Man's Sin and The Plan of God

Alright, good morning. Glad that you are here opening God's word with us this morning. We're gonna be in Genesis 11. When I was in middle school and high school, I used to spend my summers, or a good chunk of my summers, out in Las Vegas. My mom's whole side of the family had migrated out there at some point. And so I would go out there and spend about a month every summer in Las Vegas with some of my aunts and uncles and my cousins. And when I would go to Las Vegas, me and my cousin always had one place that every summer we made sure we went. It's a place called the Stratosphere. The Stratosphere is a really big tower. It's like the CN Tower in Toronto. Big tower, kind of UFO-looking thing up on the top. And the thing about this tower was, it was not only was it really tall, okay, it was 108 stories on the observation deck on top, but once you got on top, it had a bunch of rides up there. Okay? So we used to love going and doing the rides. Now, two of the rides would dangle you over the side of the building. They weren't fun. I don't know why we did 'em. There was nothing fun about these rides. They just made you feel like you were gonna die. I hated 'em, but I did 'em anyway. Another ride was just kind of a lame roller coaster that just went in a circle. But the one that we really loved was called the Big Shot. See, on top of the tower, just like the CN Tower, they had the big needle kind of radio tower kind of thing, but on that needle was an elevator drop ride. Okay? So it would shoot you 14 more stories into the sky, feel like you're gonna fly into the heavens, right, and be dropping you and do this a bunch of times. When I was 14 or 15 years old, it was one of the earlier times that I went out there. My cousin and I, we went and we did the rides, and we sit down, and were sitting next to each other, and as we sit down, a couple comes up that I would peg probably in their early 70s or so. And the man has a cane that he's walking with and he says, "Boys, me and my wife have always loved to do thrill rides together, but I can't do 'em anymore because of my health. And so she still likes to sit with someone, would you mind if she sits with you?" And so we were like, "Yeah, sure." My cousin moves over and she sits in between us, this sweet little old lady, and we strap in and everything. And this is the kind of ride that, like, it doesn't bring you slowly to the top and stop and drop you. It shoots you up into the sky. So we're sitting there, we're getting ready, and it counts down: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And we shoot up into the sky, and all of a sudden I feel something rubbing on my face. And I look over and this lady is rubbing my face and my cousin's face and screams out, I kid you not, she screams out the words, "Take us to hell, Satan." And I'm just... What do you do? What do you do at that point? You're stuck on the ride, you're strapped in, there's nowhere you can go, like you don't wanna unstrap on it, and she just continues with this like kind of evil laugh the whole time. And it's really crazy, it's really bizarre. And, you know, after the 9:00 AM, somebody asked me, "How can one person, Dan, have so many bizarre stories happen to you?" And I don't know, I just attract 'em, but it's what happened. And it's as if this woman wanted to go on top of the tallest tower and get as close as she could to God and curse Him, you know, and just like openly defy Him. And it's what it felt like was happening. And I probably ended up on TV somewhere. I don't know, it was before YouTube. So I've looked, I'm not on it, but it was probably some kind of joke. I don't know. The ride ends and she, you know, she unbuckles and she says, "Thank you, boys," and she gets up and she walks off. And we're just stunned. But it's as if she gets on this ride, it just felt like she was getting as close as she could to God in order to openly defy Him. Well, the story that we're looking at today is somewhat of a similar story. It involves a tall tower that people are trying to climb up in order to openly defy God. It's the story of the Tower of Babel. You know that we've been in this sermon series where we're trying to go through the overarching storyline of the Bible over the next several weeks. And in Genesis 1 through 11, we find the story of creation that we saw in Genesis 1 and 2, the first two weeks, and then we find the story of how sin entered the world in chapter 3 that we looked at last week. Where we end up today is kind of this culmination of sinfulness or man spiraling into sinfulness until it reaches this point that we find today. Now, we saw in chapter 3 how sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, and we left off where although God promised the Savior was coming through the seed of the woman, or the offspring of the woman, for now, Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden. And they were kicked out of the presence of God. They faced their consequences for their sin. Humanity eventually gets so bad that by chapter 6 in the book of Genesis, God decides to send a flood and make a restart. To wipe out all humanity except for one man and his family, a faithful man named Noah. But even when they come off of the ark that God uses to save them, we find man, his de, we find Noah's descendants continually spiraling in their sinfulness until we get to this point today. As we come to Genesis 11, we're gonna be looking at verses 1 through 9, we reach sort of a culmination of humanity spiraling further into sin. Whereas in the garden, we saw individuals disobeying God and sin coming into the world through them. In this story, we find humanity as one, unified against God in their sinfulness. See, the problem in this story is not that they are trying to build too tall of a tower. Maybe you've read the story before and you didn't really know what the problem was. It's not that they're trying to build too tall of a tower. It's not that they are trying to... It's not what they are doing. The problem is that they forget that they are made in the image of God, not that they are made to be God. And their sin reaches this point where they come together to openly defy God and try to take Him over, essentially, as God of their own lives. And so we're gonna read Genesis 11: 1-9. Go ahead and read along with me. It says, "Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, 'Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' They used bricks instead of stone and tar for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.' But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, 'If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each others.' So the Lord scattered them from there over the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth." As we get into the story, we see man's sinfulness coming to this point. And the first thing that I want us to see is this: that human pride distorts God's image in mankind. You remember that people were created in the image of God, but human pride distorts God's image in mankind. You see, pride is at the root of all of our sin. Sin is rebellion against God. Whether it's in action or thought or attitude, it's rebellion against God. And we rebel against God when our pride swells up in us and we think that we don't need to listen to God, or we think that we don't need God at all to be our God. And it's at the root of all of our sin. Now, we read in verses 1 and 2, and we may think that things look pretty good at this point. After all, people seem to be living in harmony, right? People are united at this point in the world. The whole earth had one language and a common speech, it says in verse one. And then in verse two, we see that they're migrating together, they're traveling together. They're going on this nice journey together. It seems like a nice thing, right? And we read things like this and we say, "Wow, that sounds great. That sounds like world peace. No language or cultural barriers, everyone seems to be getting along just fine." And in the following verses, we see them working together on a common project, right? That always brings people together. It's really nice. It sounds like a nice bit of harmony, and it sounds like a good thing. But getting along with one another is not actually the best thing for us as humans. It might sound a little crazy to hear me say at first, but unity is actually not the best thing for human beings. It's not the best thing for mankind. It's not ultimate. If all of humanity is united, but we're united against God, then that's the worst thing. That's the worst place that we can find ourselves. That's the absolute worst place we can find ourselves. Unity is not the ultimate goal. Unity in Christ is the ultimate goal. It can be really easy to get those things a little bit mixed up. And when we make unity the ultimate goal, what we can tend to do is slide into sinfulness in order to make things work together. If we know that humans are sinful, then to try to unite ourselves, we can slide into sinfulness in order to just keep the peace. But unity is not the ultimate goal. Unity in Christ is what God is working towards. That's what He tells us in Ephesians 1, that He's working to unite all things in Him. And that's the problem that arises in verses three and four. It's that they are not united in God, they are united against God. And if you're not careful, you can miss it or you can misunderstand it. When you read the story, you may ask, like, "What exactly is the problem?" Alright, they're building a tower, it's gonna be really tall, whatever, what is the problem? Is it wrong to build cities? Is it wrong to build towers? The answer is no. It's none of those things. Or some people have thought maybe it's that they were getting too advanced in their technology. Yeah, they've figured out brick and mortar, they've gotten really far, right? They've really figured out the world. It's not that they've gotten too advanced, it's not that they are building a city or a tower, in fact, it's not any of those things. The problem is not so much in what they were doing, it's in why they were doing it. It's not in what they were doing, it's in why they were doing it. Take a look at what it says in verse four. This is the people talking. They say, "Come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth." You see their problem, the problem was their desire for human independence from God. It was their desire to say, "God, we don't need you anymore. In fact, we're gonna show you that we don't need you. In fact, we are going to make a name equal to you or above you." It was their pride that was the problem. And we see it in two different ways in these verses. The first way is this: They sought a name equal to or above God's. They sought to make a name for themselves that was equal to or above God's. Rather than seeking to use their abilities to glorify God, they used their abilities to try to replace God. They used their abilities to try to stand in the place of God. You see, as human beings, we've been given incredible creative ability. But do you know why we have that? It's because we're made in the image of the Creator. We are creative because we're made in the image of a Creator. And our creative ability comes from being made in that image yet they were trying to use it to make a name for themselves. They were seeking to usurp God and bring all glory to themselves. And, friends, that is what we call idolatry. When we seek to lift anything, whether it's a thing or a person or ourselves or whatever it may be, when we seek to lift anything to the place of God, it's idolatry. It's idolatry. There is one in all of the universe who is worthy of all glory and honor and praise, and it's the One who created it all. They were trying to take it for themselves. They were trying to make a name for themselves. And, friends, I think we often do that same kind of thing. We often do that same kind of thing. It might not come through building towers. I know some of you may be Lego masters or whatever, that's great, but it doesn't come through building towers for most of us, but it may come by spending your whole life trying to build up your whole popularity. For the young people here, to build up your brand, okay? Your social media account or whatever it is, trying to get the most followers. Or maybe you don't care about social media. Maybe you're just trying to be the most popular person at work, in the neighborhood, whatever it is. You're building yourself up and trying to make yourself great, spending your life trying to make yourself great. Maybe you do it through trying to build up your status. Maybe you do it using your creative abilities. Maybe you do it using your looks, your attractiveness, and making your whole life about that. Or maybe you do it using your smarts, whatever it may be, all of these things were made to be a reflection of who God is. And when we use them in order to build ourselves up and make a name for ourselves, rather than using our lives to make the glory of God known, we're actually practicing idolatry. Idolatry of ourselves. Idolatry to lift ourselves up rather than lifts up the one who has made us. All that God has given us is not to make a name for ourselves. All that God has given us is to glorify Him. It's to show the goodness and the greatness of the one who has created us. That's why God made us in His image, is to show who He is. And He sends us out into the earth to show who He is. We have to remember that we are made in the image of God. We are to be His representatives here on earth. We are to glorify Him in all that we do. But our pride, so often, it constantly tempts us to make a name for ourselves instead. The second thing that we see is that they openly defied God's command to fill the earth. They openly defied God's command to fill the earth. This was the command that God gave to man when He first created us. He gave it to Adam and Eve: Go forth, multiply, fill the earth. We are to spread His image all over the earth. And then He gave it to Noah again and his family when he got off the ark: Go, multiply, fill the earth. But here at Babel, we see they didn't want to trust in God's plan. They wanted to openly defy God's plan. They thought that they had a better plan that would be better for them. They looked at God and they laughed in His face, and they said, "Your plans, we don't like 'em. We're gonna make our own plans because we have plans that are better." And this right here is the height of human pride and sinfulness. To think that our plans and our desires are what's best, and to think that God's are not. To think that God's plans for us are not what is best. Friends, that's what sin does. It distorts our view of reality. It twists our minds and our hearts to see good things as being bad things and bad things as being good things. It twists our minds to think that what God has given to us is bad for us and that we can do something better. Sin does that. It twists our minds and our hearts to think like that, but praise be to God that He shows us, He shows us in His word, He shows us in His Son the goodness of who He is and that His plans are what is best and that everything He plans is for His glory and it's for our good. Even if it's hard to see in the moment, even when we might not understand it, even if there's a particular thing that is just like, "Why, Lord, why are you calling me to this?" It's hard, and yet we know that God's plans are good and we can seek our security in Him. See, instead of seeking security in the Lord and His commands, people had gotten to a point where they were seeking security in themselves. And they were trying to get away from God and be autonomous from God and say, "We don't need God." Find security in themselves and in what they could do. And so the problem in the story is not that cities or towers are evil or bad or anything like that. The problem is that they were seeking independence from God. They were seeking independence and autonomy from God, and, friends, that is the depths of depravity. That is the depths of sin. That is what sin pulls us toward. It's toward thinking that we don't need God. Whether we don't need Him at all or we don't need Him in a particular situation, that's what sin does and it's the depths of depravity. See, it's not necessarily that we all do the worst things that we could possibly do. Here in this story where the story of man spiraling into sin kind of culminates a little bit in chapter 11, they're not doing anything that we would consider to be all that bad, right? There's no talking about murdering people or anything like that. They're building a tower and yet they reach into the depths of sinfulness because even though it doesn't seem all that bad, they are seeking autonomy from God. And that, my friends, is the depths of sin. Anytime people seek to be equal to or greater than their Creator, we're reaching the depths of sin. Whether it's seeking glory for ourselves or security in ourselves, or living in open rebellion against God's word, whatever it may be, it's sin. Friend, you might not be the worst person in the world, you might not be the worst person in the room, you might be the best person in the room, but each and every one of us are sinners in need of a Savior. Each and every one of us, at some point in our lives, defies God. Each and every one of us has moments where we don't seek out God or we seek independence from God and we say, "I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do and it doesn't matter what God says." Friends, that is sin, and each and every one of us do it. Each and every one of us is a sinner in need of a Savior. And, in fact, not only may you not be the worst person in the room, you might have the kind of attitude where you think you're a good enough person that you don't need God, or that you're a good enough person that you can impress God with how good you are. Friend, that is the depths of human pride. And that is the depths of sinfulness. That's seeking self-sufficiency and that reliance on yourself, it's sin. It's defying God's command to trust in Him. And our sin, it distorts God's image in us. Because God is a perfect God and He's a holy God and when we sin, the image of God is distorted in us. But here's the thing, just like Pastor Jerry said last week, I want to say it again this week, Pastor Jerry said, "Sin is not the story. God is." Now, in verses one through four, we see the story of sin. And we see here in Genesis 11, in verses five through nine, we see that God is the story. Although human pride distorts God's image in mankind, here's the second thing I want us to see today, is that God's plan is to redeem His image in mankind. Our sin may distort it, but God has a plan of redeeming His image in mankind. You see, in verses one through four in the story, we get man's point of view on what's going on in the situation. We see their situation, we listen in on their conversations, we stand with them on the ground as they look up in the sky and say, "I'm gonna build a tower that reaches to the heavens." But in verses five through nine, we get God's view of the whole situation. We sit, we see His situation, we listen in on His words, and we stand with Him in the heavens looking down and even laughing a little bit at the pitiful attempt of man to reach the place of God. You see, the history of the world, it has two sides. The history of the world has two sides. It has how man sees himself and the world and it has a side where God sees man. How God sees man and sees the world. And the cool thing about the Bible is that it shows us both. It shows us man's view and how distorted it is when it compares it to God's view. From the heavens, the view of our Creator, we get to see it and we get a glimpse into it, because if we're stuck in our own view of ourselves in the world, then we never see our need for salvation. But when we see God's view, our need for His salvation becomes clear.The cool thing about the Bible is that it shows us both. It shows us man's view and how distorted it is when it compares it to God's view. From the heavens, the view of our Creator, we get to see it and we get a glimpse into it. Because if we're stuck in our own view of ourselves in the world, then we never see our need for salvation. But when we see God's view, our need for His salvation becomes clear. And the goodness of His salvation becomes clear. And so the Bible shows us both. In verse five, we read that the Lord came down to see the city and the tower where the people were building. He came down to see it. They thought that they were so great that they were building this tower that was gonna reach into the heavens, that they were gonna make a name for themselves doing it, that they were gonna stand side by side with God, that they were gonna show that they are His equal. But when God wants to see it, He has to come down to see it. You see, He's using kind of this like holy sarcasm, right? Like He's gotta come all the way down and see this little tiny tower that they're building. It's kinda like when my fishing buddies back in Louisiana will send me a picture of their catch. I'll just send them a text back that says, "Can't see fish. Take a closer picture, please," you know, and just kinda mess with them a little bit. Or if they show me the ice fish, the ice box full of fish, I'll just say, "Did they decrease the limit of fish that you can catch, you know, since the last time you were there?" I just like to mess with them a little bit. And it's as if God is doing the same thing here that He's saying, "Okay, I will come down and see your big old tower, right? I'll come down and I'll take a look at this tower that's coming up to the heavens, supposedly." And God is kinda being a little bit sarcastic here, almost. And yet in verse six, He says, "Nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them." So on the one side, we see that God has made us to where we can do awesome things. He has made man in His image to display His creative power. But at the same time, the awesome things that man can do are nowhere near what God can do. The awesome things that man can do pale in comparison with the awesome things that God can do. These people took however long to even start building a tower with brick and mortar and God is simply going to speak and He's gonna put an end to all of it. Just the way that He spoke and all of creation came into being. God, what He can do is way greater than the things that man can do. And so in verses seven through nine, God does something incredible. He makes a way to display both judgment and mercy and He uses what they have done to push His plans forward. God's pretty good at that. God's an expert at taking things that we screw up and pushing them for His plans. He's taking what the enemy means for evil and He turns it for good. That's what God does. That's what He's in the business of doing. And God uses this to push His plans forward. And we learn a few things about God's way of redemption in these verses. The first one is this: God uses both judgment and mercy in His plan of redemption. God uses both judgment and mercy in His plan of redemption. You see, God's intervention in this passage, it's both a judgment and a mercy. Both are on display here. It is a judgment in that He is reacting to their sinfulness. He is reacting to what they are doing. He makes things harder for them by what He does and it's a result of their sin. It is a judgment, but at the same time, it's also a mercy. It's a mercy in that, first of all, He could have done much worse. He could have sent another flood. He could have taken away their creative abilities and just made them unable to do things. But instead He chose to simply confuse their language. Second of all, it's a mercy in that God stops them from continuing down this path of destruction. He stops them from continuing down the path of destruction that they have started to go down. They're doing something that is destructive to themselves and God intervenes. But then it's also a mercy in the second point that I want us to see here. That God ensures His plans over the plans of man. You see, God ensures that His plans will always happen over the plans of man. It was God's plan that people would, once again, have relationship with Him, not be autonomous from Him. When they were seeking to make a way to be independent from Him, God stepped in to start on the path to bringing them back. Second, it was God's plan that the earth would be filled with His glory. That it would be filled with His image. And that plan would not be thwarted all because of their plans. God made sure that it would happen. And friends, I want you to know, this should be a comfort to each and every one of us. It should be a comfort to us that God ensures His plans over the plans of man. When you look back on a time when you weren't following the Lord, or maybe you look back on a time where you made a bad decision, you went and you did something you knew you shouldn't have done, you see, we might face consequences for such a thing, but we don't thwart the plans of God. God ensures that His plans will always come to pass. Now, that shouldn't make us not care about what decisions we make. The decisions we make are real and they are important, but God is sovereign in that He can use everything. He can bring everything to bring about His plan. It should make us able to rest in God's grace when we look back on those things. When we look back on those bad decisions or whatever they may be. We might have to still deal with the consequences, but we can rest in His grace knowing that His plans are not thwarted. But it can also be a comfort to us, not when we look at something we've done, but when we look at what's going on in the world. When we turn on the news, when we look out our window and we see the defiance of God that takes place in our world, it can be easy to look at that and lose hope and wonder what's going to come of all of this, but we can rest knowing that God has a plan and God's plans are coming to pass. He ensures that He will fulfill His plan for all of history. For redemption, for mankind, He will do it. Now there, well, there are consequences again for the decisions that people make, but God's plan is not lost. Man's plan has not overtaken God's plan, and it never ever will. God ensures that His plan will come to pass. The third thing that I want us to see is this: that God extends His redemption over all the earth. God extends His redemption over all the earth. God spread them out over all the earth. He had told them to do it, they said no, and He made it happen. He spread them out over all the earth. The problem, of course, is that sin went out all over the earth with them. They were sinful people, and as they spread out, sin went with them. But God didn't do it to spread sin. He did it so that He could spread His image. And the image that was distorted in them, it's an image that would one day be redeemed in people from all over the world. And, church, just as fallen people were spread out all over the earth at Babel, redeemed people are sent out all over the earth to make the message of Jesus known, to make the message of redemption known. He sends His church out into the world, out into our city, out into our nation, out into the whole earth. To the farthest corners of the earth, He sends us out to make His redemption known. To make known what He has done in Jesus Christ, that He does not leave people in their sinfulness, but for all who would put their faith in Jesus, He has come and He has died for our sin, and He has risen from the dead in order that we can, once again, know God and have His image restored in us. That's what God does, that's who God is, and that's the work that God is doing in the world. And that message of redemption, we're gonna see it continue from Genesis 12 all the way to Revelation 22. From one of these families that gets spread out all over the earth, we're gonna see that there's a nation. A nation that will be created through whom God reaches the world. And out of that nation will come a savior. The Savior that was promised in Genesis 3:15, and His name is Jesus. And it's in Jesus that we see God, once again, bring together both judgment and mercy. He does it on the cross of Jesus Christ, where Jesus takes our sin upon Himself and God places, God the Father places His full judgment, His full punishment for our sin on Jesus and we receive His full mercy, His forgiveness for our sin. Judgment and mercy in one action on the cross. And in Jesus, we see God ensuring His plan to bring people back into right relationship with Him. And in Jesus, we see God bringing redemption to people from all over the earth. From every tribe, every nation, every religious background, every walk of life, He is bringing redemption to people. It's not just for one nation, it's not just for one kind of people, it is for people from all over the world. Any who would place their trust in Him will be redeemed and will be brought in to know God and to live with Him for all of eternity. But, friends, the question is, how are they gonna hear the message? It has to be through a redeemed people. It has to be through the church. It has to be us reaching out into our city, reaching out into our world with the message of Jesus, with the message of redemption, with the message of salvation, where people all over the world can find life, true life, abundant life in Jesus. See, here's what we're gonna see throughout the whole story is this: is that God's plan for history is to save a people for Himself from every language and nation and unite them in Christ through His great mercy. At Babel, people were spread out all over the earth with many different languages. And by the time we get to the book of Revelation, we're gonna see that God is gathering people from all over the earth, in every single language, gathering them around the throne of Jesus, singing His praises in all of those different languages and singing that He is the one who is worthy. Mankind will come together from all over the earth once more, not to unite against God, but to be united in Christ and sing His praises. And, church, it is our job to see to it that they hear the message, that people from all over the world would hear the message, because that's the kind of God we serve, is a God who redeems people who turn against Him. He saves people who turn against Him, and He brings us in. He redeems His image in us, and He holds onto His plan to save us. The question for you is will you surrender yourself to Him? Will you surrender yourself to Him in faith and come into that salvation? Maybe you're here today and you've never trusted in Jesus. You've never seen any need for a savior. Friend, we are all in need of a savior. But the good news is we have one. He invites us to trust in Him and come into His salvation. Or maybe you're here today and you're already a believer, and, whatever's going on in your life, you need to be reminded that no matter what, God's plan never fails, that God ensures that His plans will come to pass and you need to hold on to that hope today. Or maybe you're here today and you're a believer and you've just had something that you've been holding onto and not surrendering to God. Friend, don't put that in the place of idolatry. Surrender it to the Lord. He has come, He has died for you, He has risen from the dead to give you life, and what He gives is good. And I want you to walk in it, and walk in it in faith. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna invite you to go ahead and bow your head and close your eyes. As we go before the Lord this morning, I want to invite you. Whatever you may be holding onto, if there's anything that you are holding onto this morning, that's your plans, but it's not God's plans. I wanna invite you to surrender that to Him today. If you're here this morning and you've lost hope, wondering if the world is out of control or your life is out of control, I want you to turn your heart to the Lord and remember that He is the God who is sovereign over all of history, and He is bringing His plans to pass. Yes, we live in a fallen world, and we live in a world where things are hard, and where things hurt, they're painful, but we can hold onto hope in Jesus knowing that God is redeeming all things and that if we trust in Him, we have life with Him forever. If you're here today and you've never trusted in Christ, we're gonna have, after I pray, we're gonna have some prayer partners across the front of the stage. I want to invite you to come and take them by the hand and tell them, "I want to know what it means to follow Jesus." I'm gonna invite you to do that in just a moment, but let's go before the Lord as we surrender ourself to Him. Lord God, we are so thankful that You are a good God, that Your blessings are good, that we can trust in You, that You have proven that over and over again, time and time again, You have proven Your goodness. And Lord, You give salvation in Your Son Jesus. I pray that You would help each and every one of us to walk in that salvation by putting our faith in Him and to walk in it daily, trusting You in all things, trusting You with all things, and following after You, following Your plans rather than our own. Lord God, we are so thankful that You are the God of great mercy and You are the God of redemption. And I pray that You would be speaking into the hearts of each and every person in this room this morning, and that You would help us to surrender whatever You are calling us to surrender. We love You, Lord. It's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen.