Please turn in your scriptures to Proverbs 14. I'd like to read verses 22-24. Here are the words of God. Do they not go astray who devise evil? But mercy and truth belong to those who devise good.

In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty. The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly." May God add His blessing to His Word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever." Father in heaven, we ask that you would open our hearts to receive Your Word. We ask that You would bless now our study of it, the proclamation of Your Word. That You would sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim the wonders and the riches of Your grace through Jesus Christ.

Amen. This text gives us the principles of profitable labor. The principles of profitable labor. Labor is a creation ordinance. I'm sure you know that.

In Genesis, God says that God created man, that God created us, male and female, in His own image, after His own image. And placed Adam in the Garden of Eden and called Him to tend to that garden. Man was created to work. That is our purpose. To God has put under our care this earth.

And we are to harness its resources for His glory. He has given to us this earth and the animals that are in it, and called us to exercise a godly dominion over these things as His servants. And that takes work. Even before the fall then, Our purpose, the reason that we were created, was to work, was to study the works that God had done, to understand them, and to organize them, to bring additional structure to them. Because what God created was good.

But we are to take what God has made and use it. We are to care for it. In that sense, the environmentalists have one aspect very right. They are right about the need for us to care for this world that God made. The way they want us to do that isn't right, but they are right about that aspect.

We are to have a care. We have a stewardship, and we are to discharge that stewardship faithfully. Labor is one of the means through which God promises to bless us. It's one of the means through which God's promises to bless are brought to fruition. In fact, it's such a fundamental thing that it's in the Lord's prayer.

We are to pray that the Lord would provide our food for us. And we are to give us this day our daily bread. But what's the means by which He does that? How does God provide it? Through our labor.

In fact, the Bible also says that that person that will not work, not that cannot work, not somebody who is unable because of a sickness or a limitation, but somebody who will not work, somebody who doesn't want to work, should not eat. That means it's wrong for us to feed that person. And yet food is a blessing from God. But He brings it to us by our labor. And that's why we both ask God to provide the food for us, then we go out at the same time and work for it, and then thank Him when He does provide it.

And one of the big aspects of working is our vocation. Young people, You need to become an asset as soon as you are able. See, an asset is something that gives more than it takes. An asset is something that produces. A financial asset produces an income stream.

A liability, on the other hand, is something that takes more than it gives. Your liabilities are things that take money. Some things are bigger liabilities than others. Some liabilities are necessary, They're useful. A house, for example, is a necessary liability.

It takes money. You put money into it. Unless you're renting the house, in which case it's an asset. It's generating an income. Young people, you need to be an asset as soon as possible.

And you need to think about becoming an asset, because it doesn't just happen. It takes the principles of profitable labor to become an asset. We have to apply those principles that are in our text that we'll look at in a minute. Now not All men and women are created equal, contrary to what some documents say. Yes we are equal as co-heirs, fellow heirs of the grace of life, but We're not equal in many other ways.

In fact, we're not equal at all in many other ways. Some men are gifted with intellectual abilities. Others possess artistic skills. Others can create works of beauty, build things. Still others have great physical strength and power and ability.

Some people are oriented to details and to administration of things. Other people are oriented to grand visions and planning and have no ability to Think about details some people are big dreamers Some People are energized by being around other people, and other people are energized by not being around other people. Some people have a way with words. Some people have a way with things. You see, there exists just a natural inequality among all people, men and women, in the mental, in the physical, in the spiritual, in the moral realms.

An inequality which can be enhanced or diminished by differences in our training, in our environment, and in the opportunities that are presented before us. So you need to take all these things into consideration. You need to study and understand yourself and where you fit in here. And where God has made you. What gifts, abilities, strengths, weaknesses that He's given to you so that you can work to develop your strengths and improve those areas that are weak.

This matter of a vocation is really fundamentally important. It's fundamentally important. We call it the cultural mandate, this call for all men to exercise this dominion over the creation, to harness its resources for useful outputs, to make things with what God has made, To take those raw materials that He's putting out throughout the earth and to fashion them together to make useful things, useful tools. The greatest enemy of vocation is amusement. Think about what that word means.

Ah, amusement. What does it mean to muse? It means to think. To think. To ponder.

Ah, musement is no thinking. The absence of thinking, turning your brain off, shutting down, amusements can be the greatest threat, the greatest detriment, the greatest derailer of Godly vocation and calling It's very easy isn't it to spend to turn off our mind and to spend to amuse ourselves. The time just flies. So much happens when we allow ourselves to fall into that kind of a pattern. And it isn't good.

And there are lots of memes or lots of idioms and cliches that have developed today to describe people who have become overcome by pursuit of amusements. What are the principles then of profitable labor? Well, verse 22 has the first principle. That is, we have to devise a plan for good and honest work. It says, mercy and truth belong to those who devise good.

He's good. What does it look like when mercy goes to work? A heart that has first-hand experience with the mercy of God, that has a fear of God, which is a carefulness to walk in His ways, is a heart that can show mercy. But it also requires an offender. For we can't show mercy unless there is an offender.

Mercy is the withholding of what is due, the just deserts. What is justly due? Mercy is withholding that. And so in order to withhold something that is justly due, there needs to be an offense that justly brings some penalty attached to it. Then there is the opportunity for mercy.

Mercy and truth belong to those who devise good. Work provides many, many opportunities to show mercy. When people don't keep their promise. When they defraud us. When they take advantage of us.

Cruelty thinks, how do I get even? Or how do I bring justice to them from my situation, from my position? Mercy remembers how God has shown us mercy, how God has withheld from us what is justly due of us. And so Christian labor is walking with God in fellowship with Him, participating with Him as He works. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, it is a faithful saying, if we be dead with Him, we will live with Him.

If we suffer, we will also reign with Him. There is this participation. We are fellow heirs with Jesus Christ as our elder brother. So Christian labor then is first of all walking with God, in fellowship with Him, remembering the mercy that He has shown to us so that we can show that mercy to other people. Do you remember a time that somebody showed you mercy?

It's a wonderful thing, isn't it? A number of years ago, I had been to the doctor to do some tests, and I was in a hurry to get back to work. I went out to the car and I started backing out of the parking space and I didn't see a car that was right behind me. And I backed right into it and there was a big boom and a big cloud of dust. And I got out and I pulled forward, got out and the driver got out of his car and we looked at the little damage there and realized that there was a lot of dust from my bumper.

And scraped that away and realized there really wasn't as much there as it had seemed. And the gentleman, after pausing and looking at that, I don't remember what I told him, probably some mumbled words of apology. But he sort of put his arm around me and he said, this doesn't look so bad, why don't we just go about our day. And That was real mercy that that man showed to me. And it was a wonderful thing.

I realized I didn't deserve that. He could have made me pay for that little dent. It was a small one. And it wasn't that noticeable. But He could have still required justice.

But He showed mercy. And that's a wonderful thing. But only those people who have been recipients of mercy can understand that. But don't miss the other aspect to this here. There is devising.

Devising good. Planning. Planning. And I think the reason this verse here is in context with these other verses on labor is that there is a need to plan our vocation. It doesn't just happen.

So we have to devise a plan for good and honest work. We have to think about all the things we were talking about, all these differences in our abilities, in our gifts, in the opportunities that are before us. In planning our vocation, our culture, our 20th century culture, has tried to propagate something of a half-truth. And that is that you can be anything that you want to be. There's a sense in which that is true.

God called David from being a shepherd to being king. That God gave David some opportunities along the way. God gave David some gifts, one of which was courage, willingness to face Goliath when nobody else would. And God gave him, as a result of that, some opportunities to become known in the land. But the idea that you can be anything you want to be is caused, I think, a lot of people unnecessary grief.

Because they've tried to be things that will be very difficult, if not impossible, to be. God has placed us in families, and those families have gifts and strengths and create opportunities for us. And I think we would do well to give those opportunities very serious consideration before we try to fly far away and do something totally different. There's a reason why through most of the history of the world, sons follow in their father's footsteps because the fathers create opportunities in those areas, in those vocations for those sons that other sons don't have. And if you follow in your father's footsteps, in his vocation, you will have a great advantage in your vocation.

Because you will have skills that you've grown up with, that others are going to have to learn as adults. And some of those things simply can't be learned as well as adults, as you can as a child. Think about a language. A child that learns a language from the day it's born, we call that a native speaker. Somebody who learns later can learn the language.

It takes a lot more work and oftentimes they never achieve quite the level of fluency as somebody who, a child who grows up knowing that language. And the same is true for these other skills that fathers, if father has, He's able to pass on to sons and daughters. So I think we need to think about that. That there are opportunities there as we look at vocation. But we also have to look at gifts.

Clearly there are sons who have different gifts than their fathers. Thank the Lord for that. It's true we're not bound to those things. And if God is calling you to a different vocation, then He will provide the opportunities as you are diligent to plan. If you would like to fly, if you want to be a pilot, if you're mesmerized with the idea of conquering gravity, then plan for that.

Get around. Plan to be around places where people fly airplanes. Take a job cleaning airplanes, washing airplane windows, selling airplane parts. Take a job at an airport. You see, plan that vocation.

Too many people don't plan to fail in their vocation. They simply fail to plan their vocation. And they get to be 20 years of age, and they're still wondering what they want to do. That's why I said earlier, you young people, you little children even, need to try and be an asset as soon as you are able. Because you will develop the gifts that you will need, the skills that you will need for good and honest work, for a vocation that will enable you to fulfill the cultural mandate of ruling over this earth, taking dominion over it for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How many people, how many men's callings came from the things that they thought about as children? From the experiences that they had? Those are the things that you're experiencing, boys and girls, today, those are the things that will form your vocation tomorrow. So pay attention to those things. Think about these things.

Don't worry about these things. Pray about them. Trust the Lord to provide a vocation. And plan. Plan.

Devise a plan for good and honest work. Good and honest work. The second principle of profitable labor is in verse 24. Labor diligently, Labor diligently as unto the Lord, looking for His reward. Labor diligently.

How you labor. We plan our vocation. We devise a plan, but then we need to labor diligently. Idle chatter is the opposite of diligence. Idle chatter is talking about what you want to do, thinking about what you want to do, discussing what you want to do, and then talking about what you want to do, and talking some more about what you want to do, but never actually doing it.

It is to procrastinate. To procrastinate is to put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Idle talk. Procrastinating the actual labor, the actual work. Idle talk leads to poverty.

It is the opposite of profitable. It's not profitable. But in all labor, in toil or you might say in in arduous labor in diligent labor there is profit honest riches come through labor, not talking about the labor. Now, if we're going to labor diligently, if we're going to engage in the labor, the kind of labor that leads to profit, that is fruitful, that accomplishes something, then we need to also labor with the right goal and the right motive. The goal is the desired end state.

It's thinking about and understanding the goal, the end state of what you're working for. And it helps to write those goals down. God gave us His word through teachers and orally, but he also wrote it down because it's important for us to have things in writing. Things that are in writing have a permanence to them that things that are just thought about or verbalized Do not. That's why any important contract is put in writing.

It's not that a verbal contract is null and void. It's not that you didn't say, well, you didn't get that in writing. Therefore it's not valid. No. A verbal contract is valid.

It's just not very permanent. You forget. Forget the details. And so we have to write things down. And so we need to write goals down.

But The goal of all of our work has to be that of the glory of God. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Even the mundane things like eating and drinking are to do to the glory of God. How do we do that to the glory of God? That's a good discussion.

But not for today. That does not need to be our goal. With good will, Paul told the Ephesians, doing service as unto the Lord and not to men. The motive of our work is the psychological driving force that enables, that drives our action in pursuing a goal. What drives us to our work.

That's important. If we have the wrong motive or the wrong goal, our labor will not be profitable. What has to motivate our labor? It has to be our love of the Lord Jesus Christ. That has to be what motivates us to get up each day, and motivates us to pursue the goals that we have set.

The big goal of glorifying God then is carried out by all the sub-goals of our vocation. The things that we want to do in one year, the things that we want to accomplish in five years, the things that we want to accomplish in ten years. I hope you have those things written out. Do you have those things written down? I'm not as good at it as I ought to be.

I acknowledge that. But I have some things written down. And lo and behold, those things that I've written down 10 years ago and 20 years ago, some of them have actually come to pass. They've been fulfilled. Goals that are written down are much more likely to be fulfilled than goals that aren't.

We have to have a singleness of heart fearing the Lord, not as men pleasers. Not as men pleasers. What is a men pleaser? That's a word that's used in the New Testament only two times, both by Paul and both with respect to our labor. Both with respect to our labor.

We are to work not with eye service, as men pleaser, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is slave or free." Men-pleaser. A men-pleaser is service that is only performed to make an impression in the owner's presence. It's not performed for its own sake or to please the Lord or to please our own conscience. Work that's done for men pleasing is what we do simply for somebody else's eyes. I'll give you an example.

I'm going to give you an example. You just get word that somebody is going to come to your house. It could be a friend, it could be a remote acquaintance, it could be somebody you don't know very well, could even be the CPS. But you get word that somebody's going to come to your house. And so What do you do?

You run around and clean up the house. Why? Why? If it was good enough for you to live in up until that point, Why isn't it good enough for whoever's coming to your house? If it wasn't good enough for you to live in up until that point, then you should have been cleaning it whether they were coming or not.

So you can ask yourself, who are you cleaning your house for? To be men pleasers? Or with goodwill doing service as to the Lord? Now I know sometimes we tend to get something done and we want to do it and we just, their visit provides an occasion to do it. I realize that.

But we need to think about that. It's a good question to ask ourselves. Why are we doing the things that we do? Why are we doing the work that we do? Is it to be men pleasers?

Or is it with good will, with singleness of purpose, working from our heart to serve the Lord? We can serve the Lord in any work that we are doing. It's a good work. Because in all work there is profit. In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty.

So the second principle of profitable labor is to labor diligently with the right motive and the right goal, not as men-placers, but as serving the Lord. Doing this out of our recognizing our duty and desire to serve the Lord, to glorify His name, and doing it because we're motivated out of a love to Him. And a love for Him. Well, the third principle of profitable labor is in verse 24, to work wisely so as to succeed and to be able to help others. To work wisely so as to succeed.

The crown of the wise is their riches. The prudent are first crowned with knowledge in verse 18, and here then the wise are crowned with riches. So acquiring knowledge means that there's some study involved here. Our work to be profitable is going to require some study. I hope I didn't surprise anybody.

Any of you children, you realize profitable work is going to require some study. We have to understand how God governs His world, because that's what we're studying, God's world. Who passed the law of gravity? God did. Who enforces the law of gravity?

God does. God passed the law of gravity as the supreme legislator, and He enforces the law of gravity as the supreme judge of all the earth. We're not studying just some abstract mother nature. We are studying the works of God. We call them laws.

But we have to remember they're laws that God passes and God enforces. The study of these things used to be called natural philosophy, but today we might call them physics, chemistry, and biology. And most of the things we call science come from those fields. We need to study these things If we want to labor profitably. If we want to be able to harness the resources that God has created and use them profitably, we need to understand the rules by which God governs this world.

And that's what we call physics, chemistry, biology. Mathematics is also another area that we need to study if we want to work wisely. Math is a language that can precisely describe the work of God. And if you want to work profitably, you're going to need to understand it. No matter what your calling is.

I was visiting a friend recently. He's a dentist, a very skillful dentist in his calling. He's worked wisely and the Lord has blessed him richly. But he's a woodworker and he was building a valence to go around his windows and things. And he wanted to put that valence at an angle.

Instead of just being straight, he wanted it at an angle. And so you have this board going at an outward angle, and then this other board going back at an outward angle. And he wanted to know, how do I cut, what angle do I cut those boards to make that joint right? He said nobody could tell him what angle to cut those boards. So how are you going to do it?

Try one board, doesn't quite fit, throw it out, try another. This was so difficult, you could probably try 50 boards and still not get it quite right. It was an incredibly difficult cut to make. And so I was visiting and he knew I liked math or somebody told him, I don't know. So he asked me, he asked me, can you tell me an equation for the angle that I need to cut these boards.

And I said, OK. It actually turned out to be a difficult problem. But we figured it out and gave him the equation. And you had to know trigonometry. You had to understand some math to do it.

But he's going to be able to work more wisely, more profitably, more quickly, because he can just now dial in the right angle, and there's two angles actually. You have to, you know, those of you that are, cut things, you know, you have this angle and then you have this angle, two different angles. So you've got to have two different angles right to get this cut. So there's two different equations for each of these angles. Look at Ecclesiastes 10 a minute, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Ecclesiastes 10, Verse 9, He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and he who splits wood may be endangered by it. So if you're going to work wisely, profitably, you're going to have to work safely. Okay, corporate America did not invent safety. The Bible did. It's right here.

Solomon speaks about working safely. And you need to work safely if you want to work profitably. You need to work safely because your body is important. God's only given you one or two of most things. And you don't regrow them.

You cut them off. You need to work safely. But look at verse 10. If the axe is dull and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength. But wisdom brings success.

If the axe is dull and one doesn't sharpen the edge, you have to work harder. But wisdom in these matters of physics and chemistry and mathematics brings success. You understand that you put a sharper edge on that knife, on that axe. It takes a lot less work. You can cut for a given amount of calories in a day.

And remember, you can only burn so many calories in a day before you fall over. For those same amount of calories, how many trees can you cut down? If you have a dull axe, the Bible says you have to use more strength. If you have a sharp axe, your labor more profitably. Well, the same is true with this cut this doctor was trying to make.

A little bit of wisdom, a little bit of understanding of mathematics makes the labor more profitable. Or say you want to cut down a tree because a hurricane is coming and there's a dead tree that or a partially dead tree or that you think might fall in your house and you want to know if I drop it this way is it going to hit the house how do you figure that out well you could climb up it and drop a rope down and see how long it is, and then lay the rope out between the base of the tree and your house, or you could use a little trigonometry and very easily figure out quite accurately how high the tree is and whether it will hit your house or not. The examples are endless. Those are just a couple of the most recent examples in my life as to why I needed to know mathematics. But the Bible teaches us that if we want to labor successfully, we need to have some knowledge.

We need to have wisdom. And so we have to be willing to engage in study if we expect the blessing of God upon our labor. And study is labor. But to those who are wise, the crown of the wise is their riches. God will bless that labor.

And He crowns that wisdom in our labor with wealth. That's His promise. Now, It's not all equal wealth. Some He blesses thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, some a hundred-fold. But God will bless diligent labor.

God will bless those who work wisely. The Bible says that God's works are studied by all those who take pleasure in them. Do you take pleasure in the work of God? The Bible says that if that's so, then you will study the works of God. And when we mean studying the works of God, we're talking about studying things like physics and chemistry.

Things that there's a lot of, now I recognize that today there's a lot of bogus chemistry and physics out there. There's a proliferation of PhDs and that's not what I'm talking about. There are, just to illustrate what I'm talking about, there are people that have taken computer programs and randomly generated articles for peer-reviewed journals and gotten them published. That tells you how ludicrous a lot of this so-called science is. I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about biblical science that studies the world God made with our fingers and our minds. And it really doesn't have a lot to do with college laboratories and peer-reviewed journals and the like. That's an ivory tower that's going to collapse. But to those who have wisdom, God gives this crown of riches. There are many crowns in life.

There are many spiritual crowns. A crown is simply an honor, a dignity, a splendor, a distinction. There's the crown of life to those who endure temptation, James says. Or to those who are faithful and to death is a crown of life. There's a crown of glory to those who are faithful shepherds who have done so not for money or out of compulsion.

There's also a crown of glory to those who embrace and promote wisdom. To everybody. It's a crown of righteousness, Paul says, to Those who have kept the faith and who love the Lord's appearing. But there are also material crowns. White hair is a crown of old men.

Grandchildren are a crown of old men. Yes, if you have grandchildren, the Bible says you're old. Grandchildren are sons, sons are the crown of old men, the Bible says. Knowledge, though, is a crown of those who are prudent. God's people are a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord.

And riches here are the honor, they're the distinction of those who have worked with wisdom. Riches then enable people to expand their influence. They can be used to great, great benefit. Think of the centurion who the Jews said, He gave of His power, used His influence, His riches for their good. Solomon who used his wealth to build the temple.

But the Bible warns us that after we have gotten this wealth, after we've received this blessing from the Lord, this crown of wisdom, that we remember that it is the Lord who gives us power to get wealth. And that we don't say in our heart, by my hand I have gotten all these things. That's a temptation. If you don't have money, it's not a temptation. But once you have worked for these things, you want to say, I have worked for these things.

The Bible says don't think that way. Don't think that way. It's the Lord that gives us power to get wealth. Now, what are the places of profitable labor? It says back in verse 23 that in all labor there is profit.

In all toil, In other words, in all types of work there is profit. Whether it be the growing of food, tending gardens. Production of food is one of the more fundamental and important tasks in labor. Think about it. We all need to eat and we all need to eat often.

And without that labor, we wouldn't eat. There's work involved. And it's good work. It's profitable work. Marriage takes work.

A wife is to submit to. It's to reverence her husband. It's to be chaste. That takes work. It doesn't just happen.

A husband is to love his wife. It's to nourish her. It's to cherish her. That takes work. It takes all the principles of profitable labor, right?

The planning, the devising a plan, the diligence in carrying it out, and doing so with understanding, right? I hope you don't, Men don't buy your wives tools for them. I know you don't. But it takes plenty. It takes understanding what she likes.

Wisdom. Marriage takes work, but it's a profitable work. Brings great reward, great riches. It brings great riches when a husband and a wife together work at the business of marriage, or work at the raising of godly children. That takes work.

It's wearying at labor. And it's a real investment over many years. But it brings great riches. In fact, I would submit that that is one of the most profitable investments that any couple could ever make. That investment in raising their children to fear the Lord, to walk in His ways.

And the more children you have, the bigger the return. But there are also spiritual labors. Work of faith. These are the works that follow faith. We are, Paul said, His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

These aren't the works by which we are justified. These are the works that we have been justified to do. We are His workmanship created in Jesus Christ unto good works. Faith without works is dead, just as the body without a spirit is dead. God is, Paul told the Hebrews, God is not so unjust as to overlook your work.

And the love that you have shown for His name in serving the saints, as you still do. God is not so unjust as to overlook that work, that spiritual labor. For truly I say to you, whoever gives a cup of cold water to drink because you will by no means lose his reward. A cup of cold water in Christ's name will by no means lose his reward. Whoever receives me, whoever receives you receives me, Jesus said to His disciples as they were about to be sent out, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me.

The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. What's receiving a prophet? It's helping them. Providing a place for them to stay, giving them funds for their trip and so forth. And the one who receives a righteous person, because he is a righteous person, will receive a righteous person's reward.

There is profit in all types of labor, even our spiritual labor. God is not unjust to forget those labors that are done not as pleasing men, but as pleasing Him. Jesus Christ also worked. He engaged in the labor of creation. We exist here because He created us.

This world exists because He created it. And then He ceased His labor. But after the fall, Jesus came as took to Himself a human nature. He came and lived on this earth, and He worked. He worked.

And by His work, by His righteousness, we are saved. It is His righteousness. It is His work that is imputed to us and by which we are accounted as righteous in the sight of God. And Jesus says that He would see the travail of His soul, and He would be satisfied. He would see the travail of his labor, and he would be satisfied.

He would receive the reward of his labor, which is the salvation of his people. Our works can't save us. All these works that we are talking about cannot save us. They cannot provide a ransom for our soul. But Christ's work is effectual for that.

And He will see the reward of His labor, which is our salvation, which is that we will dwell with Him for all eternity. And so in all our labor, we need to remember that it is Christ's labor that will be rewarded, That is the basis for us being able to do any labor at all. Almighty Father in heaven, we thank you for your work. We thank you that you worked faithfully and perfectly without sin. That you worked in great wisdom, for you are all wise.

That you from before the foundation of the world had laid a plan to save your people by a Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that you didn't simply talk about it, but in time, in the fullness of time, you sent forth your Son, born of a woman, born under the law, who perfectly obeyed all of your commandments, in whose work you are well pleased, and by whose merit we can stand before you in your presence, before your throne of grace. Who having completed his work, has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven and is seated at your right hand, where he ever lives, to make intercession for us. Father grant to us this goal, this vision in our labor this week, that all that we do may be done for Your glory, done out of our love for you. May you give to us the reward of that labor, as we work through your grace and by your power.

In Jesus' name, Amen.