02/09/2025: "Where is the Lamb?"

This episode reveals the deep significance of Abraham and Isaac's story in Genesis 22, illustrating themes of faith, sacrifice, and God's provision throughout the biblical narrative. It emphasizes the question "Where is the lamb?" as a pivotal inquiry leading to the revelation of Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice, reinforcing God's commitment to fulfill our most profound needs.

• The challenging command God gave Abraham 
• Isaac's role as a symbol of hope and fulfillment of God's promise 
• Understanding the theological significance of "Where is the lamb?" 
• Jesus as the ultimate Lamb, completing the narrative from Old to New Testament

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:22

Amen. Good morning church. Have your Bibles with you. Turn with me to the book of Genesis. Today we find ourselves in Genesis, chapter 22. Before we go to the Word of God, I want to recognize Ashley Henderson, who is sitting over here to my right. Let's just give her a round of applause and I'll explain to you why. My right, let's just give her a round of applause and I'll explain to you why. I want to recognize Ashley and, of course, all of our volunteers who help us put on fantastic children's ministry every single week. And now, of course, wednesday nights have started again. That doubles, and here's what's really great and challenging at the same time.

Speaker 1 1:05

Our children's ministry is the fastest growing part of our entire ministry here at First Baptist Church During worship. This time last year we had one room for nursery, now we have three. Yeah, amen. Our average Sunday school attendance for kids last year was about 25. And right now it's actually more than double that, if not more. And of course, there's been a baby boom recently. They're actually up in the rafters here, not having quite hit the Sunday school rooms yet.

Speaker 1 1:37

So glory to God. I mean, what a problem for us to have. So keep praying for that team and for Ashley and her assistant Skyler, as he helps her with that ministry, and just keep praying for new volunteers to come in and support that work. We're very thankful for it. Let's bow our heads together and pray Our God. We thank you for the assurance that if we confess our sins, you are faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So let us receive that forgiveness now. Let us believe that we really have been forgiven and let us live like it's true. Let us live in freedom Freedom from captivity to sin and freedom to a life of holiness and godliness. And, lord, we ask that as a church, we would know your blessings. We pray that we would see clear evidence that you are at work here. Let us see that evidence in the ways we, not only in the rooms and in the little children and so many little children here, but let us see it in the ways that we relate to one another.

Speaker 1 2:49

I pray that we would be people marked by an obvious sacrificial love for one another. I pray that we would hold loosely instead of tightly, to those things that you've given to us, remembering that each and every one of them is a gift from you our time, our money, our homes, our possessions. I pray that we would always be both willing and ready to share with those in need, to be a blessing to them. Let us not love only in our thoughts and in our words, but actually in what we do. And if we're to live in these ways, we will need to be filled with your word. And if we're to live in these ways, we will need to be filled with your word, we will need to know it and obey it. And so, as we prepare to open it and read it and hear it, we ask that we would listen with humility, listen attentively, and that we would listen with expectation, would listen with expectation. Use your word to comfort and confront us, to call us away from sin and toward holiness. We pray we would be changed by your word. That's our desire today, and so we ask all this through Christ, amen.

Speaker 1 4:03

Genesis, chapter 2. I'm going to read verses 1 through 14. It says after these things, god tested Abraham and said to him Abraham. And he said here I am. He said take your son, your only son, isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering, on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took his two of his young men with him and his son, isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him On the third day. Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men stay here with the donkey, I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

Speaker 1 4:49

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. And so they went both of them together and Isaac said to his father Abraham, my father. He said here I am, son. He said Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham said God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together and when they had come to the place of which God had told them, abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called from heaven and said Abraham, abraham. And he said here I am. He said do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his thorns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day on the mount of the Lord. It shall be provided. This is God's word.

Speaker 1 6:15

Well, if you were to ask me the three most strategic things you can do to grow in Christ, my answer is and I think it always has been that you would pray every day, that you would read the Bible and that you would serve God. That you would pray, that you would read, that you would do. Without that consistent discipleship of prayer and study of the Scripture, we would easily be knocked out of when hardship or persecution comes into our lives and likely fall away from following Jesus altogether. And so, as studying and reading and meditating on the Word of God is so important to our walk with Christ, we must also have what I would call a solid theology of the Bible itself. What I mean by that is we must understand what this book is and the purpose that it has in our hands.

Speaker 1 7:06

Some describe the Bible as a manual or a roadmap for life, and while I think there is some truth to that, I think seeing the Bible as a manual really diminishes its power. So more often than not, I think even in the church, this book is seen as a guidebook for morality. I can do this, but I can't do this. But the problem is that when we see this book as a roadmap or a guidebook for morality and we come to Genesis 22 in our Bible reading plan and we look at it and we're like, what on earth do we do with this? Our flesh recoils and we want to skip it, but our spirit is telling us that it has to be important because here it is in the Bible. So let me give you then my theology of the Bible.

Speaker 1 7:58

So, from Genesis to Revelation, it is all a testimony from God the Spirit about God the Son. In other words, the Spirit about God the Son. In other words, the Bible is all about Jesus. When we see the Bible that way, the Old Testament will come into focus for us. We must also understand that, as a result of this all being about Jesus, the Bible is not about us. The Bible is not about us. I believe it's for us, but it's not about us. It's about Jesus.

Speaker 1 8:34

Now for the modern Christian to hear that we tend to go this Bible is all about me. It's not, it's all about Jesus. That's why I often say the Bible is always descriptive but not always prescriptive. There's some stuff that men and women did in the Old Testament and the New Testament that God is not asking us to do. He's describing these actions to us. So the key to studying, reading and understanding the Bible is understanding that it's all about Jesus.

Speaker 1 9:05

So when we read passages like this, we need to step back and ask how is this pointing me to Jesus Christ? And it's important because this passage, this chapter, is one of those big, key messianic passages of the entire Old Testament. This is one of the more important chapters that there is in the book of Genesis, if not the entire Old Testament. If we jump over it because we're shocked by it, or if we look at it and we're like, oh, I don't really like this chapter, I'm not going to read it, we're missing key theology. In fact, if you wanted to summarize the entire Old Testament with one question, it could be the question that Isaac asked his dad where's the lamb? That's the question of the entire Old Testament, isn't it? Where is the lamb?

Speaker 1 9:55

As we move forward through Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament and the pieces of the puzzle are put down, the picture comes into focus, doesn't it? Then we hit the genealogy right in chapter one of Matthew, another section many just skip over and we get the answer clearly set before us. It's like the final puzzle piece is placed and we can admire the picture. Clearly. This is from Matthew. He said thus there were 14 generations in all, from Abraham to David, down to the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed king. The whole Old Testament points forward to the one perfect and final sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 10:43

So with that background, let's break this passage down into two big pieces. Let's start with this question where is the lamb? Look at verse 2. He said take your son, your only son, isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering, on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So, to begin to understand this passage, we actually we are at an advantage. We're not dropping down into Genesis 22 with no context of what's happened up through the first 21 chapters. We've been studying Genesis now for over a year. We really need to know the answer, however, to the question who is Isaac? And we know who he is.

Speaker 1 11:28

Isaac is Abraham's offspring. He is the immediate fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham. All the promises that have been made over the past 10 chapters are immediately answered in this boy, isaac. Through Isaac, the world would be saved. Through Isaac, isaac, the nation of Israel would be born. Through Isaac, the ultimate offspring of Abraham would be born the Lord Jesus Christ. So without Isaac, you have no Israel. Without Israel, you have no Moses and you have no David and, of course, no Jesus. And if you have no Jesus, you have salvation. So Abraham has got to keep this kid safe.

Speaker 1 12:12

In my mind, I picture Abraham and Sarah making sure that he's in bubble wrap all the time because he's so important. But then we get to this chapter and God commands Abraham to kill him, offer him as a sacrifice. But this is the kid that's been promised, this is the kid that he's been waiting for, this is the kid that he had in his old age with his old wife. This is shocking, and perhaps more so because we've walked with Abraham over these chapters to get to this point. It doesn't make sense. Isaac is going to bring all the blessings to the world through Jesus, but God wants him as an offering. God wants a beloved son to be offered up on a hill far away. So as we read this, we can identify with Abraham. We can identify with his faith and our daily struggle to put God first in various areas of our lives. I think that's our natural inclination. We want to identify with Abraham. I get that.

Trusting God Through Life's Trials

Speaker 1 13:10

Christi and I we're entering a new season of life with our children. Not only are we grandparents now, but our youngest child just graduated from high school and preparing for what's next for him. Our youngest child just graduated from high school and preparing for what's next for him. The last kid, the last one, has graduated. I'm fine, everything's fine so soon and I think, much to my wife's chagrin, it's just going to be the two of us Now. I'm looking forward to this, but she can take me only in small chunks and I get that.

Speaker 1 13:51

But if the Lord came to me and said look at all the work you've put into these four humans. You've prayed for them, you've prayed with them. I baptized all of my children. You saw them come to Jesus. You saw them grow up in Jesus. You have been parents for over 26 years. Four homeschool graduations, one Navy graduation, one culinary school graduation, two weddings and now, lord willing, an Air Force graduation in the future. $18 billion in ice cream and snacks and road trips and clothes and all the other junk that kids need. But what if God said and came to me now and said sacrifice all of this to me. My heart sinks just contemplating what that means.

Speaker 1 14:34

And so the skeptic in us and the skeptic in the world will approach passages like this and say that's not the God that I serve. I don't like that God and I think in my experience it's because we want good, clean, tidy answers. Do you like good, clean, tidy answers? I do. Just give me a straight answer. We can go to the Scripture and we can get clear answers on a lot of things, can't we but the motivations of God and why God does this, when we would do this? Why would God allow this to happen to this person and not punish someone else? Why would God ask this of Abraham? Why would God allow Job to go through everything he went through? But even in Job we don't get a clean, tidy answer. I mean, the moral of the story is not at the end of the book of Job, is it In fact?

Speaker 1 15:26

God's answer to Job was a question when were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. You see, Job couldn't wrap his head around the fact that he was living a good life, but then it all just went away. He lost his children, effectively his wife, most of his wealth, his religious friends attacked him, he lost his social status and maybe he thought like like many, even many, christians do today if I do good, good good things will happen to me. And of course, that type of thinking is more like karma from the Hindu religion, and maybe you're thinking just as Job when you have troubles, but we need to learn, as the Apostle Paul taught us in 2 Corinthians sometimes we face severe trials, even when we are obedient. You can follow Jesus very, very closely and love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and you can still face trials and troubles. And so, in order to set Job and us straight, god reminds him that he is the One who set all things in place. Job didn't know how the foundations of the earth were laid, or when they were laid. How could he know all the deep mysteries of God? The solution is then to say I trust you, lord. I don't understand why I am going through what I am going through, but I know that you love me, I know you will protect me and I know you have a plan for even this suffering in my life. Sometimes we get the answer, don't we? Sometimes, on the other side of suffering, we see it, we see the handprint of God and we're like, okay, that starts to make sense, but that's not even promised to us.

Speaker 1 17:23

I think of my own calling into ministry, and it is a calling. Ministry is a calling. Young men ask me every now and then they say should I go into ministry? And I say listen, if you can do anything else, you should. Now, I don't say that to be funny, I say that because this isn't a job. Now, I don't say that to be funny, I say that because this isn't a job. If you can do something else, do it.

Speaker 1 17:46

God called me to ministry later in life, at the peak of my career in the corporate world. We had four little kids at home. We had a gigantic house in the mountains of New Hampshire. By all accords, everything was great. But God said wait, we're going to walk a path together and it's going to take you to Vermont, to Connecticut, and here. Glory to God, I've done nothing to deserve that. But I say this just to be transparent At least once a year I struggle with staying in ministry and my wife is tired of this already from me but at least once a year I'm like you know what?

Speaker 1 18:39

I can go back to work for Merrill. I can go get a job at Charles Schwab. I can go back into finance If I work really year. I'm like you know what? I can go back to work for Merrill. I can go get a job at Charles Schwab. I can go back into finance. If I work really hard, I can still retire early. But then God comes and says I want you to do this, and so I get over it and my wife's like, okay, you're good for another 12 months.

God's Ultimate Provision Through Sacrifice

Speaker 1 19:00

Because sometimes, even when we have faith, we are like little children, aren't we? We are God's creation. God calls us his children. Has anyone in here ever tried to reason with a two-year-old? If you have, you get a clearer understanding of how God's patience works in our life. If you've ever had a two-year-old have a complete and total breakdown because they wanted a cracker and you gave them a cracker, has that ever happened? The two-year-old wanted this specific thing and you gave them that specific thing, and they still had a meltdown because you gave them exactly what they asked for.

Speaker 1 19:46

We're like little children in our understanding of God, aren't we? That's why trust is so critical in our walk with our Creator. We may not know, we may not understand, but it is good to trust. We can have faith and hope for the future, can't we? And certainly Abraham in this case. Abraham is a model for us in faith, isn't he? I mean goodness what he went through right here. This is like the ultimate test.

Speaker 1 20:15

But Abraham's faith, while it has been the centerpiece of many passages, I don't think Abraham's faith is the center of this story at all, because otherwise at the end he would have said hey, I'm going to call this mountain Abraham's faith, but this story is about God and His ability to meet our deepest need. That's why the mountain is called the Lord will provide. This passage addresses us, not by urging us to be people of faith like Abraham, but rather by pointing us to the way in which Abraham's God provided for his and, of course, he will provide for our most profound need. God will provide for your most profound need, no matter what it is, will provide for your most profound need, no matter what it is. So we follow the path of Abraham to this point from chapter 12. But if you look back at chapter 12, you know you turn there.

Speaker 1 21:13

But in chapter 12, it's like God calls Abraham to sacrifice his life if you will, his past up to that point, everything that made him who he was, and he has to sever all connections from his history and go out into his future. But this time God's asking him to sacrifice what would be his future. Isn't he Killing Isaac? Not only sacrificing a beloved child, but also emptying his life of everything that he has dreamt of the past 25 years, for Isaac was the one through whom the blessings would come to all the nations. With his death, all meaning, all purpose would be stripped away from Abraham's existence and it would leave him without hope.

Speaker 1 21:57

But what did Abraham do? He got up early and he did what God asked him to do. Did he have faith that God would somehow work a miracle? Maybe I think he did, because he even told the guys that were with him, like, stay here, we're going over there to worship. But in verse 5, he says we are coming back to you. We're going over here to worship, but we are coming back. The boy and I are coming back to you. We're going over here to worship, but we are coming back. The boy and I are coming back.

Speaker 1 22:27

Maybe Abraham recognized that God could raise the dead, as the writer of Hebrews deduces, but he had no commitment from God to that effect. God is calling Abraham to go right to the. It's like God knows. The very edge of Abraham's obedience is here and he's like Abraham. I'm taking you right to that edge and you will trust only me.

Speaker 1 22:52

At just the right moment, at just the nick of time, the angel of the Lord calls out and stays his hand. And then Abraham looks up and he sees that there was a lamb there, trapped in the thicket, and he could offer the ram in his son's place. So I don't think it's only it was not only Abraham who passed the test that day. I believe the Lord demonstrates that he was able to provide the offering necessary to atone for Abraham's sin without taking away his beloved son. God is always the one who provides the lamb that we need.

Speaker 1 23:32

Of course, in the next chapter, sarah goes on to be with the Lord. Shortly after that, abraham follows. As far as I can tell in my own study, there's no more big tests of faith for him, no more big fires for him to walk through Sweet mercy. Maybe this is enough. And so that brings us to the second heading or the second half. So if we're asking where is the Lamb we see here? Behold the Lamb.

Speaker 1 24:01

Verse 13,. Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of the place the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. So this lesson with the lamb would be played out again and again, and again in the lives of the first readers of Genesis, the generation that went into the wilderness with Moses. Their beloved sons were spared by the blood of the Lamb on the doorway of their houses during the first Passover. The following generations would reenact the key elements of the Passover, and this near sacrifice of Isaac would then be brought, would bring to their minds their own lambs and then, of course, ultimately, they would bring their own lambs to the temple that would eventually be built in Jerusalem. They would bring their lamb and make that climb and offer the burnt offering.

Speaker 1 25:07

You see, this passage to me is like an image burned into a television. Now, I don't know, maybe you're old enough to remember the old tube-type televisions, but if, for some reason, your television stayed on a certain frame for too long, that image was just burned into it. Has anyone ever had that happen to an old television? Back in the old days? It happened a lot when we had the Atari, because we weren't very good with it. But ultimately, in the days of the old tube televisions, those pixels would burn out and no matter what you watch or what you do, you can still see that other image, and for us it was Pac-Man. No matter what we watched, you could see the Pac-Man screen because we just left it on Pac-Man too long. Dad was happy about that. He's trying to watch Barney Miller and all he sees is Pac-Man. But that's what this is like. But that's what this is like.

Speaker 1 26:03

The image of Abraham and Isaac is visible throughout the pages of the Old Testament, right down to Jesus. It should be burned in the minds of the Israelites until we get to the very beginning of Matthew and consider where Abraham and Isaac are geographically. They're in what will one day become Jerusalem. The mountain that they are on will one day become the place where the temple will sit, the temple mount. One day, on that very mountain, god will provide the ultimate atonement, and many knew it, and for centuries afterwards they would point to that hill and say the true sacrifice is coming and that's where he'll be provided. That's what Moses tells us right here at the end of this passage. At some point the light has to dawn on Marblehead when we're reading this right. At some point we need to look at this and say well, isaac is the only beloved son. He is the hope of the world. He's the source of all blessings. He's trudging up this hill with wood on his back. Our minds must immediately go somewhere right. This is not about Abraham, this is not about Isaac, this is not about you. This is about Jesus.

Speaker 1 27:20

One author said that instead of Genesis 22 becoming an insurmountable barrier to faith, with Jesus at the center, it becomes an incredible boost to our faith. Genesis 22 records an event two millennia before Christ would face the cross. But from the beginning, the Bible has always been testifying to the central event of history, which is the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's within the vicinity of this location that Christ would ultimately be crucified, fulfilling the prophetic and typological imagery of Abraham's near sacrifice of Isaac. And so the account of the sacrifice of Isaac unveils the depths of God's love, his faithfulness in providing for our redemption and the lengths to which he will go to rescue us from Satan's sin and death. And so, when we look at this profound narrative, we're reminded of the unfathomable love of the Father, who willingly offered His own Son as a sacrifice for our sins, and of the Son who willingly laid down His life for our sake, that we could have eternal life with Him. Amen, somebody.

Speaker 1 28:42

This is all about Jesus and of course one of the challenges of biblical interpretation, especially to English, is that we reduce God down to one three-letter word, g-o-d. But God reveals Himself to us through many different names in the Bible, whether it's Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek. No single name can describe all that God is. In fact, god uses each and every one of His names to reveal a different part of His character to us. You've heard the term Adonai, which means Lord Elohim, creator, el Elyon, god Most High, el Shaddai, God Almighty. The sacrifice of Isaac is not only significant in that it points us to Jesus, but it shows us one of the great names of God. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. Abraham named this place in Hebrew. Jehovah Jireh. The name carries with it profound biblical and theological implications, as well as redemptive historical significance.

Speaker 1 29:59

In the context of the sacrifice of Isaac, god's provision is demonstrated through the substitution of the ram, which not only serves as a direct parallel to Christ's substitutionary atonement, but also underscores the broader theme of God's unwavering commitment to care for and supply the needs of His people throughout redemptive history. You see, god right now is not distant or indifferent to whatever you are going through in your life. You woke up this morning. Whatever it was was on your mind. You got ready and you came here. It's still on your mind. It's on God's mind even more. You say but I'm caring for this person and I need this, or I'm struggling here and I need this. I don't know what I'm going to do here and I need this.

Speaker 1 30:48

God will provide. He may not provide in a way that we have mapped out on our grocery list for Him, but God will provide. Do you believe that? And so we need to look at the significance of Jehovah Jireh in the context of the sacrifice of Isaac, and so we're encouraged to trust. Listen, god has unwavering commitment to provide. God has unwavering commitment to provide. God has unwavering faithfulness to us, knowing that he has made the ultimate provision for our salvation, which is our greatest need. He has already provided in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Speaker 1 31:34

Of course, you fast forward from Abraham and Isaac and one day, god, the Father, fulfilling the role of Abraham, brings God the Son, his only Son, the One whom he loved, and, as it were, lays Him on the altar, jesus Christ, like Isaac, becomes both a willing Son and willing sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But on the hill of Calvary, there would be no angelic intervention at the last minute. There would only be the spreading darkness of the curse that surrounded the cross and centered upon the mangled and twisted body of the dead Son. Because in that moment God did not take a knife and plunge it into His Son. God took His wrath, stored up against all sin, from all people, and he poured it out onto Jesus Christ on the cross, once and for all.

Speaker 1 32:41

The cup of God's wrath is dry. If you are in Christ, god is never going to be mad at you again, because he's poured that all out onto Christ. You're like, yeah, but you don't know. You don't know me, you don't know what I've done, because he's poured that all out onto Christ. You're like, yeah, but you don't know. You don't know me, you don't know what I've done. Okay, he does, and he still loves you. God knows what I've done, he still loves me. But there's no substitute for Jesus. But there's no substitute for Jesus. Jesus became the substitute for us, the knife, as it were. The cup was drained. That was the cost by which we were redeemed.

The Lamb of God's Provision

Speaker 1 33:36

And, of course, it's not just the Son who was paying the price of sin on the cross Sometimes we tend to overlook this but the Father, too, paid deeply for our sin, because God is not vindictive. God, the Father, is not hateful or vengeful. And there he was, pouring out all of the wrath due our sin onto his son, bringing down the knife of his righteous judgment upon the defenseless head of Jesus. That's our confidence. That's our confidence as we face the complexities and the difficulties of life in a fallen world. I have yet to meet somebody who says, hey, my life is great, I've never had any challenges. And I think, if I met somebody who said that, I'd be like Paul said it, he who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? So, friends, let me end this way.

Speaker 1 34:49

The whole of the Old Testament can be summed up with that question where is the Lamb? The central New Testament answer given by John the Baptist as Jesus crests the hill by the Jordan behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That is the provision that is provided on the mountain of the Lord. As Abraham says, so does God. God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering. My son, let's pray together and then we'll sing our final song.

Speaker 1 35:33

Our great God, how can we do anything but love you? You are worthy of love. We look at the gods that men have invented and we can only conclude that none of them are worthy of love. They are small, they are arbitrary, they are unfair, unjust, unlovable. We could not love those gods. But we look at what you have revealed of yourself and our hearts swell. Our hearts rejoice. Our hearts rejoice, our hearts are drawn to you. We love you because you are kind, because you are good, because you are merciful. We love you because you are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We love you because you are the same yesterday, today and forever. And we love you because you have loved us first. Thank you for being a God who is eminently worthy of our love and our trust. And so, lord, we worship you, amen.