Promise Fulfilled Part 1

Good morning. This morning we're getting back into 2 Samuel 5, and we'll be looking at David becoming king, as you just heard. Before we do that, I want to think about achievements. There was an interesting interview a few years ago with Tom Brady, after he won his first three Super Bowls, where he admits he had to ask the question, is this it? Kind of a remarkably honest question, a very interesting response. He has won three Super Bowls at that point. He's won more since. But when you think about it, he's achieved the highest goal of his profession, personal ambition. Is this it? Think about it. It's the Super Bowl. It's supposed to be super, and yet it leaves him wanting to know what's more. The Super Bowl is really America's most faithfully observed worship service. And he who won it is still wondering. There's got to be something greater than this, he says. Well, then he's asked, do you know what that might be? I wish. Life, as God has designed it, is full of different marks and celebrations and turning points as we grow and mature and achieve different things. And each one is supposed to have some kind of satisfaction, and yet every one of them also leaves us wondering, is this it? Here we are at the season where many are graduating with a degree, where they have accomplished something, and now, what's next? Is this it? It's wedding season, that relationship you always thought would complete you and bring you true happiness. Well, eventually, is this it? There's a remarkable honesty about recognizing this life is not the way it's meant to be. This life is not fully satisfying. This, as we are in our sin, I'll add, As we look at our passage, we're actually going to see something very interesting. It's not that we are accomplishing kind of the highest point of our success, or finishing a degree, or finishing an ambition and finding it dissatisfying. We're actually looking at how God fulfilled His promise, and it's still disappointing. We're looking at how God, after years and years of waiting, after promise and promise, He actually fulfills His promises, and yet it is disappointing. Who's at fault? Is there something wrong with God? Well, we're gonna meditate upon this because we need to ask these kinds of questions. What is God doing? How do I find peace with God? How do I find rest with God? Today's text is actually a grand moment where he's fulfilling numerous promises. Chapters five and six, we're gonna look at six next week, but we see them together because we finally have the right people, who are numerous, in the right place, the promised land, Canaan. We have the right king, he takes his throne in his capital city, and then we're gonna have the right worship of the right God with the ark coming in. This is the fulfillment of numerous promises. And yet, it is not yet the right time, the right king, the right people, the right place. It is not done. There's still something not right intentionally here with David. 2 Samuel is pointing to a better king as we will see soon in 2 Samuel 7. If you're following along, Just follow the story again. Our four points are this. David is finally king. That's a grand celebration. We do want to say David is finally king. We've been waiting for this for some time in 1 Samuel and really throughout scripture. David is finally king, that's point one. Point two, sin is the problem. Number three, Jesus is the eternal king. Jesus is the eternal king. And point four, sin is still the problem. David is finally king, sin is the problem. Jesus is eternally king, sin is still the problem. If you're looking for just one statement, God provides the king he promises. Point one, David is finally king. We can go back and look at the kingship promises and it goes to Genesis 49 at least. That's when Israel, on his deathbed, before he dies, he gives to each tribe a blessing. And Judah, the fourth son, he receives the promise that the scepter will never leave his hand. We see there a foreshadowing that the king of Israel must come from the tribe of Judah. Then after they've gone into Egypt and they've come back out, We see Generally 7, and Moses gives very clear instruction on what kind of king not to choose, what kind of king to choose, and how that king should function. He's already giving prescriptions for a king, so we see it as something very important. And then we see Judges, that highlights its importance. The theme, everyone does what is right in their own eyes, because there was no king. There's been an escalation, we need a king, we need a king, and so we come to 1 Samuel, The people say, we want a king. They want the exact kind of king God warned against in Jeremy 17. They want him from the wrong tribe. They want a Benjaminite who's tall like the nations. Well, then we see in chapter 16, God chooses the king he wants in David. He doesn't look at the external. He looks at the internal. He looks at the heart. David has to wait for many years as he's serving under Saul, and then he's actually pursued. Saul wants to kill him, and God gives Saul into his hands numerous times, but he will not take that life out of reverence. Then Saul dies, and then last week, we looked at the seven and a half years of waiting for this promise to still be fulfilled. It seems like God is slow. Here this morning, we get to look at how David finally becomes king. Chapter five, verse one. All the tribes came to David and said, behold, we are your bone and flesh. We are of the same family. We're all of