Addicted to the Old Afraid of the New

This is your day, you've prepared it, you've made it for us. We are your people and we are eager to worship you in the spirit of the Lord. And so we covet him. We pray for him, that his influence and power would be among us and that we will leave here better than we came. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Before I announce the text this morning, I want to just send from Karen and I and our family greetings and thank you for all of you who have helped in this transition of moving. Thank you. Meals prepared, labor of muscle and sweat and moving. And we just so deeply appreciate it. It's been quite a outpouring of your love and we are deeply thankful to the Lord. The text, I pray the Lord be pleased to speak to us from here in this hour of study is the gospel of Luke chapter 5. Gospel of Luke chapter 5 verses 33 through 39. Luke chapter 5 beginning with verse 33. I want to speak on the theme, addicted to the old, afraid of the new. Addicted to the old, afraid of the new. This is perhaps one of those sermons that could have been preached to all of the church, but the Lord has ordained that I speak to you, the chosen few who are among us today. This is the word of the Lord for you. Luke chapter 5 beginning with verse 33. Then they said to him, why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers and likewise those of the Pharisees? But yours eat and drink. And he said to them, can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will fast in those days. Then he spoke a parable to them. No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one. Otherwise the new makes a tear and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins and both are preserved. And no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new for he says the old is better. Change is difficult for all ages. We especially think it is difficult for people who have lived more years and have become more established in their routines. But the truth of the matter is change is difficult for anyone, especially the kind of change that leads us into the unknown. That kind of change that involves what we have little to no experience in can be intimidating. Now when we change from a hundred plus degree weather to the 80s, well we like that kind of change. Or if you trade in your old worn out vehicle for a brand new one you're excited about that kind of change. No, we like that. It's change from comfortable routines to unpredictable circumstances that mainly we do not like. You remember how Jesus described his people to Nicodemus? He called us a people of the wind. But we would prefer something less volatile than wind, wouldn't we? It's that unknown quality about wind that concerns us the most. The unknown appears unstable and therefore intimidating. But it seems to me in my years of living there is some advantage to getting old. If you live long enough you will get there. And what I've discovered is that our kind heavenly father is always introducing into our lives the unpredictable, always. And he seems to reserve comfort for us after we've suffered tribulation for a while. It would appear that our Lord would keep us in a constant state of flex so that we would forever be in a state of dependency upon him. Hence the doctrine of desperate dependency. In our Lord Jesus' answer to the question of John's disciples and the Pharisees as to why his disciples did not pray and fast as they did, his answer involved an illustration concerning new wine and old garments. It was an answer depicting a time of great change. So here's what I propose to do. I want to get right to the text and explain the meaning of the text. And then I want to spend the bulk of our time on the application. Of the text. So what was Jesus meaning when he said that his disciples didn't need to pray and fast because he was there and the time would come when he wasn't and they would pray and fast. And what do these illustrations teach us about all of this? Well Jesus was introducing a huge monumental change in the economy of God. Not that God's currency was changing. From the Old to New Covenant, grace is always the currency of God. But the currency had undergone a facelift. You know like when we change the appearance of our own currency. Grace would still be the currency, the means of exchanging God's economy. But it had undergone a shift from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. With his arrival, the New Covenant was commencing. And now grace would be applied in a new way. What way would it be applied? Well, the Holy Spirit would not be given just to a few special appointed mediators. But all of his people would be given the Holy Spirit without any reservation. We would all be priests and kings unto the Lord. That's a huge change right there because in the Old Covenant of God, the presence of God was rarely manifested. When we think about the Old Testament period, we think of great manifestations of God, do we not? We think of, of course, Sinai. Where God comes down in fire, lightning, thunder and smoke. We think of the Theophanies, the appearances of God. Like Moses to the burning bush. Or as he led the children of Israel by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But when you leave those periods, with rare exceptions, there was little manifestation of God. Oh, there was the prophetic period of Elijah and Elisha. But other than that, there is very little of God showing himself to the people. The tabernacle was a place of meeting, the temple later. But just think of yourself