Good morning. It's a privilege to be with you folks today. And we jumped ahead an hour about an hour ago. My son and I as we came from central time zone. But it's I want to thank Pastor Brent for the opportunity to be here. and I think it was three years ago, I preached here a few times as Pulpit Supply, and it was right during the middle of COVID, the wonderful year of experiences there. Of course, we were shut down for our international travel pretty much that whole year, but the Lord has opened up the door since then. I've been able to get into some of the countries and visit our missionaries, as well as travel around here in the United States to preach. This weekend, yeah, Pastor Brent and I go back through to college days. I think you may be a year or two younger than me, but we worked custodial together, then we were GAs together. I do remember you're a San Francisco Giants fan, if I recall. So my team is the Boston Red Sox. We split a game this weekend. We'll see who wins today, but that's for a different topic, right? Anyways, yeah, so this last week I was preaching over in La Salle, Illinois. Next week I'll be preaching in Simpsonville, South Carolina. The following weekend, Missions Conference in Troy, Missouri. So I get around a little bit in the states. But a month ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to be in South America. We have a new missionary family that's serving in Southern Columbia in the city of Pastu. That's a whole interesting, neat story, how the Lord orchestrated their going to that place. I'm actually writing an article that's going to come out in The Messenger, Baptist World's newsletter, probably in the fall edition. But it's really exciting to see how God has worked. We try to visit new missionaries on the field within their first year, just to see how they're adapting and learning the language, things like that. But the Lord is really doing a great work there. Matt and Amanda Smith have joined up with the team. Actually, there's a Colombian pastor that had gone there to Pasto, and so they joined up with him. And out of that ministry, they're starting another work in San Juan, about an hour south of there. And then he's also helping out a Mexican missionary that's in Tucon, Ecuador, two hours south of there, right across the border. And out of that ministry, they're planning another church in Ipiales back in Colombia, just on the other side of the border. So it was really neat to see how God is working and brought a team together. The team has Colombians, Venezuelans, Mexicans, Ecuadorians, and Americans. It's just really neat to see. But I was able to preach. I've been brushing up on my Spanish. I know Portuguese fluently, but there's differences with Spanish. And so I've been working a lot on my Spanish the last few years. And so a year ago, my wife and I were in Uruguay. And I preached for the first time just in Spanish. Now they said they understood me. There were a few words that I think probably came out Portuguese or sounding more like Portuguese, but they got the gist of what I was saying. And then I've been able to since then preach in the Dominican Republic in Spanish. And then that was in November last year. And then Puerto Rico back in March. And then this last trip, I preached five times in five different churches in Colombia, Ecuador, and then we went over to the jungle of Peru. It was a very interesting trip because Paz was at 8,600 feet elevation, and it's going into wintertime down there, and so it was relatively cool, 60-day, 45-night. And then we were in Tulcan, Ecuador, the last Sunday of June, and I told my wife, you really need to to bundle up. She's like, oh, it's not gonna be that bad. I said, yeah, it will be. And we got down there, it was 46 degrees, stiff breeze, and then it started raining. And she was glad that she did bundle up. Of course, then from there, we went to the jungle, Puerto Maldonado. and it felt like Huntsville, Alabama, where I'm from. So I felt right at home there. Except the mosquito netting. We don't usually have mosquito netting in Alabama, but definitely a must in the jungle area of Peru. But it's been a joy to be able to travel around. I was just reflecting on Tuesday this week, August 1st, it was officially my first day as a field administrator with Baptist World seven years ago. Where's the time go? We were missionaries in Brazil for 10 years, and our youngest daughter, Julia, was born there. She just turned 16, so time flies. My son Josh is here with me today, and we have four children, Steve and Josh, Caroline and Julia. It's a joy to be able to serve the Lord and be able to be here with you folks today. I'd like to ask you to open your Bibles this morning to the book of Psalms. We're going to look at Psalm chapter 111 today. I was reflecting on this psalm. Actually it was post-COVID last year after finally things were opening up. Uruguay was our hardest one to get back into to visit missionaries. They were locked down for almost two years as far as foreigners coming in and requiring all the vaccinations and I mean all across the gamut. And the churches, they couldn't meet. A couple of the churches really couldn't meet because most of their congregation were under the age of 18 or over the age of 60. and those categories, those groups could not meet together. So it was pretty rough. But just reflecting, you know, all the bad news we heard during COVID, and I know people did pass away, and it's sad to hear that. But just as I was reading through the Psalms and thinking about the works of God, I stopped on this psalm here and just was reflecting on it. There's only 10 verses here, but it's an interesting psalm. The title of the message today is The Blessings of the Works of God. It's a beautiful psalm of praise. And here we actually have three different psalms together, 111, 112, and 113. These are known as the Hallel Psalms. Hallel is a Hebrew word. You may recognize Hallel-Yah. Hallelu-Yah means praise ye the Lord, or praise the Lord, right? So this is a praise song to the Lord, a Hallel Psalm. I remember as a kid, we used to sing a song. Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu-Yah, praise ye the Lord. We're not going to do the up and down thing and all that, OK? And I'm not going to sing any further. I don't want to blow out your ears. But just reflecting on the psalm of praise, and each phrase of this psalm, there are actually 22 phrases in these 10 verses, each one begins with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Verses 1 through 8, there are two phrases in each, and then verses 9 and 10, there are actually three different phrases. It's very interesting. As we think about the word alphabet, it comes from alpha and beta from Greek, but they actually borrowed from the Hebrew. The first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are Aleph and Beth. And so each of these phrases begins in Hebrew with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Now, looking at this psalm, we're not exactly sure who the author of the psalm is. Most of the psalms will have a title or some sort of explanation as to who may have written it. The psalm right before this says, the Psalm of David, at least in my Bible, But 111, 112, and 113 actually do not have a label as to who the author is. Now, Matthew, Henry, and other commentators will ascribe this psalm to David, and it's very possible. We'll look, as we get into the psalm, at a possible indication that maybe David did write this psalm. But as to who wrote it, the fact is the author is trying to get us to reflect on the glory of God and the works of God. So this psalm of praise, the author in verse 1 is talking about praising God, being united both now and forever in praise. This is the desire and the wish of the psalmist, and it should be ours as well. So let's go ahead and read verse 1, first of all. The psalmist recognizes that we need to be praising the Lord, as I mentioned, all together. But where does praise have to begin? First of all, in your own heart. He said, I will praise the Lord with my whole heart. This isn't a half-hearted effort, no pun there intended, but you have to begin, as you come into the congregation, as he mentions the assembly of the upright in the congregation, if we're assembled together to praise and worship the Lord together, that praise has to start on an individual basis in your own heart, first of all. Otherwise, things are going to be out of sync as we gather together and try to worship the Lord together in the congregation. So, praising the Lord is an individual thing, primarily, first and foremost, in your own heart, and then as we gather together in the congregation. We want to look at some of the points in this psalm about the blessings of the works of God. So, verses 2 and 3, first of all, we can see here that the works of God are desired by His children. Verse two, the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Why should we desire as the children of God to, or why should we desire his works? Well, first of all, because they are great. In verse two, he talks about this greatness. How are the works of God great? Well, they're great in design, they're great in size, they're great in number, they're great in excellence. You know, a lot of times we think of the word great And we kind of limit it to something in vast bigness or expanse of something like that. But it's not just something huge. There's greatness in small things as well. I know as I was searching for a diamond for my wife when we got engaged, you know, there's certain things you look for in a diamond, certain qualities and the color and the cut and all of that. But there's a lot of greatness in the detailed facets and everything about that tiny, little, expensive stone. There's a lot of greatness in something even as small as that. The works of God are desired by His children because they are great. Let me pause here and first of all reflect. In a congregation this size, I'm taking it for granted that the majority of us are children of God. But maybe there's somebody here today that has not placed their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are not a child of God. And so, looking and reflecting on the works of God, it's gonna be one of those things that you may think in your mind, I'm not really all that interested, or they don't really mean a lot to me. Well, as we go through this psalm, I pray and hope and trust that you will reflect on these things and take them to heart, and that today will be a day of salvation for you. But for those of us that are the children of God, do we desire to know more about our God, even through His works? The works of God are great. They are magnificent, just like He is. I like Psalm chapter 19, verses 1 through 3. If you wanna turn back there and look, we're gonna look at this and then back at Psalm 8 right after that. Very familiar verses, talking about some of the aspects of the greatness, in some of these cases, the vastness of the greatness of God's works. Psalm 19, verses one through three. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. the heavens declaring the glory of God. Have you ever had the opportunity to stop on a clear night, away from city lights, and just look up at the stars? I remember as a missionary kid in central Brazil, and my parents were in the state of Goias, And we were in a fairly small town, and there were some hills around that town. And I remember driving about 10 miles outside of town, and then just stopping on the side of the road. There wasn't hardly any traffic, no cars, and no houses. And turning off the lights, my dad would turn off the car lights, and just the vast myriads of stars that you can see even with the naked eye, and the various galaxies. It's incredible to look up and to see the vastness of the greatness of our universe. The heavens declare the glory of God. And then Psalm chapter 8, I mentioned earlier, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him? We won't go on here, but just thinking once again about the greatness of the vast universe that God has created. I live in Huntsville, Alabama right now. I didn't know a lot about the place before I moved there, but we have a lot of engineers in our church that work for NASA and third-party contractors for the government. Right there in Huntsville, they're working on developing with Boeing the SLS, the next rocket that's already been launched a few times, but it's going to take man or women, I hear, to the Moon and to Mars and beyond, supposedly. But, you know, it's interesting. Last year, as they were working on that, finalizing the plans for all of that, we have one lady that's in my wife's Bible study. Her husband is a chief engineer with NASA, and she's always asking prayer, you know, because the night before, he's up all night long with his team trying to make sure things are ready to go. and she would ask for prayer. And I remember it's pretty neat to watch those launches take place, even if it is through the computer or through television. But as they got to the time that was scheduled to send it up unmanned to see how things would go, and they got down to the wire, and then within like an hour, I think an hour and a half prior, some smoke started or vapor started leaking, and so they ended up scrapping that flight. And then they tried again, I think a week later, and they scrapped it again. I think on the third attempt, they finally were able to send that up. You know, they had spent gazillions of dollars and man hours trying to perfect that system, and they still want it to be as close to perfection as possible so those astronauts could go and return safely. But, you know, compared to the works of God, all of God's works are perfect. There is nothing that is imperfect in the work of God. And humankind, they will try, they will try to achieve perfection, but they cannot do it. But with God, that is always the case. He is always perfect in everything he does. Nothing is insignificant to him. All of his works are products of his power and of his knowledge. I mentioned the greatness of looking at things, you know, we can see all those stars with the naked eye, but you get a telescope and you focus on it even further and the incredible things that come to light in that telescope. I also work, or we have people in our church that work for the weather service and different things like that. But there's a group that have sent up a new telescope. You may have heard of the JWST. I think it's called James Webb Space Telescope. It's to take the place of the Hubble Telescope. And there have been pretty impressive images that have come back from that telescope. I think it's been up now about a year and a half. And what was the main purpose of the scientists sending that telescope up? Well, I can promise you it wasn't to look at the greatness of God's works necessarily. They will tell you that they were trying to find the origin of the universe. Where did the Big Bang begin? What in the world happened or how did this all come about? But you know what? They're discovering things that are reversing their thinking about the origin of the universe. You know, they had this theory, well, the gases would have exploded and you'd find this gas here and this particle matter here, but that's not what they're discovering. the images that are being sent back, and the testing of different parts of the universe that are being observed. That's not what they're discovering. And some of these scientists are pretty baffled about what's going on. But for those of us that are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we know the origin of the universe, right? The Bible is very clear, and we accept that by faith. coming from the author of truth, Jesus Christ and His Father, who is absolute truth. Nothing is insignificant to God. All of his works are to be desired by his children because they are great, first of all. But we also see that his works are to be desired because of the delight in his works. Back in Psalm 111 in verse two, the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Who will primarily delight in the works of God? I mentioned it earlier, save people, right? Those that are children of God, they will desire His works. They will look diligently at His works, and they will seek out His purposes, His design, and even relationship, a further relationship with Him. Also, the works of God are desired because they are honorable and glorious. Look at verse 3. All of the works of God are glorious in their purpose, their application, their conception, their foundation, their arrangement, and the list could go on and on because God is perfect. But all of His works are glorious. It's interesting, the word work or works is used five times in this psalm, and four of the times it's in the plural. But in this verse, it says his work is honorable. Why is that in the singular? Well, what is the greatest and most glorious work of God? It's the work of redemption. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, because He loved His creation. Mankind had sinned through Adam and Eve, and there was a penalty for that sin, and that was eternal separation and death. But God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever will believe in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. I remember in evangelism going out door to door, even in Brazil, and you talk to people and people would say, well, how can God be a God of love? We see all this violence around us and we hear about God's judgment and that he's this really hard person, this hard being that's up there judging the world. How can he be a God of love? Well, I have to think. reflecting back on His love for us, that giving love. He loved His creation so much that He gave His Son, Jesus Christ. to die for fallen mankind. This is the greatest and most glorious work, the work of salvation. John chapter nine verses four and five, you don't need to turn there, I'll just flip over real quick here. John chapter nine verses four and five, Jesus is saying, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Jesus Christ came to finish that work of redemption to buy us back from the slave market of sin. We are before salvation. We are slaves to sin. We are serving a different master. But Jesus Christ came to this earth. He went to the cross. He shed his blood so that we could have forgiveness of sins when we confess our sins and believe on his name. Jesus Christ came and he finished that work of redemption. Once for all, that price was paid for through his blood. There's no need for sacrifices. There's no need, as we see in other religions, especially in South America, we have Catholicism. I've been to some of these temples and shrines where people are are on their knees going upstairs, bloodied knees and legs, thinking that they are able to buy their redemption, their way to heaven. It's so sad to observe that. But we have the truth and the power of the gospel with us. And we think about the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And we need to be sharing that good news, the glorious news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with the lost around us. All of the works of God are great, but His greatest and most glorious work, that work of redemption and salvation, His children will be his eternal inheritance. Ephesians 1 and verse 18 talks about that. As we move on in Psalm 111, not only are the works of God to be desired by his children, but they are to be remembered by his children as well. In verse four, we can see that his works are done with a purpose, and that is to be remembered. Verse four says, he hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. I read this quote once and it says, divine blessings are always valued by a grateful heart. Let me read that again. Divine blessings are always valued by a grateful heart. Are you grateful for what the Lord has done for you? Are you grateful for your salvation, that greatest work and most glorious of all? If you're not grateful for that, then it's going to be hard to be grateful in your life for anything else or appreciate the works of God in your life. His works were done with a purpose and that is to be remembered. We must speak more of the things of God. Matthew chapter 12 and verses 34 through 37, Jesus is speaking here and he is talking actually to the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 12, he calls them a generation of vipers. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? And then this, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. And an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. So what are we talking about in our day-to-day walk? Are we talking about anything and everything other than the things of God? If we're true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have hearts that are grateful for what he has done for us, and not just in salvation, but in so many other ways, we would be speaking more of these things with one another, to encourage one another, and speaking of the goodness of God to the lost that are around us. The works of God are to be remembered by His children. They are done with a purpose and they are honored through their purpose. Back in Psalm 111 in verse five, He hath given meat unto them that fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His covenant. His works are to be remembered. How did the Israelites remember the works of God? They didn't have opportunities to pull out their phone and take pictures of things that happened or writing down even with paper and pen the things that happened. No, they would reflect on the goodness of God and the works of God by telling it to each other. They would speak to one another. They would pass those things down from one generation to the next to remember the works of God. They were to be honored through their purpose, and that was that we need to be ever mindful of His covenant with mankind. What is His covenant? Well, we're talking about the new covenant in this case, that if a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be saved and they will have everlasting life. That is the new covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ. But as we think about the history of Israel and remembering how God had worked in their midst, there was a lot, and we have it recorded for us in Scripture. Now we can just pull out a copy of Scripture, whether it's in English or Portuguese or Spanish or whatever language, and we can look at the works of God and reflect on those things and how God worked through His people, His chosen people, Israel. There was a lot reflecting all the way back to the time that they were in Egypt. We're not going to go through the whole history, obviously, through Abraham and all of the patriarchs, but after Egypt, God miraculously delivered his people from 400 plus years of slavery there in Egypt. And as they came out, he provided them with a means of escape. I can't imagine coming up to an ocean, a sea, the Red Sea, and seeing those waters just part ways like that and walls of water on either side. I mean, that's not something you see every day. and incredible power in those works of God to be able to do that so that those million, two million people could walk across on dry land. And then those waters all came crashing down on the Egyptians that were pursuing them. God saved his people in that way. Going on into the wilderness, not a lot to eat out there. God provided them with manna, their daily bread to be able to survive. Maybe that's what the psalmist is referring to, the provision of food here in verse