Wonderfully Made

The first reading is from some a hundred and 39.

You have searched me lord and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue, you lord know it completely. You head me in behind and before and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you.

The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before 1 of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts god? How vast is the sum of them? Where I'd account them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

When I awake, I am still with you. If only you god would slay the wicked away from me, all who are bloodthirsty, they speak of you with evil intent. Your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you lord and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them.

I camp them my enemies. Search me god and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. The second reading is from Hebrews chapter 2 versus 9 to 18.

But we do see Jesus who was made lower than the angels for a little while now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death. So that by the grace of god, he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that god for whom and through whom everything exists should make the pioneer of that salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the 1 who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call brothers and sisters.

He says, I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters. In the assembly, I will sing your praises. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, he says, here am I and the children god has given me. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death.

That is the devil. And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps but Abraham's descendants. For this reason, he had to be made like them. Fully human in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to god and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people because he himself suffered when he was tempted.

He is able to help those who are being tempted. Well, we thank you for the truths that we've been singing in all his songs, but we thank you that you are the 1 that holds us together. We give you glory for that, our, ma'am. Please sit down. My name is Pete Woodcock.

I'm 1 of the elders of the church here. Just to say a big thank you to all those that are involved in setting up and setting down. With the vision dinner last night. It's really, really great time together. And, also just to say that some of the things, if you were there, that I was talking about going on to that QR code, if you want to offer ideas or, you know, how we can reach, this, this, this town, this area, or you wanna volunteer for something, do do do do that.

We really wanna know how we can better serve this area with the gospel of the lord Jesus Christ. Let me pray again. Father help us now as we look at this passage, touch our hearts. Please cause us to be praising people. In Jesus' name, amen.

Now I guess most people, but maybe if you're from another country, you don't know this, this saying, but I guess most of us know the saying naval gazing. Yeah? Gazing at your naval? No 1 know that saying? No.

Okay. Well, I'll explain it. It's someone who, is excessively, you know, self contemplates. It's someone who spends too much time thinking about their own feelings and their own thoughts and their own problems, and it's always me, me centered. It's navel gazing.

It's looking down at your navel. It's it's not a particularly nice phrase It's never ever used positively as far as I can see, and it describes this self indulgent person pictured looking at their belly button, looking at their naval. That's what the naval is. Now I love I love Blue's music. It's probably 1 of my favorite musics around, and I think you could sort of rename Naval gazing and make it slightly nicer by calling it belly button blues.

Because really that's what it is. It will bring the blues. And the the images is someone not looking at the big picture, you see. It the image is someone of thinking small and only thinking of themselves. And when you naval gaze, when you just gaze down at yourself, it will bring the blues.

It will bring a sadness to you. So that's what belly button blues is. And it's very popular today as far as I can see, belly button blues. It's the constant advice and almost like the backdrop music for our entire existence. We are to create ourselves.

We are to make ourselves. We are to discover ourselves. We're to be about me. Life is about me and I'm to gaze within naval gaze. The famous, French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre.

He really started this stuff up. Well, I mean, that's not quite true, but he he made it big. By saying that we make our own meaning. We discover our own meaning. We never receive it from the outside.

It's us who make it. And so he would enjoy naval gazing and he spent hours doing it himself gazing at his own belly button. The belly button loose. I've written a song. I've got the belly button blues.

I'm looking down just above my shoes. I didn't ask to be born and I don't ask to die. I just keep asking the question why. I didn't say it was particularly good but I've got the belly button blues. I'm looking down just above my shoes.

How do I make myself be? How do I make myself free? That's the belly button. That's naval gazing. But here's the thing, gaze at your naval enough, and you'll find that little belly button will speak to you.

Yeah. And it has something profound to say to you. The belly button has something profound to say to you that we owe our existence to others. That's what the belly button says. It's your body's way of saying, you cannot be a self made person.

It's your it's your body saying, you're not a separate island, that every 1 of us is is someone's child. We may not know their names or we may know the names, but we are someone's child. We owe our existence to others. That's what the belly button says. That's why god has put it there that we're more the product of things outside us than we could ever be of just gazing at things inside us.

That's what the belly button says. And if you think about it, we are. We're much more the product of things outside. Even even our emotions, even our anger, and our sadness, and our our joys, they're all really the results of connections with other people. You can't really have them in private space of your own naval gazing contemplation.

Humans are social beings, creatures, with histories. And if you try to deny that, you'll become less than human if you just navel gaze and don't go where the navel is trying to take you. I think we've gotta get this that we need other people to make us our true selves more than we think, and it's very important. You've got no chance of understanding yourself. Just by looking within.

So the belly button, the belly button is there to show us that we're attached, the belly button is there to show us we're not self made. We're made people. People are lost today. I mean, seriously lost and they're trying to find themselves. Well, follow the lead of the belly button.

Follow the umbilical cord and you'll come to a mother. And there you'll get rid of the belly button blues. And this is where we are in Psalm 1 3 9. Psalm 139 has brought us into the womb. It's an amazing thing.

We see that we're fearfully and wonderfully made and that is what the belly button does. So here's my advice to you. Let the belly button speak. Yeah? Let its little voice say you're made.

So let's go into my first point then. You were fearfully and wonderfully made. Look at verses 13 to 16 of this psalm. For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, that's the womb, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before 1 of them came to be. Do you see how personally intimate god is here in making you? It's quite extraordinary informing you created my innermost being.

You knit me together. You knit me together. I'm fearfully, wonderfully made your works are wonderful. It's talking about me being made. My frame.

It wasn't hidden from you. You made me in the secret place in that womb. You wove me together, created, knitted, made, working on me, woven, all of god. Versus 13 to 16 goes into that secret place. Into the womb.

And what do we find in that dark secret place? We find the workshop of god. We find the great, almighty, creator god. Far bigger than the universe. There in this tiny workshop called the womb knitting us together.

God is the embryologist. He he he he delights in works and knitting and developing the human together. Look at verse 15. My frame was woven together. The tendons and the nerves and the veins and the arteries and the arteries and the capillaries and the the muscles are marvellously woven together around bones.

There's no tapestry as gorgeous as this. I mean, he makes those veins and nerves and archer is in the first place. And then he precisely puts them together and knits them together knitting and weaving the genetic code that's like a massive language, but tiny in the nuclei of the of a cell. This is what God is doing. I'm not an accident.

The belly button takes me there and says, no, you're not an accident. It's not all about me. The belly button takes me there to say I'm designed. I'm not just the decision of my parents even. I'm the intended result of the mind and the skill of none other than creator god.

Isn't that amazing? Don't be blind to what you are. Look at the naval. Go deeper. It's amazing, isn't it?

People will go around to the wonders of the universe. They wanna see the 7 wonders whatever they are today. They wanna it's always a great barrier reef, and it's always Thailand or somewhere. The bucket list of wonders of the universe. I wanna climb the mountains.

I wanna see the views. I wanna go down into the sea and and see Titanic. And, you know, these wonderful things I wanna be listen. That person next to you is a wonder. It's a wonder of the universe.

But hold it. The 1 on your seat is a wonder of the universe. Alexs the belly button that I'm contending is the portal to that, yeah, to that wonder. We can all get them out and show them in a minute. Verse 14, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your works are wonderful. The word wonderful and wonderfully there actually means to be set apart as as something outstanding as something marvelous. I am fearfully and wonderfully made your works of wonderful, something marvelous, something set apart, something precious, and then the word fearfully just literally means that, fear. Fearfully. We're we're fear.

It's it's a bit like if you want to sort of get that picture of when you see something like really beautiful, very delicately made, say, China pot or something. It's so beautiful that it's see through and yet it's got these lovely paintings on the outside and it's got gold inlay and it's such a gorgeous precious delicate thing that you're sort of fearful to touch it. You know, you you don't wanna make your tea in that. You just feel like, whoa, this is I don't wanna touch that because it's so, and you're fearful of that. Well, that's the picture that god's giving us of us.

We're precious, we're fearfully wonderfully made, but that expression is saying actually trying to get us to say, well, who made this? All glory to the maker, when you see something that's so beautiful, you say, or who painted it? Who made it? Who's the maker? First 16, the first half.

Look, your eyes saw my unformed body. In other words, god was doing ultrasound before anybody came out with it. In the twentieth century. God knew I was in my mom before my mom knew it. Says David.

Your eyes saw my unformed body. God saw all the potential in the human embryo before any human could see it or discern it. Extraordinary, isn't it? Look at first 16 again in the second half. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before 1 of them came true.

Even when I'm formed, God's got plans and purposes in his book for us. Even when unformed, there's a purpose and there's a meaning that god has written in his book for you. Even when you're on form, even as he's beginning to just knit you together and you're not quite complete yet. See, that little thing that we call a fetus, which is a really horrible word, I think. That's that's not a potential human.

That's a human with potential. That's what he's seeing here with the potential to bring glory and honor to the maker. Because we're fearfully and wonderfully made. Now, this is what we need to tell our children. We're doing this series in conjunction with the Sunday school.

They're doing the same passage today. It's wonderful, isn't it? So talk about this. Make sure you put time in your day to talk about what they learned and you say what you learned. And we need to we need to teach our children this.

And so when the children come out with those sort of questions, you know, where am I from and where was I before I was born, you know, when they asked that difficult question, then you need to answer. You weren't anywhere before you were born, or before you were in the womb, but But listen. You were knit together. You were woven together in this amazing place, the womb, and it was god right there making you who you are right now so you would be born for this very day. Isn't that extraordinary?

So when you look at your belly button, don't get the blues, go for follow the lead, follow the umbilical cord to where it goes, and then you might get rid of the blues. That's my first point. You were fearfully and wonderfully made. Here's my second point. Jesus, the Messiah and Savior was fearfully and wonderfully made.

Now, this is a Psalm of David, and, David in the Old Testament part of the Bible is the great king, but he's not the greatest king. There's David's greatest son to come, and day David is a is a forerunner, a picture of the great Messiah, the great king, the great anointed 1, that's what Messiah means, and that's what David is. He's a picture of the and a forerunner of the Messiah, the king, the lord Jesus Christ to come. So what we have here in Psalm a hundred and 39 is nothing other than the miracle of the incarnation. God becoming flesh.

That's what incarnation means. Now, just follow this. This is extraordinary. The eternal god, the son, becoming a man, becoming flesh and blood. What do you have here in Psalm under the 39?

Is the inside story from the womb of Christmas. That's what you have. Let me remind you, Luke's gospel, chapter 1, the angel Gabriel had come to Mary. Virgin remember and said you're gonna have a son, and he's gonna be called Jesus. And she says, how will this be Mary asked the angel?

Since I'm a virgin, the angel answered the holy spirit, the third person of the triune god, the holy spirit will come on you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. So the holy 1 to be born will be called the son of god. You've got the whole trinity there, you've got the holy spirit, you've got god the father the most high, and you've got this 1 that's gonna be born. Uh-uh, the son of god, or Matthew says this in his, telling of that story, all of this took place to fulfill what the lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him immanuel, which means god with us. Do you see this?

God the Holy Spirit. Overshadowing Mary in a mysterious way. The eternal son of god, becoming flesh, the creator being created, the sun from heaven, becoming the man of earth, the word of god, becoming a wordless baby in the womb. How? How the pre existed son of god could take up human nature and take himself human flesh and blood is utterly, utterly beyond our understanding, but glorious.

How the infinite can walk in a finite world? How can the supernatural enter the historical life of this planet? How can all the fullness of the godhead be in bodily form? How can that be? He didn't change into flesh.

He didn't alter his eternal nature. That's not what we're saying. He took on flesh. He is fully god, and always always been god, and always will be god. And he's fully man.

This is stunning. This is a stunning, stunning mystery of the incarnation that he could continue to be the eternal god, the son, but nevertheless be the son of god. In flesh. They say that truth is strange of a fiction. Yeah, it's right.

It is. I love I love GK Chesterton who is a a Victorian writer, he said this, truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction. For fiction is the creation of all of of the human mind and therefore congenial to it. Well, what he's saying is that all forms of fiction, however skilled, however creative the fiction is, however sort of compelling the fiction is, however well crafted the fiction is, is only limited to the human imagination. Therefore, truth must be stranger than it.

The truth of god must be bigger and stranger than fiction, and it is, isn't it? How can this be? How can this be? How can god and fully god and fully man be knitted together? Adam and myself saw a program some years ago, on these conjoined twins.

We used to call them Siamese twins, but apparently that's not the right way to say, anymore, but but they conjoined twins. And they were just amazing girls and the mother was amazing. It's just a fantastic documentary about these girls. And, they were to join down the middle, so they were literally side by side. So 1 of the girls had a right hand, and then her her sister had a left hand.

Obviously, you know, 2 heads, they had 2 personalities, 2 different people. 1 of the girls had a right leg, and the other girl had a left leg. They are separate people but joined together with certain organs inside. Amazing, amazing couple, and they learned to drive. They had to take the test twice because each had to pass the test.

But you've gotta remember you're driving with someone your right hand, and then, and the person you're with sitting next to you is using their left hand. Can you imagine the coordination? But listen, They learn to knit. Imagine the person you're sitting next to. 1 of you has got the right hand needle and the other has got the left hand needle.

I mean, I can't knit anyway. Can you? It's hard enough to sort of, what the heck? What's the point they're cheaper down the road to buy? Well, who why would you even knit?

Staff? But, yeah, they learned to knit. Imagine that 2 people knitting. And they were going away like, just my kids. Do you see this here?

You knit me together. Who's the you? It's the triune god. It's the father and the spirit knitting the lord Jesus Christ together with him involved somehow because he's the creator of all things. Somehow, the second person of the trinity is not just possessing a human body like a hand in a glove, fully god and fully man are knitted together.

God was shaping within the virgin womb of Mary, a tiny embryo cell by cell, fully man, fully god, fully man. What is it? Nick 1 per 1, fully man, fully god, fully man, fully god. And the knitting together of this savior of Jesus of Nazareth is the greatest miracle in the whole of human history. The son of god came to earth in exactly the same way in exactly the same processes as you did.

He had a mother who went into labor and he was born in a barn the creator was created. Now, why the incarnation? Now bear with me here. Why the incarnation? It was the only way that the Messiah could save us and bring flesh and blood into the kingdom of God.

It's the only way he had to become flesh and blood to be the leader of a new people that would bring flesh and blood for all eternity in god's kingdom. So we come to Hebrews too. Let me read it. Let me read it slowly. And let's just go over it.

We'll go over it again. But we do see Jesus who was made lower than the angels for a little while now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death. So that by the grace of god, He might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that god for whom and through whom everything exists should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the 1 who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.

So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. Let's go to verse 14. Since the children, the brothers and sisters, have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity. So that by his death, he might break the power of him who holds the power of death. That is the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

For surely, it is not angels, he helps. Jesus didn't become an angel to to save the angels. For sure he is not angels he hate helps, but Abraham's descendants human beings. For this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human in every way. In order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service of god and that he might make atonement bringing god and man together at 1 for the sins of the people.

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Now there's tons of stuff in that, and it takes a long time to some sometimes unweave that. But we see the knitting and the weaving going on here. What we have here is god for some has become, has come to rescue humans, and he's come to bring many humans, sons and daughters to glory. He's come to bring us the glory, actually, to make us sons.

The word daughter isn't really there, but, you know, it's for all, men and women to bring us the glory. And in order to do that, he has to be a pioneer. He has to be going into death as a pioneer and turning death into a resurrection so that he could bring a family through death. He could bring the physical through death. And in order to do that, he had to become flesh and blood.

So he too shared in our humanity, he said. So he could represent us. He could be the leader, the pioneer of a people physically coming into the presence of god. So he could break the power of sin and death over humanity so that he would be the elder brother, if you like, of a new saved humanity. So that he could become the high priest.

You see all the knitting together, bringing people to god. The priest brings people to god, but not only bringing people to god, bringing the blood of atonement. And not only bringing the blood of atonement, being the blood of atonement for there is no salvation without the shedding of blood. The lamb's blood was a picture of human blood. If humans are to be saved, then human blood has to.

Be in a tournament. So do you see what I'm trying to say here? God is utterly committed to rescuing the things that he he actually loved and made in the womb, human beings. God is committed to that rescue plan, and intimately and utterly involved as the triune god. The second person of the trinity wasn't just sent off by god the father and the spirit on a mission for a few years.

Off you guys see it in 33 years. He wasn't just sent off and they got on with running the universe. It wasn't like, you know, or even sent off while they stayed in heaven all worrying about all of what's happening to the sun. This is a rescue plan. It's called the grace of god.

Every ounce, every part of the grace and the love of god is intimately involved in knitting the sun together in the womb. This is salvation on a trying level. You could hear the knitting, you know, the knitting needles. They don't they? It's love, love, love, love, love, love, love, every cell, love, every nerve, love, We're making the pioneer who face death.

We're making the elder brother who'll be flesh and blood for those who are his children. We're making the high priest so he can he can, bring the atoning blood. We're making the blood so that we can be so they can be forgiven. Do you see this? The marvel of the incarnation, but now go to the cross.

Here is the savior on a cross. Can you hear him praying? You hear him praying when he was being mocked, when he was feeling like a worm and not a man, because people were mocking him so. When he was in pain and human beings that were fearfully and wonderfully made were turning their faces from him as if he was a world, a criminal, ugly, He looked down and he sees his mother. Don't you think he prayed this prayer?

You created me in the innermost being. You knit me together. Even though they mock me, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made your works a wonderful. My frame was not hidden from you. I was made in the secret place.

I was woven together. You created me. You knitted me. You made me. You did your works over me.

You wove me together. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made for this very moment. To be the other brother, to be the pioneer, to be the perfect savior, to be the Messiah, to be able to lead flesh and blood through death into resurrection. You created these hands. To hold the nails.

You knit them together for this job. You knit my blood vessels together that are now torn. The blood that is dripping from them, You knitted all together in the womb, every nerve that now is crying out in pain. You knitted in me. My frame now is pinned to wood on the cross, but it was woven for this point, who was made to be the savior, the tongue that cries out.

I thirst will also cry out it is finished. I've done the job that you created me for, I was fearfully and wonderfully made for this moment. For god so loved the world, the most famous verse, For god so loved the world. God so loved the world he gave his 1 and only son that whoever believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. I was made to bring many sons to glory.

That's my second point. Here's my third point. I praise because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. You're fearfully, wonderfully made. The messiah's fearfully and wonderfully made.

And I praise because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Look at verse 14. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. I praise you because of that. Revelation chapter 4 verse 11 says, you are worthy our lord and god.

You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things. You're worthy because you created everything. And by your will, they were created and how they're being. When you see an explicit piece of art, you question who who did it? And it brings glory to the maker.

You're worthy lord because you made me to bring praise to you. If you look at your belly button, you should turn to praise if you're listening to it. I praise you because I'm fearfully wonderfully made your works are wonderful. This is not the same as going on social media and saying how good you are and how beautiful you are. The person that realizes that god has made them realizes that he's worthy of praise.

You're not a self made man. You're not a self made woman. And the belly button leads you to think bigger. So you're not thinking of yourself, you're praising god. We were made to praise.

