Sunday January 31, 2021 AM

Church Announcements and Upcoming Events

Service tonight so if you are sharing in that we look forward to being able to hear you whatever the Lord has for you to share tonight. Brian wanted me to announce if you wanted to participate in the men's ensemble that's going to be up here and you have not gotten music from him feel free to track him down this morning he will give you a song sheet for you to look at this afternoon.

It's just a just a hymn. The music is all on there so we look forward to singing together in that tonight. Wednesday 545 dinner for the whole church here at the church and then at 630 Bible study for the adults and prayer for the adults and then tag for the kids looking ahead.

There's an abolish abortion rally at the state capitol that's on Tuesday February 9th at the state capitol at 930 a .m. to 11 a .m. in the morning. So if you can make that please try and make that. Our fighter verse for this week comes from Romans.

Romans chapter 12 verses 1 2. Paul says. I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect. So a good verse to memorize this week there is an announcement in the bulletin looking for kind of a change in leadership over the years in the nursery.

I know if you are a family that's been around for a long period of time you've seen a lot of the same faces over the years which has been a blessing for you to have your young kids go through the nursery with Marla Hovarter and Janice Wood and some other people.

But they're looking for a full-time ministry worker there that can serve during the Sunday school hour. So if the Lord is calling you to serve in that position we would just ask that you speak with Marla to help fill that need and then Operation Christmas Child again.

Every month they're trying to fill a box with specific things so that the end of the year we can kind of have good good variety to go in those shoe boxes. February is getting ready to start so hats and gloves would be good to put in there for this month alright any other announcements before we get started this morning.

The Lord's Supper and Prayer of Preparation

It is the the Lord's Supper this morning. So there will not be children's church this morning. Kids will stay in here right. We are going to have a time of prayer and preparation. And then after we're done with that Jerry will lead us in prayer.

Thank you for today. Thank you for the freedom we have to come and to hear from you. We just thank you for the beauty of your word guidance that it gives us in our lives. We just pray for today. Pray you would open our hearts our ears to the teaching that we'll receive.

Thank you that your word can speak to each one of us individually exactly what you intend for each one of us. Father. I pray for our country. I pray that you would strengthen your people and help them to understand the situation that we're in this in this time.

Just guide and protect us. Protect us especially from the virus and for all the things that are going on there. Give us wisdom as we deal with that. Just pray for our people here at Sunnyside. Thank you for our church family a family within your family.

Just thank you for those that come consistently and and spend time together and Christian fellowship. Guide and protect us today father. Just keep our eyes stayed on you Christ's name amen.

Able would you stand with me for our call to worship. I'm very thankful for those who write music for those who are inspired inspired to sing praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And what. They're inspired different ways but many many many times it's right from the Word of God.

And so the passage we're reading this week. This morning we'll be finishing finally get to finish psalm 57 and you'll see that those words that we're reading led the songwriter to sing. To write the words to the song be exalted Oh God.

So if you would turn the words in front of us you would read with me psalm 57 verses 9 to 11. I will give thanks to you Oh Lord among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great to the heavens.

Your faithfulness to the clouds be exalted Oh God above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. Sing together be exalted Oh God. Reading.

The Song of Moses and Israel's Faithfulness

Is from Deuteronomy chapter 32. You have your Bibles open to Deuteronomy chapter 32. The words will be on the screen as well. This is the Word of the Lord. Give Oh heavens. And I will speak and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

May my teaching drop as the rain. My speech distill as the dew like gentle rain upon the tender grass and like showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Ascribe greatness to our God the rock.

His work is perfect for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity. Just and upright is he. They have dealt corruptly with him. They are no longer his children because they are blemished.

They are a crooked and twisted generation. Do you thus repay the Lord. You foolish and senseless people is he. Is not he your father who created you who made you and established you. Remember the days of old.

Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and he will show you your elders and they will show. Tell you when the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance. When he divided mankind he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

But the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob his allotted heritage. He found him in a desert land and in the howling waste of the wilderness. He encircled him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye like an eagle that stirs up its nest that flutters over its young spreading out its wings catching them bearing them on its pinions.

The Lord alone guided him. No foreign God was with him. He made him ride on the high places of the land and he ate the produce of the field. And he suckled him with honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock.

Curds from the herd and milk from the flock with fat of lambs rams of Bashan and goats with the very finest of the wheat. And you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape. But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked.

You grew fat stout and sleek. Then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the rock of his salvation. They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods with abominations. They provoked him to anger. They sacrificed demons that were no gods to gods that they never know that they had never known to new gods that had come recently whom your fathers had never dreaded.

You were unmindful of the rock that bore you. And you forgot the God who gave you birth. Would you pray with me our gracious merciful heavenly father. We tremble at the words of your holy scripture your very word.

So many nations of the earth you have blessed including ours blessed abundantly blessed beyond measure undeserved blessings. Father we've been benefiting from those blessings for a long time and for a long time we have forgotten you.

You have told us we have seen it through history through Israel through other nations that forget you what their destiny is judgment and it is righteous judgment. You are righteous and you are good in all your judgments.

Father that we might turn back to you now that we might repent repent individually. Repent as families repent as a nation. You are the one true God. You hold us in your hand and by your will. You give us life.

You give us love and through your son Jesus Christ you give us salvation though that we might call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Bless the rest of our time this morning. Bless Michael as he comes and shares the word with us this morning as we partake in the Lord's together bless your church.

We ask this in Jesus name amen. You may be seated.

Singing Praise and Calling on the Lord in Every Circumstance

We have a medley of songs we'll be singing I will call upon the Lord and the second time we'll do the echo part and then we'll have two hymns after that 428 I need thee every hour and then 435 what a friend we have in Jesus.

I trust these songs will encourage your heart this morning no matter what circumstance difficulties you're going through and this time would just be a time we can sing praise to our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 116. Psalm 116. We'll be reading through the entirety of the Psalm here in a moment. Psalm 111 and 112. We looked at some time ago messages about the very basics of praise how we are to praise the Lord how he would like to be praised the ABCs of praising God.

And these two instructive elementary Psalms are followed by the great hymn or the great halal where Psalms 113 through 118 compi comprise a hymn that was collated in the days of the return from exile.

It's the believers the God-fearers the Jews who left Persia and went back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and rebuild the city. And they brought these Psalms together to make one great hymn a song for them to sing as part of their Passover celebrations.

A collection of Psalms to to to give praise to the Lord in a very focused and elevated way. And the key word the key term that we've been seeing all along and we will continue to see is the word hallelujah.

Hallelujah praise the Lord is the translation. But it's a word that we find in all languages. Hallelujah we can find that in every language it is. It is a word that that is for every people group a word that all people should know that they should praise the Lord who made them and gave himself for them.

And so we've talked about our design as those made in the image of God that we are meant to praise the Lord. We've talked about the direction of our lives that it's that we are meant to praise the Lord continuously and forever.

And so it's true that hallelujah is what we're made for hallelujah is what we're in for if we don't hallelujah then we're done for hallelujah is what we're made for hallelujah is what we're in for if we don't hallelujah then we're done for.

And we see that in psalm 116. We see that in this song where there are tough times and good times there are chaotic times and there are orderly times. But in all of it we are to call upon the name of the Lord to give him praise.

I invite you to stand with me if you're able i will read psalm 116. These are the words of our Lord. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined his ear to me.

Therefore i will call upon him as long as i live. The pains of death surrounded me and the pains of sheol laid hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then i called upon the name of the Lord. Oh Lord i implore you deliver my soul.

Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and he saved me. Return to your rest. Oh my soul. For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death my eyes from tears and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed. Therefore i spoke. I am greatly afflicted. I said in my haste.

All men are liars. What shall i render to the Lord. For all his benefits toward me. I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Oh Lord truly i am your servant. I am your servant the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows to the Lord. Now in the presence of all his people in the courts of the Lord's house in the midst of you. Oh Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. Amen. You may be seated. I'd like to share with you the parable of the son who would not call home.

The Fight of Faith in Psalm 116

The names have been changed to protect the guilty. There was a father who called his son after a very long time of no communication a very long period of incommunicado. No word from his son picks up the phone calls him.

His son answers the phone and he says well what's been happening with you. The son replies oh it's been terrible. It's been horrible. I lost my job i lost my truck. I lost my house i lost my girl. She married somebody else and i lost my dog.

The father said well why didn't you call. I could have helped you. The son said sorry dad there was just too much going on. After another long period where the son did not communicate no word the father again picked up the phone and called his son.

When his son answered the phone he asked well what's been happening with you. And the son said oh it's been amazing. I got a new job i got a new truck i got a new house i got a new girl. We're engaged to be married and i got a new dog.

And the father says well why didn't you call. I would have rejoiced with you. And the son said i'm sorry dad this is too much going on. When we read through psalm 116 there is a phrase that's repeated.

The phrase is call upon the name of the lord. The psalmist the god fearer. The worshiper says i will call upon the name of the lord. I i have called upon the name of the lord. This this is what i do. This is what i will do.

I will call upon the name of the lord. And we find that this is asserted both in the bad times and in the good times when things are chaotic and problematic. In verses 1 through 11 when things are orderly and and going well.

In verses 12 and 19 on both sides of the psalm the believer says i will call upon the name of the lord. Isn't it true that in our fear of death and our fear of man often we forget to call upon the name of the lord.

For in the bad times when our fear of death is riding high and all sorts of concerns plague us about our health and the health of our loved ones. When we fear man and what he may do to us and all the variety of the schemes of man and the evil of men and the the untrustworthiness of men plague our minds that very often we have too much going on in our worries and our anxieties and our fears to call upon the name of the lord.

And then if we continue in our fear of man and our fear of death there will be good times that we we say that are. That are easy times times when fears about our health and fears about death are not present in our minds not present in our lives.

And and we're not too concerned about what man is doing. We don't feel any threat or opposition. And so in the happy times in the easy times we are unconcerned and and we are distracted. And thus we also do not call upon the name of the lord.

But we have seen and continue to see in this psalm that the lord is praiseworthy in all things. The lord is praiseworthy in all things and thus he is trustworthy at all times. In the bad times in the good times in the chaotic times in the orderly times he is praiseworthy in all things and so he is trustworthy at all times we are to call upon the name of the lord whom we praise.

We should do so whether in the fight verses 1 through 11 or at the feast verses 12 through 19 doesn't matter what's going on. Whether we're in the fight or at the feast we are to call upon the name of the lord.

And the psalmist is in the fight in verses 1 through 11 what kind of fight is it. What is he fighting against. What is he fighting for. Well a quick survey of verses 1 through 11 tells us of the troubles of this worshiper tells us of the troubles of this one who is vowed to call upon the name of the lord.

What is he facing. What is he going through. I just read through and made a list. He's dealing with physical suffering and weakness mortal fear grief despondency despair. He's broken down. He's worn out.

He's wondering. He's confused. He's being lied to each one of these things is a battle is a skirmish in the larger fight. And it's the fight for faith. The fight for faith to say i will not be overcome by the fears and anxieties which may come from the fear of death and the fear of man.

But i will call upon the name of the lord. I will call upon the name of the lord. When you think about those who had returned from babylon to jerusalem those who were trying to rebuild the city and rebuild the temple despite opposition from local and even sometimes imperial government the the challenges that they had before them to to to remake a life there in that land and that city laid waste to to live in such a way that they are anticipating and getting ready for the coming of messiah.

