Trust in Unfailing Love of God

Good evening. It's a joy to be back with you all tonight. If you could take your Bibles and turn to Psalms 13, there's a handout also for you. In Psalms 27, Yeah, I'll be turning there. Psalms 27 verse 1, very familiar verse. Psalms says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Then you get down to verse 13. David says this, I am still confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Verse 14, wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Tonight, I just want to take a few moments and go through Psalms 13. And just to let our minds meditate on trusting in the unfailing love of God. trusting in the unfailing love of God. I think about what you all are waiting on at this time as you're going through the process of looking for a senior pastor, that ultimately you're waiting on the Lord. And I want you to be encouraged and be reminded of who you're waiting on. And men and women throughout history have been waiting on the Lord. And one of the things we see in scripture is that the Lord is faithful. He is faithful. The Lord will supply at his time the man that he wants to lead you on. During that time, may you be encouraged to not lose heart and to wait on the Lord. When we come to Psalms chapter 13, we come to a psalm written by David. And David is waiting on the Lord. And what we're going to see in this psalm is that David pours out his heart. He pours out his heart to the God who created him and the God who loves him, the God who is the creator of both heaven and earth. And during this time, he just pours his heart out. And it's good to pour out our hearts to the Lord. He already knows everything. But it's good to share with the Lord at times what's going on. And this is what David does in this song. Let me read it here. Psalm 13 says, How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts? And every day have sorrow in my heart. How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, oh Lord, my God. Give light to my eyes. So I or I will sleep in death. My enemy will say I have overcome him and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love. My heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me. This song begins with David questioning the Lord's concern about the circumstances in his life. Four times in the first. In verse one and two, David asked how long he says, how long, O Lord? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? And then he says, how long will my enemy triumph over me? Let me ask you all a question. And I would like you to answer. I want to ask you a question. What are some reasons people are led to question God? What are some reasons people are led to question God? Anyone? Any thoughts? Tragedy? Okay. Alright. Anyone else? Okay. They don't get what they think they want. Thank you. Yes. lack of faith, lack of faith, okay? Alright, anyone else? Anyone else? Those are some excellent things. Lack of faith, tragedy, they don't get what they want. I want to take what Brian said, he says this, they don't get what they want, and what we have going on here with David, he's not getting what he wants. And this Psalm, We have here, he's pinning the internal struggle that's going on inside of him. There's an internal wrestling going on inside of David. And it is causing him to wrestle with his thoughts. He's wrestling with his thoughts. He has sorrow in his heart and he's discouraged. And it appears that his enemy is going to continuously triumph over him. As you know, David, as it says in Acts 13, 22, He was the man after God's own heart. And even a man after God's own heart is going through a trying time. It does not matter how much we know, how many books we've read. It doesn't matter how many times we've taught or shared the gospel. Those are great things. But the reality is, when we live in this life, there's going to be challenges. There's going to be things that are going to shake us internally in this life. You remember the story in Acts 14 Paul and Barnabas go to Iconium in Antioch and they're sharing the gospel and if you remember some individuals come down and they begin to share lies about them and they get beat up But amazing is that Paul and Barnabas choose to go back to the place where they got beat up. And you remember they said to the people that, you know, we have to go through many trials to enter the kingdom. We have to go through many trials. And as believers in Jesus Christ, We're not free from challenging circumstances in life. We're just not. I wish I could tell you that when you trust in Christ, everything is going to be smooth sailing from here. There are going to be no challenges, no late phone calls, no bad doctor reports. That's just not true. It's not true at all. But the good thing is, there's coming a day when there will be new heavens and new earth. And we'll be with our Lord and Savior. And all these things will be behind us because of Christ. But in this life, we're going to deal with some challenging situations. And this is where David is. This is where David is. You know, there are times when we may ask things like this. We say to God, why do you have me dealing with, stressing over, waiting for, praying for, or hurting over? You can put anything in that blank longer than I expected. How did you do that, Lord? Or you can say, how long must I wrestle with my thoughts about parenting? You may say, how long must I wrestle with my thoughts about the direction of my life? How long must I be employed with this company while I apply with other companies? Well, what we're going to see here in these verses is that David questions the character of God. And usually, you know, we probably do the same things. We're questioning who God is. We're questioning the character of God. And each one of these things we're going to look at here, we're going to look at God's, his omniscience, his omnipresence, and also his omnipotence. David would not have known of these words, but he would have understood the idea behind the words. But he would not have known of them. And so when we come to verse one, it says, will you forget me forever? Will you forget me forever? And