Not Lazy – Just Forgetful

 Well tonight, I neglected somehow, I forgot to bring the outlines. And your outline had this great picture on it. I don’t know if you can see it all the way from here.

It was big even in your outline. These ants are carrying this piece of wood over a cliff. And it’s the kind of thing ants really do.

And the passage, starting with Proverbs 6.6 is, Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise. Which having no captain, overseer, or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest.

How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, And your need like an armed man. And my first point tonight is, I don’t consider any of you here to be lazy or sluggards, Just like the thing says, the Hebrew word esel, It means a slow, idle, or hesitant person, a lazy person.

Proverbs speaks about somebody who is too lazy even to eat. That’s not me. It says the lazy man buries his hand in the bowl, It wearies him to bring it back to his mouth.

That’s Proverbs 26, 15. That verse is probably an exaggeration on Solomon’s part, To make a point. There are lazy people in this world, And none of us is immune to laziness.

At certain times, or in certain situations, Or maybe about certain things, Maybe all of us are lazy in one way or another, It’s a sin that is part of the sins of this world. One of the reasons I’m preaching this is, I don’t know if you noticed on Sunday nights, I’ve been trying to preach on passages I haven’t preached on before, Or topics I haven’t preached on before, And I think the whole time I’ve been at First Presbyterian, Or Word of Life Church, I haven’t preached once about laziness or sluggards. Especially you people here on Sunday nights, You’re the ones that are here on Sunday nights, Are not the lazy ones.

The Ant – A Positive Example

Secondly though, the ant is an example to us, A humble creature, But scripture tells us to consider her ways, And be wise. It is a shame, said the philosopher Seneca, Not to learn morals from small animals. Now Seneca wasn’t a Christian, But he still wanted to learn more morality from small animals.

Charles Bridges, who was a Christian, Who wrote a commentary on these proverbs, wrote, It demonstrates the degradation of the fall, That although man was created in God’s image, And made wiser than any of the other creatures, He should be sent to this insignificant school for instruction. We should know better, is what he’s saying, Than to have to go to an ant to learn to be productive. He says that’s because of sin that we’re in this.

So Bridges suggests that the reason we need to learn from inferior creatures, Is because sin has humbled us. It has made us sluggish. It has made us sinful.

Diligence Or Habit?

Whether that’s a matter of sin or not, We can still learn from observing ants. Some of the things he points out here, Verse 7, Proverbs 6, 7, They have no need of a boss. They have no need of outside motivation.

Habit

It says, Which having no captain, overseer, or ruler, They still do their work. They don’t need somebody with the whip getting behind them, Or even with the prize in front of them saying, Here’s what you need to do. They know what they need to do, Without any kind of motivation like that.

They diligently do this without the motivation, And they prepare for the future. It says in Verse 8, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest. Meaning, The ant is wise enough to provide not only for good days, But for difficult days in the future.

Diligence

And for the Christian, The future for us Christians is not just retirement, The whole world prepares for retirement, Or they try to, But also eternity. We prepare for eternity, that is, we prepare for something beyond this world.

Perishing vs. Enduring

We need to be diligent, Not only for the things of now, For our food, our clothing, our provision in that sense, But also for spiritual things. In fact, these are even more important Than the things here in this world. And why is that? Because what we have here, It’s not going to last no matter what.

We only have it for a short time. That’s why Jesus says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, Where moth and rust destroy, And where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, Where neither moth nor rust destroys, And where thieves do not break in and steal.

Matthew 6, 19 and 20. In John 6, 27, Jesus says, Do not labor for the food that perishes, But for the food which endures to everlasting life, Which the Son of Man will give you. Because God the Father has sent his seal on him.

What Do They Want?

Jesus had people in his life, This is after he fed the 5,000, That labored for that food. Jesus made it and they didn’t have much effort to eat that When he made the food for the 5,000. But he hid from them.

He snuck across the lake when they didn’t see him. How did they labor? They didn’t give up, instead, they went to find him.

They went over the lake to make sure he was there, even though they had no clue how he could get there, they found him. And you could say they sought him.

But why were they seeking him? They were seeking him only for the physical bread. They weren’t seeking him for himself. He says, I am the bread of life.

And they all fell short. They all wanted just physical bread. They did not really want Christ.

Set Your Priorities

Jesus says, though, But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, And all these things shall be added unto you. And so our diligence, our labor, Should be not so much for the things of this world, But for the things ahead. It’s harder to be diligent, Not lazy about spiritual things.

And why is that? Because we do not see them. We walk by faith and not by sight. And yet these things are worth our best efforts.

2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18, Just a few verses ahead of 2 Corinthians 5, 7, Which says, For we walk by faith, not by sight, says, Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, Yet the inward man is being renewed day by day For our light affliction, Which is but for a moment, Is working for us a far more exceeding And eternal way to glory. While we do not look for the things that are seen, But that the things that are not seen, For the things which are seen are temporary, But the things which are not seen are eternal.

The Age-Wisdom Curve

You know, I look out to you here, And you all are older than me. I think you are. John came in and he’s told me his back is hurting him.

And you come here oftentimes, Even though you have various pains and difficulties, And you still make it here. How many 20 or 30-year-olds do we have in here? It would be a lot easier for them to come here. Oh, well, Zenora’s 30.

20, so I missed it there. She raised her hand. She’s 30 at heart, at least.

But they could more easily come. But for some reason, we pushed ourselves to do that. We want to be here.

Gainers And Losers

Thirdly, understand what and how we gain or lose, Meaning gain or lose heart. How do we gain or lose heart? Therefore, we do not lose heart, Even though our outward man is perishing, Yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4, 16.

How do we gain? We gain by not losing heart. Things that cause even a diligent person To be lazy or to lose heart. The second part of 2 Corinthians 4, 16.

Our outward man is perishing. Our physical man is getting weaker. It’s getting harder to do things.

But we do not lose heart. For Paul, this meant persecution. In 2 Corinthians 11, he writes, Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool.

Trials And Tribulations

I am more in labors, more abundance, In stripes above measure, in prisons, More frequently in deaths, often from the Jews. Five times I received forty stripes minus one. That’s thirty-nine.

Meaning he was beaten with the rod Thirty-nine times on the back. So it left thirty-nine stripes on his back. Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and day I have been in the deep, In journeys often, in perils of waters, In perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, In perils of the Gentiles, in perils of the city, In perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, In perils among false brethren, In weariness, in toil, in sleeplessness, Often in hunger and thirst, in fastings, Often in cold and nakedness, Beside the other things, Which comes upon me daily, My deep concern for all the churches, Who is weak and I am not weak, Who is made to stumble, And I do not burn with indignation.

He had to press through all these different things to be the minister he was, to fulfill his calling. Very few people go through all that the Apostle Paul did. But everyone eventually ages if they have that opportunity.

Who Shall Flourish?

And the weakness that comes with age goes with it. And yet Psalm 92, verse 12-14 says, The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing.

Even in old age, he still bear fruit. For me, and for many, fatness. Literally and hopefully spiritually, growing in spiritual things.

