Thanksgiving Eve Communion

Let's begin tonight by singing a hymn that probably most of you have never heard of before, We Gather Together. We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing He chastens and hastens His will to make known The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing Sing praises to His name, He forgets not His own Beside us, to guide us, our God with us joining Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine So from the beginning, the fight we were winning The Lord was at our side, all glory denied We all do extol Thee, Thou leader triumphant And pray that Thou still our defender wilt be That by Thy condemnation, expect tribulation Thy name be ever praised, O Lord, make us free And let's enter His gates with thanksgiving, I will Enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart I will enter His courts with praise I will say that since the day that the Lord hath escaped I will rejoice for He hath made me glad He hath made me glad, He hath made me glad I will rejoice for He hath made me glad He hath made me glad, He hath made me glad I will rejoice for He hath made me glad I will enter His gates with thanksgiving Since the day that the Lord hath escaped I will rejoice for He hath made me glad He hath made me glad, He hath made me glad I will rejoice for He hath made me glad He hath made me glad, He hath made me glad I will rejoice for He hath made me glad I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart I will enter His courts with praise I will say that since the day that the Lord hath escaped I will rejoice for He hath made me glad He hath made me glad, He hath made me glad I will rejoice for He hath made me glad I will bless Thee, O Lord I will bless Thee, O Lord, with a heart of thanksgiving. I will bless Thee, O Lord. I will bless Thee, O Lord, with a heart of thanksgiving. I will bless Thee, O Lord. I will bless Thee, O Lord, with a heart of thanksgiving. David wrote, and make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him. Sing praise to him. Tell of all his wonderful acts. Beloved, when we exalt the name of the Lord, let's remember our exaltation is to go to the nations. It's not just to be behind these closed doors. It's to go with us tonight that that light might shine in this world of darkness. He is exalted. Let's sing that together. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. He is the King. I will praise him. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise his name. For he is the Lord. For he is the Lord. Forever his truth shall reign. Heaven and earth rejoice in his holy name. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. I will praise him. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise his name. Now shout it from the mountain top for he's the Lord. He is the Lord. Forever his truth shall reign. Heaven and earth rejoice in his holy name. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise the Lord. Forever his truth shall reign. Heaven and earth rejoice in his holy name. For he is the Lord. For he is the Lord. Forever his truth shall reign. Heaven and earth rejoice in his holy name. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. Let your praise be pure and holy. O Lord God, may each of us be able to say, one day when we see you face to face, that we also saw you face to face, may we be able to say we have seen Jesus Christ in the faces of those we worship with, in the word of God piercing our heart and changing our attitude and character, and the life of God that flows through his people as his Holy Spirit dwells in his temple. We bless you tonight, Lord, for being here with us today and every day. We bless you for your people. We bless you for our country. We bless you for our heritage. We bless you for those who love us, Lord. We bless you for those who have enabled us to extend your love to you. We bless in the name of our Lord God. This is a time of thanksgiving, and as many of you know, over the last few weeks, a pastor has been asking for a number of you to share with us a little bit of what's on your heart, and we'd like to begin that way tonight by asking you to share a little bit, just a little window. Open a little window into your heart tonight to share some of the blessings. If you're having a hard time reaching for one, maybe ask that person to help you find one. But I'm sure there's something we should give thanks for tonight. One newer couple here at our church said it this way. They said, This ministry has totally changed our family. Our children can't wait to get here. My husband and I have never experienced anything like this. We take that a number of ways. We have been blessed time and time again. Also, we have the teaching. We love the teaching we get here. When we tell other people about North Way, we can't stop ourselves from going on and on. We probably sound like salesmen. The children's ministry here is beyond any we have ever seen. We feel so blessed to be part of this ministry. Another gal who's been here quite a number of years, Betty Boff, says it this way. Sometimes while we are worshiping, I look around the church and I'm filled with joy at the love I see. It's wonderful to be a part of the body of Christ. I am thankful for the testimonies of people, ordinary people, who have encountered Christ and who are changed. I am thankful for the many people who have prayed with me and for me. It would surely be a lonesome journey without them. I am thankful for the people who have nurtured my children, not just in Sunday school, but in home group and drama, and at Denny's and McDonald's. We always end up at food places, don't we? I am thankful for the ministries that we all enjoy so much, the music, the banners, and drama, and dancing, and of course the tapes and books and newsletters. You must work in all those ministries. I am thankful for our missionaries who have opened my eyes to other parts of the world. Before I came to North Way, I never knew a missionary. I was surprised to find that they are ordinary people, but not perfect and not without their problems. There are so many opportunities at North Way, so many giving people. That's you, beloved. Most of all, I'm thankful that the Word is preached and taught and lived. North Way is a people in whom the Spirit of God is welcomed, where worship is freely expressed, and prayers are offered with expectation of being answered. I am humbled and thankful to be a part of her. Betty really caught a lot of my emotions when expressed beautifully. For the next several moments, before we're seated, I'd like to ask you to step outside of your protective environment for just a moment. You may want to go across the room to somebody that you would just like to share with. You may just want to share with that one behind you or beside you, but don't sit down until you've shared at least two blessings that God has given you in your life. It doesn't have to be about the church, maybe about something in your household or your job, or maybe God has touched you in a special way, but when we share the blessings of God with others, it has a way of strengthening the faith of that other to believe the same. So take several moments, three, four, five minutes, whatever you need, and just share some of the blessings, at least two, with some one or two people around you, then you can be seated. Go ahead. Go ahead. Prayer to give him up and let him go. Well, they're writing to Reese as well. All right. Another family I want to call upon very quickly that I know you'll want to hear from is Tom and Lou Anne Brandy. You want to come on up for a minute? Gosh, there you go. About a year ago, they had some what would be considered earth-shaking kinds of dramatic news, and we were there when it all began, and now a year later they have a testimony to tell. Actually, we've been coming here almost two years, and in that time we've moved our residence, which was a little stressful. Moved my office. That was stressful. My daughter contracted leukemia, and my son had some tumors that needed to be removed. So I'm not sure if it's been a blessing or a blessing. It has nothing to do with coming here, Tom. Well, honestly, you would think after all these things and how much stress has really been on our lives, you'd think, would you be up here tonight giving thanks to the Lord? Some people out there in the world probably know. They'd be down and out and wondering why. And I guess maybe we've had our questions and doubts about why, but looking back on it, we've grown so much, and we've really learned to appreciate people probably more than we ever have in the past. You don't realize that people are there to help, and we're there. You're all there, and we're all here to help one another. And sometimes you don't realize that. You get into your life, and things move so fast, and all of a sudden something happens, and you have to stop. And in stopping, you really get to think about what life is really all about. And we really appreciate, of course, God and his mercy towards us, and we appreciate everybody here and all your prayers and your love. And we're very thankful. And I know my wife, I'm sure she has a couple things to say. I guess what I really want to say is, through looking at last year, that God just really answers prayer. And I look back on my life, and I thought, Oh, God, you can answer those little prayers. But this hurdle is just a little too high, and the tunnel is just too dark. And he more than abundantly answered our prayer. And I stand back, and I know it's hard in the middle when you don't see the beginning of the tunnel, and you don't see the end of the tunnel. But I just look back and think, God doesn't waste pain, and he didn't in our lives. I look back, and I think, everything he took us through had a purpose. And not for one moment did he give us something that didn't have a purpose. And when Amber was real sick, and I would sit with her in the middle of the night, and I used to think, God, I'm believing you for this dreaded disease, and you can't even take away her headache or ulcers in her mouth. And how can I ever believe you to take away this monster in our life? And here, I look back on those days, and those days were such a blessing that we spent together at night. And I think, he didn't waste that. I complained, and you blessed that. And I look back at that as a fond memory now. But I just think, if you're in the middle, he does answer prayer, and he does abundantly above all what we would think that he would do. I mean, he just amazed me. And he does. He's just an amazing person. Father, our corporate thanksgiving and praise tonight gives evidence to the fact, Lord, that we know that we are called forth out of darkness into an everlasting light. And we do give you thanks tonight for our great salvation, our great deliverance, and redemption. How wonderful you've been to us. Go ahead and be seated once again, and I'm going to call upon one more family to come up. You can all just stay for a second. I need the microphones, because I want to have our Russian family come tonight. This is their first Thanksgiving in America. Peter and Vera, come on up. Yes, we want you to come. Charlie, are you going to come up and help them get settled here? I don't know if anyone could have forecast, and I'm sure no one had the idea of what an incredible change has happened in the Soviet Union over the last year. And Peter and Vera have gone through incredible changes as well, and I just happened to talk to them for a minute in the hallway this week, and I'm just encouraged by what's happening. But let me read a paragraph of an article here written by a couple of other Soviets. This is in Christianity Today. It says, We in the Soviet Union have an autumn holiday to celebrate the harvest, just as you in America have your Thanksgiving Day. But one cannot know the true value of bread unless he's experienced hunger. One cannot know the true value of water unless he's experienced thirst, and one cannot know the true value of freedom unless he's experienced repression. Christians in the Soviet Union know the price of freedom, and we know how to give thanks to God, because we've passed through those fiery tests of repression and persecution. And Peter and Vera, it's family time here. Peter has a job. Tell the folks where you're working now, and let's make sure you hear the microphone. I'm Peter Shkakovsky. You listen, Pastor Jay. I'm from Russia and live in America only 10 months. My family, five kids. I have five kids, babysit back. Babies in the back. I today very happy stay in front of you, and we have celebration. It's first celebration for me and for my family, because Russia no have this tradition, not celebrate Thanksgiving, but our heart full of thanks, thanks to God. Russian people say, this is mostly Christian people say, Slava Bogu, Vam Spasiba. This mean Slava Bogu, praise God. Vam Spasiba, thank you. Amen. You understand me? Yes, very good. Church Nursery sponsor for me, and I feel care from when I start in America, from January 19th, from airport, many people from North Way met me and helped me this long time. And my family happy, because we feel in our heart thanks to God first and to Church Nursery also. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Isn't that great English for nine months? It's wonderful. Great. When Peter came, he didn't have no English. It would be the way. There wasn't any. Try it again. Yeah. He didn't speak English when he came. No English. We had an interesting conversation. Those passengers get you all the time, so you just trip up on it. But, you know, Jay asked him to share where he worked. And, you know, you sponsored on January 19th, and he sponsored his family. Not individuals, but the church sponsored their family, North Way. Signed the papers with the U.S. government. The other thing is that as they found out that Peter was a master tailor, people started asking at stores and all. And we kept getting job lead after job lead after job lead. And I know some of you know I had a ministry that worked with people going through employment transition. And the job this man got is a miracle. Because if one of you came up to me and said, I'd like a job doing this, I have these skills, and I need this amount of money because I have five children, I would look at you and say, I don't think that's going to happen. And I can tell you what a miracle it is, how the Lord moves. And now tell us where you work. I can't remember. What's your name? Where do you work, Peter? I work in downtown, my store, Larimore's. Larimore's, yeah. So when you go into Larimore's, It's right next to Valley City. Yeah. Downtown, think about our friend Peter. Peter, are you going to sing a song for us? Okay. Good. Okay. We singing for you our favorite song. This song we give to you, my God, my life. And very important in our life, time. Time go very fast, very fast. And somebody spend this time not very good. And this song say, spend time for God. Okay. You understand me? Okay. You understand me? Okay. Okay. Time go very fast, very fast. And somebody spend this time not very good. And this song say, spend time for God. Okay. You understand me? Okay. You understand me? Okay. You understand me? You understand me? I want to use this opportunity for us to pray right now. Father, we thank you so much for the miracles that are happening in Peter and Vera's life and the life of their family. And Father, it so represents the liberty that has come upon the Soviet people. Lord, we pray for them and all the Soviet Christians now, Lord, that are discovering new freedoms and new expression. And we pray so much, Lord, in the name of Jesus, for the church around the world to know how to seize the opportunity, Lord, with the 150 million atheists in the Soviet Union now, to see millions of them know Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that the open doors of Perestroika would make the way, Lord, for the gospel to invade the Soviet Union. Oh, Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, in all of Eastern Europe, send your people, Father, to bless Mission Possible and the work that's happening through that ministry to bring the gospel and Bibles throughout that whole area, Father. Lord, we pray likewise for the missionaries that have been sent forth from this congregation. And go ahead and just, I'd like to hear a murmur of thanksgiving for our missionaries. Just lift their names, the Hunters, the Hoogerboobs, the Starkies and the Fulmers and the Shocks. And just pray for John Abraham and Abraham Howcombe and Jim and Karen Beavers and Lisa Anderson and Myrna and all the others that come to mind. In the name of Jesus, my God, Tim and Linda Wright. Oh, Father, we pray for our mission family tonight, Lord, that you'd be with them and encourage them and lift their spirit on this Thanksgiving Eve, Lord. We thank you for their lives and for the power that's being released through them, God. Oh, Jesus, oh, for the testimony of the gospel. Lord, we do thank you for the work that's progressed here in Pittsburgh. Lord, we thank you for the hundreds that have come to Christ through this ministry over the last year. And pray that many more, Lord, can know the Savior as we faithfully serve you, Father. So, Lord, we thank you for all these things, God. And we remember in conclusion, Lord, the Middle East situation, the men and women that are serving you there. And now, Father, we pray that in these moments of, Lord, of this silence before this storm, that thousands of men and women would come to Christ and that many lives would be changed, Lord, in that desert. And that, Father, by your mercy and grace, we could avoid war, Father. Bring about a peaceful solution. In the name of Jesus. Father, let the gospel proceed throughout the earth. I won't try. One more time. One more? Okay. Slava Bogu. Slava Bogu. Very good. One more. Slava Bogu. Slava Bogu. Okay. Slava Bogu. Okay. It means, praise God. After, thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. You may be seated. Let's go ahead right now and honor God with our Thanksgiving offering. And we're going to be preparing for a time of blessing the Lord right now. He brought an offering, a thank offering. By the way, Ken and Ross, step away from that banner for just a second. That's all right, you're fine. Isn't that a beautiful banner to praise the Lord with tonight? I love that. Let's bring an offering to the throne of God tonight, a thank offering. Let's give the Lord praise. If you're a visitor tonight, please just know that you're our guest and feel free from any obligation unless you just want to honor God. That's why we take this offering tonight and to serve people. Father, receive these thank offerings of expressions of our gratitude for all that you're doing in our lives, Lord, and through our lives to touch others in the love of Jesus. Bless these offerings in Christ's name. Amen. As you're coming, may I just remind you of a couple things? We can flash those announcements up real quickly. You'll want to know these things are coming in the life of the church. We have next Wednesday night is the Family Advent Celebration. I've been talking about it. If you have a family, bring them in to the worship experience. We're going to create some Christmas memories. Don't want to miss that. It's a new thing we're going to do at Northwood next Wednesday night. The Christmas Cantata, which is going to be a major expression in outreach ministry to our community, a high-quality experience of song and drama and so will be on December 2nd. Because of all the kind of technical things and all that are happening, we're going to ask you to pick up a ticket. It will be here on Friday, December 7th. Pick up a ticket. Tonight they're available. Bring someone to this expression of Christmas joy. It's only a few weeks away. Plan on that, won't you? Leadership meeting coming up on December 1st. Leaders know about that. The singles Christmas event, December 14th. All of our single folks are getting increasingly excited about the ways in which the Lord is bringing us all together in a new vision. We're working through that. Just plan that date. We'll tell you more about that. And this weekend's message with Pastor Tom. Only Pastor Tom could have a title like, When Life Gets Crazy. It's his testimony. All right. It'll be good. We have a special song. You ready? All right. God is so loving and discerning of us. He says to us, Worship me not just with your lips but with your heart. And this song talks to us and encourages us to worship him with grateful hearts. With a grateful heart, we say thank you. A couple of places I want you to turn. If you don't have a Bible, see if you can lean over and look at someone. All right. This is Wednesday night. We bring Bibles Wednesday night for the most part, don't we? Regular people. Psalm 107, Isaiah 45. Those are the two scriptures for tonight. Psalm 107, Isaiah 45. Now that you're there, I'm going to read the text for tonight. It's in Matthew chapter 16. But don't turn there. Now, this isn't a cruel trick. This is all part of it. Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi. He asked his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is? And they replied, Some say John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But what about you? he asked. Who do you say I am? And Simon Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. How many of you come from a tradition where communion, the communion table was called the Eucharist? Let me see your hand. Hold them up again. Look at that. A great majority of us it looks like. Eucharist was symbolic or synonym actually for communion. Did you know that the word in the Greek New Testament for thanksgiving is the word eucharisto? In other words, the word for communion that we're going to celebrate here in just a few moments literally means thanksgiving. When we celebrate the Lord's table together, it is in effect a giving of thanks to God. By participating, we are saying to God, thank you, Father, for what you've done. And I want to focus for just a few minutes tonight on the power of giving thanks. I want us to look and see not just about giving thanks for what's happened, but the power of giving thanks for the future. Because I believe God would have us understand some things about how we can affect the future when we give thanks. And I want us to look, first of all, at the key that Jesus was talking about. All right. Tune in here for a few minutes. Jesus said he was going to give us keys to the kingdom of heaven. Now, what does a key do? Opens a door. It unlocks something. How many of you know you get stuck without keys? I got here tonight and didn't have the keys to my office. Kind of a little bit difficult to make things happen without my key. And Jesus said that I'm going to give you some keys, and I'm going to show you how you can bring heaven down to earth. And he said to us that we can know how to do that by going through some gates. How do you bring heaven down to earth? Well, you've got to get involved in the gates. I will enter his gates, we sing it tonight, with thanksgiving in my heart, and enter his courts with praise. Now, what does a gate do? Well, a gate is a way in or out of something, correct? How many of you live next to a neighbor with a fence? High fence? Low fence. Both of my neighbors have fences. Mainly, I think, it's for animal control, but it helps for kid control and those kind of things, too. Split rail fences with gates. You can't get into their house unless you go through the gate. Now, you know what that means, and you're clear about that, right? A gate is how you gain access. Go down to Three River Stadium. How many gates are there at Three River Stadium? Four big gates. Everybody that goes into Three River Stadium goes through the gates. Now, the gates are a very important word in the Scripture because back in Old Testament times, all the cities were built with walls around them. That's how they protected their cities, and they defined their cities with those walls, and people got into the city and out of the city how? Through the gates. And gates became symbolic of authority because that's how you got in and you got out. People weren't given permission unless they got through the gate. They could turn back enemies. They could send people out. In fact, much business and commerce was conducted at the gates, and many political leaders gathered at the gates. Very important part of what it meant to live in those cities. Now, Jesus says something about these things. He says something about gates. Let's first of all listen to Jesus' words. That's an overhead that we have. Jesus' words. Jesus said, I'm going to give you a key, and the gates of hell will not be able, and the best translation of that, by the way, is to prevail against you. Now, Jesus is saying, I'm going to give you a key that's going to open up my presence into a place so that the gates of hell will not be able to stand against you. Folks, I know tonight that the enemy has built some walls around some of us. He's built some walls. There's some fortified cities in our hearts tonight. There's some strongholds that the enemy has established. They're like little walled cities. Maybe it's a stronghold of depression. I can't help but know, because I have conversations, some people are going through really hard times, feeling very depressed. It's almost, and people say, they use the word, I feel like a prisoner inside of myself. Some of you are going, some of you have a walled city of financial pressure right now, and you feel trapped. You see, that's the word. You feel trapped by the financial pressure. Nothing seems to be happening. Some of you have walls right now of loneliness or discouragement in your life, and you feel like you can't get out of it. People share with me how difficult these times are. Some say, I have a wall of sickness tonight, and it's a stronghold. It's not just something that's passing on, but I'm dealing with an affliction, some would say. Others would say, I'm dealing with a wall of condemnation. How many of you can smile and be real nice on the outside, but inside you feel bad about yourself? I was talking to someone recently who said, I keep having difficulty controlling my temper. I blew up recently at the place where I work, and everyone knows I'm a Christian. How many of you know that just kind of smashes your testimony a bit? This person is a wonderful believer, and they're saying, but I've just, and now, when you find a flaw, how many of you know that the enemy is wonderfully gifted at reminding you of that flaw? He's got this hammer that he pulls out. You're a sorry excuse for a Christian. I mean, you said that, and you call yourself a Christian. Well, this brother is living under a condemnation. He knows God's forgiven him, but guess what? He hasn't forgiven himself, and he thinks that he'll never get there. He's under condemnation. There's a wall in his life. There's another wall. Okay, go ahead. A wall of confusion. I know a number of people are saying, Lord, I don't know which way to go. I don't know which person to get hooked up with in business. I don't know which school to go to. I don't know how to deal, and confusion can be a difficult thing. You can feel like it's a wall. You're trapped in it. Now, you see the picture? Now, watch where I'm going to bring this. Jesus said, I'm going to give you a key, and the gates of hell, the gates and the walls that are surrounding these things in your life, those gates are the way in and the way out. Jesus is saying, I'm going to give you a key, and the gates of hell will not be able to overcome it. They won't prevail against it. I'm going to give you a key, and you're going to be able to go right through the gate and break through the wall of oppression. And what is that key? Well, let's turn secondly now to Psalm 107 and look at it with me. Here's what he said. Here's the key. Psalm 107, verse 1. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is and His steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say this, those who He redeemed from the hand of the foe, those who He gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. Who is that? That's us, right? North, east, south, and west. Okay, and then he says, look at verse 8. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love. Verse 15. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds. Verse 21. Let Him give what? Thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. And again, verse 31. Let Him give thanks to the Lord. Let Him exalt Him in the assembly of the people and praise Him in the council of the elders. Why? Well, look back at verse 15. Let Him give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men, for He breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron. You see, the Lord is telling us here that God's key in our life, one of the keys is the key of giving thanks, of praising God. It's a key that God says, if you turn this key, the kingdom authority that I've put in your life will break down the gates that are standing in the way that are keeping you in these walls of oppression. Now, interestingly, did you know that Psalm 107 was written after Isaiah 45? How many of you found Isaiah 45 is after the Psalms in your Bible? Now, listen, folks. The Bible isn't one chronological thing. Turn now. I know your finger's black and blue, but look at Isaiah 45. It says right there, this is what the Lord says to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of, to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him, so that gates will not be shut. I will go before you and will level the mountains. I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. Do you see that the psalmist is quoting Isaiah 45? And let me tell you the story. The people of Israel had been taken into captivity into what land? Babylon. They were taken into exile. They'd lost everything, their homeland and the temple and everything. And they were suffering as slaves. And by the way, where is Babylon today? It's in Iraq. Did you know that? Babylon is modern-day Iraq. In fact, the word on the street is that Saddam Hussein wants to rebuild the city as sort of a little memento of his own victories. So the children of Israel are there and Isaiah comes along and prophesies 100 years before the fact and says, you're going to go into captivity and then a man by the name of Cyrus is going to come along and he's going to deliver you. And God is going to use him to break down the gates that hold you in this prison of Babylon. Folks, this is an amazing story. 100 years before it happened, God not only said someone's going to do it, he gave his name. Now Cyrus was a Medo-Persian king and the Medo-Persian empire came along and grew in strength. And at this point, God, as we see, prophesies that he's going to use Cyrus who wasn't a Jew. He was just a basic old Medo-Persian Gentile. He used him to be the deliverer of the Israelites. He sent him in. And here's the interesting part of this story. Babylon was a walled city. The walls were 70 feet thick. You could ride four chariots abreast. They did races on the surface of the wall. And the gates of the city were not the normal wooden gates like most cities because what would happen in a battle is archers would fire arrows into those city gates, flaming arrows and burn the gates down and they'd rush the city. So they made the gates of bronze to strengthen them. And Babylon had warded off many attacks and was a strong city. Cyrus was given wisdom by God to divert the river that went into the city. And so at night they dug trenches and one night they opened the trenches and the river waters parted and left the dry riverbed and they went in under the wall and caught the city by surprise and destroyed it and then came and bashed