Sunday, April 18, 2021 AM

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Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim Pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church OKC "Hosanna's Hallelujah Pt. 2"

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Good morning! It's good to have everyone here. Everybody's smiling faces this morning, ready to worship together.
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We want to welcome you to Sunnyside Baptist Church this morning. A few announcements as we get started this morning.
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Come back for our evening service tonight at 530. Again, that's here in the auditorium.
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And then coming up on Wednesday, 545, we'll have dinner in the fellowship hall together. And then at 630,
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Bible study and prayer for the adults and tag for the kids. Looking ahead to this upcoming
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Saturday, we've mentioned the past couple Sundays, there's gonna be a workday here at the church. Is that 830 to 1030?
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Roughly around there. There is a list of projects and stuff out on the bulletin board in the hallway.
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So there's a lot of stuff on the bulletin board. I'll help you find it. If you look on the on the right side of the bulletin board, about halfway up, you'll find that list of projects.
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So take a look at those after church. If you can help in any of those, we would appreciate your skill and your time.
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And then coming up next Sunday in the morning at 1045, our morning worship. We'll have communion, the
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Lord's Supper together. And then at 630 that night, we'll have regular church. But then after that will be truth group for the young adults.
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They'll meet after the evening service. This week's fighter verse comes from the first Psalm.
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Psalm chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.
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But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
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A couple of other announcements. Operation Christmas Child Giving is still going on here in the month of April.
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They're asking for small yo -yos and jump ropes and puzzle sets there. There's still some needs for some craft supplies for TAG, little frosting containers cleaned out of frosting.
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And then a few needs in the nursery as well still in there. May needs one more volunteer. And then
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June as well. All right, any other announcements before we worship together this morning?
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Okay, we are going to pray, have a time of preparation for worship, and then Brian will open us in prayer.
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Bless the Lord, O my soul. He has blessed us this day, and it is good to see faces that we have missed, and next that we get to embrace.
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You have made us brothers and sisters in the family of God. There is nothing comparable in this world, this life, to having those who know you know us.
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And likewise, may we find unity in our hearts and our minds and our souls among us.
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Remind us to pray for each other. Remind us to lift each other up. Remind us to celebrate blessings and carry burdens.
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Make us one. For we all have
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Christ in common. He is the glue that bonds us together, that no man can separate.
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So Father, your divine plan from the beginning has been that we fellowship with each other, with Christ, and with you as creator.
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What a blessing. We ask these things in Christ's name.
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Amen. Apologize, I was just deep in prayer there.
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I just want to express thankfulness to Sunnyside for the praise team, for Lisa, for Mom, and for Haley.
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Just what a blessing it is to be able to sing to the Lord and have these ladies share their abilities to praise the
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Lord for us at Sunnyside. And so today, if my voice just totally fails, just keep singing, and Haley's beautiful voice will just continue to sing.
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So I've kind of got a lot of stuff going on in my sinus passages right now.
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But if you would stand with me for this time, for our call to worship together. I know there's families in our church are going through a lot of difficulties, tough times, and God alone is our salvation.
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He alone is our strength, and trust in Him and you will not be disappointed.
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Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 62. We'll be reading verses 5 through 8.
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Read with me together. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him.
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He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.
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I shall not be shaken. O God rest my salvation and my glory, my mighty rock, my refuge is
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God. Trust in Him at all times. O people, pour out your heart before Him.
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God is a refuge for us. Our first song this morning is on page 234 in your blue hymnals.
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O Lord, through all my strife, the
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Lord at my refuge I'll go.
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If you would take your Bibles in hand, turn to 1st
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John chapter 3. 1st John chapter 3.
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Begin reading in verse 13 and go through verse 24 through the end of the chapter.
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So 1st John chapter 3 starting in verse 13. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
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We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.
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Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
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By this we know, love, that he lay down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
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But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does
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God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
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By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him. For whenever our heart condemns us,
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God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does condemn us, we have confidence before God, and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
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And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he commanded us.
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Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the
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Spirit whom he has given us. This is the word of the
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Lord. Would you pray with me? Lord God Almighty, precious
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Savior Jesus, thank you for your word.
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Thank you for the reminders that have come to us this morning as as we have read.
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Lord, help us to not grow weary, to not grow discouraged, to not be surprised should the world hate us.
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In fact, we should expect to be hated, for Christ our
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Savior was despised and rejected of men. Lord, may we not grow weary and may we not grow weak in our faith, but may we look to Jesus, the one who has overcome the world, the one in whom we have a living hope, who indeed is seated at your right hand, who rules and reigns and is returning as our glorious King, the one to whom this world indeed is your footstool,
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Lord. And we look forward to that day when we will declare with all of creation,
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Jesus Christ is Lord. Until that day,
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Lord, may we be faithful. May we run the race with perseverance, keeping our eyes fixed upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, the one who despised the cross and is now seated at the right hand of God the
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Father. Lord, help us to walk as Jesus walked.
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Give us grace to do so, for we do not have the strength.
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Now we need the blessed Holy Spirit to come alongside, to be our comforter and counselor, the one who enables us and empowers us.
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Lord, we look to you. Help us to glorify you in this day. May we worship you truly in spirit and in truth.
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You indeed are enthroned on the praises of your people. May we glorify your name together.
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In Jesus' name, we ask these things. Amen. You may be seated. We'll continue our song service.
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Two more wonderful hymns. First will be, My Worth Is Not In What I Own.
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And these, make sure and pay attention to these words. God was, as I prepared,
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God was really speaking to me in all five of these verses. And then after that, we'll go into another tremendous hymn,
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In Christ Alone. That one will be in your little black hymnals, page 62. My worth is not in skill or name.
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In me or a loser, I'm ashamed. Joy's in my
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Redeemer, greatest treasure. Wealth's beyond my sorrow.
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I will trust in Him no other. My soul is satisfied in Him.
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The sun will first be faded out.
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Remove that beauty from my heart.
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But my eternal goal's to cross at the cross.
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I will not boast in wealth or might.
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Or human wisdom's beauty mind.
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But I will boast in no race, thing, and descent.
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I rejoice in my Redeemer, greatest treasure.
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Wealth's beyond my sorrow. I will trust in Him no other.
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My soul is satisfied in Him, O Lord. Curse you, and I confess.
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My worth and my unworthiness.
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My value fits dire and in pain.
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Through loss. I rejoice in my
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Redeemer, greatest treasure. Wealth's beyond my sorrow.
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I will trust in Him no other. My soul is satisfied in Him, O Lord.
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In Christ alone my hope is found.
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He is my light, my strength, my song.
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His cornerstone is solid ground.
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Firm through the fiercest drought and storms.
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And rivers filled with striving seas.
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I come in Christ alone to confess.
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The fullness of God in heaven was made.
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His gift of life and righteousness. Sworn by the ones
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He came to save. Till all the ages were satisfied.
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For every sin on Him was laid.
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Here in the death of Christ. I hear the ground,
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His body lay. Light of the world, my joy
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I'll say. In Christ alone will
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I stay. Only from the dead He rose again.
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And as He stands in victory. His curse has lost its grip on me.
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For I am His, and He is mine.
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I shall find Him. Light of the dead.
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This is the God Christ in me.
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The wise was right. Final breath.
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Jesus is my destiny. In the name of my
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He returns. Calls me home.
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Here in the power of God's hand.
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Heavenly Father, we come to you today.
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And we acknowledge that you are strong.
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You have all power. And all authority.
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You have created everything. By your will. And for your pleasure they were created.
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You own it all. And have declared according to your own character.
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What is right and wrong. What is true and false. Forever O Lord your word is settled in heaven.
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There is no changing with you. We come before you this morning.
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And we acknowledge these things. And we ask in the name of Jesus Christ.
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By our trust in Him. Because of His person and His work.
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We ask that you would bless us today. With the grace of worship. As we have already sung your praises.
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And read and responded to your word. Here now as well.
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As we consider what you have to say to us. In your unchanging true timeless word.
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By the power of your Holy Spirit. We ask that you would do a work in us. That you would bring us to repentance.
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And to faith. You would show us how we need to change. What direction we need to go.
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That you would grant us the desire. And the ability. And the clarity. To do your will.
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To be the amen on this earth. We ask for the strength of your will. That is in heaven. We are not sufficient for these things.
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And the flesh profits nothing. So we ask for the work of your spirit.
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The grace from your son Jesus Christ. It is in His name that we pray. Amen. I invite you to open your
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Bibles to Psalm 118. Psalm 118.
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This is the last and greatest of the
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Psalms. Which make up the great
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Hillel. Psalms 113 -118. Sometimes called the
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Egyptian Hillel. Psalms written and brought together.
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To be sung at the celebration of Passover. So that the people of God would come together.
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And as they partake in this feast. Of unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
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And lamb. They would recall the great and mighty works of salvation.
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In their history. Redemption. Deliverance from Egypt. And so these
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Psalms are full of reminders of God's power. His power throughout all of creation.
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And His power exhibited in history. These Psalms recall specific events.
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In which God showed Himself the Savior of His people. And these
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Psalms. Because they bring up the themes of Passover. And because they anticipate
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God fulfilling all of His promises. These Psalms point us directly to Jesus Christ.
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So this is the great Hillel. And as we read through Psalm 118.
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It is helpful to remember how effective this
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Psalm would be. In the worship of the Israelites returned from exile.
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Returned from Persia. Who have come back to the land to rebuild the city walls.
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To rebuild the temple. And once again anchor themselves in that place where God promised to keep
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His promises. The place where He would place His name. He had told them that there would be a new covenant.
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He told them that He would bring these things to pass. In Jerusalem. In the land.
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And it was the job of His people. Though broken and battered and in exile and diminished. It was their job to be fruitful.
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To multiply. To not decrease. To live in hope of what was to come. And they did so.
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And they returned to the city. They've rebuilt the walls. And they are rejoicing now.
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They're singing praises to God for His faithfulness. They're giving Him the credit.
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Which is of course the whole point of Hallelujah. Hallel. Praise. Hallelujah.
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Yahweh. The Lord. Praise the Lord. Give glory to God. Not to ourselves.
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And so in Psalm 118 there are two key words.
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One we see throughout the great Hallel. That's the key word. Hallelujah. But also in Psalm 118 there's another word that's not as evident.
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But we know it. And it's the word Hosanna. Oh Lord save. That's a prayer.
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Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. That's a praise. But those go together. Those go together.
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As they look to the Lord to save. And they recall His great salvation. Thus they give all their praise to God.
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So that's why the title we're going with is Hosanna's Hallelujah. And we are to let
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Hosanna's Hallelujah resound for Christ. Where else will we look for salvation?
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Who else will we give the praise? We are going to look to Christ for salvation. And to Him we give our praise.
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We reserve our praise. In verses 1 through 12, we are reminded about the tumultuous history.
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The violent war -torn history of Israel. How often they were in combat.
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How often they were in great struggle. And yet the Lord is the one who brought them through.
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It was God who fought their battles. Israel was taught to worship first and then go to war.
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The call to worship always preceded the call to war. So that the people of God would trust in Him to fight for them and to win the day.
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And we looked at verses 1 through 12 last time when we were together.
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We talked about letting Hosanna's Hallelujah resound for Christ. In the righteous destruction of His enemies.
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Remembering that the story of Israel ultimately is the story of Christ.
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And how we are to reserve our Hosanna's Hallelujah for Christ. So now we come to verses 13 through 21.
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I invite you if you are able to stand for the reading of God's word. As we consider
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His truth to us. Beginning in verse 13. You pushed me violently that I might fall.
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But the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song. And He has become my salvation.
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The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the
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Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
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I shall not die but live. And declare the works of the
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Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely but He has not given me over to death.
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Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go through them and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the
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Lord through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise you for you have answered me and have become my salvation.
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This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. We are given the direction for this psalm at the very beginning.
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Verses 1 through 4. The attention is given to God. His goodness.
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His mercy. The first four verses state this very plainly. O give thanks to the
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Lord. Give thanks to the Lord. Why? For He is good. And His mercy endures forever.
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Let Israel now say, His mercy endures forever. Let the house of Aaron now say,
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His mercy endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord say, His mercy endures forever.
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And everything else that follows could be seen as an exercise in toppling idols.
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Who will we praise? To whom will we give thanks? Who will hold our attention as the one who is the source of all of our good?
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The source of the mercy that we crave? Well, we're going to look to the Lord. Not to men.
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Verses 5 through 12. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in men, we read.
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It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. Even those who may come to the aid of the people of God.
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What should we think other than what the psalmist says? It was the Lord through them who helped us.
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We will put no confidence in men. We will not make a big deal out of man.
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We will make a big deal about the Lord. About God. We will see the salvation of the
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Lord where others will cite circumstances. Where others would say politics.
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Where some would say the chances and the randomness of battle.
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No, the people of God will look to the Lord and see the Lord at work.
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So also here in verses 13 through 21.
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If we will not put confidence in man and in princes. Surely we should put no confidence in the self.
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If I will not put confidence in any man that I know who has some relation to me.
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Some impact on my life. I will not put any confidence in any prince somewhere. So also
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I should put no confidence in myself. Put no confidence in the flesh.
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But all of our trust should be reserved for the Lord. I was in seminary for eight and a half years.
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That was not plan A. They were happy to get rid of me. This means that I had an overexposure to chapel services.
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And I heard a lot of different types of preaching. And I was blessed a great deal from many of those preachers who were invited to come in.
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But very often it was kind of a thing. Let's invite some big name. Let's see if we can get a big name to come through and preach in our chapel.
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And the only problem with that is that some of those big names knew they were big names. And they came and proclaimed their big name.
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Now be very careful. If you're listening to someone who is standing up in a pulpit to proclaim the word of the
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Lord, and they spend all their time talking about their personal experiences, well, that should cause you some indigestion.
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Oh, sure, it might be interesting. But when someone stands up and says, here's my big name, and here's all the things
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I've done, here's some interesting experiences that I had, and this is what I learned from that, and so you should too, they have made themselves the word of the
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Lord. They have a lot of confidence in the self.
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A lot of confidence that their personal experiences are normative for everybody else. Confidence in the flesh.
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How refreshing it was for all of us sitting there when a preacher would get up and preach the word of God and leave us with a clear understanding of the text.
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And we all walked out of those kinds of chapels rejoicing at being fed so well.
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So also in our textbooks, a lot of textbooks that we had to read in those eight and a half years of seminary,
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I had overexposure to textbooks trying to get done. I remember one in particular was about Christian education, about how to do
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Sunday school and grow your church through Christian education. And it was very mechanical, all the things that you could do and the way that you arrange people and then get people to do
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X, Y, and Z. And at the end of every chapter, there was about a paragraph saying, and all of this can only be done through the work of the
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Holy Spirit. Which if you cut out the last paragraph throughout the whole, every chapter of the book, it would work just fine.
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But how often, how often we put confidence in the self. We make our decisions based on, well, what can
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I handle? We tell stories about how things went, saying, well, you know, others did these kinds of things and, you know,
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I don't think it turned out well for them. But here's what I did. We tell our stories and show how much confidence we have in the self.
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It's most insufferable in parenting stories. You know, other kids are hooligans, but we did things right.
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And so because we were excellent parents, our kids turned out excellent. Confidence in the flesh.
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We are to reserve our hosannas, hallelujah, not for ourselves, how we did better than others.
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We reserve it for Christ. Let hosannas, hallelujah, resound for Christ in the victorious procession of his people.
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As we see the verses 13 through 21, the themes of victory and the theme of procession, a parade in this passage.
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We are to give praise to Christ. What I'm getting at is that we should not, we should not allow our giving praise to Christ and our
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Christ -centeredness to be merely virtue signaling, where we do what we do and we say what we say and we go about our ways and then we always say at the end, and of course, we're all centered on Christ.
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As if Christ -centeredness is an empty chalice into which we pour whatever mixture we like for what really is at the center then.
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This is very common today. People virtue signal and say, well, we're Christ -centered so that we sound correct.
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Oh, we're centered on Christ so that, well, whatever we do or say cannot be dismissed or challenged or rebuked.
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We take the name of the Lord in vain. If we say that we're
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Christ -centered and then pour into that empty flask, that vain word pragmatism or critical race theory or libertarianism or populism or whatever.
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That's taking the name of the Lord our God in vain. We should put no confidence in the flesh and we certainly should not put confidence in the flesh and make it appear that we actually have confidence in Christ.
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So let's look at this victorious procession. We won't make it very far today. Verses 13 and 14 will be our focus, but it's helpful to see that this middle section, verses 13 through 21 in this great psalm, is a transition from combat to coronation.
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There's a struggle, verses 5 through 12. And then there is the arrangement of all the good in verses 22 through 29.
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This is the transition from combat to coronation. We find Israel personified,
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Israel speaking as I and me in this text.
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And in verse 13, Israel's on the ropes. But in verse 21, fully secure.
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In verse 15, Israel's in their tents. But in verses 19 through 20, entering into the gates.
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So you see we're going from the battlefield to the city. Victory has been won.
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And there's a parade of the victorious back to the city. That's the images.
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These are the images we're given in this psalm. But special care is taken to give all of the credit to the
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Lord at every stage so that there's no confusion about how victory has come to pass.
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It is clear that whether in the tents or at the gates, the righteous are only telling stories where Christ is the hero, where the
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Lord is the hero. They don't go telling stories where they are the hero.
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And so the very first part, verses 13 through 18, praise Christ in the tents of the righteous.
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We're at the end of the fight scene. You can read about the fight in verses 5 through 12.
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Well, at the end of it, Israel is still standing on his own two feet.
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And his foe is the one who's down on the ground. The battle is over. The people of God have won.
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The enemy is defeated. And so now what is to be said? Here's Israel standing over the enemy.
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Now what will the people of God say? What is commonly said would be, next time think twice about messing with me.
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Some sort of self -boast, confidence in the flesh. But notice what is said here.
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What is the difference here? The truth is you pushed me violently that I might fall, but the
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Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation.
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So clearly the enemy has been refuted by the Lord. By the
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Lord. It wasn't Israel. It wasn't the people of God. It was the Lord who won the day, won the fight.
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So in verses 13 through 14, we have the enemy refuted by the Lord. And then after the battle is over, where do they go?
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They go back to their tents, their encampment. And what do they say to one another? This is the way it is. After a victory, after a win, the victors sit around and say, oh yeah, here's how it happened.
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Here's how we won. Here's how we succeeded. And there's like this post -contest, post -combat, there's this reflection.
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How did it end up that we won? How did it end up that we succeeded? And there in the tents of the righteous, all the credit was being given to God.
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It's the right hand of the Lord. It's the right hand of the Lord. It's the right hand of the Lord. And so the exalted right hand of the
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Lord is the theme of the righteous, their stories in their tents. But let's consider in verses 13 through 14 the enemy refuted by the
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Lord. Verse 13 says, you pushed me violently that I might fall. So Israel, personified, is saying to his enemy, personified, you pushed so as to cast down.
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You thrust so as to overthrow. And in fact, in the
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Hebrew, it's the same word repeated twice. That's how the Hebrew would emphasize something.
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To make it very intense, you would just repeat the word twice. If you wanted maximum intensity, you would repeat it three times, holy, holy, holy.
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In this case, the word for thrust or push, this act of violence is repeated twice in the text to say, this was a one -two punch that connected.
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This was a double haymaker. And your goal was to see me ended.
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The goal of the enemy was to see Israel broken, put down, failing, totally humiliated.
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That's the way it was. So you tried to do this. But the
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Lord helped me. Hey, you got your punches in. You connected.
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You had me. But the Lord helped me. This is a very poignant psalm for the people of God, for Israel.
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Consider their stories. Consider where they've been. Pharaoh had sought to thoroughly break
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Israel. He thrust at them so as to overthrow. He sought their failure, their broken end.
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He was trying to murder their male infants in by drowning them in the
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Nile River. He had them at the Red Sea. He sought their destruction.
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The Amalekites, the Hittites, the Philistines, all the tribes of Canaan came at Israel, pushing against him to violently overthrow him.
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The kingdoms of Persia gathered together and conspired against the
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Jews to eradicate them from the face of the planet. And during the days of Nehemiah, Tobias, Sanballat, and the
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Arabs, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites all conspired to undo everything that they were trying to do in rebuilding the walls.
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They wanted Israel to fail, and they conspired and came against them.
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Did any of those groups succeed? How does
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Israel tell the story? How do the righteous tell the story?
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But God. That's how they tell the story.
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But the Lord helped me. And the
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Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and exalted him so as to destroy him and conquered
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Egypt without Israel ever firing a shot. And he took that murderous serpent and drowned him in the
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Red Sea. But the Lord came against the Amalekites, the Hittites, and the Philistines, and all the tribes of Canaan.
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And he sent hornets, and hailstones, and confusion, and disasters, and won the day for his people.
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And the kingdoms of Persia couldn't control the throw of the dice.
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And God confronted, and God won the day, and their great enemy Haman was, as they say, hoisted upon his own petard.
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And Tobiah, and Sanballat, the Ashdodites, the Arabs, and the
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Ammonites were all completely humiliated and shamed when they saw that the
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Lord was for his people, and there was nothing that they could do to stop it. But God.
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And had the rulers of that age known, they would not have crucified the
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Lord of glory. Had they known that God would raise him from the dead and put them all to an open shame, they would not have conspired against the
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Lord's Christ. See, the story is this. But the
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Lord. But God. The fact of the matter is that our enemies would long, long before now, have been our ruin if God had not been our helper.
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If God had not been our helper. But the Lord. But Christ. Are you a
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Christian? Are you saved? Are your sins forgiven?
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Do you have the hope of eternal life? Do you have the hope of the resurrection? Do you think it was you holding on to Christ?
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Is it you holding on to Christ that keeps you saved? But the
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Lord. Do you have any degree of happiness or health or joy or wisdom?
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Have you grown at all in your understanding of the Word? Do you have good, loving Christian fellowship and community?
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Do you have anything that is good? It wasn't because of you. It's the Lord. That's the story that the righteous tell.
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But God. But the Lord is our helper. We must be very purposeful and careful in how we confront our defeated foe.
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Do we come out the other side of temptation the victor? Do our grandchildren see a better day than we see now in our culture?
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What do we say about victory? What do we say about good in our lives?
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What is the story that we tell? It should be one in which we never feature our wisdom.
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We never feature our might. We never talk about our riches.
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But we make it clear that the triumph of the gospel and the advance of Christ's kingdom and deliverance from temptation and the resisting of the devil is because of the
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Lord. Because of God's help. It matters. It matters.
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Think about the way God gave instructions to the kings of Israel. They were not to stockpile gold.
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They were not to gather to themselves great numbers of horsemen and chariots.
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These are the concerns of kings, are they not? Why were they not to be so concerned with these things?
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Because it was the Lord who would be delivering them. It would be the Lord who would be fighting and winning the day.
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It matters so much how we tell these stories. Too many of the stories of yesteryear of how things were seen as better, more advantageous to the gospel, better for the church in Western culture.
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Too many of these stories are still being told in terms of they had better men.
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They were more resilient. They knew more.
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They had better willpower. They were far more effective and educated and useful.
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And this is why things were better when there was victory on the field.
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When it was clear that Christianity was the winner in this decade or that century.
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And the stories are told too many times. The stories are told and we read about them. And the stories are told and they give praise to men.
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When the men who lived in those days, if they were faithful and righteous, they would say, But God, but the
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Lord. And this too should be our refrain. Brothers and sisters, we are to repent of pride.
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But no confidence in ourselves. We must repent of pride. Pride weakens our faith.
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Pride suffocates our praise. Pride leaves us paying God polite compliments rather than worshiping him in fear.
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Pride will make us quake before men and question God. And we know that we have pride when we assert ourselves against our enemies rather than claiming
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Christ. So how are we going to let Hosannas, Hallelujah, resound for Christ in our victory?
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Well, we see this in our text. The Lord is my strength.
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The Lord is my song. The Lord has become my salvation. The Lord is my strength.
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The Lord is my song. And the Lord has become my salvation. So when we say the
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Lord is my strength, let us not say this only applies in some emotional way or some sliver of a spiritual experience.
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Whatever power I have, whatever strength I wield, it's of the
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Lord. Whatever force I employ, whatever security I install, whatever boldness
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I possess, whatever might I manifest, as I stand in some form of victory, it is from Christ, it is through Christ, it is for Christ.
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The Lord is my strength. Do we win in any way?
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On any given day, the Lord is my strength.
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That's how we should be careful to boast in Christ. Psalm chapter 18 or Psalm 18 verse 2.
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Listen to how we can say this. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.
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My God, my strength in whom I will trust. My shield and the horn of my salvation.
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My stronghold. That's how we say the Lord is my strength.
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Also the Lord is my song. Some of you have written songs. And you know that a song comes from some degree of extended and passion -wrought meditation.
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There's some theme dear to you that has been on your mind and you have thought about it a great deal.
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You have meditated on it and out comes a song. Well, Judah was created for praise.
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Israel created to declare the glories of the Lord. He was to reflect clearly, deeply, and often on the goodness and the mercies of the
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Lord. And in the meditation of all the goodness of God, many songs were to come forth.
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As we see in the Psalms. Many, many songs. And many of the excellencies of God were made clear when things were difficult.
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The Lord is my song. The Lord is my song. Well, we reflect upon the fact that the
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Lord is our strength and we meditate upon that and we see the Lord's deliverance and His goodness and His grace.
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This should lead us to say this. The Lord is my song. How many of the songs do we sing where we reflect upon the fact when all seems lost, the
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Lord shows up mightily. His right arm does valiantly. The enemy is defeated.
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His goodness is manifested. His mercy is displayed.
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And in deliverance from difficult times, songs were often sung. For instance,
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Exodus 15. Just after Israel is rescued from the hand of Pharaoh by the
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Lord yet again, Moses sings a song. Listen to some of the first verses, beginning in verse 2.
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Exodus 15. The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.
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Sound familiar? Psalm 118 takes that very verse from Moses' song and brings it into this psalm.
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The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise
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Him. My Father is God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is
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His name. Pharaoh's chariots and his army He has cast into the sea.
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His chosen captains also drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them.
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They sank to the bottom like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power.
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Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces. The right hand of the
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Lord does valiantly. All right? So you can tell that the writer of Psalm 118 is thinking about the songs of old, the songs of old, and bringing them forward to sing.
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What do we make as our extended meditation? To whom, concerning whom, for whom do we sing?
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Music is such an important part of every culture, every society.
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What about the music of our pagan society? What do pagans sing about?
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To whom do they sing? Pagans sing to themselves, about themselves, for themselves.
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That's how pagans sing sensual man worship. We should sing about the
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Lord, to the Lord, for the Lord. And it's remarkable to think that Nehemiah, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Zerubbabel, Joshua, here, singing this psalm,
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Psalm 118, the year is 444 B .C. Moses wrote what he wrote and sang it back in 1491
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B .C. They have 1 ,000 -year -old lyrics.
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They bring forward to their current praise. A 1 ,000 -year reflection upon God's goodness and mercy.
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Well, W .S. Plummer writes, What was sung just after the passage of the Red Sea is here sung by the prophet and shall be sung to the end of the world by the saints of the
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Most High. Why is that? Well, certainly, those who have returned from exile think about God's deliverance from Exodus.
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Very clear connection there. And what is the Exodus about anyway, except for Christ?
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Luke 9, 31, Jesus Christ is on the Mount of Transfiguration. He's talking to Moses and Elijah about his coming.
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Most translations say departure or he's coming. He's going to be deceased soon.
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Actually, in the Greek, it is the word Exodus. Exodus.
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Because he's going to deliver his people. Die on the cross, be raised from the dead, and deliver and redeem his people.
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And so, when we want to give praise to the Lord, we say, The Lord is my strength, the Lord is my song, and the
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Lord is my salvation. We give all the attention to the Lord because pride, pride mutes our praise.
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It poisons our worship. We need to repent from that. Be very careful, purposeful in how we tell the story, how we bring attention to Christ.
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And the Lord is my salvation, we read. The Lord is my salvation. This is the culminating praise of the very first two.
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The Lord is Israel's strength in conflict with his enemy, and the Lord is Israel's song in that enemy's defeat.
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What is left to say other than this? The Lord has become my salvation. Now, you sit here today and you say,
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Well, yes, God is creator. He's made all things. He is powerful.
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He's in charge of all things. So, you can readily admit, you can readily admit that whatever you have, whatever good you experience is because of God's goodness, because of God's mercy.
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And you readily admit that. And you gladly gather to sing praise to him.
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I mean, surely he deserves to be sung to. And I don't mind joining with others to sing to him and sing his praise.
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But do you and will you and can you say with your lips and with a perfect amen in your heart that the
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Lord has become your salvation? It is one thing to say,
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God has given me everything that I enjoy. It's one thing to sing beautiful hymns and spiritual songs and psalms to God.
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It is quite another. And it is the heart of all the rest to say with the perfect amen of heart, the
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Lord has become my salvation. Do not dare in the least to wear the crown that belongs only to Christ.
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You cannot confront or excel in any fashion over the devil or death or your own depravity.
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See, this psalm is telling you the
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Lord is your salvation. Do you need salvation? Salvation in any regard?
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Salvation from your sins? Salvation from the holy wrath of God? Salvation from death and the second death?
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Do you need salvation? The Lord is your salvation. Do you know what the
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Hebrew has here? The Lord is my salvation.
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The Lord is my salvation. You know what it sounds like in the Hebrew? The Hebrew word for salvation is
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Yeshua. Yeshua, which is the
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Hebrew way of saying Jesus. And she will bring forth a son and you shall call his name
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Jesus, Yeshua. For he will save his people from their sins.
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The Lord is our salvation. Let us give all the praise to Christ. Heavenly Father, we come before you today reminded that we so often make our stories about ourselves.
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And we very often make ourselves the hero when we tell our stories about how far we've come, where we've been, what we now enjoy.
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Father, we thank you for your long suffering. And we ask that by the grace of Christ, the power of your
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Holy Spirit, you will teach us to tell the story from your point of view. And we will say, but the
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Lord has been our helper. And the Lord is our strength. And the Lord is our song. And the Lord is our salvation.
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And we praise you in these things and ask for these mercies for the sake of Christ. Amen. Would you stand with me for our song of benediction?
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Last week, we did sing the Lord is my salvation. Wonderful. And our song of benediction today is just a continuance of what we sang earlier today.
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Earlier we sang in Christ alone. And now our response is all
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I have is Christ. So sing with me together, all I have is Christ. I once was lost in darkest night, yet thought
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I knew the way. The sin that promised joy in life had led me to the grave.
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I had no hope but to stand.
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Indifferent to the cost, you looked upon my helpless state.
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But this pain and suffering is my place.
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You bore the wrath reserved for me. Now I know
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His grace. Alleluia.
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All of Jesus is my
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Lord. Now, Lord, I would be yours alone.
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And this all I see.
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The strength to follow your commands could never come from me.
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Oh, Father, use my ransom life in any way you choose.
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And let my song forever be my only mostly true.
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Alleluia. All I have is
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Christ. Alleluia.
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Jesus is my life.
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Alleluia. All I have is
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Christ. Jesus is my life.
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You may be seated for a moment. I'm going to ask Goulais and Brother Joe Keck to come down for a moment.
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We have been talking with a few folks here at Sunnyside about church membership and making our way that direction with more than a couple.
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And so at this point, I've been able to talk with Goulais and with Joe and understanding about what church membership is and who we are as a
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Sunnyside Baptist Church. And so at this point, they're ready for a membership. And they have a good testimony.
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And they've been baptized. And they love Jesus. And they love Sunnyside and want to be official members of our church.
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So the way we do that is I'm going to read the highlights of our church membership covenant, ask you all to simply affirm at each point that you do agree with this.
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And then at the end, I'm going to ask you all to agree to the same for them. Because the idea is that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.
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And when it comes to what's going on with each other, we don't say, am I my brother's keeper?
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We say, I am my brother's keeper. And we are for one another in Christ. So membership covenant of Sunnyside Baptist Church.
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I commit myself to God and the members of Sunnyside Baptist Church to be faithful in these things. Will you protect the unity of the church?
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Will you share in the responsibilities of this church? And will you serve in the ministries of this church?
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And will you support the testimony of our church? And church, will you affirm the same to these new members?
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Amen and amen. We praise the Lord for you all. And now may the grace of God and the peace of Jesus Christ and the love of the
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Holy Spirit be with us all. We are dismissed. And you can come shake hands if you want.