WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:29.980 Thank you. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:59.980 Thank you. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:29.980 Thank you. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:59.980 Thank you. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:29.979 Thank you. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:59.979 Thank you. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:29.979 Thank you. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:59.979 Thank you. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:29.980 Thank you. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:59.980 Thank you. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:29.980 Thank you. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:59.980 Thank you. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:29.980 Thank you. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:59.980 Thank you. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:29.980 Thank you. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:59.980 Thank you. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:29.980 Thank you. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:59.980 Thank you. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:29.980 Thank you. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:59.980 Thank you. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:29.980 Thank you. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:59.980 Thank you. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:29.980 Thank you. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:59.980 Thank you. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:29.980 Thank you. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:59.980 Thank you. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:29.980 Thank you. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:59.980 Thank you. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:29.980 Thank you. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:59.980 Thank you. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:29.980 Thank you. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:59.980 Thank you. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:29.960 Thank you. 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:59.960 Thank you. 00:16:59.960 --> 00:17:29.940 Thank you. 00:17:29.940 --> 00:17:59.940 Thank you. 00:17:59.940 --> 00:18:29.920 Thank you. 00:18:29.940 --> 00:18:59.940 Thank you. 00:18:59.940 --> 00:19:29.920 Thank you. 00:19:29.940 --> 00:19:59.940 Thank you. 00:19:59.940 --> 00:20:29.940 Thank you. 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:59.940 Thank you. 00:20:59.940 --> 00:21:29.920 Thank you. 00:21:29.940 --> 00:21:59.920 Thank you. 00:21:59.940 --> 00:22:29.920 Thank you. 00:22:29.940 --> 00:22:59.940 Thank you. 00:22:59.940 --> 00:23:29.940 Thank you. 00:23:29.940 --> 00:23:59.940 Thank you. 00:23:59.940 --> 00:24:29.940 Thank you. 00:24:29.940 --> 00:24:59.940 Thank you. 00:24:59.940 --> 00:25:29.920 Thank you. 00:25:29.940 --> 00:25:59.940 Thank you. 00:25:59.940 --> 00:26:29.940 Thank you. 00:26:29.940 --> 00:26:59.940 Thank you. 00:26:59.940 --> 00:27:29.920 Thank you. 00:27:29.940 --> 00:27:59.940 Thank you. 00:27:59.940 --> 00:28:00.940 Thank you. 00:28:29.940 --> 00:28:30.940 Now, you're going to read you. 00:28:30.940 --> 00:28:31.940 We're going to read you. 00:29:00.940 --> 00:29:01.940 Give thanks. 00:29:01.940 --> 00:29:31.920 Give thanks to the Lord. 00:29:31.940 --> 00:29:32.940 And you're going to read you. 00:30:01.940 --> 00:30:02.940 And you're going to read you. 00:30:31.940 --> 00:30:32.940 And you're going to read you. 00:31:01.940 --> 00:31:02.940 And you're going to read you. 00:31:02.940 --> 00:31:04.940 And you're going to read you. 00:31:04.940 --> 00:31:05.940 And you're going to read you. 00:31:05.940 --> 00:31:06.940 And you're going to read you. 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:07.940 And you're going to read you. 00:31:07.940 --> 00:31:16.700 He remembered us in our lowest state. His love endures forever. And freed us from our enemies. 00:31:17.299 --> 00:31:25.820 His love endures forever. He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever. 00:31:26.600 --> 00:31:36.799 Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever. Amen. It's God's wonderful word for us today. 