In Trent Moody's sermon titled 'The Blessed Life,' the emphasis is on the exhortations found in 1 Peter 3:8-12 for living a truly blessed Christian life. The sermon highlights the importance of unity and compassion among believers, urging them to be of one mind, love as brothers, and be tender-hearted and courteous. It underscores the need for Christians to respond to their enemies with blessings rather than retaliation, reflecting the teachings and life of Jesus Christ. Moody stresses that a blessed life is not void of trials but is characterized by righteousness, peace-seeking, and an active pursuit of good. Understanding one's calling as a believer, being aware of God's omniscience, and having confidence in prayer are essential components of the blessed life. The sermon concludes by affirming that the blessed life involves living out a humble, loving, and forgiving attitude, trusting God to judge righteously, and continually seeking to glorify Him.

Let's go ahead and turn in our Bibles to the book of 1 Peter and chapter 3. We'll be picking up where we left off in verses 8 through 12. 1 Peter 3 verses 8 through 12, and thinking upon this thought, some general exhortations for a blessed life. That's where Peter is taking us some exhortations for a blessed life. So 1st Peter chapter 3 beginning with verse 8 He says this, finally all of you be of one mind having compassion for one another.

Love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary blessing knowing that you are called to this that you may inherit a blessing for he who would love life and see good days let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Let's ask the Lord's blessing upon this time.

Our Father we are very thankful. God that you have called us to this place, to this time, to this passage, Lord you have ordained this moment. Lord we need it, we need to hear your word and we pray Father that by your spirit you would minister to us. Lord that you would make these words effectual to our hearts, that it would produce in us exactly what you want to do in our hearts, Lord, for sanctification. So Lord, please teach us.

You are the great teacher, Lord. Your Spirit guides us into all truth. Your word is truth. Lord, feed us now we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Some general exhortations for a blessed life and I want to take us back before we get into this to 1st Peter 2, 9 through 12 which is actually what we read together unbeknownst to me in our scripture recitation together as a church. 2nd Peter 2, 9 through 12 this is really grabs the context for us of what Peter is talking about. And I keep going back to that as kind of an anchor, if you will. It holds us to context so that we know what Peter is getting. Because When you're preaching over a long period of time, it's hard to bring our minds back to what is he saying because we're taking little chunks of scripture.

So this really I believe is kind of the springboard into this section that we've been in for the past few months. But he says this in verse 9 of chapter 2, he says, but You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people. Isn't that wonderful? That's what you are. That's what you are.

That, he tells us why or the purpose of this, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. You remember what Scott preached on this morning? That's exactly what he's talking about. You were those who had not obtained mercy but now you have obtained mercy. Some of you were those things.

In fact, all of us were to some degree or another. We all were those things. Verse 11, beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul. Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles that when they speak against you as evildoers they may by your good works which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation." That is kind of this anchor that we keep going back to to help us understand the context of where he is going and so from that passage he goes into the command there of submitting to those who have authority over us beginning with civil in the civil sphere. He speaks regarding submission of servants and masters and then he goes right into the relationship of husbands and wives that we looked at last time I preached in 1 Peter.

And now he brings us to this point in verse 8, finally all of you be of one mind. See part of knowing how we are to live is remembering who we are. Who are you? Well 1 Peter chapter 2 tells us who you are. Verse 9 says you are a chosen generation.

You're a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation, His own special people. That's who you are. That informs how you live. Defines who you are and therefore informs how you are to live.

You are to live as you are called. Now in this third chapter right on the heels of Peter's instruction for relationships of husbands and wives, the Apostle Peter moves to a more general tone of exhortation that applies really indiscriminately to all of God's people. And I believe that the Apostle's design is to really arrest the attention of any who thought that they had escaped the exhortation. None of you escape it. You may not be a husband, you may not be a wife, you may not be a slave or a servant in this sense.

You cannot escape this general exhortation that God has for all of his people. This is for you. It is the exhortation of submission and honor to those within the body of Christ. The point being that none of us are exempt from the duty of living out a truly Christian life in all humility and submission, which is truly the most blessed life. So often we live desiring and seeking a blessing but we do it by self-serving and self-seeking and we fail to realize that when you come into the Christian family, when you become a child of God, all of this worldly reasoning is flipped upside down on his head.

If you want to increase, decrease. If you want to be more blessed, love and serve others more. That's the blessed life. That's what Peter is getting us to. So, I want you to note that I did not say an easy life.

I did not say a pain-free life, but rather a blessed life. You can have an abundantly blessed life and you could have pain and you can have trials and you can have difficulties which is exactly where Peter finds his reader. That's where they were. They were dispersed. Remember, they are scattered and they were experiencing persecution.

So who is the one who has this blessed life? Well, Peter lays this out for us and shows us what it looks like to live the blessed life in these few verses. First and foremost, I want to mention this, the one who will have a blessed life knows how to live among the brethren. He knows how to live among the brethren. Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous." First and foremost within this understanding of how we dwell among each other, or that we know how to live as brethren or among the brethren, we see this term like-minded.

And this means literally just to think the same thing. This does not mean blind unity of thought so that no one is ever offended by the truth. That's the world's thinking, that's postmodern thinking, that's pragmatic thinking, that we you look out into this world and no one, I mean the worst thing you could ever do is offend somebody or tell them that their view is wrong. That's the cardinal sin. So this unity of thought, this like-mindedness is not that every idea is the same and equal.

That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about all minds coming to one like thing, and that is the truth of God's word. We here are all like-minded, I believe pretty much like-minded, yet we don't all think exactly the same thoughts about everything. But the desire, the like-mindedness that I'm speaking of, and I believe that Peter is speaking of here, is that we all desire the same thing. We want to know the truth of God's word.

That's what's informing our thinking. We may view certain passages differently. We may view some of the doctrines a little bit differently, but our goal and our mind is turned and focused towards What does God say? What does His Word teach us about this? And that's what Peter is saying.

Finally, now remember he's spoken to husbands and wives, he's spoken to servants, he's spoken to those who are under the authority of civil sphere, and then he says, finally, all of you be of one mind, like-minded in the sense that we all desire to know and obey God's revealed will found in His Word. That's our like-mindedness. I know of quite a few people that I dearly love, and I would consider ourselves to be like-minded even though we differ in certain things, certain points. But we are like-minded because we love God and we love His Word. And so the unity is found in that we agree that God's Word is the final authority.

That's the final authority. It's the sole authority for life and practice, God's Word. We may differ slightly, but we are like-minded because God's Word is our authority. So we are not to be unified for unity's sake. I remember years ago, pastoring in a Southern Baptist Church, there were a real push for unity.

And what they meant by that unity, not just this church but this convention, this unity that they desired was let's don't say anything's wrong, let's just kinda let's just all agree that you know let's just love Jesus. What does that mean? Love Jesus? Please give me some definitions of what do you mean. Number one, who is Jesus?

And what does it mean to love Him? Because Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. But they didn't mean that. They meant the ooey gooey squishy love of mild and meek and gentle Jesus. He is those things, but he's much more than those things.

So that was not the unity that Peter is speaking of here. He was speaking of a like-mindedness that had a focus, a direct focus on what does God say and so they were like-minded. So living among brethren, this will bring about the blessed life if you will. This is the whole idea is that as believers and if you want to have the blessed life and if you want to know am I living the blessed life do you know how to dwell among the believers like-mindedness. They also had compassion He says having compassion for one another.

This is the one another's in the scriptures that is so important if you ever done a study on the one another's of how we are to live as brethren in the church. These one another passages are very helpful and very instructive to that and here's one that we have compassion for one another. Compassion here means to feel, to feel together with. Simply put, you're putting yourself in someone else's shoes in that sense of you are weeping with those who weep, you're rejoicing with those who rejoice. I feel what you feel because we are bound together just like what Scott is preaching about that we are the body there's this unity of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ we are members of the same body We are stones of the same temple and the same building.

There is this unification here because Christ is the head. And when you hurt, we hurt. And when you rejoice, we rejoice. I love it about this church because when we go to a funeral or if there's something tragic happens, instantly this body just comes right around and we're offering prayers for people, we're loving people, we're taking food to people, we're ministering to people, and then when somebody has a baby, we're rejoicing with them. When there's a marriage, we celebrate with them.

And that's part of what he's talking about here. There's this compassion for one another. It's very important that you understand we are one another. You know our marriage is as wonderful as they are have an end. We are bound in marriage as long as we live.

But we are bound in the church for eternity. Look around. This is your brothers and sisters forever. We need to learn to love each other now don't we? We need to have compassion now.

We need to be feeling what each other feels now. That is the great joy and the great beauty of the church, the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, is that we will have compassion for one another. We will sympathize with each other. We will rejoice with each other. Your care is not only what benefits you.

Your care and compassion for each other is that your mind is not only about yourself but the benefit of the body. It is How do we serve one another? How do we love one another? Jesus Christ himself said, I have not come to be served, but to serve. He bore the sins of many.

He understood compassion greater than anyone else. He did that. You know, the simplified version or definition of compassion is love and action, that we're actually doing something. So it's not just this sympathy or empathy that we just have a feeling. It goes deeper than that.

It moves you to action because you feel for them. And that's this compassion that they were feeling. We learn what it means to live among the brethren when we love as brothers. That's what he says next. Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers.

And this is the idea that there is a distinction between the love that you have towards fellow believers and the love that we have generally for all people or even unbelievers. It's the idea of having a group that is yours, your brothers. You know, my boys have a lot of brothers. They're different than other boys. There's a, physically speaking, there's a closeness there among them.

That is the way it is in the body of Christ. You love as brothers. It's a distinction from another group is what it is. We're distinct in that way. We love each other as brothers and it's a defining of love.

It's a different kind of love. It's the distinction between the love that I have towards you and the love that I have towards unbelieving friends. It's not the same. There's a fellowship that I have here that I can never have in work. It's not even the same.

I try to promote those types of friendships, but there's a level that it just stops. It just stops. But not here. We have an intimacy, we have a fellowship that goes beyond. There's a love that expands beyond because we have the love of God dwelling in us.

And therefore our bowels of compassion and this love comes pouring out and we love each other as brothers. That is the blessed life. They will be tender hearted. Be tender hearted. They will be tenderhearted.

Be tenderhearted. This word is found in Ephesians 432 and it says here, and be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. Tender hearted is just like what it sounds. It's a heart that is tender and soft towards others, towards God and towards others. But he's specifically instructing us and exhorting us how we dwell together.

Be tender-hearted. We're not to be hard-hearted with one another. We are to be the quickest people in the world to forgive. We are to be soft in that way. We stand hard on the truth, but we are tender-hearted towards one another.

We love one another. We have a softness in that sense. It's a tenderness that you feel towards believers because you know who you are. Remember what chapter 2 says, you were a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people. And then he goes on, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation they will notice a tender heartedness that we have towards one another that we are we are very quick to forgive and to have compassion and we will be courteous.

The blessed life is a life of courteousness. The word here just means humble-minded. We don't think highly of ourselves, we think more highly of others. Philippians 2.3 says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others as better than themselves. So this is the courteousness that he is talking about.

It's a low-mindedness that when we come in to this assembly that we are instantly walking in the door thinking, how can I help somebody? How can I love someone? How can I serve someone? And we're not thinking about who's going to serve me and who's going to do the... No, it's all about others.

It's about lowliness of mind. Because that is what Christ has done. Philippians 2 goes on from there, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. And then he speaks about Christ, how he is not robbery to be equal with God, but yet made himself of no reputation. Took upon himself the form of a servant.

He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. It's that mind that you're thinking of others as better than yourself. Secondly, the one who will have a blessed life knows how to respond to his enemies. Notice what he says here next after B. Curtius in verse 9.

He says, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing. Knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. The blessed life is wrapped up in this concept of knowing how we respond even to our enemies. One of the distinguishing marks of Christians is how they respond to those who persecute them. That's what amazes so many captors is how Christians respond.

I wanted to do a study and time just hindered me of men who in the past have been greatly persecuted for their faith and yet then blessed those who tortured them and brought them great grief and pain and persecution. And that was the distinguishing. That's what tore down all walls to the power of the gospel because the gospel did that. Men who had been imprisoned for their faith years later go back to preach the gospel to those same ones who persecuted them. And God used that to do a great work.

They learn this from their Lord. This isn't something we come up with on our own. This is so counterintuitive and so otherworldly. It's the work of the Spirit of God. It's not the work of the world.

It's not the work of the flesh. It's not the work of something in you other than the Spirit in you who produces this kind of response even to enemies, not returning evil for evil. What is the most natural thing in the world is to put two little boys in a room and one hits the other and the other one goes, oh, that's okay, I love you brother. That's not what happens. There ensues this tit for tat and back and forth into whoever can come out on top.

That's the natural inclination. I'm talking about a supernatural response. How do Christians experience the blessed life? They bless those who persecute them. They do good to those.

That's what Jesus Christ did. 1 Peter in chapter 1 verse 21 through 23, steps who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth who when he was reviled did not revile and return when he suffered he did not threaten but committed himself to him who judges righteously." Matthew Henry says a Christian's calling as it invests him with glorious privileges, so it obliges him to difficult duties. We experience glorious privileges, but with that comes difficult duties. Part of that is blessing your enemies. This really is one of the most distinguishing marks of a true believer.

A true believer does not seek to get even. They do not have a retaliatory spirit. They bless those who curse them. They understand their calling. This is the blessed life.

You want the blessed life? Understand your calling. That's what Peter says. But on the contrary, blessing knowing that you were called to this. Unfortunately, many gospel preachers don't get into things like this when they're trying to win souls.

Do you know you were called to this? Perhaps this is the first time you've ever heard that. Peter says you were called to this. You're called to follow Christ. This is how Christ lived.

You're called to this. This is your calling brethren. We are called to be a blessing. This literally means to speak well of or to praise. Matthew 5 44, but I say to you love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

That's otherworldly. That's not in your flesh. That's supernatural. That is the work of the Spirit of God. That is the truly blessed life.

When reviled we bless. When having evil done to us, we return a blessing. Why? Because we are called to this. Hey, if you didn't know this when you came to Christ, you do now.

You're called to this. Christ called you to this. This is our calling. We are called to be, to bring light to darkness. We are called to bring sweetness where there's bitterness.

We are called to bring a blessing where there is a curse. We need to understand our calling if we are going to experience the blessed life. This is the blessed life. Matthew 5-10-11 says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake, rejoice.

What? Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Spirit-filled believers do not need to revile in return. We will forgive those who revile us because we have experienced the most amazing and abundant forgiveness for our sins. We forgive much because we have been forgiven much. We bless because we have been blessed.

It is just an overflow. The amount that we need to forgive others is very, very small compared to the amount that we have been forgiven. You know, you think of the parable that Jesus told about the man about forgiveness. A man owed his master 10, 000 talents. He had no way to pay.

The master forgave him. And then that servant went out and found another one who owed him, I think it was 100 denarii, a doable amount. Took him by the throat, said, pay me what you owe me. How often are we like that? All dear brothers and sisters, let us be quick to forgive.

Let us not think about how much that person owes me. Let's think about how much Christ has forgiven me. He has forgiven me an infinite amount, something that I could never pay. Ten thousand lifetimes I could not pay it off. That's why hell is forever.

You never pay it off. The penalty of our sin is eternal death. Not a thousand years, not a hundred years, not a hundred thousand years, and Christ forgave us all. Can we not forgive little? We must understand our calling.

Lastly, the one who will have a blessed life knows and believes and obeys the Word of God. Most people reject this. They may know about God's Word. They may believe part of God's word, and they'll obey the parts they like. But God's word is there for us.

It's interesting here that when Peter wants to bring this truth home to their mind, he brings this passage from Psalm 34 that David wrote and it says this, for, that's very instructive. I love these little words, these key grammatical words that point us to something. He says right before that, that you may inherit a blessing, that you may inherit a blessing for, and then he quotes Psalm 34 and he says this, He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it." This goes right in line with what Peter was just saying.

The blessed life is not found in the absence of trials and difficulties. We'll see that next time. Suffering for right. It's not found in the absence of those things but rather in spite of and in response to trials and difficulties. Get this utopian nonsense out of your mind.

It does not exist in this world. You live in a fallen, sinful world, around sinful people, Difficult circumstances are going to be the norm. It's going to be challenging. There's going to be times that bring you to the brink of yourself that you think, I don't know if I can handle this. There will be some level of persecution that you will face.

For all those who live godly shall suffer persecution. The real distinguishing mark of a true believer is how he responds to those circumstances, not whether or not he has them. How do you respond? My daughter sent me a little interesting thing because I'm always telling my children attitude is like 95% of any task. I don't care how talented you are, if you have a bad attitude it's not going well.

But if you have a good attitude and even though you may have small talent, that job will go well because of your attitude. What is your attitude towards these things? So she sent me this little thing and it said if ABC equals 1, 2, 3, so in other words you're taking the letters for each number of the alphabet and it wrote down I think it was the first one was hard work and it came up to like 98 percent and then she did another one that was I think diligence or something it was 96 percent interesting when you wrote attitude numerically it added up to 100 100 What is your attitude towards these things? Do you recognize that God is bringing all of these things into your life to sanctify you and make you like Christ. How do you view your trial?

How do you view the circumstances? Because that's where Peter's getting ready to thrust this whole thing home to them when he's talking about being persecuted for doing good. If you'd love life and see good days, you'd refrain your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. It's easy to make excuses about our responses to bad circumstances, but the scripture tells us that we will refrain our tongues from evil. This is the blessed life.

He knows what God says about sin and the sin of the tongue specifically. Quick question and this isn't specific what he says here about refraining your tongue from evil but I believe it's involved in this, it's not only speaking back towards someone else who may be persecuting you, do you speak evil towards God because of your circumstances? Complaining or murmuring? David was often delivered from very difficult circumstances from different people trying to kill him. And the words on his lips were constantly in thanksgiving and praise to God.

That's how we should be. The blessed life has much to do with our words. What we say really is an indication of our heart. From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. What's in your heart?

Let me hang around with you a little while and hear what's coming out of your mouth. I'll tell what's in your heart. This blessed man knows what God's Word says about how he lives. Let him refrain, or let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.

Note, the Christian life is not only about what we do not do. There's a lot of things we should not do. But just as much as about what we do do. Let him turn away from evil and do good. We take off the old man and we put on the new man.

The Christian life is just not about what we don't do. That's what a lot of people think. Oh, you can't do this, you can't do this. No, look at all we can do. We can bless those who persecute us.

We can bless. We can do good. We can serve. We can do all of these things for the glory of God and I couldn't before, but look at what I can do. And that's what we are to focus on.

All the things that we can do. And what is good? We're commanded to do good. Good is what God says is good. Good is what His Word defines for us.

So the one with a blessed life seeks peace and pursues it. And it's an active pursuit of peace. And the Beatitudes says in 5.9 of Matthew, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God." This blessed man knows why this leads to a blessed life. This speaks here really about the omniscience of God and that he sees all things. Notice what he says.

Let him turn verse 12, "'For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. There is a God in the heavens who watches over both the good and the evil. If we could grasp that we could just say go now and live. So often we live as if there is no God. We do in secret, hoping no one else knows.

God knows. His eyes are on the righteous. He sees all things. He's omniscient. He's everywhere present.

He's omnipresent. There is a God in the heavens. Nothing goes unnoticed. Nothing is missed. And God has ordained the smallest detail of your life for the glory of His name and for the good of His people.

All things. What wonderful consolation. What wonderful hope is this? God sees, His eyes are upon us, and His ears are open to our prayers. We are in prayer week.

I challenged you last week about our prayers. Are you praying big things? Are you praying as if your God is no bigger than an ant? Are you praying as if God is omniscient and all-powerful? How are you praying?

Do you pray with the thought, I just don't know if God can do this one. That's a big one. Is anything impossible for God? His ears are open to your prayers. Know this beloved, know God's ears are open to your prayers you see the blessed man knows this he lives a blessed life because he knows his prayers are answered he knows this he has confidence in his God what could we more hope for We have access to the very throne of God.

Make your petitions known. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace and you will find mercy and grace to help in your time of need. 1 John 5 14 says, now this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. Confidence. Do you have confidence in your prayers?

The blessed life does. The person with the blessed life has confidence in his prayers because he's praying to an infinite God who can do all things according to his will. And then lastly this, he knows God's posture towards the evil. A blessed man knows the posture of God towards evil, but he says the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. I often ask my kids that, Do you want God's ears and eyes to be upon you?

Do you want His ears to be open to you? Or do you want His face against you? The answer is obvious. God's posture towards the evil, and I believe this leads us to at least two instructions. We should be greatly deterred by this fearful statement and depart from evil.

That deters me. I don't want God's face against me. I want his eyes open and his ears attentive to the prayers that I pray. That's a blessed life. The second instruction in this is we should clearly understand why we do not need to retaliate against evil done to us.

Jumping back to the beginning of this, note what Christ did in response to his enemies. He committed himself, 1 Peter 1.23, he committed himself to him who judges righteously. You see, what could you possibly do to an enemy better than God could do? Are your words really going to bring about righteousness and justice? You see the problem with us is oftentimes we would respond entirely too harshly Or if we're of a tender spirit we might respond too lightly.

Neither are justice. Jesus Christ committed Himself to him who judges righteously. He left it in God's hands. You see, God when he judges, it is perfect in nature, it is perfect in degree, extent, and timing. It is perfect judgment.

Safely leave the judgment of those who would do you evil in the hands of the Lord. Leave it there. So here it is in a nutshell. One commentator summed it this way, here is straightforward advice on how to experience that rich joy and fullness of life even in the midst of a hostile environment. The requirements of the fulfilled life include a humble, loving attitude towards everyone, a non-vindictive response towards revilers, pure and honest speech, a disdain for sin and pursuit of peace, and a right motive, specifically to work the righteousness that pleases the omniscient lord.

That's the summary. So my brothers and sisters, This is the blessed life both now and into eternity. Let us pray. Our Father, Lord we are so thankful for your instructions. These things are so unnatural for our flesh and yet so instructive to our spirits.

Lord there is not a possibility that I could live this apart from you. As the Lord Jesus says in John 15, apart from me you can do nothing. God would you equip us and enable us by your spirit to live the blessed life, to live the truly Christian life. So on the day of visitation all men will glorify you because of what you have done in the life of weak men and women who are forgiven, who have been converted as we have heard about this morning. You have taken us from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of your dear son.

So Lord would you work in us? Lord we thank you that your eyes are open to us and that your ears are attentive to our prayers. So Lord encourage us to come boldly to the throne of grace that we may find mercy and grace to help in our time of need. And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.