Why Turn Back? Part 1

Galatians 4 8 through 14. We're in a new section that I think it's is it Roger is it Macaulay who? Titles it why turn back? Maybe yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so part one of two this morning on October 26 And that's it. Sometimes the titles don't quite wow me, or whiny, but this one does. This one is perfect because this is exactly out of the text, the why turn back. So it's pretty cool.

So let me go back, because I have to grab, I have to go up to verse four and grab the context. We start at verse eight this morning, but I have to grab the context from what came before. So in verse four through seven, we have, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of one, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law. that we might receive the adoption as sons. Verse six, because you are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God.

And we need to grab that, because at verse 8, we have a however. So we got to know why we're saying however in verse 8. So he goes on in verse 8, and he says, however, at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather be known by God, how is it that you turn back? There's our title for this morning. How is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years.

And I'll stop at verse 10 there, because that's where we'll get to today. And I'll tackle 11 through 14 next week, because he goes into a kind of different, he makes a personal appeal next week, right? But we'll stop there at verse 10, if that's okay with everybody.

And before we get to the text, I want to, I had this thought that came about, I think Wolford was talking to Jim after the class last week about the law and how Jesus fulfilled the law. He kept it perfectly. Did I have that conversation right, if you remember? Remember back that far, Bob? Yeah, Jim and I talked about that quite a bit. I was thinking about that, and it brought up something in my mind, because we're dealing with the law, with the Galatians, and they want to get circumcised and follow the law, basically. I had this little exercise before we get into our text, and that is from John 10, where Christ says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish. They will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. Verse 30 of John 10, I and the Father are one.

And the Jews picked up stones to stone him. And Jesus answered them, I showed you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you stoning me? So I have in red where he claims, and what's he's claiming? He's claiming deity, isn't he? Right there is very clear and he does that all over the the book of John all over the Gospels so Here's the Jewish leader reaction the Pharisees and the scribes and things for this reason Therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he not only was breaking the Sabbath But also he was calling God his own father making himself equal with God John 5 18 So, and that's from the law. What part of the law is that from? Well, here it is. It's from Leviticus 19, 24. Moreover, the one who blasphemes the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. the alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the name, he shall be put to death."

So that's the law that the chief priests and the officers are applying to what Jesus said up there in John 10, when he's claiming to be deity. So in John 19, when he's before Pilate, not John 19, 6, so when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify, crucify. Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.

The Jews answered him, we have a law. And by that law, he ought to die because he made himself out to be the son of God. And so right above that, you have that Leviticus 19. There's the law. So you see how that's clear how they're going to stone him. They're trying to kill him based on the law. And my argument is that this has nothing, he kept the law perfectly, which is well and good, but the ethical law comes in its punishment, I think.

So did the Lord claim deity? Yes, he did. Did the Jewish leadership correctly recognize he was claiming deity? Yes. Yes. Oh, you guys are good. This is a multiple choice test where the only answer is A. Come on, let's get on with it. Did they correctly match up Jesus' claim to be deity to the correct law of Moses? Yes.

And you could argue that the first commandment, thou shalt have no other gods before me, in the Ten Commandments, they could have pinned him on that one too. So do this exercise. Pretend it's not the Lord Jesus Christ and substitute some guy, and I named him Dudley. If he said the same thing that Christ did, did the Jewish leadership act correctly? Yes. And I would say yes. I would choose yes, but maybe some would say no or maybe who knows, but I think so. So the fact is, what did they have wrong about the Lord Jesus Christ?

Well, how about we have good insight when we go to the early part of John where the Who saw him by night he came and he said we know we know you're from they knew he was from God That was a problem. They knew he was from God, but they still rejected him.

That's my my take on it Okay, they were convinced so he used him as a representative head of the leaders He said we know you're from God because nobody can do the things that you do but Yeah, Nicodemus Nicodemus. Thank you As a prophet or something? Yeah, we know you can do it. You know you're God.

I didn't understand what he said. Being born again was over his head, but that's another story. Something bigger than that, though. What did they have wrong? Well, they had wrong the fact that Messiah could not be God. So they knew he claimed to be Messiah, but he also claimed to be God, and they could not accept that.

Oh, okay. And that's good, too. But the simplest answer is that what they had wrong is that he was God, right? So everything he said in John 10 about being able to give eternal life, and he and the Father are one, our correct, true statements, right?

He was God. And they could not see that, so they had that wrong. So was he breaking the law, the law of Moses? claiming to be God. He was God. So no, he was not breaking the law. He fulfilled the law. He fulfilled, yes. But what about all the examples of when he went against the law in terms of healing, ministries, etc. Was that biblical law or traditions? Jesus was going against their traditions. They claimed their traditions were of God. So, since Jesus was going against their traditions, Which were not law then?

Well, they considered them law. So they thought he was sinning and God cannot sin, so he wasn't God. That's what they believe. And I think that in the last few weeks, you know, Bob Wolford, he brought that out really clearly, that they were breaking the, not the law of Moses, but the... Right. The traditions. The traditional laws. Which is called, what's that term? The Mishnah, or the Talmud. Yeah, Talmud. Okay, Mishnah.

So he was breaking that left and right. Or something they called the oral law, which they didn't write down until about 200 AD. So to Roger's point, I think that the law executed its sentence of death. And that's the reason why it was fully fulfilled by claiming the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a spotless victim. And so that's That's it. Yes, he he Followed the and a lot of churches or denominations are on this he fulfilled the law perfectly Therefore the law was fulfilled and we can too, right? Because he did we can do it and the law is good and but what we've seen in this class that and Bob brought this out that the law is a what a old 1915 Ford Model T. So I think that more than that, Jesus Christ is the high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

He is a new priest of a new heavenly order, and now there must be a change of the law also, that's in Hebrews 7.12, who with his power of indestructible life Hebrews 7.16, He made one intercession for sin for all time through His own blood, Hebrews 9.12.

He sat down at the right hand side of God, Hebrews 10.12, having obtained eternal redemption, Hebrews 9.12.

And we just covered that the other week in Galatians 4.5, that He obtained redemption for us. So I think that this I'm trying to argue that the law is really done, because Hebrews kind of lays that out really well. So under the Mosaic law, by our identification with Christ, we all died to it through the crucified body of Christ. That's from Romans 7-4.

Christ purchased our freedom and redeemed us from the curse of the law and its condemnation by becoming a curse for us. that was from Galatians 3.13. So, and I kind of made this conclusion already, but the law's finished, it's complete, it's replaced in our life by the one who died to it, He died by that law. That law killed him, but he was a spotless victim. He was perfect, and he did not, in fact, break the Mosaic law, but they accused him of it, and they crucified him. So that's a full-end stop. God has done it. Yeah. And just a compliment. you and what you just did. I mean, you're rightly dividing the word of truth. That's what we're all here for, right?

And I wish the message you just gave in the last five to ten minutes could be heard by the entire body of Christ. The question is, would they accept it if, in fact, you taught it to them? I'm not sure they've heard it. I'm not sure they've really gone with a hungry heart to understand what it means to live the Christian life.

Yeah, that's a good point, because everyone, I call it Christendom, and the whole mass of Christianity is still on this, and Margaret, you mention this all the time about how these Catholics, they have these rituals, and it's the law, they love this law. We're not gonna give it up. Yeah, right.

So yeah, and I call Hebrews, I've gotten into that recently, and it's like the grand thesis of why the law has come to an end, you know? And so it relates to the Galatians, and to this section, why turn back to it, right? Because it's done. So this is going beyond the text, because in the text, Paul just says, why go back to it? because you've been redeemed.

