1 00:00:00,116 --> 00:00:05,268 If we could just embrace it, everything would be alright. 2 00:00:05,848 --> 00:00:10,130 All the fear would melt in the face of this love. 3 00:00:10,130 --> 00:00:14,752 All the regret would be silenced in the face of this love. 4 00:00:14,752 --> 00:00:19,794 All the anxiety would lay down and die before the face of this love. 5 00:00:19,794 --> 00:00:22,795 There is such a love, such a love. 6 00:00:22,795 --> 00:00:25,036 And you've tasted it once or twice. 7 00:00:25,177 --> 00:00:26,677 And you'll taste it again. 8 00:00:26,677 --> 00:00:29,143 And when you taste it, it is 9 00:00:29,143 --> 00:00:33,086 It just changes everything because you realize, that's what's real. 10 00:00:33,086 --> 00:00:34,466 That's the truth. 11 00:00:34,827 --> 00:00:38,389 The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. 12 00:00:38,389 --> 00:00:47,435 May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. 13 00:00:49,456 --> 00:00:56,201 We're talking about confessing our faith together, and by confessing, I don't mean saying what you've done wrong. 14 00:00:56,201 --> 00:00:58,223 What I mean is declaring. 15 00:00:58,223 --> 00:01:00,364 Publicly what you believe. 16 00:01:00,364 --> 00:01:02,745 That's the kind of confession we're talking about. 17 00:01:02,745 --> 00:01:05,366 Con declaring publicly what you believe. 18 00:01:05,366 --> 00:01:11,108 And you say, well, why is this final psalm sermon having to do with confessing our faith together? 19 00:01:11,108 --> 00:01:12,889 It doesn't quite make sense. 20 00:01:12,889 --> 00:01:20,952 Well, remember that most of the psalms were written to be read or prayed or sung in a congregation. 21 00:01:20,952 --> 00:01:25,113 Most of the psalms are written for communal singing. 22 00:01:25,113 --> 00:01:26,724 So these are communal texts. 23 00:01:26,724 --> 00:01:27,104 It's 24 00:01:27,104 --> 00:01:30,036 Yes, use them in your prayer closet, sitting down by yourself. 25 00:01:30,036 --> 00:01:31,077 That's great. 26 00:01:31,077 --> 00:01:34,419 But they were meant for saying all together. 27 00:01:34,519 --> 00:01:49,969 And what that means is that a number of the psalms function as public communal confessions of what we together believe about God, what we believe God has done, and who we believe 28 00:01:49,969 --> 00:01:51,130 God to be. 29 00:01:51,130 --> 00:01:56,964 And so that's what I want to look at as we're wrapping up the Psalm series today and then moving into the series about. 30 00:01:56,964 --> 00:02:02,067 Confessing our faith together, I want to look with you at how the Psalms do that for us. 31 00:02:02,067 --> 00:02:14,264 As we're reading through the Psalms together, as Caleb has us reading the Psalms typically throughout our worship service, how do these inspired poems function as confessions 32 00:02:14,264 --> 00:02:18,216 together of our faith in Jesus Christ? 33 00:02:18,536 --> 00:02:23,691 So we're going to look at why confessing our faith together matters, what 34 00:02:23,691 --> 00:02:32,566 A particular example of that confession from the Psalms would look like, and then how we can continue to confess our faith together as a church. 35 00:02:32,566 --> 00:02:33,918 That's what we'll be looking at this morning. 36 00:02:33,918 --> 00:02:37,253 But let me pray for us as we move into these things. 37 00:02:39,898 --> 00:02:48,785 Father, we thank you that um through technical issues and through hiccups and plans, you are working. 38 00:02:48,785 --> 00:02:51,587 You are never surprised, you're never confused. 39 00:02:51,587 --> 00:02:59,503 And so, Lord, we just lift again this whole time to you, our hearts, our minds, this service. 40 00:02:59,944 --> 00:03:06,850 And Lord, the reason we're here is not to have a clean and smooth presentation or an event. 41 00:03:06,850 --> 00:03:08,821 We're here to hear from you. 42 00:03:08,887 --> 00:03:15,809 We're here to receive from you, and we're here to cry out to you and be filled up again by you. 43 00:03:15,829 --> 00:03:23,331 And so as we come, Lord, I pray that you'd give me grace to be faithful to your word and to what your will is in it. 44 00:03:23,371 --> 00:03:32,013 I pray for the Spirit to give me words and phrases and emphases that will serve this people. 45 00:03:32,013 --> 00:03:38,407 And I pray, Lord, that this congregation would be given the grace to receive what is needful and to be built up. 46 00:03:38,421 --> 00:03:39,462 into Christ. 47 00:03:39,462 --> 00:03:53,360 That is why we do everything we do, that we all together might grow up into Christ, being made like him, treasuring him, being becoming Christ in this world together. 48 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:56,601 So Lord, by your grace may you work this today. 49 00:03:56,682 --> 00:03:58,423 We pray in Jesus' name. 50 00:03:58,423 --> 00:03:59,263 Amen. 51 00:04:01,209 --> 00:04:05,111 So first, let's start by asking why we confess our faith together. 52 00:04:05,111 --> 00:04:07,502 Isn't it enough that I believe it myself? 53 00:04:07,622 --> 00:04:09,963 Why confession together? 54 00:04:09,963 --> 00:04:16,466 And the simplest answer would be because God inspires psalms that do that. 55 00:04:16,466 --> 00:04:28,031 God inspires psalms that call us together as a congregation, as a people, to confess altogether what we believe about Him. 56 00:04:28,242 --> 00:04:30,794 So it must be God's will that this do that this happens. 57 00:04:30,794 --> 00:04:35,527 I'm not going to read these for you, but they're in your bullet, you're in your notes, and I'll recount them here. 58 00:04:35,527 --> 00:04:44,172 Psalms like Psalm 78, Psalm 105, 106, 114, 132, 135, and many others. 59 00:04:44,552 --> 00:04:56,180 In each of these, God is putting words in the mouth of his people together that they would say, You are like this, you do this, you have done this. 60 00:04:56,180 --> 00:04:58,241 And it is God's will. 61 00:04:58,383 --> 00:05:01,234 We know that through the inspired, because he inspired it. 62 00:05:01,354 --> 00:05:12,279 It's God's will that God's people would speak of him together, not just by themselves, that we would speak what we believe of him together. 63 00:05:12,279 --> 00:05:15,700 How many psalms say, you created the heavens and the earth? 64 00:05:15,700 --> 00:05:17,247 And you might think, well, we know he created it. 65 00:05:17,247 --> 00:05:18,161 We don't need to say it. 66 00:05:18,161 --> 00:05:19,702 Apparently we do. 67 00:05:19,702 --> 00:05:26,055 Apparently, together we need to say, and I need to hear you saying, you created the heavens and the earth. 68 00:05:26,055 --> 00:05:27,285 We need that. 69 00:05:27,291 --> 00:05:36,807 So it is God's will that his people should regularly confess together what he has done and who he is. 70 00:05:36,828 --> 00:05:38,609 And let's look then at four benefits. 71 00:05:38,609 --> 00:05:46,454 Before we look at a specific example of this, I just want to run with you through four benefits of confessing our faith together. 72 00:05:46,695 --> 00:05:55,601 The first one, already alluded to it here, when we say together, when we all of us say, God has done this, God has done this. 73 00:05:55,845 --> 00:05:58,627 We are also saying God is like this. 74 00:05:58,627 --> 00:05:59,737 God's like this. 75 00:05:59,737 --> 00:06:01,108 This is his name. 76 00:06:01,108 --> 00:06:03,149 This is his character. 77 00:06:03,149 --> 00:06:17,117 And that is critical because the name of God, the character of God, the identity of God, that lies at the heart of who we are as a people. 78 00:06:17,117 --> 00:06:24,955 If you think about that, we, the people that we are, the church, the people of God, we are who we are because God is. 79 00:06:24,955 --> 00:06:26,145 Who he is. 80 00:06:26,145 --> 00:06:31,347 His name is at the center of our identity as a people. 81 00:06:31,347 --> 00:06:34,888 So it's important for us to declare that name together. 82 00:06:34,888 --> 00:06:43,250 And again, when I say name, I'm not meaning you know, just afraid like Lord or or God or even Yahweh. 83 00:06:43,250 --> 00:06:48,511 By name, what we mean is his character, his identity, who he is. 84 00:06:48,511 --> 00:06:49,602 Let me give you an example of this. 85 00:06:49,602 --> 00:06:54,723 This is from the New Testament, but I think this applies to what we're going to look at today in the Psalms. 86 00:06:54,957 --> 00:07:01,249 In his final prayer, Jesus in John 17, 11, says this: praying to God. 87 00:07:01,249 --> 00:07:04,258 This is the will of God expressed to God through God. 88 00:07:04,258 --> 00:07:05,820 So this is important. 89 00:07:06,260 --> 00:07:13,622 He says, This I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you, Holy Father. 90 00:07:13,782 --> 00:07:23,885 Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one. 91 00:07:23,885 --> 00:07:24,335 Keep 92 00:07:24,335 --> 00:07:31,867 Them in your name, which you have given me, so that they can be one even as we are one. 93 00:07:31,867 --> 00:07:39,569 So here in this passage, the name of God is the truth around which his people are formed. 94 00:07:39,569 --> 00:07:41,230 Keep them in your name. 95 00:07:41,430 --> 00:07:45,491 The name of God is the truth that unites them together as a people. 96 00:07:45,491 --> 00:07:48,652 We have this God, and so we're one people. 97 00:07:48,872 --> 00:07:52,987 The name of God is the name that keeps them from falling away. 98 00:07:52,987 --> 00:07:59,520 We're holding on to this name, and so we're not dragged away into the left or the right. 99 00:08:00,501 --> 00:08:13,168 So here in this passage, Jesus says the name of God, who he is, is something that forms his people, unites his people, and keeps his people. 100 00:08:13,488 --> 00:08:15,970 Forms his people, unites his people, and keeps his people. 101 00:08:15,970 --> 00:08:22,715 And yes, that's Jesus talking in the New Testament, but what I'm arguing is that that principle can be applied. 102 00:08:22,715 --> 00:08:34,470 To the confessions we find in the Psalms, because in the Psalms, as or whenever we confess together, as we are saying, this is who God is, this is the God we serve, this is the God 103 00:08:34,470 --> 00:08:35,410 we worship. 104 00:08:35,410 --> 00:08:36,961 We're proclaiming his name. 105 00:08:36,961 --> 00:08:44,674 And in doing that, we're being formed, we're being united, we're being kept together. 106 00:08:44,694 --> 00:08:46,455 So that's the first thing. 107 00:08:46,455 --> 00:08:48,416 And it leads then into the second. 108 00:08:48,416 --> 00:08:51,977 First, confessing together declares who God is. 109 00:08:52,067 --> 00:08:57,058 Second, confessing together forms us as a people. 110 00:08:57,058 --> 00:08:59,289 It forms us as a people. 111 00:08:59,289 --> 00:09:01,640 So think about the solar system. 112 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:13,363 It's just a bunch of dust and rocks and gases, space debris, but with the sun at the center of it, it is formed into a system. 113 00:09:13,363 --> 00:09:15,974 It's formed into a solar system. 114 00:09:15,974 --> 00:09:20,685 Of course, that's by God's word, but if we're just looking at the physics of it, this thing. 115 00:09:20,685 --> 00:09:25,247 Is formed by this gravitational weight at the center. 116 00:09:25,488 --> 00:09:28,509 The solar system is what it is because the sun is there. 117 00:09:28,930 --> 00:09:37,254 Similarly, God's people, we're just a bunch of scattered human debris, just a bunch of living dust. 118 00:09:37,354 --> 00:09:43,898 But the but the name of God in Christ forms us into a people. 119 00:09:43,898 --> 00:09:49,501 Because he is who he is, the gravity of his name gathers us and forms us. 120 00:09:49,501 --> 00:09:50,373 And now look. 121 00:09:50,373 --> 00:09:51,354 We're a people. 122 00:09:51,354 --> 00:09:52,494 We're a community. 123 00:09:52,494 --> 00:09:53,475 We're a body. 124 00:09:53,475 --> 00:09:54,055 Why? 125 00:09:54,055 --> 00:09:57,157 Because of the name of God at the center. 126 00:09:57,157 --> 00:10:03,853 And confessing the truth about him is how we feel that gravity and are pulled in. 127 00:10:03,853 --> 00:10:09,364 I mean, if we just have, we all have this unstated idea of who God is, we never talk about it. 128 00:10:09,364 --> 00:10:11,154 We're going to start scattering. 129 00:10:11,154 --> 00:10:12,505 We're going to be all over the place. 130 00:10:12,505 --> 00:10:19,819 But as we confess who he is, as the Psalms call us to do, we're being formed as a particular kind of people. 131 00:10:19,889 --> 00:10:21,430 So that's the first thing. 132 00:10:21,550 --> 00:10:34,296 The psalms, or just confessing our faith together out loud as a people, forms us, forms us into a particular kind of people. 133 00:10:34,517 --> 00:10:39,740 The second thing, it forms us, it also unites us. 134 00:10:39,740 --> 00:10:41,251 It unites us together. 135 00:10:41,251 --> 00:10:45,803 Confessing our faith together unites us into a people. 136 00:10:45,863 --> 00:10:48,364 Why are we all here today? 137 00:10:48,605 --> 00:10:49,679 We're here. 138 00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:56,694 Because we believe the same thing, or approximately the same thing, about who God is. 139 00:10:56,894 --> 00:11:00,917 We're united because of who He is. 140 00:11:00,917 --> 00:11:10,104 When you look around you, you don't see strangers and people from different demographics and different financial brackets and different ages and generations. 