20250914_Samuel

[0:00] 1 Samuel chapter 1, but in keeping with what Nathan has just said, he reminded me of what Paul said in Athens.

[0:16] ! So Paul is on his way to Corinth, but in Athens he stops and goes to the Areopagus and speaks to the philosophers.

[0:26] And he says, look, the God that you don't know about, you claim there's a God that you don't know, which is true.

[0:41] Essentially he says, I'm going to proclaim him to you. And then he said, this God made from one, he says, one, all nations.

[0:53] And he established their bounds and he established their habitations. And he said, now, he did not say it in Acts there, but it's a reiteration of what God had said in the Old Testament where he said, look, I raise them up and I set them back.

[1:14] God's hand is in history. He said, this God who has set the bounds and habitations of all peoples, he has overlooked.

[1:25] You're in the times of ignorance, he's overlooked some things. That doesn't mean they're never going to stand in judgment. What he's saying is that his judgment hasn't come right now.

[1:36] But he said, he has fixed a day when he is going to judge the earth. And therefore, he wants you, all men, to repent.

[1:51] Change their minds about him. Because he's fixed a day when there is judgment. And when that judgment comes, justice will prevail. And the Lord Jesus will return.

[2:07] And when he sits on the throne, not everybody's going to like it. Some people are going to say as the boy in Sunday school or in church service, he got up and tried to stand on the top of the pew.

[2:21] Not that I would know anything about it. But his father said, sit down and forced him to sit.

[2:33] And the boy in his heart said, I'm sitting on the outside, but I'm still standing up on the inside. But even then, the Lord Jesus will rule with a rod of iron.

[2:47] And justice is still going to prevail. Now, we don't look for the hope just because justice prevails. We look for the hope because God in his mercy has descended to mankind and taken my sin to the cross so that I don't have to pay for it.

[3:06] I'm so thankful for that. Now, we're going to go into 1 Samuel. And there's a reason.

[3:17] I'm not sure what it is. But there's a reason I wanted to do this. You see, to know God, we have to know something about God and his nature and his character.

[3:29] We also have to know something about his works. And God's works are always in conformity with his character and his nature.

[3:42] So, 1 Samuel chapter 1. Now, something that is entirely irrelevant to this. How many people, when we sing, I'd rather have Jesus, hear George Beverly shade?

[3:57] I don't know why that is. It dates some of you. How many of you don't even know who he was? Yeah.

[4:09] Okay. But some of us, when we hear that song, that's who we think of because I still hear him sing it. Okay.

[4:21] If you would, please, then. Beginning with verse 1, reading the first 20 verses, this is the birth of Samuel.

[4:36] Now, I'm reading from the New American Standard. If you have King James, it will read. The grammar will be constructed slightly differently, but the text remains the same.

[4:50] There was a certain man from, pardon my pronunciations, Ramatham, Zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim.

[5:01] And his name was Elkanah, the son of Jerhoam, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zoph, and Ephraimite.

[5:12] And he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Penaniah, or Penanah. And Penanah had children, but Hannah had no children.

[5:26] Now, this man would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the Lord there.

[5:42] Interesting. Verse 4. And when the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Penanah, his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters.

[5:55] But to Hannah, he would give a double portion. For he loved Hannah, but the Lord had closed her womb. Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.

[6:09] And it happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, that she would provoke her. So she wept and would not eat. Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep, and why do you not eat, and why is your heart sad?

[6:26] Am I not better to you than ten sons? And then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord.

[6:40] And she, greatly distressed, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she made a vow and said, Now it came about, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli was watching her mouth.

[7:13] As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart only. Her lips were not moving, but her voice was not heard. Or her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard.

[7:25] So Eli thought she was drunk. Then Eli said to her, How long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you. But Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman oppressed in spirit.

[7:40] I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord. Do not consider your maidservant as a worthless woman, or a daughter of Belial, I think your King James will say, which is a little more accurate in this case.

[7:58] For I have spoken now out of my great concern and provocation. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him.

[8:12] And she said, Let your maidservant find favor in your sight. So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. Then they arose early in the morning and worshipped before the Lord and returned again to their house in Ramah.

[8:30] And Elkanah had relations with Hannah, his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And it came about in due time after Hannah had conceived that she gave birth to a son, and she named him Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.

[8:49] Now, Samuel was the last judge in Israel. And I know I'm jumping right in the middle. I realize that. But, here we are nevertheless.

[9:02] He was the last of the judges. The first judge, remembering as you think about it, was Moses. The second was Joshua, who God had used to bring the children of Israel into the land.

[9:18] They had no king yet. After the death of Joshua, though, things kind of changed for a while.

[9:30] In fact, if you turn to Judges, keep in Samuel, but turn to Judges 2, verse 7. Some of us have heard these verses several times.

[9:44] Sometimes, it will behoove me to hear them again. See, Israel did not dispossess the Canaanites completely as God had told them to.

[9:56] God had said, drive them all out. Get rid of them. But they didn't. So, as Joshua put it, because they did not do that, they became a whip in their sides and a thorn in their eyes.

[10:16] That is, the people of the land. They're going to lead Israel astray. Judges, chapter 2, verse 7. The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord, which he had done for Israel.

[10:35] And verse 8. Then Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gash.

[10:50] Verse 10. All that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And a telling verse. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which he had done for Israel.

[11:11] Now, Israel, during the time that we call the judges, this would be after Joshua, and through that period of time, as a whole, Israel forsook the Lord and went after idols.

[11:28] So, you will remember then that God would punish them. And he would bring on them oppressors who would plunder them or kill them.

[11:45] He'd raise up oppressors for them. And then he would raise up a judge who would deliver them from that oppressor. and they would serve the Lord for a while and then the cycle repeated itself.

[12:03] And so, it is at the end of this cycle, or at least of the reiteration of this cycle, that Joshua is going to be born. He is going to be born Joshua.

[12:16] I said Joshua. I'm sorry. Samuel. Samuel is born at the end of this recurring thing of oppression, punishment by God.

[12:28] God is the one that raised up the oppressor and gave them over into his hand to chasten them. And then God would raise up a judge for deliverance.

[12:40] And then it's at this end that Samuel is born. And Samuel will take the place as the last judge of Israel. He is going to be the one that bridges between the time of the judges and the beginning of the kings.

[12:57] He will anoint the first two kings of Israel. Now, as a whole, as a whole, Israel has deserted God.

[13:13] They've gone to idols. idols. They have not only looked at their neighbors and said, well, that looks like more fun in worship than I have.

[13:26] I think I'm going to go that way. So they've not only looked at that, but they have actually followed it and forsaken the Lord, that is, Jehovah, the God who brought them out of Egypt, as he says, and did all the great works.

[13:44] By the way, this is just an aside, a little lesson for me. It's important to set up the stones of remembrance and to tell the sons, thus far hath the Lord brought us.

[14:01] This is what God did when we crossed the Jordan. This is what God did when we met this battle. This is what God did for us. It's important to pass it on because there arose a generation that didn't know God.

[14:19] And, of course, we know what the, at that time there was no king in Israel, but every man did what was right in his own eyes.

[14:35] Now, as a whole, they abandoned God, but not everybody did. The tabernacle still stood. The tabernacle when they came over the Jordan was established in Shiloh.

[14:50] We're going to get to that. The tabernacle was in Shiloh. People still went. The sacrifices were still being done. The tabernacle service was still being done.

[15:05] And there were some people, Elkanah being one of them, that still served God. But not everybody did, and the majority did not.

[15:16] This is about a family that did. So, Elkanah and his family stayed with God.

[15:29] The priests, not all of them even knew God, even though they were performing the sacrifices. Two of them are mentioned here. Let's look then at verses 1 and 2.

[15:45] There was a certain man from Rameth, from the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah. And he had two wives.

