In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the story of David from the Old Testament. Despite being under immense pressure and facing personal challenges, David's heart remains focused on helping others. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a heart like David's, rooted in compassion and a desire to assist those in need. The sermon also highlights the significance of making good decisions and seeking guidance from God, rather than relying on our own understanding. Overall, the message encourages listeners to cultivate a heart after God's own heart and to prioritize serving others.

I want to talk to you with a different slant on one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament. If we would just listen and concentrate, this can bring immeasurable blessing on your life. This will help you avoid making bad decisions which are so easy to slip into, which will not only bring pain and loss to you, but sometimes even family members. I've seen it work out that way. This is one of the great privileges, what I want to talk about, that we have as Christians. One of the great blessings outlined in the New Testament when you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, when you become a born-again believer with a new heart, a new spirit within you, with no record of any sin held against you because of what Jesus did on the cross and your faith in that sacrifice on Calvary. If you've done that and you're a believer today, which I'm sure most of us are, we're in church on a Sunday, you could be any place. So now we belong to Christ, but one of the blessings that what percentage could I put it at? Just a huge number of believers do not acknowledge or receive what I'm about to say, and thus they just end up running into so many brick walls. I want you to listen. This will be brief and to the point so that we can then just pray together at the end. The story comes from an obscure part of the life of King David, except when this happens, we'll get context now, David is not king. David, this is very important to understand, David has become the champion of Israel, has become a great young general, is the toast of the town, the most popular guy in the nation, but unfortunately, King Saul knew about it, and he became possessed by a jealous, envious spirit. That is the worst poison that can come into anybody's heart, is when you're jealous and envious of another person. The Bible says that wrath and anger are like a storm, I'm paraphrasing, but who can stand before a jealous spirit? Because when someone is jealous of you, or you're jealous of someone, it doesn't matter what they do, they can do nothing right. You're gonna put them down, you're gonna be afraid of them, intimidated by them, you're gonna poison your own spirit, and that's what happened to Saul. King Saul has gone so crazy now that the previous chapter that I'm gonna read to you, he has mistakenly accused the priests, the high priests and the family of the priests, dozens of priests, who lived in a place called Nob, N-O-B. He has accused them of aiding David, who is on the run, his jealousy has driven David away, even though David is loyal to him, loves him. He is a madman now, trying to chase down David. He thinks that the priests have helped David, so he has all of them killed. And guess what, he tells the soldiers that are with him, kill these priests, because they helped David when he was on the run, and the soldiers look, and they go, we're not touching the priests, we're not gonna kill the priests. Get out of here, everyone's against me, and he gets a sword, and he hacks them all to death. This is King Saul. So now, David is on the run, and he's being hunted like an animal. And in the midst of all of this tension, his life hanging in the balance, he's got some men that are with him, discontented people, rejects from society, they've gathered around David in the caves and wilderness where he's hiding, and now we have this little story, so important. When David was told, look, the Philistines are fighting against Calah, and are looting the threshing floors, and he was gonna rob them of all their food, this little podunk town called Calah, he inquired of the Lord, saying, shall I go and attack these Philistines? The Lord answered him, go, attack the Philistines, and save Calah. But David's men said to him, here in Judah, we're afraid. How much more, then, if we go to Calah against the Philistine forces? In other words, isn't it enough that King Saul and an army are chasing us? Now we have to get into a battle with the Philistine forces? I mean, makes no sense. So, once again, David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him, go down to Calah, for I am going to give the Philistines into your hand. So David and his men went to Calah, fought the Philistines, aha, and carried off their livestock. That was a blessing to David and his men. He inflicted heavy losses on the Philistines, and saved the people of Calah. Now, Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, Ahimelech was the high priest who had gotten killed by Saul's order in the previous chapter. He had brought the ephod down with him when he fled to David at Calah. Why that is mentioned there is unimportant to us in detail. In the Old Testament, when somebody sought guidance from God, they went to the priest. The priest had different parts to their garments, their high priests and priestly garments. One of them was an ephod and a plate over the ephod where there were stones on it, and in some way that we don't understand, they sought God's guidance, yes, no, go, stay. They sought God's guidance somehow through the shining out of these stones or some priestly reading of what was going on. It is done away with. We don't go that way when we want guidance. We have been promised guidance by the Holy Spirit. But why that's mentioned there is this is why David kept the priest with him. He kept the priest with him. Saul didn't care. Saul wasn't gonna ask for guidance about anything. What David said was, no, you gotta stay near me because I don't know what to do. I can't make a move unless God directs me, and you're the one that I can get direction from. This is an Old Testament practice no longer in effect for us today. Saul was told that David had gone to Cala, and he said, God has delivered him into my hands, for David has imprisoned himself by entering a town with gates and bars. No more can he slip and slide away from me in the wilderness and in the caves. He's in a town now. And Saul called up all of his forces for battle to go down to Cala to besiege David and his men. When David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to Abiathar, the priest, bring the ephod. David said, Lord, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Cala and destroy the town on account of me. Will the citizens of Cala surrender me to him? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? Lord, God of Israel, tell your servant, and the Lord said, he will. And David asked the Lord again, will the citizens of Cala surrender me and my men to Saul? And the Lord said, they will. So David and his men, about 600 in number, left Cala and kept moving from place to place. And when Saul was told that David had escaped from Cala, he did not go there. David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hills of the desert of Ziph. Day after day, Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hand. Notice what was happening there at the end. David knew that Saul would surround the town of Cala, which had walls, and say, all right, town of Cala, we know who's in there, we don't care about you, just give us David, just give us David. If you don't give us David, we'll break down the walls and kill all of you. So David was asking, even though he had just saved their bacon and delivered them, he said, now, when push comes to shove, will they deliver me over or will they protect me? And God told him, no, they're gonna deliver you. What do we learn from this story? Why would God put it in the Bible? Remote, priestly garments directing people according to God's will, attacking a town, capturing livestock, what's that all got to do with us? So let's listen and get these lessons. Number one, David was a man after God's own heart. David will one day, soon, in this chronology, he will soon replace Saul, Saul's gonna be destroyed, and God is gonna put David on the throne. But David is one of the great heroes of faith in the Old Testament. So what do we learn here? We learn this, that even though David's under the gun and under pressure, he has this heart that he's still rooting for the underdog and thinking how he can help other people. He's running for his life. You talk about fear. This guy is not gonna miss a rent payment. This guy might lose his head. And he's being chased like an animal, and yet, when he hears about this little town getting attacked by the Philistines, and now they're gonna rip off all the food from the people at harvest time, and now the kids are gonna have nothing to eat, David automatically responds like, should I go and help them? I gotta go and help them. You know, a lot of us, the moment we're under pressure, it's all about us. And we forget about anybody else around us because it's all about what I'm going through. I gotta step down from ministry. I've been watching this for years. Step down from ministry. I gotta leave the choir. I gotta leave the prayer band for a while. I gotta do whatever. I can't help anybody. I'm gonna just circle the wagons. Why? Because you don't know what I'm going through. And now God, in the middle of David's trouble, like often with us, he gives us an opportunity to help someone who's in worse trouble than us and can't defend themselves. But many times, we're so wrapped up with, oh, poor old me, we can't help anyone. We don't feel for other people. But David did. David could have rightly said, hey, Kayla, I feel bad for you. But I mean like I don't know if I'm gonna live from day to day. How can I go be helping you? What a great lesson for us. What a great example Jesus gave us that when he was facing the cross and they were plotting to kill him and murder him and betray him and crucify him on a cross, right to the end, he was washing the disciples' feet, trying to say encouragement, healing the sick, preaching to the multitudes in the temple courts on that last week of his life. Even though all this pressure was on him, pressure we can't understand, bearing the sins of the world, that's looming ahead of him, and yet he's thinking, who can I help? Who can I bless? Who can I teach? Who can I encourage? What a great challenge for all of us to be saved from narrow, selfish living. Many of us are tempted just by our own selfishness and preoccupation with our own situation that we forget what's happening around us, but especially when we're going through something. Oh no, we're going through something. Life stops. I'm going through something. Did you hear me? I said I'm going through something. I don't care if you're hanging by a thread off a cliff. I have no time for you because I'm going through something. My sister-in-law, stop talking to me. I am going through something. This is so traumatic. I am a victim, and David, instead of playing the victim card, is saying, can I help them? Is there something I can do? This happens to us in life. When we're under the most intense pressure, God will sometimes bring something near us that we're to help that person, minister to that person, instead of being frozen and paralyzed because of our own particular circumstances. David was a great man that way. No wonder Jesus is called the son of David. Now, what's interesting here, though, is immediately when David hears about that and his heart is moved, he does something that we miss out on. He says to the Lord, through the priest, he says to the Lord, shall I go and deliver Kayla and fight against the Philistines? Well, wait a minute. You're anointed. You wanna go? Go. You don't wanna go? Don't go. This is not a moral question. This is not the Ten Commandments. Don't steal, don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't lie. This is not a moral question. Hey, David, whatever. You wanna go and rumble? Rumble. You wanna just chill? Then chill. No, no. David has an instinct to help because he sees a need, but he realizes he can't do it unless God gives the green light. How few of us even think that way. And a lot of us, as I'll explain, do it out of good motivation. So David knows that Kayla's being ripped off, but he goes to God. Shall I go? Do you want me to do this? Is this something that you have planned for my life? So listen, brothers and sisters. Some people just teach you respond to need. Whatever need you see, respond to that need. And that is true in a general kind of way. We run into situations and things in life, and many times God let us see that so that we can help. But then there's another whole level of truth, and it's this. You can't fight every battle because God doesn't want you fighting some battle. There are some things you're to get involved in. Other things, you let it go and just pray. And if you get involved, and every time you see a need, if you send an offering to every missionary appeal that you have, well, there's a need. There's a problem. I know, but now the question is, God, is that part of your plan for my life? Do I join that ministry? Am I supposed to be in the prayer band? Am I supposed to send money to that missionary? Am I supposed to join this cause? Am I supposed to be part of this crusade? Am I supposed to get involved in this ministry to the homeless? Or is there something else you want me to do? In other words, even as believers, even as David was so anointed, David had this humility in him. I can't just run around doing what I wanna do, even if it's a good thing, I gotta get God's green light. I gotta have God say to me, go, do that thing. There are some things in life we're gonna throw ourselves 100% into and get involved. And then there are other things that are legitimate and that are right, where God says, just pray. That's not for you to do. I got somebody else for you to do that. Think of all the needs around the world. How can somebody be involved in every ministry that touches every part of the world? You can't. You can pray as the Lord directs you, but your own time, energy, your body, your giving, your focus, your devotion, you can't be in 185 causes all at once. So which one should you be involved in? Ah, David said, I only know one way. Let me inquire of the Lord. Lord, do you want me to go to Kayla? Those Philistines are bad dudes. Kayla is the underdog, but do you want me to be involved in that? I've seen Christians get discouraged and burn out because they can't say no to anything. They're just running all over the place. Now, there are other Christians who don't say yes to anything. They don't say yes to getting up in the morning. They just, they're cruising. But there's a balance that God wants us to have. So what is it that he wants you to be doing? I wanna look at it two ways. Some of you that are believers now, what has he directed you to be involved with? I'm not talking about going to church and sitting on a Sunday. I'm talking about something more than that. I'm talking about why he saved you. He didn't save you so that you would come to church on Sunday. So what is it that you're involved in? Nothing? Well, you better get back to the Lord and inquire of him. You better ask him what he wants you to do. He might speak through a Bible verse. He might speak through a whisper of the Holy Spirit in your heart. There might be some happenstance of life that you're gonna know. God wants me to get involved in that. So if you're doing nothing, we can be directed by the Holy Spirit what God wants us to throw our time and energy behind. But for some of us who are more hyperactive, you gotta learn to be asking God, should I join it, should I leave it alone? Should I leave it alone, should I join it? I can always pray, but I can't go everywhere. Nobody can go on every missionary trip. But there are some people who pray and say, you know what, I'm supposed to go to Rwanda. Other people pray and say, no, I'm not supposed to go to Rwanda. That's not God's plan for my life. But you know what, I'm gonna go to Haiti and I'm gonna stay an extra week. Why are you staying the extra week? Because the Lord put that on my heart. I can help the missionary there. This is a promise that God has for us that we don't have to try to figure things out with our limited IQ. He will direct us in the way that we should go. How many believe that? Say amen. He doesn't just leave us to figure it out. So David went to the Lord and inquired, and he said, Lord, is this something you want me to do? Because he knew if the Lord says do it, something good is gonna happen. There'll be blessing. But the Lord could say, no, that's not for you. So the Lord says go. He goes to his men, and his men say, what? Yeah, guys, we're going to Keilah. Come on, we're gonna deliver Keilah. Give me a K, give me an E, give me an I, Keilah. And they go, no, Keilah. No, Keilah, have you lost your mind? Saul and the army of Israel is chasing us down like we're birds of prey, and now you wanna attack the Philistines? Notice, sometimes the way God leads doesn't make sense logically on the surface. If you have to pass it through your logic and your brain, you won't be led by God. To be led by God means you just, once you know, you go, and you trust the results to Him. But the men, their rebuff of his suggestion of let's go and deliver Keilah, we learn something else. David went back to God and said, God, the guys aren't exactly excited about this plan. So tell me again, Lord. What does that tell us? It tells us that the best of us can be unsure sometime. And there's nothing wrong with going back to God and saying, God, I'm at a crossroads, what do I do? I'm talking about personal relationships now. I'm talking about switching jobs. I'm talking about getting an apartment. I'm talking about all kinds of things, joining a ministry in the church. We have many decisions we have to make, and we can't get the answer from the Bible because these are not moral decisions. These are will of God decisions. Like we see in the New Testament when the Apostle Paul was on a missionary journey. He was looking to the Holy Spirit to direct him where to go. He didn't have a GPS and an itinerary printed out for him. He was looking for God, show me. And when God would block it, he would then wait until God showed him where to go. Many of us just think, I'll do whatever I feel like doing and God has to bless it because I'm a Christian. There's something much deeper the Lord has for us. If you really wanna see the blessing of God, the power of God, the faithfulness of God, ask God to lead you. The steps of a righteous man are ordered by who? By the Lord. Don't lean upon your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him. I'm going now to, should I call this person on the phone and pray for her because I got this suggestion in my heart, Lord, is this you? Because I'll call her, and then when you call her, she picks up and you say, I just had you on my heart, I wanna pray, and they break down on the phone and go, how did you know what I was going through? Thank God that you called me. I've had that happen to me. That can happen to all of us. How many wanna be led by the Holy Spirit so that we can be a blessing to people? So David knew he had to be led by the Lord and now he's not sure because of the reaction of the men. He's human. When all your posse says, no, that's crazy, he went back to the Lord. Lord, I wanna be sure, and the Lord says, go. So if you're here today and you're facing a crossroad, gotta make a decision. You gotta remember, don't make a move until you're sure it's God's will. How does that happen? Well, that's harder to describe. Most of the great spiritual writers have said that it has much to do with the peace of God. When you pray and you wait and then God begins to kind of point something out to you and you say, God, is that you? I'll follow that. I'm gonna go that way, and then there's a peace. There's an inner peace that you're in God's will. These are important decisions. A lot of the counseling problems that we face are not moral right and wrong. It's bad decision making because people just thought, I'll figure this out. I'll just do what I feel like doing, and then God's my credit card in the sky. He'll pay for all the bills that go with it. So when you're not sure, you can go back to God. God, is this really you? Oh, how many times in my life have I been there? Oh, how many have been in situations in your life where there was a fork in the road or sometimes three different ways you could go and you just weren't sure what to do? How many have ever had that happen? Just don't know what to do. Should I retire early and then go in the ministry? Give myself more to the Lord? What would I do? When should I retire? There's no verse about that anywhere in that. Look, there's no verse about that. I went to a school. I studied. I was in a Christian environment in my home. Now, what does God want me to do? Not what you wanna do. What does God want you to do? This is where Christianity is worked out. Anybody can lift their hands and sing, it is well with my soul. It takes another kind of faith to say, God, show me the way you want me to go. Show me the way you want me to go. I remember as a businessman, before I went in the ministry and God was putting his finger on me to go in the ministry. Oh, how I fought against that. Because I don't wanna go in the ministry. I wasn't trained for the ministry. I didn't know how to do the ministry. And I already had a daughter who would pay the bills if I went in the ministry. Where would I go in the ministry? What would my calling be? And then God began to deal with me. And boy, when you fight off God's direction, oh, life gets miserable. Life gets miserable. You lose your peace, your joy. What happens is David goes with his men. And guess what? They're blessed. The town is blessed. Blessing everywhere. Why? Because one person inquired of the Lord and said, God, what do you want me to do? Should I do this or not do this? If God would have said, no, don't go to Cala, David wouldn't have gone. And God had another plan. Remember, you're not in all of God's plans. I'm not in every plan that God has for the world. I can only do what I can do. You can only do what you can do. So he goes and he saves Cala. And he has the cattle. He was blessed. The town is saved. Children are saved. Mothers are saved. All kinds of ugly things are avoided. Why? Because one person went to God and said, God, show me what to do. Should I attack Cala and try to deliver the town? Oh my goodness. When God directs our lives, there's an umbrella of blessing that will follow us. I'm telling you, wherever you go, where God is directing you, but listen to this. God never blesses you if you go on a detour. Now, I see this over here. I wanna go this way. But I'm a Christian. I know, but you left the road. The road is God's will. And there's an umbrella of blessing and provision. You go on a detour, you miss the blessing. If you're on a detour today with a person or something going on in your life, get back on the road that God has for your life. Everybody's happy. Then King Saul finds out. Did you know what? David is in Cala. He's in a walled city. And this is another lesson for us. Happens a lot today, I believe. You can be so deceived, but grow up around religious talk. You can be so far from God, but you can be using God to justify your own life, even though you're a million miles from God. Saul has just killed all the priests. Saul won't listen to anyone, including God. But when he finds out that David, his nemesis, the one he's jealous of, is in Cala behind walls, he starts to praise God. Oh God, you have delivered David into my hand. He hasn't, but he's hallucinating. He's tripping. And he's thanking God. God, thank you for bringing David into a city. Now I can kill that little critter. And he's bringing God into it. Not everyone who talks about God has a clue about God. People are just throwing God up to justify their own jealousy, their own envy, their own selfishness, their own plans, to surrender really and to say, God, show me what to do. That takes a faith of a very, very pure kind. So he's praising God for something God didn't even do. He's bringing God into his own mess. So he makes up his mind, soldiers, God has delivered David in our hand. Let's go to Cala and trap him. David hears about it. Saul and his army's coming. He knows you're here. He'll probably, David knows, he'll circle the city. He'll lay siege to the city. He'll cut off movement in and out. He'll cut off food, possibly water if he can. And then he'll make a deal with the inhabitants of Cala. Throw David off the wall or cut his head off and just throw his head off. I'll be happy with that, I'll take that. Deliver David to me and I'll save your town. If you try to protect David, I'll mess all of you up. I will mess all of you up. So David knows how this plays out. He's a soldier. So he goes to God again. Says, Abiathar, bring the ephod. All right, so God, I heard Saul is coming. Just confirm that for me, God, please. He is coming, okay. When he does his thing and lays siege, will the people give me up or the people fight for me? And the answer comes back, they'll give you up in a New York minute. Well, in a Cala minute it was, a different town. Isn't that amazing? These people were cheering David. They were David's best friends. David had just delivered them. David was their deliverer, their champion, their savior. Wasn't it David and his men who had just delivered them? Wouldn't you know that they would support you? Hey, listen, come on. If you just save the guys, the town, and you saved all the families from being attacked and marauded and losing all their crops, they're gonna stick with you. Oh no, God says no. They're fair weather friends. When it's between you and them, you're gonna go under the bus and they're gonna save themselves. And David said, it's gonna be that way, huh? And he slips out of town with his men and God keeps him safe. Saul keeps chasing him. But because David is led by the Lord, Saul can never get his ugly little hands on David. What does that teach us? Not everybody who seems to be our friend is our friend. Not everybody who makes promises is gonna come through. You can't trust everybody. Well, how do you know who to trust? Inquire of the Lord. No, but he said, he doesn't go to church now, but if I marry him, he will definitely be coming to church. Well, that you don't have to inquire about because the Bible says, listen, don't be unequally yoked. But there's many times in life where we have to trust someone. And you gotta know who to trust. You gotta know who's mature. You feel like opening up to someone, you better pray who you open up to because some people don't keep it confidential. Well, how would you know? Ask the Lord. Ask the Lord who's your real friend, who's mature. See how this solves so many problems? Instead of just reacting with our brain power and our IQ and what we think is logical and sequential, we sometimes face situations where we just go, you know what, I don't know what to do about that one. I gotta ask God. Do I sign this lease, Lord? Oh, God, let's protect us from all kinds of things. Do I buy this house? Do I feel peace about it? Well, it looks good, price is good, I know, but God, is this the house you have for me? How many believe God is interested in all those things? Lift your hand and say amen. Well, of course he is. He's interested about everything about my life and your life. If he knows the number of hairs on our head, if he knows when a sparrow falls, you don't think he's involved right now with decisions in your job, financial? No, I'm gonna invest that money. I know of a minister's family, the father died, family got ahold of the money, no prayer, somebody promised them huge returns, lost all the money, everything. The pastor's wife ended up just without two nickels to rub together. Oh no, but they promised great returns. Did you pray about it? No, because they just said, look, this is the way it works. We need to pray about everything. We need to ask God's guidance for every kind of situation. I studied all week to preach something else. So I especially just wanna say this. If you're involved with somebody here, you're not married, you're single, but you're getting involved, please be careful. Please be careful. I don't care how nice he seems or she seems. Please be careful. Inquire of the Lord. He'll bless you for it. He will honor you. If you bring your everyday, you mean I'm gonna bring my everyday decisions to God and he's not gonna honor me for that? He won't honor you? Of course he will. He's gonna see that we love him so much and trust him so much that we're laying before him every kind of decision so that we don't just go crazy, make a decision, run into a brick wall. Oh, pray for me, I'm in such trouble. Why, what happened? Well, I did this, I did that. Did you ask anyone about it? Did you pray about that? No, but I just thought it would all work out. My friends told me and they came out of the brick wall. So now you get them, you pray, you bandage them, you put ointment on them, medicine on it, and the next thing you know, they're off again to the same brick wall. They're gonna run into that brick wall. God must have something better for us. Do you agree? We're all for praying for people. We're all for mending broken hearts. We'll do whatever we can. But wouldn't it be great if God would direct us so we could avoid those brick walls? That we could go the way that he wants us to go? This is so important. The more years I walk with the Lord, the more people I counsel. I just say, oh God, make us more careful to bring every kind of decision to you. Every kind of decision to you. God, we absolutely need your direction. Let's close our eyes. This is good teaching for all of us. And what God is calling us today is to inquire of him about every kind of situation and maybe just one or two people that God wants to save from making a really bad decision without seeking his will, his direction. I'm telling you, if you're willing to ask him and to wait, he will guide you in the way that you should go. And when you go that way, there will be blessing, not just for you, there will be blessing for other people. But you can't make haste. You can't make rushed judgments. You gotta say, God, show me. You know what I'm facing. I came to church on Sunday. This wasn't a hallelujah, run around the building type sermon, but this was searching. God, your word searches me. You said that when the Holy Spirit comes, he would lead us into every kind of good situation that you have for us. I need to hear a word from you, God. I wanna follow David's example. Talk to me, God. Anybody here facing a situation like that where you realize now more than ever, I need direction from the Lord. Just stand where you're sitting, just stand. Just stand up and say, Pastor, I need to hear from God on Sunday. This is about how you raise your children. What do you do with a disobedient child? What do you do with a rebellious child? You just can't react. You gotta inquire of the Lord. Show me what to do, God. Those of you that are standing, just step out of your seat and come up. Stand here in the front. God's gonna help you. God is gonna help you. Come with a surrendered will. Say to the Lord, Lord, what do you want me to do? What's your way, not my way, and then you bless my plans. What's your will, even if it doesn't seem right to me on the surface, you'll explain it to me. Let's pray. Father, first, we wanna just thank you for loving us, and we wanna thank you for your deep interest in our lives. You're interested in every day, every hour, every decision. You just didn't send your son to die for us, and then now we gotta just figure it all out until we get to heaven. No, you're interested, like a loving father would be for his children. We give you our decisions, our perplexities, the questions that stump us, and we believe that you know all things, and that you wanna direct us in the way that we should go. So we surrender our wills to you, and we say to you, lead us, guide us, reveal your purpose for our life, save us from the pit that we don't see, from the person who seems to be one way, but they're another. Save us from making rash decisions which will hurt us and our families. Just settle over us, Lord. Give us your peace when we're moving the right way. Take away your peace when we're going the wrong way. Just take that peace away. Give us some warning that we're not following you. We're serious about this today, God. So many decisions we have to make every week, every month. We humble ourselves and tell you that we're not smart enough to figure it all out. The world says, no, I'll figure out my own life. No one's gonna tell me what to do, but we say the opposite. Lead us and guide us, and we will follow you. Give us the grace, the faith, perseverance. And now, Lord, as we hug each other and greet each other again, let your love fill our hearts. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ surround us. Be with us all day today. We pray it in Jesus' name. And everyone said, turn around and hug three or four people. Come on, no handshaking. Give someone a hug. God bless you.