Our Sinful Disorder

Good morning. I rather need to introduce many of you to my imaginary person, Bill. Anytime I want to make up somebody, I call him Bill. You can picture Bill however you want. Today, Bill has left home in a usual way. He's gone to work. I picture Bill working in a typical cubicle, and his boss calls him into the office, and his boss says, Bill, you're not fulfilling your job prescription. Bill says, what do you mean? And he shows him his job description and explains very clearly the things he's supposed to be doing and he's not doing. I expect you to do your job, Bill. Bill responds, who do you think you are? I'm fine with the work I'm doing, I'm not changing. What do you think happened to Bill? He got fired. Well, Bill goes back to his cubicle in a rage and decides for his own compensation, he's going to take his computer home with him. belonging to the office. On his way home, blue lights are behind Bill. Bill doesn't stop. He keeps going. Fast forward a little bit longer, we don't know how it ever happened that he did get stopped and the police officer goes to the window, police officers most likely at this point, and he asks, why would you pull me over? Who gives you the right to tell me I cannot drive or have this property? So Bill gets arrested. Fast forward, he's in front of the judge, the judge says, how do you plea? And Bill simply says, I do not recognize your authority or the authority of this court, I'm going home. Then Bill, in front of the warden at jail, says, warden, why don't you just do us all a favor, give me the keys to your car, I want to go home. How would you describe or diagnose Bill's problem? Sounds like a bit of a narcissist. Might have a problem with authority. A simple Google search says he has oppositional defiant disorder. I wanna say Bill's biggest problem is this. He has no fear of God. He has no fear of God. This is the root of all rejection of authority. The question we should actually ask ourselves, do we have The same problem as Bill is our problem similar to Bill. We might not act out like this against authority, but do we think about throwing off authority? Do we seek to undermine and reject or ignore authority? This reveals a lack of fear of God. Today we're looking at Genesis three, and it's one of the most important passages in all scripture. because it answers an important question. What went wrong? Or as we can say today, what is wrong? What went wrong? If you're new with us, we are typically going through books of the Bible. We're doing something a little bit different. We're going through Genesis 1 through 11. and we're asking some big picture questions. Genesis one, who is God? God is there, he's the creator, he speaks. Genesis two, what is man? Man was made in the image of God. Man was given worth, man was given marriage. Today we're looking at a very important problem. What went wrong? Because if we were to go back and look at Genesis two, the world we live in is so different. The reason this is so important is because if we misdiagnose the problem, we're going to come up with a wrong solution. Our most basic problem, the root problem we all have is that we have rejected God. We're gonna look at two parts. This narrative breaks down into two different sections. It focuses on man, and then it focuses on God. We'll see three actions of man, three actions of God. If you're looking to take notes, if you're wanting to make sure you follow along, the three actions of man. We doubt God, we reject God, we hide from God. We doubt God, we reject God, we hide from God. First, we doubt God. Let's look back at verses one to five. We see a new character introduced. The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say you should not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the tree in the garden, but God said you shall eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, ye shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. God has created man, he formed man from the dust, breathed life into him, gave him his wife, that was great rejoicing. The narrative of Genesis 2 ends, they were naked and unashamed, there was a good relationship with man and woman, man and woman and God, man and woman and this earth. And now we see this new character, Notice the camera angle is going to focus primarily in this scene on Satan and Eve. That's the only two characters so far. And the serpent, who's described as crafty, clever, he's a creature of God. Notice the first question. Did God actually say? He's approaching the woman who, if you remember from Genesis 2, God gave Adam the command not to eat of that tree before a woman was created. He's going to the person who would be taught the command, not the person who heard it directly from God. There already seems to be something going on with creating disorder among God's order. And then he starts poking at God's actual command. Did God actually say? Would God really say that? Notice how he twists the word of God. You can't eat of any tree. He's questioning God's goodness. You can't do anything. God has limited you from anything. He's exaggerating the restriction of God. Now notice, she has been