141 00:11:10,104 --> 00:11:14,687 You see brothers and sisters united together. 142 00:11:14,687 --> 00:11:15,487 Why? 143 00:11:15,487 --> 00:11:17,189 Because of who God is. 144 00:11:17,189 --> 00:11:17,989 Because of 145 00:11:17,989 --> 00:11:24,033 The one God that we together worship, the one God made known in Jesus Christ. 146 00:11:24,033 --> 00:11:25,975 You are my brothers and sisters. 147 00:11:25,975 --> 00:11:33,280 We are in union together, so much closer than a blood brother or sister who doesn't know Christ. 148 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:39,504 We are united together because of this name, because of this name. 149 00:11:39,504 --> 00:11:41,866 The same thing with the solar system, right? 150 00:11:41,866 --> 00:11:47,509 The gravity of the sun not only forms the solar system, but by forming it, 151 00:11:47,511 --> 00:11:48,441 It unites it. 152 00:11:48,441 --> 00:11:50,982 And you can say, that's the solar system. 153 00:11:50,982 --> 00:11:52,463 That's a unit. 154 00:11:52,883 --> 00:12:00,966 So too, the gravity of God's name confessed in the church doesn't just form us as a church, but it binds us together. 155 00:12:00,986 --> 00:12:05,827 If you begin saying something else about who God is, you break from unity. 156 00:12:05,827 --> 00:12:10,541 If I came up here and said, there is God is not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God is 157 00:12:10,541 --> 00:12:17,626 Only one, and sometimes he presents himself as the son, and sometimes he presents himself as the father, and these are different masks that he wears. 158 00:12:17,626 --> 00:12:24,531 I would have broken unity with you because I'm confessing something about God that isn't what we confess. 159 00:12:24,551 --> 00:12:34,248 So what we say about who he is, or if I were to stand up here and say, Jesus is a good teacher who didn't die, but he he just he just disappeared, or Jesus died, but he didn't 160 00:12:34,248 --> 00:12:38,721 raise, the idea of Jesus continues in the world today. 161 00:12:39,065 --> 00:12:42,028 I would have broken unity because that's not what we believe. 162 00:12:42,028 --> 00:12:43,889 We're united by what we believe in. 163 00:12:43,889 --> 00:12:45,630 How do we know what we believe? 164 00:12:45,630 --> 00:12:49,414 Just we just assume it, we confess it together. 165 00:12:49,414 --> 00:12:50,364 That's what the Psalms. 166 00:12:50,364 --> 00:12:55,138 That's why over and over again in the Psalms, it says, You're the God who brought us out of Egypt. 167 00:12:55,138 --> 00:12:56,299 You're the God who did this. 168 00:12:56,299 --> 00:12:59,041 And you think the the Israelites would have said, Well, we know that. 169 00:12:59,041 --> 00:13:00,422 We don't need to say that again. 170 00:13:00,422 --> 00:13:02,624 And God says, You need to keep saying that. 171 00:13:02,624 --> 00:13:04,586 You need to keep saying that. 172 00:13:04,586 --> 00:13:08,943 We need to keep saying God became man and died. 173 00:13:08,943 --> 00:13:13,315 And was buried and was raised and ascended and is returning. 174 00:13:13,315 --> 00:13:24,461 We need to keep saying that together because that binds us, forms us as a people, unites us as a people, and then fourth, keeps us as a people. 175 00:13:24,802 --> 00:13:26,242 It keeps us as a people. 176 00:13:26,242 --> 00:13:29,004 Again, returning to this example of the sun. 177 00:13:29,004 --> 00:13:39,049 The sun forms the solar system, unites all that scattered debris as one system, and the gravity of the sun keeps us. 178 00:13:39,370 --> 00:13:40,851 The system together. 179 00:13:40,851 --> 00:13:46,815 Why hasn't Mars shot out into the, you know, the regions beyond our ability to see? 180 00:13:46,815 --> 00:13:50,557 Because Mars is held by the gravity of the sun. 181 00:13:50,557 --> 00:13:53,319 Same with the Earth, same with the asteroids, same with everything. 182 00:13:53,980 --> 00:14:00,003 The sun keeps the planets from wandering off into unknown regions. 183 00:14:00,564 --> 00:14:08,299 Similarly, confessing together, saying together what we believe about God. 184 00:14:08,379 --> 00:14:14,762 Who we believe him to be, that forms us, unites us, but it keeps us together. 185 00:14:14,762 --> 00:14:25,418 Because you come here, imagine if you're in Israel, uh someone from Israel coming to the temple, singing the Psalms, and again you say, You are the God who brought us out of 186 00:14:25,418 --> 00:14:25,939 Egypt. 187 00:14:25,939 --> 00:14:27,319 That keeps you. 188 00:14:27,319 --> 00:14:33,843 That keeps you from saying, Maybe Baal did this, you know, maybe it was maybe Ashtaroth, maybe maybe, maybe I should dr go off into these other gods. 189 00:14:33,843 --> 00:14:38,125 No, saying these things together keeps you. 190 00:14:38,235 --> 00:14:42,386 You're hearing yourself say it and you're remembering, I believe that. 191 00:14:42,426 --> 00:14:47,267 You're hearing your brother and sister say it and you're remembering, we believe that. 192 00:14:47,267 --> 00:14:48,588 We believe that. 193 00:14:48,588 --> 00:15:03,442 So confessing together who God is and what he has done supremely in Christ keeps us orbiting the center and prevents us from wandering off into these strange edge cases, 194 00:15:03,442 --> 00:15:04,972 these fringe beliefs. 195 00:15:04,972 --> 00:15:08,059 You find someone who's not in. 196 00:15:08,059 --> 00:15:15,953 Communion with a church who's not in this pattern of life that God has established. 197 00:15:15,953 --> 00:15:20,416 And you'll often find they've wandered off into these strange fringe things. 198 00:15:20,416 --> 00:15:23,237 It's all about the book of Enoch. 199 00:15:23,237 --> 00:15:26,900 It's all about demonic assault and warfare. 200 00:15:26,900 --> 00:15:31,062 It's all about this particular date and when it's going to happen. 201 00:15:31,062 --> 00:15:36,625 It's all there's legitimate things to say about those things, but it's not all about those things. 202 00:15:36,625 --> 00:15:37,051 And 203 00:15:37,051 --> 00:15:49,139 Confessing the truth together binds us in the center and keeps us from wandering into these fringe places where out there everything makes sense to you, but you've forgotten 204 00:15:49,139 --> 00:15:52,491 I'm not even, I'm not even in orbit anymore. 205 00:15:52,491 --> 00:15:55,353 So confessing keeps us together. 206 00:15:55,353 --> 00:15:57,955 Just what Jesus said in John 17, 11. 207 00:15:57,955 --> 00:16:07,241 Again, he says, Holy Father, keep them, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, unified. 