WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.040 Well, good evening. It's a great pleasure to be with you tonight back among friends 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:12.160 here at St. Columbus. And we have this series of Psalms, and there's so many great ones 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:17.440 to choose from. We're going to be looking at Psalm 124 together tonight. And I'm reminded 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:23.480 of a quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson is best known for being a novelist, 00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:29.920 Treasure Island. But he also wrote a collection of poems versus for children. And one of those 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:36.679 verses goes something like this, The world is so big and I am so small. I do not like 00:00:36.679 --> 00:00:43.840 it at all, at all. And if we're honest, the world is big. And the world can seem scary, 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:51.880 it can seem frightening, and we can seem very small, very insignificant, very weak, very 00:00:51.880 --> 00:01:01.359 vulnerable. And in Psalm 124, David is reflecting upon life, not life in the ideal or in the 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:07.840 abstract, but real life, real problems, real difficulties. And you see, the Bible is great 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:15.659 because it tells you the story as it is. Life is tough. There are challenges of one sort 00:01:15.659 --> 00:01:23.319 or another. But before we jump into the Psalm itself, I'd just like to make two observations. 00:01:23.319 --> 00:01:29.719 The first is where we find this particular Psalm. It's in that group of Psalms, the Psalms 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:37.679 of Ascent. And it reminds us that the Christian life is an uphill journey. What we have here 00:01:37.679 --> 00:01:43.799 are a series of songs that the people of God, they're singing, they're on their way to Jerusalem. 00:01:43.799 --> 00:01:49.000 Jerusalem is a city on a hill. So literally, they are moving towards Jerusalem, and they 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:54.439 are moving up. Now, any upward journey, if you know Edinburgh at all, we have a lot 00:01:54.439 --> 00:02:01.120 of hills in this city. There are a lot of steep walks where you feel very keenly that 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:06.479 this is a city built on seven hills. Rome might be that city too, but Edinburgh certainly 00:02:06.479 --> 00:02:13.079 has many hills. So the Christian journey is an uphill journey. And if you're not yet a 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:19.120 follower of Jesus, let me correct any misapprehension that you might be. If you're not yet a follower 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:27.000 of Jesus, do not think that you come to believe in Jesus and life becomes carefree and all 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:33.640 the problems disappear. I can't promise that to you because it's not true. It's not real. 00:02:33.640 --> 00:02:37.439 And I think any Christian here tonight would be honest with you and say, the Christian 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:45.039 life is tough. But I also think the second observation is that this is a life that's 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:51.400 meant to be lived together. As we open the psalm, if it had not been the Lord who was 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:57.759 on our side, let Israel now say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, what 00:02:57.759 --> 00:03:04.000 you have here is that collective singing of the people of God. We were just doing that. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:10.199 We were joining our voices together. We were being led in praise, but it wasn't a concert. 00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:17.400 We responded with our own voices. And what you have here in these opening words is, it 00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:23.960 seems to me you have the voice of one. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side. 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:28.080 And then he says, right people, let's hear it. If it had not been the Lord who was on 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:34.520 our side and the voices are not one now, but the voices, the voice of the multitude. So 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:41.600 if the Christian life is an uphill journey, that's a journey that's best lived in community, 00:03:41.600 --> 00:03:50.640 in family, in company. I need you on this journey. You need me. We need each other because it 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:59.759 is a tough road. It is uphill. Now the sentiments of this Psalm are very much corporate. We, 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:11.479 us, our. Many of the Psalms are very personal. The Lord is my shepherd, Psalm 23. Psalm 121, 00:04:11.479 --> 00:04:16.319 I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:23.360 Lord who made heaven and earth. So the Christian life, of course, is personal. You have a relationship 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:31.079 with God through Jesus Christ that is uniquely you. But the Christian life is corporate, 00:04:31.079 --> 00:04:37.839 collective. We need one another. And as you look in the Bible, in the New Testament, 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:45.199 over 100 times, this phrase, one another is used. Love one another, encourage one another, 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:51.360 build up one another, provoke or prompt one another to good deeds. It is absolutely impossible 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:59.039 people to do anything with one another on your own. We need to do that in community. 00:04:59.039 --> 00:05:05.919 So that kind of sets the scene. Uphill journey best made in the company of others. Now I 00:05:05.919 --> 00:05:14.399 said this is a big world and it can be a scary world. David identifies four motifs. And each 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:24.199 of these scenes in and of itself is overwhelming. The combined effect is to emphasize how vulnerable, 00:05:24.199 --> 00:05:31.839 how weak and how dangerous life actually is. I come from the United States. I come from 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:38.399 New Jersey. We have the best sand beaches in our state, not just in the United States, 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:42.959 but in the world. If you don't believe me, come and see. Come to Long Beach Island. But 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:51.039 there was one summer, summer of 2017, that there was an internet sensation. Mary Lee 00:05:51.039 --> 00:05:55.680 had hundreds of thousands of followers up and down the coast, and particularly in New Jersey. 