Grateful, Giving Mind

Well, thanks for coming. It's good to see so many here this afternoon. First of all, we want to ask God's blessing on our meeting.

Heavenly Father, in the worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we draw near to Thee. O God, we have so much cause to give Thee thanks. We have just sung that our debt is far greater than we can even describe.

Lord, Thou hast loved us. Thou hast given the best of heaven for us. Given up Thy well-beloved Son to take the guilty sinner's place and suffer in His stead.

For man, O miracle of grace, for man the Savior bled. And that grace of God that has been given to us, we'll take eternity to thank Thee for it, and the story will never end. So we thank Thee, Lord, for Thy grace, Thy love, Thy mercy, Thy kindness, Thy provision.

We thank Thee for every care that we have received from Thy blessed hand. Thank Thee for homes. Thank Thee for wives and children, families.

Thank Thee for assemblies. Thank Thee for elders. Thank Thee for servants of Thine.

Thank Thee, Lord, for these dear sisters that labored so hard this weekend to provide food for each one who has come. Lord, we thank Thee for all Thy dear people, for the love they show one to another, and for the grace that's manifest in them. God bless them.

Bless now this afternoon. Bless Thy word to our hearts. Help us, Lord, to have a greater appreciation than perhaps we've ever had for the kindness, the goodness, the grace, the mercy of our God to us.

Thou art our Father. O God, how great has been the Father's care. Humbly we thank Thee and ask for Thy blessing now.

We need help. We confess it. Lord, we need very special help this afternoon.

Give it, we do pray, that Thy people may be blessed by the word of God, in the name of the Lord Jesus. We pray for these ones for whom special prayer has been requested. Commend them to Thee, Lord, and every other needy one among Thy dear saints, in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Amen. Now I want to read with you again, of course, in the Philippian letter. We're reading today, in chapter 4 again, from verse 10.

And I can't, I can't really say that I'm not going to refer to earlier verses in this chapter, and maybe Brother Higgins won't want to forgive me if I steal some of his material, but I'd like to read from verse 10 anyway, to verse 19 of Philippians chapter 4. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again. When you were able, you were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned.

In whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know how to be abased and how to abound. I know how, everywhere, in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer want.

I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. I love that particular clause. I can do all things through Christ, who pours strength into me.

Notwithstanding ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philippians know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, which ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity, not that because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.

But I have all, and abound, I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable while pleasing to God. Now verse 19 is very important to us. Verse 19, But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

The subject in this session is a grateful mind. I don't think that any of us are without gratitude, but I do think we could be more thankful, we could be more appreciative, we can have a greater understanding of the bounty of God that he has heaped upon us, how great has been his goodness, his grace, his kindness, his mercy to us. So I want to look at these verses in a very simple way.

Verse 4 of chapter 4 really tells us of unlimited praise. So we have every reason to praise God from the depths of our being, for the Savior, our so great salvation, God's blessings on us, his word, his truth, his Son. Can we ever thank him enough for his Son? Can we ever exhaust the subject of the worth of our Lord Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior, and what he is to us and what he has done for us? Oh, we should be thankful from the depth of our being for God's so great salvation that has been given to us.

I often wonder, I'm sure you do too, why was I made to hear his voice and enter while there's room? I see myriads of people all around me who have no Christ and no thought of him, no desire to be saved, never were awakened. They go on in their darkness and ignorance and blindness down to a burning hell. And why, why did he ever save me? That often amazes me.

I didn't intend to do this, but there isn't a day of my life goes by that I don't thank God for a Friday night on April the 1st, 1938, when for the first time in my life I understood the meaning of Calvary's cross. That on that accursed tree, the Lord Jesus took this guilty sinner's place and suffered in my stead. And I looked with wonder on that cross that night.

I didn't see a vision, but it was just as clear to me as if I could see Christ on the cross. What was he doing? He was dying for me. And I had tried so hard to believe, I'd tried so hard to do something, and it all failed.

