[0:00] Well, good morning.
[0:14] Nobody responds, is that right? And in case I've missed anybody, camera have.! It's good to be here in the Lord's presence this morning.
[0:25] ! It's good to be here to honour Him and to glorify Him, and to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The Word of God says this, Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones.
[0:36] Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name. Worship the Lord in the splendour of His holiness. So let's worship the Lord in our praise as we sing our opening psalm, which is Psalm 95, verses 1 to 6.
[0:59] Sorry, I'm looking for a book up here.
[1:10] There you go. Okay, thank you. Psalm 95, verses 1 to 6. Come, let us sing to the Lord. Come, let us, everyone, a joyful noise made to the rock of our salvation.
[1:25] Let us before His presence come with praise and thankful voice. Let us sing psalms to Him with grace and make a joyful noise. Let's sing to God's praises.
[1:36] O come, let us sing to the Lord.
[1:48] Come, let us, everyone, a joyful noise made to the rock of our salvation.
[2:12] Let us before His presence come with patience and thankful voice.
[2:33] Let us sing to the Lord.
[3:03] above all God He is. Exalt the earth by His hand.
[3:23] The strength of His, His, His, To Him that's anxious me belong, For He has saved me.
[3:51] The dry land also from His hands Is born at first His day.
[4:10] O come and let us worship Him.
[4:21] Let us worship Him. Let us worship Him. Let us worship Him. And all our needs before the Lord Have made our led us home The word of God reminds us that God Inhabits the praises of his people The same Lord also calls us to wait before him in prayer As we reflect upon who he is In his majesty and in his glory And so we come to him in prayer this morning Let's pray Great God Almighty we draw near to you In the beauty of holiness this morning
[5:22] That we might worship and honour and glorify you You are God alone there is none like you Without that aid you made the heavens And the earth you spoke And the world came into being And you remind us in your word Lord That the heavens declare the glory of God The skies proclaim the work of his hands Day after day They pour forth speech Night after night They display knowledge And so in humility Lord But in joy we come into your gracious and glorious presence today That we might honour you and lift your name high In this place of worship And we pray that as we lift your name high Lord That you would delight in your people And delight to fill us afresh By the power and the presence of your Holy Spirit That our worship might truly be inspired For the honour and for the glory of your name You are a great God
[6:23] A majestic God A God of glory And a God of love And we thank you that in that love You have given your only begotten Son Our Lord and our only Saviour Jesus the Christ That you would come to this sin-cursed earth To deal with the sin That alienates us from you Your word tells us Lord That you cannot bear to look upon sin And yet In your grace and in your mercy You have given our Lord Jesus Christ That he might deal with that sin And open up a way Not only into your presence But into your presence forever and forever We thank you for the one who is willing to Set aside for a time the glory of heaven To be born in total humility In a stable in Bethlehem And ultimately to offer himself As a vicarious sacrifice on the cross Paying the price for our sin Atoning for our sin That we might know your great forgiveness
[7:23] You are merciful in all your ways And we thank you Lord For that great mercy We thank you too Lord For the wonder For the power For the might of your The resurrection of your own son Declaring that sin is atoned for That death is defeated And that the way of access Into the heart of the Father Is laid bare And so we thank you We thank you that in Christ And through Christ We are the children of the living God And so we pray that as we gather for worship This morning that you might be pleased To receive that worship Not simply from our mouths But from our hearts too And that you would be honoured And glorified Fill this place Lord We pray with a sense of your presence Come amongst us by your spirit Anoint us for worship
[8:24] We pray In the peerless And in the precious name of our Lord And our only saviour Even Jesus The Christ Amen Now I came here All prepared with a children's talk This morning But I understand We don't know There's one So Little girl Would she mind If I singled her out No Is it okay If I come down Here For sight Oh don't be shy It's okay Don't fight But Don't know What's the name Does it get really cold here And No less How cold is it Yeah Yeah Because You said You sleep in an answer
[9:24] For the world I work with an organisation Called Deza And let me tell you We have a partnership In a country called Mongolia Anybody ever heard of Mongolia?
[9:37] This used to be a lot of mess And in Mongolia The temperature gets down In the window Minus Minus 50 That's cold in your mother's freezer Minus 50 And when the children get there Many of the children They live in what they call That Such a great big Grim Antony That goes through The middle of The But the children Can't go to school If they don't have The proper clothes And many of the parents Are so poor That they can't Go to proper clothes For their children And so Our organisation We have raised lots and lots of money And we have been able to get a thousand children in Mongolia In places like Ormata And other places What we call winter kits Which is a great life Hat for the winter A lovely coat And proper boots And gloves And everything So that these children can go to school And take their clothes
[10:38] And everybody else But All of these winter kits Are going through the church So the children Are introduced Not just to the winter kit But also to the person That the Lord And Savior Jesus Christ And these children Have the opportunity To do it Also Some of the situations Are becoming Really desperate The parents Who just can't Really eat after them And we believe The reason we do that Is because Jesus said We are to love our neighbor And ourselves And loving our neighbor Is not just Telling about himself But also Providing what we really can And we have the Resources So there you go We call for our children And the older children As well As to love God The older we are And also to love our neighbor And to care for our neighbor And to love our neighbor How do you use your hands?
[11:40] Sick In your life? I just thought of asking There's a question that I'm not So thank you for So thank you for So thank you for So thank you for So thank you for Since she's Okay Okay Do you have any vows?
[12:02] So we're going to sing again It's 46th Psalm Verses 1 to 5 Psalm 46 Verses 1 to 5 God is a refuge And a strength And a strength A present aid Therefore Although the earth We move We will not be afraid Though hills amidst The seas be cast Though water Loaring may And troubled be ye Though the hills By swelling seas Do shake Psalm 46 Verses 1 to 5 God is a refuge God is a refuge We will not be afraid
[13:29] Though hills are made The sea becast Though on earth rolling bay And the night of thee In all the hills I pledge thee to take A river in the spring to die The city of our God The holy place
[14:33] Where is the Lord Most high and high Is the Lord God in the midst Of what does dwell Nothing shall hurry The Lord The Lord To the Lord On heaven And the Lord I carry you Amen
[15:34] Let's turn to the word of God You will find a reading this morning In the thirteenth chapter Of the book of Job Job chapter 13 And we will read the whole chapter Job chapter 13 Beginning at verse 1 Hear the word of God Lo mine eye hath seen all this Mine ear hath heard And understood it What ye know The same do I know also I am not inferior unto you Surely I would speak to the Almighty And I desire to reason with God But ye are forges of lies Ye are all physicians Of no value O that ye would altogether Hold your peace And it would be And it should be Your wisdom Hear now my reasoning And hearken to the pleading
[16:35] Of my lips Will ye speak wickedly for God And talk deceitfully for Him Will ye accept His person Will ye contend for God It is good that He should set you out Or as one man mocketh another Do you so mock Him He will surely reprove you If you do secretly accept persons Shall not His excellency make you afraid And His dread fall upon you Your remembrances are like unto ashes Your bodies to bodies of clay Hold your peace Let me alone that I may speak And then And let come on me what will Wherefore do I take my flesh and my teeth And took my life in thy hand Though He slay me Yet will I trust Him But I will maintain My known ways before Him He also shall be my salvation For an hypocrite shall not come before Him Hear diligently my speech And my declaration with your ears Behold now I have ordered my cause
[17:36] I know that I shall be justified Who is he that will plead with me For now if I hold my tongue I shall give up the ghost Only do not two things unto me Then will I not hide myself from thee Withdraw thy hand far from me And let not thy dread make me afraid Then call thou and I will answer Or let me speak and answer thou me How many are mine iniquities and sins Make me to know my transgression and my sin Wherefore hidest thou thy face And holdest me for thine enemy Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble For thou writest bitter things against me And makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth Thou putest my feet also in the stocks And lookest narrowly unto all my paths Thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet And he as a rotten thing consumeth
[18:36] As a garment that is moth eaten And this is the word of God Thanks be to him Let's pray together God Almighty As we draw near In this place of worship this morning We are mindful and aware of the calm Inside And outside We are aware of the fact Lord That as we gather for worship And as we continue in worship Then nobody will break in the door Try to take us away Imprison us Passegur us for loving the Lord Jesus Christ And seeking to serve them We thank you Lord That we are free to go about Our business day by day Declaring to anyone And to all who will have an ear That the Lord is King That there is no Saviour
[19:37] But Jesus the Christ And yet Lord we are conscious That there are so many places in the world Where to do that Is to render oneself Open to persecution Sometimes even death And so we pray this morning Lord For the church which is persecuted The church throughout the world Where believers on this day Will gather for worship in secret Afraid to make themselves known In case the authorities Will come and steal them away Take their homes Take their livelihoods Even take their lives We ask Lord That you would strengthen your church To stand strong In the midst Of this persecution We pray that you would Give your church Lord The power To stay And so we ask of you
[20:38] Lord God Almighty That you would hide These believers From the evil eyes Of those who would Do them harm We look around our world Today Lord And we realise That there is conflict In every side We've been reading For a while Lord Of the conflict In the Middle East In Israel And in Gaza And now Lord In Iran In the Lebanon In Syria Iraq And we pray Lord That you would Stay the hand Of evil men We pray Lord That you would Set to naught The ambitions Of men And women Who seek to Exalt themselves Even above The high God We realise Lord That the reality Of peace In a global sense Will only come When the Prince Of Peace Returns In glory To claim
[21:39] That which is His own But we pray Lord That there would be A peace In our world Where men And women No longer have to Hide in bomb shelters Where men And women No longer have to Fear Getting up In the morning Or going to bed At night Wondering what a day Or an evening Will bring And we pray Lord That in this peace It would be A peace With honour And for your church In this land Lord We pray That there will be A real reawakening Of the things of God A real outpouring Of your spirit Lord So that That the church Might stand strong And stand like A lion Rampant Roaring The victory Of Jesus That men and women Throughout our land
[22:39] Lord Might come under The sign of the gospel And be saved Lord awaken the church From our slumber That it appears to Have gripped So mightily So powerfully In these days Let us be a church Lord That is on the moon Taking the word of God Into the highways And the byways To our neighbours Our friends Our families Our workplaces And seeing men And women Young people Come to faith In Jesus Christ As Lord We thank you Lord That you are a prayer Hearing And a prayer Answering God And so we bring These prayers This morning In confidence That you will hear us And that you will Answer according To your gracious And mighty will And we pray this In the name of Jesus Our Lord And our only saviour Amen
[23:39] Our psalm is Psalm 91 Verses 1-5 He that doth In the secret place Of the Most High Reside Under the shade Of him that is The Almighty Shall abide I of the Lord My God Will say He is my refuge Still He is my fortress And my God And in him Trust I will Psalm 91 Verses 1-5 Be the dark In the secret place Of the Most High Reside Under the shade Of him that is The Almighty He shall abide
[24:43] I of the Lord My God Will say He is my refuge He is my fortress And my God And in him Grant I will Yes That on His God and still ends
[26:03] His feather shall be high I trust Under His wings shall be His feather shall be high I trust That on His God and still ends Thou shalt not fear to be afraid Or tethered from the night Not for the earth, though that doth fly
[27:13] I take my living light God Almighty, let your word be proclaimed in truth And let it be solely for the honour and for the glory of your name Grant us ears that we might hear Lord And hearts that we might respond And grant that you might accomplish your purpose And the proclamation of your word For we ask this in the name of Jesus Amen It was the best of times It was the worst of times And so begins one of the greatest novels in the whole of English literature Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities It is set in both London and Paris
[28:15] In the time up to and including the French Revolution It was a time of trial And a time of great turmoil Surrounding the key character The French doctor Manette And his 18 year long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris And his release to live in London with his daughter Lucy Whom up until that point he had never met When I consider Dickens' great novel And consider the book of Job I see significant parallels in the both of them I am struck in the similarities between the two stories Both are focused on a central character Whose life is one of chaos and turmoil and intense suffering And whereas Dickens' story was a work of fiction Based on a real time in history Wrapped around some facts The book of Job is firmly rooted in the factual account Of the life of one man Whom God has allowed the devil to torment And Job's response to that torment
[29:16] There are many ways to look at the book of Job And many commentators, biblical scholars And many women of faith have seen different truths in it And there is not my intention to compete with any of that Nor perhaps your own view of the reality of the book But I want to offer what I believe are some insights of the Holy Spirit Imprinted upon my own heart and mind over a number of years Because I believe that the book and the character reveals to us Something of the nature of grace Something of the reality and power of faith And also the victory of hope And without teaching my granny to suck eggs Let me give you a kind of overview of the book Job is described thus in the prologue of the book In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job This man was blameless and upright He feared God and shunned evil As we read the story we find out that by the grace of God
[30:18] He was a man of great wealth But also a man of faith But God allowed the devil to strip away everything that Job had Including his wealth, his family and his health Because the devil was convinced that Job's faith and trust Were all because of the fact that God had blessed him And Job suffered Oh how he suffered And to help in his struggle And I say help and use the word loosely To help in his struggle Three of his quote unquote friends tried to comfort him I'm sure you've heard of the phrase Job's comforters And it's not a particularly joyful phrase under any circumstance But Job had three friends who sought to comfort him Now in the end Job stood firm and he stood strong And God restored all that Job had and more That's really a kind of potted version But I want us this morning to focus on Job's relationship with God And Job's relationship with God was one that was based on a total trust in God to be God
[31:22] And a trust that God would see him through all of his trial And there are two key moments in the book that I want us to look at The first one occurs in chapter 13 verse 15 Just after Job I said something I was talking to from one of his friends Zophar And we read this And my text is called the New International Version translation And there it says Even though he slay me Yet will I hope in him The King James said Even though he slay me Yet will I trust in him Now I don't know what that says to you But what it screams out to me Is a declaration of faith It screams out relationship And one in which the roles of both God and Job himself are fully understood And so for a wee while I want to look at this And see if there's anything about faith that we can learn In Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 The writer gives us a definition of faith He says that Faith is the assurance of things hoped for And the conviction of things not seen
[32:25] And I would like us to perhaps come to an understanding of how this has worked out in Job's life And what we see here as an example of faith Is that the statement in Job 13 verse 15 Is faith in the sovereignty of God It's remarkable because it spells out that faith recognises and trusts in the sovereignty of God That God is absolutely sovereign That we are accountable to him And that he is not accountable to us What that means for us is that we realise that faith is not something that's exercised in a vacuum Sunday school teacher was once asked a class to give a definition of faith And nobody was willing to give an answer I'm sure Anna would have given a great answer But nobody was willing to give an answer Until at the end she cajoled them and said Somebody tell me what faith is And one of the children said
[33:26] Well faith is believing something that you know isn't true And that's the way the world sees faith That faith is something that's airy-fairy That faith is something that operates in a vacuum That faith is something that potentially Is putting your trust in something that you know isn't true But that is far from the reality of what faith is And in this passage we see the reality of God Of Joe's faith in the sovereign power of God Faith has to have something to hang on to We have to have faith in something or in someone When I go to sit down in a chair and get to the point where my weight shift is such that I'm all in with gravity I have to have the faith that the chair I'm about to land on will hold me That's not believing something that you know isn't true There is a tangible reality and faith needs a tangible reality
[34:28] And in the case of Joe that tangible reality is God And his knowledge of God was significant He recognises that God was a sovereign God As we said earlier A God who was not accountable to him Or to any other human Now this is brought out in the whole of the book And if you have never read it through Excuse me I would commend it to you But it comes out loudly and clearly in this verse from chapter 13 Even though he slay me Yet will I hope Or yet will I trust in him Job was a man who was really struggling with his life The narrative with his three friends quite clearly reveals that to us They all try to tell him that what he's going through Is because of his own sin and his own worthiness His own worthiness They try to convince him that he's the author of his own misfortune And that the sooner he recognises this and ceases to struggle Then the sooner he can get his life back Even though it may not be the same life as he had before But in his heart
[35:32] Job knew that though he did not understand all that was going on with his life He believed that he was a man in good standing with God And the faith aspect of this lies in the fact that Though he did not grasp all that was taking place He did not question God's sovereign right He did not question God's right to be sovereign Nor did he abandon the relationship that he had with God He was willing to trust God through the trial And he was willing to trust God right up to the point of God taking away his very life He believed that God not only had the power but had the right to do that He was the creator Job was the creator I find that remarkable I find it deeply challenging Because in my own life and in my life as a pastor I've often been and come across people Mature believers Who have been in difficult situations And nobody that I have ever come across Was in a situation
[36:34] Analogous to that Of Job But so often the cry is Why is this happening to me? Why am I having to face this? Why is God doing this to me?
[36:46] Why can God not do something else? Why can God not intervene and act in my situation? Why can God have been so strong But God is a sovereign God He is neither accountable to us nor is he perverse in his ways ways and I've always taught those who were under my pastoral care that a better question to ask is not why is this happening but Lord how are you shaping me through this into the likeness of Christ what lessons are you trying to teach me through the struggle how can I hold on to you when I can hardly see you or feel you and maybe you've been there and maybe you're there right now and you're going through things that you really don't understand you're experiencing pains and struggles and questions that you don't really understand
[37:57] God knows your situation God is able to move in your situation and all he asks you to do is to put yourself in his hands we have an advantage over Job in some ways because we have the totality of the word of God we have the scripture and that scripture that tells us that God is love not that God is loving but that God is love that he is the very essence of and definition of love and that means that every action of God whether we understand it or not every action of God is loving because God cannot act in conflict with his own character and that's why we need to have faith and I would suggest to you beloved that the greater the struggle the greater the pain the greater the confusion the greater the need for faith in the God who is revealed to us in scripture as a God of love and he was revealed to us supremely in the person of his only begotten son our Lord Jesus Christ who embraced not only pain and struggle but embraced death for you and for me
[39:08] Job recognised that his life belonged to God and it was in God's hands his life at this point was hard but he would trust in God he would continue to have hope in God that's the very core of a victorious life even though he slay me yet in the spite of all that taking all of that into account yet I will hope in him and this is not an expression of somebody at the end of his terror this is not the expression of somebody sort of hoping out for the last hope this is somebody who knows the reality of the one in whose trust he is willing to place himself this is the reality of one who has a relationship with God whereby he knows God enough to know that God will vindicate him that God will care for him that God will bring him through even though he himself doesn't understand it Job recognised that his life belonged to God and that he was in God's hands his life was hard but he would trust in God he would continue to have faith in God that's the very core as I said earlier of a victorious life
[40:22] I want just for a moment almost as a kind of aside to comment on Job's friends and their part in this they did not know God in the way that Job knew him and they did not have Job's best interests at heart they were so full of their own self-importance they were so full of their own wisdom they were so full of their own agenda and they offered glib solutions to heart-breaking problems and I just want to say to you beware of the glib because often the glib and easy answers come from those who have no understanding of you or of God and whose role is often to hide from the junk that's going on in their own lives that they are not themselves willing to deal with hard situations are never solved by easy answers and so the call is to continue to have hope and continue to have trust in the God who reveals himself to us as a God who is in love the very essence the very definition of love and so what we see is faith in the sovereignty of God we also see that faith sees beyond the circumstances a number of years ago I attended a leadership conference organised by the Herod's Trust and the keynote speaker was
[41:53] Professor Dr. Howard Hendricks of Dallas Theological Seminary he's one of the most gifted and godly teachers and said it would be my privilege to benefit from and he told a story of one occasion where he had a meeting with a friend whom he had not seen for a while and like all of us do he said to his friend so good to see you how are you and his friend said well he said doc I'm pretty good under the circumstances and Professor Hendricks' response blew me away he looked at his friend and he said so what are you doing under them what are you doing under them the example of the life of Job tells us that faith is able to see beyond the circumstances and in Job's case they were both immense and severe but Job would not be defined by his circumstances but by his relationship with God neither did Job determine the quality of his relationship with
[42:54] God based on what his life was currently like he could look back with longing to what his life had been like and it's clear in the story that he took none of it for granted but it's also clear that with the resources that he had he was aware of the responsibilities that this brought with it and it's too easy to judge the quality of our relationship with God based on the circumstances that we face on a daily basis or even on an ad hoc basis but I would suggest to you that's not the best lens to which to view either the character and activity of God or the state of our relationship with him we know some of the things that we have to go through in our lives are the direct result of bad choices that we make but for which we are often unwilling to accept responsibility and seek to reflect the responsibility onto God why God are you allowing this to happen to me when we know that what has happened to us is a direct result of some things that we have chosen to be or to do why did
[44:02] God allow this to happen to me why did God not prevent it sometimes the situations that we face come about by the actions of others and we are not always in a position to prevent them and there will be pains and difficulties which come into our lives as a direct result of the activity of God because the Bible tells us that those whom God loves see disciplines the greatest compliment if you like that God can pay any of us who belong to him is to mold us into the very likeness of his only begotten son our Lord Jesus Christ and if your life is anything like my life that is not an easy or a quick job and there will be things that God will use in our lives circumstances that he will bring into our lives in order that he might refine us and shape us into the likeness of Christ and we will never get a real perspective on what God is trying to do if all we ever do is blame him for the pain if all we ever do is question him in every situation
[45:15] I am fortunate enough to be the father of two beautiful daughters and the grandfather of two amazing grandsons and a granddaughter but I remember when my children were small and I am sure you can witness with this as well every question that you answered was greeted by the word but why but why so you answered the question but why have you been there do you know that is that part of your experiences or were your children perfect my children were perfect perfect nuisances sometimes but when we keep asking God why why why we get nowhere I believe again as I say in such times the question is to ask not why but how how are you using this
[46:27] God how are you shaping me into the likeness of Christ what are you seeking to do in my life at this present moment in Job's case his troubles were the direct result of God allowing Satan to torment God Job was described in the text by God as my servant and so he proved to be at no time did he curse God for what he was going through and at the end of the encounter Job showed that he was willing to trust God Satan was defeated all of his activities came to naught and God is glorified you see God was not perverse and the way in which he allowed these things to happen to Job because the sovereignty of God was displayed in the fact that he knew Job and he knew Satan and he knew what the outcome and the faith of Job would be everything that Job lost taken away by Satan God not only restored but multiplied and I believe that when we are willing to submit to the sovereign activity of God when we are willing to live not under the circumstances then we will truly be amazed at what God will do there was a lady called Annie
[47:40] Johnson Flint she lived in the middle of the 19th century to the early part of the 20th century and she wrote this on one occasion I absolutely love this it's speaking about God and our relationship with God and she writes this she writes he gives us more grace as our burdens grow greater he sendeth more strength as our labours increase to added afflictions he addeth mercy to multiplied trials he multiplies peace when we have exhausted our store of endurance when our strength has failed ere the day is half done when we reach the end of our hoarded resources our father's full giving has only begun fear not that thy need shall exceed his provision and God ever yearns his resources to share lean hard on the arm everlasting availing the father both thee and thy load built up there his love has no limits his grace has no measure his power no boundary known unto man for out of his infinite riches in Jesus he giveth and giveth and giveth again that's the
[49:18] God who carries us through the circumstances that's the God who is declared in the New Testament to be the one who will supply all our needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus so where are we this morning in our relationship with God are we fighting with him or are we resting in him are we looking to our own resources or are we willing to trust in his infinite resources let me wrap this up by just saying one more thing fairly briefly and I'm trying not to be a preacher fairly briefly that faith grasps the eternal I'll see you again let me take you to one more place in this book of Job and suggest that the eye of faith the heart of faith sees beyond the temporal to the eternal Job's eyes were not simply fixed in his temporal situation but in spite of all that he was going through he was able to see the eternal this is what he says in chapter 19 verses 25 through 27 he said
[50:29] I know that my redeemer lives and at the end he shall stand upon the earth and after my skin has been destroyed yet in my flesh I will see God I myself will see him with my own eyes I am not another and my heart yearns within me I love this and I would love to have time to unpick it all for you but for the moment suffice to say that Job was able to see beyond his current circumstance to the eternity that awaited him and that in that eternity he would see God whom here he describes as his redeemer not his accuser not his enemy not his tormentor but his redeemer the one who would bring him through God is the God of the eternal to those who belong to him and we are bound for an eternity with him and I believe that in these difficult days and there may be difficult days for some of you the Lord would call us to get our eyes away from the eternal sorry away purely from the temporal and see the eternity which awaits us faith brings hope that it's not always going to be like this and there is a day coming when the temporal will give way to the eternal and the pain will give way to glory
[52:09] I read a story once of an old lady who was bedbound she wasn't able to get out of bed she had a carer who came in to take care of her needs in the morning and the first thing that the carer did after she greeted her when she went into her room was she threw open the curtains and every single day the first words that that old lady spoke were this is it today Lord is it today she saw beyond the circumstances to the eternity that awaited her and she would trust in that which God gave her until he carried her home to be with her where is our perspective this more beloved are we so locked into the temporal that we can't even imagine the eternal are we so locked into the pain and the difficulty that we can't focus on the reality that God is our redeemer and there is a day coming where we will be with her for all eternity may God grant us an eternal dimension an eternal perspective may God remind us of the reality of who he is and who he is for us may God challenge us to put our hope firmly and trust in him despite what our circumstances might be and to his name be the praise and all the glory let's pray
[53:59] God we thank you that you are the suffering God we thank you that you are the God who is beyond our understanding and yet within our experience we thank you that you are the God who loves us and despite what we may be going through you are the God who has not forsaken us enable us Lord in what might perhaps be dark and difficult days to reach out and to put our hope and our trust in you to know that you are in Jesus Christ our father who art in heaven to know that you are our rock and our redeemer and help us Lord to reach out to lay hold of you to stand strong in you and with you and to look to the day Lord when you will carry us beyond the threshold into your presence forever and forever and to your name be all the praise and glory through
[55:05] Christ our Lord Amen Our closing praise is Psalm 130 Lord from the depths to thee I cried my voice Lord do thou hear and to my supplication voice give an attentive ear Lord who shall stand if thou O Lord shouldst mark iniquity and get with thee forgiveness as that feared thou mayest thee Psalm 130 Lord from the dead to thee I died my voice Lord do thou hear come to my!
[56:01] I will be to my voice in the earth if I not end in the earth Lord who shall stand if thou O Lord should mark iniquity with thee forget with thee forget that sin my fears and may yet be I wait
[57:02] O God my soul not wait my hope is in this world O God say thou one morning watch soul which pulls the Lord I say or God they not to watch the morning light to see where is I am all is the Lord for wisdom that should be unpl chewing up chewing chewing chewing chewing
[58:45] And from all his iniquities The Israel shall redeem Now listen to the benediction And I may grace and mercy and peace From God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit Be our experience now and always Amen