So this is the go-to passage for repentance, for evaluating repentance. I'm going to read verses 2 through 16, and while I do, 2 Corinthians 7, 2 to 16, see if you can anticipate why this is so critical and where I'm going to go with the insights, because If you can, then we'll make you a co-author, okay? But this is really critical. I know sometimes it... When somebody else reads scripture, your mind just goes a little bit, but dial in on it. Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one. We have corrupted no one. We have taken advantage of no one. You say, well, Paul sounds a little defensive here. He is defensive here. He's on defense in the book of 2 Corinthians. He's in the awkward place of having to defend his ministry. I don't say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. I am acting with great boldness towards you. I have great pride in you. I'm filled with comfort in all our affliction. I'm overflowing with joy. Now, part of what's going on, there are people questioning Paul's credentials, and Paul's saying to the Corinthians, well, you all are my credential. Verse five, for when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. I've got a ring, is it just a little hot? Is my mic just a little hot? But for when we came into Macedonia, would it be better if I go on the platform? Okay, for even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. So this is a guy who has been in the depths. He said in chapter one, thought we had received the sentence of death. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. In 2 Corinthians, the word comfort is really critical. And it's not a pat on the back, a there, there. It's an exhortation, get going. God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it. So Paul's referencing a letter he had written him and he had really came down on him hard. So much that they were grieved. But he says, I don't regret it. Though I did regret it, for I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a little while. As it is, I rejoiced, not because you were grieved, but because, here we go, you were grieved into repenting, for you felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what longing, what fear, what zeal, what punishment, at every point you have proved yourselves innocent in this matter. So although I wrote to you, this is just really interesting, verse 12, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God, therefore we are comforted. So there's our comforted word again. And besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For whatever boast I made to him about you, I was not put to shame, but just as everything we said to you was true, so I'll start boasting before Titus has proved true, and his affection for you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice because I have perfect confidence in you. The word of the Lord, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, these truths go right to the heart of real life situations, and we need them. We plead with you that your Holy Spirit would illuminate the truth that we would be better equipped by it, that we would be revived, that as Paul says here, that we would be comforted, exhorted, encouraged to go on. We ask it all in Jesus' name, amen. So here's what we're going to do in our time tonight. Number one, I give you these four points. We're going to establish that you must distinguish between worldly sorrow and godly grief, and that doing so is legitimate. You, all of you, one of the things you have to do in the Christian life is look at a situation and make an evaluation. That person is not really repentant. where that person really is repentant. That has to be done. It's critical. Number two, we have to consider why it's so hard to do it. So there's this thing we have to do, evaluate repentance, but for reasons we'll see, it's very, very difficult. Number three, we will accept that the repentance that is most difficult to evaluate may be our own. It's a really hard thing. And then we'll identify from this passage I've just read in 2 Corinthians, a foundational principle for evaluating repentance. I'm gonna give you an insight, maybe two insights on this passage. that you haven't seen put the way that I'm putting them. Now, why do we have to evaluate repentance? We'll start with the first one. Well, we have to know when to celebrate. We said this morning that repentance is an occasion of celebration, it's an occasion of joy. When the prodigal son came home from a far country, they killed the fattened calf. There are times when you've restored someone, I'm not thinking of anyone in particular, some particular situation, but you as a church have given them a hug back and celebrated and said, this is over. We exhorted you, we admonished you, and now you're back. But of course, what we can't do is do that prematurely or in the wrong instant. Listen, I have confronted and admonished and exhorted many people in many difficult situations as a pastor. I hardly remember an instance in which the person exhorted did not say very quickly, I'm sorry. Almost always, they express regret. I have to tell you, in those hard situations, the number of times when the person has truly been repentant is relatively rare. I mean, broad is the road that leads to destruction, and the gate is narrow. Jesus didn't say, a few exceptions on judgment day will hear from me the words, I never knew you. Jesus said, there are many. So that's sober, so we have to do it to know when to celebrate. We have to do it to be confident in making difficult decisions. It's so hard. Keep your place there and look over at Titus. And you get down to the very end of this book, and Paul says to Titus, As for a person who stirs up division, Titus 3.10, after warning him once and then twice have nothing more to do with him. So you've got somebody who keeps stirring up trouble in the church and isn't sorry about it. warn him once, warn him a second time, and then this is the verse that is so interesting that it's here. Knowing such a person is warped and sinful, he's self-condemned. Now, why in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is that verse in the Bible? It's in the Bible because as elders, as biblical elders, when we have to formally discipline someone, we will always question ourselves over and over again. And it's like, listen, we warned him once, we warned him a second time, shouldn't we warn him 10 times? And Paul says, no, listen, there comes a point, Titus, where you make a decision, and you're not making the decision. He's making the decision, or she's making the decision. This isn't you. And it's so critical for boundaries. You come to a point, I've dealt with this multiple times, where adult children have to make decisions about how to relate to an unrepentant parent. How do you make decisions about those boundaries? It's really tough. You say, well, Chris, on average, the hard decisions that elders have to make, on average, how many times would you say you second guess yourself? And I would say 63,000. Okay? Only all night long, all the time, you go to bed thinking about it, you wake up thinking about it. I mean, it's tough. So we have to be confident, and we have to make sure that our confidence comes from the word of God, and then, as I've already said here, to know how to establish boundaries. But we also, by the way, what do people always say? If there's one verse our culture knows from the Bible, it's this judge not lest ye be judged. Judge not lest, well listen, that's talking about a particular kind of hypocritical judging. If you, if a pastor was stealing money from the church, and then being critical of people about their finances in the church, that's awful, right? But in the same context, so that's the kind of judging we aren't supposed to do. But in the same context where Jesus says on Matthew 7, judge not lest you be judged, he also says don't throw pearls before, wait, that's a tough one. What does it take to obey that verse? It means that there are times when we have to say, figuratively speaking, this will sound so harsh when I say this, but there are times where we have to say, figuratively speaking, that person's a pig. and I'm wasting the truth and continuing on. I mean, that is rough. That is rough. You're like, well, I don't know if I would put it that way about the pig. It's like, well, Jesus put it that way. That's what it says. So now, That in mind, why is it so difficult to evaluate repentance? And the answer is, because only God sees the heart. Only God sees the heart. You cannot look at someone, and I've had pastors do this before. I've had pastors say, I know he's repentant, or I know she's repentant. Or they've said, I know she isn't, or I know he's not. Listen, we can't see the heart. And over and over again, the Bible makes this point. Now I'll give you a whole montage of verses here to make the point. And it's probably too small to see, but the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. Proverbs 12, 15. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. Listen, when we're rebelling, because the standard of justice is written on our hearts, we're working out all the time a rationale for doing it. And we get very persuasive at doing it. And people who are making bad decisions think over and over again, this is why I'm doing it. And it seems right in their own eyes. There's a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death. Proverbs 14, 12. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. We will say, I know I am right. Well, we're persuaded that we are. Whoever trusts his own mind is a fool. Calvary Bible Church, listen, you need your church family. You need your church family. If you simply try and work it out, and I mean, Chas, you need Calvary Bible Church. Eric needs, I mean, we don't just need one mind. We need all kinds of minds. Whoever trusts his own mind is a fool. There are those who are clean in their own eyes, but not washed of their filth. Do we see that in our culture, headlined every day? It is amazing how sanctimonious unbelieving culture can be. They're very clean in their own eyes. If you ask Hollywood, do you have anything to be ashamed of about your conduct? They're absolutely not. They're clean in their own eyes. A verse that you probably memorized when you were little, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? 1 John 1a, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. I'll put up next this quote that I've used any number of times in counseling situations. I'm talking with someone about their blind spot, and I share to them, you've got this blind spot in your life, and they respond to me, I don't see it. I don't agree with you. And that's when we say, well, and that turns out to be the thing about blind spots, right? We, I had this in the last year at church, had a situation that we had to exhort and the person, dear saint, dear saint, this wasn't some incredible matter of discipline. Is this one of those things you work through in families? It's like, ah, I don't see it. It's like, everybody else sees it. It wasn't just one person's thought, but it's really, really hard. Now, I'll just pass for a moment. You realize, don't you, you have blind spots. And you say back to me, man, I don't really see any. It's like, yeah, and there's the thing, OK? It's just humility is, I'm gonna be a part of a church family where I'm gonna have people love me over a long period of time so that we trust one another enough that we can grow up together. And we could go on a major tangent about my blind spots and just how, I mean, if you wanna get humbled in life, be a pastor. So, now listen, this is what we've established. This is what we've established. You know, a young guy planted a church, and I was listening to him talk about church planting two years in. And they're asking him, what advice would you give to church planters? And he said, well, whatever area of your sanctification you've been putting off dealing with, it's going to get revealed right away when you go into this pressured situation. So now we go to 2 Corinthians 7. That's just the intro. None of that counted on my time. I'm teasing. 2 Corinthians 7. There's part of this passage that's really, really easy to see, and then there's two things that are really hard to see. So I'll give you the easy part. The easy part is right away we see that the Bible acknowledges a difference between godly grief and worldly sorrow. That is the contrast that Paul is making. And it is so important to see that that exists. A chunk of my book is equipping people to distinguish between worldly sorrow and godly grief. We'll see how awake you are. The Bible has a lot of examples of both people. Both categories. So you tell me, give me a biblical example of worldly sorrow, anyone. Judas, that's the most famous one and or infamous one. And did he regret? So much so, he took his own life. I mean, In a sense, no one felt worse about what, he returned the money. And so that's one example of worldly sorrow. Give me a couple more. King Saul, that's the one I keep thinking about. And he's frantically tearing at Saul's robe one moment, Telling David how sorry he is. Regretting it all over the place on multiple occasions. He's saying how sorry he is. What do I have to do to make it right? He says to Samuel. And a short time later, he's thrown a spear at his own son. Or trying to kill David again. Or going to the witch at Endor. I mean, it's crazy. And ultimately, dies unrepentant. King Saul, you're good. Think of anyone else? Yeah, Pharaoh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's right. You know, but then, yeah, Jeff. Yeah, just as brothers. So, I mean, and in particular, which brother, worldly sorrow, which brother? Well, but Judah, Judah turns out to be the legitimately repentant one. Reuben, Reuben, that's right. And I mean, no one feels worse about the whole thing than Reuben. Remember they sell Joseph into slavery And Reuben wrings his hands and says, what are we to do? As though it's not obvious. Bruce Waltke says in his commentary, go get your brother. Say to your father, we have done a terrible thing. We have done a terrible thing. And he's wringing his hands. And we get to the end of the book, the end of Genesis, and Jacob's blessing, and Jacob says, you were as unstable as water, something like that, I haven't memorized it. And we could come up with more. Esau, the Bible says, wept many tears. By the way, here's a principle I think worldly sorrow sheds more tears than godly grief. People with worldly sorrow always want you to know how many tears they've shed. And they're amazingly self-absorbed in it. And you hear this phrase, you don't know how many nights I have cried myself to sleep. It's like, and if you want to know the most popular word of worldly sorrow, it's easy. It's I. I, I, I. I've been through this. I've been through so much. You don't know what I've gone through. You don't know my heart. The rich young ruler goes away sad. Simon the magician is frantic. So those are worldly sorrow. Now tell me, godly grief. What's beautiful is we have lots of great godly grief examples. Give me a couple. Peter, so we've got that immediate contrast between Peter and Judas. And then there Peter is, man, in the last chapter of the fourth gospel, right? He's with the Lord. Jesus is telling him, feed my sheep, Peter, you love me. He started to say what? Jonah, Jonah. He's, yeah, and boy, is it a battle? Is it a battle? But he is. And then the book ends, and we're not sure he's thrown a fit outside of Columbus under that plant. Yeah, that's right. And then you started to get to it earlier. Judah, and I think I preached on that here. Judah, you know, Judah is a frog's hair from being struck dead in Genesis 38. We know that's the case. I mean, God already struck Judah's two sons dead. And here Judah is doing the same thing they did. And he says about his daughter-in-law, take her outside and burn her. And then they pull out his driver's license, and he's like, and it hits him. And he comes awake, and he says, she's more righteous than I am. You say, well, how do we know that was real? How do we evaluate that? I'm glad you asked. Because by the time 20 years later, we get to Genesis 44, the longest monologue in history, and Judah, not knowing Joseph is Joseph, goes up there, the fourth son, and by the way, if ever If ever someone had an excuse to be bitter and angry, it was Judah. He's a fourth son. Genesis says that Jacob hated Leah, his mother. Hated, loathed her. That's the dynamic he grew up in. With his mom treated as a second class citizen. and Joseph driving a Corvette around in front of him, or a many colored coat. It was some hard stuff. And was it Judah's job to go up there and die? No, he's the fourth son. But then he's the guy who goes up there and says, my life for his life. And by the way, if ever there's a picture, and I know I preached on this before, but boy, you just gotta love this. If ever there's a picture of the celebration of repentance, think of it, Judah goes up to die. That's what he's doing. The best case scenario for Judah was when he approached Joseph, I'm gonna be a slave in Egypt. The worst case scenario was they kill me. And he goes up. What does repentant Judah find? That his tribe will be the tribe of kings, that the Lord Jesus Christ will come from his sin with Tamar. The God who's so gracious just won't give him one baby, but two babies. I mean, it's amazing, amazing story. So we could go on and on, and we've got to make this distinction, but That's the easy part that we've got to distinguish it. Here's what's hard. We've got this list of seven qualities that are true of godly grief. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment. Seven things. Now, I got lots of seminary students, I got lots of people are getting theological education. What they tell you to do with this, and this is largely what the commentaries do with 2 Corinthians 7, is we got these seven things. Chaz, you can ask Chaz afterwards and he'll confirm that this is what goes on. And they'll tell you, look at every one of those in the original language, Compare the use of that word in every other passage in the New Testament. Learn what it meant in ancient Greek and the first century, and that's how you figure out what it means. Here's why that's hard, though. Because this list is given for a specific situation in which the church at Corinth had not dealt with an unrepentant offender at first. So the list that Paul gives is very tailored to a specific situation. And so when you look at this list and you say, so I've got this person that says they're sorry, and you start comparing the list, you're like, well, what does this mean? Are they zealous? Are they punishing? Are they indignant? They shouldn't be indignant. They're supposed to be humble. So we get, we easily, And I'll step away from the pulpit when I say this, okay? I think even Calvin here doesn't really drill in on the heart of things. He goes through the seven lists. It's some of the greatest writing on repentance ever, but he doesn't really drill in. And we just get lost in this list. That's what's hard. But here's the key, and a commentator named Barnett helped me, New International Commentary on the New Testament, helped me with this. What you need to see exegetically here is that there's one quality that is set apart from the others, and that is earnestness. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also, and then he gives the other six. Now, what Barnett says in his commentary is that the other six are specific to the situation in Corinth, but the quality that we're looking for in true repentance is eagerness or earnestness, earnestness. And then here's a second thing that you need to notice. The key thing is production, production. The grief, godly grief, if we go to the next slide, godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and earnestness. We know that earnestness is the key quality because in the next verse, he comes back to it again. For he says, see what earnestness, so although I wrote to you, I'm losing it here. This is the part where I'm working out. I think it's in, where's earnestness said again? Oh, down in verse 12. But in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. So if we go to the next slide, this is hard to see, but the basic quality of godly grief and true repentance is an earnestness or diligence in following through. Now, let me get real life, because you say, all these situations that you talk about where people, one way or another, have been exhorted, and they say they're sorry, they say that they feel terrible, they want you to know how many tears they have shed, and then you give them assignments or homework to follow up on, and nothing. Lots of excuses. Lots of reasons why it