If you would join with me again in Psalm 118. Last Sunday I said that there was so much in this psalm I couldn't do it all in one sermon, unless I preached a Dave Brady never-ending sermon. That's kind of an inside joke. When Mandy and Gwen were students in the Christian school where Brother Brady was the assistant pastor, for his dad. I don't know, did you guys have chapel every day? Once a week, but apparently he preached, the sermon lasted the whole year. It was kind of like, and now time for point 52A.C. The next time was point D, and it just kept going. So he gets ribbed a lot by my family for the never-ending sermon. And he just expects it, so that's kind of how that goes. But that's where we're at this morning. And I want to start reading at verse... Well, let's go to verse 10, okay? That'll set the stage. It says, "'All nations compassed me about, but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them. They compassed me about. Yea, they compassed me about, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. They compassed me about like bees. They are quenched as the fire of thorns, for in the name of the Lord will I destroy them. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall, But the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song and has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death. open to me the gates of righteousness I will go into them and will praise the Lord this gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter I will praise thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation The stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. God is the Lord, which hath showed us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords, even under the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, I will praise thee. Thou art my God, I will exalt thee. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. His mercy endureth forever." Verse 29 repeats what we read last Sunday in verse 1, that the Lord is good. Amen? His mercy endures forever. Today, I want to bring your attention to verse 21. That's our primary text this morning. I will praise Thee, for Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. If God heard me, then that implies that I spoke to him, doesn't it? That's why we want to think about the power of prayer. I mentioned about Bernie Weber. I don't know if you remember, and I hadn't read far enough to know what maybe was happening in Bernie's life, But I want to read this portion to you. It answers my question and maybe it'll be an encouragement to you. He's with his crew. They're on the 36-500 lifeboat. They're headed out to the Pendleton, a big T2 tanker that's cracked in half. And the waves are bad. They're 60 to 70 foot waves. That is a big wave. That is a huge wave. That's like bigger than the top of the church. That is a huge wave. And they're in a 36 foot lifeboat. So you can kind of get the concept. They're not in a big giant cruise ship. They're in the dinky little boat and they're headed out. They've approached what's called the Chatham Bar, which is as the ocean would come into Chatham Bay. There's reefs and shoals and so forth and so it's pretty tumultuous seas. Even in probably calm weather, it's a bit choppy because of that. But remember, there's like a hurricane going on. And so to get across the bar, as they would call it, was nigh impossible, especially in a 36-foot lifeboat against 70-foot waves. He peered out at the ominous Chatham Bar. Bernie Weber had an epiphany. He believed that providence had placed him in this time and in this place. He thought about the iron will of Frank Masacci. That was his mentor. And he also thought back, I want you to get this, and he thought back to the thousands of sermons he had heard his father give while he was growing up. Bernie Weber's the son of a Baptist preacher. They had all been preparing him for this. He pictured the disappointment in his father's eyes when he had turned his back on the ministry as an aimless youth. Reverend Weber had wanted his youngest son to serve God. Bernie believed that he was serving God on this stormy night. Weber later recalled the feeling, you receive the strength and the courage and you know what your duty is. You realize that you have to attempt a rescue. It's born in you. It is part of your job. As the lifeboat pitched along a canyon of waves, Weber and his crew spontaneously began to sing. They sang out of a combination of determination and fear through the snow and freezing sea spray. Their four voices formed a harmony that rose over the howling winds. Weber could think of no more pungent hymn to fit the situation they found themselves in. Rock of Ages, play for me. Did they pray? Oh, you bet they prayed. It's encouraging to me to think that, because at this point in Bernie's life, he's no longer a 16-year-old aimless youth running from his dad. He's a married man. He's a first-class boatswain's mate in the United States Coast Guard. He's the coxswain on a life-saving boat. He's the skipper, if you will. He's a seasoned man at this point. And yet the memories of the truths