Accepted in His Sight - The Reason for the Giving of Thanks - November 23rd, 2025

I'm gonna have us go through all of Psalm 19. So if you guys can turn your Bibles there, and it would be helpful to keep it open. And so what we'll do is just for the reading of God's Word. Um, Alex, can you just turn the is this on? Okay. Um you can rise with me, and you can read with me on your Bible or up here on the screen. We're gonna read the last four verses. And this is the reading of God's word. It reads, moreover, by them your slave is warned. In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Aquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back your slave from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me, and then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my redeemer. Let's pray together. Father, we gather just in freedom, in blessing, and with an abundance of encouraging, challenging and wonderful things. And I pray, Lord, in the event that our hearts have grown numbers to how good you've been, that you would remind us afresh this morning, that you truly are a good God. And I pray that more than things and more than circumstances, that our hearts would overflow in praise, knowing that you have called us your people. So would you feed your sheep? And in the strength that you provide through your truth. Help us to live joy-filled, powerful lives as a great testimony and a witness to the dying world that needs Christ.

Protect this time from any distraction. Lord, would you soften our hearts to receive appropriately your truth? We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take a seat. Okay. Alright, my clicker went away. I'll give uh is it batteries dead? All right. I'm gonna have to. Can you go back to Psalm 19? All right. Well, this week we're gonna be celebrating Thanksgiving. And the following question will be asked in millions of homes all over the country. Can you guys guess what that question is? Yeah, easy, right? What are you thankful for? And when a person is young, he or she will usually list off material things and favorable circumstances as reasons for thanksgiving. But as a person matures, hopefully he or she will grow in being thankful for relationships and for people.

Maturity comes with an increase of thanksgiving for people and for relationships. No matter how flawed those people and those relationships are.

They always separate people. Right? You guys all know what I'm talking about. Sin drives a wedge over every relationship. Our speaking is broken. Our hearing is broken. Our understanding is limited. Our biases and our prejudices are strong, and our judgment is very imperfect and often reckless. We are broken, and our communication is broken. And all of that is stemming from a fractured relationship with God. So everything and everyone, and our relating to everything and everyone has been greatly broken. Right? Communication has been broken. And even with the best of intentions and relationships that are full of love, communication is far from perfect. But most of the time we don't always have the best of intentions.

And we are sorely lacking in love in many of our relationships. And so our depraved hearts are inclined also to deceive and to be deceived by others. So there's a ton of deception everywhere. There's a whole lot of deception in all human relationships. Why? Because Satan, the father of lies, currently rules the earth. He is a liar and he's the father of lies. So that's a little bit of the groundwork to think through. We're a messed up people. Amen. Alright. Now, the fall of man and the entrance to sin into the world didn't just damage human relationships, but it also greatly corrupted man's understanding of the things of God. So say to yourself, think to yourself, my understanding of God is broken.

Think of that. My understanding of holy, holy, holy God is broken, and I am stupid. Man's sins have separated him from his creator. And so the relationship this way is also broken. But unlike sinful and corrupted man, God is incorruptible, God is perfect. There is no trace or sin or trace of unrighteousness in God in what he says. God is a perfect communicator. Amen.

God has never and will never miscommunicate. So we see in the scriptures that God does not lie, cannot lie. Titus 1 2, Hebrews 8:6.18. Man may misspeak, man may mishear, man may miscommunicate, but this is not so with God. So God always speaks truth. He has always communicated clearly his desires and his expectations of men. So let that sink in a little bit. He has always communicated clearly what he wants from you from your life. Micah 6.8 reads, He has told you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you but to do justice, to love loving kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. So God will never leave his will to guesswork. He never calls his people to guess what he's thinking or what he requires.

God's will for you and for me is very clear. It's very explicit, and that has always been the case. And this will continue always to be the case. So the specific application of his will for our lives may differ in appearance or how it all unfolds, but God's will has, is, and always will be the same. So broadly speaking, it is not difficult to discern the will of God for our lives. So the problem is not in the clarity of God's communication. The problem usually lies in our not liking his will, rebelliously rejecting his will, and then asking for another will. That's our problem. So we see through scripture that God's communication may be veiled at times, but in the instances that it is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.

