The Remnant and the Stump (Isaiah 10:33-11:11; Romans 15:12-13)

Well, stand for the reading of God's word.

I'm going to read from the gospel of Isaiah going to start

and 10:33 read through 11 11 and then we will look at Romans, 15

Romans 15:12

verses 12 and 13. Isaiah 10:33, behold.

Isaiah 10:33

The Lord. God of hosts will Lop the bowels

with terrifying power, the great and height will be hewn down and

the lofty will be brought low. He will cut down the thickets of

the forest with an axe and Lebanon will fall by The

Majestic. One, there shall come forth as

shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots,

shall bear fruit and the spirit of the Lord Lord shall rest upon

him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of

counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the

Lord and his Delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes, see, or decide disputes by

what his ears hear. But with righteousness, he shall

judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the

earth. He shall strike the Earth with

the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he shall

kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt

of his waist and faithfulness. The belt of his loins, the wolf

shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with

the young goat and the calf, and The Lion, and the fattened, calf

together. And a little child shall lead

them. And the cow and the bear shall

graze. Their young shall lie down

together and the lion shall eat straw.

Like the ox, the nursing child shall play over the whole of the

Cobra and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adders Den.

They shall not hurt, or destroy in all my Holy Mountain for the

Earth, shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the

waters, cover the sea. And that day, the root of Jesse

who shall stand as a signal for the peoples of him, shall the

nation inquire and his resting place shall be glorious in that

day. The Lord will extend his hand

yet a second. Time to recover.

The Remnant that remains of his people from Assyria, from Egypt,

from path, Ross, from kis, from elim, from shine.

Gnar, and from hamath and from the coastlands of the sea.

And then from Romans 15, 12 and 13.

And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come even, he who

Rises to rule the Gentiles in him.

Will the Gentiles? Hope May the god of Hope fill

you with all joy and peace in believing.

So that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in, hope

this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, please be

seated. How many of you?

Have not yet. Sent your Christmas cards, raise

your hand, good. How many of you plan?

Not to send Christmas cards? So, I thought how many you have

and you feel good that that's done.

I love, are we love? I should say as a family,

receiving Christmas cards, many of you send us cards and our

tradition is whoever gets the mail has the privilege of

opening and looking at the cards.

I never get to open the cards. They're open before I get home.

Our tradition is to look at them carefully read what's been

written? Particularly paying attention to

scripture verses if they're on there.

And they usually are that a family or an individual

selected. And then we throw the Christmas

cards into a massive Bowl. I mean, a big decorative Bowl

not Bowl sets on our coffee table, not just through the

season of Advent, and into the new year, but the whole year

until the next Advent and occasionally, we reach in pull a

card out. Read it again, pray for that,

family, or those individuals. It's a sweet thing.

The verse that I read last Would make a great verse for a

Christmas card. Let me read it again.

Romans, 15:13, May the god of Hope fill you with all joy and

peace in believing. So that by the power of the Holy

Spirit, you may abound in. Hope let me read that again.

May the god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in

believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, That you may

abound in Hope sometimes when I see the Christmas cards because

the photo is of a large family, or the people are distant.

I want to see more clearly, what's there?

And I don't know if you've done this or not, but though it's not

digital, I pretend it is. And I take my fingers and I put

them on the card and try to advance it.

Try to zoom. It, does anybody do that?

Have you done that? Thank you.

Thank you so much. Well today that's what we're

going to do with this verse. We're going to zoom in and look

at what hope Paul's talking about as it connects back to

Isaiah 11. So in order to understand it we

have to zoom in but the understand it more fully we have

to zoom out and in order to do that you're going to need a

Bible. I've been saying a lot this past

semester, bring your Bible to church.

We have them in the You rack, so grab one.

Now if you didn't, it's blue, there's not enough for everyone.

So share with the person next to you, because we're going to go

all over the scriptures this morning.

And the reason we're going to do that is because what's written

for us, I believe is meant to be normative in the life of a

Christian. And so with this benediction

that's what Romans 12 13 is, Paul says, may the god of hope

he's praying to the god of hope. There's one God of Hope anything

else you're seeking to put your hope in is going to fall.

