the way. Thank you for doing that. Psalm 121 in your Bibles, you'll see that on the screen. Last week we began a series of messages through the Psalms of Ascent, a series that we've called, and I think I've got it on the other, well, no I don't. I went away from it. I'm sorry about that guys in the back. A series that we called Singing Along the Way, and we'll be going through this together. And they're As you're turning there to Psalm 121, I want to draw your attention, as we did last time, towards the inscription that's printed above there. Some of your Bibles will say a song of degrees or a psalm of ascents. And there are various and sundry opinions that I didn't get into last week that I want to get into this week, even as we turn to Psalm 121. About and speculation about why these psalms were given this name and and and you'll read some of these ideas Some say these psalms were given this name because of the key in which they were written Of course, we don't know the inscription of that key And so that's a speculation some will say some will say it's because of there there are 15 of these psalms and there are 15 steps of between the court of the men and the court of the women in the temple, and each one would be sung on each step as they made their way through those steps. And others still will speculate that these were 15 psalms of ascent that had been set aside by King Hezekiah, and he was the one that initiated this, and thereby we have these psalms. Of all of those opinions, the most likely, and seems to be the one that most would agree, is that these were sung as the people of Israel ascended up into Jerusalem for the feasts that were taking place there. Now there are, as we noted, and you'll see in your Bibles, beginning in Psalm 120, making their way all the way to 134, and maybe I should Turn it on. Psalm 120 all the way to 134. There are 15 of these psalms. And 10 of these psalms are anonymous. Meaning we don't know who wrote 10 of these psalms of ascent. Four of these psalms are attributed to David. You'll find that in Psalm 122, Psalm 124, Psalm 131, and Psalm 133. They are attributed to David. And many times people will say, well, David wrote the Psalms. And he wrote a lot of them, but he didn't write all the Psalms. And 10 of them are anonymous. Four of these Psalms are attributed to David. And one of these Psalms is attributed to Solomon. You'll find that in Psalm 127. And I believe these are the traveler's psalms. These are the pilgrim's psalms, as the people of Israel would make their way up into Jerusalem, three major annual feasts. And I think my slides are out of order, and that's okay, I'll keep up with them. But they would make their way in the Passover in the spring, and then Pentecost in early summer, and then the tabernacles in the fall. I give that all to you because knowing the historical background of this psalm will enable us to better understand what is taking place as we read this psalm. Worshippers would come from all over the Middle East these three times a year. And these travelers would make their way to Jerusalem where it sat high geographically from wherever they were going. And as the worshipers would travel, they would be ascending. And as I noted last week, we're not talking about the nose, right? But they would be going upwards. And in those days, there were no real roads, not as we know them today. There were only these well-trodden paths that would take them across valleys and around rivers and over mountain passes, and they would be traveling, and it would be difficult traveling. Your muscles would ache, your feet would get sore, but you would be making your way. And in addition to that, this was difficult traveling because you would face many dangers along the way. you would face the dangers of thieves and robbers. If you go to the New Testament, you'll remember the parable of the good Samaritan and how a man was on this winding path going through these probably very similar mounting passes leading up to Jerusalem from Jericho. And in that parable, you learn that he falls among thieves and robbers. And these people would hide along the passes, and they would know that three times a year would be a great time to rob the people that are traveling to these feasts. So you would face those kind of dangers. But you would also face dangers of the weather, which... Even today, it's very unpredictable, and you don't know what could come about. And remember, you're not traveling in a vehicle. You're traveling either by foot or riding an animal, and so weather could become very dangerous. And if you don't have normal paths like we do and the paved roads, all of a sudden, what was a path becomes a mudslide. And so that can become very dangerous. And Jerusalem was the end of that pilgrimage. We started last week in Psalm 120. We saw there in Meshach and Kadesh. That's the very farthest. And when you come to verse 134, you find themselves encamped in Jerusalem and finally celebrating. But Jerusalem seems very far away. It seems at times almost unreachable. And this psalm was placed into the Psalter. that it might encourage not only believers that were traveling then, but all believers who would read this Psalm, because in a real way, we are all on a journey. We are not on a journey upward to Jerusalem, but we are on a journey upward to heaven. We're looking forward to going up one day. And this is a journey. This world is not our home. We are, as the songwriter says, simply passing through. And the goal is not this world, is it? But along the way, so long as you are an upward-climbing person, there will be difficulties, and we will face many dangers, won't we? We, too, face thieves and robbers. We, too, face spiritual foes that await us and lurk behind the next bend. We are involved in an upward ascend. It is difficult, it is wearying at times. And we, too, face hot, oppressive days that threaten our very existence. And in the midst of all that, in the midst of that weariness, I want you to know God is our strength. Look with me in Psalm 121, beginning in verse 1. It says, I will lift up mine eyes into the hills. From whence comes my help? My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The Lord shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth even forevermore. As you come to the end of a Sunday together, maybe there are some in this room who are exhausted. Maybe mentally exhausted, maybe emotionally exhausted, perhaps physically fatigued. Perhaps you simply didn't have your afternoon cup of coffee. Maybe you are drained. And I have no doubt that in a gathering like this, there are many that feel exactly that way. I think it's also unique that at times God will lead even myself as your pastor now to pick a sermon series and then you go through it and then you come to realize after you've prepared two different messages how alike both of them are. This morning we were in 2 Timothy and Paul is encouraging a drained Timothy to be on fire. And now this evening we're in Psalm 122 and I can only imagine that if Paul had a passage for Timothy to read, it likely would have been Psalm 122. If there are any passages that could encourage him, certainly Psalm 122 would have been one of them. And I want you to know if that is your case, God is your strength. Wherever God is taking you, whatever God has brought before you in your path, you need to know that you can rely on the strength that God provides. And that is the beauty of this psalm, and I trust it will be an encouragement to you this evening. This is a stabilizing psalm. It provides security to the insecure. In fact, if you're marking words in your Bibles, you'll know that six times in this passage, the word keep is repeated in this psalm. It is found in verse three, it is found in verse four, it is found in verse five, it is found in verse seven, it is found again in verse eight. In verses seven and eight, the King James translators decided to use the same Hebrew word shamar, which is consistent in this psalm, and change it to the word preserve, but it's the same word. And the Hebrew word shamar is a word that literally pictures the idea of God's eye being fixed on you. He is watching you as you travel. Let me give you an overview of the Psalm of Ascent. You'll notice that there are eight verses and in this psalm it beautifully breaks up into four stanzas and I know, I guess, do I not have all of my first slides? It starts in number two, is that right up there? I guess so. So we'll start in number two and I'll do my best to give you the rest of them. But in verses one and two, it says God is my strength. That's really the focus of verses one and two, is it breaks down into four stanzas or couplets with two verses each. Verses one and two, God is your strength. Verses three and four, God is my support. Verses five and six, God is my shade. And finally, verses seven through eight, God is my savior. Now this psalm is meant to assure us that God's eyes are always upon his people and it is uniquely used as a mission sending psalm. But as really all of our psalms in a world filled with wonderment and fright, you need to know that peace can be had in God. Now, my first point is not gonna be on the screens. I'm not sure why, but I have point two on the screen, so let me give it to you very clearly if you're taking notes. Number one, you can run to God's presence if you would know strength for your journey. Number one, you can run to God's presence if you would know strength for your journey. Peace comes when you have the right perspective. And the first two verses of this psalm help us to gain a right focus of God. And it seems as if the psalmist, after times of doubt and confusion, regains a confident assurance that his Lord is in control. And after all, friend, those who would know God's strength look up by faith. This verse really begins with a question. Notice what he asks. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills. From whence comes my help? Now in Bible times, the hills had places of idolatry and false religion on them. In fact, frequently revivals when they came to Israel in 2 Chronicles, the first thing that a revival king would do when a revival started is he would tear down the high places. Remember Josiah doing that. He goes out and he tears down these high places because up on these high places, up on these hills, would be dedicated to the false worship of these false god. And so even so, the psalmist says, I will lift up mine eyes to the hills. And it's not looking at the geography right now. This is a statement of spiritual dependence. I will look up to where they place their false gods. And where is my help? Where does my help come from? It doesn't come from false gods, does it? My help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. The psalmist is saying, I don't look for my help from over on that hill where they lifted up a false god. Instead, I look up beyond the hill to the God who made everything. And while the world was searching for things and is still searching for things that are beyond their grasp to fill a void, he is saying only God is my source of help. God needs to be the one I look up to. It's not an accident that when Noah was on the ark, there was only one window and the window was looking up. It's not an accident that when Daniel was thrown into a lion's den, he was thrown down so that he would look up. It's not an accident that when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace, they were thrown down so there's only one place to look. And I don't look down in despair, I look up by faith. And too many believers look around and find themselves filled with fear, they look in and they find themselves filled with doubt, and they look down and they find themselves discouraged. But you ought to be looking up. And sometimes God places you on their back. So the only place you can look is up. You need a right perspective. And those who would know God's strength, they don't just look up, they speak up. As the psalmist looks up, he is ready to speak up. And he says by way of testimony that he is assured of God's presence and help. Look what he says in verse two. My help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. The psalmist testifies that his help comes from a covenant-keeping personal God of Israel, and he refers to God by a special name, Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah. That's where my help comes from. And the idea is this, if God can make this world, then surely he has the power to take care of me. What a wonderful truth. You know, friend, God is most glorified when his people speak up in confidence based on the promises he has already provided for them. There ought to be a testimony in God's people during times of adversity that we expect our help to come from the Lord. Here's what the psalmist would say in Psalm 107 verse 2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. And so we speak up, sometimes even reminding ourselves that God is there. It's not wrong, even at times, to speak up and claim the promises God gave to us. Can you think of any Old Testament or New Testament Bible characters who, in their prayers during adversity, reminded God of promises he gave to them? Can you think of anybody like that? Moses did. Specifically when he prayed that God wouldn't destroy the children of Israel, he said, God, you promised you wouldn't in Exodus 32 verse 13. Jacob did when he reminded God of his promise to bless his seed after him in Genesis 32 verse 12. Peter encourages the suffering church with awesome promises that God has made for them, that God continue and will continue to build his church, and he promises, you might be discouraged, but let me claim this promise for you in 2 Peter 1 verse 4. In times of trial, let me ask you, do you regularly go back to the promises of God to find your sure footing? In many ways, we need to be more like little children. Where does a two-year-old run when they're distraught, and they're just overwhelmed, and they're crying out? They run to mom and dad. Because in a little one's mind, no problem is bigger than mom and dad. But so often when we find ourselves overwhelmed, we don't run to our heavenly father who is ready and willing to embrace us as his own and has already given us so many promises to rely on. So to however big the thing that you are worried about, remember God is bigger than that thing. If you are a Christian, He is on your side. He is your Father. Run to Him. Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. If you would know God's strength for your journey, number one, you need to run to God's presence. Where are you running this evening? It could run to many different things. And you might find some kind of stability just by way of distraction, which is often what many will do. They come overwhelmed and so they search for something else. And there's my points. They search for something else to try to find God in their trial. I don't know where they just pulled that slide out. That's amazing. If they just type that up in the middle of the sermon, well done sound guys. But there they are. And if you would know God's presence, you would run to God. Where are you running today? Where are you looking today? What are you talking about today? And I know it just went on the screen, but I have to move forward. Number two, stand on God's promises if you would know strength for your journey. Peace comes by holding on to those promises. And Psalm 121 finds the psalmist dealing with three very common threats, and these threats come against him, and he doesn't know what to do, so he reflects upon God's promises, and in the midst of those, he recognizes, number one, that the threat of weariness will not change God's promises. The psalmist addresses this weariness in poetic form by using parallel structures in verses three and four. He says in verse three, he will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. While every traveler becomes weary, God never does. And as we lie down to rest, we know God never has to. As we go to sleep at night, we can rest and we can recharge because our God is ever awake. Is this not what the psalmist said in Psalm 4 verse 8? I both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. Not only does the Lord know that it is easy for us to slip, he also knows it is not always easy for us to sleep. He says, you might be weary, but I never will be. The story is told that back in the days of World War II, The Germans were bombing London all night, every night. And after one terrible attack, the people of London began to search through the rubble, looking for the dead and injured. And after a while, all had been accounted for, except for one older grandmother named Mrs. Smith. And they searched everywhere for Mrs. Smith, and they were worried that she'd been lost in the bombing. And finally, they found her in her bedroom, asleep on her bed. And they were shocked. And according to the story, they asked Mrs. Smith, how could you sleep with all the bombs dropping around you? And reportedly, her answer was priceless. She said, well, the Bible says, he who keeps Israel never sleeps. And I decided there was no use in both of us staying up. You know, in verses 3 and 4, we find that the Lord's care is constant. God's watch is constant. He never sleeps. He's never daydreaming. He's never distracted. He's never inattentive. In fact, we can safely sleep because He never does that. God is ever awake. He's ever watching. And He always cares. And the threat even of weakness will not change God's promises. Warren Wiersbe said in his commentary notes on this passage, our keeper is on the throne looking down on us, but he is also at our side to shield us from harm. In verses five and six, we find that the Lord's care is close. We often talk about God as if he's far away. We almost view him that way. We almost view God as this distant, powerful being, and yet, in verses five and six, we find this being said, the Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand, the sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night, and these two verses begin with two potent, poetic promises. And I love the emotions of the Psalms for this reason. Because they convey powerful truth, but they do it in a way that speaks even to our emotions through song and through even poetry. And even Hebrew poetry, you can see exactly all of what is being poured out through inspired writing. And the psalmist uses two analogies to powerfully make his point that the threat of weakness will not change God's promises. And what he's saying, number one, is that God protects our weaknesses. In ancient times, warriors, you'll know, carried two items into battle, predominantly. One was the sword, and the other was the shield. And normally, the shield would be carried on your left arm, and your sword would be carried on your right arm, which meant that your right side was vulnerable because there was no shield on that side. And so what he's saying is God protects your right side. Why not your left? Well, what he's saying is your right side, that's your most vulnerable side. God is protecting your vulnerabilities, your weaknesses. And God also protects your vision for success. Notice what he says, the sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. Now what is he talking about? Well, there are two common sources of harm for an ancient soldier. So he's gonna stay in this soldier poetic mindset. And one was sunstroke. You know what that is, a dangerous condition where the body would become overheated and shut down. This could even be fatal. He's saying, I'm going to protect you physically even if the sun beats down upon you. But the other idea at that time was what many soldiers referred to as a moonstroke. And they believed, the ancient believed, and Josephus writes about it, that the moon was just as dangerous as the sun, but they believed, for whatever reason, that the moon would affect your emotions. You could go crazy by moonstroke. That's what they thought. And so the whole idea is physically, and even we could say emotionally, God is there to protect you. He's gonna move you forward. And while we are subject to attack in our lives, God is there to guard us. And whether that attack is open or secret, whether it comes by day or in the darkness of night, be sure that God is aware of where you are and what is happening. Psalm 91 verse 4 says, he shall cover thee with his feathers, under his wings shalt thou trust, his truth shall be your shield and buckler. Psalm 18 verse 2 says, the Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, my high tower. Preachers love verses that you only just have to stay right there and you could just spend an hour talking about, there's one for you. I mean, just look at those pictures being used. There is no circumstance in which God will abandon his pilgrim to look after himself. Right there beside me, promising never to leave me, never to forsake me. I am promised his presence day to day, month to month, year to year. Friend, stand on that. And you'll get pushed down and you'll be rocked over, but there is a foundation worth standing on. Whatever it is that you are worried about, God is close enough to help you and there is nothing you can do to understand, there's nothing that can happen to you rather that God is not prepared for. God is your strength. Thirdly, and finally, God's, we need to rely on God's providence if you would know strength for your journey. The providence of our majestic God is that ultimately what gives us security in times of need, and God's providence refers to his preservation. He controls everything. The psalmist understood and appreciated this providential care, and look how often the psalmist repeats the phrase, watches over, or the Lord watches over. Did you notice that? The Hebrew writers use the Hebrew derivation of this translation six times in six verses. Anytime there's a repetition, you know what teachers are trying to do. They're not repeating something so that they might learn, they're repeating something so that the student might learn. So if he wants us to know six times, six times he's gonna repeat that God watches over you, there is something to be learned. And he says, number one, we are providentially kept from evil. To be kept from evil does not imply, by the way, a trouble-free life, but it does imply a well-protected life. Verse seven, the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil, he shall preserve thy soul. This is the kind of providence that is difficult for people to understand, and yet it is illustrated for us repeatedly throughout scripture. And those who understand fully this aspect of God are able to grasp the truths that Joseph clung to. At the end of his life, Joseph would say this, but as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. Those who understand God's providence are able to trace God's fingerprints in their life, even through trial, and they can see God meant this for good. One of the lesser-known, but I treasure in my heart, testimonies from after the bus accident that took my brother and sister-in-law was a little-known Sunday evening service that the church at Colonial did, and they called it Tracing God's Fingerprints. And all they did is they put a little microphone in the front. And they let people walk up and share testimony of what God had taught them through that trial. Friend, that, that was special. Because it was God's people in the midst of trial recognizing God's in control. Psalm 62 verse two said, he alone is my rock and my salvation. Psalm 28 verse eight says, Yahweh is my strength. Psalm 46 verse 1 says God is our refuge and strength. Psalm 124 verse 8 says our help is in the name of the Lord, Yahweh. I'm grateful this evening to say we are providentially kept, aren't you? We are providentially kept for eternity. But in what sense is God really keeping us from harm? You and I are just a subject. to the perils of the world as any non-Christian. You really are. On average, in my experience, I'd say that Christians suffer sickness, bereavement, redundancy, crime, and unfairness just as much as anybody else. And at times it feels like maybe more so. In what sense is God keeping us from harm? Are we deluded to buy into this lie that somehow it's better to follow God or have we just kind of just beat ourselves up in this journey and we've just bought into a bunch of lies? If we had a narrow worldly perspective on the promises of God, we would look at them and we would think they are bogus, wouldn't we? But the psalmist just won't allow us that narrow perspective. Just as earlier he lifted up his eyes above the hills to see the creator, here he looks beyond his present anxieties to see eternal truths. And God is concerned with our whole lives, friend, not just now. You and I are eternal beings. And God is not just concerned with the here and now and your best life now. Boy, if this was your best life now, that kind of stinks. And God is looking out for something far better. And the Lord, verse eight, shall preserve thy going out and thy coming forth in this time forth and even forevermore. As a songwriter says, sometimes the day seems long. Our trial is hard to bear. We're tempted to complain, to murmur, to despair. Christ will soon appear to catch his bride away, all tears forever in God's eternal day, and the chorus says it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ, one glimpse of his dear face, all sorrow will erase, so bravely run the race till we see Christ. Often our first concern is that we have a comfortable life, but God's first concern is that we have an eternal life. And so God's promises to us is to keep us, but friend, is God keeping you? Can you claim that you are eternally his? The opposite of eternal life, you should know, is eternal death. Friend, if you've never accepted Christ, come to him today. If you have, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? How can you do that? For you are with me. As we finish, I would like to be fruitful, I think it would be fruitful to spend some time reflecting on our own worries in light of this psalm. Because this psalm is treasured as a psalm to strengthen us, to encourage us, to motivate us even. But oftentimes the things that cause us to do the opposite of what this psalm are meant to teach us to do is our own worries and our own anxieties. So if you will for a moment, I think it would be fruitful for us to close by reflecting on our worries. What causes them? And if we could grasp a better knowledge of what causes them, we will have a better prayer base on which to rely on God, run to God, and remember God's promises. You see, worry is our own meditative way of saying we no longer trust God's strength for the journey. And I would that you would meditate on Psalm 122. I would that for the rest of the week, if you are discouraged, you would come back to Psalm 122. And so often people say, I don't know, I'm not a good meditator. And my answer to you is, yes, you are. You just might be meditating on the wrong things, a.k.a. worry. Why do we worry? Well, number one, we worry because deep down we believe, deep down we believe that God is unable to take care of us. That's why we worry. We may never have the nerve to say it out loud, but underlying our fears is the lack of the belief that God is capable of saving us. Why would I lean on? Why would I stand on? Why would I run to? Why would I rely on a God who can't even keep his promises? But if God is God, there is nothing in our lives that he can't deal with. He can help with your problems at work. He can help with your family relationships. He can help with those troubles plaguing your life. But we worry because deep down we believe that God is unable to take care of us. And number two, we worry because deep down we believe that God might be unwilling to take care of us. Do you secretly believe that God has it out for you? Are you concerned that you are not, perhaps, good enough for God? Do you see God as a reluctant or a begrudging, grace-filled person? So often, that's how we view God. If you were with us on Wednesday night, we saw the fall of man in chapter three of Genesis. But what I wanted to highlight was that against the backdrop and darkness of the fall of man, we see God searching for sinners. We see God coming into that garden that is now marred by sin and asking Adam and Eve, where are you? And there may be some in this room that you say, well, God, he just doesn't love me. I've done too much. I've gone too far. And you bought into this idea that God is just frankly unwilling. And I want to let you know that even the first ancestors of us all who marred God's perfect garden with sin and cast all of creation into this groaning and travailing that Paul writes about, even to them, God would come and search and ask, where are you? He is willing because he does love. And Jesus would come and say that he has come to seek and to save all that are lost. And I don't know if I have to execute the word all, because I think he can figure it out. Number three, we worry, not just because we are unable, we think God is unable, or we think perhaps God is unwilling, but we worry, number three, because deep down we believe we can take care of it ourselves. It's probably the most common, but it's also the most dangerous. We prefer to do things our own way. we'd simply rather cope on our own. But at its heart, self-sufficiency is pride. And pride is a rejection of God. And so from this pulpit from God's word, I'm not gonna encourage you to build your self-esteem. I'm gonna encourage you to build your reliance on God. In fact, quite the opposite of building your self-esteem, I will remind you that Paul would say you need to actually not build up and love yourself, but you actually need to learn to die to self. We live in a culture that really, frankly, encourages you to figure it out on your own, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and if someone has the courage and tenacity to be a self-made man, we don't look at that as wrong, we applaud that. That's not right either. And at its heart, that still is, in a sense, worry. Because eventually, any self-made man will realize you can't make everything work on your own. And then when everything comes crashing down, as inevitably it will, ironically enough, after we've tried to build life on our own foundation and it doesn't work, we blame God. And the cycle repeats itself. Now which of these describes you as you come to this psalm? Are you worrying because you think God is unable to take care of you? Are you worrying because you think God is perhaps unwilling to take care of you? Are you worrying because really you've just tried to build life upon your own foundation and you want to take care of yourself? Why are you anxious? Psalm 121 teaches us where to run. Can we read it again? I will lift up mine eyes into the hills. From whence cometh my help? It's not coming from those other stuff. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day. The moon will not smite thee by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, even forever more. There's a song for the journey of life. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, only you and your guidance could weave together two texts of scriptures on the same Sunday, or as I can honestly say, I just thought I'm gonna preach Psalms of Ascent in the evening and 2 Timothy in the morning, and it wasn't until preparing both messages, Lord, that you made it very clear there's a definite connection between the two. And Lord, I can't help but even as that is being said, understand that perhaps, Lord, you may have just done that because there may be someone in this room that needed to hear it both times. Lord, there may be some, even as we're praying, that are distraught, they are discouraged, and boy, Lord, do they need your strength. May they run to you, may they rely on you, may they cling to your promises. Every head bowed and every eye closed, as we did this morning, we do again this evening, the instruments are gonna begin to play. Song of Invitation. In a room this size, there's a lot of different places you could go, certainly you could come forward. You could go in the back into the atrium, find a quiet place. If you're in the balcony, likewise, you could come down the steps. You could stay in your seat, frankly. You could grab your spouse by the hand and pray together. But the instruments are gonna begin to play. If the Lord has spoken to you, would you respond? If you do come forward and you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, Pastor Stockard's down here, he'd love to direct you to speak with someone. Would you respond as God has talked to you this evening? So, You can look this way. Thank you for joining us this evening. We're so glad that we could gather together and open God's word. Pastor Fisher's gonna come and lead us in a closing anthem. Before he does, I just wanted to share something personally that I just got a text. I don't normally keep my phone on me up here writing for a text. This evening I did. As many of you know, the church that we left was voting on their next pastor. And it was actually this evening that they were voting on their next pastor. And he was our youth pastor when I was there, Aaron Berry is his name. And many of you I know have been praying for that process. He just received 99.2% of the vote and is the new pastor there. So, so glad for God's work. And I'm excited. You know, when we moved here, we knew we were leaving behind a wonderful ministry, but I also knew, I even told the BILPA committee, you got the guy. You got the guy right there. He's ready for it. And he went through the process that was necessary in their constitution that required him to preach four different services on two different Sundays. And so it took a little while to get there. And there he is. And 99.2 is really amazing. So praise the Lord for it. I'm rejoicing.