Ark: In Enemy Lands

[00:00:00] Let's pray. [00:00:01] Our heavenly Father, as we rest on you and we rest in you, we recognize that we are perfectly safe, that you are our great provider, that you give to us everything that we need for this life and the journey we are on until we come into heaven and glory and the consummation of your kingdom. We ask, o Lord, that you would strengthen us on our pilgrimage and that you would help us as we walk in this world. Help us to walk on the path that you have set for us. Help us to live in light of the truth and the work that Jesus has done for us. Help us to live as those who are under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ, who rules in the midst of his enemies. [00:00:53] Lord, we ask that you would put our hearts to rest and that you would give us confidence in your great and sovereign power. [00:01:01] Lord, we also ask that you would be not only with us this morning as we hear your word, both read and preached, but that you would be with others throughout the world. We pray particularly for our mission works. Lord, we pray for the work in Levine. Be with Pastor Johnson and that group that is forming there. Strengthen that church and that it might be organized and established as a strong and faithful light in that area of the valley. Lord, we also pray for the work in Uruguay. We ask that you would continue to bless the missionaries there, the saints that are being discipled and those that are coming to faith. Lord, we ask that your word would go throughout all the world and that many would come to you. That on that day when we pass through those pearly gates, that we would see so many brothers and sisters from every tribe and tongue and nation glorifying and honoring you as a great God above all gods. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:02:17] Well, if you're able to remain standing, please do. And let's turn to part two of our trilogy, our mini trilogy. Here in one, Samuel, chapter five this morning. [00:02:50] So first we heard about the capture of the ark, and now we hear about what happens while it is in the philistine territory. [00:03:01] Then in a couple weeks, we'll hear about how the ark returns to Israel. [00:03:08] So this morning, chapter five of one. Samuel. Let's give our attention to God's word. [00:03:14] When the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, Beholden Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. And when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord and the head of Dagon. And both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon. In Ashdod to this day, the hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, the Ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against dagon, our God. [00:04:29] So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, what shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel? [00:04:38] They answered, let the Ark of the God of Israel be brought around to gath. [00:04:43] So they brought the Ark of God of Israel there. [00:04:46] But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic. And he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. So they sent the Ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the Ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, they have brought around to us the Ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people. [00:05:11] They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, send away the Ark of the God of Israel and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people. For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven. [00:05:37] You may be seated. [00:06:02] There's. I understand it from my son. There are two venomous lizards in the world, and one of them is the Gila monster, which happens to be here in Arizona in certain places. I know a person who one time, not knowing it, found a Gila monster and not knowing that they are poisonous and these kind of things, saw it and picked it up and was like, wow, look how cool this is. Put it in a box and took pictures of it and showed it to their pet and these kind of things again. Not knowing, not realizing what was going on. [00:06:43] Taking pictures, took the pictures to work, was showing people, look at this cool lizard I found. [00:06:52] A friend posts, does a little funny business on the computer and prints out this thing that says pet little dog, not a pet. [00:07:03] With perhaps some information about what a Gila monster is. [00:07:08] There are some times in life that we find something and we think, hey, look how cool this is, without recognizing how dangerous it is. [00:07:20] And strangely, people treat God this way. Now no one finds God like we might find a Gila monster or a snake or something like that. Because we all know God. From the moment we are created, we feel and recognize his effects in our own bodies, in society, in creation, in everything that's been made. The scriptures tell us that because of the Lord's fingerprints on everything that has been made, all