Red Village Church

Transcription

Well, beautiful singing. If I had not met you. My name is Aaron, and I’m the preaching pastor here at Red Village Church. And we’re glad that you’re with us. Today is Connection Sunday, which you’ll hear about more at the end of the service. But we’re really happy you’re with us today on this beautiful late summer day.

So, if you have a Bible with you, please open up to the book of Hebrews. Today, our text for study is going to come from Hebrews 6:13-20. If you don’t have a Bible with you, there are pew Bibles kind of scattered throughout, and it’s on page 582. So, what I’m going to do this time here is just read verses 13 through 20, which will be our text. Then I’m going to pray for the Lord’s help as we work through this passage, and then we will get to work. As you open your Bibles, please keep them open.

We do a style of preaching called expository preaching, and we try to really communicate back to you what the text communicates to us. So, I’ll be working verse by verse all the way through the passage once we get into this. Please keep your Bible open so you can follow along throughout the sermon.

Let me read Hebrews 6:13-20, and I’ll be reading out of the ESV. Please hear the words of the Lord.

So the Bible says, “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, ‘Surely I will bless you and multiply you.’ And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all disputes, an oath is the final confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. So by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steady anchor of our soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Okay, so that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, it’s good to be here. Lord, thank you for giving us your holy word, as well as your holy Spirit, who opens up your holy word so that we might see Jesus. And Lord, that’s why we’re here this morning. We want to see Jesus. So, God, please help me to be a good communicator, to communicate this text correctly, to rightly divide your word of truth. I pray that the Spirit would be active in the lives and hearts of the congregation, that they would be good listeners and good doers of the word. We pray that you bring glory to Christ in this time, I pray. Amen.

So, there’s a famous pastor from Scotland who ministered in the early to mid-1800s, a man named Robert Murray McCheyne. He’s famous even though he died at a young age of 29 years old, where he had a public ministry as a pastor for just over six years.

Now, if you’re familiar with McCheyne, it’s probably for a few reasons. First, a famous book. Shortly after he died, one of his friends, a man named Andrew Bonar, published what’s called “The Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray McCheyne,” which contains letters he wrote to his congregation, sermons he preached, songs, and some biographical details of his short life. This book is still in print and can be found in many places online, and it’s a book that countless Christians over the last couple hundred years or so have been greatly blessed by. In fact, it was the great Charles Spurgeon who wrote this about this book: “This is one of the best and most profitable volumes ever published. The memoir of such a man ought to surely be in the hands of every Christian and certainly every preacher of the gospel.”

So, that’s one way you may know him. Second is maybe through a famous Bible reading plan, which is a plan that I’m sure some of you here have used before or maybe are even currently using. In his Bible reading plan, McCheyne laid out a way to read the Bible in a year’s time by reading a chapter or two from different books of the Bible every day. We actually have copies of that plan over there on the table if you want to grab one. The copies we printed also have McCheyne’s letter that he wrote to his congregation on the purpose of a Bible reading plan, how to use it, how it’s meant to be helpful, and maybe even some dangers to avoid. And by the way, this plan also includes how it might be used for family worship. So, if family worship is something that you’re struggling to implement in your family, maybe you don’t know where to start, grab one of those plans and let that guide you to something that your family can do together.

Third is a famous quote, or quotes, I should say. McCheyne actually has a handful of famous quotes that are popular. I won’t go through all of them, but let me read you my favorite one of his famous quotes, which comes from the aforementioned memoir and remains. He famously wrote this: “Learn much of the Lord Jesus, for every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely, such infinite majesty, yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief. Live much in the smiles of God, bask in his beams, feel his all-seeing eye settle on you in love, and repose in his almighty arms.”

This morning, as we gather together as a church, we gather together looking to Christ, and His loveliness is at the heart of the passage for us today—a passage that I hope helps all of us rest in the almighty arms of Christ this morning. So, over and over again today in our text, we’re going to be shutting our eyes to look to Him.

Now, as I say that, it helps set us up for the context of the passage today. I agree with McCheyne that we should look to Christ over and over again, but there’s a time that we actually should look to self as well. In the famous quote I just read for you, he gave us a ten-to-one principle: ten looks to Christ for every look to self. This look to self is actually important because Scripture commands us to do so. In the New Testament, there’s a command to examine oneself to see if we’re in the faith. So, in a sense, looking to self is actually a part of our Christian faith.

Now, as I say that, we know in some ways it’s easy and natural for us to look to self because of how much we like looking at self. We love to stand and gaze in the mirror of our own heart, where so many of our thoughts and conversations take place in our own mind. We evolve looking at self. While this has always been something mankind has enjoyed doing—looking to self—many others have pointed out that in the age of technology that we now live in, perhaps more than any other point in history, we have greater ease and maybe even greater promotion to look at self than at any other point.

The looks at self that Scripture wants us to do commands us to do are much different than the looks of self that we naturally want to do or the looks to self that society promotes us to do. They are much different looks to self because those looks entail only looking to self and only continue to look at self, where we never look beyond oneself. Whereas in Holy Scripture, where we are called to look at self, to examine oneself, we are to do so in ways that cause us to look beyond ourselves and to look to Jesus Christ, who the writer of Hebrews says in chapter twelve is the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

I say all this this morning in terms of looking at self to remind us of the context of our text today, which is where we were last Sunday in our study of Hebrews. That was a passage of Scripture that, in a sense, was calling us to look at self. So, if you were here last week, you may remember the writer of Hebrews gave his first readers some difficult grace in the passage last week in the form of a rebuke and a warning, where in his rebuke, the author wanted his readers to look at self and see how they were still acting like spiritual children in need of milk, even though at that point they should have been mature enough in the faith that not only were they eating solid food but really at that point they should have been like teachers of the faith, where they were teaching others through the discipleship process to help others grow in the faith.

In this rebuke, the author gave his readers a warning to look at self, to look at self in ways where they were reminded how they professed Christ, how they partook of His goodness and mercy. As they looked at self, they were reminded of these things, like how in the world now were they being tempted to leave Christ and become apostates? Our text last time—a difficult type of grace through rebuke, through warning to look at self—was to look at yourself. For those who claim Christ, yet how can you be so immature? And how can you be so tempted to walk away from the One who has done so much for you?

As you also remember, if you were here last week, it wasn’t just a difficult grace that the author gave to us, his readers. He also gave an encouraging grace to them as they looked at self because, as they were looking at self, they were to see how God was using them in ways that they were serving others, trusting that their service to others was not going unseen by the Lord. Thus, in this encouraging grace from last week, there is this encouragement to continue to serve others with faith and patience, knowing that in the end God rewards His people with an inheritance that is promised to them, which we’re going to talk about more this week.

As mentioned last week, much of the call was a call to examine oneself. But now, as mentioned this week, as we get to our text, we see the focus goes from looking at self to looking to Jesus Christ, who, as McCheyne wrote, is the one who is altogether lovely, the one who has infinite majesty, who covers all sinners with grace, even though we are weak.

This morning, as we look beyond self and we look to Christ, the hope of the passage—the hope of the sermon—is that we live more fully in the smile of God, where we might more fully bask in His beams, where we more fully feel His all-seeing eye settle on us in love, where we more fully repose in His almighty arms as we learn much from Him.

So, without further introduction, please look back with me at the passage starting at verse 13. The passage we read says, “For when God made a promise to Abraham,” which the word of promise is picking up where we left off last time, the encouraging grace I just mentioned, to continue to serve in ways that they were not sluggish but being imitators of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promise.

So, in verse 13 of the passage today, Abraham is the example that we are to imitate from last week of one having faith and patience. In our text, since God has no one greater to swear, He swore by Himself, saying to Abraham, “I will bless you and multiply you.”

Now, if you’re not familiar with Abraham, he’s a man we actually meet in the book of Genesis, chapter eleven. As we first meet him, he was named Abram, and he was married to a wife named Sarai, later named Sarah. Both had their names changed as an indication of God’s gracious, life-changing work on them.

In Genesis, as we first met this couple, we learned that Sarah was barren; she had no children. The author of Genesis redundantly comments on this—she’s barren, having no children—to make a point. The author does not want us to miss that fact. However, even though Sarah was barren without a child, in chapter twelve, God came to Abraham with an incredible promise that He would make a great nation, a great family, from Abraham and his barren wife Sarai—a great nation that He would bless in ways that God would make Abraham’s name great so that through Abraham, through his family, all families of the earth would be blessed. This was obviously an incredible promise in any circumstance, but even more incredible considering the circumstance of Abraham and Sarah.

As the story of Genesis unfolds, we learn much more about Abraham. In Genesis, we learn one of the most important truths of Scripture to apply to our hearts: in the example of Abraham, God called Abraham righteous by faith. In that, we learn that the family of Abraham that God would bless in the end would be a family of faith, where all those who have faith in God have been counted as righteous.

Were you part of Abraham’s family? Keep going. In the story of Genesis, we see God continue to confirm His promise to Abraham, even doing so by making what’s called a unilateral covenant with him. In that period of time, when covenants were cut between two parties, a contract would be agreed upon where promises were given. As that contract was cut, the lesser party would walk between pieces of an animal that were cut apart and placed on the ground to create a path.

As the lesser party walked between the pieces, it symbolized that what happened to the animal would happen to them if they broke the covenant, if they broke the promise. But in Genesis, as God made the covenant with Abraham, God Himself actually went between the pieces, even though He is the greater of the two parties, which our text today is picking up on—God swearing by Himself that indeed He would keep His promise.

This continues in the story of Abraham, where we read that eventually Sarah actually becomes a mother, even though she was well advanced in age. As she gave birth to a son, she named him Isaac. This was an incredibly miraculous birth. However, keeping this story in mind, after Isaac had grown, in chapter 22 of Genesis, God famously tested Abraham to see if Abraham loved and trusted the Lord.

The test that the Lord gave to Abraham, you may remember, was to take his son, his newly born son, and to place him on an altar as a sacrifice, which is a test that Abraham actually went through with. Even though he didn’t understand the test, he was going to trust God with it. As Abraham was about to plunge a dagger into Isaac, you may remember the angel of the Lord called out to Abraham, telling him not to lay a hand on his son, for he had passed the test.

As Abraham was stopped from offering up his son, he spots a ram caught in a thicket, where he takes the ram and lays it upon the altar in place of his son as a substitutionary sacrifice, where the ram died so that Isaac could live. As the scene concludes in Genesis 22, God spoke to Abraham, saying, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son. Because of this, I will surely bless you; I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and the sand of the seashore.”

This is what the writer of Hebrews in our text today is picking up on—this incredible promise of God to Abraham, this promise that God Himself swore that He would keep. In verse 15, as a promise of God was given to Abraham, starting in verse twelve of Genesis 22, of this great family to come for him.

As you read the story of Abraham, he had to patiently wait to obtain the promise. While the promise of God that Abraham had to patiently wait for covers only just a handful of chapters in Genesis, in real time, this actually was like years and years. Abraham had to patiently wait to inherit the promise. From Genesis twelve, when the promise was first given, to Genesis 21, when Isaac was born, as much as like 25 years or so had passed. Then there were probably another 20 to 25 years when Abraham was tested by God in Genesis 22, which our passage quotes. God continues to swear by Himself.

In those long years between when the promise was given and when the promise was realized, Abraham had to endure a lot of difficult things, facing many dangers, toils, and snares as he rode the waves of life with many ups and downs, facing many challenges that stood in his way as he sought to persevere in the faith.

Here in our text, the author brought this example of Abraham before his readers as one to imitate. This is a very pastoral illustration that he gave to them—one that the first readers would have been incredibly familiar with, one they would have identified with, and one that the author hoped would inspire his readers to help them to persevere in their faith, which, as you may remember, they were struggling to do because of its execution.

Yes, God makes promises to us—at times incredible promises to us—promises by which He Himself swears He will keep. Friends, often those promises are not realized in an instant. Rather, they’re realized over time, sometimes real time, where between the promise given and the promise realized, there can be some real ups and downs, where the waves of life are beating on us, leaving us weary. These are promises we must persevere.

In verse 16, the author further pushes the point he made in verse 13. Verse 16 states, “For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all disputes, an oath is the final confirmation.” Here, this author is pointing out that swearing to an oath is something we actually all do, particularly when it comes to swearing to something greater. Even from a young age, we say things like, “We swear on our mother’s grave,” an appeal to something greater to us.

The Pillar Commentary on Hebrews writes that to swear to someone or something greater is like an appeal to a superior witness, meant to add validity to our claim. In our text, for God, because there is no one superior to Him, He swears only by Himself, where He appeals to His own heart, His own character, His own trustworthiness.

Our text continues to pick up in verse 17: “When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, he swore by himself.” He gives all of us, those who have faith, a more convincing promise for us to see. Promises indeed will come true—promises that might seem unlikely to come true. Yet, He promises based on His character, His unchangeable character, His unchangeable purpose that He guarantees them.

Now, God does not need to give an oath to us. He does not need to swear by Himself because in His character He is pure. All that He says is true; all that He says will be accomplished. But for our benefit, to provide comfort and assurance, God gave to His people, the heirs of Abraham, an oath in our text to show, to demonstrate to them His character, His purpose, His guarantee.

As the heirs of Abraham, the people of faith find their comfort, their assurance in the oath that He gives to us. Our text tells us in verse 18, if you want to take your eyes there, we do so with two unchangeable things that serve as a double guarantee of the truth—the surety of the oath. These two unchangeable truths refer to the nature of God, which is pure, right, and holy, as well as the convincing oath that He has given to His people—an oath that He will keep according to His perfect, patient timing.

In our text, because of these two unchangeable things, which our text tells us, it’s impossible for God to lie. It’s impossible for Him to break from His pure nature, from the oath He has given to us. Because of that, we, those who have faith in God through Jesus Christ, who are heirs of the promise, who have fled to find refuge in Him, can and should be filled with a strong encouragement. Our text tells us it’s an encouragement to continue to find refuge in Him by continuing to hold fast to the hope that is set before us.

Once again, like Abraham, we are encouraged to persevere—with patience—to persevere even in the ups and downs of life as we wait for this hope that is to come, which here seems to refer to the eternal life that awaits us in heaven. This is the hope—the incredible promise God has given to His people, to all who put their faith in Jesus Christ.

For God’s people, this is not the end. The ups and downs will not continue forever and ever. When the promise of God is realized, when hope comes fully, all of the ups and downs will cease; they will be no more. And because of the hope of heaven, more importantly, because of the giver of the hope of heaven, we can go through life having trust. We can count on God.

In verse 19, which is perhaps my favorite verse in Hebrews, we read that we go through life having a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Meaning, friends, even though we go through so many ups and downs, even though we can find trials and tribulations upon us seemingly often or always, for those who have faith in Jesus, who are looking past self, who are looking to Him, who are holding fast to the hope that He gives us, as we ride the ups and downs of the waves of life, we don’t ride the waves. We don’t feel the waves by being adrift at sea, where we’re helpless, hopeless to the winds and the waves to take us whichever way they choose.

Rather, for the people of faith, for those who are looking to Jesus Christ, as the winds and the waves crash against us and take us up and down, we’re not subjected to go wherever they take us. Rather, we’re like a buoy that’s fastened to the bottom of the sea, where we are grounded by a sure, a steady anchor that secures us. Who, in the end, is actually the One holding fast to us far more than we are holding fast to Him. Friends, yes, no doubt, as buoys, we ride the waves; we feel ups and downs. We can be left weary and discouraged. Friends, as weary and discouraged as the waves of life might be, I say again, for those who are in Christ Jesus, listen—you’re not helpless. You’re not hopelessly adrift, lost at sea. Rather, you’re anchored to the rock that is Jesus Christ, who is our great assurance of all the promises that are to come.

You know, this week I was part of a group of pastors who had a little half-day seminar that was thinking through the doctrine of predestination, which obviously is a heavy topic. While it’s clear in Scripture, it comes to us as finite creatures and is a mystery that can make it difficult for us to fully process, to fully understand. This has led to very different ways throughout church history that we have tried to understand it and teach it.

In the seminar, one of the pastors had a question from the presenter concerning the assurance of one’s faith and the assurance of the hope that we can have of that which is to come—the assurance of being indeed an heir to the promise. The question was given concerning one’s assurance, like how can we actually have assurance of one’s faith if we know that our hearts are often just deceitful?

So, perhaps like we think we’re in the faith, but we’re deceiving ourselves when we think we’re in the faith, when in truth we’re actually not. By the way, this is the truth we see in Scripture. Remember how Jesus said in Matthew that many deceive themselves by saying “Lord, Lord” to Him but do not truly know Him?

Interestingly enough, as the pastor gave his questions at the seminar, which really were good thought-through questions, he kept referring back to our passage last week in Hebrews six and the warning of being an apostate. He kept saying it. The pastor gave good, well-thought-through questions—questions that church history has wrestled through—questions by which he’s actually hoping to get good answers so he could turn around and give solid pastoral counsel to those in his church who were wrestling with assurance if they were genuinely in the faith.

Without trying to minimize his question or just give an overly simple answer to the complexities within that question, I think the answer is actually right here in our text today. Friends, our assurance is not found by ongoing looks into our deceitful heart. To keep asking ourselves if we’re in the faith, we only ever examine our own hearts. Rather, the answer to our assurance is to look beyond our heart, to look to the heart of our Lord Jesus, to look and see that He is the sure and steady anchor of our soul.

Friends, that’s the hope we have in all of life’s ups and downs—all the waves that crash against us. That’s our assurance right there. It is found in looking to Jesus Christ. He is our assurance and the assured hope that we have in Jesus. In our text, this is a hope that allows us to even enter into the inner place behind the curtain.

This curtain in our text refers to the curtain that was in the Old Testament temple—a huge curtain that separated the holy place, where the Old Testament priests would minister, from the most holy place, or the holy of holies, often referred to as well. This most holy place, behind the curtain, is where the fullness of God would dwell, and only the high priest could enter into this place one time a year on Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. On that day, the priest would offer up a scapegoat, which was sacrificed for the sins of the people as a substitute so that the people might find forgiveness.

So, only once a year, only the high priest could go beyond the curtain to enter into the fullness of God’s presence through sacrifice. But now, in our text, the writer of Hebrews is telling his readers that because we have this sure, steady anchor of our soul, the Lord Jesus Christ, all those who have faith in Him—who are looking to Him, who are secured by Him—can enter into the inner place; they can enter into the presence of God Himself.

This is because in verse 20, Jesus is our great high priest who went before us as a forerunner on our behalf, which He did by being the one true scapegoat, where, for us, for our salvation, in our place, as our substitute, the Lord Jesus willingly, joyfully laid down His life as a sacrifice, dying on a cross, where He paid for the sins of His people so that by faith in Him we might find forgiveness, so that by faith in Him we might be counted righteous.

If you read the Gospel accounts, you may remember that as our Lord Jesus died on the cross, as He gave up His spirit, the massive curtain in the temple that symbolized separation between God and man was torn in two from the top down. Our text reminds us that not only did Jesus go before us as a forerunner to die for us in our place, to take on the punishment of sin so that we might find forgiveness and be brought into a loving relationship with God Himself, we are also reminded that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, which He did on the third day.

We see that reminder in our text as it ends, as Jesus has become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, which Melchizedek is an individual we talked about a few weeks back, and we’re actually going to talk about him a lot next week as we get to Hebrews seven. But for our purpose today, the order of Melchizedek refers to Jesus being our great high priest—our great king—the one who ministers and rules forever, which He is able to do. Why? Because He’s the one who rose again and lives eternally now.

So, as I start to close our time here, as mentioned at the start, I want to do so by following the encouragement of McCheyne, just helping us to continue to look to Jesus. How I hope to do it is simply by giving you some summary thoughts on what we see in our text today concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Three of them, as I give you, I just want to encourage you to continue to look to Him, to flee to Him, to find your refuge in Him.

First, as we close, see Jesus, the one who is the fulfillment of God’s promises. Scripture is so clear that all the promises of God, in the end, find their “Yes” and “Amen” in Him—in Jesus—including the promise of God that He swore by Himself that He gave to Abraham, that through his family all nations would be blessed. Friends, many years after Abraham, as God’s people went through all these ups and downs and trials and tribulations, this patient promise of God was actually fulfilled by an even more unlikely birth, where a virgin named Mary gave birth to a son named Jesus, who came to be the Savior of His people.

Friends, see Jesus this morning as the fulfillment of all of God’s incredible promises that He has given to us in Scripture. There are really some big, incredible, seemingly unlikely promises that God gives—promises that He swears by Himself that He will keep—promises that are meant to give us hope, assurance, and comfort in a life that at times feels helpless and hopeless. I say it again: every one of them, in the end, is leading us to see Jesus Christ.

By the way, just on this note this morning, if you’re feeling down and discouraged, where the waves of life just have you feeling incredibly weary, can I give you an assignment? This assignment is simply to seek out the promises of God in Scripture. As you do that, prayerfully seek to find out how they are now being fulfilled in Jesus. As you do that, let me just give you a little add-on to this assignment. Grab some three-by-five note cards, and write out the promises of Scripture that stick out most to you—where you find the most comfort. Then, commit those promises to memory. I did this a number of years ago when I was in a really low, dark place in life—the first time I was ever in a dark night of the soul. I did this, and it was amazing how the Lord used that as a healing balm in my weary soul.

Second, see Jesus, who is the hope set before us. It’s obviously very much tied to Jesus being the fulfillment of the promises that God gave to us—that He’s our hope, our sure, steady hope—one that we can count on, one who is pure in character, so pure that He actually does not change. Hebrews tells us He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. Life changes; Jesus does not. He is the same. That is our hope.

You know, in this life, we know we’re always looking for something—something to hold on to, to make us feel a little bit better, to give us some hope. Maybe we just get that promotion at work, or maybe we just get a little bit more money in the savings account, or maybe that certain relationship need that I have is fulfilled for us. We’re in the thick of another election cycle. Maybe we can just get the right candidate elected. There are so many things that we hope in. While many of those things are good things, they’re not things we hope in. Our hope is found in nothing less than Jesus Christ—His blood, His righteousness.

Friends, no matter how hopeless life might feel, look to Jesus. That’s where hope is found—hope that one day He will bring us into eternal life, where He will prove to us that He is the sure and steady anchor of our soul.

Last one: see Jesus as the one who died and rose again. He did this so that we might eternally know Him, which is at the heart of the message of the Gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ. This is why, as a church, we claim that the wooden cross means everything to us. It is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—faith in Him, friends—that we eternally know God, where there’s no curtain of separation between us and God. Rather, through Jesus, as we look beyond self and look to Him, we live eternally in the presence of God, in the fullness of His joy and peace, which is the hope and prayer for all of us here this morning.

Friends, listen. Without Christ, without faith in Christ, the curtain still stands between you and God. As you are still under your sin, you do not have forgiveness apart from Jesus Christ. Without Christ, without faith in Him, you are actually under the judgment of God. There’s nothing in yourself—looking to self—that can bring about forgiveness, that can drop the curtain. So this morning, please, if you’re looking to self, stop looking at self. You’re not your hope for eternal life. Rather, look beyond self and see Jesus through the eyes of faith. Look to Him. Call upon His name. Believe indeed He died and rose again for you as your substitute.

As McCheyne so profoundly wrote, believe that Jesus is indeed lovely—in fact, so lovely that He is the greatest treasure, who is worth leaving all things behind in order to have.

Church, may God give us the grace that for every look we might have at self—may all those looks lead us to take ten looks to Jesus.

Let’s pray.

Lord, thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. I do pray that you help us all, through the eyes of faith, to see Him today—to see and trust and believe that He is the sure and steady anchor of our soul. Lord, I pray for those who are here this morning that are weary, that are discouraged by the many waves of life—that today you would give them hope. Help them to see through faith that Jesus is holding them fast. I pray this in His name. Amen.