I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Joshua, Joshua chapter 8. It's a long chapter and Pastor Gordon is just getting over some sickness and so I'm going to do him a favor and read this chapter for him. So let's read this together. Here now is God's very own word to us. And the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you and arise and go to Ai. See, I've given into your hand the king of Ai and his people, his city and his land. And you shall do to Ai as its king and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall not take as plunder for yourself. Lay an ambush against the city behind it. So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. And he commanded them, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready. And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us, just as before, we shall flee before them. And they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, They are fleeing from us, just as before. So we will flee before them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you. So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai in the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people. Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people of Ai. And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai with a ravine between them and Ai. He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai to the west of the city. So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them. And as they pursued Joshua, they were drawn away from the city. Not a man was left in Ai, or Bethel, who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel. Then the Lord said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand towards Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place. And as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire. So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven. And they had no power to flee this way or that. For the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city went up, They then turned back and struck down the men of Ai, and the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. And Israel struck them down until there was left none that survived or escaped. But the king of Ai they took alive and brought him near to Joshua. When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to that very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword. And all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai. But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction. Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua. So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day. And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day. At that time, Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebel, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones upon which no man has wielded an iron tool. And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. And all Israel's sojourner as well as native-born with their elders and officers and their judges stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses, a servant of the Lord, had commanded at the first to bless the people of Israel. And afterwards, he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel and the women and the little ones and the sojourners who lived among them. Well, we continue this morning our study in the book of Joshua. And really seven and eight are taken together but as you see there's a lot of content here so it's good to break them up into a few sermons. Last week was a huge setback for Israel. Remember we had we have been studying Joshua and this has been quite a book to study to see the advancement of the kingdom of God. And I think this is such a shocking narrative to us because of God enacting his justice in the earth in ways that makes us uncomfortable. But it's also a good reminder that when you turn to the book of Revelation, you turn to the last book of the Bible and you come to chapters 21 and 22, the land is finally cleansed. And all those who are outside the kingdom of God are put outside of that kingdom forever. And the new heavens and the new earth comes where righteousness shall dwell. That's the larger story to all of this. Today we're going to focus in a bit on what had happened with Israel. And after this great defeat that had happened, really this embarrassing defeat, as they did not at the first run take the city of Ai. It was a little city. It was a little city. Completely inferior to Jericho in every way. Jericho was a military outpost. Jericho stood on the border of the land. Jericho was the one that the nations looked to to defend the border. Here's this little city of only about 12,000 inhabitants. That's really quite a small city pictured before the greater and mightier cities of Canaan. But what was it that got Israel into trouble? Well, look at last time. It was sin, of course, in looking at the situation with Achan and what he had stolen and coveted in his heart in taking the plunder that God had not allowed him to take. Deep within the camp, you'll remember, the Lord had searched out and had pulled out before everyone. The secret sin of Achan brought it to the surface and we studied last time a hard and difficult judgment upon Achan. I'm sure in the camp of Israel, everyone stood at this point dreadfully afraid of the Lord. Dreadfully afraid of the Lord. There was the great truth that had not been appreciated by the new generation. Think about this. This is the new generation. The previous generation had perished in the wilderness. The new generation had not taken seriously nor understood the holiness of God. And that sin can't dwell in His presence. So we keep running up against, especially as we study the Old Testament narratives, teaching us something about Israel's relation with their God and how they relate to him with this great problem of sin. But we don't want to give the impression as we're working through this that this whole arrangement, even in the Old Covenant, is without grace. The whole nation would have been wiped out if God pulled out the secret sins of everyone. We left off last time with God's wrath being satisfied. As the sin of one man, we looked at sort of the representative teaching of this. As the sin of one man, and we see God's wrath was propitiated. God's wrath was turned away. So we seem to have an entirely new moment now after the sin has been put away from Israel. Things were being learned. Something very important was being learned. God's wrath can be satisfied for the greatest of sins. God's wrath can be turned away. And this was obviously, as we looked at last time, and all the narratives do this, they showcase for us in some way the person in the work of Jesus. The narratives are designed to do that. This is why we preach Christ from all of Scripture. We're going to see that again today in sort of a shocking inclusion that really does take us right to the Lord Jesus' work. But there's something important here to learn about how we conduct ourselves before the Lord. How we live before the Lord. How we go forward in the assignment that he's given us as his kingdom on the earth. And I can't emphasize enough, as I was thinking and I like to do, about a certain sort of thematic statement that would go with this that might help you as you think about this particular passage. And it's the great truth that God gives grace to the humble, but he opposes the proud. I believe that's a strong undercurrent here through this that the Lord is teaching us about how he demonstrates his mercy and to whom he gives that mercy. I think we learn something very important in front of us today in Joshua chapter 8 regarding that. that humility before the Lord shows itself in repentance for sin and in the way we respond to the fact that God's wrath is turned away from us and not giving us what we deserve. What should the appeasing of God's wrath and not judging us for our sins, what should that produce in us? what should that um what should that drive in us well humility of course but in what kind of way and i think that's what the passage is helping us to understand a bit this morning that humility most shows itself in the christian life entrusting the lord and how he orders all the events of our lives for his purposes even when it makes no sense and even when we feel powerless in this world to accomplish what is set before us this passage is meant after an awful exposure of sin and judgment to encourage us to trust the divine word now that's something that i constantly say from the pulpit that's something the scriptures constantly emphasize trust the divine word trust what he said to us but it's a lot more difficult thing to do when you're actually on the in the in the field when we're actually living the life what does trust look like what is he calling us to and i think that's captured here in a helpful way so we want to look at the encouragement that's given up front and then the directives from god's word that are provided and then his renewal that he gives to his covenant community after the awful event of last week notice verse one. And the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear and do not be dismayed. It's an immediate encouragement after what happened last time. The Lord encourages the nation of Israel through Joshua that since there is forgiveness with the Lord, he is feared and that he desires for us to not be discouraged but encouraged but in the right fear i think that's where we enter this text you'll notice here that after aiken's death so verse 26 of the last section so the lord turned from the fierceness of his anger something had just been taught when god deals with our sins and when god humbles us what is the great objective i think sometimes and maybe even as re as reformed folk we've we've struggled a bit with this that even when we come to the supper is it to continue to maintain a sort of wallowing in our sin and a feeling of of great despair always and never getting up that is not his objective that is not his goal even though sin is despairing and even though sin uh is deserving of wrath when his wrath is appeased as he has made known to the ends of the earth there's a proper response to this there's a proper response to his his gospel and i think we see the purpose in this particularly today in chapter 8 that when we experience the shame and the burden of sin in this life and we see people get what they what we typically all deserve what is it that changes changes us it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance God doesn't want us wallowing in our sins god doesn't want us remaining with our head down that is not his place for us does not want us continuing with the shame and the burden he's lifted it so the first thing he does here is encourage them don't be dismayed and don't be afraid you're not going forward that way but here's the great i think interest for us today in the text one more thing needed to be addressed after last week one of the very reasons israel failed in taking eye was something in the heart of the people that was exposed remember what happened you can turn back on to chapter 7 and um you'll see it in verse verse 3 the spies were sent out and they come back to the people in verse three and they returned to joshua and said to him do not have all the people go up but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack i don't make the whole people toil up there listen this city's just a few so about 3 000 men went up from the people don't weary them we got this remember we looked at this we got this this is this is a city of 12 000 people this is easy conquest this look what we did with jericho this is not a city that should trouble all the people now the problem was as we looked at last time was the connection was not only was their sin in the camp but how we saw that manifest itself in the life of the congregation was pride presumption arrogance haughtiness no seeking out of the lord no prayer to the lord and i can't help but come to the conclusion as i was thinking through this great text this week that really when we stop and we think about life and we think about the places that god has us and the assignment he's given to his kingdom and his church the deepest and most dangerous problem for us is pride we can't go forward apart from deeply and trusting in him to win the victory you realize that the entirety of the christian life there is there is absolutely nothing there is no success that is given to us apart from the Lord. There is no independence that we have. There is no righteousness that we uphold. In ourselves, the Lord was serious when he said, apart from me, when Jesus walked on this earth, you can do nothing. So what is the response that he's after in the midst of this among the people of the Lord? The response is humility the response is trust the response is dependence this is what they did don't send up all the people this is this is an easy battle for us we got this now everyone look at verse one and the lord said to joshua do not fear and do not be dismayed take all the fighting men with you and arise and go up to i i almost find it comical why do i say that the lord is directly countering the spirit of the people in dealing with them and addressing what happened last time what is god about to do here? He is about to directly counter all the wisdom that got them into the mess to begin with and led to the embarrassing and humiliating defeat before I. There's something about how God works here. This is why I love studying the Old Testament. Not only do you see the character of God, but we learn so much from him about how he works. He shows himself to us. he shows his wisdom but we learn things about about life we learn things about our relationship with the lord almost universally in our lives and in the church the reality is is that we lean on our own wisdom and our own understanding in the decisions that we make we have our plans you think of what james says today today we're going to go in such and such a city we're going to build a great business we're going to make lots of money and James shoots back you fool this will happen if the Lord allows you should recognize that and this is that pride that got them into the mess to begin with what do we expect from the Lord in the face of this great problem. One of the real realities of sanctification, one of the real things that he's constantly doing is testing us right at our points of pride. Right there. We don't need all these men to go up and fight. Just a few. Just a few. God turns it on its head. Now you're going to take every single man, every single warrior and you're going to go fight and what he does at this point in the text is take and kind of construct really a rather humiliating plan to win the battle he tests them through it will they listen to him will they trust him through this will they listen and remember the great sort of theme that comes out of the wilderness wanderings he tested them as to whether they would live by every word that proceeded from his mouth that's the heart of the test that is coming right now but the encouragement is contrary to what was lost when there was no prayer to the lord no seeking of him we got this now the lord has spoken i will give you success i'm giving eye into your hands i've decided to do that and here's a greater encouragement this time all the plunder is yours well if aiken had just waited a little bit aiken had just waited so we come to the directives joshua is the lord's mouthpiece he's communicating the will of the lord for how israel is to win this battle joshua i want you essentially to take 30 000 fighters and i want you to send them off to the west side of i the goal was to set up an ambush 30 000 would go out some distance from the city joshua would take but you read through the narrative here about 5 000 men and approach the city and this was sort of a classic bait and hook i will say look at these fools they're doing the same thing as last time they're coming at us with 5 000 men thinking they can take us and what what would then happen is joshua would turn around once the men were lured out from the city joshua would turn around and flee with those men running in panic and running away in despair as if they had been beaten by eye again. And the Lord says, as they're running out, you hold up your javelin and those 30,000 that are sitting in ambush, they go and they take the city and burn it with fire. Now you see how you could read something like Joshua 8 as just a bunch of detail, superfluous detail that doesn't really matter. But there's much being communicated to us in Joshua chapter 8. Why so much detail about this? And why is this so important? The leadership said, don't bother them. Don't take up that many men. Don't trouble them. The town is 12,000 people. What does God do? Take them all. 30,000, make them hide, and then you run and flee. Now, standing back for a minute, I thought to myself this week, this is really a humiliating plan. A foolish plan to take down a city of 12,000. Really. It shouldn't even have come to this. It's not that the plan isn't brilliant. The plan is brilliant. The plan's going to work masterfully. It's the kind of plan, what's surprising about it is, that this kind of plan was needed against I. 30,000 have to go hide and the others have to be chased down when they just said the people of I are a few. When they had just experienced simply marching around the mighty city of Jericho with great walls and a great fortress and great warriors. And all they did to witness that city fall was shout and blow trumpets. I think you see the humiliating strategy here. Joshua's the fake run and panic, being clearly outnumbered. And you remember in the first campaign, there was no prayer, no seeking of the Lord. Now Joshua is given a specific war plan and is to follow it to a T. God had given a sovereignly appointed strategy to be followed. But it was foolish. It was foolish. Now I think there's a huge application here. That's why I found this particular passage interesting, to say the least. There's a particular application for not only us as Christians living in the world, but for the church. What are the two twin challenges that we face today? What are the two twin challenges that the church faces? It is to take sin seriously. That's what we see from this passage. And it is to trust the Lord's word in humility. All the obstacles in front of us now are overwhelming. Think about how much things have changed and the obstacles that we are faced with are unlike previous generations, at least in our times. What do we do? How do we handle ourselves? What happens in the face of such opposition? Well, when things don't go well and we're humiliated, Pick your situation. What is the very thing in life that we tend to reason and use our own understanding and our own wisdom in Proverbs 3 to try to solve the common problems of life? Where are our idols? Where are our idols? Family? Children? Money? Success? We've got it all mapped out. and what we're all experiencing in the way that we live life and the way that we go forward is that nothing ever seems to turn out quite as we think it should. Why is this all so hard? How much do we recognize, especially as we make our plans, that not much is under our control at all? And that the events that happen and the things that turn and the way that they turn may have turned the very reason for the very reason of just what we're seeing here. His word often says things to us in the scriptures that we struggle with. We struggle with what will work. We struggle with what will be successful. What is the right path? Or that the strategy that we're doing right now is all wrong. how could it work in the face of this kind of struggle? And we find ourselves in the midst of this faced with a few different options. It is to take matters into our own hands or it is to humble ourselves and pray before the plan of the Lord that will never seem like it will work in this life. Remember Gideon? Gideon was told so that the glory would be given to the Lord in the battle. I want you to take the dog lappers to go do the fight. Remember that? With the 300 men that lapped, I'll save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let the others all go home. I think this is a crucial point for us. That the same is in the church. We have for so long and so desperately tried to achieve success in God's kingdom in the world. We have wanted to have success. We've been intoxicated with success. We have wanted to see the church full. We have wanted to see young people respond. We have been faced with every major pressure this way. And how much have we turned in the church to rely on our own wisdom to do this ministry? worship has been on our terms what we do in the kingdom and life has been on our terms with the goal that we would have a happy and successful outcome it's right at the point of our biggest dissatisfaction with god's ways that we turn and take matters into our own hands. There's got to be a much better plan than all of this. There's got to be a wiser plan than this. He certainly could do it better than this. He certainly could achieve the victory like Jericho always, couldn't he? But here we're tested. Right here we're tested. Will we trust Him when His ways are not ours? Will we listen to Him when what we're called to do, we believe will never have the success in the world? You see the test. Here's the great difference between pride and humility. Pride rests on our own wisdom. And you can go right down the line. Pride rests on our own wisdom to do whatever we're going to do in this life. humility listens to God's word and submits to it in whatever he calls us to do and to be. One pastor said, how many professing Christians today are wasting their energies upon tasks which God never assigned them? I think that's exactly what Paul was saying when he was talking about the building of the church and he says there's a lot of people building the church today using the wrong materials and he says if anyone lays another foundation than that which has been laid there's no other foundation other than that which has been laid which is Christ Jesus and then he said don't deceive yourselves if any of you think you're wise by the standards of this age you know what you should do you should become absolute fools so that you may become wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. What does this have to do with Joshua? Well, because of sin and pride, he laid out a plan that would force them to trust him. 5,000 people running in Joshua at the helm from the enemy of 12,000, you're going to have to trust and that the victory would come no other way. and our responsibility is the same today in whatever sort of corner of life whatever sort of situation we're faced with it's never our responsibility to ask will this work it's our responsibility to say what is the lord commanding us to do and i think that's the great encouragement to us here listen carefully to god's word his directives and the means which he gives us in the fight he's appointed means to win he's appointed means for the success of the church and he's promised its success it's like this in life when what gets us in trouble is pride and dissatisfaction in his ways thinking his ways don't work thinking that this is not going to be a good outcome there's a reason God said it and I still get stuck on this great thing that this great verse that God said it pleased him by the foolishness of the message preached to save people we haven't totally accepted that think about that if we believed that the means primarily God has chosen to save people is by the foolishness in our minds this is foolish to save people you'd never let your kids miss it you'd never let your kids miss it you'd invite your neighbors all the time but we struggle with confidence in this and when we get on that day and we're able to stand back and we're able to look at a multitude no man can number whom he saved, it will have been by the foolishness of the message preached. And no other way. Oh sure, God can save any way he wants. But it's through the message. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, you know, you ever thought about the heart of that temptation? It was a test the whole time by Satan to respond with, yeah, I got this. I got this my way. Apart from the will of God. Temptor came to him and said, if you're the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. You don't have to submit to this plan that he has for you. You don't have to be hungry. Feed yourself. Take it. You can have success now. Get it. Even though you feel weak, powerless, and foolish, why would you do that? See what trust is? Something right now is testing us. And this is the same thing Satan continued to press him with. You can have glory now if you'll just serve me. I don't know if there's pacts with the devil, but a lot of people are serving him. And they are very successful. They bought the lie. They listened to it. You see, this is the heart of it. Something right now is testing us, testing you in all of this. It may be the church itself. It may be people. It may be the way life's going. It may be children. And secretly we're fighting with him. And we have our plan. This strikes so personally, doesn't it? I mean, this is what's the battle in Christian ministry. you know when everything is so sensual today and everyone's just about feeling good i just this is not feel good stuff what we do does it work does it work well what happens joshua takes the men he approaches i in the early morning light King sees it, calls all the men of Ai and Bethel, and they go out running after him. Notice that all the warriors of the city, Joshua bolts out, runs in panic with his men, and he steps back, and he holds out the javelin. And the signal is, to the 30,000 men, go get it. The 30,000 men were out around, and they go, and they strike the city, and they set the whole thing afire. The men are caught in the middle, and this is a humiliating defeat for them. You'll notice here that in the end of this, the king of Ai was hung on the tree until evening. Since the body was not to hang past sundown, Joshua removed the body and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city. I think what we come to in this closing section here is the heart of it. Israel needed something very important. What did they need right now? They needed to be renewed in God's covenant. And they needed to receive his word. And they needed to be believing. And that's the fascinating close to chapter 8. The instructions were given years ago by Moses that they would come to Mount Ebal in Deuteronomy chapter 27. and Joshua fulfills that to a T. They go up to Mount Ebal, just north of Shechem. The irony here, the powerful moment here, is that years ago, Father Abraham had stood right here and built an altar. Abraham, when God had promised to give to all of his descendants the land, Abraham built the altar. So all Israel stands there years later. God has fulfilled his word. God has brought them up out of the land of Egypt, all the descendants of Abraham, beginning to look like the sand of the seashore, all to this day his people. Half stand in front of Gerizim and half of Mount Ebal. And you'll notice two things happen. The law of Moses is again set in front of them. And there in the presence, verse 32, of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses. He reads, verse 34, the blessings and the curses. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel. Beloved, Israel had just learned a big lesson. Some very important lessons in this fight with Ai. Number one was, God's wrath needed to be satisfied for sin. Achan taught them that. But now Joshua does something so beautiful in that he erects an altar of whole stone over which no man had wielded an iron tool. And they offered burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. Israel had broken the covenant. Israel had broken the covenant. But Abraham's altar is in mind. there was a way that the Lord had provided for them to be forgiven and that Israel should live by the word of their king. But when they sin, and this is such a crucial point to the story, they should humble themselves and they should trust him and that he would supply a sacrifice. And I think that's something here that is connected that's beautiful in this passage that I noticed for the first time. Did you notice that a king's body hung on a tree in the midst of this? The king of I's body hung on the tree until sunset. And then Joshua removes the body. This is the marvel here. Soon after this, Joshua wrecks an altar. And I think the connection here is important. Beloved, this is the marvel of what God did for us with his king. Remember when Jesus was on the cross, that his legs were broken so that he would die before sunset because the Jews believed the body should not hang there afterward right according to the word of the law. Our king, in the fullness of time, came and he took the judgment so that, as Hebrews says, we have an altar. Sin has devastating effects in the life of a congregation. Sin is called to be repented of. Sin is called for us to flee from. But just as dangerous is pride in not listening to God's word. And as the Lord tries and tests us in this life, he is bringing us to a place where he wants us in humble submission to that word. I think that's such the crucial point today that I want to leave you with. Israel should not be led to despair. God has made a sacrifice for us in his son and reminds us that there is blessing. There is blessing in him and blessing of following his word and living by every word that proceeds from his mouth. apart from him there is curse and this is a great reminder to us today that as we go forward in life and as we face the things that are before us that are difficult and challenging and things that we don't understand and with assignments that were given that seem to make no sense and from a word that tells us to live and behave in a certain way and to use the means that God has given we are called through all of it to trust him that the outcome is always his and that he will fulfill his good word may we always be found trusting what he has told us to do and to be as his children what is it and what place does he have us where we are tried and tested and tempted through all of this to abandon his word that's the that's the worst place to be but to trust his word to listen to his word to look to his forgiveness to be humble before him is the safest path safest path path and he promises this is the great news of this he promises through this that he will give the victory because the victory rests upon the work of his king who died for us and rose again so that we might live. So let's put our trust in His Holy Word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You today for the privilege of hearing Your Word and we ask, Lord, and confess that we are often tried and tested in ways that are uncomfortable for us. That we don't even fully understand and that sometimes as we go forward as Christians relying on a word that the world thinks is ancient and foolish and out of date and by those who attack a God who is cruel and vindictive there we find the greatest message that could be given that you would make a sacrifice for sinners through the blood and righteousness of your Son. Help us, Lord, to trust your word and in the places that you have us to not leave that word, but to live by every word that proceeds from your mouth and to recognize, O Lord, that the battle always does belong to you, even the means. And we be a people, O Lord, who trust you and rely deeply upon you and that through that you would give us great joy to see your work and your ways. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.