Our message this evening is from Ecclesiastes chapter three. We'll read from Ecclesiastes three, verses one to 15. And the title of the message is, Men Should Fear Before God. And so Ecclesiastes 3 verses 1 to 15. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to cast away. A time to rend and a time to sew. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. a time of war and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made everything beautiful in his time. Also, he has set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God. I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men should fear before him. That which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been. And God requireth that which is past." So much of the teaching of this book has been upon man's feebleness and man's frailty and the futility of man's busyness under the sun and the futility of his ambitions and hopes and desires that all come to so little, even to vanity. And that's what these verses continue to teach us, but in a different way, by highlighting something, by highlighting for us the changeability of man. And a great contrast is made here between man and God, who is immutable. God is constant. God is eternal. God is unchanging. God always has been and always will be. He does not learn anything. He does not progress from one place to another. He's not moved by twists and turns going on. It is said of God that he is timeless or that he is atemporal. He's existing in perfection outside of time. And this is a concept that we struggle to lay hold of because we have a beginning. Each of us, we have a beginning. Boys and girls, most of you would think of it as your birthday, but it's actually before that. It's actually before that. And the Bible speaks to us of our own beginning in the womb when we are conceived. We have a beginning, but God has no beginning. God has always been, and there was nothing before him, and there was no time that there ever was no God. And so it would not make sense to talk about God as in time at all, because he is outside of it, and time does not govern him. Time does not affect him. He is over it. And the scripture gives ample testimony to these things. Psalm 90 verse 4, For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the nights. Or then 2 Peter 3, But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. You see, as creatures of time, these things are foreign to us. And so we struggle to lay hold of these things. We are creatures of time. We are deeply affected by the progression of time, by the changes in our lives, and the seasons, and the circumstances that arise. We're deeply affected by these things. And the Lord knows this, and he's outside of this. And this is pressed to us in this section. Solomon will press this distinction between the Creator and men. And he will highlight that great contrast between God, who is above and outside, he's eternal, and man, who is seated in time and governed by seasons and times that the Lord has set for him. And so we'll take up this section and we'll take up this passage in three headings. First, we'll just explore man's changing seasons. Oh, man is subject to so much change. One day to day, one hour to an hour, one minute to a minute. Change, change, change. Man's changing seasons. But then secondly, we'll examine God's rule over time. God's rule over time. He's above it. It doesn't affect him. And then thirdly, we'll consider God's judgment over man's days. And so God will certainly stand in judgment over the times that he has appointed for men. Now, with the Lord's help, we will examine these things and take some application as we go. But our main point will be what we said at the beginning. Men should fear before God because of these things. As Solomon urges, we should be reminded of our frailty and our feebleness and our changeability in light of God's immutability and take lessons from these things. And so we start looking at all these seasons. Man's changing seasons. The beginning of this passage is so well known. It's been used in all sorts of books and movies and songs. It's been read how many hundreds of thousands of times. beside gravesites, because it's poetic. And there's something that resonates within us about these things, because we're creatures so bound in time. We understand that times and seasons change, and circumstances change with them. So time passing is a fundamental reality for creatures born in time. It's like the poet said, Chaucer. He said, time and tide wait for no man. There's nothing we can do about it. It's going to keep coming and coming. We can't change it. We can't speed it up. We can't slow it down. We are subject to it. We're dependent upon it. And this is all laid out for us in these verses in so many different ways. In fact, Solomon proves this to us by using 28 different times. There are 28 times or occasions that are all arranged in pairs, like couplets of opposites that go together. So there are 14 couplets that go together, all showing us that man is a creature of seasons and times. Man is affected in every way and should be affected in every way by the things going on around him, by the times that are changing. We need to understand this. And this is a feature of us as created beings. And so Solomon says, to everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. Did you set the time for your birth? Did anyone