It's confused because unregenerate minds are blinded and deluded. So when God does speak in confusing parables, Luke 8 10, he does so to those who have already hardened their hearts to him. Does that make sense? So Luke 8 10, he said to you, disciples, it's been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. So we know mysteries, okay? But to the rest, it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. So I want to make this very clear.

And in his speaking and in his proclaiming, he always magnifies and glorifies himself in and through all of his creation and in and through his people. So God will make himself known. Amen.

And that's the heartbeat of Psalm 19, which is going to be our text for the morning. Psalm 19 is one of the most beloved of all of King David's Psalms. C.S. Lewis, you guys know who he is. He said of Psalm 19, I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter, one of the greatest lyrics in the world. So Psalm 19 is basically a psalm delighting in God's self-disclosure to all of humanity. So all 14 verses are declaring the works of God and the perfect communication of God. And in the Psalm, I hope you will soon see, it's a very clear picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So Psalm 19 is a testimony of the gospel of God. And Psalm 19 communicates to all mankind the foundation for the man's giving of thanks.

And that's why we're talking about this today. And what is this foundation? Man is restored to God, the creator. That's the reason we're supposed to be thankful. So the Christian has come to understand that everything has been created by God and for God. And God has given the Christian the ability to clearly hear his voice.

So more than your financial abundance, more than good health, more than a happy family, a healthy church, and awesome circumstances, all of those things are blessings. The restored relationship has to be at the absolute center of your giving ofks. Amen. So the question is, what are you thankful for? What should we be thankful for is what Psalm 19 will communicate to us. So for this morning, I'm going to walk through all of Psalm 119, broken up into three bite-sized pieces into three bite-sized testimonies. Okay. So by definition, a testimony is a simple factual telling of something somebody has seen or observed. You guys okay with that definition? Modern day church testimonies focus on how a person felt or what a person did.

So a lot of times when testimonies are shared, it's like, I did this for God, and I was like this. No, no, but a testimony simply is something that you've seen or observed. So we'll look at three witnesses in Psalm 19 and their testimonies. And they're all testifying to the nature of God and to the gospel of God. Okay, so the outline of the passage and the day's sermon, it'll follow the thought flow of the three testimonies concerning God. The first one is a testimony of the heavens, verses 1 to 6, and then the testimony of the law, verses 7 to 10, and then the testimony of God's redeemed servant, verses 11 to 14. So that's a big picture, the big broad outline. And before we jump in, I'm gonna make a little note on the poetic books of the Bible.

When you're studying through the scriptures, sometimes the genre of the book will force you to adjust how you examine the verses in the book. So with poetry, you don't need to analyze and assess every single detail given. Makes sense, right? There are very few hidden meanings to discern in poetry. Usually in poetry, the author is just painting a picture. He's giving an illustration. So keep that in mind for today's sermon, because I'm not going to be looking at every single word in the 14 verses. So let's look at King David's Psalm together.

And I'm going to start with verse 1, the testimony of the heavens, and it reads.

And the expanse is declaring the works of his hands. So verse 1 is a summary statement of the majestic creator God. And the focus in this first half of the Psalm is in God's creative power, which we were also covering in Nahum. So the heavens and the expanse and all that is contained within it are declaring God's glory. So by the fiat of his power, God has spoken the sun, the moon, the stars, and the rest of creation into existence under the tent of the heavens. And the cre uh the creative power of God was observable in the beginning to Adam and Eve, as it is still observable for us today. Everything under the heavens and under the expanse are telling of the glories of God. Now, if you have been convinced that nothing that we see, or everything that we see has been created by God, and that if you've been convinced that nothing is by chance, everything that we see around us, God designed it.

You not only have common sense, but that's actually one of the starting places for you to give thanks because you see clearly. So verse 2, day to day pours forth speech. Night tonight reveals knowledge. There is no speech.

So there's a paradox here. There's a ton of speech without speech. There's a ton of just speech without words. So every single day, creation pours forth speech. It literally is flooding the world with speech and declaration on the nature of God. Night to night is revealing and showing knowledge. And the nights also are doing all of this without words. So these declarations are neither audible nor spoken, but on every fabric of creation, there's an imprint of the glories of God. So God's fingerprints, so to speak, and his signatures are everywhere. And the knowledge of God and information about God is being declared through everything under the heavens and the expanse. And then David continues.