208 00:16:07,427 --> 00:16:08,818 Even as we are one. 209 00:16:09,159 --> 00:16:11,180 So, how are we kept in this name? 210 00:16:11,180 --> 00:16:23,010 One of the ways is by confessing this name, saying it, saying what we believe over and over and over again whenever we gather together as his people. 211 00:16:23,010 --> 00:16:33,598 So, for all these reasons, then, because it first of all, because it's God's will, we see it in the Psalms, He's given us communal confessions concerning who he is. 212 00:16:33,598 --> 00:16:34,779 So it's his will. 213 00:16:34,779 --> 00:16:37,501 But secondly, it declares who he is. 214 00:16:37,667 --> 00:16:39,798 It forms us as a people. 215 00:16:39,798 --> 00:16:41,698 It unites us as a people. 216 00:16:41,698 --> 00:16:43,999 It keeps us as a people. 217 00:16:43,999 --> 00:16:51,721 For all these reasons, we ought to be confessing our faith together, saying together what we believe. 218 00:16:51,721 --> 00:16:56,402 Now, having said this, let's look at one example in the Psalms. 219 00:16:56,442 --> 00:17:04,104 So, as I said, there's many places you can go in the Psalms where, hey, this is functioning as a public confession of what we believe. 220 00:17:04,104 --> 00:17:05,625 Many different places. 221 00:17:05,925 --> 00:17:06,671 One is 222 00:17:06,671 --> 00:17:18,630 That is particularly clear, particularly fitted for reading together in a congregation, and I find quite poignant is Psalm 136. 223 00:17:19,171 --> 00:17:22,354 So if you can, turn with me to Psalm 136. 224 00:17:22,855 --> 00:17:26,497 We're also going to read it and have it on the screen here. 225 00:17:26,708 --> 00:17:33,283 if you could bring up the first slide, uh, Avery, of this, of this reading that we're going to be doing here. 226 00:17:33,383 --> 00:17:34,434 Psalm 136. 227 00:17:34,434 --> 00:17:35,769 So this is a longer Psalm. 228 00:17:35,769 --> 00:17:37,630 It's it's 26 verses. 229 00:17:38,170 --> 00:17:49,084 but what I want us to do is read this together in an approximation of how it would have been read in its original context, where someone reads that first line, I'll read what's 230 00:17:49,084 --> 00:17:59,198 white, you read what's yellow, and and and you don't have to learn much here because it's the same thing over and over and over and over and over again, 26 times. 231 00:18:00,199 --> 00:18:01,860 But that means, doesn't it? 232 00:18:01,860 --> 00:18:05,891 God says, My people need to know. 233 00:18:06,479 --> 00:18:08,830 My steadfast love endures forever. 234 00:18:08,991 --> 00:18:19,658 Some people out there, maybe right now, all of us at some time, we are forgetting his steadfast love is enduring, even now. 235 00:18:19,678 --> 00:18:20,838 Even now. 236 00:18:21,159 --> 00:18:29,305 And that is so critical that he says, I want my people to publicly confess 26 times in a row, my steadfast love continues forever. 237 00:18:29,305 --> 00:18:33,267 So we're going to read through this as a confession of our faith together. 238 00:18:33,267 --> 00:18:36,385 And then I'll just say a few things about this particular conversation. 239 00:18:36,385 --> 00:18:37,507 Example. 240 00:18:37,790 --> 00:18:40,838 So I'll read the white, you read the yellow after me. 241 00:18:41,221 --> 00:18:44,289 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. 242 00:18:47,525 --> 00:18:50,352 Give thanks to the God of gods. 243 00:18:53,327 --> 00:18:56,315 Give thanks to the Lord of Lords. 244 00:19:00,027 --> 00:19:03,055 To him who alone does great wonders. 245 00:19:05,851 --> 00:19:09,669 To him who by under his understanding made the heavens. 246 00:19:13,115 --> 00:19:16,007 To him who spread out the earth above the waters. 247 00:19:19,067 --> 00:19:21,584 To him who made the great lights. 248 00:19:25,637 --> 00:19:28,078 The sun to rule over the day. 249 00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:34,244 The moon and stars to rule over the night. 250 00:19:38,181 --> 00:19:41,723 Now, before I continue on to this, you're saying it more times. 251 00:19:41,723 --> 00:19:49,026 I want you to feel every time God is telling me to say this again. 252 00:19:49,147 --> 00:19:54,061 God is telling me his steadfast love endures forever. 253 00:19:54,061 --> 00:19:58,431 I want you to hear him saying that to you as you are saying it together. 254 00:19:58,431 --> 00:20:02,143 To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt. 255 00:20:05,219 --> 00:20:07,798 And brought Israel out from among them. 256 00:20:11,535 --> 00:20:14,795 With a strong hand and an outstretched arm. 257 00:20:17,733 --> 00:20:20,558 To him who divided the Red Sea in two. 258 00:20:24,249 --> 00:20:26,955 And made Israel pass through the midst of it. 259 00:20:29,989 --> 00:20:33,497 But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. 260 00:20:37,275 --> 00:20:40,080 To him who led his people through the wilderness. 261 00:20:43,077 --> 00:20:46,064 To him who struck down great kings. 262 00:20:49,625 --> 00:20:52,099 And killed mighty kings. 263 00:20:54,991 --> 00:20:57,282 Sihon, King of the Amorites. 264 00:21:00,131 --> 00:21:02,318 And Og, King of Bashan. 265 00:21:05,955 --> 00:21:08,366 And gave their land as a heritage. 266 00:21:11,129 --> 00:21:13,771 A heritage to Israel, his servant. 267 00:21:17,411 --> 00:21:21,006 It is he who remembered us in our low estate. 268 00:21:23,727 --> 00:21:25,991 And rescued us from our foes. 269 00:21:28,805 --> 00:21:31,363 He who gives food to all flesh. 270 00:21:34,683 --> 00:21:37,111 Give thanks to the God of heaven. 271 00:21:40,655 --> 00:21:43,447 What does the Lord want you to take from today? 272 00:21:43,547 --> 00:21:47,090 His steadfast love endures forever. 273 00:21:47,090 --> 00:21:55,195 As you go into this week and you're facing what you're facing, and you think, This, this is this is hard, this is bad, this is difficult. 274 00:21:55,696 --> 00:22:04,882 God, through his Holy Spirit, just said to you through the mouths of your brothers and sisters 26 times, My steadfast love endures forever. 275 00:22:04,882 --> 00:22:06,023 Remember that. 276 00:22:06,023 --> 00:22:07,184 Remember that. 277 00:22:07,184 --> 00:22:07,824 Remember that. 278 00:22:07,824 --> 00:22:09,669 We confess that together. 279 00:22:09,669 --> 00:22:14,070 Now, just briefly, let's look at three parts of this confession. 280 00:22:14,370 --> 00:22:17,671 So, this is a confession of faith that God gives to his people. 281 00:22:18,431 --> 00:22:27,954 First thing that we can see in this is it's broken into two parts concerning what God does and why he does it. 282 00:22:27,954 --> 00:22:31,015 What he does is in that first part I was reading. 