so so so so so Well, good evening to one and all, wherever you are watching in from. We welcome you in our Saviour's precious name to our Bible study and then our time of prayer after we conclude this broadcast. We trust that you're able to hear us tonight and we're praying that God will bless the Word as it is brought to you. even from the manse here in Portlanone. Before we open the scriptures and read them, let's unite in prayer briefly and let's seek the Lord just for this time around God's precious word. Let's pray together, let's seek the Lord. Our loving Father, in our Saviour's all-precious and worthy name, we come into thy holy and sacred presence. We come by the mediator, of the New Covenant, even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Rejoice, O God, in its origin there in the councils of eternity, whenever the Godhead met together, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, devised a means whereby God could be reconciled to man, and man could be reconciled to God. We thank thee for the execution of that plan, in the sending forth of thine only begotten Son. We thank thee that in the fullness of time God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. We bless thee for the application of redemption to our souls and to our hearts by the Holy Ghost. We thank you for his work of illumination, his work of regeneration. We rejoice, O God, for the day and hour that we were brought into saving union with our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, as we come to thee tonight, we confess our great need. Lord, we need thee. Lord, we need thee every time we come to hear thy word. Every time we come to open the book, we need the Spirit of God to be the one who opens our understanding. Lord, we cry to thee, open thou our understanding to the book tonight. May we understand the scriptures as they're read. Lord, may there be some verse of scripture that, Lord, though not preached upon tonight, may be the very thing that we need, may be the very, O God, word for our souls, where we're found, Lord, on the spiritual journey toward heaven and toward home. We thank thee for all who have gathered and taken that time out of their schedules to meet around, O God, some computer screen, some laptop screen, some iPhone or some other device, Lord, that they're enabled to watch into this broadcast tonight. Bless them wherever they are. May the Word be the blessing. Lord, may the preacher be forgotten. And may, O God, the Word live on in our hearts. Lord, may it come with a freshness to us. May we come to understand and appreciate that which God is communicating to us through the Word. Speak, Lord. May our ears be open. May, O God, our hearts be blessed. And grant, dear Father, O God, us to be brought a little further along in the work of sanctification. May we be brought further along, Lord, in our walk with Thee. Grant, dear God, therefore, the Holy Ghost, dear God, to carry the word. May, dear Father, everything run smoothly with regard to technology. And Lord, we cry that all distractions within our homes tonight, all telephone calls and all clarion calls of the world might be hushed dear God and we pray that we might be sharing with God. Lord bless our souls we pray, encourage our hearts we ask of thee and grant dear father a rich blessing from heaven even upon this word tonight so we look to thee draw near to us we cry in our savior's precious and worthy name amen and amen again we welcome you thank you for joining with us we deeply appreciate it and we're praying tonight that the lord will bless the Word to your soul. We're turning in the Word of God to 1 Samuel and the chapter number 2. 1 Samuel and the chapter number 2 this evening. And again, as you turn there, we welcome you. Thank you for joining with us and we trust that you're all keeping well in your home. So it's 1 Samuel and the chapter number two. Take the word of God down and read along as I read the scriptures here at the opening of the chapter. 1 Samuel chapter two and the verse number one. The word of God says, and Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows off the mighty men are broken, And they that stumble are girded with strength. They that were full have heard. out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased, so that the barren had borne seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth, and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich, he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness. For by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth. And he shall give strength on to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed. And the Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house. And the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. Amen and we'll end our reading there at the verse number 11. Let's just briefly pray once again. Let's seek the Lord and let's pray that the Lord will prepare our hearts for the preaching of his word. Let's pray. Loving Father, again we thank Thee for bringing us safely to another Wednesday night. This is a mercy from Thee. Lord, we pray that Thou will bless us now as we meet around Thy precious Word. Bless Thy saints, Lord, wherever they are found this evening. May Thy hand be upon them, O God, we pray. Fill me with Thy Spirit, I ask of Thee, for I pray these prayers in and through our Saviour's precious name. Amen. What do you think of your feet? A strange question I know to ask but you know that there are some people and they hate the sight of their feet or even the sight of another person's feet. Did you know that there are those who have a phobia about their feet? In actual fact one out of every thousand people have such a phobia. Paraphobia, the irrational fear of feet, is an affliction whereby a person experiences an extremely negative or upsetting reaction when looking at, touching, or being near. Feet podophobia can present itself in a range of intensities. Those who have very severe podophobia may be unable to look at their own feet and it is not uncommon for podophobes to wear socks and keep their feet covered even whilst showering or bathing. You may not think much about your feet. You may even fear your own feet. they probably haven't even crossed your mind today. But are you aware that the Lord takes a special interest in the feet of his children? Especially what those feet do and where they go. Listen to these words that we find in Job 31 and the verse number 4. Job speaking of the Almighty said, Doth not he see my ways and count all my steps? Trivial to many I know, yet so interested is God in our feet that he condescends to count the number of steps that our feet take every day. He counts all of our steps. In Isaiah chapter 52 in the verse 7, God speaks about the feet of those whom he deems to be beautiful. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith to Zion, thy God reigneth. The feet of the preacher the feet of the gospel evangelist, the feet of the Christian who broadcast the good news of the gospel God deems to be beautiful. They are termed by God as being beautiful feet. In Ephesians chapter 6 in the verse 15 we note that God is so concerned about the health and the well-being of our feet that he provides protection for them. and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Part of the armor of God is a covering. for our feet. In 1st Samuel chapter 2, Hannah is found extolling her God in praise and she has good grounds for doing so. That barren womb of hers that had caused her so much grief in the past, God had now made fruitful and had given to her a son, Samuel, in answer to her prayers. In her song of praise to God for the mercies that she had received from him, Hannah utters these words in the verse number 9. He will keep the feet of his saints. He will keep the feet of his saints. These words will form the basis of our Bible study tonight and the message that I want to preach I've entitled The Lord's Keeping of His Saints' Feet. The Lord's Keeping of His Saints' Feet. Now beware of introduction. I want to draw your attention to three words, three phrases within our text in verse number nine before we get into the meat of the message. I want you to look firstly with me at that word there in the verse number nine, keep. He will keep the feet of the saints. of his saints. This word is frequently used in the Old Testament, making some 468 appearances in the Hebrew Scriptures. Let me give you just a number of ways in which the word can be translated. It can be translated to hedge about with thorns, to guard, to protect, to attend to, to mark, to look narrowly, to observe, to preserve or to regard to watch this is how the word is translated in other places here it is translated keep but any of these phrases any of these words and if these other verbs could be used in conjunction with what we have here within the verse the thought behind it then is that of divine guardianship with regard to our feet that we have won in the glory This God, this great, this almighty, this loving, this all-wise, all-glorious, all-majestic God. We have one in the glory who guards, who protects, and who preserves the feet of his children. This is part of his ministry to us. You may not have thought of that. You may think the ministry of Christ is confined to praying for us, and yes, he does that. As our high priest, he prays for us continually, presenting our needs and our desires and our cause before the Father's face. But he has another ministry, and part of that ministry is the keeping of his people. And here we are told very specifically that there is something that God particularly keeps with regard to his children. He keeps the feet of his saints. This is what he's doing, always, perpetually, on an ongoing basis. God is keeping the feet of his saints. Notice the second word within our little text tonight. It's the word feet. He will keep the feet of his saints. The term feet, yes, refers to that physical bodily part. those things at the end of your legs as we would say those two feet of yours whether they be size 3 or whether they be size 14 whatever size those feet of yours are we're told that he keeps those feet and so we think of the body part of the feet but that phrase feet can also be a synonym it can also be with regard or mean with regard to our earthly life the steps that we take the course of the believer through this perilous world. It's really that that we're thinking of. He keeps our way, the way that we go, our earthly life, the steps, the course that we go through this perilous world. Think of that, brother, sister. If the Lord keeps those feet of ours, those bodily parts that we give little thought to, will he not also keep our hearts? Will he not also keep our minds? Will he not also keep our souls? If he's going to keep our feet, well then surely he's going to keep the greater. If he keeps the lesser, the feet, well then will he not keep the greater? That of our heart, our mind, and our soul. Of course he will. The third statement I want to make comment upon is that statement, his people. What an endearing term, or sorry, his saints. His saints. He will keep the feet of His saints. It is to a specific grouping of people that this promise is made with regard to the keeping of feet by the Lord. The promise is made to His saints. God doesn't keep the feet of the sinner. No, no, no, their feet tread the ways of sin. They walk the paths of unrighteousness. The road that their feet are on, That road terminates in eternal destruction. No, he's not keeping the feet of the saint or the sinner. No, this keeping of the feet is reserved only for those who are his saints. It would not be an over exaggeration to say that the title saints, of all the names that we as believers are known by, is the most honorable. because it literally signifies the holy ones. He keeps the feet off his holy ones. And so all that I will say tonight is reserved and earmarked specifically for the saints who are in Christ Jesus. Make sure, Ben, that you are a saint of God. Make sure you've been made a saint of God through the work of Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary. Make sure you're a Christian because only the Christians fit. are kept by the Lord. The truth that God keeps the feet of his saints is what I want to flesh out in this Bible study tonight. And I want to do so by looking at what we find elsewhere in the scriptures when it comes to the feet of the saints of God. The first truth concerning God and our feet that I want to draw your attention to is that he keeps our feet from strain. He keeps our feet from strain. In Hebrews chapter 12 and the verse number 13, the Hebrew believers are encouraged by the writer to do certain things for those who are running the race under great afflictions and under great weariness. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. We are reminded in the book of Isaiah chapter 53, we are likened to be like sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone his own way. And there is the great possibility throughout our pilgrim journey that we could stray, we could go astray by our feet being turned out of the way, being likened to sheep the shepherd or the Christian is prone to strain from the paths of righteousness when they wander from the Good Shepherd. How accurate are those words that we often sing, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. John Bunyan depicted most vividly the strained tendency of the Christian in that great classic, The Pilgrim's Progress. Christian and his travelling companion, Hopeful, are on their way to the celestial city when the way becomes rough and difficult. This leads them to becoming discouraged in their heart and in their spirit and they start to wish for an easier route, a more pleasant pathway. Let Bunyan take over at this point. Now, he said, just ahead of them, on the left side of the road was a field named Bypath Meadow, which could be entered by a stile. Then Christian said to Hopeful, if this meadow lies alongside our way, then let us go over into it. So he went to the stile to see, and behold, there was a path on the other side of the fence which ran alongside their way. It is just as I desired. Here is an easy going way. Come, good Hopeful, and let us go over, Christian exclaimed. So Hopeful, being persuaded by his fellow, left the path and followed Christian over the stile. Once in the meadow, they found it very easy for their feet. But the pathway, brethren and sisters, in Bypath Meadow veered away from the King's Highway, and the two men soon found themselves imprisoned in Doubting Castle under the watchful eye of giant despair. How many Bypath Meadows have our feet not trodden down through our Christian experience, a smoother road, an easier pathway, a more comfortable way has appealed to our weary souls and our tired feet only for us to find that there was a price for us to pay when we strayed from the Lord and from His way. Let us learn, brethren and sisters, from such experience and let us keep on the King's Highway. Strain not to the left hand or to the right, and if we are tempted to do so, let our ears hear a word behind us saying, this is the way, walk ye in it. When you turn to the right hand and to the left. God keeping our feet from strain, I believe is bundled up in this promise of 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 9. He will keep our feet from wandering so that we do not go into paths of error, into ways of folly, or into the customs or the courses of this world's customs. Maybe I'm addressing someone listening tonight and your feet have strayed once your feet stood in the courts of God's house, but now they're found on some dance floor, some public bar, some other undesirable place. If so, let me encourage you to turn your feet again to Christ and let him guide your feet into the way of peace again. Return on to him who is the bishop and the shepherd of your soul. And God, he welcomes back the wandering one, the strained one with open arms, just like the prodigal was welcomed back by his father on his return to the far country. The second truth that I draw your attention to in relation to God keeping the feet of His saints is that He keeps our feet from stumbling or from slipping. He keeps our feet from stumbling or from slipping. The many a trip hazard the wicked one plants in our way in the hope that we would stumble and fall. The road to our eternal home is strewn with many a stone upon which we could dash our feet leading us to stumbling and to slipping. The Psalmist Asaph from personal experience identified a time in his life when he was in danger of stumbling and slipping. He makes that honest confession there in Psalm 73 and the verse number 2 if you want to turn there, Psalm 73 and the verse number 2, the Psalm of Asaph. What does he say? He says in Psalm 73 verse 2, but as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. Here's a man and he feels that beneath him the feet are slipping. He senses within his own soul that his feet were almost gone. He's about to fall, he's about to stumble, he's about to slip. Dr Gill made the following comment on Asaph's confession. It may be observed, he said, that good men are liable to slips and falls, to fall into sin, snares and temptations and from their steadiness in the faith, but not totally and finally, their feet may be almost but not altogether gone. Their steps may well now slip, but not quite. They may fall, but not be utterly cast down. At least they rise again, and are made to stand. For God is able to keep them, and does keep them from a total and final falling away. Thank God for that. Scene. and unseen perils beset us on our way to heaven and home. Coupled with that is the fact that we have no strength to defend ourselves or to keep our lives from hurt. How real then is the danger of our feet stumbling or slipping and yet there is one who has promised to keep the feet of his saints from just doing that. Just listen to these wonderful promises that we have in God's precious word. 2 Samuel chapter 22 verse 37. Speaking of God, thou hast enlarged my steps under me, so that my feet did not slip. Psalm 56 verse 13, For thou hast delivered my soul from death, wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living? Psalm 94 verse 18, When I said, My foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. Psalm 116 verse 8, For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. Psalm 121 verse 3, He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Proverbs 22 verse, or Proverbs 3 verse 21 through to 23. My son, let not them depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace unto thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. Keeping the instruction of his father and mother, Believing the commandments and the teaching of scripture, living it out in the life, there is the answer. For our feet not stumbling, not slipping, not sliding. One last or another verse. Proverbs 3 verse 26. For the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken. One last verse. This time in the New Testament. The words are so familiar. And yet worth repeating at this juncture, Jude verse 24, now on to him, that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. God is able to keep us from falling, from slipping, from sliding, You know, as Christians, we fret and worry about stumbling and falling, and yet when we look to the Lord, we find that He's able to keep us from falling. His mighty arm can preserve us from unseen foes who are seeking to destroy us at every step, an unseen danger that are ready to trip us up at every turn, yet He's able to keep you and I from falling. He keeps our feet, child of God. He's keeping our feet. Again, it could be that I'm addressing someone and you maybe stumbled or slipped this week. Some besetting sin has triumphed in that life of yours. Some lust has overpowered you. Some sin has been succumbed to. Listen, a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again. As J.R. Miller put it, the God of the Bible is the God of those who have failed. Wherever there is a weak, stumbling Christian, unable to walk alone, to him the divine heart goes out in tender thought and sympathy, and the divine hand is extended to support him and keep him from falling. Wherever one has fallen and lies in defeat or failure over him, bends the Heavenly Father in kindly pity to raise him up and to help him to begin again. Child of God, have you slept? Have you stumbled? Well, over you tonight bends a Heavenly Father in kindly pity who desires to raise you up and to help you to begin again. God keeping our feet from stumbling and slipping is bundled up again in this promise of 1 Samuel 2 verse 9. He will keep our feet from falling so that we do not defile our garments, so that we do not wound our souls, so that we do not give the enemies of God an opportunity to blaspheme His name, because He keeps the feet of His saints from slipping and from stumbling. But something else, a third truth in relation to God keeping the feet of His saints, He keeps our feet from shifting He keeps her feet from shifting. Many are the winds that would attempt to shift the child of God from biblical truth in these last days. The winds of liberalism, modernism, secularism, worldlyism, ecumenism, atheism, to name but a few. We are reminded in the book of Ephesians that there are those who are susceptible of being tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wit to deceive. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 14. It is because we are susceptible of being moved, being shifted, that we need then to be well grounded. We need to be well founded. We need our feet. to be fixed upon something that is immovable so that they do not shift when the winds come to deflect us from the faith once delivered on to the saints. What is that immovable object? It is Christ the Rock, Christ the rock. In Psalm 40 in the verse 2 the psalmist testified that God brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the mary clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. He set my feet, he put my feet, he fixed my feet upon the rock the psalmist said. A firm foundation is found for our feet when we are set by God upon Christ, the solid rock. On Him you and I have a firm footing. On Him I am safe. On Him I am unmovable. Come what may, whatever wind blows, my feet are fixed. And thank God when they're fixed on the rock, they cannot be shifted. They're there, forever there. Hemrider said, on credit. James Smith said, what a sweet thought. Once on the rock, on the rock forever. No billows of temptation can wash me off. No winds of error can blow me off, Neither men nor devils can drive me off, And Jesus never takes his eye off me, Lest I should become heedless and fall off. Bless Rock! High above the reach of danger, Immutable, above the power of change, Eternal, affording a refuge that can never fail. What a rock! my feet are on tonight. Water Rock, your feet are on tonight. In Psalm 66 in the verse 8, if you want to turn there, Psalm 66 in the verse number 8, we're encouraged to bless our God. and to make the voice of his praise to be heard. And verse number nine gives us the answer to why we are to bless the Lord and why our voices are to be raised in praise to God. Why? Verse number nine, it is because he holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved. Oh, the safety that we have in our God, the one who is clothed with omnipotent power, has engaged to never suffer the feet of even the weakest of his saints to be moved. He keeps our feet from shifting. He keeps our feet from sinning. How does he do that? Well, he directs our feet from sin. He convicts us when our feet turn to sin. There in the conscience, he comes. And he reminds us that we're in the wrong way. And not only that, but at times he hedges up our way so that we're not enabled to sin. Do you remember Balaam and the ass? As he rides through that particular place, the angel, standing in front of him, guarding the way, prohibiting him from going any further, adding sin already to his sin account. And that's what God does with regard to our lives. At times he hedges up our way and we get frustrated And we wonder, well, why is this prayer not answered? But God knowing the way ahead, He sees that there is the propensity for that particular thing to lead to sin. And so He hedges up our way. He keeps our feet from sinning. Something else, He keeps our feet from slacking or from slowing. He spurns us on to greater devotion and service. and he keeps heaven before us as the prize. These are only a quick few thoughts because I want to bring a final thought to you before I close and I need to close. Finally, he keeps our feet from swelling, from swelling. God will keep our feet from swelling. A swelling that comes from the roughness and from the length of the way that we have to tread in order to reach heaven and home. I speak to you, the saints of God, many of you have been on the road to heaven and home for many years, many decades, and you know well that at times the feet get weary, the road is rough, difficult, The stones dash upon the feet. They become sore, as it were. It seems that you just want at times just to sit down and to rest. God will do, I believe, for us what he did for his chosen people there in the Old Testament. In Nehemiah 9, verse 21, Nehemiah recalled God's dealings with the children of Israel. And he said these words in Nehemiah 9, verse 21, Yea, forty years Didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lack nothing, their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not? The word swelled means just that, their feet didn't become swollen. It also means that they didn't become blistered. Nehemiah was simply really repeating what Moses had said in Deuteronomy chapter eight in the verse four. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. Matthew Henry said, those that follow God's conduct are not only safe but easy. Our feet swell not while we keep in the way of Judah. It is the way of transgression that is hard. God has promised to keep the feet off his saints. Let not the roughness of the way discourage you, fellow traveler. God will keep your feet from becoming swollen. Instead of becoming swollen, rather they will become swift. You see, God promises to make the feet of his children like hind's feet. and will cause us to walk upon the high places of the earth. That's what God does for the feet of his people. And so, though you may be walking a rough and a difficult road, and maybe your feet are tired and weary, let me encourage you to look to your Father, your Heavenly Father, who will keep those feet of yours from swelling and will help you to press on and press upward and press onward until the day we see the King. With such a promise as this stand before us that God will keep the feet of his saints. Let us then run the race that is before us and let us run it without weariness, and let us walk on without fear, knowing that our feet will soon stand beyond the gates of the new Jerusalem, planted on the golden streets of our eternal home. He will keep me to the river, rolls its waters at my feet, then he'll bear me safely over with the loved ones that I shall meet. He'll keep our feet right through life's journey. The promise is he will keep the feet of his saints. May God keep our feet from strain. May God keep our feet from slipping. May God keep our feet from swelling. May God keep our feet until we see Him face to face. May God keep our feet in these days. May the Lord be pleased to bless His Word to our hearts. for Jesus' sake. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, bless thy word to our hearts. We rejoice, Lord, that you take interest in our lives so much so. Oh God, that you're concerned about our very feet. We probably haven't even thought about them today. But Lord, thou hast, and thou art keeping them, moment by moment, keeping them from strain, keeping them O God, from slipping, keeping them from shifting, keeping them from swelling, keeping them from sinning. Yes, Lord, keeping us all the journey through. We thank Thee for Thy loving care and the divine guardianship of our lives. May we live in light of it, and may we continue to walk the King's Highway, rejecting all by-path meadows, until our feet stand within the gates of the new Jerusalem. Answer prayer. We offer prayer in and through Jesus precious name. Amen. Well we're getting down to prayer. Thank you for listening and watching in. We appreciate it whether you're watching now or maybe later on. We thank you in the Savior's name. Just remind you of the announcements. The session meets tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the church. The committee will meet then at 8 o'clock at the church tomorrow night. Lord's Day services at 12 noon and at 6 p.m. in the will of God, the drive-in services. Come along, please, to the services. We'll be glad of your fellowship and your support. Pray for those who are unwell and those who are going for treatment. Remember, brother, Mr. Tommy Ackeson as he goes for his treatment in the will of God next week in God's will. Pray for our nation and its spiritual state in these days. Pray that God will send us a breath of heaven and that God be pleased to pour out his spirit upon us. And in our prayers, let's be thankful. Let's be thankful for God's mercies. Again, another week, we're very thankful of the few deaths as a result of COVID-19 and we're rejoicing in that and we believe that that is answer to the prayers of God's people. Whatever the world will say, I believe that it is an answer to the prayers of the saints of God. But let's continue to pray that everything will go the way it should and may men and women and be more concerned about their soul than they are about their hair, than they are about a pint of beer, or about their pleasures, or may they become more concerned about their great need. of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's get to pray. I'll pray briefly, and then we encourage you to pray within your home and family. Loving Father, we thank thee for thy word to our souls tonight. Bless thy saints now as they gather around the throne of heavenly grace. Bless thy saints, O God. O Father, who are finding the way difficult, we pray that the word will have been an encouragement to their soul tonight. Grant, dear God, thy hand to be upon us. Keep our feet, Lord, in the way. And may, dear Father, we always walk the King's Highway, regardless of how rough or how weary it becomes to us. Help us to walk on with thee. Answer these, our prayers, and help thy believing people now to get a hold of God in prayer. We pray these, our petitions, in and through the Saviour's precious name. Amen.