Palm Sunday Sermon @ First B Jackson April 13th 2025
First B Jackson
2025-04-13

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Movement of music through minor keys and back out again. That's like the the Easter story and song right there. It is Palm Sunday. I mentioned that already. We've sung some Hosannas already.

For the last 11 times, maybe 12 times. If y'all been here on a Palm Sunday, you've heard me preach basically a similar message because I want to tell the story. I don't want to change the characters. I want to tell the story for what it says but I often go into a part about us being fickle people like we can own Palm Sunday welcome Jesus in with a triumphal entry, Hosanna, Hosanna, and then by Friday, be screaming, crucify him as a people and I I tend to go through the days of the week of this Holy Week and Maundy Thursday is a lot of tough teaching from Jesus, right? And then Good Friday is anything but on the front side of resurrection Sunday.

Good Friday is really really hard and on Palm Sunday, I try to bring all of that every time. I'm not doing that this time. I'm going to try to take us back to what the people who were walking into Jerusalem or up from Jericho to Jerusalem. What they would have been singing, the mind that they would have had in mind, what they would have been singing, the Psalms of Ascent is what it's called. The the lesser Halel or the Psalms songs of Ascent, a going up from the the river valley down below up to Jerusalem up at the top of the mountain and they would normally sing the same hymns in the hymn book, the Psalms 113 through 118 and you can ring one thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen on your own time this afternoon if you want to.

I'm going to concentrate on one hundred seventeen and one eighteen and then together, we're going to go through Psalm one thirty six, okay? That this is the plan for this Palm Sunday. I I would like for us to join together in the same frame that Israel had been doing this for many many years. When in celebration of the Passover, people come from all over the place and when they're doing the Psalms of Ascent, they are singing praises to God and these are a couple of em and then on the day, triumphal entry day, part of what they're saying to Jesus comes from these the the the greater Halel. So, here we go.

Matthew twenty one six through nine is Matthew's version of story. He says, so the disciples went, they did just as Jesus commanded him. He told him to go and see a guy about this donkey and a colt and they brought the donkey and the colt and they put their own clothes, the outer clothing on the donkey and the colt and he sat upon them and a very great multitude of people spread their own clothes out on the ground and others cut down branches, palm branches we see from other places in scripture and they spread them in front of him on the road and then the multitudes who went on before him and they followed were crying out saying, Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is he, Hosanna in the highest and so, that's the portion from the gospels but this these are the songs that would be leading up to that moment, okay?

And they had been doing this year after year after year. Just like we sing Christmas carols, they sang Passover carols as they were walking up in great multitudes. Psalm one hundred seventeen and eighteen. This is Psalm 117 and I want you to pay attention to what it says. Praise the Lord.

Hallelujah. It's praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. All nations.

Do you hear the S? It's all of em. All of the nations, all of the families of the world. If you're a New Testament Christian, you should hear that and go, this is for every tribe, tongue, and nation. You might even be here in Revelation five nine and there was a great multitude such that cannot be counted from every tribe, tongue, and nation and they were surrounding the throne and they were singing with one voice.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, right? Revelation seven nine, same story. Every tribe, tongue, and nation. So, Psalm 117 is only two verses long and it is something that we should all keep in our hearts. If we were Awana children, this is a great one to memorize, right?

Praise the Lord all nations. It's for everybody. Extol him. Lift up God all you peoples and it's a plural. It's not just one people.

It's not just Israel, the chosen people of God. It's somebody who knows God doing a third person command, plural, to everyone else. Praise the Lord all you nations. Extol him. Lift up God all you peoples for great is his steadfast love toward us.

Now, this us, us. Since there's an S up there on nations and since there's an S on peoples, who is us? Everybody. God's love towards everybody. Now, I know that not everybody knows God and I know some of you are saying to those that believe in him, he gave the rights to be called the children of God.

Yes, that's true. But this is a Psalm of exuberant praise for a god who loves. His steadfast love towards us is not just towards just us. For the God's chosen people, Israel, for those who had received the love, yeah, that's that's them but it's also for everybody else. For those of us who have received the transmitted love of God that is coming towards us, we recognize it and we accept it.

