Transcription downloaded from https://carloway.freechurch.org/sermons/2939/the-prayer-of-the-afflicted/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Let's turn back to the passage we had. A book of Psalms and Psalm 102. It's quite best if you have your Bibles open about Psalm. We'll be going in and out of it throughout the evening. [0:15] So we're taking a whole Psalm in really. A Psalm which on first reading is quite blunt. A Psalm that are real Psalm. [0:26] A Psalm that comes across quite honestly. As many Psalms do, just the Psalms, the writer pouring out his heart to God. Very often we, speaking personally, at least I'm sure we all do it, we're so good at putting a face on things, so good at looking and acting as if we've got everything sorted. [0:48] As if we've just cracked what it is to be a Christian that we know how I have no doubts, I have no worries, I never doubt anything. I'm never scared of anything. I've never had long nights crying out to God. [1:03] We put this face on despite the fact that it's not true and despite the fact that everyone around us has had same, if not exactly same, doubts, worries and concerns. [1:15] When a Psalm hear the Psalmist, it's no such face on he is quite clear, quite open and quite clear about his concerns. I was speaking a few weeks ago to a friend and he, the stuff his wife are really big on, I'm upcycling, they buy bits of old furniture which she would throw out if in any sense and they take it and they look at it and they see something wonderful there and I went into her shed and my goodness, it's just full of just bits of old broken chairs and tables and dressers and everything else and it's a mess. [1:52] So I'm thinking, okay, fair enough, and then you go through to the next bit of the shed and there they have the finished pieces. The best they've done so far is they bought a, it was a chess of drawers for £20, they've fallen to bits full of woodworm and they've sold it on for £250 and this kind of skill they have of taking something which looks beyond finished and transforming it to making it useful again and then selling it on or passing it on as something which is truly useful, which has value in every sense of a word. [2:29] When we come to look at the Sam, we're not too, we're not certain at all who offered it, we're not told who wrote it, like Sam 101 and Sam 103, it tells us, it's the Sam of David, Sam 102, it doesn't tell us who wrote it, but what it does say, look with me, if it's in your Bibles, beside the Sam number, Sam 102, a prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord. [3:00] When we come to the Sam, we're confronted with a real situation and as we go through the Sam tonight, I want you to please in your minds at least to take off any mask you're wearing and to come before God and to go through the Sam dish now and see if it applies to you anyway and see how it does apply to you. [3:21] If it does, let's look together what the Samist says about your situation. Someone who's in an awful situation, we know Sam was written around the time when his city, the Sojourner of the Zilands, has been destroyed by much we know, the man himself is in a bad situation, he's personal wise and also his nation around him is in a bad situation, so his personal life, his nation's a mess, his place where God is present, the temple, it's all gone to bits. [3:57] And if we're honest here, this is a man's private prayer and it pulls no punches, if you like, he's plainly sharing what he's saying to God. He's sharing his concerns, he's sharing his worries and why he's found himself in such a tough situation. [4:16] So as we look through the Sam, we can see he's not only praying for his own situation, like we said, he's also praying for his nation's situation, he's praying for the church of his day, if you like, he comments on his nation, he comments on the church, he comments on himself. [4:31] This man's a situation that's completely broken. So let's look together at the Sam for a short, short time, very short time, and see what we can learn, even tonight from this man and from his real honest prayer to his God. [4:46] First of all, looking at his starting few verses, he makes clear that he has tears to drink. He starts with his plea to God that God would hear him. [4:59] He has no time for any kind of eloquent words, he jumps to him, hear my prayer, oh Lord, let my cry come to you. Don't hide your face from me in the day of my distress. [5:10] He's got no time for any kind of elaborate beginning to his prayer, he just jumps straight in and he says what he's feeling. God, please help me, please listen to me. [5:21] He's not just saying his prayer as some routine, as some weekly or daily thing he's doing, he means these words, all he wants to know is that God is hearing him, that God is actually listening to his cry. [5:35] This man is in need of immediate help and we know that this cry is found again and again throughout Psalms and throughout