taught by Adam what God said. Verse two. God said you shall not eat the tree that is in the midst of the garden. She exaggerates it herself it seems because she says you cannot touch it. This seems to be foreshadowing possibly a bit of legalism, but so far it just seems like she's exaggerating the command herself. And then the direct attack. Did God actually say it's an indirect attack? Very clever, very crafty. Starting to undermine God's authority and goodness. And then the direct law, you will not surely die. God's a liar. God will not judge you. There's no consequence for not doing what God said not to do, or for doing what God said not to do. He's removing the teeth of the warning that God was very clear about. There's only one tree, all the other trees are yours. There's one tree, don't eat it. If you do, you'll die. And Satan is directly lying. No, God has lied to you. And then verse five, the reasoning. You won't die. God isn't keeping you from something bad. God's keeping you from something good. God knows that if you eat that tree, your eyes will be opened. You'll be like God. You'll know good and evil. God is holding something back from you. Now, if we go back to Genesis 1, remember God himself declared, we will make man in our own image and our likeness. Adam and Eve already have what Satan's promising. To the full extent of what is good for man, they already are like God. In the best ways, in the right ways. But Satan says, no, there's something better than what God has given you. You'll see better, you'll know better. I believe the lie here is that if you do what is right in your own eyes, if you take command, if you decide that you're not gonna listen to what God says is right and wrong, you're gonna decide for yourself, then you get to be like God, the one who determines what's right and wrong. You replace God rather than image him. It's terrifying. The serpent here we know is Satan from Revelation. He's disrupting the very order of God. It's hinted at in the fact that he's going to the woman first, but really he's attacking the very word of God, and therefore God himself. There's three specific ways we need to be aware that Satan is attacking God. First, he wants us to be suspicious of God's word. Has God said? This leads us to doubt God's authority. Does his word truly have authority to speak over us, to tell us what's right and wrong, to correct us in what we think is right when it's actually wrong? Second, disbelief in God's judgment. You will not die. There'll be very little consequence, if at all, for the sin that God said not to do. It doubts God's righteousness. Third, he knows. for God knows that this is better for you. Satan causes us to doubt God's goodness. He wants God to look like a miserly God, a God who is not generous, the giver of every good and perfect gift. Satan's attack, doubt God's authority, doubt God's righteousness, doubt God's goodness. Ephesians 6 tells us we know the schemes of the devil, that's it. That's not all there is, but those are the clear ways in which Satan undermines the word of God. My challenge for you today, believer, do we know the word of God well enough so that when those little lies and temptations that come from outside or inside, even more dangerous, the deceptive heart, do we know the word of God well enough to say, no, it is written? When Jesus, which we'll look at in Luke in a little while, a few weeks from now, when Jesus goes to be the new Adam, to go through the temptation that Satan gives to him, what's his response over and over again? It is written, it is written, it is written. If the Son of God uses the word of God to take away the temptation lies of Satan, what better tool do we have? That is how Satan will attack us. So first we doubt God, and the first act of doubting, when we start entertaining that doubt, that's when we start falling into sin. We're gonna start spiraling. You see there. Verse six, we look at the second point. We reject God. We doubt God, we reject God. When Satan starts having us doubt and entertain those doubts, it's going to lead to Rejection, look at verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. She saw it was pleasant. It was a tree created by God. It was pleasant, it looked pleasant. It was gonna be good for food. There was nothing wrong with this tree in and of itself other than God said, do not eat it. That's it. You see here, she looks at it. She wants her eyes to be open, so she starts looking at this tree the way she wants to see it. And then she eats. Taking what God prohibited shows a lack of love, respect, and honor. Notice she eats it and our camera angle is going to change because now we're gonna see there's a third character that's been there. He was with her. Adam, who heard the command of God, who was given responsibility to work and keep the garden primarily. He needs her help, she's going to participate in that, but he received that word of God, he's responsible for that word of God, and he's hearing Satan lie to his own God-given wife and helper. And he takes it with her. What should he have done? By the time Satan has already said, has God said, or especially by the time he says, you will not surely die, he should have grabbed the serpent, threw him on the ground, and crushed his head. But no, he's entertaining all these lies right along with her. And he acts in direct disobedience. We see here, they're both complicit in this sin that ruined the whole world. She introduced the sin. But we know from Romans 5 and in 1 Corinthians 15, Adam is the head of the human race. He is the representative that has now thrown all of us into a sinful nature. More interesting, Paul says, the woman was deceived by Satan, implying Adam was not. Well, if he wasn't deceived, what do we call it? Just direct denial of God. Adam knew. And he intentionally sinned against God. It's amazing. All the trees and all the garden. God said, look at them. Take care of them. Eat of them. And somehow, They stop being grateful for all that God gave them, all that God had said to them, all that God had given them, and they look at this one tree that's off limits, and they say, this is the one I've gotta have. Because it carries with it a special promise. Satan promised, drives, we open, you'll be like God. So they ate. One of the most basic problems we have is that we want God plus somebody. God himself was not enough, they wanted God and something else. Well, we're gonna see that something else is never gonna work out. Our third point, we've doubted God, we disobeyed God, now we're hiding from God in shame. Verse seven, the consequence of their actions. Then the eyes of both were opened. Satan did promise that, right? Satan said your eyes will be opened. Then the eyes of both were opened. And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. Satan made a promise, it's fulfilled, but the promise your eyes will be open means you're gonna see something better. You're gonna see better, you're gonna like what you see, but this is obviously not what takes place. They now have to cover themselves, they have to hide from God. Sin, typically, the most basic definition is missing the mark. You're trying to shoot an arrow at a target and you missed the mark. We reject authority, it's hating what's good, it's loving what's evil, it's deciding your own way. The man who was at peace with God, his wife, his earth, now is experiencing what we call shame. Shame. We can see this pretty clearly because they were naked and unashamed and now they're afraid of being naked. All the peace is gone. They no longer have innocence. They look at each other and there's a shame for the kinds of thoughts they have. For Adam and Eve, all of a sudden, if we can just imagine this, and I think it's hard for us to imagine this, all of a sudden, every thought they've had has been good, innocent, and pure, and now they're twisted, and selfish, and demeaning. They've gotta cover it. They've gotta hide it. Shame overcomes them. Shame is that sense that we are flawed, unworthy, unfit, undone. It's that horrible internal feeling knowing it's just not right. Shame has a proper consequence of sin. Shame is a proper consequence of sin that should lead us to confess to God, ask for forgiveness, ask for restoration. But notice what they do. They hide from the only one who can actually restore them. Why hide? Why cover? Imagine a day we had a screen up here. It's 11.30. Let's just pretend every thought you've had since the moment you woke up to 11.30 was on that screen. Everybody could see what you've thought. How quickly would you run up here and tear it down? You wanna hide from your sinful thoughts. You don't want the shame of others knowing what you've actually considered, the kinds of ideas that may be to entertain, but they popped in there, and it's incredible. Adam and Eve never knew that before, and now they're overwhelmed with a sense of sin and selfishness, and they wanna cover it. They wanna hide from it. They hear God and they hid themselves. This is meant to be a really sad, pathetic scene. The God who had put them in the garden. The God who had given them the garden. The God who had given them clear rules in the garden. God had given them everything in the garden. Now they're gonna hide from him. He's coming to be with them. And they wanna hide from the creator, the gardener in his own garden. This is what seems to happen when we hide our shame. It becomes shackles. Shame should have the proper work of wanting to go to God and say, God, I've done this. I'm sorry, forgive me. And God receives us. But here, when we hide, we become lost. We make sin our own prison. Shame can become your own identity. That you just play that recorder. All the things you hate about yourself. All the things you feel are wrong with you. Here's the beauty of what God does. He calls out to them. He comes to them. He wants to restore them and he will restore them. If you want to consider, if you're wrestling with shame, guilt, go back to Psalm 32. They're called to worship. Verses three and four. For when I kept silent about my transgression and sin, my bones wasted away. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. God puts the shame on us so that he can bring us out of it. We were dried up. I acknowledge my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. I confess and you forgave me. One of the great truths we see about God is he initiates this renewal of relationship and he restores. Psalm 32 is a psalm to lead us out of shame. The first half of the story of the sermon was actions of man, now we're gonna look at actions of God. Point number four. God pursues sinners. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree. And the Lord said to the woman, what is this that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate. Notice God has come to Adam and Eve, same scene, new camera angle, new character. And as God comes and whatever, walking in the coolest of the day, whatever the glory of God looks like, they're spreading, they're hiding. And just notice here, this is grace. Where are you? God's not wondering. God knows they're hiding. But think about the grace of God and the invitation and the call out, where are you? Come to me and also a reflection. What are you doing? Take a recognition that you're hiding from me. This is unusual. Where are you? Adam's honest. I heard the sound of you in the garden. I was afraid. Again, fruit of shame, fear. turning to fearing God for what his punishment might be, rather than fearing God who gave you every good thing and gave you one thing not to do, his fear has now been flipped upside down. God's next question, who told you this? Who told you you were naked, that you would hide yourself? Have you eaten of the tree that I told you not to eat? Notice God's emphasis is on you. Have you eaten of the tree that I told you not to eat? And notice man's emphasis is on she. The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. He's admitting he ate, but he's also making it very clear it's kind of her fault. This is typical embracing of shame. Not feeling like we can come out. Not trusting the God who says, where are you? But trying to make an excuse. She gave it to me. The emphasis on her is overwhelming. And then God turns to her. Notice he's going down the line of order. God to man, God to woman, and so on. The Lord God said, the woman, what is this that you have done? Now he could have asked, what have you done? If he was really inquiring. The way he says, what is this? That's kind of like when your mom used your middle name. It's implying guilt. It's applying already known culpability. What is this you have done? It's questioned. Did she confess as well? Because she said, I ate. She at least says the serpent deceived me. As we just step back, the God who we started with in Genesis 1, He's there. He doesn't need any of this creation. The God who speaks to know us and be known by us. The God who created us. He comes to us after we failed and he initiates our salvation. He's a good God who uses all of his authority for our good. Notice God stops asking questions in verse 14 and he starts giving declarations. Now he's going to start addressing who's there, again, Same scene, I believe they're still at the same tree. The serpent, Eve, Adam, they're hiding, God is present. God starts talking to the serpent. Our fifth point, God promises restoration. God promises restoration. A new camera angle changes because now instead of looking to Adam and looking to Eve, we see God speaking directly to Satan. It's important for us to recognize God speaking directly to Satan. For whatever the reason be, the serpent receives a curse, he's going to be on his belly. Satan appearing as the serpent, the serpent is now going to be cursed among creation. The second consequence is much more significant for us. Verse 15. I will put enmity between you and the woman. There's gonna be a war. The world of peace that God created as a garden is now a world of enmity and war. There's anger, there's malice, and there's two main parties. There's the party of Satan and the party of Eve. Now, the serpent is fighting against man. Is it just spiritual warfare, the demon's fighting against man? No, there's human offspring. who remain true to their sin nature and hate God and hate God's anointed. The nations rage against God's anointed. 1 John 3, 12 describes Cain, who we'll look at next week, as the offspring of the evil one. After this, we're gonna see there's two kinds of people in the world. Those who are blessed by God and trust him and those who hate God and hate his people. Cain murders God's people. in defilement of a divine God. This world's a battleground. This is the world we live in. We can see this also when approached by the Pharisees, Jesus says, your father's not Abraham, your father is the devil. Because you're liars just like him. Well, who's Eve's offspring? Well, she's the mother of the living. She's the one who is going to follow the line of blessing and promise, and we'll look at that here in a moment, but notice that there's gonna be image between your offspring and her offspring, and the last line is significant. One specific offspring comes into view. Satan, he will bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Now, as somebody who has an Achilles injury, There's nothing, Achilles is a significant problem and it greatly hinders you, but it's not a death blow. The head is a death blow. A child of Satan. Satan, you're going to crush, you're going to bruise his heel, but he's going to strike your head. What is this talking about? I don't like to use big theological words in my sermons usually, but I'm going to use a fun phrase today. Proto-evangelium. It's a Latin phrase. It's worth remembering. It means the first gospel. Proto-evangelium. This is the first promise of the gospel, and look how gracious God is. How many words does it take God to get to promising he's going to fix what we just ruined? Look how quick he is to promise he's going to fix what we've ruined. Well, who is this child? Jesus, who is the true son of Eve. We could go from Isaac all the way down to Judah, to David, to Solomon, and eventually to Jesus, the son of David, the son of God, the true son of man, who never sinned, who resisted Satan, who died on the cross. A strike to his heel. But in submitting to that, crushed the head of Satan. Because on the cross, he destroys death. He destroys sin. He destroys the curse. He overcomes as victor of all the things we have ruined. So that we may now be blessed. Brothers and sisters, if you live today as a believer, we can enjoy this victory. We're not just looking forward to it, we can enjoy this victory because Satan has been undone. Let's look back at verse one. To make sure we know how sure this victory is. Now the serpent was more crafty than other beasts of the field that the Lord God had made. Is Satan in any way equal with God? He's a creature. Is Satan more powerful than us? Yes. The hierarchy of being, God, angels, man. We have no hope in this world full of lies, wanting to love those lies, apart from God himself coming to fix the problem. And this is how sure we can be, God the creator is more powerful than this creature who has undone us. The victory is sure. And we know it's sure because Christ is risen. Point number six, God disciplines. Sorry, before we move on, I wanna make sure we understand, God is speaking to Satan. He is promising him this defeat, but notice Adam and Eve get to be there with him. Adam and Eve get to hear the promise that God himself will restore it. and then they're going to hear direct discipline. God is like a father, he disciplines his children, and so he speaks to the woman. I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing, and pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. These are two very specific consequences for the woman. The man is obviously involved in both of these, and the man is gonna be affected by both of these, but they're very directed towards the woman. And I wanna focus in on, I will multiply your pain and childbearing. God had commanded, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. God had created the woman to have a womb to procreate image bearers. Now, the curse affects man, but here, specifically, the woman, the woman has a curse upon it. I believe this refers to a closed womb, barrenness, miscarriages, stillbirths. What's amazing is the consequence of woman is now difficulty in fulfilling the job of filling the earth. But you remember how the promise of God is gonna come about? A child of Eve. God's promise requires a baby. God's curse affects having babies. God's most personal consequence for the woman here is that there will be difficulty in childbearing, and I believe God has intentionally done this to show, I am showing my power over the curse by opening the womb at my will. We see this with Sarah. We see this with Hannah. We see this with Mary. Where God himself shows he is sovereign. to overcome the curse and the consequences of sin by his own grace. Regardless, the second factor is marriage. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, your desire shall be against your husband, but he shall rule over you. Now these two words have been somewhat debated and confused, and one of the rules for understanding how to interpret scripture is these two words, if they're used together close by, They help you understand it. If you just go to Genesis 4-7, these two words are used. We'll look at it next week. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your faith fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. What does desire mean for Sinda? Is it for his good? Desire seeks to undermine, destroy, bring chaos. The wife who was designed to be a helper is now going to be undermining the husband. That's the consequence, that the sinful temptation is going to be undermining. And in his was supposed to be a headship where he loved her, provided for her, worked for her, kept her. And now he's gonna rule over her. He's gonna crush her. But God, he restores marriage. Some say Galatians 3 is a restoration where there's no male or female in Christ Jesus. That's about salvation. It's a great passage, but not for this. No, no, the solution to marriage is that the helper is redeemed to submit and respect, and the head is redeemed not to be harsh, but to love. It's Ephesians 5. But notice the family has a significant consequence and the family is gonna be important for how God's gonna bring about his salvation. The next discipline is for the husband, Adam. Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you. Notice there the problem. Adam chose to listen to his wife who offered him the wrong fruit, and therefore he denied the God who commanded him. Well, the consequence is he's going to work. It's gonna be unproductive. It's gonna be full of sweat. It's gonna be full of thorns. Many of us are experiencing this today in our gardens. The God who disciplines. He disciplines us so that we can see the consequence of sin. He disciplines us so we can see how God restores and redeems us. Our last point, point seven, God provides. And the man called his wife Eve because she was the mother of the living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them. I believe naming her the mother of the living, God's purpose is gonna continue even in this tainted world. Adam and Eve are still gonna be fruitful, multiply and fill. But notice verse 21. The first gospel picture is I will crush Satan. The second gospel picture is the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments. Now they had tried to clothe themselves. They had tried to cover themselves with leaves. And this is foreshadowing the problem we constantly have of trying to fix our own problem, but we can't. Here, God says, I am going to cover your sin for you, and notice what it cost. Where'd he get skins from? An innocent animal had to die in order for God to cover their shame. We hide it, we try to cover it, God, He provides through sacrifice. And there we're going to see the foreshadowing of sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice, covering sin. But we do realize that all of the animals that died as sacrifices in the Old Testament, they were not sufficient to really restore us or forgive us. We realize that. Hebrews tells us it's obvious because they do it every year, over and over again. Worship had to be bloody because no animal sacrifice can truly cover or forgive sin. That's why it's so significant that when Jesus appears, John the Baptist declares, behold the Lamb of God that takes away sin. There's no more covering. He takes it away, where does he take it? He takes it upon himself. He dies in our place so that we can be truly forgiven, so that we can be truly living without the shame or guilt of sin because it is finished, he declares. There's a third gospel picture. God provided the promise that he will take care of our sin with a death. Verse 22 is the next gospel promise. Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life. The tree of life is a bit of a mystery. It reappears back in Revelation, possibly in the temple. We have to remember that the garden is a temple, it's a holy place where God meets man. And now that man has introduced sin, he cannot be there. So for man's own sake, God cast him out of the temple. And if there's one thing that's consistent, there's many things that are consistent in the Old Testament. One of the key things that's consistent in the Old Testament Sin brings distance between us and God. The whole worship system was distance. And now, because of Christ, we have access to go boldly into the very presence of God. The distance created here makes the gospel for us today, where we have already prayed in the name of Christ to the Father. We've already come into His presence. But all our lives can only live in the presence of God by Christ, in Christ. We no longer worship in fear and distance. We worship with joy and nearness. As we close, a warning. Those three little words that tempt us, that we entertain. Has God said? Has God said? Let us not entertain that, let us hold dear and fast to the declaration, it is written. What he has said is good, it's authoritative, it's right. There are many postures we can have towards God in this book. As we treat his word, we treat God. Many will say this is a good book and has good things, but I'm gonna decide what's good and what's not. Many will say this is an authoritative, I really value this book, but there's some things with it I don't really like. And then there's those who believe in Jesus and say, whatever it says, I will believe and I will do. I do not stand over it, I submit to it. It's over me. There are things I'm gonna understand, but I will believe in order to understand. I will obey when I see what's true and clear. We do not get to stand in the word of God and say, this is what is right today, or that was just a cultural thing of that day. No, today we look at God's word and we say, this is right and good. Give me the faith I need to believe and obey. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you are a good and holy God, that your word never fails, We can see how you are the God who speaks and you first call out to us when we've run away from you, where are you? We get to hear how you've promised a sure victory that we now know in Christ Jesus. We can know that we're not just covered, our sins are just covered, they're taken away because Christ has taken it upon himself. They're now as far away from us as the east is from the west. Lord, we're coming to your presence now. Lord, I pray that as we leave this place, we would worship you as you are worthy with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our strength. In Jesus' name we pray.