as an old Hebrew in that period. What would you do? What was your expectation when it came to worship? Well, you would take your sacrifice. You'd make your pilgrimage to Jerusalem and you'd offer it to the priest. He would go through the rituals and that was it. And you'd return home. And you'd deja vu, do it all over again, time and time again. But no sense, often, of the presence and the glory of God. But now, the glory is appearing, not in a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire, but in flesh, dwelt bodily with Godhead. And here he is. This manifestation of the glory of God has been given to us so that any time and any place we can enter into the Holy of Holies. That's what he's saying to us. This is the great change from one covenant to the next. But also, he is telling us, changing the purpose of prayer and fasting. Notice what prayer and fasting is attached to here in the text. He says, why would they need to pray when the bridegroom's here? They don't need to pray and fast. I'm here. But when I'm gone, they will. What does that mean? It means that Jesus radically changes the motivation of prayer and fasting. And once again, in the Old Covenant, fasting, for example, was done for basically two reasons. One, it was prescribed in the Old Covenant. There were fasting periods, as well as feasting. There were occasions where you were to fast. Fasting was also a means under the old economy to petition God for certain things when you were in extreme situations. And that was basically it. By the time Jesus' day, and the Pharisees, and even the disciples of John, fasting had become a means of spiritual achievement. You showed that you were really sanctified. You had really gone high on the ladder of spirituality by how often you fasted and how many times you prayed a day. And Jesus radically changes it and says, no, no, no, prayer and fasting has everything to do with me being in my presence. They don't need to do that now because they have the manifested presence of God with them. But when I'm gone, and they bodily can't sense me, they will hunger for me, they will thirst for me, and they will pray, and they will fast. Why? Because they're hungry and thirsty for me. That's why. That's the radical change He's brought to prayer and fasting. We're not doing it because the law prescribed it and therefore fulfills some legal requirement with God. No, we pray and fast because we love Him and we want more of Him. Do you see that? Does this make sense? This is what Jesus is saying. And therefore, He illustrates it with an old garment, new patch, new wine, and new wineskins. The new wine represents this new covenant that we are now enjoying. And this parable, I think, teaches us a few principles that we can apply to our day. Number one, the new wine speaks of fresh moves of God in the life of the Christian in the church. It doesn't just represent the new covenant, but within the new covenant, there is freshness. There's always newness. There is variety with God. In the new covenant, you have to learn how to be led by the Spirit, not live according to the law. And so that requires a sensitivity to the Spirit. That requires you learning the ways of God. And one of the ways of God that is primary and chief in your spiritual edification is that God seldom does the same thing twice in the same way. We'll see that here in just a few moments. So this new wine speaks of the freshness, of the variety in which God moves in the life of the Christian in the church. And so the wineskin that Jesus introduces in His illustration is telling us that new wine, the moves of God, requires new wineskins. In other words, God won't always use the same method or means in the way He leads His people. Now, this is hard for us. We would rather He be quite methodical and routine in His methods, don't we? We would rather be able to God just simply give us a manual. Here's the blueprint. This is the way I do it every time, no exception. But He doesn't do that. And I'm thankful He doesn't do that. You want to know why He doesn't do that? Because this is more about relationship than it is following rules. This is about you learning Him, learning His heart, getting inside of that heart, getting inside of His blessed will for your life and learning that He loves you as a father loves his children. And as I was quoted by Brother Philip just a few moments ago, if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more your Heavenly Father give good things to them? But ask Him, do you believe that? Do you really believe that God loves to bless you? Well, He does. I preached on that here before. So, the new wine skin simply means the method by which God brings when He wants to do something new in our midst. New wine, however, be careful, is the work of the Lord. It's not my work or your work. We're not winemakers. Now, most of us, I think, probably are teetotallers, abstainers in the first place. So, I wouldn't be probably catching making wine. But, you know, nevertheless, it's not our business to create or generate moves of God within our church here. This is the work of the Lord and the new wine is His work. Acts 2.13 says that they mocked and said, they are full of new wine. Interesting, isn't it? New wine, that's on purpose. That's the Holy Spirit working, connecting dots here. That's what you got to learn to do when you start studying the Bible. Learn how to connect the dots properly. It's kind of like when you was a little child and you had those pages, read one, two, three, four. And if you follow the dots in sequence, you had a picture. But if you get out of sequence, it didn't make sense. You've got to learn to do that with the Bible. Here's an example. Jesus is putting His exclamation point here on the parable that He tells here in Luke 5. Here is the new covenant. Here's the new wine. My blessed spirit, God is the one who pours out the wine. And these outpourings of the Holy Spirit are controlled by the sovereignty of God. It's not for you to try to create a work of God. And by the way, Jesus tells us here that it's the wine that determines the container. You don't put new wine in old wine skins. The wine determines the kind of container you use, which simply means this, God's ways are unrestricted. You have to leave God to God, not only the producing of the wine, but the wine skin. Because as I said a few moments ago, God seldom works in the same way twice. Let me give you a biblical foundation for that. Let me just prove my own thesis. Go back to the Old Testament, 2 Samuel 5. 2 Samuel 5, beginning with verse 17. Here's an example. In the life of David, that if you're not learning how to walk with God and being sensitive to God and his leadership, you're liable to make a mistake. You're liable to miss God. 2 Samuel 5, this is after Israel has crowned David king. The Philistines felt like David had betrayed them because they had given him refuge during the days of Saul's pursuit of him. Now they've heard he's king. And so verse 17, 2 Samuel 5, beginning with verse 17. Now when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king, heard of it and went down to the stronghold. The Philistines also went up and deployed themselves in the valley of Raphine. So David inquired of the Lord. He prayed, in other words, saying, shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand. So David went to Baal-perazim and David defeated them there. And he said, the Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a breakthrough of water. Therefore he called the name of that place, Baal-perazim. And they left their images there and David and his men carried them away. Verse 22, then the Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the same valley, the valley of Raphine. Therefore, most wise statement, pay attention. Therefore David inquired of the Lord. What did he do? He prayed again. He did not assume that the Lord would give him the victory or that he would give him the victory in the exact same way. Oh, dear Christian brothers, sister, learn this. This old covenant man knew something about God. I always say of David, he was a new covenant soul in an old covenant body. He knew God and he knew what I'm trying to tell you, that God seldom works the same way all the time. And so he prayed. And God said, you shall not go up, circle around behind them and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. And it shall be when you hear the sound of the marching of the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the Lord will go up before you to strike the camp of the Philistines. And David did so as the Lord commanded. And he drove back the Philistines from Jeb as far as he could see. There you go. Well, what about Moses example? There's an example of life of Moses. When it was between a rock and a hard place, there was no water. No water for the children of Israel and their flocks. The people murmur, they go to Moses and complain. And Moses prays and God says, take your rod, strike the rock and out of the rock will come a river and I'll nourish the people. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened, right? Moses strikes the rock and out. Can you imagine how many gallons per minute was coming out of that rock? To not just to give a drink to all the families, but all the livestock, incredible thing. Well, years later, later in the wilderness wandering, what happened? The same scenario represents itself again. And once again, the people complain, Moses prays and what does God tell him to do? To speak to the rock. But Moses didn't learn what David learned. What'd he do? Well, it worked the first time. And by this time, he's a little peed anyway. He's a little upset with the people of Israel. And so he does what he remembers. He thinks the wineskin that was once new, he forgot it's now old and he starts to strike the rock and nothing happens. He strikes it again and only in the mercy of God and quench the thirst of the people does God let water come out. But Moses paid a terrible price for that, right? Why? Because that was not the wineskin that God had chosen and thereby he was not glorified before the people. Well, I can keep going on. There are other examples, but here's our problem. We seldom like new ways. Let's just be frank about it. Let's be transparent. How many of you like change? You really don't like it. Now there's a few here I know. They thrive on it. They don't, they get bored easily. But for the most of us, that's not our personality. We seldom like new ways. Look at Luke 539, the last verse of our text. This is the way most of us are. No one having drunk old wine seemingly desires the new, for he says the old is better. The old ways are better. They didn't even want to taste the new wine. They didn't even sample it to see. When Jesus performed the miracle of turning the water into wine, what did the master of the feast say? He calls the bridegroom and says, you've done just the opposite. Normally they give out the best wine first when everybody's drunk and then they bring out the inferior one. But you've saved the best for last. Here they didn't even