[15:55] The name of one was Hannah, and the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. Elkanah was a Levite, by the way.

[16:07] If you look back in 1 Chronicles chapter 6, verses 33 through 38, you get his lineage. Elkanah was of the tribe of Levi.

[16:20] He was not of the priestly family. You remember the priests were direct descendants of, somebody help me, Aaron.

[16:33] So, Aaron was of the tribe of Levi, but it was Aaron's descendants who were called to be priests. And that actually does come up in Exodus chapter 28, by the way, where God tells Moses, bring up Aaron, he and his family, his lineage, are going to serve me as priests.

[17:02] But the Levites had no inheritance in the land, that is, they didn't get territory in the land. The Levites were to be the servants of the tabernacle.

[17:14] And they're going to live off the sacrifices and their own work, work, but they have no territory assigned to them.

[17:30] You'll have to go back into Genesis to hear the prophecy about that, what is said about that. But we will not go there today. So, Elkanah is a Levite, and that's going to be important because when Samuel's born, where's he going to serve?

[17:51] Yeah, he's going to serve in the tabernacle. You can read that later, but that's what he will be doing.

[18:02] So, the tribe of Levi then have permission to serve before the Lord and keep the service. Elkanah had two wives.

[18:18] Okay, now we have something to say. This isn't a good idea. It wasn't even then, by the way, because the Lord Jesus, when the Sadducees try to trick him, and they say, well, whose wife will she be?

[18:36] And he says, you don't understand. But then he goes on to say, look, or no, I'm sorry, I got it mixed up. it was when, shall we be able to, his disciples say, can we divorce for any reason?

[18:53] Or that is, any reason at all. That's, is there only one reason? They're saying, can we just give a certificate of divorce if we don't, if I'm tired of it? And he said, no.

[19:06] He said, in the beginning, he said, Moses allowed that because of the hardness of your heart, divorce at all. But he said, in the beginning, it was not so.

[19:18] For this cause, and he's going to quote from Genesis, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two, the twain, shall be one flesh.

[19:32] In fact, then, it was permitted under the law, it was controlled under the Mosaic law, but it is not a practice for the church.

[19:47] The church is called to one man, one woman. And in Ephesians, and I'll just read a couple of them. In Ephesians, the apostle Paul will say in chapter five, beginning with verse 22, wives, be subject to your own husbands.

[20:09] And for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, he's going to draw an analogy here about what our marriage should look like, because he's going to say, just as you know what the doctrine is about Christ and the church, I'm going to show you how this parallels your marriage.

[20:30] And he says, so just like Christ is the head of the church, so the husband is the head of the wife. Now, he doesn't stop there though, he says, he himself, that is Christ, being savior of the body.

[20:46] Husbands, that's our job. And as the church is subject to Christ, so wives ought to be to their own husbands in everything.

[20:59] Then he goes on to husbands, love your wives just like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. And now he goes on. He sanctifies her.

[21:14] I know I'm paraphrasing. That is, Christ sanctifies the church, the husband is to sanctify his wife, set her apart by the washing of water as it were with his words.

[21:31] Verse 27 of Ephesians chapter 5, says that he might, and that is Christ is presenting to himself the church in all her glory, having neither spot nor wrinkle.

[21:46] And that's what the husband should be doing, is setting aside his wife and presenting her having no spot nor wrinkle.

[21:57] Now, we do not pretend that we are perfectionists, but we husbands should be setting aside our wives.

[22:08] We should be sanctifying our wife, if you will. And he finishes there with the quote from Genesis again.

[22:20] In verse 31, the apostle Paul uses it in the day of grace, and the two will become one flesh. Again, it's the two.

[22:33] First Corinthians, also, the apostle Paul will say that each man is to, in verse, it'll be in chapter 7 if you want to jot them down and look them up later to see if it's correct.

[22:50] Each man is to have his own wife, and each woman her own husband, husband, and neither has authority over their own body, but their partner does.

[23:04] That is, I don't have authority, Sherry does. Sherry doesn't have authority, I do, because we're one flesh.

[23:15] that's pretty hard to accomplish with a whole bunch of wives. I have enough trouble with one.

[23:28] Not that she's trouble, I don't mean that. So, by the way, 1 Timothy, the apostle Paul prohibits a man from serving as an elder or a deacon if he has multiple wives.

[23:47] That's a prescription. And he says, look, if any man, if you're looking at a man to be an elder or bishop, if I think King James will say bishop there, but if you're looking at a man as an eldership, if he's got two wives, he's not eligible.

[24:08] Same thing as a deacon. If you're looking at a man to be a deacon, if he has two wives, he's not eligible. There are other things in there that we need to know about, but we will not go into them now.

[24:26] This man, verse 3, this man would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh.

[24:37] God go. Now, in Deuteronomy and Deuteronomy chapter 12, we will not turn unless you might be able to turn very fast there.

[24:55] Deuteronomy chapter 12, and it really starts, it's the whole chapter, but I'm going to pick some up. God talking to Moses, he says, you will seek the Lord at the place where your Lord God will choose from all your tribes to establish his name for his dwelling, and there you will come.

[25:16] Now, in that time, God said, I will pick a place, and I will say, that's the house of God.

[25:26] that's where God dwells. That's the tabernacle. Later, it will be the temple in Jerusalem.

[25:37] That's why Jesus will say to the Samaritan woman, look, the Jews know where they're supposed to go. They're right. You go to Jerusalem. You don't sacrifice to God on the hills.

[25:51] He said, you go there because that's what the law said. That's what he had told them. So, that's one thing.

[26:04] You notice he went to sacrifice. Well, we aren't told that he went for sin sacrifices, but probably he did because they had, there was once a year.

[26:17] It's not a sin sacrifice here because this is not going to be the day of atonement. The day of atonement was a day of fasting, so they're feasting here.

[26:31] But, there were others. There were, and I don't begin to have listed any, even a scratch of them.

[26:41] But they had the feast of the first fruits. They had to offer the first fruits or the early things. the first, they had to redeem their first son.

[26:52] They had to sacrifice the first of their cattle, the first of their sheep, the first of their grain, the first of their wine, everything.

[27:05] That was one of them. They had votive offerings where they just offered sacrifice of joy. they had offerings for sin offerings when, before the day of atonement, between that time, I made a mistake and I did something I wasn't supposed to do according to the law of Moses, and now I have to go and make a sin offering sacrifice.

[27:37] There were multiple, multiple offerings that they were doing. Here, Elkanah is going, he and his family, so they are making sacrifice and they're doing it in Shiloh because Shiloh is where the tabernacle is.

[27:56] That's where God has established his name. So he's doing everything that the law of Moses has told him to do. And by the way, we read that they're eating and drinking the sacrifice sacrifice.

[28:11] And you will notice if you went to Deuteronomy, God said you are not allowed to eat within your gates the tithe or of your wine and oil or the firstborn of your herd, that would be the firstfruits, or your votive offerings.

[28:32] You're not allowed to eat your offering in your gate. You have to go to the tabernacle and eat it there. That's where you have to go. That's why they're eating and drinking the sacrifice.

[28:46] And he says if it's too far, he goes on to say, if it's too far to go with sheep or whatever you have, then he says you sell them, you bind the money in your hand, you go to Shiloh in this case, you buy whatever your heart desires, he says.

[29:08] You spend it on cattle or sheep or wine or strong drink and you eat and drink before the Lord in Shiloh and there's where you rejoice in the Lord.

[29:22] Now, I'm thankful that we are in the day of grace. I don't have to go to Shiloh as it were.

[29:35] Too bad she's not here to hear her name, right? Now, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 21 and 22.

[29:46] Now, he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us, and he's talking about his own ministry, his apostolic ministry, but he sealed us, all of us, and gave us the spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

[30:04] where's God's dwelling today if I am in Christ? It's in me. It is not in the place where he established his name.

[30:18] The law, by the way, was not given that would impart life, the apostle says. It was given to show me that I can't be good enough.

[30:31] I can't be. I need a savior. He says, it was given as a school master to lead us to Christ. And so, here we are.

[30:44] In Galatians chapter 4, he says, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, so that in your heart you cry, Abba, Father.

[30:57] And then in 1 Thessalonians, he said that he talks about sanctification as in a practical sanctification.

[31:11] In chapter 4, verse 7, for God has not called us to impurity, but in sanctification, verse 8, so he rejects this, that is the teaching that Paul has just delivered, is not rejecting man, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

[31:29] The dwelling today is God in man. We don't have to go to Shiloh, and we don't make yearly sacrifices, because the supreme sacrifice has been made once and for all, he says.

[31:53] Now, it is for this reason that Paul is going to say of the individual Christian in 1 Corinthians, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own, you are bought with a price, therefore, glorify God in your body.

[32:18] So, he says, your body now is the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is where God dwells. As far as the sacrifices, Christ made the supreme sacrifice, the sacrifice we made, we see in Romans chapter 12 verse 1, where he says, now, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.

[32:46] That's your logical service. That's how that reads. The King James actually reads better in that one when he says reasonable service. The word is the word for logic.

[33:01] So, he says, your reasoned out, your logical service, that is, worship, is to present your bodies a living sacrifice. And, it's not that we earn our salvation, we don't, but it's, it has to do with our sanctification.

[33:19] And, by the way, my walk's going to be a lot better, and my life is going to be a lot more joyful if I listen to the Lord and present my body a living sacrifice, rather than, okay, I don't want to do that.

[33:39] All right, so he would go up, Hophni and Phinehas are priests. If you went to chapter 2, and most of you already know this, God's going to say the sons of Eli were worthless, that is, they were sons of Belial, and they did not know the Lord.

[34:02] They served as priests, they are the go-between between man and God. They are offering, they will take the blood of the sacrifice and put it on the horns of the altar.

[34:17] That's their job. And they will make atonement for the people. But these guys don't even know God. But now, apart from the law, in 1 Timothy we read, for there is one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus.

[34:44] We have one priest, and he, now I don't get, I don't understand, and he who completely understands the Trinity is wrong, but Jesus, as a member of God head, Jesus, who indwells me in the Holy Spirit, is my mediator to the Father.

[35:16] I don't, my tiny mind doesn't grasp it. I'm just thankful that it's true. So that we have, what's the, what's the verse we sing?

[35:28] Whoever lives and pleads for me. me. So, if God before us, who can be against us?

[35:40] Who is it that brings the charge? Nobody. Because the judge is also our advocate. That's a wonder, that's amazing grace.

[35:52] That's amazing grace. So, we don't know that Elkanah knew that they were godless, but, nevertheless, he obeyed God and went to Shiloh and sacrificed.

[36:07] Now, when the day came, verse 4, when the day came that Elkanah, we aren't going to make it through, I know, sacrificed.

[36:23] He would give portions to Penanah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters, but he would give Hannah a double portion. her rival, whose rival? The other wife.

[36:36] Another good, here's another reason. So, the other wife would constantly ridicule her and provoke her so that she would cry and not eat.

[36:52] And then, when the provocations of Penanah got so great that Hannah was in despair, Elkanah is going to say the thing that every wife wants to hear from her husband when she's in emotional distress.

[37:13] What's wrong with you? You have me. I know I've paraphrased that, but that's Hannah, I'm better than ten sons.

[37:28] Now, that may be true, but that's not what she needed to hear at the time. Nevertheless, then, she goes to the temple to pray.

[37:41] Now, we're calling it temple. It's still the tabernacle. The permanent temple has not been erected by Solomon yet, but she makes a vow.

[37:55] Now, she makes a big vow. She says, if you will give me a son, I'll give him to you. All the days of his life, a razor will never come on his head.

[38:07] Samuel, this is the mark, by the way, oh, what's a haircut have to do with it? He's going to be a Nazirite. He's going to be a Nazirite from birth. He's one of the three who are called Nazirites from birth.

[38:21] The other two, Samson, there's a winner. Samson is going to be a Nazirite from birth, and the other one's going to be John the Baptist.

[38:34] Now, only Samson is called a Nazirite, but the others, John the Baptist, you know, Zacharias is in the temple. He says, he's not going to, or, no, the angel of the Lord says this to Elizabeth, he says, don't drink anything, don't drink any alcohol, because he is going to be set apart from the womb.

[39:01] He will be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb. He's not going to have a choice, by the way, God's going to do it. Normally, if you went into, if you went into, let's see, where are the Nazirites?

[39:23] I think it is Numbers, in Numbers chapter 6, if you want to look up the Nazirite vow. But normally, a Nazirite vow was, you would set aside a time, and you would say, I am devoting myself entirely to God during this period of time, and during this period of time, I will not touch anything unclean.

[39:47] There are several rules in there. I won't touch anything unclean. I won't touch a dead person. I won't defile myself even for my wife. I won't, and by defile, it means if she dies, I won't help.

[40:09] And, the other mark, no razors, no head shaving. So, that's where, by the way, Samson's thing with the hair, the hair didn't make him strong.

[40:25] It was a sign that he belonged to God, and God took his spirit from him when he shaved the mark off. I'm glad that that doesn't happen now.

[40:38] See, now, we are sanctified not because we set ourselves apart, and there are restrictions. You know, there were restrictions. No wine, no strong drink. That's what, certain foods.

[40:53] There are restrictions. For the believer, sanctification is done entirely by Christ. And that permanently, that's a big, big difference.

[41:09] So, Eli thinks Hannah's drunk, and Hannah says no.

[41:20] and she says, I'm speaking from the bitterness of my heart. I am. That's why you didn't hear a sound.

[41:33] Eli believes her, he blesses her, and expresses his desire. In verses 19 and 20, Samuel is born.

[41:46] There is more to this story, a lot more, but a couple of things. they had to worship at the tabernacle. We worship God in spirit.

[42:00] They had to go to Shiloh. We don't have to go anywhere. God is ever present and never leaves. They did sacrifices.

[42:13] We cannot do any sacrifices other than to dedicate ourselves to present our bodies. That is, to try to behave in such a way that it glorifies God.

[42:28] But there's no sacrifice to be done for our salvation or our standing. It's all done by Christ. They went to have a priest mediate.

[42:41] We have Jesus Christ as the only mediator between God and man. And he is not only our sacrifice, he's our mediator, and he's the judge of the world.

[42:57] That's pretty cool. God said, look, I have done this, we get this from Romans, because I will prove myself both just and justifier of them who believe in Christ Jesus.

[43:19] We have a wonderful salvation. And as far as the Nazaritic vow, usually it was done by the person making the vow.

[43:32] In Samuel's case, it was done by his mother, and it was for a lifetime, it wasn't for a set. But, as far as the vow, it was temporary, and it had abstinences that were required.

[43:49] Our sanctification is in Christ Jesus. There's no abstinence required. Our standing is secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to stop there.

[44:02] But you have a wonderful week, and let's ask the Lord to bless our week. Father, we thank you so much for what you've done through your Son, Jesus Christ, for us, that we have an eternal hope in Christ Jesus, and ask now that you would bless those of our body who are not able to be here.

[44:27] We thank you for safe travels that you've given to them. And I ask, Lord, again, I ask for our nation that we would come to you as a nation, as a people.

[44:45] I know it's individually now, I realize that, but as a whole, because we don't think right in our own.

[44:57] I ask for protection from what I would say is a reign of terror. And I ask, Lord, that in all things your will be done, help us to rejoice and remember what we have in you, and to rest in you, and trust you.

[45:17] Now, bless us as we separate our paths this week and bring us together next week. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.