[0:00] And as Sunday, we were just recently in Zacharias. Maybe the timing of this will be just fine to kind of piggyback off of that, being in the refiner's fire and how to think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you.
[0:17] And so here we are in this context of trials and how it can do something for you, and in that light you can count it all joy when you enter into such a thing.
[0:27] I don't know. When I read that, I understand now. I study it. I think it out, and I get it. Okay, it is for my benefit. I can grow stronger. I can go closer to God.
[0:38] I can develop a prayer life. I can be maybe refined and purged from things in my life and heart that don't belong there that are keeping me from being who I ought to be.
[0:48] I see that, but my initial reaction is, why would I want to count it all joy? Why would I get excited when there's a trial that I'm stuck in or when I have to go through this or this is how it's going to be from here on out?
[1:00] Why would that make me happy? But that's the command. Count it all joy. And that doesn't resonate with our way of thinking, and our way of thinking is we want to get out of trouble, and it's then a prayer request for me because I'm in a trouble or a trial, and it hurts, and just help me and pray that God would take it from me.
[1:20] That's how Paul thought too. I mean, take this thorn from my flesh. It's tearing me up, God. And God said, no, I'm not going to do that. And so there's a mindset that has to be adopted here.
[1:32] And this is something, this is all kind of introduction stuff that we went, and I took you to a man in the Bible that is a great man of a great example, I should say, of suffering, affliction, and going through things that we wouldn't want to go through.
[1:46] And his reactions was what I was showing you, how he counted it all joy. And he praised God, and he didn't charge God foolishly, kind of like Job.
[1:57] He remained faithful throughout the trials, and they were many. And the man was David. And we studied a little bit. This is going back a little. I don't know if anybody even remembers this, but what we studied was how David, even in the very beginning, when he was anointed by Samuel, he was overlooked by his dad.
[2:14] He was overlooked by all his brethren. They didn't even call his name to be anointed. I mean, he ran through the boys that he had, and, well, I guess he's not here, isn't there anyone else, Samuel said?
[2:26] So Jesse, oh yeah, I do have this other son. I mean, that's a great moment in his life, his anointing to be the future king over Israel down the road. And even there, he was overlooked and despised, never even considered by his father.
[2:40] When he defeated Goliath, he was despised and ridiculed in that scene by his older brethren. And he was falsely accused. They say, I know the naughtiness of your heart. And even in that very great thing, he had to maneuver his way through trials, through people despising him, looking down on him, just casting him aside.
[3:00] But he had in his heart to serve God. When he was promoted by King Saul, he was promoted after that to fight the king's battles. All that did was attract the attention of King Saul when he started hearing them singing praises to David, killing his ten thousands.
[3:16] And the Bible says that Saul eyed him. He eyed him, kept his eye on him from that day forward. And really, just from that introduction to the life of David, things just dropped way downhill.
[3:27] And so we studied, and I'll take you back to 1 Samuel again. And we're going to pick it back up and not review all the material here that we covered the previous week.
[3:39] But in 1 Samuel, in chapter 18, this is where things were going so great. He was just keeping the sheep, and now he's fighting the Lord's battles, and now the king wants him dead.
[3:53] And in chapter 18, I began to show you, time after time, where Saul attacked David or attempted, whether it was with the spear in his very hand, or whether it was using his own daughters to give them to David to wife, and thinking, oh, by the way, if you want her, you're going to have to go kill some Philistines for me.
[4:14] And thinking the whole time that he would have him to, he says, let not mine hand be upon him, in verse 17, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. He wasn't trying to give him his daughter. He was trying to kill him.
[4:26] And so men, be careful. It might be a trick. So he said it in verse 21. Saul said, I'll give him to her another one, another one of his daughters, that she may be a snare to him, that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.
[4:41] And so as we studied, we saw chapter 19, verse 1, Saul spake to Jonathan, his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. I mean, he's not even hiding it. That was the fifth mention of our study.
