Open Mtg. 2

Listen from:
Open—M. Payette, K. VanSpengen, F. Gorgas
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
202.
Right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't know. I'm talking to you and come on. Come on. Bye. Oh my God. I'm confused. I'm confused. And you can give me the railroad blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Nsnoise.
Ask the Lord blessings, our loving God and our Father, we think of the words.
Think of some of the lines and the hem that we have sung together. We were singing about singing. We shall see his face. We were singing about hearing. We will hear that well known voice and we have been singing about knowing. And so we shall know the fullness of his love when with him and like him for all eternity. So as we would uh.
Just wait in Thy presence this afternoon in connection with the ministry before us. We would just ask that Thou lead by Thy spirit that we might have suited portions, uh, that which is necessary, that which is encouraging, that which perhaps uh, might stir us up. We would just leave all to Thee and the leading of this meeting to thee too.
We just thank Thee for the prospect that awaits us and that a soon coming day when we shall be all ushered into Thy presence. We give Thee thanks, blessed Savior, and Thine alone, worthy and precious name. Amen.
00:05:33
Read some verses from Exodus chapter 26.
Perhaps to connect what we've had before us as to our hope of the Lord's coming and us being with Him and like Him forever.
We have in the Old Testament the Tabernacle presented to us as a picture of heavenly things, of things in heaven.
And also, I believe as a model for us to to learn from. So just like to read a few verses in Exodus chapter 26 and perhaps get some thoughts from that portion.
Exodus chapter 26 and verse 15.
And thou shalt make boards for the Tabernacle of Chittendenwood standing up. 10 cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board.
Two tenants shall there be in one board set in order one against another. Thou shalt thou make for all the boards of the Tabernacle. Thou shalt make the boards of the Tabernacle twenty boards. On the South side, southward thou shall make 40 sockets of silver under the twenty boards, two sockets under one board for his two tenants, and two sockets under another board for his two tenants. And for the second side of the Tabernacle, on the north side there shall be twenty boards.
And there's 40 sockets of silver, two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. And for the sides of the Tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards, and two boards shall thou make for the corners of the Tabernacle on two sides. And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto 1 ring. Thus shall it be for them both. They shall be for the two corners. And there shall be eight boards and their sockets of silver, 16 sockets, 2 sockets under one board.
And two sockets under another board thou shalt make bars of shining wood. 5 for the boards of the one side of the Tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the other side of the Tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the Tabernacle for the two sides westward.
And the middle bar in the midst of the board shall reach from end to end. And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make them rings of gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars. For thou shalt overlay the bars with gold.
Well, I trust most of you have seen pictures of the Tabernacle and if you haven't I I suggest you look into the subject because it is full of precious types and figures and teachings for us.
But I'd like to speak specifically on this, this description here that we have of the board of the Tabernacle and now that we're set up because I believe they're a picture for us of the believers.
It's a remarkable thing. You know, these boards were exactly the same. The ones that were in the holy place were exactly the same as the ones in the most holy place. Our physically in the presence of the Lord and you know, our standing right now is exactly the same as it's going to be when the Lord Jesus comes. We have a perfect standing in Christ can't be made better.
But as I suggest that the same, these boards were the same in the Holy place and the Most Holy. In the Holy place there was a table of showbread, the altar of incense, and the golden Candlestick, whereas in the holy place all there was was the Ark of the Covenant, which was a picture of the Lord Jesus. And I believe the holy place is a picture for us in this present dispensation of time, where we are around the Lord, and held together by the power of God to be a testimony to His name.
So as I consider these boards and seeing them a picture of the believers, I'd like to get a few thoughts to bring this to our hearts practically too.
The first thought was that they were standing up.
We read in the Epistle to the Romans that the Lord has put us standing up and he's able to keep us up.
And if one falls, he's able to rise us up again so that we'd be standing. This is the desire of the Lord Jesus for us to be standing for Him individually in our Christian life and testimony.
These boards, they had 10 cubits, 10 cubits in length. They all have the same length, same height.
