I want you to look in Ephesians
chapter 1. I'd like to read verse 9, 10,
and 11. Verse 9, 10, and 11 of Ephesians
chapter 1. These verses read, having made
known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good
pleasure which he hath purposed in himself. that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. I want to read a verse or two
of scripture out of Job chapter 23 verse 13 and 14. But he is in one mind, and who
can turn him? And what his soul desireth, even
that he doeth. For he performeth the thing that
is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. I'd like to speak to you for
a while this morning on the subject of the infallibility of God's
purpose. The infallibility of God's purpose. He is one mind, and who can turn
him, and what his soul desireth, even that, He doeth. Now, contrary to the erroneous
views and theories of modern religionists, God's control over
all things, God being a God of decrees and God of purpose, and
He is indeed a God of purpose, one of the things that you would
discover if you were to read carefully the book of Romans
is that the God of the Bible is indeed a God of purpose. a god of purpose. He has his
own purpose which he's purposed in himself. He has an everlasting
purpose that he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. But contrary
to the erroneous theories of modern religionists, God's control
over everything also includes the salvation of sinners. It
includes the salvation of God's elect. the salvation of those
that the Father chose before the foundation of the world and
has predestinated us to an inheritance according to the good pleasure
of God's will. God is a God of sovereignty and
power, a God who works all things according to His own will and
his own purpose. Now, any sinner who ever comes
to believe the gospel, any sinner who ever comes to hope in the
Lord Jesus Christ, does so because God Almighty purposed that he
come to that hope. God Almighty, in His sovereign
good pleasure, brought that poor sinner to that place of hope. We read in Romans, chapter 8,
verse 28, a very familiar verse, where it says that those who
love God are those who are called according to His purpose. And
we know that all things work together for good to them who
love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. And so if you're saved here today,
it is because God purposed your salvation. In 2 Timothy 1 and
9, Paul said to Timothy, he said, God hath saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. And so God has saved us, and
He called us, not according to our works or merit, but according
to His own purpose and grace. which was given us in the Lord
Jesus before the world began. So the salvation of sinners has
not been left in the hands of sinners. It has not been left,
I say, in the hands of sinners. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Romans 9 and verse 16. As Jonah said in Jonah 2, salvation
is of the Lord. Now, beloved, did the God of
the Bible save you? Did He save you? Have you been
saved? Has God been pleased to call
you? Has God been pleased, as Paul
said in Timothy, not according to your works, but according
to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus, has God called you? Has He brought you unto Himself? If He did, He did it on purpose. He did it on purpose. It wasn't
an accident. It wasn't something that just
took place because you just happened to be in some church gathering
in some solemn assembly somewhere where an earnest preacher was
preaching, but you came to Christ and came into the hope of eternal
salvation because God Almighty had from eternity purposed this
salvation. Now, there are some differences
between the God of the Bible and the God of the modern-day
religionists. The religionists of, we might
say, of our day. Especially, we know that it is
so in our day. We've read a lot about the past,
and I don't believe there was, well, at one time there possibly
was not as much difference in America between the God of the
Bible and the God of the religionists, as there is today. But there's
a great difference today. Let me try to show you what I
mean. The majority of today's religionists are Armenian to
the core. They're man-centered religionists. Man-centered, where what man
does is the thing that gets the attention, and what man does
gets the glory. Well, we know that the God of
the Bible is a God who is worthy of our worship and our adoration. Which one do you claim is your
God? You tell me. Let me set this
forth to you that the God of the Bible has decrees and he
has a purpose. The God of today's religionists
just has wishes and wants. One has a will which cannot be
frustrated. That's the God of the Bible.
And the other's will is often defeated and hindered. That's
the God of the Armenians. One is in absolute control. One is in absolute control. The
other God, the God of the religionists, the God of the Armenians, wonders
what will happen next. I say the God of the Bible is
in absolute control. He's a God that works all things
after the counsel of His own will. He's a God that says what
I please, I do. He is a God of sovereign purpose
and He's in absolute control, but the God of the Arminians
wonders what He will do next. Now one rules and reigns in majesty
and glory, the other looks on helplessly as a world is out
of control. knowing not how to check this
runaway world. Well, there are some times when
we feel the world is running away, when we feel that it is
out of control, but that's only because we look at it from the
standpoint of a mortal man. We know that the God of the Bible
does not look helplessly on as the world runs out of control.
That's the Armenian God. Now, one God does as he pleases,
the other does what man will let him do. And we know that
the God of the Bible does exactly as He pleases. He does what His
soul desires. One is always successful, and
the other God is a pathetic failure. The God of the Armenians is a
pathetic failure. One is Almighty to save, and
the other requires man's cooperation. Except man cooperates with Jesus,
they say he cannot save anybody. He cannot do anything in the
realm of securing a man's salvation except man cooperates. We know
that Saul of Tarsus, don't you know it, was cooperating with
Jesus on the road to Damascus. when he was headed for Damascus
there to put Christians in prison. You know the woman at the well
who had five husbands and the one she was living with at that
time was not her husband. You know that she was cooperating
with Jesus when the Lord was pleased to save her. Well, we
know that that's not the case. We know that God arrests men
in his sovereign grace and draws men and women savingly to himself. And man's cooperation isn't taken
into consideration. One chooses sinners for salvation,
and that's the God of the Bible, and the other leaves salvation
up to chance. Somebody said, well, don't we
all have a chance? Don't everybody have a chance?
Well, the Armenians say that everybody's got a chance. But
the God of the Bible chooses men to salvation. He don't leave
it to chance. He chose the people from before
the foundation of the world set His love upon them. and provided
for their salvation by seeing and viewing them in His Son,
the Lord Jesus, and providing everything He demanded of them
in His Son, His Son coming into the world and suffering and dying
in their room instead in place. Now one deserves our worship,
that's the God of the Bible, and the other, our pity, pity,
pity, the poor God of the Armenians. that's not able to do anything
except he have some help. One is to be reverenced and the
other is to be felt sorry for. And we reverence the God of the
Bible. We bow before the God of the Bible. We surrender to
the God of the Bible. We exalt the God of the Bible,
but we'll just have pity on this phony God of the Armenians. One is for real, that is the
God of the Bible, and the other is a phony. The other is a phony. Now one is the God you need,
and the other is the God who needs you. Which is your God? Well, the God that we worship
is the God that we need, and He doesn't need us. He'll be
God if He doesn't ever touch us. He'll be God if He doesn't
save any of us. But we need this God. We need Him. He doesn't need
us. But the God of the Armenians,
oh, that God needs all the help He can get. And He needs men. He needs them. well i don't say
that i mean i'm not saying that god don't use men but i'm saying
that if you've got the idea that god needs you you're just as
wrong as you can be the god of the bible he does not need anybody
he was god before he ever made a man and that he would be god
now if he had never made a man now trust uh... this morning
that if you could get a picture in your mind of this God that
we worship in reverence that you'll be comforted by. And if
you're God's people, I know you will. Now to know your God is
so important. To know your God. The doctrine
of God's electing grace is a very comforting doctrine. Our salvation
depends not upon our worthiness, for we have none. There's a verse
of scripture that I want you to turn to, found in the book
of Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 1. I'd like for you to turn here
and look at this. Salvation is by God's purpose,
and it's by the grace of God, not based upon our works, not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us, and through the washing of regeneration give
us everlasting hope. And in 1 Timothy chapter 1, let
me read to you verse 13 and verse 14. Paul had been made a minister
of the Lord Jesus Christ and he says in verse 13 I was before
a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained
mercy I obtained it I couldn't buy it I couldn't get it any
other way but I just obtained it because I had sinned in ignorance
and in unbelief I had walked as a sinner and I didn't have
any faith I needed mercy and verse 14 and the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus Paul said the very thing that I needed I found in the
Lord Jesus Christ he says the grace of our Lord Jesus or the
grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant and with faith and love,
meaning that the grace of God provides the faith and the love
which is necessary and needful in our hearts in order that we
would believe on the Lord Jesus, in order that we would trust
Him, in order that we would be able to grasp, lay hold of, uh... and apprehend our lord and the
salvation that's in him we are given that faith in the grace
of god and the love which we need for christ and which we
ought to have for the lord jesus christ has been given to us in
the grace of god so it is dependent upon the will and purpose of
god for us to believe and for us to have the necessary uh... love in our hearts for christ
that we need well from the general doctrine that God has a plan
and that this plan is invariable and that this plan is certain
to be carried out we'll draw this doctrine that in salvation
God is of one mind and who can turn him and what his soul desires
that he will do I speak to you who are the people of God listen
carefully Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all your
heart? Do you have the spirit of adoption
given to you that you can say, Abba, Father? If so, this truth
that we're talking about this morning belongs to you. It belongs
to you. Now, you know, it's marvelous
to me how that the scriptures, even though a word was spoken
to Job, That that word did not only apply to Job. It did not
find full expression and fulfillment only toward Job. But it applies
to all God's people. It applies to all the Lord's
people. every promise that you find in
the Bible. I find where God spoke to Joshua,
where He spoke to Solomon, where He spoke to others in the Scriptures
and promised them that He would never leave them nor forsake
them. And then in a general way, over in Hebrews chapter 13, Paul
spoke those words and said that the Lord would never leave thee
nor forsake thee so that you may boldly say the Lord is your
helper and so what God spoke specifically to Joshua and to
others in the Old Testament Paul spoke generally to all in the
book of Hebrews chapter 13 and so the same principle is involved
here what God said when he spoke to Job and said that he said
I'm of one mind and no one can turn me I'm of one mind. I have a purpose. I have made
decrees. And I'm of one mind. And what
my soul desires, even that I'm going to do. And you can't turn
me from that. No one can turn me from that.
I'll have my soul's desire. Now our calling proves our election. And our election teaches us that
God ordained to save us. He's not a man that he should
lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. He is of one
mind. He saw us ruined in the fall
of our father Adam, but his mind never changed from his purpose
to save us. He saw us when we were born,
that we went astray from the womb speaking lies. He saw us
in our youthful follies. in our rebellion and in our disobedience
but never never did his mind alter in his design of love toward
us and then as adults we walked according to the course of this
world according to the prince of the power of the air walking
in the lust of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind but God never once altered his mind or turned his
mind from us. There's a scripture I want you
to look at in the book of Isaiah chapter 46 chapter 46 and again
I want to say that these verses although they were spoken to
the house of Jacob and the remnant of the house of Israel that these
verses apply to all God's people. Isaiah 46 And look, if you will,
at verse 4, or let's begin with verse 3. And you'll see how that
from the womb God has carried his people. Hearken unto me,
O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel,
which are born by me from the belly. which are carried from
the womb, listen to it, which are born by me from the belly. That means that God knew you
before or when you were in your mother's womb. God knew you before
you came forth into this world, and you were born by Him from
the belly, and you were carried by the sovereign purpose of God
from the womb. And even to your old age, I am
He. And even to whorehairs will I
carry you, I have made. And I will bear, even I will
carry, and will deliver you. So we see it takes into consideration
the entire life of the child of God from the very time they
were conceived in the womb, even until their old age consumes
them. And so the Lord is with these
people, and He will not be turned from His purpose. And so His
purpose to save us, He will not turn from. He saw us when we
were born. He saw us when we were young
people. He saw us when we were adults. And the Lord has viewed us always
as we would stand in His Son. Now then, we could say what This
morning we could say many, many things about how we view our
own lives, and we are ashamed of many, many things in our life.
And as one writer said, cover, oh darkness, all my guilt, and
let the night conceal it from my eyes forever. And we added
sin to sin ourselves. But God, determined to save,
as the poet said, He watched over our path, When we were Satan's
blind slave and when we sported with death, God looked over our
path because he was of one mind and he would not be deterred. He would not in any way, shape,
or form be deterred from that which he would do. Then at the
last, the happy hour came. The happy hour came when we were
visited by the divine spirit in regeneration And Ephesians
1, 4, and 5 says, 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 you are saved. The happy hour came, the time
came when the granite moved, our hard hearts were broken,
And we came to an experiential knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ
and when we were saved. And it was because He was of
one mind and He had no fickleness in Him. And He bore with us whether
we were young people when we were saved, whether we were children
when we were saved, or whether we were not saved until we were
old men and women. God is born with us and it's
because there was no fickleness in him that we made it to that
happy hour. I was reading yesterday the testimony
of an old primitive Baptist lady who raised 13 children and one
of her children after she had passed away wrote concerning
their mother that she would often tell them, she would say to them,
children, you need a blessing that I cannot give you. You need
a blessing that I cannot give you. And this is what I'm talking
about today. There was a time, there was a
day, there was an hour come when there was a blessing came that
could not be imparted to us by any man on earth by any woman
even our mothers and fathers could not impart this blessing
we had to be saved from above we had to be touched from above
we had to be born by the divine spirit we had to be touched by
God we had to be saved by the Lord and so he said I'll have
them, and have us he would. And he could not be turned from
it. He purposed our salvation. He said, other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. I must bring. Not maybe we'll bring them if
they cooperate, but I must bring them to my fold. He had written
our name in the Lamb's Book of Life. He was not about to cross
them out. It was His solemn purpose that
we should be brought out of sin and the Savior would have His
reward. He proved that in all our wonderings that He had been
of one mind. And beloved, here's something
else for us to think about. Since that happy hour, since
the blessing fell, how often have you and I turned in our
own hearts and have backslidden, as it were, in our lives Well,
how often have we been traitorous, been as a traitor to the Lord,
even since we experienced the new birth? How often have we
been inclined, as it were, to leave the God we love and to
turn from Him and turn from His ways? Well, if we had the Armenian
God to deal with, we would either be in hell today or out of the
covenant at this very hour. He would have turned us out.
uh... beloved long ago and i think
everybody here would have to testify if you've been saved
for any length of time that due to your fickleness and feebleness
uh... that if sheep of christ could
fall away that your fickle feeble soul would fall alas a thousand
times a day you would be lost and lost forever if you were
dealing with the god of the armenians i know i would be uh... the old
covenant of grace My soul, how wonderful that covenant is, that
it's provided, it's ordered in all things and sure, and it's
not about to be cancelled just because I proved to be what God
knew me to be for all eternity before I was ever born and brought
into this world. God knew I would be a sinner.
He dealt with that in the person of His Son. He gave up on me
before I was ever born and He viewed me and chose me in Christ. He didn't wait to see whether
I'd do any good or evil. He chose me in Christ and He
put me in Him and all of His dealings with me was based on
the beauty and the merit and the comeliness that He would
view and see in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he bypassed
me altogether, except he chose me to be the recipient of the
blessings that a man could have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
then, but despite our backslidings and our unbelief, our God has
been of one mind, and I know that he is not going to turn
about and change the basis upon which he deals with his people. He's a God of purpose, and he
works all things after the counsel of his own will. And brother,
sister, I know this, that though we shall wander still, though
in dark hours you and I may slip and fall just as we have in the
past, yet his loving kindness will not change. It will not
change. His strong arm will bear us up.
His loving heart will never fail. He'll never turn His love away
from us, but having begun the good work, He will complete that
work in the triumphs of His grace. Nothing shall make our God change
his mind. Our God is immutable. What a
joy this is then to our minds today. Our minds change as often. Mike spoke of that in his prayer
this morning. Every day we somehow or other
have a different view of things and we feel differently about
things. We change our minds. Our experience
vary like the wind. One day it'll blow from the west,
some from the south, next day from the north. That's the way
our minds operate. And if salvation would be the
result of our purpose, certainly it would never be effective.
It would never be effective. But since it is God's work to
save, and He's the one mind, we'll revel in the thought that
He will keep us to the end till on glory's summit We shall sing
of that fixed purpose and that immutable love which never turned
aside until the deed of grace was triumphantly achieved. God is a God of purpose. Now then, beloved, I think that
probably if you were able to simulate what we've talked about
already this morning, that probably your minds are spinning. if you
could assimilate all of that then i think that you would probably
say uh... there's been a whole lot said
already but i want to talk with just a little bit more about
who can turn him you know he's of one mind and he said who can
turn him who can turn him well while god is immutable from within
i want to say this that he's immovable from without who can
turn him, who can come up against God and turn him about? Who can do that? Well, we read
a story over in the book of Numbers, I won't have you to turn there,
I'll just talk to you a little bit about the story in chapters
22, 23, and 24. There's a picture that is presented
to us by Moses over there. He talks about the children of
Israel, how they were encamped in the plains of Moab. And the
scripture says they were like trees that the Lord had planted,
and as cedar trees besides the waters were their tents. Quietly
and calmly they were resting in the valley, the tabernacle
of the Lord in their midst, pillars of cloud spread over them as
a shield. But on the mountain there were
two men, Balak the son of Zipporah, king of the Moabites, and Balaam,
the prophet. Here's these two men on the mountain,
and Israel is encamped in the valley, blessed of God, tabernacle
of God in their midst, pillar of clouds spread over them as
a shield. And they had built seven altars.
These two men had offered seven bullets, and Balak said unto
Balaam, I want you to curse! Curse me, Jacob! Come and defy
Israel!" Four times the prophet took his parable, and four times
he used his enchantments, offering the sacrifice of God on the altars
of Baal, and four times he vainly attempted a false divination. But the mind of God is brought
out in deep character here. Balaam is brought to confess
his own impotence. How shall I curse who God hath
not cursed? He said, or he asked, how shall
I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? Behold, he says, I received
commandment to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse
it. Blessed is he that blesseth thee,
and cursed is he that curseth thee. There is no enchantment
against Jacob, no divination against Israel, Balaam says. Now, picture in your mind all
your enemies, and especially Satan. Now I hope you got the
story. Here you have Israel in Captain
of the Valley and these two men up there and one of them has
been offered this and that in order that he would curse the
Israelites and he couldn't do it. He wasn't able. He wasn't
able to do it. There was no way that God was
going to curse that people because God had purposed to bless them
and no one could turn God from it. He purposed to bless them
and he would bless them. Now picture in your mind all
your enemies and especially Satan. He comes before God today with
your sins and he desires that he may curse the Israel of God,
the Church of God, the people of God. But he has found a thousand
times that there is no enchantment against God's people nor divination
against Israel. Satan is not able to curse you
even though he might want to, he would desire to, he's not
able. You know, he took David into
the sin of lust and he found that God would not curse him
there. God would not curse David there even though he had been
led down this path then had fallen. God would not curse him but blessed
him with chastisement and blessed him with a deep repentance. God has a purpose and he will
not be turned. He took Peter into the sin of
denying the Lord Jesus and he did deny him with oaths and curses
but the Lord would not curse him even there. but turned and
looked on Peter with a look of love that made him go out and
weep bitterly the Lord would not be turned this is a child
of God and God will not be turned away from them and then in the
8th chapter of John there was a woman that were told that she
was taken in adultery in the very act surely the Lord would
condemn her to hell and curse her here. Surely the curse of
God would be upon her here. But he said, woman, where are
thine accusers? He said, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. Now, beloved,
the devil has oftentimes taken you and me into unbelief, into
a place where we were so desperately tried that we doubted God. and we felt there was no foundation
any longer under our feet that we had doubted the Lord. Satan
said, surely, surely God will curse them now. God will leave
them now. God will abandon them there.
Look at them. Look at them in their unbelief
and their murmuring and their complaining. Look at them in
their fickleness. Look at them as they stand in
such, while they're as weak as water. Surely God will curse
them then, but never once has God ever done it. Never once
has God been turned away from His people. He has not cursed
us, nor will He. Satan cannot turn God's mind
against us. Did you hear that? Satan cannot
turn God's mind against us. Who can turn Him? Job said. Who can turn Him? God's of one
mind. You can't turn him away from
his purpose. He's got a purpose and you can't
turn him away. Now men's minds are sometimes
turned by advice or counsel, but who can advise God? Who can
advise God? Who shall counsel the most high
to cast off the darlings of his bosom or persuade the Savior
to reject his bride? Who's going to do that? amidst
all our sins and care and woe, His Spirit will not let us go,
the poet said. His Spirit will not let us go. Now the Lord will not forsake
His people for His great namesake, because He'll please the Lord
to make you His people. He is of one mind, and who can
turn Him? Now when weakness, trials, and
troubles come, temptations, and the onslaught of hell, hold your
hand on this text. Who can turn Him? come earth,
come hell, come on! For who can turn Him? Who can
turn Him and cause Him to give up on us? Who can do it? Nobody. Nobody can cause God to give
up on His purpose. He ain't gonna do it. Because
He works all things after the counsel of His own will. He's
God Almighty and He can accomplish what He set out to accomplish.
And since He cannot be changed, My soul must and will rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. We will rejoice in
the God of sovereign grace and the God of sovereign purpose. We'll rejoice in our God. Well, it's my joy to be able
to speak to you of this God. I hope this morning that in some
way we've been able to encourage you to some degree and that you'll
be able to take these verses that we read from the word of
God and that you'll be able to stash them away in your hearts
memorize them and whenever you are tempted to believe that God's
given up on you and I know the feeling I know the feeling it's
it's a feeling like that that there was absolutely nothing
under you that you were just on your own, and that your sins
had caught up with you, your weaknesses had got the best of
you, your frailties had done you in, and that there was nothing,
nothing you could do about it. Hopelessly lost, nowhere to turn,
no place to turn. And when you did turn, you felt
that the ear of God was shut up, and that there was no hope
for you. Beloved you must at that time
believe the word of God you must believe what God said the mouth
of the Lord hath spoken it and God said I He said this I'm of
one mind. No one can turn me what my soul
desires That's what I'm going to do. That's what my what my
soul desires That's what I'll do and he's a God that just works
all things after the counsel of his will and so he'll seize
people for And I know the Canaanites are still in the land. I know
they are. I know that I'm going to be, you know, I've been working
on this human nature thing for a long time. And I've struggled
hard. I've struggled hard. People talk
about war and against the flesh and against the devil. War and
against the flesh. And, you know, we struggle hard
against it. And we feel we've lost the battle.
most of us feel we've lost the bat we haven't gained much crap
i don't think we gained a lot of crap i wouldn't uh... if the lord said that you will
have to be as perfect as i am to get into heaven and he come
to me so you ready to go well you've been at this now for forty
some years are you ready to go and i have to say lord i'm not
much more ready than what i was when you start i feel like i
just i'd just be like that i i haven't even hardly got a start yet am
i supposed to be near me you see if it's not the sovereign
grace of god if it's not all of grace if dot that is the issue
if he doesn't bring us, if he's not born us from the womb, carried
us from the time of our being brought into this world, and
if he doesn't carry us home, then of course we'll not make
it, none of us. But glory be to God that the
free grace of God takes us all the way. He takes us all the
way. He will not leave us at any place. God will not be turned away from
his purpose. May the Lord bless you And may,
when you read the Bible, may from now on you keep this in
mind that the God that you worship and serve is a God of purpose. A God of purpose. And if you
keep that in mind, it'll just help you a whole lot in solving
a lot of the problems and the issues of the assurance of your
soul. And it'll solve a lot of problems
concerning faith for you if you'll just believe what the Scripture
says. that the God of the Bible is a God of purpose. Let us pray. Father, in the name of Jesus,
we thank you today for your word, your holy word, and even though
we stumbled and even though we were not able to present this
as we would like to have presented it, we just commit it to your
hand. Use it for thy glory. May some
poor soul here just get a hold, just get a hand hold today, and
a heart hold and be able to overcome in their hearts. Forgive us of
our discouragements. Forgive us, Lord, for being cast
down. Forgive us, Lord, of being in
any way, in our hearts, reluctant to present and to stand on, thus
saith the Lord. Grant us, our Father, that we
may be encouraged. You only know how to encourage
And we just ask that you might be pleased, Lord, to give us
some encouragement and bless us. We thank you for your word
and what an encouragement it is to our poor hearts. Many burdens
upon our hearts, many desires. And we ask that you may be pleased
to grant them according to your good will. In Jesus' name we
pray, amen.