WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.780 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:20.519 that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:24.359 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:30.859 would you pray for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people 00:00:30.859 --> 00:00:36.960 like yourself? The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.480 --> 00:00:42.239 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.239 --> 00:00:48.600 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:54.420 will do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're 00:00:54.420 --> 00:00:59.340 a non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:04.900 hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know as I'm preaching how to deal with the types 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:07.780 of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:37.760 Father, we ask us, Father, in all things to pray for the Lord. 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:44.480 And to pray for ourselves. But we ask now as we read your Word and as your Word talks about 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:50.980 things like disappointment with you, we ask, Father, that your Word would come deeply into 00:01:50.980 --> 00:01:56.180 our hearts and speak to us. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our 00:01:56.180 --> 00:02:06.660 Savior. Amen. Please be seated. So as you gathered from my prayer, you know, disappointment with God is a 00:02:06.659 --> 00:02:12.199 very, very common thing. It's not only common, it's increasingly common, I think, with Christians 00:02:12.199 --> 00:02:18.379 right now. Many of us probably know people who would now describe themselves as ex-evangelicals. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:22.960 A lot of us probably know people who have given up on the Christian faith. 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:31.100 I can tell you, no surprise, it's also an issue in a sense within the Hindu world, the Muslim world, 00:02:31.200 --> 00:02:36.879 the Buddhist world, of people having a profound sense of disappointment with God and ending up 00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:42.960 walking away from their particular faith. And as I said, it's also been an issue for Christians. 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:51.980 You know, we go through, if you listen to the stories, if you talk to people, if you watch some 00:02:51.980 --> 00:02:57.340 of the videos where people talk about their journey out of faith, or they're maybe in the process of 00:02:57.340 --> 00:03:03.840 trying to, or deconstructing their faith, really often at the heart of it is just profound 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:08.600 disappointments, that life didn't turn out the way they thought it should, dealing with unhappiness, 00:03:08.599 --> 00:03:15.419 with unanswered prayer, with great difficulties, and it leads them to a profound sense of disappointment, 00:03:15.799 --> 00:03:19.979 and in some cases out of the faith. Some of us might be dealing with that this morning. 00:03:20.379 --> 00:03:24.659 Some of us have maybe dealt with it in the past. The Bible text that we're looking at today, 00:03:24.799 --> 00:03:30.199 believe it or not, this very ancient psalm, talks about this particular issue of disappointment with 00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:34.340 God. So whether it's going to speak to your heart right now, or whether you can take notes or 00:03:34.340 --> 00:03:40.379 whatever things to speak to others, let's plunge in and see what this ancient psalm has to say 00:03:40.379 --> 00:03:51.000 about disappointment with God. So it's Psalm 66, Psalm 66. And those of you, we normally preach 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:55.800 through books of the Bible. We're not preaching through the book of Psalms. That would be a lot 00:03:55.800 --> 00:04:01.360 of psalms. But we are doing this summer, I'll be preaching on six psalms. That didn't hold up six 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:06.760 fingers. I'll be preaching on six psalms this summer. In the middle of our psalm series, Steve 00:04:06.760 --> 00:04:13.060 Griffin will be preaching four sermons on different Bible texts, all dealing actually with the contrast 00:04:13.060 --> 00:04:17.680 between progressive or woke Christianity and historic Christianity. That's what he's going to be 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:23.900 looking at. But I'll go through the psalms, six of them. And the first one we're looking at is Psalm 00:04:23.899 --> 00:04:32.159 66. And just by the way, as you start to read this, you'll see very quickly how countercultural 00:04:32.159 --> 00:04:37.399 God's Word is. We don't know when this psalm was written. We know if you look, I don't think it would 00:04:37.399 --> 00:04:41.819 be up there, but if you have a Bible with you, it says to the choir master a song. Oh, sorry, we do know. 00:04:41.819 --> 00:04:47.500 Sorry, to the choir master, a song, a psalm. So this was originally written so it could be sung. 00:04:48.259 --> 00:04:52.299 And we don't know when it was written, but the earliest it would have been written would have been 00:04:52.300 --> 00:04:56.920 three or four hundred years before Christ. And it could have even been written many, many centuries 00:04:56.920 --> 00:05:03.840 before that. But you'll see how countercultural it is. Well, let's look. Verse one of Psalm 66. 00:05:04.939 --> 00:05:12.519 Shout for joy to God, all the earth. Sing the glory of his name. Give to him glorious praise. 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:21.680 Say to God, how awesome are your deeds. So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. 00:05:22.300 --> 00:05:30.120 All the earth worships you and sings praises to you. They sing praises to your name. Selah. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:36.660 Now, actually, if you could put up the first point, that would be very helpful. We'll go from that 00:05:36.660 --> 00:05:41.360 point back and forth to look at the text. But what this first section of the psalm, the psalm's divided 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:47.060 up into five bits. I mean, whoever wrote the psalm divided it up into five bits. And the first bit 00:05:47.060 --> 00:05:55.240 has this very, very bold claim that there is only one God and two paths. Only one God and two paths. 