didn't happen. Lots of reasons why there's a lion in the street and they can't follow through on it today. But no productive earnestness. Now listen, in your repentance, The question to ask yourself is, don't get all introspective. Think, am I sorry? Am I really sorry? Do all those things. Here's the question. Edward said, assurance is more about action than introspection. You know, am I following through in being in church? Am I following through in making restitution? Am I following through in listening? That's the distinction between worldly sorrow and godly grief. So if you're gonna underline or circle a word, a couple words in this passage, the word Well, two words are earnestness and produce. Earnestness that leads to or produces salvation without regret. Be earnest. And I can think of, I remember one time, I think multiple times, confronting people who said that they were sorry And you're like, I don't know. I don't know if they are or not. And then over years and decades, you just see the fruit over and over again. No, they were. But it wasn't like I just looked at it and thought yes or no. And this is back to why we have to have a plurality of biblical leaders, and this is why your church is working so hard at training up more. Because this is the heavy lifting of shepherding, and this is the heavy lifting of parenting. I keep talking in terms of elders, but we as Moms and dads have to do that with our lovely kids. We have to work through, are they sorry? Sorry they got caught. Now, there's two insights from this passage that I want to make sure that you get. One of them is this highlighting productive earnestness. Here's another one. What happens when this passage gets preached on, it usually gets taken out of the larger context and we miss something. Notice how many times in what I read tonight, Paul talks about joy. He says, verse four, in all our affliction, I'm overflowing with joy. Now here's what's going on. Paul's taken major heat from this church and he's had to come down on them hard. And they've responded, they're truly sorry. And he's saying, what did that produce? Joy. And then go down to verse 13, besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus. because his spirit has been refreshed by, here's the South Carolina, y'all, right? We rejoice still more. Or look at verse 16. I rejoice because I have perfect confidence in you. Now, brothers and sisters, listen, being a part of the people of God, God's church is so hard. It is so hard. When you're a young pastor, I don't care how sanctified you are in your first pastoral ministry, you're thinking, oh man, I'm so frustrated with these hardheaded people. I want to get to a church that does it right. and then you go somewhere else and the same people beat you to the next place. And worse yet, you were still there, okay? You went as well. Listen, we just gotta, and I mean, I had people say, well, church isn't, I don't think, Church has always been this difficult. It's like, have you read the New Testament? Have you read Philippians? I encourage these sisters to get along. Can't you love to meet them? Don't you want to meet Judea and however you say that, Syntyche? You're like, so it was you. And they're going to be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like, you had your issues too. And we'll be like, yeah, but I'm not in the Bible for it. I mean, of course we won't do that, but listen, it's part of family. It's part of family. You know, it's like, well, it hasn't always been this tough. Have you read Galatians? Corinthians? You know, or John talking about Demas, or I mean, who is it that wants to be first? whatever his name was, wants to be first. Diatrophes? Is that the guy? Yeah. Yeah. So listen. But what we have to do is we just battle forward together. You go back to our situation. Let me give you the situation today from my pretty daughter-in-law, OK? one of the greatest blessings of my life. Answer, you know, Christopher's born, we're praying God would give him a godly wife. She's on the other side of the country, gotta go to Ohio of all places to meet, but they met. You say, so you have this emergency, you're calling ambulances, you're dealing with everything, It's like, did you do everything perfect? No. We're trying to survive. Trying to live. And listen, that's church. That's church as well. Why am I here tonight? Here's why. Because it's life or death that we hear the word of God. about what constitutes godly grief. It's life or death. And Chris called me, checking, do you need anything? What do you need? He says, they're running tests. It'll be a few hours. And I said, OK, I'm leaving for church pretty soon. He goes, you're still going? And I said, do you need? I mean, not if you need something. He goes, no, no, follow me. And it's like, OK, here we are. Because this is that earnest. That earnest. Now you say, okay, I got the principles. Let's just go through our progression again here. We have to evaluate repentance. It's very difficult because the human heart is so deceitful. In my own heart, I can't necessarily just think how bad I feel and know. So the only way I can do this is in the community of the redeemed with the word of God. But you say, okay, but I got this situation, and now you're gonna tell me this particular thing. And there's always these intricate things you have to work through. How do you make decisions in really, in all these? How do you work through it? Here's the only way. You've got to, Inhabit the scripture. You've got to rinse yourself in the word. You've gotta look at Reuben, and you've gotta look at Absalom, and you've gotta look at Jonathan. You want an impossible situation? Take Jonathan. I keep thinking about it. What am I supposed to do, pastor, if I'm Jonathan? My own dad could kill me. My friend is God's anointed, but my dad wants to kill him. I mean, if I do, I've got to honor my father and Israel. You say, well, go with God's anointed. Well, they're both anointed. I mean, Saul was anointed. I mean, David wasn't afraid to kill people. He was very afraid to kill Saul. And you say, well, so how did it all work out so that it went well for Jonathan? Well, it didn't. I'll tell you when it worked out for Jonathan right now. He's in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ because he was faithful. And listen, you're about to hear Isaiah, And tradition tells us, we have strong reason to believe, that in Hebrews 11, when it talks about someone being sawed in half, that that was Isaiah at the behest of Manasseh. And you say, well, Manasseh, by the way, Manasseh truly did repent at the end. If you were Isaiah, you might say, we should have been a little bit earlier, okay? I mean, and a lot of other people as well. So here's the thing we face as young pastor, as a young pastor, my background's science, background's chemistry. And as a young pastor, I thought of pastoral ministry, that's like a really, really complicated math problem. and that my job is to find the solution to the problem. I wasn't so arrogant that I always thought I could find it, but I thought there was just one that I had to find. But listen, brothers and sisters, sometimes this side of glory, there's not an easy answer. There's not a clear way forward. but we just keep going on together. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord. That's what Paul says. Because you know, your labor is not in what? It's not in vain. It's not in vain. Now, our time is gone, but I have myself inhabited, I had it here somewhere. a biblical narrative, thinking about all these, and I cataloged all these situations. By the way, we missed an obvious worldly sorrow one. Cain, Cain, woe is me. My punishment is more than I can bear. It's too much. By the way, that is the picture of worldly sorrow. This is too much. What about me? Don't you believe in forgiveness? I thought we were about grace. And I, you know, Esau, and I won't read them all. Obviously the stuff with David and Zacchaeus. Does Jesus outline restitution plan for Zacchaeus? He earnestly puts it forward himself, right? Whatever I've taken, it's not mine. I'll pay it back. Is it fourfold or something like that? I'll make restitution. That's an illustration. So our time is gone. We could talk about the book of Philemon, but I have this catalog. Ms. Hannah has graciously printed these off. And if you're, motivated to get more, then they're right up here by the piano. You can pick one up. Also, Hannah has the link if you want it electronically. It's unedited. I need an editor. So you're going to find typos and stuff. Don't tell me. Okay? And likewise for the slides, Hannah has a link where you can get to the slides online if you want to look at them more. But listen, I'll just conclude with this. This is a special church. This is a special church. It is amazing that you're sitting here at Sunday night Someday, I mean, it's just when you're so in the middle of it. You got people that are like, you know, I mean, Christopher's telling me, oh yeah, Stephon preached his sermon on 84, it was tremendous. I'm like, well, that puts a lot of pressure on me. And I'm hearing about all this that you're doing that God has going on, and I'm so thankful, so thankful. But listen, our time is up, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, so much to think about. But Lord, thank you tonight that when the offering plate came around, what these brothers and sisters put in the plate this evening was the gift of their evening to being like the Bereans, to open up the word and examine if these things are so. And Lord, I pray that they will inhabit the Bible, that their elders will inhabit the word, And God, we ask that you bless them. Pray that their love would abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that they can discern what is best and be pure and blameless until the day of your son. I ask that earnestly. Lord, I pray that they would be strengthened with all power according to your glorious might for endurance and patience with joy. Would I pray that you would bless Christopher and Meredith and Mary Susan and Daniel. God, keep them safe. Would I pray that you would give Meredith confidence and peace and calm. She's so worried as a young mom. about her own health and about her babies and about all that's weighing down. Thank you for a church here that loves on one another. Thank you for our King, the Lord Jesus. We pray in his name, amen.