Praise

Good morning. Let's start with some Bible trivia. What is the shortest chapter in the Bible? 117, I hear whispers. What is the longest chapter in the Bible? All right, a little bolder. Good, good work. Shortest 117, longest 119, right there in the middle? 118? That's our text for today? Interestingly, if you were to count the chapters before 118, it would be 594. If you were to count the chapters after 118, it would be 594. What is 594 plus 594? Ben? 1,188. 1188. If we look at our own passage this morning, 118 verse 8, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in men. This is the center of the Bible. Isn't that fascinating? What does it mean though? What's the significance? Absolutely nothing. It's just trivial trivia. Interesting all the same. But this is an important Psalm. For reasons beyond kind of the, I'm not even sure all that's true, but if you Google Psalm 118, that comes up. If we look at this text, notice the beginning. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Look at the end of Psalm 118. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. There's one simple, clear message. Something else interesting about this text, not only does it have a bookend, the, the Lord is referenced in every verse. Give thanks to the Lord. His steadfast love. His steadfast love. His steadfast love. I called on the Lord. The Lord is on my side. The Lord is on my side. I took refuge in the Lord. It is better to take refuge in the Lord. The Lord cut them off. The Lord cut them off. And so on. It's a, it's a passage about the Lord. And how good he is in the midst of distress. and how good he is in the midst of worship. The psalm is focused on how we are to respond to this good God. And there's actually a little something more about this psalm. It's a, it's a bridge psalm. It's a, it's a window. I believe if we were to study this psalm in its detail, which I hope we do, we'll scratch the surface at some level, we're going to see it connect the Bible together. from Exodus to Christ. You see, this psalm is one of the Egyptian halal psalms. Halal. H-A-L-L-E-L. That Hebrew word for praise. Psalm 113 to Psalm 118. Those are the halal psalms. They were specifically used in the tradition of Israel during the Passover. 113 and 114 were sung before the Passover. And then the others were sung after. And so if we actually think back to the Gospel of Mark, we just finished preaching through it. Remember, they took the Lord's Supper, and they sang hymns? This is probably what they were singing. Psalm 118 is most likely the last song Jesus sang before going into the Garden of Gethsemane, and maybe before he died. It had a special place in the history of Israel as it's clearly connected to the Passover. The Passover is when Israel, they're enslaved by Egypt. God says, I will deliver you after they cry out, and after ten plagues, God brings them out, and they cross the Red Sea, and they're delivered. The Passover lamb is the testimony that the blood is a testimony of God's judgment. When the blood is over the door, his judgment passes over. And we'll think about what the significance of that is a little later. It connects Old Testament to New Testament. This psalm is quoted by Jesus in Mark 12. It's quoted by Peter in Acts 4. It's cited in Ephesians 2 when talking about the church being built on the cornerstone, Jesus Christ. And then 1 Peter 2, 6, 8 quotes it directly. It serves in a very central way for us to understand how Christ is related to the Passover and how the church is related to Christ. Interestingly, Martin Luther said this was his favorite psalm. This is my psalm, my chosen psalm. I love them all. I love all Holy Scripture. which is my consolation in my life, but this psalm is nearest my heart, and I have a peculiar right to call it mine. It has saved me from many oppressing danger, from which neither emperor nor king nor sages or saints could have saved me. It is my friend, dearer to me than all the honors and powers of the earth. What a powerful testimony. What a charge for us to consider how we can relate to God's Word this morning. If you want to turn there, it's on page 511 in the Pew Bible, or you can test how good you are at picking the center because it really is in the middle. If you can open it directly to Psalm 118, you don't win a prize, you just get there. The thesis, well, you really can't improve upon the author's own thesis. Okay, thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. If you want to apply that a little bit more to our specific context on this side of the cornerstone Christ, I would charge you, put on Christ with gladness and gratitude. Put on Christ with gladness and gratitude. The first thing we see in our psalm is a call to thanksgiving. A call to thanksgiving. This is verses one and four. If you've been with us for a while, this has been our call to worship for the last five weeks in this psalm series that ends today. It's important that we come expectantly to hear an invitation to worship. One of the most important parts, one of the most important elements of our worship service and the way it's designed is, is we don't start with our own word. The worship service isn't part of the announcements. The worship service starts when God calls us in to