Well, good evening. If you would,
open your Bibles with me to Psalm 123. Psalm 123. The report I got this afternoon
said that Cecil was doing much better. Sean, is he going to
come home tonight or tomorrow? They figured out finally at least
what to give him, so he's improving. We're thankful. Psalm 123. Under thee, lift up mine eyes,
O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants
look into the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden under
the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our
God. Until that, he have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us,
O Lord. Have mercy upon us. For we are
exceedingly filled with content. Our soul is exceedingly filled
with the scorning of those that are at ease. and with the contempt
of the proud. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
to be able to bow before you together as a congregation. And
how thankful we are that sinful men and women such as we are
can call the God of heaven and earth our Father. And we come
before you this evening as your little children. We come looking
unto thee. We come looking and pleading
that you would bless us as we attempt to worship this evening.
Father, give us, we beg of thee, an hour of true worship. Enable us to forget about the
cares and the responsibilities, the goings on of this life. Let
us put those things out of our mind for this hour, and let us
hear word from Thee. Let us hear, thus saith the Lord.
Let us one more time hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, give us faith to
believe. Give us a heart that hungers and thirsts after our
Lord Jesus Christ, that loves Him, that loves to hear of Him,
that finds our life, our comfort, our hope in Him. Father, how
we thank You for Your Word, how we thank You that You've seen
fit to reveal Yourself to Your people through the preaching
of Your Word. And we thank You that You've blessed this congregation
for so many years, how You've blessed us with the preaching
of Your Word. And Father, we are humbled. We're humbled because
we know that we haven't done anything to deserve Your rich
mercy and grace, but it's all because of your goodness and
your grace and your purpose to your people. Father, we're thankful.
What we pray for ourselves this evening, we pray for your people
everywhere who meet together to worship. Father, bless your
word. Get glory to your name so that
your people would be strengthened and encouraged. And Father, we
seek a blessing for our world, our country at this time. the
sicknesses, the problems that are sweeping the land. Father, we pray that you'd give
peace. We pray that you'd give healing, that you would provide
a way for your people to live peaceably, being able to continue
meeting together to worship your matchless name. Father, we pray
that you'd be with those who are away from us, that you'd
give them traveling mercies and be with them where they're at
and bring them back home safe to us. In all these things we
ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every name,
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, I've titled the message
this evening, What Kind of Dog Are You? And you might think
that that is strange from the text that I just read, but I
believe I can make good on that in just a minute. What kind of
dog are you? You know, Scripture describes
all of us, all human beings, as dogs. There are big dogs and
little dogs. There's white dogs and black
dogs. There's rich dogs and poor dogs. There's short-haired dogs
and long-haired dogs. There's straight-haired dogs
and curly-haired dogs. There's inside dogs and outside
dogs. There's northern dogs and southern dogs. There's nice dogs
and there's mean dogs, but we're all dogs. No matter what classification
you put it, we're all dogs. I want you to listen to how Scripture
describes men. Scripture describes us as dead
dogs. That's all of us by nature. We're
born spiritually dead dogs. There are dogs, religious dogs,
who compassed the Lord about at Calvary. And that's us by
nature. We can be religious. Well, I'll
tell you what we want to do by nature. We want to get rid of
the kingship of Christ. We're not going to have this
man to reign over us, the dogs that compassed him about. Then
there are dogs that return to their own vomit. That's our nature. We'd rather eat our own vomit
than the bread of life and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are dumb dogs that can't bark. Some dogs, I wish they
were dumb dogs that couldn't bark because they got nothing
to say. The world would be better off if they didn't say it. But then there
are dumb dogs that they can't bark. They won't bark. They can't
warn you. They don't see the danger. And
there are greedy dogs that can never have enough. People who
are never, ever, ever satisfied with what the Lord gives. God
help us to be content. Can you imagine that we wouldn't
look? Can you imagine we wouldn't be content? Can you imagine such
a thing? I mean, just physically, how
the Lord's blessed this congregation. How could we not be content?
How can we not be satisfied? And mercy and grace that the
Lord showered on this congregation. How could we not be satisfied?
How could we be greedy dogs? But then, there are dogs, some
dogs, who eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table,
and they're mighty thankful to get them. There are some Caleb's. There are some faithful dogs.
I'm looking at a bunch of Caleb's, not faithful dogs. All of us
are some kind of dog. Now here's my question for you
and me tonight. What kind of dog are you? Our psalm tonight
talks about how the believer looks to the Lord. And this just
has been so plain to me this week. It reminded me of our two
little dogs. We've got two little Yorkies.
And here's pretty much everything you need to know about those
dogs. Those dogs love Janet. They love her. They always know
where Janet's at. Always. They're always looking
at her. They just sit and look at her.
They just love her so much. They just sit and stare at her. That's the kind of dog I want
to be. I want to be a dog who's always looking to Christ. Like
we see in our psalm this evening. And I want to give you four ways
that God's dogs look to our Lord and to our Master. Number one
is this. God's dogs look to God in humble
adoration. Verse 1, Psalm 123, unto thee,
lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. This
is what David's saying. He says, I look to the God who's
in the heavens and you look, look to the God, look to the
God who inhabits the heavens above us. And it's not just God's
above us, like distance, miles or however you, light years,
however you measure that. It's not just he's above us in space.
God's far above us in every way. He's far above us in His thoughts,
isn't He? He said, my thoughts are not
your thoughts. As the heaven is higher than the earth, so
are my thoughts and your thoughts. He's higher than us in His thoughts.
He's higher than us in excellency, because He has it all and we've
got none. He's high above us in glory. He's high above us
in holiness and power. He's high above us in wisdom.
Just any way you can think of it, God's higher than us, isn't
it? And God tells, God is so merciful to His people. He allows
dogs to look to Him. God's dogs always look humbly
up to Him. It's always good for us to have
somebody to look up to, isn't it? And we, believers, God's
dogs, we humbly look up to God waiting on Him. Just waiting
to see what He will do. Waiting to see what it is that
He would be pleased to give us from His storehouses of grace.
Just looking to Him to see when He might be pleased Give something
to us. We look up to God. He's in the
heavens. That means we look to God who
rules over all. And we look to Him, waiting to
see how He will unfold His purpose to His people. I'm kind of a
news junkie, and sometimes that might not be the best thing for
you, but I like to watch the news. I like to see what's going
on in the world. And I try to always remind myself, now when
you're going to check the news out, now just remember, don't
get bent out of shape by this. This is our Father. This is our
King, our Master, unfolding His purpose for His creation. And
that's exactly what He's doing. Our God's in the heavens. What
has He done there? He hasn't done whatsoever. He's
pleased. Then look to Him and see what it is He's pleased to
do. And if you want comfort, our God's in the heavens. Look
to the Sovereign. It's not just that he can do
anything he pleases. He will do what he pleases. He
will. So look to him. Look to him and
depend upon him. Look to him and have your confidence
knowing this. What our king does is right.
And it's good. It's good because he does it.
And I don't know what the Lord's going to be pleased to do, but
I do know this. He's going to do all of this
pleasure. He's going to do that. And I also know a great big part
of that pleasure is the salvation of his people. He's going to
do that. So look to him. Look to him and wait on him to
do his will. Our dogs do that. Our dogs are
not allowed to go upstairs. And when Janet goes upstairs,
you know what them two crazy dogs do? They go to the bottom
of the stairs and they sit. And they look. They can't see
her. She's upstairs on one other end.
They just sit there. I mean, they just sit and stare
into space until she appears at the top of those stairs. It's
like they haven't seen her in months. That's the kind of dog I want
to be. That's the kind of dog that I want to be. Isn't that
the life of a believer? We can't go to heaven now. We
can't see our Lord and our Master face to face. But I know He's
there. I know He's there. We can't go
right now because He's given us something else to do here
in His service in His kingdom right now. So what do we do? Well, you just go about doing
what the Lord's given you to do today. Whatever it is the
Lord's given you to do, do it as good as you... just the best
job that you can do. All the while, keep one eye upstairs.
He's coming back. He's coming back. He promised
He's going to return. And keep one eye looking for
him, because he's coming. And oh, how happy we'll be when
he does. We get so bent out of shape about
the current events, don't we? You reckon when he returns, we're
going to remember those things? I don't know. It's hard to imagine thinking
about him when you've got him to look at face to face. It's
hard to imagine. Hard to imagine. Here's another
way God's dogs look to Christ. They look to Christ in faith.
