Good evening everyone and a big thank you to Rachel and Lynn for bringing us these very long chapters with quite a few tongue twisters in them.
Not an easy reading, but well done. It was great to read, I think, the whole passage and hopefully we'll be able to get at least a bit of an overview of it this evening.
I wonder when you're reading prophecies in the Old Testament whether you sometimes wonder, well, how did it work out?
So the prophet is printing God's judgment on Moab or one of the other nations, Edom, one of the other nations around Israel or on Israel and Judah themselves.
And you think, well, what actually happened? Here are the prophecies, what actually happened?
Now, if you have a good study Bible, it will probably tell you, at least tell you a bit about it.
But it's not often that in the book, in the prophecy, you also see the fulfillment.
And to some extent, that's what we're getting in these chapters of Isaiah this evening.
If you've been following over the last number of weeks when we've been going through the book,
you undoubtedly recognize that Assyria has been the big power that Isaiah has been prophesying about.
The one both which would be used as God's instrument and also would be judged by God.
And the question then is, well, what happened to Assyria and to his king?
And that is what is largely given to us in chapters 36 and 37.
It forms kind of the end of the first section of Isaiah.
So the chapters up till now, the big power which the Israelites are having to worry about has been Assyria.
When we go into the second part of the book, the big power is Babylon.
And Isaiah is looking forward to the captivity of the Israelites and all the things that happened then and afterwards.
And chapters 36 to 39 kind of act as a hinge in the middle of the book.
36, 37, look back.
38, 39, look forward to the exile in Babylon.
And they both serve to give some kind of historical substance in the midst of all the prophecies that Isaiah gives.
Here is what happened.
These chapters have two kings.
I think it's worth taking just a few minutes to remind ourselves of the two kings that feature here.
The first is Hezekiah, the king of Judah.
Now, if you remember the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, all the kings of Israel were bad.
They were all evil.
Most of the kings of Judah also were evil, but there were a handful of good ones.
And of the good ones, Hezekiah was arguably the best.
I think only Josiah would be a rival in that.
Hezekiah was definitely a good, godly king.
He was the one, as referred to in the passage in chapter 36, he was the one who got rid of all the shrines around the country,
which instead of being used to worship God, were used for idol worship.
He was also the king who reinstated the Passover.
The Passover, which had been neglected for many years, reminding the Israelites of the exodus from Egypt.
It was in the time of Hezekiah and at his initiative that it was restored.
And we see quite a number of instances of Hezekiah showing a real faith in God.
Now, that's not to say it's perfect.
We'll see that this evening.
We'll see it again next week when I think it's great.
It's taking us through the following chapters.
But Hezekiah was a good, godly king, albeit king only over a relatively small nation state in terms of world powers in that day.
Judah was pretty insignificant and no more powerful than half a dozen others that surrounded it in the area.
Second king is this man named Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.
A few years ago, Andrew Marr did a quite ambitious television series, which he called The History of the World.
And the second program in that was called The Age of Empires.
And he started with the story of Sennacherib.
He described him as an empire-building maniac, ruthless to the old, merciless to the young.
And that is a pretty good description of the man we have here.
He was a pretty nasty piece of work.
He was cruel.
He was evil.
He was in many ways the total opposite of Hezekiah.
But he was very, very powerful.
Perhaps because it's so long ago, we perhaps don't realize just how powerful Assyria was in its time and for a very long period.
I think the Assyrian Empire was maybe the longest lived of all the ancient empires.
And Sennacherib was a very powerful king.
Let me just take a second because I think there's relevant background to what we're going to be looking at this evening to talk a bit about the early years of Sennacherib.
So we're going to put a couple of maps.
Sennacherib's campaign.
So concentrate at the moment on the one on the left.
This is the Middle East.
You probably can recognize the shapes of the land.
The Middle East in about 700-odd BC.
I don't know how much you can read there, but the red circle up near the top is Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria.
And down in the bottom left, the kind of green, is Judah and Israel.
But the key point is the empire was huge.
The kind of green area is what it looked like immediately after the capture of Samaria.
Remember, 725 BC, Samaria was captured by Assyria.
Its people were carted away, and that was the end of the old kingdom.
It then spread under Sennacherib and successors and eventually ended up down in Egypt.
Sennacherib became a king in 705 BC.
At that point, as well as the empire he directly controlled, there were lots of states like Judah, which weren't part of the empire, but were paying tribute to him.
In other words, they were paying kind of protection money.
So the Israelis were saying, if you pay us regularly a large proportion of your GDP, then we won't come and attack you.
And there were lots of nations like that at that point.
King changes in the empire, and what happens?
The states that have been paying tribute to him think, ah, here's our opportunity.
New king, he's going to have lots of things to occupy him for a while.
He may have some rivals in his own country.
We'll stop paying tribute to Assyria.
And that's what Judah did, and what a lot of the other nations around about did.
They kind of had mutual defense treaties saying we'll help each other.
And they also brought in Egypt, down in the very bottom left of the map, Egypt, which was the great power in that part of the world in their day, although nothing like as great as Assyria.
So what happened then was that Sennacherib fairly quickly established himself.
And the first thing he did was go down to Nineveh, which is a bit below.
Babylon, rather, is a bit down below Nineveh there to sort out some problems there, because that was a real threat to him.
And then he went on the rampage through the lands to the west.
And when he reached Judah, which was about 701 BC, as you'll see in the map on the right, he went down the right-hand side of the land.
And as it says in our passage, he captured all the fortified cities.
And eventually, in the center of passage again, he came to a place called Lachish.
Now, Lachish is significant because when Sennacherib was attacking Lachish, he got his court artists out and he said,
I want you to draw what happens.
In all the gory detail, I want to have what happens so we can put it up as an example to others.
And so Andrew Marr, when he was talking about Sennacherib, it was the siege of Lachib that he particularly looked at,
because that's what we know about.
It was quite stark what happened.
They built huge siege ramps.
They built massive battering ramps, tore the walls down, went on the rampage through the city.
The leaders of the people were killed publicly in particularly gruesome ways.
We won't go into detail about that.
And those who were left were carted away, and then the city was burned to the ground.
That was what Sennacherib did.
That was the way he acted.
And it's almost a kind of early form of shock and awe.
If I do this to this city, then the next one I come to, maybe they'll give in more easily,
and they'll realize that they can't trifle with me.
And so having been to Lachish, he turns his attention to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, of Judah, rather.
So on one hand, we have this good, but rather powerless in the world's terms, king Hezekiah.
On the other hand, we have this really powerful, really cruel king, Sennacherib.
And it's a totally unbalanced contest.
In human terms, there is no way that Hezekiah can stand up to Sennacherib.
If he allows the city to be besieged, he is really just delaying the inevitable.
Sennacherib will win, and will make an example of Hezekiah and others.
And then, as he's done with other cities, he'll cart everyone away into exile.
And that's the background that we have in chapter 36.
Sennacherib focuses attention on Jerusalem and saying,
this is the next one I'm going for, and this is the big prize in terms of Judah,
because this is where Hezekiah is.
Now, he's a bit of a problem.
Jerusalem was a lot more difficult to take than the other cities.
The way it was built, it was built on a hill,
and it's very difficult, even with a siege, to take it.
Alongside that, Hezekiah knew this was going to be coming.
And Hezekiah had taken quite a lot of steps to both fortify Jerusalem
and to secure his water supply,
the water supply being the thing that you really need if you're under siege.
He built some clever tunnels and so on to make sure that was still there.
So this wasn't going to be a quick win for Sennacherib.
And it appears that he thought,
well, let's try and get it without having to fight.
Let's see if Hezekiah and the Jews will give in.
They've seen what we've done elsewhere.
Let's see if they'll give in, and we can just take the city,
and then we can head back to Babylon,
to Nineveh, rather, having done our job.
And that's what's happening in chapter 36.
Sennacherib has sent his envoys,
and their job is to persuade the Jews to give in without a fight.
And it's very clever the way they go about it.
It's a mixture of kind of half-truths and distortion of the truths,
and some things which are pretty close to being blatant lies.
But it is very much trying to persuade the Jews that they have no chance,
and they should give in without a fight.
So let's just talk about a few things that's happened.
I've called it tempting voices.
So Sennacherib's representatives come,
and Hezekiah sends some people out to meet them,
and they start having a conversation.
And Sennacherib's representatives say,
Egypt, you can't rely on Egypt.
Egypt is just a splintered reed of a staff.
Lean on it, and all that will happen is we'll go through,
and we'll pierce your hand, and we'll wound you,
but it won't help you at all.
Probably right.
I'm not sure that Egypt would have come,
to any great extent, to the defense of the Jews,
but very much trying to say,
you have no strong allies.
Second thing they said is that Hezekiah has removed the high places and altars.
True, he'd done that.
We said that earlier.
But they were saying,
because Hezekiah's done that,
your God's not going to help you.
You've taken away the places where you worship Him,
so He's not going to be pleased with you,
and He's not going to come to your aid.
Not true.
Hezekiah, in taking down these altars,
had taken away the places of idol worship.
It had been a good thing that he'd done.
Third thing that they said was,
well, we could give you lots of horses.
Let's make this a bit more of a fair contest,
and even at the moment,
why don't we give you 2,000 horses?
Only problem is,
you've not got any riders to go on them.
You're so weak, you're so inadequate, you Jews,
that even if we give you an advantage in the battle,
you still couldn't do it.
You still wouldn't be able to win.
And then the final thing they say at this point
is that the Lord has sent them.
We're down to verse 10,
if you're following in the passage.
As Sennacherib said,
actually, this is God's will
that I should take your city.
God is judging you.
Judah, you've done lots of bad things,
you've done lots of evil things,
and God will judge you for that.
Well, there's a half-truth there,
because a lot of what we've read about in Isaiah
was about God judging his people
for going against him.
But he had always promised
that there would be a remnant
who would enjoy his grace.
And there was no way that God had sent Sennacherib
with the purpose that Jerusalem should be destroyed.
So four lies, half-truths,
call of what you like,
said to Hezekiah's envoys
that had been sent out.
Now, at this point,
the people who Hezekiah sent out
are beginning to panic a little bit.
Not just because of what the messengers
from Sennacherib are saying,
but also because they can be heard
by the soldiers and others
who are guarding the wall.
Because they're speaking in Hebrew,
which was the language of the common people,
and they were worried
there could be a revolt here.
If these people on the wall hear it
and are really terrified by what happens,
then perhaps they will turn against Hezekiah
and we will end up conceding.
So they say to the messengers
that come from Sennacherib,
look, can't you talk in Aramaic?
Aramaic being the kind of trade language
which the common people wouldn't know,
but rulers would.
And that just provokes Sennacherib's envoys
even further,
and they start speaking to the guards on the wall.
And the things they say are,
well, Hezekiah can't deliver you.
Hezekiah, he's just weak.
How can he possibly deliver you?
Then they say,
actually, you'll be much better off
if you give in.
If you give in,
you will get all your harvest back.
You'll be able to come with us to our land,
which would be exile
and take away in disgrace effectively.
But it'll be much better.
You'll have new wine.
You'll have corn.
Everything will be fine.
In any case, they say,
your God can't deliver you.
He's not powerful enough
to stand against Sennacherib.
And here's the evidence.
All these nations round about,
they had their own gods.
And what good did it do to them?
They're all destroyed.
They've all been beaten.
So again,
there's the powerful voice coming
to the guards on the wall
and saying to them as well,
look, there's no point.
Just give in.
That's their credit.
They don't.
They all remain silent.
And the ploy doesn't work.
Let's have a bit of application for that.
But doesn't that remind you
of the tempter's voice of Satan tempting us?
Whether it's through inward voices in us
or it's through people outside
who are saying things to us
and arguing against us,
we hear lies and half-truths all the time.
So people saying,
all religions are equally useless.
What good did any religion do?
So we've got the new atheists
who perhaps not quite as strong
as they were a few years ago
but certainly have a lot of influence
over many people.
And essentially their take on the world
is religion is bad.
It just leads to war
and bad things happening.
Religion is useless.
And a lot of people might say that to us
if we talk to them about our faith.
Or when we're tempted,
we might have this thought
that the devil would plant in,
well, it'll be better.
I'll enjoy it.
I'll be happier if I do this thing
even though I know it's not
what God would really want me to do.
After all, doesn't God want me
to enjoy my life?
Well, if I do this,
I will enjoy it.
Sometimes even gets to the extent
that it is an accurate messenger said,
almost of thinking,
could this be God's will?
Is this what God wants?
And tempting us to do something
and to throw doubts into our mind,
the way that Satan did with Eve,
to throw doubts into people's mind
about what God's will is
and what God wants for us.
And then the two that I think
are most powerful as the devil attacks us,
God can't help you
and you're not strong enough.
As we face temptations,
at times do we feel that.
I just can't cope with this.
I know it's wrong.
I know I shouldn't be doing it.
But I can't help it.
I'm not strong enough.
I will have to give in to temptation.
And perhaps like the messengers here,
the thought is almost,
well, I could give in quickly and easily
and then it'll all be over.
Or I could hold out for a long time,
but I'll still end up giving in
and it will be worse for me overall.
These are the kind of temptations,
perhaps, that we sometimes feel
in our daily lives,
whether coming from outside,
from people who would be attacking the gospel,
or coming from inside,
from the voice of the devil inside us,
seducing us and wanting us to think
we're better off if we do what we know is wrong.
But it's all lies.
And as in these chapters,
God very clearly made it apparent to everyone
that he was powerful,
that he could save them
from the predicament they were in.
So we should know that there is no temptation
that faces us that we shouldn't be able to overcome.
One of my favorite verses in the New Testament
from 1 Corinthians 10,
God is faithful.
He will not let you be tempted
beyond what you can bear.
And then it says he will always provide a way out.
And if at times we feel,
I've just got to do this.
I just can't resist it.
It's too strong.
The temptation is too strong.
I'm too weak.
Not even God can protect me from it.
We need to look at verses like this
and say God can protect me.
God is stronger than the devil.
And if I trust in the Lord,
I can resist the temptation.
I can overcome in the way ultimately
the people of Judah did here.
Yes, we will be tempted.
Yes, we will be tested.
At times it will be really, really difficult.
We'll almost feel I can't bear this.
And yet God will not let us be tempted
beyond what we can bear.
There is always a way out.
There is always a way to overcome
the wiles of the evil one.
So I think it's the key lesson from chapter 36.
Now chapter 37 is very long.
We're not going to go through it in great detail.
You'll be pleased to hear.
But let me just talk through
a few of the key points from it.
I've called it take it to the Lord.
Take it to the Lord in prayer, of course,
from the old hymn,
What a Friend We Have in Jesus.
And that's what happens in chapter 37.
In chapter 36, we have the devil at work
trying to persuade the people of Jerusalem
that they can't win.
In chapter 37, Hezekiah realizes
the only way he can overcome
is through the Lord's strength.
And he does a number of things.
The first thing is he sends people
to consult Isaiah.
Now Isaiah, for many years,
had been Hezekiah's advisor,
confidant,
someone who he knew he could go to
and could trust.
So in this time of greatest difficulty,
of greatest trial,
he sends to Isaiah.
And gets a very positive message back.
Don't be afraid.
This is verse 6.
Don't be afraid of what you have heard.
These words with which the underlings
of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Listen, when he hears a certain report,
I will make him want to return to his country
and then I will have him cut down with the sword.
So they go to the prophet,
they go to the spiritual advisor,
and God speaks through him
and speaks a very positive message.
Good listen there for us.
If we're really struggling with something,
if we're not sure what to do,
if we think things are going to be too strong,
too powerful for us to cope with,
one of the things we definitely should be doing
is finding someone we can trust
and seeking their help and their guidance.
Perhaps an older Christian,
perhaps someone who we know is particularly godly,
perhaps someone who's been through difficult times
themselves and can help us in our situation.
But when things are hard,
when times are bad,
it's good that we can know
that there are others round about us,
in our church, possibly elsewhere as well,
who can give us wise guidance
and can pray for us
and can help us to know
what is the best way ahead.
So Hezekiah consults God's servant.
Secondly, it happens
is that Hezekiah very directly seeks God's help.
So yes, here and in the past,
he's gone to Isaiah
and looked for Isaiah to pray for him.
But actually, in this dire circumstance
that he finds himself,
he decides he needs to really get before God
and to pray himself.
So we're at the beginning of this section of the chapter.
We have Sennacherib,
or through his commanders,
coming back and saying,
well, no point resisting.
We're going to beat you.
Let's just, you give in
and things will be much better for you.
How can you prevail
when all the other nations round about
and their gods have proved powerless?
So a bit of a repetition of some of the stuff
from chapter 36.
But then the key verses in the chapter
are verses 16 through to 20.
Hezekiah's prayer.
And this is one of the great prayers,
I think, of the Old Testament.
It's a prayer of desperation,
and at the same time,
it's a prayer that really recognizes
how great God is.
So verse 16,
Hezekiah recognizes God,
the God of Israel,
enthroned between the cherubim.
You alone are God
over all the kingdoms of the earth.
You have made heaven and earth.
And whenever we come before God,
the first thing that we need to know
and realize is just how great our God is.
To recognize that before Him,
all of us,
even the most powerful people in our world,
are absolutely helpless and weak.
He is the God of heaven.
He is the maker and the sustainer of our world.
He is the one who raises up kings
and who takes them down again.
And in our own personal circumstances,
He is the one who is powerful to help us.
So we need to recognize God's greatness.
Second thing in Hezekiah's prayer,
I've called we need to guard God's reputation.
Verse 17,
Give ear, O Lord, and hear.
Open your eyes, Lord, and see.
Listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent
to ridicule the living God.
Hezekiah shows that he is jealous
for God's reputation
and that people should know
just how great God is.
I wonder sometimes whether that's something
perhaps we are lacking a bit in
as we live as Christians.
Yes, we recognize God's greatness.
But there are so many things going on
around about us
that we seek to belittle God
or to say He's insignificant
or He doesn't exist
or He doesn't matter.
We should be jealous
for God's reputation
and we should be praying,
Hallowed be your name.
That is really what
that bit of the Lord's Prayer is about.
It is about God's reputation
and how that is maintained
in our world.
So that's verse 17.
Verses 18 to 19
is proclaiming God's uniqueness.
So he said,
Yes, it's true, Lord.
The Assyrian kings have laid waste
all these people on their land.
They've thrown their gods
into the fire.
But they were only gods
of wood and stone
fashioned by human hands.
And Hezekiah said,
I know that you are not a god
like that.
Their gods were powerless.
It was no good them trusting in them
because they didn't really exist
except in a way
that had been made
into an idol.
You, God, are unique.
You're the only true God.
And again, as we come to God in prayer,
we need to recognize God's uniqueness
and how much he sits above
everything in this world
that he is all powerful.
And then finally, in verse 20,
Hezekiah seeks God's glory.
Now, Lord, our God,
deliver us from his hand
so that all the kingdoms
of the earth may know
that you, Lord,
are the only God.
When we pray,
is our primary objective
that God may be glorified?
Yes, there are things
we would love God to do.
Yes, there are things
we need in our lives
and our Heavenly Father
wants us to come
and to ask for them.
But what is our key motivation
as we ask?
It shouldn't be our comfort
or our ease.
Rather, it should be
that God will be glorified
as he works among us,
as he works in our lives,
that people will see
what God does
and will give glory to him.
And ultimately,
Hezekiah says,
that is why I am praying
this prayer.
Yes, it's so that Jerusalem
can be spared,
so that my life can be spared,
which is in great danger.
But ultimately,
it is so God may be recognized
as the only true God.
Now, it's worth taking
a few minutes with that prayer.
It's such a great prayer.
We're taking time
to walk through it.
We're not going to walk through
the rest of the chapter
in any detail.
21 to 35,
our God speaking through Isaiah,
speaking first to Sennacherib
and pointing out the futility
of what he's doing.
Speaking also later on
to Hezekiah
and saying to him
that things are going to be okay.
You will be preserved
and more than that,
there will be a sign
you will even have enough food
to eat despite the great
siege that's been going on,
despite the Assyrians
and all they've done.
There will be,
in the first couple of years,
wild food to eat
and after that food
that you've sown.
And the key message here
is that Hezekiah
needs to trust God's word
and to believe
what has been told to him.
And then finally at the end,
I put this,
recognize God's work.
So we have what finally happened.
Get there in the end.
There's a plague
in the Assyrian camp.
The angel of the Lord
goes out
and puts to death
185,000.
Sennacherib at that point
gets really discouraged
and thinks there was
no point going on
and he heads back home
and the city is saved.
And then the final verse
is about 10 years later
that Sennacherib
was killed by his sons
as Isaiah had prophesied.
So as Hezekiah
took it to the Lord,
the Lord acted,
the city was saved
and ultimately
the evil one
was done away with.
So a good outcome
to a very difficult situation
for Israel.
But just to finish,
let me reflect
on what has happened
over the longer period.
Why was Israel,
why was Jerusalem
and Hezekiah
in such a mess?
And the answer is
because they had tried
lots of different things
to break free
from the Assyrians
and all of them had failed
and it wasn't until
right at the end
when Hezekiah prayed
that God acted.
So Hezekiah for many years
had paid tribute
to the Assyrians.
He stopped that for a while
but then when Sennacherib
came and attacked,
Hezekiah offered
to restart
paying the tribute.
I think at that point
Sennacherib
wasn't very impressed
and wanted to make
an example of him.
Hezekiah tried to form
an alliance with Egypt.
Now Isaiah had warned
against that
but Hezekiah
in an attempt
to bolster
his position
and to give him
some kind of defence
against Assyria
had tried to form
an alliance with Egypt
and as Sennacherib's
messenger said rightly,
Egypt turned out
to be a broken reed.
It was no good
at all.
Hezekiah,
as I said,
prepared for a long siege.
He got things in place
so the city could hold out
for a reasonable period.
Now to be honest,
unless Sennacherib
got a bit fed up
and went away,
there was no way
ultimately they could hold out
but Hezekiah
had done these things
and thought
by doing this
I can maybe
make things okay.
And then he tried
to negotiate
a settlement.
I think that's what's happened
in chapter 36
when his people go out
to meet with
Sennacherib's people.
They're hoping
they'll be able
to negotiate
some kind of settlement
that the Assyrians
will withdraw.
And all of these
fail.
And it's only
at the last minute
when Hezekiah
is in absolutely
dire straits
that he turns
to God in prayer
and he sees
the answer
to his prayers.
You wonder
what would happen
if right at the beginning
Hezekiah
had brought it
to the Lord.
Perhaps none of this
would be in our Bibles
because God
would have acted.
And I think
it's quite significant
that God
allows Hezekiah
to come right
to the edge
before he acts.
To get to that point
of desperation
when Hezekiah
recognizes
there's nothing
he can do
in this situation
but throw himself
on the Lord
and seek
the Lord's help.
If Sennacherib
had been killed
in one of the other battles
or if he'd been killed
back in his own
city of Nineveh,
then that might have
been a cause
for rejoicing
for the Israelites.
But it wouldn't have
strengthened their faith
in the Lord
or their understanding
of the importance
of bringing things
to God
in prayer.
And what a really
important lesson
that is for us
when things are difficult
when times are hard
what do we do?
Do we look for
lots of solutions
of our own?
Do we try to work
things out
and think,
yes,
if I do this
and I do that
and I do the other,
that might work
and that might make
things better
for me?
Or is the first
thing we do
to come and to bring
it before the Lord
in prayer
and to seek
His help
recognizing that
only with Him
and through His power
can we really prevail,
can we find
the solutions
to all the issues
in our lives?
I,
and I'm sure
you as well,
can think back
in situations
where if the first
thing had been prayer
and yes,
after prayer
there may all be
actions that the Lord
directs us in,
but if the first
thing is prayer
then God will bless
us much more quickly
than if we wait
till we're in a dire
situation
and almost as a last resort
we bring it to God
in prayer.
As the hymn says,
Oh what peace
we often forfeit
Oh what needless
pain we bear
all because
we do not carry
everything
to God
in prayer.
Let's go away
with that thought
in our minds.
It's a
kind of strange
passage in many ways
in some ways
quite interesting
but in some ways
quite foreign to us
and yet it has
these very important
lessons
lessons about
how we deal
with temptation
and make sure
we don't
give in
to the tempter's voice
but particularly
lessons about
how when we are
in any kind
of difficulty
we should bring it
to the Lord
and we should
leave it with him
knowing that he is
much more powerful
than we are.
Let's pray together.
Father we thank you
for your word to us
this evening.
We thank you
for this account
of your dealings
with your ancient people
and of how you
demonstrated
how much greater
you are
than even the
greatest powers
in our world.
We thank you
that when Hezekiah
prayed
you answered
in wonderful ways
and you rescued
him
and your people.
Help us
in our lives
not to give in
to the snares
of the tempter
not to be taken in
by the deceiving
words that we may hear
but when we face
difficult situations
to know that
you are able
to protect us
through them
and to bring
them to you
in prayer.
Thank you for your word.
We thank you
for the privilege
of meeting together
as your people.
We commit ourselves
to you now
in Jesus name.
Amen.