I want us tonight to return to
a passage I often turn to and read, try to constantly remember,
and I've tried to preach to you from several times. 2 Corinthians
chapter 12. In the kingdom of God, everything
is exactly the opposite. of the way the world thinks,
everything. All spiritual things are exactly
the opposite of carnal reason, all things. This really shouldn't
surprise us. Our Lord told us plainly that
the world that didn't know him wouldn't know us. John said,
therefore, the world knoweth us not because it knew him not.
In spiritual matters, in all spiritual matters, absolutely
nothing is the way men think it is, ought to be, and must
be. Nothing. That applies to all
worship, all doctrine, all knowledge, all understanding, all motivation. In spiritual things, there's
absolutely nothing That is the way men think it ought to be
and must be. In the world, the way up is up. In the kingdom of God, the way
up is down. You must be abased or you'll
never be exalted. The Lord God must put you down
or he will never lift you up. In the world, the man with the
greatest knowledge is the one who knows the most about the
most. In the church of Christ, the person who knows the most
is the one who knows he knows nothing. The one who knows he knows nothing
is just a babe. In material things, the person
who has the most is the richest. In spiritual things, the person
who knows he has the least is the richest. The poor in spirit,
not the rich in spirit, are those who know God. And natural things,
One who has the most strength is the strongest. But in spiritual
matters, he who is weakest is strongest. The weak are strong. The strong are terribly weak.
Now, this is clearly the doctrine of our text, 2 Corinthians chapter
12, verses 8 through 10. In this passage, Paul tells us
how that he had been translated to paradise, caught up to the
third heaven, and returned to the earth. Now, lots of folks
these days pretend that they've had a near-death experience or
died and almost stepped into the pearly gates, saw a bright,
shining light, and they came back to tell us about it. They're
all either liars or deceived, probably both. There's only been
one man who's caught up to heaven and returned to the earth, and
he tells us plainly that he saw things and heard things that
are unspeakable, that it's not lawful for man to speak. The
word is, it's not possible to speak about. Words can't describe
it. We preach about these things.
But things Paul saw when he was with Christ in glory, for whatever
period of time that was, whether in the body or out of the body,
he said, I don't know. But he said, I saw and heard
things that just can't be put into words and impossible to
speak. But lest he should be exalted
above measure, this man who in knowledge and experience and
understanding, this man who had more revealed to him than any
other, this man who was used of God to write more of the New
Testament than any other. Lest he be exalted above measure,
the Lord God sent him a very painful, troublesome affliction. In verse 7, he said, lest I should
be exalted above measure, Through the abundance of the revelations,
he stood head and shoulders above everybody else. There was given
to me a thorn in the flesh. Thorn in the flesh, constantly
annoying, painful thing. The messenger of Satan. Quite
literally, the messenger Satan. To buffet me. Thorn in the flesh
that constantly beat me in the face. It's constantly pounding
on me. It's constantly, constantly beating
on me. Lest I should be exalted above
measure. And for this great difficulty,
Paul prayed and asked God to take it away. Let's pick up in
verse 8. For this thing, I besought the
Lord thrice. That is, I begged the Lord three
times. I begged him. I begged him, Lord,
take this away from me. I besought the Lord three times.
Lord, please. God, I can't live like this.