scripture itself. We see the Psalms crying out for help, not spending time to say anything else, but God help me, God help me. [5:57] We haven't heard yet what's causing, of course, the suffering, we'll find it out as the Psalm goes on, all known out in the first few verses. This is a man who's crying out to God, a man who needs the help of his saviour. [6:12] This real sense of suffering the Psalmist has, this real sense of suffering he's conveying, these few words, it links him to every Christian, to every believer from his generation up to now. [6:26] This man a few thousand years ago, writing this a few thousand miles away, he's linking and can link up to us here this evening. [6:37] Many Christians are crying out to God, the cry has not changed. Believers, they, of course, still find themselves doing the same, if not the exact same, cry out to God. [6:50] We find ourselves crying out to God that he would hear us, that he would answer us quickly, that he would no longer hide his face from us. [7:01] With everything else that unites us as children of God, we're definitely united in this one fact, that our hope and our love and our only sort of help is to be found in our saviour and in our God. [7:16] We're all united in some way, in some even small way perhaps. As I was saying earlier on, I don't know many people here, I don't know a taller situations, I don't know what their walk of God is like, only you know that. [7:30] Even those who know you well don't know what that is like, only you know that. I'm sure everyone here tonight is a Christian in some way, and we can relate to the fact we've all had a time, we've cried out something similar to this man to God. [7:44] Something similar to this poor man's crying out, hear my prayer, God, let my cry come to you, don't hide your face from me. We can see from verses 3 down to roughly verse 5, he's facing real distress, his situation, his mindset, what's happening to him, what's happening to his nation, what's happening to his world around him, it's affecting him so much that it's having a physical effect on him. [8:10] Verses 3 to 5 we see him with his bones aching, his bones burning inside him, he stopped eating. This man of course is showing all the signs of real grief, real pain. [8:26] His misery, his sadness is affecting him at a deep, real level. It's a sad, sad picture of being drawn for us here. If we read these verses, let our minds wonder and put an image of this man, he's a poor, poor soul, far from God, far from help. [8:47] His days are passing away, he can't eat, he can't sleep, he's stuck here in misery. And the question has to be asked, does anyone here, even now, do you know what it feels, in a small sense even, in your own situation, can you identify with this man's cry? [9:07] Get only you know the answer to that. To Christians here, Christians, do you know what it's like to feel far from God, to feel as if God is no longer listening to you, to feel as if your prayers aren't even leaving the room you're in, to feel as if God has turned his back on you and on your life, that he has no more care for you. [9:32] Perhaps are you feeling that way just now? You've got dressed and come out to church and good on you for coming here. The hardest thing to do sometimes is to come to church when you're feeling that way. [9:43] Right now, as you're here, just now, are you feeling far from God? If you are then perhaps you know in some way the condition this man was in. [9:57] There's some discussion in verse 6 as to what actual animals be mentioned, but out of the way the image is clear. In verse 6 I'm like a desert owl off the wilderness, like an owl of waste places. [10:11] This image of this bird living alone in the wilderness, this bird just all day on, like it's screeching out and no one to hear it, no one to care for it, living in the desert, living in the wilderness, living in the wasteland, that word quite literally meaning living in a place of ruins. [10:32] The same word as you're using in Isaiah 58 verse 12 in a bit more of a positive way. It talks about your ancient ruins which we rebuilt. So this bird is here in ancient ruins, no sign of life, completely alone in the wilderness, and he feels like this poor bird calling out no one to hear him, no one to care for him. [10:55] He's alone, he's sleeping, he's not eating, he's not drinking, and the pain doesn't even end there for this poor man. We see later on he's even being in verse 8, he's being taunted by his enemies. [11:09] All this results of course in him feeling as if he has nothing left to drink but his own tears. Nothing to eat but ashes, of course ashes being again and again in that culture, and for its scripture a symbol of mourning, a symbol of complete brokenness. [11:25] We see that of course in terms of cultural thing in the story of Jonah, of course when Jonah goes to Nineveh and the king of Nineveh repents and he makes, he dressed himself and sack off on ashes and makes his subjects do the same. [11:39] Ashes as a symbol of brokenness, of desire for help, of saying, I've got nothing here left, God please help. Drinking tears, he feels like he's eating ashes. [11:55] And it gets worse and worse and gets to verse 10, and we read this strange, look with me please to verse 10, because of your inignation and anger, you have taken me up and thrown me down. [12:07] And we think well, it's going to be a bit harder to read now isn't it, is he blaming God? Because of your inignation and your anger, for you have taken me up and thrown me down. [12:27] Is he blaming God? Is he accusing God? Well that's not the tone at all, what's the tone that comes at us? He's stating the fact. He's aware even in his misery, he's aware that God is still in control, that God is still over and above all things going on with him, that God is still in sovereign, kingly control, even of his tough, tough situation. [12:53] It's okay for me to stand here and say that to you, but if you're going through something like this, if you know what it is to feel like this man, that's what Bible says to you, don't listen to someone, someone thinks you shouldn't, but also God's word says to you just now, that he's in control. That doesn't help perhaps ease of pain in a real sense, but for the Christians that's a comfort. God is not unaware of your situation, he's not unaware of who you are and what you're going through. [13:27] So he's not accusing God, but he's acknowledging that God's in control. And of course I think Job probably comes to mind to most people, we think of God allowing certain trials to take place in the life of someone, we argue that no one has ever had it worse humanly speaking about man's job. [13:45] And what is his response to all that takes place to him? We see in Job 13 verse 15 where Job talks about God, he says about God, though he slay me, I will hope in him. Even if God will take my life, even if God will take me down to the earth, even if God will just destroy my world, I will still hope in him. I think it takes faith, it takes for a real Christian to understand what it means. It's hard to view that from the outside looking in. [14:19] But any here who has a fear of not Christians, it's quite hard to understand what Job meant by that. He trusted his God so much, he knew his God so well, that even though you slay me, I will hope in him, I will hope in you. And this same thought is reflected again and again, reflected of course throughout the whole of Psalm 42 and ever similar Psalm to this Psalm here. [14:43] The Psalm is to, he's not angry with God, he's not protesting the fact, he's just stating it as a fact, God is in control. You're doing this, you are allowing this to happen in my life, it's tough, it's hard, you're allowing it. [14:59] Now we might be sitting here just now and perhaps rightly thinking, well this sounds completely unfair, this sounds completely with respect ridiculous. [15:11] God is letting this man go through all this, he's leaving his manful in so alone, and the writer just calmly acknowledges well it's all from God. [15:23] We might be tempted to think we would choose perhaps stronger words or different words or... but then look with me please to verse 12 onwards. [15:34] I think the first few verses of verse 12, it changes the whole perspective for us, and this is the perspective the Psalmist had. The Psalmist stops mid-track, he's verse 1 into verse 11, he's talking about himself as a situation, it's also bad, then in verse 12 he stops. [15:56] And what does he say? But you, O Lord, are in front forever. You are remembered throughout all generations. [16:07] Yes, I'm in pain, yes I'm grieving, yes I'm going through this tough situation, yes my life is misery, I can't eat, I can't drink, I'm all alone, my enemies are at the gate constantly, but I know even through all this that you, O Lord, are in front forever, that you are king, that you are sovereign, that you rule over all things. [16:36] God isn't just there, he knows. He knows what this man is going through, he knows right now what you're going through. If you're right now are one of his people, he knows every aspect of your life. [16:52] He knows your pain, but he also knows why you're going through it. And again, don't listen to me, but isn't the God's own word, even in the most miserable situations, that he is still working in your life. [17:10] And for any Christian here this evening who's going through something, perhaps only you know about, perhaps something that you've kept in your mind, or perhaps it's physical health or mental health or anything else, a situation that's tough when you're going through just now, perhaps we're just feeling far from God for no particular reason, or for a reason you know about. [17:32] This has to be our constant prayer, our constant refrain, our constant reminder, yes I am miserable, yes my life is full of debits, but you, O Lord, you are enthroned forever. [17:45] Because without that, what hope do we have? Absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing. If we are viewing God as someone who's just passively involved in our lives, who cares occasionally and who's in charge occasionally, but apart from that, doesn't really do much, then our God is so small, he is completely useless. [18:05] That's not the Bible, that's not the God, the Bible, or the psalmist, indeed you may hear, paints for us. The God of the Bible and the God of the psalmist is enthroned forever. He is over and above and rules over everything else. [18:19] Nothing is a surprise to him, nothing is too small for him to see, nothing's too quick for him not to understand, nothing's too dark for him not to see into. He is enthroned and ruling over and above and through all things. [18:38] It comes down to verses 12, down to verse 14, we have to, well verse 13, down. We could say it's, we're not giving too much information on what's happening, he's talking now of course about his place, about Zion, about the destruction of a temple and destruction of a city, and we're seeing this sense that at least part of his distress is coming from the fact that his beloved's place with God dwells, his beloved's city is now nothing more than stones and ruins. [19:15] Look with me to verse 13 and 14, we see here in verse 14 really, we are servants, hoarder, stones dear and have pity on her dust, the idea that his place, that is Zion we know here, has been destroyed, and he's saying, well even the place where people once worshipped you, there's nothing left but stones and dust. [19:39] The question is what do we hear this evening in Carly or even in Lewis, what has Zion, what is the dust and stones of this broken down place, what to do with us this evening? [19:51] Why should we care to understand? Bring our minds to Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22, we're talking with the church where the writer says, but you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in the festival gathering. [20:15] Of course in the time of the writer, the time of the Psalmist here, Jerusalem and Zion is where the people can meet with God. That was where God would meet his people, where they could sacrifice to him, where the days of the temple days and tabernacle days, where God still showed himself physically in some sense, in the Shaqanah glory of his people, where God was still very much there, where once a year they could come and offer up their sacrifices to the nation, where daily they offer up sacrifices later on. [20:54] This is where the Psalmist met with God, and he's saying even that place, it's stones and dust, it's been destroyed. [21:05] When the Psalmist of course is writing with Zion, he's talking about the church, the place where God is with his people. He's lamenting over the destruction of the holy city, it's been torn down, it's been attacked. [21:19] The attackers, they think they've won. We sang in Psalm 80, that Psalm talks about the same situation taking place, where they've all been destroyed, it's all been ruined, the outside enemies attacked us, and it's all gone, and the enemy thinks they've won. [21:35] And the attackers, they have won in their eyes, you know, what's left but stones and dust? Zion's been destroyed, where God meets his people, it's all gone. [21:46] Nothing left but stones and dust, and we were saying earlier on in Tostal Hulish, it's much the same for us today in many ways. In a similar sense, when people look to you and me, when they look at Christians and look at the church, what on earth is this place? [22:01] Where are we? Silly people meeting together twice or three times a week. Silly people reading a book at a few thousand years old. What is this? Silly people praying to a man, a God who doesn't exist, a God in their minds. [22:15] Worshipping a man who lived 2,000 years ago, a few thousand miles away, in some awful wee Middle Eastern town. They view us as nothing more than stones and dust, a load of rubbish. [22:29] Not precious, not useful, nothing important at all in any way whatsoever. Perhaps in an ever sense we see ourselves as nothing more than stones or dust. [22:44] We look to our own personal lives, our own personal walk, our own personal sin, our own personal wandering away, and we mourn at how easily we all just fall and crumble away, how easily we seem to give up so quickly on following our Savior, who we claim to love so much, but yet we crumble at the first instance of issues or problem. [23:07] We perhaps look around at the church itself and see perhaps we mourn at places where a gospel has been torn down and replaced with man-made gospel. Let's be careful to note how the Samus describes this dust and these stones. [23:27] Yes, it's on bits, yes there's dust and stones, but they're still part of the city, and they are precious, they are precious. And these stones and this dust, although it's broken down and looked on as nothing important, to God it's precious. [23:46] To those who are not part of the church as of yet, perhaps you think, you come here and praise God you do, but you don't quite understand what's so important about Jesus, what's so important about loving Him, worshiping Him. [24:03] What's, look at these Christians, they're always just so, just as hypocrites, they're just full of lies, and the truth is we are. We are, we often are, but God calls us precious. [24:17] Dust and stones, though we are, we are precious to God. We're being built up together as precious stones, by Ephesians 2 this morning, let's look to Ephesians 2 this time, verse 20, talking about the church, we are built on the foundation of the apostle and the prophets, of who Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. [24:44] God uses us, dust and stones as we are, to build His church. As we have it here, He will build up Zion, verse 16. [24:56] He will build up Zion, He appears in His glory. Well God does that, will never again be destroyed. Yes, the church will always be attacked, from within and from without. [25:10] We know that God's church will never be destroyed, not because of who we are, but because of who our God is. Nothing will remove us from the church of God, nothing will destroy His people, nothing will destroy His church, because it's based on our eternal Savior. [25:33] We can be sure it will last from now to eternity. These are not just nice words for us, these are gospel realities. When we see perhaps the church facing a time of stagnation, a time of slowing down in the west, what do we see in the east? [25:51] Tough times in the east, but God is growing His church at our rate. We have never seen in the west. Solid Christian churches appearing in places we never thought Christianity even had an impact. [26:05] God is always building this church. After this one of the promises of God keeping His church, we then see those who make up the church, or those who are doomed to die. [26:21] Who are we just now? We heard this morning, Ephesians 2. Who are we? Verses 19 and verse 20. When God looked down, what did He see? He saw those prisoners like us who were doomed to die. [26:37] And He rescued us. We have in Psalm 107 a wonderful Psalm of God's rescue. He broke the chains of our, the iron chains away from us, and He broke them to bits. [26:54] He burst their chains apart. Psalm 107 verse 15, talking about the prisoners in darkness. When God looks at us, He doesn't see the finished article. He sees prisoners doomed to die, and that's of course where He rescues us from. [27:12] We may be dust and stones. We're dust and stones being used by our God for His glorious purpose. According to His perfect plan, not one of us is out of place, not here and not on the wider church. [27:29] So we see how this amnesty starts off in despair, starts off in misery, then comes this turning point in verse 12, where we see that God is reigning through all time and through all power. [27:42] And then we see the situation of His beloved Zion. But no sooner has a Psalmist been praising God than in verse 23, like when he speaks of verse 23, praising God, praising God, praising God's great care. [28:01] And again in verse 23, what do we see? He's back again to his misery and distress. He has broken my strength in mid-course. He has shortened my days. Oh my God, I say, take me not away in the midst of my days, you whose years endure through all generations. [28:18] He's broken my strength. He's shortened my days. And I'm sure we all, for honest, know this feeling so well. Even in the midst of our praise, even in the midst of us worshiping God, saying, God, you've rescued me, God, you're incredible to me. [28:32] You've shown your love to me, even in the midst of that, we then find ourselves at the same time making, oh man, I'm still in a bad situation. We find ourselves slipping back into the same old sins, slipping back into the same old situations, finding ourselves in danger again, whatever the cause of our distress is. [28:48] No sooner are we praising God for delivering us that we need to be delivered yet again. This time the Psalmist doesn't get too far as he complains. [29:01] So in verse 23 he starts emphasizing again the situation. But in verse 24, he's back again now to praise God. Oh my God, I say, at the end of verse 24, he acknowledges God as one who endures through all generations. [29:15] Verse 25, he acknowledges God, oh, you laid the foundations of the earth, the heavens of the work of your hands. He acknowledges that God is in full control yet again. [29:29] When he sees his own thoughts, when he sees his own worries compared with God's eternity and God's power, he stops on his tracks yet again. [29:41] A quote here from Matthew Henry, wonderful quote, a short one here again, saying, weeping must never hinder a worship. That's not saying we never weep. [29:53] It's not saying we can't do both at the same time. What it is saying is because we're in a bad