The Steadfast Love of the Lord (Psalm 33)

Transcript

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Psalms thirty three, this is the word of our God. Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous, praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings, sing to him a new song, play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts, for the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts, he gathers the waters of the sea as a heap, he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spoke and it came to be. The plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven, he sees all the children of man. From where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army, a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death, and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. Amen. Let's go together in prayer. God, as we hope in you, we think about your steadfast love and your word and your works and your care for creation. God, we thank you that we see your love perfectly displayed in the work of Jesus Christ. God, I pray that we would make much of Christ crucified and risen, our only hope, our only anchor for our soul, our only hope for our nation. God, may we glorify you today and look to you for hope. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Now, some of you, I don't know if you got to the point last night of losing your voice from shouting, perhaps. I know during uh camp, I about halfway through, I tend to lose my voice from singing silly songs and just shouting silly chants. Some of you that may have happened during BBS. Anyone lose their voice during BBS? Uh maybe, maybe not. Now, why do we shout with excitement and joy? It's because what we we're excited about some play that happened on the football uh game. Maybe your team just scored, or maybe something happened where you you find out really good news. Oh, someone's getting married, someone's having a baby, and maybe you've had that response. Yes, wow, this is awesome! I'm so excited. And you know the thing is you don't like always plan it when you have a shout of joy, you know, like well, I'm going to at 525 shout with joy. It's just it's it's just a response to the news, right? Yes, that's awesome. Maybe you'll give them a high five. Now, in other countries, they're like, Why are you slapping someone's hand? But it's just the result of this way to ex uh get a joyful noise out, get excitement out. Now, in like fashion, why should someone worship the Lord? We should be able to answer that, right? Why should someone joyfully worship the Lord? Now you have in your notes there, I hope you can think of something. The first thing that comes to your mind you to write that down. Why should someone worship the Lord? Well, maybe, maybe one of the reasons is because he is so good, because he is so kind, he is so loving, because he rescued you, because he saved you, he changed you. I mean, really, you may get mad that I only gave one line because you could fill up thousands of pages. But why should someone worship the Lord? We could sing of 10,000 reasons, right? 10,000 reasons to worship the Lord, and if we rightly understand that, we have so many things to sing about over and over, to shout about, that nothing can even come a close second to it. Because God, there was none equal, there was there was none in a close second. He alone is worthy of all our praise, all of our shouts of praise. How much more do we celebrate things of this world? Like we celebrate the 250 year of our nation, but really it should be a celebration unto the Lord. Thank you, God, for your kindness, not just to celebrate for the sake of it. Even when we eat, we pray before meals, right? It's a bit of a celebration. And some people who really like hot dogs and bacon, you can look up how many hot dogs are eaten on July 4th. I saw the number yesterday, it was like several million. Um, but we sometimes you take that bite of bacon, you're like, wow, mmm, praise the Lord. I'm so glad Jesus made all food clean. Well, you you have you all of that is a praise unto the Lord, if rightly understood. But notice in Psalms 33, verses 1 through 3, we'll look at them again. Really, what we see here is a call to worship, a call towards joy and ask exclamation. Shout for joy in the Lord, oh you righteous. Like it's it's his call of worship. We normally start with some verse which really functions as a call to worship. Call live in light of reality, that Christ is the ultimate treasure. So shout for joy of the Lord in the Lord, oh you righteous. Praise befits the right, the upright. Now, think of this verse. Here, this is fitting for the upright. Well, who are the upright? Well, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Well, you're like, well, no one's upright. How could they sing that? Well, that's the beautiful thing. Christ makes the unrighteous, the unright people, right with him through faith in Christ. That's beautiful. That's the hope of the gospel. So all of us, the congregation it's speaking of here in these verses, is the people of God, the gather people of God, shout for joy in the Lord. The unbeliever is not right with the Lord, they can't truly praise the Lord. But the believer praises the Lord because they drink from the fountain of everlasting joy. It's this everlasting river flowing through them where Jesus says, You drink from me, you're never gonna thirst again. That's that's a that's something worth celebrating, something worth being joyful about, right? Augustine, I've quoted his confessions before. He says, And this is the happy life, to rejoice to thee, of thee, for thee. This is it, and there is no other. Until you understand that Christ is the greatest treasure worth shouting about, you don't understand the purpose for which you're created. So I want you to think about this. How often this question here that flows out of this verse how often do you just break out into song worshiping the Lord? Now you may say immediately these objections come up. Well, that's not my thing, that's the worship team's thing. I'm not a singer. Now, certainly people are gifted in certain ways and can lead us to skillfully sing unto the Lord, and we praise