It will fail you, but this God of Hope is giving us something.

And so, Paul prays May, the god of Hope fill you with all joy.

And peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit,

you may abound in hope I'm curious this morning believer.

Believer, those who believe in Jesus.

Are you abounding? And hope.

What that means is, is Hope pouring out from you, when you

look at the world. When you look at your own soul,

when you consider the Dynamics of your life, whatever's

happening, are you as a Believer abounding and hope want you to

think about that? Paul's prayer.

And therefore a prayer we should have for one another is that

would be our reality. It doesn't mean that the

circumstances that are hard and difficult, especially if they're

the result of sin should be something we Delight him.

But even while we're dealing with bitter Providence, we as

his people can abound in Hope. But it's a hope that is much.

Different than many think to understand it.

We need to understand this whole idea of the root of Jesse inter

bulletin go to the front page too.

It's we're preaching through the plaintiff.

Ons, we've come to the third petition and the text is what we

seeing in the great Christmas Anthem.

Probably the oldest Christmas Carol, we sing and we this

morning saying, O Come, Thou Rod of Jesse free thine own from

Satan's tyranny. What does that mean?

What is the rod of Jesse mean phrases?

Like that are ones that we grow up Hearing in singing and as we

grow in our faith we may begin to understand something more of

what is there. But friends the essence of this

hope that Paul is praying for the people to have praying for

us to have has a lot to do with the proper understanding of this

Rod of Jesse, it's what I do. Isaiah mentions twice in Isaiah

11, But to understand it, we need to go all the way back to

Genesis. So I want you to take your

Bible, turn to Genesis 2. And as you're turning there,

what we're going to do is explore the history of trees and

the history of redemption. We're going to explore the

history of trees and the history of redemption.

So let's begin in Genesis 2 at verse 8.

Now this is going to feel a little bit like a free lesson.

Some of you love history and some of you right now are

tempted to check out. Stay with me.

We're going to read a lot of the Living Word of God and it's all

easy to understand but it's a powerful Narrative of why this

phrase the stump of Jesse the word Remnant, why it matters so

much. So let's begin.

Genesis 2 verse 8. And the Lord, God, the one who

Genesis 2:8

created everything, the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the

East there. He put the man, whom he had

formed and out of the ground. The Lord God made to spring up

every tree. That is Pleasant to the sight

and good for food. So, every tree every plant,

every flower and it continues to be the case, everything you see

God has created Adam was the first human being to see a tree.

He was the first human being to see anything.

The Lord describes it. The tree of life was in the

midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of Good and

Evil verse 15. The Lord God took the man and

put him in the Garden of Eden, to work it, and keep it and the

Lord. God commanded.

The man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden

but of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.

You shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it.

You shall surely die. Now, is that clear?

It's clear, God has no problem making himself clear what he

wanted from his creation from Adam Man, created in his own

image and soon after woman cremate created in his own image

he is clear about what he wants and what he wants is always

given for life, it's not giving to destroy, it's not given to

limit life, it's given for life. And so he's very clear.

We're going to see how clear he is in.

Just a moment as we moved to Genesis 3, there's the serpent.

The serpent is Satan and Satan and his crafty ways is going to

come and he's going to begin to tempt them against the word of

God. Look with me at Genesis 3:1.

Genesis 3:1

Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the

field that the Lord God had made woman, has now been created.

So it says he said to the woman, the serpent is speaking.

God actually, say you shall not eat of the tree in the garden.

That's the first question in the Bible.

And the first question in the Bible was not from God, it's

from Satan and it's a question against God's Authority.

It's a question against what God had clearly communicated and

it's the same question. The enemy continues to use this

day. Did God, really say?

Did God? Really say?

Did God really say? So you see that even understood

first, two, and the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of

the fruit of the trees in the garden but God said, You shall

not eat of the fruit of the fruit of the tree that is in the

garden. In the midst of the garden.

Neither shall you? Touch it, lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die

for God knows that. When you eat of it, your eyes

will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree, Tree was good for food and

that it was a delight to the eyes.

