All right, if you would first
open your Bibles with me to Exodus chapter 17. Our text will be found mostly
in Numbers chapter 20. I took my title from there. Must
we fetch you water from the rock? Now there are two important events
recorded in the scripture about the rock giving water to Israel
while they were in the desert. And I want to look at these two
events, these two times that Israel got water from the rock
and see the difference between salvation by God's grace that's
through the sacrifice of Christ our Savior and the attempt at
salvation by man's works. Now, the first time they got
water from the rock is here in Exodus 17, verse one. And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after
their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord.
It's in Rephidim and there was no water. And there was no water for the
people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses and
said, give us water that we may drink. Moses said unto them,
why chide ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?
And the people thirsted there for water and murmured against
Moses and said, wherefore is this that thou has brought us
up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with
thirst? Here Israel is again with this
great sin. And you know, their great sin,
is our great sin. It's the sin of unbelief, which
is the very reason Gary prayed in his prayer, Lord, help us
with our unbelief. You know, we just cannot bring
ourselves to trust Christ. We just cannot bring ourselves
to trust Christ alone. We can't trust that the Lord
is not going to change and he'll keep providing for us. He'll
keep doing what he's done in the past. It's just impossible
for the flesh to trust like that. And the people here, They're
murmuring again. This is not the first time this
has happened. They're murmuring again against
God because they thought the Lord would not provide water
for them. Now you think they would have learned by experience,
the Lord's going to give them water. You think they'd learn
that by experience, wouldn't you? We looked at this a few
weeks ago. The Lord just miraculously provided
water for them. Remember they thought they were
all dying of thirst and they came to the oasis and it was
full of bitter water that couldn't be drunk. The Lord told Moses,
take the tree and cast it in the water, the water will be
made sweet. And it was, all the people had plenty to drink. Sounds like now they think that
the Lord is now either unable or unwilling to give them water
again when they thirst. Sound like anybody else you know?
I can identify, can't you? They told Moses, well, you and
the Lord, you must have brought us out of Egypt so we die out
here in the wilderness. You know, that's a picture, remember
Egypt, a picture of bondage to the law. They're saying it's
better for us to be in bondage in Egypt than be provided for
by God, being free and being provided for by God out here
in the wilderness. It's just what our flesh thinks. Our flesh
thinks I'm better off in bondage to the law, taking care of this
thing myself. I can't see the Lord working. He might see me
working. I trust myself to, I'm just better off in bondage to
the law, trying to establish my own righteousness and have,
salvation given to me by God's grace because of the work of
Christ, because of the death of Christ. Poor Moses, he's heard
this often, he's beside himself. Verse four, Moses cried unto
the Lord saying, what shall I do unto this people? They'd be almost
ready to stone me. And Lord answers Moses' prayer
here in verse five. And Lord said unto Moses, go
on before the people and take with thee of the elders of Israel
and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river. Take in thine hand
and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Horeb. And thou shalt smite the rock,
and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink.
And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. The
Lord tells Moses, now you take your rod, and you go to this
rock, and you smite the rock with your rod, and there'll be
plenty of life-giving water for everybody. Now Moses' rod represents
God's judgment. Remember how Moses struck with
his rod, he struck the waters in Egypt and all the waters in
Egypt turned to blood. All the fish died, the place
stank so bad. Another time Moses stretched
out his rod toward heaven and fiery hail came and fell on all
of Egypt. Another time he stretched out
his rod over Egypt and locusts came, swarmed everything. Scripture
said there wasn't even a green leaf left anywhere. They ate
everything, all the crops and just destroyed the place. Another
time, Moses stretched out his rod over Egypt and darkness came
on all the land, except in Goshen where the children of Israel
were. They had light. All the rest of Egypt, such darkness
fell on that. You couldn't see your hand in
front of your face. Everybody just sat where they were, afraid
to move. They couldn't see anything. That darkness came and Moses
held that rod up. Then Moses held his rod over
the Red Sea and the Red Sea parted and the children of Israel and
all their animals crossed on dry ground. Those walls of water
came up, and then Moses stretched out that rod again. And those
walls came crashing down, drowned Pharaoh and his army in the Red
Sea. Moses' rod represents God's judgment. And he told Moses, now you take
the rod of God's judgment, and you go smite that rock. Now that
rock is more than a picture of Christ. That rock is Christ. I can show you that if you look
in 1 Corinthians 10. That rock is Christ, 1 Corinthians
10, verse one. Moreover, brethren, I would not
that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under
the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all did eat the
same spiritual meat And they did all drink the same spiritual
drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them. And that rock was Christ. God told Moses, Moses, I'll stand
on that rock. And Paul says that rock was Christ. So Moses took his rod, the rod
of God's justice, and he smoked that rock. You know what he was
doing? He was smiting God himself. That sounds scary, doesn't it?
