[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.
[0:13] ! Bob's coming in town next week because we're going to study psalms for the next two weeks.
[0:36] We'll take a little pause in Philippians to just study two psalms that I hope will be a recurring pattern over the history of our church to pause and to drop into this wonderful book that teaches us how to sing.
[0:54] In 1975, my father-in-law's back was against the wall. I want you to imagine with me, he was a pilot in the South Vietnamese Army, born in South Vietnam.
[1:07] He was trained by the U.S. and fought with the U.S., often gone for weeks at a time. He would fly into North Vietnam and drop paratroopers into the jungle. But with America deciding to withdraw its troops from South Vietnam, the future was clear.
[1:23] The hope of a free South Vietnam was over. Tanks would soon roll into Saigon. He was sure to be in prison.
[1:36] All of his possessions and his property were sure to be confiscated. He knows that he and his family must, cannot stay, but where would they go? What would they do? In the months leading up to April, they readied the bare necessities, a couple papers, citizenship-type papers, a few precious pictures, a change of clothes, and things like that.
[1:57] And on the morning of April 29th, with the window of escape rapidly closing, he rushed home. He gathered his family of four onto a motorbike and made his way to the airport.
[2:07] Now, there was no time for goodbyes, and this was not a casual ride. If you've seen any pictures from those days, the streets were filled with panicking South Vietnamese. Everyone was afraid of what would happen.
[2:20] Everyone was desperately wanting to get out. In the midst of that rush, he arrives at the airport. Now, unbeknownst to him, April 29th, 1975, would prove to be a fateful day.
[2:32] In just over 18 hours, 1,000 American civilians were brought out, and over 7,000 South Vietnamese refugees were flown out. So my father-in-law arrives at that airport, that same airport that many of them left, and the ones that didn't leave out of the embassy.
[2:51] And there were planes flying out right before him, over his head. But as he tells the story, he's much more animated than I. You would enjoy his take on this so much better.
[3:02] But he saw a bunch of people loading into another plane, and they needed a pilot. They were throwing all the cargo that was on the plane so they could make more room for people.
[3:13] And in God's providence, my father-in-law agreed to fly that C-47 out of Vietnam. With the North Vietnamese shooting at his plane, he took off low, but soon found the freedom of the air.
[3:26] They landed in Thailand because they didn't have enough fuel to make it all the way to Guam, but later made it to Guam. And in six months, he and his wife and his two young kids found a place to rent in Nashville.
[3:39] Became U.S. citizens. It's an incredible story. Much like many others who have overcome much fear to find freedom in the United States.
[3:49] But I want you to keep imagining with me now. Imagine being in their shoes in December of 1975. What would it be like to leave everything you've ever owned and everything you've ever known?
[4:04] What would it be like to face a future in which you weren't regarded as a war hero, but as a stranger? What would it be like to start completely over?
[4:14] To lose all you've worked for? To lose your career? To learn and relate in a new language? To go back to school? To face the daily pressure of a future that's largely, perhaps completely, unknown?
[4:27] This morning, we're going to study a song that pushes us to confront our imaginings about the future. When you look into the future, what do you see?
[4:40] Do you see a path of certainty and opportunity or uncertainty and confusion? Do you see light? Do you see darkness?
[4:51] Do questions of 2019 leave you heavy with concern and anxiety? Or light? Does the future, or perhaps does the future just hang out before you with those same old questions?
[5:06] Will we ever have kids? Will I ever be able to provide well for my family? Will I stay pure? How long will mom live? How will this year unfold?
[5:19] Will my kids ever trust the Lord? The future so often leaves us perplexed. And this psalm helps us deal with it. So we're going to dive into it.
[5:31] Psalm 146. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
[5:43] I will sing praises to my God while I have being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation.
[5:55] When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. And on that very day, his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob's, whose hope is in the Lord.
[6:11] He is God who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.
[6:22] The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous.
[6:33] The Lord watches over the sojourners. He upholds the widow and the fatherless. But the way of the wicked, he brings to ruin.
[6:47] The Lord will reign forever. Your God, O Zion, to all generations, praise the Lord.
[7:00] Now, it's quite obvious after hearing that read that this psalm is a psalm of praise. Each of the final psalms in the Psalter, that's just kind of a fancy way of saying psalms.
[7:11] Each of these final psalms in the Psalter begin with praise the Lord. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. And the psalmist begins by calling us to praise the Lord and then tells us he will praise the Lord as long as he has breath, as long as he lives.
[7:27] But then he turns and helps us to see the steady reign and steadfast love of the Lord. In the face of our weakness and need, in the face of our future that's largely unknown, he says praise the Lord.
[7:42] He never fails to deliver the needy. That's where we're going. Praise the Lord. He never fails to deliver the needy. I think this is a fitting prayer for us at any time.
[7:55] Perhaps a very fitting prayer for us at the outset of a new year. Point one, do not trust in dying men. Don't trust in dying men.
[8:08] And after the opening exhortation to praise the Lord, the psalmist begins by telling us who not to trust. Look in verse 3. He says, put not your trust in princes and the son of man in whom there is no salvation.
[8:24] Now, that's kind of a jarring intro or jarring beginning. It almost comes as a bit of surprise. But the connection seems to be that praising God as long as we live means we must rid the praise of everything else.
[8:37] It means we must not trust in anything or anyone else. So what he simply means is do not trust men. Now, the word here is princes.
[8:49] But I think we ought not think merely kings or leaders. For us, perhaps this means any influential person in our life.
[9:02] There are people in our lives that naturally attract our attention and confidence, perhaps because of their power or their success or their wealth or their position.
[9:12] You know, if any number of men walked into the room this morning or women walked into the room this morning, they would naturally attract that attention and confidence. Perhaps President Trump or Coach Saban or Clint Eastwood.
[9:26] I don't know who it is for you. For me, it would probably be some rock and roll star like Paul McCartney or something like that. And he's basically saying, watch out for that. Watch out for that.
[9:36] Watch out for that attention and confidence that so often goes to those in positions of power and success and authority.
[9:48] Well, why? Why does he tell us to do this? You know, Scripture gives us many reasons not to trust in man. But here the Lord gives us one reason. They perish. They perish.
[9:59] Look down at verse 4. He says, when his breath departs. Remember, he's talking about the princes there. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. And on that very day, his plans perish.
[10:12] And the backdrop here is the Garden of Eden. Remember, God created man and God formed him and brought him to life. Remember in chapter 2 of Genesis, he literally fills his lungs with air.
[10:25] And then when he stops breathing, he returns to the earth. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. All men are like Adam, is what he's saying.
[10:37] All men are destined to the same end. All men will soon lose their breath and return to the earth. You are dust. And to dust you shall return. All men perish.
[10:48] So he says, don't trust in men because they die. Now, he's setting up a big contrast for us. But that's important for us to take away. John Calvin said it like this. Those who put their trust in men depend upon a fleeting breath.
[11:02] Now, I was kind of running out of breath on that one. But those who put their trust in men depend upon a fleeting breath. Ultimately, the psalmist is warning us against making man into an idol.
[11:19] I don't know what you think about when you hear the word idol. Perhaps you think of some idols in the Old Testament. The Baals or the Ashtoreth or something in the Old Testament where they bow before some things.
[11:35] Or maybe you just think of a piece of wood that you would see in some picture of a more remote country. You know, we're in the West. We're in America. We don't bow to idols in that way.
[11:47] But the psalmist is helping us to see that our idols, our idols are not just pieces of wood. But when we put our trust and our hope in men and their plans.
[11:59] In verse 4, look down there again. He says, when his breath departs, he returns to the earth. Actually, look in verse 3, sorry. Put not your trust in men and the Son of Man, in whom there is no salvation.
[12:14] The psalmist is not merely saying, don't trust in men because they die. But don't trust in men because when you do, you hope for them to bring something only God can bring. To trust in something is to look to it.
[12:27] To hope for it. To bring salvation, a rescue. Rescue and hoping in anything other than God is idolatry. And will leave you empty.
[12:40] So an idol is not just a piece of wood that we bow down to. An idol can be anything or anyone. We look to bring us the significance, rest, joy, contentment, and rescue that only God can bring.
[12:52] The tricky thing with idols is they're not often bad things. They're usually good things we want too much. And one of the most common good things we want too much is to be liked.
[13:08] I may sound a little bit like a seventh grader if I talk about trying to be liked. And we can struggle with it whether we are a seventh grader. And we should just pray for all the seventh graders because that is the toughest season in life.
[13:19] Or maybe you're raising seventh graders and yet you find yourself in the same temptations. You know, several years ago I read an interview with Paul McCartney. Anything Paul McCartney does tends to attract my attention.
[13:33] Hopefully not my confidence. And I was reading about him talking about this struggle. So, he said, or the interviewer asked, do you have the urge to entertain, to please, to try to get folks to like you?
[13:52] Did you have that as a boy? Did you have that all your life? He says, I suppose so. If you go into music, it's very rare that you're trying to do something you don't care if people like it. It surprises me that some people say they don't want to be liked, but I think that's just a show.
[14:10] Now, that struck me. This is Paul McCartney, you know. He's the Beatle. He's written innumerable songs. And not just innumerable songs, but innumerable hits. He assumes everyone wants to be liked.
[14:23] And he assumes everyone's just like him. Now, wanting others to like us is not a bad thing, right? But when we want it too much, it can become a really bad thing.
[14:36] Wanting to be accepted and approved is a good thing. But like any other desire, when we want it too much, it's a really bad thing. It's not uncommon to see this longing to be accepted and approved morph into deep bitterness and frustration.
[14:52] Because it can become, on such a slippery slope, an idol. You know, one writer that I've read over the years, he said, When a good thing becomes a God thing, it becomes a really bad thing.
[15:08] When a good thing becomes a God thing, it becomes a really bad thing. So when a good thing becomes something I cling to, such like it's a God thing, it becomes a really bad thing.
[15:20] And John Calvin again said, The evil in our desire, and I think we have this for you, The evil in our desire typically does not lie in what we want, but that we want it too much.
[15:34] That's a very insightful quote. The evil in our desire does not often lie in what we want, but that we want it too much. So if we take something like just the desire to be liked, it turns the world upside down.
[15:49] It changes the way we think about everything. It redefines everything to us. It redefines what we think we need, what we're afraid of, what we hope for, and ultimately it turns us away from God.
[16:03] And it could be anything. So when you look into the future, when you look into 2019, what are you looking for? What am I looking for?
[16:14] What do you want? You know, New Year's are typically times of the year where we allow our hopes to soar for us, for a new us next year.
[16:26] And we conjure up these superhuman resolutions to reach them. It's just wired for disappointment. But what are you hoping for?
[16:38] Is there a good thing you've been hoping for too much? Maybe a promotion. Maybe instead of getting snubbed by your boss, you'd be noticed and approved, celebrated.
[16:52] I don't know. Maybe a specific sales goal. Maybe a slimmer waistline. Maybe just a season of normalcy. Maybe that's what you want. Just a season of normalcy where things aren't continually coming your way, where obstacles aren't continually coming your way.
[17:08] Maybe it is to be liked at school. This psalm confronts us. It confronts our hope about the future and invites us to turn and trust in the Lord.
[17:18] Trust is not a passive thing. Sometimes we teach trust like we kind of go through all our different options. We say, oh, I guess I'll just trust the Lord, you know.
[17:30] I guess I'm going to have to just trust the Lord with that. Almost as if our work is over them. But trust is hard. Trust means continually turning from the fleeting promises of men and idols to the Lord.
[17:45] Point two, trust in the living God. So don't trust in dying men, but do trust in the living God.
[17:55] The psalmist continues by telling us who to trust. It's quite obviously the Lord. Look down in verse five. He says, blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever.
[18:15] The one who trusts man perishes. The one who trusts the Lord is blessed and secure. He's blessed. That's a wonderfully rich word that we lose in our language.
[18:26] In many ways, in this context, he's alive. He's happy. He's completely secure because his help is the Lord. Outside the Lord, there is no Savior.
[18:38] There's no salvation, no security, no refuge, no contentment, no rest. In one form or another, we're left only to the empty, fleeting, failing promises of men. But with the Lord, there is abundant salvation.
[18:51] Do you see? Man's promises and his promises fail. But the Lord keeps faith forever. Do you see that contrast there? So we read about, you know, just like Garden of Eden, man perishes.
[19:04] We should not trust man because they perishes. But the Lord keeps faith forever. He reigns forever. His promises never fail. Trusting the Lord means we actively look to God for our ultimate help and hope and live in the certainty that he will never fail.
[19:31] And trusting God, therefore, means we put all our hope in him. All of them. We bank on him. Tim Keller said, human beings are hope-shaped creatures.
[19:47] I love that phrase. The way you live now is completely controlled by what you believe about your future. Hope-shaped creatures.
[20:00] We're always looking to the next thing. So what's that next thing going to be for us? The psalmist is pressing us to hope. And the Lord, hope here is not wishful thinking.
[20:12] Not the daydreams of what we want life to look like. Hope is the firm belief and confident assurance that good things are coming because of Christ. That's hope.
[20:24] And that's the hope that we have in the Lord. But hope is the firm belief, confident assurance that good things are coming because of Christ. And trusting God means we put all our hope in him. For God alone, O my soul, I wait in silence.
[20:37] For my hope is from him. 1 Peter 1. Set your hope fully on the revelation of Jesus Christ. And I kind of forgot the rest.
[20:49] But then the grace found in him or something like that. There's grace there. I know that much. You know? And so we put our hope fully in him. Okay.
[21:07] So that's good and great. But how can I know? How can I be confident that this is true not only for the psalmist but for me? I want us to see something in these verses.
[21:23] Look down at verse 6 again. He says, who made. So he's talking about the Lord. The Lord made heaven and earth, the seed and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever. Now this is how the psalmist gives us this certainty that this is for us.
[21:37] He says, he's the one who made heaven and earth and all that is in them. Now again, we're back at the beginning, right? We're back at Genesis. God made heaven and earth, the seed and all that is in them.
[21:49] And I'm thinking, Lord, that's great that you made all that. But how does that help me? You know, what's the seed got to do with my anxiety?
[22:00] What do all the animals that you created got to do with me walking through next year without fear? Well, the psalmist is wanting us to see something. The Lord who made all this didn't leave it.
[22:12] He continues to sustain it and uphold it. He continues to provide for all his creation. Look with me again on this verse. Just indulge me for a second here.
[22:23] He says, the Lord who made. You see that? Keeps faith forever. The Lord who made heaven and earth keeps faith forever.
[22:35] The Lord who made past tense keeps faith, present tense, forever. Do you see? Do you see what's going on there? The Lord who made everything, the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them is alive.
[22:49] He keeps faith forever. He upholds the universe with the word of his powers. What Hebrews 1 says, he gives all humankind life and breath and everything is what Acts 17 says. Do you see? This is what he's saying.
[22:59] It's so good to look at creation and say, wow, God did that. But it's so much better. And this is what he's committing us to do. It's so much better to say, wow, if God did all that, how much more is he able to do in my life?
[23:13] The idea is picked up again and again in our scriptures that what we're to learn from creation is that God is alive. That he who sustains and upholds and keeps all these things, it's meant to say to us loud and clear, nothing's too hard for him.
[23:29] And yet nothing's too small for him to care about. Do you see that? The Lord who made all this keeps faith forever.
[23:41] He's alive. He upholds the universe with the word of his power and keeps all these things. You know, a couple years ago, I'm usually the sleeper in our family that sleeps like a rock.
[23:55] You know, it kind of takes, yeah, Ace raised his hand. Amen, brother. Usually it takes freight train and a few other things. Actually, that earthquake several weeks ago, I did not wake up.
[24:08] My wife woke up and was anxious. And I had to be told about it the next day. Ace and I both. But one particular night, I was hard and fast asleep.
[24:18] And I heard, in the other room, I heard a, uh, uh, uh. I was like, uh-oh. Uh, you know, that's usually not a good sign as a father that something else is going on in other rooms.
[24:33] I got closer, that, uh, and I won't do it anymore for you. It got louder and louder. And I saw my son, Rev, who at the time was probably three or four, and was kind of curled up in a fetal position on his bed, going, uh, crying out.
[24:47] I said, buddy, buddy, buddy, what's wrong? What's going on? What's, what's wrong? What do you, what do you need? And he said, I need God.
[24:59] I thought that was totally great. I need God. I think my response in that moment was, I do too. But let's get down to the specifics. But, you know, his tummy was aching and quaking and going all which way.
[25:13] And he said, I don't need medicine. I don't need mommy. I don't need a stuffed animal. I don't need anything else. I need God. I need God. I think this is the type of posture that this psalm is trying to commend to us.
[25:28] You know, there's few things I want more as a father than a big vision of God for my kids. And there's few things I want more than a big vision of God. To believe that he cares about the most insignificant mundane moments of my life.
[25:40] The air we breathe in our culture makes God to be little more than a well-meaning grandpa. But that's not what the scripture says. He's alive, beloved. He is alive.
[25:51] Nothing is too hard for him. And nothing is too small for him to care about. He has all power in heaven and on earth. He reigns. He has all abilities. He's not limited in any way.
[26:03] Is his arm too short? Not our God. Not our God. He keeps faith forever. He reigns forever. He's actively reigning over all things, ceaselessly working for his glory and for our good.
[26:19] So I ask, why don't we live in the good of this? Why do I live in the good of this? Why do I find it so hard to trust?
[26:33] Why do I find it so hard to believe that help and hope are in his hands? And I think John Owens gets this exactly right. And this is a little bit of old English.
[26:48] So you just had to hang with me for a second. He said, men are afraid. I think we have this for you. Men are afraid to have good thoughts of God. They think it a boldness.
[27:01] They think it arrogant, essentially what he's saying. They think it a boldness to eye God, to think of God as good, gracious, tender, kind, loving.
[27:13] I speak of saints. I speak of Christians. But for the other side, they judge him hard, austere, which just means cold. They judge him hard, cold, severe, almost implacable, which just means unsatisfiable and fierce.
[27:35] And they think they do well in that. You see, men are afraid to have good thoughts of God. They tend to think it's too arrogant to eye him as good, gracious, tender, kind, and loving.
[27:48] And so they just think of him as hard and cold, backbiting and measured, almost unsatisfiable and fierce. But he continues, Now that's a big sentence.
[28:18] I think that's exactly right.
[28:37] We're afraid to have good thoughts of God. Now we know the Sunday school answers. But we also know that Sunday school is not real life.
[28:52] And after all the ways we've misstep, after all the ways we've failed, after all the ways we've sinned, after all the struggles that have come down towards us, we just conclude it too bold, even wrong, to think of God as good and gracious and tender towards us.
[29:08] He's still tender? You've got to be kidding me. And so we turn back and trust in smaller things.
[29:20] There's nothing more acceptable to him than for you to believe today that he has more grace for you. There's nothing more acceptable to him than that.
[29:32] And to our souls, he announces, The Lord is abundant help. The Lord is ample hope. Oh, run to him for love. Point three, how trusting God works.
[29:48] Don't trust in men. Trust in the living God. And how trusting God works. The psalmist continues and tells us this in verse 6. He says he created all things in the beginning, right?
[30:01] In verse 10, if you look down there with me, he says the Lord will reign forever. Well, verse 7 through 9 tells us what he's doing right now. Tells us what he's up to.
[30:12] Now, notice all these active verbs. Now, I pointed out in the last point, but there's numerous active verbs. He, in verse 6b, keeps faith forever. He executes justice for the oppressed.
[30:24] He gives food to the hungry. He sets the prisoners free. He opens the eyes of the blind. He lifts up those who are bowed down. He loves the righteous. He watches over the sojourner. He upholds the widow and the fatherless.
[30:35] That's what he's doing actively. He is doing it. The Lord. Notice who's doing all this help. The Lord. All caps. Trusting God is not about holding on in faith and the resolve of ourselves, but about the boundless power of the Lord to uphold anybody who would cling to him.
[30:56] Trusting God is not about the faith we can muster. It's not about holding on to our white knuckled. It's about the power he wields. But notice who he helps.
[31:07] He helps the weak, the oppressed, the hungry, the prisoners, the blind, the bowed down, the strangers, the widowed, the fatherless. Now, we don't know the particulars.
[31:18] There's no particulars in this psalm. We don't know exactly who the psalmist is talking about. We don't know exactly what was going on. And I think it's intentionally generic so that we might find ourselves in those verses, that we might place ourselves in there.
[31:33] He defends the defenseless. He sustains the hungry. He frees the prisoner. He restores sight to the blind. He raises the cast down. He watches over the wanderer. He supports the widow and fathers the fatherless.
[31:46] He loves the righteous. That's not all. This is just the psalmist giving us a sample. I mean, I see no reason why he's kind of starting in one place and in another. It's just what immediately came to mind.
[31:56] He could keep going on and on and on. Anyone who's weak, the Lord watches. The Lord fights for them. The point is, all those who are weak find everything they need by trusting him.
[32:12] The Lord doesn't look down on your weakness. You know, sometimes we can relate to people that are weak in ways that we aren't.
[32:23] Man, how could they struggle with that? The Lord never has that thought. Never. I don't care if that's been the same weakness your whole life.
[32:35] He never has that thought. He never says, oh, it's you again. Never. Never.
[32:48] The only ones who don't get help are those who think they don't need it. Verse 9. The way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
[33:01] Those who think they have no needs are wicked. And he brings them to ruin. Yeah, I made it through high school reading cliff notes.
[33:15] Don't you try to judge me. I know you did too. But one of the books I fell in love with back then was To Kill a Mockingbird. If you haven't read this book, by all means, do it.
[33:30] You know, cancel all the other resolutions for 2019. And please read this book. I'll buy it for you if you promise to read it. You know, one of the main characters of the story is Atticus Finch.
[33:43] Atticus is a deeply godly man. A man of quiet integrity and moral courage. Living through the racism and prejudices of the 1950s deep south.
[33:54] You know, a lawyer by trade. Much of the book chronicles his defense of a black man named Tom Robinson. And Robinson, Tom Robinson, was wrongly accused of raping a white woman.
[34:08] Though this woman was far from liked in the town, all the town rallied against Tom Robinson, ready to serve him justice.
[34:21] Yet Atticus takes his case. This is a no-win situation, and he takes his case. As soon as he does, the threats and opposition come pouring in, as you would imagine.
[34:33] Why would he defend a poor, guilty black man? Who cares what might happen to this black man, Tom Robinson? Atticus builds this case and defends Tom Robinson.
[34:45] He stays the course, and tragically, the prejudices are too great to overcome, and Tom Robinson is convicted by the court. Atticus fails on the court of law, but succeeds where it really matters.
[34:59] And the book ends with this surprising scene, where Atticus and his kids are feasting with Miss Robinson and her family at their house.
[35:11] And they were rejoicing. Tom's in prison, but they're rejoicing. Atticus had taken up their case.
[35:23] A white man had taken up their case. And so, too, like the Lord. God defends the defenseless.
[35:38] He loves them. He loves those who have no defense, no recourse, no other hope. He loves the weak, the needy, those who cling only to him. God does not help those who help themselves.
[35:49] God who helps those who cannot possibly help themselves. And this psalm is in our Bible to let us know that the Lord has taken up our case. Because we came in this morning aware of how weak we are, and how straying we are, and how sinful we are.
[36:04] And this passage is telling to us loud and clear that the Lord, the one who reigns in heaven, lives forever, who wields all authority and power in heaven and on earth, has taken up our case.
[36:16] Not because it will improve his resume, but because he loves those who have no other recourse that they might cling to him. And it's precisely here that we see better than the psalmist.
[36:27] We could keep on adding. We have more stories to be written. He seeks the loss. He goes to the poor and hungry. He searches out the tax collectors and sinners. They knew they had problems, and so they found help in him.
[36:41] He runs to him. He doesn't just go to the weak, though. He becomes weak. He doesn't just preach to the weak. He becomes weak. He's forsaken by all his friends. He's mocked and ridiculed.
[36:52] This is the Lord. The mobs rally against him and take him out. The Lord endures the shame of the cross, and the crowds gather around him and say, he saved others. He cannot save himself.
[37:03] He trusts in God. Let God deliver him. What kind of Lord is this? Does his weakness know no bound? How far must he go to take up my case?
[37:13] How far must he go to take up my cause? And yet, as weak as he became, his weakest moment proved to be his strongest. He flips weakness and strength on his head on the cross, for there his sure defeat proved to be his eternal victory.
[37:30] Through the weakness of the cross, he crushed all the power and sin and death so that all those who are weak, all those who are exhausted, all those who are helpless, all those who are needy might find certain rescue in his wounds, so that all might see how trusting God works.
[37:49] Not through the might of man, but trusting in God who delivers the needy every time, never fails to deliver the needy, so that we might never think we're too weak to come to him.
[38:01] And if you've just heard the gospel for the first time or for the thousandth time, I pray that it presses deep into your heart. That he who was strong and mighty came in the weakness of sinful flesh and became sin.
[38:22] Not in the sense that he was a sinner in and of himself, but that all of the sins of humanity, all of our sins were placed upon him so that he might receive the just judgment for sin.
[38:35] So that in him, we might find forgiveness in eternal life. That's the truth of the gospel. And that's what I offer and proclaim to you. That's what we're all about. And it's a message we need, not just at the front door, but in the whole house.
[38:47] We need every day of our lives so that we might never tire, is what this text talks about, of confessing our weakness and need to him. Praise the Lord. He never fails to deliver the needy.
[39:02] Never. I don't know where you feel weak. I don't know where you feel your need. I don't know where you're almost ready to throw in the towel. I don't know where the anxieties bother you through the night.
[39:14] I don't know what you're most afraid of. I don't know what prayer you're afraid to pray. And I don't know what prayer you don't want to pray because you've prayed it so many times. But I know it's there. I know it's in your heart.
[39:25] I know it's in my heart. I want 2019 to be a year we trust the Lord. It's easy to obey God.
[39:36] It's hard to trust Him. Trusting God is not our last resort when we've done everything else. Trusting God is when we refuse to run to our own resources but instead lean against Him again and again and again and again.
[39:56] Let's do that. Let's lean on the Lord. Let's stand together. I want to invite you as we close.
[40:09] I'm just going to give a little moment as I pray. I trust the Lord's word that something was brought to mind that you need to entrust to Him. And I want to provide a moment for that.
[40:22] That we'd all humble ourselves before Him and call on Him to do what only He can do. Father in heaven, we humble ourselves before You.
[40:37] You are the King of heaven and earth. You're the God who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. And we humble ourselves before You. We confess our need.
[40:49] But we call on You. Let's just take a moment and confess to the Lord. Father, left to our own efforts, all we do would be striving to make bricks out of straw.
[41:11] Lord, we confess that because of who You are and the fact that You're able to work in and through all our work for that which is pleasing in Your sight.
[41:28] We entrust all these things to You. We thank You that You're not like us. That You don't sleep or slumber. You don't miss anything.
[41:39] That You have no lack. That You give power to the strength of Him who has no might. You supply fresh power.
[41:49] So we resolve by Your grace to trust You, God. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we want to trust in the name of the Lord our God. We want to lean completely on You.
[42:00] Help us, God, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a message given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.
[42:13] For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at trinitygraceathens.com.