And part two will be tonight,
the power of God. Power of God. Now in this world,
one of the pursuits of natural man is power. Power. And when one who becomes successful
in the eyes of the world, they are often one who has wealth
or success in something that they do or something that they
have obtained. And sometimes even they're looked
upon as celebrities. And they have power and influence
in those positions. And when, with success again,
and wealth often comes power and influence. Power and influence. And some natural men and women
will do anything, or do anything to get that power. Including
stepping on top of whomever is in front of them. That's natural
man. As they, anyone who opposes them
as they go up the ladder of success, they don't care who they take
down. And it's all about power. All about power. Listen to what
the word of God says about those people. Surely men
of low degree are vanity. Vanity. And men of high degree
are a lie. to be laid in the balance. Oh,
they're bewayed, beloved, and they will be found wanting. They are altogether lighter than
vanity. Trust not in oppression and become
not vain in robbery. If riches increase, set not your
heart upon them. Now, we have government officials
in state positions and in federal positions and they wield power. They wield power. They're making
decisions for those they represent in their respective offices.
We also have judges and police officers who keep law and order
and they have power. They have power in that position.
The position that they have been put in. You know where man gets his power? The Scripture declares that those
in authority over us receive their power from God. They receive
their power from God. When we see a police officer,
or a judge, or a government official, we know where their power comes
from. It comes from above. Listen to Romans chapter 13,
verse 1. scriptures declare let every
soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power
but of God the powers that be are ordained of God ordained
of God but there's no power beloved higher than God no power higher
than kings, presidents, governors, prime ministers, whatever higher
powers they are called, are vested with authority over others, and
all their authority comes from our great God. We have seen how Pharaoh is like
putty in the hands of our great God as he works his sovereign
will out and takes Joseph from the prison to prime minister
over all of Egypt. Think of all those men who had
years for years worked their way up in the courts of Pharaoh
and thinking, oh, one day, and in comes this Hebrew who was
just a prisoner a few minutes before. And he's given all power
over the land of Egypt. That power came from above. That
power came from our great God as he worked out his will and
his purpose. So God is the fountain and the
source of all power, beloved. All authority is by His permission,
by His permission and by His appointment. And this is true
of all authority. They get their right to rule
and lead from our great God, even though they do not believe
in Him. We have seen Him, even in our
lifetime, take down dictators. Right? We have. Beloved, the
heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord, and He turns it
whatsoever way He pleases. Because He has all power. He
has all power. Turn, if you would, to Psalm
62. Psalm 62. Now evil men may abuse and misuse
and corrupt authority, but government and leadership is necessary,
beloved, and it must be obeyed. With that in mind, let us turn
to Psalm 62, verse 11, and look what it says here. And then put
your finger in Acts chapter 16, because we'll be going there
right away. Acts chapter 16, and we're going to be parking
there. Psalm 62, verse 11, the Scriptures
declare, God has spoken once, twice have I heard, that power
belongeth unto God. It belongs unto God. There's
no question. He is Lord over all. He has all
power in heaven and earth. Again, God has spoken once, twice
have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Who saved us? God. Who has all power and might. Now turn if you would to Acts
chapter 16. We're starting verses 11 and
we'll read the verse 15. This little section here is about
the conversion of Lydia. Acts chapter 16, verses 11 to
15. You ever hear in religion, just
give your heart to Jesus? Hear that kind of stuff? Do you
know that man will never do that? Natural man will never come to
Christ, never seek Him. He must make us willing in a
day of what? His power. His power. His power. Look at this in Acts
16, verses 11-15. Therefore, loosing from Taurus,
we came with a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day
to Neapolis, and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief
city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony. And we were in
that city of Biden certain days. And on the Sabbath, we went out
to the city by Riverside, where prayer was wont to be made. And
we sat down and spake unto the woman which resorted thither.
Now there's a divine appointment that's going to happen here,
beloved. Lydia has no clue that this is her time of love. Oh,
she has no clue that this is her time of love. But Paul is
sent there by God's divine will and purpose. And watch what happens. when God's power is executed,
beloved. Look at this. We sat on the Sabbath,
and on the Sabbath we went out in the city by a riverside where
a prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake unto
the woman which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped
God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened. How did that happen? By the power of God, beloved.
by the power of God, that she attended unto the things which
were spoken of Paul. She believed. The Lord opened her heart. And when she was baptized in
her household, she besought us, saying, if ye have judged me
to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there.
And she constrained us. Oh, beloved, the power of God
is at work in the conversion. of our dear sister in Christ,
Lydia. In verse 14, the Word of God proclaims, whose heart
the Lord opened. This is a work of God. This is
a mighty work of God by His divine power, beloved. She's born again
of the Holy Spirit of God, and she attains to the things that
Paul is saying. She believes because she's been
granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is
all by the power of God. All by the almighty power of
God. The power of the Holy Spirit
of God. She's granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And again, she believed the report. Remember, Paul's preaching from
the Old Testament, isn't he? They didn't have the New Testament
then. She's, I believe, I believe he's the Messiah. I believe. Because she'd been given faith
to believe. Oh, and notice she did not let
God into her heart. Doesn't say that, does it? No,
she didn't pray a prayer. No, the power of God converted
Lydia, beloved. The power of God. She's given
a new heart, which hungered and thirsts after righteousness.
And we know the Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness. He's our
righteousness. And she believed the record that
God had given of her son. or given of His Son. She believed. Now let us read a little further
down in this chapter. And we see the almighty power
of God again on display in the works of providence and in the
salvation of another sinner who had a divine appointment that
he did not know he was going to have. Paul and Silas, they'd
been cast into prison after they cast a demon out from a woman
who was possessed with a spirit of divination, which was divining
or prophesying. And she bought her masters much
wealth, much gain. We see that in verse 16. And
her masters, when they saw that their gain was gone, it's gone.
This demon's being cast out of her. And when they see that this
game is gone, they're furious and they took Paul and Silas
to the marketplace to stand before the judges, where they were tried
and beaten and thrown into prison. And again, all this is happening
according to the plan and purpose of God, beloved. Being executed
by His divine power. All these events. And remember again in our study
in the life of Joseph, all that's been occurring there is according
to the power and plan and will of our great God. Now let's read
verses 25 to 31. And at midnight Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God. They're in prison and they're
singing praises unto God. They're praying to our great
God. And the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was
a great earthquake. so that the foundations of the
prison were shaking. This earthquake was so strong
that the very foundations of the prison were shaking. And
the bands were loosed off the prisoners. Look, and immediately
all the doors were open. The doors just swung open because
of this great earthquake. And everyone's bands were loosed. The keeper of the prison, awaking
out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out
a sword and he would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners
had fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice
saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light and
sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas. and brought them out and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And he took them the same hour
of the night and washed their stripes, and was baptized he
in all his straight way. And when He had brought them
into His house, He sat before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all His house. Now here before us, beloved,
in this portion of Scripture, we have the power of God on full
display in providence and in the salvation of a sinner. The Philippian jailer cries,
what must I do to be saved? And then we see the words of
verse 31, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. And then look at verse 34. And
when he had bought them into his house, he set meat before
them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. So
this wasn't just a divine appointment for the Philippian jailer, it
was a divine appointment for those of his household. Now as we pilgrimage through
this world, as believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we need encouragement, don't we? We need encouragement.
We need comfort from the Word of God. And the Lord gives His
people comfort and assurance, how? Through the preaching of
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the preaching
of this wonderful Word. which points us right to Christ.
And here before us in this passage, actually in this whole chapter,
are words of comfort for the believer. His God, the God who
saves this Philippian jailer, the God who saved Lydia both
by His almighty power and the God who causes this great earthquake
which occurred all by His almighty power is the same God who has
saved we who believe by His almighty power. The same God. The same God. Now this Philippian jailer It
was probably a crusty old Roman soldier who was spending his
last years of military service as a jailer at Philippi, which
again was under Roman control. And he was in charge and he would
be considered the warden of this small prison. And he had no idea
that this night when he put Paul and Silas into bonds at the order
of the magistrate, He had no idea that he was going to be
regenerated and born again by the Holy Spirit of God. He had
no idea that he would be converted and bought to a saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he's putting them in the
bonds, he had no idea that this was even going to occur. Now what the jailer knew of the
Lord Jesus Christ before this night, we do not know. The Scripture
brings before us this man who's a pagan by birth. He's a pagan
by birth. He's a pagan by custom. He's
a Roman soldier. He's a hardened soldier, beloved. Steeped in idolatry. Steeped
in the idolatry that the Romans worshiped their false idols. He was lost with no knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. No knowledge of the Gospel of
God's redeeming grace. And we know from the Scripture,
right, that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. So to the natural man the gospel
is foolishness. We see then in verse 25 that
Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns in the prison cell. This man may or may not have
heard the hymns, he probably heard them at first as they sung
to our great God, but eventually he fell asleep. Paul and Silas
and them probably just kept singing. And this Roman jailer probably
had never heard the gospel preached and proclaimed. And then we see before the earthquake
that he has no interest in the things. Because we see what Paul
and Silas were talking about. Because look in verse 27, he
fell asleep. and the keeper of the prison
awaking out of his sleep. He passed out, he just fell asleep. And little did he know that on
this night, the Lord would use the events of what was to come
to pass to save this poor bankrupt sinner. To save this poor bankrupt
sinner, a man steeped in idolatry, beloved. A man steeped in adultery. A man with no knowledge of the
one true God. A stranger to the living God. Have you ever thought of how
we have people all around us that do not know the one true
God? We have people we work with. We have people we see every day.
We have neighbors who do not know the one true God. Strangers
to the one true God. Why? Because He's not revealed
Himself to them. And this man, the Philippian
jailer, was in the same prison as the Apostle Paul and Silas,
and yet he did not have a clue who God was. Didn't have a clue. Didn't know who our great God
was. Why? Because our great God must reveal Himself. He must
reveal Himself. And He does it by His divine
power. We see that by God's power, He
opened the heart of Lydia to attain to the things that Paul
was speaking of. And we know what Paul spoke of,
Christ and Him crucified, didn't he? That's who he spoke of. Now we see that when the Philippian
jailer asked Paul and Silas, what must I do to be saved? Look
at Paul and Silas' answer to him. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And thy house. Now I ask you, do you think that
this man knew any of the great doctrines of Scripture? Well, he probably didn't even
have the Scriptures, eh? Never heard them. Never heard them
read. Do you think he had any knowledge
of limited atonement? Great doctrine which we believe
and cherish? No, he didn't have a clue about that. No. Do you think he had any knowledge
of the believer being justified before God and clothed in the
perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ which is imputed
to every believer? No, he had no knowledge of that
at all, did he? None. Do you think he had any
knowledge of total depravity? Great doctrinal truths. But he
had no knowledge of them, did he? So we look at this text before
us and we see that Paul and Silas answer to the man when he says,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They say, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Oh my. Notice this man was convinced
that he had a need. He was convinced that he had
a need of his own sin. He says, sirs, what must I do
to be saved? And see his needs to be saved,
seeing his needs to be saved, he seeing that he's helpless
to save himself. He asked Paul and Silas, what
must I do? What must I do to be saved? Now we understand that all those
great doctrines that I mentioned earlier, we love them and we
cherish them, but did he know them? No. As a pagan, he wouldn't
have known any of them. He'd not know of any of these
things, but he knows that he has a need to be saved, doesn't
he? He's been showing that he has
a need to be saved, beloved. Oh my. And what power is here on display? What power is here on display
this night in this text? He did trust the one substitute
for sin, didn't he? The Lord Jesus Christ. The one
who shed his blood for the remission of our sins. And we see in the
text that we see there later on in verse 34 that other members
of his household believed as well. Again, what power is on display
here this night? What almighty power is on display?
First, the earthquake, planned, purposed, and executed by God. And then the saving of this pagan
jailer and his household. And it's all by the almighty
power of God. Now, how do we know that this
man believed on Christ? And is his all-sufficient sacrifice
for sin? Well, look at verse 34, beloved.
It's so clear. And when he had brought them
into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing
in God. Oh, he'd been given faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This man trusted Christ as his
only righteousness. He trusted Christ as a substitute
for his sin. And we all know that this came
about by the almighty power of our great God. How was he able
to believe? How did he go from not believing
or caring about the things of God and having no care for his
soul to resting and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as the
only hope for his eternal soul, the only hope for salvation?
Well, he did this because he was born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. God had granted him faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see right here before
us the truth of the verse that we graced preachers often quote,
thy people shall be willing in a day of thy power. Psalm 110
3. We see it right here before us,
don't we? He's made willing. He's made willing. And this man
did not know all the great doctrines of the faith. But he's brought
to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a child
of grace, beloved. He's saved by the power of God.
Now we know that God does not use a lie to save His people.
We know that. He doesn't use false preaching
or false preachers to save His people. And I'm not saying that
doctrine does not matter, because it does. True doctrine is all
centered around Christ, beloved. It's all centered around Christ.
False works-based religion does not preach the true Christ. But
they tell you, something you must do to be saved. And something
you must continue to do to be saved. Now, as this Philippian
jailer grew in grace, beloved, as he grew in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ, he would no doubt have learned of
those wonderful doctrines. He would have. Because he's part
of God. Just like we are. Just like we are. When we came
to Christ, we didn't know all these great doctrines that the
Lord's taught us. But we knew we had a need, didn't
we? And we were appointed to Christ
by the gospel preacher. And we were made willing in the
day of God's power, weren't we? We were born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. And we were granted faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, weren't we? And since the Lord
has saved us, we've learned of these great, wonderful doctrines,
haven't we? And what do they do? They just
give us more assurance and hope in our great God, knowing that
He has all power, all minds. And our God uses the preaching
of the Gospels of God's free grace in Christ, which proclaims
Christ crucified. What do Gospel preachers proclaim?
Exactly what Paul and Silas here proclaim. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And the sinner, just like this
Philippian jailer, is brought to an end of himself. He is about
to kill himself. Why? Because he's responsible
for all these prisoners. And do you know that for a Roman
soldier to fall asleep on duty, on post, do you know what? They would execute him on the
spot. He knew, I'm a dead man. These
prisoners are gone, I'm a dead man. How'd they escape? Well, I fell asleep. So he's ready to kill himself,
beloved. And just like this Philippian
jailer, the sinner is brought to an end of himself. That's
what happened to all we who believe, isn't it? We were brought to
an end of ourselves by our great God. In the lost man, a woman who's
being drawn to Christ sees that they cannot save themselves by anything they do or say. There's no merit, beloved, in
any of our works, none, before God. And the gospel preacher
points the sinner to Christ, saying, look to Him and be ye
saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shall be saved. And note, this man comes to a
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, he sees his need to be
saved. He's had no formal education in the great doctrines of the
gospel. Beloved, you can't educate a man and a woman into the kingdom.
You can't do that. You must be born again. And this
man has no formal education in the things of the Scripture.
He's a pagan. He's a pagan. He's never been
taught anything about the things of Christ. Before this night, and yet we
see him ask Paul and Silas, what must I do to be saved? Now by the end of this night,
This man will be converted, baptized, and trusted in Christ all by
the almighty power of God. This was this man's time of love,
beloved. This was this man's time of love,
and he had no clue when he's putting those bonds on Paul and
Silas that this would occur. He had no idea at all. Beloved, think of this. Think
of this. He and his family woke up that
morning as idol worshipers. They woke up that morning as
idol worshipers, with no care for God, with no care for the
things of God, worshiping the idols of their imagination. And by that evening, they were
converted, they were baptized, and they were trusting in the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is the miracle of God, beloved.
It's a miracle of God's grace. And this all came to pass according
to the almighty power of God. Now a sinner left to himself
is not able, neither do they have the power or the ability
to obey the command, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The
command goes forward, but a sinner in their natural state does not
have the ability or the power to obey that command. But with
the intervention of God, beloved, with the intervention of God,
of our great God, the sheep of God are born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. And they're made willing in the
day of His power. And they're granted faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to obey the command, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved. And it's a power. It's all by
the power. And it's a miracle of God when
that occurs. I ask you, is man able to obey
the law of God in our natural unregenerate state? Is man able
to obey the law even after we're saved? No. Man is no more able to obey the
gospel command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but they
can by the intervention of God and by God's power executed in
their lives. See, that's why he gets all the
glory. That's why we give him all the praise. Salvation to
the Lord. From beginning to end. From beginning
to end. It's all by his almighty power.
And we've seen in the study of our, in the life of Joseph, our
great God has things come to pass for his will to be accomplished,
doesn't it? He does. He bought seven years
of plenty, and then seven years of famine in the land of Egypt.
And the countries ran about that, so Jacob would be bought to Egypt.
For that purpose. Do you see how overwatching our
great God is over his people? He had that whole famine occur
so Jacob would go down to Egypt. So that later on, years later,
400 years later, he'd deliver them by his almighty hand from
that bondage that they were in. They could not deliver themselves,
could they? But he manifested his power. And we get, as I said in Sunday
School, we get but a glimpse, even here what we're looking
at is but a glimpse of the power of God. You can't measure the
power of God. We can't comprehend it with our
finite minds. Can the finite comprehend the
infinite? No, but we get little glimpses,
don't we, in the scriptures of his almighty power. Oh, what comfort it gives us.
What assurance it gives us. That we are saved by the one
who has all power and all ability to save his people and to keep
his people. We look at tonight, we're kept
by the power of God. The power of God. And this Philippian jailer, he
had a divine appointment. He had a divine appointment with
Paul and Silas. This is one of the Lord's lost
sheep. Now Paul and Silas don't know that either, but they're
just preaching and claiming the gospel, don't they? And when
someone asks them, what must I do to be saved? They just say,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But this Philippian jailer does
not even know that he has a divine appointment. But God knows. God
knows. God knows. And He has appointed
this night, God has appointed this night when this jailer would
be born again and converted. Saved by the grace of God in
Christ. Look at what occurs in verse
26 and we see a demonstration of God's almighty power. And
think of this too. We see a demonstration of His
almighty power in the earthquake. But we also see what's sometimes
lost. We also see his restraining hand
over the prisoners. God has all power, beloved. Look at this. And suddenly there
was a great earthquake. Great, this is just a small,
this was a great earthquake sent by God, beloved. so that the
foundations of the prisons were shaken and immediately all the
doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed. Now, what's
the first thing you think that a prisoner would do if their
bands were loosed and all the doors swung open? There'd be
dust as those guys ran out of that prison, wouldn't there?
There would be. There would be. Oh, they'd fly out of that door
as fast as they could, right? Not if they're restrained by
the power of Almighty God. See, the same power, the same
power that the king's heart is turned whatever way he desires,
is the same power that rules over all. And again, Again, look at this, and the
keeper of the prison, verse 27, awaking out of his sleep and
seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would
kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled. The first
thing he thought when he saw the doors open, well, they're
all gone. And again, it was a capital offense for a Roman soldier to
fall asleep on post. So he thought, well, I'm gonna
be executed, I may as well just do it myself. He's going to kill himself. Because
he thought all the prisoners had fled. It says that right
there in verse 27. But marvel at the restraining
hand of God. He does not follow through with
that. And not one prisoner has left that prison. See, so we
see the power of God in the earthquake. Now we see the power of God in
restraining that sinner from killing himself and also from
any of those prisoners ever escaped. Because we know, again, we know
that the first thing that men would do when those doors, if
they were prisoners, they would run so fast you would never see
them again, you know, until the authorities caught up with them. Marvel here at the restraining
hand of God, you who are the sheep of God. Think of what the
Lord has kept us from. Think of what the Lord has saved
us from by His restraining hand. Even before we were saved and
after we were saved. My, oh my. So we see again that
the jailer is restrained from killing himself and that all
the prisoners are restrained from fleeing. And note with awe
and wonder again that not one of the prisoners fled. Look at
verses 28 and 29. But Paul cried with a loud voice
saying, do thyself no harm for we are all here. And then the jailer calls for
a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before
Paul and Silas. Note the great change that's
happened. I hope the great change that's been wrought in this jailer's
heart by the almighty power of God, beloved. Before the earthquake,
the jailer had no care for the songs or prayers of Paul and
Silas. But now we see in verse 30 that a great change has come. He asked Paul and Silas, sirs,
what must I do to be saved? And our great God beloved has
planned and purposed this great earthquake and sent this great
earthquake to bring this jailer unto himself. This great earthquake occurred
so that the jailer would be bought to an end of himself. He was ready to kill himself. Amen. By a miracle of grace,
he calls out to the apostle Paul and says, what must I do to be
saved? And again, look at the command
of Paul and know again that the Holy Spirit draws each and every
one of his sheep to Christ. He regenerates us, we're born
again by the Holy Spirit of God, we're granted faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and to obey the command of the gospel. We're made willing in a day of
God's power. And we obey the command, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And we believe
it by God's almighty power. And this man believes and he's
saved by the grace and mercy of God, all by the power of God,
beloved. Look at verses 31 and 34 again. And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And then
verse 34, this is marvelous. And when he brought them into
his house, he said, meet before them and rejoice, believing in
God with all this house. He woke up an idol worshiper,
like I said. He woke up an idol worshiper, and his family did
too. They were pigeons. And by the end of the night,
They believe. What a display of the power of
God, beloved. They believe, they're converted.
They're converted, then they believe. And then they're baptized. And then they fellowship with
God's preachers. He said, meet before them and
rejoice, believing in God with all his house. Now we have seen
very clearly today the power of God manifested. Tonight we
will look more closely at the power of God, which was at work
here. And know this, that no sinner
who will be saved, no sinner will be saved unless God intervenes.
No sinner will be saved unless God intervenes. No sinner will
be delivered from their sins except by God's almighty power.
No sinner will be regenerated, born again, except by God's almighty
power. And no sinner is able to free
themselves from the prison house of sin unless God comes and intervenes
and turns the rebel into a saint. Turns the rebel into believing
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Man will remain in their sins
and perish in their sins and go to a Christless eternity in
hell if God does not intervene. And man again is fully responsible
for their sins. What does God have to do for
a man or a woman to perish in their sins? Nothing. Nothing. But what does God have to do
in order for a man or woman to be saved? Everything. Everything. By His almighty by
his almighty power. And God's born-again, blood-washed
saints say, praise his mighty name. Praise his mighty name. Great things he hath done. Great
things he hath done. Glory to his name. Heavenly Father,
we thank you again for allowing we, who are your people, pilgrimaging
through this world, to gather together and to hear a message
from thy word in all How as we look at Thy almighty power, how
that gives us strength. And by Thy grace and Thy mercy
and being kept by Thee, we carry on, O Lord. And we know one day
You will bring us into Thy presence, and what a glorious, glorious
day that will be. Lord, we pray. That if it be
your will that you draw on one of your lost sheep today through
the preaching of your word, as this message goes forth, use
it to comfort your people, oh Lord. Use it to comfort your
people, and we pray that you use it to draw on your lost sheep,
if it be thy will. Glory to your name, oh Lord.
Thank you, Lord, for saving our souls, we who are your people.
We give you all the praise and the glory and the honor, in Jesus'
name, amen.