Turn with me this morning to the 18th Psalm. We're going to begin today a series of messages from Psalm chapter 18. as we're going to do a verse-by-verse exposition of the psalm in its entirety in the coming Lord days ahead. And we've entitled the series, I Will Love Thee. I Will Love Thee. And this will be part one of that series. I'd like to read verses one through three for our consideration today. This is a psalm of David, and he states, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust, my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies." Those of you who have a Bible with a marginal reference in it at the heading of this psalm, these words will perhaps be found. To the chief musician, a psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this psalm in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. And he said, and then the words began. This psalm was written by David sometime after he became king of Israel. But it is a psalm of praise to God for his deliverance of David from his enemies at an earlier time in David's life before he became king. Those of you who are familiar with biblical history know that Saul was the first king of Israel, but because of his actions he forfeited his rule as king. And while he was still king, God had David anointed. And Saul got wind of this, and was determined to have David destroyed, and sent out his armies to try to hurt David down and take his life. During that incidental period, David had, on a couple of occasions, opportunity to kill Saul. And one time he went down into the camp where Saul lay and got by his bodyguard, and took a knife and cut off a portion of Saul's garment, and then left the camp. And then spoke to Saul from the mountain range above, woke him up, and said, Look, I could have killed you, but I will not touch the Lord's anointed. But nevertheless, Saul was determined that in spite of this mercy shown toward him, he would have David killed. And so David had to flee and hide in various clefts and mountain ranges, and in one notable cave, the cave of Babylon. And it was while this was going on that he suffered many of the emotions that are described here in this particular psalm. This psalm is also recorded in 2 Samuel chapter 22 in almost an identical fashion. And it is proper for us to learn from this psalm to be grateful unto God for his past mercies. Now this is all past history as far as David is concerned. Saul is dead, and now David is the king. Look down in the 49th verse of the chapter. Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. Great deliverance giveth he to his king. and showeth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed forevermore. David is now a king on the throne, but he is stopping to give praise unto God for the goodness of God in delivering him from his enemies, and particularly the hand of Saul. When we are grateful to God for his past mercies, it makes the present time more joyful, and it prepares our soul for future trials when they come. It will be the purpose of this exposition to try to focus our attention upon what God has done in your life up to this moment. to enable you to praise him for his past mercies, in order that you might be enabled to enjoy the present more so, and to be prepared for greater trials which even lie ahead. For the Bible warns us all that through much tribulation we shall enter the kingdom. So if you have trials today, you need some things from this message, and this series of messages. And if you are not undergoing trials at the moment, you still need the words from this series of messages because trials are yet ahead. And lest that God has ordained to call you to glory this day, then tribulation and persecution lies ahead for all of us. The second verse in the psalm and the 49th verses are both quoted in the New Testament. They're quoted in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 3 and they're quoted in Romans chapter 15 and verse 9 and they are quoted as referring to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. With that understanding, this is a messianic song, and thus a greater-than-David can be seen in this song, that what David went through in his innermost thoughts and the pressures of his moment, our Lord Jesus Christ went through the same thing in his earthly journey. And you and I will go through a similar pressing and downtrodden of soul as we are exposed to the stresses and the strains of this earthly pilgrimage. But let us remember that our forefather David did so, and the greater than David, our Lord Jesus Christ himself also went through these same things, and he came forth victorious. It is interesting that in the introduction to the psalm that is given in the marginal note, that David refers to himself as the servant of the Lord. This is while he is obviously the king on the throne. Verse 50, which we just read, the last verse in the psalm, states that he giveth deliverance to his king. David is a king, but he thought it a greater title to refer to himself as the servant of the Lord than the king of Israel. Make a note of that, that regardless of where you are exalted to in this earthly journey, it's a greater thing to be a servant of the Lord than any other privilege that may be bestowed upon you in this temple realm. a servant of Jesus Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul referred to himself in his own ministry, that he preached Jesus Christ and himself, your servants, for Jesus' sake. The greatest thing that you can be today is a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now looking at the psalm, just a brief outline before that we look at the verses before us this day. I would call to your attention the resolve that the psalmist has in verse one. He says, I will love thee, and that's what we're running tight over the whole series. I will love thee. And then in the first several verses, he shows us how a believer can look to his God as a defense mechanism of how that when troubles come, the believer can run to his God in a defensive motive. and pattern. But that's not all there is to the Christian life. I'm afraid that too many believers, that's all that they know about God. Because Christianity is just not a defensive thing wherein that we can go to God with our trials and troubles. Christianity is also an offensive battle. that we take the battle to the enemy. It's not that the enemy is all the time driving us to our God, but we have strength through our God that enables us to overcome the enemy. So that the Christian life is not a defeated life. It is not one of just trying to hold the fort. from Satan. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The gates of hell being a defensive position, and the people of God would be overcoming the defenses of hell and Satan himself. So Christianity is not a defeated outlook. It also has an optimistic outlook. Look down in verse 40. Thou hast also given me the necks of my enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. They cried, but there was none to save them, that I might destroy them, or even unto the Lord. But he answered them not. Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind. I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people. And thou hast made me the head of the heathen, a people whom I have not known shall serve me." I want to ask you a question at the outset of this series of messages. Do you have enemies? And I hope that you do not immediately try to associate enemies as certain persons. But do you have enemies that are attacking you from time to time? fear, doubt, distrust, uncertainties, anger, strife, bitterness. The Christian has enemies, and yet I'm afraid that we have had so much presented to us that all the Christian can do When he has enemies, he's just run to the Lord and hide in the Lord, and there's nothing else that can be done. My friend, Christianity is to be a victorious thing. Amen? It's not a defeated thing. And if you're having problems with enemies that you have not conquered, then you need to listen carefully to this series of messages that we have in store for us from the Word of God. Now let's begin today with verses 1 through 3. This almost starts out with a resolve. I will love thee, O Lord. I will love thee. Here is a fixed resolution. that the psalmist says, I will abide in the most near and most intimate union that a person can have. Because love is the greatest of all the spiritual gifts. Though we have faith to move mountains and have not love, we are nothing. Love is that which brings us in the most intimate relationship with human beings and with our God. Oh, we may be able to preach, we may be able to pray, we may be able to have spiritual power to cast out demons, but that which is the greatest of all is the gift of love. And the psalmist says, I will love thee. Do you, look at your Bible there in that expression. Do you see anything unusual about that expression? I will love thee. Think about it a moment. Is there anything unusual about that expression? I think there's something distinctly unusual here. You husbands and wives, when's the last time you ever looked your mate in the face and said these words, I will love you? We don't talk like that. We tell our loved ones, I love you. But we do not say, I will love you. In fact, I guess the last time I can ever recall expressing that in that way to my wife was when I stood before the minister. Some 28 years ago? Got it correct. Alright. And he asked me, will you take this woman? Will you love her? And I replied, I will. But never once in those 28 years did I ever recall saying, Carolyn, I will love you. Many times I have said, Carolyn, I love you. But never, I will love you. You see, the love that the psalmist David is expressing to his God here, has now come from a deep, intimate experience with his God. It is not the love of infatuation, which may come or it may go. People say today, I've fallen in love. And quite frequently you hear them a few times later say, I don't love her or him anymore. I'm not in love anymore. Love as it is expressed by the psalmist here, is not an infatuation of the heart. It is a resolve of the will. I will to love you. Oh Lord, my strength. And beloved, that kind of a commitment comes from personal, subjective experience in a relationship with God. You may this morning be a stranger to that experience, and if so, you can only say with your lips, I love you, Jesus. But if you don't know that God and heaven and earth and the person of Jesus Christ have experienced that, you cannot say with an act of the will, that regardless of what comes, I will to love you, O Lord. That's a resolution. We have a custom here, and I believe in the United States, maybe some other countries have it, of making New Year's resolutions. in which people resolve to do things or make some change in their life. And their resolve is rooted into a choice in the acting of the will. True love to God must go beyond the understanding of who God is in theory and objective truth It must go even deeper than the affections of the heart. It must go to a determined resolve of the will. I will love you, O Lord, my strength. Stand