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Father, thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for your gifts and your blessings. Blessings and your generosity, Father. We thank you that we can be here today, that we can gather and worship you in spirit and worship you in truth and your word. I pray as we worship you in truth today, Father, that you will conform us to the image of your son, that you will bestow upon us the same generosity in our hearts that you have and that you will be glorified in heaven and and earth.
We thank you for these things. In Jesus name, Amen.
Good evening, everyone, and welcome back. It has been a long few weeks and even couple months with lots of hiccups in church and not being able to meet. So I thank everyone for bearing with us through this time. And even with all the hiccups, this time has been a very joyous time and we're very happy. And so on that note, service today is going to be a little bit different.
So I'm going to tell everyone the order of service and then we'll kind of get into things. So we're going to have our message today in first, sorry, second Corinthians. I'm going to try and cover 8 and 9 today. We might not get through it all, but 8 and 9 are both very. I won't say short, but they're very narrative.
So easy to go through. Immediately after service, we're going to have communion as we worship the Lord in his supper. I encourage everyone to stay for that. And then immediately following that, we are going to have our baby dedication and we're going to dedicate Raziel to God. Tonight we're going to do that following service after the streams are shut down, just to keep in line with the policy we already made that.
We are not going to put photos of Raziel online. We're gonna keep that off of our Facebook pages and whatnot in video as well. So I encourage everyone who wants to be here for that to please stick with us. I said I'm gonna, I'm gonna try and be quick while getting everything so that we have time to do that and be respectful of everybody's time. So with that in mind, we're going to jump into Second Corinthians, and it's been a few weeks since we met, so I just want to remind everybody where we were in chapter six.
We saw that we had such a hope, a promise in God that in chapter seven, Paul tells us, with these promises, with this hope, we should cleanse ourselves from impurity and the wickedness of the world and instead bring to ourselves the holiness of God. He told us to repent and to have joy, particularly also to make room in their hearts for Paul and his crew.
And that's going to bring us to the to chapter eight. I'm going to start in verses one and seven.
Starting in verse one, he says, we want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia during a severe trial brought about by affliction. Their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. I can testify that according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints, and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God's will. So he urged Titus that just as he had begun, he should also complete a mock you this act of grace.
So just briefly explaining what we read here, there's not this chapter is mostly narrative like this. It's not very deep. But Paul is right here praising the churches of Macedonia. And what's really going on here is verse two first tells us there is a severe trial brought about by affliction. Now, affliction can mean very many things.
Affliction can be illness. Affliction can be financial. Affliction can be persecution. Affliction can be many things. But the way that the apostle Paul tends to use the word affliction is oppression.
He tends to use other words to describe other things that could cause trial. So, so if we go with the understanding of Paul, in verse two, there's a severe trial brought to the churches of Macedonia through extreme affliction or oppression so he doesn't describe that oppression, whether it's governmental oppression or societal oppression or religious oppression from the various other worldly religions, just that they are oppressed. And this oppression did a thing to them. It caused extreme poverty. Now none of us, and I might, I might really be saying something not true, but I don't know, because I don't know everyone here, but I dare say that none of us know what extreme poverty is.
I would say none of us have experienced that. Not in the same way. If you look at the things that went on in Europe during the Middle Ages, the things that go on in Africa today, the things that are going on in Venezuela and other places, we don't know poverty. So when the Bible says not just poverty, but extreme poverty, I want us to be mindful, really are their economic situation that they are in, so that we can understand what Paul is saying. He says that this severe poverty, poverty brought about abundant joy in an overflowing wealth of generosity.
So even though they are oppressed, even though they have trials, even though economically they are poor, what they had overflowed out of them and allow them to experience true joy. I want those of you who know what VeggieTales is, I still watch VeggieTales today. And last night Shawnee Raziel and I were watching a VeggieTales episode and it was all about sharing. So I find it fitting. We watched it last night with the chapters we're reading tonight.
But the whole message in this episode of VeggieTales and what Paul is emphasizing about Macedonia, I'll use the line repeated over and over in the songs in this veggietales. If you have enough to spare, you have enough to show share. That was the line repeated over and over in veggie toast last night. Alright, so they're in poverty, they're in extreme economic deprivity, and yet overflowing from their hearts is generosity. They're giving.
Here's what Paul says. He says I can testify. Look at verse three. I testify that they gave according to their ability and bey their ability.
And then they did it of their own accord. Now that's what impresses me. It's one thing to be able to give within my ability. If I have a spare hundred dollar bill in my wallet, it's well within my ability to pull it out and to give it to you to help. But now how about giving outside of my ability?
Right? I'm in economic deprivation. I'm in the red. And even though I'm in The red. I'm still able to withdraw that hundred dollar bill from my wallet, knowing what it's going to do to me and share with you.
That is the type of generosity that Paul's expressing from the churches in Macedonia, and that is what's impressive. And then they did it of their own accord. This wasn't by force. Their pastors, apostles, leaders, government officials, whatever, were not coming to them and beating down on their doors saying, you must give to us or else. They did this out of the overflowing generosity from their own hearts.
So much so that verse four says, they begged us for this privilege. That's even more impressive. Most of the time we as churches and people have to beg others for the help. Indeed, you know, we have to put out messages. Can anyone help with this situation?
We're in desperate need or this family needs help. The churches of Macedonia were the opposite in their own need. They were being told to focus on themselves and instead they're begging Paul and the saints, please let us have this joy of sharing generously.
I find that remarkable and would admonish that we have that same generosity in our own hearts. Remember, we have a generous God, a very generous God, and God wants for us to follow him, to follow after him, to do what he does. And if he's generous, we ought to be generous. Let's look, we're going to pick up again. In verse 7 he says now, as you excel in everything, in faith, speech, knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love for us, excel also in this act of grace, I am not saying this as a command, rather by means of the diligence of others.
I am testing the genuineness of your love. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though He was rich for your sake, became poor so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I am given advice because it is profitable for you, who began last year not only to do something, but also wanted to do it now also finish the task so that just as there was an eager desire, there may be a completion according to what you have. For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. It is not that there should be relief for others and hardship for you, but it is a question of equality.
At the present time your surplus is available for their need, so that their abundance may in turn meet your need in order that there may be equality. As it is written, the person who had much did not have too much, and the Person who had little, did not have too little. Okay, so a few things here. I want to start with the primary and most important thing.
Humanity is poor. You are poor, you were poor. All of us sinners are poor, and we are poor. And Paul is not talking economically poor here, but spiritually poor. We were in a magnitude of debt to God that could never be paid.
So much so that the penalty for it was eternity separated from God. So on Paul, he just like I admonished all of us to have generosity in our hearts, Paul is admonishing us to have that same generosity. But he's looking at the example of Christ now instead of Macedonia. Here's what he says about Christ. Though he was rich, he became poor.
Christ was rich in every he was rich in glory, he was rich in power, he was rich in status. He's God. He had everything. And even with everything that he had, he became poor. He entered the world.
He became a human. He was born as a baby, had someone else change his diapers, was raised up and fed and dependent on other people. People economically in this world, he was poor. He had no home, right? Nowhere to lay his head.
And even more than that, he left behind his glory and his status and his throne and his kingdom to come here and to dwell among us, so that through his poverty and death, you could become rich again, not economically, but spiritually. You become rich by receiving the Spirit of God, the gifts of the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit, and most importantly, the ability to worship God through the eternities in his presence.
So if Jesus could leave behind all of that for the sake of us, then surely out of our surplus. And that's what Paul is saying here. The second thing, Corinth has a surplus. They have extra things they don't need. And Paul is admonishing them to share that with the people and the churches in need.
Now, I want to make sure that I stress this very, very heavily. Paul is not ordering you to give to the church or anyone else all of your extra belongings right now. In fact, if you did so because Paul ordered you to, it wouldn't be acceptable to God.
And this is what Paul emphasizes here. Initially, he is saying to them, I encourage you in verse 11 to finish the task that you began last year. So a year before this was written, the church in Corinth had said it in their own hearts or their own willingness to set aside a gift to give to this, to this other church. And not only did they set it aside in their own hearts, they declared it publicly that they were going to give this gift. And now a year later, they haven't given it.
A year later they're delaying and hemming and hawing at whether or not to give this gift that they publicly declared a year prior they would give. And so Paul says, you had the eagerness initially follow through with it. And he says, if this is important, verse 12, if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable. Now this is important, he says, not according to what you do not have, but according to what you have. The example of Macedonia is an excellent and fantastic example of extreme generosity, of giving of what they don't have.
Paul is emphasizing here though that there's no expectation of God to give what you do not have, right? But what makes the gift acceptable or not acceptable is not whether you have or don't have it, but if the eagerness is there is what he says in verse 12, the desire to give, the desire to have help and to have generosity is what makes it acceptable. There are generous people who do not give out of a desire to give. They either give out of a compulsion because they're being forced or told to. A lot of churches, so many that I don't need to name names because it's common in the in courts, including so called Christian churches, tell you that if you don't give, if you don't tithe, if you don't do this, you can't go to heaven, you will end up in hell.
There are other people who they give not because they're generous and want to give, but they do so because their tax credits and breaks will actually be more than what they gave. And so they give selfless, selfishly. Wow, I can't get that out. They give to their own benefit. So Paul tells us what makes a gift acceptable is the desire to give it, not the compulsion to.
And then he tells us that when we give, right, if you have much, you won't have too much. A lot of our surplus is so that we can help others. But even those who have little, it says they do not have too little. Now this is a reference to Exodus 16.
In Exodus 16, remember, Israel is in the wilderness. They're wandering for 40 years, and God rains down upon the manna every day, right? And they go out and they gather. And the people who gather a lot, almost it seems like too much actually had just enough. And the people who went out and gathered a little, it was still just enough.
So Paul emphasizes that generosity and this we need to understand, does not hurt us, right? Generosity and giving and helping does not harm you spiritually. In fact, it greatly benefits you spiritually, but it also does not harm you economically. But generosity is the heart of God. Okay, we're gonna finish this chapter in this next reading and then we'll jump into chapter nine.
So thanks be to God who put the same concern for you into the heart of Titus us, for he welcomed our appeal and being very diligent, went out to you by his own choice. We have sent with him the brother who is praised among all the churches for his gospel ministry. And not only that, but he was also appointed by the churches to accompany us with this gracious gift that we are administering for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help you. We are taking this precaution so that no one will criticize us us about this large sum that we are administering. Indeed, we are given careful thought to do what is right not only before the Lord, but also before the people.
We have also sent with them our brother. We have often tested him in many circumstances and found him to be diligent, and now even more diligent because of this great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and co worker for you. As for our brothers, they are the messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. Therefore, show them proof before the churches of your love and our boasting about you.
Okay, this passage. Couple things to point out that are quick and simple. Here he is thanking God for Titus, and here is why. He says God put a concern into the heart of Titus for the well being of Corinth. And, and this concern in the heart of Titus is prompting him to bring them a gift.
Paul calls it a gracious gift.
So he has shown us the example of the Macedonians. He's showing us the example of God in Christ. And now. And he's showing them those examples. Now he's also showing them a further example that they are sending gifts to help them, even though he just said that they had a surplus.
So Paul has shown us three examples of generosity in this chapter. The next thing that he tells us is the reason so many people are going to Corinth with this gift is so that they will not be criticized for what they are doing. They're moving about a large sum of money and they want no criticism of what they're doing. Particularly, I think, because he doesn't specify what this criticism will be. So anything I say has got to be speculation where it's not specified.
But I speculate that the criticism really mentioned here is dipping into the money pearl Right. They're sending so many people so that when they get there, the amount can be verified, the sum of the money, and that no one can say, hey, it didn't all arrive because Titus or Paul or Barnabas or whoever dipped into it and took for themselves. I don't know, I'm speculating, because he doesn't say what this criticism is. And then also, also he says that the people who they are sending are tested. This is important because in our churches you can't or shouldn't, I should say, just allow anyone access to the church's finances or to carry a gift or access into the administration.
These brothers are tested, it says, in various circumstances and conditions to be found diligent, to be found trustworthy. And then finally to end this chapter up, he says this, and this is important for us. We take care. He says, right careful thought to do what is right, not only before the Lord, but before people. So they're not even just doing what's right.
And I've talked about this a lot, various messages, and over the years of doing this, Christ tells us to avoid the appearance of evil. Here's why this is an important phrase. He doesn't say avoid evil. In fact, he does in various other places. So don't misunderstand me.
But when he says that, he doesn't say avoid evil. He says avoid the appearances evil. So why is that so important? Well, there are things that are not evil to do, but might appear evil depending on contextualization. Right?
If you live in a heavy Mormon populated area and you're trying to preach to them and share the gospel with them, you may not want to be seen regularly coming out of the bar Saturday night.
Nothing wrong with drinking alcohol as long as you don't. You're not a drunkard. Nothing sinful about it, but the very appearance to people who are Mormon is offensive. So avoiding the appearance of evil is less about or more than not doing evil, but taking thought. Right?
That's why he says, here we take care of thought. So not just we're not going to avoid sin and evil, but I'm going to take thought for you and my neighbor or the people in a city I'm going to visit, right? Particularly think the Middle east. If you're a woman, you're not going to go there in shorts. Take careful thought that you're doing right not only before God, but before people.
And that's part of generosity. Let's jump into chapter nine. He says, now, concerning the ministry to the Saints, it is unnecessary for me to write to you, for I know your eagerness and I boast about you to the Macedonians. Achaia has been ready since last year and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers so that are boasting about you in this matter will not prove empty and so that you would be ready just as I said.
Otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, would be put to shame in that situation. Therefore, I considered it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead of you and to arrange in advance the generous gift you promised so that it will be ready as a gift and not an extortion. So what Paul says here is the reason he's sending people in this message now is he's been telling the Macedonians that the churches in Corinth have been ready for a year to give a gift, but they don't have this gift ready. Paul says, I'm sending these people to help you guys prepare so that when they show up, you're not UN ready. He says, we will be put to shame.
Could you imagine if I told you, hey, when you come to see me, right? This is before banking institutions and wire transfers, but I told you, hey, when you come to me, we're going to have $100,000 to give you. And a year goes by and you show up and we have nothing to give you. So he says, we are telling you we're going to be coming. We're sending messengers ahead so you know we are coming and you won't be put to shame.
Now here's the key. Paul is not shaming them into giving by saying, if you don't give and don't give this gift, then you're bad, evil, no good doers. But he's saying you had told them you're giving them this gift and they are coming. They're about to show up. So have it ready.
Because it is shameful for me to tell you I'm going to have this financial gift from our church and we take a year to get it ready and we show up and we don't have it. And that's Paul's concern. To simplify this, we can look at what Jesus said. Jesus said to not swear on God or heaven or the earth. We don't swear upon the Bible.
And why don't we swear? Because if you make an oath and you don't fulfill that oath, that in and of itself bring shame to God. So instead he says this. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. If you say yes, I'm going to do something Christ says, just follow through with it.
And if you don't want to follow through with it, say no from the start. And that is what Paul is emphasizing in this passage. But he's going to emphasize again what I point to out just a few minutes ago, that what makes a gift acceptable to God is not the act of giving it, but the willingness and desire to give it. Let's see what Paul says about that. He says, the point is the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.
And the person who sows generously will also reap generously. Each person should do as he has decided in his own heart. Heart, not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make every grace overflow to you so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. As it is written, he distributed freely, he gave to the poor.
His righteousness endures forever. Now the one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food, food will also provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for all generosity which produces thanksgiving to God through us. For the ministry of the service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but it is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because the proof provided by this ministry because of the proof provided by this ministry ministry, they will glorify God for your obedient confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity in sharing with them and everyone.
And as they pray on your behalf, they will have deep affection for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Okay, that also finishes the chapter. So we'll briefly discuss what he says here. He starts with a parable.
The one who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. The one who sows much will reap much. And this is a parable related to farming. The person who goes and plants 10 seeds of corn will reap according to 10 seeds of corn. And the one who goes and plants a hundred seeds of corn is going to reap, reap significantly more than the one who planted 10.
Paul uses this parable here and applies it to giving, right when you give to someone, whether it's to the church or to a person begging on the corner or to a neighbor who is in need, when you give, you are Sowing, you're sowing into that person. You're sowing into yourself. You're sowing into the kingdom of God, right? And you will reap according to that. Verse 7.
Now is very important. Each person should do as he has decided in his heart. Not reluctantly or out of compulsion. Because God loves a truthful giver. There are a lot of churches, a ton of churches, that require a 10% title.
Tithe.
They require it. Some of them even tell you, if you don't tithe, if you don't give 10%, you won't enter heaven. Some of them even go further and not only want 10%, but want 15 or 20. A lot of churches require, and Paul emphasizes here that giving should not be out of compulsion, right? It should not be compulsed because your pastor or church says you must do it.
For those of you, for those of you here who have been with me for a while, for a long time, even some of you guys here, since I started being a pastor and a minister, you'll notice I have never told anybody they have to tithe the church. I've never demanded it, never said it's expected. And it's never affected how the church views or helps or accepts other people. Because it is not the church's responsibility to manage the way that you give. That's between you and God.
So here's what he says. He says you should give. He's not saying, don't give. And I'm going to also clarify, there's more than one way to give. Financially is one way, but there is more giving than financially giving.
There's time, there's all sorts of things that you can do to give. But here's what he says you should determine in your own heart what to give, not reluctantly. So if you're reluctant, if you say, I'm going to give, I'm just going to use a figure of 10% if I'm going to give 10% of my income to the church. And each month, when you go to write that check or enter your credit card into the website, in your heart you're like, I really don't know about giving this 10%. God doesn't want it.
Don't worry about it. Don't give it. God doesn't want it because he wants a cheerful giver. He wants you to determine in your heart what you can give that you can be happy about, right? Not that you're going to worry about.
Now, that doesn't mean that it's wrong to be reluctant in the sense of saying, hey, I'm in financial trouble and sometimes giving worries me. But there's a difference between that reluctancy of times are tight and I need the finish. God, give me the faith to give and see that you'll provide versus the reluctancy of I really don't want to give this. This is a lot to give or I feel like I have to. There's a difference.
God wants you to do it because you want to do it, not because you're composed to. And then he says this. He's able to make every grace overflow to you in every way. Now this is really cool. Every grace.
As a Christian, we recognize that everything we have is given to us by God. Not just our salvation and good deeds, but our money, our cars, our homes, our food. And if it's all given to us by God, then it is a grace of God. And he says he can overflow every grace. So whether it's money or food or vehicles, whatever it is, he can overflow it to you.
A huge determination in this, though, is the willingness and desire, the eagerness to give. Remember, the person who sows sparingly reaps sparingly. And the person who sows much, reaps much. And through my years, I won't stand behind her and say, my giving has always been consistently the same. Same through the years, I've had times where I've given more.
I've given this ups and downs. But I can tell you that God has overflowed his grace to me every time. I've never not had enough to give because everything I have given, God has overflowed back to me. And now I need to say, that's not why we give. God is not a slot machine to say, okay, I'm going to put money in, pull the lever and get money out.
It's not a slot machine. So we don't give because we know he's going to give us more. But we can give with the peace of knowing that he's going to give us more. We can give with the peace of knowing that He's a gracious God, that He is a generous God, and that he will overflow unto us his gracious graces so that we always have everything we need. And then it tells us how he will do this.
In verse 10, he says, the one who provides seed for the sower will also multiply the seed. So who provides seed? The answer is God. If we want to look at it from a farming perspective, it's God because He made the plants and the seeds and their ability to reproduce. And if we want to look at it as money, it's still God, because God provides our needs.
So he says that the one who provides seed, which is God, will also multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness. So now we have parallels here. There's seed in terms of food and money, which God says he will provide and multiply. He's able to do that. But then we also see the righteousness, right?
Increase the harvest of your righteousness. Remember when I said when you sow into the kingdom, when you sow into people, you're sowing into the kingdom of God, right? There is a harvest, and there's actually a bigger promise here. Thank God, simply saying, I'll provide you food to give to people or money to give to people. He'll increase the harvest of your righteousness, right?
Your work in the kingdom, the work you do to a neighbor who gets saved may increase as that neighbor preaches to his family and they get saved, and they preach to their friends and extend a family and they get saved. The promise here is a lot deeper than money. The promise here is an increase in the harvest of righteousness.
And then he says that you'll be enriched in every way for your generosity, which will produce thanksgiving. We just know that to be true. If we are generous, it produces thanksgiving. Now, here's the key. It's not that I'm going to give to you so you will thank me, but it's that I give to you so that you will thank God.
And that's the key there. I can do something because I want a pat on my back from you, and that is my reward. Or I can do something because I want God to be glorified in you, and that is where the increase in the harvest of righteousness will come from. And then he ends at this. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.
There's many ways to go with this here. First and foremost, the indescribable gift. In these last two chapters, we talked about Paul, Christ, who, being rich, became poor. Poor, right. He entered into this poor status so that we could become rich, right?
The indescribable gift is that God would become man and he would die for you so that you could be saved in him, in his death and resurrection. The indescribable gift of God is that though we don't deserve it, he gives us all these good things. Things he gives us our homes and our food and our money and these belongings so he says, thanks be to God. We want to thank God tonight, and we're going to thank God here in a few minutes for the second best gift that he has given me and given my wife. So we're going to go do that in a moment.
But I want to talk to those who hear this message. And you don't know this indescribable gift, and I'm not going to describe it to you, otherwise it wouldn't be indescribable.
But this gift of God is like something you will never experience. It's peace that you cannot have outside of this. It's hope of a future you cannot have outside of this, hope of life that you cannot have outside of this. A security, and I'm not talking economic, but a security in your being, in what will happen to you that cannot come outside of this. And if you want this indescribable gift, if you want to experience what we're saying for yourselves so you can tell someone else even how indescribable the.
If you want to really experience the generosity of the person that we call God, you can have that before we leave tonight. And it begins with admitting first and foremost that you're a sinner and you cannot save yourself.
You're human and you're fallen and you're messed up. And while that's not okay because of the penalties that it means, it is okay to admit it and recognize that and say to God, hey, I'm messed up, but you're not, right? And to believe that Jesus is the God, man creator of heaven and earth, who did, though being rich, became poor so that you would be rich. He came here and he died for you and Rose again. And the confession that he's not just your savior, but he's your God and he's your king.
And to commit your life to him. And if you can do those things, if you're ready to do those things and confess that to God and ask him for it, you can have that gift. Today in our closing prayer, we'll verbalize that to God. Not that it will save you, but it'll verbalize that confession to God. And that confession and belief is what saves you that hope in him.
Immediately after closing prayer, we'll end this broadcast and we'll have the Lord's Communion. I invite everyone to stay and partake of that with us. And then immediately following the Lord's Communion, we will dedicate our little baby girl. And we'll talk more about that in a few moments. For everyone else, we will see you Wednesday at 6:30 as we continue our Bible study through Luke.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your extreme generosity. We thank you, Lord, for your willingness to become poor for us, to die for us, to do what you have done for us. And we admit, Father, that we're sinners, that we can't save ourselves, that we're messed up. But we know, Father, that you are perfect in all of your ways, in all of your doings, in everything in your knowledge.
You're perfect. And we believe, Jesus, that you are the God man who created all of this, who created us. That you did come here in the form and likeness of a man. And that you did die and rise again. And you did so for us.
And we confess you as our God and our King, our Lord and Savior to follow you. Father, I pray that you'll be glorified as we exemplify in you your generosity to others, that they will see you and give you thanks and praise and glory. And we pray for the increase, Father, not in our money and food, but the increase in the harvest of our righteousness. That your kingdom will grow and be glorified. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.