Beacon Sunday Service January 7th, 2024

Let me just lift up a prayer to the Lord as we begin this morning. God, we thank you so much for this opportunity. What a great privilege and joy it is to be able to gather together to worship you. We're just so excited to sing these praises to you, especially in this new year. Lord, we thank you for again just the great privilege of the freedom to worship you here in this place.

But Lord, really just a time where we can come before you offer offer ourselves to you to worship you and to just bring glory to your name. And so with that, Lord, I just pray that today would just be pleasing to unto you, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

It comes from Psalm thirty-four, and there is a response, and it says this.

And together, those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. Amen.

Let all its one pray King throne in throne in majesty all things made by his decree's melody everything with life and breath everywhere from peace to west every our raise from not angel secondary Jesus Lamb for sweet name above all other names let all its works all its works oh praise let all its works praise oh pray all its works eternal God Eternal God mysterious and boundless life unfair and mercy show bright peasless fly around your glory strone raise their voices day and night in praise to you hallelujah glory be to our great God, Amen.

Hallelujah. Glory be to our great God. Lord, we are we are and surrounds your angels hold us in your eyes.

Hallelujah.

Every creature in us and every thing and valley.

Hallelujah. Glory be to us be to our hallelujah. Glory be our great God. Hallelujah. Glory be to our great God.

Amen. Hallelujah to our Lord and Savior and our God. This morning we will confess our faith using the Heidelberg Catechism. In this question and answer, we will confess how our knowledge of God's creation and providence help us. And here's a question. How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us? And together, we can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father, that nothing in creation will separate us from his love. For all creatures are so completely in God's hand that without his will, they can neither move nor be moved. Amen. Our God is sovereign.

Look full in his wonderful things, and the things of earth will grow strange leading in the light of his glory and grace. Turn your eyes. Where justice and mercy embrace.

For us, and our measureless death was erased. To you we lived our eyes.

We adore you, hold you, our Savior ever true. Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Turn your eyes.

And see Christ, the Lion of Ray.

For we carry life in eye. Jesus, to you we live our eye. Jesus our glory and our eyes. We adore you, behold you, see your ever true. Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. Turn your eyes. Turn your eyes to the heavens. Our king will return for his own amen. Every day will thou every time all glory to Jesus.

We adore you. Hold you, our Savior ever true. Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. Jesus to you we live our eyes.

We adore you. We hold you our Savior ever true. Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. Good morning, everyone. Happy New Year. With a a new coming year, there's a thought of refreshment of anew. But we know that our struggles remain the same. It's carried on from not just last year, but our ongoing struggles in our lives. And with the salvation of Christ, we know that we are redeemed from these sins, but we still struggle with them. And the Lord wants us to come before him and share with him our struggles. So we're gonna have a time of corporate confession of sin. And then immediately after that, we're gonna have a time of private confession of personal sin, struggles that you've been going through.

So let's go over this together. Let's read it together. Our King of Heaven, we praise and extol and honor you, for all your works are right and your ways are just we have walked in pride and know you are able to humble us. Please forgive and renew our right spirit within us, for your dominion is everlasting, and your kingdom endures forever. We joyfully submit to your gracious reign.

May the God of all healing and forgiveness draw you to himself and cleanse you from all your sins, that you may behold the glory of his son, the word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Today's prayer request is maybe an obvious one. Um, but the the country of Japan just experienced a New Year's surprise of an earthquake of seven point six, a magnitude that's just devastated that side of the country. Um there's over a hundred dead, and also more damage that followed was because of the tsunamis that came with that earthquake. Uh, an entire fishing town of Wajima was completely destroyed. And so um we should definitely pray for them. But like with a special idea that earthly and natural disasters like this, um they come and you know, people are devastated, they they ask why.

And we know that the the country of Japan is mainly a country that is not Christian, that doesn't believe that God exists. We know that there's a lot of missionaries or pastors and preachers who have come and spoken here that intend to go to Japan and share the gospel there. So let's pray for the dead, let's pray for their families, let's pray for recovery, let's pray for the support that Japan needs. But also most importantly, they need the gospel message, and in some way, if this travesty that happened to their lives to their country, can somehow bring forth the gospel message and reveal to them how great a God there is in grace and mercy in their death and destruction, that new life can come from this in the form of Jesus Christ.

