Our Worthy God

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Psalm 63

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Please turn your Bibles to Psalm 63. This is a psalm of David.
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To give you a little bit of context to this psalm, your
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Bible, I don't know, mine says, when he was in the wilderness of Judah, most believe that this is when
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David has left and went into the wilderness because his son Absalom has led a rebellion against him.
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And David is forced to leave because his son has sought to overthrow him and become king, and he's forced to leave and go into the wilderness.
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And David writes this psalm. If you'd please stand tonight for the reading of God's Word as we read the entirety of Psalm 63, beginning in verse 1.
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O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek
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You. My soul thirsts for You, my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
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So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary, beholding Your power and glory.
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Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You. So I will bless
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You as long as I live. In Your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise
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You with joyful lips when I remember You upon my bed and meditate on You in the watches of the night.
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For You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy.
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My soul clings to You. Your right hand upholds me. But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down to the depths of the earth.
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They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be a portion for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God.
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All who swear by Him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
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Let us pray. Father, tonight, as we have heard in these songs, we've heard,
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Lord, that You alone are worthy of our trust. Lord, You are a
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God that is trustworthy. Father, may we desire to be more obedient to a trustworthy
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God. In this final song, behold our
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God. And in this psalm that we read here tonight, we see that You are a
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God of power, a powerful God. You are a
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God deserving of all glory. You are a God of steadfast love.
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You are a God worthy of magnification. So I pray that through the preaching of Your Word tonight that You would be glorified, that You would help me as I preach, help me to preach this rightly.
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Lord, I pray that we walk away tonight with a greater appreciation for You.
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Lord, we are thankful for Christ, for it is through His supreme sacrifice that we can be saved, that we can be a part of Your church.
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We pray it in His name. Amen. So Paul writes this psalm.
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He's on the run. And in this psalm, we see the magnification of God.
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We see how David views God. It's very clear to see that.
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And David's view of God is both encouraging and convicting.
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It is encouraging to see that a view of God like this is possible, but it's also convicting because we see how our view of God pales in comparison to that of David.
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What a great psalm this is. I've given you the context that he's on the run from his own son who has sought to overthrow him and take the throne.
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And in the midst of all of this, you can imagine anguish.
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You can imagine being brokenhearted to see your own flesh and blood desire to see your demise, to see your own flesh and blood not only rebel against you, but to rebel against God.
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And in the midst of all this, we see that in our text. And in reading this psalm, we clearly see a worthy
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God. We serve a worthy God. And He is worthy of so much more than we'll have time to discuss this evening, but I do want to look at a few things that God is worthy of right here in our text, that our text speaks of, that it brings out.
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And so the first one being found in verse 1, O God, You are my
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God, earnestly I seek You, my soul thirsts for You, my flesh faints for You as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
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We first see from our text that He is a God worthy to seek. Above all things that David could be seeking at this time, he was seeking
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God. As believers, we should always seek God. We should seek
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God first. We should seek Him early. We should seek Him often. But so many times, instead of seeking
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God, whether it be as the context here, and David in a time of heartbreak and anguish, a time maybe that David might be fearful for his life, we so often times, we'll run to other things for security.
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We will run to money. We will run to people.
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There's so many things that we run to for security. David was in a trying time of his life.
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He was in great need. And he knew the generals of his army could not provide him with the help that he needed.
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His family could not provide him with the help that he needed. If he was going to be delivered, it was only going to be by God.
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We have this notion a lot of times that God seeks us, but we don't seek
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God. And while that is true, none seek God. I believe
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Romans 3. None seek God. And that is true. None seek God in our natural state.
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Apart from Christ, you do not seek God. You do not seek Christ.
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You seek what you want to do. But those who are born again are only born again because God has sought them.
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It has saved them. It is only after we have been regenerated that we can seek
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God. We must first be regenerated. But we must understand that believers seek
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God. And not just at the beginning of their walk with Him. It is a continual seeking of God.
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Look in verse 1 at how David describes the seeking of God.
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He says, O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You. He sought earnestly.
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His seeking wasn't casual. It wasn't flippant. It says that he thirsted for God.
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He said, my soul thirsts for You. His soul thirsted for God. His flesh fainted for God.
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Picture this imagery that he's using here. And this may have been easier for David to picture as he's in the wilderness.
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He could picture this, but think of the imagery that he uses here. My soul thirsts for You.
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My flesh faints for You. As in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
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So he's talking about how one in a dry and weary land where there is no water would thirst for water.
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Have you ever been that thirsty? Think about the most thirsty you've ever been. Maybe you've been working a job.
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You didn't have anything to drink. You just needed to quench that thirst. And you sought for water.
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Whether it was a water bottle, whether it was a spigot, you didn't care. You sought for water. You know,
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I think of those movies where somebody's stranded out in the desert and they're walking and it's hot and they're walking and they've got their shirt tied around their head and they're just dirty and they're just looking for water and then they come across this nasty looking mud hole that we would not want to drink out of and they drink out of it and they act like it's smart water.
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I don't know what the best is. But they act like it's the greatest thing they've ever tasted because they were that thirsty.
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And he's saying that. And so David is using that imagery. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you.
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As in a dry and weary land where there is no water. This is how his soul sought after and longed for God.
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May this be true of us by God's grace. May we seek after God in such a way.
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And when we do seek after God, there is good news for those who do.
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Because this God can be found. This God can be found.
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Why can He be found? How can He be found? Why can He be found? Because He is the one true
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God. Buddha cannot be found. Not to find His bones.
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They're not going to talk to you. They're not going to offer you any type of wisdom. Buddha cannot be found.
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Muhammad, you can go dig him up somewhere. His bones wouldn't help you very much if they're still there.
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You can't find Muhammad. Allah is not a real God, so you can't find
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Him. Zeus cannot be found. But those who truly seek
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Yahweh find Him. God spoke to the
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Jews in Jeremiah 29 while they were in captivity. And He told them that when the 70 years of captivity were done, that they would seek
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Him and that they would find Him. I'm going to read that passage. You can turn there if you want.
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Jeremiah 29, 10 -14 For thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.
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For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
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And then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and I will hear you. You will seek
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Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you declares the
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Lord and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from the nations and all the places where I have driven you declares the
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Lord. And I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
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Now that we can note verse 11 is taken wildly out of context in our day.
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Votie Baucham preached a great sermon on that when we were in Louisville. Go listen to it. It's really good.
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We don't have time to look into all that. But look at verses 12 and 13. He's talking about after these 70 years of captivity that He's told them what's going to happen.
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He says after these 70 years He says you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and what does
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He say? I will hear you. And He says you will seek Me and find
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Me when you seek Me with all your heart. We're looking at verses 12 and 13.
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You must understand that He is a God that can be found by His people.
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He dwells among them. He doesn't save you and then go away on a journey or fall asleep.
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If you remember Elijah when he's on the mountain and the prophets of Baal they're prophesying and they're cutting themselves and what does
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Elijah do? He mocks them. He says maybe Baal maybe he's gone on a journey.
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Or maybe he's fallen asleep. Baal never showed up. Because he wasn't real.
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He wasn't the one true God. But who did show up? Elijah prayed and he trusted in God showed up.
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When you read this psalm you see that there's a closeness here between David and God.
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Three times in verses 1, 5, and 8 he uses the words my soul.
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This is personal. This is a closeness. His God was not far off.
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This is the God that we serve. The one true God and He is not far off to His people.
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To His children. He is near. Psalm 145, 18 The Lord is near to all who call on Him to all who call on Him in truth.
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He is near to His people. He was near to David. If you're a believer here tonight,
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He is near to you. Call upon Him. Seek Him. He is worthy to be sought.
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David longed for God. Read this. Think about what we just read in Psalm 63.
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David longed for God. Do we long for God? Do we long for God as one who thirsts in a dry and weary land where there is no water?
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This longing should be driven by our love for God. That's what drove
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David's seeking and his longing. It was his love for God. And our
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God is not only worthy of being sought. He is worthy of love.
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It is very clear when you read this Psalm how David felt about God.
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He loved God. This love for God was above all.
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Above his son that was seeking to kill him. Above his people. Above his country.
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So Christian, do you love God above all? Your actions will flow from this.
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Believers, you have been loved by God. Been given the gift of love and made able to love in a righteous way.
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Not the love of the world. That's not the way that we have been taught to love.
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That's not the way we have been instructed to love. That's not the way that we have been made to love. Not in the way of the world, but in the way that Christ loved and the way that He loves.
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There are people in your life that you should show affection to. Husbands, we should show affection to our wives.
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Fathers, we should show affection to our children. Mothers, wives, you should show affection to your husbands and your children.
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Church members, you should show affection to one another. We show affection to our friends, our family, and so on.
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And rightly so, we should. If you're going to be a friend, if you're going to be these things, if you're going to be a parent, a wife, a husband, children, you should show affection to your parents.
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It is good that we love one another. It is good that we gathered right here tonight to love one another.
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This is good. But He is more worthy of our love than all else combined.
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Everything else. You can combine it all together. All the worthiness. And He is greater and it's not even close.
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He is worthy of your affection. He is worthy of my affection.
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And He is a God that is worthy of worship. He's a God worthy of worship. He is lovely.
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He is worth loving because He is altogether lovely. There is nothing more fair than He.
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And the steadfast love that He gives is better than life.
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May our lips praise Him. Verse 2 says,
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So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
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He is a God that is worthy of our worship because He is lovely. He is mighty.
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Verse 8. If you skip down to verse 8, it says, As my soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me.
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David was confident that God, if you continue on in verse 9,
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David was confident that God would avenge. Pastor Quatcher preached about it this morning.
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He is an avenging God. We ought to find hope in that he is an avenging God. David found hope.
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As Pastor Quatcher preached this morning, David had found that hope that God is an avenging
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God. That those who seek to destroy my life shall go down to the depths of the earth.
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They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be a portion for the jackals.
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But the king shall rejoice in God. All who swear by Him shall exult. For the mouths of liars will be stopped.
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He was confident that his enemies would go down into the depths of the earth.
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Given over to the power of the sword. We literally see this happen with Absalom. We literally see this happen.
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We may not literally see an enemy of ours fall by the sword or go down to the depths of the earth.
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But we trust that God will have vengeance on those who seek to harm
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His children. We trust that. And we trust that in verse 11, that He stops the mouths of liars.
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We see lies prevalent today. We see a world that puts lies, pumps it into the media.
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Go watch TV and see an ad. Kamala Harris or whoever it is, see an ad.
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And it's pumped full of lies. It's pumped full of lies that a lot of these politicians love our country.
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It's pumped full of lies whenever I think in a couple of weeks you're going to see the Democratic convention.
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And there's going to be people that pray there. They may pray to many different gods, but there's going to be somebody there that says they're praying to our
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God. And they're going to say how much they love God. They're going to pump these lies.
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They're going to pump lies that you can marry whoever you want that's being pumped out. You're going to hear lies about you can change to this gender or that gender.
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You're going to hear lies that it's okay to kill a baby in the womb. Our world is pumping lies out over and over and over.
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And we fight against them. We call them out as lies. We say this is not the truth.
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That is a lie. We call them out. We show them the truth. We fight against them.
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And I want to encourage you, church. Even when it looks like those lies are prevailing.
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Even when it looks like okay, we're in the minority. Even if I pray that the abortion amendment is just completely demolished as Pastor Quatro prayed,
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I pray for that. If it makes it to the ballot and the people of Arkansas vote that into our
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Constitution and the majority in Arkansas not everybody, but the majority in Arkansas say hey, this is not murder at 21 weeks to kill a baby in the womb.
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Even if the United States of America the government declares this is true. Even if all the world leaders declare this is true.
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And it looks like it's prevailing. The lies are prevailing. We must understand that the truth will win.
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The truth will win. God has the final say. We see the truth in His word.
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And we know that this is the truth. That out there, the lies of the world they are not the truth, this is the truth.
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And we can with joy say, even though the world around us is wicked the mouths of liars will be stopped.
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David was confident in this. This God that avenges and stops the mouths of liars.
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This God that holds us up with His right hand. He is the creator of the universe. But not only is
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He the creator of the universe, He's the sustainer of the universe. And He is also, thinking on a more personal level,
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He is the creator and sustainer of you. And of me. He puts the breath in our lungs to breathe.
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Look around. See His creation. Go outside. Go up into the mountains. See His creation.
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See His glory. Read His word. See His glory. See that He is perfect.
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Believer. See that you have only been saved from the wrath to come by His grace and His mercy.
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And if you could you would run away from it all. But His marvelous grace.
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This marvelous God keeps you. He alone is worthy of worship.
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Providence Baptist. Behold your God. Behold our
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God. Behold His power. Verse 2. Behold His power and behold
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His glory. And verse 4. Bless His name as long as you live and in His name lift up with your hands.
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He says, so I will bless you as long as I live. In your name I will lift up my hands. Find satisfaction in Him.
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He is our satisfaction. Verse 5. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.
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Find satisfaction. The things of this world, even the good things, are not capable of producing true satisfaction.
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David had everything you could ever want. He had tried to be satisfied with good things.
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He had tried to be satisfied with sinful things. And none of these things could fulfill Him. His fulfillment was in Christ.
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It's in Christ. It's the Old Testament. His fulfillment was in Christ. His fulfillment was in God the
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Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God. Christian, I don't know what you're seeking fulfillment in.
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Maybe it's jobs. Maybe it's hobbies, family, friends. It can only be found in Christ.
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Continue to seek Him, love Him, and worship Him because He is worthy. Praise Him with joyful lips because of His splendor.
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An unbeliever can be children. It may be an adult in here, but children, teenagers, you are running to other things.
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If you're an unbeliever in here, you are running to other things that cannot fulfill you. Maybe your own morality.
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Maybe sin. It may be hobbies. Maybe family and friends.
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I urge you tonight, repent and believe the Gospel. For even though you are wicked and you deserve hell,
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He lived a perfect life, died the sacrificial death of the cross, and raised on the third day, guaranteeing salvation for all those who repent of their sins and trust in Him.
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So my encouragement to you for the unbelievers, trust Him. My encouragement to you for the believer, trust
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Him more because He is a God that is worthy of our trust. Verse 7,
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He is our help. For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings
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I will sing for joy. We have confidence in Him. If your confidence is in people, they will fail.
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If all of your confidence is in your pastors, I hope you have some confidence in us, but if all your hope and your confidence, if you're placing that in Pastor Cuatro and myself, we will fail you at some point or another.
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We will fail you. Don't gather here for us or to please us.
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Gather for Him. Because He is worthy and you can trust Him.
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You can trust that His Word is true and that He is who His Word says that He is.
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Trust His vengeance. Trust His jealousy. Trust His judgment. Trust His wrath.
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Trust His grace. Trust His mercy. Trust His love. You know, we twist and we mar these attributes, but He is perfect in them all.
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And He alone is worthy of your trust. He's worthy of your to be sought.
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He's worthy of your love. He's worthy of your worship. He's worthy of your trust. And then
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I want to close with this. He is worthy of all of this, no matter the circumstance.
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Good or bad circumstances. Think of David's circumstances while writing this.
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We've talked about them briefly. These things are not only true of God.
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In the good times or in the bad times, He never changes.
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He never stops being worthy. When bad times happen, He doesn't stop being worthy.
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When good times happen, He doesn't stop being worthy. We are always unworthy. So our response to His worthiness and our unworthiness is to seek
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Him, love Him, trust Him, worship Him, and glorify Him all the time.
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We see in this Psalm the view that David had of God. How did he have this view?
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He had seen a lot of God. And he understands that God is worthy of all glory.
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Verse 2 He had beheld God's power and glory. He knew that God was due all glory.
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So how can my view of God increase? How can your view of God increase?
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By seeing more of Him. Verse 6 When I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night.
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The more we, as believers, see of Him, the greater our admiration and adoration will be for Him.
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The more we seek Him, or the more we see this, the more we will seek Him, the greater our worship to Him will be, the more we will trust
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Him, and the more we will want to glorify Him. You may say, well okay, how do we tangibly do that?
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How do I do this? First off, if you are apart from Christ, repent and believe the
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Gospel. But if you are in Christ, to increase your view of Him, you must seek
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Him. Seek Him through His Word. Through the study of His Word daily.
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You know, Leonard Ravenhill said our primary reason for studying the Bible is not just to know the
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Word of God, but to know the God of the Word. To know
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Him. Seek Him through His Word. Seek Him through prayer. Seek Him in prayer.
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Fall upon your knees and seek God. We need less playing games and more bloody skinned up knees from our falling before God in prayer.
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That's what our world needs. That's what our country needs. Our view of God has increased through His Word and prayer, but it has also increased through the church.
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We see God in the working of Biblical churches. Where we come together and we worship with one another.
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We encourage one another. We in love correct and hold one another accountable. All so that we might help to increase the love of God in one another.
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We grow in our patience and our love in ways that can only come from God. When I look at you all and every...
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When I look at you and I think about my love for you, every time it should point me to God with thankfulness.
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To be thankful for this local church here. How kind He has been to give us the church and to give us one another.
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And how incredibly kind was He to give us Christ. May tonight, may we see that tonight as we partake of this
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God -given ordinance to the local church. As we think about Christ's broken body and shed blood.
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Broken and shed by the worthy Son of God for unworthy sinners who hated
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Him and deserved death. As we partake tonight, may it increase our view of Him.
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May we view Him all the more lovely and all the more worthy. Oh, what a
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Savior. Oh, what a God. Church, seek
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God while He may be found because He is worthy. Let us pray.
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Father, tonight we are thankful for this psalm. Lord, under the inspiration of the
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Holy Spirit, David wrote We see David's view of God. He did not have a perfect view of You.
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He was not a perfect man. But Father, may we read these words. May we want to have a higher view of You.
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May we want to see You as more lovely than we do now. May we want to see
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You as more worthy than we do now. May we want to see You as more glorious than we do now.
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May we want to see You as more trustworthy than we do now. I pray that You would increase our faith.
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I pray, Lord, as we partake of the Lord's Supper tonight, as we remember Your Son's broken body and His shed blood for us on Calvary.
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May this, too, increase our love for You. Father, You have been so kind to us when we deserved wrath.