Malachi 3:16-4:6 - Chosen to Treasure

Right. So if you've got a Bible, if you

want to find Malachi chapter 3, so it says verse chapter chapter

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

3, verse 16, it says those who feared Yahweh.

And I'm just going to pause that because I'm actually reading

from the Liv and in the NIV, probably like most of your

Bibles, whether you're reading the NIV or the ESV or whatever

Bible translation you use, it will probably say then those who

feared the Lords and the Lord is in capital letters.

And I know I've said this before, but I'm going to just

say it again that I like using Yahweh because Yahweh is God's

name. It's his personal covenant name.

And when in, especially in the Old Testament, when we see the

Lord and it's all capitalised, it's, it is a replacement.

It's what those who have translated the Bible into

English, I didn't actually check.

I don't know if any of you know this.

If you've got Bibles in different languages, I don't

know if other languages do the same thing, but in English,

Shagan's give me a nod. So I'm going to go with that.

That's our translators choose generally to translate the word

Yahweh into the Lords. And I'm not going to get into

why that is right now, but I like saying Yahweh because

there's power in God's name. There is power in declaring

which God we are talking about that we are talking about

Yahweh, the covenant gods, Yahweh who who stepped into

human history and became the man who we call Christ Jesus.

We're talking about that got I mean, I was talking to Isaac a

couple of months ago about. So Isaac works with, with

footballers who have a faith in, in Christ.

And I remember you saying that if you ever watch TV and a

footballer or an athlete who is a Christian, they do really

well. And they're, so they're

interviewed and they might say sometimes like praise, praise

God, praise God. And the authorities, those who

are over what we are able to see on telly, they're, I mean,

they're not ecstatic, but they're quite happy with someone

saying praise God because to be honest, we all know which God

they're talking about, but they could be talking about any God.

But when they say, I want to just thank Jesus, I want to

thank my Lord and Saviour, that's when that gets cut.

That's when you don't see it because Jesus, there is power in

his name. When he is declared the

authorities, the principalities of this world, they tremble,

they fear, and so therefore they want to rid his name.

They're quite happy for us to talk about God or or the

universe or or we just we just want to pray.

But as soon as we say Jesus Christ, they are fearful, they

tremble. Think of the the the the people

in in Jesus when Jesus walked the earth, the people who are

filled with the unclean spirits, who would the spirits were

terrified when Jesus walked in the place they were terrified.

No other gods, no other spiritual being creates so much

terror in evil than Jesus Christ.

There is power in his name. So therefore when we pray, we

pray in the name of Jesus. You don't need to say in Jesus

name, end your prayers, but we pray in his name.

We pray to him and I encourage you, use his name, use his name,

use his name because there is power in the name of Jesus.

So let's read it. It says so every time in my

Bible it says the Lord. I'm replacing that with Yahweh.

So then those who feared Yahweh talked to each other and Yahweh

listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was

written in His presence concerning those who feared

Yahweh and honoured His name. On the day.

When I act, says Yahweh Almighty, they will be my

treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a

father has compassion and spares his Son who serves him.

And you will again see and distinction, see a distinction

between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve

God and those who do not. Surely the day is coming.

It will. It will burn like a furnace.

All the arrogant and evil doer will be stubble, and the day

that is coming will set them on fire, says the says Yahweh.

Not a root or a branch will be left to them.

But for you who Revere my name, the sun of righteousness will

rise with healing in its rays, and you will go out and frolic

like well fed calves. I love that sentence.

Then you will trump, Then you will trample on the wicked.

They will be ashes under the soles of your feet.

On the day I act, says Yahweh Almighty, remember the law of My

servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave to him on Horeb for

all Israel. See, I will send the prophet

Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of Yahweh.

He will come, He will turn the hearts of the parents, their

children, and the hearts of the children to their parents, or

else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you.

Lord God, that you are an awesome God.

Jesus, there is nothing that you cannot do Lord God, I thank you

that you have won every single victory.

Lord Jesus, I thank you that you have done it all.

You have paid the price, Lord Jesus, and I thank you that you

have enabled us. You beckon us into your

presence, that you listen to us, that you are concerned with with

with what we're thinking, what we're doing, Lord Jesus.

And I pray that today you would set us on fire again, Lord God,

that we would truly understand again how amazing what a

privilege it is to be called your treasured possession, to be

called your delight, the apple of your eye.

Amen. Amen.

I don't miss this. I'm just going to read that

first line again. It says those who feared Yahweh

talk to each other and Yahweh listened.

He heard not only that a scroll of remembrance was written in

the presence concerning those who feared Yahweh and honoured

His name. See here we are given a glimpse.

We're given a window to look into the throne room of heaven.

And what we see is that when you speak, when you utter your words

of concern, when you say, Jesus, Jesus, what's going on?

Jesus, I'm really worried about what's going to happen tomorrow.

Jesus, I'm going for that job interview.

Lord Jesus, there, there's stuff happening at my school.

Lord Jesus, there's, there's people who I'm really worried

about. He doesn't ignore you.

He doesn't just get on with everything else he's doing.

I mean, we worship of gods who created the entire universe.

The Bible teaches us that the the only reason why the the

earth goes around the sun and the moon goes around the earth

and the whole universe keeps in its its position is because God

sustains it. He does it.

I mean, the, the reason why the grass grows, the trees grow, the

reason why why why there's plants and animals is because

God sustains them. The reason why you're able to

breathe right now and your heart is still beating is because God

is sustaining that. And whilst he is doing all of

that, when you come and you used to come to him and you say God,

I don't like this God, I'm worried.

He cups his ear, he bends down and he listens to you.

He listens to you. Not only that, he writes it out.

He writes our church. What are you worried about?

I mean, it starts to come out on our worship at the end, but what

are you worried about? What are your concerns?

See me. I was.

I don't know if anyone else can get, can sympathise with this,

but the other day I was, I was scrolling social media and I'm

seeing a load of stuff come up in my news feed about what the

government's doing, what's going on in the world.

And you know, I don't know if any of you've seen this, that

the government's trying to put through this Islamophobia law

where it's going to be illegal to talk about anything negative

about Islam, which also can mean that is Muslims can come up to

Christians and say, you're offending me and you must stop

doing what you're doing. And I'm, I'm starting to, to, to

starting to worry what was going on Gods.

And then I kind of came to my senses and I was like, I can't

change anything by doing what I'm doing.

Really. I have little ability to change

anything anyway. So I threw my phone away, put on

some worship music, worshipped gods and just started telling

him, Jesus, I don't like this in our culture.

Jesus, I don't like this Lord God, I pray, Lord Jesus, for

your blessing over my family. I pray for your blessing over

our nation, Lord Jesus. And you know what it felt really

good if I felt that kind of burden that weight lifts.

Is he church? God hears.

He hears your worries. He hears your concerns.

He hears your pain, your frustration.

You are not alone in your suffering or your worries.

It says that he writes them down and he doesn't write them down

because, you know, we need to write down that today's Mother's

Day, otherwise we'd forget it. But it's not, he's not like

that. This isn't, this isn't about God

being forgetful. I've got so many plates that I'm

juggling at the moment. I need to write down what Ben is

saying. Otherwise I'm going to forget

it. No, no, this is a, this is a

window into the fact that God is saying it's, it's a poetic

imagery. It's saying that God, he cares

about what you say so much that he is writing your prayers down.

He's filling a book with your prayers.

It's just like in Revelation, John has this image of our

prayers, of the things that we're saying to God being like

drops of incense filling a bowl. But one day that bowl will be

full and he will empty it. One day that book that he is

writing of our prayers, of our concerns, of our, of our praises

will be full. And Malachi writes, on that day

I will act. They will be my treasured

possession. On that day, I'll act.

And they who's they? It's you, It's me, it's His

church, it's his chosen people, it's those who He has loved.

See the Creator of the universe, the one who has architected

every single atom, who has placed every single proton and

neutron electron in its place. He chooses broken, flawed,

sinful, filthy men and women like you and me and he says you

are precious to me, you're precious to me, I want you, I

value you, I want to enjoy you. See in Christ.

So This is why Jesus came. Jesus heart came so that he

could obtain you, so we could have you, so that he could

forgive you. See, the Bible tells you it's

just that the only God can forgive sins and Jesus over all

of us. He says if you come to him in

repentance, you are given forgiveness by his blood.

We are washed clean, we were washed pure, and in the Old

Testament they were washed pure by the blood so that the high

priest could enter in. Once a year into the Holy of

Holies, we have the blood of Christ that comes over us, not

so that we get to enter in, but actually so that the Holy of

Holies comes and dwells within us.

The Holy of Holies comes into us.

God himself, the Spirit of Christ, dwells in US.

So you are not a burden. You are not something that God

tolerates, that he wishes that he had something else.

No, you are something that God treasures beyond anything else.

Maybe imagine right now something that you feel like I

could not live without. I treasure this so much.

I love this so much. Multiply that by Infinity and

that is how God feels about you. God treasures you, God loves

you, He wants you. So my question is, if God

treasures you and he has made himself on offer to us, why

would we treasure anything other than him?

Why would we look to put our satisfaction?

Why would we look to be satisfied by anything else but

him? You see, this is what Malachi

has been rebuking the Jewish people for the for the for all

four chapters that they have grown cold, that they've grown

weary of worshipping their God. We looked it straight away in

chapter 1. We looked at how that how that

they had become half hearted in their worship, that they had

brought blind and lame lambs to him.

We saw that that they had they'd broken their marriage covenants,

that they didn't love one another.

They didn't love the poor. They weren't pursuing justice.

We saw that they trusted in their money, in their

possessions, in their talents over God, so much so that Yahweh

would say, will you rob me? Will you rob me?

But listen, their sin, their disobedience, their growing

weary of God wasn't due to lack of effort.

See, God doesn't come to us and say try harder, do better.

No, no, no, their, their, their, their sin, their lack of

trusting in God came from the fact that they had forgotten

what it meant to truly gaze upon the beauty of Jesus, to gaze

upon the beauty of their Lord and savour to, to, to bring a

habit of awe and wonder of their gods.

See, some, some of us are caught up in sinful habits, sinful

patterns, Some of us are caught up in worry and anxiety.

And Jesus is telling us this morning not to do better, but to

gaze upon him, to gaze upon his glory and ask that wonderful

hymn it says as we turn our eyes upon Jesus, as we look on his

wonderful face, the things of earth will grow strangely dim in

the light of his glory and grace.

Church, when did you last gaze upon the face of Jesus?

When did you last gaze upon him? Drink him in.

When did you truly encounter his presence?

When did you get lost in wonder of the majesty of our gods?

When did, when did the scales fall off your eyes?

And you saw how truly magnificent, how wonderful this

treasure that is on offer to us, this Pearl of great price.

See, when we encounter Jesus, when we gaze upon his face, it's

not about trying harder to improve ourselves.

We just change, we just become more like the one who we

treasure well as we bathe in his presence, as she says, in the

light of Jesus Christ, in the light of our the glory of our

God. Worry goes, worry goes when we

when we bathe in the richness of his beauty, our appetite for him

increases and a desire for sin decreases.

It's really simple maths. See our our desire, our desire

becomes rather than to satisfy, satisfy ourselves.

It becomes that we want to bring glory to Jesus.

Who wants to be satisfied? Who wants to find joy?

Anyone. A few of you well done.

I do. But the problem is, isn't it

that we look for it in all the wrong places?

We even today, we're going to forget and we're going to, we're

going to try and look for joy in how many followers we've got on

social media. We're going to have to, we're

going to look for joy in, in who's commented on stuff that

we've done, who recognises the things that we go.

We look for joy in job promotions or money that we're

getting in or children or or whatever.

All can bring us joy, but it's fleeting.

I ask you again, do you want true satisfaction and true joy?

Yes, true joy, true to satisfaction is found in only

who? Jesus.

So we all know it. Let's practise it.

We all know that true joy and true satisfaction comes from

only Jesus. So I ask you again, when did you

last spend time give yourself over to gazing at the face of

our Lord and Saviour? When did you do that?

See. Because when we spend time with

him, we want to give him glory. And the truth of scripture is

that the more glory we give him, the more satisfied, the more joy

we feel. We feel we are filled with more

joy and more, more satisfaction. The more we worship, the more we

give joy and the more we we we thank our Lord and Saviour.

Anyway, it's what and the Westminster Catechism wrote,

wrote down 400 years ago that the chief end of man is to give

glory to God and enjoy him forever.

It's what we were made for. John Piper, you know, modernised

it and said God is most glorified in us when we are most

satisfied in him. Do you want to bring Christ

glory? Put your hands up if you want to

bring Christ glory. Yeah, it's bringing Christ

glory. Bring him glory.

The more we glorify Him, the more we worship him, the more we

we dedicate our time and our money and our possessions for

his glory, the more wonderfully satisfied and full of joy we

become. See, See God, He is completely

beyond our comprehension. And when we realise that nothing

that we pursue on earth can even come close to Him, can touch His

glory, He and He alone is the answer to every single longing,

every single groan, every single every, every single shortfall

that we feel in our lives. When we realise that He is the

answer to everything, but most wonderfully of all that He has

made a way that we can come and be with Him, that he is

available to us. How wonderful.

See, this is the cry of Malachi. This is the cry of the four

chapters of Malachi. It says you have been chosen,

you have been chosen, Church, you have been chosen.

That God's goodness has been revealed to you and he is the

greatest treasure that we could possibly imagine.

And that treasure has been available to you and that you

are his treasure. See, we are his treasure not

because you're impressive. We are not his treasure because

we have done impressive things. We are not his treasure because

we might do impressive things. He doesn't pick us up and go,

oh, just a bit of spit and Polish.

You'd be beautiful. No, no, no, no.

He looks at you, he saves you, he places this spirit inside

you, the most infinitely valuable thing in all of the

universe, and he looks at you and loves you because he chooses

to love you. How, how, when we get this deep

inside us, how can we? How can we, as Malachi says, how

can we offer blind and whatever lame sheep as worship?

How can we be half hearted in we are worship when we see the

infinite value of gods, you know, how can how can we do

anything but give our all for him who gave our us everything?

Surely anything less than giving God our all is an insult.

It's an insult to Him. See.

How can we stand back and throw insults?

How can we critique God's church, his bride, from the

sidelines when she is who God loves above or anything else?

How can we do that? How can we try and pull down

other Christians, pull down His bride?

Surely when we grasp how amazing God is, how wonderful He is, we

want to get on board and love who He loves.

Love His church. Build her up, desire for her and

those Christians around you the best that they can possibly

have. How can we stay silent in the

face of justice or not speak out truth and love Christ?

He loves the broken, He loves the down hearted.

So therefore, how can we not speak truth?

How can we not love those who are broken, love those who are

oppressed and vulnerable, the widow, the orphan, and share

with them the good news that is Christ Jesus?

How can we withhold our time, our money, our possessions, our

talents from Him? You see, when you invest in the

Kingdom, it's the only thing in the universe that you're not

going to lose. Everything else that you invest

in, everything else you buy, everything else you spend your

time on will rust, will get mouldy, has an expiry date to

it. Jesus Christ investing in him

and his Kingdom. There is no expiry date.

So in in 100 years, no one is going to care how expensive your

clothes were today. No one's going to care how many

people liked the latest TikTok video you had.

No one's going to care what type of house you had.

But in 100 years time, and I say 100 years time because probably

unless we've got some really longevity in this room, we're

all going to be dead. OK?

Some of them might be, yeah. But in 100 years time, OK, we

will be in heaven unless he's come back and we're reigning

with him on earth, we will be with him.

And the only thing that will matter is, is what did you

invest in the Kingdom right now? What did you invest for Jesus?

What do you invest for his church, for his Kingdom that he

says gains interest and produces glory forevermore?

The church, He says, He says this is serious.

He says surely the day of the Lord is coming.

It will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evil

evil doer will be stubble and the day is coming and the day is

coming. We'll set them on, set them on

fire, says Yahweh Almighty. Not a root or a branch we left

to them. Just pause them there and see.

See, this is serious. See, no one is forcing you to

submit to Jesus Christ. No one is forcing you to follow

Him. No one is forcing you to live

for His Kingdom. What he's saying is, is for

those who pursue other things. Yes, there's joy, but it is

fleeting. He likens it to stubble, which

is when you, when you bring in the harvest, you, you have all

these stalks of grass and you collect in the grain and the

stubble is the stalks which are leftover.

It's the dry bits of grass which has no use other than to be

burnt and thrown away. And that's where he says, all

these fleeting joys that we look for, everything we looked for

that isn't building the Kingdom, it's going to be stubble.

It's going to be burnt away at the end.

So no one's forcing you. But what are you choosing?

To live a life for him or to live a life for yourself?

He says. He continues says, But for you

who Revere my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with

healing in its rays, and you will go out and frolic like well

fed calves. So we have two choices, to live

for ourselves which leads to destruction, or to live for

Christ, to Revere him, to esteem him, to idolise him, to exalt

him, to worship and adore him. And when we do that, when we

adore King Jesus, when we live for him, it leads to unbridled

joy, satisfaction that has no ends.

I mean, I don't suppose you've ever met a miserable Christian?

I see. Again, I'm talking about like a

real mood sucker. It just like sucks the joy out

of A room. Jesus said we shouldn't be like

that because because that when we're like that, the the reason

for that is it's an outworking of the fact that we're not

spending time adoring Christ. Now, I'm not saying as a

Christian we shouldn't get sad. You know, there's times to be

sad. We've lost someone, something

tragic happens. That's good to be sad.

But actually, Christ says that, that through the pain, through

the suffering, there is a joy that goes beyond understanding.

Now I say, have you ever met someone?

I mean, that's a bit like, that's a bit impersonal, isn't

it? Have you ever been that person?

I mean, believe it or not, I have.

I know it's shocking, but I have.

I've been that person and I can blame it on being tired, I can

blame it on, I can blame it on feeling my body's in pain, I can

blame it on all sorts of things. And yes, they are real.

Yes they do. It does hurt and it does.

It can bring you down, but ultimately that's not the reason

for me lacking in joy. The reason for me lacking in joy

in those moments is the fact that I have failed to adore

Christ. Think of Jesus.

I mean, ever since I've had Emmy, this is just flabbergasted

me about Jesus. Jesus, when he was crucified, he

had been up for hours and hours days, You know, he was

exhausted. You know, we think, well, well,

I'm just in a bad mood because I'm tired.

Jesus was tired. I'm I'm just in a bad mood

because, because because it because I'm in pain right now.

Well, Jesus was definitely in pain.

I'm just in a bad mood because XYZ them over there, they said

some stuff which has really annoyed me and got me down.

Oh, yeah, Jesus might have felt that too.

But Jesus never lost that joy. He never sinned because he never

failed to adore the Father, to draw his strength rather than

from his circumstances, but from the love of Gods.

I see, Church, We need to be a people that build in a habit in

our lives of adoring, adoring our Lord and Saviour through all

circumstances. See, each one of us has been

called. Each one of us has been chosen.

If some of us have never been chosen for anything, Some of us,

you know, you went through the whole of school sports, no one

wanted you on their team. Some of you, you've been passed

over for promotion. Some of you've been passed over

all sorts of things. No, you know, you feel like no

one really wants you, OK? God wants you.

God desires you. Before you did anything, good or

bad, he said. I want you.

I want you to be my child. I want you as my precious

possession, that I can adore and enjoy.

That you can adore and enjoy me, He says.

He says that when we get that, that we have been chosen, that

we are His, that he treasures us.

He says the result of that is that we become like frolicking

calves. I love that it's, it's the image

of a calf like jumping around in a circle and feeling like if

you've ever seen that, it's an amazing, amazing image.

Our dog does this. Nala does it when it's dinner

time, we keep her dinner in the garage and she will she runs,

she bolts it out of the house when it's dinner time and she

literally just jumps, you know, all four legs off the floor

right around around the circles. It's just just just

uncontainable joy that she's going through that she's going

to get something to eat. And this is what this is what

she's saying. This is what Malachi saying that

when we get, when we adore, when we spend time in the presence of

the Lord, that we we are filled with such joy, such satisfaction

that we can't contain it, that it just comes out of us.

That even when we're going through horrific circumstances,

the joy of God persevere penetrates through that.

You see, I've said that I said that quite often worry, worry

can steal our joy. But then there's other things

that God says can steal our joy. One is laziness.

Throughout Scripture, it talks about the sluggards.

I mean, when you gaze upon the wonder of Christ and you're

filled with joy like a frolicking calf.

I mean, how can you be lazy? How can you worry?

Because because God is in you and you're just the way you can

see it in someone, You can see in someone who's spent time with

God. They're just like, I'll do that,

I'll do that. That's going to cost you.

Yeah, it doesn't matter. I'll do it.

I want to do it because the love of God is so, so penetrating

into their very core that they just can't, can't hold it in,

you know, another one, another one that that God says can

steal. Our joy is when we look to

place, when we look to, to place our satisfaction in ourselves.

It's the sin of Babel. I want to, I want to make a

name. I want to be great, not for God,

but for myself. But how, how can we, how can we

do that? How can we live for ourselves

when we've seen the wonder of our King?

See, Jesus, actually, he doesn't tell us that there's anything

wrong with wanting to be great. Actually, Jesus tells us that

it's good to want to be great. It's just there's a problem with

what we think is great. I mean, for example, like this,

this, this, this passage, and quite a lot of Malachi is

talking about a particular person 400 years later, who

would live, who'd be born about six months before Jesus was.

Anyone know his name? John.

Yeah. John.

It's John. Jesus said about John.

No one born of a woman fitting for Mother's Day.

No one born of a woman, and that's all of us is greater than

John. And see, Jesus.

Jesus, it commended us to be great, but John wasn't great

because he lived in a desert and he wore camel clothes in 8

bucks. May thank God that wasn't what

made him great. John was great because he led

people back to the presence of gods, because he was at that

voice in the wilderness shouting the way, saying come, come, come

and meet your Saviour, come and me are gods.

So he was that one who was who through Christ was turning men

and women towards one another far as to sons, sons, to

fathers, daughters to mothers. He was that one.

You see, that is how we are great.

It's actually Jesus goes on and he says John is the greatest,

but actually those who are those of us who serve for the Kingdom,

those of us who are least in the Kingdom, they will be greater

still. See church, we are called out.

You have been chosen. You have been called out of this

world so that others. This is this how I'm ending it.

This is how Scripture ends it that we are called out not so

that we could have some sort of holy huddle and have a nice time

enjoying Jesus. We are called out so that others

may be called in. Jacob right at the beginning of

this chapter, not at the beginning of this book.

God says I loved Jacob, I chose Jacob but I didn't Esau.

But actually the whole reason for him choosing Jacob, who was

flawed, who was a pathetic human being, let's be honest, God

chose him. God chose to show him love, to

show him favour so that the nations would be called in and

worship their gods. Let that be an encouragement to

you. Doesn't matter how amazing you

or unamazing you think you were. Jacob was probably worse.

OK, but we have been called in so that others may see, so that

the world may see, so the nations may see.

They may see you in good times, they may see you in bad times,

and they may see you no matter what season of life you're in,

joyous in the Lords, and they may cry out.

How can we have what you have? How can we know what you have,

Church? We are not a private club, we

are a rescue party. We are called to go out and find

stubble and introduce it to Jesus who will make it into

gems. We are called to find orphans

and show them the Father so that they may bring glory to Him,

that they may find the true treasure that is in Jesus

Christ. And it all starts with us

learning to treasure our gods. I'm going to pray and I want us

to receive from God right now because I want us to really just

gaze again. I want us to have a hunger for

our gods because this world is evil.

This world is wicked and it seems to be getting wickeder and

wickeder every single day. And the only hope for it is not

made is not well meaning people. It's only hope is spirit filled

believers who are filled with the presence of God, who's who

have, who have, who are captivated by him and show the

world what it means to know A to know a God, to know Jesus who

loves them. So Jesus, God, I pray that you

would fill us right now. God, we are your people and when

we ask you to fill us, you fill us graciously.

Lord God, I pray, Lord God, that you would give every single one

of us an increased hunger to be in your presence.

God, God, let us be a people who make a habit of spending time

with you. Lord God, of being in Home

group, of being here on a Sunday says you say don't give up the

habit of meeting together because when two or three are

gathered there, I am in power in your midst, Lord Jesus.

And I pray, Lord God, you'd make us hungry, that we'd be hungry,

Lord Jesus, to be wherever you are, to find ourselves there,

Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God, if there's there's anyone here,

Lord Jesus, that's struggling with worry, that's struggling

with, with bitterness, Lord Jesus, with the struggling with,

with laziness, Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God, that you would

touch them right now, Lord God. And that worry would be gobbled

up, that bitterness would go. Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God,

that you would take all barriers from us, anything that has been

placed in the way to let us enjoy your glory, Lord Jesus.

Lord God. And we do it, Lord Jesus, we do

it because it is the best. It is the best thing for us.

It's what we were created for. Lord God, we pray that as we

treasure you more, this world would see and know that you are

God. Lord God, that even this week we

would have men and women come up to us and say, what have you

got? I want what you've got.

I want that joy that seems to pour out of you.

Fear us, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Amen.