Good morning again.
It's my privilege this morning to preach and to bring the word this morning, which is what our hearts need, right?
! We need the word of God. It's food for us. And so this morning we start our series in the Psalms and we start with Psalm 21 this morning.
So if you would, if you would locate Psalm 21, and if you're able, I would ask you in honor of God's word to stand as we read Psalm 21.
So stand with me.
It's the Psalm of David.
O Lord, in your strength the King rejoices, and in your salvation how greatly he exalts.
You have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips.
For you meet him with rich blessings.
You set a crown of fine gold upon his head.
He asked life of you.
You gave it to him, length of days, forever and ever.
His glory is great through your salvation.
Splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
For you make him most blessed forever.
You make him glad with the joy of your presence.
For the King trusts in the Lord.
And through the steadfast love of the Most High, he shall not be moved.
Your hand will find out all your enemies.
Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear.
The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath.
And fire will consume them.
You will destroy their descendants from the earth and their offspring from among the children of man.
Though they plan evil against you.
Though they devise mischief.
They will not succeed.
For you will put them to flight.
You will aim at their faces with your bows.
Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength.
We will sing and praise your power.
Let's pray.
Father, we marvel at your greatness.
God, we see it here echoed in the words of David as he worships you.
As he declares who you are.
As your character shines forth.
God, we this morning are grateful to be called by your name.
We're grateful for your blessings.
And God, we ask this morning as your word is preached that you would speak to our hearts.
God, we ask that you would resonate.
Your word would resonate in our hearts.
God, and we would be more drawn to you.
And we praise you this morning in Christ's name.
Amen.
Y'all can have a seat.
Well, it's believed by many that this psalm was written in response to the coronation of David.
And as I was preparing and studying for this psalm, it was a blessing to me to remember some truths about David.
And what I want to do is I want to share some of those truths.
It was just a quick summary of some of the things that David experienced leading up to this moment in time when he was crowned king.
There's a lot we can see in the scriptures about David.
And certainly don't want to hit all of those truths, but we want to hit a few.
You know, when David was young, we'd learn in the scriptures that he was tending the sheep.
It's always been odd to me to think that David would tend the sheep.
In my mind in that day, that was the role of a servant.
And yet he is a son.
He was the youngest of eight sons of his father.
The other sons were trained in war and battle.
And yet David, for some reason, was sent into the wilderness with all the sheep to take care of the sheep.
Now, God had a plan, but honestly, I don't know what his father thought.
I don't know if there was some friction between him and his father.
I don't know what they thought of David.
He was certainly young still.
And yet I believe that when he was in the quietness of the wilderness with the sheep and pretty much alone,
he would play songs.
He would sing songs.
He would worship God.
I can only imagine looking up and seeing the starry sky and just being in awe of God.
We learn from David as he talks about that time that in keeping the sheep,
on occasion there would be animals, a bear, a lion, he speaks of both,
that would come and attack the flock.
And we're told in the scriptures that David would pursue the sheep that got taken.
And David shares that on more than one occasion, God gave him extraordinary strength
and incredible courage to go after those sheep.
And he saw the powerful hand of God in those moments deliver the sheep through him.
And we see as we continue to walk toward the time when he is confronting Goliath,
we see that incredible courage displayed there as well.
Well, so David seemed to have friction between himself and his brothers.
He was asked by his father to take food to the battlefield when they were encamped against the Philistine army.
And he went in honor of his father to take the food.
And the brothers were like, what are you doing here?
Why are you even here?
You're just a shepherd.
You don't deserve to be here.
What gives you the right to come?
Well, Dad asked me to bring this to you.
Oh, okay.
Go home.
There seemed to be some odds between he and his brother.
What we see in the encounter with Goliath is amazing to me.
And I think we've all been amazed that a boy could have that courage.
When no other warrior in the camp of Israel had courage to stand against Goliath,
David had experienced the powerful presence of God,
had experienced the powerful hand of God through him as he fought against the lions,
as he fought against the bears, as he protected the flock.
And he makes a statement about that time.
Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that would dare defy God?
Who would dishonor him and God's people?
And there is a boldness that rises up within David.
We see a character in David that has been changed by God.
You know, I believe that's what happens with us.
The more we're in the presence of God, the more we're changed.
And I think David was one that was familiar with worship,
and he was familiar with the presence of God.
And so with that courage, he says,
Who are you?
This day I will feed you to the birds of the air.
Where does that courage come from if it's not from God?
And David confronts Goliath, and sure enough, we know the story how Goliath is slain.
He cuts his head off and brings the head back into the camp,
and it gives courage to all of Israel.
You know, in those days, Saul, the king, had turned away from honoring God,
and he tried to build his own kingdom.
He honored himself and not God, and so God took the kingdom from the hand of Saul,
and God sent Samuel to David to anoint him as the next king.
And so he goes to David's father's house, Jesse, and he says,
Where are your sons?
The Lord has sent me here.
And he calls his sons, and guess who's left out?
Again, there's something there.
It's hard to understand exactly.
The scriptures don't really give us enough fact to understand what's going on there.
But he was not even called when this honored guest, the spiritual leader of the nation,
showed up at their front door, so to speak.
And yet he looks, and God says, Not him, not him, not him, not him, not him, not him.
Do you have any other sons?
Well, yeah, I do, but he's just a shepherd.
He's out in the field.
He's not a warrior.
I mean, surely you can't.
We will not sit down until you go get him.
And he goes and gets him.
David arrives.
And what does he do?
He said, God says to him, That's the one.
That's the one.
Anoint him as king.
Let me ask this.
What did y'all do?
What were y'all doing 10 years ago?
12 years ago?
Y'all remember?
Isn't it interesting that Samuel anoints him as king, and yet he doesn't experience a coronation
for years and years and years?
Do you think he was puzzled?
Samuel, did you make a mistake?
I mean, Saul's the king.
Why did you anoint me?
Why didn't you wait till after Saul?
There's probably a lot of questions, but you don't question Samuel.
My point is this.
Surely David struggled to understand, Wait a minute.
What happened here?
Am I to be king, and why am I not king now?
And then Saul begins to attack David.
Saul throws a spear at him twice to kill him, and he avoids the spear, and he heads out.
David leaves the presence of Saul, and he goes out away from Saul to get some space.
And what does Saul do?
He takes the army and chases David to kill him, because he heard that David had been anointed
by Samuel.
And so David had the chance more than once to kill Saul.
You remember the story that they were hiding in the cave when Saul and his army came, and
Saul walks into the cave to relieve himself.
And what does David do?
The guys are, Get him!
Get him!
You got a chance!
Get him now!
Now, and David takes his knife and cuts the robe and holds the piece in his hand.
Saul walks outside.
David walks out of the cave and says, Saul, king, Lord, why do you chase after me to kill
me?
And he holds up the piece of the garment that he cut off, and he says, look, this is from
your garment.
God delivered you into my hand.
But I will not raise my hand against you, because you are the Lord's anointed.
How many years did this go on?
How many years did Saul pursue him?
We know the other time that God caused a hard sleep to fall on all of the army of Israel,
and David and his chief go right into the camp.
They take the spear and the water jug, I think it was, from the head of the king.
It was sitting on the ground, and they go up the hill, and they begin to call to him,
Lord, Saul, why do you come after me?
I'm just a dog.
And he holds it up, and he said, see, God delivered you again into my hand, but I will
not do harm to God's anointed.
All that time, he waited and waited and waited and waited for God's timing.
He did not push his own timing to try to make himself king, though he knew that he had been
anointed, and he knew that the Spirit of God had come upon him, which is what the Scripture
declares.
And here we are in Psalm 21, and I believe this is the moment of the coronation of David.
This would mean that Saul is no longer on the scene.
He was killed in battle.
And then David comes to be crowned as king.
You know, the psalm, the women sang a song at one point when Saul was still alive and said,
Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.
David was a warrior.
God had made him a warrior to fight against the enemies of God, the enemies of the people.
And here we are in the first, well, I would say this, the psalm has three different sections
this morning, and we're going to look at all three.
And so really, there's three main points that we want to see this morning.
The first section is verses one through seven.
And the point I want you to see is that the king is blessed by God.
The king is blessed by God.
Let's read this section again, one through seven.
I'll read it if you have your scriptures open, which I hope you do.
Why don't you read along as I share here.
Oh, Lord, in your strength, the king rejoices.
Can you hear David?
At this moment, he's worshiping God.
He's waited a long time for the moment when God would actually place him as king of the nation.
And here he says, oh, Lord, in your strength, the king rejoices.
And in your salvation, how greatly he exalts.
What is it to rejoice?
What is rejoicing?
Rejoicing is an overflow of joy.
I want you to notice what David says here.
It says, my joy is because of what you've done.
My joy is because I stand in your strength.
My joy is because of your salvation.
Do you see the two phrases there in the first verse?
In your strength, in your salvation, these are the things that bring me joy.
Lord, I rest in you.
Do you think that he's lived that over the last several years prior to this time?
As he's watched time and time again, God deliver him from the hand of Saul and from other enemies.
He sees and he knows that his strength is found not in himself, but in God.
It's a gift of God.
And so he worships, oh, Lord, in your strength, the king rejoices.
And in your salvation, how greatly he exalts.
Incredible joy.
We'll talk more about that in a minute.
You have given him his heart's desire.
You know what was said of David, and we could probably all share this.
It was said of David that he's a man after God's own heart.
Here David says, you have given me, or you've given the king, his heart's desire.
Put those two things together, and what's the truth that rises out of this?
You know, the heart's desire of David is that he would know and honor and love and be in the presence of God.
A man after God's own heart.
If he truly is a man after God's own heart, what is it that brings him joy?
What is it that fulfills him and satisfies him?
It's God.
When he knows and understands and experiences God, then his great satisfaction.
And he relays that here.
You have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips.
You see the blessings of God that David has received?
And he goes on and on and on and on.
So I ask this, what blessings, as David shares this psalm with the people, what blessings of God do we see?
What blessings are attributed to God?
And what blessings does he attribute to himself and his own actions?
You know, in this psalm, it's all about what God does.
Do you see it?
Verse 1, O Lord, I'm full of joy because of your strength and your salvation.
You have given, verse 2.
You meet him with rich blessings, verse 3.
You set a crown, a fine goal upon the king's head.
He asked life of you and you gave life.
You gave the king life.
Do you see what he's doing?
He's worshiping and he's praising the God who has blessed him beyond measure.
Do you think when he was a boy that he ever dreamed that there would be a day when the crown would be placed on his head?
Do you think his dad ever thought that?
Do you think his brothers ever thought that?
In his wildest imagination, he could have never thought that.
And yet, here he is by the power and the plan of God.
He's experiencing this moment and he's full of rejoicing.
He's full of joy.
He's full of encouragement on what God has done.
If we look at verse 5,
His glory is great through your salvation.
Do you see that he's not saying, look what I've done?
Look how great I am.
Look at how I've defeated my enemies.
He doesn't say anything to that.
You know what he says to the people?
People, do you realize this is all God?
This has nothing to do with me.
It has all to do with God.
And look what he's done, don't you?
Aren't you amazed at what God has done that he would so do this in my life?
It goes on to say,
Splendor and majesty you've bestowed upon him.
You know, it is, there is a measure of splendor and majesty when an Israelite is crowned the king.
The protector and provider of the people.
And certainly he's experiencing that, but he's not letting that grab his heart like Saul did.
You know, if we read the scriptures, we come to understand that Saul desperately clung to the kingship.
And he longed for his children to be on the throne after him, Jonathan specifically.
And it didn't happen.
And here's David not saying, I'm going to protect what I've gained.
I'm going to protect this position.
You know what he's saying?
God, we worship you.
We stand amazed at how you bless.
Verse 6,
You, God, you make him most blessed forever.
You, God, make him glad and with joy, the joy of your presence.
Isn't it interesting that God weaves a path for all of us?
And for all of his children, the path that he weaves is what?
It's this path of intimacy.
It's this path that leads us to his presence.
And it's this path that helps us experience who he is.
I'm amazed at what God did in David's life when he was young.
No matter the friction between him and his father,
no matter the friction between him and his brother,
God set that in motion with a plan in his life.
God knew that one day David would be the king.
And God had to prepare him for that moment.
And here he is in humility, giving God this praise.
And notice in verse 7,
The king trusts in the Lord,
and through the steadfast love of the Most High,
he shall not be moved.
It's not through his own ability.
It's not through his own capability of being a warrior.
The thing that's going to allow David and the nation to stand is the steadfast love of the Lord.
Do you believe that's true in your life?
Let me ask this.
When times are tough and difficult,
you know that David walked those difficult times?
The king of the nation is pursuing him to kill him?
When times are tough for you,
do you find yourself trusting in God?
Do you find yourself trying to take ownership of the results to control the outcomes?
Or do you find yourself like David says,
God, I'm in your hands.
You do whatever you want.
If you desire for me to be king,
God, I will not press it.
I give myself to you at the proper time.
You place me where you desire to place me.
Do we live like that?
Do you live like that?
Do you trust in such a way that when life is throwing you obstacles,
when circumstances are incredibly difficult,
do you find yourself saying,
God, I'm in your hands.
I trust you.
You're sovereign.
You've got a plan.
You're working this in my life for my good.
I can't see it right now because the level of pain is tough.
But God, I trust you.
I rely on you.
And I worship you and I praise you.
You know what else he knows?
Let me just read.
This is David again in another Psalm.
You don't have to turn,
but I'm turning back to Psalm 16 and verse 11.
Listen to what David says.
He says,
He's speaking to God.
In your presence,
there is fullness of joy.
At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Let me read that again.
And I wonder if that resonates with you.
In your presence,
there is fullness of joy.
At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
You know,
David in this Psalm,
he is saying,
here's my joy.
My joy
and my satisfaction
are directly tied
to the Lord.
Do you know that
when we seek joy in this world,
we seek joy in things,
we seek joy in success,
we seek joy in any other way
besides Him,
that is God.
You know what doesn't satisfy?
And it doesn't bring us lasting joy.
David
treasures something greater
than the kingship.
You know what he treasures?
God Himself.
And it's my hope, church,
that this is true for you and me.
is that we treasure
the presence of God.
And as it's said over here,
in your presence,
there is fullness of joy.
If you want to experience joy,
unspeakable joy,
abundant joy,
you know where it's found?
It's in the presence of God.
Have you sought His presence
like David sought His presence?
Have you experienced His deliverance
the way David experienced His deliverance?
Have you worshipped Him
the way David is worshipping Him?
As the one who's worthy of worship?
You know, David had a lot of enemies.
And if we look at this next section,
section 2,
here's the truth
and the main point of section 2.
So this is point number 2.
Point number 1 is
God has blessed the king.
And I would say this,
if He's blessed the king,
guess what?
He's blessed the kingdom as well.
He blessed the king
and as a result,
He also blessed the kingdom.
That is the people
under the charge of David.
And section 2,
or number 2 is this,
no enemy can hide
from God's judgment.
No enemy.
David had a lot of enemies,
but none can hide
from the judgment of God.
You know God can't be mocked?
Some people will look in the face of God
and say,
who do you think you are?
I'm not worried about you.
I can do anything I want.
I'm my own God.
I could care less about you.
Yeah, they say you created the world.
There's all kind of gods.
I don't care.
I'm living life the way
I want to live life.
You just get out of my way.
You know there's a lot of people
that live like that
and believe that?
The way it's described
in verse 11,
these people,
it says,
though they plan evil against you,
that is against God,
though they devise mischief
as if they can control
the ultimate outcome,
they will not succeed.
And in verse 8,
if you will,
I'm going to read through here too.
It says,
your hand will find out
all your enemies.
Isn't it interesting?
He says your hand.
God, your hand.
That is the strength.
Your strength.
Your hand.
That is action.
Not just you will know about it, God,
but your hand
will be against
all your enemies.
Your right hand
will find out those who hate you.
Do you think that anyone
can hide from God?
There's some who think they can.
The word of God declares they can't.
Notice what it says here.
So I ask the question,
what is he talking about?
Here's what he's talking about.
The coming righteous judgment of God
on all the enemies of God
and God's people.
Again,
it's the coming righteous judgment of God
against all the enemies of God.
David is declaring this
on this coronation day
as he protects the people,
as he declares,
God,
I've seen your hand
against your enemies
and I trust you.
And he makes this declaration.
He said,
you will make them
as a blazing oven
when you appear.
What is he talking about?
When you appear.
What do you think?
It's when he appears,
when Christ returns.
It's the second coming of Christ.
And at the second coming of Christ,
what happens for those
who are his children
who trust him?
Christians,
those whose names are written
in the book of life.
What happens then?
They're caught up with him
and will ever,
forever be with them.
But what happens
to the enemies of God
when Christ returns?
You know what happens?
This is what happens.
Look at verse 9.
It's a blazing oven.
The scripture says of hell
where a worm does not die
and the fire is not quenched.
There is no escape.
The enemies of God
will be eternally separated
from God.
And David declares
it's like a blazing oven.
And then also he says
it will swallow them up.
Like a flood,
it will swallow all of them up.
fire will consume them.
They will be destroyed.
Do you hear judgment
in this section?
As David declares,
God, you're good.
You know what I see
in this psalm?
I see the character of God.
You know what the character of God,
how the character of God
responds to those
that worship him
and serve him?
He pours abundant blessings
on their life.
Extravagant blessings.
If you read what David just said
about what God has done
in his life
and how he's been blessed,
did you pick up what he said?
Strength and salvation,
you satisfy my heart's desire.
You bless me richly.
You set a crown on my head.
You give me life,
true life,
spiritual life,
glory,
splendor,
majesty,
gladness,
joy.
All of those are gifts from God.
Does he just give us a little?
You know what John says
in the book,
in his gospel?
He says he desires
to lavishly pour joy upon us,
that our cup would overflow,
like Psalm 23 says.
God, in his character,
blesses his children.
children.
We are going to receive
a gift that we can't possibly imagine.
We think about it,
read about it,
we have hope of it,
but we don't know how great it's going to be
when we step into the eternal kingdom of God.
But to his enemies,
a blazing oven,
fire,
consume.
When will it happen?
The second coming.
You know,
David waited a long time before he's the king.
In our life,
when Satan
and his servants
and those who are used by him
to attack us,
you know,
sometimes we
feel like this isn't fair,
God.
When is this going in?
I can't take anymore,
God.
Would you please deliver me?
You know,
God,
for his own purpose,
for our blessing,
he allows that to go on and on and on at times.
And yet,
this is true.
For sure it's coming.
There's a day coming
when the vengeance
that God will exact
towards his enemies
will happen.
It will happen.
We read about it in Revelation 6.
Listen to the coming judgment
that's spoken of in this psalm
in Revelation 6.
If we were to study deeply
this section of Revelation,
we would realize
that this is speaking
of the second coming of Christ.
And here's what Revelation says,
just three verses.
Then the kings of the earth
and the great ones
and the generals
and the rich
and the powerful
and everyone slave and free
hid themselves in the caves
and among the rocks
of the mountains,
calling to the mountains
and the rocks,
fall on us
and hide us
from the face
from the face of him
who is seated on the throne
and from the wrath
of the Lamb.
For the great day
of their wrath
has come
and who can stand?
Isn't it interesting
to view Christ
in that way?
that as mankind
has dishonored God
and has shunned him
and turned their back
on God
and been arrogant
toward God
and not bowed
the knee to God
and chose not to serve him,
not to worship him,
which is right,
we should.
He deserves worship.
And yet they said,
no way,
I don't want anything
to do with it.
Revelation 19
pictures Christ
riding on a white horse,
white horse,
the horse of purity.
There's a statement here
about the purity of Christ
and it says,
a white horse,
the one sitting on it
is called faithful and true.
Who would that be?
It's obviously Jesus.
And in righteousness
he judges and makes war.
He is clothed in a robe
dipped in blood
and the name by which
he is called
is the word of God.
He will tread
the winepress
of the fury
of the wrath
of God Almighty.
There is coming a time
when judgment
will be handed
to all
who chose
to push God away.
And who is going to be
leading
the army,
if you want to call it that,
it's really not an army,
it's Christ alone.
Christ,
the scripture talks about
he's going to judge
with a sword
from his mouth.
It's the word
that's going to convict.
It's the word
that's going to reveal.
It's the word
that's going to judge.
And Christ
is pictured here
as the one
that's doing that.
Part three,
section three,
verse 13.
So David,
in this moment
of coronation,
is remembering
all the blessings
of God
that he's been given.
He's also remembering,
reminding himself
that no enemy
can hide
from the hand
and the judgment
of God.
And then third,
God is worthy
of worship.
Do you agree?
Amen.
He's worthy
of worship.
Do you find yourself
often worshiping?
Do you find yourself
mostly worshiping
when we sing songs here?
Or do you find yourself
worshiping often
when you're in your car
or in your house
or in your yard
or you're just
going about your day?
Do you find yourself
worshiping the one
who's worthy
to be worshiped?
Do you remind yourself
of the sovereign,
powerful hand of God?
Does it bring joy
to your heart
and your spirit
when you remember
these things?
Look what he says.
Be exalted,
O Lord,
in your strength.
We will sing
and praise
your power.
It's as if he's
thinking about
the omnipotence
of God.
There's no one
that can thwart
the plan
and the power
of God.
The same God
that would bless
David
and place him
on the throne
of the nation
of Israel,
the most unlikely
of people.
The same God
who's promised
a day of judgment,
vengeance is God's,
he will repay
all of his enemies
with judgment
and he worships God.
He's worthy
of worship,
amen?
It's my hope
that all of us
would grow
in this area
of our life
that we would
grow in worship.
You know,
I believe this
is the more
we see
the character
of God,
you know what
happens?
The more we worship.
The more we're
in the word of God
and we read
the word of God,
we see the character
of God
and we worship.
The more we experience
the blessing of God,
the more we experience
the presence of God,
you know what?
We worship.
You know what we need?
We need a glimpse
of the glory of God.
You know what happens
when we get that glimpse
of the glory of God?
We worship.
He's called us
to live a life
of worship.
What a privilege
that we get to worship
that he's made himself
known to you and me
for those of us
who are in the kingdom
that are believers.
He's made himself known.
Let me ask this question.
Do you see Christ
in this psalm?
Do you see Jesus?
Do you know
the word of God
declares that he's
king of kings?
He is the great king.
Boy, as I read this,
it's just so obvious
this seems to be
more about Jesus
than it is about David.
Why do I say that?
Look at verse 4.
He, the king,
asked life of you, God,
and you gave it to him,
length of days,
forever and ever.
Did David die?
Yes, he was God's son,
and yes, he will be
in the heavenly kingdom,
but earthly speaking,
bodily speaking,
he died.
He's in the grave.
And yet he speaks
of this king
as if he will have
length of days
forever and ever,
and his kingdom
will not end.
Who does that sound like?
You know,
David was a man
after God's own heart,
but David had some
compromises, right?
Notice verse 7,
it says this,
it's for,
the king trusts in the Lord
and through this steadfast,
unfailing love
of the Most High,
he shall not be moved.
Let me just say this,
David was moved.
He was moved
by the lust for Bathsheba,
he was moved
by the desire
for her so much
that he would cause
her husband
to be executed
in battle,
placed on the front lines
and all the protection
removed so that he would die,
so that he could go
chase after that.
He had wives many.
David was not pure,
though he was a man
after God's own heart.
Do you find it to be true
that we tend to stumble
and we tend to sin often?
Is that true for you and me?
I know it is for me.
But what I read here
in the purest sense
of what's being said
that David
in receiving the kingship
is a foreshadowing
or a pointing
to the true king.
The king that truly
will always stand
in honor of God
who will never be moved,
who will never give in
to the temptation
that Satan tried
to trap him in,
who will never give in
to sin, ever.
He defeated sin,
he defeated death
through his perfect life.
I believe this
is a picture
of the coming Messiah.
I believe that's
what this really
is talking about.
It's telling us
before it ever happened,
there's one coming
who's pure
in every way,
and God is going to
lavish his blessings
on this one.
God is going to use him
to destroy all the enemies
of God
because of his incredible
desire for God's worship.
Those who choose
not to worship
will be judged.
Let me ask you
this morning,
which one of these
are you?
Are you one
that honors God
and serves God
and loves God
and chases God
and pursues his presence?
You know,
the character of God
is such that he's
going to lavish
on you
gifts and blessings
that we only
can wonder about
right now.
The blessing
is going to be
so great.
That is the character
of God.
And I hope
all of you
are in his kingdom.
I hope all of you
serve and honor
and chase after him
and desire
to worship him.
But you know
the ones who don't,
the ones who say,
no, I don't want
anything to do with you,
there's a day coming.
It's judgment day.
Will there be
eternal separation
from the presence
of all the goodness
and all the greatness
and all the love
of God.
And I encourage you,
if you're not sure
you're in the kingdom,
and if God's speaking
to your heart
this morning,
would you consider
what Christ has done
through his perfect life,
his sacrificial life,
for those who would
trust in him,
those who by faith
would receive the gift
that Christ is,
that God sent
his only son
to come live
a perfect life
and die a cruel death
in our place
that we might know him.
Today,
you can know him
if you don't already.
let's pray.
Father,
we're grateful
for your word
and Father,
you are worthy
of worship.
Would you draw us
into a deeper walk
with you?
Would you fill
our hearts
with praise
for you?
Would you show us
your glory,
God,
that we might
worship you
appropriately?
God,
you're worthy
of worship,
you've created us
and you're
the source
of all things
that are good.
God,
you have given us
the beautiful picture
of what's to come,
just this lavish feast,
this wedding supper
of the Lamb
when his bride,
the church,
and our Lord
and Savior,
Jesus,
are going to be
united forever
to spend eternity
together
in worship of you.
God,
thank you for this
morning,
thank you for your word
and I praise you
in Christ's name.
Amen.