Thank you, Brad. I love that chapter, don't you? We're going to be looking at Colossians chapter one, and the message for today is the will of God. So you can see from this text of scripture, the will of God. The Lord rules in heaven and over the inhabitants of the earth. He's able to humble the proudest of men and there's nothing that a proud man can do that's beyond his control. Everything is done according to God's holy will. What a blessing it is to know that. Now in Colossians, where we've been reading and studying now, this is precisely what the apostle Paul is praying that God would do for the Colossians. He has said many things in this chapter. If you look at the first few verses here, you can see that Paul was sent by Jesus Christ. He was an apostle. And this was by the will of God, the will of God. And so there, right away, we see in the very first verse the will of God. And then if you look at verse nine, he says, for this cause, we, mean himself and Timothy and others, since the day we heard it, meaning heard of what God has done for you, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with a knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." So this was the prayer of the apostle. He said he was sent by the will of God. The Lord Jesus Christ sent him according to the will of God. And he and Timothy were praying for the saints there at Colossae. He called them saints. They were saints, they were made holy by God. He called them faithful, in verse 2. He called them brethren, and all these things are true of all those who are in Christ, as he says in verse 2. He told them, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That grace of God that comes to us in the exact opposite of what we deserve, in the exact opposite of the way we've behaved. all the evil we intended by our sin is undone by God for His glory in our salvation. And so we see that in verse two, he says, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. All of God's people pray, and we pray for ourselves. We pray that the Lord would save us. but we also pray for one another. There's nothing that's more encouraging than to hear that God's gospel has produced fruit in another person. To cause that person to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, forsaking all confidence in themselves, denying themselves as a contributor to God's grace and trusting only Christ. That produces such joy in our hearts, doesn't it? Such encouragement to hear that, that we are drawn out to give thanks to God because God's the one who does that. And then also praying for them that the Lord would, who gave them that life with that faith by grace because of Christ's blood and righteousness, that he would continue that grace and increase that faith in them. And then he says in verse four, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have to all saints, all the saints, this was the fruit. They were the fruit and the work in them was the fruit. Faith and love is produced by God. We don't come up with this. This is the result of God's life in us, Christ living in us. And so when we trust Christ, we know it was God's work, don't we? And we give thanks to God. We ourselves who trust Christ are never so thankful. And we say, as I was quoting from Psalm 104, verse one last week, Oh, Lord, my God, how great thou art. How very great thou art. Thou art very great. And we thank that we thank the Lord for this grace that's given to us so that in all of the helplessness, and hopelessness of our own emptiness and our sinfulness, that we can look to Christ. God has given us that grace. And when we hear of this work of God in others, we're thankful. And this faith in Christ humbles us. This is the work we were just reading about in Nebuchadnezzar. I believe that he was converted. He said, I now do thank and praise the God of heaven. And so he says that this faith has brought with it this grace of love, love to Christ, and therefore love to his people. They're called saints here because they are, they were set apart by God. God himself made them holy. And then in verse five, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, because the apostle is not only thanking God for the saints themselves, and for the work in them that he has produced, that has performed this work in them by his spirit through the gospel, directing them to Christ away from themselves. He also says this, he thanks God for the hope that was laid up for them in heaven. And we looked at that a few weeks ago. The hope is Christ our hope. He is the one who God set apart in an everlasting covenant, made a covenant so much with him that he himself is called that covenant. in Scripture. I have given him as a covenant for the people. That's what he says in Isaiah 42, verse 6. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ, by His precious blood, made that covenant. And it's an everlasting covenant. It's a covenant in which God has promised to give salvation and eternal glory to His people, to make them His children, to put His Spirit within them, and to forget their sins, remember them no more because of the blood of Christ. And that hope we have is Christ himself. He is the one God gave to us as our hope, and he has gone into heaven and taken possession of the purchased possession for us. Already our forerunner has gone into heaven, and so Paul thanks God for that hope which is laid up for us in heaven, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, as we read in Titus 2, verses 13 and 14. Now, he goes on, he says, you heard about this hope in the word of the truth of the gospel. The word of the truth of the gospel. The gospel is declared to us. This is the way God gives us everything. This is the way God created the world. He spoke and it was done. This is the way God does his work. He speaks. And what did God do in order to perform this work? He sent his son. His Son is the Word, the Word, the eternal, the uncreated Word, the One in whom God has spoken in these last days. God sent His Son. God has spoken His Son, and spoken in His Son, and spoken by His Son. On the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father spoke from heaven concerning Christ to Peter, James, and John. He says, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased here And so we can see God's emphasis. We must hear the truth. Christ is the truth. The truth comes to us from Him. The truth that comes from Him is about Him. It's declaring Him to us. It's declaring His work. against all of our sin in order to wash us and in lack of all of our obedience in order to establish a righteousness for us. His work and that truth of the gospel declares this hope that Christ has accomplished this work and has taken possession of that inheritance promised to us by God himself in that covenant in which Christ is our hope. And then in verse six, he says, this gospel, the word of the truth of the gospel is come to you as it is in all the world and brings forth fruit as it does also in you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth. What is the message of the gospel? It's the grace of God in truth. Truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. This is the way we have eternal life. We know God according to His revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ, who is the truth, who is the revelation of God's grace and truth. Truth has met together with mercy and they have kissed each other. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other because in the Lord Jesus Christ, God's righteousness and truth and mercy and peace are all exalted to the highest possible level in uncompromised perfection. And the Lord Jesus Christ set forth to us. And so this produces fruit wherever it comes. God's word never returns void. He always accomplishes his will through his word. And that's what this is saying in verse six. And then in verse seven, he says, as you also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ. He was the pastor of this church. And they had heard the word from their pastor who preached to them the gospel. And he said, the apostle Paul said, you heard this, you learned this from Epaphras. He's a fellow servant of ours and he's a minister, a faithful minister of Christ to you. That's what a faithful minister does. He presents, declares, sets forth Christ from scripture. If a man is a servant of Christ, he will set forth Christ to the sheep. Christ is the bread of life. He's the one that they live upon by faith. And so this is what we need to hear. This is the one we live upon. This is how our faith grows. This is how faith comes to us. Hearing of Christ and Him crucified. Isn't there more? Isn't there more to God's counsel than this? No. No. He is the full counsel of God. The whole counsel of God is in Him. And so in verse eight, he says, who also declared unto us, Epaphras declared to us your love in the spirit. He spoke well of you because of his love for you. He wanted to declare the wonders of God's grace given to you through the gospel preached to you. And it produced his faith in Christ and love for Christ and for his people. And so he declares this to us. And then in verse nine he says, for this cause we also, since the day we heard, we heard of what Epaphras said to us about God's work through the gospel preached to you and how it produced his faith and hope and love, these graces of the spirit. And he says, we do not cease to pray for you. Isn't it amazing that these who had been given all of these graces by God still were in need of prayer? What an amazing thing this is. Aren't they set to go? Don't they have everything they need? Yes, in Christ. And yet it pleases God to bless them through the petitions of his people, requests, supplications on their behalf of his people, prayed and brought to the Lord in Christ's name. You see how important it is for us to pray for one another? You see how much prayer we each need? We need this, don't we? I need this, you need this. And let us not forget to pray for one another. as we're praying for ourselves, which we mostly do, I think. In my own experience, the Lord, it's me. I'm the one who stands in need of prayer. And yet we don't forget that the Lord Jesus Christ is our all-sufficient supply. And so we can go to that throne of grace and come by him, but we also go to him on behalf of those we know, because we ourselves are also weak. And we see our brothers and sisters in the weaknesses that they have and whatever weakness it is, especially the weakness of sin. And we pray, Lord, hold them up. Give them this faith, increase it too, and this love for you. So he