SPEAKER_02: Good morning, church.
SPEAKER_02: Our scripture this morning will come from Psalm 136, beginning with verse 1.
SPEAKER_02: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: Give thanks to the God of gods for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: Give thanks to the Lord of Lords for His steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: To him alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: To him who by understanding made the heavens for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: To him who spread out the earth above the waters for steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: To him who made the great light for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: The sun to rule over the day for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: The moon and stars to rule over the night for steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt with steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: And brought Israel out from among them with steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: With a strong hand and an outstretched arm for steadfast love, endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: To him who divided the Red Sea in two with steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: And made Israel pass through the midst of it with steadfast love and does forever.
SPEAKER_02: But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea for his steadfast love and doeth forever.
SPEAKER_02: To him who led his people through the wilderness with steadfast love and who struck down great kings with steadfast love, endureth forever, and killed mighty kings for his steadfast love, endureth forever.
SPEAKER_02: Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: And Og, king of Hashan, for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: And gave their land as a heritage for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: A heritage to Israel, his servant, for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: It is he who remembered us in our lost estate for his steadfast love and doors.
SPEAKER_02: And rescued us from our foes for his steadfast love endure spirit.
SPEAKER_02: He who gives food to all flesh for his steadfast love and do us.
SPEAKER_02: Give thanks to the God of heaven for his steadfast love and do us.
SPEAKER_01: So grateful you've called us into your kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we're so grateful for your faithfulness, your your unchanging heart and ways.
SPEAKER_01: We just pray an anointing over him that uh he delivers your word to us today and that we are listening and that we're learning what you have for us today.
SPEAKER_01: We ask all we ask all this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, and welcome to Heartland.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Robert.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_00: Um, before we dive into the text, I feel like I'm sleepwalking a little bit this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just tell you that I had the um blessing of attending camp with your students this last week, and it was such a privilege.
SPEAKER_00: And just parents, I want you to know your students are an absolute treasure to my soul.
SPEAKER_00: Just want you to know how much they mean to me and how much I care about them and how much of a blessing it is just to spend the the week with them.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking this week, all throughout the week, you know, we you go to camps and you go to retreats and you do all these things in in student ministry, and there's all these things that people refer to as camp highs and this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_00: And as I watch your students, one of the things that really stuck out to me throughout the week, as I even as I've gotten back and have thought about it, is the reality that they got to experience as it relates to the one-anotherness of the church over the course of the last six days as they did life together.
SPEAKER_00: And I this is gonna sound really hilarious, but adults will know what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: Like you see two students, and you're like, man, there's no chance that they're gonna get along this week.
SPEAKER_00: There's zero chance that they're getting along this week.
SPEAKER_00: And then by the end of the week, they're they're besties, right?
SPEAKER_00: And they're hanging out and they're exuding togetherness that we see in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So I I wanna I want to say something to parents, and uh I don't know why the Lord has prompted me in this, but parents, you need to know and understand that the the spiritual maturity that I observed in your students this week is a direct reflection of your intentionality to care and love and disciple your students.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what parent of a student walked in discouraged this morning, but you should be encouraged by the spiritual maturity of your student because that is a direct reflection of the intentional effort you were making to disciple them, on top of the leaders that that we have here that are so faithful to serve them, and and Luke, who is so faithful to serve them as well.
SPEAKER_00: So uh just know that your students are cared for deeply.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I could I could talk all day about that, but I'm not going to.
SPEAKER_00: But just so you guys are aware, too.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm leaving today to go to convention.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be out through Wednesday.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be available via phone, but I will be slower to respond than normal.
SPEAKER_00: So if you need something in an emergent situation, feel free.
SPEAKER_00: You can reach out to me, but also feel free to reach out to the other elders as well, as always.
SPEAKER_00: And here we are in this psalm.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you, but that statement to me, his steadfast love endures forever, can be an over overwhelming one.
SPEAKER_00: I love how one commentator summarized the psalm that we just read together.
SPEAKER_00: He said, This God's mighty acts of creation and salvation reveal his enduring and faithful love for his people.
SPEAKER_00: That is a great summary statement for the words that we just read from the psalmist in Psalms 136.