There's a song where's Finn, Finn? If I were a butterfly, It's such a a little kid song that we're a little embarrassed to sing it, but we should sing it. Do you know do you know it? Do you know it, Chris? You're gonna sing it?

If I how's it going? If I were a butterfly, I'd thank you lord for giving me wings. Yeah. It's made for that. If I were a robbing in the tree, I thank you lord that I could sing.

And if I were a fish, if I think, right, if I were a fish in the sea, I wiggle my tail and I giggle with bleed, but I just thank you father for making me me. Do you do that? Or are you constantly comparing yourself to someone else? You made my frame? Well, when I'm in the gym and you see all these gorgeous things walking around.

You know, there's planets like this. Walk of that's, you know, they're like cramped. Yeah? And as I'm cycling, I'm thinking myself really thin, and then I catch myself in the mirror, the flipping egg. That crab is gonna come for the fat.

I thank you father for making me mean because you gave me a high and you gave me a smile and you gave me Jesus and you may be your child, and I just thank you lord for making me me. I'm not tall, I'm not thin, I'm not like the other people, but you may be me. And you made this frame to praise you, to praise him, and it's Jesus, the elder brother, the savior, the pioneer, The high priests that leads us as he ascends into heaven, the physical body of Jesus, dying on a cross, rose again, physically rose, physically, there's our elder brother in heaven. He leads the way of praise. He's the 1 that leads the way for humanity to come into the eternity into glory.

Look at Hebrews chapter 2 again versus 11 and 13. Both the 1 who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, I will declare your name. Who's name?

God's name. He's gonna declare the praises of God. I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters in the assembly. I will sing your praise. When we're there, we're gonna hear our elder brother singing the song.

Where where he's leading the worship because now there's a man who is god in heaven forever. Look, again, I will put my trust in him. And again, he says, here am I and the children God has given me. Here I am god. These are the children and it's him, the savior, the physical 1, the 1 who is the god man that leads the way.

And and there's another wonderful thing going on here. I was sort of running out of time. However much you've tried to cut yourself off from god, However, much you've tried to unmet and unweave what god has done in your life. However, much you've tried to ruin and vandalize that which god has put together. Christ our savior can rescue you and remake you.

And we learn from, Romans chapter 8 that we are being made and conformed into the image of his son. We're being made. He has the power to knit us together, even in our sin and even in the way we've tried to unknit god in our lives. He can remake us and make us like the sun. He's the elder brother for evermore.

And so I praise And so all we can do is end up with verse 17 and 18. How precious to me are your thoughts, god? How vast is the sum of them? Were I to count them? They would outnumber the grains of sand.

When I wake, I'm still with you. I can't how do I praise you enough? So let me finish. With my belly button blues song. I've got the belly button blues.

I'm looking down just above my shoes. Belly button tells me I'm fearfully made. Now it's not the blues. I praise. Let's bow our heads and praise God heavenly father we do thank you for all that you have shown us this morning in your word.

We thank you that we have been each 1 of us here fearfully and wonderfully made by you. We thank you that you designed us. We thank you that you knit us together. We thank you that you made our bodies. And our personalities that you love us, you know us even better than we know ourselves, and we just praise you.

We we are sorry that we so easily, take that for granted or sometimes don't even consider it at all. Or we just think about ourselves without reference to you, our designer, and we're sorry for that. No wonder life goes so wrong when we so quickly cut you out of the picture. And so thank you for speaking to us. We thank you for the lord Jesus Christ, the great man of heaven.

We thank you that he is that perfect unity, truly man, and truly god, reigning now forever and ever and ever. This 1 who became like us in every way yet without sin who could redeem us and bring us resurrected flesh and blood into the kingdom of god to be with you forever. Lord Jesus, as we go from this place, keep our eyes fixed on you, we pray, our perfect man, our perfect god, our perfect saviour, and we ask it in his name. Oh, man.