try it. Why? Because their old mindset. The old ways are better. We're used to this. This is the routine that we're comfortable with. Don't change. Don't upset my little apple cart. No, no, no, no. Leave life the way it is. God doesn't work that way. He can't work that way. For your good. Because He wants you to be right where He is. To stay right where He is. That means you got to know Him. And that means also as a church. And so let me make this very applicable to us here at Providence Chapel. Church structures. Whatever they may be, how good they may have served us in the past. However much we have received the blessing from them. They must bow to God's way. What do I mean by church structures? Well, every church has them. Whether you're a high church or one that considers yourself to be more primitive, informal. You know, there are churches like ours. We don't even print a bulletin. You know, some people. Churches, you go in. That's the first thing to hand you. The order of service. Everything's planned down to the last dotted I and T. You know what's going to happen before it happens. No surprises. You can't even cram God in between the lines and the outline. It's all done. We've said we won't do that. We won't dictate to God, which I'm very thankful for that kind of pastoral leadership and wisdom. But we still have a system. We pretty much know what's going to happen when we come here, don't we? We do that and not just the structure of the morning worship service and the Bible study hour, but throughout the week we pretty much know how the church functions as we're scattered throughout our communities. And we basically do the same thing every week to week to week, year after year. That's what I'm talking about. Church structures must bow to God's ways. For example. The Apostles were waiting on tables. And they realized there had to be a big shift and change in their ministry operation. Their wine skin had to change. And so they had to stop caring for widows. And deacons were established to do that. So they could give themselves to prayer in the ministry of the Word or later on. The early church had to learn to adapt and change in its focus from being basically a Jewish community to now neither Jew nor Gentile, but a new humanity, a new race of mankind. God was leading them in different ways. New wine skins, new wine. And there will always be this need to look to God for new wine and the new wine skin that it brings that it's packaged. Because you have to remember something. Every old wine skin began as a new wine skin. Every old wine skin began as a new wine skin. Things change, don't they? I don't know specifically what to cite. Maybe just cultural changes, for example. In American society, there was a time when the large percent of sinners went to church. I mean, the biggest entertainment factor in the entire community was the local church. I don't mean entertainment like ha ha ha ha ha and and frivolity. I mean, the church dictated culture. It was the center of culture. And so even sinners went to church. And when this was the case, it was very wise for churches to have what they called evangelistic services. And do you know what service of the week was the evangelistic service? Anybody want to take a guess? Little louder, I can't hear you. Sunday, which service on Sunday? You remember they had two services on Sunday. Sunday night, Sunday night is and was the evangelistic service. And that was that way as a child that me growing up in the 60s and the 70s. Sunday night was always the evangelistic service. And it became traditionally known for that. Today that method won't work. Why? Because sinners by and large do not come to churches. They won't darken the door of a church. And yet we continue to think that church services ought to be many evangelistic crusades and the pastor gives salvation messages today for evangelism to take place. We need to be listening to the Holy Spirit. It's a new age. Many of us have yet to understand this age in which we live. Very few of us do. Perhaps a new wineskin would be to follow the pattern of the early church. What was that pattern? They actively shared their faith individually, both verbally and behaviorally. They were witnesses wherever they went. You see, a sinner is more likely to come to your home than a church once you've established a trusting relationship with the sinner. There are many other methods that we need to employ, but it's foolish for us to think they're going to come here by large numbers unless it was a genuine movement outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And so the tradition of seeing the church as a crusade auditorium and the pastor has the only duly authorized evangelist or witness must be abandoned. It doesn't mean we don't preach evangelistic sermons. It simply means that structure had to change and how. What do you change to? You change to that which God prescribes. And here's the point, and this is the great point of this whole parable here in answering the question. You never ever institutionalize and idolize previous moves of God. Let me say that again. Too important for you to miss. You never institutionalize and idolize previous. Moves of God. Because whatever great work God will do here. And I'm praying for that, aren't you? We're praying for revival. We're praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We want to see sinners saved, but you're not going to see them saved until we're full of the Holy Spirit. And when the fullness comes in greater measure and power. Then we'll see sinners saved, but. We've got to be careful and not idolize the wineskin in which the new wine comes. Because this is the tendency of man. And here's the problem. Why you can't do that? Because whatever move and power of God that is invested, even in his people degenerates the moment it comes in contact with people. Look at the early church, if you don't believe. In the beginning of the book of Acts, we're seeing a revival. Oh, I prefer a great awakening like none other that would ever follow. We're seeing the Holy Spirit being poured out in copious, large amounts and way. I mean, you started on one day. 3000 people get saved. Another day 5000. They talk about mega churches. That's not a relatively modern thing. No, no, it starts here in the book of Acts. But by the time of the New Testament period, what are we having to read over and over? The apostles are doing what? Warning about false teaching, dealing with people, leaving the faith. The book of Hebrews. People who once professed faith are now leaving. They're dealing with what? A degenerate, backslidden state. Why? Because any move of God invested, even in holy people, degenerates with time. Often I've been asked, why do you think there are so many new denominations? And I said, the answer is quite simple. An old group got stale and backslidden, lost God and the power of God. So God would raise up a new group. Look at the the great 18th century revival of the Westleys and the Whitfields. What a move of God. But did you know the Anglican Church rejected that? John Wesley was preaching in his father's pulpit and he preached on the new birth and they kicked him out, wouldn't let him preach. And so he stood on his father's grave, saw a tombstone outside of the church. And there was more outside listening to Wesley than inside listening to the pastor. And the great 18th century revival beginning with the Whitfields and those men. But what's happened to the Methodist church since then? It's sad. Wesley would spin like a top in his grave if he knew. And so God raised up another group. And another group. And what happens? Man wants to institutionalize the moves of God, the works of God. And so we have a new denomination. We have a new method, a new program. And over and over the cycle continues. No. God is to be the one who's at worship and revered, not some method or some wise man. God himself. We are a people of the spirit. We go where the wind blows. And only where it blows. Church traditions must bow to God's ways. We often should ask ourselves, why are we doing what we do? I'm sure you've all heard the quite humorous story. It's almost probably the most probably a waste of my time and yours to tell you. But you did hear about the new bride who cut the end of the roast off and when she and threw it away when she cooked her roast. And her husband observed this several times over the first few months of marriage. And he's finally got up the courage and said, sweetheart, why do you do that? Why do you throw away a portion of a roast? He said, well, she said, I don't really know. That's the way my mama did it. So she calls her mom and ask her, why did you do that? And she said, well, sweetheart, I really don't know. That's why your grandmother did it. So she calls grandma and grandma simply answered and said, well, when my your dad and I got married, we'd only had one pan and it was this short and I always had to lop off the end of the roast to get it fit. We have to ask ourselves, why are we doing what we're doing? Have we just simply fallen into a rut? You know what a rut is, don't you? It's a grave with both ends kicked out. It's a place there's no life, no vitality, no vibrancy. Could I refuse to lay aside a tradition, be grieving the Holy Spirit? God has blessed this church tremendously, and I need to be very personal. And yet I need to be very careful. I've watched this church from its inception from afar. Now and again, I'd be invited to come and to preach meetings and and then praise be to God. Four and a half years ago and his blessed will. He ordained that we should be here and be a part of this amazing church. I've watched it, I've seen it. I remember preaching one weekend here. On the church and Brother Phillips House, they had asked me to come and to do that, and I got back and. Well, the Mac called and said, what do you think, what do you think? I said, well, the Mac, I think you've got a great congregation, but you don't have a church yet. God hadn't birthed it yet. And shortly after that, it's like a light switch flipped. Somebody just flipped the switch and something happened. And the thing began to grow, what happened? God birthed it. He bought a glue that he's. And he keeps sticking new people to it. It's beautiful. But what God's going to do in the next chapter of our church, he won't know. He will not use the same methods he used 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago. Forget it. He won't do it. He loves us too much to do that. He wants to keep you humble and desperately dependent upon him. And so I ask us, could our ease of the routine be grieving the Holy Spirit? So how do you discover new wine schemes? Real quickly, three ways. Only three biblical ways I know. Number one. Wait on God in prayer with an open Bible. You wait on God in prayer with an open Bible. I know at this point some of you are highly disappointed. But friend, there is no other way. You can read all the church growth. You can read all the books on that subject you want, but I'm telling you, it's mere rubbish. I remember preaching in a