Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - The Baptizer's Mission - Luke 3:1-20

We are continuing our series called Luke, the Orderly Account of Truth. In

the last several weeks, we spent some time looking at the prophecy fulfilling birth

of our Lord Jesus the Messiah and then his early childhood years, and thinking

back to the very beginning of our series of Luke, we were introduced to

yet another fulfillment of prophecy, found in the birth of John the Baptizer,

the one who was born to prepare the way for the coming Messiah, the

one who Israel had desperately been waiting for so long. In mid November,

Pastor Greg taught out of Luke chapter one sixty seventh or eighty and showed us

the thread of God's incredible mercy as sung by John's father Zechariah in verse eighty.

Was the last time we saw John, who I lovingly called the Baptizer

baby at that time. Okay, wasn't funny? Where Luke tells us he

grew and became strong in the spirit, and he lived in the wilderness until

he appeared publicly to Israel. Jumping forward to today, we're going to see

you that John is now fully grown and he goes straight to work in what

I've named my sermon today the Baptizer's Mission. Let's pray and then we'll read

through today's text and break it down. Lord Jesus, thank you for this

time that your church can gather and learn and receive from and be transformed by

the power of your living word. I asked you would humble each and every

one of our hearts, remove any inkling of pride that remains, so that

we can submit to your word today and be transformed by it. We love

you, Amen. We're going to be in Luke chapter three, verses one

through twenty, and before I start, I just want to say God's providence

is good because several weeks ago I was preaching about out of I think chapter

one of Luke, and I had briefly mentioned Jesus' genealogy, and I said,

I'm not going to go through the words because I'm going to butcher the

pronunciation. And I made the joke that you watch, It's gonna be my

week to preach and I'm gonna have to pronounce all these names. But God

is good and that falls on Greg's rotation next week. He'll be fine.

All right. There's a lot of awesome stuff to impact so let's read through

the text. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when

Pontius Pilot was governor of Judea, Herod Tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip

Tetrarch of Ituria, and Trachonitis pretty sure that's wrong, and Lisanius tetrarch of

Abilene. During the high priesthood of Annis and Caiaphas, the word of God

came to John's son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. He went into all

the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of

sins. As it is written in the Book of the Words of Isaiah,

the prophet a voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way for

the Lord, Make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled,

in every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight,

the rough ways smooth, and all people will see God's salvation. John said

to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers,

who warned you to flee from the coming wrath, produce fruit in keeping

with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham

as our father. For I tell you that out of these stones God can

raise up children. For Abraham. The axe is already at the root of

the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut

down and throw into the fire. What should we do in the crowd,

asked John answered, anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who

has none, and anyone who has food should do the same. Even tax

collectors came to be baptized teacher. They asked, what should we do.

Don't collect any more than you are required to, he told them. Then

some soldiers asked him, and what should we do? He replied, don't

extort money, and don't accuse people falsely. Be content with your pay.

These people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might

possibly be the Messiah. John answered them, all, I baptize you with

water. But one who is more powerful than I will come the straps of

whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the

Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in hand, is in his

hand to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his but

he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. And with many other words.

John extorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them. But when

John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodius, his brother's wife,

and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to

them all he locked John up in prison. All right, let's break it

down. We're gonna start. In verses one through two, Luke gives us

a background in historical context for when John started his mission in the fifteenth year

of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Poncha's pilot was governor of Judea,

Herod Tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip Tetrarch of Euria, and Trachonitis,

and Lisanius I know and Lisanius Tetrarch of Abilene during the high priesthood of Annas

and Caiaphas to stop there. In the middle of verse two, so Luke

gives Theophilis, whom this letter is written to, an exact historic account about

the time during which Jordan, excuse me, the time during which John began

his mission. He the mission takes place in around the Jordan River. Okay,

there's a lot of names to remember. Grace. Grace, so Luke

writes about Poncious Pilot, who was the fifth governor of Judea and also presided

over the trial of Jesus. Wasn't much of a trial, That's why I

use air quotes. Sir. We see the Herod brothers Antipus and Philip,

two of the sons of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the Herod

who, at the time of jesus birth, ordered the death of all male

children aged two and under in a cowardly and egregious attempt secure his own rule.

But like all men he did, he died, and the one true

king is still on his throne today, alive and well. Amen. Luke

also tells Theophilis that this was during the high priesthood of Annis and Caiaphas.

Now Israel only had one high priest at any given time. Annis had been

the high priest, but was removed from office by the Romans. The Jews,

who had Caiaphas replace Annis, still gave tribute and honor to Annis and

counted him as at the high level, as at the level of high priest,

so at this time there were effectively two high priests, in Annis and

Caiaphas, and all this information Luke provided. He did so to give a

time frame in which the ministry of John the Baptizer began, which is estimated

to be around twenty nine or thirty a d. And they might be thinking,

Okay, Jordan, get on with it. I didn't come here to

get a history lesson. But you actually did. You actually did. And

that's the point. In fact, it's my first point. This is history.

And yeah, I used emojis in my sermon points. It's twenty twenty

three. I can do that. Hopefully that wasn't too cringe. Sorry,

this is history. It's not a fairy tale. It's not just some story.

This really happened. Remember what Luke wrote in the beginning of his book,

that we looked at weeks ago, Verse one, Chapter one, he

writes to Theophilis, many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things

that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us

by those who from the first where eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With

this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning.

I too, decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilis,

so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Luke wrote all of this by the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit,

so that Theophelist would know with certainty what he had already been taught. And

we can too. Amen. All right, let's keep reading. We're gonna

call this verse two B. Picking up in the middle of verse two,

the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. We're

gonna stop right there because there's two quick things I want to point out.

The first is that the word of God came to John. He didn't just

by chance decide, you know, he woke up, had his locusts for

breakfast, had his honey, and just thought, you know what, today's

day, I'm gonna start God's mission. No, the word of God came

to John. God started his mission. God told him when to start his

purpose mission. God did it. And God doesn't leave anything up to chance.

And his sermon titled nothing left a chance, Arci Sproull said this,

nothing ever, happens by chance. For God, who created everything in his

world. In this world rules over it all. God always has a plan

and always sees it through for his purposes. He knew exactly when John was

ready to begin his mission, God's mission, and when his mission was ready

to begin. Like John, we can always count on God's perfect timing in

all things. The second thing I'll point out for us in verse two is

it picks up where chapter one ended in the account of John's life. This

is verse eighty. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and

he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel. It was interesting

to me in reading this that John spent his life preparing for his purpose mission

in the wilderness, because first someone among his people to teach and to be

listened to. They would have grown up in the temple. They would have

grown up among the people and among the priests. And John was already the

son of a priest, Zechariah. He had his inn, but he instead

reached Jewish society by being removed from it. Now, I'm not saying that

you should remove yourself from society and become a hermit. You know where camel

skins eat the locusts. I'm not saying that. What I am saying is

this. You don't have to come from it to be about it. You

don't have to come from it to be about it. You need to hear

this, especially if you're a new believer, that once Jesus brings you to

faith, you're in it. You're in the family. You can speak the

truth of God's word just as earnestly and with all the security that myself or

the other elders have, knowing that you're not in the wilderness anymore. Amen,

You're not in the wilderness anymore. All right, let's keep reading verse

three. He John went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching at

baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the

Book of the Words of Isaiah, the prophet a voice of one calling in

the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord, makes straight paths for him.

Every valley shall be filled in every mountain and hill made low. The

crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth, and all people will

see God's salvation. The Word of God comes to John to begin his purpose

mission, which fulfills the prophecy. We say it's found in Isaiah chapter forty,

and we're gonna look at the entire prophecy in Isaiah. This is starting

in verse three of Isaiah forty, a voice of one calling in the wilderness,

prepare the way for the Lord makes right in the desert a highway for

our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and the hill

made low. The rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plane,

and the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will

see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. This prophecy,

while poetic in its writing, tells us what John is put on the

earth to do. He's put on the earth to prepare the way for the

coming Messiah, to prepare the way of the Lord by preaching a baptism of

repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This prophecy uses words like desert and wilderness,

which I interpret as to communicate a state of anguish or alienation or desolation

on the earth, or perhaps more specifically, the state of God's people Israel.

If we look to Isaiah sixty four to ten, it's says, your

God, your sacred cities have become a wasteland. Even Zion is a wasteland,

is a wasteland. Jerusalem a desolation. But this state of desolation won't

remain forever. John is on the scene to tell the people that the glory

of the Lord will soon be revealed. In the person of Jesus. God

is bringing restoration. God restores. Look at Isaiah fifty one. The Lord

will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins. He

will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in her thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

Through the coming of the Messiah. God brings life. Am I God,

I'm back, I'm back. God brings life to deserts in wilderness.

He makes the deserts like Eden, in the wilderness like his garden. My

next point is this God brings restoration to desolation. God brings restoration to desolation.

This restoration is found in Jesus. Through Jesus, every valley shall be

raised up, every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground shall become

level, the rugged place is a plane, And the glory of the Lord

will be revealed to once again quote Arcie Sproll the man the myth, not

a myth, the man the legend. Ah, he was real okay to

quote him again about John's message, He wrote this, It's not gonna be

on the screen, he said. John's message is that the proud the air

again, who have exalted themselves and appear as high mountains, have to be

brought low. The disgraced, the oppressed have to be lifted up. In

all the thorns and rocks and stones and obstacles that fill their sinful hearts.

Our hearts, our hearts of stone have to be changed. The crooked places

must be made straight, the rough places made smooth. Because He is here

and people are not ready, all flesh will see the manifestation of the salvation

of God. Now God could certainly do this on his own, He's God

after all. But John's voice crying out in the desert tells the people to

prepare and make straight, make ready, or remove obstacles. God will remove

all obstacles at his coming, but he expects his people to prepare for his

kingdom, commands his people to take part in his mighty work, to build

up and prepare, like we see said in Isaiah fifty seven. And it

will be said, build up, build up, prepare the road, remove

the obstacles out of the way of my people. For this is what the

High and Exalted One says, He who lives forever, whose name is Holy.

Listen to this. I live in a high and holy place, but

also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the

spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. First,

how amazing is it that God, the Holy One, who lives forever

and lives in a high and holy place, also lives with us, the

lowly and contrite, contrite, meaning full of regret, full of repentance.

He revives us, and we can rest in His mercy and forgiveness of sin

by placing our trust our hope in the life, death, and resurrection of

the Messiah, his son Jesus, Hallelujah. Second, God through John says,

build up and prepare, make ready. How let's see verse seven or

nine. John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him,

you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath,

produce fruit and keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves,

we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you that out of

these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at

the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit

will be cut down and thrown into the fire. In these verses we find

the core of today's texts. John tells the Jewish people that merely being able

to trace their descent back to Abraham, their patriarch, their father, does

not save them from the coming wrath. The axe is already at the root

of the trees. Judgment is near there to undergo a new baptism of repentance.

Imagine being a Jew at this time and hearing this from John. Up

to this point, the right rite of baptism was a radical concept to the

Jews, because before this time the only baptism that was of any significance among

them was proselyte baptism, a cleansing ritual that the Jews impose on Gentiles who

wanted to convert to Judaism. The reason proselyte baptism happened was from the Jewish

perspective. Gentiles were unclean and too dirty to be involved in the sacred rights

of Judaism. If they wanted the Gentile to convert to Judaism, they had

to profess faith in the content of Judaism. They had to be circumcised as

an adult, and they had to be baptized as a symbol of their cleansing.

But that was only a requirement for the gentiles. And now John comes

along and preaches a baptism of repentance. This is not the covenant sign of

baptism that we practice today and that Jesus initiates. This is more of a

preparatory baptism to build up and prepare because the Kingdom of God was at hand,

The Messiah is about to appear, Salvation is coming, and the Jews

are not ready. The Jews need to repent and be baptized, indicating the

remission of their sins, a true remission of sin that begets fruit, fruit

in keeping with repentance, as John tells them. So I'd imagine that at

least some of them were prideful and angry and hearing this. But the ones

that were rightly fearful asked what they should do. What does this fruit of

repentance look like, and he tells him in verse ten, what should we

do? The crowd asked, John answered, anyone who has two shirts should

share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do

the same. Even tax collectors came to be baptized teacher. They asked,

what should we do. Don't collect any more than you were required to,

he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, and what should we do?

He replied, don't extort money, and don't accuse people falsely. Be

content with your pay. So John gives the Jews some examples of what the

fruit of repentance looks like, the kind of fruit that is evident of a

repentant heart, to give generously, to feed the hungry, to collect only

what is necessary and not out of greed, and not to confuse, not

to accuse falsely. It's important that we clarify what exactly repentance is, because

there's two kinds, and we need to distinguish between the two kinds of repentance.

First, there's the repentance of attrition, the kind of repentance that our

kids show when they're caught with their hands in the cookie jar. The kind

of repentance that says, please don't spank me, I'm sorry. They're repenting

to get out of punishment. That kind of repentance isn't genuine. You're simply

doing it to avoid to avoid a punishment. It doesn't come from the heart.

