Sunday Service 8/13/23 (Afternoon)

Please remain standing as we will go into the reading of God's Word.

The message is going to be a little bit different than what's in your bulletin. Pastor Conley obviously is not here this afternoon, he's not well, and so I'm taking his spot.

Instead of going through Isaiah, I thought it would be good for us to take a quick detour. I'd like for you to turn to the book of Jonah.

It's in the Twelve Minor Prophets, right before the New Testament. It's a short four -chapter book, and turn to Jonah chapter 1, starting in verse 17 and then into chapter 2.

Hear you this afternoon the word of the Lord. The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me.

And out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me.

All your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.

And the waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me, and weeds were wrapped about my head.

At the roots of the mountains, I went down to the land whose bars closed up upon me forever.

Yet you brought me up my life from the pit, O Lord my God, where my life was fainting away.

And I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.

Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love, but I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited

Jonah out upon the dry land. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

Father, we do come before you this afternoon praying that you would help us again by the power of your spirit to understand and discern what is right and what is true.

Father, lead our discussion, our time together this afternoon as we turn our hearts to prayer for your people, prayer for your glory, prayer for the things that are before us.

And we ask God that you'd grant us power from your spirit on high to do all these things and more for the glory of your name's sake, amen.

So this will be a fairly quick sermon, and the reason is because, of course,

Pastor Conley at the last minute wasn't able to do so. I didn't have a prepared sermon, but I felt like this would be an appropriate text for us to examine this afternoon, and the reason being is because doesn't it feel at times maybe you're in a season of life where you feel like you're in the belly of the fish, where you feel like you're surrounded and you have nowhere to go.

You feel like you're being closed in upon and your options are running thin.

This is what we find ourselves hearing in God's word in Jonah chapter 1. What's interesting and what's of note is

I know that previous years, a couple years ago, this church went through the book of Jonah, so the story may be familiar to many of you, and many are familiar with the basics of this story.

There's a guy named Jonah, he gets eaten by a big fish. Pretty self -explanatory, right?

A couple years ago I also went through this book and I preached through it, and I remember preaching through that very fact, the part where he gets eaten by the fish, and he survives.

He's in the belly of the fish for three days. The question that was brought up immediately, there was a guy who was visiting for the first time, and he asked me, do you believe that literally happened?

And I said, yes, I do. I never saw the guy again. The reason was because a friend of his who had invited me told me afterwards that he could not believe that we believed that that story was true.

Well, here we are. God's word is true. Is it not, brothers and sisters? We take God's word for what it says, and we believe that this story is true, and it's authenticated by the

Lord Jesus Christ himself in Matthew chapter 12, where he authenticates the story of Jonah.

What's remarkable about the story of Jonah is how little we actually know about the story and the circumstance that led

Jonah to the belly of the fish. What's also remarkable is how much we can learn from this story today.

When you look at Jonah chapter one, for instance, you don't have a whole lot of context. Here's what we know.

Verse one, now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Ammonite, saying, arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come upon me.

God calls Jonah, Jonah's the prophet, he says, Jonah, I got a mission for you. I want you to go to Nineveh.

Now here's what you may not know about the context surrounding this story. Jonah obviously is an

Israelite, and he is called to go to a place called Nineveh, which is not in Israel, not even close, and in fact, it was a city known for its wickedness in those days.

So much so, it's kind of like maybe how a lot of people think of maybe a modern wicked site today, if we think of evil cities across the world.

I'm not just talking about the United States, I'm talking about wicked places where there's lawlessness and there's chaos.

I'm not talking about San Francisco, but I'm talking about other cities around the world, maybe third world countries where it's just absolutely destitute.

And you probably wouldn't mind, or it wouldn't come to your mind to maybe pray for the salvation of a city like that.

You'd say, well, they've gone to hell already. They are reaping the reward of their wickedness.

And yet, God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh, this great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come upon me,

Jehovah says to his servant. Now here's what we can see come forward from the story.

Verse three, but Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the

Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish, and he paid the fare and went down to it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the

Lord. So Jehovah says, Jonah, you're my guy.

I want you to go to Nineveh. And what does Jonah do? He flees.

He flees the call of God. And how does it go for him?

Does it go well, or does it go terribly wrong? Well, in this instance, things begin to turn upside down for Jonah.

You know the rest of the story. He goes to the ship. Storms begin to encompass the ship as they're going away, and the people on the ship become suspicious and say, who has sinned here?