So to David, of all the things in creation, he hones in on the splendor of the sun. So David's from David's vantage point, the sky is the largest and the vastest thing that he can behold in all of creation. You guys would too if we didn't have all these buildings in the way, right? And from uh the sun was so bright that he could not gaze at it directly. But the sun was something that literally lit up the entire world. So I can imagine almost like a young David, the shepherd boy, laying on the grass, looking up at the sky, pondering the heavens and the movement of the sun, because there's no buildings. He's out in the open. It goes from there to there to there to there, and then it sets. And to David, he's looking at this every day.

And it's as beautiful and glorious to him as a groom on his wedding day. That's an interesting comparison, right? In our culture, at a wedding, all eyes are on the bride. Right. Wherever the bride is, the wedding party, they're supposed to kind of adjust their bodies to kind of angle toward the bride. But in the ancient Near East, all eyes were on the groom. So whether you're thankful for that or that you're living in modern day, we'll leave that alone. Okay, happy Thanksgiving. In verse five. So David likens the daily rise of the sun to the entrance of a bridegroom dressed splendidly, super shiny, super glorious. There's almost a as he walks through, right? And then he continues to liken the sun to a champion runner running his course.

And I can almost imagine King David enjoying the many colors of the sunset and singing songs to God as he watches the sky. So no tall buildings obstructing his view. The sun must have looked amazing as it moved across the sky each day. So the rising and the setting of the sun was a mighty marathon runner. He's running all day. In verse 6, he writes, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. Man, this beautiful thing is blazing. So I can also imagine King David on a very hot Mediterranean day feeling drained by the heat of the sun, just as you and I would be.

Amen. You guys would wake up really early to watch a beautiful sunset, even though you know what it looks like already. It's a beautiful thing. The world our God has created is very beautiful. There is so much beauty in the world that God has created. One of the things I love to do is I love to fly on planes because I get to see more of God's handiwork in one viewing.

But I must sit in there on the window seat watching the world get smaller and smaller as a plane gets altitude, and I always end up thinking about the largeness of the world. I've probably been on a few thousand flights. So I'm always looking at the largeness of the world. In 2008, I flew over the Grand Canyon as I was flying to Colorado. Did you know that even from the airplane, the Grand Canyon is pretty grand? It's like, man, that's huge. There are many places and sites in the world that you can look at and marvel at and feel so tiny. Right. But it's also important to remember that our planet is nearly three quarters water. So even if you were to somehow manage to step foot onto every square inch of the world, which is impossible to do, it's crazy to think that the land that you've stood on does not even make up a quarter of the surface of the planet.

Most of the planet is water and the water, is it beautiful to look at? Absolutely. But I love snorkeling. If you've ever gone scuba diving or snorkeling, or even visited an aquarium, you realize there's a whole different world underneath the surface of the pretty water. Would you guys agree? So the planet that you and I are living on is huge. It is beautiful, and there are so many things that will cause you to enjoy to be in awe of God's handiwork. But just for a little bit of perspective, I want to show you a picture of the sun and how it compares to our ginormous earth. Bing. Scientists estimate that 1.3 million earths can fit in the sun. Though the fiery heat of the sun blazes, and though this giant ball of light is there, the sun doesn't look too big from where you and I sit, right?

I wonder how big David imagined the sun to be. Can you imagine how much David's mind would have been blown if he saw this image of the size comparison? So many pagan nations around King David worship the sun. But David gave glory to the creator of the sun. I don't imagine that King David traveled much outside of the Mediterranean. So you know what King David never saw? Glaciers, jungles, tropical fish. How much would David have marveled had he been able to scuba dive? So you and I have likely physically seen more things in more places than King David ever had. But do we marvel? Do we stand in awe? Do we give glory to God? How could the stuff that we see around us ever just happen by chance?

My prayer this week is that the Lord fill you with awe. Because real gratitude always begins with reverence. Let me repeat this. Real gratitude always begins with reverence, humility, and awe. Biblical thanksgiving begins with wonder and awe. But we're like over inundated with images, right? On the internet of like different things. So we lose the wonder. Psalm 19 is saying that the heavens and all the things under the heavens are telling of the glory of God, the expanse and all things under this expanse, declaring the work of his hands. This is their testimony. Psalm 19:1, the heavens are telling of the glory of God. The expanse is declaring the work of his hands. That's the first testimony.

Then David switches from creation to God's word. So in verse 7, we have a shift, okay, from God's creation to God's law, the Torah. And that's comprehensively like a basic term for God's revealed will. So our God who created the entire cosmos has chosen to communicate to man. What literally in the world? Our God who created 26 sextillion stars.

But he has spoken and he speaks.

So the word law is used broadly and not in so much reference to like the Ten Commandments and stuff. It's used broadly here. And I'll read verses 7 to 10 for you. The law of Yahweh is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise as simple. The precepts of Yahweh are right to rejoicing the heart. The commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of Yahweh are true. They are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, even more than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and the drippings of the honey comb. So all scripture is what we call theop nustas. Repeat after me.

Okay? It means God breathed. So scripture has always primarily been God's means of revealing his heart and his will to mankind. So throughout what's been created, we see God's nature. Through what has been declared and written, we see God's heart. You catch the difference? Through all of the created works that we see, we see his power, his authority, his nature, but through his spoken and declared and written word, which is timeless, we see God's heart. And we learn that God is a jealous God. But we learn that this jealous God is also unlimited in patience, he's gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, delights in loving kindness. We are taught of God's desires, his will and his holiness, all through what has been spoken and then subsequently written down.

So God desires to be known. He is not an unknowable God. God desires to be known by you and me. Amen. That's eternal life, John 17, 3. To know God and his Son, Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. We are a gift for the bridegroom who is Christ, so that we may intimately know each other as a husband knows his wife. God desires intimacy with mankind. So we go from a very informal God in verses one through six. He's referred to as L. General word for God. And then verse 7, he becomes more personal. And from these verses on, his name is no longer L. He's addressed as Yahweh, his personal God.

Now, I don't need to go too much into detail as to what the law, the testimony, precepts, commandment, fear, judgments, all of them specifically are. But all six of these are different terms for God's revealed will or God's word. Okay? So but in this section, King David says that the word of God, it restores, it makes wise, it creates joy, it enlightens. It doesn't change, it endures, and is altogether righteous, righteous altogether. So that last thing, what is that? What is this righteous altogether? You can understand this last effect as it makes whole.

So the word of God restores to wholeness. So the word of God restores man's relationship to God. The word repairs the fractured relationship. And God has perfectly communicated his heart for man in his word. He has initiated this.

So the Holy Bible is comprised of how many books? Sixty-six. How many in the old? How many in the new? Good. You guys have been studying it well, right? So 66 books written in three different languages, multiple differing cultures, geographical, historical context, all different, spanning over 1,500 years through more than 40 different human authors. One single message, God is going to restore. None of the authors who wrote down the holy scripture were writers by trade. Moses was a prince, and he was a shepherd. Joshua was a general. David was a king. Ezekiel was a priest. And there were musicians. There were even tax collectors and doctors and scribes and fishermen. 66 books, three original languages, 1500 years, 40 different human authors, but one primary author, the Holy Spirit of God, who makes God's heart clearly known to all people.

Amen.

If you're like, I don't get it, it's a mystery. You might not be saved. He makes his will known, but like I said, sometimes we don't like that will, and so we reject it and we ask for a different will. Nope, God skip, pass. Next one. But he has made himself clearly known. Second Peter 12. No prophecy of scripture comes by man's own interpretation. No prophecy was ever given by the will of man. But men, being moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke God's heart. So because the Bible was written by one primary author, there is one message contained within. And here's that singular message. Holy God will reconcile sinful man to himself and redeem him through his own provision of a perfect savior and an atoning sacrifice.

I'll read that again. And I realize it's right in front of me, so I don't have to keep twisting my head. Holy God will reconcile sinful man to himself, redeem him through his own provision of a perfect savior and atoning sacrifice. So in many ways, this can be used as a summary statement for all of Psalm 19, 7 to 10. So here's reason number two to give thanks. If God has given your heart a craving and a hunger to hear his word, if your eyes have been opened to see that the scripture is truth and it is the word of God, if you have been given ears to hear his word, and your heart gets stirred when his word is proclaimed, or when you read his word, be grateful, he has restored your soul. Because if you read the word and you're like, this is dumb, this is boring, this is backward, this is error-filled.

That's the testimony of an unregenerate man. But if you're like, the problem is not in the word, it's in my understanding. Wow, this word is powerful, so simple, yet so deep. I could spend a lifetime and not know everything. But it's so simple. I understand the message. Thank you, Lord, for communicating your heart. That's good evidence that you are a sheep because you are hearing his voice. Amen. So I'm not gonna expound up too much on the importance of the scriptures because we are a Bible teaching church. Most of us will all confess that the Bible is important. Amen. It's central, it's powerful, but the text asks us a question indirectly in verse 10. Okay. Verse 10 reads, man, your word more desirable than gold, even much more than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and the drippings of the honeycomb.

So the centrality of Christ, the communication of Christ through the scriptures. Is that your confession? Is that your obsession? Or in all honesty, would you rather have the gold and the honey? That's a good litmus test. Is the knowledge of this God the goal of your life? Or is a knowledge of this God the means to wealth, comfort, pleasure?

I mean, we struggle, but that's a good test. In the ancient Near East, gold was the most valuable commodity. Honey was a sweetest substance known to people at the time. Now we are overwhelmed with sugar, right? But honey at the time was sweet and health had health benefits. Okay. What King David's saying here is that the word of God is not just more desirable than gold, but even more than boatloads of it. You guys see that in the text? Much of it. What King David is saying here is that possessing a honeycomb, it's like a honey fountain. That's hitting the jackpot on sweet foods. If I have a chocolate making machine that self-fills itself and pops out Pharaoh Rocher to me every day, I've hit the jackpot.

It's on tap. But what King David is saying here is that the word of God is exponentially more precious and more desirable than boatloads of gold or sweet, pleasurable things on tap. More than possessing and obtained created goods, I have come to possess and obtain the creator of the universe as my father. I love the creator over the created things. Praise be to God. That's David's testimony. So in verses one to six, we reflected on the testimony, the imprint all over the heavens and everything underneath. Verses 7 to 10, we hear the testimony of the word of God. Thirdly, and finally, we're going to close with the look at verses 11 to 14, the testimony of God's redeemed servant. Moreover, by your words, by your law, by your truth, your slave is warned.

And in keeping your word, your truth, there is great reward. Because who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Keep back your slave from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my redeemer. And that's how the Psalm ends. So in verses 11 to 14, we're given the testimony of a transformed and redeemed servant. So this is a testimony of a saint, of a Christian. Okay. Verse 11 connects the word of God to how it affects the hearer. Okay, Romans chapter 10 says that faith comes from what? Hearing the word.

So the sheep, this sheep has heard the shepherd's voice. The law of God has transformed, redeemed this slave. The sinner cannot come to an understanding of the weight of his sins and his errors by himself. They have to be revealed to him.

But God in his grace and through his word convicted and revealed to this man his sin. So the surface and then expunged by the Spirit of God, revealed out. The heart formerly bent on presumptuous sins. In other words, willful sinning, presumptuous, willful, unrestrained, I will do what I want. That's gone. So this man who's a slave of God is rendered blameless. He has been acquitted of these great transgressions once and for all.

His rock and what? Redeemer. Slave freer, in other words. And that's verses 11 to 13. King David then closes his psalm with worship. Psalm 1914, which closes a psalm, is one of the most memorized verses of all the Psalms. Like the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want verses like that, right? Like this is one of the most memorized.

Contemporary Christian music has written to Psalm 19, especially verse 14. But what happens to a man as he marvels at God's handiwork? What happens to a man as he ponders deeply the word of God? What happens to a man when God acquits him of all his transgressions, resumes his life from the pit? He cannot but worship in fear and in awe and with much trembling. He cannot but give thanks for God's work of restoration and salvation. Thanksgiving is the only appropriate response. That's why unthankfulness is the root of idolatry, and it's one of the worst sins.

A lack of thanksgiving is a spoiled, rotten child having no idea how much he is loved by his parents. If you are a child of God, the only appropriate response is thanksgiving. Amen? No matter what the circumstance. Because the soul of this individual has been redeemed. So the soul that's been restored to the creator that will not die, that will worship and be delighted by God the Creator for all eternity. How can he not give thanks? And thanksgiving is proclaimed from his mouth. Thanksgiving is the meditation of his heart. In fact, the scriptures say that thanksgiving is the sacrifice that is lifted up to God as a fragrant offering. You cannot give God anything that he does not already possess.

What he delights in is, I am so thankful that you are my dead.

Even if you were to sacrifice your life, that is not, he does not need any of your blood. What delights him is the offering of thanks. And that's consistent. Old Testament, the people waiting for the Messiah, New Testament, the people who have received past tense, the Messiah, Psalm 116. Precious in the sight of Yahweh is the death of his holy ones. Oh Yahweh, surely I am your slave. I am your slave, the son of your maidservant. You have loosened my bonds. To you I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of Yahweh. He is worshiping. New Testament, Ephesians 5, speaking to one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, even to the Father. Ungratefulness is the root of idolatry. Ungratefulness is the fruit of an unregenerate heart.

Gratefulness is not only the only requirement for our day-to-day living to God. It delights his heart. The words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart are deemed acceptable in the sight of Yahweh God. The man and his words and his meditations are accepted, past tense. So the more I meditate on this Psalm, I'm seeing that verse 14 is not a request or a prayer. I don't like the NIV that says, may the words of my mouth. May is almost a request. But the Hebrew word is actually let. Right. May I have some coffee? Is very different from let me have some coffee. Right? Do you see the words? Let's the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart. This is not an inquiry.

This is a declaration. He's been accepted in the sight of God. This is his final statement of this testimony. The declaration of a spiritual man, a redeemed man. Actually, when I first was titling the sermon, I put acceptable in his sight. And then as I prepared it, I was like, no, no, no, no. That's a wrong title. It's accepted in his sight. Because this is your past tense. If you've put your faith in Christ's atoning work. So here's a question. Is this declaration of verse 14 your testimony? And I'm going to close by just walking you through the difference between a redeemed servant and an unredeemed servant. Okay. The redeemed servant, when he hears the testimony of the heavens in all creation, wow, marvels and worships God.

The unredeemed servant says, There is no God. And he's a fool. And then he starts worshiping the created things rather than the creator. The redeemed servant, when he hears a testimony of the word of God, says, Amen. And then he humbles himself before the word, not before people, but before the word of God, and then he obeys what's in the word. Remember, God doesn't speak in mysteries, he speaks clearly. And then that redeemed servant wants to know the word of God more than he wants money, more than he wants pleasure. The unredeemed man says things like this. I know that's what the Bible says, but it's a subtle way of rejecting God without socially rejecting God. Yeah, I don't care what the Bible says.

That's your interpretation. The unredeemed man, when confronted with an uncomfortable biblical truth, will change or distort the truth. The unredeemed man will surround himself with a great number of teachers who will say what he wants to hear, and then only focus on the parts of the Bible that don't make him feel guilty or disobedient. Unredeemed man. Redeemed servant, when he is shown and convicted of his sins, heart, cheapens grace, and then continues to sin. Don't judge me. I believed in Jesus. I went down to the altar. I raised my hand. I'm going to heaven. You can't say anything to me. You can't take that away. One saved, always saved. The posture is one of defiance. I shared this earlier.

God never leaves his will to guesswork. Amen. He never calls his people to guess what he's thinking or what he requires. God's will for you and for me, it's very clear, it's explicit. Every Christian who has the Holy Spirit of God is supernaturally hardwired to exalt and glory in God, to delight in his word, and to turn away from sin and to obey. That's the meditation of a Christian. Everything I say, whatever I do, whatever I think, whatever I pursue, you are my rock, you are my redeemer. That's his testimony. You and I have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. He is our rock. He is our redeemer.

Is he the reason why you live? Is your life celebrating you, or is your life a reflection of God's grace and kindness responding in thanksgiving? He's our rock and our redeemer. He's the reason why we live. And may we this week bless God with a heart of thanksgiving. Amen. Let's pray together.

Well, Father, lift up our eyes to the heavens. Open up our ears and incline them to your word. Because nothing else will satisfy us. Nothing else will cause our hearts to be sustained and to be strengthened outside of your truth. Written all over creation, written in your revealed truth of your scriptures. Help us to grow into a people who delight in your goodness and your sovereignty and help us to be a people who are awed and amazed and humbled that you, the creator of all things, would want to know us and to be known by us. So fill us with both fear, trembling, and inexplicable gratitude and joy for your glory. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.