So please take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 80. The title of the sermon today is Christ is the Deliverer of His Church. So let's give our attention to the reading of God's glorious and saving word. Psalm 80 to the chief musician set to the lilies. testimony of Asaph, a psalm. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up your strength and come and save us. Restore us, O God, cause your face to shine and we shall be saved. O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in great measure. You have made us a strife to our neighbors and our enemies laugh among themselves. Restore us, O God of hosts. Cause your face to shine. And we shall be saved. You have brought a vine out of Egypt. You have cast out the nations and planted it. You prepared room for it and cause it to take deep root. And it filled the land. The hills were covered with its shadow and the mighty cedars with its bogs. You send out her bogs to the sea and her branches to the river. Why have you broken down her hedges so that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? The boar out of the wood uproots it and the wild beasts of the field devours it. Return, we beseech you, O God of hosts, look down from heaven and sea and visit this vine and the vineyard which your right hand has planted and the branch that you made strong for yourself. It is burned with fire. It is cut down. They perish at the rebuke of your countenance. Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself. Then he will not turn back from you. Revive us and we will call upon your name. Restore us, oh Lord, God of hosts. Cause your face to shine. and we shall be saved. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that as your word has been read, that you would bless all the hearers. And as it is preached, that you would bless all who hear, that they would attentively perceive your presence, your message, your promise, your deliverance, and your saving grace. And so Father, we pray for your blessing upon your congregation. May your favor shine forth to us. And may we draw hope and strength of faith to your glory and to your praise. We do pray, amen. So, first consideration, as we look at another Psalm before us of one of Lament in many respects and also of calling out for help and for the favor of the Lord upon his people once again where it was there before but not at present and so as the psalm Begins with these two words give ear. That's our first point to consider a request Not a subtle request, not a mild request, but a very strong request to Lord, give ear, hear me, hear us, Lord. Indeed, we can find that here that the wayward sheep of the flock of God realize they need the intercession, the divine intercession of their God. They need his care. They need his protection. need his loving favoritism to be upon them once again. And indeed, the flock of Christ, and this is key for us to turn back to the Lord, whether it's individuals in sin that are suffering and want to forsake sin or a church that is awakening to their need to follow the Lord and not the the whims of their wayward hearts or the falsehoods of a heretic or the ungodliness of the world, that we need God and his mercy. We need God to visit us. We need God's presence to be in our company. And so we are recognizing that indeed the Lord is the shepherd And as the New Testament Church, we say without hesitation, it is the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the Good Shepherd, who is revealed to us clearly in the Old Testament and most clearly in the New Testament. As John 10 so rightly points out that he is the Good Shepherd that cares for his sheep and even puts his life as a ransom for his sheep, the people of his flock. And so we call upon God, we look upon God and His perfect care as we confess Him. And here in this Psalm, it speaks of three tribes by name. It speaks of Ephraim, and we talked about Ephraim being a strong, a very populous tribe in the north. There's Ephraim and Manasseh. they both make up what is from the tribe of Joseph and then there's tiny Benjamin mentioned and Benjamin was with Judah in in the south and although it is mentioned here it's interesting that these three specific tribes are mentioned in Numbers chapter 2 when there is the ordering of how you know, to care for the Ark. How is the Ark to be carried? And what is the order of the tribes that will walk behind the Ark? And indeed, the first three are Ephraim, and Asa, and Benjamin. And so, kind of a subtle reference to the Ark, and the Ark was the, kind of the, symbolized the presence of God. And as you remember, the Ark has specific things in it. It had Aaron's rod that blossomed, and Aaron was the high priest, right? He was the intercessor between God and the congregation in their sins and making sacrifice for them. But there was also the two tablets of stone of the Ten Commandments written with the finger of God, the law of God, the law by which Israel was to walk before the Lord, to keep in accordance with their creation mandate, but also in the covenant relationship of God to them. And then there's also the manna. There were some samples of the manna, which is the bread that came from heaven. And Jesus identifies himself in John six as the bread from heaven that men must feed upon or else they have no life in him. And so this is a reminder of God's provision in these things, the law and reminder of high priest is needed, but also that bread of life and all these things point to Christ and our need for Christ, but also reminds us of the covenant