men everywhere are without excuse. We don't find God and then decide what to do with him. We already know him. We know his power. But because of our sinfulness, we don't often treat him as we ought to. We think wrong things about him. We pretend as though he's something different than he really is. [00:08:16] The Philistines knew that the God of Israel was problematic, I'll say from their perspective. Remember back when they lined up to fight Israel? Back in chapter four? [00:08:32] They were very worried. In verse five, if you have your bibles open, you can let your eyes skip over there. In verse five of chapter four, we read, as soon as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded really loud. Really loud. [00:08:53] I heard recently that at a Taylor swift concert, it was so loud, the earth shook, right. So now there was seismic activity. Now this is as loud as that, except without amplification, right. Or electronic amplification. Very loud. [00:09:14] Well, what happens in verse six? The Philistines heard the noise and shouting. They said, what does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean? And when they had learned that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid. And they said, a God has come into the camp. And they said, woe to us, for nothing has happened like this before. Woe to us who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods. These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. [00:09:46] They're not total fools, right? They recognized the God of Israel who has done these powerful things before. They're calling down curses on themselves. We're over. We're toast. Woe to us. [00:10:04] But then what do they do? [00:10:06] In their foolishness, they say this in verse nine. Take courage and be men, o Philistines. [00:10:15] Well, you're not going to defeat the God of Israel by being a mandehead, by being brave, by being strong, by being courageous, by pulling all of your power and your strength and your know how together, by going out and getting it done. You're just not going to defeat the God of Israel, no matter how manly you are. [00:10:38] Because as we remember from Hannah's prayer, God is, we do not live by strengthen. We live by God. [00:10:49] In Hannah's prayer, in chapter two, we read verses like this. In verse four, the bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Or verse six, the Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down the sheol and he raises up. [00:11:13] The Lord is stronger than any man. He's stronger than any army. [00:11:20] Well, the Philistines think they've got things figured out pretty good. They actually defeat Israel. They defeat Israel. Israel, by the way, made a similar mistake in thinking that they could control God like he was some kind of tame pet, that if they simply bring the ark like a charm or a superstition, then everything would be fine and that they would be able to defeat Israel. God is not a pet. God is not a tool. [00:11:48] So Israel is defeated by the Lord, and the Philistines take the ark and they go on a victory parade. [00:11:57] But it turns out to be a parade of much trouble and death and suffering with a number of, I'll say least. Maybe this is wrong, but somewhat funny things along the way. It's funny not because of the suffering that happens, but it's funny because of the pride that's involved, this great pride that we have defeated Israel and her God. So let's take her to Ashdod. Let's take the ark to Ashdod and put it beside the great God dagonous. This is what they decide to do. [00:12:36] But what happens? [00:12:38] Well, first of all, they rise up early in the morning and Dagon has fallen over. [00:12:47] But notice how the Holy Spirit puts it. Dagon has not only fallen over, he's fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. [00:12:56] It's a posture of worship, Dagon. This idol is put into a posture of submission. [00:13:06] Right away, we are reminded of the great power of God over things, over creation. He can cause a dagon to fall over if he wants, and more, as we'll see in a moment, he can cause the stone that covered Jesus tomb to roll away, as Jesus puts it, to Satan, he can cause even the stones to cry out in praise to God. [00:13:32] Man fashions idols and puts them together. And then what happens? What do they do? [00:13:40] Because of Dagon's great power. Just being sarcastic. They have to put him back up. Dagon doesn't say, oh, that was tough. Got beat, but I'll get the next one. And then gets up to fight another day. No, of course he doesn't. He lays there until the people who made him hoist him back up. All right, so all is well. They rise early in the next morning, and then behold, right? When you hear that word behold, you want to think from the perspective of the people that are seeing, right? So it's not so much for us, but you kind of put yourself in their shoes. [00:14:18] Wake up early in the morning, you go out and a thing, right? Behold, they see this thing, and what happens to. He's fallen in his face downward before the ground, like before. His head cut off, his hands cut off, lying cut off on the threshold, only the trunk of him who has left. [00:14:37] Now, if you want to make an idol, especially you want to make it nice, because, of course, not only is the idol limited, it can't see or hear or think. You probably are limited, too. None of us, even great powerful cities, have infinite finances, have infinite time. So we have to make choices and idols. And when you make an idol, a lot of times there's choices to be made, right? Where are you going to put the attention to detail? Where are you going to take your gold and your silver and these kinds of things and apply it? So a lot of times with idols and things like that, the nice parts would be the visible parts, right? You wouldn't put all your precious metals and energy into things that nobody's going to see. You put it on things like the head and the hands and the nice parts, the important parts. [00:15:29] Well, it just adds all the more to the humiliation of dagon and to the humiliation of all idolatry when we see that the nicest parts, the most important parts and the parts that are often metaphors for effectiveness, for power, right? For willing. The head and the hands, these are cut off. And then this great visual of just the trunk. Just the trunk of dagon there. [00:16:02] Great. [00:16:05] A great scene, right? After hearing about the hands of dagon being cut off, we hear then about the hand of the Lord. Certainly not cut off, is it in verse six, the hand of the Lord was very heavy upon the people of Ashdod. This word heavy is the same word that is used for glory. The glory of the Lord had departed from Israel. Remember back in the previous chapter, when the daughter in law of Eli has this son, dies, and she hears about the death of her husband, the Ark of being captured, and the death of her father in law? She bears this, gives birth to this son, and calls him Ichabod. [00:16:57] The glory of the Lord has departed. The glory has departed. [00:17:04] That glory, though, didn't just vanish, vaporize into thin air, and who knows what happened? A power that was contained, and now it's gone. The Lord never stops being glorious. And his glorious hand, his heaviness, his weightiness, his glory is glorious against the people of Ashdod. [00:17:31] He terrifies them and afflicts them with tumors. [00:17:36] Sometimes translated, boils some idea of some kind of growth happening on their bodies. [00:17:46] Interestingly, the way this growth happens, as this happens, we read about the effect that it had on the people in verse seven. The men of Ashdod. [00:17:59] Ashdod, the city state, along with the territory, perhaps just outside the city. They say it must not remain against us. So they have a council. [00:18:10] So what happens next? The lords of the Philistines get together. We have five cities in this land. This word lord here is only used in the Bible of the Philistine lords. It's probably a word for governor or lord or something like that that the Philistines themselves used. So the Hebrew is borrowing that word and talking about these. These Philistines as they gather together, these lords of the Philistines, they have this council. There's a question. What shall we do with the Ark of God? They make a decision. Let's get it out of Ashdod. Right? Get it out of here. The Lord's hand is against the people of Ashdod. Let's take it to gath. But what happens? [00:19:00] They bring it around to gath. And the hand of the Lord was against the city. It causes a very great panic. Right? [00:19:11] If you've ever seen a single person in a panic, it's a scary thing, right? When we talk about a panic attack, it's a terrible thing to feel and go through. It's hard. If you're not the person going through it, it's hard to be a near. [00:19:30] Now, imagine not only one person panicking. Not a great panic, but a very great panic, but a whole city of people. [00:19:43] You've seen perhaps videos, hopefully, you've never been in one in a crowd that is panicking. [00:19:49] It becomes wild, it becomes scary, it becomes dangerous. [00:19:56] And he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them from one extreme, one end to the other, all the way across of the men of the city have tumors breaking out on them. [00:20:10] So much for being men. [00:20:14] So much for thinking that manhood and strength is what's going to protect you against goddess. [00:20:26] So they send the Ark to Ekron. Notice they don't ask. There's no second council. They don't gather the lords of the Philistines and say, what do we do next? I know. Let's try Ekron. They just send it to Ekron. And so what happens? As soon as the Ark of God comes to the people of Ekron, they cry out. They, their brothers, right in Gath, they have brought around to us the Ark of God to kill us and their people. So now not only do we have people struggling, individuals and cities and kings struggling, but the whole federation is starting to break apart. Now, this alliance of these kings and these people, Philistia, is pulling apart. They're now accusing one another of trying nothing, not just to kill us, but also the people, which I think. I don't know for sure, but I think probably means they're trying to just stamp us out. Kind of like ethnic cleansing or something like that. They're gonna kill us and just remove us, remove our people from the face of the earth. That's what Gath is trying to do to us. [00:21:38] So they send. Now, the council happens in verse eleven. They send, therefore, gather the lords of the Philistines together and said, send away the Ark of God. Let it return to its own place. [00:21:51] We read about a deathly panic through the whole city. We've talked about that. The hand of the God was very heavy there. [00:22:00] The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven. [00:22:08] So what do we learn? [00:22:11] The first point is perhaps the most obvious. [00:22:14] The hand of God is glorious and powerful overall. [00:22:20] We see him powerful over individuals affecting this person and that person with tumors and sometimes death. [00:22:28] We see his power over authorities, over these lords, and over the strength that they have. [00:22:37] We see his authority and his power, his sovereign, powerful hand over even collections and federations and united people. [00:22:49] Later, even great empires like Rome, Babylon, Assyria, in the fall of Dagon, we see that God is powerful even over spiritual powers. Not only the things and the powers of this world, but the powers of the spiritual world. [00:23:10] And then we remember, as I said, what Hannah said in verse four, verse six. [00:23:16] The bows of the mighty are broken. The feeble bind on strength. [00:23:22] The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol like Dagon, and he also raises up. [00:23:33] We don't see much raising up other than panic and boils of tumors and things like that in this chapter. But we will see soon the way that the Lord raises up his people, his king. [00:23:46] We see in this chapter that God is not a pet, a tame one that we can simply use as we see fit. [00:23:56] He's certainly not one that we conquer and rule over. [00:24:02] He is powerful and he is sovereign. Now, you, I think many of you will hopefully agree with this truth pretty readily, especially after being reminded of this story. But I think it's important that we ask ourselves, do we live by this truth? [00:24:19] Do we live by the truth that God is glorious and powerful? Overall, you might think about our worship. [00:24:31] In our worship, first of all, do we worship him? [00:24:35] Many people do nothing. Many people think of God as simply, like I said, a pet, a tool, or something to be ignored. This is not a God to be ignored or to ignore. [00:24:50] This is a God to worship, to give our lives and our best to when we consider first coming to worship and how we worship, do we give him our best? [00:25:03] Do we come before him in reverence and awe? Or do we come distracted and not really thinking about him? [00:25:12] What about thinking about our limits? [00:25:15] When we come to the limits of our strength? When we come to the limits of our power, do we trust in the power of God to save us? Or do we fall back on our own strength, our own will, our own ideas, when we are losing hope, when we're feeling like there's nothing else good that could possibly happen in this situation or that situation, or perhaps in our whole lives? [00:25:39] Do we look to him who is all powerful and all glorious? Or do we give up? [00:25:48] I'm asking you to be honest with your own heart and ask honestly, do I agree? Do I believe that God is all glorious? That God is powerful overall? [00:26:02] Am I living by that truth in bringing him my worship and giving him my best and trusting him in various parts of my life? [00:26:13] Or do I think I'm stronger than God either because of his weakness or my great strength, or both? Are there parts of my life where God is irrelevant or weak or unimportant, or I see him that way, or I ignore him, or just leave him alone or don't think about him? [00:26:35] Are there aspects of our lives where we assume God is on our side, like the Israelites did, simply because we think he owes us somehow? [00:26:45] Maybe because we grew up in a certain family or will go to a certain church, or that we've done a certain number of things, a good thing or a number of good things, or that we're smart or that we're pretty or that we have done various, accomplished various things in our lives. And then we just say, well, of course God will do these things for me. I'm a good person. [00:27:10] Is God our pet? [00:27:13] Is God our tool? [00:27:16] Do you think that you own him somehow? [00:27:21] When we think about the power and the glory of God and the ways that we don't live by this truth in our lives, we all, of course, have some repenting to do, places where we need to stop ignoring him or using him like our personal tool or pet, and instead learn to trust him as our glorious kingdom, as one who rules over all things in heaven and on earth. [00:27:53] The good news for us is that he, the Lord, is still on this victory march, and even in a greater way. [00:28:02] The Lord is currently today and in the coming days, on a victory march in which he is not spreading, which he is spreading the news and the power of his salvation. [00:28:22] Now the Lord will come again to judge the heavens and the earth. [00:28:28] We know this. What is pictured here in the Lord's judgment on the cities among the Philistines is just a tiny, tiny taste of what will happen when the king comes to judge all. [00:28:47] Revelation 1911 says this. [00:28:50] Then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness he judges and makes war. [00:29:04] His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. [00:29:15] He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood. And the name by which he is called is the word of God. [00:29:24] And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written. King of kings, Lord of lords. [00:29:52] This is the triumphal work of God in Christ. [00:29:57] Powerful, strong, victorious, conquering nothing, standing in his way. [00:30:07] This is a picture of the judgment that is coming of the judge, I should say who is coming? The king of kings and the Lord of lords, who will put down all unrighteousness, destroy all who remain in their sin, all who rebel against him. [00:30:28] This is the coming judgment that is promised when the Lord Jesus returns. And we don't know when it's coming. And the scriptures call us to be ready. [00:30:37] The scriptures also tell us that the triumphal work of God in Christ is not purely a future event. [00:30:47] It's already begun on the cross. [00:30:51] The final judgment has not yet come, but it has already begun. And Christ is ruling even now in his power and glory in the midst of his enemies. [00:31:04] Listen, for example, to Colossians 213 15. [00:31:10] Writing to the Colossians, Paul writes, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [00:31:31] And then here, verse 15. [00:31:34] In this work on the cross, he past tense disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. [00:31:48] In Christ, God triumphs over the rulers and authorities. He disarms them. Hebrews talks about Satan himself being defanged, in a way, the power which he yielded through the fear of death. The Lord Jesus takes away by dying himself the death of death. In the death of Christ, the Lord defeats death by dying himself, and he triumphs and disarms the rulers and authorities and puts them to open shame. [00:32:30] And then in two corinthians, the Holy Spirit encourages us and reminds us that we are part of this victory, that we are a part of this victory march. [00:32:42] In two Corinthians 214, Paul's talking about his ministry and the ministry of the others who have been sent out by Christ to spread the gospel. And he says, this thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession. [00:33:01] You sort of get this visual image of the apostles and the prophets and all the body of Christ marching in this not to war, but having won the war. This is the coming home. [00:33:21] This is the march home in which those, the enemies of the Lord, have been defeated. [00:33:29] Have you seen pictures of this? When human armies win, they come into the city, people riding on tanks and confetti falling out of windows and balloons going up and soldiers throwing out candy. It's this big celebration because the war has been wonde, that one war, that disarming, began on the cross, and because the triumphal procession has already begun. That's why Paul says, thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of his knowledge everywhere. [00:34:16] And then memorably, strikingly, he says, we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved. And among those who are perishing to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance of life to life. [00:34:36] Paul, then, thinking about himself as part of this great triumphal procession and being used in the power of God to bring death to some and life to others, decides to say this. [00:34:50] Who is sufficient for these things? [00:34:57] How could I, as a sinner, how could you, as a sinner, belong to this great triumphal procession, be called the fragrance of God and be used even on this victory march, in this victory march? [00:35:16] Only because not only has, not only because of the cross of Christ, because we have already died in Christ, as we read in romans six, and we are now alive in him, having died with him on the cross, having risen with him in his own resurrection in the cross of Christ. We are, as Paul says, in another place, more than conquerors. [00:35:45] We can add to this that we are also ambassadors for the Lord, walkers on his path, citizens of his kingdom, as we head in this victory march home. [00:35:59] Now, the world doesn't always see it that way, and intentionally, God does not always allow it to look like a glorious triumphal march. [00:36:09] We read earlier in romans that there's suffering. [00:36:14] You feel like, well, how can I be suffering if I've already won? How can I be under attack if the victory has already been decided? [00:36:24] Well, the victory has been decided, but we're still on our way. And the great consummation and the finishing of all these things has not yet happened. But it will happen, and we're almost there. We just have to keep walking, walking in the Lord, walking in his strength, walking, not thinking of God as our pet or our tool or someone that we could ignore, but praising him, worshiping him, living in him, striving in him, finding our safety in him, our hope in him, and telling that to other people as we walk along the way. [00:37:07] Given the almighty power of God, manifest in his judgment and in his salvation, we must never relegate God to a charm in our life, a superstition, a tool. [00:37:23] Instead, we must make him our chief end, the one whom we are all about in every area of life, giving the glory to goddess in our eating, in our drinking, in everything that we do, praising him as we walk along in this victory parade, knowing that judgment for us has come and been finalized in Christ, him taking the judgment that we deserve on himself and giving to us the righteousness of God freely, as a gift. [00:38:03] We march in this pray not as victors, because of our own strength, our own manliness, our own power, but because of the power and the strength and the glory of God. [00:38:18] We walk in his strength, not ours. We fight in his strength, not ours. We live in his glory, not ours. [00:38:29] Do not parade God around, but praise him with reverence and awe. And if you do in your life, you will find that peace will overrule panic. [00:38:46] You will find that life will overrule death. Death. [00:38:52] And you will not yourself fall down to death, being decapitated and having your hands broken and made shamed visible to all like dagon. [00:39:07] But when you trust in Christ, you will find that you will rise in his power and his strength on that great judgment day, not to death and suffering, but to resurrection, glory forever. [00:39:26] And so let this be our prayer from Isaiah 55 six. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. [00:39:49] Let's pray to our glorious king, our heavenly Father. We pray to you in the name of the Son who rules and reigns over heaven and earth as the lamb who was slain. [00:40:05] Lord, you have called us to suffer for a little while for the name of Christ, that we might be tested and proven, that your workmanship might be made known, that the work and the message of the gospel would be clear and all and people from all over the world would come to believe. [00:40:28] We thank you that your power is not relegated to a simple place or a single time. [00:40:35] But you are sovereign over all things, all places, all times, heaven and earth. For you are the great creator who made all things, the great spirit who gives life and breath to all people. You are the one who kills. You are the one who brings alive. You are the one who is the great king above all kings, lord, above all lords, God above all gods. [00:41:03] And so we desire to die, to sin and to live for you. [00:41:11] We desire to present our members not as instruments for sin, but as instruments of righteousness. [00:41:19] We desire, O Lord, not to pretend that we can hold you like a pet or ignore you as though you don't matter. [00:41:29] But, Lord, let us learn to worship you and glorify you and depend on you for everything in our lives. [00:41:37] And we thank you, our great king and God, for allowing us to do so through the gracious promise of Jesus Christ. [00:41:46] Thank you for saving us while we were still weak and ungodly, while we were still stuck and dead in our sin and misery. [00:41:56] Thank you for rescuing us out of the dominion of darkness and bringing us into the kingdom of your beloved son. [00:42:05] We ask, Lord, that you would help us to live well as citizens in that kingdom and that we would be people, not panicking, but people who have peace because of the one who rules for us, over us and in those areas of our lives, Lord, where we are not submitting to you, we ask that you would help us, that you would break our hearts for the things which break your heart. That you would help us to hate the unrighteousness in our lives and the ways in which we walk in darkness. And help us to be zealous about the things which bring you glory, which redound even to our own glory. And then back to you, Lord, we ask that you would bless us, for you are a God who pardons abundantly and has compassion on all who turn to you. [00:43:05] Our cry goes up now to heaven, not in a vague or general way, not to this God or that God, but to you and our king, who reigns forever and is our priest, interceding for us that our prayers might be heard and that we might have communion with you. Glorify us in Christ, o Lord, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.