In this sermon, the speaker discusses a song that portrays a vine being transported from Egypt to the land of Canaan. The vine flourishes under God's protection but eventually faces destruction when the head is gone and strangers pluck its fruit. The speaker emphasizes that God deals with sin in a timely manner, unlike human court systems. He urges individuals and nations to reflect on their actions and seek forgiveness when they find themselves drinking tears. The speaker also references the parable of the vineyard in Isaiah chapter five, highlighting the disappointment of God when His vineyard produces only worthless grapes.

...and all of you, of the purpose that we came to quite a long time ago, and then somehow seemed to lose sight of, but now we're coming back to this urgent purpose, and that is to join our Lord Jesus Christ in his yearning, in his desire, to become a house of prayer for all the nations. You remember when Christ cleansed the temple, drove out the money changers, tipped over their tables, and made clear that they had made the house of God a house of merchandise. He said, my Father's house is a house of prayer for all the nations. So we're determined to meet again on Sunday evenings, as we once did, for prayer. And we're encouraging everyone who possibly can to be here. We understand that when you've got children, it's hard for both husband and wife to come. But if one at least would come, perhaps the husband one week, and the wife the next. But let's all of us join together in the spirit of prayer. And you may be thinking to yourself, well, I've never prayed out loud in a prayer meeting. That's all right. Don't you worry a bit about that. You come and link your heart with others. So that's at six tonight, and I truly hope you will all participate. I also want to remind you of a most excellent Sunday school class that is going on at nine o'clock. Chris Ansberry did a wonderful job this morning teaching out at Ezra Nehemiah. And I trust that all who possibly can will join in that as well. Now personally, I've come back from Texas after preaching there 28 times over the last two weeks. And I've had just about all that I could possibly handle. But the blessing of God was upon it. And we saw this week a deep stirring in the second church where I was preaching, and many coming to confess their sin and to get right with God. So although I'm worn out, I'm quite refreshed and delighted that the Lord still permits me to serve here and there. A few of you perhaps were alert to the fact that one of the churches that I was in was burned down by arsonists in January. And the people were so delighted. Ten churches in East Texas were destroyed by two young men who were professing Christians and members of a Baptist church. And nobody quite knows what happened. It appears that one of them admitted to someone that his mother died and his father tried to commit suicide and he was angry. And so he got his friend to join him in setting fire in ten churches. But they've been arrested. And I've been praying for these poor guys. They probably just in a season of rage set these fires. They were very ignorant about what they did. They left fingerprints in many places. They left boot prints. They stole from the church where I was preaching two very expensive guitars. And they had those, so when the police caught them, they had the evidence of the guitars. And now the judge is saying that they're going to go for the maximum penalty, 99 years for each offense. And instead of them lumping them together, one after another consecutively. So in other words, 990 years sentence to prison. And I'm concerned for those foolish young fellows. Perhaps some of you will join in prayer that God will break their hearts and bring them into a right relationship with Christ. Someone perhaps is saying, the church burned down so how did you preach there? Well they had a large new gymnasium that they had built. And they were able to set the gymnasium up. And we had the services there. Anyway, thanks to all of you who prayed. Now I'm going to be the poorest pastor any church ever had. Because before we knew David was going to resign, I had already committed myself to preach in a great many places this year. So Lord willing, I'll be here next Sunday. Then I'm scheduled to be in Michigan the following week with the Church of God. They're holding a solemn assembly and they've asked me to come and help them with that. And then preaching in the churches of that particular denomination. So again, my thanks for the privilege of being with you. Now we're reading this morning, as Dennis pointed out at the beginning of the service, from Psalm number 80. And I ask you to join me now in turning to this passage. And while you're finding your way to Psalm 80, let me point out that this is a psalm specifically dealing with Israel at the time that they have gone astray. But this psalm is the psalm of the vine. And as perhaps some of you realize, this psalm has been an American favorite. Because America, through the earlier generations, was described as the American psalm. And this psalm was taken seriously as applying not only to Israel of old, but to these United States of America. Because in the early days, while our nation was being gathered, a great many of the leaders of the nation were saying, we are the new Israel. And so that label of the new Israel identified us in the world for a very long time. At the time of the Continental Congress, which at that time, many of you will remember, was not in Washington, D.C., but in Philadelphia. A sermon was preached in Christ Church in Philadelphia entitled, The American Vine. The Continental Congress dismissed and went to Christ Church to listen to the sermon. Maggie and I reprinted that sermon in a pamphlet form and have circulated vast numbers of copies of it throughout the country. So keep those thoughts in mind as we read, but also remember that there's a very significant personal application that can be made of this psalm, and wonderfully also an application to our church at this time. So join me please as we read. O give ear, shepherd of Israel, thou who dost lead Joseph like a flock, thou who art enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth, before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy power and come to save us. O God, restore us and cause thy face to shine upon us, and we will be saved. O Lord, God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry with the prayer of thy people? Thou hast fed them with the bread of cheer. Thou hast made them to drink tears in large measure. Thou dost make us an object of contention to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves. O God of hosts, restore us and cause thy face to shine upon us, and we will be saved. Thou didst remove a vine from Egypt. Thou didst drive out the nations and didst plant it. Thou didst clear the ground before it, and it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shadows, and the cedars of God with its boughs. It was sending out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the river. Why hast thou broken down its hedges so that all who pass that way pick its fruits? A boar from the forest eats it away, and whatever moves in the field feeds on it. O God of hosts, turn again now. We beseech thee, look down from heaven and see and take care of this vine, even the shoot which thy right hand has planted, and on the son whom thou hast strengthened for thyself. It is burned with fire. It is cut down. They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou didst make strong for thyself. Then we shall not turn back from thee. Revive us, and we will call upon thy name. O Lord, God of hosts, restore us. Cause thy face to shine upon us, and we will be saved. No doubt you have often been surprised, just as I have. In the morning, you drive by a certain area, and you see that a large new multi-story building looks to be just about complete. But there's no landscaping, there's no shrubs or bushes, certainly no trees. You come back by that place in the evening, and here are giant trees all around it, and all kinds of shrubs and bushes and flowers. And once in a while we even see how they do that. You've seen that huge, huge machine with that scoop on the back, with prongs that come down in every direction. And you know that they dig out a big hole, and then that machine digs out a tree, and it carries it on its back, and it plops it in that hole, and they can do an entire block in a single day with wonderful trees, which all survive. Now the picture in this psalm is a bit like that, and yet it's quite different. Because in this psalm, it talks about a vine that has been transported, not just a little distance, not a matter that took a matter of a few hours, but the vine was dug up out of Egypt, carried for 40 years as a result of the stubbornness and the hard-heartedness of the people, and kept alive in all that period, and then eventually planted in the land of Canaan. And after it was planted, God enabled it to send down its roots into the depths where there were waters to be found, and it sent out its branches in every direction. And the vine flourished and enjoyed the heads of God's protection about it. But when this psalm was written, all of that had changed. The heads were dropped. Wild pigs roamed through the area. Strangers passed through and plucked and ate the fruit. And the whole was perished. And this is a lament, a cry. Questions are asked. Why? How did all of this happen? And for what purpose? Notice these words, verse 4. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry with the prayer of thy people? And I'd like to ask you, has it ever occurred to you that prayer, instead of being answered, can provoke God to anger? And when you face that, naturally you want to ask, what kind of bread would provoke God to anger? And it's not just anger, but notice verse 5. Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears. Thou hast made them to drink tears in large measure. So anger, that results in things happening to the people of God that provoke them to tears in great measure. So again, what kind of prayer would provoke God to that kind of anger? Have you weighed that? Are you prepared right now to meet with your kingdom and say, I know! Or perhaps not. But it is something to carefully weigh. But notice also in verse 1. O give ear, shepherd of Israel. Now, when do you ask someone to listen? Well, most of us have had sufficient dealing with children to know that when a mother says, sit down and be quiet and listen, she does that when she has strong reason to believe they haven't been paying any attention to her. And is it not reasonable to suppose that when God is asked by the soldier to give ear, he has reason to believe that God has not been paying attention to the prayers