says, we desire. We desire. This is our desire. This is the prayer that we're expressing now. Listen to this in verse 9, that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Where is wisdom to be found? The knowledge of God's will. Where is spiritual understanding to be found? The knowledge of God's will. Where is truth? The knowledge of God's will. Everything, all of this faith that he's speaking about and all the hope and our love that we have comes to us through the knowledge of His will. We just read in Daniel chapter 4 about the will of God, and God's people no doubt were lamenting the fact that while they were in Babylon, they were under the oppressive subjection of this wicked king, Nebuchadnezzar. and they were no doubt asking God to deliver them. We know that Daniel did, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did. So God had a remnant there, even in those captives, taken captive by Babylon. And yet it was God's will that they be there. God himself told Jeremiah to tell them, when you go there, now you have children, you plant, you do the business, you live, because this is God's will. And so they had to do this all this time, living under this oppressive, harsh ruler, this wicked man who served himself and boasted in his pride and arrogance against God. It was the will of God. It was the will of God. That's hard to accept, isn't it? It is unless we forget that the one who actually rules over all is good, and all of his ways are right, and his works are holy. There's nothing that God does that's wrong. All of his judgments, as Nebuchadnezzar said, are right. Even when those judgments meant that Nebuchadnezzar was for seven, whatever that means, probably years, seven seasons or something, he was driven out and became like an animal, having to eat grass, and his claws grew, and his hair grew like feathers. His understanding was taken from him. He was a madman. And he knew all that time it was God who did this. He had exalted himself and God brought him down, down, down. And you know what that was? That was the goodness. That was the goodness of God, wasn't it? Because God does what's holy. He does what's right. And remember what he did in Egypt when Pharaoh was under the plagues of Egypt and all the people of Egypt were under those plagues, those 10 plagues. Remember what God told Pharaoh by Moses. He says, for this reason, I have raised you up to show my power in you, you see. Was that a good cause? Oh yes. Oh yes. And because the children of Israel, which were the objects of God's saving grace then, were brought out to see God's power over this king who had absolute control over them, made them slaves and subjected them to hard bondage for 400 plus years. And yet there's that recognition. This is the will of God. This was the will of God. And so the knowledge of his will, that God is on the throne, we can't feel it, we can't see it, we just know it's so because it's been revealed from his word. You see, that's what he's teaching us here. Trust the one whose will is done. Trust the one whose work is according to his will. Look at Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, this will of God. What is this will of God? He says in Ephesians 1, verse 11, in whom, in Christ, also we have obtained an inheritance. Remember, He's our covenant. He's our covenant head. He received all from God for us. God gave it to him, but not to him only, but to him as Christ, with his people, so that all God gave to him in reward of his obedience in blood is given to us out of grace because of his obedience in blood for his sake, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated by God according to the purpose of him God the Father, who works all things after the counsel of his own will. God doesn't do anything except it is according to his will. Nothing is done on earth or in heaven except the will of God. We need to understand this. This is where faith comes from, under trial, under the afflictions, even under the weakness and helplessness we have in our sin. To know that the one who rules over all has all power. He says this in Romans chapter eight. If God be for us, who can be against us? That's what he says in Romans chapter eight. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? You know what that means? It was God's will to save them. And because it was his will, then he's going to save them. And he says, who can lay anything to their charge? Because it's God who justifies. God justified them. No one can charge one for whom God has justified. And he goes on, and who is he that condemneth? None, because it's Christ who died. No one can condemn one for whom Christ died. Everything given to Christ will be given to them. That's the will of God. That's the will of God. Is it good? Oh, yes. It is a good and gracious will, isn't it? It is a will where God does everything according to his will. God performs the work. We are the recipients of his grace, of his almighty power towards us. And this is wisdom. This is our wisdom to know the will of God. And so when we look at this now, looking back at Colossians, Colossians chapter one, The Apostle Paul is praying for them, that you would be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So he's setting them up, isn't he? They have received the truth of the word of the gospel. They have believed the gospel. And yet he says, I want you to be filled There's something yet that he desires for them to be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So he's setting them up, first of all, by letting them know they don't know everything yet. And does that come as a surprise to us? Not to me. Not to me. The fact is, is before God can teach us, he has to make us teachable. He has to humble us, doesn't he? Isn't that what Nebuchadnezzar learned? And the harder they are, what do they say? The bigger they are, the harder they fall. The harder they are, the harder it is. The breaking comes. And so we find this throughout the lives of our own lives. I was wondering today, Charles Spurgeon, a man far, far, far better man than me. And so many people you see throughout history who died in their 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s. And here I am, nearly 20 years beyond that. And I think, why am I still here? Because I'm a hard-headed person. I need to be brought low. The work has got to be longer, the harder you are, the farther you have to come down. And see, to know this then, we see that God's goodness is to teach us His will is always done, His will is always good, and when God does what God pleases, is pleased to do, what happens? Well, He sets forth the glories of His Son and the salvation of His people who are sinful in themselves and yet His glory is seen in His grace toward them where He turns the evil they intended against God to their own destruction into their very salvation in the death of His Son. And he raised him up and revealed his goodness, the goodness of his heart toward them when he speaks to them. And he says, come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. I am meek and lowly of heart. Learn of me, and you'll find rest for your souls. And so we say, yes, that's exactly the one I need, the one I wasn't looking for. And he's the one sent from God. In him is grace and truth. And we delight in it, don't we? the knowledge of his will. So back in Colossians chapter one, having set them up now and having told them, I'm praying for you that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and letting them know they need to be filled so that they're receptive to what he has to say. What does he do? He's going to go out and lay out the will of God. You wouldn't expect him to do something else, would you? Let's chase this rabbit. No, we're going to talk about God's will. And let's read on then in Colossians 1 verse 10. With the knowledge of his will being filled with it, he says in verse 10 that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. There he is increasing in what? The knowledge of God. He to know God is eternal life, to know his son is eternal life. And so we need to increase in this. We need to live upon the faith of the son of God. The life, the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2.20, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's what we're doing here. In this life that God has given to us in our soul, the Spirit of Christ in us, living in us, what is the result of that life? What is the fruit of that Spirit of God living in us? How do we walk? How do we live? By faith. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I live upon him who gave himself for me. I live upon his faith, upon his faithfulness, upon his obedience, his love, his blood, everything. Everything about him. He is my life. As he says here in Colossians chapter 3 verse 4, Christ is our life. And so this is what he's teaching these Colossians to do, that you might walk worthy of the Lord. How do we walk? How do we walk? Well, the first thing we do, we start thinking, well, I need to get everything in my behavior needs to get aligned in line with the revealed will of God. Well, that's true. But how are you going to do that? Well, the fact is, is the only way we can walk is by faith. by faith in Christ. Because if you walk with your eyes on yourself, what do you see? Well, if you're honest, you're going to see a sinful person. And you're going to see a person so sinful that they can't get themselves out of their sin. They might be able to stop this and stop that and start that and start this other thing. But they haven't fixed anything on the inside, have they? The thoughts still run wild. Pride still reigns. Self is still on the throne. until the Lord does it. And so we look to Christ. All power is with Him. He has to bring us down, doesn't He? And how does He do that? Well, He says, strengthened, verse 11, strengthened with all might. with all strength, with all might, according to His glorious power, not ours, His, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. So the result of God's power working in us is to strengthen us. with His power and to enable us to live in patience and in long suffering and with joyfulness. You see, the result of this grace given to us of the knowledge of His will is that we are able to walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing by faith, being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God and strengthened, strengthened to endure. impatience, long-suffering. You see, when we believe on Christ, the day itself seems long, doesn't it? First of all, we have this delight that God has done everything for us, and we can look to Christ only. And then we forget that the next moment, and then we're brought back to it. And then we forget it, and we're brought back, and we lose the sweetness of it. And we say, what happened to me? And we pray, Lord, help me. And then by grace, through some means, hearing his word, or reading his word, thinking about what we've heard before. We're brought back to it, and we're praying, we're thinking on His word, and we're praying, and God brings us back. And this is a continual life, and this occurs with all of the troubles of our life. Getting up, going to work, facing the afflictions of our body, and this constant, oh, wretched man that we are. And this is a long life, isn't it? And so what do we need? We need this enduring patience to walk according to the revealed will of God in Christ. And this patience has to suffer long, long suffering with joyfulness, because we see, as Christ did, he ran the race with a joy set before him and endured the cross. And so we're looking to Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith, And so this is the way it is, and how does this strength come to us? Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. The apostle Paul says in verse 5. He knows a man who had gone into the third heaven and seen things that he should not, and it was unlawful for him to utter. In verse five he says, of such a one I will glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities. You see what he's saying there? He's not going to boast in what he saw in the person who was taken up into the third heaven. What he's going to do, he's going to boast in his weakness. Why? Well, it goes on. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth. And now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. He didn't want people to think highly of him. and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation that was given to me, a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure." You see, even the Apostle Paul was subject to pride, spiritual pride that comes through spiritual achievements. spiritual revelations, whatever it is. And he says, no, I need to be brought low. A thorn was given to me, God gave it to me, a messenger of Satan. Verse 8, for this thing, I besought the Lord three times, thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said, the Lord said to me, listen to these words, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. That's the secret. That's the will of God. Do you see that? That is the will of God. That you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Now we see, like John the Baptist, he must increase, I must decrease. It's a good thing for me to be brought low because only when I'm brought low do I trust Christ. Only when I'm troubled, Psalm 50, verse 15, and call him up upon me in the day of trouble, I will answer thee, and thou shalt glorify me. I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. You see, God's grace works in us. This is the way, this is his will worked out in us, is he brings us low. He brings us low. He brings us low in our opinion of ourselves. He brings us low in our opinion of ourselves, especially in view of the cross, that God would do this for us in Christ, that it would cost Him the price of Christ Himself offered in sacrifice to God for our sins, giving Himself, He who is God, making Himself of no reputation and a servant and a man, and as a man obedient unto the death of the cross to deliver me from my filthy sins. That humbles us, that grace given to us through the Word of God humbles us. It brings us down and it makes us weak. We see, I have no strength. I can't deliver myself. I'm so foul and filthy and violent and nauseating in the eyes of God, in the eyes of Christ, and yet here I am. a sinner in need of God's grace and Lord, save me by his precious blood and for his righteousness sake and deliver me from my sins. That's the constant life of the child of God. It's knowing the will of God to deliver us in our weaknesses, to find Christ by faith to be our strength. And this gives us this patience, this enduring long suffering with joyfulness, going on in this race, looking for the Lord Jesus Christ, our glorious hope, and the glorious appearing of our God and Savior, who will deliver us from all iniquity by His redeeming blood. You see this, that's his will. And then he goes on. He's going to talk more about this will. He says, verse 12, this is the will of God. Now notice giving thanks to the father, the one whose will where we want to be filled with which have made us meet fit, qualified us. He brought us to the measure that he requires for us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He did for us what was necessary to make the inheritance of the saints, to make us qualified to receive the inheritance of the saints, of the holy ones, God's own people, his elect ones, his sanctified ones, those for whom Christ died, those he gave his spirit and birthed into his a family as children and made to be his sons and daughters. He says, he made us fit. He qualified us. That's what the father did because that was his will. His will is so good, isn't it? And so what does this do? The prayer of the apostle that God would make us to fill us with this knowledge of his will, it causes us to run out to him, knowing his will is good and holy and always done, that he brings to pass his own will and all of his work. and that he's going to strengthen us by this grace of faith in Christ, we begin to thank God for that and we see that he made us partakers of this inheritance. He qualified us. How? How did he do it? Well, verse 13, he has delivered us from the power of darkness, the power of darkness. We had no power over the power of darkness. I tell Denise my dreams at night, and it's often the case that I can't remember them. And last night I had some dream, and then later on I had another dream, and that dream contradicted the first dream. So confused, in the dark, just overwhelmed with this mind that's just lost. No profit in it at all. God has to deliver us not only from our weak minds, but he has to deliver us from the power of Satan. He says, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. I love to think about this. God has a kingdom. He has given it to his son. He has made his son the king in this kingdom, the absolute ruler, the sovereign over his kingdom. And in this kingdom, God has placed his people and put Christ over them as their king. And everything he gave to his son as their king, he gives to the king for them. It's his kingdom. He says in Matthew 25 and verse 34, come you blessed of my father, receive the kingdom prepared for you by my father from the foundations of the world. That's the kingdom. And God, just like Enoch, was translated from this realm, this earth, to glory in a moment, in an instant. So God the Father has translated us from this power of darkness, this kingdom of Satan, and placed us into the kingdom of his dear son, who is the king. Praise God. Yes, indeed. And in this kingdom, it's all holy. It's all according to God's will. Everything is perfect. And God himself rules in his son there. And we see God himself in his son. And this is what God has done for us. This is the knowledge of his will. He's placed us. Can you see it? Can you feel it? Can you taste it or touch it? No. How do you know it? I have God's word. Everything else, the mountains may fall into the sea. The earth itself may be dissolved. Nations may rise up against nations and destroy one another and me with them. but God rules and is our refuge. You see, it's the knowledge of His will that enables us to endure. Whatever afflictions come our way, whether they be bodily, whether they be internal, whether they be external, persecutions, even death itself, nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He's delivered us. We can't see it with physical eyes, feel it with physical senses, but we know it with a spiritual life by faith. Like the song writer, we sang the song today, I am thine, O Lord. Cause me to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to thee. And so he says in verse 14, this is part of his will, in whom? In Christ we have His dear Son, the King of this kingdom. In Him we have redemption through His blood, redeemed by the blood of the King, made to be a servant to bear our sins, to remove our sins from us, and to present us before God in His own holiness, His own beauty. That's what the king has done. And what do you want from a king like this? I want him to do everything for me. I want him to do everything in me. I want him to so align my will with his will, my heart with his heart, and everything in life that I would trust him only and look to him only and follow him only. That's what we want. The one who has redeemed us is the son, the king in the kingdom. And we've been redeemed. God the Father did this through the blood of his son. And what do we have? The forgiveness of sins. This is the will of God. We need to know this. We need to be strengthened in this. And then he goes on, which we're not going to get to today. He's the image of the invisible God. Christ is the one we see, the only one we see when we look to God. When we see Christ on his throne, we see God on his throne. When we see Christ in his body, we see Christ, who is God, the fullness of the God that dwells in him bodily. There's so much to say about this will of God, but we don't have time to get all of it in because Scripture is full of it. We have to continue to ask the Lord to fill us and to give us His grace to be filled with the knowledge of His will, strengthened with His might, even though it costs us this sense of our own weakness under this weight of sin. and sorrow and the long days of our lives, but they're short really, aren't they? It's just a fleeting moment compared to eternity. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your grace that you would have such a will so holy, so just, so righteous, so glorifying to you to exalt your son. He deserves it. He deserves all of the glory. He's worthy of it all. And He has redeemed us to God by His own blood out of every kindred and nation and tongue and people. And this is your will, to exalt your Son in our salvation. And how great you are, how truly great you are. Help us in our hearts. By your word, through your spirit, to say, oh Lord, my God, thou art very great. Thank you for the Lord Jesus and for this life that enables us to see him and trust him. Help us to endure. Help us, Lord, fill us with the knowledge of your will concerning him. In his name we pray.