00:10:09
When you think of justification, you know in the Old Testament, if you could have kept the 10 commandments, God could have declared you just on the basis of your performance. But we learned from Scripture, nobody can stand before God on the basis of his performance. We can have a perfect standing before God and perfect righteousness that 10 cubits speaks of on the basis of the work of the Lord Jesus and your trust, your faith in him. And I trust everyone here this afternoon is put their trust in the Lord Jesus and how's this standing before God?
Now these 10 cubit boards had two, uh, bases, you might say 2 silver bases. And, uh, I've enjoyed different thoughts about that in connection with the repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because silver that speaks of, uh, redemption. But I also thought of the appreciation we can have as believers in the Lord Jesus have two aspects that are very important and are, are parallel and are presented here in that.
Uh, in those two bases of two things that we often speak about, and perhaps sometimes we can get off in our balance of these things, and that is the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man.
It's a wonderful thing to know that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And that God is sovereign, and he works through people and circumstances, and he draws us to himself. Lord Jesus says no one can come to me lest the Father that sent me draws them. That's God's sovereignty.
When God makes you hear the gospel and makes you responsible.
And perhaps, and most people here this afternoon, they've been visited by the Spirit of God and have accepted the Lord as their Savior and rejoice in the fact that God is sovereign and has done that for them.
That doesn't take away from your responsibility as a believer.
You know, I heard the gospel from another believer.
And the people around you, God wants them to hear about that wonderful Savior He sent into the world.
And today our standing before God is on his sovereignty and the responsibility he's committed to us of being faithful witnesses to the world of the Lord Jesus and also being faithful witnesses to what he's made us to be in Christ. You know, Lord Jesus died for each one of us and also died to make US1 together. And that's part of our responsibility to show that practical oneness and are going on one with another. So I'd just like to suggest that starting connection with.
The 16th verse it says the width of the board was a cubit and 1/2.
Doesn't specify the depth of it. I I believe it was one cubit, but it doesn't specify the depth. But the width was identical to everyone and so we all have the same standing in the same place before God, you might say. But the thought of half a cubit brings to mind that 1/2 isn't complete.
To be complete, needs another half.
You know, there are things that we can't do alone.
There are things that we need to be two or more to do, for example, remembering the Lord.
For example, being gathered to the Lord's name.
You know, the Lord says, there am I in the midst.
Have a mist? You need to have at least two. You don't have a mist if you don't have two.
You could be with the Lord and join him. There's no means.
So we need one another and I I believe we have this picture here in these boards that they were incomplete in themselves as to what they were part of. To manifest what they were really part of, they needed others. And so these boards all had a cubit and 1/2.
Now, you know, if you read a little bit earlier or later, I'm not sure, I have to check it about the, uh, the holy place, when you came into the court, there were four pillars in the court. When you came into the holy place, there were five pillars.
And I'm sure many of you are familiar with this because.
The five pillars would speak of entering into those things that God has, has revealed to us by the Spirit of God. And these five pillars have been compared to, uh, the ministries we have in Ephesians chapter 4, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, There's five of them when compared to the five authors of the epistles that present to us the truth of Christianity, So Peter, James, John, Paul and Jude.
00:15:01
There's five pillars.
And that's how we're introduced into.
This realm of things, which is the truth of Christianity right now, being members of the body of Christ, enjoying these things that we've been enjoying this morning were brought into that by these ministries, by the epistles.
But you know, this is not what held.
These boards together, they have the same standing, the same height, the same width, yet I'm sure they were perfectly lined up. Yeah, they're perfect line up on the east wall and the W wall, on the back wall. I'm sure if you look, it was perfectly straight, perfect line up. What made them so straight?
You know, if you know mechanics or you work with all sorts of different things, sometimes something stops working.
And all the bigger pieces are there and they're all fine and they look all fine, but it won't start or it won't run. It doesn't run properly. And sometimes you find out this this little piece here insignificant piece was missing or malfunctioning and that's what made the whole pay for it all.
And you know, there are small things that are indispensable. You want the Lord Jesus spoke to the Pharisees in Manchester 23 He said that he they shouldn't have forgotten the more important things of the law. And I do neglect the smaller ones.
