It's good to see you all. It's good to be back at Free Grace Baptist Church. You can turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. We're gonna consider Peter's denial this morning.
It's called, When the Rooster Crows. So we're gonna look at verses 66 through 72 this morning, but I will begin reading at verse 53 to set the context. Mark chapter 14, we'll begin reading at verse 53. And they led Jesus away to the high priest.
And with him were assembled all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes. But Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. Now the chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but found none.
For many bore false witness against him, but their testimonies did not agree. Then some rose up and bore false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But not even then did their testimony agree. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, Do you answer nothing?
What is it these men testify against you? But he kept silent and answered nothing. Again, the high priest asked him, saying to him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? Jesus said, I am.
And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, what further need do we have of witnesses? You've heard the blasphemy. What do you think?
They all condemned him to be deserving of death. Then some began to spit on him and to blindfold him and to beat him and say to him, prophesy. And the officer struck him with the palms of their hands. Now as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came.
And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, you also were with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are saying. And he went out on the porch, and a rooster crowed. And the servant girl saw him again, and began to say to those who stood by, this is one of them.
But he denied it again. And a little later, those who stood by said to Peter again, surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean and your speech shows it. And he began to curse and swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak. And the second time the rooster crowed.
Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said to him, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And when he thought about it, he wept. Amen. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
O Lord our God, we are thankful for the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, O God, that he came down, he took on human flesh, and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And, O God, we see in this account, we know it was your predetermined purpose, but we see the wickedness of man on display, in crucifying the Lord of glory, but also how the disciples scattered, also how one of the disciples denied our Lord. And we're thankful, O God, that Christ did go the way of the cross to die for wretched sinners, even those who might deny Christ in a time of pressure.
Thank you, God, that there is mercy and forgiveness, as there was for Peter. There's mercy and forgiveness for sinners that are found in the finished work of the Savior. We're thankful that He alone went to the cross. We're thankful that He alone died on the cross.
He alone was buried. He alone was raised. And we shall be raised with Him. Thank you for this promise that you've given to us.
Thank you for this truth that we can cling to day by day, that Christ is a gracious and good Lord. Christ is a powerful Lord. And Christ forgives and saves sinners like us. And so we ask God you'd help us this day to understand what your word says.
Give us illumination, we pray. Give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation by your spirit. And we pray today, oh God, that you would strengthen your saints. Help us to realize how weak we are and how much we need you.
And we also pray, oh God, that you'd save sinners this day, that you would work in their hearts a mighty work by your spirit, and we pray that you'd work with the word as you do so. And in all things, oh God, we pray that you'd be glorified, and we pray these things in the name of Christ, amen.
Introduction
Well, some sounds can trigger an emotional response. Sometimes that response is a warm and fuzzy response. Sometimes it's a negative response. And I've done this experiment with my daughter.
It's called Daddy Snacks. It's kind of like Pavlov's dog, but every time I open the pantry door and every time I grab a wrapper, I hear the pitter-patter of little feet come by. It doesn't matter where I am or where she is in the house, but all of a sudden there's two beady eyes looking straight up at me. She associates the sound of the door with some snacks.
Now that's a silly little example, but it was something that was very real for Peter in a negative way. with respect to the rooster that crows twice. Now remember that Mark, even though he is the author, the apostolic authority is Peter. In a lot of ways, this is Peter's gospel. And Peter himself alone mentions how it's twice the rooster crows.
He remembers the day that he denied his Lord. Now, remember too, Peter was the one who confessed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, driving to that point in Mark's gospel in Mark chapter eight. And Mark is trying to answer the question, who is Jesus? And Peter's the one who says, you are the Christ, the Son of God. and how far he falls on the day of his Lord's death as he denies his Lord.
Who is he and who does he say that he is when people ask and people are watching? Who does he confess Jesus to be when a servant girl asks him, were you not with Jesus of Nazareth? And the bigger picture when it comes to the section in Mark's gospel, it is Jesus' passion. It's the way he goes to his cross, the way in which he will die.
