Seems like we can't do right. Look how they treated you. Jesus, He didn't know who little Jesus spoke. He didn't know who little Jesus spoke. Okay, Taylor. Good morning. Welcome. It's good to have you in worship this morning. We're visiting with us. We're glad that you're here. Pray that you had a merry Christmas, and that you had great time with family. I know I did. My family now went to Knoxville and spent time with our family. And it was a great time. And we look forward to what the Lord has in store for this coming year. The friendship pads are on the end of your row. If you wouldn't mind signing those and passing those down the way. And next week, our regular scheduled stuff will begin on Sunday evenings. That is children's W2 and also youth ministry and small groups will all start back up. So if you need more details about this, look on the website or there's announcement sheet out in the connector that you can pick up for that. Also, it's just a reminder. By way of reminder, into the year giving will be coming up in the next couple days. So actually tomorrow, I guess, will be the last day for any of the year giving. And just make sure if you are going to give that that's post marked by December 31 for it to go on the 2012 account. And then lastly, we will be having starting next week a new adult Sunday school class starting in the fellowship hall taught by Reverend Joey Stewart on the essentials of the Christian faith. I encourage you class Sunday school classes are all Sunday adult Sunday school class are welcome to go to that Joey. It's a gifted teacher and I'm sure that you will be encouraged and challenged on what Joey has to teach then. So that would be in the fellowship hall starting next Sunday. And that's all the announcements we have this morning, which I want to ask you to take a few moments this morning. As you reflect upon as I've been thinking about my time with my family and Knoxville and now this week family time with Rebecca's family. How close are your relationships with your family? And if this is to be known as right God's family, should our relationships that are so intimate and so close with our brothers, our sisters, our mom, and our dad. It's a picture of what the church should look like. And I've been convicted of that over the holidays that this is supposed to look like my biological family. This is my spiritual family. So I pray that the same would be for you as you reflect on those things over this coming week. And pray now that you would maybe reflect on that and how Christ is the one who adopts you into his family in this morning we're here to worship him. So let's take time to prepare our hearts to do that. Could you please stand for our call to worship? This is the last Sunday of the year. I would encourage you to worship the Lord with all your strength, with all your might. O sing to the Lord in new song. Sing to the Lord of all the earth. O sing to the Lord in new song. Sing to the Lord of all the earth. To clear his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. For greatest the Lord, and greatly to you praise, he has to be feared above all gods. And our Savior Jesus Christ and our comforter Holy Spirit, we come before you this morning. We know that you are pavilioned on high. Holy Spirit help us to see the Lord Christ with eyes of faith today. Cause our hearts to be a flame for you. For we make this our morning prayer, a prayer of adoration. We do adore you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Help us, help us that our hearts might be filled with the joy of your salvation. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. We see your Son, your Father, Son of Mary, praise and mercy. Our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Lord, our Lord, our Lord, our Lord, our Lord, our Lord, our Lord, our Lord, our Lord. Our Lord, our Savior, Son of Mary, praise and mercy. This letter is a sign to be received. Every gift that God sent to us is for our duty. She and I, we say, we are so fortunate. Jesus, Jesus, we are God. Good singing this morning. Find us as we come for the affirmation of faith that's found in Colossians 1. Remind us of one simple truth that really the New Testament reveals to us is that Jesus is the Creator. We are often attribute that to the Father, but the Father has revealed us and is word that Jesus is the one who spoke things into existence. The second person of the Trinity is the one who upholds all things. It is a beautiful confession that we have this morning, and oftentimes wonder, do you believe that Jesus is the Creator and the sustainer of all things, including your own life? This morning I ask you as a Christian to confess these truths if you do not believe this. I ask that you just ponder this in your heart and hear these words this morning. This morning Christian, what do you believe? He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth. Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together. Amen, you may be seated. To come for our time of confession this morning, I want to again once again ask you to search your heart for we need the gospel every day. We need to remind ourselves of the gospel every day that Psalm 32 is a picture of our hearts and the blessing of the gospel is that we are washed clean of our sins. In this morning I'm going to take a couple moments to pause after you respond. Just to reflect on the words that you just read, I'm to think through what you've just confessed. Plus read responsibly. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the one whose sin is glorified, whose sin is glorified, whose sin is glorified, whose sin is glorified. When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groanings all day long. For day and night, for rain was heavy upon me, my strength was brighter, and my peace was sung. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will be best on transgressions to the Lord. And we repay the iniquity of our sins. Lord Jesus, thank you for the assurance that you provide for us. We are guilty sinners, condemned to death, but through the gospel, through your work, through your perfect life, through your attorney sacrifice on the cross, through your conquering death by your resurrection, and now your intercession, Lord, we praise you and thank you that it is through that that no longer do we remain in our guilt and our shame, but we have been freed from it. What I pray that every individual in this place, every individual on the radio, would hear the beautiful words and the truth that the gospel has set us free. We are no longer condemned because the gospel tells us, Jesus, you are condemned for us on the cross. Thank you for the forgiveness that you provide and the assurance that we can live in that freedom. We will repay now as you taught your disciples to pray, saying, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our deaths as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Jesus this morning, it is my privilege to offer a prayer for us this morning. Before I do, I have some sad news for us that we will come to a shock to many and deep sadness for many. Pete and Harriet Dyson have served here at this church years ago and of course Pete and Harriet and I served together in Dallas for almost 20 years together. We are dear friends and yesterday Harriet died. She was in a car wreck. I do not have all of the details. I was able to speak with Pete last night and we will be going to see Pete here in just a few days. But I know Pete is dear to so many people in this church as he served as one of the assistant pastors years ago and has kept up meaningful relationships. I am going to pray for Pete, Jenny and during my prayer but I wanted you to know of this tragedy for the Dyson family before I pray. So you would be able to join your hearts with me in this prayer. Let's pray together. Thank God we come before you as your sons and daughters. Our greatest source of identity is that we belong to you. And so we come Lord and we praise you. We thank you for the marvelous sunrise this morning Lord. It was just gorgeous. If that only happened once a year I'm sure we would all be up to see it. But day after day you pour forth your beauty, your handiwork, your power. And so we together as your people worship you this morning as our creator and also as our Redeemer Lord you have redeemed your people from their sins through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're grateful. And Lord we're grateful that you have Harriet with you now. Lord it saddens us as our hearts race to Pete, Jenny and Ann and their families, their friends. Lord all of our friends in Dallas and our friends here in this church, in this city. Even around the world Lord are grieving with Pete at the loss of Harriet's life and we are saddened Lord. And we're also thankful that she is with you at her struggle and her race. She's with you. They're over Lord. She's found her rest. And so we do thank you and we pray holy spirit that you would comfort our brother and his daughters and family in ways that only you are able to do. So we rest in you Lord. Lord we come to you as a nation. Oh father we have this fiscal cliff hanging over us and I pray for the leaders of our nation Lord that they would have godly wisdom. I pray that they would turn from human devices and would come to you humbly in repentance and ask for your help. Father our finances are only a small picture or a small part of the picture for father our country in large part has turned away from you. And so we come humbly Lord as this group of people before you here in Chattanooga and we would we would cry out to you Lord and we would thank you for your patience. We would thank you for your forbearance but we pray holy spirit you would be poured out on the people of our nation and that we would come to true repentance and that we would worship the one and true god. And true god help us Lord for we think we're rich and we're poor. We think we're finally clothed and we're naked. We think we're well fed and we're starving. Oh help us Lord we pray. Father many of our families today are traveling. I pray that you would give them your mercy and your protection. I pray their journey would be filled with joy of fellowshiping with you and with one another. I come before you to give our tithes and offerings. Lord so many in our church are so very generous. They're faithful givers and tithers and I thank you Lord. What a wonderful opportunity as a pastor to shepherd a flock which produces beautiful wool. I pray Father for those who do not give to our church. I pray Father that you would cause a spirit of generosity to fall on them and that they would find the great joy and delight in giving to your kingdom. Oh Lord we love you and we need your help as we worship you manifest your glory in our hearts we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Would you please stand