establish the temple under Solomon, and the place of atonement, inside the temple where they offered sacrifices as an atonement for sin, that is as a covering for sin. The blood of the atonement sacrifices would be placed over the ark of the covenant and the holy of holies. The ark of the covenant contained in it three things were told in the book of Hebrews, it contained the rod of Aaron, symbolizing God's leadership, it contained a jar of mana, symbolizing God's provision for his people, and it contained the copy of the ten commandments, symbolizing God's law and God's rule over his people. All of these things, the people of God rejected, they rejected and complained about the mana, they rebelled against Aaron and Moses and the wilderness, and they broke his laws, building the most pointedly, building a calf and worshiping an idol. The ark of the covenant was a reminder by its contents that God's people remain a sinful people in need of atonement, in need of forgiveness, and when these sacrifices of atonement would be made, the blood of this animal would be placed over the top, over the lid of the ark of the covenant. And the cherubim above that are referenced here, looking down, gold cherubim, looking downward upon the lid of the ark of the covenant, when that blood went across that cover, then that symbolized to the people that God no longer would see their sin, that their sin against his leadership and against his law and against his provision would be covered.
Because God declared, and as we talked about three or four weeks ago, God blesses his people based in large part, maybe the chief thing God blesses his people for is a commitment and intensity about worship. And God's people were intense, intense about worship, he blessed them greatly. And when they treated worship as an option, well, they opted out of the promised land, they were exiled. So God's people needed the temple in the place of atonement, and they would be enabled to stay there with the temple in place of atonement based upon the faithfulness of the king over God's people. Now what in the world does this have to do with us today? Solomon's not living? So how does this apply? Well, we have a different king today. We still have a king, it's not George W. Bush, it's not Solomon, it's not David, our king, the king in the head of the church is Jesus. We are still people with a king, as God's people during the days of Solomon were people with a king, and God stipulations to Solomon stand for our king too. When Jesus came to this earth, he had stipulations placed upon him. The question is, how did Jesus do on these things? We find out in Old Testament history that Solomon toward the end of his life didn't do well in the stipulations. And because that the kingdom was split apart, and then the kings that followed after Solomon were increasingly wicked and got all of God's people ended up being exiled. And their temple being crushed. But how did Jesus do when he came? How did he do in relation to the stipulations? Well, let's look at the stipulations, verse 7 in 1 Chronicles 28. Solomon was to be unswerving in carrying out God's commands and laws. Jesus was. We see as we read in the Gospel that Jesus was unswerving in his commitment to the commands and laws of God. We are told in 1 Peter 2 in quoting Isaiah 53 that there was no deceit found in his mouth that he committed no sin. He was an innocent lamb led to the slaughter. So Jesus fulfilled this perfectly. Verse 8 in the middle. Be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord. Ditto. Jesus did this even to the point of his parents bringing him on the 8th day as prescribed in the law for circumcision. Verse 9. He was to acknowledge God and that the stipulations put upon him which Jesus did. And when it came to questions of obedience, Jesus obeyed when he was in the garden of Gethsemanean before his death. He said, Father, take this cup from me. This cup of going to the cross and dying for the sins of our people. Then Jesus says, but not my will, but your will be done. Jesus accepted the stipulations of the covenant between him and his father to redeem us, his people. More in verse 9. Serve him with whole hearted devotion and a willing mind. Seek him, be strong and do the work. Solomon had the work in front of him of building a temple for the worship of God. Jesus is the builder too. He told Peter and the disciples in Matthew 16 that upon this confession that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God, which comes from the lips of Peter, he says, upon this I will build my church. Jesus is building his church. He has been building his church. Jesus is successful in building his church. He continues to build his church today. All these stipulations. What Jesus is strong in doing the work of building the church yet he was. He was strong in going to the cross. He was strong in his resurrection. He was strong in his ascension to the Father and he is strong today protecting and guiding and serving as a good shepherd over his church. He is strong today gathering more and more people into his flock. Jesus has filled all these stipulations perfectly. What's the result? What was that stake when Jesus came to the earth and faced all these stipulations? What was it stake? Two things. You got them as your A and your B in your outline. First, what was it stake? Your inclusion in the group of people upon whom God has placed his favor. You being in God's favor was based upon Jesus fulfilling these stipulations in perfection. Verse 8. David talks to Solomon and says, fulfill these stipulations that you may possess this good land and cast it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever. This speaks to the favor of God being upon God's people. There are a couple of adjustments we need to make. We call them Epical Adjustments. Adjustments that we make and we'll go from the Old Testament to the New Testament. What is this good land today? We as the church, as subjects of King Jesus, don't live in one geographical place. We don't have a merely human king raining in a political sense over us, leading a physical army with swords and shields over us. How does this apply to you? What is this good land? Well, this good land is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is consists of the church and of heaven above, of those that claim Christ for their salvation. This is the good land, and so when David talks to Solomon and says, obey these things so that you may possess this good land and cast it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever, God the Father spoke this to Jesus. The speaks of Jesus that Jesus was to come into obey the Father and everything the Father required of him so that He and His people, Jesus the King and Jesus subjects, would be able to possess the good land, that they would be able to live in the good land for us to live in the church, for us to be able to be the people that are under God's favor, for us to be able to be the people that hear His word. The word, red and proclaimed, that get the care of shepherds and the church elders, that get everything they need for their spiritual health. This is possessing the land. This is being an inhabitor of the land today. We inhabit inside the church, the place of God's protection, the place of God's blessing, the place in which we find everything we need for our spiritual health. Second thing, what was at stake when Jesus came? What was at stake with His obeying the laws of His Father, be the forgiveness of our sins was at stake, the forgiveness of your sins. 11b, the second half of verse 11 refers to the temple and the place of atonement. We need this for worse and for people. We need the blessing that comes from our commitment to worshiping the Lord. We need the atonement to cover our sins, so that blood is covering all our misdeeds, so that when God and His angels look down, they don't see our sin, but they see that our sins have been washed. What ethical adjustments do we need to make here? How is this change with the coming of Christ? How does Christ fulfill this imagery that we see in the Old Testament? Today, as we've talked about in numbers of weeks past, the temple is the church. The temple is the church called 1 Corinthians 3-16. The temple of God, Paul said to the church, you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. The imagery is used by Peter and Paul both. We are, the church is a building, a holy building, a holy temple of the Lord that Christ is building up by His Spirit. You see that in Ephesians 2 and 3 as well. What is the place of atonement today? Do we wait around for a physical temple to be rebuilt and for a reason today? So we can start offering sacrifices of atonement there? No, that was a form, that was a shadow, that was a precursor of what was to come in Christ. In the book of Hebrews tells that Jesus sacrificed with a sacrifice of atonement. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins, we are told of Jesus. And Jesus' blood is shed for us and it covers what is known as the mercy seat, the cover of the ark of the covenant. Jesus' blood covers our rebellion against his leadership, against his provision and against his law. The place of atonement today refers the forgiveness for your sins through Christ. The atonement place literally first and foremost with the cross of Jesus. Jesus did the work of atonement there. He was sacrificed and he spilled his blood so that we could have forgiveness so that our sins would be covered. So first God said to us this morning that our blessing, our quality of life is dependence upon Jesus. Just like the people of God in Solomon's day, their quality of life, their blessing was dependent upon the faithfulness of their king Solomon. If they wanted to stay in the land, they wanted to stay in the good land flowing with milk and honey and be able to pass that along to their descendants, Solomon needed to fulfill the righteousness before him and they could pass it on. Today in the church we can do that as well because our king Jesus has been perfectly faithful and because of his faithfulness we can pass on the good land of the church to our children as well bringing them into the church where they hear the word of God being preached and read in the prayers of the saints and the shepherding of God's elders over the church. Our blessing is dependent upon Jesus. Secondly this morning, among the many things this is very rich passage and we've skipped over a lot because it's been covered to some extent in previous passages but another thing that stands out that God speaks to this morning is this. God says to you obey the Lord, obey the Lord for the sake of others. God says to you obey me for the sake of others. This is the nature of Jesus and Solomon's obedience. The nature of Solomon's and Jesus' obedience both sets of obedience were for the sake of others. Solomon was to obey, yes for his own good but also for the sake of others. If he was good if he obeyed the laws of God then the people would be able to inherit and continue in the land. Jesus likewise. His obedience and his life and his obedience and going to the cross is not for his own sake, it's for our sake. These two kings Jesus adopted the bays so that the people of God would be blessed. What blessing would Solomon that the people would live in the land of promise that they would have the blessing of God through proper worship of him in the temple in Jerusalem? With Jesus the blessing is having forgiveness of your sins and life eternal through faith in him. It's the blessing of being among God's people. It's the blessing of having God's favor upon you both now in this life and in heaven when you die. But the question is does obedience stop with our king? It's proper and good for us to say Jesus thank you for your obedience to the Father which covers my sin, which has accomplished for me my salvation. Your obedience did that but does it stop with Jesus? Well a couple of things to say in your outline in terms of eternal life our obedience is not required. We do not earn eternal life through our obedience. Jesus earned eternal life for us by his obedience. This is the gospel of grace. Just like an Israelite in Solomon's day could continue to live in the land because Solomon was being faithful so we continue to live in the land because Jesus was an ins faithful. Our obedience is not required to earn eternal life but is that all we have to say about it? No our B here in terms of living our lives we are to follow our king Jesus in obedience. In terms of living our lives we are to follow our king Jesus in obedience. We see that in this passage not only as king Jesus or not only as king Solomon called to obey but the people are called to obey. We see that in the final verse. We are to do the will of our Father in heaven. I guess where we find that will. Not by sticking up spiritual antenna and saying oh and feeling something but we find the will of God our Father in his word. The scriptures, his will is his law written for us in the scriptures. So we seek to fulfill to obey his law. The question is is this legalism? Does this constitute legalism? Some would say that at this point but keep listening. That's a very big question in our society. I was talking to somebody recently. It may have been Jamie about the great confusion at least in American Christianity maybe beyond the United States. The great confusion that comes about when we talk about obedience in the church. Because some will advocate that we need to the opposite of letter A here. That we need to obey in order to be saved. That's legalism. We obey to earn our salvation. That's legalism and that's not what we're talking about here. Obedience is not in the categories of justification of our sins. Obedience is not in the categories of receiving forgiveness. Why are we to obey the law? To earn eternal life? Nope. Those that preach this or teach this that you obey the law to earn eternal life. That's legalism. That's a different gospel. That's a false gospel. That's a gospel. A good news that's not a good news at all. Because I know my heart. I know my actions. I know my thoughts. I know my words. And if eternal life were based on me obeying the law, I would not have it. Nor would I ever have it. Nor would any of us. Saying that obedience to the laws required to earn eternal life is legalism. That's not what I know scripture is teaching. Why obey the law? Because we are to show. Here's the reason we obey the law. One of the reasons. But in terms of motivational reason. We obey the law because we're to show the gospel through our lives. We obey the law in order to show the gospel through our lives. We're to let the gospel to be spoken not only through our lips as we declare to people that Jesus is the son of God and that he died to forgive sins. But we're also to declare the gospel by how we treat people and by how we treat our God. This guide for how we treat people and how we treat our God is the law. It's the law of God. How we do it? How we show the gospel is with our lives by obeying the law. That's your blank there by obeying the law. Now how do we come to this place? When Jesus summed up the law and the prophets, you know what he did? He gave the golden rule. Matthew 5, 7, 12. He gave the golden rule and he said do this golden rule. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. And by the way, if you do that, you are obeying the law and the prophets. Listen, Matthew 7, 12. Jesus, the words of Jesus. So in everything due to others, what you would have them do to you for this sums up the law and the prophets. This is Jesus here saying obey the law and the prophets. And by the way, I'll sum it up for you. Due to others, the way you would have them do to you. Now how is this? Due to others, the way we would have them do to us. How is obeying the law of prophets? How is that showing? How is that showing the gospel? A blank for you to fill in here before we go to that. Jesus tells us to obey the law and the prophets by following the golden rule. Christ followed the golden rule. The golden rule was his gospel work. You see if Jesus just did tit for tat with us, if he just dispensed to us as we deserved, he wouldn't have come to this earth. But our God looked down upon us and he saw us in all our sin and he treated us the way he would want to be treated. God desires us for us to love him, for us to treat him well, for us to prioritize worship, for us to consider him in all that we're doing. That's the way God desires to be treated. And so God himself, Jesus Christ, comes and he treats us that way. He considers us and our plight in our sin. He considers us deserving the wrath of God in his justice and he comes and he dies so that we can have forgiveness of sins. So that the wrath of God and justice can be removed from us and placed upon him. Jesus does the golden rule in his gospel work and his life on earth and his death and his resurrection. Jesus demonstrates his own love for us in this Romans 5-8 that Bob read for us this morning. While we were still sinners, he died for us. He treated us as anyone would want to be treated showing sacrificial love for us. This is the golden rule. This is the gospel. So when we follow our king and doing the golden rule, doing to others as we would have them do to us, obeying the law and the prophets, as we treat other people in this way, we're displaying the gospel. For Jesus treated us with kindness when we didn't deserve it. And the golden rule declares that, that we're to treat others with kindness when they don't deserve it. Jesus in the sermon on the Mount said, you greet those who greet you fine, even the text collectors and sinners do that. I say love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Treat with kindness the people that are being bad to you because that's what I've done for you in the gospel. You are ignoring me with your lives and I've come and treated you well. Now go and do the same. So as we follow the golden rule in our lives, we are showing what Christ did in small measure for us and coming to the earth to save us from our sins. So we look at the end of verse 21 in our passage this morning, and David assures Solomon this. The officials, Solomon and all the people will obey your every command. Likewise, we as subjects of our king, Jesus, are to obey every command. We're not to earn eternal life for our obedience. No, Jesus is earned eternal life for us, but we're to display the gospel, we're to display sacrificial kindness, just like Jesus displayed sacrificial kindness to us in the gospel. The quality of your life spiritually deep down and the quality of your experience after death has been sealed for you who have faith in Jesus because Jesus as our king was completely faithful to all the stipulations that God gave him to fulfill because of that we are blessed. Now, we as Jesus subjects, like the subjects under Solomon, are to obey, we're to fulfill the golden rule and by fulfilling the golden rule to give people a hint of what the gospel is, of what Jesus has done, of the nature of what Jesus has done for sinful people like us. Being kind to us, being loving to us, when we deserve to His punishment, His wrath, and His disgust. Let us pray. Jesus, thank you for your work for us and being a perfectly faithful king over us for our benefit. Thank you that the quality of our life here now and eternally is secure through faith in you because of what you've done. You have earned eternal life for us. You have earned, you have done that sacrifice of atonement for the forgiveness of our sins. Thank you that that is true. Aid us, strengthen us by the power of your spirit, Jesus, to fulfill the golden rule, to treat others the way we would want to be treated, to treat with kindness those who are not treating us well, to cover a multitude of sins because we love each person that has been created in your image. It causes us to be gracious and patient with all who are around us, treating them well, realizing that that's what you did for us when we didn't deserve it. We ask that in Christening. Amen.