If you'd open your Bibles, please, to 1 Samuel 24 tonight, 1 Samuel chapter 24. As we're going straight through this book of 1 Samuel, we've come to the 24th chapter. And before we, we'll read it tonight as we work our way through it. And before we begin our study, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and your people who are here to partake of it. We pray that this passage will be used by you and the way you've inspired it, the way you've meant it to be used. And we'll thank you for that in Jesus name. Amen. One of the most dramatic stories that comes out of the American West, I've read multiple books on this, I own multiple books on this story, is the story of Hugh Glass. Hugh Glass was attacked by a grizzly bear in 1823. The grizzly had two cubs and attacked him. He was traveling with a group of fur traders to the Yellowstone River when he was attacked by the bear. The man who was leading this mission to the West was General Ashley, who was heading up the mountain men, and he saw that Hugh Glass was nearly dead, and he asked for two men to stay with him until he died, and then bury him. Well, the two men who volunteered to do that were John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridger. After five days, Glass had not died, even though he was mostly unconscious. They figured he was going to die very soon, so Fitzgerald and Bridger covered him up with a bearskin, took his knife, rifle, tomahawk, fire-making material, and belongings with them, and left him there to die. Well, Hugh Glass woke up. He had a broken leg, he had infected wounds and deep lacerations. He actually crawled to a river and he drank water which sustained him and he allowed that cool water to get on his wounds. He was 200 miles from a fort in South Dakota where he could get any help. So he set his leg, he allowed maggots to eat the infected wounds and he began to crawl. He decided that he would crawl back to society. He also decided he would track down the two men that left him there to die and he was gonna kill them. It took two months for him to travel over 200 miles. He made about three miles a day. And when he finally tracked the two men down who had abandoned him and had left him with nothing, he decided to forgive them. It's one of the amazing stories of the American West. He had the opportunity to kill him, but he didn't do it. In the Bible, there is an amazing story in the life of King David in which he has the opportunity to kill a satanic Saul, and he is satanic, make no mistake about it. He is being led by demonic spirits, and David didn't do it. He had him right in his sights. He metaphorically could have pulled the trigger, but he didn't do it. David was a faithful man of God, and Saul was being led by Satan, trying to kill David. David is going to be on the run for a total of about 10 years. Saul's going to chase him around, trying to kill him. And one day, God in His sovereignty put David right in a position where he could actually kill Saul, and David chose not to do it. And of all of the places where this could have happened, it was in a restroom context. What this 24th chapter shows us is even though David has the motive for killing Saul and the opportunity to kill Saul, he graciously refused to do it and decided to leave him to God. Now here is a textbook example of one who leaves the vengeance to God, even if you've got the right and the opportunity to pour out the vengeance. And this is a beautiful picture of God's grace. God has every reason to destroy us. Every reason to destroy us. We've all sinned against him, and yet his grace permits us to live. He could pull the trigger on any one of us at any moment, but he doesn't do it. Abraham Lincoln was once asked, why do you try to make friends of your enemies? You should try to destroy them. And Lincoln said, well, when I make them my friends, don't I really destroy my enemies? If they become my friends, they're no longer my enemies. Now I want to make a very important observation here. David would not let every person live. So it wasn't that he was afraid of killing somebody who had done something against God or even against him. In fact, the next time we're together, we will see, Lord willing, next Sunday night, David was so angry and in a ball that he wanted to kill him and only his wife, Abigail, prevented him from doing it. So it wasn't like David was against the idea. However, when it came to Saul, David saw it just a little bit differently. Saul had been God's first choice of the king of Israel. And David recognized the fact that God had given Saul this high-ranked position under God, and David would do nothing to usurp that position. He wanted God to settle this. He wanted to wait on the Lord. And it's very serious matter to think lightly or treat lightly a high man ranked by the Lord. And that's the way David saw it. He saw Saul as God's first choice of king. He respected that because he loved the Lord. Now there are five component parts in this 24th chapter that tell the story. The first part is Saul goes after David. Notice verse one. Now when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the rocks of the wild goats. He came to the sheepfolds on the way where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. Saul apparently, you remember last week, God and His sovereignty sidetracked him by word that the Philistines were attacking the land. He needed to go to protect the land. Apparently he'd been somewhat successful. We don't get a lot of information about that, but apparently Saul must have had pretty good success. When he got back from chasing the Philistines, he learned through some satanic network of spies that David was in the wilderness of En Gedi. Now, as we said last time, En Gedi was an oasis type of place east of Hebron, situated above the shores of the Dead Sea. There was a freshwater spring there. It was plush fertile valley. It was, in fact, an area, according to Song of Solomon, that featured plush vineyards. David was there. with his 600 men. And Saul, with 3,000 choice military men, when they get back to the area, they are on an all-out vendetta to kill David. David has just 600 guys, Saul has 3,000 of his best trained soldiers with him, and he's out to kill David. You have to ask yourself, why is David so hated and hounded? It was all due to cruel, satanic jealousy and envy. So Saul took his men to seek David in the rocks of the wild goats. Now this is a high cliff type of area. That's where the mountain goats live. They don't live in normal flat land. They live in some pretty tough country. That's where David was. It's the kind of area that is almost inaccessible to human beings. Saul knew that's the kind of place David and his men would hide. It's a good fortress area to get up in those mountains. Our former board chairman, Out in Idaho, Larry Goetz was a real skilled hunter, a tremendous shot with a gun. I mean, gun clubs used to get him to sight in guns, because he was that good a shot with a gun. Well, Larry went on a hunt one time for a mountain goat, and he shot a mountain goat. He told me that area was so treacherous, where those mountain goats lived, that he actually feared for his life getting to the goat he shot. That's the kind of terrain that David was hiding. Verse 3 tells us, he came to the sheep folds. Now the sheep folds were walls that were made of loose stones. What a shepherd would do is he would take some stones and he would put them around an area, usually the mouth of a cave, and he would put his sheep in there so if terrible weather came in there, this was a place where his sheep could be corralled and they would be somewhat safe. When we were on the island of Patmos, there were stone fences that were built just that way. Apparently, they'd go through the fields, and they would pick up stones, and they would pile them up, and they would form these stone fences where they could hold in the sheep. Well, when Saul got to this area, he decided he had to go to the bathroom. Saul's guards would have stayed outside as he went inside to the cave. And you would never think that God would be working in a person who has to go to the bathroom. But the fact of the matter is the sovereignty of God is right in this. Saul went into the cave and he had no idea, deep in that cave, deep in that cave, the very cave that he's chosen to use for a toilet was David and his men. That's not a coincidence. There are a lot of caves in the area. What are the chances that Saul would go into the cave where David was hiding, the one cave, to use the bathroom? This is all part of the sovereignty of God who actually determined that Saul needed to be in this situation, that David was in this situation, and God was the one who said, you need to find a restroom right now, Saul, and here it is, right in this cave. You know, years ago when Jim Vanderveen and I were returning from a hunt in Wyoming, I was driving my truck and we were pulling our horses on I-80, and we had just crossed the Mississippi out of Iowa, and we were coming into Illinois, and we knew that you're going to get into that tri-state in Illinois, and traffic can be atrocious, so we decided we're going to stop at the next rest area and use the restroom before we tackle that part of the trip. And as we pulled off into the rest area, we noticed that the cars in I-80 were beginning to back up and beginning to slow down. At that very moment we pulled off, there was a terrible accident in just about the place we would have been if we would have kept going. We'd have been in a terrible accident pulling those horses. Now who controlled that restroom stop? And I think it was Jim that had to go. I won't take credit for that. It was probably me. I'll take credit for that. But I've always believed in the sovereignty of God in that. You travel down the road and all of a sudden you say, hey, we need to pull into the next rest area for a rest stop. Who knows how many times God's sovereignty has protected us in those kinds of situations where we don't even know it. Don't ever underestimate the capability of the sovereignty of God when he wants to do something. God is completely able to do it, and God knows exactly when it's time to use the restroom, and he goes right in there with us. Which brings us to the second component part, David has the opportunity to kill Saul. Now notice verse 4. The men of David said to him, Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I'm about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you. Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul's robe secretly. It came about afterward that David's conscience bothered him because he'd cut off the edge of Saul's rope. So he said to his men, far be it from me, because of the Lord, that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he's the Lord's anointed. David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way. Saul hated David. and Saul had done nothing but hunt David. And Saul now is in this cave, and David's men realize this moment has been orchestrated by a sovereign God. Here we are back in this cave, and there's Saul. His guards are outside the cave, and here in this cave is Saul. Now, as near as I can determine, they misinterpret a text. I'd like you to flip back to chapter 20 and verse 15, because here's the text they misinterpret. This is Jonathan, Jonathan talking to David in chapter 20, verse 15. And Jonathan says to David, you shall not cut off your loving kindness from my house forever, not even when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth. Now, it seems to me what happens here is these guys that are with David assume this is the time to apply that. They make the assumption that God is the one who has set the stage for you now to execute Saul. But I want you to carefully notice what verse 15 says. God is the one who is going to do it. It doesn't say David would be the one that would do it. It says that God would be the one to take care of the enemies of David. But it must have gone through David's mind when he saw him that, you know, maybe I should take him out right here, right now. I mean, the thought about getting even is not the same as actually doing it, but it must have gone through his mind. And it had to, because the men were obviously quietly talking. In verse 4, it says, the men said to David, so they're quietly talking. In some capacity, Saul couldn't hear them. They're deep in that cave. They can see Saul. Saul doesn't see them. But they realized that God was sovereign in this. And they certainly realized that his enemy was right in the cave with David, and David could do whatever he wanted to do to Saul. They realized God's hand was on David. And notice they do say, though, David, you shall do to him as seems good to you. They have a real respect for David. They recognize David as God's man. And they said, David, you decide this. You decide what seems good for you to do. Now, David is a guy who is fearless. He's got great skill as a military man. He has great stealth. He obviously has a razor-sharp knife with him, or sword, and he decided not to kill Saul, but to sneak in and to cut off the edge of the robe. I mean, that knife that he's got there doing this must have been razor-sharp, it must have been spectacular, because this is not like cutting off material that's just easy to cut off. It must have just sliced through whatever the robe was, and he decided to cut off just the edge of the robe. But according to verse 5, As soon as David did that, the text says, his conscience bothered him. His conscience bothered him. He probably got back deep in the cave and he thought, you know, that's kind of disrespectful what I just did to Saul. I probably shouldn't have done that. And he may have thought, you know, I don't want him to think that this is some maneuver I'm making just to try to replace him. He's still the king. I mean, he must have been rolling those things through his mind. It's interesting to me to think through, how did he actually get that robe? Because I would assume when Saul goes in to use the bathroom, he takes the robe off, puts the robe down, and then walks deeper into the cave. That's what I would assume. And I don't think David would come by him to get the robe that was dropped in front of him. So it could have been like a series of network caverns where he sneaks in from another angle, from a real stealthy way. He stays in the shadows or darkness of the cave and then cuts off the rope. In any case, no matter how he did it, when he got done, his conscience bothered him. That's the way godly people are, by the way. This is the way somebody who's after God's own heart operates. Their conscience bothers them. When they do something that they know is out of line, and they do something that's contrary to what God's Spirit would want them to do, they're troubled by it. That is the mark of godliness. And they may do something that they regret doing, but I'll tell you what, they come under instant conviction they want to make it right. David felt bad about cutting off the robe of Saul because David knew this was God's king here. This is the chosen king of God, so I'm bothered by what I just did. Now, I understand that. When I worked for Bob Kriegel, what an honor to work for that man. He's with the Lord. And John Miles, what an honor to work for him. I would not even go in their office, even though they'd given me permission to do it if they weren't there. You want to know why? I respected those men. My conscience would bother me if I did it. Some people didn't care. They'd wander into the office almost like it was theirs. One guy who worked for me that I rebuked him sternly, I found him sitting in the chair. Not me. See, I realize these are men of God who have a high calling on their lives. He raised them up. I wasn't about to go in their office if they weren't there and sit in their chair. Well, who would know whether or not you're doing that? Who would know whether or not you did that? Well, God and my conscience knew, that's why. And I didn't want anything to do with that kind of mindset. So I get what David's struggling with here. Which brings us to the third part. David decides to confront Saul. Notice verse 8. Now afterward, David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, saying, My lord, the king... Look at the titles he's using here. My lord, that's Adonai. Master. My master, the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself. David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men saying, behold, David seeks to harm you. Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord has given you today into my hand in the cave. And some said to kill you, but my eye had pity on you. And I said, I will not stretch out my hand against the Lord for he is the Lord's anointed. And he uses the word there that we would get our English word Messiah out of this. I mean, look at how David is viewing Saul, the respect he has for Saul here. Verse 11, now my father calls him my father. He was married, of course, to the daughter of Saul, so he addresses him my father. See, indeed, see the edge of your robe in my hand? For in that I cut off the edge of your robe and did not kill you, know and perceive that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands, and I have not sinned against you, though you are lying and wait for my life to take it. May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge me on you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, out of the wicked comes forth wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. And whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing, a dead dog, a single flea? The Lord therefore be judge and decide between you and me, and may he see and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand. Everything David is saying here is just objectively true, factual. He's saying things that are factually true and real. He decided to communicate things straight to Saul, confront Saul. Obviously what happens is Saul finishes up what he was in there to do. He walks out the mouth of that cave, back out there, and David follows him out. David is standing right there in the mouth of the cave. And there are four observations we want to make. First of all, he addresses him respectfully and humbly. Respectfully and humbly. Look at how he addresses him. Adonai, my master, you're the Lord's anointed. You're my king, you're my father. He walks out of that cave and calls him that. I mean, when Saul turned around, David bowed down with his face to the ground, prostrated himself. What respect and humility is that? Here's Saul who wants to kill David, and David still respects Saul and elbows himself before him. That must have shocked Saul. Secondly, David informs Saul he could have killed him, but he spared his life. David says, why are you listening to people tell you I'm out to harm you? because they're not telling you the truth. Now, here's the interesting thing. We have not seen one person in this book of 1 Samuel who's been telling Saul that. We've not seen one person in this book who is trying to convince Saul that David is his enemy. Saul's the one who dreamed it up. Saul made it up in the face of overwhelming evidence that suggests just otherwise. So what David is doing here, instead of saying, Saul, you're insane, you're demonic and out of your mind, instead of him addressing that, he said, I don't know why you're listening to someone who would say that I'm out to kill you when I just had the opportunity to do it. I had pity on you because you're the Lord's anointed king. The third observation is David informs Saul he cut off the edge of his robe, verse 11. Look here what I've got in my hand, Saul. I've cut off a piece of your robe. This, by the way, would have been a king's robe. It would have been a spectacular robe. I don't know if it was the tassels on the bottom of it. I doubt seriously that, because he's in tough country, so he's probably wearing a royal robe. But David said, look at this. And he holds up a piece of the robe. You didn't even know I did this. I could have killed you, but I didn't do it. I'm not out to do evil against you." And finally, David informs Saul that he's going to wait on God for judgment. That's what he tells him in verses 12 to 15. David said, Saul, I've decided to leave this whole thing to God. You're chasing me around like a dead dog. You want to kill me like a dog or like I'm one flea. You're chasing me around like I'm just one flea, hopping around from place to place. Well, I've decided what I'm going to do is leave you to God. David said, if I have done something wicked against you, then by all means, kill me. But if I haven't done anything against you, which I haven't, then why don't we just leave this matter to the Lord? Now Saul is turned around. He's looking at David, holding this piece of robe in his hand. Which brings us to the fourth part. He responds to David in verses 16 to 21. When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, is this your voice, my son David? Then Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, you are more righteous than I, for you have dealt well with me while I've dealt wickedly with you. You've decided today that you've done good to me, that the Lord delivered me into your hand, and yet you did not kill me. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safely? May the Lord therefore reward you with good in return for what you have done to me this day. Now behold, I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. So now swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me and that you will not destroy my name from my father's household. Now, when you read those verses, just like we did, you'd say, if you just looked at him, this is one of the greatest moments of repentance in history. I mean, this is just absolutely fantastic. I mean, Saul turns around, sees David standing there holding a part of his robe in his hand. He could have said to his men, get him. We've been tracking this guy now for a long time. Get him. He doesn't. He burst out in 14 responses, and when you just read him at surface level, you think, wow, he's really made a real commitment to the Lord here. Nothing could be further from the truth. The first response is Saul identifies David. He identifies him in verse 16. Is that you, my son David? Is that your voice? Now, he's been demeaning David in the last chapters, calling him son of Jesse. Doesn't even use his name. But at this point, he says, is that you, David? I think that's just phony in itself. He knew David's voice. I mean, he knew who David was. He just turned around and looked at him. Just looked at him. He would have known who else is going to be doing this. Who else would say the things that were just said to Saul? So in my opinion, he's just playing a part. His second reaction is he wept. According to verse 16, he lifted up his voice and wept. Man, this looks good, doesn't it? I'll tell you what, these are tears of a spiritual clown. And I'll show you that in a minute. These are tears of a spiritual clown. I have seen this too many times to know emotional responses prove nothing. Sometimes people will cry because they're all emotional and they get caught. Sometimes they're sorry for the sin. They're sorry they got caught. They're not repentant. It's just all emotional. Weeping because the emotions are running rampant isn't the same thing as doing honest business with the Lord. Don't ever confuse the two. Thirdly, Saul admits, David, you're more righteous than I am. Now, this entire speech that Saul's making here concerning David is absolutely true. Everybody knew that. I mean, Saul's admitting it in verse 17, you're more righteous than I. Yeah, well, tell us something we don't know. I mean, you've been led by Satan tracking an innocent man who's right with God around the country trying to kill him. We know that he's more righteous than you are. Fourthly, Saul admits David had dealt well with him. So at the end of it, you've dealt well with me. Saul admitted, man, David, everything that you did in connection to me was good. I mean, you went out and fought Goliath. You beat him. I sent you on missions against the Philistines. You beat them. I mean, you always came back and you were always respectful of me. You played the harp for me. You calmed me down. You've always dealt well with me. That's absolutely true. The fifth response is Saul admits that he dealt wickedly with David, and that's true. At the end, he says, I've dealt wickedly with you. That's true. Boy, he had been a wicked man. He massacred those 85 priests. Saul dealt wickedly with about anybody he came in contact with. The sixth response is Saul admits that God did deliver him into David's hands. He couldn't explain that away. You've declared today that you've done good to me and that the Lord delivered me into your hand and yet you did not kill me. I mean, Saul says, I get it. I'm in that cave and I do acknowledge that God was sovereign in that. I was right there in that cave in front of you. And then he admits David did good to him and eighth, he didn't kill him. So he says, I understand, David, what you did. And then he says, in almost a confession, in verse 19, I've been your enemy. He admits that in verse 19. He says, for if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safely? Saul was David's arch enemy. He could never capture David. He could never kill David. Saul admits that David let him go safely. In verse 19, you let me walk out of this cave. You could have killed me right in this cave. You didn't do it. He hopes that God will reward David. Verse 19, he says, and I hope therefore the Lord will reward you. This sounds so pious. I mean, it sounds like this guy is really having a revival. I mean, you read this and you go, man, man, he's really had a change of mind here. And then 12th, he admits that David's going to be the next king. I mean, Samuel had told him that clear back in chapter 13. He told him, God's gonna take the kingdom away from you, give it to a man after his own heart. And Saul knew David was to be that man. He admitted that he knows Israel's kingdom will be established by David. He says that in verse 20. And then he asked David to preserve his family and his name, something that David had already made a covenant with Jonathan that he was gonna do. Now, when you look at the response of Saul, you'd say, boy, this just went the way you want it to go. I mean, you have a guy who's just involved in all kinds of evil, and you have a guy who has really come to terms with repenting. This guy is doing nothing but emotionally babbling, and it means nothing. And you want me to prove it to you? Flip over to chapter 26, verse 1. Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding in the hill of Hakala, which is before Jeshamon? So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having with him 3,000 chosen men of Israel, to search for David in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul camped in the hill of Hakalah, which is before Jechamon, beside the road. David was staying in the wilderness when he saw that Saul came after him in the wilderness. David sent out spies and he knew that Saul was definitely coming. There's the truth of it. It's all just an emotional moment in Saul's life. I do not put any stock in emotional appeals and I do not put any stock in emotional responses. I do not put any stock in alder calls, people walk aisles. I've seen this stuff go crazy. I do not put any stock in people raising their hands. I don't put any stock in people crying. I've seen too many Saul types along the way in these last 40 plus years. I've seen so many Saul types who put on some show in front of people like they're really doing business with God, it turns out to be a sham. It's not real. It's emotional. That's what this is. Saul is putting on a show here. It's just a sham. He's not doing honest business with God. He's not down before God. God, I've sinned. I'm ashamed of what I've done. I turn from it. I turn to your word. He's not doing that. He's just putting on a show. Which brings us to the fifth part, David responds to Saul. Verse 22, David swore to Saul and Saul went to his home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. Do you see that? See where David and his men go? To the stronghold. Now you have to say, well now, if everything's good, I mean, if we've got now this wonderful relationship with Saul, how come he doesn't go home? He's got his wife there. He was living there in the king's palace area. So why doesn't he go home? Because they knew this guy is a fickle liar. They don't trust him. So David said, yeah, I'll preserve your family. He'd already agreed to do that with Jonathan. And so he and his men, knowing the true character of Saul, they realize, this guy's not going to change. I don't believe one second he's telling the truth. And they know that. So we end up, verse 22, by saying his men went right back up into the stronghold areas. They're up there where the goats hide, because they know they can't get them easy up there. I want to leave us with just a few parting thoughts on this. The first thing we're learning as we go through this life of David and 1 Samuel is no matter who your enemy is, and no matter how powerful your enemy is, God does not let them destroy his people. He protects his people. He watches over them. Sometimes he rescues them in the 11th hour. just like he did last week when we saw Saul halfway up the hill, and God intervenes and turns him in a different direction. God protects his people. Secondly, God is sovereign over everything in our lives, even trips to the restroom. God watches over everything going on in our world. He's a God who's omniscient, knows all, omnipresent, everywhere present. He's a God who's with us every step of the way through this life. Thirdly, when a person has established himself or herself to be a liar, don't be quick to believe they've changed. When a person has a track record of telling nothing but lies, up and down emotional, promising this one day, another thing the next day, and you see that over time, don't be quick to believe them. That is why we have to prove people, watch them over time, to see if there's been a real work of the Lord take place in their lives. And finally, don't put a lot of stock in instant emotional responses. Because most of the time, it won't last. Now David is a great illustration, of course, of Jesus Christ. I mean, it is a great illustration of Christ. Jesus Christ, when he was here the first time, could have taken out all his enemies in a heartbeat. He could have just literally destroyed everybody, being the God-man on this earth, and established his kingdom on earth. But you know what his plan was? I'll work this plan out in waiting on my Father. Not my will, but thy will be done. That was the way Christ approached it. And in the meantime, since we're waiting for Him to come back and finish this program and establish His kingdom on earth, God's grace reaches out to people like us, people who don't deserve it. God's grace and mercy reaches out to us just like David's did in reaching out to Saul. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word. I pray, Lord, that we will be people of sound minds, sound lives. I pray we will not be driven by the irrational, the emotional, the sensational. I pray that we will have minds driven by the biblical, the factual, and the real. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for grace. Lord, we realize that you would have had a right to pull the trigger on any one of us if you would have decided to do it, but we thank you for grace that gave us opportunities to respond to the Lord and live for him. We pray you come get us soon, Lord, perhaps even tonight. In Jesus' name, amen.