Yeah, let's turn to Philippians 4.
And our sermon text today begins at verse 4,
goes through verse 9.
1 Timothy 3 says that the Word of God
is breathed out by the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 4 says the Word of God is living,
powerful, and piercing.
If you receive it that way,
when I'm done reading our sermon text,
I'll say this is the Word of the Lord,
and you can say thanks be to God.
Philippians 4, 4 through 9.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again, I will say rejoice.
Let your gentleness be known to all.
The Lord is at hand.
Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus.
Verse 8.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true,
whatever things are noble,
whatever things are just,
whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are of good report,
if there is any virtue,
if there is anything praiseworthy,
meditate on these things.
The things which you learned and received
and heard and saw in me,
these do.
And the God of peace will be with you.
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
You may be seated.
Isaiah 40 says that the grass withers,
the flower fades,
but the Word of the Lord stands forever.
Luke 1 tells us that no word from God
shall be void of power.
Would you pray with me?
Father, I ask simply today
that we will know your presence.
We will know what it is to be
in the presence of the God of peace
and to have the peace
that can only come from being in your presence.
Please teach us this, Father.
For your glory we pray.
Amen.
Well, brothers and sisters and friends,
air is everywhere,
but only some species can fly.
They use the air to fly.
You know, think of birds and bats.
Are those the only two really that can fly?
And then we, if we're very generous,
we can say certain types of special squirrels can fly,
but it's really more like gliding.
And then even human beings that copy what the squirrels did
and put on wingsuits,
they can glide like that too.
But God didn't make every species to fly,
even though the air is everywhere.
Jeremiah 23, verses 23 and 24,
have a declaration from the creator.
And he says,
I am the God who is everywhere,
not in one place only.
So air is a wonderful illustration for us of God.
He's everywhere.
But we also see in scripture, for example, in 1 Samuel,
the devastation of the nation when the glory of God departs.
But the glorious presence of God no longer with his people.
And if you look at our sermon text in verse 9,
he says,
do these things and the God of peace will be with you.
So while God is everywhere,
there's a special promise for the church
as they obey the calling of Jesus.
And the promise is,
I will then be with you.
Isn't that what a church needs and depends on?
We should want nothing else
than the God of peace himself with us in a special way.
So, beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the question we need to wrestle with and understand is this.
Which churches get the God of peace?
Which churches get the God of peace
to be in his presence in a special way?
I see in these verses the promises.
I want us to see together what is the exact audience
that these promises are given to.
And then finally, the commands that we're called to respond to.
The promises, the audience, the commands.
Number one,
God's spirit breathed out two glorious promises in this passage.
And it's a play on words.
Look at verse 7.
He says,
And the God,
I'm sorry, verse 7,
And the peace of God
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
And now look at verse 9.
He says,
And the God of peace
will be with you.
In verse 7, it's the peace of God.
In verse 9, it's the God of peace.
So let's look at each of those.
First, the peace of God from verse 7
that will guard you.
The peace of God
is only possible
through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
And the reason for this is because
in Adam all died.
In Adam all live in constant terror
and disruption
and disorder.
At enmity with God
and in strife with fellow man.
That's the state we're born into under Adam.
But in Jesus Christ
comes the peace,
the restored relationship with God
and with man
that is not possible
outside of the person of Jesus Christ.
That's what the peace of God is.
Romans 14, 17 says
that the kingdom of God
which Jesus Christ ushered in and inaugurated,
it is righteousness
and peace
and joy
in the Holy Spirit.
This is exactly the mission of Jesus
for his people.
It's to bring the peace of God.
Some of our greatest
and favorite lines in our songs,
the hymns we love to sing,
they sing of this peace
because we knew how terrible it was
to be under Adam.
But now we have the peace
that's only possible in Christ.
For example,
come O sinner,
come rejoice.
Mercy fills this place of scorn
for he dies
to save his enemies
that all who draw near
may know his peace.
That's his mission.
The peace of God
is greater than anything
this fallen world can offer.
We want the peace of God.
But it doesn't stop
with the peace of God.
He says in verse 9,
this wonderful promise
that the God of peace
will be with you.
Even better,
as one pastor,
Brian Voss,
pointed out,
to have the peace of God
in verse 7
is to have the gift.
What a great gift.
But to have the God of peace
in verse 9
is to have the giver himself.
In verse 9,
the God of peace,
church,
will be with you.
In 1 Thessalonians 5.23,
this is one of my favorite
benedictions
or blessings
for God's people.
Now may the God
of peace himself
sanctify you completely.
May he preserve
your whole spirit,
soul,
and body
blameless
until the coming
of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
We sing of this
great truth also.
What heights of love,
what depths
of peace,
when fears are stilled,
when strivings
cease,
through God,
my comforter,
my all in all,
here in the love
of Christ I stand.
I'm in his presence.
It's the God of peace
himself
comforting me
and ministering to me.
Now the God of peace
himself promises
to bless
his true churches
with his own presence.
I will
be with you.
Aren't these wonderful,
glorious promises
that the Holy Spirit
breathed out?
Well the second thing
I need us to see then
is who are these
promises for?
Are these just abstract
things thrown out
in general?
Or do they have
a specific audience
in mind?
I'll try to do this
in as concise
of a way as possible
without you just
taking my word for it.
I want you to see this
in your own word,
your own copy
of God's word.
I think the audience
here is a gathered
congregation.
collectively together.
And so here's my proposition
then I'll walk you through
and you see if you arrive
at the same conclusion
or not.
And I'm sure it could be refined.
But here's what I want
to propose to you.
As we see over and over
we saw already this service.
There are the individual souls
that Christ redeemed.
They are forever secure
in him.
No disputing there.
However, individual churches
have no such security.
God's promises
to a congregation
hinge upon
their collective obedience
to God's commands.
Should I run it by us
one more time?
While individual souls
that Christ redeemed
are forever secure
in him,
individual churches
have no such security.
God promises
to a congregation,
you obey what I've commanded
and the blessings
that will come to you
as a gathered congregation
hinge upon your collective
obedience to these things.
So I want to show you
the audience
is the corporate
gathered congregation.
the first reason for this
is because
all of the times
in these two paragraphs
when Paul uses the word
you or your,
your,
they're all plural.
So very quickly,
verse 5,
your reasonableness.
I'm repeating it
because it helps us
to think of it
the way he intended it.
And in English
we just have the same
word,
you or your,
and it's hard to convey
a plural sense to that word.
Your reasonableness,
church together
being reasonable.
Verse 6,
your request.
What is burdening
the congregation
when we're together?
That's what we lift up to him.
Verse 7,
your hearts and your minds.
Yes,
it's the,
the inward life
of God's people
in a special way
in the plural
when you're gathered together.
In verse 9,
you have learned
together,
you,
you built this understanding,
this faith.
You built it up
in your own hearts and minds.
You've held on to this together.
In verse 9,
he says,
the God of peace
will be with you
in the plural,
together,
gathered in his name.
I think if that's not enough
to persuade you,
his address,
right here in the specific context
in verse 8,
is brethren,
plural.
He had,
he had spoken to individuals,
he caught out people by name,
but here he's addressing
the entire gathered congregation.
The second thing we can use
to answer this question
of who is the audience
is,
is the verbs.
So the verbs
in these two paragraphs,
all of these commands
are to all of the saints.
All of the verbs
are also in the plural.
In verse 4,
he says,
rejoice.
I'll say it again,
rejoice.
The Greek word
is best translated
if,
if we use that
older English word
that does have
a plural sense
of the second person.
It would be ye,
ye,
or y'all,
you know,
but ye.
So rejoice,
rejoice,
it's be ye together
rejoicing.
That's how it would be translated.
Verse 5,
let your plural gentleness
be known to all.
Modesty,
reasonableness,
that's a command,
a verb for the whole congregation
together to practice.
In verse 6,
do not be anxious.
It would be literally
translated this way,
in nothing
be ye worrying.
Let your requests,
your burdens
be lifted up.
In verse 8,
think about these things,
but it's in the plural as well.
Be ye taking into account.
All of you together,
wrestle with,
ponder,
take into account this together
as a gathered people.
And finally in verse 9,
practice these things.
It's be ye practicing.
All of you as one gathered people,
practicing,
marching
in a pattern together.
And now if you'll turn back
in Philippians,
a couple pages,
look at Philippians 1,
second part of verse 1,
he addresses this
to all the saints
in Christ Jesus
who are in Philippi
with the overseers
and deacons.
So he is addressing it
to the entire church.
Therefore,
the promises are for
the collective,
gathered congregation
as well.
Now look at verse 7,
this wonderful promise
that the peace of God
will guard you.
What's the very first word
in verse 7
in your translation?
And.
It's a conditionality.
So here are my commands
and the peace of God
will guard you.
Now look at verse 9.
That's what these two words
have in common,
these two verses
with promises.
Verse 9,
obey these commands,
think of these things,
and the God of peace
will be with you.
Church,
if we don't have
the presence of God
with us,
we cease to exist.
I mentioned in
the Old Testament
in 1 Samuel,
the greatest fear
of the people of God
was to lose
the glory of God
in their presence,
in their midst.
And the name of the child
in the Old Testament
was Ichabod,
which means the glory
of God has departed.
While God's everywhere,
this is a real warning,
a real invitation.
Practice what God
has called you to.
Stay close to Christ.
Don't take for granted
His presence.
Without Christ,
you are not a church.
You're individuals
that are saved
and He'll take care of you
somewhere else,
but for a local church,
obey these things
if you want the presence
and the peace
of God with you.
In Revelation 2,
5,
to the church in Ephesus,
which was solid in doctrine,
but had become
all about the wrong things.
Jesus Christ Himself
speaks these words.
He says,
you've taken
me for granted.
You've lost
the love
of the giver
of the good gifts.
He says,
remember therefore
from where you have fallen.
Repent
and do the works
you did at first.
If not,
I will come to you
and remove
your lampstand
from its place
unless you repent.
A lampstand represents
the presence of God
with His people
and it's the lampstand
being removed
out of the heaven
of heavens,
out of the presence
of God.
It's this congregation
no longer
enjoying that access
as a gathered people.
And to the church
in Smyrna,
it's even stronger warnings
about the church
being mixed with the world.
Revelation 2.9
Jesus says,
I know the blasphemy
of those who say
they are God's people
and are not
but are a synagogue
of Satan.
So don't mess around
with this church.
What you do
as a gathered
collective people
in the plural
together,
that's the hinge
upon which
God's promises
to a local church
depend.
So those are
the promises
in the audience.
Now what are these
important commands
that have so much
at stake?
Well the first command
is this,
God promises
His peace
to congregations
that rejoice
in the Lord.
God promises
His peace
to congregations
that rejoice
in the Lord.
He says in verse 4,
rejoice in the Lord
always.
He's already warned
them in this little letter
that many rejoice
in their own interests
instead.
Many use Christ's name
only for selfish ambition,
in Philippians 1.15
out of envy
and rivalry,
in Philippians 1.18
in pretense,
not sincerely,
Philippians 2.3
only for vain glory,
any glory
that does not go to God
is vain glory.
In Philippians 3.19
He says,
many walk
whose glory
is their shame,
who set their minds
on earthly things,
and these are enemies
of the cross.
But you, church,
rejoice in the Lord
always.
the times
when I've had
the least peace
in my own life,
my own soul,
it's when I was
not with a church
that consistently
rejoiced
in the Lord.
And our flesh
wants to pull us away
from rejoicing
in Christ,
doesn't it?
It's too easy
for churches
and for us
to rejoice
in some program,
rejoice in the success
in man's eyes,
rejoice in visible,
numeric growth.
It's too easy
to want to make sermons
or make our teaching
or our Bible study
therapeutic,
making it all about
sinful man
tickling the ear.
One of our dear brothers
here shared with me
in a town nearby
that we all know,
he's witnessed
30 churches
closing their doors,
and in every single case,
they were not rejoicing
in the Lord.
The lampstand goes out.
Now there's true believers,
there's true believers
that God will place them
somewhere else,
he'll find green pastures,
they might have to
commute a bit more,
but there's a world here
that's dark,
and churches that don't
rejoice in the Lord
become another graveyard
for the pulpit.
Paul says,
rejoice in the Lord,
and you're wanting
to say in your own mind,
when,
when do I not have to?
He says,
always,
and you're trying to think,
but what about
five,
ten years from now
when this is there?
Rejoice in the Lord,
always,
I will say again,
even if I'm dead,
the verb is
in the future tense,
I shall be declaring.
So Paul's saying,
even if my head
gets chopped off,
you can still hear
this echoing,
there's no excuse,
no conditions upon
which our church
should stop rejoicing
in the Lord.
I will say it again,
and I'll keep saying
forever,
rejoice.
Let your reasonableness
be known to everyone,
the Lord is at hand,
and the peace of God,
which surpasses
all understanding,
will guard your hearts
and your minds
in Christ Jesus.
Church,
do you want to enjoy
God's presence
with you?
Do you want to enjoy
God's presence
when you come together
in His name
every Sunday morning?
Then rejoice
in the Lord,
always.
I will say it again,
rejoice.
And you'll be reminded
of this every time
you open up
our bulletin
or liturgy,
and someone stands up here,
picks up the microphone,
and reads
when it calls to worship.
Because that's what the Bible
constantly calls
God's people to do.
Think of some that we
have used.
Psalm 95,
1 and 2.
O come,
let us sing to the Lord.
Let us shout joyfully
to the rock
of our salvation.
Let us come before
His presence
with thanksgiving.
Let us shout joyfully
to Him
with songs.
Psalm 101-3.
Make a joyful
shout to the Lord,
all you lands.
Serve the Lord
with gladness.
Come before
His presence
with singing.
Know that the Lord,
He is God.
It is He who has made us
and not we ourselves.
Let your reasonableness
be known
to everyone.
The Lord
is at hand.
Everything we do,
gathered in His name,
it's with the Lord
at hand.
If we're having
a Bible study
or a discussion
or prayer,
how can I say something
that would be out of step
with the mind of Christ
if I remember
that the Lord's at hand?
When we're singing,
when we're praying,
when we're doing our best
to disciple our children
and the flesh
or the pride
wants to creep in
and distort it,
the Lord is at hand.
We minister to one another
in that way.
And by remembering
that the Lord is with us,
His people,
we will be reasonable
with the help of His Spirit.
We will be gentle.
We will do it in such a way
that brings Him glory.
So Reformed Heritage Church
specifically
has one very small
little lampstand
in the courtroom of heaven.
Let us pray.
Let us sing.
Let us listen.
May we talk and eat
and fellowship and serve
knowing that the Lord
is at hand with us
together as His gathered people.
And then we can
be such a church
that knows with confidence
these promises are for us too.
The peace of God
which passes all understanding
will guard us.
So we don't live anxious
or fearful about the future
even of this one
little congregation.
We trust this promise.
We are rejoicing in the Lord
by His grace
with His help.
And we're not afraid.
We're not anxious.
He's guarding us together.
To guard in this way
in verse 7.
He will guard your hearts
and your minds.
It means to garrison.
It's like an ancient citadel.
A walled castle.
The banner over this,
if you make it through the gates,
the bridge comes down.
You make it inside.
The banner over us
is the peace of God.
And as the world
mounts all around it
and shakes and shoots,
we're under siege.
They're baffled
because this little outpost
of the kingdom of heaven
is unrattled.
It's beyond understanding.
It's Christ
guarding His church
with His peace.
Well, God promises also
His peace to churches
that bring their requests
to Him
in thankful prayer.
God promises His peace
to churches
that bring their requests
to Him
in thankful prayer.
It's good for us
as a church
to have requests.
What are the requests
that we all share
that would be the requests
of this congregation?
And it's good for us
to discuss that.
Learn from one another.
Let the burdens
that God has put
on the hearts
of a gathered congregation
become our shared burdens.
That's important.
We ought to have
shared requests
that we bring
before the Lord.
But we should not be anxious
about those things.
That's what Jesus
came to preach.
God the Father
loves you.
In Matthew 6,
Jesus said,
Therefore do not be anxious
about tomorrow,
for it will be anxious
for itself.
Sufficient for the day
is its own trouble.
Seek first the kingdom
of God
and His righteousness
and all these things
will be added unto you
because the Father
loves you.
Paul says,
So in everything,
by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving,
let your requests
be made known to God.
Yes, God knows all,
but He's a loving Father.
He wants you
to make your requests known
when you're together
gathered in His name.
Then the peace of God,
who surpasses all understanding,
will minister to you.
Isn't it true
you've been most settled,
most at peace
before the Lord
and with your family,
your loved ones,
when you're with a church
that prays in such a way,
when you're with God's people
gathered in His name,
and you know
the Father loves us.
We comfort one another
by praying this way.
It's that simple
childlike faith
depending on the love
of my Father in Heaven.
Polycarp,
a very, very early
saved sinner,
hero of the faith,
he ministered to the church
this way.
He said,
Don't worry,
just pray.
I love how simple it is.
And it's also
very deep,
very true.
Because the Lord
is near you,
church,
pray.
His Spirit
is so close to you.
Every need
that comes to you
through your body,
through this fallen world,
it reminds you
you need your Savior,
and He's near to you.
So those things
don't become the problem
to get out of anymore.
They become God's
gracious,
gentle shepherd's rod,
bringing you back
to lie down
in the presence
of your good shepherd.
And He says,
by prayer
and supplication,
let your requests
be made known
to God.
How do we pray
to a triune God?
What is it
that Scripture reveals
about Father,
Son,
and Holy Spirit?
And how we,
His people,
get to be part of that
and commune with Him?
Every time we pray,
we are practicing
the presence
of the triune God
with His people.
Every time we pray,
we are communing
as a human being,
body and soul,
with our Creator.
How do we pray
to our triune God?
This little book
by Fred Sanders
on the Trinity
was so helpful
to me this week.
And that's what I want
to try to briefly
summarize for us.
How to pray
as a church.
We pray following
the order
of our redemption.
God is a God
of order
and His own Word
gives us
the order
by which He redeems us
through Father,
Son,
and Holy Spirit.
God.
So here are the three
persons of the one God.
Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
Now, the New Testament,
God's full and final revelation,
gives us helpful words
to explain the order
among Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
being one God.
Let me give you
this illustration.
If I wanted to tell you
about my car,
the Eisenhower Tunnel,
and the Western Slope,
those are three different things
I want to tell you about.
I'm going to use
these other words
to show how they're related
one to another.
I think they're called
prepositions.
I could say I came
from the Western Slope
through the tunnel
in my car.
Those three words
are a helpful way
for us to understand
how the Triune God
redeemed us
and then walking it
back the other direction,
how we pray
to a Triune God.
from God the Father
through God the Son
in God the Holy Spirit.
That's how we pray.
Let me try to show you
this from Scripture.
1 Corinthians 8.6
tells us that salvation
and life
are from God the Father.
This passage says,
there is one God,
the Father,
from whom are all things
and for whom we exist.
We also read in Scripture
the same passage,
salvation and life
are through God the Son.
In 1 Corinthians 8.6,
Paul writes,
there is one Lord,
Jesus Christ,
through whom all things
were made
and through whom
we exist.
And then salvation and life
are in God the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12.3 says,
no one can say,
Jesus is my Lord
except in the Holy Spirit.
How?
1 Corinthians 6.11,
after telling the church,
you were all
the worst kinds of sinners,
such were some of you,
but you were washed,
you were sanctified,
you were justified
in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ
by the Spirit
of our God.
So God redeems us
from the Father,
through the Son,
in the Holy Spirit.
since life and salvation
are from God the Father,
we ought to pray
to God the Father.
Luke 11.2,
Jesus taught His disciples that.
He said,
when you pray,
pray like this,
our Father
who is in heaven.
We address it to
God the Father.
Our Father
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is
in heaven.
So we pray to God the Father.
Now salvation and life
are through God the Son,
and so we pray
through God the Son,
Jesus Christ.
John 14.13,
Jesus said,
ask in my name
that the Father
may be glorified
in the Son.
And we ought to
then enjoy life
in God
through the Spirit.
And so we pray
in the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 6.18,
we're told this,
pray in the Spirit
at all times
with all kinds
of prayers
and requests.
And Romans 8.26 says,
the Spirit helps us
in our weakness
for when we do not
know what to pray
as we ought,
the Spirit Himself
intercedes for us.
So that's how we pray
as a gathered congregation.
We practice this
on our own as well.
We pray,
going back
the opposite direction,
in the Holy Spirit.
By His power
working in His people,
we pray through
God the Son,
Jesus Christ.
And we pray
to the Father.
And the peace of God,
which surpasses
all understanding,
will guard your hearts
and your minds
in Christ Jesus.
So God promises
His peace
to churches
that bring their requests
to Him
in thankful prayer.
that practice
pondering
the praiseworthy one.
God promises
to be Himself,
His very presence
with churches
that practice
pondering Him,
the only praiseworthy one.
Would you look with me
at verse 8?
He says,
finally, brethren,
or could be translated
for the rest,
brothers and sisters,
or beyond that.
Here's what else
I want to add.
I want to conclude
with this,
He says.
Whatever is true,
whatever is honorable,
whatever is just,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is commendable,
if there is any virtue,
if there is anything
worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Well, knowing that
the audience
is the whole church,
the collective
gathered congregation,
I think we can conclude this.
Our thought life
as a gathered church
strengthens
our thought life
as a scattered church.
It's downstream.
How we think
individually scattered out
in the world,
stuck into this
decaying carcass
of this fallen world,
it will be
directly strengthened
by what we ponder.
The more excellent,
the more praiseworthy
is our time
when we're gathered together,
the more strength
each of us will have
as God scatters us
back out
into His mission field.
What we uphold,
what we discuss,
what we meditate
on together,
this is what God uses
to guard our thoughts
and our hearts
when we're not together,
to meditate on
means to deliberate,
evaluate,
compute,
ponder over
and over and over again.
And He wants the church
together to uphold
only that which is excellent
and praiseworthy,
what is true,
good,
and pure.
He uses the word
virtuous
among others
to describe
what it is
the church
ought to give
their thoughts to.
The word virtuous
in 1 Peter 2.9
is used to describe
God Himself,
the only perfectly
virtuous One.
We are to proclaim
the virtue
or the excellencies
of God
who called you
out of darkness
into His marvelous
light.
And this is one
of the only other places
the word virtue
is used in this sense.
2 Peter 1.3
teaches
that God's divine power
has granted
to us
all things
that pertain
to life
and godliness
through the knowledge
of Him
who called us
to His glory
and His excellence,
His virtuousness.
And it's only
by His
divine power.
So I think
there are a lot
of applications
for this truth,
but here's what
I want to draw out
for us today
in light of this passage.
Every one
of these
noble things
that we ought
to give
our thoughts
to,
it ought to begin
with the thought
of God Himself
as the supreme
good behind each
one.
And then
we think rightly
about God,
we're free
to go into the world
and think rightly
about other
expressions or
reflections of God
Himself
that we see.
So for example,
He lists truth,
nobility,
justice,
purity,
loveliness,
what is commendable,
virtuous,
and praiseworthy.
When we're gathered
as His church,
it's like the
Scripture reveals
by the help
of the Spirit,
God Himself,
His attributes,
His glory,
His essence,
and that's what
elevates the thoughts
of the church.
It's thinking of
God Himself,
the only praiseworthy
one,
the only virtuous
one.
But then when we go
back into the world,
He does help
each one of you
in different ways,
in different fields.
Students,
you'll see all of these
maybe in one day
in class,
in your different subjects.
You'll see truth.
You'll see nobility.
You'll see justice,
purity,
loveliness.
You'll see examples,
even in fallen sinners,
of something commendable,
something worthy of praise.
But it begins with
the elevated thoughts
of His people
as a church
on God Himself.
Only then will we
rightly read
and interpret
what we see reflected
in His creation.
In verse 9,
He says,
what you have learned
and received
and heard
and seen in me,
practice these things.
To have learned something,
it carries with it
the two meanings.
One is a clear understanding
and number two,
it's learning
by habitual practice.
Paul emphasizes both.
He says,
what you have seen
and witnessed
and understood
and soaked up,
now go practice
these things.
Practice what you have seen.
Have you seen
when you gather
with God's people
that God is praiseworthy?
Have you seen
how God is patient
and pure and good
and He alone
should be called good?
Have you seen
how Jesus is the way,
the truth,
and the life?
And how it does
truly transform
the lives of your
brothers and sisters
as they go back
into the world?
Think about these things.
Practice what you have
pondered here
with God's people.
Psalm 145.3 says,
great is the Lord
and most worthy
of praise.
His greatness
no one can fathom.
A fathom is a measurement
in the depths of the ocean.
So be with God's people
wondering,
fathoming
how good
and how praiseworthy
He is.
And practice that
throughout the week
when you're scattered.
And this glorious promise
that the God of peace
will be with you.
The peace of God
with His church
brings refreshing
from His presence.
But the God of peace
as His people gather
and proclaim Him
in a hostile world,
it's a language
of victory.
You don't get to raise
the white flag
of peace
in a war
until the victory
is secured.
You know this familiar
Bible verse.
Who is it
that God promises
will soon crush Satan
underneath your feet?
It's the God
of peace.
Peace
for victory.
He will do this.
My favorite fort,
I've only visited a couple
so it's not
a big scale
to choose from,
but I'm so,
I'm so mesmerized
by a fort
right on the waterfront
in Baltimore,
Maryland.
It's really cool
because of the shape
of this fort.
It's like buildings
in the shape
of a pentagon,
like a stop sign.
And then the fort itself
has these little mounds
with grass on top
and those form
basically a star
around the pentagon
and then each
of the points
of the star
has like a cool
spear shape
and you can go
in the tunnels
all underneath it
or climb on top
and looking down
you see these big cannons
firing out
against the water.
As some of you
know already
Fort McHenry
is the site
in the war of 1812
from where we get
the star-spangled banner.
That flag,
the victory,
it's still waving.
The war is over
and it's the God
of peace
with His people
inside the fort.
He's crushing
the enemy
under your feet.
You're part of this.
It's His cannons
that are firing off.
It's His gospel
that's being proclaimed
and His flag,
His banner
over His people
of peace.
It's not going
to be gone
because He is victorious.
He wins the battle.
He is with us
in His citadel,
the kingdom of heaven.
and His peace
guards us.
We're secure in Him.
He will crush
His enemy.
All things are being
brought under the feet
of King Jesus
on His throne in heaven
and He's doing this
through the humble,
self-sacrificing,
foolish means
of the cross
proclaimed
through His church,
through His people.
So Reformed Heritage Church,
may we never stop
rejoicing in the Lord.
may we never stop
encouraging and reminding
one another
we have pardon
for sin
and a peace
that endureth.
May we enjoy forever,
as long as we have
days on this earth,
God's own dear presence
with us
to cheer
and to guide.
Strength for today
and bright hope
for tomorrow.
Blessings all ours
in Christ
with 10,000 beside.
Let's pray.
Oh Lord,
thank you for these promises
that you will be
with your people
and you will give
your people
your peace.
Please teach us
to practice your presence,
especially when we're
gathered on the Lord's Day
in a worship service
like this, Lord,
and may that be
the strength
that we need
to march out
your kingdom orders
as you scatter us
to different places
throughout the week,
trusting that
according to your will
you'll continue
gathering people
in your name.
You will never
abandon your church.
Lo, you are with us
always,
even to the end
of the age.
Amen.