Well, my father found out this was going to be my last Sunday to preach. He said I would have some work to do if I wanted to get through Joshua. I'm not going to try to do the last 15 chapters today, but I have selected a kind of long text, so I'm going to ask you to focus and bear with me as we read chapters 10 and 11 of Joshua. If you turn with me to the book of Joshua, it's after Deuteronomy and before Judges. The book of Joshua, reading from chapter 10, and we're going to read through the end of chapter 11. Hear now the word of our God. Now Adonai Zedek, the king of Jerusalem, heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and were living near them. He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters. So Adonai, Zedek, king of Jerusalem, appealed to Hoham, king of Hebron, Piram, king of Jarmuth, Japhia, king of Lachish, and Debir, king of Eglon. Come up and help me attack Gibeon, he said, because it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites. Then the five kings of the Amorites, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it. The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us. Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us. So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The Lord said to Joshua, Do not be afraid of them. I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you. After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road, going up to Beth Horon, and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makeda. As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, O sun, stand still over Gibeon. O moon, over the valley of Ahajelon. So the sun stood still and the moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as is written in the book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal. Now the five kings had fled and hidden in the cave at Makeda. When Joshua was told that the five kings had been found hiding in the cave at Makeda, he said, roll large rocks up to the mouth of the cave and post some men there to guard it. But don't stop. Pursue your enemies and attack them from the rear and don't let them reach their cities for the Lord your God has given them into your hand. So Joshua and the Israelites destroyed them completely, almost to a man. But the few who were left reached their fortified cities. The whole army then returned safely to Joshua at the camp at Makeda and no one uttered a word against the Israelites. Joshua said, open the mouth of the cave and bring those five kings out to me. So they brought the five kings out of the cave, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. When they had brought these kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who would come with him, come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings. So they came forward and placed their feet on their necks. Joshua said to them, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight. Then Joshua struck and killed the kings and hung them on five trees. And they were left hanging on the trees until evening. At sunset, Joshua gave the order and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had been hiding. At the mouth of the cave, they placed large rocks, which are there to this day. That day Joshua took Makeda. He put the city and its king to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors, and he did to the king of Makeda as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved from Makeda to Libna and attacked it. The Lord also gave that city and its king into Israel's hand. The city and everyone in it Joshua put to the sword. He left no survivors there. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Libna to Lachish. He took up positions against it and attacked it. The Lord handed Lachish over to Israel and Joshua took it on the second day. The city and everyone in it he put to the sword, just as he had done to Libna. Meanwhile, Horem, king of Gezer, had come up to help Lachish, but Joshua defeated him and his army until no survivors were left. Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Lachish to Eglon. They took up positions against it and attacked it. They captured it the same day and put to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it, just as they had done to Lachish. Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron and attacked it. They took the city and put it to the sword, together with its king, its villages, and everyone in it. They left no survivors. Just as at Eglon, they totally destroyed it and everyone in it. Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned around and attacked Debir. They took the city, its king, and its villages and put them to the sword. Everyone in it they totally destroyed. They left no survivors. They did to Debir and to its king as they had done to Libna, and its king into Hebron. So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills, and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded. Joshua subdued them from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza, and from the whole region of Goshen to Gibeon. All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign, because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal. When Jabin, king of Hazor, heard all of this, he sent word to Jobab, king of Maiden, and to the kings of Shimron and Akshva, and to the northern kings who were there in the mountains, in the Ereba, south of Kenareth, in the western foothills, and in Daphoth-Nor, to the west, to the Canaanites in the east and west, to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites in the hill country, and to the Hivites below Hermon in the region of Mizpah. They came out with their troops and a large number of horses and chariots, a huge army as numerous as the sand on the seashore. All these kings joined forces and made camp together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel. The Lord said to Joshua, Do not be afraid of them, because by this time tomorrow I will hand all of them over to Israel slain. You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots. So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the waters of Merim and attacked them. And the Lord gave them into the hands of Israel. They defeated them and pursued them all the way to greater Sidon, to Mizraphoth-Mim and to the valley of Mizpah on the east, until no survivors were left. Joshua did to them as the Lord had directed. He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots. At that time, Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword. Hazor had been the head of all of these kingdoms. Everyone in it they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anything that breathed, and he burned up Hazor itself. Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded. Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds except Hazor, which Joshua burned. The Israelites carried off for themselves all of the plunder and livestock of the cities, but all the people they put to the sword until they completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed. As the Lord commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. So Joshua took the entire land, the hill country, all the Negev, the whole region of Goshen, the western foothills, the Ereba and the mountains of Israel with their foothills from Mount Halleck, which rises towards Seir, to Balgad in the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and struck them down, putting them to death. Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time, except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, Not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites who took them all in battle. For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses. At that time, Joshua went down and destroyed the Anakites from the hill country, from Hebron, Debir, and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them in their towns. No Anakites were left in Israelite territory. Only in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod did any survive. So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war. Thus far the reading of God's word. May he bless it to us. That's a large passage for us to consider tonight. and I don't pretend I can do it all in detail without taking so much time you would riot and I don't want that but what I want to do is get a taste for how this story of conquest plays out there's a lot of names here a lot of references to places that we don't know where they are most of us we couldn't find them on a map it would be hard for us to sketch out exactly where these victories are taking place They're taking place against kings and kingdoms that have been gone and dead for a long time. It's a terrible story of destruction. It's a terrible story of many people being killed, many people put to the sword, many cities destroyed completely, some even burned and turned into a heap of rubble. Kings taken prisoner and executed, crucified and thrown into caves. And our temptation can be to read through this and say, what can this possibly have to say to us today? What can I possibly take from this that will be a prophet to my Christian walk? You know, don't dare to be the king of Hazor. I don't know what exactly the application would be. Where does this come from? What do we do with it? As we've said before, looking at passages like this, as we've considered Joshua, sometimes passages like this are an embarrassment to us. These are the passages we don't like to have people know about. We don't like to have Bible verses. I mean, it's not a memory verse you find in most Sunday school classes, is it? They destroyed everything that breathed. So what are we to do with this? Were the people then so different than we are today? Has so much changed that this word of God can no longer be profitable for us? And change is something we've heard a lot about lately, haven't we? The political pundits, the people who tell you what to think and how to react, tell you that this upcoming presidential election will be about change. And each candidate is trying to position himself as the candidate of change. And so we ask our question tonight, looking at the Bible, has so much changed that this can't be profitable for us? We know that the scripture teaches that there's nothing new under the sun. And I would submit to you that not much has changed. That we can still look at this passage, look at this destruction, look at this judgment and deliverance, and see something of profit for us today. Because what this really is a story of, is a story of the Lord bringing His people to their rest. The Lord fulfilling a promise. Redemptive history to this point in Scripture has been moving to arrive here. And as we see the land at rest, as we see God's people moving into their possession, we can see that God is granting his people rest. He's granting the inheritance that he promised. And I think we can see him doing this in three ways. God grants Israel her inheritance by ending her war, by ending her wandering, and by ending her waiting. That's what this story is about. Ending Israel's war, ending Israel's wandering, and ending Israel's waiting. And I think as we see this story unfolding, we'll also see that this is not just a story of what happened in history, but it also points forward to the reality that we will enjoy as God's people. That we look forward to an end to war. We look forward to an end to wandering. We look forward to an end to waiting. So how does this play out? in our story. Well, as we considered when we considered the last chapter with the Gibeonites, Israel failed to inquire of the Lord. They broke the covenant promises they had made, the covenant commands that Moses had given, that they were not to make treaties. And we said last time that this would have a domino effect, that the Lord would use this broken fellowship on the part of the Israelites to provoke the warfare that he would start with the people of Canaan. He would use this to gather them together and then they would fall like dominoes. Kids, maybe you've done that at home. You've taken some dominoes and stacked them all up in a row. Once you've got it all stacked, you just press the first one and what happens? If you've done it right, all of them fall in a row. And that's really what happens here. They make this treaty with the Gibeonites and the people in the southern region of Israel say, all right, we've heard what they've done to Ai, we've heard what they've done to Jericho, how they've completely destroyed it, they've put their kings to the sword, they've put their cities to the sword, destroyed their armies. We're going to need to band together and do something about this. And now they've made a treaty with Gibeon, these important cities full of good fighters. We have to take matters in hand and stop them. And what does the Lord tell Joshua? I'm going to deliver them into your hand. Don't be afraid. And he marches on this large army. It's interesting in this story. Joshua is always taking the fight to these gigantic allied armies. What does he do? He marches, we're told, all night to take them by surprise. And what happens when he gets there? The Lord throws them into a confusion. And they just start running. They don't know where they're going. And huge hailstones begin to fall. And more of them are killed by the hailstones than are killed by the Israelites. God is striking them down. And we have this amazing story of Joshua fighting with them and chasing them and realizing that he doesn't have enough daylight to finish the job. And so he prays to the Lord. Set the sun in place. Set the moon in place. Give me enough time. We have this amazing account of what the Lord did. That he listened to him. There's never been a day like it, we're told. And for a full day, the sun stayed right where it was. Kids, imagine that. You are at school and you come home and the sun's out and you eat dinner and the sun's still out and it's time for bed and the sun's still out. You wake up in the morning and the sun's still out. It must have been an amazing thing to see. It must have been terrible for the enemies who were waiting for nightfall, hoping maybe that would allow them to slip away. But the sun just stays up. And the Lord uses that to deliver this army into his hands. And the kings who've gathered together to set this army, what do they do? They run for it. They try hiding in a cave. And the Israelites are pressing the pursuit so hard, they say, well, you know what, just stop up the cave, put some guards there, and let's just keep running after these guys. We're just going to keep going, keep bringing the attack to them. And they chase them all the way until they get in their fortified cities. Then they say, okay, now it's time to go back. The Lord has given them deliverance, but now it's time to go back and to deal with these kings. These kings who had led opposition to God, opposition to his people, who thought they would raise up an army and exterminate God's name from the land, are now hiding, blocked in a cave, waiting for the sword to fall. And they're brought out. We have this sort of grisly picture where Joshua sets them all down on the ground, tells his army commanders to stand on their necks, and then he kills them all. And then he crucifies them, hangs them on a tree to show the curse that they've called down. Now, we may want to pause here and say, why does he do this? Well, as we continue on through Joshua, we'll see that although the Lord has granted an end to the war, the victory has been won, the royal cities have been cast down, the kings have been cast down, there still are pockets of resistance all over the land. The little towns, the little areas that Israel has not conquered yet. What's Joshua doing here? He's giving them the same message he got when we began the story. When the Lord first came to Joshua, he said, Be strong and courageous to take this fight to God's enemies. And now what does he say? You army commanders, come here. And you'll get a visible reminder of what God will do. This is how surely he will grant victory to you. Now you be strong and courageous. Because we're told this battle takes a long time. Joshua is anticipating the day where he will no longer be able to lead Israel. He's providing them an example. But this is the end the Lord will always make of his enemies. This is the way God will deal with his enemies if his people in the land are faithful. He will give them victory. He will put them to the sword. And we're told they chase Canaanites all over southern Israel until they have killed all their kings and gotten all their fortified cities. And then what happens? Well, the northern Canaanites hear about this. Remember, it's the dominoes continue to fall. This treaty with Gibeon, the attacks on Jericho and Ai, they forced the southern Canaanites into action. Now the northern Canaanites have said, well, now we really need to do something because not only has all this stuff happened at Jericho, at Ai, not only are the Gibeons on their side, but now the southern Canaanites have tried and failed to resist the Lord. Now we need an even bigger alliance. We need to come together and bring all the strength of Canaan against these enemies. And what are we told? Their army was as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Kids, have you ever been at the beach and tried to count the sand on the seashore? It's a way of talking about how vast this army was. What does the Lord say again? Just as he said with the southern army, he made a promise. I will deliver them into your hands. And what do they do? They go up and they strike them down. They take their armies, they hamstring their horses, they burn their chariots, they raise their cities. Because the Lord is powerful. It doesn't matter how big the army is. He promises deliverance. He strikes down the kings. He strikes down their kingdom and their people. And we're told that Joshua was able to bring all of Canaan under submission. We're told that the inheritance was given to the Israelites in that last wonderful verse of chapter 11. Joshua took the entire land just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war. Now maybe you're thinking to yourself, I thought you promised you would make this relevant. You've rehashed what happened, and it surely is a mighty victory that the Lord had delivered. But still, what does this have to do with me? What comfort can I take from this? Well, this is also a picture pointing forward to what will happen for us. Because doesn't the New Testament remind us that we are a people who are at war? Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says, that's the struggle we're engaged in. It's a spiritual struggle against the powers, the powers of darkness. Remember he says that's why we need to put on that spiritual armor. Take our spiritual weaponry because we're engaged in a battle, a spiritual warfare. We see that around us every day. And as we're fighting a war the way the Israelites were fighting a war, we need to be reminded today that our war is coming to an end. That we have a God who's promised deliverance to us. And the promised deliverance from this spiritual warfare comes in Christ Himself. He comes to bring an end. He comes with a promise in the first place. A promise to deliver His people. A promise to deliver us from the spiritual forces that threaten to drag us down from our own sin. From the kingdom of Satan. And everything that He represents. And after giving this promise for a Messiah, the Messiah has come. And what has he done? He has struck down the prince of darkness. He's destroyed that leader. He's gone in and conquered hell. Destroyed Satan's kingdom. He's destroyed his armies. He's taken away his power. He's conquered sin and death and hell. He's come in and brought that deliverance for us. Everything's been put under his feet, but we're still waiting for death to be conquered, aren't we? Conquered in the sense that we still experience it in this life. That's why we're still engaged in this spiritual struggle. But as we see Israel being delivered from war here, it's a reminder to us that our deliverance from this spiritual warfare is coming. That the gates of hell are creaking against the army of the Lord. And that although everything has been put under Christ's feet, we're told that there's just one enemy left. That's death. The victory's been won. Satan's been cast down. His kingdom's been destroyed. There's just this little pocket of resistance left. And there's a day coming when this warfare will be over. When the gates of hell will fall and Christ will ride forth victorious to conquer the last enemy. And so as we see Israel's end to war, we can think gloriously looking forward of that end that Christ will provide for us. When death is no more. And we enjoy that peace that he brings. And we enjoy not just a peace in this life, but a heavenly peace. And not just a peace that lasts for a time in a land, but a peace that lasts forever. That's the wonderful promise we have in an end to war. But this end to war meant something else for the Israelites. In the second place, it meant an end to their wandering. If you think about it, they finally have a land to call their own. Sometimes we stand so far back that we see the whole scope of redemptive history, and when we come to a passage like this, we sort of forget where these people stand, What they represent, where the redemptive history has played out to this point. And they've been a people that have been wandering ever since Adam was expelled from the garden. God's people have always been a wandering people. It's interesting if you go back, especially the divisions, where you have the line of promise and the line of the serpent going out. Even from early times, you see that something that categorizes the line of the serpent is they build cities. They build nations. They build lands. They make this world their home. It happens with Cain and Seth. I'm told that Cain's descendants, they built cities. It happened with Noah's sons, Ham and Shem. Ham's son Canaan establishes the Canaanite lands because of what he does to Noah. he brings that curse on himself. Same is true of Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael builds lands and people for himself. Isaac continues to wander. We're told that Esau builds up the Edomite country by his descendants, whereas Jacob continues to wander. So the people of God have been wandering ever since they left Canaan. They've been waiting to come into a rest. God has told them there will be a time when there will be a land set aside for you. A time that you will enjoy. A time of peace. But it's not yet. And for hundreds of years, they've waited for this promise to come true. They've waited for a land of rest to be made their own. And now finally it's come. The land is at rest from war. It's been given as an inheritance to God's people. And they've entered in. Again, it's another picture for us because we are a wandering people. Remember Peter talking about us? He talks about us living as aliens and strangers. And his original audience would have known what that meant, to be an alien and a stranger in the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire, you didn't have any rights unless you were a citizen. If you weren't a citizen, you could be taken advantage of. You didn't enjoy the same rights. Remember how Paul was treated? And then they found out he was a Roman citizen and people started to get worried is because he'd been sort of summarily beaten and now they find out he's a Roman citizen and has rights. So when Peter's talking to his people, he's saying, you live as people that are not citizens of this world. James puts it even more harshly, doesn't he? He says, you adulterous people, James 4.4, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. he sets before us the fact that in a lot of ways, we are aliens and strangers in this world. This is a world of sin, corruption, and brokenness. The people that are not of God set down roots here. This is their home. This is their inheritance. This is where they hope to dwell. And God's people have always been wandering, looking for something better. And we look for something better, don't we? It's a powerful reminder to us we can't make friends with this world. Not in that way. You have to choose sides. It's important for us to remember that, isn't it? Especially you young people as you decide who you're going to make friends with. What you're going to do with those friends when your parents aren't around. It's important to know that you can be friends with the world or you can be friends with God. You can't have it both ways. You have to choose. And if you choose the world, you hate God. We have to be careful. This world is not our home. We're looking for something else. And this passage is a reminder that that something else is coming. That there is a land that's been prepared for us that we will not always wander. We will find a rest. But not a rest here. It's a heavenly rest that we're looking forward to. That brings us to our final point we see in this passage. It's an end of war, it's an end of wandering, and it's an end of waiting. As we said, they've waited a long time to come into this land. And we've moved in sort of a new era of redemptive history because now they're in. That was the promise. I will bring you into this land. Remember, kids, we talked about the promise that runs with the land, that you have to obey. We said we have to think of it as an allowance, The land was kind of like their allowance. As long as they obeyed, they stayed in. When they failed to obey, they were cast out. And so now redemptive history shifts in its focus. Not going into the land, but will they stay in the land? We know how that plays out, don't we? Joshua's generation is faithful, and those who were with him were faithful, and the next generation is unfaithful. They need judges to bail them out because they're constantly sinful. Then they reject the judges and want a king, and their king is sinful. Then the Lord raises up a godly king for them. But that king's grandson splits the kingdom. And then you have these kingdoms disobeying the Lord, promoting false worship, and prophets are sent to say, don't you remember, this is your allowance, this is your inheritance. If you don't care for it, it will be taken away from you. The Lord will cast you out. The prophets warn them over and over again, and we know what happens. They are cast out. It's interesting. They get cast out in the reverse order they came in. They come in. They go to the southern kingdom first. Then they cast out the northern kingdom. And when the Lord takes away the land from them, he takes away the northern kingdom first and then the southern kingdom. Conquest moves backwards, and the people leave their land. And after a time of punishment, they return. But they're not free in their lands anymore. They're always under the heel of a foreign power. And we come to the time of Jesus Christ. And what are they hoping for? To be freed from the Romans. They think that'll be the restoration of God's promise, to have the land delivered back to us. And if we could just be faithful enough, we could get it back. Then it'll be the end to our waiting again, to be brought into the land, to be brought back to fellowship with God. What happens? John the Baptist comes to say, that's not what you've been waiting for. This has been a picture for you. But this isn't really what you've been waiting for. And John the Baptist says, what you've been waiting for has come. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's what this promise has been really moving towards. That's what they've been waiting for. And Christ comes to bring an end to that waiting. to bring himself forth as a Messiah to suffer and die for his people and to live the righteous life they couldn't live so they could be brought in. And now we are a people who wait, not for the Messiah to come, but for the Messiah to come again. And he's coming soon. We need to be mindful of that, that our time is short, that the waiting will soon be over. In a lot of ways, this story of Joshua, Joshua coming into the land and bringing conquest is a picture for us. That God brings an end to his people's war. He brings an end to his people's wandering. He brings an end to his people's waiting. And in all the ways we've looked at tonight, we're a people that are still at war. We're a people that still wander. We're a people that are still waiting. But we're also gloriously reminded there is an end coming. to all these things. Christ is coming again, and he's not slow. He's patient. I was watching a lot of football yesterday. It's interesting to me to watch running backs try to run running plays. Sometimes it looks like they're not really going anywhere. What they do is they're waiting for their blockers to set up. They're waiting for their people to block the people they need to block so there's a clean hole for them to run through. And then, boy, some of these guys are fast. But sometimes as you see the play develop, you think, what's he doing? Why isn't he just running? He's not being slow. He's being patient. That's a reminder that comes to us today. Christ is not being slow. He's being patient. He's waiting to gather in everyone that needs to be gathered in. Maybe that's you tonight. You don't know the Lord. Maybe he's been waiting for you. The glorious word that comes to us tonight is there is still time to turn to him in faith. But he is coming. He came and he died and he rose again and he went to that heavenly rest and he went to prepare that for us and he says, I'm waiting and the time is coming. The time is short. We need to live as a people who have a short time to wait, who are diligent workers for the kingdom of God, who show forth our gratitude while we have time, anticipating that time when we will cross the Jordan into that promised land that he's prepared for us. Let us pray that he comes quickly, but that while he tarries, we're diligent. Let's go to him in prayer. Amen. Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity we have to come and to consider your word, to consider the promise that you made to people so many years ago. That promise that you carried through in Joshua's time, that promise you carried through ultimately by sending Jesus Christ. We cling to that promise that Christ is coming and that He is coming soon. We pray that while He tarries, we might be diligent workers. That we might show forth His gospel by our words and also by our deeds in order that those who have yet to be gathered in might be gathered. That the Holy Spirit might go forth and work faith in the hearts of those who so desperately need Christ. We pray that as we continue to war and as we continue to wander and as we continue to wait, you might give us patience. Reminding us that you were patient to gather us in and that you are patient to gather others in. May we work for your kingdom and for your glory. Would you come quickly, Christ Jesus. We pray in your name. Amen.