Psalms 19:1

The Bible, Psalm 19, is where we're going to be today. As you're turning there, would you stand with me, please? Psalm 19 was written as a song by King David for the nation of Israel 3,000 years ago.

Psalm 19, verse 1, states, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them, He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven and its circuit to the other end. And there is nothing hidden from its heat."

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and in keeping of them, there is great reward.

Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret sins. Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Father, Lord, I ask that this would become the prayer of our hearts. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing and acceptable in Your sight. God, would You use Your Word, which is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword? Would You use it to transform us by the renewing of our minds today? In our lives this week, may we be able to display what is good, right, and pure before You. Let people see in our lives the evidence of Your work by Your Spirit and through the working of Your Word. May that reality be the very thing that draws people to a knowledge of You. Lord, work in and through us, Your church. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, Amen. You can be seated.

Bertrand Russell, one of the most outspoken and influential minds of the 20th century, an atheist, was asked during a question-and-answer session following a lecture he had given in defense of his atheistic position. A person in the audience asked him, "Mr. Russell, suppose when you die you find out that your atheistic position has been wrong and you end up standing before God on judgment day. What will you say to Him?" Russell responded, "I will tell Him I'm terribly sorry, but You did not give us enough evidence." Those words of Bertrand Russell have been echoed in some way, shape, or form ever since he said them about 50 years ago by many atheists in our modern day as they speak about the hiddenness of God. They say, "If there is a God, then He has done a very good job of hiding Himself. You have not given us enough evidence."

Three thousand years ago, a young man, a shepherd who would one day be king in a faraway land called Judea, was keeping watch over the sheep that were given into his care. As he sat there, he had in his hand a harp, which he played.

As he played, he said these words: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth His handiwork." This brings us to an interesting conclusion or question. There are two different mindsets, two different views, both observing the same data and looking at creation. One perspective, three thousand years ago, proclaimed that the heavens declare the glory of God, while another, in our day, stands before the very same data and claims there is not enough evidence for God. Which one is right? Which one is wrong?

We live in a time in the 21st century, here in the West, where people are hesitant to talk in terms of right or wrong. However, one of these observations must be either right or wrong. We are so diametrically opposed on either end of the spectrum. Was David, who wrote this psalm, overly influenced by his theistic worldview? Was he overly influenced by his Jewish cultural understanding of the world? Conversely, was Bertrand Russell overly influenced by the culture of his day in 20th-century Western Europe?

Where was David's thinking? Was it pushing more towards a confirmation bias, where the things he believed and was taught influenced the way he perceived the world around him? Or perhaps Bertrand Russell was similarly influenced by the experiences of his life. Which one was wrong?

About a thousand years after David and two thousand years before Bertrand Russell, another author of the Scriptures wrote this in Romans chapter one. Paraphrasing some verses, the Apostle Paul wrote, "Since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes have been clearly observed, being understood by the things that are made, even God's eternal power." This means that humanity is without excuse. Although humanity knew God, they did not want to retain God in their minds. They refused to worship and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. Instead, they became foolish in their thinking and imaginations. As a result, their minds became dark and confused, and they began to glorify the creation instead of the Creator.

The one who made it is discussed in Romans chapter one, verses 20, 21, 25, and 28. The Apostle Paul wrote these words two thousand years ago. Perhaps David and Paul were right. Maybe Bertrand Russell is merely professing an earthly wisdom, a rudimentary wisdom.

Just this last Christmas, December 25, 2014, an author and radio show host, Eric Metaxas, wrote an interesting article for the Wall Street Journal. He noted that in 1966, Time Magazine ran a cover story asking the question, "Is God dead?" Many people remember that cover story. Is God dead? Many have accepted the cultural narrative that God is obsolete, believing that as science progresses, there is less of a need for God to explain the universe. Yet it turns out that the rumors of God's death were premature. More amazing is that the relatively recent case for His existence comes from a surprising place: science itself.

Metaxas continues with the story. The same year that Time featured the now-famous headline, "Is God dead?" the astronomer Carl Sagan announced that there were two criteria for a planet to support life: the right kind of star and a planet at the right distance from that star. Sagan went on to say that given the roughly octillion (one followed by 24 zeros) planets in the universe, there should have been a septillion (one followed by 21 zeros) planets capable of supporting life. With such spectacular odds, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, a large and expensive collection of private and publicly funded projects launched in the 1960s, was sure to turn up something soon.

Scientists listened with a vast radio telescope network from around the world for signals that resembled coded intelligence and were not merely random. However, as the years passed, the silence from the rest of the universe was deafening. Congress defunded SETI in 1993, but the search continues with private funds. As of 2014, researchers have discovered precisely bubkis, which means zero followed by nothing.

What happened? As our knowledge of the universe increased, it became clear that there were far more factors necessary to support life than the two that Carl Sagan had supposed. His two parameters grew to ten, then twenty, and then fifty. Consequently, the number of potentially life-supporting planets decreased accordingly. The number dropped to a few thousand planets and continues to plummet. Today, there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life, every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart. The odds against life in the universe are simply astounding.

In December 2014, point number one in your outline is that God is not silent. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth His handiwork. David, 3,000 years ago, a mere shepherd sitting outside, beheld a sheep and wrote in Psalm 8, which correlates with Psalm 19. He said, "When I consider the heavens, the moon, and the stars, what is man that You are mindful of him?" Looking at the night sky, he recognized that there is a God.

In Psalm 19, he states, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the earth shows forth Your handiwork." Day unto day, verse three, they utter speech; night unto night, they reveal knowledge. There is no speech nor language; their voice is not heard. They do not speak with actual words or make utterances, but just the fact that they exist—day and night—creation declares the praise and glory of God without a single word, without ever saying anything in any language. They declare that God is.

He continues in Psalm 19, verse four, reading from the New Living Translation. He says, "Yet their message, the message of creation, the heavens, has gone out throughout the whole earth, and their words to all the world." What message has gone out to all the world from the heavens? That God is. He is there. As Francis Schaeffer once said, "He is there and He is not silent." And yet, there are some who say, "You have not given us enough evidence."

The great Greek philosopher Aristotle, in the fourth century BC, wrote this: Should a man live underground and converse only with the works of art and mechanism? If there was a man who spent his entire life suppressed underground, with only the opportunity to look upon art and talk with the artists, and to observe inventions and converse with the inventors, he would eventually be brought up into the open day. Upon seeing the several glories of heaven and earth, he would immediately pronounce them the works of such a being as we define to be God. Aristotle wrote that.

In other words, any thinking person looking at the data around us—the heavens, the earth, all that is upon the earth, humanity, every animal in the animal kingdom, every fish in the sea, and every bird in the sky—would have to conclude that these things require some sort of intelligent design behind them. There must be some engineer to create them. The heavens declare the glory of God.

John Boyce, a priest and dean of Canterbury in the 17th century AD, wrote this: The preaching of the heavens is wonderful in three respects. First, it preaches all night and all day without intermission. The heavens, the earth, and the creation that God has made are the greatest preachers around. They never stop; they preach without intermission, day and night, for thousands of years. They have been sounding forth these words: God is.

Boyce continues, noting that not only is there no intermission in the preaching of the heavens, but secondly, the preaching occurs in every kind of language. As an American, I am fluent in one language, which limits my ability to express the glory of God in the language I know. Yet the heavens and the earth speak forth about the Creator without needing to use any specific language; their mere existence serves as proof that God is.

Boyce goes on to say, thirdly, that this preaching occurs in every part of the world. There is no place that is outside the reach of the preaching of this great preacher, the cosmos that God has created.

Point number two on your outline is that man is without excuse. God is not silent, and man is without excuse. Bertrand Russell was inexcusable. The deep complexity in creation, from the subatomic level to the astronomical level, cries out for an intelligent designer. We need to create incredible engineering at unbelievable costs. These huge networks of radio telescopes reach out into the cosmos to try and see if there is any sort of intelligent data coming back. We require all kinds of engineering to do this, and then to look out into the cosmos and say that it just happened, with no engineering whatsoever, is absurd.

We also need great, huge particle colliders to examine the subatomic level. The engineering and everything that goes into making that happen is immense, with thousands of people working on it. Then, we look at things at the deep subatomic level and say that this amazing intricacy and complexity just happened. The heavens declare the glory of God so much so that man is without excuse.

Point number three on your outline is that creation proclaims God's existence and glory. It proclaims God's existence and His glory. David continues in Psalm 19, verse four, with the second portion: "In them, in the heavens, He, God, has set a place, a tabernacle for the sun." I can see in my mind David there, out in a field somewhere in Judea, overlooking some sheep near Bethlehem, near Jerusalem, where he grew up and lived. As he looks at this, he sees the sun that rises every single morning, crosses the circuit of the sky, sets, and then comes back to do the same thing day in and day out.

As he observes this, he acknowledges that God has set the place for this unbelievably massive star. In the realm of stars, we are told that it is actually quite small, but here is this great star, this beaming, booming, burning ball of fire in the sky. God set it there, established its course, and it runs that course every single day. All the time, it is running that course, and we can watch it be in its place.

Aren't you glad that it doesn't just erratically move? That would be kind of freaky. God set it in its place. He has set a tabernacle, a place for the sun. David, speaking metaphorically in verse five, says that the sun is like a bridegroom coming out of the chamber. Picture in your mind the bridegroom; he's getting ready to go get married. There's nothing standing in his way. Nothing is going to stop him. Similarly, the sun is like a bridegroom coming out of this chamber. Nothing stands in the way of the sun and stops it.

He goes on to give another metaphor, saying it rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Imagine the strong man at the starting line. The gun is shot, and he runs. There is nothing standing in his way. David says that such is the sun; it is rising. In verse six, he notes that it rises from one end of heaven and makes its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

God has set this light in the sky. In Genesis chapter one, He said, "Let there be light," and then He made the stars. He made the sun to give light to the time that we call day. What does it do? It reveals this awesome creation that God has made. It makes it clear so we can see it, so we can behold that which cries out that He is. God is now in beholding these things of creation. When we observe the heavens, when we observe the earth, and when we observe all the things that are around us that God has made, we see this signpost pointing to the fact that God is.

This whole thing is what theologians call general revelation. General revelation is awesome because it doesn't stop. There is no language that is hindered from hearing from general revelation. It continues on and on everywhere in the world. However, it is limited, but it reveals three very simple truths.

General revelation, number one, reveals that God exists. When you look at these great things, we are hit with this truth: God exists. The second thing that we come to realize through general revelation is that this God who exists is intelligent. He must be pretty smart to engineer all this stuff, to make all of it work just perfectly, from the astronomical to the subatomic and everything in between. He is an intelligent God.

Engineer and designer, through general revelation, we see that God is intelligent. Thirdly, we see that He has great power. God is powerful; He has the resources and the ability to put all of these things together to make it happen. What scientists call the Big Bang is phenomenal power—that's God. Though our minds cannot grasp Him because He is so far beyond our way of thinking, He is intelligent and He is powerful.

Now, through general revelation, we can be led in the first step towards what I would call the lowest level of faith. This lowest level of faith is spoken of in the New Testament in a book called Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, the author of the book of Hebrews says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe, number one, that He is." This belief that God is the author of the book of Hebrews goes on to say that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

Specifically, in the book of Romans chapter 1, but also in other places in the Scriptures, we find the regrettable truth that man, in his fallen state, when presented with the evidence of general revelation—the heavens declare the glory of God and the earth shows forth His handiwork—will default towards idolatry. Fallen humanity, in a cursed and fallen world, when presented with this evidence, will worship and serve the creation more than the One who created it.

Why is that? Why do we, in our fallen nature in this cursed world, default towards idolatry? For a number of reasons. The first reason we default towards idolatry is that the God who created you and created me hardwired us to worship.

He created us to worship. We are different from all the rest of creation, from all the things that walk around on this earth. We are unique in that we are created to worship. We worship; we are given to that. That's why every single person in the world, even those who consider themselves atheists, still worship. They worship and serve themselves. They worship and serve the cosmos, but we are created to worship.

You don't see monkeys worship. Your dog does not worship, even if you might think it does. We are created to worship. When presented with the evidence in a fallen world, we, as fallen creatures, will default to the worship of something. Typically, we will default to the worship of creation, which is idolatry.

Another reason we default toward idolatry, as Romans 1 makes very clear along with other passages, is that man in his fallen state does not want to retain God in his mind and knowledge. Furthermore, man does not want to surrender to God. If there is a God—and I am obviously working from the presupposition that God is—then that God, who created everything we see and even the things we don't see, created you and me. This God has the authority as the creator to give commands according to His will. He has the authority, the privilege, and the power to dictate to you and me what He requires of us.

So why is it that humanity in a fallen state will default toward idolatry? First, they are given to worship. Secondly, they do not want to retain God in their knowledge. Thirdly, they do not want to surrender to Him. Any honest atheist, and I have had conversations with a number of atheists, ultimately reveals that they are not really atheists; they are just agnostic. They say, "I don't know," at the end of the day.

For someone who claims to be an atheist, any honest one knows that it is actually a self-defeating argument to emphatically say that there is no God, that there is no being capable of making such an emphatic statement. They cannot do that. When you really begin to talk with an atheist, every single time I have engaged with them, it has come down to this: most of them, in fact, every single one I have talked to, is mad at God. They do not want to submit to a God like that.

That's what they say. They don't want to retain God in their knowledge, and they don't want to surrender to God, so they opt for idolatry. Even when they see the miraculous, there's a great picture of this in the book of Acts, specifically in Acts chapter 14. A man by the name of Paul the Apostle and another man named Barnabas are working in a region called Galatia. They are preaching the gospel and heal a man who is lame.

When the people of the region, I believe Iconium, see these men heal this man, instead of worshiping God, who brought the healing, they drag Paul and Barnabas to one of the temples. They want to proclaim them to be gods and worship them instead of God. In our fallen state, we will default towards idolatry.

Through general revelation, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth His handiwork. This revelation indicates that God is intelligent and powerful, yet no one will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through it. General revelation is limited, which is why we need special revelation.

Look at Psalm 19, verse 7. David moves from general revelation, where the heavens declare the glory of God, to special revelation. He states, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Moreover, by them, as your servant warned, in keeping of them there is great reward."

If you were with us last week as we opened this series in the Psalms, we discussed Psalm 1 and the Psalms in general. These are songs written as Hebrew poetry, which uses a device called parallelism. The device being used here is known as synonymous parallelism. David is speaking about the Word of God, the revelation of God, this special revelation from God, and using this device of synonymous parallelism, he expresses the same idea in multiple ways.

Different ways, parallel ideas pointing to the same thing. In this passage, David gives six descriptive titles to the revelation of God. He provides six characteristic qualities of this special revelation and six divine effects of this special revelation.

He begins with these six descriptive titles of the Scriptures. He calls God's special revelation the law of God, the testimony of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and the judgments of the Lord. This revelation, this special revelation where God speaks to humanity through individuals we refer to as prophets, is significant. In old times, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. God speaks to holy individuals who are inspired by the Spirit of God to speak forth the word of God. Here, David emphasizes that revelation; that special revelation is the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and the judgments of the Lord.

David gives those six descriptive statements about God's word. They all point to the same thing. It's not different things; there is not one thing called the law of the Lord, another called the testimony of the Lord, and yet another called the statutes of the Lord. These things are all one, and he uses different words—synonymous parallelism—to express this revelation, this special revelation.

Next, he describes some characteristics, some qualities about this Scripture. He states that it is perfect, sure, right, pure, and clean. The sixth quality he presents is expressed in parts: it is true and righteous, desirable and sweet. Therefore, the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, and the statutes of the Lord are perfect, sure, pure, clean, true, righteous, desirable, and sweet.

Then he moves on to discuss the effects, the divine effects of the Scriptures, the revelation of God. First, he states that it converts the soul. There are those who are against religion, those who proclaim themselves atheists or agnostics, who believe that religion is a bad thing. Richard Dawkins would be one of them, and the late Christopher Hitchens was another. A number of different individuals have a significant voice in our culture today. They present themselves as atheists and argue that religion is detrimental, claiming that the only good of religion is that sometimes it changes behavior.

Sometimes it changes behavior. Many people think that the only good of religion is that it imposes some sort of morality on certain kinds of people, but that is the only good it could possibly do, as many atheists will say. Yet here, David says it is much deeper than that. The testimony of the Lord, the law of the Lord, converts you at the deepest level. It converts your soul. The awesome thing is that this transformation is unexplainable by science. Every single one of you who has experienced it has what we call a testimony.

When you talk with a person who is not a believer, they may say, "I don't know if I believe in God." You can respond by saying, "Let me tell you what God did in my life." You begin to talk about your conversion and how God transformed everything about you from the inside out. How many of you know that there are people you used to know and spend time with who now look at you and say, "Man, something strange has happened. I don't even know what it is." This transformation is called the conversion of the soul. The law of the Lord is perfect; it converts the soul.

Secondly, he says that the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, makes wise the simple. How many say amen to that? It makes wise the simple. It doesn't only give us knowledge; it gives us wisdom. What's the difference between knowledge and wisdom? I recently heard someone say, and I thought it was good: Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in the fruit salad. It is knowing what to do with what you know. God, through His word, makes wise the simple.

He rejoices the heart at the deepest level. He brings joy to the person who is suffering the greatest pain and loss. He brings joy to the heart and enlightens the eyes. How many times do we read in the Gospels about a practical manifestation of this? When Jesus, who is called the Word of God, gives sight to the blind, we have that great story. Pastor Mark taught on it not too long ago in John chapter nine. There was a man who was blind, and now he sees. The religious leaders, the elite of his day, brought him before them and asked, "How did this happen? Who did this? What?" They asked him all these detailed questions. He replied, "Listen, I don't have an answer for all your questions. All I know is I was blind, and now I see." They were in an uproar because they couldn't answer that.

The word of God enlightens the eyes. It endures forever. The word of God, the testimony of the Lord, and the statutes of the Lord will go on forever. It brings warning and reward. It warns us of our duty and the dangers we face. In keeping of it, there is great reward—not just a reward, but great reward. People are endeavoring to try and earn great rewards in this world, but I can guarantee you there is no greater reward than the one that will come as you seek out and apply the word of God. In the keeping of them, there is great reward.

We have here not just the general revelation of the heavens declaring the glory of God, but we also have the special revelation of the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the commandments, the fear, and the judgments of the Lord. These are perfect, sure, pure, right, clean, righteous, true, desirable, and sweet. They convert our souls, make wise the simple, rejoice the heart, enlighten the eyes, and endure forever.

Point number four on your outline is that God has gone to great lengths to make Himself known. I will say, I am terribly sorry, sir, but you did not give us enough evidence. God has gone to great lengths to make Himself known. He is there, and He is not silent, which is why we as a church are so committed to giving forth the Scriptures, the word of God.

The New Testament, time and time again, shows Jesus and the apostles declaring to those they were teaching to preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. We are called to speak forth the word of God. This is why the church, for the last 2,000 years, has gone into all the world preaching the word of God.

We are committed to the Scriptures because we believe they are the law, testimony, statutes, commandments, fear, and judgments of the Lord. They are perfect, sure, and right. They convert the soul and make wise the simple. Therefore, we are committed to these things. His word transforms and renews us from the inside out. It makes us wise for salvation and His will.

It brings joy to joyless hearts, opens dim and blinded eyes, continues forever, warns us of our duty and our danger, and gives us the remedy. It yields to those who study, memorize, meditate, and apply it a great reward. David writes in Psalm 19:12, "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me, God, from secret faults, even those things that I am not even aware of. Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins, from running headlong and boldly into sin. Guard me from that. Let them not have dominion over me. Free me from the burdensome bondage of sin and death. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."

In these last verses, verses 12 through 14, David subtly and prophetically, under the inspiration of the Spirit, moves from the general revelation of God to the special revelation, and now to the last form of revelation, which is essential. We call that personal revelation. This personal revelation came through an event that we call the incarnation, where God became a man. Notice that the last word, "Redeemer," is capitalized because it speaks not of a thing, but of a person. Who is it? Who helps us to understand our errors, cleanses us from secret faults, keeps us back from presumptuous sins, releases us from the bondage of sin, and makes us blameless and innocent of great transgression? The Redeemer, Jesus.

So, point number five on your outline: we must endeavor to make His greatness known. Who? The Redeemer. We, as the people of God and as a church, must work and endeavor to make the greatness of Jesus known to our community and to the uttermost parts of the world. How do we do that? One way we do it, which we will do in a few minutes as we partake of communion, the bread and the cup. You may ask, "How is that proclaiming the Lord?" Well, we read in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians chapter 11...

The act of eating this cracker and drinking this juice is done in remembrance of Jesus. We proclaim His death until He comes. Through this very simple act, which we do regularly about every seven weeks here at Cross Connection, we declare that Jesus, the Redeemer who died on the cross, is no longer dead and will return one day. We proclaim His death until He comes.

Another way we endeavor to make His greatness known is by sending out a family from our church to plant another church, a new Cross Connection, thousands of miles away on the East Coast. I want to invite George and Janelle Lim up here. You may know George and Janelle if you've been with us for the last couple of years, as they help lead us in worship from time to time.

I met George five years ago at Calvary Chapel Bible College while teaching a class on Isaiah. He was among the 40 or 50 students in that class and happened to be the best student there. He then took my Jeremiah class, and once again, he was the best student. As we started to get to know each other, he shared with me a desire that was in his heart and in his wife's heart to plant a church in Connecticut, of all places, in Glastonbury, Connecticut. I have no idea how that became the place where they felt God was calling them. They are both born and raised in Southern California, which makes it even more surprising.

For five years, they have had this desire in their hearts and have been praying about it. They came to be a part of our church, to become a part of this family, with the hope that we would prayerfully send them out one day to plant a church. Now, they are going to be doing just that. They leave next Sunday after the service. We will pray for them one more time before they go. They will get in their cars and drive across the country. There is a job waiting for George back in Connecticut, and their prayer and plan is to plant a Cross Connection church in Glastonbury.

We want to pray for them today. If anyone would like to come up and pray with us, please do so. We want to lay hands on them and lift them both up to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank You for this couple and their three kids: Georgie, Cade, and Noel.

And I lift George and Janelle into Your hands. I thank You, Lord, that Your word has converted their souls. Your word has made wise their simple hearts and minds. Your word flows in their hearts and in their minds. They meditate upon it day and night, and You've given George a gift to lead in worship and to share Your word.

We pray, God, that You would use this family—not just George, but this family and anyone else that might come alongside them—to see a church established and planted in Glastonbury. Lord, we read in Your word that they labor in vain who try to build without recognizing that You're the one who builds the house. So, Lord, we pray that You would establish in their hearts the work that You are doing, and ultimately, through their lives, You would establish this church. You promised that You would build Your church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

So, God, we pray that You'd pour out Your blessing and Your Spirit upon them, that You'd use them in a mighty way to be a light in a dark place. Guard their hearts from discouragement when discouraging things come. Lord, give them faith in the right time as it's needed. Give them joy even when there are sorrowful things, and provide for every need that they have.

We thank You for the financial provision You've already provided for them to move across the country, for the job that You've given to George in Connecticut. Lord, as they wanted to step out in this direction a year or two ago and the door was not open, yet now You've thrown open the doors, and we thank You for the open doors. We know that where there is an open door, there are obstacles that come against it.

Lord, would You give them the faith to walk through those things? We pray that none of those obstacles would be evident as they drive 3,000 miles across the country. Bless their trip, provide for their needs, and help them to meet new friends and family members in Connecticut—men and women that You're already stirring and drawing to Yourself. Use the word that is preached through their lives and by their mouths.

You'd use their three kids, who are already evangelists, Lord, to draw people to Yourself. We pray for Connecticut, Lord. It's interesting that Connect is in Connecticut. So, Lord, we pray that You'd use them in a great way. Bless them. We commit them into Your hands, and we thank You that You will use them as an extension of this church. We thank You for the friends that have gathered around them here over the last few years that they've been a part of this fellowship.

Lord, bless them, we pray, in Jesus' name.

All those that agree, it's said. Amen. Amen. Amen.