In the sermon titled 'The Kingdom's King' by Peter Allison, the focus is on Jesus Christ as the authoritative and protective King of God's Kingdom. The sermon begins with a reflection on the disciples' mission and their triumphant return, highlighting their authority over demons granted by Christ. The narrative draws parallels between Jesus and figures like Joseph, emphasizing the totality of authority bestowed upon Christ by the Father. The sermon underscores the spiritual nature of God's Kingdom, contrasting it with earthly power, and describes its advancement through prayer, humility, and the efforts of the weak and poor in spirit. The narrative recounts the example of Gladys Aylward, illustrating the Kingdom's growth through humble and faithful service. The sermon encourages believers to rejoice not in visible victories over evil but in their eternal security, as their names are written in heaven. Through Christ's mediatorial role, believers are assured of protection, power, and an intimate relationship with God. The sermon concludes by celebrating the blessings and joy found in Christ's Kingship and the sovereign plan of God, emphasizing that true joy is rooted in spiritual reality rather than worldly circumstances.

I'd like to read beginning at verse 17. The seventy had been sent out to preach the kingdom was near, the coming of the kingdom. And they have now returned from that mission. Hear God's word. On serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it. May the Lord redeem us from the oppression of men that we may keep these as His precepts.

Almighty Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word. And We ask that as we hear it this morning, that it might be mixed with faith, that it might produce in us a greater love of you, our Savior. We ask that it may teach us and instruct us that it would give to us joy. And I pray that you would sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim what is holy and true through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Christ, Amen. Last week we looked at this kingdom that Jesus sent out His disciples to preach, to go and proclaim that the kingdom was near. The kingdom of God has come near to you. They were to go out and preach wherever Christ was preparing to go. We saw last week some aspects about that kingdom, that it grows through labor, it grows organically, that we saw it advances even in the presence of danger.

We saw that the kingdom needs more laborers, and specifically that the kingdom is advanced by prayer. And Jesus called for His disciples to pray, to pray that the Lord of the harvest would raise up more laborers. So the kingdom advances through prayer. We saw that the resources of the Kingdom are not physical, but spiritual. So Jesus said, don't take any of these things.

Don't take money, knapsack bags, sandals, and so on. We saw that the kingdom is urgent. The kingdom business is urgent. There is an urgency. They want to greet people as they went.

The kingdom of God offers peace. Comes offering peace to families. Comes bringing health to the nations. But those offers of peace and health, those offers are not without sanction for those who reject that offer. And we see here this morning the report of the disciples as a return that the advance of the kingdom means the defeat of Satan's kingdom.

But this morning I want to look at, in this passage that we've read, I want to look specifically at the King of this kingdom. The King, Jesus Christ. As he is proclaimed to us in this passage. We've seen his kingdom, but now let's look at Christ the King. Because Christ the King has been given all authority.

All authority. We see that in verse 17, Lord, even the demons were subject to us. They returned surprised and joyful to find that even the demons were subject to Christ. And in verse 22, Jesus said, all things have been delivered to me by the Father. All, as He told the disciples elsewhere, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, to Christ.

Joseph was like a type of Christ in this regard. Remember when He went into the land of Egypt and was taken out of prison and he was set over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh gave everything into his hand. He gave him the ability to make the laws. He gave him the ring on his finger giving him his authority.

And just like in the prison, everything had been given under, put under Joseph's authority. Just like in the house of Potiphar, where Joseph served, everything was put under his authority. And God caused him to excel. Well, now, now, everything, all things have been given to Jesus Christ. All authority in heaven and on earth.

And Jesus could stand before Pilate as a prisoner and say, Pilate, you have no authority over me or anyone else except what I have given to you, accept what you have gotten from God. Jesus Christ is proclaimed in Revelation as the Prince of the kings of the earth. He's the one who is pictured as having been given all authority and having taken up his scepter and begun to rule. Paul described it to the Ephesians as which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church.

And He will reign. He will reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. And then all authority and dominion will be given to the Father. And so Christ will reign and though He's put all His enemies under His feet. So First of all, our King this morning has all authority.

When we go as messengers of the King, we go as messengers of the one who has all authority in heaven and earth, who rules over all the kings of the earth, who governs all of the world from the rising of the sun. That happens by His Word. To the seasons, to the coming of fall, to the coming of spring, the warm and the cold, the weather. It's been given, he rules over all of these things. Secondly, we see that this king has vanquished the enemy.

He's vanquished the enemy. He says when they return saying even the demons are subject, He says I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven That fast lightning happens just bang There's no warning that it's coming. It's startling. And Jesus is saying He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. That's why He's able to give His disciples authority over the enemy.

Pastor Moorcraft writes, The resurrected Christ during his ascension to God's right hand proclaimed his victory over sin, over Satan and death to the fallen spirit world, Satan and demons who are chained in darkness until their eternal damnation on the final day of judgment, when they are cast into the bottomless pit of hell. As Colossians 2, 15, where Paul tells the Colossians, when he disarmed the rulers and authorities, that is demonic spirits, and he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him. Amazing. Amazing. The resurrected, glorified, exalted Christ ascending to the highest place of honor and power in the universe, God's right hand, enters the world of Satan and demons, forcibly calls them to gather and declares his victory over sin, Satan, and death to them." See, Jesus is seeing here this defeat of Satan.

And that's why the demons were subject to Him. Because the king has crushed the head of the serpent. You notice he compares it to authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Satan is called the serpent. Scorpion is often a picture of demonic activity.

Jesus has vanquished this enemy. This enemy, you remember, is the author, is the driver of all these conspiracies that arise against the reign of Christ. He's the motive force behind them. He's what moves people. It's his anger, it's rage against Christ, the Messiah, that he has gone off to make war against Christ and to attack His church.

And as Psalm 2 describes, the kings of the earth do conspire together, and the people. But it's a vain thing, Psalm 2 says, because the king of this kingdom, the king of the kingdom of God has vanquished the foe. And this king, Jesus Christ, gives his authority over the enemy to his laborers, to his servants. He sent them out to preach the kingdom is near, and they came back amazed that they had authority, even over demons, even the ability to cast out illness, to heal the sick and even the demons. Paul said to Timothy, this is a faithful saying, for if we died with Him, we should also live with Him.

If we endure, we should also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. And Paul told the Ephesians, but God who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Made us sit together in in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Sitting is a function of work being finished, but it's also sitting with Christ in the heavens is also to share with Him in His rule.

See, we as His servants have been given His authority over the enemy. And when we are securely seated with Him in the heavens, then we can be confident. We can be secure. We are able then to ask hard questions about our lives. We are able to deal with sin.

We are able to grieve over losses. We are able to move forward with hope because we are securely seated with Christ in the heavenlies. He has given to us authority in His name over our foes, over his foes. And so from this position of security, and we can joyfully do the good works that God has prepared for us from before the foundation of the world. We can even be joyful and celebrate the success of others.

The king then gives us his authority. But he also, this King Jesus also protects his labors. He sends these disciples out as lambs among wolves. Yes, it's dangerous out there. Yes, the enemy is real.

There is power. Just because he has been defeated doesn't mean that he doesn't exist anymore. There's a, and I understand it this way, What does it mean for him to be defeated but also to have power? Well, you can think of a major wars where there'll be a decisive battle that turns the tide of the war, that seals the fate of the losing nation. But it doesn't mean that the armies just disappear.

They continue to put up a fight, but Everybody recognizes that this is a losing battle, that they don't have a way to win. And so it's a mopping up operation. Sometimes the enemy may go into guerrilla warfare, into hiding, and continue to try to fight that way. But you see, there's no question who's won the war and on whose side the victory is. And so, the king protects his lamb, his laborers.

Nothing, nothing shall hurt you. Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." That's a pretty astounding promise. Nothing shall hurt you. Means that you can get arrested and go to jail, but nothing will hurt you. You can be tortured for Christ as some are, but nothing will hurt you.

Because there is nothing that anybody can do to destroy our soul, to destroy the life that we have in Christ. There is nothing, as we'll see, that they can do to destroy our joy either, and our security, as those who are seated in the heavenlies with Christ. The king protects his laborers. Nothing shall by any means hurt us. We simply don't have to fear no matter where we are taken in this life, no matter what happens in this life and in this world.

The psalmist wrote, because you have made the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you. But he will give his angels charge over you, lest you dash your foot against a stone. That's the word of God, brothers and sisters. That's the king promising his protection. The king who has vanquished all of his enemies, who has crushed the head of the serpent, giving to us His protection.

He is, remember, that king like David, that none of the nations of the earth dared to attack. Because you have made the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you. He will give His angels charge over you, lest you dash your foot against a stone." But there's more. Our King, King Jesus, knows his servants by name. He knows everyone by name.

Now if you've ever been in the military, you're probably well aware that the president, who is the commander in chief of our armed forces, doesn't even begin to know everybody in his army, or his navy, or his air force by name. He knows a few by name. The ruler of our state sure does not know most of the people in his state or most of us by name. But not so with the King of the Kingdom of God. Not so with King Jesus.

He knows our names. He says to them, nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Your names are written in heaven. The King knows our name. He knows us intimately.

He knows our needs. Christ, our King, also is our great High Priest, and He intercedes for us. Remember the high priest in the Old Testament, he bore the names of the tribes upon his breast. So that is, he went into the holy of holies. He bore the names of the children of Israel.

Well Christ, our high priest, knows our name, and he bears our names before the Father. Satan is the accuser of the Brethren. Satan is the great deceiver. Satan is the one who attacks. But who can bring a charge against God's elect?

Who? God is the one who justifies. Who can condemn? It's Christ who died and is risen and is at the right hand of God and who makes intercession for us. And so Paul can say because Jesus knows our name, because He is the one who justifies.

He can say, Who shall separate us from the love of God, or love of Christ, or tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, not having clothes, not having food, pearls, or swords. Can these things separate us from the love of Christ? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long, we are counted as sheep for slaughter, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Christ knows us.

Christ our King knows us. He loves us and He never, never leaves us. So He calls us to rejoice because our names are written in heaven. They're on His hand. Now also our King advances His kingdom through the weak and the poor in spirit, not the wise and the prudent.

Jesus rejoices. He says, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them to babes. Babes are those who are helpless, right? A baby that's just born can do nothing for itself, for himself. He can't feed himself, he can't clothe himself, he can't escape any danger that happens to be there.

He's utterly dependent, utterly dependent on Mother and Father to do everything. They can't even burp themselves, get the air out of their system without help. Jesus chooses the babes to reveal these things to. The helpless, the poor in spirit, those who know they can do nothing of themselves. Jesus didn't choose the religious leaders to be His disciples.

He did not come and look around at the church of his day and say, well, who are the influential people that I need to get on my team? Who are the movers and shakers? Who are the well-educated? Who are the respected? He didn't get those people.

He took the uneducated, the fishermen, the people who didn't have great learning, the people who didn't have big reputations, weren't famous, weren't leaders, weren't people of influence. Those are the people that He took and chose for His disciples. The wise and the prudent are like this, self-righteous. They don't need Christ. Babies, Those who can't do anything for themselves, they need to be fed.

Paul told the Corinthians, for you see your calling, brethren, not many wise according to the flesh, Not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen. And the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are and why does he do this? Why did he say Gideon you got too many people you got to get rid of a few Like you got to get rid of us of most of them.

I just need a couple hundred Why did why So that no flesh should glory in His presence. Why has He committed the Gospel to vessels of clay? To sinners? Why didn't He send angels perfect to proclaim the Gospel? No, He chose men, ordinary people, that have bodies of flesh, so that the glory would belong to Him.

So that He would be glorified. And no man or no thing. It was women that the risen Christ first showed Himself to whom, and they were the first to break the story to the other disciples even. Because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. God uses the weak things of the world to advance his kingdom.

If we were going to describe the success of the kingdom, we would probably say, well, you'd have all Ron Pauls in the Senate, in the House of Representatives, And they would pass these perfect laws. And we would have judges that would condemn the wicked and justify the righteous. And all of this corruption, it would all be removed. But that's not how Christ's kingdom advances. That's not what we see.

We see it advancing through the weak, and the poor, and the spirit. He uses people like Gladys Alaward, that missionary to China in the 20th century. In her mid-20s, she was born about 1900. In her mid-20s, she applied for a probationary position with the China Inland Mission. But her probation ended in a failure.

She fell short of their expectations. She was rejected. But the Lord, she had a call. She was just a very small woman. No means.

No means at all. At the age of 30, she had an opportunity. A missionary there was looking for an assistant to carry on her work, to help her with her work. And so she accepted that, but she did not have any way to get to China She couldn't afford even a ticket on the boat, which would be the normal way to get from England to China And so she put her fares in order and took her passport, her Bible, and two pounds and nine pence and set off over land for a journey to China. This is in a time when China, there were very few foreigners there.

This is a time when people were getting killed in China. It was a dangerous place to go. There were wars going on in China with the Japanese. And there were reporters and people that are getting killed. And so These two, she gets over there.

The Lord protected her through all those dangers, all those pearls. And he enabled her to get to China, starting out with just two pounds and nine pence. And when she got there, these two women, this other woman was Mrs. Lawson, Jeanne Lawson, they lived in a building that had been an inn. And so they decided that the best way to reach this city for the Gospel was to return that building to its function as an inn.

They did a little repairs, and they set out to show hospitality, food, and a warm bed for mule drivers. And so Gladys would run out, grab the halter of the lead mule and lead it into their courtroom and the other mules would follow and the drivers would come along for the ride. And in the evenings then after serving these mule drivers and before bed the women would tell their guest stories about Jesus. And in this way, God caused the Gospel to be proclaimed. Not only at their inn, but then these riders would go to other places along their routes and retell these stories that they heard about Jesus.

Gladys learned the language. She went over there not knowing how to speak Chinese. She learned the language. And shortly afterwards, her mentor, Mrs. Lawson, fell and was injured and died a few days later.

So now she's over there alone. Well, along with their Chinese cook at this inn, they continued the work. And her work then shifted to recognizing the needs of orphans, and so she began taking unwanted children in and caring for them. And then in the wars, she also started caring for wounded soldiers. And so she might have 20 orphans and 30 or 40 wounded soldiers under her care.

And as the war intensified in the 30s, the number of orphans she was caring for grew to 100. She became a citizen of China, and she supported them, the Chinese, against the Japanese. That might include spying, that means reporting on what the Japanese were doing. And so it got to the point where the city that she was in was too dangerous for her. There was a bounty out on her head.

She was wanted, dead or alive. And so being warned about this, she gathered up her 100 children and escaped the city. And unable to use roads or transportation, because remember there's a bounty on this little woman. She's like, she wasn't even five feet tall. There's a bounty on her head.

She leaves her children on foot over the mountains to a safer province a hundred miles away. The trek took 27 days in which they had to endure the elements and hardships. She became ill en route and when they finally arrived she collapsed. The doctors were amazed because she was suffering from typhus, pneumonia, relapsing fever, malnutrition, and supreme exhaustion. This is how the kingdom of God advances.

He uses people that are weak, that have no money, and no great influence, and no great power. But His kingdom succeeds. His kingdom succeeds. And nobody shall stop. No enemy on earth can stop the advance of Christ's kingdom.

Our King was sent by the Father and He has come to do the will of the Father. You see, as the Son, He is in submission to His Father. Jesus is God. He's equal with the Father. But in His mediatorial role, in what we speak of as the economic trinity, He as the Son is in submission to the Father.

He's an example for us as sons. He was obedient even to the point of death. Maybe your parents have asked hard things of you. I doubt any of them have asked you to be obedient to death. But Christ was obedient to death.

His Father asked of Him obedience, even to the point of death. And Christ came to do His Father's will. And He was in submission to that will. His prayer was not my will, but your will. So our King is a King who is in submission to His Father.

Our King is the only mediator of the Father. No one knows who the Father is except the Son, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father. And no one knows who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son will reveal Him. Jesus is the only mediator. A mediator is someone who negotiates peace between two parties.

Jesus is the only mediator. There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Jesus alone is the way. And that is a very offensive statement today. Very offensive.

That will raise the dander in many circumstances, in many situations. I still remember vividly a national talk show, I don't remember which one, but this host had a rabbi, a Muslim imam, and a Christian. I think there were three of them. And a Jew. There were four.

And it was a setup. And the setup was the host asked the Christian, so you are saying, and here you have these other religions, so you are saying Jesus is the only way, you are the only way. And that messenger of the gospel said, yes, he is the only way. And it was just an immediate clenching of teeth and fists and rage arose that this person would dare to say that Jesus is the only way. And that all these other people were wrong.

But Jesus is the only way. He is the only mediator. No one knows who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son will reveal Him." There are not many ways to Christ. There are not many ways to heaven. There is only one.

There is only one way, one truth. And Jesus said, I am that way. I am the truth. I am the life. And no man comes to the Father except through me.

No one." The king also, our king also brings great blessings. He said, Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and they have not seen it, and to hear what you hear and they have not heard it. Jesus says to His disciples, to us, that we are blessed. More than David and more than Solomon and more than Moses and more than Abraham, because we have something that they didn't. These people all died in faith looking for, seeking, but not actually getting it.

These all died in faith, having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. These, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. They didn't receive what was promised. God having provided something better for us. God having provided something better for us.

We have that which all of these Old Testament saints looked for and longed for. We have that which the angels desire to search into. I wanna close this morning looking at the joy of our King Jesus. Because there's something that's unique here in all of the Gospels. And that is that Jesus rejoices.

Jesus is said to rejoice. Now we know he does. We know he has joy. It speaks of that joy. He speaks of that joy.

But this I believe is the only place where the Bible tells us that Jesus rejoiced. You know, Jesus was a human. He had human emotions. The Bible says that he wept. He was sorrowful.

And here the Bible tells us that he rejoices. So I'd like to look just a moment at the joy of our King. And we see it's not dependent on his circumstances. His joy is not dependent on the circumstances. Here he is, he's entering this last year, in this last year of his ministry.

The opposition of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and the Jewish leaders is mounting. They are seeking to kill him. John tells us that people have begun to leave him because they didn't like the message he was preaching. They didn't like the exclusivity of the message that no one can come to the Father except the Father draw him. That was too hard for them.

And John says disciples just left him. They quit following him. He knows that he is about to die. He's starting to tell his disciples, I have come to die, come to suffer and to die. And yet he is able to rejoice.

The disciples are rejoiced in the defeat of Satan's kingdom. They rejoice greatly. They return with joy. And they are jumping as it were for joy that the demons are subject to them. They are rejoicing at the defeat of Satan's kingdom.

And that is something that we ought to rejoice at. Satan cannot steal our sanctification, he can't steal our joy, he can't remove our salvation. James teaches us that as we resist, if we resist, Satan will flee. Not just stop, but he's forced to flee. If we resist, He will flee.

And Paul promised the Romans that God would crush Satan under their feet shortly. That was His closing blessing to them. God will crush Satan under your feet shortly. So the disciples are rejoicing at this, and we should, but Jesus points them to something greater, to rejoice over. Not the outward progress of the kingdom, but the inward progress of the kingdom.

As joyous as they are at the defeat of Satan, Jesus points His disciples to an even greater victory. And I think we would call this a relative negation. He says, nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, which He has just described, the defeat of Satan. But rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. That's what we would call a relative negation.

He's saying there's something greater to rejoice about. Just like Paul would say in Romans, Jacob have I loved, and so have I hated. Meaning in the sense of loved less. See, we tend to measure success by outward means. Outward means, numbers of people, absence of resistance, buildings, money, justice in the courts, defeat of outward displays of evil.

But what does Jesus point us to rejoice over? That our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, That our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That our names are written in heaven. That those who are as babes are being brought into the kingdom of light. See we are fighting a spiritual battle.

This is a spiritual kingdom, fought with spiritual weapons, and it brings spiritual victories. And those are the victories that Christ rejoices over. And he says, rejoice, because your names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. He also then rejoices in the Father's sovereign plan and grace. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit, And what does He rejoice over?

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven, that you have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to babes. That's what He's rejoicing over. What is that? He's rejoicing here in the Father's plan of salvation, in election, that God has chosen some for salvation and others for reprobation. Jesus is rejoicing in the Father's election and His plan of salvation.

He's rejoicing that the Gospel has been hidden from some, because that is the plan of God. That was what He is determined to do from before the foundation of the world, And so that is what Jesus is rejoicing over. Notice, He is rejoicing in the Spirit. And He says, Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, I thank you, Father. The whole Trinity here is involved in this rejoicing.

Because the ultimate purpose of our salvation, the ultimate purpose of all that God has done in history is his own glory, his own glory. He also rejoices in his own kingship and mediation. He rejoices that all things have been given to him and that he is the mediator between us and the Father. I thank you Father, One that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. For so it seemed good in your sight." He's rejoicing in the will of the Father and what is good and what the Father saw fit to do.

He rejoiced in that. And that's what we ought to do. He is our example. We ought to be able to rejoice in what God does that seems good to him, in his sovereign plan. But he also rejoices in the blessings of his disciples.

He gives a divine pronouncement of blessing here. This is not a prayer. He's not saying, may you be blessed. He's not asking for this to happen. He is doing it.

These are words of performance. He is saying, you are blessed. He is blessing them. Blessed the eyes which see the things that you see. Christ our King, What a glorious king, what a gracious king, what a powerful king, what a personal king who knows us.

And so we can, like He, have joy, have joy in our present circumstances, in any circumstance, yet to come to us, just as Christ did. Because we are seated in the heavens with Christ. We've been given to share in His victory. And He is our protector. He has given His angels charge to protect us.

And He blesses us, and He knows us. Amen? Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving to us such a wonderful King, such a mighty King, such a glorious King, and such a loving King. Father, we ask that you would enlarge our hearts this morning, that you would draw us up to you, draw our hearts out to you in praise and adoration, in utter devotion to you who have loved us so unconditionally, so constantly, so graciously, so faithfully. Father, where our faith has grown weak, where we have doubted of these glorious promises, we ask that you would strengthen us.

That you would revive us, revive our hearts. And we ask, Lord, that you might perfect that work that you have begun in us by your Spirit. And that you may preserve us and present us faultless before the presence of your glory with exceeding joy. Father, may we share in that joy Today and tomorrow and each day of our life here until we depart to you. We ask this In Jesus' name, amen.