God for you. They do that. But this doesn't exclude that we're all called to sing praises to the Lord. We're all called with our voices to lift up praises to Him. Now, some of you you may just maybe in that moment where you're just like, Praise the Lord, thank you, God, and you're you're maybe quoting that scripture like God, you have shown yourself faithful when I thought you were distant, you were carrying me through this, and you just have those shouts of joy. Love Al Spurgeon says, People, God's people are called to rejoice in the Lord, and ultimately, he says, Nothing else to rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly. Like believer, like this is like the natural overflow of delighting in the Lord, right? Like I think about many young married couples. Well, I can think the most of my marriage when about 18 years ago, uh Kendra and I are married August 15, 2008. Hopefully, my math's correct. Um that there's just this spontaneous result where you're just like, wow, my bride is beautiful. Wow, I just love you. I can't believe I'm married to you. There's just this spontaneous result when we are covenanted with our Lord to say, I can't believe I'm yours, Lord. I can't believe that if it wasn't for you who loved me first, I wouldn't have loved you back. Praise God. And I I want you to think about that spontaneity of worship that should be part of that in our life. Just thinking in Lord in prayer and praise. So it says here in verse 2 give thanks to the Lord with the lyre, make a melody to him with the harp of ten strings. Now, this right here uh makes clear, yes, we are welcomed and encouraged to use musical instruments as we are able to do. Instruments, really, you can think of what is an instrument. I play trombone, I play euphonium, and I pretend to play guitar. Uh but um, but I play for many years in middle school, high school, some in college. But an instrument in many ways can be said to be an extension of us and expressing that musical um ability through the instrument. Even our phones can be an extension of us as we communicate our thoughts through our phones. So, like all instruments, particularly musical instruments here, should be an extension of the overflow of our heart that's delighting in the Lord. So, but also notice I think it's true as well what we see in Ephesians, Ephesians 5, where it says uh 5.19. It says, address one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. And so there is this constant idea of songs unto the Lord. You see that similar in Colossians 3.16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiving in your hearts to God. So, what is the most important instrument that we possess? Our voice, right? Out of the overflow of our heart, our mouth speaks, our mouth sings, right? Now, unfortunately, there's in this idea with some men that singing is for women and not for men. Well, most of the psalms, probably if not like all of them, I would argue, are written by men. We are called to sing, use our instrument of our heart and our voice to sing unto the Lord and make a melody unto the Lord from our heart. Now, you think of when an instrument is well tuned, when it's not too flat or sharp, uh, but it's rightly tuned. And I we had to spend time tuning our instrument, adjusting the valves and slides to make sure it's attuned. That's in many ways what Sunday function is. We have to attune our hearts to what is truly valuable until we can tune our hearts and affections unto the Lord. Now, a heart rightly attuned to the Lord is a beautiful thing. Now you may say, well, but I think of my grandmother Jean at her service in February. They said, well, she didn't have the most beautiful voice vocally, but her heart was attuned with the Lord. And ultimately, I'd say that's what matters most. We worship him in spirit and in truth. Now that doesn't mean we wouldn't want to encourage skillful worship unto the Lord in excellence, but to have that, to have Christ on our lips in song and in prayer and not on our hearts, that's a dangerous place to be. We want that to be the first priority. So look at verse 3. Sing to him a new song, play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. A new song. Well, like again, we're talking about a fresh and frequent awareness of God's grace. Like, when was the last time the gospel made you cry? When was the last time the gospel broke you? That when I was dead in my sin and trespasses, but God forgave me in Christ Jesus while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. You think of I don't deserve this. Yet He gave me His mercy and grace. You should have this fresh awareness frequently in your life. Where you're singing these psalms and spiritual songs, maybe for some of you, it's time to do a write a song that's biblical and consistent and reflecting these gospel realities, this new song. Of course, we have many people writing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. We sing some of those. Um, I know I believe Patricia's written some beautiful worship songs, and many of you guys would be encouraged to write out a song unto the Lord and do it with joy, shout out. Why would we why would we merely settle for celebrating at worldly celebrations, celebrating a touchdown, but not saying, Praise God, praise God, Christ is alive, my sin is conquered, I'm free from slavery to sin. Like if we're gonna obey the scripture, I think it's good and proper that right now. Let's shout together as a congregation, praise God. Ready? One, two, three, praise God. That there's so much joy in that letting out, letting out what's in your heart, and it must come out. What's truly in your heart must come out, or it'll become like a fire in your bones, like Jeremiah said. Now, of course, that doesn't negate we have an orderly and reverent worship service, but to have that without a passionate shouting of praise to the Lord is a tragedy. We should shout our praises to the Lord. Express your worship to the Lord this week, today. Challenge, I challenge you to express that. Now let's look at this next section here. What we see really, I believe, in this whole chapter is the steadfast word of the Lord and the steadfast care of the Lord. So you see in verse 4, it talks about for the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. Some translations will say in truth. Those words are interchangeable in many ways. But you think of the steadfast word of the Lord, that means his word can be trusted, is it is unchanging, and it it is his word and his work are always connected. God reveals himself through his acts, and it is written down, and his means his word and work is trusted, his promises can be trusted because he is steadfast. Now you think of that word steadfast, that sounds like something that's holding on to something, right? An idea of someone holding on, clinging to. Now, really, the Hebrew there is Hesed, which means his loving kindness, his covenant faithfulness to his people. He will fulfill every promise to his people, his loyal love, his diligent and unmovable love. That's what we see. He says he has loved his people with an everlasting love. That's the covenant faithfulness. Where you think of perhaps there is a one spouse who may want to leave, but then the husband says, I'm going to honor my vows. He's showing Hesed, steadfast love. He says, I'm going to honor that. Even if you don't want to now, I'm going to honor that. I'm going to be steadfast to my covenant. I'm going to be faithful, diligent, and unmovable. That's why marriage is a reflection of the gospel that Christ is faithful to a bride that is prone to wonder. So God is steadfast to his people. Now we see his steadfast work in creation. Look in verses 6 and verse 7, 33, verses 6. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breadth of his mouth with all their hosts, he gathers the water of the waters of the sea as a heap. He puts the deeps into storehouses. Now, this is amazing because this is referring us back to Genesis 1. God's very word, he speaks, and it happens. You know anyone who can who can do that? Who can just say something? I like, boom, happens. You know, they may wish, they may have some people who might listen to them, some that might obey, but not perfectly and immediately. Whatever God wants, he gets, right? And so it's it's amazing where we see see his utter power. You look at it where he says, by his the very breath of his his mouth, all the hosts were made, the stars, the angels, the very word, it was made. It was an easy task. It wasn't difficult for the Lord to create everything out of nothing. But notice how he speaks of the waters and the deep. It's like he just piles them up as a heap and in storehouses. It's a way of saying, This is so easy. But have you ever stood under a wave? Like a massive wave. I'm talking like as at least as big of this building. When uh our family went to the beach in 24, I remember there's some waves I was feeling very, very small. I'm like, and I'm thinking in the moment, I am I'm gonna be crushed by this wave, but this is nothing to the Lord, and I'm and there's comfort in that. That whereas the waves of life may crush you, the God who made that, who made all of it, this is effortless for him. This is easy because he is the steadfast God who his work in creation, everything he says, comes to pass, which demands a response. Where if he commands all things in creation, yet we see this demands a response, verses eight and nine. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke and it came to be, he commanded and it stood firm. So creation is obedience. But notice what's the one exception that they are disobedient. Humans are blatantly defiant, whereas creation obeys our sovereign king of the universe and his commands. Humans are defiant to the Lord who commands the entire universe. But we see this, this should respond result in awe and fear of the Lord. But not when we see his steadfast word accomplishing his work in creation and of course salvation, we see his steadfast care, which is showing his steadfastness ultimately. But look at verses five here, which kind of highlights his uh title to this idea. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. Then we jump to verses 10 and on. He upholds his plans. We see how the Lord upholds his plans and showing his care for the for the world. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people. The counsels of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Now, that means clearly what? His care. He's upholding his care and his plan by all the nations around the world. You can you can count it all up. I'm sure Google could give you the answer how many nations there are. There is not one nation that is outside of the sovereign plan of God right now. There is nothing happening in America that is messing up God's sovereign plan. Everything is going according to plan. And that's that's important. We see, yes, it's even falling on the just, those reconciled to God, and the unjust. Even in God's kindness, he blesses the unbelievers. I love how George Washington, our first president, said, the hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this that he must be worse than infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. And the founding of America, which I do believe is one of the greatest nations we have seen, that is built upon biblical principles in so many ways. And yes, we are flawed and haven't lived up to all those, but it was built on the self-evident truth that all men are created equal, endowed with rights by the creator, not by the government. And so Washington, noticing that God is sovereign even over the establishing and, of course, the falling of nations, but he's saying God's showing his providence, he's showing his care in the establishment of this nation, America. Now you think of all nations. What's God's plan for America and all nations? So glorify himself. No nation is thwarting the plan of God right now. His counsel stands forever because he is steadfast, he will do what he set out to do. Now, the Blessed holy nation, look at verses twelve verse twelve. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has He has chosen as His heritage. Now, when we think of this verse here, of course, we're obviously thinking of Israel and the Old Covenant people, the people chosen as his heritage, and in 2 Corinthians 1, all the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. So how do we understand this? In light of the work of Christ? Well, 1 Peter 2, verse 9, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So what is he talking about? The holy nation in Christ, his everlasting nation, his everlasting kingdom, the holy priesthood, the church, the people of God. In Christ, we are the people of God. And so that's where we see the blessed nation whose God is the Lord, that we are promised in Hebrews 11:16. It says, all the old testament was pointing to this desire for a people and a place with a perfect leader, a savior who would rescue them. He says, they desired a better country, a heavenly one. God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he prepared for them a city. We have a heavenly city from all tribes, all nations, that is the people of God, this holy nation, this everlasting city. And you think, okay, so we have the people of God is this nation whose God is the Lord. But how do we think of it as Americans today? Yet America and any nation is blessed when one, the gospel and local church commitment is a priority. The gospel is a priority and our foundation when we return to that biblical truth. That how can we how can we things turn around in our nation? It's that we need to experience the presence of God, right? We need to experience the real presence of God. And how do we experience that? Emmanuel, God with us. We need Christ in our life. Christ is the hope of America. We could have a very, very conservative president the next term, but if we don't have Christ, then all we've done is rearrange the chairs on the Titanic. We need Christ in our hearts, we need the presence of God, and we need a nation that is submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ and living in accordance with his design, that has new hearts, that are born again, and they are awakened and free from slavery to sin. Our nation's greatest need is not just a more conservative politician, which I believe is very valuable. Our nation's greatest need is to be born again and experience the new birth, the resurrected life, to be set free from slavery to sin. So we need the gospel to be to the center of the tip of our engagement in the culture. And if we understand that rightly, then politics flows from our biblical worldview that has the gospel center in the forefront. We should vote for righteous laws. Righteousness exalts a nation. Wickedness is a disgrace to a nation. Means we should vote for candidates who stand for equal protection for the unborn, who do not put up with murdering and children in the womb. We want to stand for those who understand what a man and woman is and gender identity and for biblical marriage. Yes, we need to understand that, but never let that reverse and be more focused on that instead of first with the gospel. As you've seen with the movie The Great Awakening, that what led to the American Revolution, it was a spiritual revival first, and then they understood that everything flows out of our rights, flow out of regenerate hearts that understand that we are a nation that needs to understand that we have rights given to us by God, not from the government. And even the unregenerate unbelievers had recognized, we'd like Benjamin Franklin, the value of walking in biblical principles. So you think of this every nation, every nation has their gods that they ultimately worship. They either worship the true God, the one true God, or they worship a false god or gods. There is no neutrality. Those who say, well, we're we're just a secular nation, we don't believe in any gods, which became popular in the Soviet Union and much of post-Enlightenment Europe as well. But notice false gods, they promise freedom. They promise freedom away from Christ, but they only bring what? Slavery. Completely and totally, once for all, freed from slavery to sin. So here's the big question. This is highlighted in a great resource I'll throw out the Magna Carta of Humanity by Oz Guinness. He contrasts where America is at with two crossroads. We're at the crossroad of where we live by the American Revolution Foundations or by the French Revolution Foundations. Now, the French Revolution, they at one point, due to the Enlightenment thinkings, they they put on Notre Dame, this church in France, they put um human reason is what really what they worship, and they put a plaque up there. So they and the French Revolution was grounded in a rejection of God, rejecting being accountable to God. It was about self-rule, being autonomous, separate from God, and our own thinking, godless enlightenment thinking. American Revolution, 1776, all created by God and rights given by God in spiritual liberty. This says, where the presence of the Lord is, there is freedom. So the question is you come today to yourself and to others, what are you choosing? Is this foundation? French Revolution, self-rule, or the American Revolution foundation, accountable to God and freedom ultimately found in Christ. For those who still doubt what the uh historical revisionist, our historic our spiritual heritage, I will uh point out John Jay, First Chief Justice. He says, I recommend a general and public return of praise and thanksgiving to him from whose goodness these blessings descend. The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow. What is the ultimate source for morality? God. Now, Washington, he had in his farewell address, I'll just do an excerpt, he says, Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason, experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. Washington understood as a believer in our triune God that we can't have a moral and just society without the foundation of God's word. I also quotes Dr. Walker, modern day, referring to the debate about the Ten Commandments being put in public schools. He said, Yes, as Baptists, we affirm the separation of church and state as formal institutions, each with their own jurisdictions, but we do not advocate for the separation of government and morality. So it all comes back to these foundations. A foundation on the unchanging, steadfast word of God and his gospel and biblical principles that lead to the flourishing of society. What has led to