Sunday, February 27, 2022 AM

Good morning, everyone. It's good to be here. Sunnyside Baptist Church worshiping together this morning

Though the seasons obviously change God never does so it's a good thing to remember

As we get started this morning, we'll look at a few announcements Lord willing our week looks fairly regular.

We'll come back tonight at 530 For our evening service followed by truth group for the young adults in the church

After the service tonight looking ahead to Wednesday We'll have the meal at our regular time 545 and then at 630 prayer for the adults and tag program

For the kids and then looking ahead to the end of next month into March March 27th

Lord's Supper in the morning and then truth groups that evening Just want to remind you if you can help out with truth group at all just by providing for a meal of about 20 or 25 people

Again the church will reimburse you for that if you can provide your receipts that have to be anything fancy But that would be much appreciated.

There's a link in the bulletin to sign up for that Operation Christmas trial continues to go on you can put your donations in the box out in the foyer and then lastly received a a

Text message just asking for the church to pray for the Hall family particularly Pat and Quentin Quentin His health has been declining in recent years many of us know that but he's fallen a couple times

Over the course of the past few weeks and has also tested positive for kovat So he's getting medical treatment for that right now.

That's a little bit overwhelmed So she's just asking for no visitors. No phone calls, but a card of encouragement would be very much appreciated for Pat and for Quentin and Continue to hold them up in prayer as well any other announcements this morning

Okay before we start to meditate before Worship this morning.

I want to read our fighter verse for this week comes from the Psalms Psalm 103 verses 15 and 16

As for man his days are like grass He flourishes like a flower of the field

For the wind passes over it and it is gone and its place knows it no more

Jerry will pray for us after we're finished Amen good morning

See all your bright smiling faces this morning. There we go.

Some of you didn't get that Would you stand with me as we have our call to worship?

This is from Psalm 75 1 through 5 We give thanks to you.

Oh God We give thanks for your name is near We recount your wondrous deeds

We have to have time and I point I will judge with equity

When the earth totters and all its inhabitants it is I who would keep steady its pillars

Salaam I Say to the boastful do not boast and to the wicked do not lift up your horn

Do not lift up your horn on high or speak with haughty neck

We're gonna be singing in your psalm psalms hymnal 75

B To you all God we render. Thanks We Render thanks to you

Because your wondrous works

Declare that your great name is near When my

Appointed time to come I'll judge with even

Earth and all its well earth smelt

I make his pillar stand

Most not I said to boastful men

No Do not lift up your horn on high or speak with haughty scorn

From east or west or wilderness None comes to Glorify But God is just debasing one another

Raising high Oh Me He pours and makes the wicked drink on to the drug -free

We'll be Jacob's God sing praise

Horns of sinners And then your regular hymnal 267 come

Almighty King Help us to pray

Father be us for all

Victorious come and reign over us ancient of days

From thou he so Attend my people bless and give thy word

Success Holy Comforter thy sacred witness

And this glad hour How Almighty art now rule is depart

Great as me

I saw

Majesty Glory see

Eternity Our scripture reading this morning is from the prophet

Isaiah chapter 17 an oracle

Concerning Damascus behold Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins

The cities of a roar are deserted They will be for flocks which will lie down and none will make them afraid the fortress will disappear from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus and The remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel declares the

Lord of hosts and In that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low

And the fat of his flesh will grow lean and It shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears and As when one gleans the ears of grain in the valley of Rephaim Gleanings will be left in it as when an olive tree is beaten

Two or three berries in the top of the higher bough four or five on the branches of a fruit tree declares the

Lord God of Israel in that day man will look to his maker and His eyes will look on the

Holy One of Israel He will not look to the altars the work of his hands and he will not look on what his own fingers have made either the ashram or the altars of incense in that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops which they deserted because of the children of Israel and There will be desolation

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and Have not remembered the rock of your refuge

Therefore though you plant Pleasant plants and so the vine branch of a stranger

Though you make them grow on the day that you plant them and make them blossom in the morning that you sow yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain ah the thunder of many peoples

They thunder like the thundering of the sea ah The roar of nations they roar like the roaring of mighty waters

The nation's roar like the roaring of many waters But he will not rebuke them and they will flee far away chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm at Evening time behold terror

Before morning they are no more This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those

Who plunder us? That is the

Oracle concerning Damascus the Word of God let us pray Father I thank you, and I praise you for your great love and your mercy

For your word so readily available to us in our own language that we might read it and study it and meditate upon it and Come to know you in a deeper way

What a blessing it is to have your word and father. What a blessing it is to know that the nations are yours and That you are the father of mercies and the

God of all comfort and you are our

Savior through your son the Lord Jesus the one who has shed his own blood in our behalf and Brought us to yourself and the one who ever lives to make intercession for us the one who is our

Advocate day by day. I thank you and I praise you for your son the

Lord Jesus our Savior In his name, I pray. Amen.

Amen. You may be seated our next two songs Him number 56.

I heard the voice of Jesus say and on the last verse will move to the chorus of softly and tenderly and Then the fourth verse of softly and tenderly if you'll watch the screen, you'll be able to worship

I Heard the voice of Jesus Say come on to me and rest

Lay down thy weary one lay down thy head upon my breast

I came to Jesus as I was weary and worn and sad

I found in him a Resting place and he has made me glad The voice of Jesus say the old

I freely give the Living water thirsty One stoop down and drink and live.

I came to Jesus and I drank of that life -giving stream

My thirst was quenched and my soul revived

And now I live in him The voice of Jesus say

I am this dark world's light Look unto me thy morn shall rise and all thy day be bright

I look to Jesus and I found

In him my star my son And in life

I'll walk till traveling days are done

Jesus is calling Oh sinner of he has promised promised for he

I Have sinned he has mercy and part and for me

Tenderly Jesus is called sinner

Well, good morning.

What a blessing to gather together in our house

The Lord has given to us to gather in as a family in Christ Let's pray together father,

I thank you so much for Your provision in our lives. We thank you for the way you care for us

The way that you love us the way that you have shown your faithfulness time and time again we thank you that you draw us to yourself and Reconcile us to you

By the person and work of your son Jesus Christ in whose name we pray for whose

Glory, we live under whose reign we walk

We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit that you have not left as orphans but you have bestowed upon us another comforter that we may always abide with you and you with us as we by your word live and think and worship in agreement with you

By the power and the graciousness of your Holy Spirit. We ask here today that you would bless our time of communion and you would nourish us and strengthen our faith and Help us to truly abide with you and to commune with you today and with one another in the love of Jesus Christ And it's in his name that we pray

Amen, I invite you to open your

Bibles and Turn with me to Daniel chapter 9

Daniel chapter 9 we're going to be reading verses 11 through 19 be reading verses 11 through 19

Daniel has humbly Set his face toward God to confess

The Lord's glory and to confess Israel's shame He confesses the

Lord's goodness and he confesses Israel's sin

He's praying because he's been reading in Jeremiah and there is this promise of 70 years that after 70 years

God will Regather his people back to the land and the worship of the

Lord will be restored as the temple will be rebuilt Isaiah promised that Jeremiah prophesied that Ezekiel prophesied that Now Daniel is praying accordingly

Daniel is in his latter years He has been in exile for decades and In this moment, he is a bit like Simeon Watching for the consolation of Israel looking for the comfort of his people in the keeping of God's promises

And so Daniel makes his prayer he confesses the situation according to God's Word and Then he makes his requests known to the

Lord an excellent pattern for all the saints of God Well, I'm going to read verses 11 through 19

I invite you to stand with me as we read the word of the Lord by his spirit through his prophet

Daniel beginning in verse 11 Yes, all

Israel has transgressed your law and has departed So as not to obey your voice

Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God Have been poured out on us because we have sinned against him and he has confirmed his words

Which he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us by bringing upon us a great disaster

For under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem As it is written in the law of Moses all this disaster has come upon us yet We have not made our prayer before the

Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth Therefore the

Lord has kept the disaster in mind and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is

Righteous in all the works which he does though We have not obeyed his voice and now

Oh Lord our God who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty Hand and have made yourself a name as it is this day

We have sinned we have done wickedly Oh Lord according to all your righteousness

I pray let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city

Jerusalem your holy mountain Because of our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers

Jerusalem and your people are a reproach to all those around us now

Therefore our God hear the prayer of your servant and his supplications and for the Lord's sake

Cause your face to shine on your sanctuary, which is desolate Oh my

God incline your ear and here open your eyes and see our desolations in the city

Which is called by your name for we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds

But because of your great mercies Oh Lord here.

Oh Lord forgive. Oh Lord listen and act

Do not delay for your own sake my God for your city and your people are called by your name

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated so as we

Listen further to Daniel's prayer. I hope you can sense the great hope that he has in God That although God's perfections are serving to expose the sinfulness of Israel David is still looking to those perfections knowing that God is good

He sees that God is their only Savior that God's Mercy is what they need

They need the Lord in his mercy to restore communion between himself and his people

So as we listen to Daniel's appeals to God, we hear that he asks for God's mercy for God to keep his promises not because He and the people of Israel have done really well

And not because of their righteous deeds But Daniel prays and says

God for your own glory for the sake of your own name Please restore us.