And that the tree was to be desired.

To make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he

ate then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they

were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made

themselves loin cloths. God comes into the garden, make

himself known again, they hear him verse 9.

He asked his first question but the Lord God Called To The Man

and said to him, where are you? He said I heard the sound of you

in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid

myself. God, second question verse 11.

He said, who told you that you were naked.

And gods, third question, have you eaten of the tree of which I

have not that I've commanded you not to eat.

And now you see the consequences of the fall of Man the

consequences of sin as soon as they ate the fruit, as soon as

they disobeyed what God had told them, as soon as they took from

this tree, the only tree, they were commanded not to eat from

their eyes were open. They realized they were naked.

They didn't know they were naked.

There was no shame and their bodies being presented to one

another unclothed. But immediately, when they ate

the fruit fear came, shame came guilt.

Came the consequences of sin had entered into the world and those

consequences were great. God speaks, where are you?

Adam says. Verse 12, the woman whom you

gave to be with me. She gave me fruit of the tree

and I ate You see present their the Brokenness between Adam and

Eve, the Brokenness between Adam and God the Brokenness between,

even God, the Brokenness is result of sin of all these

relationships. Now, this is important.

Every sin that has been done against you, All the realities

of this sinful world, we live in all of its Darkness, all of its

decay, all the sin that is inside you, that you have done

thought failed to do. Is traced back.

To this tree. Trace back to this moment when

they fell and that condition has affected all of mankind.

How great was it? Well, the Lord gives Blood by

the shedding of to animal skins them and covers Adam and Eve.

They have two boys, one murders, the other and it continues to

get worse and worse. Turn in your Bible, just a

couple pages over to Genesis 6. Continuing to think about the

Theology of trees, the history of trees, and the history of

redemption. Listen to how God describes the

world just Now, the sixth chapter of the Bible verse 9,

these are the generations of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man blameless in his generation.

Noah walked with God, that's important to note and Noah had

three sons, Shem, ham and japheth so the world was bad.

It was evil was corrupt. God says this verse 11, the

Earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the Earth was filled

with violence. And God saw the Earth and behold

it was corrupt for all the flesh had corrupted their way on.

Earth and God said to Noah. I've determined to make an End

of All Flesh for the Earth is filled with violence through

them. And behold, I will destroy them

with the Earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher

wood. Let's pause there for a minute.

Most children grow up seeing Noah's Ark as a play toy.

Maybe even as early as the thing, the mobile that hovers

above their crib. And I know that we had Noah toys

all over our house and Noah stories.

And I'm glad that it wasn't very realistic because if it was

realistic, every child would grow up with very serious

issues. The world was so bad that God

decided to destroy it. But the same God who said where

are you? Not because he didn't know where

Adam and Eve was he was indicating already in the early

parts of the Bible. I'm coming for my people.

He said, I am going to preserve a Remnant, the room that will be

eight, people know his wife, his three sons their three wives.

They are going to get into this Arc that is made out of gopher

wood. So I want you to pause for a

minute think slowly about what you're hearing.

Think what Noah heard? I'm going to destroy everything.

But in order to preserve a, remnant of my creation of

humanity, I'm going to save you in order for you to be saved,

you need to go and build me an arc and the details of the Ark

are given and it's going to be built with gopher wood.

Now I want you to think for a minute about how Noah went and

looked at the trees that he would, then cut down our have

cut down. Then moved to the place, where

he is begin, going to playing them and cut them.

The and begin to hammer them into an arc.

That's going to hold these, eight human beings and all these

different pairs of animals, those trees.

Now, imagine falling. Now, imagine, after all the

trees have been taken down that will be used for the building of

the Ark, all the stumps that were just present, what a scene.

Have you ever seen the devastation of a tornado that

moves like in Moore? Oklahoma, I'm from Oklahoma, my

My mother was in that one massive sf5, her life was spared

but her house was lifted off the slab.

