Credibility Is Everything

A crisis can expose the limits of every system we trust—whether that’s money, institutions, or our own cleverness. When Nebuchadnezzar demands the impossible, the court experts stall and credibility collapses. Daniel steps into that void with a different kind of capital: calm, courageous faith rooted in the God who changes times and seasons and reveals hidden things. We connect the dots between modern finance’s dependence on trust and the ancient court’s scramble for answers, showing why credibility is built not by noise or bravado but by a steady reliance on God’s character.

We walk through Daniel’s fourfold pattern: staying calm under pressure, taking bold but non‑reckless risks, pausing for prayer that rises into heartfelt worship, and seeking the good of others—even those who may become rivals. Along the way, we share practical markers that distinguish courage from recklessness, stories that illustrate how small acts of trust train us for larger tests, and a reminder that gratitude sharpens our vision when urgency blurs it. The result is a picture of faith that not only carries us through crisis but also makes us dependable people others can lean on.

The arc culminates in a larger hope: Daniel’s rescue points ahead to Jesus, whose perfect faithfulness saves enemies and friends alike and spreads tangible good across families and communities. If you’ve been living on adrenaline, bargaining for certainty, or feeling your credibility slip, this conversation offers a better way to stand firm, act wisely, and worship deeply.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find it. What step of bold, anchored faith will you take this week?

Chapters

• 0:00 Reading Daniel’s Crisis
• 4:30 Money, Trust, And Credibility
• 8:50 Counselors Fail And Daniel Steps In
• 14:30 Calm Faith Under Pressure
• 20:30 Boldness Without Recklessness
• 28:00 Prayer, Worship, And Joy
• 33:30 Saving Many And Pointing To Christ
• 36:30 Closing Prayer And Song

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

And uh good morning to everyone. I guarantee you this is the largest congregation meeting right now. And it could be that the Holy Spirit, uh perhaps in Cincinnati, just has less to do this morning because because there are so few meetings, so maybe he will visit us with us with a special blessing and give give give us special insight. Um, and I pray that he does. We won't have kids' time this morning, but I'm just gonna invite all of us to stand for the reading of God's Word from Daniel chapter 2. This is a uh bit of a lengthier reading. Um Daniel 2, 1 through 24, the Word of God reads this way. In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king, and the king said to them, I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The word from me is firm. If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore, show me the dream and its interpretation. They answered a second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation. The king answered and said, I know with certainty that you were trying to gain time, because you see that the word from me is firm. If you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation. The Chaldeans answered the king and said, There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed, and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He declared to Ariok the king's captain, Why is the decree of the king so urgent? Then Ariok made the matter known to Daniel, and Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time that he might show the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Meshael, and Azariah, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you. For you have made known to us the king's matter. Therefore Daniel went into Ariak, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation. This is God's word. Thanks be to God. Please be seated, and may God bless this reading and preaching of his word. Sir Nile Ferguson is a Scottish economist who wrote a book, a fascinating book, called called The Ascent of Money. It's about money. It traces the history of money, what it is, where it came from. Maybe when you're thinking about money, your question is, why don't I have more of it? Where did it all go? That his questions are different is what is what is money? What is this thing that we that that's so important in our lives? Where did it come from? Money's actually very ancient. Um currency has been used for many, many thousands of years. But before money, people traded, they still traded, they traded by barter. I will give you wheat if you give me sheep. And we all know this from the settlers of Catan. But eventually people began writing notes, they began writing these IOUs, what became known as bills of exchange. That uh it would be a simple promise that if because you gave me 20 sheep, I will at a later time give you X amount of wheat or gold or something precious. It was a bill of exchange. And this is really the foundation of our modern paper money. But if you think about it, the value of that bill of exchange depends entirely on one thing. It depends on the credibility of the person who wrote it. If the person who wrote that note is a known scoundrel, then the note is worthless, no matter how much it promises. That you have they have no credibility. But if the person is credible, then their note has real value. The promise has real value. Over time, those promises become centralized. And today, money, paper money is not backed by individuals and by the credibility of particular people, but it is backed by banks and ultimately by the federal government. Um even today, most of our money is not paper at all. There's if you were, if everyone were to go to the banks and try to withdraw all of the bank notes, they wouldn't have enough to give you. Most of our money is numbers on a screen in a computer database somewhere that is um sto that is kept by banks. And that means that our entire economy uh depends on credibility. If banks suddenly lost credibility, if if all of a sudden none of us believed in them anymore, then there would be an immediate financial crisis. And this has happened in other countries that have faced economic collapse. Suddenly there's a loss of credibility in banks, and there's a run on the banks, and people can't get their money, and it's a financial crisis. You might think that today in the Enlightenment period we live in a world of science and reason, but actually we live in a world that is held together by faith in promises. Um, and every time we use money, we are exercising faith in a system that we just implicitly trust and that we cannot see. It's a system of faith, and so credibility is everything. Credibility is absolutely everything. Our text today, the story today, has a lot to do with credibility. The king's counselors find themselves in the midst of a crisis, and during the crisis, the pagan counselors lose credibility in the sight of the king. Whereas by the end of the story, Daniel gains a great amount of credibility. And we haven't, we'll get there next week, but at the end of chapter two, which we'll see next week, Daniel becomes the highest of all of the king's counselors, the chief of all of the king's counselors. Daniel gained credibility because of his faith and his dependence upon God. And one lesson that we learned here is that the more dependent upon God we become, the more faithful we are, the more we put that we see him as credible and we put our trust in him, the more we do that, the more credible we become to others. The more we trust in God, the more trustworthy we become to others. So this is all about credibility and faith. And when we when we look at this, we learn at least four things about Daniel's faith that I want to pass through this morning as we look at that. Daniel had a calm faith, he had a courageous faith, Daniel had a satisfying faith, and ultimately he had a saving faith. So first, Daniel had a calm faith. Faith in God allows us to remain calm in crisis. So Nebuchadnezzar is troubled by dreams, and it this it appears to be some kind of recurring dream. The king is worried also that this dream contains some sort of important message. He's not sure what it is. Maybe it's an omen or a word about the future, not at all an uncommon belief for a pagan king. And the king must know the meaning of this vivid recurring dream. And we'll look at the dream itself next week. So he summons his professional dream interpreters, but he deals with them shrewdly. I imagine that perhaps he was sick of their horoscopes and their vague oracles and their astrological projections that could seem to fit any situation. So he gives them a test to figure out whether or not they're the real deal. And it kind of reminds me a little bit of uh Jesus healing the paralytic, and he tells the paralytic that his sins are forgiven, and people are sort of incredulous about that. And he says, Well, so that you may know that the Son of Man has a third authority on earth to forgive sins, and then he heals him, the king is seeking a similar test that their words are actually true. So in verses five through six, he says, The word from me is firm. If you do not make known to me the dream, the contents of the dream, and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, etc. No pressure. So not only must they interpret the dream, but they they must tell him the contents of his dream. And if if they can do that verifiable thing, then the king will trust that their interpretation is also accurate. But if they can't, if they can't tell him that, well then they'll just suffer a horrible death and their families will be made destitute. Again, no pressure. You guys are dream interpreters. I know you can do this. Well, the king's counselors are not able to do this, and so a decree of destruction is issued, which perhaps shows us some of the impulsiveness or the capriciousness of the king. But a decree of destruction is issued, and this falls to Daniel and his friends as well. All of the wise men of Babylon are to be destroyed. So the decree, verse 13, the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed, and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. So how does Daniel respond? Verse 14, it says, Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Ariak, the captain of the king's guard. So he asks him a question, why is the decree so urgent? Why is this, why is it so severe? Is another way to translate that. And then Ariak made the matter known to Daniel. But one thing to notice here is that in this very tense, very high-stakes situation, Daniel does not respond with uh he might be feeling afraid, but he is not controlled by fear or anxiety or anger or desperation, but he is able to find a way forward because he is able to stay calm. He replies with prudence and discretion. So how can he stay calm in such an absurd situation? Well, it it is his faith in the Lord, of course, that allows him to remain calm, even though he doesn't know what's going to happen. But Daniel knows by faith that it is the Lord who's in control. So he doesn't need to be in control because God is in control. And this doesn't mean that he feels no fear or feels no anxiety, but it does mean that fear and anxiety do not control him and are not determining the decisions that he makes. I'm going to prov just to provide an illustration. So in martial arts, when you're sparring, another martial arts illustration, when you're sparring and if you start losing and you start losing control, this happens to everybody, you're tempted to become angry or to or to turn up the heat. And you start making stupid decisions because as you're losing, there's a sense that you're losing control of the fight, so you might be inclined to turn up the power or just to throw wild strikes that leave you very vulnerable in order to regain control. When my coach sees this, he always says to people, he says, Don't get mad, get technical. Don't get mad, get technical. When you feel like you're losing control, that's exactly when you're tempted to abandon what you know works. But losing your calm does not help you regain control. It actually just makes you reckless and makes you inclined to make stupid decisions. So in the same way, when life starts getting the better of you, and when you feel like you're you're losing in whatever way, when you feel like you've lost control financially, relationally, professionally, within the church community, whatever it might be, the worst thing that you can do is to lose your calm. The worst thing you can do is to begin to act out, even if you feel afraid, even if you feel anxious, to begin to act out of anger or out of anxiety or out of desperation, it's when we make stupid decisions. When we allow those things to control our decision making. It's exactly at these times when our faith in God, our trust in God matters most, and we must press into the fact that because God is in control, we do not need to be in control, and we can be calm and seek to be obedient even though we don't know what's going to happen. So, how do you handle these kinds of situations? How do you handle crisis? How do you handle impossible absurd situations that come up in your life? If you're always acting out of fear and anger or desperation, you will lose your credibility with people. You will lose people will uh will lose their ability to depend on you, to lean on you, to put their faith in you, and you'll be seen as someone who really cannot be dependent upon when things get hard, right? When when we get uh 20 inches of snow, can they depend on you to get them to and from church safely, right? And you have to be calm in order to do that, in order to do that well. So what we really need is a deeper faith. As we trust God with more and more, and as we experience in that the amazing credibility of God, that as we depend on him, he delivers and he shows up and responds. As we trust him more and more and experience his credibility, new horizons open up. And we're able to trust God for greater and greater things. If you can trust me with this and see how I came through here, then certainly you can trust me with this. In my experience, the Lord seems to always be calling me and in our family to trust him with bigger things. Um it I don't know why it is that way. Sometimes I wish that we just trust God for big and difficult things and then we don't have to do that anymore. But when we trust him with this much and we see him come through, he then asks us to trust him with just a little bit more. Um, and it's like that throughout life. But Daniel began by trusting God with something smaller. Remember, he was just trusting the Lord with his decision to remain holy and to eat only vegetables, and God delivered him there, and now he's trusting God to save him from this crazy situation. So we can learn to trust God with big things by trusting him with little things, and seeing from experience that our God is credibility itself. Nothing is more credible than God, nothing is more trustworthy than God. And so as we trust him, others see that we become trustworthy too because there's something at the core of our being that is credibility itself. So he had a calm faith. But he also had a courageous faith. Faith in the Lord allows us to act boldly when necessary. This was a time for Daniel to be bold. And we're gonna see this again and again in Daniel's story. But he's calm, but he is also bold and courageous. Verse 16, it says, Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time that he might show the interpretation to the king. Now, why is that bold? Well, Daniel sets up this meeting before he had an interpretation for the king, before he prayed for it, before he ever had an answer. There was nothing else that he could do. He stepped out in faith, in courage, and set up this meeting. Um He does not even know how God will provide in the situation or what God will do, but he doesn't have any other good options. And so he bets everything on the belief that God will do something, that he's trusting God to do something. So Daniel steps out in faith in complete dependence upon God. Unless God shows up and does something, Daniel is doomed. He's betting it all on the Lord. Of course, Daniel is doomed either way, he's doomed if he does nothing, but there's no way out of the situation for him without bold action. And it's Daniel's faith that allows him to take this bold action and to be courageous. And we're going to see this again in Daniel's story. For example, when his friends refuse to bow down to the idol that Nebuchadnezzar makes, uh, just here in a few chapters, Nebuchadnezzar determines to throw them in the fiery furnace, and they go into the furnace with courage and with boldness, not knowing what God will do, and they say, Our God is able to save us, but even if he doesn't, we will not obey the king's edict and we will trust in the Lord. So they don't know what God will do, but they still step out in bold, courageous faith. It's important to note that Daniel is bold, but he is not reckless. And there is a difference. So what is the difference? Bold faith takes risks. That are anchored in God's word, we have some foundation in God's word to take these risks while surrendering the outcome to him. Bold faith takes risks that are anchored in God's word while surrendering the outcome to him. So it's trusting in God's word, even when it is not certain what the outcome will be. Bold faith does not demand a certain outcome, but is open to whatever God chooses to do. Just think about being thrown into the furnace and they say, our God is able to save us, but even if he doesn't. So they don't know the outcome. They're open to whatever God might do. That's bold faith. Recklessness, on the other hand, is taking risks based on things that are far less certain, based on luck or good fortune, based on maybe even based on our own skill or our own charisma. And I'll just offer an illustration. For Christmas, Julie wanted the one thing that she asked for was some scratch-off lottery tickets for her stocking. She just thinks they're fun. It's I guess it's when you're a stay-at-home mom, I mean, you gotta find ways to keep it interesting, right? So, and maybe she'll win a few bucks. And that's fine. But to take your paycheck and to bet it all on lottery tickets, to spend 100% of your paycheck on a roll of lottery tickets would be higher, highly reckless. Highly reckless. Even if you're you say you're trusting in the Lord, you're saying, God, I pray you would provide through these lottery tickets. Highly reckless because it's a huge risk with a small potential of reward, and God has nowhere promised that we should expect Him to provide in that way. But on the other hand, um, over the past few years, as a young church plant like ours that is still striving, that's growing, but striving to become financially self-sustaining, um, I think it's like two or three years in a row, our session has approved budget deficits. So, in other words, we know with that with our current income and reserves, we cannot afford to break even unless God provides in an unforeseen way. Or in an unforeseeable way, really. Um is this recklessness or is that bold faith? Well, only time will tell. Um, over the past few years it has proven to be bold faith, but uh the reality is that there's really no other way to plant a church in order to, or to do anything that's valuable and new. In order to bring a new church into the world, or a new business into the world, or a new baby into the world, whatever it might be, you must act boldly and trust God to provide and leave the outcome in his hands. The decisions are not made carelessly or without planning or prayer, but are made prayerfully and transparently and with no illusion that God owes us success or owes us anything at all, yet putting ourselves in a position to say, God, unless you do something, we are doomed. We're doomed either way, God, but unless you we're gonna put ourselves in the position that unless you do something, we are doomed. Bold, faithful action is required for all good endeavors. Starting a family, having another baby, planting a church, starting a business, initiating a reconciliation in a broken relationship, confessing a hidden sin that is killing you, but you're afraid to talk about it or to face it. All of those things and more require bold faith. Because unless God is with us, we will fail, we'll crash and burn, and we we trust Him with the outcome even if we fail. I was listening to a sermon about this recently, and the the preacher said something to the effect of that if you're a Christian and you're walking with Jesus at some point, this is going to become part of your testimony. Part of your story will be and has to be that you were that that it can only be explained by God. That you were in this situation, you were in this problem, you were stuck in this sin, and you and God saved you from it. And there's nothing else that can explain it except God. And that needs to be the testimony of every faithful person. And and it can look different for each of us, but that's that's part of our story. Um I was talking with my my mechanic the other day about his decision to raise his prices earlier in his career, and he said to himself, if I'm gonna go out of business, I'm at least gonna go out making money. And so that's why he decided to raise his prices. What Daniel is saying here, he says, if I'm gonna die, I'm at least going to die trusting God. Right? So don't be reckless, but don't be afraid to be bold, even if you stand alone. The kingdom of God advances through the bold faith of ordinary people. Thirdly, Daniel had a satisfying faith. Daniel's faith led him to joyful worship, even in a bad circumstance. So after Daniel makes an appointment with the king, the first thing that he does is he calls a prayer meeting with his friends. In verses 17 and 18 it says, Then Daniel went to his house, he made the matter known to his companions, and he told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery that they may not be destroyed. So what they do is they go to God, they go to God in prayer together, not demanding that God would help them, but pleading for God's mercy to help them. Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon, have mercy upon us. God hears and answers their prayer. Verse 19, then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Time is of the essence for Daniel. This is, I mean, this whole passage is very tense with it's urgent. You know, there's not a lot of time here. But the first thing that he does when he wakes is not to go immediately to the king, but to go to God in worship and in thanksgiving. In verses 20 through 23 recount Daniel's worship. Throughout this prayer, Daniel gives glory to God and he thanks God for revealing the mystery to him, but he also confesses many glorious things about God. Verses 21 and 22, he says, He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings, he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things, he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. It's as if Daniel is learning. It's as if Daniel is convinced now more than ever that God is in control, that it is God who took down Jerusalem, that it is God who raised up Babylon, that it is got that God is responsible for all of this. God is in control. He's convinced now more than ever that wisdom and power come from God. He's convinced now more than ever that God is awesome, that God is the one to be feared and the one to be worshipped. And then he's filled with joy and thanksgiving that this awesome God has come to Daniel's aid. Daniel's bold faith put him in a position to experience God's awesome power and provision. And as a result, it led Daniel to a deeper and a more profound worship and a deeper joy in the Lord. The more we depend upon God, the more we are led to worship this awesome God who never fails us. As a great preacher once said, I have failed God countless times, but never once has he failed me. And that's also part of our testimony is that as we depend upon him, never once has God failed us. Never once has he failed to provide or to come through. Sometimes it's it's in the last moment, sometimes it's in a way that we don't expect or that we're not looking for. But that's all of us. I have failed God countless times, but never once has he failed me. A number of years ago, I was driving my family home from Columbus on the 4th of July, and it was nighttime, and we were on a patch of 71 South that was not well lit. Um, and out of nowhere, five or six deer crossed to the interstate right in front of us. And I hit most of them, going about 50 miles an hour. It was alarming. But we were driving our 2007 Toyota Sienna, and it did exactly what it was supposed to do. Um, it our van was totaled, but our family was perfectly safe. And so when I got the insurance money from that, what do you think I did with it? I went out and I bought another Toyota Sienna. I think I bought it in 2008, actually, so got a little bit of an upgrade. But I was so impressed with how it performed in the worst situation that it just made me want to double down and just get the same vehicle, get another one. I grew in appreciation and satisfaction for this wonderfully made minivan. Similarly, the more we depend upon God and put our lives in his hands and trust him to do what he says he will do, the more we do that, the more we experience his faithfulness and his credibility, even in bad circumstances, and the more satisfied we become in him, the more we delight in him, the more we we want to put all of our resources into God and say, this God is awesome. Glory be to God. I want to trust him with more. So don't forget, even if time is of the essence, don't forget to stop and worship. Because worship is what we need more than anything. Every day we need to rehearse the magnificent qualities of God, the wonderful qualities of God in all of the riches that we have in Jesus. We should be like Scrooge McDuck, you know, diving into his money vault and swimming around in all of his gold. That's what we need to be doing with the riches that we have in Christ, right? Amen. So I don't have that in my notes, so I've got to find my place again. Uh that every day we have to rehearse that in all of the ways that he's been faithful to us and to give him glory and to give him thanks and to delight in God. And as we worship him, then the things of this world grow strangely dim. And one of the best ways that we grow in our worship of God is to put more of our faith in him, to put to lean more of our life on him and experience God's awesome provision. Test God, he says, test me in Malachi. Trust him with more and worship him as you experience his awesome provision for you. Thirdly, is this thirdly? No, it's fourthly. Fourthly, Daniel had a saving faith. Daniel's faith resulted in salvation for many. After Daniel gives glory to God, he immediately seeks an audience with the king. Verse 24, it says, Therefore Daniel went into Ariak, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and thus said to him, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation. So in crisis, Daniel's faith allowed him to remain calm. Daniel's faith allowed him to be bold. Daniel worshipped even in the midst of crisis because of God's gracious provision. But the end result is that all of the wise men are saved from death. And they're saved because of Daniel's faith and because of his dependence upon God. It doesn't just save his own life and the life of his friends, but many are saved. Even unbelieving people are saved because of the faith of Daniel. And they also benefit from his faith. So Daniel risked his life, putting it into God's hands, and as a result, he accomplished salvation for many, even for his enemies. His enemies? Yes, his enemies. Because as we continue to read Daniel's story, you will see how the very people he saves here later become his greatest enemies, and the reason he gets thrown to the lion's den, they're jealous of him and seek to destroy him. And should this not remind us of one greater than Daniel, of course? A prophet whose trust in his father was unshakable, a prophet who boldly spoke truth to power and made many enemies. There were many people that were jealous of him. A prophet who was full of the joy of the Holy Spirit because he gave all glory to God in every situation. And a prophet who not only risked his life and put it on the line, but a prophet who laid down his life so that many people could be saved from an eternal destruction, including many of his own enemies. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4 9, he says, For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially of those who believe. So there we have God, the Savior of all people, and then especially of those who believe. Jesus Christ is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. What does that mean? Well, because he was faithful to God, those who believe in him are especially saved. We are saved from a decree of everlasting destruction. But he also saves all people generally. He even saves his enemies. How? Well, some of them, he turns them into his devoted friends, and they are also saved from eternal destruction, like the Apostle Paul and like you and me. We were not always friends of the Lord. But everyone benefits from the innumerable blessings that come from the gospel as it works its way into society. As the gospel works its way into the cultures and the cities and the nations in which we live, innumerable blessings flow, and God saves many people from many different calamities, even those who never believe in Him. He's the savior of all people, especially of those who believe. When churches grow in strength and in influence, society becomes more humane and more livable, and heavenly blessings reach as far as the curse is found. Trust God, give glory to God, be bold in Jesus' name, and worship Him for His faithfulness, which works salvation for all men, especially those who believe. To these ends, let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this picture and this example that you give us of not a perfect faith, but a bold faith, a calm faith, a faith that we can imitate. We thank you principally, Lord, for the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by faith in him, and we are saved by his faith, by his faithfulness to you and his faithfulness to us. So we thank you that he is the most credible, the most credible person, the most credible source in all of the universe, in all of creation, and all of existence, that he is worthy of all of our trust and of all of our dependence. Help us to depend more and more upon Jesus, uh to trust your provision in him, and then to become people that are like him, to become dependable people. Um and we ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's sing together.