Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Proverbs chapter 3, the chapter
we read, and reading through our text just the first part,
then we'll read the whole verse of verse 5. Proverbs chapter
3, verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. The whole verse and the one that
follows is trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean
not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct thy paths. And may the whole of those two
verses be blessed and be a help to you tonight. But I desire
to especially look at the first part of verse five. Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart. There's some beautiful promises
in the Word concerning those that trust the Lord. He said
that he knoweth them. that trust in Him. Sacred thing,
that the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, should look and see
and read the hearts and read the intent of the people of God,
those that are trusting in Him, those that are relying on Him. Trust is a belief in someone. It is a reliance on someone. And the Lord knows that those
that rely on him, those that are trusting in him, his eyes
are up upon him. We have this beautiful promise,
he knows them. You might think this evening
you're alone, the Lord doesn't regard your case, your path at
all, but we have this beautiful promise that if you, if I, are
trusting in the Lord, the Lord knows all about it. We may say
from that, that that blessing, it doesn't come from our own
heart, it doesn't come from our old nature. It is a gift from
the Lord to his dear people that they should be blessed with that
gift of faith and gift of trust in the Lord. And yet we are exhorted
as we are here to trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And yet where the blessing is,
the Lord crowns it and says, I know that one. I know where
their trust is. I know in whom I have put that
blessing. Another beautiful word is in
this way, that there shall be left in the midst of thee a poor
and afflicted people and they shall trust in the name of the
Lord. These come from the minor prophets,
prophets that we might not perhaps often read and yet some beautiful
choice words to those as they go through in the history of
Israel coming closer to that time that the Lord should be
revealed and that the Lord would bless the church with that full
revelation of his beloved son. And right through time, there
are those that were trusting, looking, longing, looking for
him to come. And where are they found? Amongst those that are afflicted,
poor ones, ones that have being brought from trusting anything
else or on any other, but brought to trust in the Lord their God. May we be found amongst those
coming into those promises and into those paths that we are
told the Lord knows all about such that are in those paths. want to look then with the Lord's
help this evening. Firstly, in whom we are to trust. Now it takes us trust in the
Lord. And then secondly, how we are
to trust. Now it takes us with all thine
heart. And then thirdly, what we are
to trust him with. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. In whom we are to trust. Our text says trust in the Lord. When our Lord was upon earth
he spoke to those of the Jews and he spoke to those whom he
identified as saying in Moses whom ye trust. The Jews were very adamant, as
they said to the man that had been born blind, as for this
fellow we know not from whence he is. We are of Abraham's seed. Moses we know, but this fellow
we know not from whence he is. And the Lord knew that they were
trusting in Moses, that is trusting in the Lord, trusting in their
own righteousness. And this is what Paul, when he
writes to the Romans in Romans 10, identified with his kindred,
whom he longed that they might be saved and that they were ignorant
of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own. They were trusting in their own
works. We have it in our, Text here,
trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine
own understanding. The very identifying of whom
we are to trust also implies that there are alternatives that
man will trust in other things. And certainly the children of
Israel most solemnly departed from the Lord many times and
they hewed them out idols, cisterns in whom was no help. And the time when Elijah was
used after three years of famine to try and prepare, or the famine
was brought to prepare the hearts of the people so that they'd
be turned back again. And they readily rose to that
challenge, that they'd make two altars and they'd try and obtain
from Baal some answer, some evidence that he could see and hear and
know, but no answer came. What a solemn thing. How many
years there'd be many of the children of Israel that had been
trusting in that false God, relying on him, turning away from the
true God of Israel, and then to have it proved there on Mount
Carmel that that God was absolutely powerless, had no mind, no ability
to do anything to help them whatsoever. What a wonderful answer it was
from the short prayer of Elijah and the fire that fell from heaven
that consumed all of that altar. the beautiful, most solemn time,
really, of the wrath of God falling upon his beloved son, consuming
the sacrifice that was to be offered at Calvary. If we are to trust in the Lord,
then we are to know who that Lord is. He that cometh to God
must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. The God that has not made the
heavens and the earth, let them even perish from the heavens
and the earth. The one that we are to trust
in, is the Lord that made heaven and earth and all that in them
is. We are to look unto our Creator
and our Maker. Our trust is to be in Him that
