He has the whole wolrd in his hands

The speaker greets the audience and welcomes newcomers. They introduce a new sermon series on the book of Ezra and provide some context for the book. They explain that the book is divided into two parts: the rebuilding of the temple and the rebuilding of worship. They discuss how the Israelites faced challenges and letdowns in their journey. The speaker then introduces the theme of the sermon series, which is the lies we tell ourselves. They explain that the Israelites believed certain lies, such as thinking that if they just rebuilt the temple, everything would be okay. The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing the lies we tell ourselves and countering them with the truth of God's word. They discuss the implicit lie in this passage, which is that God has lost control. The speaker explains that God is sovereignly in control and uses the example of King Cyrus to illustrate this. They conclude by encouraging the audience to trust in God's control and not be fearful or anxious Good morning, guys. How you doing? You guys doing good? Enjoying the summer, I guess we're in. I don't, I think like Nevada's confused right now. It's like winter forever and now we're like, okay, we're into summer and it's just monsoon weather. I don't, I don't know. I don't understand. Nevada's confused. It's okay. Um, hey, if you're new here, I just want to say welcome. We thank you for joining us. This is a place where if you do have questions, there are no wrong questions, and we want to be there just to support you and walk alongside you with those questions. I thought we just moved the chairs in different directions, so I feel like I'm like way over here, way over here. So if my head's just flipping back around, don't let that distract you, even though now it's going to distract you, but members here, thank you for calling this church your home and these group of dysfunctional people your family, because that's what we are. We're a bunch of imperfect people worshiping the perfect God. Amen. Amen. And so here we are today. We are in our new summer sermon series. I'm really excited about this. We're in the book of Ezra. Thank you. We're in the book of Ezra. This book is going to take us into September. It's just going to be our summer series, and one thing that I want you to notice as we start to dive into the book of Ezra, I want to give a little bit of context, a little bit of understanding. As you begin to read, you're going to see that the book of Ezra starts out really amazing. It's like, wow, you really are hopeful for the Israelite, the Jewish people, but then as you continue to read, what you'll see is just that it kind of ends short. It starts out great, but then ends flat. There's a pullback. There's a letdown. It's kind of like a good movie with a bad ending, right? Have you seen those where you're like, there's one movie me and my wife were watching. It was just like Sandra Bullock. I can't remember, The Silent Place or something like that. The ending was awful. You might like that movie. I hated it. I was like, oh, this is so suspenseful. It's so good, but then the end ruined the whole thing for me. That's kind of Ezra. It's like, it starts out good. It starts out suspenseful. You're rooting for them, and then it just kind of falls flat. There's kind of a letdown. And I just want to break down this book real quick before we dive into it. The book of Ezra can be broken up into two main parts. Part one, the rebuilding of the temple. You see, the Israelites are able to rebuild the temple and they pray to God. But what happens is God doesn't come down like the days in Moses. There's a letdown. They did all this work and they're like, yes, God's going to come back. And he doesn't. You see, they decided to rebuild the temple, but they also continue to live in disobedience to the Lord. You see, we have that artwork up here. Can we pull the artwork real quick? Sorry, adding extra slides. You see, the temple looks really great on the outside, but on the back of it, it's a skeleton. It's a movie prop. It's hollow, it's shallow, and there's no substance. This is what happened with the Israelites. And then the second part of this book, which we're going to be looking at through seven through ten, is the rebuilding of worship. So they're like, OK, the Lord didn't come back. He didn't show up. Maybe we need to get a priest to rebuild what it looks like to worship God. So they find Ezra and you're like, yes, now they're going to get it. You know, Ezra's going to bring back the word of God. They're going to bring back conviction. Ezra's going to help them point in the right direction. But what happens is Ezra takes it a little too far. He starts to add to God's commands. Ezra gets so frustrated with the Israelite people and them worshipping other gods, he starts to make these add-ons to God's commands. The first thing he does, or one of the things he does, he says, divorce all your wives because they're not Jewish people. And we know that's wrong because in Malachi, God says, I hate divorce. See, what was going on was these people in Israel, Ezra, they were doing everything on their own strength, but it wasn't enough. And then when we wrap up this book, it just kind of ends flat. See, there's a reality. You see, I don't know if you know this, but Ezra and Nehemiah are one book in the Hebrew Bible. Here in our passage or in our book in the Bible, it's broken up into two parts. But Ezra and Nehemiah are the last two books in the historical timeline of