here set the time for their birth? How could you? And if you could have set it, how would you know the right time to set? It's absurd to even think these things. because it's so clear that God has set the time for each of our births. And He did it all according to His wise purposes and all for His own glory. And every one of us, from the second that we come into existence, we're dependent upon God for His setting of this thing, for His setting of our time of birth. This is the great factor of our lives. It really is. And we have no control over it. We come into this world when and where and how exactly God determines it. And so this should make us humble. This should make us fear. Well, what about this? There's a time to die. God has determined a time for every person to die. He knows it. It's already been recorded. Hebrews 9.27, it says, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. You see, men have obsessed over this. Men have obsessed about, how can I extend my life? What can I do? How can I make it longer? And it's true that there are some things that we could do that might extend the likelihood of us living longer to some extent. But that does not mean that it's up to us. That does not mean that we are the masters. It is God. God alone knows the time of our death until we die. And again, we're reminded by many, many testimonies in the Word of God about the fragility of our lives and how short it is. James 4, he says, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. Or there's Psalm 35. He says, Behold, thou hast made my days as in handbreadth, and mine ages as nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. And then there's 1 Peter. He says, For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth. And we could turn to other places. We could turn to Job. We could listen to Job, chapter 14, and he would go on and on about the shortness and the fragility of his life and how he wishes, he says, that he would be hidden and closed up in the grave and would simply be done with. Well, all of this fits in exactly with the larger message that Solomon is communicating in this book. about the fragility and the futility of our natural lives. Man is ephemeral. That's like a flower, boys and girls, that means short-lived and soon gone. And so why should men think they're so great? Why should men boast themselves when death is right around the corner for each one? Well, we could say more, we could bring forth more testimonies from scripture, but we'll move forward to verse two. He says, there's a time to plant, and there's a time to pluck up that which is planted. And so these things shape our lives. Can we determine the seasons? Can we determine the weather? Can a man plant corn in the winter and expect it to grow? Can he decide if he wants to harvest his wheat and just do it in the springtime? It will not work. And these things are set for man, and man must flow with these things. If he is to be wise, if he is to live, he must flow with these things. And so what would you think of the man who slept when it was harvest time? Well, this is what Proverbs 10 says. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. Well, why? because he's not understanding and not submitting to the seasons that God has appointed and the times that God has appointed. There are rhythms that are in our lives. We speak about them in different terms. There's rhythms in our lives. We talk about the rhythms of our lives, like being a teenager. Or we talk about being a young adult. Or maybe we talk about being newlyweds. And we know that those are different stages. Or we talk about being young parents. And then we also talk about being older parents. And then grandparents. These are all rhythms. These are all seasons and stages. And we should consider these things and be humble. Be humbled even by the patterns that God has decreed. Now, as a spiritual application, consider that God does the same thing with his churches. There's a time for God to plant. There will be times when a church is planted, and it's planted, and it's planted, and we're seeing some of those times. We've been praying about it, and it's coming to fruition. It's happening. There's times for churches. to be planted, and for the good seed of the Word to be planted. But there's also time to pluck up, because God says there's a time where the Lord Jesus Christ will go through and He'll extinguish the candlestick. There's also a time spiritually to pluck up and to shake the dust from someone's clothing or someone's feet as we learned about this past Lord's Day. And so these are times to keep in mind. Well, moving on to verse three, there's a time to kill and a time to heal. There's a time to break down and a time to build up. You see in life, It doesn't always just go in one direction, it goes in both directions. There's going to be a time to kill and a time to heal and to break down and to build up. There may be times to kill, such as whether in war or in civil justice, times may require killing. Sadly, we saw that in the national news. We saw a time that required killing. Now this goes against certain groups. They call themselves pacifists. And they'll not distinguish within God's commandments. They look at God's commandments, they see thou shalt not kill. They look at God's commandments, they see thou shalt love thy neighbor as thou lovest thyself. However, there will be times, as we're reading here, there will be times when obeying God's commandments will necessitate killing. where it will be needful in order to be faithful, in order to be in obedience to God's commandments, to kill. We mentioned civil justice. We could also mention self-defense. We don't have time this evening to get into a full philosophy of self-defense and of just war and things like that, but allow me to say As we did see in the national news not too long ago, allow me to say that when there is a real and a very imminent threat and a very real reason to kill, then kill you must. And you must kill without hesitation. You must kill without hesitation, even as we saw. There is a time to kill. Now there's also a time to heal. There are wounds that seem like they might lead to someone's death, but we don't know. There's a time to heal. They may actually heal. There's a time for us to bind up and to heal. Now, there's a lesson here, a brief application I'll give you, about people that would desire to pull the plug. on those that are sick, those who are ill, and in a certain state, they'd say, let's pull the plug. But I will ask you, what time is it? When a person is laid very low, when a person is in a very ill state, and they're being supported by certain medical interventions, what time is it? Is it a time to kill, or is it a time to heal? Think about it. There's a time to kill. There's a time to heal. Now I'll mention also a spiritual application. There is a time for a preacher to kill. There's a time for a minister of the gospel to kill and to bring forward the righteous and the crushing demands of God's law upon the head of a sinner and say, woe to you. and to slay using the law of God. There's a time for a minister to kill and to bring the law in such a way that it will kill pride and that it will kill self-sufficiency and kill whatsoever imaginations a person might have about their own fitness and their own goodness before the Lord. But along with that, there's a time to heal. There's time to build up. And ministers of the gospel will be able to discern this and be able to know when the killing is completed, when the slaying is done, now it's time to bring in the balm and to bring in the sweet and the gracious message of salvation and mercy through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and to build up, build up trembling, weak believers who have already been killed and to build them up and to say, and to say, be of good, be of good courage. Thy sins are forgiven and to give assurance to them. And so a spiritual application of these things. Well, moving on verse four, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. Now this one, It's close to home for a lot of people. People are drawn to this one and people put this one on the wall in their house. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. It's probably because people know that life really is full of these sad occasions. People are aware of that. People know that life is full of times for weeping and for mourning, like the loss of a loved one. Or maybe someone who's going through a prolonged sickness. Or maybe there's a very tense family situation. Or maybe there's sorrow for sin and brokenheartedness. And now these are all occasions for weeping and for mourning. Yet when people are in the midst of these times, it's comforting to be reminded that they are not forever. And so this is why I think people put this on their wall in their house or something, because it is comforting to know that these dark times are not forever. Even as we sung earlier from Psalm 30, which says, weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes with the morning. And so people are drawn to this. It's true. There's a time for weeping. There's a time for mourning. There's also a time for joy and for laughter and for dancing. Now, who is this more true for than for the believer, than for the person who is sorrowful for their sin? Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. This is most true for the believer. This is most true for the one who really will be sorrowful and mourn for their sin. and really will humble themselves and really will cry out to the Lord in desperation and in sadness and sorrow and in repentance. That one will have joy. That one will have laughter. That one will have eternal happiness. And so there are spiritual lessons here. Well, moving on and then taking a number of these together, a time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones, a time to embrace, a time to refrain from embracing, a time to get, a time to lose, a time to keep, a time to cast away, a time to rend, a time to sow, a time to keep silence, a time to speak. What are all of these things telling us? Everything is subject to change in our lives. Don't get used to your life. Boys and girls, don't get used to your life. As you grow older, you'll see. Everything is subject to change. Now, if we're wise, and if we remember our place, we can capitalize on these things, and we'll be appropriately governing ourselves, and appropriately moving through time. and using wisdom to know when is it a time to keep, and when is it a time to cast away? When is it a time to keep silence? And when is it a time to speak? But overall, what is all of this showing us? Things are going to change. Matthew Henry, he points this out. To expect unchanging happiness in a changing world must end in disappointment. Let us seize the favorable opportunity for every good purpose and work. And so we're to be wise. We're to be discerning. And we're to be flexible even. Now that's not something we usually hear in preaching, is it? Be flexible. Usually we're told to be firm and to be steadfast. But yet, in wisdom here, we need to be flexible. Because if we expect things to change and we don't plan for the change, then we're the ones that are going to be at a disadvantage. It would be unwise for us to cling on to what's sometimes called a sunk cost fallacy, a sunk cost where you say, I've been doing such and such a thing for this long. I've been putting this much effort into it. I've been putting this much resources into it. It would be so difficult, it'd be so painful for things to change that I'm just going to push right on through. No. No, that's not wisdom. There's a time to everything. There's a season to everything. Now these last two, these last two, verse eight, there's a time to love, a time to hate, there's a time of war, and a time of peace. Now I'll say these last ones, these are the least likely, I think, that you would find written up on someone's wall in someone's home. Because we'd like to rather avoid maybe thinking about the time that we need to hate or the time that we need to wage war. Yet there will be times that we need to hate. There will be times we need to pick up the the banner of war. But what's striking about this is the fact that God has set times for even these things which are so deep within and so connected to our own passions. A Puritan, Alexander Nisbet, he points this out, he says this, the Lord is to be acknowledged and depended upon as having absolute dominion over the passions and the affections of all men. So as they cannot love or hate, but at the times that he hath set, nor can they manifest either love or hatred as he pleases. but as he pleases, excuse me, who doth by their love or hatred manifest his own free favor or just displeasure as he thinks fit. You see what this is doing? It's taking that imagination, it's taking that conceit that we have within us saying, well, I don't know, I just love what I love. I don't know, I just hate what I hate. It's taking that and it's putting it straight up into the hand of God and say, no, you don't just get to love what you love. You don't get to just hate what you hate. There's a time to love and there's a time to hate. There's a time for peace and there's a time for war. You don't get to do it. But no, you have to come under the righteous judgment of God in these things. Very sobering. Do you see how much man must feel the demands of God's times upon him? Do you see how much we are all so very subject to everything that God has ordered in time to judge these things wisely and to execute these things properly? Well, there's so much more we could say. There's so many other testimonies we could bring in. For the sake of time, let's move on. God's rule. Section 2, God's rule over time. Solomon reveals to us that God is behind all of these things. It's all in his hands. How does he do it? Verses 11 and 12, he says this, He hath made everything beautiful in his time. Also, he hath set the world in their heart. so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. God makes everything beautiful in his time. He couldn't do that, my friends, he couldn't do that if he were not in absolute control of all of these events and circumstances and times and seasons. He couldn't do it. He couldn't make it beautiful. You see how that works, boys and girls. You see, God is like an author. I know that some of you really enjoy reading. I know some of you enjoy reading books. God is an author. And what author could begin writing and have any sort of storyline that is resolved and that is beautiful in any way at all if he didn't understand where it's all going? if he didn't understand the end from the beginning. You see, God knows everything and he works everything for his own glory and his own purposes in our lives. It's like the answer to your catechism question, what are God's works of providence? God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. And we're told he does it beautifully. He makes all things beautiful. Even if we walk through a veil of tears in this world, and even if we see all sorts of disasters and calamities playing out before our eyes, we're being told that God is at work, and he's sorting it all out, and he's setting it all out. And if we could take that perspective and stand in that heavenly perspective, how beautiful it would be. and how spectacular it would be. And we would say, it is so wise, it is so powerful, it's so holy. In the end, no one will be able to look upon all that God hath wrought and say that it was anything less than beautiful, or anything less than perfect. And so this is how Solomon presses it upon us. He's saying, it's going to be beautiful. And he says, men know it, Verse 12, God has set the world in their hearts. Men know it. Other versions translate the Hebrew word here differently, and they say, God has set eternity in their hearts. It's something that signifies everything. It's all-encompassing. God set this sense of purpose This sense that God is at work in everything. He set this in men's hearts. Because men are more than beasts. And all men, they know deep down that what they do matters. And what is going