situation, that never takes away from us our responsibility to worship our God. [30:08] The Psalmist goes from pain to praise back to pain and back to praise again. In doing that we can identify perhaps with him even more. As our life goes on as our days, even as perhaps our hour goes on, we find ourselves going from pain to praise to pain to praise, always realizing in the end that God is God. [30:30] He has not changed in our situation. Even though we are suffering, he is still the God who saved us, the God who has called us by name, the God who promises to never leave his people. [30:41] We also have to be careful as Christians not to place our salvation, or our students of salvation on our feelings. How quickly do our feelings change? [30:54] I'm sure since this morning till this evening, we have changed our feelings several times. How we feel perhaps in the morning going to work is not how we feel on a Friday evening, or how we feel even on Monday at lunchtime. [31:10] Our feelings can be impacted by anything and everything. Don't base your salvation or your assurance on your feelings, base it on God's truth which never changes. [31:22] Easy to say, hard to do, but it's good to remember when you're feeling far from God, when you're feeling attacked on every side, trust in God who is unchanging truth, not in your changing situation or in your changing feelings. [31:38] Even during trials, the Samas can only say, God you reign forever. The Samas of course then finishes off the last few verses with praising of God, of all the Lady Foundations. [31:53] They will perish, you remain. They wear out from the garment, you will change like a robe, they will pass away. You are the same, your years have no end, the children of your servants shall dwell secure, their offspring shall be established before you. [32:13] We touch this morning on Romans chapter 1. In Romans 1 we also see the great idea that God's power is seen in creation. [32:24] And in these few verses we see God's incredible creation power. We know that much of creation of course is beyond our understanding. I've got a personal love of stars and I love just coming home just now and I sat last night with the telescope, looking at the stars, it's wonderful, incredible, but I will never know anything about them. [32:45] I suppose I spend the rest of my life, whatever years my Lord gives me, looking and studying them, I've still been unawizer of anything really. I can perhaps name a few and talk about a few systems and that's it, but there's billions and billions more than I'll ever even understand or realise exist. [33:07] The wonderful closing statement of Islam is just adoration to God, that one day he will return, one day he will just, the earth and the heavens and all creation itself, it will be worn away in that garment and God will change them like a robe and that is a hope of course for Christians today. [33:28] One day God will come back and he will transform our world into a new world, new creation, new heavens and new earth. He will come and make perfect all things. [33:45] That's a hope of Christians, what a hope we have, one end to Islam. Even in my pain, even in my misery, even in my distress, hope is one day all perfect, one day God will come back. [34:01] Our saviour will return and all things will be made new. 1 Thessalonians 4 16, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, the voice of the archangel with sound of truncates. [34:17] 2 Peter 3 verse 10, On the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with our roar and the heavenly bodies will be burnt up and dissolved and the earth also and the works that are done on it will be exposed. [34:34] On that day the church of God will be completed. Right now we are a suffering church, we are a church that goes astray, we are a church that gets many things wrong as God's people. [34:45] On that day his church will be complete. When the last person is saved, when God has completed his people as a gift to his son, when his son receives his people, he asks his eternal inheritance. [35:03] And everything will stop. And we will then see verses we have in verse 21 verse 3. [35:17] Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man and he will live with him. They will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. [35:28] He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. The former things have passed away and the one seated in the throne said, Behold I make all things new. [35:43] This is the Christians hope just now. God will help his people right now, and of course he does. As Christians we can, I'm sure, agree to that. Right now in times of suffering, in times of trial, God is with his people, he helps his people. [35:59] But our hope is looking forward to that final day when God will reign completely, when our Savior returns to take home his own. [36:13] And the question has to be asked, and again, I said this this morning, it's not just something we say because we have to say it. This is something we say because we mean it. [36:24] I said it before, I say again this morning, I say again tonight, we can be so comfortable in church, so comfortable in our pews, so comfortable in our nice suits, so comfortable in all this procedure, we forget the reality of the gospel. This is life and death. [36:35] And if that offends you anyway, then it's not me in the sense of if it's a word of God. For Christians here, we go through tough times, we know, supposing the earth itself can sway, believe our feats and samas says, we have hope, but we're secured on our never changing God. [36:52] If as of yet you're here just now and you're not a Christian, where is your hope? Seriously, please ask yourself that, where is your hope? In this world where everything can change so quickly as we see ourselves, where our family and friends who love us dearly, but we can let us down so much also, where is your hope based? [37:14] The reality is that Christians here are non-Christian alike, we all face similar if not exact same struggles in life. Everyone here go through times of distress and trial and mourning, worries about family, worries about finance, worries about our jobs, worries about everything else. [37:31] What's the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian in terms of hope? But Christians hope is secure. What do you hope for when you go through times of trial? Where is your hope based on? [37:43] How do you know you have anyone who actually cares for you at all? Simple plea, simple plea is go home again, read this sam, talk to anyone who is a Christian, and our prayer here is that you would place your hope and your trust in the one whose days do last forever, the one who the sam glorifies so much, one who the sam talks so much about, but one who is in throne forever, you would come to know him and come to trust him, come to love him, and come to call him your God and your Saviour. [38:18] That's better heads now, a word of prayer. Lord God, we come before you tonight, we thank you for your word. Lord, you forgive me for anything I said that was incorrect. Lord, we give you praise, the power is not on the preacher, the power is in your word, in your word alone. [38:32] Lord, we are mindful of that as we come to your word, we see such great concepts and we see such great truths of your eternal reality, and we find ourselves in awe and failing to understand or to grasp even perhaps a small part of it, but Lord, we praise you for it. [38:48] You are our eternal God, yet you reign forever, and even in the trials and sufferings of our life, Lord, at you are not removed from it. [38:59] You maintain your presence with your people. I also thank you that you are still offering your gospel hope to all who cry out for help. [39:13] At your ear, it's not shut to any who call it to you, at any here this evening, who as of yet don't know you, but who wish to come to worship you as a Lord and Saviour, that you are willing and you're able to save them, to hear them and to transform their lives, or help us in order to lose sight of that simple gospel hope, that simple gospel message. [39:40] Always things are precious namesake, I mean. Let's conclude by singing and sing Psalms to Psalm 103. [39:53] Psalm 103 and sing Psalms, and we can sing verses 1 down to verse 11. Praise God, my soul, from my heart, let me exalt his holy name. [40:04] Forget not all his benefits, his praise, my soul, and song proclaim. Psalm 103 verses 111, to God's praise. Praise God, my soul, with all my heart, let me exalt his holy name. [40:34] The Lord forgives you all your sins, and it's your sickness and his threat, you might be rescued from the pain. [40:54] Uncrowns you in his tenderness. [41:06] He satisfies your pleading desire, from his unending stores of good, so large a slightly evil strength, your new foe may the mystery new. [41:28] The Lord is known for righteous acts, unjust as to the unproud and walls, to Moses he may ignore his ways, his mighty deeds to his well sons, his mighty deeds to his well sons. [41:56] The Lord is merciful and kind, to anger slow and full of grace, he will not constantly reprew, or in his anger hide his face, he does not manage, our misbehave, our billors sin, tear just in war, our greatest love, as high as him, to warrants all those who fear the Lord, to warrants all those who fear the Lord. [42:48] Let's close in prayer. These words bear words, that each and every one of us know what it is to praise you, the God who has forgiven our sins, the God who calls us your own. [43:00] Previous we start this new week, help us to do so, hearts and minds worshiping you, hearts and minds full of praise, at your wonder, at your glory, hearts and minds where we find ourselves unable in our limited words to describe our love for you, our God. [43:16] Help us this week. To humble ourselves and to serve you in any way you call us to do, always in the Christ's precious name. Amen.