All right, brethren, Matthew
chapter 9. So our Lord had worked a lot
of miracles at this point. He had absolved a man of his
sins, which is the harder thing. He had made the lame to walk.
He had healed the woman with the issue of blood. And then
when Jesus departed then, verse 27, these two blind men followed
Him. And they're crying. You think, how could they follow
Him? They were blind. They were blind physically at
this point, but they already had spiritual sight at that point.
They believed Him already. The Lord had already done something
for them. And they were determined to come
to Him. They followed Him, crying, saying,
Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when He was coming
to the house, apparently He waited, ignored them, until He got into
the house, and they were alone there. And the blind men came
to Him, and Jesus said unto them, Now pay this attention. Believe
ye that I am able to do this. Believe ye that I am able to
do this. They said unto him, yes, Lord.
Then touched he their eyes, saying, according to your faith, be it
unto you. According as you believe I'm
able to do this, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened, and
Jesus straightly charged them, saying, see that no man know
it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame
in all the country. Do we overcomplicate faith? Do we overcomplicate faith? We
see things here that are necessary for a sinner to have faith in
Christ, and we see some things included in faith in Christ.
First, the Lord Jesus came to where these two blind men were.
He came to them first. He came into their community
where they were. He came to them first. And if
we're gonna have faith, if we're gonna be somebody that's given
faith and we begin to seek Christ, it's only gonna be because Christ
sought us first. You can just mark that down. And then secondly, they had heard
of Christ. They had heard how he had worked
miracles, how he healed the lame and raised the dead and how he
had absolved sins. Verse 26 says, the fame hereof
went abroad into all the land. They had heard about him. Faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If we're
gonna be given faith by God, true faith, it's gonna come through
hearing the good news concerning Christ the Lord, the truth. That's
what they had heard. And then thirdly, these men knew
their need and they knew their inability. If we're gonna seek
Christ, it's gonna be because we have a need. You're not gonna
seek a physician till you're sick. You're not gonna seek sight
till you're blind. You're not gonna need hearing
till you know you're deaf. You're not gonna need healing
till you know you're lame. We gotta be made to know we're
sinners and that we have no ability to do this ourselves. If they
could have given themselves sight, they wouldn't have come to Him.
Faith is saying, I can't save myself. He must do it because
I have a terrible name. And then, These men came publicly
confessing Him to be the Christ. They followed Him, crying, saying,
Thou Son of David. That's the same as crying, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. They were confessing
they believed Him to be the Christ, the Messiah, their Savior. They
believed Him. And they cried it out publicly.
They didn't care who heard it. They cried it out publicly. Faith
believes that the man, Jesus, is the son of David and the son
of God. He's the God-man. He's the Christ. He's Messiah. He is God's salvation
for his people. That's what faith believes. Faith's
not ashamed to confess him publicly. No man can call him Lord but
by the Spirit of God. And any man that's speaking by
the Spirit of God can't call him less. He's Lord. He's Lord. And faith comes to
Christ himself asking for mercy. It says there, verse 27, they
cried, have mercy on us. And when he was coming to the
house, the blind men came to him. Faith comes to Christ himself. Faith doesn't come to a system
of doctrine. Faith doesn't come to a point
in your life where you decide, well, it's time for a change.
Faith doesn't come to a denomination, to a church, to a creed. Faith
comes to Christ himself. And faith comes not making demands
and not trying to commend yourself and not trying to make yourself
presentable. Faith comes begging mercy. Undeserved mercy. if thou art willing. But do we
complicate faith? Do we complicate this? Notice
what the Lord asked them again. Jesus said unto them, believe
ye that I am able to do this. Isn't that what faith is? Believing
God's able to do. Believing he's able to save. And they said, yes Lord, and
he said to them, he touched their eyes and he said, according to
your faith. He said, according as you believe
I'm able to do this, so I'm gonna show you I'm able to do this.
You know what he said to Martha? Did I not say if you would believe,
you'd see the glory of God? If you believe I'm able to raise
Lazarus from the dead, you'll see me raise him. That's why
he said, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you
can say to this mountain, be cast in the sea. He's not saying
you need to go around praying for mountains to be thrown in
the sea. He said, if you believe he's able, you'll
see he's able. Faith is believing Christ is
able. Able to do all that's necessary
to save me. That's faith. The Lord our God's
the God omnipotent, the God of omnipotent ability and unlimited
power. He does what he wills. He knows
no obstacles. Whatever it is that needs to
be done to accomplish his purposes and his promises, God is able,
Christ is able. Now I want to show you, this
is my subject, believing Christ is able. And I want to look at
several scriptures to see what faith believes Christ is able
to do. And I'm just looking at places
where this phrase is used, he's able. And let's look at a few
of these now. Go with me over to Romans chapter
four. Romans chapter four. Faith believes
God's able to perform all His promises. That's what the gospel
is. You've figured that out. You've
seen that by now. Everything we're hearing is God
promising to us what He's gonna do. That's what the covenant
is. God's everlasting promise of what He says He's gonna do.
Well, God is able to perform everything He promises to us.
This is what faith believes. God promised Abraham that Abraham
would be a father of many nations and that Christ was coming through
him and that all of God's elect would be saved by Christ and
they would be Abraham's spiritual children. And at the time he
told Abraham this, Abraham was old, he didn't have any children,
and his wife Sarah was past the age of childbearing. But listen
to this, verse 18. But Abraham, against hope, believed
in hope that he might become the father of many nations. According
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being
not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead, when
he was about 100 years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God. and being fully persuaded
that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore, it was imputed
to him for righteousness. You believe on God and he imputes
the righteousness of Christ to you. But you see what Abraham
believed? Abraham believed God was able
to do what God said he would do. He believed him. Faith believes
what God promises that He will perform for us. It's that simple
and that profound. Faith believes God is able to
do what He promises. Abraham didn't look at his circumstances,
he didn't look at his wife, he didn't look at himself, he didn't
look at... He believed God was able to do what God said He would
do, what He promised He would do. We see this again with Abraham. After God told Abraham that Christ,
he was going to give him a son, and then God gave him Isaac.
And then he had told him, Christ is coming through this boy Isaac,
through his lineage. And then God said, now Abraham,
you go kill Isaac as a sacrifice to me. Abraham had no idea how it was
going to happen, but he knew that original promise was Christ
is coming through this boy. And scripture says, he did what
God gave him to do, accounting that God was able to raise him
up, even from the dead. Far as Abraham was concerned,
he thought, I'll fix or kill my son with this knife, and God's
gonna raise him from the dead. He's gonna have to, because he
said he promised me he's coming through with him, and I believe
he will. That was in his heart. So much so that the scripture
says he received, God received Isaac from the dead in type,
because that was in his heart. He had every intention of killing
his son. That was his heart. And God said, you did it. You
did it. But you get that, he believed
God was able. He believes he's able to do what
God promises. Our God is a covenant God. He's
saved by covenant promises. God promises to make a new covenant
in the heart of his people to write this word in our heart.
He promises he will forgive our iniquity and remember our sins
no more. He promises all his people are
going to know him from the least to the greatest. He promises
that he's going to give them one heart and one way, Christ
the way. And he promises this, we shall
never leave him nor depart from him. Now you hear that, if you
just take the last promise that we'll never leave or depart from
him, you know that if that's gonna be, if that promise is
coming to pass, God's gonna have to be able to do it. Because
if it was left to us, how many times would you have departed
already? It's gotta be God that's able. And we believe God is able. Faith believes God will perform
everything he promised. Those two blind men came there,
and he said, you believe I'm able to do this? They said, yes,
Lord. That's faith. That's faith. Now, do you believe God's able?
Do you believe God's able to do what he promises he will do?
So many times in this life, we act out of sheer unbelief. God's
promised, and he's able. He's able to fulfill His promise.
Now secondly, go with me to Matthew 10. Matthew 10, and look at verse
28. Christ says this. He says, fear
not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul. but rather fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now James quotes
from that in James 4.12, he says there's one lawgiver who is able
to save and to destroy. So who are you that judge another?
Now, when God gives faith, God gives a fear of God. When he
gives you faith, he's gonna give you a fear of God. And what you're
gonna begin to see is, I should fear God rather than men. Now
most men can do is kill my body. God's able to kill my body and
my soul in that second death that never dies. He's able. I should fear God more than men. Because he's able to do that.
And by this, God is able to abase his people. Before we can ever
come to Christ, we gotta be abased. We gotta be brought low, because
we're far too proud and arrogant and self-righteous by nature.
We gotta be abased. Nebuchadnezzar found it out.
He said, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king
of heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment,
and those that walk in pride, he is able to abase. That thief on the cross was hanging
there, and that other thief was hanging there, and they were
so proud. They were throwing it in Christ's
teeth, and judging Him, and railing on Him. And God gave one of them
faith mixed with fear. And all of a sudden, his tune
changed. He said, does thou not fear God? He turned to that other
thief and said, do you not fear God? Seeing you're in the same
condition, And we indeed justly, we were receiving the due reward
of our deeds. This man had done nothing amiss.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. This man had a fear and believed
that that one on that cross was Lord and he was able to save
and destroy. He had a whole new reverence
for that one. And he took sides with Christ
against himself and said, Lord, remember me when you come into
your kingdom. And the Lord said, you'll be
with me today in paradise. These two blind men had heard
God's word. They had heard people speak about
Christ and what he had been doing. And they're sitting there and
God had obviously given them a fear of God together with faith. Because here's how we know that.
They came out of the quiet and cried out publicly
before everybody and confessed, that's the Messiah. In other
words, they feared him more than they feared men. They didn't
care anymore what men said about him. They feared him. And that's
what God's able to do. Do you believe God's able to
destroy both body and soul in hell? Do you believe He's able
to save and to destroy? See, there's a lot of promises
in this book that are not just promises about God saving. There's
also promises in this book about God condemning. And what unbelief
is saying is, I don't believe God's able to do what He says,
and I don't believe He's really able to save or destroy. And
when God gives you faith and fear, There is going to be some
abasement then because you see this thing is serious. I am going
to stand before God and He is going to save me or destroy me
and He is able. Now look with me over at Hebrews chapter 7. Faith believes Christ is able
to save to the uttermost. God-given faith believes Christ's
able to save to the uttermost. Verse 25, he's speaking there
of Christ and talking about how he's a high priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek, without beginning of days, without ending
of days, and it says, wherefore he is able, verse 25, wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Christ is our great, eternal, immutable high priest. He doesn't
need another priest to take his place. He's the everlasting high
priest. He came to this place, and this
high priest that we have is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners. He was unlike any other priest.
He didn't have to offer a sacrifice first for his own sins like those
priests did. He's without sin, and he came,
and he didn't come with a spotless lamb. He is the spotless lamb. He didn't come and offer the
blood of a bull or a goat, He came and offered His own blood.
And when He had satisfied sin, when He had taken care of our
sins, when He had obtained eternal redemption for us, Scripture
said, He offered Himself without spot to God. He entered into
the holiest of holies, into God's presence, just like that high
priest did. That high priest would bring that lamb, and he'd
put his hands on it, and all the sins of the people of Israel
would be transferred to that lamb in type and picture. Then,
justly, he would kill that lamb, and the blood would be poured
out. Now that's done, sins taken care of. But now atonement's
got to be made in the holiest of holies. And he went in there
with blood. He didn't go in there with a
sin-covered lamb. That's taken care of. Death has
happened. He went in there with the blood
from that lamb, and he sprinkled it seven times on the mercy seat,
and God said, I'll meet you and have mercy on the people right
there. There's the propitiation. And
Christ is that mercy seat. He's the high priest. He's the
Lamb, He's the mercy seat, it's His blood, and He's entered in,
and He ever lives now to make intercession for His people.
Everybody He draws to Him, everybody He calls out of darkness to faith,
everybody He brings to cast all their care on Him, He's living
for this purpose, to make intercession with God for you. When any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the
righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sin. That's why when
we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, because we have Jesus Christ,
the righteous, as our advocate with the Father. ever living
to make intercession. He's obtained eternal redemption.
And faith believes God's word concerning what I am. Faith believes
God's word that says, you're nothing but a sinner. He's righteous,
you're unrighteous. He's holy, you're unholy. He's
godly, you're ungodly. He's accepted, you're rejected. He's God's delight. The wrath
of God abides on you. And He makes you see what you
are, but at the same time, He makes you see that Christ is able to save you
to the uttermost. And He convinces you of that.
The Spirit of God convinces you of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment. And He makes you to behold Christ
is everything. He can save, and He's able, and
He's alive. And He draws you to Him. to cast
all your care on Him. Do you believe Christ is able
to save you? Do you believe you're the chief
of sinners? Do you believe you are the worst sinner there is?
If God cast you out today, would He be just to do it? Would you be surprised? The only
reason I would not be surprised, I wouldn't be surprised concerning
myself, but I'd be surprised knowing that he won't reject
one Christ died for. So there's my confidence. He's
able to save to the uttermost. These blind men came believing
he was able to save them from blindness and give them sight.
They believed it. And he gave them more than that.
He gave them life, spiritual life. All right, fourthly, go
to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 1. Here's what faith
believes as well. Faith believes Christ is able
to keep us to the end and also to provide us everything from
here to there. 2 Corinthians 1.12. All right, I think I wrote it
down wrong. Where does Paul say, I know whom I believe? Anybody
see it? What is it? Is it 2 Timothy? Oh, I'm in the wrong book. 2
Timothy 1.12. All right. Sorry about that. It helps when you're in the right
book of the Bible. I was in the New Testament. 2nd
Timothy 1 verse 12, he says there, I know whom I have believed and
am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. What is involved in this keeping
me and being able to keep me unto that day? These blind men
came and they committed their eyes to Christ, believing he
was able to give them sight and make them see. Faith commits
all to Christ, believing he's able, he's able, and he's able
to keep me. Now what is it, if he's gonna
keep me from now to then, there's a lot involved with keeping me.
Well, included in keeping us, faith believes that when we're
unbelieving, when we're cast down, when we need comfort, Christ
is able to comfort us. I won't have you turn to all
these for time's sake, but Hebrews 2.18 says, in that he himself
hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that
are tempted. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He knows what we need. He's been
in every situation we've been in, and he's God all powerful,
able to comfort his people. I need that. If he's gonna keep
me from here to there, I'm gonna need some comfort, and he's able.
Peter denied Christ three times. He denied the Lord three times. And do you remember when Christ
arose, one of the first things he did was send a comforting
word to Peter. He said, go tell them I've arisen
and tell Peter. Go tell Peter. And then he came
to where he was and he comforted Peter. Faith goes to God. He goes to brethren and comforts
brethren. He didn't say, now y'all stay
away from Peter. Y'all don't have anything to do with Peter.
Peter's denied the Lord. Y'all don't do anything. He gonna
stain you if you mess around with him. He said, go to Peter
and tell Peter, I've arisen. Isn't that how you comforted? To hear God's living, Christ
is living. You have your brother come to
you and say he lives and because he lives, you live. And Christ
came to him, he came to where he was himself, and he comforted
him. That's what he's able to do for
us. That's how he keeps us. Faith commits all to Christ,
persuaded he's able to keep us from falling, from falling away. Jude 24 says, now unto him that
is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise
God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and
forever. You know what he says just before
that verse? He says to you and me, keep yourself in the love
of God. Anybody here want to raise their
hand and say I can do that? I can keep myself in the love
of God. Anybody want to be so presumptuous as to say you can
do that? When God commands you to do something, God is the power
by which you're able to do it. He gives you the ability to do
it. When he said to that crippled man, stretch forth your hand,
that man couldn't stretch forth his hand, but when Christ said,
stretch it forth, he gave the power to stretch it forth. Those
blind men couldn't see, but when Christ touched their eyes, he
gave them the power to see. And he says, he is able to keep
you from falling. Peter said we're kept by the
power of God through faith. Paul's confidence of his Philippian
brothers was, I'm confident that he which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He's
able, he's able. Faith believes that Christ is
able to make our brethren stand. If I'm gonna be kept, then Christ's
gonna have to be my master that keeps me standing, and he's able
to keep my brethren standing. He said, who are you that judge
another man's servant? To his own master he stands or
falls, yet he shall be held up. God is able to make him stand. It's really unbelief that judges
brethren. It's really unbelief that encourages
others to judge a brother, to stand in suspect of him, to condemn
him, to revile him, Because faith believes Christ is his master.
Faith says, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to offend
my master and his master by murmuring against his master. If I'm judging
you, I'm judging that your master is not doing a very good job
with you. How about it? If somebody judges you for how
you're raising your children, don't you take that personally?
Christ is the master of his people. You judge one of his people,
he says, you're judging what I've done with that person. If
I stand, I'm gonna be standing by him because he's able. And
if I fall, I'm gonna fall by him because he's able and he's
teaching me how to stand by letting me fall. But he's gonna keep
his people held up and make his people stand. Know that about
yourself, believer, and especially know it about your brethren.
That's how he's keeping us. Faith believes Christ's able
to build us up by his word. Acts 20, 32 says, now brethren,
I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. I commend
you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build
you up and give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
Faith believes God's able to build me up and he's able to
build me up using the word of his grace. That's His written
Word that we preach. That's His Word spoken into our
hearts in power. That's Christ the Word who is
the Word personified. God, by the word of His grace,
is able to build you up. He's able to edify you. He's
able to strengthen you. He's able to make you stand and
make you stronger in grace and knowledge of Him. He's able to
do that. He's gonna have to do that if I'm gonna be kept. And
this is how He keeps you. He's able. Do you believe He's
able to do this? Faith believes God's able to
give us grace sufficient for every need. Turn to 2 Corinthians
9. I do want you to see this one. I need to read this, I need to
hear this one. He's able to give us grace sufficient
to meet every temporal need we have. Verse eight, God is able
to make all grace abound towards you. That you always, having
all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.
He's able. He says, he gives an example
as it's written, he hath dispersed abroad, he's given to the poor,
his righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministered seed to
the sower, both ministered bread for your food, multiplied your
seed sown, and increased the fruits of your rice. He's saying,
you don't have anything that you've ever sown, but that he
gave you. You don't have anything you've
ever eaten, but what he gave you. You don't have anything
that's ever come of anything you've ever done, but what he
gave you. He's saying, it's all of his grace. everything temporal
as well as in salvation. Everything is of Him. He says,
not only does He, you always have all sufficiency and all
things to abound in every good work, verse 11, being enriched
in everything to all bountifulness which causeth through us thanksgiving
to God. I was trying to make this point
Thursday night that we don't like trials, but when He gives
us a trial, He's loading us with a benefit. And when He gives
you a trial, He's enriching you. He just said, He's enriching
you in all things. And He's enriching you. He's
teaching you things you wouldn't have learned otherwise. He's
showing you things about His grace and His ability that you
wouldn't have seen otherwise. He's already given his son, he's
already come and laid down his life, he's already shed his blood,
he's already returned to heaven now, and we're seated there with
him. Do we really believe that he won't provide? It's easy to
sit here when we are comfortable and have what we need and got
a little bit in the bank and driving a decent vehicle and
all that and say, yeah, I believe that. What about when he takes
all that away? He gave it. He can take it away.
He can dwindle your bank account down to nothing. He can take
from you your job. He can take from you your health. He can take from you your vehicles.
He can take whatever. He can take that all from you. Here's what we're doing when
we start pining away in that. That stuff was my salvation.
If I don't have that, I can't be saved. That's why He took
it away. That ain't my salvation. He is.
And I need to turn to Him and go, Lord, You gave it. You can provide it. If I need
it, you can give me whatever I need. I'm just trusting you. And if he's pleased not to give
it, he's going to provide our need, not our greed. But he's not going to let his
people do without. He's given his son. He won't
do that. If he feeds the sparrow, he won't
let his child go hungry. If he gives the fox a den, he
won't let you go without shelter. If he clothes the flower of the
field, he's going to clothe his family. What's he doing? What's he teaching you and me
when he's teaching us that he will provide all grace and full
sufficiency for it? What's he telling us? He's telling
us to take your mind and focus and attention off of the things
of this world. And don't be anxious about what
you have or what you're not gonna have or whatever tomorrow. Look
to Him and set your affection on Him. He's the giver. And trust Him. See, if He didn't
teach us that He's able to make all grace abound and give us
everything we need, you know what we'd do? We'd keep all our
focus on, we'd do like the world. We'd steal and do everything
else to try to hoard up everything we can, because that's our salvation.
But he's turning you from that and saying, it's my grace that's
giving you everything you need and providing for you. Focus
on God. Don't focus on that stuff. That's
what he's teaching us. Do you believe he's able? He
said, I'm going to keep you. I'm going to keep you. I'm going
to keep you. I'm going to keep you. That involves keeping us
in all temporal things, too. by not giving us riches and not
giving us poverty, keeping us right where we need to be. He'll
keep you. And then lastly, go to Philippians
3. Here's what faith believes. He's
able to raise us from the dead with a glorified body. This is
not it. This is not what it's about right
here. This body we've been pampering is going to the dust and He's
going to raise a new glorified body. And then we're going to
have a new inward man and an outward man that's going to be
perfectly righteous and holy. That's going to be perfectly
conformed to Christ's image. Do you believe He's able to do
that? He says here in Philippians 3.21, he shall change our vile
body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according
to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things
to himself. He subdued Satan. We're gonna
come to a scripture in Romans 16 in just a little bit, it says
he's gonna bruise him under your feet shortly. He subdued him,
he subdued you, he subdued you, that He chose by grace and put
down your old man and brought you to faith in Christ. He's
able to subdue all things according to His purpose. And so He's able
to perform the resurrection of our bodies. He's able to raise
us from the dead and give us a new body. Do you ever just
think about, as a believer I sit and think about that and I think,
that's so hard to believe. Lord help my unbelief, that is
so hard to believe. You're going to raise me from
the dead. I see why unbelievers can't believe. I get it. He's given me faith
to believe and I struggle with that sometimes. But it's going
to happen. You see, the point I'm making
to you is, is everything from the beginning to the end, is
all by His ability. Our salvation is by His ability. And that's what faith simply
is. Faith is believing He's able. Able to do what He promised.
He's able to save and destroy. He's able to save to the uttermost. He's able to keep me. He's able to provide everything
I need. He's able to comfort me. He's
able, and He's able to raise me from the dead. What's God
not able to do? He's able. But you know, here's
the sad thing. We just don't comprehend it,
and we don't even enter into what He's able to do. And the
fact of the matter is, as true as all these things are, They're not even all that he's
able to do. Listen to this. Now unto him
that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think. Do we believe he'll do what we
ask him to do? It's not really will he do what
I've asked him, it's do you believe he's able to do it? He may or
may not do it, but do you believe he's able to do it? Well, he
says, I'm able to do exceeding abundantly above anything you
can ask me or think about. Think of the grandest thing you
can think of. He said, I can top that. That's
amazing. according to the power that worketh
in us. That's what's even more. That
power's in you. He's working that power to save
you. So unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout
all ages, world without end. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in
prayer. Father, teach us your ability
We're so doubtful and we're so sinful and unbelieving. Lord,
in every situation, in every area of our life, in every part
of our being, would you just make us to see you're able. Stop
us from being so unbelieving and from doubting. Lord, make
us trust that there's everything that is happening from the least
little atom to the grandest thing we can see. You're doing every
bit of it according to your will, according to your purpose, exactly
as you'd have it be done. And you're able to save these
little weak sinners like us, or keep us remembering that. This is what we need above anything
temporal. We just need you to keep us knowing
you're able. That's our health. That's our
sight. That's everything, to know you're
able. If we know you're able, Lord,
and we know that something's not done, we know it wasn't because
you weren't able to do it, it's because you weren't willing to
do it. And that ought to suffice us. That ought to stop us from murmuring.
That ought to stop us from having anxious care. You're able and
you will do what your people need. Keep us remembering that. We pray for each member here,
each house here. Lord, keep your people, keep
us together. Make us love, make us endeavor
to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Do that for us, we ask you in
Christ's name, amen.