Matthew 11 Many, if not most, have heard
this before. It's not the exact same message
by any means, but yet it is. But there are no sweeter words
uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ, no more wonderful words than
these right here that He said. In verse 28, let's read that
again. He said, Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. come unto me." What is it to
come to Christ? And I hope, what I hope, my prayer
is that everyone in here would come to Christ this morning. Even if you have already. We
need to come to Him today. What is it to come to Christ?
Who may come to Christ? Who will come? How do we come
to Christ? What does that mean? And then
what? If we do come, what then? What is it to come to Christ? To come to Christ. It's not a
physical move. Brother Scott Richardson said
this years ago. He said, come to Christ, but
don't move a muscle. What it means to come to Christ
is to need him. Like hunger and thirst, like
being poor, you need a handout. Our Lord said this, blessed are
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Well, what's that?
Christ is righteousness. Christ. How will they be filled? He said they will be filled by
Christ. Christ in you. Christ in you. To come to Christ is to need
Him. To come to Christ is to believe
Him. Faith. Believe that he and he
alone can and must meet your need. You need him. And to come
to him is to believe that he and he alone must, can and must
meet that need. That he is able. Paul said, I
am persuaded to believe from the heart that he is able. To
keep that which I have committed." You see, there's the faith. Folks
go hunting for this and that and the other, you know. People
hunt for churches. We're looking for a church. Well,
there's one on every corner, so to speak. But if God Almighty
will cause you to start searching for Christ, when you do find
and hear the message of Christ, Him, where He is, where He's
prayed. Your searching is over. You've
come to Christ. You've come to cry. And to come
to Christ not only is to need Him, not only to believe Him,
but is to leave everything and everyone else to come to Him. Everyone in here left something
and perhaps someone. Perhaps someone in here left
an unbelieving mate, a spouse, or children, or whoever, parents. You had to leave them to come
here to hear Christ, to worship Christ. You've left all else
to come to Him. And that's what our Lord said.
Any man would come after Me, let him deny himself. forsaking all others. We leave
the world. We leave the world to come to
Christ. And God has to show us that there's nothing in this
world. It's vanity. And show us the
beauty that is Christ. The glory that is Christ. To
come to Christ is to leave self. Like we just said. Family, friends,
personal desires and ambitions and so forth. If Christ is made
to you altogether lovely, your true need, then it won't be a
sacrifice to leave anything or anyone else. Not at all. To come to Christ is to leave
religion. See, Christ would come into Jerusalem
on occasion. and preach. But most of the time,
majority of the time, he was outside. Outside of the camp. You see, they hated him. They
rejected him. Religion is full of people and
religious leaders. But they rejected the truth.
They rejected Christ the truth. And so if you were going to go
to Christ, you had to go to him outside the camp. You had to
leave organized religion that the vast majority of the people
were part of, bearing his reproach. If you followed Christ, you'd
be hated just like he was. It hasn't changed. Things haven't changed. Man hasn't
changed. We go to him and have to leave
religion. Christ is not in all this mess
that goes by the name of religion today. I'll give you the test. I'll
tell you how you may know. Is Christ getting all the glory? Is He really? You listen. You watch. Is God, is Christ getting all
the glory or are men sharing it? Are men getting it? Are people
being pointed to Christ and Him only for salvation. Are they exalting, glorifying,
honoring, preaching Christ and Him crucified preeminently? Or are they pointing to what
you may be, what you may become, what you must do, and so forth?
That's how you know. That's how you know. Spirit-filled
preaching. Everybody likes to talk about
that, don't they? How may you know? Christ said it. He said, the Spirit will take
the things of mine and show them unto you. He'll not speak of
himself. Wherever the Spirit of God is, the people of God
are not talking about the Spirit of God so much as the Christ
of God. Because the Spirit bears witness
of Christ. And so does the witnesses that
God Almighty sends. He's not left himself without
a witness. And who do they bear witness of? Christ. He's the Savior. We're going
to see this here in a moment. To come to Christ so as to leave
religion, to turn from idols. All this man-made stuff. And
what about religion today? Is it truly taking the scriptures
and searching and looking, verse by verse, line upon line, precept
upon precept. And in them Christ said, they
are they which testify of Me. Is Christ being brought out?
Well, wherever He is, that's where He is. That is, wherever
He is being declared, lifted up, that's where He is. That's
where He is. So it's to leave religion to
come to Him. If people see Christ as all they
need, their all and in all, He's all they need. That sounds real
simple, doesn't it? How do you know where Christ
is? It's where He's being preached and the people want to hear Christ. If people don't want to hear
Him, want to go after others, Christ is not there. Christ said,
if I be lifted up, I'll draw who? My people. My people. Well, I've lost some
of you. We need to come to Christ this
morning. I mean, today. Today is the day of salvation.
Don't take it for granted you have. To come to Christ is to come
to Christ. He said, come unto me and nothing
and no one else for salvation. See, we come to Christ as our,
and in many things, there's so many descriptions of our Lord,
offices, works of our Lord in Scripture. He's called prophet,
priest, king, Christ, mediator, and so forth. We've come to Christ
as our prophet. There's a bunch of people running
around today who love to call themselves prophets, don't they?
They've got a school, a school of the prophets. All these people
love to talk about being, I don't need a prophet. Do you? A prophet is someone who tells
us future events, things that haven't happened. Over in John
chapter 4, there's a woman at a well. And she said, talking to this
man, this preacher was standing in front of her, and she said,
well, when Christ has come, He'll tell us all things. She knew
what Scripture said, that there would be a prophet raised up.
Him the people would hear. She said, when Christ has come,
He'll tell us all things. Christ said, I that speak unto
thee am. And we don't look for another
prophet. And any fellow or fellowette, woman who comes along, calls
herself a prophet or prophetess, don't need you, go home, thank
you. He's told us all things. My prophets,
our prophets told us all we need to know. Don't need an extra
revelation, Mr. Joseph Smith, Moroni, that angel,
Mormon. Don't need an extra revelation.
The revelation of Jesus Christ is all I need. Thank you. Besides,
He said if you add one word or take away one word, you're judged. Come to Him as our prophet. That
woman did. Come to Him as our priest. I
have a priest that I confess to. And he's not in a little
booth. He's not a sinful man. He's the
great and high priest. You know, people feel a need.
Why do people go into those booths and confess all their perversion
and stuff to a man behind there? Why do they do that? Huh? Well, not only is it tradition,
but people feel a need to confess their sin and their guilt, thinking
that confession is good for the soul. Well, it is if you confess
to the right person. It won't help you to confess
your sins and your guilt and so forth to a man. He can't do
anything about it. And he better keep it a secret.
If he doesn't, you're worse off than when you came in, aren't
you? Only Christ can and will remove
that sin and the guilt that goes with it. There is no removal
of guilt. People have guilt so they have
to confess it. You know, confess it. There's
only one person that can remove the guilt because he removes
the sin. How's that? By paying for it. Guilt removed, sin forgiven,
paid for. You see, sin is against God.
That's why repentance, confession of sin, is to God. Against thee
and thee only have I sinned. And who can forgive sins but
God? So who do we confess to? God. Who's God? Christ said, I am. So I have a priest. Oh, I'm thankful I have a priest.
I confess to him. We need to confess to Him. If
you have guilt, you have sin, who doesn't? You better confess
it right now. If I regard iniquity in my heart,
He won't hear me. So what do you do? Confess it
to our priest. He's our priest. He's our King.
We come to Christ as King. King. There was a man hanging
on a cross right beside the Lord. He said, Lord, he was about to
die. He was about to die. He was about
to go out into a realm that he didn't know anything about. Eternity. Some kingdom or realm or whatever. And by the grace of God, he saw
that man hanging on a cross, that crucified one, as his king. And he said, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom. And we come into this morning.
We come here this morning. And we come, I hope, from the
heart saying the same thing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
I have heard about your kingdom. Would you remember me? Can I
come in? Can I be a part of your kingdom?
Thy kingdom come. Can I come? I hear these people of yours,
these Israelites, are going to the promised land. Can I go too?
Who decides? I'm going to preach a message,
Lord willing, I may not get to it, but from over in, where is
it? Judges. John, do you like the
book of Judges? Chapter 7, I believe it is, 6,
where Gideon chooses his men. God does. Out of 32,300 went
in. And I'll give you a little clue
who went in. Who God said would. They didn't, what's the word, apply. Who went in was who God said.
He said, as many, I'm giving it away. I might not get to it,
Sherry. But he said, as many as I say shall go with you, Gideon,
the same shall go with you. And as many as I say shall not
go with you, Gideon, the same shall not go with you. Lord, can I go? It's who you say goes. The only
reason you cry or come is because he said to. The difference between
that one thief hanging there that saw his king and asked him
to be included and the one who was cussing him and died and
was left out of the kingdom, the difference was the sovereign
electing mercy and grace of God. It's the same with us. Because
we are all thieves, stealing God's glory. If you haven't given
it, come short of the glory of God. My, my. We come to Christ as our God
and our King. Our God and our King. King, look
at verse 27. He said right before this, he
said, all things are delivered unto me of my Father. All things. All power, the last
thing he heard or his disciples heard him say was this, all power
is given unto me and heaven and earth. Go. Here he says all things
are delivered unto me. Come. What do you need? I'll tell you
who has it. Whatever it is. Joseph. He has the storehouses. You see,
the King has put him in charge of all things. Do you know that
story? Over in Genesis, Christ is the
King, our King. Everything belongs to Him. What do you need? You go to Him. He has it all. It's His to dole
out according to the measure of Christ, the grace of Christ. We go to cry. We come to cry
as Savior. He says, come. The reason we
say come, go sounds like somewhere you've been. Doesn't it? Come always, Jenny, come always
implies that it's something you're doing right now. Doesn't it? Huh? I know country people say,
well, he come over the other night. But that's bad grammar. He come over and he came. He went, they go, but come. Now, today, right now, come.
We come to Christ as Savior. Listen, you don't need a Savior
this morning. I don't need a Savior this morning.
Lord, save me from myself in this preaching. Lord, save me
from ignorance. Save me from flesh. Save me,
Lord, from sin. It's killing me. If you leave me alone, if you
don't save me, I'm going to go under. My sins are going over
my head. Save me! When? Now! Save me from
my thoughts. My mind is wandering, Lord. I'm
thinking about who knows what. What are you thinking about?
I don't know. God knows. And you have no control over
it, do you? No control over it. You try to get my thoughts. Lord,
save me! Sin. Satan. Satan that desired
you. Who? Not just Peter. You and
you and you and me. Satan that desired you. To sift
you like weeds, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And he's devoured a world of
people better than that. The Lord saved me. Come to Him as our Savior. Save
me from the world. Two people over 20 went into
the Promised Land. Two! There were 2 or 3 million that
went out of Egypt and they saw for 40 years, glory! Glory! Two people, Henry. Two people.
Two adults went into the Promised Land. Why? It says they were overcome by
the world. They were passing through. They
didn't have here any continuance. See, they were passing through,
but passing through, Nancy. Vanity Fair got a hold of them.
Look. Look. Oh, she's beautiful. He's beautiful. They took their
eyes off the altogether lovely one, that rock. Oh, I've got
to have that. And they said, oh, I'd love to
go back there. God does not believe. They perished
in the wilderness. Perished where? In the world.
Barbara, in the world. They were overcome by the world.
How am I going to overcome the world? How am I not going to
be overcome by the world? He said, who is he that overcometh
the world but he that believeth? Believeth what? The Lord saved
me. We can't. Satan. When he came to Christ, he tempted
him with three things. He said, miracles. Cause a stone may break. Then
the kingdoms of the world. Look at all this stuff. I'll
give you all this stuff. Cast yourself down to show yourself. And Christ withstood him. Overcame
him and the world. And he said, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. You
can't. You can't do it. I did. Come unto me. Are we getting it? We need it
today. Come unto Him. I like Brother
Sammy sitting there. We were talking about how right
now there's hundreds of thousands of people sitting in an arena
watching little go-carts go, a NASCAR. Same thing. That care less about God, about
Christ, about worship. Who cares? Who makes us different
if given a choice? Overcome by. We were talking
about, Sam and I were talking about how we like cars as much
as anybody. I wish we didn't, don't you? Well, we do. We like
cars. We still like cars. We liked cars when we were kids,
didn't we? Didn't they, Nancy? You, Steven and Sammy? I did
too. I've had as many cars or more
cars than most people have in a lifetime. Well, why am I not
overcome by, taken by, why is it that I'm not consumed with?
It's not my life now. The mercy of God. And I can still
be overcome by Him. The Lord saved me. Lest I be overcome by the world,
And here's the worst, here's our biggest, Lord save me from
myself. I can't do anything with me.
Can you? You ever say this to your teenager?
What am I going to do with you? Barbara, I remember my dad saying
that to me. What am I going to do with you?
And he tried. And I thought he couldn't do
anything with me. is only one who can. And it's
still the same. I can't do anything with me.
Can you? Who can? The Lord saved me from
self. Would you do something with me?
Do something about me? Huh? Self. Self. We come to Him. My, my. We come to Christ as
our Father. We come as a little child. He
said, come unto me. We come to him as our father.
He said, you need to come as a little child. Little children
don't know much, do they? Christ is our wisdom. We come
to him, Lord, help me. I'm ignorant. I'm still ignorant.
Forty-some years old. Fifty-some years old. I'm still
ignorant. Seventy-some. Lord, would you
be wisdom to me? Wisdom? Our Father knows best. You know that, don't you? Always
does. He still does. He hath seen me, Christ said.
I've seen the Father. We've come to Christ our Father
as protection. I told you about that story.
Didn't I, when we were living in the trailer, when we were
trailer people? And we were living right out
here. And the worst light thunder and lightning storm that I've
ever experienced, I guess it was because it was the first
one I was living in a trailer and heard it. Because you're
living in a metal box, you know, a thunder and lightning storm,
your whole house shakes. And it's a lightning rod. But
we were in that trailer, and at the time, my parents were
with us. At the time. And it woke me up
as just horrendous. Thunder and lightning woke me
up. And I think Hannah came in. She was just a child. Well, not
eight, no, nine years old. And she came to me scared. Well, I got up and went in the
living room, and there my dad stood. Because I was scared. If the truth be known, I was
glad my dad was there. He didn't seem too scared. But
you know what? I bet he was. The point is, Father, Dad, save
me. Protect me. I can't protect myself. I can't protect my children.
I can't protect my children. They're going to get out in that
car doing 70 miles an hour. And the majority, young people,
the majority of fatal crashes by teenagers, by teenagers, is
a one-car crash, meaning they're going too fast. and either talking
on the cell phone or adjusting the radio, and a wheel goes off
the road, the majority of them, one wheel goes off the road,
they're not experienced enough to correct it, and they're killed.
Too fast. Too busy. You hear me, Anna?
I may save your life if you listen to this. Elizabeth, you hear
me? Lauren? There's a reason for those speed
limits. Is it okay for me to say that, parents? You better
hope they hear me. Going too fast. Too busy. Your business is to pay attention,
as it is now. It might save your eternal life. But why did I say that? We can't protect them, can we,
Margaret? We're going to put them out in that car. It doesn't
matter if it's a Volvo with airbags or seatbelts. It won't save them,
will it, Nancy? Lord, watch over them. Please. If you don't, save their
souls before they go to be with you. Come unto me. This ain't a past
thing. This ain't a one-time thing.
This is a daily thing. Come to him, Teresa, beg him,
Lord, restrain Blair. Come now. Today's the day of
salvation. She is hearing this message today. Is it serious? Oh, my. Come unto me. Christ says, come
unto me. Come to Him as our physician.
Our physician. We all have leprosy. Our children have leprosy. If
the Lord doesn't do something about them, they're just going
to rot. I've got friends, you do too, who have children in
jail, rotting away, getting worse and worse, if the Lord doesn't
save them. Come unto me. Come unto me. We come as a dying
man. Any woman in here with an issue
of blood? Still? You have an issue? Come unto me. She suffered many things of other
positions, so-called. Boy, he took care of the issue.
He took care of the issue. Who may come? My second point
of five, are you worried? What could I have left out in
all that? Who may come? Look at our text. He says, oh,
that labor. A heavy labor. He didn't say,
Dan Ogle may come. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
he didn't say that? That means I can't come. Dan,
you better be glad, too, because there might be I guarantee you
there's another Dan Ogle. Guaranteed. Many of them. He
didn't qualify it, did he? No names are mentioned, no qualifications
are mentioned except this, all that labor and are heavy laden. All ye that labor. I'd love to
preach this to the world, but I'm not preaching it to you.
There are many people all over the world laboring to get to
heaven. Trying to keep the Sabbath, their morality, their works and
so forth of righteousness, laboring to get rid of sin and guilt,
you know, trying to atone for their past, trying to pay for
their past, trying to undo their past or present. Christ is coming today. And quit laboring. You young
people, let me talk to you one more time, okay? You're going
to labor. Your labor to find yourself in the world. You're
going to go out and you're going to try to find yourself. That's
what we say. Try to find yourself. You know
what you'll find when you find yourself? You'll find trouble. Trying to find true love. Trying
to find true love. Trying to find a husband. Trying
to find a wife. What you'll find is trouble if you don't find Christ first.
Is that right? I assure you, if
you don't find the man who loves Christ, you've got nothing but
trouble. Trouble. You'll find labor to
find a career. And what you'll find is, you
can't wait to get out of the house. Can't wait to get out
of the house and find myself and find my career. So what you'll
find is you'll be going to work for 60 years. And you'll work
all day long, every day, just for a few hours of rest. and
you'll turn over all your paycheck to the telephone company and
the bank and all of that, won't you? Turn it all over and you'll
have very little left. In the beginning, you won't have
enough gas, you won't have enough to pay for a hamburger, you'll
sit in the house and do nothing. When all you're home, somebody
paying for everything. And you thought you had it bad. Couldn't wait to get out so you
could pay for it all. If that isn't stupid, what you
will find is a lifetime of labor, work. It's hard work until you
reach 70 years old and you can quit, unless you're Henry Sword. When you want quits, you've still
got to make money to pay for Roberta's thing. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. Well, here's the fact of the
matter. You work, work, work, work, work. Can't wait to get
out so I can what? Labor. Boy, that's dumb, isn't it? If all I had to do was go sit
in the classroom six hours a day and then come home and do a couple
hours of study and sweep the floor and then go play. Wouldn't
that be wonderful? Labor. Labor. Well, but there's people laboring
in religion, laboring in work, laboring, laboring, laboring,
a lifetime of working achieve morality or righteousness or
trying to get God to have favor upon you won't work. It's like working in this world.
A lifetime of work and then you end up in a nursing home and
you give it all to somebody else and they spend it. And in your
dying day, you don't get any of it. You just lay there with
tubes in you. What was it all for? Why do you work so hard? That's
the way it is. Well, Christ says, Come unto
Me. All of you that labor and are heavy
laden, heavy laden, weight. Have you ever read heavy laden? That means a burden. Carrying
a heavy burden. Bearing is heavy burden. Weight weighs you down. You know what depression is? People suffer depression. You
know what it is? It's guilt. That's behind it all. That's
right. God said there is no rest for
the wicked. They don't know what it is. And
they become weighed down, depressed. Depressed. Guilt. It's against God. There's only
one place to remove that burden. Come unto Me, Christ said. Cast
your care upon Him. The weight, guilt, sin, the world,
all your responsibilities. We have them. Kellie, we have
them. We're fathers and husbands. We have them. And we're to assume
them. He says, come unto Me. Cast all your care upon Me. What we realize is we weren't
bearing it at all. We weren't bearing it at all.
Come unto me. Come unto me. Who will come? Christ said this. You don't have to turn. He said
no man can come unto me. He said to some, you will not
come unto me. But you might have not. You will not. He said, no
man can come unto me, John 6.44, no man can come unto me except
my Father draw him. Draw him. He said that twice,
John 6.37 and John 6.40. He didn't write it down, but
he said that twice. And who will come? All that the
Father giveth me, he said, shall come unto me. Now listen to what
he said. He said, no man can come unto
me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. Well over in
Jeremiah he said, I have loved thee with an everlasting love,
therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. I want you to get a hold of this
now. If you've come to Christ, all these things we're talking
about. Prophet, priest, King, Lord,
Savior, God, King, Father, wisdom, so forth, protection. If you
have, and you do, you must be loved by God. If you're not going
to another priest and you see Christ, you must be loved of
God. Oh, that the Father, with everlasting love, and He gave
you to Christ. Oh, that the Father giveth me.
shall come to me." That's good news, isn't it? Huh? If you have
come, and do come, who will come? All that the Father loves, all
that the Father draws, all that the Father gives to Christ, they
will come. Oh, that's the good news, isn't
it? Huh? Did you hear that? And so if
you see a need of Christ and you believe Him and come to Him
and all these things, you've been loved, you've been drawn,
you've been given to Christ. And he said in that same chapter
of John, he said, I will by no means. I will in no wise. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me. And him that cometh to me, I
will... I said there were no sweeter
words. spoken by the Lord. These are just as. I will in no wise cast out. From the worst harlot to a dying
thief, all manner of sin shall be forgiven. How do we come to Christ as a
sinner? We come in prayer. Nobody can come for you. You've
got to come. Young people, you've got to call on the Lord yourself.
Do you hear that? You've got to call on Him. Do
you hear that? Are you listening to me? I want to see that you're
listening to me. You've got to go home and get
in your closet and ask the Lord to reveal Himself to you. You're
not going to get in that glory by your mama or your daddy. You're
not going to do it. He's dealing with you personally. Pray, Lord
save me. or I perish. Come to Him in the
Word. This is what we're doing this
morning. Congregation. Christ is where His people are. Where to if they are gathered.
And we come continually. Peter said, to whom coming? To
whom coming? It's not a one-time thing. I
need Christ now more than I did in the beginning. Lord, revive me in the midst
of the years. I need him now more than ever. We needed him in the beginning
because we were rotten, no good sinners. We need him now because
we're rotten, no good sinners, helpless, poor and needy. We
will need him to the day we die because, you see, we're the same
yesterday and today, our nature, and tomorrow. Thank God. He's
the same. Yesterday, today, forever. Old sinner, young sinner. Come
unto me. And what do we find? What then? We come to Christ. What then?
He said, I will give you rest. I will. No one else. Not the church. Not activities. Not marriage. Not career. Not
this. Not that. I will give you rest. Rest. You know, the older you
get, one of the sweetest things in life is what, Janet? You're
nodding your head. Sleep. Rest. Young people, sleep! I remember when I was growing
up Sunday afternoons, my parents would always take a nap, and
I thought, that's the biggest waste of time I've ever in my
life. When I get old enough, there's
no way I'm going to take a nap. It's the middle of the day. Nap. These old people are laughing.
Why is that? Why does it all of a sudden become,
because you're working, work, work, work, work, work, work,
so your kids can play. Work, work, work, work, work.
And the sweetest thing of all is rest. And especially if you've got
things to do. And it never ceases to do, Henry.
It never ceases things to do by the time you get something
built or whatever, you've got to start fixing it. Don't you? It never ends. It never ends. Work, work, work, work, work.
But the sweetest thing of all You've got a project, you've
got things to do. The sweetest thing of all is when it's finished. It's finished. I've never lived
in a finished house. I'll be glad someday that I can
rest. I mean, there's nothing to do
but just rest. Yeah, rest. Well, this is the
thing in salvation and spiritual things. Everybody's looking for
this and that and the other. Christ is coming today. Oh, you
come where the gospel is preached, where Christ is preached, you'll
find rest. We're not coming here because
we have to, but we want to. We're not coming here because
we ought to, but we ought to. We're coming here because we
want to. We're not coming here to try to make God pleased with
us. We're coming here because He is. We're not coming here Try to earn God's
favor by coming here because Christ earned God's favor. Come
here to rest. You're going to leave here and
go to work. Come in here to rest. Come under me. He said, I'll
give you rest. Your search is over. It's over. Rest. It's done. It's done. Finished. You'll breathe spiritually. You'll breathe a great sigh of
relief if you come to Christ and say, oh, I'm glad it's over. And someday, Nancy, we will,
all of us collectively, in glory, sigh, it's over. Rest forever. No more work. And we'll play
in the fields of the Lord, His children. All right, let's just
stand and I'll dismiss us in prayer, okay? Stand. Our Lord and our God, thank you
for those sweet words, wonderful words of life you uttered. Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Lord, may we take thy yoke by
your grace and mercy. May we come to thee, take your
yoke upon us and learn of you. Learn of your heart, mind, and
will, and spirit, your great work, finished work. Find rest. Rest for our souls. Lord, we
pray for our young people. Spare them, Lord. Protect them. Watch over them. Restrain them.
If it is Thy will, saving purpose, constrain them by Thy love to
come to Thee. May they bear the yoke in their
youth, for the evil days come nigh. Lord, save them from this
world, this untoward generation, and us, Lord, all of us. Save
us, Lord, or we perish, all of us. We come to Thee this morning. We ask these things for Thy glory's
sake and Thy name's sake. Amen.