review

Okay, another awesome passage of Scripture here in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. That's why we chose this section as one of the sections that we're going to go through here for sake of review. So, just chapter 3, and last week we reviewed back through verses 1-5, and this week we're going to pick up the review in verse 6 and maybe we'll get down through verse 11 I'm not sure so we'll see how that goes but for sake of just kinda getting the context of where we're at with this passage let's just start in verse 5 and then let's read down through verse 11 so I'm reading out of the New American Standard it says are we beginning to commend ourselves again Or do we need as some letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. In such confidence we have through Christ towards God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy or sufficiency, as the KJV reads, is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

For if the ministry of death and letters engraved on stones came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed, what had glory in this case has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory."

So, just a review of 1-5, we saw some pretty awesome positional truths coming out of that passage. Verse 2, the folks there in Corinth, they were an epistle, or they were a letter, the letter of Christ. Verse 4, our confidence is through Christ towards God. Our confidence does not come from ourselves, it does not originate from ourselves, but our confidence comes through Christ towards God. Verse 5, our adequacy or our sufficiency is not from ourselves. We cannot consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy or our sufficiency comes completely from the Lord.

We talked about that quite extensively last week. So picking up this week in verse 6, again, just an awesome thought here, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant. So the who there is referring to God. Again, we don't It doesn't communicate that we have made ourselves as adequate or sufficient servants of this new covenant, but God has made us adequate servants of this new covenant. And again, the rest that that can provide in the lives of believers, and the peace that that can provide, we don't have to try to crank up to make ourselves adequate, or to make ourselves sufficient ministers of this new covenant. Because God is the one who has made us able.

Just kind of following the same line of thought through verses 4 and through 5, and now here in opening in verse 6. Any thoughts there? That's a profound thought, that God is the one who has made us able ministers or servants of this new covenant. The letter they're talking about there, is that the letter? In verse 6? Yeah, in verse 6. That is the law or any law?

Yeah, we're going to get to that. Yeah, I think it's going to be the Mosaic Law. Yeah. And it's specifically there, I think it's talking about the Mosaic Law. But I think as we, if we get to it today, we'll also see that It's easy for us as believers to self-impose laws on ourselves. And that we fall under these self-imposed laws that are a bit different than the Mosaic Law. So I think specifically it's talking about the Mosaic Law, but I think it has a little bit of a broader picture that we can easily put ourselves under some self-imposed law.

Does that answer your question? So God has made us adequate. And it's in the Arist Act of Indicative and it's telling us that it was a one-time action that was in the past completed by the subject. And who's the subject? God is. So it's a one-time action in the past completed by the subject. God did this in the past. He has made us able ministers. He has made us able servants of this new covenant. It was a completed work that God did in the past for believers. And for the ministers or servants, diakonos, which is often times translated deacon. So God has made us adequate or sufficient servants of this new covenant. So then we have to establish what is this new covenant that's being talked about there. Any thoughts or questions here? Yeah, Bob. You know, Jim, I have for Abel qualified.

It seems to be a more robust translation. I'm not sure which is right, but adequate, able, sufficient all kind of seem a little weak. Qualified seems like a stronger translation. That's because the qualifications are not our own. That's right. That's a good thought. Everybody catch, you guys hear Bob's thought over here? That he uses the word qualified? Sure.

The question is, does one qualify themselves to be servants or ministers of this new covenant? Absolutely not. God is the one that qualifies us. The word able in verse 6 is the same word as sufficient in verse 5, so you can translate. Is it a sufficient word or qualified word? You can translate and respond. Just call it that. Maybe it's just in the English that able and sufficient seems a little weak and unqualified. This may be our own interpretation. Right. I'm able but weak. I don't know. That's a good thought. The word qualified definitely carries with it a different thought than just able or sufficient and unqualified.