Please have mercy on us. Please turn your anger away from our covenant -breaking our unfaithfulness

So we see that Daniel in his confession where he confesses the way things are according to God's own standards that he prays according to God's own motivations

That he asks for God to act Based on that which motivates

God which is as Daniel states God's own glory

So Daniel is praying but he's praying God's priority list not

Daniel's Priority list and that's what you call godliness

That's what you call godliness when our lives our vocabulary our

Values the ways in which we live indeed our own affections reflect that of God That's what godliness is

When we truly reflect who God is as those made in his image

Well in Daniel's Old Covenant prayer He is praying about the return to a city named

Jerusalem in a mountain named Zion and a gathering of the people from the nations back to the promised land and he is

Praying and we recognize that these shadows to which he clings

These shadows belong to Christ himself That although Israel is full of shame for her covenant -breaking

Daniel offers praise to God for his covenant faithfulness and makes supplication for covenant renewal and He's basing all of this on the fact that God Keeps his promises that God is true to his word what

God has promised That he performs and this is true in the shadows of the

Old Covenant and it is true in the Savior of the New Covenant God what he has promised that is what he

Performs he is faithful to the Covenant and he shows everybody that God is faithful to the

Covenant through Jesus Christ So that is the faith of the Saints both old and new

So in verses 11 through 15 in this Old Covenant prayer of Daniel he is giving praise for God's Covenant faithfulness that God keeps his promises

He always follows through on what he says that he keeps his promises for the glory of his own name that he loves his people because of who he is and not because of who they are and Daniel gives praise to God for these truths

But I would have us make a genuine accounting of Daniel's situation. We need to see the saint

Daniel in his distress he is fasting in sackcloth and ashes

He is praying toward the shattered debris of God's worship center he is under the tyrannical threat of Darius's new regime and he's confessing a mountain of Israel's sin and shame

Yet he praises the Lord Despite all of that Where it might seem like praise is not the appropriate way to go

He praises the Lord he gives praise to God for God being faithful to his word for God being righteous in his works giving praise to God for his merciful kindnesses and Giving praise to God for his glorious name

There's a lot that Daniel could be upset about and indeed he is troubled about but praise is the proper response of the saints in distress

That when the fear of the Lord has so captured our hearts that our very sighs

Are filled with praises to God Think about the saints of the

Lord in distress like Daniel But giving praise to God praising him for who he is think of Hannah in distress

David under fire Isaiah besieged

Mary bewildered How do the saints respond with praise to God?

No one is holy like the Lord for there was none besides you nor is there any rock like our

God I? Will not trust in my bow nor shall my sword save me

But you have saved us from our enemies and I've put to shame those who hated us in God We boast all day long and praise your name forever

He is the first he is also the last indeed his hand has laid the foundation

Of the earth and his right hand stretched out the heavens He who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name

This is the way that the Saints pray under duress in Distress this is how the

Saints pray and as we come to the blessed meal today Let us not fail to praise our host

For he prepares a table For us in the presence of our enemies

We are not harried, and we are not afraid our brothers and sisters today

Gather in Iran and North Korea in Russia and in China in the

Ukraine and in Canada defying tyrants to bow the knee to the one

Lord by the one spirit as one church and And praise will be given to the name of God is their wickedness rampant yes is their moral compromise and false teaching abroad absolutely but we are defiant before a

Defeated enemy and we gather to feast in the victorious grace of Christ and to praise him as our

King I Commend to you today the sweet faith the sweet savor of praise in the face of bad news

What is our first response to bad news click the next link

Do we go doom scrolling What do we do in the face of bad news?

Share it to someone else because misery loves company What do we do in the face of bad news, what's the first thing we should do?

Do you know the comfort of hallowing God's name our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy?

Name what a comfort that is there's little else like it when you subordinate all the concerns of your life and even despise them as Slight and unimportant to make a priority upon praising the name of God Considering his greatness his power his sovereignty his authority his character in his nature setting apples of gold in placements of silver praising the name of God And I this is what

Daniel is doing in his situation. He praises the Lord. He he gives honor and glory to God Showing how wonderful the

Lord is and I commend to you the specific praise Which Daniel has in this prayer that of honoring

God for God's truthfulness He always tells the truth. He always comes through on his word we live in the information age

Have you noticed that this worldwide deluge of information has not changed the deceitful heart of man

Though there's more information now than ever The heart of man has not been fundamentally changed

Technology is not our Savior and tyrannies are not our damnation fear the

Lord Fear the Lord and praise him While every man may be considered a liar

God is true. God is true to his word We see this in Daniel chapter 9 verses 11 and 12

This is what Daniel says as he confesses the sinfulness and shame and the failure of Israel yet He by contrast praises the faithfulness of God Yes, verse 11 all

Israel has transgressed your law and has departed so as not to obey your voice

Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us

Because we have sinned against him and he has confirmed his words

Which he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us by bringing upon us a great disaster for under the whole heaven

Such has never been done. That's what has been done to Jerusalem Daniel is

Not denying what has happened. He's not saying lies

Like oh we are undefeated No, they're pretty well defeated

He's not saying We still have the city in our hearts.

