David calls him, first of all,
God, my strength, Jehovah, my strength. Strength is required for everything
we do. This is about what we do. The
next part, it has to do with something else, but this is about
energy to do what we need to do. And there's nothing that can
be done, done. We call things doing things, but to actually do something
you need strength of some kind. More for certain things than
other things. But think about everything that
we need to do. Is God my strength, really? All my strength? Is there anything I can do without
him? Do you ever get overwhelmed thinking about all that you have
to do? I can't remember a time when
it wasn't that way. Can you? I can't remember a time. And when it wasn't true, You
know, I guess when we were 10, we didn't really have a whole
lot on our plate then, but we didn't have enough sense to know
it, how wonderful that is. And think both physical and spiritual. In spiritual things, faith is
spoken of as a thing that requires strength, strength of spirit. In Romans 4.19, Paul says, don't
be weak in faith. Because Abraham, being not weak
in faith, he considered not his own body now dead. He didn't
even think about the fact that, I'm sure it crossed his mind,
but it didn't keep him from believing God. That he was way too old
to have children, and his wife was way too old. He didn't consider
the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith. There's
our word. Strength. Strong in faith giving glory
to God That's why God gives faith of any kind weak or strong or
medium For his glory In Romans 14 one Paul said him
that is weak in the faith receive ye But not to doubtful Disputations
he that is weak in the faith I believe that's me But let me ask you, are you strong
in faith or weak in faith? Do you have faith? How is it that you have any strength
of faith? Well, we have to say with David
tonight, the Lord is my strength. And only he can increase faith.
He gave it and he can increase it. He can make us stronger in
faith if he wants to. He said, if you ask me, I'll
do it. You're familiar with Luke 17,
5, where the disciples asked him to increase their faith,
but I want you to see the context of it. Turn there with me, please,
to Luke 17, verse 5. The Lord's my strength. I just
want us to get in our mind all the things that require strength.
You don't think about faith requiring some strength, but it does. All right, Luke 17, 1. Then said
the Lord unto his disciples, it is impossible but that offenses
will come, but woe unto him through whom they come. It were better
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he
cast into the sea, then that he should offend one of these
little ones. Now think about the line of thought
here. Offenses have to come. He's talking
about his little ones being offended, right? Because right after this
he says, you don't want to offend one of my little ones. You'd
be better off tying a rock around your neck and throwing yourself
in the sea. But offenses must come but woe to you When you
offend one of my my little ones, there's gonna be consequences
You see how that's together now It were better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea
then that he should offend One of these little ones now listen
to this. He said oh, yeah, you're you're thinking. Oh, yeah, they
they better watch out No, you better watch out take heed to
yourselves. You see verse three He brings it home to me and you. Take heed to yourselves. Now
has he changed the subject? Look at it. If your brother trespass
against thee, rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee
seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to
thee saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. He's still talking
about the same thing, isn't he? How to deal with his people.
You're brother now. Forgive. And just keep on forgiving. Well boy, shouldn't there be
a limit to that? Aren't you glad that there's not a limit to forgiveness?
I'm kind of glad there's not. So I don't want to impose one.
Do you? And look at this. This is the context
of our verse. You think about that. The Lord
says you forgive. And if he offends you again,
you forgive him again. He repents now. Somebody just hauling off being an idiot
and without any remorse whatsoever, then you just need to get away
from them. But if your brother keeps making mistakes, keeps
messing up, and you just keep forgiving him, and they got to
thinking about that. That's kind of hard to do, isn't
it? And they said, Lord, increase our faith. How are we going to
do that? Let me ask you that. How are
you going to do anything? Anything? Blessed be the Lord my strength.