[4:54] And I took you through 13 separate times where King Saul made an attempt on David's life. In some cases, he went to his house. He sent people to his house to take him.
[5:06] When they came back saying that he couldn't do it, then he said, take the whole bed. Just bring the whole thing back here. I'm going to kill this guy. He sent messengers to take David through chapter 19 several times.
[5:19] And where we stopped with this was somewhere in chapter 20, I believe, in verse 31, when they were having the meal and David was not there and Saul's anger was kindled against his son.
[5:31] And he said, end of verse 31, fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die. And so that was the 13th time that we got through.
[5:42] And what I showed you now, we broke from this and went to the Psalms and found that there were Psalms that coincided with these attempts on his life. In the first case, we went to Psalm 59.
[5:53] And that was back there after attempt number 7, I think it was in chapter 19. And then we went to Psalm 34. And we saw right here after David is fleeing for his life and he ends up in the Philistines' camp or he ends up with the king of Achish, the king of Gath.
[6:14] He ends up there feigning himself. Remember in verse 13 of chapter 21, he changed his behavior before them, feigned himself mad in their hands, scrappled on the doors of the gate, let a spittle fall upon his...
[6:25] I mean, he acted like he's totally insane. And why? Because he was running from King Saul, staying in the mountains, staying out of sight and undercover. And he comes down off these hills to this town and he ends up in Gath.
[6:39] And of all things, he ends up with the sword of Goliath on him just about a year after he killed the champion of Gath. And he finds himself in kind of a, oops, moment.
[6:51] And so here's his plan. What he showed you his plan was to pretend he's mad. And at the end of this, we went to Psalm 34 and then saw, how did he count it all joy when he's falling into these diverse temptations, these trials where the king's after his life?
[7:06] He says, I'll bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. He says, O taste and see that the Lord is good.
[7:18] And on he goes talking about God's deliverance to the righteous and to those that are afflicted. And so today, tonight now, we're going to pick it up on attempt number 14 on David's life and then show you again how he responded to these circumstances of his life, how they continued to get lower and lower and lower.
[7:37] And yet he counted it all joy and he allowed it to work something because it was preparing him eventually to take the throne, to be a man that God was going to use and for generations to come even.
[7:49] And so here we are back in 1 Samuel. And I came up to about into chapter 22. I think we closed around the end of 21.
[8:02] So I think we're caught up there. You'll notice in chapter 22, verse 1, David therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave of Dullam. So David is back on the road with his diverse temptations and he ends up in a cave.
[8:20] And then in this chapter, he flees to Moab and he ends up smuggling in verse 3 and 4. He smuggles his mother and his father out of Israel for their own safety.
[8:33] So what a thought. David's got to get his mom and dad to safer land because not only is the king after him, now he's afraid for his own parents' lives. And so they end up fleeing for safety to Moab and things begin to unfold that he hears of that something took place back his path where he had come from.
[8:52] And I'll show you what it was. Look at chapter 22, verse number 18. In verse 18, it says, The king said to Doeg, Turn thou and fall upon the priests.
[9:08] Now, Doeg, I didn't highlight this, but earlier in chapter 21, David ended up in Nob where Abimelech was the priest. And while he's there, he's asking for bread or anything.
[9:20] He ends up getting the sword of Goliath. And while he was there, in verse 7 of chapter 21, he runs into this man named Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdsmen that belonged to Saul.
[9:32] And so David saw him. He knew he was there, but David ends up taking off and running for his life. And that's when he ends up down where he didn't want to be. And then he comes back and he catches word, though, of what took place with that man Doeg and those priests that he left behind.
[9:47] And all of this he ends up feeling responsible for. Verse 18 says, The king said to Doeg, Now Saul's here, Turn thou and fall upon the priests. Saul is chasing David. He ends up behind a little bit.
[9:58] And he says, Doeg the Edomite turned and he fell upon the priests and slew on that day four score and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword.
[10:10] The city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword. Both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep with the edge of the sword. And one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David.
[10:23] And Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priest. And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it that day when Doeg the Edomite was there. That he would surely tell Saul. And so now he takes responsibility saying, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house.
[10:39] I knew it. I knew that guy was up to no good. I knew he'd rat me out. I didn't know that Saul would show up and have all these men murdered. I didn't know that he'd go after the women and the children and the livestock.
[10:52] I didn't know he's that nuts. But it's my fault, David said. He's after me. And as long as I keep running from him, he's going to keep coming after me. And I'm burning bridges behind me.
[11:04] And things are just going down and further down for David. And what a thought. This must have been super heavy on his heart. Feeling the guilt and the responsibility for these men of the cloth, as we call them.
[11:18] God's priests in the Old Testament. And so David gets his pen out. And come to Psalm 59. And let's see the heart of this man. And learn what it is to count it all joy.
[11:32] Even in the hardest of circumstances. To turn and never to charge God foolishly. And to turn your heart to the Lord. Psalm, I want you in Psalm 52.
[11:43] Sorry if I said 59. 52. Psalm 52. Psalm 52. And you'll notice again the heading right underneath the word Psalm 52.
[11:56] If your Bible has this. It says, To the chief musician, Masakil, A psalm of David, When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul. And said unto him, David has come to the house of Ahimelech. Now David didn't write the psalm when Doeg spoke to Saul.
[12:10] He didn't catch word about that until that moment we just read of. And after it was already said and done. And so when he hears of this. He gets his pen out. And in verse 1 he writes, Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?
[12:26] The goodness of God endureth continually. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs like a sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good and lying rather than to speak righteousness.
[12:37] Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy thee forever. He shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land of the living.
[12:51] The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
[13:03] But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise thee forever because thou hast done it.
[13:15] And I will wait on thy name for it is good before thy saints. It doesn't sound so much like a man in distress as he is. You can hear his disdain for Doeg and for what he's done and even threatening by God's name that he would get his and that he'll regret it.
[13:37] But he closes by saying in verse 8 and 9 that I'll trust in the mercy of God. I praise thee forever. Saying I will wait on thy name.
[13:48] Closes this thought with praising the Lord, with keeping his heart where it belongs toward God and saying I'll wait because the trying of your faith worketh patience.
[14:03] And David knows that the throne's promised to me, but boy it sure doesn't feel like a throne's coming anytime soon. I'm running, I'm running. Now this man's just killing everybody in my path.
[14:13] But count it all joy. I want to show you David's reacting the right way to these circumstances. I mean come on, no one in here has probably had anybody coming after their life.
[14:26] You may have had to pay taxes. You may have had to deal with a broken down car. You may have even had some marital situations and you may have had problems with family and children or you may have had things that tied you up and felt like it's just throwing you around.
[14:41] But were you running for your life? Did you ever go up on those hills right there to get away? You ever sat up on those hills just broken and empty knowing that I can't go back down to the valley because they're looking for me down there?
[14:59] That's where David's at here. And then even the closest people to him, they're not safe. It gets worse. So come back to 1 Samuel again and we'll move a little bit further. And come to chapter 23.
[15:17] In chapter 23, David delivers this town of Kiliah or Kiala from the Philistines. And I don't want to read the whole chapter, but the Philistines come up against this town.
[15:32] David ends up with the Lord's instructions going and smiting the Philistines and saving that town. And so the king catches word of this.
[15:44] In verse 7, it was told Saul that David was come to Kiala. And so like a grateful people for their hero, for the one that delivered them, they turn him in.
[15:56] They tell Saul, yeah, David was here. And they'd write him out. And so let's catch here. Attempt number 14 is in verse number 8. Because Saul hears where David is.
[16:08] Attempt number 14 on his life. Saul called all the people together to war to go down to Kiala to besiege David and his men. He wants them dead.
[16:20] He's taken men of war with him. All the people together to war to go down after one man. That's who I want to see dead. And he's not going to rest until he gets it done.
[16:33] Now in verse 14 and 15, David abode in the wilderness and strongholds and remained in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day.
[16:46] But God delivered him not into his hands. And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life. And David was in the wilderness of Ziph in the woods. So there's the 15th. Another attempt that Saul made on David's life.
[17:00] And how do you think David would then respond to that? Well, it's just followed by more trouble. And of course by more trouble, look at verses 19 through 21. So David finds himself in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood.
[17:15] He's hiding out there. Verse 19, Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in a strongholds in a wood? Can David catch a break?
[17:26] Everywhere he goes, they're turning him in. And verse 20, Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down, and our part shall be to deliver him into the king's hand.
[17:36] And Saul said, Blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye have had compassion on me. What a wicked king. Now look what David does with this. Look at Psalm 54.
[17:49] Psalm 54. David escapes one just to find himself into another situation. Escapes that one just to find himself in another situation where everybody's turning on him.
[17:59] Everywhere he flees, he's not safe. Talk about diverse temptations, trials one upon another. Psalm 54.
[18:10] And you see the heading again. To the chief musician on Neganoth. It says, you notice the timing there?
[18:21] When the Ziphites came and said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us? So here's the setting, and David gets his pen out again. And David, does he what? Does he complain to God?
[18:33] Can I catch a break? Why me, God? Why do I have to deal with this? You want me to be a king? You want me to give my life to you, and surrender to you, and serve you?
[18:44] No, David doesn't talk like that. David cries to God, Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength. Hear my prayer, O God, give ear to the words of my mouth, for strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul.
[18:58] They have not set God before them. Selah. Behold, God is mine helper. The Lord is with them that uphold my soul. He shall reward evil unto mine enemies.
[19:09] Cut them off in thy truth. I will freely sacrifice unto thee. I will praise thy name, O Lord, for it is good. For he hath delivered me out of all trouble, and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies.
[19:22] You read through these psalms, know that this is a real man that's penning these things, but it even helps, I think, to see the circumstances and the pressure that he was under when he penned them.
[19:32] And that's why I told you Sunday, if you've got a problem or you've got a trial going on in your life, go to the psalms and hear from a man who's been there and who poured out his heart to God and let him be the example for you and strength for you how to turn your mouth and your mind to the Lord and to glorify him.
[19:51] And as David said, freely sacrifice unto thee and praise thy name, O Lord, for it is good. Now the question is then, is God good when you're in the trial?
[20:04] Is he good? Sometimes you're going to be tempted to say, not right now, he's not. Not to me, he's not. He's good to them because they're not in the trial and that's selfish.
[20:17] And it's easy for me to say it's selfish because I'm not in it, right? But no, it's not me that's saying it. It's the truth. It's me having a pity party for me instead of saying, no God, you're good.
[20:29] You're good. You're so good. There's a friend of mine that a few weeks ago, it was a Wednesday night, as a matter of fact, right before the Zraik family, the night they got here, I got a text just before church started about a friend of mine who's in the ministry and he's a pastor and it said that his house burned.
[20:46] The text I got was his house burned to the ground. And he's a personal friend that I know well and went to school with and when I read the text, it like, I can't, it just got this sunken feeling in my gut.
[20:58] Like, I just wanted to leave and just go pray for him and I didn't want to get up in front of you. At that moment, I just, I was like, it just hurt because he's a man with a wife and his children and I just felt like, what's his wife feeling right now?
[21:15] What's his kids thinking? And so, yeah, it's true. They were displaced from their home. They're living at the church. They're living on the grounds. They, they're living in his office and in this little room they have for the, like missionary, prophet's chamber kind of thing and it's, I think it's a family of seven of them and they're dealing with it and they're waiting and they're working at it and I've been, was FaceTiming him and he showed me around the church and he's in Alaska so he walked outside and the sun was out and I said, how cold is it?
