Psalm 57

Good evening to you again from the Auditorium of Beacon Baptist Church. Folks, thank you for tuning in and making this a regular habit of your weekly schedule.

We try and follow a similar format that we do if we were meeting people present. So, thank you for joining us again this evening. I have enjoyed the cooler weather.

I know you probably have as well. Fall is here and it is my personal favorite time of the year. So, I am looking forward to a long extended fall.

Just enough to tease us a little bit, not enough to turn your heat on in your house, but we are not too far from that. Well, we are very much looking forward to the Fall Bible Conference that will begin not this Sunday, but a week from this Sunday, October 4 through 7. Dr. Jim Oreck from Louisville, Kentucky will be with us and he will be bringing a series of messages with a theme, Living Like Sons and Daughters of God. He will be preaching Sunday morning, Sunday night, and then Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night at 7.15.

All of those services will be people present services. So, we have been looking forward to this to give us an opportunity to have people present services beyond just Sunday morning, which has been our pattern here for the last several months. So, please pray and plan to come and join us. This brother spoke at the Ocean City Bible Conference last September and those of us who went from the church heard him and found him to be very engaging. You will very much appreciate his ministry of the word. He's a very capable preacher.

His wife is coming with him. So, we are looking forward to introducing him and his ministry to the Beacon congregation. There will be a sign-up sheet on Sunday for those of you that would like to host them for a meal. A good many of the slots have already been taken by the pastoral staff, but I believe right now Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday evenings are open.

There may be one afternoon open. In addition to the five messages that he'll be bringing at our Bible Conference, he will also be speaking at the Tri-State Particular Baptist Fellowship, which has not met for about four or five months. So, we are resuming that in October. Manny Pittman, a member of our church, will give a 30-minute message. Dr. Oreck will bring a 30-minute message.

And I have a couple of people that I'm considering for the longer session after the break. So, that will be an extended time of ministry with him. But Dr. Oreck, he's planning on bringing a message on praying like a son of God, which is consistent with the theme, living like sons and daughters of God, the five messages of the conference and then that sixth message at the fellowship meeting on Monday, praying like a son of God. Well, we are wanting to update our list of college students, so if you have a college student in your home or away and we're not aware of it in the office, if you would let us know, we will include them in our rotation as we make mention of them on a weekly basis on Wednesday night. Keep them before the Lord in prayer.

We'll send a note to them when their time comes around just to encourage them and remind them that the church is standing with them and praying for them. Rob Conrad's mother-in-law is still in need of a CNA to work a 24-hour shift one or two days a week or as on a needs basis. So we've been making mention of that need for a number of weeks and if you can help with that, please contact Rob Conrad. His phone number is 222-9877.

That's 222-9877. Psalm 55 verse 22 says, Cast your burden on the Lord and He shall sustain you. He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. Will you join me as we commit our service here this evening to the Lord? Father, we bow this evening in your presence rejoicing that we do have audience with you. We who are your children have been justified by faith and we have peace with you through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you that not only do we have peace but we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Thank you, God, for the salvation blessings that have come to us, been procured for us by your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly we say with Paul the Apostle, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.

We know that every spiritual blessing we have known and are presently experiencing and will be enjoying in the future has been secured for us by the redemptive work of your Son, the Lord Jesus. So, Lord, we give you praise and worship and thanksgiving for your kindness to us and for the mercy that's been extended to us. Lord, we thank you for your kind providence that has sustained our lives and has brought us together in this way again this evening. I thank you for my brothers and sisters who are faithful to tune in via live stream and participate in this Wednesday night service. We pray that you would minister to us, strengthen us in the inner person, encourage our faith, stir us up unto love and to good deeds, remind us of those things that are secure and settled in the heavens, remind us, our God, of the things that you are committed to in this world and in the lives of your children.

Lord, we confess that we easily can forget those things and get caught up and consumed with the living of life on a daily basis and become dull and perhaps a bit disconnected from spiritual reality. So we thank you, Lord, for the benefit that comes to us as we set aside the affairs of life and come together as the people of God to pray and to join our hearts and be reminded of the activities of life at the church and to feast upon the word of God, be instructed. So, Lord, help us tonight as we give ourselves to these things that they may bring profit to us and that we might please you in our thoughts, in our deliberations and the execution of those things that you have laid upon our hearts. We commit our service now to you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Here is the words of a hymn that we often sing, When all thy mercies, O my God. Before I read those, let me read just a couple of scriptures. Titus chapter 3, verse 1. Well, that's verse 3. Paul's writing to Titus and he's reminding him of what we were before we came to Christ. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But, verse 4, when the kindness and the love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And then, in a similar pattern, Paul's writing in Ephesians, again chapter 2, he's reminding us of what we were outside of Christ, prior to telling us what God has done for us in Christ. It's always instructive to see this pattern because we don't fully appreciate the good news until we see it against the backdrop of the bad news.