made us and formed us. In Romans 1, we are told that
man is without excuse when he does not believe in God. because
God is known, his Godhead, and his power by the things that
are made, and especially our own bodies that are fearfully
and wonderfully made in the image of God. In the image of God created
he them, male and female created he them, created he him, male
and female, he created them, the Lord, is he that is in the
beginning and in the end, the everlasting, the eternal God,
Jehovah. But we also would remember that
he is set before us in the scriptures as merciful, gracious, long-suffering,
pardoning iniquity, The Lord who said, the Son of Man came
not to destroy men's lives but to save them. That even as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but should have eternal life. The trust is in the Lord. Not
only that is the God of creation, the first creation, but the new
creation. Not only the creator, but the
savior, the redeemer, the giver of natural life and
the giver of spiritual life. We also are to trust in him. Not only that sustains our life
here, and Paul said to those at Athens, In Him we live and
move and have our being, but it is before whom we must stand
at the last day, at the last Judgment Day. We do not have
set before us in the Scriptures one God of creation, One God
that gives the law, one God that gives the gospel, one God that
we shall stand before on the judgment day, one God that gives
us our breath, another God that gives us our natural food, another
God that gives us our spiritual food. We have one God, one creator,
one sustainer. There is but one true and living
God. And it is in this God, in the
Lord Jehovah, that we are bid here to trust. What a sad situation it would
be like in some situations where people have all sorts of things
that they trust, but depending on the situation that they're
in or what it is, they go to different ones to trust in. that
for the people of God, their trust is to be in the Lord. How many times do we meditate? Do we think of who it is that
we are trusting in? Certainly if this was in natural
things in life, if we were wanting someone to do something for us,
and we were trusting in them to do that for us, then what
that person was would mean a lot to us. If they were a person
that was utterly unreliable, then to put that trust in them
would be a foolish thing. If it was something where we
were looking for a provision in monetary things but the person
had no wealth and no means, then that again would be a foolish
thing. If we wanted something doing
and something that needs to be mended or a garden rectified
or a car fixed, but that person had no gardening knowledge or
no mechanical knowledge, then to actually be trusting
in them again would be a foolish thing. The knowledge of that
person and what they're able to do, what their abilities,
what their resources, what their character was, would have a lot
to do with how we were able to actually trust them, if it was
a valid trust. a right trust. And so for walking in the word
of our text, it behoves us to look into, to meditate and to
consider who it is that we're actually trusting in. Is he worthy of our trust? Is
he able to do what we trust in him? The scriptures are very clear that
the Lord is worthy of the trust of poor sinners. That's why we have an inspired,
infallible Word of God. The word of the Lord to us. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. So I want to think then secondly
of how we are to trust. It is with all thine heart. That is with not part looking
one direction, and part looking the other direction, not looking partly to man and
partly to the Lord, or as in the context here, partly leaning
on our own understanding and partly leaning on the Lord. It is trust in the Lord with
all thine heart. We read concerning Caleb when
the children of Israel were at the borders of Canaan, and they
were to go into the promised land the first time. The spies,
they brought back an evil report. Not of the land, the land was
good, but the walled cities, the giants, the impossibilities,
the difficulties. And they made the heart of the
children of Israel to melt. And it was in vain that Joshua
and Caleb sought to steal the people. They sought even to stone
them. And the Lord then sent them into
the wilderness for another 38 years. We read concerning Caleb
that he followed the Lord fully. And part of that was that he
said that if the Lord delighted in them, that he was able to
give them that land. They could trust in him, that
the walled cities were as nothing, that the giants in that land
were as nothing before him. Where there is that niggling
doubt, where there is that mistrust, we see the effect with those
that pull down the arms of the rest of the children of Israel
and discourage them in the way. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, that there be not part that is trusting in something
else that is weak, that it be not like the feet of the image
that Daniel interpreted to Nebuchadnezzar, part iron and part clay, not
mixed together and very weak. The trust that is spoken of here
is with all thy heart, all thy being. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. May we be mindful of those things
that are divide, a part belief, a part trust, a part following,
a serving God and a serving mammon, a serving idols and a serving
the true and living God, which was so typical amongst the children
of Israel. It is a warning for the Church
of God right down to the end of time. And yet if ever your soul or
my soul be saved, it is Christ must be the way. There is no
other way. There is no other partner on
the throne of God's throne. There is none other that shall