Every tree gone. And you just see the

devastation. Imagine what it looked like

where Noah was just chopping down these trees bringing this

wood. The history of trees in the

history of redemption. Imagine what it looked like when

the water finally receded. Pretty frightening picture.

Let's move forward. The history repeats itself that

God has commanded a way, it's to be for life and there would be

leaders that would follow him followed by leaders.

Who wouldn't and leaders would follow him for a while and then

wouldn't follow him. There is this cycle of sin,

oppression, and then Deliverance in these individuals who are

part of the people of God, sinning falling short, then the

oppression that would come from judgment and God's righteous

wrath followed by Deliverance. It's so think about Abraham

think about Moses. Think about all of these

Patriarchs moving through the Bible.

Suddenly, the people of God want a king.

They have one but they don't want just that King they want an

Earthly King like all the other nations around them.

So God calls the king named Saul, Saul is Anointed.

And solve false and this picks up.

In first Samuel turn, their first Samuel chapter 16.

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

And if you're new to the Bible, and right now you are fumbling

through, not knowing where to go.

I'm so glad you're here and don't be embarrassed.

Look in the table of contents. Find it, you'll be in.

Good hands, we're moving into first Samuel, which is this

history of Israel. Saul has fallen as a king or

will fall as the king and David It is going to be anointed David

through this anointing is going to show us where the stump of

Jesse originates. That's why we're doing this in.

This really matters. Look with me at verse 1, of 1st

Samuel, 16, the Lord said to Samuel Samuels, the priest.

How long will you grieve over Saul since?

I have rejected him from being King over Israel, fill your horn

with oil and go. Go.

I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehem might for, I have

provided for myself. A king, from among his sons.

Do you see that? I will send you to Jesse of

Bethlehem. Jesse has eight sons.

All of his sons are going to come before Samuel and Samuel

illuminated by the holy spirit, it's going to decide which one

it will be. They're going to start in order

of oldest to youngest because that's what you would do.

But you will begin to see that the way in which God does things

is, often not the way we would do them.

We know that so go with me now to verse 10, For single 1610

Jesse made Seven of his sons pass before Samuel and Samuel

said to Jesse the Lord has not chosen these.

Can you imagine Jesse? I mean, the priest Samuel is

there. One of your son's is going to be

the king to replace all friends. Let that soak in.

This is a human man sandals, a human, man.

This is what God wants. In order to replace Paul, it's

going to be one of your sons. So when after one, they are

rejected, they're not the one, what's Jesse thinking.

The Lord is not chosen these. Samuel speaks verse 11, then

send your said to Jesse are all your son's here, and he said

there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he's keeping the

Sheep. He's a Shepherd, how powerful

and Samuel said to Jesse sending get him for.

We will not sit down till he comes here and he sent and he

brought him in and the Lord said arise anoint him for this.

Is he Samuel does with the Lord commands him to do.

David is the king and it's from this line that the King Jesus is

going to come. It's from the stump of Jesse.

This line that Christ is going to be connected.

Turn with me to 2nd Samuel 6 or chapter 7.

I want you to hear what's going on at the end of David's life.

This section is titled. The Lord's Covenant with David.

And then we're going to move into Isaiah 11.

Nathan is speaking to David. Here's what he tells him, verse

12, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your

father's, I will raise up your Offspring.

After you shall come from your body and I was established his

kingdom. He shall build a house for my

name and I will establish the Throne of his kingdom forever.

God speaking these words to David, I will be to him a father

and he shall be to me a son when he commits iniquity.

It is so immediately. We know this is not Jesus yet.

This is another Earthly King. There will be many Earthly Kings

in this line, but this one in will have a Nick.

Would you like the others? I will discipline him with the

rod of men with the stripes of the sons of men but my steadfast

love will not depart from him. As I took it from Saul whom I

put away from before you and your house and your kingdom

shall be made. Sure forever.

Before me, your throne shall be established Established forever

in accordance with all these words.

And in accordance with all this Vision, Nathan spoke to David,

here's why that matters time and time again, these Kings would be

anointed and they would fall. They were Godly some for a while

and then they weren't some were never Godly and in the midst of

that, whenever the people of Israel would walk and

Disobedience to God, there would come God's judgment.

