I invite you to turn with me this morning to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 as we read verses 5 through 20 and then 57 through 80. 5 through 20 and 57 through 80. And I apologize, I gave the wrong text on the bulletin. It's not verses 15 through 20. That's the text for tomorrow morning from chapter 2, verses 15 through 20. But the text is verses 68 through 79, the portion known as Zechariah's Prayer. As we consider the portion dealing with the announcement of Zechariah regarding the birth of his son John, whom we know as John the Baptist, and then considering in a particular way Zechariah's song, verses 68 through 79. but reading verses 5-20 and 57-80 as we now give our attention to the Word of God. Beginning at verse 5 of Luke 1. In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well along in years. Once, when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by Lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you. And many will rejoice because of his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Zechariah asked the angel, How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years. The angel answered, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time. And then turning over to verse 57. When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy and they shared her joy. On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah. But his mother spoke up and said, no, he is to be called John. They said to her, there is no one among your relatives who has that name. Then they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote, His name is John. Immediately, his mouth was opened, and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea, people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, What then is this child going to be? For the Lord's hand was with him. His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He said through His holy prophets of long ago, Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. To show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath He swore to our father Abraham to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High. For you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him. to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace. And the child grew and became strong in spirit and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, all of a sudden, Zechariah could speak. Boys and girls, think about that. Not being able to speak, not being able to say one word or utter a sound for a long, long time. Then all of a sudden, in an instant, you can speak. But you see, this is not simply about Zechariah being given his voice back. But in receiving his voice back, Zechariah received a confirmation of the Word of God. Remember as we read what the angel said, that he would be silent until the child was born, until he had been given the name John. And Zechariah had said, his name will be John. And immediately, the Bible says, he was able to speak. Doubting Zechariah, who was described as we read as an upright, as a righteous man, yet doubted that God was able to do this amazing thing for he and Elizabeth that the angel said that he would do. Doubting, Zechariah doubted no more. And he uses his newly found voice not to brag about his new son, first of all, as we would do. Or not to say all of those things that he had wanted to say for nine months that were bottled up inside of him. But he uses his newly found voice, first of all, to worship and praise the Lord as Zechariah sings a song of salvation. It's called a song by many commentators and even, at least in my Bible here, the inscription that the editors added says Zechariah's song, but according to the passage itself, it's a prophecy. Zechariah filled with the Holy Spirit to speak the Word of God. And this prophecy, this song, really is given in two sentences. Two long sentences. Verses 68-75 makes up the first stanza, we might say. And verses 76-79 make up the second stanza. And therefore, in the first stanza, Zachariah sings a song of salvation. Salvation that comes from God. And in the second stanza, he sings of the salvation that is preached by God's servant. First of all, salvation that comes from God. Verse 68 again, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, Because He has come and has redeemed His people. It's nothing less than a doxology, a call for praise to God, really because of who He is and because of what He has done. Again, we know that Zachariah is overwhelmed with joy, not first of all because of the return of his voice and not first of all because of the birth of his son. Indeed, no doubt he's thrilled because of the birth of his son and he will rejoice in the task that his son is to have. But he rejoices, first of all, in the saving work of God. That's what Zechariah sees in the fulfillment of God's Word. He rejoices in the saving work of God who promises salvation. Zechariah knew that if God was able to keep His Word after nine months, that nothing can keep him from doing what he has prepared to do. And therefore, Zechariah praises God for redemption, a redemption that had not yet taken place. A redemption that was still future. But yet, as Zechariah remembers the angel Gabriel's words regarding John, that he would make ready a people prepared for the Lord, he is confident that the time has come as he clearly recalls God's covenant promises. First of all, to Israel. He says, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel. He is reminding Israel of the covenant relationship that God Himself had established with Israel when He said, I will be your God and you shall be My people. And He is now reminding Israel that God had not forgotten. Although according to man's estimation, God had been silent for some 400 years, He is telling His people, God has not forgotten us. In verse 68, He says, because He has come. That word is also translated as He has visited or He has looked upon. And the idea is that God had been looking after and caring for them all along with an active concern and an eagerness to help them. And now He has come to do for them what they needed most to redeem them. And Zechariah also remembers God's covenant promises today, He speaks of the house of his servant David. The Redeemer was to be the son of David. The one promised to David who would sit on his throne forever. In the first part, in the first stanza of this song, Zechariah clearly talks not about John, but about the one whose way John was to prepare. And then Zechariah also remembers God's covenant promises to Abraham. God swore an oath to Abraham. He swore on himself. and God cannot lie. God will not break His promises and therefore Zechariah is preaching that now is the time for the seed of Abraham to come through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. He recalls God's covenant promises, but he also remembers the prophecies of old. Those prophecies scattered throughout the pages of the Old Testament, Old Testament history, reminding of God's promises and pointing to the Messiah, verse 70, as He said through His holy prophets of long ago. It wasn't simply the Word of the prophets. It was God's Word. God spoke through the prophets of the fact of the Messiah, of the fact of the Redeemer. We confess that in High Library Catechism, Lord's Day 6, when it talks about the kind of mediator and deliverer that we need, and finally it says, who is this mediator and deliverer? Jesus Christ. Well, how do we know? And we confess that He was revealed in paradise. He was published by the patriarchs and the prophets. He was foreshadowed in the sacrifices and ceremonies. And finally, fulfilled in the only begotten Son of God. Scattered throughout the Old Testament history. One commentator puts it this way, He that is the Messiah Christ was Abraham's promised seed. He was Abraham's Isaac. He was Jacob's Shiloh. He was Moses' great prophet. He was Isaiah's Emmanuel. He was Ezekiel's shepherd, Daniel's holy one, Zechariah's branch, Malachi's angel. We could add Malachi's son of righteousness or Isaiah's shoot from the root of Jesse. But here, Zechariah sings a song of salvation, praising God who promises salvation, praising Him by recalling history, but also praising this God who accomplished salvation, accomplished the salvation which He has promised. Again, notice here, Zechariah is so confident in the faithfulness of God. He speaks of this salvation, he speaks of this redemption as if it's a done deal already. He says God has come. God has redeemed. God has raised up a horn of salvation. He is so confident because of God's kept promises to him. And he sees God's promises scattered throughout the Old Testament of the Messiah and what his son John will now do. God has accomplished salvation by His instrument. Verse 69 says, He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. This illustration of a horn is a guarantee of power. Now boys and girls, when you think of a horn, I'm not talking about a trumpet, a horn that makes music, but the horn of an animal, horns of an animal. The horn of an animal is a weapon of many animals. It's used offensively to attack, but it's also used defensively to defend from attack. A horn in Scripture symbolizes power and strength to rescue and save. In Psalm 18, verse 22, David says of the Lord, He is my shield and my horn and the horn of my salvation. The power, the strength of my salvation. My rescuer. That horn also is a guarantee of destruction. Knocking out, scattering the enemy. God accomplishes. He accomplished salvation by His instrument from our enemies. Verse 71, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. And verse 74 begins to rescue us from the hand of our enemies. Now we need to ask, who are they? Who are the enemies that Zechariah has in mind? We know that in Scripture, redemption presupposes bondage. It presupposes slavery and imprisonment. Redemption includes setting free by payment of the ransom price. Well, who does Zechariah have in mind? Well, there are a variety of answers, as we know. Some say the Romans. Some say Herod. And indeed, Israel desired to be redeemed, to be ransomed from both the Romans and Herod. But is Zechariah speaking of a political redemption or a spiritual redemption? Well, notice the evidence from this passage alone. Verses 74 and 75 and 77. To rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. And then v. 77, to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Beloved, Zechariah was a priest. And we know that it was the duty of the priest to go into the temple, even into the Holy of Holies, into the very presence of God and to sacrifice on behalf of the people to God for sin. And Zachariah understood that our greatest, our most dangerous enemy is Satan and sin that makes us enemies of God. He understood that our greatest danger is the wrath of God. It's not Satan, beloved. But our greatest danger is the wrath of God against our sin, the prospect of eternal punishment in hell. He understood that the Redeemer, The Redeemer prophesied all throughout the Old Testament is the one who conquers Satan and his allies. Sin, death, grave, the hell, and all the hosts of evil. And this includes the evil men of the world who are under the power of Satan. He understood these enemies not to be political and earthly enemies, first of all, but spiritual enemies. And this is confirmed throughout Scripture. In Genesis 3, verse 15 already, we read that God speaks of the seed of the woman who would come to crush the head of the seed of the serpent of Satan. Hebrews 9, verse 12 says that Christ entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Not temporary, not physical, not earthly, but eternal redemption. John in 1 John 3, verse 8 says, he who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. And Jesus in Matthew 20, verse 28 says, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. And as we were reminded earlier, Paul says in Romans chapter 5, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Zechariah sings of this salvation from sin. This salvation that comes only from God, who promised it, who accomplished it, who sent His Son to do for us what we needed most, but also who applies salvation. Again, verses 74 and 75, to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. That application includes rescue from our enemies. As verse 71 says, from all who hate us. Now boys and girls, throughout your lifetime, throughout my lifetime, there may be many people on this earth who hate us for a variety of reasons. But there is none who hates us more than Satan. Satan and his hosts desire and work for our destruction. And another enemy is sin. Sin that causes our decay from inside out. Infecting, infesting the heart. And being demonstrated through our thoughts and our words and our actions. And another enemy is that wicked world whose goal it is to attack us and to embarrass us and to cause us to doubt our faith, to doubt our salvation and to cause us to compromise our faith. But Scripture teaches us that when Jesus Christ conquered His and our spiritual enemies, that we conquered with Him. As Paul says in Romans 8, nothing shall separate us from His love because we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. And now, as Paul says in Romans 6, we have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Zechariah teaches us here that we have been rescued from our enemies. We've been rescued from sin. And we have been rescued for a purpose. Rescued for service. The Redeemer reigns in the redeemed. We have been given newness of life and that newness of life includes a new condition. rescued from eternal hell and damnation and delivered to eternal life. Rescued from danger and given over to eternal safety. And that newness of life includes a new relationship toward our enemies to serve Him, to serve God without fear. We can serve God without being terrified of Him. We now enjoy favor with Him. We don't have to be afraid of Him. He no longer calls us enemies, but sons and daughters. But at the same time, we can serve God without fear for our enemies. Psalm 27, verse 1 says, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? And the expected answer is, no one. I don't have to be afraid. Why? Because as the psalmist says in Psalm 56, verse 11, In God I trust I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? In the book of Acts, we read about the early New Testament church, and in chapter 4, we see in a particular way the courage of Peter and John. Courage that was clear to everyone with whom they had contact. Courage that was evident to the Sanhedrin, those who were trying to silence them, who threatened their very lives. Courage in Christ the Lord. Sadly, though, we have to admit that we are often afraid. We are often afraid of how others will react if they find out that we're Christians. If they find out that we go to church, if they find out that we attend a Christian school, we're afraid, oftentimes, of how the world will react to that. But there ought to be no greater joy, beloved, than to let the world know that we belong to Jesus Christ. To let them know by openly and boldly living and speaking for Him and serving Him. Why should we be afraid? Why should we worry about what man thinks? And part of that transformation of a new life is seen also then in a new relationship toward God. To serve Him. We can stop right there for a moment. To serve Him. No longer to oppose Him. No longer to hate Him. No longer to do the very opposite of what He commands us to do, but to serve Him and to do so in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. That points to the transformation of heart and conduct. Holiness of heart demonstrated in righteousness in life. Our goal is to be perfection. We know that we will never attain that in this life because our sins testify against us each and every day and we are comforted that the Holy Spirit continues to sanctify us, to cleanse us, to prepare us for glory, and that our Savior, our Bridegroom, will bring His Bride without stain, without wrinkle, present her to the Father one day. But still, in this life, our goal is to strive for perfection. In other words, never are we to use, well, I'm just human, Or everybody sins as an excuse for sin or as an excuse for not striving to live in the way that God calls us to live. We are called to serve Him in holiness and righteousness and this is to be before Him in His very presence. We live quorum Deo, before the face of God. This is talking somewhat, we might say, about the priesthood of all believers. Again, the priest went into the very holy of holies and our Lord Jesus Christ has torn the veil in two and opened the way for God's people to enter into His glorious presence. And we are called to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to Him. And this is to continue all our days, as Zachariah says. You see, just as redemption is eternal, we are to remember it. And we are to live as redeemed people our whole life long. Evidence of this redemption is summarized by Paul in Titus chapter 2 when he says, beginning at verse 11, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own eager to do what is good. Beloved, Zechariah sings of salvation that comes from God alone and that salvation that he sang of is for us too. It's a salvation promised and planned and accomplished by God through Jesus Christ. And it is applied to you and me by the regenerating and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Zachariah lays out these facts of God's salvation in the first stanza. And then in the second stanza, he makes it clear that this salvation is a truth that is preached by God's servant. Now turning his attention to his newborn son, John, yet notice his focus is still on that great gift of the Messiah and that gift of salvation and John's task to prepare the way for the Lord. And he tells us that John is commissioned by God Himself to be the mouthpiece of the Most High God. And as he preaches of God's salvation, he is to teach of the need for salvation. Verse 77, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. The knowledge of salvation comes through the forgiveness of sins. And therefore, he is to teach the need for salvation through a knowledge of sin. We need to know our sin. Isaiah 40, verses 3 and 4 says, A voice of one calling in the desert, Prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley should be raised up, every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground should become level. The rugged places a plain. Now that pointed to a coming visit to a particular province by a royal visit, by a nobleman, by a dignitary or a king of some sort. And the people of that province then, in preparation for that visit, were to build a physical highway as smooth and level as possible to fill in the valleys, to lower and level the mountains and the hills, to straighten out the curves, to make a path worthy of the arrival of that royal dignitary for the most comfortable and easy ride possible to glorify that dignitary. There's so much that can be said about that passage alone, but those words are applied. The voice of one calling and his work to prepare are applied to John in Luke 3 and as well the other Gospels. And figuratively, that points to preparing the highway of the heart for the Messiah. That was John's task, to prepare the highway of the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. To call men to repent and believe. To call the lofty, the scribes and the Pharisees and kings, those who think they need no help. Those who think they need no salvation. Those who think they're above it. To call them to humble themselves to see their need. But as well, to call the lowly, those who are so distressed in their sin that think that there is no hope for them. to call them to see that there is hope in Christ Jesus. And to call those who are simply deceived, those who are living in sin and not caring, to see that they need help, they need salvation. And this preparation of the highway of the heart includes teaching one of their sin and misery. Teaching one that they stand in a dangerous relationship to God. Teaching one that they are hopeless in and of themselves. And that describes each and every one of us beloved and this preparation of the highway of the heart includes teaching a need for a savior because one will not believe they need a savior unless they understand and confess that they are a sinner worthy of God's wrath and eternal punishment to use the medicine analogy again if you don't know you're sick you won't think that you need the medicine if you don't know that you are a sinner headed for hell, you won't believe that you need a Savior. And therefore, the preparation of the highway of the heart includes teaching, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, that we were by nature objects of wrath, of God's wrath. And we had absolutely no way in ourselves to escape eternal death. But, as Paul continues, God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. John was to teach of the need for salvation through a knowledge of sin, but also through a knowledge of forgiveness of sin. As Zechariah says, a knowledge of salvation comes through the forgiveness of sins. Salvation is not a matter of deliverance from the bondage of Rome or any other earthly power. It's not a matter of gaining wealth and prestige and earthly glory, but it's a matter of reconciliation to God through the saving work of the promised Redeemer. If you are not reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, then you are not saved. If you are not forgiven, you are not saved. You cannot know salvation if your sins are not forgiven. But if you are forgiven of all of your sins, then you know the salvation. Then you truly understand that you are justified before God with God's declaration to you that you are forgiven of all of your sins, that you are free from the sentence of completely deserved condemnation, that you are an adopted child of God, that you have been given the gift of eternal life. People of God, all that sin, damaged and destroyed is undone by the Redeemer's perfect work of salvation. And that blessing is mine through forgiveness. God alone saves through forgiveness for Jesus' sake. Not by you and me piling up merits and good works and all these good things because you have no hope in yourself. I have no hope in myself. And all of this was to be preached by God's servant. But the task also included teaching the motivation for salvation. And this too is where even greater excitement comes in. Verses 78 and 79, backing up to 77, to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace. You see, the root and the cause of our salvation is not found in us. It's not because we are so worthy. It's not because we were worth it. But the root and the cause of our salvation is found in the merciful heart of God. That merciful heart demonstrated as He sent His only begotten Son into this world. That merciful heart demonstrated by the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. And we understand what mercy is all about. Where mercy is needed, misery already exists. And mercy is to relieve one of that misery. Zachariah speaks of those living in darkness, living in the shadow of death. It's also translated in some verses as sitting, dwelling in darkness, being stuck, as it were, in the shadow of death. That describes the sinful nature of man. One who is in danger, fear, hopelessness, helplessness, tired, worn out, giving up the struggle because there is no human help in sight. It's a picture of death. But Paul says in Ephesians 2, But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. Beloved Jesus Christ is the rising Son. come to us from heaven to shine on God's people, to give light and new life to those who were dead. He guides us by His Word on the path of peace, His Word which is a lamp unto our feet and a light upon our path, as the psalmist says, and He brings us to peace with God. As we heard this morning in our assurance of pardon from Romans 5, therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. It's a fact. And that fact, beloved, is declared to you by God in justification. And that fact is assured to you by the Holy Spirit through sanctification. The Holy Spirit gives comfort and assurance that my sins are forgiven, that the enmity has been removed between me and God, and that I am God's saved possession. all of this is to be preached by God's servant John who would one day say behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world but it's also the very same word that the church today is to believe and to proclaim to a lost world through the preaching ministry of the church Paul says in Romans chapter 10 for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. This is the great missionary task of the church. This is the great evangelistic task of each and every believer to be used by God if it is His will to prepare the highway of the heart of mankind. Indeed, to preach the Word of God of sin. That all need to be saved, no matter how powerful one is, no matter how great one is, all need to be saved because all are sinners. But at the same time, to preach the comfort that there is no sinner so lost, there is no sinner so lost whom Jesus Christ cannot save. He says, I have accomplished it. It is finished. And the call is to go out to you, to me, to the world, to repent of our sins, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. That's our God's guarantee. Just as Zechariah was sure that redemption had already come, that's God's guarantee. there's no greater news than that God has remembered His promise to save a people for Himself, to rescue us from the depths of sin and hell into which we had cast ourselves. And to save us not because we were worthy to be saved and not because we could benefit Him, but simply because of His great mercy and His glory. Beloved, when we understand that, when we understand salvation through the forgiveness of our sins and understand that God is the motivation, His mercy is the motivation, then what joy and what motivation for us to strive to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. Zechariah sang of and John was given the awesome task to preach of that salvation that comes only from God. Salvation that God promised, that God accomplished, and that God applies to those He has chosen in Christ Jesus. as Jesus Christ has become our salvation from sin. And those who know that salvation from sin, as we have been blessed to know, also know eternal peace with God. And therefore, beloved, may we diligently sing of it. May we diligently attend to the preaching of it. And may we diligently participate in the proclamation of it to the ends of the earth, that Jesus Christ may be praised. Amen. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we stand amazed as we consider Your Word. The whole of Your Word. And as we are reminded that from the very beginning, You had promised a Savior. And although Your people were often blind to that promise and often forgot that promise, yet You never did. And You fulfilled that promise in Jesus Christ, our Lord, sending Your Son to die for us and to live again. And Father, we pray that even as Your people in this day, as we look back on the accomplishment of such a great salvation, That we might know, O Lord, that Your Word is just as true today as it has been throughout all of history. That those who repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. Father, we thank You for that gift to us. Help us, O Lord, to live according to that gift. To live in the joy of that salvation. That it may be seen, it may be demonstrated and witnessed by others. As we demonstrate it in our lives and through our speech. and to the joy that is on our face. Father, we thank You who help us to celebrate the gift of Your Son for us. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.