For me, priority preaching, preparing sermons, means a lot of sitting, which means not a lot of exercise. Having people at my house for Bible study involves food right now. Eating even more and visiting people can involve food also.

And housework and organization and exercise, for me sometimes they’re not priorities. My priority is the spiritual things. And so I know I need to work on my non-priorities to be in better shape.

I am lazy about some things that used to be my strength. 1 Corinthians 9, 24-27 says, Do you not know that those who run in a race run all but one receives a prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for a prize is temperate in all things.

Now they do obtain a perishable prize, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run thus not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body, and I bring it into subjection.

Lest when I preach to others, I myself would become disqualified. That was my first sermon text, and I looked like it too. I could run 12 miles with no problem.

And so I need to, in some ways, try to get back to that, but there’s no way I can get back to what I was, but I can still work on it. For most, pain. John has told me his pains tonight, and Zenora has pains, I know, and we all have these various pains.

And Paul calls our pains here in this passage our light affliction. Then why does he call it light affliction? Because it’s temporary. Even if our pains last us for the rest of this life, they are temporary.

Even if they’re every day and every night, they are temporary. When we are in eternity, they will seem like a dream that has passed. Oh, what does pain feel like, or what did it? Do you remember? And I said, no, no, I don’t remember.

These are things that are gone. Our light affliction works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. When we go through these things, and yet we still do what God wants us to, God rewards us with an eternal weight of glory.

Excuses. The lazy man says, there’s a lion outside. I shall be slain in the streets.

There’s a blockade in front of the church, I cannot go to church.

A lion is prowling outside, I can’t go to church! Or there might be a lion prowling outside.

Who knows? There’s alligators out here in Florida. I can’t go to church because the alligator might get me. These are exaggerations.

And sometimes people do it. Maybe it’s not these things, but how many excuses might somebody make for not coming to church? Sleepy laziness is self-destructive. Proverbs 6, 9-11.

This is back in our passage. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler and your need like an armed man.

It’s interesting how he says this. It says, so shall your poverty. Verse 11.

Come on you like a prowler and your need like an armed man. And this is how laziness destroys people. First, it’s like a prowler.

How does a prowler come? He comes quietly, gradually, and slowly.

Does a prowler wake you up? No, he doesn’t want to wake you up because he’s stealing from you little by little. And laziness steals from us, whether materially or spiritually. When we’re lazy, it takes things from us that we would have.

And then also, it comes like an armed man. An armed man is a different thing than a prowler. You wake up and the gun is at your face.

What can you do at that point? You can’t do anything. And when we’re lazy, we lose all our strength eventually to where we can’t do anything even if we wanted to. We lose that exceeding weight of glory.

Things that keep us from losing heart. Things that encourage us. A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

When we know that’s ahead of us, it’s our encouragement. However heavy our pains, the glory ahead is much greater. And so when you feel the pain, think about eternal glories are so much bigger than this that we push on through.

Our inward man is being renewed. We are physically weaker, but we can get spiritually stronger. And why is that? That’s because God is our strength.

In Isaiah 40 verses 29 through 31, it says, he gives power to the weak and to those who have no might, he increases strength. Even the youths shall fail and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.

Imagine tonight that I had a challenge because I used to run 10 K’s, 10,000 meters. And the world record holder for the 10,000 meters challenged me to a race. Who would you bet on? Me or the world record holder? You.

No, you can’t shoot him. You can’t. What’s that? A 10,000 meter race.

He’s going to run that race. But I’m going to drive my car. So who’s going to win? Me and my car.

I’m going to beat this guy. He’s running, He’s using his feet.

He’s the 10,000 meter record holder. I’m fat. I’m slow.

So I’m driving in my car. I’ll tell you I will beat him every time. Because I’m depending I’m depending on I’m depending on something that’s stronger than me and stronger than him.

And that’s why it says in Isaiah 40 verse 31 Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up as wings like eagles. Why? Because we’re depending on something stronger than us.

He carries us. Just like my car will win every time even against the world record holder in the 10,000 meters. God can carry us even more than a car would.

Well, let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you that you are able to be our strength and our guide and our help.

We thank you that even when we are weary that you can give us your strength and that we can depend on you. And that’s why when we’re feeling weak, we pray. When we’re in pain, we pray.

When we’re going through difficult times, we pray. And then you give us your strength. Oftentimes, in good times we don’t even feel we need to pray.

But when we go through difficult times, we pray. And you give us your strength, your healing, your help. And so, Father, I pray for each person here.

I thank you that they’re here tonight. And we pray that you would be our strength in our weaknesses, our strength to carry us through each day. We pray these things in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

(0:00 – 1:52)

Our passage of scripture this morning is Psalm 5, Psalm 5, and I’ll read the entire Psalm, Psalm 5. To the chief musician with flutes, a Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation.

Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God. For to you I will pray. My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning I will direct it to you, and I will look up.

For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of inequity.

You shall destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy.

In fear of you I will worship toward your holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face, for there is no faithfulness in their mouth.

Their inward part is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue.

Pronounce them guilty, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you.

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. Let them ever shout for joy because you defend them. Let those also who love your name be joyful in you, for you, O Lord, will bless the righteous.

(1:53 – 3:37)

With favor you will surround him as with a shield. One of the first and most important things that I realized that Pastor Bruce and I had in common was prayer. Before the hurricane, before Hurricane Ian hit us, Pastor Bruce, myself, and Pastor Archie, and now Pastor Joe, we would meet here, what was it, 5 in the morning or 6 in the morning, and we would pray at 5 in the morning.

And that didn’t last after the hurricane, just because everything got so crazy. But we were doing that, and I realized I had some brothers in your church that were men of prayer. And I believe whether we meet with anyone else or not, we, all of us, should be praying every morning.

That should be the first thing we do is read God’s Word and pray as soon as we wake up, even if we’re not coming to a meeting to do that. And this psalm is a psalm that is all about prayer. And the first thing I want you to notice about it is it talks about making first things first.

And the first thing that we should have first every day is prayer. Unless you want to put your Bible reading before that, because Bible reading is listening to God talk to you, and prayer is you speaking to Him. And so, Bible reading can come first.

(3:37 – 5:57)

But every morning, that should be the case for each one of us. And here, David is writing. He’s a king, and he’s writing to his God, and he’s telling us these things.

Now, David was God’s king. He was a man after God’s own heart. His psalms were psalms.

Most of them were written for worship, and this was the case with this psalm. And this psalm is about just what I’ve mentioned, early morning prayer. He says, Give ear to my words, O Lord.

Consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for unto you I will pray. My voice shall you hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning.

I will direct it to you, and I will look up. A, this prayer is a pleading for God’s hearing. I noticed if you look through the psalms, David often does this.

He pleads for God to hear him. He says, Give ear to my words, O Lord. And so, he’s praying that God will hear his prayer, and then he says, Consider my meditation.

And meditation is when we think about God’s word, and we think about God, and we think about the things of God. And I believe David was always, 24-7, thinking about God. Maybe not when he’s sleeping, but maybe he’s dreaming about God while he’s sleeping.