[21:44] He's like, oh, it's five below or five above zero right now. And it was like, no thing, it's nice. So we, we talked for a while but I, my heart still goes out to him just in the, the way things are going for him, you know, where they have to live and just dealing with those things.
[22:05] And he's in a, is God good to him right now? Or should he charge God and say, why? Do I deserve this? I'm a, I gave my life to you. I'm pastoring a church.
[22:16] I'm doing everything I can to do what's right. Why? Should he turn on God? Should David turn on God? Should you turn on God? Or should you count it all joy and find a way to glorify God even when it hurts?
[22:34] Even when you don't want to. Coming back to, you can stay in the Psalms. We're going to give you back there in a moment but come back here to 1 Samuel and I'll try to hurry up here and get to the end.
[22:47] So David pens Psalm 54 and he continues to praise God but his life is a wreck. It may not show in the Psalm but his life is a wreck.
[22:59] And the only thing that's established for him is that everybody wants him dead and he doesn't have any friends and it's not over yet. So back in 1 Samuel, look at verse 23.
[23:11] Here's attempt number 16. In verse 25, it says, Saul also and his men went to seek him and they told David wherefore he came down unto a rock and abode in the wilderness.
[23:23] So another location and Saul's after him there. And it says at the end of verse 26 that Saul and his men come past David and his men round about to take them. So they're absolutely looking to kill him again.
[23:35] Chapter 24, look at verse number 2. Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild ghost.
[23:48] This is where David moved to next. And on Saul goes, attempt after attempt, he's not finished yet. And so here's where David writes, Psalm 57.
[24:00] And let's get there and we've got one more to look at. Psalm 57. David writes, Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee.
[24:17] Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge unto these calamities be overpassed. I will cry unto God, most high, unto God that performeth all things for me.
[24:28] He shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. My soul is among lions and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.
[24:47] Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have digged a pit before me into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves.
[25:01] Selah. Look at verse 7. My heart is fixed. O God, my heart is fixed. David didn't get shook, did he? You'd think he might have by this point gotten knocked down or flinched or crumbled or caved in or just said, enough's enough.
[25:22] if this is me and God help it not to be me, if that's me, I don't know. I don't think I've ever been pushed nearly even what we're in attempt 17 on his life.
[25:37] I mean, that's trying to kill him dead, you know. I haven't had one of those to my knowledge. If looks could kill, maybe, but not 17 of these.
[25:47] He's that far into this thing and he declares something that ought to help you and I right there. My heart is fixed, O God. I'm not backing out of this thing.
[26:00] I'm here for you. I'm on you. If it goes worse, I'm still with you. If they take me and kill me, I'm still with you. No matter what happens, my heart is fixed.
[26:11] What a glorious verse. That's one to put down, that's one to get a hold of and say, I can do that too. I can get my heart fixed on the Lord. He says in verse 9, I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people.
[26:25] I will sing unto thee among the nations. Well, not right now you're not, David. Right now you're running for your life, but his heart has got plans to glorify God and to let everybody know that God took care of him and who his Lord is.
[26:40] I'm going to wrap this up moving back into 1 Samuel and we'll see the last attempt is in verse, well, it's in chapter 26, 1 Samuel 26.
[26:51] This deal with the cave, you may recall that Saul and David end up shaking hands and parting ways, so to speak, and it happened more than once actually, I didn't bring that out, but it's getting down to the last chance here for Saul coming after David.
[27:12] It's in verse 2, chapter 26, verse 2. Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having 3,000 chosen men of Israel with him to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. And that was the 18th time that Saul goes after David and that's where they kind of part ways again and David goes to Gath in chapter 27 and he's exiled out of the land of Israel and he's with the Philistines now and he's never going to see Saul again.
[27:40] And we looked at it over these two weeks of studying this, 18 separate times where Saul sought to kill David. And I told you this David is a doctrinal picture here as well of the Jewish remnant that's enduring the tribulation time in the future and Saul makes quite a strong type of the Antichrist.
[28:03] He's called the adversary once and he's seeking after David's life 18 times for what it's worth 6 plus 6 plus 6 just kind of a coincidence how that Bible works out like that.
[28:16] But it's not the end of David's miseries either because in chapter 30 he's on the war path only to find out that his family has been kidnapped he's making some noise in the land of Philistines and in chapter 30 verse number 6 David was greatly distressed for the people spake a stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters and David it just gets lower when he's finished with King Saul so to speak at the timing anyway King Saul has gone back he hears of war in his land he has to take off and leave David to himself and David gets some things going and ends up that some other guys show up and burn Ziklag with fire and take the women captive and now David's own people that are with him are after him and they want to kill him they're speaking amongst themselves we should kill David it's his fault he's the one that stirred us up to do this we should just stone him right here and now and David hears word of this so what does he do does he go out with a sword and say who's going to cast the first stone deal with me man to man no verse number 6 the ends but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God
[29:29] I got a note in my Bible don't quit even when the brethren want you to quit don't quit encouraged himself and the Lord is God in the end Saul dies and David takes over as king and eventually he unites the kingdom and he conquers and he just subdues the whole land around him and he becomes more than just a good king I mean he is the man the king of nation of Israel and God institutes a covenant with David and what I want us to get though that's what we know of David is David the covenant with the Lord his sons living on the throne after him the great king ruling all over that land and defeating the enemies of Israel but we got to see that it wasn't an easy road to get to that throne it's not all slinging stones at giants and people cheering and singing there was an awful lot of trying of his faith and those were real trials that we saw and those were real tears that he cried it was real pain and loneliness and betrayal and fear and grief and distress that he found himself in but it worketh patience and when patience has her perfect work you're entire and wanting nothing and now David's prepared to take the throne and so my brethren count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations your heart's not going to say yes this again you're going to want to get out of it but may the life of David this man of sorrows may his life especially this beginning that we see this might be about a seven year thing that he endured be an example to us to keeping our head up through the trials realizing like
[31:24] Sunday that I will bring you through the fire I'm going to bring you through what God said and let like David have his praise continually in your mouth count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations because it will work together for good and it could be an opportunity for you literally believe it or not we could study this some other time it could be an opportunity for you to shine brighter in the future that's what it's going to work for you the believer according to the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 and 2nd Corinthians 4 there's what God's going to work in you and I through suffering and through trials is end up shining and that'd be a whole other study and Lord willing we'll do that one day but hope to be an encouragement to you through the life of David showing you a man that could count it all joy knowing that God's going to work his perfect work and it's going to turn out for his glory and whether it turns out for my best interest the way I see it and maybe not but when you can commit yourself to
[32:26] God through the thing then it's going to work out for good for his good because he doeth all things right let's be dismissed we'll pray and then turn you loose thank you for being here tonight let's go to Lord in prayer Father thank you for tonight and for each one again that's here and for this opportunity to go through some scriptures and God I pray that these psalms would be real to us that they'd be what we need to get us through the times in our lives Lord it's not just the psalms themselves and the one that penned them but Lord it's your words that's what it is it's these powerful words that can speak peace into our souls that can cheer us up and lift us up and strengthen us and get our minds off of the world and off of the trials of life and get them on you like David he's in the middle of so much mess and then he just turns and says that you're exalted above the heavens and so God get our hearts on you and teach us to praise you and teach us to love you and teach us to learn how to put you higher and not so much whining about our problems and not so much complaining about the things that we don't like and want others to pray about and God
[33:37] I pray you'll bring us closer to you through the trials and that we might be perfect and entire and so Lord we thank you for this opportunity we have to come together again please bless the kids and the teens and just draw them closer together and closer to Jesus Christ we pray in his precious name Amen you're dismissed