Who Gets the Credit?

Good morning, everybody. It’s great to see everybody here today. Thank y’all so much for joining us. And yeah, setting aside some of your time just to come and worship the Lord. And man, if this is your first time with us, I just want to say thank you so much for being here. Really grateful that you would give us some of your Sunday morning when man, I know it was awfully tempting just to stay at home, stay in the pajamas under a blanket, man, getting some popcorn. That sounds like that’s that’s where I’m headed in a couple hours from now. So, I’m excited about that. But, man, for the next few moments, we just really want to center ourselves on the Lord.

And I just want to say, you may not even have all of your opinions or beliefs or whatever settled about who Jesus is. And I just want to say all that’s really welcome here. We we don’t pretend to be a group of people that are perfect or have everything figured out. We are a group of people that want to know what God has made us for, and we want to walk in that. And we believe that God has already told us and His name is Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. And we would love to introduce you to Him.

So we do something a little different here at Sauldam every Sunday morning that you may not be used to. We set aside a part of our service dedicated just to praying. We believe that if we try something in our strength, then we might be able to start something, it might be a good thing, but it will not stand. But the things that God does, that is what lasts. That is what stands. So, we want to take a few moments just to pray and ask God to bless what we’ve been praying for all month. We’re going to continue to pray for this morning. It’s our new Celebrate Recovery ministry, which you heard about a few moments ago when Kim was doing the announcement.

Celebrate Recovery is a ministry aimed at helping people recover from a variety of what we call hurts, habits, and hang-ups by taking the person of Jesus and the gospel and applying it to that. So you might be here this morning and you have been walking with the Lord for your entire life, but you know you’ve got this habit that you have yet to be able to kick. Celebrate Recovery is for you. You might be here this morning and you’re not so settled on who Jesus is, you don’t even know if He really is God or anything like that, but man, you got something in your life that you want to get out from under. Celebrate Recovery is also for you.

That’s going to be on Sunday nights starting this upcoming week on February 1st, 6 PM. We need one more person to join Robbie in helping facilitate Celebrate Recovery. God has been kind. He’s given us someone to lead our child care. So again, if you are thinking about coming and you’ve got kids in tow, we have a place for them. God has given us a woman to come alongside Robbie and help facilitate conversation with ladies. He’s given us somebody who’s going to facilitate food and snack every week. And I know this person. It’s not just going to be chips and dip. That’s going to be more like sliders and fries. So, food’s taken care of for you. And we’ve also got somebody that’s gonna step up and take care of leading worship every Sunday night for Celebrate Recovery.

What we need is we need one more man to join Robbie to help facilitate those conversations. Again, we’re not looking for a perfect guy. We’re not looking for someone who feel like feels like he’s got it all together. We’re looking for someone who is in their own process of recovery who is ready to be vulnerable and help lead those discussions. So over the next few moments, we’re just going to pray and ask that God would help us find and know who that other man is. And we’re ask God to bless this ministry. So I invite you to grab a neighbor and we’ll pray for a few moments. Y’all take it away. I’ll put a bow on it.

You used those men and women. You used the welcoming handshakes and hugs. You used snack and worship and the step studies. You used conversations. You used friendships. Ultimately, Lord, to break the power of the hurts and habits and the hang-ups that were sitting on him. And the greatest one of those being his sin. God, you use Celebrate Recovery to bring him to saving knowledge of yourself. And through that, God, you have continued to help him grow into the likeness of Jesus and have freedom and joy in Christ. God, I thank you that you have called him here to Sauldam and that you are using him to start the same thing here. Father, I pray for one more man to join him on his team. Another man, Lord, who feels burdened to help others walk in freedom and joy. Another man who would be ready to be vulnerable. Another man who knows that he does not have it all together, but man places his faith and his trust in the God who upholds all things by the word of His power. God, thank you. God, I I look forward to these stories of messy success that will come from this ministry. I look forward to seeing lives transformed through this. I look forward to hearing about how people are tasting and seeing for the first time ever that there is a God and He has revealed Himself and He is good and He is worth placing our trust in. God, I look forward to all that and I look forward to hearing who you are going to call to join Robbie to help lead this thing. God, thank you for that. Thank you for bringing us here today. Lord, thank you for the few moments that we’ve had to sing to you, to pray to you, to reflect on all of your work and your activity here at Sauldam Baptist. I pray God over the next few moments as we read your word that you would help us Lord. You would help us to recognize that you’re the one that gets the credit for any good thing in our lives. And I pray Lord for somebody that does not know you yet as Lord and Savior, rescuer and mascu, rescuer and master. That you would call them into salv salvation and faith. And God that you would use these next few moments to change their lives. Please, Lord, we love you. It’s in your great name that we pray. Amen.

Amen. Awesome. Well, if you do have a copy of your Bible, you go ahead and open them up to Judges chapter 3. If you’re still learning the road map of your Bible, Judges is pretty early on. You just open up the front cover. You’re going to land in Genesis, then Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges. And I want you to go just a couple more pages to chapter three and I’ll catch you in verse seven here in a few moments. As you’re doing that, just curious when you think about the heroes of your life, who you’d put on that list, who were some of your heroes? It might be a parent, a grandparent, a boss, a friend, historical figure even. One of my heroes is a guy by the name of Martin Luther. He’s not the cool guy in the beard. He’s not the guy in the background with this what kind of a look. He’s the guy with the hammer on the door. Martin Luther, if you’re not familiar, he lived about 500 years ago in what we would call Germany. He grew up extremely superstitious and religious and extremely afraid of God and His sin. And one night he gets caught in this thunderstorm and he makes a deal with God. He said, “God, if you get me out of this, you give if you get me home safely, I will live my life for you as a monk.” God gets him out of that. He keeps up his end of the deal. He becomes a monk. And he goes to seminary. He’s super well educated, super well trained. But the issue is, despite all that he learned about reading the Bible and church history as he knew it at that time, his fear of his sin, his fear even of God, nothing ever helped that. It wasn’t until he started reading scripture for himself and he came across the gospel and he learned that the gospel is God’s power to save. God saved him while he was reading the Bible. And he and a group of other leaders begin what we would call the Protestant Reformation. It’s part of the reason that you and I are here this morning. We’re about to read the Bible in our own language because there was a group of people that recovered the centrality of the Bible. And they said, “Hey, we’ve got to base our lives on scripture.” So they came up with this list of solas. Solah means alone.

in Latin. They came up with this list of what are the core tenants of what it means to have a spiritually robust faith. And at the top of that list they put this one: Soli Deo Gloria, that means glory to God alone. These reformers, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jan Hus, and the rest, they recognized that God is the ultimate hero. God gets the credit. Glory to God alone.

Now that statement might feel pretty safe to say in church. But if you really lived according to Soli Deo Gloria, then you would recognize that no one and nothing gets credit for the good stuff in your life other than God. That statement, it gives all credit to God. Glory to God alone. Not glory to Fox or to CNN. Not glory to a president or to a pastor. Not glory to myself or my market returns. Glory to God alone.

The story of Judges also teaches us Soli Deo Gloria. Every good thing that happens in the book of Judges is to God’s credit. And the people of Israel during the time of Judges really should have lived according to Soli Deo Gloria. Because every time they got out of this, every time they said glory to us, every time they said glory to a person, their lives got off the rails. We will see this in action again in this morning’s passage, like we are going to see for the next six months.

So Judges chapter 3, I’m going to read verse 7. The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They forgot the Lord their God, and they worshiped these false gods, Baal and Asherah. Man, immediately we see Israel’s terrible situation. They did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. And the author clarifies what that means. It means they forgot the Lord their God, and they worshiped these false gods, Baal and Asherah.

I remember I explained a few weeks ago, Baal is the god of fertility and agriculture. You would call on this god named Baal to give you good weather and to bless your family with lots of kids. Asherah was another one of these goddesses of fortune and joy. So this helps us see the people of Israel are actively doing evil. They are forgetting God while they are serving these false gods. And God really cares. He’s got a holy standard. He really cares what we do. He cares what you enjoy. He cares what you worship. He cares what you live like.

Man, modern culture. Isn’t it so offensive for me to walk up to you and say, “You can’t do that. You can’t live the way you want to live. You can’t enjoy that thing. You can’t say that that is true. You can’t…” Man, we do this all the time, right? Or at least that’s how culture operates now. People, we can’t disagree on stuff. We can’t have civil conversations about anything without stuff becoming an argument. But when you read the Bible, you see there is a holy God, and He really cares about how you live. God cares, I’ll say it again, about how you live.

And I tell you too, the story of Judges, this one’s for free, man. It shows us there is no neutral gear when it comes to spirituality. I fully believe that the story of the Bible is that if you, you are either advancing toward Jesus or you are falling backwards into the world.

Man, it’s kind of like if you’re in a stream, or if you remember being like at a resort when you were a kid or as a parent, and you go to the lazy river, right? The whole point of a lazy river is you just get on a tube and you just kind of float down the river. Or if you go to Givhans and you get in the Edisto, you just jump on a tube and you just kind of float down the river. That’s spirituality. You could just float down the river being taken away further and further away from Jesus, or you got to swim upstream. You have to be working and progressing. There’s no neutral. You’re either going toward the holy God of the universe or you’re falling away into your own sin.

The Israelites are falling away. They’re doing evil. They are forgetting the Lord their God. They are actively worshiping these false gods. So what does God do? Verse 8, the Lord’s anger burned. It burned against Israel, and He sold them to King Cushon-Rishathaim of Aram-Naharaim. Did I pronounce that correctly?

Thank you. That’s the secret, by the way. Fast and confident, and you’ll get through.

All right. The Israelites served him for eight years. Man, God’s anger burns, and He sells them into the hands of a foreign king. And does anybody blame Him? Really, does anybody blame God? They, the people of Israel, they’re doing evil in the Lord’s sight. So God says, “Okay, you ask for it. Here you go.” God sells them into the hands of this guy named King Kushon. We don’t really know very much about him other than that he rules a place called Aram Naharim. That’s ancient Mesopotamia, modern-day Syria. So there’s this king over in modern-day Syria, and he comes in and he takes over part of Israel. That’s God’s punishment. It’s His judgment. They call him King Kushon Risha. Literally, your Bible might even have this noted at the very bottom of the page. His name, what they call him, is King Kushon, evil. Evil. This guy was a bad dude. His name literally is double evil. That’s how bad this guy was. God looks at the people of Israel in their sin, and He says, “I’m going to sell you into the hands of evil.” Evil.

Now, something that’s crazy for me: that word “serve” in verse 8 is the same as the word “worship” in verse 7. Let me draw a spiritual lesson for you. What you worship, you will serve. What you worship, you will serve. And we worship a variety of things. Man, we may not worship the false gods of Baal and Asherah, but we certainly worship some false gods. Man, for me, I talk about this all the time. I worship, when I am in my sin, the false god of approval and influence, which means I am daily tempted to lie, to gossip, to use people so that you will like me. Whatever it takes for you to like me, I’m tempted to do because I worship the false god of approval. Some of us worship the false god of control. So all of your relationships, you’ve got to have the last word in. You’ve got to be the person making decisions all the time. You are not okay with letting somebody else take the lead in something. You’re probably very successful in whatever you do because you’re just managing situations to your benefit. You may not worship Asherah and Baal, but you might worship power. So, you’re constantly going after the next accomplishment and success and the next promotion and pay raise because whatever it takes for you to have more power in life, you’re going to do. What is it for you? What do you worship? Whatever you worship, you will serve. I guarantee it. The people of Israel, they are worshiping these false gods. And God, in His loving discipline, makes them serve those gods and this king. In other words, God takes Israel and knocks them on their backside, down at rock bottom, so there’s only one thing they can do: look up. God knocks the people of Israel down. He puts them in subjectivity to serve this other king so that all they could do was look up.

Some of you today might feel like your life is at rock bottom, or you might know somebody whose life is at rock bottom. Man, you might have some hurt, habit, or hang-up that you cannot escape. You might have something that you’re like, “Man, if I could just get out from under having to serve this thing.” It’s my debt. It’s this substance. It’s this abusive relationship. It’s this life habit that I cannot recover from. I have worshiped this person, and now I serve them with everything that I do, even though they hate me and they abuse me. Or I worship my bank account, and now I can’t go a day or an hour without thinking about how much money I’m making and saving and using. Man, if that’s you, if you are at rock bottom and you want help, I want to invite you next Sunday night: come to Celebrate Recovery. That might not be your situation. Your situation might be that you know somebody else who needs help. I want you to come to Celebrate Recovery and bring them with you. But we also have another ministry. I don’t know if you know about this. It’s not just for recovering personally from hurts, habits, and hang-ups. We have another ministry called Neighborhood Empowerment Teams, which Matt Mulvaney, the husband of our kids director, has started. Man, that’s if you’re in this situation, it’s more acute, or you have some crisis going on where you just really need help getting through the weekend. You got this situation happening with your family, and you need a place To escape to even or if you have something going on in your house and you need help, call on Matt and he will lead a team of people to come and come alongside you. Others of you, you might be in a situation and you’re like, I just need prayer. I just need somebody praying for me and lifting me up. I don’t know if you know this, but every Sunday morning at 9:15, we have a group of people that are praying for you. A group of people called the Boiler Room, and all we’re doing is we’re just lifting y’all up. We’re taking prayer requests on the bulletin. We’re taking shut-ins and we’re praying for them. Needs of the church and we’re praying for them. You might have something going on in your life, a financial situation you don’t know how to get out of, a family member with a diagnosis that’s extremely scary, and you need prayer. Man, take your connect card, write down that prayer request, and put it in the plates at the front or the back of the room at the end of the service, and we will be praying for you. If you also, I also want to say, if you need help from Celebrate Recovery or the neighborhood empowerment teams, please use those connect cards, write them, put them in the offering plates in the front or the back of the service, and we would love to connect you with the folks that can help you.

God takes Israel, knocks them on their backside. Let’s see what they do. Verses 9 and 10. The Israelites cry out to the Lord. So the Lord raised up Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, as a deliverer to save the Israelites. Verse 10, the Spirit of the Lord came on him, and he judged Israel. Othniel went out to battle, and the Lord handed over King Cushan-Rishathaim of Aram to him, so that Othniel overpowered him.

Israel at the rock bottom, knocked on their backside. They do the only thing they can do. They cry out to God. And despite their stubbornness and their sinfulness, God hears. In His mercy and longsuffering kindness, God raises up the first judge that we get to see in this book, a guy by the name of Othniel. It’s interesting. We don’t actually know very much about him either. We know his daddy’s name. We know that he’s a relative of Caleb. And we know from chapter one that he’s a proven military leader. You go back and read chapter one later this afternoon, and you’ll see that when Israel needed somebody to go conquer a certain city, he steps up to the plate, says, “I will do it.” We know who he comes from. We know that he’s a proven leader, but we don’t really know much else. But that doesn’t matter because we know something else about him, is that God hand-selects him. As incredible as Othniel may have been, it’s clear that the victory did not belong to Othniel. The victory belonged to God, Soli Deo Gloria. Verse 9, it says, or verse 10, sorry, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. And verse 10 ends with the Lord handing over the king. God’s choice of Othniel is shown by His presence on Othniel. The Spirit of the Lord comes on him. God’s success, or Othniel’s success, comes not from his own strength or his own expertise or his own wisdom, but from God’s power and presence. You see, just like how God sells Israel to the nation, God hands this nation back to Othniel. God is the one doing it. God is the one that comes on this leader. God is the one that gives success to this leader. God gets the credit. Despite how great Othniel was, I’m sure he was an awesome guy that people liked to be around. The purpose of this is to show us that Othniel is not the real hero. God’s the real hero.

So what comes, what happens when God uses Othniel? Verse 11 tells us the land has peace for forty years, and Othniel son of Kenaz dies. Peace. Man, what a stark contrast from how this passage began. Verse seven, it begins everybody doing evil in God’s sight. Imagine a whole nation doing evil in God’s sight, or at least most of the people. Imagine a place dominated by sin and chaos. Homes broken because spouses aren’t maintaining their commitments. Businesses floundering because business leaders and customers aren’t playing by the rules. Societal goodness just kind of melting down in this nuclear shock wave of sin. Imagine how chaotic that was. Imagine living in a place where, let’s say, most people have stopped calling on God, and most people are doing only what’s right in their own eyes. You have an image of what that looks like. God uses Othniel, and the land has peace for 40 years. Everything’s good. The crazy storm of life has stopped, and it’s just clear water, smooth sailing. God’s success through Othniel was so strong that even the land has peace. It doesn’t say the people; it says the land. The people are so at peace that even the land that they live on is blessed by it. Don’t you want that? Peace. That is what we are hungry for.

The desire for peace is the spark behind every plea to God for something bad to stop. The desire for peace is the longing that keeps you coming to church and seeking something spiritual even when you don’t quite feel something. The motivation for peace is what fuels every recommitment to a better life after you just messed up. Peace is what you want. Peace is why you are here right now. The desire and the search for peace is what motivates the over 8 billion people in this world to make choices they are making. The issue is people don’t know where peace is.

The desire for peace is driving the Muslim to maintain the five pillars of Islam and to pray religiously five times every day. The desire for peace is what’s driving atheists and agnostics to try to find some sort of meaning in their life apart from a higher power. The desire for peace is also why you are here, and you would sing songs to Jesus, or why you would give money in the plate, or why you would pray before you eat. We are all longing for peace, and it does not come until God’s Spirit gets involved and God gives victory.

What does this tell us? It’s that God is the real Savior. Man, write that down. Think about this tonight when you’re going to bed. Like, reflect on this. God is the real Savior. In this book, we’re going to look at 12 judges. None of them could provide the peace that you and me are looking for. Because when they die, the land goes back to chaos. It’s not about the judge. It’s about God. God’s the real Savior.

Let me burst a few bubbles. You are not the Savior of your life. You’re not the main character of some movie titled Jeremy Simmons. You’re not it. You’re not the Savior of your life. Despite all of your successes, your expertise, your thinking, your energy, the president is not the Savior. No pastor could ever be your Savior. That friend you call on at midnight, they’re not even your Savior. Your spouse can’t be your Savior. Your kid can’t be your Savior. The next job, the next promotion, the next car, the next house, none of that is your Savior. God alone is the real Savior. God is the reason you’ve made it this far. And God is the reason you have a future. Praise God alone. Praise God for being your Savior.

Soli Deo, O Gloria. Soli Deo of Gloria for how You came through that financial struggle with food on your table. Soli Deo of Gloria for how that broken relationship with your friend has been reconciled. Soli Deo of Gloria for how that destructive habit that was dominating your life has been broken. Holy day, O Gloria, that while we were once dead in our sin, enemies of God, and bound by Satan, we have been made free and alive through the resurrection and the powerful blood of Jesus Christ. God is the real Savior of your life and this world. The world doesn’t need more of you or me or Sauldam. The world needs more of the Lord. The world needs Jesus.

Now, I want you to look at something in this. Israel commits the disobedience, but God orchestrates the deliverance. God’s the Savior. He hears Israel’s cries. He raises up Othniel. He puts His Spirit on Othniel. He delivers the king into hands. And He establishes peace in the land. Othniel, as good of a guy as he was, was nothing more than an instrument or a tool of God’s salvation. At best, Othniel is a broken Savior God uses. Yet, that is God’s pattern still today. God loves to use broken people like you and me to accomplish His plans. Othniel is not the last person that God would put His Spirit on to do something big. He’s still doing it. Matthew chapter 1:18, the Virgin Mary conceives Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:4, the apostles are filled with the Spirit and begin preaching the gospel to thousands.

of people in Jerusalem in languages they don’t know, giving birth to the church as we know it. Acts chapter 6 verse 5, the Holy Spirit fills seven men in the Jerusalem church who were chosen to serve as the first deacons. Acts chapter 9:1-17, the Holy Spirit fills Paul, a former enemy of the church turned apostle who would begin starting churches when his former job was ending them. Acts 13:4, the Holy Spirit selects and sends Paul and Barnabas on their first mission trip. Acts 20 verse 28, the elders of the church at Ephesus are hand selected by the Holy Spirit to pastor and lead and protect that church. First Corinthians 6:19, your body at the moment that God saved you became a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in when God gave you a new heart in regeneration. Hebrews 2:4, the Holy Spirit Himself is the one that distributes signs and wonders and spiritual gifts to us believers, which God uses to build up His church. First Peter 1:12, we preach the gospel to others by the power of the Holy Spirit on us.

You, my friend, you are designed to be a temple of the Spirit of God for Him to live inside of you to empower you and to equip you to accomplish something He wants to do through you in this world. You are not the main character of your life, but you get to have a role in the story that God is writing. And that is so much better. Othniel comes into God’s story whenever the Holy Spirit comes on him to accomplish something for God. So I want to ask you the question this morning. What does God want to empower you to do? That’s right, Rick. What does God want to empower you to do? I don’t think for a moment that God only wants to use me for ministry here. In fact, Hebrews or Ephesians chapter 4:11 and 12 says that God gives leaders to the church, apostles, preachers, shepherds, evangelists and so forth so that they would equip the members so that the members would do the ministry.

In a, in a way, when I became pastor of Sauldam Baptist Church, I stepped out of ministry for y’all to step into it. My job here is not to do all the work. My job is to give you the tools for you to do ministry. I am not the only person with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is on you, Michael. And He’s on you, Kenneth Dillard, Miss Caroline, and Emma. He’s on us. He’s on y’all for you to do something for Him. What does He want you to do, man? It might be jumping with Kim and serving in Sauldam Kids and pouring the gospel into our youngest disciples. It might be coming and helping with Celebrate Recovery to help people experience the joy of Jesus. It might be something totally new. We don’t know yet. But God has something for you and He has given you His Holy Spirit to empower you to do something.

Othniel was a savior that the Spirit of the Lord came upon but he was not the last savior anointed by God’s Spirit. There was another to come. There was one by the name of Jesus Christ who at His baptism, when Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water and the heavens suddenly opened for Him. And while Jesus the Son of God is coming out of the water, He sees the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him. And then the voice of the Father declares, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” The Spirit anoints Him for ministry. So Jesus then goes out and He starts healing and teaching and He warns people not to make Him known so that what might be spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight. I will put my Spirit on Him and He will proclaim justice to the nations. He won’t argue or shout. No one will hear His voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed. He will not put out a smoldering wick until He, He has led justice to victory. The nations will put their hope in His name.

Jesus is the actual anointed Savior by the Holy Spirit. And how does He save us? How does Jesus save us from our sin? It’s, yes, it’s not through the sword. It’s through His own death. Jesus when He is ministering, He heals people. He embraces them. He touches them. So that what was spoken through The prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: that He Himself took our weaknesses; He carried our diseases. That Savior was promised to come and die. Jesus saves us not through slaughtering the nations, not through cutting down our enemies, but by going on the cross and being slaughtered for us. Because the ultimate problem—the [clears throat] ultimate problem—is not some foreign king who’s come to dominate us. The ultimate problem is not some financial difficulty you don’t know how to get out of. The ultimate problem in your life is the sin that lives inside of you. And there’s only one way to gain freedom from that: it’s through Jesus’s own life, death, and resurrection, which we’re going to remember this morning through the Lord’s Supper.

I want to invite the deacons to come forward. As they do, I want you to consider: have you actually placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ? Is Jesus someone you know about, you’ve read about, that you’ve learned about, or is He the one who has rescued you from your sin? Is He now the master of your life? This meal, this Lord’s Supper, it’s for us to reflect on that. The crackers, the juice, they’re great. They don’t save us. Jesus is the one that saves us.

So here’s my invitation to you. If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, if He is the master of your life, who has rescued your soul, I invite you to take this whether you’re a member of our church or not. If you’re still figuring out what you believe about Jesus, either when this plate and this cup comes to you, just pass it right along, or make this the day. Make this the day that you say, “Jesus, save me. I want peace. Be my hero.”

Pray with me. Jesus, we need You. You were the real Savior of our lives. You gave Yourself to save us, not through the sword or through Your conquering power like You could have, but through Your own self-sacrifice. Thank You. Help us to live for You. I pray for anybody in the room that does not yet know You, who has not been rescued from their sin by You, who does not live with You as master, and I beg that You would save them today. And for everybody that does, Lord, may we live like You are the master more totally and more completely. Continue to rescue us from the sin that continues to tempt us. Please, Lord, we love You. Amen.