What a blessing that would be, and that God's will would be done for the country of Japan. So let's pray for those things. Let's pray for what had happened, but what can happen through the work of our Lord. So let's pray for Japan.

Lord, we mourn the death of the people of Japan, of over a hundred dead and the toll rising. We know that a death of a life of a person is just a loss of a creation, your creation, made in your image, Lord. And we just pray, Father, that in this time, that we we ask that you would provide, that people would provide, that people would come together and support them, help them recover, help them move forward in their lives, knowing that this is a tough thing to come from, come back from destruction of a town, broken buildings, lost lives, and and Lord, even just um just their needs to be met in this time. But Lord, we know that you are a great God. You're a gracious God. And we've seen before that in death can come life.

Lord, we ask, Father, for your will to be done with the country of Japan. And we ask that your gospel message would be revealed to them, even in a difficult time. Lord, we know that sometimes there are things that we cannot answer on your behalf. We just don't know. But we know, Lord, what can come from your love, your grace, and your mercy. We live that life. We live those lives here. So, Lord, we pray for Japan. We pray for their support, we pray for their growth, we pray for their salvation. We even pray for the missionaries that we've met recently that plan to go to Japan to share the good news. We pray, Father, for that their work to not go in vain, and that ultimately, Lord, your will will be done for the glory of your kingdom there.

We thank you, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Uh, children, you're dismissed for Sunday school. Uh please follow uh teacher Steven. And while they're going out, we only have a few announcements. It's probably the same ones as before. Uh we have our children's ministry sign-up sheet. I know that people have taken a look and have uh double checked to see if they can actually help out that Sunday. But if you can double check again if your schedule changes, please use that sign-up sheet to cross out your name and write when you can actually uh help out. Um, our offering options, uh, we have Zell, Vemo, and Cash and Check for an offering basket in the back. Uh, if you are visiting, please do not feel obligated to give today.

But if you are a member of our church, we pray that you give as, or we ask that you give as the Lord has blessed you. Um, I have the pleasure of welcoming back our brother today, a guest speaker. Uh, his name is Christian Polignard. I probably messed that up. I'm sorry. Um, he spoke back on October 1st for us. Um, he's a pastor from Reformed Baptist Church of Riverside, a graduate of UCR. We have some UCRs, RRs here. Uh he is uh just he got his master's from Chapman University and his MDIF from the Reformed Baptist Seminary. He's been married to his wife for 24, going on 25 years, praise God. And he has three boys, a nine-year-old and twin sixteen-year-old going on 17-year-old boys, one of which Aiden is here joining us today.

Let's give him a well warm welcome.

Really appreciate the welcome and um thankful for what the Lord's doing in your church with your with all of you, and uh it's good to have a witness here in LA and amongst the Korean congregation, and it's awesome what God's doing. Send my greetings, uh, send greetings from the church in Riverside. I know uh I think you had my friend Joey, uh, one of our deacons over here, uh, where he came with me in October, and I hope you enjoyed him. Um let's just get right into it. Let's if you'd stand for the reading of the word. We're gonna open to Psalm 121. Maybe stand for the reading of that. Psalm 121. The psalmist writes through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

From whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil.

The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you'd be with us. We pray that you'd fill us even with your Holy Spirit now as we consider the psalmist and what he has to say to us, Lord, what your spirit would say to us. We pray that you give the preacher unction. You pray, give our ears a heart of worship to listen and to apply what we hear, and you'd be glorified in our midst. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, from our earliest days of existence, we have learned to seek out help, haven't we? What is the cry of a newborn babe, but a desperate plea for help to see its needs met, to have its belly fed, to have its diaper changed, to receive comfort from mother or father.

Man has been created in such a way, even from the beginning days in the garden. Before sin entered his heart, Adam was dependent even upon provision and sustenance from the fruit of the trees God had provided for him. He was he was in need of a companion to help meet his needs and be his helmet. So God created Eve. All these ways Adam needed outside help. He was from the beginning, all of humanity depended on outside help to sustain him and even to comfort him. And all those needs that the original image bearers were created to have were met and provided for by their good and benevolent Creator. Since the fall, however, the needs of mankind have become acute. Now we need provisions to keep us from dying and expiring.

We need shelter from harsh elements. We need to learn skills in order to make a living to provide for ourselves and for others, for our families. We need to study the elements in order to produce medicines, to cure diseases that plague our race. We require often rest and recovery from hard labor.

And of course, it is the fool who thinks he can live without even acknowledging the existence of God, as we were talking about earlier. Let alone the fact that the Lord is the ultimate provider of all the good things in our lives.

The providential orchestration of all the boats and trucks and planes that don't break down on the way to provide services to our stores and our houses, the goods we need. We got a small taste during COVID of the fragility of our society and our economy to provide goods and services and to deliver resources. Just got a small taste of that, how fragile that can be without the Lord's sustaining grace. And we fail to recognize the grace and power of God that entails seeing the world continue to operate in any kind of normalcy that we take for granted so often. Of course, the unbelieving world takes credit for all of the successful airplane takeoffs and landings, all the packages that arrive at the right place at the right time, all the electric grids, ability to provide electricity to our homes and businesses to millions of them.

All the paperwork and filing that gets shuffled into the right places at the right time in order to see our government function properly. On and on the world's business, let alone the very revolution of the earth on its axis, the world gives the credit for these amazing feats of grace, to the ingenuity of mankind or the laws of nature that exist because they believe that matter is eternal. The world is ignorant of its utter dependence on the Lord for everything, from the very breath they breathe, to the gifts and talents they possess that give them an edge in the workplace. Yet all the while they know deep down inside that the creator, we know this from Romans chapter one, that the creator is who they owe total allegiance to, and it is who they should ever give thanks to.

They know that deep down inside, but they suppress the truth and unrighteousness. And this is all for all just the daily needs of life in the world we're talking about. We haven't even talked about man's need for a savior for his desperate need for an alien righteousness, as Martin Luther called it, of his only hope being in Christ to rescue him from hell, from the wrath of God. Now, the psalmist here in verses one and two talks about looking to the hills, looking to the hills. And Spurgeon in his treasury of David notes how in those ancient times where there was there were constant threats from marauders coming into the village and ravaging the farmland and taking stealing the livestock, taking goods from the villages.

It was under those uncertain conditions of daily life in the ancient world, and I would also say the uncertain conditions of daily life in many parts of the world today, right? As well as not so long ago here in the United States, a little over a hundred years ago, when you ride by stagecoach can be threatened by bandits overtaking your stagecoach and stealing all you had or even killing you, right? That's not so long ago. But in those types of uncertain conditions in the ancient world, Spurgeon notes that those who lived in the valleys would see strength in the hills. It was in the hills and the mountains that they could escape to higher ground and be safe from the marauders and the armies that might come through their valley abode and destroy their livelihoods.

Seeking a way out of their troubles, out of their situation of being threatened of oppression. The hills beckoned to them and attracted them as to a place of strength and comfort and safety.

These ancient Jews.

And so often, even for the Christian, I say, so often in this life, we are spending our time and our energy and focusing all our anxieties on looking to the hills for our help. We are focused on getting to that certain place, getting to that mountaintop, acquiring those certain things or that certain job, or getting married, or finding a new situation for yourself, whether it be moving to live somewhere else or finding a different career, or I wouldn't advise this, but longing to win the lottery, right? Don't do that. We can so often put all our hope in achieving help from these things or these people. Maybe even your hope is in getting a pastor to provide you a way out, or in your brothers and sisters in the church to help you somehow.

Come to church, you seek help from your brothers and sisters. The point is, we stretch out our necks to reach these certain places someday. We know we need help. We know we're not happy. We're not where we want to be, and so we look to the hills for our help. Now, of course, we often do need to get a new job or to move to a different location or to get help from a pastor or to the brothers and sisters in the church or what have you, but what we're saying this morning is the echo of the psalmist. We might look to the hills around us. But where does our help really come from? Brothers and sisters, the hills of this life's goods and services and friends and family and government and health and finances.

All of it, or shall we say, none of it can ultimately in and of itself help you. You can get to where you have been longing to get to. You've been pushing to get to this place, and while you've been doing that, you've been forsaking the means of grace, perhaps, to get there. You didn't have time for spiritual fellowship, you didn't have time for Bible meditation, you didn't have time for prayer, you didn't have time for any of these things. Now, we know there are hard providences. Sometimes we have to work our fingers to the bone to provide for our needs, and we might not have the ability to spend as much time reading our Bibles and such things like that as other brothers and sisters at the time.

But to neglect the means of grace in a circumstance like that, if you are neglecting the means of grace in order to get help from the hilltops of your desires and where you think you need to be happy and fulfilled. Well, you might get to that place, but you only get there with a heart that is dry and cracked, and a spiritual life that is completely sapped of the knowledge of Christ. You get there at a sacrifice of your relationship with God. And though you may get to the financial place you wanted to get to, your soul is in danger. Your heart is steeped in sin and compromised. Your family is suffering spiritually, your children are in danger of hell fire. And you've left a wide open door in your mind for the temptations of the devil to wreak havoc on your life.

And you might be saying, I'm not really in danger of those things, but let me tell you, being a pastor, I've talked to countless, countless people who every time I counsel them and they have troubles with their relationship with God or they're falling into sin every single time. What have they done? They've neglected the means of grace for some time. That's every time it happens like that. You see, when we are striving for that someone or that something in order to receive ultimate comfort and protection and safety and provision, doing so with a neglect for acknowledging our utter dependence on the Lord. We ignore the calls of the Lord Jesus to come away with him and be with him. And we put our hope in man's ingenuity and our own ingenuity in the government.

Or when we maybe put our hope in thinking things will get better for us. Maybe your hope is in that. You're hoping things will get better. That's where your hope is in. We are baking all our life's hope on relief financially or economically. All our life's hope and being spared maybe from the persecution that seems to be coming our way as American Christians. Or maybe we are even looking to the Lord, but we are only looking to him to get us out of our troubles, or to give us what we want. We look to the Lord for him to continue to provide us with the hills, as it were, the hills, rather than trusting him in the sense that whatever he ordains is right. Whatever he ordains is right. When we look to the hills, we are looking for help in the wrong place, and we are looking for help from something that in and of itself has no power or grace to offer us.

We are looking away from the fountain of life for our life's sustenance and provision. The Christian life is about acknowledging, well, in the midst of life, struggles and temptations and labors and sicknesses and desires and broken dreams. It is about acknowledging through the daily grind of this difficult life that my help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth. That's where my help comes from. The Christian man or woman, boy or girl is one who lives in the mindset of Proverbs chapter 3. In all your ways, acknowledge him. He shall direct your path in all your ways. My friend, if you haven't realized it yet, wake up. You need help. We need help every single moment. And looking to the hills for help might delay your demise or destruction for a time, but ultimately looking to the hills for help will leave you empty and barren and starved and depleted spiritually.

The Lord is our only hope, my friends, the one who created all things. The Lord.

Do you not know that every trial, every blessing, every up and down in your life is designed by God to make you aware that every good and perfect thing comes from him, the Father of lights, and that without him you can do nothing. That's what all this is teaching us. Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Without me you can do nothing. This is the lesson we are being taught over and over and over again. And none of us have it mastered. That's why we're here listening to this song this morning. This requires the entire Christian life, the entire process of sanctification to be trained in that in all our ways we acknowledge the Lord.

And He has declared that we cannot know Him or be His friend until our sins are washed away in the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. He cannot be our help ultimately until we acknowledge Jesus Christ, and that all our help comes from Him and through Him. We're all in a desperate situation when we're born into this world. We're in a desperate situation. We're born dead in sins and desiring to sin and heading for eternal destruction and miserable in hell. Where can you get help from your sin problem? Where can you get help from the problem of evil that always lurks within your own heart? Where can you get help from that? Where can you get freedom from the guilt you feel? Where can you get help to receive hope when you're facing death?

Where can you get help? Real help from the fears of what lies on the other side of the death that is quickly heading your way for your body for all of us. We're headed for death. Where can you get help for the soul? You know that deep down inside you have.

And if you're not a Christian this morning, you're in desperate trouble. You're in trouble. And I know maybe no one's here thinking these things. Possibly they have in the past. Maybe they have recently, but are drugs going to help you face these things? Or is abusing alcohol is pornography or gluttony or gambling or working too much to distract yourself from your guilt? Being a workaholic. Where does your help come from? Not from these things. Not from these things. They're empty comforters. They're hollow promises of pleasure. You need you need help from the creator, from God, who came to this earth clothed in the flesh of a man. The God man, Jesus Christ, who came to save sinners by dying on the cross for their sins.

