In His World No.11 Grace

Our gracious God and loving Father, we do come into your presence this morning with a great sense of gratitude as we begin a new year. We declare that you are the God who is faithful and who has proved faithful. We come before a God who has promised to be Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides.

And Lord, we want to declare this morning in your presence and in the presence of one another that you are the God who has greatly and mightily provided for us. Heavenly Father, we come with a sense of gratitude as we review all that you have done and are doing for us. We praise and thank you for the great plan of salvation, that incredible plan that you had in your mind and heart before the world was formed, whereby you would rescue men and women and restore lost communion with yourself.

We praise you for the way that you revealed your heart's love for mankind through history and for that supreme moment when the Lord Jesus came into this world, the Word become flesh. We praise you for his life and for his atoning death, that Jesus on the cross died in our place as our substitute to restore us to yourself, to make possible the not guilty verdict in heaven. And we rejoice in the glorious truth and reality of the resurrection from the dead, the Lord Jesus raised on the third day and now ascended and glorified and seated at the right hand of the Father as our great and eternal High Priest.

Heavenly Father, as we bow before you, for some of us this past year has been one where we've known trouble and difficulty and sorrow and heartache. Father, thank you that you are a God who is compassionate. Some of us have needed to know the everlasting arms of the Lord God around us.

Lord, we pray for one another this morning. We ask for those with particular burdens that you would minister to them and to us. As a church family, we pray that Worthing Tabernacle might continue to be known as a church where each person cares for the other, where there is a deep sense of belonging and a deep sense of family membership and ownership.

Father, we pray that your spirit would be greatly manifest in this fellowship this new year. We pray that you would lead each member into a new awareness of yourself. We pray for that new vision of Jesus, that new vision of you, Lord, in all your glory.

We pray for an ability to outwork practically, day by day, all that Jesus taught and still teaches through his Spirit. Pray that you would help us when relationships become tarnished. Pray that you would help us to keep very, very short scores with one another.

Help us to settle our grievances. Help us, Lord, to go on being committed to one another. Pray that you would help us not to grieve your Spirit, but to keep on coming back to you for fresh grace, confessing our sins and once more knowing that wonderful sense of freedom that comes when you forgive us our sins.

Lord, we pray for all known to us connected with other churches around the world. We pray, Lord, for your work worldwide. Pray for every missionary known to us and every person that has been sent out from this fellowship.

We ask this very morning that they might be conscious of our prayers, but above all of your continuing presence and guidance. Commit to those many areas of the world that are troubled at this time. Continue to plead to you for what was Yugoslavia, and we ask, Lord, there that where there just seems to be no sense at all, we pray that you would begin to bring some kind of order out of the chaos.

Commit to your various parts of the Middle East and the Far East, Lord, every part of this globe where there is particular tension, and Lord, we commit to you our country. We pray for the influence of Christian people and Christian churches. We pray for a large-scale return to a search after God, for you have told us that you will be found when we truly seek you.

Pray that you would use this church and every gospel church to reach out with a saving message, the only worthwhile message, that of the Christian gospel. And now, Lord, we pray that you would speak to us further as we look into your word this morning. May we be gripped and held as we hear you speaking to us, entering into our very hearts and souls and dealing with us.

Make us malleable, make us sensitive to you, and may we leave this building this morning changed people, for we have encountered the very living God, in whose name we now pray. Amen. Our reading from the Bible today is from the second book of Samuel and chapter seven.

King David has just brought the ark of God back to Jerusalem and rejoiced, and then he wants to build the temple for the Lord, but the Lord tells him that he has other plans, better plans than David's. After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, here I am living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent. Nathan replied to the king, whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.

That night the word of the Lord came to Nathan saying, go and tell my servant David, this is what the Lord says, are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now then, tell my servant David, this is what the Lord Almighty says, I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel.

I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth, and I will provide a place for my people Israel, and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people shall not oppress them any more, as they did at the beginning, and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel.

I will also give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you. When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.

He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men.

But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O sovereign Lord? And what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, O sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant. Is this your usual way of dealing with man, O sovereign Lord? What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O sovereign Lord.

For the sake of your word, and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant. How great you are, O sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt.

You have established your people Israel as your very own forever, and you, O Lord, have become their God. And now, Lord God, keep forever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, so that your name will be great forever.

Then men will say, the Lord Almighty is God over Israel, and the house of your servant David will be established before you. O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, I will build a house for you. So your servant has found courage to offer you this prayer.

O sovereign Lord, you are God, your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. Now, be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight, for you, O sovereign Lord, have spoken. And with your blessing, the house of your servant will be blessed forever.

Let's look at the 18th verse, shall we? Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said, now read with me, who am I, O sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, O sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant. Is this your usual way of dealing with man, O sovereign Lord? I mentioned some years ago on return from India that having had the privilege of taking some campaigns in a place called Bihar, one of the Indians who had prepared some of the literature made a mistake, which is quite easy to do when you're working through a language that is not your own, although English is spoken quite extensively throughout the subcontinent. He got an E mixed up, or rather got an A instead of an E, and the tracks which were being distributed, inviting folk to come to this particular campaign, this series of meetings, indicated that I would be bringing all the evening massages.

Now, it's just a slight spelling error, but it does make a fair amount of difference between a message and a massage. Actually, there are a crowd of nuns who pitched up, and we're sitting on the front row, but I'll not go into the thoughts that cross my mind. There is a sense in which actually maybe that leaflet is correct.

I mean by that, it's the responsibility of the preacher to take the Word of God and to massage that Word, especially if he has within his congregation a vast number of people who are already believing, to massage the Word of God into the very soul, into the very vitals of those who come along and listen. Now, inasmuch as our motto text for the year was preached on last week, what I thought I would do is to select another text, which I think is appropriate for you and for me at the beginning of this year, and to ask the Lord to make it very precious to us. You see, here is King David, and he so desperately needs the assurance that God is with him.

I was reading The Guardian yesterday and discovered, and probably all the tabloids followed its line, that they were trying to peer into the future. In fact, the whole of their supplement was given over, at least the extreme columns, to asking, oh, maybe 40 or 50 different people what their perspective was for 1993, what they felt would happen. Well, we need an anchorage for 1993 that has got no stock in terms of the horoscopes and the clairvoyance and so on, or even the political pundits who can so easily be wronged.

What we need is for the Word of God to present for us an anchorage. And so, I want to speak to you on the grace of God, because that's what my text makes reference to. Grace is defined as the undeserved, unmerited favor of God.

And one Puritan writer says, he who is graceless in the day of grace will be speechless on the day of judgment. What you need more than anything else is to know God's gracious activity in your life. So, here is David, and he's been surprised at the unmerited kindness of God which has been directed towards him.

Who am I, oh sovereign Lord? What is my family that you have brought me this far? And if this was not enough in your sight, oh sovereign Lord, you've spoken about the future. Is this your usual way of dealing with men, oh sovereign Lord? The context is, well, David has erected a house for himself. You read that in the first verse of the seventh chapter.

He's built a palace, and he's feeling a little bit embarrassed. Here he is living in such splendor, and yet the ark of God, the most holy piece of furniture, so to speak, in the Old Testament days, was actually housed in a tent some distance from the palace. We get the word tabernacle describing this church actually from really what that tent represented.

The word tabernacle describes a portable building. And Alpha Theta, founders of this church, named it such because, well, they wanted to speak descriptively of the people of God. We're part of the family of God, but here on this earth we've got no abiding city.

There is a sense in which each one of us is but a pilgrim passing through. And so they call this church the tabernacle, the place into which people come who recognize that here there is no permanency whatsoever. Well, as far as David was concerned, it seemed wrong that the tent should remain as a tent when he lived in a palace, that there ought to be some temple, some splendid edifice erected in the honor of God, for God, so to speak, to be housed, at least for the centrality of worship to be based there.

And David is informed by the prophet Nathan that though his thinking is good, his timing is wrong. It will not be David who builds this temple. It will be his son.

But David is reminded that he, par excellence, beyond all his wildest dreams, has been and will be blessed by the Lord. His sons and his children and the future story of mankind will be blessed as a result of David being on earth. And when David realizes what God is saying, he reacts in this way, Who am I? What is my family that you should have singled me out in such a fashion as this? Someone has said, When the Lord is truly before us, the I sinks into insignificance.

Who am I? Lord, I am a sinful man as you appear to me on this coastal strip by the Sea of Galilee. Depart from me. Not that I do not want you, O God, but you are so great that the idea that you should have intercourse with me, the idea that you should single me out, that becomes utterly incomprehensible.

Don't you feel like that? I've said from this pulpit before, and I don't say it for effect, I say it because I believe it. I don't understand why God loves me. You, yes, I can understand that.

But when I'm confronted with Him, His fidelity, His love, His loyalty, and I place it against my treachery, then I feel utterly inadequate in His presence, and I wonder, Lord, why is it that your elective love was directed towards me? You see, the grace of God is—let me try and finish that sentence in a fourfold way from this text. The grace of God is entirely unpredictable. Who am I? Abraham has the same difficulty.

Genesis chapter 18 and verse 27, I am but dust and ashes. Moses is in the same situation. Who am I? Exodus 3.11, that you should single me out to go to the Israelites and lead them from the land of bondage.

And when John the Baptist, cousin of our Lord, is given a ministry and he encounters the beloved Savior, he says, he must increase and I must decrease. The grace of God is unpredictable. Why Abraham? Why Moses? Why John the Baptist? Why you? Why me? Who am I, Lord? The Apostle Paul says, I'm less than least of all the saints.

Do you know there is a sense in which whenever you think that you've graduated in the school of Christ, that you've become big, in one sense you're betraying the very entry point because if you lose the sense of your utter inadequacy, in one sense you reduce your understanding of the nature of the grace of God who deals with the most nondescript bunch of people and brings them into his eternal kingdom. Isn't that what the Apostle Paul had on his heart as he was describing the composition of the church that met together, perhaps similar to the way that we meet together, only then in Corinth. He says, brothers, think of what you were, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, when you were called.

Not many of you were wise, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not.

God seems to get great pleasure in allowing His grace unpredictably to rest on people who did not appreciate that in any way they could be attractive to Him whatsoever. Look at yourself this morning. Look at every nook and cranny of your being.

Consider yourself from head to toe. Is there anything really that you would suggest might attract this God? And yet to you He is attracted. To you He does designate His love, the grace, this grace.

It's entirely unpredictable. Nothing humbles a man like the mercy of God. Nothing weighs a man down like a load of blessing.

Him, me, grace. David knew what it was from time to time to disgrace himself in earlier years. Psalm 25 makes reference to this.

He knew what it was at one time to feign madness and allow the spittle to fall on his beard. He knew what it was at one time to risk the whole of the calling that God had directed towards him as he goes off with another's wife. David has to put a lot of things sort of out of his memory, and yet when they come crowding back in, then he's driven to ask this question, why is it that despite all that, this grace of God is directed towards me? I say it is entirely unpredictable.

And what's more? This grace is utterly immeasurable. Go on into my text. Who am I, oh sovereign Lord, and what is my family that you have brought me this far? How far? Oh well, look at what Nathan had to say, reminding David, only Nathan using the words of the Lord.

David had been just a shepherd, just an ordinary shepherd boy in the backwoods of Palestine in Bethlehem. I took you, verse 8, I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. From potpourri I took you to posterity, from supervising sheep to superintending men.

And from your loins, from your own body, will come one who will bless the world. Who am I, Lord, that from me shall come into the world Messiah, the one who is directed by you to save your people through his death on the cross? Come, my friends, this morning. Examine it yourself.

No longer, David, you and this text running together. Who am I, oh Lord, and what is my family that you have brought me thus far? Once I was lost in sins degradation. Jesus came down and brought me salvation.

Thus far you brought me from darkness to light, from slavery to liberty. Thus far you have brought me, blessed God. I'm so grateful for the pardon, for the calling, for the scriptures, for the destiny that is mine.

I pinch myself and ask, can it really be true? I think of what I used to be and what I am now. I think of all the penury, all the spiritual bankruptcy of my previous life. And now I appreciate that you, Lord, in your grace, have brought me into a position of blessing.

I get a magazine sent to me from the States from time to time. It's supposed to have good theological essays, but I buy it because there are some cartoons there that make me laugh. And occasionally we print one or two of them in notes and news.

And there's this picture that's in my mind now, a sort of hilly-billy evangelical pastor, some way tucked away in the backwoods of America with just a handful of people. And he's dreaming. And there's this vast auditorium and he's standing in front of it.

And there's the American TV media with their microphones and what have you, about 30 or 40 built in around the lectern. And this guy with all these people away in the distance, which is depicted brilliantly by the cartoonists, he sort of turns around to one side with a tremendous smile on his face and he says, Pinch me if this isn't true. You see, the moment of glory, as far as he was concerned, had arrived.

Well, it was fanciful. I remember on one occasion I was wearing a tropical suit, a blue safari suit. And I was in South America.

I'd been aboard the Dulles. Now, the old captain of the Dulles, Carl Isaacson, was a very dear friend of mine. He used to treat me like his son.

And whenever I was on board Dulles, there was always a very, very warm welcome when he was the skipper. There still is, but it's a different command now. He's retired.

And on one occasion I was standing with Carl just at the top of the gangway, the gangplank. And coming up the gangplank was a small but rather generously made Latin American lady. And she sort of waddled up that gangplank.

And she looked at me with my blue tropical suit on and she looked at Carl Isaacson in his gear. And then she turned to me and she stuck out her hand and she gripped mine most warmly and said, Mon Capitan. And I looked at Isaacson's face.

And do you know he nearly fell overboard? I mean, as far as I was concerned, this was my moment of glory. She felt that I was the captain of the ship. And for 10 seconds I basked in it.

Is it really true? Pinching myself. Well, no, it wasn't. What am I, O sovereign Lord? What is my family that you have brought me this far? This grace is entirely unpredictable.

It's utterly unmeasurable. And if this were not enough in your sight, O sovereign Lord, you have spoken also about the future. This grace is increasingly bountiful.

If this were not enough. Lord, there were occasions when you delivered me when I was a lad out of the hand of a bear, out of the hand of a lion. From the murderous intentions of Goliath.

From the half-crazed Saul as he took his javelin and tried to run me through with it. Lord, you have brought me this far. But as though that was not enough.

Lord, you have spoken about the future. And the future is even better than the present and the past. Spurgeon says, it sometimes appears that every fresh mercy of God is meant to eclipse that which has gone before.

Isn't that true? I mean, wasn't it wonderful the first time somebody told you you could be saved? I mean, you would have settled for that, wouldn't you? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses you from your sin. What a tremendous relief. All the muck of yesterday.

It now cancels through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus. Father, we'll settle for that. Indeed, we couldn't bargain for it.

It was as a result of your grace. But he goes on and says, that's not just all that I have in store. Not just your salvation, but your complete regeneration.

But Father, what does that mean? Well, it means a little bit of me will come and live in you. Putting it non-theologically and yet fairly accurately. I will send my spirit into you so that part of me will become part of you.

In fact, I'll go on further, says the Heavenly Father. And here your breath is already bated. And he says, I'll not just treat you as a servant.

I'll make you one of my sons. I'll bring you really into the family. It's what theologians call adoption.

I will adopt you as one of my own. I'll not just save you, I'll not only regenerate you. You will become part of the family circle of the redeemed.

Not only that. But I will give you a future. I will promise you that one day you will be glorified as my son has been glorified.

Because before Jesus left the earth, as he was praying to the Heavenly Father. He said of those for whom he died. All those who receive his gracious provisions.

Lord, I will have you be with them. I will have them be with me throughout the whole of eternity. So that they may behold my glory.

The glory which you gave me from the very beginning of time. In the eternal purposes of God. I do not have words to describe all these things.

Words are an inadequate vehicle to convey some of the truths. That are embedded in Scripture. But I want to take these men, these women, says our beloved Lord.

On into eternity. I want them to be glorified as you and I are glorified. For them to live forever in a tomorrow that is yet to dawn.

And so it goes on you see. This grace is increasingly bountiful. Decrepitude.

Senility. Increased furrows on your forehead. Graying or falling hair.

That is not the finale of the redeemed community. Has it never been told you that one said I shall be satisfied. When I awake in your likeness.

That another said though worms destroy this body. Yet in my flesh will I see God. That if you are battling in your 60's and your 70's and your 80's.

And wondering is this all that there is in life. The answer is no. Well.

The tree may be shedding its leaves. But the life goes on. The acorn shall become an eternal oak.

And there shall be no death. For God has decreed that those who are in Christ are in Christ eternally. The path of the just.

As a shining light. Shining more and more. Unto the perfect day.

Greater and grander. Better and more wonderful. Julia Ward Howe said of old age.

Remember. All the sugar. Or most of the sugar.

Is in the bottom of the cup. The grace of God is. Entirely unpredictable.

Utterly immeasurable. Increasingly bountiful. Is this your usual way of dealing with man or sovereign Lord? It's utterly incomparable.

Sometimes there's as much in the manner of giving a gift as the gift itself. The authorized version translates this part of my verse. Is this the manner of men? Is this what men do? Is this how the average person behaves? Do men lift the lowly to the highest place of all? Do men become so poor in order to make others rich? Or do men become rich.

By causing others to be poor. Hannah says. He has lifted the poor.

Mary says. Blessed be the Lord. Who's remembered his handmaiden.

Who's broken through into the orderliness of my life. A life that is ordinary and humdrum. And he has exalted me beyond all womanhood.

This is not the peculiar way of man. But it is the way of God. When men are reviled against.

Do they not revile? Do they not pay back in their own currency? When abuse is thrown at them. Do they not throw abuse back? When their race is threatened. Do they not use the strength of their race to threaten others? Is not man sometimes locked up in the law of the jungle? But here a central stage comes one.

Who when they blaspheme him. He does not return in the same currency. Here is one who is always kind.

And merciful. To those who do not deserve. Such treatment.

Here is one who forgives 70 times 7. And 70 times 7 times 7. He is one who lives not by the law of man. But by the law of grace. Is this your usual way of dealing with man? Oh sovereign Lord.

And the answer is yes. It is. And that's the way that he would deal with you.

The way that he has dealt with me. Utterly incomparable. So stack the text in its four dimensions together.

Grace is entirely unpredictable. Utterly immeasurable. Increasingly bountiful.

Utterly incomparable. And where does that leave you? Well look at verse 20. What more can David say to you? David is so flabbergasted.

David is without words. David is as a man struck dumb by grace. Have you ever been struck dumb? By the grace of God operative? In your life? Felled by an unspeakable mercy.

What words can you say to this God? Who has done so much for you? You see here is the Apostle Paul. And he's setting up basically the same equation. He doesn't use quite the same words.

But the sentiments are identical. I refer to the illustrious Apostle. As he's writing his letter to the Romans.

And in the eighth chapter of the Roman epistle. He says this in verse 31. What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us.

Who can be against us? And then he tightens the argument. He who did not spare his own son. But gave him up for us all.

How will he not also along with him. Graciously give us all things. See Paul has great problems in getting what he's trying to say across.

Because he's trying to communicate that which is inexpressible. He who did not spare his own son. How will he not also along with him.

Graciously give us all things. This is what God did for Paul. This is what God does for you and for me.

The grace of God is boundless. You say preacher do you really mean. That this God of yours wants my company.

I not only mean it myself. I've got a very thick book. Chocoblock with promises.

That underlines this. You see there never was born in this world. An ordinary human being.

Ordinary in the sense that they were utterly unimportant. You have significance in the purposes of God. Take this thought with you.

Run with it. During this next year. Some of you here in this church.

You suffer from such a low esteem of yourself. I haven't done this. I haven't done the other.

I'm not like him. I'm not like her. God never wanted you like him.

Nor like her. If he'd have wanted you like them. He'd have made you like them.

He gave you individuality. He gave you sovereign worth. And the grace of God is directed towards you.

In the situation where you find yourself. Then bask in that grace. Run with that grace.

Realize the incredible nature of God's grace. So wonderful. He wants your company this year.

And he wishes to express his presence. Through the mediating of it. By the power of the Holy Spirit.

And as you come around his word. And you read his word. There will be times when that word is full of luster.

And meaning. And God is speaking directly to your heart at that point. Take that word.

Read it every day. Try during this year to work your way through. The whole book that we call the Bible.

Go on in 1993. Yes. Look into the mirror.

From top to toe. You don't deserve it. But God loves you.

As you are. From top to toe. God has got value for your life.

God has got something for you to do. You're 80. You're not out of the purposes of God.

There is something for you. In your 80s. Your 70s.

Your 60s. Your 50s. All the way down.

God will never allow the day to dawn. When he does not know who you are. Or what you are going through.

And with your circumstances. God will identify himself. That's what grace is all about.

God moving towards you. In an unmerited way. Because he loves you.

What do you have to do? Receive the grace. Receive the grace of salvation. Confess the son of God as your own savior.

Cooperate with the Holy Spirit. As Andrew prayed in that lovely prayer of his. So that you don't grieve the spirit of God.

Making him feel comfortable therefore in your presence. And as you go on with God. When you try to understand why he loves you.

Take this tip from the Bible. Forget it. Because you never will.

He loves you. Because he loves you. And he is the God of all comforts.

And the God of all grace. And he wants you to bask. In that blessing.

In that knowledge. And this. And I weigh my words.

I believe to be. The word of God. For this congregation.

At this time. Bask. In his grace.

And all the people of God said. Amen. Let's hear this song that Evelyn has written.

At least the music that she's written. To the song which really is our motto text this year. Come up on the overhead projectors.

Not all of you I think perhaps will be able to see them. But perhaps you've already learned the words by now. And we'll stand and sing it.

And then we'll go to a favorite traditional hymn of mine. What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy. Walking humbly with your God.

Merciful and true. He was humble too. Jesus Christ has shown us the way.

What does the Lord require of you? To walk humbly with your God. Can we have these lights dimmed all they are? Let's stand them. We're over there.

Jesus Christ has shown us the way. What does the Lord require of you? What does the Lord require? To act justly and to love mercy. Walking humbly with your God.

Merciful and true. He was humble too. Jesus Christ has shown us the way.

What does the Lord require of you? To walk humbly with your God. You know whenever Graham Kendrick hears of Evelyn Gubbins, he gets worried. Let's go to number 51, shall we, in mission praise.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. And this builds up on the theme in our motto text because we want the Lord to enable us to see him and his purposes so clearly this year that we might be walking humbly and faithfully and obediently with him. Number 51.