the flourishing of America, unlike many other nations? It's because we understand that all people are made in the image of God. We are accountable to God, and we have a large majority of believers in churches in America. We've had a historical mass influence on world missions because so many have gone out and been into the nations from America because of God's faithful providence in our nation. We see, of course, see that in many nations, but we speak as Americans, but Christians first, that we must stand on this biblical foundation to lead to our flourishing our nation. But not only look at these last parts of chapter 33, verses 13. We see his care over every person. The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man from where he sits and throne. He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He fat he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. What is he saying here? Nothing escapes him. God is keeping watch on evil and good. There is nothing outside of the sight and eyes of the Lord. Look at verse 15. He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The Lord designed you and your the unsinful parts of our personality, our uniqueness. God designed that. He understands us, he fashions our hearts, and he's observing how you're responding in this day, this time that ye has appointed for you to live. But notice what he says here in these next verses. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. What is it saying? He rescues the humble. He says in verse 18, Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. The self-deceived person trusts in their self and their might. But that's not where our strength comes from. It's a false hope. The one who is humble fears the Lord. His soul is delivered from death. The Lord says in Psalms 34 19, He delivers the righteous from all their afflictions. You're like, what about me? I'm sick. What about this person? They just passed away. He delivers the righteous from all their afflictions, ultimately in Christ Jesus. If you remember one of my favorite verses, John 11 25. Read that to my grandmother, who has been delivered from her physical affliction, which powerfully Jesus says, He who lives in who believes in me, he believes in me though he die, yet shall he live. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die, because he is the resurrection and the life. So he delivers them from death, particularly the second death, separation, eternal separation from God. But even it says here, he keeps alive in famine. The Lord provides for his people. We see that over and over. Literally, the Lord provided our daily bread. And you see that time after time, he does rescue those who trust in him. But notice in the end of chapter 33, it ends with this prayer and petition. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our shi help and our shield, for our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. You will wait for someone if you know they're going to come. You may wait an hour, you may wait two hours, you may wait 20 years, you may wait 2,000 years. We've been waiting over 2,000 years, but we know the Lord is steadfast, and every promise of his will come true. So we're willing to wait. We have a glad heart. We trust in his holy name because we we know we know he is trustworthy and true to his promises. But you know, it's not only the truth, he said, that this is true of who God is, but it's when we experience God, we truly experience him that leads to that spontaneity of worship, that leads to rejoicing, because we have trusted him and experienced that. Then this last verse he says, Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us. Let your steadfast love be upon us here at Clint First Baptist. Let your steadfast love be upon us in the US, let your steadfast love be upon us in Clint, in El Paso. When he says, Be upon us as we hope in you, he's asking for this renewal. But we can't renew ourselves, we can't make ourselves alive. Only God can do that. Well, you put your trust in the Lord, you let out your desires to him, you're gonna have a heart that is melodious to the Lord. So why do we trust him? Second Timothy says, if we are faithless, he will still be faithful. Second Timothy or 2 Thessalonians 3:3 speaks of the steadfast love of the Lord. He is faithful, he will preserve you, he will surely do it. Philippians 1 6 reminds us of the faithfulness of the Lord. All those he called or justified, he will faithfully preserve to the end. Philippians 1 6 says, He who began a good work in you will see it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus. What is that a reminder of? Our God is a steadfast God, He is a steadfast God who saves his people to the uttermost, completely and totally to the end. That's what God does in Christ Jesus. So we're called to worship him. Why? Because of his steadfast word and his steadfast care. Now, I invite you to respond and worship to the Lord. Worship right now in praise and in prayer and seek him. And Mike's gonna bring up here some reflection questions, as always, where we can prayerfully reflect to the Lord. I want I pray that you'll see that the kindness of the Lord is meant to lead you to repentance. Person who is faithful and continually loves you perfectly to the end. Get you to ask yourself these questions as you seek the Lord. And if during this time you want to pray with myself, or in the front or back, will be available, but seek the Lord while he may be found. Seek our steadfast Lord and rest and worship him. Let's go to the Lord in prayer together. God, we love you, we praise you for your steadfast word. God, every word of yours proves true. God, we thank you for your care in our lives. God, you are our shield. God, would you renew us? Would you renew us, bring revival in our lives individually, in our church, in our community, in our nation? But would you start with us? Would you start with us, Lord? That we look to your steadfast love and take the light. God, that we, while we were dead in our sins, we were faithless. You were faithful. We love because you first loved us. God, I pray that we would look to Christ and live today. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen.