That's the Point!

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 83

Psalm 83 ESV

A Song. A Psalm of Asaph. O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant— the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Asshur also has joined them; they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who were destroyed at En-dor, who became dung for the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves of the pastures of God.” O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, so may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane! Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord. Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.

Scripture Reading: Psalm 121

Psalm 121 ESV

A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Sermon:

Well once again and as always good morning church I was certainly glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord. This morning, our text for today. It's a short one. Two verses long. It's a familiar one. It's one that I have been reading.

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Almost.... not quite every, but almost every Sunday since we've been in this sermon series as the benediction at the end of our service. It's a wonderfully. Beautiful Rich, text. And one that. If we're not careful, we might miss the point of I'm gonna start by reading it and then and then we'll dive in.

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We're just going to dive in since. We've heard it all, we don't need to deal with a lot of introductory matters with this text. Philippians chapter 4. Starting in verse 19. And my God. Will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father.

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Be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's open this morning with the word of prayer.

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Dear Lord, we do thank you for today. We thank you for your provision. That cares for us. Thank you that you are. Our God and our father. We thank you for all of these precious gifts given to us in Christ Jesus. Our lord and Savior, and King. Pray that you'd speak to our hearts this morning.

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May you reveal yourself to us. We pray that as we open your word, you will glorify yourself and work in US. Conforming us into the image of your son. Person, his name that we pray. Amen. And amen. So, in order for us not to miss the point of this text, Let's try to figure out what the Of what Paul's doing here is, and the first thing we need to note is this is the, the final exhortation, right?

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This is Paul's final thought next week we'll look at verses 21, through 23. So we'll look at the technical last part of the the letter. What we'll look at next week is like if you were writing a letter what we're looking at next week, is the sincerely Paul portion of the letter.

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It's the very very, very end. This marks the theological and the content. Of this book. And so, what Paul is trying to do is remind us in a short, sweet wonderfully, beautiful. Concise, and yet. Rich way. Of everything that came before. In many ways, this passage is a culmination of everything that's been said before.

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So from the beginning, when Paul was talking about the joy that he had being with them that that he was thankful for them in all times to his God at for all the things that they had done. That he was grateful for their partnership in the gospel when Paul began to write, yes, I will Rejoice for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain when he would exhort the Philippian Church live humble lives and you can be humble because our example is Jesus Christ, his humility have that mind within you.

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Look, two, we noted in chapter two men like Timmy Timothy and epaphroditus men, who would sacrifice and share their lives for the sake of the Gospel live. Righteous be righteous try to pursue righteous, holy lives, strain on towards that goal. And no matter what you face, no matter the difficulties or the trials.

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If you face plenty and want in any and every situation in hunger and in fullness, Live in Christ. And then last week we noted their their willingness to share in Paul's Ministry their willingness to share in Paul's sufferings and that they would receive the fruit of their gift. And now Paul in this final exhortation in this, an exhortations, maybe not even exactly right here.

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This is the final words and the final, this is an exhortation of how you need to do better. This is exhortation in terms of encouragement and what you need to hear. And so, he ends with and And on top of all of everything else, I've said hear this Philippian church.

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And there are three things that I hope that we can highlight and see that Paul is reminding us of in this text and each of these my hope and prayer stirs, our hearts and affections towards God and gives us motivation and reason to To Rejoice. To glory in God.

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And to rest in him. And so the first thing I want to highlight and we're not going to approach this text, you know, especially when it's short, like this, we're not just going to go here and then come all of these are, are full of or the whole text rather is full of all of these.

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And so, the first thing I want to highlight for us, Is the closeness. Of God. First and foremost the closeness of God to Paul. Just look how this passage starts Paul says and my God. Paul is highlighting that there is a close and personal nature to this God. He's not some far off God who just exists out there.

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We're dealing with Paul's writing in sort of Roman paganism, right? Where the gods? They exist. And they're out there and and there's many different gods and you'd have patron gods and you'd have the patron, God of each City would have its own patreon God so You'd have a certain God but then you go out to to Philippi and they'd have a certain God and you go somewhere else and they would have a certain God.

