May 19, 2024 | Extravagant Mercy

Transcript:

This morning we’ll be continuing in First Peter chapter one. Children, if you're headed out the door to Children's Church, you're welcome to go ahead and go. You're also welcome to stay in service with us. We love to have you here.

First Peter chapter one. Before we dive into this text. I want to draw your attention to a simple illustration of some of the way we deal with our thoughts and scripture. The kids who are left in this room know what this is. This is Play-Doh. And the parents in this room know what it smells like and know everywhere that it gets.

So I'm going to carefully put it back in the container when I'm done. But if this represents your ideas about the world, your theological ideas, your understanding of reality, it's shaped a certain way. It might look kind of like this and be lumpy and misshapen. It might be smoother and things happen in life and they make your ideas look a little different and break them apart.

And you say, I'm not sure how to reconcile that. And you come to God's Word and you keep working and God puts back together. Something happens that pushes it out and makes it all nice and round like this. And we know you can make the snakes right, and your ideas look a little bit like that and they twist all around.

Well, if we were going to represent now here's our ideas. If we were going to represent God's Word with something, one thing you could do. And I think we do this a lot in our post-modern world, where we are kind of allergic to the idea of truth. We act like God's Word is this other lump of Play-Doh, and it can also be squished all around.

Now, if I take my ideas, I'm not going to do it because I don't want to clean it up. If I take my ideas about God and His world and His word, and I squish it into a lump of Play-Doh, what do I get in two colors all mixed together, and I have no idea what the shape is that it will end up like, right?

Because this is just as flexible as this is. And that's not what it's like when we come to God's Word. It might be something more like this. I looked for a bigger one, but we didn't have a larger one. A little mold. Happens to be a pink mold of a turtle, if anybody cares what it's of, but it's just the one I found.

Now, if you get that part right and say, here's my ideas about God and how the world works, and here's God's Word, I can't push this around and change its shape. But I think sometimes we still mess up the picture a little and we do this. If you can see, I've got my ideas here and we take the mold, I'm going to take the back side of it, not the inside, and we push it into our ideas.

Now, if I do that and you were to look at this, it looks mostly like this mold. It's really close, but it's not crisp and clean. And I'm using it the way you'd say. That's not really the way it works. You're not supposed to use the backside of the mold and push that into the Play-Doh. What are you supposed to do if you're going to do it?

You take your ideas, your Play-Doh, and you push that into the mold.

And then what you get, hopefully, if it's a good mold, you get a nice, clean picture of a turtle. As we come to this text, I think often we'll do one of the first two things. We'll either act like it's Play-Doh and my ideas and squish them together and get something that's really far off, or we use it backwards and say, Here's God's word.

I'm going to kind of push that into my ideas and hope it's close. And we go, yeah, that looks close enough. But I want to make sure that we do this morning is that you would take your ideas about God and His Word and about salvation and what he has done for you, and you'd push that into the mold of this passage that we let every detail of what this passage says shape us, because that's what gives us the crisp and clean picture that corresponds to the mold.

That's what we need to do this morning. Let's go before God in prayer one more time. Before we look at the text. Lord, as we come with our various backgrounds and some of us have years and years of studying your word, some of us maybe it's the first time. May our ideas be pushed into what you have said, and may we have our minds transformed.

May we not be tempted to change your word to match our thoughts, but only to push our thoughts into what you have said, so that when we come before you and when we think on what you have done.

We think of it exactly the way you have described it, and we have the response you want for us to have. We need your help. We need your spirit this morning, working through these words that you have breathed out in your name. Amen. I want to ask this question. To start with. We use a word salvation or we'll ask, are you saved?

We do that often. That word gets used, but we don't always stop and say, why do I need to be saved? What does it even mean to be saved? And I want to let Peter as he will throughout the book. I want to let him use his terms. So if we were to ask, what am I saved from?

Or what dangers do I face if I don't have salvation? Peter gives at least four categories in his book. If you want to flip over to them quickly. Chapter two, verse 24. It says that Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds. You have been healed.

