Song of Songs 2019

The reason today is from song of songs chapter 3 verse 6 to chapter 5 verse 1, on page 681. Who is this coming up from the wilderness, like a column of smoke, perfume with marrow and incense, made from all the spices of the merchants. Look, it is Solomon's carriage. It's courted by 60 warriors warriors, the nobles of Israel, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with this sword at its side, prepared for the terrors of the night. King Solomon made for himself a carriage.

He made it of wood from Lebanon, its posts, he made of silver, its base of gold. Its seat was app posted with purple, its interior interior inlaid with love. Daughters of Jerusalem come out and look you daughters of Zion, look on king Solomon wearing a crown. The crown with which his mother crowned him on the day on the day of his wedding, the day's heart rejoiced. How beautiful you are my darling or how beautiful your eyes behind your veil are doves.

Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead, your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn coming up from the washing Each has its twin, not 1 of them is alone. Your lips are like a scarless ribbon. Your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate. Your neck is like the tower of David, built with courses of stone, on its hanger thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.

Your breasts are like 2 forms, like twins forms of a gazelle that browse among the lilies until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of Meur and the hill of intense, you are altogether beautiful, my darling. There is no flaw in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon descend from the crest of Amina, from the top of Sinere, the summit of Herman, from the lion's dens, and the mountain haunts of leopards. You've stolen my heart, my sister, my bride. You've stolen my heart with 1 glance of your eyes, with 1 jewel of your necklace, how beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride?

How much more pleasing is your love than wine and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice? Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb my bride. Milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garment is like the fragrance of lebanon. You are a garden locked up my sister, my bride.

You are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranate with choice fruits, with henna and nod, nod and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of ancestry and with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices, you are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon. Wake northwinds and calm southwinds. Blue on my garden that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste his choice fruits.

I have come into my garden, my system, my bride. I have gathered my Meur, and with my spice, I have yeast in my honeycomb and my honey. I have drunk my wine and my milk. East friends and drink drink your fill of love. So we're following, this couple in song of songs, King Solomon, and this Schulamite woman.

And we've been following their relationship, and it's a bit like a sort of soap opera in some ways, or we're just following them with camera and someone's writing down this poem and, and we've seen their relationship. We've seen it start. They initially saw each other. We've seen it grow. We've seen problems coming to the relationship.

There were little foxes last week, and Solomon's saying we gotta get rid of those to, stop this relationship going apart. We we saw how she loved his embrace and loved to be experiencing him, but actually she was scared of going on the adventure with him and didn't seem to trust him with, with her life of adventure. But, nevertheless, we saw those problems overcome, and she took him, to her mother's house. Presumably, the father is not there. It he doesn't seem to be.

And that's commitment. They're now committed. Now we come to the wedding day. In fact, we come to the wedding day and the wedding night. And actually, if you wanted to know, I got Sophie to read the wedding day, and Abri to read the wedding night.

But because they're gonna get married soon. So I thought I'd better get them getting a bit excited about that day. But we're looking at the wedding day. We're looking at the wedding day And like any any weddings, we are invited to look. It's 1 of the big things about a wedding.

We go to look we go to take photographs. And that's actually what's happening here. Look at chapter 3 verse 11. Come out and look. You daughters of Zion.

You crowd of people. Come and look. Come and look. Now in in order for us to understand what's going on here, we've gotta understand that there are a number of differences between wedding culture back then and wedding culture that we have in in our country here. We usually have to, we have the the groom standing at the front of a congregation with his back to us and waiting for the bride to come.

That's how it normally works. And the whole crowd and all the guests are just waiting for the bride to come. But in this story, you gotta get it. It's the other way round. What happened was that there are attendants of the bride, and they would adorn her They would dress her, perfume her, make her look good, and then she'd be taken to her father's house.

In this case, mother's house because the father's presumably dead. She didn't really know exactly the exact time of the wedding. She actually didn't even know the exact day of of the wedding. And so she just had to get herself ready and wait, and she's looking for his coming. And then you have the attendance of the bridegroom.

And, they would gather around his house, and they would dress him up, and they would put perfume and oils on him. And they would dress him. Now, this is the big difference more impressively than the bride to be. He was the 1 that you go to look at. The wedding was sort of mostly happened in the street so that the groom would be made ready.

He would have his companions. He was all dressed up, and then he would be escorted to the bride father's house or mother's house in this case, and then he would pick up his bride, and then he would take her home to his house and there would be a great big feast. And the feast could go on for days. If you think weddings are long, they could go on for days, and sometimes 2 weeks. And in Solomon's case, probably 2 weeks of celebration.

So here's the picture. Here's the picture in this song. Here's the picture in this poem. We have Solomon coming for his bride. So in chapter 3, verse 11, come and have a look.

Come out and have a look. Come and look. There this is a spectacle. Come and have a look. This is something to look at.

Because you don't see someone like King Solomon getting married, you know, that often. So come and have a look, and it's gonna be done in public. And so the wedding procession would have been full of pomp, and it was an occasion. And you would have to look out your window and come on the street. And have a look.

It's something to come and see. Here is Solomon. He's not just got 1 best man. I mean, he's not as stingy as our wedding. It's just 1 best man.

They're 60 best men. Did you notice that? Look at verse. Look at verse 7. Look.

It is Solomon's carriage as escorted by 60 warriors, the noblest of Israel, and they're all dressed up as warriors. These are the best warriors, the most noble warriors in the kingdom, all dressed up with their swords, with their swords at the ready. So here is Solomon dressed up like the king that he is, gorgeous looking, sitting on a beautiful adorned carriage, and there are 60 men at the ready around him. This is a public occasion. For everyone to see.

Everyone knows that this is the king coming for his bride. You don't mess with him because he's got 60 red at the ready guards. You don't mess with his bride either because there are 60 at the ready guards. That's what's going on. And so we're called, come and see.

Now, again, you've gotta see how different this is to our culture. Because in our culture, in this country, we, you know, it's the bride you come to see. And really, the bridegroom is just an insignificant part of the occasion as far as far as far as it seems to be. The bride is the 1 She's the 1 that's supposed to have the full attention. The majority of stuff is about the bride, isn't it?

If you get any bridal magazines, which I don't recommend, but if you look at them, you'll see that the majority of the content is about the bride, isn't it? It's about her makeup. It's about the dress that, you know, what shape you are and what dress will fit you. And he I didn't even know this, but dresses have names. They they call dresses names.

That's like weird. But anyway, it's all about her shoes and her hair and what color and her toenails and her fingernails and her underwear and the stuff she's gonna wear on the wedding night. And all of that, it's all about her and And the wedding is just sort of 1 big show off of her. It's and then we have to wait for her, don't we? We're we're sitting in a in a room, and, we're waiting for her to come.

Everybody's there first. Except I j, of course. But, everybody's there first. And then, if she gets married, it's gonna be a long way. I tell you.

My goodness. But, you know, we all have to we all have to wait. We have to wait and the and the, you know, everybody's wanting to see the bride first. There's a whole thing, isn't there back road people that are there sort of looking around? And then there's people fucking around in the sort of reception area and doing her dress and They want to be seen to be the ones who have seen the bride first.

And we're all looking around for a first glimpse. And the poor bridegroom, he sees a last. That's the way it works. It's totally different. It's all about Solomon.

It's all about the bridegroom. It's what he wears. It's about his best men. It's about his courage. And the bride is looking to him to come.

Now we've got, I think there's 4 Cornerstone weddings coming up. How about doing it like this, I mean, I could imagine, Abri and Sophie doing it like this, actually. You have Sophie. No one's caring about what she looks like. She's standing in the front, and we have Abri coming.

And there's 60 of us around him. Yeah? Avery was reminding me because, last week, we were talking about the the the leaping stag. And he was reminding me that, actually, in Africa, you get these stags. They're they are amazing.

And they live in long grass. And the only way they can find a female because they're they're shorter than the grass is to leap up if you've ever seen it on 1 of those wildlife programs. It's fantastic. It. It's so funny.

They leap up and look around and then down. And it's up and they're sniffing the air, woman, woman, down. And it's just fantastic. Let's get around Abri. 60 of us, and he's like a Masai warrior in the middle.

And he's leaping up, you know, to sniff his bride. And we're all looking, that's what's going on. In fact, in this wedding, she's the 1 holding the camera. She's the 1 telling the story about the wedding day. It is interesting, actually.

She's the 1 that tells a story about the wedding day, and he's the 1 that tells a story about the wedding night. Difference between men and women. But she's holding the camera, and she focuses on 3 things. 3 things stand out to her. 3 things, men that will give you an insight to what women want.

3 things that will give us an insight, men, to what we should be. 3 things she takes a photo of that are snapshots of the type of man that Solomon was here. Let's have a look at the 3 things. Solomon on this day. First is his protection.

Did you see that? Verse 7 and 8. Look. Get your camera out. Focus on him.

Look. It's Solomon's Carriage, escorted by 60 warriors, the noblest of Israel. All of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night. Solomon doesn't come to this occasion, half asleep. He doesn't come half drunk after a all night stag party.

He honors his wife to be with a guard of honor. You see? He comes to her in a kingly way. He's her king. With 60 highly disciplined, faithful men all wearing battle dress with swords at the ready.

Nothing but the best will do here. He's not gonna come to his wedding sloverly or looking, you know, or being half drunk. Because he's he's, not gonna start his marriage in such a casual way. Marriage is to be entered into, not lightly, but very carefully, reverently, actually in the very presence of god. So he comes And what you see here and what she sees is him coming with the 60 best men, not just 1, fully unprepared, it says, for the terrors of the night.

So Solomon is is clearly coming to protect his wife from the terrors of the night. He's not irresponsible. He's providing protection for her. Not only on this day, but in her in the whole marriage, he's going to be her to her savior. That's what he's doing.

60 men, disciplined men. He's among a group of disciplined men who will protect her from the terrors of the night. They won't take him to the terrors of the night where they can watch some naked woman dancing before he marries her. They protect her. They don't spoil or cheapen this wedding day.

There's protection there. First 7. Look, it's Solomon's carriage, escorted by 60 warriors, the noblest of Israel, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle. Each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night. Husbands, that is your job.

You are to protect your wife. From the terrors of Satan, that's your job. Don't be slovenly about that. Get around some men. That'll encourage you to protect your wife and to be a king.

So the first thing she sees is, wow. He's gonna protect me. The second thing she sees is his involvement, look at verses 9 to 10. King Solomon made for himself the carriage. He made it of wood from Lebanon.

It's posts. He made of silver. Its base of gold. Its seat was upholstered with purple. Its interior lovingly inlaid by the daughters of Jerusalem.

See, as as she goes on to describe the wedding carriage, As she looks at that through her camera lens and sees how beautiful this wedding carriages, the emphasis is not on its beauty, actually, The emphasis is on the king Solomon made it. And the bits he couldn't make, he he sort of ruled over it being made. He wanted it lovingly made by these women that were really good at stitching. But he makes it. I mean, that's quite a commitment for a king, isn't it?

To make his own carriage, and he makes it from what. He makes it from wood from Lebanon. What does that mean? Well, that's the very best wood that you could get in those days. The Lebanon wood, the Lebanon cedar.

He's but not only that. She's from Lebanon. So it's a carriage that she would recognize the smell of. She'll feel home in She'll feel protected in lovingly made for her by him. So not only is he coming with protection.

He's totally involved in this day, and he's totally involved in this marriage. High level, great commitment. And marriage, the wedding is 1 of the greatest the greatest commitment that any human can make to another human. So we don't come slovenly. We don't treat this lightly.

We don't get exhausted about it. We keep committing to this. We're totally involved. Someone said this about our culture. A great deal more preparation goes into obtaining a driving license than obtaining a marriage license.

That is appalling, isn't it? That's appalling. We are to be involved. We are to be committed. We are to be recommitted.

We have to keep our eyes, not only on the wedding day, but actually on being committed and involved in the wedding. That's our job. So she sees his protection. She sees his involvement and his preparation But thirdly, she sees him. She sees him.

Look at verse 11. Come out you daughters of of Zion, and look at King Solomon, look at him wearing the crown. The crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding. The day his heart rejoiced. She focuses on him.

She wants everyone to see him. She's reminded that actually she is his delight. He is rejoicing because of her the day his heart rejoiced. She knows that. She understands that not only is she loved and protected, and he's been involved in this, but actually she is his delight.

We have great responsibility as men if we're married. That our wives will know that we will protect them, and we're involved in the marriage working at it. But actually, more than that, that actually, we delight. Now my job isn't really to talk about marriage on the human level. What I really want to do in this series is to apply this to our relationship with Jesus.

Weddings and marriages, as we know in the Bible, and we've seen in this series already, are only a picture of the wedding the marriage, the bridegroom, Jesus, and the bride god's people, the church. So first, I wanna look at Jesus, the the groom, and then I want to look at god's people, the church, the bride. Do you see Jesus in this passage? I hope you do. Do you?

Look at verse 6 again then. Who is this? Coming up from the desert like a column of smoke. Perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchants. Who is this?

Who is this? Can it be the Messiah? Is he not god's co eternal, co equal son? Can it be him coming out of the desert? The 1 whose home is heaven, the royal throne, of the universe?

Is this him? Is this the royal king of the universe coming through the desert Is that him? What love has come down from the highest throne? That enters the place of wilderness. Who is this?

The king of heaven on a cross. Dying in the dust of death. What is this column of smoke? A picture in the old testament, if you know anything about the old testament part of the Bible, a picture of the presence and the dynamic presence and leadership of god himself, of his people. Who is this 1 leading me into the presence of god?

Who is this 1? Not dry and dusty, but come from the wilderness, come from death resurrected, but perfumed. He left his father's throne above so free, so infinite his grace, humbled himself In all but love and bled for Adam's helpless race, who is this? It's my savior. It's my lover.

It's my king. It's the king of the universe. See is protection verse 7 again. Look. Its Solomon's carriage escorted by 60 warriors, the nobliss of Israel.

All of them wearing the sword all experienced in battle each with his sword at his side prepared for the terrors of the night. To be in anyone else's hands is totally to be unprepared for the terrors of the night. Some of you really do face terrors of the night in your depressions. And you tell me it's there. It's only there.

It's only Jesus that could keep you in that in that moment. To not have Jesus for the terrors of the night is to die quickly. Jesus is the 1 who defeats the evil 1. He's the 1 that's even defeated death itself. He is the light of the world.

He expels the darkness. Extraordinary. See his protection. See, the church, you've gotta get what the church is. The church may look weak on this earth.

It may be despised. It may be mocked. And more and more so, but the church is the only society that never loses a member at death, never. Never loses a member. To him who is able says the Bible, to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.

He'll keep you. He'll protect you. He's the only protector. You can't go out into this world. Without his protection.

If you do, if you wake up in the morning and you go into this world without his protection, then there are lions and beasts that that would devour even the elect if they could. We go with his protection, 60 men. Warriors. See his involvement. He didn't just turn up in some dutiful, uninvolved way to rescue people, did it?

He he he took on human flesh. I mean, that amazing sentence in Philipp chapter 2, who, describing Jesus, who, being in the very nature god did not consider equality with god as something to be grasped, but made himself. See his involvement, made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death on the cross. He's totally involved in his birth, in his life, in his death. Hebrews chapter 2 says, since the children of since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death.

That is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear to death. He's prepared. He's involved. He worked Have you an haven't you ever asked yourself, why didn't Jesus if he's just the savior of the world if it's all about his death and resurrection? Why didn't he just come for the Easter weekend?

Have a weekend break? Why didn't he just turn up and do that which he had to do? Rrived perhaps on the Thursday. Good Friday, Saturday in the tomb rose again, then off his He's done his weekend work. Why didn't because he's not like that?

Because it's not automatic because he's involved. Intimately knowingly, lovingly, understanding how you tick, working out what it's like to be tempted to the full array of temptation, understanding what it is to be a human. Knowing the brutal treatment of friends denying him, knowing a best friend, selling him for money, understanding what that feels like, understanding the depth of what it was to be in darkness and cry out my god. I'm I'm forsaken. Knowing understanding that.

He's totally and utterly committed and involved in our rescue. He's the protector, 60 warriors. He's involved. Do you see that? But then see him verse 11.

Chapter 3, come out. Your daughters of Zion. Look a king Solomon wearing the crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day his wedding. The the day his heart rejoiced. There he is wearing a crown.

Look at him. Keep looking at him. Look at him. You see, speak so careful because Some of us have been traveling the Christian life and understood Jesus for some year. It's so easy to look somewhere else If you take your eyes off the lord Jesus Christ, and you'll fall, your relationships around you will fall Keep looking at him.

Keep listening to him. Keep seeing who he is. Keep rekindling that relationship. Wearing the crown of thorns. Do you see it?

Wearing the crown of victory. Do you see it? Wearing the crown of the wedding day. Do you see it? Do you see him?

He's your lover. No 1 loves you like him. No 1 can protect you like him. No 1 has been so involved with your life like him. Look at him.

Jesus, the bride groom. Well, let's look at the bride. God's people represented by this woman. What's she doing? First thing she's doing is waiting.

That's why actually this wedding's a white way round. I don't know why we've got the history of our wedding. It's completely wrong. Those of you getting married to change it, really. I leave that challenge with you.

I know the problem is, there's mother in laws and all that sort of stuff. But, you know, Jesus will protect you even from that beast. She's the 1 waiting. It's so representative of of Christianity. You know, it's interesting, isn't it?

That it or it's sort of rather nice, of course, isn't it? When when people are getting married, I think it was Laura Robson. It's Laura Robson here. No. I think it was her, and I think some of the other girls, they had sort of an app on their phone, and it was, ticking ticking down to the wedding day.

You seen that? Yeah. Who who had that? You're not owning up. You know, and and and, you know, I think I seem to think it was her, She was she was always looking at it.

It was another minute gone. Oh, look, that's another few seconds. Taking a look at oh, yes. Yeah. Oh, look, another Oh, and another and another.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And that's what that's what people do, isn't it? That's what the bride does.

They don't, you know, they don't just sort of sleep through the whole thing and then just wake up on the morning. They're just waiting, waiting, longing, longing, And that's what this girl is doing in the song of songs. She she's longing. She's waiting. She's longing for him to come.

Paul writes this at the very end of his life, Paul, who wrote many of the new testament letters, wrote this at the very end of his life when, you know, not quite knowing when he was going to die, but it's gonna be soon. And he says this for I am ready. I I'm sorry. I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for me to depart. So his waiting is to be pouring out like a drink offering.

He says I fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. Now there is in store for me that crown of righteousness, which the lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only me. But also to all have who have longed for his appearing.

Do you see? Longed for his appearing? What's the definition of a Christian? Well, you could define a Christian in lots of ways, but here's 1. Definition of a Christian is someone longing for his appearing.

Longing for his appearing. Yeah? And you can hang on, Connie? All the temptations that come to you to deny Jesus and not listen to Jesus and not look to Jesus. All of the things that you are committed to, but actually you're being tempted not to be committed to.

Cause you hang on just a few years? Won't be long. It won't be long. Hang on. Keep faithful.

Keep working. Keep pouring out your life and listening to him. Hang on. It won't be long. Long for his appearing.

It won't be long. CH Berggeon, a great preacher, hero of mine, said it ought to be a daily disappointment to us when Jesus doesn't come. Wake up in the morning, think, oh, no. Not again. Not another morning.

So girls are looking, and this girl is looking and counting the days off. And looking out the window and seeing she they're like the if you know the parable of the of the virgins or the or the young bridesmaids. They're the ones that are ready and looking, not the ones that are not ready, and then go off and just miss it. They're ready and looking and seeing him coming from a far distance, and there's the dust of his entourage, the column of smoke, but it's not dry and dusty. It's bringing this column of perfume and spices, and it's exciting, and it's alive.

Jesus says, in John 14, do not let your heart be troubled. Trusting god. Trust also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you I am going there to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, and you also may be where I am. Separation for a time, but longing for his coming. Separation for a time where he while he prepares his room. 7 days god created this spectacular world in. 2000 years since Jesus has gone, and he's been preparing all that time, a place for you.

That he's gonna come and take you back to his father's house. That's what he wants to do. So keep looking. Feel the separation and feel the longing. There was an o 1 old hymn writer put it this way.

Beyond the sacred page, I seek thee. Beyond the sacred. You see, so at the moment, how when you're separated from a loved 1, how do you communicate? It's through phone and email and perhaps Skype. Yeah.

And it's never enough. Is it? If you're in a relationship with someone you love, you can ring them, email them, text them, Skype them, WhatsApp them, whatever it is, there's a hundred ways you could do it, but it's never enough. Is it? They're always away.

That's what the old saints used to call the means of grace. So what do you have? You have a human pre opening up the book, and it's slightly warped, and it's like looking through something that Scott you know, glass with sort of mud on it, a a dark glass. You can't quite see it all, but it's better than nothing. And these are the means of grace.

It's like a poor image on a computer when you're skyping that keeps cutting off. They're the means of grace until we see the, until we see the 1, not through the sacred page, but eye to eye. Keep waiting. Keep looking. Keep watching.

Keep faithful. It won't be long. Don't deny him now. So she's waiting and watching, but she's prepared. Isn't she?

She's clearly ready because she's looking out for him, looking out the house, look at verse 11 again. Come out you daughters of Zion, and look at the king's look at king Solomon wearing his crown. She's ready. She's prepared. She's prepared for the occasion.

I mean, what bride isn't prepared. You know, they do all kinds of things to get ready, don't they? Hair, done, lips, done, toenails done, gotta lose weight of night. Got to try on 5000000 dresses and with all different names. It's weird.

You go to special shops with special intense women working in those shops that are gonna measure you up. You've got mirrors that make you look thinner than you are. Yeah, in those shops. And then there's very expensive wedding dresses. I mean, it hasn't even got any color to it.

It's just white. I mean, they've been it's so cheap. It's just like a white material. And so they sell it and they say, yes, of course, That does look good on you, but you need the 2000 pound extra thing that will make your eyebrows look better. It's amazing what happens.

So we're prepared. We're ready. We're looking, and we are to be as the bride of Christ. 1 John 3. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as he is pure.

Everyone that has this hope that Jesus is coming purifies themselves. That's the test, isn't it? We work hard at cleansing That's genuine Christianity. We're purifying ourselves. We're getting ourselves ready for the lord Jesus Christ.

He'll come back, and he'll take us to be with him. That's where the whole of history is heading, by the way. If you read the end book, of the Bible revelation, Revelation 19. The whole of history is working towards walking down an aisle or a graveyard. The lamb of god, the wedding of the feast, that's where we're aiming at.

And it's so wonderful from a fallen world to the palace of the great king. So are you prepared? There's an invitation going around for this wedding. Has an RSVP on it. Have you ever responded to him?

He's coming back. If you want him to be your bride, then respond. Respond. Say be my king, be my bride, be my protector. Have faith in him.

Faith. You can spell it forsaking all. I take him. Forsaking all, I take him. Have you done that?

Are you ready for his return? Have you asked him to be your bridegroom? Can I ask you to re renew your marriage vows today, whether it's physical, you know, actual married person, but to him, particularly, rekindle, re see who he is, relove him, recommit? It won't be long. Whatever he asks you to do, However, he asks you to, obey.

However, difficult the time is right now. Trust him. Have faith in him, look to him, pray to him. Ask him to help you in this difficult moment Don't give up. Don't go to another word.

Don't turn to another emotion. They'll kill you. It'll kill you. He's the only 1 that can protect you. So run to him.

For the god, you know everybody in this room every 1 of us, you know exactly what we're going through, exactly what's on our minds, exactly the things that make us fear. Please we pray. Help us to see Jesus. All for who he is, the beautiful protector, involving in our lives, The 1 who is just altogether lovely. We pray you'll help us to see him and recommit to his word, re trust him, have faith in him.

Do that which we should do for his glory in our lives in Jesus' name, amen.