[0:00] Thank you for that. That was incredible. Psalm chapter 44, We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, What work thou didst in the days and the times of old.
[0:11] What an incredible privilege to hear in the ears from your father what God had done. I'd like to put a slide up. This will be the summary statement for it of Psalm chapter number 44.
[0:22] I'll read it to you and it'll be on the screen here in a second. It says that in even times of great suffering and adversity, when God seems to not care, the faithful people of God can express their confidence, pour out their complaint, and pray for deliverance and trust in his love.
[0:40] Every day, all day, without exception, God's children can do those things. So if you'll picture here with me, they had just lost the battle, and in losing a battle, they would be standing around and singing.
[0:53] I don't know exactly what it looks like, but if you were a young child, maybe a teenager, it seemed like there'd be some confusion, because the battles lost, lost several battles, there's no reason they expected they would lose this battle.
[1:04] We'll talk about that later. They went in with confidence, thinking they were going to win, and now they've lost. They're standing around, probably bloodied, probably lost people, and there's young people listening to them, and they're saying, how are we going to respond?
[1:17] How are we going to sing? And in verse number one, it says, when we heard with our ears, our God, our Father, how our fathers had told us what work thou didst in their days and the time of old.
[1:29] What an incredible opportunity for the people that were listening and looking to the leadership in their country at that time, and they were going to sing this song written here for them.
[1:40] If you have been somebody who has been blessed to hear God be praised in a difficult time, especially by your Father, you're extremely blessed. If you can think back to a time in a dark situation where people were still praising the Lord, and maybe some of you could go to that right now, in your mind, you'd have a vivid memory in your childhood of somebody praising the Lord when you would not expect that they were going to.
[2:05] This doesn't happen by accident. It takes intentional discipleship. These fathers had spoken into the ears of their kid and told them all the things that God had done, and now they're able to do the same thing and to praise the Lord.
[2:19] These sons of Coram are repeating into the ears of their kids things that they had heard in their own life. What incredible joy in knowing that, that you as a child got to hear incredible testimonies about other people in your life.
[2:35] Some of you probably went to a place where you think about somebody. My mom gave me plenty of examples growing up when we didn't seem to have much, but she just trusted God to provide for us. He always acted differently than I thought the circumstances called for.
[2:48] If you had somebody like that in your life, you ought to praise the Lord. And then what would be the other great blessing and joy is that pastor today saw his son saying unto the Lord about a living hope.
[2:59] A song that could be sung in the darkest hour of your life or on the best day. Something that transcends all the temporal things of life. Something that is real and true. What a great blessing it would be to get to see people praise the Lord in that.
[3:12] And that's what's happening. In a dark hour, they're going to get together and they say, hey, before we say anything else, we bring our petitions to the Lord before we plea our calls of innocence. Let's just take a moment and say, God, you have done incredible works in our lives.
[3:26] And that's what we read in those first eight verses which ends in, in God, we boast all the days long and praise thy name forever. And I just picture one kid scratching his head like, did y'all just see what happened?
[3:36] You know, like, is this really the song that you chose for us? Is the song leader paying attention? We just lost this battle and you're going to say, and you, Lord, we can praise you all the day long and it's wonderful.
[3:47] We're given an example. They are told to do things like this. The children of Israel are commanded of the Lord to be constantly instructing and teaching their kids. Deuteronomy chapter number 11, verse 18, it says, Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul and bind them for your sign upon your hand that they may be as a frontlets between your eyes and you shall teach them your children speaking of them which thou sittest in thy house and when they walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up.
[4:17] Which is all day long, right? That's all kids do. Get down, get up, just constantly moving. And so all the time when they're walking through your house you're supposed to be lay these words on your heart and your soul and then communicate them to other people.
[4:31] Brother Brett, if you wouldn't mind putting the picture up of the Jewish man and his son, I know you've seen this before, I know I've spoken about it before, but taking very literally is that they would take and place this. You've seen on the head the scripture was placed on the top of the head and then bound upon the arms taking this passage in a very literal sense to make sure that these commandments that are taught before their kids and all of us can look at that and say, wow, that is not how you should apply that scripture.
[4:56] That is way literal. That's not what God would have for us because what did it say? It says, maybe as frontlets between your eyes and you would say you kind of, you missed something there. It says as frontlets between your eyes and put upon the doorpost.
[5:08] But even though this is a wrong application, there was certainly a right application to be made was that they, the children of God should be talking about him all the time. They should be praising him all the time and telling people about what?
[5:21] The wonderful works that he has done that have been passed down from us to generation by generation. I want you to wait and we have an example. Verse 1 and 2 it says, how thou drive out the heathen with his hand and plantest them, how thou just afflict the people and cast them out.
[5:35] They were telling God's story throughout history. And so what would a young person hear about? They would hear about the exodus, they would hear about the conquest, they would hear about how God cared for them and they would know all those stories well.
[5:47] And we have an example of this. I have another slide, Brother Brad, Deuteronomy chapter number 11 verses 3 through 7. I want you to look at that because I want you to see how the story is to be told.
[5:58] Deuteronomy 11 3 through 7. So listen, if we got an opportunity to sit in on a family sharing, a family speaking into the ears of their kids, what would that look like? What kind of example would be given?
[6:10] And it would sound something like this, and his miracles and his acts which he did in the midst of Egypt on the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt and unto all his land and what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, unto their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after him and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day and what he did unto you in the wilderness until you came into this place and what he did unto Dotham and Abarum, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, how the earth opened her mouth and how swallowed them up and their households and their tents and all the substance that was in their possession in the midst of all Israel.
[6:50] But your eyes have seen all, say it with me, great acts of the Lord which he did. It would be all about God. The whole story would be the history of what God had done on behalf of his people and they made it clear emphasizing what he did and how he had taped them to land and he had planted them and that's what they are doing at this time.
[7:11] They're making much of God. They're reminding people what God has done. You know, tonight we'll have a testimony service. It's not just something we put on the schedule. It is an ancient tradition that's wonderful.
[7:22] It's an old tradition. It goes all the way back to the time that people were able to recognize God did something. They would go and share it with other people and I'm glad that my kids are going to have the opportunity to hear you say, you're not going to believe what God has done in my life.
[7:35] Verse number six, it says, for I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. They made sure that they knew that they didn't trust in their own ability. It wasn't with their sword, verse three, for they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arms save them, but thy right hand and thy arm and the light of thy countenance, because thou hast favor unto them.
[7:57] So what are we supposed to talk about and how are we supposed to talk about it and what are we supposed to say about ourselves? We're supposed to say God has always been doing a wonderful work and it's all him and it's not about us.
[8:09] Even to this day, we can say, as verse number eight, we can boast all the day long and what God has done. In the New Testament, we say it like this, Galatians 6, 14, but God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
[8:26] If you have anything to boast in, it's in what God has done for you. If you have anything to boast in, it's what he has done for you. And so what should we be talking to our kids about? Similar story.
[8:37] We should be talking about a deliverance. We should tell them about an enemy that we were delivered from. We should tell them how we were saved by his mighty arm and not by our own strength. You have a booklet here of the day or this book that I wrote that doesn't have any words in it.
[8:51] It's completely blank. That's what I encourage you to do. I'm actually going to beg you to do it. I'm going to beg you to do this because I have been to too many funerals. I've officiated funerals before and when the family goes to talk about the testimony of their loved one, they're all just piecing something together.
[9:06] They're just all gathering information. Somebody has part of a store, another one thinks something happened, but very few of them can say, no, I can tell you, granddad, every time we got together, he told me about this little country church when he was 12 years old that he went down to the altar or when my dad, when he was in college, he accepted Jesus Christ.
[9:26] A lot of people don't have that. People around us should have that. They should know what our testimony is. They should hear us talk about the deliverance from the enemy with his mighty hand. So I want to challenge you that I don't want to take you to the blank book and I want you to write it and I want you to write your testimony out and to write it down and then to share it with those you have influence with.
[9:45] Share it with your kids, share it with your neighbors, but write it out and have it recorded so you can share it with other people. So if you don't know how to start, how many of you like writing in here? Would you raise your hand? All right, a few of you. Okay, if you don't like writing, let me give you a few ways to start because you say your story isn't that exciting.
[9:58] Well, let me get you started off on the right foot, okay? You could start with this. I was once dead but I'm now alive. All right? Let me tell you, that's a pretty good way to start a story. If your grandkids someday get this, they're like, hey, I wonder if I'm going to read this.
[10:11] I'm like, oh, grandpa was once dead and he's now alive. I imagine they're going to read the rest of the book. Or if you like more of it, maybe girls, you would like this story better. Once upon a time in a garden.
[10:22] All right? Maybe you'd start there. Or if you like Hallmark movies, maybe you'd say, one day a boy met this girl. All right? And you could start with the story of Adam and Eve. But wherever you start, please start.
