[0:00] The following message is given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.! For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com.
[0:21] ! And I'll begin reading in verse 1.
[0:34] It says, Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.
[0:47] For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death, and their bodies are fat and sleek, and they're not in trouble as others are.
[1:04] They're not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore, pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness, and their hearts overflow with follies.
[1:17] They scoff and speak with malice. Loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
[1:28] Therefore, His people turn back to them and find no fault in them. And they say, How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease.
[1:43] They increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.
[1:56] If I had said I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task.
[2:09] Until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places.
[2:19] You make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors. Like a dream when one awakes. Oh Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
[2:33] And when my soul was embittered. When I was pricked in heart. I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you.
[2:46] Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. And afterward, you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you?
[2:59] And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you. My heart and my flesh may fail. But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish.
[3:13] You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord my refuge that I may tell of all your works.
[3:29] Now that was a lot of verses this morning. You know, we can often come in to Sunday mornings and approach them much like any other day of the week.
[3:40] And just walk through the routine. We can stand and we can sit in the same rows every week. We can sing and pray, give and hear and head on home.
[3:51] And most often we can kind of keep doing those same things and yet our heart remains unchanged. You know, Sunday morning is a routine, a wonderful routine.
[4:01] But it's so much more than that. As I was thinking about the sermon last week as we studied Psalm 100. And I did want us to sing more joyfully, more passionately, more mindfully, more gratefully.
[4:16] All these type things. I didn't want us to just learn how to sing a little bit better. Lest we just add that to the routine. I wanted us to sing and worship the Lord with all our heart.
[4:29] And so we're going to pause Philippians for one more Sunday. I promise we'll be back next week to study this Psalm. To see what it might show us about worship.
[4:40] Where we're going is the Lord is always good. Let us worship and adore Him. The Lord is always good. Let us worship and adore Him.
[4:51] You know, this Psalm revolves around a crisis of faith. You know, it's very autobiographical, so to speak. The Psalmist is telling us about something in his life. He's walking us through a situation in which he struggled through faith.
[5:04] There's a crisis of faith. So we're going to look first at that. And we're going to pull out three things about worship from it. So the first is this crisis. Which is essentially what I've called good things happen to bad people.
[5:18] That's the crisis for the psalmist. Good things happen to bad people. So the psalmist is telling this story about his life. He looks around him and he sees the wicked prospering when he's not.
[5:31] Now, to look down at verse 4, he says, the wicked have no pangs. They continue, their bodies are fat and sleek. So we read immediately and we know that culture is not our culture.
[5:42] But that culture, fatness and a sleekness would have meant prosperity. Would have meant God's blessing. Look down at verse 5. He says, they have no trouble. They're not in trouble as others are.
[5:54] They're not in trouble. And yet they're thoroughly wicked. He continues in verse 6. He says, pride is their necklace.
[6:05] Violence covers them like a garment. Pride is their necklace. The idea is that their arrogance and their wickedness is not tucked under the shirt. They strut and walk through this earth.
[6:19] It's out there for all to see. They boast. They mock. He continues. They laugh at God and his people. And yet good things keep on happening to them. He says in verse 12, kind of as a summation, behold, these are the wicked.
[6:37] Always at ease. They increase in riches. So you can see the tension growing in this psalm. Because then when he looks around, these wicked people with pride around their neck are always increasing in wealth.
[6:52] And always at ease. And so he nearly slips. Not merely because he sees good things coming to them, but because he begins to question why the same good things aren't coming to him.
[7:08] This is how it so often happens in our own lives. You know, we can assess our lives and how well things are going for us by looking around.
[7:19] Looking horizontally instead of vertically. You know, we never struggle with our well-used but trustworthy car until Johnny pulls up in his new truck.
[7:31] I mean, isn't that true? Or you're so content with that gift you got for Christmas until your neighbor like one-ups your gift ten times over.
[7:41] You know, you got this certain thing and he got the granddaddy of them all. You know, you got a shirt from Old Navy and he got, you know, a whole wardrobe from Brooks Brothers or something like that.
[7:53] You know, we see the good others are experiencing and we immediately begin to measure our lives with theirs. And we're never helped. We stumble into thinking that their trials must be easier and their blessings must be sweeter.
[8:10] And we begin to crave what they have. This is what happens to the psalmist and he nearly loses it. I love that language. He nearly slips. How can this be happening to them after all I've done for you, Lord?
[8:28] Look in verse 13. He says, It's so easy in the pain of suffering is what he's saying.
[8:42] It's so easy in the pain of suffering to say, Have I really obeyed all this time for this? Is this what I get in return for all I've done?
[8:54] You see, we so often view all that we do for God as payments. You know, we secure good things by doing the right things. And we avoid bad things by refusing to do the wrong things.
[9:07] And so how we ensure good things keep coming to us is by doing those right things. And so the difficulty of seeing good things happening to others is watching someone else enjoy the blessings that we think we deserve.
[9:20] You know, we've all felt this way, haven't we? Perhaps it's watching the other kids in the neighborhood play a Nintendo Switch when you just got another game for your Atari.
[9:32] I doubt they make games for those anymore, but I didn't know what an outdated console would be. So that's the best you got.
[9:43] That's how far removed I am. Perhaps it's watching others make money with seemingly great ease when you feel as if you literally scrape by with all your effort month after month.
[9:54] Perhaps it's watching those who seem to have so many friends while you struggle to find a relationship that doesn't disappoint. Perhaps it's just watching someone who's not limited physically as you are.
[10:09] We've been there, right? The psalmist is so weary, so ready to throw into the towel. He's so frustrated. A couple weeks ago, I forget what was going on, but one of my kids just came up to me, you know, on the verge of tears.
[10:23] He just said, Dad, I'm so frustrated, you know, and we can feel that way in life, you know. The things are just not fitting together. I'm so frustrated. It's a wonderful word, by the way, but it captures what's going on.
[10:37] It's just so discontented and struggling in my soul. And so he just said, all I've done is in vain. This is not a quiet, well-mannered prayer.
[10:48] This is a loud, frustrated plea. Everything must change, God. Because all I've done in vain, I'm ready to just throw in the towel and walk out on this. But something happens.
[11:02] It's incredible. Totally incredible. Look at verse 16. He says, But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task.
[11:15] It just seemed like I'd never figured out. Never unraveled. Sorry, I slightly lost my place. Until I went into the sanctuary.
[11:28] Then I discerned their end. He's so frustrated until he walks into the sanctuary, into the dwelling place of God, into corporate worship.
[11:43] I just want to see a few things right here. Because I think what he sees are things we need to see and be shaped by. First, he sees that true worship begins with realizing we don't deserve good.
[11:56] True worship begins with realizing we don't deserve good. Look down at verse 18. He says, There's that word again. You make them fall to ruin. How they're destroyed in a moment.
[12:07] Swept away by terrors like a dream when one awakes. Oh Lord, you rouse yourself. You despise them as phantoms. As just ghosts or things that never really existed. And the light suddenly becomes on.
[12:20] The first thing he sees is how wicked they are. And the peril they're in. They will soon fall to their ruin. They will soon be destroyed. They're despised like ghosts.
[12:30] They're not secure. That's what he's saying. They're not secure. They're not at ease. Regardless of what the press is saying, they're not in a great place. They'll soon be swept away.
[12:42] And he nearly slips until he sees the slippery places they stand in. But listen. He steadied not so much by seeing what they will receive, but by realizing what he deserves.
[12:54] Listen again. He steadied not so much. He stabilized not so much by realizing what they will receive. As by realizing what he deserves.
[13:04] And this realization lands on him like a ton of bricks. Look in verse 21. He says, When my soul was embittered. When I was in this state. When I was pricked in heart.
[13:16] I was brutish. Ignorant. I was like a beast toward you. He saw, I was brutish.
[13:29] I was ignorant. I was like a beast. Brutish. There's another great word, by the way. Just means blind and dumb to the point of deep frustration. Like a bull in a china shop.
[13:44] It's how you are in your life when you're a brute. Yeah, I think in so many ways we're brutes when we assume the worst of others only to find out they're seeking to do us good. I'm so, I so often assume the worst of those who love me.
[14:00] I remember a couple years ago, went to the orange and white game. Just the practice game in April.
[14:11] Each year for the Vols. And, you know, we're being a family living on a shoestring budget. You know, we came in. We kind of had a plan for bringing in water bottles for everybody in the family.
[14:23] And maybe back up, you know. So we didn't have to buy a Coke or something like that. We filled our kids up with food and we just, we went into this game. And we decided not to get the kids anything. But, you know, they started asking and begging and pleading like they had never had a meal.
[14:38] And so we decided to get them some popcorn. This might be an illustration that you throw a tomato at me by the end of it. But, so I asked him to go get the kids some popcorn.
[14:50] And we agreed. We agreed on one thing, a popcorn. And I looked, she was walking down the aisle with two.
[15:06] After she took a couple of the kids and she came down later because I didn't want to leave the game. And she was walking down the aisle and Neyland, I remember, Neyland, I remember turning and seeing her with two.
[15:17] And in my heart, just like, Lord, I told her to get one thing of popcorn. I was frustrated. And by God's grace, I did not say anything to her.
[15:32] And she came and sat down. And she said, I got an extra box so that I could pour one thing of popcorn into two for Rev and Wren.
[15:43] And that's what a brood is. It's me. It's assuming evil. Those are trying to do me good. And that's what the psalmist is saying.
[15:54] He realized. I did the same thing with the Lord. I'm so blind is what he's saying. I'm so blind. I assume you were holding good for me this whole time.
[16:04] So he's saying, all this fight with the wicked, I just assumed that you were withholding something I desperately needed. Something good that would bless me. He's saying, I was so dumb. I assumed that you were withholding what I deserved.
[16:17] I'm so wrong. I'm so wrong. I'm such a brute. I'm so wrong. This whole psalm has been about the wickedness of the wicked. But now he's fixed on himself.
[16:27] Do you see? No longer is he preoccupied with them. No longer is he looking at them. No, he's gripped by his own selfishness and self-pity in his own heart. And true worship never begins until we realize we stand right there with him.
[16:41] True worship will never begin until we realize what we really deserve. Years ago, I read about G.K. Chesterton.
[16:52] He's a famously funny and quirky guy. And the London paper invited all these guys to write in about what is the problem of the world.
[17:03] And so all these guys kind of pontificated. That just means kind of elaborated in an arrogant way. I think that's what pontificate means. And so they wrote in and they said, I got the answer for what the problem of the world is.
[17:15] This is what it is. Blah, blah, blah. Whatever. G.K. Chesterton just wrote, dear sirs, I am. Sincerely, G.K. Chesterton.
[17:25] He says, dear sirs, the problem of the world is right here in my heart. And that's what the psalmist realized. That's what we must realize. That we are the world's biggest problem.
[17:37] True worship doesn't begin until we realize we are our own biggest problem. You are your own biggest problem. That's not me being mean. That's me telling you the truth. It's not anyone else's fault. I'm not minimizing suffering or sins committed against us.
[17:50] But our problem with God is not others' fault. Our problem with God is our own. You are the worst sinner you know. Like the psalmist, we must look nowhere else and compare ourselves with no one else.
[18:03] And this can be so hard for those of us who are raised in the church. And those of us who have generally done good things and avoided bad things. We can often think of sin as certain bad things.
[18:16] And since we have avoided those things, we believe we're good. We think that because we haven't been drunk or we haven't had premarital sex or we haven't done drugs or haven't been convicted of anything, we deserve good things.
[18:27] But that's not a biblical view of sin. Those individual sins are not the point. We can surpass those around us and still fail where it matters.
[18:39] The point is we stand before God alone and he measures us. He asks us, have you loved me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Have you for even a moment this week gone to bitterness, anger, lust, envy, or whatever?
[18:57] If so, you're a sinner of the deepest eye. There's no more hope for you than anyone you hate. And you're in a most slippery place. That's what he's saying. You don't deserve good from God. I don't deserve good from God.
[19:08] How could we deserve good from God after all we've done against him? We have to realize this. You have to realize this. As the way we relate to our friends reveal we believe ourselves to be our biggest problem.
[19:29] What would your kids say? Does dad relate to us as a fellow sinner? Or one in authority?
[19:42] Is there ever a sense that dad struggles too? No one can get this for you. No one can get this for us. We have to get it for ourselves.
[19:53] There's a type of person who talks a lot about God, the Bible, following him and loving him. And yet, because they never realize this, they're far from him. It's the scariest thing in the Bible. Jesus said on the last day, there'll be people that say, Lord, Lord, don't you remember when I prophesied in your name?
[20:09] Or I did the great thing in your name. And yet the Lord says in Mark 7 that I'll say, depart from me for I never knew you. Those are the scariest words in the Bible.
[20:20] Until we get this, don't move on. Don't move on.
[20:32] But notice, this conviction is not a closed door. It's a doorway to glory. This is something we have to see.
[20:44] We have to see it. But it's not somewhere we're encouraged to stay. That's Chris's testimony. The entryway into the Christian life is, I have sinned and deserve the wrath of God because of what I've done.
[21:01] But that's not where you stay in the Christian life. Because Chris's problem was going back to that same old cesspool and staying there. Our sin is the coarse black fabric on which the diamond of the glory of the gospel shines brightly.
[21:17] It can only shine there. And it ever shines there. Point two, true worship receives joy in Christ as the best good. True worship receives joy in Christ as the best good.
[21:30] The door opens, in these verses, into a flood of light. You ever open the front door in the middle of the sun? Sorry, in the middle of the afternoon and the light just bursts in the room.
[21:43] That's what's going on here. After he realizes what he deserves, he's utterly astonished at what he receives. Look in verse 23. He says, Nevertheless, I'm continually with you. You hold my right hand.
[21:55] You guide me with your counsel. And afterwards, you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you.
[22:07] These are incredibly precious verses because he realizes the wicked are not the ones experiencing God's blessing. He is. He realizes the wicked are not the ones who are truly rich. He is.
[22:18] In spite of all his brutishness, all his complaining, all his grumbling, all his bickering about what he thinks he deserves, he realizes the Lord has held my right hand.
[22:29] Man, the simplicity and power of those verses. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. You will receive me to glory, to prosperity that far outweighs every earthly good in sorrow.
[22:45] And so he rightly says, Whom have I in heaven but you? There's nothing on earth I desire for you. You are enough. You're all I need. You love me with an everlasting love.
[22:58] You sought me. You found me. You rescued me and saved me. You cleansed me. And from that day, you held my hand. You ever hiked with your kids or hiked with a young kid? You're going over a treacherous part.
[23:10] And despite all their jerking and all their shirking and all their yanking away, you hold their hand firmly. And you're saying, it's not safe there.
[23:21] You don't know what you're asking. It's not safe there. That's why I'm holding your hand. That's what he's saying. Oh, man. He thought the wicked were the ones who are prospering.
[23:34] And it's just the Lord holding his hand saying, it's not safe there. It's not safe there. Don't go there. Nevertheless, he held their hands tightly.
[23:48] And that's what he's done in our lives. If you're a Christian, it's not because you've been holding on to God's hand. It's because you've been trying to jerk away and he's been holding tightly.
[24:03] He's been continually with you. You realize God is all you need when you realize God is all you have. Sometimes things get low in order for us to realize that.
[24:15] But if we could linger here for just a moment. What's he describing? I mean, is this just something he came to know?
[24:28] I wonder. Like, is this just a moment where he saw something? You know, he learned something. It's just an insight? And I don't think so.
[24:39] I think what he's describing is a fresh experience of receiving joy in God. In the midst of worship.
[24:51] David Mathis, an author, says, Corporate worship is the single most important means of grace and our greatest weapon in the fight for joy. That's a bold statement. Corporate worship is the greatest, single most important means of grace.
[25:06] There's so many means of grace. Reading and praying and all these type things and studying our Bible or something like that.
[25:17] But what he's saying is that the corporate worship is the single most important means of grace. And he tells us why. He says it lifts us above the calculations.
[25:29] If you're anything like me, our personal devotions, our personal following after God have a lot of calculations. I mean, we strategize. We set aside time. We decide what we're going to read.
[25:40] We study those things. We pray. We make effort. And we are all too often plagued by that same internal monologue. Does he hear me? Does he see me? Am I making progress?
[25:51] I don't feel anything right now. It's just helping. And we can certainly find joy in that individual pursuit of God and that individual pursuit of reading. But corporate worship is better because it lifts us above those things.
[26:03] It places us beneath the fire hose to do nothing but receive. To taste joy and see the goodness of God in a way that's beyond mere understanding.
[26:13] Do you see? Do you see what he's saying is that the psalmist already knew a lot about God. The psalmist didn't come into our psalm this morning. He didn't begin authoring this psalm because he just found out something about God.
[26:25] He authored it because the Lord met him and he had an experiential assurance of its truth. A 17th century Puritan tells a story like this.
[26:38] He tells the story of watching a father and son walk down the road. Something you've seen a thousand times. Right? Father and son walking hand in hand. Walking down the road.
[26:48] And then suddenly the father sweeps up the son into his arms and hugs him and kisses him. And tells that little boy he loves him. And then after a few minutes he puts him back down.
[27:04] And one author writes this. Was the little boy more a son in his father's arms than he was before? Objectively and legally?
[27:16] Of course not. But subjectively and experientially, there's a great difference. Ask my son if he feels like a son when he's walking beside me.
[27:31] Or whether he feels like a son when I'm on the floor wrestling with him and kissing him. And telling him I love him and I'll be here for him. It's one thing to know honey is sweet is what he's saying. Or similar to what he's saying. It's a whole other thing to taste it.
[27:44] It just brings your mind alive. With his taste in corporate worship and the singing and praying and preaching of God's word. The Lord lifts us up, so to speak, to taste and experience his grace deeply.
[27:56] Tim Keller says it like this. When the Holy Spirit comes down on you in fullness, you can sense your father's arms beneath you.
[28:07] It's an assurance of who you are. The Spirit enables you to say to yourself, If someone as all powerful as that loves me like this, delights in me, has gone to infinite lengths to save me, says he'll never let me go and is going to glorify me and make me perfect and take everything bad out of my life.
[28:31] If all that is true, why am I worried about anything? At a minimum, this means joy.
[28:42] It's so understated. At a minimum, this means joy and a lack of fear and self-consciousness. There's nothing we want more than that, is there?
[28:54] That's all we have, you know? That's all I have to offer. Nothing we want more than to be lost and satisfied with joy in Christ.
[29:06] If only for a moment. And so, yes, as I said last week, worship is a response to all that God has done for us in Christ, but it's also an invitation to receive.
[29:19] To taste and to see. To experience and to refresh. We have spiritual taste buds that must be satisfied. And that's why the psalmist says, at the end of the psalm, in verse 26, he says, or 28, he says, it's good for me to be near God.
[29:36] Yes, it is. In his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand, pleasures forevermore. And it doesn't make all the pain go away, but it does pepper the path with joy until he finally does it.
[29:50] And I just believe, and I want us to believe, I want us to approach this morning leaning forward expectantly that God desires to meet with us in a powerful way.
[30:00] You know, I am what some people would call a charismatic. I just believe that God's just as powerfully at work now as he was in the first century. And since we don't have a few hours, I won't break down what that means or all the implications of that.
[30:14] But at the heart of it, the Holy Spirit is eager to continually fill us. And that's not a fearful thing at all. But it is real and powerful.
[30:25] According to Romans 5, the Holy Spirit is poured into our hearts so that we're stabilized and strengthened continually by love, by his love. And we need it.
[30:40] Ephesians 5 says, Be continually filled with the Spirit. And I think that's what the psalmist is talking about. Long before the Spirit came in fullness at Pentecost. He's experiencing the Spirit's presence in a powerful way.
[30:53] Point three, true worship climaxes in heartfelt adoration of our God who is good. True worship climaxes in heartfelt adoration of our God who is good.
[31:05] You know, Thanksgiving is wonderful and is in so many ways the major theme of worship. But true worship climaxes in adoration. Look in verse 25.
[31:16] Again, he says, Whom have I in heaven but you? There's nothing on earth I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Verse 28. But for me it's good to be near the Lord.
[31:28] Why? Because I made the Lord God my refuge. The psalmist is floored by grace such that he falls down in adoration before God.
[31:39] He said, You're all that I have, but more than that, you're all that I want. You're the strength of my heart. You're my portion. What does that mean? You alone are all that satisfies me.
[31:50] That's what he means. He said that again and again throughout the psalm. You're my portion. You're my cup. You're my refuge. You know, Thanksgiving says how kind of God to show me grace and then rushes to remember his mighty acts.
[32:01] But adoration says what kind of God would show me grace and then runs to his heart. Thanksgiving is filled with gratefulness, but adoration is stunned with amazement. Heartfelt adoration is the climax of worship because it moves from the gifts to the giver.
[32:20] It moves from the things he gives to the giver. You know, I used to think it was total baloney when someone would say the gift doesn't matter. It's the thought that counts.
[32:31] You know, I just think that was some mom who made that up when they received a badly scribbled drawing. They said, this is interesting, honey. I love it, you know, in a very believable way.
[32:45] But more than that, honey, it's the thought that counts. Right? You've heard that again and again. Sometimes it gets you away with giving kind of a cheap gift, you know. But when we survey, and y'all learned I was cheap earlier in the message.
[33:00] But when we survey the wondrous cross, when we marvel at the gifts of his saving death, it's the thought, it's the love, it's the heart behind it all that is most perplexing and most amazing.
[33:14] Forgiveness is sweet. It's a wonderfully sweet gift. But what kind of God chases down all his debtors to let them know your debts are forgiven? That's what he does.
[33:25] The debtors are running the opposite direction. They're not trying to reconcile their debts. He chases them down. He says, come back, come back. Your debts are forgiven. Surely he has, he abounds with generosity. Surely he's the kind of God who's not nickel and diamond us now.
[33:38] No, he's forgiving and gracious in ways that we can't even understand. And mercy is deeply humbling. But what kind of God undertakes the full weight of justice on his shoulders to release the guilty without a word?
[33:51] What kind of God does this? Grace is amazing as we sing so often. But what kind of God resolves before all time to take up all we deserve so that he might never, ever, ever, ever give us what we deserve?
[34:04] His heart must be so good, so gracious, so loving, so wonderful, so amazing. And all of his salvation, all it is in an expression of his heart of love and grace.
[34:18] And there's so many blessings that we don't deserve, so we should be perpetually thankful. But much more amazing than those blessings is to consider the heart of the one who is behind it all. That we might not be enamored with his gifts merely, but blown away by his heart.
[34:36] The heart of worship is heartfelt adoration. I do want us to sing loudly, sing mindfully, sing gratefully. I want us to shout and clap, lift our hands and bow and all this stuff.
[34:47] I want us to worship in ways that are loudly and visibly declaring to the world how worthy of praise God is. I want us to do more than be a flapper, you know?
[34:58] I want us to go big screen and go touchdown, whatever. But all of that is external. Most of all, what I want is I want us to adore God from the heart. I want us to be continually stunned by his grace and kindness such that our hearts continually overflow in adoration.
[35:15] The worst criticism Jesus ever gave to someone of their worship is he said, They honored me with their lips, but their hearts were far from me. May it never be said of us.
[35:28] True worship climaxes in adoration of our God who is always good. He's always good. And you know, heartfelt adoration is not always what we feel when we gather.
[35:45] That's the facts, right? We're thinking about our car that barely turned over this morning. We're thinking about the World War III that broke out in the back seat.
[35:56] Or we're thinking about what we need to do this week or what we need to accomplish. But when we come, we say, Lord, I'm going to sing. I'm going to focus on these truths.
[36:09] Lord, I'm going to strive to respond. But most of all, in and through it all, I'm crying out that you would fill my heart such that I rejoice in these things.
[36:20] And the Lord, I tell you, he loves to answer these prayers. Most of worship is not rejoicing in what I'm seeing, but fighting to see what I know is true. The Lord's always good.
[36:35] Let us worship and adore him. Let us trust in him and lean on him. Let us follow the psalmist, not just with gratefulness, but with adoration for all that he's done for us in Christ.
[36:48] Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for these few minutes this morning to consider your word. And pray, Father, that you would help us to live these things out. Be filled with joy.
[37:01] God, I pray that we would be a people that come into the meeting expectant. Not because we're aware of things we've done well this week, but just because we're aware of how much we need you.
[37:16] That we would come and cry out to you. Amen. And in and through our singing, in and through our responding, in and through our praying, in and through all that we do in this meeting and in this place, we would be saying, oh Lord, come and fill me afresh with your spirit.
[37:32] We thank you for these things. We rejoice in these things. And we rest in you. In Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a message given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.
[37:49] For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at trinitygraceathens.com. Thank you.
[38:49] Thank you. Thank you.
[39:49] Thank you. Thank you.
[40:49] Thank you. Thank you.
[41:49] Thank you. Thank you.
[42:19] Thank you.