the Old Testament. I think it ends flat for a reason. Because there's a better and greater temple to come. Just building the temple wasn't enough. We need someone greater and better. See, the people in, the Israelite people, the Jewish people here, Ezra even, they ultimately started to begin to put their hope in the wrong things and what they did, how they acted, and they didn't put their hope in the right thing, which is God. And this is why we call this series, The Lies We Tell Ourselves, because the Israelites began to tell themselves some lies as they were building this temple. The first lie they began to tell themselves is, if I just get back home, everything's going to be OK. If I just rebuild the temple, everything's going to be OK. If we just find the right leader, everything's going to be OK. If we cut out bad relationships and get good relationships, then everything's going to be OK. If we could just start over in the day, everything's going to be OK. See, this summer, we're looking at a lie each Sunday. Sometimes these lies are going to be explicit lies. Really, we're going to see it. And sometimes they're going to be a little bit implicit, where it's going to be harder to find. We're going to have to work to find what the lie is. And aren't we really good at telling lies to ourselves? Really good at telling lies to ourselves. Really good at telling lies to ourselves. And we're going to be able to counteract that lie with the truth of God's word. And we're going to be able to counteract that lie with the truth of God's word. And we're going to be able to counteract that lie with the truth of God's word. And we're going to be able to counteract that lie with the truth of God's word. And we're going to be able to counteract that lie with the truth of God's word. And we're going to be able to counteract that lie with the truth of God's word. Really good at telling lies to ourselves. Like I told myself today, I don't have a coffee-drinking problem. I was drinking my eighth cup of coffee. I was like, but maybe I should not drink that much coffee. So beware, because now I'm hyped up on caffeine, so let's go, right? See, the first step to recovery, maybe some of you in this room have been in a recovery process before. What are the first things they tell you to do? You have to admit who you are. That's the first step of healing. Admit that you're lying to yourself. And we're good at lying to ourselves. You see, because here's the reality. When we lie to ourselves, we're not only the liar, we're the one being deceived, right? Like we're lying and being deceived. It's a conspiracy to ourselves. And think, when we lie to ourselves, you know what happens? We live in this captivity and in this prison. We live in a self-delusion. We live in ultimately disobedience to God, because when we begin to lie to ourselves, the next hairy step to that is we start justifying our own sin problem. We have to admit that we have a sin problem. We have to admit that we do lie to ourselves before we can even see the beauty of who Jesus is. I love what Sinclair Ferguson says. He says, we must constantly examine ourselves, test our hearts, and ask whether we are deceiving ourselves or genuinely walking with Christ. Are we asking that question? To the Israelites, the Jews, they're fundamentally telling themselves that if they could just start over, if they could have more, if they could be healthier, this will meet their greatest need. We do the same thing, do we not? Here's the truth. There are no do-overs in this life. There's no devotion, no goodness on our part that can bring us into right relationship with God. There's no goodness on our part that can remove the wrath hanging over our heads for being sinners. Jesus alone meets our greatest need. Amen? Jesus alone meets our greatest need. Let's get a little bit of context to see what this lie is today. This is going to be a more implicit lie. We have to do a little bit of work, and the context of what happened before this passage kind of gives us the idea of what this lie looks like. You see, Ezra was written to a people that were displaced. They were displaced. They were under harsh circumstances. Seventy years before Ezra, and before we reach this part in this text, the nation of Israel was taken over by the Babylonians. They were taken from their home. They were forced to live under Babylonian rule and under the king Nebuchadnezzar. You guys remember who Nebuchadnezzar is? That guy was known throughout history of being a wicked, wicked king. You see, what the Babylonians would do when they conquered a nation is they would come in there and they would strip the conquered people down naked. They would grab a hook, run it through the bottom of their jaws, out through the mouth, and then chain them together and have them walk all the way to Babylon naked. That's awful. This is literally what the Israelite people went through 70 years ago. You see, not only that, not only that awful circumstance that happened to them, but their temple, their home was completely obliterated and destroyed. It was destroyed. And you may be like, okay, well, they can, you know, they can rebuild, but they were in captivity for 70 years. And think about it this way. In the Old Testament, the only way to atone for... They didn't have Jesus, right? The only way to atone for sin, they had to kill an animal because the punishment for sin is death. And so they would have to sacrifice an animal to atone for their sin. They were taken out of their home, living in a foreign land. They're like, we can't even sacrifice animals. What are we going to do with our sin? So there was this probably great fear as well. Like, if I die, what's going to happen? Is my sin atoned for? So there was this great fear for them. They were in complete hopelessness. They felt abandoned. They felt alone in their circumstances. And here's where we find the implicit lie. The lie we tell ourselves is, has God lost control or God has lost control? God has lost control. See, they've been in exile for many generations. They've been suffering, forced to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar. You can recall this story. Do you guys remember Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego? This is the same context of what happened. They were forced to bow down to a giant statue of Nebuchadnezzar. What does Nebuchadnezzar say? Throw them into the pit. Throw them into the furnace. They're like, God has lost control. Weren't we God's people? Isn't God providing for us? You see, the song that the Jewish people would not be singing is, Carry under which Jesus take the wheel. No one's got the wheel. The car's just driving. I'm in the passenger seat. Oh, no. God has lost control. They'd be like, no, it's not Carry Underwood. I ain't listening to that song. They'd probably be more listening to like Ozzy Osbourne, right? The Crazy Train. Right? I'm going off the rails on a crazy train. Right? That's probably the song they were singing. They're like, God's lost control. And maybe that's where you're at today. Maybe that's what you've told yourself. When you look at your own circumstances, when you look at your suffering, when you look at the world, you see what's going on in the world, the state of the world. Maybe the conclusion you've made is God has lost control. He doesn't got this. But here's the truth of this passage and the truth of this text. This is my big idea. He's got the whole world in his hands. I ain't going to sing it, guys. Stop it. He's got the whole world. Yeah. All right. I ain't doing it. Okay. He's got the whole world in his hands. What does that mean? He's got history. He's got time. He's got our situations. He's got our sufferings. He's got everything in his hands. It's all controlled by him. This is what this passage really exposes to us today. God's sovereignly in control. God's sovereignly in control. He has not lost control, but he remains in control. Let's look. Verse 1. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia. All right. Let's stop here. It's going to be a long day. We have to stop here because I just told you the Israelites were under Babylonian rule, but now we're here. I'm like, wait, what happened? We're missing something. King Cyrus of Persia is now ruling over the Israelites. So we got to get a little bit of context. There's a historical account that the king of Persia, King Cyrus, was literally able to take over the Babylonian Empire overnight. Literally, there was so much disunity within the Babylonian Empire that it said in historical books, you can read this in history, that they just came in and the Babylonians just kind of laid down their swords. They didn't even, like, fight. They're like, yeah, whatever, you take it. And so King Cyrus was just able to take on and get power overnight of the entire world, which is really interesting. And we kind of find ourselves in the beginning of this story here in Ezra. King Cyrus's reign. And I bring this up not only for biblical context because we get to know, but also that the Bible is not just a fairytale and myth. That it's rooted in historical accounts with historical people. Like, our faith is not a blind faith or even sentimental faith. Our faith is rooted in reason through history. These are accounts that are not only in Scripture, but attest to all throughout history. It's not a blind faith. It's a real faith. It's a historical faith. And so, enough said on that. I digress. Let's keep reading. In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. So, I'm just trying to imagine the landscape here. So, the Jewish people were just in extreme circumstances with Babylon, and then all of a sudden, overnight, they have a new emperor. The year goes by. Nothing seems to be changing, but all of a sudden, they see this plaque on the wall some day that says, Thus says Cyrus. Imagine being the Jewish people there. What would you expect? You'd probably be nervous when you see a declaration on a wall after everything you've just experienced, right? They're like, okay, thus says Cyrus. Throw them into the fire. Oh, no, you know? But they're shocked by what it says, right? It says, Thus says Cyrus, I lost my position, God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is Judah. So, the question that kind of arises here is, why did Cyrus do this? Was he a believer? Did he believe in this God? And I would say no. I would just say no, because we see throughout historical history that Cyrus was not a believer in the one true God. There's really two reasons why he did this. One, Cyrus was a good politician. He was a really good politician. He believed in religious inclusion, right? You know, you believe whatever you want to believe, right? And he was also, and people loved that. People loved that about Cyrus. He also believed that when he conquered a nation, he would set them free immediately. He'd go there and be like, okay, you were, oh my gosh, you were under captivity of the Babylonians. You guys are free. You go home. And so this was a political move, because he knew that setting the captives free, they would have favor on Cyrus. They'd be like, this is a good king. I'm going to follow this king. And so he knew it would be a lot easier to gain a civilization's allegiance by setting them free. And so that's what he did. And Cyrus was known as Cyrus the Great. This wasn't self-proclaimed, right? Like when you get the self-proclaimed kings in history, those are the ones you're like, you weren't that great. That's a little arrogant, right? But this, Cyrus the Great, this was given to him throughout history, because he was kind of a benevolent king that was kind, and he gave out freedom. But the second reason Cyrus let the Jewish people go was his belief in polytheism. Cyrus believed not only that with their religious inclusion, he believed that all gods were real. And so he thought if he set people go, that the gods of those nations would have favor on him. They'd have favor on him. He's like, yeah, I'll stay in power. I'd stay as a king as long as I, like, are nice to all these people, and then their gods will be nice to me. He was a little superstitious, right? He was a little superstitious. But I want you to notice what the author of Ezra brings our attention to. It's not actually to Cyrus, because the author of Ezra understands that Cyrus is actually not the one in control, and God's in control. Do you see that, verse 1? Look, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. The Lord stirred him up. God stirs up. You know what's good about this? God's got control even over crooked politicians with selfish agendas. They're all crooked, I'm just saying. God's got control over them. The author wants to draw our attention to the real hope. The real hope, right? And it's not in an earthly king. It's not in a president. It's not in a government official. They're just pawns to the one who's actually in control. They're pawns. I had to ask this question. I'm like, man, when we go home, are we just... Does the news make you fearful? Let's be honest. Does the news make you fearful? Here's another question. Are you afraid of who's going to be president in the next election? Huh? Maybe instead of being fearful or anxious about that, we just don't fret because he's got the whole world in his hands. Right? He's got the whole world in his hands. Maybe instead of feeding your mind with Fox News and CNN, you feed your mind with the word of God. And you go to bed like a baby. Well, not my baby because he has a hard time going to bed. But you sleep like a baby, right? Out cold because you know, yeah, the world could be going crazy. I don't know who's going to be a leader then. Well, God's got it. He's in control because he's got the whole world in his hands. I was just walking through this and praying about this, Mike. If we could just understand the fact of God's sovereignty and that he's in control of all things, then one thing comes really clear is there are no coincidences. We're not a people that go, oh, that was a coincidence. We're like, no, there are no coincidences. He's sovereign over everything. You know what that means, too? If you're new here today, that was not a coincidence that you're here. God stirred your heart to be here. If there are no coincidences that we believe that this God is sovereign over everything, in control of everything, then you're not here just out of coincidence. That God has planned it. There's providence over it. He stirred your heart up. Maybe you walked by and saw a sign. You're like living stones. Maybe I need to go check out living stones. I don't know. It's not you. I just want to let you know that's not you. That's God stirring the heart. He's got control. Another thing, if we reconcile the reality that God is in control and he's sovereign over all things, you know what that means? Our suffering is not a coincidence. Our very suffering is not a coincidence. I love what Martin Lloyd-Jones says. He says God in his love and in his mercy is determined to save us from ourselves. And sometimes the only way to save us from ourselves is to break us, to allow something to happen that will bring us to our senses. You know the Israelites ran from God. They were disobedient to God, and they were put in exile. You know what exile basically is? It's time out from a loving father. It's like you're in time out. Sometimes God places hard situations in our lives so that we would come to realize that we cannot do it in our own strength, that we need a rescuer. Sometimes hard situations are to awaken our eyes to the goodness of God. Sometimes we're brought low so that we can finally look up to God. If God's in control, he's in the control of the storms in your life. What storm are you going through? He's got it. He's in control of it. It wasn't a coincidence, but he'll use that through his good plan to bring you closer to him. You know, if God's in control, you know what this also tells us? We can count on his word. We can count on his word. You know what that means? He will always fulfill his promises. Always. He's a promise keeper. You heard that song before, right? You are a promise keeper. Your word will never fail. My heart can trust you, Jesus. I won't be overwhelmed. My eyes are going to see miracles and victories. You are the promise keeper. Your words will never fail. I wasn't going to sing it, but I read it to you. He's a promise keeper who always fulfills his promises. Look it. We see this in verse 1. In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord may, by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be fulfilled. You know what's being specifically quoted here? This is being specifically quoted from the prophet Jeremiah. And mind you, this prophet made this prophecy about the Israelite people 100 years before this situation. I'm going to read it to us. You guys have heard of Jeremiah 29 and 11, right? For I know the plans I have for you. We take it out of context, right? We take it out of context and we try to apply it. I mean, it still does apply to us. But this was specific prophecy for a specific time, for a specific people. And right now we get to see it actually be fulfilled. Okay, let's read. Jeremiah 29, 10 through 14. It says, For thus says the Lord. When 70 years are complete for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to a place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for warfare, not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. You will seek me with all your heart and I will be found by you, declares the Lord. I will restore your fortunes and gather you up from all the nations and all the places where I've driven you, declares the Lord. I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. You see, the Israelites were never alone. Here's the thing that you'll notice about God. He's going to give a commandment. When you start reading the scriptures, God gives good commands for his people. And if his people follow that, there are going to be great blessings for their people. What happens? Sin gets in the way, right? Sin gets in the way and becomes disobedient to God. And that's literally the definition of sin. We miss the mark. And what happens? God sends them out. Remember I said the timeout? But he always sends them out with a promise that he is going to rescue them. He is going to rescue them. And here we see God saying, I am true to my word. What I say always comes to pass. You can count on me. You can trust me because I do have a good plan for you. So we're going to break down the definition of sovereignty. I'm going to take a crack at it. We put it up here on the board. The definition of God's sovereignty. God is sovereign means that he is powerful and authoritative to the extent of being able to override all other powers and authorities. Nothing can successfully stop any act or any event or design or purpose that God intends to certainly bring about. He's in control. He's got the whole world in his hands. The whole world in his hands. You know what this means for us? We're good. You're okay. God's got you. I hear the kids banging on the door, man. We got to get louder than them, right? Let's show those kids up. God's sovereignty, his control means a couple things for us. Here's the first thing it means for us. God has power. God has power to stir the human heart. You know what that means? Husbands, wives. God has the power to stir your spouse's heart. I have a conversation sometimes with people. I won't name anybody. And they're like, man, I just want my husband to change, right? I want my husband to just go in a different direction. And I'm like, okay, pray. Send the Holy Ghost after them. Because guess what? God stirs the heart. You can't do it. You can't change your spouse. You can't change a relationship. But guess what this tells us? God can. God's the one that stirs the heart and transforms people. So instead of changing someone, go to God in prayer for someone, right? This also tells us to pray. We pray because God is sovereign and changes the hearts of people. He stirs the heart. And I was thinking, like, who's our Cyrus? Like, who's our Cyrus? The one that's kind of maybe lording over you. Maybe you're at your job and you're like, that boss is awful, right? And you're like, maybe you need God to stir the heart of your Cyrus, right? To give you favor. Now, maybe you're the boss in the room, right? Maybe it's an employee and you're like, these dang employees. Just get it together. Like, you can't change them, but you can ask God to stir their hearts. Like, it all starts with us praying, right? Praying. And you know what the essence of what prayer is? It's saying, I have no control. I don't have any control. God has all the control. He's the one that does everything. And we come to the Lord in prayer saying, Lord, stir the hearts of your people. Stir the hearts of my boss. Stir the hearts of my employees. Stir the hearts of my wife. Stir the heart of my husband. Stir the heart of my children. Lord, stir them. Because I can't. But you can. And another thing we see here is not only does God stir the heart of people, He provides. Do you see that? In verse 4, God not only brings His people out of exile, but He gives them the means to build the temple. Gold, silver, all that. Provides for His people, too. We talked about this a little bit last week or two weeks ago. Our God is a God who provides for us. There is no lack. The greatest lie we tell ourselves is that we are in lack, right? That I need more. I need more money. I need more vacations, right? Some of you guys almost said amen. I need more vacations. And if I have more money, if I have more vacations, then maybe I'll be okay. It's a lie. You won't be. The only one that makes us okay is Jesus. That's it. He provides for His people. I remember the call a couple weeks ago was all we have to do is just trust Him. If He's not in lack, if He's the one that pours out blessings, if He's the one that has all the riches in the heavens and He provides for us, there's nothing to worry about. He's got you. He has you, right? And then we have the third thing that this passage tells