November 21, 2021 - Sunday Service Live Stream

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Do not hold back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, for you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations, and will people the desolate cities.

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Fear not, for you will not be ashamed. Be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced. For you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.

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For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and the Holy One of Israel is your

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Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the Lord has called you, like a wife deserted and bereaved of spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your

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God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you.

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In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the

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Lord your Redeemer. This is like the days of Noah to me, as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you.

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For the mountains may depart and the hills may be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the

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Lord who has compassion on you. O afflicted one, storm -tossed and not comforted, behold,

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I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of agate, and your gates of carbonicles, and all your walls of precious stones.

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All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established, you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

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If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me. Whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you.

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Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of the coals, and produces a weapon for its purpose.

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I have also created the ravager to destroy. No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall confuse every tongue that rises against you in judgment.

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This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is for me, declares the

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Lord. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God. Let us confess our faith now with the singing of the

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Apostles' Creed. Those in positions of public trust, that they may serve justice and provide the dignity and freedom of every person, we pray to you,

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O Lord. O Lord, hear our prayers. For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer, for refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger, that we may be relieved and protected, we pray to you,

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O Lord. Lord, hear our prayers. Those who are absent, that we may be delivered from hardness of heart and show forth the glory of God in all that we do, we pray to you,

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O Lord. Lord, hear our prayers. Our gracious God and Father, we ask,

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O Lord, that you would strengthen this congregation, that you would strengthen the hands of our pastor for the labor.

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We pray that you would strengthen our hearts that we would stand fast in these troubled times. We pray,

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Lord, that you would be with those who are here today to worship you and those who are absent, that they may feel the presence, your presence, of your

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Holy Spirit and rejoice in that. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.

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Please stand and take up the bulletin again. Find our

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Psalm of the Month, Psalm 104. It says 198A in the left corner.

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Psalm 104. Then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.

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And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the

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Lord. Then he distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat and a cake of raisins.

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And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord to commemorate and to thank, to praise the

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Lord God of Israel. Asaph, the chief. Next to him,

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Zechariah. Then Jael. Shemiramoth.

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Jahiel. Mattathiah. Eliab. Ben -Aniah. And Obed -Edom.

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Jael was stringed instruments and harps, but Asaph made music with cymbals.

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Ben -Aniah and Jahazel, the priests regularly blew the trumpets before the ark of the covenant of God.

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On that day, David first delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaph and his brethren to thank the

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Lord. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name.

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Make known his deeds among the peoples. Sing to him.

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Sing songs to him. Talk of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name.

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Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord. Seek the

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Lord and his strength. Seek his face forevermore. Remember his marvelous works which he has done.

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His wonders and the judgments of his mouth. O seed of Israel, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

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He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Remember his covenant forever.

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The word which he commanded for a thousand generations. The covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute.

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To Israel for an everlasting covenant. Saying to you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance.

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When you were few in number, indeed very few and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another.

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And from one kingdom to another people he permitted no man to do them wrong. Yes, he rebuked kings for their sakes.

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Saying do not touch my anointed ones. And do my prophets no harm.

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Sing to the Lord all the earth. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.

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Declare his glory among the nations. His wonders among all peoples. For the

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Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is also to be feared above all gods.

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For all the gods of the peoples are idols but the Lord made the heavens.

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Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and gladness are in his place.

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Give to the Lord oh families of the peoples. Give to the Lord glory and strength.

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Give to the Lord the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Oh worship the

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Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth.

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The world also is firmly established. It shall not be moved. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad.

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And let them say among the nations the Lord reigns. Let the sea roar in all its fullness.

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Let the field rejoice in all that is in it. And the trees of the woods shall rejoice before the

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Lord. For he is coming to judge the earth. Oh give thanks to the

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Lord for he is good. For his mercy endures forever. And say save us oh

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God of our salvation. Gather us together and deliver us from the

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Gentiles. To give thanks to your holy name to triumph in your praise. Blessed be the

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Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. And all the people said amen and praised the

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Lord. Please pray with me. Oh Lord we ask that you would send your spirit and power to us.

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Illumine our understanding but very simply Lord we ask that you would cause us to be people who are filled with thanksgiving.

