The End

Take your scriptures and turn to the book of Zechariah. Zechariah and Malachi are the last two books in the Old Testament.

And we're going to look at the last chapter in Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 14. A day of the Lord is coming when your plunder will be divided among you.

I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it. The city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped.

Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle.

On that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.

You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah.

Then the Lord, my God, will come and all the holy ones with him. On that day, there will be no light, no cold or frost.

It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime, a day known to the Lord. When evening comes, there will be light.

On that day, living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter.

The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day, there will be one Lord and his name, the only name.

The whole land from Geba to Ramon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up and remain in its place, from the Benjamin Gate to the side of the first gate, to the corner gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal wine presses.

It will be inhabited. Never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure. This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem.

Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

On that day, men will be stricken by the Lord with great panic. Each man will seize the hand of another, and they will attack each other.

Judah, too, will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected. Great quantities of gold and silver and clothing.

A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps. Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the king, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain.

If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The Lord will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

On that day, holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar.

Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them.

And on that day, there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty. Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come.

Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. That's a good summary of Zechariah chapter 14.

So here we are right now struggling with dangers and toils and snares. There's dangers, spiritual dangers, physical dangers, but God's grace has brought us safe thus far.

Just think of our brother Jim Fisher's accident. If the accident had happened 20 or 30 minutes earlier, when Jim had his full load in his dump truck, we would have had Jim's funeral a few weeks ago.

But grace brought him through, and grace is going to lead us home. There's toils, hard work, labor that wears us out, that's part of this life.

But grace is going to lead us home. And then there are snares, snares of the devil, cunningly laid temptations, carefully laid.

There is sin that so easily entangles. And in ancient Rome, some gladiators fought with nets and a spear. And so if you were facing these kinds of gladiators, you had to watch out for both.

They would cast the net over you and stab you with a spear. But we are like men who've been caught in the arena. The net's been thrown over us. And yet every time, just in the nick of time, God comes and the snare, the net breaks, and we escape our enemy.

There has been many snares. And God is going to lead us home. And so that's where we are right now. But Zechariah 14 tells us that far worse is to come.

Terrible persecution. Apparent defeat. And it's enough to make us shake in our boots. It's enough to make us totally afraid.

And it's probably good that we only have a bare outline of what is to come. Or we would probably lose heart and lose our courage.

Jesus said, You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death. And you will be hated by all nations because of me. And at that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. The worst days are coming. But Zechariah 14 says, Grace is going to lead us home.

Even those things are not going to be enough to snatch us out of his hand. Even those things are not going to be enough to undo us. Grace is going to lead us all the way through all of these things, and then the very worst thing, and then to home.

And that's where Zechariah 14 ends, with us being at home. So Zechariah 14 shows us the end. It's the end of all kinds of things. Did you know that there's going to be an end to everything that we see here?

It's an end to this world and the end of the way of this world. And so in Zechariah 14, we're going to see, we're going to go through them step by step, take them each in turn, and then we're going to draw some practical lessons.

And so first, in the first few verses, we see the end of the great war. The great war that everyone's a part of. Whether they know it or not, we are in a war.

It's this great war, and it's the end of it. Martin Luther's commentary on Zechariah 14 begins with these very honest and very funny words. And he says this, Here in this chapter, I give up, for I am not sure what the prophet is talking about.

And it's easy to see why Martin Luther said that, because what we have here, as you look at verse 2, it's a real head-scratcher because of some of the things that goes before.

But look at verse 2. I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it. The city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.

Now, if you've been here on Sunday evening, you know how seemingly contradictory and strange that seems to be in comparison to what's gone before, because in Zechariah 12, the Lord said, I'm going to make Jerusalem invincible.

The nations are not going to be able to take the city. It's going to be like them fighting against a rock, against a huge stone, and they're just going to injure themselves on it. But now, here, in the very same oracle, in the very same thing, very same prophecy, in Zechariah 12 and 13 and 14, we're all given at one time.

They're all tied together by that word, on that day. So in this very same oracle, it seems the exact opposite. Jerusalem.

That's a picture of the church. She's captured. The houses are ransacked. The women are raped. And we want to say, God, how can that be?

How is that Jerusalem invincible? How can this be good? How can this be encouraging? And those are all good questions.

And I think what we need to do here is we need to step back. We need to look at it and think it through. And when we do, we see that this is the beginning of the end.

And you know that sometimes things don't begin the way they're going to end. Sometimes there can be very bad beginnings and very good endings. You can think of some sort of football game where the score is 28-0 and it's the third quarter and yet the other team comes back and wins.

It's not how it begins that counts so much. It's how it ends. And this is the beginning of the end. And the beginning of the end is not very good at all. But this is the beginning of the end of this battle, of this war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

You remember, that's a conflict that's been going on all the way since Genesis 3 where God said, I will put enmity, he says to the serpent, I will put enmity between your seed and her seed.

Now Zechariah 14 shows us that that war is wrapping up. It's coming to a conclusion. It's not a war that's going to last forever. There is a deadline and Zechariah 14 shows us here we are.

We're on the brink. Here it is. It's the end of the war. And despite how hard it is in some parts, it is encouraging because look at who initiates the last battle.

Let's see who is bringing this war to its conclusion. Verse 2 says, I, the Lord says, I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem.

So who's initiating the last battle? It's not Satan. It's not the nations. It's God himself. I think if Satan could have his way, the battle would go on forever.

But who starts something? Who picks a fight? Well, it's someone who's not afraid of how it's going to turn out. Not afraid of the outcome.

It's someone who knows that they can win. It's someone who knows at least they think they can win. But with God, it's not a matter of thinking he can win. He knows he can win.

And it's time to make it happen. And so things are going to get bad at the end. But don't miss it. God is starting the fight. He's picking the final fight.

And he has a plan. He's working it out. And he says, I will gather the nations. Now they're gathered around to finally destroy Jerusalem. But we've seen this before in other prophets.

When God gathers the nations, it's just to get them into one place to finish them off with one blow. And in the final battle, God's going to pull this rabbit out of his hat.

He's going to pull victory out of defeat. And it starts with the nations thinking they've won. They captured the city.

They've won. And the church is gone. You can't find it. It's all underground, so to speak. And God's people are apparently done for.

And brothers and sisters, let me tell you, that's what it's going to look like. It's not going to be the way it is now. It's not going to be peace in a nice building.

It's going to look like the nations have won. And that's how it's going to feel. It's going to feel like devastation. It's going to feel like the end of the story. It's going to feel like destruction. But that's how God works.

The cross seemed like God's weakness. It seemed like folly. It seemed like total loss. God's Savior, God's King is dead.

And you know, the rulers must have been sipping their wine and celebrating how good it was and maybe the devil joined in. But the cross wasn't God's weakness. It was His strength.

And it wasn't His folly. It was His wisdom. And that wasn't the end of Jesus. That was just the beginning of His exaltation of Him drawing all nations to Himself.

So the cross, the pain, the agony, the apparent God-forsakenness of it, of God's left us and abandoned us, that was Christ's victory.

But Zechariah 14 shows us that now it's our turn. It's our turn. It's our pain. It's our last great trial.

Our last great ordeal. The last test. And here's the thing, in the end, Christ's bride will be faithful. Christ's bride will prove herself worthy of her Savior and she'll stick with Him through her cross, her pain, her agony.

And then God will save her. It starts with apparent defeat. But verse 3 changes everything. And then the Lord will go out and fight against the nations.

And He comes and He stands east of the city or He stands on the west of the city. And so here He is. He's on the Mount of Olives. And they're not alone.

That's the point. It seemed like God had left them. But all of a sudden He comes. And so they're persecuted but they're not abandoned. They're struck down but they're not destroyed. And so the Mount of Olives splits in half.

It splits from east to west. And it's just like the Red Sea all over again. And now there's this huge valley. They were doomed. Remember? The Red Sea?

They were doomed. And the sea opened up and they walked through on dry ground. And the Egyptians were left clutching. They had them but they didn't have anything. And now again it's just like that.

The nations are about to devour God's people and then all of a sudden they're left with nothing in their hands. They're left grasping air. And then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with Him.

Heaven will open. and rank upon rank army upon army to the last angel to the last man will come down all of His holy ones with Him.

And Jesus will come riding on His white horse King of kings Lord of lords and with Him all the holy ones of heaven such an army the earth has never seen.

The fiery host of heaven the archangels Michael and all of His fellow archangels perhaps the seraphim and the cherubim still they're gathering around Jesus they're the royal bodyguard and they're gathered around our Lord and with Him as all of His saints you will be a part of that army I will be a part of that army because Psalm 149 if you haven't read it Psalm 149 has to be fulfilled.

May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double edged sword in their hands to inflict vengeance on the nations punishment on the peoples to bind their kings with fetters and their nobles with shackles of iron to carry out the sentence written against Him this this is the glory of all of His saints praise the Lord the sons of men will weep in terror and they'll cry for the mountains to fall upon them so victory was theirs but now it's nothing but terrible terrible horror the world was almost theirs they'd almost won but now the war is over he breaks the bow he shatters the spear he burns the shields with fire be still and know that I am God I will be exalted among the nations so Zechariah 14 is encouraging because it shows that God is going to end man's long war against Him second you see the end of the created order it's not just man's war against God that's going to come to an end it's the whole created order it's the whole first creation that's verses 6 through 8 he says on that day there will be no light and no cold or frost it's impossible to even imagine so imagine the daytime comes and there's no light and the weather is broken verse 7 says it's a unique day it could be translated as day 1 without daytime or night time now you remember when God

Genesis 1 God created the heavens and the earth and they were formless and void there wasn't light there wasn't evening there wasn't daytime and that seems to be what it's saying here when God comes the creation breaks it goes all the way back to the to the way it was in the beginning and then there's the surprising word that in the evening there's light so it's the exact opposite the morning dawns in darkness and the sun sets with light and in the middle out of the city flowing east and west is now living water it's a it's a picture of Eden it's a picture from Revelation chapter 21 and 22 where there's a river that comes from the throne of the Lamb and it's a river of living water and it's giving life to everyone in the city and so here now it's different the old order is gone and the new is here the darkness is over the day has come and the curse is gone death is gone the old order of things is over the new has come and so everywhere you look there's light with no darkness and there's life with no death that's encouraging that's encouraging we will be gathered in a world where there is no more night no more death for the old order of things has passed away third it's the end of every competing kingdom verse 9 says the Lord will be the king over the whole earth and on that day there will be one Lord and his name the only name now it's a thousand kingdoms politicians rulers kingdoms nations my kingdom your kingdom all competing people bowing down to themselves bowing down to others bowing down to other gods bowing down to other kings but now there is only one king only one king no person has in their heart the idea that I am king every heart knows that he is king and every nation is not saying we won't have that king to rule over us every nation says that is our king and don't we long for that don't you long for that to see the politicians to see the kingdoms and the nations and the presidents silenced and their pride in the dust bowing down before him it's coming it's coming the time for honoring yourself will be soon at an end and so we say come quickly

Lord Jesus and soon he's going to take what is his he has the name that is above every name and he's going to make it so and so how we long how we long to see that the end of these competing kings fourth we see the end of the dishonor for God's people the dishonor the danger for God's people even it says next that Jerusalem will be raised up it will be raised up above all the other hills and the other all the surrounding area will be made into a plain so we sing that song geographically Jerusalem is surrounded by hills hills that are taller than Jerusalem and so we sing that song Zion stands by hills surrounded they overshadow her but now the Lord comes and he raises Jerusalem up he raises the church up his people the city of God he exalts them and so the seat of the serpent finally takes its place at the feet of the seat of the woman and the meek will inherit the earth the people of God will rule with him forever and ever and brothers and sisters that too is our future we're seeing all sorts of things that are coming for us and what is for us is thrones and glory and honor the whole city is exalted and the bride will shine in all of her beauty and Jesus and his bride will sit on their thrones together and so now we're nothing

Paul says we're the scum of the earth the off scouring you cook something or you make something and the gross stuff that rises to the top that's what the world considers us but there's this great switch this great reversal coming now you remember the rich man in Jesus' parable he's in hell and he looks up and he sees Lazarus at the side of Abraham and he wants a drop of water and Abraham says on earth you had your good things but now he is comforted here and you are in agony the world is having its honor now and we can let them have that honor because it will soon be taken from them and he who is honored last is honored best of all Jesus himself said when you go to a banquet take the lowest spot why do you take the lowest spot why don't you take the highest spot because if you take the highest spot the person putting on the banquet is going to come in and say you need to go move down and you'll be humiliated in front of everyone and if you take the lowest spot he says you need to come up here and sit by me and you'll be honored in front of everyone we have taken the lower spot and soon Jesus is going to come and tell the world to take a seat down lower and for us to come up higher it's the end of dishonor fifth you see the end of the wicked the end of the wicked verse 12 through 15 shows us a horrible terrible picture of the end of the wicked the end of the world

God strikes them with a plague and their flesh will rot while they're standing on their feet and their eyes will rot in their sockets and their tongues will rot in their mouths it's a living death it's to be dying but to keep living and so they took their stand against the Lord and against his anointed and now their feet are rotting out from under them and with their eyes they lusted on God's glory with their eyes they looked after looked at things and they wanted things the lust of their eyes they wanted his crown and now their eyes are rotting in their sockets and with their tongues they take possession of the earth but now their tongues are rotting in their mouths so what is the end of the wicked and you have to understand this you have to see this what is the end of the wicked it's to die but to keep on living it's to rot but to survive verse 13 goes on it's fear great panic will take their hearts will strike their hearts will fill their hearts now I've never had a panic attack maybe you have but from what I've read and what I understand it feels like you're about to die it feels like imminent death that's what this is what God is going to fill their hearts with this panic this terror and again it's to live but to wish to die then they will attack each other together they take their stand but now at the end they turn against each other people joke about hell but Zechariah 14 is showing us hell and it's absolute loneliness it's violence no one will be for you

God will be against you and the other people with you will be against you and it's poverty verse 14 says the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected the world's plundered everything they wanted is gone everything they worked for is gone everything they enjoyed is taken from them everything they saved for is gone everything they loved gone given to the righteous hell is absolute poverty and then perhaps worst of all there's no escape there is no escape for the world from the wrath to come and that's pictured in verse 15 with this plague striking the horses and the mules and the camels and the donkeys in their camp those are the ways that they were going to flee those were the ways that they were going to escape and so now any means of escaping any means of getting away from the lamb and his army they rot under them they die under them and so there's no riding away and living another day there's no riding away to fight another day it's the end of the wicked there's no more escape and last of all you see the end of the righteous what waits for God's people what waits for God's people well worship they will worship the king the lord almighty celebration it talks three times about them celebrating the feast of tabernacles and maybe you're a little sketchy and rough on your

Israelite feasts but the feast of tabernacles was the feast where they built these little tents and these booths and they remembered how God provided for them in the desert how God provided and protected them in the wilderness and so the feast of tabernacles was all about remembering how God had delivered them through the wilderness now we talked about that that's where we are now aren't we we're in this time of dangers toils and snares and so when it's talking about the feast of tabernacles it's saying we're going to be remembering and celebrating how good God has been to us through all these years of our wilderness experience and so what will we do in heaven well we're going to look back and we're going to be able to see how God kept us how he was faithful how his grace was enough we'll remember all of this time and we'll see it so much more clearly how good God was to us and we'll celebrate but the feast of tabernacles was also a harvest feast it was a feast that takes place at sort of this time of the year when they were gathering in their crops and now their houses are full their barns are filled and they're celebrating their present abundance and so what is heaven going to be like for us well it's going to be a good dose of remembering what we've gone through and celebrating that and it's also going to be a good dose of of a thanksgiving celebration of how good

God has been and how good God is it's a long festival of harvest joy of abundance of worship the end of the wicked the end of the righteous and there won't be anything to disturb that joy for the righteous for everything and everyone will be holy to the Lord in ancient Israel the high priest wore a turban and on his turban he had a metal plate with blue strings tying it to his turban and it said holy to the Lord holy to the Lord now remember the high priest was the only one that could go in to meet with God and once a year but now look what is holy to the Lord the bells of the horses are holy the cooking pots are holy everything's holy the dishes in the dishwasher are holy to the

Lord and it says there won't be a Canaanite in the house of God that means there's not going to be anyone that doesn't belong there no one coming in no one disturbing the worship no one disturbing the celebration maybe you've been at that sort of Thanksgiving where everyone's having a good time and then that person comes in and then the whole room changes temperature that's never going to happen in heaven there's no Canaanite there everyone and everything will be holy to the Lord so you will be holy and you will see his face you will see his face you will worship him the holiness of our high priest that's what's pictured here is the holiness of our high priest will spread out over all of us so the righteousness of Jesus the holiness of Jesus will be mine so there'll be no more sin there'll be no more sinners there'll be no more dangers toils and snares they're all gone and we'll be home so Zechariah 14 is the end it's the end of all things created the end of this cursed world the end of competing kingdoms the end of our present dishonor the end of the wicked the end of the righteous and it's going to be tough in the end we want to be told the truth don't we sometimes we wish we could just sail to heaven on golden boats and never have to suffer anything but it's going to be tough before the end we need to see that reality don't we as parents sit down with our children and tell them the way it really is going to be why do we tell them the way it's really going to be why do we tell them this is really going to be hard it's not this easy later on we say that because we want them to be prepared for what they're going to face we love them and here Zechariah is telling us what we need to hear it's not pleasant but it's the truth but we have to put that into context in the end it's going to be tough but God who has seen us through every trial every danger every toil every snare everything will see us through at last will see us through at last

I'm just reminded of Charles Spurgeon he suffered terrible depression terrible depression he was a godly man obviously and very useful but on the other hand he was a man that could really get down and he talked about feeling like he was next to death in those moments and when he did he always remembered Pilgrim's Progress because if you remember how Pilgrim's Progress ends Christian is crossing the river Jordan he is going into the black waters of death and he feels his feet going out from underneath him and there hopeful came along and said I could feel the ground underneath the ground is good and Spurgeon said in those times of darkness in those times of depression I could always Jesus would come near and say the ground underneath is good and he'd hold him and he would pull him through the river that's what

God is doing now isn't he have you ever met a trial a dangerous snare that has finally undone you a financial setback a physical sickness that has just ruined you that God abandoned you Zechariah 14 is saying you know what the God who sees us through all of these littler ones will see us through the very last one the very hardest one when it means death and destruction he'll be there for us and his grace will bring us home so maybe that's our first practical lesson is that we need to not be afraid of what we are going to face it's uncertain times it's uncertain times in our culture in our world in our nation I don't have to tell you about the way that we think things are going we don't know the future but if things stay on this course it doesn't bode well for the church of God and with that wisdom we also have to realize and with that knowledge we have to realize that even if those things happen if the worst of our imaginations happen the

Lord will be there for us he'll see us through because he's going to see his church all the way through to the end even through the very last trial now here's three more quick practical lessons practical points and the first is that brothers and sisters we should live for that day just look at this day light and worship the absence of sin the old order gone Jesus the king that's the day that we're living for isn't it that's the world that we want to live in well brothers and sisters that's where we are going to live and so we are people of the day we are people of that day that's our world that's our citizenship that's where we belong and so we should live that way Paul said to the Corinthians that they were the ones on whom the end of the ages had come the end of the ages had already started to arrive in the Corinthian life and in our life the end has already begun for us the judgment has happened and we've been justified the crossing over from death to life spiritual resurrection has already happened physical resurrection will happen soon they've already happened to us we belong to that day we are already starting to enter into that day and so then let us live as children of the light let us live as children of the day let me ask you do you need to make more drastic steps or take more drastic steps to live differently do you need to make it more clear that you don't belong to this world but you belong to the next one what practically do you need to change second practical lesson is simply this let us encourage one another daily and all the more as we see the day approaching last week we heard about the power of discouragement and discouragement is something that enters into every

Christian's life it's there we face it it comes into us we're confronted with discouraging things this dark world the dangers and the toils and the snares they're discouraging and so what is the remedy what is the antidote it's encourage one another the world is giving the church a lot of discouragement the church should be giving itself a lot of encouragement daily encouragement for daily discouragement and we do it Hebrews says as we see the day approaching it's because the discouragements that we are facing are not eternal discouragements the center is facing eternal discouragements we're facing temporal discouragement things that are setbacks for just time but they're all going to come to an end and so that should shape our encouragement that doesn't mean we're just going around and say it's all going to be okay you'll be fine but that perspective of you know what this is the night it is hard but the day is coming so let's press on encourage one another daily and the third practical lesson

Zechariah 14 shows us and this is where we end is it shows us why you must be saved it shows you why you must be saved it is not popular to talk about the end of the world it is not popular to talk about hell men have gone from making fun of it to now just thinking that it's an impossibility that something like that ever could happen it's a laughable idea but Zechariah 14 shows us the end of the world the end of the wicked and it's pain it's death it's fear it's poverty and the question is do you want that to happen to you it's that simple do you want that to happen to you now our hearts cry out for you our hearts cry out for you

Paul says I wish I could be a curse for my people and we would echo that we pray for you and we long for your salvation and so I'm pointing you to Christ again I want to point you to Christ again Zechariah was all about him he was the shepherd that was struck for his sheep he was the fountain opened he was the gentle king coming riding on a donkey having salvation and everything that Zechariah 14 describes about the end of the wicked it happened to him he suffered it all in the sinner's place because he suffered in the sinner's place and so the pain the terror the living death the poverty the God forsaken this the apparent

God turning his face away he suffered it all on the cross and so he suffered all every drop of hell everything that the wicked deserved fell on him and why did it fall on him so that all who fled to him could find safety could find rescue could find salvation so that all who hide in him all who run in him would be saved because where the wrath has come there is no more wrath and so there is now no condemnation in Christ Jesus because the condemnation!

the death the ruin of! 14 has already happened there and so get into him flee to him now there are only two ways this is going to go down only two ways only two options only two things that are going to happen you will either flee to Christ and be saved or you will ignore him and you will fall into hell yourself and it's life and it's death and Zechariah 14 in very graphic terms is screaming choose life don't let this happen to you let go of your empty faith empty trust in yourself you know what trust in yourself looks like it looks like you believe every word that comes out of your mouth it looks like you believe every thought in your head I'll be okay you trust it it'll be fine in the end you trust that's what

I'm talking about that empty faith in yourself that says it's going to be all right in the end and the Lord is saying it's not going to be all right in the end so choose Christ grab him with two hands run into him Zechariah 14 is pressing us all to choose Jesus to run to him let's pray our God there are people in this room right now who have not crossed over from death to life they have not come to Jesus they have not been born again their sins have not been dealt with and you see them and so

I pray that in your mercy and in your compassion that you would throw your arms around them that you would throw your ropes around them and draw them to yourself Holy Spirit go into the hearts that you're not invited into go into the dark caves of their hearts and bring light even where they love their darkness we are praying for sovereign grace we are praying for free grace we are praying for saving grace Lord the field is open to you the doors are open their hearts are open we ask that you would work that you would save even today help us as your people to live to live as children of the day for that is what we are help us to set our minds on things above help us to set our minds on where

Christ is help us to set our mind on the inheritance that is going to come to us thank you that you have chosen us to be your sons you adopted us as sons and daughters and now our inheritance is stored up come quickly bring salvation and bring your kingdom we ask this in your name amen amen