sermon: Of God Appointed Life
Mark Schindler
Given 26-Jul-25; Sermon #1829b; 45 minutes
It is interesting that Bill started his split sermon in Genesis 2:15. And I was not going to mention this, but the title of my sermon is "Of God Appointed Life," and that word appoint first appears in the Bible in Genesis 2:15 in the word put; "God put man" in the Garden to tend and to keep. So this is all appointed by God.
A few days after the horrible catastrophe and the heartbreaking loss of lives in the rampaging July 4th flooding in Texas, we received the following letter, it came into the church.
Gentlemen, I've searched the Scriptures but still need some help in coming to a satisfactory conclusion on situations like what has happened in the Kerrville, Texas flood. How does this come about? Two sisters, 8 and 10 years old, drown. Certainly the Father and Christ know of such a thing, and you know these two little girls are basically innocent. WHY DOES IT HAPPEN? Not the flood, but the death of these two little girls.
Within a few weeks of this letter, we received another letter from someone who had read the Forerunner article, "Stephen and the New Deal," and was puzzled because of the section within the article entitled, God's Frequent Disappointments. After reading the article, the person's question was, "Why should God be disappointed when He knew that it was going to happen?"
Hopefully, we are going to dig more deeply into the topic of God's very real emotions and what we can learn from what God is teaching us from them at a later date. But for now, I would like us to focus on how these two questions may be related within the sure hope of all the work that God is doing perfectly. Although most of you have probably read the Forerunner article sent out on June 25th, please bear with me while I read part of that subsection, because even though it is difficult to answer both those letters noted, we who have been called now by the Father to His Son must firmly walk in the faith, knowing that all things work for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose, as God tells us through the apostle Paul in Romans 8:28.
The Forerunner article in that subsection said,
Before God created mankind, He created a multitude of angels [which Richard talked about at length last week], creatures of magnificent power and beauty who gave great pleasure in service to God. He created three archangels of superior beauty, intelligence, and power. One of these is a part of particular note. Ezekiel 28:15-17 uses the words "perfect," "beauty," and "splendor" to describe him. His Hebrew name in Isaiah 14:12 is helel, meaning "shining one." He had a radiance that lit up the heavens. However, he became enamored of himself, eventually thinking he could outshine God Himself, his Creator.
And so he fell in his pride. He dared to confront God at His throne and was cast ignominiously down to the earth. Now he is called Satan the Devil, the Adversary, the serpent, the dragon, Destroyer (Abadan or Apollyon), and ruler of this age. He now deceives the whole world and targets God's elect, acting as the accuser of our brethren. One-third of the angels over whom he ruled obeyed an angel rather than God Almighty. Jude writes that those who basked in the light of the Shining One, wishing to break the chains of God's authority over them, are now imprisoned in darkness, awaiting the final judgment. They are, of course, the many demons that are still active in this world, which is their prison.
In this story, we see an example of some following a leader appointed over them rather than remaining faithful to God's Word. What a disappointment to God.
Subsequently, God created beings from the dust in His image, giving them temporal life so that they could be destroyed if they rejected His tremendous offer of eternal life. Ensconcing them in the ultimate environment, God's own garden. [He put them in the Garden.] He made a deal with them: They could eat anything they desired except the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and they would live happily in God's presence.
Almost immediately, the serpent offered them a "sweeter" deal, questioning God's intentions and promising them greater knowledge and wisdom if they ate of the forbidden fruit. With little resistance, they hungrily accepted. God drove them from the Garden and placed an angel with a flaming sword at its entrance to bar access to the Tree of Life. And as He predicted, they died.
Brethren, do not get hung up on that word predicted, within the limited thinking of men that has a certain amount of chance within it. God's Word is absolute, and what He says is not just a foretelling of what might happen, as we see it from our limited perspective. The magnificent surety of His Word is on display all around us.
Let us just consider a few scriptures that really drive home just how awesome our great God is as reflected in His creation. We will start in Psalm 19 and we are going to read the first five verses.
Psalm 19:1-5 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race.
The unspoken words of God's creativity and maintaining power are constantly in front of us, everywhere.
Turn with me over to Psalm 93 now, please. We will be picking up a little bit more of this.
Psalm 93:1-2 The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength. Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved. Your throne is established from old; You are from everlasting.
And then turn with me over to Psalm 111 and just a little bit more to this.
Psalm 111:1-4 Praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them. His work is honorable and glorious, and His righteousness endures forever. He has made His wonderful works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
Psalm 111:7-10 The works of His hands are verity [they are truth] and justice; all His precepts are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever: Holy and awesome is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding of all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.
Brethren, consider this too in terms of Deuteronomy 29:29 that says "the secret things belong to the Lord," but He gives us what we need, to us and our children, so we can do His work, the law.
The more we humbly submit to Him and His law, as He has given us the ability to do now through Jesus Christ dwelling in us through His Holy Spirit, the more we will understand that everything He does and has purposed from eternity is being done exactly as He knew it would.
Herein lies the difficulty in answering those questions to the satisfaction of those who have not been given what you have been given to see God, even though still within the limited perspective of the created. Even the faithful angels are limited in what they understand about our great God, as Richard noted last week.
Please turn with me to Isaiah 46 and we will be adding a little bit more to this now.
Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.'
Over in Isaiah 57.
Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."
And then finally,
Isaiah 66:1-2 Thus says the Lord: "Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist," says the Lord. "But on this one will I look: On him who is [both] poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word."
Brethren, this is actually a very basic sermon today about something that rings clear throughout the pages of God's Word. He inhabits eternity, declaring the end from the beginning. The beginning of what? Ephesians 1, verse 4 tells us that we were chosen from before the foundation of the world. Turn with me if you will to Ephesians 1. We will read those scriptures.
Ephesians 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
God has no beginning of days, but apparently there was a beginning sometime in eternity, where He shows that He started a project. He inhabits that eternity, and He appointed each one of you that sit here today to be part of His firstfruits of His incredible plan to create us in His image and likeness. Was it before He even created the angels that He decided this, started the project? Perhaps; I do not know. But the point is this is the truth of His Word. You were appointed to be here today and through all the joy and sorrow that we experience, we belong to the Beloved right now.
Some have claimed that this is eternal predestination, but it is not, brethren, and I can assure you of that. Many who believe in eternal predestination refer to this scripture as well as Romans 8:28-30 that I referenced in part a few minutes ago. So please turn with me to Romans 8.
Romans 8:28-30 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
The truth of God's Word emphatically states that it is His will to bring all men into the truth, which can only come through Jesus Christ, and that His goal is to bring all men to repentance, as stated in I Timothy 2:46 and in II Peter 3:8-9. He makes it clear this is taking place over time that is almost beyond our grasp. But this is not eternal predestination, but the appointed order that He has carefully determined, as we see in I Corinthians 15, another scripture you are very familiar with but we need to turn there just to reinforce it for us.
I Corinthians 15:19-26 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. [Those who have been appointed to this position.] Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
Clearly the Father has a plan to bring all mankind to Him through Jesus Christ, but every man appointed in his own order. Jesus Christ addressed the same thing a number of times throughout His ministry, and we will look at a couple of them. Turn with me to John 6, please.
John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."
John 6:39-40 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
And then let us add Matthew 13:13 to this. We will pick this up in verse 11.
Matthew 13:11-13 He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear."
Brethren, we could continue adding scripture after scripture, but the point is that you and I have been given an incredible appointment now as His children, and our Father is using everything we are going through in this life with the same kind of mind that we have as imperfect parents. His seemingly distraught emotions are displaying His pain of truly saying, "This is going to hurt Me more than it hurts you."
We have been appointed right now in a very special way to conduct our lives as His children in training through the pain and suffering of this world, to become like dad. But I really believe in His perfection, these things are hurting Him more than they hurt us. We have been given the opportunity to really appreciate our Father who has appointed us to this place now within the trials and tribulations as He purposed from before the foundation of the world.
You know these things, but do we believe them enough to know everything God is doing has been planned, executed, and accomplished as He sees it from to the finished product that He expects? This does not remove freedom to choose to live God's way or not, but what I am saying, the evidence points to the absolute omniscience of God and His perfect work to accomplish what He has set out to do with the smallest number of casualties. This has all been in place and known to perfection by God from before time existed, from even perhaps before the angels existed!
The section of the Forerunner article that was disconcerting to this person about God who inhabits eternity, ends with:
Even God's own chosen people, with the amazing gift of God's law and His guidance and protection, could not maintain their part in the deal with the Creator. This also became a disappointment to God. Can He make a deal with any of His created sons and daughters and trust him or her to live up to it? At this point, his patience and hope must have started wearing thin, but God's endurance is deep.
Was God disappointed in the way we may view disappointment? I really do not think that is the case. We need to consider this from the standpoint of any parent that clearly knows the way the child needs to go, not with a sense of hopelessness, but with the same kind of a pain a good parent experiences when working to get their children headed in the right direction. There is truth in a loving parent's statement when correcting, "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you!" But the Bible clearly shows God in His sinless outgoing concern, this pain in keeping us moving in the right direction is much more painful.
How many of you parents have truly thought the same thing when seeing your children suffering the consequences of their actions that you know was for their own good?
At this point, I want to read some excerpts from an article that appeared in the Population Research Institute website this past week. I think we will find a bit of a tie-in through the snapshot in time that encapsulates in a small way what God has been working with from the point of eternity to create members of His Family. Although this article is from a source not typically in line with God's Word, it clearly shows the slippery slope of the carnal-minded men that continues over time that are distressing to our great God. Of course we know there is only one way to the Kingdom of God, and it is only through Jesus Christ and no other. So please do not think in any way that this is an endorsement of the great false church and its doctrines, but it really shows the way the world in which we live acts over time. This may help us to see how quickly, without meticulous and humble submission to God in faith on the solid ground of truth, we too could be on the slippery slope away from God.
The article was written by Samantha Lejeune on July 21, 2025. She writes,
Fifty-six years ago this week [July 25th, 1968 [the anniversary was yesterday], Pope Paul VI released an encyclical that shocked the world, not because it said something new, but because it not only refused to conform, but openly rejected the spirit of the age. Change was sweeping across the world in the form of the sexual revolution, enabled by the birth control pill and accompanying loud demands to modernize everything, including the Church's age-old teaching on sex and marriage.
When the Pope released Humanae Vitae, many expected the new encyclical to go along with the times. Instead, the Pope gave the world a challenge, but also a gift. In Humanae Vitae [which means] "on human life" [Again, brethren, the title of this sermon is a variant of this because this was written by a man on human life, but we are talking about God appointed life.], Pope Paul VI reaffirmed what the church had always taught: that love, sex, and life were intrinsically connected, and that separating them could come with serious consequences.
It wasn't a finger pointing lecture. It was a rather a father's tender but firm reminder that we are not the authors of life but stewards of something sacred.
Samantha Lejeune was of course referring to the Pope when she referred to the father, but I would like you to remember this last sentence with our heavenly Father in mind, not some mere man, because it not only reflects our marching orders, but it gives a reminder of our Father's attitude while we do the work that He has purposely appointed for us to do. Keep that word "appointed" again in your minds. Although this encyclical was titled "Of Human Life," what we are in reality considering is life as God has appointed throughout the eternity to accomplish His purpose perfectly.
Samantha Lejeune continues her article.
Pope Paul VI did not make this decision lightly. In fact, he inherited the commission started by his predecessor, Pope John XXIII, to study birth control and married life in the context of the modern world. The commission included scientists, theologians, doctors, bishops, and even married couples. [Imagine that.] The hope was to understand the challenges modern families faced and to help the church respond thoughtfully.
Many of the commission wanted the church to embrace artificial contraception and thus redefine the relationship between men and women in marriage. The Pope rejected such recommendations, choosing instead to reaffirm perennial truths dating back to the founding of the Catholic Church. He saw that the demands that many of his flock were asking for weren't just about biology, sex, and convenience. They touched on something much deeper.
At the heart of Humanae Vitae is a simple but profound truth. The love between a husband and wife is both unitive and procreative. These two aspects of marital love are intimately bound together. When we try to separate them, we say "yes" to pleasure and the unitive aspect, but "no" to the natural fruit of that union: life. This reduction and severing of the marital act distorts the meaning of love and defies the beautiful nature of the act itself. [she continues] It means we are not free to manipulate or block life at our will. The crux of the issue is the difference between working with the natural rhythms of the body, as through the Natural Family Planning, or trying to control fertility outside of God's design. The first honors God's order, the second overrides and defiles it.
To say that the message of Humanae Vitae was not well received in 1968 is an understatement. Even within the church, there were many who rejected or ignored it, but a half century down the road we can see that we, as a faith community, have paid a severe price for doing so. Pope Paul VI made some eerily accurate predictions about what would happen in the world if we embraced contraception, and each and every one has sadly come true. He warned at that time a rise in marital infidelity and broken families would take place; a general decline in sexual morality; women being treated more like objects than persons; governments and institutions using contraception for population control.
Sound familiar?
We do not have to imagine the fallout from ignoring Humanae Vitae's warnings—because we are living it. Widespread pornography, hookup culture, fatherlessness, collapsing birth rates, abortion on demand, and even coercive sterilization programs in parts of the world all testify to its truths. We live in a world where sex is everywhere, but true love feels harder to find than ever.
Brethren, I am reading this because truth is truth, and even though it gets mixed in with lies, this is true.
But Humanae Vitae [she continues] was not just a warning. It was also a call to something better, and a later pope was to elaborate exactly what that was. Shortly after his election, John Paul II, who had helped shape Humanae Vitae behind the scenes, began giving a series of talks known as Theology of the Body. Real love, he said, means a total gift of oneself to one's spouse, and that includes our fertility. Contraception, John Paul II said, turns that gift into a negotiation. It says, "I give you everything. . . except for this part of me." It might seem convenient at the moment, but it breaks the fullness of the intimacy we were created for.
He also pointed out something our culture still doesn't understand: natural family planning is not Catholic birth control. It's a lifestyle that fosters communication, mutual respect, and deep trust between spouses. All while working with the woman's body, not against it. So here is the question that haunts: What if we had listened? What if we had embraced Humanae Vitae as a roadmap instead of roadblock? What if we had trusted that God's design of our bodies and relationships actually leads to joy and to a wholesomeness that comes from being integrated in all aspects of our created selves? What if the world had supported women instead of telling them to shut down the fertility in order to be equal? What if men had been encouraged to protect and honor, not to take and leave? What if children were always welcomed as blessings to be celebrated instead of burdens to be avoided?
Humanae Vitae still stands. And more than ever it still speaks to us from across the decades. It speaks of love that doesn't control but cooperates, of bodies that aren't broken or defective, but beautifully designed. Of a world that can be healed if we are willing to listen.
Brethren, you may have found this to be an unnecessary sidebar to this message, but I think it gives us a little insight through this tiny snapshot of time from 1968 to now that may give us an idea of what the Father has been seeing and causing Him grief through eternity. But as the Forerunner article noted, God is extremely patient and, I might add, completely perfect in what He is determined to work out from eternity.
I cannot claim to understand the eternal work that God has determined and has worked out down to the smallest detail, declaring the end from the beginning. The more we know, the more we know we do not know. But brethren, you are all unique within this plan right now when judgment is on the household of God to live with joy in the appointed life our Father has given, even within the trouble of life, knowing that we have the ability to rejoice, even when one of us dies or is in trouble or sickness.
Please turn with me to I Peter. It seems like we have spent a bit of time there today except this time we are going to I Peter.
I Peter 1:3-9 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end in your faith—the salvation of your souls.
I Peter 2:1-5 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, . . .
Remember that in verse Isaiah where God said, "Where is the house that you're going to build for Me?" Well, He is building you into part of that spiritual house of the Body of Christ, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
I Peter 2:7-10 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they were also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but have now obtained mercy.
Turn with me back to the book of John, please, in chapter 15. We will pick up one verse, verse 16, where Jesus Christ said referring to not just the apostles but to us:
John 15:16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you."
With these scriptures in mind, I would like us to turn to what you may consider an odd place to go as we wind down the sermon. But I hope you will see in a minute just how precious your calling is within all the appointed responsibility within God's unsearchable plan and work, and the need to continue looking to Jesus Christ moving forward, even though it may be very painful at times. Please turn with me to the book of Revelation. We are going to chapter 20.
Revelation 20:4-6 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark in their foreheads or their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him for a thousand years.
This is your appointed time, brethren, in God's plan that was determined from before the foundation of the world for God's honor and glory. Following these verses and what we think we understand in our limited perspective, all the rest of mankind have been appointed by God to live according to the truth at a later time.
Revelation 20:12-15 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:1-7 Now I saw [this is God's plan and purpose from before the foundation] a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them, and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, no more sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End [of this project]. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son."
Brethren, this now brings us back full circle to the question we started at the beginning of this about those two little girls. Toward the end of the last few years of the Worldwide Church of God in the late 80s, Nancy and our children and myself were keeping the Feast of Tabernacles in Saint Petersburg, Florida. On the Eighth Day, what we formerly understood in a more limited way as the Last Great Day, the sermon in the afternoon was given by a minister whose daughter had died from a ruptured appendix on the way home from the feast several years before that. She was in her early teen years, but of a mind that was truly the blessing that we seek for our children in the blessing of the little children. She was teachable and surely pleasing God in her attitude towards Him. But she died and in their heartbroken grief, the minister explained, they could not imagine why God would let this happen. Surely, even though she was not of an age where she could covenant with God in baptism, she had to be in the first resurrection. God had to make an exception for her, if He let her die!
But after many, many hours, weeks, months, years of prayer and humbly searching God's Word, he and his wife came to the conclusion, in faith, that God's appointed time for her was going to be in the last great judgment. They still were in pain but grateful that everything God does according to His purpose and His appointed time is good, and they continued their walk in faith, knowing that their ultimate reunion would be better than anything they could have imagined in their limited perspective of God's work that is beyond understanding.
Let us finish up by turning to Psalm 145. We will finish up here for the day.
Psalm 145:3-13 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, and shall sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.