You know, I used to hear down
there in the mill all them years that I was working, and them
older fellas would say, you know, this getting old is not for sissies.
It's tough. Every day seems like we, this
last night, a dear friend of many, many, many years, we run
into her up at the hospital at St. Mary's when Erin was there.
And her husband died up there, last been up there about 21 days.
He just quickly got sick. And when they diagnosed him,
he was near to death. And it just goes on and on. We
see it every day and every day. But I've said all that to say
this. I'm thankful that I've lived this long. I've lived this
long to see the Lord do a work of grace in this young man's
heart. We've known him, many of us here have known him since
he was up there in the nursery. Years and years and years. And
how encouraging. Think about this. These little
ones, they're not going to hear the Gospel from old codgers.
They're going to hear it from those that the Lord is raising
up right now. These young men. And how encouraging, how thankful
we are the Lord has raised up a young man and taught him the
Gospel and enabled him to go forth and preach to us and to
our children and to our grandchildren. This is a good morning. This
is a great day. Luke, come on. You don't need
any introduction. If you would open your Bibles
back to Psalm 145. I was thinking the last few days
about what I would say. When I got up here. And it's
always sometimes difficult to try to think of something to
say to show your appreciation or that you care for the people
that you're getting ready to speak to. And I thought about
how many friends and family I have here and brothers and sisters
and And I was sitting there thinking, you know, this is this is kind
of like going home. And then it hit me. And I don't
know what it was while Eric was reading. All of a sudden, I just
thought, you know, it's not really kind of like going home. It is
going home. I have so many people here that
have been such an important role in my life, and I'm very thankful.
I'm very thankful for you. And it is a pleasure as well
as humbling to be up here before you. And Dale, what you were
saying just a moment ago about that the woman you ran into at
the hospital is very pertinent to what I want to talk about
this morning. And I want to start off with a story. Earlier this
year, I went to a funeral. Tracy and I went together. It
was for a young man that had taken his own life. He was a very nice boy. And at the service beforehand,
and it was very troubling times, very difficult in those circumstances,
obviously, and we were prepared for the service,
because so often you go to a service of someone and things are said
that almost make it more difficult. And during this service, the
man doing the funeral made two comments. And I haven't been
able to get them out of my head for months and months. And I've
wrestled back and forth with them. And. I'm going to address
them a little this morning. The first thing he said in the
midst of talking about this young man and his death. Was he said. And I quote, God didn't do this. And it caught me a little off
guard when he said that, but there was a few ways he could
go with that, and I wasn't sure what he meant. And so when another
line or two later, he followed that with. God didn't want this
to happen. Now, I'm very sheltered when
it comes to false religion, and I'm thankful for that. I grew
up under the gospel and even during the many rebellious years
I had, I didn't attend another church and didn't care enough
about religion to search and find other things out. I've heard many descriptions
of false preachers. And I've heard many things that
they say or that they believe. But to hear someone with my own
ears say with conviction, God didn't want this to happen. It
floored me. Now, I didn't know where to begin
to figure out what I was thinking about this, I couldn't I couldn't
put together the confusion, the frustration, the anger it made
me feel that that was said. And over the next few days and
thinking about it, I realized What kept bothering me the most
about it? I can only think of two reasons
why someone would say this. Two reasons that could merit
someone to actually believe this. The first reason was that that
person thought that there was someone or something. That wanted
this to happen to this young man and God couldn't stop it. Now, if that's the case, then
that takes away all the hope I have. I've got nowhere to stand
if that's the case. My only hope is that God chose
a people before the foundation of the world, that the Lord Jesus
Christ came to this earth, lived perfectly, died on the cross
bearing our sins, bearing the sins of his children. Then he
rose victorious, ascended on high, and is seated on the throne. That's my hope. My hope is in
a holy, all powerful, omniscient God. Not just a God that can't
be beaten or manipulated. My hope is in an almighty God
that can't even be challenged. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Leaving that one aside, the second
reason I thought someone might say this. That God didn't want
this to happen. And the one I want to spend more
of my time on this morning is this. He was saying or a way
to translate this was to say this. If I were God, I wouldn't
have done it like that. I wouldn't have done it that
way. Now, let me start by saying I don't understand the reasoning
behind many of the things that have happened in my life. And
to be honest, most of the things that I think I understand, I
probably am a fool for thinking that. And especially the trials
and tribulations. And I most definitely can't explain
why certain things happen. And there's nothing wrong. with
being heartbroken over a loss. It's normal to be upset when
something doesn't go your way. And it should bother you when
a friend is struggling through a trial or tribulation. But I
caution all of us this. Do not fall into the trap of
questioning the providence of God. Look at verse 17 and 18 in this
chapter. The Lord is righteous in all
his ways. The Lord is holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. In these two verses, we get a
wonderful description of the Lord. And the rest of my message is
going to be talking about these three attributes or characteristics
of the Lord. So before we do this and look
at these three attributes, let's take just a second and use the
scriptures to make sure everybody knows exactly who I'm going to
be describing. Turn with me to Job 12. Job 12. In Isaiah 9, 6, it tells us,
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the
government shall be on his shoulders and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and
the Prince of Peace. That's who we're describing.