So we need to be saved from sins. But that's different from saved from the punishment of our sins. Peter, we'll talk about that in a minute. But that's different here. He says we need to be saved. And the picture is you have been healed. So we have within us we face sins which are like a disease that make us weak, that hurt us, that caused us to hurt others.

And it's a terminal disease because that's what sin does. It kills. So do I need to be saved or what do I need to be saved from first from sin, which is a disease that eats away at me? Second, in chapter three, verse 18. Peter says, Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

See, that's the second problem I have. They're all related. But it's a second problem because I have a disease. Not only that, I'm separated from God, from the greatest being the most amazing being in the universe. And apart from salvation, I'm separated from that. I can't enjoy him like I should. Apart from this salvation that Peter talks about, the reason Christ died sin's separation from God, I need to be saved from both of those.

Chapter four, verse 17. There's a third one, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? Because sin is not just disease, sin is also guilt that requires judgment. When we need to be, we say we need to be saved.

I need to be saved from the disease. I also need to be saved from the judgment that my sin deserves. And in chapter five, verse eight, Peter says, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. I have an enemy, Satan. What do I need to be saved from? Or what dangers do I face if I don't have the salvation that Peter talks about at the beginning of this book and throughout this book, what dangers do I face?

I face a disease of the soul called sin that eats me up. I face separation from God, the greatest being in the universe. I face judgment because I'm guilty and I face Satan who wants to destroy me. If we were to ask, do I need to be saved? We could have a long answer. There. But that's not where Peter starts.

In this book, where Peter starts is not what do I need to be saved from? Although it's in the background of what he is talking about the whole time. But what do I need to be saved to or not? What dangers do I face if I don't have salvation? But what good will I miss out on if I don't have salvation?

That's where Peter begins in chapter one verse three and he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Peter starts the main section of his book. After his greeting he ends, May grace and peace be multiplied to you. And he starts with a statement of worship. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. On one hand, that might be. It's almost an unnecessary statement. If you read without that statement, you could just go straight from May grace and peace be multiplied to you according to God's great mercy.

He has caused us to be born again. It would make sense. You don't need the statement to make sense of the passage. But Peter, in some ways it's crucial for what he's doing because he's giving you this warning. Maybe not a warning, a teaser. He's giving you this little expectation at the beginning. What is the right response to what I'm about to say?

And Peter is signaling them ahead of time that the right response to what he's saying is not debate, argument, pride, skepticism, or rationalize, but worship. If we read what Peter says in these verses and our hearts go somewhere other, then blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we're not tracking with where Peter is going.

And this statement is there at first, the statement of worship and God, I pray you'd work this worship in our hearts today as we hear the truth of your word.

Peter talks about the basis. He says, according to God's great mercy, it's mercy because we deserved terrible consequences. But God's people did not and will not receive those consequences. That's mercy. We deserved something that we did not and will not ever receive. Now that includes judgment. We talked about that a minute ago, but it includes more than that because we deserved to be left to run our own world, to just make our own choices in everything, to face the empty coldness of a world without a relationship with God.

That's what we deserve. Sure, we deserve judgment and punishment, but we deserve to be left to our own devices. That might sound good to you. You might be like, great, I get to do what I want, nobody telling me what to do. But I'd ask you to think back across your life, especially those of you who have maybe lived a little longer than some in this room, and think, what if you were left to just do whatever you thought was the right plan at that time?

What if God, it never had any grace? That said, I know you want to go that way, but I'm going to pull you back this way. I know you want to do that, but by God's grace, I'm not going to let you just go there. I'm going to. I'm going to keep you. We deserve to be allowed to go do all of those things.

And yet, God in his mercy protects us. As I went through this text, I thought of a song by, modern songwriter Jordan Coughlin. We sing it. All I have is Christ. The second verse reflects what Peter is talking about with mercy when he says, but as I ran my hellbound race, indifferent to the cost, you looked upon my helpless state.

And led me to the cross. And I beheld God's love displayed. You suffered in my place. You bore the wrath reserved for me. Now all I know is grace. That's what Peter's saying when he says, according to his great mercy, I was running, and I deserve to take my hellbound race all the way to hell. But God acted in mercy.

When we say what led Peter to this worship? The first step. So he looks at the basis. He says, it's not because I earned something, but it's according to God's great mercy. Second thing I want you to notice here is notice the the actor in these verses. Over and over, there are statements that point to God's action and God's character.

He starts with according to his great mercy. That's his character. He has caused us. God is the actor. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is something that only God could bring about to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven. Who does the keeping?

I don't keep my inheritance in heaven. God keeps my inheritance in heaven. Who by God's power are being guarded. God's power guards us through faith. We'll talk more about that in a minute. So because of his great mercy and love, God acts. I tell you, I think sometimes we fail to respond to the message of Scripture with great worship because we have so minimized God's actions towards us.

It's almost like if you heard that there was a billionaire offering $1 million to anyone who showed up at his house on Tuesday morning at 9:00. First off, I have a feeling I know where we'd all be if we believe that. But how would you feel about that billionaire? I imagine you'd feel grateful. You should. I imagine you'd think that billionaire is a generous benefactor.

I heard of a guy who was speaking at a graduation a couple days ago. I saw the news article, and he gave $1,000 to every graduate, which was something like $120,000 that he gave. Now, those graduates should be grateful. They should think, wow, look at this generous man. But there is no reason for those graduates to feel personally loved.

If you go and say the billionaire is going to give $1 million to anyone who shows up gratitude. Yes. Feel loved? Not really. It's there. If you come, it's not there if you don't. Now, if that's the way that you view salvation, you won't feel the love that you ought to feel and the worship you should. And I would say from this text, that would be like taking the mold and squishing it into the Play-Doh, instead of taking the Play-Doh and putting it back into the mold.

Consider a different illustration instead of the billionaire offering $1 million that way. In this case, it's a billionaire king who comes to the woman he loves, and he proposes marriage to her. And he comes. He says, all of my riches are yours. We'll live together forever. He tells her of those riches. He tells her how much he loves her.

He lavishes service on her. He personally comes to demonstrate his love to her. He provides protection for her as she comes to live with him. That woman should not just feel grateful, but loved.

When Peter looks at what God has done for him, what fills him with love and worship is not just gratitude for a generous benefactor. But love for the one who came to show that love to him.

Peter speaks of worship. He speaks of the basis according to his great mercy. He points out all the ways God has acted and then he talks about the transformation that's happened. He says he's born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. When you were born again, you have new desires. You have new needs.

You have new delights. You have new tastes. John three says, one who was born when he was not born again cannot see the kingdom of God. The one who is not born again, won't perceive it, won't think of it as beautiful, won't think of it as good or wonderful. And I want to say this morning, if you catch even a glimpse of something wonderful about the beauty of what God has done for you, praise God for that grace.

Lean into it and enjoy it.

That's an evidence of being born again. Well, how are we born again later? In First Peter, he talks to us about that. He says in verse 2325 that you've been born again through the living and abiding Word of God. The new birth comes about as you see the truth of God revealed in Scripture, revealed in His word and your heart, maybe in dramatic ways, or maybe in almost imperceptible ways.

At first, your heart responds to that message and reaches out with joy, says that's wonderful, or reaches out with desperation. I have to have that. Nothing else will work or reaches out with hunger and says, I've tasted how good God is and I want to taste it again.

The new birth comes about as you see the truth of God in His Word, and your heart responds with desires and needs and thirst and hungers that weren't there before. You saw the truth of God in His Word. And it comes about through the resurrection of Jesus. God displays his love toward us, his love for you through the truth of the gospel.

He lived it out in front of us by His Son, and he proclaims it in His word. And we see that and we respond, that's good. That's worth praising. Look at his great love for me. I want to love him. The emphasis here on being born again is is not on the labor of the mother and the physical birth.

We tend to think. We say born again. That's what we often think of. That's not what's there. And in the ancient world, they thought a lot more about the father's role than we might in that context. Emphasize here. Notice just a language blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's seen as a father, and then he's caused us to be born again.

Without getting into too much detail, if you think of this in the physical picture, a man and a woman reproduce and they conceive a child. Before nine months and labor and birth, that embryo is a person, and that person has nothing to boast about in themselves. That person is not worried about figuring out how it all works and what they need to do to grow the picture is intentional here.

Throughout these verses, Peter is drawing your attention, your focus to what God has done in salvation so that our pride will be rightly diminished and our worship will be amplified. Says God has caused you to be born again. Now in the picture, of course, we know both pre birth and post-birth humans participate in the process. Of course. Similarly, we must participate through faith.

We'll say more about that in a minute. But when he says God has caused you to be born again, he's drawing your attention to the fact that conception and birth is something that happens to you by the power of another.

God has caused him to be born again. All of this is why Peter responds with worship. You say, how does Peter come to the point that he just explodes with, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? He looks at the basis of what has happened. God's mercy gave me something I did not deserve. He looks at the actor and says, God has acted in love.

He's not just generous. He loved me. And then he's looked at the transformation through new birth. Now he looks at the goal. He says to a living hope. It's living. It's not dead. The hope that we have not only is not dead, it's not threatened by death because it came about through resurrection.

If somebody has the power to come back from the dead, what can you really threaten them with? And if our living hope came about through the resurrection of Jesus, what could possibly stop it? It's a living hope. It's a confident future. Then he's. Peter says, I would love to be able to talk with Peter about what was he thinking when he wrote this down?

But it seems like he says to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ says it's not enough to call it a living hope. What else can I say about what we're saved to? He says, well, it's two an inheritance. Verse four, that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. The greatest treasure we have is to know and love God, and with that comes every other true blessing.

So Peter thinks about that treasure. What does it mean to know God? He says, well, it's imperishable. Think about perishable goods. If someone gives you a gift, call it a jug of milk. Not much of a gift, maybe. But maybe you love milk and you say, this is wonderful. Well, you better hurry up and use it. You don't just leave it sitting in your garage for five weeks and go, well, maybe I'll try that now.

It's probably not going to work out well for you because it's perishable. It may be a wonderful thing. It may be something you really want and really need, but it doesn't last forever. You've got to hurry up and use it. Peter says. No, the riches that we have are not like that. What God gives you never goes bad.

It never spoils. He says it's undefiled. That means it's completely, entirely pure. If you are given, say, a Christmas gift. If you had one that was perishable, you going to have to hurry and use it. It won't last forever. If you give are given a Christmas gift that is defiled, here's 95% pure milk. What's the other 5%? I don't know, yo, I don't know if I want that gift.

Actually. But even if someone gave you a gift that were imperishable and undefiled, sometimes it's fading. Sometimes a gift. Especially kids in here. But maybe adults too. Sometimes a gift that just fascinates you. On December 25th bothers you. By January 8th. Or April 8th. What Peter does, he's he's magnifying how great this inheritance is. And he says, look, it's imperishable.

It's undefiled. Not only that, it will never even lose its shine. And.

So as we sing amazing Grace, we get when we've been there 10,000 years. Bright shining as a sun. We've no less days to sing his praise. Than when we first begun. I think maybe we think of that sometimes. Like, well, yeah, I'll have enough days to keep going. The point is, you won't want to sing his praise any less.

After 10,000 years. In fact, I think you'll probably grow in it.

The inheritance we have is unfading. It's never losing its sparkle and wow factor. Peter's trying to say, how can I talk about the great salvation we have so that they'll see it? This is riches, inheritance, treasure that never goes bad, is perfectly pure and endlessly fascinates you.

But I think he still goes. That's not enough to talk about this salvation. What else can I use to describe it? He goes on and says in verse five, after who, by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time? Actually, the word for for there is the same word he puts for two a living hope and two an inheritance.

So as he goes through and he puts other things in there, but he says, we're born again to a living hope, to an inheritance, to a salvation ready to be revealed. He's telling these are the same things. And I can't describe the greatness of this in one picture. I need to give you more than 12A prepared salvation. What salvation?

The one we started talking about from sin, from separation, from God, from judgment, from Satan to that salvation. Sometimes we use the word salvation to refer to what has happened to us when we first come to Christ. Really, that's we can say that's justification. Peter's not using it that way here. Peter's not looking back at, say, when we believe in Christ and Christ's righteousness is credited to us, that's more like what he's saying when he says he's being born again here.

He says, this is a salvation that's coming. The completeness of this salvation is still future. And it's prepared. It's ready. The salvation Peter is talking about. He says, this is not some dead religious idea tucked away in a church somewhere. This is a salvation that's ready and bristling with energy, and it's going to blow you away. That's what Peter's thinking.

It's so easy to read. And we go, okay, I know these words. Okay. Yes, yes, yes. Tell me what to do.

Peter is blown away and he's telling them there's this salvation better than you can possibly imagine. And it's ready. And you've been born again. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you've been born again for that salvation for that inheritance. So if all of that is true, if you say, based on God's mercy, God has acted in a way that I could never have earned, in fact, I earned the opposite.

God has acted out of his great love to bring us to salvation of living hope. Inheritance are salvation ready and perfect? Well, what do I need to know for confidence? How do I know I'm going to get that? Well, in the picture there'd be two things. If you take the billionaire king who proposes marriage, you need to know his billions won't be stolen before you get there.

That'd be important. And you need to know you're going to make it all the way to his mansion. You know both of those things. Is my inheritance safe and protected? And can I make it all the way there? Well, Peter's thinking exactly that. And he says the end of verse four, your inheritance is kept in heaven for you.

It's kept not on earth, where, as Jesus said, where thieves break in and steal, and where moth and rust corrupts, but is kept in heaven, where thieves can't do that. The word for kept here is not like a passive kept like it's tucked away in a corner. It's guarded.

And that the tense that he uses is really interesting. It describes a completed action. It's kept, it's done, that has ongoing results. He's not saying that there's an action here like it's in question. He's saying this is done. Like when Jesus said it is finished on the cross. He said, your inheritance is now kept forever. It's perfectly protected.

I used the phrase when I quoted, all I have is Christ. You bore the wrath reserved for us. This language of kept means this wrath was reserved for us. But now for those who are God's people who follow after Jesus. It's not wrath that's reserved, it's treasure that's reserved. It's kept. And I want you to notice these precious words.

These words struck me this week. It's why I said we need to make sure we don't view this like a really generous billionaire who may or may not love you, but a king who proposes marriage to you because he says. You're born again to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Which you, those who by God's power are being guarded through faith for you.

The treasure is not kept there in case it might happen to work out the treasures kept there for you.

Say, well, what does he say about you? Will you? Who by God's power are being guarded now? It's interesting. The word for guarded is really close to the word for kept. There's. There's a close synonym there, used interchangeably in different places, but the tense is different. Catch this tense. It's beautiful. You have. The treasure is kept done. And there's ongoing results.

But the act of guarding it is finished. When he says, here for you, who by God's power are being guarded, we can see it in the English are being right now it's happening. But we could say you are being continually guarded. The treasure has already been put where nobody can touch it, but we still walk in paths that are dangerous.

And he says God is continually guarding and protecting you all the way home.

He says you're being guarded through faith. Well, we might ask this. Well, that's not the way we often talk about faith. Or what does this protection actually look like? I think Peter had a very specific situation in his mind in Luke 22, before Jesus death. You could turn over there, but I'll tell you what it is if you want to sleep.

22 I think we can hear Jesus's compassion for Peter when he predicts Peter's denial and he says, Peter, Satan has demanded to have you. His Peter Jesus has walked with him all along the way. And and Jesus has cared about him and loved him every step. And he says, Peter, Satan has demanded to have you so that he would sift you like wheat, so that he'd take all the circumstances and not only the circumstances, but the crucifixion and the suffering, and push it against you to shove the faith out of you.

That's what Satan wants to do.

And Jesus says, Peter, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And it's not uncertain. He's not going. I hope it works out. I hope your faith won't fail. He says no when you have turned again, because Jesus knew that would happen. When you have turned back because your faith has stayed. Strengthen your brothers.

Jesus love Peter. And by Jesus's power and by his prayer. Peter's faith was sustained through some of the hardest, most trying things. Peter went through, but his faith stayed because of God's power working within him as Jesus prayed for him. And Peter was guarded because justification and salvation comes through faith, no one who believes will ever fail to reach the inheritance, because God's power continually guards them through faith.

I think when Peter said, God's power guard you through faith, he's remembering what Jesus said. And he I don't know how he could not weep. I remember my Lord saying, you're going to deny me. But I remember him saying, your faith will continue. You will make it all the way.

Since the work of Christ is finished and your inheritance is kept perfectly, the only danger, the only eternally dangerous thing we face is unbelief.

And since God guards his people by sustaining their faith, we are perfectly protected.

That's what drove Peter to worship. He saw the glory of all that and more that we can't even unpack, and that no one of us sees all the glories of God's salvation right now. But he saw the glory of God displayed in his extravagant, merciful love to him, and he was just undone and said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Has that happen in your life?

If I asked you if you had been born physically, I doubt any of you would whip out your birth certificate and show me. You probably wouldn't tell me about the hospital it happened in or the city it happened in. You'd say, of course I've been born. I'm breathing. I'm alive. How else do you think that happens? We'll ignore the possibility of AI and other things for the moment.

Of course I'm alive. I'm breathing. Of course I've been born. If I asked, have you been born again? I'd ask you this. Are you alive to God? Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? That he is the eternal son who came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died in your place? And in doing so he conquered sin and death, and he was raised as the reigning King, the Messiah, the Christ.

If you do first John one says, anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. But believing means more than just acknowledging it. Up here.

To believe is a whole person response of trust. It's your mind. It's your emotions. It's your will. Do you know that truth I just described? Do you love that truth I just described? And do you rely on it? And on the authority of God's Word? If you know who Jesus is and you love it and you rely on it, you have every reason for worship and every reason for confidence that Peter did when he wrote this.

Well, here's another way to evaluate whether this has happened for you. And I ask you to be honest with yourself.

Do you really delight in God and His love for you?

Or do you only delight in the gifts that come with the new birth? God gives amazing gifts.

But if all you're interested in is forgiveness, well, that's not God. That's a gift God gives. If all you're interested in is avoiding hell, that's not really the breathing and the gasp of new birth that says, I love God, I love him, and what he's done in his love for me. I'd ask you. Are you alive to God?

Do you delight in him, or only in the gifts he gives? If you're not a forgiven follower of Jesus Christ today I appeal to you. I beg you this morning to turn from your trust in yourself and to entrust to trust this incredible God who loves you. Maybe you don't understand all that, and you're not sure exactly what to do.

Or you think maybe you see a glimpse of something wonderful in what Peter describes here. That glimpse. That glimpse is the grace of God moving powerfully in your life. Maybe it's the first stirrings, the first gasp of the new birth in you.

If you think you see something that is wonderful in that and you say, I've never trusted in that before, pursue that grace of God. I invite you to talk to one of us this morning. There are nearly everyone in this room. Would love to talk to you about that. I'd love to talk with you. We will gladly rearrange our schedules to talk with you about that.

Maybe you came here today and you say, I thought I was a follower of Jesus. I'm just not sure. Again, I would appeal to you to lean towards the grace of God where you see something worth focusing on, something worth loving. Lean towards that. Speak with somebody today. It might just be the means of God guarding you by sustaining your faith all the way to his inheritance.

And if you are a follower of Jesus today. Whether you're the oldest follower in this room or the youngest follower in this room, if you are a follower of Jesus where your heart responds with joy and hunger for God, let that overflow in worship. Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, where you catch a glimpse of God's glorious love for you, where you recognize it's not just a generous billionaire.

This is one who came to love me.

Just soak in that, because in doing that, you are glorifying God. And that's why we're here. Rejoice in what he's done. I invite you to take a moment and respond in prayer.

May God fill us with a heart of worship for him this morning.