Habakkuk

Thank you, Dan.

We're going to have our bible reading now. So if you have bought your own Bible, please do turn to Habercook chapter 1. The reading will also appear on the screen behind me. And then after our reading, we're gonna sing, and then Morris will come and preach Morris is here with us again this morning. He's been bringing god's word to us in these morning services over the month of August and been taking us through this fantastic book of Habokook, and we're looking forward to the third installment of that this morning.

So Habokook 1 verse 12 to 2 verse 20 will be our reading. Lord, are you not from everlasting? My god, my holy 1, you will never die. You, lord, have appointed them to execute judgment. You, my rock, have ordained them to punish.

Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea Creek that have no ruler.

The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks. He catches them in his net. He gathers them up in his drag net, and so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore, he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet. For by his net, he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food.

Is he to keep on empty his net, destroying nations without mercy. I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts. I will look to see what he will say to me and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Then the lord replied, write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time.

It speaks of the end and 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, but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness.

Indeed, wine betrays him. He is arrogant at 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 people will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, woe to him, who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion. How long must this go on? Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble?

Then you will become their prey because you have plundered many nations The peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed human blood. You have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. Woe to him who builds up his house by unjust gain. Setting his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin.

You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. The stones of the wall will cry out and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice, has not the lord almighty determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the lord. As the waters come the sea.

Woe to him, who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn. Drink can let your nakedness be exposed. The cup from the lord's right hand is coming round to you.

And disgrace will cover your glory. The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you. For you have shed human blood, You have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman or an image that teaches lies for the 1 who makes it trusts in his own creation. He makes idols that cannot speak, woe to him who says to would come to life, or to a lifeless stone, wake up? Can it give guidance It is covered with gold and silver.

There is no breath in it. The lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him Okay. So I did say, thank you for your kind and warm welcome to me over this month. Won't go into all of that again.

Nice to stand alongside brothers, in the gospel, who teach the Bible, who might have, a great respect for, enough of that. Last week, we saw that there is real faith in trusting in the lord Jesus in living for the lord Jesus Christ faithfully in his world. We need to understand that there is pain, but we need to understand the kind of pain that Habber Cook is in. The lord is gentle with us, and he understands the pain that comes to our lives in many forms, personal struggles, unjust suffering. Maybe even some of us experienced violence.

The Psalms help us to express our hurt and our pain towards the lord who cares for us in the person of his son. But let us be clear that this is not the pain that Habacook is experiencing in, this, prophecy. His anguish is not over personal wounds, but over the spiritual and moral state of god's people and therefore of god's world. And he is in pain as we have seen, that god is doing nothing apparently, about any of this. So I want us to understand that when we come into such anguish, as we ought to, as people of faith and people of faithfulness, This is something actually liberating and not destructive.

The lord Jesus Christ ultimately came into this world and died on a cross in pain for the spiritual and moral state of our lives. In him, we are justified, made right declared righteous before a holy god, and have peace with him forever. And now we're evolved with Jesus in living in his world, which has evil in it, including violence. But this is going somewhere, isn't it? Jesus today reigns in all worthiness above us right now, doesn't he?

His pain, if you like, of suffering, has gone ultimately to the highest place. And if we are involved in any small way, knowing the anguish that we feel towards the evil in this world then we are going to the same place. We will discover that Habacook in chapter 3, not today, will end up singing the praises of god. And Jesus today leads the singing of the praises of god on the basis of the most awesome pain that humanity is known. Let us pray.

Lord, Jesus, you alone are worthy. And as we have tongue. It doesn't matter now about anything else, as long as you who are already glorified, are honored amongst us as we look at your word. In your name, we ask it, Humble listening to god's revealed truth is critical for our comfort and our confidence. We are called to live by faith in god alone, we are called to live faithfully to his purpose in this world.

And Habacook is our wise teacher in all of this. So let's start with a question this morning. Where will you be in 10 years time. You're 12. You're not even considering even the next, even tomorrow.

But you've still gotta work it out because that's responsible living, isn't it? We need to know what we're aiming for, and we need to know how we get there. Which is why the question is often asked in interviews. Planning is important. And being responsible people is something that is actually right in god's world.

Let me ask you another question. Where will you be in a thousand years time? How do you plan for that? And how will you get there? Joanie Ericsson Tarda broke her neck.

A diving accident. She was paralyzed from the neck down and has been so for, I think, 50 years. She is a follower of the lord Jesus. She was interested in the future as revealed by god and planned by him. She wants to enjoy that future.

As a responsible follower of Jesus, she investigates needed that future. In many passages of the Bible, maybe you can think of some now as I'm preaching. All these passages and pictures of the eternal future of living with a glorious lord Jesus And she went next door. I think that this person lived next door to her called Ricky. He was even more paralyzed than she was.

He couldn't speak even, and he could only blink in response. Anything that was said to him. And as she described god's future from some of these passages using some of these pictures, she happened to glance up at him, and he was blinking Furiously. Obviously, if you're paralyzed and you're a follower of Jesus, you're very, very interested in the future, aren't you? We live in a violent world, my friends.

Happy Cook is saying that to us, but I want to say something to assure you this morning. 2 14 is coming. Alright. So if you're getting a bit unsettled by some of the stuff, just think 2 14 is coming, hopefully, at least in my studies. 2 14 is coming.

That'll be as Jesus will return. So I have 3 3 things to say this morning. Number 1, Babcock pauses to recover, and he does so on solid ground. He pauses to recover. On solid ground is chapter 1 verse 12.

Lord, are you not from everlasting? My god, my holy 1. You will never die. You lord have appointed them to execute judgment You, my rock have ordained them to punish. I wonder what calms you down.

I wonder where you go to recover in distress. I've been watching fields of dream, which is Freddie Flintoff, who was a former cricketer. He's taking a group of young lads out to India on a cricket tour, but, he was involved in a terrible accident in a call for top gear. And that had to be postponed the trip to India for several months until he recovered. Facially, he now bears the scars of that.

But he admitted that in going to India with these boys, that he was actually reaching out to Cricket to save himself. Interesting that, isn't it? We all need a savior, and we know it. But our secular culture is not reaching out to Jesus. It's reaching out to many other things.

Habacook has had a tsunami revelation from god, and now has had a gigantic problem with god. His world is rocked, and his heart is in pieces. But before he gives the pushback, he has to settle himself in god. I said last week, god brings emotional insecurity about ourselves to bring us into security with himself. And now verse 12 is the evidence of that.

Habacook with his trembling feelings about god goes to god, interesting that. Habacook has to re educate his emotions with truth that he knows already regarding god. And what does he say? Well, he worships the everlasting god, doesn't he who never dies? The god who was always there and the god who was always here The Babylonians come and go.

Circular fort will come and go. The world will come and go forever. But our god never passes away. Not as it also he has a personal relationship. He keeps using the word my, my god, my holy 1, my rock.

God is the 1 who loves us personally in a never dying commitment. You are my people. I am your god. I think it was Luther that said that when we truly become followers of Jesus or are an assured that we're a child of god, Romans 8, then we can always speak with personal pronouns. My He catch that.

We were seeing that Jesus was the king, and I'm then it just changed at the end, didn't it? My king. He's also the perfectly pure 1 that is god. God is never wrong and does what is always right and perfectly right. And this is what defines us in relationship with himself if we do have a a relationship with god whom we call father.

This is what it means to be human. We live right with him in the lord Jesus. We live under his righteous rule in this world, and we will 1 day live perfectly in his righteous earth, as we will see, 2 fourteen's coming. And yet he also understands, doesn't he? That god is sovereign, and he says that got his right when he uses evil for his purpose.

You, lord, have appointed them, the Babylonians, to execute judgment. You, my rock have ordained them to punish Judor was unrepentant with regard to their sin. Judah was turning away from the lord to other gods that were not gods. God had sent profit after profit after a profit, but still, Judah would not indeed turn. And so god sends the Babylonians to deal with this issue so that they do repent.

And we see even in verse 12, the maturing liberated faith of Habacook. He's got some calmness and confidence in the chaos that he has with god. And I want us to say. I want to say to you, my friends, that this is where we get our bearings at all times especially when there is chaos to come to church, to sing the praises of the lord without these these great hymns, to hear the word of god read and taught. We get our bearings all over again, and we need to do it, and we need to keep on doing it.

There is no place I think more important than gathering together with the people of god. It's more important than holiday, not against your holidays. It's more important than anything else in the whole world in my view because it is a precursor to the ultimate assembly in the new creation when we will gather as the unified, completed church, multicultural, multigenerational. This is the place where we get our bearings, where we come to solid ground, where calmness can come into our souls with confidence. Second point, the horrified challenge of faith towards god.

It really comes from verse 13 and to into chapter 2 and verse 1. Habugach shows us in these verses how out of our depth we are when we attempt to share the decision making table with the triune god. We are just out of our depth. In the light of this, aren't we glad 2 14 is coming? I'm gonna stop saying that.

That's gonna get boring. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

You're sending the Babylonians these wicked call to deal with us the more righteous. You're too pure. Of course, he's right about that, isn't he? God is too pure to look on evil. We must understand that.

He is the holy 1, not just majestic, but absolutely morally pure. And so Babcock now before god, and here we get encouragement is because that we can actually continue to talk to god like this. There's 14 to verse 17. He uses poetry It just helps him out. He pictures a fisherman catching lots of fish in a net, verse 40.

I've never fished. Some of you may have, maybe are fishermen and you are experts on this matter. So I'm not going to go down there, of course. But I understand what's going on here, and I think you do too. The idea is to catch fish, not all boots, or rusty cans.

It's fish in the net, put back possibly. Anyway, And the Babylonians are likened to fishermen, capturing the nations like fish. The captured people are like fish wriggling and squirming and dying. And the Babylonians are full of joy of their success, and is the proof of their rightness in worshiping their gods and not god. The primary evidence is fabulous lifestyle of wealth and luxury, and all of this merciless, and all after all matters is self.

And he brings this, does Habacook, towards god, which is very important for us, because we can bring these things too before god. And if we have pain about how god is pure and holy and how he can go on looking at evil in our world and seemingly not deal with it, Then we have a right to come and help each other come and speak with honesty and anguish and horrified anguish before the god who take it. Isn't that he doesn't get grumpy. You know? Doesn't tell us off.

Doesn't shout at us. And yet at the same time, Babcock remains in the room, as I said last week, with a humble listening attitude. It's not shouting out all this stuff and then stonking out of the room, it doesn't want the answer. As a prophet, he had a protecting ministry over, god's people. And so he stations himself on the ramparts, and he waits in order to get an answer so that he can convey the answer, this important answer to the people of god.

The people of god are going to be invaded. They're going to be cruelly invaded by the Babylonians. And Hadcock has a ministry that has to prepare them for this invasion and help them in the invasion. And so there he stands all, I think, in humility to await the answer. And that's my third point.

The law's clear, unchangeable answer about the future. The Lord's clear, unchangeable answer about the future takes you from chapter 2 verse 2 to chapter 2 and verse 20. In Habacook's case, the answer is this that the Babylonians who will be raised and who will deal with Judah under god will in fact actually be dealt with by god in justice. The Babylonian reign ended after 70 years, and is what actually happened. God dealt with them.

Injustice. And that's important, isn't it? For Habicock to know that god does recognize that the Babylonians were evil and that they did deserve being dealt with injustice. And yet we also know we need to bear this in our minds in our studies that Babylon is taken into the new testament, to refer to collective, sinful, human who side with evil against god. We call that the world, spiritually and morally.

And so, for example, in Revelation 17 through 19, you read them at your leisure, you discover that the world is brought to an end justly when Jesus returns in all his glory. And the church celebrates that because evil has been removed forever. Do you want evil to be removed forever? Well, yes, I do, but could it be done nicely, please? A kind of a Marks and Spencer's version of removing evil.

Can I say to you that evil cannot be removed? Marks and Spencer's style. The cross proves that to us. The lord Jesus Christ has to hang on a cross. Between god, the holy 1, and between us as sinful human beings, and be crucified.

Thus proving that evil cannot be dealt with nicely. Kain thought that like that, didn't he? You remember Kain, he comes with all the fruit of his labors, and he presents a nice bunch of fruit to god. Now it the world is gods, and the fruit is nice, and and I'm sure it was a very nice bass it. But it didn't deal with his sinful heart.

It was an evidence of his sinful heart. His brother Abel, of course, brings an animal sacrificed. Blood is shed. We may feel that disturbing thing. A cruelty to animals.

But in this case, that cruelty had to take place for there was a greater issue at place, play. Sin had to be paid for, and it is a precursor of the law Jesus Christ coming into this world. And we need to remind ourselves of that that evil cannot be dealt with nicely. It has to be dealt with redemptively. David Wells says that in our therapeutic culture, the great issue is pain that needs to be comforted nicely.

But when you study the Bible and see the biblical worldview and you come to understand the god who is holy, then you enter a moral world And although there is pain, a pain that needs to be taken away, and Jesus will wipe away every tear from our eyes when we get to the new creation. So we understand that. But actually, we need redemption. And there I say it, we need bloody redemption. So it is important for us as we understand that in the past.

As we go back to the past, now we need to come forward into the future. And then just kind of final our finalize our thoughts in relation to what is said in verses 6 to 20. I'm not going to unpack versus 6 to 20 with great thoroughness, although I think they're worth worthy of a very deep and detailed study. But I'm taking pity on you and trying to keep this thing on track. You will notice that it is the lord's Woe song in 5 stanzas, and the woe comes 5 times at the head of each stanza.

And the tone is important. It is 1 of sadness. Do you understand that the Bible sets the tone, not just the truth? Here, you have arrogant self trusting Babylon who who who is so sinful that he has sided with evil against god, although god will now use it. Nonetheless, god has a whoa to say about this balon.

5 times. This detailed understanding of Babylon and its evil and habakkuk needed to hear that, and the people of god would need to hear that when they stood brutalized by the Babylonians when they invaded Judah, they would need to understand that god is the god who understood that evil and would deal with that evil in justice. So the plunderer gets plundered versus 6 to 8. In other words, god turns the tables. Versus 9 to 11, mister invincible is, not so invincible as he thought.

And then verses 12 to 14, I just picked this up a little bit more. We see that this whole this whole Babylononian adventure of conquest is about their own glory. There's a temporary false glory, isn't there in this Babylon? It's referred to again in verse 16. It's a temporary false glory.

And we look at our our world, and we see things that seem to be glorious, and they seem to be permanent, and they're amazingly impressive. And it must be that that's the real glory, whatever that might be. But do you notice it's 2 14, woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice, has not the lord almighty determined that the people's labor is only fueled for the fire. For that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing. And now we hear it.

You see where it comes? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the lord as the waters cover the sea. All the false glory is done away with. And there's only 1 glory now. God himself and the people acknowledging him as god.

And we need this, don't we? We need to live on this glory. We've come back to that at the end of my studies. All of this built as the fifth stanza tells us on idolatry, and we need to understand that too. This is not built on god who is eternal.

This is built on nothing. Nothing. You say, well, you you go into London and you see the site, or I go into Louisville, and I see the site, and I think, well, it's not built on nothing. It's all going to go, my friends. It will all be dissolved, and not a brick will be left.

I like my little bongos, only a 2 bedroom affair, but I have to say to you this morning, it's all going to go. Because I don't I hopefully button below is not built on idolatry, at least in my head. But you get my point. I'm in the hole now, aren't I, getting myself out? But much of what we see around us is nothing more than idolatry, which is lifeless and useless.

It's like saying to a wood come to life order, lifeless stone wake up. Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver, and there is no breath in it. I watched a documentary of Aylish Macolgan. She's a Scottish runoff by wife is Scottish.

We watch things in relation to Scotland. I'm from Northern Ireland. I resent this, then we haven't got any decent runners. Oh, no. Maybe we do have.

So, anyway, moving on. But here she is, she is committed to running, and she is quite a an incredible runner in her own right, but her body is beginning to give out. And so the idol idolatry that has captivated her heart and pushes us on her on for miles in marathons, as well as in other races. Isn't such a god that is worth serving. Do you hear the Samsung this morning?

Of god exposing it all because he loves us so much. Reading the Bible and hearing so much about god's righteous justice must mean he loves us greatly to put his reputation on the line because often it is destroyed on this very truth. He must love us to great deal. So I say to you this morning, in all love, if you're not a follower of Jesus, if you cannot say that you have a right relationship with god, based on the lord Jesus Christ dying for you on a cross, then I say to you in love this morning, leave the world spiritually and morally. Leave it.

It's a dead end. Justice is coming upon it. Come and receive the gift of eternal life in the lord Jesus Christ. And all you have to do is bring yourself with nothing in your hands. For god so loved the world, that he gave his 1 and only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And now as we are finishing, and I promise you, we are, I end up with 2 glorious moments in the all of this. You will see the first 1 in chapter to 2 verse 20. The lord is in his holy temple. He's described all this evil, but where is the lord? The lord is in his holy temple.

Let all the earth be silent before him. God rules, my friends. In heaven above, he has installed his king, the lord Jesus Christ, who rules over all things today. So let us be humble and pay attention to the only voice that actually eternally matters. Our god is absolutely sovereign, and he does what pleases him, and he is always right Our secular culture says there is no place in the public square for the voice of god, silence from heaven.

But how happy we are? We're allowed to be happy. How happy are the people who are ruled by god? You've heard it said, haven't you? Sometimes and I think it's a distortion.

There are no rules in Christianity on a relationship. That's not quite true, is it? According to their city, capitalism, it isn't? But I say to you, my friends, there is a relationship that savingly rules us. That is Christianity.

How happy are the people who are ruled by god? How happy are the justified people who are in Christ and have a relationship that not even death can destroy? 2 20. Take it home with you. Silence from the earth, and now 2 14.

We're gonna land here. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the lord. As the waters cover the sea. It is a quote, actually, from Isaiah chapter 11. So Habok obviously had read Isaiah.

Let me read the context. The context is actually about, in the first few verses of 1 to 5, about the lord Jesus Christ coming. He's the great branch that is being referred to here. And in the light of all his righteousness, and in all his faithfulness, and all his justice and mercy, then verse 6. The wolf will live with a lamb.

The leopard will lie down with a goat. The calf and the lion of the yelling together, and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear. Their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra's den.

The young child will put his hand into the viper's best. They will neither harm nor destroy an all my holy mountain for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the lord as the waters cover. The see. Strange, isn't it? Actually, it's not strange.

It's normality. What we live in is strange It says that there will be a knowledge of god's glory, fill the earth, and it is full of great and it's full of mercy, and it's full of wonder, isn't it? It's not that the glory of the lord will will fill the earth. That is true. We will see the glory of god.

We will see the glory of Jesus. And we, ourselves, if we are redeemed people, will be glorified. We will be made glorious. I shave in the mirror. I don't think I'm glorious.

I limp along with the stick. I don't feel I'm glorious. But 1 day, I will be glorious. I will see the glory of god, and I will reflect the glory of god, perfectly as as you will. But this is the knowledge.

You see that? It's the knowledge. We will all know. We will all acknowledge without exception. And if you've been on a boat and you've just seen the sea and no land, and that's all you can see.

Here's the image. 1 day, we will see the glory of the lord filling the entirety of the new earth and we will see the glory of god reflected in all humanity perfectly. And that's all we'll see. And we won't drown. Evil has gone, and I say it carefully.

Simple humanity with it. A world of grace and beauty described by Isaiah chapter 11, a world of safety. Children thrusting their hands into snakes, nests. You wouldn't do it. Would you?

You wouldn't allow any child to do that as mothers, you're even cringing at the thought, but not in the new creation. I don't know if you've ever been on a holiday. You've been expecting it. And and they're really looking forward to it, and you think, wow, this is gonna be amazing. And there's a crushing disappointment.

It may be coming for you for the rest of this month. I don't know. We will never get to the new creation, and see the glory of god, filling the entirety of the earth, and us perfectly reflecting that glory in our human lives and our human relationships and say, take me back to the original creation. And let's just be clear. This is not compensation for missing out on this life.

No, my friends. This is life. The pain of unjust suffering is put completely right. The pain of personal hurts are wiped away, never to return. There's no perverted justice here.

And the pain of crying out to god over people who don't know Jesus and the culture that doesn't know Jesus perfectly fulfilled. As I finished, my dad died in March this year. But in August last year, he had a very bad fall, and he was taken to a hospital, and I went with him. He was not in a great shape. And as we waited in A and E, which seemed to be like ours, there he was.

He they put him in a blanket to warm him up, as they waited to come stitch his face. And then he looked at me in the midst of all of this, and he said, Morris, I'm ready to go to be with Jesus. Actually, I think he thought it was his last day. And I told him, in response, you need to understand my relationship with my there a bit here, that I wanted that more than anything else in the world for him. Why would I hold him back from the glory of seeing Jesus or being perfectly reflecting that glory, even now without his new creation body.

Why would I hold him back from that? Well, he didn't die until March this year. Linda phoned me. I was in hospital in a room by myself, and she told me that dad had gone to be with Jesus or had he arrived with Jesus. And there was sadness in my heart because he's my dad.

But the delicious sense of peace was better than licking any ice cream I've ever to my life. And a thousand years from now, my father will still be alive. 2014 is coming, whether it's in a thousand years or in a thousand minutes, makes no difference. 2 2 14 is coming. And so I would encourage you as Christians, to, take hold of passengers that teach you about the new creation and all that's coming our way.

I really think that needs to get back onto the top of our agendas. I woke at 3 o'clock this morning. I I sometimes do that, and and and and I was challenging myself. He ego, he entered into my weird illness. About passages, about the new creation.

And I was trying to go from memory, at least the references, and maybe some of the content. What are you doing that? 4 at 3 o'clock in the morning? Was that just about teaching, Morris? And I didn't shout out because I was sharing, the the house with others.

Well, no. It's about living, and it's about dying. And it's about going home. Listen to Romans 8. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth worth comparing with the glory or the weight of glory that will be revealed to us or revealed in us can go either way.

For the creation awaits an eager expectation for the children of god to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to stracean, not by its own choice, but by the will of the 1 who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom of the glory of the chilled of god. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to some ship, the redemption of our bodies, for in this hope, we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all, who hopes for what they already have.

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Let us pray. Take a moment, please, my friend. Always rushing. Always the next screw tape says to his junior devil, when the patient was getting serious about thought.

Just remind him of a sandwich. Lord god almighty you are in the heavens above us. And we would, in 1 sense, be silent before you, and yet in another sense, we must respond. Respond not only with our words, though we will use them too, but with our lives and with our hearts. We see a world that is full of false glory, fake imitation, built on nothing.

And we thank you, lord Jesus. What is built eternally has been built on you, your death and resurrection, and your exaltation to heaven. And 1 day, we really will see We will see you in all your glory, and we will reflect perfectly all your glory in our lives and in our relationships as will the new creation around us. The knowledge of your glory God will fill the earth, and all other glory will be swept away. Thank you for the day of justice that is coming, and we pray for any who don't know you this morning that they may realize that This is a day of mercy.

Father, you sent your 1 and only son to die for us on a cross that we could be right forever, and the world could be put right. We pray for them say that they may open their lives up to you and come with nothing in their hands and reach out and receive gift, a gift beyond imagination. We worship you together in your name.