[10:33] Write out your testimony. Share it with other people. Say it into the ears of your kids what he has done. This will help you be ready to fight. I've got Brother Mike here.
[10:44] He'll tell me if I'm wrong but the Marine Corps hymn starts from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. They were preparing themselves to fight because they would say, we have won battles in the past and we can do that again.
[10:55] And so after losing a battle, they are rehearsing what's happening because we're most certainly in a battle. But there's going to be days where it's harder than others to praise the Lord. But on those days, he is most certainly worthy as well.
[11:08] And on those days, we're going to be confused in our suffering of what God is doing. We're not supposed to talk like this, right? We're not supposed to say, God, wake up. We're not supposed to say, God, I'm confused about what you're doing.
[11:20] We're not supposed to say, hey God, I'm doing my side of this. God, I'm completely innocent. So things aren't supposed to be turning out like this. We're not supposed to talk like that, but God chose to save it.
[11:31] You know, there was other people in those days probably writing things as well and writing songs, but God said, this is what I want the church to have. This is what I want them to be able to read. So what do you do when it doesn't seem like God cares?
[11:43] And we have examples in the Bible. So what do you do one day if you're on a boat and the storm comes in and there's a storm and the thunder's going and the lightning's going and a sailor doesn't like that, nor does she like when I say her name in church, all right?
[11:58] So she doesn't like thunder, she doesn't like lightning and she's scared. But what do you do when you're on a boat and you think that you're going to die? You go and wake up Jesus, right? And you go and say, hey, hey, creator of the universe, your universe is kind of out of control out there.
[12:11] I need your help. Could you come do something? And they wake him up from sleeping. Mark 4, 38, and when it was a hinder part of the ship asleep on the pillow and they wake him up and they say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
[12:24] Can't you see the disciples outside the door like, no, you go for it. You go for it. No, I'll go. And then they pretend, push one of them in the door and said, Peter, you like to talk, you go for it, okay? And so they say that and they say, God, we're about to perish and you're sleeping here.
[12:37] They have that feeling. Well, what about the disciples after Jesus dies? And Thomas is so disillusioned. He doesn't even believe when he hears about the resurrection. They're hiding behind closed doors and they're fearful.
[12:48] They believe that God isn't able to do what they thought he was able to do. These people as well are in a terrible place. Luke says they were miserable during that time. These people here in Psalm 44, they are most certainly miserable.
[13:02] Verse number 10, thou makest to turn back from the enemy. They have been defeated. Not only did they turn back from the enemy, but God, you've made that happen. Listen to the picture they give of a shepherd in verse 11 and 12.
[13:13] It says, thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat. God, you're selling us as sheep, but you're not just selling us to another shepherd of the lettuce Romans pasture. Like, this is the end of the line for us.
[13:25] You're selling us as sheep. And as if that's not enough, verse 12, thou sellest thy people for naught. You're not even making a profit off of this. You're not even negotiating the terms. You're selling us and you're not even caring the fact that you're not even making anything out of this.
[13:40] That we are just like sheep headed to a slaughter. What a strong way to talk to our God. To say, wake up, you're leading us like sheep to a slaughter. Verse 13, thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors.
[13:52] Verse 19, kids, you're going to like this one. Though thou hast sort of broken us up in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death. What kind of description about how it looks, how we've been destroyed, as if dragons had come through this place.
[14:06] So in verse number 23, they beg and say, awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever. And then we see the position at the rim. For thou soul is bowed down to the dust.
[14:19] Our belly cleaveth, unto the earth. They get down as low as possible. Their belly is on the ground, quite possibly in the sanctuary. And they cry out to God and they say, God, why have you forsaken us, God?
[14:33] We are here and he listens to them. And they make their plea for innocent. Verse 15, my confusion is continually before me and the shame of my face has covered me.
[14:44] Say, we're just confused. They say, we know what it's like. We definitely know in the Psalms of David where David admits and says, God, I was living in sin and now I'm dealing with the penalty of my sin. God, I did this and now I'm dealing with the consequences.
[14:57] David is very open about it. And the children of Israel, they know there's times where they're sinning, they're dealing with the consequences of their sins, but there's times like this where they say, God, we didn't go chasing after idols. God, our heart has been fully given over to you and we're just confused.
[15:11] Why would this happen to us? Why would this happen right now? Why am I waiting for test results? Why is this happening to me? They're so confused and they plead, as I said, their innocence.
[15:22] Verse 18, our heart has not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way. We have been faithful to you. Not that they haven't been perfect people, but they're saying, God, we know that we have been following after you and not the idols of this world.
[15:37] But what a place to be, isn't it? In the darkness. Because there's many times they wouldn't have been there. There have been many times in their lives where they knew exactly. They would have known like the sin of Achan that somebody has been worshiping a false god or they would know what they have been doing in the temple.
[15:52] But what a great place to be when you're completely confused is to say, God, I come before you with a clear conscience. Because you see, God's not the author of confusion. He doesn't make your car break down and hope you guess what sin that you're involved in.
[16:05] That God brings conviction through the Holy Spirit in your life. And so when you can say, God, search my heart, you can say at the end of that prayer, say, God, if I was living in sin, you would have let me know, but you've searched me completely and you could say, now I don't understand what's going on but I have a clear conscience towards you.
[16:21] What a wonderful thing, right? There's nothing any sweeter to sleep upon than a clear conscience tonight as to be able to just to rest and know before God. But there's confusion. Satan loves to misinterpret the Bible.
[16:32] We know that about him, right? Satan, he knows the Bible and he's even okay with you knowing the Bible but he loves to teach classes on hermeneutics. He loves to teach methods of Bible study to Christians because he creates confusion.
[16:44] Let me give you an example of Satan getting the Bible wrong in Psalm chapter number 91. Luke chapter, it's a quote from Psalm 91 in Luke chapter number 4 verse 10. For it is written, he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest that any time thou dash thy foot against the stone.
[17:05] It isn't that Satan is misquoting the scripture because that's a quote from Psalm chapter number 91 but he's misapplying the scripture. He is saying as if there's no qualifications to this.
[17:17] And so he says, Jesus, if you were to jump down from this, then the angels of heaven they would catch you but Jesus picks up this conversation in Matthew chapter number 26. He's speaking to his disciples and this is what he says in Matthew 26, 53.
[17:30] Thinkest thou that I cannot pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? Don't you know that at any time if I chose to this could be all over?
[17:42] That angels would come in here and pick me up and take me back and restore me to my place there in heaven? But verse 54, but how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?
[17:53] And he goes on and says, thy will be done. See, when Satan was interpreting the scripture he says, this has to happen, these promises have to be for you and they have to be for you right now and if they're not for you and they're not for you right now then they're not true.
[18:06] But the qualification, Jesus said, not my will but thy will be done. Because as believers there's something that we have that supersedes everything that we want. More than we want comfort, more than we want deliverance, we want his name sake to be glorified in all the earth.
[18:24] And so Jesus said, I'm not going to do that because I want to live according to the will of the Father. And so that's Satan's misunderstanding. Jesus teaches and he teaches this tension here. Luke 21, 16 through 18, and you shall be betrayed both by parents and by brethren and kinsfolk and friends and some of you shall thy cause to be put to death.
[18:43] That's not a very exciting pep talk, is it? Some of you are going to be betrayed and some of you are going to die and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. You shall be hated of men for my name's sake.
[18:54] Verse 18, but thou shall not a hair of your head perish. The paradox, the tension, that he is our living hope, that nothing in life can separate us from the love of God because we live for the glory of God.
[19:08] And so Satan doesn't understand the scriptures. And a lot of people today, they teach a scripture that isn't true, that the promise of God aren't without qualification, but as Christians we want to live for his glory.
[19:20] And so do you see it? We're living for something so much bigger than this temporal world. We live for the glory of God. We should desire that God would receive maximum glory from our lives.
[19:31] I probably told you all this in Boston at Tyler and Gretchen's wedding years ago. I don't know if David or somebody was walking around with a camera and they were filming people and they said, say something to the new couple, you know, to encourage them.
[19:42] And everybody was saying something real funny and something kind of lighthearted. And being somebody who hadn't been married yet and thinking a lot about marriage, I grabbed the camera and I looked at it and with all that I could and I said, Tyler and Gretchen, if you can't bring more glory to God together than you can separate, then you shouldn't be getting married.
[19:59] All right? And so that was a little strong message on the day before our wedding, wasn't it? And hopefully they'd already thought through all of those things and they know that they had, but I thought about those things. And so maybe some of the times I said to Stephanie during our engagement wasn't as loving as it was as very biblically practical.
[20:15] All right? And so what I put, that's a nice way to say it, right? And so what we put in our wedding bands were these words and it was maximum glory that through our lives together, all the pleasure and all the greatness of having a wonderful wife and family and all those different things, all the things that I'm going to get in marriage and all the wonderful kids and all the relationships that are going to be built by marrying God's will for my life, may all of that be secondary to the fact that together we bring glory to God.
[20:44] I wish I could tell you that I remember that every day even when it's stuck in my hand, but I don't because I live for my own glory. I live for my own delight. I want you to serve me.
[20:54] I want her to serve me and I don't live for his glory as I should, but as a Christian, verse 22, yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long and we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
[21:11] We live for the glory of God. See this, these words here, thy sake, this is not an incidental statement. It's often overlooked in the scripture when we read it, especially when we look at it from a man-centered perspective.
[21:22] We forget who the main character is. We forget about the main purpose of scripture and of life. Jesus doesn't forget about it. He says, nevertheless, thy will be done, but I do in scripture.
[21:33] I don't see it and it is all over the place. Thy namesake, for thy sake, for thy mercy's sake, it is all over the scriptures and we look for it. Exodus will as a place we'll see it.
[21:44] Exodus chapter number 5, verse 2. I got a lot of scripture here, but Brother Brett's fast, which is good because he's going to be standing by Andrew the night lighting fireworks, so I really hope he's fast. Exodus 5, 2, and it says, Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?
[21:59] And I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. This wasn't just about a people getting freedom from their bondage of slavery. This just wasn't people living a hard life, living a better life.
[22:10] This was about the name of God. This was about Pharaoh saying, who is this God? And it's about God saying, let me tell you who I am. Who is this God?
[22:21] God's purpose in delivering his people. What is it? Exodus 7, 5, And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
[22:32] Exodus 8, 10, And he said, Tomorrow will be said, Be it according to thy word that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God. What was the purpose of the plagues? Exodus 9, 14, For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.
[22:52] Exodus 10, 2, God wanted his sons to be told. Listen to this, And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son and of thy son's son what things I have brought in Egypt and my sign which I have done among them that they may know that I am the Lord.
[23:07] God wants to be spoken about. God wants his stories to be told. He wants to be glorified. God wanted the Egyptians to know. Not only did he want the children of Israel to have stories to tell their children and their grandchildren but he wanted these pagan people that were opposed to him to know.
[23:21] Exodus 14, 4, And I will harden the Pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them and I will be honored unto Pharaoh and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord and they did so.
[23:33] God's care for his people, 1 Samuel 12, 22, And for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people.
[23:44] God wants to be known as God. Not simply are you able just to look up in the phone book and find that he is there. He wants his character to be known. He wants everything to be known about him.
[23:56] Everything that you have been taught about him he wants you sharing with somebody else. And so how do we miss it? Throughout the Bible and the Tower of Babel when they are trying to make a name for themselves and then he gets Abraham and he sends them out and he says, I will make a name for you that so all the world will be blessed through them.
[24:10] It's all about his name. But why is it that we miss it? I love teaching Missions in the Old Testament and Training Center. We go through more of these verses and we all realize how did we miss it?
[24:21] How did we miss that it was for his namesake? We miss it because we were too busy looking for our name. We were too busy trying to look out how it turned out for us. So the circumstances didn't look good because it didn't turn out for us but what we forgot is that we are living for his namesake in this world.
[24:38] And that's why we can say in verse 22, Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter. And so they have a plead here and their plea is based upon God being glorified.
[24:49] Verse 27, Arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy's sake. What a way to view things. They say, God, for your sake we want you to deliver us.
[25:00] For your namesake. This is what Moses does in Numbers chapter 14 verse number 15. It says, Now thou shalt kill all of his people as one man then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak saying God was going to wipe the people out as he did in the days of Noah and the ark and Moses' plea wasn't based on the goodness of people but he said, God, for your namesake because all the nations are watching all we care about is your fame in this world.
[25:27] And so we're wanting you to work in a way that you would be known by the nations that are watching. What an incredible plea. How does God respond to verse 21 of that passage? But as truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.
[25:42] God is not silent about his desire for his name to be known in all the world. It's all throughout the scriptures and it doesn't end there that it continues. One of the sweetest moments that I'm never going to forget in my life is pastor taking me through the Bible that Saturday he got out of the hospital and sharing with me story after story throughout the Bible but it didn't end in the New Testament because he told me, David, he said, I stood in Peru and there were hundreds of people there and I stood up to preach and it was horrible.
[26:09] I'm like, I didn't see that one coming and he said, I wasn't prepared. I didn't do anything. I thought it was a mess and I walked down from there and God saved dozens and dozens of people because God lives for God's sake.
[26:23] God exists for his name's sake and it continues today in our lives. It is absolutely incredible. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and what? Glorify your Father which is in heaven so let your life shine before your kids in this community and let's let our light shine in places that it isn't shining currently and let our life shine on the martyr's stake when we burn because we have a loyalty to a world that hates our God but God let us shine so that we glorify you in all that we do.
[26:51] We live for the glory of God. Thinking about the 4th of July and a story that I heard growing up in history class which I found when I got on the internet all the stories I learned in history class as a kid they were all wrong.
[27:03] Okay? But I found the story of the Star Spangled Banner and I'll tell you the one that I like that I believe to be true. It's where Francis Scott Key in 1814 his friend William Beans who had been taken prisoner by the British Key went to Baltimore and located a ship where Beans was being held and negotiated his release.
[27:21] However, Key and Beans weren't allowed to leave until after the British bombarded Fort McHenry. Key watched the bombing campaign unfold from aboard a ship located eight miles away.
[27:33] What a horrible thing to have to watch, right? Eight miles away is this all night long. After a day the British were unable to destroy the fort and gave up. Key was delivered to see them. Key was relieved and the next morning when the dawn had come, right?
[27:47] Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we held as the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight or the ramparts we watch were so gallantly streaming that in the midst of all the bombing that took place the next day as the sun rose up the flag was still there.
[28:07] And that's all that mattered. That's all that mattered to him in the story. They might have lost the battle but in the midst of all the confusion the flag was still there. You know we sing a song it could be an anthem to us.
[28:19] Oh let your will be done in me and your love I will abide. Oh I long for nothing else as long as you are glorified. So there's times when we're in the confusion we're in the darkness of night and we say we're losing the battle the bombarding is taking place but when the sun rises up and the glory of God is still there when God has done something for his namesake we say we're still winning.
[28:41] Isn't it amazing if we set that and say God as long as you are glorified. The things in life that we can go through and rejoice when we say as long as you are glorified. Let's look at Romans number 8 in closing the day because the Apostle Paul he interprets this as well and I'm glad that I saw the psalm the same way the Apostle Paul does alright?
[29:00] Because we would know that we were wrong. But so as Paul looks at Romans chapter number 8 and he quotes from this psalm look what he does with it. Look what he does to challenge the believers of his day and us today.
[29:13] Verse number 18 of Romans chapter number 8 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
[29:23] There's this confidence. He declares that our suffering does not compare with the hope of glory. Verses 1-8 That none of that's happened the day that is so bad is anything in comparison to what God has done.
[29:36] Verse 36 As it is written For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. There's that complaint He acknowledges that in life we suffer and we're slaughtered like sheep all the day long.
[29:49] He even protests his innocence. Verse 34 Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also make his intercession for us.
[30:01] He protests his innocence his reasons that we deserve all of it God would certainly bring if we deserved it God would bring a charge against us but he wouldn't because we are justified in Jesus.
[30:12] So we can say to God God I know that something is going on and I'm confused and I don't understand it but my heart is clear towards you and I am justified in you. There's no longer any condemnation. You have taken that from me.
[30:23] So even though I feel lonely in this world I know that I'm not alone and even though my purposes and my name aren't being built I can take confidence in the fact that you are being glorified and that's all that I want from my life.
[30:37] It's what Paul says it's what David says it's what we should say then he prays for victory. Paul says what we do know and how we should pray verse 27 Romans 8 and he that searches the heart knoweth what is the mind of the spirit because he make us intercession for the saints according to the will of God and we can know this in 835 who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword.
[31:05] Isn't that incredible? As we look at this that nothing will separate us and so we can say as we said at the beginning even in times of great suffering and adversity when God seems not to care the faithful people of God can express their confidence and pour out their complaint and pray for deliverance and trust in his love and how can we do that?
[31:25] It's because we know that God needs and deserves to be glorified in this world. It settles so many things in our lives that we live our lives for him to be glorified that we would live our lives for his maximum glory that even when we feel like was she being led to slaughter if we get to do it for his namesake we count it the greatest of honors to live for him.
[31:50] Heavenly Father I thank you for your word for I thank you how it is a comfort in time of need and it was written ahead of time.