seeking once again the help of
Almighty God to speak to you, to grant me the words to speak
to you this morning. I'd like you to turn to the chapter
that we have been looking at, Ephesians chapter 6 and looking
at the last piece or part of the armour that is given to the
believer which is found in verse 18. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse
18. Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and supplication for all saints. Praying always with all prayer,
with all perseverance for all saints. have been looking at over the
last few months really that armour of God and just to recap as we're
all well aware that the Christian who is called to be a soldier
of the Lord Jesus Christ is fighting a battle for the kingdom of light. They are walking through enemy
territory on their way to the promised land and they are given
strength and ability by God himself. They have no strength of their
own. They are indwelt by the Holy
Spirit of God. It is him who enables them to
be more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. It is him who enables
them to resist the temptation, who gives them that perseverance
to go on and to step forward day by day, that they may fight
against that enemy, the enemy of self, the enemy of the world,
the enemy of Satan and the forces of darkness. and it is him that
enables them to use and have faith in all the equipment that
has been given to them as soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
are to stand in the truth of God's holy word, to know the
truth of God's word. We saw that Satan is a liar and
he is a deceiver. He holds millions captive in
darkness. They themselves believe that
they're in the truth. They believe that they are free.
They believe that they're in the light but the scripture reveals
the truth that we who were in the darkness have been brought
into the light. It is the Christian, the believer,
who is free, who has been released from the chains of Satan. Although
the world look at us as people who are chained by rules and
laws, yet the word of God tells us we have been made free. Fear
has been removed from us and we've been given freedom in Christ
Jesus to follow him. And so we are girt about with
the truth, with the breastplate of righteousness, the righteousness
of Christ and that righteous standard of living. Our feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We are those
who carry the gospel. We are those who are able to
resist and to stand firm because of the solid ground on which
we stand. And there we have the shield
of faith. enables us to combat the lies
of Satan, that confidence in God, that faith in God, faith
in God's Word, that what he has said he is able to perform and
we're able to overcome those fiery darts and that helmet of
salvation to protect the head and the mind from those deceits
and those lies and we're given that wonderful sword of the Spirit
which is the the Word of God. And so the Christian is someone
who is girt about with the truth of God's word. He has the God's
word in his hand to combat with the lies of Satan. And he also has a prayer in his
lips. or prayer in his heart, prayer
in his mind that comes out of his lips. And so as we look at
the illustration that is given to us of a soldier we see fully
equipped man or woman of God but out of their lips comes that
means of communication, that battled cry, that war cry which
comes out of their lips which is prayer. It's that means of
communication. If we look at the war that is
taking place in Ukraine at this moment in time, there is constant
communication between the front line and themselves, between
those who are providing the ammunition, between those who are higher
up in the army, telling them what to do. And so communication
is vital. in a war. And so communication is vital
for the warfare which the Christian is called to walk. It is a vital
tool that we are given to be able to communicate with God. It's not an add-on. It's not
you can have all of the other armour but you don't need prayer.
Prayer is listed last as a stamp, as a seal that covers all of
these things. It is the most important. For
if you don't have prayer in your heart, you have no salvation
on your head, you have no righteousness on your chest, you have no gospel,
you are not able to stand in the truth. Because prayer is
the essence or the aroma of the Christian life. You have that
hymn, don't we, that says, Long as they live should Christians
pray, for only while they pray they live. And so prayer in the
life of a Christian, it is like breathing. It is like breathing. No breathing is death. And no prayer shows spiritual
death or spiritual sickness. Remember the Apostle Paul when
he was converted. After having been a Pharisee
of the Pharisees, a very religious man, he is met by the Lord Jesus
Christ on the road to Damascus as he goes to kill or to capture
Christians. And the Lord Jesus Christ meets
with him and he is struck down and he is changed. in a moment
in Acts chapter 9. Ananias is told in verse 11. We'll go from verse 10. And there was a certain disciple
at Damascus named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a
vision, Ananias. And he said, behold I am here.
I am here Lord. the Lord said unto him arise
and go into the street which is called straight and inquire
in the house of Judas one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he
prays or he prayeth and has seen in a vision a man named Ananias
coming in and putting his hands on him that he might receive
his sight. To what had changed He had seen
Christ. He'd been born again and something
happened in his life. Behold he prays. He'd begun to pray. Spiritual
life had been given to him and he had begun to breathe the breath
of prayer. He'd begun to cry the war cry
of a soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ. He'd become now to communicate
with the one who had saved him. the one who had infiltrated into
his life and transformed his heart. He now began to pray,
to speak to the captain of his salvation. What was his prayer? Verse 6, And he trembling and
astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? What wilt
thou have me to do? That was his prayer. Before it
was, I am going to Damascus to capture prisoners, to capture
Christians and to put them in jail. I am doing this. I am doing
that. It's my life. I am doing the
will of God. But Christ comes and appears
to him and immediately he is changed. Immediately he falls
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and he says, OK, I abandon
my mad career. I abandon my own thoughts of
what I am going to do. And I say, Lord, what will Thou
have me to do? That is the cry of a soldier. soldier on the front line is
asking for commands from the rear. What is it that you want
us to do? What intelligence do you have
for us that we may know which way to go? What do you want us
to do? And that is the first cry of
the Apostle Paul. That is the continued cry of
the believer. What is it, Lord, that you want
me to do? You see, prayer puts us in the
right place. Prayer puts us at the feet of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It puts us down there in a submissive
position. Not my will, but thy will be
done. Remember the Lord Jesus in the
Garden of Gethsemane. Where was he? Prostrate on the
ground. nevertheless not my will but
thy will be done and that is where prayer puts us. Prayer
doesn't put us on the throne, prayer puts us on the footstool
at the bottom of the throne. It's the beggar coming to the
king, the one who has nothing asking for something, the lesser
to the greater. True prayer puts us at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord What do you want me to do? Lord, please provide for me. Lord, which direction do you
want me to go? Lord, please help me. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And so the prayer cry of the
believer becomes Lord, what will thou have me to do? He begins
now to breathe. Remember Jesus as he speaks to
Nicodemus he says you must be born again. And that moment that
a person is born again they begin to breathe, they begin to cry,
they begin to pray. And so the apostle says that
though the Christian is covered with this armour, he is to be
praying always. This Christian soldier has no
self-confidence of his own, he is at the feet of Christ, praying
always with all prayer. Because we know prayer does not
go directly to God. Prayer must pass through the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is no person on earth who
has direct access to God except they go through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Jesus himself says, no one comes unto the Father except
they go through me. The Lord Jesus Christ, as he
ascended up into heaven, he took up that position as the great
high priest of his people, the mediator, of the new covenant
and so anybody who comes to God the Father must go through the
Lord Jesus Christ. On Friday I listened to a sermon
I went to the Heathfield Thanksgiving service and Matthew Hyde was
preaching and he preached from Luke 24 50 to 53. What struck me from that
sermon was this verses 50 and 51. And he led them up out as
far as Bethany and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ. And it came to pass while he
blessed them he was carried from them and carried up into heaven. And so as the Lord Jesus Christ,
after he had risen again on the third day and he'd lived amongst
them for 40 days, the time came when he was to leave them. And
as he was blessing them, he was taken up from them. Matthew said,
you know, he never stopped blessing them. He never put his hands
down and today he is still in heaven at the right hand of God
with his arms outstretched as the high priest, the great high
priest of his people with his arms outstretched pronouncing
a blessing upon his people, the church. And so when we come to
God in prayer, as we pray always as we come to God, as we come
to a living, risen Great High Priest with his arms outstretched
in blessing upon his people, interceding for them. You remember when the Lord Jesus
Christ had died, as we read through the whole of the New Testament,
there's always those barriers that were in place stopping people
from approaching God. There must be the slaughter of
the animals. There must be the high priest.
There must be the curtains. There must be the holy of holies.
And there was always those barriers that prevented people from having
that free access to God, their creator. But when the perfect
sacrifice came of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, to take
away the sins of his people, as he was crucified upon the
cross, there the temple curtain was rent from the top to the
bottom. And that signified now there
was free access into the holy place. Not the holy place made
with hands, for that temple, that physical temple was destroyed.
but we have free access to the holy the greater temple into
heaven itself the great temple not made with hands, the throne
of grace where the Lord Jesus Christ has sprinkled his blood,
not the blood of bulls and goats but his blood, the perfect sacrifice
and so that way was swung open, access has been granted to all
who come to God by him, have access to a living saviour a
living high priest and he in turn then presents his people's
prayers to God. God the king of kings, the almighty
God, the all-powerful God, the long-suffering and merciful God,
the creator of heaven and earth. And the scripture tells us, nothing
shall be called too hard for him. And so as this soldier is
covered in his armour, he has the sword and the shield, yet
he has prayer on his lips, a communication device we can say, that gives
him access to the Almighty God through that Almighty God's beloved
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest. in Hebrews chapter 10. It tells
us there, in verse 19, having therefore brethren boldness or
freedom, confidence to enter into the holiest by the blood
of Jesus by a new and living way which he has consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh. And having
an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with
a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. And so there, because of Christ,
this holy God that was once separated by a curtain and by darkness
and by the high priest. Now we are able to enter into
his presence as we kneel down to pray or as we enter into the
spirit of prayer we are able to communicate with the great
God of heaven through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus
Christ as I said is the God-man and because he is the God-man
he's able to hold as it were the hand of God and he's able
to hold the hand of man and he's able to reconcile them both together
and he's able to be a mediator he's able to be a go-between
between the two parties he's able to be a high priest who
understands God but also he understands men and I'm sure every believer
has been so thankful for what the scripture says of this great
high priest whose name is love. Hebrews 4 tells us verse 14, Seeing then that we
have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. we have not an
high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched. In other words we have a high
priest who is able to understand us, a high priest who is able
to be touched with our feelings, touched with our infirmities
because He has walked this world before. The God-man who lived
for 33 years upon this earth and experienced those things
that you and I have experienced and is able to be touched with
those things. And so we have this great high
priest who stands holding our hand and holding God's hand to
bring about that reconciliation, that living way. We have a living
high priest, an understanding high priest that when you come
to communicate with him, he is able to understand our weaknesses
and our frames. as the soldier on the front lines
seeks to communicate with those further inland. There may not
be that understanding. I remember reading of Hudson
Taylor. Hudson Taylor used to write back letters to England
and trying to explain the difficulties that he was passing through.
And the board back in the UK, they couldn't understand what
he was going through. And so they were hindering his
progress, hindering his work. because they didn't know what
he needed. They didn't know how to act and
they were sitting and having discussions and he wanted to
go forward and so there was not that understanding and that hindered
the work. The scripture says with our high
priest, the one that we communicate with, there is that understanding,
there is that knowledge of the difficult situation and he knows
far more than we do how to react to the situation, how to provide,
how to help. So he says, praying always with
all prayer. Praying always. In Thessalonians it tells us there that we are
to be continually in prayer. Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians
5 verse 17. Pray without ceasing. And so
always means always. As we breathe, so we are to pray. Just to be
in a constant mindset, a constant line of communication with the
Lord Jesus Christ, with God our Saviour. Such is the intensity
of the battle that we pass through. There is to be that constant
fellowship, constant line of communication open with our father. Yet how often it is. that we
neglect this means of communication, this miracle of prayer, this
way that has been open to us. How often we neglect to look
up to our great high priest who has his arms stretched out in
blessing over the church. That hymn, don't we, O what pain
we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because We
do not carry everything to God in prayer. And so always means
always. That is daily, day and night. Sometimes there are times, aren't
there, when we do wake up in the night and we have that constraint
to pray. It's like the Lord prompts us.
I haven't heard from you for a while. pray. Jesus used to retire by himself
to pray, spending all night in prayer, in communication with
his Father. And so the believers are to be
always in prayer, day and night. At home, to be in prayer. At work, to be in prayer. with the children, we're to be
in prayer. As we walk our daily life, we're
to be in prayer. Because there's so much to pray
for. The need is so great. Remember
Daniel when he heard of the news that there was to be no other
god worshipped other than the king, that he immediately went
to his window to pray as he normally did. He had those set times in
the structure of his day where he would kneel down to God and
to pray. And it is good to have those
set times to pray. Not to fall into a rigid trap
of saying I only pray at seven in the morning, at twelve at
midday and at seven at night. It doesn't say that. That is
a good habit to be in. But it says praying always. Always
pray with all prayer. With all types of prayer. As we go through the Bible, there
are many different types of prayer. pray in your mind. God is a spirit. He's able to understand the thoughts
of our minds. We're able to pray to him in
our thoughts and often if we're going to pray always that is
probably the most common type of prayer that you would have
at work or the most common type of prayer that you would have
going about your daily business. Thinking and meditating upon
God and communicating with God throughout the day. we can pray
out loud. There are times when we're alone
and sometimes praying out loud is more beneficial to kneel by
your bed and to speak to God in an audible voice or walking
in the countryside and looking at God's creation and speaking
to him out loud and communicating with him. To cultivate a habit of prayer. As we breathe so we should pray
and obviously as with our breathing there's normal and then there's
intense and it's the same with prayer. as we look at our lives
and we see pressing circumstances that enter into our lives prayer
becomes more urgent, more earnest, more desperate as we are fearful
our breathing becomes more rapid or when we've done exercise and
so prayer it has degrees and there are times when we are desperate
In the Nehemiah he says, so I prayed unto my God just a quick thought
of Lord help me, Lord protect me, Lord give me what to say
and the Lord heard him but there was that habitual prayer that
caused him to respond in that way. How often we neglect this
great gift of prayer, this access that we have to God. It's prayer time with our families. It's prayer when we come collectively
to the prayer meeting. We're very thankful here that
the prayer meetings are very well attended but often it's
not the case. People just say, well, it's only
a prayer meeting. But the prayer meeting is where
the brethren, as it were, lay hold of God. where the brethren
lay hold of Christ, where the brethren come to communicate
with God and to present their needs and concerns before one
who is able to do far more than we can ask or think, to communicate
with the captain of their salvation, to communicate with the great
God of heaven who knows far more than we know. Yet he has invited
us to come to him to speak to him and to communicate and to
have fellowship with him. There are times of thanksgiving
and rejoicing where the Lord has intervened and helped us
and provided for us and we come and we present those offerings
of thanks by the way of prayer and praise to our God. Jesus tells us in the chapter
that we read together that we are to present also our
needs. Praying always with all prayer
and supplication. The supplication is seeking,
it is asking and it is presenting those needs that we have. Again prayer puts God and us
on the right level. As we come to ask and to seek
and to knock then we are putting ourself in that humble position
saying that we are not able. In Matthew 6 it says verse 8. Be you not like therefore unto
them for your father knoweth what things you have need of
before you ask. Although we are not reminding
God or we are not telling God things that he doesn't know yet
he has invited us to come to the throne of grace to ask him
for things Not things that he doesn't know that we need but
things that he knows that we need and he is able to provide
them for us. In verse 11 it says, give us
this day our daily bread. So there is that asking. When
we come to the throne of grace we are allowed to ask God. the things that we need. He has
given us that throne of grace to ask him for those things,
for mercy and grace but also for those providential provisions
and for that help needed and that strength needed for daily
service and daily work. Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the spirit. We know the scripture tells us
that the Spirit knows. We ourselves, we do not fully
know what we need, yet the Spirit knows the mind of the Lord. And
so when true prayer is prayed, it is done so with the aid of
the Holy Spirit. When we've received answers for
our requests, it is because God, the Holy Spirit, God the God
the Son, the Great High Priest and God the Father have united
in their wills and our wills have united with their will and
we are provided with those things that we need. So he says, praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto. Watching
for opportunities. The word watching can actually
be translated sleepless. With looking for opportunities
to pray and opportunities for things to pray for. We can never
come to the throne of grace and think well I've got nothing to
say. I've got nothing to pray for. That's because our eyes,
well, it's actually true, isn't it? If we are honest, we do come
to the throne of grace and say, well, I haven't got anything
to pray for. We need to pray that God would
give us eyes to see things to pray for, that we may be praying
always with supplication and requests in the spirit and watching
thereunto. And so it means, therefore, Looking
for those opportunities to pray. Looking for opportunities and
things to pray for, to present them before the Lord. Praying
for teaching as to how we should pray. Praying for other people. Because it goes on. Watching
now and to with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, I have prayed for you. your faith fail not. And so as
the Lord Jesus Christ the great high priest with his arms stretched
open wide over the church as he prays for his people so his
people are praying for each other. How often our prayers are very
selfish We're so consumed with our own individual need that
the majority of our prayers are so full of ourselves that we
forget to pray about the needs of other people. The Lord Jesus
Christ is there in heaven. He says, I have prayed for you
that your faith fail not. Yet he tells us by the Spirit
here that we're also to pray with perseverance and supplication
for all saints. that our prayers are not to be
selfish but they're to look out for our fellow brothers and sisters
in Christ. For they are passing through
the same situations as we are. They are fighting in the same
battle. They are suffering the same temptations. They are passing
through great difficulties. And if we are to love God and
to love our neighbour as ourselves then our prayers should be directed
to God, should be concerned about our neighbours and then they
should be concerned about ourselves. You see if everybody is praying
in the right way we probably wouldn't need to pray about ourselves
because our brethren would be praying for us. In the military you often see
the soldiers when they are walking through the towns in enemy territory
going in a line. Someone at the front, some men
in the middle and someone at the back. Those men are trained not to
worry about themselves but to worry about the man in front
of them. The man in front knows that the
man behind is covering them and that is how it should be in the
church. That we should not be taken up so much with ourselves
and our own concerns and our prayers for ourselves but we
should be covering the backs of those who are in front and
knowing that they also are covering us. And so the apostle says for
all the saints as Christ says I'm praying for you that your
faith fail not so we should be praying for them our brethren
that their faith also will not fail. The apostle says, pray
for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open
my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. You
know, I've never tried this. I've never come to a Saturday
and not prayed that the Lord would help me and relied on your
prayers. Maybe I should try. Maybe I should
try not praying in the pulpit in the vestry for myself but
I should start praying for you. And then we would see whether
we are bearing each other up because we get so concerned with
ourself. Lord please help me. Lord help
me to speak. Lord give me the words to speak.
Lord give me ears to hear. And the apostle is concerned,
he says, and pray for me that I may be able to open my mouth
boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. And so we have
this wonderful way of prayer through our saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ as our high priest, as our mediator, who brings our
prayers to someone who is far stronger and far greater than
we are. And as the soldiers on the front
line of the battle communicate with those on the rear, they're
asking for help. They're asking for provision
and we can come. And maybe you have been this
week asking for help. The most common prayer we would
say that the believer cries is, Lord, help me. Lord, help me. And that is often the cry of
the believer throughout the week, Lord, help me. And it goes up
to Christ. It goes up to God the Father,
the loving Heavenly Father. And he gives his little child,
he gives his child, his Christian believer, that strength to persevere
in the day, overcome that temptation, overcome that difficulty, to
overcome that family issue, that problem. Lord, help me. as that soldier, as he gets onto
his radio and he can, he asks for direction. Where do you want
me to go? What position do you want me
to take up? Where is the enemy? And so we're
able to offer up prayers to God, asking for direction. He can
direct us through his word. He can direct us by providence,
by altering the course of our life, by hedging up our ways.
He can direct us by promptings from within, by his Holy Spirit
that he has given to us. And so we can ask for help. We
can ask for direction and we can ask for provision. In our
reading it says, take no thought for tomorrow. Let tomorrow take
thought of the things thereof. And so we can ask for provision. Consider the lilies, he says. The Lord provides for them, the
little birds and all of those things. How then are you? You
are more of more value to God than his animal creation. If
he provides for them, surely he is going to provide and help
you. You can ask for strength that
you may gain the victory. We know we are more than conquerors
in Christ Jesus. The victory is guaranteed but
sometimes it doesn't feel like that. Sometimes the enemy seems
to be gaining ground, gaining a foothold as we look around
about us and we see multitudes in sin having no concern for
their soul and we can become discouraged in the pathway. We
can be lonely and isolated. and we can pray for strength
and help that we may gain that victory that we may press on
to the finish line. Have you ever thought what would you do without prayer? If you think how much of your
life you spend in prayer What would you do even if it's
just a small fraction of the day yet what would you do without
it? To have somewhere to turn, somewhere
to unburden your heart, somewhere to cry out knowing that there
is somebody that is there that understands. You see it's a great
privilege that the Christian has been given to speak to God
And yet we so neglect that way of prayer, that means of communication
with our creator. If you have your phone, or some phones anyway, they give
you a weekly report of how much time you have spent on your phone. Screen time it's called. And
you'll get a message at the end of the week and it will say you've
spent hour and a half, two and a half hours, three and a half
hours. Or if you go to college, the college students will tell
you that some of them spend eight hours, nine hours a day on their
phones or on screens. They're always communicating
with everybody or watching. I wonder if we've got a prayer
time. at the end of every week. How
much of our week would have been spent in communication with our
God? An hour a week? Less? Has anyone ever prayed all night?
Has anyone ever prayed all day? Has anybody ever prayed for an
hour? can spend so much time on everything
else. Yet this communication with God,
this means of communication that has been given to us as a soldier
of the Lord Jesus Christ and we're in a war and we don't use
that great means of grace, that way of prayer. Praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and for me, that
utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel. May we be taught the true blessing of prayer and
to cultivate in our lives a habitual holy habit to be able to communicate
with God. May we be known as men and women
of the word, men and women of prayer, men and women soldiers
of the Lord Jesus Christ doing that battle daily on the way
to life. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. May the Lord help us as we close
this service by singing hymn number 40 from hymns of worship.
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works
thy hand hath made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
thy power throughout the universe displayed. Hymn number 40 from
hymns of worship. the works thy hand hath made. I see the stars, I hear the mighty
thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed. Great thou art, how great thou
art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God to Thee How great thou art! The birds sing sweetly in the
trees When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the
birds and feel their gentle breeze Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings
my soul, my Saviour God to Thee Saves him to die, thy scarce
can take it in. That on the cross, my pad and
badly buried, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, God to Thee, Thou Great Thou
Art, Thou Great Thou Art. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God to Thee, Thou Great Thou Art, Thou Great Thou Art. Wish out all adoration And take
me home What joy shall fill my heart Then shall I bow In humble
adoration And there proclaim My God, how great Thou art My Saviour God, to Thee I'll
break the world, I'll break the world Moon sings my song My Saviour
God, to Thee I'll break the world, I'll break the world Dear Lord and Almighty God, we
do thank Thee for this way of prayer. We thank Thee for this
means of communication that we can commune with Thee, our Creator,
through our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
pray, Lord, now that Thou bless Thine own Word, do dismiss us
also with Thy blessing and do return us here this evening in
peace and in safety. And now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with us each now
and for evermore. Amen.