Elisha Series

And we're gonna have our bible reading and before Pete comes to preach. We're back in Second Kings, chapter 2, And our reading is from verse 23 to 25. So don't blink. If you have a if you have a bible, turn to that page. And let's read.

From there, Elijah went up to Bethel, and he was walking along the road some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. Get out of here baldy, they said. Get out of here baldy. He turned around, looked at them, and called down a curse on them in the name of the lord. Then 2 bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the boys, and he went on to Mount Carmel.

And from there returned to Sumeria. Well, good morning. My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm Part of the Ministry team here at Cornerstone Church. If you're visiting, it's good to have you with us.

If you're online visiting, lovely to have you with us. We're going through this book of kings and we're at this peculiar little story. And I I wonder I wonder what you thought when you read that passage. Or I wonder whether you just sort of read it quickly and haven't thought. Just I mean, just look at it.

There are children here. I mean, am I meant to be talking on a passage like this in front of children. Well, lots of people would say no. Because it is in fact a very shocking passage. 42 boys in 1 town are mauled by 2 bears.

Now lots of people say, well, you know, this is such a shocking passage. I mean I mean it really would hit the headlines, wouldn't it? Even with all the news about COVID that we can't stop hearing about, wherever this happened in the world, If 1 town had 42 boys mauled by 2 bears, it would be pretty top of the news. We would certainly hear about it. And then I think the the thing is that that what makes this this story even more shocking if if if we're honest about it, is that we're told that these bears mauled these boys at the in instruction of a man of God.

That's what makes it so shocking and so disturbing. A man of God asking God to curse these boys and the consequence of that was 2 bears moral 42. Last week, we were seeing that Elijah, this profit is an authentic prophet of God. That's 1 of the big things that we were seeing. And he's following in the footsteps of Moses of Joshua and Elijah.

And and and in fact, we'd seen some time ago that Elijah had done his final prophetic tour. Remember Ben took us through the last tour of Elijah. And Elijah was on that tour but actually what Elijah is doing is going step by step backwards on the same tour. He's walking in the different direction. He does the Jordan, he does Gerico, and then he does Bethel.

And all of this, The writer of this book of 2 Kings is trying to show us that this is the servant of God, the authentic prophet 1 prophet has gone, Elijah, don't start looking for him, don't start wanting him back, God has raised up another prophet now, Elijah. And he is the authentic prophet of God. So that's that's what we're trying to be shown by the footsteps of Elijah. Last week, we also saw that Elijah came to the city of Gerico and he brought blessing to this miscarriages, unproductive city, if you remember that story. If not, go back and have a listen to that talk from from Tom.

He healed the water. He went right to the source of the issue of the problem of this unproductive land, this discouraging land, and he healed the water we're told. He actually brought blessing on a on a city of curse So it's quite interesting, isn't it? Here we've got this rebellious city of Gerico, A city of curse, built on a curse, and Elijah brings blessing. But now, Elijah The proved man of God, the authentic man of God, who reversed the curse on Gerico actually brings a curse on Bethel.

That's the shocking thing about this story. And for what for what seems to be the taunts of some young boys. Go up your baldy. Go up your baldy. Now, look, let's be honest about it.

If every bald headed man made a curse like that on young children that called them names, there would be only bald people left, I think. Wouldn't there? So this story is shocking. What are we to make of it? What are we to do with a story like this in the bible?

Well, some people think we shouldn't mention it, and they apologize for it. And you'll see, you know, writers and sermons and preachers, they'll just miss this story out and go on to the next 1. Although actually the next 1, which unfortunately I'm dealing with as well, is pretty bad as well. So you might miss that 1 out as well and go on to the next 1. And so some just want to dismiss it and apologize for it or just miss it out in a sort of modern apologize way.

You know, we just won't deal with it. Others want to say, no no no, this is really bad. This is Elijah in a grump, and this is only showing us that Elijah was a sinful man himself. That's what the story is about. So others want to dismiss it that way.

Others will try to dismiss it and say, the word young boys here, well, it doesn't really mean that. They'll take the word young out. They mean 18 year olds, but it doesn't mean that. It probably is about 10 to 12 year olds. So you can't get around it that way.

Others will say, well, when it says mauled by the bears, it doesn't really mean mauled to death. They were scratched a bit. But the word for mold in this passage doesn't mean that. It actually means and I'm sorry that this kid's here, it means to be ripped opening too. So they probably died.

So what are we to do with this passage? Could it be that God through his authentic prophet is saying something that we don't want to hear, but we really need to hear. Could it be that? Could it possibly be that? Could it be that's why it's in the Bible.

Could it be meant to shock us So that we are absolutely shocked by this, so that we might take the seriousness of the lessons that he's teaching. Could it be that? That's how I think we should take it. Paul writes this in Romans chapter 11, it should come up. He says consider and that word consider means mull, chew over, meditate, think about think seriously.

Look, consider therefore the kindness and the sternness of God. So Elijah in Gerico was the kindness of God to Gerico Bringing blessing on a cursed city. Here is the sternness of God. Consider, think Don't just think about the kindness of God. Think about the sternness of God.

Or forget that verse, think about Jesus himself. Who said words, I haven't put these up, so you can go to a blank screen. But the you you he said words like this, wonderful, beautiful words of kindness come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest. What a wonderful sentence that is. The savior saying come to me.

You are burdened Come to me, I will give you rest. Who said in my father's house are many rooms. And I and I'm going to depart and prepare a place for you. Beautiful, wonderful words of kindness. But he also said to other people, depart from me you evil doer, I don't know you.

He also said, you are of your father, the devil. He also said, the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The kindness and the sternness of God in Jesus. Consider Jesus who said, let the little children come unto me, but he also said you will die in your sin. And we see the same thing here in Elijah, Elisha's name, Elijah means God saves.

God, the Savior. But the second part of his name, son of Shafat, means God judges. God judges. So here it is. Are we meant to be seeing something here?

In this horrific, shocking story. That Elijah, the authentic man of God represents the savior coming to some people, but the judge coming to some people, and it all depends what you do with the prophet. With the authentic man of God. Will you listen or will you not? So let's take up this story then.

The first thing I want you to see in this story is the place, Bethel. It says in verse 23, From there, that's from Gerico, the place that was cursed, but he brought blessing. Elijah went to Bethel. So we've just seen him bring blessing to a cursed town, but now we're going to see him bring curses to a blessed town. Because bless Bethel has a very rich heritage.

Bethel was named Bethel by Jacob, And you can read that in the old testament. No time to take you through to that story. But it means the place where Jacob met God, it means the house of God. It also is the place where where where Jacob talked about being at the very gates of heaven, the gate of heaven. So it's got this history of a place where God met Jacob It's the house of God and the gateway to heaven.

That's what it means. Now, Bethel has another bit of the story as well, a claim to fame. And that is because we're in the book of kings, remember, there was a king called Geraboa. And Jaroboam at Bethel set up a idol, a golden calf. Now, should have known that was wrong if he read his old testament.

He set up a golden calf as an idol and called that golden calf, God, and he led the people of Israel, the northern kingdom into idolatry. So under King Geroboam, Bethel Now is no longer the house of God, the place of Godliness, is now the center of apostasy, and idolatry and defilement and not listening to God. It's the principal seat of anti God religion, Bethel now. So the house of God has turned into the seat of Satan The gateway to heaven has turned into a highway to hell. That's Bethel.

And so this city now represents a deliberate turning from God that's what had happened. But God is kind. Even to this place. If you went back into 2 kings and verse 3, you'll see that there's a school of prophets there. Actually, Elijah came through, went went to Bethel and there was a school of profit.

So God had left his testimony, his word, even in this place of idolatry. And and seat of Satan. And then, of course, now Elai Elijah turns up at the city. God again sends his word to this place that had rejected the word. He sends his great prophet back there.

To speak to this city. And he just brought blessing on Gerico so there is good news coming to town. If only they would see it. So that's Bethel, that's my first point. Here's my second point.

The boys, the mocker, the muckers, the reception party. This city was having the great prophet who brings blessing to a town come to their town, but what's their reception? They don't want to hear the word of God. Their their attitude seems to be something like this. Look, we had Elijah come through not so long ago.

Do we have to have Elijah's lackey back here again? We got rid of Elijah and thankfully, he's gone up to heaven, hasn't he? And we've moved on. Times have moved on. The Elijah might have his day, and maybe it was good in those days.

But not today, we're modern people. We don't want this Yairway stuff. That was seems to be their attitude. The reception to the good news bringer is is not good. Look at verse 23.

From there, Gerico, Elijah went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. Get out of here baldy. They said, get out of here baldy. Now you've got to get this in your head if you're gonna read this story right.

This isn't just a sort of little gang, a few boys sort of egging each other on, to shout out something over the fence to someone, boldy and then sort of sit down and hide and hide. It's not a sort of jokey thing. As boys sort of egg themselves on and it gets a little bit out of out of of flavor. That that's not what's going on here. This is a planned deliberate chaunting of boys.

There are 42 of them at least. This is a mob They may be young, 10 to 12 year olds, but it's a mob coming out, and they've planned to come out, and they're jeering and they're mocking. This is much more like football hooligans coming out. The man of God who had good news is coming to town and they're out shouting. Go up your body.

Go up your body. It's very interesting. That sometimes if we want to dismiss people in an argument, we pick on some physical physical aspect of them, isn't it? And we we dismiss them. It's quite terrible, isn't it?

The racism comes out that way, doesn't it? You know, the color of someone's skin. We we we identify that as an enemy because we can't be bothered to engage in an argument with them. You know, or the or the size of their nose, a big nose, or shorty, that sort of stuff. We tend to do that, don't we?

Or the color of their hair. Yeah, ginger. Yeah. It's that sort of stuff, isn't it? That we we we we chant at people or fatty.

It's horrible, isn't it? How we pick on some ass physical aspect to dismiss someone without actually even listening to them. Some of you may remember the concern leader, he was leader of the opposition of the conservative party, William Hague. Do you remember him? Do you remember William Hague?

He he he was leader of the conservative party in the opposition in 19 7 97, to 2001. He was never taken seriously by the media, never taken seriously because he had a bald head. And he had a Yorkshire accent. In fact, even his own party called him the baldy with a strange accent. They did it earlier with Neil Kennock, a bald head.

It's interesting, isn't it? You pick on some aspect of someone so you can dismiss their whole character and anything they're saying just on the basis of some physical attribute or non attribute or whatever it is. Go up your body, they say. But this isn't just some cruel fun, at bald head's man's, you know, bald man's expense. Go up.

The new NIV is very bad on this. Not the right translation. It says something like get out of here. It's poor. It's the same word that is used of Elijah when he went up to heaven, when the whirlwind took him up and the chariots of fire and all that stuff.

And that I think is what they're saying. These youths are not just calling him baldy, even though they pick on that to emphasize what they're really saying. They're saying go up the same way that Elijah went up. We don't want you. Keep your God to yourself for goodness sake.

We got rid of Elijah, we thought it'd gone up, and now we got you back. Don't come into our city. Move on to the next city. And then the next city. In fact, go up to your glorious heaven that you see, you seem to believe in.

Go up. Go on. Go up to heaven. If you love Yahweh, then why don't you go to the place where he lives to heaven? Go up your body.

Go up. Get rid of we don't want God coming down to us. You go up. So the spokesman of this town The spokespeople, the welcoming committee of Bethel, and these boys undoubtedly got this from their parents as I'll apply a little later on. They're actually saying clear off baldy we want you out of here, all your talk of yahweh.

We don't want we want we want we like our idolatry. We like the shiny golden calf. We like our materialism. We like our immorality. We don't want you coming here.

Go up. And all of the words that are used about these kids is that they take charge. It's a constant continuous chanting of a mob Go up your baldy. Go up your baldy. Go up your baldy.

At least 42 of them. Chanting. Go up to the sky like your mate. Get out of here. So that's the reception party.

Here's my third point. The judgment. The judgement. He, that's Elijah, turned around and looked at them. I wonder what that look was like.

I actually now I'm guessing. I don't think it was an angry look, on 1 level, I think it's, oh my word, What what what has this town done to its children? What have you done? What have you done here? I was talking to Peter Armstrong.

He's at the back here about the the the last David Bowie, LPs, that came out 5 years ago before his death, or, you know, more than 5 years ago. And they're they're really good. There's a song on that. I actually don't know what it's about, but I remember hearing it and then waking up at night after having quite a disturbing dream with the words in my head. And I don't think the song is about this, but it it it it had these haunting words in the in the chorus.

What have we done? What have we done? What have we done? I had this sort of dream and then waking up and I could only think, what have we done to the young people in Britain? What have we done?

What have we done? So I wonder whether he's asking it like that. He turns around and looks at them, and then calls down a curse on them in the name of the lord. Now you've got to get this. This is not rash spur of the moment stuff.

This isn't Elijah, just grumpy, that he's been called baldy, and he's been reminded of his bald head. No. No. This is the prophet speaking the word of God. He does it in the name of the Lord.

He turned around and looked at them, and called down a curse on them in the name of the lord. Then 2 bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 boys. It means they ripped them apart. Now, the reason why I say this isn't just a spur of the moment thing is, is these verses in leviticus that were written down many years before this event. The Lord warns his people that this is what will happen.

Look at it. It's very pertinent. Novictus 26 verse 1, do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourself, And do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God. Well, Bethel had done all of those things.

Then verse 21. If you remain hostile towards me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your affliction 7 times over as your sins deserve. Listen. If you refuse to listen, then this is the profit, coming in, and they're refusing to listen. I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children.

This isn't the profit just going off on 1. This is the authentic man of God bringing the covenant curse on people that will not listen. 1 old commentator, and you have to go back many years really to get anyone dealing with this stuff because no 1 wants to deal with it today. Because we're happy to think about the kindnesses of God, but the sternness is God, we seem to have lost in our day and age. You see, Tom was saying last week, what a joy it was to preach his passage.

And he was rubbing it in as I was sitting there thinking, yeah, okay, mate. You know what's coming up next. This is not great joy, is it? This is by the way why we go through bible passages because I would not naturally choose this. 1 old writer called these bears covenant bears.

They bring the covenant curse to the unfaithful people who will not listen. The parents of these 42 boys were brought to stunned silence, I guess, by the fulfillment of the Word of God that they would not listen to. See, God is not a non hearing idol, like the idols of Bethel. He is not a deaf, golden calf. If you worship a death glittering golden calf, you are in massive danger of having a false confidence that you are secure.

It's golden. It's made of gold. We're secure, aren't we? You'll have a false confidence that you can ignore God and even mock God, and nothing will happen. Bethor is given an example that something will happen.

If you keep saying no to the word of God. Jesus says this, at the end of his sermon on the mount, He talks about, you know, people building on rock and people building on sand and listen to this. Everyone who hears these words of mine hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rains come down, the streams rose The winds blew and beat against the house and it fell with a great crash. That is exactly what was happening to the houses of those 42 parents of those boys.

Their houses had crashed Their livelihood had gone. Their boys are mauled. They don't have a future. So there's the judgment. Now let's go on to my fourth point, which I have many points under.

What are we to learn from this, the lessons? What are we to learn? I haven't numbered them, so you're gonna have to listen carefully. What are we to learn from this? Well, here's the first thing.

Can I just say this? And this is very important, I think. I think stories like this are really good at showing up our utter hypocrisy. I think when you read stories like this to our age, our modern ear, it's so distasteful we start thinking we're better and more moral than God. And actually, that in itself shows up its hypocrisy.

We start saying, we don't like this sort of judgment. Think a little bit before we move on. A local bloke, and I guess you've read about it, did the most appalling thing to I think she was either 92 or 96 or she was over 90 anyway. You know the story, don't you have the local man who just up the road? Went in to a 92 year old and said that he was working for the NHS and he she had to pay him a hundred and 60 pounds and he would give her the the the vaccine and he did inject her with something.

And he took a hundred and 60 pound from her. He came back a week later and said now you owe another hundred pounds. If you read the local WhatsApp groups and things and Facebook groups about this man, they say vicious things. They say things like he should be put in a small room, locked up and throw away the key. May he burn forever?

And he did a wicked thing, a wicked thing. But be careful that we don't mock God for justice when we ourselves call for quite violent justice, I hope they catch him. I hope they inject him with something nastier than he injected her with. Or just think about how we cancel people. It's the new word, isn't it?

We cancel people. Who slightly disagree with us, who don't listen to the prophets that we want to listen to, and because they don't, we cancel them you're as good as dead to us. That's what happens on social media, canceling people. Anna and myself were watching a program on Greta Thornberg, the little girl when she was 15 that, you know, talked about climate change and so forth. And whatever you think about what she says or whether you agree or disagree with her on climate change, it's not the point.

At 15 people were giving her death threats, saying that violent horrible things they were hoping would happen to her. It's extraordinary the violent language, isn't it? So before we start saying, In our modern age, we don't like stories like this. Let's be careful that this story doesn't show up our hypocrisy. We do believe in judgment, don't we?

But here's the second thing. The second lesson, we must guard against having a distorted one-sided view of God. Remember this verse from Romans, consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God. We need to listen to the warning of this event. And if you just dismiss it, you won't hear, and you're in great danger.

Galatians chapter 6, it'll come up on the screen. Paul writes in this book to the Galatian Christians, do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked like those boys were doing. A man reaps what he sows, whoever sows to please their flesh, From the flesh will reap destruction, whoever sows to please the spirit, from the spirit will reap eternal life. There are consequences for mocking God.

And this story is warning us about eternal ones. Let me just say this. To mock the profit of God was to mock God, because he's the mouthpiece of God. We do need to be careful how we treat the Word of God. Now, those of us who preach to you, we're not prophets in that sense.

We get many things wrong, but be careful when you hear the word of God. Be very careful. That we listen. Why is it so offensive to mock God Can't he grow up and have a bit of humor? Well, I think God does have massive humor, but that's another that's another subject.

But mocking isn't humor, is it? It's belittling. It's not listening. If you mock God or the mouthpiece of God, you're mocking the very foundation of everything. Of the universe.

Everything will collapse if you mock his word. You're mocking the truth The God of truth. You're mocking the God who decides what is right and wrong. You're mocking right and wrong. You're mocking justice the God of justice.

You're mocking the God of love. You're mocking the God of grace. You're mocking the God of forgiveness. You're mocking the God of passion. If you mock God, you mock everything, and so the mocking of God must stop, and that's why there's a judgment day.

And that's what this event with the bears is warning us about. 42 boys ripped by bears. There's young ones here. I'm not going to describe exactly what that word means, but it is quite vicious. The sound must have been horrible The sound must have been like, literally like, weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Don't you think? If sinners are bent on mocking God, then there will be judgment, and God sees the sin whatever the age. Sin is sin in children, in youth, in students, in adults, in old people. God sees it. Here's a writer.

You have to go back many 400 years. Here's a writer. Writing about this event, Matthew Henry. Listen. Let the hideous shrieks and groans of this wicked brood, that's the young man, of this wicked brood, make our flesh tremble for fear of God.

Let the little children be afraid of speaking wicked words, for God notices what they say. Let parents that would have comfort in their children train them up well and do the utmost to drive out foolishness that is bound up in their hearts. That's the lesson of this. Here's a third lesson. We mock God by not listening and take that line off.

We mock God by not listening to his word. That's how you mock God. That's what they were doing. And the tragedy is that God speak again and again and again and again and again and again and again through history, and yet there's so many deaf ears. Israel itself, the covenant people of God.

The epitaph, the thing you write over the grave, is this. Have a look at these words. This is the epitaph of Israel. It should come up. It's 2 chronicles, 36.

Did I put it on? Yes. The Lord, listen very carefully. The Lord, the God of their fathers sent word to them through his messengers again and again but he had pit because he had pity on his people, the kindness of God, and on his dwelling place. But They mocked God's messengers and despised his word and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of God was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.

See the kindness of God and the sternness of him? Jesus is the same. He who has ears, let him hear. He says, Anyone who listens to my words is like the wise man. Anyone who doesn't listen to my words is like the fool, the house comes crashing down.

People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. There's an amazing little line in Psalm 40 verse 6 that expresses how we're to hear God and it says the ears, this is talking to God, the ears God has dug for me. That's the prayer we should have. We are so deaf. It's like our head is granite.

You've got a granite head And what you need is the miner of God to come smashing through with his hammer, to make ear holes so you hear. That should be our prayer from this. This story. Lord, smash a hole through my granite head. My head like a rock My thick head, drill a hole in it so I may hear the word of God.

There's a fourth lesson There's a lot here I know. A lesson to parents. Parents are you listening. These children, as far as I can see, had been trained in an idolatry. They're just coming out.

They're just mocking and they're pretending they're grown up. They think they're grown up because they're using grown up words. Go up your body. The thing is, If you really care for your children, you want them to hear the word of God. But if you're giving your children anti God teaching, do you know what the nation does?

To children when we don't listen to God, abortion, We're horrified at the ripping of 42 children I'm told that during lockdown, there's been more abortions last year than there has been for a long time. What do we do with our children if we listen to the false God? Gender reassignment? From abortion to gender reassignment, we absolutely maul our children. This solemn incident should get us on our knees as parents asking the lord to forgive us for our example of not listening to the Word of God, and pleading.

That he'll drill holes in our heads. Fifth point to the nation, to the UK, Now, we're not Israel, we're not old testament, Israel. The UK is not the covenant people of God under the covenant, best and things under the covenant curses. There's a lot of stuff there, and I can't go into that. That is not what we are.

So we've got to be careful of directly applying this stuff, but nevertheless, we can ask this very simple question Is the UK more like Jerico or Bethel? Is the UK unproductive like jericho. Well, yes. It I mean, you've gotta say that. Is it discouraging like Jerico?

Yes. But is it like Gerico where it comes and says, God prophet of God, speak a word to the source and clean us so that we won't become unproductive in a world where we're all shut down. Or is it like Bethel that teaches its children to mock the things of God so much that you can only hear the jeers and the knocking and the anti God propaganda, and you can't hear anything about Yahweh at all. So what about our nation? Or here's the sixth thing.

I'm nearly finished. What about you? Are you more like Jerico or Bethel? Here's my seventh application. If I finish there, it's pretty hopeless, isn't it?

It's quite a depressing sermon, isn't it? But there is good news, even to a world that's mocked God. There's good news in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ was ripped apart and mocked. That's the gospel.

That's the good news of Jesus. Look at this verse from Galatians again. Galatians 3 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written. Curst is anyone who hangs on a tree, who's crucified on a tree, who's ripped apart by the mocking of a mocking world.

And he takes the mocking. He's mocked and scorned and laughed at. So that we could be forgiven. He's ripped apart by bears and dogs and If you read Psalm 22, you see all the animals that are circling him and ripping him apart, the picture of the spiritual ripping and satanic powers that were against Christ on the cross, and why is he doing us that so that we would know the blessings of God and not the curses of God. He redeemed us in order that the blessings given to Abraham might come on to the gentiles through Christ Jesus.

So that by faith, we may receive the promise of the spirit. There is blessing for the from the cursed 1 because he was cursed in our place. That the gospel. And that's the message that Elias and preachers and us as a church should be absolutely totally committed to in taking to this world even if they mock us at the moment. Even if they say go away you baldy or whatever it is, gray head or old bloke or fatty or big nose or whatever it is, the color of your skin.

Does it really matter? If we're taking this gospel of Jesus to the nation, then we will be vindicated in the end, but at the moment we may be mocked because the sun was mocked in our place and the curses removed, I am free. I am under the freedom of a redeemed person bought by the blood of Christ as he was torn apart for me. Well, there we go. They are the lessons.

Let's learn them. I've given no time for poor old for poor old What's his name? Dean. So I call him something else, and it was I wasn't trying not to call him that. But Dean is gonna lead us in prayers, and we're gonna sing our last song Well, we can go on as long as you want.

Okay. I think it's a great idea to spend some time praying because after hearing the words, the word of God from 2 kings. You know, how foolish would we be just to just to go from from here and not think about how we've failed this week, this year, this past 5 years, whatever. So, yeah, that would be mocking God, wouldn't it? So let's let's bow our heads.

Just gonna give you a few minutes you know, just a few a few seconds to to think of how you will respond. So let's just bow our heads. And I'll give you a bit of silence and then I'll lead us in a prayer. Further, for some of us, that silence was full of thoughts and words and full of shame and guilt And it would be pray that that it would have been full of hope as well. And if not, Lord may may hope come.

Lord, if if it was silent, if it was nothing, then please keep drilling, keep making keep keep working on us to make those holes in our ears, lord please give us hearts to hear and understand and repent. Lord help us to see where we have failed. Lord, please help us to be appalled at our own hypocrisy, where we call for justice, and we despise you for for your justice. For the police help us to not be afraid of these stories and afraid of what you're like help us to stand, help us to be able to defend you. And not, lord, have this one-sided view of who you are.

Help us to understand your sternness and be warned by it, Lord. Please help us to not mock you. By not listening to your word. Lord, it is it is so hard because we are Our hearts are constantly going astray, running after things we see with our eyes. Lord, we're we are such rebels at heart.

We we love to build our own kingdoms and sit on our own throne and wear our own crown and do what we want and not be told. But lord, please help us to listen to you. Help us lord as parents. Lord, we're sorry for when we neglect the word of God in our homes and in our families. Lord, please help us to do everything and anything we can to get our children to hear the word of God in the smallest ways at the dinner table at at bedtime as we walk along the road, lord, even if it's every 7 days bringing them to church, And lord, please, would you help us to start there at least?

And and then, lord, help us to grow from there and not be in that same place 5 years down the road. And lord, please, would you have mercy on our nation? Lord, our schools don't worship you anymore. There's no assemblies where your name is lifted up and sung about. Lord, please, would you bring that back?

Or or maybe even help us to think of other creative ways, to make sure that every day there is an act of worship that our children are hearing. Maybe maybe it's right that that was taken away from schools, Lord, because it it should be the parents. But, lord, would you please return it so that they're hearing about Jesus everywhere. And Lord, we we are sorry. For how we fail.

As as individuals, as moms and dads, as uncles and aunts, grandparents, as members of the church who who can lift a finger to help if we thought about it, please help us to not raise a generation of kids who are going to be mold because we did nothing. Lord, thank you for these words. Though I though I fail, his love is short, for Christ has paid for every failing. I am his, forevermore. We thank you for those words, As we sing them now, we pray that you would help us to revel in the gospel and to worship you now.

We ask all these things in Jesus name, Armin.