Some of you may be aware that this has been a momentous week in my life Sometimes my wife Jane and I joke about the fact that we have been working on trying to save our marriage for the past 30 years and this past Wednesday we finally attained that milestone in our anniversary
She was warning me and may have overheard it even last week that it's actually frankly touched and go whether we'll make it to our 30th but by the grace of God we did and I suppose I see that as mainly a tribute to the fact that love covers the multitude of sins and any of you who are married recognize the indispensable ingredients of that kind of love. I like psychological jargon and one of my favorite expressions for this kind of love that Fannie and I often use of one another is reality enhancing positive illusions and just to give you an idea of what these might be like with that I'll got to title it. Well it would include things like when she looks at me and sees this tall dark handsome men that she can hardly wait to get her hands on. And in fact this past Tuesday our reality enhancing positive illusions had a wonderful booth in an experience that I'm going to share with you. I was walking from the Boston Common to Park Street Church crossing at the Cross Walk which many of you take. It was one of the few occasions I actually waited for the pedestrian light to come on so I was minding my business in fact I was probably walking on cloud nine anticipating our anniversary the next day. I'm casting a glance to the right as I made it halfway across just because I've seen far too often cars whip around even though the pedestrians are given the right to walk at that point. And so I'm just sort of subconsciously processing what's coming from the right. When all of a sudden from the left came this SUV that was in a hurry to back up in Park in an illegal spot and it walloped me. It sent me flying. I spun around in the air. I actually landed on the sidewalk and I'm not really telling all of this to elicit your sympathy but it's mainly to set this up that it was at the point when the officer came to investigate the accident and he called into the ambulance that they would have to hurry and come and take me off and said of the patient the full decade younger than he actually is. Now this is a professional you understand brain in the science of criminology to give accurate objective description of fellow human beings. And when my wife heard it of course it helped like I say with those reality enhancing positive illusions when she realized what a fine physical specimen she had for a husband. Well I do have as my testimony a word of thanks to God the scripture in our own text talks about this promise, doesn't it? I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. Psalm 34 talks about it in terms of the angel of the Lord and camps around those who fear him and he delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. A God's promise to Jacob was not a promise of trouble free living. You know that if you've read on in the chapters that follow. And his promise to us is not to protect us from SUVs slamming into our bodies. What his promise is is that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That in all these things were more than conquerors. That even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us, his rod, his staff, they comfort us. And so I do have a testimony of thanks and I'd review this not to share it with you. The testimony that actually focuses my attention back on this text because this was as I say the lesson that God had in mind to teach Jacob a father in the faith to every one of us, if we pay attention to that which the Word of God has for us. Two weeks ago we began our meditation on this study, on this dream revelation that Jacob received concerning the stairway to heaven or as the older Bible has translated a ladder, Jacob's ladder between heaven and earth. Actually I think stairway is a more accurate way of representing what is intended. And we looked briefly at three lessons that come to us from that ladder. And the first of them is simply this that it's God's initiative. It's a reminder that Jacob you see was not at a prayer meeting when this happened. Jacob was running away from home, running away from a brother who he had grievously offended, running for his life. But God was running after him. And you can't outrun God. You can't even outrun an SUV I've discovered. But you surely cannot outrun God. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Psalm 139. If I go up to the heavens you are there. If I make my bed and shield you are there. If I say surely the darkness will hide me and light will become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you. You can't run away from God. You only run into him. You can't let him stay away or ladder, then his testimony to the sovereignty of God's grace that reaches down to us. True religion is not a self-improvement project, by which we try to send the God. It's recognizing in humility God's grace and mercy which reaches down to us at our point of need. And lifts us up. I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me. Isaiah 65 has. I was found by those who did not seek me. Jesus Christ, such as disciples, you did not choose me, but I chose you. You remember how he called them, a finding, for example, Andrew and Simon Peter, a fishing catch, casting a net in the lake, and he just said to them, come, follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men, and at once they left their nets and followed him, or to the Matthew, the tax collector, come, follow me, and Matthew got up and at once followed him, leaving his booth behind. The first lesson is the sovereignty of God's grace. The second lesson that we looked at is the lesson of God is here. Even one we're unaware of the fact. He's present even in our most desperate circumstance. Maybe you, right now, in your life, you think you're living in God for sake and territory. No such thing in God's universe. Even when you're not aware of it, he's here. Jacob's eyes were open in this revelation to see what was always the case even when he was unaware of it. God's presence. When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it. The wonderful response to the omnipresent God of mercy, the stairway which is a tribute to the uninterrupted communion between a holy God in his heaven and you and me in our solitude and sin. And thirdly, the lesson that we considered was that God is not just a God-act battle. He's the God of battle. He's just a God who's confined to a few spots of special significance to him sacred precincts of temples somewhere. Jacob was just by the roadside and in the gutter, frankly, spiritually speaking. He wasn't at a spiritual retreat. He wasn't at a winnabous, shocking weekend. One of those mountaintop experiences, which are fabulous. I commend them to you all. He wasn't there. He wasn't even at Park Street Church having his attention focused on the things of the Lord. He was in trouble. That's where he was. And God, in that situation, then not only assures them of his presence there and then, but insists that he will continue to be with him even as he leaves that place. I am with you. And I will watch over you wherever you go. And I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you. Well, what are we to make of this? How we to respond? Well, I'd like to suggest, based on our text this morning, that Jacob responds to this revelation of the invisible God. In terms of three very visible responses. Our job is to respond visibly to the invisible God. He responds, of course, first and most importantly, in terms of this visible, audible confession of faith, acknowledging God's presence in his own earlier spiritual blindness. When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, surely the Lord is in this place. And I was not aware of it. He was afraid and said, how awesome is this place? This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. You may think in hearing this. Hey, wait a minute, not so fast. How can we put so much thought in that which is invisible? God, of course, the real God of heaven and earth, is invisible. Paul describes him as the king of kings and Lord of lords who alone is immortal and who lives an unapproachable life who no one has seen or can see to him, be the honor and might forever amen for Timothy chapter 6. The problem for us, of course, is how can we build our lives on that which is invisible? How can we have the faith that Hebrews 11 speaks of when it says faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see? Aren't we women and men of the 21st century? Aren't most of us then so totally marinated in the culture of empiricism and the scientific method? Aren't we impressed with the tremendous advances of the last few centuries that we cannot help ourselves but put thought in that which is visible, that which we can see with our eyes or at least experience with our senses, perhaps even with the aid of microscope or telescope, but to have our faith proportionate to the evidence rather than something that is certain of that which is invisible, imperceptible. I think in response to those who declare such a faith to be utterly misguided and even foolish, it's certainly even impossible, frankly. I think it's helpful for us to be aware that the scientific way of knowing is not the only way that is valid and indeed most profound insights that human beings have, including scientists in the pursuit of science. Most of the most thrilling and rich and illuminating convictions, these deepest convictions actually do involve that which is not visible. I think that's true in a philosophic sense just in terms of something that glazed pastel once pointed out and that is the fact that we recognize in others a self. I can't see yourself, I can't see that you're a person, I can only see your body, how do I know you have a mind? A mind of soul is nothing that I can put under a microscope, I can't weigh it, I can't measure it. That I infer from the outward evidence of something that is a deeply held conviction for all of us that there are other minds out there. Indeed that there's an outward universe, an external reality, that this is not just a dream and that when I come over and pinch you that it's now a dream that's becoming a nightmare. What convinces you of these things are things that aren't inherently visible. I think this is true in the realm of even the physical sciences, the current enthusiasm for string theory which may not, but may possibly be the best explanation for the ultimate unity of all matter and all energy. A string theory presupposes the universe made out of ten dimensions, only four of which are perceptible, the three space dimensions and the fourth dimension of time. And notice by the way how different those are, don't assume we can extrapolate from the four and intuit what the other six are to be like if time is so different in our experience from space. But it's the best going theory, that string theory and yet there's no way experimentally that you can experience no microscope, no test that you can explore those other dimensions. But it's a deeply held conviction and it has such a wonderful payoff if you'll buy into it as a hypothesis. Indeed, in terms of other sciences like geology, when construction workers some years ago were digging out Park Street as the Boston Common Garage on Charles Street there. That was the first time anyone really knew what Beacon Hill was. We didn't know what Beacon Hill was until then, we didn't know how to explain it. But when they got in there with their massive backhose and all the rest of it, what they dug up going down as they went further into the ground was the discovery of a whole mishmash of granites and diorites and nices and shifth stones that should never be together. And it was then that scientists, geologists looking at all this refuse assert, I think with good conviction, that Beacon Hill really is a kind of terminal or glacial marine. It came here 15,000 years ago at the end of one of the receding lobes of the glacier at that time and was just dumped like a sanitary landfill. That's why you have all these varying kinds of rocks that should never be in the same space. Now you can't see it until we get a time machine that allows you to go back and observe this, you can't see it. All you can see is the visible evidences of that hypothesized glacial movement. And so it is with God. Since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made. So men are without excuse for all rights, Romans chapter 1, verse 20. It's not that God's playing guessing games. He's left tremendous compelling, deeply satisfying evidence of his person and character in the creation of the universe for one thing. The evidence is all there that allows us correctly to infer, indeed to become deeply convinced of his presence and reality. Of course the quintessential example of this is in the person of Christ. Jesus is the one who allows us the best glimpse into the person of God. Now you may remember how when he was ministering to Nathaniel, the disciple in John chapter 1, Nathaniel was impressed at Jesus prophetic insight. And Jesus responded, because I say to you that I saw you under the fig tree, you believe, you shall see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see the heavens open and the angels of God, us sending and descending on the Son of Man. In other words, Nathaniel, I am Jacob's ladder, personified. I am the stairway between heaven and earth. I am the one across whom the invisible God and his invisible angelic hosts then traverse in order to impact the visible world for in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. When we've seen him, we've seen the Father. That's what Jesus said. Here's the answer to the problem of evil for many of us. When we're wondering what does God think about blindness or disease of whatever kind or about bereavement or suffering and pain? When we wonder what does God think about these things, all we need to do is look at Christ. And every single time he saw a blind man or a leper or a paralytic or happened upon a funeral procession where a widowed mother is bereaving her son, Jesus's heart was moved with compassion. He reached out and healed and raised up and solved the problem. When you've seen me, you've seen the Father, our Savior says. And of course, Jesus himself, let me say like fine, I can't go back there and witness Jesus walking on water or remove the rest of it. But of course, this is in part why our Savior was not born. The incarnation didn't take place right after Adam and Eve's fall. In fact, there's an entire unfolding of Old Testament redemptive history. And in the course of 2,000 years of revelation starting more particularly with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and then being inscripturated 1400 years before Christ at the time of Moses. For the next 1,400 years, you then have promise after promise pointing in electably to the person and work of Christ. We can't dismiss all those signposts. How do you explain it? Alfred Edersheim, who was a rabbinic scholar of an earlier generation, claims that there are 558 rabbinic writings in the Mishnan Talmud where Old Testament passages are cited referring to the Messiah. You find out of those passages, they refer to 456 separate texts in the Old Testament. Now, frankly, I think that's an inflated number. If I'm correct looking through the Old Testament, I would put it much less than that. But nevertheless, scores of texts starting from God's word of promise right after the fall, right on to the covenant with Abraham, right on through the passages of the Old Testament of Genesis and on, you have these predictions of the work in person of Christ. It's exactly like Jacob. Jacob's assurance is based on a promise God gives to him in Revelation about what he's going to do to provide visibly for Jacob, protecting him, something he can see and experience and bringing him back. Either it's so or it isn't. And when God does for Jacob what only God can do, then Jacob is compelled by that faithfulness to respond in consecration of his own life to the Lord. And some are troubled by the mention of Jacob's response of fear. Right after word, surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it. He was afraid, it says, instead how awesome or some Bibles put it, how fearful, the very same word, how fearful is this place. This is none other than the house of God. In fact, the word Bethel, Bethel means house of God. This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. What's this business of responding with fear? Many new Christians are troubled by the positive use of the fear of God in the Bible. It would think of Proverbs 9. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's a little troubling. We think our religion ought to be one of love, not a fear. What's all this fear? And yet even in the New Testament, we also read passages about the fear of God in the book of Acts, the church, throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria, according to Acts 9. Enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. It grew in numbers living in the fear of the Lord. So one of the hallmarks of a vital Christian fellowship is everyone's living in the fear of the Lord. What's the fear of the Lord? How will we understand it when we normally think of fear in such negative terms as abject, terror, something, frankly, an emotion that's repulsive to us? I think it helps to put this together to realize that the Bible uses the word fear in two diametrically opposite senses. And amusingly, sometimes they're even found in the very same verse. At Mount Sinai, when God was revealing the Ten Commandments to Israel and appeared in this awesome display of might in the theophany of a pillar of fire and cloud with thunder and earthquakes and a trumpet sound that grew louder and louder. When he did that, Israel responded in terror. Moses was then sent to tell them this. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Not the real God. Do not be afraid. God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning. That's Exodus chapter 20 verse 18. Don't be afraid. God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you. It's the very same word in Hebrew. Don't you see, there are absolute opposite senses. Don't be afraid, cowering back and terror, but God has blessed you with this amazing experience of His presence so that that fear of God would be with you. What is that fear of God? Well, I think we would better render it awe or reverence, something like that, the undivided attention of those who have respect for God. That worldly fear is that God might do something to me, but Christian fear, the fear of the Lord is that we might do something to upset God, that we might do something to offend the Savior who died for us on the cross. That's the fear of the Lord. It's a fear that's born in love rather than being the antithesis of love. Psalm 130 says, if you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you, there is forgiveness. Therefore you are feared. With you, there's forgiveness. Therefore you're feared. That's the fear of the Lord. It comes from an awareness of the mercy and grace of God. That's what makes us fear Him. It's not unlike incidentally on this Father's Day. Those of you who have been blessed with healthy relationships with your earthly Father, you know this fear. My Father maybe spank me once, I hardly remember. But I do remember processing the awareness when I was in junior high that I was now beginning to tower over my Father. That didn't matter. And when I would go over to a friend's house and hear the friend talk back to his Father and actually even kind of touch him when his Father was doing something in life, kind of pushing him away, my hands got sweaty. I couldn't imagine, because somehow, my Father had shown me, well, just a breathtaking strength that is to be found in gentleness. And so I feared Him. I feared doing anything that would offend Him. Now He might contest that He might wonder why to do such a poor job, measuring up to the standards. But honestly, I didn't feel that. And I think you know what I'm talking about. Our text speaks of that kind of fear. And it's a Father's fun type relationship. Psalm 103 as a Father has compassion on His children. So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. You have love and fear are linked. Indeed, Psalm 118, let those who fear the Lord say His love endures forever. If you fear Him, you just can't get over His love. Jacob couldn't. Jacob responds appropriately. Secondly, not only does he have that confession, he erects a pillar as a monument. This visible emblem of the revelation of an invisible God. Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel. So the city used to be called Love Bethel, which means House of God. You might be surprised at that. He just have to understand this is a culturally relevant thing to do. Later on, when Jacob lost his wife, Rachel, he again erects a pillar. In fact, the first mention of a grave stone anywhere. Over the site of her burial plot. A kind of memorial. Now that stone wouldn't mean anything to anybody else, but it meant a tremendous amount to Jacob. This stone, if you and I were to come across it, we'd hardly notice it, just so this erected stone, not too big apparently, the size of a pillow. But it meant a tremendous amount to Jacob. If you were a little disturbed perhaps that he anoints it. You're thinking, oh, this looks like idolatry. And you may be aware that some places in the Bible Israel laughed into an idolatry involving stones. But not so. The anointing, the anointing was a gesture of symbolism meant to underscore the fact that there is nothing intrinsic about this stone that makes it special. In the Old Testament, you anoint the priest in order to make the very point that they're just ordinary folks like you and me, that what makes them different is that they are now separated by God under his service. He gives them his Holy Spirit to equip them for the work. And so Moses, an Exodus 40, has the instruction to anoint all the utensils like forks and knives and so on. Just few things that would be used in the temple. They're ordinary things. Nothing you take note of. Nothing special. Now given over in use to God in this gesture of memorializing that which God has done. I don't know whether you have momentals like this in your life. I think I commend them. I'm aware we can slip into a kind of superstitiousness or perhaps even an idolatry of such things and one has to be on guard about that. Nevertheless, I was impressed even on Thursday night when one of our members who happened to attend the AA meeting that meets here at Park Street Church came up to me after the meeting and told me how he shared his testimony just last Thursday night. And they gave him a bronze medallion that said 21 years and he told me with tremendous joy that God had enabled him to live a sober life for the past 21 years. A kind of a physical memento of the work of an invisible God just so that he wouldn't forget it. He wants to remind himself of it. This may be the case for many of you. It is also the case for me, frankly. I have here in my Bible a crummy old wrinkled up yellow piece of paper with a hole in it right above the emblem of the Salvation Army. And it says on the front, my decision for Christ and below it is the signature of a high school student named Gordon Hugenberger. And a date ended on the back, the promise to make good of this claim, this promise in 1 John 1.9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now I know this means nothing to you, but it means a whole lot to me because I don't want to forget the reality of God's invasion in my life when I made that decision. There are others of us who have on our finger a little ring, a ring reminding us of a vow we made before the creator of the universe. And we don't want to forget it. We don't want to forget that we made that promise him because boy, we need his help to keep it from day to day. Don't we? St. Augustine encouraged the church a hippo to keep a visible memento of God's work in their midst. One day he discovered that one of his members, a woman, had been marvelously healed. She actually had breast cancer and the usual procedure from the time of hypocrite was a mastectomy, but she asked the doctors not to do that and sure enough God healed her and Augustine was astonished why haven't you told anyone this? And her response was, well what's the big deal? God raised Lazarus from the dead after four days. This is nothing. He couldn't believe it. That she ran into his church. Here was an example, God is alive and well. A woman you've got to realize how encouraging this would be to everyone else. And so from then on they started to have a register in the church and for the next two years they had a list almost 70 names and events later describing the various wonderful answers to prayer. Not that would mean a lot to you or me, but a tremendous amount, just like the vessel, like the stone that Jacob raised on this occasion. Finally, thirdly, Jacob's third visible response to the invisible God is this bow, this pledge, a pledge that is consummated with the promise and all that you give me, I will give you a tent. I know this, again, may be a troubling text, this vow that some people have accused Jacob of bargaining with God. Vows trouble us. But this is no bargain. Every single thing that Jacob mentions, God has already promised. He's not trying to get God to do something, God wasn't going to do. God had already said, I will be with you or I am with you. I will not leave you until I've done what you promised. And so Jacob makes a vow if God will be with me, God's already promised it. God's already promised I will, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. And so Jacob and his vow says, God will watch over me on the journey I'm taken and give me food and eat to eat and close the way. God had already promised that he'll bring him back to this land, chapter 28 verse 15. And so when Jacob says, and if I return safely to my father's house, God's already promised it. It's not a bargain. A God has already given these gracious promises that are the basis for Jacob's vowed response of gratitude. Vows in the Bible are not meant to arm twist a heavenly father. What they are meant for is they are meant to commit us at a time when we are in a point of need, when we can be most objective about our debt of gratitude. If you're in the emergency room on your back, you're in the best position to assess what your debt of gratitude is. Don't wait until after the healing comes because if you're like most people, gratitude is an emotion that evaporates overnight. Vows are intended to bless us and enable us to make an objective assessment at the time of our needs so that we will know how to respond appropriately. And the vow that ties to give a tenth of all that God gives him is especially relevant to Jacob because Jacob loves this world. Jacob loves money. I still do anything to get it. The man's a scoundrel. And he doesn't care who he steps on on his way up the ladder of success that is a very different ladder from the one he sees in this vision. You remember how he already defrauded his brother, Esau, an earlier chapter, deceives his father. And so you see, it's very much to the point. Jacob loves money. He's one of those mentioned as a kind of person. If you could only have one book, what would it be? A check book. They only thing that matters. Jacob loves the stuff. But God, to get his attention, has now stripped him of everything. He has nothing but his walking stick. That's what he says later on in Genesis 35. When he left, at this point, he was brought low in order that he might know where it all comes from. And in the next chapters that unfold, God alone is the explanation for how it is that Jacob could come back, a wealthy man. God is not against wealth. God is not encouraging all Christians to sign up for a mendicant order to force swear all possessions. That's not in the book. Jacob comes back a fabulously wealthy man. But the difference is how you get it. At first, he got it through cheating. Later, he got it with God's blessing through hard work. And it's what you do with it when you get it. And how you hold on to it, not with a tight grip, but with an open palm and open hand. And so he says, of all that which you give me, I'll give back a tent. That applies to you and to me. Let our giving be the same. Proportionate giving Paul exhorts that on the first day of each week, each of you should set aside of money in keeping with his income, saving it up so that when I come, no collections will have to be made. Are giving supposed to be proportionate, just like Jacob's promise of a tie, 10%. Proportionate. But I'd like to add, proportionate, not to everything you've got. But just to everything God has given you, only give back to him that which you know came from his hands. That which he's helped you to see is really his right from the start. Later on, David says in 1 Chronicles 29, wealth and honor come from you. You're the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to absolve and give strength to all. But who am I? And who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, God. And we have given you only that which comes from your hand. That's what God wants for all of our gifts. If God has helped you, he didn't have to maybe bring you to the point that he brought Jacob to stripping him of everything. Or maybe he put a laban in your life like Jacob had who just tried to thwart you at every turn and helped you to see that had laban had his way you'd go home with nothing. That's what Jacob said. If it had been up to layman, he would have returned with empty hands. But God overruled his boss. God overruled laban who changed his wages ten times. That Jacob could come back with an abundance of good gifts and of all of it he gave back a tie. The scripture says each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. He wants you to give like Jacob did out of gratitude knowing where it came from because you know how much you owe him. You owe it to him. It's his to start with. It now belongs to him. It's true also with your whole life and with this I'll close one of my favorite missionary stories is of John Patton, the Scottish missionary who went to New Hebrides Islands in the Pacific in 1858. Patton had just been married just a few months earlier to Mary Robson is the love and they set off and left all family and friends and everything that's familiar for the cannibal island of Tana where the gospel had not been preached. A few weeks after arriving they fabricated a little hut which they would later call home and for the next year labored faithfully giving back with lives that were living sacrifices to God. At the end of the year at their first anniversary almost within weeks Mary gave birth to a son but through complications in the pregnancy she developed a fever actually and died a few weeks later. A few weeks after that the infant son died and Patton says this but for Jesus I would have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave rather than staying on to labor. What sustained him in his grief was the words his wife said in those closing days of her life. She said I do not regret leaving home and friends. If I had it to do over I would do it with more pleasure yes with all my heart may that be the sacrifice of our lives. Father in heaven we thank you for the example of Jacob. We ask that we might be given to visible responses to the revelation of an invisible God especially in our Lord Jesus whom we behold the word of God made flesh dwelling among us full of grace and truth. We ask Lord that we might respond with the visible confession of faith with various momentos little notes in the margins of our Bible about lessons you taught us and significant encounters and resolves even this day resolves to obey you and live for you. We want to do this because we don't want to forget that which you've let us into the lessons the obedient. We pray especially Lord that you would help us with the giving of every sacrificial gift and especially the giving of ties may we give back one tenth of everything you've given us and may we have eyes open to see that which has come from your hand and do it with glad and generous hearts. We pray in Christ name our men.