Life In The Light | Weekend Sunday Service | Tyler Sanborn

A message by Tyler Sanborn on Psalm 27:6-10

Compass Bible Church South Valley is located in Kuna, Idaho

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Transcript

Fear, Performance, And False Gods

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Everyone is scared of something that might jerk your knee in a certain direction, whether you agree or disagree. My hope today is to point us to the text, the first six verses of Psalm 27, and show you that that is true. When I was younger, over the course of my life, until about college, my greatest fear was failing publicly and athletically. I was terrified. I was scared of what would happen if people at the at the park around the baseball diamond saw me utterly fail. I was terrified. I was terrified of it. And it happened uh regularly. I failed often. If you know anything about baseball, they would say you would know that baseball is is a game of failures. If you fail to get a hit seven out of ten times, and you do that over the course of years at the highest level, you will be in the Hall of Fame. If you're batting 300, you uh you get a hit only 30% of the time. It's a game of failures. And I failed often, but I put my fear and my hope and my trust in what other people thought of me. Specifically speaking, the people that would one day hopefully give me money to play baseball in college. I was scared. I wanted to do it so badly. Baseball was my God. I worshipped it. I was fearful of it and the people surrounding it. And I made for myself a God that I feared. And today in our text, David is going to show us, he's going to point us to the only one worthy of our fear. The only one. And I hope that this is an encouragement to you today because the temptation to fear will never escape us. There's always going to be the unknown. And oftentimes we are prompted, provoked to fear because we don't know. But David's heart is fixed. He knows. David knows. David's going to point us to the one who does know and who knows all things, who is all powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, everywhere present. David is going to show us the top dog. David is going to show us who has no equal. He's going to show us the Lord. Let's look at our text this morning.

Psalm 27 Sets The Anchor

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Psalm 27, and we'll be in the first six verses. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble, he will conceal me under the cover of his tent, he will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies, all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

David’s Confident Defiance

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David has every reason to be afraid. David grew up in conflict. He was, I guess some people might say, born into it, molded by it. He was living a life of conflict, whether it was the animals that were seeking to prey on his flock as a boy. King Saul, who welcomed him into his inner circle, who was so jealous and decided this one will eventually overdo me, outdo me. I must kill him before that happens. No, God had other plans. Saul was after him. The Philistines were after him. The Amalekites were after him. Everyone around him in his life was after him, it seems. And he had every reason to be afraid. My question for you is I'd like you to start thinking. What are the things that you're afraid of? What lives rent-free in your minds? What occupies your bandwidth as you're laying down? What is running and racing through your mind? What are the unknowns, the fears, the dangers that you just don't yet have a grip on, that you don't understand? David is pointing us to the one who reveals, the one who is certain, the one who does know, the one that holds the future in his hands. It is the Lord. It is Yahweh. I am who I am, the eternal creator God, the God who is mighty in battle, the God who extinguishes his enemies, the God who is David's salvation. He says, Who else is there that can outdo him? Who else can outdo the Lord? Who can defeat him? Who shall I be afraid of? The Lord is a stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? I was afraid of what people thought of me. Maybe that's you too. Growing up, I was I was scared of being rejected, scared of being by myself. Though my my mother was a public school teacher, and I had family at school. Growing up, I I cared deeply about not being rejected. I cared so much about being with people, and I was scared of being alone, not having friends, not having someone to talk to. And David, David is fully satisfied, fully comforted, fully filled with hope because the Lord is his light. I was a on the outside, not a fearful child, but growing up, I had some internal things that I was scared of. Though I wouldn't admit this to my sister or my brother, I was scared of the dark. Thankfully, I was fast, so the dark didn't have much exposure, I didn't have much exposure in the darkness. I would run down the hallway, run into the garage. You know the move where you got the garage door open, the the light is on, you kind of push the door, run, grab something and run back. That was me. There's something in there. I don't want to go into the dark. I don't want to I don't want to be consumed by what I don't know, what I don't understand. Um and David is David's understanding is sure. It's steadfast. It's on it's on a rock. He has a firm foundation. His salvation is found in the Lord. And he is sure of it. He is sure of the salvation that the Lord provides. He was confident. We don't know exactly what what point in David's life Psalm 27 was written. Commentators and scholars might speculate it was during the time when he was being pursued by King Saul. Others would say it's when he was already king, already anointed, second time uh publicly. Uh but David had plenty of opportunity to fear. He had plenty of room to be afraid. The evildoers surrounded scheming, plotting all the time. His adversaries and his foes. They they stumbled. Why? Because God delivered them into his hands. It wasn't David's military prowess, it wasn't his military genius, though he was a great tactician and a great soldier. You might be thinking of one of the greatest uh defeats that David secured, Goliath, the spahemoth of a man, taunting and mocking the Lord of Israel. The Lord delivered him into his hand. Whom shall I fear? A wild beast, a lion, a wolf that would come to eat me, come to take my father's sheep? No. Though he had skills, he had a skill set that was helpful to protect himself. Many, many people might have family in this room. Many people know of uh a law enforcement or someone who has served faithfully. There are scary times. There are scary times and evil that that persists in our world. Not too much has changed since the time that David lived. And we would do well to follow his lead. Where do we look when we're afraid? Where do we look when evil surrounds, when the enemies stack up against us? Where do we go? Where is our hope found? Where is our refuge? Where is our strength? Where's our confidence? Imagining soldiers saying in the face of an enemy, you guys seek to kill me, but I have I have a confidence. I have a confidence, yes, in my training, but my my confidence that that usurps that is in the Lord of hosts, in the Lord who commands the armies of heaven. This is where my hope is. It's in Yahweh that I find my trust. It's in him alone. Let's write this down for point number one.

