In the sermon titled 'The Gullible Fool,' delivered by Peter Allison, the focus is on Proverbs 14 and the nature of gullibility. The speaker emphasizes that gullibility involves believing every word without discernment, which can lead to unwise decisions and misplaced trust. Biblical examples such as Joshua and the Gibeonites and personal anecdotes highlight the dangers of being gullible. The sermon contrasts being gullible with being prudent, where prudence involves considering one's steps and testing everything against the Word of God. The speaker also discusses the importance of fearing evil and having a proper respect for God's laws. Trust in God and His Word is emphasized as the antidote to gullibility, with numerous Psalms cited to illustrate the benefits of placing confidence in God rather than in oneself or material wealth. The ultimate message is that those who trust in God will be crowned with knowledge and protected by His power, while the wicked will eventually bow before the righteous.

Please turn with me in your copy of the Word of God to Proverbs chapter 14. While you're turning there, I couldn't help but think of Psalm 122 as, listen to the announcements and the praise offered this morning that the psalmist wrote, I was glad. I was glad when they said to me, Let us go up to the house of the Lord and there praise Him. For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, Peace be with you." Peace be with you. Here the Lord's word this morning, our scripture reading from Proverbs 14, beginning at verse 15.

The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps. A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident. A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a man of wicked intentions is hated. The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. The evil will bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

May God add His blessing. May He be praised at the reading and the hearing of His Word. Almighty Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. We live by it. It is a light to us, a lamp to our feet.

It is truth. And We put our faith and our trust in it. We ask that you would open our hearts this morning. That we might behold wonderful things out of Your Word. May You ask that You would sanctify these lips to proclaim the wonders of Your grace, the riches of Your mercy.

And may you snatch away anything that is said that is not true. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. There's a website that's popular among certain groups of Christians these days called the Babylon Bee. You've probably maybe read a few articles from there. It's a satire website.

The articles aren't meant to be believed, but believe it or not, some of the articles are believed and people read them and think that this is actually happening and get concerned or amazed or whatever the article was referring to, they even write into Snopes that great source of truth and want the article to be verified in Snopes. You can just see them smiling. Well, what do you think? The article, The website says it's satire. But see, people are gullible.

We don't like to admit that, but I'm sure all of us can relate to that. I know I've been taken. In fact, one of the greatest tools to maintain gullibility is our reluctance to admit that we are and can be at times very gullible. Believing what we shouldn't believe. A number of years ago we were building a house and I was looking around, looking into different contractors to build the place.

I was talking with one business owner, the owner of the business, new building company, and he seemed fairly believable. In hindsight though, I should have known. I should have known that he wasn't to be believed. Because he learned where I worked. Oh, and his dad worked at that, he used a different word for him, but his dad worked at that place too.

And he learned that I had been in the Navy and it turned out he'd been in the Navy too. And you know how that goes. He was very good at carefully building trust, building up the fact that he was somebody who could be believed. And I did a lot of work. I did a lot of research, a lot of investigation and calculations and selected this company.

But I should have known that he wasn't trustworthy. And so, sure enough, halfway through our house, he absconded and took all the money. And you know how that story goes. And it turned out they didn't even really know who he was, because Everything that he had was in other people's names. But I believed him.

See, being simple, gullible, In the dictionary it says somebody that is weak in intellect, not wise and sugesus. But really, being gullible is simply trusting somebody that we should not have trusted. And the Bible says that the gullible, the simple, believes every word. And even Joshua was taken in by the Gibeonites. Remember the people that came to him?

They had been conquering in Israel. The walls of Jericho just fell down and they marched up into the city. And great fear came upon all the people of that land, of Canaan, as they realized that their walls weren't any stronger than Jericho's walls. And if Jericho's walls could just fall down because they walked around the city a few times. What hope was there for any of their walls?

So the Gibeonites had this plan to come to Joshua with clothes that were old and moth-eaten and food that was filled with worms, bread that was stale, shoes that were worn out. And they showed up in this weary, dilapidated condition of wearing clothes that they'd gotten off the garbage pile, and food they'd pulled out of the trash. And say, we've come from a long, long, long way just to make peace with you. And Joshua believed, trusted someone he shouldn't have trusted. And He made a covenant with them.

Then it turned out that they were just a few miles up the road. He was taken in. We can smile at the gullibility of people that believe the Babylon Bee. It's easy to smile at other people's gullibility. It's a lot harder to recognize our own gullibility.

The fact that we trust people that we shouldn't trust. It's really impossible to live without trusting people. It's impossible. You can't do it. It's impossible to even have communication without trusting the person with whom you're communicating.

Communication requires trust. The question is who, who are we trusting? That's why it's been said by that wise philosopher that you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. Why can you fool all the people some of the time? Because it's impossible to live without trust.

The gullible trusts those who shouldn't be trusted. What about the news from CBS or NBC or CNN? How many people trust implicitly what's said on the news? The things that these outlets say about the events of September 11, 2001 are absurd. They're patently absurd.

They defy the laws of logic. They defy physics. They defy what people know. They defy what architects know about buildings and pilots and aeronautical engineers know about airplanes. And yet how many people believe the things that they say?

And if we believe them when the things they say are patently absurd, what about the things that we don't know about that we believe? Or the Federal Reserve, how many of us believe what they say? And yet, there are very, very, very few people that actually know what we use as money. The Federal Reserve tells us that our money is backed by our credulity. Yes, they say that.

Our money is backed by our credulity, our faith, our willingness to believe what they say. When what they say is absurd. Morally absurd, fiscally absurd, physically absurd. And yet we believe them. They are absolutely right.

Our money is backed by our gullibility, our trust in what they say. I'll tell you afterwards where they say that if you want. It's in a publication that they produce and will mail to you absolutely free. But we trust in that and we don't even know what we use as money. You know, here we build our whole life on it, we spend our waking hours seeking to earn it, We want to stake our retirement on it, and we don't even know what we're using as money.

At least most people don't. We really are a little more gullible than we like to admit. But the Word of God comes to us and says that It is the gullible that believe every word, but the prudent ponders Well his steps See a naive person gullible people believe What they shouldn't believe they tend to believe there are There are a couple different types of gullible people. Some gullible people believe every word they hear. They are open to all influences, good or bad.

They do not test the spirits. They don't test the spirits. They don't discriminate or judge properly. They have senses that aren't trained to discern between good and evil. And the Bible says that those senses are trained from practice, the practice of applying the Word of God.

An open mind is like an open window. You have to install screens to keep the bugs out. And that screen that we need to install upon our mind is the Word of God. That is the standard by which we evaluate and judge what we hear. That is to be the screen, the filter through which we understand everything that we hear, through which we, the standard by which we judge those things that we hear.

We have to be those whose mind is open with the Word of God, judging what we hear. And not those who just believe Everything that we hear. Don't even believe everything I'm saying. Judge it by the screen of the Word of God. The standard of the Word of God.

The balance of the Word of God. The scales of the Word of God. That's what Paul praised the Bereans for, because they didn't believe everything that he told them. They tested the Spirit. They tested what Paul said, whether it was true or not.

And they tested it by the Word of God. And so that's why I love when people ask, why do you say this? Why do you do this? And I hope that I always love when people ask that, because it's good. It's right to ask that.

And if somebody gets angry at you for asking why, why do you do this? Show me from the Word of God why this is true. That's a red flag. We should be always willing to give an apology, a reason, a defense of the hope that lies within us. We should always be willing, especially for a brother or sister in the Lord, to give an answer.

Especially even more so, somebody who would presume or who is called to stand in a pulpit and proclaim the Word of God. Don't believe every word. Test the spirits. Test what even the preacher says by the Word of God. Search the Scriptures yourself to see whether those things be true.

Don't be gullible, believing every word that you hear. That you hear. The gullible also lack a sufficient fear of evil. Have you ever driven down the highway with the flow, whatever that is, 70 or 75, whatever, and Been passed as if you were standing still by a motorcycle just weaving in and out of the cars like they're in a slalom race And you know zoom and they're gone in two seconds That's someone that lacks a sufficient fear of evil, of danger. In fact, I saw one guy doing that on one of our highways recently on one wheel on his motorcycle.

He really lacked sufficient fear of danger. He's a fool. A fool is somebody who plays with fire and thinks that they won't get burned. Prudent people fear evil. They fear and have a respect for fire.

They have a respect for heights. They don't cavort about at the edge of a skyscraper. But they respect gravity. They respect the laws of God. And gravity is a law of God.

God is the one who passed it, not Newton. God is the one who enforces it, not nature. And so those who are gullible, those who are fools, lack of respect for evil. There is a carelessness about committing sin. A carelessness with the Word of God.

And that's really a lack of failure to fear the Lord. The wise man, verse 16 says, fears the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but the fear of the Lord is a carefulness not to do unrighteousness. It's a carefulness not to do unrighteousness knowing that that brings the wrath of God, knowing that that brings God's displeasure, And having a right fear of that. We are told to fear God.

To hold Him in reverence. To hold His Word in awe. And to be careful that we do not go against it. To be careful that we walk in His ways. And so we are gullible when we underestimate the evilness of evil.

When we overestimate our ability to handle sin. We think we can watch a movie and not be affected by the immorality in it. We think we can walk with fools and not be affected by their folly. We think we can cavort with scornful and not have that scorn of the Word of God, and skepticism of the truth of God's Word rub off on us. See, we're gullible when we underestimate the evilness of our sin, The attractiveness of sin and the deceptiveness of sin.

The righteous Fear, fear God. And they depart from evil. They turn away from things that are dangerous. From things that are wrong. And don't see, well, how close can I get to this evil, to this unrighteousness?

Rather there is a carefulness not to do unrighteousness. The wise count nothing as trivial that could hinder our walk with God. Something that stands between us and the exercise of the means of grace. You know it's a lot of things, a lot of trivial little things that can turn us away. In a sense, spiritually, we think that we can live, that we can relax and have dinner at the edge of the skyscraper and not fall off.

That's being gullible. That's believing, trusting what we shouldn't trust in ourselves. We're not that strong. The prudent also know that the world is full of people that aren't to be trusted. People that will deceive.

People who are filled with error. And the Bible says that the wise then ponder their steps. They think about what they are doing. Whereas the gullible don't believe any of that, don't think about any of that, and they don't give their steps this careful deliberation. They run without really thinking about where they are going.

They run without thinking where they are putting their feet. Their feet. If you're going to take a trip, not just to the grocery store, but across the country, to see the Grand Canyon or to see the sights of the Pacific Northwest, you probably are going to get out a map and plan your route and think about how you're going to go and where you're going to stop and where you're going to spend the night you don't just say well let's go and hop in the car and go and then think about where you're going to go. Now, anybody that has ever traveled knows that you spend a little bit of time planning your trip, pondering your way. And that's the way we need to be with our life as well, in the decisions that we make.

We need to think about them. We need to think about them, ponder them, and consider them in the light of the Word of God and not be those who rush off without pondering our way. Now I said there were two types of naive people. There are those who believe every word. Good or bad, they just accept it all.

Or too much of it. But there's also Another kind of fool. Somebody who appears to be exactly the opposite. They don't trust nobody. They weren't born yesterday.

They aren't anyone's fool. They have a real sniffer for Trumpery. And they'll never be hornswoggled by Madison Avenue, Boulderdash. But do they? Do they?

Remember Lot's son-in-laws? They were like that. When Lot came to warn them, when the angels sent him out to warn his family, and he went to them to warn them about impending judgment, they just thought this was a crazy man. Joking. They weren't about to believe some crazy story about fire and brimstone falling out of the sky and burning up their city.

They laughed at him. They thought he was a Looney Tunes. They weren't gullible people to believe something like that. They had ultimate, they placed ultimate confidence in themselves. That's what our text says in verse 16.

A fool rages and is self-confident. Self-confident. His trust is in himself. Doesn't trust anybody else. But that is no better than the person who believes everything.

Both are fools. Both are actually gullible. Naive. We are to have a childlike trust in the Lord. We are to have faith like a child.

That means we are to believe and to receive what God tells us in His Word and not put confidence in ourselves. Put confidence in ourselves. This is. This word self confident is is to have a trust. A trust like the people of the city of Laish.

Remember, they were a city that some scouts from the tribe of Dan found. They were living all by themselves, kind of secluded. Probably were a colony of Sidon, Sidonian colony. And these scouts came upon them and they realized that these people were just living securely, trustingly. They didn't think there was any need to have big walls or alliances with other people.

And these scouts realized that they could easily capture the city, and they did. See, the Psalms warn us about against trusting in ourselves. Psalm 44, 6 warns us against trusting in our own weapons. That's the gun at your side. It warns us against trusting at that gun at your side to save you.

Why? Because it's the Lord that delivers. Our help, our security comes from the Lord, and not the gun at our side. And if we trust in that weapon, we are trusting in the wrong thing. Psalm 49 tells us that those who trust in their wealth are like the gullible fool.

Because no matter how wealthy you are, you cannot pay the ransom to God to redeem even one person. You can't even redeem one person that you love the most. All of your wealth can't buy that one person back. The blood of Christ can. The blood of Christ can pay the ransom to God.

And we need to trust in Him but low to those who trust in themselves. Psalm 52 warns again against those who trust in their own riches and strength because they are destroyed by the Almighty and all-powerful God. It's a gullible person who thinks that they can trust in themselves, their wealth to deliver them, their power, their strength to save them, their weapons to give them security. Psalm 62 even warns against trusting in oppression. Trusting in oppression.

In oppression. Trusting in oppression. Might or the ability to do something doesn't make it right. Sometimes big brothers are gullible this way toward their littleer siblings, their little brothers and sisters. They trust in their strength, their might, to impose their will on those who are less powerful than them.

That's what Psalm 62 means. It talks about trusting in oppression. We shouldn't be deceived like that. We shouldn't be gullible to trust in ourselves. Psalm 78 is the Psalm of Asaph that recounts the history of the children of Israel.

It's a rather long Psalm. And it opens with these words that we should teach these things to our children. They need to know about God's wonderful works in history. And so then Asaph goes on to give that history lesson. And in recounting the history of Israel, Asaph tells us that God was angry with the Israelites because they did not trust in Him.

They were self-confident. When He said to go up, that He would deliver the giants into their hand, they didn't believe Him. And when he said, do not go up, then they thought, well, we can do this, and went up on their own strength. Peter was overconfident, remember, in his ability to never deny Christ. He boasted, I will never deny you.

Everybody else might, but I never will. He was trusting, he was self-confident, he was trusting in himself to stand strong. And you all know what happened. He couldn't. He was self-confident, He overestimated his own ability and he underestimated the deceitfulness of sin.

The power of the temptation to deny Christ, to save His own life. David's confidence on the other hand was not in himself. When he came out after visiting his brothers and saw all Israel in fear before Goliath and his threat to give their flesh to the birds, David was angry. Who is this fool taunting the living God? And he was willing to go and fight this guy, even though he was just as outmatched physically as any of the other men of Israel.

Maybe more so. He was a young lad at that time. And Saul was concerned for him and thought, well, you need some armor, young man. Let me give you my armor. You remember David puts it on and decides, no, I can't use this armor.

It's not any good. It doesn't fit me. It's too big and I don't know it. His answer was not, His confidence was not self-confidence in His own ability, but rather His confidence was in the Lord. David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear.

The Lord delivered me from these things. He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." David's confidence was not self-confidence, but it was confidence in God. He wasn't confident of his own faith. He was confident in the object of that faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. He trusted in God to deliver him from the hand of that uncircumcised Philistine, as He called him.

As he called him. Over 30 times the Psalms speak about trusting in the Lord. I was surprised how many times and in how many circumstances just the book of Psalms tells us to trust in the Lord and not in ourselves. Offer the sacrifices of the righteous and put your trust in the Lord. Those that know your name will put their trust in you.

For you, Lord, don't forsake those who seek you. I have trusted in your mercy, and my heart will rejoice in your salvation. Even the king trusts in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High he will not be moved. Our fathers, Psalm 22 says, trusted in you. They trusted in you, delivered them.

They cried out and they were delivered. They trusted in you and they were not confounded. Oh God, I trust in you. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me.

David said In Psalm 26, I have walked in my integrity, I have trusted in the Lord. Therefore I shall not slide. Psalm 27, though a host should encamp against me, my heart will not fear. The war should rise up against me. In This will I be confident.

What was He going to trust in? The Lord that psalm opens. The Lord is my strength, my light, and my salvation. That's what He was going to be confident in. That the Lord was His salvation.

The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in Him and I am helped. Therefore my heart rejoiced greatly, and with my song I will praise Him." I have trusted in You, O Lord. I said, You are my God. Psalm 32, Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusts in the Lord mercy shall compass him about.

Trust in the Lord and do good, so you will dwell in the land and you will be fed. Trust in the Lord And you will be fed. He has put a new song in my mouth. Even praise to our God. Many shall see it and fear and trust in the Lord.

But the person, the friend, that familiar friend in whom David trusted which did eat of my bread, that person has lifted up their heel against me. Me. When I am afraid, David said, I will trust in You. In God I will praise His Word. In God I have put my trust.

And I won't fear what flesh can do to me. Those who trust in the Lord, God will feed. God will provide their security. And the Lord, we don't have to be afraid of what any person can ever do to us. Trust in Him at all times, you people.

Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in You. Preserve my soul, David prayed, for I am holy. O thou my God, save your servant that trusts in you.

That's called praying God's word to Him. Bringing arguments before the throne of grace. Arguments that are taken from the Word of God Himself. God promises to deliver those who trust in Him, not themselves. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I will trust.

The one who trusts in the Lord will not be afraid of evil news, of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. Psalm 115 speaking about idols says, They that make them are like unto them, And so is everyone that trusts in them in other gods in money or Wealth or weapons or our cunning in ingenuity Or the Federal Reserve Oh Israel trust in the Lord this Psalm 115 goes on He is our help. He is our shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord.

He is our help and our shield. You that fear the Lord, Trust in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. You that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is our help and our shield.

It is better to put trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes or what princes say or what their news outlets say or what the printers of their money say. It's better to trust in the Lord. So I shall have, David said in Psalm 119, wherewith to answer him that reproaches me, for I trust in God's Word.

David is trusting the Lord to give Him an answer to those who reproach Him. But those that make idols, Psalm 135 says just like Psalm 115, those that trust in other things become like them. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no help. Put it, but trust in God. Hope in Him.

He is trustworthy. And all those who put their trust in Him will not be ashamed. See, unlike the gullible, the fool, the fool, verse 19 says, the evil will bow before the good. Verse 18, the fool inherits folly. The gullible will inherit folly.

That's what they receive. The end is more folly. That is the fruit of their gullibility. But the prudent are crowned with knowledge. Those who put their trust in God.

Those who have a carefulness not to do unrighteousness. Those who filter all things through the Word of God. Who test the Spirit not believing every word. These are those who will be filled, crowned with knowledge. Filled, crowned with knowledge.

See wisdom, the wisdom of the Word of God brings power. Proverbs 21 and 22 says that the wise man scales a city and brings down the mighty, the wise. And who are the wise but those who fear the Lord, those who put their trust in Him and not in themselves. Those who test the spirits, those who evaluate what we hear by the Word of God, that's wisdom. Those who listen to a rebuke.

The Proverb says even love the rebuke of a brother. That wisdom brings power. It allows the wise to scale a city and bring down the mighty. Joab conquered an impregnable city. Darius conquered an impregnable city by wisdom.

Remember Belshazzar having that feast, bringing out the goblets of the temple while there is an army outside the city. He was very confident that the city in which Babylon was impregnable. Because in his understanding of the physics, it was. Its walls were massive. You could have multiple chariots abreast on the wall and have a chariot race.

The walls were indestructible. And they thought that they were safe. And Darius by cunning diverted the river and walked right in. And that very night, Belshazzar died. In the same way, wisdom brings power.

It brings the power of God against any power that is arrayed against us. God's trusting in God brings protection to the righteous. Because God says that we, His people, are the apple of His eye. That word apple, that's the pupil. But that means of the eye.

And it's just saying that we are in the center of God's affection. The center of His protection. The center of His focus. That which is in the apple of our eye is that which we are focused upon. I remember trying to get my mom's attention and she would be busy with something else and you would get, Uh-huh, uh-huh.

But you knew that she was really thinking about something else. You were not the apple of her eye at that moment. But we, God's people, are the apple of His eye. We are the center of His focus. Always.

Always. This is Proverbs 24. In verse 15, It says, do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous, and don't plunder His resting place. For the righteous may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked will fall by calamity." The righteous may fall seven times, but they will rise again. God will deliver them.

God will preserve them through those trials. It's a warning. This is a warning not to attack the dwelling of the righteous, not to plunder His resting place, His home, not the plunder where He sleeps, because God is protecting that one. And He will rise. You may get a temporary victory.

But He will rise. The righteous will rise again. This is true of all of the Christian life. God defeats the wicked. It is the simple, inherent folly, But the evil will bow before the wicked and before the good and the wicked will bow at the gates of the righteous.

The wicked will bow at the gates of the righteous. The kingdom of heaven will not be defeated here on earth. The kingdom of heaven will not be defeated here on earth. Just take the life of Jesus. In human terms, that looked like a defeat.

People said He was filled with demons. They were fickle. They brought false charges against Him. And no one stood up to defend Him. No one came to His aid.

Not one. Not even Peter was even willing to acknowledge that he was even a disciple of Christ at that point. But Christ told His disciples that He had overcome the world. He was unjustly condemned to death and crucified. But by that very death, He defeated the one who had the power of death, that is the devil.

And it is our faith, our trust in Jesus Christ that overcomes the world. That's why we say that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church because the wicked will bow at the gates of the righteous. Psalm 72 tells us the same thing. In His days, the righteous will flourish, an abundance of peace until the moon is no more. His name shall endure forever.

His name shall continue as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him, and all nations shall call Him blessed." And Psalm 149 speaks of this victory. Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud on their beds. Sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the people, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the written judgment." Who does all this?

Psalm 149 says, This honor have all His saints. Praise the Lord. The wicked will bow before the gates of the righteous, those who put their trust in Christ and not in themselves. John wrote to those churches in the book of Revelation, the exact same message. These churches, some of whom were about to face intense persecution.

John writes in Revelation to the church at Philadelphia, Indeed, I will make those of this synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not. They're an apostate church. They're not Jews. They're the synagogue of Satan. They lie when they say they're Jews.

He says, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not. They're an apostate church. They're not Jews. They're the synagogue of saints and they lie when they say they're Jews. He says, I will make those of the synagogue of saints who say they are Jews and are not, but lie indeed.

I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you because you have kept My commandments." Even to the church at Thyatira, the church that he had criticisms for. He makes this promise, that He who overcomes and keeps My works until the end unto Him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them like a rod of iron. They will be dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel. That's from Psalm 2 and that was speaking of Christ's reign.

A reign that the Bible says He has begun. He has taken His sword, scepter, and begun to reign. But John applies that to those who keep His Word. To them. He will give power over the nations.

God will give power to His saints over the nations and they, in Christ's name, will rule them with a rod of iron. Remember this verse. The next time you Look at all of the news that comes over those stations like CBS and NBC and CNN and Fox and whatnot. Remember, Don't believe every word, but test those words by the screen of the Word of God. And what does the Word of God say?

That the gates of hell will not prevail against His church. It says that the wicked will bow before the gates of the righteous and that this honor have all of His saints, all of those who put their trust in Him and not in themselves. Are you praying for that? Are you praying that The Lord would enable you to trust in Him and to trust in His Word and not believe every word that comes by and to pray that His Kingdom will be successful. That's what He teaches us to pray for.

The disciples came to Jesus and asked, tell Him to teach them how to pray. And what did Jesus teach them to pray for? Glorify your Father. Praise your Father. It's important.

Hallowed be Your name. But what's the next petition? Your kingdom come. Your will be done not in the by and by, not after Christ comes again. Pray that your will be done here on earth, even as it is in heaven.

We need to take these passages, these promises in the Word of God that says the wicked will bow at the gates of the righteous and pray that that be so. And pray that we aren't gullible, but that We put our trust in the Word of God and in His promises and in what He says. Because His Word is true. And all those who put their trust in His Word are blessed with everlasting life. Let us pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we acknowledge how easy it is for us to be led astray and to believe what we should not believe and to not believe what we should believe. We ask that you would forgive our unbelief and help us to believe your word, for it is true to put our trust and our hope in You. And to pray for that which You have promised to do. To pray for that which You have promised to bring. To pray that Your Kingdom would come and that Your will would be done here on earth, even as it is already being done in heaven.

Father, We bow before you this morning. We bow before your wisdom, before your Word, before your power. We put our trust and our hope in you, for you are strong to save. And you have declared that you will destroy all those who oppose you. Grant us the faith to believe in that promise.

To work and to pray, to even offering our bodies as living sacrifices. To see and to understand what is before us in the light of Your Word. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.