Yeah, it’s a surprise for you as it was for me. And I hope you understand what I’m about to say. It’s from the heart. The Lord prepared me for today before I knew that I needed to. I preach today, what you’re gonna hear is a hugely expanded form of my Wednesday Journal entry . And the Lord prepared me couple days before I needed it.

So it’s really cool. I’m very grateful to the Lord, and I am just, I believe in God’s sovereignty. His providence, his good and purposeful plan. So I believe that what we are going to hear today is what God wanted us to hear today. I firmly believe that. So I’m very grateful to stand here with you. The Lord’s been good in the preparation.

And we’ll just see what he has in store for us. So we’re not in the last book of the Bible. Today we’re way at the front in what theologians called the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. That’s where we’re going to be this morning. And I would like to pray as well. I, when I read my Bible in the morning, I have a certain rhythm and prayer that I say.

And I’m just going to pray that for us all right now. Lord, this is your revelation to me, to us today. Thank you for giving it to me, to us. Here we see your face. We hear your voice. Your word refreshes the soul, makes the wise, makes the simple wise. It gives joy to the heart and light to the eyes. It endures forever.

Everything here is righteous. And so we place ourselves under your word, not over it. It’s to judge us and not for us to judge it. Lord, I pray that each one of us will hear your voice in some way today. I pray these things in your name for your glory and for the sake of the gospel. Amen.

Wednesday night was our Ash Wednesday service, and Aaron and the worship team led us beautifully, highlighting two, and I don’t know what you called it Aaron, two threads or two themes. The first emphasis was on who God is, how great He is, and I think one of the songs we just sang, we sang Wednesday night, seemed familiar to me.

And then the second part of the evening was we’re not God. We’re frail, feeble, weak, broken people.

And we have to admit as well that we are mortals. I don’t know how far the word has gotten to you, but since Wednesday, one of our own people is with the Lord. Kelly rail went to be with Jesus on Friday. And I think I saw Kevin somewhere here. Not sure where he went, but very moving to us to talk about mortality on Wednesday, and then for us to experience it after Carol’s home going just a couple weeks ago to experience Kelly’s.

Now I’m on Facebook every once in a while. Her picture has been there, and she just has a huge smile, and that’s what she was known for. She was known for serving behind the scenes. And in God’s good and purposeful plan he had Aaron choose because he lives as a song for today. And my prayer for you, Kevin, if you’re here, is that because the Lord lives you can face tomorrow and each day on this journey of grieving.

We grieve with you. So Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, that’s what it’s here for, to help us reflect on these kinds of things. And to prepare us, as Alex says every year at the beginning of Lent, to prepare us for the Easter message.

I maybe like many of you are reading through the Bible this year. Maybe some of you are using the chronological plan that’s online. I’m here at the, on the church’s app. I’m using that plan. I love using that chronological reading plan. And those of us who are using that plan we’ve read Leviticus just recently, and we’re almost done with the book of Numbers.

I think it’s Tuesday we’ll be done. And what I’m intending to do today, Is to give us a glimpse into God’s grand narrative for planet Earth and for all earth dwellers of all time. And then to show some obstacles and challenges that any bestseller author would include in a thriller. Of course, this one isn’t made up.

This is a true story. And I plan to use those obstacles and challenges as preparation or connect them to the Lenten season that we just entered. The readers of the first four books of the Bible plus Job, we’ve already read Job on this reading plan because Job probably was earlier than Abraham, so you read Genesis 1 to 11, then Job, and then Genesis 12 and on.

So that’s what we’ve read up to now. We have been on a real roller coaster here in the plot, in the storyline of scripture. The whole story with Joseph, for example, the exodus, on and on. But a real highlight has been, one of the first highlights was in Genesis chapter 12. And it’s on, it’ll be on the screen shortly.

And what I want to do today is for you to picture this stage as a timeline, a biblical timeline. And Abraham is here, Genesis 12. And we’re going to work our way across over to the book of Revelation, which is on this side over here. So I’ll be moving around a little bit. They have a new piece of equipment that follows the speaker.

So this is going to be cool that I will always be in the screen for those that are at home. But Genesis 12 1 to 3 is really the beginning of God explaining to all readers of this book what his grand plan for this planet has always been.

It was hinted at in chapter 3 verse 15, but now in 12, he lays it out for all time, what he wants to do here on earth. The Lord had said to Abram, Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. And bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.

And all peoples on earth will be blessed. Through you. This is the overall arc of scripture. That’s the storyline of scripture. God wants Abraham’s descendants to bless all peoples forever of all time. That’s the big picture. And this happened around 2000 BC. That’s when God Talk to Abraham in chapter 15 real briefly.

We won’t have it on the screen But he repeats that promise and that prediction to Abraham. I’m going to bless all peoples I’m going to give you a land and your descendants though will be 400 years Captives in Egypt not all of 400 are their slaves, but most of them are but one day When the sin of the people who live right where we are right now, God is telling Abraham, when their barrel is full of sin, your descendants are going to come right here and live, and I will dwell among them.

That’s the Abrahamic covenant. that God made with Abraham.

And what I want to explain to you today is some basic principles based on this general idea. And the first one that I’m going to explain a little bit as we go along is that God is weaving our story into his story. The 30, 000 foot view of the biblical storyline is that God is weaving our story Into his story.

The ground level view is that God is with us. He’s comforting us. He’s helping us. He’s with us. We can count on him walking with us through life. But the 30, 000 foot view is we get to walk with him in his way with his heart. He’s here to guide us. Comfort us, admonish us. But the huge gift of grace is not only that we can count on him in our everyday lives, but that we get to go through our everyday lives with him, knowing that he’s doing something bigger than aiding us, comforting us.

He is including us in what he’s doing in the world. We get to walk with him in his way, with his heart. So all that happened around 2000 BC. Now I’m in the middle of the stage, and this is around a thousand B. C. This is the next sort of waypoint on the journey through Scripture, on this big arc of Scripture, this big storyline.

This is where the Psalms are about. David lived around a thousand B. C. All these dates that I say today are just Approximate dates that we won’t go into the finer details, but he lived around a thousand and so maybe God thought, I said back here what I’m doing in the world. I want your Abraham’s.

Descendants to bless all peoples, all nations. And a thousand years later, God says, Maybe I need to repeat that to make sure that everyone knows I’m still doing this. And he does that in Psalm 67. Verses one to five.

So what’s so interesting with this is how the psalmist, it doesn’t say that it’s David, but I’m just talking as if it is David. One of the psalmists, but let’s say David. David starts off quoting numbers. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us. This is a prayer that we recognize.

Lord bless us. I need your blessing today. Please Lord walk with me today. Please. Lord, hear my prayers, bless us, bless me today. But here’s a totally different mindset. Why, Lord, should you bless us? So that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, God. May all the peoples praise you.

May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, God. May all the peoples praise you. Guess what it’s about? The peoples praising the Lord.

Bless us so that other people see you working among us here in Israel, the psalmist says. So that your praise increases. This is all just really cool to read. And then, the third significant revelation of God’s grand narrative happens about a thousand years later, when we come to the time of Christ, around 30 A.

D., let’s just say. Christ, just before he left this earth to go to heaven, said the following in Matthew 28, 19 to 20. Therefore, go and make disciples of all, what? Nations. Do you catch a theme here? Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them, the nations, the peoples, to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. That was around 3 A. D. 30 AD. And that’s called the Great Commission, if you don’t know that term that sort of insiders use for Matthew 28. It’s a huge confirmation that this, that God’s grand narrative that started in 2000 BC at the latest, is still carrying on past David all the way to the time of Christ.

And of course, we know that’s why he came. is to bring life to mankind.

I can’t help but draw a conclusion here at this point. Namely, the closer our heart gets aligned with God’s heart that we’ve seen here and now over here, the more global it will become. Because God’s heart is for the nations. So the more our hearts get aligned with his heart, the more global we will think, pray, give, etc.

There are two more passages that I want to highlight. I’d be almost off the stage here. If this is 30 A. D., this is 90 A. D. And this is where John The Apostle John or John the Evangelist wrote the book of Revelation. Alex is going to have a mini series on Revelation starting next week, we assume. But there are two more passages here that I want to highlight.

So this is now 2, 000 years after Abraham when John is writing the book of Revelation.

4, 000 years and 3, 000 after, after David. So Revelation 10, and they sang a new song saying, You are worthy just to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain. And with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God.

And they will reign on earth. And then Revelation 7 verse 9 and this, after this I looked And there before me was a great multitude That no one could count From every nation, tribe, people, and language Standing before the throne, before the Lamb They were wearing white robes And were holding palm branches in their hands So what God started Here is going to Actually happen People from every nation And tribe and language group We’ll be represented there, worshiping the Lord, singing these kinds of songs.

Maybe the hymn of heaven from Phil Wickham too. Who knows? Because he lives, we can face all these things. Because this is all happening, God is doing this. So if you hear nothing else today, then I want you to hear what God starts, he finishes. What he promises, he fulfills.

But oh, what a journey. What a journey God is on with Abraham’s descendants. What trials and tribulations he has with Abraham’s children, through whom he was planning to work this all out. Let me give you just a sampling, this morning, of some of the obstacles and challenges God faced in carrying out this grand and marvelous story.

This story of this Grace that he wants to bestow on mankind. I’m going to move over to around 1400 B. C. So, this is not quite David yet, not quite the Psalms. The descendants of Abraham have been in Egypt 400 years. Most of the time they were slaves there, and then I just want to start reading some or describing some passages for you, like Exodus 6, 6 to 8 and verse 9.

God promises Israel. Abraham’s children deliverance from Egypt. And verse 9 says, but the people wouldn’t have anything to do with it. They couldn’t hear that. They were so burdened that they couldn’t hear the message of deliverance. They were suffering so much. Exodus 14. Here, they’re out of Egypt, and they’re blocked by the Red Sea.

The Red Sea is right behind them, and Egyptian armies coming at them. And they’re terrified. They are absolutely terrified. But Moses promises God’s deliverance for them. I would have been terrified, too. Exodus 15. They’re on the other side. Miriam has a praise hymn and Moses has a hymn of praise. First 18 verses, they’re praising God for the miracle of walking through the Red Sea.

And then they go out three days into the desert and there’s no water. They’ve had a magnificent worship service. And then three days with no water. That’s really hard. And all that glory and praise is forgotten. They start grumbling. But God provided water. And it says there, they even camped by the water.

I just love that phrase there. God was so gracious, he let them camp by water. He’s saying I got this. I got this. Chapter 16 of Exodus, the people grumbled, but God provided manna and quail. Exodus 17, the people quarreled and grumbled, but God provided water. Exodus 17 and 9 and 14, the Amalekites attacked them.

This is their first encounter with a foreign army, but God gave the victory. The event was to be written down so that they wouldn’t forget. What God did. This is the story where Abraham Moses is holding his hands up and Aaron and her are holding his hands up for him. And down below Joshua is fighting and defeating the Malachites.

Wonderful story. And then I just have to read to you Exodus 19. This seems so significant to me. This is before the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Four to six. So before they get the commandments, but they’re at them at Mount Sinai God says to Israel, You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my commandment, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.

Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. So Israel is going to have their own priests, but the whole people group, the whole nation of Israel, they are to be priests for all the other nations. They will be the conduit, the mediators from God to the nations and from the nations to God.

So they are all priests in their world. Just Peter preaches, teaches in one of his letters that we are a royal priesthood, mediators for other people. But this is their amazing and wonderful role that they are to have in the land that God’s going to plant them. They are the priests for all the other nations.

How will they do with that? They promised obedience. And then in Exodus 23 that the takeover would come in stages. He promised you’re not going to defeat everyone in one swoosh. It’ll be come in waves that you can handle as you move forward. But when you get there, make no compromises with the gods there.

No idolatry when you get into the land. Then in 24, there’s a book of the covenant is read and they promised obedience. And then Exodus 25, God intends to dwell with his people. God intends to be their God in Exodus 29. And things are really moving well here. Moses is up on the mountain, he’s hearing from God.

And then Exodus 32 comes.

There are chapters, and there are a couple more I’m going to describe today. It’s going to sound funny. I start reading it hoping it ends differently. Isn’t that crazy? I just don’t want this to happen. What we’re going to read here? Moses is too long up on the mountain. Where is he? He’s left us. What should we do?

Let’s make an idol. The golden calf. And Aaron says to the people, This is what brought you out of Egypt.

I have goosebumps reading that, saying that. Unbelievable. All these things that they’ve experienced with him, with the Lord, and the people make an idol and say, that’s what brought us out of Egypt. God says, my people are stiff necked. Really? You think so? Wow. But there’s a phrase that I’ve went over quickly that I just want to read in one sentence.

One of these places, Leviticus 22, 31 to 33. I just love what God says here. Keep my commandments and follow me. I am the Lord. Do not profane my holy name for I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the Lord who made you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. This is something I want to be for you guys.

I want to be your God. I am the Lord.

Numbers 11, The people complained about their hardships. God says, You need to watch that. He sends fire around the outskirts of the camp, saying, Hello, I’m here. Be aware of that. I hear what you’re saying.

More complaints come. And then he sends out the 12 spies into the land. They’ve come, they’re at the doorstep of the promised land. It’s going to happen. All the 12 spies see the same thing. This is a land rich, it’s flowing with milk and honey. You should see the grapes. And two of them say, We can do this.

After all we’ve experienced with God, we can do this. Those two were Caleb and Joshua. And ten of them said, we can’t do this. They’re giants. Who are we to fight them?

It’s one of the chapters I hate reading, and God says afterwards, Okay. Only those over under 20 can go into the land. Everyone older will die in the desert. And that’s actually what they prayed for. They blamed Moses. Did we have nothing else to do but come out here and die in the wilderness? We should have died before we even got here.

And God said, Oh, okay, we’ll take care of that. And so all of them died in the desert who were older than 20. We need to be careful what we ask for.

And then this is just amazing. This is our God.

At the end of Chapter 14, the people say, Oh, we actually sinned and we recognize that now. So we’ll attack now. Without God’s blessing, without any instruction and they lose, and people die. That’s the end of Numbers 14. And then Numbers 15 begins, The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the Israelites and say to them, After you enter the land, after all of this, God’s still carrying on with his plan.

That he started back here in 2000 BC. Next man up, next generation. I’m committed to my people. I have a covenant with my people. Now the actors will change. The older generation won’t make it. But next man up, the next generation, I’m faithful to them. They’re gonna go into the land, just as I promised Abraham.

I just love that God is committed to his covenant. He’s faithful. He’s going to redeem the situation and the next generation is going to go into the land.

And then another chapter, I just, it’s so sad, heartbreaking to read. The people are complaining again. That’s what we do. No water, understandable, and Moses takes his staff. God tells him, go talk to the rock and water will come out of it. But he’s he has so much pent up anger apparently, he just wails on the rock with the staff.

And God said, you didn’t make me look holy before my people. You also are not going into the land. Moses can’t go into the land either. There’s a higher standard for leaders, and he blew it in front of the people. Just breaks my heart. Numbers 21. The people have to make a huge detour. I think it’s the Edomites that said, No, you can’t.

You can’t go through our property. We’re not going to drink anything. We’re not going to get hard. No, you can’t go. So it’s like they’ve spent 40 years down in, in the Texas panhandle and the Oklahoma panhandle, the Northern New Mexico, and they’ve been marching North and they’ve made it to Colorado Springs and El Paso County and Douglas County says, no you can’t go.

Denver’s Zion, right? And that’s the goal and they can’t do that. So now they have to go back to Pueblo, over to Lamar, up through Kansas, and pass DIA to get to Denver. I would lose it too. But this is what God’s people did. They grumbled and complained a lot.

The end of Numbers 21 and 31. 2131. The takeover there begins. It actually is happening. They landed in the land of the Amorites and settled there, started settling there. And then I have to read here some, or maybe I have them up here, I think. Have you heard of Balaam? This man named Balaam?

There was a king named Balak. I don’t know how we say it in English. Balak. He was the king of the Moabites and Balaam is this weird character, a sorcerer, guru diviner person. And if you paid him money, he would curse people for you. And apparently he had that kind of power. And Balak Wants to pay Balaam to curse Israel.

He’s heard what God has done through Israel, and he’s afraid. Balaam, I need you to curse God’s people. And that’s what’s happening in 22, 23, and so forth. So 23, verse 9. This is what Balaam says then to Balak when he, when the curse is, he says, I can’t curse. Israel, God is blessing them. It doesn’t, curses don’t work here.

And this is his description of Israel. Tubalic, the king of the Moabites. 23. 9. From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations. I’m not sure exactly how he got that message. It’s true. I don’t know how different they lived, actually, given what we just said.

Idols, idol worship. But that’s, but the statement is true, actually. And then in 2321, no misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. We’ve seen, we’re reading the inside account. He’s an outsider looking in, maybe. He doesn’t see any problems happening in Israel. This is his testimony.

But why? The Lord their God is with them. The shout of the king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt. They have the strength of a wild ox. Not spiritually. It’s more backbone of paper mache. They’ve, this former slave people they’ve actually had some victories, military victories.

They’re as strong as a wild ox. In 2323, there’s no divination against Jacob, no evil omens against Israel, nothing works of My bag, you know my bag of tricks. It will now be said of Jacob and of Israel See what God has done. Yes Exactly. It was God that made the difference in Israel being able to do all of this Then he spoke this his message in 24 23 alas who can live when God does this stuff.

Stuff wasn’t there, but I added that. So from an outsider’s point of view, this is the impression that Israel has given, but it is purely a testament to God’s faithfulness, grace, mercy, and power, than it is a statement about Israel’s strength, both militarily and spiritually. And then, Numbers 25 comes.

And this chapter has just zapped me. I was reading this on Wednesday. Israel doesn’t even know that God has prevented them from being cursed. This all happened in the background. We know about it. They didn’t. God has been so faithful, full of grace. It’s God who brought them out of Egypt.

And then we read, when Israel was staying in Shittim, The men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the ball of Peor, and the Lord’s anger burned against them.

Doing all kinds of sexual acts as a religious ceremony. Sacrificing animals to the regional god of nature.

Are you stunned? Are you shocked like I am? How could they do that?

How could they be so unfaithful to their god? This is spiritual adultery, is what the Bible calls this. Israel yoked themselves, that means they paired themselves to the worship patterns of the Moabites. Unbelievable.

After all they experienced, the rescue out of Egypt, the blood over the door posts the Red Sea, water in the desert. Manna, quail, 40 years of one thing to eat would get tiresome, understandable. But daily, this is food service delivery, right? To your door, everyday, you just have to go out and pick it up.

Saturday, double portion, and, for 40 years that’s pretty good.

These were the actors in God’s grand narrative, starting with Abraham and going all the way to Revelation. The storyline goes, but this is, these are the people through whom he was going to display his glory, his holiness, his power. Now to be clear, I have no idea where I would have been in this story.

I fear that I’m not a Caleb or a Joshua. I would want to be a Joshua. But I don’t know. Jesus called us Abraham’s children and that is meant as an affirmation of his calling on our lives and his desire to work through us to be witnesses to the nations because of our faith. It’s not works, it’s faith.

We’re Abraham’s spiritual children. But these, after these developments in God’s grand narrative I’m not so sure it’s a compliment actually. It’s actually to be called a child of Abraham. And we haven’t even gotten to the time of the kings and the prophets. That’s what’s so beautiful about the chronological reading plan.

You read prophets and kings at the same time. You understand why the prophets were always in a bad mood when you read about the kings, what they were doing. Talk about idol worship. But God has the last word.

His grand narrative will have a happy ending as we read in Revelation 5 and 7. God is faithful to his covenant even when we’re not. God’s grace and mercy are new every morning. Before I list some takeaways, I want to read to you perhaps one of the most important messages, passages in all of the Old Testament because we hear God describing himself.

Which is quoted quite often in the Old Testament, and it’s Exodus 34, 6 to 7. And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. This is the storyline of the Old Testament.

This is the storyline of the New Testament. And this is the storyline for Lent 2025 as it is for every year. We want to prepare our hearts to hear the message of our compassionate God and his redemption of our lives, of his forgiveness, of our consistent missing the mark. We need and want to hear that nothing can separate us from that love that God demonstrated on the cross those 2, 000 years ago.

So now some takeaways, and I see I’m talking pretty long here, so I’m going to speak quickly. We reap what we sow. There are consequences for poor choices, which we don’t get to choose, but God redeems them. If we allow him. He disciplines, yes, but he disciplines those whom he loves. And he chastens his sons and daughters in order that we might share in his holiness.

Hebrews 12. God in effect redeemed Israel’s horrendous mistakes partially by having them written down so that we can learn from them. And that’s exactly what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10. These were written as an example for you that we do not learn from them. So that we don’t set our hearts on evil things as they did.

But I’m thinking also of Apostle Peter’s role around the crucifixion and the resurrection. How he failed Christ. But his role in the early church and Acts. So Lent is a perfect time to reflect on the trajectory of our lives. Is your proneness to sin something that you are deeply aware of? Is your dependence on the Lord always on your mind?

Have you made compromises in your faith that need to be confessed, repented of, and left behind? Have you reflected on the consequences of decisions that you are about to make? Lent especially calls on us to be actively reflecting on such questions. We, of course, should be doing this all the time, every week, every month when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

The second takeaway, God orchestrates the details of our lives. Out of a family of 70, God’s plan was to create a nation that would bless all of the other peoples in the world. To do that, he set up trials and temptations to form them spiritually. Think of the rescue out of Egypt. The crossing of the Red Sea, the wilderness, water, food.

Romans 8. 28 says, For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. Lent is a perfect time to reflect on the ways that God is working in the details of your life. Especially those tough ones right now. God is weaving your story into his story in your weakest, frailest, most broken moments.

It’s hard to remember that you’re calling us to bring glory to his name by being a blessing to others. That’s the big picture. God actually can redeem your story for his grand narrative.

Lent is a perfect time to reflect on your role in God’s mission, because Lent prepares us for Easter and the resurrection story, which is God’s, which is the gospel story, the nations and our neighbors have to hear. Our weakness can be our strength, is another takeaway, because then it is God whom God sees, whom people see when Balaam’s observations, but primarily I’m thinking of the Apostle Paul’s testimony that when he was weak, God’s strength was able to shine through, was the brightest.

So Lent is a perfect time to reflect on how God might use you in your current weakness. Even during Lent, leading up to maybe giving an invitation to someone to come to one of our two services on Easter Sunday. And finally, as I mentioned at the beginning, what God starts, He finishes. What He promises, He fulfills.

As weak and as inadequate, we may feel due to our poor choices due to the craziness of the details of our lives due to our story being so seemingly insignificant what God intends to do with our personal lives and with the life of South. He will accomplish. He will accomplish. That’s who he is. That’s what he does.

That’s what our Lord does. And he will use us as a church to accomplish his will. He just needs to hear our yes. So Lent is a perfect time to reflect on that and to be very intentional in having that truth to go deep into our souls, to have it there take root until Christ has been formed in us, not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of others, but above all, for his honor and glory among the nations.

For that has been God’s plan since Abraham. Over the course of 4000 years, all the way to us, namely to use weak vessels like you and me for his grand narrative, to tell the story of Jesus and of his glory and his love.

Great is your faithfulness, Lord, to us. May we revel in your faithfulness, your grace, your redeeming work among us. And may we live in light of it. Amen.