Abraham. In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel, and the Lord said to you, here's all of the tribes coming and declaring what God has said. You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel. Verse two, that promise that they know is important. We see here God is calling Israel his people. It's an important formula. You will be my people and I will be your God. God has purchased them, God has called them, God has made them his people with his own promise. He says you'll be my shepherd. as an important metaphor for all Scripture. We heard earlier Ezekiel 34 where God, He judges the shepherds who are supposed to be feeding His sheep. And He says, I will come and I will be the God. I will be your shepherd who feed my sheep. A shepherd does two basic things. He provides. He feeds. He protects. We pause here and recognize that when John 10 and Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. He's promising to have fulfilled Ezekiel 34. He's actually promising to be the son of David everyone's been waiting upon. And one of the things that's important about John 10 if we think about there's this theme of shepherd and kingship. He knows every sheep by name. He knows every little detail about them. He knows us all better than we know ourselves. That's why he's able to perfectly provide, perfectly protect. The other declaration there is you're a prince, you're a royal ruler. There's an authority that comes with this role. The people of Israel are finally coming and saying, we want you to be the shepherd that God has appointed you to be. We want you to be the prince that God has appointed you to be. The long-awaited king is finally recognized and they make a covenant. Now he had been in Hebron, that's where his original capital was when he was just the king of Judah, but now he's going to take Jerusalem. He's going to take Jerusalem. A new king wants to show his power by establishing his new capital, and Jerusalem is important. We also see hints of it in the previous chapter. It begins in Genesis 15, one of the most mysterious moments in all scripture that the author of Hebrews really unpacks for us in a way that really reveals what the mystery was. We have this interesting character named Melchizedek, who's the king of Salem, and that is assumed to be Jerusalem. Here we see a king who's not of Abraham, a king who is a foreigner. He comes to bless Abraham as the king of peace, the king of Jerusalem. We also saw Jerusalem hinted at in Mount Moriah, assumed to be the place where the Temple Mount is, next to Jerusalem, where Abraham sacrificed Isaac. We hear of Jerusalem spoken of directly in Joshua 10.1. The king of Jerusalem is a significant leader among the Canaanites. It's a very important, powerful city as the Canaanites are seeking to attack and throw out Israel, the Jewish people. It's a significant leading city of the Canaanites. And then Joshua 15, 63. Even though it says he conquered all the land, we see that in Judah, the Jebusites had a stronghold. Jerusalem has not yet been taken. David goes and takes this very significant city because of the prophecy of Mechilzedek, the importance of the stronghold of the Jebusites. He takes the city and he renames it the city of David. Notice there, verse 10. A little narrator comment here that's significant. And David became greater and greater. For the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him. David became greater. We ask, what is it about David? Is there something special and unique about him? Why, how? It tells us. For the one true God was with him. He's coming up in greater for the same reason Joseph was successful in Israel by bringing them into Egypt. God was with him. David is successful for the same reason Moses was when he had to go up to Pharaoh and say, let my people out and deliver God's people out of slavery from Egypt. God was with him. David's successful for the same reason Joshua was when he went to the promised land. God was with him. David's greatness has nothing to do with his own ability. It has everything to do with the one great God being with him. That's a covenant commitment from God. As we think about ourselves right now, That promise of God, I will be with you, is even more true for us than it was of David. We can pursue a greatness, but it's not our own greatness, it's God's greatness. It's seeking to do what God would have us to do. When Jesus left, his last words in Matthew, we meditated upon a few weeks ago at Easter. I am with you always. we can actually continue to achieve great things for Christ, in Christ, by Christ, because God is with us. Well, we're not powerless. It gives us strength to persevere. It gives us strength to be patient. We don't try to do great things to earn His favor. We do not try to do great things to make a name for ourselves. We try to do great things because the God of all glory has said, I'm with you. Go do my work. Fill the earth with my work. You should not think this is just an Old Testament application. For us today, we can seek to do great things because God is with us. Verse 11 also has a lot of foreshadowing. Verse 11, the king of Tyre sent messengers to David, sent cedar trees, carpenters, to build him a house. A foreigner. is seeking to build David a house. A foreigner is recognizing David is now the king of Israel. He's taken Jerusalem. There's something special about him, and the king of Tyre wants to honor him. This is important because we've been thinking about Israel and Israel and Israel, and we're thinking