You've accepted the gospel. Fantastic. Your very next way of thinking is, this is so wonderful. Everybody should know it. Everybody should rest in this sort of love.

It's steadfast. Great is his steadfast love toward us. Now, the word there is chesed. I am from Georgia. I do not speak Hebrew.

This is probably the worst pronunciation ever. But chesed chesed is God's love is described as has said. There's a good friend of mine. I talked to him almost every Friday and a lot of times in between. This is the back of his car, Hasid.

This is the front of his car because we've got plates on both sides in Wyoming and so he sits between Hasid and Hasid. It is a great reminder, little Subaru plug for you there, Dave. Has said and Hasid, he is sitting in between those two plates and he is surrounded by the steadfast love of God. Ain't that cool? He's a preacher.

Stinker. Ain't that great? Think that was a great thought when he personalized his plates. He said, I want to know that I'm sitting between in within, among the steadfast love of God. That's what I don't want to forget.

So, these are all good translations of this Hebrew word. Loving kindness in some of your translations, it'll say, the loving kindness of God endures forever. Mercy, mercy is when you don't get a punishment, you do deserve. Steadfast love. That's the translation that the English standard version is using.

That's the one I'm using today. Steadfast love. Loyalty, he remains loyal. Faithful, faithfulness, goodness, but steadfast love. We'll go with that.

What Steve who owned that car and those plates, he calls it sticky love. It's the kind of love that God has for us that just stays with us. That's beautiful. He has that kind of love that he's transmitting out because God is love. So he's transmitting that love.

Is it possible to reject it? Yes. Is it possible to deny it? Yes. But you do so to your own peril.

Right? There will be those who do not accept the love that God is transmitting their way. I pray that it wouldn't be because of us, right? Praise the Lord all nations. Extol him all peoples for great is his steadfast love towards all of us and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Faithfulness is another Hebrew word and it means truth, faithfulness, reliability, firmness, stability, certainty, trustworthiness. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The way that he is is the way that he was and it is the way that he will be and that's something that should be comforting for us especially since his faithfulness is in the context of his steadfast love. He is steadfastly loving. Praise the Lord.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah is the Halil Yeah is Yahweh. So, hallelujah is the hallelujah and it means praise the Lord and every time I say praise the Lord or CPTL or something like that, I think of Ramona Roeders. Do you all think of her? She little Ramona Roaters when you came up to her and said pretty much anything.

Her response was praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. To have that be the first thing that comes to mind. I pray that we would be thinking about that. That he deserves it.

Praise him all you nations. Extol him all peoples. Great is his steadfast love towards all of us and his faithfulness endures forever. You can trust him. Now, I'm going to ask for audience participation.

Would you read it with me? Praise the Lord, all nations. Extol him, all peoples, for great is his steadfast love towards us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. Is his desire that all would come to know him.

We know that. He's not slack concerning his promise. We know that he wants them to know him but his plan A for them getting to know him is us transmitting the message faithfully. If we get stuck on The Us and we think it's just for us, the ones who already know him, then we are not doing our job. We're not transmitting anymore.

We're only receiving. We are hoarding the blessing of God and shame on us if we find ourselves in that mindset. In some ways, that's the reason that Paul in the next time we get back to Paul's missionary journeys, He's going to go into the synagogues. He's going to present the message. They're going to reject it and he says, you know what?

I'm going to the nations because God's will is that every tribe, tongue, and nation would have a chance and if you're going to hoard the blessing, I'm skipping over you and I'm going to keep on going and that's true then and it'd be true for us now, okay? We need to be transmitting the message faithfully. Psalm one eighteen, very next thing in the Bible, in the hymnal of Israel, oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever. Let Israel, the chosen people of God.

Let Israel say, his steadfast love endures forever. Let the house of Aaron, that's a subset of Israel. Let them say, his steadfast love endures forever. That's three times in three verses. 118 has said this, to those who fear the Lord, God fearers, we just covered Cornelius in our study of Acts.

He was described as a god fearer. He would have been someone hanging around the periphery in Israel, not completely a proselyte, not completely all the way in but this is a command to him. Let those who fear the Lord Say, his steadfast love endures forever. Out of my distress, I called on the Lord and the Lord answered me and he set me free. That's something to be happy about.

Psalm 86, a few weeks ago, Dustin Flueckenjerg was up here and he was presenting Psalm 86. I think of it every time I go into the ICU or every time I go into difficult situation where we don't have any other options. All other options have been exhausted. In my distress, I called out. Lord, I call out to you my day of trouble because you answer me.

In my distress, I call on the Lord and the Lord answer me and he set me free. Amen. The Lord is on my side. Who have had a fear? What can man do to me if God's on my side?

God plus one. I mean, me plus God is a majority, right? Lord's on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

The Lord's on my side as my helper. I shall look and triumph on those who hate me. Actually, David is a very likely source of this Psalm right here and the thinking behind this Psalm is what allows him to say, you prepare a table in front of me with my enemies and I don't have any fear about being there. I'm fine. I'm going to be fine.

The Lord is on my side as my helper. I shall look and triumph on those who hate me. That's what allows us to love those who are our enemies. Pray for those who persecute us. They don't know God yet.

How can we expect that they would act like they do? I'll look and triumph on those who hate me. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than it is to trust in any man. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. If you've got your faith in the government, you got it in the wrong place.

God is above that. Yes. There's some authority that God has given there but you don't put your trust ultimately in that. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than it is to trust in princes. The Lord is my strength and he is my song.

He's become my salvation and this is about salvation. We stand in peril if we don't accept the love of God. If we say, I'm going to do it on my own. I did it my way. That didn't work.

We'll get into that in Psalm one thirty six. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are the ones in the tents of the righteous. There's another Psalm that says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

If God has saved you, be telling somebody about it, right? I don't know. My favorite testimony of all time is two words long with a comment between it is. Man, what happened to you? You're different than you ever were before.

I've known you for years and years. I can't tell you what but something's different about you and the guy would just say, Jesus, man. Jesus, man. He's glad songs of salvation. They're in the tents of the righteous.

Are any of us righteous? We carry an imputed righteousness by trusting in Jesus. Now, if you go back and you see how God protected folks in the Old Testament and how his Holy Spirit was visited upon them for a time. It's an amazing thing to live in the New Testament age of grace where the Holy Spirit is writing God's law in our heart and he's abiding within us and he is able to direct us and empower us. It's amazing.

Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteousness of righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord lifts up and when I see exalts, my first thought is first Peter five. First Peter five where it says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that he may exalt you. Humility and pride will come up again in 136.

I won't spend a lot of time on it but that part from Peter, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your cares on him. He cares for you. After you've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, he who called you into his eternity in Christ Jesus. He will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, establish you.

The right hand of the Lord exalts. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. He is good. I shall not die but I shall live. In him, I have life and life eternal.

Life abundant and eternal and I will recount the deeds of the Lord. What they used to do in Israel is stand up standing stones. Sometimes like monolithic, really big stones and they'd say, that's the place where God got us across that river or that's the place where God did this for our people. That's the way that God took care of our family. I'm going to recount the deeds of the Lord.

You remember that time that God got us across that river? Yeah. I shall not die but I shall live. I recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely.

I love this. No discipline is pleasant at the time. Hebrews says, but in the end, it's really good for us. It's not fun to buffet the body for whatever sports you're playing but it does you good to do that and the Lord has disciplined me severely, but he's not giving me over to death. It didn't kill me.

It brought me through. I can say personally testify, hey, I went through a very very hard time twenty five years ago. Moving to the Mishfield, hardest thing, and the Lord has disciplined me severely. I'm glad he did it then. I'm glad I didn't have to go through it now the same way.

You get to a place of trust in that. Even the hard stuff that he does, he does for a reason. He's not giving me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness, lord. Allow me that I may enter in through them and that I may recognize it's not on my merit but I can give thanks to the Lord for that.

This is the gate of the Lord and the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you and these are songs now. Imagine, you're walking from Jericho which is about right here at first B and you're walking up to Jerusalem. It's about the same distance and it's about the same altitude change to the top of the path. You're going up to hike up to glory, right?

Glory Bowl. You're walking from here and you've got songs to sing. One thirteen, one fourteen, one fifteen, one sixteen. We hit one seventeen. Thank you.

Thank you lord. It was a short one. One eighteen is a little longer. I thank you that you answered me, lord, that you have become my salvation. I'm walking up this hill to celebrate you.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. We know that's Jesus. This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. We are in awe of you and what you have done lord. We didn't deserve it yet you saved us and we're going to celebrate that.

Now, they're going up for Passover. They're going up to celebrate getting out of Egypt. God made of them a great nation while they were in slavery in Egypt. No discipline is pleasant at the time but they became a great nation and then wandering through the wilderness, they are coming to this land. The Passover is what they're going to celebrate.

The Lord, this is the Lord's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it.

Hosanna is the next word we'll see in 01/1825. Hosanna is right there. Oh Lord, I beseech you and hosanna means save us now. Actually, are two meanings. The two meanings of hosanna.

It's a little bit like aloha. Can mean hello and can mean goodbye. Probably means a lot of other stuff too. The two meanings are the older meaning and the one that probably is most associated with the Psalm is save us now. Save us now.

It's a calling out because we're destitute and we do not have the means for saving ourselves. So, save us now. Hosanna means save us now but after you've received it, it also means, yes. Yay for salvation. That's why you wave the palms, right?

As Christians, that's why you wave the palms. Now, most of the time when I present this, we get to Hosanna, the son of David and I say, well, that's a quote from here. This is what they're doing. Save us, we pray, oh Lord. Save us.

We pray, oh Lord. And most of the time when I present this, I go, okay, Roman oppression, Israeli puppet client kingdom under Roman oppression and they're saying, save us. Lord, give us success against those nasty Romans. We hate their guts. They're terrible.

But the Psalm is true and it save all of us. Lord, save them too. Save us all because we don't have a way out except for you, oh Lord. Oh Lord, we pray. Give us success.

If we think that we're asking just for our own success, we have a very limited view. God, save us. We need you. We're praying lord. Oh Lord, we pray.

Give us success. We want to have success in sharing who you are with the rest of the nations. We want to have success in caring for the love and kindness and the steadfast love that you have for all of us. We want to show that to other people. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

The Lord is God and he has made his light to shine upon us. Now, this next one, bind the festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. When you read that, you wouldn't think that the festal sacrifice would be the one who comes in the name of the Lord. They're just thinking, we we sacrifice every day, all the time. There are lots of sacrifices.

We know all the rules. Passover is a big time. We're coming in and there going be a lot of sacrifice going on. But they didn't equate these two. They didn't equate that the one who's coming in the name of the Lord would be the festal sacrifice who would before the end of the week be tied up and beaten.

And sacrificed voluntarily. Now, it gets really individual. It's gone from peoples, nations, all of us, us, and then it comes down to the same exact thing. You are my God and I will give thanks to you even if everybody else does and I am with you lord. You are my God and I will lift you up.

It's my responsibility to always be thankful and always be lifting you up. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. That verse 29 of one eighteen is the close and it mirrors the first verse and so it's really important. That said, it's said twice. It's really important.

Everything's in the Bible is important but I think you're going to get the point before the end of this sermon. What we're here to celebrate today. The greater Halal, Psalm one thirty six is upon arrival at Jerusalem for the Passover. This is the Psalm and everything has been hinting at it. One thirteen, one fourteen, one fifteen, one sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen, all have been but then we get to this greater halal and it is an audience participation thing.

Okay? Call and response eventually here. Psalm one thirty six starts exactly the same as several other Psalms. Some of them that they would have been singing along their way like the wheels on the bus go round and round or found a peanut or one of those songs. They've been singing these songs.

Everybody knows these songs. Some people might be annoyed by these songs. Hope not. Psalm one zero six, one zero seven, and one eighteen all start basically like this. Praise the Lord.

Hallelujah. Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever. One zero six. Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever.

One zero seven. One eighteen. Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever. Even verse 29, oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his steadfast love, endures forever.

What do you think the point of that is? His steadfast love endures forever. He still loves. If we've set ourselves apart and we think, well, yeah, he loves us but he hates all those other people. Yeah.

His wrath stands upon them. He is loving them through us. If we separate it out and we go, well, of course, he loves us. Then, we put ourselves in a place of meriting God's grace and we don't. It's by his mercy, it's by his grace, it's by his steadfast love that we have even been exposed to this love, this word, this truth, and so we are to be transmitting it, reflecting it, carriers of it.

So, we go. One thirty six one. I'm going to start off and we'll see if our rhythm starts to flow here in a minute but I'd like for you to join me. I'll let you know when. Give thanks to the Lord is the way it starts off and then it answers the question, why?

Give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, first of all. His goodness in the verse one of one thirty six, it says, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. You could meditate on this for the rest of your life. He's good and honestly, if we stop right there and we reflect on our own life, do we question whether or not God is good? A lot of us do.

A lot do. A lot of us say, Oh, that's not the way I would have done it. I can't believe he lets that go on. Why is that war raging? What is going on here?

God, what? You should have delegated that. My goodness. You must not be paying attention. Either you're not all powerful or you're not all good.

God is all good. And this is reminding us of that fact. And the fact that they were singing this when they're going into Jerusalem and the son of God is going to be sacrificed by the end of the week. For the sins of everyone, all nations, every tribe, tongue, and nation. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.

We need to keep that in mind even on Maundy Thursday, even on Good Friday, even on silent Saturday. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. This is your part. For his steadfast love endures forever. Verse two, give thanks to the capital G God of small g gods for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the capital L Lord of small l Lords for his steadfast love endures forever. So, give thanks to lord. We've already covered his goodness there for creation. The Bible says in Psalm 19 that day after day, the heavens are telling the glory of God. That the firmament, the earth, the creation is spouting forth language and there's no language where it cannot be understood.

In Romans one, it says, that alone is enough to make us responsible for God before God. That we recognize that there is a god and he is good just from seeing creation and we're going to get into that for the next few verses but the creation sings every day, all day, all night. There's no language where it can't be understood. Psalm 19. To him alone who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who by understanding, he knows better than we do. Remember when Job finally questioned him? Brace yourself like a man. Where were you when I hung all the stars in place? To him who by his own understanding, can you imagine the astrological, astronomical stuff that God had going on to make all of that happen to him who by his own understanding made the heavens.

For his steadfast love endures forever. Creation is a gift that speaks to all. It is God's general revelation. To him who spread out the earth above the waters for his steadfast love endures forever. To him who made the great lights for his steadfast love endures forever.

To for the sun to rule over the day. Can I get a witness? My goodness. Isn't it great to see the sunshine? Oh, I feel so much better.

I feel so much better. I'm a solar powered person. I love it so much. The sun to rule over the day For steadfast love endures forever. And the moon and stars to rule over the night.

Did anybody walk out last night and see that beautiful full moon in a sky full of stars? That's love. Endures forever. And he brought Israel out from among them. In specific, he's probably right here talking about Egypt.

Since they're walking up to the Passover and he's saying, he brought Israel out from among them. It's probably about Egypt but think about this. It's not just about Egypt. It's a little vague and I think intentionally vague because God called his people out from among all of the peoples. When he spoke to Abraham, he spoke to Abraham and said, Abraham, leave the place that you know, the land of your fathers, everything that you know, and go to a place that I'll show you and Abraham, it says, believed God, amen.

He believed in his goodness. He believed in his direction. He believed God and that was counted to him as righteousness. Where there was no righteousness, he called him. He started with one guy and that guy's family and then from there, it spread and then now, it's getting to be a people and now the people are spread.

Then, they get to be in Egypt. That's a terrible time but it made him into a great people and so when he calls them out from among them, yeah, it's Egypt but it's also all the way back to Abraham. If you're going to save all peoples, groups, all people groups, if you're going to reach out to all the peoples, how you going to do it? His plan A is people to people. Human agency is the primary way that God spreads.

Yes, there are dreams and visions. Yes, there's his words specific revelation but the main way is from people that are willing to say, Jesus, man. It's just Jesus. I I don't understand it completely but I know I know he did it to me. He brought Israel out from among them.

Why did he do that? He was providing for them. He was making a way when there was no way. So this next portion is going to be about for his gracious provision in the past. For me, I think back on my family and I think, wow, my my family, I I have gone through this Psalm one other time since I've been here and I think, wow, for five or six generations, we had a sawmill and that sawmill was the way that God provided for my little family, you know.

For people with strong backs and a work ethic and all that sort of stuff. He he gave us his word and he provided for us in the past and for that, I'm thankful for a legacy of a Christian heritage, I guess, but it's still gotta be accepted. Right? It was transmitted towards but had to be received. But for his gracious provision in the past, that's what we're gonna see about Israel here.

He brought Israel out from among them. Why? His steadfast love endures forever. With a strong hand and an outstretched arm, he's reaching out to them. Why?

For his To him who divided the Red Sea in two. He got their backs in a situation where they were surrounded. They were between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army and he divided the Red Sea in two. And he made Israel pass through the midst of it. We're with him so far but he overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea.

Now, all of the rest of this, I've been saying us is everybody, everybody, everybody, everybody. It is everybody. He overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. Think back to how that happened. Moses, go to Pharaoh.

Tell him let my people go. What Pharaoh say? He hardened his heart and he said, no, you're not leaving. Even sometimes when he felt like it was going be soft and said, yeah, go ahead. No.

No. No. No. No. Never.

I'll just never mind. He overthrew Pharaoh. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart.

By the time you get to the fourth one that messes with everybody where it says and then God hardened Pharaoh's heart. He'd already rejected the will and the love and the direction of almighty God three times. We don't know how long his patience will last. He overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea and the main reason for that is because Pharaoh rejected him. Pharaoh wanted to remain God himself, small G on the throne and not allow God almighty to be his God.

He overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. To him who led his people through the wilderness. Think about that. A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night and he kept that crowd moving. You were on it.

Thank you, Shane. To him who struck down great kings. Again, I see this and I go, oh, I don't like saying that his steadfast love is what struck down those kings but it is. It is. To him who struck down great kings, his steadfast love endures forever and he killed mighty kings.

God smoked mighty kings. How? Why? For steadfast love endures forever. Now, go back to give thanks to the Lord.

I I don't understand that. Lord, why is it that you're smiting people if you love them so much? Because he's faithful and he's true. He's always been the same and anytime that pride rears its ugly head, God resists it and every time that humility is presented before God. He accepts it and he gives it grace and these mighty kings must have been mighty proud.

God resist the proud. That's the way that he is. It's a truth in the Old Testament's truth is brought up three times in the New Testament specifically that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. He killed mighty kings for steadfast love endures forever. Sihan, that's going to name the kings.

Sihan, king of the Amorites For his steadfast love endures forever. And Og, the king of Bashan. Bashan is a very rich territory with great grass and wonderful cows. For his steadfast love, he will endure forever. Yep.

God resists the proud and this says, and he gave that land of Og and Sihan, the one they had. He gave their land as a heritage, a heritage, excuse me, he gave their land as a heritage. A heritage to Israel, his servant. Now, what are servants? Are they proud?

No. Mm-mm. It's a humble estate. He gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to Israel, his servant. Why?

For steadfast love endures forever. It is he who remembered us in our lowly estate. That sounds like the Magnificat from Mary, right? When the angel visited her and said, this is the way it's going be. May it be to me just if you have said, you have remembered your servant in my lowest state.

That's what she's, that's what she's talking about. He remembered us in our lowest state. For a steadfast love endures forever. And he rescued us from our foes. He got us out of the tight spot, for a steadfast love endures forever.

It's he who remembered us in our low estate, and he rescued us from our foes. God resists the proud. But the low estate says he gives grace to the humble and that has always been the way that it was. If Abraham had said, nope, I'm staying right here. I got a pretty good inheritance where I am.

That'll kick off before long and all this will be mine but that's not the way. That's not God's way. He said, yes, lord. I believe you. He gives food to all flesh.

This is not just to us and to outsiders, Gentiles, nations, all peoples. This is birds and animals and everything else. God, who gives food to all flesh. It's not just about us. It's not just about the ones he's called.

It's all flesh. I I want to share a quick story. It's two verses from Joshua. It's just two verses. Remember the story of Rahab?

Rahab, there are two spies that go out and she hides the spies and she has a little speech and her speech, Rahab's speech is this, there she is. They said, hang a scarlet cord out so we we know the house not to attack, right? But listen to what she says to them. Now, imagine that they are going up and singing this song and going up and singing this song and going up and singing this song and they have been recounting what God did for them to bring em out of Egypt and what God did. Rahab says, for we have heard, you hear something that people proclaim.

You hear something that people say. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt And what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan. Sihan and Og. Hey, just those two guys that were mentioned in Psalm one thirty six. We heard what you did.

You utterly destroyed them. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any courage, any more courage in anyone to fight against this. If God is on your side and he's that powerful, we don't mess with that. And Rahab recognizes that and says, the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

Because of the praises of God's people, Rahab becomes one of God's people. Does that make sense? If they're faithfully telling the story of a good God whose steadfast love endures forever and she says, I want to be a part of that. You know, she's included in the genealogy of Jesus? He is steadfastly loving and he's reaching out to all and he's doing it through us.

So, think about this. In our habitually praising him, God will make the way for others to know and trust him. If the redeemed of the Lord will say so, God will make a way for them to catch this and you think, I feel like I'm beating my head against while trying to evangelize. Keep on praising God for what he's done. Keep on recognizing what God has done In our habitually praising him, God makes the way for others to know and trust him.

Not only does he hear and listen to our praise. I am destitute lord. I don't have any other way. May it be our first response and not our last resort when we recognize we're in a tight spot to reach out to God and recognize when he delivers us. He does listen our to our prayers.

He also uses it in the lives of other people. If you think that God is wrath and that's what you tend to go to and that's your that's your typical way of presenting him is that you stand accused and under the wrath of God. I want you to listen to how God describes himself. This is in Exodus 34. When Moses says, please tell me who you are.

Show me who you are and God says to Moses, the Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a god who's merciful and gracious. I'm slow to anger and abounding in Chesed, steadfast love. And faithfulness, keeping steadfast love to the thousandth generation and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and if you keep on going, it does say, yeah, the sins of the father are passed down to the second and third generation but God's forgiveness goes on to the thousandth generation. It is steadfast and good and yes, we can mess it up and yes, we can reject it but what God is is this. That's the way he presents himself.

His steadfast love endures forever. It is available to all. I do believe that the appeal is universal to absolutely every soul but not all will accept it. I'm I'm not preaching universalism. Please don't hear it that way.

His love is towards us and towards all of us. It's available to all, but not all will accept it. No one will stand without it because that's just the way that it is but with it, no one will be defeated. His steadfast love endures forever. And that is worthy of our proclamation.

That is worthy of our praise. We should be saying that that the steadfast love of God endures forever. So, last verse of Psalm 136 right here, give thanks to the God of heaven for his steadfast love endures forever. Amen. I think that's all I got for you this morning.

Did anybody get the point of the sermon? Okay. So, in our highs, his steadfast love endures forever. In our lows, steadfast love endures forever. In the death of a dear loved one, His steadfast love endures forever.

In having the most wonderful associate pastor a person could dream of, leave and go to Alabama, His steadfast love endures forever. God has his own way of doing things and his own plan and he can be trusted to come through for us. Would you stand? And sing with me. Have that own way, lord.

We trust you.