Why did God create the world?
John chapter one, verses one through 18. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, He who comes after the ranks before me, because he was before me. For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who was at the Father's side. He has made him known. So obviously, fun place to start with John 1. If you were here last week when I came up and I said, we're doing a series in Genesis and now we're apparently reading from John 1. Well, there will be a reason for that which I'll get onto in a sec. But real quick, I said we have been doing up these devotions along with Michelle that we've been writing for the sake of kind of going through these larger portions of scripture and they kind of help their little thoughts along the way, little key verses that help build up the whole picture of what this passage is about. But just a few things. One, they're in paper copy out in the foyer if you want them. They should also come out in email. And if all else that doesn't work, it's also up on the website. So you've got three options, absolutely no excuses. And... Just a few of the things, they're not thematic. So if you miss some or you're not reading all of them or you just don't read it, you're not gonna miss out on Sunday. There's not some kind of key piece of information that you'd be missing out on. And also, just one other thing. um Obviously, it's free for you to use. You don't have to do it if you don't want to. It's there for you. If you do use it and it's beneficial, I would like to know, not for the sake of my praise and glory, but just for the sake of it obviously takes a fair bit of effort to put into it. if you're not getting any benefit from it, I'm not going to bother doing it. Not for the sake of, my feelings are hurt, but I want to do what's best for you guys. just, you know, little, Matt, that was a good one this week. That'd be nice. So I know I'm not wasting my time. There we go. Anyway, so we will be walking through, this is Genesis 1 and 2 that we're doing today. And as we're covering quite a large portion of Scripture, we're really asking the question, what is Genesis 1 and 2 about? Was it written to show up all the evolutionists? Is that what we're trying to... Are we trying to show that the world was made for the greenies? I don't know. Why did God write Genesis 1 and 2? What was the point in it? Well, I want to ask that question today. We're gonna be going through, I'll have, they throw the slide up, there'll be three main verses we'll walk through. Genesis 1, John 1, and then Ephesians 1 as well. And then from that, after that, we'll follow through three points of application as well. So, this is one of my favorite topics to talk about that will start right as soon as I pray. Dear Father, we thank you that we now have this time to sit under your word. I that you may open our ears, our hearts to hear. Father, I pray that you may make my words clear that people would hear and understand the truth that you have for them today. Teach us, we pray in Jesus' name, by the power of your Spirit. Amen. So, in the beginning, Genesis 1, we get six days of creation. God showing us how He has made everything. by His word and in His power. He is sovereign over it all. But I'm going to ask an interesting question. Like I said, this is one of my favorite things to talk about. Why? We know God did make the world, but why did He make the world? Why did He create the world? Why bother spending the time? See, I'm really asking the question, before creation, what was His purpose? What was his reason? Did he do it because he was bored? Did he do it because he needed some friends? The answer to those is no, just say no. But no, understand that when God does something, He must have a higher purpose. He always has an ultimate purpose that He is working all things towards. Just one example, Romans 8.28. Surely most of you will know this. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. Now that is not the answer to the question. That is just an example there. God is taking all things, everything in creation and working them to what end? To what purpose? For your benefit, for your good, right? So see how everything is working towards one goal, one aim. This can't be the highest purpose. This can't be God's ultimate end. Why? Because this one in Romans 8.28 is about us. It's a great thing, a glorious thing, but we can't be the center of the story. If you read the Bible and you keep reading and seeing, wow, I'm just in this thing everywhere, this is all about me, that is not the point of the Bible. There's a reason we call it the Word of God, not the Word of you. It is about Him. And so, we have to understand that before creation, what was there? There was only one thing, there was God. So, there must be some reason in Himself and only in Himself that He decided to create the world. Here is what, look, I say I believe, I believe it very wholeheartedly and believe it to be the biblical truth. But if you've ever, and I know we're not Presbyterian, but if you've ever read the Shorter Westminster Catechism, which was a catechism they used to, you know, they give it to kids that has a bunch of questions in it, and it's kind of just very basic Bible truth. What is the first commandment? You know, kind of things like that, that they would teach to kids and make them memorize to learn the Bible, essentially. But this is the first question in the book. What is the chief end of man? What was the reason for which man was made? And it says this, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Many of you have probably heard that before. Basically meaning, in the beginning, in whose image were we made? God's, right? We were made in the image of God. And what is any good image meant to do? When I see a picture of the snowy mountains, or really just a picture of anything in New Zealand, it points you to the fact that, wow, I just want to go see the original. I want to go see that place. Right? A picture of anything should make you want to go see the original. And so, when we are made in the image of God, what that means is you're a picture that should be pointing back to the original. when people look at you, they should see something that says, wow, there is something in that person, better yet, there's something greater than just that person in them. I can see that they serve someone greater than themselves. And so you see, our greatest purpose is to reflect the glory of, to reflect who He is. That's what it means to glorify God. In everything you do, people are, wow. I can see the goodness of God, the compassion of God, the holiness of God in that person's life because we were made in His image. But then we ask the question, what is the chief end of God? I would say it is the same thing. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Sounds a bit interesting, bit weird, doesn't it? It almost sounds narcissistic, doesn't it? God's end is to make much of himself. Essentially, God loves looking in the mirror. Of course, we hear, you it's almost a thing, you say someone spends all day looking in the mirror, they're a bit, you know, excuse the language, but up themselves, you know? Like they're not, yeah, right? They stick up the a. You don't like that person. But yet, here we have the chief end of God. I want to ask you this question. What is more valuable? Father's Day particularly, is your child or a new whipper snipper more valuable? Does anyone want to answer the question? someone might say whippersnipper, if you do, that's wrong. All right. The reality is, I'm looking forward to the fact I am getting a new whippersnipper for Father's Day. But. I know one day that whipper snipper, no matter how good it is, will go in the bin. All right? It's where everything ends up. Will my child ever be thrown in a bin? No, I hope you guys know that. You see, it is right for me to value my child above a whipper snipper. It's good and right to value things appropriately. Things have different amounts of value. Things have different priorities in our life. And when done rightly, that's a good thing. The problem in life becomes when those priorities start getting mixed up, when suddenly going out fishing in the boats more important than spending time with your family. Unless you're going out in the boat with your family, then hey, that's a good use of a boat. But, and we ask the question, must that not also be true of God? If it is good and right, God must prioritize and value and esteem that which is the most valuable. And what is the most valuable? God. You see, because if he were to worship something less valuable than himself, that's idolatry. That's, would actually be sinful for him to worship anything other than himself. He cannot have it any other way. Just read Romans 1, 23 and 25. We exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things. We exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature or the creation rather than the creator. You see, so us as humans, we traded that which was less valuable, the things that God made. for Himself. We had Him and yet we swapped Him in and said, no, I want to worship the things of this world rather than the one who made the world, which is just plainly stupid. It's a very dumb thing we do, but we all do it. And so understand, it is sinful to do that. so in the same way, it sinful for God to do it. He must worship Himself. He must work all things so that they worship Him. It is the only way this creation can be, it's the only thing He can do. And so, the important thing to understand though, is that this does not mean that God needs our praise. All right, so from Acts 17, 24 to 25, it says this, the God who made the world, everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. see, God doesn't need anything. The two questions I put before you earlier about why God maybe made creation are some of the things people say but they can't be true. That, you know, oh, He needed some friends or He was just bored. God was in a triune community before He ever made us, so He was perfectly happy. He knew love, He did not need someone to love Him. He had everything He needed. So why make creation? Because it was the overflow of His glory. He can't be more glorious, but what can He do? He can share it with us. He can make a creation that displays His glory. so that we might enjoy it just as he does. So you see creation was made to show us who God is, to show us how amazing He is. I learned a crazy fact the other day. Did you know that if you took all the words ever spoken, even every little gurgle, you count that from every baby that's ever lived. over all of history, you number them all and put them all together, you find out that total number, it still does not equal the number of stars in the universe. It is, I don't know, there's a lot of zeros on the numbers, like two or three hundred billion or trillion or something like that, that's galaxies, it's not even the stars. Why would God make all that? We're the only ones here. There might be alien, I don't know, I'm not getting into that. don't think there are, but anyway. Why make such a vast universe? A universe that we can't even begin to comprehend, let alone explore and do all those things. Because when you look at a universe like that, you think, wow, imagine the person who created it. The point is that you are overwhelmed by the vastness of outer space. You should be overwhelmed by the vastness of God because He is greater than the universe. Even in the smaller things, Jesus shows us how birds show us who God is. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? You look at the birds of the air, say, wow. That crow looks like it should be just toppling over. It's just missing that many feathers, should be dead by now. But yet every day, it does not store up food. It finds it, it is provided for by God. Are you not of more value than a bird? Even in small things as that, you can see who God is, that He is compassionate and caring. So when you read Genesis 1 and 2, Remember that the whole purpose of his creation is that you might know who he is. And that better yet, you might praise him because he is so amazing. So now we'll move on to John 1. So, and many people have noticed it, it's probably not that hard to notice, John 1 parallels Genesis 1. If you couldn't tell, what does John 1 start with? In the beginning, right? And then after that, in the beginning, it begins to talk about the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God, right? And then we are later told that that Word is Jesus, right? But what is the Word? Why is it... it's talking about Jesus' role in creation, the fact that He was there with God, but why is it talking about Him being the Word? How do you come to know God? How do you really get to have a relationship with Him? His Word, right? When you want to know, hey, I want to hear from God, I want to know what He thinks. This, the Word of God, right? God is revealed through His Word. And so, when it says Jesus is the Word, it's saying He is the one who reveals God, all right? it says this, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. You see, God, like I said, He desperately desires for you to know Him, for you to see all of Him, to know Him to His utter depths, which I will tell you will take all eternity and you'll still never reach the end of understanding who He is. You see it because As you look at the nation of Israel, look at them through the Old Testament, think of the tabernacle in the temple. Why did he give them those things? That place where his presence was the ark of God. It's because he wanted to dwell among his people. He wanted his presence to be among them. The temple was in the center of Israel because that was where the people, that's where he was with his people. But the problem with the temple, with the tabernacle, the people could only draw so near because of their sin. They had to go wash in the waters and then sacrifice a cow. before they could even come close and still they could not fully enter in, only the high priest could and only once a day, once a year, because of sin. It's kept us separated from God. But then you have Jesus. Because what does it say in John 1, 18? No one has ever seen God, the only God who's out the Father's side, He has made Him known. So no one has seen God, no one can come to Him, but Jesus has made a way now for us to know God. You see, this is the message of the gospel, that the unapproachable, invisible God, unapproachable because we could not come to Him because of our sin, has been made visible and approachable and knowable completely by Jesus. That is why Jesus says in John 14, 9, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. And you see, it says in verse 17 of John 1, for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. This was one of the most amazing things about Jesus when He came. He is the image of the invisible God. That's what Colossian tells us, right? He is, if you see Him, you see God, the Father, you know Him and who He is. it's funny because when we read the God of the Old Testament, people can sometimes create a division between the Old Testament and the New Testament. They see two different gods. Because of the fact that our sin had not been dealt with in the Old Testament, you see so much more of His wrath. and see the amazing thing. When God comes to earth, does Jesus come high, mighty, full of anger and wrath to punish the people? He says in Matthew 11, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest for I am gentle and lowly in heart. God, gentle and lowly. But what about this God we cannot approach? The most amazing thing that Jesus revealed was the grace of God. and is revealed nowhere more than at the climax of Jesus' life. In John 17, 1, He says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. What was He saying there? This is the night. He's in the upper room at the moment, the Last Supper. He is about to be... Actually, I'm not going to spoil it yet. You'll find out what's going to happen in a second. But what is He saying here? Father, glorify me that I may glorify you. He's saying, God, turn me into a beacon of light, so bright that there is no way that the world will be able to avoid the truth of who you are. I want you to use me in such a way that no one will ever be able to say that you have not fully shown who you are. reveal the depths of view of yourself, Father, in me. That's what he was saying. And how did he do that? What was the hour that was to come? His betrayal, arrest, trial and crucifixion. So you see that the greatest evil, right? His own creation murdering their creator became the most God glorifying event that ever existed. You see, so many truths are brought together on the cross. Without the cross, this whole thing is a waste of time. God showed who He truly was at the cross. I want to spend some time, there are so many we could go and practically that's what we do every Sunday, unpacking the realities of what happened on that cross. But I want to unpack just one today from Ephesians 1. So Ephesians 1, 5 to 6, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will to the praise of His glorious grace. Don't get lost in the word predestination. All right? That is not what we're really jumping into. All it means for this message is that God had a plan before creation. And what was His plan? That we would be adopted into His family through Jesus. Now the funny thing... Adam was a son of God. He was part of God's family. It says it in Luke 3, when you look through the genealogy, it says, Adam, the son of God. He was part of the family. If the fall had never happened, we'd be part of the family of God. So why would his plan be that instead the fall... Instead, this world would be left in sin for thousands of years, building up to the climax where He would send His own Son into the world to die. Why all that? The last verse, verse 6, to the praise of His glorious grace. You see, Adam was never going and would never be able to understand the riches and the depths of God's grace. He would never be able to comprehend it. He would know what it was to have God's favor, but he would not know what it is like to be truly undeserving of it. You see, grace is made most magnified, most glorious when it is given to those who are most undeserving and unworthy of it. So, when someone asks, why did God make the world this way? Why did He let the fall happen? Why is everything this way? This is your answer. God made the world that He might send His Son into it to be murdered in order to show the riches of His mercy and grace in saving those who murdered Him. That is the gospel. That is what could never happen if the fall never happened. The fall had to happen. because that was how God, not the only way, but it was the most glorious way in which He could reveal the depths of His grace. And so, when you see things happening in this world and you have no answer to them, why are these things happening? You will not have every answer, but you will have the ultimate answer. Everything happens in this world and happens the way it does. That God might be glorified. that you might see completely who he is. You are not going to be able to make all the sense of it out in this life. But you will come his return. Now, have you guys kind of understood what I'm talking about? Yeah? Yeah, but see, I understand it's a bit to wade through. I wouldn't even expect you to kind of get it on the first go. It can seem heady and theological and, okay, right, yes, that's God's reason for making the world. Why does that really matter? I want to bring three different implications to you, to show you that it is anything but something that will have no impact upon your life. It very much shall have an impact upon your life. Because understand this truth about God's glory, about the ultimate purpose for which we were made, is the most important thing that you need to know. All right. So first, you see I've got three applications. So we have, it's all about God's glory, the way to glory doesn't make sense, and our salvation is tied to God's glory. So our first point, it is all about God's glory. So I already said earlier, right, as image bearers, right, of God, We must prize God above everything. He needs to be at the center of our lives. And this is so important, understanding this truth that the ultimate purpose for everything in this world, including God Himself, is to make much of God, is because it keeps us from one of the greatest dangers that faces us, which is making our lives about what? Ourselves. We love doing that. For some reason, you know, I know we're smart enough to know now that the sun revolve, that we revolve around the sun. But a lot of us seem to think still that actually the sun revolves around us because we love making ourselves the center of the universe, right? We love to be at the center of everything. That's just what sin does. Sin makes us want to put ourselves at the center of everything. We have this problem of always trying to be God. But what were we made for? To submit to God. And life actually works better that way. You're actually just asking for dissatisfaction and happiness by trying to make yourself God. Just think about it. Putting yourself first always ends in disaster. Can you imagine a marriage, a family, a business or a church where everyone put themselves first? No one would want to be there in any of those things. It doesn't work. we were made not to serve ourselves but to serve God and others. And it just, life works so much better when we go that way. Because that's the way God made it to be. The world and your life were made with a certain mold to have God at the center. He must be there. So my question, is He? Are your