00:31:37.940 --> 00:31:49.000 As we begin, how is your memory as an individual? Memory is a funny thing, isn't it? Some of us have 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:56.400 photographic memories at one end. Others, I'd be on this end of the spectrum, have memories more akin 00:31:56.400 --> 00:32:03.340 to the SIV. Without a phone, very little would stay in. Some people have memories for names and faces. 00:32:03.339 --> 00:32:07.980 Others, it's dates and places. Some people can do root maps. Some people can do song lyrics. 00:32:09.339 --> 00:32:13.899 Memories are really important to some people. Perhaps you're a very nostalgic person. 00:32:14.379 --> 00:32:20.500 I like to look back past family events, that kind of thing. Others, maybe we find that we've got a 00:32:20.500 --> 00:32:27.339 black hole where our past should be because our memory is so poor. Memory matters in a whole lot 00:32:27.339 --> 00:32:34.639 of ways, doesn't it? It matters in our friendships and our relationships. We find it so important to have 00:32:34.639 --> 00:32:44.059 that shared set of stories, a shared past, which forms that sort of solid foundation for so many of 00:32:44.059 --> 00:32:49.220 our friendships so that you probably have people in your life who maybe you don't see for months or even 00:32:49.220 --> 00:32:55.419 years at a time. But when you do, you can pick up where you left off because you have that shared past. 00:32:55.420 --> 00:33:00.860 Of course, friendships can only be rooted in the past, but they certainly serve to give us a strong 00:33:00.860 --> 00:33:09.900 foundation. Today, our psalmist is helping us to recognize that remembering is vital for worship, 00:33:11.160 --> 00:33:20.120 that our relationship with God is built on his past acts and his enduring love. And that is intended 00:33:20.119 --> 00:33:28.759 to give for us faith for our present and to strengthen our faith into the future. In a sense, 00:33:28.859 --> 00:33:36.119 this is a history lesson for the people of God. And what shines through this lesson that they are 00:33:36.119 --> 00:33:45.099 supposed to take away is that God's enduring love is there at every point in their story, in the story 00:33:45.099 --> 00:33:52.619 of the church. You can see when you look at the Bible how important remembering and worship are and 00:33:52.619 --> 00:33:57.859 the connections. Let me give you a quick whistle stop tour. You think about the fact that in the 00:33:57.859 --> 00:34:03.519 covenants that are made, there are signs attached and those signs are supposed to be a reminder to 00:34:03.519 --> 00:34:10.380 strengthen faith. Think about the event of the Passover and that meal that then becomes a ritual 00:34:10.380 --> 00:34:16.900 celebrated every year where the Passover lamb is killed. They remember it's at the cost of blood 00:34:16.900 --> 00:34:24.099 and sacrifice that they enjoyed their freedom. You read through the Old Testament and at various points 00:34:24.099 --> 00:34:29.800 when the people of God are delivered by God from their enemy in some way or another, they'll set up 00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:37.240 stones of remembrance. So when they're walking that path, they'll remember this far has God helped us. 00:34:37.239 --> 00:34:44.839 When God gives his people the law, he then asks the people, he asks families to make sure and to 00:34:44.839 --> 00:34:52.639 remember and pass on the law to future generations. And of course in the New Testament, Jesus gives us 00:34:52.639 --> 00:35:02.799 the gift of the Lord's Supper. And he says, do this, share the bread, share the wine in remembrance of me. 00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:12.440 So Psalm 136 is in one sense a history lesson, but it's also a lesson in God's enduring love to lead us 00:35:12.440 --> 00:35:23.620 towards thankful worship. The tone is set in the first three verses and in the last verse, the tone 00:35:23.619 --> 00:35:33.359 is that of giving thanks. The people of God are called to acknowledge their covenant Lord, to recognize 00:35:33.359 --> 00:35:42.199 him as the one true God and King. So we begin and end with thankfulness and in between we discover 00:35:42.199 --> 00:35:52.019 26 times why they should give thanks. They should give thanks because his love endures forever. 00:35:53.279 --> 00:35:58.019 It's kind of funny reading that again and again. And usual we'd have sort of call and response, but 00:35:58.019 --> 00:36:06.019 it's certainly intended to drive home into our minds just how important it is for the people of God 00:36:06.019 --> 00:36:15.300 to understand God's love never fails. It also reminds us how prone we are to forget that God's love never 00:36:15.300 --> 00:36:22.400 fails when we have to be reminded over and over. So our theme this morning is this, Christians are those 00:36:22.400 --> 00:36:31.440 who actively remember with thankfulness God's unfailing love and that remembering drives our worship 00:36:31.440 --> 00:36:41.119 and encourages us in our faith. So we're going to see evidence of God's enduring love intended to lead 00:36:41.119 --> 00:36:48.119 us to praise and thanksgiving. The first evidence that we find in verses four to nine, it takes us to 00:36:48.119 --> 00:36:57.039 the story of creation. When you look at how the Old Testament speaks of the story of creation, it does it in 00:36:57.039 --> 00:37:03.380 different ways. In the book of Genesis you get sort of a theological retelling of the story. Book of 00:37:03.380 --> 00:37:09.900 Proverbs is a little bit different because it focuses on the place of God's wisdom and God's understanding 00:37:09.900 --> 00:37:16.480 in the story of creation. And we find that there in verse five, who by his understanding made the heavens. 00:37:16.480 --> 00:37:26.619 But here the psalmist wants to emphasize that the people of God should delight in God's creation. 00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:36.739 That creation acts as a stage on which we see God's creating love, God's sustaining love, 00:37:36.960 --> 00:37:47.159 the beauty of God's love all around us. So Psalm 136 wants us to recognize that God as creator and to 00:37:47.159 --> 00:37:54.500 connect the gift that we enjoy of the natural world with God, the giver of that great gift. 00:37:54.500 --> 00:38:03.500 What is it that you love about the natural world? We all probably go to different places. What is it 00:38:03.500 --> 00:38:13.599 that takes our breath away? For me it's usually coastlines and seeing the waves rolling in. But 00:38:13.599 --> 00:38:20.260 for others it might be the night sky, it might be a mountain scene, it might be animals or birds. 00:38:20.260 --> 00:38:26.820 We had a French friend that came over to the highlands for a summer because he was fascinated 00:38:26.820 --> 00:38:32.000 by Scottish clouds. So it takes all sorts. There's so many things that we can enjoy in the natural 00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:38.460 world. And the question for us as Christians is this, do we just enjoy creation, good as it is, 00:38:38.680 --> 00:38:47.020 or does it lead us to worship the God of love? Because that's what Psalm 136 is wanting us to do. 00:38:47.019 --> 00:38:55.780 For a Christian, there should be an added dimension to our appreciation. When we think of who in the 00:38:55.780 --> 00:39:00.719 world loves the world the most, we probably think of somebody like David Attenborough and he has another 00:39:00.719 --> 00:39:08.619 program just coming out now. But Christians have that added dimension that we see in and behind all 00:39:08.619 --> 00:39:19.259 of creation, the hand of our personal loving God. We see creation as the display of his glory, of his love, 00:39:20.059 --> 00:39:30.079 leading us into joyful worship. So Psalm 136 is teaching us to remember, to connect our sense of wonder 00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:39.920 wonder with the God who, in verse 4, who alone does great wonders. So when we read this Psalm, remember 00:39:39.920 --> 00:39:47.079 that God's love endures forever, God's love never fails is not a hollow phrase. And one of the ways that 00:39:47.079 --> 00:39:55.500 that is filled out is as we see the consistent and majestic beauty of our world. It stands as evidence for 00:39:55.500 --> 00:40:04.199 the enduring love of our God. But he doesn't just stop there with creation. He takes us in verses 10 to 00:40:04.199 --> 00:40:15.559 16 to see God as rescuer, more evidence of his enduring love. The focus here is on the Exodus story. 00:40:16.280 --> 00:40:17.159 So verse 10, 00:40:17.159 --> 00:40:21.539 And to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt and brought Israel out from among them, 00:40:21.539 --> 00:40:30.279 to him who divided the Red Sea asunder, his love endures forever. In the Old Testament, the great 00:40:30.279 --> 00:40:43.800 story of redemption is that of the Exodus, of God working by miracles to defeat Pharaoh and Pharaoh's 00:40:43.800 --> 00:40:51.019 armies and the gods of Egypt in order that the people of Israel might go free. And so the Psalm is 00:40:51.019 --> 00:41:00.239 calling the people of God to remember God's decisive actions to save and to deliver. And of course, 00:41:00.280 --> 00:41:07.500 they already had the Passover as an annual call to remember those great and decisive moments of 00:41:07.500 --> 00:41:15.900 deliverance where the people were set free to become the people of God. To remember, as we have in 00:41:15.900 --> 00:41:25.500 verse 12, God's mighty hand and outstretched arm to remember God's extraordinary displays of power as he 00:41:25.500 --> 00:41:36.579 intervened in history for the sake of his people to rescue them. Here is a reminder of how important God's 00:41:36.579 --> 00:41:50.059 saving love must be to our worship. Ours is a rescue religion. We don't believe in moral reform to earn our 00:41:50.059 --> 00:41:59.639 place in God's family. No, we believe that we must be rescued. And we must remember God's enduring love 00:41:59.639 --> 00:42:06.159 that stands as the basis for our salvation. It's on the basis of his love and grace. 00:42:07.519 --> 00:42:14.480 So we have a call as Christians and as a church to make the gospel, to make the cross of the Lord 00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:23.320 Jesus central to our story, to be preaching the gospel to ourselves, to recognize that if I am in Christ, 00:42:23.400 --> 00:42:30.500 I am a new creation. If I am in Christ, I am adopted into God's family. If I'm in Christ, then I have the 00:42:30.500 --> 00:42:39.980 promise of eternal life in glory. Those are what define and shape us as the people of God. And so we come to 00:42:39.980 --> 00:42:48.500 church week by week to remember and to remember again God's salvation at the heart of our collective 00:42:48.500 --> 00:42:59.119 story. Maybe you remember from last year the story of the boys football team from Thailand that got stuck 00:42:59.119 --> 00:43:06.820 in some caves and had to be rescued. A very dramatic rescue played out in front of the global media. Well, 00:43:06.820 --> 00:43:12.039 there was also interviews done when they had been dramatically rescued and then they were safe, 00:43:12.380 --> 00:43:19.820 they were recovering in hospital. And it was so touching how almost to a boy, each of them had the 00:43:19.820 --> 00:43:26.539 same kind of message to those who had rescued them. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for not giving up 00:43:26.539 --> 00:43:34.660 on us. Thank you for being there for us. When you're in the dark and you feel death is coming, it's hard to 00:43:34.659 --> 00:43:41.239 imagine that you'd ever lose a sense of that thanksgiving, isn't it? But what the Bible tells us 00:43:41.239 --> 00:43:49.039 is that God's rescue of an individual Christian is more dramatic than that. Because the Bible is 00:43:49.039 --> 00:43:57.519 crystal clear that by ourselves we are dead in our sin and we are made alive only in Christ. 00:43:57.519 --> 00:44:05.900 perhaps we can go to Ephesians 2 to think of a New Testament parallel to rescue from Pharaoh and 00:44:05.900 --> 00:44:15.519 slavery in Egypt. There Paul writes, you were dead in transgressions and sins. Not just paralyzed, 00:44:16.099 --> 00:44:25.619 we were dead and dead people cannot help themselves. He says of the church, in the past you followed the 00:44:25.619 --> 00:44:39.920 ways of this world and its ruler, enslaved by the devil. You were by nature objects of wrath. Now there is a 00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:52.960 misery darker even than the slavery of Egypt. Dead in our sin, enslaved to that sin, subject to the wrath 00:44:52.960 --> 00:45:05.019 of God and heading for the wrath of God. But as Ephesians 2 goes on, because of God's great love for us, 00:45:05.860 --> 00:45:14.579 our God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. 00:45:14.579 --> 00:45:26.559 It is by grace you have been saved. We have the glory of God's rescue in and through Jesus at the heart of our 00:45:26.559 --> 00:45:35.699 worship, reminding us that God's love endures forever. The next piece of evidence that the 00:45:35.699 --> 00:45:41.679 psalmist invites us to remember so that we might give thanks is that God has stood for his people 00:45:41.679 --> 00:45:49.879 as a champion. And that's the focus of verses 17 to 22. So part of God's covenant promise given to 00:45:49.879 --> 00:45:56.480 Abraham, then given to the nation of Israel, is that he would settle them in the promised land. And to be 00:45:56.480 --> 00:46:06.319 settled, enemies needed to be defeated. Stronger nations, more battled, hardened nations needed to be 00:46:06.320 --> 00:46:13.000 defeated. And it was crucial for the people of God that God would fight for them, that he would be 00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:21.960 their champion. So that's the focus there from verse 17 to 22. To him who struck down great kings and killed 00:46:21.960 --> 00:46:31.320 mighty kings, Sion and Og, and gave their land as an inheritance, his love endures forever. It's a reminder 00:46:31.320 --> 00:46:39.400 to the people that their history was a history of God acting, intervening to deliver in specific moments 00:46:39.400 --> 00:46:47.260 of their history. And perhaps if we know our Old Testament and we think of those famous battles, 00:46:48.059 --> 00:46:56.460 think about the battle of Jericho, where the plan for the people of God was simply to march around the 00:46:56.460 --> 00:47:02.699 city a number of times and then to blow some trumpets and the walls fell down. The point? God gives victory. 00:47:03.119 --> 00:47:11.280 Or we can think of Gideon with an army of just 300 with some torches and some glass jars. Again, having a 00:47:11.280 --> 00:47:17.940 decisive victory against their enemies. And the point is God fights for his people so that God gets the glory. 00:47:19.159 --> 00:47:25.079 And he would often say that to the armies of Israel before they went into battle. They say, stand still and see the 00:47:25.079 --> 00:47:35.079 deliverance of God. Or he would say, I will march before you to give you victory. God is the champion for his people. 00:47:35.860 --> 00:47:46.539 And Psalm 136 is teaching us to give thanks that who we have on our side is none other than the almighty 00:47:46.539 --> 00:47:57.360 God. And all of his strength is for all of his people. Think about the greatest of all the champion 00:47:57.360 --> 00:48:05.119 stories of the Old Testament. It's the story of David and Goliath. And what do we have there? We have David, 00:48:05.320 --> 00:48:12.400 who was God's chosen king, going to fight Goliath in God's name for God's glory, defeating 00:48:12.400 --> 00:48:19.400 the great enemy of God's people, while the army were standing on the other hillside, shaking with fear 00:48:19.400 --> 00:48:27.200 and doing nothing. They needed God's champion. That great picture of what Jesus has come to do 00:48:27.200 --> 00:48:34.619 to fight for his church against those enemies we are powerless against. Satan and sin and death. 00:48:34.619 --> 00:48:45.219 Jesus comes to fight and win a decisive battle for us there at the cross. And we need to recognize that his 00:48:45.219 --> 00:48:53.400 love endures forever. His love for his people, his power for his people, it never changes. 00:48:53.400 --> 00:49:03.840 So if we find ourselves in a battle today, if we find ourselves suffering, under pressure, 00:49:04.579 --> 00:49:11.780 frustrated, in despair, whatever it is, we need to remember Jesus, the one who fought for us then, 00:49:12.660 --> 00:49:23.039 the Jesus who fights for us and who is with us now. Psalm 136 is telling us how important it is for us 00:49:23.039 --> 00:49:28.719 as the people of God, as the church of God, to remember those specific times where God has been 00:49:28.719 --> 00:49:35.000 active to rescue and to help. Not just in the big story of the Exodus, but in all the small battles 00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:43.239 along the way. How can we do that? How can we cultivate a good memory of God's acts of deliverance 00:49:43.239 --> 00:49:49.800 so that we might give thanks and have strong faith? Some people like to journal. 00:49:49.800 --> 00:49:57.600 Journal the prayers that they make, the situations they're in, and then to journal how God answers. 00:49:58.039 --> 00:50:06.580 You might find that helpful. Some people find it very natural to talk with Christian friends or family 00:50:06.580 --> 00:50:13.140 about their stories, about here is what I'm going through, and then I read this in the Bible, or 00:50:13.139 --> 00:50:21.219 another Christian spoke this to me, here's how God answered prayer. Certainly we should learn the Bible 00:50:21.219 --> 00:50:30.940 as our history. This is our God. These are our victories. This is God ensuring that his covenant 00:50:30.940 --> 00:50:36.879 promises would last so that Jesus would come and be the Savior for all who would trust in him. 00:50:36.880 --> 00:50:44.340 Certainly as families, we are to pass our faith on to our kids to speak of God's enduring love 00:50:44.340 --> 00:50:49.340 through the stories of our Bibles and through our own stories of faith. 00:50:50.599 --> 00:50:58.820 All to help us to see, as Paul says in Philippians, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on 00:50:58.820 --> 00:51:08.720 to completion. To recognize God's goal for us as Christians, for his church, is life with glory, 00:51:09.780 --> 00:51:17.940 life in glory with Jesus forever, and he will not fail in that purpose. He will not fail to be that 00:51:17.940 --> 00:51:26.740 champion that we need. One last piece of evidence of God's enduring love, his goodness to everyone, 00:51:26.739 --> 00:51:36.959 returning back to the initial theme. Verse 23 to 25, he remembered us in our lowest state and freed us 00:51:36.959 --> 00:51:48.019 from our enemies. He gives food to every creature. There's a shift from thinking about the past and past 00:51:48.019 --> 00:51:53.479 generations to now thinking about the present and the present generation. And the point is that every 00:51:53.480 --> 00:52:02.079 generation experiences the never-ending love of God. Everybody experiences the goodness of God. Every 00:52:02.079 --> 00:52:08.000 day we have breath. Therefore, everybody should repent and believe and live lives of worship. 00:52:09.740 --> 00:52:15.639 What the psalmist does at the end is he moves from that sort of epic scale view of creation down through 00:52:15.639 --> 00:52:21.639 national salvation and deliverance, now here to a much more personal and a much more individual 00:52:21.639 --> 00:52:32.500 focus. But in each of these, the refrain is still there. Whether we're thinking about God in creation 00:52:32.500 --> 00:52:41.279 or salvation or God in our own lives, his love endures forever. Every act of God in the past or in the 00:52:41.279 --> 00:52:50.059 present is to be a fuel for our faith, an aid to our memory to lead us into grateful worship. 00:52:50.059 --> 00:52:58.880 As we recognize that God is unchanging, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever, 00:52:58.980 --> 00:53:05.759 we recognize he is here for us today. He's still lifting people up today. He's still rescuing people. 00:53:05.840 --> 00:53:15.539 He's still providing our daily bread. So it's crucial for us, in a way that the psalmist could only 00:53:15.539 --> 00:53:24.739 anticipate that we remember Jesus as God's decisive evidence of his enduring love. 00:53:25.820 --> 00:53:34.340 So if we are to be anything as a church, we must be gospel people. We must remember the good news of 00:53:34.340 --> 00:53:42.039 Jesus' life and death and resurrection. To recognize, as the New Testament reveals us, that Jesus is our 00:53:42.039 --> 00:53:50.179 creator. And in him we become new creations. And in him we have the promise of new creation life when he 00:53:50.179 --> 00:53:59.659 comes again. We must see Jesus as our rescuer. He was the one who was the firstborn struck down for us. 00:53:59.719 --> 00:54:06.840 He is the Passover lamb who becomes our substitute, giving us freedom and life as his people. 00:54:06.840 --> 00:54:15.680 We must see Jesus as the one who sustains us on life's pilgrimage. Often when we find ourselves, 00:54:15.800 --> 00:54:21.980 like the Old Testament Israelites, in the wilderness, to discover he is the bread of life. He is the water 00:54:21.980 --> 00:54:30.460 of life. He and he alone satisfies. He is our never-failing friend, the one who is with us always. 00:54:30.460 --> 00:54:39.500 So we must be a people who are looking back so that our faith might always be moving forward with 00:54:39.500 --> 00:54:46.159 confident hope. To see that what God has been for his people in the past, he will be in the present and 00:54:46.159 --> 00:54:55.300 will always be in the future. To look back to keep us thankful, to keep us trusting, so that we can sing 00:54:55.300 --> 00:55:06.039 this refrain from our hearts, knowing that his love endures forever. Let's pray together again briefly. 00:55:09.039 --> 00:55:18.900 Lord God, we thank you for the history that we find in the Bible, which stands as testimony to your 00:55:18.900 --> 00:55:25.160 steadfast love. We thank you for the history of our faith. We thank you that we have that solid foundation 00:55:25.160 --> 00:55:37.400 for our faith as we look back to decisive acts in our history. That we can look at you creating the world and 00:55:37.400 --> 00:55:46.880 we can see your love in enabling us to live in a world where we can see and enjoy your glory, where we are made to live 00:55:46.880 --> 00:55:58.680 in relationship with you. We can see your enduring love for your people in that central moment of salvation 00:55:58.680 --> 00:56:07.140 at the cross where Jesus dies and in the resurrection where his victory and vindication happens. 00:56:07.800 --> 00:56:11.360 And we pray that you'd help us to stay close to the cross, 00:56:11.360 --> 00:56:17.099 to recognize that you are a God whose love never fails. 00:56:18.920 --> 00:56:27.280 That whether life is good or life is really difficult now, whether we are experiencing times of joy or sadness, 00:56:28.440 --> 00:56:36.960 that we'd always have that solid foundation of your past actions to help us and to ground us 00:56:36.960 --> 00:56:43.199 and to keep us moving forward with faith in your goodness and in your grace. 00:56:43.920 --> 00:56:47.760 Please help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:56:50.460 --> 00:56:59.300 Now, we will sing a different history psalm. This is from Psalm 107. We will listen to it being sung. 00:56:59.300 --> 00:57:07.240 You can sing it at home. The first nine verses we will hear from Psalm 107. 00:57:07.239 --> 00:57:07.299 Amen. 00:57:37.239 --> 00:57:45.059 Everyone, you can sing it at home. This is from quindi and to wake up andOhlin. 00:57:45.239 --> 00:57:47.399 Whether you learn from your lord and auge of sabfl Maori or Alberto ecosystem isesque. 00:57:47.399 --> 00:57:49.379 Some of these who appear from heaven israel to see andfire from the sun that you want. 00:57:49.379 --> 00:57:50.819 How do you support us as a set-campus music in the fountain? 00:57:50.879 --> 00:57:51.519 Continue to see. 00:57:51.519 --> 00:57:55.679 So let's see what lullázio for you. 00:57:56.319 --> 00:57:58.459 Or ever long on earth where they listen to the correction of starvation? 00:57:58.459 --> 00:58:02.279 Let us be more tears to our feet and fear. 00:58:02.279 --> 00:58:03.119 Now it's beautiful. 00:58:03.199 --> 00:58:04.079 How do you say nothing to stop us all the way this entre Policy and merciful? 00:58:04.079 --> 00:58:04.759 What I lot of will do not to let us lie down in share dove of sanity? 00:58:04.760 --> 00:58:13.760 Some wandered in the desert wastes not finding any way 00:58:13.760 --> 00:58:22.760 to reach a city where they might obtain a place to stay. 00:58:22.760 --> 00:58:31.760 Their life and strength were ebbing fast in thirst and emptiness. 00:58:31.760 --> 00:58:44.760 Then in despair they sought the Lord who saved them from distress. 00:58:44.760 --> 00:58:53.760 Straight was the path he led them on a city to attain. 00:58:53.760 --> 00:59:02.760 So for the Lord's unfailing love let them give thanks again. 00:59:02.760 --> 00:59:11.760 And for the awesome deeds of power which he for them achieves. 00:59:11.760 --> 00:59:23.760 For hungry souls he fills with good, the thirsty he relieves. 00:59:23.760 --> 00:59:37.760 Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 00:59:37.760 --> 00:59:38.760 Amen. 01:00:07.760 --> 01:00:19.760 Amen. 01:00:37.760 --> 01:01:07.740 Thank you. 01:01:07.760 --> 01:01:37.740 Thank you.