That's how. Lord increase our faith. Have you ever seen the context
of that like that? We need faith to be what we ought
to be, who we ought to be, act like we ought to act, to honor
the Lord in all things, not to offend his people, because he
said if you've done it to one of them, the least one, you've
done it to me. But when you just think about,
you know, just earthly things for
a minute again, we'll kind of go back and forth thinking about
earthly and spiritual and You think about the overwhelming
just amount of things and the things that you have to do as
a mother. Some of you are new mothers. And mothers of young children,
overwhelming, and as a father. I guess Vicky's in the nursery
tonight, but she can probably, I hope she can hear me because
nobody knows what a father goes through. Even when we ain't worrying,
we're worrying, aren't we, Bob? And if we ain't got nothing to
worry about, we'll make something up. There's always something. When you guys called me to come
be your pastor, somebody said to me, a real good friend said,
you know, you're going to be a pastor 24-7. And I found that
to be true. Guess what? You're a daddy 24-7,
too. It don't ever quit. It don't
ever stop. Even when a father ain't worried
about something, and the mothers are the same way, I know that.
I don't mean to distinguish really between, it's overwhelming. It's
better to not even really think about it, you know, as far as
just do it. Just do what you gotta do and
move on, you know, and not think about it. But when we do get
to thinking about how insufficient we are, it's time to, it's always
time, isn't it, to cry to God. And to bless his name, blessed
be the Lord my strength. But think about that in physical
things, but do you get tired, do you get weary, do you get
overwhelmed spiritually? Absolutely, but we don't tend
to think of it that way, do we? In the same terms. As I sort of just mentioned,
as a preacher I understand a little bit of what Paul said in 2 Corinthians
chapter 2 and I want this to look at that one with me too
if you would please. This kind of gives us a sense
of just the overwhelming nature and this is Paul talking about
being a pastor but these are all things that these are all
considerations that all of us have as believers. 2 Corinthians
chapter 2 just the spiritual I don't even know how to talk
about it. I can talk about it in an earthly, physical sense
and temporal things because we experience that and we're used
to that. But I'm not used to thinking of just how spiritually
weary we can get to and overwhelmed. But listen to what he said. Let's
just start in verse 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. I determined
this with myself that I would not come again to you in heaviness
for if I make you sorry who is he then that maketh me glad but
the same which is made sorry by me. And I wrote this same
unto you, lest when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom
I ought to rejoice." You know, the affairs of the church dictated
whether Paul rejoiced or was heavy. I can relate to that. Can you get in on that? Does
whether you're happy or sad have anything to do with this? With
what's going on here? For out of much affliction, verse
four, and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears. Not
that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love
which I have more abundantly unto you. And that's part of
it, isn't it? If you love something and somebody, you're all in,
aren't you? You're all in. And Paul said,
anguish of heart. It afflicts me. But if any have caused grief,
verse five, he hath not grieved me, but in part, that I may not
overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this
punishment which was inflicted of many, so that contrarywise
you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps
such a one should be swollen up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore
I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him,
for to this end also I did write that I might know the proof of
you, whether you be obedient in all things. To whom you forgive
anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to
whom I forgave it for your sakes, forgave I it in the person of
Christ. Unless Satan should get an advantage of us, there's another
consideration. We've got enemies, don't we?
We've got to be sober and vigilant. That's kind of like a father.
He's got to be sober and vigilant. He's got to always be watching
out for his family. Daddy, we want to go do this. I don't know
about that. But we're not ignorant of his
devices, not completely anyway. We understand. We got a fight
on our hands. Are you in on that? Furthermore,
when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel and a door was
opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit. You see
why I wanted to read this chapter with regard to Blessed be the
Lord my strength. You're overwhelmed in just physical
things, with your job, with your family, with just all of your
responsibilities. Think about the spiritual things
that are our concern, that we have a vested interest in, our
very soul is invested in the ministry, in the things of Christ. And he said, I had no rest in
my spirit because I found not Titus my brother, But taking
my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia. I don't
know why it was so important for him right then to have Titus
available to him, but I know this, it caused him unrest. Now thanks be to God, 14, which
always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the
savor of his knowledge by us in every place, in spite of the
fact That we're troubled and grieved and afflicted and sorrowful
and all we're overwhelmed But God gives us a win anyway For
we are unto God verse 15 a sweet saver of Christ in them that
are saved and in them that perish The ones that perish aren't smelling
the sweet savor, but God is Listen to the one we are the saver We
are unto God verse 15 That's where we are unto God a sweet
saver of Christ. Christ is honored either way, but to the one, verse 16, we
are the saver of death unto death, and to the other the saver of
life unto life, and who is sufficient? I've always said that that applies
to that right there, and surely that's overwhelming, but all
of this, If we are in on the ministry, we're going to need to cry often
to God our strength, aren't we? Who is sufficient for these things?
We are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity,
it ain't hard if you're a false preacher, is it? It ain't hard. You tell people what they want
to hear, the money will flow in and everything will be, you
know, Of course everybody, you know, they'll be fighting and
fussing and all that, but who cares? Nobody cares, really.
They're still just gonna flock and raise their hands and wave
them around. Everybody's gonna, you know,
love everything. Preacher don't really have to
prepare a man. He don't have to study. I mean, to come up,
sit up, get up and tell a couple of stories and say Jesus loves
you? That'd be easy. We're not like that, though,
Paul said. It's not that way here. the sight of God speak we in
Christ but you see all of the things all the concerns and the
worries he said I had no rest but we thank God
because he said he asked the question there who is sufficient
for these things and in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 the very next chapter
he answers his own question look at the next chapter chapter 3
verse 1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Do I say,
since we don't preach a false gospel, we're not like that,
and we triumph. It's always a win when the gospel
is preached. And Paul said, now am I bragging on myself? Do we
commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation
to you, or letters of commendation from you? Are we part of the
hierarchy of men? Do we need the praise of men? He said, you are our epistle
written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Isn't that
the truth here? This church is evidence of the
blessing of God upon this ministry. Every one of you. For as much
as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God. Not written by me, but by God
the Spirit, and not with ink, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
God writes on the heart. Isn't that beautiful language?
And such trust have we through Christ to Godward. Not that we
are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. And you see how this goes with
all of chapter 2. We're not sufficient for any of it. But our sufficiency
is of God. Blessed be the Lord my strength. That's what we're talking about.
No earthly battle is won without Him either. Y'all know one of
my pet peeves. And I hate to just keep bringing
it up, but it kind of epitomizes the attitude of the world with
regard to this type of thing. And there's other things that
epitomize that I probably harp on too. But you know somebody
says, I won my battle with cancer. I know you've heard somebody
say that. And either they're saying it about themselves or
somebody else. So and so, they won their battle. The reason
that bothers me is because I see my generation that people are
determined to refuse God any glory at all in anything. God
don't even get to decide whether we're boys or girls anymore.
Have you noticed that? We refuse to give Him glory in
anything. We'll decide whether we're even
a boy or a girl or not. And I won my battle, you know.
If somebody says something like that to you, do me a favor and
ask them this. Do you reckon God had anything to do with it?
Just ask them that. Maybe they don't think that He
does. Just say, do you think God had
anything to do with the fact that you had cancer and now you
don't have cancer? Do you just reckon he did? Just
something to think about. If we're ever going to overcome
any trial or enemy or problem or anything, and we're asked
about it, may our testimony be, blessed be the Lord my strength. Without Christ, We quite literally
can do nothing. So let's quit boasting as though
we could. We are exhorted in the scriptures,
be ye doers of the word and not hearers only. Now think about
that. How are we going to do the gospel? We're in this flesh.
Blessed be the Lord my strength. And look at the next phrase in
our text. Who teacheth my hands to war
and my fingers to fight. You see why we're only going
to get four verses in tonight. Who teacheth my hands to war
and my fingers to fight. Now think about this. In any
ordeal that you face, whether physical or spiritual, you're
going to need energy. You're going to need ability.