SPEAKER_00: This is a powerful passage.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I discovered this week that every single verse, as you guys just discovered when we read it, in these 26 verses, is the statement, his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: And something else I also discovered this week is that every single verse in this passage of scripture is either quoted or quotes another passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It is either quoted in another passage of scripture or it itself quotes another passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're sitting there and you're thinking, how can it be that significant if it's that repetitive?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Most things in our lives that are repetitive, they become redundant.
SPEAKER_00: They almost lose emphasis.
SPEAKER_00: I will I want to start by saying, if that is you this morning, I would encourage you to buckle up and I pray that the Spirit takes you on quite a journey this morning as we look at the specifics of what is being communicated in this passage by the psalmist.
SPEAKER_00: Every time an attribute of God or an example of God's faithfulness is mentioned by the psalmist in today's sermon text, it is proclaimed with purpose, for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: We see proclamations in the passage of God's goodness.
SPEAKER_00: We see him proclaimed as the God of gods in verse two.
SPEAKER_00: We see him proclaimed as the Lord of Lords in verse three.
SPEAKER_00: We see reminders of his faithfulness over the course of the next 20 verses that follow verse three.
SPEAKER_00: Faithfulness through the generations.
SPEAKER_00: We sang about that a moment ago as well.
SPEAKER_00: And as we begin, I want to pose a question for you to consider as we look at the text and dive into the text together this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And that is this what is keeping you from proclaiming this very same phrase or praise?
SPEAKER_00: His steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: As we make our way through the text, the structure is going to become overwhelmingly clear.
SPEAKER_00: We have attributes and then praise.
SPEAKER_00: We have faithfulness and then praise over and over and over and over and over again, 26 times.
SPEAKER_00: So as we dive in, let's first look at the attributes of God, leads us to praise him.
SPEAKER_00: We're secondly going to look at the faithfulness of God, uh sustains our praise of him or leads us to praise him.
SPEAKER_00: And to conclude, we will look at the statement that is repeated oh so many times, and that is this steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at attributes of God lead us to praise him.
SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned, verse one communicates the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse two and three point to his sovereignty, right?
SPEAKER_00: He is the God of gods in verse two, he is the Lord of lords in verse three.
SPEAKER_00: We have so many reasons to praise him.
SPEAKER_00: He is God, he is holy, he is eternal, he is king.
SPEAKER_00: And that's just to name a few.
SPEAKER_00: However, I want to make this statement.
SPEAKER_00: If we had no other reason to praise God other than his goodness, that would be enough.
SPEAKER_00: That statement is not made to enclose God in some box or to denounce the all-encompassing realities of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, it was made to accentuate his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: His goodness is enough to spark praise because he is enough.
SPEAKER_00: We have to be careful not to think of goodness in our terms, right?
SPEAKER_00: We think about goodness, and I think about like uh the grandma sitting at the family reunion watching all the kids play and saying thing.
SPEAKER_00: Man, oh bless his heart.
SPEAKER_00: He is such a good boy.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that we know from scripture the the bad news is no, he's not.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture says no one is good, no, not one.
SPEAKER_00: God is good because he created all things, God is good because his glory is infinite.
SPEAKER_00: God is good because of Jesus Christ, the God man, Christ the Son, was the sinless, spotless Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: God is good because his joy is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many reasons that God is good.
SPEAKER_00: I discovered in my study this week, if you look at the word here used for good, the Hebrew word, it's used over seven hundred times in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Not seven, not seventy, seven hundred.
SPEAKER_00: So we have to resist the temptation to miss or to overlook that the old testament, just like the new testament, is a testimony to good the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And with that, we're gonna go on a quick journey and we're gonna look at three specific things.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, Deuteronomy 10.17.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to flip there, but I would encourage you to write this passage down.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 10.17.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's debates on the exact date that Deuteronomy was written, right?
SPEAKER_00: Some people say it was 700 BC, others say it was 600 BC.
SPEAKER_00: So let's just take the the conservative route here and say that it was written in 600 BC.
SPEAKER_00: 2600 years ago, it was proclaimed that he is the Lord of lords and the God of gods, that he is good.
SPEAKER_00: It was also prophesied, as we know throughout the Old Testament, that the God man, Jesus Christ, God the Son, would take on flesh, and guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He did just that.
SPEAKER_00: Again, secondly, another passage, don't turn there, but I would encourage you to write down 1 Timothy 6 15, which he will display at the proper time, he who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and the lord of lords.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul, he's writing to Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy at the time was ministering to the church in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus at this time, he had come to earth, he had lived a perfect life, and he had gone.
SPEAKER_00: He had conquered sin, he had conquered death, and he had conquered the grave.
SPEAKER_00: And they awaited his return.
SPEAKER_00: Third, Revelation 19, 16.
SPEAKER_00: On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: At this moment, Jesus has yet to come back.
SPEAKER_00: At this moment, we do not know the day, time, or hour of his return.
SPEAKER_00: But one thing that you can walk out of these doors and tank to the bake this afternoon is that Jesus will return.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been searching for God's goodness, if you question God's goodness, if you're not able to comprehend God's goodness or understand it or explain it, look no further.
SPEAKER_00: Stop where you are right now, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm missing my kids right now, so I'm gonna say a word that reminds me of them.
SPEAKER_00: In the seat that you're sitting in with your Bulali in the chair, stop where you are.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 136.1 says, God is good.
SPEAKER_00: And 2600 years ago, it was proclaimed in Deuteronomy that God is good.
SPEAKER_00: Then 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ showed up on the scene.
SPEAKER_00: He showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, he conquered the grave, he conquered sin, and he ascended to the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And at a date not yet known, Jesus will return.
SPEAKER_00: He will usher in a new kingdom, we'll get rid of these broken down bodies that are sleep-deprived and disease-riddled and broken and beaten, and we will be given a new body.
SPEAKER_00: Augustine in his exposition of verse one put points out the goodness spoken of here is have it has far more depth than the statement, he is good.
SPEAKER_00: There is far more depth here.
SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew word can be expounded to say something like, He is good and is the most excellent.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things my wife helps me with is when I wear something new that I've never worn together before, is I have to ask her if it looks okay, right?
SPEAKER_00: If it looks good, one and if it looks good together to ensure one, it looks good and it that it matches.
SPEAKER_00: And there are times that I am so excited.
SPEAKER_00: I've picked out something new and it matches, and I walk out and I ask her this question does this look good?
SPEAKER_00: And she looks at me and she says, Yeah, it looks fine.
SPEAKER_00: And I turn around and I walk right back into my closet.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't look fine.
SPEAKER_00: There is a difference between, yeah, he is good.
SPEAKER_00: And he is good, he is oh so sweet, he is my king.
SPEAKER_00: There is a difference in the two.
SPEAKER_00: And the second is what we see in verse one.
SPEAKER_00: And it leads us right into a conversation around his sovereignty in verse two and three.
SPEAKER_00: I want to connect something for you here that we can draw both out of this text and out of the scope of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: If God isn't sovereign, then there would be limits to his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And limited goodness is no goodness at all.
SPEAKER_00: The statements God of God and Lord of Lords, both here in this passage in Psalms 82 and in John 10, and all throughout scripture, is one of the most difficult statements in all of God's word to understand and to decipher.
SPEAKER_00: And there are differences of opinion on the exact interpretation of what exactly is God of God's and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: But understand this the difference of opinion has nothing to do with big G God and has everything to do with lower G God.
SPEAKER_00: Because guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Lowercase gods are nothing in comparison to our God.
SPEAKER_00: So let's briefly look at this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna flip to John 1031 quickly, and I'm gonna read for you this.
SPEAKER_00: 1031 through 39 says this the Jews picked up stones again to stone him, talking about stoning Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father, from which of them are you going to stone me?
SPEAKER_00: The Jews answered him, It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, You are gods?
SPEAKER_00: If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God?
SPEAKER_00: If I am not doing the works of my father, then do not believe me.
SPEAKER_00: But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had been called a blasphemer because he had declared himself the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say the Jews had an issue with that.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see happen there is Psalms 82 starts being quoted, right?
SPEAKER_00: The the Jews make reference to that in their accusation, and Jesus responds to that accusation by quoting Psalms 82.