conference of pastors and one pastor thought he would really get the best of me because he just he said, have you read Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Church? He was surprised when I said, yes, I have. I read it twice. You could tell he was shocked about my answer and said, well, what did you get out of the book? I said the best part of the book was in the introduction. You can forget the rest of the book. Just read the introduction. Here's what he said when I went to that place, wherever it was in California, didn't know what to do. So I prayed and prayed and prayed. And I asked God and he gave me a strategy. I said, I got out of the book. If you don't know what to do, ask God. That's it. That's the best part of the book. Close the book after that. You can throw it away. And he's right. I don't think he followed God all the way, but that's nevertheless not the point of the sermon. The point of this is that that we must pray. He's our captain. He's our commander in chief. He's our leader. He's the one who has pioneered. What was the word you use here a couple of weeks ago? The pioneer, our hero, our champion, our Hercules. And you pray. You pray with an open Bible. Why? Because he speaks out of this book. This is the primary way he speaks. I never pray without a Bible open. Unless I'm in public. I, I got to hear God talk to me. This is the way he leads me. Most of the time I've been led by God taking his word and illuminating them and opening my understanding that I knew perfectly what to do and I could trust the Lord. We pray and wait on God with an open Bible. Number two, believe that God will lead you. Believe it. Believe that he can lead us as a body of believers into new chapters, into new moves, into new wines. That's better than the old. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eyes. Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come to you. Don't be stubborn. Be pliable, be sensitive. And number three, observe God, God's activities around you and join him. It's just that simple. That's what Jesus did in John 5, 19. Then Jesus answered and said to them, most certainly, I say to you, the son of man can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do. But whatever he does, the son also does in like manner. You wonder how Jesus was so just he always knew what to do. Well, that's it. He tells you the secret. He was watching where his father was working and where the father was working. He joined. How's how's God working around you? Watch for God, learn to see with these eyes. That's another sermon for another time. How to learn to see with your physical eyes and your physical ears to see and hear God working around you and join him. We are called to be a people of the wind, people of new wine and new wine schemes, and that requires a deep seated trust in God's goodness and faithfulness. Most of us would rather depend upon the paycheck, the routine of our lives, the status quo. We want church to never change, perpetuate the old wine skins, celebrate God's activity in the past with little to no faith that will ever be done. Oh, no, friend, I don't want that. And I know you don't either. But remember, life gravitates to the old wine skins, it gravitates. It happens with no effort of thought. And once you're there, it's hard to trust God for new wine, which will require new wine skins. But oh, thanks be to God. He even knows how to deal with our dullness. And our propensity for the old way, there's some old ways we never need to change, right? There's some old ancient landmarks we ought not to ever try to move. There are certain things we're not talking about the gospel. We're not talking about any new fangled gospel or idea concerning. We're talking about how to be led by the spirit. And all this is the blessing of the new covenant. This is the great change that Jesus was answering and has come. And so I conclude. There's one more thing from this parable that I want to ask you about. He said the disciples would not pray and fast until when he had left. Why would they pray and fast then? Because they want. They would want intimacy with him again. Not like what he was there bodily was different, of course, but no less real in the realm of the spirit. Can you hear me? The realm of the spirit. And they hungered and thirsted. And therefore they prayed and they fasted. That's the reason we pray. That's the reason we get along and seek God for God's sake, because we love him and desire him. Do you desire him as well? Is there a craving? Or has that craving become lackluster? Has it waned? Has it become small? Almost insensible. Oh, man. God has fresh wine for you today. He has something fresh and new for you today. Open up your heart. Let it come. Be willing. To follow him wherever he leads, even a new path. May God give you grace to obey. Amen. And let's pray. Our gracious father. Oh, blessed are you who leads your people. Lord, we love you. We love your leadership. We want to follow you. Often, Lord, we're like a little child. We don't know how to follow. We barely can keep pace. But one thing we know. It's not just a poetic thought. You do hold our hands. You hold us. And you're patient. You're longsuffering. Lord, here we are, Providence Chapel, we're praying. Lead us. We know you will help us to follow. We don't need to pray for your leadership. We need to pray for our submission to it. Help us. Help us to give us eyes to see what you're doing around us. Ears to hear you. Right around us. And to participate and join you by faith. In Jesus name, Amen.