00:05:56.319 --> 00:06:01.759 Wherever she was spotted, people wanted to know. The reason why people were very interested in 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:10.479 Mary Lee is that she was 3,456 pounds. She was 16 feet and 55 years old, and she was a great white 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:16.960 shark. And people who like me, who like to swim in the sea, kind of like to have an idea of where 00:06:16.960 --> 00:06:24.240 she might be. So if I'm going to surf city, Fifth Street, and Mary Lee is in the neighborhood, 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:31.520 I might just sit on the beach. Because this apex predator becomes the key predator wherever she 00:06:31.520 --> 00:06:37.920 goes. Now I don't think Mary Lee could swallow me in one go, but I think two bites would do it. 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:44.319 And many of you here, it would be one swallow. That's how big this animal is. And that's the idea 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:50.720 that David is conveying in that first motif. Let's sing together people, if the Lord had not been on 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:58.160 our side, when people rose against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive. You see, David 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:04.480 is a poet. He's a songwriter. You know, he's using these illustrations or illusions in a creative 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:13.360 way to say it's just like this massive creature that is so big, the enemies are so vast, the 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:23.200 opponents are so many, that this creature would swallow you whole. Motif one. The second motif 00:07:23.200 --> 00:07:33.040 that we have here, the second scene, is in verse four. Then the flood would have swept us away. 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:40.879 The torrent would have gone over us. Then over us would have gone the raging waters. So he changes 00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:47.280 the scene from the creature that's so big, it could swallow you to the flood that is so strong. 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:54.640 It would sweep you off your feet. The torrent of water that was so big and so powerful that it 00:07:54.639 --> 00:08:03.120 would leave nothing and no one in its path. So you get the idea. David's building up a picture here. 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:07.680 In the New Testament, we are often confronted with the three great enemies and they're named 00:08:08.719 --> 00:08:15.279 the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world, that way of thinking and living that's out there, 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:20.639 the flesh, that way of thinking and living which is in here, and the evil one who seeks to steal, 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:26.719 kill, and destroy. David is kind of identifying these foes, but he's identifying them in a more 00:08:26.719 --> 00:08:33.120 creative and a more poetic manner. So the creature is so big, it will swallow you. The flood, the 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:40.080 torrent, that's so fierce, it will just sweep you away. And then the third, which you find in 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:49.200 verse six, is the prey that has sharp teeth. So the first scene is being swallowed alive. The second 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:56.000 scene is being ground into bits. We're not given a choice here, but neither of these images is 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:03.440 particularly pleasant. But David is reflecting upon life as he has lived it. And I think we need to 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:08.879 be honest, especially if we've been on the journey for a while, let's be honest and say, the challenges 00:09:08.879 --> 00:09:14.640 are there. You don't need to look for them. The challenges are there within, the challenges are 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:21.840 there outside, the challenges are there, and they are powerful and they are many. And the fourth of 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:30.000 these images we see in verse seven, we have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fallers. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:39.200 The snare is broken and we have escaped. So now the scene is this, usually with some sort of rope 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:47.840 or spring, the trap is set and the unsuspecting prey, the bird, the pheasant or whatever is 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:56.240 particularly tasty, springs the snare, all of a sudden the bird that once was free is now captured. 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:05.360 It's in the snare, it will soon be in the pot, it will soon be dinner. So you get this cumulative 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:12.080 picture here, that the people of God are up against it. Their foes are many and their foes are varied 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:20.879 and their foes are powerful. And in and of themselves, they cannot deal with one, let alone all. 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:27.440 We go to the New Testament picture, the world, the flesh and the devil. We can't even control 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:34.240 ourselves, let alone other people. We can't go against head to head against the evil one. 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:41.600 So you and I are up against it. We are fragile, we are weak, we are vulnerable, we often are isolated. 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:47.120 That's yet another reason that we need to be together. We need to worship together, we need to 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:52.240 learn together, we need to grow together, we need to serve together, we need to encourage one another. 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:59.120 There are many different ministries in the Bible, many different gifts. I would encourage you to 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:04.799 exercise the gift of encouragement. I have yet to find the biblical gift of criticism. 