SPEAKER_00: The very passage that the Jews are attempting to use to call him a blasphemer is the very passage that Jesus quotes in his rebuttal as to say, quit worrying about the phrase, quit worrying about the word I'm using to refer to myself as, and start worrying about who I am and who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 82 says this I said, this is six verse six and seven, you are gods, lowercase, sons of the most high, all of you, nevertheless, like men, you shall die and fall like any prince.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's complicated, but I bring all that up to make the following statement.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, man was referred to as lowercase g gods before you say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, quick, don't don't jump to calling me a blasphemer.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to a second, listen for a second.
SPEAKER_00: The reference here to lowercase G gods and even Jesus' interaction in John 10 with the Jewish folks and his rebuttal tells us two vitally important things.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is this man was referred to as a lowercase G God because the word of the Lord was upon them.
SPEAKER_00: It was more like sons of God or children of God, children of God.
SPEAKER_00: And two, and this is the one I don't want you to miss any goodness that exists within man is because it was bestowed upon him by the only holy, righteous God.
SPEAKER_00: Any goodness that is within you, we see things in God's word like, man, my works are filthy rags.
SPEAKER_00: Any goodness that is within you is because it was bestowed upon you by a holy and righteous and sovereign God.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be clear this morning that what I am communicating or what this text is communicating, that God alone is God.
SPEAKER_00: We can draw the application from these first few verses that nothing that we try to put in the seat of God can actually sustain being God, including ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: I believe there's some sarcasm with the psalmist in Psalm 82.
SPEAKER_00: You may be gods, but guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You like every other man, you're gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: Only he is good, only he is sovereign, only he is righteous, he is the king of kings, he is the God of gods, he is the Lord of lords, he is unmatched.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why the chorus of the heavens will proclaim forever holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: We see attributes of God in verse one, two, and three point us to praise him.
SPEAKER_00: Next, we see the faithfulness of God leads us to praise him as well.
SPEAKER_00: You notice the transition that takes place in verse four.
SPEAKER_00: Verse one, two, and three really was all about who God is.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist calling for thanksgiving in response to who he is.
SPEAKER_00: He is good, he is God, he is Lord, he is sovereign.
SPEAKER_00: Verse four shifts to don't forget all he's done.
SPEAKER_00: This is who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Now don't forget all he's done.
SPEAKER_00: As Michael Maine mentioned, most scholars believe that this psalm would have been used as a call and response song amongst the Israelites in their liturgy.
SPEAKER_00: Now it would have been different for the people in the Hebrew language for a couple of reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me point out one of you that I found fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: In the English version of the statement that we read over and over and over again, for a stepfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: If my English is right, I didn't get an English major to check me, but if my English is right, there are 10 syllables in that statement.
SPEAKER_00: In the Hebrew, there are six.
SPEAKER_00: So that's a difference of four syllables.
SPEAKER_00: You multiply that across 26 times that it's repeated, you have 104 less syllables in the Hebrew.
SPEAKER_00: So it's different in that regard, which is a funny one and a silly one, and we we see that and it's it's cool and all.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to take note of the difference in the contextual realities for a second.
SPEAKER_00: In verses four through nine, we see that he is a creator God.
SPEAKER_00: We see that he is faithful to do great wonders.
SPEAKER_00: We see that he made the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: In one of the verses, we see that he created the sun and the lights, and he created the moon and the stars.
SPEAKER_00: Fairly simple for us thus far.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty easy for us to comprehend.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's palpable.
SPEAKER_00: We see the moon, we see the stars, we see the sun, we see the earth, we see the things that he created.
SPEAKER_00: However, verse 10 is where it can be different contextually for us versus the people who were originally singing this.
SPEAKER_00: For us, it can easily become words on the page, something that happened 2,000 plus years ago.
SPEAKER_00: But for the people reading and seeing the psalm, everything in the passage from verse 10 on would have been contextually significant in their lives and in the lives of their people.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: They would have been singing about the realities of what took place in the life of the Israelites, in their people.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10 reminds them that they were protected in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: The firstborn was protected.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11 reminds them that they were brought out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12 through 14 reminds them they were able to pass through the Red Sea, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Red Sea parted as if that was not amazing enough.
SPEAKER_00: They got all the way through it, as if that was not amazing enough.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what happened to the Egyptians when they tried to pass?
SPEAKER_00: Crash.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, they didn't make it.
SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians didn't make it.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't make it across.
SPEAKER_00: They chased them, they couldn't get there.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16 reminds them that they were in the wilderness, but the entire time that they were in the wilderness, God's sovereign hand was in control and he eventually led them out of it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17 through 22 is a reminder that God struck down king after king, great kings, mighty kings, so that they would get their land as an inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23 and 24 reminds them that they were rescued from their foes.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25 reminds them that the Lord provided.
SPEAKER_00: How palpable is that for them?
SPEAKER_00: And each one of those things that I just rattled off from verse 10 through verse 25 is evidence of this: God's sustaining grace upon their life.
SPEAKER_00: Israelites, if you want to know a little bit about the story of the Israelites in the Old Testament, I can summarize it for you in just three or four sentences.
SPEAKER_00: God redeemed them.
SPEAKER_00: Here's where it gets good.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites screwed up everything.
SPEAKER_00: God redeemed them.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a second.
SPEAKER_00: Israelites screwed up everything again.
SPEAKER_00: God redeemed them.
SPEAKER_00: Pure grace.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes I wonder if the screenwriters from Groundhog Day got the idea from the story of the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You know where else they might get an idea for a movie like that?
SPEAKER_00: Your life.
SPEAKER_00: And my life.
SPEAKER_00: You see, on this side of the cross, if you are a follower of Jesus, you have been made sons and daughters of the one true King through the blessed redemption made possible by the living, living, risen, and reigning Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we too, each day, we wake up and we spit in his face with our sin and with our disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: Time and time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: However, because the eternal security provided by the blood of Jesus for the redeemed sinner, we have the blessed opportunity in the same way that the Israelites we see happen in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: We have the blessed opportunity to experience the unmerited grace from the moment of our salvation into eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Pure grace.
SPEAKER_00: Pure unmerited grace.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Psalm we see the phrase, for his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: For his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: That's ten times you guys get the point.
SPEAKER_00: Twenty-six times it is proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: And twenty-six times it is true.
SPEAKER_00: God's love for his people isn't limited.
SPEAKER_00: It's not limited, it is limitless, and it will endure forever.
SPEAKER_00: It will never cease, it will never end, it will never falter.
SPEAKER_00: Even when you falter, it will not falter.
SPEAKER_00: I want to point out two things for you to bring this into more of a reality for us.
SPEAKER_00: First is the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The cross, more than anything else, is evidence of God's sustaining grace on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Even for those of you in the room who have never responded to the prompt of this prompting the spirit to put your faith in Christ, you're not a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The cross for you represents God's sustaining grace in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Even if you continue every single day to wake up and turn your back on a holy God, by pure grace is the only reason that the cross is made available to you by Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: The only reason that you even have a chance to respond is pure grace.
SPEAKER_00: Pure grace.
SPEAKER_00: You did nothing to deserve it, and neither did I, and neither did anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, every single believer in the room could make a list of things that they have endured in this life that apart from the reality of his steadfast love, you would have not made it through.
SPEAKER_00: Health diagnosis, broken relationships, job loss, financial difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you may be where you're sitting right now, you may be thinking, well, you're right.
SPEAKER_00: I have that list.
SPEAKER_00: But I have yet to make it through.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't made it through yet.
SPEAKER_00: I am still struggling.
SPEAKER_00: If that is you, let me encourage you to do something.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the very reason I wanted to point to do these two things.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you to combine the two for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Combine the cross and combine your list of misery that I just spoke about.
SPEAKER_00: It is because of the cross that we can sing a new song to the Lord in our sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: It is because the cross that we can sing, God, I had a poor health diagnosis.
SPEAKER_00: It is getting worse, and I'm going to pass from this life soon.
SPEAKER_00: His steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: God, a relationship that I cherish was broken.
SPEAKER_00: I have done everything I can to restore it.
SPEAKER_00: I have repented.
SPEAKER_00: I have done all the things that scripture calls me to do, yet it has not been restored.
SPEAKER_00: His steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: God, I lost my job and have yet to find another.
