So one of the things about your pastor taking a vacation is you get to hear from other godly men who come and proclaim the word of God.
And this morning we have Davis Morgan.
And I am a big fan of Davis Morgan, partly because when I asked him, I'm going to introduce you today, what is it that you want me to mention?
He said, I am a native Texan.
And you all know how I feel about that.
And he also said, and I said, well, how are you adjusting?
And he said, I miss Texas barbecue.
So you know how that makes me feel as well.
But he is the pastor of Westside Church.
He's been there about six months, I think we decided.
And we are just so gifted that he has chosen to come and preach to us this morning.
He is the father of three, June, May, and Asa.
And his wife's name is Tiffany.
So thank you so much for blessing us this morning.
And please come forward.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.
It is so good to be with you, Cheyenne Mountain.
Greetings from one of your sister churches here in the city.
As Jim said, I am the pastor of Westside Church.
And we have worship on Sunday afternoons.
So I'm free to come and bring God's word to you this morning.
And it is an honor to do that.
So I want to invite you, if you have your Bibles, to open with me to the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 9.
Isaiah chapter 9, verses 1 through 7.
And you may be thinking, well, isn't this a Christmas passage?
And I will admit that most of the time that we hear this passage, it is around the Advent season, around Christmas time.
But we as a church have been going through Isaiah this summer.
We've been going through Isaiah 1 through 12.
And I'll speak more on that here in just a moment.
But it has been such an encouragement to us going through this monumental book this summer.
And our plan is to go through it over the next five summers, actually.
So we're cutting it up into five pieces.
And so today, I actually preached the last sermon there from Isaiah chapters 11 and 12 before we go into the fall.
But I preached this sermon just a few weeks ago.
It was a blessing to me.
It was a blessing to our people.
And I pray it is a blessing to you.
So draw your attention to the reading of God's word, his holy, his inspired word, given to us for everything regarding life, faith, and godliness.
Isaiah chapter 9, verse 1.
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.
In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.
But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
You have multiplied the nation.
You have increased its joy.
They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For every boot of the tramping warrior is in battle to molt, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.
On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
This is the word of God.
Amen.
Let's pray real quick for our time in his word.
Join me, please.
Lord God, we do thank you for this word.
We thank you for our time in it.
Lord, it is a privilege that we have getting to hear this word, getting to sit under the preaching of your word, your primary means of grace,
the way that you have chosen, Lord, to reveal the glory of Jesus to mankind and to us, your people.
We pray that you would help us have eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart to receive the truth of your word.
We also pray for the children who will be listening as well.
We pray that you might give them the gift of illumination, the gift of understanding, Lord.
We confess that apart from your grace, apart from your mercy and the work of your spirit, Lord, these things remain distant to us.
They remain folly to us.
And so we pray and ask that you would be gracious to your people now, that you would pour out your spirit and you would give us revelation of who Jesus Christ is.
We pray this.
We ask this in his name.
Amen.
Well, it's coming.
Are you ready?
It's 72 days, 8 hours, 28 minutes, and 43 seconds away.
42 seconds.
41 seconds.
Ready or not, it's coming.
Can you handle it?
What is it, you ask?
It is the 59th time in the history of our country that the presidential election will be held.
And with rioting and protesting in every major city or many major cities, the social, the civil tension in our country at levels not seen in 50 years, the political landscape looking more divisive than ever.
We could say that it appears that the stakes have never been higher.
On top of that, we are right in the middle of a global pandemic.
As of today, there have been 5,068 million cases of the coronavirus in our country.
Nearly 5,800 in El Paso County alone.
There have been 176,000 deaths in America.
151 of those have been in El Paso County.
A stunning 54 million Americans have filed for unemployment since March.
665,000 of those are in our state, which is nearly one-fifth of our state's workforce.
And on top of that, we are still faced with the unknown about when a vaccine will be developed to mitigate the virus to the point that life can, or if life can, return to normal pre-coronavirus.
As Bob Dylan said, the times indeed are changing.
We just don't know what they are changing into at this point.
And around the world, while trust in government is at an all-time high around the world,
in America, in a recent poll of 34,000 adults, 76% of those said they were more trusting of Amazon, Clorox, General Mills, and Hershey than our federal government.
I'd take chocolate over the government right now as well.
But in all seriousness, when we dig a little bit deeper beneath the surface of our country, what do we find?
We find approximately 3,000 abortions are performed every day in our country.
That's roughly 616,000 so far in 2020.
40% of all pregnancies in our country end in abortion.
Among minorities, those numbers are even more staggering,
with 1,000 of those 3,000 daily abortions being performed on minorities.
35% of children under the age of 18 live in homes with only one parent,
with the percentage among minorities double that, nearly 70%.
There are 443,000 children in foster care in our country,
and more than 123,000 of those are awaiting adoption.
Since March, there have been 1,600 shootings in Chicago,
with nearly 340 of those resulting in murder.
In New York, there have been nearly 600 shootings and nearly 200 killed.
There have been 24,000 gun-related deaths halfway through the year.
10,000 of those have been homicide.
14,000 of those have been suicide.
And to give you an idea of where those are typically at for the year,
for the year, we average 15,000, and we're already at 24,000.
Human trafficking organizations estimate that there are 40 million people,
40 million, who are in some form of slavery in the world,
whether that is labor, whether that is sexual,
whether that is child exploitation.
In America, there are an estimated 220,000 to 250,000 children
who are at risk for human trafficking or sexual exploitation.
What about faith in God?
Faith in God is at an all-time low in America,
with only 60%, 60% of those in the latest polls convinced that God exists.
That is down from 80% a decade ago.
This is reflected in the increase.
Maybe you've heard of this demographic.
The nuns, N-O-N-E-S.
The nuns, which stands for no affiliation,
is now at 20% of American adults.
This is at an all-time high, of course.
And at the same time, church membership in our country
is at an all-time low,
with only 50% of Americans
who say they belong to a church
are actually members of that church.
And I found out this recently
in the six months since the coronavirus,
that one-third of those who were previously attending church
are no longer attending church,
not even online, not even the live stream.
Why do I share all of that with you?
Well, as if you didn't already know,
but to draw all this together,
the outlook in our country is grim.
There is darkness over our land.
And it can be very easy for hopelessness
and for despair to set in.
Is it not?
But the reason I share that with you
is because much was the same
for the nation of Judah in Isaiah's day.
We come to Isaiah chapter nine,
and at the end of chapter eight in Isaiah,
the words that the prophet had
was distress and darkness,
the gloom of anguish over the land.
That is where Judah, that is where Isaiah,
that is where the nation of Israel was at the time.
And up to this point in the prophet Isaiah,
the questions that have become clear
that Isaiah wants us to understand
is one, who is man or understand the nature of man?
And the example that God used
was his own covenant people.
His own covenant people.
And right away in chapter one of Isaiah,
we find that they are ignorant of who God is.
They are full of sin and iniquity.
They have turned away from God.
And again, that is his chosen people.
Those were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And the result was a society
that was much like the society
I just described of ours.
A society that celebrates evil,
intolerant of the good.
In chapter five, verse 20,
many of you may know that verse,
where God says,
woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness.
That is where Judah was at in Isaiah's day.
The other question that is apparent
when you read Isaiah chapters one through 12
is who is God?
Who is God?
God is the Holy One of Israel.
He is absolutely sovereign.
He is absolutely holy.
And he is absolute just.
He is absolute just.
And as a result, he sends Isaiah.
He sends Isaiah, who is, as it were,
his covenant attorney,
his prosecutor that is going to the nation.
And he is bringing God's indictment to the people.
And he's saying, you are guilty.
This is how you are guilty.
And if you don't repent, what was going to happen?
Judgment was going to happen.
Judgment was imminent.
For Israel, the northern kingdom at the time,
God had sent the prophets Hosea and Amos.
They had pleaded with the people.
They had warned the people.
And Israel refused to listen.
So then God sends Isaiah primarily to the nation of Judah.
And Isaiah brings that same message.
That judgment is imminent.
But there is time to repent.
There is time to repent.
Darkness and distress over the land,
he says at the end of chapter eight.
And the chapter ends with this darkness over the land.
And the question,
the question that appears apparent
is that the Davidic dynasty,
the dynasty that God had promised to David,
the dynasty that would be an eternal dynasty,
that someone would sit on David's throne,
that his throne would never cease
to have someone seated upon the throne.
