Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is now our eighth sermon in a series of sermons that we've been preaching on David the King. David is Israel's greatest king. There's no question about it. And during his 40 year reign as king, he led the nation, he took tribal people, a ragtag group of tribes, and he brought them into a great unified, made them a unified nation. And they experienced during those 40 years of David's reign, their
great success. Now here's a fact you need to know in order to understand why the first century, when the first century people looked back on and developed messianic hopes and aspirations for what we call that kingdom thread, the kingdom messianic hopes, they looked back to David with such fondness. What you need to know is that up until David's time, really, they were from Abraham 1800 BC up until David 1000 BC. You have 800 years really there
of being a sojourning, traveling people, nomadic people, and then a tribal people. Then David unites them. And then for a short time after David and Solomon, his son, they have a few moments of glory as they build the temple. But then as soon as the temple is built, almost immediately after it's built, the Egyptians, who are more powerful, discover of the gold in the temple. They come and raid the temple and take all the gold out
of the temple. And then of course after Solomon dies, civil war breaks out and Israel is divided between the north and the south. The north is called Samaria or Israel, the south is called Judah. And then that civil war with all of its hatreds continues. Finally in 710 BC, the north is destroyed by Assyria. And then in 586 BC, the south is destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. And then from then on, they're simply captive people
and then a political football of other greater powers. Think of it, in their whole history, only 40 years of glory, the 40 years of David. No wonder they look back to David with such fondness. And David was a great man. He's called the sweet psalmist of Israel. And we saw these last few weeks, we've been trying to understand some of the ingredients of that greatness. David seemed to live a charmed life. There's just hardly any other
way of putting it. He always seems to land on his feet. Have you ever known people like that? Do you have some friend that always lands on his or her feet? A little bit like the cat. You know, a cat, no matter how you throw it, it always lands on his feet. It has a self-righting instinct, evidently, deep in the middle brain, and it always lands on his feet. I think it's one of the reasons
we're suspicious of cats. Dogs don't always land on their feet. I mean, you throw a giraffe up and see what happens to a giraffe. But a cat, right on its feet, ready for action. And that's the way some people are. That's the way David was. Think of David. All around him are people in total disarray. Saul, and then even Jonathan, David's great friend, killed at Saul's side. Saul really should have been king, you know, he was
the eldest son of the king. And yet David is king. And David seems to always win. He always lands on his feet. Well, there's a danger in that, too. And the danger with winners and people who always win is what happens in us and to us when we become so used to always winning that we begin to arrange things so that we always win. And as we get more and more powerful, and we have the power
to do that, we begin to make sure we always win. Make sure that whatever happens, we're on top. Even if it means going against the will of God. If you have enough power, you can even arrange it against the will of God. Well, this is the real tragedy in David's life, and we are now going to come into that part in his life, the middle part of David's life, which is all the threads of tragedy come
out. I want to be clear on something, though. The tragedy in David's life is not his greatness, and it's not his belovedness by the people. It's not his power. In fact, we rejoice with David at the fact that the people loved him. Remember how the saying went, Saul has his thousands, David has his ten thousands? The people genuinely love this man. And we rejoice in that. We rejoice in the greatness of people. We rejoice in their
power. In fact, the Bible tells us, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. It doesn't say, weep for those who rejoice and rejoice for those who weep. No, we are to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. And the tragedy in David's life is not that he was popular with the people. It's not that he had successes. It's not that he won so much. And by the way, can
I make a comment here? Every once in a while you meet someone who will say, maybe somebody will write you a letter. It's usually an anonymous letter, I'm sure. But somebody will write you a letter and say, you know, what you need is to suffer more. If you only suffered more, then you would be a better person. And sometimes we wish for people they would suffer so they might learn something that we think they should learn.