lift up and say, but I did my part and the Lord did his. And so the reason we are exhorted
to trust in the Lord with all our heart is that all of the
work is the Lord's and all of the crown of the glory is the
Lord's. And it is only the Lord and by
the Lord that we shall ever be brought safe to glory at last. The crown is upon his head. Salvation is of the Lord. And to this end, the Lord will
work in the hearts of his people to bring them off those other
things they trusted in. To deliver them from being not
divided hearts, but hearts that look solely unto him. They looked unto him, their faces
were lightened. And so many of the trials and
afflictions and troubles of the way are to burn up the dross
and to take away those things wherein we may have been secretly
trusting and leaning, that they be removed out of the way. When Jonah ran away from the
Lord and was in the belly of the fish, he felt cast out of
the sight of the Lord. How could he help himself? How
could he deliver himself? Where could his help be found?
He says at last that, I will look again toward thy holy temple. Salvation is of the Lord and
the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited him out on the
dry land. Sometimes the Lord is pleased
to not only take away those other props, but also give helps to
trust. And we see especially this in
the case of Gideon. When the Lord raised him up and
appeared for him, that he would be the means of delivering Israel
out of the hand of the Midianites that oppressed them. The Lord
bade him to gather an army together, but then said to him that that
army was too big. Those that were fearful and afraid,
they were to go home. And most of them did. But then he said, there are still
too many. And so they then tried at the waters, and there remained,
but after that trial, but 300. And by those, God was going to
save Israel. And the reason why he reduced
them, and he tells us that, is unless they said that their own
arms saved them. He was going to use means, he
was going to use Gideon, but in such a way, that their trust
had to be in the Lord. It may be with you and I. The
Lord's reduced us, brought us low. There is still the means.
We still look to the means. But they're so small, so impoverished,
so unable to achieve what we need achieving on their own. It must be the help of the Lord. So on one hand Gideon was reduced
down very low, but lest he be so full of fear and not able
to trust, the Lord then strengthened his trust by bidding him go down
with his servant to the host and to hear what they will say.
And he came down and listened while one told a dream and the
other interpreted. And it was that a cake of barley
bread tumbled into the camp and knocked a tent along. And his fellow said, this is
none other than Gideon, the son of Joash, by whom the Lord will
deliver the Midianites into Israel's hand. And you know, when Gideon
heard this, he was much strengthened, much encouraged. He said, ah,
for the Lord had delivered them into our hands. The Lord knows
how to help our trust, how to strengthen our trust. On one
hand, shepherded to have no other trust but the Lord, no other
way to look, and on the other hand, to be so strengthened and
encouraged that we are able to trust in him. Not only trust
in him, but with all our heart. being helped in our infirmities. The dear man who had his son
cast into the fire and into the water, the Lord said, if thou
believest with all thine heart that all things are possible,
he said, Lord, I believe help thou mine unbelief. He knew the need of being helped
to trust and to believe. in the Lord alone. And the Lord
knows how to help. And if there are those of you
tonight and you say, but I would trust, I desire to trust in him,
but I feel my unbelief, I feel my doubt, I feel my fears. Ask of the Lord to strengthen
that trust, to give you those things like Gideon, so that you
might be encouraged and strengthened in him. So that not only partially
but all of you will trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with
all thine heart. The very exhortation implies
that there is that tendency to have a reserve. You know if we
had a chasm and we had to swing across that gap with a rope,
Then we want to look at that rope and we think, will that
rope hold my weight? Is it strong enough? Once we
take our feet off the ledge and swing across the gap, it's too
late then if that trust is ill-founded. It needs to be able to bear the
weight. Many of the trials, even the
small trials that the Lord gives his people, as it were giving
them those things that they trust him and learn to trust him. And like David was able to say
before Goliath, the God who had delivered him out of the paw
of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he would deliver
him out of the hand of this Philistine. David knew what it was to use
former helps and deliverances to strengthen his trust in a
present, even greater trial that was before him. May the Lord
remember us in present trials in that way, and the Holy Spirit
remember to us the helps, the trust that has been well founded
before, and that we might again fully and truly trust in him
with all But thirdly, I want to consider
what we are to trust Him with. Or we might say, in what we are
to trust. Of course, the Apostle Peter,
he says that he entrusted unto Him the keeping of our souls
unto a faithful creator. He is the keeper of his saints. But what I had in mind in this
is several points as to the work of the Lord. And the first is
this, his promise in the gospel. Where would we be in a gospel
day if we were given the holy word of God And we were told,
well, here are some wonderful promises of salvation and deliverance
for sinners. You might be able to trust them.
