Morning Port City for our Bible reading.
This morning we will be reading a selection of verses from the
book of Nahum. You can find Nahum on page 734
if you're using the Bible under your chair.
If you don't have a copy of Scripture of your own, we invite
you to take this copy with you today.
We're going to start by reading the first chapter in its
entirety, and then we will read chapter 2, verses one through 4
and then eight through 13, and then chapter 3, verse 1 and 19.
An Oracle concerning Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum
of Elkhosh. The Lord is a jealous and
avenging God. The Lord is avenging and
wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his
adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord
will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the
dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it
dry. He dries up all the rivers.
Bashan and Carmel wither. The bloom of Lebanon Withers.
The mountains quake before him, the hills melt.
The earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.
Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken
into pieces by him. The Lord is good, a stronghold
in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge
in Him, but with an overflowing flood He will make a complete
end of the adversaries and will pursue his enemies Into
Darkness. What do you plot against the
Lord? He will make a complete end.
Trouble will not rise up a second time, for they are like
entangled thorns, like drunkards.
As they drink, they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a
worthless counsellor. Thus says the Lord, though they
are at full strength, in many they will be cut down and pass
away. Though I have afflicted you, I
will afflict you no more. And now I will break his yoke
from off you, and will burst your bonds apart.
The Lord has given commandment about you.
No more shall your name be perpetuated from the House of
your gods. I will cut off the carved image
and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you
were vile. Behold upon the mountains the
feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
Keep your feasts, O Judah. Fulfill your vows, for never
again shall the worthless pass through you.
He is utterly cut off. The scatterer has come up
against you, man the ramparts. Watch the road.
Dress for battle. Collect all your strength.
For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty
of Israel. For plunderers have plundered
them and ruined their branches. The shield of his mighty men is
red. His soldiers are clothed in
scarlet. The Chariots come with flashing
metal on the day he mustards them.
The Cypress Spears are brandished.
The Chariots race madly through the streets.
They rush to and fro through the squares.
They gleam like torches. They dart like lightning.
Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.
Halt, halt. They cry, but none turns back.
Plunder the silver, plunder the gold.
There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious
things, desolate, desolation and ruin.
Hearts melt and knees tremble. Anguish is in all loins.
All faces grow pale. Where is the lion's den?
The feeding place of the Young Lions, Where the lion and the
lioness went, where his Cubs were with none to disturb.
The lion tore enough for his Cubs in strangled prey.
For his lionesses he filled his caves with prey and his dens
with torn flesh. Behold, I am against you,
declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your Chariots and
smoke, and the sword shall devour your Young Lions.
I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your
messengers shall no longer be heard.
Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder.
No end to the prey. There is no easing your hurt.
Your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you
clap their hands over you, for upon whom has not come your
unceasing evil. This is God's true word.
Good morning. Poor city, family and friends.
How are we doing? That was OK Hope you guys are
doing better than that was. But my name is Ron.
I am one of the pastors here. And last weekend I was at one of
my boys YMCA basketball games and there was this parent that
was about to absolutely crash out because their team was not
getting fouls called against them or for them rather.
And so I'm thinking to myself, man, like, calm down.
This is just YMCA basketball. It's not a big deal.
They are doing the best that they can.
But if I'm honest with you, you know, let it be my child who is
on the other side of that and he's getting hacked.
I'd be like, I, I need to see the supervisor.
Like right now, I would 100% be sort of irate as this gentleman
was. You know, it's, it's funny how
calm, you know, we can be if things are going, you know, for
us or if it's affecting someone else.
But how passionate we become when it's about us or when it
affects us, right? So if someone, you know, lies to
you or dishonest, you want justice, right?
If someone exploits the vulnerable, you want justice.
If somebody what's in front of you at the Chick-fil-A line,
which is already long and you're having to wait even longer, you
want justice. But when you fail, or when you
speak too fast, or when you compromise, or when you do
something that is dishonest, you want mercy.
We instinctively long for justice when we are wounded, but
we want mercy when we are exposed.
And I see that tension in my job every single day as the Dean of
students. When students are wronged, they
want accountability. They want consequences.
They want fairness, right? But let it be them who was
caught. They want understanding.
Please don't tell my Mama, you know, my hand accidentally hit
him. You know, like he ran into, I
get all kinds of stuff, right? And so, but if we're honest,
right, we often want a guy that operates in the same way.
We want a guy that is patient with us, but swift with them.
We want in the pride of our hearts, we want a God who judges
them but yet forgives us. And that tension, that sort of
internal contradiction is exactly where the the book of
Nahum meets us. If you are new, I want to say
welcome. We have been journeying through
a series in the Minor Prophets and today we are looking at the
book of Nahum. And so for context, Judah has
been God's people has been living under fear.
The Assyrian Empire is a superpower and they have crushed
nations, they've destroyed cities, they've deported
families, they've ruled in terror.
And Nineveh is the capital city and it's it's infamous for its
violence, for its brutality. This is not like a mildly fault.
Flawed people, like they are violently oppressive.
And so God's people are asking God, you know, where is God?
Does God see what's happening? Does evil?
When is violence the final word? And into that fear comes the
prophet Nahum with a message of comfort.
That's what his name means, comfort.
And he has a message that says, no, God sees, God remembers, and
God will act. And the book of Nahum also
forces us to wrestle with this question that, you know, is a
God who never judges. Is he really?
Is he really good? See, at the core of Nahum's
message is judgment and really the, you know, the violent fall
of an empire. Through that judgment, we see
something essential, and this is the main idea for the text
today. We see that God's goodness is
revealed in his refusal to allow violence and evil have the final
word. Regardless of where you are
today, whether you are a believer in Christ or whether
you are seeking, you know, you are exploring the faith, don't
you want that to be true? Don't you want there to be a God
who sees what's evil and judges it rightly?
In light of what we are facing right now, I think the book of
Nahum is a very timely word. And so I'm going to pray for us
really quickly and then we are going to dive in to what is not
an easy book. Will you pray with me?
God? I only want to bring you glory.
Father, would you please use me? Holy Spirit, speak through me.
God, would you open our eyes to see?
Would you open our ears to hear your word?
Would you open our hearts this morning to receive your word?
It's in your beautiful name we pray.
Amen. All right, so a century earlier,
this very people, the people of Nineveh, God has sent a prophet
to them. His name was Jonah.
And Jonah brought this message. They repentant and God relented,
right? And so in our series, you might
have noticed we did skip the book of Jonah.
That is because Pastor Tanner is going to be preaching Jonah for
Easter. All right, so you should come
back. In some ways, you know, Nahum is
a sequel to the book of Jonah. So I guess you got to come back
for part A because this is kind of Part B.
But we hope you you'll come and be with us for Easter.
And so, you know, again, the but it by the time Nahum comes
around, the people have returned to their wickedness.
They have returned to violence, return to cruelty.
It has escalated and their pride has deepened.
And so again, I mentioned the book of Nahum is not a, it's not
a soft book, it's not an easy one, but it is a comforting 1.
And it certainly was comforting for the people of Judah.
And so we're going to take the book in three turns, all right?
And so I've kind of set this up in a way that we're going to, in
the backdrop are going to be 3 questions that you can use when
you are doing your personal Bible study.
You anytime you're reading a text, you can ask these three
questions and they will help you sort of get to the, the heart
and the meaning of the text. The 1st is what does it say
about God? What does it say about humanity?
And how should this shape us? What should we do in light of
this text? All right.
And so the first point we're going to see is we're going to
see God's character and and we're going to see what this
reveals about God. And so Nahum, it does not begin
with Nineveh, it begins with God.
So starting in verse 2, it says the Lord is a jealous and
avenging God. The Lord is avenging and
wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his
adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power.
And the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in the whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the
dust of His feet. Now that is not sentimental
language at all. If you were looking for a new
throw pillow, you are probably not going to have those verses
on it, right? Not on a mug, right?
But it is deeply revealing about God's character.
So let's walk through it carefully.
God is jealous. Say jealous.
Now listen, when we think jealous, we immediately think
insecurity, right? So, you know, like being jealous
of someone's shoes or their outfit, you know that you ain't
got it. But God's jealousy is not, not
that way at all. God's jealousy does not come
from lack. It doesn't come from insecurity.
Biblical jealousy is covenant language, right?
Think about a marriage, right? A you know, it is a covenant
commitment, like a husband who refuses to share his wife,
right? If if the husband didn't care
who the wife went home with, that'd be a problem, right?
Wouldn't be loving at all. And so this jealousy gets at
covenant faithfulness. God is jealous for his people.
God is avenging and wrathful avenging, you know it.
And wrathful avenging doesn't mean explosive or impulsive, you
know, it means morally serious. In other words, it it means that
injustice will not be ignored. It means that violence won't be
shrugged at. It means there is no excuse for
the the I'm sorry. The oppressed will not be
excused, right? God's wrath is not allowing evil
to go unanswered, right? And his anger is not moodiness,
right? I know my, my, I'm sorry, my,
his wrath isn't moodiness. I know often times that is mine,
right? I am, you know, if I did not
sleep well or if I'm hangry, right again, God didn't wake up
in a mood and said who didn't have their quiet time?
Let me get him. You know, like that's not.
We tend to imagine anger as losing control, but God's anger
is not that. It is controlled.
It is purposeful. It is just.
And so again, if somebody was to walk in here right now and they
begin harming the little children in here, and I said,
whoa, buddy, let's just talk about our feelings right now,
you would be like, what? Like absolutely not.
Like that would not be the right response.
That would be disturbing. Why?
Because there is a right response that is like, no,
that's a right response to evil. And so that gets at, you know,
God's heart in terms of being eventual and avenging and
wrathful. God is slow to anger.
I love this right after describing God's vengeance,
Nahum reminds us that the Lord is slow to anger and great in
power, right. His judgement is not it's not
impulsive. It is measured is it is
intentional. Nineveh had already experienced
God's mercy in the days of Jonah and God relented and they, you
know, when they repented. So his patience was real in
that. But his patience is not
permission, right? Delay is not a denial of
justice. Unrepentant violence will not
last forever. And and you know, guys, delay is
not him not caring it it is not that great empower.
If God delays judgement, it's not because he lacks power.
It is because he is merciful and he has a plan and there is an
intention, you know, in in thinking about God's power.
There is no empire that's too big for him, too strong for him.
There is no injustice that is too entrenched that he can't
deliver or redeem. There is no oppressor beyond his
reach. Nineveh in the ancient times
looked invincible and God says I am greater.
One way he is showing his Nahum is showing his power is through
his control over creation. Look at verse 4.
It says he rebukes the sea and makes it dry.
He dries up the rivers Bashan and caramel Bashans known for
his rich pasture land. Caramel is some mountainous
areas that are known for his beauty.
The bloom of Lebanon Withers. Lebanon being mountains regions
in north of Israel. The mountains quake before him,
the hills melt. The earth heaves before him, the
world and all who dwells in it. God rebukes the sea, He drives
up the rivers. Mountains quake.
You see, mountains in the ancient world symbolized
permanence, and Nahum says that even what looks immovable,
right? It melts before me like He is
above it all. He is in control of it all.
He's sovereign over it all. And this is not a tame or mild
God. Let's continue.
Again, in the middle of that judgement language comes this
anchor. The Lord is good a stronghold in
the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge
in him. Guys, the the placement of this
verse is extremely intentional. I want you to notice the timing.
It's it says not after the storm, not instead of receiving
judgement, but smack dab in the middle of it.
God is good. He is a stronghold in the day of
trouble, and I want don't want us to miss this.
God's anger is not the opposite of his goodness, but it is the
expression of his goodness. In other words, God goodness is
not, it's not suspended. It's not, you know, revoked when
he judges, but God's goodness is displayed when he judges.
And so again, he is a stronghold.
It's and, and again, I know I before really this week and
deeply studying this passage, I didn't, I've used the word
stronghold before. I don't know if you knew exactly
what it meant, but I did not. But a stronghold is not like the
absence of trouble, but it's safety in the midst of it.
And so I, you know, I was looking at a couple analogies to
try to drive this point home. And does it anybody know what a
breakwater is? A breakwater.
OK, all right, I expected that guy to know.
So a breakwater, right? Is is this engineering sort of
offshore? It really is just like rocks and
concrete and it's designed to protect harbors, right?
