Let's take our Bibles and look at another man that followed the steps of his father and his grandfather as we look at the life of Uzziah. Uzziah in 2 Chronicles chapter 26 tonight, 2 Chronicles chapter 26. It's interesting, we see that these three men, of course, after Athaliah, who nearly wiped out the throne, and it was down to a six-year-old boy, And we see that Joash started reigning when he was seven years old, and he reigned for 40 years. And even though he reigned for 40 years, he died at a very early age. But then we have Amaziah, his son reigned for another 29 years. And both those men, if you remember Joash, he was a great king. as long as Jehoiada was alive. But then he kind of dropped off at the end, and he got into idolatry and all the rest. Well, then we have Amaziah, and God blessed him early in his ministry, and he did that which was right in the Lord's eyes. And he reigned for 29 years, but then he got kind of a big head on him toward the end of his life. And again, God chastened. And now we have the third king. Now this is 121 years of kings. This is, I mean, three kings. Can you imagine having three presidents from 1900 to 2020? just think about that rather than every four years it would be kind of good to have a little break in this. But at the same time 40 years is kind of a long time. But we see that Uzziah is going to reign another 52 years. And so we see that God blesses him. Notice in chapter 26 And we begin in verse 1, Now all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. And he built Eilath and restored it to Judah, which was that border between Israel and Judah. It's out on the trade route closer to the Mediterranean Sea. And he restored it to Judah and the king rested with his fathers. And Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king and he reigned 52 years. That's a half a century. That would be like from 1970 until now. That would be quite a ring. His mother's name was Jechaliah of Jerusalem. Again, we see that when the kings start out well at least, or when the good kings, or the ones who start off as good kings, they usually have mother's names. who are Jewish or who are Hebrew names. The ones who, the names you're not sure of or that are obviously not Jewish names or well, we can't call, well, they weren't Jewish. There was no Jews before the captivity. The word Jew was used after the captivity. It was a shortened form of Judah. So we'd have to call these Hebrews. But they were Hebrew. who, in those big harems and everything, they were godly, and they would raise their kids up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So it shows you a lot of power behind the throne that the women had simply by being a mother. And it shows you a lot of influence of mothers in spite of, can you imagine living in a harem? I mean, we've talked about that before. But at the same time, being a godly mother in a harem, That would be very difficult. That would be one of the most difficult positions in the world to be a godly mother, wouldn't it? And even a good harem. And we see that it happened over and over again, and that this mother raised a child who feared God. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. And he sought the days, he sought God in the days of Zechariah. Now here's another, we don't know which Zechariah this was, only known to Ezra, who's writing here. And we see that the power, there again, two powers behind the throne, the mother and then also the prophet. The prophet was always the mentor, the one that was trying to get the king to listen to what God had to say. He said he had understanding, so he sought God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding and the visions of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. I love that. Just keep underlining those things all the way through that Ezra tells us about these kings. It was always God that brought them along. God raised them up. And God blessed them according to their desire to serve Him. And so now he went out and made war with the Philistines and broke down the Wall of Gath, one of the five major cities of the Philippines. Goliath was from. The Wall of Jebna and the Wall of Ashdod that is another one of the big cities. Jebna was the smaller but the five major cities of the Philistines down to the southwest of Judah along that trade route to Egypt. And so we see that He conquered them among the Philistines. And notice again God helped Him against the Philistines. The confusion and the haze of war, and yet we see so many times that God is the one who brings, and always God is the one who declares, who destines victory or defeat. And against the Arabians, that would be to the east over closer to the Dead Sea. He lived, who lived in Gaol Baal, we're not sure exactly where that is. Also the Ammonites, which are on the east side of the Dead Sea now, brought tribute to Uzziah. His fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt. So now he's conquered that whole land down to Egypt. For he became exceedingly strong. So we see that he gets the Ammonites back into his realm. And remember, there was two major highways. You had the Via Marias that came down from Europe to Egypt on the west side. Via Marias means by the sea, which were by the Mediterranean Sea. And so he captured two of the major cities on the trade route that would exact tribute, and that would be Ashdod and Gath. And then on the east side, we see that the Ammonites bought him tribute because they controlled the king's highway. It went right through their property. right through their borders. And so all the tribute that