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[0:00] Well, if you can have your, if you open your Bible to Psalm 86, we're not going to go through the whole Psalm, but I was thinking over the last couple of weeks or so, and it's something that I'll often hear at prayer meetings where we'll hear people praying about the chief end of man.

[0:19] So we all know, well, hopefully we all know the first catechism. It's probably not something that we find the young ones being shared so often these days, but I know in my own upbringing, we learned the catechisms.

[0:34] And that first one, I'll not ask anyone to say it, especially some of the children, they're probably panicking at the back. But we know that what is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

[0:46] Now we move on to the second catechism, and that's really the how. How may we glorify? So what rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?

[0:58] And the answer, the word of God, which is contained by the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

[1:09] So this was a passage I want us to explore both the glorifying of God, how we glorify God, and then how we enjoy. An important one that we often, I think, sometimes neglect to consider, but that enjoyment of following God.

[1:25] So I want us to just think about those two things and what this passage shares with us. And the words that we sang of in Psalm 16, I'll touch on them a little bit later on when we focus on the enjoyment of God. But we find ourselves in this psalm this evening, and I'll maybe read from verse 8 through to the end of verse 13.

[1:43] And I'll just pick out a few passages along the way as we explore this. So reading from verse 8, There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.

[1:55] All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God. Teach me, O Lord. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.

[2:10] Unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me.

[2:23] You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. Now David wrote this psalm. We're told that it was David at the beginning. It's a prayer of David. And he wrote this psalm when he found himself in quite a significantly troubling situation.

[2:39] We don't quite know what the specific situation is. We're not told what the situation is. It could be a number of different things that took place. But we know that he wrote this during a time of difficulty.

[2:52] And it will be the same for ourselves, although we are a few thousand years later. We find ourselves in 2025. But there are certain challenges in our own life.

[3:03] And I won't know everyone's hearts here. You don't know my own heart. But we all have our own significant challenges in life. And they can often be overwhelming. And they often consume every thought in our day.

[3:15] The weight of stress and anxiety disrupts our day. It leaves us unfocused. And it can often leave us depleted. Even at night, we may find that peace escapes us.

[3:26] We're not able to sleep. As soon as we close our eyes, the burdens that we have over us remain ever present. And in those moments, all we can do, as David did here, all we can do is pour our hearts out in persistent prayer, seeking God's strength and his comfort.

[3:43] Now, as I said earlier, he wrote this psalm in one of those situations. Again, we don't know which one it was, what specific situation it was. Some of the commentators, as I was reading, say that it may have been in Saul's pursuit of him.

[3:57] It may have been Absalom's rebellion. Or some other prominent conflict that he had with enemies. But irrespective of whatever the situation is, his desperation was so great and his need so urgent that he constantly cried out to God.

[4:15] And we also approach this psalm with our own concerns. Whether that's a health crisis, it could be financial crisis, depression. A host of other troubles may be clouded over your life at the moment.

[4:28] But these things can often plunge us into despair. But nothing, irrespective of what the situation is, nothing we can do, nothing we are going through should not steer us away from prayer.

[4:40] It should be only prayer that we are turning to. David recognizes here, just look at verse 9 there. Or verse 8, sorry. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord.

[4:52] He recognizes that there are none like God. And that's the place where his prayers go. David recognizes here that God is his creator. He's sovereign over all nations, not merely Israel.

[5:07] He recognized who that God was. He knows where he is going with his prayer. And at the time that this psalm was written, there would have been multiple small G gods. So not the God that we know, the one and only true God.

[5:20] But there would have been small gods. There would have been lots of different deities, regional deities, national ones that people would have been worshipping. But David, however, knew that his God, the God that he was turning to in prayer in his desperation, was the living, true God.

[5:37] And the world we live in today, whilst we don't necessarily have regional deities and we've not got statues that people will worship as such, we do have lots of small G gods in our own time in the Western Isles.

[5:51] And in Scotland and in the globe, we often see people focusing on careers. You're maybe pushed to focus solely on your career. Put everything aside. Have that one-track mind to your career.

[6:03] It could be your money. It could be your possessions. It could be your identity. We're often told the world tells us what we ought to be following and chasing in life. And much of it is focused on self and not focused on others, but definitely not focused on the one true living God.

[6:22] The God, however, that David is speaking of here is different. David recognises and knows that he is due all the glory. He says, you alone are God.

[6:32] David understood that God was not one God among many or even the best God among many. No, he alone is God and no other exists.

[6:43] So we must glorify God as we read of in that catechism because he is just that. He is God and he requires us to glorify him. One of my favourite books, which I would recommend to anyone, it's a book by Thomas Watson called A Body of Divinity.

[6:58] It kind of charts its way through the catechisms. And I've taken much of the direction from that book. We seek to establish a little bit more about what it means to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

[7:10] But one of the things he says here about glorifying God is, and I'll quote this, Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity. It respects God the Father who gave us life, God the Son who gave his life for us, and God the Holy Ghost who produces a new life in us.

[7:29] We must bring glory to the whole Trinity. So we are left in no doubt about why we must glorify God. Because our hope is solely found in him.

[7:42] You don't need to turn in your Bibles, but 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31 says, So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

[7:53] Not some, not a handful of things, not things during the week, or just give over of your Lord's Day to the Lord. No, whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

[8:09] It will be a great comfort as we need eternity to think that we have glorified God in our lives. None of us know when we will pass from this world, but knowing that you have served the Lord will be a great comfort.

[8:23] In contrast to that, however, Thomas Watson also says, So we might be asking, how do we sow these seeds?

[8:56] How do we sow seeds that glorify God as Thomas Watson urges us there? Well, there's a multitude of ways, and I'll focus on a few of them in the first instance. Two of which were cited by Thomas Watson himself.

[9:09] And the first of those is appreciation. To glorify God is to set God at the forefront of our minds in all that we do. We glorify God when we love, when we appreciate and admire who he is and what he has done for us.

[9:26] We worship, and as we sing, as we sang here this evening, we sing praises to his name. Not to the name of your minister, not to the name of Carlyway Free Church or the Free Church of Scotland, but it's all to him.

[9:39] He deserves all the glory. We come together in prayer and in fellowship with one another. Even as we meet today, it's our desire to glorify him in our worship prayers.

[9:51] Those spoken and unspoken prayers as well. When we wake up and even look at the beautiful surroundings around us on a relatively glorious day today, we don't often get them in the islands.

[10:03] But when we wake up, are we awestruck? Do we give appreciation to God? Do we give him thanks for his handiworks? I know when we, before we moved here, I think I very much did.

[10:17] I think we become very complacent and we take for granted the beauty that is around us. And we'll often just drive to Stornoway, or we do from Harris, or you might drive to Harris.

[10:29] And I'll not say which direction is more beautiful. We'll leave that one there. But we so often just neglect the beauty that is around us. But we should be appreciating all that God has given to us.

[10:40] And there's wonderful handiworks here in the Western Isles, and particularly in Carlery, are absolutely beautiful. Even in our dark times, where we find ourselves struggling or going through a difficult time, do we turn to God seeking his strength and even glorify him in knowing that he will sustain us?

[10:59] That's what it means for us to glorify God. Turning to the God that comforts, gives him immense glory. And I often, I mentioned in the prayer that we often feel like there's so much loss in our community.

[11:15] I know we feel the same in Harris, but it feels like there's always a funeral that we're turning to. But even in those difficult times, in those times of sad loss, turning to God for comfort, and knowing that he is in control, shows us what glory he is due.

[11:32] When believers express this appreciation, it shifts their perspective from worry to trust, from scarcity to abundance, reminding them of God's faithfulness in every season.

[11:46] This appreciation that we ought to have strengthens your relationship with him, deepens our faith, and serves as a living witness to others. You maybe think of people in your own mind's eye.

[11:57] I'll not share names of anyone, but you can maybe think of those that you have seen go through really difficult times, really troubling times, maybe even recently. And maybe you've been amazed by the strength and the faithfulness that they have shown to their Lord by continuing to turn to him and maybe spend more time in prayer than they did off their knees.

[12:18] But that's the same for us. We ought to be appreciating God in absolutely everything and how we glorify him. The second way in which we can glorify is in subjection. We glorify God when we're devoted to serving him, recognising that it's in his power that we devote ourselves to him.

[12:38] Even just consider, I was speaking to Una earlier about going to the free church camp. We think what we see, we often see free church camps, we hear updates from Donald.

[12:48] He'll give us an update to most congregations and we see what's happening at camp. But when we just take time, take a little bit of a step back and think what's happening there. We've got so many leaders, so many cooks, chaperones, drivers, parents sending their children along.

[13:03] But we've got those people willing to serve, giving up of annual leave, giving up of their time, giving up of their sleep. I recently did a Scaladel camp. So giving up of sleep was probably the first thing I should have said.

[13:15] But they're giving up of absolutely everything. Not to puff up self, not to do these things so that they come away feeling proud. But it's all to see God glorified.

[13:27] It's all for him. All the work that's been done in the denomination to reach out with the gospel, the church planting that we hear of. Again, it's not to puff up self. It's not to be proud in and of the work that we do.

[13:40] But it's to show how great and how awesome our God is. We give him and him only the glory. One of the great things I see when I've been privileged to preach in different congregations through different vacancies.

[13:54] You see, I often see intimation sheets. Those of you that maybe come to this church, and this is only one you're often here at. You don't often see other people's intimation sheets, but when you go and see these other congregations, it's wonderful to see across the island the number of different ministries that are going on in our islands.

[14:09] Often quietly behind closed doors that we don't realize. But we see all the work that's been done for the young people. I know there's a lot of youth leaders here already. To older people, to those that are vulnerable, those that are hungry, those that are grieving, those that are going through troubled times through addiction.

[14:27] There's so many different ministries that go across our islands. And I can confidently say that not one person volunteering to help in any of those places, in any of those congregations, and in any of those ministries, does it for themselves.

[14:42] Not to take pride in it. There won't be one person that does that. It's all in service of God. The fact that so many people are willing to give up their evenings, give up their holidays, time with family, to spend it in the service of God, shows the devotion that we have to Him and our desire to see Him glorified.

[15:02] We glorify God because He has our only hope in life and death, and we glorify Him by devoting our lives to His service. God calls us to glorify Him in all that we do.

[15:16] The Christian life at its heart is one solely of glorifying God. And if this is the case, then the specific ways in which we are to glorify God are important to consider as well.

[15:27] So I want us to look at three things in the way in which we glorify God in a little bit more granular detail. Very briefly, don't worry. I'm not going to push it too far. The first one is faith.

[15:37] Then we'll look at worship. And then that's servanthood. Since our salvation in Christ comes by faith alone, and since faith is the root from which all of our good works flow, we must first consider this in our desire to glorify Him.

[15:54] You don't need to go there in your Bibles, but I'm just going to read 2 Corinthians 1, verse 18 to 20. Just a couple of verses when I think about the promises that we see here through God.

[16:06] So 2 Corinthians, sorry, chapter 1, verse 18 to 20. It says, I'll read verse 20 again there.

[16:47] That is why it is through Him that we utter our amen to God for His glory. But what does Paul mean here in these couple of verses?

[17:00] God made many promises to His people, and Christ is their ultimate fulfillment. He is the great yes to God's promises of old. Paul always pointed to Christ and his teachings, and considering this, our amen can be nothing other than that act of faith.

[17:19] We glorify God by faith in His promises. There's plenty examples that we can look of in the Bible of promises fulfilled. We'll not go into any of them in any great detail, but you just look at the life of Abraham.

[17:31] We see that Abraham was almost 100 years old, and his wife Sarah was barren. Abraham had every earthly reason to think God's promise was unlikely to be fulfilled.

[17:43] Yet with God, nothing is impossible. We see that Abraham gave glory to God precisely through the strong act of faith itself. John Gill, one of the commentators, says, Ascribing to Him the glory of His veracity, faithfulness, power, grace, and goodness, as all such who are strong in faith do, such persons bring the most glory to God and are the most comfortable in their own souls.

[18:11] The next way I want us to consider how we glorify God is in our worship, as we worship here today. Worship is so often the one way of glorifying God that possibly comes the easiest to mind.

[18:25] If I was to ask anyone or to put a bit of paper around, how do we glorify God? Worship would have been one of the first ones that most would have come up with. Or even in Scripture, we see many ways in which God is glorified in worship.

[18:39] We can glorify God in many ways, but Scripture indicates that nothing we do delights Him more than calling on His name with sincerity of heart and declaring that all glory belongs to Him.

[18:53] I mentioned earlier, 1 Corinthians 10, 31, tells us that we ought to give glory to God in all our endeavors. Not just in worship, however, we do find such blessing in setting our minds on the Lord fully during times of worship.

[19:09] As you gather each Lord's Day in this house, at prayer meetings, we set aside other activities in our lives to spend time worshiping God in fellowship together.

[19:21] God takes a special delight in the distinct activity of worship. And I know I won't speak for myself when I say this, but there have been times over the years, thankfully not for a while, where I've maybe been driving home on a Wednesday evening and just driving past the church.

[19:40] It's prayer meeting time for a long, hard day at work. And it could have been so easy just to drive on past, maybe just head home, early dinner and go to bed. But it's often in the times that you don't do that.

[19:51] You go in, you have time together, praying with one another, having fellowship with one another. You often find a special blessing that very evening. We ought to be together, coming together, in fellowship with one another, worshiping God.

[20:06] And as we worship God, even this Lord's Day, we come and join the angels declaring God's glory in worship. What a wonderful blessing that is for us here today. As weak and frail as all of our voices may be, he takes great delight in the worship and glory that is ascribed to him.

[20:26] And then the last of those three ways in which we can glorify God is in our servanthood. We saw that again in 1 Corinthians 10, 31, that we glorify God in all of our conduct.

[20:39] As we believe in Christ to the glory of God and declare his glory in our worship, we're drawn to serve him, especially in works of service that bless the church. God is glorified by our service to others.

[20:53] We should use all the gifts for serving others so that God is glorified in absolutely everything. Where might we see a perfect example of glorifying God?

[21:04] Is it in your own minister? Is it in your soon-to-be minister in training God and in dedicating the rest of his life to sharing God's word and sharing the gospel with those around him?

[21:17] While they might be good examples, they're not quite perfect. None of us are perfect examples, but we do, however, see a gloriously perfect example in Jesus himself. From beginning to end, the life of Jesus was one of unceasing, it was one that offered the perfect obedience in every way to glorify the Father.

[21:40] Whether that was in resisting temptation against sin, speaking the truth boldly to those that challenged him, or showing compassion towards others and their need, he lived to honor the Father above himself and even became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

[21:57] We don't have to look far in our own lives to see where we fail. Even going back to the garden, we see Adam and Eve tested and they disobeyed at the first hurdle, as did the chosen nation of Israel when wandering in the wilderness.

[22:12] Jesus, however, came and demonstrated a perfect obedience. And unlike Israel, Adam and Eve, and all of us, Jesus resisted that temptation and overcame it. Christ remained obedient throughout all his life, suffering rejection until his very last breath.

[22:29] But we also see prayer in Jesus' life. The Christian neither strengthens nor grows if prayer is absent in their life. It should be as constant a part of our daily lives as the time we make for eating, for drinking.

[22:44] And yet it is a practice that is so easily set aside until we become desperate. We even see the revivals on our islands, some of whom in our midst possibly remember them or have heard stories of them, vivid stories from family members of them, especially on this side of the island.

[23:02] But these revivals were not possible without fervent prayer. To reject or indeed neglect a life of prayer seeks to lean on our own understanding, which is a prideful and perilous position to be in.

[23:17] No one can glorify God as perfectly as Christ did. It shouldn't be something that discourages us, but it should be ultimately reminding us and shows us, points us to the grace and mercy of our God, which further shows us our need to glorify Him.

[23:33] And I want us to finally just consider the latter part of this catechism and that our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Enjoying God is a biblical command and it's also that for which God made us.

[23:49] Enjoying God glorifies God because it shows how valuable God is to us. Few people struggle to understand what it means to fear God or to obey God or to love God, to honour God, to worship God.

[24:03] But to speak of enjoying God is somewhat more difficult for us to grasp. In many ways, at first glance, it maybe feels almost irreverent to enjoy God. What does God's word, however, tell us about this?

[24:15] Consider David's words in the psalm that we actually sang, Psalm 16. You don't need to go there in your Bible. I'll just read a few of the verses, verses five through to 11. It says, The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup.

[24:31] You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. In the night also my heart instructs me.

[24:45] I have set the Lord always before me because He is at my right hand and I shall not be shaken. And in these verses 9 to 11, When therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure.

[24:59] For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

[25:14] We know here that David has full confidence that a life with God, both now and forevermore, would be marked by the utmost of enjoyment and pleasure.

[25:25] Just verse 9 there. Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. He talks here of a life above the joys and pleasures of this world.

[25:39] Those material desires that are but a flickering and fleeting joy in our lives. David reflected on God's goodness and the Lord's sustaining hand in his life.

[25:49] His heart brimmed with joy, expressing itself in gladness and a profound sense of rejoicing. He described his heart as being glad and his glory rejoicing.

[26:02] The root word for that glory means weighty or heavy. I suppose the best understanding for it is that what David was describing was the magnitude of his rejoicing.

[26:12] My whole being rejoices. It shows that weight that was behind that statement. God who had faithfully preserved David in his life would also preserve him in death and beyond.

[26:26] David knew the great joy and satisfaction of living in full fellowship with the Lord. There's also gracious and wonderful joy in eternal life. Life's journey begins here on earth for all of us.

[26:39] We're all in different stages and different places on that journey. But it does extend beyond this life. And when we dwell in the light of his presence, we will experience a fullness of joy, a depth of bliss previously unknown to us.

[26:54] I want to read another thing one of the commentators said. He says, Walking with the Lord on earth is comforting and wonderful, but it makes us long for something more.

[27:08] Our eternal home, the city of God. We will be eternally satisfied when we behold God's face. In every one of us, there is a desire for joy.

[27:22] God is most glorified in us when our understanding and experience of him sparks an intense joy that consumes all opposing desires and he alone becomes our heart treasure.

[27:35] Passionate and joyful admiration of God is the aim of our existence. It's our chief end. If God is to be glorified in us, it's vitally important that we take joy in him.

[27:46] It shouldn't be a chore being a Christian. There should be a joy. There should be a fragrance when people look upon the Christian. This is why we exist. This is why it ought to be our chief end.

[27:59] Our joy should not be found in the temporary and fleeting things of this life, whether it's our cars, maybe big houses, our careers, our wealth, the status that we maybe have in the community, the evil one will use every scheme imaginable to make us think the counsel and the things of this world are what bring us true joy.

[28:18] And I was there myself. I'm sure many of you here were there yourself before where you relied on your own understanding and I'll carve my own path out in life. I knew what was best for myself.

[28:29] I knew what I wanted to do in life and nothing was going to stop me. Again, we just look back at Eve in the garden and she was told by the serpent what God had said to them, the reply said, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, that's the tree, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

[28:52] Basically, don't listen to what God has to say. You will be like God if you follow my counsel and my instruction. And that's a statement that we could give to the world today. Don't follow a God.

[29:03] Carve out your own life. Create your own identity. The world itself will give you everything that you need. Friends, we ought to be diligent in this world and it's a world and we're in a nation that was once very much well acquainted with the book but is a barren land now.

[29:19] We need to be on guard as the temptation to conform to those around us grows and gets bigger and it's the same for the young ones as they grow up in a never difficult time. We need to be praying for them and asking that they would be grounded and rooted in the Lord and not the things of this world.

[29:37] Another important point about joy is that it emanates from our whole being. We can all know of something without rejoicing in it. We might understand intellectual and logical reasons why there's joy in things, why we see joy in other people yet it's only once you experience it yourself that you realize it's all-consuming.

[29:57] I read in a book somewhere someone said, Joy requires the engagement of every faculty of soul and spirit and mind and heart. Joy gives expression to the whole of who you are in a way that nothing else can and it's when we're in and we enjoy that fellowship and that relationship with the Lord, that's when that joy is ever evident.

[30:21] When we joy, everything within us will feel and engage with that joy. Joy. So how then are we to find that enjoyment? Where do we seek that enjoyment out?

[30:31] Well, first we need to know God. We need to understand more about who he is, his attributes, his redemptive work through Christ. Only when we know him will we truly be able to joy in him.

[30:44] The faith that we spoke of earlier, the saving power and comfort we find in God should bring unparalleled joy to us, even in our trials. James 1 verse 2 says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

[31:01] For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. The joy or delight that we read of here and in the catechism that we speak of or man's chief in empowers the Christian to withstand any and all trials.

[31:21] In closing and very briefly, I want us to also consider the last word of that first catechism, the word forever. We're to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

[31:36] The enjoyment of following the Lord, knowing the Lord, is both found in this life and in the life to come. The first way I think is very evident to each of us and to those that are listening online.

[31:49] And we find, well, I hope we all find enjoyment in coming together, having fellowship together, meeting in the Lord's house on the Lord's day, worshipping God together.

[32:00] We don't have to cast our minds too far back to, I'll not say the word, COVID-19. I just said it. We go back to COVID and none of us were together. We weren't able to come together. And I know, I think of ourselves in North Harris, that first Sunday where we were able to come back and we were able to sing together.

[32:18] It was a wonderful time and there was a great joy that we had in that. But having that time of fellowship with one another and indeed any time that you meet in God's name does bring an immense enjoyment to us.

[32:32] Enjoyment and glory to God should spur us to duty for God. Another quote that I read in my preparation said, if anything can make us rise off our bed of sloth and serve God with all our might, it should be this, the hope of our near enjoyment of God forever.

[32:53] Eternity should always be in view. We might look to Paul or others that we maybe know that show a real zeal in glorifying God and think, why are they so zealous?

[33:06] Why is it that we, I continually look to that person and I see them glorifying God and there's a clear enjoyment. Well, I would anticipate it's because they long and desire for the time that they will spend an eternity with their Lord.

[33:20] And the question for us to go away, is that you? Is that me? Is that how I live my life day to day? Do I live my life with eternity firmly in view? I'll not go into detail, but if the young ones, if you go away tonight, look up, it's on YouTube, it's a youth talk that this chap does.

[33:38] His name's Francis Chan and he's got a rope. So just type in Francis Chan rope into YouTube and he basically explains this long rope and there's a little bit of tape on the end of it and we all spend our time focusing on the little bit of tape, which is our own lives.

[33:53] We should be focusing on the rest. We should be focusing on eternity where we'll spend most of our days. So look up that Francis Chan rope talk. But our minds should firmly, absolutely be on our eternity.

[34:06] We don't know when we're going to enter into eternity, but we should keep our eyes firmly on it. The world tells us today that enjoyment is found everywhere else in life, but we shall never enjoy ourselves fully until we enjoy God eternally.

[34:24] The world and those in it will distract and tempt you away from God. Like those, sorry, there was an illustration that I read of which I think is quite interesting.

[34:36] It's an illustration of those that are found taking refuge in God. So those that know God and the eyes of the world do not impact on them. But it was an illustration I think is quite important as a little bit of a reminder for us, but I'll read it here.

[34:49] It says, some years ago, there was an earthquake in California which some miners who were working deep down beneath the surface knew nothing about. The tremors and agitation stopped far above them and only when they came up from their work did they hear of what had been alarming the people above.

[35:08] Our life may be so hid with Christ in God that we may joyously, that we may be joyously oblivious of much that sadly troubles worldly men.

[35:19] We may be so sheltered in God that nothing can disturb our deep calm peace in Him. And like those miners, I urge you and myself to take refuge in God where the schemes of the evil one don't take hold in our lives.

[35:34] The joy that we have in glorifying God surpasses all joy that we see in this life. Enjoying God means relishing the salvation He gives us in Christ Jesus.

[35:47] All of this enjoyment and joy adds up to the continued glorifying of God in all that we do. Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And if you are to do so faithfully on earth, then you will find eternal joy forever in heaven.

[36:04] And in closing, I pray that those who are not yet Christians would come to know Him as well. And that with the spirits leading, you would enter into a most wonderful relationship with Him.

[36:15] Only then will you know what that true joy is. It's only found in Christ and in Christ alone. Today is the day of salvation. None of us are guaranteed to enter into tomorrow.

[36:29] None of us are even guaranteed to see the remaining hours of this very evening. So please, friends, make right with Him this evening. Turn to Him and ask that He would enter into your life. Wherever we find ourselves, whether at work, whether at school, home, wherever we may be, we should seek to glorify God in all that we do.

[36:48] Why? Because He is worthy of all glory as our Heavenly Father, our Creator, the One who is sovereign over each and every one of us. All we do on earth should have eternity in view.

[37:02] Whether we think these things are small, whether we think they're big things, they should all be pointing to God. it should be our chief end that we glorify Him and enjoy Him forever.

[37:15] Not for a moment, not for a short time, but forever. Amen. And may the Lord bless these very short reflections on His Word. I'll close with a wee word of prayer before we sing.

[37:26]  Yes,