Main Point

We are ambassadors of Christs and good ambassadors Represent their Sovereign, Speak for their Sovereign to those they are sent to, and Love those they are sent to.

Introduction

Good Morning. I hope you had a fantastic 4th of July, and enjoyed celebrating our country’s 250th birthday.

Birthdays are great - they help us remember to be grateful for what we have. To celebrate the good gifts God has given us.

Whether its friends or family or a country - milestones like this help us take stock.

One thing I’m grateful for is the gift that God has given us of being able to gather together here, to proclaim our faith openly and without fear.

And the freedom to open the Scriptures together, and attempt to understand them together, that we may live for Jesus.

We have brothers and sisters around the world who cannot do what we get to do today. This is a gift, and a privilege we should not take lightly.

We need to gather together - regularly. To cherish this gift, and take advantage of our freedom, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This morning we are going to cover a big topic, we are talking about the relationship between a Christian and the country they reside in. 

This is a topic that in theology has been debated for centuries, and various answers and opinions have been put forward.

And Christians who are desperately devoted to Jesus and who are clinging to the Scriptures for guidance come to different conclusions on this.

Now, I could easily talk about this topic for hours, but I think all of us want to get some hot dogs, and especially some watermelon, so I’m going to try to hone in and major in the majors.

But if you want to talk more, or go deeper, let’s do it. I know any of the pastors here would love to make time with individuals or with classes, to share and talk more about this.

Outline for Today

For this morning, let’s look at how we are going to tackle this topic.

First and foremost, I’ll tell you the goal and takeaway right up front - you and I have a job. 

2 Corinthians 5:20 tells us that job is to be Ambassadors of Christ. And a good ambassador Represents, Speaks, and Loves.

A good ambassador Represents, Speaks, and Loves.

Now, it would be easy for me to just speak with the authority of the pulpit and tell you this is true, this is your job - go get to work.

My first draft of this sermon a few weeks ago was just that - a sermon describing what an Ambassador is, and how they work.

And it was fun and I think it was good and sound.

But I wasn’t okay with it because I think this topic is too important to just focus on the practical application.

I am your Teaching Pastor. I don’t want to just tell you what to think, I want to teach you how to think and how to reason from the Scriptures.

We talked last week about abounding in love, and how in order to do that we need knowledge, and depth of insight, and discernment.

So this morning we are going to get that depth by looking at the Story of God. 

We are going to spend a significant amount of time walking through the Story of God as a framework to connect biblical truth and give us a foundation for how to be good Ambassadors of Christ.

I pray this context will deepen our understanding, and create in us a thirst to read the Scriptures more, to study and think about this more, and most importantly, give us depth of insight so we can discern in the moment what God’s will is, and truly be His Ambassadors.

So for this morning, let’s start by looking at The Problem of Division, then study The Depth of Story, and use those to help us better live out our role as Ambassadors of Christ. 

Pray with me.

The Problem of Division

The first step to solving any problem is acknowledging there is a problem. 

And we have a problem today in America. That problem is division.

You see, in our country today, the Enemy is at work. 

The Enemy is at work sowing division and dissension. 

The Enemy is at work to make us derisive and dismissive of each other.

The Enemy is at work to make us demonize and destroy one another.

The Enemy is using politics as a weapon to isolate and distract us.

And it's working. 

The animosity and loathing between Republicans and Democrats is heartbreaking.

I read an article from Lifeway years ago. In the article, about a quarter of parents would be unhappy if their child married someone from a different religion. 

But a third to a half would be unhappy if their child married someone from a different political party.(https://research.lifeway.com/2019/03/07/differing-politics-more-than-religion-raises-issues-for-potential-marriages/)

More people would be unhappy if their kids married someone from a different political party, than a different religion.

And it's only gotten worse.

The lack of civility and respect is soul crushing.

The dehumanizing and caustic rhetoric that is spewed by both sides is ungodly.

And worst of all, Churches are divided over this. Christians are divided over this. 

The Enemy of our Souls is using this tool to divide the Church of Jesus Christ today and that is not okay.

Satan is using politics to shatter the communion of saints and that is not okay.

It is okay to have tension as we try to discern how to navigate the appropriate relationship between our citizenship in heaven and our citizenship on earth.

It’s okay to have political opinions and deep convictions that we disagree over. It’s okay to be passionate about politics and care about the good of this country. That’s okay, that’s important.

We need to be able to disagree and debate and argue and pursue what we believe is right. And we need to be able to do that as individuals, as a congregation, and as a society.

But when we cannot love a brother or sister in Christ because of their political views or party, we have failed to be who we are called to be, and Satan has won.

We are told that Jesus’ heart is that His church, His people be unified  (John 17:20-23; Ephesians 4:3-6; 1 Corinthians 1:10).  

And so we know that our Enemy is out to undermine that - and so we have to strive 2 Corinthians 2:11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

And more than that, we must embrace the value, and the worth of all of humanity, because God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. (John 3:16)

If we cannot find respect for each other, if we cannot seek to live humble, peaceful lives with our brothers and sister, and with our fellow countrymen, then we are not living in accordance with the Scriptures (Romans 12:16-18; 1 Timothy 2:1-4; Titus 3:1-2).

This is why the Pastors, the Elders, and the Deacons all agreed that today would be a good opportunity for us to share what we believe is a biblically rooted, theologically solid, and Christ honoring approach to pushing back against Satan and his purposes and calling us as a congregation to not be outwitted by him.

To push back, and give the Enemy no space in this place. 

To declare that Emmanuel Church is an Embassy of God’s Kingdom, and here the Ambassadors of Christ gather to proclaim our allegiance to King Jesus, and to be equipped to love and serve America, the country He has sent us to.

We are passionate about helping us be good Ambassadors of Christ, and work out together all the complexities of what that means.

The Depth of Story

So let’s look at that complexity. Let’s find depth in the Story of God.

I love looking at the Scriptures through the lens of Story. It helps me take the whole of the biblical truth and make sense of it - to see how everything connects, and in turn how I need to live.

I’ve found it so helpful, especially with this topic And I hope that doing this together will be helpful for you too.

Let’s look at 5 parts of the Story: Creation, Sin, Jesus, Ambassadors, and Eternity

So let’s use these elements to trace the Story and see how it gives us insight to counter the Problem of Division.

Creation

Let’s start with the Creation. How did God originally design everything?

In the first chapter of the Bible we are told that In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth (Genesis 1:1) And then we are told that And so God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:27-28)

And so we are given the divine mandate; we are given the purpose of humanity.

We are made by God - we are intentional and purposeful beings, not the result of random chance or cosmic error, but rather the heart of the Good God who makes us in His image.

In the Ancient Near East, the image of a king or a deity was put in a place to represent the power, authority and rule of that king or deity.

We are told in Genesis that God takes this idea, and applies it to all of humanity.

The divine mandate to be fruitful and fill the earth, is a call to carry God's rule to the ends of the earth. 

For humans to rule over the fish and animals and birds is to express God’s character and care for His creation.

This is the concept of stewardship. A steward cares for that which belongs to another, and they do so in a manner that reflects the owner's values.

So, all of humanity rules this earth as God’s stewards. Wherever humans are, there the values and purposes of God are to be enacted.

Creation sets the foundation for the Story - and our understanding of what it means to be human.God created the universe and designed it so that He is the single, supreme sovereign, and all humanity is his stewards. 

That is God’s good intention and purpose.

Sin

But then we get to Sin, and in Genesis 3, everything falls apart.

Adam and Eve listen to the Serpent, and choose to do things their own way, instead of listening to God and doing things His way.

They are tempted, and they fail.

And so every element of humanity, of society, of human endeavor gets plunged into sin - into separation, and division, and brokenness.

Are there still good and beautiful things? 

Yes, we are still God’s good creation, and imagebearers of the Good God. 

But, is everything we do twisted and tainted? Ya. 

There is nothing that we touch that we do not mar by our sin.

It’s both. Can something be broken, and beautiful? Yes. 

One thing we learn through the Story of God is that we can dearly love and cherish something, but recognize that it is flawed and has issues.

Because that is how God feels about His creation. 

The rest of the Bible shows us God not willing to give up on us because He loves us. 

God works with us, in the midst of our sin and brokenness, to redeem and rescue us.

The rest of the Story is about God enacting His plan to get us back to how Creation originally was. But Sin has created divided loyalties in us.

You see sin separates - it separates us from God, it separates us from each other, and it separates us from the creation itself.

SELF

We become loyal to ourselves. We have an internal desire to do things the way we want to do them. To do what is right in our own eyes, and not have anyone else tell us what to do.

I think most teenagers experience this. I remember one time my mom saying to me, you need to care about the way you look, because the way you look reflects on us, your family.

I said, no it doesn’t. What I do reflects me, and only me. It has nothing to do with you.

I was expressing that heart of loyalty to myself. But, I was wrong, she was right.

FAMILY

We become loyal to our family. 

We still have part of the image of God in us, so we connect and build communities. This is good and beautiful.

The twisting comes when we use these communities to exclude others. To define who is in and who is out. Who I have to care for, and can I ignore.

INSTITUTIONS

And then we take the familial connection, and we expand it to the level of institutions and society. We create systems and structures, tribes and nations.

And again, there is nothing wrong with this.

We need systems and institutions to do the work that is bigger than any one individual, or any one family.

This was part of our original design, and it’s something we still need in the midst of our brokenness.

Romans 13 shows us that God uses institutions like the government to promote good, and punish evil.

But, because we are broken, what we make is broken, so governments don’t always promote good and punish evil. Institutions don’t always strive for justice and goodness.

We just have to look at the news for two minutes and see this all over the world.

Power and wealth become ends in themselves rather than tools to be used to do good. People don’t serve each other, but use the instruments of institutions to oppress and exploit each other.

And the clearest way that this manifests is when we rally ourselves around a common foe. Humanity is quick to find unity in hating the outsider.

As Christians, we are told that this is a deception of darkness.  Paul tells us that our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with the unseen power of evil ().

Satan wants us to turn our anger and vitriol on other humans, people Jesus died for, instead of the true foe.

SATAN

Because the true power that we should oppose is Satan.

Just as Eve listened to the serpent, so all of us at one time listen to the lies and deceits of the Enemy of Humanity.

We are told that the whole world is under the control of the Evil One (1 John 5:19). 

We are told that the Usurper holds us in bondgae through the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15). 

We are told that humanity is enslaved to sin and death and darkness  (Romans 6:17; Ephesians 2:1-3; Colossians 1:13; John 8:34).

Satan traps us, setting our hopes and hearts on politicians, governments, economics systems, or false religions.

Satan loves to trap us by putting our hope and trust in anything other than Jesus.

Which brings us to Jesus

Jesus

In His life, death, resurrection, and ascension Jesus sets about the rescue, redemption and restoration of all of God’s creation (2 Corinthians 5:19; Colossians 1:19-20; Ephesians 1:10). 

Jesus takes, sinful, broken humanity, and restores us to be who we were created to be, in order to rescue all of Creation (Romans 8:19-21).

We put our trust in Him, our hope in Him, our faith in Him . And we declare that faith by proclaiming that Jesus is Lord. 

Romans 10:9-10 says ⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

When we do, our chains are broken - we are no longer enslaved to sin or Satan. John tells us in 1 John 3:8 that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

We are transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13)

We are born again (John 3:3-8; 1 Peter 1:22-23), given new life in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Jesus takes our divided loyalties, and says, I am Lord, I am King, you can’t have anything that even comes close to me.

When we put Jesus in His proper place, everything else falls into its proper place. We love things in the manner we are meant to love them, because He puts them right.

SELF

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus reversed the rebellion in the Garden of Eden. Unlike Eve who decided my will be done, Jesus says to the Father, not my will, but yours be done (Matthew 26:39; Luke 22:42).

FAMILY

Jesus reverses the divisions we make based on family. 

Jesus tells us that our brothers and sisters are no longer just defined by descent and our blood relations, but rather they are defined by His blood shed for us, and by the adoption of the Father, and by us doing the Father’s will (Romans 8; John 1)

So all who belong to Him are our family. (Romans 8:15; Ephesians 1:5; Galatians 4:4-5)

INSTITUTIONS

When we proclaim Jesus as Lord, we are saying that Jesus is the rightful King of the whole Earth. 

We are proclaiming that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 19:16), , and that all of the nations of this Earth rightfully belong to Him, and one day will be His (Psalm 2; Philippians 2:10-11; Revelation 11:15).

We are saying we no longer belong to this world, or to these institutions. We belong to Jesus

We are given a new citizenship. This is what Paul is saying in Philippians 3:20 when he tells us our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

We see this when we set the Great Commission - Jesus’ mandate for the Church, next to the Divine Mandate in Genesis 1

. Matthew 28:18-20: ⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”. 

Where we go and make disciples, we represent and reproduce Jesus. 

We are doing what we were made to do - and so through us, God works to redeem, and care for, every aspect of Creation.

Jesus takes our Divided Loyalties and focuses all them on Himself.

All other loves, and loyalties matter - but only in light of and subject to Him.

Ambassadors

As so to live this out, we are Ambassadors of Christ. We’ll get here in a minute, I promise, but first, let’s see how the story ends.

Conclusion

The Book of Revelation gives us a vision of Jesus returning, and all the nations becoming His (Revelation 11:15; 19:11-16).

And He will fully establish His Kingdom to fill the entire Creation. 

Everything gets restored to the way God intended it in Creation (Revelation 21-22).

This is the eternal reality that Christians are waiting and longing for.

This is what the Holy Spirit, and the Church cry out for at the end of Revelation (Revelation 22:17-20).

We are looking forward to Jesus ruling over the whole world, as the only King of Creation, forever and ever, and humanity restored to being stewards of God’s Creations

Transition

Alright, we just covered most of the Bible, and all of human history. How are you doing, still with me?

I hope we understand God’s intention for the world, and us. 

That we recognize the brokenness and divisions that have arisen, and that Satan attempts to foster.

And that we understand the power of redemption and restoration brought by Christ, and we recognize the end goal of all things.

I hope you see how rich and deep the Story is and how it can give us insight in how to address the Problem of Division that our Enemy is bringing against us.

Now, we are going to talk about how we can love this country, and be utterly devoted to Jesus, heart, mind, body, and soul

We are going to look at our job - being Ambassadors of Christ

Ambassadors of Christ

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 says: All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Let’s take what we learned from the Story and see how we can live into this role. 

10 points if you remember from earlier when I said An Ambassador Represents, Speaks, and Loves.

Let’s start with Represents

An Ambassador Represents.

Warren Stephens is currently the ambassador of the United States to Great Britain. 

Everything he says, and everything he does represents the United States. When the British people see or hear him, they see or hear America.

If Warren insults the King, America insulted the King. If Warren honors and respects the King, then America honors and respects the King.

And being a good Ambassador means he will be diplomatic, he will be respectful, he will represent us well.

But if Warren  ever cares more about Britain than America, he’s failed at his job. 

He needs to care for them and seek what is best for Britain, but only to reflect America’s care for Britain.

If he ever gives his primary allegiance to Great Britain, he’s failed at his job. If his heart is more devoted to Britain than America, he’s failed at his job.

He represents the United States. He can be loyal to Britain, as long as the loyalty doesn’t conflict with his primary allegiance - the United States.

We represent the sovereignty of Jesus Christ who God has anointed King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

We are Ambassadors of Christ, of His Kingdom, and we have been sent to the United States.

We who were rescued into the Kingdom of Christ, are now sent back to the nations to represent our King.

We fail at our jobs if we put our loyalty to America above loyalty to Christ. We fail at our jobs if we equate loyalty to America as loyalty to Christ.

Our primary allegiance must whole-heartedly be to King Jesus, and no other. 

And anytime that loyalty becomes muddied, we have failed our job. 

When people see us, they need to see Jesus because An Ambassador Represents.

An Ambassador Speaks

Look at verse 20 - God makes his appeal through us, we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

Our words have to proclaim the Gospel, the Good News, about King Jesus, our Lord.

As such, our speech must be the speech of our King, not the speech of our society. When people hear us, they need to hear Jesus.

By all means, we are students of our society, and we will contextualize and translate the words of our King so that the society will understand the message, but our words must be the words of our Sovereign.

Our values must be the values of our Lord. And we must speak those values to those we are sent to, that they may be reconciled to God.

I call this our Prophetic Voice

In the Scriptures, the prophets called God’s people to stay loyal to the covenant God established with them.

Sometimes, the prophets commended leaders, or they commended the people, or they gave hope to a faithful remnant.

More often, they called out the kings, priests, and people telling them that they were out of step with God’s purposes.

This was an act of love. To be out of step with the Creator is to be out of step with everything that is good.

As Christians, if our primary allegiance is to Jesus - we cannot surrender our prophetic voice, because the society we are sent to as ambassadors needs the gospel in order to experience the goodness of God.

Sometimes that means that our words are going to sound like the words of the left, sometimes that means our words are going to sound like the words of the right. 

Sometimes that means our words are going to be something completely different from either.

Sometimes our words are going to praise our society. And sometimes they will push back and rebuke our society.

Often, the governments of Israel and Judah hated the prophets and the words of rebuke they heard. Jesus had the religious and political left and right opposed to Him.

Jesus and the prophets did not give into the tribalism of their day, and we cannot give into the tribalism of our day.

We cannot demonize and dismiss people from different parties. And we cannot just blindly give our loyalty a party.

We cannot get tangled up in the political divide. We are Ambassadors of Christ

And Christ is not a Republican or a Democrat. He doesn’t belong to ANY political party.

We can have deeply held political beliefs and opinions. We can share them, discuss them and debate them. We should.

We need each other to determine and discern what is best and pure and blameless.

But we must do this humbly, graciously, respectfully, and kindly. We must put the family of faith above the politics of this age.

We need to love each other. Because if we can’t love each other, we will fail at loving this country, and a good ambassador not only represents, not only speaks, a good ambassador loves.

An Ambassador Loves

A good ambassador only does their job well if they love those they are sent to.

If Warren Stephens, the US ambassador, hates Britain with a passion - he’s not going to represent the US well.

As an ambassador to America, I need to love this country. I need to be able to see the good in this country. I need to be able to praise it, to call out all of the good things about it.

If I don’t love America, I am going to have a hard time representing Jesus well, because Jesus loved America enough to die for Americans.

If you have a hatred and bitterness toward America in your heart, then this weekend I challenge you to prayerfully come before Jesus and ask Him to soften your heart, that you can see the good, and love this place, and thus represent Him better.

Try to get to a point where you can see this country the way that people who literally die trying to get here see it.

On the other hand, if you cannot see any difference between the Kingdom of God, and America, if you think America is perfect and can do no wrong, and dismiss or ridicule those who critique it as disloyal or foolish, I challenge you to prayerfully come before Jesus and ask Him to soften your heart, that you can lovingly speak to this country and call it to be reconciled to King Jesus.

Because this place is broken and does fall short of the glory of God.

I read an article from the EFCA, our denomination, last week.

50 years ago, In 1976, on the bicentennial of the U.S., then-EFCA President, Dr. Arnold T. Olson, gave the keynote address at the EFCA annual conference.

This was his final conference as EFCA President, so his words were taken as a serious challenge.

He based his message on Leviticus 25:10 which is inscribed on the Liberty Bell: “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof.” 

Dr. Olson challenged the audience with both the richness and the shortcomings of America’s past and gave an exhortation to make sure we ‘let freedom ring’ for ‘all the inhabitants’ of the land.

Drawing from several Old Testament passages, he shared the importance of providing true freedom for many in our country who were not treated with equality, e.g. slaves, for women and for Native Americans. His challenge to the EFCA was that we undertake this proclamation of liberty for all such groups, especially in two broad areas:  

The stewardship of property, such as our Earth and all we have.  

Human relationships with people of all colors and backgrounds.  

He noted that “The Church of Jesus Christ, according to Galatians 3:28, is classless, non-nationalistic, non-racist, non-sexist.”

He said this 50 years ago.

That is the prophetic voice. Celebrating the good, and challenging us to move forward toward the ideals of God, revealed to us by the Spirit in Christ and in the Scriptures.

That’s how we love this country well - trusting that the truth of God is what is best for people. Praising them when they line, and challenging them when they don’t. 

Conclusion

As I was preparing for this message, I remembered words from the Letter to Diogenes. A Christian apologist was writing in the 2nd or early 3rd century, and he wrote these words:Christians are not different from the rest of men in nationality, speech, or customs; they do not live in states of their own, nor do they use a special language, nor adopt a peculiar way of life…Whether fortune has given them a home in a Greek or foreign city, they follow local custom in the matter of dress, food, and way of life; yet the character of the culture they reveal is marvellous and, it must be admitted, unusual. They live, each in his native land—but as though they were not really at home there. They share in all duties like citizens and suffer all hardships like strangers. Every foreign land is for them a fatherland and every fatherland a foreign land…They dwell on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the laws that men make, but their lives are better than the laws.

I challenge you today to come to lunch and celebrate this country. This beautiful and broken country that God loves, and that needs Jesus. That God wants to work in and through, and that one day will go away while God’s kingdom endures.

Nations rise and fall - but that is no excuse not to praise God in the midst, to love those He has sent us to, and to promote the good of the land we are planted in.

This is an embassy of the Kingdom of Christ. We are citizens of heaven, awaiting our Savior (Phil 3:20), and the day all the nations of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)

Until that day, let’s be Ambassadors of Christ to America. Amen? Amen.

Pray with me.

Communion

Will the servers and musicians join me please.

As we come to Communion, to the Lord’s Table, we confess our devotion to the Risen King. We proclaim His death, until He returns, and we equip ourselves to embrace our role as His Ambassadors.

We believe this table is for everyone who confesses Jesus as Lord. Whether you do so right now, or did it 90 years ago, this is for you.

If that’s not you, we ask that you just pass along the tray as it comes by. 

If you are gluten free, please just raise your hand and someone from the Connection Team will come and serve you.

This is a moment of allegiance for us - of putting first things first.

We belong wholly to God and His Kingdom because of the work of Jesus - and out of that work, we love and serve and care for those He has given us, including this great nation.

And we do so, because on the night He was betrayed Matthew 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

Bread Passing

The body of Christ was broken for you - take and eat.

Matthew 26:27-28 ²⁷ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸ This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

The blood of Christ was shed for you, take and receive His forgiveness, and His commission to live for His Kingdom cause.

Benediction

And when we take communion we proclaim the love of God for us, and the love that we live to proclaim to others.

All for the glory of God, to bring all people under the Lordship of Christ Jesus, forevermore.

I pray you share that heart. And I invite you to come over to the gym and join us for some food and games and time together as we celebrate this country we have been sent to by our God.

As we go, take these words from Romans 11 with you, words of praise to our Supreme Sovereign:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

    How unsearchable his judgments,

    and his paths beyond tracing out!

“Who has known the mind of the Lord?

    Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God,

    that God should repay them?”

For from him and through him and for him are all things.

    To him be the glory forever! Amen.