1 Kings 11:1-13

[0:00] All right, let's take our Bibles, go to 1 Kings chapter 11. 1 Kings chapter 11, we're just gonna be looking at verses 1 through 13 this afternoon, 1 Kings chapter 11, verses 1 through 13.

[0:14] I trust and pray that you had a good day, I pray that you've enjoyed your day that the Lord has given you, and so thankful for that, and just the opportunity we have together.

[0:26] Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this day. God, thank you for allowing us to gather together once again. Thank you for every privileged opportunity we have to open up the Word of God and to study it.

[0:39] We pray that you lead in God tonight. We pray that Scripture would be made clear to us, and Lord, that we would come not only to a greater understanding of it, but have a desire for a clear application.

[0:51] Lord, may the text speak to us with full authority, and may we learn more of you, but Lord, may we also learn more of how we should live according to it.

[1:03] We ask it all in Jesus' name, amen. 1 Kings chapter 11, verses 1 through 13. This, in context, we're really very well into the reign of Solomon.

[1:20] If you remember, 20 years in construction of the temple and in his own palace, or palace buildings, because there were multiple buildings there. So we're well past the 24th year of his reign.

[1:33] We're really getting near the end of his life. As a matter of fact, by the time we finish up the 11th chapter, Solomon will have died. So we're getting to the point now where all is not well.

[1:44] Even though he's a good king, he's been a great national leader. He's been a great political figure. All is not well spiritually in the nation. And we're going to see the degeneration that leads to what follows, right?

[1:57] The good kings, the bad kings, the divided kingdom, of those matters. But the great fall doesn't happen instantaneously, which is what I want us to see in the first 13 verses of this chapter, is that moment.

[2:16] And we can trace this through church history. We can trace this through particular churches. We can trace it really over and over and over again of God's history with his people. By the time something is known and the failure takes place, there has been much more that has led up to that failure that we were unaware of.

[2:38] We've seen hints of it in the life of Solomon. And then hopefully now we'll kind of get a little bit of clarity of how did we get there, right? Because when we understand how Solomon gets there, it helps us to guard our lives as to how we can keep from getting there.

[2:55] Because really, the problem Solomon has is the problem of every individual, if we're not careful. And I want you to see it is the problem of a divided heart. It's the problem of a divided heart that we have recorded for us here in 1 Kings 11 verses 1 through 13.

[3:12] The text tells us now, King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women. From the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.

[3:32] Solomon held fast to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

[3:53] For Solomon went after Ashereth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done.

[4:06] Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem. By the way, side note, that's Mount Olives.

[4:17] Mount Olivet, discourse, that's that mountain, right? Because that's the one east of Jerusalem, which is east of Jerusalem. And for Molech, the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

[4:34] Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded.

[4:51] So the Lord said to Solomon, because you have done this, and you have not kept my covenant and my statute, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.

[5:02] Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father, David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant, David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.

[5:21] 1 Kings 11, verses 1 through 13. I make it a habit of writing in my Bible. Some Bibles I write in extensively. Obviously, this Bible, the Bible that I preach in on Sunday mornings, has very little writing in it other than a few sermon outlines and kind of notations.

[5:35] I'm always writing in on pencil because Sunday mornings I get a tendency to be a little bit more, I need some more clarity, so I don't write in it as much. This is my daily reading Bible. I write in it, and then some of the other study Bibles I write in very extensively.

[5:48] But over this text, I've written, you know, partial obedience leads to partial rule because when we partial obey, we only get partial authority. So we see this, which is transpiring in the life of Solomon.

[6:01] But I want you to see the problem of a divided heart. 1 Kings 3, verse 3 says, so Solomon loved the Lord his God. When Solomon begins his reign, we are told in the third chapter, the third verse, Solomon loved the Lord his God.

[6:18] And the word love there is the same word that we have here where it tells us, now, King Solomon loved many foreign women. And what we have is a divided heart, a heart that is being pulled in two different directions.

[6:31] Right? We have Solomon loving the Lord his God, but Solomon also loving the many foreign women. And we have this division that has occurred. Now, that is going to be the problem that leads to the downfall, not only of Solomon, but also to the nation.

[6:48] It is a heart matter because we see the charge that the Lord God brings against Solomon is really the charge against his heart, not being wholly devoted or wholly and fully committed.

[6:59] It is not really the actions he has done, but rather it is the heart issue that was unaddressed. So, quite often what we find is the heart is the cause of the problem, but the heart is that which is not seen until the problem is too rapid that we cannot change it.

[7:16] And we see that in particular with King Solomon. And I want you to see this problem of a divided heart. And we're going to see it progressively how this division that is allowed and this division that it really starts out small will eventually lead to that.

[7:31] The reason being is because we are told to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our strength, and with all of our might. Right? We are told not to have a heart divided in our commitment and loyalty to the Lord our God.

[7:45] So, the same challenge and the same call that is issued to Solomon is the same call and challenge that is issued to each of us as well.

[7:55] Right? The same temptation and the same trials that Solomon faced are the same ones that we face. Well, there are many, many things that pull for our heart. There are many things that are pulling to cause a division there, and it's something that we must constantly be aware of.

[8:12] The first thing we see is this divided heart, it permitted temptation. The divided heart permits temptation.

[8:23] The word tells us, now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh. Now, you remember, Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh very early in his rule.

[8:36] As a matter of fact, they were already married before he began construction on the temple. And then later on, his kingdom palace. Because he built her another palace.

[8:46] Part of the construction of the palace was that he did not want to move Pharaoh's daughter into the house of David. Now, he began construction in the temple in the fourth year of his reign.

[8:57] And then we get to the 24th year because of 20 years of construction. So very early on in his reign, he marries the daughter of Pharaoh. Now, we acknowledged and even spoke of the reality that that alone was wrong because they were never to go back to Egypt.

[9:13] They weren't. Egypt is always a representation. If we want to bring the types or the representative types to the believer in the New Testament stage, Egypt is our sin, our bondage and sin, right?

[9:26] The wilderness is our sanctification. And in the promised land is our salvation, abiding in Christ. They were to not go back to the old man. Paul says, would you go back again to who you used to be?

[9:39] You know, would you go back to the sin in which you have been set free? Solomon does that. Now, we know that his marriage with Pharaoh's daughter was of political benefit.

[9:51] It was an alliance of political powers, right? So he did it intentionally. And then all of a sudden, there's this great trade in horses and chariots and all this other things that are going on.

[10:02] So we see here how this is the beginning of the stage. And I reminded you that when we saw that, pay attention, red flags are starting to come up. We're going to see them happen here.

[10:12] Because when you have a heart that is divided, you are permitting temptation to allow or to remain. So it starts with Pharaoh's daughter. And then all of a sudden, we have the Moabite, the Ammonite, Edomite, and the Sidonians and the Hittites.

[10:27] And then the Word of God tells us, From the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel. That is, God had given very clear declarations that they were not to intermarry with these people.

[10:43] They were not to give their sons to their daughters. They were not to take their daughters for their sons. And God gave this warning very clear when they came into the Promised Land. Actually, it is in the wilderness wondering as they were getting ready to go into the Promised Land.

[10:57] God says that when He displaced these people, they were not to intermarry with them. And the reasoning behind that, because God had clearly said that they would lead your hearts away from the Lord your God.

[11:09] But we understand the progression here, right? That when Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter, All of a sudden, it becomes very much easier to marry the next one, and then the next one, and then the next one.

[11:20] And more than likely, remember, Solomon is a good political leader. More than likely, most of these are politically driven marriages.

[11:34] Okay, I know that sounds harsh and wrong, but that was the way of the land. Most of these were forming alliances with other powers in that land.

[11:45] How did Solomon maintain peace? Some of it by the strength of his army. Some of it by the number of his wives. And he was doing this because it was the easy way out, right?

[11:58] If you were to marry people from these regions, and all of a sudden, your father-in-law is Pharaoh, and there's an alliance there. And then you go over here, and there's another alliance there. And if it worked over here, it'll work over there.

[12:08] And if it works over here, it'll probably work over there. And all of a sudden, we see that this divided heart, when the ways of the world became more important than the Word of God. Because in order to do this, Solomon had to disregard the Word of God.

[12:24] God had said, don't do it. And it was an intentional disregard for the Word of God, so that he could continue in the way of man. And by continuing, I'm sure, at the beginning, we have to take the Word of God at face value.

[12:39] It tells us Solomon loved the Lord his God. It was never intentional. But by disregarding the Word of God, he allowed temptation to remain.

[12:53] He permitted its presence in his life. And this is where the divided heart begins to take root. When we fail to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul, with all of our strength, when something begins to take root there, we permit things that run contrary to the Word of God to remain.

[13:16] Now, we may not do much with him in the beginning, because even after marrying Pharaoh's daughter, he builds the temple. Right? He leads in a national worship service.

[13:26] This is one of the greatest prayers recorded in the Old Testament. It's Solomon on his knees crying out, and God answers that prayer. So it's not like the initial result was, boom, all of a sudden condemnation and separation.

[13:38] It was the continuation of just allowing it to stay, allowing it to stay, allowing it to stay. And when that temptation was permitted, it led to the second thing.

[13:51] There is the private failing. Now, for the majority of his rule, he seems to balance this pretty well, because then we are told, even though God had said you shouldn't do this, by the way, God says don't do it because they would turn your heart away.

[14:09] Now, for the majority of his rule, he's okay, but then we read in verse 4, for when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods. Wait a minute. What God has said is coming about.

[14:22] And the reason it's coming about is because Solomon, for all these years, has permitted it. Now, we're still dealing with a private individual, because long before things go public, there's always a problem that's been happening privately.

[14:35] And we understand that, right? The reason we understand it is because when we begin to look at the failures of any individual, including ourselves, we know that the wrestling has already taken place privately long before the public knows about it.

[14:49] Anytime we see church, you know, churches falling apart, anytime we see matters that happen in the pulpit and we see the falling away, we can read church history. And anytime we see the failings of a pastor, I can assure you that there were always private failures before there was a public scandal.

[15:07] And we see this as it takes place in Solomon's life, because it says that when he was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

[15:21] Now, no one's going to know this but Solomon, because it's a matter of his heart. It's not a matter of how he's ruling and reigning. It's not a matter of the prosperity of the nation.

[15:31] It's a matter of his heart. Remember, if we go back another chapter, when the queen of Sheba is there, he's still burning incense. He's still offering three sacrifices a year.

[15:43] He's still going through the motions. He's doing everything that everyone expects, but privately, his heart is not wholly devoted to the Lord his God.

[15:53] Verse 5 says, For Solomon went after Asherah, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done.

[16:06] All these things are private, because the temptation he's allowed to remain has now begun to bear fruit.

[16:18] And we're seeing the problem of a divided heart. He could hold it together for a season. But there came a time where that temptation, all the wives over here began to deal privately.

[16:29] Now, one great failure that we can see in this is that with this multitude of wives, one thing Solomon evidently did not do well was shepherd his own household.

[16:41] Right? The father was to be the spiritual leader of the household. You open up the book of Deuteronomy, it tells the fathers to teach their children as they're walking and as they're going along and as they're, you know, they're lying down and when they're rising up.

[16:55] And when they're, it is the fathers who are supposed to teach these matters to their home. Evidently, Solomon's not doing this. It is the men of the household that are to lead their wives in the procession to go worship the Lord at the temple.

[17:07] But yet, what we find is that Solomon, now granted, he could not be quite a husband to so many, right? 700 and 300. He could not do that. We understand, well, no wonder he messed around.

[17:18] He messed up. We get that. But what he was failing to do was to spiritually lead his own home. And the reason he could not spiritually lead his own home is because his heart was divided. He loved, he clung to these women and then therefore permitted them to go their way.

[17:36] But eventually the temptation remained so much that he too began to join them in this. This private failing. This private failing is bad enough because this is where God begins to judge him.

[17:50] His heart is not wholly devoted. He did not follow the Lord fully. Again, partial obedience will inevitably lead to partial rule. He's not fully committed.

[18:03] Why? Because his heart is divided. And there's the private failings of the man. And now we get to the public rebellion. We have went from permitted temptation.

[18:16] He did it. It was convenient. No one could stop him. Wasn't necessarily doing anything wrong. To private failing. He's no longer wholly devoted to the Lord.

[18:27] He's beginning to privately worship these false gods. And now we're going to go to open public rebellion. Because invariably, who we are privately will soon come out publicly.

[18:43] And we see this. What does it say? Verse 7. Then. That is, after these matters had taken root in his heart. That is, after he had begun to worship and go after these other goddesses.

[18:57] And after he had begun to do that which was detestable to God. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab. On the mountain which is east of Jerusalem. And for Molech, the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon.

[19:09] And thus he also did for all the foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. So, what was happening within his home now became prevalent in the public forum.

[19:22] He began to build temples to these false gods. And he was doing it for each of his foreign wives and all of their gods. What was to be a center of monotheistic worship.

[19:35] That is, worship of the one true God. Now was becoming a really conglomerate of polytheism. Worshiping many gods. Jerusalem was to be the place where God made his name dwell.

[19:49] The temple was to be the center of worship of Yahweh. Yahweh is the covenant God with his people would be worshipped and adored. It was to be the sole focus of the world.

[19:59] As they looked at Jerusalem and they saw the temple of the Lord. And they saw the procession of the people of Israel going to worship. And they would be astounded at God's faithfulness. And then he began on the high places around there to build temples to other gods.

[20:13] You can't go more public than that. He began to build these things where now all worship is welcomed. And not only was he doing these things privately in his house.

[20:28] Now the rebellion is to such an extent he is creating a public forum for other people to do it as well. I mean but if the king builds it and the princesses are there worshipping.

[20:40] Then wouldn't we naturally think other people would be led to that too? Some Bible translators very clearly point out that if you have a temple then there must have also been priests.

[20:54] Somebody is going to have to work in that temple. Somebody is going to have to administer the fire there. Somebody is going to have to. So you didn't just have a building you also had to have a priesthood to these false gods.

[21:05] And you had to have all the people that were connected to that. And when you began to think of how public this went. And it happened because his heart was divided. And he had the financial means to do it.

[21:18] He had the resources to do it. He had used all these things to declare the glory of the Lord with the temple of the Lord. And then he began to promote the glory of Solomon with the palace of Solomon.

[21:28] And now he is beginning to bring on the same level all these other gods. And he is doing it for each one of his wives. This is not something they are hiding behind doing anymore.

[21:40] They are not like over here in a vat hiding and doing this false worship. And they are not up here on this hiding place on this hill. No he is building places of worship. And he is constructing. He has went very public with this matter.

[21:52] And he is really giving it his soul of approval. Right? Why? Because he loves the Lord but he also loves the wives.

[22:02] And he is clinging the Bible tells us. He is holding on to the wives more than he is holding on to the Lord. He is holding on to them in a greater fashion because they are of more importance.

[22:15] That the division in the heart is beginning to sway. Why? Because it will always sway in one direction. When I do pre-marriage counseling one thing that I always counsel the husbands is that you need to love the Lord more than you love your wife.

[22:31] And she needs you to love the Lord more than you love her. It's not, you know, sometimes it's not readily taken until we begin to break that down. But this would be why.

[22:43] Because we see here that Solomon, he really loved him. And his flesh love began to override his spiritual love. And then we get this public rebellion.

[22:55] This is rebellion of the greatest kind. This isn't an affront to holy God. This is putting other gods on the equal plane with him. And God will not allow that.

[23:06] Which leads us to the fourth and final thing. And that is the penalty declared. What has started out as permitted temptation and then went to private failing and in a public rebellion. Now will be a penalty declared.

[23:20] It tells us now the Lord was angry with Solomon. It's okay for the Lord to be angry. And we need to say that's all right. Right? For a holy righteous God to be angry. Anger is not a bad thing.

[23:32] Hatred is not a bad thing. It's what we direct that anger and that hatred towards. That's kind of a discussion we have to have around our house. God, it doesn't say in scripture that God hates people.

[23:43] But he sure hates the sin. Or he hates the effects of the sin of the people that takes on. So we need to be sure what we're directing that towards. Or even the anger. Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because of his actions.

[23:55] And we'll see that here. Because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel. Now let's say this is God well grounded in this. Why? He says for who God had appeared to him twice.

[24:08] Understand this. Solomon was not worshiping a God of presumption. Solomon was worshiping a God of relationship.

[24:20] The Lord God had appeared to Solomon twice. Right? He had spoken with him at the beginning of his reign. He had spoken with him personally after the dedication of the temple.

[24:34] He had answered. We have to get the answer a little bit more thoroughly when we go to 2 Chronicles. But he answers in detail to Solomon his prayer that he prayed at the dedication of the temple. So what we see here is that the anger of God is in direct relation to the amount of revelation that Solomon had had.

[24:56] God in his grace and his mercy had spoken to Solomon twice. And on both occurrences had warned Solomon against the matter of his heart.

[25:08] One of the things that strikes me so much is how gracious God is in that warning.

[25:19] You know the story of Cain and Abel, right? Cain kills his brother Abel. What we often forget though is that God spoke to Cain before he killed his brother Abel.

[25:29] And God declared to Cain that sin was crouching at the door and desired him and warned him of that. Cain overlooked that warning and killed his brother Abel.

[25:42] When Cain's offering was not accepted, God didn't just disregard it and go on with it. Cain got mad and in his anger, God, Lord God, went to Cain and said, why are you upset?

[25:54] And you know, he gives all his words and he said, be careful for sin crouches at the door and its desires for you. And even after that warning, disregarding that warning, he goes and kills his brother Abel. We see it over and over again, right?

[26:07] Even when Jesus refers to Peter, he tells Peter that Satan has asked to sift him. And he gets to the Garden of Gethsemane. He brings Peter along and says, after telling him that Satan wants to sift him as wheat, he says, now pray.

[26:19] And Peter falls asleep. You know, over and over and over again, what we find in Scripture is that God is gracious and kind and merciful. And he reveals these matters to us.

[26:29] Two times he had appeared to Solomon. And two times he had told Solomon, in both occurrences, be careful to guard your heart that you not fall away. Why? Why would God do that? Because he's omnipotent and omniscient.

[26:40] He knows. Right? He knows the temptations that will be allowed. He knows the things that could lead to this. And in his knowledge, he in grace and mercy gives fair warning to Solomon.

[26:53] Solomon disregards that, casts it aside, and allows his heart to be divided, and eventually allows his heart to be carried away. And now God deals with him according to his own desires.

[27:04] Friends, listen to me. When we open up the Word of God, and the Word of God speaks to us, it is the same God speaking to us that spoke to Solomon. And it's a wonder. When we open up Scripture and say, man, that's like it's speaking right into my circumstances.

[27:18] The reason it's speaking right into our circumstances is because we're in a relationship. We're in a greater relationship than Solomon was, or a greater relationship than Cain ever was. I would even say we're almost in a greater, well, I'm not going to say almost.

[27:29] At this time, we're in a greater relationship than Peter was in the upper room. And because Peter was in the presence of Jesus, but Jesus says that after the ascension, he's in our presence.

[27:40] He's in our midst, right? The fullness of the Godhead is dwelling within us. So we're in this greater relationship there where he speaks to us. He communes with us. That's what the Word of God says.

[27:51] So when we open up Scripture and we say, man, I feel like it's speaking right into my circumstances, we need to stand up and take notice because God may in grace be warning us of a reality that he perceives could be a problem in our life.

[28:04] And to cast it aside and say, oh, well, that was pretty relevant and not think anything of it. It's just like what happens with Solomon here. He says, well, I know God may have warned me twice. We find later on, and it says in the book of Hebrews, If those who stood at the mountain that quaked with fire and brimstone and smoke were left unjust, how much more us, right, who sat in the presence of the Lord God?

[28:30] And we hear his word. So God rightfully and righteously now pronounces judgment and penalty upon Solomon because he has high-handedly disregarded what God has said.

[28:45] But I want you to notice even the grace in God's pronounced judgment. He tells him, he says, because you have done this and you have not kept my covenant, my statutes, which I commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.

[29:03] We're going to see that. We'll see that.

[29:34] It's grace experienced by Solomon, but it's because of God's promise to David. And, you know, we would say this.

[29:48] As long as the church is present on the earth, that is, until the church is raptured or until the Lord calls us home, as long as there is a church present on earth, the world will naturally benefit from the experiences of our presence, or they should.

[30:05] God is dealing with the people through our presence. We're grace and mercy and all those things extended. Read the book of Revelations. As soon as the church is gone, judgment begins.

[30:17] Okay? So David is here, or David's not here, but because of his covenantal promise with David, which was not conditional, by the way, his promise towards Solomon was conditional, and God deals in grace.

[30:30] He says, nevertheless, I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David. So he says, you know, you're going to benefit from his faithfulness. And then he says, and I will not take all the kingdom away for the sake of your father David.

[30:46] Now you say, well, that's because David was so righteous. No, it's because God is so faithful. God had made an unconditional covenant. We call it the Davidic covenant, that the seed of David was set up on the throne of Israel.

[31:01] Now we know the fulfillment of that's Jesus Christ. But to ensure that the promises of God did not fail, judgment was rendered graciously.

[31:13] Solomon did not have a long life. He said, well, it says he's old, right? But in the grand span of things, he probably was in his mid-50s.

[31:24] He did not have a long life. And his reign ends in relative peace. But as soon as his son takes the throne, we know discord breaks out.

[31:35] But then we also know that Judah is allowed to remain with the family of David. That God is faithful in spite of man's failures. Another theme we see running rampant throughout scripture.

[31:49] But we see in our text, and we're closing. We see in our text, this is the grand problem of a divided heart. And may we not ever be those who have hearts divided.

[32:03] We're going to forever be those who have hearts being pulled. But may we never be those who have hearts divided. Because it's going to be a problem in the end.

[32:14] Let's pray, and then we'll be dismissed. Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you so much. Thank you for your word. And God, I know your word brings challenges to us.

[32:26] Lord, it encourages us to walk in faithfulness. But Lord, even in the world in which we exist, we know that that is a grand challenge. There's so much that pulls and prods at us.

[32:37] And God, there's so much that longs to pull not only the attention of our mind, but the attention of our heart. So Lord, help us to be single-hearted individuals. Help us to be those who love you with our whole hearts.

[32:51] Lord, that we would commit to you, and we would follow you. Lord, we pray you forgive us for where we fell. Lord, that you encourage us as we come back to you.

[33:04] We thank you that we walk on this side of the cross. We thank you for the grace and the mercy and the compassion and the forgiveness. Lord, we also thank you for the challenge which we find in the Old Testament that encourages us to not take lightly our relationship with you, but to walk wholeheartedly.

[33:23] Because Lord, we want to do all that you've called us to do for your glory and honor. Be with us as we leave here tonight. Lord, this week as we lead up to Easter Sunday, I pray that each and every day you would fix our hearts and minds more towards you.

[33:38] Lord, help us to walk looking unto the cross for the glory of the Savior. And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, guys. I really greatly appreciate your time this evening.

[34:16] Thank you, folks. Thank you, folks, Thank you.

[34:47] Thank you.