Submit Your Fears To God

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As you're thinking about these fears, as you're thinking about the things that might be weighing down on you, causing you to tremble on the inside, though you might try to keep it together. Do this. Submit your fears to God. God, I'm scared. I don't know what's going to happen next. I don't know how much long I'm going to be able to see my loved ones. I don't know how how much longer I have. I've been wrestling, Lord. I've been struggling with the uncertainty of it all. We like to know. We like to have a grip on life. It gives us a confidence. It gives us a security to know the details of things. My daughter is, uh, oldest daughter is 11, and she just wants to know all the things. She wants to know all the details, mom and dad. Why? Where? When? With who? Am I going? She wants to know. She wants to be involved. It gives her comfort. It gives her a sense of peace and a confidence that she knows what's going on. She's maturing. She's growing. She wants to be treated like an adult. She wants to know the details, but there's times where I tell her, you just need to trust mom and dad. This is information that you just don't need to know right now. And it's okay. It's okay if you don't know. Do you trust us? Do you trust your mom and I? And that's that's the kind of limbo that David is implanted in. He's he's not knowing. He's not knowing all the details. He doesn't know exactly how the Lord will provide. He doesn't know exactly how the enemy will stumble and fall. But his hope and his trust, his confidence is in the one who holds the plans for his life. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. He is confident and sure that God will provide salvation. This is a David who does not have the full canon of scripture. This is a David who does not know the offspring that would crush the head of the serpent by name. He knows him now. David is face to face with his Savior. But he didn't know. But he he believed. He had faith in the Lord. He's crying out to the Lord, who shall I fear? And sometimes we like to read it like David's full-fledged confidence, full assurance. He might have said this with a little, Lord, help me believe. Help me to mean what I'm saying. Whom shall I be afraid? God, you've provided time and time and time again, but but I still, my knees, my knees shake just a little bit sometimes. If you've been walking with the Lord, you you might be experiencing this. You know the truth and the reality of God's faithfulness in your life. You might be recalling the time and time and time again that God has come through. God has shown himself faithful. Will you do it again, Lord? Will you do it again? Help me not to fear. It's easy to not be afraid of the past. It's easy to see God's provision in your life and to and to thank him and rejoice in that and to be confident in the past. Like, yeah, he did it then. You see that? He did that. The history, the evidence. It's all there. It's all there. Look what God has done. He did a great

When New Trials Hit

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thing. But we face new trials and troubles, it seems, every day. New family dynamics that are just so unbelievably challenging. Things that come out of the blue. You get a call, you get an email, you need to be looking for a new job. All of a sudden. You get a call from a loved one, from a family member. A diagnosis that's crushing. We have fears that present themselves to us every day. Here's my challenge to you. Lay them at the feet of the Lord. Give them over to Him. They do no good in your hands. They don't. Hand them over to the Lord. Help me with this. Help me believe. Help me to not be afraid. You're bigger than this problem. You're bigger than this trial. You're bigger than this challenge, Lord. Help me to not be afraid. And it's bizarre to me as I look to this text. It's bizarre to me to think about David saying, yet I will be confident. And the next thing that he's speaking of is this in verse 4. After he's claiming, he's letting his heart be known to the Lord, I'm going to be confident in you. Who am I going to be afraid of? One thing have I asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. For what purpose? To gaze upon the beauty. To see him. And to inquire in his temple. To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Some scholars would say this wasn't a linear thought. This song may have been patched together over the course of weeks, months, years. It's possible. I love the transition. Where's my confidence? Where's where am I most safe? Where is my hope found? The one place that I can find refuge in? Where's the stronghold of my life? Where? Where is that? No, it's who is that? It's who? It's the Lord. That's where he wants to be. In the presence of the Lord. It's incredible. It's incredible. Is that our initial thought when fear starts creeping up? Is that our initial thought? For me, some I I struggle. I struggle to do that. I struggle to lay my fears at the Lord's feet. I I struggle to do that. I try to do it my own strength. I try to devise a better plan, a better strategy, better tactics, better resources, better equipment. You need a better gaze to look in the right direction. Look to the Lord. This is this is David's heart. In 2 Samuel chapter 7. He's burdened by the fact that he lives in a mansion built with cedars of the finest resources in the land. And he's he's considering his house, and he's considering where the Lord dwells in a tent. His heart is, this is not right, this is wrong. Lord, you deserve your name. And I'm just so I'm so encouraged that David would even share this thought, this heart with us. He says in in verse 4 of chapter 7, this is this is what we see. After this, this thought comes to David, I'm in a mansion, you're in a tent. But the same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord, Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. But I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling, in all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel. Did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be a prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth, and I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. David's David is getting a reminder. I've been with you this whole time. It's not about what the outside of my dwelling place looks like. The Lord dwells in glorious lights. He he doesn't need a physical home. God is spirit, but he chooses to dwell in physical form among us, God with us, the light of the world, the man Jesus Christ. David didn't get a chance to embrace him. David didn't get a chance to behold in the flesh the Lord Jesus Christ. But David's heart was for him. David's heart was for the Lord. I want to be with you. I want, I want to seek your face. Of all the places in this world, of all the things that I could ask, all the things that I could pursue, I just want to be with you. I just want to be in your presence. It reminds me of the times when I was the years I was dating Sadie. All I wanted to do when we're dating was just when do I get to hang out with her next? When do I get to know her just a little bit more? When do I get to go to Menchies again and enjoy frozen yogurts? When is the next time that we can be face to face? When? I just want to be with you. And at a certain point, at a certain point, we both realized we want to, we don't want to spend the rest of our lives together. We want to be together as long as God would have us on this earth. We want to be together, united, married, pursuing the Lord together. David's heart here. To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. That takes your whole self. That takes all of you. He wants to be where the Lord is. He must have been thinking about Moses. He must have been thinking about how he had to put the veil over his face after he exited the tent, meeting face to face with the Lord. He just wants to see the beautiful Lord. He wants to learn, to glean, to grow in his presence. He wants to be led. He wants to submit his life to God, his Lord, his savior, his light. Wherever you go, Lord, I want to go. That's the heart of David. That's his desire. Is that your desire? What is consuming your mind? What consumes you? What do you long after? I think a word that we should start to use more often as we think about the Lord is the word yearn. Yearn. Let's write this down for point number two.

Yearn For God’s Presence

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Yearn to be with the Lord. Yearn to be with him. You're in Christ. That's your reality. You will be with him. You will have full and utter complete satisfaction in being with him. Do you long for heaven? Do you long to see your Savior face to face? Is that a thought that you think about every day? I I struggle to say yes to that because it's not true. I need the Lord to help me in that.

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To just to be with him.

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To tie back to my baseball roots, I just I wanted to be I just wanted to be with the next level up. I wanted to be with the upperclassmen. I wanted to be playing with the guys that were bigger and faster and stronger than me. Always. Not my soul. Not my heart. But the Lord is satisfying me. I'm growing to learn to be even more satisfied day by day in Him. As I look to His Word to inquire in the Scriptures. Sometimes we could look to the Word of God and be like, it's just rich crackers. Jesus says He's the bread of life. Anyone that tastes of him will not be hungry. Anyone that drinks of him will never be thirsty again. Are you satisfied by this book? How often do you inquire in this book? You can see until we meet the Savior face again face. You can see him every day. Did you know that? You can see him. The word of God. The word that became flesh, Jesus. This is his word. How often do you draw near to be satisfied? Are you are you settling for less? Are you settling for for Ritz crackers? When you have a feast in front of you? David has a lot to teach us. This one thing. Just just one thing. I want to be with you. I want to live in your house forever. I don't want to seek after anything else. We all would do well to ask the Lord to increase that desire in us. We would. You've been washed by the blood of Christ. You have. He's given you his righteousness when you said, These are my sins. I confess them to you. You're dressed in his righteousness. You have shelter in him from the wrath to come. You're saved from utter destruction. You're saved from the darkness. You're saved from death. Your greatest enemy has been defeated, crushed. Though the lingering effects of sin still remain, God is gracious to delay. God is kind to tarry. Why? People have still not bent the knee to Christ. There are still those who have not yet said, The Lord is my light and my salvation.

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We need to yearn to be with the Lord.

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We need him far more than we can even imagine. Day to day. Yes, eternally, for salvation. For life everlasting, but to walk in the steps of Jesus, we need his help. You have the helper inside, but will you submit to him? Will you say, Christian, I still need your help? I still need to be in your book. I still need to be shown the way. Show me the way. I need light for this path, this narrow path that you have set me on. I need your guidance. I need your shelter. Trials are coming, storms are coming. Hide me. Verse 5. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies, all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

Hidden On The Rock

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Treasure Valley has seen some pretty strong winds over the past month. Some folks have have lost tree limbs or whole trees, fences blown over. The storm of judgment is going to be far more severe.

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There's people in this room that might think they are hidden.

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It might be church people. Do you know the Savior? You might you might know the the facts, you might know the the answers from from Sunday school like I did. You might you might have asked Jesus to enter into your heart multiple times, like I did. I was scared of judgment. I was scared of hell. I was terrified of what my sins produced.

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Where is your help in the day of trouble?

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Are your feet planted on the rock? The rock of ages? Are you are your feet firm? Or are you have you built your house in the sand? It's a dangerous place to be when the floods come. It's a dangerous place to be when the storm rises up and you have you have no high ground. David's heart, David's comfort is in the Lord. Is yours? Do you seek to find comfort anywhere else other than the Savior? Through loss, through trial, through pain, through relational strain, through family challenges, loss of job, loss of friendships, loss of community. Where is your help? Where is it? If it's in Christ, you will endure. And if if you're not, you you are getting tossed. You are a shipwreck just waiting to happen. The desire for David, the desire to respond with the facts laid out on the table. The enemies, they're here. They want to kill me. They want to take my life. They want to mock the God that I worship. They seek to eliminate me, to eat my flesh. They're all around me. But you will lift up my head. My head will be lifted up above all the enemies that surround, above every trial and tribulation, above every threat to my life, my social life, my physical life, my spiritual life. God will provide the way. He provides the way of escape. And David, as a result, is not. That was a close one. What's next? No. No. He properly responds. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I think Americans get too excited about things they see on TV. They get far too excited about the upsets, the comebacks, the stories of the underdog. Is the team from LA, the blue and white team with the with the unicorn pitcher, home run hitter? Are they going to win again? And if they do, I'm going to rejoice. We're going to erupt. We're going to celebrate a three-peat. It's going to be glorious. We're not sacrificing with doves, and we don't do that anymore. We have an eternal sacrifice in Christ. He has paid the debt. His blood offering is sufficient.

Worship As A Whole-Life Response

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We live a life of obedience. We live a life submitted to the king. That's the parallel here. David's response, I'm going to go and worship the Lord as he has prescribed. The book of Leviticus can, for some people, be a drag, but it helps us understand how God has directed his people to worship him, how to sacrifice to him. We have the full canon of Scripture. We have God's completed word. We have an understanding that to live a life of worship, of sacrifice, is to die to ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow after Jesus. That is our spiritual act of worship, to obey and follow the King, the Lord. And we get to do that with joy. There's no chains, there's no burdens weighing us down. There's no no guilt. There's just no debt left to pay. It's paid for. Jesus paid it all. If you notice the songs today, the lyrics, did you notice? Did you notice the lyrics of the songs? How they directly connect to this passage today? Sometimes we think of worship just being something we sing on Sunday mornings. No, your life lived out in obedience and submission to the king is worship. That is worship. That is how Christians in the year 2026 worship the King of Kings. This is how we raise our sacrifices to the Lord. This is how we please the Lord. We reflect on what he's done. We look at the cost. We look at the sacrifice that Jesus made. Willingly, joyfully, humbly. And we thank him. We thank him. Our life is a melody for the Lord. I grew up playing alto saxophone. I hated practicing. It was the worst. I wanted to play drums or guitar or anything other than woodwinds or brass. I would practice just because my parents told me to, just so that way I would fulfill the years of service if it if that makes sense. And then after that, I could move on to something else. David, he was a skilled warrior. He was an equally skilled musician and poet. David's heart for the Lord poured out onto the pages of scripture for us to just marinate in. He is so articulate. He is so, he's just gushing with joy for the Lord. His life is overflowing with worship through through the words and the songs that he would lead God's people with. Our sacrifice, our song, our melody to the Lord is our lives. That is a command in scripture that we see. Sing to the Lord a new song, worship him. We do that. You do that well. What do the other six days of the week look like? I don't say this to push us down, but to stir us up, to encourage us, because it's easy to get into a rhythm of like, okay. We get into our rhythms. I check the box here, check the box there, I did that, I did my I did my reading, I listened, I checked the box today, okay. No, no one. No. We have an opportunity to live a life that oozes with enthusiasm for the Lord. David's heart for the Lord. It's one thing that I've asked. One thing. And he gets it. He gets it. His eyes are fixed. His heart is attached. He yearns for the Lord. If you're in Christ, you have been rescued. You have a Savior. Let's write this down for point number three.

Rejoice After Rescue

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Rejoice in response to rescue. That's what David does. He rejoices. He is thrilled. Lord, you did it again. The only response. Praise him. Praise him with your mouth. Praise him with your mind. Praise him with your life. For the things that you choose to do. The words of encouragement. The words of praise. Don't forget, even when things are going well, you still need him. You still need God to help you obey. Even when you think that things are going in the right direction, you're walking in the light. God is necessary. You cannot live a life that pleases the Lord without a humble pursuit. Like David, like David has in verse 4. One thing have I asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. David wanted to walk in the light of God's truth. He wanted to live his life face to face with his maker, with his Lord. And he's face to face with him as we are gathered in this room. He is face to face with his Savior. What a joy. Can't wait to listen to the songs that David writes in eternity. To worship the Lord. It's going to be amazing. We need to yearn for the Lord. We need to submit our whole lives, every part of us to the Lord. Our concerns, our joys, our the things that we're most excited about. And just a challenge to us this morning. A challenge is to know to know the Lord and to know his people. We get to do it every week at Life Group. We get to do it on Sundays, encouraging one another. I've told Sadie this and I've told others. Every baptism Sunday that I get apart to partake in is my new favorite Sunday. Every single time. Not to say that Sundays that we don't have baptisms aren't my favorite, because they are. Every Sunday is my favorite, but especially so to rejoice that in what God has done through his son, to rejoice to watch people go from darkness into light. There's nothing better. Not a single thing. We get to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord as we listen to the testimonies of people that have said, I once walked in darkness. I once was an enemy. I was an evildoer. I opposed the Lord. I was deceived. I was wrong. And then God saved me. God lifted me. God wasn't, He sheltered me from my sin. And now I'm His. And now I look forward to the day that I see Him face to face. And I'm going to seek after Him. The heart of David is reflected often in the testimonies that we get to here. Such an encouragement. Cast your fears upon the Lord. Don't be afraid. Let other people know your needs. Let God know your needs. Go after him with all you got. And when God answers your prayers and when God shows you the truth and encourages you in his word, rejoice. Rejoice in response to what God has done and what he will continue to do. Please

Final Prayer And Sending

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pray with me. Heavenly Father, we are just so, you're so humbled to reflect on what you've done, to reflect and remember the darkness that we once walked in. But God, you showed us, you illuminated in our minds and in our hearts the beauty, the treasure, the majesty of Christ. And you made it irresistible. God, we ask you to continue to save. Continue to save, continue to provide refuge and shelter for sinners who are opposed to you. Soften their hearts, God, give them a desire like David's in verse 4. Give them a passion to pursue you with all that they have and never turn back. God, we trust you to do that. We trust you to be our help, your ever present help in time of need. God, humble us. Help us to ask for help more frequently, more sincerely. And God, will you receive all the glory due to your name? It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen.