[0:00] Let's begin our worship by singing to God's praise. We're going to sing in Psalm 111, in the Scottish Psalter version, Psalm 111, page 391. We're going to sing from verse 1 down to verse 6, the tune is St. Stephen. Praise ye the Lord with my whole heart, I will God's praise declare where the assemblies of the just and congregations are. We'll sing from verse 1 to 6 to God's praise.
[0:33] Praise ye the Lord with my whole heart, I will God's praise declare where the assemblies of the just and congregations are.
[1:03] The whole works of the Lord have brought are great above all measure, so tight they are of every one that doth bear it take pressure.
[1:19] such tight they are of every one that doth bear it take pressure.
[1:35] His wife most honourable is, most glorious and pure, and his subtainted righteousness, whatever doth endure.
[2:06] His wife's most wonderful, he hath made to be brought upon. The Lord is gracious and he is, $9 network that doth bear it take his weight physicians, So floor Christ, on earth than God's ivory and yours.
[2:36] with people like them, You thou know, Jesus, do it WORTH BOOMBER of the wickedness of the world that doth bear the faith just yapıyorsun us to see our people. Give the peace out to all those that truly do in fear, And evermore his covenant he in his mind will bear.
[3:10] He did the power of his works unto his people's show, When he believed and cherished upon them day-toed.
[3:45] Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we do give thanks to you anew this day For every opportunity we have to praise your name And above all to come together and do it Rejoicing as one body with one heart Lifting up our voices to you in unity To praise you as our Lord and as our God And we thank you for this, your day We thank you for all that is ours in a new day For all the food that we have For the clothes that we wear For the warmth we enjoy The homes that we have The many blessings that you give to us day by day And may you fill our hearts with thankfulness today And may all our praise be towards you May you bless us in our time around your word today As we worship you As we hear from the Bible your word As we learn about your goodness and your glory We thank you for every way that you speak to us
[4:47] We pray that as we are together around your word Here in the church and also as the young ones go out For the Sunday school and tweenies We pray, Lord, for you to watch over them And the creche as well And all of us together, Lord, to know your peace with us today For we thank you that you are a God who is near And that you are with us For that is your promise So continue with us today, Lord Go before us Pardoning us in all our sin As we ask it all in Jesus' name Amen Just a word to the children before you go out to your classes It's good to be together as always To worship God And to sing praise to him And to hear his word And how often do we come and give thanks to God?
[5:39] Do we do it just when we come to church? Or do we do it just on certain days? Or do we do it every day? Is every day a day when we give thanks to God?
[5:51] As you read the Bible As we sing from the Bible, from the Psalms Very often we hear the phrase Give thanks to God In Psalm 118 it says Give thanks to the Lord for he is good His love endures forever So how often then do we give thanks?
[6:13] How often do we give thanks to people? When people do kind things to us Do we say thank you to them? Do we maybe send a little thank you note Or a thank you card for people Who have been good to us in different ways Remembering us maybe at a birthday time A happy time A wedding Or maybe at a sad time When we've experienced loss People remember us And do we give thanks to them For remembering us?
[6:40] Or just little things that we do for people I got two thank you cards recently Just little notes with a few words inside Handmade, homemade And just a few words inside you Inside them But what an encouragement it was To get them For someone to say thank you It's great when people remember us But what about God?
[7:06] God who has given us everything in life How often do we give thanks to him? There's a story in the Bible about ten lepers And leprosy is a disease And if you have this disease Nobody wants to be near you Because it's very contagious You can easily catch it So everybody keeps away from lepers But Jesus came and met with ten lepers And he made them well He healed them And they went away from him And as they went away They were healed How many do you think came back And said thank you to Jesus?
[7:43] Ten lepers were healed How many came back And said thank you to Jesus? Ten you would think wouldn't you? No Eight?
[7:53] No Five? No Just one Just one leper came back And said thank you to Jesus For making him well Isn't that sad?
[8:07] Jesus had made them all well But only one came back To say thank you to Jesus And that's the way we are Sometimes ourselves The Lord is good to us His love towards us As the psalm says Endures forever But how often do we come and say Thank you Lord For everything that we have Today we're going to be focusing On that theme Of thankfulness to God And may it be today That we are thankful For all that he has done for us But may it be that every day As we start the day anew We give thanks to God For all of his goodness to us For all of his love Towards us We don't forget him Like the nine lepers Who never came back But we be like the one Who did And come back And say thank you Lord For all that you do For us Well let's say now The Lord's prayer together Our Father Which art in heaven Hallowed be thy name
[9:08] Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth As it is in heaven Give us this day Our daily bread And forgive us our debts As we forgive our debtors And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom The power and the glory forever Amen We're going to sing again To God's praise This time in Psalm 8 In the Sing Psalms version It's on page 8 Of the Psalm books Psalm 8 on page 8 We'll sing from verse 3 Down to the end of the Psalm And the tune is Winchester Psalm 8 at verse 3 When I regard the heavens you made Your fingers work I trace I see the moon and shining stars Which you have set in place We'll sing from verse 3 Down to the end of the Psalm To God's praise
[10:10] When I regard the heavens you made Your fingers work I trace Your fingers work I trace I see the moon and shining stars Which you have set in place I ask myself What then is man That you should give him thought The son of man that you do him Such gracious care of God You made him little less than those Who dwell in heaven above
[11:14] And you have crowned and honoured him With glory and with love You gave him charge of all the works Created by your hand And everything that you had made You gave him to the hand All flocks and birds and birds and fish All beasts both wild and tame In all the earth O Lord our Lord And glorious is your name
[12:15] We'll turn to read in God's Word Now in the Old Testament And in 1 Chronicles We're reading in chapter 29 So at the end of 1 Chronicles You'll find this around page 4 to 6 Of the Bibles 1 Chronicles chapter 29 We're going to read from verse 10 Here we read about Offerings that were made To build the temple The temple that David Had a vision to build But ultimately it would be Solomon whose son Who would build it But we find that they had David and his people Had given much Much of their own wealth To the rebuilding Of the temple And here they're giving thanks To God For the provision That was made for that And what's interesting about this Is although it's speaking
[13:16] About David and the people Before they built the temple In the first place The writer to the Chronicles Is speaking many hundreds Of years later And it's at a time When that first temple Was in ruin And they were about To rebuild Or encouraged To rebuild The temple So that's a little background As we come To this book 1 Chronicles chapter 29 Reading at verse 10 Therefore David Blessed the Lord In the presence Of all the assembly And David said Blessed are you O Lord The God of Israel Our Father Forever and ever Yours O Lord Is the greatness And the power And the glory And the victory And the majesty For all that is in the heavens And in the earth Is yours Yours is the kingdom O Lord And you are exalted As head above all Both riches And honour Come from you And you rule
[14:17] Over all In your hand Are power and might And in your hand It is to make great And to give strength To all And now We thank you Our God And praise Your glorious name But who am I And what is my people That we should be able Thus to offer willingly For all things Come from you And of your own Have we given you For we are strangers Before you And sojourners As all our fathers were Our days on earth Are like a shadow And there is no abiding O Lord our God All this abundance That we have provided For building you a house For your holy name Comes from your hand And is all your own I know my God That you test the heart And have pleasure In uprightness In the uprightness Of my heart I have freely offered All these things And now I have seen Your people Who are present here
[15:17] Offering freely And joyously To you O Lord The God of Abraham Isaac and Isaiah Our fathers Keep forever Such purposes And thoughts In the hearts Of your people And direct their hearts Towards you Grant to Solomon My son A whole heart That he may keep Your commandments Your testimonies And your statutes Performing all And that he may build The palace For which I have made provision Then David said To all the assembly Bless the Lord Your God And all the assembly Blessed the Lord The God of their fathers And bowed their heads And paid homage To the Lord And to the king And they offered Sacrifices to the Lord And on the next day Offered burnt offerings To the Lord A thousand bulls A thousand rams And a thousand lambs With their drink offerings And sacrifices In abundance
[16:17] For all Israel And they ate And drank Before the Lord On that day With great gladness And they made Solomon The son of David King The second time And they anointed him As prince for the Lord And Sadok As priest Then Solomon Then Solomon sat On the throne Of the Lord As king In place of David His father And he prospered And all Israel Obeyed him All the leaders And the mighty men And also All the sons Of king David Pledged their allegiance To king Solomon And the Lord Made Solomon Very great In the sight Of all Israel And bestowed on him Such royal majesty As had not been On any king Before him In Israel Thus David The son of Jesse Reigned over all Israel The time that he reigned Over Israel Was forty years He reigned for seven years In Hebron And thirty-three years In Jerusalem Then he died At a good age Full of days
[17:18] Riches And honour And Solomon His son Reigned in his place Now the acts Of king David From first to last Are written In the chronicles Of Samuel the seer And the chronicles Of Nathan the prophet And in the chronicles Of Gad the seer With accounts Of all his rule And his might And of the circumstances That came upon him And upon Israel And upon all the kingdoms Of the countries Amen And may God bless That reading From his word As again Unite our hearts In prayer Let us pray Lord our gracious God We do thank you For your word And we thank you For every reason It gives to us To come before you With thanksgiving And especially That you are a God Who remembers Your people That you remember Our frailties That you remember That we are dust
[18:19] And that you have made us In your image And with a purpose We thank you For every remembrance You have towards us And that you have given us Your word You have given us Your truth That we might live by it That you have given us Your son Jesus Christ The one who came To be the light Of the world And to show us The way To salvation We thank you We thank you That you have given us Your own spirit The Holy Spirit To dwell with us To be alongside us To be within us To be the one Who prompts us And leads us In your paths And we thank you Together For all your goodness Towards us And we pray Lord That we will remember you That we will remember you With much thanksgiving That we will remember you With all our hearts Even as we have read In your word there That we will be a people
[19:20] Who in our hearts Are devoted to you Who treasure you And your word And who honour you With all that we are And all that we have And so we thank you Lord today That you are with us That you are near And that we know that In so many different ways Even like the psalmist In Psalm 8 Which we sung together As he lifted his eyes up And as he regarded The heavens That your fingers Had made All of your creation All around Even as we see it today In all its glory And splendour As we think of This time of year When the days get longer And when growth Comes once again We marvel at it And we marvel at the beauty Of your creation But we can feel like The psalmist When we say What is man That you are mindful of him How you remember us Lord In the midst of all things But yet we thank you That even though We are unworthy of it
[20:22] That your love Is still poured out upon us And we pray Lord Today for Ourselves as a people here And a people All around us today Throughout our land Throughout our world That people would hear Of your love People would hear Of your mercy Towards us People would hear Of your goodness That even as creation Speaks to all We pray that through that That your voice Would be heard That they would see That there is a creator Behind it all One who is Lord And God One who has provided For us A way To salvation A way to peace A way to enjoy Blessings beyond All our imagination Even when there are Darkest of days In this world When things seem To be going Away from us When we are As it were Assailed by so many Troubles When we feel Overwhelmed by The troubles
[21:22] Of this world When we are fearful For all that goes on May you draw near to us And remind us That you are with us That you are the one Who many Decades ago Many generations ago Spoke with the disciples A word of peace In the midst of the storm When the waves Raged upon their boat Peace Be still We pray Lord That your voice Will go out In our midst today That your voice Will be heard Far and wide A voice that would Bring that peace And stillness To our world And to our people Lord Remember As we pray Remember us In our homes And in our families We thank you Lord For one another And pray That in our different needs That you will surround us That you will uphold us That you will strengthen us That you will hear our prayers For one another That you will hear our prayers For loved ones And all around us
[22:23] People who are going through Difficult trials And tests just now Those who are unwell Those who are awaiting Treatment of various kinds Those who are mourning The loss of loved ones Those who are anxious And afraid Of many different things Those who are struggling In life Struggling with addiction Struggling with Financial insecurity Struggling with All kinds of different problems Lord We know The troubles are many But Lord We thank you That you are able to help And may We call upon your name All the more As we see and hear Of all the different needs Around us Lord We commit ourselves Into your hands We pray Lord Your blessing on your word Today as it goes out Here and far and wide That it will be blessed To many Remember those who gather For the sacrament Of the Lord's Supper Today We pray your blessing On those who minister In our own presbytery
[23:24] Today around the Lord's Supper We pray that you will bless Each one And be with them We pray Lord For ministers of the gospel Near and far That you will uphold And strengthen each one We know Lord That there are many Who feel downcast And dismayed In these days So many going through Their own times Of affliction And distress And times of grief We commit them to you Lord You know them each one And we remember Your servant Reverend Robert McLeod Today A retired minister In her own denomination Who Whose wife sadly Passed away this week We pray For him and his family At this time Lord That you will surround them Be with them Uphold them And be their strength Lord We know that You are our shepherd And in that We give thanks That you will lead us Not just by the quiet waters But that you promise To lead us Even in the valley Of the shadow of death
[24:25] We pray Lord That you will remind us That there is A place for your people A place of rest A place of peace A place of great joy We will be gathered To the Lord At the end of our days And so Lord Hear our prayers Continue with us Throughout this day Be with us In the evening as well As we gather Around your word there Be with Reverend Kenny I. McLeod As he leads us In the worship This evening We pray for him Lord And his preparations For that And that do us All good today And watch over us We pray As we ask all things With forgiveness Of our sins In Jesus name Amen I will praise God Once again In this Singing in Psalm 100 In the Sing Psalms version Page 131 Psalm 100 Psalm 100 And page 131
[25:26] We will sing The whole of this Psalm together The tune is Golden Hill Shout to the Lord With joy All who to earth Belong Adore the Lord With joyful hearts And come To him in song We will sing The whole of this Psalm To God's praise Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Shout to the Lord With joy All who to earth belong Adore the Lord With joyful hearts And come to him In song Know that the Lord is God He made us as his own
[26:32] We are the sheep For him be here His people is alone And tithe his gates with praise His courts with thankfulness Your praises gladly sing To him His name forever bless For God the Lord is good His love is ever sure
[27:35] His constant truth and faithfulness Through every age and due Amen We can turn back to where we read In 1st Chronicles In chapter 29 1st Chronicles 29 We're looking at this section Really first Verse 10 Down to verse 22 But we can read again At verse 13 And now we thank you Our God And praise Your glorious name Now we thank you Our God And praise Your glorious name This was a time As the Chronicle
[28:35] Is looking back To the days When David And the people Were about to begin Building A temple A place For God's people To worship God A permanent place Where they could come And worship God So this was a time When much activity Had taken place As they were gathering together Different materials And much activity Was going to take place As they would begin Building the temple But in between The two We find In this section A time To pause And a time To reflect And a time As we see there In verse 13 To give thanks To God And praise His glorious name If you listen To the travel news On the radio On a regular basis This one place I'm sure you've heard Mention of Many times In the travel news
[29:36] And the place Is called Rest and be thankful It's often heard On the news Because it's a place That is closed A road That is closed It's a road The A83 That's in Argylland Butte And it's a road That crosses over A high point As you're making A way along it And the rest And be thankful Is the point Where it's at Its highest And you usually hear This place Is closed Or at least That's what we often Maybe focus on But you'll also hear That it's a place That has reopened The two go together A place that is closed But a place That is reopened Now is it a place That when you hear About you think That's a place I would love To go to Well it depends What kind of Outlook you have You might just think Oh that's a place
[30:36] That's often Always closed There's no point Going there I might get stuck Or you might think Well it's a place That's more often Open than it's closed And there must be A reason why It's called Rest and be thankful I want to go And see What it's about And when you think About that And you think About that place It reminds us Of another place That we can often Think is a place That is closed off And that is When we find Ourselves In a situation When nothing Seems to be Going right For ourselves Or for the world In which we live in A place where We think Just looking around us Nothing's going right In this world How can I possibly Come to God In thanksgiving What do I have To give thanks for It's almost like That road To thanksgiving To God
[31:37] Is closed Or do we see Even in the midst Of a time When nothing Seems to be going Right That we actually Do have much To be thankful For And that the way To God Is open That he is near For us To call upon And that we would See that he is There for us And that we are To spend That time Coming to him And giving thanks For all that he Has done for us Why is The place Rest and be Thankful So called Well it got Its name Many many years Long before People started To travel By cars When people Would be Traveling Maybe by horse Or even By walking Great distances And this place Became known As the rest And be thankful Because it was At the highest Point of the Climb So whichever Direction you Were going In you were Always coming To this high Point And it was
[32:37] A place where Travellers would Stop And rest And be Thankful As they would Look at the Climb They've come Up They'll be Thankful For that As they would Look ahead To going Down the other Side And continuing Their journey They'll be Thankful And they'd Have this Time Of rest And when we Think of our Lives today And how busy Our lives can be And how much Chaos there can Be all around Us Isn't it wonderful That God has Given us in His wisdom A day The Lord's Day A high point For us At the beginning Of a week Where we can Look back Whether it's Over the last Week or weeks Or months Or even years We can look Back and give Thanks to God And we can Look forward To what lies Ahead and give Thanks that God Promises to go With us And while we Are here in This day In this time That we can Rest
[33:37] That we can Rest around God's word That we can Rest among One another's Fellowship That we can Rest as we Go back to Our homes And reflect On what God Has done For us And that we Can be Thankful For what He has Done For us So the Rest and Be thankful Was a place Where people Paused And reflected And today Is that For us Every Lord's Day A time To rest To pause And reflect And be Thankful To God For all That he's Taken us From For all That he's Going to Take us Into And for All that He is To us As his People And so May we Realize Today That the Rest and Be thankful That we Have The way Is open The way To God Is open And that's What we see In this Passage That the People David and The people
[34:38] Of God Were pausing To rest And to be Thankful And to Praise God's Glorious Name They Stopped To give Thanks To him And we Want to Reflect On this Time Of Thanksgiving That they Had And see Three Things From it And the First thing Is the Setting Of their Thanksgiving The second Thing is the Source Of their Thanksgiving And then Thirdly We'll see The security Of their Thanksgiving So the First thing We want to See is The setting Of their Thanksgiving As we Turn And look At this Chapter We see That the People Have A lot To give Thanks For Much Reason To give Thanks For But what Is the Actual Setting Of their Thanksgiving As I Said as We were Going to Read this Chapter It was A time Of Preparation
[35:38] The People Had Been Worshipping God Up to This Point In A Tent A Tent Was Their Temple A Place That They Would Build And Put Up In Different Places As They Travelled Around But David Had This Vision To Build A Temple For God A Permanent Place Of Worship That They Could Worship God Together Now David Wouldn't Build It Solomon His Son Would But As You See Here David Was Very Much In In The Preparation For It And Here He's Speaking About A Time Of Preparation To Build This Temple In The Previous Verses Of This Chapter We Didn't Read But Pause
[36:56] To Pause For And Think What Is 3,000 Talents Of Gold It's Not The Kind Of Currency That We Use Or Carry Around Ourselves It's Not The Kind Of Prices You See On The Shelves In The Shop A Talent Of Gold But It's Worth Just Reflecting On What Kind Of Worth This Had 3,000 Talents Of Gold One Talent Is 34 Kilograms Now If you Want to Go And Find Out The Worth Of Gold You Can Do So You Can Go Online And Very Often It's Priced Per Ounce That's How Precious It Is You Look At The Price Of One Kilogram Of Gold 1.8 Million Pounds And If You Do The Calculations And You See 3,000 Talents Of Gold With One Talent Equaling 34
[37:56] Kilograms How Much Value Did David Give Just In Gold To The Building Of The Temple You Do Calculations In Today's Value You're Talking Nearly Five And A Half Billion Pounds These Are Not Small Figures We're Talking About Here This Is Not Just A Small Amount Of Gold This Is Huge Amounts Of Gold And Then You Add To That Ten Thousand Five Thousand Talents Of Gold From The People As Well As Well As The Silver And Everything Else The Bronze And Iron And Everything Else That Went Into This Temple It Was It Was A Priceless Thing And They Were Giving Of Their Resources So You Think To Yourself Well This Was Obviously A Time Of Plenty David Had Much To Give The People Had Much They Could Give So You Think To Yourself Well It's Easy To Give Thanks In This But
[38:56] Remember What I Said About The Chronicler Writing This And The Chronicler Writing In A Time When This Temple That Would Be Built Was Now In Ruin All This Value That Had Gone Into Building It It's Been Destroyed It's Just In Ruin It's Been Stolen Probably Most Of It And What Wasn't Worth Anything Is Just Left In Ruin But When You Look At The Situation That They're In Here You See It Was A Time Of Plenty But It Was Also A Time When They Realized That The Value Of The Things Of This World Meant So Little It Was All Just Temporary Their Heart Was Not Set On The Things Of This World Their Heart Was Set On God And You Look At Verse 15 Where It Says For We Are Strangers Before You And So So As All Our Fathers Were Our Days On Are Like
[39:57] A Shadow And There Is No Abiding The Setting Of Their Thanksgiving Is Yes A Time Of Much A Time Of Great Wealth But Also A Time When There Is A Realization That What Is Important Is Not The Wealth Of This World But The Love Of God Towards Them And The Chronicle Was Writing To The People Of His Day A People Who Were Looking Around Them And Seeing The Ruins Of The Temple All Around Them So Chronicles Is A Bit Like A History Book It Is A Bit Like For Our S Today Reading A Book About Revivals Of The Past Going Back Maybe Many Generations We're Reading About Something That Happened Long Ago And Thinking It Was Okay For Them It Was Great For Them But What About Us Today What About Our Situation Today When The Church Instead
[40:57] Of Being In Revival Just Seems To Be In Decline But What The Chronicler Is Doing Is Reminding Them Of God's Greatness And His Love That Endures Forever They Are Surrounded By Ruin But He's Calling Them Back To God Calling Them To Trust God And To Give Thanks To God Because If We're Only Focused On A Problem It's Hard To Give Thanks If We're Only Focused On The Chaos All Around Us The Chaos In Our Own Lives It's Hard To Give Thanks But When We Focus More And More On God We Realize That Yes Our Days In This World Are Just Like Strangers And Sojourners To Our Days On Earth Are Like A Shadow As He's Saying There Is No Abiding Here Here Here We We Don't Have A Place Of Permanent Residence But
[41:58] We Look To God And We Trust In Him We Give Thanks To Him Whatever Our Circumstances The Writer Frederick Marsh He Describes What The Christian Can See When He Looks Back And When We Think Of Today As The High Point A Rest And Be Thankful Situation We Look Back And We Can Echo What Frederick Marsh Says When He Speaks About Reflecting On Our Past He Says When The Christian Looks Back We Can See The Deliverances The Lord Has Brought Us What God Has Delivered Us From We Can See The Way That He Has Led We Can See The Blessings That He Has Bestowed We Can See The Victories He Has Won And We Can See The Encouragements He Has Given We See All Of These Things Yes
[42:58] We Can See The Chaos We Can See The Troubles We Can See Our Heart Aches And Our Pains And All Of These Things But As We Reflect On God And His Mercies Towards Us We See All Of These Ways That He Has Helped Us All Of The Ways That He's Delivered Us Led Us Given Us Blessing Upon Blessing Victories And Encouragements Along The Way David Knew It In His Own Life The People With Him Knew It In Their Own Lives The Chronicler In His Day Many Hundreds Of Years Later Knew It As Well That God Had Not Failed Them God Had Not Left Them But That They Were To Come To Him So Today The The The Setting Of Our Thanksgiving Might Seem Insecure And Uncertain In Many Different
[43:58] Ways But Yet We Can Trust God Who The Way Is Open To To Give Thanks To Him For His Constancy Towards Us The Way Of Thanksgiving Is Open So The Setting We See The Second Thing We See Is The Source Of Thanksgiving Where Does It Come From And What Is Its Basis Well As You Read Through Verse 10 To 19 We Are Given A Real Insight Into The Way The Chronicler Here Is Writing He Is Writing Not About The People And You Think Of All Of The People And David Have Given Here Their Wealth All The Talents Of Gold And Silver And Bronze And Iron All Of These Things Yet The Writer Is Here Not Focused On The People But On God David Said In Verse 10 There Blessed Are You
[44:58] O Lord The God Of Israel Our Father Forever And Ever And Yours O Lord Is The Greatness And So It Goes On The Power And The Glory And The Victory And The Majesty For All That Is In The Heavens And In The Earth Is Yours Yours Is The Kingdom O Lord And You Are Exalted As Head Above All The Source Of Their Thanksgiving Is In Knowing God And God With Them Now When You Read Through These Verses There Does It Remind You Of Anything When You Think Of The Kind Of Words That Is Yours Yours O Lord Is The Greatness And The Power And The Glory In Your Hand Are Power And Might And In Your Hand It Is To Make Great And To Give Strength To All Does Remind You Of Anything Words That We've Spoken Ourselves Already Today It's Very Similar To The Lord's Prayer
[46:02] It's Very Similar To The Lord's Prayer In That The Focus Is On Our Father Who Art In Heaven Hallowed Be Your Name It's All About His Kingdom His Power And His Glory Which Is Forever Very Similar Words To What We Have Here And It's Just A Reminder To Us As David Is Reminding Himself And The Chronicle Is Reminding The People Of His Day And We Are Being Reminded Today That Our King Our Help The Source Of All Our Thanksgiving Is Not In Our Souls But In God For Thine Is The Kingdom The Power And The Glory Forever Amen When Jesus Gave His Disciples That Prayer To Pray It Was To Teach Them How To Pray And To Teach Us How To Pray The God Who Provides For Us On A Daily Basis
[47:02] Is Worthy Of All Our Praise We Are Not Kings We We Don't Have The We We Don't Have The We Don't Have That But David Realizes That Even Though He Had It It Was All From God It Is All Yours He Is Saying Here And He Dwells On That For A Moment In This Prayer Of Thanksgiving That's Where He Dwells Yours O Lord Is The Greatness And The Power And The Glory And The Victory And The Majesty Everything We Have Is From Your Hands Even As King In Power And Ruling Over All These People And Nations And Kingdoms He Was Nothing In Comparison To God And You Think Of Our Royal Family Today And All That They
[48:02] Have They're Not Immune From Their Troubles Their Wealth And Their Riches Cannot Save Them From The Troubles Of This World Nothing Can But Resting In God I'm Reminded Of A Speech That Queen Elizabeth Did Some Of You Will Remember These Words I'm Sure When Back In 1992 Towards The End Of The Year I Think It Was November Time She Made A Speech To The Nation In Which She Described The Past Year As The Annus Horribilis A Horrible Year And It Had Been It Had Been A Difficult Year For Her And For The Royal Family Here She Was As Queen With All The Wealth You Could Imagine And Yet It Had Been A Horrible Year And That Can Be The Case For All Of Us No Matter Whether We've Got Much Or Little We Can All Experience These Horrible Times These
[49:02] Difficult Times These Are Days That We All Have To Face Up To But How Do We Face Up To Them That's The Question Well Do We Rest Do We Stop Do We Pause And See The Source Of Our Thanksgiving Is From God Who Still Provides Who Still Provides In The Midst Of All Our Trials The Chronicle Writing To His People In His Time Looking Back To David's Day Is Encouraging His People And Looking At The Ruin Of The Temple To Rebuild It And You Read About This In Haggai Because What Had Happened To The People They Had Returned From Having Been In A Time Of Exile Coming Back And Seeing The Ruin And Thinking Almost What's The Point God Has Left Us Was What They Thought So They Just Focused On
[50:02] Themselves And On Their Own Houses That's That's The Challenge That Haggai Put To Them They Were Resting In Themselves And Not In God So The Chronicle Was Writing To Them As Well And Saying It Is By God That We Can Rebuild It's By His Grace And By His Strength That We Can Go On But We Must Return To Him And So It Is For Ourselves Today As Well That The Only Way We Can Find Rest And Peace And Hope In This World Is To Return To God And To See The Way The Road Is Open To Him The Road To The Rest And Be Thankful Is Open It Is Not Closed God Has Not Left Us But We Can Come To Him And When You Think Of The Rest And Be Thankful In Argyllam Bute It's A High Point It
[51:03] Has A Stunning View And If You Don't Go There You're Never Going To Enjoy It And That's True For Ourselves And God When God Seems Distant We Think There's No Help That God Can Give To Me There's No Point In Going To Him The Way Is Closed When You Look Through The Bible You Find That When That Was The Attitude Of People There Was No Blessing From God Return To Me He Keeps Saying Again And Again In The Bible Return To Me And I Will Return To You In Haggai It's About Coming To Him That He Might Pour Down His Blessings Upon Them That They Might See The Power Of God So If We Don't Go To God We're Never Going To See What He Can Do We're Never Going To Enjoy What He Can Do For Us But He's Saying Come Come Like Jesus' Invitation Come To Me See
[52:04] Me And I Will Give You Rest Are We Coming To Him That's What The People Were Being Encouraged More And More For Here Through David Through The Chronicler In Their Own Day To See The Source Of Thanksgiving Is Found In God And That's Why He Comes To That Point In Verse 13 And Now We Thank You Our God And Praise You Your Glorious Name Finally We Just Want To See The Security Of Thanksgiving And Look At Verse 14 But Who Am I And What Is My People That We Should Be Able Thus To Offer Willingly Who Am I It's Like Psalm 8 As The Psalmist Looks And Sees The Wonder Of All The Creation And Says What Is Man That You Are Mindful Of Him
[53:04] Who Are We That We Are Worthy Of God's Blessing But We Are A People Made By God And For God David Is Going On There In Verse 15 To Say We Are Strangers Before You And Sojourners As All Our Fathers Were Our Days On Earth Are Like A Shadow And There Is No Abiding That Is True That Is Reality This World Is Passing Us By But He Says Oh Lord Our God In Verse 16 All This Abundance That We Have Provided For Building You A House For Your Holy Name Comes From Your Hand And All Is Your Own He Keeps Coming Back To This You Are Our God Oh Lord Our God I Know My God Oh Lord
[54:04] The God Of Abraham You Are Our God He Keeps Repeating This The Security Of Thanksgiving As They Come To God He Realizes More And More That With Him There Is A Refuge With Him There Is A Place Of Eternal Security A Place Of Praise And Worship With God Who Will Be With Them No Matter What And How Can We Know This Security Our Selves Well It's To Love The Lord With All Our Heart How Often Do We See The Word Heart Used Here Heart Is Mentioned Again And Again Throughout This Passage In Verse Nine You See Then The People Rejoiced Because They Had Given Willingly For With A Whole Heart They Offered Freely To The Lord They Were Offering With A Whole
[55:04] Heart In Verse 17 He Says I Know My God That You Test The Heart God Tests The Heart Heart And He Carries On In That Theme Of The Heart You Keep Oh Lord The God Of Abraham Isaac And Israel Our Fathers Keep Forever Such Purposes And Thoughts In The Hearts Of Your People And Direct Their Hearts Towards You So It's A Repeated Phrase The Heart Fixed Securely On The Lord That Is The Security Of Thanksgiving We Come To God Who Our Hearts Are Supposed To Be Focused On And As Someone Put It The Heart Is Used In Scripture As The Most Comprehensive Term For The Authentic Person It's All That The Person Is The Heart Is Just The Center Of Our Being It's Our
[56:04] All Out Of The Heart Comes For Praise Out Of The Heart Comes For Thanksgiving It Is From The Heart And Jesus Himself Said For Where Your Treasure Is There Your Heart Will Be Also And So The Challenge To the People Then And To Ourselves Today Is Where Is Our Heart And Is Our Heart Securely Fixed On The Lord When You Hear Of David There And Giving Three Thousand Talents Of Gold Worth Nearly Five And A Half Billion Pounds What Would You Want More The Gold That David Had Or The God That He Worshipped Because You Cannot Serve Both Would You Want The Gold That David Enjoyed
[57:05] That As He Saw Was Just Temporary Or The God Who Was Permanent The God Who Was His Security Our Security And Our Rest Must Be Found In Christ And Nothing Else Because Nothing Else Leaves Us Secure For Eternity All The Gold In This World Will Never Help Us Eternally But Trusting In Christ As Our Saviour Gives Us Security Forever And It's A Trust That We Are To Have No Matter What No Matter What Our Situation We Are To Trust The Lord Whether In Plenty Or In Need As Paul Puts It I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me Is He Your Strength There
[58:06] Was A War Back In The 17th Century Called The Thirty Years War It It It Was Mostly In Central Europe That This War Happened And It Remains One Of The Longest Running Conflicts In Our History In Human History More Than Eight Million Casualties Were Had During That Time Of Conflict Both Through The Military Battle But Also From Famine And Disease Caused By This Conflict A Number Of Wonderful Stories Recounted From It Though About Times Of Trusting God In The Midst Of It All And One Was From 1636 And It Was A German Pastor By The Name Martin Rinkart And He Was Pastor To A Very Large Congregation During This Time Of Conflict A Huge Congregation But It Said That In One Year Alone
[59:06] He Buried 5,000 Of His Congregation 5,000 Funerals In One Year But During This Time When He Saw So Much Darkness In The World When He Saw So Much Sorrow And Pain There Was A Time When He Sat Down And Wrote A Grace For His Children A Grace That They Could Say As They Sat Round The Table For Their Food And To Give Thanks To God And The Grace Is Recorded For Us It Said Now Thank We All Our God With Heart And Hands And Voices Who Wondrous Things Has Done In Whom His World Rejoices Who Who Who Who From Who Who Who From Our With Countless Gifts Of Love And Still Is Our Today There's An Element Of Thanksgiving And Faith
[60:06] In These Words In The Midst Of Everything That Was Going On Around Them They Could Still Thank God For All His Countless Gifts Of Love And Still That He Was There That Day Are We Filled With Thanks Thankfulness Is Your Heart Set On The Lord And Full Of Thankfulness Yes We Have Our Troubles Yes We Have Our Times Of Great Sorrow And Sadness Times Of Great Need But We Have A Time A Place A Day Where We Can Come And Rest And Be Thankful To God That He Remembers Us And That He Is With Us So Him Says In God The Lord My Heart Is Strong My Joy In Him Is Free He Gives My Mouth A Triumph Song He Saves And Rescues
[61:07] Me May God Who Raised Me From The Dust And Governs All My Ways Direct My Heart And Humble Trust In Perfect Praise O Christ My King Whose Mighty Plan Makes Such A Prayer Come Through As In Your Pain Our Hopes Began Your Power Shall Make Them New No No No Matter Matter What Our Hope And Security Can Be Found In Christ That Road Is Open The Way To The Rest And Be Thankful Is There For Us So Let Us Come And Rest And Be Thankful For Him Let Us Pray our father in heaven help us to rest this day and each day in you and to find our security and hope in you for you are the one who has provided for us provided in abundance and lord we pray that you will make us ever thankful above all for the provision of your son christ jesus our lord and that we come and find our rest in him and as your word reminds us that we are to seek first the kingdom of god and then all other things will be added unto us we will see the priorities for life and what is important so lord direct us in your ways teach us by your word and continue with us throughout this day as we ask all things with the forgiveness of our sin in jesus name amen we're going to conclude by singing again in psalm 111 psalm 111 we'll sing from verse 7 down to the end of the psalm three stanzas the tuna's brother james's heir psalm 111 at verse 7 his handy works are truth and right all his commands are sure and done in truth and uprightness they evermore endure we'll sing these last three stanzas to god's praise his handiworks his handiworks are truth and right all his commands are sure all his commands are sure and done in truth and uprightness they evermore endure and done in truth and above they evermore endure he sent redemption to his folk his covenant for his name and reverendness his name and reverendness he did come and holy his name and reverendness his name and reverendness his name and ex та��са
[64:52] Have all that is come and fulfil, his grace endures foray. Have all that is come and fulfil, his grace endures foray.
[65:14] After the benediction, I'll go to the main door. We'll close the benediction. Now may grace, mercy and peace from God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon and abide with you all, now and forevermore.
[65:28] Amen.