decisions, the things and the choices that you make, for everything in your life, focused around what God desires and what God values? Is it? Or is it rather around what we desire and what we value? That's for you to decide, for you to think of. Putting our lives, having God at the center, can be hard. it involves making difficult decisions, sometimes putting ourselves and our families in places and situations we would rather avoid. But understand what you were made for. Understand that when you were in the will of God, that when you were seeking to have your life in His will, you are where you belong, where you belong, where you were made to be. Understand this world has a grain, a way God made it to be. When we try to put our values and our desires ahead of that, we go against it. Look, life is difficult for Christians, I understand that, but we were made to go away with God. So, is our life that way? You see, so many of our problems stem from our obsession with ourselves. So, I can't just say, stop obsessing about yourself. Because you need something else to look at. So what do we look at? God and His glory. That is why He has made this creation. That is why Christ came so that you have something else to look at beside yourself. So going on to the second point. The path to glory doesn't always make sense. This is what Jesus' path shows us. Because think about the way Jesus had to go. I want to read from 1 Corinthians 2, 7 to 10. It's from Paul. He says, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden in that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love Him. These are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit. One of my favorite things about this passage, especially verse 9, for some reason, people seem to interpret it as being about heaven. Right? And I don't deny it. Heaven is going to be inconceivably great. No human mind has conceived how good heaven is. That is not what that passage is about. Why? Because it says in the next verse, these things God has revealed to us. You know these things already, you know them by the Spirit. So what is he talking about? He is talking about God's plan of salvation. He is saying that no one could ever have conceived of the fact that God would be glorified through sending His Son to earth in order to die. No one could have ever come up with that plan. No one understood at that moment, all the disciples left Bar-John. Everyone could not understand why he died, why he offered, why he did not speak in his own defense. They didn't understand how this would lead to praise and glory to God. And yet, here we are, 2,000 years later, doing what? Singing praises and glory to God because of what happened on that day. And so the important thing here in seeing that is that just as for them back then, for the disciples, for those who followed Him, His path to glory made no sense. So too, our path to glory will not always make sense. All those who follow Christ will be glorified, as in they will be made perfect in heaven. Hallelujah, looking forward to that. but the road there will not always lead to places where we can see how God is working in them. A particular comfort for me, I know at times in my life, was that Jesus passed the glory, included being forsaken by the Father. Seems like a weird thing to be comforted by, maybe. But understand this, we will have moments of grief in this life, sometimes caused by external circumstances, sometimes just because. Times where we are going to feel far from God. where the weight of your sin is gonna feel like it is crushing you and you are just feeling like a despairing of life itself. How do I know? Because I've been there. But you see, the comfort to me is knowing that as Christ walked through that, as He was forsaken by the Father, was He left? Was He abandoned by God forever? No. He walked through that in order to be glorified. Understand there will be seasons in life where you just feel like you're backsliding, like God must hate you, like there is nothing good going on. and you were just sitting there just beholding the fact, God, why would you put me here? Why would you leave me in this? I've prayed a hundred times and you have done nothing. What are you doing? understand He has not abandoned you. He is glorifying you. That is what He is doing. So my third point, we're coming to a close. God is glorified in our salvation. humanity will be glorified. All right. Those who follow Christ will be... we are not seeking the glory for ourselves, right. We will enjoy in the glory. But the important thing is that God must be the one to do it. Right. Think back to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. He have men who sought praise for themselves. Genesis 11, 4, this is the men talking, come let us build ourselves a city with a tower and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves. What did God think of that? No way. Went down there, made them all speak a bunch of different gibberish and just blew it to smithereens because he said, no way. You will not make a name for yourselves. And then in the next chapter. God comes to Abram and he says, from your country, your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. So Abraham or Abram back then can have a great name but yet these men are from Babel can't. What's the difference? God is the one that would glorify Abraham. And in that process, He too would be glorified. But in what the men from the Tower of Babel were doing, God would have had no glory in that because they did not care for God's glory at all. Now, the point that I want to draw out of this, God could have chosen so many ways to glorify Himself. So many different ways to show you how amazing He is. But here is the primary way he's chosen to do it. Through us. Particularly by showing us grace. So understand that God has decided to take our salvation and every promise He has ever given to us and He has made it a part of His glory. So when you're wondering this question. Why does God keep His promises? Right? We know the promises. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He works all things for our good. We know the promise. He is greater than the one who is in the world. But it can be really hard to believe those promises, can't it? Raise your hands if you've ever struggled to trust the promises of God. Everyone raise your hands. Yeah, we've all struggled, all right? It can be really hard because there comes a point where we look at the promises of God and then look at our lives and say, they don't match up. I'm not seeing the fruit of your promises. Are you really faithful? We are sometimes led to a point where we can no longer rely on our sight and we instead must rely on our faith. We have to believe not on what we see, but in who God is. So that begs the question, what about God gives us assurance He will be faithful to His promises? Remember what I said earlier, God's glory is dependent upon Him saving you and being faithful to the promises He has given to you. whole Bible is a testimony to the fact God loves Himself. It sounds like a really weird thing. He does. You read through the Bible. If you just go into a Bible search and just look up for His namesake or namesake, it's everywhere. He says, I'm doing this for my namesake, for my namesake, for me. It is why I am doing it. And He said, I am doing this for me, this thing, that I will save you and be faithful to every single one of my promises. So the only way that he can fully reveal himself is by making your salvation certain and making sure that every single one of his promises is as well. And the zealousness was for which he has his glory and he is ferocious. Call him a jealous God. He will only be worshiped in him alone. He has that same jealousy for your salvation, that same zealous, ferocious ambition to make sure you were saved and to make sure his promises all come to pass. Pass, pass. So when it seems like God is failing, remember who he is, an all-powerful God who will stop at nothing to be glorified by his faithfulness to the promises he has given to you and through saving you. So. Finishing up, yeah. The thing I want for all of you is to seek and to savor and to delight in the glory of God by beholding Jesus, just seeing Him for who He is and through Him seeing the Father. You have no higher aim in this life than to know God in all His fullness. I'm not just saying that as an opinion, I know that as a fact you have no higher aim. I could say that for every single person here. So I want you to know this. If you are struggling to comprehend what I have talked about, if what I'm saying has made no sense, well one, that isn't okay, I should be much better at my job, but I want you to come talk to me. Because I want you to comprehend what I have been talking about today. If you have grasped it, Don't forget it. Your job does not finish once you walk out the door. A single sermon will not be enough to hammer this into your head. You need to think, meditate, ask questions, contemplate this fact that God is glorified in himself. Why? Why stress this point so much? I'll read from 2 Corinthians 4 for the reason why. The God of this world, that isn't God, that's Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. You might think I'm laboring some minor point about seeing the glory of God. This is no minor point. This is the primary thing Satan does not want you to see. He does not want you to see the glory of God in Jesus Christ. When I read this out, do not just say, well, I'm not an unbeliever, so I don't need to worry about that. Have you understood what I'm saying? Have you understood its importance? Because if you haven't, don't be sure you're not being blinded right now. Satan will try to blind all of you, because he doesn't want you to see the glory of God. pray that you would be desperate not to let Him blind you. So talk to me, pray about it, just don't go to sleep without grasping the blessing and the duty of seeking God's glory. Otherwise, you may find yourself sleeping your way to hell. This is an important fact. So please, come talk to me about it. I'm happy to talk about the price of cattle and how good the weather is. I much love talking about the Bible. It's a lot more fun. em And that'll be everything for today. So, just finish up in prayer. Father, You have given us this day. Why have You given it to us? To remind us of the glories of who You are. That we might see You and know You and behold You. Father, that we would just see you in your fullness. So I pray that you might give us eyes through your Spirit, for you're the only one who can help us to see, to see you completely. Help us to prioritize your glory as the greatest thing in our lives, as the thing which should direct all our decisions, all our choices. Let our lives be shining beacons of light that reflect back to you. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.