And he’s always had that, and he says to the Lord, as he’s praying, when he wants God to hear him, he says, Consider that my mind is always on you. I always want to praise you. Then he asks God to hear the voice of his cry.

And we should all be like that in prayer. If we’re praying for something we really want, there’s emotion in that prayer. There’s a cry.

There’s a desperate, I need you to hear me, Lord. And there’s a cry to God there. David was a king himself, and yet he knew God was his real king.

He says, My king and my God. You know, when Saul was made king, the one that was king before David, he was the people’s king. They wanted a king, and they weren’t recognizing that God was their king.

(5:58 – 7:17)

But David, the second king, realized that God was king. He was just, you know, in that place, but God was the real king. And then, lastly, in verse three, he says, My voice shall thou hear in the morning.

O Lord, in the morning I will direct it to you, and I will look, I will look up. Here David is making a vow. The vows of God were on David, and he’s promising, every morning I’m going to direct my prayer to you.

Every morning you’re going to hear my voice. I’m planning on being here with you every single day, and that’s the commit we all should make. You know, make your morning a time with God before you do anything else, and then you gain God’s blessing for the rest of that day.

Martin Luther, the great reformer, says, I had a lot to do today. I need to spend three hours in prayer. He knew that God would enable him through the day.

God would strengthen him through the day. Point number two, the reason for coming to God early, we don’t have much going for us without him. Meaning, without him, we can do nothing.

(7:18 – 7:43)

Look at these next verses, four through six. It says, For you are a God who takes, you’re not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in your sight.

You hate all workers of inequity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

(7:45 – 12:31)

Scripture tells us that every one of us, except for our Lord Jesus Christ, is a sinner. By nature, we are born sinners. It says in Romans 3, 10 through 12, There is none righteous, no, not one.

There is none who understands. There’s none who seeks after God, and that’s who we are in our nature. And here, I believe in verses four through six, David is expressing God’s attitude towards wickedness.

Evil, boastful people, workers of inequity, those who lie, those who murder, he abhors them and he will destroy them. These are people that will not live before God. And so we see here, David puts the for, and for at the beginning of verse four, means this is the reason David is praying.

He’s saying, because God, you hate sinners, and I know you ultimately destroyed them. I am coming to you early in the morning, because I don’t want to be like them. I don’t want to be wicked.

I don’t want to fall astray. And I know if you don’t strengthen me, if you don’t enable me to walk with you, I’m going to slip, I’m going to fall. And we see that that definitely happened with David.

I believe the reason he fell into sin with Bathsheba was he was not in the word and prayer at that time. And I don’t know if Psalm five comes before that or after that. Maybe he learned his lesson and that’s why he’s coming to God early every morning and devoting himself, because he knows that he has a tendency to fall.

And we all have that. If we don’t go to God early, we will fall. When you need help, when you need mercy for God, call on him early.

Second Corinthians 6.2 says, for he says, in an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.

I’m speaking especially, I don’t know you as well as my own congregation, but if you are not sure you know the Lord, get right with him today. Don’t wait for another day. Repent and come to him now.

Pray early and often because we can do nothing without Jesus Christ and nothing without God. Even if you are a believer and you’re walking with God, you don’t want to leave off that walk. You want to keep up that walk.

Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

None of us can do anything unless God enables us, unless God strengthens and helps us. Point number three, what should we expect if we come to God early? Well first, Psalm 5 verse 7a, mercy from God. It says, but as for me I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy.

He’s coming, he’s coming as a sinner, but he expects a multitude of God’s mercy. When we sin, however much we sin, God has more mercy than our sins. If we come to him saying, I’m a sinner, I need your grace, Christ’s blood covers that and we are, we come to the multitude of his mercies which are greater than our sins.

Secondly, we should expect our own reverence, our own fear from God. He says, in fear of you I will worship toward your holy temple. He knows if he comes early, if he comes regularly, he really knows God and he’s going to come in reverence for God.

He’s going to come to God serious in his prayer and he’s going to know who he’s talking to. And then thirdly, we should expect if we come to God early, God’s guidance. Verse eight, it says, lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies make straight, make your way straight before my face.

Very interesting, he comes because he’s king and he’s ruling a nation and he knows he needs God’s guidance. This isn’t a preacher coming to God in David, this is a king. And whatever we do in life, if we want to do it to God’s glory and praise and in a way that is right and good, we should come to God for guidance.

(12:31 – 13:01)

He will guide and lead, will lead and guide us. Number four, what should we expect from an ungodly world? You know, if we don’t come to God and we’re expecting benefits from an ungodly world, what do we get? Well, one, lies. Verse nine, for there is no faithfulness in their mouth.

Psalm 5 9a. Secondly, corrupt hearts, their inward part is destruction, 5 9b. Third, bad breath.

(13:02 – 18:34)

Their throat is an open tomb, Psalm 5 9. Every morning you wake up and you have a bad breath, that’s a reminder from God, you’re still a sinner. Even though we’re saved, we still need his grace. And that’s the way of the world is bad breath and not only bad breath, but it means everything coming out of that mouth is dead and destructive.

Not necessarily for Christians, but definitely from the world. And then a flattering tongue. It says in verse 9d or 5 9d, they flatter with their tongue.

These are salesmen and what they sell is hell. When you turn on the tv first thing in the instead of praying to God, you’re listening to the lies of the world oftentimes. And they’re going to deceive you and and lead you astray and take you in the wrong way.

And so number five, point number five, in precatory prayer against the wicked, he says, pronounce them guilty, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels, cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you. And you might say, hey pastor, Psalm 510 and there’s other psalms that are like this.

They’re hard to understand. Why is God calling, why is David calling for this calamity on wicked people? You know, we know Jesus in Matthew 5 verses 43 through 48 says, you have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your father in heaven.

For he makes the sunrise on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so. Therefore you should be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect.

Now how do we get these two verses together? I don’t believe that the Bible is contradicting itself. I believe when Jesus says, love your enemies, he’s talking to us in our personal relationships with people. When we have somebody do us wrong, we don’t have to do wrong back to them.

We can be kind to them, we can love them, we can do that. And so Jesus is dealing on a personal level, but remember David is praying as a king. He’s praying as his position in government, one who was charged, because in that you didn’t, in his day there wasn’t judges or other people under him.

He was king and he was charged with keeping the law, and so he prays against evil in his kingdom. And I believe we see an example of this on Memorial Day, in that we’ve had soldiers go out and fight what we’ve called just wars. And they died, and sometimes not only died, but they killed the enemy.

And when we see this, we see the reason for imprecatory prayer, not for our own personal gain, but for the welfare of a nation. Because a nation that serves the Lord and loves the Lord and follows what is right and good is doing what is right. But when we see evil in general in a nation, we can pray against that evil, that they would, their evil ways would destroy them, that they would fall on their own.

We can pray for their conversion, that they’d come to Christ. That’s ultimately what we pray for, but we don’t pray for their success in their evil. We want their evil ways to be stopped, and that’s what I believe David is praying for there.

And then lastly, point number six, we see David’s prayer for God’s people. He says, but let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. Let them ever shout for joy, because you defend them.

Let those also who love your name be joyful in you, for you, O Lord, will bless the righteous. With favor you will surround him as with the shield. I think this is wonderful when you, especially when you compare it, hear David as a king.

Remember, he’s singing a song, and this is a song that’s going to be sung by everyone, because he’s the king, and he’s giving it to others to sing, and he as king is favoring the righteous, and he’s standing against the wicked. And so he’s saying in this official capacity of government, I want the righteous to win. And he says, but let all those who trust in you rejoice, shout for joy, because you defend them.

(18:35 – 19:23)

And in this world, whether we have righteous rulers or wicked rulers, God is always on the side of the righteous. He’s always on the side of his people. He forgives us when we sin, and we can trust him to take care of us, and defend us, and to be our strength.

And yet sometimes, just as people need to die in war for what is right, Christians have died through the centuries, not so much in our country, but all over the world for their faith. And so we as a nation have been blessed as a Christian nation for a lot of our years. If we move away from that, we will lose that protection, and may have to stand for our faith.

(19:23 – 19:59)

Well, let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this prayer of David, and the things that he tells us, the things that he prayed for. And Father, his prayer for the righteous must have put some fear in the ungodly and the wicked.

And so Father, we pray that our nation would be brought back to you as well, and that we might be men and women of prayer, and that power in prayer would be seen, and that would be known. And Father, we pray your grace in that sense. We pray these things in Jesus’ name.

(20:00 – 20:01)

Amen.

 

(0:10 – 0:21)

O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His mercy endures forever. O give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(0:22 – 0:39)

O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who alone does great wonders, His mercy endures forever. To Him who by wisdom made the heavens, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(0:40 – 0:56)

To Him who laid out the earth above the waters, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who made great lights, for His mercy endures forever. The sun to rule by day, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(0:57 – 1:14)

The moon and the stars to rule by night, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn, for His mercy endures forever. And brought out Israel from among them, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(1:15 – 1:30)

And with an outstretched arm, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who divided the Red Sea in two, for His mercy endures forever. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(1:31 – 1:47)

But overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who led His people through the wilderness, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who struck down great kings, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(1:47 – 2:00)

And slew famous kings, for His mercy endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, for His mercy endures forever. And Og, king of Bashan, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(2:01 – 2:15)

And gave their land as a heritage, for His mercy endures forever. A heritage to Israel, His servant, for His mercy endures forever. Who remembered us in our lowly state, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(2:15 – 2:29)

And rescued us from our enemies, for His mercy endures forever. Who gives food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever. O give thanks to the God of heaven, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(2:30 – 2:52)

26 verses, and every one of them say His mercy endures forever. Much like our responsive readings, this psalm involved worshiping God in people responsibly singing. And I didn’t sing it, and we didn’t sing it, but that’s how they would have sang this.

 

(2:53 – 3:12)

And I imagine it was a wonderful sound, as one leader led them all, and then they would respond. For His mercy endures forever, 26 times. God’s mercy is not only the main theme of this psalm, but it is one of the main themes in all of scripture.

 

(3:13 – 3:36)

God’s mercy is that sweet, moral, spiritual honey, which like a magnet, pulls us in to the realm of God’s sweet grace. His mercy endures forever. The same mercy that saved Israel from Egypt, saves us from sin and Satan today.

 

(3:37 – 3:56)

And we can sing this psalm just as much as they did. And I want to look at the various parts of this psalm, because it’s divided, I think, in certain parts. Just like the last psalm, this one starts with praise for God’s goodness.

 

(3:56 – 4:20)

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. God is good, and He’s the source of every good thing. James 1, verses 16 and 17 says, Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

 

(4:20 – 4:37)

It comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Everything that is from God is good. The evil comes, why? Because of our sin, because of our rebellion against God.

 

(4:38 – 5:14)

But all the good things, and we see there’s still even many good things in this world, even though it is so distorted by sin, the good comes from God. Often we hear somebody called a good man or a good woman, but if we understand what Scripture says, no one is good but God. Jesus says to the rich young ruler, after the rich young ruler called him good, He says, why do you call me good? No one is good but God.

 

(5:14 – 5:31)

Now when Jesus said that, He’s not denying that He’s God. He wants the rich young ruler to acknowledge that He’s good, and He’s God. There’s only Jesus as God who is good, and we all fall short of that.

 

(5:32 – 6:05)

Jesus is God. John 1, Romans 9, 5. John 1 says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, with God, and the Word was God. Romans 9, 5 talks about Jesus being the eternal, blessed God, and His question to the rich young ruler, as I said, was not a denial, but rather one that was to make the man think about whom he was talking, and to humble the man in regard to any kind of delusions he had of his own goodness.

 

(6:06 – 6:30)

And at that time, if you remember, Jesus questioned the man, because He wanted to enter the kingdom of heaven, and He said, I’ve kept all the commandments from my youth. And if you remember, Jesus said to him, go and sell all you have and give it to the poor, and you’ll have riches in heaven, and the man walked away. He could not give away his riches.

 

(6:31 – 6:43)

Secondly, this psalm continues with praise for God’s superiority. So first, there’s praise for His goodness. Second, it’s for His superiority.

 

(6:43 – 7:03)

And this is the next verses 2 through 4. O give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy endures forever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy endures forever. To Him alone who does great wonders, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(7:03 – 7:22)

Jesus, God, is God of gods, and He is Lord of lords. All the gods in this world are false gods. All the lords, they have a certain degree of power on this earth, but ultimately, they’re under God’s control.

 

(7:22 – 7:46)

And then it says here, to Him who alone does great wonders, and that’s referring to God’s miracles. He does many great wonders. And it’s interesting, because in the morning, we’ve been going through Revelation, and you might remember Revelation 13, 13 is talking about the beast and the false prophet, and it says that He did many wonders.

 

(7:46 – 8:11)

It says He performs great signs, so that He even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of man. That’s what the false prophet does. And yet, when we look at Scripture, we see this is probably talking about some fake trick, some way of deception, because that’s typically what Satan does.

 

(8:11 – 8:45)

He tries to do these kind of things. Thirdly, third main point in this sermon and in this passage, the third and the fourth, there’s praise for creation, verses 5 through 9, and there’s praise for redemption in verses 10 through 15. Verses 5 through 9 says, to Him who by wisdom made the heavens, for by His mercy, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(8:46 – 9:00)

To Him who laid out the earth above the waters, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who made great lights, for His mercy endures forever. The sun to rule the day, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(9:00 – 9:34)

The moon and stars to rule the night, for His mercy endures forever. When you look at Genesis 1, when it talks about God making the stars and the sun and the moon, it says in Genesis 1 that He made them for times and seasons. And we do, we mark time by the movements, while our moving around the sun is a day, and by years, we have our, they’re kind of our clocks and our calendars.

 

(9:34 – 10:00)

And you think of, you know, when a man, it used to be when a man retired from work, they’d give him a gold watch, and it was the traditional gift, is that watch, and it kept time. God gives us, as clocks and calendars, the great vast stars in the universe. By wisdom, He made the heavens.

 

(10:00 – 10:16)

Psalm 147 says He knows all the stars by name. And we know in our galaxy, there’s millions and billions and trillions of stars. And our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies in the universe.

 

(10:16 – 10:42)

And it’s so large that we really don’t know how big it is. Fourthly, though, there’s praise here in this passage for redemption. To Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn, for His mercy endures forever, and brought Israel out from among them, for His mercy endures forever, with a strong hand, with an outstretched arm, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(10:43 – 11:06)

To Him who divided the Red Sea in two, for His mercy endures forever, and made Israel pass through it, for His mercy endures forever, but overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, for His mercy endures forever. For 400 years, Israel’s people were slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh would not let them go.

 

(11:06 – 11:24)

But there is plague after plague after plague. Ten in total, the last being the death of the firstborn, which is mentioned here in verse 10. And then also mentioned here is the dividing of the Red Sea.

 

(11:24 – 11:31)

They go out of Egypt. They had been used to being slaves. They’re standing at the Red Sea, and they’re mad at Moses.

 

(11:32 – 11:46)

They’re complaining because they think they’re going to die right there. But God opens the Red Sea for them, and they cross over on dry land. We see here something that we see in other passages of Scripture.

 

(11:46 – 12:12)

In verses 5 through 9, there’s praise for creation, and we should honor God and praise Him because He is our creator. But then, secondly, there’s praise for redemption. And our redemption is even greater than Israel, because not only were we slaves, we were slaves to sin and to Satan, and He brings us out by a mighty hand.

 

(12:12 – 12:28)

And some of, well, probably all of us, to one degree or another, are still struggling with sin, and He’s still pulling us out of there to bring us redemption. We see this in the book of Revelation. Chapter 4 praises God for His creation.

 

(12:29 – 12:48)

Chapter 5 praises Him for redemption. We see this even in the Sabbath command. When the Sabbath command is given in Exodus 20, it says, for God rested, you know, He created the earth in 6 days and rested the 7th day after His creation.

 

(12:48 – 13:03)

So we worship Him on the Sabbath day, the 7th day, or they did. And then in Deuteronomy 5, we see Him say a different thing. It’s the only of the commandments that changes.

 

(13:04 – 13:41)

Even in the Old Testament it changes, because in Exodus it’s mentioned creation, and in Deuteronomy, the same commandment, you set aside the Sabbath, but there it mentions, because God brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves. And so we see redemption is being pointed at, and ultimately we have redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so one of the reasons, you know, they were always looking forward to that greater redemption, that redemption from sin that Jesus would provide.

 

(13:41 – 14:03)

And when Jesus died on the cross, that was where our redemption was accomplished. And so we start the first day of the week as our day of worship, because when He rose from the dead, it was proven that our redemption was accomplished. The first day of the week we worship God.

 

(14:03 – 14:34)

But we see here in this chapter, Psalm 136, His great mercy shown in His creating, and the way He creates everything for our good, and then in His redemption. Fifthly, there is praise here in this passage for God’s guidance, His victory, and His provision. Verses 16 through 22, it says, To Him who led His people through the wilderness, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(14:35 – 14:47)

To Him who struck down great kings, for His mercy endures forever. And slew the famous kings, for His mercy endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(14:47 – 14:58)

Og, king of Bashan, for His mercy endures forever. And gave their land as a heritage, for His mercy endures forever. A heritage for Israel, His servant, for His mercy endures forever.

 

(14:59 – 15:22)

Here we see God’s people in reference, entering the promised land. And as they enter, there’s other people there, kings, even great kings, He calls them famous kings, because they must have been known in those days. Not a lot of people know of Og, king of Bashan today, but back then he must have been famous, and now he’s not because he was defeated.

 

(15:22 – 15:49)

And Sally defeated all of these, are defeated before Israel, and we see that record in the book of, you know, the later books of Moses, and then the book of Joshua. And we have these here. Sixthly, there’s praise for remembrance, God’s remembrance of us, His mindfulness, and His care.

 

(15:49 – 16:10)

Verses 23 through 25 says, who remembered us in our lowly state, for His mercy endures forever, and rescued us from our enemies, for His mercy endures forever. Who gives food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever. He remembers us, He knows us.

 

(16:11 – 16:33)

Scripture tells us that God knows, or Jesus even tells us, that He knows the numbers of hairs on our head. Even a sparrow does not fall without Him knowing that and being in control of it. And for us, He says, you are more value than many sparrows.

 

(16:34 – 16:52)

Psalm 8 says, what is man? When you look at the stars in heaven and all these great things, what is man? That you are mindful of him. And that mindfulness is so great. His remembrance of us is so great that when we fall, and here He says, rescued us from our enemies.

 

(16:52 – 17:13)

Again, we’ve read about being rescued from Pharaoh and getting victory over those famous kings. But here, all our enemies, our enemies are sin and Satan, and He’s rescued us from that. He’s rescued us from those things that would destroy us, those things that would take us to hell.

 

(17:13 – 17:31)

He provides us food. It says He gives food to all flesh, which is referring not just to human beings, but God’s provision for the animals, even including those sparrows that I mentioned. And His mercy is said to endure forever.

 

(17:32 – 17:56)

And then number seven, there is praise here for His heavenly holiness. The last verse of this passage, Psalm 136.26, Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven for His mercy endures forever. When we pray, Jesus taught us to pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

 

(17:57 – 18:20)

In the Old Testament, God is not called Father. But when Jesus died for us, when we are washed, our sin is washed away by His blood, we are made new creatures and we are made children of God. And so we cry to Him, Abba, Father.

 

(18:21 – 18:46)

That is how great His mercy is. Even though we were sinners, even though we are no better than those people who are in hell, God saves us and changes us and we can give thanks to Him because His mercy endures forever. And that great mercy is seen in His sending His Son to die for us that we might be the children of God.

 

(18:46 – 18:55)

Well, let’s pray. Father, we thank You for Your goodness to us. We thank You for this Psalm, even though it is very, very repetitive.

 

(18:56 – 19:10)

It’s repeating a wonderful, powerful theme and that is that Your mercy endures forever. And Father, we’re thankful for that because we need it. We need Your grace.

 

(19:11 – 19:43)

There’s one problem after another, just like this Psalm talks about various enemies and various difficulties. And Father, we may not have people against us, or we may, but You are helping us in every circumstance to get victory and to eventually get to heaven just like they got to the promised land. Scripture tells us that the things that happened to them were examples to us that we might see and learn.

 

(19:43 – 20:07)

And Father, one thing that we know for sure is the mercy that You had for them is the same as the mercy that is for us today, as even it says in the New Testament that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He’s the one who on the cross says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He loves us and is willing to die for us.

 

(20:08 – 20:18)

And we see Your love and Your mercy in them. Father, help us to understand these things and help us to apply them to our lives. Father, we pray these things in Jesus’ name.