They look to Christ trusting him to be their salvation. They
might not understand everything there is to understand about
it, but they look to him in faith. They believe he's all it takes
to save them. During this pandemic, Janet taught
herself to knit. She wore those knitting needles
and yarn. She got all that stuff out. And those dogs knew something
different was going on here. They were fascinated. I mean,
they were excited. They were fascinated. They have absolutely
no idea what she's doing with them needles. But they just watch
her? I mean, this is the most fascinating thing to them. That's
exactly what God's dogs do. I know and I believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth as a
man, clothed in human flesh, and he worked out a perfect righteousness
for his people. He wove together a perfect righteousness
for his people by obeying the law for them, by being perfect.
Now I have no idea how the Lord Jesus could do that. How can
he be perfect? I don't know. I have no point
of reference to that Because all I can do is sin. So I can't
understand somebody that could never sin. I don't have any experience
to understand how a man could do that. But I sure do love to
see in the Scripture how he did it, don't you? I sure love to
hear one more time how he did it. I sure do love to look at
the finished product, his perfect righteousness, which he has given
to me. And our little dogs, they don't
understand what it is Janice is doing, what she's knitting.
But you know what they do know? When she sets that down, I'm
going to go lay on it. They know it's soft and it's
comfortable. They probably think she's doing
it for them. They just, oh, this is a soft and comfortable spot
for me to lay. That's God's dogs. I don't know
how He worked it out. I can't explain it. But I love
to see Christ's perfect righteousness. And I love to wrap myself in
it. I love to be clothed in it. It's the perfect fit. It's soft. It's comfortable. And He did
weave it just for me. He did just for me. So I look
up to my Lord, my Master. I look up to Christ in Heaven
with total faith. Total reliance on Him to be my
righteousness and to be all my salvation. Just like our dogs
don't have any idea what chance to them she's knitting. I have
absolutely no idea what God's going to do next. As He unfolds
His perfect providence for His creation and for His people,
I have no idea what's coming next, what He's going to do next.
But I'm telling you, it's a beautiful thing to see. It's a beautiful
thing to see. And we can't see it all now,
but you just wait one day. We're not ever going to see God's
full purpose for His people unfolded until we're all together in eternity.
And we're going to spend eternity awestruck at the beautiful providence
that God unfolded for His people. He ordained it all for His glory
to save His people from their sins. God's dogs start right
now, looking to Him in humble adoration. They just love to
see what the Master is going to do next. And we're going to
spend eternity marveling at it when we see it all done. All
right, number two, God's dogs look up to the Lord for direction
from their master. Verse 2 says, Behold, as the
eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as
the eyes of a maiden look unto the hand of her mistress, so
our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy
upon us. Now, every dog has a master,
don't they? You and I have a master. God's
our master. God's the master of everyone.
He's the Lord of everyone. He's especially the master of
believers, isn't he? And we take our marching orders
from him. Here they are. We take our marching
orders from him. And we do whatever it is that
our master is pleased to give us to do. You know, God's kingdom
is not a democracy. In God's kingdom, people don't
get to vote. In God's kingdom, people don't get to protest.
It's a dictatorship. God's kingdom is a dictatorship
where God is king. When I used to supervise people
at work, I used to tell them that the best form of government
is a benevolent dictatorship. Now, don't get all bent out of
shape on me. I'm joking. I know that's not possible here
on earth. It's not possible, is it? Because men are wicked
and evil. So on earth, the best form of
government is a republic like what we have, but that's not
God's government. No, God's government is a perfect government. It's
a true benevolent dictatorship. God is good. He's kind. He's loving. But His rule is
absolute. Unquestioned. Absolute. And God's
dogs love it that way. We just watch. Just watch our
Master. We wouldn't have it any other
way. We just keep our eyes on our Master. Keep looking to Him.
And when He directs us, we move. And not before. When He directs
us, we'll move. And hopefully, we won't complain
about it. Hopefully, we'll do it willingly
and happily. But you know, God's dogs should
never make a move unless we're directed by our Master. And we
need to remember this. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
is to be worshiped. He's to be obeyed. Now the Lord's
our friend. He's the friend of sinners. What
a friend He is. You can talk to Him about anything. He's the friend that's thicker,
closer than a brother. The Lord's our big brother. Isn't
it wonderful to have such a caring and kind and powerful big brother? You don't have to worry about
any bully on the block if the Lord's your big brother, do you?
Your big brother will take care of it. The Lord is our loving,
faithful husband. You can lay on His breast peacefully. Just like John did at that last
supper. It's a close, intimate relationship. He's so tender.
But don't ever forget this. The Lord is also our Master.
And He is to be obeyed. See, you and I don't get to choose
what job it is we're going to do today. Our Master chooses. Because He owns us. He owns us. That's right. He bought us with
His own precious blood. You're not your own. You're bought
with price. You don't get to choose where
you're going to serve today. Your Master does. Because He owns
you. You don't get to choose which field you're going to plow
today. You don't get to choose if I'm going to plow in this
field, or if I'm going to sow in this field, or if I'm going
to pull weeds from this field, or if I'm going to water this field.
You don't get to choose. Our Master chooses. Because He owns
the field. The field all belongs to Him.
We don't get to choose, am I going to feed the cows today? Am I
going to milk the cows today? Am I going to whatever else you
might do with cows today? We don't get to choose that.
Our Master does. Because the cattle on a thousand
hills are His. It's all up to the Master. We do what He gives
us to do. We go where He directs us to
go. And Scripture tells us that the Lord will often direct His
people with His eye. Just with His eye. I found this very sad as I studied
this this week. The reason that David says the
eyes of the servants look under the hand of their masters and
the maiden under the hand of her mistress, he wasn't just
using a play on words. They literally looked to the
master, to the mistress's hand. Because at that time, a lot of
people who owned slaves were so high and mighty, they refused
to talk to that slave. They wouldn't even talk. They
just wouldn't lower themselves to talk to that slave. And they
just used hand motions to direct them. And if you didn't see the
hand motion, you're going to be striked. You're going to be
punished. I mean, it's horrible. So those slaves, in fear, just
kept those eyes fastened on the master or the mistress's hands
to wait and see what their direction might be. Well, that's not the
way God is. That's not the way our Master
is with His dogs. No, in loving obedience, we watch
our Master. And He directs us where to go,
when to go, and how to go. And we just ought not go until
He gives us some direction from the Lord to do it. Now, often,
our two little dogs, they just sit and watch. I mean, they just
watched it. She comes down, eats breakfast,
and they just sit there. They want... We keep them trapped
in our kitchen. I get up, you know, early and... Sometimes they kind of want out,
sometimes they don't, but boy, there's some mornings they really
want out. Well, Janet comes down, she goes in the kitchen, she
takes the gate out. They go out of the kitchen all they want
to. They don't do it. They just sit and watch her.
Just watch. Here's why they're watching her. They don't want
her out of their sight. The first move she makes to leave
that room, they want to know it. Because they're going to.
Wherever she goes, they're going. The slightest movement, they're
going to know if she's going somewhere because they're going
with her. Isn't that God's dogs? I want to watch the Lord and
see where is He? Where is He at? Because wherever
He is, that's where I want to be. Don't you? Our Savior said
that where His people meet together to worship, He said, there I
am in the midst of it. Then that's where I want to be.
Pretty good chance I'll see Him if I go to where God's people
are worshiping, don't you think? The Lord says in His Word, then
that's where I want to be. I want to be reading it. I want
to be where I can hear God's Word preached and hear God's
instruction to me. I want to serve the Lord where
He put me. Using whatever it is He's given
me to do. That's God's dogs. They just watch and wait to receive
instruction from their Master. Thirdly, God's dogs look to the
Lord for mercy. The end of verse 2 says that,
Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that He have mercy
upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord. Have mercy upon us. For we are exceedingly filled
with contempt. Now, all dogs need mercy from
God, don't they? And that's all people. All people
need mercy from God. Everybody needs it. The difference
is, dogs know it. God's dogs know they need mercy.
We know we need mercy because God has showed us our sin. When
we see our sin, one thing we know, I need mercy. I need God
to not give me what I deserve because He showed me my sin.
God has showed us our sin, and I'll tell you what's better,
He showed us the Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain of mercy. And so
God's dogs continually look to the Lord for mercy. Continually
look to our Master. He is the fountain of mercy.
And we need mercy because of our sin. Sin that is our fault. David says we are exceedingly
filled with contempt. We are exceedingly filled with
sin. So that we can say, naturally
speaking, my cup runneth over. with sin. I'm filled with it.
I'm full of it. It just comes from the inside
out. You don't need to lock me away
in a desert island and think I'll get better because I won't
be in an environment of sin. I'll ruin that environment. I'm
filled with content. I'm filled with evil. It comes
from the inside out. It just spews forth from us. That's what our heart naturally
is full of. So what do God's dogs do? God's dogs look to God
for mercy. You know you can beg without
saying a word. You absolutely can beg without
saying a word. Ralph, we saw it in Mexico, didn't
we? Those people sitting begging and never said a word. If they
would have, we couldn't have understood them. They begged without saying a word.
Well, our God, we look to Him, our Master. He's a rich man. He's a generous man. He's rich
in mercy. He delights to show mercy to
sinners. Do you think of that? It makes
God happy to show mercy to sinners. We curl up our nose at them across
the street, you know. It makes God happy to show mercy
to sinners. When God's dogs look to God for
mercy, you know what they'll end up saying? The Lord's made
my cup run over with mercy. He's filled me with His mercy.
Where sin did abound, where my sin did abound, where my corruption
did abound, grace did much more abound. My cup runneth over.
Our two little dogs, sometimes they sit and they just stare
at Janet. I wouldn't have understood this
until we had these dogs, but I'm telling you, somehow we know.
When they're sitting looking, sometimes they're just looking.
And sometimes with that look, they're begging. I mean, they
just bore a hole in your skull. You know, they're wanting a dog
treat. And for too long, Janet will get up and give them a dog
treat. And you know when she does, I'm not sure who's happier.
Sometimes Janet, I think, is happier to give her little dogs
a treat. Sometimes the dogs are happier,
but sometimes it's really hard to tell. I tell you what, if you're a
sinner, you look to God and you beg Him for mercy. You beg Him
for mercy. He delights to show mercy to
sinners. And you'll delight to receive
it. You'll delight to receive it. Just look to Him and beg
for it. All right, here's the last thing. God's dogs look to
Him for deliverance. Verse 4. Our soul is exceedingly
filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the
contempt of the proud. Now the previous verse, David
says, we're exceedingly filled with contempt. That's our sin.
Now he says we're filled with the scorning of those that are
at ease. Those who are rich in the world
that have need of nothing. God's dogs look to Him for deliverance.
Most of all, primarily, what we need to be delivered from
is our own sin and our own selves. We need to be delivered from
being exceedingly filled with contempt. And that word contempt
there means an overflowing evil. It's an overflowing evil that's
in us by nature. And we need to be delivered from
that. And the only way we can be delivered is in God's mercy. The only way God can be merciful
to you and me and not give us what we deserve is if He gives
Christ our substitute. what we deserve. Now that's mercy. Mercy in justice. And that's
the only kind of mercy that will save a dog, that will save a
sinner. That's God's mercy. We need to be delivered from
our own sin, our own corruption. But we also need to be delivered
from the contempt, the sin that fills us in this way. I need
the Lord to deliver me from acting on that sin. I need the Lord
to deliver me from acting on the contempt. and the hatred
that fills my heart. I need the love of God to constrain
me and deliver me from me. That's what I need to be delivered
from being my own worst enemy. Lord, restrain me, restrain me,
keep me. And then thirdly, here's what
David primarily is talking about in this verse. We need to be
delivered from the sin, from the scorn, the mocking, the hatred
of the world around us. You know, this world is a sinful,
evil, wicked place. I mean, we ought not be surprised
that the world is filled with the things that it's filled with
right now, because we know sin has filled this world. People
in this world hate just about everybody. I mean, it seems like
they look for excuse. They've got to go digging up
an excuse, find out why I can hate this person, why I can hate
that person, you know? And we need to be delivered from
that. I mean, I want us to be delivered from acting like that,
first of all. Number one, that's what I want. But then number
two, we need to be delivered from their hatred, from being
objects of their hatred. Because the world especially,
of all the things the world hates, the world especially hates God's
people. Because they hate God. They don't hate anybody that
loves Him and believes Him and trusts Him too. We need to be
delivered from them. And here we are in this world, we're just
surrounded by it, aren't we? How are you going to be delivered?
Where are you going to look? Look to the Lord. Look across
the page of Psalm 121. Here's where we'll look. I'll
lift up mine eyes into the hills. For whence cometh my help? My
help, my deliverance, cometh from the Lord, which made heaven
and earth. That's where I'm going to look.
I'm going to look to the King. For whence cometh my help? We
need to be delivered from this dog-eat-dog world, don't we?
Well, look to the Lord. He's the one that's in control
of it. You know, one common characteristic
of God's dogs is they look. They look to the Lord. Spurgeon
gave these words here. Listen to this. God's dogs look
reverently, reverently in worship. They look obediently. They're
obedient to his righteousness. They look submissively. They
look singly. They look only to Christ. They
look expectantly, in a good hope, expecting. Let the Lord give
him what He promised to give him. They look imploringly. They look to Him begging for
mercy. And they look continually. Why would they look away? They
look continually to Him. There's no place else to look.
Now, I'll freely admit to you, I'm a dog. I'm a dog. And I know
the kind of dog I want to be. I want to be that dog who's under
the Master's table. eating the crumbs that fall from
His table. If you and I could be dogs eating
the crumbs that fall from our Master's table, we're going to
have a feast. We'll have a feast. You know
the story of Ruth and Naomi. Ruth comes back to Israel about
the time of the harvest with Naomi. They're starving. They have nothing. They had no
way to earn anything. And the way they provided for
people at that time that you go out and you can go behind
the reapers and you can glean whatever they leave behind and
they can't get, well, then you can get those little scraps they
leave behind and you can get that. And those little scraps
will be what you have to eat. And Ruth was out there gleaning.
You know, it was her hap, scriptures. It just so happened that she
lied on a field belonging to Boaz. Belonging to Boaz. He owned the field. Just like
our master, he owns the field. and she was there reaping, Boaz
saw her. He set his eye on her. And he told those reapers that
worked for him, he said, you leave some handfuls of purpose
for her. That's what God tells His preachers. He said, you get
in here, you get in here, and you glean, you work hard, and
you get some handfuls of purpose for my people. Leave some handfuls
of purpose for her. Ruth had absolutely no... She
thought this was for everybody to glean. She had no idea. She
gleaned all this grain that she had and she brought home A feast. Naomi saw that. She said, girl,
where have you been today? Naomi, nobody gleans this much.
Naomi knew this isn't table scraps. This is a feast from the master,
from the man that owns the field, from the kinsman redeemer. It's
a feast from Boaz. That's what every one of God's
dogs receive. A feast from our kinsman redeemer. A feast of
mercy and grace. Now you sit under his table and
look to him. I'm a dog and I know what kind
of dog I want to be. I want God to make me to be a
Caleb, a faithful dog who always has his eyes on his master and
faithfully follows Christ wherever he goes. Now what kind of dog
are you? What kind of dog are you? Well,
I hope and pray that you're God's dogs. I know There's a bunch
of you pretty well. There's a bunch of God's dogs.
This is a good kennel right here, isn't it? A bunch of God's dogs. Blessed people. Blessed people.
Disabled God's dogs. Let's bow together. Our Father, our Lord and Master,
our Kinsman, Redeemer. Oh, how we thank You for Your
mercy and Your grace. How we thank You that You've
Not just given permission, but you've commanded in Your Word
for sinners to look to Thee. To look. Look and live. To look
and find in You everything we need. To look and wait upon Thee.
We don't have to look and then do part of it ourselves, but
look. Look and wait on the Lord. Father, how thankful we are.
And I pray this evening that You'd cause us to look. That
You'd give us the faith to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. To
find in Him everything we need. To look to Him and find in Him
our salvation, our righteousness, our holiness, our peace, our
comfort, our food, our drink. Give us the faith to look to
our Savior and to wait on Him to direct us. And when He directs,
Father, give us the faith to go. To go in full confidence
that we're going where our Master has directed us. Father, give
us the faith to look to Thee and wait, to wait on Thee. And
we look expecting that sooner or later, Your purpose to Your
people will be unfolded and how we'll rejoice to see it. Now,
Father, bless us. Bless us as we go back to our
homes. Bless Your Word. Sow it into our hearts that we
can take it with us and feed upon it and rejoice upon it and
go back out into the world tomorrow, being strengthened and fed and
encouraged in looking to Christ our Redeemer. For it is in his
precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're
dismissed.