Ordering Chaos – Pt 6

People would take their Bibles
and turn once again to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. We pick up already in the midst
of a study that we have been considering for several weeks.
That of Christ essentially restoring. Restoring and responding to the
chaos that he stepped into. The chaos of the heathen world
that had imbibed so much of what the world had to offer with regards
to their attempts to reach up and reach out to God. The Samaritans
had imported all kinds of different ideas in their attempt to syncretize
both the Jewish religion and the other heathen religions.
And Jesus steps right into that chaos. And we find that in microcosm
here in John chapter four with Jesus dealing with the woman
at the well. We see that he found not only
social chaos, sexism, racism, spiritual chaos where there was
no balance, there was no understanding of spiritual needs. I thought
of that this past week as I heard a speaker on a commercial, an avowed homosexual talking
to people about health concerns. And I thought how foolish that
is, that even if we gave our heart and lives to his advice
regarding health, what does it matter if a man gains the whole
world? Jesus addressed the need the
understanding of spiritual needs, even over above the physical
needs, Jesus addressed the element of sin, that in this woman’s
life there was no moral standard, another mark of the heathen world
into which he stepped. And then finally, Jesus addresses
the worship chaos, this syncretism that had bred an entirely new
religion, to where not even they understood what they were doing. Jesus steps into all of it, all
of this chaos, and he does so for the purpose of reasserting
divine standards. If you would, let’s pick up in
verse five once again. So he came to a city of Samaria
called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave his
son, Joseph. and Jacob’s well was there. So
Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by
the well. It was about the sixth hour.
There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to
her, give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into
the city to buy food. Therefore, the Samaritan woman
said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink,
since I am a Samaritan woman? where Jews have no dealings with
Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her,
if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give
me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you
living water. She said to him, sir, you have
nothing to draw with and the well is deep, where then do you
get that living water? You are not greater than our
father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself
and his sons and his cattle?” Jesus answered and said to him,
everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever
drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst,
but the water that I will give him will become in him a well
of water springing up to eternal life. The woman said to him,
Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come
all the way here to draw.” He said to her, go call your husband
and come here. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have correctly
said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and
the one whom you now have is not your husband. This you have
said truly. The woman said to him, Sir, I
perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is a place
where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe
me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem
will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for
salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now
is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and truth. For such people the Father seeks
to be his worshippers. God is spirit and those who worship
him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him,
I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When
that one comes, he will declare all things to us. Jesus said
to her, I who speak to you am he. At this point, his disciples
came and they were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman,
yet no one said, what do you seek or why do you speak with
her? So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and
said to the men, come see a man who told me all the things that
I have done. This is not the Christ, is it?
They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile,
the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said
to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the
disciples were saying to one another, no one brought him anything
to eat, did he? Jesus said to them, my food is
to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet
four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you,
lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are white
for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving
wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal so that he who
sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case, the saying
is true. One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap for
that which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have
entered into their labor. From that city, Many of the Samaritans
believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified. He told me all the things that
I have done. So when the Samaritans came to
Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them. And he stayed
there two days. Many more believed because of
his word. And they were saying to the woman,
it is no longer because of what you said that we believe. For
we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed
the Savior of the world.” Jesus Christ has done it. He came into the world to reassert divine standards. And He stepped into a world that
was in chaos, especially the heathen world. represented here
by the Samaritans. And he has reasserted divine
standards. And we see it in essentially
a response to the gospel. What I’ve suggested this morning
is the Samaritans’ threefold reaction to Jesus Christ. The
Samaritans’ threefold reaction to Jesus Christ, first of all,
the response of saving faith. Now I’m already on record as
suggesting to you that I don’t believe yet, or at least up to
this point, the woman is saved. I recounted this several weeks
ago. Verse nine doesn’t indicate that
she was saved at that point. Verses 11 and 12, there’s no
definitive spiritual sensitivity in those verses. In verse 15,
she does ask for spiritual water, but her understanding of that
water is still of a literal kind of water. Many people saw a kind
of a heart turning in verses 19 and 20 when Jesus addresses
her personal life, but I don’t particularly see it even there.
In his final direct exchange with her, he essentially tells
her that he is the Messiah, And remember I said in one of the
greatest cliffhangers of all the Bible, Jesus’ disciples return
at that very moment. Just when Jesus is ready to close
with this woman. Perhaps just when he is ready
to ask her to place her faith in him. That’s of God’s doing
and God’s design. God knows what he’s doing. We
are left, I believe, throughout this entire narrative, not ever
really knowing whether the Samaritan woman comes to faith in Christ.
And I say that because of these very words in verse 39. Verse 39 says, from that city,
many of the Samaritans believed in him. That’s the first time
that word has been used. Faith, belief. It’s mentioned
here for the first time and it doesn’t specifically say that
the Samaritan woman is among them. Now we would certainly
hope that she is. Many believe that she is. I don’t
see any reason to doubt that. But there’s nothing definitive
to point out that truth. Go back to verse 39. It just
says that from that city many of the Samaritans believed in
him. We don’t know how great the harvest was, but the response
is striking. Compared to the response of the
Jews, and even to a degree some of the apostles, they were eager
to place their faith in Christ. And with a single testimony of
one woman, and even her testimony is one of hesitation and even
doubt, this is not the Christ, is it? And yet, based on that one simple
testimony, these countrymen of this woman placed their faith
in Christ. They believed in Him. They believed
that the Messiah had arisen and arrived. They begin to question,
some have many, pardon me, many have questioned the nature of
this faith. And some people put this faith
over against the faith that is again mentioned in verse 42 and
suggest that there was a difference. Is there a difference between
this faith and the faith mentioned in verse 42? In verse 42 it says,
it’s no longer because of what you said that we believe. We’ve
heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the savior
of the world. Was this latter faith in verse 42 more informed
faith? Was it more legitimate? Some
people said that it was. Some commentators said that this
faith that we read about in verse 39 is just kind of an initial
faith, a curiosity, an interest, a general belief that something
was happening, though they didn’t know why. One pastor said it
this way. a definite but not a lasting
faith, a movement of faith brought about by the special words or
deeds of Jesus. And so it was this faith that
was moving in the direction of Christ but hedging its bets just
in case Jesus proved not to be legitimate. Another one said
it this way, their faith was not fully formed. The woman might
introduce them to Jesus but faith is not faith as long as it rests
upon the testimony of another. Well, there are scores of people
who have come to faith in Jesus Christ because of the testimony
of another. And I take this to be kind of
a rabbit trail that is impossible to solve. It says that they came
to faith. It says that they believed in
him. The degree of testimony, I admit, is scant. One faithful commentator said,
the exact nature of the belief, we have no materials for forming
an opinion. You can’t say that the faith
that’s mentioned in verse 39 is not as legitimate as the faith
that is mentioned in verse 42 or that the faith in verse 42
is real and legitimate and the faith in verse 39 is not. You
just, there’s not enough data to go on. It’s fascinating that for a people that the Lord
Jesus Christ, on another occasion, steered the apostles away from,
it’s amazing that one of the great movements of faith is by
this heathen people. Jesus Christ, in Matthew chapter
10, verse 5, when he was sending them out, sent them out and he
instructed them, do not go into the way of the Gentiles, do not
enter any city of the Samaritans. Now Jesus had his own purpose
for that. This is not an inconsistency
here that Jesus did one thing and told his disciples to do
another. The very reason for his prohibition in sending them
to preach the gospel was that they were still finding their
legs and he wanted them first to go into the Jews and among
the Jews and to preach the gospel. In fact, later on, there would
be a great harvest of the people of Samaria. Turn if you would
to Acts chapter eight. It’s a beautiful passage. As
we think about a heathen people, As we think of the gospel beginning
to grow and spread and flourish there in the book of Acts, it
comes right back through this territory where Jesus Christ
had this initial response to the gospel. Pick it up, if you
would, in Acts chapter 4, 8, pardon me, chapter 8, verse 4. Therefore, those who had been
scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to
the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. There
was no longer a prohibition. There was no longer an admonition
to stay away from the heathens. The crowds with one accord were
giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard
and saw the signs which he was performing. For in the case of
many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them
shouting with a loud voice, and many who had been paralyzed and
lame were healed, so that there was much rejoicing in that city.
Now there was a man named Simon who formerly was practicing magic
in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to
be someone great. And they all from smallest to
greatest were giving attention to him saying, this man is what
is called the great power of God. They were giving him attention
because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic
arts. But when they believed Philip,
preaching the good news about the kingdom of God, and the name
of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.
Even Simon himself believed. And after being baptized, he
continued on with Philip as he observed signs and great miracles
taking place, and he was constantly amazed. Now when the apostles
in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God,
they sent them Peter and John. who came down and prayed for
them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For he had not
yet fallen on any of them, but simply had been baptized in the
name of the Lord Jesus. An amazing movement of God. This
is not a people that Jesus considered to be unsavable. And here we see the first movements
of faith, the response of saving faith. Back if you would to John
and back to verse 39 of chapter 4. Look at the cause of their
faith. Verse 39, from that city many
of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the
woman who testified, he told me all the things that I have
done. Now, it’s possible. I’ve maintained that throughout.
It’s possible that the woman is truly saved, and here becomes
one of the church’s great evangelists in proclaiming Christ. But it’s
noteworthy here that the first converts to Christianity here
in this heathen region, they didn’t wait around for miracles
and signs. They didn’t demand any of that,
even like is recorded in Acts 8. but simply based on this simple
report of this woman. Later on, you will see in verses
41 and 42, that a great many more come to faith because of
what Christ himself said. But here, I want you to pause
and note that the first great movement of faith from this heathen
world was based on the simple report of an individual, a testimony,
a gospel opportunity. It does matter what we say. It
does matter that we take opportunity to preach and proclaim Christ.
It does matter that we just say what God has done in our life,
that we just articulate the clear testimony that we have. It doesn’t
have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be something
that is, you know, well-crafted. J.C. Ryle said here, these words
show the importance of merely human testimony to Christ’s gospel. The word of one weak woman was
used to bring about belief of many souls. There was nothing
remarkable in the woman’s word. It contained no elaborate reasoning,
no striking eloquence, yet God was pleased to use it. Now, we
don’t even know that, really. She could have been a very polished
public speaker. She could have thought through,
you know, a bullet-pointed outline so that when she arrived, she
had this, this, and this to say to her countrymen. But even the
Apostle Paul didn’t put a lot of stock in that, right? When I came to you, brethren,
1 Corinthians 2, I did not come with superiority of speech or
wisdom or proclaiming to you the testimony of God. Paul said,
look, I didn’t put my stock there. It’s important that we take the
opportunities that we have to proclaim Christ. I’m on record
already as saying that I don’t know when or if this woman ever
got saved, but the amazing thing here and it’s still true today,
is that someone with only a basic knowledge of the gospel can lead
someone else to Christ. I would believe even that someone
who doesn’t even really know Christ yet can pass along information
that ends up pointing someone else to Christ, that one can
be saved, while the one that directed them there is not. But for us, how much more for
us who know Christ and know the need of testimony, know the need
that’s out there among the lost and the desperate need that they
have of hope to take every opportunity to share the hope of Christ that
is within us. If we know it, how much more
incumbent upon us is it to preach and proclaim Christ? I said that this, this is the
response, the threefold reaction to Jesus Christ, the response
of the gospel. And first, the first movement,
we see the response of saving faith, but look, secondly, at
the response that is hunger for spiritual truth. The second response
that they had, in addition to their faith, was the response
of hunger for spiritual truth. Look at verse 40. So when the
Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with
them, and He stayed there two days. The Samaritans, remember, it
was almost like they were beating a path to Jesus. I get the sense
that the woman went in, and she told everyone that she saw, and
the next thing you knew, there was this big uprising, and out
the city they ran. And even if they didn’t run the
whole way, they hurried themselves to Christ. If they truly believed
that He was the Messiah, and it says that they did, they would
have hurried. And it says when they came to
Jesus, they kept asking. They were literally begging Him
to stay. They kept on asking Him to stay. And there were others who did
likewise, recorded in Scripture. Others, and these were even more
plentiful, others who rejected Christ outright. In Matthew chapter
13, it records that when Christ had finished the parables, he
departed from there. He came to his own hometown,
teaching in their synagogue, so that they were astonished.
They were so surprised, and yet within Just a few verses. They took offense at him, but
Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor, except
in his own hometown, in his own household. And he did not do
many miracles there because of their unbelief. That was the
general testimony. That was the testimony of Jerusalem.
In John chapter five, which verses we’ll be considering in the next
few weeks, It’s recorded in verse 18, for this reason therefore
the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Jesus was used
to rejection. Jesus was used to people asking
people, asking him to leave their town. But here are the heathens who had this really warped view
of God and this really warped view of worship. A warped view
of sin. He pleaded with him to stay. And they pleaded with him to
stay, I believe, not just out of hospitality. There are many,
many in scripture, I’ve pointed out before that Lydia, one of
the The hallmarks of the Philippian church was that it was a loving
church, a hospitable church, a church that took care of the
needs of others. That became, really, their great
testimony down through the ages. And it started with a woman named
Lydia, who saw the apostle Paul, and as soon as she heard the
gospel, she implored him to stay. The Philippian jailer, likewise,
as soon as he was converted, brought Paul into his own home,
cleaned his wounds, took care of him, and by the way, his whole
family got saved. Was it hospitality? Absolutely,
it’s hospitality. They wanted to take care of Christ.
They wanted to, but you know what I believe was even more?
They longed for spiritual truth. They wanted to be near Christ.
They longed for the word. They couldn’t wait to hear more
of what Christ had to say. The response of faith is one
thing, but the response to the truth is always spiritual hunger. First Peter 2.1, like newborn
babes long for the pure milk of the word. What a beautiful
image as we’ve seen in previous weeks. It was hospitality, but
it wasn’t hospitality alone. It was spiritual hunger. They
wanted to be more a part of this divine conversation. And if you
can even fathom it for a moment, what those two days must have
been like in Samaria. As these new converts sat perhaps
even literally at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, interacting
with Him, asking Him questions, hearing Him teach, we have nothing. not even a single syllable on
what he taught or what he said. None of the other gospel writers
record it. What must the Lord have discussed
with these infant disciples? Well, it’s certainly beyond just
possible, especially if the woman who was at the well was present
for some of these conversations, that the very things that he
discussed in verses 7 through 26 certainly would have come
up. Living water, the need for spiritual
sustenance, sin, which Jesus Christ had addressed of the woman,
the mode and manner of worship, even who is worshiped, and then
that last great interaction that was never really completed. The
fact that he had just told the woman that he was the Messiah,
only to be interrupted by his own apostles. All of those things
are very likely to have been subjects. Jesus Christ very likely
would have dealt with the basics of faith, salvation by faith
and not by works, which they were so used to. Jesus would
have dealt with sin and salvation. He would have presented himself
as the Savior. He would have corrected their
opinion on monotheism, that they had this syncretistic view where
everything and everyone was God. Jesus, no doubt, would have introduced
them to the fullness of the Old Testament, which they had long
since set aside. Remember, they’ve condensed the
whole thing down to the Pentateuch, and now Jesus would have likely
reintroduced them to the history, the Psalms, the wisdom literature,
the prophets, minor and major, all of it. Jesus would have talked
to them about the impact of faith. That they were just a start in
Samaria. They were just a start in the
city of Sychar. They were just the beginning
of the gospel movement in the world. Jesus maybe likely dealt with
the glories of heaven. That yes, salvation is for the
here and now. And yes, we are free of our sin.
Yes, we are at peace with God. But those benefits last. into
eternity. And Jesus would have preached
the gospel, wouldn’t He? He would have continued to preach the
gospel. He would have continued for any who was in His hearing
to talk about sin and talk about the need of a Savior. Look at
verse 41. As we come to the third response,
I said there was three threefold reaction to Jesus Christ, not
only the response of saving faith and the response of hunger for
spiritual truth, but look here in verse 41 and 40, 41 and 42,
the response of growth and grace. As they responded, as they hungered
for the truth, they couldn’t help but grow in grace. Look
at verse 41, many more believed because of his words. There were some who didn’t travel
out to the well. Jesus came back and it isn’t
recorded that he did any miracles, no healings. Some felt that this suggestion,
as I mentioned in verse 41, is that Jesus himself had a greater
numerical response than the woman did, as if they’re in some kind
of competition. And they do so by placing emphasis
on the word many. Many more believe. The bottom
line is that it’s not a competition. Either way, Jesus gets them all,
right? God does the saving. Either way, God wins. Either
way, sinners are drawn to Christ. But beyond that, note this. There’s no real suggestion of
a greater harvest here in verse 41 than there is in verse 39.
We read there that many believed, and here in verse 41, many more.
However you quantify it, let’s pretend that there were 100 that
were saved in verse 39, and if 50 more were saved in verse 41,
it would not be inaccurate to say many believed, And many more
believed when Jesus preached. Some Samaritans believed merely
by the woman’s testimony. Others didn’t believe until they
heard Christ himself. But his word, the testimony of
the gospel was going forth by whatever means. Look at verse
42. Many more believed because of
his word, and they were saying to the woman, it is no longer
because of what you said that we believe. And this, as I mentioned,
is what led many commentators to suggest that this was a different
kind of faith. There certainly is truth to the
fact that our faith grows. Even the passage we read in Mark
9 today, the father of the boy, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Our faith grows. There isn’t
anything in this passage that can pinpoint the fact that one
faith was legit and one was not. These, in testimony, declare that when they heard
the Lord Jesus Christ, they knew they knew that He was no ordinary
man. And they had heard for themselves.
They had heard the woman’s testimony, and many had placed their faith
in Christ. But now their faith was strengthened. Their faith
was bolstered that He was the Savior, and not just any Savior. He was not just the Savior of
the Jews. He was the Savior of the whole world. That’s an interesting
turn because in the Old Testament, in Old Testament theology, Yahweh,
God, God the Father was always the Savior. And now the Savior
for the first time is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And it began to be applied to
Christ just as readily as to God the Father as it was to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was the Savior of the world.
And that lifted him into a completely different realm in people’s eyes,
where Jesus Christ was not just a prophet. Jesus Christ was not
just a good man, a helper, a sage. Jesus Christ was the savior of
the world. These Samaritans had heard him teach They immediately fell into a
deep faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and gave clear testimony that not only was he the Messiah,
he was the savior of the world. And there we have it, chaos ordered. I told you, that
Jesus Christ came to reassert divine standards. As I pointed
out, He came to rearrange social standards. He came to restore
spiritual standards. He came to reestablish moral
standards, reinstitute worship standards. There we have it. And you say, now wait a minute. A portion of a very small heathen
village got saved. How is that a reassertion of
divine standards? Therein lies the beauty of this
whole passage. To understand that the Lord Jesus
Christ stepped down into this microcosm of chaos called Samaria
in the heathen world, you have to begin to back away and ask
a bigger question How is social change accomplished? When I was in school, a professor
said to me, and I’ll never forget, it was a profound moment. He
said to me, if a dog comes to you and he’s wagging his tail,
what can you conclude? He’s a happy dog. That’s right. And if a dog comes to you and
he’s not wagging his tail, and you reach down and wag the dog’s
tail for him, have you made the dog a happy dog? Not in the least. And yet I see
Christians, by scores, give the majority of their life to reaching
down, wagging a dog’s tail, when the real means of transforming
society goes neglected. The real means of transforming
society is the gospel. And yet here’s how we usually
go about effecting social change. When you begin to ask the question,
and I’ve been pondering this for several weeks, how is social
change accomplished? How would Jesus have gone about
Changing the views of sexism and racism and the ideas of sin
and worship. How is social change affected?
What makes it happen? What things cause it to occur?
Legal action. That always works. Pass a law. Make a statute. Effective policy. Form a coalition. or depending on what political
society you’re in, issue an edict, a fiat if you will, or in our
country, an executive order. Those will accomplish social
change. There are also political means.
There is the means of maneuvering. and working things so that change
is effected even if it wasn’t justly done. There are such things
as voting blocks that people can put into effect in organizations. There are campaigns, entire campaigns
that develop in built upon some great oratory that effects change. There is the majority vote. where
once one opinion begins to sway another that sooner or later
you have essentially a groundswell, change occurs. There is the change
that is brought about by physical violence. There are coups, there
are wars, there is force, physical force that can be put into effect
to bring about social change. Of course, there is also principled
obedience. were Christians based on the
principles that they read in the scriptures. And as I’ve said
for the last three or four elections, it is clear evidence to me that
there aren’t enough Christians in our land. That’s why we’re
in the mess that we’re in. Talk about how is change accomplished? How do we bring about change? Well, there’s always protests,
and that’s what so many people are given to. Protests, pickets,
boycotts, petitions, that brings about change. And then there are all the sorted
means, coercion, manipulation, pressure, maneuvering, a hostile
takeover, power plays, finagling, deceit, trickery, social reform,
as well as grassroots efforts, ideological shifts. How do you bring about social
change? Just make people thirsty for something new. We just want
to try something new. Even if it’s not broken, let’s
just change for the sake of change. And the bottom line is, I don’t
want you to miss this. I don’t think the goal is or
ever was to create a pristine and comfortable Christian culture.
There have been entire movements that really believe that the
only way that Christ is ever gonna come back is for us to
clean up our mess down here. The aim is not to perfect society
in this world. The aim is not to make a cozy
Christian climate for us to live in. The goal is to preach the
gospel. The goal is to live a gospel
enhancing testimony that in itself is a sermon to all who see it,
so that we too can see lives changed and transformed, which
in turn will further impact the world in its witness for Christ. Our whole goal is not to create
a perfect society, but to give people a glimpse of what God’s
eternal kingdom is like as they see the lives of the people here
on earth. And Jesus did it. Jesus wasn’t,
he could have, he could have spoken the word and everyone
would have been transformed. The society would have been a
perfect society in an instant. Instead he preaches the gospel.
And one by one, lives are transformed, they’re changed. Can you imagine
what Sychar would have been like in the weeks and months and years
that followed? What a lovely little town it
would have become to live in. We need to preach the gospel.
That’s our country’s only hope. That’s our society’s only hope.
That’s individual’s only hope. If we change their outward behavior,
all we’re doing is wagging the dog’s tail. Let’s pray. Our merciful God, we humble ourselves
before you. And in our own chaotic society
and world, Perhaps we built up much hope in hearing that Jesus
Christ came to reassert divine standards and what hope there
was for us in that. Lord, you did. You came to preach
against racism and preach against sexism. You came to preach that
spiritual things are important and sin is real. that there is
one way of worshiping God. Father, all those things merely
point others to the Savior. They point others to eternal
life and to their need of such. Lord God, we thank You and praise
You for this little chapter, for Christ’s interaction with
this heathen woman, for the lessons that You granted to us in it,
Lord God, we thank you and we praise you. In Jesus’ name, amen.