Sometimes we tend to neglect the smaller ones.
We can be enjoying the realm of heavenly things and the Lord's coming, and these wonderful truths were given to enjoy, made clear to us.
In the scripture and while doing that, neglect the smaller thing.
Well, there were small things that were mentioned here that held these words together. And he was 5 sockets of gold.
Or rings of gold. Let me see here.
Rings of gold verse 29 and make their rings of gold and place the bars. That shell shall overlay the bars with gold. There were 5 bars on each panel and each board had I believe four rings of gold in the center bar went through the middle.
And I've enjoyed that picture very much. I mentioned it before, but every board there, if you compared every board to the Lord Jesus, it had four rings of gold and it appears in the middle.
So the Lord Jesus has four rings of gold 2IN his hands, two in his feet, and he was pierced in the middle.
I am crucified with Christ, yet I live yet not. I live, but Christ lives in me. That's the position God has given us to be identified with him as crucified ones.
And then you can line us up any way He wants, because we belong to Him, and then redeem with the precious blood of Christ, and has given us the life of Christ in us to be able to carry out in our lives that which He's made us to be before Himself.
To carry out together that which has made us to be before him.
So there were five, umm, wooden bars overlaid with gold and these bars, they went through the rings and through the middle bar. And when that was complete, you could just look at these panels of wall and they were perfectly lined up.
Take off the bars. The rings are there, but there's maybe the ground wasn't level and it it didn't wind up perfectly.
And I have suggestion for our souls of five little things in three epistles, because there were five boards with the rings on one side and 5:00 on the other side, and one on the backside.
There are fifteen of these boards or these, I'm sorry, bars.
That were used to hold this structure together.
I have one in Ephesians. I have one in Philippians and one in Colossians. One after the other. Three following epistles one after another. Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse two. We'll read verse one. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.
I believe this is our collective vocation.
What we've been called to be together.
With all lowliness.
And weakness.
With long-suffering.
Forbearing one another in love, Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
I have these five things.
00:20:01
Perfect harmony with the character of the Lord Jesus. Lovingness, meekness, long-suffering for bring one other in love.
And one was filled with the Spirit.
Philippians, Chapter 2.
Verse one. There's five in there too.
If there be any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, or any compassion or mercy and mercies, there's five there.
Colossians, chapter 3.
Verse 12.
But on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering. 5 more.
All little things.
But necessary things.
Things that contribute to this oneness, this smoothness of the Saints, one with another.
No quarreling, no lifting up of voices, no argumenting.
What a wonderful thing, dear ones.
To be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
And I say.
What a responsible thing.
What a responsible thing to claim.
That we know him.
And we enjoy him.
And are like what he wants us to be around himself.
We can rejoice in that and marble in it yet.
Not feel our responsibility. And I'm afraid as time has gone by in the history of the Saints, I believe the lack of these little things, the lack of judging when our spirits are out of this.
Blending of character with the character of Christ with one another. That difficulties come between the Saints.
And As for which Christ died to make one?
Is torn apart in its testimony.
And you know, we can all be in the same room and enjoying the same thing.
And then we can leave and never see ourselves again until the next time we're all in the same room, enjoying the same thing.
But I believe the Lord has made us members of the body of Christ on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and that we should have a care for one another.
We speak about this half cubit.
I tell you, brothers, sisters, you need me.
And I tell you, I need you. We are complete without you. We are not complete without you.
It says love others. No, it says love one another. My son was reading to me a calendar page from We're Traveling Together and from the Christian calendar in French, and he spoke about feet washing.
That was very good and it was in line with everything I hear about feet washing.
And what I heard was wash other people's feet.
That's not what it says.
Wash one another's feet.
I need my feet to be washed. I have to be ready to have my feet washed as I can be ready to help my brother and my sister.
The members should have the same care one for another.
OK, for you and you care for me. Well, just these thoughts I had their ones on this portion of Scripture. Uh, we can't do justice to what is brought before us in the Tabernacle. There's always new thoughts being brought to us by the Spirit of God. But I've enjoyed this perfect lineup in the model.
And having these thoughts of how it can be carried out practically and I've enjoyed these pictures as referring to these portions in Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians about 5 little things necessary and that makes all the difference as our going on together for the Lord and for his glory.
I know that on the notices there was nothing mentioned about a young people's meeting.
And my idea is not just for the young people, but I do have the young people in mind. Could you please turn together to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 13?
00:25:11
This passage is very well known to most of us.
About the showing of the word.
But I trust that as we take this up.
Not very long.
But there'll be something for our hearts, something for an exercise that we need. And I'm speaking for myself just as well. I used to be young once. It's hard to believe how time flies. I can remember being you guys age. It was a hard time. I got to know the Lord when I was about 20. No, sorry, 16 years of age.
And I trust this portion as we take it up about hearing the Word of God that we apply it. Now we're just going to go over very briefly, but I hope there's something here for each one starting at verse 18.
Hear ye dare for the parable of the sower.
When one hears the word of the Kingdom.
And understandeth it not. Then cometh the wicked one, and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received the seed by the wayside.
Perhaps there's some of you here young people.
That come in this category.
You're hearing the word of God.
Like you're not too interested.
You've got other things on your mind. You've got other thoughts about what's gonna happen tonight. You know what activity you're gonna have, football or gonna have hockey or whatever. Your mind is not on the subject as it ought to be. So the seed is being sown, but you're not too interested because you got something else and you think you have something better.
This, I would say is the person that receives it, but receives it by the wayside.
Verse 20 But He that received the seed in Stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and a nun with joy receiveth it.
You know, there are times when, uh, we can, we can get, uh, excited. I might say we hear something we're anxious about it. Hey, this sounds good. This sounds good. You're picking up years a little bit. It's got your attention. But the following verse says.
Uh, yet have not yet. Has he not rooted himself by Bureau for a while? For when tribulation or persecution cometh because of the word.
By and by he is offended.
This is a time of testing.
You young people, you have a lot of testing.
And your youth, you've got your schoolmates that are pulling you one way.
You've got your friends who to choose.
Which way do you go?
You've heard the word, you're happy, you think about it, but you go back on on Monday to school. My question, are you on holiday? Sorry, but when you go back to school again, hey, your buddy say, hey, come on, let's go do this or let's go do that. And the word of God kind of drifts off like it's less interested to you. Let's go on.
He also then received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word in the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of the deceitfulness of riches choke the word.
And it become as unfruitful.
That's what happens, you see. The world pulls you away.
Your friends pull you away.
Other things become an interest. The biggest interest today is sports. I'm not against sports. I love it. I love soccer when I was growing up and I have nothing against sports. But you know, we're getting to the age in the time where sports takes such a big picture that I have seen young people.
End the meeting.
Who will go through every practice, go through every tournament, and be turned away from the word of God?
Satan is a deceiver and he'll say, hey, sports is great, it looks good for you. You know, we got this image of ourselves, hey, and so and so, and it becomes an ego.
00:30:08
And it takes away the word of God because you're away. You've got to go to practice. And parents, I just want to say their word to you. I have known parents who have had children that are busy taking them to a tournament when there was a meeting on that night.
I should not know, I've seen it.
And what happens in the long run? The children aren't in the meeting anymore.
Why? Because they're more interested in that soccer game or that hockey game.
So here's your word of caution, should to the parents.
Be careful, be watchful where you lead your children. Sports can lead them away.
We are responsible as parents.
Discontinue.
Verse 23. And he that receiveth seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also he beareth fruit, and bringeth for some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold.
Now there's real fruit.
It has taken hold. You're here today. You've been to conferences before. What effect has the word of God been to you?
Has it taken hold a little bit? Just to interest you a little, but I think you forgot it.
Has it interested you enough that you might be the one of the 30s?
And then kind of staying alone, are you one of the 60s or are you one of those one hundreds?
I'm pretty interested each one here, especially the young people that you will be one of those 100.
All out for Christ, non barring.
Let's continue on.
Verse 24 Another parable put you forth unto them, seeing the Kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.
But while man slept, his enemy came and sow tears among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and was brought forth, then appeared the tears also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? From whence then has it chares? And he said unto them, An enemy had done this. And the servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
But he said, lest he gather up the tares, ye root also up the wheat with them.
Satan is a great deceiver.
I'll have to tell you a little story. I love gardening.
I love vegetable gardening, but I also like flower gardening. It's not my favorite, but once in a while my wife sends me out to the flower garden and she and I have planted perennials, annuals.
And after a while, things grow up. I haven't taken a study on what I'm, what I'm putting into the ground. I should.
After a while, when the wedding comes, I'll come along. Oh, it just looks like a weed pluck. This looks like a weed pluck. That looks like a weed. And a month later my wife comes up to me. She says where is such and such? Where is such and such?
I don't know.
I don't know a weed from a real thing.
Oh, my wife don't like that. You can ask her after how many real flowers do we have in the yard? I still don't know. I looked at the yard the other day and I still ask myself which is a real flower and which isn't. We've even planted wildflowers. Some of our grandchildren have come over and put a little packets of seed in the ground and watch them grow. I don't know what's what. I shouldn't be eating in the garden. My wife should do it herself freely.
But Satan is a great deceiver, so we have to be careful.
With what we sow and what we reap, and the more we sow the Word of God, the more we reap from the Word of God. Let's not get tangled up with the weeds. The weeds are there. The weeds are like sin. It's there. The deceiver has planted all these things in front of us, Soccer, hockey, baseball, whatever.
Those seeds are amongst the good seed.
00:35:02
The question is, what seed is going to be more precious to you? Right now I'm growing a vegetable garden and the rain has done real good. My peas are about that high and I love Peach and so are all the other vegetables. And I look forward to a nice tomato sandwich. You know, Mayo, salt, pepper, little leaf and lettuce on it. Delicious. I look forward to it. But I know what the tomato looks like. It's a good thing, but I don't know a lot of other plants or herbs.
That I haven't got a clue in.
So the challenge I have to you is young people.
Be ready to learn the Word of God.
Shake it in 100%.
Study it, show yourself approved unto God, a Workman that need not be ashamed.
No, what is the seed and what is the real, what is not the real seed? You know, young people, I, I have to tell you this and I'm ashamed of it. When I grew up in my late 50s and up, especially in the early 20s, I roamed a lot. I roamed from church to church.
I went to the Pentecostal and I went to the Baptist and everything else in between.
But you know.
I didn't find happiness there.
We just came back from Pennsylvania country 5 weeks ago to see the Amish country.
And I've learned that the young people in the Amish country have a room Springer, 18 years old and up for two years.
In those two years, the young people have to decide to go out. They're allowed to go out into the world, to taste it, to see it and see if they like it.
If they like it, they leave the colony.
If they make a decision, they get baptized and come into the church. That's when they're serious.
But you know, we don't have to be like that.
We don't have to wait till we're in the late teens. A lot of young people here, you're 1415 and up 20s.
Don't but find out the hard way what is right and what is wrong. What is the good seed and what is the bad seed. You've got it right here.
Another thing I want to see is this. You're gathered to the Lord's name.
Is it precious to you? It is to me. Now if I look back at my history and say, what did I think about that group or that group or that group?
I'm telling you, forget it.
You have the most truth before you here today, in your lap.
For what we're hearing.
Those who meddle about don't be deceived by the deceiver and say, oh, there's something better out there.
It's not. It's not.
Be 100%.
Go out for God.
Just, uh, want to say a couple of words. Maybe we'll start, uh, reading in Ephesians 4.
Verse 11.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
For the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Have on my heart to just encourage.
The Lord's people to be shepherds, if the Lord has put that.
On your heart.
Think of uh.
The brother read about the UH boards standing up.
And it's always encouraging to, uh, come to a conference and to hear the Lord magnified.
And sometimes it can be a little discouraging to go back to your local assembly. Maybe it's a small assembly.
And it may be full on Lord's Day morning.
And then you come to the prayer meeting and there's only a few there and, uh, you might ask yourself why.
00:40:10
We're all like sheep.
And uh.
Let's go to, uh, Luke 15.
Just read a couple verses there.
Luke 15 verse four. What man of you having 100 sheep if you lose one of them?
Does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it.
Umm. I think the reason why.
That prayer meeting is so empty is because.
First of all.
Is there a love in my heart for maybe that one that's not there?
Every one of us has that tendency that, uh, that meeting is going to come and, and we're gonna say, you know, my brother mentioned, uh, sporting events or maybe it's work. Maybe it's just, I'm too tired. Uh, maybe I'm discouraged. Maybe I say I don't get anything out of that meeting.
Everyone of us are somewhat susceptible to that.
And we all need shepherds. Every one of us needs shepherds.
The Lord says I'm the Good Shepherd, I lay down my life for the sheep. But he also puts in the local assembly shepherds.
Maybe you're one of them. Maybe if you're a young boy or a young girl, an older woman.
You might be a shepherd.
And I just would like to encourage you.
I can think back when times in my life when an older sister came up and justice showed me the love of the Lord.
And I think about it often.
End.
Maybe if everyone of us.
Thought on our brethren a little more and consider that, umm, instead of maybe thinking how few might be out, but think about each one of our brethren. Pray for each one of our brethren and.
Just like in that parable, the Lord told don't just sit there and meeting and wait until they might come back, but go out and look for them. It takes some effort to be a shepherd and it's never easy.
But the Lord has put in every assembly shepherds. And don't think that maybe, uh, I'm too young. I'm too old.
I'm a woman. I'm, uh, busy with this or busy with that and I can't speak right.
Do you have a love in your heart for the Lord's people?
Do you think when someone's not there, do you think about their soul?
Maybe you're a shepherd.
And the Lord has something for you, I think, when I was younger.
I remember some things that some older brethren said to me, but I know what I really remember. It was people that, uh, were my age in my teens that came up to me and said, you know what? You're on the wrong path. You need to do something about that.
Don't think that because of your age.
Or anything else that the Lord can't use you to be a help to your brethren.
207.
207.
Five star hotels.
In regards.
511.
And Friday.
I don't want some information to do that. Do you have anything to do with anything? Umm.
So that'll help you continue the current number. That's what I'm blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Right, Lord, we thank you that we can be here, and we are happy to be here to thank you that we can.
Be enjoying thee, Lord Jesus, and we thank you that we can be apart from our work, our responsibilities at the home, uh, responsibilities from homework or whatever we may have and just enjoy the Lord for this, this time. We just, uh, thank you for this happy time. We thank you for, uh, the encouragement that we've, uh, received here from our three brothers and we just pray that we would, uh, put it into effect, that it would sink down into our hearts and into our hands and into our feet.
And we just would, uh, ask for help, Lord, as we, umm, seek to go on for thee, We thank thee that we've had thy coming before us too. We know that it's short. We pray that we would keep that coming before us so we could be encouraged to go on for Thee. We often feel our, uh, failures. And when we just occupy, uh, ourselves with ourselves, we uh, have tough times. Help us, Lord, you turn our eyes on thee, Lord, and.
00:50:15
We just would, umm, look to the two as we hear Thy word, help it to umm, sink in, Help us to open our hearts to what you'd have us to hear. Often times, Lord, we uh, close out something that maybe we think is too tough or that would really, umm, be hard for us to, to put into practice in our lives. To just help us, Lord, to be tender and help us probably more important to be obedient to all the truth that we know, even some small portion of it, Lord, that we would be umm.
Fruitful as we've, we've heard, we just would pray too, that we would be exercised to reach out and be shepherds caring for, uh, those around us. We often have felt in our lives, people pulling us in One Direction or the other or giving us, uh, a sweet thought of thyself that would, uh, straighten this out. You just, umm, thank you for the shepherds that you've placed into our lives. And, and we thank you too, Lord, that you are the Good Shepherd. You are the great shepherd.
And we thank you that you've given your life for us dumb sheep. We just, umm, again, thank thee for, uh, this time, this happy time that we could be over thy word. And again, we just would, umm, uh, give the thanks for thy love and thy care. And we do so in thy precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen.