"1 Samuel 12"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

At this morning's reading is 1 Samuel chapter 12, and that can be found on page 281 in the church bibles. Samuel said to all Israel, I've listened to everything you said to me and have set a king over you. Now you have a king as your leader. As for me, I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you. I've been your leader from my youth until this day.

Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the lord and his anointed. Who's ox have I taken? Who's donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated?

Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these things, I will make it right. You have not cheated or oppressed us, they replied. You have not taken anything from anyone's hand.

Samuel said to them, the lord has witnessed against you, and also his anointed is witnessed this day, that you have not found anything in my hand. He is witness they said. Then, Samya will said to the people, it is the lord who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your ancestors up out of Egypt. Now then stand here because I'm going to confront you with evidence before the lord as to all the righteous acts performed by the lord for you and your ancestors. After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the lord for help, and the lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and settled them in this place.

But they forgot the lord their god. So he sold them into the hands of Cisra, the commander of the army of Hazul, and into the hands of the Philistines, and the king of Moab, who fought against them. They cried out to the lord and said, we have sinned. We have forsaken the lord and served the bars and the astronauts, but now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you. Then the lord said, Jerabar, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around you so that you lived in safety.

But when you saw that Nahash, King of the ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, no, we want a king to rule over us, even though the lord your God was your king. Now here is the king you have chosen, the 1 you asked for. See, the lord has set a king over you. If you fear the lord and serve and obey him, do not rebel against his commands. And if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the lord your god, Good.

But if you do not obey the lord and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you as it was against your ancestors. Now then, stand still and see this great thing the lord is about to do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call on the lord to send thunder and rain, and you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the lord when you asked for a king. Then Samuel called on the lord, and that same day the lord sent thunder and rain.

So all the people stood in awe of the lord and of Samuel. The people all said to Samuel, pray to the lord your God for your servants so that we will not die for we have added to all our other sins, the evil of asking for a king. Do not be afraid, Samuel replied. You have done all this evil. Yet do not turn away from the lord, but serve the lord with all your heart.

Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good nor can they rescue you because they are useless. For the sake of his great name, the lord will not reject his people because the lord is pleased to make you his own. As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the lord by failing to pray for you, and I will teach you the way that is good and right. But be sure to fear the lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart, consider what great things he has done for you.

Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will perish. Thank you, Emily, for reading that for us. Please keep the passage open in front of you. Page 2 8 1, 1 Samuel 12. Let me pray for us.

Father, we pray, please, as we come to your word, you'd help us to be humble before you, ready to listen, ready to learn. And would you through this? Help us to see how your word is not just about Israel, those thousands of years ago, but is a word that was to them, but is for us. And that we need to respond to your voice today. So please change us and shape us and move us today.

Well, we've come to a significant point in 1 Samuel. This is Samuel's speech to all Israel, as Saul is installed as King. And it's a good point for us to round off our series in 1 Samuel, at least for the moment. I'm not sure whether we're gonna come back to this, which are 1 Samuel in February. I think it's probably more likely we'll come back to it after Easter.

But that's where I need the study month of January to work out where we're where we're going with this. And it's a good moment to sort of round off this series because this is the point where we've been building up to this. In 1 Samuel. We followed Samuel, the prophet, since before he was born. And then he was born, and we saw him leading the people of Israel.

And the people of Israel then demanded a king, and Samuel said to them, look, by demanding a king, you are rebelling against god. But they insisted, and God said give them a king. And Saul was chosen and is now being installed as king. And you might well be feeling This doesn't seem very Christmas y. And you're right.

It's not. Let me just let you into my thought process that went slightly wrong. When I first planned this series, I thought, yeah, we'll get to 1 Samuel 12. The king will be being installed. And that maybe will provide us with nice parallels with the king being born 2000 years ago, you've got the king arriving parallels.

It'll be nice. It'll be beautiful. It'll be Christmas, even from 1 Samuel. And then, actually, when you get into, and that's where I thought we were gonna be. And then when you actually study the passage, and you read 1 Samuel 12, you think, actually, this isn't a lot about saul at all.

And so my parallels completely broke down. So apologies that this doesn't I mean, it's just not a Christmas y sermon. Alright? I'll just be upfront about that. It's not Christmas.

If you want Christmas, look at the hats over here. If you want Christmas, come along this afternoon to the Carol's at Signal Park, which, by the way, we do need you there for that. Don't know how many people from signal park are gonna come along. We hope there'll be some. There may not be a huge number, but there may be, maybe we don't know, but we need you there for there to be a a bit of a crowd there anyway.

So please come along if you can, half 4 Come along. Get festive. Get Christmas there. For the moment though, we're in 1 Samuel twelfth. But actually, it's significant that Saul is not mentioned a lot.

In 1, Samuel 12. Just cast your eyes back to, 1, Samuel 11, and verse 14. He said there, then Samuel said to the people Come, let us go to Gilgau, and they renew the kingship. So all the people went to Gilgau and made Soul King in the presence of the lord. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the lord, and saul and all the Israelites had a great celebration.

And now what p most people think is that what comes in 1 Samuel 12 is Samuel's speech at that occasion, at the occasion of Saul's installation as king. But it's significant, isn't it? Saul is not mentioned a lot in this speech because what Samuel is doing at this point is he is preaching to the people to turn to the lord. That's what he's doing. Because the kingship that is actually being renewed here is not Saul's kingship.

It is the lord's kingship that is being renewed. And that's very significant, and it's actually very helpful for us to read this speech. This is 1 of many speeches through the Bible, which are prophets or apostles, calling on the people, to return to the lord. It's a very common thing that happens throughout the bible. It's not just after Jesus has died and risen and rose and ascended, it's not just when the apostles call on people to say, turn to the lord.

It is consistent throughout the Bible because everyone needs to know that they need to turn to the lord, and they need to know what to do with their sin. And that's why this is a great speech for us to read because we need to know what to do with those things as well. Paul, in 1 of his letters in the new testament says that the old testament scriptures make us wise for salvation and that is what this chapter is gonna do for us. So let's get into 1 Samuel 12. And the first thing that the people of Israel needed to see is that there is a storm coming.

There's a storm coming. By which, I mean, they stand guilty before the lord, and are going to be facing god's judgment because they demanded a king. And it takes up to verse 19 for them to get it. So we're gonna need to skim through those votes. We're gonna need to go through those verses fairly quickly to see, this storm coming against god's people.

But what we see is Samuel needs to be clever. Because he has confronted them before with the fact that they have rebelled against Scott by ask by demanding a king. And it hasn't hit home, so he needs to get under the radar. See how he does it. Let's follow through.

He says, first of all, that he's old. He says, I'm coming to the end of my life. My time is your leader, your prophet, and saul is now gonna be installed as king. And then he says verse 3. Here I stand, testify against me in the presence of the lord and his anointed.

It's interesting. So Samuel first says, put me in the doc. Testify against me, and he goes on to say, whose ox have I taken? Who's donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated?

Whom have I pressed? And so on. In other words, he's saying, Come on then. Anybody? Any witnesses?

Anyone want to say that I've done anything wrong, that I've taken anything from you, that I've accepted bribes or anything like that? And this is clearly in contrast to his predecessors as priests. Who we know Eli and his sons were immoral. It's also in contrast to Samuel's sons, who themselves took bribes. We know that from earlier in 1 Samuel.

And it's in contrast to the king who is gonna come because when the people demanded a king, Samuel said to them, your king, and when he comes, if you have a king, he is going to take, take, take, take. Do you remember that from earlier in 1, Samuel? If you have a king, he's gonna take from you, your sons, your daughters, he's gonna tax you. He's gonna take a whole load of things. He's gonna take, take, take, take, and Samuel is saying, now testify against me.

Have I been like any of those people? And everyone says, no, you have not done that. And so Samuel then says, verse 5. Samuel said to them, the lord is witness against you. And also his anointed his witness, this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.

Now that's an intriguing thing to say, isn't it? The Lord, he says to them, is that have you found anything against me? No. Okay. The Lord is witness against you.

That I haven't done anything bad. What's going on here? We'll find out. He then says not only has Samuel been good to them, but the lord has been good to them. He takes them back through their history.

You might have noticed it as Emily was reading to us. He goes through a a brief history of the people of Israel, and he reminds them of the righteous acts that the lord has performed. That's when he says verse 7. He says, now stand here because I'm going to confront you with evidence. I'm going to confront you with evidence before the lord as to all the righteous acts performed by the lord.

And he goes through their history. And so let me just really read those verses. Verse 8 to 11. Here's this potted history of the people of Israel. And notice as I read it, what are the things the lord has done?

Because that's what Samuel is highlighting to them. So he says verse 8. After Jacob entered the Egypt, Jacob, a number named for Israel, entered Egypt, they cried to the lord for help. The lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and settled them in this place. But they forgot the lord they got, so he sold them into the hands of Cicero, the commander of the army of Hazel, and the into the hands of the Philistines, and the King of Moab, who fought against them.

They cried out to the lord and said we've sinned We have forsaken the lord and served the bales and the AShtorets, but now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you. Then the lord sent, Jerabail, Barak, Jeff, sir, and Samuel, and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies. All around you so that you lived in safety. Now what that's saying is there's been a cycle that you could observe throughout the history of Israel after they came out of Egypt. And the cycle is this that because people forgot the lord, rejected the lord, so the lord brought an enemy against them to attack them and to dominate them.

Then the people cried out to the lord and admitted that they'd rejected the lord. Confessed to the lord. And the lord then sent a deliverer who rescued them, and then the cycle starts all over again. Though the people then forgot the lord and so on and so on. And Samuel is emphasizing.

Here are the righteous acts of god. Yes to send an enemy against you because you forgot the lord, but also that every time you cried out, he sent a leader to deliver you. Now notice here, The problem in their history has not been the lord, nor the fact that he sent them leaders to deliver them. And Samuel has already said Samuel was a good leader. The problem throughout their history has been the people rejecting god, forgetting the lord.

That's been no problem throughout. So now Samuel addresses the people in front of him and says. So what did you do when Nahash attacked? Verse 12? But when you saw that Nahash king of the ammonites, was moving against you, you said to me, no.

We want a king to rule over us, even though the lord your God was your king. Now, okay, this does raise a bit of a question about chronology. If you've as we've gone through 1 Samuel, you may have spotted that this doesn't quite match the chronology of what we've seen before. Because what Samuel is saying here is when you saw Nahash, this this, enemy king come against you, then you said, we want a king to rule over us. But if you look back in 1 samuel, Nahash doesn't appear till chapter 11, and they were demanding a king in chapter 8.

Now how do we deal with that? I think it's quite simple. It's just to say that the writer of 1 samuel is not trying to give you a a strict chronological history. He's not a historian in that sense, just trying to give you a chronological history. And so it's perfectly fine for you to realize now, oh, actually Nehash was there back before chapter 8 Okay.

That's alright. The important thing here is to see how the Israelites reacted when they hash came. What did they do? And the answer is they broke the pattern. Didn't they?

They didn't cry out to the lord and say, lord, we need you to deliver us to rescue us because that has worked every single time so far. And lord, you've been faithful every single time so far. No. Instead of doing that, they said, no. The problem is with the leadership.

We need a king, even though the lord was your king. See how he's got in under the radar a bit? Did I've been a good leader to you? The lord has been good to you. Provided you with leaders.

The problem was not the leaders, but you rejected the leaders and God in demanding a king. And so he says, this is where we are. The lord has now given you a king verse 13. Here is your king. You have chosen the 1 you asked for.

See, the lord has set a king over you. And he then issues a challenge verse 14. If you fear the lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his command. And if you have both, and if both you and the king, you reign who reigns over you, follow the lord your god. Good.

But if you do not obey the lord, And if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you as it was against your ancestors. This is crunch time, Israel. It's not too late. You can still turn to the lord. So which will it be?

Which way will you go, Israel? Will you fear the lord? Serv him, and all will be good. But if you do not obey him, if you rebel, then the lord will be against you. And Samuel then immediately moves to a miraculous sign for the people.

He says, the lord will bring a storm verse 16. Now then stand still. I don't know what they were doing at that moment, fidgeting, something like that. He said, no, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest now?

I will call on the Lord to send thunder and rain. Now if that was in the UK, we wouldn't find that surprising at any time of year to get thunder and rain. We wouldn't be particularly struck by that, but that's not true in other countries, is it? You know, there are countries where a particular time of the year, you're not gonna get the rain and the thunder. And that was true here.

For the the equivalent for us would be, is it not Christmas day coming up next week? On that day, it will be 40 degrees of heat. But this is storm at harvest. And the lord's saying, that is what will come. And verse 18, Samuel, therefore, praise, and the storm hits.

And verse 19, the people all said to Samuel pray to the lord your God for your servants so that we will not die for we have added to all our other sins, the evil of asking for a king. Here's the great realization. We've sinned. This is the moment it hits home and maybe they needed the storm to recognize their terrible situation. Because even though they'd heard the words of Samuel before, that they've rebelled against Gore, they needed to see the reality of the storm coming, the reality that God is not to be trifled with.

That the storm of god's judgment bigger than just the rain and the thunder and lightning, that storm is heading their way. The Bible you see is not afraid. To show us the dreadful reality of coming judgment. Some say it's wrong to frighten people into becoming Christians, but it isn't wrong as long as there is reality and truth behind what is being said. Sure.

Sometimes, sometimes you'd have noticed sometimes parents sort of scare their children into into obedience. Sometimes by saying false threats, I've not heard any parents here, do it. Although we all do it at times. Full threats, you know, those over the top threats, do that, and you will never have ice cream ever again. Really, you're actually prepared to follow them through the rest of their life and make sure they have no ice cream.

But, of course, sometimes we do. Threatened with the consequence what's gonna follow the horrible reality. That's why packets of cigarettes. They'll put pictures of what lungs look like. If you smoke, it's to warn you of what's gonna come.

And the Bible does speak of the reality of judgment, doesn't it? Not merely as an empty threat, but as a real threat. I mean, he's not afraid to use images of deep darkness wailing and gnashing of teeth and a lake of burning sulfur as a reality of this is what people will face because of their sin, if they don't turn to Jesus. Maybe we need to see in closer image of the reality of coming judgment. Maybe you need to hear that today and realize it is coming.

And it is a horrible realization, isn't it when you realize that is coming against me, in my soon? It is coming for me. And it's my fault. I cannot blame anyone else. And so the people in fear plead with Samuel saying pray for us to notice they say, pray for us to your god.

We recognize we're in trouble before him He doesn't feel like he's our God anymore. He's your god, Samuel, plead with us, plead for us. And Samuel then tells them what they are to do, and we're gonna slow down a bit on the last bit of this chapter because it is so important And the first thing the next thing he says to them is do not turn away from the lord. First 20, Please follow it. If you if you've got it in front of you, please follow it.

Do not be afraid, Samuel replied. You have done all this evil. Notice that. He said, no. It it really is true.

You have been evil. And we need to recognize that for ourselves. You you have done all this evil yet. Do not turn away from the lord, but serve the lord with all your heart. Do not turn away after useless idols.

They can do you no good nor can they rescue you because they're useless? And do you see he emphasizes it? He says it twice. Do not turn away from the law because that's what you're tempted to do, isn't it? If you know the storm is coming, I mean, if you bit like, you know, people in other countries where you get hurricanes that will hit.

If you know that's coming, you see the the news images of people then packing up as much as they can into their 4 by fours and heading away from it going, we just gotta get away. And that is the temptation. When you hear that judgment is coming, when you know the storming is coming against you, you go, well, let's just get out of here. Let's just get away from the lord. And Samuel says, don't do that.

Do not turn away. Why not He says because idols that you might turn to, they are useless. They will do you no good. And we need to realize that too. Yes.

If we turn to other gods, they will be useless. But also if we live for other things, if we see this desire, I'm gonna turn away from the lord. I'm gonna live for anything else. If I I will live for pleasure or my career or I'll live for family. I will I will live for something else.

You need to know that those things are actually useless. They like Christmas presents, which are just all wrapping and cardboard, and there is nothing in side. They may look good. They may look nice. And things that you go, actually, I want to live for that, but they will be empty.

And I think maybe part of the part of what's happening in this nation at the moment with people showing more interest in Christianity is that they are realizing the emptiness of what people are saying you should live for, that there is an emptiness to living for your own fulfillment as if you could just live for yourself and that there is nothing bigger. There's nothing more out there. It's just you and your life. And I think people maybe are just spotting. There's an emptiness there.

And Samuel says that's right. Live for anything else. Live for an idol, and it will be empty. But also, do you notice he says not only they can do you no good nor can they rest you you. They won't save you from the lord and his judgment.

You see, Samuel is saying, and he says later on, if you rebel against the lord, you will perish. Now that's saying, if you, as you see the storm coming, if you decide, I'm gonna flee from the lord. I'm gonna get him by 4 by 4 and go away from him. The reality is Samuel is saying, you will never outrun him. The storm will catch up with you, and it will overwhelm you.

So do not turn from the bullet. But rather, The solution is turn to the Lord. Now how can that be the solution if the storm is the Lord? How how can that work? That sounds suicidal, doesn't it?

To head towards the storm. To head towards the lord sounds like a bad move. And verse 22 is the answer. Have a look. For the sake of his great name, the lord will not reject his people because the lord was pleased to make you his own.

Now I have to admit, when I first read that, sort of first reading through of the past message. I skimmed over that verse because I thought I don't really understand it, but not totally sure how relevant it is, and it doesn't actually sound that good about the lord. Because it says, for the sake of his great name, he won't reject you. And I had sort of in interpreted that in the in the way we might maybe think about someone's name as being just their reputation. But, like, if if in the news, there's a bad news item mode against someone, they might say my name has been dragged through the dirt.

And as if all that this is saying is that the lord is saying, look, okay, I won't reject you because it'll look bad on me. And that's all it is. But actually after a bit of thought and a bit of reading, you realize in the Bible, the name of the lord is not just the name, the actual name, the Arway, and it's not just his reputation. It is that, but it's not just that. When you hear about the name of the lord, included in that is also the character of the lord.

And that makes a difference to the way you read this. Now let me give you an example of this where the name of the lord goes with the character of the lord. In the book of Exodus, there's a point where Moses speaks to God and says to god, I want to see your glory. An amazing thing to say to god, god, I want to see your glory show me your glory. And God says, yeah, I I I will.

I'll I'll I'll pass by you, and I will proclaim my name. And he does. Moses is there and the lord passes before him and proclaims this on the screen. The lord, the lord, the compassionate and gracious god, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin, yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.

Now do you see in that moment the lord is declaring his name? And you and I might think, well, that's the just the very first bit where he says, the lord, the lord. But, actually, that's not it. The whole thing is his name. Because his name, but lord is then bound up with his character.

And what is his character according to that? It is that he is 1 who forgives forgives wickedness, rebellion, sin. That is a character of god, as well as being 1 who is just. Now you have to have that in mind, I think when you hear in 1 Samuel twelfth, god's saying, for the sake of his great name, his great character. In other words, to be consistent with who he is, they are not destroyed.

Because God is a God who forgives wickedness, rebellion, and sin. And this is saying, if God did anything else, he wouldn't be who he is. For the sake of his great name, to be consistent with who he is, he will set them back because they've turned to him. And the only thing that they could plead for, the only basis on which they could come to God is because that is the kind of God he is. And this is your great, reassurance as well.

Your great assurance as a Christian, if you're a Christian. The thing that you can appeal to is god's name, his character. And you can say God on the basis of who you are. Will you accept me? And he does?

Because he is a God who forgives wickedness, rebellion, sin. That is who he is. And the fact it's his name means this isn't a 1 off. This isn't God saying, well, okay. I'll do it this time.

It's saying, no, this is who he is through and through. Maybe you've watched traitors, I've mentioned it before. You clearly know, I I like it as a show. There's a point. There are always points where when someone gets voted out, where they have to reveal, are they faithful or a traitor?

And at that point, it's just become the custom that they say, I am and have always been a traitor. Or faithful, or Jonathan Ross did have always been faithful to the traitor. But they're saying I am and have always been, and God is saying here because it's his name. He's saying I am and have always been, and always will be a forgiving God who welcomes you back. And because I chose you, you said, because I it was my pleasure to choose you.

And this is why when Jesus, in his ministry, what who did he hang out with? He hang out with the rebels, the bad people, the prostitutes and sinners, and he told them a story of a prodigal son who took the father's things and went away and squandered it all. And then when he had lost everything, turned back to his father and the father welcomes him back, what's Jesus saying? Is Jesus saying Well, this is a 1 off. God's not really like that, but, okay, you'll do it like this this time.

Now he's saying, this is the way God is, this is the way God always has been. This is the way he God will be, and this is your basis for coming to God that he is this kind of God that he welcomes back. Those who turn to him. But you might ask, how can he do that? Because his name, his character is not just to be forgiving, but also to be just.

Well, I think we get a a hint about that, in verse 23. How can God be just and forgiving. First 23, Samuel Lynn says, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the lord by failing to pray for you, and I will teach you. The way that is good and right. You see, the people are pleaded with Samuel to say, please, will you pray for us before god?

Once they realized their sin, they said, pray to your God for us. And he now says, far be it from me to sin, not against you, but against the lord by not praying for you. Why? Because this is his role. This is Samuel's role.

He's the priest. And the priest's role was to stand between the people and God to represent the people before God and to pray for them and bring sacrifices and that sort of thing. And in that sense, Samuel points us forward to 1 who will do this perfectly, to Jesus, who is our priest, who stood between us and god, and took our sin on himself at the cross, taking the storm of god's judgment for us, being our perfect priest. So that we can be welcomed back into the family of god. And we're told in the book of Romans and Hebrews, Jesus continues to intercede for us, to pray for us on the basis of his sacrifice to say, look at that sacrifice.

Therefore, these people can come back. And here we see the name of god, the character of God that he can be forgiving, and he can be just because of the cross. Because of the cross, we can be forgiven because of the cross, God is just, and our sin has been punished and dealt with. Here's the great character of god. And so the people are left with a choice.

And this is where we're going to finish our time in 1 Samuel. With this choice put in front of us, because it's actually the choice we face 2. Sorry. We've been on that last point, the 1 who stands in between. Here's the last challenge in 1 Samuel.

Verse 24, but be sure to fear the lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Consider what great things he has done for you. Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will perish. Here's the final challenge for the moment from 1 Samuel Forest. Which will it be?

He says to them, fear the lord, serve him with all your heart. Will you do that? Will you turn to the lord? Serv him with all your heart. And he says, consider what great things the lord has done for you.

It's not works. You're not doing those things. You're not serving the lord to get in the lord's good books. No. It's in the light of what he has done for you.

For us, in the light of the cross of Jesus, that he came so that we could be forgiven, will you, for the rest of this year? And then to next year? 20 26. I'm going with that as the year. I have to check it sometimes.

But will you for next year? 20 26 go, I will serve the lord with all my heart because of what he has done for me, the good he has done for me, that Jesus died for me, or will we turn away. First 25, it yet, if you persist in doing evil, Both you and your king will perish. That is the reality if we run away, then the storm will catch up with us and will overwhelm us. So don't turn away.

But turn to the lord. And we lead us in prayer. Our heavenly father We thank you for all that we have seen in the book of 1 Samuel. It has been a great, great time reading and learning from your word. And we see this last challenge and see how it does speak to us of the coming storm of judgment.

And father, I pray please that everyone here would turn not turn away from you, but turn to you. And know that on the basis of your name, on the basis of your character, we complete with you for forgiveness and have great assurance because you are a God who forgives wickedness, rebellion, and sin, and that you are just and that we see both at the cross of Jesus, your love, and your justice. And therefore help us turn to you and help us to commit ourselves. Holdheartedly to serve you in this coming year in the light of all you have done for us. Ah, man.