The Person of Praise, Part 3

A few months before our Lord would be crucified, he was in the northern part of Galilee. He was about 25 miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee in a region called Caesarea Philippi. It was named such by Philip the Tetrarch because he wanted to name a city after Caesar, and of course his name as well, so that he would be well known.

But it also separated it from Caesarea Maritima, which is on the sea. And our Lord and his disciples were in this region, and there were all kinds of false gods around them. And there had been, according to Greek mythology, a Greek god by the name of Pan or Panias.

Panias, it was called Panias before it was called Caesarea Philippi. He was said to have been born in a cave there. If you go there today, you can still enter that cave.

And it was here where our Lord would give his men an exam. It was like their final exam, but the exam would only have one question. And if you understand the question and you get the question right, that's good news.

If you get the question or the answer to the question wrong, well, that's bad news. And so, he would ask them just one question because it's the question that no man can ever escape or avoid. In fact, everybody in the room today is asked the same question because everyone will have to face the answer.

And the question was simply this, who do men say that I am? The question focused on the identity of the Lord Jesus. And so the disciples would answer by saying, well, some say you're Jeremiah, others Elijah. Some say you're John the Baptist. Some say you're just one of the prophets. In other words, everybody is saying that you're great, but nobody is saying that you are God.

Now, Christ didn't ask the question for information purposes. He knew what the religious leaders thought of him. They thought he was of Satan. And so he wasn't asking about what the religious leaders thought about his identity. He wanted to know what the Jewish people thought of his identity. And the Jewish people, for all practical purposes, loved Jesus. It was the religious establishment that hated Jesus.

So he asked the question, what is the popular opinion? Not that whatever the popular opinion was would change the ministry of our Lord. He just wanted to know what the popular opinion of his ministry was. After all, in a few short months, he would be crucified.

And then he asked the question towards men, but who do you say that I am? It doesn't make any difference what the multitude say. What do you say? Not the popular opinion. What is your personal opinion? Who do you say that I am?

And Peter would speak for the 12. He would say, thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the Son, equal in nature, to the living God. And the response that Christ gives is truly remarkable. Because the Lord says, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal that to you.

But my Father, who is in heaven, revealed that to you. In other words, if you are to pass the ultimate exam, you cannot do it on your own. You have to have a divine enlightenment.

Because flesh and blood cannot reveal that to you. I cannot convince you that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. I can't convince you of that.

I can preach to you, I can show you in scripture where that's the case, but unless the Lord illuminates your heart and your mind, you will never believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Why is that? Because you have been blinded. You've been blinded by Satan. You've been blinded from birth. You have a supernatural blindness. Therefore, you need a supernatural enlightenment.

The Bible says it this way in 2 Corinthians 4, verse number 3, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In this case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Satan has blinded the mind of those people who do not know him so they will not believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.

And so, in order for you to pass the ultimate exam, you cannot do it because you have a proper intellect. You cannot do it because you're a smart person or you've read a lot. The only way you can pass the ultimate exam is if the Father in heaven enlightens your soul to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

That's just remarkable. Now, here's the good news. For those of us who have been enlightened, for those of us who know the identity of Christ, we wanna praise his name. We wanna thank him that he has revealed himself to us. Well, we wanna praise him because we know the identity of the Christ child.

We don't wonder as to who he is. We know who he is, which makes our praise of him brilliant, beautiful because we glory in the fact that we have been enlightened to the truth of the gospel. And so it accentuates our praise. We want to honor the Lord.

So, as we journey this pathway of praise that we've been on now for several weeks, the person of praise causes our journey to be filled with joy because of who Christ is. And so we have tried to unveil to you through the scriptures the identity of the Messiah, the identity of the Christ child, the identity of the Lord God of Israel. That is just so important.

See, Israel had a problem, and that is this, Hosea 4, verse number 6, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. They do not know me. It's not that they didn't know the scriptures, they knew the scriptures.

We sang, come thou long expected Jesus. The expected one was a title for the Messiah. Psalm 118:26, Psalm 40, verse number 7.

He is called the Erchomai, the expected one, the coming one. And even at the triumphal entry, Psalm 118:26 was quoted by the people of Israel. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Blessed is the coming one. They hailed him as the expected one. It's the question that John the Baptist asked in Luke's gospel, the seventh chapter, when he sent his men to go ask Jesus, are you the expected one? Or should we expect someone else? Should we look for someone else? Are you the Messiah? Because the Messiah is the expected one.

All of our expectations are in the coming Messiah. Are you him? But Israel did not know him. They did not understand him.

But we who do know him, we praise him continually. We exalt his name. We magnify the Lord Jesus Christ.

So as we journey along the pathway of praise, we're looking at the person of praise. And we began with the phrase Yahweh Haseenu, which means the Lord is my maker. He's the one who forms me.

He's the one who fashions me. And then we moved from there to Yahweh Sabaoth, which is the Lord of armies. The one who forms me is the one who fights for me.

And then lastly, we talked about Yahweh Rophi, which is the Lord is my shepherd. The one who forms me and fights for me is the one who feeds me. And today, I wanna take you to an Old Testament passage, which is very familiar to us, but is one of the two chapters in the Old Testament that are absolutely pivotal to understanding the identity and the ministry of the coming Messiah.

It's found in Genesis chapter 22. So if you got your Bible, turn back with me there, if you would, please. Genesis chapter 22.

And in Genesis 22, you have a couple of firsts. That is, the first mention of certain words in the Bible. So again, as I said last week and the week before, whenever something is mentioned first in the Bible, you need to take note.

You need to understand why this is the first time. So the Bible reads as follows, Genesis 22, verse number 1. Now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham; he said, here I am.

He said, take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac. Stop right there. This is the first time the word love is mentioned in the Bible.

That's very, very important. Because God is going to test Abraham as to his true love for him, the son of God, the living God. So he says, I want you to take now your son, your only son, but that wasn't his only son.

Because Ishmael was older. Ishmael was born first. But Ishmael was not the only begotten son. Isaac was the only begotten son. The son of choice. The son who had the right to the inheritance. That was Isaac.

And so when the Lord says, take now your son, your only begotten son, the son of your love, okay, which is symbolic of Christ, who is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And he was the only begotten son, the monogenēs of the Father, the son of choice, the son of preeminence.

He says, take the son that you love. And then he says this, and go to the land of Moriah. That's a very important phrase.

Because Moriah means foreseen. Very important to the narrative. If you don't understand what Moriah means, you're gonna miss the point of the entire narrative.

It means foreseen. So God is telling Abraham, I want you to take your son, your only son, to a place that I have foreseen. That's a place called Moriah.

In the Book of Chronicles, it would be where Solomon would build the temple on Mount Moriah. So he says, go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son.

They split wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey and I and the lad will go over there and we will worship and return to you.

Again, the very first time the word worship is used in the Bible. Because worship always involves sacrifice. If you come to church and you don't sacrifice, you haven't worshiped.

Worship is all about sacrifice, giving yourself away. And so the very first mention of the word worship, by the way, before Exodus chapter 20, before the 10 commandments were given, when God said you shall have no other gods before me, you shall only worship me, no other gods. Before that was ever given, the word worship is mentioned because it's all about sacrifice.

And so God says, or Abraham says, I and the lad will go up and worship and we will return to you. So it says, verse 6, Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and then laid it on Isaac, his son and took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father and said, my father, he said, here I am, my son. He said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. So the two of them walked on together.

Very important phrase. So the Lord, God, will provide for himself the lamb. The word provide is yireh.

Very important to the narrative, again. Why? Because God will see, because the word Yireh is a word of vision. It's used 1,300 times in the Old Testament.

All but four is it translated to see or be seen. The other four times it's translated to provide. But the 1,296 other times it's used, it's used to see or be seen.

So Abraham is telling his son, Isaac, the Lord will see for himself a lamb. Now remember, they went to Moriah, which means foreseen. So on the place foreseen by God, God will see for himself the land that will be provided.

So you read on. Then they came to the place of which God had told him, and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

But the angel of the Lord, now that's the pre-incarnate Christ, the angel of the Lord, called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, here I am. He said, do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. You mean to tell me there's something that God doesn't know? Where God says, now I know that you fear me? God doesn't say that for his purposes.

He says it for Abraham's purposes. He says it, Abraham, now I know, meaning the knowledge of you fearing me has been seen because in your worship, you are willing to sacrifice that which is dearest to you on behalf of me. And only those who fear my name are those who sacrifice that which is dearest to them on my behalf.

Very, very important. And so you read on. It says, then Abraham raised his eyes and look and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh Yireh. The Lord will provide.

Or better translation, the Lord will be seen. As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord, it will be seen. In Moriah, the mount of the Lord, in the place foreseen by God, what will be seen? A substitute in the place of Isaac.

So when you go to John's gospel and read John 8:56, it says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. When did Abraham rejoice to see Christ's day? Genesis chapter 22. That's when Abraham rejoiced because there he called the place the Lord will be seen.

How did Abraham know that the Lord would be seen on the place foreseen by God unless it was revealed to him in a supernatural kind of way from God himself? That there would be a substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of man, which Christ the Messiah would provide so that we would not have to pay the penalty for our sin. And so Abraham says, on this place, the Lord will be seen, Yahweh Yireh. The Lord that forms me, Yahweh Haseenu, is the Lord who fights for me, Yahweh Sabaoth.

The Lord who fights for me is the Lord who feeds me, Yahweh Rophi. And the Lord who feeds me is the Lord who foresees all that will happen to me, Yahweh Yireh. God sees everything.

That's how he can feed you properly. That's how he can fight for you aggressively. That's how he can form you perfectly because he foresees everything.

He foreknows it, but he also foresees it. He sees it well enough in advance because he is the God of eternity, the eternal nature of God. He sees the past, the present, and the future all at once because he exists in the past, the present, and the future all at once.

He sees it all, and therefore, we can rest and praise his glorious name as we journey down the pathway of praise because of who he is. I can rest at ease this Christmas season. I can rest at ease all throughout the year because it's my God who foresees everything in advance.

He is the one who has mapped out all my days before there was even yet one of them. He knows every event that will take place in the future. He knows what's gonna happen to my family, in my marriage, in my work, in my school, in my play.

He knows it all. He's foreseen it all, and he is my provider. That's how he can provide for us because he knows in advance all that will happen to me.

Let me give you another description of our Lord. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15.

And when you come to Exodus chapter 15, you have the second experience of Israel having been let out of Egyptian bondage. The first experience is when they come to the Red Sea and Pharaoh's army is bearing down upon them, and they are afraid that they're going to die. And Moses says, stand still and watch the salvation of the Lord.

Watch the delivering power of God. Watch the rescuing nature of God. Watch the saving nature of God at work.

Of course, you know the story. You've seen the movie. And the waters part. Israel goes through on dry land, right? Supernatural. The waters depart. There should be mud, but there was no mud.

It was dry land. They walk through on dry land, and Pharaoh and his army, they went after them, and of course, they all drowned in the sea. And then you have the song of Moses in Exodus chapter 15.

Concluded in verse number 21, when Miriam said, sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted, the horse and rider he has hurled into the sea. Can you imagine the excitement? The joy of Israel knowing that their God had performed a supernatural act right before their eyes. Part of the Red Sea.

I mean, how many gods can do that? None, except the one true and living God who creates the sea. And they walk through on dry land, and they were able to see the salvation of the Lord. They were able to experience it supernaturally.

You would think that that would take them through at least another month, but three days later comes another test. Just three days. To show you how quickly we forget what God has done.

Look what it says, verse number 22. Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. This is test number two.

When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, it was named Marah. So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, what shall we drink? Then he cried out to the Lord.

What happened to Israel? How do they go from celebrating God to complaining about where they're at? How do they go from sheer delight to disgruntlement in three days? How do they go from magnifying the name of God to murmuring against God's chosen leader? How does that happen? You can ask yourself the same question. How can you come to church on Sunday morning, get in your car, and three minutes later, start yelling at your kids, and yelling at your wife, and your wife yelling at you? How does that happen? How can that happen? How can that possibly be? But it happens all the time.

So here's Israel. Three days after watching a supernatural act of God, begin to murmur, there was no water. They began to complain, and Moses cried to the Lord.

And the Lord showed him a tree, very important to the narrative. And he threw it into the waters. The waters became sweet.

There he made for them a statute and regulation. And there he tested them. And he said, if you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians.

For I, the Lord, am your healer. Yahweh-Rapha. I am your healer.

The Lord who forms us is the Lord who fights for us. The Lord who fights for us is the Lord who feeds us. The Lord who feeds us is the Lord who foresees all that will happen to us.

And the Lord who foresees all that will happen to us is the Lord who will fulfill us as only he can. I am your healer. When we read that, we naturally go to physical healing, as if God is going to heal me physically.

But it's so much deeper than that. It's so much more important than understanding that which is in the temporal to that which is eternal, that which is physical as to that which is spiritual. Because sin has ravaged our souls.

It's destroyed our souls. And we are in need of a physician who heals the condition of our souls. Notice that it was a tree that was thrown into the waters, because it would be the great “I Am” who hung on a tree who would bring the ultimate healing to people's lives.

Listen to what the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1, as God describes Israel, verse 2, listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth, for the Lord speaks. God is speaking.

Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against me. Israel has revolted against me. An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master's manager, but Israel does not know my people do not understand.

My people do not understand my identity. They don't know who I am. That's why the question, who do men say that I am, who do you say that I am, is so important.

You gotta get it right. It's not about accumulation of all kinds of knowledge about who God is. It's about knowing him in a personal sense, knowing him for who he really is because if Jesus is truly the Messiah, the Christ, the son of the living God, he is all he claims to be, then he is Yahweh Rapha in my life, and Yahweh Yireh in my life, and Yahweh Haseenu in my life, and Yahweh Sabaoth in my life, and Yahweh Rapha in my life.

That's who he is, and I live in accordance to that. But Israel, having experienced all that God did through all the wilderness wanderings and all the supernatural dealings that God did with Israel, they still did not know him. That's why Christ asked the question, who do men say that I am? Because you see, when Christ came, what did he do? He healed everybody.

He practically banished all disease from the land of Israel. Every person blind, healed. Paralyzed, healed. Can't walk, healed. You got an issue? You're dead? Raise them up. God did everything, and yet they still did not know him.

Well, some say you're Jeremiah. Some say you're Elijah. John the Baptist, one of the prophets. Everybody's saying you're great, but nobody's saying you're God. In spite of all the miracles, in spite of all the supernatural acts that he performed, feeding the 5,000, feeding the 4,000, walking on water, they still did not know the identity of the Christ child. How sad is that?

But that was always Israel's problem. They did not understand their God. And yet he revealed himself over and over and over again. And so he says, alas, verse 4, a sinful nation.

People weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly. They have abandoned the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away from him. This is why they were going into bondage. Yet it would be 100 years away.

And so the Lord God would say to Israel, those very familiar words in verse 18, come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they will be like wool.

If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword, truly the mouth of the Lord has spoken. God says, I wanna heal you.

Listen to what he says in Jeremiah 30, verse number 17. For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds. Those are not physical wounds.

Those are spiritual wounds. Jeremiah 3, verse number 22, return you backsliding children and I will heal your backsliding. Isaiah 30, verse number 26, I will heal the stroke of your wounds.

Why? Because he's Yahweh Rapha, the Lord, your healer. Remember on that day in Nazareth in Luke chapter 4, when Christ would read from Isaiah chapter 61, because that was the reading of the day and every prophet or every rabbi who came would say one day this will be fulfilled. But on this day, Jesus says, this has been fulfilled in your hearing.

He says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. So he's saying that he is the Messiah. Isaiah 11, verse number 2.

Isaiah chapter 42, verse number 1. Isaiah 61, verse number 1. It's all about the spirit of the Lord being upon the Messiah.

So he says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, gave it to the attendant, sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were affixed on him.

And he began to say to them today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. I am the one who has come to preach the gospel to the poor. I am the one who has come to proclaim release to the captives.

I am the one who has come to provide sight for the blind. I am the one who has come to produce freedom to those who are oppressed. I am your healer.

I am here. And when Christ came, remember everything that the Lord does in the physical realm is symbolic of what he does in the spiritual realm. Christ came to heal people.

That's what his credentials were. All throughout the Old Testament, the Lord would come and do supernatural acts and he would heal those who were physically infirmed. Why? Because he would prove his messianic credentials.

But he didn't come to heal them physically. He came to heal them spiritually. But they didn't want that.

Remember in Matthew chapter 4, and we'll talk about this in the new year when we go to through Matthew 5, 6 and 7, he heals everybody, all who are paralyzed, all who are diseased, he heals everybody. Throngs of people would follow him. Why? Because he's healing everybody.

And so he sets him down on this mount called this sensational sermon by our savior on the mount there on the northern slopes of the Sea of Galilee. He says, I wanna give you true blessing. I know you think you're blessed because you're blind, but now you see.

I know you think you're blessed because you were paralyzed, but now you're not. I know you think you're blessed because you were sick, but now you're well. But that's not true blessing.

And he gives those great beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn over their sins, for they and they only, they'll be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will truly be satisfied. You see, you think you're satisfied because yesterday you were sick, but today you're better.

Yesterday you were in bed, but now you're up. But I got news for you. You're still gonna die. You might feel better today, but you're gonna die tomorrow. Everybody's gonna die. So you gotta be spiritually made well. You have to be spiritually healed. And if not, then you will die and live a Christless eternity. How sad is that? And that's why in Luke's gospel, when John the Baptist said, are you the expected one? He said his disciples to ask him.

What did Christ do? He immediately healed everybody in the crowd. One fell swoop, boom, they were all healed. Now you go tell John what you just saw because nobody but the Messiah can do that.

And you see, Christ is Yahweh Rapha, the Lord, your healer. So many times we misunderstand the soul healing nature of our king. He is the only one who can really free the captives.

Every person born is born enslaved to Satan. Everybody, you're dead in your trespasses and sin. And so God grants man repentance that he might be freed from the captivity of Satan.

Sets the prisoner free. Doesn't mean he goes to the jails and locks the doors. It means he goes and sets you free from Satan's oppression in your life and the captivity that Satan has on your soul, this tree.

According to 1 Peter 2, verse 24. Peter says this, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. Literally, on the tree. So that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by his wounds you were healed. You were healed spiritually.

Yes, there will come a day where we are physically healed. We will have glorified bodies and we are perfectly healthy in eternity. That one day is going to come. That's the result of ultimate salvation.

But in the meantime, we have been set free and healed in our souls so that we experience a true blessing of Yahweh Rapha, the God who heals. He gives us living water. Waters that are fresh and clean and pure.

In fact, listen to this. The book of Revelation, chapter 22, verse number 1. John says, then he showed me a river of the water of life.

Now my friends, you need to know there is no water in heaven. There is no more sea. There's no hydrological cycle.

There's no rain. So what is the water of life? He says, then he showed me a river of the water of life. What is that? If there's no sea, if there's no rain, if there's no water in heaven because there's no need to drink anything in a glorified state, what is the water of life? Well, chapter 22, verse number 17.

At the last invitation of our Lord, he says, the spirit and the bride say, come and let the one who hears come and let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. The water of life is the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at this. He says, they showed me a river of the water of life clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. So whatever the water of life is, it's not the H2O like we know it.

It's this salvation experience that comes and flows from the throne. It flows from God and the Lamb. And that's where salvation originates from the God who is a God who delivers and rescues and saves.

And it says, in the middle of a street on either side of the river was the tree of life. The tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

What is that? There's no injury in heaven. There's no illness in heaven. There's no sickness in heaven.

Why do the nations need to be healed? Think about it. The tree of life bears all kinds of fruit every month. There is no time in heaven.

There's no clock in heaven. There's no calendar in heaven. What do you mean it bears fruit every month? It talks about the unending succession of the variety of enrichment that God gives to his people who have drank from the water of life.

Because it provides healing, therapeia. Get our English word, therapeutic. It's like taking vitamins. Vitamins don't heal you, but they keep you fresh and lively.

You don't eat because you need to eat. You eat because of the enjoyment of the enrichment that God gives.

It provides healing, nourishment, life-giving tree that provides health-giving life forever. So the psalmist says these words. Psalm 124, verse number 8. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Where does my help come from? From the name, the character, the attribute of the Lord. So the psalmist says in Psalm 147, verse number three, he heals the brokenhearted and binds all their wounds.

That's Yahweh Rapha. Listen to this, Isaiah 12. God says, you will say on that day, I will give thanks to you, O Lord.

For although you were angry with me, your anger is turned away and you comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid.

For the Lord God is my strength and song and he has become my salvation. Therefore, you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. And in that day, you will say, give thanks to the Lord and call on his name.

Make known his deeds among the peoples. Make them remember that his name is exalted. What name? Yahweh, Yahweh Raphah, Yahweh Rohi, Yahweh Sabaoth, Yahweh Yireh.

All those titles, all those descriptions make the name of the Lord. We haven't even covered Yahweh Me-qadash-kim, which is the Lord your sanctifier. Or Yahweh Tsidkenu, which is the Lord your righteousness.

Or Yahweh Shema, which speaks of the Lord who is there because he never leaves. The unending study of the person of praise goes on and on and on. We can never exhaust it.

And my prayer for you is that you will be able to journey with joy the pathway of praise because you understand the person of praise. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for today and the opportunity you give us to spend time in your word. So much to cover and so little time to do it. Yet we are blessed because of who you are.

I pray that everyone in the room would know Christ as Lord and Savior. They would know you as their deliverer. They would be able to answer effectively, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God and live accordingly. So Lord, as we depart this day, go before us and may we journey with joy the pathway you've called us to live, the pathway of praise.

In Jesus' name, amen.