"Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister (serve to bring up) questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith " (1Tim. 1:4)

"The Pursuit of Glory: A Biblical Perspective on God's Call and Human Experience" - June 24, 2023
Dr. David Antion

God has called us to glory. Book of Romans, chapter five, verses one and two. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in hope of the glory of God.

We hope for that glory. What is that glory? In the New Testament, you would see Jesus show what it's going to be like to be in the kingdom will be some who will not see death until they see the kingdom of God come. And remember, he took his disciples and showed them this vision.

And it was like he was glorifying. He changed into glory. His visage and his clothing became white and glorious.

But in the Old Testament, the word glory is also used and has two major Hebrew words. One is kabad or Kabod. And kabad, you understand, Hebrew letters are just Hebrew letters and they don't usually have any vowels in between.

So these words can be translated and used in many, many ways and it's used in many different things. It can mean these. Here are the meanings of it.

To be heavy, to be weighty, to be grievous, to be hard, to be honorable, to be rich, to be glorious, to be burdensome, to be honored. This is a wide range of things that you can say to get oneself glory, to get the honor, to enjoy honor, to be made honorable, to make somebody heavy, to make somebody dull, to make somebody rich, to make somebody unresponsive. All of these are numerous ways in which these Hebrew words are translated.

You'll see that at Abraham's time, the basis you'll see this from Genesis 13 and verse two. The basis of his glory was his riches. Abraham was very glorious.

And this is with a quote now from Genesis 13, verse two. And Abraham was very Kabod, very weighty, very heavy in cattle, in silver and in gold. He had a lot of weight, a lot of strength, a lot of riches.

He was Kabod, was meant to be weighty, to be heavy. And he was honorable because he had all this riches. And this is what he did.

Okay? So it's used in many ways in the King James authorized version, meaning to be heavy, glorious, honorable, to make heavy, and so on, to be great, and so on. So these are the ways it is. Now, think about your life.

If I said to you, what are your glory days? You might say, well, man, when I used to play football or when I played basketball, when I took this job and we made so much money, and when I started this business and it just took off and those were my glory days. We all have this. This is when you were weighty.

You were maybe of high social status or a high position of authority. You look here in Genesis, chapter 45 and verse 13 and this is what Joseph said to his brothers. I'm going to read this from the King James verse.

This is Genesis 45, verse 13. And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, my Cabode, my Kabod, all my weight. I have got gravitas.

Okay? I am heavy, I'm powerful in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. And you shall haste and bring down my father from here. Go tell my dad about all my honor, all my glory.

Was he honored? Yes. Let me read that in the new American Standard version. Tell my father about all my high position.

They translate that or whatever as a high position in Egypt and what you have seen, but hurry and bring my father down here. So he had a high position. That was his glory.

If you ask Joseph later in life, what was your glory? Man, I got to Egypt, and here I was, way down here, and then I rose and I became the second in command. I had a very high position in Egypt. That was his glory in chapter four of First Samuel.

Now, this is a very sad situation. When Eli, his sons turned against God, his sons started doing evil things, and Eli just let him go. And God then allowed the Philistines to come in to Israel and take the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of God, where the tables of the Ten Commandments were, where figuratively God sat, and so on.

Take that. And here you have in one Samuel, chapter four, verse 21, Eli's daughter-in-law, and she was going to have a baby. And here's what she did.

First Samuel four, verse 21, she called the boy Iqabad. I Cabode. See, Kabod is the word that we've been using here.

Go tell my father of my Kabod in Egypt, my high position, my honor, my glory. She says, I'm going to call him I Kabod. We've translated Ichabod, which means inglorious, not glorious, saying the glory has departed from Israel because the Ark of the Covenant was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband, they were killed.

That's verse 22. She said, the glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God was taken. So Israel's glory was not all just its prosperity, physical prosperity.

Israel's glory was having the Ark of the Covenant and keeping it. Okay, now, I'm going to read you a passage here. I'm going to turn to the Book of Job.

But I want you to notice that Job, he was ruined. What did God do? He let Satan take away all of Job's possessions. He lost his children.

He was just down in the dumps. Okay, this is Job, and it was a very tough situation for him. So I'm going to be turning to Job, chapter 29.

But here Job says in chapter 19 and verse nine, meaning he was ruined, and humiliated. He has stripped me of my Kabod, my glory. It's translated from the King James version he has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head.

He's talking about God who stripped him. He doesn't here blame Satan because he knows that God is all-powerful and could do it. So you have let me read you now, beginning in chapter 29 of the Book of Job.

Job again took up his discourse and said oh, that I was in my mother's in the months gone by. Oh, that I could be in the months gone by, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone over my head and his light, that I walked in through the dark, and by his light I walked through the darkness, as in the prime of my days. Don't we all want to go back to the prime of our days? Don't we all want to go back to those glory days? Maybe you played a sport.

Maybe you were great at that. Maybe you had great physical prowess. Maybe you also made great intellectual advances, and you got degrees, and you graduated from college and graduate school or whatever.

The days of your glory. We all had them. We all had the days of our glory, whatever it was.

Maybe you were a carpenter, maybe you had your own business. Maybe you worked for someone, you were put over, you became his chief supervisor or something like that. We all had days of glory.

He said, as I was in the prime of my days, when the friendship of God was over my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me and my children were around me no, don't we want to go back to those wonderful days? And when my steps were bathed in butter think of that. My steps were bathed in butter and the rock poured out for me, streams of oil. And when I went out to the gate of the city, when I took my seat in the square, young men saw me and hid themselves.

Old men arose and stood. In other words, he was so honored and people wow, who care comes to Job. The princes stopped talking and put their hands over their mouths.

The voice of the nobles was hushed. I came along and they realized, here, this guy is really something. And their tongue stuck to the palate of their mouth.

And when the ear heard it, it called me blessed. And when their eye saw it, it gave witness of me, because I delivered the poor who cried for help and the orphan who had no helper. Here.

This guy was powerful and great. Listen to what he says. The blessing of one ready to perish came upon me, and I made the widow's heart sing for joy.

I put righteousness. I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban.

I was eyes to the blind, feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy. And I invested in and investigated the case, and I did not know anything I didn't understand.

I investigated. I broke the jaws of the wicked and snatched the prey from their teeth. Then I thought, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

But my root is spread out to the waters, and dew lies all night in my branch. A lot of this is metaphorical analogies. My glory is ever new to me.

Listen to this statement in verse 20. Job 20 my glory is ever new with me, and my bow is renewed in my hand. To me, they listened and waited and kept silent for my counsel.

And my words did not speak again. After my words, they did not speak again. I mean, this is verse 22 after my words they did not speak again.

And my speech dropped on them. So here was Job's glory. They didn't speak again.

They waited for me. As for the rain, they opened their mouth like the spring rain. I smiled on them when they did not believe in the light of my face.

They did not cast down. I chose a way for them and sat as chief and dwelt as a king among the troops, as one who comforted the Mourners. But now, this is chapter 30 of Job.

But now younger men than I mock me, whose fathers I wouldn't even disdain to put with my dogs or my fly. I wouldn't even hire their fathers to put them with my dogs. Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands? Vigor had perished from them.

So he went from glory to inglorious to losing everything. God has stripped my glory and taken away my crown. You read chapter 29 of Job.

Glory is also with power and radiance. You'll see here Isaiah, chapter eight, verse seven. Now therefore, behold, the eternal is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates, even the king of Assyria and all his glory.

And it will rise up over the chariots and over all the banks. Do you see that? I'm going to read that from the new English translation. This is Isaiah eight, verse seven.

So look, the sovereign master is bringing up against them the turbulent and mighty waters of the Euphrates River. They considered the river like the army. It was a metaphor for bringing these waters up.

And the king of Assyria had control over the Euphrates, so he took the sovereign waters bringing up against them the turbulent and mighty waters of the Euphrates River. The king of Assyria and all his now translate the word Kabod, or Kabad, as majestic power. All his glory, his majestic power, will reach flood stage and overflow the banks.

In other words, here was this country. Here was the Assyrian empire. It was growing, it was powerful.

It was going to expand over and into other regions. You'll see Isaiah chapter 16 and verse 14 talking about Moab and so on. But now the Eternal speaks, saying, within three years, as a hired man would count them, the glory of Moab will be degraded.

The glory, the power, the position, the honor, all the things of Moab will be degraded along with all his great population. And his remnant will be very small and impotent weak. See, the glory had to do with your power, your strength, your riches, your honor, and so on.

And don't we give a law of honor to people who have really become very successful? We do. In the United States. The United States government even does it.

Moab will be degraded. In Isaiah, chapter 17 and verses three through five, we see the fortified city will disappear from Ephraim and the sovereignty from Damascus and the remnant of Aram. They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel, declares the Eternal of the host.

Now, on that day, the glory of Jacob will fade, and the fatness of his fresh flesh will become lean. When you're not prosperous, when you can't have abundance, when you don't feel good, when you're not, your flesh will be lean. Isaiah 21, verse 16, all the Glories of Qadar will fail in three years.

Fail. Glory. Now, in Abraham's time, it had to do with riches.

Were you heavy in gold? Were you heavy in cattle? People even use that term when they're talking about stocks and lawns. Oh, he's heavy in Microsoft, or he's heavy in gold, or he's heavy in investments, and he's bought a lot of coffee or some other silver. He's heavy in silver.

That means he bought a lot of it. He's got a lot of it. Yes.

Jeremiah, chapter 48, verse 18 says, come down from your glory and sit on the parts ground, o daughter, dwelling in Debon, for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you. He has ruined your stronghold. You had the glory.

Well, come down and sit here. Come down and sit on the ground. Now, you were sitting up on the throne.

You had all these great things, but now you're not so great. You've lost it. You've become weak.

You don't have what you once had. In Job 19, we all read this he has stripped my glory, taken the crown from my head. This can speak of a flash of beauty, such as the glory of the clothing worn by Aaron.

When Aaron put on certain garments, they were considered glorious. He had the glory of these garments. Look at Exodus, chapter 28, verse two.

You shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother. And why are you doing it? For glory and for beauty. When he comes out in these garments, people are going to respect him.

He's going to have honor. These garments are the holy garments that he wears in service of God. You make these garments, holy garments for his glory, for the glory that he will have put on these garments, and for beauty.

They were beautiful. When the high priest walked around, he was colorful. He had purple and he had gold.

And then he had all this breastplate with all the stones of the tribes of Israel on it. He was quite a sight. He lost all that on the day of Atonement.

He had to take all that off and all he had was white linen clothing pants, white linen pants or a white linen jacket, and a turban on his head. And then he had to go through all that with the blood. And I'm sure he got blood all over those clothes.

Isaiah Exodus, chapter 28. Now dropping down to verse 40. For Aaron's sons, you shall make tunics, you shall also make sashes for them, and you shall make caps for them for glory and for beauty, for their respect, their honor, their dignity.

We say gravitas. He has some power, some weight. You ever hear people talking about, oh, he's nothing but an empty suit? He's a lightweight.

What does that mean? We say somebody's a lightweight. That means they'd have no strength, they're not powerful, and they don't have any real impact on it. He's a lightweight.

Well, the word glory means heavy heavyweight, not lightweight. Look at Haggi, chapter three, and verse three. Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? Glory in its great day? It's heyday.

We use the word in the heyday of somebody who is there among you. Hey. I ask, among the people who saw this temple in its former glory, and how do you see it now? Does it seem to you like nothing in comparison? People look back on things, even in our country, and they say, in the days in the form of glory. We had glory then.

And you look at it. Well, that's nothing. I remember as a kid growing up, my dad said, I feel sorry for you kids.

I said, Why, Dad? He's all, you can't roam and play and go out like we did when I was a kid. We went over here, we went to this field, we went over here, and now it's all built up in their house. You can't go there, you can't play in that field, you can't go over here, and so on, and it's more restricted.

So he kind of felt like his days he had days of glory. He had days where things were better for him and he thought they were better for him than they were for us. In Isaiah 62 and verse two, it says to Israel, the nations will see your righteousness, and the kings and all the kings, your glory, the kings will see your glory, your Kabod, your Kabbal, your honor, your weightiness, your strength, your power, your riches.

Glory had to do with all that. So the nations will see your righteousness and the kings will see your glory and you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Eternal will designate. Only God, the Yhwh will know what you have, what that name is.

They said this is a promise, this is a prophecy from Isaiah. The kings, the nations will see your righteousness as all the kings will see your glory. In Isaiah 60, based on the King James version here it says, the glory, the Kabod, the Kabad of Lebanon shall come to you the fur tree, the pine tree and the box together to beautify the place of my sanctuary.

And I will make the place of my feet glorious. Glorious, okay, I'm going to make my feet glorious, that same basic Hebrew root word. So he will have all these trees, he will have this forest, the forest of Lebanon will come to you, Israel.

And I'm going to have a place for my feet. I'm going to put it, my feet will be glorious. The glory of a king's reign.

You know, if a king reigns in a certain way, it's glory. Look at First Chronicles, chapter 29 and verse 28. Then he died at a ripe old age, full of riches.

I mean, full of days, riches in honor. This is talking about King David and his son Solomon who reigned in his place. So this is how it captures the summation of David's life.

Then he died at a ripe old age. What do we calculate? It was pretty much 71, close to 71, based on all the other calculations of King David. He died at age about 71 years old.

He called it ripe old age, full of days, riches, and honor. There's the Cabot, there's he had riches and then he had honor. And his son Solomon reigned in his death.

Despite all of his mistakes and his other things, David died with honor. And we have in two Chronicles, chapter 17, verse five, therefore the Eternal established the kingdom of his hand, and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presence. And he had riches and honor.

The glory, he had that glory in abundance. He had honor. To have honor is a form of glory.

It's something weighty, it's something important. You honor somebody for who they are, for what they are. Jehosphat, David, and so on had these things that were of honor, riches, and honor for them.

And then you see here that Solomon received riches and glory like nobody else ever, really, during his reign, riches, and glory, because what happened? He was asked, what do you want? In a sense, what can I do for you? God said, what can I give you? And here's what he answered. Very few people would answer this. This is amazing.

First Kings, chapter Three. I'm going to begin in verse nine. So God asked him, well, what do you want? He says, so give your servant meaning himself, an understanding heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this great person of yours? What I want more than anything else as the king is an understanding heart discernment.

Give me wisdom, give me the ability to see through things because who is able to judge these people, these great people of yours? So, in verse 13. It was pleasing. What he asked for was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

And God said to him, because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked for yourself riches, nor have asked for the life of your enemies, but you have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice because you didn't ask for the petty stuff. You asked for wisdom and discernment. Behold, I have done according to your words.

Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. I have also given you what you have not asked for, both riches and honor. Glory.

The Kabod. You're going to get rich and you're going to get Kabod honor so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. So King Solomon will have these riches and honor.

He will also have this wisdom and discernment throughout all his days. No king of any other nation will be like him. No king will have that kind of glory.

No king will have that kind of riches. No king will have his discernment and honor. And Jesus in the New Testament.

What does he make? He makes a statement about how God takes care of these and the birds and so on. And then he says that the flowers and all these things. And he says, Solomon, this is Matthew six, verse 29.

Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Look at these beautiful flowers and look at these things. Look at these trees.

Look at these things. Even he was not arrayed like one of these. Yes.

Glory, the riches, the honor, the things that we have in Solomon's reign were absolutely glorious. He had so much that there was a statement in the Book of Kings that during Solomon's reign, silver was considered nothing. It was so abundant, it was considered nothing.

You look for gold and then you look for the very fine gold and you look for the very pure gold. Yes. Would you believe that the crown of God's creation is God's? People are people who believe in God.

Let me read you and you see it. You'll see it in Psalm eight and Verse Six. But listen to Psalm eight, in verse five.

Yet you have made him a little lower than Aloeim, and you crowned him with glory and majesty. You crowned humans the man. What is man? That's what David asks, that you would be mindful of him.

Look at the heavens and the earth and all that you've created. What is a man that you would be mindful of man? Why would you even care about man? Yet you've crowned him, crowned humans with glory and majesty. Humans are God's ultimate powerful creation, crowning us with glory and majesty.

Aren't we blessed? But human glory is very, very fragile. Human glory comes and it goes. You can have glory today and what happens to you, you might lose it tomorrow.

I'm going to read Psalm now 49. You'll see it? How fragile is human glory? People strive all their life to have glory in the human realm.

And what is it? What good is it? Let me read it. I'm going to read Psalm 49, beginning in verse 17, talking about man. For when he dies he will carry nothing away.

His glory will not descend after him, though while he lives he congratulates himself. I'm trying to get all these riches and this glory and this honor. And I want the glory of people and I want everybody to think I'm great.

His riches won't go with him, though while he lives he congratulates himself. And though men praise you when you do well for yourself, he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They will never see the light.

Man in his pomp, yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish glory in this life. It just doesn't last, does it? It's not there. We don't have it forever.

You can get all the glory, and what good is it? So glory is tied to moral and religious values. You'll see, that's what the real glory is here. Here's in Proverbs three and verse 35 from the King James version the wise shall inherit glory and that's both riches, honors, weightiness, and gravitas but shame shall be to the promotion of fools.

The wise shall inherit glory. Proverbs 20, verse three keeping away from strife is an honor. And that's the word Kabod is an honor.

In other words, it's a glory for a man. Keeping away listen to this. Keep away from strife.

That's your honor. Can you get out of fighting? Can you get out of real strife and argument? Can you get out of hatred? But any fool will quarrel. Fools like to quarrel.

I want to argue. I'm going to get over there and get in his face. I want to do keeping away from that is an honor.

It's glory. That's kabab, Kabod. Those words in Hebrew, that's an honor, a glory for a man.

But any fool I'm reading this from the new American Standard Version in chapter 20 of Proverbs and verse three, and I'm going to read it again 20 and verse three. Keeping away from strife is an honor. It's glory for a man.

But any fool will quarrel. If you like to quarrel a lot, you like to get in somebody's face a lot, you don't have glory. Proverbs 29, verse 23 a man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain glory.

That's Kabod honor a humble spirit. So people think that the way to get there is to just be proud. I'm going to just try to get all the honor I can for myself, and it soon disappears in God.

It himself is the only solid foundation for glory, as we read here in Psalms 62, verses five through seven. Listen to this. I'm reading this from the I believe new American Standard version.

My soul, he's talking to himself. My soul waits in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold.

I shall not be shaken on God, my salvation and my glory rest my honor, my glory on God, my salvation and my glory rest the rock of my strength. My refuge is in Aloeim, God, okay? That's where my refuge is. Where is my salvation? Where's my glory? Where's man's glory?

Man's pride will bring him low. The wise shall inherit glory. But shame is the promotion of fools, and glory is temporary with men.

Whole nations, their glory is temporary. It comes down. Whole nations can lose their glory, as Israel did when it lost the Ark of the Covenant.

Look at Psalm 73, verses 23 through 26. Nevertheless, now Psalm 73 starts off with how he was upset when he sees the prosperity of the wicked and all that, and he begins to wonder why I almost lost my footing. But then he comes to verse 23, and he says, nevertheless, I'm continually with you, God.

And he's talking to God, you have taken hold of my right hand. With your counsel, you will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. I'm going to hold on to you.

Take my hand, lead me, and receive me. Whom do I have in heaven but you? Who's there? And besides you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

And afterward, God will receive me to glory, he says. So I'm not going to keep worrying about what these people do. I'm not going to keep worrying about what everybody else has.

I'm not going to keep worrying about this way. I'm going to put my faith in God. Now, if your faith is in God, you're going to work hard, you're going to be honest.

You're going to deal righteously with the people. You're going to do it uprightly. You're going to be honorable.

You're going to do all the things that are great, that are right. And so God will lead you to glory. You'll have enough glory in the future, and you will have glory even in this life.

What does it say? The wise shall inherit glory. Do you want to be glorious? Become wise. Keeping away from strife is a glory, an honor for a person, okay? A man's pride will bring.

He low, but a humble spirit will obtain glory. Do you want to be humble? Do you want to be glorious? Be humble. So we all have these things, and it rests on God.

Now, when Jesus was on earth, do you remember the temptation he and Satan wrestled with in Matthew, chapter four? And the devil said, well if you're the Son of God, turn these rocks into bread. And if you're the Son of God, jump off this thing. And God says the Bible says he will give his angels charge over you.

You won't even dash your foot on a rock. Jesus retorted, every time with a scripture. But the Bible says this man shall not live by bread alone.

The Bible says this, we shall not put God to the test. And so on. And then finally on this last one, Matthew, chapter four, verse eight, again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, their brightness, their glory, their power, their strength, their honor, all the things.

Nations have glory. It's temporary. Nations have glory.

Their armies, their pageants, their glorious, their things, their celebrations, their things. Nations have glory, there's no doubt about that. And so the devil shows him all these nations and all their glory.

And he said to him, all these things I will give you, who's in charge of this? Who owns this, I will give you if you fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, go, Satan, get out. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord, the Yahweh, the Eternal, your God, and serve him only.

You shall worship the eternal God and serve him only. Now, in the Greek that says, you shall worship curios your Theos, and serve him only. So he sent him away.

Jesus said I am not going to worship you in order to get the glory of these nations. I'm not going to worship you, Satan. Why? Because God actually has the glory.

My glory is in God, my salvation, and my glory rests in God. On God, in Psalm 62 and verse seven, on God, my salvation and my glory rest. Not going to do it for you.

The wise shall inherit glory. I don't need their glory. The glory of the nations is going to fade.

Nations come and go. You ever notice how if you go through history, how this nation was up and that nation is down? Egypt was a glorious nation at one time. It's not that glorious today.

It's fine. It's a good nation. And nations come and nations go.

People come up and people go down. Rulers go up and rulers go down, and they're not here anymore. They go and death awaits them all.

So we come back to this wonderful passage in the book of Romans. Romans five, verses one and two. Therefore, having been made righteous, justified means to be made righteous by faith.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The only way we get peace with God is through Jesus Christ, his sacrifice, his atonement, through whom now it's Christ also. We have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace.

Okay, we have peace with God. And now we have, through faith, an introduction into this grace in which we now stand. Do you stand in grace? Well, yes, you do.

If you're a true Christian, if you have faith, if you have the spirit, if you have Christ as your peace, you have peace with God. And we have, by introduction, by faith, into this grace in which we stand. And what's the next thing? And we exalt.

Not for ourselves, you don't exalt for you. You exalt in the hope of the glory of God. God's going to let us share his glory.

That's the ultimate hope, the ultimate goal, the ultimate of everything in this life and in the next. I do hope you'll have glory in this life. I hope you'll have blessings and honor, riches.

Yes, I do. But I hope you'll have glory, more glory. That is the most important is the glory we will have in our next life.

Join me as we close today's service with prayer. Father in heaven, the one who is all glorious has given your glory to Jesus Christ, our Lord, who sits at Your right hand in the glory of all the universe, with all the power, with all the glory, with all the riches, with all the honor that anyone could ever have. And we honor Him, glorify his name, praise Him, and appreciate Him.

Thank you. And thank Him for everything that you've done for us. And please, Father, remember those who are needy, those who are struggling, those who have relatives, like Jane Shaylor's sister, please remember them, Father, in prayer as we pray for them.

Please remember them in Your mercies, in Your care, and please come to their aid through all these trials. Please remember Sharon Hamrich and all that she has, and the others that we've prayed for, Father, every time. Please remember them and please help them and restore them and bless them.

We ask it through Jesus' precious and glorious name. His name is glorious. His name has gravitas and power, and we ask it in that name.

Amen.