The Defeated Christian Life — David Guzik

The Defeated Christian Life

Tonight I want to talk to you about something that's been mulling around in my mind for several weeks. And if anything, I would just title this message tonight the defeated Christian life. Now again, it's not that I'm in favor of the defeated Christian life.

Hopefully tonight we'll talk about how to avoid the defeated Christian life. But it occurred to me recently that we don't talk much in those terms anymore in the vocabulary of the church. I might just be imagining things, but it seemed to me when I was a younger Christian.

We spoke a little bit more about victory and defeat in the Christian life. I hear more talk about victory than I do about defeat, but it struck me thinking Not too long ago that that's the problem with many Christian lives.

Around me and as I looked at my own Christian life at my own Christian life. That's been a problem at certain times and at certain points. To just say simply Your Christian life is suffering under some measure of defeat.

You're a defeated Christian. And it's going to stay that way until you do something about it to change it. If I could put the subject just most pointedly here I'd say that the real problem with many Christians and many Christian lives.

And if you want to extend it out, wouldn't you say the real problem with many families? The real problem with many churches the real problem with many communities is that Individual Christian lives are lived in defeat.

Defining a Defeated Christian Life

Now you might ask what does that mean to have a Christian life marked by defeat? Anytime I start throwing around terms like this. It's it's well and good for you to ask yourself. What do you mean by that?

Well, I don't know if you can give a scientific or even necessarily a Biblical definition of a defeated Christian life. I'll give you a suggestion of one this evening and to me. This is a good working definition that a defeated Christian life is marked by a conspicuous absence of any one of these three things.

A conspicuous absence of power peace or joy. Any one of those three things if there's a conspicuous absence of them in the Christian life I would say you're dealing with a defeated Christian. Now, I don't think we should say that a defeated Christian is someone who's going through trials.

We'll talk about that later. Not at all. Trials and defeats aren't necessarily equivalent at all. And nor should we accept what the world gives to us often as an image of defeat. You know oftentimes if we take a look at just the New Testament with with square or new eyes.

We see that oftentimes Jesus would have looked like he was defeated by the world's measurements. Here he is. How does he end his his career so to speak? Hanging on a cross unjustly condemned as a executed criminal and all of his followers have forsaken him.

That's a pretty vivid description of defeat the way the world looks at it. But we know Jesus wasn't defeated at all. So I'm not talking about the way that the world defines defeat just in the sense of success and failure.

I'm talking about what Christian defeat is like what defeat is like in the Christian life and again I would define it as a conspicuous absence of power. Peace or joy. Now, what do I mean by power? I don't mean the kind of power where a person can wave his hand and other people fall back because of some You know supposed move of the Holy Spirit.

I'm talking about the power to live a godly life when you find a person who seems powerless to resist sin a Temptation let's say to anger comes up and they give in to it consistently. There's no power there to resist it you look at their life.

And they may have an idea about the power or feel like it's in there. But there's no exercise of power in the Christian life to overcome sin to live in a godly way to step forward. For God's work in God's way.

I'd say where you see a conspicuous absence. I'm not talking about a hiccup. I'm not talking about a bad day any one of us can have those but I'm talking about a conspicuous Absence of power in a Christian life.

That's a Christian in defeat. How about this a conspicuous absence of peace. This poor Christian is Tied up in knots with anxiety. They fear about the future. They fear about this. They fear about that.

I Heard the message that Tim Coleman delivered in my absence last Sunday. What a wonderful message about fear and what a great antidote the peace of God is to that kind of fear. Well, I think that the peace of God is something that he gives to every one of his children.

This is something that God has for us. Our hearts should be settled and peaceful in him not that again that we won't have our moments of anxiety. But if the orientation of our life or if the direction that we're pointed is primarily lacking peace I'd say that's a defeated Christian.

I Mean look at them their faces screwed up in anxiety all the time. They're worried. They're fretting. Perhaps they're developing all kinds of problems and difficulties within their body because they lack peace.

Is this God's will for that believer? I don't believe so. I believe they're living a defeated Christian life. And the third measuring stick I would give and again, I want to stress that this isn't necessarily I'm not can't point you to chapter and verse that says thus saith the Lord.

These are the three marks of a defeated Christian. I'm just sort of observing this over my experience and my personal experience as a Christian. The third mark I would give is a conspicuous absence of joy.

Some Christians just seem to walk around miserable all the time. It's just they're hating life. You hardly ever see a smile on their face. And if you do see a smile on their face, it's not about the things of God.

There's not a sense of joy in worship in prayer in living the Christian life of satisfaction in God. They can be satisfied in any number of other things how their favorite sports team is doing how their stock portfolio is performing.

But there's no joy about the things of living the Christian life about their relationship with God. I would say where you see a conspicuous absence of that joy. That's a defeated Christian life as a birthright.

Of being born again in Jesus. God has given us power. He's given us peace and he's given us joy where you see a conspicuous Absence of any one of those three things in a Christian life. I'd say that's a defeated Christian life now.

Defeat Does Not Mean Loss of Salvation

Let me take pains to point out that the defeated Christian is still a Christian. We are not talking about a second-class salvation. The defeated Christian is just as much a Christian as the victorious Christian.

Because our standing is based on what Jesus has done for us. Not on what we can do or have done or are doing or will do for him. Our standing is in him. It's by grace that you're saved not of works. It's it's not of yourself.

Make no mistake about it. We're not talking about a second tier or a second class of Christianity. If you have one victorious Christian over here and one defeated Christian over there, they are brothers.

They are sisters in Jesus Christ, and they are both equally saved. You're not saved because you're on a good roll in your Christian life, man. It's been a good week. Wow. I'm extra saved now. No, you're not you're extra deceived if you're talking like that.

You know, the whole matter is we're saved by it by the work of Jesus and by trusting in that on our behalf. So we're not talking about a second-class salvation here. Then again, let me say just as strongly.

That the defeated Christian does not enjoy the Christian life the way that the victorious Christian does. You see we're not just talking about getting to heaven as if trusting in Christ is a ticket punch for fire insurance.

And well, I got my ticket. Well, then I'm okay. We're talking about enjoying the Christian life along the way. I Just recently got back from a river rafting trip. And it was a great time and it reminded me of one of the first times I think it was the second time I'd ever Gone with this particular ministry that runs river rafting trips a great ministry.

They have two out of the Calvary Chapel of Concord up in the Bay Area. One of the earlier trips I had gone with them I believe it was just myself and my two sons and then also in the boat. Was a woman and her young son and I don't remember exactly how old her young son was.

I'm gonna guess maybe seven eight nine years old and This young boy. Maybe it was just a phase. He was going through. Maybe he'd be the most delightful boy in the world right now, but on that trap. He was a trip.

He was a little terror. Not that he was so misbehaved. But he was so terrified of everything. That he just couldn't enjoy anything. The minute we started going through the smallest rapids. He would die for the center of the boat and not enjoy the ride and not in fun and all the rest.

He's got a life. He's got experienced guides all around him hundreds If not thousands of people go up and down that river every day without incident now. When the whole trip was over and they were towing our boat to the to the disembarking place and all the rest of it.

That boy was just as much in the boat and arrived at the final destination as anybody else in that boat. He just didn't enjoy the trip nearly as much. Myself and my sons. Oh, we had the greatest time man.

We loved it. We couldn't get enough of it this poor boy. He was just happy that it was over. Well, I think that that's a good analogy of what the defeated Christian life is like you get to the same destination.

But don't you want to enjoy it and have an impact along the way? I'll tell you something else about that little boy. Was one of the jobs you have to do on these these rafting trips is you have to paddle.

You have to be one of the engines on the boat. Well, this little boy did very little paddling. You know, he didn't get the joy of participating in the work and it's a joy to do that. But he survived and we're saying now it's not enough to survive in our Christian life.

We want to thrive. We don't want to live defeated Christian lives and I'll tell you if you're living a defeated Christian life, you're miserable. Now, you know, what's funny about that is you might not feel miserable.

You might feel pretty good because maybe other areas of your life are really firing off on all cylinders your career is just gone sky-high and You know, you're happy about that and so you're not so miserable about your defeated Christian life or maybe this relationship.

Or this project you're working on or whatever it might be. But the bottom line is this I'll still say that if you're living a defeated Christian life. You are miserable at least miserable in comparison to what it could be for you.

You could have so much more. I Know playing around with the cardboard box while the brand-new shiny bike is right next to you. Oh, and the cardboard box is fun. Well good. I'm glad you have it. But there's something so much greater for you if you start learning how to live a victorious Christian life now.

Trials Do Not Cause Spiritual Defeat

Where does defeat come from in the Christian life? Well, let me make it very plain where defeat does not come from a lot of times. We understand things best by understanding them in the negative what they are not and then we can understand what they are.

Defeat does not come from circumstances or trials. Oh. This is how we often think this is almost immediately the refuge our mind jumps for in a time of defeat. I'm Defeated because well, you know if you had a marriage like mine or a husband like mine or a wife like mine.

Wouldn't you be defeated? Come on? Or you know, you know. If you had in a as much debt as I have and all the bills piling up and the bill collectors are calling and this and That well, then then you you know, how defeated you would be too.

Or if you had my medical condition if you had my medical problems or my family's medical problems. You know, I could go on and on until I hit something that's close to you. But what's the point? You know, what's close to you and the bottom line is this?

Circumstances or trials do not make defeat. None of those things cause defeat. Look at this passage from 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses 8 through 10. This is the first of three or four passages. I'm going to want you to turn to this evening.

2nd Corinthians chapter 4 beginning at verse 8. Paul says. We are hard-pressed on every side yet. Not crushed. We are perplexed but not in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed.

Always caring about the body of the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. Was Paul writing from the context of defeat or victory utter victory. But look at him there look at his describes the circumstances crushed.

Persecuted struck down always caring about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That's how he felt. Now those are bad circumstances. Those are severe trials and think about it in your own life. You know what whatever trial you're going through.

You don't have to go very far to find another Christian that you probably know. Who's gone through the same thing even worse and they've emerged victorious? How come? How come you're in defeat, but they're in victory through this is it because God loves them more.

God has it out against you. Is it because you know, you're the special target of trials. I don't think so I think we often get confused on this point and it's easy to get confused here, but we have to avoid it like the plague.

Defeat does not come from circumstances or trials. Let me put it to you this way. God is not responsible for your defeat. Now he may be responsible directly or indirectly for your trial or for your circumstance.

But he's not responsible for your defeat. Defeat is your chosen response to That trial to that circumstance you chose defeat. Now what makes this very hard is that we rarely Actively choose defeat. Hmm.

Which is it going to be defeat or victory? I'll choose defeat. We usually don't think that way do it. Defeat is usually chosen by default by passivity. We fail to pursue what we need to for victory. Therefore we slip into defeat.

So let me make that very clear before I move on to my next point. Defeat does not come from circumstances or trials. Well, what is the reason for defeat in the Christian life. Well, I'm going to repeat to you something that I've been talking about a lot here on Sunday evenings.

Three Causes of Defeat: Prayerlessness, Self-Confidence, and Sin

Something that really struck my heart from Alan Redpath in his great commentary victorious Christian living which is a commentary on the book of Joshua and in that commentary in Writing on Joshua chapter 7 where Israel was defeated before their enemies at the Battle of Ai.

Alan Redpath goes in and he takes a look at the text there and it's right there in the text. We're not going to go through it here in Joshua chapter 7 this evening. But I'll just describe it to you briefly that he goes through and he takes a look at the three different elements leading to Israel's defeat and I would say defeat in the Christian life as well because the same principles apply.

The three reasons for defeat in the Christian life are these number one neglect of prayer. Number two self-confidence. Number three sin. And let me define a little more carefully what I mean by those things.

Neglect of Prayer

Neglect of prayer really means a lack of a real personal relationship with Jesus and if you do have a real Personal relationship with Jesus. I believe that that will display itself in dedicated time unto the Lord.

Not just prayer out of convenience. Listen prayer out of convenience is wonderful. I try to pray out of convenience. Don't you there? I am stuck at the red light and I hate waiting. My family knows this about me.

Not too long ago Engel and I we were on our way up to Santa Barbara and we left about five o 'clock. And I know that that's a bad traffic time, but it wasn't on a Friday. I believe it was on a Tuesday afternoon.

And I didn't expect traffic to be so bad. And I don't know what it was some kind of road construction some kind of Satanic outpouring from hell. I don't know what it was, but traffic was Horrible. It took us an hour.

Just to get to the other side of Ventura. We should have been to Santa Barbara by then and I am we spend so much time just sitting just sitting just sitting. Well, you know I was with my wife. So we spend the time.

I spend it half fuming half talking to my wife. But if I'm all alone, I have a choice. I can either you know sit and fume. But what I try to do is I try to pray. Isn't that a great time to pray when you're driving when you're stuck at a red light when you're sitting.

And you're standing in line at the supermarket. Yeah, you can look at all the covers of the magazines, but you probably don't want to do that. Once you just you know put your eyes on something else and and pray just think about things lift up people lift up people.

You know family friends pray for me for heaven's sakes. It's great to pray out of convenience. But listen, you will not build a strong Christian life out of praying out of convenience. There must be a place in your Christian life where you pray out of commitment.

This is a commitment before God that you will pray. And again, that's not to put down prayer out of convenience, but it's to lift up prayer out of commitment. Neglect of prayer is a sure cause of defeat in the Christian life.

Self-Confidence Versus Reliance on the Spirit

Secondly, I think we can say that self Confidence is a cause of defeat in the Christian life. Mostly what I mean by Self-confidence is Trusting in the strength of yourself in your own will instead of an active abiding Reliance on the Spirit of God.

It's the spirit filled Spirit walking believer who's not trusting himself. He realizes that the resources to live the Christian life are not within him. They're within God and so he has to keep a constant reliance upon the Spirit of God.

Now if you're living your Christian life relying on yourself full of self-confidence. You might be suffering under a horrible defeat and I feel very badly for you because you're suffering under this great defeat.

You have the best of intentions. Oh Lord, I want to love you. I want to serve you. I have to muster up the power to do this and you keep looking in it's sort of a spiritual version of gazing upon your Navel and just you know introspection and looking at yourself and all the rest of it.

Instead of actively putting your trust in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit whom he has sent. Self-confidence is a sure cause of defeat in the Christian life. Third I Would say a reason for defeat in the Christian life is sin.

Persistent Sin as a Cause of Defeat

Now I'm not speaking about occasional sin. The kind of sin that that just you know happens just through the normal course of Daily living where you sin and the Holy Spirit calls with you. Oh Lord, just forgive me of that.

I'm sorry. You know you catch yourself succumbing to a temptation or or you say a crossword or something like that. I'm not talking about sort of the day in day out Kind of sin that we need to constantly be cleansed of and we need to seek God just for that cleansing that washing of feet.

So to speak because our feet have been in contact with the world. I'm talking about Ignoring the presence of sin in your life or ignoring God's warnings about sin the kind of thing where if anybody were to follow you around at 24 hours a day and look at your life and If they were a believer and if they really cared about you if they could see you 24 hours a day.

They'd say wait a minute. What's this all about? This. You you mean you yell and scream. It's your wife this way. How long have you you've been doing this for years. And and you don't seem troubled about it.

You don't seem broken up and repentant. This is sin. How can you countenance this in your life or this area of compromise? Oh, look at you look at the way that you're flirting around the water cooler at work.

That's all it is. It's just pure flirtation and it's not like you do you slip up with it occasionally? You almost plan to do it every day and hasn't the Holy Spirit spoken here. Well, he has spoken your heart about it.

You've ignored it. Here it is. It's something that the kind of thing anybody would follow you around who could see your life day in day out there. They would look at it say What's that? This doesn't belong in the life of a Christian.

We both know this. You allow this to remain in your life you harbor this kind of sin and it is a reason for defeat. Now as I thought about this three-point list that Alan Redpath made again neglect of prayer self-confidence and sin.

I Sort of thought of it in these terms and this is just a suggestion. Maybe it'll make sense to you. Maybe not. But it kind of occurred to me that you can get along so to speak in your Christian life.

You can get along if one of these is weak or absent. I'm not saying you're growing. I'm not saying you're thriving as a Christian, but but you're kind of treading water if two of these are weak or absent you're in defeat that's all there is to it and Since the three of these are vitally connected one to another.

Why are you neglecting prayer so much? Well because you're in sin. And your heart's cold towards God. And so why are you having such a struggle living your Christian life? Well because you're relying on yourself.

You're not you see how all three of them feed off of each other. Most the time in a defeated Christian you have all three of these very present and active. Now I think it's helpful for us to understand how the dynamic of defeat works in the Christian life because it's possible for us to paint a Caricature or a straw man of what defeat looks like.

Defeat’s Subtle, Self-Reinforcing Dynamic

Do you know what a straw man is? We speak about in debating terms using a straw man. A straw man is a false argument sort of like a boogeyman that you set up on the other side and you Exaggerate the problem so much and you make it seem so ridiculous that it's easy to attack the straw man but not the real problem that faces us and I think that defeat in the Christian life as I look at it as it has been Evidenced in my own life in the past.

It's a very slippery thing. Satan doesn't want defeat to come crashing down upon you. He wants to gently slide you into a place of defeat subtly. So you hardly know it until one day you wake up and you would look around and with an honest heart you would say My Christian life is far more marked by defeat rather than victory.

You may be hearing me speaking already and you may be thinking well I think I'm having a defeated Christian life right now. Pastor. David must be very angry with me. I'm not angry with you at all. I'm very sympathetic towards you.

I Know what you're going through. I've probably experienced very similar struggles to yours. But at the same time I want to encourage you and lift up your conception to say you don't have to live this life of defeat.

But it's a slippery thing when you're caught in it. Turn in your Bibles to 2nd Chronicles chapter 28. This is a a most might I say unusual and fascinating Passage that speaks about the dynamic of defeat in the Christian life.

2nd Chronicles chapter 28. Take a look starting at verse 22. It says now in the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the Lord. Not terrible. There's the trial the time of his distress and what did the trial do?

He allowed it to push him further from God. He became increasingly unfaithful to the Lord. Now it wasn't the distress that did it the distress could have driven him closer to the Lord. But he allowed it to drive him farther from the Lord.

Anyway, that's the sermon in itself verse 22 now in the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the Lord. This is that King Ahaz for he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him saying.

Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them. I will sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. I think this describes a frightening dynamic in the Christian life.

That when we remain stuck in defeat we start looking to the very things that defeat us for victory. Isn't that a chilling phrase there? He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him. These were the pagan gods of another nation and because he felt he was defeated by those gods.

He said I may as well sacrifice to them. Again, when we remain stuck in defeat we start looking to the very things that defeat us for victory. Let me explain it to you this way. You're neglecting prayer.

You know how that is in your Christian life. I do. You know. Your heart is cold. You just don't feel like praying. You're too busy, right? And share with you a story about quiet time and without hopefully getting back to my son Jonathan I have to tell you that it was my son Jonathan because you need to understand that he's 11 years old and Jonathan is getting more and more introduced to the idea of having a personal time with God a quiet time with God.

Our leader of the the middle school group David Evans has been working with him and the other kids in that group about that and Jonathan had started off with kind of a lot of gusto about having a quiet time.

But he got discouraged in it fairly quickly. And so he he decided that he wasn't going to do that anymore and David Evans asked him. Well, why aren't you having your quiet time anymore? My 11 year old son just started summer.

This is what he said. I Don't have time. Is that classic or what? You know it encroaches on my video game playing time. Or am I running around in the street with my pals or just goofing off or this that?

He doesn't have enough hours in the day to you know. Spend 15 or 20 minutes in a quiet time now we laugh at that right that a little boy says, you know I I just don't know if I can work it into my schedule.

But is it any less? Laughable when we say it it really isn't is it it kind of takes the words of a little child to expose it for us. So, you know how that is in your life. You're neglecting prayer and so often how is it when you're in that dynamic of defeat and you're neglecting prayer?

You run from prayer. It's like the very thing that you need to enter into victory you run from it's like you're Sacrificing to the gods which defeat you. This is what prayerlessness is what's wiping you out and you sacrifice more and more.

To this so to speak idol of prayerlessness or the neglect of prayer. Might even say that you sacrifice so you don't have to pray and really see God. There's an impulse in you that wants to pray and you do want to pray because you're a child of God.

But you almost have to sacrifice to push down that impulse to stay in your prayerless state. You see what I'm talking about sacrificing to the gods that defeat you. But there you are you're stuck in self-confidence.

So what do you do for the solution you look to your own willpower for the answer? What you're sacrificing to the God that's defeating you. You have to stop looking for self power and willpower you have to crucify self before God counted as dead.

That old life is dead. It's gone. Look now for a transcendent power from outside of yourself. For Jesus Christ and the Spirit whom he has sent to live through you in power and glory. Or think of the person who's caught up in sin and they're resisting the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

What do we often do in those cases we follow after the sin even harder? Because as bad as that sin is and as much as it will mean our eventual ruin. There's a fleeting pleasure in that sin at least for the moment.

And so we want to grab whatever fleeting pleasure out of it with that we can but really if you think about it from a more Sober perspective it's insanity. You're sacrificing to the gods that have defeated you.

If you want to see the folly of this in any one of these three areas. Extend your road all the way from where you are right now to the end of that thing. You know, are you are you toying with sexual immorality?

Okay, great. Unleash yourself on that road. Go ahead. Just mentally unleash yourself down there. Give your life over to sexual immorality and think about the end of it all. Is it pretty or is it ugly?

It's ugly. You don't want that. You you you want to keep this in but just a little bit just just confined in the right place. But it doesn't work that way does it. You think well, I'll control this sin.

I'll keep it. I'll keep a leash on it. I'll keep it in a certain pen in my life and it won't get out and infect these other areas my greed my immorality my Selfishness, whatever it is, but but you come to a more sober perspective and realize that that's all folly.

Look at the end of that sin because you can't keep it penned up the way you think you can. The end of the road is certain. Did you see this in verse 23? It says but they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.

You almost think that if you appease the sin, it'll leave you alone. It'll end up ruining you and so I think it's very significant for us to Sympathetically understand the dynamic of defeat in the Christian life.

That defeated Christian they don't need a tongue lashing. They need encouragement. They need strengthening to come alongside. Believe me. They need some frank talk though. There's no doubt about it. I think that there's not enough frank talk like that in the Christian life.

Well, I spoke with in my counseling office just a week or two ago. Mulling these things around in my own heart and in my own life. He's talking about his problems and there's problems in his life. There's problems in his marriage.

There's problems in his career. There's problems just personally within him. With all the love I could express to him. I said brother. Can I kind of cut through some of the haze here? You're living a defeated Christian life and it's messing up everything.

You know what? It really resonated with him. He what could he say? It's true. Now I want us to realize though as much as we would sympathetically Reach out to the person in defeat, especially if it's ourself.

God’s Promise to Break the Cycle of Defeat

We need to understand too that there's a great promise of hope for the defeated Christian. Look at this passage in Isaiah chapter 10 turn right in your Bible to that big book of Isaiah. It's the biggest book in your Bible except for the book of Psalms, which is actually a collection of 150 books.

So in a very real way you could say that Isaiah is the biggest book in the Bible. Isaiah chapter 10 verse 20. It's a wonderful promise of hope for the defeated follower of God. It says Isaiah 10 20 and it shall come to pass in that day.

That the remnant of Israel and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob will never again Depend on him who defeated them. You know, that's where we were back in 2nd Chronicles, right? Depending on the one who defeated us.

But there will come a day when we will never again depend on him who defeated them. But we'll depend on the Lord the Holy One of Israel in truth. The great place of hope is this. God can break the dynamic of defeat in your Christian life.

God has not ordained for you to live in a Christian life marked by defeat. He can turn it around so that you will never again depend on him who defeated you never again. Oh, you're relying on that sin you it's a comfort to you hate it.

But at the same time you rely on it you depend on it. It gives some kind of consistency you're thrilled or voltage in your life. God says no there's going to come a time when you'll never again depend on him who defeated you and.

This needs to be our prayer. It needs to be our prayer for ourself. God give me great victory over these these things break me from the cycle of defeat and God Move me into this great place of victory.

Not just myself, but Lord show me other defeated Christians that I can encourage. Well, finally, I want you to turn to first Kings chapter 8. I didn't say finally in the sense of in conclusion I don't want to get your hopes up that I'm quite done yet.

Preachers have a way of doing that, right? The old story among preachers is that you know, but finally or in conclusion means there's about 20 minutes left to go. I Mean finally in the sense that this is the last passage of scripture that we're going to take a look at together here first Kings chapter 8 verse 33.

Solomon’s Prayer for Defeated Israel

Solomon in First Kings 8 is praying at the dedication of the temple and it was a spectacular dedication of the temple. If you ever been to a great grand opening of a you know Supermarket or a big shopping center or something?