To smite God? Well, what does all this mean? Well, God is giving us here a
picture of redemption. Redemption of sinners that comes
through the sacrifice of Christ. Let me give you several pictures
of that here from Exodus 17. The rock had to be smitten. Had to be smitten with the rod
of God's justice as a picture of Christ, because Christ must
be smitten. He must be. Well, why did Christ
have to be smitten? Why is it so important that Christ
be smitten? Well, first of all, it's God's eternal purpose. This
is how God purposed to save his people, by smiting his son. He said in Zechariah 13, verse
7, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man
that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. smite the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered. And I'll turn my hand upon the
little ones. It's God's eternal purpose. And
we know there's no question this is the Father's will. The Savior
in the garden, as He was preparing to go to the cross, He knew what
was gonna happen. Oh, the awful agony of the Holy
Son of God being made sin. How He'd make His soul an offering
for sin. And he prayed the Father, if
it be possible, let this cup pass from me. I said, I will,
I will. If it's possible, let this cup
pass from me. Well, it must not have been possible, huh? It's
not possible salvation come any other way because that cup didn't
pass from me. The Father gave him that cup
and he drank that cup of trembling, dry. Christ must be smitten. It's the Father's will. But now
why? Why is that so? It's because
God's character demands it. God's justice demands Christ
be smitten. See, God is holy. God must punish
sin with death. He must, because God's holy. But you know what else? Now we're
talking here about God's character. God is just. always just, he's
always holy in everything that he does. But God also must be
merciful. God must be gracious. He must
say just as truly as he must be just, God must be gracious. Now, how can that be? How can
God save sinners and still be just? How can God forgive sin
and still be holy? How is that possible? Only one
way. by the father smiting his son
as a substitute for his people. And the death of Christ satisfied
God's justice. It put away the sin that made
God angry. So God can show mercy, he can turn his hand on the little
ones. He can show mercy to his people in justice. God's both
merciful and just in the sacrifice of his son. Just like there in
the wilderness, there couldn't be any water for the people until
the rock was smitten. Moses couldn't say, oh well,
God's gonna give water to the people. I'll just sit here, no
point in me gathering the elders and taking a walk up there, you
know. No, if he did that, there wouldn't be any water, would
there? The rock must be smitten. As a picture of Christ, there
cannot be any salvation for any sinner until Christ is smitten. He must be smitten as our substitute. At Calvary, the father made his
son sin for his people. He made his son the guilty party
before God. And when the father made him
guilty of the sin of his people, the father slaughtered him in
justice, in his holy wrath against sin. Oh, the sacrifice of Christ
is such a preeminent example, illustration of God's justice.
The father wouldn't even spare his only begotten son. But when
sin was found on him, he slaughtered him. That's God's inflexible
justice, isn't it? But you know, Calvary, the sacrifice
of Christ, the slaughter of Christ, is also the greatest demonstration
of God's love and mercy for his people. It's God's inflexible
love and mercy for his people. He smoked the sun so that the
people he loves would be redeemed. So their sin would be brought
away and they'd be brought to Him. Oh, isn't that wonderful?
That's why Christ must be smitten. That's the good news we have
for sinners. If Christ is smitten for you, your sin's gone. Your sin's gone. You have eternal
life. Now you think about the Lord
going to tell Moses, smite this rock. If you were in the wilderness,
you were in a desert place and there wasn't any water, the last
place you'd look for it is in a rock, in a flinty rock, wouldn't
you? That's the last place you'd look
for water. But that's where Israel got water from. You see the picture? A man is the last place you'd
ever look for righteousness. When the Lord would talk to the
Pharisees, they said, we know you. We know whose son you are. We know your brothers and your
sisters. We know you. You're just a man. Who are you? Who are you? A man is the last
place you'd look for to find redemption, salvation from your
sin. But that's where salvation is
found in the man, Christ Jesus, the son of God was made a man. He's both God and man. so that
he could be the representative of his people. He became flesh
just like we are. So he could be representative
of people just like us here this morning. And since he's their
representative, when he obeys the law, they obeyed him. Just
like every one of us sinned in Adam, every one of God's people
obeyed God's law in Christ. And since he's our representative,
he became flesh, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, just
like us. He can be our substitute. He can take our sin and put it
away by the sacrifice of himself. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel in picture we have here and all throughout the Old Testament,
not just next to the 17. And you've heard me preach often
enough to know I love the Old Testament pictures of Christ.
I mean, I just love it. Anytime I'm asked to go preach
somewhere else or preach at a conference, just my first thought is what
Old Testament type could I, could I preach from? There's a, Dear
old lady in Madisonville, she's with the Lord now, but years
ago, she told Brother David, she said, I just love when you
invite Brother Tate here, because I know I'm going to hear Christ
from the Old Testament. I'm not that predictable. But
I love the Old Testament pictures. But don't ever forget this. The
picture is never as good as the real picture. When that rock
was smitten, out came water. What happened when Christ was
smitten? When that Roman soldier pierced the side of our Savior,
it wasn't just water that came out, was it? Blood and water. The rock gave people water to
drink to keep them from dying of thirst that day. When Christ
was smitten, out flowed the double cure so that His people can never
perish. Out flowed blood to atone for
sin and water to cleanse from sin. Christ himself is always
better than the picture. And the picture's only good because
it points us to Christ. All right, now look in Numbers
chapter 20. Now the rock's been smitten by the rod of God's justice. The salvation of God's elect
has been accomplished once and for all by the sacrifice of Christ.
That's salvation by grace. God did that for a people that
do not deserve it. He gives it to a people that
do not deserve it. Christ accomplished all of that
for his people by himself. Right now, a little later, the
people are thirsty again. There's no water again. And they're
going to get water from the rock again. Numbers 20 verse 1. Then
came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation,
into the desert of Zin in the first month. And the people abode
in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was
buried there. And there was no water for the congregation. And
they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
And the people chode with Moses and spake saying, would God that
we had died when our brethren died before the Lord. And why
have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness
that we in our cattle should die there? And wherefore have
you made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil
place? Like Egypt wasn't an evil place,
but this place where God brought us, this is an evil place. There's
no place of seed or of figs or of vines or of pomegranates,
neither is there any water to drink. Israel apparently just
knows one song. It's the same old song. Second
verse, same as the first, a little bit louder, a little bit worse.
They're still singing the same song of unbelief. Oh, God's not
going to give us any water this time. We're going to die of thirst
because you brought us to this evil place, you know, Now remember,
Paul said that rock followed them. That rock followed them
in the wilderness. Now I think it's safe to assume
as it followed them in the wilderness, it had been giving them water
all along. Now, for whatever reason, it's not. And the people
must think God's going to dry up the well of his mercy and
his grace and his provision for us now. We've got all the water
God has to give. The people still doubted and
they still didn't trust the Lord. Again, I ask you, sound like
anybody else you know? How many times has the Lord provided
in the past? And we think he's not going to
do this again. How many times do we think, oh, the Lord's been
so merciful to me, but now my sin is so great and my heart
is so cold and dead. I'm so filled with unbelief.
Now God's going to quit being merciful. I finally exhausted
God's mercy. How often do we think that? It's
because of unbelief. Not only were they saying they
were better off as slaves in Egypt, they're saying, I was
better off being a slave in Egypt than being God's free man out
here in the desert, being led by God. I'm better off trusting
my works of the law than I am trusting Christ, trusting God's
grace. Not only were they saying that, they also said, when they
said it would have been better off if we would have died with
our brethren, You know what they're talking about? The rebellion
of Korah. Oh, God was so angry. He told
Moses, you stand aside. Other people, stand aside. And
the earth opened up and swallowed up Korah and all the people that
followed him. The earth swallowed them up. And the people are saying it
was, I'd be better off if I had died as a reprobate before God
than be here depending on God. Aren't you thankful, God's gracious?
Aren't we thankful? Well, Moses and Aaron, they're
at their wits end again. So they go to the Lord. He's
the only place they can turn, verse six. And Moses and Aaron
went from the presence of the assembly under the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation. And they fell upon their faces
and the glory of the Lord appeared under them. And the Lord spake
unto Moses saying, take the rod. And gather thou the assembly
together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak he under the
rock before their eyes. And it should give forth his
water that thou shalt bring forth water to them out of the rock.
So shalt thou give the congregation and their beast drink. And Moses
took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. Now
this time, I did not know this till I was studying this this
week. This time the Lord tells Moses, take Aaron's rod. I always
thought Moses took his rod. This time, the Lord tells Moses,
take Aaron's rod. That was the rod that was before
the Lord. In that rebellion of Korah, the
Lord said, all right, I'll show you who my priest is. You know, Korah was saying, oh,
we're all, you know, equal to being priests. And Lord said,
all right, I'll show you who the priest is. You men, you take
your staffs, your walking sticks, put them here before the Lord.
They came back the next day and all the sticks were just like
they were, except for Aaron's. Aaron's rod, and it's a walking
stick. It had been separated from the root for years. It had
been dead for years. Still wasn't connected to a root.
Still wasn't connected to water or anything. And that walking
stick budded. And not only did it have buds
coming off of it, it had full grown, fully ripe almonds on
it. The Lord says, now this is Aaron's
rod. He said, this is my high priest. Aaron's rod is the rod
of life. Aaron's rod is the rod of life.
And he said, now you take this, this rod, this rod of life and
speak to the rock. And the people have all the water
that they want. See Aaron's rod is not the rod
of judgment. It wasn't ever meant to smite
the rock. It's the rod of life. Aaron's rod is the rod of blessing.
It's not the rod of judgment. So Moses took that rod. He took
Aaron's rod with him and he went to speak to the rock. He didn't
take justice. He didn't take the rod of justice.
He left his rod home. You know why? Justice has already
been satisfied. Christ has already been smitten.
He doesn't need the rod of justice anymore. All it took to satisfy God's
justice against an infinite amount of sin. Each one of us has an
infinite amount of sin. All we produce is sin. The father
gave the son a number no man can number. A number no man can
number times infinity. It's infinity, my math is correct. And by one sacrifice, Christ
put all that sin away. In three hours of darkness, he
put all of that sin away. It's gone. So that the Father
says, by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are
sinful. Their sin won't come back. They're
made perfect. All it takes to give God's people
eternal life. All it takes to sustain that
life. All it takes to cleanse them from their sin. All it takes
to make them holy and righteous. It's the one death of Christ
the Savior. His one sacrifice. The Lord Jesus
Christ is so wonderful. The God man, the perfect God
man. His name is wonderful. He is
so wonderful. All it took to accomplish all
of that for his people is one sacrifice. I'm telling you, that's
the Savior I want to trust. That's the Savior I want to know
into you. He's so wonderful. He cleansed
me by one sacrifice. Oh, well, Moses knows that. This time Moses went to get water
from the rock. He takes Aaron's rod, the rod
of the high priest. The high priest is the one who
makes intercession for the people. The high priest makes intercession
for the people on the ground, on the basis of justice has already
been satisfied by the death of Christ. The blood's already been
shed. The blood's already been applied. Justice has already
been satisfied. The rod of the high priest is
a rod of intercession, making intercession for the people.
See, that's an important distinction, which rod Moses took with him.
It was the rod of blessing, the rod of life. Oh, but look what
happened. Moses lost his temper. Verse
10, Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before
the rock. And he said unto them, here now, you rebels, must we
fetch you water out of this rock? Moses lifted up his hand and
with his rod, he smoked the rock twice. And the water came out
abundantly. and the congregation drank, and
their beast also. The Lord spake unto Moses and
Aaron, because you believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes
of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation
into the land which I have given thee. Now here's Moses' question,
and this is a question that I want to look at this morning. Must
we fetch you water out of this rock? Must we do it? Do we have
to do something to give you water. Do you have to do something to
get this water? Do we have to produce it? Do
we have to produce it for you? See what Moses says here. He
lost his temper. He said this, he smoked a rock
twice. He's giving us a picture of salvation by works. I'm going
to give you water from the rock. Here's how I'm going to do it.
I'm going to disobey God. That's how I'm going to do it.
Salvation by works doesn't work. It always fails because we cannot
obey God's law. And God told Moses, now Moses,
because you disobeyed me, you didn't sanctify me in the eyes
of the people. You and Aaron aren't going to go into the promised
land. You're not going to lead the people into the promised
land. And the reason for that is this, this had to happen this
way. I know Moses, this is a sin. He shouldn't have done it. He
disobeyed God, but it had to happen this way because Moses
represents the law and the law can never bring you into the
land of rest. All the law can do is tell you
work more. The law can never give you rest. Your obedience
to the law will never allow you to enter into heaven. Our attempts
to keep the law, our attempts to fetch water out of the rock
Christ Jesus will damage us. They'll never allow us to enter
into rest. Moses' real problem here was
he smoked the rock twice. Here we had, we looked earlier
at Exodus 17, a picture of Christ. Moses smoked the rock with his
rod of justice and outflowed water. Justice is satisfied. A picture of Christ, he only
has to be smitten once. By his one sacrifice, he's put
away the sin of his people forever. That's all it took, his one sacrifice.
So smiting the rock again, that's a picture too. That picture says
Christ alone is not enough to save. Christ's sacrifice alone
is not enough to say, I have to do something too. Must we
fetch you water out of the rock. God will never accept that. Just
like he didn't accept Moses and Aaron. No, God, you can come
to God on whatever basis you choose. God will let you choose.
If you want to come to him on the basis of your works, he'll
let you and you'll be damned for it. That's the message of
salvation by works. Now the message of grace, that
comes from the sacrifice of Christ. Christ has been smitten. Justice
is satisfied. That's the message of grace.
Now the message of grace goes on. And the message of grace
says, speak to the rock. Speak to Christ. Oh, I implore
you this morning. Speak to the rock. Speak to Christ. Cry out to God and confess your
sin. And don't try to just add up
Think up all the things that you've done wrong. Confess what
you are. Speak to Christ and tell Him
what you are. That you're a sinner, you can't save yourself. Speak
to the rock. Tell Him, Lord, I'm a sinner.
I need mercy. Or just speak to the rock and confess, Lord, I
am such a vile sinner. The only way I can be cleansed
is if the Son of God dies for me. It takes the blood of God. to put my sin away. That's how
vile I am. Speak to the Lord and beg Him
to save you. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Speak to the Lord and beg Him
to save you. Not because you've done good,
not because you'll do better, not because you were raised in
a place that the right doctrine was preached. Speak to God, speak
to the Rock and beg Him to save you on the basis of justice satisfied. See that? Lord, save me for Christ's
sake. Save me because his blood put
away my sin. Save me because all it takes
to make me righteous is him. Beg the Lord to save you because
of who Christ is and what Christ has done without any of your
works being added to it. And out will gush abundantly
the water of life. Now that's not presumption. No,
sir. I haven't preached grace to you.
And now I've done a quick reverse and say, now this is what you
got to do. You know, you ask God to save you. You make God
a debtor to you. He will have to save you. That's not what
I'm saying. It's not presumption. It's not suddenly preaching a
free will doctrine. It's faith. It's faith in Christ. I'm not the one telling you to
speak to the wrong. God did. God says speak. God says, beg
him for mercy because that's what God said to do. And you
go through this book with a fine tooth comb. Let me tell you what
you won't find, but you won't find. You will never find a sinner
begging God for mercy that he turned him away. Not one time
ever. And you're not so special. You'll
be the first. Speak to the rock. Beg him to
save you. Cry out to him. He'll hear you. He'll hear you. He's nearby.
You know, Paul said that giant rock, and people say there's
a fellow I read said this, that they found the rock. It's, I
mean, it's huge. It's like 18 foot square or something.
It's just enormous, enormous rock. And they say, see, there's
evidence of water. I don't know if that's it or not, but it's
an enormous rock. And that enormous rock, Paul
says, followed Israel through the wilderness. And people say,
no, see, that can't be, this is not a real story because that
giant flinty rock cannot follow people through the wilderness.
You Eric, I don't have a problem with that whatsoever. If God
can part the red sea, so 3 million people and all their animals
can cross on dry ground. And God could prepare a great
fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah could stay alive in
the belly of that fish for three days. And they didn't have gastrointestinal
juices that destroyed Jonah. And he could keep him alive there
for three days till that fish vomited Jonah out on the ground
three days later. I have no problem believing God
has power to make that rock follow them through the wilderness.
None whatsoever. That rock is Christ. And he followed them. He was always near. Now I'm telling you this, you
speak to the rock, you cry out to Him and beg Him for mercy.
If Almighty God sacrificed His Son, I talked about in the lessons
what lengths the Father went to to save the people that He
loved, He slaughtered His Son. If the Father slaughtered His
Son for your sin, He's not going to let that blood go to waste.
He will save you. Now cry out to him, speak to
the rock and ask him to save you for Christ's sake. Call on
him and beg him to save you for Christ's sake. Because of who
Christ is and what he's done. I promise you this, the Lord's
nearby and he'll hear. He always hears the cry of a
sinner. I don't care how weak and faint
that cry is. You cry to God for mercy, he'll
hear. He says he would. He says it.
Now, I want to give you one last thing. This is another thing
I've never seen this before this week, and I think it'll be a
real blessing to you. Oh, we love the message of grace,
don't we? The message of salvation by God's
grace. I want to give you an illustration
here. God's grace is always sufficient. Always. Have you ever wondered
When the Lord told Moses to go speak to the rock, Moses didn't
speak to the rock. He struck the rock. Why did water
flow out anyway? Here's this people, they're,
they're, they're chiding Moses. They're rebelling against God.
They don't trust God. They're saying, God just brought
us out here to kill us. God just brought us to this evil
place. We were better off in slavery in Egypt. I mean, it's
a rebellious people. Moses disobeys God, just loses
his anger and strikes the rock twice just violates this glorious,
beautiful picture of Christ smitten for the sacrifice of His people?
Why would God allow that water to come out of that rock anyway?
Nobody there did anything right. God gave them water anyway. It's
because God is gracious. Always gracious to his sinful
people. Here's something encouraging
for you who believe. You don't have to do everything right to
keep your salvation. By the very definition of what
grace is, you can't do something right to earn it. Grace is just
for sinners. You don't have to do everything
right. We fail at every turn. All we do is sin. But God keeps
his people. He keeps showering them with
His grace. He keeps blessing His people in spite of their
sin because God is gracious. I tell you, speak to the rock.
If that doesn't make you want to cry out and beg God for mercy,
nothing will. I pray God will make it so that
each one of us will speak to the weak. Speak to the weak and
beg Him for mercy. I know we're going to have a
dinner to celebrate our five high school graduates. Unfortunately,
only three of them are here, but I want to tell you three
what a blessing you are. You're such a blessing to me.
You were pretty small children when I became the pastor here,
and I've known you before that. I've known you your whole lives.
In this congregation, thanks God for you. We thank God for
you. Pray God just bless you and be
with you every step you take. And don't go off to college and
forgive us. Your poor mom and dad want to
see you. We want to come back, okay? But we love you, and y'all
know the drill. After they go through, start
going through line, the rest of us line up behind them, all
right? Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How can we begin to thank you
that your command to such needy sinners as we are is speak to
the wrong, cry out and beg for mercy, and that you'll hear.
Father, we're crying. We're begging you for mercy.
How we beg you that you'd save us for Christ's sake. Father,
how I pray this morning that you would open the hearts of
each one here, those who as of yet haven't believed you. Lord,
may this be the day that you open their heart and give them
faith and reveal Christ to them. Lord, for your people who've
been believing you a long time, don't leave us alone. Open our
heart. Let us see Christ. Let us find
contentment and assurance in trusting Christ and Christ alone.
Father, we thank you for this food that we're about to partake. Thank you for this time. Thank
you for those that we celebrate. Father, we thank you for Kendon,
Sam, Sidney, Novi, and Dee. And Father, it is our earnest
prayer that you be with them. You've blessed them so much in
their growing up years. You've kept them here under the
sound of the gospel. You've enabled them to accomplish so much. They're
bright young people that we enjoy being around, how we thank you.
And Father, I pray you continue to bless them. Lord, you be merciful. Don't let them go anywhere you
don't go with them. Continue to watch over them and
bless them, we pray. And all these things we ask,
and we give thanks in that name, which is above every name, the
name of Christ our Savior. Amen. All right, Sean.