That's what we've been talking about. But you're also going
to need wisdom. If somebody is strong, but they
don't know how to fight, they're still going to lose. The Lord not only gives strength
to my hands so that they can do things, but he shows them
what to do. Isn't that wonderful? Are you
glad to be able to say that with David? He teaches my hands what
to do. There's never a time when you
need to know what to do more and have the strength to do it
more Than when you're in a battle like David's talking about here
But we need to realize that all of
its battles Spiritual battles are much more difficult and more Difficult in the sense of Especially
of knowing what to do how to do it, when to do it. This is so important. You know,
I think about this sometimes. What do I, what can I do? What more can I do? You know,
we preach the gospel and you know, we, I believe the Lord's
really blessed this church. I bet we could fill this place
up if we wanted to, you reckon? If that's just what we wanted
to do. I bet we could fill every spot in this church if that's
what we wanted to do. We set our minds and hearts to
it. Come to the place where we'd have to knock a wall down. I don't want to just be doing things.
I want to know what to do. I want to do the right things,
don't you? I want to do the right things.
The religious Jews, Paul said, had a zeal of God, and this is
exactly what we're talking about, but not according to knowledge. Zeal is wonderful, but Lord,
teach our hands to fight. How exactly do we need to fight
this battle? I think the word's pretty clear on that. I think
it's a lot simpler than we want to make it. I could start reading books,
you know, on how to build a church. Or we could just do what God
said. Just preach the gospel. Just be faithful to Him. Be committed.
Let's be committed to the ministry, shall we? I know you might think
it doesn't make a hell of beans difference as far as the welfare
of this church, whether you're here or not, or whether you do
this or that, or whatever. It makes all the difference.
It's not about what we do. It doesn't depend on us. But
you know who God blesses? The ones that He gives a heart
of commitment to do everything that they know to do for the
glory of the Lord and the ministry of Christ. That's who He blesses.
He blesses the ones that He's already blessed with that commitment. Isn't that right? He just keeps
blessing upon blessing. So let's be that. Let's pray
for that. Let's desire that. They had a
zeal of God, Paul said, the religious Jews, but not according to not
God hadn't taught them their hands to fight. They were fighting, but they
didn't know what they were doing. Paul said, my prayer, my heart's
desire and prayer to God is that he would save them. This is life
or death knowing, isn't it? Life or death. And in that same context, you're
familiar with Romans 10 now. It is not until God teaches you
that Christ has accomplished everything. It's not until he
teaches you that Christ has accomplished everything that you are going
to be able to accomplish anything. You're not going to be able to
do anything until you know it's already done. Stay with me here. Look at look
at that passage with me if you would or just listen Romans chapter
10, I believe it illustrates perfectly the spiritual teaching
of our verse 1 in our psalm tonight Teaching our hands to fight Romans
10 1 What are we doing what can we
do we need to do more how do we do it Romans 10 1 brethren
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved For I bear them record that they have a zeal
of God. They're fighting. They're full of energy of some
kind. It's not God their strength,
but they've got the strength of the flesh going, you know.
They've stirred it up. They've bribed people and threatened
people to where there's a zeal. But not according to knowledge. For they've been ignorant of
God's righteousness. You know why they're ignorant?
God hadn't taught them. That's our verse. Lord, teach me what
to do. Teach my hands how to fight this
battle. And my fingers, they being ignorant
of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ is the
end of you doing things to please God. We want to do things for
God, don't we? Let's do what He told us to do.
But why are we doing it? To please God? So that we can
go to heaven? Christ is the end of that. If
you have Him, what are you doing still trying to please God? Still
trying to merit salvation by what you do. May the zeal that
He gives, may we have zeal, the right kind, the Lord our strength,
not the strength of the flesh. but also may he teach us, may
our zeal be according to knowledge, the knowledge of this truth that
Christ has done righteousness for us. Let's quit doing what
we do in order to establish a righteousness before God. Christ has done that
sufficiently, completely, We don't need the kind of strength
that runs around trying to do enough for God so that we can
go to heaven when we die. We labor in the work of the Lord,
but listen to how the gospel describes our labor. Hebrews
4.10. Turn over there with me. I'm
not gonna be long tonight, but I want you to look at this passage
too. Hebrews 4.10. This is just key now to what
we're talking about. Hebrews 4.10. We labor, we're doing something
for God, aren't we? I hope so. What are we doing? Hebrews 4, 10, for he that is
entered into his rest, he, the person, the sinner, the church
member that is entered into his, Christ's rest, he also hath ceased
from his own works as God did from his. Now this is an analogy. When God created the universe,
what did he do? He created it in six days and
it says, he said it's all very good and he rested on the seventh
day. Why did God cease from his own
works? Because God had finished that
work. Paul says we rest for the same
reason. Why do we cease from our works to try to please God?
Because God has finished that work in the person of his son. That's why. Same reason God did. It's done. He did it, and it's
over. You see that? All right, the
next verse. Let us labor therefore. Let us labor therefore. Let us
labor. Labor with me. Paul called the
church, some of the church, fellow laborers together with him. And
you do, and I thank you for that. Let's do everything we know to
do. Let's be faithful and committed
to the work. Let us labor. But what are we
laboring for? To enter into that rest. Let's labor to enter into
Christ who has finished salvation for his people. Now think with
me. What kind of work is that? Everything
we do in this church. May all that we do in the work
of the ministry, may it have this goal that you and I and
everybody else that comes here might rest completely, trust
fully, and be utterly satisfied with and in Christ Jesus the
Lord. Right? That's why we preach. That's why we vacuum the carpet.
That's why we clean the toilets. So that you and I and everybody
that comes here might enter into that rest. Is that right? That
rest. That's what we want. Let's work
for it. Let's labor to rest in him. Now look at what he said in verse
2. I know we're out of time almost already. He's my strength, he's my teacher,
and he's my goodness. He's my goodness. What is goodness? Well, he's what I do. Right,
he's my strength. He's what I do. He's why I do
it and he's who I am He's my goodness goodness is your character
the Lord said to the Pharisees in Matthew 1235 a good man out
of a good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and
an evil man out of the evil treasure Bringeth forth evil things so
goodness doesn't just have to do with what you say you do it
has to do with who you are and You say and do what you do because
of who you are. Blessed be the Lord, my goodness. So David has said so far, I'm
able to do what I do because Christ is my strength. I know
what to do because Christ has taught me. And I am what I am
by the grace of Almighty God. I am who I am because Christ... Listen to the way Paul said this. Here's how I'm going to say it,
and I want you to understand what I mean. Christ is my strength. He's my wisdom in how to exert
that strength, that energy, that zeal. And He's my me. Does that even make sense? I
am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. You see what I'm saying? That's
the way Paul, Paul said it better than I do. But I'm trying to
keep it concise, you know, within the context of our, but this,
listen to this, Christ, it's not even me living. Not the new
me, it's Christ in me and the life which I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. who loved me
and gave himself for me. The reason I live is what he
did, who he is and what he did, his love and his sacrifice for
me. And what I do for God, whatever
goodness, even relative goodness. He said there is in my, there
is in me that is in my flesh no good thing, but there's something
good in me. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. If the Spirit of God dwell not
in you, he said in Romans 8, then you're none of his. If you
have not his Spirit, you see why he qualified that when he
said in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. If you have not the Spirit of
Christ, you're none of his. And if you do have the Spirit
of Christ, you walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. But that's Christ. He is that.
You see that? He is that. Now, I know, maybe some of you are
thinking this. I know how you think. I think
like you do. Well, I know that this means also,
and this may be David's primary intent here. When he says, calls
him the Lord my goodness, He may be talking about the goodness
that I receive, not the goodness of my heart, the goodness that
dwells in me, that Christ that dwelleth in me. He may be talking
about any goodness that I have I receive from him. But did you
know that the goodness that I am and the goodness that I receive
are the same thing? You know, God calls his people
good in this book. What is that? How can that even
be true? How can a sinner be good? Christ
is my goodness. What goodness do you receive?
Christ. He is the goodness that I am
and he is the goodness that I receive. So which one is he talking about
here? Both? You reckon? Both are true. Both
are Christ. Is he the goodness that we receive?
Listen to this. Psalm 4, 6. There be many that say, who will
show us any good? People say that they're looking
for something good. Show me something good. Who will show us any good? What's good? What is good? Do
you know the difference between good and bad? Listen to the rest
of the verse. I'm going to read it all again.
There be many that say, who will show us any good? Question mark.
Lord lift thou up the light of that countenance upon us You
want to see some good? You just need to see his countenance.
You need his face shining on you. That's what's good He's
all the goodness that I receive and when the when the Lord calls
us good and good our works good doing good work He's my goodness. He's my goodness All right, so
listen to me now I serve God. We're servants of
God. Paul said, Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ. Do you serve God? How? Christ
is my strength. I know God. This is life eternal
that they might know thee, the only true God, and even Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. How do you know God? He teaches
me. Christ has made him to be wisdom.
as well as righteousness, sanctification and redemption. I am spotless
before God. I'm perfect and holy before God.
How? Christ is my goodness. Christ has washed all my sin
away and he has lived for me, doing always those things that
please the Father. What's the next thing in the
verse? I'm safe. I'm safe. I'm safe. Nobody can bring any condemnation
against me. Nobody can accuse me. Even the
great accuser of the brethren, Satan himself, can bring no railing
accusation against me. Nobody can harm me. Nobody can
touch me. Nobody can separate me from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord. Why? Because
He's my tower. He's my refuge. All of what's
written here in this psalm back in Psalm 144, my fortress,
my tower, my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I trust. So you
see why I titled this, God my everything. Christ is my fortress, my strong,
my tower, my deliverer, my shield, And David said, I trust him. Paul said, I'm persuaded that
he's able. I trust him. I trust him to keep
that which I've committed unto him against that day. What's
that, Paul? My very soul. My very soul. Look at the last phrase in verse
2. Who subdueth my people under me. You know what that amounts
to? I have authority. I have strength. I have wisdom.
I have the ability to serve and to love God by His grace. I'm safe. And listen to this
one. God is my authority too. We have some authority. Did you
know that? Everybody in this room has some authority. How? He gave it to me. That centurion said I have a
boss and I am a boss. And I know what that means and
I know this. When you say go, When you say come, all you have
to do is speak the word. It's done. You know what? He's given us authority in this
world. Think about this spiritually now. He gave David the authority
as king over Israel. He was this earthly, temporal
king over Israel, and that's, of course, included here. But
think about the spiritual equivalent of this. David spoke of God subduing
the people of Israel under David, God's king. Christ has made us
kings and priests unto our God. What does that mean? That means
when you speak for God now, you say you're a witness for Him,
you're an ambassador for Him, with a message from the King,
you have the authority of the King. I say what I say on His authority. And when you submit to the things
that are taught here, the gospel that's taught, you're not submitting
to me. When a wife submits to her husband,
as the scripture teaches now, she's not degrading herself.
Ephesians 5.22, wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands,
as unto the Lord. Does it make you feel bad in
any sense whatsoever to submit unto the Lord? then whatever authority he establishes,
it shouldn't make you feel like less to submit to that. What
a blessing it is. That's why Paul, he didn't introduce
his epistles by saying, Paul, doctor of theology or some nonsense.
He said, I'm Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. What an honor
to submit to whatever authority God has established and to take
your rightful place under God and under that authority. What
a privilege. Servants obey in all things,
Colossians 3.22, your masters. That's talking about you on the
job, your boss. Do what your boss tells you to
do. Your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service
as men pleases, not just when they're looking, but in singleness of heart, fearing
God. I'm not scared of men, are you?
