1. "The Bible makes the claim that you are not the best judge. Rather, God is the one that knows what is best for you. You, like Catherine crossing the road, are in terrible danger if you simply follow the whims of your heart."

2. "Isaiah calls Jerusalem Ariel, lion of God, to underscore how far these people have fallen from their glory. It's a little bit like when you go to a restaurant and they've hung a sign that says, voted best pizza 2014. Well, at best, they stopped giving out the award. At worst, they have fallen significantly from their previous glory."

3. "Friend, be careful who you spend time with and who you listen to. Who is categorizing your mind? If you surround yourself with people that sound like these people in Jerusalem, you will start sounding like these people in Jerusalem."

4. "God is good in judgment because His judgment refutes the lie that He is powerless. God is good in judgment because He will not let rebellion stand. God is good in judgment because it's a kindness to the remnant within Jerusalem and the watching nations that he might reveal himself to them."

5. "We are closer to the walls of Jerusalem than we might comfortably admit."

6. "You may have heard something this morning in this text, it's not exactly what's going on in your life, but it certainly rhymes. There's a shadow of your sin that's being revealed to you here in these texts. Repent while you still can."

7. "We started with God besieging Jerusalem and suddenly visiting them with devouring fire. Now we're here and we see that from only ashes, God will bring forth life and life in abundance."

8. "The ultimate expression of God's goodness and sovereignty is His breaking the cycle that we see in the Old Testament of sin and atonement, sin and atonement, sin and atonement. He breaks that cycle with the gospel."

9. "Sin does not surprise us. Opposition does not confuse us. And because of Christ, the grave cannot hold us. God's promises have been kept and will continue to be kept, regardless of your circumstance or any circumstance, because He is the one who is good and in control."

10. "Friend, your war with God can be over today."

Observation Questions

1. In Isaiah 29:1, what two meanings does the name "Ariel" carry, and how does God say Jerusalem will become "like an Ariel" to Him in verse 2?

2. According to Isaiah 29:5-6, how does the text describe God's arrival to deal with Jerusalem's foreign foes, and what specific elements accompany His visitation?

3. In Isaiah 29:13, what contrast does God identify between how the people approach Him with their mouths and lips versus what is happening in their hearts?

4. What imagery does Isaiah 29:16 use to describe the absurdity of the people's rejection of God, and what specific claims does "the thing made" say about its maker?

5. According to Isaiah 29:18-19, what reversals will take place for the deaf, the blind, the meek, and the poor when God acts as Redeemer?

6. In Isaiah 29:22-24, what does God promise will happen to Jacob's shame, and what will be the response of those "who go astray in spirit" and "those who murmur"?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Isaiah calls Jerusalem "Ariel" (lion of God) while simultaneously warning that it will become an altar hearth for sacrifice? What does this dual meaning reveal about the relationship between God's past blessings and His present judgment?

2. How does the image of the sealed book in Isaiah 29:11-12 illustrate the nature of God's judgment on the people? What does it mean that God Himself "poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep" (v. 10)?

3. The sermon emphasized that the potter-clay imagery in verse 16 represents "theological insanity." Why is it so serious when people who have been created, rescued, and provided for by God say, "He did not make me" and "He has no understanding"?

4. How do the promises of redemption in Isaiah 29:17-24 connect to Jesus Christ's ministry, and why did the sermon describe these promises as having "multiple mountain ranges of fulfillment"?

5. Why does Isaiah include verses 20-21 about the ruthless and scoffers in the middle of describing God's redemption? What does this teach us about who receives God's redemptive promises?

Application Questions

1. The sermon asked, "Who is categorizing your mind?" and warned about becoming like those we spend time with. What voices, sources, or relationships in your life might be shaping you to trust your own judgment over God's? What specific step could you take this week to prioritize listening to God's Word instead?

2. Isaiah 29:13 describes people who honor God with their lips while their hearts are far from Him, with their worship becoming mere "commandment taught by men." In what areas of your spiritual life—prayer, church attendance, Bible reading, or service—might you be going through the motions rather than genuinely engaging your heart? How can you address this?

3. The sermon offered four responses to God as Judge: listen, repent, fear, and praise. Which of these four is most difficult for you right now, and why? What would it look like to grow in that response this week?

4. The preacher noted that "sin does not surprise us, opposition does not confuse us, and the grave cannot hold us" because of Christ. When you face discouragement or confusion about truth being "turned upside down" in our culture, how can you practically encourage yourself with the truths of God's goodness and control?

5. The sermon concluded by saying, "Your war with God can be over today." Is there an area of your life where you are still resisting God's authority—a decision, a relationship, a habit, or an attitude? What would it look like to surrender that area to Him this week?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Romans 9:19-24 — Paul uses the same potter-clay imagery from Isaiah to explain God's sovereign right over His creation and His mercy in forming vessels for glory.

2. Matthew 11:2-6 — Jesus quotes Isaiah's promises about the blind seeing and deaf hearing to confirm to John the Baptist that He is the promised Messiah who fulfills God's redemptive work.

3. Revelation 21:1-7 — This passage describes the ultimate fulfillment of the New Jerusalem, where God dwells with His people and wipes away every tear, completing the hope Isaiah proclaimed.

4. Genesis 12:1-9 — This passage shows God's redemption of Abraham, whom Isaiah 29:22 references as evidence that God keeps His promises to redeem wayward people.

5. Isaiah 6:8-13 — This earlier passage in Isaiah establishes the image of the felled tree with a holy seed, providing essential context for understanding God's pattern of judgment leading to redemption.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Question of Who Knows Best: A Father-Daughter Illustration

II. Context for Isaiah 29: Judah's Rebellion Against God

III. God Is Good and In Control as Judge (Isaiah 29:1-16)

IV. God Is Good and In Control as Redeemer (Isaiah 29:17-24)

V. Responding to God Who Is Both Good and In Control

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Good morning.

Can I tell you a story about my two-year-old daughter? Oh, I heard some yeses. So here we go. Strap in. Catherine, which many of you know and love, is my two-year-old daughter, and she is discovering that her preferences and my preferences sometimes don't align.

Let me give you a small but illustrative example. Crossing the street. So it's a hard and fast rule that Catherine and I must wait until the cars pass. She has to hold daddy's hand, and then we need to walk across the street. Sometimes everything goes to plan.

And then other times Catherine decides she's not going to stick to the plan at all. She's not going to wait, she's not going to hold daddy's hand, and she's going to hop, skip, and run across the road. Now, if you have children, I think your heart rate might have just been elevated by that story. And if you can't relate to that story at all, well, take that as your divine sign that you should volunteer in childcare.

But the story leads us to a rather interesting question. And now I recognize that for many of us in the we're not two-year-old girls, but let me ask you this question: who knows what's best for you?

For Catherine, daddy knows what's best for her. But for you, older, wiser, more worldly, smarter, who knows what's best for you? The common wisdom of our age would say that there is no debate. You know what's best for you.

But is that true?

The Bible makes the claim that you are not the best judge. Rather, God is the one that knows what is best for you. You, like Catherine crossing the road, are in terrible danger if you simply follow the whims of your heart.

How would your life change if you trusted God who is both good and in control?

Well, this morning, I have the great delight of carrying forward our sporadic, somewhat random chapter-by-chapter series through Isaiah. And this morning, we're looking at chapter 29.

We will see the judgment that has fallen on the people that have rejected God and chosen to follow their own hearts. And we'll also see the hope of redemption God holds out for them.

And my prayer is that this morning you will know something more of this great God that we worship.

So a quick word of context to help us get started. So the book of Isaiah is set in the second half of the eighth century in the southern kingdom of Judah, which contains the city of David, Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is the city around which our story, the chapter 29, is going to orbit. The people of God have turned from him and into the embrace of foreign alliances, they have placed their trust for protection. Now, geopolitics is neither the problem, nor is it the solution, but it is the context in which context upon which the sin of Judah is revealed.

They have turned away from God and to foreign alliances.

And because of the people's rebellion, God will use the empires of Assyria and Babylon to punish and destroy Judah. But it was from this destruction that hope would come.

There's an image that runs through Isaiah that of a felled tree that lies in a field that is burnt. That tree represents Israel. But it's from this tree we see in Isaiah 6 that God will sprout new growth, new hope, a holy seed. And chapter 11 speaks of a holy messianic king who will rise from the line of David and rule over a new Jerusalem the New Jerusalem that we sung of this morning in our hymn. They will be blessed and they will be a blessing to many nations.

And so as we look at our text this morning, that is the context.

It is one of sin of the people, judgment from God, and yet hope being held out. And this has been declared by a faithful prophet to a hard-hearted people, please turn with me to Isaiah chapter 29, which can be found on page 589 of the Pew Bibles.

And friends, as I read this chapter, if you hear nothing else this morning, God's Word is the most important thing that you will hear.

Isaiah 29, Ah Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped, add year to year, let the feasts run their round, yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel, and I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers, and I will raise siege works against you, and you will be brought low, From the earth you will speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down. Your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper. But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire, and the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her strongholds and distress her shall be like a dream, a vision of the night, as when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakes faint with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitudes of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. Astonish yourselves and be astonished, blind yourselves and be blind, be drunk but not with wine, stagger but not with strong drink.

The Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep and has closed your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers. And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, read this, he says, I cannot, for it is sealed. And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, read this, he says, I cannot read. And the Lord said, Because this people draw near with their mouths, and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder, the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.

Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, who sees us? Who knows us? You turn things upside down. Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? That the thing made should say of its maker, he did not make me?

Or the thing formed say of him who formed it, he has no understanding? Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field? And the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest. In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and out of the gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see, the meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exalt in the Holy One of Israel. For the ruthless shall come to nothing, and the scoffers cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off.

Who by a word make a man out to be an offender and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right. Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. For when he sees his children the work of my hands in his midst, they will sanctify my name, they will sanctify the holy one of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel and those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding and those who murmur will accept instruction.

Praise God for His word. He reveals Himself to us.

And I want to draw our attention to just one really big point. And that is God is both good and in control. God is good and in control. I think we see that throughout this chapter. But to help us digest this maybe large and gritty chapter, I'm going to break it in two.

Verses 1 through 16, we see that God is good and in control as judge. And then in the remaining, the balance of the verses 17 through 24, we see that God is good and in control as redeemer.

So one big orienting statement, God is good and in control with two sub points for those who are taking the notes, as judge, and as Redeemer. So let's consider point one. Flip back with me to verse one.

God is good and in control as judge. So what is going on in the first 16 verses of this chapter? Well, in a single breath, it's the people sin and God judges them. Look again at verse one with me.

Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped. Ariel is Jerusalem. And you'll see in the footnotes in the ESV that Ariel can be translated two ways, as either the lion of God or altar hearth, which is convenient because the prophet Isaiah means to use them in both ways. Ariel is the city of Jerusalem, at once glorious and great. The city of David, where Isaiah himself lives, is the physical embodiment of God's blessing.

Yet in his day, the leaders and the people have slipped into routine and apathy. Year after year, these celebrations and these feasts are no longer reminders of God's goodness, they are merely tradition. Isaiah calls Jerusalem Ariel, lion of God, to underscore how far these people have fallen from their glory. It's a little bit like when you go to a restaurant and they've hung a sign that says, voted best pizza 2014.

Well, at best, they stopped giving out the award. At worst, they have fallen significantly from their previous glory. And that is what's happened here in Jerusalem. Isaiah is using this term to remind them, you have fallen from this glory. And it seems unthinkable that any tribe of Israel would negotiate and rely on Egypt, their former slave masters, for peace and for protection.

And yet here they are.

The context of our chapter is one in which they are trying to strike deals with Egypt. You see in verse 2 it reads, Yet I, God, will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel. We see in later verses this massing of a multitude of foreign foes. In the face of this multitude of foreign foes, their deals with other nations come to nothing, but most importantly, we see you see, when God shows up as a consuming fire, God is not there as their protector. God does not encamp with them as their friend.

He calls them Ariel because he now refers to them as this altar half, because God will judge his people for their sin. And so Jerusalem itself will become to God like an Ariel.

An altar hearth upon which he will make atoning sacrifice for their sin. The first eight verses, Jerusalem has rejected God and their physical as their physical protector. And then you see in the next eight verses, 9 through 16, that the people have closed their eyes and ears and hardened their hearts towards him. Corruption and pride and self-righteousness, they are gripped by a kind of theological insanity. Look with me at Isaiah 29:16.

You turn things upside down, shall the potter be regarded as the clay? That the thing made should say of its maker, He did not make me, or the thing formed say of him who formed it, He has no understanding? This is the statement that these people are making in their rejection of God.

God created them, He rescued them, He brought them to this promised land. Living in this city, God had been their provider and their protector, and yet in the face of all of that, the people have rejected God and said with great confidence, God has no understanding. Friend, be careful who you spend time with and who you listen to. Who is cateGorizing your mind? When I moved to DC from Australia a long time ago, I was more of the sort of shorts and t-shirt wearing Aussie.

Now, I wouldn't quite say that I was in the order of Steve Irwin, but I was definitely in that direction. This past Friday, I was walking to the Metro and I caught my reflection just for a second, and what I saw disturbed me. I was wearing khakis, I had tucked in my shirt that was buttoned down, and I was carrying a little portfolio. And I had sworn to myself that DC wouldn't change me, and yet there I was, thinking about the midterms, wearing the DC uniform. It's strange how, over years of being here, that all of a sudden my wardrobe looks very different.

If you surround yourself with people that sound like these people in Jerusalem, you will start sounding like these people in Jerusalem.

In their rejection and arrogance towards God. The people are looking for safety and protection in all the wrong places.

The people are looking to tradition. In verse 1, in verse 5, Judah sought foreign alliances. In verse 9, they blinded themselves to the truth and became intoxicated Their religion was hypocrisy and legalism. In 15, they thought hiding their deeds in the dark would afford them protection. Here's the bottom line.

This people have decided to turn their backs on God, and God will judge them. God is both good and in control as judge. He encamps and besieges Jerusalem. He visits them with thunder and earthquake. His presence is the flame of a devouring fire.

Compare that to the multitude that is but dust, that is slow, that is known. When God's presence arrives, it is unmatched and unavoidable. God pours out His Spirit of a deep sleep and works wonders. I mean, that sounds like a good thing. Unless, of course, He is judging you with pouring out this spirit of deep sleep and working wonders.

Because for the people of Jerusalem, God is working wonders that He would dull their minds, He would close their eyes, He would perish their wisdom and hide their discernment.

They have refused to listen to God and His messengers, and so Isaiah uses the image of a sealed book which cannot be read to illustrate God's judgment of their ignorance.

And in all this judgment, which piles on and piles on and becomes wearisome, we can say as Christians with great confidence that God is good and in control when He judges. God is good in judgment because His judgment refutes the lie that He is powerless. God is good in judgment because He will not let rebellion stand.

God is good in judgment because it's a kindness to the remnant within Jerusalem and the watching nations that he might reveal himself to them. And God is good in judgment because we, friends, get to read about it thousands of years later and get to worship him as a just and good God. God is good as judge, he is also very much in control as judge. Did you notice that as I was reading it? God is the one who is in control here, not the tribe of Judah or the city of Jerusalem.

God is the one who's in control here, not the massing foreign foes. God is the one whose will will prevail we are a testament to that. God's justice and judgments are calibrated to the sin of the people and limited to those He is judging in this case. God is in control because His judgments will finally and fully bring about His purpose.

And so, as we read the first section of this chapter, verses 1 through 16, With all its proper nouns and unique contexts, we can be tempted to just dismiss it and say, Far off, long ago.

But the truth is our hearts are the same hearts as the population of Jerusalem. This God that we read of here is the same God that we that we sung to this morning, that we prayed to this morning, we are closer to the walls of Jerusalem than we might comfortably admit.

So how do we respond? How do we respond to something like this? Well, let me offer four ways to respond. First, listen. Hear and meditate on the warnings Isaiah lays out.

Second, repent. You may have heard something this morning in this text, it's not exactly what's going on in your life, but it certainly rhymes. There's a shadow of your sin that's being revealed to you here in these texts. Repent while you still can. Third, which is a weird one, fear.

You should fear the Lord. It's weird to say because I think in our culture today it's uncomfortable to say we should fear God. And yet it's tough not to come away from this chapter with any other conclusion. We are to fear Him because He is powerful, because He is present, because He sees what we do, and because we are sinners. We ought to fear Him because of what we see here in His Word.

And then finally, fourth, praise. We praise God for what we see, for his goodness and for his control, for his sovereignty.

So for the fans of Pastor Bobby, get ready. Here it comes, what you've been waiting for, the surfing analogy.

If you want to surf nice waves, big, well-clean waves. You need to bear with the whitewash. You need to paddle through the whitewash for 20-odd minutes, especially when it's big surf. And so you're paddling and working and struggling and continuing until you get out the back. You break through into clear water, and life, let me tell you, gets Awesome.

Well, that's how I feel about the first 16 chapters of Isaiah 29. We have labored together with very difficult verses, and together, let's break through into what we're about to see, which is this beautiful and glorious hope for redemption. God is good and in control as judge, In the remaining verses, we'll see that God is good and in control as Redeemer. Turn with me to verse 17.

God is good and in control as Redeemer. So again, what's happening in these verses? Well, the quick statement is God is reminding his people that he is their redeemer. Isaiah's reference to Lebanon turning into a fruitful field regarded as a forest is the first of many reversals of the effects of sin that we see. The image that we've talked about before but runs through Isaiah is that of the tree that's chopped down and burned.

Here Isaiah says, it says that God will cause life and growth to burst forth into a fruitful field. We started with God besieging Jerusalem and suddenly visiting them with devouring fire. Now we're here and we see that from only ashes, God will bring forth life and life in abundance. Earlier, the people were blind and deaf to the truth. Now, verse 18, the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and out of their gloom, the darkness, a gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see, the meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exalt in the Holy One of Israel.

God is reversing the effects of sin, pointing to this hope of his redemption. And when we think about promises like this in the Old Testament, we need to remind ourselves that we are looking out to a horizon with multiple mountain ranges of fulfillment. So as we look out to the horizon of how this promise is fulfilled, there are multiple fulfillments along the way, not least of which is the return of the exiled tribe of Judah back to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of Jerusalem itself. But we also see the next mountain range of fulfillment in Jesus Christ. I mean almost literally, right?

So when John the Baptist is in prison and he hears about Jesus, he sends his guys to go and ask him, are you the one? Are you the Messiah that we've been waiting for?

And Jesus, so only Jesus can, says, Go and tell John what you see here. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. The promise that God has made to the people of Jerusalem is fulfilled in their returning from exile and rebuilding of the city, yes, but ultimately is fulfilled in Jesus Christ's coming and His proclaiming of the good news to those that know the weight of their sin upon them. Well, there's a further fulfillment, one that we get to look forward to. So as we read these verses in chapter 29, we think forward to the final and most glorious mountain peak of fulfillment in Revelation 21.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people. And God Himself will be with them as their God. Praise God.

He is our Redeemer. He is the one who has promised to bring us to this new Jerusalem and live in peace with Him. The blind will see and the deaf will hear, and God will proclaim good news to the lost. So if verse 17 through 19 are a description of God's redemption, well, 22 and 23 23 are his guarantee.

God has the track record of redeeming wayward people.

Isaiah references that in 22, Thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham. Isaiah is reminding the reader and us that the one who promised to redeem his people is the same one who redeemed Abraham from his sin and made him the father of the Jewish faith. Then in verse 23, Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. The sin of successive generations that have turned away from God and brought shame on the house of Jacob will end. God's guarantee of redemption is demonstrated in the perseverance of his people through thousands of generations.

And how will this happen? We can draw confidence in the fact that it is God who is bringing it to pass, the work of my hands. God has made the promise, God will keep the promise, and God is reminding his people here to take hope in the midst of judgment. But we can't skip over verses 20 and 21. In the midst of this declaration of redemption and guarantee that it will come to pass, we have two verses that speak of the ruthless that will come to nothing and the scoffer ceasing.

The point of putting those two verses there is to be very clear that redemption is exclusive to those who trust God. Those who believe him, those who hope in him. For everyone else, the promise is judgment.

God is good and in control as Redeemer because the fruit of his redemption is unmitigated blessing. And it's clear that he is the one that is bringing this redemption to pass. The ultimate expression of God's goodness and sovereignty is His breaking the cycle that we see in the Old Testament of sin and atonement, sin and atonement, sin and atonement. He breaks that cycle with the gospel. God sends His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to live a perfect life, And by perfect, what we mean when we say that is perfect obedience to God.

Jesus Christ lived and ministered and taught and performed miracles that we've read about. Jesus was the embodiment of what it was to be a faithful disciple of God, a faithful believer in God. More than that, Jesus was Himself God.

And so, as Jesus is taken to the cross and killed, not because of his guilt, but as an atoning sacrifice for our guilt, Jesus is the one who breaks this cycle of sin and atonement by being this perfect sacrifice. And as he writes, rises from the dead, the tomb empty, the promise is vindicated, the promise is clearly demonstrated, and it's fulfilled. And we can rejoice knowing that our sins have been forgiven because God has poured out His justice on Jesus Christ in our place. His rising from the dead is our hope for redemption and our knowledge that we will be with God in heaven for forever. So friend, if you have not trusted in Jesus Christ for your salvation, hear the words of Isaiah: you: are in trouble.

You stand with the people of Jerusalem destined for destruction. But because God is good and in control, He has sent a Savior for you.

To take on that justice in your place and give you salvation. Michael mentioned it before, the path to salvation is clear. Repent of your sin and believe in Jesus Christ.

How sweet it is to know that in Christ, verses 22 and 24 can be yours today. If you turn from your rebellion against God and trust in Christ, God has redeemed you and will bring you into perfect light loving relationship with Him. Friend, your war with God can be over today.

Christian, keep trusting God as Redeemer. Sometimes in a world full of truth being turned upside down, we can become disoriented. We can become confused. We can become Discouraged. But, friend, Christian, brother and sister, encourage yourself by reading verse 18 again and again.

Hide it in your heart.

Sin does not surprise us. Opposition does not confuse us. And because of Christ, the grave cannot hold us. God's promises have been kept and will continue to be kept, regardless of your circumstance or any circumstance, because He is the one who is good and in control. Praise and trust God for who He is and what He has done, and take confidence that Jesus Christ has satisfied His justice on our behalf and has guaranteed our redemption for eternity.

God is good and God is in control. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come to you empty-handed. We come to you praising you for your justice trusting you in your promise of redemption. Lord, you are good and in control. We ask, Lord, that today and this week, that we would know that. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.