beginning in Matthew chapter 4 verse 23. And this is the Lord's Word. Jesus was going throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. The news about him spread throughout all Syria and they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them. Large crowds followed him from Galilee, and the Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And after he sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Amen. Please be seated. Again, Lord, we thank you for your word and pray now that you would cause its being preached to be received with hearts that are alive. And we pray, O Lord, that you would have your perfect way with us. Again, as we have prayed, our hands are empty. We come to you again, O Father, asking that you fill them, that you would fill them with all that is necessary, that we might enjoy you and serve you all of our days. Thank you again for this congregation and for the privilege of bringing your word to them. Give them ears to hear. And please give utterance to this preacher, I pray in Christ's name. Amen. This morning, we begin to open up the Sermon on the Mount. That's chapters five through seven in the book of Matthew. It is a sermon that shows us what a citizen of God's kingdom looks like, what they are in disposition and what they are in practice. Matthew Henry stated this, that the scope of the sermon is not to fill our heads with notions, but to guide and regulate our practice. The sermon, which is demanding and exacting, deals with, first of all, the disposition and attitude of the Lord's people, what we're supposed to be like in this world. And so as we approach the Sermon on the Mount, we will be discussing what it means to be poor in spirit, and mournful, gentle, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and are merciful. You see, the Christian is otherworldly, and thus we are persecuted because we are otherworldly. It doesn't sound much like what we hear of Christianity today, does it? Those who are poor in spirit and mournful and gentle, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are merciful and who are persecuted, maybe in other parts of the world, I think sometimes we have to ask ourselves, why doesn't the church in the United States suffer persecution like other places? So it deals with the disposition and attitude of the Christian, but also it deals with how we are supposed to live. The Christian is supposed to be salt and light. He's called to live in such a manner as to cause the world to glorify our Father who is in heaven. not to live like the scribes and Pharisees of that day, whose standards were the traditions of men elevated to the level of God's commandments, but to live with a true piety, a true holiness, obeying the Lord with all of our heart, not in some cold, rote performance, And so Jesus would deal with the subjects of divorce, and murder, and adultery, and vows, and retribution, and enemies, prayer, and fasting, and money, and anxiety, and how a Christian is supposed to justly judge matters, and what his deeds are supposed to be. These are what describe what a true believer is and how a true believer is to live his life before his king. The series of sermons on the Sermon on the Mount may make us, and this is full disclosure to you, it may make you feel badly. It may make you feel very uncomfortable. And I want to, I really want to walk alongside of this congregation. You know that as I study these things, and as I'm preparing these sermons, I don't get off the hook. It is first preached to me before I preach it to you. And I know that there's a dozen other churches you might be tempted to flee to once we get into this Sermon on the Mount. I'm fully aware that Americans really do love their comfort. And one of the first places we demonstrate that we love comfort is that we stop coming to church, and especially we stop sitting under a guy who feels like every time I walk in the door, he punches me in the stomach. It is never my goal to punch anyone in the stomach. No, really, I'm not kidding. The temptation is great to say, this guy never says anything to me that feels pleasant. You should pray for me that I will preach the word in love and that I would preach the word faithfully. That's the biggest concern. It's where Satan's got a foothold in the church. It's just too easy to run somewhere else where I can get in and get out and nobody notices me and I can get on with my day and I can feel good about the fact that I checked a box and went to church. I hope none of you will do that. I genuinely hope none of you will do that. But I have to be realistic. The Sermon on the Mount is probably not going to be the most popular series of sermons I've ever preached, just because of the subject matter. You may end up saying and questioning whether or not you are a Christian. And perhaps some of you should question that, and you'll see why. I don't say this to make you feel badly, but because it is in keeping with the job of caring for the souls of the Lord's people. Would you rather wrestle with this question right now? Do you truly belong to Jesus Christ? Or would you rather hear it said on the day you stand before the Lord, I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. You tell me, which would you rather have? That's what's before us. That's the sermon on the Mount. The sermon is not a different gospel. I want you to understand that. It's heavy with ethics and how the Christian is supposed to live, but it is not preaching a different gospel than what Paul and Galatians had preached. Understand that the Sermon on the Mount is not a prescription, hear me, it is not a prescription for how a person is saved from the day of judgment. It is not a prescription for how a person is saved from the day of judgment. Rather, it is a description of the man who belongs to Jesus Christ. It is a description of the man that has been blessed by God. It is not a prescription, i.e., do these things and you'll get into heaven, but rather it is a description of the one who has been saved by Christ. this man walks then according to the way that his Savior instructs. Paul would say it like this, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. You hear what the Apostle Paul says? He's saying just what I have just told you. Be imitators of God as beloved children. Walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us in offering in a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. In other words, be what you are. Be what you are. Are you in Christ? Has he washed your sins away? Be what you are then. He saved you. He has delivered you. Now walk wholeheartedly before your God and serve him with all of your heart. I think, too, this series will be challenging for us because of the American mindset with which we have all been influenced. That mindset I would describe as what is described in the book of Judges, that everyone does what is right in his own eyes. It's a mindset that relativistic mindset which states what is right for me is right for me and whatever is right for you is right for you. As people in the United States, as people filling the churches of the Lord, we resist and we are resentful, generally speaking, we are resentful of being told what to do. Who does this guy think he is telling me what I should be doing? We go over this in Sunday school, I guess we'll just keep saying it, but who was the head of the church? Jesus Christ. And how does Jesus Christ reign over his church? Through officers, pastors, and elders. He puts them in place so that they will tend to his sheep and say, this is the way that we are supposed to go. We resist this, fundamentally we resist this, our nation. We put limitations and boundaries and we bargain with the Lord. We say things or think things like this, and it really sounds ridiculous when you try to put it in the words. If it sounds something like this, I tell you what Jesus, I'll let you be my Savior, but I'm not really comfortable with you as my King. That's in effect what we say. Of course I want to go to heaven. Of course I want you to save me. I just don't want you telling me what to do so much. I'm an American. And I'm a Protestant. So I'm independent and rebellious. And so I like to do what I want to do. Yes, I want enough of you to deliver me from hell's fire. I mean, I really appreciate it. But don't tell me what to do and how to think and what to be. That's a problem in the Lord's Church. And it's a problem in this church. It is. And we would all be deceiving ourselves if we said, oh, we're the exception to this problem. We come out from the, you understand, you're in the world. You're like a glass of water, a filthy glass of water that has been run through a filter, and you're clean. And then we go back out into the world, and the dye of the world influences us. And we come back into the church bringing with us mindsets and attitudes and dispositions that are worldly, but they're not Christian. And so then when the pastor stands up in the pulpit and says, this is what the Lord's word says, we go, I don't like that one. And I don't want to do that one. You see, and that's what makes these things uncomfortable to us. But again, you want to ask yourself now, do I belong to Jesus or do you want to hear on the day of judgment, depart from me, I never knew you. I mean, I look at every Sunday as being the most critical Sunday. Every Sunday, there is a battle that is raging for your souls, and for the souls of your children. What's at stake? Every day, what's at stake? Are we prepared to leave this planet? I'll tell you what, there were 59 people I can almost guarantee were not prepared last Sunday night to leave the planet. And they received a bullet. And they stood in an instant before their creator. And what did he say to them? That could have been any one of us. That could have been any one of us. My greatest concern is that you would be deceived in your thinking that you are the Lord's because of some superficial thing, that you are thinking you are ready for the day of judgment when in fact you are not ready, but are hardened in your self-righteousness, quite content with a half-hearted devotion to Jesus Christ, which, friends, is no devotion at all. In working through this sermon, we will see what a citizen of God's kingdom is, We will see what we are in light of what he says a citizen of the kingdom of heaven is. And I can guarantee you, you will feel squeezed. It's going to make us uncomfortable. And I'm just saying this up front so that you know what you can expect. I don't take pleasure in punching anyone in the stomach. Least of all, I hate being punched in the stomach. But are we going to deal with the Lord's words or are we not going to deal with the Lord's words? Are we going to decide this is not a good passage for us? Just keep preaching the gospel at us and don't hold up a standard of holiness. Is that what we're going to be? Is that what you want? Let me ask you this. Can a church like that, that just listens to pleasantries in our ears, can a church like that impact, will it impact the world around us? I think, friends, what happens there, I think is that grace becomes very cheap, and the cost of discipleship is cast aside, and we go about saying, it doesn't matter how anyone lives. You want to be a homosexual? Be a homosexual. God loves you all. God's good and appeasing to all sorts of sins. Really? Is that true? That's not what my Bible says. That's not what your Bible says, unless you've been ripping pages out of it. We have to listen to what the Lord Jesus says here. We're gonna work through it. We're gonna feel squeezed. And then friends understand, we will run to Jesus Christ. And this is my prayer, that at the end of these three chapters in Matthew, you will feel how good and merciful the Lord has been to the sinner. you will rejoice in the God of your salvation. Because the standard that Jesus Christ holds up here is so lofty and so high, there is no way that you're gonna be able to do it. And it can't but help drive us to the cross. That's what we want. That's what we want. Today we wanna begin, as the bulletin says, verses one through 12. We're gonna make it through one. We want to begin with the context in which the Sermon on the Mount was delivered. And the overarching question here for you, for me, is do we belong to Jesus Christ? Do we belong to Jesus Christ? Verse one, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. This is the context, verse one. I read to us at the beginning of the service or at the beginning of the sermon from chapter 4 verse 23. Let me read these several verses to you, verses 23 through 25 again. He says this, Jesus was going throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogue and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. The news about him spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them. Large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan." So we come to verse 1 of chapter 5, And Matthew records these words when Jesus saw the crowds. When Jesus saw the crowds. It was the seeing of the crowds that moves our Lord to speak as he does this sermon. Who are these crowds? And where did these crowds come from? A huge amount of people. People from all around the region. You can look at the maps later in the back of your Bibles. People from all over the region, from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan, old and young, male and female, Jew and even Gentiles, had come from throughout the region of Syria. People who had heard his teaching and preaching the good news concerning the kingdom of God, which is simply put, that the kingdom of God has come. Jesus Christ has come, the kingdom has come, the power, the reign, the sovereignty of our God over redemption, bringing the blessing of salvation to his people has now come. They have witnessed its power through the healing of every disease, of every kind of sickness among the people, and they were not stupid. The people were not stupid. We're told at the end of chapter seven, he teaches as one having authority, unlike their scribes, and he speaks and the created order responds. Think of that for a moment. Think of that. Every disease, what's the source of disease? Cancer? Cancer cells, he speaks and it goes away. Fractured bones. He doesn't just sort of do it, right? He doesn't restore a man's sight and give him a pair of glasses to complete the job. He doesn't give him a crutch. He heals them. Who can do that? And Jesus is doing these things. He's healing all of these things, brain disorders and demons, the created realm, the seen realm, the unseen realm. Jesus Christ shows himself to be the sovereign Lord over it all. And quite naturally, the masses have and are following him. This is a good thing, right? It is. It's a good thing to follow Jesus Christ. It's a good thing to go where one is preaching truth and where lives are being affected. That's a wonderful thing to have happen. The question is, why are they following Jesus? And I think this is pertinent to us. Why do you follow Jesus? While not completely sure, it would seem that the text leads us to believe It was because of the miracles that he had performed. Remember, when he fed the masses, why did they come to him? Man, we get a free meal here. This is a good thing. We see this phenomenon in our culture. You offer something free and people run there by the droves, right? This is no different than what we are today. Here, Jesus has been doing all of these miracles, preaching and teaching the truth. I'm convinced that they're following Jesus. because he has performed these miracles, and he has brought relief to so many. He has demonstrated what the kingdom means, and that is fundamentally an end to suffering. It is good that they follow him. The question is, is this all that Jesus is concerned about, that is delivering you from pain, physical, mental, and otherwise? In other words, did Jesus Christ come to make us healthy, wealthy, and wise in this life. Secondly, is this the task of the church? To make people healthy, wealthy, and wise. Many would say, or many, I would say, act as if this is the chief end of the church. Make people healthy, wealthy, and wise. It appears that the crowds are coming to Jesus because he is something akin to a Santa Claus. He's able to give them what they have needed and wanted, yet they don't know what they truly need. This is so much a part of our culture today. So many want a piece of Jesus and they're his followers because of what they think he is there to do. To heal your aches, to help you with your career, to help you with your finances, to bless your relationships with your spouse or with your children, with your coworkers. Jesus is there to give you your good life, as if this life, this world is all there is, and this is our chief end and highest good, to have a problem-free life now. And I dare say that in the Lord's Church throughout this country, and I think you can turn on stations like TBN and you can go look at some of these things and they will confirm what I have just said, that that's what people think Jesus is there for. He's the mystical sky fairy meant to sprinkle some kind of blessing dust on your situation and you can get a miracle from Jesus. And so we're there for Jesus to give us a good life and an easy life right now. Of course, tasting of the powers of the age to come, one would assume that they were okay, that somehow God has blessed us. It would be something like one or someone, if we put it in the context of this past week, who survived the shooting in Las Vegas. A random shooter on the 32nd floor firing his gun into a crowd of 20,000 some people. 59, more were struck, 59 have died. And you can hear one of them say, Boy, you know, I was standing right next to the person who got shot and killed and my life was spared. I've been given a second chance. Somebody in heaven must be looking down upon me and smiling on me. Right? I'm sure you heard some things like that in the testimonies. Boy, I've been given a second chance at life. God's got a purpose for my life and I'm okay with God. See, he spared me in this shooting. I'm thinking that this might be some of the phenomena, the mindset that's going through the minds of some of these people. My friends, these crowds of people who have come to Jesus are like the crowds that fill the churches today. Some have had religious experiences, have seen things, have been blessed with a deliverance from cancer. Some are enthralled with Jesus because of what they've been told by others. Some less enthusiastically are a part of the crowd because they identify with Christians and they identify with this church thing, yet they are not Muslims or Mormons or Jewish. And so while I go to this church because they seem to fit me best, it's what I'm most comfortable with. There might be any number of reasons you are here today. And hear me, I'm glad you're here. I really am glad you're here because this is the best place to be on a Sunday morning as the word is opened. No, really, it is the best place for you to be. Really, it's the best place for you to be. It's better than work. It's better than entertainment. Nothing will take care of your soul or feed your soul like having the word of God opened up to you. Please, please don't forget that. So I'm glad you're here. But don't make the mistake of thinking that because you are here today, that you are okay with God. Many people came to Jesus. Were they all okay with God? Let me ask it a different way. Was God okay with them? Come on! He healed my epileptic aunt! course I'm okay. And that's why I'm going to the picnic. That's where I'm going to where Jesus is. Because I'm okay with God and God's okay with me. Why are you here this morning? Are you thinking that because you brave the weather, the cold, the wet roads, because you're sitting in a warm library, that you're okay with God? Maybe you are. maybe you're not. You may have experienced some wonderful thing from the Lord. After all, we're told later in this sermon, he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Does this make you okay with God? Does this make God okay with you? If that were the case, right? whole world would be saved because all the world experiences in some form or fashion the blessing of God, right? But notice, notice it doesn't make them all okay with God. These things are no indication that you belong to Jesus Christ. You're sitting here this morning because You know there's something important about Jesus Christ and you'd be right. The question is again, do you belong to Jesus Christ? Is God okay with you? That's the question. That's the question. Just because God has demonstrated in your life some phenomena, some blessing, does not mean that you should be assured that you are truly his. You mustn't put your confidence upon that to say, I'm ready for the day of judgment. Notice what Jesus does. He went up on the mountain. He goes up on the mountain, right? How significant is this? The question is, understand why he goes up on the mountain. Scholars believe that this mountain was in the region of Capernaum, being that there is a definite article that the mountain was a well-known mountain. There have been suggestions as to which it was, but we would be guessing at this point the fact that our Lord would give this sermon there would distinguish it forever as the Mount of Beatitudes. Of interest, and I also believe of importance, I don't think this straining at Anat, is that Jesus is on the mountain. He's on the mountain. The law of God was delivered on a mountain as well, Mount Horeb in Sinai, where Moses received the law of God. And you recall, it was a terrifying sight that they saw. There was smoke and thunder, there was blazing fire, darkness and gloom, whirlwind and the blast of trumpet. So terrifying was the sight that they said to Moses, Deuteronomy 18, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see his great fire anymore or I will die. It's terrifying. to which the Lord would answer Moses, and Moses records in Deuteronomy 18, they have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from their countrymen like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. Here is Jesus. bringing again the word of the Lord, not to replace what was spoken, but to bring it home further to these people. Here, speaking from the mountain and taking the position and the posture of the one who has authority to speak and to one whom others should listen to. as it was the rabbi who would typically sit down when he taught. And here Jesus goes up on the mountain, not a coincidence, and he sits down to speak as a rabbi. And what is the attitude supposed to be of the people coming to Jesus? Sit down and listen now to the teacher. Sit down and listen to the sovereign Lord who gave the law on Sinai, but also gives the law on this mountain. of particular interest was a Puritan, David Brown, who said this, since the Jewish mind had been long systematically perverted on the subject of human duty, consequently of sin, by the breaking of it and under such teaching had grown dull, unspiritual, and self-satisfied. You hear this? He is saying, this Puritan is saying, the day in which Jesus had done all of these healings, the day he began proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand, the spiritual condition of the Lord's people was that they were dull. They were unspiritual. They were self-satisfied. They had been so long under the abuse of Pharisees and scribes who strained at gnats and swallowed camels that they didn't know which way was up and they were quite pleased with themselves that they weren't the dogs like the Romans were. We're God's people. Of course we belong to God. I think this is important. It was the dictate of wisdom, says this Puritan, first to lay broad and deep the foundations of all revealed truth and duty and hold forth the great principles of true and acceptable righteousness in sharp contrast with the false teaching to which the people were in bondage. Here, friends, Jesus would instruct all these people who have come to him for any number of reasons, and will teach them what a citizen, a true citizen, of the kingdom of God is. And it's not what you and I think. It's not the rote performance. You remember, Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees because they strained at gnats and they swallowed camels. He rebuked them because they tithe their dill, their mint, and their cumin. He never instructs them to stop tithing their dill, mint, and cumin. But he says, don't neglect the weightier provisions of the law. Do you see this? And in the day in which Jesus walks up on that mountain and sits down in the posture and the position of the authoritative sovereign teacher to speak to these people, He is not calling them or insisting or insinuating that somehow toss the law aside, but it's that you have become rote and perfunctory in your service to the Lord and your hearts are far from the Lord. And if this doesn't typify what much of the Lord's church is today in this nation, I don't know what else is. But rote and perfunctory. We squeeze Jesus into our busy lives and we tuck him in around our hobbies and our likes, but he doesn't have all our heart. And yet, we check our boxes and we say, I'm okay with God. And I'm just saying, maybe you're not. Maybe now's the time to ask yourself, am I all right with God? Do I really belong to him? And is he okay with me? Is he okay with you? Is he okay with you? Okay with you? I think it's worth asking. They come to Jesus. He sees the crowds. He goes up on the mountain. And after he sat down, his disciples came to him. What should your attitude be? As we approach the Sermon on the Mount, what should your attitude be and what should mine be? It should be just what it was, what theirs was 2,000 years ago. Let's sit down and let's listen and let's examine ourselves. Notice we're told in verse one that his disciples came to him. My friends, the Lord Jesus is compassionate. Here were the crowds. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of misdirected, misguided people thinking that they were okay. Full of duty and performance, but no life, no vigor, no heart for the Lord. They were in great need of teaching, of hearing the truth. This is a loving thing to do, to tell people the truth. Not always well-received and not always popular, but it is a loving thing to do. To look after a person, to go after them in their sin and their ignorance, and return them to Jesus. Here in Matthew 5, Matthew records that there were crowds, and he mentions that there were disciples. In Mark 3.14, we're told that there were 12 disciples. So here we have crowds and at least 12 disciples. On Luke 6, which scholars believe is a parallel passage to this, the Sermon on the Plain, Luke records that there was a large crowd of his disciples. Imagine this, if you will, that Jesus goes up on the mountain, followed closely by the 12 whom he has prayed about and chosen, who sit right in front of him at his feet. And these 12 disciples and Jesus are thronged by yet a broader group of disciples, people whose names we don't know, but who are believing the things that Jesus has said. And yet still a greater crowd of people are there to hear Jesus, a group of people who are interested and curious about this man who is so different than all of the other teachers in Israel. The point being, friends, is this, that they come to Jesus to listen. They come to learn at the feet of the one who had proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom and had done all these tremendous works. And if they would listen to Jesus, If they will heed His words, they will be changed. How about you? I want to encourage you to listen to the words of Jesus. Granted, I'm only a man, and I do my homework, and I write a sermon, and I preach a sermon, You've duly elected me. The Presbytery has examined me. They have found me faithful in my handling of the Scriptures. The words that I preach are the Lord's Word because I'm preaching from the Bible. Please, don't be stiff-necked and don't be proud and to say, He has nothing to say to me. Granted, if I were up here to weave a story for you, to tickle yours, I would have nothing to say to you. But if I'm opening the scriptures up, and I'm taking the words of the Lord Jesus, and I'm mining them for what's there, and I'm presenting them to you, you should receive them as the Lord's word. And as such, you should listen to them and you should examine yourself in light of them and not make the mistake that so many throughout the ages have made, thinking that somehow I can merit favor with God by what I do with the work of my hands. I want to encourage you to listen to what Jesus has to say and to not go away thinking you have nothing of need here. Again, these are hard words to hear for all of us. But again, I maintain, as Jesus sees these crowds, undoubtedly there were many people there for many different reasons who thought that they were okay. And Jesus, by now going into the Sermon on the Mount, is going to expose them for what they are and show them how much they need him. He takes the law, which was given first on Sinai, and now he brings the law, brings it home, deep into the heart, so that nobody can stand up after it's preached and say, I'm a pretty good guy. You can't say that. That's why the sermon is hard. It'll be hard to work through. You might feel like you're getting punched in the gut. I hope not. But you might. The question is not whether you like the Word, but is it true? And is it true in regard to me? And am I at peace with God? And is God at peace with me because of whom I'm trusting in? Please, if you have questions, you can call me. You can write me. You can talk to the elders. They're happy to talk to you. I would encourage you to read through the Sermon on the Mount for yourself. I would encourage you to be faithful in attendance. I would encourage you to go to bed in plenty of time Saturday night so you're not falling asleep in this warm library. And I would encourage you to come prepared to listen with reverence in your heart to the Lord's Word. There would be no greater tragedy than for you to die and to stand before the Lord and Him to say, depart from me, I never knew you. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, again for your word and for your kindness to us, and we pray that your blessing be upon us as we begin to work through this Sermon on the Mount. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for your love for your people, that you have given this, that we might see our need of you ultimately. Would you help us, Lord, Would you please protect this church? Would you please keep the evil one from getting a foothold in this congregation? Would you please help us in truth to examine ourselves that we might be found resting in you alone? We thank you again for this time in your word and again for the blessing of being called your people. I pray that you would knit our hearts and our minds closer to one another as we draw closer to you and as you open our eyes more and more to your greatness. Bless us, we pray to this end, that your name will be magnified and that the nations might come to know you. We ask all of this now in Jesus' name, amen.