Rising from the dead and ascending back into heaven, seated at the right hand of God, and then sending his Holy Spirit to preach the gospel through the church to a lost and dying world until he comes again to the earth in glory at the end of this age. Our help comes from our Savior, Jesus Christ. He alone can give us the righteousness we need to endure the glories of sinless reality in eternity without suffering the wrath of a holy God who hates sin. People say, Well, I'll be okay. I remember talking to my dad, who's not a believer, talking to him about the gospel. He said, I'll be okay when I meet my Maker. He'll be okay with me, right? We're talking about a holy God. You're not going to be okay unless you're clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

These are the issues that we are faced with in these first two verses of Psalm 12. Let's go over the rest of the psalm briefly in order to see the benefits that the people of God, the church, receives from their Maker. Those who are in Christ, besides receiving forgiveness of sins and righteousness through him, how is it they are helped from the Lord? How does the Lord help us in the nitty gritty in the daily battles of life? Well, verses three and four speak of the sleepless watchfulness of Jehovah over our bodies and our souls. The sleepless watchfulness of Yahweh. God does not grow tired or weary in his care for us, Christian. The Lord is always watchful, ever aware, always awake and vigilant on behalf of his children.

Always. The wheels of his throne are covered with eyes inside and out. And he sees all.

Tired? God isn't. God is not. Are you sick? God is blessed forever. Are you worn out by the people around you, by your own sin, by the constant barrage of bad news coming through the media all the time? Well, God knows the end from the beginning. And he cannot be removed from his sovereign throne where he sees all and knows all and is never surprised. And his decree is never thwarted, and his providential care for his children is never frustrated. Have you enemies? You have enemies, maybe enemies at work.

He watches over you. Never sleeps.

He knows the path you take, for he decreed it from eternity past. Listen, Christian. No circumstance can remove you from his will. Let that sink in. No circumstance can remove you from his will. He is ever watchful. He keeps you on the path. Has the Lord gone to bed when your circumstances have knocked the wind out of you? Maybe your son or your daughter has been diagnosed with some chronic, maybe life-threatening illness. Maybe that's going to happen someday. Does the pain and anguish you feel, the helplessness you feel as you see your loved ones suffer so? Does the horrible pit of despair you maybe have felt at some time as you've watched the casket of your husband or your wife or your son or your daughter or your mom or your dad being lowered into the grave.

Does that black feeling of pain and dark darkness mean that God is busy somewhere else? That he has forgotten about you. That he's left you to deal with life on your own now. Listen, child of God. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Verses 5 and 6 speak of the Lord being our keeper, our shade at our right hand. The sun shall not strike us by day nor the noon by night. It is in life's daily drudgery that we will be preserved. In all our labors, he will sustain us. Even on our sickbeds, the Lord will carry us through so that diseases and disabilities cannot harm our souls. The ins and outs of toil and sweat in this world of harsh realities, the edge of it will be taken off by the sustaining protection of the good shepherd.

So the daily struggles of life, the daily work, the daily toil, he will be our shade at our right hand. Spurgeon writes this quote, doubtless there are dangers of the light and of the dark, but in both of them and from both we shall be preserved. Literally from the excessive heat and from baneful chills, mystically from any injurious effects which might follow from doctrine, bright or dim. Spiritually, from the evils of prosperity and adversity, eternally from the judgment and the burning of the world. End quote. When you wake up in the morning or on a Monday morning, facing the work week with a job you are constantly overwhelmed in, knowing that you have to put your nose to the grind, it's costing you anxiety and stress when you look to another 15, 20 years of having to work this job until you retire, your knees grow weak, you feel you can't even face the day.

You don't want to get out of bed. You're hoping maybe I talked to one brother in the past who hoped that he would get in a car accident on the way to work, so it's be spared from another day of being completely overwhelmed. Pining for the end of your shift when you can stumble home and shovel down some food and then go to bed. But it is in those moments of sweat and toil that the Lord is your shade at your right hand. He will get you through. It may mean you cannot look too far into the future. May mean you just take each moment, moment by moment, day by day, trusting the Lord, leaning upon him. And he will see you through that work day, through that work week, through the work year. As you labor, the sun will not scorch you, the labor will not destroy you.