He wants us to see how alone Jesus really is when he goes to the cross. The enemies hate him, his disciples scatter, and even there's this naked streaker in 51 and 52, and no name who runs away as well. Jesus is very alone as he goes to die. And so it's in this section that we see then how further alone Jesus is when Peter denies his Lord.
I think that's the problem that we see in these verses. How one so easily can fall and deny our Lord. The fear of man leads to denial of our Lord. And that Peter feared being identified with him, he feared man.
And I think our own fear of man is greater than we care to admit. We all like to think we would stand up in a day of oppression. We all like to think we'd stand up in a time of persecution. But the only way we can do so is by the power of God Most High to keep us strong in those moments.
You'd be surprised how often in history God's people fall. But there is great mercy and forgiveness. Even if one denies the Lord, there is forgiveness in Christ. And so we see in verses 66-72, Peter denies his Lord, fulfilling Christ's prediction.
He does so before the rooster crows twice. So we'll frame this sermon under two headings, under that idea of the rooster crowing twice. So first of all, we'll see before the rooster crows once, verses 66 through 68. Then secondly, we'll see before the rooster crows twice, verses 69 through 72.
So before the rooster crows once, and then before the rooster crows twice.
Before the Rooster Crows Once
So let's see what happens before the rooster crows once, verses 66 through 68. And notice in verse 66, now as Peter was below in the courtyard, One of the servant girls of the high priest came in. We cannot miss the sandwich effect that is going on here in Mark's gospel. A lot of the language we see in verse 66 is a bookend with verse 54.
But Peter followed him in at a distance, Didn't want to be associated with him, he follows him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. We cannot miss the irony. We cannot miss the contrast that Mark is trying to display here.
Peter is in the courtyard below. Peter is in the courtyard down from where Christ is in the upper room, as Christ himself is giving a true witness. In the face of false witnesses, in the face of potential death, Christ says, I am, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven. And what then does Peter do in the courtyard?
What then does Peter do at the same time Christ is on trial? Well, we see
The First Denial: Pleading Ignorance
Peter is fearful of a little servant girl. So the servant girl of the high priest, she comes in, Peter is there warming himself with the other servants. She wanders in and she sees him warming himself, again, going with verse 54, and she looked at him. She looked at him and Luke's gospel says she looked intently.
She stares for a moment. She wonders where she's seen this one before. And I don't know about you, but I don't like to be stared at. I probably shouldn't have been a pastor because everybody's staring at me right now, but I don't like to be stared at when I don't expect anybody to be staring at me.
I don't like to be stared at perhaps when I'm trying to hide myself. And so Peter's trying to hide himself. He doesn't want to be seen. Here comes this girl looking straight at him.
And Luke's gospel says he looked intently. intently, or she looked intently. She had a stare, she had a gaze upon her that she's seen this person before and it kind of spooks Peter. So she looks at him and she says, you also were with Jesus of Nazareth. She identifies who the ringleader is.
She identifies that it's this Jesus of Nazareth. You were once with him. And notice what he does in the first encounter, verse 68. But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are saying.
He pleads ignorance." Now we know Peter suffers from hand, foot, and mouth disease. It's probably something you and I struggle with as well. We kind of put our foot in our mouths more than we'd like to admit, but we Thankfully, there's mercy and forgiveness in Christ. And Peter does it often.
Right after he confesses, you're the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus says, I'm going to go die. And Peter says, no way. And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan.
Peter says in Mark 14, after Jesus says all the disciples are going to scatter, Peter's like, not me. Even if everybody else, I'm not going to be the one who does it. And that's when Jesus says, assuredly, I say to you that day, even this night, or today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And perhaps as Pastor Butler said when he went through Matthew's gospel, Peter's three naps in the garden precede Peter's three denials.
And this is his first encounter, his first denial. In the first place, he pleads ignorance. Now what's interesting is Ryle points out how small a temptation it really is. Jesus has threat of death.
Now perhaps Peter would have been associated with him and he was fearful he might receive the same treatment. But notice really how small a threat it really is. How small a person and how minor the temptation that leads him to sin.
