In his sermon 'Ready to Preach the Gospel,' Steve Hopkins explores Romans 1:8-15, where Paul expresses his gratitude and longing to visit the Christians in Rome. Despite the persecution they face, Paul emphasizes the faith of the Roman believers, renowned throughout the world. He assures them of his constant prayers and his desire to impart spiritual gifts to establish them further in faith. Hopkins highlights the historical context, including the reign of Nero and the martyrdom of Peter and Paul. He discusses the eternal security of believers, predestined for glory, and the duty of Christians to preach the gospel. The sermon stresses the importance of grounding one's family in faith through daily scripture and prayer, while also encouraging mutual support within the church community. Hopkins urges believers to be ready to share the gospel with those around them and emphasizes the role of God's providence in guiding their paths.

Thanks for joining us at Burnet Bible Church. This week Mr. Hopkins continues his sermon series in the book of Romans. Let's turn in our Bibles to Romans chapter 1. We'll be picking up with Romans chapter 1 and Verse 8, and we're going to read together through verse 15.

So let's stand for the reading of the Word of God. Verses 8 through 15. First, I Thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers, making requests if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end that you may be established.

That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now, I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purpose to come unto you, but was let hither to, that I might have some fruit among you also even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians both to the wise and the unwise. So as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Amen.

Let's be seated. As we return to our verse-by-verse study of Paul's letter to the Christians residing at Rome. The setting again, the year is 57 or 58 AD. So it's about 24 or 25 years after the crucifixion and resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the Apostle is believed to be writing from Corinth or somewhere in the vicinity of Corinth and He's writing at a time of great trial for the Christian community living at Rome the previous emperor Claudius has already evicted the Jewish believers in Christos, in Christ, from the city, and Nero has now been reigning for about three years. As I said in our last session, Peter, according to church tradition, will shortly be martyred outside of the city of Rome, nailed to a cross upside down.

The Apostle Paul himself will be beheaded at Rome under orders of Nero, whom the early church referred to as the Antichrist. Multitudes of believers will be martyred in the persecution that is carried out by Rome's tyrannical dictatorship and the emperors that succeed Nero after he commits suicide in 68. In our last session, I told you that the beloved of God living in Rome, the called of Jesus Christ, are intended by the apostle to be comforted by his words that he's writing. He would have them to be comforted in the midst of the fiery trial of their faith that is at that time unfolding. And will continue to increase in intensity as the days roll on.

He has told them that they are a people not only called but chosen as all believers, chosen before the foundation of the world, that they are for known of God, for loved of God, even before God formed them in their mother's womb, that they were predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son, that they were called with a calling that results in Justification always results in justification That their security is eternal They have eternal security having been justified in God's sight they are destined to eternal glory in the presence of God forever. No matter what they face in this life, and no matter what we face in this life, Christians may be comforted by the knowledge that what God has begun, God will complete. What God begins in his people, God completes in his people. So they can say, And we can say, I'm a believer. I know I'm trusting in Christ alone for my salvation.

God began that work. God will complete that work. We who believe on the name of God's Son, Jesus Christ, were predestined to glory before time began. And nothing that comes upon us in time, in this life, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. And Paul will get to that later on in his letter as the chapters unfold.

But as we pick up this afternoon with verse 8, Paul begins in verse 8 first. That is, there's something I want to tell you I want you to understand first of all. The first thing I want you all to understand is this, that I thank God for you all. I thank God for you. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

What a blessing that must have been for them to hear when they stood and read copies of Romans in the churches of Rome. What a blessing. Their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world in which they lived. And I was thinking about that last night. What a blessing it would be if one day the faith of believers in Burnet, Texas was spoken of throughout the whole world.

Throughout the whole world. First, notice here that Paul thanks God through Christ. Very important. Just as no one comes to God but through Jesus Christ, so no one truly thanks or gives thanks to God but through him. Those who feign gratefulness to God apart from Christ are not giving thanks to the one true and living God.

We run into these people all the time. They will not use the name of Jesus. So they'll talk about God, but they will not talk about God's son. No one comes to the Father but through the Son, and no one truly gives thanks to the Father but through the Son. Second, Paul thanks God for their faith.

It is a testimony to the source of saving faith, that faith comes from God. Calvin comments here, he who gives thanks to God for faith confesses that it comes from him. Pretty simple, right? Faith is not something that man stirs up within his utterly corrupted and depraved nature in which nothing good dwells. No, faith is a good thing, and faith is a gift from God.

If it were of man, man could boast, but because it is the gift of God, no man can boast who truly possesses it. Third, the apostle thanks God through Christ that the faith of the Christians in Rome was spoken of throughout the whole world, and he wanted them to know it. Christians living in the Mediterranean world and all throughout the known world at that time, they knew the cost of professing Christ openly in Rome at that time. They knew. There's a price tag on that one.

The faith of the Christians living in Rome at that time was renowned. The faith of Christians becomes renowned when they suffer for their faith. The faith of Christians in North Korea today is renowned because it costs you something to profess Christ in North Korea. The faith of the Christians in Iran, in China, and other places is renowned because it costs you something to be a Christian in China and in Iran and in places where You are persecuted for the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul wants them to know that he is praying for them.

It is a great comfort to believers when we hear that a brother or sister is praying for us, isn't it? He wants them to know that he's praying for them. How comforting it must have been for them when this letter was read in their churches to know that the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul himself, was praying for them and praying for them continually. And Paul tells them that God is his witness. This is an oath made in the name of God.

There are appropriate times when Christians may take oaths and vows. We have an entire section on that in the Baptist confession, which is really taken from the Westminster confession. It is appropriate to make oaths and vows, but never in the name of any but God, and always with great solemnity. We do this when we make our marriage vows and we take our marriage vows. We do this when we covenant with the church and take our vows as members of a church.

And we also do this when we stand in the courtroom or at least in courtrooms of the past, right? When you would stand and swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you, God. Here the Apostle Paul says that God, whom he serves with all his being, in the preaching of the gospel of his son. God is his witness. God is Paul's witness to the truth that he is ever and always praying for them.

That they are always in his prayers. That he prays for them without ceasing and that he longs to be with them. God is my witness, he says. I pray for you all the time, and I long to be with you. He wants these precious souls at Rome who are undergoing many afflictions, many persecutions for their faith to know that it is His earnest desire, His continual prayer, that if God willing He might be permitted to come to them.

And not that He might merely be permitted to come to them to see their faces and be with those whom He loved dearly, but that in coming to them, he might impart to them, that is deliver to them, something of spiritual benefit to them. Then in coming to them, his ministering to them might establish them further in the faith. That's his longing. I wanna be with you, I'm praying for you, I wanna come and see you, and I wanna to be able to impart something to you that will help you, something that will be advantageous to you. And eventually Paul will come to them.

But maybe not as he or they thought or expected. When he does arrive in Rome, he will arrive in chains. The Apostles' desire and his purpose in coming to them, which is the purpose or should be the purpose of every minister of the gospel in every age, is to establish them. Paul wants to further ground them, ground the people of God whom he shepherds in the faith of Christ. Paul desires to see them confirmed in the faith and the truth that he has preached unto them which were given to Him by Christ.

He wants to see them established in the faith, and it should be our goal as well as pastors, to see the flock of Christ, every individual member edified through the preaching of the Word, built up in the faith of Christ and conformed more and more to his image. That's our goal. That's the goal of pastors, or should be the goal of pastors. It should also be the desire of every believer. And I want to ask you a question.

Is that your goal this afternoon? Is that your desire? Is that your passion? Is it your life's goal, your life's desire, your life's overwhelming passion to be grounded in the faith of Christ, to be built up in the faith of Christ, to be grounded in the faith of Christ and built up in the faith of Christ, to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, and be conformed more and more to His image, and to lose more and more of your image. Is that your goal?

Is that your overwhelming passion? I pray that it is. Husbands and fathers here, Is it your life's goal? Is it your burning desire? Is it your passion to see your family members confirmed in the faith of Christ and established in the faith of Christ?

When you wake up in the morning, when you're going throughout your day, are you continually brought back to this overwhelming desire to see your wife and to see your children coming to Christian maturity, growing in the knowledge of Christ, growing in the grace of Christ. Is that where you're at? You know, at Burn a Bible and the churches that we are connected with, we believe that pastors are, one of our responsibilities is to equip husbands and fathers to lead their family spiritually so that they can be doing the work that God has called them to do in the home and not neglect it. We not only encourage it when we meet with the, Don and I used to be, and now just me, meet with individual men, we ask you, what does family worship look like in your house? Is it consistent?

Is it taking place every day? Is it something that's being neglected? Is it a non-negotiable as it should be? You cannot rely on an hour or two of preaching and teaching and the meetings of the church each week. If it is your passion, your desire to see your family members conformed to the image of Christ, you'll be opening the scriptures with them daily.

You'll be praying for them and with them daily. You will let nothing on earth interfere with that work. We started it back in 2002, 2003. It was sporadic. I confess, before that it was sporadic.

We did it when we felt like it. And as I've said so many times, you know, Christians in America, we do things, you know, when we feel like doing it, because we're American Christians, right, rather than because God said so in His Word. But will that nothing interfere with that work? And we'll also guard the souls of our family members against a world that seeks to draw them away. And we'll be continually directing them to materials, to books, to literature, to sermons, to media that facilitates our goal of seeing Christ formed in them for the glory of God.

If that's not where you're at, today's a good day for that change to be made. We all have a time, doesn't matter who we are, myself included. We look back and we say, wow, I really wasn't doing my duty. And then, you know, we're granted a change of heart by God, a change of mind. Repentance.

Don't wake up 10 years from now and have a sermon like this being preached and say, well, I'm still not doing what I know I need to be doing. Don't do it. So I digress somewhat. Notice in verse 12, Paul wants to encourage the church at Rome, but Paul also wants to be encouraged by them. Verse 12, he writes to them, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me.

Mutual faith comforts and encourages mutually. Paul's desire and his labor in the gospel of God's Son in ministering to them in the gospel, he wants it to be a great comfort and encouragement to them. And if that's the case, then he will be greatly encouraged. He wants them to be encouraged together by one another's faithfulness. To the sheep, or let me back up, the sheep of Christ's pastor need encouragement.

Their pastors need encouragement as well. The pastors are encouraged when they see that the flock is encouraged through the ministry of the Word. When they see them growing in conformity, Pastors need encouragement as well. I got some encouragement this week, by the way. I got a letter from a child in this congregation.

I'm not going to look at anybody. I'm not going to not look at anybody. I'm not going to look at anybody. And it was a great encouragement. It really was.

I asked one of the family members, I said, did somebody put this child up to that? No. He said, no. I said, that's great. It was a great encouragement.

Thank you. Scott Brown introduced me many years ago to sermon review. You've heard me talk about it. Our family was visiting in North Carolina and we were in his home on a Sunday and after supper. I'd never seen anyone do it before.

Let's do sermon review. It's time for sermon review. And then go around the table, big dining room table, and everyone that was there would say something, you know, from a sermon that they remembered or something that impacted them, something they wanted to comment on, something they wanted to ask a question about. I recommend it to every family here today. We started doing that the next Sunday, the following Sunday at our house, and when we get home on the Lord's Day we just we just sit down together at some point and and let every family member tell something that they heard that impacted them or was helpful to them from one of the messages.

Doing this helps family members to remember to listen in church. And it encourages them maybe to even take notes. It's encouraging when pastors see people taking notes in church. I'm not looking at anybody. All right.

It is encouraging. And husbands and fathers, if you encourage your family members to take notes during the service, Later you can ask them to share something from their notes as you sit down as a family together. And it will help you to do just what we've been talking about here that the Apostle Paul was going to see in the church at Rome. It will help you to confirm the faith of your family members and to establish them in the faith, to see, to know, are they being established and grounded in the faith? It's amazing what you hear, even out of the mouth of a small child.

I love it when the younger ones start to you know Bring something in did you hear something today? You know Three year old they go God Very good. You heard someone talk about God. Well, they're talking about a God in church It's not a church you need to be in, right? So, they'll, you know, they'll begin to talk and they'll begin to say things.

I've said this before about, I'm digressing again, but, you know, family worship time and we'll have everybody go around the room, everybody prays, starting from the oldest to the youngest. And how many times over the last however many years, all of a sudden you hear this voice that you never expected, and it's a three-year-old or four-year-old, and they all of a sudden you get to the end, you think you're about to say, amen, after the youngest one, you know? And then all of a sudden, the little voice goes, God. And they start, thank you. And it's like, wow.

You see that happen over and over again. But it's very encouraging. It gives you an opportunity, back to a time of kind of reviewing the sermon, gives you an opportunity as husbands and as fathers to kind of find out if, is the family listening? Was I listening? Was I paying attention?

You know? And it also, the family members will bring things up and go, wow, I didn't hear that, or that didn't impact me, but now it does. And so, the Lord's Day goes on after the service is even completed. Both the minister and those ministered to, both fathers and husbands and those ministered to and their families are comforted and encouraged together when those who are under their charge are growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ. In verse 13, the apostle lets the believers at Rome know how much he longs to come to them.

And notice he doesn't fear Rome or its tyrannical leaders. He's not afraid. There's no excuses here. Well, I long to come to you, but, You know, Nero's in power and he might cut my head off. No.

He just wants to come to them and do the work of the Lord. There's no fear. Christians are not to live in fear. We're living in a world today that is full of fear. If you turn on your television set, almost the entire purpose of those who are on the screen giving out the so-called news is to generate fear.

Fear, fear, fear. Christians are not to be fearful people. Who was it that counted the number of times that God says in one way or another not to fear, do not fear, do not fear, and came up with over 360 times in the Bible that we're told don't fear, don't fear, fear not, fear not. The people of God are not to fear. I think it was Richard Wurmbrandt.

Paul doesn't fear Rome or its tyrannical leaderships. We're not cowering in fear day by day because of the things that are unfolding. Now they need to fear. The government needs to fear because they are supposed to, according to God's Word, kiss the Son lest He be angry and turns and begins to pour out his wrath upon them. They need to fear who are not using their offices as they should.

But back to Rome, he doesn't fear Rome or its tyrannical leaders. He wants them to know that he has purpose to come to them many times, but was not able to do so. He tells them that he was hindered from coming. It was his plan to come to them often, but he was prevented. You've heard the call, I'm not even sure if it's a cliche, man proposes, but God disposes.

Anyone heard that before? I think it comes from like an ancient painting. Man proposes, but God disposes. It was our hope that our elder elder would be sleeping in his own bed again, and the church tending to him in shifts around the clock. It was God's plan to take him home for his suffering to end and for glory to begin, for joy unspeakable to begin for him.

Proverbs 19, 21 says, there are many devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. It's God's counsel that will stand. I heard Mr. Stubblefield pray this many times and it's written on my mirror at the house with my dry erase.

He would pray after making a series of requests to the Lord, he would pray these words, Lord, we can ask for nothing more than that your holy will be done. We can hope for no more than that your will is done. Here's what we're asking. These are our requests, but we can hope for nothing more than that your holy, perfect will is done. You know, the people of God go in really bad directions sometimes, don't we?

We do. But God turns his people around. Thank God for his providence. And he uses circumstances to get us on the track he wants us on. Have you ever really thought something was the will of God?

I know this is God's will. And you went in a certain direction, and then God slammed the door shut. God shut the door. And later you look back and you saw God's hand in it and you thanked Him for it. Maybe at the time you weren't so happy about it.

I've said this to the young people here many times. You already know what I'm going to say. You know how many have dozens of times this has probably happened and all the young people that I know, you were pursuing somebody for a spouse and it didn't work out. And you were sure this was the person, this is the person and you're like in agony and you're sweating almost great drops of blood at night or what have you, you know. It didn't work out.

And then later on, you meet that one that God has chosen to be your spouse and you're married and you look back and you go, wow, thank you God. Thank you God. The counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. Man proposes, God disposes. Hopefully we're never in the situation of Jonah.

Sometimes we are. You know? Sometimes we have to be chastened, right? God continually chastens the son whom he loves. Sometimes, you know, you're doing the opposite of what you know you ought to be doing, and then God turns you around and it's painful.

It's a painful turnaround. Remember, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah said, I'm not going to Nineveh. God said, yeah, you are. And he provided a big fish to transport him back to the coast of Nineveh, right?

The wicked also make plans all the time. The wicked in this country are making lots of plans. The wicked around this world are making lots of plans. The globalists are making a lot of plans for you and me and for every person on the face of the earth right now. They have no thought of God in their minds.

The word of God applies to them too. Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. Pharaoh said, I'm gonna keep the Jews as my slaves. God said, no you're not. You're gonna send them out, and when you send them out, you're gonna load them up with your gold and your silver on their way out.

Saul said, I'm gonna pin David to the wall with my spear. God said, no you're not. You're gonna fall on your sword in battle and die. Nebuchadnezzar said, I will incinerate Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego if they don't, In this furnace of fire, if they don't fall down before my statue and worship it. No, you won't.

No, you won't. No. Sorry. Nope. You're going to worship before me, God tells him.

And eventually he does. And how about this one? Haman said, I'm going to hang Mordecai on the scaffold I built. How did that one work out for him? He was hung on the scaffold himself.

The counsel of the Lord, it shall stand. Proverbs chapter 16 of verse 9 says, a man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Praise God for the truth of his word. A man's heart devises his way. We lay out our plans, but it's the Lord who directs our steps.

I've said it to the children like this before. It's like you're walking along and you take a step forward, but God's the one who determines where your foot lands. The apostle had planned often to come to Rome, but God had other plans for him. And in God's providence, Paul was hindered. God's plan was that Paul would preach the gospel to others before going to Rome and write a lot of scripture in the meantime.

Verse 14, the apostle presents his ministry in the proclamation of the gospel as a debt. Remember verse 1? Paul was set apart under the gospel, called to be an apostle, and set apart under the gospel. It's an office. He has a duty.

He has an obligation. Not to any particular ethnic group or age group or any class of persons alone or specifically, he was obligated by his office as an apostle to preach to anyone and everyone. And he did that. God directing his paths and appointing every opportunity in advance. In verse 14, He writes, I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.

To preach the gospel to every living creature, even as the Great Commission says. Go into all the world, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every living creature. He was ready. Verse 15 he says, so as much as is in me, I am ready. I'm ready.

I'm on the edge of my seat. I can't wait to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also. I'm ready to preach the gospel to you when it's God's will, when it's God's time. I'm coming to Rome, Lord willing. I'm ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.

People of God in every age should be ready as well. Are we ready to preach the gospel, to communicate the gospel to others? We pray about it, we talk about it, but do we do it? We're supposed to, yes, take the gospel to the ends of the earth, but not if we haven't even spoken to our own neighbors, our own unbelieving family members. It's easy to put a check in the mail to a missionary organization or to a missionary and say, here, I'm supporting the gospel there, but what about here?

I've said this many times, your neighbors don't know the gospel. They know what they've heard on television, but they don't know the gospel. They haven't heard the truth of God's Word, that they are dead in trespasses and sins. They may have heard the prosperity gospel. They may have heard an Americanized version of the gospel.

But have they heard the gospel of Christ, who God is, what man is in his sin, and what Jesus Christ, who Jesus Christ is, and what he came to do. They haven't heard that. I find it all the time. In other words, go to your neighbors. Let's go to our neighbors.

Let's go to people that throughout the day when we're going throughout our business, wherever we're at, whether it's recreation, whether it's shopping, wherever it's at, let's make a point to be ready to preach the gospel to them that be and burn it. Also, yes to the ends of the earth but also to our neighbors. They don't know. They need to hear the gospel, the good news, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. That Jesus Christ the Son of God came one with the Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity came to earth on a mission to save his people from their sins.

That he suffered and died on a cruel Roman cross and on that cross bore the sin dead of his people, and that God's wrath came upon him. The curse of God and the wrath of God came upon him for our sins, for the sins of everyone who has ever repented and believed on his name. They need to hear the gospel of Christ that He alone can save, that He alone is the Savior, the Redeemer, that no one comes to the Father but through Him, that there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved if we would be saved but the name of Jesus Christ, God's Son. He needed to hear that He never sinned, that He's all God and all man, and He alone could take then our sins, the sins of finite people upon Himself, and make a sacrifice that was infinitely acceptable to God for the masses who would believe on his name and for their massive sin debt. They need to hear the gospel that Jesus Christ suffered and died for our sins and rose again the third day, that He is not in a grave somewhere and they've never found a body, that Jesus rose from the dead, that He's at the right hand of the Father, that He's coming again one day to judge the heavens and the earth in great power and glory.

In Acts chapter 17 and verse 30, the apostle Paul was standing in the midst of Mars Hill in Athens, Greece, and he said this to them, looking at all of their superstitious statues and objects of worship, and he said, the times of this ignorance God winked at. The times of this ignorance, all of this superstition and worshiping of idols, God winked at. That is, he passed over. He didn't send his prophets into Philistia to the Philistines to say, repeat and believe in our coming Messiah. He didn't send a prophet to the Amalekites to say, turn ye, turn ye everyone from his wicked ways.

Believe in the God of Israel." He didn't do it. Neither did the Perizzites or the Gergizites or all of those in the land of Canaan. He didn't send them. But now the apostle Paul says, God commands all men everywhere to repent. To believe the gospel, the good news, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come and He has made the sacrifice necessary to reconcile man to God, that he suffered and died for our sins and is risen from the dead, and that he is appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by Christ, that man whom he has ordained, wherever he is given assurance unto all men, and that he raised him from the dead.

John writes as we close, he that believes on Jesus, believes on his name, shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. Paul and Barnabas preached this gospel to the Gentiles in Acts chapter 13 and verse 48. I'm going to leave us with one passage of Scripture. They're preaching to Gentiles, unbelievers, in Acts chapter 13 and verse 48, and they're preaching this gospel.

They're preaching that Christ Jesus suffered and died for our sins, And he rose again the third day. They're preaching that all men everywhere are to believe on his name. We're commanded to repent and believe on the name of Christ. And then the scripture tells us this, that as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And that's the way it is today. We preach the gospel to every living creature because we don't know who God is going to move to repentance and saving faith. We don't know. The wind blows where it wishes, and we see the effect thereof.

Well, we can't see the wind, so it is with the Spirit, Jesus told Nicodemus. The Spirit of God moves upon whom God wills. And in the preaching of the gospel, as many as are ordained to eternal life will believe. Let's pray. Father, we again are so grateful for your Word, O Lord.

We thank you, God, that the Apostle Paul, lead of your spirit, was ready to preach the gospel to those that were in Rome also. And we thank you for his letter to the believers at Rome that we have it intact in our possession. Word for word, how grateful we are Lord that we have this great treasure of your word. It is a treasure chest full of truth, oh Lord, and full of encouragement to the people of God and instruction to the people of God. We thank you for it.

O Lord, I pray that throughout this coming week we would be in your word and in prayer. I pray Lord that we would be in your word with our families, our wives, children, in your word and in prayer and singing your praises together. I pray God we'd continually be bringing our thoughts back to you bringing everything back to God. I pray Lord that we would not just play church on Sunday and then go into the world and live for the world the rest of the week or for the things of this life. Oh God, that we would have our thoughts continually upon you, that we would, as Paul Washer once said, follow Christ and follow hard after him.

Oh Lord, help us. Help us, God. We don't know what the days going forward are going to bring. We don't know what's going to happen five minutes from now. Lord, we have a world that is increasingly hostile to you.

It seems to be closing in upon the Christian church and so much of the West right now. Prepare us God, help us to be men and women and children of God in your word and in prayer, seeking your face, growing in Christ's likeness, growing in Christian maturity, growing in the image of Christ day by day in conformity to Him and in the grace and knowledge of Him who saved us from our sins. For we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.