i would invite you to turn with me to the prophecy of jeremiah jeremiah chapter 7 as we read together the first 29 verses focusing a bit more on the first 15 verses jeremiah you know is considered one of the major prophets in scripture probably because of its length it's a lengthy prophecy and jeremiah we know prophesied over a long period of time a number of a number of kings beginning with king josiah who had attempted reform he attempted reform and of course it didn't stick because of the wicked sons to follow him prophesying during the last kings of judah then and of course we know that he announced the coming judgment particularly captivity he lived to see that take place he was a lonely prophet because of his on because of his unpopular message and his life was a number of times placed in serious danger and and not the least of which is because of what we're going to read here and consider in chapter 7 but he faithfully warned God's people but he also faithfully preached of hope for those who would repent in a particular the way god through jeremiah confronted judah with her flippancy her flippant attitude an attitude that everything is okay all is well no matter what and that's really what we consider this morning jeremiah chapter 7 beginning at verse 1 this is the word of god the word that came to jeremiah from the lord stand in the gate of the lord's house and proclaimed there this word and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah, who enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words, This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another if you do not oppress the sojourner the fatherless or the widow or shed innocent blood in this place and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm then I will let you dwell in this place in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever behold you trust in deceptive words to no avail will you steal, murder, commit adultery swear falsely making offerings to Baal and go after other gods that you have not known and then come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name and say we are delivered only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh where I made my name dwell at first and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen. And when I called you, you did not answer. Therefore, I will do to the house that is called by my name and in which you trust and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight as I cast out all of your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim. As for you, and now he shifts to talking to Jeremiah, as for you, do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or prayers for them and do not intercede with me for I will not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire and the women need dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. Is it I whom they provoke, declares the Lord? Is it not themselves to their own shame? Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground. It will burn and not be quenched. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, but this command I gave them, obey My voice. And I will be your God and you shall be My people and walk in all the way that I command you that it may be well with you. But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts and went backward and not forward. From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants, the prophets, to them day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. And you shall say to them, This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God and did not accept discipline. Truth has perished. It is cut off from their lips. Cut off your hair and cast it away. Raise a lamentation on the bare heights. For the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath. Please bow in prayer with me. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of Your Word. And it is our brief prayer now that the Word of God would do the work of God by the Spirit of God and the people of God to the glory of God. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen. Oh, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, do you ever find yourself taking things for granted? Whether it be people, whether it be circumstances. I suspect that in some way we all do. I must confess that I do at times. And what does it mean when we take something for granted? Well, we can say that it is to assume something to be true, that something is just going to be the way it is, or we can say that it has the idea of taking advantage of something or someone. Again, taking people, circumstances, things for granted. Maybe you take life for granted. Maybe you just assume that you're going to wake up tomorrow and life is going to be like it is today. Some of you may know that on Wednesday we received news on the floor of Synod that a gentleman back in my area of the country in Hudsonville, a gentleman that I know about my age, was taking a morning bike ride and he was hit by a car. He died on Thursday. I suspect Doug, which was his name, i suspect doug thought he was just taking it for granted he was going to take his morning bike ride and he was going to go home and get cleaned up and he was going to go to work and carry out his tasks and duties like he always did maybe you take it for granted that you're always going to have a steady paycheck that the income is going to continue to come in maybe you take it for granted that the weather will be such and such again my own sister told me that the river that's right behind their yard at a much lower elevation said the river was never supposed to rise that high the people back there took it for granted that this kind of thing this is the kind of flooding that you see in other areas new orleans or something like that but not in rock valley iowa maybe you take your husband or wife for granted i take it for granted that my wife will always put up with me? Even though sometimes I know it's very difficult. I mean, the truth is, we don't like to be taken for granted, do we? Because for you and me, that comes with the idea that there's a lack of appreciation for us as well a feeling of being taken advantage of. But often, we do take others and we take circumstances for granted. But beloved, what about God? What about your relationship with the Most High God? Do you ever find yourself taking these for granted? Oh, perish the thought, right? We would never do that. Really? Do we never, ever, ever think just a little bit that He must be pleased with me because of my public profession of faith? Or because of my activity in the church? or because I give all kinds of money or because I have my daily devotions and I never miss a day. Or you can fill in the blank. And because of all of those good things you see, well, you know, then He'll overlook the other details of my life that maybe aren't quite in order as they ought to be. Or because of these good things again, well, I'm safe. I'm in. He's pleased with me. But beloved, how dangerous that kind of a thought and attitude is. And the prophet Jeremiah makes that crystal clear here with this indictment. And notice, not against the wicked world, but against the visible church of his day. And we could divide up these verses that we read together a couple of different ways. I think both of them would be legitimate. On the one hand, we could consider them under the context of false trusts which cannot and do not profit. And therefore, in verses 1-15, false trusts in religion. Or verses 16-20, false trusts in heathen gods. And the last verse is false trust in oneself. Or again, an indictment, as I said, a charge, as Jeremiah gives. And in verses 1-15, a charge that their worship will do them no good. Verses 16-20, a charge that Jeremiah's prayers will do them no good. Remember, in verse 16, God said to Jeremiah, don't pray for them. don't don't expend your breath bothering to pray for them verses 21 to 28 a charge that their sacrifices will do them no good so that's how we want to consider it this morning as well jeremiah's charge of taking god for granted you see beloved their confidence was sadly and and therefore badly misplaced they were certainly not like their father david who was able to say confidently in psalm 20 verse 7 some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the lord our god he charges them for their misplaced confidence for taking god for granted first of all in their possession in something that they possessed what was that when notice in verses 1 and 2 are helpful notice the place of jeremiah's sermon the word that came to jeremiah from the Lord stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say hear the word of the Lord all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord the place of Jeremiah's sermon was none other than the temple we would expect that but it was the church building it is agreed among the commentators that Jeremiah delivered to this sermon most likely at at the time of one of three major feasts. For example, in Deuteronomy 16, Moses talks about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booze, but no doubt a mass pilgrimage to Jerusalem when the people would have gathered from all around the southern kingdom to offer their sacrifices. So, it would not have been a small crowd. And even more specifically, the sermon was to be delivered at the gate. Again, thought to be most likely the gate that separated the outer court from the inner court. And again, a large crowd representing all of Judah gathering. And this would be a fitting place because that very place and the outward activity that was practiced there was the object of Judah's misplaced confidence. Verses 3 and 4. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your deeds and I will let you dwell in this place do not trust in these deceptive words this is the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord and we know of course that when something is repeated in scripture it's meant for emphasis and when something is is given three times like holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts in Isaiah 6 in essence the message is sit up and take notice a little bit like if you say something enough times if you tell a lie enough times you begin to believe it but here this threefold repetition pointed to the trust that the people had had given in the temple structure they had that magnificent glorious temple that Solomon had built complete with the holy of holies and we remember what was so amazing about the holy of holies that's where God had promised to dwell among his people indeed a glorious privilege but you see here these people assumed too much they also had the sacrificial system given to them by God that they kept religiously outwardly the problem is that they thought therefore that they were invincible. And they treated the possession of the temple like a lucky charm. And that saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, a magical incantation. They treated the temple like a lucky charm because in their minds, the presence of God's temple in Jerusalem guaranteed them God's blessing and protection from every evil, from every enemy, no matter what. I mean, after all, that's what the false prophets taught them. You've got the temple. As long as you can see it, as long as you can touch it. You're good. You're in. You're safe. The false prophets taught them to trust in the temple of God instead of in the God of the temple. It never even entered their mind that God would consider withdrawing His presence from them. They completely forgot about Samson. Boys and girls, do you remember what the Bible says? When Samson woke up after his hair had been cut off and he thought that he would go out like he had done before? The Bible says, but the Lord had left him. Again, there's so much superstition like this still today, and we could mention a number of things. But I remember about 25 years ago reading a newspaper article about the church buildings in the Netherlands that were empty. There were no worshipers any longer. So they didn't want to tear them down, so they converted them into apartment buildings. And some of the people who lived in these apartment buildings were interviewed and asked about living there, and they expressed the comfort that they had and how close they felt to God because they were living in a church building. My wife and I about 20 years ago had the privilege to go visit New York City. Some of you may remember that. And we were walking around one night and we entered into this beautiful Roman Catholic cathedral. The service was going on and we entered into the foyer part of it and that's where we were allowed to be. And what struck me was not for the 10 or 15 minutes that we were in there was not the actual service going on on the inside, but the countless numbers of people that came off of the street to light a candle in the foyer to cross themselves, and they left again. And I could only imagine that they felt good. They had done their duty. Everything was fine. The people in Jeremiah's day used the temple outwardly. They used it for the intended purpose. We see that in verse 10 after verse 9. A list of sins that they're committing. And then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name. And Jeremiah charges them for their misplaced confidence and for taking God for granted because it contradicted in the second place. It contradicted their profession. What they did contradicted what they said. They professed to be God's people. They were called to be holy. And they claimed to be holy. Why? Because they were Abraham's children. And again, because they had the temple. That was enough. Beloved, that's like saying, well, I own a Bible. I never open it. But I own a Bible. So I must be good. They knew the command of God in Leviticus 11. I am holy, so you be holy. Be holy for I am holy. The problem again is they found their holiness in their physical heritage, in their family name. They found it in the physical temple. They found it in whatever outward worship they happened to offer there. Yet there was a contradiction. Because the evidence testified against them. It's clear that they were selective in the reading of Scripture. They ignored the fact that along with God's promise of blessing for obedience was the guarantee of curse for disobedience. Ultimately, expulsion, being kicked out of the land in captivity, which again was Jeremiah's focus. And God couldn't have been more clear at the beginning of 2 Chronicles after Solomon offered his sacrifice in dedicating the temple, God said exactly that. Obey me. And you will enjoy my blessing. Disobey me. And you will be expelled from the land. But the evidence that testified against them here included, for example, in verses 5 and 6, for if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm. The problem is they were doing the exact opposite of what Jeremiah says in these two verses. The evidence testified against them also in verses 9 and 10 again. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal and go after other gods that you have not known and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name and say, we are delivered! Only to go on doing all these abominations. Did you notice that five of the Ten Commandments are listed? Now we know, of course, Scripture says that if you violate one commandment, you violated all of them. But here, very specifically, five of them are listed that they had broken. And then the evidence also against them included the fact that the idolatry was being passed down to their children. They were teaching it to their kids who participated. Verse 18, the children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women need dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. The Queen of Heaven possibly talking about the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, who was considered to be the goddess of love and fertility, and the worship of this false god included abominable obscenities. In other words, there was gross wickedness being practiced among those who professed to be God's people. They professed one thing, they practiced a complete other thing. Gross wickedness without conscience. You see, that's the thing, beloved. True believers, by the grace of God, have a conscience. They exercise that conscience. They fight. Even though we know we sin and fall short of the glory of God, the true believer's conscience stirs them up and they fight against sin. They seek to do what's right in the sight of God. But not these people. gross wickedness without conscience. They freely sinned in their everyday life, yet with boldness then, they would come before God in the temple and they say, we are delivered. We're saved. Did you notice in verse 11, they are accused of making the temple a den of robbers. And the same thing was true in Matthew 3. That's what Jesus said of the Pharisees with regard to the temple. You make it a den of robbers. Boys and girls, there were dens out in the hills that the criminals would hide the evidence of their crimes in those dens until such time as they would go out and commit the crimes again. In the same way, the people of Judah and the Pharisees of Jesus' day in a sense would try to cover their crimes, cover their wickedness, cover their twisted heart by going to church. Hoping that that looked a whole lot better than anything else and would disguise anything else. But notice in verse 11, what does God say? He says, I've seen it. You can try to hide it all you want. But I've seen it. I am watching. Constantly, I'm watching. In reality, they were saying, well, God doesn't care what's in my heart. He doesn't care how we live as long as we give lip service to Him. As long as we go through the motions. but beloved, that is nothing more than to treat God at best as if He doesn't care and to treat Him at worst as if He is ignorant and even somewhat of a participant in our sin and unholiness. The nation's conscience in that time was so seared like a scar on your body that has no feeling. They really didn't have a conscience. It's been suggested as if that magical incantation the temple of the lord the temple of the lord the temple of the lord that that's what they chanted every time jeremiah tried to warn them of the divine wrath of god a little bit like us sticking our fingers in our ears saying i can't hear you i just can't hear you the evidence that testified against them was also demonstrated in their ignorance of the past verses 12-15, go now to my place that was in Shiloh where I made my name dwell at first and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer. Therefore, I will do to the house that is called by my name and in which you trust and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My sight as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim. And you may remember a couple of names associated with Shiloh, Samuel, Eli. Shiloh was the place largely from the time of the conquest of the Promised Land through Joshua through the time of the Judges. That's where the tabernacle was before Solomon's temple. That's where the Ark of the Covenant dwelt in Shiloh. You remember two other names. Eli's wicked sons, Hophni and Phineas. You remember what they did, I trust, when they went into battle with the Philistines. They went into the Holy of Holies. They took the Ark of the Covenant out. They took it into battle because that was their lucky charm. The people had a false confidence and for a little bit we know that the Philistines were scared, but we also know what happened. Israel was defeated. Hophni and Phineas died. The Ark of the Covenant is stolen. And then Eli, upon hearing that, he falls over and dies. One commentator says, the sanctuary at Shiloh proved the falsity of the claim that the Lord was unalterably committed to an earthly temple and its preservation regardless of the moral state of the people. End of quote. And then when Phineas' wife gave birth and she died in the midst of that and her son is called Ichabod. The glory has departed. Beloved, God does not, cannot, and He will not put up with wickedness. And the practice of Pharisaism in Jesus' day was not new. And it is certainly not gone in our day. We know that there are many, and I hope and pray not one of us here, but there are many in the world today, along with a number of churches that preach this, that if you do more right than wrong, you should be okay. Or if you're simply a member of a church, you should be fine. Or those who make the Bible say, twisting it to make it say what they want it to say to fit their wicked lifestyle, and therefore, too, they're going to be fine. About ten years ago, I read an article that the Vatican had said that the Pope had started to engage in Twitter. And that anybody who followed him and followed some of the activities that he recommended on there, they would receive indulgences. You remember indulgences. What was needed, so-called, to reduce your time in purgatory. It's still prevalent today in our time. Beloved, at this point, as we come to the end of our second point, there's a two-fold application that I want to make clear. First of all, we are not to be deceived thinking that we can live like we want, whether it be in immorality and blatant sin or even secret sin, or much softer, going all week long with absolutely no prayer, without cracking open our Bible, without even thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ, that we can do that and then come to church on Sunday, put some money in the plate, and we have done our duty and all is well and God is pleased with us. No, it doesn't work that way. Not when our walk contradicts our talk. In chapter 6, verse 20, the second part of that, your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifice is pleasing to me. And in Jeremiah 2, verse 27, for they have turned their back to Me and not their face, but in the time of their trouble, they say, arise and save us. They were taking God for granted in a number of ways. Someone has said any theology that minimizes God's holiness and tolerates people's deliberate sinfulness is a false theology. And beloved, that means too that it is vain, it is worthless to be near the church building, to even enter it if one's heart is far from God. We all know those who go to church twice in the year. Christmas and Easter. And indeed, we pray that God will use one of those services to soften their heart and to bring them to faith. But apart from that, it's absolutely a waste of time. We are not to be deceived that we can live one way and expect the blessing of God at the same time. The other application, we are not to put confidence in our public profession of faith. We're not to put it in our church membership, in our participation in the sacraments, in our involvement in Bible studies. We're not to put our confidence in a particular church name or size. We're not to put our confidence in the fact that I had my morning devotions. I'm good to go all day. We are not to be thinking that these or anything like them are God's automatic visible seal of His pleasure with us or our acceptance with Him or that somehow we are invincible. Just like those who had the temple. The teaching of Scripture is clear that God wants, as He said through Samuel, obedience, not sacrifice. And that's what He said in verse 23 here. Obey My voice. God desires, as He said through Hosea, mercy, not religious rituals. Sacred places, days, observances, as someone has said, are all subservient to. They serve the matter of a right relationship with God and our fellow man and are only valuable as expressions of the deeper things. Of course, many of the things that we've been talking about will be true for the child of God in the life of a child of God. but they're only an expression of what is to be in the heart. And beloved, evidence of possessing true faith is not simply professing faith as Jeremiah charges them thirdly with a call to heartfelt repentance. Verse 3, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your deeds and I will let you dwell in this place. of true faith is not just a profession of faith. Or let me say it the other way, professing one's faith does not guarantee that one actually possesses true faith. The possession of true faith includes conversion of heart and repentance of sin. It includes a transformed heart and life. A heart that once hated God and the things that God loves, but now loves God and the things that God loves and hates and strives to avoid the things that God hates. This heartfelt repentance includes a change in the ways and the actions or the deeds of life as Jeremiah says. Amend your ways. Or as another translation says, reform them. Re-form. Form again. Reshape them. Or as the idea is, make sweet and acceptable that which is currently unacceptable. The ways here is talking about the course of life, the path that one is following and the deeds or the actions refer to the details that are carried out on that path. Verse 6 again, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt. This heartfelt repentance is indeed demonstrated then by the law of love. First of all, for God. By abandoning other gods, recognizing that there is only and that every other God is nothing but the figment of man's imagination. They're not real. They do not help. They can only hurt. And in fact, in chapter 2, verse 13, they are called broken cisterns. Boys and girls, a cistern, a well, a water well, and a broken well is useless because there's no water in it. In love for God, abandon the other God. Recognize there is only one true God. There is only one in whom there is the hope of salvation. And Jeremiah makes clear too, the law of love for neighbor by exercising justice and care for the destitute and the helpless, not stealing, not murdering, not committing adultery or perjury, but considering them, as Paul says, as more important than oneself. Seeking their good and their welfare. We know that Jesus said, by their fruits you will know them. And beloved, this is true of unbelievers and believers alike because there will be the evidence of the true fruit of faith in the believer's life. Well, not fruit that saves that one. Not fruit that contradicts true faith. But fruit that confirms true faith. And this call to heartfelt repentance is to a redeemed people. but let me quickly add not necessarily here to a spiritually redeemed people but they were still those who had been delivered you recall from physical physically from bondage in egypt they were those who were called to be god's set apart people in a land that had been graciously given to them and they were given the promise to keep that inheritance if they turn back to god and we know they did not keep it they we know that they did not follow as chapter 6 16 says the ancient paths, the good ways. Beloved, true spiritual reform is found only in Jesus Christ. In and by whom we have been redeemed. We have been purchased. Saved from sin, sorrow, death, hell, the evil one. In and by whom we are justified. So God says, I forgive you of all of your sins. And you are righteous in my sight. And Christ, in and by whom we strive, or we are given citizenship in His kingdom, the heavenly promised land. And evidence of owning this by the grace of God is evidenced by repentance and faith. It's evidenced by striving to live gratefully for Him. Apart from true faith in Jesus Christ with a transformed heart, our sacrifices, whatever those sacrifices might be, are unacceptable. In fact, in verse 21, we read, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh. In a sense, I believe we can understand this. God is talking somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Go ahead. Offer all the sacrifices you want. If it makes you feel better. It doesn't help. Apart from true faith in Christ with a transformed heart, God cannot and will not be found in jeremiah 29 13 we read the god says you will seek me and find me when you seek me how with all your heart john calvin said god indeed esteems as nothing this external worship except it be preceded by inward sincerity and unless integrity of life accompanies your profession we know these things full well don't we but we need to be reminded of this lip service is meaningless a public profession of faith having one's name on the roles or in the church directory even being a preacher a teacher or or a leader in the context of the church attending worship faithfully being busy in the life of the church simply doing all the right things and going through through the proper motions is no promise of protection from the punishment of hell in fact beloved apart from true faith these things only increase one's guilt as jesus says to whom much is given much is required apart from true faith there is absolutely no hope but possessing true faith by the grace of god assures that we belong body and soul in life and in death to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24, thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. Let us not boast in anything of us, by us, or about us. But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. There's another powerful verse that I referenced a moment ago, Jeremiah 6.16. Thus says the Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls. Now the sad thing here is the very last phrase is, But they said, we will not walk in it. The people of Jeremiah's day refused to. That ancient path, that good way is the way of repentance and reconciliation and the fear and the love of God. All of that is found through Jesus Christ alone. Each and every one of us at some point in time has been or will be brought to that fork in the road, that crossroads. As I read recently, Every time Christ is preached. He's not just preached as a set of facts. There are facts involved. But it's always implied that there is a call. There is a call. Either it's that broad way or that narrow way. Either it is the way of the devil or the way of Christ. Either it is the way of death or the way of eternal life. And if you are here this morning and you have not yet put your faith and trust in Christ alone, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I plead with you, don't wait another moment. Because in Him alone, our hope is found for both now and eternity. And dear beloved, possessing true faith gives the child of God confidence to stand publicly before God and His people and the world and say, yes, I believe. i believe in the only savior the lord jesus possessing true faith by the grace of god gives the child of god courage to live for him gratefully to desire to live for him even though the world will despise and attack and forsake us and possessing true faith gives the child of god the certainty that indeed we are more than conquerors through him who loved us and absolutely nothing and no one can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus and possessing true faith in Christ gives the child of God the courage and the confidence to be able to say yes some trust in chariots some trust in horses but we trust in the name and only the name of the Lord our God Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, indeed as we gathered here in this place this morning, maybe we had taken it for granted that our egos would be stroked a little bit or we would hear after a week of synod about the gloriousness of the church purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. and indeed what a glory she has because of the bridegroom. Yet, Father, we need this reminder. I need this reminder day by day by day because it is so easy to fall into the trap of taking the things I do, the good things I do, using them to take You for granted. But indeed, every single day I must remember nothing in my hands I bring. Nothing. Assembly to your cross, I claim. And that's true for each and every one of us. So thank you, Father, for this powerful reminder from your servant from so long ago. And we pray that you would indeed impress this deep into our hearts and to our minds that we might go forth in your service and to be strong in your might. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray these things. Amen.