so David is bringing into question, I think we say the omniscience of God, in which he's bringing into God's knowledge of all things, both actual and possible. It's the omniscience of God. God knows all things, both actual and things that could possibly happen. And so, for David, he's thinking, you know, Lord, are you going to forget me? Are you going to ignore me forever? That's what's going on, forever. This is the trauma that is going on in David's heart. When things like this happen, we think about the omniscience of God. It's going to affect our relationship, at times, with the Lord. It may affect it. And one of the ways in which we can deal with these thoughts, these rustings of our souls, is to bring Scripture to bear on them. To bring Scripture to bear on them. Remember, David said in Psalms 119, he says, Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against God. So we want to bring to bear scripture on these things that happen in our lives. On the last page, if we go to page 6, I ask a question there. What scripture would you use to encourage yourself or others? You look at under omniscience, at those times when you feel as though God does not know what is going on. Remember verses like this in Matthew 6, 25 and 26, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And so, our Lord tells us not to worry. And one of the ways in which He addresses this issue of worry is He says, ultimately, look outside. You know, look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or they do not reap. He says, your Heavenly Father feeds them. He says, you're more valuable than them. You're more valuable than them. And so, it's a great thing. You can just look outside. You see a bird flying, I'm more valuable than that, because God says so. 1 John 3 says, For God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything. Hebrews 4.13 says, Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered. Not a few things, not a couple of things, but everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account. And so when we feel ourselves at times where we're questioning God's knowledge of what's going on in life, let's bring to mind scriptures as we have there. And there are probably some scriptures that you have in mind. But the reality is that God is in absolute, complete control, and He knows all things, both actual and possible. Well, David keeps going in his psalm, and he says, How long will you hide your face from me? So David is now bringing the question of God's omnipresence. When we think of omnipresence, we think about the fact that God does not have size or spatial dimensions. and that he is present at every point of space and his whole being, yet he acts differently in different places. God is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet he acts differently in different places. The phrase you see here which says the face of God is used throughout the Old Testament God does not have a face. We know that. You remember from the Bible in John 4, 24, where it says, God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. What we have here when we talk about the face of God, we have here an anthropomorphism. It is when God appears to us or manifests himself to us in human form or even attributes to himself human characteristics so that we can understand. So this is what we have going on here when he talks about the face of God. What does the face of God mean? It's talking about God's face, either the hiding or the shining of God's face. Whenever they have the face of God and it talks about God's face hiding, it's expressing alienation or curse. Psalms 30 verse 7, it says, Oh Lord, when you favored me, Don't miss that. It says, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm. But when you hid your face, I was dismayed. And so the psalmist there realizes that whenever God's face was shining upon him, there was the favor of God. But when God's face was not shining upon him, he was dismayed. And I think what we all want is the favor of God. We want the face of God shining upon us. Look at Psalms 44 verse 23 through 26. Look at this language here. He says, Awake, O Lord, awake. Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself. Do not reject us forever. Why does he feel like this? Look at verse 24. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust, our bodies cling to the ground, rise up and help us, redeem us because of your unfailing love. And so for the Israelite in his relationship with God, once again, the hiding of God's face expressed alienation and cursing. Something's wrong here. And so they're pleading with God, please God, wait, get up, do something, we feel as though you're rejecting us. That's the hiding of God's face. The shining of God's face signifies blessing, or we could say the favor of God. In Psalms 31, verse 16, it says, let your face shine on your servant. Save me in your unfailing love. Psalms 80, verse three says, restore us, O God, make your face shine upon us that we may be saved. Psalms 80, verse seven says, turn us again, O God of hosts. and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved." If you notice there, in each of those verses, if God's face shines toward him, or God's face turns toward him, they will be saved. They will be saved. And so the shining of God's face signifies blessing, or the favor of God. Back in Maryland, when my wife and I would drop off our children in the nursery, we would take them back and we would sign a piece of paper. And as long as our children saw our face, they were fine. They were fine. But the moment in which we let go and we turned and walked away, then something was now wrong. And usually they would start crying. And so probably for them, maybe get that picture in our mind, is that when the face of God is looking at us, there's protection, there's comfort. But when that face turns, something has changed. And so here David is saying, how long will you hide your face from me? David wants God to shine his face upon him. David wants God's favor. Two points we can get from this. If God's face is shining on David, he would, one, not be going through the struggle, maybe that's going on in his mind, or two, that God would save David rather than leave him to suffer. And so at times when we question God's omnipresence, a few verses that we can bring to our minds is Jeremiah 23, 24. Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him, declares the Lord. Do not I feel heaven and earth, declares the Lord. I know this is a favorite. Psalms 139, verse 7 through 12. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, surely the darkness will hide me and the light becomes light around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you." And so we can trust in the fact that even though we may question the omnipresence of God, even though we may desire the favor of God, we can know that in no time are we out of the presence of God. And all things are laid open and bare before Him. Well, keep going, omnipotence. We see this in verse 2. David says, how long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? You can see his heart. You can see David's internal struggle coming. He says, every day this is going on. Every day I have sorrow in my heart. How long will my enemy triumph or exult over me? So David here is questioning God's omnipotence. He's questioning the fact that God, you are all-powerful to accomplish everything. And He is. When we think about the omnipotence of God, we're talking about not only is God all-powerful to accomplish everything, but God is all-powerful to accomplish everything that is in accordance with His will. Not within our will. He's able to accomplish everything that's in accordance with His will. Well, when we think about God doing everything in accordance with His will, there's two ways in which we can think about the will of God. We can think about the external journey and we can think about the internal journey. When we think about the will of God, think of the external journey as God's eternal plan that began before the foundation of the world in which he chose to save individuals, in which God put this plan into work When he said that he would send one who would crush Satan's head, then we go to Genesis 12 and he brings Abraham out of the earth, Chaldeans, and says to your seed, you're going to be a blessing to the nations. And so the eternal plan of God is working itself out throughout all the scripture because of people to himself, the Israelites, he gives them their commands there to be a blessing to all the nations that are surrounding them, calling them to worship the one true king. Then we have that time, the intertestamental time, and then Jesus Christ comes and he dies on the cross for our sins. He rises again from the grave. And now we're going to proclaim the gospel to the nations. That is the external journey. God is calling people to himself from the nations to worship him. That's the external journey, but then we can also look at the will of God in the internal journey, and the internal journey is those that God has chosen to save. He's in the process of conforming them into the image of Jesus Christ. We think of sanctification. That is what is going on in second Corinthians, chapter three, verse 18. I want to read that to you. In 2 Corinthians 3.18 it says this, and we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into his likeness, he's referring to Jesus Christ, with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. And so, God saved us, he's in the process of conforming us and transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ. And this process will not end until we receive our glorified bodies. And so we think about God who is all powerful to accomplish everything in accordance with his will. Part of that will is the external journey, bringing the nations to himself. And the second part is that God is conforming us into his image. And so at times when we look at, when we question and say, you know, God, you're all powerful. You can intervene in this situation. And yes, he can. But even in that situation, you may have to ask yourself, God, is a part of your plan at this time? Are you using this circumstance to reach someone with the gospel? Or are you using this circumstance to conform me to the image of Christ? How are you using this circumstance in my life? There are other examples of individuals who had some internal wrestling. We can think about Timothy. He probably had some restless days in Ephesus. You remember Paul pleaded with the Lord to take away his thorn in the flesh. You remember the scattered believers who were the recipients of Peter's letter, 1 Peter. And Peter's command to them was to endure by following the example of Jesus Christ and to not forget the imperishable hope they had in Christ. 1 Peter is just a beautiful letter. You remember in 1 Peter, before he addresses the issues that are going on within that body, he begins by reminding them of their salvation. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Once he reminds them of who they are in Christ, he reminds them that you have a reason to praise and to honor God. He chose to save your soul. Once he lays that foundational work, then he says, okay, now let's deal with the issues. Let's deal with the issues. And so it is a great thing for you and I to be reminded and to never lose sight of the grace of God that has chosen to save our souls. No challenging circumstance, no matter how challenging it is, it cannot take that away from us because we're secure in Jesus Christ. Well, a few verses we can use to deal with those thoughts When we question the omnipotence of God, we feel as though God is able to intervene. Remember Matthew 19.26, Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Luke 1.37 says, For nothing is impossible with God, but it must be in accord with his will. And so what about questioning God? What about questioning God? When asking God about your circumstances, be humble and ask with the purpose of gaining wisdom in order to bring honor to Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 10 31, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And remember that God is under no obligation to answer any of your questions. Psalms 115 verse three says, Our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him. God said to Joe, Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him. Isaiah 55 verse 8 and 9 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. And so we can also remember when we're asking God is to do as James said, In James 1 verse 5 through 8, I'm not going to read it there, but we know that verse that we ask for wisdom. Right there, he's talking about trials. And in the midst of dealing with trials, James says, ask wisdom of the Lord. And so we can do that also. Well, let's quickly look at David's plea to God. David's plea to God. And we see this in verses 3 and 4. David is flowing here and he says, look on me and answer, oh Lord, my God. And so what David wants the Lord to do when he says, look on me, he wants the Lord to shout or to speak. He says, Lord, I need you to respond. That's what I want. And that's what we want. We want the Lord to respond to us. After hearing David's question, he wants a response. Remember, there is no authority greater than the Lord that David or you and I can request help from. Always remember that same thing with our salvation. You and I were saved from the wrath of God. How are we saved from God's wrath, we are saved from God's wrath by God himself. That's the only place to turn to be saved from his wrath is to turn to God. And the same is true for you and I in when we need help. is that we want to always remember, even in questioning as to what's going on, our help cometh from the Lord. Always comes from the Lord. You remember David and his son Solomon. And you look at David and Solomon, and the scripture is very clear about some of the things that happen in their life. I was just amazed to see, you know, why is David a man after God's own heart, after what he did? What's wrong with Solomon? You know, Solomon had some issues in his life also. But if you look in 1 Kings 11, 7-10, it talks about the fact that Solomon, as he got older, his heart turned away from God and he went after other idols. Look at David's life, even though he had sin in his life, even though he murdered someone, even though he committed adultery, David never turned to idols. He never turned to another God. He always trusted in Israel's God. Solomon did not. He turned to other gods. In essence, he brought the entire nation down. by turning to these other gods. And so the place you and I need to turn is always to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Well, David says, give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death. He says, I will sleep in death, my enemy will say I have overcome him and my foes will rejoice and I will be and when I fall or be shaken. David's request to give light to his eyes is linked with him sleeping in death. And his enemy and foes rejoicing over him. David, when he says, give life to my eyes, he could be asking for the Lord to illuminate his outlook on the circumstance. I'm going to see clearly what's going on, because as far as I see it right now, I'm going to die. It's going to be over. Or, he could be asking the Lord, Lord, give me strength to endure the circumstance. Either one. Strength to endure the circumstance. So, as far as David could see, he was going to die. His enemy was going to have the victory. His enemy was going to rejoice over the fact that David is dead. Depending on where this psalm, when this psalm was written, I'm not sure at all. But, it could either have been written when David is running from Saul, This is a great example of everything working out according to God's eternal plan. You remember in 1 Samuel 13, verses 13 and 14, that after Saul had offered unauthorized burnt offering, he was supposed to wait on Samuel, but he did not wait. And so he offers for wisdom what he should do. And Samuel comes and says, what have you done? What have you done? And he says, if you had obeyed, the kingdom would have been yours. But now the Lord is going to take it from you and give to another. And so if this psalm is written with David running from Saul, in God's eternal plan, David is not going to take the throne until Saul is removed. And so God's eternal plan must work itself out. Or it could be that this psalm was written when David is running from Absalom. Absalom, his son, who was trying to kill him. You remember in 2 Samuel chapter 12, verses 10 and 11, after Nathan comes and speaks to David, he says, you're the man. And he talks about the fact that there's going to be havoc in your home from this point on. And so if this psalm is written during that time, the eternal plan of God is working itself out. David is going through havoc in his life because of his choices. But we're not sure exactly when the psalm was written, but I think two great examples of understanding that God can accomplish everything in according with his eternal plan of what he's doing. Well, what does David do? David trusts in God's unfailing love. The last two verses, but I trust In your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me. The unfailing love is God's covenant love for Israel. It was his unique love. But it's knowing God's unique love, that's his nature to love in this way. This love speaks of his goodness and kindness and also his faithfulness. In the story of Jonah, in Jonah chapter 4, Jonah is upset because of the fact that God displayed his unfailing love to the people. That's why he didn't want to go. Because he knew that his God was full of unfailing love. He's going to display that to his people. To these people. You remember in Exodus 34 verse 6 when God proclaims his name to Moses and he passed in front of Moses proclaiming the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. This is dealing with the unfailing love of God. Psalms 21 verse 7 says, For the king trusts in the Lord through the unfailing love of the Most High, he will not be shaken." On many occasions, we can look through the Scriptures, look through the Psalms, and they were trusting and hoping in the unfailing love of God. That's our hope. The unfailing love of God. And that is even true of you and I. Our hope is in the fact that the God of the Bible is faithful. He is faithful. He has a record of being faithful. And he will continue to be faithful. Even during this time, as you're waiting on a senior pastor. The God of the Bible is faithful. He is faithful. Psalms 33, Psalms, yeah, 33 verse 18 and 22 says, but the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope in his unfailing love to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait and hope for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You." So they were hoping in the unfailing love of God. Turn, if you would, to Psalm 77. I just want to look very quickly here. It's Psalm 77, I think this is a great application we can take from this. Once again, this is another psalm of the individual who is dealing with some internal wrestling going on in his soul. I'm going to go ahead and read it while you turn. Psalm 77, verse one says, I cried to God for help. I cried out to God to hear me. Look at verses seven and nine, seven through nine. It says, Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? The psalm is almost similar. He's questioning God. Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion? There are going to be times when we ask questions just like this. You may not ask this kind of question today. You may not ask it this month. You may ask it five years from now. You may ask it 15 years from now. You may ask it 20 years from now. But what do we do? What do we do when we have these kind of questions? I think we can do what it says here in Psalm 77, verse 10. Look at what he says. I'm going to do. Then I thought to this, I will appeal the years of the right hand of the most high. I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. Your ways, O God, are holy. What God is so great is our God. You are the God who performs miracles. You display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm you redeem your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. The water saw you, O God, the water saw you and withered. The very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the skies resounded with thunder, your arrows flashed back and forth, your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world, the earth trembled and quaked, your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen, you, God, led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. And so what the psalmist said, he made an intentional decision. He said, this is what I'm going to do. Even though things, I'm questioning things right now. But what I'm going to do, I'm going to remember the days of the Lord. I'm going to remember the mighty hand of the Most High God. What the psalmist is doing right here is what you and I can do and what we have to do. As the psalmist said, in my present situation, I'm going to go back to the past. I'm going to pull some truth from the past that's good enough for the present. I'm going to pull some things I've learned about God, some of his activities. I'm going to pull some thoughts about the fact that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I'm going to pull some stuff about the fact that God called Noah out and told him to make a boat. And he saved him. I'm going to be reminded of the fact of God's faithfulness to Abraham and his faithfulness to Joseph. I'm going to be reminded of his faithfulness to Joshua and his faithfulness to David. I'll be reminded of his faithfulness to Gideon and I'll be reminded of his faithfulness to Samuel. I'll be reminded of how faithful God is. And I'm going to bring these things from the past. And say they're good enough for the present. Because God has always been faithful. So David says, I'm going to trust. I'm sorry, David didn't write Psalm 77, but the Psalm said, I'm going to trust in the unfailing love of God. And so my brothers and sisters in Christ, amazingly what David says at the end, he says, I'm going to sing, I'm going to rejoice. And amazingly, David was a king. He was a warrior. He was a mighty man. But this man said, I'm going to sing. There's nothing wrong with men singing. He was a man's man. But he said, I'm going to rejoice over the Lord. The individual that you bring here, the Lord already knows. The Lord is not in heaven scratching his head. He's not looking through resumes. The Lord doesn't need to do all that. He knows the exact man that he has for this church. I don't know when he's going to come. Could be here this year. Could be here two years from now. Could be here five years from now. God is in heaven, he does everything according to his eternal plan. But if there's one thing you want, it's for that man to trust in the unfailing love of God. If there's one thing you want, it's for that man to say the scriptures are sufficient and he's not ashamed to pull from the past to minister to you in the present. You want a man who is unashamed to bring to the scriptures when you ask him questions about marriage, and parenting, and counseling, and outreach. You want that man to pull from the scriptures when you ask him about, what do we do about these world events? What do we do about these decisions that they've made in the courts? You want a man that's going to bring you to the scriptures. And so when you have the opportunity to speak with these men, no matter the degrees they have, no matter the achievements they've made, ask them, do you believe this to be the word of God? Are you going to lead our people according to this book? And if he is not, then tell him to have a nice day. because you want a man that's going to bring you to the unfailing love of God. That's what you want. Let's pray. You are a mighty God worthy of total praise. Dear Father, we're waiting on you. Dear Lord, may we praise you because we're waiting on our God in heaven who throughout all of history has intervened at the right time. Jesus came at the right time, at the fulfillment of time, and you will return at the right time. And dear Lord, I pray for this body, that they would wait upon you, that they can say, we would have lost heart had we not believed that we would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Be honored, dear Father, the rest of this night. In Jesus' name, amen.