This morning, Jeff Tannenbaum
is going to bring our, I know I said that wrong, Talbenheim.
You probably get that a lot, don't you, Jeff? Anyway, he'll
bring the first message, and we'll have special music today.
And then Hugo, who's translating first hour, will bring the second
message. Hopefully, he's got enough voice
left. So let's all stand. We'll open with number six from
your spiral hymn book. Number six, who is a God like
unto thee? Let's all stand together. That's still not it. Sorry folks. ? Who is a God like unto me ? ?
That part of a man living can see ? ? Jehovah God, the great
I Am ? ? Forgives our sins through Christ the Lamb ? ? His God, the High One, to whom
? ? That God of our heaven ? ? In ignominy ? ? His anger he ? ?
Retains no more ? ? His grace and mercy ? But in his love he sent a man
to satisfy the Lord's demands for sinners. Possess the sense, who is not
liable unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, his anger His grace and mercy shall endure. Behold His love and compassion
in the dead of night. To sin atoning God reveals the
love and truth of God. Through His blood I come to Thee,
At pardon and iniquity, His anger He retains no more, His grace
and mercy He shall He passes by the transgressions
of all His love and chosen ones. Mercy of delights we see, we
cast our sins into the sea. Who is our God? In enmity his anger he retains
no more, His grace and mercy he shall endure. He gives his son sinners to spare. His anger he retains no more. Christ died, and God requires
no more. ? Who is God like unto thee ? ?
That art iniquity ? ? His anger he retains no more ? Please be seated, Jeff. Good morning, everybody. It is
a great pleasure to be here. And it's also a comfort to remember
that I'm not here to show you anything new. I'm not looking
for some new truth out of the scripture to bring. I'm not looking
to convince anybody of anything. I want to compare spiritual things
with spiritual to show Christ and what he's done out of the
scriptures. And we're going to see what God says and rejoice
in it. I want to preach to you from
Psalm 3, Psalm 3 verse 4. It says, Psalm 3 verse 4, I cried unto
the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. We can cry to God and
it's with our voice and he does hear us and it's out of his holy
hill. I've often thought there's a
reason why Psalms is the longest book in the Bible and it's right
in the middle of their Bible. Really, there's four readings
to psalms. You can turn to any psalm, any
psalm, and know that those are the words of Christ spoken when
he came on his mission to earth to take away our sins and bring
in everlasting righteousness, his prayers to God, his father,
as he went through this sin-cursed world. They're also the words
of David. or there's a few other psalm
writers too, but they were the words of these men and these
were real things that really happened. Any psalm, any verse
in any psalm is the prayers of you, me, an individual believer. We can relate to these things.
These are the things that we say to God as we pass through
this world. And fourthly, any verse in any
psalm is the prayers of God's church. Collectively, we all
can say these things, we all pray these things. So there's
four things here in the Psalms, four ways we can see these verses. Now that stands in stark contrast
to what is called prayer and the ideas of prayer entertained
in religious circles. I kept hearing this phrase, prayer
warrior. Maybe you've heard that. They got the best of me. I had
to find out what a prayer warrior is. I went on the internet and
I looked. It's people in churches who appraise
themselves or are appraised by others as being super spiritual
on a higher level, I guess, of prayer that they've attained
to. And so they form committees of these distinguished people
to take on the task of prayer. And you take your prayer request
to the prayer warriors and they take it to God. So let the strong
ones do it, I guess, is the idea. Now, we are warriors. We do overcome. For some reason
that's not what I think they're talking about, though. Because
the next page on this one website was, if you're not a prayer warrior
and you don't think that you have what it takes but you want
to be, click here. And you find out how. And it
read just the same as anything else would read. If somebody
was learning how to play an instrument or they wanted to get better
at a sport, you'd tell them, well, try harder. Spend more
time. Practice more. And that's how the website read.
Do you want to get better at prayer? Practice more, just try
harder. That's really what it said. Here's
the promise in scripture. Though the Lord be high, yet
hath he respect unto the lowly. But the proud, the proud, the
warrior, he knows afar off. He keeps his distance. God hears
the prayers of his elect children, those who he has made his children
by election, redemption and regeneration. Those are the only prayers that
can be called prayer and those are the only people God hears
is his children, the lowly. We have this promise also when
the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. And what is the next verse? He
shall regard the prayer of the destitute. Destitute means you
have nothing to bring to God. Destitute means that there's
no reason God should even take notice of you. His children who
cry out to him is the only prayer. And now how does prayer happen? Three things. When we're shown
who we are, and two, when we're shown who it is who hears us
pray, and number three, when we think about how it is that
holy God could hear the prayers of a sinner. Who prays? A sinner. Who hears? God out of his holy hill. And
how? How can he hear? Because Christ
prayed these words. These are the words of Christ,
first of all. I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me out of
his holy hill. Let's go, I just, go to Psalm
15 really quickly, because I want to be clear about this holy hill.
God being on his holy hill means that he is above all else,
and nothing can be near him, nothing can be in his sight with
any approval. that isn't just as pure as he
is, just as holy and righteous and pure as God. He cannot look
on or fellowship with anyone not as pure as he is. And there
is one man who did all these things. Psalm 15, Lord, who shall
abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill,
the place where you hear sinners out of? He that walketh uprightly
and worketh righteousness, we're already cut out, not one of us,
and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not
with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against
his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoreth
them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt,
and changeth not. Remember, Christ prayed, Father,
save me from this hour. Nevertheless, for this hour came
I forth into the world. He swore to redeem God's children,
knowing it would hurt, and he did not change. He that putteth
not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent,
he that doeth these things shall never be moved. Now, if you go
to Psalm You don't have to turn there, but in Psalm 24, it's
almost the same exact words, and it says, this is the generation
of them that seek thy face, O Lord. He's saying, in Christ, we are
all these things. We are that generation represented
by our righteous Savior. We are those who backbite not
with our tongue, nor take up a reproach against our neighbor,
those who work righteousness. In Christ, we are. This idea of a prayer warrior
is just wind and confusion. I want to lift up our God who
will hear the weakest cry from help, from the weakest one of
his sheep, anybody who truly depends on him. There is not
a more welcoming place to be than at the foot of the cross.
So let's go to Psalm 3 now. We'll get some of the context.
Start in verse one. Psalm 3 verse 1, Lord, how are
they increased that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against
me. This is us writing bitter things
against ourselves. Our hearts condemn us because
of our sins. It says many, many they are that
trouble me and that rise up against me. In our memory, in our minds,
we get to thinking We don't doubt that the Lord saves everyone
who he saves. There's no doubt about that,
but Satan uses our own sins to make us doubt that we're one
of them. You see, the title of this Psalm
is a Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. David's
own son is chasing him and he's fleeing. just like Satan uses
what comes from us, our sin, to chase us and weary us. And
we doubt, we doubt that God could have ever done anything for us.
If we look honestly at how we live, we think, wouldn't grace
make me live above this? Verse two, many there be which
say of my soul, there is no help for him in God. Satan even uses God's own words
against us. He says there's no help in God,
but God says, blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the
heavenly places in Christ, no help in God, he blessed us in
Christ, according as he chose us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. There's hope in God. The devil
will say there's not. The accuser with great wrath
and short time will put these thoughts in our mind. Thoughts
like God won't help me. I can't ask God for that again.
I've asked so many times and I've blown it each time. Why
can't, why am I stuck here? Why am I so full of sin? David had other men saying there's
no hope for God. But we have our flesh, our own
flesh, teaming up with the devil to say the same thing to us.
There's no help for you in God. Now verse three. But thou, O
Lord, art a shield for me, my glory and the lifter up of my
head. Many there be which say of my
soul, but God, but God. Faith starts with but God, not
but I. The devil says there's no hope
for you in God. Faith says in Christ, the promise
is yea and amen. In God is my refuge, a shield
for me. He's a shield against our wallowing
and doubt. He's a shield against our self-destruction
and the wiles of the devil, the schemes. He's a shield where
we hide ourselves until the wrath be overpassed, until the pit
be digged for the wicked. This is a shield that pulls you
behind itself. You're already behind it by the
time you find out you have a shield. My glory, verse three, my glory. I'm a sinner being chased by
my sin. What do I have to glory in? And
the lifter up of my head because we know that he hears us. We
know that he hears us. Also here we can start to see
how Psalms, as I said, is the words of Christ and the words
of his church too. We can see in this verse because
Christ is the head and God the Father lifted him up, raised
him up. God lifted up our head out of
the ground and sat him at his own right hand. The lifter up of my head and
that this could be said by sinners like us that we can call God
our father. As I said I want to magnify the
free grace by showing how far we fell. Let's go to Psalm 14. This is who cries out to God.
This is who is heard by God. People who in themselves can
claim nothing more. can claim to be nothing more
than what this Psalm says we are. Who is it calling out to
God? A sinner, alienated from God
and enemies in their minds by their wicked works. Verse one
of Psalm 14, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. You can read that, no God. We
were born saying no to God. We were born doing that. That's
what comes naturally to us. We're born thinking we have the
world by the horns. And you can see that in the way
the world talks about God because they talk about God like he's
really just thrilled that we exist and he just wants to know
us. That's how it sounds. But here's
the fool in the sight of all wise God. It says his understanding
is infinite. And here's a fool. The proverb
says the fool rejects the instruction of a father. So how will this
lost child of God be turned into someone who begs for his instruction,
who seeks it, and is heard by God out of his holy hill, someone
who has their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life
of God by the ignorance that is in them, and being past feeling,
given over to work all uncleanness with lasciviousness. That is
the state we're in. We need God to hear us. You know
what the most foolish thing about an unbeliever is? By far, the
most foolish thing about an unbeliever is their thoughts about God.
By far, every time. They are corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good.
The Lord said a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit and neither
can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. See it says they
are corrupt. They have done abominable works.
We do abominable works because we are corrupt. A clean thing
cannot be brought out of an unclean thing. There is none that doeth
good, not one. The Lord Jesus Christ said, why
the world hates him. He said in John chapter 12, why
the world hates him, because I testify of it that the works
thereof are evil. He's talking about the things
people pat themselves on the back for. He's talking about
the person who makes a comment conversation and walks away thinking,
well, now they all know how nice I am. He's talking about the
coat drive and the soup drive put on by church, everything.
It's evil because it's done by people who think that they have
a handle on God. It's done by people who think
this is working to their credit with God. And that spits in the
face of God's justice to say that God can be appeased. by
a good work so called that we do on earth is to tear God off
his throne. The works of this world are evil. They have done abominable works,
there is none that doeth good. Now verse two, the Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. Here's what he saw. They are all gone aside. They
are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Election, God's choosing some
certain people to be saved. Election is about God's love.
If God is love and the Bible says God is love, then he loves
some people. And by his blood, he saves them. God's love is personal, it's
devoted to individuals. It swears and turns not again.
And this is where the heresy of Arminianism falls on its face
like Dagon. Now, Arminianism will say that
election means that God looked down through time before he created
the world and being omniscient, he saw who would choose to believe
in him. And therefore, he calls them
elect. but that's post-destination because
that's God doing something after he saw you do something. The
Bible teaches predestination because it's God making a decision
about you over and above and before and outside of anything
he sees you doing. For the children being not yet
born, it says in Romans chapter nine, the children, Jacob and
Esau being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God, all God's purposes, will stand. His purpose, according to election,
might stand. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. That is what the Bible teaches.
If election was God foreseeing who would believe in him, heaven
is empty. And Christ came for no reason,
because look in here, he saw that they're all gone aside,
gone aside, as far from God as we could run. That's how we start
running as soon as we're born. But here's hope though, here's
real hope. Blessed is the man that thou choosest and causes
to approach unto thee. That is the blessing. It says,
we've all together become filthy. This is who's calling out to
God. Someone who's altogether become filthy. If I'm baking
something and some poison is mixed in the batter and I mix
it all around and I hand it to you, do you want that? See, there's
no part of it that is unaffected. You can't isolate any part of
that and say, this does not have poison in it. You can't take
any part of the human race and say, these ones are okay. They
have all together become filthy. These are children of wrath by
nature, not by God's purpose and heart, but children of wrath
by nature who are calling out to God. These are done no good,
corrupt, out of the way, filthy fools who call out to God. And that's the only person who
ever will call out to God. and those are the only people
who God hears. These sinners are heard by a holy God who can
have nothing to do with sin except punish it. How Paul gives us
a view into his life. He was nothing but sin and God
heard Paul out of his holy hill. Could we go to 1 Timothy? 1 Timothy
chapter one. Because I want to show you that
God will hear the filthiest, most out-of-the-way fool from
his holy hill. Any and all who call on him out
of a need for forgiveness and to be reconciled with him, having
nothing in their hand, God hears every time we have that promise. So 1 Timothy 1, Paul is leading
us to worship God, who is just and the justifier, He's calling
us to see that God's mercy reaches as low as any person can ever
go. But it's always through Christ.
It's never at the expense of God's holiness. When God proclaimed
his name to Moses, he said, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long suffering, abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands. forgiving iniquity, transgression,
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. God has
never cleared a guilty person. He's never waived it. He's never
excused it. He's never forgotten. Nobody
is cleared. Every sin will be punished. Here's Saul, he's taking us back
to when he was Saul, breathing out threatenings and slaughter
and consenting unto Stephen's death, making havoc of God's
church. So read 13, verse 12, let's go
to verse 12. Now he's telling Timothy to stand
on guard against people who are trying to bring the law into
their preaching and turn people back to the law. It says in verse
seven, desiring to be teachers of the law, but they don't know
what they're talking about. But Paul is giving thanks to
God who put him in the gospel and gave him his ministry. And
I, in verse 12, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled
me for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but
I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord, and
the grace of our Lord, God's grace was greater than Paul's
sin because Paul was first chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world and blessed and preserved with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. And Paul was redeemed
when the son of man was betrayed into the hands of sinners and
bled for Paul and died the just for the unjust. God's grace was
greater than Paul's sin when Paul was called by the spirit
of God who said live and made him live and gave him faith.
And now Paul can put on something called a new man created in righteousness
and true holiness. And God had to do all of that.
Remember in Psalm 14, he looked down from heaven and what did
he see? Paul was gone aside. God had to do all of that. for
Paul to just cry out to him for the very first time. Now it says,
verse 14, and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with
faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. What was the first thing
that our Lord said to Paul? It was actually the third thing,
but it was the third in the first conversation. What was the first
thing? He was making it hard to kick
against the pricks. It's hard to kick against the
pricks, Paul. He could have smote Paul right there. This was a
sinner. He could have killed him. But
what does he do? He confirms to Paul his own work. In Paul, he confirms to it, to
Paul's heart, that was him. And that's when we see the exceeding
abundant grace of our Lord. And it draws forth faith and
love from us when he shows us how he's been leading us this
whole time. He's been making it hard to kick
against the pricks. He's been guiding us. That's
when that's what draws forth prayer and love and faith. And
all this, all this for who? The chief of sinners. Paul was the chief of sinners.