about how God's kingdom for Israel is becoming centered here with the right king and the right place, with the right people, with the right worship next week. But here we see it's supposed to be much bigger than just Israel. The king of Tyre. The nations are always in view for God. The very first promise for Abraham. The nations who bless you, I'll bless. You are to be a blessing to all nations. Israel is simply the people by which God is going to send the true king, the true son, who will bless all the nations. And here for a moment we see a king, a foreigner, recognizing what God is doing. and just a little foretaste of the big picture of God. If we just back up a moment, why are there different nations? Why are there so many different cultures? And why is there always conflict in the different customs? Well, it's because we all have language differences. You go back to Genesis 11, you actually see that humans refused to do what God said. Go and fill the earth with image bearers. And instead we decided to unite together and try to build up a temple to him because we thought we could achieve what God did not call us to do and we refused to do what God said to do. And so he gave everyone different languages and so these different nations and peoples spread out. And what we see here is that little glimmer. God's going to reverse that. God's going to bring all the nations back together. We see it fulfilled in Christ. In Acts, all the nations, all those different languages, all those different kind of nationalities and peoples coming back because Christ is the Savior. The Jew and the Gentile of all different peoples. God's plan is great. This is a simple foretaste of that. Verse 12, and David knew that the Lord had established him king over Israel. that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. In order to do anything of success for the kingdom there needs to be a certain confidence and David here knows that there's certainty that the Lord had established him. Now David has gone through a long waiting period there had to be some kind of inner conflict we know with Saul and then saw his son Ishmael and what to do with Joab and Abner and there's just been a lot of chaos. But we see how God clearly anointed him, how the people have anointed him, how God has been faithful to him. He has confidence because of how he's trusted God's promise. He has confidence because he's endured through trials. And notice that confidence isn't so that he stands high and mighty. That confidence sometimes leads to that, and it's actually gonna lead to his downfall, but the confidence in God's plan is that he would be the king for God's people. God never elevates rulers or leaders for their own sake. Now, if anyone has ever elevated to the role of a leader, they're elevated, well, really, they're not elevated at all. They're taking on more service. They're taking on more responsibility. that they're taking a position even lower. They come to, as Christ did, to seek and to serve and to make Christ known. See, this is what's interesting. When somebody becomes an elder of a church, or whenever you get married, or when you have children, or when you become a Sunday school teacher, or when you take on any kind of responsibility, what you're saying is, I'm doing this for the purpose of making those people know Christ better. Leadership is always meant to be for the sake of the people. This is why it is a noble desire, it's a noble task to want to take on leadership. It's doing so for the benefit of God's people. Finally, the last thing we see here is we've seen David anointed king. We see him take his capital. We've seen him have numerous wives, and that's gonna be a problem we'll talk about here in a moment. We see him taking the capital city. We see him now having victory over the Philistines. Now there's two stages there, 17 to 21 and then 22 to 25. Those are the great enemies of Israel and David is getting greater and greater. He's having more success and more success. This seems like a great kingdom. As we just leave this chapter, we have to ask, what happened? Why is it there's still a king in Jerusalem that we recognize and want to be part of today? If this is what God is doing, he's finally fulfilling all these promises, the right people in the right place with the right king, why is it still there today? Why aren't we longing to go to Jerusalem and bow down to whoever this king would be? Well, our second point, sin. is the problem. Something is not right. And there's two things we see that aren't right. The most significant one actually comes from verses 13 to 16. David took more concubines and more wives. We already saw earlier that in chapter three, that in Hebron, he'd taken wives and he had many children. We see, if you go back to Deuteronomy 17, one of the clear commands and qualifications for being king is that you do not take more wives. You do not take more concubines. It's something important to see in scripture. God never commands polygamy. God never condones polygamy. God judges polygamy. He warns against it. The very nature of marriage was designed in Genesis 2, where God said, and he shall leave his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. It's a monogamous relationship. There's supposed to be something very unique and special about a husband and a wife that is not shared with anybody else. Here we see David not acting like a king from God, but acting like a king of the nations. Trying to get more power by having more wives, more concubines. This is a way of making treaties with other nations. This is a way of being self-indulgent. He took more concubines. He took more wives. Well, God doesn't judge him directly for this. We will see him take a wife in a few chapters. Bathsheba. And the problem with him taking her was that she was already married. And so she becomes pregnant. David, in his sin, after realizing that he can't get away from the sin he's committed, he actually murders her husband. If you wanna ask why we don't go to Jerusalem, it's because David is just like us and therefore he cannot actually help us. David needs what we need. David, as he cried out in Psalm 51, he needs forgiveness. He can't help us with our biggest problem because he has that same problem. David is not the final true king. He is too much like us. That's why 2 Samuel 7 is so important. Before David even failed miserably with Bathsheba and her husband, God already said, you're not the real king. You're not the forever king. Your son will be. and he will be like a son to me, and I will be like a father to him, but you're not the king. That king isn't gonna come for a thousand more years. The reason David and his physical line in this way is not still in Jerusalem, reigning with great might and power, taking over the world and blessing over the world, is that David and every son after him, except for Jesus, were sinners. The other interesting little declaration that we need to realize here is verse 21. After David conquered the Philistines the first time, the Philistines left their idols there. Okay, now what should happen is, and Israel destroyed them, because they're not real gods, they're false gods. They're things that were cut out of wood that one level was used for a cooking instrument, and then the other one, you're gonna bow down and worship it. David and his men, carried them away. It doesn't say they bowed down. It doesn't say they worshiped. But they kept them. This is a real danger for anyone who professes God and wants to believe in God, is that other idol insurance policy we have. I believe this is what we see here. It's terrifying. This idolatrous insurance policy. Well, just in case God doesn't keep doing all these great things, just in case the God, he's not able to conquer some of these people, we should hold on to these gods in case we ever need them. I fear that's what's happening here and that he's not obedient in destroying those false images. He's not obedient in keeping them away from his people as far as possible. He's breaking the commandment. He's holding on to a graven image. He's holding on to maybe there's some other God who might help him with some other problem. No, this is an idolatrous insurance policy. Again, sin is the problem. There's a lack of obedience to God and that he's taking wives. There's a lack of trust in God because he's holding on to idols. Our third point, we're gonna move away from this text. We're gonna kinda jump from it. And our third point is the one we need to really think about is Jesus is the forever king. David is finally king. David has now brought the right people and the right place and the right capital. He is the king, but he's not the forever king. Chapter seven is important because of David's sin. God says to David that there will be a son of yours that will be on the throne forever. I will be like a father to him and he will be like a son to me. and when he sins, I will discipline him with a rod. We see this with Solomon, we see this with all the kings out of David's lawn, that they all do sin and they all do get disciplined and the kingdom gets worse and worse until God actually has to drag them into a new exile into Babylon and when they come back, it's never the same. We see David's sons. There's Amnon who rapes his sister. Absalom who attacks David. What in the world is going on after 2 Samuel promised a son? Solomon seems good. He seems like he might be the guy because when God said ask for anything he said wisdom. And then he took wives and concubines just like he learned from dad. And he divides the kingdom. No, we have to wait 1,000 years after David for the king to be born. Matthew's gospel begins this way. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. This is declaring there are two covenants that Jesus is fulfilling, and those two covenants are, the Davidic covenant is built on the Abrahamic covenant, but they're two covenants, and they promise sons, and now Jesus, the one son, fulfills Genesis 17 7. Paul says so in Galatians. This is the son. Jesus is the fulfillment of 2 Samuel 7. This is the son. We can look further and see Jesus is a woman of Ezekiel 34. This is God who's come down to shepherd his sheep. When Jesus comes down and we see this book of genealogy, he's the son of David, he's the royal king, he's the shepherd they've been waiting on, he's the son of Abraham, he's the promised son. We see him in contrast to Herod, the king of Israel. Herod, mighty in rule, is threatened by this little baby boy. So he has all the baby boys murdered throughout all of Israel. God protects Jesus. And one of the most significant things there is we know from the story that Jesus is born in Bethlehem. That's not the capital city, but it is David's city. It's David's birthplace. We see how Jesus is fulfilling the promises. Then we hear the triumphal entry, fast forwarding 30 years into his last week of his life. He enters Jerusalem and what is being declared of him by the children singing while he's riding on a donkey like a king? Hosanna, loud hosanna to the son of David. The king is coming. And what we're expecting is this king's gonna come and he's gonna exercise a mighty right hand and he's gonna overthrow the Roman government and he's gonna establish Jerusalem in a way that everyone will always know Jerusalem is the capital city of all the world. No. He sits silently as those Roman guards punch him, spit upon him, mock him, put a crown of thorns on him. lead him to the cross, put nails in his hands and his feet, and hang him. In the most cruel and shameful way, Rome knew how to punish somebody, and they were experts in punishment. And then one of the most true statements said that day, Pilate had a sign put over his head. This is the king of Jews. Jesus comes to fulfill the promise of 2 Samuel 7. He comes with those cries, here's the son of David, but then he hears the mocking, and then he has a sign, the king of the Jews, and then he declares, it is finished. And he gave up his life. He looked defeated. His followers were fearful, his mother wept, Angels are confused, demons rejoice. This was the king? That's it? But what we don't realize, even with the earth mourning his death with darkness and an earthquake, with his death, he destroyed the power of death. He destroyed the power of the devil. With his death, he overcame sin. With his death, he forever provided forgiveness for anyone who comes to him in his name and asks for forgiveness so he can reconcile with the Father. He's not dead. He's risen. He's risen indeed. By his resurrection, he proves he is who he said he is, the son of David, the king. He now sits on his throne. When he declares it is finished, it was the new beginning of the new kingdom where all who come to him in faith can be forgiven. And that's where he says, I have all authority. Make disciples. Learn to observe all that I have commanded you. I am with you always. We actually go back to something else regarding his kingship in that the first words of Jesus' public ministry are this, the kingdom of God is at hand. There's something new happening. All of God's plans and promises are being fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. True worship is being introduced. But that's not exactly accurate because that is not the real first words of Jesus. The real first word of Jesus is repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. The truth that Jesus comes to establish is the kingdom of God is at hand. That is something we do not control. That is something that Jesus had in his hands under the Father's guidance the entire time. Nothing was gonna stop what Jesus was doing. Every time the disciples try to make him their king, it's not my time, it's not my time. There was nothing that could change the kingdom of God coming to be by his death and resurrection. What's our responsibility? Repent. We oftentimes don't like that word. That word feels awkward because it implies there's something wrong. But I want to show you, that word is one of the most powerful invitations you'll ever receive. Turn away from the sin that destroys you and turn to the God who has given you new life. Turn away from the patterns of your own thoughts and the patterns of your own actions that continue to leave you frustrated and in pain and wanting more and turn to the God who truly fulfills and satisfies. Turn away from the way that you've been self-indulgent and self-satisfying and turn to him who truly satisfies. Repent. Turn away from your sin. Turn away from this self-indulgence and this self-pity and turn up to God who says, I am with you. I can forgive you. You see, when Jesus comes, he does the one thing no one else can do. He does the one thing David could not do. He does the one thing David needs and we need. He provides forgiveness. The wrath of God was satisfied the day Jesus Christ died and said, it is finished. He is just because he's punished every sin. We are justified, we are declared not guilty because all of our sin was counted towards him. Jesus is able to provide real forgiveness because he really paid the debt. And it's not just an objective thing where we know that we now have a right relation with God. No, it means a conscience cleansed. It means no more guilt. It means no more fear. It means we now know who we are because of what God has said and what God has done. It's peace. The invitation is confess your sin. Confess your sin. What you're actually guilty of. That's terrifying. It's terrifying because we usually think if we go before a judge and we tell him what we've actually done, the judge does what's right. He drops the gavel and he says, here's your punishment. Or if we go to a friend who's self-righteous, we tell them what we've actually done or what we've thought or what we've said, here's your punishment. You're now shunned and I'm gonna gossip. Jesus is different. When we come to Him and we tell Him what we've done, what we've thought, what we've said, He says, I paid the penalty. I forgive you. He restores, He heals. This is what the true King does. He forgives. And this is the pressing question. Is it your King? Is he your king? Not do I profess to have him as my king, but does he claim you? Does he claim you because you've actually repented and turned from your ways and turned him? Does he claim you and do you see the effects of repentance and confession and are you seeking to embrace that forgiven life? He's not like David. He comes and he receives the rod for our sins. Is he your king? If you want him to be your king, it's amazingly simple. It's not cheap, because it was very costly for Christ. Just confess your sin. I need forgiveness. And he forgives. Well, why isn't it that the believers in the churches, why is it we're all Obedient, happy people now. Well, that's our fourth point. Sin is still the problem. David fails as a king and that's why his fulfillment is incomplete. Jesus is the perfect king who fulfills his work, who is seated having accomplished it all. Why is it incomplete? Well, it's because we still live in a world where our hearts have sin and we are still tempted towards sin. We live in a world where we're called the elect exiles. We live in a world, our citizenship is in heaven, but we still live in this earth, and this earth is still falling, and we still have sin. This is why it's important, there's still a kingdom to come. Christ isn't finished, he's going to return, and he's gonna restore all things perfectly. I wanna leave you with this. First John three speaks to how we should think about who we are today, what's going to happen and how we should live. 1 John 3, verses two to three. Beloved, that's speaking to the church, we are God's children now. That is a truth statement. We get to call God Father, as we did earlier in the prayer, because this Son of God, Jesus, has shared his inheritance. This is a position adopted, sealed. We are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. There's still something wrong. We're still not complete. Why? He has not yet appeared again. But we know that when he appears, the second coming, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. We're longing to see Jesus as he is because as a sinless, resurrected Savior, we will be like him and our sins fully removed. And we'll get to see him as he is. We'll no longer see him with sin-tainted eyes. We'll no longer see him with these lenses that blur who he is because of our sin. Not because he's not great, but because we keep wanting to see something else other than God. When he comes back, he's gonna change us. and we'll see him more perfectly. That's who we are, that's what we're hoping for. We are God's children. That's a declaration we must believe. Declared not guilty, adopted sons of God. That's who we are. What we will be is worshipers that no longer have to worship with sin confusing us and distracting us. So what do we do now? Verse three. Everyone who thus hopes in him, that is Christ, the perfect one, everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Purifies himself as he is pure. Christian, we're not saved so that we can sin, we're saved so that we can say no to sin. We're saved from sin so we can reject it. We're saved from sin so we become more and more like Christ. We will finally become, be made like Christ, but as we're waiting here, we're called to purify ourselves. Matthew 5a, Jesus' own words, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. We can become more faithful worshipers by putting off sin and putting on Christ. While we wait, seek purity. Seek to be purified. Purity's difficult, because it's somewhat confusing. The purity for the Christian disciple is hard because it requires our diligent efforts and complete dependence on His grace. And we get these two things mixed up. We either think it's just God's grace and I'm waiting for God to act, or we think it's all my work and I'm gonna do it, and both of those lead to frustration. But if we realize we're to be diligently putting forth effort, if you think Christian discipleship has no effort, you're failing miserably, and you're probably completely unsatisfied as a Christian. 2 Peter 1's very clear, make every effort depending on the full grace of God. He who began a good work and you will do it. He who calls you to sanctification will sanctify you. He will surely do it. He's faithful. We have to wrestle those two extremes, but we have to realize fully His grace is sufficient and requires effort. This is how we purify ourselves. Three brief points as we conclude. Jesus, our King, has died to forgive us and give us peace with God. Therefore, embrace that peace by confessing sin. Jesus Christ has died to forgive us and give us peace with God. Therefore, the action is embrace that peace with confession of sin. Second, Jesus Christ our king has risen to give us new life. Embrace that new life with new practices in the mind and in your behavior and in your words to obey him. He's risen to give us new life. The Holy Spirit who rose Christ from the dead. He's in us to give us the power to live a new life. It means new practices. It means new ways of thinking and talking and loving and desiring. Finally, Jesus our King will return. Such good news today. Jesus our King will return. Therefore, embrace hope. Our King is not finished. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you are a good God who has shown us the power of your promises throughout history. We thank you that you're the good God who has shown us in Christ the full power of the gospel to save sinners, Forgive us for taking all of these words for granted, for not ordering our lives around your truth, for not ordering our lives around your commandments. Thank you that it is not up to us to work to earn your forgiveness, but you give us the grace so that we might work out our salvation. Thank you for a king who reigns with all power, with all love, that we look forward to one day seeing without sin, and as we wait, help us to purify ourselves. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.