They had so many things that they were fighting against. But it was truly the fight of faith. Well in the fight in the fight god hears us in our trouble. We see that verses 1 through 4. God hears us in our trouble.

Verses 5 through 11 shows us that he saves us in his goodness. He hears us in our trouble. And he saves us in his goodness. He hears us in our trouble. Verses 1 through 4. There are a few scenes. There are a few scenes that are more pitiful than that of a child in desperate trouble calling for help but totally unheard.

The believer the god fearer the saint will never know that heartache. The father hears. He hears us in our trouble. We our cries are not unheard. Let's consider his hearing. For he is praiseworthy in his hearing.

He is praiseworthy in all things but especially in his hearing here in verses 1 through 2 this will occupy our attention this morning as we come together around the lord's table and consider the grace of our communion with god through christ.

Let's consider the hearing of the lord. Let us not ascribe to the lord. Our failings in hearing. We are often distracted in our hearing. We are often absent-minded. We are often hard of hearing either towards one another or even to the lord.

But god's hearing is not like our hearing. And his hearing is not like the hearing of the gods of men. Do you remember what happened when elijah and the prophets of baal had a contest on mount carmel.

Let's listen to what happened when the prophets of baal called upon the name of their god first kings 18. Verse 26. So they took the bull which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of baal.

They called on the name of baal from morning even till noon saying oh baal hear us. But there was no voice. No one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made. And so it was at noon that elijah mocked them and said cry aloud.

For he is a god. Either he is meditating or he is busy or he's on a journey. Perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened. So they cried aloud and cut themselves as was their custom with knives and lances until the blood gushed out on them.

And when midday was passed they prophesied until the end until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention. Every once in a while someone talks about why they don't believe in god or believe in christ.

And they say i tried that prayer thing. It didn't work. No one heard. Well they're on the right track. If you pray to idols to false conceptions of god there will be no answer. They need to come to the knowledge the saving knowledge of jesus christ to the to the revelation of who god is by the power and grace of the holy spirit.

And god hears us. What does he hear. What does he hear when we pray. He hears. The psalmist says my voice i love the lord. He is devoted to the lord he he is ready to sacrifice all manner of things in his life to to do the right thing and praising god and worshiping god and serving god.

He loves the lord. Why. Because he heard my voice. He has heard my voice. Not not merely my ephemeral thoughts but my voice. What is being said here. Vocal prayer. Verbal prayer. Praying aloud is the norm in the bible.

It's the way of praying in the scriptures is praying aloud. The fact that this is so we see in the life of hannah who in her barrenness in her sorrow in her affliction she went to the tabernacle to pray and so deep was her grief that though her lips were moving no noise came out of her mouth.

And eli the priest sees this and wrongly assumes that she is drunk and confronts her. And then she explains what is going on. It was odd for her to not pray aloud. And then we think of jesus instructions to us about true piety in matthew 6 5 through 7 where he instructs his followers to not as the pharisees do where they go to the street corners and they pray loud long verbose prayers so all can hear and know just how amazing they are.

Virtue signaling is not new but to go into the room in their house and pray which is indicative of a very common feature in the architecture of that time that people's houses may have an outer courtyard and a staircase on the side to go hang out on the roof.

But there was one big room inside their house and then a smaller room very often a smaller room set against the back wall where they would store precious belongings. And jesus says when you pray go to that room close that door get as much privacy as you can go to where it's most soundproof.

Now if jesus was saying when you pray don't speak anything out loud and keep your your face in a way that nobody knows you're praying. And you can pray privately that way. If that was his instructions then great.

But he actually says go to some place where it where you're not going to be observed and heard well as your your your mainstay in prayer that this should be the this should be the the main meat of your prayer life.

That you're praying to god privately. But he's making the assumption that we're going to be praying out loud praying out loud and that god would hear our voice. This is intensely and remarkably personal that god almighty would hear your voice when you pray to him.

He actually hears your voice. This is nothing. This is not against whispered thought or or or thought prayer or writing down your prayer in a journal to god. This is not a denial of that at all. But this is showing you what the main use of prayer the main experience of prayer is to pray aloud.

We can wait in our cars and eat in our cars and sleep in our cars. But you know the main thing about your car is you're supposed to drive it from point a to point b. And prayer in the main is to be allowed.

That is the testimony we receive from the scripture that we're to be praying aloud to god. And here's the promise that he hears our voice. That let this let this build you up on your most holy faith. That god hears your voice pray to him and pray aloud in the midst of the fight.

He hears you he hears your voice. You may trust him to hear your voice in the fight. Do you believe that. Do you love him for it. Do you put that into practice in your life. That you would put his word into practice and say lord i know that there are times for me to pray silently where nobody can hear.

But but the the the weight of the word is that we pray aloud to him and that we would know his goodness in doing that. He hears our voice. He hears our supplications. The psalmist says he hears i love the lord because he hears my voice.

And he he has heard my supplications. Supplication in when you disciple someone it's a it's the common thing to say well supplication simply means asking god for stuff which is fine as far as it goes.

I don't think it is good as webster's 1828. But that's the basic idea of it. But it's it's more than that. Isn't it one supplication all by itself. One supplication entreats with earnest feeling god to stoop in kindness and mercy towards the undeserving.

That's just one supplication entreats with earnest feeling god to stoop in kindness and mercy towards the undeserving to to bless them. And that's just one supplication. Notice. This is in the plural he has heard my voice.

He has heard my supplications my supplications. Those who returned to jerusalem had many needs and so they had many supplications. We can be specific in what we need as we pray to our heavenly father asking him to bless to to give unto us what we need in this moment.

In the fight for faith. A supplication for every throbbing pulse of fear in a fight surrounded by 10 enemies does not confuse the lord does not irritate the lord does not exhaust the lord. He hears our supplications.

He is praiseworthy in the way that he hears. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto god and the peace which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in christ.

Jesus offer your supplications to god and notice. It's with thanksgiving which is the qualifier that reminds us that god is praiseworthy when you go to him in prayer with a new supplication because of the new skirmish and your fight for faith your fight against unbelief go to him with thanksgiving praising him for all the ways in which he's already proven his faithfulness he's already shown his goodness.

He is praiseworthy in all things. And so we know he is trustworthy at all times. No wonder his children love him. And the call. He hears our voice. He hears our supplications and notice. The psalmist says.

I will call upon him as long as i live. I know he hears me. So i will call upon him. He will hear my call. What is this call. It is. It is an it is a worshipful crying out to god in faith. It is the asking in faith that we find in james we are to.

This is a worship filled faith filled hope filled love filled crying out. It is an adoring imploring. It's hallelujah as a request i praise you and thus i seek you for what i need. So he hears our voices.

He hears our supplications. He hears us when we call. How does he hear. How does he hear. Notice. I love the lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications because i love the lord because he has inclined his ear to me.

That's how he hears. The word means that he stretches. He stretches his ear to hear us. He hears. He stretches his ear to hear your voice to hear your supplications to to hear your call. The the lord who who spread out the heavens like a cloak.

What a reach. It's the same god who reaches down to his saint to his servant when we call to him. And this this does not. This closeness of god does nothing to take away from the grandeur of god. This this eminence of god does not dilute the transcendence of god.

After all he is stretching. He is reaching to us in this manifest grace. What is this. What is this incl inclination. Like spurgeon likens it to a physician leaning over the mouth of a dead of a dying man and listening to the dying man's whispers.

We should think of this inclination like a father picking up a toddling girl to hear her tiny voice like a husband walking back into the same room and into the direct gaze of his speaking wife. It is an expression of love and care.

He inclines his ear to us. And is this not a godly way to hear. Look how god hears us. Thus we know what godliness looks like in hearing one another to extend that grace to each other. And god has expressed his nearness to these worshipers who have gathered in jerusalem.

How had he done so that psalmist knows he is inclined his ear to me. He is. He has come near to us in in a gracious way. How did they know that. Well because he had given them his word and his promises and he had kept his promises.

And he had brought them back to mount zion and told them what that meant. And he had brought them back to jerusalem and he told them what that meant. And he had them rebuild the temple all in anticipation of the coming messiah.

Every way that god had showed his nearness to these old covenant believers these were all shadows of the messiah's substance. And of course it is in jesus christ that we know the nearness of god. And is it true that it's the inclining of god towards us which incites our loving of him.

We love him because he first loved us. He has come near to us. And he has done so in the person and work of jesus christ. In john 16 we read jesus's instructions and encouragements to his disciples and we consider there the significance of his advent and ascension the significance of his death and resurrection.

But listen to these encouragements about how we are to pray. Verse 22. John 16. Therefore you now have sorrow but i will see you again and your heart will rejoice and your joy no one will take from you.

He's going to die and they will have sorrow. But he will be raised from the dead and they will have undefeatable joy. Verse 23. In that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly i say to you whatever you ask the father in my name he will give you.

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask. And you will receive that your joy may be full. Why does god hear us. How does he incline his ear to us except through jesus christ god and human flesh.

And that when we ask anything according to the revelation of jesus christ of who he is his character his will god will grant it to us that our joy may be full. These things i have spoken to you in figurative language.

But the time is coming when i will no longer speak to you in figurative language but i will tell you plainly about the in that day you will ask in my name and i do not say to you that i shall pray the father for you.

For the father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that i came forth from god. I came forth from the father and have come into the world again. I leave the world and go to the father.

Jesus said you can go directly to the father because you love me and in my name. You can pray directly to god the father and he will hear you. He will welcome that request and he will answer you. And of course jesus is at the right hand interceding for us.

And yes from the father and from the son we have received the gift of the holy spirit. But do you see the nearness that we have with god because of who jesus christ is in his life and his death and his resurrection and his return to the right hand of the father.

Therefore the psalmist says. Therefore because you have inclined your ear to me because you have come near to me therefore i will call upon him as long as i live. Well this is when god hears the look how god has come near to us in christ.

Therefore he hears us at all times at all times. So i will call upon him as long as i live. Now if a beggar came to you and requested something of you and you gave him whatever he was asking. And then that beggar then said wow i love you.

You i asked what what i what i needed and you you gave it to me. You heard what i asked and you gave it to me. I'm gonna come back to you again and again every time i need something i'm coming right back to you.

Would you feel honored and complimented. Would that be the result you were looking for. How often in our own hearts we would give some something to someone like that simply because we want them to be on their way.

And we want to be on our way. But look at the praiseworthiness of god how he is honored and exalted in the fact that we would come back to him every time that we are in need and pray to him. And he is honored and glorified in showing his grace toward us and meeting those needs.

He has given us his son. How will he not also with him free to give us all things. Isn't he praiseworthy in his hearing. Is he not praiseworthy in his hearing and in and what he hears from us. And and how he hears and when he hears all the time he hears.

So let us pray to him. This is really the application. This is really the expression of fearing god that we would call upon him as long as we live in the good times and in the bad times in the fight or at the feast we call upon the name of the lord no matter what is going on.

That is the that is a mark of fearing god. Ambrose was the guy who discipled. Uh saint augustine. And ambrose said this to pray on certain days and not on all is the mark of one who loathes and not of one who loves.

You know it's not that we just pray on sundays. But you know if we love the lord we call upon him as long as we live every day. I was reminded this week of an old baptist joke two baptists talking to each other about how bad things are getting.

And one says to the other well i guess we should pray and the other says oh my has it come to that. Oh that we would change that tune that we would change that tune. God is praiseworthy at all times or in all things.