MK040 Sermons
In a Cave (Audio)
Well, as we enter the fall season with the cool temperatures and the leaves changing, there's a lot of things that are taking place that we are anticipating and looking forward to. Well, one of the other things that's happening is we're in the midst of this very long over-extended, protracted presidential campaign, and someone made the comment to me, "Oh, yeah, we have to vote next month." I was like, "No, that's a year from next month is when we actually have to do that." And as you listen to these candidates, you have any interest in that. I'm not going to comment on them at all this morning, but as you listen them and hear them, one of the things that they do is they make promises because they're trying to solicit votes. And so they promise things to people and promise things to the country that if they're elected to become president, this is what they'll do. And one of the things they very quickly discover is that in order to make those things happen, they have to go through these two groups of people known as the House and the Senate to be able to get those things approved. And so making promises is not as easy as it is to keep the promises. And I think in all of our lives, we recognize how vitally it is important for promises to be kept. And this is something that starts even when we're very young, when mom or dad might make a promise to us. And for some reason, they can't come through and keep that promise. And some of you maybe still remember a promise that was never kept even at that age. And yet as a child, you know how important it is that even when you tell a good friend, you know, now don't tell anybody, keep this secret that they keep that promise to you. But it moves beyond that as you move into sports and athletics and coaches promise you, everybody will get a fair shot. Will they get a fair shot or will the favorites get their position and get the opportunities to step to the front? Or you get your first job and you're offered opportunities and promotions and more advancement and you wonder, you go into that optimistically and later on, you wonder, will they come through? Will they do what they said they promised to do? And then as you make the commitment to pledge your life to another person, to a woman or a man that you love, and you certainly hope they will keep their promise to love honor and cherish because that's the basis of you entering even in that covenant of marriage with them. And so for most of us, what we realize very quickly in life and over time it gets confirmed is that not only making promises but those promises being kept to us is very, very important. And this morning we're going to look at a question that doesn't relate to that with other people but really relates to God because a lot of people wonder does God keep his promise? Does God keep his promise? And this morning we're going to look at a way in which God kept his promise that leaves us a bit confused, that leaves us a bit wondering what is God really up to? As we look at this question, does God keep his promise? Does he keep his word? If you haven't been here with us, we've been in a series entitled "Unlikely Hero" based on the life of David. David was a young man in the Old Testament who we first met as a shepherd boy and then became a giant killer and then became a military leader and now has a fugitive on the run for his life. And his life is intertwined with a few other characters in this story. One of those characters is a man who became his best friend, Jonathan, who ironically was also the son of the king, whose name was Saul. And Saul was a king who started out with great promise and with great opportunity to be chosen by God and military battle but very quickly his life and career and direction turned south. And in spite of the fact that David killed this giant and defeated the giant, wiping off one of his nemesis off the face of the earth and then proceeded to have multiple military battles which would have then expanded Saul's territory and his region and his stretches, king of Israel, Saul did not view those things in a positive light. Instead, his fragile emotional state created a deep sense of paranoia that we're going to see today becomes full-blown tragically. In the midst of all of this, God shows up over and over and over again and it's a bit confusing because sometimes God shows up in stories and in situations that are odd, that are strange, that are a little embarrassing. And today we're going to see that our tragic. And this morning if you're a follower of Jesus, if you're a Christ follower, I hope that hearing this story will deepen and strengthen your faith and your resolve and your belief in God doing what he says he's going to do. And if you're here this morning and you're on a journey and you're come back to God or you're back, someone brought you to church this morning, you're checking out faith, you maybe you've been here for a few different weeks and you're exploring what this following God thing is all about or re-engaging in that in your own personal journey. This morning we're going to talk about some pretty important questions that you may have about God and attempt to give some answers to them. And I hope that the answers I give will give you confidence that you are on the right path and that you can take one more step towards a relationship with God through his son, Jesus. If you have your Bibles that with you, if you would turn with me to 1 Samuel 22, 1 Samuel 22, if you don't have a Bible our guys have some of them, they're making them available to you. The page numbers on the screen for you to follow along in the Bibles that they're distributing. 1 Samuel 22 and as you're turning there in your Bibles, let me just reconnect you to the story. David is on the run. He's had a price put on his head, Saul's attempted to take his life on several different occasions and he takes off. He has no food, no weapons, he's all by himself. And then last week, if you weren't here with us last week and go online and listen to the messages kind of get caught up on where we are in the series, but he comes across a priest on his way out of town and he asks this priest he kind of concocts this story to not only protect him but hopefully the priest. And then he says to the priest he said, "Do you have any food? My men need food." And he gives him some food. He said, "Do you have a weapon?" And he gives him the sword that David used to collect, kill Goliath. And so he passes that along to him as well. And so David heads out of town with those things in hand. And as he heads out of town in 1 Samuel 22 verse 1, it says, "When his brothers and fathers household heard about it, they went down to him there." When we last met David and his brothers, they were not real thrilled with him because he stepped out of the family order. Remember, he's the youngest brother and he made the big brothers kind of look bad when he wiped out Goliath and none of them had the courage to stand up to him. But they hear their brothers in trouble and they come to him. Now we don't really know why. We don't know if they just knew he was in trouble and they wanted to support him and be there as as families sometimes can when someone's going through difficult time. There's also the possibility that Saul had said to them, "If David comes around and you don't tell us where he is, then we're going after you." And we're going to see that being lived out in another scenario a little bit later in the story. So David heads out to the western edge of the Judean territory, goes to a cave and his family members come there. But as David heads out to this cave, there's a few individuals that join David. Look at the verse on the screen at who comes and join him. All those who are in distress, in debt or discontented, gathered around him. How's that sound for your new work force that you're working with? Here's your new work crew, everybody that's just their life as a mess, they owe people money out the wazoo and basically they're nobody's going to make them happy. Some of you are saying, "That sounds like where I'm going tomorrow." But that's who David had. And ironically, you'll see later on the story as these individuals who life had some of them just given them a bad hand, if you will. They said not going well. Those in debt were not because they overspent like we do in our culture. Those in debt were because they had had a tragedy or their crops were wiped out because of a storm or a natural disaster and they had to borrow just to live. So these are not people that were bad, people they just had misfortune come their way. And lastly, those that weren't happy about anything. But ironically, David because of his leadership capacity is able to turn this 400 ragtag group of merry men into what is known as mighty men later in the story of David. So David gathers them all around and he takes this group of men and they actually go across the border from the land of Israel into the land of Moab. And that land is somewhat significant because in the story of David's family history, his great-great-grandmother was in Israelite and there was a famine in the land. And the place that she went to get food was the land of Moab. And so for a second time, David goes to Moab, the first time his family went there to get food, his great-grandmother married his great-grandfather there and they eventually made their way back to the land of Israel. But the second time he goes there for safety and security. And so David gets everybody settled there in the land of Moab, finds out they'll be okay. And then the prophet of God says to him, "David, you can't stay here. You got to go back." And remember, prophets were the individuals that God spoke to the prophet. Priests were the one that served God and the people. The prophets listened to the voice of God. And so one of the things that we'll see even more next week is how David carefully listened to God's direction in his life. But we get a glimpse of that here in this story. And so David heads back. And as David heads back, we're going to look at a story this morning that takes place that, excuse me, when I initially looked at this story, I didn't, I was going to skip over it and go to the next chapter. Because it's a hard story to look at. It's a hard story to read. It's just awful. I don't know any nice way to spin it. It's just flat out, awful. But to ignore stories like this in the Bible that are hard and difficult for us to look at, they set a dangerous pattern because the reality is, is we live in a world filled with awful things that take place. And the question is, what do I do with the awful things that happen in this world? But maybe even deeper than the awful things that happen in this world that we have to see and encounter are the awful things that we know that sometimes are buried deep in our hearts and our soul. The things that are true of us that we hope no one discovers finds out or uncovers. And so this morning as we look at this awful tragedy that happened in the story of David, my hope and prayer is that it gives us glimpses of how we look at those things in our world and then in our own personal lives because we're all faced with them. So what happens in this story? Well in verse six, Saul had discovered where David was at. He had spies all around the land and someone found out where David was at. And so the word got back to Saul. Saul was in the town of what was known as Gibbian. In the town of Gibbian, that's kind of where the seat of power, that's where Saul and his military leaders and political officials were located. And so Saul's there with his spear in verse seven and he's there with all of his officials and listen to the words that Saul says in verse seven. He says this, listen men of Benjamin, will the son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? Now remember I mentioned that Saul has this level of paranoia taking place because people are singing songs about David, his own family members have started to turn towards David. And so Saul is recognizing that the tide is shifting away from him and towards David. And so he makes this statement to his men. He said has David given you anything that you have? Has he given you expanded your property? Has he expanded your influence? Look what he goes on to say in the next verse. He said no one tells me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. He's referring to a son Jonathan and just son of Jesse is David. No one of you is concerned about me or tells me that my son has incited my servant to lie and wait for me today or lie and wait for me as he does today. Now one of the things that we talk about all the time around here is how to talk to one another in healthy ways and one of the things that we try to avoid in our conversation is two words that are always and never and no one is another one of those words. Because when we make those statements of always and never we're using phrases of exclusivity or inclusivity that usually and rarely are ever true. And look at what Saul says. He says no one of you is concerned about me, not a single one of you cares about me. No one tells me when my son makes a covenant with his son Jesse. How does he even know that they all know or that my son incited my servant to lie and wait which based on the story we know is not true. So Saul has paranoia has gone into a full blown state here where everyone is after him. No one cares about him and there's plots for his life that are being secretly concocted in the back alleyways of his kingdom. As the story is unfolding I imagine his officials and his military leaders are sitting there really quiet hoping nobody rocks the boat. Because Saul is a loose cannon and you have no way of knowing what he's going to do next. In the midst of this happening a man speaks up, a man by the name of Doeg who is an Edomite. And listen to what he says in verse 9, "I saw the son of Jesse come to a hymnalek, son of a high attempt at Noah, the priest, a hymnalek inquired to the Lord for him. He also gave him provisions in the sword of Goliath, the Philistines." Now if you're here this last week you know the second two things he said were true. Did he give him food? Yes. The sword? Yes. Did he inquire of the Lord for him? No. So Doeg who is a enemy fighter from the land of Edom comes and tells the king this is what I saw king and the king takes his words hook, line and sinker. What does the king do? He said go get him, go get all the priest. So he got all the priest and the king says listen to me, he says why have you conspired against me, giving him bread and a sword and inquiring of God so that he is rebelled against me and lies in wait for me even as he does today. Saul's tone in the way he says this is not a tone of question, it's a tone of accusation. Saul believes Doeg, Saul believes everything that this guy is saying and he's already accused and we're going to see what else he does in just a moment. Doeg says or excuse me a hymnalek says Saul I don't really understand this. He said the one servant of yours that's most loyal to you is David. Think about this with me, he's your son in law, first of all, he's the captain of the guard, second of all, he's the most honored man in your military, third. He says in verse 15 was that day the first time I inquired of God, for him of course not, let not the king accuse your servant nor his servant's family, for your servant knows nothing at all about this whole affair. Do you remember what a hymnalek was told by David, why he came to him without any food or a sword? He said I'm on a secret mission for the king. So he's told David's on a secret mission, says oh sure I'll help you, what do you need? You need this? Sure I'll, you need this? Okay. And now the king brings him in, reads him the riot act and says why are you conspiring against me to kill me, a hymnalek tries to defend himself but to no avail, look at the king's response in verse 16, you will surely die, you and your entire family. This is a stunning turn of events, a hymnalek is a priest, he's a man who serves God and now he's been given a death sentence by this crazy man Saul. And Saul goes on then to say to his military, go kill all of the priests that are associated that are related to a hymnalek and the priest say, oh excuse me the soldiers say not doing it, not doing it, not going to touch the hand of the priest of the Lord. So Saul now has had his son Jonathan, his daughter Michael who's married to David turn against him, he's had the tide of the people turn against him and now his own military will not even back a command that he gives to them. And you just see Saul's influence waning, becoming less and less and less and less. And in the midst of thinking, well maybe this bad thing isn't really going to happen. Doeg speaks up once again and he says, I'll do it, I'll do it. In verse 18, it says, Doeg the Enomite turned and struck them down that they killed 85 men who wore the linen ephod, the clothing of the priest. He also put to the sword knob the town of the priest with its men, women, children, infants, its cattle, its donkeys and its sheep. And you read that story and you think about this awful tragedy and you're like, why did that have to happen? Why did that have to happen? I understand that there was some confusion that the priest was told one story but this is not the real story, this is the story. Oh, now I understand that story and he's actually a fugitive, okay I won't do that again and we'll, we'll make sure that doesn't happen again and we'll, it'll be okay but he said, you and everyone life over end of story. And I don't know about you but when I read stories like this I find myself wondering, okay God there could have been some other way, couldn't there, did it have to include the infants and the children? It just doesn't seem to make any sense. But this story is connected to a bigger story and the bigger story is in the beginning of the book of 1 Samuel. If you want to turn back a few pages to 1 Samuel chapter 2, I want to read a couple verses for you from 1 Samuel chapter 2 but let me tell you what's happening in 1 Samuel chapter 2 and 1 Samuel chapter 2, it's coming right on the heels of the time period in the life of the people of Israel called the judges. And what the book of the judges was all about, the season in the life of Israel was by, known by one phrase, everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Not everyone followed God, everyone did what they wanted to do. Not everyone followed the king, everyone did what they wanted to do. And that even included the priest. One man tried to make a difference, his name was Eli, and he tried to stand up and honor God in the ways that he thought that he knew, or in the ways that he knew that he should. But even he could not influence his sons to do this. And so in 1 Samuel chapter 2 it records what would happen, the people would bring their sacrifices which would be a certain part of a lamb or a part of their flock and they would offer these sacrifices to God as payment for their sins as ways to thank God for all of his provision. And what would happen is the priest would get a small portion of that and that's how the priest would live because the priest did not raise livestock or work of farm, the priest would live off of a small portion. What these priests were doing, they're like, "Thank you very much for your food. Okay, oh, we're going to take this prime, we're going to take that, that's surly. Okay, we're taking all the nice cuts, all the nice pieces, and we're saving them for ourselves. Okay, nobody's looking. All right, here you go. Here's the rest of the sacrifice for God. That's one of the things the priests were doing. But there's a second thing that the priests were doing. The priests were having sex with women who are serving the temple as well. Following the example of the temple prostitutes in the pagan religions, they had completely turned their back on God. They were doing what was right in their own eyes. And it was a horrible, horrible abomination to God himself. And so God said this in 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 30. He says, "Therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares," and this is what God had promised, the Elies ancestors, Aaron, "I promised that the members of your family would minister before me forever, but now the Lord declares, far be it from me. Those who honor me, I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdain." And that's what was happening here, so what was the consequence going to be? A time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your priestly house so that no one in it will reach old age. And you will see distress in my dwelling. Oops, can we go back to the previous slide there? Although good will be done to Israel, no one in your family line will reach old age. It basically said, "The rest of your family is going to come to an untimely death at an age before they should." Now verse 33, "Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving my altar, I will spare only to destroy your sight and sap your strength, and all your descendants will die in the prime of your life." A hymnalek in its family that lost their lives were the direct descendants of Eli. And God did exactly what he promised he was going to do. They say, "But John, that doesn't make me feel any better. I still don't understand why did God have to allow this to happen? Couldn't he have taken them out with a mudslide or couldn't he have opened up a hole in the earth and they swallowed them, he's done those things before? Why this horrible massacre? Why did this have to happen? Does God fulfilling his promises have to work out that way? The truth about the story is God never said to Saul, "Go have doe egg, wipe these people out." God never said that. God never said to Saul, "Hob doe egg, go wipe them out, wipe them all out." But the events that occurred accomplished the prophecy that God had made. And sometimes the events that occur in our lives are a part of a bigger plan that God does at work, even though it doesn't make any sense to us in the moment in time. But the questions of why didn't God protect the innocent? Is God able to accomplish his promises without such horror? Does that justify the genocide of these people by doing because it allowed God promises to be fulfilled? Why does God permit these horrible tragedies that only seem to increase like the one we just experienced with the shooting out of the college in Oregon? I get that Saul was a mad man, but wasn't there some other way? And I wish I could tell you that there was. I wish I could say, "Yes, God was going to accomplish his purposes, and he's going to accomplish his purposes in his plan in a way that's not going to bring about pain or suffering or sadness or tragedy in anyone's life." But unfortunately, life doesn't work like that. They say, "Well, I don't know that I want to have anything to do with that kind of a guide or that kind of a plan." David seemed to recognize the awfulness of this tragedy because look what he says in the end of chapter 22, "One man escaped, a grandson of a hymnalek, Abathar, and he told Saul that David had killed, he told David that Saul had killed all the priests, and David said that day, "This is what he said to Abathar." He said, "That day when Doug, he was there, I knew he would be sure to tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of your whole family." Now, I don't know about you, but I don't think that David bears full responsibility for this whole situation. Does David bear some, some? Was he there, and he saw this man who is a foreign military fighter and have a sense that this guy is going to do something awful, he knew he had a sense of that. And I think what David did is he took some responsibility and then he acted, look what he says in the next verse, he said, "Stay with me, I will protect you. You will be safe with me, and David protected him for the rest of his life." Sadly, David takes on this much responsibility for something that appears to be this much of his, where Saul is unwilling to take on any, and the result is a horrible massacre. So let me ask you this, what do you do with this confusing mix of God doing what he said he's going to do, but horrible tragedies that happen in our world and sometimes in our lives. If you decide, if you decide that to believe in the God of the Bible, there must be no pain or tragedy. The only way that's going to happen is for God to eliminate all of mankind because the pain in the tragedy comes from human beings, people like me and like you. If you conclude, conclude like Thomas Paine did in the age of reason that the Bible is the work of a demon more than the word of God, where does that leave your wrestling of your faith? The truth is, tragedy like this will not stop until man stops choosing his own way. So what do we do with things like the awful tragedy of 9/11, the horrible tragedies like Boko Haram and the brutal killings by the Nigerian Islamic extremist groups, the recent beheadings by the ISIS groups in the Middle East, or the tragic shootings on the college campuses in the state of Oregon? I don't think it's possible in our finite understanding to make sense out of all of this. I do not think it is possible. And if my faith or my capacity to have faith in a God rests on me understanding it all, all I am doing is holding God in arms length and using that as an excuse to not consider is there something about this God that I don't know and understand and even though I can't make sense of all these tragedies, I'm going to explore it even more. Because the ultimate question comes down to in all of these is can God be trusted? Can God be trusted? Will God show up? Will God be there in the midst of these things when they happen? Will God be there for you when you make a mess of your life? And you know you've blown it. Will God be there for you when you are not sure if you're going to pay all the bills? Will God be there for you when you're wondering what the future should be and it's muddy and you don't know where he wants you to go? Will God be there for you when you explore the pain from your past and you open those doors? Will God be there for you when you are treated wrongly and unfairly and unjustly and you wonder God where are you and why did you show up and do something? You see the question that each one of us has to wrestle with is can I trust the God of the universe even though I don't understand all of the things that happen in this world and in my life that relates to pain can I trust him? Can I trust him? Because you have a choice you can say I'm not going to and you can hold him out there and you can use all these things to keep you from ever moving towards God or you can say in spite of those things even though I don't understand those things, I recognize that God is present and God can be trusted in the midst of those things. Jeremiah the prophet a little bit later in the Israelite history wrote these words to the people of Israel they were in captivity at this time when he wrote these words and they were in captivity not because they did something wrong and they got put in prison they were in captivity for the sins of their ancestors so think about how unjust that is it's bad enough I'm responsible for my own wrongdoing but imagine if you had to pay the price for your grandparents or your great grandparents wrongdoing well that's what was happening here and so look what the prophet Jeremiah says he says this is what the Lord says when the 70 years are completed I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place he says I'm going to bring you back 70 years over boom you're coming back for I know the plans I have you look at this plans to prosper not to harm to give you hope and a future plans to prosper not to harm to give you hope in a future see in the midst of tragedy in the midst of things that are confusing that don't make any sense I have to ask myself do I believe that those things are really true do I trust that somehow God's going to do this you see the tragedy isn't always out there the tragedy isn't far away the tragedy strikes close to home when we least expect it I sat with one of our one of the families in our church this past week and they were telling me the story of the man in our church whose stepdad tragically died suddenly just a couple weeks ago keep me where and Keith was telling me the story that his mom had lived on her own she had lost her first husband his dad when he was much younger and lived on her for 28 years and God had brought this man into into her life and and they had gotten married much later in life and he had never been able to have kids and and he wanted sons more than anything else and now he had two sons and they were family and these were his boys and he just poured his life into them and only for three short years and then suddenly just like that without any warning he dies of a massive brain in your room and Keith and his brother and his mom are just wondering God why this line now you see it's not just the tragedy and the loss out there that we hear every day when we click on the news or turn on and watch it but the tragedy that hits close to home in our lives and you see some of you have had tragedy in your past and that tragedy in your past has caused you to keep God in an arms length keep other people in arms length and you haven't thrown God out the window but you're certainly keeping him way out there because you're not sure you believe that that really is true. The prophet Jeremiah goes on to say this he says then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will seek you you will seek me and find you when you seek me with your whole with all your heart can we go back to 13 12 and 13 he doesn't say you'll call on me and then I will come he said I will bring you back and then you will call on me you know in the midst of these tragedy the midst of this confusion the midst of this misunderstanding the reality is is you don't feel like calling on God sometimes you don't want anything to do with God you don't say that out loud for fear you might get struck by lightning but you there's a part of you that in the midst of this there's massive confusion in your soul and God says even when you can't make sense of that will you trust that I have your best in mind and when you experience a glimpse in a taste of that then you will call on me and then you will seek me with all of your heart verse 14 I will be found by you declares the Lord and will bring you back I will gather you and bring you back to the place in which I called you and I don't know how God will do that I don't know when God will do that but I believe that God does do that as you leave this morning a few thoughts just for you and processing tragedy and justice in your life the first is to grieve it grieve it you hear us talk about this all the time don't stuff it don't ignore it don't spiritualize it don't Romans 828 it you know just recognize it sometimes there are awful things that happen in life and there's no way to put a positive spin on that number two if there's been an injustice that has taken place in your life do something about it even though this was fulfillment of God's prophecy was it right that these people were just brutally destroyed there's a part of that that just wasn't right and David said I'm going to protect this guy the rest of his life and you're going to be safe with me number three take ownership if any exist I mean I don't know about you but looking at the story I think David had about that much ownership and he still took it and then lastly a weight clarity about God's activity in the midst of tragedy and confusion you know one of the hardest things for us to do is wait we as Americans we as Westerners we are used to everything instant and to have to wait on God day after day and week after week and month after month is agonizing for us but clarity doesn't always come quickly sometimes it takes time to see that it takes time I think the psalmist was referring to this in Psalm 126 when he said this verse four and five he said restore our fortunes oh Lord like streams in the Negev the Negev was the desert in the land of Israel that's what the Negev is said God when are you going to put streams in the desert he said those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy look at the next verse he said those who go out weeping carrying seed to sow you got to put that seed in the ground it doesn't come up instantly does it takes time takes time or return with songs of joy carrying sheaves with them I don't know how I don't know what way I don't know what his plan is going to be but when God allows these things to come into our lives even when they come very very close to home and many of you know I've walked into that in my own life recently it's not always gonna be clear it's not always gonna make sense it's not always gonna feel good just because you're a flower of Christ but you have that moment in time to decide do I trust that even though I don't understand it all I can't make sense of all that there's a God who's good that there's God who loves me there's a God who's in this with me if I wait on him I might have a better understanding of what he's doing even right now I'm gonna ask you to close your eyes and just take a moment and meet with God and maybe there's something in your life right now that as I've been talking it's stirred up that you realize it's something you've been holding at arms length holding God at arms length about and you need to just take a moment and confess out the God and say God I don't I don't get this I don't understand it I know that it's okay that you don't just say in the middle of it I'm gonna trust you I'm gonna lean on you I'm gonna hope in you and I'm gonna wait on you like this or just hard to read the scene of tragedy our own world and then have to read in the Bible and make some sense out of it it's just really confusing God I just pray that this morning as we look at this event in the life of David that we can walk away with a renewed sense of trust in our God knowing that even the worst injustice of an innocent man dying hanging on a cross made it possible for me for everyone here to have a relationship with God through Jesus so Lord help us to come to the face the reality that in these times of confusion these times of tragedy and these times of injustice more than anything else got we need you name we pray as a band comes on the stage to lead us to this final song we often encourage you that we need one another to go through these difficult times and it's great to have people there alongside of you people supporting you people encouraging you people praying with you but in those times we're alone and there's times in the darkness of the night and the confusion of our thoughts in those times we need to cry out to God make this song your prayer than this morning Lord I come.