Sermon for 2/6/22

Psalm 138

This morning I'll be reading Psalm 138 verses 1 through 8. And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Psalm 138 This psalm was written by David to show "his" thankfulness to God,,, for answered prayers.

Psalm 138 (HCSB) Davidic. 1 I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing Your praise before the heavenly beings. 2 I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your constant love and truth. You have exalted Your name and Your promise above everything else. 3 On the day I called, You answered me; You increased strength within me. 4 All the kings on earth will give You thanks, Lord, when they hear what You have promised. 5 They will sing of the Lord’s ways, for the Lord’s glory is great. 6 Though the Lord is exalted, He takes note of the humble; but He knows the haughty from a distance. 7 If I walk into the thick of danger, You will preserve my life from the anger of my enemies. You will extend Your hand; Your right hand will save me. 8 The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me. Lord, Your love is eternal; do not abandon the work of Your hands. God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning. Let us pray: Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen. ----------------------------------------------------------- Last week we looked at the verses in Luke 4:21-30.

These verses were a continuation of the verses from the previous Sunday,,, (Luke 4:14-21),,, where in those previous verses,,, we seen that Jesus went back to His hometown of Nazareth,,, He entered the synagogue “as usual” to teach,,, and after reading from the scroll the scripture that we know today as Isaiah 61 verse 1 and the first half of verse two,,, then He told them,,, that today this scripture has been fulfilled.

And as we continued in our study of verses 21-30,,, we seen that at first the people of Nazareth were amazed at His words,,, but then they began to question themselves as to whether this could really be happening,,, “isn’t this Joseph’s son,,, didn’t we watch Him grow up here?”

The problem was similar to the problem that we have today,,, the people of Nazareth thought that they knew who Jesus was,,, but they lacked the relationship with Him to truly “know” Him!

Today,,, we have many that know “about Jesus”,,, they come to church on Sunday as they “should”,,, but on Monday,,, there is no difference in the way that they act than anyone else,,, when there should be a difference in the way that they live,,, each and every day.

Just like the people in Nazareth,,, that missed a blessing by not believing Jesus and having that relationship where they truly know Him,,, the people that live like Christians on Sunday,,, but on Monday they are right back to their old way of living,,, are truly missing out on the greatest blessing of all,,, a relationship that will last for eternity,,, spent in fellowship,,, with our Lord and Savior!

This morning,,, we will look at these verses in Psalm 138 and see how they can help us in our walk with God this week.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verse 1 says: 1 I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing Your praise before the heavenly beings.

As I said at the beginning,,, David wrote this after a trying time in his life.

A time when he truly needed God’s help,,, and God answered his cry for help,,, so now,,, David is pouring out his thankfulness to God.

And David is never hesitant,,, or quiet,,, in his praise of God.

We shouldn’t be hesitant or quiet in our thankfulness to God either.

What better example can we have than David,,, a man who made many mistakes,,, terrible mistakes,,, but yet,,, God called David,,, “a man after My Own heart”. (1 Samuel 16:7 and the words of Paul in Acts 13:22 KJV)

----------------------------------------------------------- Verses 2 and 3 say: 2 I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your constant love and truth. You have exalted Your name and Your promise above everything else. 3 On the day I called, You answered me; You increased strength within me.

At this time,,, according to my Believer’s Bible Commentary,,, the temple had not been built yet,,, but David was bowing down toward the holy tabernacle,,, as this was the custom of the Jews at that time.

But he was definitely giving God thanks for His constant love and truth.

In verse 3,,, he says: 3 On the day I called, You answered me; You increased strength within me.

And David wanted to acknowledge what God had done for him,,, since he was so thankful for the help that God had given him,,, and the increased strength,,, during this time.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verses 4 and 5 say: 4 All the kings on earth will give You thanks, Lord, when they hear what You have promised. 5 They will sing of the Lord’s ways, for the Lord’s glory is great.

God’s faithfulness in answering David’s prayer is a powerful testimony to the kings of the earth.

They know what God had promised,,, they had heard of all that God had done for Israel and what was promised,,, all of the neighboring nations had heard about Israels God,,, and now they see how the prophecy is being fulfilled.

So,,, with that knowledge,,, they too will sing praises of God’s glory,,, the kings of David’s time,,, and all future kings as well.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verses 6 and 7 say: 6 Though the Lord is exalted, He takes note of the humble; but He knows the haughty from a distance. 7 If I walk into the thick of danger, You will preserve my life from the anger of my enemies. You will extend Your hand; Your right hand will save me.

David says that even though God is mighty,,, He still watches out for the humble,,, or lowly,,, as David was,,, but God watches the proud,,, or “haughty” as it says here,,, from a distance.

God is able to save David while he is surrounded by danger,,, there is no where to go,,, unless God leads him,,, and God does lead him,,, with the same hand that He uses to strike out against His adversaries.

Last Sunday we saw where Jesus walked through the crowd of people that were wanting to kill Him,,, and there was nothing that they could do.

That’s the protection that David is praising God for,,, and he wants everyone to know about it!

----------------------------------------------------------- Verse 8 says: 8 The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me. Lord, Your love is eternal; do not abandon the work of Your hands.

David was just as sure of God fulfilling His purpose as Paul when he wrote these words in Philippians 1:6 “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God will take care of us,,, and His love is eternal,,, and will never end.

Remember,,, Romans 8:38–39 (KJV 1900) — 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate us from God’s love,,, and David knew it,,, and we can see it as well,,, when we study God’s word.

And just like David,,, we need to praise God for anything that He has done for us.

Which leads me to say,,, “Praise God!!!! I’m so thankful to be back together this morning to worship and learn as a family of believer’s,,, again.

----------------------------------------------------------- So hopefully we can use these verses going forward next week to remind us that we need to give God thanks for all that He has done for us.

We should be able to remember the way that David was not timid in his praise and thankfulness to God all that He did for him,,, and use him as a guide for the way that we should act.

----------------------------------------------------------- Which brings us to the chance that we have this morning to remember the sacrifice that Jesus Christ did for us.

He gave His life for us,,, even though we didn't deserve it,,, and for that we should always be truly thankful,,, and through His word we can receive the strength that we need to get us through anything today.

----------------------------------------------------------- As we come forward to celebrate Communion,,, we must remember that it's the Lord's table and He is the One that invites us to the table!

As our ritual puts it: “Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another.”

We do not refuse any who present themselves desiring to receive. Whether you should receive Communion with us,,, is between you and God.

As we begin,,, let us have a moment of prayer and confession,,, I'll begin,,, then we will have a few moments of silence,,, so that each of us can say our own prayer and confession silently,,, then I'll close the prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father,,, we come to you this morning and thank you for all the blessings that we have received. We thank you for your Son who died on the cross for our sin's and made it possible to come to you in prayer. I ask for forgiveness for my sins and I know that the Holy Spirit will put before you any that I miss. Now we will take just a few moments in silence to allow everyone to speak personally to you, then I'll finish,,,,. ,,,,

Most Gracious and Holy God,,, again we thank you for this opportunity to come before you. We ask forgiveness as a church family together,,, for any sins we've committed before we take of your Holy Communion. These things and all others we ask,,, in Jesus' name,,, Amen

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If you will turn in your hymnal to page 13 we will begin reading under the great Thanksgiving.

And we will continue by reading responsively until we get to Amen on page 14.

So lets stand as we turn to page 13 and we will begin reading under the great thanksgiving.

And we will continue by reading responsively until we get to Amen on page 14.

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The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing,

always and everywhere to give thanks to you,

Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

And so,

with your people on earth

and all the company of heaven

we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

The pastor may raise hands.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.

By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection

you gave birth to your Church,

delivered us from slavery to sin and death,

and made with us a new covenant

by water and the Spirit.

The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread.

On the night in which he gave himself up for us,

he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread,

gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me."

The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the cup.

When the supper was over, he took the cup,

gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Drink from this, all of you;

this is my blood of the new covenant,

poured out for you and for many

for the forgiveness of sins.

Do this, as often as you drink it,

in remembrance of me."

The pastor may raise hands.

And so,

in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,

we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving

as a holy and living sacrifice,

in union with Christ's offering for us,

as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread and cup.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,

and on these gifts of bread and wine.

Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,

that we may be for the world the body of Christ,

redeemed by his blood.

The pastor may raise hands.

By your Spirit make us one with Christ,

one with each other,

and one in ministry to all the world,

until Christ comes in final victory

and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ,

with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church,

all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father,

now and forever.

Amen

Hymn 364 - Seminary ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- Hymn: 337 - Oakdale Hymn: 337 - Seminary Benediction ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------