It's Is righteous, it's perfect but it's real.

And so the rod that were speaking it would be the rod

that the Lord would use to bring righteous judgment against this

people. But always, he would preserve a

Remnant always, he would save a portion of his people.

So go to Isaiah 11 now, instead of starting the scripture

reading this morning with Isaiah 11:1, I had his zoom in a little

Isaiah 11:1

bit and the reason is because what comes before?

11:1 says, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of

Jesse So what well, what's missing in this translation is

the simple three-letter conjunction and an end is used

at the beginning of every one of these verses because I believe

Isaiah wanted the people reading this have a heartbeat, that

would begin to go a little faster.

Is they begin to see describe for the Messiah that's coming?

This Messiah is not going to be a normal Messiah, he's not going

to be a normal teacher. He's going to Be something far

far greater. So to understand it, you got to

look at 10:33, just go to versus up.

Behold the Lord, God of hosts will Lop the boughs with

terrifying power, the great and height will be hewn down in the

lofty. Will be brought low.

He that's God, will cut down the thickets of the forest with an

axe and Lebanon will fall by The Majestic one.

What does that mean? Assyria was the enemy.

It was the rod, the nation God was using to discipline and

punish his people. So they would repent and come to

saving Faith again in the Lord. Assyria was rounding them up,

ready for the attack. And what God is saying is I'm

going to bring judgment against those, even those that I'm using

to bring judgment against you. And there will be a time when

you see the Assyrians and they are nothing but stumps these

trees, these massive trees. Of of incredible power will be

lopped off. There will be nothing there, but

stumps, but that which is true of them is also going to be true

of my people because of this judgment.

When you see my people it's going to also look like a bunch

of stumps. But from this picture, there is

a Stomp. While it looks, and Isaiah wants

to see this completely hopeless. There's a stump.

Called the stump of Jesse. And from the stop is going to be

a shoot and that shoot is going to come from that, which is

alive underneath, which is the roots.

So, look with me at 11 1. Isaiah says there shall come

forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his

roots, shall bear. Fruit Del Ralph Davis says,

don't move too quickly off this phrase.

The shoot And The Roots. He says, I believe, Isaiah has

much for us to see here and here's what it is.

The shoot and the route point to both the human and the divine

nature of Christ. Here's how this is amazing.

Jesus. Is the seed of Jesse, he is in

this davidic line, but more than just being another king, he's

the new David just like, he was the new Adam.

He's the new David, the perfect David, he is the seed of Jesse.

But he is also the source of Jesse, he was present at the

creation. He is God, he is fully God.

He is fully man. So that when Isaiah goes on to

describe, who this Messiah is, we see this much greater than

just the human deliverer. It's truly God.

He is the seed of Jesse. But also the source of Jesse.

He is The Offspring of Jesse but also Jesse's origin.

Let that sink in. When we begin to read about who

he is, Isaiah tells us in verse 2 of Isaiah 11 and the spirit of

the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and

understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of

knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

That same spirit. The holy spirit is the one who

lives inside us. That same spirit is the one who

illuminated your heart and mind at some point to believe the

truth about Jesus. And for some of you that might

actually be today, It also tells us what he's going to do verse

3. His Delight shall be in the fear

of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his

eyes, see, or decide to speech, by what his ears hear.

But with righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with

Equity. The words also Justice for the

meek of the earth, and he shall strike the Earth with the rod of

his mouth, and with the break of his lips, breath of his lips, he

shall kill the wicked righteousness, shall be the

belt. Of his waist and faithfulness

the belt of his loins. This is what he's going to do.

This is a promise of the coming Messiah.

His first coming. But then with his activity who

he is, filled with the spirit, what he does, what follows is

peace. I'm not going to unpack all of

this for you today children, go home with your parents friends.

Talk about this, over lunch. Read, what is said in verses 6

through 9, this incredible picture of the piece that exists

between that which we be natural enemies.

One of the things to see here is that there was a natural

disconnect between the Jews and the Gentiles and this wasn't

just a message that would come when Jesus arrived and Paul the

Apostle help spread the gospel. It's taking place here and

here's how we know go to verse 10 and that day the root of

Jesse who is that it's Jesus he's the root of Jesse the seed

but also the source. He's The Offspring, but also the

origin. And that day, the root of Jesse

who, shall stand as a signal for the peoples of him, shall the

nation's and choir, and his resting place shall be glorious

in that day. The Lord will extend his hand

yet a second. Time to recover.

The Remnant that remains of his people, but it's not just from

Israel. It's not just from Judah.

It's from a Syria, Egypt page, Ross, Kush.

Elin shinar kamath and the coastlines of the sea.

So that's why when we sing about this Rod of Jesse the stump of

Jesse. We see this powerful history of

the of trees in the history of redemption.

And Palvin says may the god of Hope fill you with all joy and

peace in believing. So by that so that by the power

of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in, hope this is not just

for the Jews. It's also for the Gentiles

that's why before that Paul said the root of Jesse will come even

who arises to rule the Gentiles in him.

Will the Gentiles hope? Praise God. so, back to my first

question, Are you a believer? Abounding in Hope.

If you're a non-believer. I already know that answer. but

if you're a Believer and you would say I'm not abounding and

Hope, God's grace is sufficient to restore you and restore me to

the place. We should be no matter the

circumstances. But here's the truth.

There are times in this life. When we look out and we see the

darkness and we see the Decay, we see the corruption.

There are times when we're quiet enough to look at what's going

on inside us. And we see the darkness and

decay and what it looks like is the forest of stumps.

Where there's been nothing but destruction.

Nothing that's beautiful. It just looks really bad.

It might be because of where we're at physically, or

emotionally, or spiritually, or relationally.

It might be where our children are in those categories.

It might just be the way you think about the way our country

is is operating The World At Large.

It looks like stumps. but for the Christian, When we see that

Devastation, we can abound in Hope because of this route.

The root of Jesse. And so when Paul says may the

god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so

that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in Hope.

He's reminding people what he has shown them already.

Then the history of trees and the history of redemption, it

never looked more dark than more devastating.

Then, when there was a stump, That was the base of a tree that

was cut down that would become across.

In which our savior. Who was laid in a Manger.

Meek and Mild. Would hang. so that you and I

who deserved that. Could be set free from Satan's

tyranny for all eternity. This Side of Heaven, they're

going to be dark days when it just looks like a field of

stumps. But it was never darker that

day. Never.

But in God's Providence, in God's plan.

That stump of Jesse that route, that hope.

Gave birth. To Hope.

Hope that abounds. Is a person.

And the person is Jesus. Hope.

Is from God. Hope is God.

Is he living in you? And no matter how dark or how

many stumps you see, he is alive.

You and I are part of his remnant.

If you cannot confidently, say yes, he's in me.

I know I'm a Believer and I praise God that you've heard

this message and it may have seemed a little bit like

freshman history. But it's the Living Word of God

showing you the history of redemption.

If you want to know that you're in Christ, please come and talk

to me or Bill or somebody else that's here.

And the person I would ask if you don't want to talk to me is

somebody that you can see who's abounding and Hope.

And Christian Christian, if that's not you.

Don't try to make yourself suddenly about a no.

You can't. But you can come to the Lord.

With open arms. And pray.

Give me hope. And he will.

Jesus, thank you for the patience of the flock today.

Thank you for the power of your word.

Thank you, that we will be singing.

Later today as well as at the conclusion of this service.

About the good news. Of the stump of Jesse.

Father I pray that if there's any here who longed to know

they're saved they want salvation they have not known

your promise that even now friend.

You would just simply confess that you're a sinner in need of

a savior. That you would trust Jesus for

salvation alone. Receiving him alone.

As our Lord. You make that decision.

Tell somebody that's here. Father, may you bless us with

this abounding, hope? Even in the midst of bitter

Providence, maybe not see it primarily as an emotion, but is

a reality and we thank you, Father.

We thank you so much for sending your son.

And whose name we pray. Amen.