Hello again. If you will, let's
turn to Genesis chapter 40. I put the dates for the conference
there in Sellersburg, Indiana. I'll be more willing up there
preaching in that, and Brother O.B. Williams will be here to
bring the gospel to you, Lord sees fit. And so pray for him
as you're able. And that, and then if anybody
wants to go, I'll give you all the information. They got cheap
hotels out there. Rev was apologizing how expensive the motels were.
I said, well, I can give you anything. It's a quarter of the
price here. But I was thinking, my pastor mentioned this morning,
a three-day conference is awful short. That all started in the
50s when Brother Henry had read a thing about, there wasn't no
conferences in this nation. He'd read about Spurgeon, they'd just
have somebody preach five days a week. They'd just start up
in the middle of summer, like, hey, let's just get a bunch of
people and we'll preach. And whoever wants to come can
come. And Clay said this morning, he said, we ought to go back
to a five-day conference. That'd take a lot of effort, wouldn't
it? Well, you'd have to call off. What if I only got one week
off a year? Well, motels are $200 a night.
Well, save. Get you a checking account. You'll
be all right. Cut out them lattes or something. It's worth it.
Yeah, if anybody wants information for that conference in Sellersburg,
I'll be glad to give it to you. Top of my message is butlers
and bakers. Butlers and bakers. Many may know this story. It's
maybe a well-known story to a lot of people, but I want to jump
to the point of this passage. Both these people are going to
have dreams. Joseph's going to interpret them
while they're in prison. One of them's going to live, one
of them's going to die at the end of it. The point of this
passage, there's two ways that mankind approaches the triune
God. That's it. Well, no, there's
a lot of ways, Kevin. No, there ain't. There's two
ways. Either on their own merits, I
did something, I thought something, I said something, I committed
to something, I signed something, I, I, I, I, I. Or on the complete
merit and person and work of another. Either come in yourself,
or you come in the Lord Jesus Christ to the Holy God. That's
it. Either standing on some confidence you have in you, or somebody
else, whatever, an event in life, some other time or a person,
God our salvation. All of mankind was and is in
the service of our King. Throughout time and right now,
there's nobody that walks this earth that's not in servitude
to the Almighty God. They may not know it yet, but
they're serving his purpose. And because of our great offense
to that King, All of mankind is in prison because of it. That's
what we're going to see. Look here in Genesis 40 verse
1. And it came to pass after these things, after Joseph was
put into prison, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his
baker had offended their lord, the king of Egypt. The butler
and the baker, they both offended the king. And Pharaoh, the king,
he was wroth against the two of his officers. against the
chief of the butlers and against the chief of the bakers. And
he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard into
prison, the place where Joseph was bound. And the captain of
the guard charged Joseph with them and he served them. And
they continue to season in ward. There are two prisoners and they're
both under the charge of Joseph. But this is a picture of the
whole human race. By our nature, by the feminine
noun sin that we are, we come into this world. We're under
bondage to this world. We're under bondage. We're in
prison to sin, to our flesh, our personal desires. And we're
all the servants of the Most High, whether He's revealed that
to us or not. All serve and are under the rule
of the sovereign God, and it's all to His praise. They said,
there's evil in the city. Hasn't God done it? It's to His
praise, isn't it? We are in this bondage, in this
body of death, because we've offended the Lord. We did in
Adam. We did in us. We do every day,
don't we? And I'm thankful we don't know
what the butler and the baker did. If they said they did this
crime, which I never done that, I'm good. What the Lord doesn't
say is a blessing sometimes, isn't it? We're all guilty. Oh,
that's what the scripture says, isn't it? There's none that do
us good. No, no. Nobody's good. Well, now grandma,
no, none. There's none to understand. Well,
I know somebody that's wise. They don't understand God. They
didn't figure him out. It says Joseph served them. They
were there, they were under his charge, they're in prison. But
it says Joseph served them, how? By having charge over them, by
providing for them. All of Adam's race serves the
Lord either knowingly or unknowingly, and the Lord serves and provides
and hedges all of creation physically. He does all providing. He said
in Matthew 5, he said, for he maketh his son to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain to the just and the unjust.
The Lord provides for those that hate him. They actively, they're
walking the streets right now holding signs, cursing God, making
a mockery of his covenant rainbow and all this other nonsense about
this world and his creation. They're saying, no, God. And
he said, you know what? Here's some broccoli. I'll feed
you. You want air to breathe? He provides
for it all down there. Joseph's in prison because of
the evil of another. He was innocent. He didn't commit
the crime. And he'd fight and kick and scratch,
say, you ain't taking me. quietly went, didn't he? The
Lord Jesus Christ came to this prison of this earth, and he
was bound inside of an earthly body, and he was bound to that
law he was born under, and he was bound to the physical body
born of a woman, and he did all that to provide for all of his
chosen people, all the physical and spiritual needs of them all. And eventually he was bound to
a cross with nails, wasn't he? making reconciliation for a people
that offended the king, that offended the God. It says in
Philippians 2, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, because he is God. But he made of himself
no reputation, and he took of him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men." Just as Joseph went down in that
prison, quietly, yep, and served, and led, and rode everything,
our Lord came, made of a woman, came in here, became a servant,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. All of mankind has offended the
King, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, and we're in bondage. And the
very one that is placed over us to have charge over us is
the Lord Jesus Christ, the God man. He rules and reigns all. Everybody has dreams. Everybody
has ideas of right and wrong and what we think. And we have
thoughts and we have opinions and we have daydreams and we
have imaginations. We all do, don't we? So did these,
the butler and the baker. Look here in verse five. And
they dreamed. Genesis 40, verse five. And they
dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night,
each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and
the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in prison. Both
of them the same night had a really big dream. And Joseph came unto
them in the morning, next day, and looked upon them, and behold,
they were sad. Both of them were sad. One of
them's gonna have what's gonna turn out to be a really good
dream, a good story, good news, and the other one's gonna have
bad news. But at this point, both of them sad. Both of them
sad. All men and women have the law
of God written on their hearts. They understand there's a weight
of wrongdoing to some extent. Their conscience is pricked.
And the thoughts weigh on them. They do. They can deny, there's
no God. Well, you're awful mad about
it. Awful angry against someone you say you don't believe in.
And how does that manifest? When the Lord puts that just
in a natural man, and they go through this world, it comes
out in sadness. Sometimes it comes out in anger.
Sometimes it comes out in false joy, like they're on a drug or
something. Oh, I'm happy. Everything's good. Living a lie,
false refuge, isn't it? These emotions can be present
because of these inward thoughts. All that stuff can be stirred
up just in emotions and feelings. But a man by searching cannot
find out God, can he? We may have a dream, but we can't
figure that out. Sometimes we can read a text and we don't
understand what it says, isn't it? Now it's a scripture set. We read
there in Job 11, it said, Canst thou by searching find out God?
Lord said, you read this book and you think in it, you got
life. You think there's do's and don'ts, but it testifies
of me. Does canst thou find out the almighty unto perfection?
We can read some words. I mean, so that statement means
this, but you got a good handle on him. You understand all things. Here's the other thing to learn
in this, where they were sad. Most people are sad in some way,
shape, form, or fashion. And most people are looking to
something to make them happy. Well, my job will make me happy.
Well, if I can make a trip, that'll make me happy. If I can live
there, that'll make me happy. If I can have this experience, that'll
make me happy. And so we're sad until we think
those things are gonna fulfill. Solomon went through that, didn't
he? He tried a lot of different things. So that's for believers
and unbelievers. Believers get sad sometimes.
We do. Just like an unbeliever, there's
no difference. The child of God has reason to be happy. That's
the difference. Natural man ought to be sad.
Child of God ought to be happy. We do get sad. Why come? Why do we get sad? Because we
don't understand what's going on around us. We don't understand
our thoughts. We don't understand our own minds. Our hearts are
weak. Who can know it? We don't understand
our own hearts half the time. And that makes us sad. We don't
understand things. We're just like little children.
Why? Why? I want to know things, don't
you? That makes me sad when I don't
know it. The only peace we'll ever find,
happiness, make us not sad. The only way that the truth of
what we are, of who God is and how we can approach the holy
God we have offended is if God's pleased to reveal it to us. That's
the only way. That offends a lot of people. Salvation, this gospel of a vital
union with Christ, it comes by revelation only. You can't get
you a stack of books and listen to 75 messages a week and get
it. He has to reveal it. He does. You can walk around
sad until that happens. Look here in verse seven. And
he, speaking of Joseph, he asked Potiphar's officers, that's the
butler and the baker, both of them, both of them sad, that
were with him within the ward of the Lord's house saying, wherefore
look ye so sadly today? He walked in, their pouty faces,
and he said, what's wrong with you? Why are you sad? Why you
look so sad today? Joseph's a picture of Christ
throughout this whole chapter, and I thought for that butler
at least, not for the baker, but for the butler, I thought
of those two on the road to Emmaus. They were sad, weren't they?
Believers, used of God to preach, and they were walking, they were
sad, and he come up to them and said, what manner of communication are these
that you have one another? And while you walk, why are you
sad? Why are you sad? Joseph come to him and said,
why are you sad? Everyone's sad, but some, a certain people, a
peculiar people, They're made to be brought so low that the
gospel's revealed to them. Their sin, their shame, and that
weight and their strength is just clean gone. And they're
so sad that the Lord speaks good news to them. This is why you
say it. Tell me. He's the interpreter. He's about to reveal some things
to them. Look here in verse eight. And they said unto him, we have
dreamed a dream and there's no interpreter of it. I can't figure
it out, he can't figure it out, nobody else can. And Joseph said
unto them, do not interpretations belong to God. There's some secret
things that people don't know about. God knows, God knows. Interpretation of dreams, that's
his business. Deuteronomy 29 says, the secret
things belong unto the Lord our God. All those mysterious things,
the things we don't, I don't know, the Lord knows. And go
on. How does an electron stay in
orbit around a nucleus on a cellular level of one of the billions
inside your body? The Lord knows. He does it. It's his business.
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things
which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.
We don't know yet. We're sad. He's about to reveal
something. He's gonna teach them something.
Teach us something. And then once it's taught, he's
an effective teacher. If it pleases him to teach a
lesson, it's going to be taught. We're going to get it. Only God can interpret. Only
he can reveal. Only his word will stand. It doesn't matter what our opinions
are and what grandma and grandpa think. Somebody else always told
me that it matters what the Lord declares. It matters what he
says. We compare scripture with scripture,
don't we? And the Lord's playing like that. Well, I just thank
those preachers. They say a whole lot of good things, and that's
close enough, you know. They say horseshoes and hand
grenades. He said, if they speak not according to this word, it's
because there's no light in them. How much poison's okay for you
to drink? Well, it's just a little poison. How much leaven levithant
the whole lump? One molecule of leaven. One yeast
molecule, isn't it? I'll save him other things for
another day. Because he declares all things, because the Lord's
a source of all things, he knows all things, and he truly sees
things as they are, he's the only interpreter. He's the only
authority, the potentate. Who's qualified to interpret
providence? I know a lot of people that tell
you everything they think, don't they? Right now, in this state,
there's people standing up saying, well, Joe Biden means this, and
that means that, and the Constitution doing this. They qualified to
interpret God's providence? The God of providence is qualified
to interpret God's providence. Who's qualified to interpret
the law? Well, the law says this, we gotta get a handle on it.
The lawgiver can interpret it, can't he? Rahab lied to government
officials, and the Lord said, look at that act of faith. Legalists do backflips on that
cast, don't they? They don't understand it. Hosea, you're
not allowed to marry a woman of ill repute. What's he do?
Goes and marries a harlot. Why? That's us. Well, that's
just, that's wrong. What'd our Lord do? He healed
on the Sabbath. You think the God of the Sabbath
knows what's allowed on the Sabbath? We don't know what kind of...
You want to keep a law? You don't know what you're getting
into. You read it? That's what Paul asked, wasn't it? You read
that thing? You don't even know what it means. And you got to
agree with all of it. That's the last one. Again, picture in Christ here
at the end of verse 8. It says, And Joseph said unto them, Do
not interpretations belong to God? Tell me, I pray you. Tell me. It's our Lord speaking,
isn't it? He said that in Matthew, fulfilling
all scriptures. He says, Matthew 11, 28, come unto me. All ye
that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. You sad?
You troubled? Tell me. Come to my throne of
grace. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. Tell me. Tell him, not me. You can't know to pray for somebody
unless you know what to pray for. But we don't, there's a
difference between that and spreading rumors and gossiping, isn't there?
And we don't confess our sins one to another, and here's what
I did today, and I did this at lunch, and I did, no. But we'll say
what we are, and we say our weaknesses and what we struggle with, don't
we? Lord's people understand that.
But here, Joseph said, you tell me. You tell the Lord, isn't
it? In verse nine, these are the dreams they're going to tell
him. These are the dreams of the butler and the baker, and
they're going to seem kind of similar, but they're vastly different. They're vastly different. Both
men had a dream, didn't they? Both men approached the king
in their dream. Both men bring something to the
king, and according to what they brought is what determines if
they were received by the king or they perished. That's kind
of the same framework, isn't it? Kind of the same structure.
This is life and death. Well, this is a story about some
guys having dreams and one of them getting promoted and one
of them not. No, this is eternal life and death. It's important. I tried telling them. Who's believed
our report, huh? Look at verse nine. The chief
butler told his dream to Joseph and said unto him, in my dream,
behold, a vine was before me. And in the vine were three branches.
And it was as though it budded. And her blossoms shot forth,
and clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's
cup was in my hand. And I took the grapes and pressed
them into Pharaoh's cup. I crushed them. And I gave the
cup into Pharaoh's hand. What did this butler, this servant,
a butler's a servant, you know that? A baker creates things. I made a nice dish today. This
is my creation. There's a lot of creators in
this vernacular of our generation. They have followers. Y'all playing
with dangerous games, buddy. I'll tell you that. A baker creates
something, they make something. What's a butler do? Cleans up,
just serves. That's it. This butler, this
servant, what'd he dream? What'd he see? He saw a vine.
He saw branches. He saw the vine and the branches
shooting forth life. And there was fruit. He saw ripe
grapes, and he saw the king's cup. Whose cup? Was it his cup?
No, it's the king's cup. I have Pharaoh's cup. What was the only thing the butler
did in this whole thing? His only responsibility in this
whole thing, he crushed grapes. He pressed them into the king's
cup, didn't he? And the servant, the butler, he approaches the
king with the king's cup, with the king's wine or the grapes,
from the king's branches, from the king's vine. And he says,
all I did was the breaking. Here, it's yours. It's my fault. Verse 12. And Joseph said unto
him, this is the interpretation of it. See if you catch this. The three branches are three
days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and
restore thee unto thy place, and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's
cup unto his hand after the former manner when thou wast his butler."
Joseph gave a short interpretation here, didn't he? Boy, there's
so much meant by this text. That's heavy. There's a lot there. He spoke about three days. He
spoke about a head being lifted up, being exalted, about being
restored to a place a place that was prepared, restored to a place,
and the butler being reconciled back to acceptance with the king
because he brought wine. So did everybody get all that?
You got a good handle on every angle of that diamond? I thought of that Ethiopian unit.
These guys are sitting here listening to this, ain't they? This baker
and the butler, both of them's listening. Philip ran to that
chariot, and he heard that eunuch reading the prophet Isaiah. And
he said, you understand what you just read? And he said, how
can I accept some man should guide me? Somebody's gonna have
to be sent of God to tell me what this means. You can't figure
it out by yourself. That's why they're sad, remember?
Did Philip give his opinions to the Ethiopian eunuch? No.
Did Philip give the eunuch a five-step process on how to apply this
and understand what you're reading? No. Did Philip brush off the
weight of this? Did he brush off that sadness?
And he just said, keep up a positive attitude. No, he didn't. What did Philip do? He opened
his mouth and began at the same scripture. He took the word and
he preached unto him, Jesus. That's what he did. Is this a
story about a baker and somebody ends up back in their old job? No, no. This is a story about
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the vine, we're the branches.
Amen? If we had just decades to sit
here and look at this one verse, there's three branches. In that
vine's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The triune Godhead
in a body manifested in him. But that's us too. He says, we're
the branches. He's the vine, we're the branches,
the fruit, the grapes, it all comes from Christ the vine, from
the root of Jesse. And all that, what's up with
grapes? It's concerning his blood. That's the blood of the fruit,
the blood of the grape, isn't it? Look up verse 11. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand,
and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and
I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. What a gospel message that
is. What we do, we crush the grapes.
That's what our hand did. And we're reading Acts 2. Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ, being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken. He's preaching
to some people the Lord's about to save, because God prayed for
them on that cross. He said, Lord, forgive them.
They don't know what to do. When's that going to take place in Acts
2? Peter preaches to them. And they say, that's us. Ye have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Did the
Lord tread that winepress alone? He sure did. Why? Because of
my wicked hands. It's my fault. That's why his blood was shed.
That's why. And that's the only thing the
Lord we've offended is gonna accept. If we come to the Father
only with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I didn't do anything. All I did is cause trouble. I'm
the problem. Everything else is yours. You've
provided the lamb, you've had the branch and the vines and
the fruit and everything. It's your cup. We come to him
and nothing but the blood of Christ. There's full restoration. There's no condemnation. There's
nothing but atonement, at-one-ment. We're reconciled to the God we
offended. We can be in the presence eternally of the very King of
Kings, the Lord of hosts. If we come only to this holy
God, who's angry with the wicked every day. There's bumper stickers
all over, God's love, He just wants everybody to be saved.
That's not what the word says, that's a lie. That's a refuge
of life. It's that God's angry with the wicked every day. And
we come to Him and nothing but the blood of His Son, you'll
be accepted eternally. In my hand, no price I bring,
simply to that cross I cling. And I wrote next to it, and it's
the different song. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Two different,
we'll sing a medley, won't we? Our heart just goes one to another,
because it's true. Verse 14. Joseph says to him, but think
on me, when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness,
I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and
bring me out of this house. For indeed, I was stolen away
out of the land of the Hebrews. Nor also have I done nothing,
that they should put me into the dungeon. He said, whenever
all this good things come to place, you remember me. We'll
see how that works too at the end. But here's another dream.
Here's the baker. We saw the butler, the servant.
Here's the baker, the creator, the one that makes stuff. Verse
16. When the chief baker saw the interpretation was good.
So I heard this, that sounds like good news. Nobody's telling
me I'm wrong. No one's telling me that what
I do is bad and I ain't worth nothing. I'm just hearing good
news stories over here. I might show up, that looks like
a happy people. Whenever he saw that, that it was good, he said
unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and behold, I had three
white baskets on my head. Three white baskets. Do you have
a marginal reference in your Bible? You know what white baskets
are? Full of holes. Full of holes. Baskets full of holes. That's
very appropriate, isn't it? By nature, we see ourselves having
a triple crown. This generation, like many others,
worried to death about, oh, it's a sign of the times, the end
times, and all this junk, and they don't even know what you're
talking about. 666, it's a mark of the beast,
isn't it? You know what that is? That's man making themselves, the number
six is man, making themselves profit. I'll search this Bible,
I don't need no preacher, I can do it myself, I know what that
means. Prophet, the priest, I'll go, I'll talk to God and all
sorts of things, and king. Prophet, priest, that's the Lord.
He's our prophet, he's our priest, he's our king. What's this guy
have? I have three baskets. And they're full of holes. Full
of holes. And the uppermost basket, verse
17, there was all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh. Who baked
them? The baker did. I made that. I got this nice triple crown
on top of my head, and I filled it full of the best meats I could.
Filet mignon, wrapped in bacon. Lovely. Marinated, too. This
is for Pharaoh. I'm gonna bring the best I got
to God. And the birds did eat them out of the basket on my
head. Ravens, meat eaters, come down and ate it. Not doves. Meat
eaters did, didn't they? Who baked the meat? The baker
did. He said, that's my meat. I'm the baker. I wonder if Joseph
had heard from his grandpa that story of whenever he got the
blessing. He went to his dad. Isaac was there and Jacob came
in, said he was Esau. And he said, taste of my venison,
taste of my meat. And he said, how did you get
that meat so quickly? What did he say? Well, I baked
it and I got a convection oven. And no, he said, the Lord thy
God brought it to me. If you're a baker, it's okay.
The Lord did that, didn't he? That's who gets the glory. That's
who gets the credit. The meat-eating birds devoured
it. And this baker, he came to the king with what he had done,
with broken cisterns and baskets with holes in it, and the ravens
ate it. What's the outcome of approaching the king with your
own works? I did something good for God. What's the outcome?
Look at verse 18. Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation
thereof, the three baskets are three days. Yet within three
days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, he's gonna
cut your head off, and shall hang on a tree, and the birds
shall eat thy flesh from off of thee. I wonder what went through
that baker's mind. Anger? Don't you dare say something
like that to me. Disbelief? No, it couldn't be. Couldn't be. Maybe it's something
else. No, it couldn't be. Trying to justify everything? Maybe
ignoring it? Don't pay no attention to that
Joseph. He don't know nothing. Go on
about your day. Whatever it was, it wasn't begging
for mercy. It wasn't falling down on their
faces and crying out for a mediator between man and God, was it? They just let it go. He thought
it was okay. That's what the Lord said in
Matthew 7. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven. What's that? He said, believe
on the son that he sent. Look to him alone. Believe on
him alone. Many will say to me that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and we've cast out
devils in thy name and done many wonderful works? That's three
things, isn't it? That's three baskets. It's all full of holes.
I did, I did, I did, I did. And then while professing to
them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Go your own way. Well, what's to come of all this?
Verse 20. And it came to pass the third
day, which was Pharaoh's birthday. And he made a feast unto all
his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler
and of the chief baker among his servants. And he restored
the chief butler unto the butlership again, and he gave the cup into
Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker,
as Joseph had interpreted to them. What's the difference? What was the difference in there?
I'll tell you how it all starts. You missed the beginning, you
missed all of it, didn't you? That butler came and he said, behold
the vine. Christ said, I'm the vine, he's
the branch. Look at the hen. And the other one came, the baker,
and said, I have. I have. I figured it out. I sorted. I did. I prayed. I. Big difference. That's only two ways people come
to a holy God, either on what they did or the merits of another. In Christ, there's life. There's
restoration, reconciliation. That's the place he went to prepare.
Standing alone is nothing but death, is it? That's beautiful, isn't it? That's
a beautiful story. I love it. And I don't want to
forget it. Will you forget? Joseph told
that butler, and he said, whenever you get up there, all this good
stuff happens, you remember me. Not when you're sad. It's easy
to cry at the end of it. On them good days, you remember
me. How's it end? We'll look at this
next week. But yet, verse 23, yet did not the chief butler
remember Joseph, but forget him. We're forgetful, ain't we? We're
prone to wonder, aren't we? He's faithful, and he says, I
know the thoughts I've had towards you. Gabe said that about the
sand the other day. We counted to 1,000. We went
down to the beach the next day, and I said, that's a lot of sand.
Kids asked, did you really count to 1,000? He said, oh, yeah.
That's the thoughts I have towards you. He don't forget, does he? He's faithful. I'm thankful for
that. Let's pray together. Father, keep us from looking
to ourselves and our dreams and our opinions. Set us on Christ
the rock, our savior, our kinsman, redeemer. What a majestic salvation
you have, Lord. Thank you for saving us. Thank
you for coming to us, prisoners, and setting us free. What a day it'll be when we see
our Lord face to face. Thank you for this day, Lord.
Bless your word as you see fit. Make us kind and gracious towards
one another. Make us remember Christ. Don't let us forget him.
Bring us into remembrance of him. Early, right early. Forgive us for what we are. It's
in Christ's name that we ask it. Amen.