The River of Life

The River of Life
Ezekiel 47:1-12
November 1, 2026 

Ezekiel 47, beginning in verse 1, this is our final message in the book of Ezekiel. It's been a great, wonderful book. Of course, then we're going to go to the book of Daniel as we're continuing our way through the whole Bible. Then when we're done, we'll do it again. The title of our message, The River of Life. Very important, what He has for us in His Word. Let's open our hearts, and we see from God's Word together. Lord, we are so thankful because we know that you reveal your heart after us through your Word. Send it in power, God. We open our heart to receive it. Show us your grace and your glory through your Word. We pray in Jesus' name, and everyone said? Amen.

All right. Ezekiel is coming to the close of the book, God gives him this prophetic vision of the latter days. As we've been saying that he has a vision of a restored temple, and here, he speaks of a river flowing from the temple toward the east. Now, he's speaking of the coming millennial kingdom when Jesus rules and reigns upon the earth, but he gives a vision here that every dry and dusty place will be transformed. It's a vision of life where there had been death.

He's giving a vision to Ezekiel to speak to the Jews who had been there, exiled in Babylon, and they're discouraged. They're defeated. The nation has been defeated. The city of Jerusalem has been destroyed. The temple has been destroyed, and there they are in Babylon, they've given up all hope. They've given themselves up for dead. They couldn't see a way out. They couldn't see any hope, so God speaks a better word. He gives a vision to them of life far beyond all or any that they could have imagined.

Then this is important because, in a similar way, I think that God does the same for you and for me. When you get into a place of trouble and difficulty, and you come to the end of yourself, and you can't see any way out of it. All hope is lost, and that's where God speaks a better word. You may have given up, but God certainly hasn't given up. He wants to speak a word of life that will bring through the darkness and speak a word of encouragement to your soul, far beyond all that you can think or even imagine. You have no idea what God is going to do out of the midst of this trouble.

Now, He gives a vision. The water that flows from the temple begins as a trickle. Then, as Ezekiel is led farther down the river, it gets deeper up to the ankles, then farther still up to the knees, and then farther still up to the waist, and finally, he comes to a place where it's so deep that he has to swim. It cannot be forwarded. Then, he says, along the banks are trees, flourishing trees. He's speaking here of a vision of the life that flows from the sanctuary of God, and it's, of course, a powerful picture, for it flows even down to the Dead Sea. There, he says, the sea will become alive. That's the vision. That which God does, He brings life from the dead.

Interestingly, in Revelation 21 and 22, He takes us then into the age beyond the millennial reign of Christ, beyond the millennium, into a new heaven and a new earth. There, John has this vision, he writes a revelation, and he sees there also there's a river, and it's the river of life. It's an interesting, powerful, similar but distinct vision, but it's interesting because that river is a powerful vision. Now, it's a vision, yes, it's a prophetic vision, but it's a real river that will flow in the latter days. That river will be like a living declaration that where the Spirit of God moves, there is life. Then there's the invitation, come to the waters. Come, you who thirst, and drink your fill from the river of His delight.

I. Go Farther in; There are Deeper Places

He's speaking of a future, a vision for those who belong to Him, but you don't have to wait until heaven to receive this life from God. Jesus offered living water even now. He spoke that to a woman who is desperately in need, a woman of Samaria by this well. There He says, "I will give living water that will become a fountain of life upon your soul." It's a powerful picture, and He means it to be personal. He means you to apply this vision personally. It's a question of how deep, how far in do you want to go into the things of God? All right, let's read it.

We're in Ezekiel 47, and we begin in verse 1. "Then he, the man, brought me back to the door of the house, and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east." Now, I mentioned on Wednesday, it's a very important aspect here that it faces east. The Scripture says, when the Lord returns at the end of the age and all of His glory, He will appear from the east. In fact, did you know that all graves today face east? You go to a graveyard, you'll see it. All graves face east because it speaks to that very point. They will arise, and they will wait and greet Him when He comes from the east. All right, powerful picture.

Then it says, "And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar. He brought me out by way of the north gate, led me around on the outside of the outer gate, by way of the gate that faces east, and behold, water was trickling from the south side. When the man went out toward the east with a line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and then he led me through the water, water reaching the ankles. Again, he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the knees. Again, he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the loins or the waist. Again, he measured a thousand, and it was a river that could not be forded, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in a river that could not be forded.

He said to me, 'Son of man, have you seen this?' Then he brought me back to the bank of the river. Now, when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river there were very many trees on the one side and on the other side. Then he said to me, 'These waters go out toward the eastern region and go down into the Arabah.'" Now, if you don't know what the Arabah is, it is the Jordan River that extends out to the south into the desert. Into the Arabah it will go. Then he says, "The waters will go toward the sea, being made to flow into the sea, and the waters of the sea become fresh. Then it will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes will live. There will be very many fish, for these waters go there, and the others become fresh, so everything will live where the river goes."

That's a beautiful picture. Everything will live where this river flows. "Then it will come about that fishermen will stand beside it from Engedi to Eneglaim. There will be a place for the spreading of nets. The fish will be, according to their kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea, very many. Its swamps and its marshes along the edge will not become fresh." They will be left for salt, on purpose and for a purpose. We'll look at this in a moment. "By the river, on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither. Their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food, and their leaves will be for healing."

What a powerful picture. Love this chapter. It speaks of life that flows from the sanctuary of God, and it's a powerful picture, of course. There's a real river that flows in the latter days, a declaration, like a living declaration of the moving of the spirit of life, and bringing life wherever it goes. He means it to be personal. We should see it that way as well, like He's saying to us, "Go farther in." There are deeper places in the Lord. See, Ezekiel is not just shown the river. He's led into the river. As he went farther, the water becomes deeper and deeper until the water is so deep that he must swim. Of course, it's a picture, a beautiful picture of the fact that God is calling us. There is more to receive. There's more to understand. There's more of His glory. There's more of His goodness. The question is, how willing are you to go deeper and farther in? There are deeper places in the Lord.

Sometimes people measure their spiritual life by how long they've been a believer. It's not a question of how long you've been a believer. It's a question of how deep are you going in? How deep is the waters flowing? The greater question is deeper. The deeper you go, the more you're transformed. The more it touches, the more you are changed by it. For example, he's speaking of going deeper into God's Word. That doesn't mean that you learn to parse the verses, or you learn to parse the verbs, and you learn the original languages. No, he's talking about the fact that the Word of God goes to deeper places.

When it goes to deeper places in your soul, it will transform how you live. It will touch the deepest parts of who you are. It will change how you respond when someone offends you. It will strengthen your faith when you're going through troubles or difficulties. Going deeper means that the truth of God's heart becomes part of how you live. It becomes the treasure of your soul, Jesus spoke. He means that you would draw your life from that river that would reach into the deepest places of joy to your soul.

A. Water begins in the sanctuary

Notice what he says in verse 1, that the water begins in the sanctuary. The river comes from the house of God. He's brought right to its source. It's, of course, a spiritual picture that life that comes from the soul comes from the very throne room of God. It's God's presence because His presence and His glory is what the soul desires most. It's like Psalm 63:1-2, "Oh, God, you are my God, and I will seek you earnestly. My soul thirsts for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water." There's a picture of the world right there. It's a dry and weary land where there is no water. I seek you. Then he says, "For thus I have seen you in the sanctuary. To see your power and your glory."

John, who wrote Revelation, expressed the same truth. In the new Jerusalem, the water, he says, there's a river that flows. This is Revelation 22:1. There is a river of the water of life, notice, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and from the Lamb. The Lamb, of course, is the Lord Jesus himself. He's speaking of, again, that wonderful river of life, clear as crystal, that flows from the throne of God. How valuable he speaks of the water. The soul thirsts, longs. See, it's a great picture. The soul thirsts. It's like the body thirsts. If you've ever been in a really, really hot day and you've been working all day, and now you're driven by thirst. There's the picture of it. Driven by thirst. We want water, need water.

It reminds me, one time I was traveling, and I was at the airport, and I wanted something to drink. I went to the market there at the airport, and I couldn't believe my eyes, water was more expensive than grapefruit juice. I thought, "Wait just a minute. Surely it takes more effort to grow grapefruits and squeeze them than it does to pour water into a bottle," but people were buying the water. I'm cheap. I bought the grapefruit juice, but the water, right? People need the water. How infinitely more valuable is the water of life?

It's interesting. When we studied Jeremiah, we were in Jeremiah 2, and in 2:13, God speaks of the indictment that He has against His people. He says, "My people have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and then they've hewn out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot even hold water." This is the picture, isn't it? The tragedy of forsaking the fountain of living water. Living water is pure, flowing water, crystal clear, cool, fresh water. That's living water. In contrast to stagnant water. See, a cistern is like a reservoir that would be cut into the rock, and there would be a place for rainwater to sit there, and then that would be their source of water.

Can you imagine that water sitting there in that very warm Middle East temperatures and just getting stagnant, getting rancid? You've seen water that sits there for a long time, starts getting green, algae starts to grow, and it gets greener and greener and greener. What a contrast between living water and stagnant water. Then He says, not only that, your cisterns can't even hold water. What is this? You hewn out for yourselves where there's stagnant water, and then they're even broken. They can't even hold water. Now that's a picture. That's a spiritual picture of the soul. It's like sin drains. It's like the plug from the bottom taken out. It's like it just drains of spiritual life. You're just being drained, drained, drained of spiritual life.

B. Water reaching to the waist

What we, of course, know and see is that sin will mess you up. It messes up your thinking, your thoughts, your judgment. People are like, "Why am I messed up?" Well, because it's too much algae. It's just getting rancid. It's all algae, that's why. You need living water. You need living water, flows that brings life. Notice what he says, the water gets deeper. Water reaching to the waist, verses 3-4. Ezekiel is led through water that reaches the ankles and then the knees and then the waist. The increasing depth is that picture of growing deeper and deeper, farther in.

See, getting your feet wet, there's the beginning step. He's like, some people, that's all they do. They get their feet wet. It's like some people enter the swimming pool like that, one toe at a time. They announce the temperature of the water, "It's cold," and then 20 minutes later, they're just sitting on the edge dangling their feet, that's it. Whenever I think of that, it reminds me of our daughter, Nicole. She had no fear. As soon as she could start walking, forget watering, she's just jumping in the deep end.

I remember one story about when she was a teenager, and they were on a trip. There was this 30-foot cliff, and people would jump off into the water. One day she's there, and this group of teenage boys are all trying to muster up the courage to jump. She just walks right up, walks right through them, and just jumps right into the deep. That's Nicole, that boldness, without hesitation, going deeper. He's speaking of going deeper. It's not just learning more. Letting the Word, letting the Spirit, letting the glory touch deeper places. Sometimes you'll touch places that hurt. You need to heal it, but it hurts. Pride, touching pride. Oh, that hurts. Touching a relationship that you've kept out of the Lord's reach, it hurts. That's what you need. If He's going to heal it, He's going to touch it, it may hurt.

When I think of that, I think of when I was 14, I had a ruptured appendix. In those days, when I was growing up, a ruptured appendix mean you're in the hospital for weeks. I was there a long time. Of course, those days, things were different then. It was a ruptured appendix, they just lift the wound open, and they just stuff it with gauze. You're lying on your back, and pretty soon, after a while, you'd have been lying on your back too long, and the nurses start, like, "You got to get up. You got to move. You got to cough," and I didn't want to because it hurt. "No, you got to cough." "It hurts." Then they lean me up and start pounding on my back. You're not going to get better until it hurts.

Sometimes God will touch a place that hurts, but He's doing it to heal it. Spiritual lesson. The flesh resists, doesn't want. Many would rather hold on to an offense than let go of it, than forgive it. Many would rather hold on to their pride than admit they were wrong, because it hurts to admit you're wrong. Going deeper means trusting that when God touches it, even if it hurts, it's for good and glory. Even if your first response is to resist it, He'll speak life to it. Then notice, he's going deeper, even to the point, water that cannot be forded. Notice verse 5. Eventually, he reaches the river too deep to stand on your feet. He has to swim. Of course, it's a picture of trusting God far beyond the limits of our own human strength, to leave the security of land.

C. Water that cannot be forded

When you think of that, leaving the security of land, it may at first give a sense there's something to fear here. No, this is not the point at all. The flesh fears. The flesh is where insecurity comes from, and we want the security of the land. It reminds me of a time when I was a teenager, and a friend challenged me to swim across the Willamette River and back in winter. Now, I have to qualify this and say, look, we were teenagers, and we really didn't think this thing through. Sometimes I wonder how I even survived my teenage years. This was not smart. Do not do this. It was not smart.

I swim, and it's cold. It's winter. I swim across the other side. I was cold, and what I should have done was stop on the other side, rested, warmed up. No, I was so cold, I just got to get back. I touched the other side, and that was the deal. Touched the other side, and then I'm coming back, and then it hit me. My arms started feeling like lead. I'm going lower in the water, and I'm getting very, very concerned. It's like I cannot do it. I can sense I'm in really bad trouble, and I cannot do it. I'm just being swept down the river in the current of the winter. My friend sees me struggling, and so he's trying to run down the bank of the river, trying to go into the water, trying to reach me. I'm looking at him with my eyes, and I can't do it. Then I touch the ground. Oh, the security of the land underneath my feet. [silence]

He's speaking of something far greater than fear here. No. The river in Ezekiel 47 is a river of life, and those who go deeper in it have nothing to fear. They find their soul's greatest desire. There is a joy that the soul cannot even imagine. Where there is perfect love, there is no fear. Perfect love casts out fear, Scripture says. Then, like Psalm 36, oh, I love this song, verses 8 and 9, "They drink their fill of the abundance of your house, and you give them to drink of the river of your delights, for with you is the fountain of life." There is a picture. God wants you to delight, such glorious word, to let your soul be delighted in the Lord.

II. Everything Will Live Where the River Goes

So many people have the idea that religion should be eating sour grapes or something. God doesn't want you eating sour grapes. He wants your soul delighted. That's where victory comes from. When your soul is delighted in the Lord, victory comes from it. Then notice verse 9, "Everything will live where the river goes." What a powerful, beautiful picture. Everything will live. In Zechariah 14, he gives a very similar picture of the water that flows from Jerusalem, and he says it will flow in the summer as well as in the winter.

Now, if you know that area of the world, there are many rivers that do not flow in the summer. In fact, there are many dry riverbeds. They're called wadis, a dry riverbed. They're all over it because it dries up in the summer. No, no. He says it flows in the summer, and wherever it goes, there is life. He's speaking that dry places are healed. Without water, the earth is dead. You can see deserts, Death Valley, it's dead. When the soul is empty, it's dry. There's the picture. When the soul is empty, it's dry, and there's a longing.

A. The dry places are healed

Many people know this. They're searching, and they're searching. What's wrong? There's something missing. They're looking and searching and looking and searching. What is it? What's wrong with me? Inwardly, they're empty. They may be busy, outwardly productive, but empty, weary. They're empty, dry. God speaks to that. So many people go through life and pretend, the great pretender. He says, don't go through life for the look of the thing. God invites you to come and life. He says, this is Isaiah 44:3, "I will pour out water on the thirsty land, and I will pour my Spirit out upon your offspring. Generations." He means it personal. Life now. "I am that water now." He makes it personal.

There's a beautiful picture of this in John 4, how personal it is. It's about the sixth hour. It's about the middle of the day, about noonish. The disciples have gone into town to get food. Jesus is tired, weary, so he's sitting by a well. It's actually Jacob's well, and a Samaritan woman comes to the well. Now, this is not the time normally that women would come to draw water. Normally, the first thing in the morning, but you'll see why she's coming now, middle of the day, alone, rejected.

She comes, and Jesus says to her, "Woman, give me a drink." She says, "Sir, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" He said, "If you knew who was speaking to you, you would ask him, and he would give you living water." She says, "Sir, you have no bucket, and this well is deep. How do you get this living water?" He says, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give will never thirst, and the water that I give will spring up as a fountain of life within him." She says, "Sir, give me this water."

He said, "Go call your husband." She says, "I have no husband." He says, "You have said correctly that you have no husband. For in fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you are now with is not your husband." She said, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. For when the Messiah comes, I know he will speak on things." He said, "I, who speak to you, am he." He's speaking of a living water that's very personal to her. Now, many people, when they hear that story and then she says, "Sir, I perceive you're a prophet," they think that she's changing the subject. No, she's not changing the subject. This is the subject.

"Sir, I know when the Messiah comes, he will speak all things. I have been searching, and I have been searching, and I have been searching. I've been going from one relationship to another, one failure upon another." She's given up on marriage. How many times has she gone out under the stars and cried, "What's wrong with me? What is wrong with me? Everything is broken with me." Then she meets the one that she has been longing and longing and longing to meet. "I know when Messiah comes, he will speak all things." "I, who speak to you, am he." Personal. It's personal. John 4:14, "The water that I give will become in him a well of water, springing up a fountain of life, even to eternal life."

Relationships are among life's greatest treasures, but no person can become the fountain of life for another person's soul. We put terrible weight on people when we ask them to give us only what God can give. So many times people enter a relationship saying, "I need, I need, I need." As He speaks and as He fills, as He touches the deepest longing and the deepest hurts, as He fills that empty soul with living water that springs up as a fountain of life, instead of coming into a relationship saying, "I need," you come with something to give because the fountain of water welling up brings life that you can pour a blessing out on the people around you. Oh, that's a way better way to live. Anybody agree with me? Let's give the Lord praise for that. Amen?

Amen. For Jesus said in John 7, "I am that living water. The great word he declares, "I am that living water. Anyone who thirsts can come to me. Find water that satisfies the soul." It's like Psalm 46:4, "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High." That is a powerful Psalm, and that promise is written in a Psalm of upheaval. You can read the Psalm. Mountains shake, waters roar, nations rage, but there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. It's the holy dwelling places of the Most High. His presence brings peace in the midst of troubled world.

B. The bitter waters are healed

This is a troubled world, this is a broken world, but the world around you does not have to be the condition within you. You're drawn near to trouble, and you're not just merely hiding from the storm. No, you're being strengthened to face it. Let His words settle the fear, let worship lift your eyes, let prayer bring the burden before Him, for the river of His delight is not just reserved for days that are good, for every day. For He says here in verses 8 and 10, the bitterness, the bitter waters are healed. See, the river flows toward the east, down into the Arabah, all the way into the Dead Sea. Often in Scripture, it's called the Salt Sea. We call it the Dead Sea. You know why we call it the Dead Sea? Because it's dead. See? The waters, where it flows, the waters become fresh.

Ezekiel even sees fishermen spreading the nets on the shores. What a picture. Power bringing life where bitterness and death, salt. Salt in a wound, oh, it hurts. It hurts deeply. Whenever we visit Israel, we always go to the Dead Sea, and of course, people want to swim in the Dead Sea because the concentration of salt, you're floating on the water, but they warn you. They warn you, and they say, "If you swim in the Dead Sea and have even the smallest cut, it will hurt. Don't do it." If you have even the smallest wound, that salt will hurt. What a picture. Wounds hurt. Salt hurts. Bitterness hurts. It affects what flows from your heart. It's bitterness, an old wound.

People carry old wounds that will shape their life and their conversation and their expectation. God does not want your pain to rule your life, to define who you are. He invites you to bring that to Him. It's like when Israel came out of Egypt, and they were there in the desert, they came to a place called Marah. They found there the water, they could not drink it because it was bitter, so Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, a branch of a tree. They would throw into the water, and the waters became sweet. It's a picture, isn't it? The branch of that tree thrown into the midst of the bitterness, heals it.

There's a picture of the cross. All that Jesus has done brings that healing, that you can receive forgiveness and give forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn't make the wrong right, but it makes it such that it doesn't define who you are, for something greater resides in that wound, something far greater, something far deeper. Revelation 21:4 speaks, promises the day when God will wipe away every tear and pain will be no more. That is our eternal promise, but that restoring work is already begun. Bring the wound to the one who intends to make all things new.