that have been prayed. And it seems to me there is a connection between not paying attention or in short, not answering the prayers favorably and being angry with the prayers and just introducing significant causes of tears. Sometimes the time I have passed during daytime meetings, especially, a lot of places I go, they have noonday meetings every day. These last two weeks I have had noonday meetings as well as evening meetings and then also in the evening meetings. For classes I have had noonday meetings in the last two weeks. But in these noonday meetings where everything is informal and where the speaker can ask questions and it's appropriate for people to answer, I have asked this question from time to time. Think of the extended family. And I assume we all know what is meant by the term extended family, not just the mother, father and children, but aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins and so on. Think of the extended family and ask this question. Is there a single family here? Speaking of the extended family that has no cause for tears. And whenever I have asked that question, not a single family has ever said, Oh, we have no cause for tears. Every family has acknowledged many, many tears. Over these last two weeks many parents shed tears over children on drugs, over husbands who are alcoholics. The list of possible causes for tears is immense. And while I'm not giving you opportunity to respond because naturally in morning services we just don't do that, nonetheless it's worth consideration. In your extended family, are there tears? Well, we have a nephew who smoked himself to death. Praise God, not long before his death, brought on by extreme smoking, he found the law. And we have a niece, a sweet girl. I was with her when I was preaching last fall in South Carolina. But a divorced wife, made an awful mess of her early life, but now living for Christ and his glory. Tears, tears, everywhere you look, tears, tears, tears. So, the question again, what would provoke God to bring tears in life? When God is grieving with his people because they have been disobedient to him, and he brings upon them some manner of a righteous judgment, and they ask God to deliver them from the judgment, but not from the cause of the judgment. It's an offense to God. Now, there are passages in scripture that parallel this avian song, and I'd like you to turn momentarily to Isaiah chapter 5, and read a parallel passage, Isaiah chapter 5, verses 1 to 7. This is the parable of the vineyard. Let me sing now for my well beloved a song of my beloved in his vineyard. My well beloved had a vineyard on a purple hill, and he dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and he built a tower in the middle of it, and he hewed out a wine vat in it. Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless wine. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? What, when I expected it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless wine? So now let me tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed. I will break down its wall, and it will become trampled ground. And I will lay it waste. It will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his delightful plant. Thus he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress. Clearly, Psalm 80 is describing Israel after God had made a decision concerning her, because she did not produce good grapes, but worthless wine. He brought her under judgment. He broke down the hedge. He allowed the wild pigs to destroy the vine. But fortunately, the psalmist is aware of what is happening, and he knows what to do. Now as I have said to you, our own country has been described as the American vine. Our hedge is broken down. As a nation, we are producing worthless fruit. The wild pigs, and a lot of them are in government, in positions of leadership, are destroying the vine. But the tragedy is, as a nation, we don't know what to do, and we haven't done it. We continue to destroy ourselves without it appears any real understanding of what's happening here. But isn't it wonderful, that even though a nation can make the wrong choices, time after time after time, and although a nation of churches can do the same, not every church has the power of that kind. Where I was speaking these last two weeks, I had been there the year before, and had spoken to a considerable number of pastors, and some of them heard what was said. The second church I was in, when the pastor introduced me, he said, Mr. Roberts spoke in our area last year, I listened to what he said, and my whole life was transformed. And as a consequence, this church has completely turned around. And the evidence was, that it actually had. Now here we are, as a church based, with considerable difficulty, obviously huge changes, that most of us had not anticipated coming, and in some measure, we can even liken ourselves to this bind of Israel, or this American trial. And this chapter will give us some wonderful direction, and help as to what to do. So let's go back to verse 1, and to weigh the several statements that introduce the song. I already pointed out the opening line, O give ear, shepherd of Israel. And I indicated to you, that one seriously asks God to listen, when they have reasonably, he is not doing so. Now I have been in situations, where I have heard the leadership of the church say, God always hears and answers prayer. Now that sounds awfully nice, but it isn't true. It's not true at all. And when you think about it, now you folks don't see this as much as I do, but being in so many churches in the course of a year, and having pastors even describe their church prayer meeting, not long ago a pastor described a church prayer meeting, as an organ recital. Now what do you suppose, and suddenly it dawned on me, he was saying, in our church the only things we ever pray about, are people's organs. The whole focus of the church, is upon the physical body. Pray for so and so's heart. Pray for so and so who broke their finger. Pray for somebody who got a deep scratch on their arm. I mean, in a typical church, if it's given an opportunity to submit prayer requests, if 40 requests are received, 39 of them will be about organs of the body. Now listen friends, this is quite serious. When God isn't answering prayer, and yet you still feel you need to go through the motions of prayer, pray for things that require no divine intervention. What we call safe prayers, or cheap prayers. I have to go to work, thank God, and I have to fly. Will you please pray that I'll have a safe trip? Well the possibility is pretty strong that without prayer, I'll have a safe trip. We pray for things, that do not require us to go out on a limb, in case. And we pray for things, that are pretty well guaranteed to occur. After all, when God created the human body, he gave it incredible healing ability. I'm simply saying, that at a time, when the people are not seeing magnificent answers to prayer, the tendency is to pray for little things, that are more or less assured to be all right. But wait carefully. The possibility, that your own personal prayers, are not really being heard, and answered by God. But wait, the possibility, if we ask God to heal the deep wounds of our nation, he may not hear us, because the wounds, are a part of the judgment, that God has brought upon us. And it is clearly wrong, to ask God to remove the wounds, without our dealing with the cause, of the judgment that's upon us. So line one, pray. That apparently I'm not being answered. Look at the next line. Thou who dost believe, Joseph, life, of what? Some of you will remember, that at the time, that Aaron inspired the people with his golden hat, the Lord was very angry, and he said to Moses, Moses get out of the way, I'm going to go down there, and utterly destroy those people. Out of you Moses, you alone Moses, I will raise the upper people up. But Moses didn't get out of the way. He got right in God's face. And he asked Jesus, he gave God two reasons, why he should not totally destroy Israel. Reason number one, he asked what will the Egyptians think? That God brought them out of Egypt with his mighty arm, only to destroy them in the wilderness? And number two, how can you keep your promises, if you destroy these people? You gave promises to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and you can't keep them, if you destroy them. Now God will tell you, has it occurred to you, that God likes us to get right in Israel, and to argue with Israel, in the way Moses did. So you see, God had said, I'll destroy them, Moses got in his face, and then God said to Moses, well, I'll send an angel before you, but I won't go with you myself, because you are stiff-necked. If I were with you, I would destroy you on the way. But Moses wouldn't take that. Moses said, if you don't go with us, we're not going anywhere. And then God said, all right, I'll do it. But Moses wasn't satisfied. So then, having won twice, his courage is running high. Now, show me thy glory. And the Lord says, all right Moses, come on back up to the mountain, stand there in that crest of the rock, I'll cover you with my hand, I'll cause all my goodness to pass before you. And when Moses came down to the mountain, he had to put a veil over his face, because the glory of God was so brilliant on this mountain. So you see, this psalm, the second line, is raising this issue, Thou who dost lead Joseph like a flock. They had reached that point, where not only were their prayers falling on deaf ears, but they were in a state of confusion. They were milling about. They were not going anywhere. They were not accomplishing anything. They were outside the will of God and his purpose for their life. Look at the third line. Thou who art enthroned above the cherubim, try to be quiet. Now that's a truly remarkable man. Most of you are aware that the Ark of the Covenant had two cherubim above it. That Ark was placed in the inner sanctum, in the Holy of Holies. And the presence of God was so brilliant that before the high priest could enter that Holy of Holies, on his annual trip there, to make sacrifice for his sins, and those are the people, they had to insert first a smudge pot to obscure the glory of God. And then too, before he entered, they tied a rope around his ankle so that if, when he was in the Holy of Holies, he sinned against God and was struck dead, they could lay hold of the rope and drag him out without being in there themselves to be struck dead. Now, in the third line, the request is, Thou who dwellest between the cherubim, sign forth my word, they never had an eye. Now, see, God's ear has become deaf to their prayers. He's not leading them in the way that they hoped and knew, and this blood is not killing them. The Holy of Holies. And we can apply this as I said to our own eardrums. Our nation is not on praying ground. We're not seeing God do remarkable things on our eardrums. We are not experiencing his leadership as we did for many generations. And certainly, the glory of the Lord is not killing either the nation or its church. And it's so clear that the glory is not in the church because where there's glory, there's holiness. I mean, what I just said about the rope around his ankle. In God's presence, if there's no holiness, there's death. For me, there are three remarkable lines that we need to lay hold of and begin to seriously think about our own church. Is not the hope for our church that God will again answer large-scale prayer? In the second church where I was in Texas, several people were telling me that a few months back they got under the burden of praying for lost people by name. So they would gather every week and just pray by name for lost people, lost husbands, lost wives, lost children, lost parents, lost neighbors. And they got very fervent in praying that way. And the whole church was excited because several of those lost people on the list had been gloriously saved. We, as a fellowship of believers, must do whatever is necessary to see that our prayers are again answered, that the Lord's presence is with us, that he is leading us truly like a flower, that his glory is in our midst. Look at the fourth line, before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy power and come to save us. What an incredibly urgent and consequential line that is. How many of you think God is really stirring himself up on behalf of this nation and coming to save us? Just about everybody that talks with me, he says, we are so close to destruction that it could happen in a moment's time. But when you look back over the scriptures, there are these incredibly beautiful records of God actually stirring himself up on behalf of his people, doing wondrous things for them. Just consider when Joshua led the people across the waters into the land. What a phenomenal thing that they put a foot in the water and suddenly this rushing river all of a sudden walls up and it doesn't make it in by each drop there as if it were mud. And the Egyptians put a foot in it. The water drowned all water. God exercising his strength on behalf of his people, showing himself strong. Oh, would God, he would show himself strong on behalf of our people and our nation. And I think each of us can legitimately say to the Lord, and include me, show yourself strong in my path, in my path, in all of the affairs in which I am involved. Listen to these words from Isaiah 59, verses 1 and 2. Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short that it cannot save. Neither is his ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have been taken from you so that he does not hear. And whenever people find that their prayers are not being answered in a glorious way, then it's well to ask, have our sins caused us to refuse to listen to our prayers? Peter made a lovely statement in chapter 12 of his first epistle, or chapter 3, verse 12 of his first epistle. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his sheep attend their prey. But the faith of the Lord is against those who refuse. Well now, we've noted already that the prayer of verse 3 is repeated twice more. So verse 3, O God, restore us, I think that King James says, return us again, O God, and cause thy faith to shine, and we shall be saved. So we have it there, we have it again in verse 7, O God of hosts, restore us and cause thy faith to shine upon us, and we shall be saved. And we have it again in verse 19, O Lord God of hosts, restore us, cause thy faith to shine upon us, and we shall be saved. And in verses 14 and 15, similar words are addressed to God, O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech thee, look down from heaven, and see, and take care of this vine, even the shoot with thy right hand is planted, and on the son whom thou hast strengthened for thyself. So, the leadership, please, is urged you every time to come on these Sunday nights, and let us lay hold of the horned hill, just as the Sovereign does here. And we all know, I hope, that God delights to come again among his own people, and to be sure and to say, but let's have a further look at verses 4 and 5. How long wilt thou be angry with the prayer of thy people, thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, and thou hast made them to drink tears in thy name. Surely, we must never lose sight of the fact that God does deal with sin in a timely way. It must be said of God, and it cannot be said of our court system. God practices judicial timing. He never waits. We've grown, we're embarrassed, we're distracted. A person can be seen murdering someone. There can be fourteen eyewitnesses, and twelve years later, they're still fooling around in court, pretending to administer justice. But it's never partly to God. And whenever a church or a nation or an individual realizes that they are made to drink tears in large measure, they ought to inquire, have we offended you, Lord God? Is there something we have done or left undone that we need to deal with? One evening this week, I spoke for about an hour and a half on the words in the end of James 4. To him who knoweth to do good and doeth not, to him it is sin. Oftentimes when we look over our lives, we say, well, I don't know of anything that I'm doing that I shouldn't do. But we're not all that careful about asking, what about the things I should do that I'm not doing? The sins of omission. And in that James passage I just cited, it talks about sins of omission that are made to work. What we call an aggravated sin, a sin that is made to work, because you know what you should do and you don't. Well, God, with all the heart, soul, strength, mind, the first and the greatest commandment. But if that's the first and the greatest commandment, what is the first and greatest sin? Adultery? Murder? Rape? No, obviously the first and greatest sin is not to love God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength. So when we're facing situations that are like the songs just describing, and we don't see any obvious open sin in our lives that accounts for it. I've looked over our church situation. Honestly, I don't know of anything by way of a sin of omission that we've got to deal with. I think we have, I thought to myself, seriously start to walk in obedience to the Lord. Maybe some of you know something I don't, but I could not think of one sin of this congregation, one sin of omission. But I can think of numerous sins of omission, things we should do and we haven't been doing. Can we not go ahead with a song to define us? Turn up again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine. And we shall be saved. You see the wonderful thought of this passage is when we can do what we must do. Now take the issue of dealing with sin of omission. Sometimes you reach the point where you say, I know I ought to love God more, I just don't know how. I know I should pray more fervently, but honestly I just don't seem to have it in me. Isn't it wonderful that although God commands us to repent, that is, to turn ourselves when we can't, He doesn't give us any chance at being possible because He makes it possible when we can't figure out how to do it. But let's observe it well. Verse 6, Thou dost make us an object of contention to our neighbor, and our enemies laugh among themselves. Now that is obviously the condition that we're in. We are the source of contentment for the world. Every time the media finds some blatant sin in some prominent professory student, they love to spread it around the world. There was a time when things were different. Now I have to speak carefully here because you might misunderstand my motives. But imagine I was born, or if Mary and our children were born, no doctor would charge us for birth. Even the hospital would be a cheap, cheap discount if you walked into a department store or any kind of a store and they knew you. Either there was no charge or the price was dramatically higher. Well, it's not that way now, and I'm not really lamenting the fact that we don't get discounts. All I'm saying is it represents an incredible change of mood. There was a time when the most honored men in America were served of a living heart. I remember, and did it happen yesterday, and Maggie and I moved to a different state, and we had to have our driver's license, and we had to take the road test. And the fellow that gave the test took Maggie first, and he accused her. He was rude, he was mean, he was as nasty as could be. But when he saw my application, and it said minister, he turned all that and his dad. And he just about said, oh, you know who you are. He went through the formalities of it, but he didn't treat me at all like he treated her, and he apologized to Maggie for his response. I'm only saying this, friends. This, that I just stated, fits the verse six, our enemies laugh among themselves. We have lost something that we're not burdened enough personally, but for the glory of God we're burdened. When there's no longer any respect for Christ, then indeed, we know we've got to get serious with God, and we've got to, again, pray that God will truly forgive us. So the picture of the Bible, that once had the blessing of God upon it, that once emerged magnificently, but because of a high foundation that he sought, he had in his mind, he thought, wrote down in his head, the love of God, the gift of God, by the Spirit. And while he may doubt that we have been of the standard state of maturity, we're certainly of the standard state. And when he sees that the power of his Spirit, our soul, that we live, is not part of the unity that happens right here, so I'm speaking to you personally, most of you, by God's grace, but I think that there's some of us here today, we are taking one step, and I believe it's time to take a step of that whole mind, that we need not suffer, and are being sure that there are no sins of any sort that we've committed. And so my plea to you, most of you, is that we look open the pages, that we see the truth, know God as God, and that we bring them before the Lord, and when we find that we don't even know how we will do that, oh God, because by faith, by Jesus' grace, I can see from the act of learning, that vehicles driving off the road, kill the drivers, kill each other. And I would like you to know, by you, so that once again, your powerful hands will be working on behalf of this congregation, so that once again, the glory of the Lord will become so attractive here, that multitudes will turn to our wonderful Savior. Lord, it is possible that none of us shall despair or disappoint you, but that we shall move forward together in bringing glory to our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ.