Good morning to you first things first today is officially recognized as Mother's Day So I would ask if you would so indulge me if you are a mother would you stand? If you're a mother would you stand as well if you serve as a mother? So maybe you're the aunt who doesn't have children of her own, but you have always been there at back-and-call to support Your family in the caring of your children or you're just a good neighbor who is there supporting children in the role of a mom Would you stand as well? We want to express our appreciation The Lord says to his people to help us understand the extent of his love He says can a mother forget her nursing child?
Well, even if she could I will never forget you and he uses that example because everybody can immediately think of the women that they've seen nurturing children We know psychologically that the most valuable points of development both physically mentally and also spiritually are the first years of life when moms you do that job So we want to take a moment and we want to both give thanks and also to pray for you because it's a hard job and it never ends So let's pray together Lord in our God we praise you in the beauty of your creation and the perfection of your plans and how you use everything to teach us more about You and your amazing love for us You created the role of mothers And Lord day by day those who who have children by their own or serve and walk alongside others Do a job that is so and measurably important in our world of sophistication and accolades It is rarely recognized as it should So Lord we praise you for each person who is serving has served as a mother come alongside and served and helped in this role Lord we pray for strength for perseverance for wisdom for all these things which are needed in abundance from when our children are brand new infants Till they're in their 40s and 50s and 60s and we're still given counsel Lord I also pray for those who desire to be mothers and have not been able to be Lord that you administer to and encourage them That you would remind them that you have not forgotten them Lord we ask your blessing we ask you to be all that you are For our moms today in Jesus name amen. Thank you, please be seated I have been asked by a few that as a gift for Mother's Day that I would be short and sweet I promise not to talk a moment longer than I need to well be as long as it probably is gonna go I Am a visual person and there are always things which when I see them they catch me and my brain uses them to reinforce ideas in my head in a number of years ago, I'm a history buff particularly European history and I taught it in school and and military history often catches my attention and Film came out a number of years ago and I won't I'm not trying to advertise the film but it was a military history film particularly dealing with the British Royal Navy and I was I was quite captivated by the film and I was watching it and it was one scene in the film where things are going pretty rough on ship and there is this young fellow He's just a little mid shipment and he's he's scared because everything is going chaotic and the camera pans and there's an old sailor on the ship And he looks at the young fellow and he puts his fist together like this in tattooed across his knuckles Where the letters H O L D F A S T and the old fella was looking just hold fast And I love that moment and and fly nose of film of which I speak and we both love that moment But then immediately I had to know more about it So I looked it up and discovered that was an incredibly common tattoo among sailors in the Royal Navy and part of it Was a very practical thing because in the age of sale You would have to constantly be going up into the rings up into the top levels to adjust sales in all kinds of conditions And as one person pointed out when he said you think of the age of sale you think of being on the deck and you see the deck of the ship going Whang, whang with all the pitches and rolls now imagine going up a hundred feet from that focal point and how much the pitch and roll Is going in these fellows barefoot barehanded going along rat lines or adjusting sales in all weather And so they would tattoo this across their knuckles not for their benefit but for the guy across from them So when they're both out on the spars and they're cleaning in the whole ship you look across remember hold fast Don't release your grip because if you release your grip Which on off you go and they're not probably gonna find you hold fast But it also began to mean more than that. It wasn't just a practical. It's like when you face the adversaries are gonna face hold fast And the more I thought about it in it's from its nautical context It struck me of how much it applies to us and how many times in scripture which were referenced that we are to hold fast If you have a Bible with you or the electronic means to look it up We're gonna start this morning in the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews chapter 10 looking at verse 23 And in this verse The writer to the Hebrews he's been talking about where their faith is grounded what they stand on and then the writer makes this statement He says let us hold fast The profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised This morning we're gonna look at what it looks like Holding fast when it gets hard because anybody can hold fast when it's easy Anybody can anybody can say oh I stand on these principles.
I hold to these beliefs when it's easy, but when it's hard Do we hold fast? We're going to take a look at an individual who was tested and who held fast So if you would turn now to the Old Testament to the book of 2nd Kings We're looking at 2nd Kings chapter 18. We're gonna follow a real person's journey and learning what it means to hold fast But before we look into the text, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Let's pray together Our Lord and our God we praise you that you give us something we can hold fast to Lord as we look into your word now We need you to speak to us Lord We need your spirit to remove distractions from us to calm our minds and hearts We need you to illuminate the words to us To see what you are saying to each of us exactly where we're at this morning So Lord has always asked that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear Minds to understand and most of all hearts to be changed for your glory in Jesus Christ Amen We find ourselves in the book of 2nd Kings In a time of great crisis We're gonna enter into the passage in chapter 18 verse 9 In King Hezekiah's fourth year, which was the seventh year of O'Siah son of Eli King of Israel Shalom and Azer King of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it at the end of three years The Assyrians took it so Samaria was captured in Hezekiah's sixth year Which was the ninth year of O'Siah King of Israel the King of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Hala And goes on on the harbor river and in the towns of the Medes To give you historical context the children of Israel For now an extended period of time have lived as two separate kingdoms the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah Each ruled by its own king their story has been Constant over and over again rebelling against God both kingdoms struggling Israel in particular moving farther and farther away from God Geopolitically we have a new empire that has been growing rapidly on the scene.
It is the empire of the Assyrians The Assyrians are known in the study of ancient history for their Two particular factors one is their glorification of their level of violence The Assyrians you can read in their tells you can read in their inscriptions how they would brag about the horrific violence that they would put upon All the kingdoms they subjugated they glorified in violence The second thing they did is they understood basic Sociology and social anthropology so what they would do is every time they conquered a neighboring kingdom They would take a portion of the population and they would remove them from their own kingdom And they would scatter them through the other kingdoms They already controlled and then they take people from those other kingdoms and move them in because they understood the importance of social cohesion And I knew if you've moved all the peoples around you broke down individual languages You broke down culture you broke down beliefs are quite smart that way credit where credit is due and In their expansion what they would do is as they moved out their first step of expansion was propaganda So they would come to a kingdom that they were still a distance away from and they would say hi We're the Assyrians you probably have heard of us. We are horrendous and we're pleased with that. We're coming your way You've already heard of all the kingdoms that we've crushed so here's what you can do you can agree to become vassals to us and pay us exorbitant tributes and it will slow down our progress toward you and At first this is what Israel and Judah and the other kingdoms in the ancient Near East were doing they were paying tribute to the Assyrians Then Israel and Judah and other kingdoms stopped And they share it's like ha ha ha ha no no no no and so the king of Assyria sends his armies and the first kingdom He comes to it he comes to the kingdom of Israel. These are gods people and he comes and he says We're gonna take you over we're gonna crush you and The king of Israel says no and he goes a hold against them and they might of the Assyrian army sweeps through the nation Comes to their capital sieges it for three years until the people have starved themselves to cannibalism And then he crushes them now picture the little kingdom of Judah next door You've just watched your big brother just be crushed by the Assyrians and guess where they are now They're coming for them But you'll notice in verse 12 The writer gives us an important qualifier here just in case you were thinking that the nation of Israel was overrun because the Assyrians were so powerful No, we're told this happened because they that Kingdom of Israel had not obeyed the Lord their God but had violated his covenant all that Moses the servants of the Lord commanded They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out.
This is an important point I want you to know whenever we're talking about God's people and if you are a follower of Jesus Christ You put his trust in what your trust in his finished work You are part of the people of God in the Old Testament God told the nation of Israel as he was bringing them through the wilderness That this is my promise to you. I will have my hand on you I will protect you and provide for you and bless you, but if you reject me if You say no, God. I don't want to follow you. I'm going to go this way then God says basically I will be done You wish to walk that way walk that way But understand that if you're walking your way you're walking your way and your strength because I will lift my hand And the nations about you will come and subjugate you and you will suffer Because I will lift my hand and in the case of the Kingdom of Israel God lifted his hand and the Assyrians swept over them And here's a little Kingdom of Judah next door In the 14th year of King Hezekiah's reign Synacareb King of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah.
They're coming after them now and captured them So Hezekiah the King of Judah sent this message to the King of Assyria at La Kesh I have done wrong with draw from me and I will pay whatever you demand to me the King of Assyria Exacted from Hezekiah King of Judah 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold just to give you a modern-day equivalent That is equal to one to ten metric tons of gold and silver So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasury of the royal palace At this time Hezekiah King of Judah stripped off the gold which he had covered the doors and the doorpost of the temple of the Lord and gave it to The King of Assyria It's your second point I want you to remember that at times when we face adversaries at times when life gets hard We will be given the offer to appease If you just Change your stand if you just Relinquish this doctrine it'll be okay for you And at first this is what Hezekiah does. He's he's seen what has happened to Israel He's king over this little kingdom and he goes okay. Tell you what I'll pay I'll pay and so he takes everything from the treasury He takes everything from the palace and then he's starting to peel the gold covering off the doors of the temple to have enough to give to the King of Assyria And you know what it wasn't enough Years ago, I had one of my professors when I was studying Bible He was involved in a large organization where theologians would come together and talk about various doctrinal issues And at first the first time I met him he was talking and he said there were a number of these theologians were saying look the Gender referencing in the Bible is is difficult for people the fact that oftentimes a male gender Reference is used for God that that's alienating We think you need to basically neuter the gender of God and people will be more comfortable to enter into discussions about God and at first My professor was like okay I can see some logic in that and we want to try to open it so that people can come in and we want to and so he was entering the Dialogues and then an older gentleman who was a theologian who was not a follower of Christ at all But he made this very revealing statement to my acquaintance He said I want to tell you something you are approaching this conversation hoping to find common ground so that the gospel can somehow go forth And he said the people you are talking with have but one agenda and their agenda is they want to see how much of what you say You believe you're willing to sacrifice before they want it before they tear the rest of it down Said you are you're in a total wrong conversation because you think that they're coming to you wanting to find common ground And they want to see how much you're willing to give up before they come and try to crush the rest And so he came back to us and he said what the Bible says the Bible says and we stand on it Because at the first moment This is what Hezekiah does he tries to appease but it's never enough The world is never going to come to you and say if you just give up this much If you just stop saying that sin and sin Then we'll be okay. No because the world doesn't want to recognize God at all The world doesn't want to recognize the need for a Savior.
They're not going to find common ground So the king of Assyria comes The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander is chief officer in his field commander with a large army from La Kesh To king Hezekiah Jerusalem They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the upper pool on the road to the washerman's field They called for the king Nalaya Kim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to meet him the field commander said to them tell Hezekiah This is what the great king the king of Assyria says on what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have strategy and military strength, but you speak only empty words on whom are you depending that you rebel against me Look now you are depending on Egypt that splintered read of a staff Which pierces a man's hand and wounds him if he leans on it such as Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him So the adversary comes and he is going to try to show That there's nothing to hold fast to so first the commander says look you tell the king your king you tell king has a kaya Oh, he feels he has confidence because he's got an ally. He's got a human ally Because at that point Pharaoh king of Egypt was pushing back against the Assyrians. So do you think you've got he's gonna be your salvation?
Look and I love his visual image The king of Egypt is like a splintered stick that you try to prop yourself up on but it's so broken and splinted Just give you splinters in your hand doesn't help you at all goes that's Egypt as far as we're concerned So is that where your strength is coming from and then he continues on and if you say to me we are depending on the Lord our God Isn't he the one whose high places and altars has a kaya removed saying to Judah and Jerusalem? You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem a series done its homework It knows a little bit about what's been going on in Judah He knows that King has a kaya apparently created a bit of a stir because he went through the kingdom and he threw down all the false altars And so as far as the Assyrians are that's a bad thing people aren't gonna like that so Where's your where's your strength in that? Then he continues he says and if you come now make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria Tell you what I'll give you two thousand horses if you can put riders on them How can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials even though you were depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Furthermore have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord the Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it So he mocks the military.
He said look tell you what how about we'll make it fair. You're such a tiny little kingdom You're so weak. I'll give you two thousand horses because I know you don't have enough guys to ride them You can't even stand again. So even if I try to make it more fair.
Oh, oh your god Well, just let you know your god told me to come and destroy you He's lying of course, but he's planting doubt in people's minds Then Ellie Kim son of hill kaya and shebna and Joah said to the field commander Please speak to your servants and Aramaic since we understand it Don't speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall But the commander replied was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things and not to the men sitting on the wall Who like you will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine? Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew here the word of the great king the king of Assyria This is what the king says do not let hezekiah deceive you He cannot deliver you from my hand Do not let hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says the Lord will surely deliver us This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria Do not listen to hezekiah This is what the king of Assyria says make peace with me and come out to me Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern until I come and take you to Aland like your own land a land of grain and new wine a land of bread and vineyards a land of all of trees and honey Choose life and not death You not listen to hezekiah for he is misleading you and he says the Lord will deliver us Has the god of any nation ever delivered his lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Apad where the gods of Cephetham and Thena and Heva? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me?
How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand? But the people remain silent and said nothing in reply because the king had commanded do not answer him So this is heavy. You've got this massive army around your city He's told you that your human allies are not going to cut it He's pointed out to you the truth that some of you already know and now everybody knows that your army is not big enough You haven't got the strength in your own to stand and so the offer has been given come Surrender to us and all the pressure goes away All the pressure will go away until that time when we take you and we start shipping you off into exile But that'll be okay, too You'll like it Because God will not deliver you And it's a powerful statement when he ends and he says has the God of any kingdom been able to deliver them has the God of any Kingdom been able to resist us and the answer is a resounding no and at first The hearers could hear that and go He's right, you know, they've run over everybody But then the truth of that statement comes forth Because who is the God of heaven and earth? Who is the God who created all things for the children of Israel who are in Judah who have been taught from their childhood?
Who the Lord is there is only one God and it is the Lord God Almighty? So of course no other God could stand against the Assyrians because there are no other gods They had nothing to hold fast to when the Assyrians came Israel had turned their back on the only God who could save them and they were overwhelmed Before we see how it ends We need to go back and take a glimpse at the individual who is responsible For making the decisions here and that is King Hezekiah So if you would turn back to the beginning of chapter 18 We'll get the beginning of the story in the third year of Hoshiah the son of Eli King of Israel Hezekiah son of A.H.H.H. King of Judah began to reign He was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 29 years his mother's name was Abijah Daughter of Zachariah seems fitting on Mother's Day that the mom gets the shout out here He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord just as his father David had done If you ever want an epitaph That's the epitaph What do we know about Hezekiah? Do we know about his education?
Do we know about his studies? Do we know what he worked out? Do we know what he was introverted or extrovert? Do we know what it is?
No, but we know this God saw fit to have it recorded that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord just as his father David had done He removed the high places smash the sacred stones and cut down the astropoles He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made for up to that time the Israelites have been burning incense to it It was called Neuchtun has a kiah trusted in the Lord the God of Israel There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah either before him or after him he Held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him He kept the commands the Lord had given to Moses and the Lord was with him. He was successful in whatever he undertook This is the man who's got to make the decisions And he held fast to the Lord did he have his slip-ups? Yes, he was human should he have tried to appease the Assyrians no he shouldn't have and he learns a lesson from it But here he is now and they're gonna come to him and they're gonna read the reports with the commander of this massive RC Jeremy has said and watch what Elijah does Then elakim son of hilkiah the palace administrator Shevna the secretary and Joah son of Asaf the recorder went to Hezekiah with her clothes torn and told him what the field commander Said when King Hezekiah heard this he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord He sent a lyke him the palace administrator Shevna the secretary in the leading priest all wearing sackcloth to the prophet Isaiah son of Amaz They told him this is what Hezekiah says this day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace as when children come to the point of birth And there is no strength to deliver them it may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander Whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ridicule the living God and he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God Has heard therefore pray for the remnant that still survives As I've said before one of the things I love about the word of God is it in the word of God We meet the real God interacting with real people his achiah is overwhelmed He's got a real adversary. He's got a real challenge.
So in grief. He's torn his clothes He's feeling the pressure of it all but notice where he goes with it He goes to the temple of the Lord and he sends word to the Lord's prophet It is one thing to be in that position where you are feeling overwhelmed It's one thing to see vast adversaries around you and to feel the pressure of that But it's how you respond. Where do you go? Hezekiah went to the Lord he went to the temple and he called on the prophet of the Lord And he's leaving it in the hands of God He shows how he feels when he says look I am I'm overwhelmed here Is it this is how it feels when children come to the point of birth and there's no strength to deliver them When it's just not possible for this baby to actually come to life.
That's how how the nation feels When King Hezekiah's officials came to Isaiah Isaiah said to them tell your master This is what the Lord says do not be afraid of what you've heard those words which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me Listen, I'm going to put such a spirit in him that when he hears a certain report He'll return to his own country and I will have him cut down with the sword God says I've got this I've got this Yes, you see the army surrounding you. Yes, you hear the taunts. Yes, you realize that any plans on a human scope are not going to work Yes, you can't appease you've got nothing left But I've got this Remember who you hold fast to? For sake of time you can read the next part on your own where?
The Assyrians come back and they continue to taunt they continue to put the pressure on Chapter 19 verse 14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers from the kings of Assyria and again He went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. I love that picture Here he just got this letter from the king of Assyria telling him all that they're going to do and what does he do with it? He takes it and he lays it out before the Lord Lord. This is yours.
This is too big for me, but it's yours This is yours and any praise And hezekiah prayed to the Lord oh Lord God of Israel and thrown between the chair of him You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth you have made heaven and earth Give ear oh Lord and hear open your eyes oh Lord and see listen to the words of sennacher Eve has sent to insult the living God It is true oh Lord that the Assyrian kings have laid waste to the nations and their lands They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them for they were not gods But only wood and stone fashioned by man's hands now Lord our God deliver us from his hand So that all nations on earth may know that you alone oh Lord our God Then the Lord sends through Isaiah God's message Where he talks about all that he is going to do and all that he is promised And that he is going to be faithful still Then we come to the result verse 32 Therefore this is what the Lord says according to the king of his concerning the king of Assyria He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it, but by the way that he came he will return He will not enter the city declares the Lord I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of David my servant That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp when the people got up the next morning there were all the dead bodies So sennacher ab king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew he returned to Nineveh and stayed there one day While he was worshiping the temple of his God Nisra his sons Adiram Melch and Shars Azar Cut him down with the sword and they escaped to the land of Ararat and Azar had down on his son succeeded him as king short and succinct Everything that was too overwhelming for Hezekiah everything in which he could not handle and there was no human means God in a night Changes it all one of the things I often mentioned to the students said you notice that it says that The angel of the Lord came not an army of angels not legions of angels the angel the Lord came an entire army was overwhelmed Because God is faithful to his promises, but we have to hold to the right thing We have to hold to the Lord if he had held on to Pharaoh king of Egypt he would have been overwhelmed if he held on to his own military prowess he would have been overwhelmed But he held on to the Lord into his promise. He held fast He had been holding fast to that before the Assyrians ever came and he continued to hold fast to that We need to know what we're holding fast to where we're really putting our trust Years ago, there was a young gentleman who was part of our family here and he decided he was going to make himself a swinging rope So he went up into a tree and he tied the rope. He was about 15 or 20 feet up in the air Secured it tied it with great knots. He had this rope It was gonna be a great rope and then he leapt off the branch to go swinging.
There was only one problem He was about 15 17 feet in the air his rope was 20 feet long He didn't go he just went and he broke his arm and came in next Sunday at church He's got a broken arm in a story that his family was happy to tell about thinking things through Where did he put his trust? He put a trust in a rope which was not going to be what he needed because the rope was too long He needed to do some measuring skills, but we can do that we can put our trust in things Which we hold fast to and in wonder why it collapsed because we weren't holding on to anything I Close with this story. I love reading the biographies of the missionaries the Lord has raised up to serve And I was rereading again the early experiences of David Livingston and his ministry in regions of Africa And how when he first arrived in southern Africa. He was met with great resistance and His little group began to move up into the interior And he was told by the communities around that one of the communities had turned and said that they were not going to permit him to continue Into the interior and that they had Raised up a group of warriors and they were going to come to him cut him off and they were gonna slaughter the entire group Both David Livingston and the few other missionaries and the other southern Africans who were part of their community And word was coming that this group was getting closer And so one evening someone came from a nearby village and said look there is a group who are waiting here They're just outside where your encampment is and as soon as it is dark They're gonna sweep upon you and they're gonna slaughter you all and David Livingston in his journal wrote And at first said you could see and as he's writing down his thoughts and his prayers at first it's filled with anxiety I think that's fair.
It said as he wrote as he quoted scripture He began to experience peace said everyone in their little group prayed through that night in the next morning They were all still there and they continued to move and eventually that particular group after a long period of time Eventually they became receptive to the gospel and came to Christ and one of the leaders of that community talking with David Livingston David said when we first came into the region you were against us and And the elder said yes, we were and he said I heard that you were coming to kill us And he said yes, we were said we came to you we tracked you down We found out where you were and we were going to come and sweep through your encampment We were gonna slaughter you all in the night and David said so what happened and the elder said we came out to you in the darkness And then we stopped because standing around your little encampment were the most fierce Warriors we had ever seen and they were standing and they were always vigilant all night long They said we counted them and they were a cohort of 47 47 warriors who stood around your encampment from dusk till dawn and we were so in awe of them that we lost heart and We all just faded back What makes the story even more amazing and I simply accepted at the accounts that are given quite a number of months later David Livingston returned to England and Scotland on his first furlough to report what the Lord had been doing and He was sharing different accounts And he shared that story in several the church and in one church He shared the story and at the end of it one of the older men in the church came and said brother Can you tell me the day it happened? And so David Livingston looked through his journal and he told him what day in February it happened and the elderly man got excited And he took out his notebook and he flipped through and he said brother a number of us were burdened for you We'd been praying for you but felt a great burden for you And so we called a prayer meeting and we gathered and we prayed till late into the night For your protection and for the work of the Lord to be able to go forward unhindered And the elderly man looked at him and said brother 47 brothers and sisters came out to pray 47 people interceded for you and the Lord provided his angels to protect you for each prayer There was a response Because they were holding fast To the Lord that they trusted to the one who says when we hold fast to him he is faithful to his promise Does that not mean that we will face adversaries absolutely not you read through the word of God and the adversaries are constant But God is faithful all the time So my encouragement to you is not to run on the tattoos but to hold fast and to say to one another as we share and encourage one another in the Lord As you hear the stories because we all have stories of challenges and things we're facing to say in love hold fast Hold fast to the Lord hold fast Hold fast to Christ who is promised to never leave us or forsake us hold fast hold fast to the truth of the word of God Hold fast hold fast and prayer hold fast Let's pray Father, thank you That we can't hold fast to you because as we've sung this morning you are the rock that does not move You are faithful and true You do not diminish you do not weaken you don't forget You remember your children that if we are yours through Christ we can hold fast to you because you are already holding fast us We are in your hands Lord. It is hard for us with human eyes not to become overwhelmed by what we see around us Because the adversaries can look pretty large And sometimes it seems better to to just try to appease or or try to avoid But Lord you are faithful and true. So I pray right now for all who are here Lord that you would in each of our situations remind us what we hold to That we can hold fast as Hezekiah held fast to you as Followers of you have held fast you through Christ for generation after generation that we can hold fast to you right now And then see what you do for your glory in Jesus Christ.
Amen. All right, we're gonna close with