Joy & Gladness Required!

Take your Bibles, would you, this morning and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Deuteronomy 28. Would you follow along as I read verses 45 through 51. All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things. Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst in nakedness and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. It shall eat the offspring of your cattle, the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. It also shall not leave your grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

Let's pray. God, now we pray that you would open your word to us, help us to understand it, help us, Lord, to rejoice in what you are doing through the gospel, and we will thank you with renewed love for you. Help us now to understand this aright. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy.

That's what the Puritan Jeremy Taylor wrote many centuries ago. And we recoil at that thought. You mean God expects us to be happy? Isn't happiness something that's spontaneous? I mean even God can expect happiness He can demand happiness can he Well that exactly what God does in our text this morning Verses 47 and 48 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lacking everything, and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

So for this Thanksgiving season, let's take a trip to the plains of Moab. Let's stand with the people of Israel. They stand as they're before the Jordan River, ready to cross to take possession of the promised land. Now God has forbidden Moses to go with them because he lost his temper. He lost his temper at one point and thus obscured the glory of God.

And God said to him, because you lost your temper, I'm not going to let you go into the promised land. And so before they go, Moses, before Moses hands over the reins of leadership to Joshua, he speaks to the people of Israel one last time. And that sermon comprises the entire book of Deuteronomy. So, don't complain about the length of sermons here. I could preach one as long as Deuteronomy.

Actually, I couldn't. But he is preaching this sermon to them. And in that sermon, he's reminding them of the covenant that they had made with God. And he's going over that covenant and telling them all that's involved in that. He rehearses that covenant that God made with this people. And they reaffirm their commitment to the covenant and their allegiance to God.

And as we come upon these people on the plane, we overhear this part of the sermon. And as we enter this part of the book, we are in the part of the book where Moses is rehearsing the blessings and the cursings of the covenant. Blessings, if they obey, curses for disobedience and disloyalty to the covenant. And our text falls right here in the cursing section of the covenant.

I already know what you're saying. Great. We're going to hear a sermon about the curses of God if we're not thankful. Yes and no. that's part of it this is god's word to us this is indeed god's word to us it is intended for us to understand however with the coming of jesus what we read here points to jesus and the and how he fulfilled everything in this covenant and we got to look at this then with gospel eyes if we would hear God speak to us today And so on this side of the cross, looking back on the plains of Moab and hearing the curses of God, we need to understand that through gospel eyes and find out what God is saying to us today through this text that he gave his people so many centuries ago.

And as we do hear God speak of serving him with joy and gladness, we need to understand that those are basically synonyms for Thanksgiving, right? You're not thankful if you're grumpy and, you know, and unhappy, right? That's not being thankful. Joy and gladness are synonymous with Thanksgiving. So we need to hear and know what God thinks is essential for a life of Thanksgiving.

So let's look at this text, shall we? First of all, know what the Lord commands here. know what the Lord commands we have an obligation and that is to serve the Lord as Israel rehearses the covenant that they have with God they hear the heart of that covenant which is you must serve the Lord the Lord Yahuwah that's his personal name that's how you pronounce the Hebrew you must serve Yahuwah the only true and living God now you read the account in the book of Exodus where Moses says Pharaoh, speaking for God, Pharaoh, let my people go that they may serve me. That's the heart of the covenant.

Serving them, or them serving God, set them apart as the people of God. Them serving this particular deity, which is the only true and living God. This would set them apart as the people of God. This was their identity. The people who serve Yahuwah. The people who serve this God.

That's their identity. Just like when you go to Honda tomorrow. And you go there day after day, week after week, year after year. Part of your, that becomes, as you serve that company, that becomes part of your identity. Part of your identity is I'm an employee of Honda. Right?

And so it is with these folks. As they serve Yahweh, that becomes their identity. And it's in that identity, as servants of the Lord. It in that identity that they would bless the nations of the earth You see as you read the Old Testament you going to find that Israel had a missionary command a missionary commission and that was live like this, live according to the dictates of this covenant, and you will bless all the nations around you.

It was this nation, these servants of the only God, who in covenant faithfulness would become a light to the nations, a beacon of truth, calling all the pagan nations around them to serve this one God. By the way, that's our identity as well, is it not? Isn't that our identity? We are the servants of the living God who has revealed himself in whom? In Jesus.

He's revealed himself in Jesus. And Jesus completes the story that Israel did not complete. Israel failed. It did not become a beacon to the nations. But Jesus came and he fulfilled their story. He ended their story.

The story that they had started was pointing to him. And he becomes the light to the nations. He becomes the one who's faithful to God. And as such, he becomes the light to the world. And we, in union with him now, have become the nation that is the light to the world. Our identity as servants of God shines out as we follow the commandments of Jesus.

As we follow the commandments of Jesus, we become the light to the world that they never could. We now are those servants of the living God, followers of Jesus Christ, who become those who show the light to the world. But we have not discharged our obligation only by serving Him. Do you see that in this text? It's not enough just to serve Him. We must serve, what?

With joyfulness and gladness of heart. You see, they're not going to discharge their obligations and we won't discharge ours. Unless we do it. Unless we serve the living God with joyfulness and gladness of heart. So tomorrow you go to work and as you walk through the doors of Whirlpool, there's a new guy sitting there. And you look at him and you say, who are you?

He says, I'm the gladness checker. I'm here to see if you're happy for working here. And if you're not, I fire you. Are you happy today? Are you happy today? Now that's kind of what we're thinking at this point, aren't we?

Is this what God is doing? Well, here's God's covenant obligation. Not only must you serve Him, but you must serve Him in the right way. With joyfulness and gladness of heart. Lord, why is this such a big deal? Why aren't you happy enough with us just serving you?

Why is this such a big deal? Well, for one thing, it communicates the state of your heart. It communicates the state of your heart. Notice what he says. You serve him with joy and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things. Now, God had promised a great deal.

And if you would read the first part of this chapter, let's just jump over to chapter one. I'm sorry, verse one of this chapter. Here are the blessings of the covenant. Now listen. and if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God being careful to do all his commandment that I command you today the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you isn't that amazing I love that terminology these blessings are just going to come rolling down and overtake you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle the increase of your herds and the young of your flock blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out and on and on and on it goes and what you read there and this is as I read this as you read those blessings you know what it sounds like it almost sounds like the glories of the new earth where God promises this incredible abundance.

Your herds are just going to be massive and your children, you're going to have many and you'll never go hungry and your enemies will not even be able to touch you. I mean, the blessings are absolutely incredible when you read them. And what he's saying is it's going to be a great and happy life if you obey me. You need to serve me with gladness and joyfulness. because I'm going to bless you greatly.

On top of all that God had delivered His people from slavery from back remember the story He delivered them from back work from oppression so hard that they hated their lives from slaving for the prosperity of someone else with nothing in return, life so hard it was impossible to enjoy your wife and your children. He delivered them from that, and He promised them this incredible, this incredible land with all of that, all of these wonderful things. the lack of joy and gladness reveals a heart of unspeakable gratitude for the grace of God and by the way these people are experiencing the grace of God they'd experienced the grace of God in their deliverance they are now hearing of the grace of God that will be theirs what about you Jesus liberated you from the chains of sin by suffering the curse of God You know what? I can never think of this without thinking of Isaiah.

Where Isaiah depicts it this way. And it was God's will to crush him. You hear those words? It was God's will to crush his own son. So you could be liberated from the guilt of sin. Not having to pay for the things that you've done.

And to liberate you from the chains of sin. free now to live in a way that you never lived before. That's the grace of God in Christ. And to be anything less than joyful and happy is to say something about what you think about what God has done for you. What do joy and gladness communicate about the state of your heart? Do they communicate that you have a heart that's been transformed by the grace of God.

You see. It's a big deal because it communicates what you think of your God. Now before I came here, I worked for Brock Manufacturing. Now you all, if you don't know what Brock Manufacturing is, go out and go down the highways and you see grain bins, right? Those corrugated steel grain bins, some of them with the big name Brock on them. I used to work for that company.

That's the last place I worked before I came here. And our Our company had a particular policy. You know what it was? It was this, you do not back your car into the parking space. Right You don back your car into the parking space That seems like a dumb rule doesn it Why do you think they had that rule I know why they had that rule When I go by Whirlpool and I see cars backed into the parking space you know what I see?

I see someone who's saying, I can't wait to get out of here so that I don't even have to look behind me to back out. I can just take off. That's why they had that rule. They didn't want anybody driving by the plant where Brock was and to think that they had any employees that were disgruntled. Okay? They did not want to give that impression.

Now look, when you're not joyful and glad, you've got your car backed in. It tells people what you think of your God. Like you're at Walmart, right? And you're standing there and a cast of you is just going, did you find everything all right and you say wow is your shift about to end oh yeah i only got half hour of this i can't wait to get out does that tell you anything it says man i love walmart i'd love i can't think of working anywhere else but walmart right you know what it's saying see when we're not joyful and glad what are we saying about god what are we saying about god you know another reason why this is a big deal is it communicates to the world your position Israel was a people set apart from the rest of humanity they were a holy people by delivering them from Egypt and giving him this covenant God had set them apart from all the other nations of the world right they were a different nation they were holy to God but if they served God begrudgingly, if they served him begrudgingly, would they look any different than the nations around them and how they worshiped their gods?

What do you think? All those pagan nations were worshiping and serving their gods, but they did it out of fear. They did it out of duty. And God is saying, serve me with joy and gladness. You're going to look different. You're already set apart from the nations, you'll look different as you do that.

So you see, if we would express our holy position in Christ that we set apart from the rest of humanity we ought to look different than everybody else In a world that gloomy in a world that dark in a world where people are definitely not happy. When we're joyful and glad and thankful, we look different. Can the world around us, Can this community say that about us?

Can this little town say that about us? Those people who go to that church are a happy lot. I hope they can. They should. You see, it says much about our position. So know that the Lord commands us to serve Him, but to serve Him with joy and gladness.

Now, if you're going to grow in thankfulness, then know what the Lord has done. not only know what the Lord has commanded but know what the Lord has done do you see what God does here he threatens terrible things to his people if they're not going to be happy I absolutely love that quotation from Jeremy Taylor it's wonderful God threatens terrible things of his people will not be happy do you see the threats the curses he speaks to his people they are almost horrible beyond belief you want to read further let's read a little bit further and see what the curses are to people who will not be happy pick it up in verse 52 these in this nation that's going to come it says this they shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trust to come down throughout all your land and they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land which the lord your god has given you and you shall eat the fruit of your womb the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you the man who is most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother to the wife he embraces and to the last of the children whom he has left so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating because he has nothing else left in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. The most tender and refined woman among you who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she's so delicate and tender will be grudged to the husband she embraces son and to her daughter her after birth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears because lacking everything she will eat them secretly in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns isn't that awful have you ever heard have you read anything as disgusting as terrifying as that God says that's what's going to happen to you he says to his people back then this is what's going to happen to you if you will not serve me with joy and gladness it's it's horrible beyond belief he threatens the very things from which he delivered them keep reading verses 60 and 61 and he will bring upon you again all the diseases of egypt of which you were afraid and they shall cling to you every sickness also in every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed. In their slavery, they were hungry, destitute, and oppressed.

And he says, I'll bring the same things on you if you don't serve me with joyfulness and gladness of heart. Now here's the question. Did these horrific threats produce a people overflowing with great gratitude? You know the story, don't you? All the curses came upon them. All those things that we just read happened to them because they refused to obey God.

They refused to remain loyal to the God who gave them this covenant. It was a gracious covenant. These covenant obligations flowed out of God's grace in delivering his people from oppression. Yet in the face of that grace, they proved disloyal to the covenant and they reaped the curses. This covenant did not transform their hearts. It told them what God expected, but it didn't do anything to them.

You might say, yeah, but we're made of the same stuff they are. What about us? Isn't that true of us? This is where you must know what the Lord has done. Because we're made of the same stuff. And the first covenant made our ungrateful depravity obvious. that covenant that God puts upon them didn't change them but it did show them just how bad they were God was so good to you and even makes these he tells you all the marvelous things are going to happen to you if you obey him and horrible things if you disobey him what happened they disobeyed why the the only thing that covenant could do was show us our ungrateful hearts growing out of an incredible deep-rooted depravity god could tell us what he wanted but unless we're changed We won't do any of it.

No matter what the promises. No matter what the threats. No matter what the grace. Because that showed our ungrateful hearts. God then acted in Jesus. God acted in Jesus.

Do you know what God has done? The triune God takes upon himself the covenant obligation of joyfulness and gladness of heart. Turn over to Ezekiel 36. Turn to Ezekiel 36. Now as the history of Israel goes on, it becomes obvious that they're not going to remain loyal to this covenant. And so God, through the prophets, says something to them.

Ezekiel 36. Begin reading in verse 22. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them.

And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.

I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Now, the old covenant in which they lived did not change their heart. They were still had stony hearts. But he says, I'm going to bring a new covenant. And under that covenant I going to change you I going to change you In fact the father makes a new covenant with his people in which he obligates himself for the sake of his name he obligates himself to produce grateful joyful hearts.

That's what he says here. I'm going to give you new hearts that you want to do what I tell you to do. And we'll want to gratefully, joyfully live in gratitude. The Father takes upon himself the obligation to produce in us what he demands. The son ratifies that covenant by his death and he purchases for us all of those things that the father promises. Right?

Isn't that what Jesus said? Isn't that what we say every month? This is the new covenant in my blood. Right? we have that new covenant in the blood of jesus he ratified it by his death and by his death he guarantees the promises of that covenant by his death he purchases for us joy and gladness of heart isn't it something you see jesus give up the joys of fellowship with his father to become a man of sorrows so that you could have joy.

Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing what Jesus has done? And then the Holy Spirit takes what the Father promises and what the Son purchases and He applies them to God's people. Right? What's the fruit of the Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So the Holy Spirit takes what the Father has promised, what the Son has purchased, and He applies it to us so that it happens. It actually happens. You see what the Lord has done in the Gospel. You can serve God with joy and gladness of heart. You can show your holy state by your gratitude. God's name will be honored among the nations because of what He has accomplished.

It is possible because of what God has done in Christ. So there's nothing left to do but believe right It a done deal right There no obligation on us right Well no You and I know that not our experience We still find ourselves fighting against ingratitude We still sense the necessity of obedience to this command for joy So the last thing we need to do is to know how you can obey the Lord. How can you obey the Lord in this? well the first thing you need to understand is this we still live in a fallen broken world and the full redemption purchased by jesus has not yet been fully applied he's applying so much but there's some that he hasn't like this like god's people of old we have to still contend with a pagan culture full of idols that try to seduce us.

It's no different than them. We live in a culture that surrounds us with idols that are continually trying to seduce us. We have a culture that is in love with recreation, entertainment, and amusement, and we're too easily enticed by the endless arrays of distractions our culture so willingly supplies. We're sometimes seduced into thinking that amusement equals joy, right?

As long as I'm having fun, I'm happy. So, until Jesus returns, we're going to be contending against that. We have bodies waiting for the redemption. And when you suffer pain or fatigue, they tempt us towards attitudes that are less than joyful, glad, and thankful. Would you agree? Yeah.

I remember in October 2009, I had a toothache. I remember that. I was at a conference. I was at a conference. I was at a counseling. I was at the Nank Conference.

And my dearest friend in ministry, John Street, was preaching that day. And I'm sitting there looking at my dear friend, John, and I'm thinking, please end this soon, would you? Oh, man, my tooth hurts. I've got to get out of here. I was not very happy, glad, or grateful at that moment. Not for me, not for John, not for anybody.

I wanted to deal with that tooth. Now look, because our bodies are still broken and fallen and aging and decaying, it will tempt us at times not to be joyful and grateful. Right? Yeah, we have to recognize that. Until Jesus returns and we have brand new bodies that will never experience pain again, never be weak again, we're going to be tempted to be joyless when we're hurting.

Sinners still plague and attack us, making joy and gladness harder to grasp. We're surrounded by sinners who make life hard for us. So until Jesus returns and removes them, we're going to be tempted. Of course, sin still resides in us, causing us difficulty in expressing our thanks, causing us difficulty in joy and gladness. And so until Jesus returns and eliminates the sin even within us, we're still going to fight for joy and gladness.

Yet you can fight through to joy, gladness, and gratitude. I want to look at a few things here as we close to understand how you can fight through to joy and gladness. First of all, it begins with Jesus. Look at 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. Verses 3 and 4.

His divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, which includes gladness and joy, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that's in the world because of sinful desire note all that we need the power that we need for joy and gladness and gratitude are communicated to us the power for that as we know Jesus better as we get to know Jesus better power is communicated to us so that we can live this way if you want to be a person who joy who who known for joy and gladness get to know Jesus better Read about Him Commune with Him Think on Him Get to know Jesus And you will have more power. It includes faith. It begins with Jesus.

It includes faith. The same text. Notice what he says. As you believe the promises which then deliver you from these evil desires in the world. you know desires are constantly beckoning us when the desire for more whispers joy comes if you only get more you don't have enough get more stuff that's when you believe the gospel promise that denying earthly treasure heaps up for you heavenly treasure when the desire for ease captivates your heart.

You can be glad. Life is good when you believe the gospel promise that when you lose your life for Christ, you gain it. When the desire for health and wellness convinces you that you can't be thankful in pain, remember the promise that there's coming a day when there will be no more pain in your body. When you will have a body that will be resurrected that will never suffer any ever again.

Remember those promises. Believe the promises of God and you will find joy and gladness. Here's the third thing. It means recalling that your Father is more intent on your gratitude than even you are and He will make sure it happens. Now what He says in Ezekiel 36, I promise under this new covenant that I will turn your heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

The gospel trans... And listen, you know what the gospel does? The gospel transforms those curses in the Old Testament. This is what I think. How do I read those curses in the Old Testament? I can't read them as, this is what God's going to do to you if you don't obey.

Because Jesus obeyed for me, so the curses are gone. Jesus obeyed so that now the curses don't fall on me. But those curses now, those difficulties, those hardships, God can use to transform me. Not to punish, but to transform me. Jesus took the curses upon himself, so God freely loves you and can now correct you without violating his holy character He brought the curses down for disobedience on Jesus so that you don have to fear the curses But you can know this that the difficulty that God brings into your life he's using to help you, not to curse you.

All because of Jesus. Here's the fourth thing. So it begins with Jesus. It includes faith, recalls what your father is more intent on your gratitude will use whatever he does to produce it. Here's the fourth thing. It means rehearsing the power of the gospel to yourself.

Romans 6.11. Romans 6.11. So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. There have been times when my wife has disappointed me. I know that surprises you. You can't imagine Beck ever disappointing anybody. but the problem is with me obviously I remember I was hoping to go through to town one night and she changed her plans and I was a bit irritated, disappointed feeling sorry for myself and starting to entertain thoughts that were not too loving towards my beloved it looked like a day was developing that would not be characterized by joy and gladness but then I said to myself this is ungodly because God wants you to be joyful and glad.

I am not enslaved to these emotions. I am not enslaved to these emotions. I can be joyful and grateful. You ever thought that way? That's what Romans 6.11 says. Count yourself dead to those old ways.

You can say to yourself, I don't have to be this way. I can be joyful and glad. you rehearse the power of the gospel to yourself five it means recalling the character of god does your attitude reflect an outlook that says glad you mean with this monster as my master joyful do you know what he's like how is god anyway the other day i was just thinking i was driving along and I was thinking this, you know something, when I read the New Testament, I read tons of joy. I mean, you know we're always beating ourselves up because you know, oh God I disappointed you again oh God I sinned again oh God can I continue like this I read the New Testament I find joy Sure I find places where it says mourn over your sin But I also find that God is my Father.

And He loves me. And His heart is broken too. He's not this kind of guy that says, oh, you keep doing it, doing it, doing it. I'm so tired of it. Is that our God? Is our God the one who's just waiting?

I'm just waiting for you to do something wrong so I can jump. Right? Is that our God? That is not our Father. That is not our Father. Recall the character of God.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is our Father. Listen to the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost sinner, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.

To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. That's the God we have. Recall the character of God. Here's the last one. It means looking at the cross.

It means looking to the cross. There you see the love of God. There you see the justice and the love of God meeting. in this fallen broken world you can still fight through to joy and gladness the father through jesus by his spirit will see you through to the joy and gladness that he commands you see then that thanksgiving for the christian goes far beyond gratitude for just the material things of life.

Yeah, we need to be thankful for those, but our gratitude must go further than that. We're characterized by joy and gladness. My friends, listen, God still threatens terrible things to people who will not be happy. Some of you today have no joy in God. You hate Him for His commandments and you've closed to his immense goodness expressed to you every day.

And God doesn't lower the boom on you. God forbears with you day after day. In fact, God keeps giving you good things day after day after day after day. All of it intended to lead you to repentance. He offers you his son this day so that you can possess real joy and gladness. Why do you stop up your hearts against him?

Why do you do that? now Christians we have the immense privilege of serving God with joy and gladness of heart it is a privilege because by doing that we magnify our Father and our Savior and show the great power of the Holy Spirit it's a privilege because we showcase the power of the Gospel to a world that is swimming in darkness and hatred and sadness Man what a privilege to show the light of Christ in this dark sorrow world What a privilege. Today, today, we have heard from God. And we know the joy of serving the One who loves us beyond measure.

Father, thank You for Your Word. We pray that we take it to heart. We pray that You would help us. Will God help us to be joyful and glad in a world of hatred and sorrow and darkness? God, help us to be joyful and glad people who love to serve You. Grant it for the glory of Your name, for the light of the Gospel.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.