Psalm 122

Worship your name, to be reminded of all that you've done for us in Christ, and to respond by lifting your name high.

God, I ask that we would all uh give you glory and that we would leave today encouraged and ready to glorify you in all that we do, whether we eat or drink or whatever it might be.

And um God, I ask that as we hear your word preached, that we would listen attentively and that our eyes uh would be lifted to Jesus uh one more time, and we ask these things in his name, amen.

Okay.

Um I'm not Adam Bailey.

Pastor Adam is on sabbatical, like many of you know, and um that means Pastor Justin is taking a uh increased um pastoral load or or uh doing a lot more than he normally would do.

And so we are um outsourcing to get some uh pulpit supply for the next several weeks while Pastor Adam and Pastor Justin are um doing other things.

So this morning I have the great privilege of introducing um Pastor Josh from Parker Hills Bible Fellowship.

Is that the correct name of the church?

That'll work.

Parker Hills Bible Fellowship?

That's it.

That is it?

Okay.

Um if you don't know, Skyline Church is a part of a network of churches called crossway churches that all share a common DNA.

So we're um autonomous local churches, but we all share a same set of core convictions about how church ought to happen, what the mission of God is.

Um and uh and Pastor Josh is uh a pastor of one of those churches in that in that network.

So um he's actually been a huge help to me when I've and if I've if you've uh been here any time that I've preached, it's I've normally done a ton of work, drove out to Parker, sat down with Pastor Josh, and he said, This is all wrong, and you start over.

And so if you've benefited at all from any message I've given, it's in large part because of Pastor Josh.

So um if you could welcome Pastor Josh, he's gonna bring the word for us this morning, uh, since Pastor Adam and Pastor Destner are out.

Thanks, Jeremiah.

Not true about his own work in these passages.

Uh all of your staff and leaders here at Skyline are gifted men, gifted women.

Uh I love this church, thank God for this church, was here from the begin not here from the beginning, but knew of you guys, preached at Skyline when the congregation was probably a third this size in the Bailey's basement.

Were any of you guys there?

Yeah, a pretty good number.

Yeah, and uh was here for Justin's installation as elder a few summers ago, and uh I'm delighted to be with you today.

Really excited to be with you today.

Open your Bibles to Psalm 122.

There's no slides, there's no um blanks to fill in.

I'm just gonna try to explain what Psalm 122 means by what it says, and it will help you if you have it open.

If you need to use the Bible that's on the floor in front of you, 488 is the page number.

Page 488.

And if you don't have a Bible or want to use that one on the floor in front of you, just look it up on your phone.

Just literally Google Psalm 122.

It will come up and it will be the text.

And it will help you to follow along, to see that I'm not making this up.

Psalm 122 is kind of a photo journal.

And that makes sense because traveling and taking pictures go together.

Right?

For most people, when they travel, they want to take a lot of pictures.

Except for me.

I'm not a photographer.

I don't even think of taking photos.

I, about 12, 13 years ago, took my first trip to the great country of Kazakhstan.

Any of you ever been to Kazakhstan?

Everybody, anybody heard of Kazakhstan?

Have you seen Barat?

I mean, it's nothing like that movie.

But I took my first trip to Kazakhstan, spent several weeks there, came home, my wife said, How was it?

Show me the pictures, and I said, It was great, I don't have any.

And there's remarkable stuff in that country.

It is, of all Central Asian countries, probably the most modern, beautiful capital city of Astana.

There's this glass pyramid there called the Pyramid of Peace.

They have like a space needle kind of thing that rises up above the city, kind of like in Seattle, you know, and you can look out at the whole panorama.

Um, gorgeous mountains that rise to 14,000 some feet, but I've seen those before.

So I I would show you a picture, but you know, like I said, I don't take pictures when I travel.

I still have to remind myself to take pictures when I travel.

Because it's really helpful to help people share the experience and understand what it is that you're talking about, if you've got some photos.

Which is a little bit like Psalm 122, how this psalm works.

Take a look at it.

Psalm 122 tells the story of a traveler's experience in Jerusalem after a long journey to get there.

Look at the first line: a song of ascent of David.

There's 15 of these songs of ascents.

If you look back to Psalm 120 on the same page, probably.

That's the first one.

And they're all in a collection.

120 to 134.

And best we can tell, these are the songs that the Israelite pilgrims would sing as they journeyed up to Jerusalem 12 uh three times a year.

There are 15 of these songs on that journey that they would sing.

And I say up to Jerusalem, they're songs of ascent, because Jerusalem's on a hill.

So no matter what direction you came from, it was an ascent.

It was an uphill climb.

And they would sing these songs.

And this one has three stanzas.

If you see, if you're looking at like the version of the Bible that I have, there's a little space between verses two and three, and then verses five and six.

Those aren't paragraph breaks, they're stanza breaks, right?

Because songs have stanzas.

This one has three stanzas.

But think of them not so much as stanzas as pictures, portraits.

The first one, verses one and two.

Let me read it real quick.

Verses one and two is a selfie.

And this is what he says.

I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord.

Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

First picture, he gets to the city, snaps a selfie.

The caption, we're finally here.

And I'll explain what he means by that in just a moment.

Second stanza, three through five.

This is a cityscape, a panoramic shot of the whole city.

Verse 3 Jerusalem built as a city that's bound firmly together, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

There, thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.

So this second picture, this panoramic shot of the whole city, has a caption underneath it that says, Look what God has given us here.

The selfie, we're finally here.

Second photo, look what God's given us here.

The third stanza is a collage of faces, sort of all pulled in together.

And the caption reads, Pray for peace here.

Verse 6, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

May they be secure who love you, peace within your walls, and security within your towers.

For my brothers and companions' sake, I will say, Peace be within you, for the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.

So before we get into it, as I explain what this means by what it says, let me just point out this traveler loves Jerusalem.

He's excited about being there.

He sees all kinds of beauty there.

But the point of his psalm is not just for himself.

He wants to invite us, everyone, into his joy.

Look at how the scope of the psalm changes from beginning to end.

In verse 1, it's himself.

I was glad.

But it broadens by the end.

Look at verse 8.

To the whole community, my brothers and companions' sake.

The tone as well.

At the beginning, it's his own experience of joy, but by the end, he's exhorting all of his readers, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

His point is you should all feel like this.

If I had to put it in one sentence, here's what I would say is the point of Psalm 122.

It's everyone should enjoy gathering at the house of God.

Everyone should enjoy gathering at the house of God.

And he gives a different reason in each one of those stanzas.

But before we get into it, let me just say if church is kind of a drag for you, listen up.

This psalm will reorient your perspective as to what we're doing.

Or if you feel like you're not quite sure you're safe here or you fit here.

There's deep and rich encouragement in this psalm as well, particularly for you in that second portrait of the city.

Maybe you're not that familiar with the Bible.

Well, listen up, because this is a great psalm to learn what God's church is all about and what it's meant to be.

Or if you're not even a Christian.

Here's what I want you to see.

This psalm, this this short little nine-verse song, nine-line song, paints this amazing picture of what church was meant to be.

And here's the thing about Christianity it's not about church, it's about Jesus.

And when we get toward the end of this explanation, I'll show you how Jesus secures for us every good thing that Psalm 122 pictures.

Alright?

So let's look at it.

Everybody should delight in gathering at the house of God.

Why?

Well, each stanza gives a new reason.

Let's look back at the first stanza, that selfie, the first picture where he says under the caption, under the photo, we're finally here.

Verse 1, I just read it a minute ago, is an invitation, right?

Verse 2 is the arrival.

And you can almost hear the relief and joy in his voice.

We're finally here.

Verse 1, that joy.

I was glad when they said to me, Let's go to the house of the Lord.

Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

But notice specifically his destination.

It's not just the city.

Verse 2 says that we've made it to Jerusalem.

But where does he really want to get to in the city?

It's in verse 1.

I was glad when they said, Let's go to the house of the Lord.

He wants to be at the temple, the place where God dwells on earth.

That's the point of his journey, to draw near to God, to meet with God Himself, to worship Yahweh, Israel's God.

And that's not always the reason people go to church, is it?

To meet with God, to experience, to encounter God.

I do like to travel, even though I don't take pictures.

And I'm subscribed to this source that finds cheap airfare and sends you an email and goes, hey, you can get discount tickets to go here if you're flexible on these dates.

And I got tickets to go to Valencia.

I didn't even know where Valencia was, I just knew it's somewhere in Europe.

And so I bought, I did.

I bought tickets.

They were first-class tickets for 500 bucks.

So I bought two tickets for me and my wife to go to Valencia.

And then the email, the the airline emailed us and said, sorry, that's a mistake, and they canceled our flight.

But as soon as I booked these tickets, I was like, I better figure out what's there.

And little, little did I realize there's a really famous cathedral in Valencia.

They have a piece of the true cross.

Right?

I heard you all inhale, so shocked that they they have a part of the sponge that actually was given to Jesus to give him relief when he was hanging on the cross.

But here's the thing that they have at this cathedral in Valencia, which they have the Holy Grail.

I expected a little more response from you when I told you that they have the Holy Grail.

Lots of tourists, lots of people go to this cathedral to see that stuff.

Probably not the best reason to be going to church, right?

Because none of that stuff's real anyway.

Just so that you know, I know it's not real.

Okay?

Maybe that's why you weren't impressed.

I know too.

Okay?

But people go to that building to see the stuff.

Psalm 122 offers a better reason to worship God.

Worship has always been a collective activity.

We we see that modeled in this psalm, don't we?

It's not a privatized, individualized inner experience.

It starts corporate.

Look at verse 1.

The invitation came to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.

Worship has always been a corporate experience.

Every holy desire and experience we have is enhanced by gathering with the people of God.

And notice as well, it's physical, it's entirely physical.

He's got feet standing, and there are gates present, and he's seeing a city.

So worship isn't just some inner emotional experience.

This place, these activities, the worshippers' own bodies are engaged.

They're all entities in the physical world.

So worship isn't primarily a little thing we feel.

It has to do with how we behave.

And to some extent, not every extent, but to some extent, this gathering.

But it's not just physical.

The emotions matter too, right?

The whole song begins with an emotion.

Verse 1, I was glad.

The gladness is the point.

The poet wants everyone to enjoy gathering at the house of God.

I don't know what your feelings are about gathering this morning, but I want to invite you to at least consider this and this psalm as reasons for why you should enjoy.

That was my experience.

I went to church a lot when I was a kid, not a Christian.

My family's very religious.

I was not.

I got converted toward the end of high school, and I thank God for that, because that's not a typical time to get converted.

Like, like most people don't, if they're Christians, it's somewhat rare to be converted when you're an adult, and I was right on the edge of adulthood, and God saved me.

Much to my surprise.

I wouldn't have told you or him I needed to be saved, but he knew I did, so he saved me.

This is one of the things that instantly changed.

I couldn't wait to go to church because it was finally doing something in my life that I had wanted all those years.

Doing what?

Giving me an opportunity to know God.

Now, again, I'll talk in a moment about how this meeting is not the primary iteration of church.

Church is the people.

We'll talk about that in a second.

But I finally was eager to go because I finally knew God.

I wanted him in the center of my life.

Now, you might notice this psalm is about Jerusalem and the house of God, and I've been talking about church.

Why am I doing that?

Did you guys notice that I made that jump?

I hope you did.

But I did make a jump.

And I want to tell you why I made that jump, just so you don't think I'm doing something tricky with the Bible.

Because Jesus indicates in the new covenant that his body is the temple, and his body was a physical body on earth that got crushed and rose again.

And now it's his collected people.

We are the temple.

We are the new temple of God.

It's the people.

We are, in fact, the house of God today.

God's people are the new temple.

We are the place where God dwells.

Our gatherings express everything the old temple stood for.

There are priests who serve us.

Some of them were up here, providing musical service, some of them are back there, providing a little technical support so you can hear me if I don't like shout.

Some of the priests in this gathering are serving by taking care of kids, and they warmed up some nice coffee for us.

The church has everything that the original temple.

There is a sacrifice offered that brings us near.

There's the presence of God that indwells his people.

So I don't think I quite phrased the point of this psalm right.

I said everyone should enjoy gathering at the house of God.

What I really should have said was change the T to an S.

Everyone should enjoy gathering as the house of God.

I expected to hear at least a little something, like even a mmm, as though that were illuminating.

But you didn't say, you didn't do anything, so that's okay.

Let me just say it again, because I like the way it sounded.

Instead of saying everyone should enjoy gathering at the house of God, I should have changed that T to an S and said everyone should enjoy gathering as the house of God.

Because we are.

Okay, I deserve that, right?

I mean, I'm trying to manipulate you, so you act.

Yes, I'm I apologize.

All right.

So this traveler in stanza one reaches Jerusalem, snaps a selfie, puts under it the caption, we're finally here.

But in the second stanza, he takes this panoramic picture of the whole city, and it says, Just look at what God has given us here.

He focuses on three features of the city.

Verse three, its construction.

Verse four, the thanksgiving of the tribes who gather, and verse five, these thrones for judgment.

He has eyes that when he looks at Jerusalem, he goes, This is amazing.

And Jerusalem was never amazing.

It just wasn't.

In terms of the world cities, it's not a top-rate city.

I was driving up to Denver from Parker, also not a world's leading city.

But Denver, this is an impressive town.

You drive in and there's huge sky rises.

There's there's there are minds in this city, people, impressive, talented people.

There's wealth in this.

Jerusalem never had any of that.

But this poet had eyes to see stuff that made him go, this is beautiful.

This is impressive.

And the church is the same way.

But let's look at what he sees.

All right, verse 3 the construction of the city.

Jerusalem, built as a city, firm bound firmly together.

Just stop there.

The wording's a little bit strange, but the point seems fairly clear.

There's unity and strength and completeness bound firmly together.

This is the English Standard Version, but the New Living Translation, if you're looking at that, it says Jerusalem, a well-built city.

Its seamless walls cannot be breached.

Beautiful picture.

Or the Christian Standard Bible.

Built as a city should be, solidly joined together.

This poet looks at Jerusalem and sees this place where every stone fits in the wall.

Every bit of the foundation is solid.

Everything to him looks beautiful.

And that's exactly how the New Testament describes the church, isn't it?

Listen to this, Ephesians 2.

You are no longer strangers and aliens.

You're fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple to the Lord.

In him you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The traveler saw in Jerusalem a city where everything had its place.

And it looked beautiful to him, impressive, solid.

The New Testament tells us that in the church we see something even greater, a people bound together, regardless of how you feel about this group and whether you fit.

What binds us together is not our personal fitness.

We don't audition each other to get in the church, like looking each other up and down.

Are you good enough for us?

You know what makes us fit together?

Christ.

Okay, that one I definitely expected something, and I'm not going to manipulate you for it, but it's so encouraging to hear Jesus is what makes us fit.

Right?

And it's not that everybody has to bring him.

Even if you don't know him, you could know him and fit here because of him.

We're bound together in Christ.

We're strangers to one another who in him have become family.

There's security here.

Why?

Because the cornerstone on which we are all resting is Jesus Himself.

That's what makes the church a place of security and fitness for everyone.

There's a second thing that this traveler sees, and it's in verse 4.

He sees and hears the thanksgiving of the tribes.

Look at that.

Jerusalem, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel.

Why?

To give thanks to the name of the Lord.

There were three festivals every year, and they were all supposed to travel to Jerusalem for those.

There was the festival of unleavened bread, the Passover, in the spring.

There was the festival of harvest toward the end of summer.

And then there's the festival of in-gathering, when they got the full harvest.

Every one of those was meant to offer thanks to God.

For what specifically?

Well, they all had two specific works of God in view the redemption from Egypt, the Exodus, and the end of a year's crop.

In other words, God saved them and sustained them.

That's exactly what we focus on as a church every Sunday, isn't it?

Baptizing.

God saved us.

Communion, He sustained us.

Those ordinances are in pictures and shadows pictured for us in the gatherings of ancient Israel.

That's why we gather to thank God, our hearts filled with gratefulness, filled with it's one of the reasons church is a welcoming, warm place.

Not because church leaders say, hey, be welcoming and warm.

We want the church to get bigger.

It's because we're people of the gospel.

God extended to us an open-armed welcome and did not make us audition for his love.

That should make us a community filled with an open-armed welcome who doesn't make people audition to be loved.

The church gives exactly, is exactly what God intended for this to be.

There was a lady who visited Parker Hills, as Jeremiah said it, Bible Fellowship.

I didn't name the church, so you can't bag on me for that.

It's a mouthful.

But there was a lady who visited one Sunday, it was an Easter Sunday.

And frequently, whoever does the welcome stands up there in the front and says, If you've never been here before, three things you need to know about us.

Number one, we're a complete mess.

Number two, our future is incredibly bright because of Jesus.

Number three, anybody can get in on this for free.

And we just said that that Easter morning, and she told me later, I knew immediately I had found a place where I could belong.

Why?

Because that's just a colloquial way of describing the gospel.

I'm a mess.

My future's bright because of Jesus, and anyone can get in on this for free.

The gospel tells us everybody's a sinner.

So it immediately levels the ground and humbles us.

And then it tells us everybody is loved by God so much he would give us his most precious person, his son.

We're sinners, humbled, and we're loved, exalted.

Verse 5 shows us this third feature that he sees.

He notices as he looks around there's no rock stars, there's no like big wheels, but there's nobody that's cast out.

But then in verse 5, he sees the third thing.

There are these thrones for judgment.

Thrones of the house of David.

In other words, Jerusalem was the place where there would be judges who would speak God's law over the people, who would help them evaluate legal cases, and kings who would protect, who would keep the people safe.

All of that they found in Jerusalem, represented by thrones.

It's poetry.

So they're just using a symbol to describe a bigger reality.

The symbol is the throne, the bigger reality is peace, justice, stability, God's word, his reign.

All of that.

In other words, it was at Jerusalem where they would hear God's word and experience God's kingdom, meeting all needs.

The church is supposed to be that today.

In the book of Acts, it was.

Acts 2.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, word, and fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.

All those who believed were together and had all things in common.

They sold their possessions and belongings and distributed the proceeds to all as any had need.

The church, like Jerusalem before it, is the place where God is worshipped, where God's word is proclaimed, and where his kingdom comes, and where every need is met.

This traveler looks at all of that and goes, look at what God has given us here.

Takes this panoramic picture of the city.

There's security here where everyone belongs.

There's this praise for God saving and sustaining our lives.

There's his word and his kingdom come.

It's no wonder he wants everyone to enjoy gathering at the house of God.

Or for us, as the house of God.

But there's a third stanza.

The album doesn't stop here.

The final image pictures real people, citizens and visitors, family and friends.

And he wants everyone to experience this.

And so the caption under that third photo, the collage of all these faces, the third caption says, Pray for peace here.

We're finally here.

Look at what God's given us here.

Pray for peace here.

Look at verse 6.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

May they be secure who love you.

Peace be within your walls and security within your towers.

For my brothers and companions' sake, I will say, Peace be within you.

For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.

He imagines like an army outside the walls.

Or big big ramps being built up to get over the walls.

Blockades that cut off their supplies of food and water.

He imagines.

How that would disrupt the life and the worship of God's people.

How could they travel to Jerusalem to meet with God?

Where would the sacrifices be?

What if Jerusalem had no peace?

Where would the presence of God on earth be if Jerusalem was gone?

We get about a thousand years downstream from this psalm.

And there's another traveler on his way to Jerusalem.

You're not there yet in Luke.

I know you guys are going through Luke.

You're not there yet, but in Luke chapter 19, there's this picture of Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, going to the house of God.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

And his prayer is nothing like Psalm 122.

Do you remember what he said?

Let me read it for you.

Luke 19, verse 41, when Jesus drew near Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known this day the things that would have made for peace.

Luke 19:41

But they're hidden from your eyes, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side, and tear you down to the ground, you and your children with you, and they will not leave one stone upon another.

Listen to this next line, because this explains why.

They will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

Jesus shows up and wept over the city and predicted its fall and offered things that make for peace.

That's what he says.

Would that you have seen the things that make for peace.

But they didn't know what he was talking about.

Psalm 122 ends with this blessing, this benediction.

Why?

Well, because that city was always at risk, always vulnerable, always ready to be taken captive.

And Luke 19 ends with this prophecy of judgment.

It's all going to go to the ground.

It's all going to be a pile of dust.

Why?

Because Jesus said they didn't know the time of their visitation.

In other words, God himself came to them and they weren't interested.

That's what he means by the time of their visitation.

And history tells us the rest of Jerusalem's story, doesn't it?

Rome finally lost patience.

Titus destroyed the city, slaughtered its citizens, burned the temple, and it was all over.

Everything Jesus predicted came to pass.

So how do we get back to Psalm 122?

This beautiful city, this place we should pray for, this place this poet is so glad to visit.

Well, we get back there through Jesus within a week of his arrival in the city.

He wasn't snapping selfies, he was going to the cross.

In other words, he didn't simply announce God's judgment, he bore God's judgment.

That's why he was there.

The peace that Jerusalem could never secure for herself, Jesus secured for them and for us.

By his blood.

The blessing that Psalm 122 longs to establish, the peace that the poet prays for, Jesus himself finally bought with his blood.

And we know it happened that the peace is secure because the Bible ends with this picture of this city, Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem, it's called, coming down out of heaven from God, and it is beautiful beyond compare.

The description of that city is breathtaking.

In fact, it's so breathtaking.

Do you know what it's actually described as?

It's described as: I went to see the New Jerusalem and I saw coming down from heaven, out of heaven from God, a bride.

The city is so beautiful, he compares it to a bride.

Oh, not just because it's so beautiful, because it is a bride, right?

We are the new Jerusalem.

We are the temple, the house of God.

So it's no longer pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem by the end of the story.

It's the New Jerusalem coming down here.

God dwelling with his people, his people worshiping him as their God, everyone belonging, everyone safe, every single stone exactly in its place.

There's no more threat outside the walls.

There's no need to pray for peace, and we all long for that day.

But what do we do in the meantime?

Well, in the meantime, don't let pictures from Psalm 122 replace the real thing.

A few years ago, I was with my family at Yellowstone, and we're standing on some overlook, looking out of this gorgeous valley.

I got five kids, the four boys and daughter are all standing there, my wife, and we're just like trying to take it in.

And of course, I'm not taking any pictures, I'm just like taking it all in.

And this dude pulls up, car pulls into this parking spot, runs out, grabs his phone, hops back in his phone and jets out of there.

I was like, bro, your Instagram is gonna be filled with pictures as though you've been to Yellowstone and you've never been to Yellowstone.

What's wrong with you?

Just taking pictures instead of experiencing the real thing.

In Jesus, the application of Psalm 122 is not go to church more, it's treasure the church more.

Treasure God's people more.

Every stone in the temple is precious because Jesus bought them.

Every gathering of the church is precious, and not just this one.

Life groups and one-on-one mentoring.

And every time you get together with some of God's people, it's a gathering of his church in large form or small, and they're all precious.

So enjoy gathering as the house of God.

And remember, someday our journey to Jerusalem will end.

And we'll be able to say, I was glad when they said to me, Let's go to the house of the Lord.

And our feet are now standing in Jerusalem.

That'll be a good day.

Amen.

Father, I pray that you would fill us with esteem for your church.

Help us love it the way this pilgrim did, this poet, this songwriter, and the way Jesus did.

Jesus, we thank you that you died to secure everything for us that this psalm pictures.

We don't look at ourselves and find what's here beautiful, lovely, a contributing factor.

But in you, all that changes.

Spirit of God, thank you that you unite our hearts, that you give us gifts, that you empower us to serve.

I pray for the peace of Skyline.

For peace, for its elders, for rest and refreshment.

I pray for love among these saints.

I pray for outsiders to come in and experience here a community unlike everything or anything they've ever found anywhere else.

The community of the gospel.

Keep the gospel clear here, central, saving, prominent.

And for all this, we give you thanks and glory and we express our joy in Jesus' name.

Amen.