00:05:55.980 --> 00:06:00.079 Both of those controversial today, but not nearly as controversial it would have been when it was 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:06.639 written. When it was written, all the smart people in the world, all of the smart people in the world, 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:11.680 all of the poets, all of the playwrights, all of the kings, all of the intelligentsia, 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:17.319 the ancient equivalent of the Globe and Mail editorial board and the CBC, the faculty of 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:23.139 McGill and of University of Toronto and UBC, the Supreme Court of Canada, the equivalent back then, 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:28.780 the Privy Council of Canada, all of the elite, they would have all said that only dummies believe 00:06:28.780 --> 00:06:33.740 there's only one God. Because all the smart people know there's lots of gods. That's what all the smart 00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:40.199 people know. By the way, as soon as I say that, you realize that if you think whatever all the smart 00:06:40.199 --> 00:06:45.759 people think, you probably should maybe reconsider that a little bit. Because the smart people don't 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:50.939 always have a good track record, actually, of always being right about things. But they would 00:06:50.939 --> 00:06:55.219 have just said that. And out of all of the world, there are just these few little kooky Jewish people 00:06:55.219 --> 00:07:00.779 who believe that there was only one God. And if you read the story of the people of Israel, you'll see 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:05.139 that throughout their entire history, because everybody who knows anything knows that there's many gods, 00:07:05.599 --> 00:07:10.019 the whole history of Israel is this constant struggle between people saying there's just one 00:07:10.019 --> 00:07:15.000 God, and people wanting to worship the gods of the lands. And this psalm here is part of this 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:20.959 profound teaching that there's only one God, that there's only one God for the whole planet. 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:26.799 This is sort of on one level, it's sort of an idea nowadays that would be held. But what would be 00:07:26.799 --> 00:07:33.779 countercultural today would be to say that we know much about this God, or that there's only one 00:07:33.779 --> 00:07:38.939 way to get to God. That's very, very countercultural. People would say, you know, George Shirley, 00:07:38.939 --> 00:07:44.779 there's many paths to the same, you know, to God. I mean, people who say stuff like that, 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:49.360 they're very, very well-meaning, but it's not very well-informed. You know, they'd say that Buddhists 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:55.459 and, you know, Hindus and Muslims and Christians and Jews all are describing the same God. And that's 00:07:55.459 --> 00:08:01.040 very well-meaning, but it's actually, like, actually, I hope I'm not offending you, but it's actually quite 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:06.860 ridiculous. They describe God completely and utterly differently. And so they can't all be describing the 00:08:06.860 --> 00:08:11.819 same God. It would be the same as if people said, well, George has one wife, and then, you know, 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:16.120 some of you say, you know, and she's six foot six, and another one says, well, she's four foot two. 00:08:16.540 --> 00:08:20.939 Another one says she has flaming red hair. The other one says, you know, she has blonde hair. One says 00:08:20.939 --> 00:08:24.960 she weighs 400 pounds. The other one says she's 90 pounds. Mom, you're not all talking about my wife. 00:08:27.280 --> 00:08:31.720 You can't have radically different descriptions of the same person. The same thing with God, 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:37.940 if God is actually real. And the psalmist is saying, God is real. There's only one God. And, 00:08:38.019 --> 00:08:45.360 in fact, if you just look at in verse three again, all the earth worships you. Sorry, say to God, 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:53.440 how awesome are your deeds. So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. So, 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:58.320 you see, that's how the psalmist is saying there's, in a sense, two ways. There's the way of praising God, 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:04.520 of shouting to God, of acknowledging God, of delighting in God, of enjoying in God, 00:09:04.940 --> 00:09:10.740 or there is the way of those who are going to cringe before God. Now, the word cringe there 00:09:10.740 --> 00:09:15.760 doesn't mean how many of us, when we see that word, we don't get the right image in our mind. 00:09:16.379 --> 00:09:21.120 You see, probably if I was to read this in one of the coffee shops that I go to, people would cringe. 00:09:21.420 --> 00:09:25.700 They'd say that what I just said was cringeworthy. Good grief, that guy believes it, 00:09:25.700 --> 00:09:29.980 like there's only two ways to God. And, I mean, there's only one way to God, and the other way, 00:09:30.020 --> 00:09:34.720 there's no way to God. Like they'd cringe. That's not what the text means. It means that 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:41.920 there are people standing and praising like this, and there are people who are prostrate before God, 00:09:41.980 --> 00:09:45.520 and they're all shouting and worshiping, praising. And then there's this other group that are enemies 00:09:45.520 --> 00:09:51.040 of the true God, the one God over all of the earth, and they're cringing. In other words, 00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:57.939 it's their sort of bending over and twisting themselves, and it's this image of, in a sense, 00:09:58.019 --> 00:10:06.299 being forced to acknowledge what they resent and don't like. The book of Philippians talks about 00:10:06.299 --> 00:10:11.459 the same thing when at the end of the great hymn, Philippians 2, 5 to 11, it says, 00:10:11.460 --> 00:10:17.900 every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that literally means 00:10:17.900 --> 00:10:27.960 that Muhammad will bow his knee to the triune God. It means that Gautama, Buddha, will bow his knees 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:35.879 to the triune God. It means that George will. It means that Trudeau will. It means that Biden and Trump 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:48.240 and Putin will. It means the head Ayatollah of Iran will bow the knee to God. But for those in Christ, 00:10:49.700 --> 00:10:58.580 as I bow my knee to God, when I finally see him face to face, inside will spring that song 00:10:58.580 --> 00:11:06.900 of that great Negro spiritual, free at last, free at last. Praise God Almighty, I'm free at last. 00:11:08.400 --> 00:11:11.060 And for others, it will be a cry of agony, 00:11:13.820 --> 00:11:21.920 a cry of rebellion, even as they're forced to acknowledge that God is completely and utterly God. 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:27.320 And that's what the text is saying. But some will say, George, well, okay, you still, 00:11:27.320 --> 00:11:32.840 okay, it says that, but obviously, George, it's a completely and utterly ridiculous thing. It's 00:11:32.840 --> 00:11:38.900 nonsense. It's really funny. I've watched clips of that. I've mentioned it, of Christopher Dawkins 00:11:38.900 --> 00:11:45.240 talking to this convert from Islam. She went from Islam to atheism, and now she's become a Christian, 00:11:45.960 --> 00:11:52.900 Ayaan Hirsi Ali. And this conversation or debate that they had in New York a couple of weeks ago. 00:11:52.899 --> 00:12:00.199 And it's so funny, because he'd keep saying to her, but, you know, Ayaan, you can't possibly have 00:12:00.199 --> 00:12:04.639 become a Christian. Like, so much of what they say is just complete and utter nonsense. 00:12:05.539 --> 00:12:10.639 It just, I keep having that image in my mind, the way he says that with all that proper British 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:16.980 enunciation. It's pure and utter nonsense. He'd keep saying that, and she's unflappable in terms of 00:12:16.980 --> 00:12:23.060 how she answers. But for many, this idea of just, okay, one God, we can get that. Okay, George, 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:26.820 I acknowledge that you can't just, you know, Buddhists say one thing about God, Christians say 00:12:26.820 --> 00:12:31.139 the opposite. They can't all be just like, okay, we get that. But there can't be just two paths. 00:12:31.539 --> 00:12:36.840 One path, which is going to end up with cringing, and one path, which is going to end up with exulting 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:41.720 and praising. That just doesn't make any sense. Well, it makes sense if you understand the next bit. 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:46.660 And this is also where we start to get into the beginning of the discussion about disappointment 00:12:46.660 --> 00:12:55.180 with God. Let's look. It's verses five to seven. Come and see what God has done. Come and see what 00:12:55.180 --> 00:13:02.899 God has done. He is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. He turned the sea into dry land. 00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:10.000 This is referring to when Egypt is, the Jewish people were brought out of slavery in Egypt, 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:16.620 and he brings them across the Red Sea. And then it goes on, they pass through the river on foot. 00:13:17.159 --> 00:13:21.899 And it's talking about the completion of God's act to save the Jewish people. He brings them out of 00:13:21.899 --> 00:13:27.480 slavery in Egypt. They go into the wilderness, and then they have to enter the promised land. And if 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:33.639 you go and you read the book of Joshua, they enter the promised land with another parting of the waters. 00:13:33.639 --> 00:13:39.740 This is now the Jordan River is parted, and they are brought by God into the promised land. So verse 00:13:39.740 --> 00:13:45.580 six again, he turned the sea into dry land. They passed through the river on foot. There did we 00:13:45.580 --> 00:13:53.019 rejoice in him who rules by his might forever, whose eye keep watch on the nations. That's every people 00:13:53.019 --> 00:14:00.120 group. Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah. And that's, once again, the rebellious are going to 00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:05.560 be the ones who are, in a sense, God's enemies who cringe before him. So how does this talk about both 00:14:05.559 --> 00:14:09.299 disappointment with God and the idea of there being two paths? If you could put up the second 00:14:09.299 --> 00:14:18.619 point, that would be handy. If God cannot truly save, then he cannot truly be God. If God cannot 00:14:18.619 --> 00:14:26.359 truly save, then he cannot truly be God. See, that's the, you see, part of the problem with the 00:14:26.359 --> 00:14:31.939 disappointment with God, and part of the, of us talking, I mean, both for those of us who become 00:14:31.940 --> 00:14:36.940 Christians, and, and maybe we had a, we didn't just sort of grow up always believing in Christ, 00:14:37.040 --> 00:14:42.300 but we had to come to a, you know, struggle with things to come to faith. And maybe some of you are 00:14:42.300 --> 00:14:48.760 in that situation right now. We have sort of fighting intuitions, but, but one of the intuitions 00:14:48.760 --> 00:14:52.800 really is, if you think about it, like, why are we disappointed with God? Well, we're disappointed 00:14:52.800 --> 00:14:57.880 with God because a hard thing is happening in our life, and God doesn't save us. 00:14:57.879 --> 00:15:02.019 He doesn't rescue us. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:09.519 You see, the intuition in all, you see, whether it's your, the disappointment in Buddhism, 00:15:10.519 --> 00:15:16.120 whether it's a disappointment in Hinduism, or Islam, or in Christianity, in all cases, even though, 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:21.919 even though Islam and Hinduism and Buddhism doesn't have a God that saves, 00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:29.039 their disappointment with that God is because he doesn't save. Like, they don't realize that 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:34.199 actually what they're longing for is the God that's described in the Bible, because this is, 00:15:34.419 --> 00:15:40.799 what we see right here is God saving. He's saving. And by the way, if some of you ever wonder, 00:15:40.939 --> 00:15:45.639 you know, you describe, read the book of Acts, and you hear how, you know, Peter and Paul, wherever they 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:50.319 went, they preached the gospel. And how did they preach the gospel? Well, they opened up the Bible and 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:54.640 told people about, they opened the Bible, and from the Bible, they went and explained Jesus. 00:15:55.280 --> 00:15:59.500 And you might wonder, well, you know, I can see how they could do that with Psalm 22, or Psalm 51, 00:15:59.700 --> 00:16:04.040 or Isaiah 53, or, you know, there's a couple of places like that, but I can't see how they would 00:16:04.040 --> 00:16:08.500 do it throughout the rest of the Bible. But they could be preaching right here. They would go into 00:16:08.500 --> 00:16:15.460 Athens and say, listen, there's only one God. And that one God that actually exists, he saves 00:16:15.460 --> 00:16:23.940 by this bringing people out of, well, just as here it's described that he brought the people of Israel 00:16:23.940 --> 00:16:31.080 from bondage and slavery out of Egypt, and then into the promised land. And they would know, 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:37.759 they would know because they'd been told that when Jesus is being transfigured, and Peter and John and 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:44.600 James are hearing the conversation between Moses and Elijah with Jesus, if you look in Luke's account of it, 00:16:44.600 --> 00:16:53.040 they talk about his upcoming Exodus. They describe the death and resurrection of Jesus as a type of 00:16:53.040 --> 00:16:58.360 Exodus. And they would be able to say, listen, this is pointing, especially if you go on through the 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:04.299 Psalm and you see the riddle that the Psalm ends with, it can only be solved by the gospel. This is 00:17:04.299 --> 00:17:09.400 pointing to the fact that God really did act in history. He really did save the Jewish people. He 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:15.180 really did call them for himself. And it's pointing to the true and greater Moses. And it's pointing to 00:17:15.180 --> 00:17:20.980 the true and greater Joshua. In fact, Jesus's name is Joshua. It's pointing to the true and greater 00:17:20.980 --> 00:17:27.660 Joshua who will deliver us from a far greater evil, which is sin, the slavery to sin and to death. And he 00:17:27.660 --> 00:17:34.759 will deliver us from that into his kingdom and into his favor. He will transfer us. We're going to see 00:17:34.759 --> 00:17:40.680 that in the next little bit. He'll transfer us in a very, very profound way. And so, you see, on one hand, 00:17:40.740 --> 00:17:49.059 then, all intuitions of all disappointment with God all come from an intuition that God should save if he's God. 00:17:50.059 --> 00:17:57.940 And the Psalm here is reminding us there is a God who saves. He really did save. God saves us. 00:17:57.940 --> 00:18:16.400 You know, it's not just that... It's not just that... Sorry, I lost my... Anyway, he actually does save us. 00:18:16.940 --> 00:18:21.799 And because of that, that's why there's two ways. There's the way of being saved by God, 00:18:22.460 --> 00:18:27.539 or the way of not being saved by God, but ultimately wanting to be your own type of God, 00:18:27.539 --> 00:18:32.019 which ultimately means you're in some type of rebellion or enmity towards him. You maintain 00:18:32.019 --> 00:18:39.539 that because God is the one who saves. And that's why you start to see that there can only be two 00:18:39.539 --> 00:18:47.440 paths. But I said there's... See, on one hand, we have this profound intuition that God has to save if 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:55.339 he's going to be God. But we have these other warring intuitions that once we have them clarified by 00:18:55.339 --> 00:19:03.259 the Bible, we realize that God has actually something vastly better for us than our intuitions 00:19:03.259 --> 00:19:08.500 about how God should relate to the world. Like, let's begin to look at that. It's the next section, 00:19:09.179 --> 00:19:17.859 verses 8 to 12. Right? So the declaration is there's only one God. The second declaration is that God saves. 00:19:17.859 --> 00:19:23.819 The first declaration is that there's only one God and there's two paths. The second one is that there 00:19:23.819 --> 00:19:30.059 is a God and he actually does save just as he should. And so, and then it continues on with this, 00:19:30.139 --> 00:19:38.539 verse 8. Bless our God, O peoples. Let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept our soul among 00:19:38.539 --> 00:19:46.180 the living and has not let our feet slip. For you, O God, have tested us. You have tried us as silver is 00:19:46.180 --> 00:19:53.940 tried. You have brought us into the net. You have laid a crushing burden on our backs. You let men ride 00:19:53.940 --> 00:20:01.220 over our heads. We went through fire and through water, yet you have brought us out to a place of 00:20:01.220 --> 00:20:06.839 abundance. Now, what's going on here? If you could put up the point, that would be very helpful. 00:20:08.539 --> 00:20:20.299 The true God purifies you after he saves you. The true God purifies you after he saves you. 00:20:21.159 --> 00:20:28.399 Now, you see, this is where we start to get into the whole problem of the disappointment we have with 00:20:28.399 --> 00:20:38.519 God. Because our intuition is that that's not the right way around. Our intuition is that we 00:20:38.519 --> 00:20:46.220 purify ourselves, and then God saves us. And then, in a sense, these bad and disappointing things don't 00:20:46.220 --> 00:20:50.619 happen to us. Well, let me give you an illustration for those of you who are familiar with Christians. 00:20:51.859 --> 00:20:55.680 Maybe you have, you know, somebody who was raised in a Christian home. 00:20:57.339 --> 00:21:02.339 And, you know, they hit whatever the age. You know, they hit 13. They hit university. They hit their 00:21:02.339 --> 00:21:07.480 early 20s, and they completely and utterly turn away from Christianity. And they live a life which 00:21:07.480 --> 00:21:14.059 is definitely not a life described or recommended by the Bible. They really turn away from Christ 00:21:14.059 --> 00:21:21.519 and live a life which is just, you know, very dissipated, maybe very debauched type of life. 00:21:22.359 --> 00:21:27.399 And then, you know, one day, something starts to happen in their life, and they start to maybe think 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:31.820 that they need to get back, that they've maybe made a little bit of a mess with their life, a little bit 00:21:31.820 --> 00:21:38.840 like the prodigal son, and maybe they should be coming back. And how does that almost always work? 00:21:40.320 --> 00:21:43.100 Well, what almost always happens is that people don't say, 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:49.040 amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:54.019 I was blind, but now I see. What do people tend to think? 00:21:54.019 --> 00:22:04.000 I'm going to stop drinking. I'm going to stop smoking. I'm going to stop seeing the prostitutes. 00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:11.079 I'm going to try to get a bit out of debt. And then I think I can go to church. 00:22:12.940 --> 00:22:18.960 Right? What are they thinking? I've got to purify myself. I've got to purify myself. 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:26.259 And then maybe I can come to church. And the Bible here is very, very counterintuitive. It says, 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:35.420 no, actually the way it works is that God saves you. He does it, not you. And then after he has 00:22:35.420 --> 00:22:40.400 saved you, and now in a sense your destiny is fixed, your identity is fixed, but now he's going 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:49.600 to begin to purify you in a different way. And that just goes against it, right? Because we don't 00:22:49.600 --> 00:22:53.960 maybe think, for those of us who are Christians, we don't think that maybe some of the hard times 00:22:53.960 --> 00:22:59.620 in our life is something that's going on that God is using to try to change us into a different type 00:22:59.620 --> 00:23:05.920 of person, a better person. If you go back to the text, look again at what it says in this text. 00:23:05.920 --> 00:23:12.200 It's quite profound. Notice how throughout all of it, God is active. Verse 8, 00:23:13.140 --> 00:23:19.240 bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept our soul among the 00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:24.039 living and has not let our feet slip. Now, just two things about that verses 8 and 9. The first thing 00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:31.560 is this, what it really says in verse 9, like literally it says, who has kept our soul in the 00:23:31.559 --> 00:23:39.940 realm of life. So you see, this is once again going back to verses 5 and 7, that this saving act that 00:23:39.940 --> 00:23:47.200 God has done in history, which we see in a sort of a foretaste in how God saves Israel, but we see now 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:55.119 in completeness in the person of Jesus, is that God moves us out of slavery to sin and to demons and 00:23:55.119 --> 00:24:02.199 and to idols and to mockery and blindness. He saves us out of that. He takes us out of that. 00:24:02.579 --> 00:24:10.659 He translates us or transfers us into the realm of life. He does that for us. When we put our faith 00:24:10.659 --> 00:24:16.219 and trust in Jesus, in a sense, we put our lives into him. We give ourselves to him. And you don't 00:24:16.219 --> 00:24:20.239 have to know a whole lot of theology. You just have to be moved on your spirit or your soul to say, 00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:25.920 Jesus, I just want to be in you. And knowing a whole pile of other theology, that all comes later. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:30.339 But you say you just have within your heart a longing to be in Christ, and he takes you in. 00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:36.380 And then in a sense, all of that stuff that he did for you, that was what, you know, he, that, 00:24:37.660 --> 00:24:42.160 that you get completely identified with it. Just pause a little bit. Okay, this isn't an argument 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:48.019 for infant baptism. But for those of you who aren't familiar with why some Christians are in favor 00:24:48.019 --> 00:24:55.279 of infant baptism. I mean, just, just give me a bit of grace. Part of the beautiful images of infant 00:24:55.279 --> 00:25:01.779 baptism for the child of a believing parent is, I didn't do anything to get myself born. 00:25:03.259 --> 00:25:11.240 None of you did. Baptism symbolizes how you, I have done nothing to make myself right with Christ. 00:25:11.240 --> 00:25:18.420 That's partly what the symbolism of infant baptism is. If it's, if it's properly understood, if it's not, 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:23.000 you know, just, you know, some rituals and rites, and there's all, I'm, I'm, I know there's all this 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:28.799 other stuff around it that, that, that, like, it's like flack, it's, it's, uh, to distract you. But that's 00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:34.059 the fundamental image, that God does something completely and utterly for me, that I can do nothing, 00:25:34.140 --> 00:25:40.160 just as the baby can do nothing for themselves. None of us can do anything for ourselves when Christ saves us. 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:45.759 That God saves us. And so that's why it begins, right? Bless our gods, O people. Verse 8, let the 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:51.360 sound of his praise be heard, who has kept our soul among the living, or, or literally has moved us 00:25:51.360 --> 00:25:56.240 into the realm of life and keeps us there. And then, but, but here's the thing. So that's, that's what 00:25:56.240 --> 00:26:03.460 salvation is. But then look how God is in the, his hand is in everything. So it's God who, on verse 9, 00:26:03.560 --> 00:26:09.940 keeps our soul among the living. It's God who has not let our feet slip. Then verse 10, you, 00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:19.000 O God, have tested us. You, in a sense, O God, have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net. 00:26:19.580 --> 00:26:27.200 You laid a crushing burden on our backs. You let men ride over our heads. We went through fire and through 00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:36.259 water. Yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. And, and so it has this image that first 00:26:36.259 --> 00:26:41.720 we're saved. God does something in history that means that when we put our faith and trust in him, 00:26:41.799 --> 00:26:48.519 put our faith and trust in Christ, that we are moved into the realm of life. And then once we are in the 00:26:48.519 --> 00:26:53.319 realm of life, then God begins to purify us. And sometimes it means he moves us into a place where 00:26:53.319 --> 00:26:59.000 we can't move. That's like a net, where are hard things that we have to try to bear, or even that he 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:04.740 allows people who have terrible motives to do things to us. And that doesn't give them a pass. 00:27:05.160 --> 00:27:10.960 But they're all in terms of him forming us and purifying us into a different type of person. 00:27:11.640 --> 00:27:18.460 And, and this is why it's, it's, it's so important to understand that, that at the end, 00:27:18.460 --> 00:27:27.600 we come to a place of abundance. I've told the story before, but not for many years. One of my 00:27:27.600 --> 00:27:34.160 summer jobs when I was in university was I had to help balance dollars for a summer. So I was the 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:38.720 grunt. I would, you know, carry the wire. I'd help with, you know, some of the stringing of stuff. 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:43.720 They would do all the stuff that required skill. And I only discovered this afterwards, but one of the, 00:27:43.720 --> 00:27:49.059 one of the weeks that we were hiring a guy, that we were working for two other older installers, 00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:54.920 that one of them had a reputation of humiliating students. I didn't know that at the time. 00:27:55.819 --> 00:28:00.839 But he, we're having lunch. And he says, after lunch, we're in like a big movie theater. He says, 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:06.579 I want you to run the wire from here to there. And he told me, told me and the other fellow what to do. 00:28:07.039 --> 00:28:12.860 And I said no to him. I actually didn't know if I was going to be fired. But I said, that's ridiculous. 00:28:13.720 --> 00:28:17.680 Like, that's impossible. That's not the way you would do that. That can't be possibly the way 00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:21.400 you do that. That's, it's dangerous. It's impossible. I'm not even going to do it. I wasn't 00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:25.380 sure if I was going to be fired. And he really put pressure on me. He really put pressure on me. 00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:29.720 The other guy was just silent. But I just was adamant that I wasn't going to do it. The other guy 00:28:29.720 --> 00:28:34.880 was just, didn't know what to do, the other student. And finally, they just dropped it. And in fact, 00:28:34.980 --> 00:28:38.819 they did do the wire, but they didn't do it the way they said they were going to do it. They did a 00:28:38.819 --> 00:28:42.960 completely different way that was safe, right? And that's afterwards I discovered, 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:45.819 when I was mentioning it to somebody else, so yeah, that guy has a reputation. He likes to 00:28:45.819 --> 00:28:52.980 humiliate students. He gives them a task just to laugh at them at the end. 00:28:55.480 --> 00:29:00.740 Contrast that. And this is, you see, how a lot of people think of God, that God's like that, 00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:05.279 that he gives us these tasks. But no, no, God's like that. God's like this one professor that I, 00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:11.779 I was auditing the course. And he began his first lecture by saying, my goal in lecturing you over 00:29:11.779 --> 00:29:17.240 these next, you know, weeks is that you're going to get an A+. I'm going to give the best I can. 00:29:17.619 --> 00:29:24.480 I will answer all your questions. I'll be available out of class. My goal is for you to so master this 00:29:24.480 --> 00:29:29.480 material that I can give you an A+. And you can see that people are all a bit surprised. And he said, 00:29:29.539 --> 00:29:35.879 you shouldn't be surprised. Why should I have a lesser goal for you? Like, if I don't have that as my 00:29:35.880 --> 00:29:41.500 goal, I'm wasting my time. And then he said, but I want you to know one thing. I'm not just going to 00:29:41.500 --> 00:29:47.740 give you an A+. Some of you are going to think I'm a very tough marker. But why am I a tough marker? 00:29:47.880 --> 00:29:54.520 I'm a tough marker because I want you to so master the subject that you can do A-plus work. 00:29:55.780 --> 00:30:02.200 And if I just give you an A+, no matter how crappy your work is, that's actually not helping you. 00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:10.200 And they'll never lead you to do A-plus work. Like, what a prof. I've never heard a prof say 00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:14.720 anything like that. But it's actually brilliant. That's what God is like. But you think the thing 00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:19.920 is there's a type of security. He's already moved you into life, the realm of life. Now he's going to 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:26.440 begin to purify you. Now he's going to begin to purify you. But you see, part of what we have in our 00:30:26.440 --> 00:30:35.120 mind when we have disappointment with God is that we have this idea that says, no, no, God, I've been 00:30:35.120 --> 00:30:44.840 purifying myself. So, and then I've been worshiping you. And now, you see, in our heart and mind, 00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:51.980 we have this quid pro quo relationship with God. That's in our natural flesh. What do I mean by that? 00:30:51.980 --> 00:30:57.220 True story. I'm going to use the church because the fellow I'm talking about has been dead for decades. 00:30:58.559 --> 00:31:07.380 I get ordained as a 28-year-old guy. And I go to do three years as an intern, as an assistant. And 00:31:07.380 --> 00:31:13.400 then I get my first church when I'm 31 years old. And I go up the Ottawa Valley that way. And I look 00:31:13.400 --> 00:31:19.140 after four little tiny country churches. And one of them is in Killaloo. And I meet after I've been 00:31:19.140 --> 00:31:23.960 there a couple of months. I have this meeting with the two key lay people in the congregation. And I 00:31:23.960 --> 00:31:28.640 bring them a couple of suggestions about what we could be doing in the church to maybe create a bit 00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:33.820 more lively, get a bit more lively, and maybe have more people come. I'm not making this up. 00:31:34.540 --> 00:31:40.620 As I'm speaking, the guy goes like this. And then he starts to lean back in his chair. 00:31:40.619 --> 00:31:44.899 And he said, well, if we go along with that, what are you going to do for us? 00:31:47.239 --> 00:31:51.079 He said, quid pro quo. He literally said to me, quid pro quo. I think, 00:31:52.419 --> 00:31:55.019 one moment, I'm talking about how to get more people in the church and have 00:31:55.019 --> 00:32:00.599 more people come to know Jesus. And you think we're having some negotiating quid? Like, 00:32:01.099 --> 00:32:05.039 like, it was completely nuts. I just said to him, no, there's no quid pro quo. We're all going to work 00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:09.519 together to try to figure out, you know, how to worship God better and reach the community for 00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:13.740 Christ. I guess we're going to know quid pro quo in it. But here's the thing. A lot of us in a 00:32:13.740 --> 00:32:17.879 relationship with God, you see, that's what happens. We say to ourselves, a lot of our disappointment 00:32:17.879 --> 00:32:24.259 with God is, whether we vocalize it or not, is we say, you know, listen, God, I stopped smoking. 00:32:24.980 --> 00:32:29.599 You know, I stopped hanging around with those guys. I stopped drinking. You know, like, I give, 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:35.099 I gave some money to the church. I started going to church. You know, I started, I stopped, 00:32:35.379 --> 00:32:40.240 you know, I cleaned up my mouth. I, you know, I did this and this and this, and then I don't get the job. 00:32:42.980 --> 00:32:48.379 Or my, my, my truck breaks and I don't have the money to replace it. 00:32:50.399 --> 00:32:55.679 Or I, I don't get the wife or the husband that I, I thought I was going to get or I wanted to get. 00:32:55.680 --> 00:32:58.160 And we have this disappointment with God. 00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:05.180 Because you see, we have this, this sense that in our relationship with God, that there has to be 00:33:05.180 --> 00:33:11.759 this quid pro quo thing. But can't you see that what God is actually offering us is something vastly 00:33:11.759 --> 00:33:21.360 better? God saves us. And after he saves us, when we put our faith and trust in him, he begins to 00:33:21.359 --> 00:33:26.639 purify us. See, then he starts to purify how we think about him. He starts to purify our affections. 00:33:26.759 --> 00:33:35.059 He starts to purify our trust in him, our hope in him. And, and it goes further. We can see that in 00:33:35.059 --> 00:33:40.559 the next bit. If you turn to, to verses 13 to 17, it's the second part of this, this whole thing with 00:33:40.559 --> 00:33:45.439 the disappointment with God. And this other aspect that we have, this negotiating, manipulating 00:33:45.440 --> 00:33:51.080 understanding of relating with God. And it goes like this, verses 13 to 17, I will come into your 00:33:51.080 --> 00:33:59.840 house with burnt offerings. I will perform my vows to you, that which my lips uttered and my mouth 00:33:59.840 --> 00:34:06.680 promised when I was in trouble. I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals. With the smoke 00:34:06.680 --> 00:34:13.619 of the sacrifice of rams, I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah. And here, if you could put up 00:34:13.619 --> 00:34:21.239 the point, that would be very helpful. Worship of the true God comes after he saves you. Worship of 00:34:21.239 --> 00:34:27.659 the true God comes after he saves you. You see, partly what happens when I'm describing the type 00:34:27.659 --> 00:34:34.039 of disappointment that many of us have, you know, I didn't get the job. I don't have the peace. I don't 00:34:34.039 --> 00:34:39.000 have the money. I don't have this. I don't get the respect in the church. I lost my role in the church. 00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:44.699 You know, I, you know, this and this and this. And we don't necessarily articulate it very well, 00:34:44.760 --> 00:34:49.699 maybe to our best friend, but in our own little self-talk, the way we talk, we're just filled with 00:34:49.699 --> 00:34:54.880 the things that didn't go the way that we expected. And part of all of that is that we actually think 00:34:54.880 --> 00:35:04.179 that we have done something in such a way that we put God into our debt. Like unconsciously, we think, 00:35:04.179 --> 00:35:14.000 God, you owe me. You owe me. You owe me. You know how much money I gave? You know all those times I 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:19.940 turned the other cheek? You know all those times I read the Bible? You owe me. Now, we don't usually, 00:35:20.099 --> 00:35:23.619 you see, normally for Christians, we're all well enough instructed that if I say that, we go, okay, 00:35:24.099 --> 00:35:28.259 well, okay, then maybe that's not quite right. But that's what we, that's the internal dialogue. That's 00:35:28.260 --> 00:35:34.220 what's going on with our imagination. That's what's going on with our type of affections. 00:35:34.720 --> 00:35:39.440 I know that we lost people after we walked away from our building in faithfulness to the gospel. 00:35:39.540 --> 00:35:45.220 And by the way, it was 13 years ago today that we walked away from that big stone church up the hill 00:35:45.220 --> 00:35:53.920 and moved here, 13 years ago today. And almost half the congregation left within two years, none of 00:35:53.920 --> 00:35:58.700 them to go back to the Anglican Church of Canada. Many of them for very, very good reasons. Just 00:35:58.700 --> 00:36:02.539 basically, they really wanted to worship in a church building and this just didn't cut it for 00:36:02.539 --> 00:36:08.639 them. But I know that some people left partially because they were disappointed probably with me 00:36:08.639 --> 00:36:16.119 and the wardens. But I know why. They believed that God owed them a new church building and we didn't get 00:36:16.119 --> 00:36:21.440 one. Now, in that case, they didn't want to have disappointment with God. Disappointment was with 00:36:21.440 --> 00:36:24.840 me that if I had actually had more faith or something like that, you know, God would have, 00:36:25.320 --> 00:36:30.000 I was the one blocking. But they didn't want to acknowledge that basically they thought God owes 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:37.840 us a building. No, no. No human being is in God's debt. That you can't ever possibly, and this, 00:36:37.980 --> 00:36:42.579 just hearing this psalm, you realize that God does everything to make me right with him. He does 00:36:42.579 --> 00:36:51.059 everything to transfer me from death into life, from blindness into sight, from rebellion to intimacy 00:36:51.059 --> 00:36:57.340 with God. God does all of that. And after he has saved me, then he begins to purify me. And after 00:36:57.340 --> 00:37:03.159 he has saved me, then I begin to worship him. And in the psalm, you'll see when it mentions, you know, 00:37:03.179 --> 00:37:10.400 the rams and all those types of things, it's, it's, it's, his response is extravagant. 00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:17.500 By the way, worship, money is part of worship. Like money is part of worship. That's how we should 00:37:17.500 --> 00:37:23.160 all understand giving our tithes and offerings to support of the local church, the support of 00:37:23.160 --> 00:37:28.539 missions and to the relief of, of the, of the help of the poor is that it's all part of worship. It's 00:37:28.539 --> 00:37:36.039 a response to what God has done for, for us in Christ. And it's a risk extravagant, extravagant 00:37:36.039 --> 00:37:43.420 response. Now my, my time is up. Just one final thing in, in close. And it, it, uh, there's another 00:37:43.420 --> 00:37:49.960 thing here, which is sort of very counterintuitive to our culture, actually sounds wrong. And there's 00:37:49.960 --> 00:37:54.579 also a riddle and they're all very important to see as the psalm closes. Uh, just join with me, 00:37:54.619 --> 00:38:00.599 verse 16 to 20. Come in here. So remember this, the flow of the psalm is there's only one God. 00:38:00.599 --> 00:38:06.559 There's two paths. Either you, in a sense, acknowledge God and worship him, or you maintain 00:38:06.559 --> 00:38:12.159 a rebellion against him, but it will only end with you cringing. The rebellion doesn't work. God can't 00:38:12.159 --> 00:38:18.519 stop being gods, but there's only one God. Then God saves you. Then after he saves you, he begins to 00:38:18.519 --> 00:38:25.019 purify you. And after he saved you, you begin to worship. And then verse 16, come in here, all you who 00:38:25.019 --> 00:38:31.880 fear God, come in here. I will tell you what he has done for my soul, for me, for all of me. I cried 00:38:31.880 --> 00:38:38.440 to him with my mouth and high praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, 00:38:39.460 --> 00:38:45.280 the Lord would not have listened, but truly God has listened. He has attended to the voice of my prayer. 00:38:46.159 --> 00:38:54.519 Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer, were removed his steadfast love from me. 00:38:55.019 --> 00:38:59.139 A couple of things, just very briefly in closing. If you could put up the point, that would be helpful. 00:39:00.119 --> 00:39:06.480 The true God does not love you unconditionally, but he does love you unfailingly. 00:39:08.679 --> 00:39:10.679 God does not love you unconditionally, 00:39:11.500 --> 00:39:16.739 but he does love you unfailingly. And unfailingly is way better. 00:39:18.019 --> 00:39:23.460 See, if I said I love my kids unconditionally and I didn't really care, you know, whether they learned 00:39:23.460 --> 00:39:27.619 how to eat with knives and forks, if I didn't really care that they learned how to have showers, 00:39:28.320 --> 00:39:33.539 do well in school, because I love them unconditionally, how many of you would say I was a good parent? 00:39:34.960 --> 00:39:35.880 Hopefully none of you. 00:39:37.380 --> 00:39:40.740 You don't know. That's crappy parenting, okay? 00:39:41.380 --> 00:39:42.740 Crappy, crappy parenting. 00:39:42.739 --> 00:39:47.319 You know, you want them to learn to share. You want them to learn to brush their teeth. 00:39:47.419 --> 00:39:50.259 You want them to learn grooming. You want them to learn their multiplication. 00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:51.339 That's what you want. 00:39:52.059 --> 00:39:55.099 And you know what? You love your kids unfailing, but you don't love them unconditionally. 00:39:55.199 --> 00:39:56.500 And that's what God is like with us. 00:39:56.559 --> 00:39:59.879 He loves us unfailingly, but he's not loving us unconditionally. 00:40:00.859 --> 00:40:06.179 And then this little bit in about how God wouldn't do this if we had cherished sin in our heart. 00:40:06.179 --> 00:40:08.819 And that's a bit of a riddle within the whole thing. 00:40:08.879 --> 00:40:10.559 On one hand, it's profoundly true. 00:40:12.019 --> 00:40:15.679 I can't cherish God and cherish sin at the same time. 00:40:15.960 --> 00:40:19.059 I can't cling to God and cling to sin at the same time. 00:40:20.440 --> 00:40:25.679 Part of what God does in purifying me is he sees that I cling to my sin, 00:40:25.799 --> 00:40:28.299 because that word cherish can also be translated as cling. 00:40:28.839 --> 00:40:33.339 And so part of purifying me is he starts to come to me and he takes my fingers. 00:40:33.340 --> 00:40:39.019 Then the other fingers and he takes my arms. 00:40:39.380 --> 00:40:42.760 So I'm not clinging to sin because he wants me to cling to him. 00:40:44.140 --> 00:40:45.280 Isn't that loving God? 00:40:49.440 --> 00:40:50.680 But here's the mystery. 00:40:51.860 --> 00:40:53.460 Only the gospel makes it clear. 00:40:54.579 --> 00:40:58.360 You see, anybody with any type of self-reflection would say, 00:40:58.360 --> 00:41:03.200 I still cling to sin and cherish sin sometime. 00:41:04.340 --> 00:41:06.820 How did God ever make me right with him if that's the case? 00:41:08.220 --> 00:41:09.860 See, the psalm ends with a riddle. 00:41:10.860 --> 00:41:15.400 And the riddle is only solved when you understand that Jesus is the glam of God 00:41:15.400 --> 00:41:17.300 that takes away the sin of the world. 00:41:17.480 --> 00:41:20.620 That God, the Son of God, could come and live amongst us. 00:41:20.740 --> 00:41:25.500 And that when he dies for us, he dies for the whole length and breadth of me. 00:41:25.539 --> 00:41:27.720 He does it as a complete and utter act of grace. 00:41:27.719 --> 00:41:30.239 He, you know, his life stands for mine. 00:41:30.399 --> 00:41:32.239 His righteousness clothes me. 00:41:32.359 --> 00:41:33.879 His destiny is given to me. 00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:37.859 All of this is given to me completely and utterly as a gift of grace. 00:41:38.299 --> 00:41:43.519 It isn't that I'm so much better at not cherishing sin as all those terrible people out there. 00:41:43.959 --> 00:41:46.959 And I'm some, no, that just makes me proud and arrogant. 00:41:46.960 --> 00:41:51.880 And it sets, but the psalm ends with a riddle of the contrast between the cherish. 00:41:52.059 --> 00:41:55.780 And so on one hand, there's a profound truth about how we are to grow 00:41:55.780 --> 00:41:58.199 in terms of putting to death our cherishing of sin. 00:41:58.260 --> 00:42:01.900 But at the same time, it's something that points us that if we're at all honest, 00:42:01.900 --> 00:42:03.559 we can never do that perfectly. 00:42:03.559 --> 00:42:09.019 And so, God, I need you to do for me what I cannot do for myself. 00:42:09.500 --> 00:42:14.019 And part of worship and part of being purified is to come to the point where I say, 00:42:14.139 --> 00:42:18.820 only you, God, help me, only you. 00:42:20.360 --> 00:42:21.699 And I say, thank you. 00:42:22.900 --> 00:42:23.900 It's been done. 00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:30.440 The final words of Jesus on the cross, it is finished, takes on a whole new meaning. 00:42:31.079 --> 00:42:32.000 It is finished. 00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:37.780 Let's stand, bow our heads in prayer in closing. 00:42:43.099 --> 00:42:51.860 Father, we, you know how even after we've been Christians for a long time, 00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:56.320 we still can sneak in ideas that we can somehow put you in our debt. 00:42:56.320 --> 00:43:05.840 We know, Father, how you do things for us that are really trying to help us no longer cling to sin 00:43:05.840 --> 00:43:11.700 or rebellion or pride or arrogance or looking down our nose at others or despising others. 00:43:11.820 --> 00:43:18.500 You do things to try to purify us and take that as not being something as part of our identity, 00:43:18.500 --> 00:43:20.699 and we end up getting disappointed with you. 00:43:22.239 --> 00:43:30.320 Father, we ask that you give us an even greater confidence and trust in the gospel and what Christ has done for us. 00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:35.660 And in those hard times in our lives, Father, we ask that you connect us with other Christians 00:43:35.660 --> 00:43:38.100 and keep us connected in worship and in church, 00:43:38.220 --> 00:43:42.420 that we can share our heartache and our pain with others, 00:43:42.620 --> 00:43:48.039 and we can feel their, we can see their tears as they pray for us, 00:43:48.039 --> 00:43:50.620 and we can feel their hugs as they hug us afterwards, 00:43:50.620 --> 00:43:54.019 and we can talk through what's going on in our lives. 00:43:54.019 --> 00:43:59.139 But in all things, Father, keep bringing us back to your word and what you have done for us in Christ. 00:43:59.420 --> 00:44:04.500 And we thank you, Father, that you did for us in Jesus what we cannot do for ourselves, 00:44:04.639 --> 00:44:07.840 that you, when we put our faith and trust in him, 00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:10.099 you transferred us into the realm of life, 00:44:10.119 --> 00:44:13.539 and you will keep us there, and nothing can shake that. 00:44:14.360 --> 00:44:18.360 Father, help us to grow in our confidence that you keep your word. 00:44:18.860 --> 00:44:22.219 We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. 00:44:23.219 --> 00:44:23.619 Amen. 00:44:24.019 --> 00:44:25.019 Amen.