I was going to say that I have written as a note in verse 5 that the sufficiency is out of God as opposed to just being of God. So that reinforces our identification. Six, that in fact it's not just from God, we're identified with Christ and because of that, that's where it comes from. Making us able, I mean, the ableness or the qualification comes from Him.

I mean, we're a non-issue. Right. From being in Him. Right, right. Because we're in Him, it comes out of Him, and because we're in Him, it's coming out of Him, and therefore we're qualified. Because we're in Him, it's out of Him. Reinforcement of that identification. Sure. Yeah. Good thoughts. Any other thoughts? Bob?

One of my tasks for this afternoon is to write board examinations for the endocrinology metabolism subspecialty for the American Board of Internal Medicine. The idea there is that when you pass the boards of a specialty, you're qualified. Think about being offered the qualification without ever having to pass a test other than FAFE. It's kind of interesting. I don't relish the time I have to work on these tests. Sure, sure.

Yeah, when it comes to qualification in our Earthly, realm and sphere, it's always something that we have to accomplish, that we have to do, in order to be qualified for whatever it might be. But here, we talk about that God has qualified us. It's not because of our own abilities, or our own efforts, or our own talents, or our own gifts, but simply because of Him, in His grace, just qualifying us because we're in Him. And it's part of the package, the complete positional package.

Again, unbelievable stuff that we're talking about here. Any other thoughts? Okay. Now, as I was going through this, I found where I had made a pretty big mistake. I don't know how we didn't catch this last time. Maybe we did catch this and I didn't note it. So again, let's see, when did we go through this?

August. So where the mistake is, is here. You'll see, if I do it like that, you'll see I put the same word for servants and ministers. I had the same word as I had for covenant. So I was reviewing this this past weekend and I said, boy, what happened there? So if you don't have your notes with you this morning, make a note in whatever you have to jot down on or just a mental note that this needs to be changed. So it's probably a help that we go through these in this way because we're going to put together a CD of all the Corinthian lessons and there's bound to be little mistakes like this that we're going to come across. So, what you want to put in the place right there is this word. diatheke instead of what was there previously.

So please just write that. Write that in. This is what it would be if you're interested in what it would look like if it was written in the Greek. So that's the word for covenant there. So make that change to your notes, please, so it will be accurate.

So we need to establish or remind ourselves, because we've already established it back in August when we went through these things before. So God has made us adequate or He has qualified us to be servants of this new covenant. So God has done this tremendous work in His grace to position us in such a way that we're qualified or adequate or able of this to be administered of this new covenant, what is this new covenant? That certainly needs to be answered.

So the word here, the idea here for covenant, it's a new binding agreement, and this new binding contract or this agreement, such as would be a marriage agreement or a marriage contract that happens, it's between Christ and believers. So this new arrangement, this new agreement or contract is between Christ and believers. And so this binds believers to the death and resurrection of Christ and is referred to as the believer's identification with Christ. So, God has qualified us, has made us adequate servants of this new agreement between Christ and believers. Kind of let that sink in for a moment. Christ has made us adequate servants or ministers of this agreement between Christ and believers.

That's an interesting thought there. When he says us, is Paul talking about the apostles, or is he talking about Christians? I think he's talking about all believers there, is what my thought would be. What are you all's thoughts? All believers? Hal, what do you think there? He's writing to the Corinthian believers, and he's including himself with them, and he's saying, us, all the believers.

So, just to make a distinction, this new covenant being mentioned here is not the new covenant written about in Jeremiah, in Ezekiel, that God made with Israel, and when we went through this before, we referred to chart on the covenants. I won't take the time to go back and look at that again. But just to make a distinction, the Bible talks about a couple of different new covenants. The new covenant here is not making reference to the new covenant made between God and Israel that's referred to back in the Old Testament, which is yet to be fulfilled.

Any thoughts? So, the idea here of ministers or servants of a new covenant means that Christians are now ministers of the life of Christ living within them. God has made believers able, qualified servants of the life of Christ being lived out in and through them, and the believer's responsibility, as always, is simply to walk by faith in this." So, that's a pretty big truth right there, that he's made us Abel qualified us as servants and ministers of the New Covenant. And this is agreement between Christ and believers of our identification. So he's qualified us to be servants of this identification, of this life truth, of this life union between Christ and believers. What are your thoughts about that? There's a lot there. There's a lot in this agreement, and we are now ministers of that. What are your thoughts? Does it make sense? Can you kind of get your arms around it a little bit?

Is he making some kind of a comparison there between the ministers of the law and the ministers of this new covenant? He compares and is going to contrast the The Old and the New. Let's just read through the whole of verse 6. He's made us adequate servants of the New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. So he's going to contrast the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. Doesn't he imply they're kind of going on what Jack does?

Because in the Jewish faith, only one group of people was qualified to teach. Whereas, you know, I think that's a... I mean, he's making that point that we're all ministers. That's right. It's not a specific elite group. Right, right. We're all there. Right. Yeah. That's part of the contrast. That's right. But I think that's a specific... Sure. He's purposely saying that. Yeah. And that would be a huge thing. That everybody now... is qualified or are able to be ministers or servants of this covenant, instead of just the old, you know, where it was the Levitical priests that were the able ministers of that.

I think sometimes we forget how indoctrinated they were with that culture. And some of these things, they seem like just sentences to us, I mean, even though they're important. But at the time, this was a pretty profound statement. In a lot of this. Last week we talked a lot about how we are the letter or the epistle and oftentimes the only thing that someone initially is going to hear is what they see from us. We talked a lot about that last week and how that affects all aspects of our lives.

So I think it carried that same thought, carried it down. Our sufficiency is only from God, and He has made us ministers of this new covenant, of this binding, partaking together, of this union together of Christ in us. And so as we're ministers of that identification, where we've been identified with Christ, we're ministers of that, in a sense, we're servants of that, we're ministers of that, we're walking by faith in that, Just allowing Christ to live his life in and through us.

I think that's kind of the idea there. But the contrast to Jim is that the old government never bound the person to God. Yeah. Right. This one is all about binding us. About our partaking together, our union together, our being joined together, binding us together with Christ. Yeah. Any other thoughts? Okay.

He says, just a little bit further in the verse, he says, in the beginning, just made us adequate as servants of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. So, this new one, this new covenant that we are able and sufficient ministers of is not of the letter because the letter kills. What is the letter referring to?

Well, it's referring to the Old Covenant made between God and Israel, or the Mosaic Law. I think that verse 7 refers to that. But if the ministry of death, which is being talked about by the Old Covenant in letters engraved on stones, So that's very clear. That's talking about the Mosaic Law there.

So it just gives us some comparison here. But this one, the New Covenant of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the source of the New Covenant. And one could say that the Holy Spirit is reproducing in believers' lives the life of Christ. We mentioned that last week. So Paul is telling the readers that their ministry is not in the old covenant or letter, but of the new covenant, the life of Christ lived and walked in the Spirit.

Any thoughts? Yeah, Bob? It reminds me of a conversation with an Orthodox Jew seated next to us on our way to Australia. This guy was returning to Sydney after a year at Yeshiva University in New York City, which is a very Orthodox Jewish university. He actually was living the 613 laws of the Jewish faith. Incredible. Wow. That was an interesting conversation. We talked for a couple of hours. So Bob said, how are you doing? This guy believed he was really fulfilling these 613 laws. That's incredible. That's incredible. Yeah.

So the neat thing about that conversation was the fact that I think he heard things about Christianity he'd never heard before. I think the view of the world of the Christian faith is very stilted. It's very unbiblical, if you think about it. And much of it reflects this letter-killing mindset. Just sharing with him some about what it means to be, you know. identified with Christ and his death and resurrection. Of course, he doubted the existence of Jesus Christ, which I thought, you know, there was no use to get into an intellectual and historical argument about that. But anyway, it was an interesting conversation. But it really reflects here on the letter kills. I'm thinking about this guy living this, believing he's actually living the 613th Jewish Law.

It's not only the Big Ten, if you will. Right, right, right. I've never come across anyone that would even... I wish you would have been there. They no longer have animal sacrifice. Yeah. That's it. They probably think, well, there's a time period that it doesn't. We want to do that. I don't remember that question. So, yeah, I can tag team them. Yeah. Next time. Yeah. You know, recently go back. The Spirit gives life, not a law, not laws, life. That's right, that's right. But that goes back to Hal's statement a minute ago, which I think was just fantastic. The law doesn't bind you to Christ, to God.

If you kept the law perfectly, it still wouldn't bind you. But see, Jack, the view of this gentleman was the fact that the human capability is to keep the law. I mean, there was not an issue about the inadequacy of man to keep the law. He was doing it, or at least felt that he was doing it. And I must admit, not in kind of a self-righteous way, although if you boil it down, look at the residue, it has to be self-righteous. I mean, the issue is that this was not, in my opinion, an expression of arrogance.

It was just one of confidence in his faith that the law could be kept. But I mean the idea that a believer is indwelled by a new person and new creations, you know, enlivened by the Spirit was a concept he'd never heard of. And of course we reflected on the cross a lot in terms of its value, but of course if you believe Jesus Christ is a figment of our imagination, that conversation didn't get too far. So he, in essence, was just ignoring the New Testament.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the issue is, this is a serious Jew where this passage would have had a lot of relevance. Right. This isn't just a Jew who takes the holidays. Right. Which is most of the Jewish nation, I think. Right. Right. This was a guy who was, quote, serious about his thing. Bob, in regards to your conversation, what do you have to say about the sacrifices? The rats had to make the sins of the people and stuff like that. So that's something they still do. I mean, in the sense of animal sacrifices and all that stuff, that's part of the law, isn't it? Yes, it is. But I don't recall us discussing that. I'm sorry. Yeah. I wish you would.

Gene had a great point and the end of that verse says that the Spirit gives life. And I think we'll talk about that a little bit more when we come to verse 17. Maybe if we get there next week, I don't know. We'll see. Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. And there's freedom, there's life. And that's a tremendous, tremendous thought.

Again, verse 9, we'll get to it in a minute. One brings forth the ministry of condemnation. and one brings forth the ministry of life, which super abounds in glory. We'll get to that as we keep going down through these verses. So, verse 8, it says, How will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?

So, Paul contrasts the characteristics and glory between the old in the New, and it's interesting in verses 7 down through verse 11, we find that the word glory is used 10 times in just those few verses. So clearly that's, you know, God is wanting to communicate that one super bounce, the glory of the New, super bounce, the glory of the Old. Not that the Old wasn't glorious. The old was glorious, but he's trying to show the magnitude of the new, and how much better it is than that of the old. So let's just quickly go down through these things here.

The old covenant, it was old, it was of the letter, it brings forth death, it's engraved on stones. It did come with glory, it was glorious. It caused people not to be able to look at the face of Moses, It was the Ministry of Condemnation. It has no glory in light of the New Covenant, and it fades away. Just basic observations of the old. Fading away is not the glory itself, it's the reflection of the glory on the face of Moses and the people, right?

I mean, it's just the reflection of glory. Because the glory, when we behold in a mirror, That's actually the identification, and it is the glory. It's not just a reflection of the glory. You know what I'm saying? It's not just the reflection of the glory on Moses' face. I mean, Moses didn't have the glory. Right, right. And it was fading away. That's why he hid his face when he went out to see the people, because, yeah, that's right. It's a reflection of the glory. That's right.

Now, the thing there, though, is I think with the old and the new, we're talking about two different glories. The glory of the old is one, and the glory of the new is a different glory. It's still the glory of God, but it's the glory of God through the old covenant, and the glory of God through this new covenant. And the glory of God through this new covenant is one that will not fade away, that superabounds the glory of the old, and is what is being talked about, I think, and we'll get to it. We all, with unveiled face, behold, as an emir, the glory of the Lord. I think what's being talked about there is the glory of the new covenant, not the old covenant.

Does that make sense? Does that answer your question? No. No. Okay. Because I think I'm saying the same thing. The glory of the old was only the reflection of glory. It wasn't the glory. I mean, do you understand what I'm saying? Moses just had the glory that was on his face, but Moses didn't have the glory.

That's right. That's right. Right, right. We have the glory. That's right. Because our position was identified with Christ, who is the glory. And we are part of the glory. Right, that makes sense. That's the difference. Yeah, I tried that. Maybe the key word is manifested. that the glory was manifested within Moses, the glory is manifested within us, and it radiates out through us, as opposed to be reflected.

Yeah, it's just a reflection, and so that's why it faded with Moses, because he didn't really have the glory. No, but I think we're selling that glory short if we think it's just the projected glory seen in the face of Moses. Because in verse 7 it says, if the ministration of death written in graven stones was glorious. So God's law is glorious. It's not simply the manifestation in the face of Moses. No, I'm not saying that the law wasn't glorious, but I'm saying that Moses' reflection of the glory was not the real glory, it was just a Sunburn.

Right, that's right. And the glory that we now as the church, as believers... We'll talk. That would be a nice car ride home. But the glory that we as believers, as being placed into the body of Christ in the church age, that we, by God's grace, are able to manifest is because we're identified. It's because we've been placed into Him, we are now partakers, joined, united with Him, thus there's that kind of unified glory, and therefore it's out. It's not just something that is Because he was near the presence of God, he kind of got it, and then he was able to manifest it a little bit, but then it faded away.

Yeah, there's a definite contrast there. I'm just thinking, Jim, if you and Rachel went up to Long's Peak this afternoon and God declared you in his presence the law and wrote it on the rock of the mountain, yet the death of Christ 2,000 years ago in his resurrection is Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. This is such a profound statement. And that's really the thrust of this passage. I think that's really what, really the real big point, big picture of this is the glory of God. It wasn't that one was not glorious, it was, but one is much, much, much more glorious than what And I think that there's two aspects to that. It's the life of Christ portrayed in the believer.

And secondly, what Margaret and we were discussing before, that made us able ministers, right? And us is so broad. It's no longer a refined or specific group, right? Yeah. Us as a body, those believers in the body of Christ. I mean, the Jewish believer always, you know, went through their priest, ultimately, to have the animal sacrifice be made an act of faith in their lives, right? I mean, there's a ceremonious and legal aspect to the way the law ultimately was portrayed in the life of the few. That's right. Whereas us, as the body of Christ, really have a great, great potential to have the Lord Jesus Christ seen by the world. Yeah.

You know, I may be wrong, I always interpreted that as Israel couldn't look upon Moses in relation to, they wouldn't even say God. They had other names of God because he was so awesome and so glorious and so mighty that that was why they wouldn't look upon Moses' face because God was revealed to Moses at that moment. And they would look away. Yeah, and I've heard, and yeah, I completely, yeah, I've heard the same thing.

One thing to consider is the end of verse 7. It says that the nation of the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because the glory of his face fading as it was. So they're definitely, you know, Moses had this experience, he had this encounter with God where he was in, you know, he was in the mountain receiving, God put him in the cleft of the rock, and God passed by, and then he came down and his face, we won't take the time to read it, but his face shone with the glory of God, but then that glory was fading away. So I think that the reason that he kept it veiled when he went out in front of the people was because the glory was fading away, and he didn't want the people to see that This gory was fading.

That's what I think it's. And if you go back to the Old Testament and read the story. and gets recharged, he puts the veil off, comes out, and goes through the same process again. And then as the glory fades, the second time, he puts the veil over his face. There's a point too I was looking at, it's funny.

He was saying that this reflection on Moses' face was the reflection of the glory of God which they were not really they couldn't bear that that sight in their spiritual condition and so he put the veil over his face for their benefit as much as to keep them from seeing it fade away okay they were really You and I could be there at ease and see that, but these Jews who were trying to be good enough and knew they had failed in the countenance of sacrifices to cover their sins, that was a sight that I don't know what most Jews looked like, but to those Jews I think it was rather terrifying. Sure. Yeah, that's kind of tying both in, both in together. Sure. Think about this, not the transfiguration, but Christ was transfigured before James, Peter, and John, and His face was His way, His way back, and His guidance was just great. The inner glory that He had, like it was talked about, that was within, was now manifest as it was out.

No one, James Pugh and John, kept on looking at him and his glory wasn't there. They were hiding from that glory. And so the glory of the world is something to look upon. Just like Moses looked upon the glory, as Jim says, as he was passing by when he put Moses on the top of the rock. Moses didn't turn away from that glory. So why would the people of Israel, you know, turn away from the glory that was on Moses' face?

Yeah. Well, they weren't turning away from his glory because the glory was fading away and Moses didn't want them to see the glory fading away. So he put the veil off. Yeah. Well, Jim, you got one verse. Yeah. But that's, you know, that's that's fine. This is good. We're all. our juices are flowing and we're talking about it.

Time is about to run out, but let's look at a couple passages back in Hebrews, which I think will really drive some of these points home. In chapter 12, verse 18, and if you're in your notes, we just jumped to page 6. So, Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 18.

For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness, and gloom, and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet, and the sounds of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word should be spoken to them. For they could not hear the command, even if a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.

And so terrible was this sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling. Here's the contrast, but, verse 22, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, and to the general assembly, the church, firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirit of righteousness made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, into the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel."

There's the, I think, an awesome contrast. Now notice verse 20, for they could not bear the command, even if the beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. So, think about their approachability to God. They had to maintain this distance. The intimacy that we now enjoy because we've been baptized into the body of Christ, because we're partakers of his life, we're joined together, we're united with him, that intimacy that we have with him, if they came too close, they died. And now we have such intimacy that that's quite the contrast. Look at chapter 4, say in Hebrews, look at chapter 4 and verse 16. Let's start in verse 14. Chapter 4, verse 14.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Verse 16, let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Talking about drawing near with confidence because of the blood of Christ. And the other one was, don't come too close. Not that they both weren't glorious, they both were glorious, but the glory of the one super abounds the other one.

And the impact on our lives is in the intimacy and the fellowship that we can enjoy with the Lord is so much so much better than of the old and go to chapter 10 and stay in Hebrews in chapter 10 and let's look also at look also at verse 19 Hebrews 10 19 since therefore brethren we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh.

And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. In verse 22, let's read it again. Let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. and full assurance of faith.

And what God is wanting to do is that He has invited us into this intimacy with Him that is beyond our comprehension. But the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us into all truth and teaches us all things. And He is doing that. And He's wanting to, because He's enabled us to be ministers of this new relationship, this new covenant agreement with Him, He's wanting to manifest through us this glory. so that everybody can see it, super bound in the glory of the old.

Any more thoughts? I think it's pretty neat stuff. Boy, I've really enjoyed going through it again. Okay, let's pray. Lord, thanks for this morning. Thanks for your inspired scriptures that you use to edify us and you use to lead us into your way. Thanks for your spirit which leads us and guides us into all truth. Lord, just continue to live your life in and through us. Not to the glory of us, but simply to the glory of you. Thanks for the intimacy that we can have with you. And we can truly just draw near because of your blood which has been shed for us. Thanks, Lord. And be with us as he continues to share with us your word in the service upcoming. In your name we pray. Amen.