No the city's in ruins Right He he's not

Overstating his case he's stating it as God states it as God sees he's using God's terms about their situation

But he is still praising the Lord for the Lord has been faithful to his word so Daniel is confessing the sins and the situation of Israel, but he praises

God for the way in which God has proclaimed his word and Performs his word and his confession

Daniel makes sure to say that God has provided his word abundantly and He keeps his word completely

So notice that God's word is proclaimed. We see the language where Daniel says to the

Lord your law Your voice and how do these manifest?

Through the law of Moses the servant of God who wrote down what?

The words of God he says to the Lord his words of the Lord his words, which he spoke so We have here a praise to God that his words

Come through his servants to God's people in the earlier part of the prayer

We've already heard Daniel pray about the prophets through whom God spoke Here he's talking about Moses And what was this curse and oath in the law of Moses that the

Lord has poured out upon them? What was that while God would bless his people if they kept the covenant?

He would curse them if they did not if they broke covenant with him He would curse their fields their flocks and their families and he would subvert their nation and he would cast them into exile

That was his promise and that's what he had done notice that God manifests his law his voice and his words through his prophet

Moses that through men like Moses God Spoke it wasn't merely that Moses spoke about God or that prophets as men of God spoke

But that God's voice came through Moses and the prophets that God's words

His own words were written down through them a Peter later on tells us that it was

Christ through his spirit in the prophets Mediating God's revelation that the words of God come to us through the word of God by the spirit of God and so the praise

Goes up to the Lord for this provision of his word that God throughout the generations

Continually provided his word to this frail people now.

He never changed He never went away his people generation after generation lived and died and lived and died and The generations passed but God remained the same and he provided for his frail temporary

People his everlasting word. How did he do that? Well, yes through the prophets in the scriptures, but then how did he?

Continually provide it to them He established education

In the family that parents would teach their children his word

He established religion in the society that Levites would copy his word down and then read it to the people he raised up priests to mediate his holiness and Kings to mediate his

Authority and prophets to mediate his truth The priests were to serve by the instruction of the word the

Kings were to rule according to their very personal copy of the word and the prophets were to take up the word of God and preach it and apply it

So God is to be praised for proclaiming his word Not only is

God's word the standard for the people of God God's word is also our sustenance to say it even stronger

Those who are made in the image of God all people Those who are made in the image of God his word is our standard the word of God is the standard for the image of God and our sustenance

Those made in God's image who do not live by The bread of God's word are not alive

The dead don't eat bread but the living do and the scriptures tell us that God brings us to new life by the

Imperishable seed of his word and then gives us his word that we may feast on it and feed on it and be nourished on it

Daniel is a great example here where we see that he can only make sense of the world in which he lives

He can only make sense of the times that he is experiencing according to the word of God We are in the same condition today

We can only make sense of the world in which we live. We can only make sense of the experiences we have by the word of God everything must be seen through the lens of God's word and his

Covenant faithfulness that he always keeps his word and that he is always good

That is manifested through the light of the world and the light of the word

Jesus Christ Now this is good news because in a pagan world a pagan culture in which we live and a pagan culture a wash in witchcraft where lies are the medium of exchange and Propaganda is the arbiter of decency in this dry and thirsty land

God offers to us this bread in this cup He offers to us his son

Jesus Christ who gives us understanding of God's word while the paganized agitate for a tyranny of uniformity

Where everybody must think and say and do the same Diversity is only skin -deep

While the pagan eyes are agitating for a tyranny of uniformity the

Saints all across the world and all the various cultures Turn our backs upon those things that we would claim to be our glories turn our backs on those things that we would claim to be our merits and We turn to Christ together and we come to his table and we find his liberty in Unity, it's no wonder that the devil wants to shut down the preaching of the word and the sharing of this meal

It is here that we see

God's promise of freedom from sin's death Freedom from sin's guilt we see freedom from sin's damnation

It's here that we rejoice in the communion that we have together with Christ The word is provided and the word is proven

So we read verses 11 and 12. We see that not only is the voice of God the Word of God proclaimed

Provided but it's also proven we read therefore the curse and the oath

Have been poured out on us Verse 11 verse 12. He has confirmed his words by bringing upon us a great disaster

God didn't just say it He actually performed it Daniel Confesses that Israel has not been faithful That whatever promises they had made to God and these had been broken

But God by praiseworthy contrast kept all of his promises He did exactly as he said he would through Moses and the prophets and he had brought

Brought about this unique and terrible disaster in the destruction of Jerusalem Showing everyone that he was true to his word

God was not exaggerating you see He was not exaggerating when he warned

Israel again and again and again how he would destroy them if they broke covenant with him

He was patient. He was long -suffering with his rebellious people and generation after generation

They took advantage of his long Suffering patience and his merciful delays to continue to profane his name, but in the end he proved his word

I mean how long was it between? What Moses wrote as we read in verse 11 and what

God did to prove his word through Moses? How long was that? well

From Moses to David 400 years

David to Jeremiah the prophet that's Another 400 years that's 20 generations 20 generations being considered from the time that Moses oversaw the building of the

Tabernacle till the day that Solomon's temple was laid waste in Jerusalem 800 years and it was another 50 years after that that we now find

Daniel praying this prayer Yet God proves his word true

No matter how long the time span between when he says it and it happens God proves his word true may consider between the time of Moses and time of Daniel how many changes had occurred in politics?

How many changes had occurred in culture? How many changes had occurred in? language how many changes had occurred in technology between Moses at Sinai and Daniel in Persia a lot of differences and yet God's Word is proven true

How often through all of this had false teachers discounted the ancient text in light of present realities?

the false prophets of Ahab's day the false prophets of Zedekiah's day or the false prophecy

Countered by Elijah and Jeremiah when those false prophets said what they had to say it sounded true

It sounded relevant. It sounded ratified by the experts and echoed by the masses and however

God's Word still was proven true Every generation the devil keeps hissing you will not surely die and It's a lie every time

God's Word is proven true. He poured out his curse and his oath upon the

Unfaithful mediator of the Old Covenant destroying the temple Just as he said

God poured out his curse and his oath upon the unfaithful media mediator of the

Old Covenant destroying the temple But God also promised that he would rebuild it and Daniel's praying about that now

Word of God is not like the words of men God is not a man that he should lie

What he promises that he performs What good are all the declarations of men?

You want to talk about inflation? What good are all the declarations of?

men Promising all kinds of salvation by the state salvation by technology salvation by revolution

They are a din of vipers Their throat is an open tomb

With their tongues they have practiced deceit the poison of asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and Bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood

Destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace. They have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes

Let God be true though every man a liar When you look here to the table and you think of the bread and the cup we are reminded of Christ's body broken for us his blood shed for us

What God has? promised that he has performed

God's Word is proven as His curse and his oath are poured out upon the faithful mediator of the new covenant a temple destroyed and raised three days later

He is our new Jerusalem to whom we gather the mountain into which all the nations are gathered in peace behold

Behold his sacrifice to cover our shame Behold his propitiation to establish

God's justice behold his expiation to remove our guilt his atonement to end our exile his adoption to reverse our fatherlessness his redemption to emancipate our

Slavery his life to raise us from death his light to dispel our darkness his bread to satisfy our hunger

And his drink to quench our thirst the Word of God became flesh and tabernacled among us

So that all of God's promises in Christ are yes So that we may be his amen

We give praise to God Who proves his word he is true to his word and he is faithful to his covenant in Christ What we do today is of most significance

Yes, the world is in a mess, but has that really changed dearly beloved there's another crisis

Another Anxiety more people for us to pray for and intercede for Go to the

Lord who provides all good things This is not a waste of effort today

We come here to praise the Lord because he is true to his word. Let's pray father.

I thank you for Who you are that you are good and true that you always keep your word

Help us to praise you Even when we're sorrowing Help us to praise you

Even when we're frightened Help us to praise you Even when we're disturbed

And let us know the comfort of hallowing your name clinging to your son

Our Savior to his name that we pray Amen a communion hymn is from 178

Verses 1 through 3 Oh Sacred head now wounded with grief and shame weighed down now scornfully surrounded with thorns thine only crown how pale thou art with agony languished with pure abuse and scorn how does that visage languish which once was bright as morn what thou my

Lord has suffered was all for sinners gain mine was the transgression but thine the deadly pain lo here

I fall my Savior till I deserve thy place look on me with thy favor assist me with thy grace what language shall

I borrow to thank thee dearest friend for this thy dying sorrow thy pity without end oh make me thine forever and should