And God's children are all the chief of sinners. You know how we know we're the
chief of sinners? It's because if you look at my
behavior, if I look at my behavior and that of another man, the
difference in our behavior is really no greater than the difference
that's inside me between my old man and new man. It's no greater. Now verse 15, look at verse 15. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. He's the worst one and
God heard him. And God heard him out of his
holy hill where nothing unrighteous can ever be. And that's the point
of verse 16. For this cause I obtained mercy
that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. God can reach down and take that
beggar off the dunghill, he can do it for you too. I know that,
he promises. How can God do this? How can
God hear a sinner? Because Christ prayed these words. I cried unto God and he heard
me. Salvation for any person to be
in heaven requires righteousness by the perfect life lived and
remission of sins by the death of, on the cross, God in the
flesh. It says for the children, being
partakers of flesh and blood, he also likewise took on the
same, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest. We
can't get to God without a priest, and he can't be our priest without
being man. That means that a man as flesh
and blood as we are, who is God, he had to come here to this cursed,
terrible world. He had to live in perfect obedience
to God, his father, every second of every day, inwardly and outwardly,
all while knowing the whole time that there would come a day when
he would be separated from God, his father, for the first time
in eternity. And if that wasn't it, he would
be guilty and charged with the sins, every sin of every person
he was representing and to be seen by God his father in that
state all alone. And he went through his life
knowing this would happen. What I'm saying is he spent his
life calling out to God, to Jesus Christ. He says, I was cast upon
thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's
belly. Hebrews chapter five said, in
the days of his flesh, our Lord, when he had offered up prayers
and supplications with strong cryings and tears unto him that
was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared,
though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things that
he suffered. and being made perfect, being
made our suitable savior and representative, our priest, being
made perfect to save us, he became the author of eternal salvation
to all that obey him, all that call out to God. I wanna go to
Psalm 69 now. Let's see him authoring our salvation. This is when he was on the cross. This is that moment when he was
dying, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
This is the terror and the sorrow that our Lord had to experience. Verse one. Save me, O God, for
the waters are come in unto my soul. Save me, just like I cried
unto the Lord in Psalm 3. The waters are coming unto my
soul. He, the Father, it says in Isaiah
53, he shall see of the travail of Christ's soul. And God, the
Father, shall be satisfied. Satisfied on our behalf, satisfied
so that we can come boldly to the throne of grace. Verse two,
I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I am coming to
deep waters where the floods overflow me. We stand on him
who sunk. He sunk under the weight of our
sins and that's how we stand on him, the rock. Maybe you've
been someplace, maybe out west in Washington where I used to
hunt elk a lot. Maybe you've seen a place where
you can see on the cliffside and there's a lot of dirt. And
then underneath that, there's the bedrock and shale and hard
rock that you can see. Well, if you believe all the
smart people, they say that all that sediment and loose sand
and loose rock was deposited there from the flood, the biblical
flood. These are scientists who claim
to believe the Bible. So you can get the, or do you
start to get the picture there? The flood brought all that on
top of the solid rock. So the flood is because of sin. You get the picture there, there's
the rock of ages. There's the rock bearing up under
the weight of all of our terrible sin. He is the one who sunk and
we stand on him. Verse three, I am wary of my
crying. My throat is dried. My eyes fail
while I wait for my God. But he did cry and he did wait
and he was heard. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of my head. In Psalm 40, he says, my
sins and my iniquities are more than the hairs of my head. They
that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that which I
took not away. He said it is finished, and it
was finished, and our righteousness was restored. In fact, better
than it was in Adam. He didn't make us sin, but he
saved us from our sin. He restored our relationship
with God. He restored that access. Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness
and my sins are not hid from thee. Be clear about one thing,
if your sins are not hid from God, his face is hid from you. He knelt and sweat blood knowing
this was coming. Let not them that wait on thee,
O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. You can hear John
17 in this. Let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel, because he cried these
words. We'll never be confounded. We'll
never be left to fend for ourselves. He says, for my sake, be God,
Father, because I'm doing this, don't ever let them be confounded.
Don't let them be ashamed. I can mess up everything in my
life and I can know that I won't be ashamed about my soul. Can
you say that? There's a way opened up by another
that I can't ruin. I could make a shame of everything
in my life. But I have this promise. Let
them not be ashamed for my sake. Because I'm wary of my crying,
my throat is dried, my eyes fail. They hate me without a cause.
And I restored that which I took not away. Don't let your church
be ashamed, Lord, for my sake. That's the point right there,
verse six. Verse seven, because for thy
sake I have borne reproach, shame hath covered my face. He tasted
death, brethren, and when he tasted death, shame covered his
face. And because shame covered his
face in verse seven, we can't be ashamed in verse six. Let's go to Galatians 2. I'll
wrap this up. Galatians chapter 2. This is
how a sinner, this is how a sinner can call out to God and be heard
by God out of his holy hill. In Galatians chapter 2, Paul
is rebuking Peter because Peter would eat with Gentiles who did
not have the dietary laws that Peter was still hung up on. Gentiles
never had the dietary laws. But when other Jews came around,
Peter stopped eating with those Gentiles and went to eat with
the Jews. that sent a very, very strong
message to everyone in attendance, and that's why Paul corrected
it, because the message Peter was sending was that you need
to follow law in some manner or some measure. Your obedience
to the law, it determines your access to God. That's what he
said by refusing to eat. Paul puts all that away. and we're gonna see the faith
of Christ right here. Verse 19. Well, let's start in verse 14. But when I saw it, this is when
he's, Talking to Peter, when I saw that they walked not uprightly
according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before
them all, if thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles
and not as do the Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as
do the Jews? He's saying, you, Peter, you're
a Jew who had the dietary law, and you're free from it. in the
gospel, and now you're telling these Gentiles who never even
had the law, who also are free from it, that they need to go
back under it? They never were even given it.
It doesn't even make sense, Peter. 15, we who are Jews by nature
and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if
while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also
are found sinners. Is therefore Christ the minister
of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live
unto God. I might cry out to God and be
heard by him. By magnifying the law, by making
it honorable in every jot and tittle, Jesus Christ, we are
dead to the law. by Christ coming to earth and
magnifying it, obeying it perfectly and bringing in everlasting righteousness
by obeying every jot and tittle fulfilled. And we're dead to
the law, secondly, by his dying on the cross for our breaking
the law. When God said, awake, O sword,
smite the shepherd. When Christ was put to death
for the sins of God's elect, They were dead to the law, dead
to the claims of the law. It has no claim over us. It doesn't
speak to us. We don't answer to it. When I
read the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20, I'm looking
at a list of Things required by God that I have failed in,
perfectly failed every day of my life. I've never come one
bit closer to keeping one of them. And I'm also looking at
10 things that I did perfectly in my substitute, in my representative. I kept each of those perfectly. That is what it means to be dead
to the law by the body of Christ in Romans 7. I, through the law,
am dead to the law, that I might live unto God, that I might have
my Father in heaven, knowing that I can boldly approach him,
that I can call out to him and be heard I am, verse 20, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Him crying
out to father and believing and knowing that he would be heard
by his father. I live these things you see me
doing every day, my life. I live that by the faith of the
son of God who cried out to God and was heard. So I know I can
cry out to God and be heard. Who loved me and gave himself
for me. Our salvation, our crying out
to God is all in Christ's hands and Christ is in the father's
hands. In Isaiah chapter 42 it says, even the youths shall run
and be weary. Those people who think they have
life by the horns and they can live this life and approach God
and be accepted by God on their own strength, on their own merits,
on their own goodness. Youths, full of energy and strength. They'll run and get weary, but
they that wait on the Lord They shall renew their strength, and
that word means exchange, change it for someone else's, exchange
their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles, they shall run and not be weary. How else do we
exchange our strength but by seeing that we are dead with
him, by seeing that our sins became his, his righteousness
became ours, all before we even knew about it. How are we gonna
exchange strength but by crying out to God for faith, to do just
that, to believe him, to call out to him and know that he hears
us because he heard his son and raised him from the dead. For
faith, to live by the faith of the son of God who loved us and
gave himself for us. I pray to God for us, for our
children, for everyone in here, for faith. simply to call out
to God. You know, that's another thing
in this verse in this psalm that's so comforting. It doesn't say
that God moved mountains and it doesn't say what God did in
response. It just says, God heard me. And
that's a comfort because we don't always see answers to our prayers,
especially right away. But we know God hears us out
of his holy hill. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for this
time that you've given us here to open your word, Lord. And
we need you, we need you to reveal this, to make your word alive
and effectual to us, to enter our heart, God, and to cause
us to give you all glory and praise. And Lord, we want to
see you as our heavenly father who loves us and has done all
for us. Please stop us from looking anywhere
else, Lord. And Lord, we pray for Argie and
Deanna. God, please be with them in this
time and cause them to hear these messages today. And God, please
bless your preachers everywhere, Caleb and all of them, Lord. We desire to give you praise
in all things. And please bless us and minister
to us in entrance and to your heavenly kingdom, Lord. Amen.