Homecoming | Psalm 136 | May 21, 2023

Draw your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. Know your ways, acknowledge them, and ye will direct your paths. Proverbs 3, 5 -6.

Suffer not the little children to come unto me. And that's just how we need to come to the Lord, just as a little child. Mary Ann, thank you so much. She does such a great job with these children. Kids, thank you so much.

You heard how much they enjoyed you. Just keep going. Great message to all of us. To trust, to trust and obey. May I read some scripture for us this morning, found in Psalms 146. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.

While I live, I will praise the Lord. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man in whom there is no help. His spirit departs. He returns to his earth.

In that very day, his plans perish. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help. Whose hope is in the Lord his God. Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. Who keeps truth forever.

Who executes judgment for the oppressed. Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord raises those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and widow. But the way of the wicked, he turns upside down. The Lord shall reign forever. Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you, Lord Jesus, again that we can come this way today, Lord. To offer up our praises unto you, Lord Jesus, Father. And we do that, I know, every morning. But God, that's the purpose of it.

You're the center of attention here, Lord. And it should be that we lift you up. God, I pray that you would move through this congregation today. As you know, I pray each week, Lord Jesus. May not a soul leave this congregation today without knowing Christ in the heart.

Some may be dealing with issues in their life. Broken homes and families, Lord Jesus. They're downhearted. They're carrying a heavy load, Lord Jesus. I pray that they'll surrender those burdens unto you, Lord Jesus.

And then, God, that they can receive new life. A new remission in their lives, Lord Jesus. We're happy to be here, Lord. We're happy to be in your presence. And, Lord, I know in a few moments after the service, we'll go down.

We'll fellowship around the table. Lord, I'm reminded so much, Father, of that great homecoming day. The greatest homecoming of them all is the marriage supper of the Lamb. When we all gather round those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, Lord Jesus.

And, yes, what a day that will be for all of us. A glorious day. But, Father, unto them, Lord Jesus, we must carry on the great commission, Lord Jesus. To let people know that Jesus does save, Lord Jesus.

May we be a witness, if not in our speaking, Lord, in the way that we act. And, God, the way we treat others with love. Lord Jesus, we know you're here today. We know your Spirit is with us. Bless, I pray, the service.

Thank you for our guests today. For them coming to be a part of this worship service, Lord Jesus. For it's in the precious name of Jesus, our Lord, we pray.

Amen.

When I think about heaven, I get excited, don't you? Especially if we know where we're going. Great song choir, thank you so much. I want you to join in with us now. We're going to sing songs on heaven right now for a minute.

So, stand with me. Join in. When we all get to heaven, it's 514, as you see on the overhead. All I ask you to do is smile and sing out. That makes a choir director so happy. Alright, let's do this.

Sing the one Jesus, sing his mercy and his grace. In the mansions bright and blessed, he'll prepare for us a place. When we all get to heaven, one day Jesus will sing and shout the victory.

Ladies, let me hear you on this verse. Ladies, sing. Men, sing.

Let us stand and be true and serve him, son.

For 110 years, the gospel of Jesus Christ has been central to the life of our church. And every Sunday, at this point in the service, we take just a few moments to focus explicitly on the gospel. To confess our sins to God together and to hear assurance from God's word of our forgiveness.

And so, this is the good news that Jesus Christ washes away all of our sins by the blood of his cross and the power of his resurrection. Let's pray together. Most merciful God, we confess this morning that we have sinned against you.

We have sinned in thought and in word and in deed. But what we have done, but what we have left undone. We confess that we have not loved you with our whole hearts. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

So, Father, for these sins and for our sinfulness, we are truly contrite and we humbly repent. And we turn in faith to Jesus Christ, asking you to wash away and forgive us of our sins. To have mercy on us for the sake of your Son, Jesus.

And to forgive us and make us clean. And that for the sake of your Son, Jesus, that you would work in our hearts and in our lives by your Spirit. That we might delight in your word and in your will. And that we would walk in your ways all of our days.

To the glory of your name we pray. Amen. Now lift up your heads and hear the good news from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5. And God's word says,. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved. So, brothers and sisters in Christ, God has been merciful to you. He has given you new life. And you are freely and fully forgiven in Him. Rejoice in that. Amen.