God. The ark was to be in the tabernacle and then later in the temple and God manifests his presence And on either side of the ark with the mercy seat are the cherubim, the carved cherubim, which are pictures of the angelic beings. And so the blessings that come down from heaven to God's people, blessings that flow from God. And so a plea here, have mercy, come upon us, oh Lord. May we realize your forgiveness for our sin. Revive us from our wayward ways and deliver us from the state of apostasy as a nation or as a church. And so we need the law to point us again to where our sins lie. It's not enough to say, I have sinned, I have broken your law. That is okay in a general way, in a general sin, but we need to be specific. And so you need to know the law of God in order to know your sin. You need to know your sin in order to rightly confess your sin before God and to realize, experience for your conscience and for your soul and faith that you are forgiven of those specific sins and that you know as you call upon the Lord, help me to repent. You know what you need to repent from. And so the world is very offended. And take stock, Christian. The world is offended when you point out specific sins. Herod and his illegitimate wife, because it was his brother's wife, did not like that John the Baptist pointed out that his marriage was unbiblical. It was a sinful relationship. And he lost his life for that. So Christians, if you're offended by some sin that's pointed out to you, and it is true, regardless how the message comes, and when it comes in a very ungracious manner or a very accusatory manner, we get all defensive, but if it's true, it's true. Don't be offended like the world. Don't be outraged. Don't take your Bible and leave. That's the way of the flesh. and not of the spirit. And these Psalms that we've been going over time and time again, whether back in Psalm 13 or here in Psalm 80, the state of the people of God is not of how dare they? How could they? Imagine what they have said about me. That they are moved, just like in the Pentecost when Peter and the other apostles are preaching Christ and is saying to the audience before them, what do they say to win them over? Well, they say nothing to win them over. They're concerned about convicting them. And indeed, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. But they say, you, by your hands, have crucified and killed the Savior. And the people are pricked in their heart. That means they're convicted. That means they know I am guilty. of this sin. And they say, what must we do? They want to be reconciled with God, and that's a beautiful thing. And so, we don't want to be in this situation, but we can be in this situation. I feel our nation is, the overall church, the big C which we are part of, we're just a small C. We're a small church. I'm not talking about the congregation, I'm talking about our denomination, we're small. And so we're part of the larger church. We need to be praying this prayer with faith that is expressed here. And we're calling out to the Lord for deliverance, for his mighty hand to intercede. And so please, the congregation is pleading here. We're praying and we're singing for the shepherd. of the Lord's choosing to come, to be raised up, to come to the temple, to come to the nation, to come to the congregation. There's a call for salvation and understand salvation is used in two ways, usually use it only in one way, like when I confess my need for Christ and I am saved, that's salvation, that is true. But when you are in peril, Think about like physical danger, and you are delivered from that. Of course, that would be from the Lord. You might use people. That is the Lord saving you. When you feel like, I'm going to run out of money, I don't have a job, and the Lord blesses you with a job, that's a deliverance. The Lord is saving you from poverty, or starvation, or whatever. Healed of a sickness, the Lord is saving you. And so we always need saving. We always need to be confessing our sin as well. We're saved at a point in time, but we're always looking to the Lord. And when we are deprived of spiritual vitality, We need saving in the way of not being forgiven of all of our sins once again, but we need to be revived by the Spirit. We need to be moved by the Spirit and the teaching of the Word. We need to be set back on the straight and narrow path the Lord has blessed us with. We need that communion, that closeness with God. And so we need the intercession of the Lord all of our days. And of course, as I said before, in the introduction of a psalm about, you know, there is affliction because of our sins, chasing the Lord, and there's affliction of the ungodly, the cruel man. And for Israel, often it was armies. You might have the outrageous boss. You might have the overbearing relative. You might have the unbelieving spouse. or children, it can come in many different ways. But we need the Lord's help. The Lord's grace, the Lord's truth to help and guide us. And we know that that help is in Jesus Christ, the king of righteousness. He's the one who does save sinners who call out upon him for mercy and salvation as we confess our sins. But he is with us always. He is the head, he is the protector. He is the divine monarch of the universal church, the true church. And so even though Ephraim, Benjamin, Manasseh are mentioned, we think about all of Israel here. And for us in the modern day, we could substitute. Instead of the tribes, we could list Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans. We need reviving. regardless of who we are. We need reviving. We need to have a zeal for the Lord that is filled with knowledge and affection. There's a lot of zeal out there. Like Paul said, as Saul, the Pharisee, he had a lot of zeal for the Lord. But what he was referring to was one of ignorance, because he didn't know Christ. He didn't have compassion upon his fellow man He his zeal is towards his enemies and it was full of violence That's not the zeal for Christians. We are to be Energetic for the Lord we are to be purposeful to the Lord knows how often in our our vows and membership membership purposeful as mentioned We don't casually walk the faith. We don't kind of stumble or Waddle around or just kind of sit around but we are active in the faith and We all need to be active in the faith. And we know America is known for its lazy churches. I'm not saying we are a lazy church. I'm not saying you are lazy, but we just have to be active. It's easy to fall into laziness very quickly and to stay there. And so Israel will need to be restored. The churches of today need to be restored. We need the preaching of the word of God Bibles to be used Brothers and sisters you need to go through Numerous Bibles you should have numerous copies of Bibles in your life And if you take real good care of your Bible, that's great. I've never thrown a Bible away I've destroyed the binding of Bibles and I'm too cheap to Pay, you know $60 for get it fixed but we need to use our Bibles and and have extra ones to give away. And we need to seek the Lord's favor. And so there's this refrain you see in verse three. It's repeated three times. Restore us, O God, cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. So it's a refrain, so we are gonna repeat it. Repeating it, it's important for you to get it into your heart and your mind. Believe this. You seek it, you seek it, and believe the Lord will give it. If it's declared, do not doubt, for that would be sinful. But believe on it, and be strengthened by it. So, you know, this question, how long, this perpetual question, verse four, How long will this last, Lord? How long must we wait for your favor to return and for the wicked to be weaker or to be dispersed altogether? So we want reviving, but we need it. And we acknowledge we need it now. We are desperate for it. And brothers and sisters, we don't like to be in that place of desperation. I feel like, Lord, where are you? But just to acknowledge that and desire that means there is good spiritual life in you. You're turning to the Lord. You're wanting the one thing that you really need, the presence and face, the favor of the Lord. Because the stain of chastening makes the length of it longer in our minds. When you're on a chase in the Lord, or children, when you are being, or young children, spanked by your parents, it's a long process. It's a painful process. That's why any half second longer is too long for you. We desire for it to end, and end quickly, and we desire to be back in a good place. with our parents or with the Lord. But sometimes the chasing happens a long time. And we must understand why would that be? Why is there a penalty for disbehaving by a parent that even may go beyond spanking? Well, it is to teach the lesson. And children can't understand this. I learned my lesson, mom and dad. Well, may mom and dad really see in you, you don't. You haven't yet. Indeed, the Lord who knows our hearts does know when we have learned the lesson and he will stretch out a chastening that is way too long in our estimation. because he wants us to learn it. Or maybe he'll pull back from it. But he wants us to show fruit of dependence upon a fruit of obedience, a fruit of joy in the Lord. And yet, if we go back to our sin, the second chastening could be even far more painful. Israel was invaded many times. We start that cycle in the book of Judges, hundreds of years before David. And throughout the monarchies, Israel and Judah are chasing again, and again, and again, until finally God decides, I will destroy the nation, I will obliterate my temple, and I will take the people out of the land that I promised them for their adultery, for their apostasy, for their rejecting of me. Then you think, well, when they come back from the captivity, all will be well. Surely they have learned now. But look how many reject Christ when he walks among them, when he heals them, when he feeds them, when he teaches openly before them and is the fulfillment of the promise. And indeed, in the New Testament, this question, how long? is asked on different subjects, like how long will it be before Israel is restored? Jesus had to say to his apostles, that's not for you to know. Don't be concerned about that. But you focus on the gospel, ministering and spreading the good news. George Horne observes about verse four, the sins of the people may for a time separate between them and their God, and hide his face from them that he will not hear. He may cover himself with a cloud that their prayers hold not pass through and seem to reject even the devotions of his distressed servants while he is proving the strength of their faith and the sincerity of their repentance. But if the former be strong and the latter sincere, they will continue to ask till they have obtained, nor cease to knock till the door reopen. So I think there's a good observation. And so this expression of feeding God's people with bread of tears and drinking tears is descriptive of the hardship of living without great communion with the Lord. Friends, consider the consequence of life of sin. Sin's pleasure flees like a vapor. It is deceitful. But the damage it does is great. And for us to go on in our sinful ways is really a ongoing pushing of God away from us. And it is really declaring openly before the Lord that my sin, even if it's so-called secret sin, that means secret before men, I'll have my sin first, Lord. You come after. And so, yes, what is the wages of sin is death, and it's an eternal death that is pictured, not just a physical death. And it is cruel experience Not unjust. It is hard. We are the cruelty of others in this life. When people say liberty, they really mean bondage. Or they say freedom is really slavery. But to be denied access to public worship of God, to be denied your Bible, to pray and feel that The Lord is far. Praying, you feel like heaven, there's a brass ceiling that the prayers don't go through. And this is the experience of God's people in these times written here. But for the child of God, the sincere child of God, regardless how afflicted we are and regardless of the reason why we are afflicted, remember there will be two reasons. There's one of suffering as a consequence of your sin, or there is a suffering for righteousness. And perhaps there is a mix of the two. But we are to answer it by faith, by humility of spirit, in seeking the Lord, seeking his graces, his forgiveness, his strength to honor him in face of opposition and discouragement, and that we will not compromise or not compromise any further, not again. We will not abandon him, but we will dig deeper to do his will, to keep his precepts. In Hebrews 12 talks about the weight of sin Since verse one and two, therefore we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and ascend which so easily ensnares us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking onto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endure the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So have you consider that for the joy that was before him, he endured the cross. The cross was no joy, but the joy of having a people, the joy of his people honoring him and worshiping him and desiring him. Glorifying him. He is willing to endure the shame, the ridicule, the insults, the wrath of the father to gain that joy, to bring forth blessing to his people. So verse seven, that refrain again. Restore us, O God of hosts, cause your face to shine and we shall be saved. Lord, if your face is shining upon us, we are saved. We are blessed. We have arrived at that which we have sought. Now this is taken from that famous benediction in Deuteronomy 6, verse 24 through 27. The Lord bless you. So as Moses is teaching the blessing, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance. upon you and give you peace. So they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them. And so this phrase, we shouldn't look at it just strictly as a benediction, but as a seeks intervention of the Lord on behalf of his people, a special blessing, a special covenant blessing to those who are saved. from the Lord to his people. And notice that it is repeated in the Bible, and often it is calling upon mercy in the light of this request. And it's not an arrogant assumption of favor from the Lord, but it is an expression of faith for mercy, for we know God is merciful. We talk about the ark, and above the ark was the seat. That's a mercy seat for us. Not only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies where the Ark was contained in the temple and the tabernacle, and only once a year could he open it and look in it. And anyone else who tried to do that would be killed. But we have access to God through the Savior Jesus Christ. In Psalm 31, Verse 16 through 21 says again, make your face shine upon your servant. Save me for your mercy's sake. Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon you. Let the wicked be ashamed. Let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. Oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men. You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of man. You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord for he has shown me his marvelous kindness in a strong city. So brothers and sisters, these are words of Christ He's the one that is afflicted. He's the one who's attacked. He is the one who is ridiculed. He is the one who's requesting that the lying lips of the unregenerate be silenced. Brothers and sisters, it is hard to escape the lying lips of the unrighteous. We have all these voices magnified on our radios podcasts and newscasts and the internet. And we are grieved when there's a tax against God, a tax against God's people, tax against all that God has taught us of who we are and what we are to be and the glory of God. And so we join Christ in these prayers. We want God's face to shine upon us, and we have a burden for those outside of this little room, those outside of our denomination, or even just outside of the church. We have a burden that they too would come in and experience the goodness and the love of God, and that they would understand what is the true fear of God, and that they would flee from sin and hate sin, and know that there is a righteous judgment coming, but they would seek salvation in Christ Jesus. And so we want the Lord to direct our steps when we say, let your face shine upon us. We just don't give me a favor, so I will do my own thing and have no consequences. Give me a favor and direct me. Work in my heart. Bring conviction to me. Don't let me stray. Don't let me be that wandering sheep. Don't let me be that goat that just bucks against the Lord. So having the face of the Lord shine upon us involves us following the Lord and having the word direct our steps and live in accordance as he has taught us. So in Psalm 119 verses 131 to 136, he says, I opened my mouth and panted for our lawn for your commandments. Look upon me and be merciful to me as your custom is toward those who love your name. Direct my steps by your word and let no iniquity have dominion over me. Redeem me from the oppression of man that I may keep your precepts. to know it's there. Deliver me from my iniquity, direct my steps, but also redeem me from the oppression of men. Deal with my sin problem, deal with my enemies. So redeem me from the oppression of men that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes. Rivers of water run down from my eyes because men do not keep your law. Well, David also did not keep God's law perfectly. So we have two reasons of weeping. The sin that we behold, the iniquity that is all around us, but our own inward iniquity as well. So whether in exile or not, let the people that call upon the Lord mourn for their own sins and that deeply, as well as the sins of the nation or the sins of the church. Let us petition for the Lord to guide us as covenant people, but also as guide our nation to Christ. And may Christ's reign and righteousness be what we are drawn to. So our last point, Lord deliver your people. So focus on verse eight through 19. He's the Lord who created Israel and not they themselves. He called Abraham from the land of the Chaldeans, which later would be referred to as Babylon. Brothers and sisters, Abraham was a Gentile. Jews are Gentiles. Talk about DNA. They came from Gentiles. You can't have a Jew, but you start with a Gentile Abraham first. And they're called a people. Not by their physical makeup or their DNA, but by grace. So the Lord cared for Abraham. He cared for Abraham and Sarah, his wife and their children and their grandchildren. and every generation as they sought the Lord. And the Lord was gracious that Israel was not faithful in a great measure. There were faithful people, but there were many unfaithful people. And yet the Lord increased their numbers, even as they dwelt in a strange land of Egypt. And he brought them out with mighty signs and wonders that he worked through his servant Moses. And the Lord planted, as he says in Psalm, it was a vineyard, I mean a vine. He took a vine and he planted it in a nation, in the land of Canaan specifically. And he took out those nations, the Canaanites, the pagan and evil and cruel paganites out of the land of Canaan over time. And he allowed that vine, let Israel flourish and to bear much fruit. And the nation flourished from the Mediterranean Sea to the river, and that river would be Euphrates. This is what the Hamas supporters are saying, just get rid of the Jews from sea to river. They're referring to the covenant work of God. And so under David, the nation flourished the greatest, and also in time of Solomon. So this is kind of a picture that God promised Abraham, not small real estate in the Middle East, but the whole earth. Hence, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And who inherits earth first? Christ. Christ has inherited the nations already. But here we have the situation is bad for Israel. And in testimony this song foreigners have plucked the fruits of the harvest they have taken what they wanted for themselves I mean this literally happened the nation was plundered from time to time until all was taken And even talks about the wild boar of for The boar like the wild pigs uproot the vine and the pagan leaders of armies think about them they were mighty they were They're strong, they couldn't be resisted, and they tore down, they destroyed the nation. And yet, the nation had a remnant that would still call out to God. Verses 14, 15. Return, we beseech you, O God of hosts, look down from heaven and sea and visit this vine and the vineyard which your right hand has planted and the branch that you made strong for yourself. Again, invoking the Lord, Lord, this is yours. They're doing this to you. Yes, they're doing it to us, but they're doing it to you. Remember, like when people blaspheme the name of God, when people speak evil of God's people, it's the same effect. When the Lord Jesus confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, Hard for you to kick against the goads. Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus whom you persecute. And Jesus is in heaven. Jesus and Paul never met, or saw the persecutor. But Saul was persecuting the church, so he was persecuting Christ, even the risen Christ. And so God does take it personally, rightly so. And so we need the power of the Lord. We need intervention of the Lord. We need to walk in the favor of the Lord. We don't deserve these blessings, but we know God extends these blessings out of grace, out of mercy, and so we call upon him. We assume we deserve a blessing. Brothers and sisters, listen. If you think you deserve a blessing, and of course you're comparing yourself to other people, unbelievers, You have entered self-righteousness. If you're in self-righteousness, you're blind that you're saved by grace. You might say that term over and over again, but you're not really believing it. You don't deserve any favor at any time. Now, the promises of God are yea and amen, and they cannot be broken. But that doesn't mean you deserve. any specific blessing on this earth. And so we should be more thankful for everything we have, for however long we may have it. So we plead with the Lord, do not abandon your people. In this age, we can make an additional argument. Lord, did you not give us your son? Did you not send your son as our savior? Did not his blood cleanse your people from sin? Are we not counted righteous now in your sight? You have declared that the gates of hell will not prevail. Hell will not prevail against heaven. You will have a church, you will have a people for yourself. We have overcome for Christ has overcome both sin and death and the grave itself. We have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. So look upon his righteousness as you look upon us. So it says verse three, verse seven and verse 19 echo that request of restoration. May your face shine upon us, restore us. That is a great thing to have on your lips throughout this week. So we combine pleads of mercy and pleads of intercession and pleas of restoration. And so what we were saying in a lot of ways, Lord, do not any longer fight against your people. But fight against your enemies. Cause us to stand with you. Let us not wander any further Fill us with the fullness of your joy and conviction of heart to follow your ways and see them as excellent and perfect and beautiful in the ways of the world as broken, ugly, evil, and destructive. And so we know that who is the one where it says, let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself." Who is that? It's not David. David's probably long dead when this song was written. It's not any king of Israel. See, it's a consequence. Then we will turn back from you, revive us, and we will call upon your name. And so this is a prophecy of Jesus. Jesus is that man God has raised up, who is at the right hand of the Father. And he does something, he saves. And he is still at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for the people of God. Did not Stephen see this? The reigning Savior at the right hand of God in Acts 7.56. last glorious thing he saw before he died. Look, I see the heavens open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. And then Hebrews 10, we have in verse 11 through 18, this wonderful declaration and every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. So he's talking about the political priesthood and the weakness of it compared to what we have in the priesthood of Christ. But this man, after he has offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God from that time, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. So he has perfected forever you, believers, as you are being sanctified. Praise be to the Lord. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us for after he has said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds. I will write them. Then he adds their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more. Not occasionally. I'll look it up every now and then remind myself. But he says, I will remember them no more. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. And did not Jesus say in John 12, 23, the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified. So we have deliverance by one. who saves each day, the mighty Savior, Jesus Christ, who you confess if you confess your need of him. He is the head of the church, and so he has brought vindication and victory and blessing for you. And we need to be reminded of that. It doesn't go away. But sometimes when you're despondent, When you're weighed down by some chasing of the Lord or maybe some affliction by unbelievers, you'll forget. But the word of God is here and you have to open up the pages and remind yourself and sing those words back to yourself as well as to the Lord. So exercise your holy priestly duties. Believers pray and make intercession for one another, the church at large, and even for those of our nation for mercy to rain down upon them as well. And may the gospel go forth and manifest the power of the Holy Spirit and inform people of the promises that are fulfilled in the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May sins be a distant memory for us. May we speak of them more and more in the past tense. And may we be known as peacemakers, sowing the seeds of peace by praying, by interceding, and by sharing the gospel that is written in our Bibles, that we believe and we confess that Jesus is the deliverer for sinners, and he is the restorer of his people in all ages. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do pray that you would bless your church, that you would bless your people in the churches, that we would be built up in the faith, that we would not be a weak people, that we would not be people known as people of the flesh, but people of the spirit, that we would meditate upon your word deeply and bring it to bear in our conversations with others. But Lord, unbelievers are predicting one way or another the end of the earth and of the universe. Popular opinions of weather will destroy us. Or there is a fear of war will obliterate, destroy our nation and our earth. But we know that there's a day of reckoning that only the Lord brings. And we know that Any man, woman, or child could die at any time. And that mercy is needed now. And so as we pray, and as we know Christ makes intercession for our prayers and the Holy Spirit perfects our prayers, we pray to you for mercy, deliverance, for reviving, for your spirit to work in a mighty way throughout the land. And so may you bring forth your kindness, your everlasting grace, and reveal Christ to our nation more and more. We pray in his glorious and wonderful name. Amen.