Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship

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Oh, Lord, our Lord, excellent is your name. All the good. We pray to your Father, we come into your presence.
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With our brothers and sisters in Christ, we worship you here, we worship God in the world. And that great and simple is that the
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Church is firstborn, old, and just, and then made perfect. And we would do so not knowingly, but perfectly knowingly.
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Thank you, Lord. Frank, you ain't going to worship without Frank, is that correct? Good morning, my brothers and sisters in Christ.
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Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the corporate worship of our
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God. Please stand. And hear God call you to worship through his word.
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Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the peoples.
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Sing to him songs. Sing psalms to him. Talk of all his wondrous works.
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Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the
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Lord. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.
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Declare his glory among the nations. His wonders among all peoples.
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For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is also to be feared above all gods.
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For all the gods of the peoples are idols. But the Lord made the heavens.
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Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and gladness are in his place. Give to the
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Lord, oh, families of the peoples. Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the
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Lord the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him.
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Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Let us worship our triune
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God. Let us pray. Oh, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
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You made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your outstretched arm. Your invisible attributes, your eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen through what you have made.
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The heavens declare your glory. We praise you for your providence.
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You are the governor and sustainer of all things. In you all things hold together.
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In you we live and move and have our being. You give to all life and breath in all things.
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You work all things after the counsel of your own will. You have numbered even the hairs upon our heads.
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Not even a sparrow falls from a tree apart from your will. We praise you, our
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God, for these, your great works of creation and providence.
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Above all, we praise you for the redemption that there is no other
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God besides you. No other savior, no other rock to whom the ends of the earth may turn and be saved.
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We rejoice that you so love the world that you gave your only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be the savior of the world and gave your spirit to abide with us and in us and teach us all things.
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May we have fellowship with you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we ask in Jesus' name.
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Amen. Please kneel as you are able for the corporate confession of sin.
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Let us join together in confessing our sins. Almighty and most merciful
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Father, we are thankful that your mercy is higher than the heavens, wider than our wanderings, deeper than all our sins.
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Forgive our careless attitudes toward your purposes, our refusal to relieve the suffering of others, our envy of those who have more than we have, our obsession with creating a life of constant pleasure, our indifference to the treasures of heaven, our neglect of your wise and gracious law.
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Help us to change our way of life so that we may desire what is good, love what you love, and do what you do.
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Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Please stand for the assurance of pardon.
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As we have just read, that we would ask the Lord to give us desire for what is good, to love what he loves, and to do what he commands.
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As we know, we learned from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, that sin is any want of conformity to or transgression of the word of God.
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And we've just asked the Lord to forgive us for those instances when we have sinned.
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Now receive this comfort from God and the assurance of pardon. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in wisdom and prudence.
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My brothers and sisters in Christ, rejoice, your sins are forgiven. Amen. Please take up the hymnal and turn to hymn 55.
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To God be the glory. Hymn 55. Please take up the insert and look for our
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Psalm of the week, which is Psalm 62. There lighter than a sigh,
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Psalm 62. We will be singing this to the tune of Oh for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.
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Psalm 62. Please remain standing for the reading of God's word from Revelation chapter 15.
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Revelation 15. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last.
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For with them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire, and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.
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And they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
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Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty. Just and true are your ways,
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O King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?
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For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.
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After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened.
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And out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests.
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And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.
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And the sanctuary was filled with the smoke from the glory of God and from his power. And no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.
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This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's continue our worship by proclaiming our ancient
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Christian faith by the singing of the Apostles' Creed. I believe in God the
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Father, in Jesus Christ his only begotten
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Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead, he descended into hell.
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The third day he rose again, he ascended into hell.
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Holy Spirit of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body.
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Please take up the hymnal once more and open to hymn number 499, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, hymn 499.
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Please take up the insert for St.
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Patrick's Breastplate. Our brother DJ has walked us through how to navigate through the hymn this morning.
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This is a pleasure that we look forward to every March now, and we're very thankful for it.
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This is a wonderful hymn, and we're looking forward to it. Brother? A savage and soul, virtues of all see, is into my knee, to give me speech, is tempted, is temptation forced, that war, or feud, fears hostility,
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I will ease, hold, hate, and spare, by returning
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Christ be with me, Christ within me,
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Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me,
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Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me,
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Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet,
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Christ in hearts of, not the same, the praise to, the ovation, salvation.
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Amen. Alright, my brothers and sisters, let us now make preparations for the prayers of the people.
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And seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up on a mountain. And when he was seated, his disciples came to him.
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Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. God, that we would understand that sin against you is an evil thing, a wicked thing.
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And Father God, that we would hate it. And Lord God, that we would mourn over our own sinful nature.
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But Father, always keeping in mind that you are a merciful God, God who saves. Praise him, my friends.
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Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
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Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
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God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
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Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.
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Finding ourselves in agreement with all these things, we say, Amen. Please stand and take up the insert once more, this time looking for our new
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Psalm of the month, Psalm 51. Brother, any instruction or encouragement?
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Alright, Psalm 51. I transgress.
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Amen. Please open your Bibles with me, to Psalm number 8.
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We are considering our walk through the Psalms, and it brings us today to one of my truly favorite
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Psalms, Psalm number 8. Psalm 8. These are the words of God.
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To the chief musician, on the instrument of Gath, a Psalm of David.
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O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens.
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Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have ordained strength, because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger.
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When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?
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For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor.
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You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea.
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O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.
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Let us pray. Almighty, eternal, and merciful God, whose word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, open and illuminate our minds, that we may purely and perfectly understand your word, and that our lives may be conformed to what we have rightly understood, that in nothing we may be displeasing to your majesty.
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We ask all this through the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.
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You may be seated. You may remember that we had this,
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Psalm 8, as the Psalm of the Month some years ago, and it was the very month to which the national abortion allowance in Roe v.
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Wade was overturned. I had said at that time it was a very fitting Psalm of the
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Month for that type of thing, as we will see when we look at verse 2. But as you also remember that as we started our consideration of various Psalms, that I noted that one of the things that the
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Psalm does for us, it gives us an accurate picture of the character of God, of the majesty of God.
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It gives us compelling reasons to come and to worship him.
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And this Psalm is an excellent example of it. It states what should be every believer's ultimate priority, to give glory to God.
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You may remember the question in the Westminster Sorter Catechism, the very first question, what is the chief end of man?
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It is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And this
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Psalm properly orients our praise and adoration to our great
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God. Well, we have a lot to cover today, so we might just as well start now.
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Let us take a look at the first verse. You first might notice what appears to be a repetition.
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Oh Lord, our Lord. But you may also notice that the first Lord is in capital,
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L -O -R -D. When you see that, that is a tip from our translators that that word is the covenant name of our
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God, Yahweh, Jehovah. So we may properly say,
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Oh Yahweh, the second Lord is Adonai. Oh Yahweh, our
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Adonai. Oh Yahweh, our sovereign and majestic God.
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Jehovah is the covenant name of God, the one and true God, the Lord of all angels and men, the
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Lord and King of the saints of God. He is our God and we are his people.
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Adonai, as I have just mentioned, conveys sovereignty. It literally means sovereign or master.
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He is sovereign over all creation. We can truly say
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Yahweh, our Adonai, Jehovah, our sovereign master. How excellent is your name in all the earth.
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I'd like to call to your attention that it says how excellent is your name in all the earth.
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It does not say how excellent your name should be in all the earth.
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It is a straightforward declaration of the majesty of God. It is a straightforward declaration of the facts.
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I know I have said this on more than one occasion, but Christianity gives an accounting of facts.
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Christianity is not pie -in -the -sky, wish -fulfillment religion. No, it gives an accounting of facts.
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And nothing may be more factual than the majesty and excellence of our
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God. This should call to mind almost immediately that prayer which we commonly refer to as the
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Lord's Prayer. We from time to time use that as a framework for our prayers of the people.
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We find it in Matthew 6 and also in Luke's Gospel. And it is quite familiar to us.
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And it begins, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
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That's the sense here. This is another straightforward declaration that the name of our
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Father is holy. There are many that will teach you that this is a command to make our
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Father's name holy. That it is the first petition, but it is a straightforward fact that God's name is holy.
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In our text, the word translated excellent literally means wide and large.
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When you study Hebrew words and see what the words actually mean, it's enlightening. Our God's name is wide and large.
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It is all -encompassing. Figuratively, it means powerful, excellent as we see here, famous, glorious, goodly, noble, worthy.
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What the name of our covenant -keeping God, Jehovah, is is wide and encompassing.
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It covers and fills everything. It is mighty, powerful, excellent, famous, glorious, and noble, and worthy of all our praise.
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And notice it is His name that is excellent and majestic and glorious.
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How we use names today is quite a bit different than how names were used in old times, especially in the time of the
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Hebrews and also in the time of the New Testament period where the primary language was
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Greek. Names conveyed a depth of meaning, something that we perhaps don't see in our day except perhaps in nicknames.
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But in old days, names conveyed something conspicuous, something obvious, something that was well -known, something that we could see, or something that we could conjure up in our mind's eye.
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We have a little bit of this today with certain names from history or from sports or some other field.
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When we mention the name, you can conjure up what it implies. But in the old days, that's what all names did.
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It called something to mind, something that was obvious. The name or a name can convey, by implication, honor, authority, and character.
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We have some examples in scripture. We'll take a look at a negative example and a couple of positive examples.
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The negative example is Nabal, the husband of Abigail.
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Nabal literally means fool. It was a very accurate description of Nabal.
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But some positive ones, we have Abraham, father of a multitude.
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Remember the promise to Abraham that his descendants would be like the stars of the sky or the sand of the seashore?
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Now we are here several thousand years later, and his physical descendants are in the billions.
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But when we take the true meaning of that promise, his spiritual descendants are much, much greater.
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He is indeed a father of a multitude. We see that with Israel.
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We also see that with his given name, Jacob. But Israel says he will rule as God.
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We know the true Israel of God was the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, of course, our last example is
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Jesus himself. His Hebrew name is Yeshua. Yah, that is Yahweh, saves.
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In this name, Jehovah, the character of our God, is bound up in it.
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We see his character. We see his sovereignty, his power and might, his knowledge and wisdom, his being over all creation.
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Remember, wide and large, all -encompassing. His holiness, his love, his justice, his goodness, his righteousness, that is his name.
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When we use his name, it conveys all those things. This is why we have that prohibition in the
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Ten Commandments against the misuse of God's name. In the third commandment we have, you shall not take the name of the
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Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
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Far too often we think this is using our Lord's name as a swear word. And it does mean that.
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But that word that we translate vain means ascribing evil to that which is good.
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Misusing God's name in the case in the prohibition in the third commandment is rather than ascribing excellence and majesty to the name, we describe things that are evil, immoral, false or useless.
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We are saying that the character of God is akin to the character of the devil.
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That's what happens when we misuse the name of God. It is the root of the unforgivable sin.
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And he will not hold us guiltless. Is this not what the devil had done in the garden?
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You remember in Genesis 3, the devil called into question the very character of God saying that he spoke falsely to Adam and Eve.
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You will not surely die. God was afraid that if you took the apple, you would be like him.
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He cast into question the character of God. And we have this name upon us as his people.
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We have the name of God on us. We see this in Numbers 6, 22 through 27 that we occasionally use as a benediction.
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And it's very familiar to us. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his sons saying, this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.
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Say to them, now this is what we're very familiar with, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
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The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Then the next verse says this, so they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them.
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We have the very name of God put on us and in the new covenant, we have it in a special way.
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We are the adopted children of God our Father. With the new birth, it's like we get a new birth certificate.
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You may remember when I preached to Ephesians 1 and our identity in Christ, I had made mentioned this.
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When we are converted, we have a new birth certificate where Yahweh is in place for our
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Father. Our old birth certificate had Adam there. In a right way, we could be called
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Yahweh's son. It is that name that we have on us.
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But we have to admit that man has a temptation to make a name for himself, to make his name excellent in all the earth.
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We had seen this in the garden, but I think a great example in the Old Testament comes from the
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Tower of Babel. We have this temptation to make our name sovereign, to make our names majestic in all the earth.
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We read this in Genesis 11. Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.
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This was after the flood. Noah's descendants were fruitful and multiplied, and it came to pass as they journeyed to the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
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Then they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
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And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens.
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Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.
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They wanted to make a name for themselves, not a name that would not only rival
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God's, but surpass it. Well, there are other examples.
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We could call Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar to mind, but in the
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New Testament we have an example. We must remember that during the
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New Testament period, the period of our Lord and Savior's earthly ministry, the period of the apostolic church laying the foundations of what we now have as our apostolic tradition, they were in the context of Rome, and the emperors of Rome called themselves
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Caesar, and they considered themselves gods. We can see this with the ascension of a man by the name of Octavian, who when he became emperor took the name
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Augustus, meaning the majestic, mighty, or august one.
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He was also called the Divi Felius, the son of the divine, and when a kingdom or tribe was conquered by Rome, they made a pronouncement.
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They called it the Elangelion, the good news, and it required a submission to Rome that said this, there is no other name under heaven by which you can be saved, save for Augustus or whoever the emperor was.
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This is nothing more than an absolute presumption by Caesar to be not only a god, but the god, and you may remember that the first century
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Christians got in a lot of trouble for their failure to say one thing, their failure to say
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Caesar is lord, Kaiser Kyrgios. They would pay their taxes, they would live peaceably with their neighbors, they would submit to the laws, but they would not say that Caesar is supreme.
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Did that Elangelion message of Rome sound familiar to you? It should.
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It's the context of what Peter said to the Sanhedrin or the council in Acts chapter four.
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You remember Peter and John were arrested for healing in the name of Jesus, and then we have this account,
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Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the peoples and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, who
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God raised from the dead, by him this man now stands before you whole.
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This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone, nor is there salvation in any other.
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There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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Well, it's interesting that Peter would use that term, but you have to remember that the
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Sanhedrin were those men who said to Pilate, we have no king but Caesar.
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So this was a very challenge that the name of Christ, the name of God was higher than the name of Caesar.
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Well, we see this in our own day, do we not? We see men constantly trying to make a name for themselves.
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But let us continue. Verse one also says, you have set your glory above the heavens.
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God's glory, his shining greatness of his character cannot be contained in the created order.
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Although his glory fills all things, his name is wide and large and it fills all things.
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His exceeding greatness and glory cannot be contained within the heights of creation.
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But there is enough there to condemn us. This is what
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Paul points out in Romans one. He said the entire created order displays the majesty, character and glory of God in such a way that man is without excuse.
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Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. There isn't one corner of this universe that we do not see the excellence of the name of our
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God. Well, let us continue on to verse two. Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the avenger.
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This is a straightforward declaration by David about the character of God. The Lord does not use the strong and mighty of this world to further his kingdom and to defeat his enemies.
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He uses the weak and seemingly helpless. This is a matter by which
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God's greatness is further revealed. His strength is sufficient to empower the weakest of men to overturn the mightiest of foes.
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And this is undeniably true. We have this from Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, 27 -29.
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But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put the shame, to put the shame to wise.
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Have you ever been called foolish? Have you ever been called a corn pone or a doofus for Christ?
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That you don't know what you're talking about because you believe in some weird religion?
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The foolish things of this world to put the shame to wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put the shame to things which are mighty.
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And the base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen.
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And the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. That no flesh should glory in his presence.
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Many commentators and many sermons preached on this verse would say that this means that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men and that the weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men.
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And we would say yes and amen to that. But that's not exactly what this verse says. In here is a great and glorious reality that our
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God and Father has established or ordained strength. And we need this strength because of his enemies which are our enemies.
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And we should immediately be thinking about who is the chief enemy?
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The devil. He is our adversary. He is the chief enemy.
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But remember there's an unholy trinity. The world, the flesh, and the devil.
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That's what's in mind here. These are the enemies of God and they are our enemies and God has given us the strength to deal with those enemies.
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More appropriately God says that he would deal with our enemies through this established strength.
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And we should thank God that he has given us this strength. But how does he do it?
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By the weakness of men, right? Yes, we could say that. By the weak things of the world, right?
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Yes, we could say that. But let's take a closer look. Not just weak men, not just weak things, but literally children.
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David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says that the means by which God will destroy his enemies, the strength that he has ordained and established, the one that will silence the enemy and the avenger, are children.
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But not just children, infants. Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants.
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The word translated babe means suckling or nursing infant. The word translated nursing infant means suckling or nursing infant.
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I wonder if God is trying to tell us something by this repetition. I often think that sometimes the
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Lord leaves clues like this because we're slow. I've said this about the creation order.
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When we see that it was the first day, the second day, and the third day, and so on, it also says for those who are real slow, it was morning and evening.
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And I think we have another case here. That out of the mouth of infants, nursing infants, he has ordained strength.
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Well, what comes out of the mouth of these nursing infants? Well, the one word is praise.
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And you'll say, well, that's not actually referenced here, Mark. I don't see that. Well, this verse was quoted by our
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Lord and Savior during his earthly ministry in Matthew 21, verses 15 and 16.
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And a lot of times, and this is true, the New Testament is inspired commentary on the Old Testament and provides a greater insight on the things which we read in the
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Old Testament. And here's what we have in Matthew's gospel. But when the chief priest and the scribe saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, saying,
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Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant and said to him, do you hear what these are saying?
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And Jesus said to them, yes, have you never read out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have perfected praise.
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Quoting this very Bible verse. Now, we have to remember that the
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Bible in Jesus' time was the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the
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Old Testament. And that's how the translators of that Greek Old Testament translated this verse.
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And Jesus quotes it. Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have perfected praise.
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And it's not just praise, it's perfected praise.
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The highest type of praise. That's the kind of praise that comes out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants.
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That's the praise that the Lord has ordained as the strength to destroy his enemies.
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Well, that'll give you some clarity on why the enemies of God hate children so much.
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We have seen the attack on children throughout history. Child sacrifice.
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Causing children to pass through the fire of Molech. And our modern worship of Molech in abortion.
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The enemies of God must destroy children because children are his chosen means of destroying them, his enemies.
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And if they cannot destroy them in the womb, they will look to mutilate their flesh in the so -called transgender surgeries.
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Or they will medicate them and dope them into docility with medication.
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Or they'll fill their heads with false philosophies about their origin and their destination.
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Not being created in the image of God, but a cosmic mistake going nowhere.
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We can see this war against children spilling out in other areas. I've alluded to some already.
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Attacks on the family and attacks on education. The damning influence of social media, peer pressure, and violence against children in our culture and in the schools.
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And it is to our shame that the church goes along with it.
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Does that surprise you that I said that? For after all, do we really go along with the war on children?
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Are we really aiding the enemies of God? Don't we stand against abortion?
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Yes, we do. Don't we stand against state -sponsored education?
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Yes. Don't we stand for the family and for Christian education?
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Yes. We can say yes and amen to all of these things. But do we deny the very words of this verse when we say that infants cannot praise
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God? When we deny baptism to an infant stating they cannot know the things of God until they get older.
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Fundamentally denying that they can praise God. And not only praise God, but offer perfected praise.
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When we deny children access to the table because we say although baptized, they cannot know or understand the things of God and discern the body.
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Thus denying that they cannot only give praise to God, but which Jesus himself said was perfected praise out of the mouths of infants.
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Yes, we do deny the very words of this verse if we hold to those views. And we add aid and comfort to the enemies of God because we deny the very truth of Scripture.
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We also see this when Christian men and women marry and deny themselves from having children.
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Not because the Lord has closed the womb, but because they have. May this never be amongst us.
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And the Lord would give us grace to repent of these things if it is true, if it is amongst us.
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For out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the avenger.
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Well, I'm gonna have to hustle now to get through the rest of the psalm. So let us take a look at verses three through five.
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When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon, the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him?
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And the son of man that you visit him. For you have made him a little lower than the angels and have crowned him with glory and honor.
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This is a breathtaking statement. Really all of scripture is a breathtaking statement. We're being called upon to consider the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, the galaxy, the immensity of the universe, the power and majesty that it conveys.
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It is glorious and awesome, but it is just the work of God's fingers.
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As if David to say that this is an easy thing for God to do. I don't know if you've ever been engaged with somebody in an argument about a six day biblical account of creation and the millions of years nonsense where you feel like six days versus millions of years.
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Maybe you should throw in a question. I wonder what took him so long because these are easy for him.
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It is the work of his fingers. But it goes on to tell us contemplate this.
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You have been made a little lower than the angels. When we compare ourselves to God, we can easily say that we are weak and insignificant.
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But when we think of angels, mighty in power, able to stand in the presence of God and able to serve him perfectly, we may be overwhelmed.
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We are weak. We're as weak as those infants we just talked about and even full grown and full of strength.
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We have nothing to commend ourselves and even if we tried, we may be guilty of trying to make a name for ourselves.
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We know we are fallen, that we have sinned, that we have not obeyed God. We do not love
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God with all of our heart, our soul, mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
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We haven't even loved ourselves the way God wanted us to. But yet, he is mindful of us and he cares for us and not just us, all of the created order.
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He causes the rain, the fall on the just and on the unjust. He feeds the buried birds of the air and the animals of the field.
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But he has a special care for his people. We'll just use the summary verse from Philippians 4, 19.
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And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
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Our God not only meets our needs, he supplies them all bountifully.
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We are commanded not to worry about the things which we need, but seek first the kingdom of God.
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That is how our mindful God cares for us. But he does much more than that.
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As we continue reading in verse 5, going through verse 8. You have crowned him with glory and honor.
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You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, every beast, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the sea.
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He has crowned us with glory and honor. Now you may ask yourself, how could this be?
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Well, you may have forgotten our past. Man is the crown of creation.
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He is the last creature created. And we are the only part of creation that is in the image of God.
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In Genesis 1 .26, Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.
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Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle and all earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
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Not only do we have this great and glorious position that he has given us, the crown of creation, we have dominion over all things.
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But this was gloriously ratified when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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The Word, the only begotten Son of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, came into the created order not as a star or the moon, not as any of the animals, nor as an angelic being, but he took on flesh and became man.
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We live in an age where the dignity of man is under attack. We had talked about the war on children.
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There's also a war on man, what C .S. Lewis called an insane attempt to abolish man and the abolition of man.
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It's a bizarre suicide cult that we see in our culture today, where man is trying to make man extinct.
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First he does so by saying that we are equal to the animals, that we are no different than an animal or a tree, that man is not seen as created in the image of God, the crown of creation, but rather a giant cosmic mistake.
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The end results of millions of years of mistakes. There is no more dignity in man than there is in any other cosmic mistake over the supposed millions of years.
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And not only that, the very nature of man is under attack. He created us male and female.
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They say that's no more. There is no male. There is no female. There is no inherent dignity in man.
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Man is a cosmic loser. And we can even see this with these nut jobs that are pushing
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AI, their modern Tower of Babel project, that see machines as the crowning achievement to them, that man is the measure of all things.
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They say, well, this is going to be much greater than evolution, because evolution had blind processes, a bunch of mistakes that created us, but we are doing this intentionally.
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He who sits in the heavens laughs. The people plot in vain and imagine a vain thing.
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How preposterous! With every birth of a child, out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, with every praising baby in this congregation and congregations throughout the world,
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God puts his enemies to flight. And we have been given dominion.
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Man is a dominion -taking creature. Our first parents were given the dominion command.
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Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth.
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We see this in our day. We can look at the Chinese communists.
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They believe in dominion. They're taking it. We can look in the
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Muslim world. They believe in dominion. They're taking it. And the secular humanists of our day believe in dominion as well.
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They're taking it. It seems that the only group that has any concerns or trepidation about taking dominion are
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Bible -believing evangelical Christians. They refuse to take dominion.
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And it's very odd that they do. We know that these verses here are applied to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. The writer of the book of Hebrews writes this in Hebrews 2, 5 -10.
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For he has not put the world to come, the world that we live in, of which we speak in subjection to angels, but one testified in a certain place, saying,
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What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels.
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You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him above the works of your hands.
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You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he let nothing that is not put under him.
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But we do not yet see all things put under him. The writer of Hebrews wrote this many, many years ago.
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And we would agree we don't see all things put under subjection under the Lord Jesus Christ.
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But we know that he will reign in heaven until they all are. He continues, but we do see
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Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone.
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For it is fitting for him for whom all things, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
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He is the man. He is the second
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Adam. He is the one who has fulfilled the covenant of works. He is the one who has earned true dominion.
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He is the one that brings many sons to glory. That's us. He is the captain of our salvation.
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And we should emulate him. And then he said, he's given us orders to do so.
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This is another way of saying this is all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And you shall be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.
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We have a command to take dominion in the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Not an ungodly dominion in our own name, but in the name of Christ.
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For after all, God has also highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name.
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That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and those under the earth.
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And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
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Father. Well, that brings us to our last verse. Oh Lord, our
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Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. The psalm ends where it began.
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The book ends of the glory of God. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name.
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We have considered that the name is, his character is bound up in that name. That there is only one name under heaven by which we must be saved, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. That his name implies dominion and that we should go and take dominion.
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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. And when we reflect on these things that we have considered, may this be our constant refrain.
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In all that we do, in all that we think or say, as we raise our families, as we work in our jobs, as we minister here in this local community or in the communities around our homes, as we minister in this congregation, that everything would have this resounding in our ears through our actions.
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Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.
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Let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you, oh Lord, that you have given us this name.
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You have placed your name upon us and that we are called by your name.
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We pray, Father, that we would emulate our elder brother in the Lord Jesus Christ and do the works that you have given us to do.
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As Jesus once said, my father works and I work. Lord, let us go forth in the labors that you have given us to do, knowing that you have empowered us to do that.
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And may us hear that joyful refrain of those babes and nursing infants, for in that you have ordained strength to defeat your enemies.
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We ask you, oh Lord, to give us the grace to trust in you with our whole heart and lean not on our own understanding, but in all our ways you would direct our steps.
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We ask this in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Let us continue our worship through the presentation of tithes and offerings.
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Please stand and let us pray. Father God, we thank you, oh
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Lord, as we have been reminded this morning in every aspect of our worship that you have showered blessings upon us, that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and those spiritual blessings have overflown to material blessings in this earth.
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We thank you, oh Lord, that you have set apart as part of our worship an opportunity for us to return a part of those blessings back to the work of this local congregation.
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We pray, Father, that we would be faithful in the execution of these funds for your glory, remembering that your name, oh
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Lord, is excellent in all the earth. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Well, let us give glory to God in the singing of the Gloria Patri. Glory be to the
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Father, and to the Son, and to the
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Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
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The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the
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Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and all places give thanks to you, oh
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Holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God, because you sent your beloved
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Son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life, that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may, without shame or fear, rejoice to behold his appearing.
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Therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.
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Amen. Please be seated and let us pray.
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Oh God, the Father of all mercies, and God of all consolation, grant your gracious presence in the effectual working of your spirit in us, and so to sanctify these elements, both of bread and wine, and to bless your own ordinance that we may receive by faith the body and blood of Jesus Christ, crucified for us, and so to feed upon him, that he may be one with us and we one with him, that he may live in us and we in him, and for him who has loved us and given himself for us, and we ask it in his name.
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Amen. In the night in which our
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Lord was betrayed, he took bread. Saying a given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying,
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Hey, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Likewise, after supper, he took the cup, and when he had given a thanks, he gave it to them, saying,
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Drink this, all of you. This is the new covenant in my blood. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
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Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, we proclaim the faith. Christ is risen.
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This prayer which we are about to pray has historically been called the prayer of humble access.
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When we think of our great and glorious God, as we have considered, what is man that he is mindful of us?
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We are allowed to come and sit at the table with him. Have that on your minds as you pray this prayer.
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We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.
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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs on your table, but you are the same
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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear son,
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Jesus Christ, and to drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be cleaned by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us.
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Amen. Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, the gifts of God for the people of God.
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What a fitting hymn for today. Well, let us make this prayer of commitment together.
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Almighty and ever -living God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your
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Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that you are living members of the body of your
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Son and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And, O Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things, but having them imprinted on our hearts, may we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed.
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And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses,
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Christ our Lord. To him, to you, to the Holy Spirit, the honor and glory, now and forever.
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Amen. Please stand. Praise God.
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Receive now the blessing from the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
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The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them.
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Amen. Your servant, the
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Word, is now a saint.