I just want to say thank you, Phil, for putting this together
and for the trip. I think it's a very special and
meaningful thing to do. And if anyone of you is ever
interested in joining a prayer mission team like that, the
Congress does them periodically, different countries, not just
Bolivia, so to pay attention and they'll be announced.
And then you can sign up as well if you choose.
Our sermon title this morning is With God We Can.
How much we can do in life has a lot to do with how much we
believe we can. There are many people over the
years who've gone on to do great things in life because someone
believed in them and encouraged them and they received it.
Have you ever done something because someone told you you
could? Are there things in life you've
accomplished because someone came alongside you, encouraged
you, took you under their arm and supported you?
And it doesn't even have to be big things like an
accomplishment, something like that.
It can be something that you maybe wanted to stop doing and
you can't or you feel you can't. Somebody comes alongside, offers
you some help, and you found that the thing, whatever it was
you're struggling with, you got free from.
You couldn't, but then you did. I truly believe in the big
picture of life. We must believe with God we can.
Think of it. If God tells us to do something,
do we think he's telling us to do that just to watch us fail?
There are many things in Scripture and Scripture we're
told to do that are direct commands of God.
They may be hard, but we're told to do them.
We're not promised it will be easy, but with God we can.
But too often we feel like, well, I can't.
I'm not able and the end result is the same because we limit
ourselves from achieving what God has for us, because we don't
trust and we allow fear to control us.
Yes, I know there are physical boundaries.
There are limitations in human life.
We know that there are great hurdles and limitations that we
physically do not have the capacity to overcome.
That is true, but overall God is in the miracle business and
things we say we can't do but other people can.
Let's be careful. Remember the story of Sarah in
the Old Testament when God said to Abraham, your wife will have
a son. She laughed, It's impossible and
she had a baby. Joseph had a dream about how he
and his brothers were in the field harvesting grain and
bundling it into sheafs of grain and all the other sheeps bow to
his sheaf. His brother said you will never
rule over us. They sold him as a slave for
good measure, making sure it would never happen. 20 years
later it happened. If God has promised something,
he'll come through. The question is, can we believe
it? Do we believe it?
Sometimes the impossible becomes the possible simply because
someone believes and has faith in God, uses that as a channel,
as a conduit through which to make it happen.
And sometimes it's the littlest, silliest little things that make
no sense that shouldn't happen. I remember many years ago to
tell this story and ask my wife's permission to do so.
And so I have permission. I was a student in Steinbeck
Bible College. But 27 years ago now, we had
this little tiny pressure cooker.
I used old little pressure cooker and the the little gasket
ring around the top, you know, we close it and it has to be
sealed so it builds pressure on the stove.
Well, it had gotten old and soft and expanded and it was way too
big. Came home one day and Anna had a
brilliant idea. She had cut the ring, cut out a
piece. Now it fit Well.
I knew what would happen. I said you can't do that.
You can't cut a gasket, it won't work.
Well, I'll try. I said it's not going to work
and if it works I'll buy a brand new dress.
Well, she apparently had to cut it just right.
She put it in there on the stove and it built pressure.
I lost the bet. I bought her a new dress.
It should not have worked. Ask any mechanic on planet Earth
does cutting a gasket work and they'll all say no.
But it did work here. When we think something won't
work, often times we think it's because we know that we have the
information. Well, God can work past that.
And apparently you can cut a gasket and fit it so nicely.
It does work. She proved it in her sermon
series. We're going through Judges.
And last Sunday we learned how God dealt with his people when
they fell into sin again, walked away from him.
The question I want to ask before I dig into the heart of
the sermon is did those people going into sin think, you know
what, we're going to go into sin and we're going to suffer years
of oppression for it, but it's OK, we'll do it anyway.
Did they think those thoughts? No, they did not.
They just thought we'll be the exception.
And as sin is never free, it wasn't free here either.
And the cost came and we had the store of Eglon and how King
Eglon of Moab oppressed them and the bondage and then what God
did with Ihad and he saved his people through the deliverance
of of Ihad. And then they had rest for 80
years and it was back to the same cycle over again, and this
time it was a 20 year bondage and they cried for help and it
was the same thing again. God, will you help us?
Will you get us out of this mess?
Today's sermon is a reminder that no matter how difficult and
how impossible things look, with God, we can.
God knows our situation better than we do.
And when we repent and surrender ourselves to Him, He wants to
help us and then He can help us. Our story today begins and
judges chapter 4. And we see how God used the most
unlikely people to carry out his will in the most impossible
circumstances. And by now, for those of us who
are following this series, you know the cycle.
Turning away from God, suffering oppression, the consequences of
sin, remembering what they did, then getting back to God,
repenting, and God rescues them. And on it goes.
I was listening to an online Bible teacher go through this
passage and he commented on the book of Judges and he said
something like this. He said some people are good at
confessing, just not stopping sinning.
It's one thing to say, I know I'm sinning and I'm sorry and
I'm doing this. I'm sorry, but keep on doing it.
That's one thing Some are good at confessing and then also
repenting. They know that, OK, I need to
stop this. And then they do stop for a
while. And the Israelites fit that
category. They stopped for a time, but
that's not it. And what's missing is
transformation. And those of you who are in
there Wednesday night Bible studies here will have heard
about what it means to be transformed.
So the transformation didn't really happen.
There was always this partial turning.
And inside their hearts there were still some residue.
And after a while, they would go back to sinning again.
The passage in There's a passage in Romans chapter 12 I want to
use as an introductory passage. In Romans 12 verse 2, the Paul
writes, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good,
what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
In the book of Judges, the people of Israel repeatedly
conformed to the cultures of sin and followed after the sins of
the people around them. Then they would eventually reap
the consequences over a long period of time.
Then they would remember. They would cry out and confess
and repent and God would rescue. And this cycle repeats itself
many times over. And we have, we live in the same
kind of culture today. I want us to keep this in the
background of our minds what Paul wrote to the Romans as we
go through the passage of Judges chapter 4 this morning.
Judges chapter 4, we have again a nation that conformed to the
world around them. This time God gave them over to
a king who oppressed them for 20 years.
They again cried for mercy. God raised up a deliverer, a
very unlikely one, but it happened.
Let's read Judges chapter 4 beginning verse one the first 3
verses. When he had was dead, the
children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord,
so the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan,
who reigned in Hazar. The commander of his army was
Sisera, who dwelt in Hirosheth Hagoyam.
And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, for Jabin had
900 Chariots of iron, and for 20 years he had harshly oppressed
the children of Israel. There's a bit of a map, what
it's supposed to look like. So there you on the map, you
have Hazer's north of the Sea of Galilee.
That's where Jabin was doing his thing.
He was ruling over that, over the nation of Israel from there.
Now, if you read Joshua many years ago, over a century before
that, he had conquered that place.
But apparently, over time, in different pockets of the
country, the Canaanites rose up again.
And King Jabin of Hazer is in charge.
And his commander of his army is Cicero.
He's more toward the ocean. We have a map later, later on.
He's more toward the sea. That's where Cicero, his
commander, is stationed. And he has 900 Chariots made of
iron. His military is well equipped,
very advanced for its time. And to get out of out from under
his control would literally take a miracle.
This is one of the things where the people were said, we can't.
Nope, we can't. How are we going to win 900
Chariots of Iron? Those were the military tanks of
their time. How's how's how's somebody on
foot with a spear going to chase after these guys and and kill
them? Can't be done.
They would be like in our day, a tank comes rolling into town and
somebody with small arms fires trying to win.
Absolutely no way. Chariots were a big deal in
their day. A chariot might have several
horses harnessed before it. And the soldier riding that
little cart he has, he's what he's armed, and he can dart here
and there fast, and he can shoot with arrows or throw Spears.
A soldier on foot has no chance. Well, let's see what happens.
Verse 4. Now, Deborah, a prophetess, the
wife of Lapidus, was judging Israel at that time, and she
would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Rama and Bethel
in the mountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel came up
to her for judgment. That's interesting.
So this is the first time we find God using a woman to give
leadership in the worst possible circumstances.
They had never had this before, that they would be oppressed by
an army with 900 Chariots of iron and he's going to use a
woman to give direction. When those people were being
oppressed by the foreign kings, whether it's the Moabites or
whether it's Jabin, whoever it was, they were not disbelieving
God. It was not that they had quote
UN quote, thrown God out as if he did not exist.
They were not atheists. They still went for guidance
from God. They still believe that God
existed, but they didn't equate their sin with their
consequences. So here's the prophetess
Deborah. She's the judge in Israel.
She would speak to the people on behalf of what God is teaching.
They had that just like today, churches mixing sin and Bible
and all together, we're still Christians.
They did the same thing, but God's faithful even in
idolatrous times, they were just like we are today.
It's not that they didn't know about God.
They knew about God and they would still go for advice, but
it doesn't mention anything about how sincere they were.
Shiloh was still there. They were still going to, to
this to to Here was Deborah where she was under the tree
there near, near Bethel, and they would go for advice.
She was just north of Jerusalem, Bethel and Rama and Jerusalem in
the South. That's where she was.
It tells us the children of Israel would come to seek her
out when they needed help. Again, remember, she's a
prophetess. She's also serving as a judge,
as an advice giver, A ruler, helping the people resolve their
issues. She's judging between people who
have disagreements and so on, speaking to them for God.
The word Deborah by the way, from what I've heard it means
the word bee, like a honey bee fits her well.
Now in all of this, she's very busy giving leadership direction
to this nation of Israel that's living in moral debauchery and
sin, but they still connect with her.
It was through this woman that God got the ball rolling that
would result in His people becoming free from oppression
under King Jabin and the story of Deliverance.
It was Deborah who was the 1st to speak and give instructions
from God to get the rescue plan in motion.
Let's read verse 4 and on. Then she sent and called Barrick
the son of Abinum from Kadesh to Naftali, and said to him, has
not the Lord God of Israel commanded?
Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor?
Take with you 10,000 men of the sons of Naftali and the sons of
Zebulun and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of
Jabin's army with his Chariots and his multitude at the river
Kaishan and I will deliver him into your hand.
Let's look at the map from where Barack has Barack has called
from there he is, that's there's Issaqar Zebulun and NAFTA is at
the top, then Hazard at the top and then Kadish is up the very
top there, that loose blue line in the middle, that's Kadish.
That's where Barack is. And then here close down the
bottom by Jerusalem, close to Jerusalem.
That's where Deborah is. Anyway, she calls for Barack
tells him God has called you to fight against Sisera, that
dreaded and feared military generals, his 900 Chariots.
He tells him go to Naftali and Zebulun where close to Hazer and
get these guys and deploy them on Mount Tabor.
Both of those tribes were where the oppression was likely the
harshest and there's a reason why he's to station his man on
Mount Tabor. They would be relatively safe on
top of the mountain from Chariots.
Chariots are not good on on on hilly on hilly ground.
Then #7 we read what she says. Go there again, it says I will
deploy Sisera. I will and against you, I will
deploy Sisera. I'm going to make him fight you
and the IT was his Chariots, it was his multitude at the river
Kishan and I will deliver him into your hand.
Now this is a scary as it can sound.
There's there's a very descriptive detail how this
battle will go down. She tells him there will be war.
They will engage you. And of course, the Chariots are
mentioned again, and any time those Chariots are mentioned,
that's like a shudder going down his spine, like, what am I going
to do with that? Then of course, also the river
kitchen is mentioned as well. And that's key as well.
We'll see that a little bit later on.
That's the river that aligned with the bottom right of the
Mediterranean Sea that you see the river there.
Have you ever thought about it? The road to freedom can be
complex, difficult, risky. It's a lot harder to get to
freedom than it is to get to bondage.
And here's the plan that God's own, and this is what it's going
to take when people want to break free from bondage.
Some people do better than others, but breaking free is not
free. Breaking free is often hard.
It's laborious, risky, and dangerous.
In this story, there's a lot of moving parts.
Deborah was a prophetess. Her job was to summon Barrack
and give him the message he would would he be up for?
It's the next question. How was he going to respond?
Notice what he does verse 8 and Barrick said to her, if you'll
go with me, then I will go. If you will not go with me, I
will not go. He has conditions.
I'm not saying that was foolish or wise or anything.
I don't know, but it's interesting that he does that.
Maybe for the benefit of the doubt.
He was thinking she's smart, she's wise, she connects with
God. I'll take her with just in case.
Maybe that's what he was thinking or he could have been
thinking on the negative side. Well, let's see how far she
backs up. What she says we don't know, but
it does say this verse 9. I will surely go.
She said, I'll go with you. Nevertheless, there will be no
glory for you in the journey you're taking, for the Lord will
sell sister into the hand of a woman or another woman.
Then Deborah arose and went with Barek to Kadesh way up north,
and Barek called Zebulun and afterlife to Kadesh.
He went up with 10,000 men under his command and Deborah went up
with him. So now they're in motion.
Both Deborah and Marek both go up to Kadesh to assemble the
army. He calls for these tribes and
takes them under his control. So far so good.
Things are starting to build. But in case we think all of this
is unfolding cleanly and smoothly, there's no forces at
work here. It's everything's going as
planned. It's going as planned.
But notice something else goes on to verse verse 11.
Now Heber the Kenite of the children of Hobab, the
father-in-law of Moses had separated himself from the
Kenites and pitched his tent near Terebin near the terebinth
tree at Zinem Zine name can't pronounce that property anyway,
which is beside Kadesh. Remember Kadesh up north.
So there's a man named Heber Heber the the Kenite.
He's related to the Israelites, but he's also friends with Jabin
of the of this of Hazor. They were distant relatives back
in Exodus. You can find the story of Moses
how all that happened. But anyway, now the flames are
going to burn. And here's where it gets
interesting. Verse 12 judges for verse 12.
And they the people of Heber, the Canites, they reported to
Cesara that Barrack, the son of Abenom had gone up to Mount
Tabor. Oh, Heber's people reported to
Sisera. What's going on?
Barracks son of a minimum has gone up to Moab with an army of
10,000. That's betrayal.
How? Why would he ever do that?
Why would he ever say this is what they've done?
Why would he get involved? This is just my belief.
I don't know this for sure, but I think he was more afraid of
Sisera than he was of the God of Israel.
He had, he thought, you know, Israel has no power.
Don't worry about them. I just want to keep jabbing king
of Canaan on the Canaanites of Hezra.
I want to keep him on my side. He should have been quiet, but
anyway, God was using Heber to do this because of who he was, a
double character. You see, the truth is this.
If we align ourselves with God, He will use us as vessels of
honor. If we align ourselves with evil,
God will still use us, but as vessels of dishonor.
I think that's what's happening here.
Well, Heber informed Cicera that Barrick is what Barrick is
doing. Cicera gets to work.
Sister wastes no time and responding, and here's what he
does. Verse 13 Judges 413 So Cicero
gathered together his Chariots, 900 Chariots of iron, and all
the people who were with him from Hirosheth Hogoyum to the
river Kishon. Cicero's military might gathered
and concentrated on this one spot.
He would eliminate the threat of Barrack and Cicero's mind.
It's not a question of Who Will Win.
He will strike first. Or he would encircle Barrack
with his army and make a siege around Montabor.
Whatever it was, he was going to get this done.
And again, the verse, the river cushion is important.
That will come up in chapter 5. Now things are ready.
Barack with the soldiers on Mount Tabor, there's no concern
who's going to win, just a matter of getting the job done.
Some commentators suggest this was a siege tactic, Hemming
Barack and on because he couldn't get down.
The Chariots were in the way and once they would come down, he's
going to mow them down anyway. Verse 14 falls out different
than Deborah, said the barrack up.
For this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into
your hand. Has not the Lord gone out before
you? So Barek went down from on table
with 10,000 men following him. And the Lord routed Sisera and
all his Chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword
before Barek. And Sisera alighted from his
chariot and fled away on foot. But Barek pursued the Chariots
and the army as far as Hirosheth Hagoian.
And all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword.
Not a man was left. Deborah gave leadership, Bear
carried it out, and the rest is history.
As they say, God came to the rescue.
We're not told exactly what the details are, how this happened,
but there's a passage in chapter 5 that gives some some detail on
the surface. One would say, well, if this
were 900 Chariots of iron, the men of Israel are only on foot.
What happened that they won the battle?
In chapter 5, verse 19 to 21, there's a little bit of insight
there. This is a song that Berek and
Deborah sing after the battle. It says the kings came and
fought. Then the kings of Canaan fought
in Tanakh by the waters of Megadood.
They took the spoils of silver. They fought from the heavens.
The stars from their courses fought against Sisera.
The torrent of Kishon swept them away.
That ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon O my soul
marched on in strength. One of the explanations for the
victory is that this flat land by the river was chosen
specifically for this battle by sister himself, but he didn't
know what would happen. And the story goes that there
was most likely a very heavy downpour, massive flash flood or
something and made the land totally useless for chariot
operations. Didn't work and back in chapter
4 when sister gets off his chariot and runs away on foot,
maybe that has something to do with it.
Something went very, very wrong he hadn't encountered on nature
interfering or could also been maybe that and running away on
foot. He would be better be able to
blend in with the rest of his fleeing army and hopefully get
away. Whatever the details, we know
that chaos, confusion and problems ensued.
This powerful, unconquerable man in his army.
We're now just running for their lives, losing the war, and
Barrick pursues them. When the ancient writers wrote
their stories, they were not worried about a lot of detail,
and part of it had to do with the culture in which they wrote
and to who they wrote. We today are so far removed from
these times and stories and cultures, we need to do a lot of
study to grasp the details of it.
We're so far away from it. But the point of the story here
is Cicero lost and Barrack overpowered him.
But Barack, Barack was not content with just overpowering
the army. For the victory to be complete,
he had to get the leader, Sisera, to be completely free
from this Jaben, king of Hazar. He needed to do eliminate
everybody. See, sometimes people, they just
want to get partial victory just just so much that's not
uncomfortable anymore, just so much that things are better.
And that's not what happened here.
Barack goes all out, It says here in verse 17 and on it says
Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of jail.
The wife of Heber the Kennite, remember him, He's the one who
formed Sisera of what Barrack was doing.
So there's trust there says, for there was peace between Jabin
Jabin, king of Hazer and the House of Heber the Kennite.
And jail went out to meet Sisera and said to him, turn aside my
Lord, turn aside to me and do not fear.
And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she
covered him with a blanket. Then he said to her, Please give
me a little water to drink from thirsty.
So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink and covered
him. And he said to her, Stand at the
door of the tent. And if any man comes and
inquires of you, say, and it says, is there any man here, you
shall say no. This was a bold move on Cicero's
part. Again, culture is important
here. One speaker mentioned that in
that day and age, the men would have their own tent and the
wife, the wife, the wife with her maidens would have their
own, her own tent. And no man ever would walk into
this married woman's tent except the husband of that woman.
And if any man would, would do so at the risk of his own life.
Here's Cicera coming to jail's tent and she invites him in a
pretty secure place. Cicera knows this.
He goes inside, she covers him with a blanket he asked for for
for a drink, to give some milk. And he does this because he
trusts her. Well, was she trustworthy?
Notice what she does. Verse 21.
Then Jael Heber's wife, the Heber, the guy who informed on,
on, on, on Barack on, on the army gathering, Heber's wife,
took a tent peg, took a hammer in her hand, went softly to him,
and drove the peg into his temple, meeting his head, and
went down into the ground, for he was fast asleep and weary.
So he died. And then as Barack pursued
Cicero jail came out to meet him and said, come, and I'll show
you the man whom you seek. And when he went into a tent,
the early sister were dead with a peg in his temple.
That was the place of his demise where he least thought he would
end it. It says in verse 23.
So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan in the presence
of the children of Israel, in the hand of the children of
Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of
Canaan until they destroy had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
Notice who the writer of Judges gives the credit to God.
God used all these events, all these many moving parts, all
these different events were all part of the package that God
used to destroy this king, His army and his power and to lift
his people out. Well God never wanted His people
to send in the 1st place but they did.
They suffered when they repented and cried out.
God used a very elaborate and very complex method and way and
track to get them back to freedom.
So what happened then in verse? And we won't read chapter 5 or
just a few verses. Here's a song that Deborah and
Barack sang together. Awake, awake, Deborah, awake,
awake, sing a song. Arise.
Barrick can lead your captives away or son of a bin Owen.
Then the survivors came down, the people against the nobles.
The Lord came down for me against the mighty.
Notice the focus. It's not about what we did, what
we accomplished. God can and God did.
Then Judges chapter 524. It goes on and says most blessed
among women is jail. The wife of Heber, the Kenite.
Blessed is she among women in tents.
He asked for water. She gave him milk.
She brought out cream and a lordly bowl.
She stretched out her hand to the tent peg her right hand to
the workman's hammer. She pounded Sisera.
She pierced his head. She split and struck through his
temple at her feet. He sank, He fell.
He lay still at her feet. He sank.
He fell where he sank. There he fell dead.
What a song, that's what it was. Deborah Barrack, with the help
of jail, had done the impossible.
They knew it was not them, they knew it was God working through
them. We won't take time to go through
that song, but I want to encourage us to read that
chapter, both chapters, in fact, chapter 4 and chapter 5 today
sometime. Read it slowly, meditate on it
and see what God did. A story of rescue when people
repented. What difference does this make
for us today? God has not changed one bit from
back then. I trust as we have seen how God
works in Scripture, He still works today.
Deborah, the unlikely prophetess.
Who would have thought she would be a prophetess.
Barrack, the military leader who depended on her in jail, the
wife of Heber. The problem in the story was the
evil king Jabin. First there's sin and then the
evil king, his army commander. 900 Chariots.
Everything seems so impossible in Psalm chapter 40 verse one
and three we read. I waited patiently for the Lord.
He inclined to me. He heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of the horrible pit, out of the miry
clay. He set my feet on a rock and
established my steps. He has put a new song in my
mouth. Praise to our God.
Many will see it in fear and will trust in Him.
I've had questions and conversations with people at
times, and they tell me what they all cannot do.
They've tried this, they've tried that, and for this reason
and that reason. Nothing's working in deep
distress and difficult circumstances they've gotten
themselves into. Others have done things that
gotten themselves into this and they play the victim.
We're not victims, not with God, we're not victims.
Sometimes people come for help and they don't really want help
so much as this. Just look at how bad I have it
and if life was better than I would have it better.
The greatest battles are the battles of the mind and the
heart. When I ask someone in difficult
circumstances and situations what some options might be for
them to try, they grow into great detail of why they can't
and why it won't work, why they're stuck.
The battle's already lost in the mind before it's ever fought.
In the real world. There's so many circumstances we
cannot control. But it's not about the
circumstances that are that determine our outcome in life.
It's our response to the circumstances that determine our
outcome in life. Geez was a man in this world, he
was God. Some, but also many, faced many
difficulties. He never once faltered.
He never once allowed himself to be drawn in or controlled by
people or sin. Oh, he suffered horribly.
But every obstacle, instead of stumbling over it, he stepped on
it and use it toward his goal. When life turns difficult,
either because we sinned or because others sinned, there is
a path out. God can.
We can because God can. Maybe there's a sister in your
life who's got you under his thumb.
Maybe he's got 900 ironclad reasons why you can't succeed.
Those are his Chariots. You've gotten come to
compromises. You can't find your way out.
Maybe it's not even a sin issue, but something needs to happen.
You can't see your way through. What about just surrendering to
Christ and saying, Lord, I can't fix this unless you fix this,
I'll just endure it. Whatever your sister might be,
God does not need special people.
He can use a woman like Deborah, She's not a soldier like jail.
She was a housewife. She's not a soldier.
What God wants is repentant and surrendered hearts, committed
hearts and devoted hearts. And God can reach into any
problem and solve it, just like we find in Judges.
For whatever you are, wherever you are, I want to remind you,
Jesus loves you. He's reaching out with his grace
to you. He's inviting you to trust Him,
to give you his life, give you his life, your life to Him.
And no matter how big your Chariots around the air,
Chariots of your enemies are, with God, we can.
With God we can. Let's pray.
Lord, we're grateful to you for your word, for your mercies, for
your power, for your grace, and for your presence.
You died for us, so we don't have to be slaves to sin.
And we find so many stories in Scripture where people walked in
slavery, in bondage, not because you wanted them to be, because
they chose to. They chose sin, the path to
bondage. You want us to walk in holiness
and joy and in peace. There are no circumstances in
our world so difficult that your spirit cannot overpower them or
bring us healing and joy and peace as we walk through them.
That's your will for us, Lord. May we accept it, but that
countless thousands of your Saints have overcome.
They've trusted you and surrendered.
They took up their cross of suffering and in so doing gave
up the bondage and received freedom.
They gave up their fear and receive peace, and they gave up
their worries and receive joy. Thank you Lord, for Your word
that reminds us again and again of Your holiness and Your great
love and Your mercy. May we be committed, devoted and
loyal to You. Pray in Jesus name, Amen.