Some of them are trustworthy, but others are not. And beside
that, you're not quite sure whether those promises are to you or
not, what kind of a gospel would that
be? Those that have no need of a
saviour, those that are full of their own self-righteousness,
they won't trouble at all about promises to sinners or deliverance
or salvation or the gospel at all, they don't need it. But
those that are in need of it, those that know they are sinners,
they may be sure that they can trust with all their heart the
promises in the Word of God. The promise is unto you and your
children, even as many as the Lord thy God shall call and in
one of our hymns that the sinner that lives to feel his need is
welcomed to the throne of grace as saviour's blood to plead. And we need to be assured of
that. The beautiful words cast thy
burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of some of them, no,
out of them all. The promises that are given in
the gospel of help laid upon one that is mighty, the promised
seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head, all
the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. And in a gospel day, what a foundation
we have when we look at the Old Testament and we have promise
after promise of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet
it seems again and again the church is going to be extinguished,
Israel is going to finish its in captivity, it will be swallowed
up. How will the seed come? How will
the promise come? And yet we look back in a gospel
day and so clearly see how God has done it. Wonderfully planned
it, used the lives of countless thousands over centuries, and
yet there hath not failed one good thing of all that the Lord
hath promised. All has come to pass. And we
have again and again at the crucifixion of our Lord that the scriptures
might be fulfilled. Those that walked and lived and
died by faith in Hebrews, one of the very first marks of those
that walked by faith, they saw the promises afar off, and they
embraced them. In other words, they trusted
in them. They believed them, they wanted
them, they needed them, they saw in those promises the real
hope for their souls. A promise is only good if it
can be fully trusted in and relied in. May we always remember that
the devil will always undermine. Hath God said, he said it at
the beginning, to bring our first parents to disobey the Lord.
Would we think that he won't say it with the gospel? Hath
God said? Don't believe his promises, don't
believe the gospel, don't believe the way of escape. Undermine
it all the time. And so when we have the exhortation
here, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, we trust in
the Lord who has made those promises. Faithful is he with his promise,
who also will do it. Hath he said? And shall he not
do it? He is the performing God. And you know, when the dear saints
like Abraham, they stumbled, they wondered how it would be. With man, yes, it is impossible. But with God, nothing shall be
called impossible. He is able to do exceeding far
above all. that we can ask or think. And those promises are put in
the words to be rested on, pleaded, looked to, trusted in. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. The second is his love and purpose. When Lazarus was sick and then
died, Mary and Martha, they knew that the Lord loved them. They
knew that he loved Lazarus. And they sent to him and said,
Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. And their trust was in
the Lord, and their trust was in his love of them, and that
his purposes and what he did would be right. It was greatly
tried. He stayed where he was. He didn't
come until Lazarus died. But we know the end of that account. Was their trust in the love of
God well founded or not? Was their trust in What the Lord's
purpose is, was it well-founded or not? It was certainly tried,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But
we see the Lord knew what he would do. But it may be in your
providences, in your path tonight. You say, well, Martha and Mary's
path is not exactly like mine, but mine is like theirs. I can't
see what the Lord is doing. I fear that the Lord is too late. I fear the outcome of these things. But we are to trust in that the
love, having loved his own, loved them unto the end, and where
he has said, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore
with loving kindness have I drawn thee, that that love does not
change, that it is the same. and that the Lord's purposes,
he has a purpose, he has a plan, and he will accomplish that plan,
and we can trust him to bring that about. Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart. Have we planned our own lives
up to this present time? Have we made such a good ordeal
of them that we can say, well, I'd rather trust in myself than
the Lord? Or are there those times that
we may say, well, I'm so pleased that the Lord took matters in
hand, and that he overruled my purposes and my way, and that
I'd rather trust in his purpose, though it be hidden from me,
and though I know not what he's doing, yet I trust that what
he'll do is for my good. and that it is with good intentions
and good purposes toward me." The Church of God gets very tried
sometimes on that. They think that the Lord has
forgotten them. The Church says that it is so,
but the Lord says, can a woman forget her second child? Yes,
she may forget, yet will I not forget thee. She gets greatly
tried sometimes as to what the Lord's thoughts are towards them.
And so he says, my thoughts are thoughts of peace and not of
evil to give you an expected end. And so our trust is to be
in his love and in his purpose. It was his own purpose that began
to rescue rebels doomed to die. Has he begun a good work in you? He will perform it unto the day
of Jesus Christ. The third thing is that we would
trust in his sin-atoning sacrifice. There is only one sacrifice made
for sin, and that is at Calvary. We have a beautiful type of this
in the Passover night when the children of Israel had to slay
that paschal lamb and put the blood on the doorposts and upon
the lintels of the door. And then they were to go inside
those houses and trust that when the destroying angel passed by,
God would remember and honour his promise, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Our hope is solely that Christ
has lived and died for me, that he has suffered in my place,
that his blood was shed for my sin, that he is my substitute,
that he bore the wrath of God in my place, that he rose again
for my justification. Our trust is to be solely that
the full payment price was made there. And to this end, the Lord
has given assurance unto all men in that he has raised him
from the dead. And this is why the Apostle Paul
is so emphatic on this, that the Lord is risen from the dead.
There is a resurrection from the dead. There is life from
the dead. There is a conquering of the
sentence of death. There is an overcoming of death.
and that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so our trust is to be that
what was done there at Calvary was done perfectly, was done
forever, was done for us, who have been made to feel our sin,
feel our need of it, have been brought to look to Calvary for
hope. It may be as we look first and
feel our need first. It's but as faintly, and then
we hear this word. Dear soul, not faintly, not partially,
but trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And if that is you
tonight, and you've been looking in that direction and trusting
in that direction, but you say, but not with all my heart. The
Lord says to those that feel their need of it, Trust with
all thine heart, not half. The fourth is this, his ordering
of providence. All that happens in this world
is by the decree of the Lord. The Lord said of Pharaoh, for
this cause have I raised thee up to show forth my power and
might in thee. I have hardened his heart. God
is not the author of sin, but we see in that account how the
Lord was in control. The children of Israel had no
liberty until the Lord brought it in the shedding of blood,
and Pharaoh was not doing as he thought, doing his own works
and own ways, but under the control of the Lord. So it was with Nebuchadnezzar
had to learn that, when he boasted that all his kingdom and all
his riches were all by his own might and power. And the Lord
took away his reason and drove him from men. And after seven
times had passed over him, then he knew that the Lord ruled in
the kingdom of men, gave it to whomsoever he will. Who is he
that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth
it not, and we see it mostly in the crucifixion of our Lord,
when wicked hands took and crucified and slew him, but it was by the
determinate counsel and full knowledge of God. And when we
go through these things that we are going through now, and
we might look at the virus, and the Lord has sent it, We might
look at how governments react to it, and the Lord has appointed
them and appointed those things that are done, those things that
happen in this world, kingdoms that rise, kingdoms that fall. We think of the ones described
in scripture, the Assyrian kingdom, that then falls. The Babylonian
then rises and then that falls. We have the British Empire and
then we don't have the British Empire. All the time the world
is changing and the Lord is in control of all things that happen. And all things in our lives,
my life's minutest circumstance, is subject to his eye. And there
are times that we are to look above those waves and those billows,
and above man, and we are to trust in the Lord with all our
heart. The fifth of this are his dealings
with us. He which hath begun a good work
in you. The Lord deals with his people.
He calls them, he teaches them, he corrects them, he instructs
them in the way that they should go. All his dealings, wise and
good, uniform though various, though to reason viewed, cross
or quite contrarious. Yet it is the Lord that weaves
the web of our lives and especially in the instruction and teaching
of his people. All thy children shall be taught
of the Lord, great shall be the peace of thy children. And it's
a blessed thing to commit unto the Lord the keeping and trust
of our souls. I believe you had, I know you
had, last Lord's Day. Psalm 37 here. And really the two texts that
we've had today, though taken in a different order, could have
both been found in Psalm 37. Verse 3, trust in the Lord and
do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land
and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight, and this is what we
had this morning, delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall
give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the
Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. The
word you had last Lord's Day. May we trust in the Lord with
all our heart. that he will teach us and lead
us on and perfect that work of grace. The sixth is this, to
trust in his mercy. We'll have constant reminders
through our life that we can never earn our way with salvation. Again and again we'll be led
to be found beside the public and beating upon our breasts,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And each time is as painful as
the last. But we're to trust in that mercy
because it is a blood-bought mercy, because the Lord has so
shown us that that is the way and the only way that a poor
sinner is saved. Mercy through blood I make my
plea, God be merciful to me. Can never be deserved. Really
we could word our text perhaps different. Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart, or trust in the mercy of the Lord. Trust
in the mercy of the Lord, and not in any thought of any earning,
any blessing of our own. The last one I'd mention is this,
and that's concerning the calling and saving of our loved ones. Many of us, we have upon our
hearts the souls of our loved ones as pastors, the souls of
those under our care. And if they are to be saved,
It won't be by our efforts, though Zion is to prevail, she is to
pray, she is to cry to the Lord, but in all her crying, her seeking,
her laying it before the Lord, it is to be trusting in the Lord
with all thine heart. Sometimes we think we can only
help our loved ones or those that we so burdened for if we
are physically with them. But you know, though we be 12,000
miles away, yet we can still commit them unto the Lord and
trust in the Lord that he will teach and instruct and he will
keep and he will convert them and he will save them. And the
Lord is honoured and glorified in that. The centurion, he said,
Don't come under my roof. I'm not worthy for that. Speak
the word only. Thy servant, my servant shall
be healed. And with dear Martha, if thou
hadst been here, but dear Martha, the Lord did not need to be physically
here. And now the Lord is in heaven.
He is able to send forth his word into all parts of this world. He is able to do far above all
that we can ask or think. When was the last time we really
believed that, thought that, trusted in the Lord, in the calling
and saving of loved ones, in the help of loved ones, in their
trials, their difficulties, their providences? Or do we just feel
our helplessness? Some of our dear aged friends
sometimes can say, and they do say, or that I could be able
anymore. I'm in this home or I'm in my
own home and I cannot go out and I cannot physically help.
But what a blessing to know the worth of prayer and the trust
in a God who says ask and it shall be given you. May we be helped to trust in
him in those things. And the evidence of that trust
is our asking and our seeking of the Lord to do it for them.
I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for
them. Dear, Naomi says to Ruth, sit
still my daughter. The man will not be in rest until
he finished the thing this day. And you know in that fourth chapter
of Ruth, We don't read of Ruth, but we read of Boaz and all that
he was doing. And Ruth was to trust in him
and what he was doing. There was a time she put her
trust in him, in her supplication. And then there was a time to
cease from her own works and to trust solely in what he was
doing. And may we be the same. May this be a word from the Lord
to you this evening.