He will see you through. He will provide for your family. He will preserve you through your toil and your labors. You're not alone. Millions of Christians throughout history have been given the grace to go on another day. Millions of Christians. Even in the midst of war and persecution, Christians are given the grace they need to go on moment by moment, to trust in the Lord and to eat the very manna from his hand day by day. That's what this life's trials are teaching us. That's what the lesson is that our help comes from the Lord. That we cannot do anything without a sustaining, preserving grace. That we need to run beneath the shelter of his wings to be shaded from the heat of life's toils and snares in a fallen world.

And you're not unique either. You're not unique. We are all helpless unless God intervenes in our lives. The sooner we realize this, the better. Being at the end of your rope doesn't mean you've been dislodged from God's will and favor. It means instead that God is working intensely in your life to wean you from dependence on the hills and to cast all your care upon him each moment of the day. Verses 7 and 8 read again, the Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in, and from this time forth and even forevermore. If you're a Christian here this morning, I tell you by the authority of God's word that nothing, nothing can destroy your soul.

Absolutely nothing. God will deliver you from every single toil and every single snare. He will raise you up, and you will actually see Satan Himself crushed beneath your feet on that day. You will persevere in the Christian life because it's not up to you. I mean, there's a sense where we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, but it is God who wills to do in us for his good pleasure. The Lord has made a covenant, and he will see it through. The Lord will see it through. It's not up to us. Don't fear those who can destroy the body, but fear him who can destroy body and soul, the one who can cast souls into hell. But this same dread, sovereign God who will cast the wicked into eternal hellfire, has promised the Christian that his or her soul will be persevered, will be preserved throughout all eternity.

Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come. Nothing can separate the Christian from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Absolutely nothing. The Psalms talk in other places of how you probably read this, how the Lord will enlarge the path beneath our feet. Have you ever heard that term before? Though we stagger and stumble seemingly off of the chosen path, the picture is there that he enlarges the path to include our staggering steps. And he steers us into the haven of eternal life. We are assured through Jesus Christ to apprehend. He enlarges the path beneath our feet. We're a staggering, stumbling flock of sheep, and we often allow sin to guide us and steer us and make decisions for us.

Is that not true? He that says he has no sin is a liar and the truth is not in him. Christians will continue to mess up, to grieve the spirit at times, to quench the spirit at times, to break God's commandments. Though they hate and loathe the fact that they do so, but we can rest assured that God will preserve our going out and our coming in.

Could it be that, I mean, we don't understand all the reasons why this has happened, right? We grieve at the morning and mourn the loss and the destruction and the deaths. But could it be that one of the reasons God has ordained this earthquake is for the salvation of souls? That people would be at the end of the rope and see their need for a savior, and those missionaries would have an open door to preach the gospel. Could it be? Dear Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord is your help. He is your help. The circumstances, the trinkets and the trappings, the bank account and the job and the time of peace from war, these all come and go according to the Lord's good pleasure. They come and they go according to his sovereign decree.

We must not place our hope in the things of this life, because they will ultimately fail us in one way or another. Perhaps your hope is really in not being placed in that circumstance that you fear so deeply. You say, I can go on if only that certain thing does not happen to me. I'll be okay as long as I never lose that thing or that person. And maybe it's something you don't really acknowledge in the front of your mind, but deep down inside, that's what your hope is in. I'll go on as long as that never happens to me. Most of us have our hope guided by these kinds of thoughts at times, if we're honest with ourselves. We'll do anything for the Lord except go through that. That certain thing.

I can keep going as long as he doesn't take my spouse away or my child away. I can endure persecution as long as he doesn't cast me into prison to be abused over and over again. We all have our worst nightmare scenarios that we cannot bear to think about going through. And this is where the deep-reaching scalpel of the Lord's holy word cuts us so deep, so close to the bone.

If those things happen to you.

Some kind of downer message you're preaching to us this morning. I came to be encouraged not to think of nightmare scenarios. But my friends, look at the world around you. Look at the history of the world, many millions upon millions of people throughout history, even in the modern world today, even in Japan, just recently, have had to endure nightmare scenarios. I'm not saying we should spend all our time dwelling on the possibilities of these scenarios, but we need to face the reality of them nonetheless. We need to face this reality. If you lived, I've just been doing some reading recently. If you lived in Europe during the Second World War, for instance, just 80 years ago. Most people in Europe experienced untold horrors, let alone the Jews and the Christians that were caught up in the Holocaust, right?

But just living in a European city during that second world war, you would have experienced horrors of bombs, horrors of invading armies, horrors of having to fight in the war for American soldiers and airmen during World War II. Now we're talking about just middle-class Americans here. Okay. Just in the air war alone. If you flew in the bomber squadrons doing air raids over Germany, you had to finish just 25 missions in order to fulfill your tour of duty. Just 25 missions. But it was pretty much guaranteed that you wouldn't make it through eight missions. Every mission saw bombers shot down and air crews killed. Every single mission. Whatever your views of the Ukraine or Israel, think of the horrors happening in those places right now.

Think of the horrors that have been happening for over two years now in the civil war in Myanmar. Think of the hardships of life in the South American countries experience economic hardships and unbelievable inflation. Think of living in Africa where there has never ever been, as far as I know, a peaceful change of power and rebel groups terrorize countries right now. Think of being a Christian in China or North Korea, right? In India and Pakistan. The hardships are real. Very real. And yet, these Christians are moment by moment being preserved by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. It's real. They are finding the grace they need to get by and to endure and to trust in the Lord. And I would say when they're facing those horrific scenarios, they're given extra grace, right?

They're given the grace they need at the time they need it. He is providing them with their daily bread. He is providing them with supernatural courage at times, supernatural wisdom at times, supernatural love for their enemies. And our point is that most people in the history of the world have had to face horrific circumstances at one time or another. That's most people. Christians are certainly no exception, and American Christians are not an exception either. If your hope is to persevere in retaining someone or something or some state of mind or some position or some level of prosperity, then our hope is not ultimately in the Lord. This is hard to hard to go through, hard to think about.

This is a struggle we're all going to have. We have this struggle. We're sinners. This is why we have this psalm. This is why we come to hear the word of God preach. We need to have our minds and hearts filled with a vision of the power and the ability and the love and the goodness and the sovereignty of God. God be merciful to us. Help us to come to the place of Job where he was able to say, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Because the Lord will eventually take away the hills that we trust in. He loves us too much to allow us to continue to lean on the broken reeds that this world has to offer us. Allow the Lord this morning to cut away your trust in the hills.

No longer cast your gaze longingly with hope to the hills, dear friend. Look to Jesus Christ. He is the Christian's righteousness, their bread of life, their light, their way, their truth, their life, their resurrection, their all in all. He will preserve you.

Through Christ, we trust the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our understanding, but in all our ways, acknowledge him, knowing that he will direct our paths. It's time we need to learn this lesson. This is something we need to learn that all our help comes from him. And he will help us. It doesn't mean we'll get relief when we want it or how we want it, but he will help us to run the race with perseverance. He will help us even in the daily grind.

He will even help us in the mental illnesses, the darkness of depressions, and in the confusion of mood swings and paranoias and the loss of rational thoughts. He will keep you, Christian. He will preserve you.

We're going to get through. Only because the Lord is our help. Look to the Lord, all the ends of the earth and be saved. Let's pray. Father, we we we know this is a serious thing to think about. All the distractions our mind and our hearts receive from trusting in you and leaning upon you and seeking you for our only help, Lord. But we know that you brought us here to this morning to to hear these things in your in your providence, Lord. And we pray that it run deep into our souls and our hearts, and you galvanize us with faith that trusts you no matter what happens, Lord. And when we do fail, we do fall, we do doubt that you help us to get back up and keep running to you, keep running the race.

We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, thank you, Pastor, for good word. Um let us as a congregation just look to the Lord for our help. Let's not look to the hills, but trust and lean upon the Lord. As we sing this next song, um, I just want to point out verse three. Um it says, Help me now to live a life that's dependent on your grace. Keep my heart and guard my soul from the evils that I face. May that be our prayer today and even throughout this week and through our lives, as we lean upon the Lord and trust upon him. So let's all rise and sing together, O great God.

You have the Lord and gorgeous me.

Help me now. Help me now to live alive. That's the end.

You go forth into this work we knowing that nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus may you be strong with the grace and the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.