God is my No.1 Guide

We've been talking during these last few Sundays, at least the ones that I've been present, about the doctrine of God. I was just saying to the elders in our prayer meeting, at least in my prayer, not to the elders, I haven't got quite to the stage of praying to them yet. But praying to the Lord, that there's a sense in which, when you look into the Bible, you do get a photograph of God, the various aspects of God, His nature, His grace.

God wants you to know what He's like. Now, you're never going to know it in all the fullness, because, well, the human mind just couldn't comprehend. But there is sufficient information given us about God for the youngest person, the most immature person, the oldest person, to comprehend and to be satisfied with.

And so we're going to be looking tonight on the subject of God as a guide. I was in Bombay just a couple of days ago. And one thing that is a mystery is how anyone ever gets anywhere in Bombay traffic.

You see, you can't even work out where the road signs are. Even assuming you could read Hindi, that wouldn't be too great an advantage. Because, well, the drivers don't drive like the generally courteous drivers on British roads.

Generally so, courteous. The drivers, they sort of aim their vehicles at where they expect the next bit of space will be. So, it really demands a sort of prophetic approach to driving.

So, to get from one point to another point is rather difficult. And it seems to me that perhaps the traffic in Bombay is a sort of parable of some people's lives maybe here. You do need direction.

You do need a guide. And the Bible tells us that God is a guide. I mean, there are many words that are used to describe God.

God is a Father. God is our Creator. Astonishingly enough, when we look at this in a few weeks' time, the Bible does say that God is as a husband to us.

But there are many instances in both the Old Testament and the New Testament where the implication is that God wants us to so be in touch with Him that we don't have in life the sort of experience of the average person trying to make their way through Bombay. God is a guide. A guide in what? Well, if you were to look into the Bible, you'll find that God guides people literally from one country to another country.

Abraham, he's moved from a place called Mesopotamia and he goes into a country that we today call Israel. God guided him geographically. The Israelites, at one stage, they found themselves in the most unpleasant period in Egypt.

And they were released from Egypt and they were guided. As they returned to the Promised Land, there was a pillar of fire in the sky at night and there was a cloud during the day. And these were, if you like, the two points, the two compass points which were ever there enabling them to know which way to go.

So, there's the illustration in the Old Testament of God guiding someone geographically. One of the things that you'll discover, no, you've already discovered that the Western newspapers of Delhi, in terms of imitating the Asian newspapers, is you can now advertise for your wife or for your husband. One stage, in my trips to Asia, I used to like to get the Times of India on a Sunday because the front and the second page were crammed full with adverts of prospective men trying to get ladies and there was a dowry and you could sort of work out how much you might be worth as a European if you were in the same condition.

Now, of course, you can buy the Guardian or even the Times of London and you can advertise that you're a good-looking fellow and, you know, any nice young lady who has got a grain of intelligence and is footloose and fancy-free, she could call you by your box number or what have you. Guidance in marriage, that's very important, to get the right one. And in the Bible, you find the illustration of people getting hitched.

It doesn't use that word, but it's there by implication. I mean, Jacob, he does quite well. There's a lovely story, it's only four chapters in the Old Testament, of a lady called Ruth.

She was really a refugee and she falls in love with an older man. Years go by, I think older men have more attraction. She finds, oh, someone appreciated that, didn't they? She's with Boaz and it's all very wonderful and actually she becomes an ancestor of the Lord Jesus.

The Bible is so interested in marriage and getting the right marriage that it gives a full book called the Song of Solomon, which is a sort of guide to marriage. It's very intimate, very wonderful, very poetic, but also very practical. The Bible also talks about people who did a job change.

Now, if ever you need guidance outside the marital stakes and outside of trying to get your way through a traffic jam, surely it's when you decide to change your job. I mean, there's one guy and he was making tents. He becomes a theologian.

Now, you don't generally move from a craftsman's job and find yourself in the area of the academics. And yet, this man did, simply because he got guidance from God. There are others who went through a change of job.

There's a young fellow who was a shepherd and he finished up as a king. That's a mega change. The beginning of the story of Jesus in the Gospels.

I mean, he's wandering down the seashore and here are these men, successful fishermen, and they're mending their nets and Jesus says, Hey, leave off what you're doing, I've got a better job for you, come and fish men. Fishing fish was difficult in Galilee when a storm came up and Jesus was not going to give them a soft option. And going into the church, becoming a clergyman, it's not a soft option, believe you me.

I only said that to try and impress you, but it really isn't. And these guys, they did have a job change. So here are three areas, and I could open up many more in the Bible, that speak of individuals and groups of people who need guidance.

Let's listen to some verses of Scripture which talk to us about guidance. Good guidance and bad guidance and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Annie, who works with Phoeba, she's going to share with us some verses that talk about prayers and advice for guidance.

Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name, lead and guide me. Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. Send forth your light and your truth.

Let them guide me. Let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

My son, keep your father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Bind them upon your heart forever. Fasten them around your neck.

When you walk, they will guide you. When you sleep, they will watch over you. When you awake, they will speak to you.

Even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. The Lord will guide you always.

He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Those are positive texts, aren't they? Lovely texts taken from all over the Old Testament.

But all guides in Old Testament times, and in New Testament times, weren't necessarily good guides. You always got the fraud. You always got your mystic Meg sort of character.

The Bible will warn you about taking direction from those who are not really qualified to give it. But listen again. Those who guide this people mislead them, and those who are guided are led astray.

Saul even consulted a medium for guidance. Leave them. They are blind guides.

If a blind man leaves a blind man, both will fall into a pit. Woe to you, blind guides. You say, if anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing.

But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. O blind fools, which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred? Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You hypocrites.

You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees. First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will also be clean.

Woe to you, blind guides. You say, if anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.

O blind fools, which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred? Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

Blind Pharisees. First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will also be clean. Jesus perhaps reserved the greatest and the strongest criticism that ever left his lips towards people who led others astray.

We used to have a man who came to the tab and he had a dog. Gordon Dainswood was blind. And he really, at the physical level, entrusted his safety to the guide dog, Dale.

That bond between the blind man and his dog is one of the most wonderful things I think that you find today. The most intelligent animal a dog can be. And the dog merits the trust of the blind man because, well, it's been so well trained.

And Jesus was directing his criticism towards what in effect were the clergy of his day. Many of them, not all of them, because they were false guides. They were leading blind people into greater problems.

And so when Jesus left the earth, when after his death and his resurrection and obviously then his ascension, he's no longer around, he's very concerned that the likes of you and I can tap into a power in which guidance will be mediated to us. Let's listen to what our Saviour had to say there. But when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears. And he will tell you what is yet to come.

While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the spirit said to him, Simon, three men are looking for you. Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Thanks very much Annie.

So you gather from that very generous selection of readings taken from both the Old Testament and the New Testament that this book does indeed speak of guidance. Now many of these scriptures should have been on the overheads as Annie was reading. I spent a long time working on my computer with bringing out some nice visuals this afternoon.

But it all got snarled up at the end and it's still on my memory. And I did every trick that I know, including quoting the text out of context that God would supply the ram. And I still haven't been able to provide the visuals.

But you read so beautifully the verses that speak about God and guidance. And I am from the scriptures that they speak to us of individuals who changed jobs under the guidance of God. Of people who got married under the guidance of God.

Of people who had life-changing spiritual experiences as a result of God's guidance. Let me introduce you to, although you probably, most of you know her, Jeanne Hanson. If you just come and join me here for a moment or two, Jeanne.

Because this coming Saturday we've got a special seminar on which we're inviting you to. You must know about it because it's been in Otsa News and I think you've had one or two reminders. But just give us a summary again.

What's going to happen on Saturday and why should people come? Well, this is a seminar. It's called First Aid for Marriage. And it really is for folk who want to help others who come to them for advice and help.

Or just in conversation, lead you to believe that they need some help. And that's really who it's for. So if you're ever in that situation, you're leaning over the garden fence or whatever.

And your neighbor just says, you know, got a bit of trouble and turns out it's marriage trouble. Then perhaps you sometimes think, well, I wonder what I should have said. What do I say? What would have been most helpful? And this is really what the seminar's about.

Just some common sense advice. So anybody is welcome to come. It's on Saturday from 10 till 12.30, followed by lunch.

So far we have about 58 people coming. So that's a good crowd. We're really looking forward to that.

How long have you been married? 42 years this July. When you were married, were you a Christian? Yes, yes I was. I made some comment about advertising for your husband, your wife.

The Asian practice followed to some degree now here. In the UK. Do you think that marriages are made in heaven? This really is a hot spot, believe me.

These questions are all out of the blue. Marriages are made in heaven. I should say that marriage is heaven, shouldn't I? After next Saturday it will be.

If you mean by that, Tony, that there is one man for one woman, I think there are different points of view on that. Perhaps I could just tell you what thoughts were in my mind when I first met John. I met him at college and I was just 18.

I came from a family where there were many problems, divorced parents, and that wasn't the end of it. It was very complicated. Quite honestly, I didn't go to college thinking, who can I find to marry here? My thought was, I don't want to get married just yet.

What I've seen of it doesn't commend it to me very much. The person who was closest to me in my life, a maiden aunt, seemed to be the one I would want, in earthly terms, to emulate. So I didn't go seeking.

But I was chased. But in the sense of C-H... Well, I was chased both ways. C-H-A... LAUGHTER Oh, dear, I do hate these things.

It's all right. We've all gone rather hot at the moment. I went to college, although I belonged to a church and we'd had some teaching.

We didn't get teaching in this area, really. But what I really knew was that when and if I got married, the person I would marry must be a Christian and that I would not go out with anybody who was not a Christian. So that was paramount in my mind.

And so when I did meet John, in fact, it was at the first meal, I can't say that I immediately fell in love with him, but obviously I was willing to be friends with him because he was a Christian. And I really was looking, in a sense, for somebody who was not just a Christian nominally, but a keen Christian, because I knew that the Lord had to be first in my life. So, as a Christian, a Christian young person, or some folk who are not so young and yet are single and perhaps feel that marriage may be for them, one of the things that they'd have to consider as almost set in concrete is that God would lead them to another believer.

Yes, yes. So you don't contemplate anybody who is not a believer. That's how I see it.

Because otherwise there would be complications in this whole business of falling in love. Your heart, your emotions get involved and then it sometimes becomes too late. But that is God's principle, I believe.

And then, of course, there are other factors after that. Not any old Christian will do. LAUGHTER Well, it wouldn't then, but it does now.

LAUGHTER LAUGHTER Is the sense of guidance that one gets at this point more emotional than intellectual, do you think, in terms of finding the right partner? Yes. For me, I think it was a mix. It was very much circumstantial.

As I've said, he was a Christian, he was a keen Christian, and our paths crossed. And after that, we got to know each other and we had common interests. I think that's quite important, that you do somebody who will talk and will listen and you like doing some of the same things together.

Not that you have to have identical interests, because one of the things that I found early on that really I had to work through was that John was and is very musical. And I was not and am not very musical. And I really felt that I might be holding him back.

And we used to talk about this quite a lot. So, although there must be areas of common interest as well. And, of course, emotions do come into it.

I mean, you do love each other and want to be with that person and you miss them when you're not with them and so on. So it's a mix, really, of common sense and emotion too. I think if you're just led by emotion alone, you know, I really like this guy and he's not a Christian, but maybe if I go with him, I'll really... And I really feel the Lord's telling me that by going with him and praying for him, I'll bring him to the Lord.

I think that's a path to disaster. So, you prayed about your marriage and that was part of the way that you got the guidance that you were looking for. I was... I wanted to do what was right before God.

And, in a sense, Tony, it isn't quite as clear-cut. You... I don't know how to say drift. That's the wrong word.

But you move on in a relationship until you come to a point where you realise that you are going to be married and you're going to spend your lives together. And I think another thing is that you very often get the confirmation from your friends and your church and maybe your family, although that can be difficult, which is a sort of secondary thing. If everybody is asking you questions, are you sure this is right? I think you have to ask yourself that question too.

So that's interesting. There's a biblical framework, there's speaking to the Lord in prayer and there's also family and close friends. And the feeling that out of that comes a rightness about it, a peace in your heart that this is the right path.

That's very helpful. Thank you very much indeed. So, the Bible speaks about marriages being within the providence of God and not only in Old Testament and New Testament times.

But it has been illustrated just now in contemporary times too. John Kennard, if you'll join me here, John. John used to be one of our very regular members in a prayer meeting which in early years was almost exclusively male.

It was never designated as such. But just by happenstance, so to speak, that's how it turned out. We used to meet early morning on a Saturday and indeed the prayer meeting continues to this day.

It's been going for 28 years, if not more now. And I recall, John, when you were attending, although this obviously wasn't the only thing that we were praying for, we did bring to the Lord your life, your career. What were you when you, as a young man left school and you came here to Worthing, what was your job at that point? Well, I was a motor mechanic for one of the local Ford dealerships in the town.

And when I married my wife, Linda, I was still working on the shop floor. And it seemed a bit of a dead-end job. My wife was working and she was doing a lot better than I was working for the inland revenue.

And off and away, and it seems to be the way even these days that women folk have better and greater sometimes prospects, and even men do sometimes in terms of career. But at that time I had not that long recommitted my life to the Lord because prior to that I had behind me a history of sort of being a right yobbo and bad behaviour. And that was all behind me and still yet the future in terms of my career seemed to be pretty well a bit of a dead-end really.

You remember those times when we prayed very earnestly about whether a Christian garage should be established here in Worthing? Yes, yes I do. And I can remember saying to you that I felt that, well I don't think I put it quite as bluntly, that you were wasting your time where you were, but it seemed to me that you had the ability to launch this. But that garage didn't just occur overnight.

Can you just in a couple of sentences give us the drift of God's leading? Yes, well, I still do believe actually that this is the payback for the advertising this morning, but I must say that… It's even better advertising this evening. The payback will be when you service my car free of charge. You came to my services, why didn't my car go to your services? Right from the early days, yes.

As I said, my job seemed to be a bit of a dead-end job and the prospect of going out on my own came forward. I did bring this before Tony at the time and before the church in those prayer meetings and we did pray about this and this has been one of the wonderful things is the church and our pastor Tony here has been behind us in what we have done and the business did start off as a one-man band and when you think in these days they say the statistics are something like two out of every three business ventures often fail or fall by the wayside. This is a business venture that, yes, it's taken its time, but it has grown over the years and it has grown through the faithful support and help and prayers of many folks within this church and people who have come and supported us and that in itself has developed and grown and I've developed with it as well and it has been something in which I look back on and say the Lord's done this and I can honestly say that I'm not known for exactly my forward planning and I don't see the five-year plan, the ten-year picture, but when I look back I can truly say that the Lord's been there with us, leading us and guiding us in these things.

So the Lord actually guided you from the job that you were doing to the different places where your present garage business has now developed. Why do you call it Cedar Garage? Well, it actually came about through another fellow Christian who was running another business in the town of the Cedar Busses and as two Christians together the significance of the cedars of Lebanon and how they are watered significantly spiritually speaking by the waters of the Lord and by the rivers there and it's a tree that always is a large tree and looks like a flourishing tree and I really do believe that it's spoken of many times within the Bible and I really do believe that it was a name that was right to call the garage at the time and both Chris Chatford and myself used the name Cedar Busses and Cedar Garage at the time and I believe that the Lord has allowed us to flourish and there have been some difficult times and even just recently over the last seven or eight months have been fairly difficult. When I moved into the premises where I am at the moment at the time my business was growing and I hit another snag.

The premises that I was in had to be vacated at great haste and I didn't like the way it was being done and I really did feel that the chap who was pushing me out of there wasn't doing me any favors but it wasn't until three years later that I realized that actually the kick up the pants that I needed was the Lord's leading and guidance. If I hadn't had that kick up the backside so to speak I would not have come into the Lord's blessings of what we enjoy now and the garage I'm in now I've just recently bought the premises and I knew when I moved in there ten years ago the option was there to do that and unfortunately I've had ten years to plan that myself and to work towards that and when I actually came to the crunch of doing it the Lord sort of handed me a blank sheet of paper and he said right and I'm starting to see the picture now John can I do you've had ten years of planning this I've got my plans for this place now and I've had to learn the hard way to put aside my plans and allow the Lord's plans to fit into place. So you're a Christian businessman and not just a businessman who happens to be a Christian.

