It Was Always God's Plan to Forgive You

[00:00:00] Ah, we, we encourage the church to invite their family and friends to come with them. [00:00:13] It's what the church has done for 2000 years. [00:00:21] Last Sunday, last week, Easter week, you invited your friends and our church broke an all time attendance record. [00:00:40] 5674 people worshiped at this church last week. [00:00:51] And they didn't like the parking, so they didn't come today. [00:00:59] It is a beautiful thing to see God at work. [00:01:03] And we ought to have hearts of gratitude for how God has favored our church and blessed us. [00:01:11] Our dear Heavenly Father, we are exploring your work in the life of Jonah so we can confront the reluctance in our own soul. [00:01:28] I pray this morning that you would teach us a repentance that is pleasing to you and distinguish it from. [00:01:42] A repentance that is not what you asked for. [00:01:48] And then I pray that we could see in Jesus Christ one who is altogether worthy of our full confidence. [00:01:58] In Christ's name, Amen. [00:02:05] Ashur Dan III was the emperor of Nineveh, the Assyrian Empire. [00:02:15] When Jonah showed up to preach there, He ruled for 18 years. [00:02:26] 1770 means 773 to 755 BC and they were not good years. [00:02:45] When assured on heard Jonah's message. [00:02:52] There had already been two major plagues in the city. [00:02:58] Nineveh was a major hub of an international trade route that went all the way from India to Egypt. [00:03:13] So because they were constantly exposed to different cultures, they were open to epidemics. [00:03:24] And there had already been two disastrous, disastrous epidemics in Ashur Dan's reign. [00:03:34] On top of that, it was a time where the, the emperor was losing power and the nobles were gaining power. [00:03:51] And so they didn't have elections there. You became emperor by knocking off whoever was the emperor. [00:04:01] And Ashur Dan had to put down five major revolts. [00:04:09] Ah, and if that isn't enough, by the time Jonah preached there in 763, a eclipse, a full eclipse of the sun happened. [00:04:29] It's, it's called the Bar Sehgal eclipse. [00:04:34] And in the ancient world where they didn't understand the mechanics of the solar system, they always took an eclipse as a divine warning that a disaster is coming. [00:04:50] So when Ashur Dan sat in his palace in Nineveh and his advisors came to him and said, there is a prophet here from Israel and he has heard a word from the Lord that unless this city repents, God will Destroy it in 40 days, that message sounded altogether different to him. And because of what had happened in the natural history that was happening, happening around him, God used the events of History with the message of Jonah to convince the emperor that he needed to repent. [00:05:48] This is another example of the providence of God. [00:05:52] God is at work in the natural world around us to accomplish the things that he needs to accomplish to glorify and validate his name. [00:06:08] And he's always going to do it. He's always done it and he's always going to do it. [00:06:14] God prepared the world of Nineveh to hear the message that Jonah's speaking to them. [00:06:24] I believe that like I said last week, God has a message for every single one of us. [00:06:33] Everyone in this room. God wants to speak to everyone online. God wants to speak to everyone in some meaningful way. [00:06:42] And he's using the circumstances of your life to validate and affirm the message that he has for you. [00:06:55] I believe we do something very healthy when we stop fighting with life and we start saying to God, instead of why are you doing this? [00:07:08] We start saying to God, what is it that you want me to learn from these experiences in my life? [00:07:17] These things that are happening in my life right now? [00:07:21] What is it that you want me to learn from them so that my heart is more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ? [00:07:33] I don't want to fight with life anymore. I want to learn from life. [00:07:42] So in the ancient world, the pagans had two approaches to dealing with their thought that God was displeased with them. [00:07:58] And the most common was what we call asceticism. [00:08:03] So asceticism is this idea, if God is angry with you, you appease him through self denial and austerity. [00:08:13] And that's exactly what Asher Dan did. He said, I'm taking off my royal robes, I'm going to wear hair cloths and, and I'm going to fast, I'm going to self punish in the hope that I can please God. [00:08:40] We're going to find out. [00:08:43] God is not interested in you punishing yourself. [00:08:48] Church, listen what parent says, ooh, things are going well. [00:09:01] My kids are punishing themselves. [00:09:08] My kids are making their life miserable. [00:09:11] What parent would ever think such a thing? [00:09:14] So why would we think the God of the universe would be happy if his children made themselves miserable in some vain attempt to, to appease him? [00:09:29] Church, God is not delighted in your misery. [00:09:36] Listen, God is most glorified when his kids are most happy. [00:09:46] Asceticism, fasting, denying yourself, making yourself miserable is not an appropriate approach to God. It is a pagan approach to God. [00:10:01] I'm gonna talk to you about this a little more. I've changed my mind radically on This I used to believe in fasting and I think it's a misunderstanding. [00:10:13] All right? [00:10:15] The second thing the pagans did was called antinomianism, and that basically means it's not a sin. [00:10:28] Antinomianism is this idea that sin is just something that we made up and that sin is not really an issue with God. [00:10:41] And if he does have an issue with it, he has ways of overlooking it. [00:10:51] So asceticism, the pagans said, is punish yourself and God will be satisfied with you. [00:10:58] They also said, ah, don't worry about it. Sin is just something people made up. It's not a real thing, and you don't really have to worry about it. All right? Both of these approaches are obviously wrong. [00:11:14] All right? The problem is they made their way from the pagan world into Christianity and Christianity absorbed some of these, these concepts. [00:11:30] Ah. [00:11:38] There is in every major Christian faith there is a strain of this asceticism where if you, if you really want to be spiritual, you. You have to abuse your body. [00:11:58] If you really want to be spiritual, you. You have to deny yourself. [00:12:05] Something's basically wrong if you're enjoying life and not groveling before God. [00:12:14] I've seen this kind of religion my entire life. All right? [00:12:21] We're going to learn from Isaiah that that's not what God wants. [00:12:25] So the first thing Asher Dan does when he puts together Jonah's message and the 18 years of his reign is he says, I have to appease God. [00:12:36] And he chooses the asceticism approach. [00:12:40] He's going to make himself miserable. [00:12:43] The problem is he's not going to make just himself miserable. He's going to make everybody around him miserable because misery loves company. [00:12:54] Ah. [00:12:57] He issued a proclamation and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and the nobles. Do you see? He had to include the nobles because the king was losing power and he needed the support of the noble soul. The decree came from the king and the nobles. Let neither beast nor man, herd or flock taste anything. [00:13:23] Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with haircloth. [00:13:33] Ah. [00:13:38] In asceticism, it's not enough that the person who's punishing himself is punishing himself. They want everybody else to do the same thing. [00:13:57] It's not enough for the king to say, I'm going to make myself miserable. He says, I'm going to make everybody else around me miserable. [00:14:06] Now church we've. [00:14:10] Christianity has let that creep in. [00:14:15] Church was never meant to be a place where people came to join in the misery. [00:14:25] Could I Remind you the joy of the Lord is our strength. [00:14:30] Church, could I remind you that the fruit of the Spirit is not misery. It's love, joy, peace. [00:14:42] Can you see this? [00:14:44] If the church is doing its job, it's helping people connect to God in a soul enriching way. [00:14:55] If the church isn't doing its job, we're finger pointing at rule breakers and we're doing the best we can to make them feel bad enough to stop breaking the rules. [00:15:09] Anybody? [00:15:10] Has anybody experienced this in your Christian life? [00:15:16] All right, this is not the. This is not who we are. As Christ Church, we believe that when God does his best work in us, something of the innate blessedness of God flows through us. [00:15:39] You do know God is never miserable? Church, you know, God has not been miserable one minute in his eternal existence. [00:15:50] And it's called eternal blessedness. Okay? Why would a being who is eternally blessed expect those who follow him to be miserable? [00:16:09] Is it not totally inconsistent? [00:16:12] Can you not see that this is totally inconsistent with. With the character of God? [00:16:17] All right, okay. Misery loves company. [00:16:22] Asher Don says, I'm going to make myself miserable. Maybe I can please appease God. And he said, by the way, I'm making all of you miserable. [00:16:31] Maybe all of us together can please God. And that's not enough. [00:16:36] He's got to abuse the animals. [00:16:40] And by the way, you can't feed or give any of your animals water. [00:16:47] Can you see that there is an innate flaw in Asher Dan's approach to God? [00:16:56] You're going to be miserable. And by the way, no feeding Zobear and no giving her a water for whatever. [00:17:06] All right, the pr. [00:17:10] The problem with this is I've heard this explained as if the king did something right. That this, when he fasted and prayed and made himself miserable and made everybody else miserable, that somehow or another that was the right thing to do and that it pleased God. [00:17:32] And that is the wrong reading of what's happening here. [00:17:36] Do you remember I told you from the beginning, this is a book about Jonah and God. [00:17:43] And this is a book where we get to see God at work in a powerful way. [00:17:51] And Jonah responded wrong to God to begin with. [00:17:55] And now Asher Dan is responding wrong to God. [00:18:06] Matthew Henry said, it's not enough to fast for sin. We have to fast from sin. [00:18:14] You like that? [00:18:18] Now we have the prophet Isaiah explain God's view of fasting. This comes from Isaiah 58, and it begins by Isaiah asking three questions. And we have to read these as questions. We can't read them as statements. [00:18:38] Isaiah is speaking in the name of the Lord. And he asked these three questions. [00:18:44] Is such the fast that I choose? [00:18:50] The Lord says, do. Is this the kind of fast I want you to do? [00:18:55] A day for a person to humble himself? [00:18:59] Is it to bow down his head like a reed or to spread hair, cloth and ashes under him? [00:19:09] Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? [00:19:15] Listen what the Lord is saying. He's saying, I'm not asking you for a day of fast where you humble yourself and bow your head like a reed. I'm not asking you to wear hair cloth and ashes. [00:19:30] I want you to know that's not acceptable to me. [00:19:35] Are you, Are you paying attention to this church? [00:19:39] And then he says, this is the kind. This is what I mean by fasting. The Lord said, you want to fast in a way that pleases me. I'll tell you what to do. [00:19:50] Verse 6. [00:19:52] Is this, is not this the fast that I choose? [00:19:58] Now listen to this. [00:19:59] To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke? [00:20:12] Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? [00:20:26] Do you see how radically different that is than God is pleased if you make yourself miserable? [00:20:34] Can you see the big contrast? God is not pleased when you make yourself miserable. He's pleased when you make. When you loose the bonds of wickedness in your own heart, when you let go of your your clinging to wickedness in the lives of people around you, when you help them find freedom from wickedness, when you undo the straps of the yoke, you help take the burden of life off of people. [00:21:08] You let the oppressed go free. [00:21:12] You share your bread with the hungry. [00:21:17] You help people who are underclothed find clothing. [00:21:23] God is not looking for self punishment. He's looking for us to confront our own selfishness and do it in ways that. That we partner with him to meet the needs of people around us. Church do you want to fast? Fast from selfishness? [00:21:43] Do you want to fast? Fast from self indulgence? [00:21:48] Do you want to fast? Fast from the apathy that allows you to see a broken and needy world around you and not care? [00:21:58] That's the kind of fast God wants. [00:22:01] That's what he's looking for. [00:22:04] When I read this passage, I remember Jesus in the Gospel saying, ah, ah, ah. When he separated the sheep and the goats, he said to the sheep, ah. When I was Hungry, you fed me when I was thirsty, you gave me a drink when I was naked, you clothed me when I was sick. And in prison you visited me. [00:22:33] Ah. [00:22:34] And they say to him, when did we do that? And Jesus says, as much as you did it unto one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it to me. [00:22:46] Do you see what God is saying? [00:22:48] God is saying he doesn't want you to be miserable. [00:22:52] He wants you to be empowered by the strength of the Holy Spirit and partner with him in touching a broken world. [00:23:02] Can you hear this Church? [00:23:07] If, then Isaiah says, if you will fast like God wants you to, then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily. [00:23:19] Your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. [00:23:24] Then you shall call in. The Lord will answer, you shall cry. And he will say, here I am. [00:23:31] And then he summarizes it all in this. [00:23:34] If you take away the yoke from your midst and the pointing of the finger and the speaking of wickedness, can you. Can you hear the word of the Lord this morning when I repent? [00:23:50] Repentance is a turning away from my own selfishness and my own self indulgence. And it's turning toward the call of God to partner with him in healing a broken world church. [00:24:10] That's true repentance. [00:24:13] Repentance without partnership with God is a self deception. [00:24:29] Verse 8. [00:24:32] This is Ashur Don's decree. [00:24:36] Let them call out mightily to God. [00:24:40] Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. [00:24:46] Who knows? [00:24:47] God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. [00:24:55] Now he's getting to He. Now he's moving away from paganism and to true faith in God. He said, sackcloth and ashes is not enough. [00:25:07] We need to pray as diligently as we know how. And we need to turn away from evil. [00:25:13] Diligent prayer accomplishes more than haircloth and ashes. [00:25:21] Diligent prayer accomplishes more than self punishment. [00:25:29] He also says turning away from evil pleases the Lord more than self abuse. [00:25:37] There is a psychology to this and I want to talk to you about it for a minute. [00:25:44] In. [00:25:46] In our psyche, if we do something wrong and our souls condemn us, let's just pick something. [00:25:58] You lost your temper and you take the Lord's name in vain. All right. [00:26:02] Your soul ought to get sensitive to that and you ought to have a sense I did something wrong. I. [00:26:10] This is not who I am. [00:26:12] I don't take The Lord's name in vain. All right? [00:26:16] Now my soul has to do something with that. [00:26:20] If I'm not careful, I will fall into asceticism. [00:26:27] I'll start saying, ah, well, this. [00:26:35] This misery I'm feeling, I deserve it. And it's kind of like God's punishment for me, all right? [00:26:46] And then misery becomes a catharsis. [00:26:52] I. [00:26:53] My misery compensates in my mind for having done wrong. [00:27:02] I did wrong, but I was miserable about it for three days, and that kind of compensates for it. [00:27:10] And then the edginess of doing wrong wears off, and we don't have any real change in our life. [00:27:19] Are you hearing this? [00:27:21] Is this your experience? You do something wrong, you feel bad about it for three or four days, the edginess of it wears off, and then you're back to your normal life. [00:27:31] But your soul hasn't changed, all right? This is the way it's supposed to work. [00:27:38] I take the Lord's name in vain. My soul says, dude, you can't be doing that. [00:27:46] That. That's not pleasing to God, all right? [00:27:51] And then in that moment, instead of me fixating on myself, instead of me fixating on my misery, in that moment, I lift up my heart to God and I begin by saying, ah, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I begin by saying, I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. [00:28:19] I begin by entreating God to forgive me for what I know is wrong. [00:28:27] All right? But then I take the next step and I say, I want you to work in my life in the kind of way that you replace my impulse to take your name in vain with an impulse that is more pleasing in your sight. [00:28:52] Sanctification is much of the work of the Holy Spirit. I'm asking you. I am aware that there's something wrong in my soul, that I feel the impulse to do that. [00:29:04] And now I'm not gonna get stuck in my misery. I'm gonna ask you to be at work in my life in a new way. I'm gonna have my eyes wide open to see how you're working in my life to recreate in my heart a different impulse. [00:29:21] Do you see? [00:29:23] Now I'm in the change process. [00:29:27] I didn't have a emotional catharsis through misery. [00:29:32] I'm having a spiritual life change because the Holy Spirit caught my attention and he said, you got something unfinished in your soul, and that's where that ugliness is coming from. [00:29:45] And now I'm going to be alert. I'm going to be. When I Read the Bible. I'm going to be looking for God to speak to me about what has to happen in my soul. [00:29:54] When I interact with other people, I'm going to try to learn by what God is doing in their soul. [00:29:59] Now I am in the change process and God is. God is at work to make me the person he wants me to be. And I'm not just going through another sin cycle. I'm actually growing in the grace and knowledge the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. [00:30:18] Are you hearing this church? [00:30:21] Are you hearing it in the way that you can use it? [00:30:25] All right. [00:30:27] True repentance is calling upon the name of the Lord and asking the Holy Spirit to recreate in you a clean heart so you can turn away from evil. [00:30:39] True repentance always requires a basic trust and hope in the goodness of God. Listen, what this pagan king says. He starts by saying, who knows? [00:30:52] You know what he's saying. [00:30:53] It could be that God is better than what we think. [00:30:58] It could be that God is more forgiving than what we think. [00:31:02] It could be that God is more gracious than what we think. [00:31:07] So let's assume that he is good and forgiving and gracious and let's seek him in this church. [00:31:17] If I assume God is good and gracious and merciful, when I sin, I want to go to him because I know what I need he has. [00:31:30] If I am not assuming that God is good and gracious and merciful, I want to hide from him because I am reluctant to to be around him when I know I have aired. [00:31:47] Are you here in this church? [00:31:49] How do you know if you have a healthy idea about God? What do you do when you sin? [00:31:56] If you have a healthy idea about God, sin drives you to Christ. [00:32:01] If you do not have a healthy idea about God, sin drives you away from Christ, who knows? [00:32:11] And then listen to what he says. This is the best part of the whole chapter. [00:32:17] Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. [00:32:27] Do you hear what he's assuming? I'm assuming that God is gracious and he will turn. He will relent. [00:32:38] This word that's translated relent is actually I've shared this word with you before. It's the word we get repentance from and it means metanoia. Change his mind. [00:32:50] Ah, this pagan king who knows almost nothing of the living God, says, who knows the great character of God and how his character might change this entire situation. [00:33:13] I want to ask you, what do you hope in God for? [00:33:23] If you had to take out a note card this morning and you had to write down, my hope in the Lord is for this. [00:33:32] What might you write when you are. [00:33:40] When you are the most displeased with yourself, when you are the most disappointed with yourself? [00:33:47] What do you hope in God for? [00:33:53] Ah, it matters, Church. [00:33:58] It absolutely matters. [00:34:01] We have to hope in God for the riches of his divine character. It draws us to him. It changes things. [00:34:13] Are you reluctant to hope in the Lord? [00:34:17] If you had to be absolutely honest, would you admit. I have a basic reluctance. [00:34:24] Ah. [00:34:26] When I am at my worst, I have a basic reluctance about drawing near to God. [00:34:35] And that reluctance can come from many things. But first of all, it has to be acknowledged. I'm not going to change until I acknowledge that. When I'm at my worst, I have a basic reluctance about seeking the Lord. All right. Now, if I can acknowledge that that's a starting point, I can. I can actually say, dear God, I. [00:35:05] I did wrong. [00:35:06] I offended you. [00:35:11] Ah, it's not the kind of person I want to be. [00:35:19] And I have to admit to you that right now I feel reluctant to come and talk to you about my failure. [00:35:27] But I'm asking for your Holy Spirit to strengthen me so that I can draw near to you and you can draw near to me. [00:35:34] You see, it becomes a spiritual starting point. [00:35:38] It's not something that I have to hide. It's not something I have to deny. It's an honest starting point with God. Dear God, I honestly feel reluctant. I pray that your Spirit would grant me new faith, new hope, new confidence in you. And I can draw near to you. And this can be a time of growth and change in my life. [00:36:05] All right. [00:36:10] When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way. [00:36:17] Do you look? [00:36:18] What did God see? He saw them turning from their evil way. He didn't. It doesn't say anything about them fasting and wearing a haircloth and throwing ashes on their head. [00:36:30] It doesn't say anything about that. It says just the opposite. What he saw was the change, the turning. [00:36:39] God took pleasure in their faith and hope. He saw them hoping in him. [00:36:47] And when he saw that he acted graciously. [00:36:58] God relented from the disaster that he had said he would do to them. And he did not do it. [00:37:06] Church, can I tell you one more time? [00:37:08] The Lord. The Lord God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. [00:37:23] Church. [00:37:24] Not just for good people, not just for American people, not just for people who come to church on Sunday, but even for pagan kings in Syria. He is the Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. [00:37:47] It was always God's purpose to forgive Nineveh. [00:37:51] That's why he sent Jonah there in the first place. [00:37:54] Open your heart to this church. [00:37:58] Some people say, well, God changed. I thought you said God never changed. No, God didn't change. [00:38:05] It was always his purpose to forgive Nineveh, and that's why he sent Jonah there to begin with. [00:38:13] He worked out his purpose both in Jonah's sermon and and in the providential happenings around King Ashardan. [00:38:24] This is really important. [00:38:27] God has an agenda and a purpose to bring people to repentance. [00:38:35] Can you hear this? [00:38:36] He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. [00:38:44] Can you hear that? He is at work for this holy and noble purpose of bringing us all to repentance. [00:38:53] In Numbers 23:19, a pagan king, Balak is trying to get a prophet, Balaam, to curse the people of God. [00:39:04] And he says, man, I'll pay you handsomely. And, and. And he tries three times to get him to curse the people of God, but he can't because Balaam says, I can't say anything that the Lord doesn't say. [00:39:19] And listen. What? Listen what? [00:39:21] Listen what the Prophet said. [00:39:24] Numbers 23:19. [00:39:26] God is not man that he should lie, or the Son of man that he should change his mind. [00:39:35] Has he said and will he not do it? [00:39:39] Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill? [00:39:44] Was always God's plan to forgive the people of Nineveh and give them another chance. [00:39:52] Ah, this is a book about Jonah and God, but it's also a book that foreshadows something in Jesus Christ. [00:40:06] Remember I quoted to you last week that Jesus made a connection between himself and Jonah. Would you hear this? [00:40:15] It has always been God's plan to forgive us, and that's why he sent Christ. [00:40:22] From the moment God envisioned you in his creative imagination, before he created the earth and everything that is on it, when he envisioned your unique soul, he envisioned it with a purpose of forgiving you in the mind of God. Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world. It has always been his purpose to forgive you. [00:40:51] Now, some of you need to take that to heart. [00:40:56] Some of you need to think differently about God. [00:41:01] It's always been his purpose to forgive you for whatever that thing is you're carrying around. With you and you're not forgiving yourself. [00:41:10] It's always been God's purpose to forgive that person that you have resentment and animosity about and won't forgive them. It has always been God's purpose to forgive them and that's why he sent Jesus Christ. [00:41:28] I don't believe in this myth that God is the angry God and Jesus is the appeasing God. [00:41:35] God loves God. The Father loves you every bit as much as Jesus Christ loves you. He is a loving and caring heavenly father, and it has always been his purpose to forgive you. [00:41:48] Whatever you're carrying around with you this morning, whatever regret, whatever remorse, whatever grudge the word of the Lord to you today is, it's always been God's purpose to forgive. [00:42:04] Now you need to let God forgive you. [00:42:08] And Church, Jesus taught us, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. [00:42:19] Church, it's always been God's purpose to forgive that thing. You're holding a grudge about, that thing. You have a resentment about, that thing you'll not. You have, you've been unable to let go of. It's always been God's purpose to forgive that. And now he says to you this morning, ah, ah, ah. [00:42:44] It is the heart of Christ to bring you to repentance and forgiveness. [00:42:51] The Lord doesn't change us. [00:42:54] I mean, the Lord doesn't change himself. He changes us. [00:42:58] I want you this morning to unreluctantly put your whole faith in Jesus Christ. [00:43:06] I want you to open your soul to him fully. [00:43:11] I want you to change from reluctance to full trust. [00:43:16] I want you to call upon the name in faith and hope. [00:43:22] And I want you to let God do his perfect work in your soul because it has always been his purpose to do that. [00:43:33] Our dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the book of Jonah. Thank you for what you're teaching us about who you are and how you work in the world. [00:43:42] And I pray this morning for the hearts that your spirit is touching right now in this room and online. [00:43:52] I pray that your spirit would do your perfect work in each one of us. [00:43:58] I pray that there would be a new sense of divine forgiveness. [00:44:03] I pray that there'd be a new sense of divine grace and mercy. [00:44:08] I pray that there'd be a new awareness of the indwelling goodness of God. [00:44:14] I pray that there would be a freedom, a breaking of the yoke and the oppression of evil and your people could be free to live in the joy of the Lord. In Christ's name, amen.