The Parable of the Sower - 18

I'd like you back to Genesis chapter 4 with me.

Just a moment. When I was 18 years old and trying to convince Reagan to take me seriously, I was invited by her grandparents over to their house for dinner, but Reagan would not be there. It would be Reagan, her grandparents, and all of her uncles. Her uncles are quite a bit bigger than I am and so I got there early and was seated at the table and they come trickling in and they're really not sure of me yet. They're trying to figure out who I am and what my business is there. And as uncomfortable as that was, things really lightened up when a little lady walked in and she recognized me.

She knew that I was Josh Strengths son. And that really lightened the load of the situation because I knew somebody there. I want you to imagine that you're stranded in a foreign land, you're surrounded by people who do not know you, do not care for you, do not even speak your language. You are alone, you're without help, you're without hope. Now imagine in that situation, in the midst of that discomfort, you hear a familiar voice.

Relief washes over you because someone knows you, someone sees you, someone has come for you or at least walks with you through wherever you're at. This brothers and sisters is the reality of prayer in a fallen world. Prayer is not merely a religious ritual or a desperate act or last resort. It is the privilege of those whom God has called to be his own. From the very beginning, even in our text today, as we will see in Genesis 4 26, the defining mark of God's people has been this, that they call upon the name of the Lord.

But why? Why do we who are fallen and weak have the audacity to approach the Almighty? It is because, beloved, we will find that he has called upon us first. Today, as we consider the gift of prayer, I want us to see how it distinguishes the people of God, how it sustains us in a fallen world and how it flows from the very promises of God himself. May this truth stir our hearts afresh that we might not be found among those whom the Lord says there is none who calls upon my name.

Instead, let us be a people marked by prayer, urgent, persistent and full of faith. The text reads in Genesis 4 26, Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. The first observation we will make this morning in this text is that prayer is a gift which distinguishes God's people. In Genesis 4 26, the text reads that men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Here I am convinced we are shown the gospel centrality and the foundation of prayer, since the only reason that men call upon the Lord is because the Lord has first called upon fallen men. Would you recall with me if you will, Genesis 3, Adam and Eve have fallen to the serpent's temptation. And as the Lord appears in the garden in the cool of the day to walk with them as has been their custom, they flee from his presence and are hidden from him. And what does the Lord say but that gentle and sweet voice where art thou? While God would explain the consequences of their sin, in Genesis 3 15, we find abundant grace as he delivers a salvation promise in the gift of the serpent crusher. He spares their lives when they were only expecting death. And why is it that men call on the Lord?

It is because the Lord has first spared men as he came looking for us in our sin. In the ancient Near Eastern cultures of the time, the gods were distant, untrustworthy and cruel. Listen to this ancient pagan prayer from the time of Moses. It says, The Lord in his anger of heart looked at me. The God in the rage of his heart confronted me.

When the goddess was angry with me, she made me become ill. The God whom I know or do not know has placed suffering upon me. Although I am looking constantly for help, no one takes me by the hand. And when I weep, they do not come to my side.

I utter laments, but no one hears me. This is so different from what we learn of our Lord. One writer remarks, In the Bible, God draws close and invites us to call upon his name. In the Bible, we find that prayer is a gift that distinguishes God's people from all others.

When Elijah stood alone before the prophets of Baal, he said, I am alone left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. And he continues, Then you call on the name of your gods and I will call upon the name of the Lord. In Zechariah chapter 13 verse 9, there's this recapitulation that's occurring there.

There's this sense at which restoration is in mind. And listen to what the Lord says he will do. I will bring one third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. Then they will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say this is my people and they will say the Lord is my God. These two texts are just two positive examples in the Old Testament, which I believe support my hypothesis that the people of God are those who are distinguished as those who call upon the name of the Lord. But the New Testament or the Old Testament doesn't only speak positively about this.

It also speaks negatively. It associates the enemies of God with those who do not call on his name. One text is Psalm 79 verse 6, but another that I'm interested in is Jeremiah 10 verse 25.

It reads, Pour out your fury on the Gentiles who do not know you. And on the families who do not call upon your name. For they have eaten up Jacob, devoured him and consumed him and made his dwelling place desolate. Now before I apply this, before I explain this, I want us to see how the New Testament continues with this trend. One example is in the life of the Apostle Paul. In Acts 9, the Apostle Paul has been dramatically converted. And following his conversion, the Lord tells Ananias to go and to find Paul. And the way that he marks Paul, the thing that he tells Ananias to look for is as the King James translates it, behold he prayeth. Furthermore, when Ananias in disbelief calls upon the Lord, here's what he says about this man. He says, Lord, this man is the one who had the authority to bind all who call upon your name. Later on, this same Apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 2. Listen to how he identifies them to the church of God, which is at Corinth.

To those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. The reason I am belaboring this point is because I want us to be convinced that the Scriptures thematically, overwhelmingly identify Christians as those who call upon the name of the Lord. In short, Christians are praying people. If that is the case according to the biblical narrative, I believe that there should be great concern about the lack of prayer which plagues the church today.

R.C. Sproul once said, if Christ had any complaint, it would be my bride never talks to me. So if we are a people who in the mind of the Scriptures are designated and distinguished as a people who call upon the name of the Lord, then we must, beloved, wage war against prayerlessness in our Christian lives. To be content in prayerlessness is to violate one of the most core characteristics of our very redeemed identities. When we don't feel like praying, we must be disciplined enough to pray. And in our praying, we can pray that the Spirit might give us desire to pray.

That He would stoke in us that Spirit-given, God-given desire to cry out, Abba Father, it is our birthrights. May it never be said of this assembly, may it never be said of us individually what is said in Isaiah 64 verse 7. There is no one who calls on your name. There is no one who stirs himself up to take hold of you.

Why? Because prayer is given for life in a fallen world. That is my second point. Prayer is not only a gift which distinguishes us, but it is given for life in a fallen world. In the drama of Genesis 3 and 4, there is a great deal of weight placed upon names. When Adam grasps a hold of the promise of God to provide a serpent crusher, remember he is hiding because he is expecting that God is going to kill them. What's the promise of God?

That if you take bite of that fruit, and the day that you do so, you shall surely die. When God appears, they are expecting death, but what does God deliver? Life, life-giving promise that He will provide a serpent crusher from the seed of the woman. And where her name is only woman, for she came out of man, Adam looks upon her who he thought was as good as dead and he names her Eve, because you will be the mother of all the living. Did Adam have faith?

I think his actions, his works here designate or declare yes, he does have faith. Does Eve have faith? When Eve conceived her first son, she named him Cain.

Her response in the text, she said and it says in here, let me see if I can find the text for you. Then she bore again, now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. When Eve conceived her first son, she named him Cain and her response and the meaning of his name indicate that Eve had great faith. As a matter of fact, a deeper study would reveal that it seems as though she is anticipating that Cain is the serpent crusher himself.

It is that man who God has given to thwart the wiles of the devil and to deliver us from this fallen world. In the drama, we are supposed to be tensed up, to feel this pressure, this tension as we see the seed of darkness waging war against the seed of light. The serpent tempts Eve and she falls. Cain, who was thought to be the promised one, rises up against the only other possible candidate, Abel, and kills him.

It seems that darkness wins. There is no other name. There is no other name and then God blesses them with Seth. And this is where in the story we're supposed to expect another discourse full of attention like we've seen with Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, the way that they worship, the way that they fellowship, their struggles, but we don't get that with Seth. You would expect that he's the one to carry the name, the one to provide deliverance, the one to be this intriguing fellow in the story, but all we get from him is the fact that he had a son and he died and then he disappears from the scene. And I believe, beloved, that that is the exact reason why Moses places in the story that at that time men began to call upon the name of the Lord.

Why? Men began to call upon the name of the Lord in my mind because it became clear to men that perhaps God isn't going to bring his promise to pass as quickly as they originally thought. They came to understand that here we are suffering in a sin-cursed world and so all that they can do, all that they can do is to call upon the name of their promise-giving God. In light of this, I believe that we are to learn that the anxieties and suffering of life in a fallen world are meant to draw us into a place of prayer, to call upon God to bring his promises to pass. Bob Coughlin, he does a rendition of Come Thou Fount and he says, Come my Lord no longer Terry, bring thy promises to pass, for I know thy power will keep me till I'm home with thee at last. And in Psalm 119 verse 49 through 50, while the psalmist is enduring the afflictions of life in a broken world, he cries out, Remember the word to your servant upon which you have caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has given me life.

Earlier I mentioned the problem of prayerlessness, but I believe that this is a good place to also address the problem of prayerless praying, as Joel Beakey puts it. In James 5, you can turn there if you would like, in James 5 we are told a few things about Elijah. A few things about Elijah, the first thing is that this is a normal man like you and I. One thing that we might be tempted to think of about the prophets and about the patristics, or about the fathers in the Old Testament, is that they are superheroes and they're not.

And the scriptures belabor the point to show you that these are sinful men just like us. He says this is a man who dealt with light passions just as you. And then what does he go on to tell us in verse 16? He says, if I can find my text, verse 17, excuse me, he said Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly. He prayed earnestly. What's fascinating about that language there is that it could also read, he prayed in his praying. He prayed in his praying.

Of this, Alexander Ross writes, a man may pray with his lips and yet may not pray with an intense desire of the soul. Beakey again remarks, prayer is the thermostat of our spiritual condition. Prayer, prayerless praying is a symptom of our entanglement with the love of this world and trust in its wealth.

Catch this. For prayer is our sighing after the world to come. It is our longing for God to bring his promises to pass.

Now, while we must develop discipline in our Christian duties so that we are not controlled by our ever changing emotions, we should not be content to walk through this life never experiencing true praying in our prayers. Do we not long to commune with the divine? Do we not hunger and thirst for his presence? Do we not desire to be like Abram, fellowshipping with the Lord in the heat of the day? Do we not wish to take advantage of our birthright and be, as it were, friends of God who commune with him and fellowship with him and talk with him? One of the beautiful things about that Genesis narrative where it says that this theophany, these three angelic beings come before Abram in the heat of the day as he's pulling upon that garden imagery. In the garden, God walks with Adam in the cool of the day. And yet in the fallen world, he appears to Abram in the heat of the day and the burdens of life God appears and fellowships and communes with us as his people.

Do we not long for that? To commune with the divine? To speak with him? To develop, as it were, in tandem with the Spirit, this crying in our souls, our Father. Thomas Brooks writes, Ah, how often Christians have God kissed you at the beginning of prayer and spoke peace to you in the midst of prayer and filled you with joy and assurance upon the close of prayer. Oh, how I long for regularly experiencing that kind of communion with God and may God forgive me for not wanting it more. May we not only wage war against prayerlessness, but may we wage war against prayerless praying. May we get out of these random repetitions where our hearts are so detached, where we are going through the motions that communion with God is nothing more than a box that we can check off so our consciences don't bother us while we go to sleep.

May we actually seek the face of God. You commune with God and enjoy God. He is the greatest privilege and it is the chief pinnacle point of creation to commune with God.

To commune with God. John Bunyan wrote, Again, prayer is a pouring out of the heart or soul. There is in prayer an un-buzzoming of a man's self, an opening of the heart to God, an infection pouring out of the soul in requests and sighs and in groans. It is an expression signifying that prayer there goeth the very life and whole strength to God. This is the prayer to which the promise is made for the delivering of a poor creature out of captivity and of slavery. This is the heart of prayer that is to burst from the heart of those in whom Paul writes, For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father. Could it be, beloved, that the reason that we are so content to live without this communion is because we have found comfort and infatuation with all the things that are around us? One poet wrote that God gives us good things and we turn around and make those good things into God's themselves. And is this the place where we are at in our lives today? Why is our prayer life so hindered?

Surely that is perhaps the greatest reason for each of us. And that is why I believe that suffering is a means by which we are drawn into prayer. God acknowledges the sufferings of this broken world, reaches forth the hand, and invites us into prayer. Christian, you are not like that old Sumerian-Ocadian prayer that I read earlier.

I call out in my lament and no one helps me, but the Lord sees us in our agony and waves us in from the toils of this life and says, come and taste and see that the Lord is good. In the Old Testament, priests were anointed with oil for their office. In the New Testament, Jesus, our great high priest, is seen suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. The word Gethsemane means the olive press. It is there that we see the burden of all of our sins laying upon him and crushing our beloved Lord beneath the burden as he is one entering the olive press on our behalf. Was he not anointed with agony as he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood? It is under this load of suffering that we read one of the most famed prayers in all of human existence. Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. What was it that provoked such endurance in our Lord? Well, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2 tells you it is the promise, the glory that sat before him. What drove the Lord through such agony? It is the glory that sat before him.

What drives the Christian through the suffering and anxiety of life in a broken world? It is the promises of the Lord to his people, the glory that is set before us. And where do we claim those promises? Where do we rejoice in those promises? Where do we beg for those promises to be brought to pass except for our time in prayer where we speak to the one who delivered them to us in the first place? God is not annoyed, nor is he bothered when we bring our promises before him. God is delighted when we avail ourselves and arm ourselves and annoy our mouths, as it were, with his promises in prayer and place them before him in that time. It is a sense in which we declare before him, I know that you have declared a promise to me in your word and that you are capable of bringing it to pass. I know that you hear me and I know that you are sympathetic with my petitions.

He is thrilled when his people take advantage of his promises. Do you have an armory of prayer? Most of us do not have an armory of prayer.

If it is, it is simply a handgun that we keep beside our beds at night, something similar to what we were equipped with at Children. Now I lay me down to sleep and our prayer is done. Do we arm ourselves, as it were, with the promises of God and pray the Scriptures? I cannot pray long. I do not know what to pray. Pray the Scriptures. Go through the Psalms.

Meditate upon them. Let the word search your heart and reveal sins to you and present promises to you and reveal the glories of God to you. And as you enter into prayer, declare the glories of God back to himself in worship. Acknowledge the sinfulness of your being. Acknowledge the brokenness of this world.

Acknowledge that you are one who has been transformed by grace and you long for a world to come where there will be no night there. And you bring these promises before him, you will not run out of things to pray. Third, prayer grows out of God's promises. So far, we have learned that men call on the name of the Lord for two reasons.

First, because the Lord called upon fallen men. And one thing we need to understand is all prayer is gospel-centric in its nature. All of our prayers are Trinitarian in heart. We come before the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

And while our prayers are normatively addressed to the Father, it is perhaps advised that we do pray to each individual persons of the Trinity, thanking them for their work. That the Father in eternity past has elected us in his Son as a love gift to his Son, and yet the Son turns and bestows it unto the Father. And yet the Spirit, that great Spirit of love, we are but a poor pauper caught up in a Trinitarian love affair. And the Spirit has came forth and reached into our death and brought us forth, baptizing us into the works of Christ, keeping us and walking with us, inviting us into that sweet heavenly communion. And he sows that seed in our heart where we cry forth, Father, it's a great promise. Second, because that same Lord gave them promises. So first, we call upon the Lord because he first called upon us. And second, we call upon the Lord because he gave us promises. And with that in mind, I'd like to spend our final moments discussing calling on the name of the Lord for us in the new covenant. The first thing I want us to see is that in the new covenant, the authors intentionally use the word kityos instead of Yahweh or Jehovah when it talks about calling upon the name of the Lord. In the text that you were reading in Genesis, when you were reading the text in Genesis, behind that phrase Lord there is his covenant name.

You'll notice oftentimes your English translations will give you great aid. They'll capitalize every letter in the word Lord. It's letting you know that his covenant name Yahweh or Jehovah is being used.

And it changes. The New Testament authors are intentional in what they're doing in the New Testament because instead of invoking Jehovah, they are using the name kityos or Lord there. What I mean by this is that in the Old Testament, it's always read that men can't call on the name of Yahweh, but in the New Testament, men call on the name of kityos. One example of this is Paul. Paul cites Joel 2.32 in Romans 10.13.

Here's what he says. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, kityos shall be saved. Peter does the same thing in Acts 2. He says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And what's remarkable is that they both use kyrios instead of Yahweh.

Why? Because it is assumed that calling on the name of Jesus is functionally the same as calling upon the name of Yahweh. If you are one who is intrigued in evangelizing the cult, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, this is perhaps a very effective means of revealing to them that the apostles very clearly identified Jesus as one with God. If John 1 doesn't do the trick, which unfortunately they've manipulated in their translations, it is assumed that calling on the name of Jesus is functionally the same as calling on the name of Yahweh. This is a rather silent and easily overlooked argument for defending the divinity of Christ.

The second thing I want to consider is the question of why. Why do we end our prayers by saying in Jesus' name? I'll be honest, when I'm in my office, and I'm usually about a month out trying to think of what I want to preach, I usually try to think through our liturgy here at the church, our order of service, and then I'll begin thinking through why do we do certain things like that? And one of the things that I haven't addressed yet in my time here is why do we end our prayers in Jesus' name?

Amen. Let me give you three reasons for why we end our prayers in praying in Jesus' name. First, we pray in Jesus' name because it recognizes that Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. We are taught this in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5. When we recognize the Lord as our mediator, we recognize that we are not sufficient in our sinfulness to stand before the Father, but that the Father has graciously bestowed upon us His Son as our go-between. The Son being both God and man is sympathetic with us, but is capable also of representing us before the Father.

We might enjoy the fullness of our position as His redeemed people. A second reason like it is that we pray in Jesus' name because it bolsters our confidence in prayer. What is the confidence that we have in prayer? Most of us remember what it was like as young Christians, particularly what it was like to get caught up in those sins, that cyclical lifestyle of the same sins that we repent over, and out of nowhere they seem to grab us and pull us back in. And then when it's that time of day where we do our devotions, we don't feel like we can do them or can pray because we are not worthy. Perhaps you've experienced that before, that you can't come before the Lord in prayer or you can't avail yourself of devotions because you've sinned and you are not worthy. Why do we pray in Jesus' name?

Because it bolsters our confidence. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14 through 16 reads, Seeing then that we have a great high priest who passes through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So when we pray in Jesus' name, we are reminded that we come before God not as a trespassing enemy, but as a beloved child coming to obtain mercy and help.

I've got children and especially my five year old, she's a little bit more mobile until around three o'clock in the morning. I'll hear pitter pattering and she will dive over me, dive over me into bed. She doesn't ask as one who is coming for help, thinking she might be turned away. She knows that when she comes, she can immediately avail herself of my safety because she's a child of mine. Likewise, because we have a high priest who is sympathetic with us and through whom we are reconciled and redeemed, we can walk before the throne of grace, confident and bold because we are children through the work of Christ. Finally, we pray in Jesus' name because it reminds us that our prayers are to be structured according to his will.

If you come from a name it and claim it, prosperity gospel background, saying in Jesus' name is fairly regular and declaring just about anything that you want to acquire in this life. But that is not exactly how Jesus meant us to use or abuse his name. In 1 John 5 verse 14 we read, now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. With this in mind, the health and prosperity movement which used the name of Jesus as a spell that enchants the world into giving us a luxurious life is quickly dispelled. The Lord whose name we pray promised us hardship, but he also promised us his presence.

He promised us suffering, but he also promised us that you'll see my face again. This might cause us to wonder whether we should ever pray for our material and physical needs, and I believe the answer to that is yes, just reading the Lord's prayer, where he teaches us to pray for our daily bread. So I'm not saying that we ought not to pray for our daily needs and our physical needs, but what I am saying is that the sum and substance of our prayer are not to be so enraptured or consumed with the things of this world, but rather the inner man by which we are nourished when we approach him in prayer. What is the primary concern of the Lord that we would be sanctified in truth, his word is truth, so we read the word, we avail ourselves of what his will is for our life, we come before him, and we pray that the Lord might sanctify us to be more like himself.

That's the Lord's will to your life, and guess what? He will always answer that prayer. Philippians 1.6 tells us that he who began a good work in you will perform it until completion at the day of Jesus Christ. He will sanctify you. That is a prayer that you can pray and take it to the bank that he will answer. It may not come the way that you're expecting.

It may not come as quickly as you were expecting. But he will answer these prayers. In conclusion, I want us to first prioritize prayer as a balm given to those dealing with the cuts and bruises of life in a fallen world. Joel Beekie writes, We may not have much money or property to bequeath to future generations, but we can pass on a heritage far more valuable than silver or gold, a treasury of prayers that we lifted up for their good.

I love this quote by Thomas Watson. He says, The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel. We must prioritize prayer as the balm for our souls as we face the nicks and cuts and bruises of life in a broken world. Second, I want us to come to prayer with a blood-washed conscience. Believer, does your conscience condemn you when you think of doing your spiritual disciplines? Avail yourself of 1 John 1-7.

It reminds us that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. And because that is the case, we can come before the throne of grace with confidence. A hymn that I quite enjoy singing is My God is Reconciled. His pardoning voice I hear.

He owns me as his child. I can no longer fear. With confidence, I now draw nigh. With confidence, I now draw nigh.

An Abba Father, Abba cry. We come before him with a blood-washed conscience. Third, I want us to continue in prayer. It's hard for me to read the early church. I really enjoy history. Lately I've been doing some study of the Reformers.

It's fascinating. Martin Luther spent between 2 to 3 hours every morning in prayer. Every morning in prayer. And here's what he said about prayer. Prayer is a difficult matter and hard work. It is far more difficult than preaching the word or performing other official duties in the church.

This is the reason why it is so rare. John Haldane, he's a minister in the 16th, 17th century. His wife writes this about him. That he would raise up and would pray from 4 to 8 a.m. He would pray from 4 to 8 a.m. and he would tell her that it made him sick when he could hear blacksmiths and other men working.

And here's his complaint. How could it be that their masters are worthy of more devotion than my master? How could it be that their masters, the workers who the blacksmiths are working to satisfy or the customers that the blacksmiths are working to satisfy, how could it be that they are worth more attention and devotion than my master who is redeeming with his own blood? Do you find yourself discouraged from prayer because of how difficult it is? Do you feel that your prayers are dull, empty and without communion with God? Then we should make it our duty to pray until we have prayed. We must be like the woman in Christ's parable who comes and, as it was, annoys the judge until he gives her what she wants or at least acknowledges her plea. Come before the Lord.

Give him no rest. Come before his throne and pray until you have prayed. Seek his face.

The only thing that we long for in prayer is communion with the divine. Do not turn away until he gives it to you. It is your birthright as his child. He delights in it. He rejoices in it. He has promised you that you would receive it.

Avail yourself of his promises. When we find ourselves falling into a place of prayerlessness, one of the most damning affirmations that comes to mind is the fact that it means that we are resting in our own self-sufficiency. And there is nothing more diametrically opposed to the Christian life than beginning to cultivate an attitude as though we are self-sufficient. The first beatitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And this blessed bankruptcy, yes, it's the way that we got in through humility and not works of our own unless we should boast, but it's also a sense at which we do regular accounting to come and to confess and to realize that we are nothing without him, but by the merits of his son, we have the kingdom.

And we rest and we come before him and acknowledge him daily as just paupers who receive benevolent grace from our God. Genesis 4 ends, Then man began to call on the name of the Lord. If you look in Revelation chapter 22, the very end of your canon, I want you to find one final declaration. 22 verse 20. We'll find the last promise and the last calling upon the name of the Lord in the scriptures.

He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. This is the word of God for the people of God. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your blessings upon us and we ask that you would sanctify this word to our heart that we might seek you more fully and rejoice in you day by day if you are a gracious Lord in whom we rejoice. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.