Sunday Morning, October 25 2020 AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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All right, good morning everyone.

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Welcome to Sunnyside. This morning, we're glad that you can be with us. A couple of announcements this morning.

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Our fighter verse for this week comes from the Psalms. Psalm chapter 77, verses 13 and 14.

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Your way, O God, is holy. What God is great, like our

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God. You are the God who works wonders. You have made known your might among the peoples.

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It's a good verse. A few announcements. Special music is tonight. So come back this evening for community singing with hymns and we'll also have some special music.

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I know that there is a group of men that are gonna be singing. They need to be here by 5 p .m.

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Just to run through that song together. Are there any other special instructions? Do other people that are involved need to arrive early at all?

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Okay, perfect. Be back by 5 .30, because that's when they'll get kicked off.

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Kids tag. There's gonna be a Reformation movie night this Wednesday at 6 .30

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p .m., a movie on the life of William Tyndale. Before that at 5 .45

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for tag families. There's also the meal. So please come for that.

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Sunday, November 1st, start Christmas Choir rehearsals. So if you're interested in participating in our

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Christmas Choir, again, that's Sunday evening, 5 .30 p .m.,

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Christmas Choir rehearsals start. We continue to have offering plates on the back table back there.

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So tithes and offerings, you can give those back there. All right.

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Yes, sir? The movie night's for everybody. So everybody's involved. So come for the movie night on William Tyndale, whether you're a kid or not.

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Okay. No Timothy School this afternoon if you're involved in that.

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One other announcement. Today is Luke Smith's birthday.

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He turns five. He is not here. We tried to get him to Zoom in, but his schedule is full.

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So he's at home helping his mom get ready for his birthday party, but I'm sure if he's watching this, happy birthday.

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All right. Well, if there's no other announcements, we're gonna have a time of prayer and preparation.

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And then after that, dad will open us in prayer. ♪

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I will bless the Lord ♪ ♪ I will bless the Lord at all times ♪ ♪ His praise shall continually be in my mouth ♪ ♪

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My soul makes its boast in the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the humble hear and be glad ♪ ♪

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Oh, magnify the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Let us exalt his name together ♪

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Lord, those words from David express the desire of our heart this morning.

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As we are gathered together in this place, in this room, we know that this is not merely a gathering of individual people, but that you are here, for you have promised to meet with us.

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Lord, may we worship you and bow down before you this morning. For you are great and greatly to be praised.

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You alone are worthy. Thank you for your grace and mercy in Christ.

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May you be glorified, Lord, this morning in the prayers that we pray, in the songs that we sing, in the preaching of your word, in the sharing together, in the fellowship that we enjoy, particularly as we share this morning in the

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Lord's Supper. Lord, may all these things be done for the glory of your name and to exalt the

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Lord Jesus Christ. May your spirit work within us this morning,

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Lord. Stir us to love, to good works, that your name would be praised.

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We give you thanks and praise and glory and honor and blessing in the name of Jesus, amen.

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Good morning, Sunnyside, both here and at home. Would you stand?

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We're gonna read our call to worship and then we'll begin a couple of songs.

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177 in your blue hymnals and 44 in your modern hymns, modern ancient black.

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Gather to me my faithful ones who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

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The heavens declare his righteousness for God himself is judge.

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Selah. First song is 103, you should know this one,

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I hope. ♪ Well, praise to him who reigns on high ♪ ♪

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And whose knees are free ♪ ♪ Who gave his son for man to die ♪ ♪

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And he made no redeemed ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name, blessed be the name ♪ ♪

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Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name, blessed be the name ♪ ♪

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Angels of fame shall be the counsel of the

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Lord ♪ ♪ The mighty prince of peace ♪ ♪ Of all earth's kingdoms conqueror ♪ ♪

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His reign shall never cease ♪ ♪

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Blessed be the name, blessed be the name ♪ ♪

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Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪

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Blessed be the name, blessed be the name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the

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Lord ♪ Remain standing, please.