So again, the the ocean is violent, but the breakwater is
there. It takes the impact of the waves
and the ocean. And so right behind the, this
breakwater, this, this, I mean, slab of concrete and rocks on
right, on the other side, the ships are just chilling, right,
because the breakwater is absorbing the impact, absorbing
the, the contact, you know, And so in, in other words, you know,
God being our, our stronghold really gets at that.
You know, he is the one who is absorbing and taking, you know,
what is coming to us. Again, he's a stronghold that he
is. Again, it's not that the, the,
the, the, the storm is not existing, but he is with us in
the midst of the storm. He absorbs the force.
And I'm going to come back to that.
Another helpful language for the folks that don't know, you know,
breakwaters and can't visualize that, you know, just imagine
this idea of, you know, a parent being with their kid and you
know, what if, if some danger comes, what is the first action
of the parent? It is to get in front of the
child, right? It is to protect them from the
threat that is coming toward them.
That that is the image of a stronghold he's getting in front
of doesn't mean that the threat's not there.
The you know the the issue isn't there, but he is there with us
in front of. What is coming?
And that is you know what Nahum wants the the people of Judah to
understand? See for the oppressed, this
judgement of God is is rescue, is is relief, it is vindication.
If God never judges evil, then evil wins.
But Nahum is saying no, God won't let it.
So how can God be good and judge so violently?
We got to understand that judgement and Nahum is not just
aggression, it is it's intervention.
God is intervening on behalf of His people.
Let's look at turn 2, which is Nineveh's fall.
And as we look at Nineveh's fall, again, the question we're
going to answer is, what does this teach us about man?
And so chapters 2:00 and 3:00, there's a lot of verses that we
skipped again, if you go back and read it again, it's not an
easy read, very descriptive of the fall of of Nineveh.
But let's look at verse 13. It says, behold, I am against
you declare the Lord of hosts. Is there any more terrifying
verse in all the Bible then for God to say I am against you?
You see again, Nineveh thought they were untouchable, but God
said you're not. And listen to how he describes
the fall. Go back up to verse three.
He says the shield of his mighty men is red.
His soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The Chariots come with flashing Meadow on the day he musters
them, the Cypress Spears are brandished.
The Chariots race madly through the streets.
They rush to and fro through the squares.
They gleam like torches. They dart like lightning.
This should kind of envision or invoke like panic, battle chaos.
All right then verse 8 and 9 just jump down.
Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.
Halt, halt. They cry, but none turns back.
Plunder the silver silver plunder the gold.
Who was the plunderer now becomes the plundered.
Verse 10 desolate desolation and ruin.
Hearts melt and knees tremble. Guys, the terror that Nineveh
was once or the Syrians were once inflicting upon others.
Now it's filling their own streets and God mocks them.
He in in verse 11 he says where is the lion's den, the feeding
place of the Young Lions where the lion and lioness lionesses.
He filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
Again, what he's saying here is, you know, you guys, you know,
even viewed yourself as they called themselves lions because
they were just walking around devouring lands and attacking
people, right? And again, there was the lion
was a symbol of strength. But God is saying like, where is
your roar now? And chapter 3 verse one, it
intensifies it. Woe to the bloody city, all full
of lies and plunder to no end to pray.
And it the book closes, there is no easing your hurt.
Your wound is grievous. For upon whom has not come your
unceasing evil again. We could keep going.
There's so much that I could say, didn't say.
But you know, this judgment was complete.
It was final. Even that question at the end
where it says you know who, whom your for whom has not come
unceasing evil again. They were a superpower.
They hit. They were known for their
violence, known for their brutality.
God had even used Assyria as an instrument of discipline against
Israel for their rebellion. They had destroyed the northern
Kingdom of Israel, carried his inhabitants into captivity.
But God is saying your violence will not have the last word.
And so Nineveh fell in 612 BC and it fell again, the verses
say. So it was a complete judgement
that historians have even questioned whether or not it
existed. So this great empire, it rose
and it failed just as God said it would see, you know, power,
that the power that Nineveh had did not equal permanence.
The strength did not equal sovereignty.
The violence did not equal victory.
Again, you know, to, to illustrate this, you know, I
think basketball season is kind of ending.
And so there's some teams that are going into the playoffs and,
and one of my from North Carolina, A-Team reached out to
me because they were going to be playing nearby.
And this team had, you know, they were undefeated on the
season. And I had some girls that were
on this team. And so I did not get to go, but
you know, they were going to be playing nearby undefeated.
They were excited going in and they thought that they were kind
of on top of the world, untouchable.
You know, they were undefeated. And it was a long, quiet Rd.
home. They got handed to him.
I mean, they just met and faced a bigger and better opponent.
So much so here. Nahum 1 three.
God does not clear the guilty. And so as we take this this last
turn, we're going to look at the comfort for Judah, the comfort
for Judah. See, Judah was, as I mentioned,
was living in an under intense pressure from the Assyrians.
And being under all of this pressure, they were certainly
tempted to, you know, assimilate to survive.
They were maybe tempted to lose hope in light of all of what
they were under, maybe even compromise morally, you know, to
be accepted. Maybe they were even tempted to
fear Assyria more than Guy, but God speaks into that fear in
verse 13 one chapter one verse 13, he says, I will break this
yoke from you and I will burst your bonds apart.
This oppression that they were under would not last forever.
Verse 2 of chapter 2 says for the Lord is restoring the
majesty of Jacob, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined
their branches. I love this, this, this idea
that God doesn't just remove the enemies, but he restores
dignity. He says he restores the majesty
of Jacob. You know, when you are
oppressed, it has a way of kind of distorting how you see
yourself, right? And so the Assyrians, they
didn't just conquer people, but they humiliated them.
They renamed him. They tried to erase their
cultural identity. But God says I'm restoring the
majesty of Jacob that you are not what they did to you.
You are not the season you survived.
You are not the shame that you carry for Judah.
They were you are Jacob, you are chosen the people of God and for
us in Christ, if we're in Christ, we are sons, we are
daughters and that is such good news.
Chapter 2, verse 2 says that they ruined the the branches.
I'm I'm going to skip past some of that.
But again in the ancient world, defeat and shame.
Again, it was it really was disgraceful, you know, or I'm
sorry. In the ancient world, defeat
meant shame. And so God judges.
When God judges Nineveh, he was publicly vindicating Judah.
And so we now get to sort of, you know, as we shift to sort of
apply this to ourselves, like the uncomfortable question is
when we think about this text, when we think about our lives,
when we think about what's going on, the question is, are we
Judah or are we Nineveh? The honest answer is that we are
both right. We cry for justice when we are
harmed. We crave mercy when we are
exposed. Yeah, we might not build up
military terrors, but we certainly build empires of
pride, self protection, reputation management, you know,
advancing at the expense of others.
We participate in violence with our words, indifference and
greed, prejudice in our hearts. We want justice until it is
aimed at us. And really, the same pride at
the heart of the Ninevites is present within us as well.
Nineveh was. Nineveh was proud and and so are
we. They trusted in their walls, and
we trust in so many of our resources, so many of our skill
sets, so many of what we have, the possessions.
There's so much that we trust in and so pride it.
It not only lived in Assyria, but it certainly lives in
Norfolk. It lives in church leadership.
It lives in polished resumes. It is pervasive.
And so Nineveh says, you know, who can stand against us?
But we, we say all the time, like I got this, like I'm strong
enough, I'm, I'm good enough. I, I, I can do it Like I don't
need God. I can we, we trust in ourselves
where Nineveh trusted Chariots. We trust our own control all the
time, My reputation, our influence.
I know I am guilty of this, our security, the things that we
have. But again, back to that
terrifying question. You know, behold, I am against
you, declares the Lord. That is not just a sentence for
ancient empires apart from us having refuge in Christ.
That is the sentence that is over us today.
Because the problem of the word is not just violent empire
empires. The problem in the world is our
proud hearts. And Nahum says that he will know
by no means clear the guilty. So where does that leave us?
Right in the middle of judgement, the Lord says he is
good and he is a stronghold in the day of trouble to those who
take refuge in him. So how can it be true that God
would say I will no means clear the guilty while also being a
stronghold in the day of trouble?
How can he be against sin and yet be a refuge for sinners?
It only comes because somebody stands in between, and if
somebody absorbs the storm, and that is exactly what Jesus does,
He is the one promise to come from the line of Judah.
The wrath of Nahum that Nahum describes didn't disappear in
the Old Testament. It it fell.
It fell on Jesus at the cross because he bore our sins on
Himself and justice wasn't suspended.
Evil was not excused. Wrath was not erased.
It was absorbed in Jesus. The judgment that swept Nineveh
is the judgment that should sweep us.
We may not be as violently brutal as the Ninevites or as
Nineveh. We deserve that judgment too.
But Christ as our stronghold, he stepped in front like a
breakwater, absorbing the impact.
Christ is our stronghold who absorbs judgement at the cross.
Again, let's just imagine, right?
Evil thought it was victorious. It thought it won.
Violence thought it won after Jesus was crucified and put into
the grave. But the Son of God was crushed.
But three days later he rose, and violence did not get the
final word, resurrection does. All along He had a plan, and he
has a plan in they whom He promises the fall of the city,
the gospel promises the fall of death itself.
Again, God's goodness is shown not in His refusal to allow
violence and evil have the final word and injustice.
That refusal is shown. It's both just and merciful.
At the cross, God's justice and mercy meet.
And so how should this shape our lives?
What should we do in light of this test text?
Right. If if we believe that God will
judge evil, then that means that we don't have to take vengeance
into our own hands. If we believe that God sees the
injustice, if he sees what's broken, then it will protect us
from growing cynical or or numb. If we believe that God reigns
over the nation's, then we won't panic every time there's an
election cycle again the the the troubles there.
It's real, it exists, but God is our stronghold and they whom he
teaches us we cannot not panic, but covenant confidence because
of the Lord is our stronghold. So as we close again this whole
series we've been talking about turning back to the Lord.
What does it mean in they whom to turn back?
It means to rest in our stronghold verse chapter one
verse 7. The Lord is good a stronghold in
the day of trouble, so we can turn back.
It means turning from the fear, maybe the, you know, cynicism,
the, you know, ideas of getting revenge.
Maybe the fantasies of, of getting back at that person who
is wronged you, maybe turning from the, the, the ways that you
have compromised or assimilated to the, the culture around you
and you've partaken in those things and turning to trusting
God, him being our refuge, faithful obedience.
Again in this in doing these things and turning to God and
entrusting him, we're not earning God's protection, but we
are responding to his covenant love for us as we need refuge
from the penalty of sin, not just relief from our enemies.
The greatest enemy is sin. Sin plunders us, shame
humiliated us, death enslaves us.
But in Christ our identity is restored, our honors covered,
our inheritance is secure. And God doesn't just remove
enemies, He restores sons and daughters.
He doesn't just win battles, but he rebuilds people.
And that is good news for us. And so again, the call is to
turn back to turn back to God and to trust in him as being our
our refuge. I'm going to end the sermon with
the verse Greta started with Psalm 46.
One God is our refuge and strength, our very present help
and trouble. Listen, there's there's many of
us who you know they're we've been deeply wronged.
They're again, there are things that have happened to us that we
injustice is that we have been affected by that are real.
And I don't want to dismiss the pain of those things, but there
is a God who is who is with us in those things and we can find
comfort in him as we trust them. Let's pray.
Father, you, you reign over all the nations.
God, you judge evil, God you protect your people, you keep
your covenant. God, you refuse to let violence
and evil have the final word. And God, that is such good news.
And Lord, there are, yes, they're real enemies out there,
people that are attempting to, to harm us, to, to do evil
against us. But there is a real enemy
warring in our own souls, God. And so I thank you that in
Christ, Lord, you, you stood in our place, you absorbed the, the
wrath that our sins deserve. And God, because of that, we
can, we are, we are restored, we are redeemed, we are delivered,
we're made new. And so Father, I thank you that
life with you is not necessarily easy, nor is it always safe, but
it but we are secure always because you have the final word.
Violence won't end, evil won't win.
You always win. And so Father, I pray that that
would be a comfort to us. Lord help us apply this and
whatever it is that we are facing in our lives.
God help us to see that you are good.
God that even when the the world was happening around us, scream
and and tell us something different.
Father, I pray that that we would think back to all the ways
that you have revealed your goodness to us and creation and
in our own lives, that we would trust You.
God, help us by the power of your Spirit.
Help us trust You in the storm. Be our stronghold.
We love you and see your beautiful name.
We pray. Amen.