I am a Christian businessman. And you look to the Lord. And I very much look to the Lord yes for his guidance.

Thanks again John. I shall always remember when we dedicated your garage so many people standing on that forecourt singing to God be the glory great things he has done and I thought that probably wrote a new chapter in the history of the British motor industry. One of the books in the Bible actually is absolutely crammed full of advice written by an older man and directed basically to younger men.

I hope to have a text from that put up on the overhead but as I said I've had problems but those of you who've got an NIV version of the Bible with you turn to Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6. Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6 as you know that a friend of mine is going to join us out here too Don I want to talk to him just a moment or so. But let's read out that verse or that couplet of verses together. If you've got a Bible and the person alongside you hasn't then share it with him or her please.

Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6 After 3, 1, 2, 3 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. Let's try that again. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.

So let's try this evening just to tie things up together. I started with a picture of a traffic jam in Bombay and said that that's parabolic alas of quite a lot of people's lives. It's hard to take direction because well you can't read the signs and even if you could read the signs there's the problem of somebody ahead obstructing the way.

But I want to say God doesn't want your life to be like that. The Bible is a book that speaks of certainty and promises assurance as we make our way. So like the Magi of old who set off to get to Jerusalem they had some divine intimation from God as to the route that they took to Israel and as the route that they took back when they returned to their own home.

So this couplet of verses from Proverbs does give you the wisdom of an older man to younger people. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. The first thing you've got to do lean not on your own understanding.

The second thing you have to do in all your way acknowledge Him. The third thing and He will make your paths straight. Three directives and a promise.

Trust in God. Lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in every way.

And then from there to there in a straight line. Trust in the Lord. You know that Hebrew word trust is a very interesting one.

It's got the same sort of idea behind it as let me give you an illustration from nature. The ivy that goes around the tree the ivy itself cannot go straight up. It just does not have that ability.

Ivy always clambers up a wall and goes around a tree or a pole or what have you because it has no stability in itself. It can grow along the ground but it can't get upwards without support. And that's really the connotation that's behind this idea of trusting.

Trusting in the Lord. Clinging to Him. One of the things I found myself doing in India just by accident actually I thought I was going to a meeting of some OM leaders at 10 o'clock at night but I finished up in an Indian cinema.

I've never been to an Indian cinema in my life. In fact I can put on one hand the cinemas that I've been to here in Worthing in the last 20 odd years. But I sort of got conned into this.

But it wasn't too bad. It was quite enjoyable I suppose. I went to see Air Force One.

A sort of spoof on the American presidency. There's a little bit of sort of Indian atmosphere because when the film got to the most critical point then they had catastrophe in the projectionist's room. And all the lights came on and the Indians were slow hand clapping and hissing and then we got the film back on again and it got to the next sort of crisis and exactly the same thing would happen.

But the first crisis had the American president clinging onto his plane by his fingertips. He was just going to drop down and marvellously of course he clambers back on board and everything works out well as you'd expect with an American produced film. Clinging.

He clung onto that plane because had he not done then he would have been in great trouble. His life would have come to an end. And that's the first directive.

To trust, cling to the Lord with all your heart. Putting your confidence in God and the salvation which He offers you through Jesus Christ. You can't know His guidance on your terms.

You can only know His guidance on His terms. And the first proposition is that God is. And God expects you to acknowledge that.

Trust in the Lord. It doesn't just say with all your mind. Again the Hebrew word hart embraces the total personality.

So it's that level of commitment that we are to make to God. But not to your own understanding. Why? Well, because you'll foul it up.

So many, many occasions. The biggest problem I have in my life faces me every morning when I look into a mirror. My own understanding.

I want to do things my way. There used to be a song back in the 50s. John Hanson will remember it.

My way. My way. Do it my way.

