If you take your Bibles now and
turn back with me to Psalm 48. Psalm 48, looking at verses 1
and 2 this morning, and I'll mention some of the other verses
throughout toward the end of the message, the Lord willing.
Scripture says, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God, in the mountains of His holiness. beautiful for situation. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great
cave. Now the psalmist here sets forth
this purpose by the Holy Spirit to show the beauty of the situation
of Jerusalem. He wants to set forth the safety
and security of God's people. This city we know, and we're
going to see, was literally Jerusalem, but we know this, that this city
is a picture of all spiritual Israel, all of God's people. And listen what God says about
his city, about his people. He says this, beautiful or situation. Now listen, I don't know your
situation in the flesh. We have many troubles, many difficulties. That seems to be always our situation
that we are in. But regardless of what is happening
to us in the flesh, regardless of our circumstance, regardless
of our trials and difficulties and pains and sicknesses, God
says your situation is beautiful. Beautiful. The church's situation
is beautiful. It is safe. You that are in Christ,
this is the intent of the scripture, is to declare your safety. Your safety. You that are in
Christ are safe. And no doubt this city, this
one who is beautiful for situation is also the joy of the whole
earth. You know why? Because we have
the only message of joy. We have the only message of peace.
The gospel of peace. The gospel of great joy. The
gospel we preach. Perfect salvation. You want salvation? There's only
one perfect salvation. And that's the message we have. I long for you to find comfort,
assurance in our perfect situation. But if we're to know our beautiful
situation, we must first know something about our God. We must know something about
our God. When the psalmist first declares
something before this beautiful situation, he declares the greatness
of our God. He sets our eyes on the greatness
of God, for our city is only as great as our God. Our city is only as safe as our
God. is great is our God who designed this
city, who purchased this city and who built this city. So my
intent this morning is that I want to see, first of all, the greatness
of God. We're going to see our beautiful situation. If you're
going to see the safety that you have in Christ, you must
first see the greatness of God. And because of the greatness
of our God, then we have confidence that our situation is beautiful. And so that's my intent this
morning. The psalmist, therefore, begins this song not with our
beautiful situation, but the greatness of the Lord. Look at
the text. Great is the Lord. and greatly to be praised in
the city of our God. He begins with a very self-evident
truth. Great is Jehovah. Great is Jehovah. You see, it is evidently true
because there is no God but Jehovah. There is no God but our God. And His greatness is essential
to His person. His nature and His work. If God is great in His person,
it's because He's great in His nature. If He's great in His
person and His nature, then He is great in everything He does. Behold His greatness, the greatness
of God. Now, we can behold the greatness
of God in different things. His creation. Can you not behold
the greatness of his power in creation? You can go to Isaiah
chapter 40. Listen to how the prophet describes
this. This is. I love when the Lord gives us
a picture because that's how our little minds can work, we can
see things in pictures. Yes, a series of questions in
verse 12, because they were trying to make God into these little
idols. They were chopping some wood
down and carving it in gold. And they were saying, that's
God. And look what the psalmist asked,
he asked his questions, just who has measured the waters in
the hollow of his hand, you would take some water and put it in
the hand like this. That's how God did all the seas of the earth
measured in the palm of his hand. He meted out the heavens as a
span, as though you would spread out a curtain. That's how He
made the heavens. You just, you get up in the morning and you
just throw open your curtain. That's how He made the heavens.
That's how easy it was for Him. Made the heavens as a span. He
comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. Can you measure
the dust? He does. He measured it. He weighed
out the mountains in scales and the hills in pounds. Man, what
kind of scales is that? Who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or been His counselor, or taught Him? Who taught Him
how to do all this stuff? Who counseled Him to do this?
Since He is everlasting, there was no counselor beside Him.
There was no one to tell Him. With whom took He counsel, or
instructed Him, and taught Him the path of judgment? Taught
Him knowledge? Showed Him the way of understanding? Ain't nobody did. He is. He is
knowledge. He is understanding. Behold,
the nations, they are a drop of a bucket. They are counted
as a small dust in the balance. Behold, he taketh the hours as
a very little thing. Eleven hours not sufficient to
burn the beast thereof, not sufficient for burn offerings. All the nations
before him are as nothing. They are counted less than nothing
and vanity. So then, To whom were you likened,
God? To whom were you likened? Or
what likeness were you compared to? This morning, the sun came
up in the east. And today it will run its course
as a strong man and it will lay its head down in the west. Who's
going to stop it? Why does it do that? God sustains it. God moves it
in its course. Behold the moon, the stars, the
sea, the earth, they all exist and are sustained by the very
hand of God. They move at His sovereign will
and decree. How great is our God? Now all men know there is a God,
but in spiritual blindness they do not worship Him as God. They make a God of their own
imagination, a God that they imagine to be so powerful to
create the whole universe, but not powerful enough to save whom
He will. No, our God is great. Our God
who made this universe says it's counted as nothing. We know this, that our God saves
whomsoever He will. Because our God is great. I like this, I think Pink said
this, the God of this generation no more resembles the God of
Scripture than a candle in the noonday sun. The God of this generation is
not great, and he is not to be greatly praised. He is a weak,
impotent God who can do nothing except man give him the power
to do it. That is not our God. No, our
God is great and greatly to be praised. He has all power. Our God, the God of Zion, is
the only true and living God and he is greatly to be praised.
He is great because he is omnipotent. That means he has all power. He is his. All of it. Our God is sovereign. Our God
is all wise. Our God is all present. and all
that our God purposed, He will bring to pass. Now, Jehovah's greatness and
power in creation, it may be seen by all, but it's
not known except to the city of God. Notice where, go back
to your text, Notice where this great God is praised in the city
of our God. He is seen by in his greatness
to only to those who have seen his salvation. You have seen his salvation.
You know this. He alone is our refuge. Look, look at verse three. God is known in her palaces for
refuge. Do you know God, this God, this
great God, as a God of refuge? And we see in verses 4 through
verse 7 that He has taken all of His enemies and crushed them.
You that have fled to Christ for refuge, you know this, He
has taken all of our enemies and He in His sovereign might
has crushed them. And because he did this, we know this, that
our salvation is established forever. Verse 8, we have heard,
so we've seen in the city of our Lord, the Lord of hosts,
in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. We who know the greatness of
our God know this. He's established our salvation
forever. He's established it. And I'll give you several things
about his greatness that we know. We not only know his greatness
of his power, but listen, we know the greatness of his holiness.
Everybody who is saved by the grace of God knows this. God
is holy. I know God is holy. But I tell
you, I do not know the full extent of what that means. God is absolutely,
completely without spot, without evil. In Him is no darkness at
all. He is light. He is holy. He is eternally free from sin. And so then all that approach
Him must be holy. We know this. We have heard this.
The Lord who is great is great in holiness and we know that
anyone who is to approach unto him must be holy. Even the angels who themselves
are holy angels without sin in themselves. We know this, that
they must cover their hands and their face with, they must constantly
cover themselves because they stand in the holy presence of
God. Have you considered the standard
that God requires of man is to be perfect? To be free from the guilt of
sin? And anyone who is found in iniquity
must be condemned. And we know this, that God who
is holy, secondly, we know this, that God is omniscient, all-knowing. No one escapes the all-seeing
eye of God. God who is holy and demands holiness
sees everything and no one escapes His presence or His sight. Can
you imagine there's one sin that you've committed that He's not
known about? How many sins have we forgot? How many sins do we long to forget? See, God sees them all and no
one escapes this. Yet man still vainly believes
that he's going to be accepted by some best efforts of holiness. Somehow they believe sincerity
is acceptable. In the place of holiness, God
says, thank you brother, in the place of holiness, God says,
they say that God would just accept our best sincere efforts
at being holy. That's not true. They vainly believe that he'll
accept their best efforts, but. God is holy and therefore all
knowing he must and will demand perfect justice. So then we may
know the greatness. By these things, we know the
greatness of our God's holiness. We also see the greatness of
our sin. When God reveals his holiness and his power and his
omniscience to us, what does that expose do to us? It exposes
us of our sin. It exposes us of our powerlessness
to satisfy the justice of God. There's no way we can satisfy
God's justice by doing. It's an endless thing. We cannot, our works are never
going to be sufficient to satisfy a holy God. So God is great in
His holiness. God is great in His power. God
is great in His justice. God is great in His knowledge. But I want you to know this,
we who find Him as a refuge, we know this, that God is also
great in mercy. Mercy. Behold the greatness of God's
love. Where do you see the greatness
of God's love? How can you determine that God
is a loving and merciful God? I'll tell you, the only place
you'll ever see that is in the giving of his son, Jesus Christ,
for sinners. John says, herein is love. You want to know what love is?
Not that you love God. Don't look at your love for God.
That's not great. Your love for God is not great.
What's great is God's love for us. Here in his love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us. And what's the evidence?
He sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Not just he sent
his son. He sent his son to be the offering. for sin. The sacrifice for sin. He sent His Son to die for sinners. So then see the greatness of
God's love and mercy, and that He came not to call the righteous.
That's what Jesus said when He came. He said, I came not to
call the righteous. They that are whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick. Who needs salvation, the
righteous or sinners? Only sinners need salvation.
Therefore, he said, I came not for the righteous, but to call
sinners to repentance. He came to save sinners. He didn't come to save those
who could save themselves. Listen, if you can have some
part in salvation, any part, This kind of makes it simple
about religion, doesn't it? If somebody claims to have any
part in their salvation, Christ didn't come for them. If you can do something, well,
Christ didn't come for you. He came for those who could do
nothing. He came for those who were sinners,
those who were already guilty, those who could not deliver themselves. It's me. God revealed his holiness, I'll
tell you what, that's what I found out. I found out I could not
deliver myself, but also found out that God sent his son to
deliver those who could not deliver themselves. He came to save sinners
in this, we see what the greatness of God's mercy. Christ came to save those who
had no goodness. You have any goodness? Christ came to save those who
have no goodness. Do you have any righteousness of your own?
Well, Christ came to save those who have no righteousness of
their own. No merit of their own. Those who could not satisfy the
justice of God. Let me ask you, is this you?
Is the Holy Spirit speaking to you? Are you incapable of ever
pleasing God in yourself? Well, that's good, because Christ
came to save people just like that. He came to save people
just like me. And behold, then, the greatness
of this salvation. When God saves a sinner, how
great is it? How great is this salvation? Well, the greatness of this salvation
depends on the greatness of the Savior, doesn't it? If the Savior
is not great, the salvation is not great. But God says this,
the Lord is great. Great is the Lord. So our Savior
is a great Savior in this. He actually saved us. He actually saved those He came
to save. Scripture says, Thou shall call
his name Jesus. Now why? Why? I heard a song
this morning, they must have said that about 500 times. Jesus,
Jesus, Jesus. I wonder if they really know
what they were saying. Why did he have to be named Jesus? Jehovah saves. Thou shall call his name Jehovah
saves. Why? For he Jehovah shall save
his people from their sin. Great is our Savior. He saved
his people. Now, listen, in all religion,
if you were to take a religious class, you could see all the
religions of the world. In every religion, I did this
in college, I was so foolish. Don't do it. Don't do what I
did. It's silly. But in every religion, there's
always a mediator. There's always somebody in that
religion that stands between the worshippers and their God.
There's always somebody making a sacrifice, either you or the
priest. Somebody's making a sacrifice
to appease their God in every religion. In every religion. But you know what all false religion
has in common is this. They're never done. They're never
finished offering. They're never finished sacrificing.
Which shows the vanity of their sacrifices. The emptiness. If I've got to do it again, then
what good was the one that I did yesterday? Did it only last 24
hours? Did it only last a year, a week,
a month? What? I've got to do it again.
It shows the vanity of such offerings because they're never done. So
they must continue the work and never be finished. Now listen,
this was also true of the Jewish sacrifices, wasn't it? Now listen,
the Jewish sacrifices, they were established by the true and living
God. The God that I worship is the
same God that established these priests and their offerings. They were ordained and they were
prescribed by God. Yet we know this, according to
the word of God, that not one of those offerings took away
sin. Not one. How many countless thousands,
millions of sacrifices were offered. And not one took away sin. How
do you know? Because they had to keep doing
it over and over and over. There were sacrifices in that
first tabernacle, in that first room. There were sacrifices every
day. At least two a day, they had
to perform these sacrifices. And once a year, that great high
priest went in with the blood of the atonement, once a year.
And they had to do it every year, every year, every year. Why?
Because it never removes sin. But what those offerings did
that false religion couldn't do is that they that preached
the gospel. Wasn't it when they were offering
those sacrifices, what were they doing? They were testifying of
one to come who would finish it. They were testifying that
there is a priest. And there is an offering to come.
And this priest is going to be greater than those others. This
offering that's coming is going to be greater than the others.
Why was it greater? Because of the person that came. He was greater than those priests.
He was a priest not after the line of Aaron. He was a priest after the order
of Melchizedek. He was a priest, an eternal priest. This is how great our Savior
is. He is a priest forever. And so great was his offering
that he only did it once. So great is the offering of Christ. That God himself was satisfied
with that one offering for him. So I know this, this offering
was so great that everyone he died for are saved. They're redeemed. His blood was sufficient to remove
the guilt and stain of their sins before the eyes of God who
sees everything. His blood was sufficient to eradicate
all their guilt and make them holy. Go to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews
chapter 9. Look at verse 6. Now, when these
things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first
tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. And the second
went the high priest alone once a year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself and the errors of the people. See, he
himself was a sinner. He needed a sacrifice, too. So
he offered for himself and for the people. The Holy Ghost, what
was he doing? Signifying something. He was
signifying that the way into the holiness was not yet made
manifest. It was not yet clear, not yet
perfectly clear. While the first tabernacle was
yet standing, which was only a figure for the time then present
in which were both offered both gifts and sacrifices, that what?
Could not make him that did the service perfect. as pertaining
to the conscience. It could not make him perfect, which stood in meats and drinks
and divers washing in the carnal ordinance imposed on them at
the time of reformation. But Christ being common high
priest, a high priest, a representative, a high priest of good things
to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, What was
that tabernacle? It was his body. He came in a
perfect, sinless body. He came in a body that was absent
the stain of Adam. Born of the seed of the woman,
made by the Holy Spirit, holy and perfect body in which he
tabernacled among us, representing his people. Not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered into the holy place.
What's the word? Once. Once. And what is the result? What's the result? Having obtained
eternal redemption for us. What does that mean? He got it. He got it. You know, I love that picture
in Revelation where it says John was weeping. He said he saw the
books and he just, he's so down, weeping. He said, don't be of
good cheer. Behold the Lamb of God. And I
like it when he said, and I turned and I saw a lamb as it was slain.
And he took the book from the hand of God. You know why he took it? He earned
it. Only man ever earned anything
of God. And he took it. That book of
redemption, he took it. He bought it. It's his. He obtained
eternal redemption. Who? For us! For us, not for
everyone without exception, but for us, all who believe on him. Listen, he bought it. He obtained our redemption. And
who is the us? It is the city of our God. Great
is the Lord. Great is his holiness. Great
is his power. Great is his wisdom. Great is
his omnipotence and omniscience, which exposes us of our need.
And then He shows us our need is already supplied in the greatness
of our Savior. And by the power of the Holy
Spirit, we do now believe. I know the world views faith
as something that a man can choose or not choose. I know this, faith
is a gift. And every day I've got it, it's
a gift. Every moment I believe it is the power of God that keeps
me, sustains me. I surely would have left him
long ago if he would not sustain my faith, keep me. Therefore, great is the Lord
and greatly to be praised. Where? Where is he praised? One place, in the city of our
God. among His people is He greatly
praised. He's greatly praised because
I can't share in any of His glory. All the glory belongs to Him.
All the power, all the salvation is His. He did it. He's doing it. He's going to
finish it. greatly to be praised in the
city of our God. And so I'm talking to you now
who are the city of our God. You who know the greatness of
our God, you who believe on Christ, I want you to know your situation. I want you to know your situation. Here it is. Beautiful your situation
is Mount Zion. You have a beautiful situation. I know this is talking about,
Richard Lee was talking about the nation of Jerusalem, that
city of Jerusalem. I want you to picture this. Jerusalem's
set up on a mountain. Set up on a mountain. It's high
above everything else. And then, it's not only set up
on a mountain, it's surrounded by mountains. There's only one
way in and out. Only get in one way and out one
way. It's heavily fortified. This
city of Zion is heavily fortified on all sides. It says in the city of our God,
in the mountains of His holiness. See, Jerusalem was situated in
such a place that it was called the Queen of the East. It was a beautiful city. It was
perfect. perfectly situated for defense,
for safety. I want you to see that that's
you, you who believe in Jesus Christ. I want you to see this, that
we are safe. We are safe simply because we
are justified by the merits of Christ. We are the city of the
living God. We have been justified by God. We have been chosen by God in
sovereign election. We have been redeemed by the
blood of Christ. We have been called by the spirit
of our God. And God says this of Jerusalem,
it shall never be removed. Look at chapter 46 and verse
5, God, because God is in the midst of her, she shall not be
moved. God shall help her and that right
early. See, God promises that we shall
not be removed. Think then of His loving kindness
toward us and how great our God is because He dwells among us. You know, Jerusalem was had a
lot of natural advantages, but the greatest advantage was this,
God was there. When they set that temple up,
God himself dwelt in his Shekinah glory, he dwelt in that temple. He dwelt among those people. God dwelt in the midst of her. And so it is true, if it's true
of Jerusalem, how much more true is it of us that God dwells in
us? God dwells in us. How can God dwell in such a vile
wretch as we are? We confess our sins. We know
our nature. How is it that he can dwell in
you? And he does. He dwells in us. How is that? Because he has given us his holiness. He has given us a holy nature
in which he dwells. He dwells in such a holy nature,
it says that that picture that he gives us the city of our God
in the mountains of his holiness. Imagine Jerusalem wrapped in
those mountains. Consider this, that we are robed in the holiness
of God. robed in the righteousness of
Christ. How great is our Savior to accomplish
the righteousness of God by His faith and then in great power
give it to us. We are robed in the mountains
of His holiness. It's called mountains of holiness
because of its size and immutable nature. How high is the mountain of God's
holiness? How immutable is the mountain
of God's holiness? And yet we are robed in it. You
who believe, you're robed in His righteousness. Even so much that His name is
our name. In Jeremiah chapter 23, it says,
He shall be called The Lord, our righteousness. That's who
Christ is. We all recognize that, right?
He is the Lord, our righteousness. But in Jeremiah, chapter 33,
in that day, she shall be called. He's talking about the church,
you and me. She shall be called the same thing. The Lord, our
righteousness. Consider the safety of this,
that you are robed in the holiness of God. How holy is God? Well, He's as
holy as His Son. And listen, everybody in His
Son is just as holy as the Son. You are in union with Him. So then none can move us from
our place. None can separate us from God. Isn't that what Paul said in
Romans chapter 8? Romans chapter 8, he said this,
who shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus? Tribulation, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword,
life, death, any other creature. Now I'm persuaded that none of
them shall separate us from the love of God that's in Christ
Jesus. How is that? Because God justified me. Who
then can condemn me? Christ died for my sins. There
is therefore now no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus.
Consider that we are the city of God and we are robed in his
righteousness. Consider the beauty of that situation. And just as that city was a fortified
city, how much more are we fortified in Christ? We who are Jerusalem, we who
are our Zion, in a place where God dwells. Scripture says we
are firmly established. Look at that again in verse 3.
God is known and her palace is for what? Refuge. Refuge. Listen, who's your refuge? Not what, who? Who's your refuge? God is our refuge. God is our
protection. How safe is that? If God be for me, who can be against me? God is
my refuge. This is what the city of Jerusalem
knows. This is our beautiful situation. That God dwells in
us, God dwells with us, He robes us in His righteousness, and
God is our refuge. How beautiful is this situation? You who are the city of God,
behold your beautiful situation, behold the gloriousness of your
position and standing in Jesus Christ, that you are so highly
exalted that nothing can remove you from him. You know that word
situation, you know what it really means? Elevation. Beautiful for
elevation. No arrows of accusation can reach
you. Nobody can grab you and take
you away. They can't reach you. You're
too high. How high are you, believer? How
firm is your, your, your situation? How? You know where Christ is
right now? He's on the throne of God. You know where you are? In him. In him. and God's made you so perfect. I know I gotta move faster, but
go look at Psalm 45 with me just for a second. I want to show
you the heart of God. You that are the city of God,
I want you to view the heart of God for you. God says, my
heart is indicting a good matter. That word indicting means gushing.
My heart's gushing. What? Good matter. What's the
good matter of God's heart? It's His Son, isn't it? I speak of things that I, which
I have made touching the King. My tongue is a pen of the ready
writer. This is what He says about Christ,
thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into
thy lips, therefore God is blessed forever. And he tells Christ,
gird on thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory
and thy majesty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously. Isn't that exactly what he did? What, didn't he ride prosperously?
This is the heart of God inditing a good manner for Jerusalem.
This is your situation. Listen, Christ rode prosperously
because of truth and meekness and righteousness and thy right
hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp
in the heart of the king's enemies whereby thy people fall under
thee. Isn't that what happened to us? In that heart of the arrow,
the gospel struck our heart and we fell right under his feet.
We fell right at his feet. We were his enemies. No more. Look what he says. The king's
daughters are among the honorable women. Upon thy right hand, upon
Christ, did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughters,
and consider and incline thine ear. Forget also thine own people
and thy father's house. Forget Adam. Forget his race. That's no longer your people. So shall the king greatly desire
thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him. The daughter
of Tyre shall be There, with a gift, even the rich among the
people shall entreat thy favor. The king's daughter is all glorious."
Where? Where is she glorious? Within. Don't look in the mirror and
see glory, do you? By faith we see the gloriousness
that God has made us in Christ, glorious within. Her clothing
is wrought gold. wrought by the hand of Jesus
Christ himself. She shall be brought into the
king, under the king, in raiment of needlework. The virgins, her
companions, shall follow her and shall be brought unto thee.
With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought. They shall enter
into the king's palace. All consider your situation,
that he who rode prosperously provided for you made you who
were harlots now queen you're a queen dressed in gold
you ever try to knit gold that's what he said he said this is
knit gold how fine is the gold that you can use it as an in
a needle and thread it together perfectly rolled in the righteousness
of Christ how beautiful is your situation Beautiful for situation, the
joy of the whole earth. Now listen, I want you to see
this, that you are the joy of the whole earth. You know why?
You have the only gospel of joy. What this world seeks after and
can't ever have, you have. You have real peace. You have everlasting joy. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world give I unto
you. My joy, he says, I give to you. My joy. You are the joy
of the whole earth. You realize this world spins
for you? They think it spins for them.
They think this world revolves around them. It doesn't. Everything
is happening is happening for you. You are the joy of the whole earth.
And we have the only gospel of joy and peace. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great
king. I'm going to leave you with this. In Jerusalem, like
I told you, there was only one way in and out of Zion. It was
surrounded by mountains, only one way in. If anybody's outside
of this city, listen, Christ said this, come unto me. Come
unto me. There's only one way into this
city, isn't it? How'd you get it? Christ, he
is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father
but by me. All that men would come, that God be gracious to give
them the same situation that we have. Beautiful situation. And my situation is good only
because my God is great. Great in holiness, great in power,
all but great in mercy. Great in salvation. Christ, our
Savior, has accomplished our salvation. Therefore, our situation
is what? What's your situation? God says
beautiful. Can you imagine him saying that
and looking at his son? He sees his son and says, man,
your situation is beautiful. I look at the son and say, my
situation is beautiful because of the son. Oh, that we would
praise the son, magnify the son, honor the son, our great savior. May God bless us. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer. Father, dismiss us with your
blessing. We're surrounded by trouble, trials, pain, hurt. Please remind us again of this
situation, Father, that you have put us in, this beautiful situation. You've given us life and peace
and joy in Christ. Set our minds and hearts upon
it. Give us grace to believe and trust only in Christ, always
in Christ. Never looking to self or our
circumstances to see our situation, but only this look to Christ
to see it. Forgive us our sins. Guide us. We pray you do this
in Christ's name.