The Danger of Small Temptations
Ryle says, let us beware of making light of temptations because they seem little and insignificant. There is nothing little that concerns our souls. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little spark may kindle a great fire.
A little leak may sink a great ship. A little provocation may bring out from our hearts great corruption and end in bringing our souls into great trouble. It was a little threat from a little girl that began to set Peter off on the path to denial. So he starts here.
He pleads ignorance and he says, He goes out, you don't understand what you're saying, he goes out on the porch, probably, again, it's dark, by the fire you can be seen, he goes to the porch to hide. No one's gonna see him there, right? It's darker, he's trying to hide his face and his shame. And then only Mark has that last part of the verse there, and a rooster crowed.
And a rooster crowed. You'd like to think, perhaps, that Peter would clue in, right? The rooster crowed. Jesus said the rooster's gonna crow twice.
And as you're reading it, you're kind of like, Peter, the rooster crowed once already. Pay attention. Do you know what's happening? So often, perhaps, we forget to hear and clue in to what is going on.
And he doesn't. And things get far more worse for him. I think what this whole section really teaches us is how fearful of man we really are. Brethren, again, we never like to admit that, but we are much more afraid of what man thinks than we like to say.
We're not as courageous as we'd like to think we would be. And most people won't stand up for what is right when their life and their livelihood are on the line. It's easy to say you will when everything's great. It's easy to say you will when we're plump and fat because we've had a good meal.
It's easy to say all those things. But it's very difficult when perhaps your sleep is deprived when you're being beaten, when you're being tortured. It's a much different scenario. And it's not as though Peter's life was being threatened here.
Pilate, he just desired to gratify the people, yet he still sinned. And perhaps a modern example, I'm just doing my job. The fear of man leads to denials of our Lord. That's why there's a reason in history that people threaten Christians with violence.
There's a reason in history that God-haters threaten God's people with violence. They want you to fear. They want you to be scared. They want you to fear man rather than God.
That's why in those moments, it's best to pray now, when all things are good, that we would have strength in those times. Strength in those moments that God would give us the strength we need to stand in those times. And that's important for the original audience of the book. And that's why it's important for us as well.
The original audience here is the Roman Church. And they would have been facing, perhaps, the reality of persecution. They would have been facing the reality of oppression. And so they had to ask themselves, they had to question and examine themselves, Lord, give me the strength to stand in those dark times.
And perhaps as we read history as well, we can see many a times how God's people cave. how God's people break when they are brutalized by others. There's a Pentecostal pastor who lived in Bulgaria. His name was Harlan Popov. I probably didn't say it as well as my Russian members at our church do, but he was arrested under charges of conspiring against the state.
Most of the time when you preach the gospel, you're not arrested for preaching the gospel. You're arrested and charged for conspiring against the state. And he does talk about a lot of different ways they were tortured. He eventually spent 13 years in prison.
But to get a confession out of him, to confess that, yeah, he was conspiring against the state, what the Soviets did is they would bring him out at nighttime into a room that was white. They would shine a light right on the white walls and he'd have to stand. And anytime he shut his eyes, he'd get smacked. Anytime he fell over, he'd get smacked.
Anytime anything happened where he wasn't staring at the white wall, he would get smacked. Because what they were trying to do was not just break their bodies, but break their minds. Now, it wasn't so much that he denied his Lord, but he writes in his memoir about how we all went to trial and we all said, we did it. A bunch of pastors were brought out.
They all said, yeah, we did it. We engage in crimes against... They all confessed how brutalized God's people can be. And may this passage teach us and give us a sober recognition of how much we need our God and how much we fear man.
We must be aware of the rooster's crow, and more importantly, the words of our Lord in those times.
Before the Rooster Crows Twice
So that's what happens before the rooster crows once. Let's then look, secondly, at before the rooster crows twice, verses 69 through 72. And notice Mark's very abrupt here. It's to build suspense.
And the servant girl saw him again and began to say with those who stood by. This is one of them, but again, he denied it. Again, she's interacting with the ones who perhaps they're a little bit longer than she was. Isn't that the guy?
Wasn't he walking around with Peter, the servant girl, identifies him again, and Mark has lesser detail here, again, to build that suspense for us, to build the intensity and build tension. The Bible isn't just true, it's also the most well-written book there ever was, and certainly we see that as tension builds. Builds to that third denial in verse 70 through 72. Notice, and a little later.
Luke says it's about an hour, about an hour later. Hopefully, within that hour, you have time to regroup and collect your thoughts and maybe get ready for the next one, but not so here. A little later, those who stood by said to Peter again. Surely you are one of them for you are a Galilean and your speech shows it.
He's identified by the difference in his speech. You realize American and Canadians talk different? I didn't realize that till I lived in America and everybody said you do say a boot a lot of the time. People understood that.
We might look different or look the same, but we sound very different. I think in Britain, too, there's different dialects and the different way they speak with the different accents. And so they could see that here with the Galilean. Surely you are one of them.
You are a Galilean, and your speech shows it. And this is where we see Peter's best in action. I'm being sarcastic, by the way. Now, I don't think other people understand I can be sarcastic sometimes, but that's okay.
But we see his worst, if you wanna be honest and real.
The Third Denial: Cursing and Swearing
Verse 71, he began to curse and to swear. Peter does not let his yes be yes and his no be no. And the language of swearing there does come up in Matthew chapter five, where Jesus says, let your yes be yes and your no be no. That is, don't be rash in swearing an oath.
That's exactly what Peter does here. And he adds the curse to it as well. Then he began to curse and to swear. And again, don't miss the contrast.
Don't miss the irony. Don't miss what's going on in the upper room where Jesus is standing on trial. Jesus is falsely accused by the Sanhedrin while he bears witness, you will see me sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of But his disciple is denying Him and bearing false witness. Jesus is being falsely accused and now his disciple is bearing false witness.
And so when he invokes this curse, what he is saying is, if what I say or what I do does not happen, may whatever I invoke, may it be happened to me. May there be consequences if what one says is not true. And perhaps to the language of swearing is calling upon perhaps God, or a transcendent entity, as the lexicons say, for aid. I will do it.
I will engage it. This is absolutely true. And he says, I do not know this man. Notice he can't even say his name.
I do not know this man. Far different from Mark 8, 29, where he says, you are the Christ, the Son of God. Harry won't even identify himself with Jesus. When there's all the marbles, when everything's at stake, he crumbles and he falls.
And notice what clues him in, 72.
Peter Remembers the Word of Christ
A second time, the rooster crowed. Again, only Mark includes the twice aspect of it. Usually when we're reading the Gospels, it's good to look at how they mesh, but it's also more important, I think, to look at how they differ. Luke's emphasis seems to be the look.
The little girl looked intently, and then Jesus looked after the rooster crowed, right? Peter was more concerned about the look of a girl than the look of his Lord. That, I think, is Luke's emphasis. Well, here, Mark's emphasis is the twice.
Twice. Twice. Before the rooster crows, twice. Peter likely remembered it till the day he died.
I don't think they had alarm clocks back then, so he would have heard a lot of roosters crowing. I'm sure he remembered it every time. I denied my Lord that day. I denied.
I'm surmising, I'm speculating, I know that, but perhaps he did. He remembered it was the day he died, and we see that here. He told Mark, Mark, it was twice. the rooster crowed twice. He remembers the prediction just as Jesus had said, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.
The words of Jesus in Mark 14.30 finally ring true for Peter here in Mark 14.72. What Jesus had said would happen has come to pass. And so what does Peter do? When he thought about it, he wept.
All who he thought he was, all what he thought he was, has been shattered in this moment. He went from the confessor in Mark 8 to the denier in Mark 14, and he goes out and he weeps.
Forgiveness and Restoration in Christ
Now, thankfully, this isn't the end for Peter. Certainly with Judas, it was. Judas did not find mercy in Jesus. In Mark's gospel, once Judas betrays the Lord, he's out.