Let's continue singing, if you would. Stand and join with me on a couple of songs this morning. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. And my tribute.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. The glory, hair of salvation. Purchase of God, His Spirit. This is my story. This is my song. My sin. Praising my suffix of mission. Christ on my side. Angels descend.

Echoes of mercy. Whispers of love. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my sin. My sin. Perfect submission. All is at rest. My sin.

Waves.

My storm.

My sin. Remain standing, if you would. And let's sing one other. My tribute. Love the message in this song. And I say thanks for the things.

Things so undeserved. Yet you give voices of a million angels.

Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. You may be seated.

Thank you, choir.

That sounded fantastic.

Thank you, Pastor Gary, for leading that so well. And for those of you who have joined to sing with us this morning, just really grateful for that. Let's go to the Lord in prayer together. Our Father in heaven, we love you.

We declare our praise to you. You are the only true and living God. You are our creator. You are our Father. You have demonstrated your love for us in so many different ways. And we come to you this morning thanking you for how you have demonstrated your love to us in and through this church for so many years.

Lord, I thank you for those who have come before. For those who have, those original 47 members who came together 110 years ago today. I thank you for their vision, for their foresight, for their faithfulness, for their love for you and their love for one another.

Thank you for those who have joined in the membership over the years, many of whom have since passed on to glory to be present with the Lord where there is joy and pleasure forevermore. Lord, we thank you for our fathers and mothers in the faith.

Lord, I thank you for those who have come before, who have since moved on, and their members faithfully serving and worshiping in other churches, especially those ones who have come back to worship with us this morning.

Lord, I pray that you would bless them, their families. Fathers, we think of those who have come before us. We recognize that we stand on their shoulders. And for those who have passed, we want to honor their memory.

For those still with us, we want to honor their station. But most of all, Father, this morning we want to thank you for your steadfast love and faithfulness. We want to thank you that you have not left us nor forsaken us, but you are Emmanuel, God with us.

And you have poured out grace upon grace to us, and so we give you thanks. And we ask that you would give us strength for the days ahead. Lord, I pray that you would hide your word in our hearts, that we would not sin against you, that you would make us to prosper when we put our hands to any good work, that you would give fruit to our labors, so that we may win glory to lay down at the feet of King Jesus.

Lord, we pray for those in our church family who are going through various trials and tribulations of various kinds. I think of those who are healing and recovering from illness or injury, those who are currently battling some sort of significant illness, for those who are grieving, for other hardships our people may be facing.

Lord, we ask that you would be with them, that your grace, we declare that it is, we believe that it is sufficient for them, that your power would be made perfect in their weakness, that you would give everything that they need for strength, for healing, for help, for recovery, for comfort.

Show them mercy, we pray. Lord, I pray that you would strengthen our church for faithfulness, and living in obedience to your word. Lord, I pray for the community around us, so many that do not know you, roughly 8 in 10 not meaningfully connected to Christ and His church.

So Lord, we pray that they would hear the good news, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. May they hear and believe, that they trust in you and be saved for their good and for your glory.

Lord, now as we turn our attention to your word, Lord, we pray that it will bear fruit in our lives, the fruit of faithfulness. We ask all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen. If you have your Bible with you this morning, you can turn to Psalm 136.

Psalm 136 is an exaltation of the greatness of God and His works that He has done, His great wonders. So let's read Psalm 136 together. And the word of the Lord says this, Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods, for His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His steadfast love endures forever. To Him who alone does great wonders, for His steadfast love endures forever.

To Him who by understanding made the heavens, for His steadfast love endures forever. To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, for His steadfast love endures forever. To Him who made the great lights, for His steadfast love endures forever.

The sun to rule over the day, for His steadfast love endures forever. The moon and the stars to rule over the night, for His steadfast love endures forever. To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, for his steadfast love endures forever.

And brought Israel out from among them, for his steadfast love endures forever. With a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for his steadfast love endures forever. To him who divided the Red Sea in two, for his steadfast love endures forever.

And made Israel to pass through the midst of it, for his steadfast love endures forever. But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his steadfast love endures forever. To him who led his people through the wilderness, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who struck down great kings, for his steadfast love endures forever,. And killed mighty kings, for his steadfast love endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his steadfast love endures forever.

And Og, king of Bashan, for his steadfast love, endures forever. And gave their land as a heritage, for his steadfast love endures forever. A heritage to Israel, his servant, for his steadfast love endures forever.

It is he who remembered us in our lowest state, for his steadfast love endures forever. And rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever. He gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. Amen. This is the word of the Lord to us. If you didn't pick up on it, the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.

Amen.

I want us to look at the first two words of this psalm. For the reason that we give praise to him for his steadfast love, and the first words of instruction to us are, give thanks. The steadfast love endures forever.

And what should we do? We should give thanks. It is good, and it is right, and it is fitting that we give thanks to God. And because of this, God has commanded us to give thanks. Right here in verse 1, and throughout the Scriptures, we see calls to gratitude.

Commands to give thanks. I think of 1 Thessalonians 5 .18, give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Paul goes on to say. And gratitude is one of the fundamental duties of humanity.

You see, in Romans 1, unbelievers are judged for two things. One, for not honoring God, and the second is for not giving him thanks. You see, gratitude is due God. He deserves it. And when we give God thanks, when we give God gratitude, we are recognizing our dependence upon him.

We are recognizing his generosity to us. That we are indebted to him. That he is not obligated to give us anything, and yet he has, nonetheless, been generous to us. And so why do we give God thanks? When we look at the second half of verse 1.

We give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Elsewhere, in Psalm 119, it says that God is good, and he does good. And so because of this, we give God thanks. And then we look at the next part of that verse.

It's the refrain that's repeated throughout the Psalm. For his steadfast love endures forever. So why do we give thanks? Because God is good, and his steadfast love endures. His steadfast, faithful love never ends.

And he continually makes it known to us by his deeds, by his works in this world. And so we come together today, on this 110th anniversary of our church. We come together to give thanks to God, for he is good, and he does good.

And his steadfast love endures. And he's been good to us for 110 years. And we pray for his goodness to be made known to and through us for many, many more years to come. We have this kid's book at our house that we read to our children every now and again.

It's called Full Moon Rising. And in the story, the story about the moon. The moon is not full, but a fool. And the reason he is foolish is because he boasts and brags about how great he is. He's bright, and he lights up the night sky.

He controls the tides. People set their calendars by the moon. But then one day, the moon gets a rude awakening. He realizes that he has no light in himself. That all his light is reflected from the sun.

And he's humbled. And in his humility, he becomes wise. And from that day forward, he makes all of his boasts about the sun. So I want to be clear this morning. That we are not here today to celebrate ourselves.

We're not here to talk about how great First Baptist Church was, or is, or will be. Like the moon, we have no light in and of ourselves. We reflect the sun. The sun of righteousness. The sun of God. And so today is a day that we give thanks to the Lord.

And we celebrate not ourselves, but we celebrate God. And so we remember his great works in the world. We remember his great works that he has done here in our church. So let us first focus upon the Lord himself.

Let's look at it in verses 2 and 3. It answers the question, who is our God? Give thanks to the God of gods, to the Lord of lords. Our God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. God is the first and best of all beings.

He reigns supreme. He is high and lifted up. So I want you to think for just a moment. Think back on any history you've read throughout, maybe school or throughout your life. Think of the great kings through world history.

Those who won epic wars. Conquered vast lands. Exercised authority over many peoples. Who built empires and subjugated nations. God is king over them. He is higher in authority and power than the greatest among earthly powers.

Jesus is the Lord of lords and the king of kings. He has all authority in heaven and on earth. That means all authority over all earthly powers. And all report to him and to him all will give an account.

This is our God. I want you to think about the angels that are described in the Bible. Great beings with four heads. That of an ox, an eagle, a lion, a man. Think about the seraphim and the cherubim. The mighty host of God.

Think about evil spiritual forces. Devils and demons and Satan himself. And God is high and lifted up above all of them. He is the God of gods. The rebel gods, the false gods, the fake gods, the no gods.

They are not God's rivals. They are not his equal and evil opposite. No, he is above. God stands above all for he is the creator God. He has all power, all wisdom, all righteousness, all knowledge. He is the fountainhead of all goodness and mercy and grace and peace.

And our God, 1 John tells us, is love. That is the God we serve and that is the God that we give thanks to today. This is the God that we worship. The great God of God and Lord of lords, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And for 110 years, right here on McElhaney Road, Christians have been gathering to worship this God, the God of the Bible. And that is a glorious, glorious thing. And God deserves that worship. Psalm 96 tells us that he deserves the glory due his name.

Why? For he is good and his steadfast love endures forever. And he does great wonders. We see beginning in verse 4. We see that he alone does great wonders. And then the rest of the psalm goes on. And praises God for his steadfast love that is made known throughout his many great works.

And so in verses 5 through 9, we see God's great works in creation. He made the heavens. He spread the earth above the waters. He made the great light, sun, moon, and stars to rule the day and night. I want you to think about the glory of creation.

I want you to think about the power of God to create all things. Everything that you see. The Rocky Mountains. Niagara Falls. The Atlantic Ocean. Trees, rocks, turtles, great white sharks, mountain lions, mosquitoes, everything.

Great and small. God made it all. And he made it by his word. And he made it for his glory. I want you to think about every person you've ever met is made in the image of God. I want you to think about all the complex systems that make up one human body.

And then I want you to think about all the complex systems that make up an ecosystem somewhere in the world. And then consider all the people on the planet.

And where they live.

All the weather and the animals and the natural resources. And think about how it all fits together and works. It's because God made it. And he sustains it all by the word of his power. God did great wonders in creation.

The psalmist then goes on in verses 10 through 16 to praise God for his great works in the Exodus. You see, God delivered his people out of slavery in Egypt. And he brought down judgments against Pharaoh, striking down the firstborn of Egypt as a culmination of the plagues.

He divided the Red Sea and made his people to walk on dry land. While Pharaoh and his hosts were cast into the sea and drowned. With a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, he led his people through the wilderness.

God did great wonders in the Exodus. And then verses 17 through 22 we see that God did great wonders in the conquest of the land. He struck down mighty kings like Sihon of the Amorites and Og the king of Bashan's land.

And he gave that land to the children of Israel as an inheritance. This was the land that was promised to Abraham. You see, God always keeps his promises. Abraham's descendants may have spent over 400 years in slavery in Egypt.

They may have gone through slavery and judgment and battle. But God kept his word. God always, always keeps his word. He gave them a land flowing with milk and honey. He made them into a great nation, just as he said he would.

He did great wonders in the conquest. Then the psalmist goes on to praise God and his great wonders generally. He lifted up Israel when she was of low and humble estate. He rescued Israel from her foes.

He provided food and all they needed for life. God did great wonders for Israel. Now, of course, we read the Psalms not as Old Testament Israelites, but as New Testament Christians. This side of the cross and the resurrection.

And so we might take the same structure of the psalm and offer up further praise to God for his great wonders. We might praise God for new creation. You see, the God whose spirit hovered over the waters when the earth was formless and void and spoke all of creation into existence by the word of his power.

That same God sends his spirit into the hearts of men when they hear the word of God. And he gives them new hearts and makes them into new creations. That's on an individual scale. Then we think about it on the cosmic scale.

That God will remake the earth one day. He will reunite heaven and earth together into a place with no more pain, no more tears, and no more sin. And instead we will dwell in his presence where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

So we praise God for his new creation. For his steadfast love endures forever. We also praise God for a better exodus. You see, the exodus from slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh, that points to a greater deliverance that was to come.

For God has delivered us by his son Jesus Christ. He has delivered us from slavery to Satan, sin, and death. This is the good news of the gospel. That Jesus saves. That Jesus delivers. That he rescues.

You see, ever since Adam's sin in the garden, man has been corrupted by sin and enslaved to it. And Romans tells us that the wages of sin is death. That means we all deserve to die. We deserve, outside of Christ, we deserve to be separated from God.

And from the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore that are in his presence. Because we're guilty but God. Ephesians 2 .4 that we read earlier. But God being rich in mercy. Because of the great love that he had for us.

He made us alive together in Christ. By grace you have been saved. You see, God brought Israel up out of Egypt. And if you are in Christ today, if you are united to Christ by faith. Then God has brought you up out of death.

And he set your feet on high ground and pointed them heavenward. His steadfast love endures forever. We also praise God for a new conquest. Not just of one particular strip of land in the Middle East, but the whole world.

You see, Jesus is king of the whole world. And he will settle for nothing less than discipling all nations. He will win the worship of every tribe, tongue, people and nation. And the earth, scriptures tell us, the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.

Knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. It means we are on a great commission to take the planet for King Jesus. From travelers rest to the ends of the earth. His steadfast love endures forever.

And we praise God for his great wonders generally to us that we see in our lives. He protects us and rescues us from our enemies. He provides for us our daily bread. So we praise God for his kindness to us.

And on this 110th anniversary of our church, I'd like to offer up even further praises for God's great works in and to and through First Baptist Church Travelers Rest. And so, to God alone who does great wonders, his steadfast love endures forever.

He brought 47 Christians together by covenant on May 21st, 1913 for his steadfast love endures forever. And by August of 1913, he had provided a lot on McElhaney Road where they began building the first sanctuary for his steadfast love endures forever.

And that first service in that sanctuary was held on November 2nd, 1913 for his steadfast love endures forever. And among those first families who joined the church were Bensons, and Howards, and Leagues, and Watsons, and Williams, and Edwards, and Montgomery's, and Newby's, and Riddle's, and Bridwell's, and Burns, and Batson's, and Cunningham's, Smith's, and Stroud's, Sutherland's, and Stockton's for his steadfast love endures forever.

And over the years, significant amounts of money have been given to the cause of missions starting with the $19 .92 raised by the original Sunbeams chapter in 1914. And God has used First Baptist Church to take the gospel to the ends of the earth sometimes directly by sending missionaries long term or short term sometimes indirectly using the prayers of senior saints in our church praying for missionaries on their birthdays that are listed in that open window as devotional.

Like my grandmother, a long time member here, and how she did that every day. His steadfast love endures forever. God has brought many sinners to this very altar in confession and repentance. His steadfast love endures forever.

He's brought new believers through the waters of baptism in this very baptistry. His steadfast love endures forever. He's taught Christians young and old, rich and poor. He's taught them the Bible and how to obey Jesus through Sunday school classes and mentoring relationships and Wednesday night programs.

His steadfast love endures forever. He's used Will Snipes to impact countless young men through his weekly Bible studies. His steadfast love endures forever. He's raised up and sent out believers all over the world from this very spot.

His steadfast love endures forever. No, we have not been perfect. Yes, our sins have been many. But God has remained faithful. And God has remained merciful. His steadfast love endures forever. And when things got lean here in recent years, God preserved a remnant of loyal members who refused to give up on First Baptist Church Travelers Rest.

His steadfast love endures forever. And Lord willing, on June 11th, we're going to baptize three people. Because God is still saving people and He is still calling people into membership of our church.

For His steadfast love endures forever. And by His grace, we're going to continue to march ever forward in faith and obedience to King Jesus for decades, centuries to come. For His steadfast love endures forever.

Praise God for His steadfast love to us. When somebody repents, Matthew 3 tells us that he's to then live a life in such a way that's bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. I think in a similar way, when we give thanks, we ought to live our lives in such a way that bears the fruit in keeping with gratitude.

And so I want to take just a moment with that in mind and speak briefly to the future ministry of our church. How is it that we can live our lives bearing fruit in keeping with gratitude? Building on the foundation of our fathers and mothers in the faith who have come before us, we're committed to certain things here.

We're committed to the right worship of God. You'll see it on the sign out front and various other places. We exist to worship God and win glory for King Jesus. We are committed to right worship. God made us to worship.

It's one of our fundamental callings as people. Worship is inescapable. You'll either worship the one true God or worship something else. But we will worship. And so worship on the Lord's Day, it shapes us and it forms us.

Everything that we do, from the call to worship, reading of the Scriptures, to the singing of hymns, to the confession of our sins and the assurance of forgiveness, our prayers together, the preaching of the Word, all of that together shapes us and forms us and therefore it's crucial for our discipleship, being conformed into the image of Jesus.

So we're going to be committed to it. It's crucial that we worship according to God's Word, that we approach Him on His terms and not our own. And so we believe also that the worship of God's people has effect out in the world.

That what happens in the sanctuary flows out into the world like the vision of the temple in Ezekiel. The waters flow from the temple out into the world. What we do in here matters missionally in the world.

And so each Lord's Day as we gather to hear the Word read and preach, to pray together, to sing together, we want to give ourselves to worship that is ordered according to the Scriptures. That is Bible saturated.

We want you to hear God's Word here. That is participatory. That we all come to worship God. That it has appropriate weight to it. We're not trivial with the things of God. Because we're coming to appear before the Lord of armies.

So we're committed to right worship. We're also committed to winning glory for King Jesus. So toward that end, we're committed to preaching and teaching all the Bible for all of life and to do so understandably.

And so we believe that the Bible, all of it, is authoritative for our lives. We believe the Bible, all of it, is sufficient for everything we face. One of the ways I say it in counseling is that you've got problems.

The Bible has answers. It's my job to help you find where those answers are. The Bible is sufficient for us and the problems that we face. We believe the Bible is inerrant and inspired. And therefore, we will press the Bible, the Bible's teaching, out into all the corners of life.

Think about it like you're spreading out pizza dough on a pan. You kind of got to keep pushing to get it to the corner. We're going to do that with the Bible. Into all the corners of life. Well, the Bible's not just a book for church.

It's not just a book for your inward spiritual journey. It's a book for all of life. For home, work, school, business, government, everything. The Bible speaks to it. And so we want to teach all the Bible for all of life and we want to do it understandably.

We're committed to teaching in such a way that everyone can understand. White collar, blue collar, young, old, whether you're a TR lifer or a California refugee, we want you to come here and hear the Scriptures preached.

We're committed to joyful fellowship and Christian hospitality. We're committed to equipping our people to be salt and light in a dark world. We're committed to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to unbelievers.

We're committed to prayer. This is the type of ministry that we're asking God to bless. And in a world that has, in many ways, gone mad, we intend to be a beacon of sanity, of truth and goodness and glory.

We will not swerve from the Scriptures. Not to the right or to the left. We won't give an inch to the enemies of God. And so when it comes to issues of sexuality, we're going to go with what God has said.

In fact, in a members meeting earlier this month, we adopted a statement on sex, gender, and marriage into our bylaws to put in writing our belief and commitment to the goodness of God's design in male and female.

When it comes to the duties and limits of civil government, we're going to go with what God has said. He's given us a book that talks about it. When it comes to speaking up for pre-born babies, we're going to go with what God has said and insist our governmental leaders give equal protection to the most vulnerable among us.

And when it comes to whatever the next hot-button cultural issue is, we're going to go with what God has said because God has given us a book. And we're going to stand on it like the old children's song.

We're going to stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E. This is the ministry that we're asking God to bless. And then lastly, by God's grace, we're going to be a church that lives holy lives, that makes it a priority to live holy lives, forsaking sin, confessing sin, not allowing it to slide whether it's in ourselves or in others, repenting of sin, believing the gospel that Jesus Christ saves and redeems and restores sinners, and putting on virtue, and putting on obedience to God's command, walking by the Spirit and not by the flesh.

This is the ministry that we're asking God to bless. If you look at verse 26, Psalm 136 ends this way.

It says,.

Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven. That's what I want us to do together. We've said that one of our goals this morning is to give thanks together for what God has done.

So we want to give thanks to the God of heaven. If you look on the back of your bulletin, pull that out, there is a responsive corporate prayer on the back of that bulletin. And so this is the part of the service where together we give thanks for 110 years of God's faithfulness to our church.

And we ask His blessing for future ministry. So what we'll do is, I'm going to pray the parts that are in regular font. And then you'll see the parts that are in bolded font. And we are all together going to pray that part.

So I invite you to pray with conviction and with vigor and give thanks to our great God. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, Almighty God, You are great and greatly to be praised. For 110 years of Your steadfast love and faithfulness to our church.

We give thanks to You, O God.

For those who have preached and taught Your Word for generations.

We give thanks to You, O God.

For the souls saved, the marriages formed, the children raised in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.