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Understanding God's Word and Its Application

Thank you for joining us in Deuteronomy, and we come now to chapter 7. I read last week about this man in China who struck lottery and won about 2 million Singapore dollars. That's quite a lot. But he immediately went on a gambling spree and got on to live stream hosted by ladies. And he would be even tipping the ladies to the tune of $200,000. Imagine you were his wife, how would you feel? Well, he would call the live stream host ‘lao puo’, which means ‘wife.’ And they would call him ‘lao gong’, which is ‘husband’. And I think this must be a miserable knowledge to the wife. Eventually they are divorced. If only the wife knew earlier, and if only she could stop him from these live stream hosts.

The story of Israel and God is a marriage, a love story. God is amazingly described to be married to Israel in the Bible. At Mount Sinai, when God gave the Ten Commandments, it was kind of like a marriage covenant. You see, God said that himself in Jeremiah 31,

…the covenant that I made with the fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt… (Jeremiah 31:32)

So this is the Exodus story. They were saved out of Egypt. They were brought to Mount Sinai. And there at Mount Sinai, God gave the Ten Commandments, saying to them,

if you keep my laws, I will be your God. (Leviticus 26:12)

Essentially saying to Israel, “If you love me, I will be your God. I will love you. We are in a marital relationship though I was their husband.” So Israel is to love God as God is to love Israel. So to the second generation now who is about to enter the Promised Land, Moses in his dying funeral message, would say to Israel, “Love God” as we saw last Sunday or two Sundays ago in the Shema, Deuteronomy 6 just the chapter before what we are reading today has a central command, or the central teaching of the Jews, where you see a fundamental principle or doctrine that the God they worship is the only true and living God. And the central responsibility, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. So that's where we end, or that's where we ended last week.

The Central Command of Deuteronomy 7

Today, we come to Deuteronomy 7, and we're going to see that in order to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we need to do something quite radical, or Israel needed to do something quite radical. What is Deuteronomy 7 all about? Let me show you. (Pastor showed a chunk of verses on the screen).That's what we're going to study today, alright? You said, “Oh, I'm going to be, I'm going to be so tired going through these verses.” So let me just point out something. To make sense of Deuteronomy 7, or to make sense of any Bible passage, sometimes you just need to take a step back and understand the structure. One of the ways to interpret the Bible or to make sense is to see the literary structure with which it is written. So Deuteronomy 7 is interesting, in a sense, I see a structure in the beginning and the end. Sorry, the pink doesn't show up right at the end, but I'm supposed to show you the bookmarks or the book ends of this chapter, because there's something very similar in these two parts.

So let's focus on the first half, we zoom in, and now you can read a bit more easily. We see that there is this repeated instruction to devote them to complete destruction, to show no mercy to them, to not intermarry with them, to break down their altars and dash in pieces. Who is the ‘them’? The ‘them’ is the Canaanites, the people who are currently living in the Promised Land. So Israel is supposed to cross the river Jordan and conduct a battle campaign against Canaan. But the instruction is very clear, you have to wipe them out utterly. Now that is again a repeat in the lower part. You see here the end of this chapter. And if we zoom in, you are going to see a repeated motif. ‘until they are destroyed’, ‘you shall make the name perish’, ‘devoted to destruction’, ‘utterly detest and abhor’, ‘for it is devoted to destruction’.

Addressing the Harshness of God's Commands

So I think it's very simple now when you look at Deuteronomy 7. What is this chapter about? The beginning and the end tells you it is about destroying everything in Canaan. And this is a passage about devoted to destruction. So let me answer a few things. First, let's look at this requirement. This requirement is really extreme to us, to bring the Canaanites to complete destruction, to show no mercy and to make sure their name perished, and we would immediately said, “Ouch, this is painful. This is brutal.” Some of us may think that God is merciless, or we may think that God is really cruel or harsh.

During our zoom session with the CG leaders on Tuesday, that's exactly the sentiment. So one of them, they would ask, “How should we understand this harsh command in light of God's character of mercy?” And there's a kind of mismatch. The Bible seems to teach of a God who is merciful and loving and gracious, but here we see a God who is fierce and maybe even brutal. How do we make light? How do we understand this? And how do we explain it to seekers or new believers who struggle with this part of Scripture? Maybe you are someone like that. You say, “I can never believe the God of the Bible because I don't understand how he can commit genocide of the Canaanites. He's cruel. He's not worthy of my loyalty. I will not worship this kind of a god.” Because maybe you're thinking, “God is a kind of moral monster.” How do we respond? I've shared this before, but I'll share it again. And there are seven principles. Sometimes to answer these things, you just got to be a bit ‘choeng hei’ (meaning) ‘long winded’. And I think I need to take time to explain this very carefully to someone who may be skeptical and someone who may say, “I don't want to believe in this God.”

God's Consistent Judgment Throughout History

Number one, I like to remind the person, or tell the person, that God is the giver of life. Let's not forget that. You did not bring yourself into this world. Every single life here is given life by God. He is the giver of life. And so if you think about it, if He is the giver of life, he can also be the one who takes away life, just as Job would say,

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21)

There is no injustice for God to take away our life. If I die right now, there is no injustice with God. He sees it fit that I die, I die. Secondly, we need to understand that we all are sinners who deserve to die anyway. Not only can God take away life because He is the giver, we are sinners and the wages of sin is death. We deserve God's wrath. Number three, we must also remember that the people of Canaan are exceptionally evil. We know that from biblical data. We see this first of all in Genesis, when God said to Abraham, “I'm going to give you the Promised Land. I'm going to get you to defeat the Canaanites, but not yet. Don't go and I'm not giving you the land as yet, because the iniquity or the sin of the Amorites, that's another name for Canaanites, is not yet complete.” So what God is saying to Abraham is, “I will let you destroy the Canaanites when their sin is full. They are sinful now, and they are going to be even more sinful. And when they are at that exceedingly sinful stage, I'm going to give you Canaan”. So we have a hint that God is calculating the sins of the Amorites. And when it is the ripe moment, right moment, and it's ripe, they will be destroyed. We also see in Leviticus 18:24, 25

Do not make yourself unclean by any of these things….(Leviticus 18:24)

Now God is commanding Israel not to touch any of these practices. What are the practices? Contextually, in Leviticus 18, there will be these sins that are mentioned, incest, homosexuality, bestiality, temple prostitution, all kinds of illicit sexual relationships. These are the things that you must not touch, because these are the things that the nations you will go to are doing. And when you do these things, you will be unclean. By the way, do you know why I'm driving out these nations? Because they are unclean. So repulsive are they and their acts that figuratively, the land will vomit these people out. So the people of Canaan are committing all kinds of terrible sins, and that is further given, or information is given further in Deuteronomy 12, where we read of them burning their sons and their daughters in a fire to their gods. They offer to their strange and foreign gods, their children. Psalm 106 say,

They sacrifice their sons and their daughters to the demons. They pour out innocent blood… (Psalm 106:37-38)

So that is the kind of people Canaan was filled with. So is it unjust for God to take away life? No, He is the giver. We are sinful, and Canaanites were particularly sinful. And number four, we must remember that God did not just do this to Canaan, he repeatedly does this throughout human history. It's not just biased against the Canaanites. That's the point. He did this for the whole world during the days of Noah. He wiped out humanity, except for his family, because of the great wickedness on the earth. He will wipe out the city of Sodom and Gomorrah as well. And one day, Jesus is going to return and wipe out this world. That's what a just and holy God must do.

Number five, I'd like to suggest to you that God does not relish the killing of people. We know that from Ezekiel 33 there is no pleasure of God to do this. But as I've mentioned, the holy and just God must judge sin and sinners. Actually I should have asked you all to give me the seven points, but no time.

God's Love and Mercy

Okay, point number six. Point number six is, remember his love and mercy. Yes, God does judge sin severely, but he is also a God of love and mercy. In that, if you realize not every Canaanite is wiped out. Rahab, that story in Joshua 2, was a Canaanite and a prostitute at that. But because she believed God, she was spared, and I think, not only spared from Israel's army, but spared the wrath of God. If we arrive at the new heavens and new earth. I believe if you search, you will find Rahab there. God showed mercy and love to Rahab, who is willing to repent and believe. And so it is, whether it's Rahab or Nineveh, God shows mercy and grace to undeserving sinners. And most of all, remember God's love and mercy in the gospel of Jesus Christ. How Christ, his Son was sacrificed to bear your sins and my sins. So there is no injustice with God taking away any of life. And we must also remember that God is full of mercy and wrath, even as he remembers justice in judgment.

The Reason for Destroying the Canaanites

But number seven, I think this is the key point. I also like to deliver from the text, and that is the reason why Canaan has to be wiped out is because he is seeking to protect Israel from their evil influences.

Now I'll show you some pictures, a bit revolting. I've shown you before. I hope you get kind of acclimatized to it. But I used to work in a surgical department. That's gross. And we deal with different kinds of conditions, one of which is ulcers on the foot. So you want to shut your eyes, you can. Where the wound is bad and deep and it does not heal. The reason why it does not heal is that this is a pair of diabetic ulcers. The patient has diabetes. The blood vessels are spoiled, and the blood vessels do not supply to the wounds for healing very well so they don't get better. So in my early days, first to that department, I see this leg. I say, “Just give dressing la, antibiotics la, medicine la, should get better what?” But the senior doctor says, “Schedule the patient for BKA.” What is BKA? Burger King and…ah no. Below knee amputation. Huh? I mean just two little dots or holes, just patch up, cannot meh? Some transplant, cannot make it? Cannot, must do BKA. In my mind, he is too radical. In my mind, he is doing something excessive. This is too much. Okay, the next picture, you better shut your eyes if you are someone who really cannot take it. Ready? Okay. Because if you, if you don't do the BKA, the ulcer won't heal, and it gets worse and worse, and it gets infected and gangrenous and weeping. So close your eyes… 1,2,3…it will look like this. So the infection is going to be so bad, it's going to spread up the bloodstream into the body, and the person has to die. Okay, you can open your eyes. Now is the BKA amputee. Now you say this is very rare. It's not rare. Just last week, I met with a lady who told me that one of her relatives died because of this ulcers, infections of the feet, because he was diabetic. So I think that the surgeon was excessive, but he was doing the right thing.

So maybe you think today God is excessive. Why does God have to wipe out the Canaanites? It's not excessive if you know just how septic, toxic, poisonous, dangerous, the sinful practices of Canaan was. So God says, “You must devote them to destruction. Show no mercy, do not intermarry.” Why? He says it explicitly here.

for they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. (Deuteronomy 7:4)

You got to get rid of the live stream girls. Otherwise they will draw your hearts away from me. And again, right at the end of the chapter, a repeat,

…You shall utterly detest and abhor all the things associated with them, because otherwise, if you covet them, you will be ensnared by it. (Deuteronomy 7:26)

So Israel is commanded to love Yahweh with all their heart, soul, mind and strength in chapter six, they are to teach their children in chapter six and in chapter seven, they are to protect that love, ring fence around that love by destroying the sinful influences.

The Command to Kill Sin

Now let's talk about you and I. Are we today to do likewise? Are you today commanded to kill likewise? Yes or no? How many of you say yes? I just want to have some fun. How many of you say yes? One. Wow, maybe after service we can talk. Are we supposed to kill today? Does God command Christians to kill non Christians today? I mean, if your friend tells you to go to KTV and you say, “Wow, you sinful guy, take a chopper to chop, chop you.” Do you do that? You don't do that. I don't think we are supposed to do that now, but we are supposed to kill sin. So Eric is not wrong. We are still supposed to kill, but kill what? Kill who? We are supposed to kill sin.

I look at a New Testament teaching in Colossians for example,

Put to death therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil, desires, greed, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)

I guess you can classify that as money and sex. Kill these things. Peter would say similarly,

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers…(1 Peter 2:11)

Sounds strange to us, but basically, we are foreigners in this world, because our home is in heaven. All right. So as we are passing through this world,

…abstain from the sinful desires of this world, because they wage war against your soul (1 Peter 2:11)

They draw you away from God. So we are to kill, kill sin, and in particular, I think the Scriptures tell us to kill greed, to kill the love of money. Now I think Jesus spoke about this. He said,

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…(Matthew 6:19)

I have referred to this in recent days, and he tells us why. We might think that the reason why we are not to store up treasures on earth is because moth, rust, corrupt, thieves breakthrough steal. In other words, Jesus is telling us, “Don't do it because these things don't last.” Now, I don't think his primary motivation or primary persuasion is because your earthly treasures don't last. I think it's just a matter of fact. The real reason, I think, is found in verse 21

For where your treasure is there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:21)

So the real reason why we should not be obsessed and be devoting our lives to laying earthly treasures is because where you do it, your heart will follow also. There is a directing influence of where you invest. So if you devote yourself to earthly treasures, you will give your heart to earthly things. And that is why Jesus says don't do it. Because you cannot devote yourself to earthly things and also love God. You can't. You can't be giving tips to the live stream girl and love your wife. You can't. Because Jesus tells us.

No man can serve two masters…(Matthew 6:24)

You cannot serve God and riches or mammon, it's impossible. So the Bible or Jesus actually tells you don't lay up treasures on earth because it will lead you away from God, but lay up treasures in heaven, because that's what it means to have intimacy or being in a right relationship with God.

The Importance of Spiritual Pursuits

Now this is corroborated further by Paul in 1 Timothy, again, a very popular passage, or very important passage, when it comes to greed and covetousness. He says,

the love of money…(1 Timothy 6:10)

Someone asked me after the first service, interestingly. I have money, and I'm very good at making money. Is that wrong? I should have said, “No, if you give it to the church.” (laughter from congregation) Of course, I never said anything like that. That's just a joke. Money is not the problem. We always emphasize it's the love of money that is the problem, alright?

the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, because it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.(1 Timothy 6:10)

So it's it's not good. These are like the Canaanites that will draw you away from God. So what do you do? You flee these things. You run from these things. Now, it's not that you can't be about your business, or you can't conduct your business, you can't work, but I think it is to positively give yourself over to these things, Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love and so on and so forth. So make sure the priority of your life is not your trading in your stocks or your business and so on, but even as you do, need to give yourself to make a living, more than that, give yourself to spiritual pursuits. Give your Saturdays to join us for ‘Equip’ classes, for example, and not go for investment talks. It's about priority. It's about your heart. It's about putting the first things first. It's about laying up treasures on earth or in heaven. What about those who are already rich?

As for the rich in this present age, tell them not to be proud, not to bank on these things...(1 Timothy 6:17)

But look at verse 18, they are

…to do good, to be rich in good works…(1 Timothy 6:18)

I think that's what it means to lay up treasures in Heaven, to be generous and ready to share. So kill covetous. How do you kill covetousness? When you are a generous giver. It's very hard to be covetous if you are a generous giver. But if you are very stingy, it's very easy for you to be covetous. So kill these things by pursuing righteousness, godliness, spiritual growth, and kill these things by being generous, full of good works. Because the danger is,

..if you love the world and the things that are in the world, then the love of the Father is not in you. (1 John 2:15)

If you love the live stream host, the love of the wife is not in you. That's just the fact. But not only money, we recall, we also have to flee sexual immorality. Elder Jeff has an article this week in our bulletin on fighting sexual immorality, and you might want to take a look at that. We need to block people on our Facebook, block some websites, block some pages. We need to shift our computer to the living room. We need to avoid some people. We may need to quit a job. Whatever it takes, you may need to do, do so. Kill the Canaanites. Next time you see the lady, you say, “You're a Canaanite, shall not intermarry with you.” But I guess the point I'm trying to make is devote them to destruction. And the requirement is clear here. Now I think I'm really running out of time, so let me really speed through, because that, I think, is the main point. All right, let's look at the reason.

God's Sovereign Love for His People

The reason why you are to do this is because we love God. We want to love him. We want to preserve it. And the reason why we want to love God is because He first loved us. Deuteronomy 7 says,

for you are a people holy, set apart, and God has chosen you. (Deuteronomy7:6)

God has chosen to set his love upon you. Why did God choose Israel? He tells us, it's not because Israel was big or powerful or strong or mighty, but the answer is very simple. It is just because God loved you. It's a very strange answer in a sense. God is saying, “I love Israel, not because of anything in Israel, not because they were particularly obedient or powerful or smart. I just love them because I set my love on them, to bless them, to bring them out of Egypt.” And the subsequent verses would say, “if you do not love God by obeying Him in driving out the Canaanites, God will punish you, but if you obey, God will bless you.”

But I want to really camp on this idea of God's sovereign love for Israel, and actually God's sovereign love for you and for me. Do you realize that God doesn't love us because we are lovely? Can I say that again? God doesn't love you because you're lovely. You might think, “Oh, I'm a Christian. God loves me because I'm such a good person.” No, the Bible speaks about God's sovereign love upon his people. Let's look at Romans. For example. It says here in several verses,

though they were not yet born and had not done anything good, had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls. (Romans 9:11)

You notice. Paul who wrote Romans, is putting it very clearly, nothing to do with you, nothing to do with us. It's just everything to do with God and His purpose of election, not because of our works, but because of him, as it is written,

Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. (Romans 9:13)

Now what do we know about Jacob and Esau before they were born? Nothing. But God just chose Jacob to set his love upon.

For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom. I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. (Romans 9:15)

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. So then He has mercy on whomever He wills. I think the Bible speaks about how God loves us, or chose us, not because of us, but in spite of us. Why did God choose Jason Lim to be saved? Well, because he's such a great guy. No, because He is a God of sheer love. You know, when you look for a spouse, you go tinder. Swipe, swipe, swipe. You must swipe for nice picture or swipe for nice description, right? You look for something that appeals to you, right? You don't go and purposely choose the ugliest ones. You know what God does? He does not choose the good looking or the smart. Some good looking and smart can be chosen, but most of the time it's the poor, the weak, the humble.

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He does not choose us because of us, but in spite of us. As Spurgeon would say, “God did not save you because he saw something worth saving. He saved you out of sheer, pure grace and mercy.” If you are Christian today, you are a follower of Jesus Christ, let this humble you, and let this at the same time cheer you. It's not dependent on us. I don't have to prove my worth. God loves me because he is the God of love. God's love is to the loveless. God's love to the loveless shown that we might lovely be. A song goes to say God's love is to unloving people to make them lovely. That's where we are, that's who we are. So why do you and I need to clear out sin, fight lust, fight porn and greed? I think the ultimate reason is because we love God, and we love God because He first loved us.

Assurance in Overcoming Sin

But finally, let me share with you the reassurance that is found in this text, because God preempted what Israel would think. You would think the nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them? Now you must understand that Canaan is a very formidable nation. They are a aggregation of seven peoples. They are numerous. There are many fortified cities, and they are giants in their land. And Israel is a nomadic group that is not trained in warfare, so naturally they would fear. But God says, “Don't you worry. Remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.” So God is saying, “Look at my track record. Look at what I did last time. I will do it again.” And God said, “I will also send a secret weapon.” You know what's the secret weapon? Nobody knows. That's why it remains a secret up to today. The secret weapon is hornets.

I'm going to send the hornets…(Exodus 23:28)

This is targeted. This is modern technology, okay? This is bio modern technology. Heat seeking hornets to attack all the Canaanites.

You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD, your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. (Deuteronomy 7:21)

So God is saying about you, “I'm in your midst. I'm the great and awesome God. You can count on me.”

The LORD your God will clear away these nations little by little, so that it will not be too dangerous when the wild beasts over populate themselves. (Deuteronomy 7:22)

And verse 23,

the Lord your God will give them over to you until they are destroyed. (Deuteronomy 7:23)

And in verse 24, I will,

He will give their kings into your hand. Their names will perish. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.(Deuteronomy 7:24)

So I guess the point here I lived from this is that God gives us assurance as we go about our battles against sin. So how can you and I have victory over sin? Is it because you are great? Is it because you are a very disciplined person that you can fight sin? I don't think so. The Bible tells us how you and I can have victory over sin. First of all, this text, I think, is important to understand. Romans 6, it says we, that is you and I, who are Christians, were buried, therefore with him. It means we died with Jesus. All right. The ‘him’ here refers to Jesus. We Christians died with Jesus by baptism into death. Now unto death or into death. The word ‘baptism’ here. Most of us, we think it's about water baptism, but really contextually, it's not about water baptism. This is about spiritual identification or union with Christ. So the spiritual reality is when you believe in Jesus, something amazing happens. You are joined with Jesus. You are united with Jesus. You are so joined with Jesus that when Jesus died on the cross, you also died with him, so that the person standing here today is actually not the Jason who existed 30 plus years ago. It's a different person altogether, because the old person has already died with Jesus when Jesus died. So that is important, because that is the basis why you might now walk in newness of life, because the old Jason has no choice but to obey sin. I am a slave to sin. My position is sinner, slave to sin, but that Jason died when 30 over years ago, I placed my trust in Jesus, and now sin has no more dominion over me. Do you know in Singapore that when you die, you cannot be sued? Your estate may be sued, but you cannot be sued because you already dead. The law has no more hold over you. And when I died with Jesus, sin has no more hold over me. So I died with Jesus is the basis of victory over sin. Romans 6 is crucial. So the cross actually presents two important truths. The first is the common main understanding we have, and that is, Jesus died for me. But in Romans 6, we also learn, I died with Jesus. The first Jesus died for me is the principle of substitution. Instead of myself going to hell, Jesus took that hell as it were, on the cross for me, he substituted for me. But I died with Jesus is the principle of union. You see, what's the importance here? What's the relevance? The first speaks about deliverance from the penalty of sin, He paid for me. The second is the principle of deliverance from the power or dominion or the authority of sin. I do not need to kowtow to sin anymore. So the first is crucial for salvation. The second is crucial for living a holy life. We call that sanctification. It starts on that basis, I died with Jesus. He did it all. He sets me free. I did not set myself free. And because I am now free, I think Galatians 5:16 is particularly relevant.

I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.(Galatians 5:16)

Now victory over sin, if you are struggling today with porn or greed or lust, victory is not achieved by sheer grit and will power. There are many people who are very determined, but they all fall because you do not have the power against these lusts. So what do we do if we are to walk in the Spirit, we regularly say we need to go through the ‘ABCD’ here at Gospel Light. A is to acknowledge that I can't do it. B, believe that God's Spirit can. C, to call upon Him, Lord, please help. And D is to simply obey and walk away, to just do it. I think that is the reassurance we see in this text. For Israel, don't you worry, God will give these Canaanites over you. And for you and for me, don't you worry, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Some of you struggle with bitterness, unforgiveness, anxieties, fears, greed, lust. I hope Deuteronomy reminds you that there are Canaanites in our lives, that we can kill and we can do it if we count on the great and awesome God in our midst, in our lives. It begins right there. How did Israel do after the sermon by Moses? Pretty much, I guess. How you do after a sermon by the preacher? Here they, some of them, I think many of them, unfortunately went on and failed and sinned against God. God told them destroy it. They never destroyed. They co existed with the Canaanites. They kind of became comfy with them. God told them, “Don't take away. Don't take the silver and gold.” But they took. Remember Achan in Joshua? Please don't call me ‘Ah Chan’. It's Achan. And Achan took from what is forbidden because Israel repeatedly sinned against God. There's only one man who could keep all the law. There's only one man who really loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, strength. There is only one man who kept away from the Canaanites and from all sinful influences, and that only man is the king, our King of Kings, who will lead us to eternal life, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord who kept all this law, who loved God with all his heart, then went to the cross to give himself to save you and I from our sins. This is our Savior. This is our King. And if you are here today, and you look at Deuteronomy 7, and you say, “I'm not a Christian yet, but seems like a lot of things I have to do.” No, I saying these are not things you do to save yourself.

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Jesus died for you. Jesus paid for you, and if you receive His love, then love him by obeying Him. We love Him because He first loved us. Let's bow for a word of prayer together. Father, we thank you today for your word, and we pray that as we think about our lives and the temptations and the idols that may come in our way, give us grace dear God to remember your love so that we may love you and deal decisively with temptation and sin. Again, I pray for my friends who do not know Jesus as yet. Would you bless them that they may see there is only one who can really keep all the law. There is only one who is really perfect and righteous. There is only Jesus and that he went to the cross to die and save us from our sins. So dear God, grant to them a heart that will repent and believe in Jesus, your Son. Even now, as we prepare our hearts to take of the Lord's Supper, we pray that we will remember your Son and what he has done. And may we not just worship you in this hour, but may we worship you in the 1001 decisions we will make in our lives. So bless us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.