In fact, I have been a pastor long enough that I've seen families, and I would call that a dysfunctional family, but I've seen families where parents actually wish this for their children. I've seen parents that can't rejoice in their children's successes. They have to have a barb. They have to have a hook in there so that a youngster doesn't get a nice, clean compliment. It's always, yeah, you had it easy. I went through the depression after
all. There are some parents that do that to their kids. Did it happen to you? Where someone is always trying to chop you down a few notches, lower your ladder a little bit, put you down on the floor, maybe so you land on your back a little bit or land on your face, trying to maybe beat a little humility into you. I want to tell you something, folks, when that happens to you, it's a cheap shot.
I don't care if it's even your parents who do it. It's not according to God's will. You're supposed to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. And yet we see it happening. We see that happening sometimes. And that's not the tragedy in David. The tragedy in David's life is not that he won. The tragedy in David's life is that he forgot and broke the covenant he made with God and that God made
with him. He did it in order to make sure he won. And that becomes a tragic element in David's life. Remember last week the psalm we read, Psalm 19, which is a psalm early in David's career. It's one of the great psalms. And in that psalm, David thanks God for the law. I'm going to remind you of that psalm. He says the law of the Lord is perfect. That's part of the psalm. And then listen to
these final words of the psalm. This is David speaking. That's David's prayer. That's David making a covenant with God. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. That's David. And then the final sentence of this psalm 19 is a very famous sentence. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. That's David. And you know the tragedy in David's life
is when he forgot that. And he did. And he was so powerful, he was able to forget it and land on his feet. And that's the tragedy in David's life. Now I have a very tragic passage for you to read. You'll discover it for yourself. Open to 2 Samuel, verse chapter 11, and we'll see it for ourselves. In 2 Samuel, 11th chapter, it's interesting. The 10th chapter of 2 Samuel narrates all the countless victories of David.
One after another, just sort of cascading victories, cascading fame in the eyes of his people. Nothing he does goes wrong. Everything succeeds. And then chapter 11 starts this way. In the spring of the year, this is 2 Samuel. We have few Bibles, by the way. You can open up and follow along in this very famous text. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with
him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened late one afternoon when David rose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Ilium, the wife of Uriah? It turns out that
Uriah is one of the young soldiers in David's own army, and that's his wife. So David sent messengers. See, when you're powerful, you can do things like this. Now, I want you to notice in this passage all the marks of power. Do you feel you're powerful? Do you know somebody who's powerful? Well, you're now going to see all the marks of power. They're going to take your breath away, the power of this one man. Watch him.
David sent messengers and took her. And she came to him, and he lay with her. And then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am with child. And so then David creates a plan. I'll narrate this next part and just tell you the story. He sends an order to Joab and says, send Uriah back with a message for the king. And so Uriah comes back. And David's idea
is that when Uriah comes back, he'll spend the night with his wife, perhaps he'll have sexual intercourse together, and then when the baby is born, everyone will say, ah, that's the baby of Uriah, and that will solve all the problems. So Uriah comes back. But Uriah, because he made a vow with his own fellow soldiers and they stayed in the battlefield, he stays at the barracks and does not spend the night with his wife. David hears
this and is very upset. So the next night, David has a huge party, and he gets Uriah stoned drunk. And he's now completely drunk. The king arranged this, and then he assumes now he'll forget all the vows he made because he's drunk. He'll forget the vows he made to his fellow soldiers, and he'll go and spend the night with his wife. In fact, David urges him to do it, but he doesn't. He spends the night with
the barracks again. And then David gets worried. He again did not spend the night with Bathsheba. So now verse 12, verse 14. In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand of Uriah. I want you to see the heavy irony in this. This young man who would have gladly died for his king because he loved David so much is now going to carry a letter that is arranging for his
own murder by the king, the one he would have died. That's treachery. It's a treachery far worse than anything Saul ever did to David. Now watch it happen. So in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And in the letter he wrote, set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die. And it happens. And
David once again lands on his feet. Uriah is dead. Everybody grieves over the death of Uriah. And everybody thinks he was killed by the foreigners who did the murder. And David's scot-free because Joab, his general, doesn't say a word. It's interesting. No modern general could do this in a way if the general is certainly under U.S. military code because that's an order that no officer would have to follow. But David has so much power
he can set aside all code including the law of God. And Joab follows the order. And David wins. Once again he wins. But the story's not over. He takes Bathsheba and makes Bathsheba his wife. So David fully wins. Uriah is dead. And everybody grieves Uriah's death but nobody blames David because Uriah was killed by the enemy. Except that there's a prophet. And the prophet is Nathan. Remember I told you a couple weeks ago it was sad
that David lost his friend, Jonathan. Somebody who could talk back to him. But he did have one person, Nathan the prophet. And it is to the credit of David that David does listen to Nathan. And now open to chapter 12. So the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said to him. And Nathan decides to speak to David in that rabbinic tradition of the Old Testament by telling him a parable. You notice
our Lord used the parable method of teaching over and over again. And it's used in the book of Proverbs and now it's used by Nathan to David. Not a direct teaching but a story is told in which you become a part of the story. And so he tells this story to David. There were two men in a certain city and one rich the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds. But the poor
man had nothing but one little ewe lamb which he had bought. And he had brought it up and it grew up with him and his children. And he used to eat of his morsel. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his bosom. And it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man. And the rich man was unwilling to take one of his
own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who came to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. And that's the end of the parable. So then Nathan says, here's a parable David. What do we do with this parable? And David, now notice David speaks. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, the rich man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives,
the man who has done this deserves to die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing. And because he had no pity, no grace. Now the next line is one of the most famous lines in all of the Bible. In fact, it's one of the greatest lines in all the history of the prophets. And it comes from Nathan. And Nathan said to David, thou art the man. And after that, Nathan tells David
that as a result of this, he has displeased God. And as a result of it, the sword will never leave David's house. And two weeks from now, when I preach the next sermon in this series, next week, by the way, Carol Miles, one of our seminary students is going to speak. You're in for a great treat. But two weeks from now, you'll hear the narrative of David's own tragic experience with his own son, Absalom, who tries
to kill David. That's a tragic passage, isn't it? What has happened to David? And what is the significance of all of this for us today? I want to make two theological reflections on this passage as we draw our thoughts to a close today. First of all, I want you to see that there are consequences that happen to us because of human sin, and David experiences that. Remember last week, the covenant was given to David that I
will never remove my everlasting love from you, and God does not remove his everlasting love from David, but I will hold you accountable and I will judge you for what you do that's wrong. And David experiences that. And in this passage, we discover incredible consequences and we'll see them as the rest of the narrative of David's life unfolds. What are the consequences that happens? Real harm happens to people because of David's arrogance. And whenever that arrogance
happens, and I make sure that I always land on my feet, and I make sure that I always win, and even if it means breaking the will of God and breaking the just and righteous will of God toward another human being, whenever I do that, terrible consequences occur. Human lives lie in wreckage. And the other consequence that occurs is the terrible threat of treachery, which Saul had made the hallmark of Saul's life. Remember, Saul was always
saying, oh, David, I love you, but then he would throw a spirit at David and of course miss him. You see, Saul was not a very good trader or not a very good plotter, and every single one of Saul's plots failed. The only difference between Saul and David is that Saul won. I mean, David won, Saul lost. You see, Saul failed in every one of his escapades, in every one of his plots against David, but David
won. And as a result, that treachery thread comes into the life of Israel, into the life of David and his house, so that his own son, and we'll see that two weeks from now, Absalom, plots the death of David. See, David is powerful. He's able to land on his feet, and everybody else dies. It's that way through his whole life. And finally, Absalom dies. And the saddest line in the Old Testament is, oh, Absalom, my son,
Absalom, my son. You'll hear that two weeks from now. There's one good thing that happens in this passage, and that is that David fortunately has one person, his name is Nathan, who dares to come up to David and confront him with the truth and tell him these consequences are there and say, thou art the man. Let me ask you a question. Do you have somebody like that in your life that when you fail and when you
do something that's treacherous or something that's fraudulent, that you have somebody that's courageous enough to point their finger to you and say, thou art the man, thou art the woman? You're lucky if you do. David did, and it's the one thing that saves David. You'll see in a minute, we're going to read that Psalm 51 that he says after Nathan spoke to him. It's one thing that saves David, but that's the one good thing that happens
here is that somebody, Nathan, has the courage to speak to David. And David does have the courage to listen to Nathan. But this is a very grim part in David's life. It's the middle part of David's life where all of the arrogance of power winds out in David, and he gets everything that he wants and he tramples on everyone around him and inserts into the life of his own country that tragic thread of that arrogance. We
also, though, in this passage see the fact of God's everlasting love. We do see that also, and we see an everlasting love that is able to heal. David discovers this, too, and I don't want you to miss this. It's interesting, David does not discover this when he lands on his feet. He discovers it when he lands on his face, because after Nathan comes into him, David falls down on his face and confesses before God. And I
open Psalm 51. I can't read the whole psalm to you today, but I just will read you a couple of lines from that great psalm which David wrote. In fact, notice the instructions to the musicians that are given just before Psalm 51 to the choir master, a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. And this wonderful psalm, this honest psalm, it's very similar to the psalm that we
did as our Old Testament lesson today, Psalm 27, which has some of the same themes. It's also the same kind of psalm of confession. Listen to this great line. Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love. Notice, David claims the steadfast love of God. According to thy abundant mercy, blot out all my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. And then in the next few lines, David confesses
that he is a sinner and that he's not only sinned against Uriah, but he's sinned against God. David sees the full extent of what he did. And then in verse 10, which is a beautiful line, create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation. And uphold me with
a willing spirit. And then I will teach transgressors thy way. He asks God humbly to help him. He asks God to heal him, to forgive him. Fortunately, David has a Nathan that confronts him. And fortunately, David confesses. It's not always best to land on your feet, you know. I want to tell you two stories. When I was a young pastor, the very beginning of my ministry, a youth pastor in Seattle, I got a phone call one
day from the Frederick and Nelson department store. It was sort of like Nordstrom's here, a big department store. And they said they had a young teenager in their police station at Frederick and Nelson. And they tried to get her parents, and they were both gone. And they didn't want to turn her over to the police. They caught her shoplifting. And so they asked her if she knew anybody. And so she said, well, I know Reverend Palmer.
And so they called me, and I came down. And that was one embarrassed young girl. Her face was so many shades of red, and she was so embarrassed. And I picked her up at the police station there at Frederick and Nelson. I was driving her home. And while we were driving home, I was trying to make some sort of conversation with this little girl. And I said to her, can you think of anything worse that could
have happened to you than what happened today? I was trying to think of something to say and get her thoughts going. And she said, oh no, I can't think of anything worse. This is the most terrible worst thing that could have ever happened in my whole life. And of course, she still had to face her mother and dad. Later that day, so I'm sure that was on her mind. And here she was embarrassed in front of
me, her youth pastor. She said, oh, it's the most terrible thing that could ever happen. Well, I decided to keep pressing her a little bit. Because I said, no, think hard. Isn't there something worse that could have happened to you than what happened today? And she said, no, I can't think of anything worse. And she never could come up with anything worse than what had happened to her. So finally, I decided that I'd better try my
own answer out. And I said, you know, I'm a father too, and I have a little girl. My Anne then was about two years old. And so I want to say, because I love my little daughter Anne, and I love you. And I just want to say, I can think of something worse that could have happened to you today other than getting caught down at Frederick and Nelson shoplifting. And that is if you hadn't been caught
at Frederick and Nelson shoplifting. That would be worse. Because you would have got away with it. And that would be worse. You see, that's what happened to David. He got away with it. Joab keeps his mouth shut. Uriah is dead. Bathsheba is his wife. What could be better? But God knew. And you know, what would have been worse for David is he got away with it. But he didn't, thanks to Nathan. And thanks to God. Because
a covenant God made with him was, I will never take my everlasting love away from you. And David, I will hold you accountable. And that costly grace which held David accountable saved his life. And that's what he discovered. And Psalm 51 tells it. Now I'm going to tell you a second story that I finished today. Several years ago I was giving a lecture at Chicago for the National Youth Workers Convention. And a young man came up
to me after I finished talking. And he said, Reverend Palmer, I've got to talk to you. And he introduced himself to me. And he said, I was in Berkeley when I was 20 and 21 years old for two years. And I was on Telegraph Avenue. And I was a drug addict. And I was even pushing drugs. And I was there for two years. And some people in your church reached out to me. And I started coming
to your church. And I accepted Christ one day. And trusted him. And I never had a chance to talk to you. Because as soon as I did, I called my family back home and found out they wanted me to come home. I went back and I was reunited with my family. And I went to college. And I finished college. And I married this girl whose wife is standing next to him. And we're pregnant. We're going to
have a baby and everything. And I'm a youth pastor. So all those things in one sentence. And I was so happy. I just rejoiced with him. And he said, I want to say thanks. Because I never met you. But I came to your church. And the people in your church and your church helped me. And now here I am a youth pastor. And then I said, I'm so happy. And I was so thrilled. And then just
before he left. Oh, but by the way. And then he rolled his sleeves up. He said, I have marks to prove I was in Berkeley. And he pulled up his shirt. And he said, I have a big scar here. See that big scar? It was a knife fight I had one day. And over here he had some puncture wounds. Some puncture wounds from when I was there. That proves I was there. And then he said, in
a wistful sort of way. He says, you know, those two years are kind of a blur to me. Until the very end. A blur. I got to thinking about that young man. I rejoiced that that young man had been forgiven and healed. And by the way, David gets forgiven and healed too. But I realized something about forgiveness. I realized that God's forgiveness is a wonderful thing. Because it gives you a brand new beginning. But the one
thing forgiveness does not do is it does not take away consequences. And forgiveness does not give back to that young man the two years he threw away. Think of it. Age 20 and 21 are the best years of your whole life. According to psychologists and students of the human brain. Your brain is sharper when you're 20 and 21 than ever again. It's sort of downhill after that. I'm sorry about that. That's evidently true. Your brain reaches
its sort of apex of power. Your ability to think clearly and do all this stuff that you can do in school. Is at your very best around 20 and 21. And during those two best years of his life. He was in a daze on Telegraph Avenue. He was in a fog. He says it's a blur to me. I can hardly remember one day into the next. And you know when he got forgiven by Jesus Christ. He
did not get to go back and live those years again. He didn't get to go back and live once again those two years he threw away. Now that is part of life. And if you're here today and get forgiven of some sin in your life. You don't get to go and live it all over again. No, in fact scars on his arm probably mean there are scars in somebody else's arm too. Because he probably was in
a knife fight and somebody else got some dagger puncture wounds too. And maybe they're worse off than he is. In terms of the wounds. But the wounds are there, scars. But they're healed. Thank God for that. And he can go on with his life. And he did go on with his life. And like David says. I'll teach transgressors thy way. I'm sadder but wiser. I didn't land on my feet. I landed on my back. And I
discovered who I was. And now I can teach transgressors thy way. But the consequences are still there. The threat of treachery is there. And it will come back later to haunt David too. But he's forgiven. Now how can he be forgiven? Somebody has got to do that for him. And that we'll see when we get to the final sermon in this series. And you'll see why David is so messianic. Why we need a messiah to fulfill
David. And that we'll see later. But right now you need to know this. You need to know that David discovered the consequences of his sin. And David also discovered forgiveness. And that's good news. The promise God had made to him that we saw last week. God does not go back on. My everlasting love will stay with you. But David I will hold you accountable. And he does. Heavenly Father thank you for this text. We thank you.
And though we grieve, we grieve at a text like this. That shows our frailty and shows the tragedy of power. When power becomes arrogant. And when we arrange to always land on our feet. And we leave people around us in shambles. And Lord we thank you. That when we land on our back we discover your grace in a profound way. And you heal us. The consequences are there. But you heal us. And we can get on
with life. And we can teach transgressors your way. And you do restore to us the joy of your salvation. Lord I pray for that for every single person here. Lord I pray that every person here including myself. That we may have our Nathans that are able to talk frankly to us. And that we'll listen. And they will discover your love. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Jesus, my Redeemer, make the form of paint. Thank you, O
my Father, for giving us your Son. And leaving your spirit till the work of every child. When I stand in glory I will see his face. And there I'll serve my King forever in that holy place. Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son. And leaving your spirit till the work of heaven is done. There is our Redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son. Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Father, the Holy One. Thank you, O my
Father, for giving us your Son. And leaving your spirit till the work of heaven is done. Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, the Holy One. This morning we again have a rosebud here in the base by the organ. And this is in celebration of the birth of Allison Hart MacDonald. Was born in Oakland on February the 13th to Marty and Frazier MacDonald. And we rejoice with that family over the birth of this child. Let us join together
now in prayer of the people. Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise for many things this morning. Thankful for the rain again that has nourished the earth. And we pray that we may be good stewards of this gift that you have given to us. That we may be wise in its use and sharing in its goodness. We're thankful also, Heavenly Father, for the end of the warfare in the Persian Gulf. And
we pray that the steps that are being taken even today, even now as we pray, to bring this war to a conclusion may be fruitful, may be fair and just. We think of the men and women who have gone from this congregation to be in the Persian Gulf. And we continue to pray for their safety and their joyous homecoming. We grieve over the great destruction, the great loss of life. We think of not only the families
in this nation, but in other nations, and the families in Iraq who have lost sons and daughters. And we pray for your spirit of peace and comfort to them. We pray, Heavenly Father, for your continued spirit at work in the resolution of the great injustices that have taken place over the years in the Persian Gulf and in that whole Middle East area. We pray for your spirit and presence in the resolution of the Israel-Palestine question.
And for those people who are suffering greatly. Here at home, Heavenly Father, we lift up to you in prayer Paul Furman from this congregation and ask that your presence may be close in his life, in the decisions that he makes and the actions which he takes. We pray for the family of Bill Hart Sr. and his wife Nellie as she gives care to him in what is possibly these last days of his life. We pray that
you may continue to sustain them and give them great encouragement and uplifting. And we bring before you David and Beth Ann Moles, the ministry to which you have called them in Columbia University in New York. We pray for your direction to them as they plan for the Jesus Awareness Week, as they prepare for a new baby at the end of April, and as your spirit has worked in such a wonderful way in the ministry to which
you have called them in this past year. So we hold all of these prayers before you Heavenly Father, now in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our Old Testament lesson this morning is from Psalm 27. It's a Psalm of David. We're going to be singing it. The refrain is on an insert in your messenger. I'll sing it through once, then please join in with me. Save your people, O Lord, Show us the way to
come home. We have been wandering far from your love. Save your people, O Lord, Save your people, O Lord, Show us the way to come home. We have been wandering far from your love. Save your people, O Lord, One thing I ask, O Lord, this I seek, To dwell forever in your house, That I may gaze on your loveliness All the days of my life. Save your people, O Lord, Show us the way to come home.
We have been wandering far from your love. Save your people, O Lord, For you will hide me in the shelter of your wings And from the arrows of my foes. You set me high on a mountain top, Saved me from my distress. Save your people, O Lord, Show us the way to come home. We have been wandering far from your love. Save your people, O Lord. Listen, O Lord, to the sound of my cry, For I
acknowledge my offense. Wash me and I shall be purified, I shall be whiter than snow. Save your people, O Lord, Show us the way to come home. We have been wandering far from your love. Save your people, O Lord. Thus will I bless you all the days of my life, Lifting my voice, I call your name. O Lord, remember your inheritance, Save your people, O Lord. Save your people, O Lord, Show us the way to come
home. We have been wandering far from your love. Save your people, O Lord. Save your people, O Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debts. And lead us
not into temptation, But deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, And the glory forever. Amen. Members of our Stevens ministry are always available for prayer if anybody would like to stop by. And now let's receive the benediction. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God our Father, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you today and always. Amen.