C. But the swamps do not live

Then, interestingly, verse 12, but the swamps do not live. This is very interesting. Verse 11 makes an exception, "The swamps and the marshes remain salty." They are left for salt. It appears to be on purpose and for a purpose. In its right place, salt is valuable. In fact, in history, back in the days of the Roman Empire, a Roman soldier would be paid a salarium. Literally, it is a salt allowance. Now you have money that you can buy salt. Salt was very precious, very valuable in the sense that they didn't have refrigeration. They would use salt to preserve the food. It would be very, very needed and valuable in those days, salt. You would earn a salt allowance, a salarium. If you earn a salary today, it comes from the same root word. Literally, you are earning a salt allowance. Now you can buy salt.

III.    There the Trees Are Mighty

Dead Sea salt is particularly valuable. Filled with rich minerals, a pinch of this makes food very flavorful. Dead Sea mud is sold the world over. Very, very valuable. It makes the face feel youthful. I didn't say it made it look youthful. It makes it feel youthful. It reminds me of a time we were on an Israel tour, and we were at the Dead Sea. We had a break day, a rest day, because it's in the middle of the tour, and Jordi noticed that the hotel offered massages. Now she's into that sort of thing. I am not.

She saw that, "Hey, I think I'll get this massage thing." She went down there, and she says, "I knew I was in trouble when I showed up, and this big German woman named Helga was my massage person. I'm on the table, and she's like, '[grunts] We have ways of making you speak. [grunts]' She's just making it so hard." She said it was just terrible, and then she did the mud wrap thing where they cover you with Dead Sea mud, and then they wrap you with Saran Wrap, and you're on the table like this. She says, "My skin just started to feel so terrible, but Helga had already left, probably to abuse somebody else. I'm on the table all by myself. Could not wait for this thing to get over with."

Finally, Helga comes back, unwraps her from her Saran Wrap, puts her in the corner, and then sprays her with the hose. She comes back to the room and tells me this whole thing, and I say, "And we paid good money for this?" Okay, back to our regular story. Then he speaks in verses 7 and 12 about these trees. There the trees are mighty. When Ezekiel is brought back to the riverbank, he sees many trees on both sides. The water changes what grows there. He says, because the water flows from the sanctuary, they bear fruit every month. Their leaves do not wither, the fruit will not fail, and their leaves are for healing. Could this be a picture of those who are planted near the water and flourish in life such that the flourishing of the fruit blesses?

A. The trees will flourish

God wants you rooted, strengthened, fruitful as His life fills us. The roots go deep. You can't see the roots. There are places in your life people cannot see, but when those places are deeply rooted, you'll flourish. Your soul will flourish. God wants you rooted. Trees give a beautiful picture. The trees flourish. The leaves will not wither, the fruit will not fail, and then comes the invitation. Come. Perhaps you've been standing on the edge. Perhaps some part of your heart is dry or bitter, salty. He knows your need like He knows the need of that woman. Receive. Receive. Come to the waters. Drink your fill from the river of His delight.

B. Their leaves will not wither

Let this be your prayer. Lord, I do not want to remain at a distance. Refresh what has grown dry. Heal what's hurt. I want my soul to flourish. I'm all in. I will swim in this river. It's a picture of life that flows from the sanctuary of God. I will swim in this river. I'm all in. Would that be your prayer? I'm all in. Everything I have, it's yours, Lord. All that I am, you have touched the deepest place of my heart. I'm all in. Let's pray. Lord, we are so, so thankful. What a beautiful picture of the life that flows from the throne of God, reaching to the places of the depths of soul, places that hurt, places that are bitter, places that need healing, and there the water flows.

C. Their fruit will not fail

Today, as we're praying before the Lord, how many would say to the Lord today, "Let that river pour upon my soul? Heal, heal the hurt or the wound or the bitterness. Let it live. God, let me just say it with all my heart, I'm all in. I will swim in that river. What a beautiful picture of the light. I am yours. I'm all in." Would you just say that to the Lord? Would you declare it by raising your hand to the Lord as a way of just declaring it? God, I want to just say it. I'm all in. God, I pray that you would pour that spirit of life, that river of life, into the depths of my soul. God, we honor you and thank you for all that you've done for us through your Son, Jesus Christ. Everyone said, can we give the Lord praise and glory and honor? Amen.