worship. It's His invitation. We should be coming eagerly and expectantly. This is a psalm that challenges us. Notice that there's command. Give Thanks. Why? Because God is good. His steadfast love endures forever. Now then we say, we see Israel and Aaron and all the different tribes are being invited in, but the general overarching invitation. Those who fear the Lord. Those who have a reverence for this good God give thanks His love endures forever. The word love there is very important throughout all of Scripture, through the Psalms, through God's very coveted relationship with us. You know, if you were to ask anybody, what's God like? I would assume most people are going to get to love pretty quickly, if not the very first thing. Everyone wants God to be love in the way we think of love. But the word here, hesed, is very specific. It's a very specific kind of love that God gives, and we can see it in our own culture, but you know, we're pretty flippant with the word love. I love cheeseburgers. I love my car. I love my house. I love my job. I love my pew. If you were to use the word hesed like that among Israelites, they would be very confused. What do you mean? You don't, you don't hesed stuff. Hesed is a covenant relational commitment. It takes place between persons. So when we speak of God's love, when we speak of his chesed, it's a, it's a covenant commitment. It's, it's very similar to marriage. God actually uses marriage as a, as a metaphor for it. Chesed is a relational commitment that isn't dependent upon how good the person is or how lovely they are. It's, it's I'm with you. I'm for you. For better or worse. I am going to align myself with you. I'm going to walk with you. My purpose is now your purpose. The reason Israel is called to give thanks, no matter what, God is good and He's committed Himself to your goodness, to your wellness. God is good and He's committed Himself to our well-being. There's no better news, and especially as it's fleshed out in the way He's done this through Jesus Christ. And we'll get there. Now let's be very clear. God does love all people, but He does not love all people the same. Everyone who has the image of God, just being created in His image as a human being, He has a love for them. But, but this is a covenant commitment that is received by us through faith. It's freely given. To all who are in Christ, by faith. As we look at this beginning of the psalm, it's a clear call. Give thanks. Not because you don't have problems. Not because all things are going well. Not because you've got everything under control. No, there's plenty to complain about and to worry about and to fear. God calls us to give thanks because He's good. His steadfast love does not end. It endures forever. That is the call. That is the clear theological grounding and framework for everything he's going to say next, verses 5 to 18. That, that's the context of Thanksgiving. Out of verse 5. The context is distress. The call is give thanks. The context for Thanksgiving is, is distress. Listen to this author now now this doesn't have a clear author. We don't know if it's David What appears to be happening is this psalmist or the author he sounds like a king? Who's been at battle and? Was in great danger, and he's now coming back to lead Israel to give thanks for the way God saved him so if the Exodus was 1446 this seems to be a A king who's going to be after 1050. Four or five hundred years removed. It's important for the Egyptian halal aspect. But we see here a king, and he's giving testimony. There's Psalms that teach us how to crowd the God in the middle of distress. This is a Psalm that teaches how to look back at distress. You can look at it in distress, because see, I want to look, I need to be learning now. But this is a Psalm not crying out in distress. It's a testimony giving, it's a Psalm giving testimony. This is what the Lord has done already in my distress. Listen to the distress. Out of my distress I called on the Lord. He's on my side. He's on my side. I took refuge in Him. I took refuge in Him. Okay. All nations, they surrounded me. They surrounded me. They surrounded me like bees. I was pushed hard, verse 13. You get this picture that, that he was, he was, he was stuck. He was terrified. There was no way out. He was in absolute clear a position to be defeated. Verses 6 and 7, he testifies, God is for me. Who can be against me? There's, there's no better helper. Verses eight and nine, do not trust in princes, do not look for anybody else, look to the Lord for help. And then that 10 to 13, you feel the agony. Surrounded, surrounded, surrounded, pushed in like bees attacking. It's terrifying, the picture here. Now again, this is a psalm that is connected to the Passover. And if we think about what happened in the Passover, after Israel was freed from Egypt, they were given all the gold on the way out, they're walking out the gates, they're walking towards the promised land, and then they camp at the Red Sea. And God says, I'm not done with Pharaoh yet. I will demonstrate my full glory. He hardens his heart again. Pharaoh sends the army out. Israel's there at the Red Sea. There's nowhere to go. They're on a boundary. And then, they're not fighters. They didn't take the weapons of Egypt. They took the gold. The greatest army known at that time is pressing in. They're surrounded. You can feel the weight of this if the king is reflecting back on the, the Passover and the Red Sea deliverance. The Lord, the Israelites, they start crying out, complaining. Were there no graves in Egypt? Is that why he did all those plagues to take us out here to die because there weren't enough graves in Egypt? What an ungrateful people. They cried out to God. And God saved them. He opened up the Red Sea, one of the greatest, clearest deliverances of God in the Old Testament. Look at verse 13. I was pushed hard. You can feel Israel just looking at the, the shields and the swords glistening in the sun on their way down to them, and they were pushed hard. They were going to fall. But the Lord helped me. This is important for us to feel. We don't know the context for the king 500 years later who's actually talking about this. It sounds militant. It sounds like he's in great danger in a military battle. But, but here we see, I believe he's using language that's, that's Exodus-like in the same way we can. He appeared defeated, hopeless, but God. It's an important picture for us. There are trials that feel like they're pressing in and squeezing in. Look at verses 17 and 18. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death. The Lord, the Lord squeezed in, but He's, He's still with me. He's still keeping me. He's keeping me alive. That perspective of 18 is very important. God kept him, and he's able to look back and realize that, that trial, That difficulty, that distress? The Lord was in that. The Lord was using that. The Lord was disciplining me. The Lord disciplines those He loves. He squeezes us. Now, this is an important philosophical question. What happens when you squeeze something? What's in there comes out. That is a very important principle we have to hold on to. When we're squeezed, what's already in there comes out. When squeezed, how quickly do we give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever? Think about when you're squeezed in a trial. Think about when you're squeezed in traffic. Think about when you're squeezed in a difficulty. What comes out? How quickly do we complain and grumble and curse versus give thanks to the Lord? How quickly do we put our hope in God? That's part of the discipline process. He squeezes so that we can see we need grace. We need refinement. We need to be disciplined so that we see the sin that resides within, so that we learn to jump to hope and gladness all the more quickly. So that maybe when we're like Miss Georgia, being squeezed with some serious health concerns and the loss of life, we have the pure hope in the resurrection. in distress, in hopelessness. We feel that pressure. We're to call upon God. We're to cry out to Him. And then notice, we're to sing a new song. Now that isn't like the most contemporary song. That new song here means we're going to praise the same God who has shown the same love in a new way because He saved us from a new problem. A new song. A glide song. Now, let me be very clear. At church, we want to sing songs of lament and minor key. We want to identify with those who are struggling and difficult, and there's a proper way of singing with a proper reflection on the confession of sin and how we are wayward. But we don't just sing songs in minor key. We want to give songs of assurance. We want to give songs of gladness. I kind of wonder, what does your song sound like? What do you sound like? We need a time where we're confessing with a lament and we're rejoicing in mercy. Do we have this kind of gladness of song that demonstrates a faith, a hope, and a gratitude? This morning, I know many of us feel like we're surrounded It feels like there's probably bees involved. Here is the context for giving thanks. In the midst of trouble is where God shows Himself the merciful, always loving Savior. He does not change. He is with you. He is for you. Let's go on to the cornerstone of thanksgiving, verse 19. The call to Thanksgiving is very clear. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Simple, easy to memorize. Verses 5 to 18, the contacts. There's a, there's a distress. We're surrounded. We're surrounded. God is disciplining us. And now we come to the cornerstone of Thanksgiving. And let me just be very clear. This section is so loaded with truths about Jesus Christ, we're gonna scratch the surface. You've got a lot of homework to do afterwards if you really want to embrace what all is being said here. This is a loaded messianic psalm about how to give thanks. And Jesus is at the center of it. Let's look at this very briefly and just in its context. Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them. The gates give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. So we can kind of picture here a king coming back from this battle. He is coming into the city. The gates open. They are open for him, and he is leading all people now in a parade of joy that God has delivered him and his army. the nation. We can picture this, right? There's a, there's a grand parade. Whenever somebody comes back for battle, there's rejoicing. We actually can see this more. Verse 22. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This, this is obviously quoted often in the New Testament. Here there's a central piece that the people reject, but, but God establishes. That's, that's the main point there. This is the Lord's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes. How God works is different than the way the world works. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is a good day to celebrate. Save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord, that God is good. Now, we can picture this parade, and we actually have a description of what this parade looks like. We have a declaration in Scripture that shows us exactly what Psalm 118 is talking about. In the Gospel of Mark, we just studied, Jesus comes into Jerusalem for the last time. And in that moment, the people are crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Well both of those actually come straight from this psalm. If you look there verse 25, save us, that's Hosanna. Hosanna. They're quoting verse 25, and then verse 26, save us! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They're partially getting this. Psalm 118 is so connected to the Passover. Jesus is coming in for the Passover, and they're recognizing something is unique about this one man who has demonstrated authority over demons and sickness and the scribes. There's something unique. They're saying, Jesus, Hosanna, save us. Blessed is he who comes in, O Lord. Now the problem with the people who are actually praying is, saying something like, save us from our enemy Rome. Save us from the bad religious leaders. Save us from sickness and demons and a bad government. Jesus is coming to provide a different kind of healing. He's coming to provide a different kind of salvation. What they don't have a clue about is that the King isn't just coming to bring salvation Himself. The King is salvation Himself. The King is going to come in and He's not going to bring victory and then have a sacrifice of thanksgiving afterwards. No, the King is going to be the sacrifice. Jesus submits Himself as the King who's coming to bring salvation. As the King who's coming to fulfill all these promises so that we can always give thanks for His steadfast love endures forever. He's going to give himself over to the religious rulers, to the Roman rulers, to be mocked, falsely accused, beaten, spat upon, hung on a cross, to die, to be murdered. He is a righteous man. The one and only righteous man. The one true king of Israel. And he submits himself to be this sacrifice because he has to die to save us from our biggest problem, our, our most significant problem. And that is, that is our own sin. That is the judgment of God against our sin. Jesus comes as the king of salvation, and he brings salvation by dying in our place for our sins, dying under the judgment of God, instead of—so that we do not have to face God as judge. Verse 23. This is the Lord's doing. Salvation of the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes. The story that God would send his own Son, The parable read earlier from Mark 12, we'll look at it in a little bit. God keeps sending prophets to Israel, and they always beat up the prophets. Some of them they kill. God says, if I send my own son, how will they treat him? Surely they'll respect him. No, they realize he's the rightful heir. They kill him and throw him out. And God will bring judgment. But this is the good news, the marvelous work that only God would do. He sent His Son not just so He would bring proper judgment. He sent His Son so that He would die, so that we would not face judgment if we believe in Him. He was rejected, the cornerstone. Remember the people cried out, crucify. He is the stone rejected by men. but established by God to be the head of a new people. He's the king who dies to free us from the penalty of sin. He's the king who dies to free us from the power of sin, and is the king who will return to free us from the presence of sin. What must we do? Believe. Believe he is the one king The one man, the one true king who brings salvation. Here we get into a cornerstone theology. Right? The cornerstone theology. We're going to camp out here for a little while in verse 22. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The more you feel that distress of 5 to 18, the more you need to look at the cornerstone. Let me say it another way. The more you feel confident and confident in this world, the more you need to realize you need the cornerstone. A cornerstone theology keeps us from being tossed to and fro in our sin, in the chaos of this world, in distress. Cornerstone theology is what leads us to give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and steadfast love endures forever. Again, this passage is referenced several times. Again, Mark 12, found on page 848. After God the Father sends prophet, after prophet, after prophet, He sends His own Son so that we might be saved. He sends His own Son and His judgment will be sure for those who reject Him. But His salvation, how secure for those who believe in Him. We can turn to Acts chapter 4 verse 11. Peter, who just days or months before had rejected Jesus, denied Jesus, he was afraid of the religious rulers, in Acts 4, verse 11, found on page 912 of your Pew Bible, if you're using it. He was a coward. But now he's the chief spokesman of the early church. He is preaching the gospel with boldness, and he's charged by the Sanhedrin. Stop preaching Jesus resurrected. You're not permitted to spread this message anymore. And he responds, is it right to listen to you or God? Verse 10. Jesus of Nazareth, who you crucified and God raised from the dead, he is the stone you rejected but has become the cornerstone. Sanhedrin, religious leaders, you're on the wrong side of history. You're on the wrong side of God. And they need to declare something we all need to hear very loudly. Verse 12. There is salvation in no other name. How can I quit speaking of the name, the name above which is above all names, and the only name in which you can be saved? If you're not a Christian, that's your verse. Acts 4 verse 12. There's no other name in which you can find salvation. Now let me affirm something that is common to hear. All roads do lead to God. Every path represented in this room, this city, this nation, this world, it all leads to God. Everyone will see God when they die. There's only one path that welcomes you and forgives you and brings you into His kingdom with an embrace. It is Jesus Christ alone. Every path will lead to God. Everyone must face God and see Him and give an account, which we will be speechless because our sin will be so evident. Every path will lead you to God. The path you're on right now will lead you to God. This morning, you can believe in Jesus. It's a different path. It's the path where we recognize I have sinned. I will be judged by God because He has to be a righteous God. He reveals Himself as a righteous God. He, Jesus Christ alone, died for my sin so that it's paid for. He's the only one who can forgive me. You must believe in Jesus and His death and resurrection, ascension and return. Or your path is going to lead in judgment. Jesus and Him alone can save you. Church, as we think about that, how pressed do we feel to share that gospel? I appreciate the embrace of smiles and nods when the gospel is preached here, but how much are we burdened that our neighbors, our co-workers, our family members, they may have heard of Jesus, but do they really know who Jesus is and what he's done? Are we burdened with that message? Are we burdened for their souls? Are we longing to be heralds of the best news anyone could ever hear? It was challenging this morning to hear in the Sunday school. After 4,000 years, that people group finally heard the word of the Lord. Okay, the Word of the Lord is present here in America, but there's so many people who have just not heard the true good news of Jesus Christ. Let's go to the next passage where this Psalm is quoted. Psalm 118, verse 22 again. 1 Peter 2, that's found on page 1014 of your Pew Bible. 1 Peter 2. Here he makes a very strong, clear connection. As you come to him, that is speaking of the Church, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, who is the living stone rejected. For it stands in Scripture, behold I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and who believes in him will not be put to shame. Verse 7, so the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builder rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you, church, who's supposed to be the spiritual stones being built up into the spiritual house in Christ, but you, A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. There's first just a recognition of who we are. Stones set apart by God for God. From the darkness for now His holy purposes. Verse 11. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Now, Peter's application of the cornerstone theology is talking to believers already. It's not just that you have to believe in Him and Him alone, it's that you're now built in Him. You're united with Christ, and by definition, when you're united with Christ, you're united with others who are united in Christ. Look around for a moment and think about who's around you. You're not looking around. That wasn't metaphorical, looking around. All right, all those are believers. Those are people we would never sit with, most likely, in any other setting. Right? The whole point of church is, you get to choose your friends, not your family. And in the same way, it's like that with God's family. He chooses. Chosen, race, holy, nation, set apart. There's a, there's a beautiful picture here. When we are united with Christ, we are by definition united with one another. And there's supposed to be something about the way we, we conduct ourselves then, when we are united with Christ and therefore united with one another. The, the picture is that the church is supposed to be this, this holy blessing of stones, united and working together. Does it feel like that? I'm a pastor because I long to see that. I'm a pastor because I long to see what the glory of Christ would look like in a church. Not a leaning tower, not a wobbling tower, not one where stones are missing, not one where stones are throwing stones at one another. United to Christ. In such a way that we're united with one another. For the holy purposes of God. Let me give you just a simple instruction. Christ came as the one who was blessed coming in the name of the Lord. We as Christians should be coming now as