with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
So it's a very early diagnosis. They don't know how bad it is.
They haven't put it on the scale of what stage it is yet. So they'll know something within
a week. But remember him in your prayers heaven. It's in his stomach
area is where the lymph nodes are swollen. And I've been told
that non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hodgkin's lymphoma are the most
treatable of most cancers. Non-Hodgkins is the worst kind.
But what I understand, it can be treated. So remember them
in your prayers. Also remember Moose and Sandy.
They're home right now. Remember them in your prayers,
too. Other than that, I can't think of any. Stan's got a birthday
today. He's 52 years old. Isn't this great? Is that today? Tomorrow. Tomorrow. That's at 2 o'clock, isn't it?
Two o'clock. Okay. That's Fred's brothers
who passed away. Remember that? Funeral's tomorrow.
Shady Springs? No. What's it? Chris Funeral
Home. Okay. Chris Funeral Home. Okay.
Two o'clock tomorrow. Okay. Let's begin our worship
service tonight with hymn number 354, What a Friend We Have in
Jesus. ? What a friend we have in Jesus
? ? All our sins and griefs to bear ? ? What a privilege to
carry ? ? Everything to God in prayer ? ? Oh, what peace we
often forfeit ? ? Oh, what needless pain we bear ? Oh, because we
do not carry ? Everything to God in prayer ? Have we trials
and temptations ? Is there trouble anywhere ? We should never be discouraged
? Take it to the Lord in prayer ? Can we find a prince so faithful? ? Who will all our sorrows share? ? Jesus knows our every need
? But with a load of care ? Precious
Savior still our refuge ? Take it to the Lord in prayer ? Do
thy friends despise forsake thee ? Take it to the Lord in prayer
? In his arms he'll take and share
thee ? ? Thou shall find a solace there ? Hymn number 226, My Savior. I am not skilled to understand
what God has willed, what God hath planned. I only know at
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take him at his
word indeed. Christ died for sinners, this
I read. For in my heart I find no need
of him to be my Savior. That he should leave his Sinful man to die, you counted
strange, so what's did I before I knew my Savior? ? And oh, that he fulfilled,
may see ? The travail of his soul in me ? And with his word
contented be ? As I with my dear Savior Yea, living, dying, let
me bring my strength, my solace from this spring, that he who
lives to be my king, once died to be my Savior. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to Exodus chapter 3 and read verses 1 through 6. The
title of my message tonight is The God of the Bush. Exodus chapter 3. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock
to the back side of the desert and came to the mountain of God,
even Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in the flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And
he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why this bush is not burnt. And
when the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he
said, here am I. And said, Draw not nigh hither,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of
Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was
afraid to look upon God. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we thank you for mercies that are new every morning. For grace
is sufficient for every need, for saving grace that chose us
and loved us and showered favor upon us that we could never merit
any of it. We thank you for the shed blood
of Jesus Christ, who through his death satisfied your justice
and your law, propitiated you for our sins, We are thankful, Father, that
we can even think such things as poor, wretched sinners, to
know that our Savior was made to be sin for us, and He knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
We cannot begin to comprehend this, but we thank you for faith
to believe it. It's too wondrous for us. We
stand in awe of your greatness and your goodness. your graciousness
and your mercy and your tender heartedness toward us. We thank
you that as our father, you pity us as a father pities his children.
You remember our frame and know that we're dust. Father, help
us to continually realize what you've done for us and seeing
what we are and who you are. Pray for those who are sick,
those who've lost loved ones. Pray for the Cochran family that
lost a dearly. We ask Lord you'd be with them. be with them to
Mars, they commit him to the ground. We ask, Lord, you'd give
them peace in their hearts concerning him and concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. Help us this hour to remember
the others who requested prayer. We ask the Lord's help for them.
Watch over those who are away from us for whatever reason.
Bring them safely home. Now help us, Lord, to worship
you as we consider your word. What a wondrous thing it is that
you have not left yourself without a witness. you've given us in
this grand book everything we need to know concerning thee
everything we need to know concerning salvation everything we need
to know about ourselves we thank you father for such wisdom and
such words in christ's name amen now as we saw last time moses
was the shepherd of his father-in-law, Jethro's flock, and was a picture
of the great shepherd and bishop of our souls, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Moses, we know, would be sent to deliver his people
of Israel from the slavery they suffered in Egypt. And the Lord
would be sent to deliver his elect, the Israel of God, from
the slavery of sin, Satan, and sin. And in this passage, we
are privy to the appearance of the Lord to Moses, and in a wondrous
and strange way. He appears in a bush that is
afire but is not being consumed or burnt up. The title of the
message is The God of the Bush and the reason for that is because
that is how God is referred to several times in Scripture in
reference to this bush. Over in Deuteronomy chapter 33, Moses speaking upon the head,
the blessings being upon the head of Joseph says this in Deuteronomy
33 and verse 16. He says, And for the precious
things of the earth and the fullness thereof, and for the goodwill
of him that dwells in the bush, speaking of this incident right
here, the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush, let the blessing
come upon the head of Joseph and upon the top of the head
of him that was separated from his brethren. In the Gospel according
to Mark, Gospel according to Mark chapter
12. Verse 26 says, As touching the dead that
they rise, have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the
bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? In the early church
in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 7, The early days of preaching the
gospel with the Holy Spirit come down from heaven. We read in
chapter 7 in verse 30, And when forty years were expired, there
appeared to him in the wilderness of the mount an angel of the
Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. Down in verse 35 it says, And
Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a
ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared
to him the bush. So this is this strange and wondrous
thing that happens here on Mount Horeb is spoken of throughout
the scriptures in reference to God in this capacity here as
appearing in a bush that is burning that is not consumed. Now the
Holy Spirit inspired men to refer to God in this manner and it
was after all a profound declaration of the appearance of the Savior
The word for bush in the original is Seneh, S-E-N-E-H in the original
language. And according to some scholars,
it is how Horeb came to be known as Sinai, or the mountain of
the bush, the mountain of the bush. Now, though unique and
astounding, the Lord's appearance was in a lowly manifestation. He did not appear in a mighty
oak or in one of the cedars of Lebanon. He appeared in a bush.
And the word bush here means a thorny bush or a bramble bush. One of the meanings of the word
is blackberry bush. And you know how thorny they
can be. They're right back here on this hill. And when I get
my mower out and mow down that trough back there, sometimes
they'll latch on to me and tear the flesh. It's a thorny bush.
That's how our Lord appeared, in a lowly manner. Not in a great
big sky burst of stars. Not as He did in a baca coming
down from the south flames coming out of his hands, you know, to
the Lord of Hosts, but in a bush, in a lowly bush, and one of the
meanings, like I said, is a blackberry bush. The Lord appeared, and
though He had appeared many times to Abraham and to Jacob and Elijah
and Isaiah and to just to name a few, this was a unique appearance
that still excites the minds of the believer. The believer
is described as one who loves the appearance and the appearing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We love Him as He appeared, the
Word made flesh in the Incarnation. We love His appearing on the
cross where He was crucified. We love Him appearing outside
His grave as He resurrected. We love His appearing as He ascended
to the right hand of God having finished the work of salvation.
and we love and look forward to his last appearing when he
appears again when he returns to this earth. So this is one
of the Lord's appearance, revelation if you will. Christ is first
described as the angel of the Lord, that is how he is described.
And the angel of the Lord in verse 2 appeared unto him in
a flame of fire and out of the midst of the bush and he looked
and behold the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. Now this does not speak of a
created being or a created angelic being, but this speaks of the
angel as it is used in Scripture in reference to the angel of
the covenant, the angel of God's presence, the messenger of God.
That is what the word angel means, a messenger. And he is also the
message of God. We know that from Hebrews chapter
1 in the beginning. It says that the Lord in times
past spoke to the fathers by the prophets, had in these days
spoken to us by his son or in his son. So the son is the messenger
the messenger of God and he's the one who is the message of
God it was he who said in John 17 I come to declare the father
I come to declare the father and in doing that he was declaring
himself to be the son God is first described here as Lord
as Lord it says in It says the Angel of the Lord.
Notice it all in capital letters there. This is a unique description
we found early on in Genesis when God spoke to men. He spoke
to them as L-O-R-D capitalized and that means He's Jehovah Savior. Jehovah Savior. When you see
the word Lord capitalized in Scripture, that's Jehovah the
Savior. Sometimes it is capital and then ORD in lower letters
and that is usually Adonai which means LORD. But when you see
it this way, in the LORD, the angel of the LORD, the messenger
of the LORD. So the LORD called to him repeating
his name. He said, Moses, Moses. Six other
people in Scripture are called that way, only six. And in each
of the six who are called that way, whether it be Simon Peter,
Simon, Simon, or Hannah, Hannah, uh... the others that spoke to
it in that particular way it always speaks of an affectionate
affinity and familiarity with the person being spoken to our Lord often spoke to men but
didn't often repeat their name twice but the six or seven that
he did always speak of a familiarity remember what he said of Moses
in this very book Moses is one who is who is known and speaks
to the Lord face to face as to a friend as to a friend. So Moses has been known and chosen
of the Lord since the foundation of the world. Moses doesn't know
that. He knows he's part of an elect
nation. But Moses is about to come face to face with the one
who knows him and has known him and has foreknown him since before
the foundation of the world. And Moses' response is the same
of every one of his elect that you find in scripture when the
Lord calls them, whether he calls them twice by their name or whether
he calls them once, they say, Here am I. When the Lord called
Isaiah and said, Whom shall I send? He said, Here I am, send me.
Here I am, send me. The Lord declares that the Savior's
people will be willing in the day of His power. That's the
promise given to the Lord in Psalm 110 when David heard the
Lord speaking to His Lord, promising Him the heathen, promising
Him success, and He said His people will be willing in the
day of His power. Somebody says, I believe in whosoever
will. I do too, and not only that, I know who they are. I
know who they are. They are those whom God has made
willing in the day of His power. They are His people. I know who
is willing to come to Christ. Those who are taught of the Father.
They are the ones willing to come to Christ. I know who is
willing to come to Christ. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Those are the ones who are willing in the day of
God's power. Not in the power of their own
will, but in God's power. verse five the Lord gives Moses
some divine instruction he says this and he said draw not nigh
hither put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place whereon
thou standest is holy ground is holy ground he tells him to
remove his shoes from his feet because the ground he stands
on is holy ground and the casting off of shoes is common in eastern
worship even to this day and it's about worship It's about
taking off your shoes and standing on the ground, the dirt where
you're from, and worshipping God. It was practiced by the
priests in the temple. When the priests exercised their
daily work in the temple, and according to the course that
they followed, they always took off their shoes before they went
in the temple. They worshipped God barefooted. And even today,
when the priests or when the Jews go into the temple or into
the synagogues for the Day of Atonement, they take off their
shoes. They take off their shoes and
go barefoot into the temple. Why? Because it has become a
tradition of worship. Now, this tradition is not only
practiced among the Jews, it is also practiced among the Hindus.
The Hindus, when they go into their places of worship, take
off their shoes, and so do the Muslims. They all take off their
shoes. Now, the Muslims and the Jews
come from the same place. They come from Abraham. Abraham
was the father of both of those tribes. He was the father of
Isaac, which later became the Jews. He was the father of Esau,
which later became the Muslims. Muslim or the Arabic tribes so
the ground itself was not intrinsically holy nothing in itself save for
God is intrinsically holy it is holy because God was there
because God was there. I'm hearing a lot of preachers
saying today tell me and I've talked to they say well you know
people since the COVID they're not coming back to church Lot
of people aren't coming back to church. I thought about that.
We talked about this the other day. How they're struggling with
that. I know this about the people
of God. They love to worship God. And if they don't show up,
it's because they don't like to worship God. And if you don't
like to worship God here, you don't need to go to heaven because
that's all that's going to be going on there. It's going to be worship
24 hours a day. If there was such a thing a day,
there's not going to be time. There'd be daytime all the time,
but it'd be worship forever and ever and ever. That's what we're
going to do. Worthy is the Lamb is going to be our song. All
will bow down before the throne and worship Him. If you don't
want to worship here, don't bother wanting to go to heaven because
you ain't going to like it there. You're going to hate that place
because it's a continual. But this is essentially a thing
of worship. And God says this ground is holy
ground. Now it's not intrinsically holy. It's holy for one reason.
The same reason heaven is heaven. Heaven is heaven because Jesus
Christ is there. That's why it's heaven. That's
what makes heaven heaven. It's not because it has grassy
fields and watermelons the size of Volkswagen's or trouts the
size of a Moby Dick. That's not what makes heaven
heaven. What makes heaven heaven is not a little cabin in the
corner of glory. What makes heaven heaven is that Christ is there.
And what makes a thing holy is that God is present or that He
declares a thing to be holy. And holiness is God's essential
characteristic. You can apply it to everything
other attribute of God. And people say God is love. Well,
He is in the context in which it is written. That is if you
love your brethren. If you do not love your brethren,
you do not know God because God is love. So if you love God or
if you know you love your brethren, it is because God's love is in
you. And that is how God is loved. But you cannot add love to His
wrath. You cannot say God is loving
vengeance. or God's loving hatred for sin,
or God's loving wrath. You can't use that, make love
an adjective in that sense, but you can holy. You can even call
God's love holy, because it's a holy love. You can call His
wrath holy, you can call His vengeance holy. Holiness belongs
to God. And that's why He says to you,
be ye holy, because that's what I am. because I am holy. It is holy because God is there.
Now religious people speak about the land of Israel as the Holy
Land. I remember my mom and dad back in years ago before they
heard the gospel, the true gospel, they went over to Israel. They
had a trip to the Holy Land. They went over there and I think
Dusty Rhodes took them and they went and saw all the things that
are big time tourist attractions over there and they went to see
the Holy Land. They call that the Holy Land. It is not the
Holy Land. It is not the Holy Land. The Holy Land is where
Christ is. That's what makes it holy. The
Church is the Holy Land that we live in. It is where Christ
is. Christ is said to be in the midst
of His Church. Over in Zephaniah, the promise of His coming says
this, Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and
rejoice with all thy heart, O daughters of Jerusalem! The Lord hath taken
away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy, the King of
Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee, and thou shalt
not see evil any more." How can you not see evil anymore if everything
is holy? In that day it is said to Jerusalem,
Fear not, and to Zion, Let not thy hands be slack. The Lord
thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save, He will
rejoice over thee with joy, He will rest in His love, He will
joy over thee with singing. That is Zephaniah chapter 3 and
verses 14 through 17. the Lord said where two or three
are gathered in my name, I'll be in the midst of them. That
makes that place the Holy Land. The Holy Land is Emmanuel's land
where the Word made flesh dwells among his people, among his beloved. Take off your shoes because you're
in the presence of God. Take off your shoes because that's
what he meant. On this holy ground the Lord
identifies himself. He says this in verse six, Moreover
I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
the God of Jacob. That is quite a list of folks
he got there. He says that he is the God of thy father and
proceeds to name three of Moses' fathers, and these are patriarchs
of old. He is the God of Abraham. Who
is Abraham? Well, he is the father of the faithful. We know that.
And he is the father of the seed. Remember the promise that God
made to him in Genesis chapter 15 on the
mountaintop when he said, look at the stars and tell me how
many there are. He said, I can't do that. He said, so shall thy
seed be. So shall thy seed be. And Abraham
believed God concerning the seed. And God accounted it to him for
righteousness it says. Well, what was that seed? That
seed is two things. First of all, look at Galatians
chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3 talks about
that incident on top of the mountain where He said, That so shall
thy seed be. It says in chapter 3 and verse
16, It says, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. To Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. Now look at the next phrase.
He saith not to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy
seed which is Christ. That is the first meaning of
that. Then he goes on to say something else over in verse
29 and says if you be Christ then you are Abraham's seed.
and heirs according to the promise that God made to Abraham. You
are Abraham's seed. So he is the God of Abraham. Then he says I am also the God
of Isaac. Also the God of Isaac. Now we
know in Romans Chapter 9 Paul when he talks says all that is
of Israel is not Israel. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now he's talking about believers.
He's talking about the elect of God. That's the seed of God.
He's the God of Isaac in whom the seed is called. And Isaac
is the picture of one born in a particular way. Isaac was not
born of the power of the flesh because his mother and daddy
were unable to produce children at the time he was born. Naturally,
their bodies, according to Romans chapter 4, were not capable of
producing seed. They were too old. Their bodies
passed that, it says in Romans chapter 4. Now, Abraham had sired
a son already with Hagar, the handmaid. And he had sired her
with the power of his own flesh. The power of his own flesh. And
he raised that kid for 14 years. And then God said, I'm going
to give you a son. He said, I already got a son. Let it be Ishmael. He'll
do fine. He's my boy. You know, he had
him for 14 years. He loved that kid. Took him fishing
probably. Taught him how to shoot a bow.
Maybe he taught him how to use a sling. Maybe taught him how
to herd sheep. He loved that boy. He said, let
it be Ishmael. He asked the Lord that. Now God says, no. That boy was born of your power,
your flesh, and Hagar's flesh. He said, I'm going to give you
a son. When he said that, Sarah heard
him and she laughed. She said, I'm too old to have
a baby. She was well past 100 years old
at this time. I'm too old to have a baby. And
God said, why are you laughing about? I said you're going to
have a son. You're going to have a son. And
she's found pregnant with a kid named Isaac. And Isaac's not
born by Abraham and Sarah's power. He's born by the power of the
Spirit of God. born by the power of the Spirit
of God. So he's a picture of one who's born of the Spirit
as opposed to one who's born of the flesh. And all that great
episode Paul also refers to in the book of Galatians in chapter 4 as a historic fact
that was actually an allegory or a story to tell another story,
a story that tells us something else. That is how he refers to
it in Galatians chapter 4. It says in verse 22, For it is
written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman,
or a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. The bondmaid was Hagar,
the free woman was Sarah. Now he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, that is to say by the pie of the flesh.
But he of the free woman was born in another way. He was born
because God promised he was going to be born. God never breaks
His promise. He always keeps His promise.
But He says which things, these things, are an allegory for these
are the two covenants. Ishmael and Isaac are the two
covenants. Hagar and Sarah are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai which
gendereth to bondage, that's Hagar. That covenant will bring
you into bondage. That's the law. and this Hagar
in Mount Sinai in Arabia and answers to Jerusalem which now
is and is in bondage with her children. Israel is in bondage
to Hagar even now. But Jerusalem which is above,
the city of peace which is above the heavenly Jerusalem which
is the church above is free and she's the mother of us all. Of
who? Believers, those born not of
the flesh but of the Spirit. For it is written, Rejoice thou
barren that bearest not, break forth and cry thou that travailest
not. For the desolate hath more children than she which hath
a husband. Now she didn't bear the children because she was
barren. She didn't travail because she didn't have birth pains.
She's not giving pains. But being without the ability
to do any of those things, she produces children. And a multitude
of them. How does that work? By the Spirit
of God. The church in itself has no power. The only authority it's given
is over the preaching of the gospel. But it has no ability. You don't have ability to produce
children. We can't make God's children
happen. Now we may invent plans like
religion does, walking down an aisle or signing up for this
card or doing this or that and make people feel like they're
children, but we can't produce children. Why? Because we're
barren. and we don't travail. How are people born? By the Spirit,
through the Word. That's how it happens. An incorruptible
seed, even the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. So
she's just as barren as Jerusalem above. She rejoices. She rejoices. Now we brethren, in verse 28,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. We are born like
Isaac was born, by the Spirit of promise, by the promise set
forth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, He is the God of
Abraham, He is the God of Isaac, and He is the God of Jacob. And
that always means, first of all, He is the Savior of sinners.
He is the God of saved sinners, the God of the descendants who
now cry in despair, under Egyptian slavery. That is the God of Jacob.
Those who are in Egypt now came from the sons of Jacob when Joseph
went and prepared Egypt for them and their sons came and they
went to the land of Goseph. All of those are descendants
of Jacob. He said, I am the God of Jacob. I am the God of this
people that is now in slavery in Egypt. That is what he is
talking about. And as Moses said he hid his
face for no man can see God's face and live. But he saw God's
face because he spoke to him face to face. Here is the God
of the bush. The God of the bush that is on
fire but is not consumed. What is the significance of the
God of the burning bush that is not consumed? Three things. First of all, among the Jews
and among Jewish writers, the bush signifies Israel. They say
it signifies Israel. And the fire is the enemies of
Israel. They hold that though the enemy
endeavors to destroy them, they will not be destroyed because
God will deliver them. That is how they interpret the
meaning of the bush burning but not being consumed. But this
also may be applied to the church. to the church. The church is
the bush and the tribulations and trials that attend her is
the fire. She will suffer persecutions
and hatred of the world and its religion, but by the grace of
God she will overcome. Of all that God has given Christ,
he will lose nothing but raise it up in the last day, saying,
Behold, I am the children that God has given me. He is not ashamed
to call them brethren. But the strongest application
of this bush that is burning but not consumed is the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is said in Scripture in Deuteronomy
chapter 4 verse 24, He said to be a consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire. And in the three hours of darkness
on the cross when our Lord was made to be sin, when He made
His soul an offering for sin, God poured out His wrath on His
beloved Son. Now, we don't know what God's
wrath is like. We might be able to try to imagine
it, but we really don't know. Because all we know of Him, He's
a just God and a Savior. We know when His wrath is poured
out just a little, a lot of people perish when His wrath is poured
out just a little. He opened up the earth, 3,000
are swallowed. He sent the whole army of Egypt
down to the bottom of the Red Sea. But we've never seen his
wrath. You know why? Because when the
Lord drew out that sword of wrath against his fellow, he cut off
the lights. Well might the sun in darkness
hide, and shut his glories in, when Christ the mighty maker
died, for man the creatures see. He cut off the lights, and at
three hours of darkness, we don't know what happened, but we know
our sins were laid upon Jesus Christ, and God poured out His
stripes against our transgressions and He didn't stop. He poured
Himself out in wrath and vengeance against our sin as they were
met upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ drank that cup, Scripture
says, of God's vengeance and fiery wrath. He drank it dry. He drank that cup dry How dry
to drink it? To the point that God says He
remembers the sins of His people no more. But in those darknesses when
it happens, we don't know anything about God's wrath. Only Christ
knows that. The one who is God's fellow. Awake, O sword, and plunge
into the heart of my fellow. Christ is the bush. God's wrath is the fire. But
Christ is not consumed. He is not consumed. He bore our
sins in His body on the tree and He came out of that darkness
alive. For He cried, Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabachthani. Then said, He had a while to
live so He could die. He lived for a while longer so
He could die to pay the sin debt owed by us. And he paid it how? We owed God a death. And he died
in our room and our stead. He went to the grave, but he
was not consumed. He rose victorious through the
strife for those who came to save. Behold, the bush burned
with fire, and the bush was not consumed. That's what it means. That's the glory. The God of
the bush. Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's
name. Amen.