You still have your Bibles open
there to 1 Samuel 17. If you look in verse 29, you
see where I got the title for the message this morning. David
said, what have I now done? Is there not a cause? There was
a cause that day, wasn't there? And there's a cause for God's
church today. The same way that there was a
cause in David's day. We have a cause. A cause that
is to be preached, to be believed, and to be defended. Hold your
place there and look at John chapter 18. Christ our Savior
came to this earth with a cause. His cause really is our cause. His cause was the salvation of
his people. And absolutely nothing would
make him take a detour from his cause. John 18, verse 37. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest I
am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. Now our Lord sang all this pain,
all this suffering unto death, That's why I'm here. That's my
cause. And I'm determined to take up
this cause. I'm determined to take up my
cause. Because my people cannot be saved unless I do. He took
up his cause. The Savior did everything he
did. He suffered everything that he
did. For the likes of you and me.
That's a gracious cause. Now look at, if you would, Acts
chapter 28. Those of us who trust Christ, we also have a cause. Like our Savior, like David of
old, we have a cause that we can never turn away from, that
we can never quit this cause. Our cause is to trust Christ,
is to believe on Him, is to love Him, to preach Him, to declare
His name. In Acts 28 verse 20, The Apostle
Paul says, for this cause, therefore, have I called for you to see
you and to speak with you, because for the hope of Israel, I am
bound with this chain. Even when he was in chains, the
Apostle Paul was determined not to turn away from his cause,
his cause to preach the gospel, to preach Christ wherever he
could, even when he knew it was gonna cost him. for this cause,
to preach Christ to the greatest enemies of Christ that there
were in his day, those religious Jews. Now back in our text, David
knew there's a cause. Goliath and the Philistine army,
they're defying the living God. They're defying the army of the
living God and threatening God's people. Now David was just a
young man. He doesn't have a lot of military
training. He hasn't had a lot of experience yet in this life.
But he certainly knew there's a cause. And he was willing to
take it up, wasn't he? Now the whole story of David
killing Goliath is a picture of God's cause. The cause of
God's church today. I want to give you that cause
in two parts. First of all, our cause is the glory of God. Goliath was blaspheming God.
He was defying the armies of the living God. That just grated
on David's last nerve. He hated hearing Goliath defy
God that way, to talk about God that way. And the reason David
got involved in this cause was the glory of God. He says it
over and over again in this chapter. Look at verse 26. And David spake
unto the men that stood by him, saying, What should be done to
this man that killeth his Philistine, and taketh away the reproach
of Israel? This man is reproaching Israel. And who is this uncircumcised
Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?
He's defying God, all that bothered David. Look at verse 36. David tells Saul, thy servant
slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine
should be as one of them, and here's why. seeing he hath defied
the armies of the living God. Look at verse 45, this is David
talking to Goliath, and David said to the Philistine, thou
comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield,
but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God
of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. The reason
I'm coming out to battle with you is you defied the name of
the Lord of hosts. He says in verse 46, this day
will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand and I'll smite thee
and take thine head from thee and I'll give the carcass of
the host of the Philistines this day into the fowls of the air
and to the wild beasts of the earth. And here's why, that all
the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. David's cause
was the glory of God, the name of the God of Israel. And our
cause today is the same cause as David's cause. Our cause is
the glory of Christ. That's our cause, to tell who
he is. The truth of his scripture says
he is, it's his glory. Now, I know this is a warrior
scene, this is an army, a military battle scene, but we're not to
be combative in our cause, not to be combative with people.
We're to be unyielding. unyielding. We're to never compromise
and to never retreat. But we're not to be combative.
We're not to take up this cause so that people think we're right. We're not to try to bring people
to our way of thinking. Preaching is declaring. It's
not debating. It's declaring. It's declaring
who Christ is. Our cause is not to vindicate
our name. Our cause is to glorify the name
of Christ. We want to take up this cause
so that people see the glory of Christ and believe on Him. That's our cause. We're to preach
the truth, the truth of who God is, the truth of who men are,
man is, the truth of God's greatest glory, His mercy to sinners,
so that, not so that people be forced to agree with us, so that
they'll look to Christ, so that they'll believe on His precious
name. We're just to declare the glory of Christ. If some poor
sinner ever sees the glory of God's electing love, that God
Almighty loves sinners, He loved the unlovable and chose to save
them by the sacrifice of His darling Son, If anybody ever
sees the glory of that, I promise you this, they'll trust Christ.