those who are so blessed in Christ that we want to be a blessing to others in the name of the Lord. This is how you should approach Christ. I am blessed. This is how we should approach one another. How can I be a blessing in the name of the Lord? Now this goes against every consumer-trained instinct we have. I'm not coming to just receive a blessing. I'm coming because God has blessed me. I want to be a blessing. I'm coming thinking of the other. I'm thinking of the brother or sister who's struggling. Because when I'm struggling, I'm going to need somebody to be a blessing. This is not haphazard Christianity. This is not spontaneous Christianity. It's chesed Christianity. Committed. Relational. Others focused. Reflecting the love of God. So church, something we need to reflect upon. How closely am I or you connected to the cornerstone? How closely are we seeking to connect with another because we are all connected to that one cornerstone? Are we glad and thankful? Finally, the commitment of thanksgiving. The commitment of thanksgiving, verses 20 and 29. You are my God. Notice it goes from the call to worship, give thanks for the Lord is good, to the psalmist declaring a proper response, you are my God, and I will give thanks. You're my God. I will extol you. I will praise you. I will lift you up. It's amazing where we think about what God commands and why He commands it. On Wednesday night, we were studying sanctification and looking at, be holy for I am holy, very connected to what we're all saying here, because 1 Peter quotes that in chapter one. But it's funny, you look at Leviticus 11.44 and the context for that, be holy for I am holy. The context is, be holy for I am holy, and what that means is you don't eat swarming bugs. I think I got that one, Lord. Right? That's a command I'm more than happy to keep. But it's there because somebody was doing it. Right? The commands are there because we all have some tendency to sin. The more repeated and the more clear commands, the more we can see the more basic sin nature. Let's think about how many times God has to command us to be thankful and be glad. Romans 12. Rejoice in hope. 1 Corinthians 15. But thanks be to God who gives us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Philippians 2. Don't grumble. Be glad and rejoice. Philippians 3. Rejoice in the Lord. Philippians 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say Rejoice. Colossians 1, give thanks to the Father. Colossians 2, walk in the Lord abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 3, 15 to 17, and be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly with thankfulness in your heart. Do everything for the glory of God with thankfulness in your heart. 1 Thessalonians 5, give thanks to the Lord in all circumstances and James one counted all joy in various trials. There's a lot of commands there. Because there's a strong tendency to grumble and complain. A folk in flesh fashion, I love to get into a nice downward spiral of pessimism. It's always so promising and so easy to jump into. A good grumbling just feels like it's gonna be a bomb for the discontent soul. It does such a good job of building up my self-righteousness and embracing my anger. That's one way to live. But God, He did not save us to walk in that way. But God called us not to grumble, but to be grateful, to be glad. Now there are folks who have real depression and real difficulty. Please don't walk away from this thinking, I just had to be glad and put off my grumbling. There's real counsel that you need to hear. My concern is most of us have a self-imposed pessimism. We like to call ourselves realist. If you think about it, we're denying the real God who is really good, and we're not embracing His love into ours forever. We're not realists. We're pessimists. What does your song sound like? Does it reflect that Christ is the cornerstone that's been rejected for you, the good news that you are now embraced by God, loved by God, forgiven for your sins, freed from the fear of death? So the thesis is put on Christ with gladness and gratitude. Really there's, put off grumbling, put on Christ with gladness and gratitude. This is a commitment. First the call. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. Here's your commitment. You are my God. I will give thanks. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank You for Your Word that, Lord we pray, convicts. Convict us for our sin and our lack of gratitude. Lord, we pray that Your Word would comfort that, that in the midst of the distress, in the midst of the, the angst and worry that, that we have, that we can look to You, and we can see Your good, and we can always know You are the helper and Savior. We can trust. We pray that You will convert. We pray for whoever's here that does not know you. That they would see the reality that they will face you and they cannot give an account for their sin. Lord, help them to call upon Jesus. Father, help us to be a thankful people. Help us to be a people who long to know Christ, to be identified with him, and to love others that are identified with him. and to spread that good news. Well, the only fuel for this is a grateful heart that the gospel is good. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.