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[0:00] Let's now turn to God's Word and to the Book of Psalms. The Book of Psalms. We can actually read three Psalms together this evening. The Book of Psalms. I'm reading from Psalm 124.

[0:12] The Book of Psalms in Psalm 124. We can read together 124, 125 and 126. The Book of Psalms in Psalm 124.

[0:27] Let's hear of the Word of God. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us.

[0:47] Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul, then the proud waters had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord who have not given us as a prey to their teeth, our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers.

[1:04] The snare is broken and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever.

[1:20] As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people, from henceforth even forever. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands into iniquity.

[1:37] Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel.

[1:53] When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like those that dream. Then our mouth, when was our mouth, filled with laughter, and our tongue was singing.

[2:05] Then said they among the heathen, The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.

[2:20] They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

[2:34] Amen. We give praise to God, as always for his holy and his perfect word. Let's again sing to God's praise, this time singing from Psalm 100. Psalm 100.

[2:49] Singing. The first version of the psalm. Psalm 100. All people that ne'er to dwell, sing to the Lord of cheerful voice, whom serve with mouth as praise forth tell.

[3:04] Come ye before him, and rejoice. Psalm 100. To God's praise. O be the love on earth to the world, Sing to thy heart with cheerful eyes, Hence thou with birth his grace for help, God, give me glory and rejoice, Know that the Lord is God in thee, When thy glory flows us,

[4:08] Amen.ριen And for you she be at last day O enter then this gift with grace Approach with joy his force on you Praise God and presence in all his For it is simply so true For why the Lord the Lord is good

[5:18] His passion is forever true This will not all dance for me too And shall promise to be saved you Let's for a short time this evening turn back to the book of Psalms and Psalm 126 Psalm 126 And very briefly just read the Psalm again When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion We were like them that dream Then was our mouth filled with laughter And our tongue with singing Then said they among the heathen

[6:19] The Lord has done great things for them The Lord have done great things for us Whereof we are glad Turn again our captivity O Lord As the streams in the south They that sow in tears Shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth Bearing precious seed Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing Bringing his sheaves with him We read just a few Psalms there Psalm 124, 125, 126 And you'll see even at the title of the Psalms We see a song of degrees Or some translations have songs or Psalms of ascent This section of the Psalm book It's a travelling section we could say It's a section that the believers of old The Israelites used on their pilgrims up to Jerusalem So they had at least three a year they would go on Three major pilgrimages Of course there was other various pilgrimages

[7:19] Various other reasons they would go up But we know that at least three times a year There was this great gathering This mass of people walking slowly Making their way up to Jerusalem As they climbed and ascended up to the city And it was a trek up But still a trek up That's roads now But in these days of course dirt tracks Dragging all their possessions with them They made their way up to the temple They were trying to get closer to where God's presence was And as these believers made their way up to the temple These are the songs they sang As we sing these songs this evening We are singing the same songs our fellow believers sang All these thousands of years ago And of course we are not We give praise to God We are not having to go to a certain place To find God's presence We know that God's presence is not found In buildings made by man

[8:19] But here we are together As pilgrims As travellers Just as these believers All those thousands of years ago Different ages Different backgrounds Different economic situations Rich and poor New believers Converts Those who grew up Of course in the faith All travelling together All wanting to get closer To where God is What a glorious picture Of what we are as a church This evening That is what we are For brothers and sisters Is it not?

[8:57] Different backgrounds Different stories Different situations Different life situations Even this very moment We are here together We go back home To different contexts And different home situations This week looks so different For all of us We are here together On the same journey Heading slowly At times it feels very slowly Towards the place Where God as aware is And we will see this More later on We give praise to God That we don't have A physical place anymore We know that God Has made us home In the hearts of his people That God now lives Of course in us As his people We know that And we will see that more As we go on Through this psalm People join These pilgrims And for a short time tonight We join alongside These old believers As we make our way up To the city As we come to the end Of I am sure A busy year for all of us In various ways Come to the end Of a year

[9:57] Filled with I hope joy But likely filled With much disappointment And hard days And complicated days And good days And bad days Every one of us Having our own story To tell this year We come to this text And we look What it's saying to us About God's faithfulness About God's goodness We're here today This evening Gathered as a group Of pilgrims Marking as it were Almost marking One year Closer To the holy city One year closer To where it is We're going To that place With our saviour As we seek to Look back on this year As we seek to Think what it is We are to learn From this year And learn from this text We can look At this text In this chapter This psalm Under three Very broad And very general headings First of all Looking verses 1 Down to verse 3 Looking back Looking back Then verse 4 Looking around And then verses 5

[10:59] And verse 6 Looking forward As we journey In our pilgrimage Through this life How do we learn From this psalm How we should live Our lives Looking back Looking around And looking forward So first of all Looking verses 1 Down to verse 3 Looking back The psalmist of course In these verses In verse 1 The psalmist begins By looking back By casting his mind Back Back not just a few years But back Many many years Back through the generations Back as we see To the time of captivity To the time of exile When his people Were captured When his people Were exiled Of course to Babylon Looks back to the time God rescued His people From exile When God Rescued his people From as it were Bondage From captivity Because there's no time

[12:01] Of course For saving For the details Of that But we know That the summary Is that Judah had been Invaded And effectively Judah had been Destroyed As a nation They had been Captured Taken away All their possessions Gone Their homes Destroyed Their cities As they were Destroyed And were in Captivity In Babylon Seventy years Seventy years Of no hope Seventy years Of imprisonment In a foreign nation Seventy years Without worshipping In the temple Seventy years Generations coming Generations going And no hope Of rescue The psalmist Looking back In verse 1 To when the Lord intervened When he saved His people From exile See that in Verse 1 When the Lord Turned again The captivity In other Translations In other words When the Lord Rescued us When the Lord Took us out Of exile Took us out Of captivity The joy they had

[13:01] When they first Came back home After seventy Odd years Away from home Seventy years Captured in a Foreign country The joy they had When they came Back to their own Land They were free Of imprisonment They could again Begin to build Their lives again To physically build Their homes again To build their cities Again To worship Together again That's the joy They had in these First few verses A time of renewal A time of revival A time of joy Amongst them As brothers and Sisters We see that joy Expressed in the Wording of them They were like Those who were Dreaming Like those who Were lost in a Dream We could say Quite literally They were Like them That dream In verse 2 They were so Full of joy Of course Their mouths Were filled With laughter And singing They couldn't Contain the pure Joy they had Because the Lord Had done such Great things for Them The Lord Had rescued Them That true joy That real joy In the Lord Which leads to

[14:01] Joy and laughter And singing Those times of Fellowship Even their own Experience Those times of Fellowship That just make us Burst out in Singing I won't say who A brother just A few minutes ago Was sharing of a Time he was Worshipping in a Reconciliation at One point and After the evening Service they came Out after the Service in the Car park and Around the church And they started Singing again So that was the Joy of that night They sang again And they sang again They sang in the Car park that Level of joy Brothers and Sisters in this Past week in This past year As we find Ourselves winding Down have you Found yourself Looking over the Joys of the Past those days Gone by when Things were a lot More happy a lot More joyful when Things seem to be A bit more right A bit more in Place not just in Your own life Perhaps as a

[15:02] Church not just Here of course The congregation But across the Island those Glory days as it Were when things Looked good Perhaps like the Psalmist in these Verses verse 1 and Verse 2 perhaps Even this evening And I know there's Some here who do And some here who Remember days of Revival and days of Renewal days when When the gospel Seem to be in every Part of the island The gospel is known Home to home There's those who Are singing God's Praise in every Village and the Church seemed to Be growing and Thriving when it Was as it were Clear that the Favor of God was Very much present In our community And in our Island Perhaps even Personally you can Look back to Days when the Presence and the Favor of God was Very much clear Even in your own Life where you Look back in these Days you think Well back then I Felt so close to The Lord I felt so So right with him I was so full of Joy and you felt

[16:03] Renewed and so on And so on Those glowy days We see the joy of Israel in these Verses at the end Of verse 2 that Joy was was seen Across the nations The heathen are Talking about it They said among the Heathen or among The Gentiles so Those who weren't Part of Israel God had blessed Israel so much by Taking them back Out of captivity That even caused The other nations To say wow Look what their God has done for Them look at the Joy in their lives Now look at how Good God has been To them And the same story Is for ourselves To days of Revival Days of renewal When even those Outside the island Could look at us And say wow Look what God Is doing there Look what's Happening That sweet Melodious voice Of those Who have now Gone into Eternity We remember Their voice as Well The melody As it were Of praises Ringing House to house Those past Glory days

[17:04] And we see In these verses That those days Have now Stopped Now there is A looking back There is a way Of looking back That's unhealthy For us And we're all Guilty of that Myself very much Included That way of Looking back To how things Once were And we find Ourselves Stuck there Only ever Looking back Only ever Wishing things Were like They once were And we all Do that From time To time Looking back And wishing away Our current Situation Wishing away The place The Lord Has placed us At this time And in This place Brothers and Sisters The reality is We are here And we are now And as much As we long To be back To the glory days And we all do The days when The gospel Seem stronger In our land And stronger In our island The truth is That we are here

[18:05] The psalmist Looked back To the glory days The truth was These days Had changed We are where God has placed us And he has placed us In this place At this time At this very moment And just because As it were The clear And obvious Blessings Seem to have Passed on Does that Mean that God Is no longer Working In this place Or in this island Is God's Hand of blessing As it were No longer Over this place No longer Over our island Does God Still Care Does God Still care Now We would never Perhaps Find ourselves Asking that Question Would we We never say Does he still Care Is he still Caring about This place We're smarter Than that But we do Ask that question We ask it In different ways

[19:05] We ask it By always Looking back By always Wishing things Were more Like they were Once upon a time And we all Every one of us Are guilty of it In our own Personal lives But also As a congregation Not just yourselves But every congregation Every congregation Things are not How they were Once Well no They're not But they are How they are Now And God Is still Working Here Now It's one thing Looking back To past blessings And praising God For them That's healthy And that's good And we see that Again and again Throughout scripture That God often Reminds his people Of what he once Did To encourage them That the same God They now serve Can do the same Things again In their day Looking back And praising God Is not a bad thing And it's good For us to do that But looking back And staying there It's not biblical It's not healthy Looking back In these verses It's the healthy kind

[20:06] The psalmist Looks back Yes But he doesn't Stay looking Back And we see that In the last phrase Of verse 3 The Lord Has done The Lord Have done Great things For us Whereof We are Glad Or therefore We are glad As our translations Have Therefore We are glad The Lord Has done Great things For us Therefore We're glad Yes The days of glory Have long since gone Of big God's blessing Of the big Signs of his blessing Yes He's done These great things In the past And we look Back At these great times We look back At these times Of blessing It doesn't fill us With despondency It doesn't fill us With sadness It fills Us With joy We look back To who God is What he has Done before And it makes Us glad That's a right Response To looking back Lord you once

[21:07] Were Blessing this island In obvious ways You were once Pouring out your spirit Into the villages In obvious ways And because That is true I can know For certain You have not Changed Your power Has not changed The same Working power Which saved All those souls Back then Is still With you today That's a positive Way To look back The Lord Has done Great things Yes And because of that We Are Glad As we come to Our second point In a few minutes We'll be faced With the reality Of the dryness Of our day So what do we do In the face Of our current Situation Again not talking Of course about Yourselves in Tulsa But ourselves As a nation Ourselves as an island Ourselves in the day We're in It's a dry And an arid day We're in We know that We know that to be true We feel that ourselves What do we do In the face

[22:07] Of such dryness Does the Lord Expect us Just to stand up Straight and just Get on with it Of course not We see again And again As we said Scripture Referring back To the days of power God has given us A record Of who he is And what he has done We have in Scripture Again and again The evidence That we worship A God Who keeps his promises Even more than that God has given us Fellowship And community We can speak to those Around us just now And talk with anyone Here as a Christian Those of us Who have lived through These days of past blessing As we ask them What it was like To live through these days That should encourage us As we hear about the glory And the power of God And the fact that God has not changed God has not changed Yes the Lord Has done great things In the past And we praise him For that But we do not

[23:07] And we cannot And we have no Scriptural warrant To stay As aware In the past The psalmist Does not do that It's not healthy for us It's not good for us But more than that Staying in the past It actually dishonours God It dishonours What he is doing Right now In this day And in this place God is still Working here God is still Fulfilling his purposes And his plans This very moment In time And for us to stay Dwelling on the past That dishonours Who he is And what he is doing Just now We know that To be true Of course God Is still working here God is still Fulfilling his plans Day after day He has done Great things And we Are Glad Glad The work of the Lord In the past Is to give us Hope And assurance That we can trust In him Today Even the wording Of the psalm itself You'll see that

[24:08] In the psalm The Lord Is The name of the Lord Is capitalised Capital L-O-R-D The same again In the psalm 1-2-5 And in psalm 1-2-4 It's a common theme Throughout The psalms of ascent The name of the Lord Used in almost All of these psalms It's Yahweh That capital L-O-R-D Tells us It's Yahweh The covenant name Of God The name he Uses to Remind his people That he is a God Who promises To keep To love To protect His people Who promised them A saviour at the start Who fulfills That promise In Jesus That is a God Who is telling us To trust in him The God who does Not change Who keeps his promises He has promised To bless his word When it goes out That promise Has not changed He has promised To bless unity In a congregation Of his people That promise Has not changed

[25:08] He has promised As we share the gospel With those around us That that word of his It is used by him That promise Has not changed We worship a God Who keeps his promises Looking back Isn't always good No Isn't always healthy For us But if we look back Praising God For who he is And what he's done And look back To assure ourselves That God has not changed That he is The covenant keeping God of scripture That's good for us That's healthy for us Because as we come To our second point Here in verse 4 The reality is We need all the strength We can get Verse 4 The psalmist then Now is praying This is a prayer It's a request to God Turn again Our captivity O Lord As the streams In the south The tone has changed now In verses 1 To verse 3 He's looking back He's praising God Now in verse 4 It's a prayer

[26:08] It's a request Turn us again Turn again Our captivity O Lord Here we see The psalmist Looking back To now looking At his own Present situation He's now looking around As it were He's seeing The reality of the day He is in See he's been praising In verse 1 To verse 3 How things once were Things were good once And so on And so on God blessed us once And so on And so on But now in verse 4 It's the reality Of the psalmist's day The good things The good times Are now long since gone In verse 3 In verse 4 The psalmist is saying The same thing He says in verse 1 In verse 1 In verse 1 He praises God For rescuing them From captivity Now they hadn't been Captured again By Babylon No They hadn't been Physically captured But the people's hearts

[27:08] Had effectively been Captured again By sin The people had fallen Back into adultery Had fallen back Into awful sin They had fallen Again away From trusting In the goodness Of God So the psalmist Is saying Is saying that In his day And at his time It's almost as if They're back In captivity again There's no joy There's no evident growth The hard times Are back again And here we have This cry Out to the Lord Lord These thousands

[28:11] Of years ago As we find ourselves Giving thanks to God For his goodness In the past And his hand of blessing In the past We then look to ourselves And look to our own day And say Lord We find ourselves In captivity again We find a day That is so dry Where the gospel Is not known The gospel Is not cared about Where who God is And what it is He is saying And what it is He has done For his people Is not known And indeed not cared about Where what it is We're doing in this place Is not known Is not cared about So on And so on We find ourselves With the same prayer The same cry to the Lord Lord Visit us again With your blessing We're thankful For the years You've given us But we ask You'd again Visit us Show us that blessing You once showed us Show us that That power That you still have Lord revive us Revive us

[29:13] Again this is a prayer A prayer which mentions We see the desert The streams of the south O Lord As the streams in the south Quite literally here The wording is O Lord Turn again Our captivity O Lord As the streams In the Negev It's a word Used there For south Is Negev And Negev Is the desert South South half The southern half Of Israel It's a big desert It's a pretty Barren desert Even now And of course In the psalmist day This desert Would have been Almost untouched But a few Travelling tribes On the outside Outskirts Of the desert For the Negev Desert The psalmist Talks about here This desert In the south There's something Strange about This desert Something quite Amazing About it That's why the Psalmist is Talking about it Here See the Negev

[30:14] Is dry Of course It's a desert It's very dry Though Very hot But when the rain Does Come When the rain Does first hit The Negev Desert Something amazing Happens Because the ground Is so solid And so dry The water Starts to pull Very quickly It's quite a Hilly mountainous Desert So it pulls up High Very quickly Streams Rivers begin To flow Before you know It This desert Is full Of water You actually see This happening Online There's videos Of the Negev Desert online Filling of water Quickly Over a matter Of days This desert Becomes An oasis For weeks It becomes Something you Wouldn't believe Was once a desert So the psalmist Here is talking About that He's saying Lord Turn us again Lord Come and rescue us Let us be like The Negev desert

[31:14] The streams In the south Let our time Of dryness Our arid lands Of our hearts Lord Again Pour out your water Pour out these Streams of blessing That's our prayer This evening Isn't it That's our prayer First of all For ourselves Brothers and sisters See revival Comes Yes but revival Always comes Through the Lord's people First being renewed Themselves We need revival We need renewal We find ourselves If we're honest So dry Find ourselves So caught up In the things Of the world We lose sight As to our calling What is our calling This week What is our calling Day by day To be salt To be light To be witnesses We are called We set apart To serve our saviour To share the good news With those Who are perishing Round about us And every one of us I'm sure we can confess That in these duties We find ourselves At times Falling so short Find ourselves

[32:14] At times So dry And so cold Perhaps even In our love Or our care So our prayer This evening First of all Is Lord Renew us again Let the streams Of your joy The streams Of your blessing Flow again In our hearts We also pray As the psalmist Prays The same Will be seen For this area For this district That again We see The streams Of God's blessing Pour out Into the homes The homes Of those here Who are dear To us Who we know Who we care for Who have no interest In the gospel No interest In the future Of our own souls Lord Let the stream The water of life Pour into our hearts Let the water of life Pour back Into this place The prayer of the psalmist And the question is Who alone Who alone Can bring This water Of verse 4 Who alone Can change hearts Can change lives

[33:15] No one who stands up here Not one of us In this building Can change anyone's life Not one of us Can bring that water of life And pour out In someone's heart Who is the only one Who brings Through everlasting Change Through everlasting life Who alone Is the water of life We know it's our saviour Jesus And him alone It's to him We come this evening And we ask that he Would indeed revive And renew us He would remind us As to who we are In him That we are known That we are loved That we are kept But also in him We have a solemn duty That great duty To be his witnesses In our homes In this village In wherever the Lord Has placed us The one who is We find it in John Of course 4 In verse 14 The wonderful words Of Christ Whoever drinks

[34:15] Of the water That I give him Will never thirst But the water I give Will become in him A well of water Springing up To eternal life A well of water Springing up To eternal life That is our prayer For ourselves And for his place We need to see Days of renewal Days of revival Like the Negev We would see The streams Of God's blessing Pour out of his place Again not for our glory Not so that Tolstah Or whoever stands here Would be glorified No So that he Would be glorified As his word is heard As lives are transformed All the reasons We have had In the past To praise him We've all Of course Come from our Gracious Saviour Our gracious Saviour And just as all the hope We have in him now Our eternal hope Our future hope All our cries For God to bless us again It's based on him And him alone That brings us very briefly To the final few verses

[35:16] We have here As we cry out As we pray Verse 4 As we ask that Lord Would again Work in our hearts And work in our villages And work in our islands As we ask for the Lord's blessing And this water Of life To be poured out What does that look like For us How does that work itself out We see that in verses 5 And verse 6 The promises we have In these final two verses Which should encourage us As the Lord's people See the hope of verse 4 This hope This cry of streams In the desert That is as it were Unplanned blessing from God We ask for that The Lord does that In his way And part of the way He does that Is verse 5 That they that sow in tears Shall reap in joy See verse 5

[36:16] There's a certainty For every one of us Who are the Lord's people This evening Every one of us Who know Jesus for ourselves As we take our calling seriously To sow the gospel To share the good news To share the news That we have a living saviour Who has done great things for us As we share that daily As we carry our cross daily Seeking to be salt and light Every day of our lives The reality is We will do so often In tears And if we're honest Most if not all of us Find it daunting To share the gospel I say this very carefully And just honestly Don't think for a second That four years of training In Edinburgh Changes your personality Changes who anyone up here is As you're well aware Whoever stands up here In any way whatsoever Apart from a calling We're no different

[37:17] To anyone else We all find it daunting To share the gospel Especially if we're being Very honest To those who we love To those who are closest to us To those who we Spend days If not weeks Crying out to the Lord To save We find it so hard To share the gospel with them We find it hard anyway To find the right time To find the right words It's a daunting Terrifying task And we often find it laborious If we're honest Laborious to do that Sowing work But the truth is The work of verse 5 Must take place If we're to live lives As Christians We've been called To do the work Of verse 5 Every one of us Not just the ministers Or the elders Every one of us Has been called To verse 5 Every one of us Has been called To sow the seed To do that gradual Gospel work Of sharing the good news Of being salt Of being light That daily hard work Of in our words In our actions In our thoughts

[38:18] In our prayers To every part Of all that we are And all that we do To show And to seek to show The goodness of who Jesus is To show those Who we love and care for Our love for them To remind them Of their need of saving To point them to Jesus Again and again And again That is hard work And those of us Who have been praying Perhaps for many years For family members And for loved ones Who as of yet Show no gospel interest It's hard It's laborious And scripture is honest It's work that's often done In tears Of course hard work Hard work that shows Often no immediate growth As we do the gospel work As we sow as it were The gospel seeds As we share the good news Again and again Day by day We see no return As we tell that person About Jesus again As we tell that family member

[39:20] That it's their need For knowing Jesus As we get nothing back Again and again And again It's hard hard work But brothers and sisters It's our solemn calling It's also a great privilege We've been entrusted To the gospel of life Every one of us Who know the Lord You've been entrusted To the gospel of life We are jars of clay We know that And we feel that But we have The word Of life itself Yes the sowing Is painful Yes it's hard Laborious Tiring work But we see that There's always A result There's always a result And we often Don't see the results We see that The final words here They that sow in tears Shall reap In joy We We as it were Do what we can We strive To share the good news

[40:20] We strive To share the gospel We strive To proclaim our saviour But we leave it In the one Who gives the growth I planted Apollos watered But God gave the increase That encouragement Also Galatians 6 And verse 9 That That encouragement Let us not Become weary In doing good For At the proper time We Will reap A harvest If we do not Give up The Lord In his love Towards people Has given us Verse 6 Of this He that Goeth forth And weepeth Bearing precious Seeds So the one In verse 5 The one In verse 5 Who is seeking To share the gospel Who is doing The hard work Of daily Carrying your cross The one Who goes forth And weepeth Bearing the precious Gospel seed Shall what?

[41:22] Shall doubtless Come again With rejoicing There was a long Winded and Grammatical Connection there It was important Between going forth And doubtless And rejoicing The implication Is that As you go out With weeping As you go out And do the hard work The returning The rejoicing Is part of that And not for a second Of course Are we saying If we work hard enough God will bless that No We're saying That God tells us To go and to share The gospel And in his Perfect way He uses us As incomplete As we are As servants He uses us God uses means God uses us To accomplish His perfect plans We give him Praise for that Over many years Many conversations For the minister Of course Many hours Of study And of Outreach And of visiting And for all of us

[42:22] Many hours of praying Not one single hour Not one single prayer Is somehow wasted It's all heard by God All part of his Perfect plan To bring his People into his Kingdom God will Accomplish His Purposes His word Does not return To him void In all the Sowing In all the Laboring In all the Hard Laborious work We as it were Drop every gospel seed Every time we do We drop that gospel seed Trusting it to God That he will use it Every conversation Every hard conversation Every gentle encouragement To come and look at Christ We trust that God Will bless these things According to his Perfect His good plan Never relying on our efforts Never relying on our own Good works But relying on His perfect work Relying on a sovereign

[43:24] God of all creation That takes that seed And that causes it To grow And the wording here Is very strong The one that goes forth Weeping Will what?

[43:35] Will doubtless Come back Doubtless come back With rejoicing And if we're honest How often Can we say That we share The gospel Doubtless For being very honest I'm sure Not at all We seek to pray To that person Or talk to that person Give them some gospel Message And we do it With so many doubts In our minds That person isn't listening They aren't caring Why am I doing this?

[44:07] So on and so on But we do it doubtless We do it doubtless Not because of our eloquence Those who are up here In the pulpit We aren't doubtless Because of our Preaching abilities Or our own eloquence Or our skills We are doubtless As a people Because we are Trusting it in the hands Of our God The God Who as we said In the first few verses Who has done great things For His people The God who has not changed Who promises to bless The work of His people As they do it For His sake And for His glory We doubt our own ability We doubt our own knowledge We doubt our own Theological ability But yet we must go out Day after day With the seed Not doubting the one Who promises Who promises To accomplish His perfect plan In His time A hard task Yes A solemn task Yes But also a task Which must And which does Cause Rejoicing

[45:08] We are thankful To the Lord For the great privilege We have Of having the gospel In every one of us In front of us Just now You have a word of life Those of us here Who know Jesus Who can call Jesus Our saviour Living in you now He has made His home In you He goes with you As you go about your life Never abandoning you And never leaving you As you seek to share the gospel He is there with you Again You worry And we all worry About our words Falling flat And about this And about that The Lord uses The Lord uses His people As they seek to serve Him Faithfully It's never about us It's all about Him About the Lord Who has done great things Who has done wonders Who has taken His people Out of captivity The same Lord We worshipped this evening The same prayer we have And our prayer is We'd again see great things In our day Great things in our land

[46:08]  Great things in our island And we pray also great things In His congregation All for His glory Let's bow our heads now A word of prayer