283 00:22:31,015 --> 00:22:34,015 Why he does it was in the part you read. 284 00:22:34,356 --> 00:22:37,046 So what he's doing, why he's doing. 285 00:22:37,046 --> 00:22:38,657 Let's look at the what part first. 286 00:22:38,657 --> 00:22:39,109 What? 287 00:22:39,109 --> 00:22:39,599 He's doing. 288 00:22:39,599 --> 00:22:42,671 What do we see in this in this confession of faith? 289 00:22:42,671 --> 00:22:44,801 What God does falls into two categories. 290 00:22:44,801 --> 00:22:50,994 He creates the cosmos and he creates his people. 291 00:22:51,014 --> 00:22:53,902 He creates the cosmos and he creates his people. 292 00:22:53,902 --> 00:23:04,820 So you could see that it started with to him who made the great lights, to him who made the sun and the moon, to him who performed great wonders and made the heavens. 293 00:23:04,820 --> 00:23:07,941 So it's saying God created everything. 294 00:23:07,941 --> 00:23:09,402 He created the cosmos. 295 00:23:09,402 --> 00:23:12,284 And like I said at the beginning, we know that. 296 00:23:12,385 --> 00:23:14,987 But how often together do we say it? 297 00:23:15,227 --> 00:23:25,636 And what would it mean to say together, my God, who owns me, who claims me, who covers me, made everything. 298 00:23:25,816 --> 00:23:27,778 He made everything. 299 00:23:27,778 --> 00:23:30,380 The sun is his, so the sun's mine. 300 00:23:30,380 --> 00:23:31,962 I'm an heir of the sun. 301 00:23:31,962 --> 00:23:36,335 The moon is his, the stars are his, the trees are his, the mountains are his, the air is his. 302 00:23:36,685 --> 00:23:38,406 Our God made everything. 303 00:23:38,406 --> 00:23:41,447 He he wants his people to confess that together. 304 00:23:41,567 --> 00:23:47,449 So he created the cosmos, but then it also moves into this thing about him creating his people. 305 00:23:47,449 --> 00:23:50,150 And the psalmist brings these two together. 306 00:23:50,150 --> 00:23:54,492 The first part from verses four to nine is about creating the cosmos. 307 00:23:54,492 --> 00:23:59,394 The second part from verses 10 to 22 is about creating his people. 308 00:23:59,394 --> 00:24:06,837 It goes straight from he made the sun and the moon in verses eight and nine to he struck down the firstborn of Egypt and brought his people out. 309 00:24:07,205 --> 00:24:16,609 So he creates the cosmos from chaos, and he creates his people from their slavery, from their death in Egypt. 310 00:24:16,609 --> 00:24:30,395 And it's saying, God, our God, whose steadfast love can uh endures forever, he is the God who created all things and who created us, who created a place and created a people. 311 00:24:30,395 --> 00:24:31,936 That's the idea here. 312 00:24:31,936 --> 00:24:35,587 The whole cosmos is by this psalm. 313 00:24:35,619 --> 00:24:39,471 Made a context for God's people to dwell in. 314 00:24:39,471 --> 00:24:49,535 God created this place so that He could fill it with His people, and the whole thing would then become a context of covenant fellowship with Himself. 315 00:24:49,535 --> 00:24:51,595 That's what reality is. 316 00:24:51,595 --> 00:25:01,760 Reality is a context or a matrix or a location wherein covenant fellowship between God and man can happen. 317 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:03,600 That's why anything exists. 318 00:25:03,700 --> 00:25:04,861 That's why anything exists. 319 00:25:04,861 --> 00:25:05,231 So 320 00:25:05,231 --> 00:25:18,192 What this text is teaching us to confess together, the cosmos is like a wedding site chosen specifically for its beauty, for its qualities, for what it has. 321 00:25:18,192 --> 00:25:20,273 The cosmos is the wedding site. 322 00:25:20,554 --> 00:25:26,840 The people are like the bride that God creates and brings into that wedding site. 323 00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:33,581 And then Yahweh himself enters that cosmos, enters that creation. 324 00:25:33,581 --> 00:25:38,023 And binds that people to himself as his chosen and beloved ones. 325 00:25:38,023 --> 00:25:39,544 That's what's being laid out here. 326 00:25:39,544 --> 00:25:41,664 That's the vision of reality. 327 00:25:41,664 --> 00:25:44,165 God's teaching his people to confess here. 328 00:25:44,165 --> 00:25:47,027 And then that leads into the thing that's repeated over and over and over again. 329 00:25:47,027 --> 00:25:49,328 That helps you see why it's being repeated. 330 00:25:49,328 --> 00:25:51,168 His steadfast love endures forever. 331 00:25:51,168 --> 00:25:53,029 His steadfast love endures forever. 332 00:25:53,029 --> 00:25:56,951 He creates a cosmos and a people and brings them together for fellowship. 333 00:25:56,951 --> 00:25:58,531 And he does it why? 334 00:25:58,531 --> 00:26:02,763 Because his steadfast love endures forever. 335 00:26:03,013 --> 00:26:03,793 Steadfast love. 336 00:26:03,793 --> 00:26:05,574 Your translation may or may not say that. 337 00:26:05,574 --> 00:26:07,354 The Hebrew word is chesed. 338 00:26:07,354 --> 00:26:12,966 And what it means is essentially covenant commitment or merciful faithfulness. 339 00:26:12,966 --> 00:26:25,659 It's essentially Yahweh's unswerving commitment to do precisely what he says he will do and be precisely what he says he will be. 340 00:26:25,659 --> 00:26:31,341 It's God saying, I will do what I've said, I will be whom I've said. 341 00:26:31,341 --> 00:26:33,271 Or you might summarize it this way. 342 00:26:33,937 --> 00:26:50,055 Steadfast love is Yahweh's invincible purpose to be the only and all-satisfying God of those in covenant with him, and his purpose for those in covenant with him to be his 343 00:26:50,055 --> 00:26:53,407 wholly devoted and wholly satisfied people. 344 00:26:53,568 --> 00:26:58,930 The shorthand, we get it in the all throughout scripture: I will be your God, you will be my people. 345 00:26:59,291 --> 00:27:03,833 I will be the God who satisfies you, your only God. 346 00:27:04,141 --> 00:27:09,123 and you will be a people utterly satisfied in me. 347 00:27:09,384 --> 00:27:11,235 God, that is his steadfast love. 348 00:27:11,235 --> 00:27:18,188 His steadfast love is his commitment to do and to be everything for his people. 349 00:27:18,349 --> 00:27:22,211 And this text says, everything God does flows from that. 350 00:27:22,211 --> 00:27:23,652 There's logic here. 351 00:27:23,652 --> 00:27:30,686 There's logic when it says, To him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever. 352 00:27:30,686 --> 00:27:31,886 That's a logical statement. 353 00:27:31,886 --> 00:27:33,601 That means the stars are 354 00:27:33,601 --> 00:27:37,244 Exist because God loves his people. 355 00:27:37,244 --> 00:27:43,289 God created the stars because he loves his people forever. 356 00:27:43,289 --> 00:27:47,793 God created the sun and moon because his steadfast love endures forever. 357 00:27:47,793 --> 00:27:54,068 Science can say whatever it wants, and much of its statements are legitimate about how stars work and how they function and how they're formed. 358 00:27:54,068 --> 00:27:55,018 Great. 359 00:27:55,039 --> 00:27:57,100 But that's just the material. 360 00:27:57,100 --> 00:28:03,151 The reason the stars are there is because God loves his wayward people. 361 00:28:03,151 --> 00:28:04,461 That's why they're there. 362 00:28:04,461 --> 00:28:09,683 That's why the universe is here, for his steadfast love endures forever. 363 00:28:09,683 --> 00:28:15,244 God created the universe to satisfy a people in himself. 364 00:28:15,464 --> 00:28:21,106 God created the sun and the moon and the stars because his steadfast love endures forever. 365 00:28:21,106 --> 00:28:27,048 He drew Israel out of Egypt and planted them in the land to satisfy a people for himself. 366 00:28:27,048 --> 00:28:32,609 All that he does is anchored in love for his covenant people. 367 00:28:33,093 --> 00:28:35,494 That transforms our vision of reality. 368 00:28:36,156 --> 00:28:41,540 If if we get that, everything around us is made for relationship with God. 369 00:28:41,540 --> 00:28:44,382 Everything around us, everything that exists. 370 00:28:44,442 --> 00:28:48,825 And that's what this psalm is calling us to confess together. 371 00:28:48,986 --> 00:29:03,141 But then we need to take one further step because we're able to say the steadfast love of the Lord that underlies everything in reality, that steadfast love becomes. 372 00:29:03,141 --> 00:29:05,983 flesh in Jesus Christ. 373 00:29:05,983 --> 00:29:08,816 That's this further step we're able to make. 374 00:29:08,816 --> 00:29:11,507 That's where this is going for toward. 375 00:29:11,548 --> 00:29:15,291 Every psalm is like a pyramid without its capstone. 376 00:29:15,291 --> 00:29:19,873 And the capstone that's placed on it and finishes the whole thing is Christ. 377 00:29:20,055 --> 00:29:32,699 And so this this public confession of faith in Christ or in in who God is is calling us ultimately to see Jesus Christ. 378 00:29:32,699 --> 00:29:33,189 Here. 379 00:29:33,189 --> 00:29:47,803 So think about it this way: Yahweh's unswerving commitment to bring his people through everything that could separate them from himself, to unite them to himself, to give 380 00:29:47,803 --> 00:30:00,167 himself to them as their all, this commitment of God, which he's working out all through the Old Testament, that commitment is embodied, that commitment of God that drives through 381 00:30:00,167 --> 00:30:01,345 the Old Testament. 382 00:30:01,345 --> 00:30:05,927 Is made flesh in the slain and risen Jesus Christ. 383 00:30:06,009 --> 00:30:18,859 When Christ is hanging on the cross, pouring out his life in agony, there in the flesh is the drive of Yahweh's soul, the steadfast love of Yahweh that has led him to create 384 00:30:18,859 --> 00:30:23,924 everything and sustain his people and bring his people and keep his people and have mercy on his people. 385 00:30:23,924 --> 00:30:31,129 All he's been doing through history and the love that's run under all of it is here made a body. 386 00:30:31,201 --> 00:30:37,124 in Jesus Christ on the cross, such that God can say, That is who I am. 387 00:30:37,144 --> 00:30:38,015 That is who I am. 388 00:30:38,015 --> 00:30:53,113 God Himself binding his life to ours, taking our mortal flesh, receiving the crown of our curse, bearing in himself our sin, descending into the exile of our condemned death. 389 00:30:53,273 --> 00:30:56,174 That is his steadfast love. 390 00:30:56,335 --> 00:30:59,496 That the cross is his steadfast love. 391 00:30:59,517 --> 00:31:00,352 And then 392 00:31:00,352 --> 00:31:15,358 Rising from that death, rising up again, ascending into the glory of the new creation, carrying the corpse bride of his people up with him out of death and bringing her to life, 393 00:31:15,798 --> 00:31:28,643 carrying her up out of death and damnation, sin and sorrow and shame, and making her his own, satisfying her with himself, that is his steadfast love. 394 00:31:28,683 --> 00:31:30,146 That is his steadfast love. 395 00:31:30,146 --> 00:31:34,920 The crucified and risen Jesus is the steadfast love of God. 396 00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:47,420 So when this psalm calls us to confess together over and over and over again, for his steadfast love endures forever, for his steadfast love endures forever, we, as the as the 397 00:31:47,420 --> 00:31:56,077 people of Christ, can truly say the answer, what what is being said here is for he is who we know him to be in Christ. 398 00:31:56,518 --> 00:31:59,520 For he is the one revealed at the cross. 399 00:31:59,960 --> 00:32:04,721 For he is the one who hung on the tree and is now raised up to the throne. 400 00:32:04,721 --> 00:32:11,543 So we can say, Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for he is the one who died and rose again. 401 00:32:12,043 --> 00:32:16,474 Give thanks to the God of gods, for he is the one who died and rose again. 402 00:32:16,474 --> 00:32:21,866 Give thanks to the Lord of Lords, for he is the one we know at the cross. 403 00:32:21,866 --> 00:32:30,188 To him who does a great wonders, to him who by understanding made the heavens, for he is the one who died and rose again. 404 00:32:30,206 --> 00:32:35,180 Underneath this Psalm ultimately is Christ at every point. 405 00:32:35,180 --> 00:32:36,601 At every point. 406 00:32:37,402 --> 00:32:47,831 So what Psalm 136 teaches us to confess ultimately that all of reality exists because God is the one we meet in Jesus Christ. 407 00:32:47,831 --> 00:32:58,739 The character, the goodness, the holiness, the beauty of who God is in Jesus lies beneath everything. 408 00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:00,040 Everything. 409 00:33:00,118 --> 00:33:08,793 If if if you dig down into this reality, you will find, if you dig deep enough, you will find Jesus Christ. 410 00:33:08,793 --> 00:33:15,115 You will find the beauty, the goodness, the love, the peace of Christ. 411 00:33:15,436 --> 00:33:23,200 It's just like if you're in a desert and it's it's hard and it's broken and it's hot and there's rocks that pierce your feet. 412 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:29,549 This isn't life-giving, but dig down, dig down deep enough under this. 413 00:33:29,549 --> 00:33:31,000 There's water running. 414 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,061 Under this, there's life. 415 00:33:33,061 --> 00:33:43,605 And so what this psalm is teaching us to confess together, Christian, is that the deepest reality, the truest reality, is Jesus Christ. 416 00:33:43,605 --> 00:33:45,946 And that's not a throwaway statement. 417 00:33:45,946 --> 00:33:49,128 That's not a simple Sunday school, well, it's all about Jesus, right? 418 00:33:49,128 --> 00:33:52,989 No, it means beauty beyond your imagining. 419 00:33:53,290 --> 00:33:58,986 It means that love so deep that if we could just 420 00:33:58,986 --> 00:34:02,658 Embrace it, everything would be all right. 421 00:34:03,239 --> 00:34:07,522 All the fear would melt in the face of this love. 422 00:34:07,522 --> 00:34:12,145 All the regret would be silenced in the face of this love. 423 00:34:12,145 --> 00:34:17,188 All the anxiety would lay down and die before the face of this love. 424 00:34:17,188 --> 00:34:20,200 There is such a love, such a love. 425 00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:24,073 And you've tasted it once or twice, and you'll taste it again. 426 00:34:24,073 --> 00:34:28,866 And when you taste it, it is, it just changes everything because you realize, 427 00:34:29,240 --> 00:34:30,481 That's what's real. 428 00:34:30,481 --> 00:34:31,842 That's the truth. 429 00:34:31,842 --> 00:34:36,325 Those moments when tears leap to your eyes for gladness. 430 00:34:36,325 --> 00:34:42,109 Those moments when peace settles in, and even though you're in the midst of the hardship, you say, It's all right. 431 00:34:42,109 --> 00:34:43,310 It's okay. 432 00:34:43,310 --> 00:34:44,551 I'm held. 433 00:34:44,631 --> 00:34:55,719 Those moments where Christ actually appears to you as enough, those are not the exception, the fleeting little exceptions. 434 00:34:55,899 --> 00:34:57,470 Those are the reality. 435 00:34:57,644 --> 00:35:03,505 It's like when you're looking up at the sky and it's cloudy and there's one or two little points of blue. 436 00:35:03,706 --> 00:35:08,247 It's not that there's little pieces of blue floating around in this world of clouds. 437 00:35:08,247 --> 00:35:12,738 It's that the clouds are this ephemeral passing thing, and everything's blue. 438 00:35:12,738 --> 00:35:14,989 The whole sky is blue. 439 00:35:15,449 --> 00:35:21,331 So those little tastes of peace, of beauty, of hope, of Christ. 440 00:35:21,531 --> 00:35:23,211 That's not the exception. 441 00:35:23,211 --> 00:35:26,052 Oh boy, that was nice, but back to the grind of. 442 00:35:26,052 --> 00:35:28,273 Pain and death and loss. 443 00:35:28,273 --> 00:35:30,274 No, that's the reality. 444 00:35:30,274 --> 00:35:31,975 Christ is the reality. 445 00:35:31,975 --> 00:35:35,256 For his steadfast love endures forever. 446 00:35:35,256 --> 00:35:37,957 That's what's under everything. 447 00:35:38,277 --> 00:35:43,359 And so that's what this psalm is teaching us to confess together. 448 00:35:43,779 --> 00:35:45,500 Give thanks to him. 449 00:35:45,500 --> 00:35:47,521 Give thanks to the God of gods. 450 00:35:47,521 --> 00:35:49,702 Give thanks to the Lord of Lords. 451 00:35:49,702 --> 00:35:53,483 Perhaps you can't thank him for the event right now. 452 00:35:54,044 --> 00:35:55,254 That's okay. 453 00:35:55,384 --> 00:36:04,989 You can can you can thank him that in it, under it, through it, over it, his steadfast love endures forever. 454 00:36:04,989 --> 00:36:08,731 The risen Jesus Christ assures us of this. 455 00:36:08,731 --> 00:36:10,252 Because Christ is risen. 456 00:36:10,252 --> 00:36:13,534 If I if Christ wasn't risen, I am a liar. 457 00:36:13,594 --> 00:36:18,276 I'm a snake oil salesman up here, selling you cheap hope. 458 00:36:18,317 --> 00:36:21,998 But if Christ is risen, this is real. 459 00:36:22,159 --> 00:36:23,480 This is real. 460 00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:24,790 And we can say, 461 00:36:25,258 --> 00:36:29,489 All the time, in the midst of everything, your steadfast love endures forever. 462 00:36:29,489 --> 00:36:31,650 Your steadfast love endures forever. 463 00:36:31,650 --> 00:36:36,572 You are who you are in Christ, and joy is set before me. 464 00:36:36,572 --> 00:36:44,014 So, Christian, in closing then, let's confess this reality together as a church. 465 00:36:44,014 --> 00:36:49,386 I want us to read, we're not gonna read the whole thing again, but I want us to read a section of this again. 466 00:36:50,114 --> 00:36:56,249 And as you do, I want you to hear the voice of Jesus Himself in the voice of your brother and sister. 467 00:36:56,249 --> 00:36:59,051 The voice, your own voice and the voice around you. 468 00:36:59,051 --> 00:37:00,322 I want you to hear. 469 00:37:00,322 --> 00:37:02,799 Because when I'm talking, filter it. 470 00:37:02,799 --> 00:37:04,436 It's just a human talking. 471 00:37:04,436 --> 00:37:07,058 When we're reading scripture, listen. 472 00:37:07,058 --> 00:37:08,479 It's God talking. 473 00:37:08,479 --> 00:37:17,726 And so I want you to hear as you repeat these things, Jesus saying to you, my steadfast love endures forever. 474 00:37:17,787 --> 00:37:19,586 Right now, right now. 475 00:37:19,586 --> 00:37:22,639 My steadfast love endures forever. 476 00:37:22,639 --> 00:37:24,510 Let's confess these things together. 477 00:37:24,510 --> 00:37:31,225 We're just going to read the beginning and then the very end of Psalm thirty-six, but let's say this together as a church. 478 00:37:31,225 --> 00:37:34,998 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. 479 00:37:38,254 --> 00:37:40,634 Give thanks to the God of gods. 480 00:37:43,684 --> 00:37:46,364 Give thanks to the Lord of Lords. 481 00:37:50,272 --> 00:37:56,184 It is he who remembered us and remembers us in our lowest state. 482 00:37:59,308 --> 00:38:01,819 And rescued us from our foes. 483 00:38:04,654 --> 00:38:07,548 He who gives food to all flesh is 484 00:38:11,588 --> 00:38:14,549 Give thanks to the God of heaven. 485 00:38:17,856 --> 00:38:18,256 Amen. 486 00:38:18,256 --> 00:38:19,497 That's true, Christian. 487 00:38:19,497 --> 00:38:22,177 What we've confessed together here, that's true. 488 00:38:22,317 --> 00:38:22,907 That's true. 489 00:38:22,907 --> 00:38:26,648 In the crucified and risen Jesus, these words are true. 490 00:38:26,648 --> 00:38:38,102 And my prayer for us all is that no matter what we're walking through right now, or when we come to it, when we come into the valley, that these words we've confessed together 491 00:38:38,102 --> 00:38:45,304 today would form us, unite us, and keep us together as a people. 492 00:38:45,304 --> 00:38:46,764 And that we would know. 493 00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:58,503 The the unimaginable love of God in Christ, into which every Christian is going to be plunged. 494 00:38:58,503 --> 00:39:12,227 And just like when you're caked in dirt and you jump into the water and it all just melts off, you are going to be plunged into this love and all the fear and sin and brokenness 495 00:39:12,227 --> 00:39:17,098 and anxiety and confusion and regret that is just clinging. 496 00:39:17,098 --> 00:39:19,369 Is going to be dissolved away. 497 00:39:19,369 --> 00:39:22,451 And that love is the deepest truth. 498 00:39:22,451 --> 00:39:23,652 Confess this together. 499 00:39:23,652 --> 00:39:25,293 What a hope we have. 500 00:39:25,293 --> 00:39:30,476 Now, these words we've been confessing today are inspired by the Holy Spirit. 501 00:39:30,476 --> 00:39:31,876 It's in Scripture. 502 00:39:32,457 --> 00:39:45,868 Next week, what we're going to do is move to consider a confession that, though not inspired by God, is nevertheless anchored in Scripture and has been. 503 00:39:46,004 --> 00:39:54,506 One of the central forming, uniting, and keeping forces in the church for the last 2,000 years. 504 00:39:54,506 --> 00:39:57,207 And I'm talking about the Nicene Creed. 505 00:39:57,207 --> 00:40:08,591 So the Nicene Creed, we'll talk about this next week, it is an ancient Christian expression of faith rooted in the text, as we'll see, but it is a way for us to express 506 00:40:08,591 --> 00:40:14,102 together what we believe so that we might be formed, united, and 507 00:40:14,102 --> 00:40:15,263 And preserved as a people. 508 00:40:15,263 --> 00:40:25,598 So we're going to take two weeks to look at that creed and to look at its scriptural underpinnings and to look at the way that it declares for us and helps us to declare who 509 00:40:25,598 --> 00:40:29,401 our triune God is and what He has done. 510 00:40:29,401 --> 00:40:35,063 And in doing so, how it forms us, how it unites us, and how it keeps us. 511 00:40:35,084 --> 00:40:43,028 Now, what we have the opportunity to do right now is to make a confession of faith together. 512 00:40:43,028 --> 00:40:55,495 As we come to this table, because Paul tells us in First Corinthians that when we take this bread and when we drink this cup, we are proclaiming something. 513 00:40:55,635 --> 00:40:59,197 This isn't just an eating, this is a proclamation. 514 00:40:59,318 --> 00:41:04,401 He says, You're proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. 515 00:41:04,401 --> 00:41:07,743 That's what we are about to make a confession together. 516 00:41:07,743 --> 00:41:10,794 We're about to proclaim our faith together. 517 00:41:11,232 --> 00:41:20,417 When you come up here and take part in these elements, what you will be declaring, what we together will be declaring is Jesus Christ is our Lord. 518 00:41:20,817 --> 00:41:23,378 He truly died. 519 00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:27,801 And by implication of that death, he truly was buried. 520 00:41:27,981 --> 00:41:29,923 As it says according to Scripture. 521 00:41:29,923 --> 00:41:34,225 And if he's returning, Paul says, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 522 00:41:34,225 --> 00:41:38,747 Well, if he's coming, that means not only did he die and was buried, he was raised. 523 00:41:38,747 --> 00:41:40,054 You're proclaiming that. 524 00:41:40,054 --> 00:41:50,932 As you take these, you're saying he truly died, he is truly buried, he was truly raised, he's ascended into heaven, he's reigning from the throne, and he is coming. 525 00:41:50,932 --> 00:41:55,275 He is coming again as Savior and Judge. 526 00:41:55,275 --> 00:41:58,838 This is our confession that we're going to be making. 527 00:41:58,838 --> 00:42:01,140 This is our creed, you might say. 528 00:42:01,140 --> 00:42:03,100 This is our faith. 529 00:42:03,701 --> 00:42:07,512 And this, right here, these witnesses. 530 00:42:07,512 --> 00:42:13,757 These God-ordained witnesses to the broken body and the spilled blood of the risen Jesus Christ. 531 00:42:13,757 --> 00:42:23,145 This is the steadfast love that runs like a river under the barren wilderness of this broken world. 532 00:42:23,145 --> 00:42:31,052 This, this is the steadfast love that will finally define you and all of your experience. 533 00:42:31,052 --> 00:42:34,475 This is the steadfast love that endures forever. 534 00:42:34,475 --> 00:42:35,205 So praise God. 535 00:42:35,205 --> 00:42:36,408 Let me pray for us. 536 00:42:36,408 --> 00:42:38,921 And then we'll come to the table together. 537 00:42:40,846 --> 00:42:46,118 Father, we thank you that we are you are not a solitary God. 538 00:42:46,238 --> 00:42:51,360 You live eternally in the communion of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. 539 00:42:51,580 --> 00:42:53,861 And you do not create a solitary people. 540 00:42:53,861 --> 00:42:58,163 You create a people who is together, a community. 541 00:42:58,163 --> 00:43:01,384 And you call us to say things together. 542 00:43:01,384 --> 00:43:10,488 So, Father, I pray that increasingly we would be a church, whether it's formally during the service or whether it's informally as we meet together. 543 00:43:10,488 --> 00:43:23,568 We would be a people who speak what we believe to one another, who declare you and your good works to one another, who speak the truth in love, and so build one another up into 544 00:43:23,568 --> 00:43:24,498 Christ. 545 00:43:24,498 --> 00:43:26,880 And we praise you, Father, for Jesus Christ. 546 00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:29,782 Lord, as Paul prayed, so I pray. 547 00:43:29,782 --> 00:43:37,848 Would you strengthen us all together by the Holy Spirit so that we might comprehend. 548 00:43:37,996 --> 00:43:48,525 What is the length and the breadth and the height and the depth and to know the love of Jesus Christ so that we might be filled with all the fullness of God? 549 00:43:48,525 --> 00:44:03,097 Father, may the love of Jesus not just be a thing we say, but may it be felt in its absolutely world-making implications that we have such a Savior and nothing can separate 550 00:44:03,097 --> 00:44:04,978 us from His love. 551 00:44:05,499 --> 00:44:07,406 Lord, help us to know this. 552 00:44:07,406 --> 00:44:14,521 To confess this, to rejoice in this, and to endure because your steadfast love endures forever. 553 00:44:14,521 --> 00:44:16,542 We pray all these things in Jesus' name. 554 00:44:16,542 --> 00:44:17,523 Amen. 555 00:44:18,023 --> 00:44:23,267 Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio. 556 00:44:23,267 --> 00:44:31,853 To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10 a.m. 557 00:44:31,853 --> 00:44:35,795 or visit our website at Kingstreechurch.org.