And here's the bad news. We once walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. And then verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Those two passages of scripture are the backdrop to the opening stands of this hymn that I want to emphasize, When all thy mercies, O my God, when all thy mercies, O my God, my rising soul surveys, transported with the view I'm lost in wonder, love, and praise.

How can that not be true? When we consider and think on the mercy of God, the mercies of God that have been showered upon us, how can it not move us to be a worshiper, to stand in awe and wonder and offer praise to God? Unnumbered comforts to my soul, thy tender care bestowed, before my infant heart conceived, from whom those comforts flowed. When worn with sickness, oft hast thou with health renewed my face, and when in sins and sorrows sunk revived my soul with grace. Ten thousand precious gifts my daily thanks employ, nor is the least a cheerful heart that tastes those gifts with joy. Through every period of my life, thy goodness I'll pursue, and after death in distant worlds the glorious theme renewed.

Through all eternity to thee a joyful song I'll raise, for all eternity's too short to utter all thy praise. Amen. Well, prayer requests this evening.

We have quite a number. I'll try and not miss anything here. We're praising the Lord that Rob Conrad has completed his home IVs. He needs to regain his strength and his stamina after completing this regiment. He's had kidney stones blasted, had a stent removed that was there to aid his healing from a kidney and bladder infection.

So pray for Rob that the Lord will strengthen him and return him to a full measure of strength. Drew Guthrie is just in need of our prayers as she continues to deal with cancer and issues related to that. Leanne Michael-Hannon is recovering from thyroid surgery.

Art Pope had an MRI last Wednesday and is still waiting on the results, my understanding is. Shirley Watkins was admitted to the regional hospital. She's in room 132. I talked with Patty, texted back and forth with her today. Shirley is just, she's got a UTI and she has C. diff.

So that's a bad combination. I talked to Shirley on the phone and I wasn't sure that she knew who I was. So I texted Patty and said that I talked to her mama and I wasn't sure she knew me.

Patty says, oh, she knew you. Anyway, please pray for Shirley that the Lord would use this hospital stay to arrest these issues in her body and strengthen her. Under others, Tiana Bethea, granddaughter of Henry and Dorothy Campbell, will be having surgery tomorrow to repair a tear on her shoulder.

The Cottage at Blakely Hall assisted living facility in Elan has 13 residents and five staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19. Sue Vestal's aunt Maxine Cole had surgery for a fractured vertebrae on Monday and came home yesterday and will be receiving rehab at home. Sheila Echter is not healing as well as the doctors would like and she will be having another surgery tomorrow. So pray for Robert and Sheila. Rebecca Ellis, Rebecca Grace Ellis is I think finally getting back to feeling herself after the heart catheterization she had last week.

Shelly Lang is a sister of Rose Bradshaw from West Virginia. She was in a car accident. She was stopped and a car hit her and her 13, 14-year-old son from behind and she's got a broken wrist and a badly bruised shoulder and a severe case of whiplash. Cole, her son, has I think, what do I see here, sprained ankle is all he received from the accident.

No serious injuries with him. Margarita Marino, one of our ESL students, had surgery yesterday to remove a tumor from her abdomen. The surgery went well. She is at home resting and she is waiting on the results of the pathology report. Please be in prayer for her husband, Hugo, and their three children.

Leanne Michaelhannon's father, Gaylord Remel, let's see, I think I have an update here from Leanne that she sent in this afternoon. She says, the doctor stated everything went well with the oblation. Dad cannot lift more than 10 pounds for a week. The pacemaker should work properly and fully from the top half of the heart.

The bottom half of the heart has oblation. Dad got to go home yesterday afternoon thanks to our merciful and gracious God. Due to a miscommunication, Dad did not have the lung biopsy today. That has been rescheduled for October 1.

And Leanne says thank you all for the prayers and for her dad and his health and his recovery. Judah Veroy is recovering from a bad cut that he received on his heel. He had 8 or 10 stitches in his heel. But he is recovering from that. Lee Vestal, Sue Vestal's husband, will be seeing the doctor for a follow up for an ulcer on his foot. He is also scheduled for an ultrasound next Wednesday. And then Cheryl Ingold has asked us to pray for a person by the name of Ken who has headaches and health issues.

I had one update from Laverne Waugh concerning Stewart. He's making progress. He's weak and it's taking some time for him to get some strength in his legs.

He's walking some. But no complications have arisen from the transplant surgery and then the cancer that followed. So that's all good news.

So we're encouraged with what's going on. It's going to take time for him to regain his strength and be able to be released from the hospital. On behalf of Linda Nance and her family, thank you for praying for them and the passing of her mama, Louise Day. Pastor Latour said they had a sweet, private graveside service Sunday afternoon. There were, I think he said, eleven people there.

But it was a sweet time. And my understanding is that there will have a celebration of life service sometime in the future when all this COVID situation subsides. Wendy Lynch is asking us to engage our hearts in prayer for her sister Linda Bruner. Her cancer has returned. She had a biopsy today and she is waiting on results. Ann Woodington called this afternoon and she's been battling with shingles. And she also has a case of... I'm trying to get this word out.

I've written something down here, I'm not sure. But anyway, she's got some other issues that she's asking us to pray for her. Pastor Latour has made us aware that Gina Boswell was an ARMC due to a blood clot in her leg. And she was expected to go home later today. He got that from Sherry Morris.

So, I think that's all the prayer requests that I have, which are quite a few. Our government official of the week is Village of Alamance Aldermember Gail Andrews. And Caitlin Craig is our college student of the week at Bob Jones University. And I was able to talk to Caitlin recently. She was home for a funeral for her grandmother.

And she's loving BJU, so we're really happy about that. So, pray for her. I just have one missionary letter to share with you tonight. All of our missionaries are affected by this COVID, and there is reduced activity, and therefore reduced communication. So, this is really a global thing. But this is from Silas and Vongar Campos. They write, Dear friends in Christ, warm greetings from Brazil.

The highlight of this month was the return of our in-person services. We were allowed to gather at 40% capacity. Most of our elderly are still avoiding our people present gatherings.

He says, even among the youngest, many are very frightened. But what a joy it is to gather together with God's people. Services online are okay, but face-to-face services are irreplaceable. Over the internet, if you don't like the sermon, you can find another preacher. In the physical church, God puts you there to hear a sermon that you may not like, but probably need. In social media, you choose your friends. In the church, God chooses your brothers and sisters.

In social media, you exclude those you don't like, but in the real church, you learn to get along with them. And there is growth, healing, and maturing that glorifies God. They were able to speak to about 900 college students online at a youth Bible conference.

The subject was purity. He says, I had the privilege of preaching about the best motivation for us to pursue holiness, which is Jesus' promise that the pure shall see God. In some small ways, this promise begins to be fulfilled right here on earth. So they're just sending that update and thanking us for our prayers and our faithful support. So that's what I have in terms of missionaries this evening.

All right. I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 57. Psalm 57. While we're doing that, something else has come to my mind. There is a prayer walk in Washington, D.C. this Saturday, and I want you to be aware of that and be encouraged by that. I would anticipate thousands if not tens of thousands of Christians gathering there and marching from the Lincoln Memorial and making a statement and praying for this country. That God would have mercy on our country and bring renewal and bring revival.

So be aware of that on Saturday. Psalm 57. Let me read this psalm.

David is writing. He says, Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusts in you and in the shadow of your wings I will make my refuge until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God most high to God who performs all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me. He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. My soul is among lions. I lie among the sons of men who are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth.

They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have dug a pit before me.

Into the midst of it they themselves have fallen. My heart is steadfast, O God. My heart is steadfast. I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory.

Awake, lute and harp. I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing to you among the nations, for your mercy reaches unto the heavens and your truth unto the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth. Quite a psalm. David, two times in these short 11 verses, says a repeated phrase, verse 5 and verse 11, Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth. And he repeats that again there in verse 11. And in between those two declarations is a confession of faith, verse 7. My heart is steadfast, O God. My heart is steadfast. And what's significant, I think, about that is that he is exalting God.

He is declaring the glory of God. He is steadfast. He is committed to God. And his circumstances are, what shall we say, he is between a rock and a hard place. His circumstances are terrible. He's not offering praise and worship and exalting God in the context of a pain-free life.

No, that's not the situation at all. What we have here in Psalm 57 is a prayer that David prays when he was running from Saul and in very real danger of being killed by Saul. The historical context of that is 1 Samuel chapter 24.

And I'll just read three verses so you understand the context of Psalm 57. It says in verse 1 of 1 Samuel 24, Now it happened when Saul had returned from following the Philistines that it was told him, saying, Take note, David is in the wilderness of En-Gedi. Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats. So he came to the sheepfolds by the road where there was a cave and Saul went in to attend to his needs.

David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave. The context here is the cave of Adullam, a cave there in the historical place of En-Gedi. There have been times when David was hiding from his enemies. But in this Psalm, he has a very different tone. He's hiding, but he is not hiding necessarily from Saul. He is hiding in God. It's something like the words to the hymn that we enjoy singing. O safe to the rock that is higher than I, my soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly.

So sinful, so weary, thine, thine would I be, thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee, hiding in thee, hiding in thee, thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee. And that's the context here in Psalm 57. David is on the run.

He is as a fugitive. Saul is hunting him with the purpose of killing him. And David is finding solace and peace and comfort in the fact that he is hiding in God. The question is, where does such confidence come from? Well, it comes from walking with the Lord. It comes from experiencing the faithfulness of God in your life. By tracing the hand of God and by remembering God's grace and mercy extended to us, and by recounting God's past dealings with us, we have reason to be encouraged. 1 Samuel 17 verse 37, David says, The Lord who delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistines. Paul, speaking in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 in verse 10, speaks of God who rescued us from so great a death and is delivering us in whom we have hope that he also will still deliver us. A past, a present, and a future delivering that Paul had anchored his soul to. You recall Jesus rebuked the disciples because they did not understand the miracles of the feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew chapter 16 in verses 9 and 10.

They were rebuked because they didn't understand. Those miracles were there to strengthen their faith, to remind them of who it was that was among them, that they wouldn't be weak in faith. So, you know, life has its challenges.

Why would God had seen to it that David had been anointed to be the new king of Israel, and yet instead of taking the throne as the newly anointed king, he is running for his life. And David is, no doubt, we're reading about this after the fact, but he's living through this and trying to make sense of God's dealings in his life. I have a poem here before me, penned by Corrie Tamboom. You know her story. Along with her family, she helped Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust during World War II and was credited with saving some 800 lives.

She was imprisoned along with her sister, Betsy, who died in a concentration camp in 1944. But Corrie penned a paper and wrote this wonderful poem entitled, Life is but the Weaving. She says, my life is but a weaving between my God and me.

I cannot choose the colors. He weaveth steadily. Oft times he weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride forget he sees the upper and I the underside. Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly will God unroll the canvas and reveal the reason why. The dark threads are as needful in the weaver's skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned. He knows, he loves, he cares.

Nothing this truth can dim. He gives the very best to those who leave the choice to him. Well that's a powerful, powerful poem and underscored by the testimony of this magnificent saint of God. Well this psalm, Psalm 57 before us, there are 11 verses and it can be divided into three parts.

Let me give you those divisions. Verses 1 to 3, I have entitled, A Call to God for Mercy. Number 2, verses 4 to 6 is a description of the problem that caused David to cry out to God for mercy. And then verses 7 through 11, a concluding praise of God. Verses 1 and 2 begins with David asking for mercy. Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusts in you and in the shadow of your wings I will make my refuge until these calamities have passed by.

I will cry out to God most high. So David begins by asking God for mercy and then there is this statement of confident faith that he has taken refuge in his God. The title of the psalm is Prayer for Safety from Enemies. And it's natural to think that the cave that David was hiding in suggests the idea of a refuge. But David didn't view that cave as the refuge. David understood his God to be his refuge. David doesn't call the cave his refuge, though it was in a certain physical sense a place of safety. But he calls God his refuge. For my soul trusts in you and in the shadow of your wings I will make my refuge, he says.

And it's actually under the shadow of the wings of God and not the cave where he has found safety. He refers to God as God Most High. He says I will cry out to God Most High, verse 2, to God who performs all things for me. This name occurs in the Bible for the first time in the story of Abraham and Melchizedek. Abraham had gone on a rescue mission to rescue Lot and his relatives and was successful. And when he comes back from that successful mission, he has an encounter with Melchizedek and refers to God as God Most High. And the name that's chosen here by David is a reminder that this God delivers his servants, enemies, into their hands. And this is what David needed.

And this is what God did. First, God delivered David. Then he delivered Saul, David's chief enemy, into David's hand. And we have that recorded in 1 Samuel. Let me just read a couple of verses.

The irony of this. 1 Samuel 24. Again, Saul is pursuing David. Saul comes to the sheepfolds by the road where there was a cave and Saul went in to attend to his needs.

David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave. And the man of David said to him, This is the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand that you may do to him as it seems good to you. And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

Now you know the rest of that. David reveals himself to Saul. We have recorded in verse 11 David speaking to Saul. Moreover, my father, see. Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For in that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you. No one see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you have yet you hunt my life to take it.

That's the first time. And then again in chapter 26. Saul had encamped on a hill. It was nighttime. Saul and his men were sleeping. It says David, verse four, Therefore sent out spies and understood that Saul had indeed come. So David arose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay and Abner, the son of Nir, the commander of his army. Now Saul lay within the camp with the people encamped all around him.

And you know the story. David went into the camp encampment, took Saul's spear and could have taken his life, but he didn't. But the point is that God most high had delivered David's enemies into his hands.

But because he had respect for the office that King Saul occupied, he did not listen to the voices of those who told him to take Saul's life. Well, we find the description then of what's going on with David. He says in verse four, My soul is among lions. I lie among the sons of men who are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, their tongues a sharp sword. They have prepared, verse six, a net for my steps.

They've dug a pit before me. So David is not minimizing the danger he's in. He's given voice to it here. But we find in the midst of that, David calling for God to be exalted. God, he says, my heart, he says, Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth. Now, God is exalted above the heavens, and his glory does fill the earth. But the statement is not that God has been or will be exalted. It is a prayer that he might be exalted.

And that raises the question. In David's particular circumstances, how so? This is a prayer. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth. How is God going to be exalted? How is his glory going to be manifested?

In what manner and by whom? And the answer is that David wants God to be exalted in his particular circumstances. By the way, he trusts and praises God even in the midst of his difficulty.

That's what's going on. Obviously, the world thrills when human beings are exalted. When your favorite sports star excels, people get excited about that. But those who know God rejoice when God is exalted, and they rejoice that they have the opportunity and the privilege to exalt him themselves. Especially in circumstances that are disappointing and difficult. So David wanted to respond to these present circumstances in such a way that God would be exalted, that God's glory would be manifested.

And that's the challenge for us. Every day has its challenges, and God brings difficulty into our lives. And God wants us to exalt him. God wants us to glorify him in how we respond to the circumstances that he ordains for our life.

You are aware of Jerry Bridges and his life and ministry. I want to read something from his book, Trusting God. He says, it's difficult to believe God is in control when we're in the midst of heartache or grief.

He says, I've struggled with this many times myself, including two recent occasions. Each time I've had to decide if I would trust him even when my heart ached. I realized anew that we must learn to trust God one circumstance at a time.

It's not a matter of my feelings, but of my will. And then he says, I never feel like trusting God when adversity strikes, but I can choose to do so anyway. That act of the will must be based on belief, and belief must be based on the truth that God is sovereign. He carries out his own good purposes without ever being thwarted, and nothing is outside of his sovereign will. We must cling to this in the face of adversity and tragedy if we're to glorify God by trusting him.

You see the connection he's making? If we're going to glorify God by trusting him, that's the way we glorify God. We continue to trust him even when circumstances are unfavorable to us. Even when we don't understand necessarily what God is doing.

He says, I'll say this as gently and compassionately as I know how. Our first priority in adversity is to honor and glorify God by trusting him. Gaining relief from our feelings of heartache or disappointment or frustration is a natural desire, and God has promised to give us grace sufficient for our trials and peace for our anxieties. But just as God's will is to take precedence over our will, so God's honor is to take precedence over our feelings.

And here is the takeaway. We honor God by choosing to trust him when we don't understand what he is doing or why he has allowed some adverse circumstance to occur. As we seek God's glory, we may be sure he has purposed our good and that he won't be frustrated in fulfilling, he will not be frustrated in fulfilling that purpose. So just a reminder, sometimes we get the idea that we're in the best position to honor and glorify God when circumstances are favorable.

No. I think God's honor is vindicated and he's exalted and he's glorified when we trust him, when things aren't going our way, when things don't look favorable, when we don't understand necessarily what God is doing. So is that true of you tonight? Can you say, my heart is steadfast, oh God, my heart is steadfast.

That's a declaration. David wasn't going to wilt, David wasn't going to crumble, David wasn't going to cower in the corner in the dark of the cave, he was going to be steadfast. He was going to trust God in the midst of these very troubling circumstances. Saul and an army of 300 men are seeking his life. It's hard for us to get our minds around the danger that that implies.

But David wasn't consumed with that. His refuge was in God and he was going to exalt God and honor God and glorify God. So here's encouragement for us, that we by grace may do the same. Well, I trust the Lord will use that in your life tonight and in the days to come.

Will you join me as we bring some of these needs before the Lord? Father, we thank you that you are a very present help in time of trouble. We thank you that you do all things well, that you do things on purpose for your own honor and glory sake and for the good of your people. We thank you that you are no respecter of persons, that you are not only the God of David, you're not only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but you are the God of every redeemed child of yours. We thank you that you grant grace and mercy to us, that you provide that which is necessary for us to trust you in the midst of difficulty. And Lord, there are many people that we are praying for tonight who are dealing with various and sundry health issues, and financial issues, and family issues, and other things as well. We pray that you would strengthen Rob Conrad, that you would continue to undertake for Stuart Waugh and Laverne.

We thank you for the progress that they are making. We thank you for being with Leanne Michael, Hannah's father, and seeing him through this heart oblation. We lift up Shirley Watkins to you as she's at the regional hospital and pray that the doctors will be able to get on top of this C. diff and clear up this UTI that's troubling her. We pray for Tiana Bethea, she has shoulder surgery tomorrow, that that would go well. We pray that you'll give courage to the staff at the cottage of Blakely Hall, and for those residents who have been affected by COVID, we pray that you'll have mercy on them, and that your will would be done in their lives, and that there would be people who would be looking to you in this time of need. We pray for Sue Vestal's aunt, Maxine Cole, and ask that you would bring healing to her, and Sheila Echter, she has surgery again tomorrow. I know she must be a bit discouraged. Be the lifter of her head.

Remind her that she's a child of yours. Thank you for Robert and his always positive outlook on life. May he be an instrument of encouragement to his wife during this difficult time. We pray for Rose Bradshaw's sister and her son who were in this car accident. We pray that they would recover from these injuries. We pray for Margarita Marino as she waits on the pathology report from this tumor that's been removed from her abdomen. We don't know, I don't know her whether she's a child of yours, but we pray that you'll use this in her life, to either encourage her in the faith if she is a child of yours, or to bring her to faith. We pray for Judah Veroy, and thank you that he's healing from this cut on his heel.

We commit Lee Vestal to you and the needs of his physical life, and whatever spiritual needs are there as well, and for this man, Ken, who has headaches and other health issues. We pray for Linda Bruner tonight, Wendy Lynch's sister, and ask that you draw near to her and encourage her. Help her to look away from these troubling circumstances and this troubling news. May her faith be fastened upon him who's unmovable and who changes not. We pray for the Village of Alamance Aldermember Gail Andrews and ask you to help this person as they seek to fulfill their responsibilities to the City of Alamance. And then for Caitlin Craig, we lift this dear sister to you and ask you to bless her and help her to continue to adjust to school. We thank you that she has acclimated well. We pray that she'll have a good semester.

All of our students that are at school and adjusting, Alamance Christian School and the Bradford Academy and other private schools in the area, we commit all of these needs to you. Lord, we're very much looking forward to this Fall Bible Conference with Dr. Jim Oreck. We pray that you'd keep him healthy and well, that there would be no hindrance to his coming.

We look forward to his ministry among us and getting to know his wife as well. So Lord, prepare our hearts for this concentrated time of preaching. And Lord, you are aware of the needs in our hearts and lives and the needs of our country and all that's going on around us and how it can so be unsettling. We pray that you'll strengthen us in the inner man, that you'd give us courage, that we would be men and women of hope and that we would be light and salt in this dark and decaying world. Lord, help us to be ready to give an answer to any man who would ask us for the reason of the hope that's within us. These are days of gospel opportunity. Lord, would you cause there to be a harvest of souls as people are bewildered and people's confidence has been shaken and many people have misplaced trust. Oh God, would you so work in their hearts and lives that they might find themselves settled upon the rock, Christ Jesus. Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you that we have access to you through this means of prayer. Receive our prayers this evening through the merits of your dear son who loved us and gave himself for us. We pray in his matchless name, amen and amen.