The hymn that we just sang is such a beautiful hymn, a reminder of a pursuit of the life of a Christian in holiness. And talking about pursuit, pursuit or pursuing, is something worthwhile. When we pursue something in our lives that is worthwhile, it always really requires sacrifice. Just like the hymn that we sang. And very often, if not always, we are met with challenges that make our pursuit more difficult, harder. There are temptations that hinder us and keep us away from our good goals. For example: If you are trying to diet or lose weight, bigla nalang kahit saan ka tumingin may junk food o pagkain na masarap; If you are trying to workout, biglang ang sarap matulog. And if you are trying to study to attain a certain grade, a certain achievement in school, biglang ang sarap mag games. And if you are trying to work, lalo na ngayon na work from home, biglang ang sarap mag relax, ang sarap mag-Netflix, movies, series, ganyan. When you are pursuing something good, things that deter you from that pursuit always come to make it hard for you to achieve that pursuit.
It’s not any different in the Christian life. Especially when we pursue God. When we pursue God there are temptations and sins that keep us from truly seeing the great and joyous benefits that He has in store for us. We are even tempted not to see the great and joyous benefits of God Himself. In our passage this afternoon, we see exactly the same thing. So please turn with me to Psalm 73. Our focus will be on verses 23-26 but I do want to read the entire Psalm for us this afternoon, Psalm 73.
So hear now the Words of the living and true God…
A Psalm of Asaph.
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself,
you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
As far as the reading of God’s Word, let’s pray. Father we thank you for once again giving us your Word to hear, so we ask that you would make yourself known to us, illuminate our eyes with your presence. Help us Lord God to see your sufficiency and to hope in the inheritance that is you. We pray that you would bring us to our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may see Him and worship Him. We thank you and we praise you in Jesus’ name, Amen.
As we take a break this afternoon from our series in Genesis and consider this beautiful Psalm, our hope is that we can see God from the perspective of the Psalmist.
One of the unrealistic expectations of modern-day evangelicalism is this version of Christianity, or falling into a thinking of this version of Christianity that is overly-triumphant. Of course, the Christian religion is a triumphant religion. Christ has defeated death and sin, He has had victory over the grave, He has succeeded against the powers of the world and evil, and He sits right now at the right hand of the Father.
But we have to recognize that we have been placed, as the wheat of the field, to grow with weeds. The parable of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13 says this:
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
God has not immediately plucked us out of the world to rejoice without trials and tribulations because He has seen it fit that we are afflicted by trials so that He can make us perfect and complete, James 1.
And many times the trials and tribulations of the wheat of the field, us Christians, come in the form of the weeds that is in the field as well with us, these nonbelievers. And we must remember that God has providentially allowed this for our good.
Part of the Christian life is that, as wheat, we grow in this world with weeds. As Christians, we grow in this life with wicked people enslaved to a wicked system. As people of God we grow in this life with the enemies of God.
God sovereignly allows this. Because if the weeds of the field are plucked out of the world prematurely, then the wheat of the field might not grow in full strength and perfection. God, in His providence, uses the evil that is in wicked men for our good. And even the entire life of the wicked, God can use to bring us to the realization of the grace of God and mercy of God to us Christians. And in all of these things, the Master of the Field is overseeing the growth of the wheat so that in the time of harvest He can gather His wheat into His barn.
That’s why it’s so good for us to look into the Psalms. The Psalms give us a very vulnerable human perspective that seeks God in prayer. And we see the raw emotion of many Psalmists and we can relate to their struggles. Especially in this particular psalm, Psalm 73.
In this Psalm, we can see this interaction, this relationship, between the wheat and the weeds. The weeds have grown big and prosperous, and the wheat is getting distracted, they’re getting discouraged, by it. And in this picture the wheat has become envious of the progress of the weeds in the field. He’s not seeing the same growth that the weeds are experiencing. He’s not trusting the process of the Master of the field. And this Psalm is reminding us that our lives as Christians become increasingly sinful when we forget to look at God and instead focus on the prosperity of the wicked. When we forget that there is a Master over the field and we focus on the weeds. When we forget that God is covenantally good to His people even amidst trials and tribulations. And that even if evil men prosper in this world it is limited and only for a short time, only for a short period.
Based on our Christian experience it’s very seldom that the unsaved world, or non-Christians look at our lives and conclude: “Grabe, nakakainggit talaga mga Christians. Sobrang holy kasi nila eh.” In fact, the opposite happens. Christians are ridiculed for a puritanical lifestyle that is categorized by an abstinence from sin. And this is because men love the darkness rather than the light. This is normal. This is natural for wicked men.
But, it’s often actually that us Christians look at the wicked world and desire to have what the world has; desire to imitate how the world lives; desire to do what the world does. We look at the successes of Hollywood, famous personalities, successful athletes, prosperous businessmen, many of whom despise and hate God, and yet we can say, “Grabe, sarap ng buhay niya. Sana all.” Sometimes this can come in the form of our envy of our past lives. We are overwhelmed with nostalgia at our past lives, it was a time when we can freely do whatever we wanted without feeling conviction or fearing the risk of discipline.
And this is not a unique experience. The Psalmist tells us why this can happen and why this does happen. We envy the world and those who enjoy its comforts when we don’t look at God and we don’t fill our minds and our hearts with the truth about Him; It happens when our desire for the present world overtakes our desire for God; It happens when we stumble into the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches; It happens when we don’t love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength.
So the Holy Spirit desires to remind us, from the words of the Psalmist, that the struggle is very real. The struggle is not a unique struggle. The struggle is not a new struggle—It goes way back to the time of the Psalmist in the Old Testament.
The Holy Spirit also desires to remind us that the root of that struggle is sinful. So at the core of the solution is the ever-present, ever-sufficient, and ever-satisfying goodness of God to His covenant people.
Verse 1 of the Psalm clearly states this: Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. The Psalmist himself knows that God is good to His covenant people. And yet immediately in the next verse he admits his situation wherein he had almost stumbled, forgetting God’s goodness, because he says, I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. The Psalmist, by exposing his sinful heart, is exposing us as well. That it’s not uncommon for us to be overtaken by envy towards the wicked people who prosper especially since we are supposedly the ones who are the children of God: “Shouldn’t God give me more? Doesn’t God care for me? Why are they prospering and I’m in difficulty eh ako ‘yung Christian.”
Very rarely do we look at great Christian lives in church history and see the sacrifices for Christ and try to fashion our lives according to that. But very often we look at the prosperous wicked world and try to do what they do, wear what they wear, eat what they eat, sometimes how they speak we copy, and generally live the way they live as we see posted in social media. This is the envy that the Psalmist is talking about.
The Psalmist also gives us the reasons why the lives of prosperous non-Christians are to be desired. It’s because they have no pangs till death, verse 4. They are not in trouble like the rest of mankind, verse 5. They seem to be “living the life,” surrounded by comfort. Whereas Christian lives are a life of constant struggle, externally we find struggle in the persecutions of the world, and then internally from our battle with sin which produce hardships almost daily for us. Challenges, struggles, sorrows, and afflictions every single day.
But in verses 6-9 the wicked can even clothe themselves with the necklace of pride and the garments of violence, and the desire of their eyes are so full that it’s fat. Their mouths are continually oppressing the earth and they’re able to raise their voices against God. In other words, the influence of their words are so great that even if they promote godlessness in this world and lawlessness which is against God, they are able to oppress the earth successfully. That’s clear today in the “influencer” culture you see. They promote things like the gay rights, abortion, sexual promiscuity, immodesty, feminism, and whatnot. All of these things, just countless, lawless things, godless things. And yet, despite these sins they are able to live without opposition, increasing in prosperity, able to do whatever they want.
As Christians we look at this and we cannot help but wonder: Why do the wicked have so much prosperity, and yet me the child of God, I have such a difficult life? We might say something like the Psalmist in verse 11, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” “Alam pa ba ng Diyos na ganito yung nangyayari? Akala ko ba just Siya? Bakit ganyan yung buhay ng mga tao na hate si God tapos ako ganito buhay ko?” They live in ease, they increase in riches while continuing in their ways, and yet all my obedience and sacrifice to God has been in vain, I suffer all day long, the Psalmist says.
Now we can really relate to the experiences of the Psalmist. And that’s because, just like him we are sinners. And in our sin we compare our lives to the prosperity and comfort of the world and we forget the goodness of God. We forget that God is so graciously good. And that God is covenantally good.
And God knocked some sense into our psalmist, thankfully. And many times we need God to knock sense into us to overcome this kind of thinking. The Psalmist overcomes his envy and sorrow by going to the sanctuary of God. Meaning, when he went to worship God, he realized who God was. He realized that God is good to Israel, His covenant people. And this really speaks to the necessity of worship. Isn’t it that when we go through such a rough week, a difficult whole week fighting temptation, sin, our emotions, and discouragements in daily life… When we come to worship God on the LORD’s Day there’s like a reset button—We’re recharged to face another week.
And the Psalmist experienced that. When he went to worship the LORD, he was reminded of who the LORD is. And he highlights this for us three ways in understanding God’s goodness. Now this whole time I have taken to introduce this Psalm but I promise you the three points will not be as long as usual. But the Psalmist highlights for us three ways in understanding of God’s goodness expressed to His covenant people today, the Church. The first is that God is an Illuminating Presence. God is an Illuminating Presence. The second is that God is an Impeccable Sufficiency. God is an Impeccable Sufficiency. The third is that God is an Infinite Inheritance. God is an Infinite Inheritance.
Let’s properly consider the first – God is an Illuminating Presence.
In the middle of the dilemma that troubled his soul the Psalmist admits that the only time he was able to understand what exactly was happening, the only time he was able to understand the reality of why the wicked prospered while the people of God suffered was when he came to God’s sanctuary—When he came to the presence of God.
This is what the presence of God does. When we understand God, when we look at God, when we know who God is, when we believe and hold on to God’s attributes, only then can we rightly understand the situation that we are in. God’s presence illuminates the Christians’ minds to understand their situation. If we try to understand the world from a sinful perspective, or the perspective of other worldviews, we will be discouraged, we will be envious of the world, and we will be stumbling and slipping. Proverbs 9:10 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Without God there is no insight.
God also Himself is the truth. And if He is truth, then all other things are only properly understood if we interpret it with God as the center. In Ephesians 1, the Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge who reveals to us our hope to which He has called us to. Without God there is no revelation of what is true and what is right. Without God people think of things in a foolish and silly way—The fool says in his heart ‘there is no God.’
So the Psalmist in verse 23 and 24 says, Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
It’s only through the presence of God that we can receive true insight and understanding of life as a whole. So while the world offers modern wisdom on how to “live the dream” in this world, in this life, without the presence of God they are ultimately lost. When we look at things from the divine perspective, we realize that the greatest riches that the wicked have in this world will be short, and they will fall to ruin, like the Psalmist says in verse 18. They are destroyed in a moment. Their life is like a dream—Very quick. And soon they will wake up.
But in contrast to this, the covenant people of God are continually with God, He holds our right hand, He guides us with His counsel, and after all of this He will receive us into glory. We are with an eternal God so we will live eternally with God. We are with an eternal God so we will live eternally with God.
And when we forget to see things in light of God’s presence, we can forget that life is just beyond the now, and we might fall into envy towards the success and prosperity of the wicked, just like the Psalmist did. Our soul might be embittered, like in verse 21 because God has allowed the weeds to grow bigger than the wheat, and we forget that after this life God will burn the weeds, just allowing them to live for a time in the field to use them for our sanctification. We become prone to ignorance of the goodness of God to His covenant people in providing for us His presence which illuminates our minds to the truth.
Now the illumination of God opens our eyes to the truth of our sin, and our need for a Savior. The illumination of God helps us see that a sinless Savior has died for our sins. And apart from the illumination of God we will not understand our need for Christ. We will be like the wicked, we will set our mouths against the heavens.
The biggest defeat in the eyes of the apostles was the death of their leader Jesus Christ. This is why when Christ died they were afraid. They hid. And yet when we see this from the perspective of God, we see that it was the greatest victory against sin and death. It’s only when Christ revealed Himself to the apostles again in His resurrected body did they gain courage. Because they were illuminated by the presence of God the Son.
In the illuminating presence of God we are given the eyes to see that what seemed like the greatest defeat for Christianity was actually the greatest victory. This is the counsel by which God leads His people and receives them into glory. His illuminating presence helps us understand that we must turn from our sin and embrace Christ. Without the illuminating presence of God, we will be lost.
If you desire to have true understanding about your life, turn to God. In your suffering, turn to God for understanding. In your trials turn to God for help. In your pain, turn to God for aid. To understand your place as a creature, you must turn to your Creator who has placed you here. Embrace the illuminating presence of God.
Friedrich Nietzsche popularized the philosophy that is called Nihilism. Nihilism is the belief that ultimately life is meaningless. And if you believe that life doesn’t have meaning then you will really despair at the prosperity of the wicked. But the illumination of God helps us understand that even though the wicked prosper for a moment on earth, they will face a just end. And even if we suffer here, this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
Next, God is an Impeccable Sufficiency.
Upon observing the wicked, the Psalmist sees what seems like a very comfortable life. He sees that they are comfortable to the point of being fat and sleek. So they had a lot of food, their bodies were moist probably with oil which means they were rich, and they increased in riches as verse 12 says. They don’t have much troubles in their lives, always at ease. That’s how they’re described in the Psalm.
But then, after being illuminated by God’s presence, the Psalmist realizes in verse 25: Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
The way that the Psalmist expresses the sufficiency of God is by admitting that both in his life now, and in his life eternal, the only thing he has is God. This is not a biblical go signal to say “Ah di ko kailangan bahay, di ko kailangan ng mga damit, di ko kailangan ng pagkain,” What the Psalmist is simply saying is that God is truly sufficient. God is the greatest sufficiency of his life.
In comparison to the wicked that the Psalmist envied in the first part of the Psalm he realized that God was enough. In fact, He is more than enough.
He starts with an eternal perspective. If in heaven, the greatest possession that we can have is God, then on earth the greatest desire that we can have is God. So in both heaven and on earth, God is perfectly sufficient—An impeccable sufficiency.
Very famously, laging sinasabi ni Steve Lawson: “If you have everything in this world and not have Christ, you have nothing. If you have nothing in this world but have Christ, you have everything.” And even Christ Himself says, What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?
This doesn’t mean that the possessions that we possess should mean nothing to us. But that they are all meaningless if we don’t acknowledge that our truest and greatest need is God. And from God comes all other needs—That our goal is to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all other things are added after that.
If we forget that God is our sufficiency, we will be like what the Psalmist was in verse 22. He said that he was like a beast toward God. A beast can only appreciate sensual pleasures. Whatever the beast sees, whatever the beast smells, tastes, touches, and hears. Only these things. A beast is mindless, not created in the image of God. It cannot be grateful and its cravings are focused only in what satisfies it. That’s what a beast is.
So when we forget that God is sufficient, we are relating to Him like a beast. Just asking for our cravings to be supplied, for our hungers to be met, and for our appetites to be filled, without understanding that man doesn’t live on bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
God is sufficient to give all you need in this world, but He is also sufficient to give all you need for the next world—that is forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. So it is, again, a call and invitation to understand that no matter what you have in this world, if you do not have Christ you have nothing. There’s a saying that says a rich man without God is just a poor man with money.
The only way you can desire God as an impeccable sufficiency is if you are ready to lose all your life to gain life in Christ, knowing that if you lose everything for Christ, you gain everything in Christ.
As human beings we have so many desires. We want very many things, it’s true. But many times we forget that the answer to these desires is God. John Flavel, an English Puritan, famously says this, “Jesus Christ is in every way SUFFICIENT to the vast desires of the soul.” Do we realize this? Do we realize that Jesus Christ is in every way sufficient to the vast desires of the soul?
So brethren, in all your desires, in everything that you desire, find satisfaction by desiring the sufficient God. If you desire Him, He will give you the desires of your heart which is also Himself. Isn’t that beautiful? Desire Him, and He will give you Himself. Desire God and God will give you God. And if you have God, you have everything in impeccable sufficiency.
Thirdly, God is an Infinite Inheritance.
In this psalm the possessions of the wicked are so vast, they are so great. The riches of the wicked are luxurious. The comforts of the wicked are immense. The pleasures of the wicked are abounding. But the inheritance of the wicked in verse 18 is ruin. They inherit destruction, they inherit devastation, they inherit demise—The higher the wicked rise, the farther down they fall.
And in contrast the Psalmist’s inheritance and strength is God alone. He says in verse 26, My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. It’s important to mention that the Psalmist is Asaph. Asaph was a Levitical priest. During this period of time a portion is a piece of territory or an inheritance of land. And as a Levite, Asaph didn’t receive territory or land inheritance because he was a priest. He knew how it felt to have no portion. He couldn’t place his security, his hope, his trust, or his joy on any inheritance. There was no possession for him to be had. And it’s so providential that a Levitical Priest was the writer of this Psalm because he knew so well what his inheritance was! Joshua 13:33 says, But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance; the Lord God of Israel is their inheritance, just as he said to them.
The inheritance of the priesthood of God is the Lord God Himself. He is our inheritance. Christians are the royal priesthood of God, and so our inheritance is nothing less but God Himself. Our flesh and our heart may fail. In other words, our physical body, that is affected and afflicted by depravity and sin, this flesh and heart may fail. Just like the Psalmist we might envy the wicked. We might sin against God. We might be embittered, and ignorant, like a beast towards God. But God, who expresses His goodness to His covenant people reserves Himself for us to be our inheritance.
Ephesians 1:3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, How can we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places? It’s because we have God Himself as our portion.
The overall, decisive, eschatological, ultimate, and absolute gift of God is God Himself. Since our hearts are deceitful, and our flesh is corrupt it’s prone to fail. But at the end of it all, it is God who promises to give us an inheritance that will not fail. He’ll be the one to keep us, sustain us, preserve us, and protect us, because He has promised to give us Himself forever.
He is good to His covenant people because He must, in Himself, keep His covenant promises. Therefore there’s no chance for Him to fail us, no chance for Him to leave us in our sin, no chance for Him to let us fall away, there’s no chance for Him to abandon us because he has promised to bless those who are in Christ with every spiritual blessing.
So are you part of God’s covenant—The people that He shows His goodness to? Are you, as the Psalmist says, one of those who are pure in heart, made pure by the blood of Jesus Christ? Has God illuminated you with His presence by making you realize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior? Has God revealed to you that His Son is the sufficient Savior from sin, the LORD Jesus Christ who died on the Cross, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is sufficient for you? Has God shown you the infinite riches of His mercy in Chris Jesust?
Or are you one of the wicked who trust in your worldly riches? Who endlessly pursue this life’s worldly wealth but are destined for ruin? If you are one of the wicked, take God as your inheritance by trusting in His Son for the forgiveness and cleansing of your sins. And you can face the most painful tribulations in this life but at the end of it the LORD will gather you into His barn as wheat of His field. He will show you His covenant goodness and give Himself as an inheritance to you. What a privilege and grace from God.
Maraming pamilya na pinapag-awayan yung mana. Dahil sa mana, mga mga magkakapatid na di na naguusap for 10, 20, 30 years. Minsan hanggang mamatay na, diba, hindi pa rin nagbabati. Dahil sa mana na iniwan ng magulang, nag-away, nagsiraan, nagbastusan. But as Christians, we inherit the eternal, immortal, glorious God Himself who owns all things. Who cares about the world’s inheritance if you can inherit the one who owns the world? And guess what, if we inherit God we also inherit the world. Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Having God as your inheritance frees you from temporal pursuits that don’t have eternal value. And it also gives value to all your life’s pursuits. What I mean is, since God gives Himself to every Christian, since God is the inheritance of every believer, then we can have a proper understanding of what is important and what is not important in our life. In everything, we can now live for the glory of God rather than trying to accumulate all of the world’s happiness and riches. Because the God of the universe, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, the One from whom all blessings flow, is Himself our portion, our inheritance! So take God as an inheritance by trusting Him as your strength. Trust in God, trust in Christ, and not on the riches of this world.
As we come to a close, let’s quickly consider the LORD Jesus Christ. He is the One who is the illuminating presence of God. He came into this world as the image of the invisible God, who has made known to us the God who has been seen by no one, and He opens our eyes to true salvation. Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to save His people from sins by His blood, because Hebrews tells us by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. He has secured a sufficient sacrifice for all His people. And lastly, in Christ we have obtained our eternal inheritance. We are co-heirs with Christ and will receive, Peter says, an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you—God Himself.
Let’s conclude the way that the Psalmist does in verse 28… But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the LORD GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Let people know that God is an illuminating presence. God is an impeccable sufficiency. God is an infinite inheritance. Praise the everlasting God.
Let’s pray.
Father we thank you for your Word, we thank you for this beautiful Psalm that has opened our eyes to our need of Christ. We pray Lord God that you would help us to truly come to you and be illuminated of our need because of our sin, because of our depravity, and because of our flesh, that fails. We need you O Lord. And so illuminate our eyes to that need, that we may also come to the sufficient Savior, Jesus Christ, who has done all things and completed and finished the work of redemption and salvation on the Cross. And we pray Lord God that through that, we may see the goodness of your eternal inheritance for us which is an eternity with you, who owns all things, who from all blessings flow. We pray Lord God that as we come to our time of partaking of the Supper, as a church, we might see all of these things come together for the praise and glory of your Son Jesus Christ who is our Lord and King, Amen.