Exalting the Sovereign God

Good evening to you. Welcome to our internet live stream service from Beacon Baptist Church. I want to open with a word from Paul David Tripp. I get in my inbox a weekly devotional.

It comes on Wednesday. He writes, my cell phone rang and woke me up. Luella, my wife, was on the other end.

Get home as quick as you can. The car journey seemed to take forever. Our daughter Nicole had been walking home from work in the city when a drunk, an unlicensed driver, lost control of her SUV, careened up on the sidewalk and crushed Nikki against a wall. Doctors told us later that if this accident had happened in the suburbs, Nicole probably wouldn't have lived long enough to get to the hospital. The center part of her skeleton had been shattered, 11 breaks of her pelvis alone, plus many other devastating injuries. I'm thankful to report that Nicole is doing very well today, but for three years of intense recovery, we simply focused on getting her through the day and hoped and prayed that tomorrow would be better. The physical pain was accompanied by emotional and spiritual travail.

And then he asks these questions. When suffering enters your door, and it will, where do you look for hope, rest, and relief? If you are near someone in pain, what comfort do you offer them?

Where do you run when people fail you? And God seems impossible to understand. For the Tripp family, the promise of heaven gave us what we needed to face each morning, not just the assurance that God has guaranteed us a future free from physical suffering, but that he has promised to protect us in the meantime. One passage in particular gave us practical and transformative hope.

1 Peter 1 verses 3 through 6, this is the English standard version. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. And he's focusing on those words, being guarded, and he has this to say about that. The enemy tried to whisper in my ear, but Paul, God didn't guard you or Nicole.

Look what happened to your family. But guarded doesn't mean that God will give you a ticket out of difficulty and pain. No, this promise of protection addresses a more profound danger than the physical and circumstantial challenges we all face in this fallen world. Guarded means that in your moment of suffering, God provides you with the grace to fight bitterness, doubt of God, and the temptation to run away from your faith. This protective grace allows us not to give way to panic and fear, bombarding ourselves with questions no human can answer.

And then I'll skip a couple of paragraphs and get to the end. He says, every day of your life, whether you have eyes to see it or not, God is guarding you. His presence guarantees that when the door of heaven opens, you will be there to walk through it.

Not only that, but it guarantees help along the way. The one who promised you forever is your guard along the way. And when he said God is guarding you, his presence guarantees that when the door of heaven opens, you will be there to walk through it. And speaking of walking through the door of heaven, we got this word yesterday afternoon at 2 30. Laverne writes, the Lord took him gently, and he slipped away peacefully at 8 31.

They're six hours ahead of us. We will bury him at Inginna. Oh, how deeply I will miss him. But I am rejoicing that he has no more suffering and is with the Lord and Simon supporting supporting church. The pastor wrote this to his people. My friend and fellow preacher of the glorious gospel of Christ has finished his course.

The Lord has called Stuart home. As Paul said, as it is in my as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now, as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better.

He is now living the far better. Please pray for Laverne, Shiona, Sandy, Sarah, Kate, and Steve, and for the pastors that he has so loved and disciple. May the Lord continue to use the fruit of his ministry in bringing many sons to glory. In our tears, let us rejoice because for Stuart faith has vanished into sight. Those of us who live a life worthy of the Lord following in the footsteps of Jesus find the end of an earth's find the end of Earth's dash to be the beginning of heaven's glory.

Welcome home, my dear friend. We will be planning and conducting a memorial service for Stuart here on a Sunday night. Sometime in February, we haven't chosen the particular Sunday evening to do that. It won't be this Sunday night and it won't be the following Sunday.

It'll be sometime in February. We get our heads together and plan and decide what exactly we want to try and do, but we want to wait until they have buried him and done what they're going to do in Zimbabwe. We prayed and weighed and thought and considered the possibility of either Pastor Barkman or myself making the trip there, but with further restrictions on travel, particularly into South Africa, with additional strains of virus that are manifesting themselves in South Africa, and you have to have a quick test and it has to be 48 hours, 72 hours before you fly. We were afraid that we would, if we got to South Africa, we might be quarantined. We may be had difficulty getting back out of South Africa here.

So there were just too many complicating factors. So we, neither of us are going for that reason. Neither is Bob Boyd, who's Eric Johnson's fellow elder at Providence Baptist Church in Asheboro.

He is not going either for the same reasons. So, but just, we'll inform you, we'll let you know when that service will be so you can plan to be with us. Before we, well let me see if there's anything else I need to say here in terms of announcements. Yes, our annual congregational meeting will be next Wednesday here in the auditorium for members only. It's 7 15 and we will not be live streaming that because it's a members members only meeting, annual meeting. So please plan to be with us for that time. We'll conduct our business in here, social distancing and expediting and moving through the agenda and the election of officers.

So please plan to be with us. That's next Wednesday evening here in the auditorium at 7 15. On Monday, this coming Monday, we will host the Tri-State Particular Baptist Fellowship and there's three men who've been asked to speak.

Pastor Joe Seymour of Kinston, North Carolina, our Pastor Bob Latour and then Pastor Bob Boyd who's again one of the elders at Providence Baptist Church in Asheboro. He will bring the long message after the break. So that is this coming Monday, February the first at Beacon. It begins at two o'clock and we would love to have you come and enjoy all or part of it as your schedule will allow you.

We are continuing to follow the same schedule that we've been doing for four or five months now. Sunday morning only present service, live streaming all of our services, but live streaming only on Sunday night and on Wednesday night. 1 Peter 3 verses 10 through 12. He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good.

Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. On the request side of our sheet, we're asking you to remember to pray for the Government official of the week who is Grand Mayor Jerry Peterman. We have a number of people and circumstances listed under praises to rejoice in God's intervention and answer to prayer. Gail Ellis's sister Linda Bowker has recovered from COVID. Cheryl Ingold's sister Diane Frank is now cancer free. Dawn Hammond, Eddie and Clara Driver's married daughter, her cancer surgery went well. Sue Elliott's aunt Mary Hicks has recovered sufficiently enough to leave rehab and we're thankful for that. Rose Bradshaw's sister Shelly Lang is improving from a car accident that she was involved in several months ago, maybe four months ago. Jean Ferris, Wendy Lynch's mother, 95-year-old mother, had hip surgery. That went well and she is rehabbing. Lee Ann Michael Hannon's father Gaylord Remel is doing well and they were able to minister to his needs and at this time no cancer treatments are planned for him. Now before I go over prayer requests, let me bring a quotation to you from Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones.

He says, quote, trials are medicines which are gracious and wise physician prescribes because we need them and he proportions the frequency and the weight of them to what the case requires, end of quote. That's a good reminder. We're calling on you to remember Marseille Councilman in your prayers. She is scheduled for a second eye surgery on Tuesday of next week and if you were here on Sunday you heard that she has broken out with a case of shingles, which is complicating that planned surgery. So pray that she will recover sufficiently enough to be able to have the surgery.

What's complicating things is the shingles broke out on the back of her head and when she has this eye surgery she has to lie flat on her back for seven to ten days and if anybody's had shingles you know how difficult that prescription sounds. So pray for Marseille. For Drew Guthrie, as she continues to deal with cancer, she will resume her monthly follow-up appointment but is not taking any chemotherapy treatments.

So remember her as she continues to trust the Lord through this valley that she's going through. Our Pope is dealing with issues of COPD and he also has swollen glands. Under others, Carl Henshaw has asked us to pray for Danny Bame, husband of a co-worker of Carl Henshaw. He was involved in a work accident. He suffered a fractured skull and severely damaged his shoulder. He is showing some improvement and only time will tell if the brain bleeds, strokes have lasting effects and if so at what level.

And we're asking you to remember Gary Barker in prayer. Gary was involved in a car accident and sustained some pretty serious injuries, damaged I think his left elbow. Doctors told him he's going to lose a finger and perhaps part of another and I think some other injuries as well. So he's got quite a number of surgeries and quite a road to recovery so pray for Gary Barker.

We're asking you to remember Keith Siermotski, a friend of Leslie Fanon's son Joel in Canada. He's improving slowly. They discovered that he had a blood clot and they've started him on heparin to dissolve it. Pray that his oxygen levels improve.

His wife is a believer, he is not. They have I think three children so pray that this will have an awakening effect upon Keith. Mike Webster is just weak and fatigued.

He's gone through colon cancer surgery and then five weeks of chemo and radiation. So remember Mike Webster in your prayers. When I mentioned to you that Stuart Waugh will be buried at Inginiana. Inginiana is a a tent camp conservatory that Terry Anders, Shiona's husband, has near Wange National Park. He runs photographic safaris there. I don't think he does any hunting safaris there but most of it I think if not all of it is photographic safaris but it's a very high-end camping resort type facility and their plan is to bury Stuart there at Inginiana. Inginiana I believe is the Shiona word for painted dog. There's painted dogs in that particular area.

I'm pretty sure that that's the explanation for Inginiana. Under cancer there's a couple of names there. Kay Wasara is a cousin to Kathy Rhodes.

I have this update. Last Friday she was told her cancer was only in one lung and was treatable with radiation. Saturday a different doctor told her it was in both lungs and not treatable at all and that she had two weeks or a month to live. The family is praying her oxygen level will improve to where she can go home to be with her family. She's been in the hospital for three weeks without seeing anyone. And then Naomi Williams, Amy Freeman's mother, she's in the hospital in Greenville due to an intestinal blockage. She's better but needs to go to rehab because she's very weak. They're having some trouble placing her in a rehab facility because she is on chemotherapy. Pray that the details can be worked out. Amy's father David has dementia and has been moved to Shepherd's Care.

That's a facility there in Greenville. And then remember Betty Duncan in your prayers. Betty's a shut-in, Pat and Betty, members of our church.

She is dealing with severe back pain. Those are our prayer requests. I have one thank you from a missionary and then one missionary update. This is from Larry and Carol Bunyan in Montana. They write, dear friends, thank you so much for your kind and generous Christmas gift. It was one of the many blessings received from God's gracious hand during the Christmas season. This July will mark 36 years of residing in Montana.

Our first service was held in Hart Butte in September of 1985. God has been faithful in opening many doors of opportunity and service along the way. How blessed we are to witness His hand at work. We're so grateful for your investment in partnership these many years. May God bring great reward for your involvement in your faithful service. With gratitude Larry and Carol Bunyan.

And then this update from Herb and Wanda Taylor reaching Hispanics, our neighbors. And I'll start with the Taylors at the bottom of their prayer sheet. They say we need your continued prayers whether at the piano, in the pulpit, at our desks, or in the car. We so need your prayers. Recently our ministry included speaking at a supporting church when the pastoral staff were all sick.

Ah, that was here. Visiting the Quintanas in Florida. They're in Seminole, Florida. That's a Hispanic couple ministering and pastoring and I'll say some more about them in a minute. But visiting them in Florida to encourage and assess their needs. Communicating with discouraged pastors around the country. Participating in Spanish services.

Reviewing a book to be considered for Spanish translation. And after serving 11 years in Hispanic ministries with Baptist church planters, those prayers are our great treasures. So just an appeal to continue to uphold and stand with them in prayer.

This is related to this couple that are serving in Seminole, Florida. During this past year our missionaries Miguel and Anna Quintana in Seminole, Florida faithfully led their Hispanic ministry both virtually and in person. In addition to their weekly preaching and teaching sessions they led many Bible studies, counseling, discipleship, and evangelism training sessions. However, public attendance decreased considerably for fear of catching the virus and it felt like they had to start all over once again.

But thankfully many in Columbia, their home country and around the world connected and listened to their live stream services. God's Word multiplied just in a different way. So reflecting on God's work in Seminole we rejoice to see five trained deacons, a constitution, a budget, an increase of pastoral salary, a rented facility, and faithful Bible teaching and training going on. And then this appeal, would you pray for these special requests from the Quintanas?

Number one, a needed increase of financial support, they are presently at 70%. Number two, physical and spiritual stamina for the ministry. And then Herb adds, they need some rest, exclamation point. And then one final thing, this is under a heading, walking and talking. He says, have you ever heard of walking tacos? These handheld tacos in small Dorito chip bags have become a favorite with the college students that we regularly invite to our backyard.

It's our way of encouraging young people to serve the Lord and if they consider serving in Hispanic ministries then that's worth the walking and talking with them. So that's from Herb and Wanda Taylor. And this is just to mention to you, this is not any formal report, but Dr. Bill Hill with Equipping Nationals Worldwide is conducting training sessions via Zoom in India this week. And I think his training and teaching will end tomorrow evening.

So we're thankful for Bill's savvy adjustment to technology and his ability to carry on training there in India. All right, I want to read from Psalm 47. Psalm 47. To the chief musician, a psalm of the sons of Korah.

Oh clap your hands all you peoples. Shout to God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord Most High is awesome. He is a great king over the earth. He will subdue the peoples under us and the nations under our feet. He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob whom he loves.

Selah. God has gone up with a shout. The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the king of all the earth.

Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne.

The princes of the people have gathered together. The people of the God of Abraham. But the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted. What should be obvious to you that this short psalm is a song that exalts the sovereign God. God who rules and reigns in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. And Spurgeon said this about the sovereignty of God, quote, the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which the child of God rests his head at night giving him perfect peace, end of quote.

Sovereignty. It characterizes the whole being of God. He is sovereign in all of his attributes. According to the superscription of the psalm to the chief musician, a psalm of the sons of Korah, this psalm is for the director of music, perhaps to be used by the choir director in Israel's worship services. God is the unrivaled sovereign over all.

He rules all nations and all peoples for his purposes. And that's the heart of this psalm. There are three things that I want to identify with you in the psalm, three parts of the psalm. They are, number one, a call to rejoice in God's awesomeness. Number two, a call to rejoice in God's ascension. And number three, a call to rejoice in God's authority.

Let's look, number one, at a call to rejoice in God's awesomeness, verses one, two, three, and four. Again, it says, oh, clap your hands, all you peoples. Clap your hands. It's an expression of enthusiastic celebration in worship.

Clap your hands. And notice it says all you peoples, not just for the redeemed, but all you peoples. And it's a reminder that all men, everyone, owes God worship. God will bring that about by subduing our rebel hearts and bringing us into glad submission to King Jesus. And we'll offer that worship to him freely and willingly. Or, if we continue in our rebellion, God has promised to reward His Son for His obedience. In Philippians chapter 2, we're told that God has exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is God to the glory of God. So, a call to rejoice in God's awesomeness.

Clap your hands, all you peoples. Shout to God with the voice of triumph. Again, that word shout captures the same festive exuberance. This is a call to worship, to be engaged in worship with our whole being, with our voices, with our redeemed hearts. Shout to God with the voice of triumph.

And again, we're told reasons to do that. What follows here in verses 2, 3, and 4 is why God should be so fervently worshipped. Notice verse 2, for the Lord Most High is awesome. The word awesome relates to fear or reverence.

We live in a day that you hear that adjective being thrown around a lot. Oh, this is awesome. That's awesome. My favorite ball team is awesome. My favorite ice cream is awesome. But when we were training our children and rearing our children, we tried to instill in them that the word awesome is to be reserved for God and God alone.

To be very careful about using that word and throwing that word around. And I think that's a good reminder because the text of Scripture says, for the Lord Most High is awesome. He is awesome. And to ascribe that to anything else or anyone else is to diminish the worship that we are rendering to God. For the Lord Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth.

All the earth, not just a part of the earth, but over all the earth. You see, all earthly kings have limited authority, but God is unrivaled, absolute, universal, unhindered in His rule. He is a great King over all the earth.

What does this King do as He rules and reigns? He will subdue the peoples under us. He will subdue the peoples under us. And I believe that that is a promise that the children of Israel had that God would go before them in battle and He would subdue the nations and He was going to give them the promised land.

That's the immediate context. But I think for us, He will subdue the peoples under us, those who are God's enemies. As I've already said, all knees are going to bow, all tongues are going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He will subdue the peoples under us and the nations under our feet.

The nations under our feet. God has promised victory to His people. And then it says, verse four, He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob, whom He loves. And our inheritance is not in silver and gold. Our inheritance is God Himself. And therefore, if we have God for our inheritance, we are rich beyond imagination, rich beyond measure. And we need to remind ourselves of that.

I hear people and they're down in the dumps and they're moaning, they're complaining, they're this, they're that. And we so easily and so quickly lose sight of our identity that we're children of the Most High God. We're an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. And God is our inheritance.

Wonderful. We're too prone to diminish the blessings that we have in Christ. So number one, a call to rejoice in God's awesomeness. In verses five, six, and seven, a call to rejoice in God's ascension. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth.

Sing praises with understanding. The psalm, the psalmist, is declaring that God has ascended victoriously to His throne. And it's there that He rules the earth amid shouts of joy and the sounding of trumpets. And that's a reference to the ram's horn that was to announce God's presence. And you can turn to Exodus 19 and see a couple of references there.

Exodus 19 verse 16 and verse 19. We won't take the time to do that, but notice with me in verse six that sing praises to God is mentioned four times in that one verse. Sing praises to God, sing praises to our King, sing praises.

I think the psalmist wants to instill in us that where our worship, where our praise needs to be directed to the King, the one who's enthroned, the one who's ruling and reigning in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. And if we'll keep that in mind, that He is the King, that He's ruling and reigning, and He is doing that without any conflict, without anybody challenging His rulership, it will make it easier for us to praise Him. It's good to know that someone's in charge.

It's good to know that when things seem to be out of our hands, they're not out of God's hands. He's ruling. He's reigning to accomplish His sovereign purposes. You see, there's reason here for this boisterous worship that's to be offered to God. The psalmist declares, for God is the King of all the earth. And because He is the only King, the sole King of all the earth, He alone is worthy of our praise. He alone is worthy of our worship because He reigns over all. Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our King, sing praises for, or we could say because, God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding, with understanding.

That is a excellent qualifier. The better we know God, the better we understand Him as He's revealed Himself in Scripture, the better will be our ability to worship Him. God wants us to sing praises with understanding.

A good reminder. And then finally, this psalm has a call to rejoice in God's authority, verses 8 and 9. It says God rules over the nations. God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people have gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong to God.

He is greatly exalted. You see, God reigns over all the nations. Verse 8, God reigns over the nations, and He causes all of their efforts, even their evil rebellion, to carry out His eternal purposes that He predetermined and decreed before time. God is seated on His holy throne, executing His sovereign will and doing as He pleases. Psalm 115, verse 3, our God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases. Well, you see, if you're God and God alone, you can do whatever you please.

You don't have to answer to anyone, and that's what our God does. Notice it says the princes of the people have gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. Well, at first when we think of the people of the God of Abraham, we think of Jews, we think of the Israelites, and that's obviously in view here. But Paul, writing in Galatians, tells us that we, through faith in Jesus Christ, are children of Abraham. That when God made promises to Abraham, He was making promises to Abraham and to his seed and all of his descendants. And we are descendants of Abraham's seed, singular, King Jesus. So the princes of the people have gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted. So this Psalm is looking ahead.

It's got a temporal context, but it's looking ahead. To the kingdom of His world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, according to Revelation chapter 11 and verse 5. So again, let me just go over verses 8 and 9 before I'm through. God reigns over the nations. God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people have gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted. Here is a call to rejoice in God's authority.

What is the cause of our worship of Him? Well, number one, God rules over the nations, verse 8. Number two, God reigns over the redeemed, the first part of verse 9. God rules, number three, over the kings, the second part of verse 9. The princes of the people have gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong to God. Here is a final call to worship, to declare God's greatness and to declare God's exaltation.

He is greatly exalted. And just to remind you again that these were, this is the songbook of the Jews, the Psalms. This was to be sung in corporate worship.

The choir director was to lead. So you can see how this Psalm lends itself to worship of God. Let me conclude before I pray with this hymn of Isaac Watts. Isaac Watts writes, Jesus shall reign, where ere the sun doth his successive journeys run.

His kingdom stretched from shore to shore, till moons shall wax and wane no more. To him shall endless prayer be made, and endless praises crown his head. His name, like sweet perfume, shall rise with every morning sacrifice. People and realms of every tongue dwell on his love with sweetest song, and infant voices shall proclaim their early blessings on his name. Blessings abound where ere he reigns.

The prisoner leaps to lose his chains. The weary find eternal rest, and all the sons of want are blessed. Where he displays his healing power, death and the curse are known no more. In him the tribes of Adam boast more blessings than their father lost. Let every creature rise and bring blessing and honor to our King.

Angels descend with songs again, and earth repeat the loud. Amen. Well, what did I do with my prayer sheet?

Right here. Will you join me as we have a season of prayer? Father, we thank you for this appeal to worship you, to rejoice in your awesomeness, your sovereign rule, your holy reign. How thankful we are this evening that you are ruling and reigning in this universe that you created.

As Dr. R.C. Sproul once said, there is not one renegade molecule in the entire cosmos. How thankful we are for that. That you are working all things after the counsel of your own will. When things seem to be so haphazard and so out of control and so chaotic in this world, in nearly every corner we turn, we see this. May we be reminded of this tremendous contrast that in spite of all that we see, this is what's been revealed to us.

A God who is sovereignly ruling. So we praise you tonight for that. We praise you that our lives are hidden with you in Christ. We thank you that you have loved us with an everlasting love. That you have set your affections upon us in eternity past. You have loved us and will continue to love us and you will never cease loving us.

How wonderful that is. And we thank you that you are indeed the great physician. And that you do ordain trials for our lives to improve our relationship with you. To test our faith. To improve our faith. To stretch our faith.

And to reveal more of yourself to us. We thank you for answered prayer. We thank you for the way you have raised up so many that we have interceded for. For Linda Baucher. For Diana Frank. For Don Hammond. For Mary Hicks. For Shelley Lang.

For Gaylord Remel. Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you for your kind mercy in each of their lives. We would continue to pray for Jean Ferris, Wendy Lynch's mother. We pray that she would be cognitively aware of what has happened and the need for her to cooperate with the physical therapist to improve her mobility and to facilitate her healing. It's a kind providence, our God, that she lives near her loving daughter. Wendy can have her in her home and help her and to care for her.

Thank you for this. And we pray that she will have a successful recovery. We pray for Grand Mayor Jerry Peterman. I do not know this man, but would pray that he would be a God-fearing man. That he would be sobered by the responsibilities that have been entrusted to him. And that he would promote laws and legislation that would promote peace and prosperity in Graham. That he would have an ear to his constituents. That he would not rule with pride but would be a humble leader. Work in his heart and life, we pray.

Remind him of his stewardship and of his responsibility, first to you and to those who elected him and put him in office. We pray for Marseille Councilman and ask that you would relieve the pain and the discomfort that she's experiencing from shingles and that she would be able to have this eye surgery on the 2nd of February. And that that surgery would go as well as the first, perhaps even better. We thank you for your grace that has sustained Drew Guthrie through this dark valley of cancer. We are confident that you have made promises to your children to never leave us nor forsake us and to be with us all the way to the end. We pray for our Pope and ask you to help him as he deals with various and sundry physical challenges. And Lord, please honor his witness in his home and save his dear wife, we would ask. We pray for this Danny Boehm who has been seriously injured in this work accident. We pray that the doctors would have skill in monitoring his improvement, that he would not have lingering effects from seizures and brain bleeds. You would restore this man to health, we pray.

We pray for Keith Sirimatski, his friend of Joel Fannin. We thank you for preserving his life. We thank you that someone found him unconscious and got him to the hospital.

We thank you for doctors who have treated him and diagnosed what's wrong. And we pray that he would steadily make further improvement. And he'll be able to look back, perhaps days, weeks, months from now, and realize that a kind and gracious God preserved his life.

And that the goodness of God might indeed lead him to repentance. We pray for Gary Barker and ask that you would superintend these surgeries that he's facing and bring restoration to him. Thank you for preserving his life in this serious car accident. We pray for Mike Webster and Melanie, as he's battling colon cancer. We pray for Paul Snyder and Trevor Johnson and their families and the needs that they have. We pray for Laverne Waugh and the family, the children and their spouses. That this would be a sweet time of rejoicing in Stuart's home going.

That his suffering is over. We thank you for a life well lived and the testimony that has been left behind. And we pray that it would be a wonderful encouragement to the pastors. That they would keep their shoulder to the plow and continue to be faithful to your call upon their lives for the ministry. We ask you to grow this ministry and provide for this ministry and and sustain these, our dear friends, during this sorrowing time. We want to pray for Kathy Rhodes's cousin and ask that you would help her as she has got conflicting reports from the doctors as she's battling with cancer. And for Amy Freeman's mother and father. Lord, give them wisdom as they seek to know how best to care for their aging parents and the needs that they have. We're reminded of Pat and Betty Duncan tonight and we ask you to sustain and strengthen Pat as he carries the weight and responsibility of being a caretaker to Betty.

And we pray that these changes with medication would be useful in relieving the severity of her back pain. Lord, we're reminded of how absolutely totally dependent we are upon you in every area of our lives. It is in you that we live and breathe and have our being. You sustain us moment by moment. Help us to live before your presence and to acknowledge our dependence upon you regularly. Increase our prayerfulness.

Increase our sense of dependence upon you. We thank you for the way you have blessed Beacon Baptist Church. We ask that you would continue to keep your hand upon this ministry, that you would cause it to be fruitful and we would abound in the things of the Lord. We thank you, God, for the way you have grown this ministry and provided for it in so many ways. We look forward, our Father, to the days ahead.

Give us wisdom as we plan a memorial service for Stuart and gather here on a Sunday night to rejoice in this man that you saved and called and gifted and used in such a wonderful way. Thank you for the people of God. Thank you for those who have gathered to be a part of this internet service on Wednesday night. Bless every home. Bless every man, every woman, every boy, every girl. Lord, may we know the blessing of God upon our lives and upon our homes. Use us, our God, for your honor and your glory. Help us to be salt and light in this dark decaying world, we pray. In Jesus' name we ask, amen.