SPEAKER_00: For his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: I have lost every dime I have and every person that I care about.
SPEAKER_00: His steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: You see, because of his faithfulness that was proven on the cross, when we face the most intense suffering that we can even begin to imagine, we have the blessed opportunity to proclaim his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the final verse in verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: I love how Michael Wilcock speaks of this psalm.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This from the beginning of creation to the climax of redemption, from the first making of the heavens to the final inheritance of the saints, all is to be seen against the background of the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: That love is both indestructible because it's covenant love and boundless because it endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: As you look around at all he has made, and you follow through all that he has done over the course of history at every point in the psalm, it is saying, Covenant love did this.
SPEAKER_00: And we are reminded in verse 26 that God is the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He is good most certainly.
SPEAKER_00: He is faithful most certainly.
SPEAKER_00: He is sovereign most certainly.
SPEAKER_00: He is the creator most certainly, and he is the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to do something for a second with me in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say you went on a world tour, right?
SPEAKER_00: You left here and you come back in five years.
SPEAKER_00: And in those five years, you visited every single country in the world.
SPEAKER_00: You spoke, or at least tried to speak, to every single language that existed in the world.
SPEAKER_00: You visited every climate, you visited every tribe, you visited every nation, you saw every animal, you swam in every sea.
SPEAKER_00: You swam in every body of water for that matter.
SPEAKER_00: Let's add lakes in there.
SPEAKER_00: Every single molecule of every single thing that you touched, that you smelled, that you heard, that you saw is his.
SPEAKER_00: And you will either experience the reality of his steadfast love endures forever in redemption, or in that moment you will experience the reality of his steadfast love, endures forever in condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: One of the two.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you here in this room may be sitting and saying, Man, this is all well and good.
SPEAKER_00: Like his mercy or his love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: I see that in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: I even sang that worship song in the 2000s with everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't deserve his love.
SPEAKER_00: I've lived long enough that that some of us, and I'm one of these people, we're just predisposed to be discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reality.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not a it's not a fun reality.
SPEAKER_00: God's love and mercy floods your life even when you don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: Even when you don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: God's love and mercy will flood your life.
SPEAKER_00: You see, our salvation has nothing to do with what we have done.
SPEAKER_00: It has everything to do with what he has done.
SPEAKER_00: So we prepare to respond in in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Believers, you will be able, when we participate in the Lord's Supper together, you will be able to declare his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: As we take the elements.
SPEAKER_00: What better way for a follower of Jesus to respond than the breaking of bread and a reminder of the pure unmerited grace that we have received because of the broken body and because of the shed blood?
SPEAKER_00: This morning, if you need prayer, if you feel the spirit prompting you in some way, I would encourage you this morning to not let that just subside and walk out of this room.
SPEAKER_00: Find someone, the person next to you.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be a song after we participate in communion.
SPEAKER_00: Come up here and pray.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be up here after.
SPEAKER_00: As we alluded to last week at the conclusion of the service, the pastors, the elders will be hanging out by the door to be able to greet you and care for you and pray for you and do all the things that we desire and that you might desire as well as we seek to minister you to you well.
SPEAKER_00: But brothers and sisters, today we we are we are in the psalm in large part because I firmly believe that we as followers of Jesus, we need to be encouraged by the truth that his steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be encouraged and reminded of that truth.
SPEAKER_00: I pray today that you are encouraged and reminded of that truth.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not a follower of Jesus, I pray that you are fearful of that truth and that you respond rightly by putting your faith in the only one who will have the power when you stand before the judgment seat to declare you not guilty, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us, and then we're going to respond by participating in the Lord's Supper together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we are so grateful for who you are.
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: God, we're thankful for the blood.
SPEAKER_00: God, we're thankful for your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful for how great you are, as we sang a moment ago.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that we would be overwhelmed by the reality of the statement, your steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't be callous to it because of its repetition, but we would see it as an auger that pierces our innermost being as we come to an understanding of who you are, what you've done for us, and how much you care for us.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, I pray that the believer in the room be encouraged by that reality, God.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that the person in the room who has never put their faith in Jesus, God, that they would be prompted to respond by that reality.
SPEAKER_00: May it be so for the sake of your name, in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.