by you. I will maintain that intimate relationship with you because I will to do it. It's so easy just to say, I love you, to somebody. but to express it with a resolution. I will love you. That is a commitment that holds a person accountable and responsible for their vow. You see the psalmist here, he's making a vow. I will love you, O Lord. Now some may say, well, That's sort of a rash statement to make. How can anybody who's acquainted with the depravity of their own human nature ever make such a resolution as that? The Bible gives accounts of people who made rash vows and lived to regret the vows that they had made. One that comes out foremost in our thinking this morning is that of the great apostle Peter himself. When he vowed, and he resolved, though all the other disciples deny you, I will never deny you. And he lived to weep over that vow, over that resolve. For he denied his Lord and even cursed his Lord in the presence of a little maiden. And had to be restored by his Lord when he had to stand in the presence of Jesus and hear his master ask him, Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And Peter had to end up saying, Lord, ye know, ye know. That may cause some believers then to say, then it would be wrong for a believer to ever make a vow because of the gravity of his own heart, not being assured that he could keep that vow. Ah, but look how David made this vow. David wasn't making this vow in the strength of his own flesh. Look at your text. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. Yes, it is true that without Christ we can do nothing. But that's not the whole picture. It was also true that through Christ all things are possible. Are you facing a difficult circumstance in life? Health? Spiritual problem? Financial difficulties? Social status? Stressors in relationships with individuals? How are you handling that? Dare you to take a vow and say, regardless of what comes, I will to love you, Lord, Don't dare make that vow in your own strength, for you shall fail as Peter, who in his own self-confidence believed that he had attained such a state of sanctification that he was superior to that of the other disciples. Though all these deny you, I'll never deny you. But my friend, we can make that vow through the strength that we have in experiencing a union with the living Lord himself, Jesus Christ. We can say that. I will to love you, O Lord. Now then, look secondly at the believer's strength. O Lord, my strength. The strength comes from God. And it's not a theoretical strength. It is an experimental, subjective strength. You know, as you have said under your pastor's ministry here for some seven years now, that we believe that all subjective experience must be exposed to objective truth. That we learn whether something is true or not in our experience from objective truth. We do not formulate objective truth of what we have learned. But God exists, whether we believe it or not. He is true. But only to be able to experience the fact that God exists, then that objective theory becomes subjective experience. And the longer I live and study the Bible, the more that I am convinced, now listen to me carefully, that we never truly learn anything until we learn it by experience. Think about it. That's why do we say in our culture experience is the what? Is the best teacher. Experience translates truth out of the realm of the objective fact, and it becomes something that we have experienced ourselves. And when you experience something, it becomes real and vivid in your life. This is why the psalmist David here, the king, could say, I will to love you, O Lord, because you have proven a source of strength to me. And if you don't know the Lord and haven't experienced Him, that He is taking you by His grace through trial, safely thus far, you cannot dare make that resolve except in the realm of the flesh. But if God has proven Himself faithful to you over the course of time since you've come to know Him, than resolve it today. I will to love you, O Lord, on the basis of your strength which I have partaken of in the person of Christ." Now thirdly, look at the believer's defense. Christianity offers a defense It offers a place of consolation for a believer to run to. And aren't you glad of that? Aren't you glad that there is someone that you can go to in a time of trouble and get some stability from that individual? Look at this defense. The Lord is my rock. Now that word there, rock, does not denote a pebble. or a stone that we pick up and throw with our hand. But it denotes a huge fortress, a huge mountain range that is fixed and immovable. We talk about Christ as being the what? The rock of ages. What do we mean by that? He is that stabilizing influence that we can look to, that is unchangeable, immovable, that can be depended upon, though all other things change and move, though heaven and earth pass away, yet he is the eternal rock of ages. Though friends turn against us, though family members may part, though mother and dad may disown us, The believer who has experienced the strength of the Lord can look to the Lord as his rock, that which is fixed, that which is immovable. And I believe it is in this sense that David meant that during his fleeing from Saul and his armies, that he could go up in those mountain ranges there in Palestine and find those huge rock fortresses and there go in the hollow spot like the cave of Adullam, and there find protection and security and deliverance from the hand of Saul and his armies. David had enemies after him at this time in his life. His enemies were about to consume him. Look down in verse 4, which we'll look at next week, the Lord willing. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. And as we stated, that not only happened to David, that happened to the greater than David. When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, this happened to him there. Death entered his being, not just in the dead of the body, but the dead of the soul, in the sense, the loss of hope. depression, discouragement. My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Verse 5, the sorrows of hell compassed me about, the snares of death preceded or prevented me. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. The believer has times of distress. He has times of trial, he has times in which that he wonders, he or she wonders about their own sanity, their own stability. But I tell you, if you have resolved through the strength of God to love the Lord, you can take great consolation that you have a rock that you can rest upon. The Lord Jesus Christ described in the Cove of the Sermon on the Mount the wise man who built his house upon a what? A rock! A strong, stable foundation. Now notice in verses 2 and 3, all of the emphasis is on the defensive. You see, in a battle, you not only need offensive capabilities, you need defensive capabilities. And the Bible describes the Christian experience as a military campaign. It's not a Sunday school picnic. We have a defense plan. And that plan is that we can run to our Lord when our enemies are about to swamp us and take us under. And I hope you will begin early in this series of messages to begin to identify your enemies and begin to ask God for strength to overcome them and to overpower them and to grind them into dust, she may become victorious as well in this military campaign. But today, that is not our concern. In this first lesson, we want to concentrate upon the defensive posture of a Christian. A Christian has a rock that he can look unto, and that rock is the Lord himself. Look next. Not only can he say, I will to love thee, O Lord, my strength to do so, but you are my fixed reference point. As the sailor at sea must have the compass as a fixed reference point, My friend, if you are going to walk through the trials of this life, you must have a fixed immovable reference point. If your reference point is rooted in to your church, into your pastor, into your family members, it's not a rock. Because all of those things I've mentioned and more are subject to change. People that have been married for 30 and 40 years are seeing their marriages crumble and come to an end in this culture. Parents who have built their lives upon their children see their children taken by disease and death comes. People who have built their hopes upon companies have seen those companies go out of business and can no longer care for them. Beloved, you need a fixed reference point, that when everything else begins to start moving, and you feel like a floating iceberg, you need an immutable rock that you can relate to. And that rock is God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, secondly, in this road of defense, you need a fortress. You need a fortress. A fortress is one which you can go into this containment and be protected from the arrows of the enemy or the bombs or whatever that it may be. It may be of what we would call in modern vernacular a bomb shelter. If you've ever been in a war, it's difficult to relate to that. If I were speaking to some who have been through war and you've had the bombs dropped on you, then you could relate very vividly what we're talking about this morning. You need a fixed reference point in life, and that reference point is God. When all else changes, God never changes. And you need a bomb shelter. in a place that you can go into when your enemies are about to consume you that you can go in there for protection and have the arms of the eternal God put around you and draw you close and be reassured everything's alright my child the bombs may hit a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand but it'll never come nigh me, you're my child we need that today For you know not what lies ahead, even this very day. You need a fortress, a mighty fortress, Luther would say, is our God. I love that old hymn. I know it's difficult to sing, but I still like that song. A mighty fortress is our God. Luther knew some things about experience, that he could pen such a song as that. unchanging, eternal confidence and support in the fortress. So we have the strength in the Lord to resolve, I will to love you because I have experienced you to be my fixed reference point and my mighty fortress that protects me from the onslaughts of my enemies. Look next, my Deliverer. The Deliverer means Savior. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ is. He is a Savior. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, Jehoshua of old, for thou shalt save his people from their sin. He shall deliver them from the power of sin, from the penalty of sin, one day from the very presence of sin. That's what a Savior is. So do not understand that every time you read the word Savior in the Bible, it always refers to spiritual and eternal matters. There may be temporal deliverances. He may save us from a temporary calamity. But bless God, He is the Savior of His people to deliver them one day from complete sinning and present us faultless before the throne. But he is our deliverer, he is our fortress, he is one that we can look to and trust. And he's called, mixed, my God. My God. Do you have a God like that? Is that your God? Have you experienced the God I'm talking about this morning? Can you say that he has been good and that he has brought you through many, many things in life? and that you have learned that you cannot get through this life on your own steam that he has been your fixed reference point that he has been a bombshelter for you to get alone in and feel protected even though it seems like your world is going to fall apart at times that he is your deliverer is that your God? is it? Can you say this morning, I will to love a God like that? You know that's the only kind of God that's worthy of love. Any God that can't save is not a God that I'd will to love. Any God that even though I ran to Him if He couldn't deliver me, I couldn't resolve to commit the well-being of my soul to that God. No, we need a God like that. Look at him. He's my strength in whom I will trust. Do you see three I wills in these verses? I will love you. I will trust. I will call upon the name of the Lord. I ask you again, is this your God? Have you experienced a being like this? Or is this just something you've heard about all your life in Sunday school and church? And you hear your preacher preach about a God like this week in and week out, but is this your God? Is He your personal God? If something should happen that should wipe out everybody in this audience this morning but you, right here, in this sudden calamity, would this be your God? Would it? If the support that you get from your family and from your church and from your pastor, if all of that was suddenly removed, is this your God I'm talking about today? I heard again the incident of the plane crash here a few years ago in which everybody on the plane was killed but the little girl, or that recently referred to little baby, on the news. What if you were on a plane, 250 people, loved ones, friends, acquaintances. That thing crashed and you're the only one left. Will this be your God? Could you leave that scene resolved? I will love you. The heart may be broken, the sorrows of death may about beat consume your soul, the sorrows of hell pressing in, the snares of the evil ones, causing discouragement and depression. But is this your God that you can resolve with love? Can you trust in Him? Look again, the believer's defense, my buckler, The buckler, we won't take time and length in dealing with, it was in the battle a shield. Have you seen the old pictures of the sword, you know, the ancient armies? And how they would have a shield to protect from arrows that were shot. That's what the buckler was. And again, everything that we're referring to today is of a defensive mechanism. It is how the Christian can put on the whole armor of God as described in Ephesians chapter 6, from head to toe in a defensive mechanism. He's my buckler, my shield. He's the horn of my salvation. The horn in biblical times denoting that of an animal. It's the animal used for protective purposes and also for offensive purposes. And it was a custom in the ancient battles that for the soldiers to wear a helmet on their head to protect them, and they would have a horn, if you've ever seen some of the ancient pictures, they had a horn on that helmet. And that horn denoted protection, strength, a defensive mechanism. And after that they would come home from battle and run the battle. They would carry that helmet, not on their head, but off to their side as they would march through the street. God is our horn of our salvation. He is that which protects our vital portions of our very being and gives us the victory. And then lastly, in the defensive mechanism, He's my high tower. The believer runs into the fortress. He's given a shield to defend himself. He's given a horn to promote strength. And he has a high tower. What is the function of the high tower? Have you ever been able to relate to the ancient stories here of the American Indians and the fictional stories of the cowboys and the Indians of how the Indian would be up on the high mountain range looking out over the surroundings to get a better vision of what the real issues are? I've got some postcards I collected as a child. in which there are some pictures of some Indians looking down off of a cliff onto the army cavalry down in the valley. They see things from a high point better than you can see from a low point. Do you see what David is saying? I have learned to look upon things from God's vantage point. I run to my God. He's my high tower. He enables me to see things as they actually are, whereas before I would see them only from my standpoint, and it would not necessarily be reality. When it seems like that the pains of hell are about to swallow us up, and our little boots are about to go down, we need to see things but again unless God sees things. Oh, ye of little faith! Master, don't you care that the boat's going under, and Jesus is asleep in the midst of the ship? He must have seen some things that the others didn't see that day, for all he had to do was get up and speak, and the waves subsided, and the wind stopped. To be able to see things from God's perspective is the importance of having a high tower. Fourthly, the believer's prayer. The believer's prayer. David says, I will call upon the Lord. I will call. And beloved, this is just not some little whimper. I'm praying most of our praying today is just little whimpers. You let a young child come into their mother whimpering and their mother won't pay any attention. You let them come in crying like they've been glued with a sword, and it gets the mother's attention. David says, I will cry unto the Lord. You get in a desperate life and death situation, you'll learn to cry unto the Lord. That's when we really start praying. Until then, it's just little suggestions. Lord, would you do this? Would you do that? Until you get desperate When people are about to take your life, and you've got something, some news from a doctor, that you've got a terminal disease, isn't it interesting how this changes our approach to prayer? We begin to pray soberly. We begin to pray seriously. And we begin to pray earnestly. Have you experienced such a God as that, that you can cry unto Him? Cry out earnestly unto him. You've run to him. And in the strength of God, you've resolved you're going to love him. Because you have learned by experience that he is your fixed reference point. He's your rock. He's your bomb shelter. He has delivered you in the past. He's your one true God. Your source of strength that you've learned to trust. He's your shield. He's the horn of your salvation. He's your high tower that you can look upon things from his perspective. That kind of a God is worthy of calling upon. Call upon me and I'll hear you. That gets the attention of the Lord. Call unto this Lord. Now notice while you're calling, also be careful to do the praising. Look in your text. I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. While you're asking God to come and meet your needs, at the same time you're calling on him, make sure you're praising him for having met needs in Christ, that he alone can meet your present needs and your future needs. God gets so consumed with your present circumstance in life that you forget to thank God for who he is and that you can call upon him. He's worthy. Is this your God? Is he worthy to be praised this morning? And then lastly, look at the believer's expectation. So shall I be saved from mine enemies. Now if you listen carefully this morning, I've explained to you that this is David writing after this incident was over. He's now the king on the throne and he's relating what has happened back here in days past. but he's also wise enough to know that the opposition's not all completed yet. He's going to still have more enemies, more problems, more difficulties to come. But do you see how optimistic he is? Because he has experienced the truth and the faithfulness of his unchanging God, he can expect his God to meet the needs of whatever arises out there in the future. Do you have that unshakable confidence this morning? Do I possess that unshakable confidence today? Have we experienced that our Lord has proven himself trustworthy and he's brought us to this point in life? Can he take care of whatever events yet lie ahead of us? We have experienced him. Then we can say, I'm assured of that. David was so assured of it, that looked down in verse 46, The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. Look at verse 49, Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. That is, he looked for a time in which that his experience and his effect of his own life was going to be expanded in a greater dimension. even yet in the future, but it was going to come by God standing by him in whatever enemies came into his life in the future. Now I can't predict what's ahead for you in specifics. I can only say that through much tribulation you'll go through before you enter the kingdom. I can in generality say There are heart attacks, there are strokes, there are cancers, there are accidents, there are spiritual struggles ahead for you and for me. I can't be specific because I'm not God in knowing that. But suppose that we receive some news today of an enemy on the horizon. Can we say with confidence that our God will deliver us from our enemies? And you know what the last enemy of all is that's going to be delivered? Death itself. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the last enemy is death. Have you proven to your own satisfaction, the trustworthiness of God, that if you are told of your impending death, have you experienced enough of God's faithfulness to say this morning, I don't care, I will to love you. I will to do it. because you've been faithful in giving me strength in the past, this gives me confidence for the present, and you'll take care of what comes ahead. Do you know this, God? I hope you do. I hope you do, and I pray as we go through this 18th Psalm, that we'll see David as he's all pressed down in an efficient mechanism, And it looks like he's about to be consumed, that we'll see him transformed out of that defensive mechanism into an offensive military soldier, taking these enemies that are pressing him down, and freeing up to them, and bringing them into subjection to his own being. That's victorious Christianity. Let's stand together. Let us pray. Father, as we have considered the opening of this psalm today, we pray, O God, that we may know you in this light. That that which is superficial may be swept away. We have learned through trials and tribulations of your faithfulness. We have seen our plans and aspirations dissolve at times before our eyes, but we have seen your plan and your will been made more clear unto us. I pray, O this day, that Christ become precious to his saints. I pray if any are here that don't know the Lord, This might be the day that they might begin to experience the living union with that eternal vine that feeds life into the branches. Help us to abide in Christ by his strength and to resolve that we will love you because of who you are. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.