All right, we're gonna, our text
is Luke 2. Luke 2, verse 14. Verse 14. So with the present season upon
us now, I was thinking about the birth of our Lord. And I know that some say it probably
wasn't even at this time of year. based on probably astronomically
when the star would have appeared, the North Star, to the kings
in the East, but it doesn't really matter. The point is that it's
really a blessing to think about what our God has provided for
us in sending His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, I was thinking
about this in terms of what His presence, His coming in the flesh
means for you, his people, you that believe him and hope in
him and trust him for his righteousness. The text there, Luke 2.14 says,
glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill
toward men. The message of, this is the message
rather of good tidings. This is the message of good tidings
of great joy, which the angels said are to all people. And we
know from our study in Romans 5 that the all, spoken of, are
the elect people of God, scattered throughout this world. These are redeemed unto God by
the blood of Jesus Christ, out of every kindred, every tongue,
every people and nation." That's who the Lord is addressing this
great word to. The birth of Jesus Christ is
good news to us. It's good news because it reveals
the kindness of God to us. It reveals the love that God
has for his people. and sending His Son, it reveals
the kindness and the love of God to us. John the Apostle wrote
in his letter, 1 John 4, 9 and 10, saying, in this, in Christ's
coming, in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might
live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins, the forgiveness of our sins. So this morning
I want to look at this verse here, 2.14, with you and seeing
how the birth of Christ how it reveals the glory of God to us,
the peace that we have in Christ shown to us, and this goodwill
of God toward his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our title
is The Declaration of Christ's Birth, because that's what it's
declaring. His birth declares these things
to us, and these will be our divisions, these three phrases
in the text there. So we'll see God's glory through
Christ, we'll see Christ's peace, the peace that he establishes
in his people, and then God's will, good will toward the elect. All right, so God's glory here. On the night of our Lord's birth,
there was out in the country these shepherds keeping watch
over their flocks. And while they were out there
doing that in the dead of night, an angel appeared to them. And
it says in verse 10, Luke 2, verse 10, fear not, this is what
the angel says, fear not because they were afraid. I would be
if I was out there and suddenly an angel appeared suddenly to
me. That's not normal for me, I don't experience that. So fear
not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. which
shall be to all people. We know who the all are. All
whom the Lord blesses to hear this word. For unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the
Lord. And this shall be a sign unto
you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Now, there's a message
just in that alone. Wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger. And in that we see just the humility
of our God, the humility of Him taking upon Him flesh. You know,
it wouldn't have mattered even if He was born into the most
wealthy family and had the fanciest of fancy things when He was born,
it still would be nothing compared to the glory that is His as the
Son of God. He's taken upon him flesh, the
weakness of this flesh. He's giving all that up for his
beloved people, coming in the flesh to put away their sin,
to serve his people. And suddenly there was with the
angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward
men. This was a chorus of angels that
proclaimed this. It wasn't just that one angel,
but the whole chorus of the heavenly host joins in. And if you can
picture it, this is, I believe, what the Hebrew writer had in
mind when he wrote Hebrews 1.6, saying, and again, when he bringeth
in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all
the angels of God worship him. And he pronounces that, he declares
this glorious word to us, glory to God in the highest, on earth
peace, goodwill toward men. Now the first thing which they
said, glory to God in the highest. What that declares to us is that
our God here is doing that which pleases Him. He's doing what
pleases Him because that's what God does. He's God, He has a
purpose and a will and that's exactly what He's executing here
in the earth. If you look at this we see what
God is revealing to us in this event. When Christ came, God
is making known to us His glory, His power, His will, and doing
whatsoever pleases Him. And the first thing He does,
that we see in it anyway, is that He's passed by kings and
governors, mighty men, leaders, people of prominence and influence. He passes by all those people,
passes by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, even the high priest,
and comes out to shepherds, lowly, poor shepherds that no one's
thinking about and no one cares about. And there they are, in
the dark, ministering, serving, looking over their flock, in
night, in the darkness. And their angels appear and proclaim
this glorious news to these people. Everybody else was passed by,
but he's declaring this news to these people. And think of
that. You here, gathered here, are
hearing this glorious news of the favor of God toward you in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a mercy, that's the
will of God to do that. That pleases God to reveal Christ
to you, to you few gathered here this morning. So this is a great
comfort to us, right, as guilty sinners. as condemned sinners,
as unworthy sinners who have nothing to glory in or boast
in, God is making this known to us, this gospel of Jesus Christ
known to us. And this is just one of the glories
that we see revealed here in the Lord proclaiming this message
to the shepherds. In Ephesians 1 verse 10, it says
that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, at the appointed
time, that he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven, there's the heavenly host, and which
are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an
inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose, the
purpose of God, who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will, that we, we that are just cast off like those shepherds
and mean very little to those in the world and those of power
and influence and prominence, but he should, according to his
purpose, reveal this gospel to us in his Son, Jesus Christ. Now, the very fact that Christ
came into the world, The very fact that he came into the world,
that solidifies it for us. That makes known to us that we
indeed are sinners, unable to save ourselves. Because if there
was a law that could have been given, whereby we could have
made ourselves righteous, that would have been sufficient. But
the fact that Christ is here, that he came in the flesh, tells
us, ministers to us, makes known to us, there's a problem. We've got a big problem. We can't
fix this. We can't work righteousness,
we can't turn it around, and we can't earn the favor of God. But, like Adam, we are ruined
sinners. We are ruined sinners, corrupt
and dead in trespasses and sins. But, the hope is that He sent
His Son. There's a people for whom He
has purposed to save and show His grace and mercy to, to be
gracious to in Christ. And so, the other thing that
we see is that It pleases God, it's His will, that He should
work salvation for those people that He's purposed to save. He's purposed to do that, to
be gracious to you, to be merciful to you and me that are sinners
and undeserving of this grace and kindness of our God. The
psalmist writes that salvation belongeth unto the Lord. It's his work. He's pleased to
work it in his people. And so the glory of man's salvation,
the fact that God should consider us and save people who rebelled
against him, it's to his praise and his honor and the glory of
his name. But it's to our benefit. It's
to our great Great benefit. And the psalmist goes on saying,
thy blessing is upon thy people. Thy blessing, the blessing of
God, that he should be merciful to you and me, is upon his people
that were undeserving. Again, another thing that we
see is that this is the long-expected promise of the seed, made all
the way back in the garden when Adam was created and Eve. And when we rebelled in Adam
against our God, this promise was made of the seed that should
come and save the people. And so, Isaiah had this in view,
even when he wrote in Isaiah 9, verse 6, saying, for unto
us, unto us. This unspeakable gift of God's
righteousness is declared unto us. We that descended from the
sinner's seed, being sinners and rebels in Him, having done
nothing to earn or merit God's favor or mercy or grace upon
us, yet he should reveal this, give this gift unto us, so that
by his work, by his seed, we are born again and made alive,
whereby we know him spiritually and worship him in spirit and
in truth. And he says, for unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
And so Matthew, thinking of what the Lord had promised his people,
Matthew writes in 1, 22, and 23, saying, now all this was
done, everything that's transpired in the birth of Christ, that
it was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of
the Lord by the prophet saying behold a virgin shall be with
child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name
Emmanuel which being interpreted is God with us and so Christ
as our Lord and Savior given to us by God he's the one that
gives light and life to his people He reveals himself to his people. Not only puts away their sins,
but makes them to know what God has freely blessed us with in
the unspeakable free gift of his righteousness, though we
did nothing to deserve such favor. So it's to his praise and glory. And so, in spite of what we call
righteousness, in spite of what we think is good and pleasing
to God. In spite of all that, God pushes
that aside and He reveals His righteousness and gives His righteousness
freely to His people. It's His free gift that we've
earned nothing of it, that we don't deserve such a gift, yet
He has freely made us righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. So,
our God shows us this true righteousness in His Son And as He reveals
His Son to us, it's His grace, which is dawning in the heart.
The day star, the Lord Jesus Christ, rises in our heart, breaking
through all the darkness, snapping off the chains, opening up the
prison gates, and calling us forth by His power so that we
hear His voice and we're led out into the fellowship and the
light and the glory of God in the face of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's what He does. When Paul
was writing to Pastor Titus, when he was writing to that man
Titus, in Titus 3 verses 4 through 7, he said, but after that the
kindness and love, after that the kindness and love of God
our Savior toward man appeared. Think about that. Especially
you of the Dutch descent where everything's so straight and
serious and how you were raised. He's speaking of the kindness
and the love of God. The kindness and the love of
God. Does that not warm your heart? That after His kindness
and love, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to His mercy, He saved us. He saved us. He accomplished
salvation for you and me. He saved us. By the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Christ put away
our sins, and the Holy Ghost, by the seed of Christ, hath made
us alive to know the things which God has freely given us in his
Son, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
That, being justified by his grace, being made righteous,
just as Christ is righteous by his grace, we should be made
heirs according to the hope of eternal life." And so, This regeneration,
this life that we have now, is not the product of our flesh. It's not the work of our flesh. This is all according to the
will and the purpose in the mind of God, as He's determined and
purposed to show His people kindness and favor. And so, the Holy Spirit
is the one that washes us in the blood of Christ, Christ made
atonement for our sins, and he puts them away, even in our conscience,
so the guilt is removed. We're brought to know what God
has done for us in his son, and he's the one that makes us alive
so that we know this, we come to know this by faith, by faith. And so that's how we know. I've
spoken sometimes the gospel to some, They've said, how do you
know? How do you know you're one of
the chosen? And what if you aren't one of the chosen but you choose
to believe? Are you still condemned? Well, the answer really to that
is simple. all those that believe are not
condemned. Clearly, that's the power of
God because, again, that comes from, it stems from the thought
that somehow salvation is from our flesh, that faith is our
contribution to the engine of salvation. That's somehow the
pull of the engine cord or the gasoline or something. But it's
not. It's not of the flesh. It's a
spiritual gift. It's the power of God whereby
you that believe, that don't trust in your works, that have
no confidence in your flesh, but trust Christ and believe
Him, that's faith. You that rest in Him, that's
faith, and that faith It's of the Spirit. The Spirit gives
that faith, that true hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that
should be a comfort to us all. So by that faith being worked
in us, what does the Lord tell us? I don't, I mean, we could say
anything, but you, you know whether in your heart you're trusting
in yourself if you believe what I'm saying or you don't care
what I'm saying. You know, so there's belief in
the heart that he works, and then confession is made. Confession
is made with the mouth, which shows that the Spirit has given
us that, because it's not of the flesh. If it's true, it's
of the Lord. Only you know whether you believe Him or not. So, you
know, and you confess Him. So rest. Don't keep worrying
about whether or not, well, I do believe Him, but I don't know
if I'm His elect. That's not the question we're
to answer. Am I His elect? It's do I believe? Do I believe
Christ? Am I just resting in Him or am
I still looking to something I'm doing and staying there,
right? We all have thoughts go through
our head, foolish thoughts. I'm not saying that we don't
think stupid things at times. but the Lord recovers us and
delivers us into the arms of Christ so that we know, Lord,
I'm not coming before you in my righteousness. I'm coming,
Lord. Receive me in Christ's righteousness.
Keep me there, looking to him and him alone. All right, so
that, glorying in that, that's how we join in with that chorus
of angels. The heavenly and those on the
earth join together and glorify God in the highest, we worship
his name and glorify him who does all things well. All right
now, let's look at the next point, Christ's peace. The next thing
that the host declares is glory to God in the highest and on
earth, peace, peace. And so what the Lord is telling
us is that when God came in the flesh and the son of God took
upon him flesh, like you and me, peace came to the earth. He that is peace came to the
earth. Now the gospel never promises
you and me peace in this flesh. There's no peace in our flesh.
We have no guarantee or promise of that. We go through some peaceful
times, what feels like peaceful times, but we're not promised
peace. We see in In politics, there's
no peace. We see in work politics, there's
no peace. We see how we oftentimes don't
have peace in our family and friend relationships. There's
disturbances there, and there's difficulties there. And in our
own flesh, in our mind, in our feelings, in our thoughts, we
get interrupted and there's no peace there. And, you know, our
Lord even said, I think not that I am come to send peace on the
earth, I came not to send peace, but a sword. And so what the
Lord is saying there is that, yeah, we're not going to have
peace in the flesh, especially you that believe Christ and you
that are given boldness to declare Christ. When you speak of Christ,
you'll find that there is a lack of peace there, especially among
those that you think would rejoice to hear it, or the most hateful
of it, and those that you think they won't hear it, but the Lord
says, well, let me declare this, let me at least say this. Oftentimes,
they're the ones that receive it, and it's to the glory and
His praise to show us that don't look on the outward, don't look
on the flesh, because It's not what we think, but what he thinks.
But the Lord is called the Prince of Peace. He's called the Prince
of Peace, and that's not by mistake. He really is the Prince of Peace. The reason why he's the Prince
of Peace is not that he's trying to create peace among men and
with this world and the earth. Not at all. He's separating us
from the world. He's showing us that this world
is dead and decayed and that there is no peace or rest here
in the earth. But he's the Prince of Peace
in that he's the one that establishes peace between us and God. He's our peace. He's our lasting
peace. And so, by His death, He reconciled
us to His Father. And He put away our sins. And
He's the one that put away the enmity between us and the Father. Because naturally, descending
from Adam, there's enmity. There's hatred in our heart for
the true and living God. And you that believe, you know
that, but I'll say for others that don't, that in our flesh,
the idol God that we look to, there's no enmity there, there's
peace there, but not the true and living God, who says that
we can do nothing to earn his favor and salvation, that we
are to look to Christ and Christ alone to trust what God has provided
for his people and his son. All right, now in Colossians
1, 20, he says, and having made peace through the blood of his
cross, peace between us and God, by him to reconcile all things
unto himself. By him I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven." All right, that's how
we join in with the chorus of the angels and glorify the true
and living God, just like they do. He's the one who's reconciled
that. And you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable,
unreprovable in his sight." So what he's saying there is the
enmity between us and God is put away. We're reconciled to
God. That which we lost in Adam when
the fellowship was severed in Adam is now restored in Christ
because we're righteous just like he is righteous. We have
a spirit so that we know and worship him in spirit and in
truth now, all right? So the enmity is put away and
we have fellowship. Additionally, he's the one that
puts away the enmity between peoples, right? Between us, you
have the Jews who had no fellowship with the Gentiles. Their cultures
were entirely different. The only dealings they had with
the Gentiles was for business purposes, for trading and to
make some money. But they had no relations, no
friendship there with the Gentiles. But look, in Ephesians 2.14 we
are told, that Christ is our peace who hath made both both
Jew and Gentile one one body in him and hath broken down the
middle wall of partition between us having abolished in his flesh
the enmity right that enmity between the Jews who had the
law and the Gentiles who had not the law. He put away that
difference because there's not two salvations. There's not two
paths that we walk. There's only one path. It's the
way is Christ Jesus and we're all saved in that one way so
no one's better than the other. We all come in the Lord Jesus
Christ. So he abolished in the flesh
the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to
make in himself of two one new man so making peace and that
he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross
having slain the enmity thereby the enmity between us and God
thereby by the cross and came and preached peace to you which
were far off and to them that were not to the Gentiles far
out and to the Jews that were near having the law. So the Lord
is the one who establishes that peace in there, and so he does
that even among us, right? You think about all the different
cultures that we come from, the different upbringings that we've
had, the different paths that we've walked in life and in religion
and all that, and yet he's the one that overrules all that and
softens His people's hearts and causes us to see that we're nothing
and that though we might be offended,
we let it go willingly by the power and the grace of our God. And so it's the Lord that does
that. It's the Lord that teaches us that in the heart and we need
Him to teach us that. And so Christ further assures
our peace in that he declares, we know that we have peace because
he's the one declaring the gospel to us. He's the one that speaks
and preaches the gospel to us, that we now have peace in Christ. And that's the ministry he's
given to us as a body. That's the ministry that he's
given to us as the body of Christ, as his church, That's our ministry,
to preach the gospel because it's the gospel that declares
the peace that we have with God and amongst ourselves in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's His work. And so, as a people,
we do well not to set up hurdles for people. not to seek people
to conform to some religious thing that we think is important
or necessary, but to just focus on Christ, to preach Him, to
exalt Him. above all things, and to make
the Gospel the center point and the focus, and to do those things
that edify and declare this Gospel, and Christ our Savior, that it's
His work among us. And so that's what we want to
do, because as sinners, we don't want to be distracted with dead
religion. We've had enough of that. But we want to be driven
through the Gospel to Christ's feet. to seek Him for forgiveness,
to seek Him for mercy, to ask Him, Lord, wash my sins away. Take away the guilt in my conscience.
Establish peace with me in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, have
mercy upon me, a sinner. And so we come seeking that we
might be counted and found among that body in heaven that we're
given the white robe, the robe of His righteousness. And we're
given that new song to sing with the others when they said, Thou
art worthy to take the book. They saw the Lamb of God take
the book from the Father, the Father's hand on the throne,
God on the throne, and open the seals thereof, for Thou was slain
and hast redeemed us unto God by Thy blood out of every kindred
and tongue and people and nation. And so, that's what we want,
to be gathered in with the Lord. So that's the power of Christ
to execute peace. in the heart, he's the one that
executes peace in the heart of his people, causing us who are
hardened rebels, cold and indifferent, wanting what we want, he breaks
our hearts and brings us to bow before the king of kings and
the lord of lords, looking to him and trusting him for his
mercy and grace and knowing that in him we have peace with almighty
God. All right, and so we join him
with the host of heaven, in the presence of our God, declaring
that Christ is the Prince of Peace. You see, He's the peace
that we have on Earth. It's in Him. All right. Third,
we see God's goodwill toward His elect people. So because
of the peace which Christ has established for us, because of
the peace that He's established for us, we hear the angels say
in Luke 2.14, glory to God in the highest, and on Earth, peace,
goodwill toward men. Now, based on everything we've
heard concerning our Savior, everything that Christ has done,
we can receive what this means. It won't be hard to receive what
the goodwill of God is toward men. It's the salvation. The goodwill of God is his salvation. toward his people in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's his goodwill. It's his
free gift of grace and forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
his free gift of life. and light and liberty from the
deadness of religion, the deadness of this flesh. That's what he
freely gives his people in Christ. So we see that it's God's free
favor, it's his choice to be gracious and merciful to whom
he will be gracious and merciful. As he told Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion upon
whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And that's what he's shown to
you. You that are gathered here to hear it. You that hear this
word, this message, whether now or later, that's a mercy of God. gives you the spirit to hear,
to really hear it by faith and to know what Christ has done
for you. Alright, so God has laid up goodness
for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's laid up much goodness,
many blessings, many gifts for his people in his Son. These are what we call spiritual
blessings and they're all founded there in the covenant that God
makes with us. He's made a covenant with us
and yet looks to us for nothing to fulfill it. He looks to his
son, and his son fulfilled everything on our behalf so that all the
blessings of God now that are laid up for us in the covenant
of grace are all poured out upon us so that you know him, you
that believe him, have him to thank for that and to rejoice
in what he's done. And so it's because of his love
and according to his good pleasure that he sent his son. There's
that beautiful verse, John 3, 16, which tells us that God so
loved the world, He loved you, His people scattered throughout
the world, you that didn't have the law, and those that did,
those that are the elect people of God, God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And who
are the whosoever? who are the whosoever, but it's
those that believe, they that believe, those who are given
faith to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, that's what
he says in John 3, 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth, so is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. We don't see faith, we don't
see grace, we don't see the Spirit, we don't see Him, just like we
don't see the wind, but you know the wind's blown when you see
the trees whipping around and you hear the rustling in the
leaves, you see the effects of the wind. So it is with the Spirit,
you that are His, to whom God loves and sent His Son, you believe. You believe. That's the wrestling
in the winds. That's the effect of the Spirit. That's the fruit
of the Spirit born in His people. They hear and believe. They trust
Christ. And so, that's what we see here
when Paul was writing to the Thessalonians. In 2 Thessalonians
2, verses 13 through 14, there he called us beloved. Beloved
of the Lord. You that are beloved of the Lord.
How do we know that we're beloved of the Lord? We believe his testimony. We have faith, we believe his
testimony. That's how we know that we're
the beloved of the Lord. This is what he tells us in 2
Thessalonians 2.13, saying, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation, how do I know if he's chosen me? through sanctification
of the Spirit, He set you apart from all the others in dead religion.
He set you apart by His Spirit, separating you for Himself and
belief of the truth. You that have heard, not only
heard the gospel, but you believe it. You know, Lord, it's not
by anything I do, It's got to be in Christ. It's got to be
of grace because I'm a dead sinner. I'm a condemned sinner in my
own works. And we know not all men have
faith. Not all men have faith. But those that do have faith
have only God to thank for. Where unto, verse 14, he called
you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He called you. How do I know
He called me? Because you believe. You believe. That's how we know who the Beloved
are. That's how we know that it's
His work. Otherwise, we have to confess,
well, it can be a work of the flesh. Now, there are works,
there's counterfeits, but they don't really believe. They're
just saying it because they want to fit in or they want to, they're trying
to earn that favor in some way. But you that had nothing, that
have no hope, that have nothing, but you know that Christ is it,
that he is salvation, that's of God. Only the Spirit convinces
us in the heart of that, where we believe in the heart and confession
is made in him. So you that believe, rejoice,
rejoice, and sing with the heavenly host, glory to God in the highest,
on earth peace, goodwill toward men. So I pray that in this season,
as we're with family and with friends,
you know, let that be your sweet meditation. It's what God has
provided for us freely in His Son, Jesus Christ. And if the
Lord blesses it, let it spill over and speak peaceably to one
another and and be kind and gracious in the light of what God has
done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us remember that
and let that be a sweet meditation for us. Glory to God in the highest,
honor of peace, goodwill toward men. And so when you speak of
gifts, speak about that gift. Pray the Lord bless you to speak
of that gift. So I pray the Lord will bless that to your hearts.
All right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy and grace. Lord, we thank you for the many
blessings that we have in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray
that at this time your spirit of grace and peace would work
mightily in the hearts of your people. And Lord, those that
don't know you, those that are yet bound in darkness, that you
would free your people. yet bound, that they would hear
the word of peace and forgiveness in the voice of the Son of God,
that they would see and behold what Christ has accomplished
in putting away the sin of His people by the death of Himself.
Lord, that You would create faith in the hearts of Your people
and reveal faith to that faith which You've created, cause us
to lay hold of the purpose of our God for us in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that we would rest in Him and rejoice in Him, and be
delivered from all the shackles and bondage of this flesh, which
is so foolish. Lord, deliver us into the arms
of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray for our brother Scott. Lord, we know that he is going
to surgery soon. have mercy upon him, comfort
him in Christ, strengthen his body. Lord, strengthen him for
the surgery and give the doctors wisdom. Lord, bless him and Johnny
and Don during this holiday season. Lord, bless them in Christ. And
Lord, every family here, Lord, you know the things that we don't
speak of in our hearts that trouble us and burden us, but you know
all things, Lord. It doesn't matter whether we
know them, but you know all things. We pray that you would bless
and comfort your people, that you would establish peace in
our hearts with the Lord and with one another. We pray this
in Christ's name, our Lord and Savior, amen. But if you close this.