Take this away from me. Lord, oh God, take this thorn
from me. that it might depart from me,
verse 9. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And when the Lord thus spoke
to his servant, this is Paul's response. Most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities. If I've got something to boast
about, if you, he's writing these Corinthians who challenged and
they had been led to challenge by false apostles and false prophets
to think that Paul somehow was a deceiver. He said, if I've
got to glory in something, if I've got to convince you of my
sincerity, my truthfulness, and my honesty, I'll brag about this. Our glory in my infirmities,
in my weaknesses, my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses. Surely he didn't mean for us
to read that just like that. I take pleasure in infirmities,
weaknesses, in reproaches, the reproaches
that men and Satan cast upon me, in necessities, in needs,
spiritual needs, desperate needs, in persecutions, opposition constantly
facing it, in distresses, things in here that just constantly
push me down. I take pleasure in this hand
of God upon me for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. Now, let me make four observations
here, and I'll be as brief as I can. Number one, we never know what's best. Cause I believe you're the senior
citizen here, aren't you? We never know what's best. Not
the youngest, not the oldest, not the most inexperienced, not
the most experienced. We never know what's best. Our little girl, I still try
to convince her and her husband and my grandchildren, father
knows best. But it's just a little bit of
levity there because we don't know. Not one of us ever knows
what's best. We don't know what's best for
the glory of God. We don't know what's best for
the good of our own souls. We don't know what's best to
accomplish God's purpose. We don't know what's best for
Christ's sake. In verse 8, the apostle says,
for this thing I besought the Lord thrice. I begged him three
times that he might depart from me. But the thing that he sought
wasn't best. The fact is, we don't know how
to pray as we ought. Turn to Romans chapter 8. Romans
the 8th chapter. I don't pretend to know a great
deal about prayer. I despise the how-to books that
are supposed to teach you how to pray or teach you how to believe or
teach you how to walk with God. How-to books are never good in
spiritual things. I just saw, I was looking at
the web page of Free Grace Radio and preaching, somebody had a
sermon on there. What was it? The key, the secret,
the formula, the recipe for a happy, holy church. I thought, well,
that's something I don't want to hear. Recipe for a happy, holy church. Prayer,
I know this much. It's not for the gratification
of my carnal lust. We pray, we ask, and we have
not. Why? Because we ask that we may
consume it upon our lust. We pray according to our natural
desires. We beg God to give us what we
desire and what we want in our flesh and we call it prayer because
we tack on if it's your will. Are we tack on in Jesus name?
Prayer is not the means by which we obtain from God what we want. Somebody said prayer is like
a blank check. God's already signed his name
to it. You just fill in the amount. No, that's lust. That's lust. True prayer involves submission
to God's will. It involves seeking God's glory. If we ask anything according
to His will, that doesn't simply say, Lord, now we ask this, your
will be done. That doesn't mean we just use
those words. It means that we seek from God
to know His will. and beg Him to do it in all things. True prayer, true prayer. True
prayer has something to do with seeking God's glory. Our Father,
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. If I'm God's child,
if I truly know Him and trust Him, I want what He has purposed. I bow to Him. I surrender my
will to his will, my desires to his glory, my personal interest
to the interest of his kingdom and his people, my pleasure to
his pleasure, knowing that his will, his purpose, his pleasure,
his glory is best. Therefore, when we pray in our
ignorance, which we almost always do, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of God dwelling in us, cleans up our prayers. Look at Romans
8, 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh
intercession, for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The
Spirit of God maketh intercession for us with sighs that baffle
understanding. He groans within us. I've read
every commentary I can find on that. I've told you this before.
Some years ago, Shelby would go to the rest home up here in
town and read scripture to folks and try to minister to them best
she could. But one day she came out and
she was kind of weeping and laughing and laughing and weeping. And
I said, honey, what on earth happened? She's I think I finally
found somebody here who knows God. And this old lady, she always
enjoyed visiting with her. And she was reading this passage
here in Romans 8 to her one day. And this woman said to her, you
know what that means? And she said, well, I'm not sure.
What do you think the apostles say? She said, I believe that
means that when we pray, the Spirit of God takes out what
shouldn't have been there and puts in what should have been.
That's a pretty good description of what he's saying. We don't
know what to pray for as we ought. So we go to God. Is it not so
with you? Yeah. You ask the Lord for something
and you grow. And you know that you've asked
because this is what you want. Ask because this is what you
desire. This is what you think is best. This is what will please
you. This is the best of your understanding of things and you
grow on. God, know what I really want
is your will and your glory, the interest of your kingdom,
the accomplishment of your purpose. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. The Lord, you see, always hears
and answers our prayers. Paul is telling us, though the
Lord graciously refused to give him what he asked for, he graciously
granted him that which he truly wanted and needed, which was
far better. He said, Lord, take this. Take
this from me. What is it that you constantly
struggle with. What evil passion in your heart?
You beg God, take it away. You beg him, Lord, this flesh,
oh God, take it away. And here it is, 43 years later,
worse than it was first time I was aware of it. Worse than
ever. This thing called sin, flesh,
The world, Satan, constantly with temptations and trials and
fiery darts hurled at my soul, constantly vexing and troubled
me. And Paul said, the Lord said, live with it. Live with it. My grace is sufficient
for thee. Our Lord Jesus taught us ever
to pray in submission, surrendering to the will of the Father and
the glory of the Father. When that appears to contradict
what we most earnestly desire in our flesh, that which is most
pleasing to us, still we ought to pray like our Savior, not
my will, thy will be done. Our Lord said, Before his disciples
now is my soul troubled. What shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto
this hour. Father, glorify thy name. That's the first thing. We never
know what's best. God does. Second, look at verse
nine. God's grace in Christ is sufficient
to meet our every need. Oh God, teach me this. And he
said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. Here the Lord God, our savior
assures his elect of the absolute sufficiency of his grace. always and in all things. One of the names of our God by
which he makes himself known is El Shaddai. The word is God
all sufficient. All sufficient grace. That's
his grace. All sufficient. His grace is
sufficient because his grace is effectual grace. Today, there's
a lot of talk about grace. Everybody talks about grace,
but those who talk about grace talk about grace that lacks efficacy,
grace that fails, grace that strives but doesn't accomplish,
grace that tries but doesn't perform. That's not grace at
all. God's grace is effectual grace. It's always sufficient grace
because it's always effectual grace. That is, God's grace always
accomplishes that which God has purposed, always accomplishes
that for which God sends it. Let us ever remember that God's
grace in Christ is sufficient for us in everything and always. Sufficient God's grace is to
accomplish his purpose no matter how things seem to contradict.
His grace is sufficient to pardon, justify, regenerate, sanctify,
and preserve my soul no matter how weak I am and no matter how
contradictory things may appear to that fact. His grace proves
itself sufficient especially in every time of need. One of the best assignments I've
ever had in my life given to me in any form of academics.
I was taking a class in Bible college and had an unusual thing. I had a pretty good professor.
I didn't have many of them. This one was pretty good. He
gave us an assignment one day. He said, I want you, between
now and the next class period, to keep a piece of paper handy
with you all the time. And I want you to Write down
everything that comes to your mind from one verse of scripture. And that verse was Hebrews 4
16. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. Grace is for the needy. And the only people who seek
it are needy souls. Till you need it, you won't seek
it. Only when you need it will you seek it. God, will you teach
me every hour to need your grace and beg for it. And grace, and
take mercy, find grace to help in time of need. God's grace
is sufficient in health and sufficient in sickness, sufficient in life
and sufficient in death, and we'll find it sufficient in judgment.
God's grace is sufficient to take you and me, we who are his,
and present us faultless. Can you imagine that, Bill? thoughtless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. I keep preaching that and I keep
begging that God will give me some grasp on that. Imagine God's
going to present us thoughtless, holy, unblameable before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Here's the third thing. I'll give you verse nine again.
Our Savior declares not only that his grace is sufficient,
but he declares that his strength is made perfect in weakness. What on earth does that mean?
Obviously, our weakness contributes nothing to the perfection of
Christ's strength. Obviously, that's not the case.
He's God omnipotent, almighty. He has all power, both as God
and as man. The obvious meaning then of this
statement is that the strength of our Lord and our Savior Christ
Jesus appears or is manifestly made perfect through the weakness
of those sinners who are saved by his grace. Paul writes in
another place, when we were yet without strength in due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. God's grace is manifestly perfect
to you when it makes you to know your weakness. It's manifestly sufficient, manifestly
so in your own soul's experience when you're made to know your
weakness. I have no strength to atone for
my sin. but Christ is my atonement. I
had no strength to obey God's law, not in any aspect, not at
any time, not in any degree. Or the letter of the law, men
can perform that before men so that other men look at them and
brag on them, but to do that which is spiritually contained
in the law. When I understood that the law
is spiritual and reaches beyond just the letter. It reaches to
the heart. Then sin revived and I died. I felt myself weak. I kept trying
and trying and trying and trying and trying and trying to make
up with God, to find a way to win God's favor, to somehow get
God to approve of me. I kept trying, and the more I
tried, the worse things were. The more my conscience screamed,
constantly screaming, guilty, guilty, guilty. And when I was
made to see that I cannot do one thing to please God, I found
out that Christ is my righteousness, and he obeyed God's law in my
stead, and his strength was made perfect in my weakness. I had
no strength to give myself life, not in the beginning, and none
to maintain it. The Lord leaves us to ourselves
sufficiently to convince us constantly that
if he were to leave us, there wouldn't be a breath of life
left in our souls. But Christ is my life. I have
no strength to resist temptation. We were talking back in the office
a little while ago about Job. Boy, there's so much contradictory
about Job in there. The book of Job begins with God
describing him as a perfect and an upright man, one that feared
God and eschewed evil, and there was none like him in all the
East. That's a pretty good record. That's a pretty good record.
Then you get to chapter three and Job began to cuss the day
of his birth. Brother Frank Hall asked me,
what's that mean? I said, I don't know, but I've
done it a few times. And I don't mean that lightly.
I don't mean that lightly. God takes His most eminent saints,
I mean those who appear to us to be most eminent, most noble
examples of faith and shows us their blackest, darkest side. And he does it with good reason,
many good reasons to make us know that all men at best are
just men. I haven't had one in a while,
but every few months I'll get a telephone call or an email
or a letter, and some young fellow who had just been baptized yesterday
kind of still got water dripping from his ears. He thinks he knows
everything. He says, you reckon Solomon's
saved? Solomon? Solomon? I reckon so. He wrote most instructive books
of poetry you'll ever find anywhere by divine inspiration. But Solomon's
wives turned his heart and he began to worship idols. You will
too if God lets you. You will too. You see, the Lord
would have us not spend so much time trying to figure out the
state of other men's souls and spend our time Seeking to walk
with Him ourselves by faith. I've got a big job. It's called
me. Me. I have no strength to draw
near to God. None. But Christ is not only
the way to God, He is my strength who puts me in the way. He's
not only my access to the Father, He brings me to the Father. I have no strength to make myself
holy, but God demands holiness and Christ is my holiness. I
have no strength to resist the devil. I've got to do it and
I'm bound to do it. Resist the devil, he'll flee
from you. Christ bound the dragon of hell on my behalf. Read the last sentence of this
ninth verse one more time. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. It's only when we're brought
to acknowledge our weakness, our infirmity, our frailty, our
nothingness, our insufficiency, that the power of Christ and
his all-sufficient grace rest upon us. The moment we begin to think
we're strong, ah, I'm growing now. The moment
we begin to flex our muscles and think, this I can do, here
I can handle things myself. We're in a heap of trouble spiritually. I want to deal fourthly with
Paul's statement in verse 10. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. In Joel chapter three, The prophet
says, let the weak say, I am strong. That's what Paul does
here. When I'm weak, then am I strong? He that is weak and sees himself
weak is strong in Christ. And he has the blessed experience
of grace and strength renewed day by day. Now, clearly. There are some things to which
this statement does not apply. I often hear folks seek to excuse
their ungodly behavior, seek to excuse their willful disobedience
by saying, well, I'm weak, you know, I'm just flesh. But when
I'm weak, then am I strong? Weakness in the doctrine of Christ
will never make me strong. It is by the study of the Word
of God, by the preaching of the Word and the knowledge of the
Word, understanding in the Word, that we grow in grace and in
faith and in the knowledge of our Redeemer. Weakness in prayer
and devotion won't make me strong. I say with Samuel of old, God
forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for
you, for his church. for his kingdom, for the knowledge
of his will, for grace to walk in this world for his glory. If that's not my heart's desire,
then I am but a deceiver. I want his glory. I want to live
for his glory and I want you to Weakness in any known duty
will never make you strong. I hope I live by higher motives
than duty. I hope I live with motives of
love and faith and gratitude and seek to serve my God on that
basis. But any neglect of that which
I know I ought to do will never make me strong, but only weak.
Weakness in character, conduct, and attitude won't make you strong.
We may very properly conclude from our text, when I'm strong,
then I'm weak. Spurgeon, I read a sermon by
him on this years ago, and he said, perhaps I can expand the
text best if I turn it the other way up and use it as a warning
and say, when I'm strong, Then I'm weak. In spiritual things,
when you're strong, you're weak. I was preaching with Brother
Mahan once up north. It was a long time ago, and Brother
Henry had been having some back trouble. He was hurting. A young
fellow came up and sat down beside him, and he said, Brother Mahan,
if you want me to, I'll preach in your place tonight. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. And Henry
looked at him, and he said, thank you, but I believe I can handle
it. I'm ready. Oh, I'm strong. I've stood it.
I've got this thing. I'm ready. You will often ask
me, have you got something for us
tonight? And I almost always say we'll
find out in a few minutes because I'm never ready. I have preachers
ask me frequently, when do you get over being fearful and nervous
and intimidated about preaching? I'm not fearful of you. I'm not
fearful of what you might do or how you might respond or any
other congregation. I'm not fearful of man's frowns
and I'm not courting his favors. But preaching, I know something
of the burden of the word of the Lord. And Merle, I make you
a promise, my brother. I make you a promise before God
and these witnesses. When I get to the place I can
prepare and come to this pulpit comfortably, I'll quit coming.
I'll quit coming. No, don't get over it. No. This is a matter of tremendous
urgency and responsibility. There are a few foolish people
who think that they can actually win God's approval by their works
of righteousness. Now, not many are quite so foolish
as that as to say it, but multitudes, most religious people who would
actually say, oh, no, no, no, I know I could never do good
enough for God to accept me. are even more foolish and presume
that they can will themselves into the kingdom of God. They
can, by the exercise of their will, give themselves life to
God. By the exercise of their wills,
they can make Christ's blood effectual to them. By the exercise
of their wills, make His righteousness their righteousness. No, the
dead are dead. You who are dead in trespasses
and in sins must have something done for you, to you, and in
you, else you will never live before God. Salvation is of the
Lord. Many there are who imagine themselves
wonderfully strong in knowledge. They know so much. start to read the Bible a little
bit, get them a doctrine book and read the doctrine and they
become masters of theology and they're ready to take on anybody. Whenever we feel ourselves superior
to others, whenever we feel ourselves superior to others, but you hear what you say. In
any spiritual matter. In faith. In obedience. In godliness. In commitment. In devotion. In love. In gratitude. Whenever we feel
ourselves. We never say it, Mark. You'd
never say it and I'd never say it, but we often feel it. If
we didn't, we wouldn't look down our noses and set in judgment
over our brother. Whenever we feel ourselves superior
to another in God's kingdom, in any spiritual matter, we have
reason to be terribly suspicious of ourselves. In spiritual matters,
Alan Kidby, beware of self-confidence. Beware of self-confidence. That's difficult for us. We try
to encourage our children as they're growing up to be confident.
Be confident. Be confident in what you do.
Be confident in your ability. Be confident in the way you go
about things. In spiritual matters, self-confidence
is just a pretty word for self-righteousness. Beware of confidence in yourself.
When I'm strong, then am I weak. Now, Paul says, when I'm weak,
then am I strong. Let me wrap this up by making
just a few statements. Before the glorious majesty and
holiness of God, when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Isaiah, we saw
this morning, saw the Lord high and lifted up. And when he saw
him and heard the message, his servants proclaimed, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts. He said, woe is me. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. And the Lord God pardoned his
sin. And he heard the Lord God speak,
says, who, who shall I sin and who will go for us? And Isaiah
said, Lord, If you want such a thing as I am, here I am. Lord,
if you'll use something like me, here I am, send me. When I'm weak before God's holy
law, when I see that God requires what I can't perform, When I
realize that my very best righteous deeds are nothing but filthy
rags before God Almighty, my best righteousnesses stink in
God's nostrils, stink in God's nostrils. Then I'm stalled. For now, I realize that I must
have Christ as the Lord, my righteousness, Christ as my substitute, Christ
as my advocate with the Father. When I'm weak before my trials
and temptations in this world, then I'm strong. Thank God. Oh, thank you, my
God, for teaching me something of my weakness before the world,
the flesh, and the devil. My weakness, I can't withstand
any. The world is too much for me. My flesh, too powerful for me. The devil, indescribably too
great for me, but he's nothing to my God and my Savior. And when I realized that I'm
weak, before those enemies of my soul, then I cast myself on
my Redeemer and I'm strong. When I find that I'm weak before
all my cares in this world. I'm a man just like you. And I have the same cares you
have. And my daughter, my son-in-law, my grandchildren, oh, I have
great concern for them. I'm a father, you know. I'm a
father. And you who, you young fellows
sitting here, you don't have any idea what I'm talking about,
you'd never get over it. No matter how old the kids get,
you're still daddy and you're still concerned and you carry
the burden of the family. I'm a husband. I have the same
concerns my wife, everybody else has for their wife. I'm a pastor. I have concern for this congregation
and reason to have concern for things I've observed. how things
will be for you, for that lady, for those children when I'm gone. How can I prepare and take care
of your needs, their needs? Bob, I can't. I can't. I can't. What I can do is commit
them and you to God Almighty and to the word of His grace.
Now I'm strong. I can face that difficulty. He's
a better father, a better shepherd than I could ever be. When I'm
weak before my responsibilities as God's messenger, God's messenger
to you, then I'm strong. Paul said, we know that we are
a sweet saver of God to them that perish and to them that
are saved. To one, a saver of life and to life. To the other,
a saver of death and to death. And then it says, who's sufficient
for these things? Who's sufficient to stand here
and speak for God, knowing that if God speaks by my voice to
you, His Word, it's going to make an everlasting difference
to you. Who would dare do this? Who's sufficient for that? I
can hear the reverberating sound of every faithful prophet. and
preacher, and apostle, and pastor, and missionary, and teacher who's
ever been called of God in the past and all through the world
today, saying with the Apostle Paul, our sufficiency is of God. How dares a man, a man, stand
here to speak to eternity bound men and women the word of the
living God? I can't, but God can. How can I presume to speak to
your heart? I can't, but God can if he will. When I'm weak in spiritual watchfulness, watchfulness over my own soul,
like those disciples in Gethsemane, I often find myself the spirit
willing but the flesh weak. When I'm weak in watchfulness
over my own soul, then am I strong because I am kept by God my savior
as the apple of his eye. And I would much more, be much
more comfortable always knowing, Bobby, that I'm under his watchful
eye than under my watchful eye. I read something one day this
week, and I just had to call and share it with somebody. I
called Shelby and read it to her. I called Brother Merle.
I said, I've got to give you this. William Tip Taft made this
observation. He said, if Christ is in the
boat, we can smile at the storm. When I'm weak, then I'm strong. I may be weak in death. Soon you will see me as I truly
feel the mist of Jordan in my face, leaving this world, and
you may find me then weak. Don't be surprised. Don't be
surprised. Very well may be. You may find
me full of fear. You may find me trembling. You may find me distraught with
many things. I hope not. I hope that won't
be the case. I hope that when I leave this world, I leave this
world singing God's praise, rejoicing in my Redeemer, confident in
his grace. But James, I've had enough taste
of my flesh to know I just may not. But then when I'm weak,
then shall I be strong and my salvation will no more depend
on me in that day than it does in this day. Christ is my redeemer,
and he will pick up his sheep and bear me on his shoulders
as he always has, safely to the heavenly fold. And you remember,
I was born a sinner, and I have lived a sinner. And I will leave
this world in death, a sinner, a sinner saved by grace. And when I'm weak, then am I
strong. I'm like the Kone. The wise man
said the Kones are but feeble folks. Yet they make their houses
in the rocks. And this feeble folk flees to the rock, Christ Jesus. And I make my house in him. And
in that house, I'm strong. Oh, God make us to know our weakness. make us our God to know our weakness and fill us with the knowledge
of your all-sufficient grace for the glory of your name. Amen.