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:10.320 It's well exercised, but yet I've never found it on the page of Scripture. The biblical gift 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:16.480 of discouragement, again, I haven't found it in the 66 books of the New and Old Testaments, 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:23.440 but the gift of encouragement coming alongside of someone. Let's try not to make a difficult 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:30.000 situation worse. Let's try to encourage men and women, brothers and sisters along the way. 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:37.040 But what is the encouragement? Is it just try harder, do better, or look on the bright side 00:11:37.040 --> 00:11:43.360 of life, or things could get better? No, because what you have in this psalm at the beginning, 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:51.360 in the middle, and at the end, is the Lord is present. Now, I'm not a Hebrew poet, 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:59.519 but I am told that Hebrew poets emphasize certain truths by where they place those truths. So, 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:04.320 if you want to emphasize a truth, put it at the beginning of the poem, or if you want to emphasize 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:09.120 a truth, put it at the end of the poem, or if you want to emphasize a truth, put it in the middle 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:17.279 of the poem. Now, David was no mean poet, so he does all three at the beginning. If it had not 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:24.799 been the Lord who was on our side, now the balance has shifted. Now the scene has changed. 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:30.639 That sea creature that could swallow you a whole, well, you're no longer against that creature 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:37.120 yourself. The Lord is on your side. And when the Lord is on your side, one can be a majority. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:43.360 You might feel in many situations, maybe you're at work, maybe at school, maybe even in your 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:49.200 family circle, you might be the lone Christian. But when the Lord is on your side, you are not 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:54.320 only on the winning side, that you are on the strongest side, if the Lord had not been on our 00:12:54.320 --> 00:13:02.639 side. And notice at the beginning, middle, and end, it's that block capital Lord, which is the way 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:10.320 in which the Old Testament highlights the fact that God has a personal name. He reveals himself 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:16.240 by name. He's a personal God. He wants to be known personally, and he makes himself known 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:23.760 personally. He's not abstract. He's not a theological idea, but he is a personal God with a personal 00:13:23.760 --> 00:13:29.440 name. The God who always is, is the God who always was, and the God who always will be. 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:39.120 We use the term Jehovah or Yahweh. He reveals himself by name. He is dependable. He's reliable. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:47.600 He's steadfast. He's sure. And there he is at the beginning. And he's there on our side. He's right 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:53.679 there with us, so that this massive sea creature will not swallow us whole. He's right there so 00:13:53.679 --> 00:14:00.480 that the torrent will not sweep us away. And then in the middle of the psalm, when you're dealing with 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:08.399 that creature with the sharp teeth, blessed be the Lord who has not given us as prey to their 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:16.000 teeth. He's protecting. He's preserving. He's present. He's powerful. He's loving. He's caring. 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:22.720 And you see, this is the great combination that we have in God. We have a God who is willing to help, 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:28.480 and we have a God who is able to help, a God who is powerful, and a God who is personal, 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:36.960 a God who is in control, and a God who loves. I'm grateful for Fin was praying for the, 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:42.320 for prisoners, folks who are incarcerated. And there's a growing number of people behind bars, 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:46.480 or well, actually, there's a reducing number of people behind bars, because we just can't hold 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:52.560 them all. Maybe our police must be so efficient that they are arresting so many people that we 00:14:52.560 --> 00:14:58.800 just can't hold them. So we have to release some of them early. But I remember one scene in Edinburgh 00:14:58.800 --> 00:15:04.240 prison. We used to have young offenders. Now it's all 21 and over. But I remember one time meeting 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:09.919 this guy, he was, had to be 16, you have to be at least 16. But he looked 12. You know, he came to 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:15.039 here on me. He looked like he should be at school, not in jail. And I said, because as a chaplain, 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:19.440 you meet with people. And I said, is there anything I can do to help you? I'm one of the chaplains 00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:26.159 here. Can I help you in any way? And he looked at me honestly. And he said, yes, can you take me home? 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:33.919 I said, I can't do that. I know you want to go home. I'd want to go home. But I don't have that power. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:40.000 I don't have that authority. I'm willing to help, but I'm not able to help. You see, that's the thing, 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:46.159 is that very often, these qualities come in isolation. Those that are able to help, they have 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:51.679 the power, they have the authority. They're not willing. But and those who want to help, 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:58.079 they're willing to help, they don't have the power. Not so with our God. Our God is able, 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:04.240 and our God is willing. He's able to help, and he's willing to help, and he demonstrates. And I 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:11.759 think that's one of the lessons of this psalm, is that on the Christian journey, don't just look 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:20.480 forward to the hill that lies ahead. Look back. Look back and see God's hand at work in your life. 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:29.200 See his fingerprints in the very, the challenges, the crises, the difficulties, the disappointments. 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:35.440 Look, very often you don't see them at the time, but you look back and you see the way in which 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:40.080 God was there. You thought he might not have been there. You see the way in which God helped. You 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:45.840 thought he wasn't interested. You'd see maybe with clarity looking back. And I think that's what 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:52.000 David is doing. He's speaking to a people that are moving forward, literally to Jerusalem, 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:58.240 but he's encouraging them to look back and to see God at work. The God who didn't give them as a 00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:05.920 pray to the teeth, the sharp, vicious teeth. And the final refrain in verse eight, our help 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:14.319 is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. At the beginning of every service in Geneva, 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:22.240 this was the call to worship. John Calvin would read these words, Psalm 124 verse eight, as a 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:30.240 constant reminder to the people of God, as to the God who they were worshiping, the God in whose 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:37.599 presence they gathered. One of the great puritan commentators, Thomas Manton, he was commenting 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:43.359 on this passage and he said this, the Lord who made heaven and earth, as if the psalmist had said, 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:50.479 as long as I see heaven and earth, I will never distrust. I hope in that God, as long as I see 00:17:50.479 --> 00:17:57.599 these two great standing monuments of his power before me, heaven and earth, I will never be 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:03.679 discouraged. So David said, let's look back and let's see the way in which God has rescued us. 00:18:04.399 --> 00:18:10.079 But let's look around. Let's look around. Let's look up at the heavens. Let's look around at the 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:19.119 earth. Let's see what God has done. Let's see what God has made because the measure of power 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:26.799 is seen in the heavens and the earth. God has the ability and demonstrated that ability to call 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:33.039 something out of nothing. I can't do that. You can't do that. There are unique words in the 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:42.399 Bible of which God alone is the subject. No one can say to nothing be something except God. 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:50.240 And when he calls something out of nothing, that's a lasting monument or memorial. So you can look 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:55.599 back in your own life experience. You see God's hand, his deliverance, his protection, his presence, 00:18:55.599 --> 00:19:03.279 his care, his concern. And then you look around and you see his creation, what he has made and 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:10.719 what he has made from nothing. So if God can make heaven and earth by speaking it into existence, 00:19:11.439 --> 00:19:18.159 then by comparison, remember I said that the world can seem very big? Well, actually, from God's 00:19:18.159 --> 00:19:24.240 perspective, the world is very small. He's big, the world small. From our perspective, the world's 00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:30.240 big, we're small, but from God's perspective, he's big and the world small. And when you have 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:38.079 that perspective, maybe the world is not so frightening after all. Maybe we are not so vulnerable 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:44.000 after all. Maybe we are not so weak after all because if the Lord is on our side, then we've 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:51.039 got a strong one with us. If he is with us and if he is for us, then we need not fear. We need 00:19:51.039 --> 00:20:00.159 not be anxious, worried, careful or concerned in any way. So at the beginning and at the middle 00:20:00.159 --> 00:20:07.440 and at the end, the Lord is present. And if you're going through something, trials, difficulties, 00:20:08.399 --> 00:20:14.079 challenges of one sort or another, your family, this church family, as an occasional preacher, 00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:18.480 I don't know. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what people are dealing with, 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:25.680 but I know the God who is here, who is with us, who is for us. And I know the God who is able 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:35.039 and willing to help. So do we see life as David sees it? Do we see our own lives framed in our 00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:41.759 knowledge of the Lord who is with us and not against us, the Lord who is present and not absent, 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:48.960 and the Lord who makes all things? If you turn with me to the New Testament, I'd like to read 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:55.599 just a few verses from a different major biblical author. David is a key biblical author, of course. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:21:02.559 The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 begins with the same proposition. I think it's interesting 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:08.319 when the same statement is picked up by two different authors. If the Lord had not been on 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:17.279 our side, let Israel say. And then we come to Romans chapter 8 verse 31. What then shall we say 00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:25.839 to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? So David is saying, look at your 00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:31.839 experience individually. Look at your experience collectively, people of Israel. Look at the 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:37.839 heavens and look at the earth. The Apostle Paul comes to the same conclusion as David that the 00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:46.480 Lord, God Himself, is on our side. God is with us. And how does he draw that conclusion? Well, 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:52.879 I guess one answer is what shall we say to these things, meaning the previous eight chapters, 00:21:53.679 --> 00:21:57.119 all that he was telling us in the book of Romans up until this point. 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:05.679 But notice how he signposts us from verse 31 into 33. He who did not spare his own Son, 00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:13.840 but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 00:22:13.840 --> 00:22:20.000 Who shall bring any charge against God's elected is God who justifies. Who is to condemn 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:27.039 Christ Jesus who died more than that who was raised is at the right hand of God who is indeed 00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:33.440 interceding for us. It's often been said, it's not what you know, it's who you know. 00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:38.799 You may know very little about the Christian religion. You may know very little about the 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:45.840 Bible. And in fact, that's all of us. We actually all know very little, very little about God. 00:22:45.840 --> 00:22:50.960 We know very little about the Bible. Why? Because God is infinite and eternal. We are finite, 00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:55.360 flawed and fragile. So whatever knowledge we have by comparison is very small. 00:22:55.359 --> 00:23:04.000 But what the apostle Paul is saying is this. Look at the cross. Look at the empty tomb. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:10.079 What is the conclusion? God is for us. How do we know He's for us? He gave that which was most 00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:18.159 precious to him, his Son. He gave his Son so that we might be secure. He gave his Son so that we 00:23:18.159 --> 00:23:25.039 might be forgiven. He gave his Son so that we might be set free. And I think the thought expressed 00:23:25.039 --> 00:23:32.159 in 1-4 by David and the thought expressed in Romans 8 by the apostle Paul is the same thought. 00:23:32.879 --> 00:23:41.599 God is for us. We see it in the created world. We see it in our experience. And we see it in 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:48.319 the cross of Jesus Christ, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, 00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:57.359 and He is seated at the right hand. Many times in pastoral ministry, many times people come to you 00:23:57.359 --> 00:24:02.079 and they come to you with big questions. Most people don't ask simple questions because most 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:06.559 simple questions can be answered simply. The questions that people come to you are difficult 00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:14.799 questions. Why? Why is this happening? Why did this happen? Why me? Why now? Now I used to think 00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:20.319 as a pastor, as a preacher, that I was the guy that needed to have the information. I was the 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:26.720 guy that needed to answer the questions. No. I don't know. It'd be ridiculous for me to suggest 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:32.000 why a certain series of events happened in your life. You know your circumstance far better than 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:39.119 I do. So anything that I might add would just be a pious platitude. But what I do know, I know 00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:45.519 someone who does. I know someone who has the answers. I know someone who has the strength and the power. 00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:50.879 I know someone who has the wisdom. I know someone who is able and he's seated at the right hand of 00:24:50.879 --> 00:24:58.159 God. And he's for me. He's not against me. He's demonstrated his love by dying for me on the cross 00:24:58.159 --> 00:25:05.199 and being raised to life from the dead. So the apostle Paul is saying, this is my confidence. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:13.519 This is our confidence and this is your confidence. This is our hope. This is our help. And this hope 00:25:13.519 --> 00:25:19.440 and this help has a name. And he's called Jesus Christ. He's the Son of God. He's the Savior of 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:26.160 the world. He lived. He died. He rose again and he is seated at the right hand of the Father. 00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:33.440 God is for you. Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War was often asked, 00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:41.120 Mr. President, is God on our side? And he famously responded, I'm not so interested 00:25:41.120 --> 00:25:49.120 whether God is on our side. I want to make sure I am on his side because his side always wins. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:55.039 So if you're here tonight, you're not yet a believer of Jesus. You're literally sitting on 00:25:55.039 --> 00:26:02.080 the sidelines watching, listening, singing, hearing the prayers. I would urge you to come to know 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:10.559 Jesus. Come to know him. Come to trust him. Because then and only then can you say with me and with 00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:17.519 us that God is on our side because you have identified yourself as being on his side. 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:26.000 And his side is the only one that wins. This world is so big and I am so small. I do not like it. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:32.319 At all, at all, said Robert Louis Stevenson. You can forget that verse. Remember the poetry of 00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:40.000 David. If the Lord had not been on our side, let Israel say our help is in the name of the Lord, 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:58.000 the maker of heaven and earth. Amen.