Look in verse 9 of Job 12. And remember, this is this is
who we're describing. Who knoweth not in all these
that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this, and whose hand
is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
Doth not the ear try words, and the mouth taste his meat? With
the ancient of wisdom, and in length of days understanding,
with him is wisdom and strength. He hath counsel and understanding. Behold, he breaketh down. and
it cannot be built again. He shut up a man and there can
be no opening. Behold, he withholdeth the waters
and they dry up. Also, he sendeth him out and
they overturn the earth. With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver
are his. Go to verse 22. He discovereth
deep things out of darkness and he brings out to light the shadow
of death. He increases the nations and
destroy them. He enlarges the nations and straightens
them again. In Psalm 2410, it says, Who is
the king of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the
king of glory. And let me read you something
from Revelation here. In Revelation, it's describing
the beasts that are in heaven. And listen to what they do. And take this into account as
what we want to do. And they rest not day and night
saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is
and is to come. And when those beasts give glory
and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth
forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before
him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever
and ever. and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and
for Thy pleasure they are and were created. The Lord Jesus
Christ, He is righteous in all His ways. Our God is a righteous
and a just God. And if we truly believe he is
righteous, then that means we believe everything he has done,
everything that he has done, everything he is doing and everything
that he will do, all of that, it's all right and it's all just. Everything that happens in the
world, whether it benefits us Whether it has absolutely nothing
to do with us or no effect on us or whether it is the worst
possible thing for me or you. Everything that happens is for
the glory of God. And to go on top of that, we're
also reminded in numerous times in Scripture that all things
that take place work together for the good of his people. Turn
to Romans 8, turn to Romans chapter 8. In verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. All things work together
for good to them who are called. We remember the worst things
that happened to us. If you are a child of God, If
you were elected before the foundation of the earth to be conformed
to the image of his son, then all those things, all those bad
things were for your good. It was for our good. Now, when
someone here is in the midst of a trial, I'm sure many of
you are in them now, many of you are coming out of them, many
of you are going back into them. When you know someone's in a
trial, please don't go to them and say, This is for your good.
Nobody wants to hear that. But have compassion on one another. Offer your support, your time,
your shoulder or whatever is needed. But before you do that,
while you're doing that and after you do that, pray for them. And If you're going to just do one
thing. Ask the Lord to help them. He is the only source of grace
and mercy and the only comfort that a believer has. Help them,
ask for them, ask for help. So why would someone think the
Lord's way wasn't the right way? Why would someone say something
implying that the Lord's way is not righteous? Or why would
they disagree with the way things are happening? Well, it's a very,
very simple answer. If after service today, Mike
and Debbie came to me and said, would you come eat lunch at our
house? And I said, I'd love to. And I said, Mike, I've never
been there, will you give me directions on how to go? So Mike describes
it really well to me, tells me all the streets to do. He gets
a piece of paper out and writes it down. He writes down all the
directions, gives me a map, shows me the street. There's no way
I can miss it. And I get Finley and go to my car with Mike's
instructions in my hand. I start the car, put her in the
back, and I take the instructions and throw them on the floor.
Then I go out here and say, I'm going to go a different way.
Why would I do that? I've never been to Mike's house
before. I'm going to do that because I think my way is better
than your way. That's why I would do that. And
that's the reason why people think the way of the Lord is
not the right way. Many people have come to the
decision that they want to take their own path. They've decided
that their way is good enough, if not better, but it's good
enough to get them to glory. But thankfully, Thankfully, we
know the only way to be righteous is to be found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. As the children in Egypt, the
only people that were safe. The only children, the only first
born that would survive were those that were found under the
blood, nothing else mattered. There was nothing else involved.
It didn't matter that you were in the house. And we're 100 percent
guaranteed. Sure, I'm good. And it didn't
matter if you were in there scared to death. The only thing that
mattered was the blood on the door. And the only thing that
matters in the way of the Lord is that it's his way and his
way is right. Now, the next line says the Lord
is holy in all his works. The word holy here can be translated
to meaning merciful or bountiful or abundant. The Lord is merciful
in everything he does for his children. And we need his mercy. Psalm 41, 4 says, Lord, be merciful
unto me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. We have
all sinned and come short. And the only hope for the sinner
is the mercy of the Lord. What good news is it That the
son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost because
we're lost. The Lord is bountiful in all
his works. Everything the Lord does is in
abundance, and I looked for a definition because I always try to find
a simple way to say these words and looking under bountiful abundance.
There was a phrase I'd never heard of before describing it,
and it's overflowing fullness. And that's a great description
of the traits of the Lord, his mercy, his grace, an overflowing
fullness, it never runs out, it never even appears to be short,
there's always an abundance. And in this chapter, it talks
about the Lord being gracious, being full of compassion, being
great, being good. And in all of these, the Lord
has overflowing fullness of them, an inexhaustible supply that
the Lord delights to give to his children. Now, what is the
greatest work of the Lord? The labor of salvation through
his life, death and resurrection. Everything the Lord has done
and is doing can be summed up in the words he said as a 12
year old boy to his mother when he was He was lost to them. He knew where he was for a day
or so. And he was in the synagogue and
he said when she came to him, he said. I must be about my father's
business. That is the description of the
Lord's works, he must be about his father's business over at
Galatians chapter one with me. Galatians one. I love this scripture. And I remember hearing it so
many times. As a young person, as Mike would
read this at the end of services so often. Verse three, grace
be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver
us from this present evil world according to the will of God
and our Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. The Lord is holy in all
his works. Yet, why does so many people
try to present their works as a way to salvation? Most churches
present a God that requires you to do your part or to do something. Do you have to do something in
order to get to heaven? What could I possibly offer a
holy God? What do I have that I could give,
that I could exchange, that I could present that isn't just foolishness? In the scriptures, we hear the
term is filthy rags. But that's that's still too good. We don't even have filthy rags
to offer. There are many great misconceptions and misunderstandings
in religion today that can be proven false by simply understanding
the relationship between God and man. There is a great divide
between the two that can't be exaggerated. The perfection and
holiness of God. and the sinfulness and filth
of man. I cannot be any lower and he
cannot be any higher and. The teacher in me wants to try
to show something I thought about at first, and I was trying to
show the distance and do that, but the more I thought about
it, the more I thought, well, it's just foolish because this
is this is really close where I'm putting my hands apart from
each other. And so I thought, you know, if we compare the two,
the distance would be greater than infinity. Now, a math professor
might look at me and say, well, that's impossible. Well, I would
respond and say, well, if you understood how bad I was and
how great he was, you might think that that's actually possible.
Now, false religion spends most of its time doing two things. First, trying to make themselves
and I'll use this trying to make themselves closer to God through
their works. And the second is they try to
lower God down to them so they can get that gap. So much is
spent trying to bridge the gap between the two. When I just
said how the gap is greater than infinity, there's no way to express
how wide the gap truly is. And look at Ephesians two, look
at the Passage we looked at in Sunday school, look at Ephesians
2. And I know it's repetitive, but
I want to read the first nine verses of this again. Ephesians
2, 1. And you, Hathi Quicken, who are
dead and trespasses in sin. wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lust of flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. I believe that my works have
no part in salvation. I believe that my works are filthy
rags. I believe that. And yet I still
boast. How difficult is it then if you
think your works do have a part? How much credit are you giving
yourself? We don't have anything to do with our salvation. If
you think your works are necessary for salvation, then you will
not be saved. If you present something before
the Lord. It will be rejected, the only
thing that you need is the but God we talked about earlier to
be found in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me
tell you another story to summarize. Man's desire to find fault with
God. When I was in college, we were
forced to take a religion class and being at a liberal arts school,
there was a little bit more liberties that were available to them,
we could talk about a lot of things and they could say things
that wouldn't normally be talked about. And I had a woman professor
and she came in one day to class. There was 30 or so of us in the
class and and she talked for about three or four minutes about
Jesus Christ. And I say it that way because
she said it that way. She did not say the Lord Jesus
Christ. She said Jesus Christ. And at the time, that didn't
mean anything to me, but I understand why she said it now. And she
talked about him saying some things that were written and
believed by Christians. And she then said, we're going
to start right here and we're going to go around the room and
I want everybody to one by one walk up to the board and I want
you to write a word describing Jesus Christ. I hate saying that,
I'm going to say the Lord Jesus Christ because I feel bad saying
it that way, but she said, Write a word up there that was there.
I was about 25th in line and she told us start writing them
on paper and it'll come to you. So I'm just, you know, writing
them down. I'm just writing holy, gracious and merciful and savior
and all these words. And I'm right. And one by one,
my words are just being taken and I'm just going through. And
it was a good list of words. And when it came to me, I'd gone
through so many words. I went up and I wrote all powerful.
And sat back down and the last five or six people went. And
I didn't know what she was doing about it. And then she started
talking about the Holocaust. And it was bizarre, she was given
some gruesome details and saying how many millions of people died
and the way they were treated and tortured. And it was it was
graphic. We were just all sitting there
just taken aback by this. And then when she finished doing
that, about 15 minutes worth, notice she gave about two minutes
or three minutes describing the Lord. And then she went back
and gave 15 to 20 minutes on the Holocaust. And then she looked
at the class and said, we're going to go the other way this
time. We're going to start in the back right. And I want you to go up
and I want you to write a word on the board now after knowing
that about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I was just sitting there
thinking, what does that have to do with anything? Now, I didn't
I didn't know the gospel in here. I didn't. But I had been taught
enough to know that the first person went up and wrote the
word curious. And then the next person went
up and wrote the word why. And a few words were like that
and I was somewhere around fifth or sixth. And without even thinking
about it, I went up and the first person had written holy and I
went up and just wrote S-T-I-L-L hyphen in front of holy. And
the next person didn't go up to the board. Everyone just kind
of sat there for a minute and I didn't realize that what I
was doing was not what she wanted. But it was so obvious because
of what I've been taught, and that's the right answer. None
of that has anything to do with. How holy our Lord is. Or how
gracious he is or how merciful he is and to call into question. The Lord. Based off an event
or something that happened is ridiculous now. I don't know
why the Holocaust happened. I have no idea. But I do know. Throughout the whole thing, throughout
the whole events in time, the Lord was still on the throne.
I know that the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and I know that
the Lord is holy in all his works. And it is not changed by any
actions Now, back to this funeral for that young man, there were
a lot of people trying to make sense of what happened. And I've
never gone through a trial like that. I pray that I don't have
to go through a trial like that. And when we were talking to the
family, I didn't have the words to say, I didn't know what to
say. And months and months and months later and many hours thinking
about it, I still don't have the words to say. But. If I were to endure a tragedy
such as this or one that was not nearly as bad as this. I want to know and I want to
believe. Verse 18. of our text. The Lord
is near unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon
him in truth. I find great comfort in knowing
that the Lord is near to them that call or cry unto him in
truth, he says, is one whom his mother comforted. So I will comfort
you. One creature described calling
upon him or this phrase of calling upon him in truth as this. A
true call to the Lord is a prayer that comes from a recognized
need and is directed to one who is able and willing to respond. Let me say that again. A true
call to the Lord is a prayer. that comes from a recognized
need and is directed to one who is able and willing to respond. Now, I want to close with using
the description of four people in the scriptures, four people
that approach or call the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to give
a characteristic of each of them on how we should call upon the
Lord. Turn with me to Matthew 15. These are going to be very familiar
stories in the word. All of us have heard these Matthew
15. Now. What I want us to see from
this and there's. There's a great deal in these
and reading these stories and giving one thing out of them
is leaving a lot out. But I want us just to see these
things. And remember, these are characteristics of calling upon
the Lord or crying unto the Lord. The first here, Matthew 15, I
want you to notice and I want you to realize when you call
upon the Lord, you have to know where you're coming from. You
have to know the position you're in coming to the Lord. So Matthew
15, verse 22. And behold, a woman of Canaan,
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and saw
him saying, Send her away, for she cries after us. She's bothering
us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he
answered and said, It is not meat to take the children's bread
and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. and her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. We must realize that we're coming
from a place of no authority. We are a dog waiting on crumbs
to fall. That's the only way we're going
to get anything. Thankfully, the Lord is bountiful in His
mercy. Now look at the second one, Matthew
8. So we have to know where we're coming from. Coming from the
lowest depths. And in Matthew 8 here, what I
want us to see is not only do we have to know where we're coming
from, we've also got to know who you're coming to. Matthew
8, verse 5, And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there
came unto him a centurion beseeching him and saying, Lord, my servant
lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus
saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered
and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou should come under my
roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and
I say to this man, go, and he goeth. And to another, come,
and he cometh. And to my servant, do this, and
he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled
and said to them, that followed. Verily, I say unto you, I have
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto
you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit
down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. And Jesus saith unto the centurion,
Go thy way. And as thou hast believed, so
be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in
the self same hour. Go to Mark chapter 10. Mark 10. Know where we're coming from.
Know who we're coming to. And this third one. It's important to know that you
don't have any other options. Mark 10, verse 46. And they came to Jericho and
as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highway side begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Thou
Son of David, have mercy on me." And many charged him that he
should hold his peace. Be quiet, you blind beggar. But
he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy
on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise. He calleth thee. And he,
casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. I love that
he threw everything aside. Coming to him, he brought nothing
with him. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt
thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him,
Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him,
Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he
received his sight and followed Jesus in that way. We have to recognize that the
Lord is the only way. And to look at it as blind Bartimaeus,
a blind man begging, sitting by the wayside in a time where
there was no way to get help, there was no government assistance,
there was no charities that were running around trying to help.
This man was stuck and completely dependent on the people that
walked by him. And he knew what the Lord could do for him. And
to think how desperate he was when he thought to himself, the
Lord Jesus Christ is walking by me. He's here. He can hear
me. And when we come to the Lord,
we cry to him. We must cry, knowing that that is the only option
we have. If he does not answer our prayer,
we will not be saved. And finally, look in Luke verse
eight or Luke chapter eight, Luke eight. We have to know where we're coming
from as a sinner, as a filthy beggar, we have to know who we're
coming to, the Lord Almighty. We have to know that we have
no other options, and fourthly, We have to come with confidence.
Look in Luke chapter 8, verse 43. Maybe my favorite example of
this. And a woman having an issue of
blood 12 years, which had spent all her living upon physicians,
neither could be healed of any, came behind him and touched the
border of his garment. And immediately her issue of
blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me?
When all denied Peter and they that were there said unto him,
Master, the multitude thronged thee and pressed thee. And you
say, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody has
touched me, for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And
when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling. and falling down before him,
she declared unto him before all the people for what cause
she had touched him and how she was healed immediately. And he
said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath
made thee whole. Go in peace. This woman knew
all four things here. She knew where she was coming
from. She didn't want to say anything. She didn't want him
to notice her. She felt unworthy to be in that
group. But she thought if I can just
get to him, the second part she knew she was going to, if I can
just get him and touch him, that's all I want to do. He will heal
me. He will take care of me. He will
answer my prayers. As well as this woman also had
exhausted all her options, she tried every other method. and
was completely out of options. But finally, she came with confidence. She says that if I could just
touch him, he will answer my prayer. Now. I don't know of anything specific
that she would have known that would have told her, you know,
if someone said, if you just touch him, you'll be fine. I
don't know of anything there, but she knew She had heard of
this man that healed sinners. She had heard of this man. And
with confidence, she thought to herself. If I can just touch him, that's
all I need to do, she approached with confidence. Now. Look back to our text. And let's read verse 19. The last thing we'll read, verse
19 of Psalm 145, he will fulfill the desire of them that fear
him. He also will hear their cry and
will save them. If we call upon the Lord in truth.
He will hear us. If we call upon the Lord in truth,
He will do the same as he has done to these four people we
just looked at. The four people who cried unto
him, he will save you. Approach with confidence because
you have no other option. If you approach the Lord and
ask him truthfully, he will save you. That's all for thanks. Our Heavenly Father, Lord, we give Thee thanks and
we praise Your name that Thou art on the throne. Lord, we don't understand how blessed we are to know the
things that You have taught us. Give us faith. Give us comfort. Give us confidence. Give us meekness. We know the
true gospel that you have taught us, you've shown us. The truth
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord. We ask for this very
same thing. For our friends, our family,
our children, those that Do not have an understanding of the
gospel yet. Lord, we pray, we beg, we plead, we cry to Thee.
Lord, Thou art the only one who can show them the truth. Thou
art the only one who can save them. Lord, we ask that You be
with this group of people. Lord, in the days ahead, we ask
that You would keep Your candle burning bright
in this place. Lord, we ask that you would do
that for so many other churches. Lord, we pray for Frank and other
men that preach your gospel. Lord, continue to give the desire
to preach your word and leave them not to themselves, Lord. There may be nothing worse than preaching your word and
you not being with us. Lord, we're so thankful. We ask that we may, for all our
days, for all our time on this earth, whether it be short or
long, whether it be wonderful and plenteous, or whether it
be in time of drought and sorrow, Lord, we ask that our entire
time on this earth that we would continue to come to Thee Call
upon Thee that Thou would keep us in Thy hand, save us from
ourselves and save us from this world. Keep us cleaving, Lord. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Please forgive us for our many
sins. Amen.