If you'd like to follow along, you can turn to Titus chapter
three. Titus chapter three. That's the
little book after 1st and 2nd Timothy. Titus chapter three beginning
in verse one. Put them in mind to be subject
to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready
to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers,
but gentle, showing all meekness unto men. For we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another but After that the kindness and love of God our
Savior toward man appeared Not by works of righteousness, which
we have done But according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That being
justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and
these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they
which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. I'm gonna stop right there. This is a faithful saying, number
three. It's actually the fourth faithful saying, but I skipped
that one, the third one. First one was this. Christ Jesus
came in the world to save sinners. Second one was this. Religious
works profit nothing, but godliness is profitable to all things. The third one, which I didn't
read, which is in, where is it, 2 Timothy 2 and verse 11. It
is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall
also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign
with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. Here's the thing, if we believe
not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. See, that's the kind of Savior
I need. That's exactly the kind of Savior I need. These are faithful
sayings and worthy of all acceptation and this is one also. Where I'm
gonna start is in verse four. But after that, the kindness
and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. Appeared. I love that part. Now,
the kindness and love of God. This is what people don't understand.
God is love. But God is just. God is love. And God is holy. Didn't say but
God is just, and God is just. But here's the thing, what Paul's
pointing out to Titus here and to us, God shows kindness to
those that he loves. He puts these two together. He's
not the first to do it, nor is he the last. But this is what
he's saying here in Titus. Paul ties these two things together
the kindness and the love of God, you can't separate those
two. I know people want to. You cannot
separate God's love from his kindness because you can't have
one without the other. Either way, you can't have kindness,
God's kindness, without God's love. And if you have God's love,
if God loves you, he's gonna show you kindness. He's gonna
show you kindness. Because Paul is writing to Titus,
a believer. And he's saying, we, believers,
are shown, what? The kindness of God in Jesus
Christ. The kindness and love of God,
our Savior. Our Savior. We believers, are loved of God
in Jesus Christ. And here's the thing. Paul says
it flat out. God is our Savior. You understand? It's throughout
the Old Testament, throughout the New Testament. The Messiah
is coming. Who is he? He's the Lord of hosts.
He's also the Redeemer. The Redeemer. He's the Savior. Salvation is of the Lord. That's the word. Salvation is
of the Lord, it's from the Lord, it's by the Lord, and it's by
God, our Savior. Our Savior. The kindness and
love of God, our Savior. Our savior is God. This is what,
you know, people don't want to leave anything up to God anymore.
They don't want to trust God anymore. They're trusting in
their works. They're trusting in their action.
They're trusting in their Sunday school attendance. They're trusting
in their Sunday school teaching. They're trusting in their believing. No, even if we don't believe. Oh, what's it say? He can't deny
himself. He can't deny himself. You're
his, if you are his, you are his whether you know it or not. Now he will show you. But you
understand, even when we didn't believe, he couldn't deny himself. Isn't that glorious? the love
and kindness toward us, toward men, has appeared. Oh, I like
that. Now I know it says that it appeared
toward man, and some people wanna take that and run with it. They'll
see, God loves everyone. Well, no, that's not what Paul
said, and guess what? He didn't stop there either.
He didn't stop there, there's a comma After the end of that
statement, he explains, Paul does, and he
starts with a negative here. The kindness and love of God
our Savior toward man appeared. Not. Not. Guess what that means? It's not
what you think. It's not what I think. It's not
by our works. You understand, that's all we
ever think about, naturally. That's all the natural man thinks
about. It's not of works, relating the negative here, not even by,
what? Our works of righteousness. Not even the good things we've
done. Now Isaiah's clear. All our righteousnesses are just
like filthy rags. And I still think about what
Booth said about it. We want to put those filthy rags
on. And we want to pray and say, hey, look at me, I'm good. And
all you're doing is calling attention to your own unrighteousness. But I've preached for years. Well, good for you. Don't count
on it being a righteousness before God. I taught Sunday school for
years. Well, shame on you. Probably,
most of the time that's what it should be, shame on you. Most
of that goes for what people preach. Shame on you. Don't count
on anything before God. I believed, I was baptized, I
came forward, I prayed the prayer, I walked the aisle. Whatever
you want to put there. What did Paul say here? Not by
works of righteousness, has the kindness and love of God toward
men appeared. Not by those. Religious exercises, this is
one of the faithful saying. Bodily exercise, a religious
exercise. What? Profits nothing. Profits
nothing. It's puny is the word. Did it
last week. It's puny, it's nothing. It doesn't
affect anything one way or the other. The kindness and love of God
did not appear according to our works. And it has absolutely
nothing to do with our works. But, see he went from that, he
started with the negative, now he goes to the positive, but. Well if it's not our works, what's
it gotta be? It's gotta be grace. And here in particular, Paul
says this. but according to his mercy. Mercy. The kindness and
love of God our Savior hath appeared to men according to his mercy. That's the positive. You understand,
mercy is always a positive. It's always a positive. Doesn't
matter whether it's me not getting what I deserve Or even better,
I consider me getting what I don't deserve. What? What don't we deserve? I don't
deserve the love and kindness of God toward me. Because see
now, Paul's got three things tied together. You've got the
love and kindness, the kindness and love of God our Savior and
his mercy. and you tie those three things
together, you can't separate those either. Can there be a kindness of God
towards someone without mercy? Can there be? I mean, is it possible
that somebody deserves the peace of God? The answer's no. There's only one man who ever
walked this earth that had the peace of God. And that's because
he was God, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Getting what we deserve and getting,
not getting what we deserve and getting what we don't deserve
because his mercy is both of those things. You understand,
this is how God is. How can God be without mercy
towards someone he loves? How's that possible? I don't
think you can. I don't think you can. Mercy,
but how can mercy flow from a just God? A just God's gotta punish sin.
A just God has to punish sin. But here's the thing. that just
God made a way. Actually, no, he made the way. He made the way. Because what
is it? Paul just wrote, God is our savior. He gave himself for his people. He took upon him in his body
on the tree our sins and our iniquities, and what's it say?
God will remember them no more. No more. Oh, that's a mercy. That's a mercy right there. That's
grace. But what's it say? According
to his mercy, what? Three words. He saved us. Paul is writing of the salvation
of sinners here. That's what he's writing of.
We say it, and this is one of the reasons why, there are others,
we'll get to it. God saves those whom he loves. Every single one of them. He
chose them from before the foundation of the world in Christ Jesus. He chose us from the beginning
in the beloved. And God saves everyone that he
loves. The kindness and love of God
our Savior appeared. How? He loved us in Christ Jesus. Chose us in Christ Jesus. We
don't deserve it. We deserve hell. We don't want
it. until he bestows it upon you.
You understand? I was happy the way I was until
he opened my eyes, until he gave me life and started doing strange
things to my mind, Mason, by my way of thinking. Things I
never thought of before started bothering the dickens out of
me. I never worried about my sin. At best, What I usually
worried about was getting caught. That's about the way I was. And
I tried to be nice and I tried to be good. But sometimes I tried
to be mean. And I was good at both. Better
at being mean than being good. But here's the thing, I wasn't
looking for him when he found me. And you weren't looking for
him until he found you. I had a professor at school one
time, he said, So I was just sitting up in my office, fat,
dumb, and happy. And I thought, that's the way I was before him. Before he came to me, I was fat,
dumb, and happy. Isaiah wrote it, Paul quoted
it in Romans. I was found of them that sought
me not. Why? Because the love and kindness
of God our Savior has appeared unto men. By his mercy, he saved
us. We weren't even looking for him.
You understand? The lost sheep doesn't know that
he's lost. He thinks he's right where he
is. Well, that's where he is. But when the shepherd goes looking
for that lost sheep, He picks that sheep up, puts it on his
shoulders, and he carries it back where? To the fold, where
it's supposed to be. Paul is writing of salvation
here. Believers are saved due to the
kindness and love and mercy of God our Savior. He has saved
us. Mm, I like that. He saved us.
Jeremiah 31 and verse three put it this way, and I love this
verse ever since I found it. And I found it by some fella
telling it to me. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying,
yea, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore. You understand? Love's not an end unto itself.
And love is everlasting. In this case, what it means,
eternal. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
have I drawn thee. You understand? I wasn't looking
to go to God. I wasn't looking to come to Christ.
He pulled me in. He pulled me in. You understand?
I didn't have anywhere else to go, Mason. I didn't have anywhere
else to go, Mac. I didn't know where I was going,
but I knew I was doing something. Ah, I know now. I know now. He didn't leave me
in my ignorance, thank goodness, and thank God. He brought me
to a friend, Walter. And I talked with Walter, and
in the midst of talking with Walter, it straightened out a
lot of things in me. Because I was having to look
up stuff to talk to him. And guess what? It's all in here. It's all in here. Study to show
thyself approved, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. It's
for your own good. And it's for his glory. Because
he's given us his word. He's given us his word. I have
loved you with an everlasting love. Here's the thing. Remember,
God doesn't change. He's never changed. If he's loved
you now, if he does love you now, he always has. If he always
has, he always will. I change not. I love that, especially
when, and Isaiah also, right? He says, I am the Lord. I change not. What does he say
there? Therefore, you sons of Jacob
aren't consumed. Because you understand, if God
could change, it's not gonna be a change for your better if
he loves you. If he loves you now. If he's
gonna change, it means he's not gonna love you anymore. God's
not capable of that. He never changes. You understand,
his love is just as perfect as his holiness. His love is just
as perfect as his justice. And when God loves, what do we
say around here? He goes whole hog. It's all out. No, you didn't deserve it. No,
you still don't deserve it. And no, you never will deserve
it. But he's loved you with an everlasting
love. And therefore, because of his everlasting love, with
loving kindness, what, and mercy, He has saved us. Oh, I like that. Paul is writing
to Titus of the salvation of sinners. Look at verse two and
verse three again here. Don't speak evil of any man.
Don't be a brawler. Verse three, for we ourselves,
what? Were foolish, disobedient, Deceived,
serving diverse lusts. You name it, we lusted after
it. Pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. Don't you wanna know Jesus, brother?
No, you don't. Not naturally. You don't wanna
know the Christ of God. Not the true Christ. You might
live with a false Christ, but you're not gonna live with a
true Christ. We were talking on the way up
here about an older couple who left a little church that was
preaching, probably wasn't preaching the truth anyway, but they left
because they wanted to go to one of these mega churches because
that's where they preach the prosperity gospel. Yeah, so I
told Jason that term that they have the megachurches, the Mechurch,
McChurch, like McDonald's, and my favorite still, the Repentagon.
I like that. But you understand, what these
people don't understand that go to these megachurches is,
okay, Jesus Christ preached a message, and 5,000 people walked away
from him. That was a megachurch, Mason. What? Until the truth
was preached. That was a gathering of all gatherings,
you know? And they walked away, who? They
walked away from God, our Savior. And the reason they did it was
because he told them the truth. Oh, they'll join together by
the thousands to hear the lie. Oh, they got itching ears. And
these people wanted to go hear what they wanted to hear. They
went where their itch was scratched. And if it wasn't scratched there,
they'd go somewhere else. And here's the thing. None of it
has to do with the kindness and love of God our Savior appearing
toward men. Toward man appeared. According
to his mercy, he saved us. He saved us. Paul goes on and
tells us how. How did the love, the kindness
and the love of God appear? And how, by his mercy, he saved
us. It says here, by the washing
of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Look up the word regeneration,
guess what it says, definition? The new birth, the new birth. And the renewing of the Holy
Ghost, guess what? That's the new man. It's not
the old man, it's the new man. He's not remaking the old man
into the new man. This is the addition of the new
man to the old man. How? By the Holy Ghost, by the
power of God. You understand, this is not a
physical transformation, this is a spiritual. We look exactly
the same as you were. Understand, our appearance doesn't
change, but your mind will change. And
really, your brain doesn't change, but your thoughts do. You know
why? Because they needed to change. Old Testament, your thoughts
are not my thoughts. Our thoughts are not God's thoughts. And God's thoughts are not our
thoughts, except for what we have written right here. We have
the thoughts of God written down in black and white. And if you
got a different kind of Bible, the words of Christ in red. Red
and white, it doesn't matter. This is the word of God. These
are the thoughts of God here. And they run contrary to the
nature and the mind of man as he is born. Guess what? We need a new birth. Jesus Christ
told us, you must, must be born again. Must be born. And what'd he say? He said, you
must be born from above. Now this is not, I read a thing
the other day about what Buddha said. There's a little, I can't
quote it exactly, but it says, Basically, you must save yourself. No one else can save you. No one else may save you. You're living this life by yourself.
Yes, I was at one time. But I'm gonna tell you this right
now, friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, no longer
am I living my life by myself. and I did not save myself, he
saved us. He saved me. Because I'm gonna
tell you something, if in this life only we have hope, we would
be of all men most miserable. Oh. The washing of regeneration. The new birth, regeneration is
life from the Holy Ghost. You must be born from above. John said, born of God. Spirit blows where he wants.
And you can't tell from where he comes or where he goes. And
so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. So is everyone who
is of what? The washing of the new birth. Mm, I like that. And the renewing of the Holy
Ghost. That one worried me for a while
until I looked at what it is. It's not the renovation of the
old man. It's a new man. That's what it
means, renewing. It's making new in you of the
Holy Spirit. Paul goes through the whole thing
in Romans 7. You know? You find there's a
law in your members, but then there's the law of the spirit.
And guess what? Jesus Christ said, talk to even
the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive. The spirit of truth. Because
it, what? It sees him not. It sees him
not. Neither knoweth him, but ye know
him. For he is with you, and he shall
be in you. That's what Jesus Christ said
while he was on this earth. In 1 Corinthians 3 and verse
16, Paul put it this way, what it is now, know ye not that ye
are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in
you. That's the renewing of the Holy
Ghost. You have a new man and the spirit of God is in you. By his mercy, he has saved us. How? By the washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ, our Savior. You understand? The kindness and the love and
the mercy of God is been shed upon you, if you believe, abundantly. What's he mean by that? Well,
A, more than we deserve. B, more than we can know. You
understand? We don't see ourselves as God
saw us, or as God sees fallen man. We, even in the midst of
the spirit of bondage again to fear, We don't really know how
bad we are. Walter's been talking about it,
reading in Romans, you know. Wounds and bruises, and not just
sores, putrefying sores, infected sores, diseased, rotten, nasty
sores, and that's what we are from the sole of our feet to
the top of our head, and guess what? That's not the half of
it. You know, he told those Pharisees, you wash the outside of a sepulcher,
but guess what? On the inside, it's just dead.
It's dead. And that's what we are before
what? Life comes. The washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. And this is the thing,
I've said it before, I'll say it again. Say it for the TV,
if it ever gets there. Here's the thing. Believers are
the only ones who know the difference between life and death in this
world. Because right now, if you don't
know Christ, all you know is death, and we are so dumb, we
think that's life. I was right there. I thought
I was living. I didn't know I was dead. Didn't
know. You don't know anything about
life until you get it. because you don't even know to
go out and get it, because you don't think you need it. You
don't know you don't have it. We live diseased, and we live
dead, and we live dumb. That's the way we are. He told that woman at the well,
what did he tell her? You worship you don't know what. You don't
know what you worship. That was me. That was me. I didn't know I was worshiping,
Mason. I thought I was just basically filling a pew. But you're giving
your assent to it whether you believe it or not. But here's
the thing. That being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Oh, justified by grace, We're heirs. We are justified by grace,
we are justified by faith, primarily, primarily, number one, we are
justified by his precious blood that was shed for the remission
of sins. Because there is no grace without
his blood. There is no faith without his
grace. Try and tear those three things
apart. Go for it knock yourself out the kindness and love of
God our Savior has appeared by his mercy He saved us that being
justified by his grace We should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life Being justified by his grace we have peace with
God We have peace with God and Paul Titus 3 8 says this is a
faithful saying See, that was all the introduction, you know
that, no. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will
that thou affirm constantly. Why? Don't stop. Affirm constantly. Wanted to
say last week, remember these faithful sayings. Repeat these
faithful sayings. They're faithful sayings. Say
them. Say them to each other and say
them to all men. Timothy and Titus, Walter, Joe,
everyone else who preaches, preach these faithful sayings. Preach
the truth about the kindness, love, and mercy of God which
has appeared toward men in that by his mercy he saved us. By
his mercy, you didn't have to save yourself There's lots of
people preaching, you have to save, more than Buddha, that
you've gotta save yourself. You've gotta do something. No. Instead, Christ told us, Paul
told us, you will do something because he has saved us. He'll
work in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure, and
guess what? That's how you work out your
own salvation, with fear and trembling. They like to throw
that verse around, but they forget what comes at the back of it.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, but it's
God that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. I like pointing at the television,
pointing at a camera. What in the world? But that's
the truth of God. That's the only way you could
work out your own salvation is that he does it. He puts in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We believe according
to what? working of his power, not ours. I didn't work it out and figure
it out in my mind that, well, this would be a good thing to
do, because even if I'm wrong, it'd be good to believe God,
because maybe that Bible stuff's right. I should believe it. That's
not the way it works. By the washing. of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost and the gift of faith,
which is by grace, through faith, you're gonna believe him. You
may fight against it, you may not like it at first, you may
get frustrated with it, but that's okay. God's seen it all before. Trust me, he will bring you around. I listened to a message from
Henry the other day, talking about our point of rebellion.
It's a good one, I liked it. He talked about Naaman, the Syrian,
who came and he went outside the tent of the prophet. He didn't
get out and go in. He said, send in there and send
the prophet out to me. And the prophet didn't come out. He said,
he sent his servant. And he told Naaman, go wash in
the Jordan seven times. And Naaman was mad. He was a
leper. And the prophet of God, I don't
know if it was Elijah or Elijah, which one, it doesn't matter,
told him to go wash, sent a servant out, didn't even come out himself.
And damn it, it was Roth. And he said, we've got better
rivers in Syria than this, you know? I got better creeks behind
my house than the muddy old brown Jordan, I don't wanna go. And
his servants told him, said, listen, buddy. He said, listen,
sir, you know? If they told you to do some great deed, you'd
have done it willingly. But here's the thing, that was Naaman's point of rebellion. He didn't want to subject himself,
what? To the word of God. You understand? The Jordan never
cleared leprosy from anybody. You know, the Jordan never, otherwise
people that took baths in it would have been cleared of all
their leprosy. And you couldn't get to the banks of the Jordan
for all the lepers being there. But that was where Naaman rebelled.
And you understand, God will find out where you rebelled.
And he'll knock your pins out from underneath you. He did mine. He did mine. He will put you
in a place where you have to believe him. Oh, it's called
the spirit of bondage under fear for a reason. Because trust me,
he can make you fear. And it feels like bondage. But
bless God, once you've been through that, we don't receive that spirit
of bondage again, but the spirit of adoption. Why? That being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs. according to the hope of eternal
life. This is a faithful saying. Affirm
it constantly. Preach the truth about the love
and kindness and mercy which has appeared toward men, toward
man. God our Savior has saved us. And it says affirm constantly,
why? Because we forget. We forget. We forget faithful
sayings. There will probably come a time
on my drive home, and y'all may not believe this, but this is
the truth, that I'll have to stop and think about, remember
what I just preached. Because I will forget between
here and there, or halfway home some days. That's how fleeting
our minds are, or at least that's how fleeting mine is. Y'all may
be fine, I don't know. But I don't think so. We forget
what we want to remember. We remember what we want to forget.
And people wonder why we say we're depraved still. That, affirm constantly that
they which believe in God, what's this say? Be careful to maintain
good works. Now, the kindness and love of
God our Savior toward man appeared not by works. but be careful
to maintain good works. Why? After the kindness and love
and mercy of God has appeared unto you. Be careful to maintain
good works. Be careful to maintain good works. You know why he wrote that? Because
usually we're not careful. Usually we're not, and certainly
usually we're not careful to maintain good works. Because
we are justified by his grace, justified by faith, and justified
by his blood. We are heirs of God. Joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. And you know what? He's not ashamed
to call us his brethren. Man. Maintain good works, carefully. The Holy Spirit abides in you.
Maintain good works carefully. Why? These things are good and profitable
unto men. Now it doesn't say they're good
and profitable unto God. You understand? He's not writing about us being
profitable to God. Nobody adds anything to God.
Nobody adds anything to God. You can't take anything away
from him either, although they try every day, and especially
on Sundays. But neither you or I are profitable
unto God, but it's profitable unto men. It's profitable unto
us. It's good for us, all believers,
to maintain good works. It's good for the family. It's
good for your work. It's good for our fellowship
together in Christ Jesus and our fellowship with one another. Well, what good works? Well,
right here, verse one, put them in mind to be subject to principalities
and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every, what? Good
work. Being subject to principalities
and powers. There are people over us, physically
speaking. Government, bosses, whoever. Listen, God is not ignorant of
who's above you in this life. And trust me, if one of them
bothers him, he'll take them out. He puts them there and he
takes them out all the time. We are to be subject unto them.
You are to pay your taxes. Render unto Caesar that which
is Caesar's. You understand? Render unto the
state of West Virginia that which goes to the state of West Virginia
and to the federal government. You may not like it, it doesn't
say you have to like it, it just says to do it. Why? Because it's good for all men. Actually, if you want to back
up just a second, He starts it in Titus chapter two and verse
11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men. Now he didn't say the grace
of God that bringeth salvation came to all men, it appeared
to all men. But it says this, teaching us. that denying ungodliness, worldly
lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present world. Why? Because it's good. Looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us
from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort
and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise you. Then
he says, be subject to the principalities and the powers. Then in verse
two, speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle. Denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts. Live soberly, righteously, and
godly in this present world. Don't speak evil of any man.
That's hard to do. I know. Be gentle, show meekness,
humility. Don't be self-righteous. That's
hard to do. Here's the thing, here's a good
word. Assemble yourselves together with the saints of God whenever
possible. That's a good word. But most of all, remember these,
the commandments of Jesus Christ. Believe Christ and love one another. Love one another. These are all
good works. Be careful to maintain them. These are the faithful sayings.
Christ Jesus came to save sinners. Paul added it. These faithful
sayings are personal. Of whom I am chief is what Paul
says. And that's what I say. These are personal. And if they
ain't personal, you may not know about the kindness and love of
God. And then by his mercy, he saved us. Because you understand,
this is personal. Christ Jesus came to save sinners. Us who were foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures and malice and
envy, hateful and hating one another. That's who Jesus Christ
came to save. And most people have never been
there. They don't know that they are that. They don't think they
are that. But Christ Jesus came to save
sinners. That's a faithful saying. Godliness is profitable in all
things. That's a faithful saying. If
we be dead with him, we shall live with him. That's a faithful
saying. And this. that being justified
by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life, because he saved us. That's a faithful saying,
and it's worthy of all acceptation. Heavenly Father, I'm thankful
for this time and this place, and most of all, for you, my
Lord. Our God, who is our Savior, the
great God and Savior you have given to us. And you gave us
to him and you gave him to us. Lord, thank you. In Christ's name we pray.