We should give the proper respect to the proper men. I'm not scared. Listen, verse 23, the next verse
in that context. And whatsoever you do, do it
heartily as to the Lord and not to men. See, God has established
authority. He's given you authority and
you probably have authority over you too. Everybody in here. That's of God. God is my authority
to say anything for God. There are people speaking for
God, and he condemns the shepherds that were over Israel back then
in the Old Testament, saying, they're telling you things I
didn't tell them to tell you. They're feeding themselves and
not my flock. Woe unto them. All right, verse
three, we'll be through. Lord, what is man? What is man
that thou takest knowledge of him? Or the son of man that thou makest
account of him? Man is like divinity. His days
are as a shadow that passes away. Now think about this at the context. God is everything to me. God
by everything. I'm nothing. I can see why we trust God. and why we love God and why we
serve God. Why would He have anything to
do with me? You see that? You see the context? Why would
He even bother to be anything to me or for me? And why am I
anything to Him? Why? You know, we do things for people
often because they're able to do things for us also. There's
nothing wrong with that in business, you know. That's not really what
love is. In business, that's fine, you
know. You help me, I'll help you. As long as everything's above board,
you know what I mean. But why does God do anything
for us? Because we do something for Him? Really? What in the world are you going
to do for God? What are you going to do? For
God. He's God. He made everything. He owns everything. He runs everything,
including you. He made you. He owns you. He
runs you. And me. He said the silver and the gold
is mine. That's what you call it. You say, well, I've got a
little bit of money. We talk about our money. No,
that's his money. The cattle on a thousand hills.
That's just an expression. All of them are his. And that
was symbolic of wealth then. Everything is his. What are we
going to do for him? Well, I'll tell you what I'm
going to do, Chris. I'm going to worship him. That's him doing something
for you. That's not you doing something
for him. You know that, don't you? Well, I'm gonna give him
some money. Well, that's good and that's
great. You know, give, you know. You
remember what David said in 1 Chronicles 29, 14? Let me remind you. But
who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer
so willingly after this sort? For all things come of thee and
of thine own have we given thee. We're not even worthy that you
would privilege us to give you something. What is man? You see what he
said? What is man? That thou would be mindful of
him, that he would care anything about us. Do you think he needs
us? What are we that God would not
only acknowledge our existence, but that He would be everything
to us and for us. Why would He bother to give me
strength and understanding and goodness? And by that I mean
faith and love for Him and repentance and all the good things that
He gives. Why? Why would He bother? He not only
acknowledges that we exist, David said, why would he even do that?
He does everything for us. He is everything for us. He gave
himself for us. Think about this scripture again
in light of the fact that we are vanity. That verse says we're
vanity and we're of no account. Why would God even account of
us? You know, that's true now of everybody outside of Christ.
Didn't we just see that in Isaiah? The small dust of the bounce.
It's not even on the books. The drop in the bucket. If there's
nothing but a drop in a bucket, it's an empty bucket to God.
That's what he said. All the nations of this earth,
but not his sheep. Not his people. Romans 8, 32. He that spared not his own son. but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Think about this in regard to
our psalm, the first four verses that we looked at tonight. When
we talk about God giving us all things, what we understand that
to mean and see that to mean from the word of God is that
He is all things to us. It's not that He gives us Christ
and everything else too. When He gave His only begotten
Son for us, He gave us everything else. Everything there is is
ours because He is ours. You see that? Strength, wisdom,
goodness, safety, Every spiritual blessing in the
heavenlies is mine in Christ. And every earthly blessing I
have is mine in him also. Hence our title. God my everything. Blessed be the Lord in my everything. Let's pray. Thank you again, Lord, for the
clear teaching of your word that Christ is all we have and all
we need. He is the one thing needful. He is made unto us everything
that we need. Without Him, we can do nothing.
Without Him, we know nothing. Without Him, we have nothing.
Without Him, we are nothing. And so we cry, Lord, as Paul
did, oh, that we might be found in Him, that we might apprehend him who apprehended
us. Thank you for our Savior. May
we see him continue, Lord, too, in every word of your book, and
rejoice alone in him. In his precious name we pray.
Amen. Amen. You're dismissed. Oh, I
need to ask y'all something. There's a young lady, Maria Lunez,
I think is her last name. I know it's Maria.