And I'd come to the end of trying. I was done. I was lost.

And the word that best suits my experience that Friday night was, I was helpless. I could do nothing. And then I discovered I had nothing to do.

That the Lord Jesus had done it all. That he had died in my place on Calvary's tree. And all I had to do was trust him.

I've had people ask me when I got to that point in my little story, I've had them ask me, what did you do then? All I have to do is trust him. I didn't do anything, because I had already trusted him. When I understood that he died for me on the cross, I couldn't help but trust him.

In that very moment, I had salvation. I'm ashamed to say this, I get up and went out the door, passed the preacher, shook his hand, never so much as told him I had gotten saved. And he had preached for six weeks, and he hadn't heard of anybody getting saved.

And forgive me for this, but he was one of the greatest gospel preachers I've ever known, Mr. Sam McEwen. I went by the door that night and I never even told him it. What was wrong? I think I wanted to be more sure.

And I walked home, and I told you yesterday that I got to that big dark park and looked up at the sky and thanked God that the God who made the stars gave his only son to die for me. When I got home, the doorbell rang. My folks had gone to a prayer meeting after the gospel meeting, so they were a little bit later.

And when I went to open the door, my mother didn't come in. She stood outside the door looking at me. And then she said, what happened? I said, oh, I got saved tonight.

Are you thankful? Do you have a thankful heart? I tell you, we have every reason to have the deepest gratitude to our God for his grace to us. Why did he save you? Why did he save me? Infinite grace. The grace that selected you to be dealt with by the Spirit of God and convicted and awakened and brought us a lost sinner to Calvary.

Wondrous grace of our God. So we have unlimited praise, and we've been born to worship. We have been born to be worshipers, to praise God, and we're going to praise him forever.

And we have to confess our praise down here is very feeble at times, but it's going to be greater. Let us go in for praising him. Unlimited praise.

That's what we actually have in verse 4 of Philippians 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. So we have every reason to rejoice in our so great salvation.

Verse 5 is another reason to rejoice. Unending presence. Isn't that a wonderful statement? The Lord is at hand.

It means he's nearby. It means he's close. I know people talk about the God who's a far off.

He's not a far off from you. He is near. He is at hand.

He never fails to hear the feeble cries of his own. So actually this is an ending presence. Unending.

Unfailing. The Lord is at hand. And then unceasing prayer is the result of that.

Verse 6. And then unbroken peace results. And unbounded power flows into us. That's verse 13.

And verse 19 is an unfailing promise. Let me read the promise to you again, because I love this verse. Verse 19 of Philippians chapter 4 says, My God shall supply all your needs.

Shall fully supply every need according to his...our needs? No. According to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus, or in Christ Jesus. All the riches that is found in the Son of God is offered to you and to me by grace and grace alone.

Now I'd like to read some verses with you because there's truth here that is familiar and yet we need reminders constantly of these precious truths. So let me read with you first of all, if you will, in verse 9 of Philippians 4 where we've been reading. Verse 9 says, These things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you.

I want you to notice that expression, the God of peace. What does that mean, the God of peace? It means he's the author of peace. It means I receive peace in my soul because I know him.

Because he is my God. He is my Lord and through the Lord Jesus that peace has been given to me in full measure. Not holding back, but poured out in all its fullness.

So the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Do you enjoy it? I'm gonna make a confession to you. I don't enjoy it as much as I should.

There are resources I haven't even tapped. There's blessings I haven't even gone in for because this peace of God passeth all understanding and it can be yours day by day no matter the circumstances. You see, dear Christian, I know this of you and I can say it's true of me.

I would rather be saved than be the wealthiest man in all the world. I wouldn't trade places with such a man if he hasn't got Christ, if he doesn't have salvation. Now what does that mean? It means that the greatest blessings that can ever come to you and to me are ours through the Lord Jesus.

So we should have the sense of his unending presence because he has promised it. He is with us. He does not fail.

Unceasing prayer is a great privilege. Now what does it mean to have unceasing prayer? To be on your knees 24 hours a day? No, I don't think so. I think there's an attitude of prayer that many, many dear believers have cultivated.

The sense of God's presence, the sense of God's open ear at every moment of every day, in every circumstance, walking, eating, traveling, visiting, whatever. The Lord is at hand. The Lord is near.

And what a great privilege it is to be able to speak into his open ear and know that he not only hears but he is able to meet every need, whatever that might be, whatever the circumstance, whatever the tragedy, whatever the sorrow, whatever the grief. Now God allows us to have sorrow. He allows us to have pain.

He allows us to pass through trials. You know what we're doing in all of that? Proving his faithfulness. Proving the reality of his presence.

Proving that he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even all that we think. I often quote that verse to myself. He is able.

He is able to do. He is able to do exceedingly. He is able to do exceeding abundantly.

He is able to do exceeding abundantly. You need another one? Above. You need more? He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all.

More. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask. Still more.

He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Isn't that wonderful? Do you live in that? Do you enjoy that day by day? You can. You can live in the power of that, day by day, in your Christian experience.

I've been saved for 63 years. It doesn't seem like that, so that doesn't have much meaning to me, but I can tell you, I have known the goodness of God through all my life's experience. I've often failed him, but he has never failed me.

He has been faithful and true and has met every need in the riches of his grace. So we do have every cause to enjoy unbroken peace in his presence. We have unbounded power at our resource.

We are able to draw on the unbounded power of God. Look at that verse with me, if you will, please. Verse 13 of our chapter.

I can do all things through myself. No. I can do all things through Christ, who pours his strength into me.

Did you get that? When we get the ability to do something for God, when we receive strength to do his will, it is God's strength. God's strength. Can you measure it? No.

It's fully sufficient. We have the resource of divine strength to meet every need. Now I'm going to read some more verses, and I'm kind of getting stalled here a little bit, but let's go to Romans chapter 15.

Romans chapter 15. I'm going to read, first of all, in verse 5. Romans 15 and verse 5. Now the God of patience and consolation, or comfort, the God of patience and comfort grants you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus, that ye may have with one mind and one mouth glorified God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now in Philippians 4 we have, of course, this wondrous God of peace.

Now here in Romans chapter 5 and verse 5 we have the God of patience. Look with me further in Romans, if you will, in verse 13 of this very same chapter. Romans 15 and verse 13.

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Let me go over those with you. The God of peace, the God of hope, the God of comfort.

What a blessing it is to have such a God. The God of patience, verse 5 of Romans 15. The God of peace, Philippians 4 and 9. The God of hope, Romans 15 and 13.

I did say the God of comfort, but that's in 2nd Corinthians. If you want to look at that, I think that's a very excellent text. 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 3. Blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.

I've often had the experience of having to comfort a bereaved Christian, perhaps a dear wife who has lost her husband. I feel very inadequate. I feel that I can't really enter into what she must feel.

But you know what has given me wonderful confidence? There is a God of all comfort. He knows exactly what she needs. He knows exactly how she feels.

So it's wonderful to be able to fall back on such a resource, the God of all comfort. Now look with me, if you will, in chapter 13 of 2nd Corinthians. 2nd Corinthians chapter 13.

I'm reading at verse 11. Did I read this already? Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect.

Be of good comfort. Be of the one mind. Live in peace.

And the God of love and peace shall be with you. Oh, I love that. The God of love shall be with you.

He is the God of love. So what we actually have in these expressions is, first of all, he is the God of love. That's the very first truth that impresses our hearts.

Then he is the God of patience. Then he is the God of hope. Then he is the God of all comfort.

And then he is the God of peace. What a God to know. I would have to confess to you that within the last couple of years, I have come to appreciate my father as I never did in all the 60 previous years.

Maybe you reach a certain place in your experience or in your life or in your years, and some particular truth becomes a greater reality to you. Well, this has become a great reality to me. He is my father.

My father. And oh, what tender care the father has for his own. And this blessed father, he is to us the God of peace, the God of hope, the God of comfort, the God of patience.

But he is the God of love. And his love knows no measure, and it never fails. Dear Christians, rejoice in that love.

Enjoy it. Live in the power and good of it day by day. He loved you.

How much? Never could measure it. How did he prove it? He gave his only son. He gave him up knowing well what it would cost.

Gave him up to the agony of Calvary's tree. He gave that son for me. What a father that he would give his only son for me.

So we have every cause to worship. Should we be grateful? Should we be thankful? Dear Christian, are you thankful? Thankful for what you say for the Lord Jesus, for the Savior, for my Savior, and how thankful I am. This world is empty.

This particular chapter gives us a description of it, and the emptiness is very, very real. You know, great Greek philosophers actually used to tell us that the world was a garden, but the world is not a garden. The world is a desert, and there's nothing in it to satisfy.

There's nothing in it to fill the heart. In fact, you know this. We preach this in the gospel all the time, and those of you dear brethren who preach the gospel, you're used to telling people this.

God has set eternity in man's hearts. In the being of every man and woman, boy and girl is the sense of eternity. That's why, that's why we can have hope when we preach the gospel, because there is something within each believer to respond to a message about eternity.

They have eternity imprinted upon their hearts. I know they do everything they can to ignore it, to silence the voice of eternity. I know they turn away from it willfully, rejecting it.

Nevertheless, it's there, and the Spirit of God can use that, and he does use it to arouse people about the great reality of a coming eternity, and if that eternity is without Christ, what an awful tragedy it is. So, truly, it's an empty world. There's nothing in it to really satisfy a heart that is made for eternity.

That's why people can't be satisfied with pleasures in sports, and if you're a young Christian here this afternoon, could you accept something from an old man? I don't think that all sports are sin, but how does it become sin? If it robs you of spiritual blessings, and spiritual life, and spiritual exercise, if it takes away prayer time, and Bible reading time, and meeting time from you, then it is sin. Anything that displaces God, and his Word, and his Son is sin. So be very careful that the devil doesn't trap you, and snare you.

I know there are many appealing things out there in the sports world, but it's not worth it. It's empty after all, and it'll leave you disappointed in the end, and with an empty heart. The Lord Jesus makes the heart a garden where peace is enjoyed.

So the Scriptures actually fill our hearts, if we allow them to, and we have the Word of God to feed on day by day. Now all of us know this, so I'm not telling you something that isn't familiar to you, but we have a spiritual life. It's a new life.

It's a life that God has placed in us. It is divine life, eternal life. It has to be nourished.

Yes, it has to be nourished. It has to be fed. How do you feed it? Only with spiritual truth, and spiritual truth only comes from God, and how does it come? Through visions, or through emotional experiences? No, it comes through His written Word, the Word of God.

I was enjoying this last week. You know what God said to Israel? He said that the words had come out of His mouth. Wow, the words had come out of His mouth? This book that you're holding in your hand.

People say there are no miracles today, don't they? They say we don't have miracles. Christians say that even. We don't live in a day when there are miracles.

Wrong, wrong. The greatest miracle that has ever been is right there. There's no miracle to compare to it.

What do I mean? Well, just think of what we were saying the other day. Hundreds of Old Testament prophecies that describe the birth, the growth, the development, the life, the rejection, the suffering, the crucifixion, the burial, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, written centuries before the events happened. Who did it? Men? I can't even tell you what's going to happen tomorrow, but this is God's Word.

This is the miracle of divine scripture, and for your spiritual growth, you must have it and feed upon it day by day by day. I never met a Christian who believed they read the Bible too much. I never met one.

I never met a Christian who said they prayed too much. Did you? Well, if you ever do, let me know. I'd like to meet them.

Because all of us have the sense that it's far too little, too little reading of the Word of God, too little feeding upon divine truth, too little. And if we're not feeding on it, we're going to lose our joy. And when we lose our joy, we're going to lose our thankfulness.

We're going to lose our grateful mind. This is what I'm trying to speak about today. So, contentment is in the Lord Jesus.

I think you know that. Contentment is in His love, in His Word, as our hope, as our prospect, His promise of future blessing, His provision for us day by day. That is our contentment.

There's not the least suggestion in the Bible that there's anything lacking in salvation and knowing Christ. It is everything we could ever need in our hearts and souls and minds and homes and families and lives and work and whatever we may be involved in. There is provision fully provided for every need that may ever arise.

So thank God we have every reason to be a grateful people, to be thankful from the depth of our heart. Now there is a subject in our chapter that I'm a little hesitant to deal with, and yet when I prayed about this, I was deeply impressed with the fact that Christians, and maybe in a greater way younger Christians, need to have this teaching. What is it about? It's about how God provides for His work.

How does He do it? Maybe our brother Higgins will say that he's having the same experience, but because my address is Truth and Tidings Incorporated, I get as many as 20 letters in a day that have one subject. Can you guess what it is? 20 letters in one day with one subject. What are they doing? They're begging for money.

Begging for funds. Now dear young Christian, that is dead wrong. They are begging for funds to do the Lord's work.

That's never God's way. It's never God's method. In fact, that's what Paul is teaching here.

I guess this has to be a bit personal, so forgive me. But I think of some of our dear young men today who have recently been commended to preach the gospel, and they are working hard in gospel efforts, perhaps in new places. Many of them do work in new places.

And dear Christian, can I say this to you? I wonder, am I exercised about their need? I wonder, do I have a concern about what their needs might be? You see, I preached in new places as a young preacher. And I don't usually tell this. In fact, I've seldom ever said this.

But there were times when I had a meeting in a home in a town on a certain evening, and on the morning of that day I had no gas in the car, and no money to put any gas into it. Yet I had a meeting that night in a town 25 miles away. How was I going to get there? Go and knock on a Christian's door and ask them for some money? Never.

Never. The only one who should ever hear what those kind of needs are is the ear of God. God never failed me.

He never failed me. I went into a post office this particular day, and I'm telling you about it, it is an actual experience. I went into a post office, and what I was really hoping for was that there might be some mail with a gift in it, so I could put gas in my car.

There was no such mail, no such gift in an envelope. I turned away from the desk of the post office, and here stood a Christian in front of me. He put his hand in his pocket, and he took out ten dollars, and he said, the Lord told me to give this to you.

You know, I believe him. I believe the Lord did tell him to do that, because it exactly met my need. God does that.

That's God's way. That's how God works. May we never stoop down to this kind of thing that's so common in the so-called evangelical world, begging for funds right, left, and center.

As I tell you, I can get 20 letters in one day from evangelical groups asking for money. Is God a beggar? He is not. God is able to meet all our need, and he does it so fully.

And if this means anything to you, I've had 63 years of experience, so I know it's true. I can tell you it's real. God does meet the need in the riches of his grace and mercy.

He meets the need. Oh, there are times when we've been tried. There's times when we've fallen on our knees and said, oh God, we have nothing.

What can we do? But God has never failed. He has never failed. He has met our need, and I thank God for it.

You know, it's an amazing way that God does work. Here, God provides the need of servants of his. They never ask for money.

They never tell anyone what their financial condition is. They never post financial records anywhere, and yet God knows exactly what we need. And it's a great wonder that there's not a surplus as well, that there's not a lack.

God knows what the need is, and God meets the need. And I've often been amazed at that. In fact, it has humbled me greatly, especially seeing that I, like anyone else, would have doubts when there's a need arising, and there's no obvious means to meet the need.

Doubts flood into your mind. What are you doing? You're doubting God. You're doubting that he knows the need, or that he is able to meet the need.

He has never failed. Sometimes, almost at the last minute, God has been pleased to meet the need. I remember this very well, and if we were giving out reports on financial support, you would get names, and locations, and all the rest, but we don't do that.

And a dear man, he's gone to heaven now, that dear man sent me ten dollars about every two weeks while I was working in the state of Ohio in New Gospel work. And that work went on over two years. And that man sent me ten dollars about every two weeks.

Now, without God, I wouldn't have had the ten dollars, but without the ten dollars, I wouldn't have been able to do the work. And that dear man, I tried to let him know before he went to heaven. On his deathbed, I tried to tell him, you've got no idea, I said to him, just what your gifts meant.

It was the whole difference between tragedy, despair, and thankfulness. Oh, how good God is. How faithful he is.

And this is what this passage is telling us. Paul says to these Philippians, you did well, you did well. And he says, you sent by Epaphroditus in the Roman prison, and this is fruit that abounds to your account.

Dear believers, remember this, what you may give to the Lord may not be known by another person, not even by your own family. A husband or a wife, even, might not know what each other are giving. But if it's given to the Lord, it is fruit for his glory.

It is a sacrifice, we read, acceptable. Can you take in these words, a sacrifice acceptable, well, pleasing to God? Does that mean anything? It does to me. It means a tremendous lot, because I have experienced it.

The sacrifice acceptable, well, pleasing to God. Provisions poured out to meet our needs by his grace and by his mercy. Now, I've gone over this, and so I'm going to give it to you as I have enjoyed it.

There are petitions poured into God's ear in verse 6. That's what verse 6 says, petitions poured into the ear of God. In verse 7, there's peace poured into our hearts. And in spite of what I confess to you, that at times I had doubts and feared and trembled that the need was not going to be met, God never failed.

And he poured his peace into our hearts. And then verse 12, provisions poured into our needs. Wonderful, provision to meet the need, as only God knows it.

You don't have to tell anyone your need. Tell it to the Lord. He hears.

He is able to meet the need out of his bounty. Doesn't make God poorer to meet the need of a seeking saint. And you may be a mother, and you may have needs that no one else knows anything about.

Pour it into the ear of God, and God can pour into you his rich supply, his blessings from heaven. And then, of course, you have power poured into our service. For we sense oftentimes that our service is very feeble, and the results are very small.

So what do we do? Do we despair? Do we quit trying? Do we stop laboring? Do we cease to spread the gospel? Listen to what it says. Notwithstanding, ye have done well that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as giving and receiving, but ye only.

And then he mentions in Thessalonica and verse 17, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all, and abound. I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable while pleasing to God.

And I'm reading that verse 18 because really it's verse 19 I want to leave with you. My God. There's a very great reason why Paul uses that particular form of expression.

My God. He knows him. He knows this God, and therefore he is assured that he will not fail you.

My God shall supply all your needs. What's the measure of it? According to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now I said my subject was to be appreciation, thankfulness, gratitude, a grateful heart.

Now let me read to you about the grateful heart, if I can. Verse 19, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever.

Amen. And I can truly say, and you can too, dear Christian, that we have every reason to ascribe to our God thanks, the deepest gratitude, the worship of our hearts, for this God in the riches of his grace has met all our need. I think maybe I looked on at the Brethren to see what I was to do, but I think maybe I should pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we bow to thank thee now, thy word so precious, thy truth so great, thy provision beyond all our need. O God, thou hast given thy Son, God who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? So we are assured of this, that thou art the God who gave thine only Son, and thou art ready to provide every need, whatever it may be, physical needs, spiritual needs, practical needs, material needs.

Lord, the riches of thy mercy is greater than all our need. And so we give thee thanks for the way thou hast met our needs, and we thank thee, Lord, even today now for the Word of God. It meets our need, it touches our hearts, it moves us, it causes us to be thankful and grateful.

And so we give that thanks to thee for thy kindness and mercy and love to us, and most of all for Calvary. O God, the God who gave his only Son, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? And so we give our thanks in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus, and pray thy blessing on the following meeting as the Word of God is ministered to us. In the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.