And the law just kind of shows us our sins, but I'm going beyond that into this. So I hope that was helpful, because we're still sort of dealing with this law issue. Hey, Andrew. Yeah. Doesn't Paul say, I think in Romans 7, that the law is holy, just, and good? So people are thinking, well, if it's holy, just, and good, we need to follow it, right? Right. And it does appeal to our spirit, because our spirit really goes along with that. So, people just want to get the flesh in line, you know, it just doesn't work. Yeah, but Jim, that falls short, I think, of understanding our position on the truth. Oh, it does, yeah. I mean, that's where it falls far short. Yes.

We're not saved to keep the law, we're saved by grace to be positioned at the right hand, considered righteous and holy. begins by the power of the Spirit. I'm just bad at what you mean. And not understanding our position, then naturally we would fall toward what is wholly just and good. And that's the law. Well, and the other thing, too, is unless we're involved, I mean, that's the problem, is we want to be involved in doing this for ourselves. I mean, we're not, nobody is willing to understand that all they have to do is believe in the Lord, and He's already done it for us. We're unwilling to do that. There's something about man that has to be involved. And that's really what Christendom does. They want to be involved. Right, right. And what's the part of us that wants to be involved? The flesh. The flesh. Sin nature. Sin nature.

The old man, right? Yeah, good. And I'd say, to Jim's point, the law is good and righteous and all that, but it had a beginning point and an ending point, and you gotta put that end on it, that bookmark, it's bookmarked. I mean, we've already learned in Galatians that it was a tutor or a schoolmaster. I mean, that was the purpose of the law. That led us up until the right time when Christ came. And then he took it from there.

So, for 60 seconds. Yeah, I'm hesitating to add something here that has helped me this past week in understanding what you're talking about. Okay. And I recommend it highly. The gentleman's name is Stan, S-T-A-N. His last name is Tilchin, T-E-L-C-H-I-N.

And on YouTube, he has a testimony, a video, Jewish man who was led to the Lord through the scriptures by being challenged by his daughter to just read the scriptures, dad. And he gives his testimony so clearly. I thought it might be a blessing, but also an eye opener. And why is the majority of the Jewish people antagonistic to the church and evangelical people and people who really love them but they hate backwards because they have a misunderstanding of us. And this guy's testimony really brings out why that is so. I thought it might be helpful. Yeah, OK, I'll check that out. That sounds good. That's my only form of entertainment is YouTube. So yeah, I'll certainly do that, Roy. Thanks. So verse 6, I'm going to pull back to there. And verse 6 says, because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Therefore, you are no longer slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir through God." So the other week we saw that, and last week with Bob's lesson, we saw that God sent forth a son born of a woman, born under the law, is what it said. And we say that that's the old law, the completed law. And that word was ex apostello, God sending forth his son. Well, it's kind of cool how, in the same manner, God sends forth ex apostello, the spirit of his son, into our heart. He places that into our hearts. to represent Christ and his interests in our hearts. F.W. Grant says, a child is born into the family by means of a new birth. We all have that. Every believer has that.

But he says, you can only be a child of God. And he's not talking positionally. You are a child of God. But you can only be a child of God and not have, but you can be, he's saying, yeah, sorry, I read that wrong, but you can be a child of God and not have the possession of conscientious and be conscientious of sonship. And that's a conditional thing. You have sonship, but you may not yet possess it.

And he says the son is an acknowledged child. And that's kind of spiritual growth, isn't it? to come to that point. Note that verse 6 says, for this reason you are a son. God sends forth the Spirit of Christ. First you get the positional thing, which is the placed as an adopted son. Then comes the qualification for the place, is what Merriman says, or the possession of that place.

Sonship fully recognized. And Merriman said, so that little part of that verse is your frame of reference is in view there. You see that, because that's a very intimate cry, crying of a father. So does that make sense to everybody? Yeah. So continuing on, it's not A little point here, it's not the spirit of a son, though you may have that, but it's the spirit of the son, Christ himself. Felt position of Christ himself, the full knowledge of the new man in Christ, where Christ is all in all.

And that is from Colossians 3.10. You have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. a renewal in which there's no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free man. But Christ is all in all. And if we go back to Galatians, Paul says that there's no male or no female.

That's in Galatians 3.28.

The word for Abba is Arame for Papa, a feeble cry of an infant, of an infant. And that's the, it's a expression of identity and trust, isn't it? And this is Merriman's little four point thing here. Father is a Greek word, and that's expressing your identity of confidence, identity confidence, that springs from the comprehension of your identity in the sonship of Christ, in your identification with the Father.

This you will grow into the same expressions deep within as the maturation process develops in Christ, the Spirit of the Son. So Christ himself, the Spirit of the Son, will see to it that that happens in a believer's life. The believer enjoys an exalted sonship, heirship position with God in Christ, not on the basis of law, works, merit, that system, but on the basis of grace, promise, and faith.

So, and to Margaret, who, yeah, believers, they don't get to this point to where this is, they go back to this law, don't they? And they're missing out on all the good things that this is. Yeah, it's too bad they don't have better teachers. Look at all these churches! And they have all the entertainment, Margaret. I know! And they have an open budget and all that stuff, but they don't. Amen, I agree. Oh my gosh. Frustrating for us, isn't it? It is.

It's very sad to see these giant churches who just miss it. Well, the other thing to think about, too, is the law is defined in the Greek as it could be any law system. To an extent, all the traditions earlier, many traditions that were have nothing to do with the Israeli law. And so that's where there's a lot of performance kind of things going on in mainline churches or even cults.

Okay, so here we are at verse 8, however, and now we know why he's saying however. However, at that time you did not know God, you were slaves to those by which were natured were no gods. So, yeah, I say that We're establishing verse 8 from verses 6 and 7, establishing that we are adopted as sons of God, heirs according to the promises to Abraham, enjoined by faith alone. However, in the past time, you Galatians did not even know God factually, is what he's saying. The Galatians, did you know that they were the Gauls?

Is that French? France, yeah. Oh, it is? Okay, good. So yeah, they were Gauls, therefore they were Galatians, and I never knew that. So they did not know Gauls actually, that's the word knowledge is oida there. So yeah, the Gauls are Celtic people from the 400 BC to the 480 period, coming from modern day France. Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany. They spoke Gaelic or from Galia. You could probably even say that they're Irish men too, right? They're Celtic. So they're pub drinkers, you know.

So I'm saying that How much more foreign to Abraham than the Jewish tradition and the nation can you get from being Gauls, being a Gaul, right? So they were foreigners and ignorant of the Hebrew God in their past. The kind of force of verse 8 there. And the amazing thing is that Paul never presented to them circumcision nor the law. He just brought them grace, the grace message, right?

And now they're going back to what the Judaizers were giving them. And they were enslaved to their gods. So these gods were imagined, but also whomever My point here in this statement, whomever were counterfeit spirits in these gods, so if you have a false god, you can sometimes have a demon or a demonic power or a principality kind of filling in for that god and doing things as that imagined god. And they were slaves to that. whatever gods they worshipped up there in Galatia.

So the point of verse 8 and 9 is, how can they even think about going back to these old enslaving pagan ways? Or, and this is what Paul brings out, they were latching onto these Judaizers, and instead of their old pagan ceremonial law works, they were adopting the Jewish ceremonial law works. So either way, either way is abandoning their exalted position in their sonship in Christ.

And that the spirit of Christ is vitally connected to God. And so, but they yet in their past were worshiping false gods. But now, big contrast here in verse 9, now that you have come to know God, or rather be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless element of things which you desire to be enslaved to all over again? But now that's the contrast.

Paul has taught them who God, the Father of Christ, is. He's laid that down for them, and he laid that down with justification earlier in Galatians. And they have this gnosko knowledge, and that's knowledge obtained by experience, by learning. They've come to learn who God is, and it's a meaningful knowledge. Whereas Oida or Ido is a factual knowledge. And what are your thoughts about the order of these two phrases? you have known God, or rather, is he correcting himself?

Oh yeah, good point. Good point. Let me get to this. I think I addressed that here. And I like that, because it's a funny statement, that little prepositional phrase there, right? Or rather be known by God? It's almost like he corrects himself, right? It's almost like he writes He has his scribe right but now you have come to know God or I'm sorry rather be known by God but it's it sounds like a correction, but it isn't I Don't think when we look at this the word for rather be known by God. So the word rather is Malin and in the Greek, it's an adverb, so it modifies known, it modifies ginosko, so it amplifies the word known. The other thought is we love God because he first loved us, right? Yeah, yeah. So it has that kind of interpretation.

So that, but and I can't, none of the commentators brought this out, but Mallon It means much more, much more by far, or to a greater degree, God knows us. Isn't that interesting? So what he's saying really is, you've come to know God, but much more, far more, God knows you, right? That's a wonderful message. Yeah, so I had thought that he was correcting himself like Bob brought out, but he's really amplifying. He's turning around. We knowing God with God knowing us is the more important thing, right? So think of this. God knows you way beyond what you think you know of him.

It naturally goes hand in hand with his thesis in Galatians. We're a son, an heir of his inheritance. We have Christ's spirit in us. And that spirit, when we mature, we have this crying out for him in recognition of God's parenthood of us And that comes up in times of need, in times of needing to be comforted, reassured, et cetera, that crying out, Abba, Father, Papa, Father. So here's Malin, there's the word for Malin, and look at these comforting ways that Jesus uses it.

He says, and I don't even know where this is. This is in Matthew somewhere, isn't it? I didn't write down that. The reference, but Jesus says, look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not worth much more than they? That much more is malon. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the furnace, shall he not much more clothe you, ye, O ye of little faith? And that, shall he not much more clothe you, that's malon. You see that? Isn't that comforting? And so I got on this thing. I got a whole slide of it, which I'll go over quickly. It's a good slide. So known of God here.

Another verse in Matthew 10, starting at verse 29, are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father, but the very hairs of your head are numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of much more value than many sparrows. And I didn't look it up, but I bet that much more value is probably mallon. Right there and so that's you see how that's being known by God the hairs of your head, and this one, which you're all familiar with from Psalm 139, for you formed my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb.

I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you. When I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth, your eyes have seen my unformed substance. And in your book, we were all written.

The days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them." That's from Psalm 113. 39, that's God knowing us. How about this? You have kept count of my tossings, and I take that as took my tossings in bed when I can't sleep, my afflictions. You have kept count of my tossings. You have put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. From Psalm 56, 8 and 9, that's God knowing us. How about casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. From 1 Peter 5, 7. Your father knows the things that you need before you ask him. From Matthew 6, 8.

And finally, from Hebrews 4.15, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.

But if you turn that around and say it positively, that would be, for we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses, right? So that's being known of God. So that's a really important little prepositional phrase there that Paul uses. And yeah, isn't that comforting, all that? To be known by God or of God.

So, with all that, I ask myself, why, why, why would they turn back from all of this to their old ways or to their old Jewish ways? And Paul is completely perplexed. He says that in Galatians 4.20, I'm perplexed about this, why you're reverting. And the word for reverting or why you're turning back, that's the word not even reverting, but much more they were converting back to legalism and paganism.

So think of that, they had already converted from that to God, and now they're going back. That word for turning back is epistrepho, epistrepho. And it's the word for a convert. And James, in Acts 15, uses it in this way. He says, therefore, it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, or who are converts to God from among the Gentiles. So that's the word epistrepho, and that's what they're doing. And James states that in something we're familiar with, and that's the Jerusalem Council, right? He went to that.

So they desire to be in bondage again to these things, to the weak and beggarly elements. And the weak and beggarly elements are the ceremonial religious ABCs of the law, or of their own, you know, Gallic pagan system. And the weak and beggarly means anemic, powerless, and poverty stricken. And those things are powerless to enrich them spiritually, or to make them holy, to set them apart from God, to set them apart for God.

So what, this is, because we covered this at the outset of this lesson, but what is the source of this desire to turn back and take on the law again? What would any of you say? Because we want to do stuff. We want to work. Yeah, but what's the source of that desire?

The sinful nature. I think it's also ignorance. People are not being taught what the Word of God teaches. Yeah, yeah. Along that line, though, there are many people that come here out of curiosity, because it's a local church, etc., and they come once or twice and they leave. So it's not only ignorance, it's not having a heart, a hungry heart, I'll be personal. I came to the end of myself. I can't please God. But anything I want to do, my sin nature always falls short of His glory, and I came to the end of myself. So when you come to the end of yourself, who's there for you? Yeah, they come to this church, and we don't give out certificates of merit, right? You had a good week. People are like, hey, this is a gyp. I'm not going to get any blue ribbons here at this church, right? And that's the old man. Because they wanted, I mean, we've invited friends here, and one of the first things they say is, well, What kind of programs do y'all have?

Yeah, and I think Jim you bring this out a lot when you read the the passages in the main service a lot you say what do you say you say? Boy, there's you say something to effect like there's so much here I'm glad that God laid it out all out in his word like this Yeah, you make that point a lot and it and he does lay all this stuff out, but no one Everything we need is in the Bible, but it takes a really mindful search to find these things in the Bible.

They're not just exposed by reading it. Yeah, after rightly divided. Yes. And it's not a feel-good message. I mean, because You still think, the old man still thinks they have to be involved in doing this. They just don't understand. Because this is what they've heard their whole life. Their whole life. But we're all still called to live by faith, right? So the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is by faith. Just their culture that they grew up with defines their behavior.

Well, people don't like absolute truth, and this is absolute truth we're studying here. Yeah. It's that what Roy would say is these are realities of God, the reality of God and his facts. And so we have that modern-day problem, but think back to these Galatians. Now, they don't have all the Because we have so many churches now and so many denominations, but all the Galatians knew is what Paul told them, and that was all grace. And we'll look at that next week when we pick it up from here.

So they didn't know all that. All they had is the grace message from Paul, and then when Paul went on, over a course of, I don't know, a year or two or three, the Judaizers got to them and then started infiltrating them and gave them this new false thing that they had to be circumcised.

So it's the same stuff. But yeah. But Andrew, I think it's important. I think it's important to say that they possessed everything in Christ. It's not that they didn't have it. They had it. They possessed it. They were in Christ. They had Christ in them. were ignorant of what they had. They didn't know what they had. They didn't realize what we have in Christ. And that's the message today.

If you're a believer, you have it all, but you don't realize what you have. You can tell people until you're blue in the face, and they still... Look at you like you're from outer space or something. What do you mean? I don't have to do this over here. It's like we're a high-end... Aliens? No, it's like we're a high-end Porsche. racing Porsche and we have it, it's all there and it's ready to go 240 miles an hour and people think that they're driving an Edsel, right? Or something like that. They don't know what this car can do. And it brings us back to that Wolford had, you know, about the old cars and that new supercar at the end were heavenly, and that's the supercar.

I still have things in my pickup truck. And I've had it for three years, and there's still a few buttons. I've got it, but they're there for my taking, but I have no idea what they do. At this time, I could care less, because I haven't needed them. But I've got them, I just don't realize it.

Yeah, wow, yeah. This is a good analogy to this whole thing. My mom, I was driving her car, now I have it. There was this button and it had this axle and then so I pushed it. And then I was barring her car and then it messed it up. Oh, totally for and it wouldn't run right. And she brought it in and the guy said, No, don't push that button. They had to reset because it separates the differential or something so you can go over blocks and stuff.

So in Christian life, we have things that we don't know until you grow into it, right? So, good. Okay, I'll stop there for today. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the riches that we have in Christ. And we just pray for this week and that we go on and we depend on you throughout the week. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.