came from there, the king told them, hey, listen, we want part of it. And so we see that they started restoring their money again. How many times have we seen that they've been raided? Other people have come in and taken everything they've had several times now since even back before the days of Athaliah. And so we see that they get wiped out about every 20 or 30 years with other people coming in and taking all the king's treasures and the gold of the temple and everything else. So we see that it has been restored again. And Uzziah, notice in verse 9, and Uzziah built walls in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and the valley gate, and the corner buttress of the wall, and he fortified them. Also, he built towers in the desert. Now, it's interesting, these towers. This is something now that we see that comes on the archaeological records. and so forth, that these can be verified. It was one thing to have walls, but now we see that they're building towers up on those walls, first of all, so you can shoot the arrows down at a greater distance or whatever. And then, of course, you have a greater sweep whenever people get closer to the walls. And also we'll see, as we read here, that by this time catapults are coming into being. And this is something that goes right along with history. so forth, and so we could see that he's a modern king, and he's learning the modern ways of doing things, and those big towers that now came up above the wall, first of all, they're good observation decks, and secondly, they're a good way of extending your range with the enemy. And so this was something new that he, Uzziah, had done. Also, he built towers in the desert. That's one of those interesting things. Verse 10, again, archeological digs have found their towers out in the desert. Now, what that would do would be give you observation posts. And you can see for miles, especially down south of Jerusalem, Dominic would know more about that than I would because he's been over there. And then out on those plains that are on the west side of Israel. between on the west side of Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea. And you have that coastal plain there, which is just now the citrus basket of Europe now. just what they're producing, and that little piece of land of Israel today is feeding Europe. They're competing on a world stage agriculturally, and they don't even have a land mass as big as New Jersey. It's amazing what Israel's doing, but it's always been like that. They've had just abundance of agriculture. And we see that what he did, what Uzziah did, he put big old observation posts out there. And then again, you put enough men up those towers and you could protect a lot of fields with arrows. And so he had ways of taking care of the raiding parties and all kinds of things. Now, of course, it wouldn't take care of an army coming through, but he could take care of all those raiding parties that were coming down from Syria. Remember how many times we read about that and with Jehu and all those people and those raiders that would come into the land and so forth? Well, he had a way of taking care of that. And then they prospered greatly as a result of it. And then not only with the towers would that be a way of protecting land for miles around or acres around anyway, but it was also a great way of relaying messages from one to another. And you could tell from hundreds of miles away that an army's coming or whatever else. And so this is a great defensive network now that Uzziah has set up. And notice he dug many wells we see also in verse 10. He built towers in the desert and he dug many wells for he had much livestock both in the lowlands and in the plains. He wanted to protect that from all those Philistine people and others that would try to raid it. For he had farmers and vine dressers in the mountains of Carmel. For he loved the soil. He loved farming. He loved the idea of getting out and working with the farmers and producing that. And you can imagine, not only the tribute that would come through as a result of the trade routes, but they were probably feeding a lot of the Middle East at this time. and sending food all the way to Spain. We know the grain ships and so forth that came into being. And this is one thing that Solomon, back in his days, had tried to work with those ships around. We know that they brought spices and everything all the way from India. So we see that the grain routes and the trade routes, nothing new. I mean, we didn't develop those in the 20th century. No, they've been around for quite a while. And so we see that he's really prospering and becoming an international king. Moreover, Uzziah had an army of fighting men. who went out to war by companies according to the number of the roll that was prepared by jail. Notice he's a good old scribe Ezra. He remembers all the people and he even knows the scrolls that he still has. He mentions the person who wrote them. This has been several hundred years before he wrote the book of 2 Chronicles. And notice he talks about the officers And Hananiah, one of the king's captains, the totaled chief officers of the mighty men was 2,600. Now, what we see is that he has an army about the same size as Amaziah. Remember, Amaziah's army was only about 300,000 as compared to Jehoshaphat's army before all those raiding parties and defeats and everything of almost a million. So we see that he's still got the army, but he's really tightened it up, and he's made it into a major fighting force. So he tells us, and under their authority, was an army of 307,500 men, so 7,500 more men than his father had had. And they made war with mighty power to help the king against the enemy. Then Uzziah prepared for him, for the entire army, shields and spears. So he equipped them, helmets and bows and arrows, sling and slings to cast stones. There's the catapults. And so they made these things. And he made devices in Jerusalem invented by skillful men to be on the towers and corners to shoot arrows and large stones. Well, there's the catapults. The other sling could have been just slings. But there we see large stones. So his fame spread far and wide, and he was marvelously helped until he became strong. And so we see that One of the reasons now after this it's harder, Jerusalem remember the walls had been broken down a couple of times. But now after old Uzziah comes in it's a lot harder to break down those walls. And even Sennacherib couldn't break down those walls with 186,000 men. And it would take another 100 years before before Nebuchadnezzar did. So here we see now that Jerusalem is really modernized. The walls are well protected, and you're not going to break them down very easily. And so this is something that Uzziah did. He was a very mighty king. And so his fame spread. And what do you think they were saying? don't mess with Uzziah. Basically, don't raid him because he has ways of getting your back or he's well protected. So his fame went out. But notice there again, there's that big conjunction, negative conjunction word, but. But when he was strong, But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction." Isn't that interesting? Pride goeth before a fall. His heart was lifted up to his destruction. For he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering into the temple of the Lord to burn incense at the altar of incense. What makes it that a king decides that he can think he can do whatever he wants to? Now this is a king now that had absolute power, except no king in Israel ever had absolute power, because they were always under the authority of God. therefore God put over them. When the priests failed back in Eli's day, he created a whole new office called the prophet, and the prophet would stand before the king and blast him off his throne at times, you know? And so here we see that this king decided that he got tired of Elazariah. He got tired of other people telling him what to do. After all, I'm the king, and I'll worship God the way I want to. And I've said many times, we worship God the way he wants us to worship him, or we don't worship God at all. We're worshiping somebody else. Well, you worship God the way you see fit. No, you worship God the way he sees fit. Amen? When we come to God, just as I am without one plea. Well, we can express ourselves through this or the next thing. No, you express God and you come to Him in a holy manner and in a submissive manner. And you just don't... There was a group, boy you have all kinds of groups out there today, but they are going to worship God by dancing in the aisles and having all kinds of other things and you can imagine once you start doing that you're getting into all kinds of sensuality and everything else, the choreographed meetings and all the stuff that they're trying to do. Folks, sooner or later it ceases to be worship. And God's not pleased with those who come to Him their way. We come to God His way. And so we see that God doesn't need entertainment. He created entertainment. God doesn't need shouting, although we can shout at times, but He loves those with a meek and quiet spirit. But so we see that he went to the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. That was the priest's job. move out of the way, I'm gonna worship God. And you can imagine he had been around some of these false kings like his father had been around, or these false religions, and all of a sudden he wanted to start doing things his way. After all, he might have seen another king who just, as a result of being the king, people worshipped him as God. I mean, this is the time, you know, when Ramses and all this, and Egypt, they were worshipped as king, as God. And so he said, wait a minute, I want to get up there pretty high like the rest of the kings around. Well, you don't know, but we don't know what went through his heart. But whatever it was, he didn't want to follow the rules anymore, as God had said. So Azariah, the priest, went in after him and with him. Remember, this would have been to the outer court, excuse me, this would have been to the inner court, not the Holy of Holies, where they would have been at the Altar of Incense. And only the priests were to go in there, and then the holies once a year from the high priest. But just like Saul did. Remember what Saul did? And what did Samuel call that? Rebellion. And so, and Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him were 80 priests of the Lord. Boy, talking about a power struggle here. These guys' confrontation, they confronted him. They were priests of the Lord, and notice how Ezra says it, he was a priest, saying, valiant men. I like Ezra's take on that. Valiant priests. Priests weren't warriors. Priests didn't have swords and all that. No, they were valiant men. They were willing to die for their office. And so we see that, and they withstood King Uzziah, and said to him, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed. You shall have no honor from the Lord. That's pretty strong languages to a king. But here they are telling him, hey listen, you don't have a total monarchy. You're still under the direction of the Lord, and He has limited your power, especially when it comes to worship. You could worship with us, But you can't worship for us. You can't be the priests. And so we see that they're laying it out and they're willing to die for it. That tells us that there were still some pretty strong priests at this time. And this would be back about 150 years before Nebuchadnezzar came along. So they've got about another century and a half. before the country goes downhill, or before it is destroyed. And so we see that there are still some very strong people that are willing to give their lives for the Lord, much unlike northern Israel whose their priests have sold out and everything else. And so they have been bought by the king. But now in verse 19, Then Uzziah became very furious, and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, And okay, so here he is. I wonder what he did. Did he dress up like a priest or whatever? And he was angry with the priest and leprosy broke out. And so he got mad, but notice he didn't kill him. I wonder what was going through his mind at the time, he hesitated. But while he had that censer in his hand, everybody saw leprosy, that whiteness that came upon his hand. It broke out, excuse me, it broke out on his forehead before the priest in the house of the Lord beside the incense altar. And Azariah, the chief priest and all the priests looked at him and there on his forehead was leprosy. So they thrust him out of the place. Now that's one time that we don't, you don't touch a king. You don't touch any, whenever I remember reading about Princess Diana when she'd come to the United States, and of course she was very famous and all that. If you were invited to be in a room with her, they would give you a list of things that you could and couldn't do. You didn't to her unless she talked to you, and you by no means touched her. If you touched her, it would be like the British burning our flag. I mean, you just didn't desecrate the queen or any of the subjects. And so, same way with the Queen of England, she comes over today. Now, Nancy Reagan got in a problem because she kind of gave her a small curtsy to the queen back then, and Americans don't curtsy or bow to anybody. So, you know, there are certain things that we don't do. But there's a whole protocol there that goes into being a king or queen. And some of the safety things, you don't want people touching the king because you don't know what they got in their hand or whatever else or how they could poison them or whatever. So but here they thrust him out. They picked him up and threw him out. So we see that he had broken protocol. And so they broke protocol, too. And so we see that Ezra, the chief priest looked at him and they found it and they And notice they thrust him out of the place. Indeed, he also hurt out because the Lord had struck him. So how much of it was they pushed him and threw him? And how much was it that he said, oh, man, I got to get out of here. And so, I mean, this was a very embarrassing moment. It was a very scary moment, too, because nobody wanted to see leprosy. I mean, that was a death knell, especially if it's on your forehead and hands and so forth. And so Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. Marked man, quarantined. Because we see that he dwelt in an isolated house because he was a leper. They took him out of the palace and they put him off in an isolated house. And we're talking about limiting his abilities to even travel. He couldn't even go visit his farms anymore. And so he dwelled in the isolated house because he was a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. Then Jotham, his son, was over the king's house judging the people. So there was a co-regency there. So even though he reigned 51 years, it wasn't totally by himself. Now the rest of the Acts of Uzziah from first to last, the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos wrote, so Uzziah rested with his fathers and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial. Remember the burial again, it matters greatly where you're buried. And this king was buried not with his fathers, but off to the side because of his leprosy. And again, that's a desecration or a horrible sacrifice of honor to be buried away from your father as being kings. And they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial, which belonged to the kings, but not in his leprosy. Then Jotham reigned in his stead. Now what was the state of Israel? And what was going on now? We see Isaiah is mentioned. And here these prophets come to form. Isaiah becomes a major prophet at this time. And then also we know that Hosea and Amos who were prophets to the northern 10 tribes were prophets at this time. But let's just turn over and see the spiritual condition of Israel and how that it's going downhill. There were still many good people there. God wasn't destroying it yet. But the populace now is getting harder and harder. And turn over with me over to Isaiah chapter six. Many of you know the beginning of that chapter. In the year that King Uzziah died, that's how it all begins. where that famous vision that Isaiah has, Isaiah chapter six. We see in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple, and above it stood the cherubim, and of course, that great passage there that we have of Isaiah being called, and he's saying, Lord, here am I, send me. And of course, that's in verse, where he says, who will go? And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and whom will go for us? Then I said, here am I, Lord, send me. And he said, go and tell this people. And he says, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not. And in other words, they have a spiritual blindness. They can hear some great preaching. You wouldn't find a more eloquent preacher than Isaiah, but by today's standards, he was a failure because he never became a popular preacher and he never had the people on his side. He never had a great following because the people's hearts were cold, even at this time. And notice he says, make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy. It cuts to a point whenever a person rejects God so much that all good preaching does is getting more and more resistant to God. That is a scary thing where to be. Where you're so used to rejecting God that whenever a preacher preaches, it just makes you harder. And when a country is like that, it's in bad shape. You and I know people like that. I've heard preachers preach at times. Man, I'm thinking this person that I've been dealing with or whatever, they happen to be there. I think, man, Lord, thank you for bringing this man in. And he's preaching just exactly what I've been trying to preach and get through. My Lord, the person that I've been praying for, they're sitting back there, and I don't pray, and I never tell a preacher to pray. I don't say, okay, Lord, there's old Dan back there, and I'm gonna tell this preacher exactly what Dan needs, and I hope he hits Dan with both barrels. I never do that. That's not fair to Dan, for one thing. And so I never tell any pastor or any evangelist what to preach when they get here, as far as, I mean, I might say, okay, we're gonna have a prophecy conference or something like that, or something, but I'll never say, you know, Dan really needs it, or boy, I got a problem here, and this is the person you need to put, no, you can't do that. You got to let the Holy Spirit work. It's just not ethical to do that. Now, I might mention we got sin, which I never had to do, but we got problems. Usually the problems are more personal, like I've got people that are really hurting or whatever, you know, or people that are wondering where their next job is going to be, whatever, you know, but never anything where, boy, the Lord just hit them. But it's interesting because when I'm praying that, there will be people, you know, that person that I'm really thinking is getting it, but they're resisting God. It just makes them harder. If anything, mad, but we usually, I meet him at the door or whatever, and I say, good, you know, it's good to be here, preacher, you know, and how people can just brush off and leave. But then the people that you really, that really have a sensitivity to God, they're, and you're not thinking they have any problems, you know, or very few, and they're the ones that their hearts are broken, and God is speaking to them, and all kinds of things are working in their heart. You know, that's where revival comes from, you know? And so it's interesting how that God deals with people in different ways. But it's a very unfortunate thing. You know, Billy Graham is not my, You know, he's not, well, he's not our stripe, or whatever you want to call it. He compromised too much in his later ministry, and he let a lot of people in that shouldn't have been in there. But in his early days, he was a good old half-iron brimstone preacher, and that's what got him to, you know, to be a national preacher. But I don't think people would put up with Billy Graham today, the way he originally preached. I don't think people, he would not become a famous man. He'd probably be shot. You think about it. And so, and there's a lot of good preachers still out there. A lot of, there's a lot of good Bible teaching and preaching that is going on in our country today. But guess what? People aren't showing up to hear. People don't, they've got all kinds of reasons not to be. And when they do hear, oh, I've heard that before or whatever else. And here you have Isaiah, one of the best preachers in all of history. I mean, you can't, they call him the prince of the prophets because, I mean, he was, I mean, just how many people we quote, and there's so many little phrases that we use from Isaiah because of the beauty of his language than any other prophet. The greatest preacher. And yet God says, hey, listen, when you preach, he says, you're gonna make this heart, the people, the heart of this people dull. Wait a minute, Lord, you're predicting my failure. That's a hard one. He says, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered, and here's the prophecy. Doom is coming. until the cities are laid waste and without habitation. The houses are without a man. The land is utterly desolate. The Lord has removed men far away and forsaken places of many in the midst of the land." That's saying, I've already got it planned. Nebuchadnezzar is coming. Nebuchadnezzar is not even born yet. And God is saying, yes, and they're going to be taken far away, as opposed to northern Israel, which was going to be scattered to the four corners of the world. Nobody would even know their identity anymore. Judah and the rest of the tribes that were down in Judah, they're going to be taken to a land far away. They are going to be put in little enclaves where they preserve their identity until they return. The Lord already had it planned. 150 years before it ever happened. This is about the year 1739, and it wouldn't happen until 586 B.C., totally. when Judah was totally wiped out. So it was about 100 and what, 150 years, round number. And so we see the Lord says that, and they will shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes. And he says, he said, Lord, how long? In verse 11, and he answered, until their cities be burned. And then in verse 13, but a tenth will be in it. and will return and be for consuming, and the timber of the tree as an oak, whose stump remains when it is cut down. And the holy seed shall be its stump." So the Lord is saying, yeah, I'm not gonna uproot them like I did the northern Israel, but I'm gonna cut them down to the stump. But guess what? The stump's gonna sprout again. 70 years afterwards, of course, we know that Daniel comes along, that Jeremiah comes along and says how long that's gonna be. And Daniel's the one who reads Jeremiah and says, oh, so it's time to go back to Jerusalem. So we see that God already had it all planned 150 years in advance. What was gonna happen? Nothing escapes God's planning. Even though, and the thing about the people thought they were rebelling against God, but God says, you're doing, you're just playing into my hands. When we reject God, God still uses us. Didn't God use these people? I mean, not that he wanted to use them that way, since they decided we're gonna go this route, God says, go ahead. But I've got different plans for this nation now because of this. In the same way, God doesn't say, okay, this person has left Calvary Baptist Church, they don't come anywhere, and I don't know what they're gonna do. God's not like that. God already knows what they're gonna do. I don't know exactly how or what, how many data he doesn't make, what's the providence of God and the free will of man. I don't understand all that, but I do know that God is gonna work and God has a plan for our lives, whether it's positive or negatively. And I want God's positive plan for my life, don't you? I don't want God to say, you know, I can't use that pastor anymore as a pastor, but I can still use him. And I could use him to be whatever. So whatever, but you know, we see that God can, will use people because he's the ruler of the universe. But all I want to be able to, I want to be like Isaiah and a lot of people, thousands of people, the salt was still there. And God was, we preserved Judah until it got to the point where there was no salt left or very little salt left. And we see that even though we see these things, three straight kings, three kings, 125 years, started off great, fell into sin, started off great, fell into sin. And yet we see that God kept bringing them back because there were still people like these priests and others that loved the Lord. Is God preserving this country? And God using, and he's not allowing forces that be that would love to destroy this country. And folks, there are people inside this country as well as outside this country that want to destroy. They would be nothing more happy than to have this country totally destroyed. That's scary whenever you see that. And we've got people, well, we don't wanna get too, I don't wanna get political, but it scares me to see the vengeance and the hatred and the strife that are on our streets today. and in our universities, and in our government, and in our schools, and all the rest. And yet, then we got the outside forces that want to destroy us. And yet, who's preserving us? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. God is saying, I've still got a purpose for Calvary Baptist Church. Still got a purpose for this country. And oh Lord, that you would fulfill that purpose in us. If you're preserving this country until we win the last soul to you before you come, then Lord, help us to do your job. But we see that Isaiah saw the Lord right at the time that Uzziah died. And the Lord told Isaiah, don't worry about it, Isaiah. And by the way, whenever a king rules for 50-something years, then it always, when the king is dead, the people don't want to do it, because most of them have grown up, and most of the people are going to be under 50, so they don't even know what another king is like. That was a big thing that so many of the Depression kids that are now up in their 80s and 90s, their formative years, they knew no other president besides President Roosevelt. You think about it. And then all of a sudden, things changed later, and it was a real unsettling time for them. And of course, it was only, what, 14 years or something, 12 to 14 years. And so we see that things are changing, and yet the Lord tells Isaiah, I'm still on the throne, Isaiah. I'm still lifted up, and nothing escapes my authority. And folks, guess what? God's still on the throne, and he's still lifted up. and he still knows what he's doing. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you that you bless us through your word and through the revelation you give us. Lord, we pray that you would help us to withstand this evil day. Lord, that we would stand against the forces of evil and having done all to stand, standing in righteousness and love And Lord, we pray that you would help us to reach a lost and dying and hardened world. We realize that men are waxing worse and worse. We realize, Lord, that hearts are becoming harder and harder. And yet, Lord, we know that where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. So you've left us here for a purpose. And Lord, we pray that we would fulfill that purpose. Lord, add to our numbers such as should be saved. and who want to walk with you. Oh, bless your people, Lord. May we be that salt that preserves. And Lord, not that we, when you prosper us, and you have prospered us, and we pray for even greater prosperity, but Lord, may we never get so prosperous that we would leave you. Bless your people, we pray now, in Jesus' name, amen.