Sunday, April 25, 2021 AM

Good morning

Sunnyside. It's good to see everybody here this morning. Good to worship together.

We're gonna start with a few announcements this morning. After church today there's going to be the sewing club, sewing ministry for the girls here at Sunnyside.

This is the second time that they've met and the last time they met I heard nothing but good things about it.

So they're gonna meet in the Fellowship Hall. Lunch will be provided but they'll be sewing things like pajama pants and and other things for Operation Christmas Child.

So that's after church today and then we will have evening service tonight but following evening service there will be truth group for the young adults directly after service tonight.

Looking ahead to Wednesday of this week dinner at 545. 630 Bible study and prayer and then tag for the kids and then next

Sunday morning we're gonna be having the Lord's Supper next Sunday morning. So looking forward to that as well.

Our fighter verse for this week we're continuing through Psalm 1 verses 3 and 4.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and all that he does he prospers.

The wicked are not so but are like chaff that the wind drives away. So a good good chapter to memorize for us.

Hannah and Daryl just want to publicly thank everybody who were able to make it to their wedding shower if you were able to do that and then regarding tag coming up here

Wednesday on May 26 at the end of May there's gonna be an open tag night. So what that means is if you have friends or family that you would like to come and see what the kids and tag have been doing they're gonna present that to the church in the fellowship hall that Wednesday night and then there'll be a little dessert get together after that.

And then we also have a few needs in the nursery still we need some nursery workers in June.

There's an insert in your bulletin if you haven't seen it. The church has volunteered or been asked to serve as an

Operation Christmas Child drop -off place but they need somebody to kind of lead that and coordinate that as soon as possible so if you could get with Jill Smoot on that as well.

And then for the month of May they've also added some things to what we can donate like yo -yos and small puzzle sets.

They've added some t -shirts like size 10 to 12 for kids that could fit in those shoe boxes.

And then lastly Loretta just handed me this right before the service. The Nelsons if you don't already know they're gonna be moving soon and we hate to see them leave.

We love them but they're gonna need some help loading up. Norm has some minor hand surgery coming up so he wants to get some loading of things done really before that.

He'd like to load this Thursday if at all possible some furniture and things so he can take a trip down to where they're going to be living.

If you can get with them and be able to help them just let Norm or Loretta know that.

Any other announcements before we worship together? All right well we're gonna have a time of prayer preparation and reflection and then after we're done with that dad will open us in prayer.

Lord God Almighty the one who was and is and is to come we bow before you this morning for to you and to you alone belongs all praise and glory and honor and blessing.

We bow before your throne to exalt the name of Jesus together.

Lord we pray this morning that you would be gracious and merciful to forgive the sin of our pride.

Lord may we never come into your presence thinking that we have no need for we are indeed sinful and in need of grace and mercy.

Lord would you deliver us from discouragement when we are tempted to despair and feel that there is no hope.

Help us to remember Christ our

Savior is risen indeed that in him we have a living hope therefore we need not despair.

Lord I pray that you would deliver us from our fears deliver us from all the what -ifs and all the maybes.

Help us to look to Jesus the one who delivers us from the fear of death who takes away our sin and Lord give us but one fear the fear of the

Lord. So we come before you this morning in Jesus name rejoicing in your goodness in your mercy in your faithfulness in your steadfast love.

Lord help us today to worship in spirit and in truth. Thank you for your goodness toward us.

Thank you for the blessing of our church family. Thank you Lord for our faithful pastor.

Let me lift him up to you this morning and pray Lord for your blessing upon him as he preaches your word.

Lord free us that we might worship you in the splendor of your holiness.

To you belong all the power and glory and might in Jesus name amen.

Would you stand with me as we worship the Lord together. Our call to worship passage this morning is found in the book of Psalms.

We'll be reading chapter 63 verses 1 & 2. Read with me together.

Oh God you are my God earnestly I seek you my soul thirsts for you my flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water so I have looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power and glory.

Our first song this morning is page 275 How Firm a Foundation.

Turn with me if you will to first John. We'll be reading from chapter 4.

We'll start at verse 1 and end at 14. Beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not confess

Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world.

You are from God little children and have overcome them because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

They are from the world therefore they speak as from the world and the world listens to them.

We are from God. He knows God. He who knows God listens to us.

He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Beloved let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows

God. The one who does not love God does not know God for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent his son his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him.

In this is love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another. No one has seen

God in any time. If we love one another God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit.

We have seen and testified that the father has sent the son to be the savior of the world.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father we're so grateful that once again we can come here and spend time with your family worshiping you.

Thank you Lord that we do have a father that we can come to with our concerns and cares and I pray

Lord that our desire would be to glorify your name and just worship you in the time that we're here.

Just pray for Michael as he comes and speaks to us. Just give him the strength and the freedom to say the things that you've lay on his heart this week and give us ears to hear them and change our lives where we need to in Christ's name amen.

You can be seated. Our next song is on page 493.

It is well with my soul. For our next song, it's the

Lord who has brought three verses to my mind. I'd like to share those with you. First was in Romans chapter 3 verse 26 and then it says that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Also Paul says in 2nd Corinthians he made him who knew no sin to be sin on my our behalf that he we might become the righteousness of God in him.

And then also in Philippians chapter 2 verses 9 through 11 therefore also

God highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those who are under the heaven who are those in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord the glory of God the Father. Worship the

Lord that is in the throne. He is he is sovereign.

He's the creator. He is righteous. He's holy. He is all in all.

Worship him today before the throne of God above. I am the

King of Glory and of Grace. Born with himself

I cannot die. My soul is purged by you

Lord. My life is lived with Christ on high.

With Christ my Savior and my

God. Let's go to the

Lord together. Let's pray. Father I thank you for bringing us together today.

You are a good God. All that you do is good. You're so very generous and kind and gracious and long -suffering.

Your mercy far surpasses all our expectation.

We thank you that we may meet together today in this place and sing the praises of Christ our

Savior and our Sovereign. To freely with one voice declare your glory and your worthiness.

To stir one another up to love and to good deeds. To hold fast the confession of our faith. Lord I pray that you would help us to be excellent stewards of the grace you give us here and now.

Lord I pray that you would bless us as we look at your word and as we bow the knee to our

King Jesus Christ and hear his words here for us in your infallible, inerrant, eternal word.

We are grateful to you.

We give the glory to you today. For the sake of Christ we seek these mercies.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 118.

Psalm 118. The title of the sermon is

Hosanna's Hallelujah. We're looking at those two words here in this psalm. Hosanna is a prayer.

O Lord save. And hallelujah is praise.

Praise the Lord. They go together in this psalm and they go together in the life of the believer as we reserve both of them for Christ.

We have one Savior who is Jesus Christ. We have one Lord deserving of our praise and that is

Jesus Christ. As we look at this psalm we see first of all that we are to let our

Hosanna's hallelujah resound for Christ in the righteous destruction of his enemies.

And we see that in verses 5 through 12. Right now we're looking at verses 13 through 21 considering how we are to reserve our

Hosanna's hallelujah for Christ in the victorious procession of his people.

It matters that we are careful how we tell the story.

How we give credit to whom the credit is deserved.

How we speak of Christ as the one who wins the day. Who brings about the victory and secures the blessings in that victory.

We are not to trust in men. It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in men.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. But also we are not to trust in the self.

We are not to trust in the self. It matters that we know how and through whom we win.

And so we are to let our Hosanna's hallelujah resound for Christ in the victorious procession of his people.

I want you to stand with me as I read from Psalm 118. I'm going to begin reading in verse 13.

Beginning in verse 13. This is the word of the Lord. You pushed me violently that I might fall but the

Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation.

The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous.

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted.

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the

Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely but he has not given me over to death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go through them and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the

Lord through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise you for you have answered me and have become my salvation.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. In 444

BC, before Christ, the

Jews returned from Babylonian exile, from Persian exile, and have now finished building the wall under the leadership of Nehemiah.

And when they finish building the wall, they rejoice in the grace of God bringing in them thus far.

Their enemies have been shamed. Enemies like like Sanballat and Tobiah and their cohorts tried to stop the reconstruction of the city and they have failed in their efforts to undermine the work of the

Lord. And Nehemiah and and those with him are rejoicing in God's good favor in the rebuilding of the walls.

It is at this time that they recognize they are to, it's the time of the year where they are to celebrate a feast called the

Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Booths, sometimes the translation says.

And you can read about that feast in Leviticus chapter 23 and Numbers chapter 29.

Essentially, at this point in time, great victory has occurred, the walls have been rebuilt, and it's time to celebrate the

Feast of Booths. What did you do in the Feast of Booths? Well, you would go around and hunt up as many branches and all manner of foliage as you could find, and then you would build yourself a temporary shelter.

Basically, it was their version of going camping. They would build bushcraft shelters and then they would live in them for seven days.

They would not live in their houses, but they would live in these booths for seven whole days.

And they would camp in the open squares of the city, they would camp in their front courtyard, they would even camp out on the roof of their house, but they would camp out for seven days.

And so it was fun for the whole family, and they would lay there at night, pray it wouldn't rain, and then they would count the stars and be reminded of God's promise to Abraham.

But it was a serious time as well. The lesson that God wanted to communicate to his people is found in Leviticus 23 verse 43, and it says here's the reasoning behind the

Feast of Booths. God says that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths.

When I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. God did not want the children of Israel to forget how he redeemed them up out of Egypt, how he was faithful to them those decades in the wilderness, and how he brought them into the promised land and gave them cities they did not construct, houses that they did not build, but he had faithfully brought them through that period in the wilderness.

And when you think about the children of Israel in the wilderness, and you read the stories of what happened there, you come to a realization by the time they enter into the promised land that they didn't deserve a lick of it.

I mean, the verdict is in after 40 years of murmuring and complaining, of unbelief and rebellion, of attempts at idolatry and witchcraft, to finally come to the point when under the leadership of Joshua, the people enter into the land, it's pretty clear they don't deserve it.

They've done nothing to catch God's favor. And this is an important aspect of the

Feast of Booths. As they live in these bushcraft shelters for seven days, hoping, some of them more than others, probably the mothers and the wives, hoping to get back to their houses as soon as they can, they are not just reenacting history for fun, like in the dark ages of Oklahoma we used to celebrate

Land Run Day, making the uncivilized times. It wasn't simply reenacting history for fun.

They were worshiping the Lord in reverence. They were fearing him. 189 sacrifices were offered to God in eight days.

Seven days of dwelling in booths. The eighth day was called a Sabbath day. Interesting that you would call the eighth day a day of rest, a

Sabbath day. But they would offer up 189 sacrifices over the course of those eight days, and 105 of them, the majority of them, were unblemished lambs.

And every day there was a goat offered as a sin offering. That's a lot of sacrifices.

So by the time you enter into the day of rest, when you finally get to go back into your house, when you finally get to the day of rest, and the final day of worshiping the

Lord, and you come out of your booths, and you gather together in the temple courts, and you pass in through the gates of the temple, and rejoice in the work of God, and now we get to go back to our homes, we get to live in our houses now, what is the lesson that they have learned?

Their victorious ascension was by vicarious atonement.

Hey, we get to go up into the courts of the house of the Lord now. Hey, we get to go back up into the city, to our houses.

The victorious ascension of the people of God was by vicarious atonement.

That's the lesson of the Feast of Tabernacles. How do we get in? How do we move from being pilgrims to residents?

How do we enter into the favor and the grace of God? Well, it's by vicarious atonement, by the sacrifices that were heaped up together, the shadows of which

Christ is the substance, and these are the thoughts of Nehemiah and Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and such should our thoughts be as we look at Psalm 118.

The Feast of Booths is the background here. Feast of Tabernacles. And as we come, the lesson is emphasized for us.

We are not to think that we enter into the gates, that we win anything by our own merits.

It is clear it is the righteousness of God. It is the power of God.

It is the righteousness of Christ. It's the victory that God brings about. It isn't us. So humbly we are to come, confessing our unworthiness.

Humbly we come, confessing our need. We often talk about the need to repent of pride.

We often say things where we give credit to God. Well, it's only by the grace of God.

Let that be true. Let there be an amen in our hearts when we say that with our mouths.

Tokenism is simply idolatry. So, we have considered the enemy refuted by the

Lord in verses 13 and 14. You pushed me violently that I might fall, but the

Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. And now in verses 15 through 18, we look at the exalted right hand of the

Lord, where Christ is praised in the tents of the righteous. And we see an image of victory here.

Verses 13 and 14 is the image of the Israel personified as the victorious combatant, and he stands over his defeated foe, and he doesn't boast in himself.

He says, yeah, you tried to destroy me, but God ended you. That's verses 13 and 14.

And now the battle is done, and the soldiers, the people of God, they gather back into their tents.

The struggle is ended. They have been victorious because of the Lord. Now, what are the victorious soldiers saying to one another in their tents?

The day has been won. They've come out on the winning side. And it was not at all clear that they would have come out on the winning side, but they have.

Who can sleep? Here we are in our booths, in our tents. What are the soldiers saying to one another?

What are the victorious saying to one another? I thought we were goners. No way was that going to end well, but it was entirely the

Lord who helped. He is mighty to save. See, the voice of rejoicing in salvation is in the tents of the righteous.

At this feast of booths, after the walls have been built over and against the opposition of Tobiah and Samballot and their many mercenaries, what stories are the fathers telling their children as they camp out in their booths?

What stories are they telling? They were surrounded by giants.

They were surrounded by hordes of enemies. There was way more of them, and they were way worse than Tobiah and Samballot.

Telling the stories of how God brought victory to his people. You see, he says they'll tell them stories that they didn't know what to do, but their eyes are upon God.

Those are the stories being told in the booths. You see, the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous.

The righteous tell stories where Christ, not themselves, where Christ is the hero.

That's the stories that the righteous tell. How have we come this far?

Ebenezer, stone of help, thus far, the Lord has helped us.

That's the story that the righteous tell. This is the kind of song that the righteous sing.

Like in Exodus 15, verses 6 and 12, we've already seen the connection between Psalm 118 and Exodus 15, the song of Moses.

Listen to verse 6. Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power. Your right hand,

O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces. Praise to the

Lord. Verse 12, you stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them.

This is how we won. This is how the day is ours, because of the right hand of the

Lord. In Psalm 44, listen to the first eight verses of Psalm 44.

I'm reading these to you. I'm going to also read Psalm 98 to you. We need to develop in our conversations, in our storytelling, in our sharing with one another, in our letter writing, in our journaling.

We need to develop this, wherein we particularly, carefully, robustly boast in the right hand of the

Lord. We tell the story of how Christ has won the day.

Psalm 44, verse 1, we have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us the deeds you did in their days and days of old.

You drove out the nations with your hand, but them you planted. You afflicted the peoples and cast them out, for they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arms save them.

But it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you favored them.

You are my King, O God, command victories for Jacob.

Through you, we will push down our enemies. Through your name, we will trample those who rise up against us.

For I will not trust in my bow, nor shall my sword save me. But you have saved us from our enemies, and have put to shame those who hated us.

In God, we boast all day long, and praise your name forever.

Yes, I have a bow. Yes, I have a sword. I don't trust them, though.

I trust in the Lord. This is the way we should talk about the past.

Notice how he moves from talking about the past, and then to his present condition of faith.

We live in a day and an age that tries to make every explanation about how things end up in terms of history, in terms of church history, or political history, or in terms of our family situation, or our financial situation, or our business, our economy.

Everything has to be explained in some kind of materialistic, atheistic point of view, where God never enters the picture.

Because if we were to explain how we ended up where we ended up, and we give the explanation in terms of, well, it was

God, and we're looked at as if we are some kind of superstitious, backward, medieval priest from the

Dark Ages. How unsophisticated to give credit to God.

How unsophisticated to tell the truth. The right hand, the right hand, over and over in the scriptures, we hear about the right hand.

This is typical praise of Christ. This is speaking of that which the very power of God personified, doing exactly as God declares the full representation of God himself, his right hand,

God the Son, in obedience to God the Father. Christ is the right hand.

He's the perfectly powerful manifestation of God. He is the holy arm. He is the word, the logos.

Let's look at Psalm 98. Psalm 98. This should be the way that we speak.

As the nations rage about one thing or another thing, and it's different in every generation, how should the people of God talk?

What shall our conversation be? What kind of stories are we going to tell?

What kind of songs are we going to sing? Psalm 98. Oh, sing to the

Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gained him the victory.

The Lord has made known his salvation, his righteousness he has revealed in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his mercy and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Shout joyfully to the

Lord, all the earth. Break forth in song, rejoice and sing praises.

Sing to the Lord with the harp, with the harp in the sound of a psalm, with trumpets in the sound of a horn.

Shout joyfully before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it.

Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth with righteousness.

He shall judge the world and the peoples with equity. All the things that people think are important aren't very important.

What are we going to talk about? What are we going to talk about? What kind of stories are we going to tell?

These are stories that are totalizing. Everybody on the earth, give praise to the

Creator. In every facet of society, every possible turn of a conversation, let the

Lord God be praised. Let his name be spoken.

Let his will be discussed. Let his truth shine light on every aspect of life.

We need to observe these kinds of patterns of conversation, these songs, these stories in the

Scripture. Observe it. Meditate on those stories. How to tell our stories in light of the

Scriptures where we're giving praise to the right hand of God, to the to the holy arm of the

Lord. Practice that. If you don't know where to start, start here.

The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Start with your salvation in Christ.

Some practice their trash talk. Some practice trolling. Some practice boasting.

Let us be most proficient in praising Christ. Look at his work of restoration.

The words of rejoicing, verses 15 and 16, but look at the work of restoration, verses 17 and 18.

This is how we praise the exalted right hand of the Lord. Look at verses 17 and 18. I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the

Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. So the folks in the booths, they've had a rough go of it.

It's been quite a few years of trying to rebuild Jerusalem, the temple, the walls, and so on.

Lots of opposition. But here they are, and they are reflecting upon where God has brought them, and they say the right hand of the

Lord has done valiantly, valiantly. It's a word that suggests a dazzling manifestation of divine power that no one could miss.

And in fact, God delivered his people in their historical context in a way that the whole empire had to sit up and take notice.

Not only the deliverance from their enemies in the defense of the

Jews in Esther, in the book of Esther, but also the empire, the top of the empire, declaring this city will be rebuilt, that temple will be rebuilt, and here's the funds for it.

And everybody in the empire had to sit up and take notice and say, he said what? The decree was what?

It was whatever God told Cyrus to say. And so the right hand of God has done valiantly, and so they give praise.

This is what they were designed to do. Isaiah 43 verse 21 says, this people

I have formed for myself, they shall declare my praise. I formed this people for myself, here's their job, they declare my praise.

What's no different for us in the new covenant? First Peter chapter 2 verse 9, but you, speaking to Christians, 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.

That's not only at church. It's not just like, well

I do that when I go to church. Hopefully when you come to church, it's a triumphant amen to what you've been doing all week, and if it's not, then it's a kick in the pants to do it the next week.

We are created for the praise of God. That's what we should be talking about, the wonders of the gospel.

Christ has done valiantly, and times are difficult.

Verse 18, the Lord has chastened me severely. Very interesting thing happens here.

Verse 13, go back to verse 13, you push me violently. Remember that it's the same Hebrew word twice.

The one -two punch. You thrusted, thrusted.

You hit, hit. The same word twice, speaking to the enemy.

You tried to destroy me, is what he's saying, but in verse 18, the word chastened is repeated twice.

So what is the worshiper of God saying? Well, verse 18 is faith's version of verse 13.

The enemy came at me hard. He sought to destroy me.

How should I interpret that? The Lord chastened me. The enemy's attack was never out of the control of God.

In fact, the Lord, who is always turning that which is evil into what should be for our good, takes the attacks of the one who wants to destroy, and he uses it to strengthen his people.

That's the sovereignty of God for you. That every move the enemy makes,

God says, thank you, I'll use that and defeat you with it. Isn't that what happened at the cross?

And so we see God at work all along. John Calvin says we should always recognize our adversities as coming from God's hand to crucify our sinful natures.

Our adversities come from God's hand to crucify our sinful natures.

I think God's gonna do great things through President Biden and Vice President Harris.

He's going to strengthen his church. God's gonna do amazing things.

We're gonna come out sharper, cleaner, more ready to praise Christ. This will be what informs our prayers and our praise when we see

God at work. And we also to praise Christ, not only in the tents of the righteous, but also in the gates of righteousness.

We talked about this, the movement of the story. At the beginning of this passage, there is the lingering effects of combat, but by the end, safety and security.

In verse 15, we find the people of God in tents, but by the end, they've come in through the gates. They're in the city.

This movement from praising Christ in the tents of the righteous to praising Christ in the gates of righteousness.

Coming into the eighth day of the Feast of Booths, to this day of rest, they've only come into this rest.

How? Not because they have deserved it, not because they have earned it, but they have come in because of God's goodness and God's mercy.

God's goodness and His mercy. Every time one of those 189 sacrifices are offered up,

God's goodness and mercy, God's goodness and mercy, God's goodness and mercy. We pass in through the gates, open to me the gates of righteousness.

I will go through them and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the

Lord through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise you for you have answered me and have become my salvation.

It was at the gates of the city. It was at the gates of the city.

The elders would sit and pass judgment and justice was to be done at the city gates.

The gates of the city were the protection points. If there was something vile and wicked and a threat, they would not be allowed in through the gates.

And the way that the system of justice worked, the farther into the city you moved, the higher the court system of the gates.

If you were at a lower gate and they couldn't solve your problem, then they would appeal to a higher court and you would go into a more inner gate.

So you came to the gates of the temple itself where the higher levels of justice were administered.

Listen to this proclamation. Open to me the gates of righteousness.

I will go through them. I am not barred as an enemy.

I am not condemned by righteous judgment in these gates. I go through them and I praise the

Lord. I enter as righteous. Why?

How? God opens it.

It's the Lord's gate. The praise is to the Lord because He is my salvation. I am not my own righteousness.

I don't stand on my own two feet. I don't represent myself in the court.

Back in Psalm 24, there is a liturgy for Christ.

Verse 7. Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the

King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the

Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates, lift up you everlasting doors, and the

King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts.

He is the King of glory. See, He comes in on His own standing. They open the gates because of who

He is, because of what He has done. He enters in on His own merits.

I can only enter in because He is my Savior, because He has saved me, because He is the right hand of the

Lord that has done valiantly. I only get to claim righteousness because He is righteous and I'm with Him.

That's the only way I can come in. That's the only way there's acceptance. That is the good news of Jesus Christ.

Acceptance with God, forgiveness with God, entering in because of who

Christ is, not who we are. You know the problem, the problem today is not that we speak too much of Christ.

That's not the problem. You think the problem today is that folks are too Christian?

That people love God just a little too much? They won't be quiet about the

Bible? Is that the problem we have today? That everybody's talking

Jesus and won't be quiet? Actually, the problem is quite the opposite.

It's quite the reverse. It's quite the reverse. Here's some hope.

In Isaiah chapter 25, we read about the day when

God makes Zion a mountain of salvation for all nations, so that the news for the

Jews is the proclamation for the nations. You can remember that. The news for the Jews is the proclamation for the nations.

When He makes Mount Zion a mountain of salvation for all nations, of course

He does that in Christ. Now what song will be sung? What song is sung in that day?

Isaiah 26 1 through 4. In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city.

God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. Open the gates that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord forever, for in YAH the Lord is everlasting strength.

We enter in because of the Lord. What or who is your salvation?

What or who is your salvation? How do you tell your story?

How do you tell your story? About all the things that matter. Who is your

Savior? Who's the big deal? Who's the hero? Who has brought you thus far?

In whose light do you stand? Notice in verse 21 it says,

I will praise you for you have answered me and have become my salvation. This is how, this is one of the indicators that someone fears the

Lord and rejoices in the Lord as their salvation because of the way that they pray.

The way that they pray. I will praise you for you have answered me. You have become my salvation.

We cannot emphasize enough that we need to be a people of prayer, but why do we not pray more often?

Possibly because the stories we tell ourselves and the stories we talk about about what's going on today rarely feature

Christ as the hero or Christ as the Savior.

And we talk about the problems of today or the successes of our past, but we talk about those things in terms where Jesus Christ is never featured.

And we're not telling the stories that are to be told in the tents of the righteous or the songs to be sung as we pass through the gates of righteousness.

And because of that we don't often pray accordingly. W .S.

Plummer observes that it's said that prayer is mentioned in the scriptures about 500 times. In all cases it is implied and in many asserted that it is efficacious.

How strange it is that we poor feeble creatures should ever attempt to get on without prayer.

When we reflect about why we are here, if we are, if we are, if we as Hebrews 12 says, if we have indeed come to the heavenly

Jerusalem, if we have come to the church of the firstborn, if we have gathered to Mount Zion, if we are in, if we're with Christ, so why am

I here? Why have I passed through these gates? How have

I passed through? When we reckon with the grace of God, when we consider the grace of God, then we will reserve our hosannas, hallelujah, for Christ in the victorious procession of his saints.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in your word. I pray that you would deliver us from pride, that we would cease with the reruns of the stories we tell where we end up being the hero, that we would make a genuine practice, a genuine effort in changing our stories and our songs wherein we are displaced but Christ is elevated.

Give us a proper perspective, a right reflection about who we are and where you've brought us.

May your name be praised. May your name be praised in each one of our lives, in our families, in this church, in our community, wherever we are.

May your name be praised, that you would be glorified.

Let me pray all these things for Christ's sake, amen. Would you stand with me for our song of benediction?

Apostle Paul says, being confident in this very thing, that he who has begun a good work on you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Christ is our completeness. Among thy trials, and will

I be, at thy right hand, come ye to me.

Yea, justify, O blessed thought, and sanctify, salvation wrought.

Thy blood hath hardened but for me, and glorified

I too shall be. May the love of the

Father, and the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.