Habakkuk

So Habcock chapter 2. It's in the Old Testament part of the Bible. And you've got it actually on the screen, so I don't need to, say. So we're we're starting a series in Habakuck. I'll be here for these 4 Sundays.

It's a great privilege to be among you. You're a a gospel centered bible believing church. So I I feel that I'm among friends, grateful to, the guys to that invited me to come here. You may not, but, I am certainly very touched by that. They are friends of mine, their brothers in Christ, We serve the same the same savior, so the preaching and the teaching will be as normal.

Nothing different and nothing better either. I may add. So I want you to understand that. I join if you like temporarily, the Bible teachers of this congregation that feed you week in and week out. And I'm glad about it.

So why have a cook chapter 2 and not have a cook chapter 1? You might ask yourself. Well, Abukkah is a prophet of god's word. He was, preaching to Judah, the southern part of the nation, around about 600 BC. God has informed him, and we will see this when we unpack it in, future Sunday's that he the Babylonians are going to invade the land, and through the evil Babylonians, God is going to deal with the evil among his people and save them.

So Habacook is a man of faith and he has to learn how to mature in that faith. With that profound reality, that the god who hates evil and the god, who is against evil, will use evil to save his people. That's a big e, isn't it? And so there's been a horrified challenge that has emerged from Habacook at the end of chapter 1. And god is answering that challenge now in chapter 2.

This morning, I have started here because I want to put this these verses of chapter 1 verses 1 to 5 into the biggest context of all. And that is the whole of the Bible. So have a cook chapter 2. This is 1 through to 5, and let us hear the words of the lord. I will stand at my watch, says Habacook.

I will station myself on the ramparts. I will look to see what he will say to me. And what answer I am to get what answer I am to give to this complaint? Then the lord replied, write down the revelation, and make it plain in on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time.

It speaks of the end and it will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it, it will certainly come and will not delay. See the enemy is puffed up. His desires are not upright. That's a reference to the Babylonians.

But the righteous person shall live by faith or by his faithfulness. Indeed, wine betrays him. He is arrogant and never at rest because he is as greedy as the grave, And like death, he's never satisfied. He gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive of all the people. Let us pray.

We thank you that we can affirm today. There is only 1 god, and you are you are god. And we would fear you this morning as we approach this truth that you have given to us, and we would listen to you. We thank you at the very heart of your word. Is the lord Jesus, and why would we worship some other Timport idle and not worship him.

We turn to you, lord Jesus. The author and finisher of our faith. And we thank you that many of us can at least identify. That we trust in you by faith. And we thank your gracious spirit for giving us the truth.

What a gift so that we may have a reliable witness concerning the father and the son. And that so we could be clear that we are really trusting, not in ourselves. But in you alone, in Jesus' name, amen. The just shall live by faith in god alone are not self. People journal, I think, for all kinds of different reasons.

Maybe it's to record their thoughts and life experience. Others journal because they think they're so important that surely everybody would want to read about their thoughts and life experience. Others may turn their journal into a blog in order to help others with life lessons. In a in a particular struggle. Maybe others blog because they want to honor a person that they are captivated by, and the blog is devoted to this particular individual.

Well, you could argue that Babcock is a kind of a journal. It's god's word to us, but it's a kind of a journal. And in that journal, we meet, yes, the writer of the journal Habacook himself, But more importantly, and for at Habacook, this is central. We meet the living god. Because it is god who dominates this book as he dominates the entirety of the Bible.

And we are those who love god, and we love the lord Jesus Christ. And that is the reason why we are so committed to the Bible hearing it taught, reading it within our lives and seeking to live out under its authority. And as we look at Babcock, in these this month of August, we see him as a real man of faith from the beginning, from chapter 1. But we see him maturing in how to live by faith with big questions. Sometimes yelling at god Sometimes profoundly confused about god.

And then coming into chapter 3, where he really, truly beautifully trusts the god who does right. So that's the reason why we're not starting at the beginning, and we're starting in chapter 2 because chapter 2 highlights the big truth. If this was a journal, I suppose, this would be highlighted by by Habacook. And he would pull it out and he'd say, you need to get this truth if you want to understand this prophecy. And so we're going to see that what is said in these verses, particularly that the just or the righteous shall live by faith or faithfulness is at the heart of all that the Bible has to say to us.

It is a central truth, not a peripheral truth. But I remind you, as verse 2 reminds us that this is god's word to us God's word for all people in all cultures, at all times, because Habakooki said write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. He's to write it down. It's a revelation from god. It's the weighty word of the living god.

He's to write it on stone tablets because it was to be durable. It was to be given and passed on not only to his time, but times beyond that as we will see. And it is to be declared by a herald. The word of god, my friends, and I know you believe this, is unchanging because god is unchanging. And when we take hold of his word, we are taking hold of a loving awesome Totally correct authority.

That's why it's gold good, isn't it? To come to church? On a Sunday morning and at other times, where we just gather under the authority of god, and we kinda come home. Our life crammed with other voices, speaking all kinds of things to us, our own hearts full of sometimes doubts and fears. We always need to come home, and this is it.

And as we might discover by the at some point in the preaching in the few weeks I have with you, we will discover That is our eternal home. The eternal home is to live under the unchanging God in the person of his son and under his word. When we get to the new creation that we sing about, we do not escape the word of god. We become perfectly under it. And I say all of that because the culture that The cultures that we are living in, there is a different message ringing out, isn't it?

Just believe message. You have encountered it. But believe in what? Well, the world and all cultures in some way are saying Believe in yourself or believe in the collective self? That's what the world is saying to us.

The church should say, and I think often does say Believe in god. Sorry. Believe in god alone. But sometimes the church can be heard to say, believing god a bit, but trust yourself mostly. So we need to understand that we're not going to teach believing god a bit but trust yourself mostly.

That is not Christianity. And so the truth will be like a scanner in our lives, afresh this morning. It will expose to us, where we are on this matter of just belief. Are we believing in ourselves? Or are we just believing in god alone?

The true scanner is coming. I had a scan recently and they exposed something within my body that was, as the surgeon said, untoward. Well, he did it in a kind way, and there's nothing wrong with that. Is there? I didn't like the truth that he had to say to me.

But it was the truth, and I'm glad therefore in 1 sense that he exposed the truth. And so this truth will expose us. So, therefore, let's go to it now in chapter 2. Just believe in yourself. God says to Abe to Habacook, there are 2 ways of just believing verse 4, see the enemy, in this case, a reference to Babylon going to invade Habuk's nation.

See the enemy is puffed up. His desires are not upright. Skipping the next phrase where you'll come back to it, Indeed, wine betrays him. He is arrogant and never at rest because he is as greedy as the grave, and like death is never satisfied, He gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples. Just believe in yourself, Well, if your babylon puffed up with arrogance and full of not right desires, Actually, you might say, well, there are impressive results in just believing in yourself.

The Babylonalonian empire reigned for 70 years, impressive conquest, impressive wealth, Impressive culture. You can read about it in Daniel. Nobicanese is probably the most famous of the Babylonians in terms of kingship. Babylon produces impressive results. And Babylonian, Babylonia is still around today.

The Bible takes up the term Babylon and refairs it to collective humanity who are sinfully living against god and as if god does not exist. Just believe in yourself. It's just out there. It is referred to in Revelation 17 to 18 if you have time to read it later on. Where it is destroyed at the end of the age.

Babylonia, the collective humanity, sinfully against god, against his word, against his son. And it's quite oppressive, isn't it? The can do culture that we live among? We've been given all the tools we're told, all the training, all the teaching, all the techniques, all the teamwork, all the therapies. We don't need god.

I've been to Enough University graduation service is not my own. But, certain sons. And that's what they were told. You've given you all that you require. To live a successful life.

And god says, hear it, in relation to Babylon of Habacook's time, and Babylon of our time, the enemy is puffed up and his or her desires are not upright. In other words, god is saying, to Abigog, it is wrong to believe in this way in god's world. And this is universally true as the Bible would make clear, every 1 of us is born in this natural way with this natural heart inclination. Just to believe within ourselves, with proud self sufficiency that thinks that we do not need god and rejects his right to tell us how to live. To rejects his right that tells us how to live.

Literally, this is the inner person Every person, whatever culture, whatever time, spiritually speaking, me as I am in myself, The enemy is puffed up, and his desires are not upright. So self trust, I must say it to you, because I include myself, self trust arrogantly believes that we are god, and he is not. In a sense, we're all practical atheists. So little of what of god is involved in our decision making from day to day. And therefore, in the culture, at least, he has seen that we are good and he is bad.

We are right, and he is wrong. We are truth, and he is the lie. You see where it goes? That is the root of all our innermost being in relation to all of this. And the fruit of it is mentioned by god, to Babakug.

There is you notice it. There is no emotional or he in eternal resting place for the soul. Always restless. Always the next thing. Maybe this, maybe here.

He is arrogant and never at rest. And when the wine is flowing, the real person is seen in its in their drunken situation. The real person comes out proud and arrogant intoxicated by greatness and goodness. That is divorced from god. So let's be clear about ourselves.

We have dethroned god, and we have enthroned ourselves. We're greedy for our glory, and our own will. We want to capture other people so they live our way too. And if we want to understand, my friends, why there is violence within our time, while there has always been violence, it's not something new, is it? But the secular bubble is kinda burst.

Hasn't it? The secular bubble that thought that we can produce a better world without god just believe in yourself. And the extreme examples of that now face us. With the violence that erupts everywhere. Just believe in yourself ends up in that kind of thinking and living.

And this is wrong How can I illustrate that? I want to take you to Narnia, 1 of my favorite books, c s Lewis, and, oh, as you know what it is, it's it's it's aslan who has ruled narnia this awesome lion who is who is, a bit a bit scary, but he's good. Alright? He's the right rule. But the wicked witch, until cruel rule, has challenged that.

And now, of course, there's snow in narnia, and it's not Christmas. And everybody's being frozen by the wicked witch. And 4 children climbed through a wardrobe, into Narnia and discover it, and 3 of them side with Islam. And 1 of them, Edmond, he doesn't. He sides with the wicked witch.

Well, there's power with the wicked witch. He's riding in her and her bit of a thing where she whatever you call it, she was riding in. And, and not only that he was eating chocolate supernaturally given to him. He had chosen the right side, hadn't he? Just believe.

That it's the wicked witch and siding with her. That's the right way to go, I inanya. But it's wrong. It's a treacherous trust. It's a wrong trust.

And as the story unfolds, what's to be done because actually, as the wicked witch says, this traitor called Edmund, deserves to die? And you know what happens that Islam goes to the stone table? And lays down his life for the traitor because what happened with Edmund was profoundly wrong. Wasn't a misdemeanor. It wasn't a little thing that just needs a a a screwdriver fix there, you know.

Radically wrong in non nonia to live this way. And Islam pays the price. For the traitor. And that's the cross. Why do we love singing about the cross?

How deep the fathers love for us? Because he knows how wrong we are, that we would dare to say to 1 another as cultures and as nations as even individual people just believe in yourself. We are in god's world, my friends. We have been given life by god. We were put in the womb by god.

We owe him everything. We owe him perfect obedience. We owe him perfect glory and honor, and we have not given him that. We have taken it to ourselves. Just believe in self.

Is wrong. Secondly, just believing god alone this for But the righteous person or the just person shall live by faith or by his faithfulness alone. Here is a total contrast to the first just believe. We're now looking. I say to you at the beautiful center of god's good news to all people.

This is the good news that should engage our minds and our hearts this morning. A fresh, how whatever we feel, whatever's been going on in our lives this week, whatever struggles we've been encountering. Here is the center of the good news. This is to be our personal and communal life in a violent world full of self. The righteous person will live by his faith or his faithfulness.

But I think we need some working models to help us understand this so that we see it Don't know if you've been to 1 of those museums, where they have working models, actors, you know, acting out in place. And we went to a museum in beamish, which was a mining museum in the north of England. They have a sweet shop there. It's and and and they're doing free sweets and a seed balls. And, they give you a little a little packet free of aniseed bulls.

And you suck some of these and they provide a bin outside. So you can split them into because they're disgusting. Don't go to beamish. Well, not to the sweet shop anyway. Kaleb's not gonna be interested in anything.

I can tell you for all that he did today. So we need 2 models. We're gonna get 2 models. 2 working models. So I've got 2 points left.

And each point, we go to Abraham, and then we go to Jesus. Abraham, Jesus. Okay. Here we go. Beginning of faith in God, when do we come to the beginning of faith?

In god. Well, Abraham will tell us. Abraham is called out of this human issue of just believe in yourself. A tower of Babel is being created in Genesis chapter 11, making a name for humanity without god. God destroys it, scatters the people, but he also calls Abraham out of all of that idolatry.

Calls him to the land, and it gives him various promises. By chapter 15 of Genesis We discover that Abraham now a very old man, and his wife, Sarah, are childless. And 1 of the promises is that they would be given a son. And 1 day, Abraham was in his tent, and he was talking to god about this. That he hadn't got a son, and god had promised him a son.

And god said, well, you will have a a son want someone of your own flesh and blood verse 4 of chapter 15. And then said, god said, he took him outside of his tent and said, look at the sky, and count the stars. If indeed you can count them. And he said to him, so shall your offspring be? Now stop for a moment.

Put yourself in Abraham's shoes. There he is. He's he's a very old mom, maybe about 90 years of age, maybe even older. Sarah is not far off his age. They are childless.

Your promised a son and you're promised an offspring more than the stars in the sky. Hands up. No, maybe you won't do it. If you think that's just fantasy land stuff. Well, it sounds it, doesn't it?

Sounds like Narnia created by c s Lewis from his my his imagination? Well, that's not going in the journal. Is it? Offspring, more than the stars in the sky. What you told in verse 6, Abraham believed the lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

And what basis did Abraham believe? On the promised word of god and the on the god who was making the promises, and nothing else? What work did Abraham do? He didn't do any work. What right work did he offer to god in order to obtain this.

He didn't have any right work to offer to god. In fact, as he believed, god credited him with his righteousness. He gave Abraham a right relationship with himself credited. Your bank account is in total bankruptcy. You cannot repay 1 single thing.

And your status with the bank, therefore, is a bankrupt. And then some kind person comes along and credits to your account the exact amount and more. And now your status with the bank is now entirely as it ought to be. You have received That wish you didn't work for. That wish you didn't earn, and you might even argue what wish you don't even deserve.

And god credited to Abraham, his own rightness to Abraham, so that Abraham would always know that he was right with god. That's our first working model. Ask. Let's go through Jesus now. Romans chapter 1.

Just gonna read. I'm not gonna expound these things. They are big in they are big things, but they all comes to fruition in Jesus. The offspring that Abraham was promised was not simply lots of Jews. It it was actually a spiritual offspring of many people who were trusting god to be given god's rightness with himself, Romans 1.

For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of god that brings salvation to everyone who believes. First to the Jew, and then to the gentile. For in the gospel, the good news, the righteousness of god is revealed or gifted to us. A righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Faith alone, if you like.

Just as it is written, in Hada Cook chapter 2 verse 4 interestingly, the righteous will live by faith. You see? The lord Jesus Christ became sinful for us because we were those who believed in who who were saying, just believe in yourself, and god is saying, that is foundly wrong in my world. And so the sun comes, and the sun comes and he lives a faithful life to god always honoring god, always giving glory to god, always obeying god. And on the basis of that perfect life.

He laid down his life for your sin of mine. So that we get the righteousness of god into our bankrupt accounts and more. How good is that? I say to you, my friends, as I think about that, there's nothing better in life. This is the power of god to save me.

And all I do is receive it by faith. I have never begged, and I've never needed to for money. I've never had to sit on a on the street and hold up my hands and say, can you give me something? But actually spiritually, I have had to do that. So as a 10 year old boy, I didn't realize that all of that at the time.

But I was actually holding out my hands and nothing else, a sinner, Besides the bed in Liverpool, I'm going, I want to receive your salvation. If that is your understanding of the gospel, then you understand in essence the beauty full center of it all. If you think today that Christianity is trusting god a bit, but mostly yourself, you have not understood the gospel. Come back to the stone table. Aslon dies on the stone table for the treacherous wrong self trust of Edmund siding with evil that felt so right.

I mean, after all, just think of the chocolate. The evil horde chants around with scorn as this roaring lion lies, shorn of its beard. But you know what happens, don't you? The table cracks. And as 1 rises from death, to rule afresh, and the Thor sets in, and Edmund joins the right side.

On the basis of nothing that he did. Nothing that he did. And I'm still not yelling. It's like, if you like, Many illustrations. This 1 will maybe not be so good, but it's the Olympic time, isn't it?

So winning gold medals And everybody has to tell you just how they have achieved this gold medal and all the work and all the suffering and all the sacrifice that went with it. And I understand that, and it's not to be minimized. That's not Christianity. If you like, I get the gold medal of god's righteousness in my life on the basis of all that Jesus did in terms of his life and his suffering and his sacrifice and it's given to me, and I didn't do anything to earn it. And I did everything not to earn it.

That is the reason why true faith can only boast in god. There is no place for self centered boasting. Now this is where faith begins. Secondly, there is a continuing in faith. We're nearly there.

Alright so far? Maybe not. But anyway, here we go. Continuing if it so there is a beginning of faith That takes place in the way I've described, but if there is a genuine beginning of faith, there is and and that we know that we are right with god in on the basis of Jesus, then there's a continuing to live faithfully, if you like. The just shall live by faith, but the just shall also live.

Notice live is the emphasis now. By faithfulness, faithfulness to god continuing in faith with god. Go back to Abraham, our working model, This time, so he's come in chapter 15 to this this gifted right relationship with god. And now in Genesis chapter 22, we discover that this is still functioning in his life. And in significant ways in his life, because he's trusting and he's obeying.

Now, Abraham was a man who struggled, He was a man who did some naughty things even after Genesis 15, but he was a genuine man of faith, And god tells him 1 day to take Isaac, his son that he has been given, and go up to mount Mariah and, sacrifice him. And Abraham, unbelievably, unbelievably, does it? Takes a knife, takes the wood, takes Isaac off they go, And up this mountain, they go, and we're told in Hebrews 11, by the way, that Abraham believed You know what he was believing as he went up that mountain? He believed that god would raise Isaac from the dead. Well, he got up the mountain He made the altar.

He put Isaac on it. He took the knife. I think the knife was almost at his son's body, and god said no. Continuing in faithfulness because Abraham knew 1 thing that The beginning of his life with god was that he was right with god forever. Makes all the difference.

As hebrews chapter 10 would tell us, we now go through Jesus. The Hebrew Christians were under pressure for their faith in Jesus, and they wanted to, find an easier life. So I just read these verses to you. I'm not gonna make too much of them. Here are people called to continue.

Remember those earlier days after you received the light, the gospel, the good news about Jesus. When you endured in a great conflict full of suffering, sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution, Other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possession. Just think if you went home today, and all your possessions have been taken. And a big note, you believe in Jesus so we just took all you had.

But they accepted the confiscation of their possessions joyfully. Why? Because They were better and lasting possessions coming their way in the new creation. So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded.

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of god, you will receive what he has promised for. Here's a quote from Habock chapter 2 verse 3 in just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay. So in Habakkuk, that's a reference to the Babylonians coming, and they will be dealt with by god, as we will see. But for us, Babylonia is going. So outside there's Babylonia, There's the impressive stuff as well as all the other stuff that isn't good.

Out there, And as you drive home today or walk home or take the train home, think 1 thing. 1 or 2 things. 1, it's all going. The end is coming. Babylonia is ending.

And it's not coming back. Don't wanna be part of that, do you? Secondly, When it's all destroyed, out of it, god will create a new creation, and we will have lasting better possessions than we ever had in this world. That deals with materialism, doesn't it? You see what's going on here, persevere.

And then verse 30, and my and the righteous 1 will live by faith and take no pleasure. I take no pleasure in the 1 who shrinks back, but we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved. If the end is coming, the crisis in which we live, which is often against our faith, and against trusting in Jesus And sometimes the suffering is unpleasant, and we're not here to minimize that, but we live faithfully. We're right with god, forever, the verdict is in. We're not part of Babylon by his grace.

We've been called out. And the better stuff is coming. Do you believe that? Do you really believe the better stuff is coming? Why is the better stuff coming?

Because The king is coming. The justified live by faith. Live by faith because they're justified, are already saved by faith. To be saved by faith comes first. To live by faith comes second.

Eric Little was an Olympic champion in 19 24 in Paris. He refused to run on a Sunday because that's when the final of the hundred meters of which he was the favorite So he decided, no. I'm I'm not running. The glory of the glory of god is way more important to me. So he ran in the 400 meters, which wasn't on a Sunday.

And, of course, as you well know, if you don't know, you should know, that he won that race and got gold and, got a world record at that time anyway. For 19 years, he ran as a faithful missionary to China, and he ended up, working amongst villagers of China, and they didn't give a a toss about his Olympic medal. They didn't give a toss about it. But they did want to know about his lord because he lived among them as a faithful man. Continuing to serve the god who had made him right through his son.

So finished by saying 3 things. Leave the wrongness of your self trust this morning for the eternal gift of being right with god forever. Leave it today. I don't care how young you are. I don't care how old you are.

If you are the just believe in me person, You need to leave it, and there is provision for you in love to leave it. You come and take Jesus as your lord and savior. You don't have to offer him anything. Anything. Not even moral improvement, not some kind of good work.

Not some religious ritual, not even bible reading and coming to church, as important as those things are. Just like Edmund, the traitor crossed to the right side. Because Aslan did it all for him. And maybe for the first time you'll take communion today. Because now you're on the right side.

God's right is now in your life always in your life, never to believe your life. And you're right. Second thing, if we have left our self trust and we, therefore, identify with Jesus as our lord and savior, then celebrate the joy of being justified You know, it doesn't sound a great thing, does it really? The joy of being justified And the joy of being justified, I'll throw another doctrine in, is the joy of being adopted into the family of god on the basis of that justification. We are indwell by the Holy Spirit.

He says to us, God is your father. You are his children forever. Brothers and sisters in the same room from different cultures. Well, a joy that is. Celebrate.

I am yelling. Because at the cross, communion, if you like, brings us to the centrality of it all and calls us away from the peripherals that we are so sometimes obsessing over. We boast in the sun who loved us. And he gave us himself for us. I read this morning that beautiful account of when Mary now pregnant with Jesus.

Goes to see Elizabeth. It's a beautiful account in Luke 1. Count't resist telling you. And Mary comes in and Elizabeth goes into praise and worship. But what happens in Elizabeth's womb?

John the Baptist is in the womb. He's been there 6 months, and he leaps for joy. Because the Holy Spirit filled him. We've got hard lives and tough lives and painful lives and confused lives. And we're gonna see some of that.

As we expound Habecock in future days, but I say to you, my friends that by the the maturing faith of Habecock He is a man standing in great joy, knowing that he's right with god, and that a maturing faith in god is worth it. Final point. We live in a world that sides sin sides sinfully with evil against god. As we have seen, there are impressive results in all of that, but a terrible violent dark side. And it is here.

We are called as god's people to live out a maturing faith in god so the better story shines. Linda, my dear wife, looking after 2 grandchildren in Liverpool today. God bless my dear wife, lover. She might be on live scene. Hello, dear.

If not, well. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Let's see a better life here.

A better gospel shining through. I can't remember who I was gonna refer to my wife, you know, lost her throat. The world in which we live has no idea about truth, but we do. Has no idea about grace, but we've got it in buckets and doesn't know what freedom is. They think it's freedom is to serve self.

It's not true, is it? Freedom is to joyfully and humbly give ourselves. To god. The god who has can do culture and has given it to us in Christ, by his spirit, Let's pray. Let's take a moment, please.

Easy to skip on, isn't it? All around us, oh lord, Babalonia, with its impressive life and its dark underside now swirls around us. We're not better than that world. We're not superior to that world. And all and some of us lived in that world, believing in ourselves Thank you for rescuing us in the person of your son.

Thank you for justifying us in your sight for his amazing life and death. We have nothing to boast in. We celebrate with joy. In our hearts. Father, if we think creation is amazing, and it is, that it is nothing compared to the amazing giving of your son.

Nothing eclipses him. No party, no car, no holiday. Not even a job promotion, not even winning a gold medal. We thank you. That as we now gather around your table, we do it as your people.

And we do it as brothers and sisters, right with you forever. And therefore I pray that all of us by your grace and by your spirit will continue. Not to shrink back under the suffering. But to move forward, to a better possession, to a better world, and to you yourself face to face in Jesus' name amen.