Amos Pt. 5: Lessons from the Judgment of God, Pt. 2

[0:00] Looked at these six Gentile nations that are surrounding Israel.! Amos begins his prophecy, his book, by going one by one through all six of these that surround.

[0:17] ! And then he's going to turn his attention to the kingdom of Judah, where we'll pick it up today, and then eventually get to the nation of Israel. That's kind of his target audience. And we've been noticing some things, just kind of run through it, how it's all formatted the same, and then we're going back through and just picking out some things that are worthy of our attention.

[0:36] The last thing we looked at was how Gilead showed up in verse number three in connection to the judgment against Damascus of Syria. And then Gilead showed up in verse number 13 with the accusations against Ammon, because of what they did ripping up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.

[0:58] I showed you on the map that land of Gilead. We're going to get back into that a little bit today. But one more, just final thought regarding that land. This is the land that's on the right side of the River Jordan, on the eastern side.

[1:13] It's not really expressly designated on that map, but if you're familiar with it, in between the Sea of Galilee in the north and the Jordan River runs all the way to the south to the Dead Sea, to the right side of that is the land of Gilead.

[1:28] And you just have to use your imagination a little bit with the borders of where that is exactly. But nevertheless, this is where the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh decided, Moses, we want to stay here.

[1:42] And then, you know, that happened. The Lord allowed that to happen. Moses granted that to them. But the point I want to make, the final thought, is that they did this.

[1:54] They made this choice before ever setting foot into the land across the River Jordan. Before ever seeing it with their eyes, they settled for the first thing that they saw instead of waiting upon the Lord and trusting His leading.

[2:07] Now, this land is the land of the Amorites, which I'll just point it out briefly there. We're going to look at this a little bit later. But this side, there's the Jordan River. This side here, up in here, is the area we're discussing, the land of the Amorites.

[2:23] And that's the land that was claimed and taken by those two and a half tribes. The interesting thing, or the one I want to note to you, is that when they got into the land with Joshua, they all went in and conquered it.

[2:37] Then they cast lots for whose the land was going to be. After they were to describe it, they gave the description, and cast lots. So the lot is cast in the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.

[2:50] In plain words, the Lord was the one that chose which tribe got which place and how that all laid out. But it's this other two and a half tribes that made their own mind up and said, we wanted to do it our way, and we like what we see, and they made the decision to do that.

[3:05] Without seeking God, as the text would show. And what's revealed out of this or goes forward into this whole scenario of this separation, one of the tribes of Israel, a family in Israel, is separated.

[3:17] Now, half of them are over here, half of them are over here. And they do not grow up knowing each other. There's a division, a natural division. And it's so much so that the whole situation caused much confusion.

[3:31] As soon as they presented this with Moses, he thought they were up to something. They don't want to go in and fight the battles of the Lord. And he accused them and went on his whole long spiel about, no, you're causing this division.

[3:42] And they said, no, we'll go fight. But our women and children will build the folds for the sheep and all of these things. And so Moses initially is set off about this. Then later on, after they do conquer the land, they erect an altar.

[3:55] And the tribes of Israel from inside the land come out. They're ready to go to war with them. Because you've rejected our God and you're already building these altars. And they bring out, I think it was Phineas, the high priest, that come out against them.

[4:08] I mean, there's much confusion. None of that should have happened. That's man getting his hands into something instead of allowing God to work it out and to cast the lots, to draw the lines, to make it official.

[4:20] They started something. And we know that God's not the author of confusion. But all of this misunderstanding and this confusion took place because they should have waited and did things His way decently in order instead of jumping at the first thing that they saw and deciding that this is what we want.

[4:36] And I called that last week the permissive will of God. But maybe not what we would call the exact or perfect will of God. So, all right, now we're moving into chapter 2.

[4:46] We've covered these six nations. Chapter 2 begins with Moab. And we've already read that, the first three verses. So let's pick it up now with the judgment, the accusation and the judgment against the kingdom of Judah.

[4:59] Verses 4 and 5. Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Judah and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have despised the law of the Lord and have not kept His commandments, and their lies cause them to err after the which their fathers have walked.

[5:16] But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. Now God is addressing Judah the same format as He's done it with the previous six Gentile nations.

[5:27] The accusation and follows that up with the judgment. Amos is not sent to Judah. He's from Judah being sent to the northern tribes of Israel. So he's not really taking aim at Judah any more than he is the others.

[5:41] His accusation that he makes against them reflects something we should take note of. It reflects God's expectation for His people. He accuses them of despising the law of the Lord and not keeping His commandments.

[6:00] In other words, this is God's holy people in the kingdom of... They should have known better. And God has every right to expect more of them than He does from the Moabites and the Ammonites and anybody else surrounding them.

[6:14] This is where Jerusalem resides, the holy city, where the holy temple of God is, where the presence of God dwelled among His people. The high priest was there.

[6:25] The sacrifices of God were there being offered daily. The throne of David was in Jerusalem. The expectation for Judah is much, much greater than anybody else surrounding them.

[6:37] Let's take a look quickly into the Gospel of Luke. Find Luke chapter 12. Let me warn you, we're going to flip around, so let's try to be quick with it. Luke chapter 12. And just put two verses here out of this story that Jesus Christ tells.

[6:53] I think it has very good bearing on this concept of what God would expect of His people, the kingdom of Judah. Luke chapter 12. And nearly toward the back side of that chapter, verses 47 and 48.

[7:07] Just for time's sake, right toward the end of this statement or narrative. Verse 47 says, And that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

[7:23] But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. And here's the statement. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.

[7:36] And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. And God rebukes this people for despising His law.

[7:48] Now, that's something important. So come back to Deuteronomy chapter 4. The law of God was not something to despise. It was not something that just take it or leave it.

[8:00] It was a glorious and a special gift from God to a people on this planet. For Him to reveal His holy truths and His laws and His own person through these writings, boy, they should have respected them.

[8:16] They should have been excited about them. They should have revered them and loved them. It's what made them special. And they were willing to give it up to be like the world. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 4 and let's read verses 5 through 9.

[8:30] Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments even as the Lord my God commanded me that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

[8:41] Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people for what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for.

[9:01] And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen.

[9:17] And He goes on and He warns them. And it wasn't them that got them to be elevated above the nation. It was the words of God that He delivered to them that made them set apart and made them holy and righteous before God.

[9:32] They have no wisdom or understanding were it not for the word of God given to them. And for them to despise it and to reject it and to ignore it and to not keep His commandments, God is going to hold them accountable.

[9:47] And so He rebukes them. Now back in Amos, He's following the same format that He does with these other Gentile nations and says, this is what I have against you and here's what I'm going to do.

[9:58] And what He says in verse 5, I'll send a fire upon Judah and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. The same statements from all these other nations around Him. Send that fire upon Him, destroy Him, destruction.

[10:12] Now consider this, Jerusalem, man, that is the city of the great King. that is holy Jerusalem. That is the location on the earth that God said, I'm going to place my name somewhere when you come into that land, I'm going to place my name there somewhere.

[10:31] And that's where it ended up being, Jerusalem. It's the most beloved location in all of Israel. Hold your place here, but let's flip over to Psalm 122.

[10:44] I want to just give you a little insight into the mind of a Hebrew in these days. What Jerusalem meant to them. Psalm 122.

[10:56] I don't believe God is at all interested in destroying this city of all the places on the planet, but He will. Look at Psalm 122.

[11:09] This is just some insight into the mind of what would be just a common Jew of these days. In verse 1, I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.

[11:23] Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Somebody's anticipating making a pilgrimage! To the holy city and to being near the presence of God.

[11:36] I'm going to be inside the city gates of Jerusalem. There's excitement. There's gladness. Verse 3, Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.

[11:55] Three times a year, Moses commanded them, there's feast, and all the males are to go up to Jerusalem. They're to appear before the Lord three times every single year to make that trip.

[12:06] And when they hear that it's time to go, they're glad to go. They're excited to get to Jerusalem and to smell the smells where the sacrifices of God are burning and the smoke is visible.

[12:18] And to hear the sounds, there were choirs that stood and sang the praises of the Lord inside the courtyard. This was a unique and a special and a holy place.

[12:30] This was the place. People in America would go to Washington, D.C. and see the monuments and tour everything and get excited about the history and all that. Jerusalem trumps that in many ways.

[12:44] The living God resided there inside the holy place, dwelling between the cherubims. In verse 5 it says, For there are set thrones of judgments, the thrones of the house of David.

[12:55] Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.

[13:11] Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. That's what they thought of that city Jerusalem. They loved that city.

[13:22] It was the city. And yet God, of all the places of the world, He surely would not desire to send a fire out, to destroy, to ransack, and to rummage, and to bring every stone down to the ground of that city.

[13:41] But He will. Why would He do such a thing to that holy city? Because God is far too holy to allow sin to go unpunished.

[13:55] And so God tells the kingdom of Judah, I'm coming after you too. You're guilty. What's the guilt? You forsook the law of the Lord.

[14:05] You despised my law. Their accusation that God has against them was not about violence against their neighbors, or it wasn't against like some depravity in war, like He mentioned with some of these other heathens surrounding them.

[14:19] They despised the law of the Lord. The word of God that was delivered to them and placed in their heart, ingrained in their culture, there to teach it to their children and to the generations to follow.

[14:34] That very thing that set them apart from the rest of the world, the very thing that made them great, and they just erred from it. They just walked away from it.

[14:46] They just said, I don't need this anymore. I've been around that for a long time. I've read it several times. I know it. I was taught it as a child. I've been in church all my life.

[14:57] I just don't really need to keep focusing on this stuff anymore. And the Lord says, really? You're going to despise what I have given to you from heaven to make you special and different of all the peoples of the earth?

[15:12] They erred from it. Now, why do we need to be aware of this? Well, if he did that to his people, Israel, his people that he redeemed and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand and set them up in that land and all that he's done for them, if he would do that to them, what do you think he'll do to the church that would turn their back on him?

[15:37] You think he'll not do anything to you because you're the church. You're saved. You have a King James Bible. Let's find out what he says. Look at Romans chapter 11. The Apostle Paul gives warning to me and to you about how we think about ourselves before God or before the rest of the world and especially before Israel.

[16:07] Look at, let's start in verse 17. This is Paul making the case that God has, in verse 15, he's cast away Israel temporarily.

[16:20] In verse 17, he gives an illustration of branches being broken off. That's Israel. And then he mentions a wild olive tree which is to represent Gentiles that are the church. Verse 17, if some of the branches be broken off and thou being a wild olive tree were grafted among them and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches.

[16:44] Meaning, church, do not look down upon Israel that has fallen and they're in their filth and in their sin and their depravity and say, you're not like us. We're holy. We're righteous.

[16:54] We have the word of God. We believe the book. We love Jesus Christ and you don't. You killed him. Don't you boast yourself against them. Verse 18, but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root but the root thee.

[17:05] Thou wilt say then the branches weren't broken off that I might be grafted in. He's like, okay, well, that's true. Verse 20, well, because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by faith.

[17:17] Be not high-minded but fear. Paul tells the church to be afraid for if God spared not the natural branches, Israel, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

[17:31] Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell Israel, Israel again, severity, but toward thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

[17:44] God warns the church not to think that we're above reproach either and not to be, verse 25, not to be wise in your own conceits looking down on Israel for their wickedness or imagining that we are better than them in some way.

[17:58] Oh no. Oh not at all. We're supposed to take heed and fear realizing that if God dealt with them the way he has over the years then we better tiptoe and we better reverence our holy God and walk with him in righteousness and truth.

[18:15] And let me draw one more parallel to this kingdom of Judah and then kingdom of Israel that's also part of the 12 tribes. we as Bible believers in 2025 I think we resemble the kingdom of Judah in that scenario of the two kingdoms.

[18:35] Not literally but we're the minority in the division of 10 tribes and 2 tribes. We're the minority and within the body of Christ people that actually believe the word of God and have it and preach it and hold it and rightly divide it and do our best to teach it as true as possible.

[18:55] The rest of the church are brothers and sisters that have received Christ yet they've abandoned the King James Bible the pure words of God and many of them have abandoned that book and they've adopted secular worship and on top of that they've adopted psychology and social and humanistic philosophies in their pulpits and pews and in their training and their teaching.

[19:22] They match the kingdom of Israel just pagan secular worldly looking but God help us to resolve if we're going to match the kingdom of Judah God help us to resolve to be faithful no matter what direction the church goes what wind of doctrine the church blows no matter what the heathen especially around us are engaged in.

[19:47] God help us to stand on the book and believe it. Now there's something else that I have to say about Judah before we move on it's just two short verses back in Amos but would you consider this as that kingdom of Judah to the south that's where the throne of David is that's the promise that God would keep that seed alive and the Messiah would come through there do you realize or would you consider with me that there is no need for the kingdom of Judah to be in this list there's no need for them to be associated with judgment like the Syrians and the Edomites and the Moabites and the Ammonites and the Philistines and yet here they are and God sent Amos to go up to Israel to preach to them in Bethel but before he ever gets to them he's got to take some shots at the children of the kingdom of Judah the children of Israel there to the south they should have never made that list but why did they?

[20:47] because they were guilty you know what in like manner church there's no need for you and I to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give account of ourselves and then I'll have to turn you to it receive for the wrong or suffer loss take your Bible I'll show you these verses I want to point these out look at 2 Corinthians 5 and Colossians 3 2 Corinthians 5 Colossians 3 why do I say there's no reason for us we're going to stand before God we're going to give account of ourselves according to Paul Romans 14 the judgment seat of Christ but just like that kingdom of Judah that has the word of God and has the worship of God and has the presence of God there is no reason for us with the truth in our laps and the Holy Spirit of God the presence of God within us there's no reason that we should stand before the judgment seat of God and suffer loss so let's look at 2 Corinthians 5 verse 10 for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done notice the last part whether it be good or bad what are you talking about you're going to receive for the good or you're going to receive for the bad look at

[22:18] Colossians chapter 3 and just connect these two verses the next verse describes the terror of the Lord Colossians 3 and start in verse 23 and whatsoever ye do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there's no respect to persons Paul's not writing to the world he's writing to church born again believers letting them know they're going to receive the reward but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong my statement to you is just like that kingdom of Judah they did not have to be on that list had they obeyed and revered and walked in the ways of God the Lord would have hit all those Gentile nations and then he would have went right up to the kingdom of Judah and said

[23:19] I got a problem with you too but no the kingdom of Judah was guilty the Bible believers were guilty they had their secret sins as we do ours and my admonition to you is don't feel like because you're on one of the good guys that you're going to get away with things with God when they come out they come out the Bible says take heed to thyself we read it in Romans be not high minded the Bible says to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word and yet the kingdom of Judah the Bible says they despised the law of the Lord the lower we get and stay the closer we get to Calvary the better off we'll be in that day when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ so moving on in chapter 2 of Amos our time goes by so fast on these Westonite studies let's get into a little bit of the kingdom of Israel and now as he turns his focus toward the north in verses it's really from verse 6 then to the end of the chapter and it spills into the next the following chapters the preacher has already preached a circle around the region hitting all of those

[24:40] Gentiles as I showed you on the map nobody's innocent the Bible says the whole world become guilty before God and now he puts his cross hairs on his true audience and so now he's going to aim and target the nation of Israel with his preaching again similar format similar the way he's done with the other ones but this is going to be stretched out a lot more and one thing to note is the judgment this time will not mention anything about kindling a fire in anything he's just going to it's going to be spelled out in much greater detail so the first thing we'll do is just look at verses 6 7 and 8 because this is like the first round of accusations against Israel verse 6 says thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the meek and a man and his father will go in under the same maid to profane my holy name and they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their

[25:48] God that's one straight long sentence of accusation 6 7 and 8 and with a little bit of time we have left we'll just try to hit these verses here if we can verse number 6 again go back to the end of that verse it says they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes now let's cross reference this with something in chapter number 8 where he says something very similar Amos chapter 8 and in the context of verse 4 5 6 7 8 they are it's obvious that they're showing some deceitful practices at the end of verse 5 falsifying the balances by deceit so there's there's gross deception and lies verse 6 says that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes yea and sell the refuse of the wheat so these are just just some

[26:49] I call it deceitful practices just the acts of some snakes in the grass just likely the situation we're reading in chapter 2 and in chapter 8 is describing somebody that's guilty of taking advantage of the lesser fortunate abusing their power over them and in judgment they're taking bribes and perverting their judgment because of what they can receive from it they're confiscating the lands of these people and the possessions of these poor let's let's we'll we'll get back to that in a minute come back to chapter 2 verse 6 at the end of it says they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes and now notice verse 7 that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the meek what does that mean they pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor it means that they pant like a dog longing for some poor impoverished person to come by mourning and when they see that mourning poor person somebody that fell upon hard times it's like a real estate agent or an investor that's preying on some foreclosure or somebody delinquent on a payment the bankers are going to pounce on that and it's an opportunity to steal away their property and all of their assets and so it's like these are alert to take advantage of a situation it's something that the

[28:14] Christ I don't need you to turn for time but Christ rebuked the Pharisees for this very thought here when they were taking advantage of the widows in their day in Matthew 23 verse number 14 he says woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayer you stand there like a holy man of God make some long fake pretend prayer while you're stealing the property right out from underneath her because her husband died and she doesn't have some kinsman redeemer that can come in and take care of it so the priest comes in and he says oh I'll take care of this and that's the kind of stuff that God's people are doing and God is against it come back to Exodus chapter 23 I want to point out something he says in the law because he put safeguards in his laws to keep all of this from happening we studied this as we came through Exodus I know we hit it a few times one was thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor which is far more than just telling a little white lie it's actually bearing false witness against your neighbor claiming something that's not true and what can happen chapter 23 verse 1 raise a false report thine hand with the wicked unrighteous witness they're trying to do something and it has to do with judgment in verse 2 decline after many to rest judgment so they're rigging the system against people verse number 6 thou shalt not rest the judgment of thy poor and his cause keep thee from a false matter and the innocent and righteous slay thou not for I will not justify the wicked thou shalt take no gift for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous thou shalt not oppress a stranger you know the heart of a stranger seeing you were strangers in the land of

[30:01] Egypt so turn turn one more to let me find it 20 that's not the verse I want I got the wrong reference written down go to Deuteronomy 24 we'll just look at that one quick Deuteronomy 24 and we're almost done here Deuteronomy 24 oh I found it it's a wrong chapter in Exodus but so they're taking advantage of these Jews and these poor now I'm getting ahead of myself with this I wrote the wrong reference down and then flustered so that's how my mind works I jumped ahead I want to read one more verse out of Amos and then I'm going to be in Deuteronomy and I'll read

[31:07] Exodus 22 without you having to turn there in Amos chapter 2 we read verse 7 that pan out of the dust of the earth and the head of the poor turn aside the way of the meek so instead of hearing their cause they're just turning them aside and they're taking advantage of it a man and his father we saw that already self-explanatory verse number 8 they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar so what's going on there it sounds if I have this right that when somebody's poor they really have nothing to barter with they have nothing to offer and so what they do is they pledge their raiment and this comes up in the law here in Exodus 22 in verse 26 it says if thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down now look at Deuteronomy 24 in verse number 10 when thou dost lend thy brother anything thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge thou shalt stand abroad and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee and if the man be poor thou shalt not sleep with his pledge in any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down that he may sleep in his own raiment and bless thee and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the

[32:31] Lord thy God so if the man doesn't have anything else to give or to pledge or to lay down he lays down his raiment and the Lord's telling you if he can't pay it back or make it good by the end of the day you give it back to him and I'll consider that your righteousness because you showed mercy to somebody who owed you somebody who they did you wrong or whatever the situation they got themselves into you show mercy and God's pleased he sees that he approves of that and so God commands them to restore such a thing and to be merciful one to another and finally just close with this this is a trademark attribute of our God is his mercy that is something he is known for one of the Psalms it's Psalm 136 I think it says it's that one it says he did this and this his mercy endureth forever every single verse ends the same way you can't get around it in Exodus 34 when he proclaimed the name of the

[33:36] Lord to Moses it said the Lord gracious and merciful later he said keeping mercy for thousands this this point is proven and pushed and promoted in all of the scripture and one thing I want us to get out of this is if you learn anything from God anything from his word is he desires to see that attribute in our hearts and in our dealings with one another and our dealings with those that wrong us our neighbors our family somebody who owes us he desires to see us be merciful it's a wonderful thing to receive mercy from the Lord but it's another thing to show mercy to another person because we learned it from God that's living the Christian life that's being not who I am now I'm not telling you to forgive everybody's debt that they owe you and just write it off and that's your righteousness before God there's some things that you have to handle and it's just the life that we're in but maybe be careful who you loan things to you can learn that but note that thought before we dismiss is that it's a wonderful thing to receive mercy from God you have to acknowledge that if you're a saved

[34:56] Christian in here you have to know not just your salvation was God merciful but the day after your salvation God was merciful and today God's been merciful to you and I and it's that mercy that we are under every day of our lives it needs to start showing up that we're different that we're children of God that we have forgiveness in us we have a softer spirit in us we're not looking for anger and wrath and humiliating others and taking what's ours but when you show mercy it's said that that man will bless you and that God will see that and he'll bless you so let's maybe count on that and work on that as well getting that attribute in our lives as much as we can so we'll stop there with Amos 2 that's verse number 9 where we about verse 8 where we cut it off we'll try to pick it up next time and that's when we're going to actually get into the Amorite stuff never made it there so I'll save that screen for next time but let's be dismissed and remember then Sunday morning 9 o'clock be here for breakfast

[36:05] Father Father in heaven thank you for tonight thank you for this holy bible and for the truth that you've retained for us to read and study and learn from over all these years Lord may we not take it for granted or take it lightly help us never to despise your word help us to not be like the kingdom of Judah was in their day but to stay close to you to take seriously our calling to take seriously our admonition and may we never be high minded but fear and so Lord thank you for your grace thank you again for your mercy in our lives each day please be with us as we go please bless the rest of our week as we seek to serve you and love you and I pray again you'll be with those that were not able to be here keep them close to you and keep them safe and we pray this in Jesus Christ's name Amen!