His Steadfast Love Endures Forever First B Jackson 2025-04-13 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- All right. Good morning, everybody. How are we doing on this Palm Sunday? Fantastic. Well, I'm glad to see you. Hey. Listen. Would you stand and join us in song? I've got a good word from John 12 to lead us into worship. This is when Jesus is entering Jerusalem during the Passover. In fact, we're gonna have a little reenactment here as the children come forward with palms. But it says this, a large crowd of Passover visitors, they took palm branches, they went down the road, and they met Jesus. And they shouted, praise God. Blessings to the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hail to the king of Israel. And they sang with joy, and I'd love to do the same. So would you join us in singing Hosanna in the highest? Amen. Amen. I love that they made the circuit round and round. So y'all can have a seat. Hey, kids. Why don't everybody why don't you all come forward? Everybody come up to the front, all the kiddos with the palm branches. Come on back up front. Come on up, kids. Nick was trying to get a picture and y'all moving too fast. So I'll do the announcements, but kids come on forward with your palm branches. Come on up. Can you guys come on up stage too? We wanna see you. Come on. Come on. And you stand right here in the front. Awana is on a tomorrow night. It's happening. This is good. Come on forward kiddos. It's good to it's good to see here. It's good to be do this. I'm gonna try to teach y'all a song too. We'll see how this. Clap your hands all ye people shouting to God with a voice of triumph. Clap your hands all ye people shouting to God with a voice of praise. Hosanna. Hosanna. Shouting to God with a voice of triumph. Praise him. Praise him. Shouting to God with a voice of praise. Do y'all know that song? No. I love it. We're gonna do it again. Wave your palm branches. Clap your hands. All ye people shouting to God with a voice of triumph. Clap your hands. All ye people shouting to God with a voice of praise. Hosanna. Hosanna. Shouting to God with a voice of triumph. Praise him. Praise him. Shouting to God with a voice of praise. Still nobody's singing with me. How long does it take? How about just a hosanna and we'll let them sit down. Alright? Hosanna. Hosanna. Okay. That's good. Well, here are the announcements. Y'all can have a seat or you can go back to wherever you came from. I don't know what the deal is. We don't do this for once a year. Awana is on tomorrow night. What night is it, Carl? It's a regular club night. Regular club night. More. So Regular fun? Yep. There was a there was an Awana Bible quizzing here yesterday, which was pretty awesome. Church from Lander and a church from Star Valley. And some of our kids came together and did a little Bible quizzing. Vacation Bible School is on for June 23 through the twenty sixth. It's a VBS road trip is the theme this year. Go with God, on the go with God road trip. If you wanna know more information, the lady with all the palm branches is the one to talk to in person or you can QR code it and find out digital information about it. But that's happening June twenty third through twenty sixth in the morning. It is nine through 12AM, not PM, no matter what that says. It's in the morning. This is a place where you can get all of your information. Firstbjackson.org. It'll tell you what's going on. Nick stays on top of that website and keeps it pretty fresh, knows exactly what's going on. That slide reminded me of the Idaho Friday fellowship. Did you all have that this week? Yeah. That's good. I heard several people with a good word about that this morning. That's wonderful. Anything else? That's the last announcement I have to make, but it's Palm Sunday. We'll get into it in the sermon. There's gonna be a little audience participation, and what we're gonna do right now is if you would stand up and greet one another warmly. We'll bring you back together with a song. And, God, we make that not just our song, but our prayer collectively. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven right here in our hearts. Let it start with us. Thank you, God, that we get to collectively sing these songs together, sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs to one another. We get to hear each other's praises here, and and we get to encourage one another as we sing. God, may there be less of us here in this worship gathering and more of you. Less of our preferences, attitudes, any of those things, but more of you. We wanna praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Whose glorates are the stars to shine. Perhaps creation longs to have the words to say. Praise to the Lord to the lamb. Are you catching the theme this morning? It's praise. From Psalm one fifty, praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power. Praise him for his surpassing greatness. And, Lord, we do. He's so much greater and bigger, more awesome and mighty than we can possibly imagine. Would you give us a taste? We want to taste and see that you are truly good. Thank you for meeting us right here where we're at, in all kinds of places. I know from mountaintops to valleys. It it but, God, you meet us right right where we're at. So we wanna say thank you. We wanna turn our eyes on you, give you the praise that you deserve. Jesus name, amen. And who else? I like that. Get a little overcome sometime, and your voice is just filled and went right over the top. And I think that's the way it ought to be. You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite the ushers to to come forward and lock all the doors. I'm I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We give cheerfully and willingly here, not under compulsion. I just always wanted to say that. Excuse me. See how you reacted. Before we sing, Ray, may I ask you to pray? Yeah. Lord, thank you. Thank you for good humor. Thank you for even off humor sometimes. Lord God almighty, we thank you for the way that you deal well with us. You treat us beautifully, Lord. Thank you for the beauty of our surroundings and for beauty of the body of Christ. Lord, may we act in unity. May we act in doing your will on earth as it is in heaven. Your will and your way, Lord. May we be looking for you for direction, dependent on you for your spirits, leading and empowerment, and Lord, may we just walk it out. In Jesus name, we ask that you'd bless this offering, that you'd do with it whatever it is that you desire, that we would have a clear read on what that is and we'd be able to go forward unified and excited about the overcoming ever powerful gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. In Jesus name, Lord, we pray, we gather, and we sing these praises. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Carl. Thank you, band. And nobody isolate the bass track on that one. Woah. That was real. It was a trash can rolling down a hill, a big old barrel. Yep. It's time for children's church happening downstairs. That is going on. All the way up through middle school, high school, that happens. It's Palm Sunday if you hadn't noticed yet. Palm Sunday for the last, this is the thirteenth year I've been here. So the last eleven or twelve years, I presented Palm Sunday fairly the same way. It's been pretty close to the same way most years because the story is a story, we don't change the story. Right? Don't touch it. And a lot of times, concentrate on the fickle nature of humanity that they would sing praises and extol him on the triumphal entry day, and then be shouting, crucify, crucify at the end of the week. And so my heart tends to go there, but it's not going there today. I know Good Friday comes before Easter and there's some of y'all that really like to go through the Maundy Thursday toughness and the Good Friday service. And if you will, there are other churches in town that do those. We don't have them this year. I'm planning on doing them next year, but this this week, I wanna concentrate on Palm Sunday. Just the way that the crowd would have been experiencing it in real time, going to Jerusalem for the Passover. There are songs called the let Psalms, you know, Psalms is the hymn book for Israel, and Psalms has the lesser Halal and the greater Halal. The Hallelujah, you know, is we say Hallelujah. Their Hallel are these hymns of ascent. It's a going up. And if anybody, I know some folks went to Israel over spring break. If you have been to Israel and you've gone from Jericho up to Jerusalem, it is a going up. It's the same distance going up. It's about the same distance as going from here to the top of the pass. It's roughly 6,000 3,500 feet of lift, and there's an ascent and going up the wadi back and forth back and forth. And going up, would sing these songs. And the Psalms that they would primarily sing were Psalms one thirteen through eight one eighteen. I don't have time to do all of them today, but I'm going to go through one seventeen and one eighteen. One seventeen is the shortest psalm in the Psalms. There are a 150 psalms, and the shortest one is one seventeen, not far away from one nineteen, which is the longest. If you accidentally open your Bible right in the middle, you'll be right in the middle of Psalm one nineteen. It's good chances because it's super long, but Psalm one seventeen and one eighteen and then we're gonna get to one thirty six with a little audience participation. So in Matthew, this is the story of the entry we call the triumphal entry. So the disciples went, did as Jesus commanded them, y'all go up there and get this. You'll find this donkey in a colt. I've made the arrangements. They brought the donkey and the colt and they laid their clothes on that set, and they set him on them, and a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down branches from the palm trees and spread them on the road, and then the multitudes who went out before, and those who followed out crying, Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David. We've said it about 15 or 20 times since we got here. Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. So this is part of the lesser halal. I'm gonna hit Psalm one seventeen first. Praise the Lord all nations. Do you hear the s? Praise the Lord all nations. It's sort of a command for every nation, every family of the earth, everyone. Praise the Lord. All nations. And then it says, extol him, lift him up, see him as good because he is all peoples. It's more than just us. All peoples, all nations. Now that, if you're a New Testament believer in the twenty first century and you see this, you should be thinking every tribe, tongue, and nation gathered around the throne. Our great commission is to go you therefore to every tribe, tongue, and nation. Right? That's the way, all of the families of earth and that in Psalm one seventeen, which is just two verses long, is the command. Praise the Lord all nations, extol him all you peoples for great is his steadfast love toward us. Now, this us right here, that he's just asked the whole wide world, everybody in existence to praise God. And then he says, steadfast love is great toward us. Who's the Us? All of us. All the nations. Yeah. Connor, give it to me buddy. That is the way. Great is his steadfast love towards us on earth as it is in heaven. He loves all of us. And if you say, well, that's not really true. He's given some of us the right to be called the children of God. How did he do it? How did he do it? He did it through people who already know him. We are supposed to be a channel of blessing and when they're walk walking up that hill in Roman occupied territory, they're walking up the hill and they're singing, praise the Lord all ye nations. They're singing to Rome. They're singing to the Syrians. They're singing to everyone. Y'all should be praising him too because he's good. Extol him, lift him up all you peoples for his steadfast love toward all of us is great. Chesed. This is where I'm terrible with Jewish pronunciations. I'm sorry. Didn't study Hebrew. I'm from Georgia. I got all kinds of excuses. It's something like Chesed, Chesed, somewhere in there. This word, you might ride around town and see this car. I love Wyoming plates that you have one in the front and the one in the back. And this is Steve Gilmore, he's a pastor over in Driggs. He lives here in Jackson, does a reverse commute in this little car. And his car is Chesed on the front and Chesed oh, on the back. And Chesed on the front, and he sits between Chesed and Chesed. I love that because Chesed means loving kindness. It means mercy. In your translation, when you get to Psalm one seventeen where where our translation, the one I use I think is ESV today. It's steadfast love is what it translated as, but loving kindness. The loving kindness of God endures forever. Or you might hit the mercy of God endures forever. Think about that. Mercy is when you do not get a punishment that you deserve. That's mercy. And that, God's mercy endures forever. Think about that. Steadfast love. Steve whose car that was says, sticky love. It's a love that just sticks to you and it holds on to you. Steadfast and enduring love. Loyalty, faithfulness, goodness, all those are good translations of Chesed. So praise the Lord all nations, extol him all peoples for great is his chesed towards us and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is faithful. Great is thy faithfulness, my wife's favorite hymn. Great is thy faithfulness. God can be trusted to be the way he is. He is loving. He is caring. There will be people who choose not to accept it. Don't get me wrong. I'm not preaching universalism. I'm preaching that the invitation is open for all. There will be people who don't trust him and just reject it out of hand, and that will be to their peril. I understand that. But it doesn't mean that we shouldn't carry in our hearts that it's not just us that he loves. It is all of us that he loves and wants to draw in through the way we use our words and the way we use our life. His faithfulness endures forever. Faithfulness is another Jewish word. I think. It means truth, faithfulness, reliability, firmness, stability, certainty, trustworthiness. Doesn't sound good? That steadfast love is what he does is he is and what he does, and that it's always gonna be that way. That's good. That's really really good. So this is Psalm one seventeen, and this passage, Hemeth is Hemeth is presented as faithfulness. So that's it. Praise the Lord all nations extol him all peoples for great is his steadfast love toward all of us and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. It's a command. Praise the Lord. So that's the hallelujah. Hallelujah means praise the Lord. Yeah. Yeah is Yahweh. Praise the Lord. So praise him all you nations, the little song that I sang, clap in your hands, that's that command. It's the same kind of exuberant worship of a good and loving God who is reaching out to all. And for these folks, as they sang those songs of ascent, they're reminding themselves that this is good. It's very easy though to switch over and think us is just us. It's very easy in our minds to think it's just us. Well, I like how Paul put it to Timothy. It's a trustworthy saying. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm the foremost. I'm the chief sinner. I recognize my own sin, but I recognize that God reached out to me even in my rebellion. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so, he brought us out of the kingdom of darkness and placed us in the kingdom of marvelous light and it should come up with praise just coming out of our mouth because it's full in our heart. That's the way. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. That's it. So that's Psalm one seventeen. Would you mind, audience participation, reading this with me? Praise the Lord, all nations. Extol him, all peoples, for great is his steadfast love toward us and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. Amen. Y'all are good with that. That's good. That's gonna come in handy in a few minutes. Oh, good. Give thanks. This is one eighteen and we sang this a minute ago. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his has said, steadfast love endures forever. Let Israel, those are the people of God. Right? Let Israel say, this is where it starts. Wait a second. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever. Let all Israel say, these are the chosen people of God. Let Israel say, his steadfast love endures forever. Let the house of Aaron wait, that's a subset. That's not getting bigger, that's getting smaller. Let the house of Aaron say, his steadfast love endures forever. Let those who fear God say, his steadfast love endures forever. Out of my distress, I called on the Lord. I had hit the end of my self. Out of my distress, I called on the Lord and the Lord answered me and he set me free. Why? Because his steadfast love endures forever. The Lord is on my side. I'm not gonna fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side. He is my helper. I'm going to look to him and triumph on those who hate me. I can look and be seated at a table with my enemies and be alright about it because of his steadfast love. I know God loves me and I know also that he loves them. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than it is to trust in any man or woman. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. If you've got your faith in the government, it's in the wrong place. Yeah. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation and I recognize that. I was in peril, but now I'm saved. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I'm so glad. Glad songs of salvation are gonna be in the tents of the righteous, and I'm righteous only because he's called me righteous, only because of the righteousness of Christ. We can read this as New Testament Christians. We can read this and go, wow. It's an imputed righteousness that God has given. Glad songs of salvation which we sang all morning are in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord exalts, he lifts up. I I think of first Peter five so often, his humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you in due time. Same passage, a little further down, and after you have suffered for a little while, he will himself lift you up. He, the God of all grace, has called you into his eternity in Christ Jesus and he will perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Fantastic. The right hand of the Lord exalts, he lifts up. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die but I shall live and I shall recount the deeds of the Lord. There's another Psalm that says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Amen. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. If you are, then be talking about it. Say it. The Lord has disciplined me severely. Can I get a witness? No discipline is pleasant at the time, Hebrews says, but it's good for us. And this says, the Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. He took me to a place, and I can say personally, he took me to a place at the very beginning of our ministry twenty five years ago where I hit bottom, and I'm glad I was there. The discipline was severe, but I'm glad I went through it. I'm glad I went through it then and not now. I don't ever wanna go back there, but I'm thankful for it. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he's not giving me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness. I want to walk the path of righteousness. Open those gates Lord that I may enter through them and that I may always be giving thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter through it. In the New Testament, we hear and in the old that it's a narrow gate. There are few who will find it, but this is the gate. Trusting in the Lord, praising the Lord, the righteous shiner through it. I thank you that you have become that you have answered me and you have become my salvation. A few weeks ago, Dustin Flueckiger spoke on Psalm 86 and the Psalm 86 is always on my heart when I go into the ICU. I think I mentioned this last week too. It says, Lord, in our day of trouble, we call out to you because you answer us. When I am destitute and I'm needy, I call out. I don't have any other options. I've called on everything else. May it be when we go through hard times that God is our first response and not our last resort. May it be. Lord, help me. Should be on our lips at all times. I thank you that you've answered me. You've become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing and you know what? It's marvelous in our eyes. If we're paying attention, it ought to just awe us. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Now, they would sing these songs on their way up the hill, hymn of a sense and as they're singing them, it's exuberant and they're calling everybody to come in with them to get excited about what's gonna happen. Passover is one of those things. Hosanna, we've said it a bunch of times now. Hosanna has couple of meanings. It means, save us now. We're destitute. We have no hope without you. Save us now. There's a later meaning that sin prosperity now or yes, salvation. So that's the two. The older one is save us Lord now, and the newer one is yes, salvation. Amen. It's like before you've experienced, save us now. And you can say it again after you've experienced the salvation and say, yes, salvation. Okay. It's the same kind of thing. Aloha, aloha, means two different things. Save us now and I've experienced the salvation. Amen. Hosanna in the highest. That's where they get that from. They were looking to him and we spend a lot of time and I spend a lot of time talking about the political situation and historical setting and all that stuff, and all of the complicated politics of the matter and they thought that he was gonna be a conquering Messiah. And so probably when they were yelling this out, they were yelling it out to be, come and conquer these Romans for us because God loves us, not them. But what Jesus was coming for in the name of the Lord was to save not just them, but the Romans. Save us, we pray, oh Lord. This is 01/1825. Save us, we pray, oh Lord. Oh Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And you can see how that can be misunderstood, can't you? Get rid of that other group and just let us have our time. We want a chance to rule. Save us, we pray, oh Lord. Oh Lord, please, we pray. Give us success. Down with them, up with us. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. It's really easy, but when you say save all of us, Lord, it changes your perspective. It's bigger than that. Israel is supposed to be a light to the nations. Throughout the old testament, it comes up that they're supposed to be a light to the nations. Y'all, we are supposed to be a light to the nations. We are not supposed to huddle up and just congratulate each other about how awesome we are and tell each other that God loves us. God loves all of us and we need to be extending that love to all. Here we go. It's '20 that was '25 and '26. Blessed is he who comes in the name of Lord, which is quoted in Matthew 21 by the crowd. 27 says, the Lord is God. He has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. Now, that one in our day and time might be a little weird, but what they were just singing right here, they didn't connect that with this. And Jesus would be the festal sacrifice, bound, beaten. You are my God. This is really personal now. They've been singing as a group, but then it's calling out for everybody that's in that group to personalize and individualize. You are my God and I will give thanks to you no matter what anybody else does. You're my God and I will give thanks to you. You're my God and I will lift you up. I've called already on all the nations last chapter. All the nations lift you up, all give thanks to you, all extol you, but Lord, whether they do or they don't, I'm still going to do it. We'll give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever. That's where this comes from. His steadfast love endures forever. So that's the lesser Halil. Y'all have heard what it's what's it about? Chesed and Hemeth. It is about the steadfast love of God, mercy, loving kindness, beauty, wonderfulness, and his faithfulness to always be that way. Now, we're going into the greater Halil. So Psalm one thirty six starts off. It starts the same as several other Psalms. You know songs sometimes start the same as other songs. Psalm one zero six, one zero seven, and one eighteen, I'll start off with this. Praise the Lord. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is what? Good. And his steadfast love endures forever. And one zero seven says, oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good and his steadfast love endures forever. What a refrain. Psalm one eighteen, I just read. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Why? Because he is good and his steadfast love endures forever. Amen. This is the thing that I think, you know, sometimes we we go, what's the point? What's the point of this sermon? What's the point of this book? What's the point of this chapter? Especially if you're doing the first being the Bible writer thing, and you have five chapters of second Samuel that are due this evening before Like like me? What is the point? I want something that I know what the point is. Well, Psalm one thirty six one starts off the same way. Give thanks to the Lord. Why? For his goodness. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. That would be enough. He's just good. Give thanks to the Lord because he's good. And I will say, and at times, we sit in judgment of God and we think, well, that's not the way I would have done it. We need to remind ourselves of this, and I'll say we need to remind ourselves because this whole chapter is gonna remind ourselves of this. Because thanks to the Lord for he is good, and whenever you see this lit up for his steadfast love endures forever, would you read it with me? I'll we'll see. This might take a minute. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Give thanks to the God of all small g gods. Give thanks to the Lord of small l lords. Give thanks to the Lord why? Again, why? There you go. I knew that was going to happen. The next thing we're gonna be thanking him for is for creation. It starts off general revelation if you're a systematic theologian. God's general revelation. In Psalm 19, it says that day after day, creation bears testimony to God. There is no language where it cannot be understood and Romans one says, we are responsible just upon having the surroundings around us for knowing that there is a God. And if we push that away, we're guilty of suppressing the truth. He still loves everybody who feels that way. He's reaching out to him through you and me. So we are going to be thankful now for creation. To him alone who does great wonders, to him who by understanding made the heavens, all the complex relationships of all of the stars and planets and everything else. To him who spread out the earth above the waters. To him who made the great lights. Did you all see the full moon last night? Oh. Yeah. Can we just praise God for that? That was amazing. The sun to rule over the day. The moon and stars to rule over the night. And he brought Israel out from among them. Among who? Yep. Egypt for sure. He brought Israel out from among the Egyptians. But if we go back further than that, he brought out a people. If you're gonna save the world and you're gonna do it, well, the way God did it anyway, we can see how he did it. He called out one person and said, you leave what you know and go to a place that I'll show you. And it said, and he believed God and that was counted as righteousness. Abram. And from that one guy, from that one family, he keeps on moving it forward. So he really brought out Israel from among all the peoples of the earth, and he made a people for himself so that he could reach all the rest of the peoples of the earth. Right? He brought out Israel from among them, give thanks to the Lord. Why? For his gracious provision in the past. God has provided the first time that I thought about this, I thought about the sawmill that my grandfather, my great grandfather even had, and it was the way that God provided for my family in the past. And to personalize it, it's pretty awesome that he is that we're all here, first of all, and that God has made a way for us to be there. And in our hearts and in our minds, we should dwell on the gracious provision of God in the past. The way that Israel would do this to remind themselves a lot of times would be stand up a standing stone. I know you'll see them all over the the hiking trails around here. But stand up a stack of stones or stand up a tall stone, an Ebenezer stone and say, this is the place where God got us across that river. This is the place where God did this other gracious thing to us. For his gracious provision in the past, specifically to Israel now, we're gonna say, he brought Israel out from among them For his steadfast love. A strong hand and an outstretched arm To For his steadfast love and pure strength. Him who divided the Red Sea into two. And he made Israel pass through the midst of it. But he also overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. How do those two things go together? He loves us all. How do those two two things go together? He was delivering his people. There are some things I think we're gonna get to it here in just a second, but there are some things that are just true about God. His faithfulness means what's true about him has always been true about him, is always gonna be true about him. He gave Pharaoh a chance. He gave Pharaoh a chance. He gave Pharaoh a chance. Three times it says, and Pharaoh hardened his heart against God. The next time it says, God hardened his heart. He had a chance. Three different chances to let the people go. If we ignore the love of God, if we ignore the direction of God, we do so to our peril. There is a way to shipwreck your faith and it's to ignore and reject the goodness of God. He overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. It gets harder to say that when you read that. To him who led his people through the wilderness. Think about this, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, he led his people through the wilderness. Him who struck down great kings. That's hard for me to see, but we're gonna keep on going. He killed mighty kings. Again, I say, if you got your confidence in politics, you got it in the wrong place. Give thanks to the Lord. Wait a second. He's striking down kings now. He's smiting people. Why should I give thanks for that? His faithfulness. He knows what he's doing. He can be trusted. That's it's hard, but the truth is God resists the proud and he tells us that throughout the old testament in every story. Paul says in Corinthians that what happened to them was as an example for us. What he's saying is, it was true and it's also a morality tale for us. So we can see the proud are always eventually defeated and the humble are always eventually exalted. It's not immediate. After you've suffered for a little while, you'd be lifted up. God resists the proud. He killed mighty kings. His steadfast love endures forever. We have to remember that because when we see things that don't make sense to us, if we frame it as God, your steadfast love endures forever. I don't get this. I don't understand this. It really helps us to say but I trust you. It helps us to get to where the Psalm has spends much of the Psalms. You know, at least a third of them are lament where it's, how long will I wrestle with my thoughts? How long will I have sorrow in my heart? I don't know, but I trust in your unfailing love. That's this, his steadfast love endures forever. Now, he's going to list the kings. Sihon, king of the Amorites and Og, king of Bashan. What a rich country, Bashan. God resists the proud. And he gave their land as a heritage. He gave his him their land as a heritage to Israel, his servant. Think about that. What is a servant? Humble. You have to be. For his steadfast love endures forever. It is he who remembered us in our low estate. That sounds like the Mary's Magnificat. Yep. He remembered me in my low estate. Humility before God is is where we need to stay. It's where we need to be. It's he who remembered us in our lowest state. And he rescued us from our foes. For steadfast love endures forever. It's he who remembered us in our lowest state for his steadfast love endures. He rescued us from our foes for his steadfast love endures forever. God resists the proud. But he gives grace to the humble and that is the difference between whether it's the difference in heaven and hell. It's the difference in eternity. It's the differences whether you're going to face it with pride and say, I'll take my own way. Thank you very much or I trust you. Years ago, we had boys Boy Scouts have been meeting here ninety something years And they asked me, there are two kids that wanted a religious badge. They had all the other badges. They want a religious badge. I'm a Baptist preacher. Why not? Sure. So I met with these two kids. One of them went to church here. The other one didn't. And I sat them down. I said, so for this religious badge, like, can tell him anything I want to. I said, yes. I'm I'm telling the gospel and he said, yeah. They're asking you to tell him. Teach him what it's all about. I said, alright. A little bit of God gives grace to the humble and he resists the proud and this is the plan of salvation, draw it out on a little page, and then I asked him, I said, so what what do you have to do to be saved? The kid who went to church here goes, you gotta be nice to my sister. He went through all the all the stuff and he said, I got I need to read my Bible. I need to pray more. I need to do that. All the stuff is good stuff. I turned to the other kid and he goes, you said it was about Jesus. Right? I said, yeah. He said, he already did it. I said, yeah. I said, I'll take that. Okay. If you insist on doing it your way, you do so to your peril. If you take God's way, it's a beautiful and wonderful thing. It takes the burden off of you to work for your salvation and it allows God then to fill your life, direct your life, empower your life, and use your life. He gives food to all flesh. This is include not just all peoples but all birds and animals and everything. He gives food to all flesh. That's what God does. General revelation. He causes his reign to fall on the just and the unjust. He is generally good, not just specifically good to us. He gives food to all flesh. It's not just about us. God's chosen people, Israel back in the Old Testament and us in the New. Do you all remember this story? It's from Joshua. So I'm only going to use two, just two verses from Joshua. Rahab is hiding the spies. Right? She's hiding the spies and they tell her, hang a scarlet cord out the window. And that's the picture, an old etching, but this is an interesting passage. This is Rahab's speech to them after what we just read in Psalm one thirty six. Now, they're going from Jericho up the hill to Jerusalem, you know, and these spies have been sent to see, can we take this can we take this land? God told him to take it. So yes. Rahab says, we've heard we've heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. And we heard what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan to Sihan and to Og, the two guys that were listed in Psalm one thirty six, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our own hearts melted within us, neither did there remain any more courage to fight anyone because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. The praises of the people of God convinced the enemies of God to turn to him. At least in Rahab's case. Right? There were other people who would resist because of tradition, because of patriotism, because of whatever. They would resist it. But people who listen to the praises of God's people saw what God did because they were declaring the goodness of God, and she wanted to be taken into the family of God. Will you protect me? Will you protect mine? And they did. And God did. And she's in the line of Jesus, in the genealogy of Jesus. Right? In our habitually praising God, we will make the way for others to know and trust in him. When you go through hard times and you are still praising God, even though it's difficult, it makes a way for other people to see, boy, that's a better way than I went through that or would go through that. Not only does he hear and listen to our praise, he uses it on other people. In the very beginning, right before the law was given when Moses was having his experience with God in Exodus thirty four six and seven, we see this. This is God's own description of who he is. So the Lord passed before Moses and and the Lord himself proclaimed this, the Lord, the Lord, a God is merciful and gracious. He's slow to anger and he's abounding how? In steadfast love. And in faithfulness, he's the same. He's keeping steadfast love to the thousands generation. He forgives iniquity and transgression and sin. That's how God describes himself. If we describe him as just being all about the wrath of God, without describing his steadfast love, we have given an inaccurate description. If we give his steadfast love as only for us and ours, we have given an inaccurate description. It does go on from there and say there is wrath. I I stopped right there on purpose. Seven b is a little rough. But he keeps steadfast love to the thousandth generation. It says the sins of the father are visited on the kids and on their grandkids, three generations. But God's love overcomes all of that to the thousandth generation. His steadfast love endures forever. It's available to all, but not all will accept it. That is lamentable that not all will accept it. No one will stand without it, but with it, no one will be defeated. His steadfast love endures forever, and that's worthy of our proclamation and our praise. And I think that's the last thing I have ever. Psalm one thirty six twenty six. I'm sorry. This is the last verse of that Psalm. Give thanks to the God of heaven. Why? There are tons of personal examples that you can think of right now. We've got folks here who've been here all winter skiing and they're going home today and I'm going to miss them. But they'll be back. We've got a wonderful associate pastor we've had for so long and he leads us well and he loves us all and he's gonna be going forward moving away. But God's steadfast love endures forever. When we go through hard times, we need to remember this. When we go through times of elation and joy, we need to remember this. Can I ask you what was the point of Psalm one thirty six? Okay. Alright. That's it. I get the band back up here. We're gonna sing one more exuberant song and then we're gonna go out and spread to the best of our abilities, the steadfast love of the Lord. In Jesus name, would you stand with us? More hosanna. Yes. I actually, I I'm gonna call an audible here if I can. Okay. Good. And I wanna sing forever again. Perfect. That's good. We'll put an exclamation point on that sermon. What do you say? Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord all ye people shout unto God with a voice of triumph. How about one more time? His Let us know your prayer. Amen. May we carry it out Lord in Jesus name. Amen.