A Response to God's Word within the People

Go ahead and take your Bible turn back to Nehemiah chapter 8. I'm sure you've already got your place mark there Nehemiah chapter 8 will start in verse 9 and we'll finish up the rest of the chapter Although I will reference chapter 9 you won't have to turn there. I'll cheat like I did last week and speak ahead Sometimes we need to do that, but Nehemiah chapter 8 starting in verse 9 now I think I mentioned this this morning, but truthfully tonight's message is kind of a part two It's not a real part two, but these messages go together last week's message was entitled a revival of God's Word within The people I really think last week's message spoke to us as a church I really think the Lord wants to instill in us a desire and a need for the word I think that the Lord wants to raise the bar elevate the standard That's why we talked about a lot of application there at the end I think the Lord wants to stir up in us and change us that we would really come in a different way in the days to come Now let me relate to you a personal example.

I've shared this with you before but every now and then it just comes booming back into my memory Quite a few years ago. I had the privilege of someone giving me some of my old home church pastors preaching tapes back in the days of old cassettes and I begin to go back and listen to some of those brother Dennis is preaching and I begin to remember and just these flood of memories came of all the things that he taught me I Heard that I remember that I remember when he preached that and it was as if the Lord is reminding me of how much we can forget That's why I harp on this.

I can't say enough how desperately we need to see the need for the word But not just to hear it to retain it and hold on to it as a precious Precious treasure I ran across a little quotation this week that might help us see the importance here One of the resources that I used went back to the creation and started there and showed how God's Word had impacted So much. Let me read it and I'll make a few comments This will kind of work is our introduction God's Word is what formed the world Now think about it go all the way back to Genesis chapter 1 all along the way in the creation How was the creation formed? How did it come to be?

It's God's Word God spoke and it came to be God's Word Word formed the nation of Israel there at Mount Sinai Remember when the nation is there at Mount Sinai and it is Moses who goes on the mountain and it is God who writes? The very ten commandments and gives it to Moses and it was the basis of the Jewish religion and it formed the people It was God's Word that promised a new exodus and a return from exile Isn't that what we see here these people have been in exile and it was God's Word that set about all these things in the motion It was God's Word who set the people free from Babylonian captivity It was God who used a pagan king to start the whole thing Then once free now return to the land with the walls rebuilt the people look to God's Word to form them anew See how God's Word Forms and works and carries on his purposes Now again for us as the church God's done a great work here.

God's rebirthed the church But I believe I've shared this with some of our men brother Keith that I pray this Pray this very frequently in the days and years to come We believe there are great things that God wants us to do through us and in us But the things that God is teaching us now are forming us for who God wants us to be in the future And I believe we'll look back and say we are where we are now and we are doing things that God's enabled us to do And I remember when God taught us that years ago. I Really believe that'll happen now.

I want to touch on our application from last week The application was in the form of four questions And I want to touch on these because these will come back up in in the message now the first question last week of application Was there must be a serious preparation from the ones preaching and teaching the word we saw that in Ezra the Levites the priest Those who were helping Ezra in that job that is my primary job here My primary job is to preach and teach the Word of God I can't really put a measuring stick on it But it's easy for me to say that I can spend 16 to 20 hours a week Just studying to preach and teach just studying other things that I know we're gonna look at in the future You might not realize it, but there are lots of times.

I'm studying ahead months ahead Sometimes you will come up and make comments about things and in my mind. I'm thinking I'm studying that already That is my primary job in is God brings other elders in the life of the church that will be their job Brother Keith is an elder teaches our young people and he takes serious the preparation of the teaching of the Word and God is going to give us men who teach then preach the Word of God and it must be seriously approached Second question was we must come with a serious expectation that comes from all of us We must come to learn the word but not just learn it if we're not careful We can be academic it can be just education But we must come to encounter God in the word because when we see truth We see that God who gave that truth and we must come to meet with God in his word When God reveals to us the truth when he corrects us We find God in that and when we walk with God and we know God and is that he is a personal God to us Maybe it's a theological truth, but it's not just theology that we see we see the God behind that We must put away the distractions within our environment I know that I spoke to a lot of our children and our teenagers Wasn't my desire to embarrass you, but we must see that our actions in here can distract others I'm very happy for our nursery ministry.

It's a ministry, but it is a ministry to our mothers They can come and sit and hear the Word of God And let someone else minister to their children And then we must have a physical environment which is conducive for preaching for hearing the Word and we're blessed I'm thankful and I hope and pray that in the future as we grow we'll still have a facility that will meet those needs now I'll mention those I bring these back to the table Because we're going to touch on some of those as we go through the message now earlier I said that tonight's message is kind of a part two It's really a continuation and this Word of God the Word of God is still impacting the people and God is using his word to form his People now the title of the message tonight is similar to last week's it is a response to God's Word within the people a Response to God's Word within the people You see that we're going to cover verses 9 through 18 and how we're going to cover them Our first main truth is a brokenness within the people we read that earlier.

That's in verse 9 That's in verse 9 Then we see a call to a holy celebration Verses 10 through 12 then there's a transition in verse 12 that I'll mention later Everything changes after verse 12 then our third main truth the leaders continued to study Verse 13 and then the leaders call to obedience which will be the rest of the chapter verses 14 through 18 So let's look at the verses together starting in verse 9 Then Nehemiah who was was the governor and Ezra the priest The scribe and all the Levites who taught the people said to the people this day is holy to the Lord your God Do not mourn or weep for all of the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law then he said to them go eat of Eat of the fat drink of the sweet and send portions to him who has nothing For this day is holy to our Lord.

Do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength So the Levites calmed all the people saying be still for the day is holy do not be grieved and all the people went away to eat the drink and to send portions and to celebrate a great festival because they Understood the words which have been made known to them Verse 13 then on the second day the heads of the fathers of Households of all of the people the priests and the Levites gathered to Ezra the scribe That they might gain an insight into the words of the law and they found written in the law How the Lord had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths or tabernacles? during the feast of the seventh month so they proclaimed and Circulated a proclamation in all of their cities and in Jerusalem saying go out to the hills bring olive branches and wild olive branches Myrtle branches palm branches and Branches of other leafy trees to make booths as it is written So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves Each on his roof and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God and in the square at the water gate And then the square at the gate of Ephraim in the entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity Made booths or tabernacles and lived in them the sons of Israel had indeed not done So from the days of Joshua the son of nine to that day and there was great rejoicing verse 18 and He read from the book of the law the of God daily from the first day to the last day and they celebrated the feast Seven days and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly According to the ordinance now, there's quite a bit of scripture here Some of these might be confusing to you dealing with these feasts or the festival here But I will explain their significance as we get into the message.

So let's look at our first main truth a brokenness within the people a Brokenness within the people look at verse 9 Nehemiah and Ezra the Levites they said to the people this day is holy to the Lord your God Do not mourn or weep for all of the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law Here we see that Nehemiah is a part of this event now earlier in the verses in the chapter We did not see Nehemiah. He was not mentioned but clearly he was participating and would have been one of the leaders, but here we see that both Nehemiah and Ezra See the condition of the people they were broken. They were mourning.

They were broken-hearted now two observations I want to make here first. This was an open brokenness this was an open Brokenness all of the translations use the words weep weeping and mourn and mourning But notice that this was open both Nehemiah and Ezra and those unnamed Levites Saw that the people were in this broken state now I mentioned that and it needs to be seen because this was not a private morning, but a very open morning and open brokenness Second this was a brokenness from hearing the Word of God What does it say for all of the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law that goes back to that?

Six-hour time frame where Ezra read and those other leading men explain the Word of God They've been under the reading and the explanation of the Word of God Remember there was a team of men. I love that a great team of qualified God called me in Equipped to lead the people and the last part of verse 9 states that it was the word That it brought about this brokenness. So what do we see here? They were broken.

They were weeping They were mourning you could probably say that they were dignified this came by the declaration of the Word of God, but This could only come through the work and the power of the Spirit Now I want to pause here and what I'm sharing the word spirit is never mentioned here, but we must understand This was a work of the Spirit. They were obedient to the scriptures in asking for this reading The leadership were the right men for the job.

God had sovereignly worked in their circumstances to get them to this place geographically and spiritually God had worked in all of their circumstances and God was working in his people through the word by the power of the Spirit Now an application. I want to help you see what this looks like Because it's just as real for us today as it was then Now here's the question How many times have you sat under the reading and the teaching and the preaching of the Word of God?

And it did not move you it did not affect you and it did not change you We've all been there We've all been there now the fault can lie in more than one place But I want to go back to our application and it'll help us it'll help us see this and understand this Remember the first thing an application is that there must be a serious preparation from the one preaching and teaching Ezra and those men were duly prepared and We as men of God who preach and teach the word we must be prepared.

We can't be self-sufficient We must see that it's the Word of God that needs to impact people the list goes on and on and many times the fault lies in the man who is reading and preaching and explaining and Then there must we must come with a serious expectation These people had a serious expectation They came and asked to sit under the Word of God They asked and they did not complain about a six-hour service We're gonna see that they had longer long services again This really shines a light on people today who want to go to church just one time I know people who they might travel the distance and they go to church one time That just that's just shattered by what we see right here in Nehemiah They had a serious expectation and then we must come expecting to encounter God in the Word if It's just educational if it's just theological.

It's got to go beyond that We must see that we come expecting to have God change us expecting to have God correct us and Encourage us and teach us but to encounter God and whatever result that God determines We need so be it we can walk out rejoicing we can walk out broken It depends on what we need but they needed to be broken and it was by the power and the work of the spirit Using the men of God in the work of God and using those people So there was a brokenness within the people.

Let's move on our second main truth There is a call to a holy Celebration there is a call to a holy celebration Notice what happens in verse 10 then he said to them go eat of the fat Drink of the sweet and send portions to him who has nothing prepared for this day is holy to our Lord Do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength So the Levites calmed all the people saying be still for this day is holy do not be grieved What do we see here for some this might be strange behavior They are stopping them in their morning the entire spiritual leadership Stop this open brokenness of the people Some of you might say why in the world would they have stopped them?

They should have been broken, but this was part of God's plan So let's see why the leadership call the people to this type of celebration There are three reasons that I want to three observations. I want to share with you here first They had repented of their sins now I Said earlier we'll have to cheat ahead We do not see the word repent here in these verses But we do know that they had repented they had made confession now if we cheat over into chapter 9 We see that they make confession and we'll see the evidence of that repentance But we would owe that this work of repentance began here And we can see that they had fully repented these men of God knew that Then second we see they were to celebrate what is called the feast of the trumpets now It's not listed here starting in verse 10 and verse 11, but if you know the calendar That's what's taking place the end of verse 9 10 and 11 mentioned this holy day This speaks of that feast the feast of the trumpets this was celebrated on the first day of the seventh month It was a time of feasting and celebrating not mourning So they were calling them to obey what the word said they should do they were saying stop mourning you've repented now is the time to celebrate a feast and Enjoying the work of God among you so they were celebrating the feast of the trumpets then also third We see that they assisted the poor in this celebration didn't we read that earlier?

Send portions to him who has nothing prepared the rich and the poor were to celebrate This feast of the trumpets. So what do we see here? The people had fully repented of their sins therefore they were called to rejoice the spiritual leadership They were calling them to honor the word of God by celebrating the feast According to the calendar which was according to the word of God They had many feasts on the Jewish calendar, and they were both physical and spiritual They had a spiritual significance and many times they had a physical Significance and this was very important to their spiritual identity now How in the world does this apply to us we do not celebrate Jewish feasts We need to see the process by which God works for repentance The word of God brings about conviction of sin the Spirit of God does two things First the Spirit empowers the word to do its work God used the Unstances God used Ezra and the trained men God had prepared the people in their hearts They asked for the reading and the Spirit empowered the word of God to do its work Second the Spirit leads people to full repentance The word of God does its work and then the Spirit of God continues that work and leads them to repentance and this entails a full obedience on man's part Then after that repentance man can celebrate that obedience to God and enjoy that right relationship to God That's exactly what was taking place here the word had done its work they were repentant and now they were obedient to feast and to celebrate according to the word and According to the Feast of the trumpets now some of you need to see this Some of you need to see this when you truthfully and fully repent You do not need to grovel you do not need to say in Self-abasement you do not need to abuse yourself over that sin I've seen people do that when you fully Repented as best as you know how you enjoy the peace of God you enjoy the victory of God you and you can Celebrate in your life by having victory Now we still deal with consequences Consequences will many times always be with us.

That's entirely different and sometimes people can confuse Consequences and not understand full repentance it can become muddled for Some and it's very practical what we see here in this holy celebration Now I want us to see that there's a change Look at verse 12 I said earlier that this everything changes after verse 12 in all of the people went away to eat in the drink to sin portions and to celebrate a great festival Because they understood the words which have been made known to them What we see here is that most of the people who had been at that magnificent magnificent event at the Watergate They had gone home.

They were going home here in verse 12. We will see that later in verse 15 And now we will see that there's some that stay behind While the majority go home and this is good This is part of the work of God through the leadership and the people so let's look at our third main truth I want us to see the leaders continued to study The leaders they continued to study first 13 then on the second day The heads of fathers households of all of the people the priests and the Levites they gathered to Ezra the scribe That they might gain insight into the word or words of the law Here we see that after the Feast of the trumpets the spiritual leadership Take a great step to be the leaders that God wanted them to be We will see that the people have left starting in verse 12 They've gone back to their homes and villages, but the leadership stays behind For spiritual reasons two observations.

I want to make here First the leaders gathered to Ezra in that what we see there in verse 13 the leaders gathered to Ezra here We see that after this wonderful climactic event at the Watergate After the Feast of the trumpets, which was a great celebration The leaders sought out Ezra for more teaching. They wanted more insight into and more understanding of the Word of God Now why would they want this? There was great victory here. They have been under the word for six hours a Great brokenness and a great celebration According to the word why would they stay behind? Why would they want more?

They were taking their jobs seriously They stayed behind after all the people left for more teaching more training more equipping Because there was more work to do they could not relax for one moment Second the leaders included the family heads as well now they weren't mentioned last week in our message, but go back to the verse Then on the second day The heads of the fathers Households of all the people so what do we see here?

These are the leaders of the families the men the King James reads chiefs this speaks of the heads of all the families now in Jewish society The fathers were the heads of the households and they were responsible for the spiritual instruction of their family They did not farm it out and we see that in the Jewish Confession of faith there in Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 6 starting in verse 1 So what do we see here? the leadership Including the fathers wanted to learn more they wanted to understand more of the word They subjected themselves to Ezra's leadership and his teaching they stayed behind They sacrificed more time they wanted more they did not relax They did this to be better leaders of the people and their own families Now how might this apply to us?

We as leaders in the life of the church We as elders in the life of the church who our primary job our primary job is to preach and teach the word We must stay behind me was really take our Job serious we must stay behind in the Word of God we must sacrifice time We must seek more understanding We must seek to learn the Word of God more not just so we could stockpile Knowledge so that we can be used in a greater capacity in the life of the church and in your life That is our job and we must stay behind we must hide out We must stay up later in the night get up earlier in the morning make those sacrifices like these men to stay behind That's the men that we must have in the future to lead our church and to share leadership with us But also this can apply to us as fathers We must stay behind as heads of our household we can't farm out our responsibilities to our wives and to leaders in the life of the church just as fathers You should stay behind you should get up earlier.

You should stay up later You should have the attitude of these fathers to stay behind to be better equipped to lead Your wife in your household and your children Now I thought about this practically in three ways We must stay behind first in what is given to us here at the church Now I've said this before I'm either an arrogant preposterous idiot or I'm called of God to stand before you and teach you the Word of God Now I believe I'm the latter God's called me to do this God's called Brother Keith to do this. This is not a game This is not a charade. This is not a job.

I'm not looking for a job God's called us to pray and govern the affairs of the church and to preach and teach Not for what we could get not for position because we're called of God and we know that we have to give a responsibility for you and We take these matters serious and we do not think one message one sermon One scripture reading one song should be taken casual and we should stay behind With what we are getting each Sunday.

I Believe you can take the Sunday morning message and the Sunday evening message and have plenty of quiet time with the Lord On your knees going back through your notes through the verses and saying Lord teach me and teach me and teach me One of the joys that I had was counseling one of our teenagers Brother Keith and I were talking with his teenager and asking them what their quiet time looked like their personal time with God And they said I do what you say every week I take the message my message notes in the scriptures and I go back through them Several times during the week that staying behind Second we can stay behind and learn on our own Listen we should have an appetite where we study on our own Maybe we're studying other books of the Bible But we should have an appetite where we stay behind and not just rely on the church and the pastor to spoon feed you But third this is very practical.

We should stay behind in prayer Ezra and Nehemiah were those kind of men Every time there was a crisis Nehemiah sought the will of God and he knew the will of God We should stay behind in prayer as leaders We should stay behind in prayer as fathers and pray that God will enable us to be able to do this impossible task So it's so much so we can learn just in this one verse the leaders continued to study Let's move on to our fourth main truth our last main truth We see the leaders call to obedience now I won't read the verses but look at verse 14 they found written in the law How the Lord had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the Feast of the seventh Month that's the Feast of the tabernacle so here in verse 13 The spiritual leadership stayed behind they sought more spiritual training under Ezra They sought to study the Word of God on a deeper level and in verse 14 we see what they discovered Now this might sound strange this living in booths But what they discovered was the Feast of the tabernacles now a question What is the Feast of the tabernacles or the Feast of the booths?

This was the last festival on the Jewish calendar of festivals It marked the completion of the harvest there's a physical application and spiritually it Commemorated their forefathers wandering in the wilderness Let me pause there when their forefathers wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They lived in tents in booths temporary Dwelling places now during the festival the people would build temporary tents or booths and they lived in them in Jerusalem To remember how their forefathers wandered in the wilderness So they remembered what took place in their past and this was a very important time in their history Three quick observations.

I want to make here First the leaders called the people to celebrate we see that in verse 15 they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all of their cities and in Jerusalem see they had gone back to their cities and Villages the leadership called the people's attention to what the word said Concerning the festival we see that they circulated a proclamation in the cities and in Jerusalem This tells us that many had returned home from that great event Second we see that the people celebrated the festival we see that in verses 16 and 17 These verses state that they did go get the materials to build those booths and to celebrate this festival but notice verse 17 the beginning of verse 17 it says the entire assembly that means that everyone participated in being obedient to the word So the leaders call the people to celebrate the people celebrated the festival and then third the people celebrated with the word Look at verse 18 and he read from the book of the law daily from the first day to the last and they celebrated the feast seven days a part of the feast was a daily reading of the word and the feast lasted Seven days which means that for seven days Ezra read the word of God to the people No doubt they were still very hungry for the word After all that God had done earlier.

So what do we see here? The leadership call the people to Obedience to the word of God now notice some Bible state Before verse 13 may be in a heading that the feast was restored Maybe your Bible reads that Some commentators say that they rediscovered the feast but the feast is mentioned back in Ezra chapter 3 Now what's the meaning of this?

Bible scholars believe that they discovered the spiritual meaning of the feast while all along they were celebrating The physical that would have been the end of the harvest Simply they discovered the spiritual meaning of the feast while they had been faithful to the physical celebration of the feast Remember we saw in verse 13 that Ezra had given them insight into the law of God. So my question is this Could Ezra have corrected a problem within the people could he have said you're faithful to remember the physical Celebration but you've never seen the spiritual meaning of the festival.

I believe that is the case Now an application you need to see we need to see that it is our job to call you as the church It is our job to call the church to be obedient to the word on a personal level and a corporate level I'll give you an example that will help you see this Many of you know that I listen and I kind of look up to Grace Life Church of the Shoals and Muscle Shoals, Alabama We are still praying over our partnership with them to be involved in submissions work there Now if you listen to them very long their story goes like this Jeff Noblett took the church over 30 years ago and he has been reforming and rebuilding the church They had to dismantle a lot of bad things going on in the life of the church and rebuild it Now we didn't have that problem a lot of the things that had gone on in yesteryear were gone But when you listen to his personal story, he's talking about undoing lots of unbiblical things But I heard him say something That reminds me of these verses He was saying that as they would go verse by verse through the scripture and when they would encounter teaching from the word that Contradicted unbiblical practices in the life of the church.

They would take what they learn call a special business meeting Speak about what they were doing in an unbiblical fashion Speak about what they had just learned Adjust it kill it change it reform it and move on Now that's a good business meet and that's what these people did but the leaders called the people to obey the word after they discovered what it meant and We must do the same thing when we run into what the scriptures say We must adjust as the church adjust as the church because if we do not do it according to the word of God It becomes our ideas and our plans So we see that the Word of God was central to this work not just reading it It wasn't just a reading for six hours It was a spirit empowered reading the spirit empowered them in this work for several reasons First God had brought the people back to the work.

This was a sovereign work of God that began in Ezra chapter 1 So really what's going on in Nehemiah 8 is a culmination of all that has been going on So we see first that God had brought the people back. This was an act of his sovereign will Second God had his men for the job We learned that Ezra had been a student of the word for years. He was already scribe Able to teach the word then third God brought them back to the word the people came hungry They said give us the word And then forth the word of God was brought to them And God by his good grace impacted the people And impacted the word Now in conclusion real quickly.

I want to make a little application here Big picture Israel big picture of the church We go all the way back to Ezra chapter 1 God calls his people out of Babylonian captivity. This was a fulfillment of his covenant They were a covenant people God's chosen people and God is calling them back to rebuild as a nation under Ezra They rebuilt the temple under Nehemiah.

They rebuilt the walls in Jerusalem and God is restoring them and bringing them back and now they are realizing and understanding the importance of the word But what we see is a work of redemption a work of grace a work of mercy because they are God's Covenant people God's chosen Big picture of the church We are God's people we are God's new covenant people we are the church the assembly that called out ones and We are the center of God's activity on earth today God has chosen to make himself known through the church Now just like we can look at Israel and see their downward cycle.

What did God do God said if you reject my word If you disobey my word and you marry the heathen and if you adopt their spiritual practices I will judge you and that's what he did there was a downward spiral and they were judged and they ended up in captivity But we can see a downward spiral in the life of the church we can see the church move away from God's word Move away from God called man.

They can adopt worldly practices They can make the gospel me centered and there is a downward cycle of the church But just like God would not give up on his covenant people the Jews God will not give up on the church But let me show you something He will give up on the church local But he will not give up on the church universal Many people are in error here. They'll read a verse like this and they miss apply Jesus says in Matthew 16 18 and I tell you you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church He's not building the church on Peter He was a little stone. He was talking of himself.

He's the chief cornerstone Jesus is talking with his hands upon this rock. I will build my church Now notice what he says and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it But you know you look at a lot of local churches and the gates of hell are prevailing God has chosen the church But listen He will give up on a local church when they turn their back on them and they refuse to repent and do the church God's way but what he will do is he'll pick up his activity there and move to somebody else because he will not give up on the church universal a Lot of people are arrogant here.

We're God's church the gates of hell will not prevail God will always work through us and many times Ichabod's been written on the door and God has picked up and he's working somewhere else and they don't even know it Think about what we learned in the study of our of the seven churches in Revelation chapter 3 What did the Lord Jesus say to the pastor messenger angel represented to the church? What did he say if you do not repent I will remove my lampstand That's his presence He said that to the church at Ephesus.

They were the flagship church in the region All of the work in the region was around the church at Ephesus the Apostle John had a thriving ministry in Ephesus Paul had started the church Timothy had pastored the church if any church could put a feather in their cap It was the church at Ephesus. But what did he say if you do not repent? I'll remove my lampstand What does he say if you do not repent?

I'll give up on you and I'll go somewhere else Now say all of that to come to us We are experiencing a great work of grace This church almost closed but by his good grace He saw fit to rebirth this church and we have a great opportunity to do the work of the church Right, we have an opportunity to do great things in the kingdom God taught us that we're much like the church at Philadelphia and open door Now in closing, what is this message about Nehemiah and Ezra and the Word of God? How does that fit? Where does it fit right to us? We must be under the Word of God.

We need the Word of God taught We need the spirit empowerment of the Word of God. We must have this type of work this fierce obedience We must have the very same thing going on here because if we do not stay true to the Word of God We will start that downward spiral Might take years to see it might take another generation to realize it, but it'll come So what do we see a Response To God's Word within the people last week a revival of God's Word within the people tonight a response to God's Word within the people And I hope and pray then the days and weeks and years to come We will look back and see things exactly like what we see in chapter 8 It fits It really fits Let's pray