New Testament reading comes this morning from Revelation chapter one. Revelation one, starting at verse nine. Revelation one, nine, and I’ll be reading to the end of that chapter. Yeah, Revelation one, starting at verse nine. Once again, please get attention to this is the word of our God. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and Sadrus and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in the furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun, shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Right therefore, the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the seven angels in the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen. May that be his blessing upon it. Indeed, you may be seated. Let’s pray once more and ask the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Let’s pray. Dear Lord, our Heavenly Father, we come again before you. We confess again what a privilege it is being in your presence, being before you as you speak to us from this your word. And Lord, we pray. She would give us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts that are indeed open to receive from you now what you have to give us. Lord, we pray. Arrest our attention, Lord, and remove all those distractions that swirl around in our minds and our hearts and help us, Lord, to hear and to receive. Help us, Father, to bend our lives and our wills towards you. And we pray indeed, Lord, that now the instrument of your word this morning in the meditation of all of our hearts would be acceptable in your sight. We ask this all, and God’s people said all of them, amen. Amen. Daniel chapter 10. We’re coming here to the close of the book of Daniel, the end, close to the end, rather, chapter 10. 10 through 12 are really one vision, the final one, one last vision given to Daniel and given to us, the church. And remember what we have covered so far, some of the principles that we have looked at, is we’ve looked at Daniel to help us, to aid us in our understanding. Of course, Yahweh, the Lord God, has used dreams and visions to reveal information. through Daniel, of Judah, of Jerusalem, and of the temple. And remember as well, the purpose of prophecy in apocalyptic literature, it’s to encourage, right? To encourage God’s people, particularly here, to encourage God’s people living in exile, away from their homeland, in a foreign land. And remember as well, the reason why they are there, right? They are there because of the covenant curses, through their disobedience, through their idolatry, through their unbelief. The curse of the covenant came and the Lord used the instrument of these four nations to take his people to punish them for the violation of that covenant as promised. The good news that we see here is that the exile is almost over. That’s very good news. The bad news is that the struggles are not over. They’ll be marked by a time of trouble, we read last week. In this vision, we’re told about this spiritual and invisible reality, this battle raging behind that day in and day out struggles of the people of God, the spiritual battle, this war that’s raged. And Daniel and we also learn that this war will be won by the coming Messiah, right? Will be won by the coming Messiah. And so Daniel, as we’ve seen, has this extraordinary life, right? This man, Daniel, he’s one of those taken from the land of promise to Babylon to serve that foreign court, away from home in a foreign land, under a foreign strange language. And Daniel is called and he’s equipped by the Lord, right? We must remember God’s sovereignty in all of this. Remember how the book starts, Daniel chapter one, Verse one, right? The Lord, or it’s the Lord, Yahweh, who’s in control of these things. Remember, we read there, to open the book, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And then verse two. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hands, right? The Lord is orchestrating behind all this. He is sovereign, he’s in control. He providentially orders what comes to pass. And Daniel is called and equipped by the Lord to work for these two, to serve under these two great kings of this era, right? Nebuchadnezzar and then Cyrus. Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, kings of Babylon and then following that, Persia. And in our journey through Daniel, we’ve seen a number of things. We’ve seen that God has also shown the prophet that the exiles are about to return home. They’re about to go back, be restored to their land, to rebuild Jerusalem, to rebuild the temple. We also learn that the glory days for Israel physically are in the past and Yahweh’s final triumph will be a messianic kingdom, a messianic kingdom that indeed defeats all of God’s enemies, not by armies, not by political power, but through the suffering Messiah to come on who destroys the power of sin and undoes the curse. Chapter nine, as we saw, told us that Daniel knew of Judah’s exile for 70 years, as told by the prophet Jeremiah. Remember, it says he was reading the scrolls. And we know that the 70 years through that, Daniel knew it was coming to an end. And Daniel was concerned for himself and concerned for his people, for God’s people, their holiness, their repentance, and their faith. And so he prays and he prays intensely. And the Lord hears Daniel’s prayer, And he sends the angel Gabriel with an answer, right? Sends him and he comes with the answer. A time of 77 weeks has been decreed for God’s people. And beginning with Cyrus’s word, his decree in 538 BC for the Jews to return to Babylon and rebuild the temple and rebuild Jerusalem. And Gabriel tells him that 70 weeks will be fulfilled when a coming Messiah, right? Remember that order of things. The coming Messiah will finish transgression, put an end to sin, atone for iniquity. He will bring an everlasting righteousness, seal both vision and prophet, and anoint the most holy place. Gabriel also reveals that through this process, there will be trouble. It will be marked by trouble, he says. Both Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed. But in the end, the redemptive work of the Messiah will come to pass. Daniel was told, and we read, it will come to pass, and it will bring in, remember that final, glorious, final jubilee, the eternal Sabbath, and the end of the age. And up to this point, Daniel, right, in this book, he’s been, these visions and dreams have focused on the Lord’s providential plans for his people, Israel. particularly how he will keep his promise to them and bring them back, again, keeping covenant with them, bring them back from exile, back to the land of promise. And in the course of history, nations we see will rise and fall. These visions that we’ve seen indicate this. They will rise and they will fall. But all of history unfolds in service to God’s greater plans, God’s greater purposes. Yes, including hard times, right? Times of pain and times of strain. These two must be viewed by God’s people, as God working out all things according to the counsel of his will, and bringing all things into subjection to Christ. This last vision that we see here, beginning in chapter 10 to the end of the book, shows Daniel and it shows to us, again, this invisible war that’s taking place behind the scenes, the spiritual battle. And despite many who take these visions as an opportunity, remember, to shoehorn in all kinds of sensationalistic, fantastical flights of fancy, we need to remember again that these visions are given, they’re intended to comfort, not confuse. They’re intended to comfort, not to cause fear. God’s people were to take comfort. even when they faced hard times, even when they faced hard times after the exile, and to know that God will ultimately have his way, even in spite of those hard times and those troubles that they’ll go through. We’ve seen throughout the book of Daniel, there’s this common theme, this common theme or point that’s been throughout that almighty God in heaven reigns, right? He reigns, he is sovereign. Therefore, we’re to fear not, fear not. And indeed, as this book concludes, we learn that our greatest enemy, even death itself, will be defeated, right? The Lord wins, the Lord reigns. We’re told this and we can know this, it’s for our comfort, right, and for our joy, and for our encouragement and our hope moving through life in this land. And so chapter 10 through to the first verse of chapter 11 is the introduction, if you will, to this last vision. Verse one tells us the timeframe, right, it dates the vision for us. It tells us that this final vision occurred, quote, in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, right, in the third year. This is the third year after the conquest of Babylon, you’ll recall, around 536 BC, right, by Cyrus, the king of Persia. And the 70 years of exile has concluded, and Daniel’s preparing himself for that conclusion. preparing and he’s praying, he’s been shown how these things will wrap up. And he’s preparing for that ultimate end of all things. And you know, brothers and sisters, we also are coming close to the end, right? The ultimate end, we are close. As hard as it is for us to understand that, that’s what scriptures teach us. And it’s taught us that since the New Testament going forward, right? That’s what it says. It says the last days are upon us. The New Testament repeatedly tells us that the last days have begun. Apostle John says in 1 John 2, verse 18, children, it is the last hour. It is the last hour. And you have heard that antichrist is coming. So now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. The coming of the Lord is at hand, right? These verses could be multiplied. But one of the things we can take away from this text this morning is that the end is truly near. The end is truly near, and that end, for those in Christ, is fearless. There’s no fear for this true, this near end that is coming. No fear. We have confidence in the Lord, in rest, in our union with Him, in His might. So we look at this chapter, and we see something of the environment of Daniel’s prayer. What’s going on? And we see that as God was faithful to destroy the Babylonians, and he did with the Persians coming in, and the exiles have begun to return to the land. And in verses two and three, it says, in those days, I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all for the full three weeks, right? And so what’s going on here? What is this? Why is that that he’s doing this? Well, we know that for two years earlier, this is the third year of Cyrus, two years earlier, Daniel received this vision in chapter nine that we’ve just gone through, and the 77s of that vision describe world history and what’s going on. It goes from restoration to persecution to the Messiah’s crucifixion, and then the final jubilee, right? But before that, he’s had visions all throughout, right? There’s visions of the ram and the goat, visions of the four beasts that outline the history of the world and the rising and falling of nations. And in chapter two, you remember, he interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, this dream about the same history with the rise and fall of empires, with emphasis in the end that it’s God’s kingdom that remains. It’s the kingdom of the Lord God Almighty that is ongoing. And Daniel knows about Jeremiah’s prophecy. Again, we have reference to this in chapter nine. These 70 years in exile would come to an end, and it has. That’s where we are in history for Daniel. But why is he mourning? It says he was mourning for all this time. He’s mourning. Well, surely Daniel has heard the news of the pitifully small number of people who’ve returned to the land. We read about this in Ezra, the book of Ezra gives some history of this. And after two years of being allowed and told to go back to the land, they rebuild the temple, and it says in Ezra chapter three, and they sang responsibly, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever towards Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. And then verse 12. but many of the priests and the Levites and the heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid. They wept with a loud voice. They wept for the smallness, the pathetic nature of this new temple, at the discouragement and the sorrow of it compared to the old glorious Solomonic temple. We came back to build this, You know, and why, where is everyone? The small number of people. And also we read in Ezra four about the troubles, right? These exiles having troubles as they undertake this endeavor from those in the land and from among the Persians, the harassment and the troubles that they had. And God promised restoration, but these people seem, the people seem sluggish and burdened. Daniel surely heard reports about these things and he mourns over them, right? He’d been praying intensely to get back to the land for his people to confess their sins and to return. And we feel this way at times too, do we not? Frustrated by our circumstances, frustrated at God’s seeming slowness to work things out in our lives, we are impatient. God’s not working things out quite as I would like them worked out. You don’t have to live long in this world to realize this, to be in mourning at the loss of a loved one, or at financial troubles, or of relational troubles that we have, and question, why the Lord makes me wait? Why can’t he just fix everything in my life? Or to long and grieve the very real pain that we have in our lives, and that we go through, and we think, isn’t it enough, Lord? Isn’t it enough? Don’t we often feel that way? Like life is just a colossal disappointment? Well, we have the sure answer to these things in scripture. We have the sure answer, even if we’re slow to believe and to accept them. The apostle Paul, you’ll recall, suffered. He suffered mightily. And he asked the Lord three times to remove that thorn. And the answer that he receives is instructive for us as well, us, we who suffer as well. But this is how Daniel must have felt, right? Discouraged and disappointed. We have this senior citizen, right? 80-year-old Daniel, 80-ish years old, and he’s fasting and he’s praying and he’s mourning. And when he sees this angelic being, he says, no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed and I retained no strength. And when Daniel spoke to this angel, he said in Daniel 10, 16, oh my Lord, by reason of the vision, pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength. How can my Lord’s servant talk with my Lord? For now, no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me. He’s breathless, and he’s terrified. Here’s this 80-ish year old man who spent all of his adult life in exile. Daniel. And finally, what he’s been praying for comes to pass. The restoration comes and he is weak and he is weary. And why is he still there among the Persians in Babylon? Why isn’t he back home? Why isn’t he headed back to the land? Well, we don’t know for sure. Scripture doesn’t say. Maybe he was too weak to travel, right? Again, he’s an older man at this time. But he was the one who received the visions, right, and relayed them, and then others got to go, right, he didn’t. And imagine in his old age, having interpreted and received these incredible communications, and he longs and he prays for the restoration of the people and the land, the rebuilding of the temple, and he’s there watching and he sees, right, as these small caravans leaving Babylon, headed for Israel, going back to the promised land, and he’s weeping. And there’s a reminder here as well for us, brothers and sisters, that in our joy and in our comfort in the Lord, even as he is our strength, right, he is our strength, even in that we may in life lose all of our strength here in this world. And the losses and struggles that we go through here in this world are real losses, they’re real struggles. It reminds us that even though As a friend of mine says, even though the Lord is our strength, this life may take our strength. This life may take our strength. And even though we have all things in Christ, we may here in this life go without. We may have ill health, we may suffer, and we do. And notice verse four says, his answer came, notice the timeframe, on the 24th day of the first month. 24th day of the first month, when he was fasting and mourning. He’d been fasting the entire first month. And the first month, you might remember, for the Jews was a celebration of what? The Passover, in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was to be a time of joy, a time of celebration and deliverance. And now Israel’s going back to the land, through the wilderness, to the Promised Land again. Yet Daniel is there praying and mourning. May we never lose sight. Dear Christian, of Yahweh’s sovereignty, of his love and his care for his people, of the promise for certain rescue and restoration, ultimately in body and spirit, that he will indeed, the promise, make all things new. That’s something that’s going on as Daniel prays, right, the context of the circumstances of Daniel’s prayer. And then we see the response, right, the answer to Daniel’s prayer. And like before, it comes to him, Through an angelic visitation, he sees this man described fantastic, incredibly, wearing linen with a belt of fine gold around his waist. His body was like a barrel, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs gleamed like bronze, the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. Some see the parallel here to Revelation 1, that’s why we read it earlier. and see this as the Son of God, right? This is the pre-incarnate Christ, Son of God before the incarnation. Others see this, say that Michael the archangel, this isn’t, that’s not the case because Michael the archangel strengthens him. But this is another angel, I think, from the throne room of God, reflecting the Lord’s glory and the Lord’s splendor as he comes. And when there’s a visit from angels in scripture, right? Notice it’s very different than what we see in our culture and in movies and whatnot. When there’s a visit from the angels, people are terrified, they’re terrified. There’s fear, right? Verse seven, a great trembling fell upon them, right? Those who were with them and they fled to hide themselves. And it says, Daniel fell on his face in a deep sleep with his face to the ground, passed out. And the angel’s hand touched him and revived him and was then set up trembling on his hands and his knees. Then the angel spoke again and said that Daniel was a man, right? This phrase that we’ve heard before, a man greatly loved, greatly loved. But even with these comforting words, he still, it says verse 11, stood up trembling, trembling. And so what’s the overall point in this? It’s said in Daniel’s prayer, the answer to this prayer is the exiles are returning to the land according to the precious promises of the Lord God Almighty. God says this, that difficult days are ahead for the people of God. Difficult days are ahead for you, my people. If we look back at verse one, remember it says, a word was revealed to Daniel, and the word was true, and it was great conflict, it was great conflict. Now as we look at this, we’ve talked before about the difficulty in interpreting Daniel, and there are two options what this might mean, what this great conflict was. This great conflict may have been Daniel’s difficulty in understanding the answer, or the great conflict was what awaited Israel, what awaited them. And since the verse goes on to say that Daniel understood the word and had understanding of the vision, and because the rest of Daniel talks about a future war and persecution, it seems that the second option is best, right? That this great conflict is what awaited Israel, what awaits the people of God. Great conflict. And again, contrast this to what is commonly, what we commonly hear about reports of visiting angels and healing. as if a blessing sought, right? As if there’s something held out, as if there is a blessing sought that is greater than being given a new heart and a home in glory, or that there’s something greater than being united to the Lord Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe, right? Why should I go long for something lesser? Why should I be tantalized by these things? When we’re united to Jesus Christ, we belong to the Lord. That is the most amazing, incredible thing that could be. And of course, the book of Hebrews talks about this, tells us of this one, the one Jesus Christ, who is superior to the angels. So we don’t need to look to something greater than God’s word in a necessarily deceptive movie, or something greater than our savior in pretend visits from Ned Flanders style angels, right? What does Daniel get here? What does he get? Right from the start he’s told, he grasps this, that the future is going to be difficult, times of trouble marked by difficulty. And Daniel grasps the difficulty, the reality of coming persecution and suffering for God’s people. But how can Daniel have any comfort in this? These aren’t comforting words. Well, he can because of who it is that’s telling him this. God is the one who’s telling him this. And then this reminds us that God is in control, he’s in control of it all. That is encouraging, that’s comforting. Remember Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter one. Our tradition, our branch of the Christian family tree loves this verse. Philippians one, verse 29. We rejoice in its glory and the testimony of God’s sovereignty and his control and salvation. It says it’s been granted, that is gifted to you, that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him and we cheer, right, amen. Praise God for the gift of faith to believe in Jesus Christ. But there’s another gift in this verse as well. What else has been granted according to Philippians 1 29? It’s the thing that these health and wealth cults have to ignore, right, and that’s this. Again, verse 29, for it has been granted to you, gifted to you, that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. To suffer for his sake. Daniel’s experiencing, he’s hearing God saying this, right? There’s going to be great conflict, great persecution. Saying, I am the one who’s allowing this to happen. I’m the one that’s sending this. I’m in control of this, I’m in charge. We’re going to suffer much for the kingdom of God, right? The apostle says to enter in, there must come persecutions and tribulations and suffering. And that’s okay, because God is a good God. He’s a merciful God and he’s working it out for our good, all things, even things we don’t immediately appreciate or even like. So that’s something of the answer that Daniel receives to his prayer, and then we see the importance of Daniel’s prayer And it’s important that we understand the place of our prayers in general, in a macro vision, macro big picture. Maybe you think that your prayers are merely perfunctory, or an obligation, or merely an exercise that we go through. Maybe you think that your prayers are just a spiritual discipline, right, going through the motions. Or maybe you think, well God is sovereign, he doesn’t really need my prayers, I’ll just do it, because it seems like I’m supposed to do it. But what does Daniel say here? It’s something very revealing about prayer, what prayer is and how prayer functions. Verse 12 he says, in the midst of this conversation between the angel and Daniel, it says, he said to me, that is the angel to Daniel, fear not Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before God, your words have been heard. And I have come because of your words, right? I have come because of your words, right? Do you see that? Daniel’s been praying for 21 days, 21 hungry days. as he’s fasting, then comes the answer. But when does it say that God heard him, that he was heard? From the first day, it says. From the first day he began praying, he humbled himself. He humbled himself and said, it’s hard to understand. It didn’t take 21 days for the Lord to hear. He heard him from the first day. And now this angel is before him with an answer from God himself. And why is the angel there again, it says, because of your words, because of your words. I am here because of your words, O Daniel. That’s incredible, it’s incredible. We can’t fully understand all these things. That’s an amazing truth, brothers and sisters. The angel came because of Daniel’s prayer, it tells us. In James chapter four, it says you have not because you ask not. Not perfunctory, not merely a mechanical exercise. Prayer changes things, right, it changes things. Do you want the Lord to return to make all things right? Do you want him to bring an end to sin once and for all? Do you want him to come and exchange your broken, pain-riddled, hurting body with a glorified, perfected body without pain? To bring justice, do you want him to bring justice for his will to be done? Pray, right, pray, dear Christian. Pray, you wanna see your loved ones saved? You wanna see your loved ones come to Christ and have life? Pray, right? You wanna see the continued growth and health of our church? Pray, pray, let us pray, brothers and sisters. And notice the timeframe here of what’s going on. Verse 13, we read that the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, he says, for 21 days. 21 days, three weeks, the exact time that Daniel had been praying, right? And who is this prince? The context makes clear, this is a fallen angel, a demon, one that’s aligned with his allegiances to Satan. And why is that? It’s because the angel tells Daniel, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia. And brothers and sisters, I caution us, we need to be careful not to sensationalize these things, or have a theology of hyper-demonology, right? With a demon everywhere, behind everything, looking to pounce on us. But we also, on the other hand, don’t want to err and deny the spiritual reality of the war that goes on behind the scenes. The war that goes on, we don’t want to deny these things as if life is purely materialistic, right? That’s not a biblical worldview. The reality is there are things going on in a different realm spiritually. There’s a heavenly spiritual war going on why we pray, why we intercede, when we intercede, when we plead with the Lord, we confess before him. There’s a war going on behind those prayers. We ask why hasn’t God answered all of his people’s prayers for his son to return already, to judge the wicked, to make all things new for his children, for his people? Well, there’s still yet sinners that need to be saved. There’s still yet elect that need to hear the gospel and be brought in. But evidently, in a prayer for these things, there’s a war being raged behind the scenes for their souls. We’re to be a praying people, a people of prayer, a people of the book and a people of prayer. We think, why doesn’t God just step in, enacting his sovereignty immediately? Well, he wants to change you by those prayers as well. He wants us to feel our need for his help more and more and more. Brothers and sisters, let us be a praying people. Let’s be a praying church for all these things. And just as Daniel waited and longed in prayer for the Lord to fulfill all of his plans for his people, let us watch and wait and long for Christ’s coming. Let us long for that, let us pray in faith, trusting our Lord and His provision and His comfort through pain and our suffering and our persecutions that we go through. Let us pray as we long for Jesus, even as creation longs for the consummation, right? Even as we wait this day for the coming of the Lord on clouds of glory to judge the living and the dead, we wait in faith for His promise that He is coming again. He is coming again. And he’s also said, pray, come quickly, O Lord. Come quickly, Jesus. Let us also pray the same. Let us trust him. Let us be patient. Let us establish our hearts before him in prayer. And regarding our very real suffering and loss and pain and health things that we go through, we must embrace God’s word in this matter. We must remember and embrace these truths. The apostle, as he prays for these things, we read this in 2 Corinthians 12. And it says, so to keep me from becoming conceited, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times, he says, I pled with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness, in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness and insults and hardships and persecutions and calamities, and we could add pain and turmoil and stress and drama in our lives. He says, for when I am weak, then I am strong, then I am strong. His grace is sufficient for you, for you. Jesus is enough, dear people, he’s enough. He used to be the satiation of all of your heart. He is enough, your Savior is enough. His grace is sufficient for you and for me and all who call upon his name. Let us pray, brothers and sisters, especially in our weakness, that we would be useful for his kingdom as we await his soon return from glory. Let us pray, brothers and sisters, and let us do so now. Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that all of your promises are yes and amen to us in Christ. We thank you that you are sovereign. Lord, we thank you that you are in control, even of those things that we cannot see, the spiritual realities and the battle that wages. Lord, we praise you. We praise you that we are on your side, that you have conquered our hearts, that you defeated our hearts and given us new hearts of flesh that beat for Christ. We thank you, Lord. We thank you that we can trust, we can entrust ourselves to you day in and day out as our faithful Savior who loves us and knows what’s best for us. And Lord God, that we would find life and peace there. Father, we acknowledge the difficulties of this life, particularly in recent times, in every respect. And in your Lord, We confess that none of this is outside of your control. And so we ask, Sovereign Lord, that you would magnify yourself and that you would keep us faithful in the midst of all of the things of this world. Lord, we pray, don’t let us get so wrapped up around things that are transient and temporary, that will not last, that we lose sight, that we lose our true hope and we put our faith in things that are ultimately going to go the way of the world. Lord, we do thank you that your kingdom will know no end and that it will come. And so we pray, Lord, your kingdom would come, and that even this day as we gather together for worship, that we praise you that you’re building up a kingdom of people, a holy temple with Christ as its cornerstone, that no man will be able to number, or no king or ruler will be able to stand against. And so we pray, dear Lord, for that this morning, that you would continue to add to your numbers as the gospel goes out, As King Jesus speaks to his people, he grants faith that others hear and they believe. Lord, we pray as this word goes out through the preached word that many would bow their knee to Christ. And Lord, transition their honor and loyalty from this age to the age to come. Lord, we pray, honor yourself through your church around the world today and be with those who have given up homes and lands and children in the comforts of their own nation to preach the word to others in lands not their own, in the missions as the gospel goes forth. Father, protect them, we pray. We pray, Lord, that you would prosper them and provide for them, encourage them in their labors. We pray, Heavenly Father, as well for this nation. Lord, we pray that we know what is We know what is before us, Lord. You know what is before all of us, individually and corporately. And so we entrust all these things to your hands. Lord, you are almighty God. Lord, we would ask that you would help us as a people to be thankful. even for the leaders that you have ordained to give us. And Lord, we pray, forgive us, Lord, as we’ve been unthankful in the past for anything that comes to us through your hand. And we pray that you would make us faithful followers of Christ, those who bear the name Christian, to our neighbors. Lord, of every persuasion that we would honor you in how we speak, how we speak to and about others, and that we would treat them with dignity. Lord, we pray for peace. We ask, Father, for calm in this nation. We pray that above all, you would keep your church free, free to worship without hesitation, without reservation, without fear, free to speak the whole counsel of God and not be silenced. And we praise you for this. And we pray for the many years to come, Lord, you know that we are in the last hour. Father, we pray, protect us. Lord, protect us and bring glory and honor to your name. We thank you for the freedom that we enjoy, Lord. We ask for our particular congregation, we your people here, pray that we would love one another and live in unity with one another. We pray, Father, for the households that are represented here and those that can’t be here this morning for various reasons. Lord, it’s been a difficult recent time for many of us, Lord, and we know that as tired as we are in the struggles that we’ve been through, we pray that husband and wife, parents and children would seek your face, seek your mercy, seek reconciliation, Lord, and that we would honor you in all the things that we do. Pray that you would bring us hearts of humility, and that we would be a people of repentance and forgiveness, and Lord God, that you would bring wholeness in such a way that we would glorify you in the way that we live, one with another, Father. We pray that you would continue to be with us. We thank you for your faithfulness. We are grateful for that. We pray for the leaders of the church, that you would sustain and encourage them. And Lord God, help us from minister to elder to deacon to represent Christ Jesus in our love for your people, in humility, and to do our best to show forth his love and mercy. We thank you that you are sovereign. We pray these and all these things, Lord, the things that are even hidden in our hearts unspoken, asking all of this in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of our powerful Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.