 

(20:19 – 20:19)

Amen.

 

(0:02 – 1:34)

The passage of scripture for tonight is Job 38:22, and I’ll read the first couple verses also in Job 38, because they kind of explain the context. So, Job 38, verses 1 through 3, and then also verse 22. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man.

I will question you, and you shall answer me. And then down to verse 22, and in between these verses, God is asking Job question after question after question, and He comes to this question, Have you entered the treasury of snow, or have you seen the treasury of hail? And so there are all these various questions that God is asking Job, and He asks them knowing that Job cannot answer. Job does not know the answer to any of these questions, and the reason that Job doesn’t know is because these are things that only God knows.

(1:35 – 3:17)

Now the title of my sermon tonight, Interesting Snowflakes and Snow Flakes, is based on the idea of snowflakes, which a couple of weeks ago we saw a film here on Sunday night called, The God of Wonders, and one small part of that particular movie was a presentation about snowflakes, and that’s what kind of inspired me to preach this sermon, because they presented the snowflakes in such a way that they showed the glory of God in creating such wonderful things. And then after that happened, I talked to somebody about the movie, and they mentioned the snowflakes, and we talked about snow, and in talking about snow, we got to the point where we were talking about snow landing on the ground, and how it sometimes gets dirty and yucky and all this stuff. And then in my mind, as I thought about this sermon, and I’ll talk about this later, but I thought of snowflakes, and I even looked it up, the definition in a slang dictionary, a flake, and I’m not reading the exact definition, but a flake is a description also of a person who is called flaky, and basically can do stupid, silly things.

(3:17 – 4:07)

That is a flake, and today I want to talk about both kinds of snowflakes. Now, the movie that we saw based its instruction about snow on the idea of the treasury of snow, because here God asked Job, have you entered the treasury of snow? And they said snow was indeed a treasure, because it shows us the glory of God. They told us that snow forms in the clouds where water vapor condenses, and as the crystals grow, remarkable patterns emerge, and these patterns are complex, symmetrical, and beautiful.

(4:08 – 10:54)

They are breathtaking to behold, and when these patterns are made, they can’t be made by man. Man, when we make snow, and a few years ago, maybe five or six years ago, I think it was man-made snow that they had here in Florida over by the baseball field, and my children played in it, and as far as you can see, it looked just like snow, but there were no snowflakes, none of those six-sided hexagonal things at all, none of those beautiful things, and these kinds of snow crystals are made of amazing water molecules. Each oxygen atom has a little bit of negative charge, and it holds the two hydrogen atoms that have a positive charge, and it holds these 104.5 degrees apart, but when the temperature goes down to freezing, these molecules pool together, and they pool together and apart as the temperature changes, and as they’re blowing through the sky and falling, there’s different temperatures at different heights, and so that’s how the crystals form all these different designs, but it’s always these six-sided snowflakes, six little things, however they are, and each snow crystal is a reflection of God’s creative power, His creativity, and as the movie told us, every day, not in Florida, but in other parts of the world, trillions of God’s transparent treasures fall to the earth, but no two are alike, just like a human fingerprint, every snowflake is unique, and though they are different, they all have the hexagonal shape, and each snowflake is made of millions of water crystals, millions of these crystals, these little water molecules, and showing how the wonderful design of God in them, and there’s two things that are wonderful about snowflakes, one, their beauty, they have a beautiful structure and pattern, and there are more than a hundred different types of snowflakes, and then their order, there’s a consistent pattern in their creation, a pattern that we cannot reproduce, they seem to just fall from the sky, and yet the hexagonal pattern is always there, every single snowflake always has the same pattern, the beautiful design, and this consistency, I believe, is evidence for our creator, God, things just don’t happen like that, you don’t kick a rock down the street, and all of a sudden it turns into something beautiful, but this happens every single time, and so it’s evidence of a divine artist, and those are the things that this movie told us, and yet, as I thought about snowflakes through the week, another thing I think we could notice, that the movie does not show, is their frailty, snowflakes are extremely frail, that’s why there’s none in Florida, they can’t stand the heat, they melt, and so we don’t have snowflakes in Florida, I could ask you, how many of you have seen a beautiful snowflake yourself, how many have seen in your hand this design, I’ve seen them, I remember catching them as a child, and even as an adult, and looking at them, and yet when I looked at them, I’d have to look pretty fast, because they would be melting right there, you’d get a magnifying glass or something, and you might see one pretty good, also they get lost in the crowd, if they fall down into the snow, it’s tough to find a single snowflake, because altogether they lose their individuality, and so they melt, they lose their individuality, when they fall on the ground, and so you could say, snow as it falls from heaven, retains its beauty, but as soon as it touches the earth, its beauty is very short-lived, and so many heavenly things are the same, it melts, it gets dirty, it loses its beautiful design, and we as human beings, if we compare ourselves to snowflakes, we do share complexity and beauty, in fact we’re much, much, much more complex, our brains, our circulatory system, all the different parts of our body, these make us much more complex than snowflakes, and the Bible also speaks about us, and the way we are made, in Psalm 139, we can read in verse 12, it says, Indeed the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to you, you formed my inward parts, you covered me in my mother’s womb, I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well, my frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought, in the lowest parts of the earth, your eyes saw my substance, and yet being yet unformed, and in your book, they were all written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet they were none of them, how precious also are your thoughts to me, O God, how great is the sum of them, if I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand, when I awake, I am still with you.

(10:54 – 20:06)

And so we share this aspect, just as the snowflake shows the glory of God by its beauty and its complexity, so our human bodies also show the glory of God because they’re made in such a fearfully and wonderful way, our ability to think, our ability to talk and communicate, not only do we glorify God in these things, or we should, but also Scripture tells us we were created in His image, none of the animals can talk, none of the animals can send an email, or work on a computer, or read a book, and yet as much as we share with the snowflake, beauty and complexity, we also share their frailty, and Scripture says as much, in 1 Peter 1, 24 and 25, we read, because all flesh is as grass, all the glory of man as the flower of grass, the grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever, now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you, and when we think of this, just as the snowflake is very frail, it falls to the earth, it melts in your hand, so is our lives, they are very short, Psalm 191 talks about them going away, as a whisper in the night, or like a dream, and we are that way, and our glory is short, those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end, we were young, and we were sure to have our way, that Psalm, and when we’re younger, we’re stronger, we’re more powerful, we’re able to do things, and even somebody like Michael Jordan, this champion basketball player, he’s not that old yet, he’s still younger than I am, yet he cannot really play professional basketball anymore, he can’t compete on that level, because he’s got a little bit older, and the same happens to everyone, we all grow old, we get more frail, and eventually we die, and yet beyond frailty, we bring sinful stupidity into the game, and as I was thinking of snowflakes, and I said earlier, I’m talking not just about snowflakes, but also snowflakes, flaky people, I remembered being in Maine, because that’s the last place I really lived, where there was snow, and I lived in a house, that had six acres of land, and this was typical in Maine, almost everybody’s home, had a lot of land, connected to it, and most of the land, where I was, was wooded, and within the wooden land, even on my land, there was a snowmobile trail, and it went through the woods, and it was only probably so wide, so it wasn’t that wide, and you’d go through these trees, and I remember more than once, hearing of people, that were right near, where I was, where I lived, not on my land, but near that area, that these young men were drunk, they were riding their snowmobiles, and they crashed into trees, and died, and when I think of snowflakes, how stupid can you be, to, here you have a beautiful woods, beautiful snow, everything is beautiful and perfect, and you’ve been given the gift of life, given these things by God, and in the midst of God’s perfection, we choose to sin, we choose to even destroy ourselves, I’m sure they weren’t intending, to destroy themselves, but they got themselves drunk, they got themselves, they were riding through these trees, probably really enjoying themselves, but in this narrow, narrow place, they even did this at night time, because they had lights, but they crashed into the tree, and this more than one time, it seemed like we were there for four years, and probably maybe four different times, somebody right in our area, had crashed into a tree, seemed like one every winter at least, and killed themselves on a snowmobile, and of course this is, something that happens not just in the snow, it’s something that happens, almost every day, and in every way, and we see, how beautiful, beautiful God made the world, and yet how quickly, sin mars the picture, and I can preach, about people running into trees, and yet we, have all been stupid also, we could say, haven’t we? I mean we probably can think of, some time in our life, one time or another, where we did something, maybe not as stupid as, being drunk on a snowmobile, going through the woods, but maybe close to that, and somehow maybe God spared us, somehow we didn’t pay the consequence, for what we did, and by grace I imagine, most of us can say, we’ve lived to our current age, by the grace of God, because He was good to us, He saved us from this decision, or this other bad decision, that we made, we are beautiful, creations of God, we are created to live, for His glory, and yet we, all we like sheep, scripture says, have gone astray, we’ve turned everyone his own way, and the glory of God, which is seen in snowflakes, and seen in our human bodies, and seen in the trees, and the sun, and in the sky, has been marred, by men, by our sin, and yet Christ’s death on the cross, and next Sunday, we’ll be celebrating the Lord’s Supper, I forgot to announce that, in the bulletin, but I should have, now I’m announcing it, to the Sunday evening, people will be celebrating, the Lord’s Supper, Christ’s death on the cross, erases our sinful stupidity, He says, though your sins are as crimson, they shall be as white as snow, bringing the snow theme back in, as white as pure, clean snow, and so even though we may, make stupid mistakes in this life, even though, we go beyond stupid mistakes, and sin, even though we may be flakes, we can be made as white as snow flakes, again by the grace of God, He makes things beautiful again, and even more beautiful, than we were before, because of His grace, He can make us right, and good again, well let’s pray, Father we thank you, that you’re a God of grace, that you’re a God of power, that you’re a God of creativity, that you’ve made many beautiful things, in this world, and Father we have marred those things, with our sins, we have gone astray, maybe sometimes we lead others astray, and yet by your grace Father, you bring us back, and you cleanse us of sin, by the blood of your Son, and we thank you for your word, we thank you for even, what we have in common with snow flakes, we are both your creation, and we both can be beautiful, and Father we both, and we should learn, that we both have a frailty in this life, our lives are short lived, in light of eternity, but the word of God, the Lord abides forever, so Father we pray, that we might remember that, and we pray that we might live for you, and we thank you, for what Christ has done for us on the cross, we pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.

We are continuing in the Psalms, and today is a short one, Psalm 131. Psalm 131, a song of a sense of David. Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty, neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me.

 

Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore. Again, as we’ve been week after week, recently we’ve been going through the songs of a sense, and this is a song of a sense of David.

 

And this psalm tells us that every trip involving ascending up to God starts with our going down. It starts with our humility. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, which is on the Mount, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

He could have said blessed are the lowly. The poor in spirit means you’re down, you’re on the bottom, you’re looking up. And Jesus was never poor in spirit himself because he was sinless, and yet he was still lowly as an example to us because he became a man.

 

And we are to be lowly, humbled before God, because we are not only creatures and mere creatures, which Jesus was the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, and he was not a sinner, but we are sinners. Nebuchadnezzar, we studied Nebuchadnezzar on Wednesday nights, had to be humbled before he really knew God. He had seen miracles, he had seen men walk in fire and not get burned, but it wasn’t until he was humbled himself that he came to know God, and I believe we all need to be humbled in some way or another before we come to God.

 

Many of us, if we tell our testimony, our real coming to God came at a hard time, at a difficult time, at a lowly time. So this is my first point tonight, and this will be a short message tonight. But the first point is ascending in God’s kingdom means first descending.

 

It involves humility. Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty, neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound with me. And this is David who wrote this psalm.

 

And David, if you think of most people in Scripture, he might be one who you could think of as maybe being haughty. He was the one that defeated Goliath. He was king of Israel.

 

He wrote all these psalms, and God used him in mighty ways, and yet here we see him humble. Here we see him with a heart that’s not haughty, and I believe this isn’t just David at the beginning of his life, but this is David probably more toward the end of his life looking back, and he’s been humble through the years. Part of his humility probably came through his own sin, but probably even earlier than that, he realized he needed God in order to do everything he would do.

 

He would not defeat Goliath in his own strength, but he had learned to depend upon the Lord. Note this psalm is a psalm of ascent, and we usually in our culture, and I’m thinking our culture, not our biblical culture, but our general culture in America, connect ascending to looking out for number one. We connect ascending with being aggressive, fighting, throwing our competitors down, even maybe stepping on them on our way up like the king of the mountain when we were kids, but that’s not what the Scripture teaches.

 

That’s not what we see in this passage. Jesus teaches us that it’s the meek, just a couple verses beyond that other one in Matthew 5. Blessed are the meek, Matthew 5, 5, for they shall inherit the earth. When we’re humble, when we’re meek, then we’re prepared for God to bless us, not only with heavenly things, the Lord and Spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

Blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth. For Jesus’ meekness is not weakness, and many of you probably heard this before, well, not many of you, two of you, but it’s strength under control. Humility is repeatedly recommended in Scripture.

 

Psalm 25, verse 9 says, The humble he guides in justice, and the humble he teaches his way. And so if we want to learn from God, if we want to know what is right and wrong, if we want to know his way, humility is the key. Proverbs 16, 19, Solomon, who was also a king, the son of David, who had this amazing wisdom, he said in Proverbs 16, 19, Better to be of humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud.

 

I could hold her. There’s no other sermon that I’d ever be able to do that with than tonight. You can let her walk around.

 

Yeah. Selena, yeah, I’m talking to you in the middle of a sermon. I’ve never really done this before, but I’m talking to you, little girl.

 

Okay. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud. That means if your team wins, it’s sad for you with God because it’s better to be with the humble spirit than to divide the spoil, which is almost totally against everything we think.

 

We always want to be winners. We always want to be on top, but God says better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly. Isaiah 29, 19 says, The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

 

Why do they have such joy in the Lord? Well, they don’t have joy in anything else. They have to have their joy in the Lord. James 4, 6 says, But he gives more grace.

 

Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. There’s not only humility is recommended, but pride is put down. And then later in that same chapter, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.

 

And that’s James, who’s the brother of Jesus. And Jesus said very similar things. And I believe James got these things from his brother, half-brother, that is.

 

He learned these things from Christ. Here is the key to ascending in God’s kingdom, humility, which is fitting for our weakness, which is fitting for our sinfulness. We should be humble about ourselves, but confident in God, he will lift us up.

 

The second point is, We too often go crazy, like a screaming baby, but we must be like a successfully weaned child, truly calmed, even calmed within. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother. Like a weaned child, my soul is my soul within me.

 

This is about going for something for which we have a strong desire, like a babe desiring mama’s milk. And there’s typically a loud cry when we’re denied these things. And I’ve seen it not just with children, but with adults.

 

And I know I’m not going to tell all about myself, even though it’s my family, and only Zenora here, only three of you. But there was times, even though I might have been outwardly calm, inwardly I was pounding my fists, wanting something. And I had to learn to grow out of that.

 

And the Lord is the one who controls these things. Sometimes this cry is heard by all the world, definitely heard by God. In Numbers 14, 26 through 29, it says, And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against me? I have heard the complaints that the children of Israel make against me.

 

Say to them, As I live, says the Lord, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will do to you the carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in the wilderness, all of you who were numbered according to the entire number from 20 years old and above. The people who walked with Moses in the wilderness, those who saw the Red Sea parted, those who probably saw a lot of the miracles in Egypt, the plagues that were brought upon the Egyptians, they complained again and again. Oh, there’s no water.

 

Oh, there’s no food. Why did you bring us out here? And that first generation, they all died in the wilderness because they weren’t happy campers as they went through. And some of that, I think, is symbolic spiritually.

 

It’s the first birth that doesn’t make it. It’s the second birth. We must be born again.

 

We must be changed from that kind of people. And yet they all died in the wilderness, this entire group. And this is because their hearts were not right.

 

They weren’t right with God. Yet God hears the unrighteous, complaining, heartaching, discontent, even if we keep it hidden in our hearts, our souls, while also creating anxiety is the way of the world. That’s what the world has.

 

It has no solution for real pain and trouble, but God gives us inner peace. Philippians 4, 6, and 7. If the kids were here in this room, I could refer to Kung Fu Panda, inner peace, inner peace, inner peace, and they would all know what I’m talking about, at least a little, but they would not need to know what Christ gives us. And Philippians 4, 6, and 7 says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus.

 

And part of this is understanding that God is in control. God rules. Charles and John Wesley were traveling from England to America on a boat.

 

They were going to minister with George Whitefield at a prison colony, and they were on a boat with a group of Moravians, and Moravians at that time were a very godly group of people. And while they were traveling, the great storm came up, and John and Charles were worried, crying for their lives, but they witnessed the Moravians who calmly prayed in the midst of the storm, and everybody made it, even with the storm. They made it safely to America, but John and Charles say that was when they were truly converted.

 

Even though they were going to be missionaries, even though they considered themselves ministers of the gospel, they weren’t really converted until they saw those Moravians, they saw that those men and women had that peace that passes understanding, even as you say, they would walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and this is a valley that was in water, and yet they feared no evil, and John and Charles knew they did not have that. Weaned from what? Weaned from self-sufficiency, self-will, self-seeking, weaned from worrying, from creatures and things of the world. John Jay says, not indeed as to their use, but as to any dependence upon them for happiness and portion.

 

When he says creatures of the world, he’s talking about everything. Our food, our drink, our wealth, our companions. Obviously, God knows we have need of things, and we have so much, but are we dependent on them to where we worry about them, and fret about not having them.

 

I’ve known some very godly people who fret about money. Oh, I don’t have it. Oh, I’m in trouble.

 

Oh, this, and that’s not the way we should be. Thirdly, this is a lesson for all God’s people. Hope in the Lord.

 

Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. David trusted in God. David had his heart weaned from this world, from the things of this world, from dependence on them, and he was calm in the sight of God, and he had seen, I think some of this was his experience.

 

He had been in the wilderness, chased by Saul, and in that danger, and yet he came out of it. And when he came out of it, he was anointed king. And he, at that time, during that time in the wilderness, there were times that he thought it was hopeless.

 

Times that he, you could say, he almost complained against God. God kept him from too much complaining, but he grew through that experience. And hope is always for things that we do not see, feel, or taste yet.

 

We hope for something that is future for us. Something that we hope for, but we don’t have. Psalm 42, 5, David again wrote that.

 

He says, Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. There David gives us an example of speaking to his own heart, speaking to his own soul, saying, hey soul, you’re getting too wild. You’re acting like a baby.

 

Calm down, trust in God, you know the Lord. And we have to do that ourselves sometimes. Hoping in God means all of his providence in our life, or seeing all of his providence in our lives positively.

 

And this is hard to do sometimes. Corrie Ten Boom says to Betsy Ten Boom, I won’t thank God for the lice, but Betsy Ten Boom, in prison camp, thanks God for the lice. And later they find out the lice protect them so they can read the Bible and study scripture in the midst of a German prison camp.

 

Only because the guards weren’t allowed, or weren’t wanting to go where the lice were. First Thessalonians 5, 18 says, In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Real permanent disappointment is impossible for those who know God.

 

And I’ll close, this is going to be short, but I’m closing with this poem from Edith Lillian Young. Disappointment, his appointment. Change one letter, then I see that the thwarting of my purpose is God’s better choice for me.

 

His appointment must be blessing, though it may come in disguise for the end, from the beginning, open to his wisdom lies. Disappointment, his appointment. Whose? The Lord who loves me best, understands and knows me fully, whom my faith and love would test.

 

For like loving earthly parent, he rejoices when he knows that his child accepts unquestioned all that from his wisdom flows. Disappointment, his appointment. No good thing will he withhold from denials we oft gather, treasures of his love untold.

 

While he knows each broken purpose leads to fuller, deeper trust, and the end of all his dealings proves our God is wise and just. Disappointment, his appointment. Lord, I take it, then as such, like the clay in hands of potter, yielding wholly to thy touch, all my life’s plan is thy molding, not one single choice be mine.

 

Let me answer unrepining, Father, not my will, but thine. Disappointment, his appointment. Change one letter, then, dear friend, take in cheerful acquiescence all thy father’s love may send.

 

Soon will faith be lost in vision, then in glory thou shalt see his appointment, and that only was the right way home for thee. Well, that concludes the message for tonight. Let’s pray.

 

Father, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you that you’re a God who would wean us from this world and dependence on it, and wean us from worrying and crying about things that we might not have that we desire. And Father, help us to trust in you in all circumstances, even in the difficult ones, because you are in control and you work all things together for good for us who love you.

 

And Father, help us to understand that and help us not only to understand it in our heads, but to know it in our hearts that as we go step by step through this world, Father, we might know that you were holding our hands and carrying us and helping us all the way through. Father, we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.