Who has done wrong here to now bring forth this wrath upon us?

And all eyes go upon Jonah. Have you ever been in a circumstance like that?

Probably not quite like this one, but where things are constantly going wrong and you're just asking yourself, what did

I do wrong? What has gone wrong in my life? What did I do wrong? Who's done wrong against me? What's going on here?

And we begin to try to find a reason for the evil or the calamity that is coming upon us.

Here's the moral of the story of the first couple of verses of Jonah. You see,

Jonah was called by God to live among a people, not his own. And that call, at least on the surface, felt like it was too big for Jonah.

Jonah did not feel prepared. Jonah did not want to walk by faith. Jonah did not want to obey the call, the command of his father, of his

God. Instead, Jonah went the way of flesh and decided to allow himself to be ruled by fear and not by obedience to his heavenly father.

And so Jonah was called to live among a people, not his own, and he was called to a people who look different, with a different culture, a different language, and a different set of customs than his own.

You can see how that could be a challenging call, and also because of the fact that Nineveh was known for its great evil.

How could God call me to Nineveh? Of all people, why would you call me,

Jehovah, to this great call? Why would you use me to go to these people? They're probably going to kill me.

And yet, Jonah decided not to walk by faith, but to walk by the flesh, and he fled the call.

You see, Jonah had written off this people and fled his calling to them, and no wonder he later finds himself thrown overboard where he has an encounter with a big fish.

Again, you know the rest of the story. He gets tossed over into the ocean, into the sea, and he's encountered by a big fish.

Now, people will speculate what kind of fish was it. All we know is that it was big. We don't know if it was a whale or a shark, probably not a shark, a shark probably would have enjoyed him a little too well.

Probably a whale of some sort, and it consumes him, but yet he doesn't perish.

Notice, again, what it says at the end of Jonah 1, verse 17, and the

Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

It was in this state, after disobeying the call of God, after being found disobedient to the master's call, he finds himself encountering this big fish that consumes him.

Now, not to draw too much parallels here, but I think it is appropriate to draw some.

I think it's appropriate for us sometimes to draw this parallel where we find ourselves in the belly of a beast due to our own failures, to see past our own prejudices, our preconceived notions, our comfort zones, and especially the call of God on our lives.

You see, God's calling may seem daunting. In fact, it usually is.

God's call upon our lives is usually bigger than us. It's usually bigger than one person.

Therefore, it is of such great importance that we recognize and realize this, that God's call in our lives is bigger than us because God is bigger than our hearts, it says in 1

John. God is bigger than our hearts. God is bigger than you. Therefore, what

He will call you to will often be bigger than yourself. We have to sometimes look past our failures, look past our prejudices, look past our preconceived notions, look past our comfort zones, and there we find the power of God's call.

Especially now living in the era of COVID -19 and diseases and inflation and all these things that we're confronted with, whether it be personal, family challenges, as we cope through these difficult times,

Jonah couldn't see past his own sense of identity. Even though God was asking him to be and to think bigger than himself.

Friends, it's no wonder we live in divided times, in divided times where we're driven by partisan lines, cultural lines, racial lines, and sometimes even county lines.

But division is actually nothing new. You see, it is human nature to find distinction and to divide based upon our distinctiveness.

Jonah, as he looked at this call to Nineveh, he probably started to point out all the differences between him, an

Israelite, a Jew, a worshiper of Yahweh, and all these other people. It's easy to draw distinction.

It's easy to cast others as just that, others.

But it's difficult to look past oneself and to the call of God upon our lives.

What's not entirely unlike us as human beings is when we find things that we find in common with others, we tend to stick with those people, don't we?

Here as a church, we're a very distinctive church. We have very distinctive beliefs and distinctive practices, and there's a comfort when we come around each other and we do the things that we are growing accustomed to.

But isn't it interesting when God calls us outside of our comfort zones, when God calls us to be called to a different people group, a different community, a different church maybe, a different job, a different set of people?

How will we do when the occasion arises for us to reach out to the others?

Can I tell you this, church? God is on a mission to find the others.

Those who have been written off, those who have been forgotten of, those who have been left behind,

God is seeking and searching for such individuals.

And do you know who he uses to reach such lost ones? You and I, the church.

The church is the modern day Jonah. We are called by God to a distinct people, not our own, to a people that is different from us, a people who have sinned against a great and terrible

God. This is our calling, brothers and sisters. And so what lessons is there to learn in the belly of the fish?

It is in the belly of the fish that Jonah recognizes his sin, recognizes his error for not following the commands of Yahweh.

And he says this in Jonah chapter 2 verse 1, Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his

God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress. He answered me, out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.

Jonah found himself what he calls in the belly of Sheol. This is literally in the belly of the beast.

Sheol is kind of another way of saying the grave or the place of death, the realm of the dead.

And he says out of the belly of Sheol, out of death itself I cried and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me and all your waves and your billows passed over me.

You know, the sea is a beautiful thing. Water is a beautiful thing. If you've ever been to the ocean or to a deep lake, and maybe as you're on the beach, you can see, like Lake Tahoe for instance, how many people have been to Lake Tahoe before?

A couple of you? I think everyone should go. It's beautiful, isn't it? And you go in Lake Tahoe and you put your feet in the water, and maybe you're waist deep, and you can see right to the bottom, can't you?

Isn't it incredible? Isn't it beautiful? Pristine, clean. But if you go further and further and further into the middle of Lake Tahoe, it is pitch dark.

Very dark hue, very dark blue. You can't even see to the bottom anymore. It is deep. It is dark.

It is billowy. It is scary. It's like looking into the depths of the deep, of hell itself, of Sheol itself, which is why appropriately

Jonah uses this language. Obviously, he's literally in the belly of the beast, in the belly of the fish.

He's literally in the midst of the sea, and he uses this language to describe death itself, to describe the state of the dead.

For he cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me, and all your waves and your billows passed over me.

This is a description, not just of literally what's happening around him in the belly of the fish, but also a description of death itself, and that state of separation from God.

Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.

The waters closed in over me to take my life. Deep surrounded me. The weeds were wrapped about my head.

Interesting, a lot of information here that's actually hearkening to Christ himself.

Notice how long Jonah was in the belly of the fish, three days and three nights, foreshadowing the coming burial of God's own son,

Jesus Christ, who was in the belly of the earth for three days. Likewise, as Jonah is, in a sense, alive in the belly of the fish, so Christ will also be alive, in a sense, as he goes into the center of the world.

And as he is praying out of distress to the Lord in the midst of his being drawn into the depths of the belly of the fish, so also

Christ, in Matthew's gospel, cries out to the Lord upon his crucifixion, my

God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So also, as it says here in verse five, that weeds were wrapped about my head, also foreshadowing the future king, who would be crucified with a crown of thorns.

You see, the difference between Jonah and Christ is that when

Christ was called to a people not his own, when

Christ was called to be selfless and to go down into the world that he created, to take upon himself human flesh, take upon himself the servanthood and also the form of servant and the form of the slave, he came down and he accomplished the will of his father.

He was the perfect Jonah. He did not disobey his father. He was indeed that perfect prophet who went to a people not his own to save a people from their sins.

And as the waters surround Jonah, it says in verse six, at the roots of the mountains, it's talking about the mountains of the deep of the ocean, and I went down to the land whose bars closed up upon me forever, yet you brought up my life from the pit,

O Lord my God, also foreshadowing the future resurrection of Christ.

You see, Jonah in this moment could reason, it's all done. My life is over.

I will die here in this pit, yet he knew something. And what he knew is that though he had sinned, though he had erred, though he did not obey the voice of the

Lord his God, he knew there was salvation. And where would that salvation come from?

He says in verse seven, when my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple.

Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love, but with the voice of thanksgiving,

I will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay, and he declares this word, salvation belongs to the

Lord. You know what's interesting of this text is that he confesses that salvation is from God and God alone.

But in the Hebrew in which this was originally written, there's an astonishing declaration here in verse nine.

Out of the belly of...in the belly of the fish, he declares a

Hebrew word. Now the name Jesus has a significance and it has power as we all believe and know.

The name of Jesus has power to save. But the name Jesus itself in the

Greek, Jesus, in the Hebrew, Yeshua, it literally means

Jehovah, Yahweh, the Lord is my salvation.

And this is the same exact word used here in the Hebrew. The words that he cried out in the belly of the fish was

Yehoshua, salvation belongs to the Lord.

Out of the belly of the fish, Jonah proclaims the name that saves.

The only hope for humanity, the only hope for mankind, the name of Jesus. And what he vowed, he repaid, that salvation belongs to the

Lord. Salvation is found only in Jesus.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, consider this, in times that we're living in that are so divided, where we even as Christians sometimes feel like we cannot step out of our own comfort zones to reach a people not our own,

I want you to have God's missionary heart towards all people.

In a few moments, we're going to be praying for nations and we want to pray with this heart in mind that we pray for people not our own who are different, who speak a different language, different culture, different backgrounds, different beliefs, different religions, and yet we are called to find even such ones for the kingdom of God.

At the conclusion of the book of Jonah, God demonstrates mercy to the outsiders.

So again, many of you know how the story ends. The belly, after this prayer, in verse 10 of chapter 2 of Jonah, it says, the

Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. And so Jonah now goes forward into Nineveh.

He preaches and messages, I mean, even at this state, he preaches to them begrudgingly. And to his surprise and even to Jonah's dismay, the people of Nineveh repent and turn to Yahweh.

At the conclusion of the book of Jonah, God demonstrates mercy to the outsiders whom

Jonah had originally written off. Now, in order for a people to start healing some of the visions that we face as a people, we should remember

God's heart for those who we consider the others or the outsiders.

Jesus often uses the outsiders and the rejects of society to put to shame the arrogance of our prejudices and to remind us that true unity is not the surrender of our distinctions, but rather in the embrace of love for God and our neighbors.

And that, friends, is the story of Jonah. To love and obey

God and to love our neighbors, even those who are a little further off, even those who are a little bit different, even those of a different custom, different culture, different background, we're called to love the outsiders and reach them for the kingdom of God.

Let me pray. Father, may you give us a missionary heart to reach those who are different, to reach those who are outside the camp, to reach those who are in the city of sin, and help us,

Lord, not to come to conclusions like Jonah did, where he begrudgingly preached the message and did not rejoice in their salvation, but rather,

Lord, let us look to Jesus, the true and perfect Jonah, the true and perfect prophet of God's people, who rejoices over the sinner who finds repentance.

Lord, help us to preach this message of repentance to the city of sin in which we are in, here in the

Bay Area. Lord, help us, Father, to reach all people of all nations, of all backgrounds, even in this place, in our neighborhood, in our communities.

Father, help us, Lord, to bring forth the Lord's compassion upon a people who do not yet know you.

And Lord, help us also, Father, to put these things into practice in our own lives, not to come to conclusions that would be ungodly, but rather, to have your heart and patience.

We pray, God, that you would relent upon the disaster that will come upon this place, should the people here repent.

And we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. Let's now sing together, as we stay seated, hymn 255,

Spirit of God that Moved of Old. Spirit of God that moved of old upon the water's darkened face, come when our faithless hearts are cold, and stir them with inward grace.

Thou, dark power, peace combine, all the highest strength, all purest love.

Thus quench thy sevenfold light, but still with softest breathing stir our wayward souls.

Amen. We're going to begin our time of prayer this afternoon, first for a prayer of confession.

Now, again, what was preached doesn't quite line up with what are the instructions for prayer as the message changed due to accommodate the afternoon change, but I think it'd still be good to pray around these lines that have been offered here in the bulletin.

And so let us take a moment to pray for the confession, and the confession being in particular that of fruitlessness, and that also can be combined with the message today in that Jonah did not produce the fruit that was required at first, but later on was found repentant and was able to do the work that was required of him.

And so with that being said, I ask that you find some people to pray with, small groups of two to four, and spend some time in prayer.

Once we're settled in those groups, I will offer the first prayer, and so I ask that you now begin to find some folks to pray with.

Let's take a moment of prayer to pray for this prayer of confession. Father, we come before you recognizing that we are indeed poor and lowly in spirit.

We pray, Father, that you would help us to see our true condition before you this morning. Lord, knowing that all goodness, all riches, all power comes from thy good hand, we pray,

Lord, that you would help us to see the fruitlessness that we have engaged in in our lives. Father, in which we have taken pleasure in things that produce no good spiritual fruit.

Lord, whether it be different forms of entertainment that do not please you, whether it be the company that we keep, whether it be the things that we entertain in our hearts and our minds, we pray,

Father, that you would help us to see the error of our way, just as you have called men of old and of renown in past times, such as the prophet

Jonah, who was called to the mission work of Nineveh, and yet did not obey and heed your call.

And in fruitlessness, he found himself in the belly of the fish. Lord, help us also to learn the lessons that were taught to us here in this prophetic literature.

Lord, to know that you, when you call us, you call us for a purpose, and you call us with the power to fulfill all that you've required for us to do.

And that power is through your Holy Spirit. And so, Lord, give us now, even this wisdom and this strength that comes from thy powerful

Holy Spirit, to do that which you've called us to do in this life, so that we may be pleasing to you now, and be with you forever in the next, unto the glory of your name.

In Jesus' name we do pray, amen. Well, beloved, we want to turn our attention in prayer now also to the needs of individuals and families.

We think of the needs of our pastors, and of particular Pastor Josh and his wife

Sue. We pray for them. We also want to think of Pastor Conley, who's not well this afternoon as well, and for his family.

And so I'm going to ask Brother John Burchett to come forward and pray for these things. Please pray with me.

Father, we are thankful that you are altogether unlike us, that even in our renewed state, with the

Spirit dwelling inside of us, yet there is corruption that sticks to us, even as we were taught in your own prophet, who had been used by you over many years, yet still,

Father, he hated the thought of your mercy shown to enemies.

Thank you, Father, that you are at work in us by your Holy Spirit, and that even as we live in this body together, in this local assembly, that your purposes are being accomplished in us.

We do pray, Father, for those in our number that are feeling sickness this week.

We think especially of the Owens. We think also of Pastor Josh and his chronic difficulties and Sue in these recent days.

We do pray, Father, you'd raise these up and restore them to their usefulness, the things that we need them for.

We do pray, Father, you'd give them faith to trust you as they are laid low, as it becomes more clear to them how little we can accomplish apart from your

Spirit. We pray you'd use this for spiritual good in them and make them more and more useful by this time of pruning.

We do pray also for Pastor Brian and his recent difficulties, especially with the allergies.

We pray also for those among us who are to take trips soon. We think of Benet and his mother as they'll be traveling in these coming days.

We pray you'd go with them, Father, and make it to be a profitable time for them, that you keep them safe and return them to us in your time.

Thank you, Father, for this body you've given us, that as you've reminded us of your goodness, that you would be at work in us producing that same mercy, that same goodness, that same willingness to give all for the good of another, that you'd be working that in us as we observe the example of your

Son, that we would be transformed into the same image, those that are willing to go to exhaustion for the sake of others, those that are willing,

Father, to endure hatred for your sake, those that are willing to go even to death, that we might bring you glory and that we might obey.

We thank you for the work that you've done in us, and we pray you'd continue it by your

Holy Spirit, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, beloved, now we turn our attention to praying for the ministry of the church.

We don't have any particular update for any of the churches in our network, but I did myself and Pastor Conley this week, did meet with a local pastor here in Santa Clara, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, a newer brother that's been preaching there for a few months, and we want to commit to pray for them as well in their time of transition, and so we're going to pray also for Calvary Baptist here in Santa Clara.

So let's pray together. Father, we come before you in the great and awesome name of Jesus, the head and shepherd of the church.

We pray, Father, that as we come and approach you in this hour, in this afternoon,

Lord, that you would help us to make known the riches of your grace and your mercy extended to us in Christ Jesus, through whom you have reconciled us to yourself to such a great salvation.

Lord, that the ministry of the church here at Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church would continue to grow in such a way that would be pleasing to you, not for mere effect of having more people in this building, but rather that more people would come to know you personally, to love you, to worship you, to walk in you, to be found in you.

And Lord, we pray that for all the churches that are in Jesus Christ this afternoon. We pray,

Father, that you would give us a spirit, that spirit from on high, that spirit that you promised before your ascension to the right hand of the

Father, that spirit that would bring forth power from on high, to do all these things and to be witnesses of Jesus in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.

And here we find ourselves, even on this day, in the ends of the earth here in the state of California, in Santa Clara Valley here.

We pray, God, that you would help us to preach the name of Jesus, to proclaim that salvation is of the

Lord alone, and to declare that just as Jonah said it in the belly of the fish, so we proclaim now,

Jesus, Yeshua, Yahweh, is our salvation. Help us, Lord, to make an impact in this community for that great and awesome name.

We pray, Lord, for the other churches in the area as well, that they would do so. We pray in particular for Calvary Baptist Church in Santa Clara, Father, we pray that you would grant them peace and grace from God the

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for Pastor Derek that is now there. We pray,

Lord, for his ministry and for his family, as he just had another little baby girl. And we pray,

Father, that you would bless that local congregation to continue to make an impact for the name of Jesus. And Lord, again, we thank you for all those who are faithfully preaching this gospel.

We pray for the strengthening of their souls and the encouragement of their people, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, beloved, we're going to turn our attention now to praying for rulers and the salvation of the world, that justice would dwell in the wilderness or in such places as we looked at the message there.

Jonah was called to Nineveh, a wicked city, so we, too, pray for the wicked cities of this world.

And Brother Ken will lead us in that prayer. Heavenly Father, this afternoon we lift up by your grace,

God, the West African nation of Liberia. Thank you, God, for the return of peace and of Christian ministry after 20 years of conflict and two civil wars in Liberia.

And we thank you that Liberia would begin to see an end to this poverty, death, and the stress that these trials have brought about.

And we thank you, God, for the beginning of healing that you have brought. Thank you for a rebirth of Christian ministries in this land.

Please help your church in Liberia to continue and to strengthen its witness and testimony to a people that have been brought to a place of need by so many years of tribulation and to help your church in Liberia also,

God, to show forth that path forward to true faith and forgiveness in Christ and away from tribalism, from fetishism and African pagan beliefs.

Let the newly liberated African and foreign Christian ministries there flourish to the praise of your grace and of the salvation of many souls in Liberia, God.

Help your church in Liberia to shine forth the love of your son in helping vulnerable populations in Liberia who are suffering from poverty and lack of food, of health care, and bless your local churches, too, also so that they would pray and give time and financial resources to the efforts of rebuilding in Liberia with sanitation, agriculture reclamation, education, vocational training, and help your church,

God, to proclaim the gospel to Muslims in Liberia in the face of a concerted effort by African Islam to expand there.

Help Liberian Christians to present your gospel to those still suffering from the effects of being former child soldiers, to those who are orphans because of the warfare, to students whose education was completely disrupted because of this turmoil.

So we ask, Lord, that you please bless the churches there, these churches that are blessed also by organizations such as Reformation Gospel Ministries in Liberia.

Help especially Pastor Carty and his Rose of Sharon Church in Johnsonville, Liberia. Bless the

Bibles and tracts and other teaching material that this church has received by your grace, God, unto the salvation and sanctification of many of your elect saints.

Please bless also the organization called the International Theological Education Ministries in Liberia.

Help their seminaries to raise up many young pastors and church officers by your grace. Please work through all of your wondrous and mysterious ways to save many souls in Liberia unto your glory,

God. Lord, closer to home in this Bay Area, we ask that you would give us pure hearts to pray for our leaders in government that by your grace,

God, you have put these leaders in positions of power over us, political power for our good, to bear the sword for the execution and administration of your heavenly justice on this earth and our communities around here so that we would be able,

Lord, to live peaceful and quiet lives and that godly industries and institutions would flourish here to the benefit of many people so that those who are willing to work would be able to form families and prosper,

God, and we just ask that you, Holy Spirit, that we ask that you would fill our local leaders with your wisdom, that they would know that they bear responsibility for the members of their communities and that they serve.

And we ask, God, that you would give them the fear of the Lord from which true wisdom springs so that they would understand that they toil not just for the good of their communities but also for the extension of heavenly authority on the earth so that they would have a divine—they would understand their divine mandate with all of the awesome responsibility that entails.

Make them cognizant, Lord, of the need to know and understand the awesome weight of sin in their own hearts.

Break their hearts, God. Break down their sinful and prideful defenses against the gospel of our Lord in whom there is no shadow of turning, in his giving of the gifts of repentance and faith unto the salvation of their souls.

Send many faithful Christians across the path of these leaders so that they will be left without excuse so that the bold declaration of the gospel before their eyes would be so clear and unavoidable that by the working of your spirit,

God, their hearts would no longer call Christianity to equal choice among many choices but instead that we would be able to rejoice with the angels in heaven when we learn that many in our leadership class have dropped their pretense of knowledge of spiritual things and turned instead to him who is the radiance of your glory,

God, and the exact representation of your person, the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

For this reason, God, we ask for the salvation and eternal life for the mayors of our communities, for Mayor Klein of Sunnyvale, Lisa Gilmore of Santa Clara, Matt Mahan of San Jose, Allison Hicks of Mountain View, Jeff Gee of Redwood City, Lily May of Fremont, Carmen Montano of Milpitas.

May these leaders and many more always do your will and learn Christ with saving faith under the glorification of your magnificent grace.

In his name, amen. Well, church, let's stand together as we close in doxology.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise him, all creatures here below.

Praise him above ye heavenly hosts.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Church, I leave you this benediction in the words of the Lord, be with your spirit and grace be with you. And all God's people said, amen.