for our scripture reading. It is marvelous to have our choir. We have a great choir serving a great God. So very very thankful for their ministry to us. Today we're returning to our passage in Deuteronomy chapter five. We've been in Colossians one and then the last three weeks in John chapter three particularly in verse 16. Now we're returning to Deuteronomy and we are going to read a passage beginning in verse 22 of Deuteronomy five. Now we're going to circle back into the other six commandments. Don't think we're going to miss those. But I wanted to pull us forward and give us a bit of a perspective that will help us in our journey with the Lord. So Deuteronomy chapter five beginning in verse 22. These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire the cloud and the thick darkness with a loud voice and he added no more and he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. And as soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire you came to me all the heads of your drives and your elders and you said behold the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man and man still live now therefore why should we die for this great fire will consume us if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore we shall die for who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have and has still lived. Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say and speak to us speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you and we will hear and do it. And the Lord heard your words when you spoke to me and the Lord said to me I have heard the words of this people which they have spoken to you they are right in all that they are spoken. Oh that they had such a mind as this always to fear me and to keep all my commandments that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever go and say to them return to your tents but you stand here by me and I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess. You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you that you may live and that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Over the Christmas break our family headed into the Carver Recreational Center over on orchard knob. It was the day after Christmas and the 13 of us piled over there to help with a Christmas ministry that our church is sponsoring for the children in that area. It was a wonderful time we some of you led our group in singing and some of you led our group in memory verses and some of you led our group in great opportunity to hear from a wise man from far away. In fact Randy ship dressed up as a wise man and came and told the story and presented the gospel to the children and then I have the privilege of leading the game and the game that I chose between a few games that I have up my sleeve was little game called duck duck goose. I don't know if anybody here's ever played duck duck goose. I don't know if anybody here ever has ever played duck duck goose. Duck duck goose is a great game to get everybody in the circle and then somebody walks around behind and they say duck duck duck and they go around the circle and eventually they tag somebody and say goose off they go they take off running and that person jumps up and tries to catch them. And the goal is to get back to where you started without getting caught is very exciting lot of fun and I was surprised that some of the speed of the children and I was also surprised the next morning some of the hamstrings had not quite sprinted in a tight circle in a little while. I got to think about that and I was thinking I wonder if our hearts are anything like our hamstrings. I wonder if we don't use them very much if they could become shorter or smaller or tighter less flexible. I wonder what this last year has done to your heart. Do you feel like your heart is stronger in your faith in the Lord? Do you feel like possibly your heart has lost a little of its elasticity? I know in the last month we received very difficult news as a nation and even yesterday afternoon when I received the news that Harriet had died and I called Pete and we talked for a while. I could hear in his voice a bit of an emptiness, an numbness which of course is to be expected. I was thinking how is your heart? Is it sore? Has it lost its elasticity? You see the word of God has come to speak to the people of God in the midst of their journey. They've left Egypt, they've been led miraculously by the hand of God out of Egypt, they've been delivered. They've just received the Ten Commandments and now they're going to enter into the Promised Land. They've got this moment where God has this revelation, if you will, to Moses and the people of God. They're afraid of the Lord and they're right to be afraid of the Lord. In fact, the Lord God says, oh, if you were this way all the time, if you feared me and that you would want to keep my commandments, why? So that it will go well with you. That's the blessing of the Lord. So if your heart's a little sore from this last year and possibly lost some of its elasticity, what are you to do? You're looking back over 2012 and looking forward into 2013, almost looking back on Egypt where they've been and looking forward to the Promised Land where they're going. So how is your faith? How are you doing? How does God strengthen our faith in the middle of the journey? The first thing he does, and you can look at verse 22, the first thing God does in strengthen in our faith is he speaks to us. It says these words of the Lord spoke. So the Lord in his kindness encourages us in our journey by speaking to us. He reveals his word to us. If you're going to have faith, you have to have a surety in the object of your faith. In other words, you need encouragement to know that the object of your faith is strong. The object of your faith has authority. It commands respect. And God does this in verse 22. The Lord spoke, therefore his authority is unmistakable and his authority is binding. When God speaks to us, he speaks as the originator. He speaks as the author. If you ever have a question about a book, if the author is living, you can go back and ask the author. What did you mean when you said that? Why? Because the author has authority. Think about those two words related to each other. Author? Authority. They go together. And God as our creator speaks authoritatively into our lives. An authority is a person with specialized knowledge and power. And so first and foremost, the Lord strengthens us on our journey by speaking to us and revealing his character to us. That he's trustworthy. That he's powerful. That he's all knowing. And so if your faith or your heart has shrunk this year, if you will, I want to encourage you to return to the Lord and return to his word. And the New Testament, the author of Hebrews says it like this in Hebrews chapter 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. And so we look to the written word of God, we look to the living word of God, to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. What happens to us when we look to God's word? What does the Holy Spirit do in our hearts when we see God's word? Well, one of the very first things the Holy Spirit does when he reveals God's word to us is he corrects our misguided passions. The word of God through the power of the Holy Spirit goes into our life and corrects our misguided passions. It's wonderful to be a passionate person. But because you're passionate, it doesn't mean you have to divorce yourself from orthodox biblical thinking. And by the way, if you have orthodox biblical thinking, you will be a passionate person. Don't bifurcate this issue. Recognize that when a person sees with clarity, the beauty of who God is, they become very passionate about God and his kingdom. And so the word of God corrects our misguided passions. Secondly, it brings convictions to us in a confusing world. If you look at our world, you'll recognize that there's much confusion in these here parts. And the Christian must stand firmly underneath the authority of God in his word. His revealed word to us gives us strength in the journey because it renews our understanding. It corrects our passions. It brings us to a place of conviction where we're able to stand before the Lord and stand before him no matter what. And that brings me to my second point that even in the difficult times, the Lord may bring strength to us. Here in the midst of this post wilderness, restatement of the law, preparing them for Canaan, it would be very tempting for them to look back and look at some of the hardships. I mean, come on, they just lost an entire generation. Just imagine an entire generation dying over a 40 year period in the wilderness, overwhelming, overwhelming to think of an entire generation dying, that group that has led them, they're dead now. I would submit to you that even in very difficult times, God can solidify us. He can unify us. The shame that is placed upon some of us for standing for the gospel can unify and strengthen our faith. Opposition can strengthen our faith. I remember when about four or five years ago, Laura, Micah, and I went to North Park Mall in Dallas. It's a beautiful mall. And we've spent, well, I actually haven't spent all that much time there, but my girls seemed to find their way. And we were at the mall and we had gone because we were going to share our faith in Christ with people we met in the mall. And so our family was presenting the gospel to people at the mall and a police officer came and asked us to leave. And I thought, you know, this is pretty amazing. Here I am, pastor, Park City's Presbyterian Church, Dallas, Texas. I'm here with my wife and my daughter. We're in a very friendly, engaging way, talking to people about Jesus Christ. And somebody complained. And so the police officer escorted us out. Now, there's a little bit of shame associated with being escorted out of a place by a police officer. You know, I'm sure some of you could give testimony, but I won't ask for a show of hands. But there is a sense of, I don't believe this, they're walking us out of North Park Mall because we're talking to people about Jesus Christ. Are you kidding me? And you know what? That's strengthened our resolve. It didn't weaken our faith. It's strengthened it. This is not a time for the church to retreat. It's not a time for us to back away. And say, well, I get, let them go. No, is it time for us to step forward humbly, lovingly, honestly, but to initiate conversations about the gospel with the people of our world, with the people of our city, it's their only hope. And so adversity can actually be used by the Holy Spirit to strengthen our faith. Our country is in a very difficult time right now. I don't agree with some of the ways our country is going. I don't believe we have a revenue issue. I believe we have a spending issue. Now, this isn't germane to the text. And you all know I'm fairly careful about political statements. But I want us to recognize something that if our government does push us to the place where they're asking us to violate biblical convictions, I would say humbly that we cannot violate our biblical convictions. We cannot violate God's word and his truth given to his people. We know from Romans 13 that the government has a two-fold purpose. They're to promote good and they're to punish evil. Romans 13-3. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, or at least they're not supposed to be. Rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good. And you will receive his approval. This is the way government is to function. Government is to function to allow for the convictions of people to follow our God. Yet we know in Acts chapter 5 when they brought the apostles before the council, the high priest questioned them and said, we strictly charge you not to teach in his name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. And you intend to bring this man's blood upon us, but Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. I would submit to you that we may be in that place at this very moment, or we may be there in the near future, where the people of God must follow their convictions before God come what may. There are businesses even now that are under the threat of receiving harsh financial penalties for not funding a medical procedure which they do not agree with. It would violate their biblical conscience. We're in a very trying time, but I would submit to you that when you have an identified enemy, time out, I'm not identifying our government as the enemy. What I would like to say when you look at this passage in Deuteronomy chapter 5, we know that the people of God will be strengthened even when they are oppressed, they multiplied in Egypt, they were able to thrive in the wilderness. So I would say to you, even difficult times will unify the people of God. So don't look for some candy-coded life in America, some comfortable life that will lead you to some earthly utopia. No, difficulties, strength in our faith. So God uses his word to strengthen our faith in the journey and God uses difficulties to strengthen our faith in the journey. And then lastly, I want you to embrace this with me as we think about entering Canaan. God is speaking to his people because he wants it to go well with them. He wants them to fear him. It's right to fear God. He wants them to keep us commandments. It's right to keep God's commandments. Why? Because it will go well with you. It goes well with you when you obey God and when you fear God. And so God's desire for his people is that they would walk with him into the promised land. For us, I'm going to challenge us as individuals and also as a church to attempt great adventures for God in the year 2013. This isn't a rebuke. It's not a correction. It's an encouragement because I see our church doing the things that I'm going to ask more of us to do. To attempt a great adventure for God's kingdom. To have a vision for our world, a global vision, to have a vision for our city, a local vision, to have a vision for your family or if you're a single person for yourself, I'm in the process of writing my goals for 2013. And I want to encourage each and every one of us to do this as well. Think about your life. Think about your physical life and say, oh my goodness, I need to watch what I eat and I need to exercise regularly. Maybe set a couple of goals for yourself. I want you to think about your spiritual life as well. What are your goals for 2013? I don't know how many people you led to Christ in 2012. Some of you might think, well, that's not a fair question, Tim. I'm not in charge of converting people. How could you say, you know, set a goal for the number of people you lead to Christ? Well, let me ask the question in a different way. How many times have you taken the opportunity to present the gospel in 2012? And what might that look like in 2013? I'm not sure how many people this year who are members of our church have been actively presenting the gospel to their friends and to people and being chased out of malls for doing so. You know, last year we read through the New Testament. We're just wrapping that up now. And this coming year, we're going to as a church read through the Old Testament. There's hard copies of our reading plan in the connector. And of course, there's electronic copies that'll be available on our website at the church. You can go to the church website and simply hit downloads and you'll be able to find our reading plan for the next year. It would be my hope that each member of our church would either have an active daily scripture reading that they're doing or would simply follow this guide along with us. I also hope that you're on a regular schedule of memorizing scripture. It might be a verse a day, a verse a week, a verse a month, a verse a year. Personally, I'm not concerned about the quantity. I'm concerned about the quality of your memorization and meditation. So I would hope that you would consider that. And then of course, your time of prayer. Some people relegate prayer to kind of as a last resort. Well, I guess I can't do anything. I'll just pray. It's nothing. If you do anything, pray. Prayer is possibly the greatest thing you could do to pray for yourself and your family, your country, your church, your city. So I want to encourage us to set some goals. And I would like us to set some local, as well as global goals. It's important for us to embrace our world. It's important for us as a church that has a very simple mission statement where worshipers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who are making disciples around the world. We're doing missions. So we're worshipers. We are missionaries and we're disciples makers. These aspects of the identity that our officers, that elders and deacons have set for us as a vision statement should mark our lives as individuals as well. And so I want to encourage you to incorporate that into your life, your financial commitments, your financial commitments to the kingdom of God, to this particular church would encourage you to take that seriously. My wife and I try to give away more money every year as we approach heaven. And we won't have any trouble doing that this year because we're taking our whole family to Africa. Now the next year might be a little tough, but this year we'll have no problem because we're taking our entire family in February to Nairobi to see the work that we've been doing there. I want to encourage you to have adventure in your goals. If all of your goals seem completely attainable and make perfectly good sense to you, add a couple more. Add a couple that you're going to have to say, okay, Lord, you've really got to do this. I don't know how it's going to happen without you, Lord. Please help us. So I want to encourage you to set some goals. Set some intellectual goals. Are you developing the mind that God has given you? Possibly you might want to read a book this year, or a book this month, or a book this week. I run our church in our journey toward home to have a sense of faithful adventure in the midst of our journey, because I believe that it's possible that some of our hearts have lost a little of their elasticity. And we've sought comfort over consecration. I'll close my sermon with a little reading from a book that I happen to be reading for about the fourth time, a book called The Hobbit, written by Tolkien. It's a wonderful story about a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, the opening line. In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. It was a Hobbit hole, and that means comfort. Hobbits really enjoyed comfort. This Hobbit was a very well to do Hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighborhood of the hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures, or did anything unexpected. You could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing insane things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbor's respect, but he gained, well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end. The end of the book Mr. Baggins is talking to Gandalf, and Baggins says, then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true after a fashion. Of course, said Gandalf, and why should not they prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself. You don't really suppose to you that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit. You are a very fine person Mr. Baggins, and I'm very fond of you, but you are only quite a little fellow in the wide world after all. Bilbo laughing, thank goodness, he said, and handed him the tobacco jar. I believe that God is fulfilling his promises today in your lives and through your lives to our world. Just because God is using you in a small and humble way in the midst of his grand scheme, don't discount the value of your participation. It will strengthen you, it will encourage the folk around you, and it's a marvelous adventure we have on our way home to heaven. I would like the year 2013 to be a year where we as individuals and we, corporately as a church, pursue with an elastic and healthy face. The adventures that God has set before us, even before the beginning of time, let's pray together. Father, it is quite amazing to think that the words of Scripture are real to us at this very moment, they're real to us as we obey you, as we worship you, we make the cycles locally and globally around the world. They're real when we worship you, when we were singing this morning. We were worshiping you, Lord, we're your people and you are our God. Thank you this year for encouraging us with your word. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your plan for our good, for the good of our family, for the good of our city, for the good of our nation, for the good of our world. Oh God, our adventures toward heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, in the power of your Holy Spirit, guide us and give us the faith of a child. To see and worship, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We ask this prayer in the name of Jesus and all God's people said together. Amen. Would you please stand for the benediction before we sing? I want to encourage you to embrace this third verse with a great fullness. I know that you have been doing that throughout the service. Sing this as a celebration to the Lord. May he well up in your heart in beautiful ways as this is an opportunity for the church to say something in unison for all of us to think and say the same thing at the same time. It's strengthens our faith when we're unified. And now hear this blessing of the Lord. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause us face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace both now and in the life of our lasting. Amen.