us. God has the power to change our story. God has the power to change our story. The Israelite people thought, you know, we're in exile forever. Ain't nothing's going to come out of this. God has lost control. But God shows and proves Himself that. He does have the power to change any one story. He has the power to change pain into promises. Like we just watched that video, that testimony. He has the power to do it. He has the power to move suffering into victory. Loss into gain. Brokenness into transformation. Tragedy into redemption. He has the power to change death into life. God's not lost control. Sometimes we just lose trust. As I was navigating through this passage, and it hit me late last night, I was like, you know, where do we see Jesus here in this whole passage? Because all of Scripture, right, all of Scripture is one unified book that leads us to Christ. Amen? And I thought, everyone thought Jesus was losing control. Everyone thought Jesus was losing control. The disciples thought Jesus was losing control or lost control when He was arrested in the garden. The Pharisees thought Jesus lost control when they were punching Him and spitting Him, saying, prophesy this next punch, Jesus. Prophesy this next punch, Jesus. You got no control. The Roman soldiers thought Jesus lost control when they brutally whipped Him and beat Him, right? Even mocked Him, saying, if you're God, get down from the cross. Laughing at Him. Now, you have no control, Jesus. The world thought Jesus lost control when Jesus was crucified on the cross. The devil thought Jesus lost control when Jesus took His last breath. See, if Jesus stayed dead, then this lie might actually be true. But Jesus didn't stay down, family. That makes these all a lie. He didn't stay down. He remained in control. He shamed the cross. He paid for our sins. He resurrected from the grave. That's why we're here. That's why we worship Him. Because we serve a God that hasn't lost control but controls all things. He's never lost control. And you might be at a place where you're feeling lost and you feel abandoned and you feel alone. I want to tell you right now, it's a lie. You're not alone. You're not abandoned and He has not lost control. He loves you. He sees you. He draws close to you in your suffering. He's got you. Maybe the one major application that we could even take home is that let God's love stir our hearts. Let it stir our hearts. That He loves you. He loves you. He sees you. He stands with you. Whatever circumstance you're going through, God's got control of it. Do you know that? You're not alone in it. He's walking alongside you. He has control over the storm. Remember when we were in Mark? In the book of Mark? And the disciples were freaking out in the boat. Like, there's a storm. It's going to kill us. And they're all running around with their hands waving around. And they're trying to wake up Jesus. And like, Jesus, there's a storm all around us. It's going to kill us. And what does Jesus say? He just gets up and He goes, You little faith, storm, be calm. And He goes back to bed. And Jesus is like, I've got control. We might not understand our circumstances or our suffering or what we're going through, but we can trust on God's Word and His promise that He's got control. He's sovereign over your life. And if that's true, then He's got a good plan for you. He's got a good plan. He's got a good plan. He's got the whole world in His hands, family. He's got the whole world in His hands. He's got you in His hands. He's got you in His hands. Let your hearts be stirred by Jesus this morning. Let it be stirred, that's all. I can't change a heart, but God can change a heart. The Spirit of God, stir your people's hearts. Amen? Maybe we need to be saying that for ourselves. Lord, don't just stir my spouse's heart. Stir my heart. Stir my heart for affections towards You. He's got the whole world in His hands. Let's pray, family. Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are sovereign over our situation. You're sovereign over our circumstances. You're sovereign over our very lives. We literally are in Your hands, and You keep us safe, Lord God. And You will bring us to the ultimate promise of finally being with You, Lord God. We praise You for that. Lord God, meet us, every single one in this room today, Lord God. Maybe those that watch online and they're listening to this passage and this sermon, Lord God. We just ask that the Spirit would just soften and stir the hearts of Your people right now at this moment. Whatever circumstance they're going through, whatever turmoil, whatever sadness, whatever brokenness, whatever disillusion that they're walking through, Lord God, You would stir their heart in such a way that they would feel the very tangible presence of who You are, Lord God, and feel completely comforted by You at this moment, Lord God, that You have not abandoned us. You remain in control, and You draw so near to us, Lord God, and that's a comfort that we can take home, Lord God, and that's a truth that we can take home, Lord God. We thank You. We thank You for the Word that's spoken. We thank You that we are Your children, that You have chosen us from the beginning of the foundation of time, and You deeply have the desire for us to know You deeper, to understand You fuller, and be transformed by Your grace and mercy, Lord God. Lord God, stir our affections towards You. Do this for Your glory and Your glorification alone. We praise You and say all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.