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No one who is emasculated or has no one of an ill shall enter the assembly of the

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Lord. None of his descendants, even to the 10th generation, shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

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No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord. None of their descendants, even to the 10th generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the

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Lord. Because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you

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Balaam, the son of Beor from Pthor of Mesopotamia, the curse to curse you.

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Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the

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Lord your God loves you. You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.

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You shall not detest the Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not detest the Egyptian, because you are an alien in his land.

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The sons of the third generation who were born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord. When you go out as an army against your enemies, you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

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If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal omission, then he shall go outside the camp.

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He may not reenter the camp. But it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may reenter the camp.

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You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there. You shall have a spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn to cover up your excrement.

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Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, and he must not see anything indecent among you, or he will turn away from you.

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You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall live with you in your midst in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns where it pleases him.

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You shall not mistreat him. None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cold prostitute.

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Nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cold prostitute. You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of the

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Lord your God for a votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to the

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Lord your God. You shall not charge interest to your countrymen, interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest.

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You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your countrymen you may not charge interest so that the

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Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to possess.

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When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be a sin in you, and the

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Lord your God would surely require of you. However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be a sin to you.

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You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the

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Lord your God, what you have promised. When you enter your neighbor's vineyard, then you may eat the grapes until you are fully satisfied, but you shall not put any in your basket.

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When you enter your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain.

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, it's good to be here today.

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Somehow when it's cold outside, I'm just reminded of the warmth of the fellowship of your saints. It's such a privilege to be among them today,

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Lord, and worship with them. Just pray that you will bless Michael as he comes and speaks to us later and shares with us all that you've laid on his heart this week.

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Just pray that you will help us to be able to absorb the things that he says.

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In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. As we continue our service, we're gonna sing a couple of songs.

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177 in your Blue Hymnal, and 44 in your

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Black Hymnal. ♪

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My soul, my soul is sinking down, sinking down, sinking down ♪ ♪

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My soul, my soul is sinking down, sinking down, sinking down ♪ ♪

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When I was sinking down beneath God's righteous frown ♪ ♪

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Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul ♪ ♪

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Christ laid aside his crown for my soul ♪ ♪

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To God and to the land I will sing,

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I will sing ♪ ♪ To God and to the land, joy the theme,

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I will sing, I will sing ♪ ♪

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To God and to the land, joy the theme, I will sing, I will sing ♪ ♪

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And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on,

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I'll sing and joyful be ♪ ♪ And through eternity,

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I'll sing on, I'll sing on, I'll sing on ♪ ♪

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And through eternity, I'll sing on,

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I'll sing on, I'll sing on ♪ ♪ A son measured, vast and free, that took me from eternity ♪ ♪

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That called me out before my birth, to bring you glory on this earth ♪ ♪

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Grace, amazing, pure and deep, that saw me in my misery ♪ ♪

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Grace, amazing, pure and deep, that saw me in my misery ♪ ♪ Who took my curse and took my blame, so I could bear your righteous fame ♪ ♪

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Grace, grace, for my sins and blames, for my sins and blames, for my sins and blames ♪ ♪

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Who brought me to life, grace, those with power to do what is right ♪ ♪

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Grace, lead me to heaven, where I'll see your face ♪ ♪

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And never cease to thank you for your grace ♪ ♪

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Grace, grace, for my sins and blames, for my sins and blames, for my sins and blames ♪ ♪ Grace, a pounding strong and true, that makes me love to be like you ♪ ♪

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That turns me from my selfish pride, to love the cross on which you died ♪ ♪

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Grace, on ending all my days, give me strength to run this race ♪ ♪

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And when my years on earth are through, the praise will all belong to you ♪ ♪

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Grace, grace, for my sins and blames, for my sins and blames, for my sins and blames ♪ ♪

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Grace, Grace, for all things with love to do what is right ♪ ♪

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Grace, Grace, for all things, and wherever I'll see your face ♪ ♪

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And never cease to thank you for your grace ♪

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Let's pray together. Father I thank you so much for gathering us here today. We are here to praise your name.

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We are here to to gather around and fellowship with you. We thank you that today we may be nourished in our fellowship with Christ and our communion with him.

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We thank you that we have this meal to share. I pray that you would bless us today with the power of your word.

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You would fill us with your spirit. I pray that you would have your way in us. Teach us father.

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Teach us to praise you. Teach us to praise your name. I pray that you would give us unity and love for one another.

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Especially unity in Christ and love for Christ here on this day. We pray all these things looking only to your son

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Jesus Christ the one with whom you are well pleased. Amen.

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I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 113.

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Psalm 113. We are still looking at the

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Psalms that make up this section of the Psalter. Psalms 111 through 118.

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Psalms 111 and 112, as we have looked at, they are alphabetical acrostics.

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They are training hymns, training psalms to teach us how to praise

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God. What should we praise him for? How should we praise him? And now we come to Psalm 113.

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If you read 113 through 118, you are looking at what was known as the

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Great Hallel, the Great Hymn. This was traditionally sung as a part of the

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Passover celebration in Jewish life. When we read that little bit of information about Jesus and his disciples, after they had shared their meal together, it says that after they had sung a hymn, they went out.

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They went to go to the garden of Gethsemane. This was the hymn that they sung.

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It is focused upon Christ. It is focused upon praising the Lord. It is incredibly appropriate in connection to the

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Passover. And so we come this morning, and we ought to come this morning ready to learn something else about how to praise the

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Lord. How does God want to be worshiped? What is there about God for which we should praise him?

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So with those thoughts, let's stand together as I read the text for us this morning. Psalm 113, this is the word of the

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Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the

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Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the

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Lord from this time forth and forever, from the rising of the sun to its setting.

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The name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations.

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His glory is above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high, who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth?

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He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.

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He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children.

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Praise the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.

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Well, it happened once upon a time in the earthly ministry of Jesus that he was invited to the home of a

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Pharisee who was giving a grand banquet, and he had invited many of the other

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Pharisees to his home and had invited Jesus as well. This was prior to things getting a little too full of animosity and too full of hostility to even invite

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Jesus in the first place, but he was very well known. He was the rabbi of the day, the popular teacher of the people, and so this

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Pharisee felt like he needed to invite him. This is not to say that when Jesus came into this home and participated in this banquet that everyone there was okay with him.

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No, the room was filled with his critics. The room was filled with people who were hostile to Jesus Christ and seeing whether or not they could trip him up, and so they tested him.

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There just happened to be a man in the room, and he just happened to be seated right in front of Jesus who was suffering from dropsy, the scripture says, and this meal was taking place on the

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Sabbath, and the Pharisees had these strict rules about not doing certain types of work on the

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Sabbath, not really working at all on the Sabbath, and that included healing. No physician was able to do his work, apply his trade on the

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Sabbath. That was considered work, and so they were seeing whether or not Jesus would heal this man, and then they could accuse him of breaking the

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Sabbath. Jesus began by criticizing the Pharisees openly, directly.

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He exposed their hypocrisy, that they were quite willing to do certain types of work on the

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Sabbath, and justified it when it meant that they were personally profited, but when it came to the needs of other people, they said, no, sorry,

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I can't help. So Jesus said that out loud, like he drew attention to their hypocrisy, to their inconsistency.

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He rebuked them, and you know, all the air got sucked out of the room. You can imagine the level of awkward silence must have been epic, because it said that they had nothing that they could say.

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They could say nothing about what he had just exposed. Of course, he heals the man with dropsy, as we all know he would, but there in Luke 14, he then takes the opportunity in the awkward silence to give some sage advice.

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It's like, you know, next time you have a banquet, rather than inviting all the people here who could, you know, turn around and invite you the same, rather than inviting the people here who could exalt you and raise your profile in society, he said, next time, invite people to your banquet that will never be able to repay you.

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Try that next time. Instead of inviting the well -known and the well -liked, the popular folks, somebody who could do you a good turn, invite the people who could not help you at all, and then that would be something to see.

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And then he gave a proverb. He said, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

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He was just identifying the fact that the Pharisees desired to exalt himself by inviting those who would give him praise and honor.

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And Jesus is saying, no, you need to humble yourself. Now, Jesus in,

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I'm going to read the text for us, verses 11 through 14 out of Luke 14. He says, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, verse 12, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return, and that will be your repayment.

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But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not, they do not have the means to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

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The point is this, when we come to our communion meal here with Jesus Christ today, it is important for us to see that he is not one who gives advice but doesn't take it himself.

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Who has Christ invited to his banquet? Who has he invited to his meal?

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Not one of them could ever repay him. Not one of them could ever, in response, do him a good turn and repay the blessing.

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Who are we but the disabled, the unable? Who are we but those who have nothing to offer the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind?

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As we gather today around the meal of Christ, the nourishment of Christ, as we are blessed by his presence and his grace and his word, let us all be of one mind and one heart in this.

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None of us deserve to be here, and none of us have anything to repay Christ with.

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And as we look at Psalm 113, the psalm does an excellent job of reminding us of this, for we are instructed to praise the

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Lord, to praise the high name of God who comes low.

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God is exalted, he is glorified, he is high and lifted up, and yet he comes low.

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And this is the content, the focus of our praise here in Psalm 113.

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The theme of communion is strong in Psalm 113. There are two communities, and there are two directions.

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There is the divine community. We have the triune God glorious in eternal light, the three persons of the

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Godhead in perfect relationship. There is the divine community, and then there's the community of the saints, the servants of the

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Lord who have been created for praise and redeemed for praise. Now, between the two communities, the divine community and the human community, there is what?

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Two directions. There is praise, and there is grace. There is praise, us upward to God, but there is also grace,

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God downward to us. Now, what fills the space?

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How in the world could we know God and praise him because he has revealed his name to us? You see, we love him because he first loved us.

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He revealed his name to us first. He has given us his name as his grace.

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So first, us upward to God, verses 1 through 4. Verses 1 through 4.

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Notice the focus on the name of the Lord. God has revealed his name to us.

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It's been spoken through his prophets, written by his scribes, and manifested in his son

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Jesus Christ. Every one of us here, every one of us here, every descendant of Adam has been made in the image of God, which means we cannot even think about our beginning without reference to the name of God.

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Everything about who we are as God's creature begins with this. We're made in the image of God.

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The image of who? What's God? We must think of God's name as our beginning, and all mankind is also oriented toward the glorious end for which

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God created the world. And that end will be overseen by Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, who has been given a name which is above every name.

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The beginning and the end of every son and daughter of Adam is defined by the name of God.

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And for the saints, for those who fear the name of the Lord, we who have been saved as all tribes to praise the

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Lord. Hallelujah. And we are compelled to praise the

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Lord. Who are compelled? The servants of the

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Lord. You think of a slave, think of Abraham.

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Abraham was a man who had great wealth. Abraham owned many slaves, and several of them were given to him by Pharaoh after that bit of unpleasantness when he almost lost his wife,

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Sarai, and so on. You can read that in the end of Genesis chapter 12. But Abraham came out of Egypt basically plundering it by God's good grace, and he owned many slaves.

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But when the Lord came walking with two angels past the encampment of Abraham, this mighty, wealthy, slave -owning man, he got up and urgently, humbly addressed his

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Lord and urged him to stay and refresh himself and said, I am your avid,

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I am your servant, I am your slave, I'm here to serve you. Everything I have is yours, won't you please stay and enjoy it?

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And he went and diligently labored and set his whole household to laboring and working to provide something for his master.

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Why was Abraham the slave of the Lord? Because of the covenant that God made with him.

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God said, you are mine, and here are my promises of the

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Lord. Praising the name of the

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Lord is making his name clear. Making his name clear, boasting about the name of the

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Lord. If you want an example of what that looks like, verses 5 through 9 of this psalm. That's what it looks like to praise the name of the

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Lord. We are to boast in the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is where all of the glories of God shine.

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His holiness, his righteousness, his immutability, his sovereignty, his grace, his justice.

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His name is where all of his glories shine. And he declared that in Zion and the temple, that that was where his name would forever dwell.

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Which means what today? It means that we only have to look to Jesus Christ, who is enthroned on Mount Zion, who himself is the temple of the

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Lord, to see the name of the Lord manifested. He said that's where his name would dwell forever. All we have to do is look

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Jesus Christ, and we see the name of the Lord. The exact representation, the exact revelation of God to us is

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Jesus Christ. And by praising Christ, by praising the character of Christ, and the words of Christ, and the ways of Christ, his wisdom, his worthiness, we are praising the name of the

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Lord. God's name is his gracious revelation by which we praise him.

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How do we know who God is? We look to Jesus Christ. So praise the high name of God who comes low.

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When we consider the meal that Christ offers to us, as we consider his broken body, as we think of his shed blood, be reminded of who

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God is. God in his purity. God in his righteousness. God in his holiness. God in his mercy.

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God in his grace. And praise his name. This is the name which we trust for our everlasting salvation.

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Our everlasting eternal communion with God is entirely based upon who

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Jesus Christ is. So there's the call to praise, but also the criteria of praise in verses 2 through 4.

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Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever.

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There's the duration. The time for praising the Lord is now. And it's now and then forever.

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Time without end. World without end. We are going to be praising the Lord now and forever.

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No time like the present, and there's no time like eternity. As Psalm 111 and verse 10 puts it, obedience is for the now in light of what is to come.

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Look at that last verse in Psalm 111. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments.

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His praise endures forever. The duration is now and forever.

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That's when we praise the Lord and notice the destination. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the

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Lord is to be praised. In the King James, we have the words that we sing the chorus to.

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I believe we're singing that this morning. A song that we sing in our household. When we think of the rising of the sun to the setting.

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Now in our way of thinking, our normal parlance, that means all day long. Right? All day long.

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But to the Hebrew, that means direction. That means east and west.

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When the rising of the sun to its setting is location. The direction which the praise of God goes.

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Not only now and all and forever. Not only all day long. All day long is verse 2.

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Verse 3 is everywhere. It's everywhere. That's where the praise of the

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Lord is to go. The name of the Lord is to be praised at all times and in all places without end.

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There are no temporal or geographical cultural boundaries to blessing the name of the

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Lord. And why is that? Because of the dignity of God. Verse 4. The Lord is high above all nations.

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His glory is above the heavens. So all nations in all ages are to praise the

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Lord. To praise the name of the Lord. Why? Because he is enthroned higher than any established power upon the earth.

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His throne is so high and is in such a vantage point that his glory is in fact above the heavens.

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So if we were to locate the frayed edges of the universe in all directions, what might we discover behind the black veil or beyond the stars, above the cosmic radiation?

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We would find that which penetrates and sustains and governs and remains separate from every atom of this space and time continuum.

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We would find God in all of his glory. Do we understand the dignity of God?

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Dignity is, we get an idea of somebody who's very somber and never laughs. No, do we understand the dignity of God?

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Do we understand how far below we are from his station? What is man that God is mindful of us?

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Who are we that God would care for us? Psalm 8 asks in Hebrews chapter 2 answers, look what

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God has done in Christ. How he has crowned him with glory, with majesty, and we are to behold and praise him, saying how majestic is his name.

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Listen, what we do here today in communing with Christ, coming together at his table, blessed by his meal, this is grace on top of grace.

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We have no claim to a seat at the table of Christ except by the favor of the most high.

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We have no claim except by the grace of God. Think about the criteria of praise, how we are to praise now and forever, the destination of praise everywhere, and the dignity of the

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Lord whom we praise. What kind of praise is this? We need to arrange for praise that is now and forever.

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We need to arrange for praise that is now and next year, and the next decade, and the next century.

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We are beneficiaries of believers, followers of Christ, who wrote hymns that we're still singing hundreds of years later.

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Do you think they wrote them saying, well, this will do us for a month? They wrote them saying, this will do for quite a few generations.

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We need to take the cue from the scriptures that the praise of the

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Lord is something that we do now in our generation, and it's for the next generation, and it's for the next generation, and the next one.

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We are to disciple our children and our grandchildren to teach the next generation of Christians the praise of the name of the

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Lord. We can do that by modeling it. We're going to do that tonight. We're going to do it by valuing it, by making that a priority, arranging for the praise of the

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Lord long after we're gone. Bequeath, oh grandparents, your Bibles to your grandchildren to give to their grandchildren.

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Bequeath letters of the praise of the Lord. Tell the future generations that you will never personally meet how glorious God is.

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Arrange for multi -generations of praise. What if the Lord comes back? Well, praise his name anyway.

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If the Christians a thousand years ago said, well, there's, you know, there's no future.

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Where would we be today? Where would we be today? Live in the light of the Lord and follow the instructions in Scripture, the directions of Scripture, to arrange for generation after generation after generation of praise in the

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Lord, and you leave his timing in his hands. Secondly, aim for global praise. It has been observed that missions exists where worship does not.

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What is our aim in supporting missionaries? What is our aim in supporting missionaries?

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That people from every tribe and tongue and nation will turn to Christ in faith and praise the name of the

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Lord from this time forth and forever. That the Palika people, the nomads of the

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Gobi, the jungle tribes of South America, and the impoverished villagers of Latin America, and more, will praise the name of the

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Lord. That's the goal of missions, that they will come to know the name of the Lord and that they will praise him.

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And we are to aspire to glorious praise. When we consider the dignity of the Lord, we consider the call to praise

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God now and forever throughout all generations, and the fact that this praise is for all of the earth, this does not then require that we dumb down the praise of the

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Lord to some lowest common denominator. It doesn't require the diminishment of God's name, but it does require the diminishment of the self.

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We are to humble ourselves. The humbling of ourselves is the prerequisite where the exaltation of God is paramount.

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Praise God, ye servants of the Lord. O praise the Lord's name. Praise. Yea, blessed be the name of God from this time forth always.

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From rising sun to where it sets, God's name is to be praised. Above all nations,

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God is high. Above heavens, his glory raised. So us upward to God, but secondly,

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God downward to us, verses 5 through 9. And I want to think of this dynamic in verses 5 through 9 with a line from the hymn

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The Church's One Foundation. The first couple of verses, Samuel Stone pinned, you see there on the front of your bulletin,

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The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water and the word.

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From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died.

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Captured there from heaven he came and sought her. The God on high,

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God glorious and all of his majesty and his exaltation, he came from heaven and sought her.

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From heaven he came and sought her. The God on high comes low. Verses 5 and 6.

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Who is like the Lord our God who was enthroned on high, who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth?

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Who is like the Lord our God? Who is like God? That's actually what my name means. Michael, if you have your name

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Michael, that's what it means. It's a question, it's a rhetorical question. Who is like God? The answer is no one.

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No one can possibly even get close to him. Who is like the Lord our God? You can hear the unapologetic boasting of the servant of Yahweh.

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He is here, notice, he is impolitely talking over the many idolaters.

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He is drowning out their pagan equivocations with devout, unbending claims of the

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Lord's uniqueness, the Lord's splendor, and the Lord's authority. And in fact, notice, the one true

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God is so exalted, he must lower his gaze not only to see the things in the earth, but also even to see the things which are in heaven.

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That's how exalted he is, he condescends, he humbles himself to behold the things in heaven and on earth.

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Using the word, the verb humbles, in connection to God, can hardly be used without a dozen questions immediately springing to the mind.

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Some of those are answered by God's gracious providence, his compassionate sovereignty. Others are answered by the central thought of the universe, which is the incarnation.

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But without time to explore all those wonders, let us just reacquaint ourselves with an old English word,

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Dain. D -E -I -G -N. It rhymes with rain.

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A king rains, we know that, but he also dains. He rains over, but he also dains unto.

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His subjects, to see what is going on in their lives, to see what is the day to day.

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He rains over, but he also dains unto, and God dains.

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He humbles himself to look upon the affairs of heaven and earth, and this is grace.

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This is grace. And not only does he behold, not only does he see, but he also loves.

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He loves the unlovely. He lifts up the hopeless. He raises the dead in their trespasses and sins.

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What is it like for the God on high to look down low, to be involved, to love us?

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Psalm 103 verses 8 through 14. Here's how you praise the name of the Lord. This is a good example.

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The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving -kindness.

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He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

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For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving -kindness toward those who fear him.

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As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us, just as a father has compassion on his children, so the

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Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he himself knows our frame.

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He is mindful that we are but dust. From heaven he came and sought those in the dust.

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How did he do this? He did this through his son Jesus Christ, the second person of the

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Godhead, God the Son, taking upon human flesh for us and for our salvation.

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Psalm 113 verses 7 through 9. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.

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He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children. Praise the

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Lord. Here are two pitiful images in Scripture.

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These images pop up again and again throughout the Word. Look at the poor man, the poor man, the needy man in the ashes, the poor man who is in the dust.

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He has nothing and can do nothing. He has no way to provide for a family.

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His condition is hopeless. And look, there is the barren woman who is in the house.

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She has no children. The barren woman has no children. And so this is a horrendous sadness for the barren woman.

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In Scripture we have these two images. We have the poor and we have the barren.

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Now notice the reversals. The poor goes from the dust, from the ash heap, to sit with the princes, the guys in charge, the ones with great tracts of land and great stewardship and much responsibility.

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The poor man goes from the ash heap to the decision -making table.

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And then the barren woman abides in the house. Oh wait, she's not alone. She's a joyful mother of children.

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So you see the grand reversal. These poetic reversals were used by Hannah and Mary, by Isaiah, by David, in their praise of the

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Lord, in the ways in which God worked in gracious, powerful, miraculous, sovereign reversals.

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And they speak to the greatest reversal made in the sinful, cursed miseries of humanity, which is this.

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That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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Every other reversal is pointing at that one, where while we were yet enemies of God, Christ died for us.

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This is why we praise the high name of God who comes low. We could not eat this meal in praise of God's name if he had not come low.

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If God the Son had not emptied himself, but he did. And he did so by adding the form of a bondservant.

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Being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, but becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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For this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

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And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the

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Father. The God on high has come low and Jesus has returned to the

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Father, so that the dust of earth is enthroned to the right hand. By God's grace, through faith, we who are the poor and needy, we who are the powerless and the hopeless, sit with Christ in the heavenly places sharing in his reign.

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Ephesians 2 .6 and so on says, we are where? We don't deserve anything. We're the poor in the dust, we are the needy on the ash heap, but where are we?

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In Christ, with Christ, at the right hand of God we're told, reigning with him.

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We don't deserve that. What a grand reversal. By God's grace, the barren woman, whom

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Paul says is our mother Jerusalem in Galatians 4, has born innumerable children of the promise among whom we reckon ourselves.

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Praise the name of the Lord. Look at this grand reversal. Where there was no hope, now there is grand hope.

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So Psalm 113 is about communion, two communities, the divine community and the human community, and about what happens between the two.

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We can only love him because he first loved us. We can only praise his name because he has first graciously revealed his name to us in the person in the work of Jesus Christ whom we commune with here this morning and think about his broken body and the broken bread as we think about his shed blood in the cup that we drink and share together.

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Let's pray. We'll sing a hymn and then we'll share a meal. Father, I thank you for gathering us here today.

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I pray that you would be honored and blessed by our meal as we share together.

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Lord, I pray as we sing this hymn that you would help us to be right in our hearts, that we would not bear your name in vain as we eat this meal.

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We would do so humbly, repenting of our sins, trusting in Christ alone for our salvation.