Matthew has Judas when he hangs himself, but not so in Mark's gospel. But Peter does not do what Judas does. It's a contrast with him. And thankfully, again, this is not the end.
France says his remorse contrasted with Judas' apparently settled disloyalty, points to failure under pressure, rather than a deliberate change of allegiance. And for that, Marx readers will have noted with relief, there remains the prospect of forgiveness and rehabilitation. There is mercy and forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, if you suffer, you have Christ who is with you.
If you go through persecution, you have Christ who is with you and who will give you the strength that you need. But if you deny, there is a Christ who forgives as well. And so while it's good for us to see how fearful of man we are, it's also more important to see how forgiving Christ is in these verses. Notice what Jesus forgives.
Denial. Brethren, denial is not the unforgivable sin. And you see that with Peter here. Now, John gives us a more detailed restoration of Peter.
You know, he asks him three times, Peter, do you love me? And Peter says, I love you. Mark, once again, is a little more subtle. Matthew and the others are perhaps a little more meat and potatoes.
They just tell you like it is. Mark kind of draws us in and sometimes uses less words to help us to stop and to think. But we see the forgiveness in two words in Mark 16 verse 7. And I think in Mark 16, 7, it is a restoration and a comfort of the promise of what Jesus said in the denial prediction in Mark 14, verses 27 through 31.
But notice, these ladies come upon the day of his resurrection. There's a young man sitting on the right side. They were alarmed. They were afraid.
Mark is all about fear in his gospel. He wants us to examine where our fear lies. Is it with God or with men? You seek Jesus, this young man says, an angel, who is crucified.
He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter.
He specifically singles out Peter. Just two words that signify Jesus's forgiveness in this book. Sometimes we need John 21, but sometimes we just need two words, and Peter. And in that message of Aunt Peter to the disciples the ladies were to bring, it highlights that the risen Savior still loves them, the risen Savior identifies with them, suffered for them, and forgives them.
Because brethren, the best of men are men at best. And there are many of God's true saints who engage in wicked sins and might even deny. But if one who denies confesses their sins and believes on Christ and has believed on Christ, can find mercy in Him. Ryle again says, let us be careful to remember that Simon Peter's case does not stand alone.
The Word of God contains many other examples of the infirmity of true believers, which we shall do well to observe. The histories of Noah, Abraham, David Hezekiah will supply us with mournful proof that the infection of sin remains even in the regenerate, and that no man is so strong as to be beyond the danger of falling. Let us not forget this. Let us walk humbly with our God.
Happy is the man who is always reverent. Many of God's people have fallen, but God's people find mercy in Christ and what he has done. So that's the sin that Christ forgives. But also notice the repentance that he forgives as well.
Now, perhaps I'm stretching things. That's possible. But we see at the end there in verse 72, he wept. Now, what is repentance?
It's a change of mind. It's a sorrow over sin. And I think it's good for God's people to verbalize it. I'm sorry for the specific sin that I have committed.
It's good to verbally repent and seek forgiveness for known sins against God and against man. And it really should be words. But sometimes God hears our tears, doesn't he?
Scripture Reading
Turn with me to Psalm 39. In Psalm 39, David is praying a prayer of forgiveness, seeking forgiveness from his God, the one he hopes in. And he says in verse 8 of Psalm 39, Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the reproach of the foolish.
I was mute. I did not open my mouth, because it was you who did it. Remove your plague from me. I am consumed by the blow of your hand.
When with rebukes you correct man for iniquity, you make his beauty melt away like a moth. Surely every man is a vapor, say La. So it is in the context of confessing his sin. And he says in verse 12, hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry.
Do not be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Remove your gaze from me that I may regain strength before I go away and am no more. But it's that language, do not be silent at my tears.
Tears. God even forgives the tears of his people. Sometimes we hold grudges longer than God does. Sometimes we think that our being righted is more important than forgiveness.
And sometimes we require to say, I'm sorry, please forgive me. And people should say, I'm sorry, please forgive me. But notice how quick God is to forgive. He went out and he wept.
Judas doesn't weep in Matthew chapter 26, 27. Peter weeps. And this is probably so hard for us to grasp. Forgiveness is so hard for us to grasp.
It is so very foreign to us, isn't it? Brethren, we believe it. We believe it to be true. We believe it as it says in the gospel.
We believe upon Christ and find forgiveness in him. But brethren, as we are born into this world, We still want things to be right. We still want people to receive their comeuppance. Don't deny it.
You all want it. You want it in your families. You want it with your spouses. We do.
We are so very slow to forgive. But God is a God who forgives.
Application
And that's an important thing for us to see in these verses. Yes, Peter's denial. Yes, his fear. Yes, our weakness.
But more importantly, the forgiveness that God gives us. The forgiveness that God shows us in the work of the Son. And when you consider the fear of man, when you consider the depravity of man, when you consider all the wickedness in this world, a most perplexing question should arise in our minds. Why in the world does he forgive?
Why in the world should he forgive? Why in the world do we deserve forgiveness? And the answer to that question is we do not deserve forgiveness. It is a gift that God gives, and we receive that gift through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even someone who denies can find forgiveness in the Lord. And so brethren, if you are in Christ, and you still struggle with sins, and you are fearful about denying the Lord, and you do, perhaps in time and space, There is forgiveness in Him. Never forget, He forgives all the sins of His people, past, present, and future. And why does He do this?
Because He is good. He is love. And we see this manifested in the work of the Son. how that Son was sent, that Son took on human flesh, and that Son died upon the cross for wretched sinners like you and I. We should see how forgiving God is.
And if you're an unbeliever here today, no doubt you have violated God's law a myriad of times. No doubt you've done wicked things and brought shame upon friends, upon yourself. You've done terrible things to others, but there is mercy and forgiveness in Christ. Believe upon Him, you shall be saved, and you shall find forgiveness for your sins in the blood of the Lamb.
This is what we see before the rooster crows twice. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our gracious God, please forgive us for our fear of man. Please forgive us for our weakness. Please forgive us for our pride. Please forgive us for our arrogance, O God.
We know that any sort of oppression, any sort of persecution that should come upon us is according to your plan. And we know, O God, that you will give us the fresh supply that we need in those moments. And so we ask, O God, while things are well, while things are going well, so to speak, from without, O God. We pray that you would prepare our hearts.
We pray, O God, that you protect us. We pray, O God, that you would help us to stand in those days and help us also to be reminded, though, O God, if we do not, that there is forgiveness in Christ for denying. We pray we wouldn't. We pray, O God, we would not deny our Lord.
We pray, O God, that we would not be like Peter, who did not identify with him. But we also pray, O God, that we would see that there is forgiveness in you. And so help us to see, O God, that You are a God who forgives, that You are a God who is merciful, You are a God who is kind. And we ask, O God, as we ponder and consider all Your good works, that we would then fear You.
For we know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We pray, O God, that we would fear You by faith. And so we pray, O God, that you give your people encouragement and strength today. Thank you, O God, you teach us how weak we are and how much we need you.
Thank you, O God, that you remind us day by day and week by week of the forgiveness that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not deserve this forgiveness that we have received. So thank you, O God, for taking our sins away. May it cause us to bless, may it cause us to praise, and may it cause us as well to be forgiving. towards others.
Please forgive us for not being forgiving. And so we also pray, O God, that you'd supply us with the strength that we need day by day to honor and glorify you. We pray, O God, that we would do so as we recount all the good things that you've done for us. And we pray, if there are any here today who do not know you, we pray, O God, you'd work in them a mighty work by your Spirit with the Word.
Show them their sin and show them the fountain filled with blood that is drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Thank you, O God, for your grace. Thank you for your love. And we pray that we, your people, would give you honor and praise and glory.
And we pray these things in the name of Christ. Amen. Well, we'll close with a brief time of meditation. Is that right?
Okay. And when the pianos finish, you're dismissed.