Sunday, May 2, 2021 AM

If you're visiting this morning, we're especially glad to see you this morning and to meet you.

And hope that you enjoy your time with us this morning. We've got a few announcements before we get started with worship this morning. Come back for our evening service tonight. That's at 530. There is a little bit of a typo in the bulletin about truth group following the service, but we actually had that last week.

So I don't believe we have truth group again this week. Just the evening service tonight. This morning we do have the Lord's Supper here. And then coming up Wednesday of this week, 545, we'll have dinner for the church.

So you're welcome to share in that meal with us. And then at 630, Bible study and prayer and TAG program for the kids as well. Looking ahead related to TAG, there is a open night for TAG. At the end of May, May 26th, 630.

What that means is the kids will kind of get together in the fellowship hall. The adults will be there and they're going to share what they've been learning in TAG. So there'll probably be memory verses and music shared.

So you're more than welcome to invite friends and family that don't normally come and they can share in that with us as well. And then we'll have a little dessert fellowship following that. This week's fighter verse, we're finishing out Psalm 1 together.

Psalm 1, verses 5 and 6. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

June still needs a few nursery volunteers. So if you're able to help during the month of June in the nursery, please volunteer for.

That.

You can see Marla Hovarter about that. And then there's also an insert in your bulletin. I mentioned it last week. We've possibly been tapped for a donation gathering site for Operation Christmas Child.

Those Christmas shoe boxes sometime in November. But they need to know as quickly as possible if we have somebody that's interested in kind of organizing and assisting in that. If you feel drawn to help in that way, we would use our gym kind of as the gathering place for that.

Please let Jill Smoot know as quickly as possible. They're needing to get kind of that squared away and see if we could help in that. All right. Any other announcements before we get started this morning?

It's good to be together to worship together here. What we're going to do now is we're going to have a time of just prayer and preparation for worship. And when we're done with that, Jerry will open us in prayer.

Would you stand with me for our call to worship?

Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 63. We'll be reading verses three through five. And hopefully this passage will be familiar to us. Read with me together. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live. In your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. And my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. And we're going to sing this very song on page 69, Thy Loving Kindness.

We'll sing it twice, and then we'll go right into page 277, The Church's One Foundation.

Through 1 John, that's our scripture reading this morning. Continuing through 1 John chapter 4 verse 15. And we will go through chapter 5 verse 4 together. This is the word of the Lord. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.

Because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you for the gift of your word to us. Your perfect, infallible word. Your word that teaches and instructs, admonishes, corrects. Father, thank you for your love.

As it says here in scripture, that you first loved us so that we might love you and love others. Father, help us to do the loving thing and to obey your commandments. To love your truth, to share that truth with others, to not compromise when the world says that we're not being loving.

But to submit ourselves to your word. And whatever comes, that we might remain faithful to you, as you were faithful and continue to be faithful to us. Father, bless the rest of our time of worship this morning.

Be with Michael as he opens your word. As he shares from your heart, both to the believers and to the unbelievers, that we might have life. Thank you, Lord. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated.

For our song service, our last song is Jesus Shall Reign Where the Sun. There was a handout in the back. I hope you were able to pick that up.

We started meeting back together. Let's not disperse again, shall we? Stay with it. Let me pray for us this morning. Father, we come before you today. We acknowledge that you are our God, our Heavenly Father.

You are God, the Son, our Savior, our Sovereign, reigning incarnate, the right hand of your Father, dominion everlasting. You are God, the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, who makes all things new through the power of Christ, bringing our requests to the right hand.

And from the right hand, we know our requests come to the Father. And so you are God, three in one, our triune, holy, thrice holy, perfect God, who has made everything according to your will, according to your pleasure, according to your power, and all for your glory.

You are God, and we praise you as your creatures made from dust. And yet you have breathed the breath of life into us, and you have given us your Son, and you have given us your Spirit, that we may worship you and honor you and bring you glory.

Help us to do that here today, as we consider the truths of your perfect word. May we feed upon your truth and prosper in Christ. We pray these things in his name. Amen. Please open your Bibles to Psalm 118.

Psalm 118. Be reading verses 22 -29 in a moment. We've learned a lot about praising God, about worshiping God, from Psalms 111 through this Psalm. 111 and 112 are alphabetical acrostics, the Aleph, Beth, Gimels of praise, the ABCs of praise.

How do we praise God? We need to know that. We're told how to praise God in the Psalms. And these, in particular, are very helpful. And then the great Hillel, Psalms 113 -118, the great hymn of praise to God that the Jews would sing at Passover.

Reflecting upon God's great power and mercy and grace in redeeming them from slavery and bringing them into the promised land. These Jews, living in a time when they are greatly diminished, having returned from exile in Babylon and in Persia, they've come back to the city to rebuild the walls, rebuild the temple.

By God's power, by God's grace, they have succeeded. He wants them there. He wants them to stick it out. He wants them to prosper. He wants them to live in faith. Because He has promised them, through the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, that there is a new thing going to happen.

A new covenant. And it's going to burst forth right there in their land, right there in their city. They are going to see the promise of the new covenant come to pass. So they're there to stick it out in faith and to worship in anticipation of this promise of God.

I think more than anything we've learned through the series of Psalms is this. The vital lesson, I think the most vital lesson of all, the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord. To think of Him first.

To think of Him most. He's the decisive factor in how we see things, think about things, do things. And this fear of the Lord is not one that brings terror, as we heard from 1 John. No, that's the fear of man.

That's the fear of death. The fear of the Lord is not a fear which condemns and cancels, like the fear of man. It is a fear that controls and compels. It is a fear that brings wisdom and understanding and life and joy.

Thinking preeminently and thoroughly of God, having Christ as the light in which we live. No wonder the psalmist moves from one praise to the next. And so should we. I invite you to stand with me as I read the final portion of Psalm 118.

Beginning in verse 22. This is the word of the Lord. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made.

Say it with me. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I pray, O Lord. O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Say it with me. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.

God is the Lord, and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you. You are my God, and I will exalt you. Say it with me. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.

Praise be to God. You may be seated. We are gathering today around the Lord's table. The sustenance he has given to us to remind us of his broken body and his shed blood. Of his incarnate ministry as our great high priest and as the Lamb of God.

We are gathering around the truth of Jesus Christ today. We are reminded here of how central Jesus Christ is to everything. We are reconciled to God. We are reconciled to one another. We are new creatures for a new creation.

All through the person and work of the incarnate Son of God. He makes all things new. He brings all things under his reign. Living by God's design, living in the way that God has designed us, intends for us to live, means honoring Christ as he deserves.

There's no way around it. We've already been admonished not to put confidence in man, not to put confidence in princes, but rather to trust in the Lord. And if we're not going to trust in men, we better not trust in the self.

Think that, well, you know, I can be self-sufficient. We must trust in Christ and in no other. The whole plan for victory, we hear in the text of the prayer, Oh Lord, send prosperity. What does God mean by that term?

And what does that look like? How does it come about? I commend to you for your reading at lunch today, Colossians 1, verses 9 through 23. Colossians 1, 9 through 23. Look how God brings his prosperity through his chosen one, Jesus Christ.

I think it resonates very well with Psalm 118. And I commend this to you because it is easy for us to drift away from that which we have heard. We must pay all the more attention not to proposed esoteric complexities.

We must pay attention to Jesus Christ and him crucified, him risen from the dead, ascended and reigning. There is no other chief cornerstone. There is Christ and there is no one else who comes to save.

There are many hirelings who appear for a time and then run off. There are many fads in religion and many fads in Christianity. Many hirelings that come for a while and then they run off. And there are many thieves who come over the sides of the fold and begin false churches and false religions and cults.

But there is only one shepherd and only one door. And we are to reserve our hosannas, hallelujah, our prayer, oh save, and our hallelujah, praise the Lord. We must reserve those for Christ. Let your hosannas, hallelujah, resound for Christ.

And here in verses 22 -29 we should do so looking at his gracious succession as God's chosen. When we hear the images, the praises of the end of Psalm 118, we should have in our mind's eye the pictures of Christ's ascension into heaven.

Consider the expressed delight of the Father in his Son. For the shadows of Israel resolve in the incarnation. Paul said that was shadow, but the shadow leads up to the soma in the Greek, the substance, the body which belongs to Christ.

The light of God's revelation shines upon Christ and casts a shadow long and sometimes strange throughout the old covenant that when we come to Christ that shadow is resolved in his person and his work.

The old covenant is a one lane, single direction highway to the city of the new covenant. And the succession of Jesus as the Lord's chosen, Jesus Christ revealed as God's chosen one is the emphasis here in verses 22 -29.

Consider God's anointed in verses 22 -24. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it. So there's a stone that the architects, the engineers, the builders, the ones in charge of putting things together, they have totally rejected the stone. Unfit for use.

No good. A cast off. We're going to throw it in the junk pile. But that very stone refused by the builders has become the chief stone, the head of all the other stones, the most important stone, the cornerstone.

How in the world did that happen? It wasn't by man. It was by the Lord. This is the Lord's doing. This is the Lord's wonder. His miracle. His marvel. And so, when that is made clear, the day that it is made clear, well, the Lord has made it.

The Lord has done it. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad. The stone rejected, which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone. What is the cornerstone? The cornerstone is the perfectly cut stone.

The cornerstone is how you get started in building a temple, in building city walls. The stone by which all the other stones will be measured and oriented. How do you know the right angle? Start with the cornerstone.

How do you know the right direction? Start with the cornerstone. Everything begins there. Everything built in a city or a temple and so on had to begin somewhere. What is the chief stone? What is the first one that is laid?

That is the parameter by which everything else is considered and judged. So, it has to be the best stone you've got. And the builders went through all of their stones. And they looked at all the different options they had.

And they rejected this stone. But God says, no, this is the very best. And He has made the stone, which they rejected, the chief cornerstone. Now, that's quite a reversal. That's an amazing reversal. Abram shakes the dust of Babel off his feet and heads for Salem.

He leaves Ur behind and heads for Canaan. God has a different kind of city with which He is the architect and the builder. The cornerstone is the seat of Abraham. Israel is redeemed from baking bricks in pagan Egypt to build idolatrous tombs to pagan kings.

But there's a different kingdom that God has in mind. And His son is the cornerstone. Rejected David. Despised David. Harassed and hunted David. Suddenly rains. And His son will build the temple in a glorious kingdom into which the nations stream as the center of the universe.

How did these things happen? It was the Lord's doing. It was the Lord's doing. How else could this happen? Over and over again. How were these shadows shaped so marvelously, so surprisingly? It was the Lord's doing.

And now these Jews have returned from exile. They have gathered in Jerusalem. And they have survived attempted genocide by Haman. And they have rebuilt the walls of this broken city. This was the Lord's doing.

The Lord's doing. The whole empire had to stop, sit up, take notice, and make arrangements for the restoration and the beautification of Jerusalem and its temple.

How?

It was the Lord's doing. And so the entirety of history and the whole future of creation is constructed and launched from what was thought to be a garbage land and a throwaway people. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

This was the Lord's doing. And that's just shadow. For consider a rock uncut by human hands, perfectly shaped, its heel chipped out, having been dropped upon the head of a serpent, its appearance marred, unstately, lacking the splendor men crave, despised and rejected.

It has become the chief, the head, the most important piece and the most important plan. How has that happened? It was the Lord's doing. The story of Israel is preamble to the story of Christ. And what is said here in Psalm 118 by the Jews after exile, as they reflect upon God's providence toward them throughout the redemptive history, this is exactly said of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

Matthew 21, Jesus is telling a parable. And these parables were not fun, entertaining stories. They were make people mad kind of stories. And he tells the story. First of all, a parable of two sons. One was faithless, the other one was faithful.

Then he gets more specific and he tells a parable about the wicked tenants in a vineyard. The vineyard he describes is the same as mentioned in Isaiah 5. Vineyard being Israel, being a kingdom. And the wicked tenants are left, landowner leaves, and they are to cultivate the vines and manage the vineyard.

And they are to give the proceeds to the landowner, to their master. But they don't. They produce no fruit out of this vineyard. They do what they want with what is not theirs. And the landowner sends servants to come collect what is owed him.

And servant after servant comes and says, pay up to the landowner. They insult them, they reject them, they beat them, they kill some of them. As the leaders of Israel did to the prophets. So finally the landowner says, surely they will respect my son.

And he sends his very own son to them. And then they conspire and say, if we kill him. Him being the heir, the one to whom it really belongs. If we kill him, it will be ours. And they kill his son. And throw his body outside the walls of the vineyard.

Where Christ was crucified outside of Jerusalem. And then Jesus asks the crowd, what will the landowner do? And they answer, verse 41. He will destroy those wicked men miserably. And lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.

And now Jesus brings interpretation from the text, from our psalm. Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it was marvelous in our eyes.

Who got rejected? The son. Who got killed and cast out of the vineyard?

The son.

And the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Verse 43. Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken.

And on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. Or to borrow from what God said to Abraham concerning him and his seed. Those who bless you will be blessed. And those who curse you will be cursed.

There are all manner of experts today who will give you a list of reasons why Christ is insufficient. Why Jesus Christ and him crucified is insufficient. Why he is not fit to be the cornerstone for building anything larger than a private little house.

Oh, he may be fit for this and that. But Jesus Christ is not sufficient. Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. Verses 10 -12. Peter and John have, by the power of Jesus Christ, healed a man who was lame. And the lame man went leaping and jumping and praising the Lord, singing in the temple.

And everybody had to take notice. And Peter gives the explanation in verse 10. Let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands here before you whole.

Listen, this is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. What was said of Israel in Psalm 118 is said expressly of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Listen to this part.

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. There is salvation in no other. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Jesus is the cornerstone. He's the chief cornerstone. And the builders of old and the builders of now reject him. They reject him. They consider him unfit for the building of anything from the family to the church to society.

Unfit as a foundation for the individual life. Unfit for the healing and reconciliation of any people group. But he is the chief cornerstone. And the warning that is given is if you're not built on him, you will be broken by him.

If you are not ordered according to him, you will be crushed under him. That is the warning. This is the Lord's doing, making Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone. The Lord's doing, this is the Lord's design.

In our text, they say how marvelous it is. It is marvelous in our eyes. What do they mean? Miraculous. They mean wondrous. They mean we can't really explain it. I don't know how it happened. God did it.

That's what it means when they say marvelous. Don't say that's marvelous about anything you can explain. It's a misuse of the word. They say it's marvelous. How has God done it? We don't know. Why has God done it?

Look how glorious and extraordinary and excellent. It is marvelous in our eyes. It's marvelous. Ephesians 2, verses 19 -22. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, he says to Gentiles.

He says to the nations who don't have a history of covenant revelation to them. Who never grew up living according to the Torah. Who didn't sit at the knee of their parents to hear the scriptures read to them.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. How is this possible? The greatest, most divisive, millennia-long ethnic divide evaporated.

Erased. Non-existent. You can't even tell where the seam was.

Verse 20, how?

Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Many today, even in the church, saying, yes, yes, but. Yes, yes, but. Christ is a, yeah, but you need something else to help you with your cornerstone.

You need more in there. Jesus Christ and him crucified and him risen from the dead. His forgiveness of sins. His atonement upon the cross. His resurrection for our justification before a holy God. His reigning from the right hand of the Father.

This is insufficient.

We must emphasize the un-reconciliation. We must bow to walls of separation. We must maintain some level of bitterness and estrangement. This is not preaching Christ. This is preaching Satan, who is the father of lies, a murderer from the beginning.

Those who hate their brethren are like Cain. And those who love their brethren are like Christ. Quite a long time ago, C .H. Spurgeon observed this. And, of course, his time was very peaceable and everyone got along.

And there was never any doctrinal controversy, which is why he was able to preach so fantastically. Because there was no issues. He wrote this. Still do the builders refuse him. Even to this day, the professional teachers of the gospel.

Listen to that. The professional teachers of the gospel. What do we call them today? They're called experts. They're called experts today. They are far too apt to fly to any and every new philosophy sooner than maintain the simple gospel, which is the essence of Christ.

It's not a new problem. Nevertheless, he holds his true position among his people. And the foolish builders shall see to their utter confusion that his truth shall be exalted over all. Those who reject the chosen stone will stumble against him to their own hurt.

We are one holy people created for praise from one cornerstone being Jesus Christ. Taking the time to read all of these New Testament citations of this verse. Because we need it. First Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 9.

Coming to him as to a living stone rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, it is also contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone. Elect precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, he is precious.

But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed.

But you, you who are built upon the chief cornerstone of Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people. That you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

In one sense, how do you know that you're built upon the chief cornerstone of Christ? You praise him. You glorify him. You bring light and honor to his name. This is the Lord's marvelous doing. This is rejected by worldly philosophy.

It is scoffed at by false prophets. But it is the wondrous work of God. Through the death and resurrection and ascension of Christ, God has brought about something entirely new. We live in a new age. We live in a new day.

We live in the Lord's day. It is the Lord's doing. It is the Lord's design. It is the Lord's day. Look at verse 24 of Psalm 118. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. That's on the inside of the eggs that I buy.

You turn up the flap on the egg carton, and there it is. This is the day the Lord has made. I'll rejoice and be glad in it.

All right?

Get you ready for breakfast.

Come on.

Cheer up. I know you haven't had your bucket of coffee yet, but here you are. Consider that. God is good. He's your creator. He made a new day. Rejoice. How does this verse work in Psalm 118? What is its context?

What is its meaning? The very day, the very day that the Jews finished the walls in Jerusalem, their temple was rebuilt now, and then they finished the walls. What do they say? It is the Lord's doing.

It is his miracle.

This is his day.

And all praise and laud and honor was given to him, and all the sacrifices and offerings were made for him. When the crucified Son of Man rose from the dead, it was a new covenant, a new creation, a new day.

When God made the first day of the old creation, he said, let there be light. And when God made the first day of the new creation, he raised light from the grave to shine forevermore. The stone which the builders rejected, God has made the chief cornerstone, and he did it on the first day of the week, Sunday.

And this verse, Psalm 118 verse 24, is exactly the reason why, in the New Testament, Sunday is named the Lord's day. This is the day the Lord has made. It's the Lord's day. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

We live every day in light of this day. The resurrected Son of Man ascended on the clouds of glory to the ancient of days to receive dominion and glory in a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him.

And his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is the one which will not be destroyed. And he sent forth, not only did he raise from the dead on the first day of the week, he sent his Holy Spirit on the first day of the week.

No wonder we worship on Sunday. This is a new day. This is the Lord's day, and we worship him on Sunday. And so we are to rejoice and give glory. Christ has been rejected by men, by the builders, but delighted in by the Heavenly Father.

Well, verses 25 through 29, the glorious adulation of God's chosen one. Verses 25 through 29, we hear Palm Sunday's refrain. Save now, I pray, O Lord. Hosanna! O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Right?

That's Palm Sunday. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. The youths in the temple saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Every time Jesus flipped the table, Hosanna to the son of David. God is the Lord, and he has given us light.

Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you. You are my God, I will exalt you. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.

Look at verse 27. God is the Lord, he has given us light. Where did he give them light? The expression, bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar, is interesting. Because the words are more often translated this way.

Bind or constrain the festival. The Hebrew word here is almost every single time translated festival. With branches, even as far as the horns of the altar.

Now what does that mean?

Remember that the background of Psalm 118 is the Feast of Booths. They've got branches everywhere. They've been building their bushcraft shelters. They've been living in them and worshipping the Lord.

And remember that in the Feast of Booths, they have 189 sacrifices to offer in the space of 8 days. That's a lot of animals, and they've all got to be offered on one altar. Now, how are we going to organize that?

Here's what I think verse 27 is saying. There's no record anywhere in the scriptures of them ever taking a dead carcass of an animal, and then tying it to an altar that's on fire. That doesn't quite make sense.

However, these words are very easily translated to constrain the festival with branches, even as far as the horns of the altar. What should we envision? We should envision temporary fencing of all those branches and all that foilage, directing all of the sacrifices of the festival directed like a feedlot, like a cattle yard, all the way to a chute that goes straight to the altar.

Every single one of these sacrifices is going straight to the altar. God is the Lord. He has given us light. Where did He give light? Where did He send His fire down upon? It was the altar. So, constrain the whole festival with branches to the horns of the altar.

That's where our focus is going to be, they say. We're going to worship the Lord, and we're going to say, Oh, save us. Oh, send prosperity. Well, where are we going to look? We're going to look to where He has given us light.

Let us look to where God has given us light. We look to the light of men in whom is our life, our majestic Savior, Jesus Christ, because He is mighty to save. He is mighty to save. You look all over for prosperity.

People are looking everywhere for prosperity. I don't even know how to define the term. Education will not save, and the Constitution of the United States will not save. Critical race theory and intersectionality will not save.

Liberation theology will not save. Government, state, and money is not going to save. And free market capitalism is not going to save. Anarchy will not save. The Great Reset will not save. The vaccine will not save.

There's only one who can save our souls and save our lives, and that is Jesus Christ. And if He saves us, He can save our families and our churches and the nations. And it is in His light that we see light.

And when everything is arranged in submission to Him, we'll know what it means that He sends prosperity. Look at the praise. This is the fitting way to end the psalm and end the halal, the great halal.

You are my God, and I will praise you. You are my God, and I will exalt you. I'll give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever. From my own soul and throughout all of creation, praise and hallelujah.

Hallelujah to Christ. The gods of Ur, the gods of Canaan, the gods of Egypt, the gods of Babylon, the gods of Persia. Against those is this declaration. The paganism of our nation. The gods that are bowed down before and worshipped in our nation.

Against these, this declaration is made. Looking unto the triune God, manifest to us in Jesus Christ, God incarnate, revealed unfailingly, inherently in the Word of God, we look to Jesus Christ and we say, You are my God.

I will praise you. I will praise you. We know how to listen for the gods of our age. As in every age. Who or what is praised? That's it. Who or what is praised?

No, no, no.

Over and against that is the chief cornerstone, which all those builders have rejected. Let's praise Christ. The psalm ends as it has begun. I'll give thanks to the Lord for he is good and his mercy endures forever.

May that be the thoughts and the sentiment, the attitude of our hearts as we sing and as we have communion here today. Let me pray. Father, we thank you for the time you've given us in your Word. I pray that it has been honoring and glorifying to you.