of God's Word that he had heard preached as a boy, and the singing of God's hymns, put some iron in his bones to trust God. At one point it's mentioned that he remembered the motto that the Coast Guard had, and that is, you have to go out But you don't have to come back. Can prayer help you? Yes, it can. I want you to notice once again verse 21. I will praise Thee, for Thou hast heard me. and are become my salvation. David's facing his own hurricane of struggles and distress. As we read last Sunday and again this Sunday, all nations compassed me about. They compassed me about, yea, they compassed me about. They compassed me about like bees. Boy, that's distress. And the struggles of life will not let you go. and then it's as if in verse 13 he turns his attention to his distress and speaks to the distress thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall the devil would like nothing better than for you to fall in the midst of your distress whatever that distress may be Be that financial, medical, relational, global, doesn't matter. The devil would love to somehow cripple you and hinder you, discourage you, distract you, so that you are of no use to the Lord or to yourself. Remember, James says he goes about like a roaring kitty cat. Is that what he says? No. Like a what? Like a lion, a roaring lion. I saw some people jumping. Abigail just jumped out of her seat almost. You know, that's what a lion does. A lion roars to bring fear and freeze their prey so they can pounce and rip to shreds. And that's what the devil does. James doesn't say that he is a lion. He pretends to be a lion. The real lion is Jesus Christ. He's the real lion. The devil wants you to be frozen in your fear, paralyzed, in your being so that he can bring wreck and ruin upon your life, bring disgrace upon the name of the Lord. That's what he wants to do. Now, if you're here today and you've trusted Christ as your Savior, he cannot keep you out of heaven, amen? That's wonderful. The devil can do his worst, and I might totally fail, but God will always win. So if He's saved me and He's put His name upon me, He's sealed me with His Spirit, then I know I'm going to heaven. Being confident of this very thing that He which has begun a good work in you shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. It's His work. He's doing His work and He will accomplish that. Either he's gonna make me more like Christ in the present, or I am gonna be purified when I'm in the presence of Jesus. When we see him, John says, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Just being in his presence is gonna do something, it's gonna transform us, changed into his image. Okay, now he's working on me now, and I can either submit to that and allow the Holy Spirit to work and grow, or I can get my eyes off the Lord and be paralyzed, and he'll do it in an instant. Now you say, wow, that sounds better. Let's just do it all at once. Well, except then you're gonna spend all of eternity in his presence, realizing you could've lived your life for him. Right? Yeah. But he's gonna win one way or the other. All right, back to our text here. I want you to notice first off the phrase, I will praise thee. I will praise thee. There is a decision to act. He doesn't say, I did praise thee. He doesn't say, I might praise thee. He says, I will. I will praise thee. Maybe you noticed a few other verses. He says in verse 17 that he's gonna declare. In verse 19, he says, I will go into them. Verse 21, again, I will praise. Verse 19, he says, I will praise. Later on in the passage, he talks about I will, I will, I will. There's a decision to act. A decision. And that's true in our lives. If you want to live for the Lord, that doesn't happen You know, it's not by osmosis. You can't go to sleep using your pillow. You know, your Bible is a pillow and all of a sudden God's truth just sort of soak into your brain like a spiritual sponge. It doesn't work that way, does it? You have to be intentional. You have to make a choice. I will do this. I want you to notice in verse 19, he talks about the gates of the righteous. Hmm, if they're the gates of the righteous, what kind of people have to go through the gates? The righteous people go through the gates. And he says, I will go into them, which means David is making a choice to be righteous. He makes a choice to be righteous. He makes a choice to do right, if I can say it that way. Say, well, I have a hard time with it. I know, I do too. Because I'm not bent that way, I'm bent the other way. We're all bent the other way. That's that sinful nature. That's why Paul says, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Because he says, the things I'm supposed to do, I don't do. The things I'm not supposed to do, that's the stuff that I'm doing. What is the matter with me? I'm such a loser. Now, those aren't my words. I'm paraphrasing what Paul says. He says, oh, wretched man, that I am. I understand. But see, that's why we need Jesus. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, Christ in Him. We just sang the song, Christ in me. But to be Christ-like isn't some kind of, you know, it's not like you go through a spiritual shower Right, like, you know, you're gonna get a tan without laying out in the sun. Right, you go to the tanning salon and you go in lily white and you come out caramel brown. Except for now, he doesn't come out caramel brown. The Lord has pre-tanned him. But see, being righteous isn't like that. It's not like you come in unrighteousness and you get subjected to some ambiguous spiritual rays and then you come out all righteous-like. Righteousness is a decision that you make. It's a decision that I make. I choose to do right or I choose to do wrong. I choose to think right or I choose to think wrong. I choose to speak right or I choose to speak wrong. I choose to feel right or I choose to feel wrong. Yeah, you're supposed to rule your own heart, not let your heart rule you. That's a whole nother sermon. The point is, if you're gonna enter into the gates of righteousness, that means you have chosen to be righteous. Now that doesn't mean that you're perfect. We're not talking about perfection. David was not a perfect man, was he? No, he was not. He messed up pretty big, really big. We don't have to go down that road talking about his failures. But David's not saying, I'm now perfect, I can make myself perfect. He's not talking about perfection. He's talking about, I want to go the right way. I'm gonna be conscious and intentional about the things I choose. And I wanna choose the right. I need God to help me. Okay, there's a decision to act. There's also a decision to salute. Pastor, what do you mean by that? Well, he says, I will praise thee. I will praise thee. There's different kinds of praise. There's what we might call directive praise, okay? And that's probably the more common kind that we read about in the Bible. It says it's the English word praise, but it's the idea of to shine. Either it's shining out of me or I'm shining on something. I'm highlighting something on purpose. Every time we sing as a congregation, we are praising God. We're shining the light of our voice upon truths about Him. That's directive praise. In 1 Samuel 21, 13, I would quote that, but I don't have all of 1 Samuel memorized. It says here in this word for kind of shining and highlighting, it's kind of interesting. It says, and David laid up these words in his heart, that's verse 12, sorry, verse 13, and he changed his behavior before them and feigned himself mad. He acted like a crazy man. Why? Because he's in the Philistine city and they're recognizing him. So what does David do? They're already noticing him. He's trying to be nondescript and kind of fly under the radar, but he can't because they know him too well. So what he does is he shines on himself. He makes them look at him by acting like a crazy man. Now that illustrates my point of directive praise is that David does something specifically to draw attention in a certain way. And so when we praise God, we do something specific to draw attention to the Lord. So when we sing, we're drawing attention to the Lord on purpose. That's directive praise. There's also what I would call responsive praise. And that's what we have here in our text, is responsive praise. In several places it talks about shooting arrows, Jeremiah, in a couple of places. Because the word for praise here is to shoot, or more directly, to raise the hand. Have you ever been at church service, and maybe it was during a during a song, maybe a congregational song, or a special music event, or maybe, I suppose that could happen even in the preaching, but somebody will kind of raise their hand. They're not raising their hand saying, yeah, I have a question. It's not like in class. It's like, yeah. It's like what people do in a sports event, and they get all excited, and their team wins, and they do this. Wow, that was really good. Is that what they do? No. When the Lions whoop the Vikings, whoo-hoo! See, what did I just do with my hands? I shout them up. It's an act of expression. It's an act of joy. I'm responding to the event. And that's what David is saying. This is the kind of praise he's talking about. It's responsive praise. You can just bet that the 31 men in the after part of the Pendleton thinking they're going to die because nobody knows where they are, and they have no way of communicating. I mean, it's gone, and who's going to find them? Everybody was busy trying to save the people on the Mercer, the other tanker. Nobody knows about them. They're going to die. You can bet, when they saw this dinky light of the lifeboat bobbing, and they realize, that's Coast Guard lifeboat. They're like, oh, that's good. I think we can go home tonight. Do you think that's what they did? They were hopping up and down, hey, hey, look at us, we're up here, right? Joy was on their face. Joy filled their heart because that's hope. That's the kind of praise David's talking about. It's responsive praise. It's praise because you see and recognize what God has done for you. and you can't help. Whether you shoot your hand up, or you yell hallelujah, or you just smile like the Cheshire Cat, there's something that causes you to respond. Maybe you break down in tears, everybody sort of does it differently, but the point is it's praise because you're responding to what God did. Why would he not do that? They encompassed him about, they encompassed him about, they encompassed me about like bees. And now, it's like God's come down and sprayed him with wasp spray, and they've all fallen down dead. Oh man, it's awesome, right? Responsive praise. Responsive praise. Jeremiah 33, 11. The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endureth. I wonder if Jeremiah is quoting Psalm 118, verses 1 and 29. For His mercy endureth forever. And of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord, for I will cause to return the captivity of the land, is that the first, saith the Lord. There's a decision to act, there's a decision to salute. I wonder, what causes me to give responsive praise? Now, I just told you what should. You should have responsive praise because of what God has done. But is he the one we're saluting? See, I say salute because the root of the whole idea here is the hand. And it just makes me think of, you know, I'm walking down the street on the base and I notice there's an officer approaching me and it's my responsibility as an enlisted man to Salute first. I'm responding to my circumstances. The captain steps in the room where I'm at, and immediately the first person who notices him shouts, attention on deck! And everybody stands up at attention. Why? Because the captain has come in. That's the sense of reason. So what is it in my life that causes me to sit up and take notice? Do I even notice God doing anything? Or am I just so focused on the stock market? Or the sports scores? Or the political situation? What is it that causes me to give responsive praise? Do I notice God working? In my life, the life of my family, the life of my friends and coworkers, and the life of my nation, do I see God working? Is my life a living response of praise to Him? Decision to act, decision to salute, lastly, a decision to align. Notice what He's praising. I will praise, what's the next word? Thee. Well, who's that? Well, hmm, let's look at verse eight. It's better to trust in the Lord. Verse nine, it's better to trust in the Lord. And verse 10, but in the name of the Lord. Verse 11, but in the name of the, Lord, verse 12, for in the name of the Lord, verse 13, but the Lord, help me, verse 14, the Lord, my strength and song, verse 15, the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly, 16, the right hand of the Lord is exalted, the second half of the verse, the right hand of the Lord, verse 17, and declare the works of the Lord. 18, the Lord chastened me. 19, I will go into them and will praise the Lord. 20, this gate of the Lord. Who's he praising? He's praising the Lord. He's praising Jehovah. That's the personal name of God. God's personal name. Lord in all capitals is not a title, it is a name. It is the name Jehovah or Yahweh, however you wanna pronounce the Hebrew letters. I don't care, but it's his personal name. That's who he's aligning with. I'm saluting the Lord. I'm not saluting Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or any other political pundit kind of person. I'm not saluting the financial guru. I'm not saluting the pastor. I'm not saluting a man. I am saluting, I'm aligning with the Lord. The God who made me and redeemed me and will come and reclaim me. That's who I'm praising. I'm lining up with Him. A decision to align. I'm gonna go in His gates. If I'm gonna go in His gates, I have to have His character. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the door, is He not? Jesus said, I am the door. and all the shepherd and the sheep that go in and out through the doorway. Anybody else is a robber, a thief and a robber. I have to go through the door of Christ. He's the one who makes the way. 1 Corinthians 10, 13. There is no temptation taking you. I want to bring this around to the sense of distress, because sometimes our distress is because of whatever it is that we struggle with, okay? Let's use something that would be obvious, okay? Somebody's a Christian, because this happens to Christians, a Christian who, whatever the circumstances were, led them to the point in their life where now they're addicted to crack. That would be horrible, wouldn't it? And we would be like, oh, that's terrible, what a loser, they shouldn't be doing that. See, it's so easy for us to judge. I'm not giving them an excuse, But can they get out of that? Can they be delivered? Yeah. What about the guy who's addicted to pornography? Can he be delivered? Yeah. What about the one who's a drunkard? Yeah. Addicted to cigarettes. Gambling. Bitterness. Fear. Yeah. And if you're going to go in the gate of righteousness, you got to be delivered from that stuff. Right now, I'm not saying you've got to be super clean and perfect, but you've got to be taking the steps to deliverance. There is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. Meaning everyone faces temptations, everyone. Now what tempts me may not tempt you and what tempts you may not tempt me. But we're both tempted. The temptations are common. You're not the only one in the world who faces temptation. So the process is, I'm not trying to justify it, but the process is normal because we're sinners. For hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But will with the temptation make a way of escape. See, the problem is with our temptations, whatever that may be, whether it's a physical addiction, or it's a mental addiction, or it's an emotional attitude, whatever. The problem is we don't take the way of escape. And when we're overwhelmed by the temptation, we can easily say, see, God can't help me. He did help you. He made a way of escape. In the engine room of a Navy ship, There is an escape hatch. There was a ladder in the engine room. Now, that's the bottom of the ship, OK? So, snipes are considered, you know, expendable. Snipes are guys who work in the engine room, OK? Because if the ship's torpedoed, we're already underwater. The engine room is below the waterline, OK? You get it, OK? It's only a notch above the submarine which sinks the whole thing. But there was a ladder that went about three decks straight up and popped out either on the main deck or somewhere above the waterline. And if we were to get hit by a torpedo and the engine room started to fill with water, I could sit at my station and bemoan there's no way of escape. Or I could take the ladder If I don't take the ladder, that's not the Navy's fault that I drowned, is it? It's my fault, because I was too stupid to go up the ladder. Or maybe I'm afraid of ladders, or whatever. But I wouldn't go up the escape hatch. So when temptation comes, the Lord gives you a way of escape. He is the way of escape. He's the way, I am the way, the truth, the life. Isn't that what Jesus said? In 1st, 2nd Peter, he's given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. He is the way of escape. He already died on the cross for all my sin. He didn't just die to save me, he died to sanctify me. He's the way of escape. But when I get to looking at myself and I get my eyes off the Lord, it's easy for the temptation, whatever that temptation may be, to overwhelm me and to have the victory over me. And now I have to deal with guilt and shame and I'm disappointed in myself. And we all know what that's all about, because we've all been there in one way or another. Because that's how the devil works. He wants to overwhelm you so many times and consistently to where you give up and you quit fighting. And then he just can feast on you whenever he wants. That doesn't sound very good, does it? No. We have to make some decisions. We have to decide to act. We have to decide to salute. We have to decide to align. I want to go through the gates of righteousness, because the Lord has made that available for me. And that's the gate I want to go through. Secondly, I want you to look at the phrase, for thou hast heard me. For thou, he's the one who's able. Psalm 65 and verse 2, O thou that hearest prayer. Isn't that wonderful? God will hear you. It's not a cry for help, you know, into the wide unknown. This is not the liberal's leap of faith. I'm gonna just hope something's out there will catch me when I jump. No, my cry for help is very direct, and it's very pointed, and it's addressed to the one who's able to help me, and that's the Lord. And there's one who's answered me. He's not just the one who's able to help me, he's the one that does answer me. It says, for thou hast heard. That means he's answered. He's answered. Okay, adults, you call the kids. Time for dinner. I mean, they're just one door down the hall. And maybe it's a hot game of Donkey Kong or something. And they don't have headphones on. And you're like, didn't they hear me? Moms, has that ever happened to you? Or, Dinner cooker, whoever that, maybe that's dad, whoever, okay. And you're like, it's time to eat! Let's go, it's getting cold! And so you have to go down the hall, and they're like, hang on, Mom, just one more level. Did they hear? No, because they didn't answer. That's this kind of hearing. It's not the function of the organ. It's the response of the will. So it's, we could say, well, God hears me, but he just never answers me. No, that's not hearing. Biblical hearing is to hear and respond. Now, if you're the one like me, Bridget's calling me to dinner, and I'm not, you know, I hear her, but I'm busy. That's not good. That never ends well. I did hear the sound, but I didn't respond. What David is saying is God not only heard what I asked, but he answered me. He responded. He came to my aid. He came to my side. His presence was there with me in the fact that I was compassed about, compassed about, compassed about like bees. And when I cried to God, he was there. He heard me. He couldn't have said that. if he hadn't have sensed, in whatever way he sensed, that God was there. Otherwise he'd be like us most of the time, say, well I prayed but I don't know if it even went beyond the ceiling. But David says, you heard me. The only way he knows God heard is that God responded. Wow, is God answering me like that? Because He says, for thou hast heard me. I'm just gonna draw your attention to Romans five, one and two, where Paul talks about accessing into the Lord's grace by faith. We don't access his grace by knowledge. It's not enough to know that he can help you, it's you trust that he will help you and you believe that he will help you. It's a step of faith. Lastly, he says, and art become my salvation. He's present in redemption. It's personal in redemption. It's my salvation. It's powerful in redemption because He's delivered me from all my distresses and all this trouble and these bees that are buzzing about my head that are trying to burn me up like thorns. Okay, let me close now. Here's the key. We can talk a lot about prayer. And I got a whole other sermons list of scripture. The key is this. And it's so simple. You have to ask. You have to ask. Call on to me and I will answer thee and show them great and mighty things which thou knowest not. James 4, ye have not because ye ask not. You have to ask. Over and over and over, Jesus says, ask in my name and I will do it. Ask, ask, ask, ask. That's what he says. I have to ask. He's not gonna just float in Rescue you and then leave and you not even give him the time of day If you want him to deliver you from your distress you're gonna have to ask Now whether he removes the distress or he enables you through the distress either way you need him and you have to ask in the three synoptic Gospels Matthew 8, 2, Mark 1, 40, Luke 5, 12. There's a leper. We know how bad that would be if you were to have leprosy, especially in New Testament times. You're an outcast. You're isolated from your family, your friends, everybody. You're shunned. Nobody wants something to do with you. They want to come close. You have to go around crying, unclean, unclean, unclean, because you have to declare your unworthiness. That's pretty debilitating emotionally, not to mention the physical problem you have. But there is a leper, and he approaches Jesus, and he says, if thou willst, thou can make me whole. What did he do there? He asked. He asked. And Jesus says, I will. Think about that. Nobody would even touch this man because they would be ceremonially, I'm trying to think of a fancy word for germs, whatever. You're infected, you're contaminated. You now have to go around yelling unclean, unclean, unclean. But see, Jesus can do that because he's the only one that has the power to remove the problem. We have to ask. When we get to Acts chapter three, Peter and James are headed to the temple and there's a crippled man there at the gate, beautiful, you remember the story? And he looks upon them as if he would ask alms. And he got more than he asked for. And Peter says, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I to thee. Rise and walk. And the man stood up. And then you know what he did? Responsive praise. I haven't done this in 40 years. This is amazing. Oh, man, he made such a ruckus. It was almost a riot at the temple. but he responded with praise because of what God did because he asked. He asked. Do you have distress? I'm gonna say yes because I don't think you're abnormal. I think you're normal. I have distress. We have to ask. We have but to ask. I'm not dismissing all those other things about prayer, but it starts with me realizing my need and asking. I will praise Thee, for Thou hast heard me and art become my salvation, my deliverance. Not just about saving his soul, I think David was already a redeemed man by this time. He's talking about deliverance from all the distress of life. And some of David's distress was self-inflicted. The problem with Bathsheba wasn't social, it was personal. The problems with Joab, they weren't Joab's fault, they were David's fault. The problems with counting the people and puffing himself with pride, that wasn't the people's fault, that was his fault. Some of his distress was his own problem, he brought it on himself. But isn't that wonderful? Even in the distresses that are self-inflicted, he says, you're my salvation. I cried. I'm praising you because you heard me and you delivered me. Do you want His deliverance? Be that for your soul or for your life, maybe your family, maybe your circumstances. We have but to ask. And then say, you know what? I'm going to take some steps to go into the gates of righteousness, because that's where God is. And that's what I need. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your love and grace, for the truth of your word, for the promise of deliverance. When we would come to you in faith and ask, God, I pray and ask you, help us this morning. There are folks today who are here, right in this room, and they need you to deliver them from some distress. And you know all about it. And you are able. But they must ask. Would you help them? Father, there may be somebody here that the distress they're in is the distress of sin, and they need cleansing and forgiveness to be placed into your family. And they have but to ask, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Father, would you draw folks to yourself? Would you work for your glory in our midst this morning? I pray.