Let’s turn now for our New Testament reading comes to us from Romans Romans chapter 1 starting verse 18 Romans 1 18 Look to the Romans by the Apostle Paul Romans 1 starting verse 18, please give again your full attention. This is the word of our God. I For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For it can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power, divine nature, has been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they’re without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to dishonoring their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. And they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. The word of the Lord. Amen. Let us now take our seats and we will ask the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. which will come from this morning, Psalm 19. We’re gonna take a, we’ll get back to 1 John next week, but Psalm 19 this morning. But yeah, let’s ask the Lord’s blessing upon the hearing, reading, and preaching of the word before we do so. Let’s pray. Our heavenly Father, dear Lord, Coming in before you we are humbled that we are able to do so by virtue of Christ and his work and we delight and bask in the privilege of your presence and Hearing from you in your word now at this time. We do pray Lord that you would give us focus and attention indeed Lord arrest our our arrest our attentions and our focus, Lord. Grip us that we may be gripped by you. And Lord, we do pray that you would, all of those things swirling in our minds that seek to crowd out, crowd us out of focusing, Lord, we pray that you would help us to be attentive to your word as it is preached, to be attentive of the spirit working through that word. And then we would indeed glorify you, even as we hear from your word. And so we do pray, Lord, that I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts would be acceptable in your sight. For it’s in Christ’s name that we pray, and all God’s people said, amen, amen. All right, 1 John, I’m sorry, Psalm 19, Psalm 19, I’ll be reading the full text of Psalm 19, this glorious Psalm. Psalm 19, please give now your full attention to this, again, God’s word, Psalm 19. To the choir master, a psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned. In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgressions. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. So for the reading of God’s word, may he indeed add his blessing upon this word now. Well, it’s an interesting thing when we think about such matters as God’s revelation, His revealing of Himself in His Word and elsewhere. And historically, there was a philosopher, an unbelieving philosopher, whose name was Bertrand Russell, and he was the one who asked the question, What will you say to God when He says, ask you why you didn’t believe in Him? That’s the question. And Bertrand Russell answered, not enough evidence, not enough evidence. Now, we won’t get into the fact that even in answering this question, this atheist, using logic and using language and so on, he defeats his own worldview, right? It’s a philosophically untenable answer. But think for a moment about that broadly, right? Can we know God? Can we know God? Is it at all valid to say, not enough evidence? How can we know God? Is there really, according to Scripture, such a thing as an unbeliever, one who doesn’t believe or one who doesn’t know that there is God? Because as we read in Romans 1, it seems to be contrary to what we read there. And Psalm 119 answers this question, answers that question, how can I know that God exists? And we see that wonderfully. Psalm 119 tells us that you can know and that you do know that God exists. We can know that God exists. How so? From Psalm 19, we can know because God has revealed himself, right? And the way that the structure of this psalm is broken down, we see that we can know him because he’s revealed himself in verses one to six through creation, right? In verses seven to 11, he’s revealed himself through the canon, right? His word, right? The canon of his word. We can know him also, verses 12 to 14, through the conscience, right? Because we are God-made people in a God-created world. And so we know that God exists because he’s revealed himself in creation, right? General revelation, the things that he has made in his word and in the conscience as we are created to do so. And so first, creation, right? He’s revealing himself in creation, verses one to six. Psalm 19, one, this first verse of Psalm 19, is constructed in a way, all right, we’ve talked about before, as a chiasm, right? This structure of the center of the line is the focus, right, is the attention. And everything else builds on that or focuses on that. And so if you think for a minute, it says this, the heavens declare the glory of God. His handiwork proclaims the sky, right? Literally is how it says. So the emphasis is on the center thing there, right? The glory of God, his works show his glory. Again, from our English translation, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, right? The word means it bubbles, it gushes speech and night to night reveals knowledge. And as we heard in our New Testament reading from Romans chapter 1, it perfectly aligns and affirms this same notion. God has revealed himself in what has been made and what he has made. We see this throughout Scripture in the Old and New Testament from beginning to end. And what has been made, creation, it declares His glory, it proclaims His handiwork, the works of the heavens, that it’s God’s work. Again, Romans 119, say, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. And then the next verse, right, listen, the invisible attributes, namely, what his eternal power, his divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, and there it is, in the things that have been made. So they’re without excuse. And so as we saw in Psalm 29, Psalm 19 rather, God built into creation, he revealed himself, a revelation of himself from the things that he has made. And we know this, right, intuitively, just experientially. When people, us or others, who are also God’s creation, right, we’re part of God’s creation, when we encounter His creation, we react to it, right? There’s a reflex when we do so. When we experience beautiful places or imposing grand places like the Grand Canyon or the Rocky Mountains or the depths of the ocean, These great things in creation, we don’t look at the grandeur and greatness of the mountains and have our breath taken away and say, wow, evolution, right? That’s not the response from our hearts, from our being. Our hearts are not stirred, and it doesn’t make us think, wow, random chance did this, right? That’s not our reflex. that kind of mythical, magical, backward thinking has to be taught, right? It has to be taught from outside. Because when we encounter God’s creation, we are awestruck and we are shown something about the creator of this incredible creation. God’s creation doesn’t elicit from us thoughts of evolution, but of God and his greatness and his glory and his creativity and his variety and the precision and accuracy and intricacy, right? The delicacy of that creation, of his strength and care and brilliance, and on and on. We see this from creation, right? This is what reflexively, intuitively we feel. And notice in verses five and six, it speaks of the sun, right? It speaks of the sun. It comes out and it runs its course. There is nothing hidden from its heat. The sun is the ruler of the sky, recall. In Genesis, we read about this. God creates these kingdoms and places rulers over them. Right? The sun is the ruler of the sky. It’s massive. It’s imposing. It’s incredible. Yet it says, there is nothing hidden from its heat. But what’s the takeaway, right? What’s the next jump? It’s that it’s God’s creation. It’s God’s son. God made the sun. The sun is his creation. How much greater is God than the sun? And so there’s a reflexive response, again, that’s inborn in mankind as creatures. God created people. When we encounter the world around us, the world that God has made, in the lie of evolution, it must be taught. It is not an innate trait. Sin distorts our thinking. It distorts our minds. It distorts our hearts and minds. Indeed, it distorts all of who man is. But God’s creation is unsuppressible, right? It’s unsuppressible. He cries out everywhere. It is evidenced everywhere, right? It is irrepressible. It is unavoidable that it’s God’s creation. And because we are God’s created people and God created the universe, we will everywhere and at all times encounter the reality of God, this creator. God revealed himself in creation. And although man in his sin tries to suppress that truth, in reality he cannot suppress that truth fully, ultimately, ongoingly, right? Many of you have, if not heard this example, you’ve experienced it, being in a pool and trying to hold a beach ball underwater, right? Under the water, deep. If you’ve tried this, you know, or if you’ve seen someone try this, what happens when we do this? The ball keeps popping up, right, hysterically. It keeps coming up out of the water. No matter how you try to balance and hold it down and distribute your force on that ball, it keeps escaping. It will not be held down. It continues to move loose. And this is what happens when man tries to suppress the truth of God and to try to stuff the truth of God away. When he tries to push it away or deny it or suppress that truth, it pushes back. It will not be suppressed. It pops up and it pops out. And Romans tells us this. Romans says that this desire has dire and horrifying and brutal consequences. Again, listen to this text again with this thought in our minds now, Romans 1, For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power, His divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they’re without excuse, just by virtue of being God-created people in a God-created universe. Verse 21, for although they knew God, right, although they knew God, They did not honor him or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” And then we go on and we read that most shocking truth at the end of Romans 1. Again, it’s terrifying, truly. It says, man not only knows God, though sinfully attempting to suppress it, man also knows something else. Verse 32 says this. though they knew God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. Perhaps one of the most terrifying verses in Scripture. This is it, this is the heart of sin, the heart of falling. It’s the epitome of the darkness of that wickedness, of foolishness, of wickedness also in reality. They know God, they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve death and knowing that what they not only do them with this knowledge they do them but they give they hardly approve they give approval to those who do them practice such things and so man and his sin tries to suppress this truth but it will and does make us fools it makes us crazy doing so much to have an effect on the mind and the will and the emotion and the intellect, and that gross suppression ends up what? Callousing the conscience. Callousing the conscience. It ends up hardening the heart, to use the biblical phrase. And this is a desperate condition, right? It’s a desperate condition, sin. And so when we have people in our lives that we love who are truth suppressors, it should terrify us and it should motivate us, right? Death is real. And eternal death is real. And we need to tell people about this and the only escape from that which is Christ alone. And so it’s a staggering thing, right? And it’s a sad thing. And it should be a motivating thing for us. They are in a desperate situation, man in his natural state. his natural fallen state that is after the sin. But you can be bold, brothers and sisters, we can be bold in these instances, because it’s not the case that they just need more evidence, that’s not the case. They need the Holy Spirit, right, they need the Spirit, they need a new heart, they need renewal of the entirety of who they are. It only comes through the renewal of the Holy Spirit. They need God himself to give them faith. And you can know with confidence that because they exist, right, they are God-created people, they know the truth. And so to some extent, they know that there is a God, however much they try to deny it. And you can be bold in trusting the Spirit to use this truth and this cognitive dissonance, this spiritual dissonance in their thinking, in their mind. We can trust the Spirit. You can do so, that he will do as he chooses. Tell them the truth, right? Tell them the truth. Bring them to the truth. Bring them here, bring them to a Bible study. Tell them with your mouth. And confront and engage with the truth. What? We trust that the Spirit will do what he’s going to do. Confront and engage with the truth. God may rescue them from their sin and folly. Just like he did for you, and just like he did for me. Rescued us from our folly. So we can know that God exists. brothers and sisters, because he has revealed himself in creation. We can also know he exists because he’s revealed himself in his word, in the biblical canon, right? Scripture, holy scripture, our final source of authority, right? In its clarity, it’s authoritative, it’s inspired, it’s necessary, it’s sufficient. He’s revealed himself in this canon. We see this in verses seven to 11. And here we see from verse six to seven, we see a shift take place, right? Up to verse six, he’s been speaking of, as I said, revelation, general revelation, we call it. His creation, the things that he’s created. General revelation. In seven, he begins to talk about special revelation, right? Do you see that shift? And also notice the shift in the names of God. See, in verse 1, he speaks of God. The heavens declare the glory of God. It’s a more generic term. In verse 7, it says, to Yahweh, right? He starts speaking about the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Yahweh, the name of God, the personal covenant name of God, beginning in verse 7. And it’s used seven times after this. And so we move from the general revelation to special revelation, from the transcendent cosmic God, creator of the universe, to the imminent and merciful Lord, the covenant God of his people. Verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, right? It’s all-encompassing, it’s sound, it’s complete. It says, reviving the soul, reviving the soul. God’s word is true soul food, right? It’s food for the soul. And the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. And notice the opposite, the opposite of the stupefying nature of sin, right? Sin makes people fool. God’s word makes the simple wise. Verse 8, the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, it’s pure, it’s genuine. And that’s our response to God’s revelation, reverence and awe. He goes on, enduring forever. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired, it says, are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey. and drippings of the honeycomb.” God’s Word is of greatest value. It’s priceless. It is priceless. And we read in this section the properties, the description, the effects, the power, and the value of God’s Word. Historically, believers have been referred to people of the book. We’re people of the Word, the Word of God. And it is to our shame and our damage when we neglect that word, right? It is to be priceless to us because it contains priceless truth, the priceless truth of the gospel. And it’s from that that the Spirit promises to work through to change you and I, not just to give us faith, but to grow us in our Christian life, right? That old saying, with birth comes growth. Well, growth comes through the Word of God and the Spirit working through that word. And isn’t it a wonderful thing for us, brothers and sisters, that God has spoken to us in his word? That he has given us a more sure word for our lives? for our faith and for our growth. It’s a wonderful and amazing thing. He’s spoken to us. He’s stooped down. He’s condescended to speak to us that we may know, that we may grow, that we may have life. He’s given us this more sure word, the most sure word, as Peter refers to it as. And so doesn’t a moment’s reflection on this truth delight and overwhelm you? I mean, I pray that it does. This isn’t something that we should have a yawning indifference to. This is the Word of God for God’s people. It is incredible, right? It’s not a yawning ho-hum indifference. It should overwhelm you with the love of God and the magnitude of God. And though it is God’s lisping, his condescending to speak to us, it’s inexhaustible and it’s incredible, right? And so knowing that God loved his people so much that he spoke to them, he spoke to them. Psalm 8 talks about this, right? And so we can know that God exists because He’s revealed Himself in creation, things that He’s made, and also in the canon of His Word. And we can also know God exists because he has revealed himself to the conscience, right, to the conscience. He’s revealed himself to our consciences, and this is verses 12 to 14 where we read about this, and this is full circle back to Romans 1, right, or we could go to Romans 2. that says in verse 15, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. We have in Psalm 19, verse 12, this question. This question in Psalm 19, 12, who can discern his errors? Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. And the answer to that question is rooted in and submitted to God’s revelation, right? It’s the one who is submitted to and grounded, rooted in God’s word. The one who’s rooted and grounded in the word of the Lord. In verse 13, the first part of verse 13, we read of the protection of God’s word, the protection of God’s word. It says, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. And in the rest of the verse, we read of the result. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgressions, right? The plea to the Lord and then the protection that’s provided. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgressions. And you know, you may be thinking as we look through and as we’re walking through this psalm, maybe thinking and realize even now that you are not blameless and you are not innocent. We are not. We are not blameless and innocent. And that’s a painful thing. It’s a painful thing for those who love the Lord and seek purity and seek holiness and seek to grow. And we see that absolute standard and requirement of God on our lives and our failure to measure up, and it’s crushing. This is one of the reasons we go through this exercise of the gospel, even in our liturgy, the way we structure worship. We see the standard of His law in our failure to measure up to that law. It’s crushing and it should be crushing. It’s a sign of life inside of you, right? But we need to praise God that in Jesus, He has supplied the blamelessness and the innocence that we need, that we need. And He applies that to you as a believer, as you are united to Him, right? Jesus is the one that was crushed under the weight of our failure. And He was, quote, delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification, right? Paul says in Romans, he was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification and against the perfect standard of God’s law. Grace is our only hope of being free of guilt. That’s why we don’t end when we read responsibly the law of God in our failing, in our crushing, but we’re reminded again of all that God did. We’re reminded again of the solution and remedy and rescue from that fire. and grace has its effect, right? Grace has its effect. It’s our only hope for being freed from the bondage of sin and the guilt of sin, and it has an effect, and that is that it produces gratitude, right? Gratitude in our lives. The sacrifice of praise from the heart, right? Like the Psalm said, bubbling, gushing gratitude and praise Gratitude and praise of you who’ve been forgiven and covered in the perfect robes of Jesus Christ’s righteousness. For you it is fitting to revel in freedom, to revel in the freedom and grace of the Lord and creator who has drawn you close and redeemed you. the transcendent God, right, above and beyond, and the immanent Lord always before you and always with you. They meet in the Lord Jesus Christ, both the transcendent God and the immanent Lord. It’s Jesus where this comes to be. And listen to the Apostle John from John 1. John 1.3, all things that were made, all things were made through him, right? That’s an all-inclusive phrase. All things that were made were made through him. Therefore what? Jesus wasn’t made, right? He’s not in the category of being made. He’s not a creation. He’s the creator. All things that were made, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made, right? He is our redeemer. He’s also our creator. And then John 1.14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. It’s in Jesus that we see the glory of God. It’s in Christ. And John 118 tells us that this Jesus is the one who reveals, who makes known the Father. The word is exegete. He’s the one who exegetes the Father to us. Verse 18, no one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father’s side has exegeted Him, has made Him known. Jesus Christ accomplished those things that needed to be accomplished, right? He’s kept the law perfectly for us, that we might be forgiven and receive the grace needed to escape the dominion of sin. And he also suffered the punishment for not keeping the law in our place. But Psalm 19, verse 14, in this verse, we have a closing prayer. a plea, if you will, and says, again, this, Jesus has ultimately become the Redeemer, whose righteous record is the rock of the believer’s life. It’s the Lord, Jesus. God is truly amazing. He’s incredible. All of creation screams that there is a God. It screams of the God who created it. His word in the canon is incredible and indispensable. It tells us what he’s done to give us life and also the life that he loves for us to strive for in gratitude. There is general revelation that we see in creation. It’s sufficient, I mean, it tells the truth, right? It’s accurate, but it’s not sufficient for salvation, right? He had to speak to us in his word to tell us the way of rescue, the way of the gospel in the rescue that only comes through the Savior, Jesus Christ. And then his word, that’s his word, special creation. He’s also created us with a conscience, consciences that know him and reflexively knows the guilt of our sin and the need for rescue. And so rejoice, brothers and sisters, rejoice, that in Christ all that was needed for you to have life has been dealt with. It’s been accomplished and provided. He has come and he has accomplished redemption for his people, Luke 1, 68. After being mute for so long, and his mouth is loose, the father of John, what does he say? That’s what he says, blessed be the Lord, for he has come and accomplished redemption. And for you who do not yet know and love and long for this Jesus, he is willing to provide for you too. He’s willing to provide. He still invites you to come and partake of the refreshing waters of life that he alone gives. And the response to that is what? The response is a new heart and a home in heaven. And it all is to praise Him, right? Response is to praise Him for these things. Not only now in this hour, but for all of our lives, for all of our lives, moment by moment. And so, dear Christian, as you go back down from the mountain of worshiping the Lord now at this place, and back into a foreign land that is not your own, the world, take this praise with you. Take this praise with you. Rejoice in Jesus. And like all of creation does, you beam with the joy of life in Christ, right? Life in Christ. Declare of the life in Christ for you and that is available to all those that would believe. Reflect your Savior in the world and declare like creation the glory of your Redeemer. Even as the Spirit tells us in Hebrews chapter 13, Through him, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Go and love your Lord and go and love your neighbor, speaking and telling of the wonder of the gospel and of the Savior that gave you life. Amen. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for life. We thank you. that though we are weak and feeble indeed, that you are powerful and mighty, Lord, that you remember and that you are able and have indeed given us life in Christ, all those that believe. We thank you, Lord, for your revelation and your creation. Lord, we pray that we have an appropriate response of wonder and awe and praise to you and thanks to you as we are amazed and humbled in the things that you have made. We thank you for your revelation in scripture to us that tells us of the way to life through Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for Christ, this Savior’s perfection given to us. And that though we are sinners and rebels, you sought us and saved us and secured our sure redemption, Lord, as you’ve given us faith. And Lord, we pray that you would continue to draw us near, especially those that need your covering at this time. In a special way, Lord, we pray that you would draw them to surrender and to faith in you. Lord, give us all the posture of thanksgiving and grace and reception for all that you have for us. Lord, we pray at this time now for your word also in the world, that it would have its full effect, that you would bring your people in through that word and the proclamation of that word. We pray that all the distractions and obstacles and temptations, all the things of this world would grow dim in light. and in the reality of your glory, and that we would see more and more and more clearly, Lord, your glory and the glory of Christ and our union with him. May we believe and live out our lives from that reality, no matter what deters and what challenges us. Lord, may this be our confession, and may we be assured of victory won for us by Christ Jesus, the Lord. Even this morning, Lord, as we partake now soon of the Lord’s Supper, may we revere and know him who has made us partakers of his kingdom by faith. Lord, we pray for this congregation as we encounter the various struggles in this life. that we would fight, that you would give us the strength of Christ’s might to live in such a way that matches the profession of our lips. We pray, Lord, for those suffering this morning in special ways and unique ways, physical pain or suffering or great temptation, Lord, you know all of these things, and so we ask that you would grant relief and mercy and freedom in these situations. If your will, Lord, if it’s your will, heal and restore. that whatever your perfect will is, Lord, we pray that you would draw us close unto you, and that we would abide our suffering well, knowing that you sustain us, that you will be with us, that you will never leave us, and that we have a perfect, loving, and gentle Lord who cares for us beyond all comprehension, that we have a perfect, loving, and gentle Lord who is the God of the resurrection of the dead, and we would have the certainty that we will indeed be made new. Lord, help us to fix our eyes more and more heavenward, away from this land, away from this world and the things of this world. Help us to find our satiation, being satisfied, not in the things of this world, not looking for things in this world, but in Christ, with whom we will dwell forever. Lord, grant us to know the blessing of following and loving your law. That thing that we’ve been freed from as a condemnation to death, Lord, but because in gratitude, we love you and we want to live the life that you want for us. Lord, grant us to know that we’ve been freed from the bondage of sin and death, and we’ve been freed to keep your ways in gratitude. May we live out of our newness in Christ, we pray. Father, we pray this morning for the households of this church. We pray for all of those who are not with us this morning for various reasons. Lord, but for all of us, we pray that you would forgive our our failure to fidelity, to faithfulness in the various roles you’ve placed us, and grant to us that we would long and rightly be who you have made us to be in those roles. Father, we pray for the husbands of this church now. We pray that help us to know and delight that you are a husband who always keeps his word, Lord, that we would be husbands that always love our bride perfectly. Lord, help the husbands to love their wives in a way that reflects the Savior’s love for his church. Lord, we pray for the wives of this church that they, as a reflection of the glorified church, would submit and obey to their husbands as Christ did to the Father, and as the church is called to obey their God and their King. not for any perfection in the husband’s Lord, for we know that that is far, far from the truth, but because you are worthy and you are their Lord and their husband and their father. Father, protect both husbands and wife. We pray for the parents of this church, that they would indeed love and nurture their children in the culture of your Word with reverence and delight in Christ as their mutual Savior. And as they grow to understand and reflect the forgiveness sought of their parents from even their children, that they would both look together to our same Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that our homes will be a very picture of the gospel in a world that is so contrary to and in need of that truth. We pray for the children, Lord, that they would rejoice in their creator and sustainer and redeemer of their souls. Lord, we pray for your people, whatever hardships we might endure in this life, that we would see you, our God, and our King, that you are faithful, good, and gracious to us, and that you love us with a perfect love. even in situations where we don’t understand, was to trust in you. We pray, Lord, for those who are yet still single in this congregation. Lord, grant them peace and joy in Jesus, and that if it’s your will, grant them godly relationships. Lord, we pray that they would seek their contentment in you and you alone. Lord, we pray for the missions of our denomination and of all those faithful gospel preaching churches and missionaries around the world. Lord, we pray that you would protect them as they take the message of Jesus, the message of the gospel, around the world, Lord, protect them. Pray that your spirit would be with them as they do so, and that they would be faithful in the mission field. Father, we pray for the officers of this church, Lord, grant them wisdom, grant them love to care for this congregation, bless them in their work, keep them humble, keep them faithful, keep them pure. Lord, we pray for all of us, be merciful to us. or provide for our needs physically, strengthen us spiritually, keep us from growing satisfied, keep us from growing fearful, but strengthen us and conform us evermore into the image of our King, your Son, Jesus Christ. For it’s in His name that we pray all these things, amen.