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Each one different local context would cause you to worship a different God and Paul says my God Not the patron God of caesarea Philippi. Not some other God my God. And the god that Paul worships. Is the same. God, the Philippian Church worships And it's very close. And familiar God.

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Verse 20. To our God. And father. Be glory forever and ever. He's our God and father Paul is going back to Jesus saying, pray them like this, Our Father In heaven. The god that Paul calls. My God is a close God, close enough that we can call him father.

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We noted, we This is why our little Advent series, I think was so important. I, I mentioned this when we talked about the davidic Covenant, That there's a phrase when God comes in covenants with David that we're just very used to. So we might not realize how weighty this is, but God comes to David.

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And he says to David, David, you will have a son and I will be to him a father. And I said in that sermon, that's the only time in the Old Testament. That this familial God as a father term is used of an individual person. In the Old Testament.

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When we read of God being a father, he's the father of the nation of Israel. And so in the Old Testament when every time you see God as a father except for to David here, Every time you see God as a father, he's a father of a Nation, the father of a people, the father of a king like It's, it's corporate.

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But then God comes to David makes a covenant promise. That's fulfilled. Ultimately in Christ. And Christ in the New Covenant changes, everything in such a way. That now, we Get to call God. Our Father. This is a close and personal. And wonderful. And beautiful promise and Paul as he gets to the end, right?

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And of all the things he's been exhorting, the Philippian church to live righteous lives to serve, God to do all these things to be humbled to sacrifice to Bear these burdens as he gets to the end here.

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The closeness of God. Becomes the point. Of everything that came before.

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Can we Rejoice? In the gospel. Because the gospel promises a God who will be close. How? Can we have Joy when the gospel might cost us everything? Because it gives us a God, who is near to the Brokenhearted, who will bear our cares and burdens, who will hear when we cry, who will hold us when times are difficult, who we are held safe in the palm of his hand.

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No enemy, no scheme, no nothing can separate us from the love of God, that is in Christ Jesus. Our lord, the closeness of God is for Paul and should be for us. Our source of Judgment and hope and restoration and healing. Paul says and my God will supply every need of yours and we too can say my God will supply every need Because he's close.

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But it's not just that he's close. And what did we just say there? My God will supply every need of yours. The next thing we need to highlight then is the provision of God. He's our God and Father, my God, and our father. Who provides? For every need.

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Single knee. Does God provide for our physical needs? Of course he does. And even in just the most basic sort of trite sense of this. It's God, who controls all things is God, who causes it to rain. When the time for rain is God, who made this Earth that grows and flourishes in such a way.

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So everything that you are wearing God is the one ultimately who provided that everything you've ever eaten. God is ultimately the one who provided that everything that you have ultimately God. As The Sovereign King of Heaven, the one in control of all the Affairs of all men. He is the one who provided them.

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So certainly God does provide for your physical needs and I think for Paul that is definitely part of this because remember this is a thank you. Note Philippians is a thank you, note. And Paul is thanking them for the gift because that gift he knew Paul knew that the gift of the Philippian church, though.

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It came from the Philippian church. It's a credit to the Philippian church. It will bear fruit in the Philippian Church's life life. Ultimately, Paul knows that gift. Was from God and that gift was the provision of God. So, as Paul talks about facing plenty hunger, abundance and need There's physical things.

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And so, yes, certainly Paul wants to remind the Philippian church, then their time of need, in their time of not having what they think, they, Whatever it is that they they're trying to grasp Paul wants to assure them these things. Come from God, So, yes, certainly Physical needs are included here but it is certainly not just Physical needs.

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It's their emotional needs too. Look to the promises of scripture. And even if we think what we just talked about the closeness of God, that God is our father. That means one of the things that God provides for us. Is our emotional care as well. He's close. He also.

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Disciplines us. And these are things. I don't think we often think of as needs, but it is Because we've all seen kids that never get disciplined. And that's a problem. We've also seen kids that are disciplined inappropriately and that there's difficulty there, that's also a problem. God provides for us perfectly.