It's the song of the unregenerate. It's the song of the person who's declared UDI. Independent declaration of independence from God.

Lean not to your own understanding. So if it's marriage, a job change, whatever decision that presses in upon you, you bring that to the Lord. In all your ways, acknowledge Him.

That's the third directive. And it's very comprehensive. In all your ways.

In what you read. In what you see. So often modern media brings into our minds things which are so opposed to God's way.

Modern media very often gives us a culture that is so different from the culture of the Bible. I was watching at Heathrow. A clash of cultures on Thursday.

And here was this Cockney porter. He was about my size. And he was trying to be so nice, so very, very nice to an Indian lady who'd just got off the plane and was waiting for the carousel to bring her luggage round.

And she'd hired him. And her luggage was quite big. And he was trying to show her that there was a real warm welcome in England.

And he was talking about the fact that she'd obviously packed an awful amount of stuff from India, but he was a tough man. And he said, Madam, he said, see my muscles. And then he rolled his sleeve shirt up and he actually showed the muscle.

And he was doing everything he possibly could to show this lady that he was friendly. You don't do that in India. You don't go up to a woman and tell her to touch you to show you your muscles.

I can imagine the letter that she writes back to her family the first hour in Heathrow Airport. She gets this six foot two Cockney coming along and says, have a feel of my body. See, a clash of culture and a failure.

Although it was well intentioned on the part of the Cockney to understand Indians. There's a clash of culture today over against the Bible and what it teaches. And when you come along and you say, well, that may be what the Word of God says in regard to this, that, and the other, how to live.

But my friends, they live differently. And the way that we did it in our college, the way we did it in our university, it's so different. In all your ways, acknowledge Him.

Live your life by the diktat, the instructions of this book. Three conditions and a promise. And He will make your paths straight.

You see, guidance comes, as Gene so eloquently put it, not only from the Word of God, but from the general framework of being able to speak to our friends about decisions that we are to make and by ensuring that what we are going to do lines up with the revealed will of God in Scripture. God has made His will plain. It's not true that He wants you to go around as a blind man.

That's why Jesus so often criticizes the Pharisees. God wants you to know. We are born for certainty.

So the first thing you need to do is to acknowledge Him with all your heart. The second thing you need to do is to recognize that your logic is fallible. And you need to have your views conditioned by the teaching of His Word so that in all your ways, you're acknowledging Him.

You seek God's Spirit to confirm what you want to do by giving you a good feeling. This seems right. You go to a trusted friend, your mom or dad, if they're Christian and you're wanting counseling at a spiritual level, those who are close to you.

Not to any old body. Not to many people. The confusion of witnesses can bring you into a very cloudy, muddled position and understanding.

It's good to walk in the light with two or three people and to take your direction from what they have to say in terms of the confirmation of what you think is the will of the Lord. But always, finally, you come back to Him and on your knees, you ask, Lord, make my path straight. Take me to the right person in my life.

Shift me to the right job. Place me in the right relationship. And I believe that if you're honestly wanting to do what God wants you to do, that will be the consequence.

He'll show you. And if you've got it wrong on past occasions, as Don Moster clearly made it plain to all of us, God can cope with that. He can cope with your disobedience.

He can cope with your crass folly. And He can bring you back into the parameters of His will. Three commands and a promise.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him.

And He will make your paths straight. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for our Lord Jesus.

We thank You for someone who came into this world as a good shepherd, who looked upon the human family as a flock of sheep, foolish sheep that needed His direction. We praise You that He came with His crook and with His staff. And He called a handful of men, and that handful grew to many men and women, thousands, now tens of thousands, in the Acts of the Apostles, and millions as we compute the total number of people who've followed Him down the years of history.

Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You that as a good shepherd You died for us to do away with the problem of our sin. We're now asking that we might be obedient sheep, that You will direct us throughout all the various stages in our lives. And if we have to cope with hardship and with sickness, make us mature enough to accept this.

Help us, Lord, to be pliable to Your will, that we might seek Your face in every decision. We pray that You'll lead us. Precious young people here, all the friends too, lead us on, lead this church on, to do what Your will is.

Be our guide. Be our deliverer and our protector. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen.