For tonight, we're going to go back into First Kings, but we're going to go back into chapter 8.

Maybe some of you can relate. You don't have to admit it. But when Gary's going through the Bible on a Wednesday or a Sunday, and he's going through passages and he's going verse by verse or chapter by chapter, he gets to a certain section sometimes my attention

gets fixed on a certain section and I stay there the rest of the service and then he keeps going on

to the next chapter and the next chapter and I'm spending 15 20 minutes over the next day or the next

couple weeks on this certain passage and that's what happened to me when we got to First Kings chapter 8.

When I read Solomon's dedication of the temple, it just, I got stuck.

And I just read it over and over again.

I was trying to understand it, and it stood out to me.

And so we're going to go back into First Kings.

And so maybe that way,

when you come back next Wednesday and we finished First Kings, we didn't go too far out. And

it, maybe it was some good reminders. But before we do, I want to open with prayer. I recognize that

on nights when we have communion, we don't have our normal prayer time, and maybe some of you

are missing that, and so I want to make sure that we take some time to pray. I realize that when you

get here on a Wednesday night, maybe some of you are exhausted. You've been either a day full of

kids or a day full of work or a day full of travel and you come here and you just want to rest.

And so we sing songs of praise and we go through God's word and it's an important day and time

for you. And so I want to just take a moment for us to pray and just dedicate this time to the Lord.

Just pray that maybe for this next half hour, we can just rest,

hear from him, receive from him, lay our burdens at his feet, and that we can go home tonight,

knowing that we've been in the house of the Lord. So let's pray together. God, we thank you

for the opportunity that we have to come tonight and to be in a church

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