All right, I think it’s time to start. Ready? All right. If you’d open up to Genesis Chapter 1, and while you’re doing that, I’ll tell you a little bit about the National Diaconal Summit, which just concluded yesterday. So we began on Thursday at Wheaton College, Thursday evening. We went through Friday and then we ended yesterday morning. We had several speakers, plenary speakers, and then we had nine different workshops.
And we do this, the Committee on Diaconal Ministries puts this together every four years. We invite deacons throughout the OPC to come because you contribute to Diaconal Ministries here were able to fund this, and we provide everything for the deacons once they get to the campus. They need to get themselves there, but as long as they do, we provide everything. You provide everything else through your giving to the Diaconal Committee. And so it’s just a wonderful opportunity for men to come and learn, learn about what diaconal ministry is, and to fellowship.
Fellowship may be even a greater portion of the summit than the actual edifying, but both occur. And so for instance, we had Danny Olinger speak on the history. of the diaconate in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. It was a fine presentation. I learned a lot. We had a deacon. In the past, we haven’t had any deacons actually speak, which is kind of odd. And so we changed that this year. And the first plenary session was by a deacon who’d been a deacon for 30-plus years. And so he brought much wisdom and experience to the man. He was well-received, and it was a great blessing.
We had three deacons speak about their hearts, what it is for a deacon to work in mercy ministry and how the Lord is changing their hearts by and through that. Usually, we think in terms of ministry is, what effect is the ministry having on that person I’m ministering to? But as we opened up that session, these men were speaking about what the Lord was doing to them as they ministered mercy. We had workshops on addiction, how you can minister to those who are addicted, how you can minister to those who are sick. who are terminally ill, how you can minister to those who have special needs, how you can best use your time as a deacon, how you can manage to get all things done.
We had Lowell Ivey from the PCA come and speak about prison ministry. So it’s a broad range of things, and all of these talks, workshops are going to be online ultimately, and so you can listen to them if you’d like. But a very, very wonderful time, and some were saying, well, this is the best diaconal summit we’ve ever had.
This was the fifth one. So thank you for your prayers. Yes, ma’am. Approximately how many men attended from the United States? Oh, that’s a good point. Thank you. There are about 220 or so deacons from the OPC that attended. We also had deacons from other denominations come. We had one from the PCA. We had one from the RPCNA. I think we had one from the URC, I think. And then we had two men come from Hungary. That was a great blessing to have them with us. According to the pastor, this is the first deacon in their denomination since the Reformation. So it was a wonderful time. Thank you for your prayers. All right, I’m glad I’m back. Genesis chapter 1. Let’s open the Word of God.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, let an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse heaven. There was evening and there was morning the second day. And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear. And it was so. God called the dry land earth. The waters that were gathered together, he called seas, and God saw that it was good.
And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit, and which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth. And so, and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed according to its kind. And God saw that it was good, and there was evening, and there was morning.
The third day, God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. And let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. God made the two great lights. The greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. There was evening, there was morning, the fourth day. We’ll stop there, our reading of the word of God.
Amen. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we ask now that you would take your word and plant it within us. And Father, that as we go through this lesson this morning, that you’d use your word guiding us to understand you, more of you, more of Christ. Help us, Lord. We’re weak, we’re frail. It’s been a long week. We’re tired and we pray, Father, that you’d refresh us. Even now, we ask this in Jesus’s name. Amen. All right, where are we in our study of the Westminster Confession of Faith? I hear some whispers. We finished the Word. We did.
We did finish Chapter 1, which was about the Word of God. And so now we’re going to move into Chapter 2, which is about God. Yes, since we have the basis, now we’ve got the foundation, which is the word of God. That’s where we can learn about who God is and what he’s done, who we are. Now we’re going to learn about God.
So, it begins this way, this is chapter two in paragraph one, there is but one only living and true God who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible without body parts or passions. It begins with this description of God as one.
Is that important? Yes, okay, why? There’s not a pantheon of gods. He is a single essence, obviously, in three persons. There’s just one God. I think there are a multiplicity of gods. I think we need to establish that he’s one. Good. So this is the way Deuteronomy reads. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Do you think that’s where they got this from? Probably. Probably. The Lord is one. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, gives us a little bit of a glimpse into why.
Right? No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Can you have two gods? No, I’m glad you’re shaking your head no. You can’t.
Because you’re gonna choose one to serve, and that’s what Jesus is saying. You’re gonna set your heart on one. And so, that’s part of it. We read another part of it here in Genesis, didn’t we? How many creators were there? Just one. Good. Just one. Just one.
And so we owe our allegiance, we owe everything we are to that one single creator God. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your might. It’s important. Understanding, grasping what God has revealed to us. There was only one and he’s the one who made us. OK, there’s more in this paragraph. In fact, there are lots of words in this paragraph and we’re going to be going through them almost one by one. But we’re just seeing the centrality of God here in these verses. I want you to see the centrality of God as we go through this. There is but one only living and true God.
Okay, is that important that we describe God as living? Okay, the answer to the question is yes. It is important. But the follow-on question is more important. Why is it important that God is living? Dead God couldn’t do anything. We’re going to get to sovereignty here. You’re jumping the gun a little bit. We’re going to get to sovereignty. Dead God couldn’t do anything.
OK, let me ask you this question. Could you be breathing at this very moment if God were dead? No. Why? Don’t you exist apart from God? No. You kind of qualified that. Not really. OK. Do you want to not qualify that? No. Oh, you don’t want to not qualify that. OK.
So let me ask that question again. Do you live apart from God? No. The Word somewhere says that He holds everything together. Yes, He does. I can’t remember where that is. Well, somewhere in Hebrews, I think. He upholds all things, right? Speaking of Jesus Christ, the Word. Let me suggest this, and maybe you can challenge me on this.
If God did not exist, if God were not life itself, you would not exist. You would not have life. If God did not exist, everything that holds you together would stop holding you together. I don’t know, I’m not a chemist, I’m not a biologist, but you just kind of explode and not be.
Because he’s holding you together. It’s only by His power, right, that you exist. It’s only by His power that you’re breathing. It’s only by His power that your heart is beating right now. You don’t exist outside of God. Let me put it that way. Anybody contest that? All right, good. Living, it’s so important that we know God is a living God. We confess God is a living God. Without Him, He is the fountain of life. We have no existence. And this is a rabbit trail. But that’s why hell is hell. Because it’s an internal existence without God. I really can’t describe that other than the way the Bible describes it, an internal fire. But that’s why hell is hell. It’s because you’re going to exist for eternity without life, which is God, which is Christ.
Living God, okay, what do you think is the next word we’re gonna talk about? You guys. Some scripture verses first. Jesus said to her, I’m the resurrection and life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live. I think we’re going to hit on that verse this morning. I’m the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
We know the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so we may know Him who is true. That actually should be in the truth portion. I really appreciate that. He seems like he’s the only one that says that. I could be wrong. That’s just such a great testimonial in front of the pagans. I serve the living God. You are defying the living God, Goliath.
Yes. Yes. Goliath is a representative of all the Philistines. All right, true. I’m not even gonna ask the question, is this important? You’re gonna answer yes. Why is it important that God be true, a true God? Okay, that’s, yeah, okay. All right. Okay. All right. The Lord is true, the true God. He’s the living God, everlasting King.
Thomas said in John 14, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I’m the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Is that true? Is there another way to the Father? Okay, so that’s true. And Jesus spoke it. And so it’s kind of important that we serve a true God, because if Jesus is not true and Jesus is God, then he’s pointing you in the wrong direction. It’s important that we know God is a God of truth. Everything God gives to us in his word is true. Now, we know that the Bible records lies, right? But that’s a true recording of the lie that was spoken, right? Okay. All right.
Important that God is true. What else? Other words that define God. Now, let me just say that as we seek to define God, are we actually going to do that? No, not really. He has revealed himself to us in a way that we can understand But do we understand him completely and comprehensively? No. And so as we seek to define God, if I can put it in that way, we’re just using our human terms, our human understanding, and kind of trying to apply that to him, which is not really going to get at it fully and completely.
And it’s going to be corrupt, but He’s communicating to us in this way, and so we’re trying to understand who he is in our fallible, fallen estate, right? And so, okay, we’ve got this word infinite, infinite. What does that mean? I’ve got a definition here from Webster’s, right? Without limits, unbounded, boundless, not circumscribed. What does it mean to be circumscribed, ladies? Yeah, you draw a line, a circle around something, everything inside that circle is circumscribed. It’s got this circle. A circle is kind of in that word. Circumscribed. God’s not circumscribed. We can’t draw a circle around him.
Impossible. And we can apply that word infinite to time, space, and qualities. What is it for God to be infinite in time? Yes, what word would you use for that? Eternal. What word would you use to describe the infinite nature of God in space? It’s close. Very close. Immense. See? She’s very close. Immense. And then infinity with regard to qualities. Maybe perfection. And that’s what they use here. God is infinite in duration, having neither beginning nor end, eternal, of existence. He is also infinite in presence, or omnipresent, and his perfections are infinite. We also speak of infinite space. So God is infinite in being and in perfection. Can’t draw a circle around God. No way we can limit His purity and His holiness. His truth is unbounded. His love, we can’t plumb the depth of it. Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know?
Its measure is longer than the earth, broader than the sea. I think Job here is speaking of the wisdom of God, the knowledge of God. You can’t plumb its depths. We hold God as great, we know him not. The number of his years is unsearchable, eternal, infinite in time. Well, the depths of the riches and wisdom of the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. The purity of God, it is infinite.
And some of these words overlap, right? They aren’t completely exclusive of one another. There’s an overlapping. We’re going to see that here in a moment, even more so. Infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit. What does it mean for God to be spirit? He’s not contained by a body. OK. So, okay, now I’m a little confused because we’re made in the image of God. Does he not look like me? You said no? Oh, all right, in Jesus Christ. That’s a good point.
God doesn’t have a body, right? And so when we read that we’re made in God’s image, that’s not what Moses writes about, not that God has a body like we do. or we have a body like God does. God is spirit. And this is Jesus speaking to the woman at the well, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible. So that would be something that we would say, oh, we can kind of understand a spirit by that which we can’t see. Are they speaking here of the essence of God as spirit?
I can’t separate this from the trinity of my mind right now. The spirit. I’m not sure. When you speak of are they, are you speaking of the divines as a rite of God as being a most pure spirit? I don’t know. OK. All right. So we always have to make that distinction between the two natures of Jesus, the divine nature and the human nature. It’s difficult. It’s impossible to understand. But it’s something we must keep in our minds before us all the time. And so as most pure spirit, the second person of the Trinity is most pure spirit.
He doesn’t have a body, but he took on the nature, the human nature. So did God transform himself into now having a body? No, we’d say no. And that gets into the mystery of the hypostatic union. What happened there? How do we understand that? Well, the only way that I can understand it is by trying to keep the divine nature, the human nature in one person, and yet still separate. And that’s like, oh, now I’m going. That’s it. That’s about as far as I can go. Two natures, one person. Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God. Okay. So without invisible, without body parts or passions.
Now I’m a little confused because we know that God loves. So are they say, and God gets angry. Are they saying that that’s not what God does? Doesn’t have any passions. He doesn’t really love, he doesn’t really get angry. Should we take a vote? Okay, who thinks God loves? Who thinks God gets angry? Okay, so they’re not writing about passions that way. passions are more in the way humans express those emotions.
Oh, oh, very good. And so if I could actually see my computer, I’ve got notes under this slide, which I can’t see here. But that’s the distinction, right? We get moved by things outside of us. And so we have these emotions that arise within us because of things outside of us.
Right, and we’d say that those are these human passions. Well, that’s not God. No, he does love, he does get, he becomes angry. He has wrath. But it’s different than our passions, our emotions which arise possibly due to circumstances, our interactions with other humans, right? And so we are passionate people. We respond to things around us.
God doesn’t. It’s kind of a sense, and if I had my notes, it’d be clearer, but I can’t see that far. So Luke writes this about Paul, when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices saying, in Lyconian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature, or others translate that like passions, with you. And we bring good news. So Paul, as he makes this statement, is making that distinction between himself and God. Like nature, like passions.
Webster’s defines passions this way, the impression or effect of an external agent upon a body, things outside of us we react to that suffered or received, the feeling of the mind, the sensible effect of impression, excitement, perturbation or agitation of mind. Those things we experience. Violent agitation or excitement of mind. Particularly such as is occasioned by an offense, injury, or insult.
See, external things coming to us, we react to with passions. Okay. Now there’s an overlap here. And we’ll get to it. Immutable, what does that mean? We don’t use that word. At least I don’t. Unchangeable, is that important? Okay, why? Why is it important for God to be unchanging? Well, what does trust have to do with unchanging? OK. OK.
Have you all entered into contracts from time to time, agreements with others? Maybe to rent an apartment or buy a home or something of that nature. Have you done that? No. Is it important that the person on the other side who either owns the property or you’re going to buy it from that they do what they have promised to do? That’s kind of important that they don’t change their mind. Get to the closing table and they go, well, you know, I’ve decided not to do this anymore.
What? Well, God entered into an agreement, so to speak, with His people through Jesus Christ. What do we call that? Oh, the covenant. Are there promises in the covenant? Is it kind of important from our perspective that God would be an unchanging God with regard to His covenant? Yeah. And so we do. We trust in his promises and his word. Because we know he’s an unchanging God.
Does God set his love on a person and then change his mind? Well, I’m not going to love that person anymore because they sinned against me. Once once God determines to set his love on someone that doesn’t change. When did that happen? that God determined to set His love on some people?
Are you saying that it didn’t happen because I’m a good person? Oh, and you know that I’m not a good person. Okay, no. Eternity passed before you were born. God determined to set His love upon you, and that is not going to change. Immutable, kind of important. James chapter one, don’t be deceived my beloved brothers, every good gift, every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. What does a shadow do? It casts a darkness in an area and it does change, right? Shadows change. As the sun moves, the shadow changes, it moves. There’s no variation or shadow. due to change.
Again, James is describing God in a negative way, meaning he’s not this. Because it’s very difficult for us to describe God in a positive way. Not that we’re negative about God, but we’re saying he’s not this, he’s not this, he’s not this. Immense. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built.
Who said that? And it was actually Solomon, his son, upon the completion of the temple. And that represented God’s dwelling with his people. But did he actually dwell there? Solomon is just recognizing that I can’t, there’s no way you’re gonna dwell, there’s no way I can contain you here. You’re immense, why is that important?
Well, let me ask you this question. Can God be with Grace Ann and with Barry at the same time? No. Why is that, in part? Because he’s immense, in part. In part. I mean, there’s a whole lot of other things. I mean, how immense does God have to be to hold the sun up? I mean, that might mix and match some apples and oranges with his power, his almightiness, and his immensity. Kind of important that he’s immense. Holy. What is it to be holy? That’s a good definition, good short definition. It kind of describes God as the only one. The only one. That’s why the seraphim fly about and crowd, holy, holy, holy, they’re identifying God as the only one. only one.
We could spend a long time trying to define holiness with regard to God, and I’m not sure we’d ever really fully grasp it. It is the set-apartness, it is the oneness of God. We usually think in terms of holiness as purity, as being sinless. And I think we can put that underneath it. But holiness is broader and more encompassing than that. And if you really think of God as being the only one, that may be the best way to understand holiness of God.
Okay. That’s the centrality of God. And I’m hoping that those verses and that first portion of their description of who God is brings you to that point of thinking of God as being central, the center of our lives. That’s a little bit different than The sovereignty of God. A little bit different. I’m not sure we’re going to get through all of this in the remaining time we’ve got, but Genesis chapter 3, the sovereignty of God.
Adam and Eve sin against God. They take and eat the forbidden fruit. In verse 8, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you?
And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman whom you gave to me to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you’ve done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and the dust you shall eat and all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
Sovereignty of God. What is it to be sovereign? Webster’s defines it this way, supreme in power. Possessing supreme dominions, a sovereign ruler of the universe. See how Webster’s in 1828 is just so focused on biblical language. Superior to all others, chief, supremely efficacious. Sovereignty, governing, ruling. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. And his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed.” This is the Son of Man coming to the Ancient of Days. This is Daniel. This is a vision that he has. And the Ancient of Days, or God the Father, is giving to the son the kingdom. And he’s giving him sovereignty, right? That’s the idea. And to him was given dominion, sovereignty over all things. Who’s sovereign? Michael Horton in his book, Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, writes about Invictus. Have you ever read that? Have you ever heard of it? I hadn’t, but apparently it’s a famous poem.
19th century poem by William Ernest Henley expresses well the idea of sovereignty. I thank whatever gods that be for my unconquerable soul. I’m the master of my fate. I’m the captain of my soul. Now, Michael wasn’t including this as a good example. of true sovereignty, but he was including it as an example of what the poet thought that he had. The poet thought that he was sovereign over himself. And that’s what he’s writing about, because he’s discarding God. I think whatever God that be, he doesn’t know God. He doesn’t know the living and true God. He knows himself. as the one who rules his life.
That’s sovereignty. Who’s ruling your life, right? That’s the question. William Ernest Henley believed that he ruled his life, that he was sovereign. Was he right? Okay, good. Thank you. No. All right. Yes. Oh, really? Outrageous that is and that is the mindset. Yes. I mean, it’s almost like manifest destiny of the United States You know, it’s it’s it’s our destiny. Hmm. We are going to make this country Yes, every time I come every time I hear the Bible I Hear Satan in my mouth telling me that mmm And it’s just, and it’s out there, you see it everywhere.
And it’s brought, I’m sorry, I’ll shut up. It’s rammed into our children. It’s rammed into them. Yes, I show my naivety by saying that I wasn’t familiar with it. That’s probably a good thing that I wasn’t familiar with it. All right, I’m not sure we’re gonna get through this, but we’ll see how far we can get. Why is sovereignty of God important?
He is good. Yes. Yes. He’s most free. That’s part of God’s sovereignty. Again, that gets to passions. And you will see here, a few of these things go together. Most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will. Those things actually go together. with regard to describing his sovereignty, right?
So our God is in the heavens, he does all that he pleases. Well, doesn’t he do what I please? And isn’t that a good thing that he doesn’t? Okay, all right, good. He does what he pleases, that’s sovereignty. And because he’s a good God and he’s always good, yes, It’s so important. He’s most free. Most absolute.
From Isaiah 45, I am the Lord and there is no other besides me. There is no God. I equip you. Though you do not know me. That people may know from the rising of the sun from the West, there is none besides me. I’m the Lord. There is no other. Wow. I equip you. He rules and reigns over us. And in that, he’s equipping, right? Most absolute. I’ve got to see some of these notes. Absolute from Webster’s. You’re not going to see it because it’s in my notes.
Literally in a general sense, free, independent of anything extraneous. Meaning God is independent of everything outside of him. Complete in itself. God is self-sufficient. He stands in need of nothing outside of himself. And he’s not, I think I can say it this way, he’s not affected by anything outside of himself. Thus he’s absolute, unconditional. God does not act based upon conditions outside of himself.
You need to think about that for a moment. Existing independent of any other cause, again Webster’s, as God is absolute, unlimited by extraneous power or control, as an absolute government or prince.” That’s the idea of being absolute. And it’s also related to being most free. Does that make sense?
Most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will. That’s how God decrees, how he has decreed, how he works his providential hand, everything he works according to the counsel of his will, which is pure and just and righteous. In him we’ve obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Kind of important that we serve a sovereign God, right?
We’ve got about two minutes. Any questions on this? Yes, sir. Yes, we do. We know that for those who love God, who love God, all things work together for good. How is that possible? Oh, yes. Yes, because he’s sovereign. He’s sovereign for those who are called according to his purpose. So important. So important for us to grasp that. All right.
And this is chapter three, actually, which gets into the decrees of God, but it’s related. to God’s sovereignty, right? From all eternity, God did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass. That’s sovereignty, right? Whatever happens, he’s ordained it, right? I’m going to stop there, I think. Well, we’ll read these and then I’m gonna stop. Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors.
Remember the former things of old, for I am God, there is no other. I’m God, and there’s none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, I will accomplish all my purposes. Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country, I’ve spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I’ve purposed, and I will do it. That’s probably the the passage that describes the sovereignty of God to us. Centrality of God, the sovereignty of God. We’ll try to finish this one up next time. But let me ask if there’s a question. Can I comment on what Jim does? Yes.
So it just undergirds how, it undergirds election in the sense that how, if God is sovereign, if we all agree with that, how can man determine his salvation? I mean, I know it’s a lot, sovereignty is a lot more than that. I think a lot of times as we form, we gravitate towards sovereignty and predestination. But in essence, based on all these scriptures, how can man decide if God is sovereign? It’s impossible. Yeah. Yeah. Good. All right. Let’s pray.
Father, we thank you that you are the center of all things. We pray that you would, Father, work in our hearts so that we would not only realize that, Father, not only believe that, but we would live and act in a way recognizing that and enjoying that, enjoying your centrality. And the same thing with your sovereignty, Lord. At times as sinners, we fight against it. So we pray that you’d help us, help us to enjoy your sovereignty and submit ourselves to it.
For you are a good God. You love us. We don’t understand why. and how only that you do through Christ. So we thank you for Christ this morning. And we ask even now that you prepare us to worship you, to worship you in spirit and in truth. Help us, Lord. Prepare us. We ask all this in Jesus’s name.