on, it's all according to a higher plan and a higher purpose. Men understand this innately, yet they try to suppress it. but it takes great work to suppress it, because men understand this innately, because God has set this in man's heart, that there is a divine providence at work in their days. But Solomon reminds us that God has only shown man a part. He's only shown man a little of what is to be unfolded. He has set the world in their hearts, but not but not that man could find out the work of God, that he maketh from the beginning to the end. So it's partial. Men know that there is a powerful, divine providence that governs everything, that's behind everything. But it's incomplete. They can't possibly see it all from beginning to end. And it troubles men. And so men in their pride and in their arrogance, they try to find out the things that God has hidden. And they vex themselves to try to find out the things that God has hidden. And they try to make up their own narratives and their own stories to fill in those things that God has not revealed. And it's all just a failure because they don't know, they're not God. but they blindly do it, they blindly try to fit in their mythologies and their stories into it, and then they lose out on the beauty of what God is doing in the world, because they won't humble themselves and say, like Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belongeth unto the Lord. So men have this sense innately that God is doing all these things, but they don't understand it from the beginning to the end. So what should they do? Well, Solomon gives some guidance here. In verse 13, he says, I know that there is no good in them. He's talking about men. He says, I know there's no good in them. They're going to mess things up. They're going to be prideful. They're going to be sinful, but For a man to rejoice and to do good in his life, and that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of his labor, it is the gift of God. And so he says, if a man is able to not think so highly of himself, and not put his mind to things that are too lofty for him, but if a man is able rather to be humble and to say and give thanks to God for the simple things that he has in front of him, for the fruits of his labor that he should eat and drink, this is a gift of God. And happy he will be, and wise will he be if he is able if he's able to humble himself. We've discussed these things before. We've heard of these things before in this book. It's coming back again. But ultimately, over all of it, is God. And it's a gift of God. Our days, they're a gift of God. Our life, it's a gift of God. It's not just for believers only. Everyone's life. Unbelievers. Everyone's life, it's a gift. Everyone's days, it's a gift. And the labor of their hands, that they might enjoy something simple of it, it's a gift. But what does it show? It shows that above all of it is God. He set the times for all of these things. He set the times for these things. And he rules over them. Well, he'll judge us as well. He'll make judgment. And so moving on to the third section, Solomon will press disparity between God and man in regard to their relation to time, and then show that God is the judge over time, and judge over man's use of precious time. Have you ever been doing something for a long time, like a job, or you've been active or engaged in something for years and years, and then someone else comes along, they're new, and maybe they start to critique you or they start to tell you that you're not doing it the way they would do it, and you just turn around and you want to say, what are you talking about? You only got here five minutes ago. I've been doing this for years. Well, that's the general impression that Solomon would have us receive as the newcomer, as the one that's only for a moment, that's only in time, compared to God. Now Moses, he understood these things. Moses, in his prayer, Psalm 90, he brings some of these things out. Psalm 90, a prayer of Moses, the man of God, Moses picking up on these things, he's understanding this. Also in Psalm 90, he says, For all our days are passed away in thy wrath, and we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of all our years, the days of all our years, are threescore and ten. And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength and labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger, even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." So Solomon, I'm sorry, Moses, is aligning with Solomon. He's lining up with this wisdom of having God as judge over time. And that's why he says, teach us to number our days. that we might apply our hearts unto wisdom. Years ago, as you know, we lost a young man in this congregation. And this was the message that our pastor, he brought to us. Teach us to number our days, that we might, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. So in this world of change, And because our days are so few, and because God is the judge over all of these things and is controlling all of these things, Moses, along with Solomon, would tell us, be very wise and be very careful. Understand your days are few, and understand how precious time is. God has given us time. not to be wasted and not to be abused, but to be redeemed for Him. Time, it's so precious. Getting back to our passage, Solomon says this, verse 14 and 15, I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. And nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men should fear before Him. That which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireth that which is past." These final words in our section here, they reinforce all the things that we've been understanding in this passage so far. That God is eternal. He's ageless. He's in control. And He will bring men into judgment for their days. Well, moving on to some application and conclusion here. We've highlighted the great contrast between man, who is a creature of change and of time, and God, who is without any constraint of time, who is ageless, with no beginning from everlasting to everlasting. And as we've said, it's difficult for us to even lay hold on these things, to comprehend these things, because God is like nothing else that we would know or that we would experience. He's eternal. He's unchangeable. No beginning. And I would have you see As the scripture gives testimony to this, I would have you see that understanding these things is such a cure for worry and for anxiety. How? Because what else is worry and what else is anxiety other than uncertainty? Things are going to change. I don't know if it's going to be better. I don't know if it's going to be worse. I don't know what's coming down the line. That is anxiety. That is fear. But Solomon, and the word of God is saying to you tonight, so what? It is going to change. You won't know. Everything is going to change. Change is one of the few things that you can be sure will come. but in that, knowing that it is God behind all these things who never changes. This gives us stability. This gives us confidence and hope. Even as we read earlier, Jeremiah 33, the Lord says, can I break my covenant with the day? Can I break my covenant with the night? If you wake up the next day and the sun is not rising in the sky, then will I break my promise. that David shall never want a man to reign in his household. Malachi 3, for I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. He is the Lord. He is stable. And He makes all things beautiful in His time. You see, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. That's our hope. That's how we can face the twists and the turns, and we can weather the changes in the seasons, because Jesus Christ never changes. And because every good gift, James 1, every good gift and every perfect gift, note that it's perfect gift, is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. So this is a great aid and a great cure for anxiety. The sons of Jacob are not consumed. because he changeth not. He will keep his promise. He will be faithful. And our lives will change. There can be no doubt about that. Now in closing, I'll press this upon you. There is a time to be born, and there's a time to die. Time is a gift, and it's passing away. It's ticking right away. Can you speed it up? Can you slow it down? God has set death as the great deadline that everyone is going to meet. You cannot escape it. It is appointed once for man to die and then the judgment. God has set death, it is a deadline. Just as sure as if you set a timer on your phone or just as sure as if you as if you were marking something off on the calendar. It's going to come. It's a deadline. You can't get out of it. And don't imagine that there's going to be any time remaining at all for people to consider and to repent after that deadline. It's too late. There is no time. There is no more time given. God has already given it. And woe to those who die in their sins. They'll have eternity to think about it. How if only they had been given a few more minutes. But they won't be. But blessed are those who die in Christ. Because death is their friend. They're not going to be condemned, but pass immediately into glory and into the presence of Christ. Because to everything there is a season, time to be born, a time to die, and a time to every purpose under heaven. So blessed are they that die in Christ, running that race and being received into eternal habitations. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Would you stand with me now as we pray? Oh God, our Father, we stand in awe of thee and we say that our time is within thy hands. Our days are in thy hands. Lord, thou hast dispensed unto each of us a time to be born. and allotted unto every one of us a time to live, days to live. And oh, we pray that Thou would give us a sense of these things, even as Moses prayed, that we would be taught to number our days, that we could be wise with them, and that we could acknowledge Thy holiness and Thy greatness thy immutability and fear before thee. We pray that we would not squander time. We pray that we would be wise with time. We pray that we would come to Christ and confess our sins before it's too late. Oh Lord, so many, so many will see what fools they've been when it's too late. Oh, we pray that Thou would spare us, deliver us. Gracious Father, please be at work in every situation that's been mentioned. Be at work in the requests, those that are, those that are seeking employment, those that are laid with affliction, and those that are burdened for others, that they would come to see these things and know thee. Oh, be at work in all of these with thy gracious hand. And we pray thou would bless us this evening and on into the rest of our week. We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.