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He meets our every need. So our need as his children because he's our father to be disciplined and disciplined. Well, With the perfect amounts of harshness and Grace, with the perfect amounts of all the things that we need, God provides them. But he also, Sent his son. To be.

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We'll get to some of this later, but from one angle here. A friend who sticks closer than a brother. Do you need? Love and care and companionship, of course, you do. My God will supply every need of this. Yorga will supply every need of yours.

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The book of Psalms.

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When you are brokenhearted. And feeling downtrodden. When life is difficult and painful. The book of Psalms reminds us. Of God's goodness, Grace and mercy. Because ultimately above all else, what do you need? What he gives you what you need in terms of spiritual restoration and healing So yes, my God will supply every need of yours includes physical things.

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And yes, my God will supply every need of yours includes emotional things but the foundational truth to all of this and what we cannot ever forget is my God will supply every need of yours in the spiritual realm. How do I know this? Because God himself? So, loved the world that he sent his only son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish, but will have everlasting life because one might scarcely For a good man for a righteous man.

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Someone might dare to die but Christ died for Sinners. That we might be made whole, our biggest need was we had this huge sin debt that we could never ever pay. More than any credit card bill mortgage bill, any sort of debt that lingered over us. We owed a debt to the high king of Heaven because all of our sin was an affront to him.

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We could never hope to pay it. We needed someone to pay our debt. Jesus Christ. Did that every need of yours was met your need for a savior. Your need for a king, your need for a prophet. Your need for a priest. They are all all of them given to us every need and we cannot know.

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I just said he meets your every need Paul continues to discuss the provision of God. He supplies every need not out of his. Poorness. He supplies every need not just to what you barely need. So that you'll be just barely okay?

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My God will supply every need of yours. According to his riches, In glory. How rich is God?

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How rich is God? We talk about Elon Musk. This guy's worth billions of dollars.

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Just to, to drive this picture home. The richest person in the world comes up to you and says What do you need? I'll get it for you.

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If I come up to you and I'm like, what do you need? You're probably thinking okay, well, here's David. He doesn't have much. If I'm being frank and honest is how he feels that David doesn't have much to offer physically. Definitely not much emotionally, I try but Still not much spiritually, maybe some wisdom again, not much.

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I come up to you and say, what do you need? We can work on this and I do hope to be able to help you. Let's suppose, he's just got a whole heap of bills that came in all at once. And the richest man in the world comes up.

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He says, what do you need? Well, could you pay this bill for a second? Sure. Did you pay this bill? Sure. Maybe because this is the richest person in the world, you're like, hey, could you just like pay off my mortgage shirt? Not that big a deal for them.

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God promises to meet your every need. According to his riches in glory, he is infinitely, rich, and is worthy of all glory, honor and praise. The provision of God is so much more than we could ever ask or imagine.

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I'm pausing that's the point. I've told you to rejoice in all things. Why? Because God will supply your every need according to his riches and Glory, the difficulties trials, troubles and hardships, that you are currently facing pale in comparison to the riches of his glory. So don't focus on the current difficulty focus on the God, who will provide?

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That's the point. Look to the provision of God look to him. And in looking to him, We get to the final ultimate point and this is really the point of The point of all of scripture, if I'm being honest, the point of all of our life, Pull one square minus of the glory.

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Of God. In these two verses, the word Glory. Appears twice. That's an average of one-time perverse. Go figure. That's easy math for you. But what I want us to realize is when in two short verses, we hear that God we hear Paul exhorting us to God's glory twice. Maybe we should pay attention that Paul wants us to see and magnify and appreciate the glory of God.

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God's closeness.

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Gives us opportunity to see his glory. God's provision gives us opportunity to praise his glory and God's provision gives us opportunity to even magnify his glory and God's provision comes from out of his glory. This is the point of verse 19. My God closeness will supply every need of yours.

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According to his riches, the provision of God, but they are his riches. Glory. Christ, Jesus.

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God provides for us. Because of his closeness. But this is seen manifested in. The glory. Given to us in Christ. And there are layers to this. First and foremost verse 20 to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. We can go to the Book of Revelation where for all time for eternity.

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We will be singing. Praises to his name. Holy, holy holy, is he for he opened the scroll, he is worthy to receive all praise and honor glory and dominion and power. Praise to his name, unending. All eternity. Singing of the glory of Jesus. That's part of it.

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But what we can't miss.

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Is that this glory is given to us.

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Jesus Christ.

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John chapter 1.

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In what may be and I say this as a huge fan of Paul and Paul's writing and Paul might be the greatest writer of all time. Like we just look at the whole scope of what this person wrote. I'm gonna say greatest writer of Paul of all time. We'll give that to Paul.

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Greatest thing ever, written of all time. We're gonna give that one to John. John chapter 1 verses 1 through 18. It's what's known as the prologue of the Book of John, it summarizes the entire Book of John just perfectly. If you can understand John 1, 1 through 118, you will understand the entire Gospel of John clearly.

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But when we think of God's glory given to us in Christ, Jesus, Hear this? In the beginning was the word Jesus Christ and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life.

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And the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the Darkness has not overcome it. Jesus in the beginning with God, he was there and in him was life and that life is our light. I want you to let's remember that. Thought of light Verse six, there was a man sent from God whose name was John.

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He came as a witness to Bear witness about the light. He was not the light but to Bear witness John. The Baptist came John, the Baptist is a very important character, especially when we're realizing Old Testament to New Testament transition. But what John's base is saying here is John, he had, he beared a wonderful message because that message showed us Another way we could phrase this to just keep it in our what we're talking about, John gave glory to right John came to give glory to to shine a light on The True Light.

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Which was the word verse 9, the True Light which gives light to everyone. Was coming into the world. He was in the world. The world was made through him, yet. The world did not know him. Came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But To all who did receive him.

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Who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John's summarizing. What Paul had said here, right? Through Jesus, we have been given the right to become children of God. The reverse of that, God is our father. That's how that's how children and fathers work.

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And so, what John is saying, is what Paul is saying, what I was trying to say, which is God being our father in this closeness, we get that through Jesus, but we are children verse 13 of John chapter 1 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of Flesh, nor of the will of, man.

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But of God, this is from God. The fact that we are his children is in fact God's provision. That's what John is teaching us here. And here's the payoff. John chapter 1 verse 14. And the word became flesh, Jesus became flesh and dwelt Among Us. And we have seen his glory.

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Glory is of the only son from the father, full of grace and Truth. John bore witness about him and cried out this. Is he of whom? I said he comes before me and ranks before me because he was before me. For from his fullness. We all have received Grace upon Grace.

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For the law was given through Moses, great then truth came through Jesus Christ, no one has seen God. What? John is saying here God's glory that shines with magnificent power throughout all of eternity and time and creation God's glory. No one can look upon God in his fullness of Glory.

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Moses begged God, let me just see your face. God said, no one can see me and live So instead Moses, we read this in Exodus, you hide in the cleft of The Rock. God will walk by and when you Moses catch a fleeting glance of the tail of the train of the glory of the of God, as he just walks by it passes by Moses, you will see and be profoundly changed.

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And John's saying no one, no one has seen God in his glory and his Splendor. But yet the only God Jesus, who is at the father's side? He has made him known. Jesus is the radiant Splendor of God's glory that we can see. And so when Paul says in Philippians chapter 4, my God will meet every need.

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He knows this is true because one Jesus came and said pray like this Our Father in Heaven. Jesus came to say God is close, he is near Jesus came entered into creation and God was saying in the second person of the Trinity of Jesus. Not only my close. I am with you physically.

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God was with us. And then Jesus said I'm gonna go and I'll prepare a place for you but don't be afraid when I'm gone for. I will send a comforter and then God will indwell us with his holy spirit. He is close. And Paul can say my God will be every need of yours.

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Cuz elsewhere, he would write and he he who gave us his son. Will he not with him graciously? Give us all things. God provided Jesus, he'll provide us everything. And all of this is to serve to glorify. God, we have seen his glory because we have seen the son.

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May we worship Him. Let's pray.