One Hopeless Saturday

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Am I coming through? Is this going to sound okay? This is our half-mile hailer that Brother Mike uses for outdoor preaching, so we're hoping it reaches at least a half a mile this morning.
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I want to invite you to open up your Bibles with me if you have them, and turn to Matthew chapter 28, and we are going to read verse 6.
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Matthew chapter 28 and verse 6.
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This is in the midst of the story of the resurrection, and this is the angel speaking to the women who had come to anoint the body of Jesus.
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In verse 6 he says, He is not here, for He has risen.
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As He said, Come, see the place where He lay.
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May God add His blessing to the reading and to the hearing of His Word.
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May God watch over us as we study.
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May God keep me from error as I preach.
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And may God be glorified in the proclamation of His Word.
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Amen.
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Many years ago, off the coast of Massachusetts, a submarine sank into the ocean.
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As soon as was possible, rescue divers began to go down into the dark waters to look for the ship, to see if they could find any survivors.
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As the divers were circling the submarine, they heard a tapping from within the hull.
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It was the tapping of Morse code, the dots and dashes of Morse code.
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The question that was being asked, Is there hope? That is the constant cry of a broken and fallen humanity.
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Is there hope? That is the question that is on the lips of every person who has ever received a bleak medical diagnosis.
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Is there hope? That is the sentiment of every parent who has ever watched a child go down a path of destruction.
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Is there hope? That is the internal struggle that all deal with at one time or another, when they begin to contemplate the reality of their own mortality.
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Is there any hope? Just a few short weeks ago, our world began to change in ways that none of us could foresee.
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Because of the threat of an unseen biological danger, some people have in fact lost their lives, and many other people have lost their livelihoods.
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Store shelves have become battlegrounds for the most basic of essential items.
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Businesses have been forced to close.
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Employees have been laid off.
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Schools and colleges have shut their doors.
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Teachers have been forced to work online.
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And even the church has had to manage itself differently.
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Pastors preaching to empty rooms, which I can honestly tell you is not something that I ever felt I would want to do and never something I want to do ever again.
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And this has had a profound impact on the hearts and lives of many people.
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Because of the combined effects of unemployment, loss of income, grief, isolation, and death, it is expected that cases of suicide will be on the rise, and in fact they are already on the rise in certain areas.
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K.
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Balakrishna, a 50-year-old father of three in India, was probably the first victim of suicide since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic.
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Panic is suspected to have precipitated his death.
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He convinced himself that he had the disease, that he was a danger to others and to his family, and so he took his own life.
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Emily Owen, a British 19-year-old, is likely the youngest to have committed suicide.
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She had no signs of the virus.
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She had not been diagnosed.
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But because of the fear of the lockdown and the impending isolation that would come, she was petrified with fear and she took her own life.
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Even the president of the United States has said very candidly that because of the decrease in the economy, the fall of the stock market, and all of the economic distress that will come as a result of the things that have happened over the last few weeks, that thousands will likely fall into a suicidal depression.
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Words like epidemic, pandemic, plague, cause fear, anxiety, grief, hopelessness, and despair to set in.
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And it causes people to ask the question, is there any hope? Two thousand years ago, on a hill outside of Jerusalem, the men and women who followed Jesus asked themselves the same question.
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Is there any hope? Their Lord had been taken captive in the middle of the night while he was at prayer.
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He had been dragged from one unlawful court to another, being mocked and spat upon.
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He had been beaten mercilessly with a scourge, an instrument of Roman torture.
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He had a rough wooden cross being laid across his back.
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Its splinters embedding themselves in his already open wounds.
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He was forced to carry this beam to the point of absolute exhaustion until he fell under the weight.
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He was stretched out on the cross, his arms being jerked in both directions and stapled to the beam.
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In his feet, a single nail was driven, fastening him to the post upon which the beam was now secured.
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The post was then hoisted into the air and dropped in a hole in the ground.
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His body weight, now a tremendous burden, pulled at the spikes in his hands.
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And he was suspended between heaven and earth.
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With every breath he took, more excruciating than the last.
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Then, after several hours of agony, he bowed his head and died.
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And at that moment, from the disciples' perspective, it would seem that all hope was lost.
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The Bible doesn't tell us what the disciples did on Saturday.
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But I've often wondered what that Saturday was like.
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Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, so we know they didn't just return to work.
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It was also in the midst of the festival of Passover.
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But it's likely that they didn't go into any type of celebrations.
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We can assume they were hiding away in a state of unimaginable grief and brokenness.
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They were filled with all kinds of unanswered questions.
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They were functioning on little to no sleep.
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The doubts that they had were now magnified and flowing through their minds.
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They had no internet.
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They had no television to distract them from the pain of the previous day's events.
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And Peter, probably above all, was heart sick and broken, having done the very thing that he said he would never do, deny the Lord Jesus Christ three times.
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Saturday is a reminder to us that Jesus did not rise immediately.
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There was a time span between His death and His resurrection.
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Only a portion of three days, but it was still three days, not minutes, not hours.
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Often we think of it as Good Friday to Easter Sunday.
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From good to better.
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But there's an interim time of worse.
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There's an interim time of brokenness.
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There's an interim time of hopelessness.
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And there's one thing I can tell you that they did not do on Saturday.
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I don't know what they did, but I know what they didn't do.
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They did not expect that Jesus would rise.
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Even though He said He would.
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Even though He promised He would.
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They did not expect that He would.
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And therefore, whatever hope they had in Jesus, died with Him on the cross.
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Beloved, I want to ask, have you ever been there? Have you ever been in a place where you felt like all hope was lost? Can you imagine, or at least sympathize, with the brokenness that the disciples felt? They were past asking, is there any hope? They were at the point where they were stating, all hope is lost.
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He's dead.
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He's gone.
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He's buried.
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It's over! Everything that we've hoped for, everything we've planned for, everything we've prepared for, is gone.
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But then, on Sunday morning, everything changed.
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And I don't mean everything for them, I mean everything for everybody who would ever live.
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The one who was beaten, the one who was bloodied, the one who was buried, was now no longer in the tomb.
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The clothes which once were used to wrap his lifeless body, were laying deserted in their place.
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The vault that was once closed, was now open so that the faithful women could come in and see.
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The guards, set to ensure his body would not be removed, were laying outside the tomb as dead men.
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And the angel messenger asked the now famous question, why do you seek the living among the dead? On Saturday, hope was lost.
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But on Sunday, hope lived! But realize this, the disciples were not ready to hope again.
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When the women came to them, and told them that Jesus was alive, Luke 24 verse 11 says, they did not believe them.
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When the women who had seen Jesus alive, came and said, we've seen him and he's alive, they said, this is but an idle tale.
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Why? Why were they unwilling to believe the very thing that Jesus promised? Because they were afraid to hope again.
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Their hope had become so destroyed in the death of their Savior, they were afraid to open their hearts and hope again.
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The last three days had been a nightmare.
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And it was almost as if they were saying, don't give me hope.
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But by grace, Jesus did not leave them in their hopeless condition.
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He came to them, he showed himself to them, and he gave them a newfound foundation for their hope.
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Even the most obstinate of them, Thomas, who said, I will not believe unless I see the marks in his hand, and put my hand in his side.
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Even he was given grace.
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Even he was given mercy.
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Where Jesus said, Thomas, put your hand here, and touch my side and know that it is I.
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And Thomas fell to the ground and said, my Lord and my God.
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Their collective hopes, which days before had been dashed to pieces, were now restored by looking into the face of Jesus Christ.
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Beloved, this hope that invigorated the apostles is the very same hope that our world needs today.
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Many people hope in their investments, and then the stock market crashes.
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Many people hope in their health, and then the doctor walks in the room.
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Many people hope in their career, and then the pink slip comes.
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Beloved, the Bible tells us not to put our hope in the things of this world, but to put our hope into the things that are above.
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Where is your hope today, church? We have seen structures fall.
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We have seen fortunes ruined.
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Where is your hope? We've seen lives lost.
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We've seen disease stricken.
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We've seen these things.
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Where is your hope today? I want to tell the story of a woman as I draw to a close.
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Her hands were full of rings.
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Her wrists were covered in bracelets.
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Her neck was laid with chains and precious stones.
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Torrents of lava fell from the sky.
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In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the city of Pompeii.
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Not too long ago, as those ruins were unearthed, this woman's petrified body was found clutching her jewels under the ashes of the volcano.
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In the midst of a world crumbling around her, this poor woman chose to hold tightly to the one thing in the world she felt like she could hope in.
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Her treasure.
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In her treasure, she found comfort.
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In her treasure, she found security.
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In her treasure, she found joy and pleasure.
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In her treasure, she set her hope.
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And when her time came, her treasure fell short.
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It could not save her.
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It could not protect her.
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That to which she clutched became her undoing.
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To what are you clutching today? Are you holding on to something that this world has promised you and cannot deliver? Were you holding on to something that's now been taken from you? What are you holding on to? And to what are you clutching to set your hope? Beloved, my encouragement today is that you would hold only to one thing, and that is the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
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The one and the only one whose promises cannot fail.
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To what are you holding? To what are you clutching? Church, where is your hope? We are sinners.
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We deserve God's punishment.
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Christ came.
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He died on the cross to take our punishment from us.
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And now He says to everyone who believes on Him, He will give them eternal life.
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If you will repent of your sins and trust in the Son, you will never suffer the wrath of God, but you will be in His presence and enjoy Him forever.
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That is the hope that is promised on the cross.
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That is the hope that is delivered in the resurrection.
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And that is the hope to which we must hold.
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For it is the only hope that will not and cannot fail.
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To God alone be the glory.
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Let us pray.
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Father, I thank You for the opportunity this morning to preach Your Word.
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Oh God, how I appreciate the candor of Your Word and the reminder that our heroes of the faith, the apostles, were not perfect men.
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But they had doubts and they had struggles.
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And yet, Lord, You still use them.
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You still love them.
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And You have promised to still use and love us if we will come to You by faith and repentance.
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Lord, I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice, for everyone who is hearing me with their ears this morning, and who will later hear this by recording, Lord, that they would come to the end of themselves, that they would realize the necessity of repentance, that they would realize the requirement that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that You would give them the gift of the Holy Spirit, whereby they will be able to believe in You.
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Father, please, give us hope and set our hope firmly in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And it's in His name we pray.
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Amen.