1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter
2. James always gives me these things
that come off his church signs and here's one that God says,
without the bread of life, you're toast. Learn about assisted living,
Saturday 9 a.m. We need a hero. Oh, listen to this one, this
week's sermon, clearing the bench. And I saw this in myself, no
walking dead, zombie Jesus. You've got to wonder where these
people come up with this stuff and just make it up. Uh, Gabe Stoniker preached a
message last Sunday and I listened to it. on religion or grace. And I mean he nailed religion
for what it was and used the scriptures to do it. Used the
scriptures to do it. Just absolutely outstanding. Religion or grace. Let's start
reading here in verse 1 and chapter 2 and read down through verse 9. Wherefore, laying aside all malice
and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may
grow thereby. If so be that you have tasted
that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded. Under you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But under them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient. were unto also they were appointed. But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that
you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light. O God and our Father, In the
name of our blessed Savior, your Son, your Son, the Son of your
love, we approach you in His blessed name, in His blood, in
His righteousness, to thank you for the great, great love for
which you loved us. Thank you for keeping us today.
Thank you for providing for us. Thank you for giving us grace
and mercy. And Lord, we thank you for the
good report of the meetings here. Thank you for the good report
of meetings other places. And thank you for the enabling
us to preach the gospel. And Father, I thank you for the
saints of God here at Lantana Grace. Lord, we love them and
I know they love me. And we want to honor you, bring
glory to your holy name. We want the grace of God to be
manifested in us. We want the love of Christ to
be in our hearts. We want to be God honoring in
our conversation, our character, our conduct. Oh, Lord, help us
to honor you. Oh, Father, we cast ourselves
upon you and we pray for the lost. Oh, so many lost. So many
of us never confessed faith, never bowed to Christ, never
embraced Christ, never troubled the waters of the baptismal pool.
Lord, we ask that you'd be merciful to the lost, that you'd prick
their hearts, prick their conscience, make them see their need of Christ.
And again, we pray for mercy upon our children and our grandchildren,
our great-grandchildren, and we thank you, Lord, for answering
prayer. And Lord, continue to bless wives,
husbands, sons, and daughters, and make them see their need
of Christ. Help us tonight to honor your holy name. For it's
in your name we pray, amen. Back here with me in 1 Peter. You know, as we get older, the
things that become precious to us change. Our values of what
is important to us What's real to us and what's valuable to
us and what's precious to us changes as we get old. And sometimes things we never
even thought of become precious to us and we think of them often. Time, you take time. How precious
is time now? It goes by so quickly, so fast. You know, you think 20, you know,
something you'll think just happened three or four years ago, and
you get to talk to somebody, it might have been 10, 12, 15
years ago, but that's how fast time goes. Time becomes precious
to us. Our families, as we get older,
our families become more precious, love them more, and want to spend
more time with them, delight in them, rejoice in them. And
friends, oh my, to spend time with friends, friends you hadn't
seen in a long time, Friends, it's been friends for a long,
long time. And something that one time we never even thought
of. We never ever, our health never crossed our minds. When
we get a little age on us, our health changes. You know, we
begin to think about our health. Begin to think about it. Now
all these things, time and family and friends and health, they
become precious to us. But there are some things that
become more valuable to us and more precious to us than anything
else as we get older. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ain't that what it says there in verse 7? Unto you therefore
which believe he is precious. Oh, he gets more precious to
us all the time. James all the time says to me,
he says, oh, we can't live without him, we can't do without him,
and we can't. Christ becomes more real, more
precious, more vital to us, more necessary to us, more needful
to us. As we get older, I mean, he becomes,
so we just absolutely feel like we just got to have him and just
could just do anything to have this relationship with him. And
grace, grace becomes so valuable to us, so precious to us. Grace,
amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch, wretch,
wretch like me. Grace, oh, free grace, sovereign
grace, precious grace. Grace, we know that without grace
there'd be a, we couldn't possibly be saved without the grace of
God and the gospel. How precious is the gospel? How
valuable is the gospel to us? How precious has it become to
us, the gospel? We have to have it. We have to
have somebody preach it to us. We know that we come to hear
the gospel, and we want to hear the gospel. But look, oh, thank
God for this. There in verse 6, what it says
here. Thank God, it says here, wherefore
also is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded." Thank God that he laid in Zion, in
the church, for his elect, a chief cornerstone, an elect cornerstone,
a precious cornerstone. And he that believeth on him
will not be confused or confounded in the day of judgment, the man
who established on the rock the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want
to just deal with one word out of this description of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And that is this, the chief cornerstone
being precious. Ain't that what it says? Behold
I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect precious. I want to talk
about how he's precious. There's a lot of precious things
in the scriptures, but I want to talk about our Lord Jesus
Christ being precious in four ways. He's precious to the Father. He's precious to the angels.
He's precious to the saints. And He's precious in Himself.
He is precious. But, oh, listen, I'll tell you
what. Our Lord Jesus Christ, it says
He's precious to the Father. He is the one that says, you
know, I lay in Zion the chief cornerstone. Who is I? That's
the father laid him. God made him the chief cornerstone.
The God the father made him the chief cornerstone. He's the one
that laid him. Now you keep this and look over
in Proverbs chapter 8. I know we've seen this many times
over the years but look at this with me for a moment. Proverbs
chapter 8 verse 22. He's precious to the father.
Precious to the Father. Look what it says in Proverbs 8.22. Now this is
the Lord Jesus Christ speaking here. Wisdom. His wisdom. God's wisdom. He says, The Lord
possessed me in the beginning of His way, before the works
of old, before anything was ever done, I had possessed me. I was
set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth
ever was. When there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was, I brought forth. While he hath yet not made the
earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the
world, when he prepared the heavens, I was there." What he's saying
was when God said, let there be light, God made the heavens and God
made the earth. And He made to separate them,
made the heavens and the earth, separated them by the firmament.
And look what He says, while the earth was not yet made, there
are the fields of the highest part. When He prepared the heavens,
I was there. When He set a circle upon the
face of the depth, when He established the clouds above, when He strengthened
the fountains of the deep. When He gave to the sea His decree
that the water should not pass His commandment, when He appointed
the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him. I was with
Him, brought up with Him. I was daily His delight, always
rejoicing before Him. Here's what our Lord Jesus Christ
said Him and His Father was like from the beginning. This relationship
that they had. And it says there, while the
hills was before I brought forth. When He said I was brought forth
to do what? Brought forth to do what? To
create. To make this world by the word of His power. To speak
the world into existence. To be the one who made the world
and everything that was in it. He was the one who made everything.
That's why He said, I was brought forth to do what? To create,
to speak, be God's Word, to be God's Word by which He does all
things. And I tell you, He was the son
of His bosom. John 1.18 said, He dwelt. No
man has seen God at any time. He said, Oh, the only begotten
Son who's in the bosom, in the bosom of the Father, in the heart
of the Father. He has declared Him. Nobody's
seen God. I've come here to tell you about
Him. I've come here to make you to
know Him and to give you an understanding of what He's like. And even the
Father, He has such a wonderful love for His Son and He's so
precious in the Father's sight that He's the only one that God
gave a public testimony from heaven from. When he was baptized,
this voice that came down from heaven says, This is my beloved
son, in whom I am well pleased. Another time he came down in
a cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration, when they talked about Moses
and Elijah, God says, This is my son. You hear him, not Moses,
not the prophets. You listen to what my son has
to say. That's what I want you to do. And he is so precious
in the Father's sight, that he will accept no one, no one except
through his son. He will not speak to nor have
anything to do with anybody apart from his son. But if you come
to his son, and he'll reject no one, absolutely no one who
comes to the father through the son. So, oh, bless his name. Not only will he not, he will,
you can't come except through his name, but he won't reject
anybody either. Oh, if you want to come, He'll
receive you. If you want to come to the Father
through the Son, He'll receive you. He'll embrace you. He'll
accept you. He'll reach out and fill your
heart with love and grace and mercy. And I know God's design
in the Gospel is to honor His Son. Look in John 5.23. The design
of the Gospel is to honor His Son. That's the whole purpose
of the gospel. That's why it's called the gospel
concerning His Son Jesus Christ of the seed of David. That's
why it's called the gospel concerning the Son. Look what it said here
in John 5.23. That all men, or that all, everybody
should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that
honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent
him." So the design of the Gospel God had was to honor His Son. To His Son to come into this
world and to receive all honor and all worship, all honor, all
glory be given to Him because salvation is only in Him. And our Father, He was so precious
in the Father's sight that the Father would not have put the
redeeming THE PAYMENT OF THE SIN DEBT AND THE SALVATION OF
HIS ELECT IF HE HAD NOT BEEN PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT. YOU THINK
HE WOULD HAVE TRUSTED THE REDEMPTION OF OUR SOULS, THE SHEDDING OF
BLOOD FOR OUR SOULS, AND YOU THINK THE SALVATION OF ALL THAT
GOD GAVE HIM IN THE COVENANT OF GRACE, YOU THINK HE WOULD
HAVE PUT THAT IN ANYBODY'S HANDS THAT WASN'T PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT?
Oh my, I tell you what, He was so precious that He said, I'm
going to give you my elect. I'm going to put redemption in
your person and you're going to be the one to redeem them.
You're going to be the one to save them. That's how precious,
how powerful, how much I thank you are in my sight and trust
and belief. You will do these things, knowing
you will. Now back over here in 1 Peter,
look what it says. Oh, I tell you what, he says
there in chapter 1, look what he says in verse 2. He gave the
salvation of his elect into Christ's hands. So precious to the Father. He says, elect according to the
foreknowledge of God. How is he going to do this? God
knows this is going to happen. Purpose this to happen. Through
sanctification of the Spirit under the expedience of the sprinkling
of blood of Jesus Christ. Oh, God says you got to be sprinkled
in the blood. Got to know my son. You got to
sanctify through his obedience. And then look what he says here
else about him. In verse three, blessed be the
God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Watch this now, which
has blessed us abundantly. which according to His abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the Lord
Jesus Christ." Everything was by the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
the Father, and He says we are a chosen generation. And I tell
you He is so precious to the Father that He is now exalted
and sitting at God's right hand in the majesty of heaven. You
want to know how precious He is? God said sit right here at
my right hand. Sit right here. This is the position
of honor. This is the position of power.
This is how I exalted you. I've put everything in you. I've
given you all power, all authority, all glory. And sit right here. Sit right here. And you run this
world and you do everything you do from my right hand. This position
of honor, power, and glory. That's how precious you are to
me. I want you right here at my right hand. Taking care of
everything. And that's why he said, under
which of the angels said he at any time, said at my right hand,
not one of them. And God sent him there at his
own right hand as a testimony to the love that he bore for
his son, the glory that he gave to his son, the honor that was
bestowed upon his son. And he is precious in the father's
sight. He is elect, the Father chose
Him to be the chief cornerstone and He laid Him inside and put
all things under His feet, even His elect. And oh beloved, I
tell you, look over here in 1 Peter 3.22, look what He says about
it. Talking about our Lord Jesus Christ. who has gone into heaven, he's
got put all things under his feet, who has gone into heaven,
and watch this, who's on the right hand of God, angels and
authorities and powers being made subject unto him. That means
everything, he set him in his right hand, said, you run this
place, you run this place, you run this place, oh my. And I
tell you what, not only is he precious to the Father, But he's
precious to angels. You know that? He is precious
to angels. You remember in Luke chapter
2 when the angel came and told Joseph, you know, and said, there's
going to be a savior born this day. And then all of a sudden
that was with that angel, a heavenly host. praising God, saying, Glory
to God in the highest, peace on earth, goodwill toward men,
for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord. And they sang praises, and the
multitude of the heavenly hosts sang praises to the Lord Jesus
Christ, just at His birth, just at His birth. Hebrews 1, 6 says
that God said, Oh, when He brings the first begotten into the world,
and all the angels of God worship Him. Worship Him. You know, Peter
had an angel fall down to him. And Peter said, Get up, I'm just
a man. And John, he said, an angel bowed to him. He said,
Get up, I'm just a man. You worship God. Fall down before
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, look over in John
1.51. Look what our Lord said here. John Gospel chapter 1,
verse 51. Look what our Lord said here
about angels. He is precious to the angels.
In fact, the angels stoop down to look into these things. When
God saves a sinner, these angels that do His beck and will, Michael
and Gabriel, multitudes of angels, And when He saves His elect,
they stand there and these angels that's kept their first estate,
God's elect angels, God's blessed angels in glory. that didn't
fall, they're there. And they sat and watched God.
Watch our Lord Jesus Christ. Watch Him come into this world.
And watch Him who was the light of heaven itself and the delight
of all the angels, the delight of the Father, delight of all
things in heaven. He was just absolutely, He was
delight of everyone. And watch Him come down here.
And watch Him grow up as from an infant in his mother's womb
and watch Him grow up. and watch him suffer, and watch
him groan, and watch him be hated, and watch him be despised, and
watch him be rejected, and then watch him die. They had to wonder,
what is this? How could this be? And then they
look around and see who he's dying for. For them? God sent angels and killed 85,000
people in the Syrian army in one time. He sent his angels through Egypt
to slay all the firstborn in Egypt. They know what it is to go and
bring judgment on men and women. But to see the Lord of glory,
bow his head and die in blood and bloody agony. And then they
watch him save somebody like me or you or Saul or Tarsus or
Mary Magdalene and they stand in wonder. No wonder they stooped
down. How can this be? And oh, look what he said here
in John 1.51. Look what our Master said. He saith unto him, talking
to Philip now, or Nathanael. And he saith unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see heaven opened,
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
Man. Just like Jacob's letter. Angels
coming and going, angels coming and going. And that's what he
says, you'll see the angels of God ascend and descend upon the
Son of Man. They got him married and they
started telling him what all they could do to him and all
that. And his disciples wanted to follow and you know what he
said? I could pray to my father and he would send twelve legions
of angels if I asked him. Twelve legions of angels. But
he says, but I won't because the scriptures must be fulfilled
concerning me. And I tell you who else he's
precious to. He's precious to His people. Oh, how precious
He is to His people. How precious He is to His people.
You know, they can't help but call on Him. They can't help
but look to Him. They can't help but trust Him.
They can't help but tell Him the secrets of their hearts.
They can't help to ask Him for His guidance, for His strength,
for His grace, for everything that they need. They ask Him
because He's so precious to them and He has so much worth. And
look over in Revelation 5 and look what they say about Him
in glory up there. And we'll be able to say this
one of these days. Revelation 5. He's precious to
His elect. He's precious to His saints. Look what it says there in verse
8. Our Lord Jesus has the book in
his hands. And he had that book. And the
four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb. See how that's capitalized Lamb.
Having every one of them harps, golden vials full of odors, which
are the prayers of the saints. And listen to what happens now.
And they sung a new song. saying thou art worthy to take
the book and to open the seals thereof. For thou was slain and
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of ever kindred and
tongue and people and nation. Now that's a song we didn't,
we used to not know that song. We used to not know that he was
the lamb. Now we know he's the lamb. And now we say thou art worthy.
You're the worthy one that has the power to take all of God's
decrees, take the will of God, the purpose of God, and break
them seals and work it all out. And you're the one that's worthy
because you're the lamb that was slain. You washed us, you
redeemed us by your blood. And that's a song, beloved, only
God's people can sing. Religion can't sing that, but
we can sing that. Thou hast redeemed us by you.
You washed us in Your blood. You called us by Your Spirit. You gave us of Your Spirit. Oh, there's so many songs we
could sing. I'll tell you what, He's so precious to us that we
venture all our souls, our eternal souls on Him and what He says. We venture our eternal souls
into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. I venture everything that I am
and ever hoped to be or ever was and all the miserable and
wretches I am, I'm willing and by His grace I venture my whole
soul on Him. My destiny. I'm going to leave
this world. My eyes are going to close one
of these days. And I won't be able to come back and tell you
anything that happened. You'll have to wait and go yourself. I believe that He'll take us,
actually take us to where He Himself is. And we'll see Him
and we'll enjoy Him. Here Lord, take my soul. Take
my life. Take my heart. Take my will.
Take my understanding. Take everything there is about
me. Just take it. Oh, listen, the whole of our
salvation is centered in Him. Centered in him. We want to know
him. We want to win him. We want to
be found in him We want his righteousness. We want his power. We want his
love. We want him and everything that
goes with it no wonder the Song of Solomon's old Solomon said
this the Shulamite maiden said about him. He's the fairest among
10,000 and Oh, I tell you, where's my beloved?
Who's more fair than my beloved? He's the fairest among 10,000.
Oh, my. No wonder we only glory in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you this. Let
me tell you this. Not only is He precious to His
Father, precious to the angels, precious to His saints, but He
is precious in himself. He is precious in himself. As
the chief cornerstone, behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone,
a chief cornerstone, elect and precious. You know, keep that,
this is, you're going to love this in Isaiah 22. Isaiah 22. I know, I look at it and I always,
I always just, oh I enjoy this so much. Isaiah 22 and verse
22. Oh, He's precious in Himself
in the glory of His person. We beheld His glory. We see the
glory that's in Him. We see glory in Him that only
belongs to Him. Look what He said in verse 22.
And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder.
So he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none
shall open. And listen to this, and I'll fasten him as a nail
in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his
father's house. Now listen, and they shall hang
up on him all the glory of his father's
house. The offspring and all the issues,
all vessels, the small quantity, that's me, you, from the vessels
of cup even to the vessels of flagons. Oh, he said, hang all
of his glory on him. Oh, listen, is he precious in
himself? There's been lots and lots and
lots and lots of famous people in this world. There's famous
people from America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, founding fathers
of our country. One man is famous for how he
signed the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock, because of his
signature. There have been lots of famous
people, and there's famous people, and they've been held in the
highest state. There's famous people in the Bible that's held
in the highest state. Moses! Jews! Jews! Oh, how they exalt Moses, how
they honor Moses. Noah is famous. Our Lord told
about Noah, be like in the last days. Jacob, oh, God called him
Jacob, called him Israel, called him his name, said he loved him,
said he redeemed him. Abraham, Joseph, David. But I'll tell you something about
all these people in the scriptures. Every single one of them ascribed
all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and he saw it and what was he? He was glad. Moses wrote about me. Oh, listen. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, the glory of the fullness of God dwells in him. I just,
I know we quote that and we go over that, but in him, In him,
all the fullness, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him
bodily. God blessed him and anointed
him with all of the, with gladness above all of his fellows and
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge dwell in him. All fullness dwells
in him like no other. In fact, We are filled with His
fullness. Out of His fullness He fills
us and He's as full as He ever was. It's from Him to His. And let me tell you something.
about all the fullness in Him. Originally, all fullness in Him. Everything else derives their
fullness. If they're full at all, they
derive their fullness from Him. Any throne, any life, anything
that happens, He originally, all the fullness dwells in Him. And everybody else derives it
from Him. He's the head of the body. The fullness of Him who filleth
all. You know, we're just His body.
And how in the world are we filled with Him? If you, my head is,
my head, this is my head. Well, it ain't much, but you
know, there it is. But anyway, Christ is the head. And this, this, I have my body,
and my body's full of me. Well, the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Christ, and we're His church, and all fullness dwells
in Him, and He fills us of His fullness. We don't have nothing
of our own, no life of our own, except what He gave us. And the
fullness dwells in Him. It's essential that all fullness
dwells in Him. As God, all fullness dwells in
Him. This fullness that we're talking
about is His very essence. And the Godhead, this is amazing,
the Godhead, Godhead. dwells in him bodily, in his body while on this earth. The Godhead and all the fullness
of the Godhead dwelt in him fully, completely, personally and it
was essential. And what that says is all that
God is, ALL THAT GOD HAS BEEN AND ALL THAT HE IS AND ALL HE
SHALL EVER BE DWELLED IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT GOD THAT
YOU CAN KNOW APART FROM JESUS CHRIST. ALL THAT GOD IS AND DOES AND
PURPOSES AND WILLS TO DO DWELLS IN CHRIST FULLY. I tell you, it dwells in him
so fully when we get to glory, that's the only one we're going
to see. And I tell you, this fullness dwells in him unchangeably.
It ain't going to never change. It's never more and it's never
less. He's never more full, he's not less. Never more full, never
less full. Never more full if the Godhead
dwells in him or any less does it ever dwell in him. No perfection
about God can you name. Any attribute that you can name,
any power that you can name, any will that you can name, anything
you can name about God, a perfection that don't dwell fully in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Talking about God's wisdom, fullness
dwells in Christ. Talking about God's power, He
said all powers delivered unto me of my Father. Beauty, grace,
the fullness of grace, all the grace that God has from eternity,
Christ dwells fully in Him. All the forgiveness that God
grants for sinners, fullness of it's in Him. And all the righteousness
of God, all the righteousness of God from eternity dwells fully
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, let me give you this,
I don't mean take too long, but oh my, talk about the worth of
his sufferings, the fullness of his sufferings was in him. His blood is called precious.
All the sufferings that would save us, all the fullness of
sufferings was in Him. His blood and His sufferings
are so precious because of who it is that suffered. Now we suffer. Some of us suffer in this world.
A lot of people suffer in this world. But there's no virtue
in any of our sufferings. No worth in our blood. No worth
in our sufferings or any other man's. But all the value the
merit, the worth of his blood and his sufferings. It was so
glorious and so full and it was effectual to satisfy God and
to put sin away. And without it, without his sufferings,
without his death, without his blood, there'd be no remission
of sins. The redemption of God's elect
is perfected. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. And His sufferings and His blood
reconciled us to God. And by His suffering, His blood,
our conscience is clean. And by Jesus, by the blood of
Jesus, we have boldness, liberty to enter in to the holiest of
holies by the blood of Jesus. And back over here in verse 7,
let me show you something in closing. It says there in verse 7, unto
you there's two classes of people here. Unto you therefore that
believe he is precious. But the second is them that are
disobedient. There's some that Christ is precious
to and some that's disobedient. In fact, they reject it. They
reject it. Unbelievers, the disobedience.
In fact, it says down there, said they disallowed it. I don't
care if God did lay it there and I don't say if God did say
it was there. He said, that don't mean nothing
to us. That cornerstone means nothing.
We got our own stone over here to build on. And oh, look what
else it says. And it's a stone of stumbling
and very offensive. To them that stumble at the word,
being disobedient, and listen to this, they were appointed
to this. God appointed to that. But unto
us which believe, He is precious. Precious. Our Father, in the blessed name
of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing us again
to speak your name, to make an effort at honoring you, to make
an effort at exalting your name. And we're going to keep on doing
that by your grace. Keep exalting, keep honoring,
keep blessing your holy name. And Father, as the saints of
God go their way, go to their jobs, go to their homes, Go back
to their own troubles and worries and anxieties and fears. God be with them. Give them strength. Give them grace. Give them abundance
of strength and abundance of grace. May grace and peace abound
in all of us to your glory. Thank you for allowing us to
meet tonight in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.