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With gratitude. With joy. With delight in you. Oh Lord we repent of our thanklessness.

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We have been grumbling and unthankful people. We pray that you will turn us from that sin today.

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And cause us simply and plainly to be thankful. We ask these things in the name of Jesus.

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Amen. Please be seated. The occasion of First Chronicles 16 is the arrival of the

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Ark of the Covenant in the newly constructed tabernacle that David erected in Jerusalem.

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And as you know this has not come without some cost. It has been very hard.

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Previously this had been lost in battle. And now we are at the place where David has brought the

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Ark to Jerusalem. And he has essentially reinstituted worship in its proper sense.

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With the people of God gathering together in one place. Now the title of the message today is found in verse 34.

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Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good. That is going to be the drumbeat of our message today.

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But I want to do a little BT with this today and see how this narrative fits in to 2

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Samuel. And the reason I say that is we don't have all of the details that we have in 2

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Samuel here in Chronicles. And I want you to see where this thanksgiving occurs.

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What goes before it and what goes after it. And I think it is going to help enrich our understanding of thanksgiving.

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So turn back to 2 Samuel 6. So we have got the arrival of the

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Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem. And there are some interesting things that happened prior.

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Begin reading in chapter 1 of 2 Samuel 6. Again David gathered all the choice men of Israel, 30 ,000.

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And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baal Judah to bring up from there the

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Ark of God. Whose name is called by the name the

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Lord of hosts who dwells between the cherubim. So they set the

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Ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab.

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Which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio the sons of Abinadab drove the new cart.

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And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill accompanying the

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Ark of God. And Ahio went before the Ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the

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Lord on all kinds of instruments. Of firwood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cistrums, and on cymbals.

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When it came to Nakon's threshing floor, Uzzah's confession of sin and the absolution are so important to us.

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How can we stand in the presence of a holy God? It seems impossible.

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Temporally fear should strike our hearts every Sunday when we come together. It should be very short -lived but we should be confronted again with the reality of our sinfulness.

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And say how can I stand? I know when I come here that God's presence is here.

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How can I in my sinfulness stand here in the presence of this holy God? It seems impossible.

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Temporally fear should strike our hearts every Sunday when we come together. It should be very short -lived but we should be confronted again with the reality of our sinfulness.

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And say how can I stand? I know when I come here that God's presence is here.

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How can I in my sinfulness stand here in the presence of this holy

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God? The Lord has blessed the house of Obed -Edom and all that belongs to him because of the ardent intention of possibly a very good man.

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So David went and brought up the ark of God to the house of Obed -Edom to the city of David with gladness.

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Let's look at verse 12. And so it was when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep.

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Then David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod.

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So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of a trumpet.

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First Chronicles 16, this incredible psalm, which is likely being been sung throughout all the history of Israel from its inception here in First Chronicles 16 and the temple service.

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It's connection to all of those psalms that sound familiar to you when we read it.

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There's several psalms that have the same language as First Chronicles 16. David recognizes with great thanksgiving that his

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God, our God, is a God who saves. That his

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God is a God who confronts our wickedness and makes us holy.

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He remembers we know this gentleman, Obed -Edom. He becomes one of these guys who works with Asaph.

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And it seems his job every day is to give thanks to the Lord every day in this service.

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And they are at the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle. This man, Asaph, and a few others, they would devote themselves entirely to the giving of thanks.

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And David, in this instance, bursts out with thanksgiving and he starts dancing before the

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Lord. And they come bringing up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.

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I was talking with Shadel and Ryan at Jacob's little birthday celebration the other night.

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And we were talking about the restraint of passions, affections in the church and the

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Reformed tradition. And I think this is a misunderstanding of biblical doctrine.

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We should have a raging fire of affection and passion for our

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God. It should be orderly. It should be done decently. It should not be chaotic.

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But we have put a lid and we have tried to restrain our emotions as it concerns

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God. We should unleash ourselves in this delight, this joy, this thanksgiving as David has when he considers who

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God is and what he has done. God did not give them back the

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Ark of the Covenant to destroy them but to bless them. They remembered who

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God was and who they were in relationship to God. And therefore their fear, their terror is turned to gladness, to joy, to thanksgiving.

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Not everyone views it this way. Look at verse 16. As the

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Ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw

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King David leaping and whirling before the Lord and she despised him in her heart.

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So they brought the Ark of the Lord and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected it for.

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David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. Time will not permit me to do this because it would take another hour and I'm sure you're not going to want to do that.

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But if we look and study the praise offering in Leviticus 7, we're going to see a strong connection to the

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Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a praise, a thanksgiving offering.

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And one of our favorite Psalms of all time is Psalm 100. Psalm 100 was a thanksgiving processional march that the people would sing on the way to celebrate the peace offering of our

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God. A lot of amazing things are to be unwrapped and untwined in this section.

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We won't have all the time to do all those things today, but something to look into. The use of all the

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Psalms and their corresponding relationship to First Chronicles, the offering, the sacrificial system that David was seeking to revive properly in the worship of God.

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Listen to what happens here. David offers burnt offerings and peace offerings before the

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Lord. And when he had finished offering those peace offerings and burnt offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the

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Lord of hosts. Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, this sounds very familiar from our text we just read in First Chronicles, both the women and the men, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat and a cake of raisins.

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So all the people departed, everyone to his house. The first application

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I want you to think of today in relationship to Thanksgiving is this. When the acceptable sacrifice has been offered, the people eat, they feast.

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And there is a corporate component to this. This is picturesque of our Lord's Supper.

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There's something here that's being conveyed to us. It's not just the priests who are eating this.

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The people, all of them, the men, the women, everyone who's there, they're eating the feast. And this is a reflection of the heart of David and his

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Thanksgiving and a recognition that God is there dwelling in their presence.

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They take this liturgy and they go home. It says there at the end of verse 19,

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So all the people departed, everyone to his house. The Eucharist, and that word simply means

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Thanksgiving, that we celebrate every Sunday together when we gather, is the grand

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Thanksgiving. And we take that Thanksgiving that we enjoy corporately and we apply it by going out and living a life of Thanksgiving Monday through Saturday again.

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We go home with our families, taking the spirit of Thanksgiving, marvelous things, and we take that to Jerusalem.

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But it's intended to do something in perpetuity. The worship of God is not going to stop from this point forward.

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It had been occasional up to this point. But now there's going to be officiants at the altar.

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There's going to be men, priests serving every day. Thanks is going to be offered to our

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God as a result of what David does. So David returns, verse 20, to bless his household.

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And his wife, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself.

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So David said to her, It was before the Lord who chose me instead of your father and all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the

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Lord over Israel. Therefore, I will play music before the

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Lord. It's a pretty big deal when your wife throws cold water all over you.

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But this great man of faith sees things rightly through a heart of thanksgiving. He says,

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I'm going to praise my God. I'm going to play music for him. I am going to be thankful for him.

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I am not going to restrain these holy affections I have for my God. I will be even more undignified than this, he says.

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I will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken by them,

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I will be held in honor. Therefore, McCall, the daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death.

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First Chronicles 16 slaps right here between 2 Samuel 6 and 2

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Samuel 7. I appreciate your patience with me as I read long stretches of Scripture. Let's consider chapter 7.

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Something happens in the heart of David. It's a monumental occasion.

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He's written this psalm. It follows the same kind of narrative in First Chronicles 17 as we see here in 2

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Samuel 7. David now wants to build a house for God.

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Chapter 7, it says, Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, and the

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Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around, that the king said to Nathan the prophet,

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See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains.

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And as you know, there would be a great difference between the humility of dwelling in tents and having a house made of these beautiful cedars.

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David is saying, I'm the king, and I live in this beautiful house. And my

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God lives in a house of poverty, as it were. And Nathan said to the king,

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Go do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.

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But it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan saying, Go and tell my servant

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David, thus saith the Lord, Would you build a house for me to dwell in?

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For I have not dwelt in a house since that time when I brought up the children of Israel from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and a tabernacle.

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Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom

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I commanded to shepherd my people Israel saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar?

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Now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, Thus says the

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Lord of hosts. Now I want you to listen. I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep to be ruler over my people, over Israel.

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David's dad didn't even think he was qualified to come into the presence of Samuel, the prophet to be considered as one of the candidates to be king.

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And he says in verse nine, And I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all of your enemies from before you and have made you a great name.

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Read the accounts leading up to First Chronicles 16 and the defeat, the absolute destruction of the

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Philistines by the hand of God. He basically says, Go out and kill them.

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I've gone before you. The battle is yours. And David walks in the victory of those battles against the

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Philistines. I've cut off all your enemies from before you.

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And I've made you a great name. Like the name of the great men who are on the earth.

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Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people, Israel, and I will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more.

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Nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people,

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Israel. I've caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also, the

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Lord tells you that he will make you a house. Now, I want you to think about what's happening here.

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David, and this heart boiling over with Thanksgiving, writes this incredible song.

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DJ, you need to put this to music. Okay, First Chronicles 16. That's your next job. Put that all to music for us.

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David writes this song. His heart is filled with Thanksgiving. Out of that overflow of Thanksgiving and joy,

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David recognizes it's wonderful that the ark is here in Jerusalem, but there needs to be a house for the name of God.

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I want to be the man who builds that house. And so David moves from past deliverances to the present reality of what

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God is doing in their midst in Jerusalem at this time. And he starts thinking about the future.

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The second application today. As we think of Thanksgiving, you need to remember what

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God has done to deliver you in the past. We're going to get to it in our study in the spiritual disciplines on Sunday mornings.

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The reason journaling, which is a strange spiritual discipline in terms of the list, is in there is because God's people are prone to forget.

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David is remembering how God delivered Israel before. He's remembering the promises of God.

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And he also remembers that God never forgets his covenant. That's embedded in our text in First Chronicles 16.

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God never forgets his promises. God's doing something to a thousand generations.

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That's why we are obsessed with the future and children and future generations, which will be born to them, because we believe

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God is our God. And he's not only our God, but the God of our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, our great, great grandchildren.

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And this will go on until the end. But something bigger is afoot here.

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David is walking in faithfulness. He's wanting to restore the honor, the glory of God to his house.

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But Jesus is in Second Samuel 7. It says in verse 12, when your days are fulfilled.

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And you rest with your fathers. I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body.

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And I will establish his kingdom. Verse 13.

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And it almost drops me to my knees to think of this in light of us being here together, gathered as the people of God on the

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Lord's day. And he shall build a house for my name.

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We are the house. The house is being built. The living stones are being fitted together.

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The grandeur of the temple in Israel, Solomon's temple is eclipsed by the realization of the new covenant people of God, the living stone fellowship of God, the dwelling place of God in the spirit.

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We are those people. And our king doesn't slip.

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He doesn't falter. He reigns. So David's well intentioned.

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His Thanksgiving, the overflow of his Thanksgiving. He gets to participate in the early stages.

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You know, Solomon will finish the building of the temple, but something bigger is afoot here.

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Verse 15 says, my mercy shall not depart from him. So I took it from Saul, whom

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I removed from before you and your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you.

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Your throne shall be established forever. How does

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David respond to this? He says, I'm a pretty significant guy. I'm a pretty cool guy.

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Look what I can do. No, he doesn't respond that way. Verse 18, then

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King David went in and sat before the Lord and he said, who am

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I? Oh, Lord God. And what is my house that you have brought me this far?

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And yet this was a small thing in your sight. Oh, Lord. And you have also spoken of your servant's house for a great, great while to come.

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Is this the manner of man? Oh, Lord God. Now, what more can

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David say to you for you, Lord God? Know your servant for your word's sake. And according to your own heart, you have done all these great things to make your servant know them.

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Therefore, you are great. Oh, Lord God, for there is none like you, nor is there any

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God beside you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people, like Israel, the one nation on the earth whom

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God's went to redeem for himself as a people, to make for himself a name, to do for yourself great and awesome deeds.

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I want to stop here. A Roland Hill was his name, and he gave a great illustration about the want of thankfulness.

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And I want to use this as our third application here today. He says in this message that feral hogs.

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Root around under the oak tree, and they fill their bellies on the acorns.

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That have dropped from the oak tree, but they fail to ever look up.

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To the source, the limitless, abundant supply of God.

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They fail. To look up my backyard,

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I should say my parents' backyard. There is an oak tree that's 60 or 70 years old, and the arborist that helps trim it and do things for my dad there.

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It says one of his favorite trees he's ever seen in his life. My boys can attest to this.

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They've had to go over and clear literally thousands of pounds of acorns off of the roof of my parents' house.

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Because it so effusively sheds all of those acorns. We fail like the feral hogs in that old preacher's illustration.

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We fail to acknowledge that every good thing comes from God.

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Everything good comes from him. We ascribe ourselves to it.

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We put our own name to it. We attach our own effort to it. But if it comes, if it rains down that way as a blessing, it comes from God.

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And you and I, and our dullness of our spirituality, our lack of affection for God, our want of thinking of God, we only see the base fruit.

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This problem of thanklessness is timeless. Could it be argued that in the garden,

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Adam and Eve were tempted, at least in part, because of their lack of thankfulness?

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There was one tree that they couldn't have. The fruit of one tree they couldn't have.

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What about Israel in the wilderness wandering? How good is the manna that falls from heaven when

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God is feeding you out of his own hand and providing for your every need?

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You would have no lack, but you grumble for the meat pots of the pagan

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Egyptians. Today, I have to confess and repent of our ingratitude.

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We're not thankful. We see want and lack, and there's abundance.

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God has abundantly supplied for us. Single men. Today, we have a lot of single men in our church.

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You have to have a future -oriented thankfulness. You have to keep yourself pure, because one day,

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God is going to provide a godly wife for you, and you have to live as if that promise is true today.

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You don't have her now, but someday you will. Walk in the faith, believing that God wants you to have godly seed, that he wants you to marry a godly wife.

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It requires a heart of thanksgiving. We're filled with ingratitude. We say, oh God, why haven't you provided a spouse for me?

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Instead, we should have a heart filled with thanksgiving that God is preparing a spouse for us.

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I'm a little bit excited this week. I'm confronted with a couple of hard aging realities this year.

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As you know, my daughter gave birth to our first grandson on Wednesday morning, and I am reaping a ripe old age at the end of the year.

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And as I was thinking about this, it struck me that on the day, on September 18th, 1995,

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I held my first baby in my hands, and I was 23 years old.

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I was a young person when I had my first child. And I remember on that day,

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I prayed that God would give my daughter, whom I just met, a godly spouse, and she married one of the most godly young men

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I've ever met in my entire life. And he wasn't even born yet. He's a few months younger than Savannah.

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And I prayed on that day that she would have a godly child, or many.

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And now she has a godly child. I was giving thanks for something that I could not see.

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Only the Lord could do that. My faith was growing, and I was seeing those things.

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But you don't know, no one knows. I've never even told my wife this. You see, my precious daughter

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Savannah was a twin, and the other twin died.

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The doctors didn't know Savannah was there. You guys have heard this story before from my wife many times. But I always had a fear that she was always so perfectly healthy, but she was exposed to all that anesthesia.

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The doctor put my wife on birth control pills to reduce the hormone levels in her body because of what she was experiencing.

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I was terrified that my daughter Savannah would never be able to have a child.

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I thought, this is where the attack's going to come. This is going to be the consequence of all those things that happened all those years ago.

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She's going to be made sterile or something from this, and God, His infinite grace and wisdom enabled me to believe in something that seemed quietly, personally impossible.

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I see my children's children. David, in this grand act of thanksgiving, he thinks that he's going to do something big.

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He's going to build a cedar house for God. But in the overflow of this thanksgiving, he's praising

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God for all that he is and all that he's done. David finds out that his line is going to be the line of Christ.

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He finds out that there's an eternal kingdom that's going to never end, that's going to spring from his line.

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All of this comes as a result of thanksgiving. I'm going to skip down to verse 25, and we're going to finish the rest of the chapter.

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And we'll go for another moment on something else. Now, O Lord God, the word which you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, establish it forever and do as you have said.

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So let your name be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel.

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And let the house of your servant David be established before you. For you,