That seems in jeopardy
because the kings that had come after David,
for the most part,
had not followed in the ways of David.
There had been a few good ones, of course.
But overall, the kings are leading the people
further and further away from God.
So the question,
what of the Davidic promise?
What of the promise that God had made to his people?
From a human perspective,
if we read the first eight chapters of Isaiah,
it appears bleak.
It appears that there is no hope
from a human perspective
that this kingdom is going to continue.
But what of the divine perspective?
What will God do with the promises that he has made?
And that's when we come to chapter nine of Isaiah.
God will answer and he will answer emphatically.
He will answer so that his people are yet reminded
that he is the Lord and besides him, there is no God.
Now, what is that emphatic answer?
The emphatic answer is found in Isaiah nine,
verses one through seven.
Our passage breaks down.
Here is the outline that I'm using
if you would like to take notes.
In verses one through three,
we have the hope described.
We have the hope described in verses one through three.
We have the hope explained in verses four and five.
And then we have the hope realized in verses six through seven.
The hope described, the hope explained,
and the hope realized.
Now, look with me in verses one through three.
The first thing that I want to point your attention to
is the darkness is reversed.
The darkness is reversed there in the first few verses.
It says this,
but there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.
In the former time, he brought into contempt
the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.
This was the northern kingdom of Israel.
After Solomon had died,
Saul, David, and Solomon,
these were the kings under the united kingdom
of Judah and Israel.
And after Solomon died,
when his son Rehoboam took the throne,
rebellion ensued,
and the kingdom was split in half.
And Jeroboam took the northern kingdom,
took the northern kingdom of Israel,
and Judah remained loyal to the Davidic throne.
And so God is saying here
that it's going to start,
it's going to start in the place
where the people had initially turned away from God,
where the land was the darkest, we could say.
It says in the latter times,
he has made glorious the way of the sea,
the land beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the nations.
Israel, you may recall,
fell to Assyria in 722.
And Assyria came down along the coast
into this very land
that Isaiah is saying,
light is going to dawn in this very place.
More than that,
the northern part of Israel
was where in the books of Kings, for example,
this is where idolatry and false worship
were the deepest seeded in the land.
You remember Jeroboam,
the first thing that Jeroboam did
when he took the northern kingdom away
from the southern kingdom
is that he set up two calves.
He set up two calves
in the land of Ephraim
so that people would no longer
travel down to Jerusalem.
And by doing so,
Jeroboam called the sacrificial system
that God had put in place.
At the very beginning,
he set up this false worship.
And if you remember what happened
at Mount Sinai,
when Aaron made the golden calf,
it really brings to light
the depths of the depravity,
the depths of the idolatry
where this was happening.
And God says that the light
is going to dawn there
in that very land.
Friends,
this is a great reminder
about the sovereignty of God.
That he is able to make glorious,
to use the language of verse one,
that which was an ugly scar
on the history of the nation.
And may that be a great comfort
to you and to me.
Our scars,
our shame,
our sins.
What is the Lord able to do
with those things?
He is able to make out of you
and out of me
something glorious.
No matter how dark it may be,
no matter how grim it may be,
no matter how enslaved
we may feel that we are,
his light is brighter,
his grace is greater,
and his power is mightier
than that sin
in which you struggle with
or that I struggle with.
This passage reiterates
the fact that his light
is able to dawn
into the darkest of places.
The light has dawned,
it says there in verse two.
And notice how he describes,
he talks about those
that were in deep darkness.
Deep darkness,
a great light has dawned.
In the Bible,
deep darkness is talking moral,
it's talking spiritual darkness here.
It's talking about
the nature of the heart.
This is total depravity,
we could say.
The depravity that was rampant
in the land,
the sin and the rebellion
that the people had had
against God.
And of course,
light,
light is associated
with the presence of God.
The presence of God
in history,
the presence of God
interceding
or intervening
into history
to step into
our dark world
so that the devastation
might give way
to glory
and hope.
And it says,
in the land beyond the Jordan,
in Galilee of the nations.
Now,
what's significant about that
is that this was the land
that was lost
in the exile.
God's work
is that he's going
to bring light
into a place
that there had not been
the presence of God
in a long time.
More than that,
it tells us
that this is not only
going to be
for his covenant people,
for the Jewish people,
for Jews and Gentiles,
but the Galilee
of the nations.
Again,
this light,
this light is going
to start there
and then it's going
to expand
and it's going
to encompass
the nations.
Verse 3,
we have the darkness
reversed
and then we have
the joy multiplied.
Look at verse 3
with me.
It says,
you have multiplied
the nation.
You have increased
its joy.
They rejoice
before you.
Who is the subject?
Who is doing
all of these things,
friends?
It is the Lord.
You have multiplied
the nation.
You have increased
its joy.
They rejoice
before you.
Joy.
Joy multiplied
at the dawning
of this light.
What comes to your mind
when you think
about the work of God?
Is joy.
Is it joy?
Does joy,
does your heart
fill with joy?
Joy in him.
Joy in his sovereignty.
Joy in his word,
his promises
and his work
in which he has done.
Joy is one of those words
that can be hard
to define sometimes.
Typically,
we associate it
perhaps with happiness
or welfare,
prosperity,
but that's not
biblical joy.
Biblical joy
is rooted,
it's grounded,
we could say,
in the Lord,
in the person
of who he is.
you see life
through the lens
of him.
You see life
through the lens
of God's glory,
through his work
in redemptive history.
The dawn of light
and joy
in what God
is doing in us.
So,
here's a question.
Based off everything
that I shared with you
at the beginning,
how is your joy
right now?
Are you struggling?
Are you despondent
about how the world
is right now?
About how our country is?
Are you spiritually
parched,
down,
famished?
Are you overwhelmed
by life?
Our God, friends,
our God has
something for us.
It is to see
his grace
in action.
It is to see
his grace in action.
The light
that has dawned
in history
through the
redemptive work
in which he is
accomplishing.
And he
has included you
in that.
He has invited you
to that.
You are here today
because you
are included.
See that light.
Fight for the joy
that is yours
by faith.
It's there
for you,
dear Christian.
Fight for the joy.
It's yours.
And when we say
that,
we're not just
talking about
on the good days.
But especially
on the bad ones.
When the burden
and the oppression
of sin
feel almost
unbearable,
remember,
remember what it
says here
in Isaiah 9.
The light,
the joy,
and then in
verses 4 and 5
it talks about
what it all means
that this light
has come.
The hope
explained in
verses 4 and 5.
It says,
for the yoke
of his burden
and the staff
of his shoulder,
the rod
of his oppressor,
the Lord
has broken
as on the day
of Midian.
The Lord
has broken
the yoke.
The Lord
has lifted,
lifted the burden,
the oppression
he has done.
There's freedom,
there's life here.
The burden
of guilt,
the stains
of shame,
friends.
God has removed
those.
This is like
Christian in
The Pilgrim's Progress,
that classic
by John Bunyan,
where he
sees the cross
and he runs
up the way
of salvation.
And here's
what Bunyan
says.
He says,
though the hill
is high,
I still desire
to walk up it.
I don't care
how difficult
it is because
I understand
that it is
the way
that leads
to life.
Leads to life.
The power
of grace,
the power
of God's work
to destroy
the burden,
the guilt
of sin,
the oppression
of shame,
the power
of grace
to bring
victory
in what we
share in
is what he
says there
in verse 5.
Look at verse 5
with me.
He says,
for every boot
of the tramping
warrior in battle
to molt
and every garment
rolled in blood
will be burned
as fuel
for the fire.
And here
what Isaiah
is foreseeing
down the road
is that the
enemies of God,
the enemies of God
will be defeated.
And the example
that he gave,
he talked about
as the day
of Midian,
he said there
at the end
of verse 4.
And that was
when Gideon,
if you remember
that story
in Judges
chapter 6,
this is when
Gideon
started initially
with 20,000
warriors
and God
withered that
away to 300.
And through
the work
of the Lord,
he brought
victory
when they were
outnumbered
five to one.
It was a
great victory
for Israel
at the time
and it was
something that
they would
reflect upon
because they
had no business
winning that
victory.
That was the
point.
It was God
who did it
and he will
do this great
work yet again,
friends.
Light into
darkness,
joy at the
breaking of
the chains
of sin
and slavery
and he will
also defeat
the enmity
that exists,
the enmity
that exists
in the world,
the language
of warfare
there,
Isaiah sees.
And what
Isaiah,
in verse
five,
what Isaiah
is essentially
seeing,
friends,
is this.
He is
seeing,
God has
given him
a picture
of all
down the
corridors
of history.
Isaiah
is seeing,
is seeing
this hope,
this hope
that is
described
in verses
one through
three,
it's now
being explained
what is
this light
going to
eventually
do?
What's
going to
be the
end game?
Isaiah
sees it,
that the
enemies of
God will
be defeated.
And why
is he
telling Isaiah
this?
It's so
we don't
miss when
the hope
is finally
realized.
In verses
six and
seven,
the hope
realized,
the light,
the joy,
the victory,
they are
coming,
declares
the Lord.
How are
they
coming?
For
unto us
a child
is born.
Unto
us
a son
is given.
Now here's
what I want
you to
see.
God's
promise of
victory,
it's not
through an
earthly
conqueror
by sword
and oppression.
Do you
get that?
It's through
a child.
It's through
a son.
That is
absolutely
incredible.
This is
completely
counter to
the way
our world
thinks
about
ambition,
about power,
about how
do you
set up,
how do you
rule over
people.
It must be
through the
sword,
it must be
through oppression,
it must be
through fear.
That is not
the way that
God is going
to accomplish
his victory.
What is
he going
to do?
First of
all, it
says he's
going to
set up
a kingdom.
It says
the government
shall be
upon his
shoulder,
and if we
take with
what it
says there
at the
end of
verse 7
as well,
the throne
of David,
his kingdom
will be
established,
it will
be upheld
with justice
and righteousness
from this
time forth
and forever
more.
This is
the coming
of God's
kingdom to
earth.
That is
what he is
going to
do.
He's
going to
set up
his
kingdom.
Now,
who is
this
son?
The
description
that we're
given
in verse 6,
at the end
of verse 6,
he is
wonderful
counselor.
Literally,
his wisdom
is unmatched.
He is
mighty
God,
the warrior
God,
we could
say.
His courage,
his strength
is unmatched.
He is
everlasting
father.
Now,
what is
the meaning
of this?
This is
covenantal
language.
This is
covenantal
love,
covenantal
power.
His concern
for his
people is
as though
he is a
father over
his children.
Prince of
peace,
the increase
of his
reign,
and peace
there will
be no
end.
On the
throne of
David and
over his
kingdom,
establish,
uphold,
with justice
and righteousness
from this
time forth
and forevermore.
The zeal
of the
Lord of
hosts
will do
this.
The zeal,
it is this
burning desire
that God
has that
this is
going to
be the
answer.
This is
going to
be God's
answer to
his people's
predicament.
Not only
his people,
but for the
world's
predicament.
For unto
us a
child is
born.
Unto
us a
son is
given.
Little did
Isaiah know
that it would
take 700
years for this
to happen.
But what
do we
know?
In the
fullness of
time,
God sent
forth his
son.
And we
read in
Luke chapter
2,
almost verbatim
with Isaiah
7.
You know
the passage.
For unto
you is
born this
day in
the city
of David
a Savior
who is
Christ the
Lord.
He is
the Messiah.
He will
be great
and he will
be called
the Son
of the
Most High.
And the
Lord God
will give
him the
throne of
his father
David.
And he
will reign
over the
house of
Jacob forever.
And of
his kingdom
there will
be no
end.
Unto
us,
friends,
a child
has been
born.
Unto
us a
son has
been
given.
Why
has
this
son
been
given?
So
that
anyone
who
believes
in
him
should
not
perish
but
have
eternal
life.
For
God
did
not
send
his
son
into
the
world
to
condemn
the
world
but
that
the
world
through
him
might
be
saved.
And how
would he
do that?
How
would he
establish
his
throne?
He
would do
that
by taking
on the
form of
a servant.
And Isaiah
later
in chapter
53
he sees
this same
son
as a
man of
sorrows.
He
becomes a
man of
sorrows
fully
experiencing
the pain
and the
darkness
of this
life.
You
have to
keep
that
in
mind
because
when
we
keep
that
in
mind
that
Jesus
experienced
the
darkness
of our
world
first
hand
it
brings
it
really
emphasizes
it
magnifies
what he
said
in
John
chapter
8
where
he
said
there
I
am
the
light
of
the
world
whoever
believes
in
me
shall
not
walk
in
darkness
but
will
have
the
light
of
life.
And
what
that
means
for
us
is
that
Jesus
is
able
to
overcome
our
darkness
he's
able
to
overcome
our
darkness
no matter
what
it
is
example
after
example
in the
gospels
of
those
who
were
in
darkness
the
dregs
of
society
drunkards
tax
collectors
prostitutes
even
the
self
righteous
and
the
proud
like
Peter
who
fell
the
hardest
among
his
disciples
the
darkness
that
we
all
know
is
there
the
darkness
that
we
are
even
unaware
of
that
we
are
blind
to
in
our
lives
Jesus
is
the
great
light
that
God
promised
through
Isaiah
that
he
would
dispel
the
great
darkness
in
us
the
great
darkness
that
loomed
over
mankind
and
here's
what
that
means
we
can
bring
our
sin
to
Jesus
and
with
confidence
know
that
he
can
handle
it
that
you
are
not
too
sinful
for
Jesus
I
am
not
too
sinful
for
Jesus
he
will
not
cast
us
off
but
instead
he
will
embrace
us
and
he
will
shine
his
light
and
dispel
the
darkness
in
each
one
of
us
he
can
do
that
friends
because
he
took
the
darkness
of
sin
upon
himself
the
wrath
the
condemnation
of
God
he
paid
he
paid
the
full
price
with
his
life
as
he
hung
on
the
cross
and
darkness
covered
the
land
when
the
enemies
thought
that
they
had
triumphed
over
him
he
was
triumphing
over
them
as
he
said
in
his
final
words
it
is
finished
and
then
to
demonstrate
the
reality
of
what
he
accomplished
what
did
he
do
he
rose
from
the
grave
and
the
apostles
say
the
reason
he
rose
from
the
grave
is
because
it
was
impossible
for
the
grave
to
hold
him
down
and
he
has
been
given
all
authority
in
heaven
and
on
earth
his
reign
is
come
his
reign
has
come
repentance
the
forgiveness
of
sins
are
offered
to
you
this
day
in
his
name
for
all
who
will
believe
so
where
are
you
looking
for
answers
what are
you
hoping
for
in
2020
how are
you
hoping
that
2020
is
going
to
end
because
one day
it will
end
one day
2020
will
end
but
whatever
our
outlook
your
king
is
reigning
and
ruling
even
now
until
that final
day
Isaiah
saw that
final day
when the
enemies of
God would
be defeated
with
him
you
have
perfect
righteousness
you
have
justice
he
will
make
all
wrongs
right
perfect
peace
in
him
the
day
has
arisen
the
day
or
the
day
is
foregone
the
light
has
come
look
up
dear
people
of
God
for
your
redemption
draws
near
your
king
has
come
and
he
is
coming
again
amen
let's
pray
together
lord
we
thank
you
for
this
time
we
thank
you
for
the
promise
of
isaiah
chapter
nine
lord
it
is
not
only
a
promise
that
unto
us
a
child
is
born
unto
us
a
son
is
given
lord
but
that
promise
has
been
realized
in
history
in
the
humble
first
coming
of
your
son
lord
we
marvel
at
what
Jesus
has
done
for
us
we
marvel
at
the
fact
that
lord
there
is
great
darkness
over
our
land
there
is
great
darkness
even
over
our
lives
to
this
very
moment
lord
we
confessed
our
sins
earlier
to
you
lord
nothing
in
our
hands
do
we
bring
simply
to
the
cross
do
we
cling
and
we
long
for
the
day
when
our
king
does
return
until
then
lord
help
us
to
be
steadfast
help
us
to
see
the
world
through
the
lens
of
king
jesus
help
us
to
share
that
hope
that
treasure
that
we
have
with
others
around
us
as
well
lord
we
thank
you
for
this
time
this
covenant
meeting
as
your
people
we
pray
that
we
would
go
out
from
here
comforted
transformed
and
our
hope
renewed
that
is
found
in
your
son
and
your
son
alone
and
it's
in
his
name
we
pray
amen
and
for
a
especially
you
声
and
our
speech
and
our
hy ovat
have
been
the
left
to
his
eye
and
forth
our
others
can
or
have
his
wants
to
see
in