Then there's a repentance of contrition, which we see from David in his

prayer and Psalm fifty one. This is so good. Have mercy on me,

oh God, according to your unfailing love. By the way, you

should go listen to John Foreman's song in this prayer. It's so good anyway.

I can't read it without hearing it in my head. It's according to

your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. Blot out my transgressions,

wash away all my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I

know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me against you, and

you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So

you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was

sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you

desired faithfulness even in the womb. You taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Cleanse me with hissop and I will be clean. Wash me and I

will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the

bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot

out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence

or take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your

salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach

transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from

the guilt of my bloodshed. Oh God, you who are God my savior,

and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord,

and let my mouth. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth

will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would

bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice,

oh God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. You

God will not despise. David poured out his heart before God, and his

sorrow for his sin was genuine and deep. This is the true repentance that

John is preaching to the Jews, and it's the true repentance we ourselves must

show before God. John isn't saying your fruit will convert you, or your

fruit will save you, or your works will justify you. What he's saying

is, if your truly repentant show me bring forth fruit worthy of repentance.

He's saying that if your faith is real, if your conversion is genuine,

then you can't help but have fruit. The question that Jews had to ask

themselves, and the question we must ask, do I have the fruit of

repentance in my life? Do I have evidence in my life of my conversion?

Because true conversion always brings forth the fruit of repentance. Everyone take a

deep breath. I know it's heavy. We're all in this together. Let's

keep reading. In Verse fifteen. By the way, if you're feeling guilty

while I'm reading through this, praise God that guilt, that conviction is evidence

of the Holy Spirit working in you. That's the mark of your faith.

Praise God, all right. Verse fifteen. The people were waiting expectantly,

and we're all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah.

John answered them all, I baptize you with water. But one who is

more powerful than I will come the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy

to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His

winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the

wheat into his barn. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Unquenchable fire, now real quick, Luke or John is using language to

tools and farming that we are not all too familiar with. Okay, and

let's you have some kind of like winnowing fork game on your phone that I

don't know about. But the winning fork is a long wooden tool. It

looks like a pitchfork almost, that the farmers would use with the wheat when

it's bundled up to gather the wheat and shake it to separate the chaff from

the wheat. The wheat that is good to eat, that is nourishing to

our bodies, and the chaff that we cannot digest. The chaff is acceptable

to feed to livestock. You could do that, and farmers would in a

pinch, but typically it was used to mix back into the soil to nourish

the new crops. Most times it was thrown into the fire and burned because

it's useless. So John is using imagery here to speak of the wheat which

Jesus separates, the wheat being the believers and the chaff meaning the sinners,

which will we burn in an unquenchable fire. It's heavy, I know,

but again, rejoice because this is good news. John is telling the people

Israel that the Messiah is coming, the one to redeem them, to bring

restoration to desolation is coming. That was a big bunny trail, but let's

get back in it. In verse fifteen through eighteen, John rightly corrects them

that he is not the Messiah. He's not even worthy to untie his sandals.

But the Messiah is coming, and he's not going to institute his excuse

me, the Messiah is coming, and he is going to institute his own

baptism, a baptism of the Holy Spirit, the mark of the believer.

Jesus is also coming to judge the sinner the chaff, those that do not

repent and turn from their sin, will be separated from the wheat. The

believers and justly burned in an unquenchable fire. And let me add it's a

fire that we all deserve, each one of us. But we can be

rescued from it by putting our faith and trust in the name of Jesus.

Let's continue verse eighteen and with many other words. John exhorted the people and

proclaimed the good news to them. See it is good news, I told

you. But when John rebuked Harod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias,

his brother's wife, you, and all the other evil things he had

done, Herod added this to them all. He locked John up in prison.

We see that John is imprisoned for not standing idly by while a government

authority committed sin oh oh oh. He spoke up and stood for what was

right. Now. I'm not telling you to go out and start something.

To be clear, that's not my role, and more importantly, it's not

the point of this text. However, my role and hope and the hope

of all elders who teach, is to teach godly and biblical principles that can

help and encourage you in what to stand up for and how to stand up

for it. Okay, please don't go start something. This is on YouTube,

so so use godly wisdom and discernment when standing up for what's right.

That's my point there, if they get the band to come up. Anyways,

back to the main point of the text. The point is this,

John said himself bear fruit in keeping repentance, bear fruit and keeping with repentance.

The believer bears or brings forth fruit that comes from true repentance repentance,

like we saw in King David's prayer of contrition. But what does that fruit

actually look like? How do we identify it within ourselves or within others?

I have four points for this. First, we bear fruit by being obedient

to God's commands. Fruit of repentance means we are obedient to God's commands.

In John fourteen fifteen, Jesus said, if you love me, keep my

commands. Jesus said it, if you love me, keep my commands.

What are Jesus commands? There are many, being generous, loving, don't

be angry. Don't look at it a woman with lust or man. You're

not a hook. Ladies. If you want to know all of them,

read them. The second way to bear fruit and keeping with repentance is practice

righteousness, practice living a life that brings glory to God. In one John

two twenty nine. If you know that He is righteous, you know that

everyone who does what is right has been born of him. Those who do

what is right have been born of him. Are you going to nail it

every single time? Absolutely not. He is faithful and just to forgive us

our sins. Those who have genuine faith will display a life of faith,

a life molded and shaped by the obedience of faith. They demonstrate a desire

for godliness, a desire for godliness and righteous living, just as He is

righteous. The third is to walk in love. Walk in love one John

four seven. Dear friends, let us love one another. For love comes

from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

This isn't talking about the feeling of love. It's talking about the action of

love. Love is a verb. He's talk for life. This is the

action of love. If you want to know what love looks like, look

no further than the life and death of our Lord Jesus, the ultimate act

of love. The fourth point, and actually the key for doing these three

things, is abide in Christ. The only way we're going to be obedient

to Jesus' commands. To live a life of righteousness and to walk in love

is by abiding in him. John fifteen four through five. Jesus said,

remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit

by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit

unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches.

If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much

fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. These four points bear

fruit in obedience to God's commands and practicing righteousness by walking in love. I

mentioned it earlier. You're not going to nail it. You're just not.

None of us are. But He is faithful and just to forgive us our

sins. We're not going to be perfect. The point isn't bear fruit and

keeping with perfection. It's bear fruit and keeping with repentance. By striving for

perfection. Abide in Christ. Bear fruit and keeping with repentance by abiding in

Christ, in your prayer, your relationships, in your Bible, reading,

in your job, in everything you do, Abide in Christ, bear fruit

and praise God. Because there's no one more patient and more forgiving than our

heavenly Father and Jesus sacrifice covers a multitude of sins. He paid the debt.

In fact, we're going to sing about it again in a minute.

Jesus paid it all all to him, I owe. There's never been a

better reason to strive for perfection, to keep his commands to live a righteous

life, because he paid it all. Ow Oh, it all to him.

We're gonna move on to a time of response again. I forgot the

connect card and offer an envelope. But it looks like an envelope and it

looks like a card. You get it many different We have four different ways

to respond right now after hearing from John the baptizer. The Connect card,

which is available at the Connect table just as you leave, has a section

you can write your prayer request down. Please write your prayer request down.

We want to pray for you. We would love it even more if we

could pray with you. Myself, pastor Greg are going to be on either

side of the room. We want to pray for you. We want to

pray with you, not because we're awesome when we try to be. We're

pretty. We're terrible sinners, just like every other person. We want to

pray with you because where two or more gathered, God is there, and

we pray because God is the one who works. We believe in the power

of prayer because of the one. We pray it too. On the connect

card. If you're ready to get baptized, let us celebrate that with you.

We're gonna have baptism in next week. Yes, that's awesome. Okay,

next week. If you're ready to be baptized, mark that connect card.

If you can't prepare to give today, another way we respond is by

worshiping through our giving, being a generous giver, not giving out of compulsion,

but what you've decided in your heart to give. You can fill out

the offering envelope and put it in the box outside. The last way we

respond is through worship. We're gonna go into Jesus paid it all again.

Thank you band for doing such an excellent job today, for leading us in

this song. I'm gonna pray and then we'll get in. We'll get it.

Lord. Thank you for your word, thank you for your forgiveness of

our sins. Thank you for using us to further your kingdom. I pray

that as you shape our hearts to be more like yours. I pray that

you would help us to prepare the hearts of others. Help us to live

lives that bring you joy. Help us to obey your commands, to live

righteous lives, to walk in love, and to abide in You, and

all things as we work to bear fruit the fruit of our repentance, a

true repentance. Lord, I thank you that we can. I thank you

that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins when we confess to

you our sins. Help us to be quick to do so, always,

to to put our trust in our hope in that forgiveness. We love you.

We thank you for this time we could learn from your word, and

we thank you for the time we can worship you with song. I asked

that it would bring you joy. In your mighty name, we pray Amen.