They'll look to Him and they'll trust Him. See, we don't need
to try to convince somebody of the truth of election. Just declare
God's glory. Somebody sees the truth of it,
they'll believe Christ. If someone sees the glory that
Christ died for a specific people. He didn't die trying to save
every son of Adam and some of them be saved and some of them
be damaged. But Christ died for a specific people, for His people,
the elect that the Father gave Him to save. And He completely
and utterly saved those people from their sin, and not one of
them can possibly ever perish. If somebody ever sees the glory
of that, they'll trust Christ. We don't have to try to convince
them of the lie of man's free will. Just declare the glory
of Christ. If they see it, they'll trust
Him. They'll trust Him. Our cause
is preaching Christ to our generation so they see the glory of God. We're not trying to recreate
the past. We're not trying to rebuild ministries of the past
and have great ministries like the great preachers of the past.
Our cause is to preach Christ to our generation so that people
see the glory of Christ and believe on him. You might be surprised how often. I quote David in my mind in the
morning. I get up. I ate my breakfast. I have a big old cup of coffee.
Try and get this body started, you know, in the study. And how
often I think What drives me there? Is there
not a cause? Is there not a cause to declare
God's glory? So that this people that I love,
that I'm sold out to preach the gospel to, know Christ. Brethren,
there's a cause. Our cause is declare the glory
of the Savior in our day. And secondly, our cause is to
do that by preaching the gospel of representation. This whole
story of David and Goliath is not just a cute story that we
tell our little ones. The message of this whole story
is the gospel of representation. That's our cause. Our cause is
to preach the gospel of Christ and to declare this so people
know it in no uncertain terms. You may not believe it, but now
you're gonna understand what I mean when I say it. Salvation
is on the board. Salvation is not in any part,
any part ever accomplished or kept by our works. Salvation
is done. by Christ alone. It's in Christ
alone, it's accomplished by Christ alone, it's found in Christ alone. Now it has to be our cause to
declare this true because salvation in Christ alone is the only hope
any sinner ever has. And our responsibility that God
has given us as a church body is to preach Christ so sinners
have hope. That's our cause. The gospel of God sets forth
this very simple truth. It's representation. Now it's
impossible to understand the gospel till you understand this
truth of representation. God sees all the human race in
one of two men. Either in the first man God ever
created, Adam, the first Adam, or in the second Adam, the Lord
Jesus Christ. God sees all human beings in
one of those two men. And what that means is this,
you and I are what our representative is. We have done exactly what
our representative has done. You're not guilty because of
what you've done. And you can't make yourself righteous
by what you do either. Our guilt or innocence is determined
by our representative, by what our representative has done.
So if you're in Adam, if you're represented by Adam, then my
friend, you're guilty. You're unrighteous because when
Adam sinned against God, you did too. When Adam died, you
did too. But if you're in Christ, if you're
represented by Christ, then brother, you're righteous because you've
obeyed the law. When Christ obeyed the law, you
did too. See, it all depends on who your
representative is. You and I are either guilty in
Adam or we're righteous in Christ. We're either dead in Adam or
we're alive in Christ. And that's the picture of the
story of David and Goliath. Goliath, he came out with this
challenge to Israel. I'm the champion of the Philistines. You send a champion out to fight
me. That's what he said. Look back
here at verse eight. And Goliath stood and cried unto the armies
of Israel and said unto them, Why are you come out to set your
battle in a ray? Am not I a Philistine and you servants to Saul? Choose
you out a man for you and let him come down to me. And if he
be able to fight with me, kill me, then we'll be your servants. But if I prevail against him
and kill him, then shall you be our servants and serve us.
Now, seems like a pretty good idea old Goliath has here. No
need for all these armies to fight each other and hundreds
and hundreds of men be killed, The country who will rule is
the country whose champion wins this one-on-one battle. No need
for thousands of men to fight and die with each other. The
whole war is gonna be won by two representative men fighting
for their respective people. That's the message of the gospel,
isn't it? You know, this is our cause, to preach the gospel of
representation. We can never ever surrender.
to this idea of man's free will, where man is the one who decides
salvation by deciding to either accept or reject Jesus as their
personal savior. That's not true. The truth of
the gospel is that salvation is of the Lord, and we'll either
be saved by the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ,
or we won't be saved at all. will be saved by his obedience
and by his blood, or we won't be saved at all because we're
not fighting in this battle. No, it's our representative.
Now, Goliath, he represents the flesh, doesn't he? He represents
the first Adam. The word philistine actually
comes from the root word that means self. Boy, that doesn't
describe Adam. I don't know what does. He just
cared about himself. The name Goliath means an exile. Well,
that's what we are in Adam, aren't we? We're exiled in shame. Exiled
from God's presence in shame. And if we're represented by the
flesh, we're servants to the flesh. We're slaves to the law. We're slaves to sin. We're under
the control, the direction of Satan. And Goliath is like the
flesh in another way. This guy is one tough opponent. I mean, he's a tough opponent.
Goliath stood over 11 feet tall. His armor weighed 180 pounds. I mean, you think of the strength
that it took just to carry that armor, much less fight in it.
His spear was 26 feet long. I can pick up anything that's
26 feet long. And the head on that thing, just the head of
his spear alone weighed over 20 pounds. Now you think of the
strength it took to throw that spear. I mean, this man's a giant. If Goliath was your enemy, you'd
be scared out of your wits just like the Israelites were. He
came and every day when he spoke to, yelled across the valley
there at Israel, they were scared to death, weren't they? Everybody's
running from him. Well, it's no wonder they were
afraid. They couldn't go out and defeat this man one-on-one.
Goliath is a killing machine covered in metal. I mean, this
man, Saul was right. This man's been a man of war
from his youth. I mean, he's a killing machine. That's the flesh. The flesh is
an enemy you and I cannot defeat. It's the nature of our flesh. that keeps us from trusting Christ.
It's the nature of our flesh that keeps us from hearing the
gospel and loving it. It's the nature of the flesh
that does that, and we can't defeat it. We can't. Not only
can we not stop sinning, it's the nature of our flesh that
keeps us from trusting Christ. Now, can you imagine the misery
that Israel will live in? if Goliath wins this battle?
I mean, the stakes are high. If Goliath wins this battle,
I mean, it's just hard to imagine the mystery that Israel will
live in. But you know, that's nothing. That's child's play
compared to the mystery that men live in, both now and in
eternity, if we're forced to live in Adam. If Adam is our
only representative, we live under the condemnation of the
law. We'll continue to live under the ruling power of sin. We'll
continue to live under the condemning power of sin, and we'll continue
to live under the direction of Satan, even as others. Now, that's
a miserable existence. I mean, that frightens me to
death. I don't want to live like that,
do you? Well, is there a champion who can do it? Is there a champion
who can defeat the flesh and deliver us from the power of
the flesh. Well, nobody in the flesh can
do it. Saul couldn't do it. I mean, you'll notice in these
40 days, Saul never put on his armor and went out there to meet
Goliath, did he? And Saul, why'd they choose him as king? He stood
head and shoulders above everybody. I mean, this man's a specimen.
He's the biggest and the strongest Israel has to offer. And he knows
he can't go out there and defeat Goliath. He thought he was a
big old bully till a bigger bully came along. He's afraid to go
fight him. Saul knows he cannot defeat this
giant. And that's this flesh. No man
in the flesh can defeat our flesh. No man in the flesh can set us
free from the power of flesh and the power of sin. We cannot
deliver ourselves, cannot. Well, is there a champion who
can? Is there a champion who can deliver us? Well, there's
one. Now, there's only one, but thank
God there's one. The songwriter said that precious,
precious Jesus, he's the one. And that's who David represents.
David represents Christ, our champion. Let me give you a few
ways here from our text. I'll confine myself to just this
chapter. David's a picture of Christ in so many ways. We'll
just confine ourselves to this chapter. How he's a type of Christ. First of all, David is a type
of Christ. He's ruddy. He's of a fair countenance. He's
a handsome young fellow. That's what verse 42 says. This is what made Goliath disdaining. When the Philistine looked about
and saw David, he disdained him for he's but a youth. He was
ruddy. and had a fair countenance. But
you know, David, with his ruddy countenance, he had like a reddish
complexion apparently, made him a type of Christ. You know, when
God made Adam, he formed Adam from the dust of the earth. He
formed Adam from the red dust of the earth. His name means
red. Well, in the Song of Solomon, in chapter five, verse nine,
Solomon describes Christ our Savior as white and ruddy. He's white, that's his perfection,
his holiness. And he's ruddy. He became a real
man. He took on him flesh as a real
man. That's what makes him lovely.
He's both white and ruddy. This is a holy, righteous man. That makes him able to save a
sinner like me. Now this has to be pretty obvious
to everybody. If the son of God is gonna be
the representative of his sinful people, he's got to become a
real man, doesn't he? Because we're real men and women
in the flesh. Now what a miracle of God's grace and God's love
that the son of God would humiliate himself to appear in the weakness
of flesh like you and I am. The Lord Jesus is exactly like
you and me in every way. with the exception of sin, with
the exception of a sin nature. He was a real man who could be
tired, who could be thirsty, who could suffer pain, and just
like us, he's bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and here's
why he did that. So he could be the representative
of his people who were in the flesh, and do for them what they
could never do for themselves. He appeared in the flesh to be
our change. Second, David is a type of Christ
because David was a shepherd. Goliath was coming out here,
defying God, defying the armies of Israel for 40 days in a row. Well, where was David all that
time? He was keeping his father's sheep. Verse 15 says, and David
went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. David was a shepherd. And he
took this job very seriously. His brother said, what about
those few sheep? You know, just a few sheep for keeping. David
took that job mighty seriously. You might just call them a few
sheep, but they're precious to me. They're important to me.
That's my father's sheep. And David was a good shepherd.
You read through scripture, it's never recorded even one time
that David lost one of his father's sheep. Not a single one. And that's a good picture of
Christ our Savior, the great shepherd of the sheep. Just like
David, Christ has a flock of sheep that the father gave to
him. The sheep that belonged to his father, his father chose
those sheep. He made those sheep his and he
gave those sheep to his son to keep. And Christ knows every
one of those sheep. He knows them by name. He calls
them by name. and he's never lost one of them.
David was very serious about defending Jesse's sheep from
predators and just fearlessly attacked them. Look at verse
34. David said unto Saul, thy servant
kept his father's sheep. And there came a lion and a bear
and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went after him and smote
him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he rose against
me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. I don't know about you, but if
I was a shepherd and a lion and a bear came and took one of the
sheep, old Frank would say that's a cost of doing business. Just
a cost of doing business. When I was at the convenience
store, I worked there, people come in and steal stuff. I mean,
you try everything you can do to stop them, but, you know,
it's a cost of doing business. Somebody takes one of my dad's
sheep, a lion, I mean, a lion. Have you ever seen a lion up
close in the zoo? Old Frank ain't chasing after that lion. That's
a cost of doing business. Not David. He chased after that
lion and that bear with a shepherd's rod and just whacked that thing
upside the head. surprise, I guess, and dropped
the land. And David caught that thing by the beard and killed
it with his bare hands. I mean, this is a fierce man. He's a young fella. He's ruddy.
He's got a fair countenance, but he's a fierce man. Oh, how? There's to David, there's always
a cause in there. The cause of his father's sheep.
Jesse's not losing the sheep on account of David. Wasn't that a wonderful picture?
Christ our Savior. He came to save his sheep from
their sin. And he gave up his life to do
it. He sacrificed himself for the
sheep that he loves so none of them would ever be lost. Oh,
Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep. He'll never lose one
of his sheep. He's gonna gather them all safely
together so they're one fold and one shepherd. Wherever they're
at, he's gonna find them and call them and keep them in. And
the sheep, I want us to make sure we understand this now.
We're talking about the gospel of representation. We're talking
about Christ our champion. The sheep are not kept safe because
the sheep get mean enough to fight off the lion and the bear.
The sheep are not kept safe from these predators because the sheep
get so cunning and so swift that they can run away from and avoid
the lion and the bear. The sheep are kept safe because
Christ the Good Shepherd keeps them all by himself, all by himself. Salvation is of the Lord, isn't
it? It's all of the Lord's doing.
Salvation is the Lord's idea in the first place. and it's
all of his doing to accomplish it. All right, thirdly, David
is a type of Christ because both David and Christ our Savior went
to the battle alone. Look at verse 38. And Saul armed
David with his armor. He put on a helmet of brass upon
his head, and also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David
girded his sword upon his armor, and he said to go, for he had
not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot
go with these, for I have not proved them. And David put them
off him. And he took a staff in his hand,
and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them
in a shepherd's bag, which he had, even in a script. And a
sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
Now Saul just naturally assumed if David's going to go fight
Goliath, he needs armor. He's got to have some protection
against this guy. So Saul gave David the best armor
there was in the whole country of Israel, his own personal armor,
the armor of the king. And David put it on, but they
took it off. He said, I haven't proved these.
I can't go with these. I haven't proved them. They won't
do. This armor will not do for this battle. That's a picture
of the son of God. His armor is his deed. God can't be hurt by anything,
can he? Because he's God. So you know
what the Son of God did? He took off his glory. He set
aside his glory as the Son of God and became a man so that
he could be hurt. He became a man so he could suffer
for the sins of his people. So he could die for the sins
of his people because that's what God's justice demands. God's
justice demands there must be death for sin. Well, God can't
die. So the son of God became a man so he could die. Christ
took off his glory as God and became a man so he could die
the death that his people deserve. David didn't take Saul's armor
and he didn't take Saul's weapon. He didn't even take Saul's spear
or sword with him. All David took with him to meet
this giant killing machine was his shepherd's sling, easy for
me to say, and five smooth stones. Boy, you can read a lot. I mean,
you can find a lot of reading about these five stones. There's
a lot been made about it. Five. Five, I know, I'm not big
into numerology, but I do know this, five is the number of grace
in Scripture. Those five stones, they could
represent salvation by grace, not our works. They could represent
that, and that's our cause, isn't it? To preach this gospel, salvation
by grace, not our works. But you know, as I read a lot
about those stones, I thought, well, you know, it really doesn't
matter they took five stones. I mean, as far as I can tell,
it doesn't matter what they represent. I guess it matters he took five
stones, because he did, that's what God had him do. But it doesn't
matter what they represent, It only took one stone to do the
job, didn't it? It just took one. And here's what I am sure
is important about these five stones. These five stones are
not man-made. They are made smooth by the water
in the brook, weren't they? David took those stones just
how God provided them, in the brook, made smooth by the water
flowing over them. And here's the picture. It's
very important because it connects everything that we're looking
at here in this gospel of representation The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
use anything man-made to defeat the sin of his people you know
Peter would have took that sword and killed the high priest's
servant, wasn't he? Peter was ready to go to fight. Peter was willing to die in a
fight defending his Lord. Now he wasn't willing to live
with it. He wasn't willing to live with the shame of the cross
and the shame of his Savior's suffering and dying, but Peter's
willing to fight in the battle. The Lord told Peter, put up your
sword, Peter. He told Pilate, I'm a king, but
now my king's not of this earth, my kingdom. If my kingdom were
of this earth, all my people But the Lord didn't use anything
man-made of the flesh to defeat the sin of his people and to
accomplish the redemption of his people. He went by himself. It was all accomplished by God.
It was all the purpose of God. It's all accomplished by God.
It's all applied by God's grace. You see, man has nothing to do
with the redemption of our souls. Nothing. Redemption is a payment. It's
a payment for sin. You and I have nothing to do
with that payment for sin except providing sin debt that's gotta
be paid for. That's our total involvement
in this thing. We're the ones that have sinned and created
the need for redemption and the atonement. The redemption is
the work of Christ alone. That's why all his disciples
forsook him. He had to do this alone, alone. so that we'd see
Peter didn't help him in this. James and John didn't help him
in this. Christ went to suffer and die alone. The writer to
the Hebrews said when he had by himself, by himself, without
any help from men, by himself purged our sins. Then he sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high. So whatever
else these stones represent, I know what that one stone represents.
It represents Christ. the living stone, chosen of God
and precious. But here's another way that David
is not a type of Christ. They both went to battle alone,
didn't they? David won the battle by living. That's the way it
had to be between him and the Philistine, wasn't it? Christ
won the battle by dying. By dying as a substitute for
his people. He died as the representative
of his people, so they never would. And he did it alone. Then here's the fourth way that
David is a type of Christ. He crushed the head of his enemy.
Verse 49, David put his hand in his bag and took thence a
stone and slang it and smote the Philistine in his forehead
that the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his
face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine
with a sling and with a stone and smote the Philistine and
slew him. But there was no sword in David's hand. Somehow that
stone went past all that armor. There must have been open space
somehow. And that stone went right past it all and sunk right
into his fly's forehead and killed him. One little stone directed
by the hand of Almighty God killed that Philistine, killed that
giant. And you see, that's Christ, isn't it? One man. The sacrifice
of one man whose God in human flesh put away the sin of all
of his people by himself, by his one sacrifice. How many thousands
and thousands and thousands and thousands of sacrifices did the
high priest offer all those years and then put away one sin? But
this man, by his one sacrifice for sin, put away sin forever. David didn't bring a sword to
this battle, did he? You don't need the sword if you
got to rock. Verse 51, therefore David ran and stood upon the
Philistine. I mean, God, Goliath is so huge. David stood upon
him and took his sword and drew it out of the sheep thereof and
slew him and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistine
saw their champion was dead, they fled. I know Goliath thought
when David came out to me, this little ruddy pretty boy comes
out there to meet Goliath, you know, and Goliath grabbed that
spear or that sword. I'm cutting this guy to pieces
with this sword. Instead, what happened? David
took it, cut off Goliath's head. There's a picture there. Don't
you reckon Satan finally thought He defeated God at Calvary. When
Christ was crucified, I know Satan thought, I've got God now.
Satan had worked and worked and worked and worked to make that
happen. He worked in the hearts of the Pharisees. He worked in
the heart of Pilate. He worked in the heart of Judas
and worked to make this happen. And he thought, I finally got
God now. And little did Satan know, that the very thing he
wanted to accomplish was the tool God would use to crush his
head. Oh, he moved and Christ was crucified. He bruised the Savior's heel. But when he was crucified, when
his heel was bruised, Christ crushed Satan's head and put
him out of business. That's how Christ our Savior
took away the reproach of Israel. That's what David was so concerned
about in the first place. Who's gonna take away the reproach
of Israel? Christ, our substitute, took
away the reproach of Israel all by himself, by his obedience
and by his sacrifice alone. Now that's our cause. That's
our cause to believe him. This is our champion. Our cause
is to believe him. Our cause is to trust him. Our cause is to preach him. That's
our cause till Christ returns. In glory, we're going to still
have cause, aren't we? But it's going to be a different
cause. Our cause in glory will just
be to praise Him. Just be to worship Him. Because
then we'll see His glory face to face, won't we? All right. After we bow in prayer and Isaac
sings us in a closing hymn, everybody's figured out we're going to have
a dinner to celebrate the zero birthdays of Charlie and Dan
and Gavin. I've tried to think of something
to say to express how important these three men, one of them
albeit young, is to this congregation. We couldn't do it without any
of the three of you. You're very, very precious to me, and I thank
God for you. And Gavin, you finally get your
chance to go first through the dinner line. You three figure
that out, but now you got your chance, Gavin. All right, let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for Christ our champion, who by himself has defeated every
enemy, put our sin away, suffered and died that his people might
live. Father, how I thank you. Father,
how I beg of you that you would cause us, local assembly, to
be faithful to our cause, to believe Christ, to preach him
to our generation, that your sheep might be called out, brought
to life, and faith in Christ, and that your sheep would be
fed and protected, comforted, and encouraged by the constant
preaching of Christ our champion. Father, bless your word, I beg,
as it's been preached, that we might see your glory. in trusting
Christ our Savior. Father, we thank you for this
food that we're about to eat, the time of fellowship that we're
about to enjoy. And Father, I thank you for these
three that you've given to us to honor and celebrate today.
Thank you for Gavin, for Dan, Charlie. Father, I pray your richest blessing
be upon them. We pray for your saving, keeping,
comforting grace that you be continue to be gracious to him.
I thank you for what these three mean to me and to this whole
congregation. Father, all these things we ask
and we give thanks in that name, which is above every name, the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ is for his sake and his glory.
We pray. Amen. All right. Isaac come leads in
a closing hymn.