five. He hath given meat unto them that fear him. How often in our lives God has provided us with our daily bread and then some. We are so blessed in this country. Most people around this world do not have enough food to be able to eat more than one meal a day. I probably only need to eat one meal a day and maybe lose a little weight. But we don't stop and reflect on the goodness of God and what he has provided for us often enough. I remember Growing up, I was, let's see, I was nine years old, my dad was a computer programmer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New England, in New Hampshire. And God called him into full-time vocational ministry. And so we packed up, I was going into fourth grade, we left New Hampshire, we moved to South Carolina, and my dad was going to Bob Jones University to get his Master of Divinity. And I remember he was looking for a job. In the meantime, he was putting himself through college. My sister and I were in the elementary school at Bob Jones. And he was tossing afternoon newspapers to try to make a little bit of money. But it really wasn't enough to cover things. And I remember as a semester got along, I remember my parents saying, you know, we don't really have a lot of money here to buy food. And it came to November around Thanksgiving time. And I remember we sat down at the table. I was nine years old. And all we had left was a can of Boston baked beans. My dad absolutely hated Boston baked beans because he and his four siblings grew up eating that so much up in New England. and he was tired of that. But we had a can of that, I don't know how, but my mom opened that can, heated it up on the stove, and served us a little portion of Boston baked beans. And we sat down, and my dad prayed, and thanked the Lord even for these Boston baked beans. But just asking that God would provide for us, whether it be through a job, through some means, so that we would have a way to survive. And we hadn't told a lot of people, I don't think we told anybody about this need. But as we were sitting there eating these baked beans, there was a knock on the door. We lived in Taylor, South Carolina, probably about 15 minutes from campus. But there were two young men standing there, preacher boys they were called, and they had two big baskets of food in their arms. Back then, the preacher boy class would take up donations, whether it's canned goods or money, to be able to buy basic staples for a Thanksgiving meal. And they came by, they were at our house and they said, you guys are new to the area and we just want to be a blessing and here's two big baskets of food. I remember that like it was yesterday. That was 41 years ago. I'm 50 now. And I don't say that and I don't recall this event to brag on ourselves or our faith. We had a little bit of faith. I'll be honest with you. I'm sitting there thinking, wow, what are we gonna eat next? But we're praying and faith believing that God would provide for us. And that answer came right away. I reflect back on how God provided in his works and his provision for us. Why do I say all of this? To help you reflect on how God has provided for you. It may not have been in that way. Maybe he's provided you with a surgery or finances to provide for a job or one way or another. As you stop and reflect back on your life and think about the ways that God has worked in your life, are you full of praise and gratitude to him? The works of God are done with a purpose, and that is to be remembered and to be shared. You know, we need to be rejoicing sufficiently enough in our lives to share these things with others around us. That joy can be contagious. Oh yeah, God's provided, you know, God will meet our needs too. That's what we need to be doing, encouraging one another and reflecting on the works of God. We also see, back in Psalm 111, the third point about the works of God. First of all, they're to be desired by his children. We saw how they're to be remembered by his children. But we also see that his works are to be witnessed by his children, verses six through 10. In verse six, the psalmist writes, he hath showed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen. How powerful are the works of God? Well, reflecting back on Israel once again, I talked about the Red Sea incident there and the power of God to separate the waters. That's some pretty incredible power. But going on in their history and reflecting on the plagues and how God delivered his people through the plagues, thinking of as they got into the Holy Land, into Palestine, that area there, and coming to the first encounter of a walled city, the city of Jericho. What did God tell them to do? Well, you know, you guys just need to walk around once a day and blow the trumpet as you walk around and then on the seventh day you walk around seven times and then all the trumpets would blow and what would happen? Those walls would come crashing down. Did the people obey? Yes, they did. Remember, this is a second generation. Most of those that had come out of Egypt that complained and and whined and griped and thought that God wasn't powerful enough to meet their needs to get into that land, they all died off in the wilderness. But this generation, reflecting on God and His works, they went into the promised land and they obeyed God. And we see the power of God to knock down that huge city, those city walls. We see how God delivered the Israelites through various victories. The Assyrian army, Sennacherib, is that army of 125,000 soldiers surrounded the city of Jerusalem. And the people were fearful and praying, God, please deliver us. One morning, I think it was the next morning, there were two lepers, if I recall, that were outside the camp. And seeing all of these supplies, and where are the soldiers? They're all gone. I may be getting two stories confused. There was one story where everyone was gone, and another story where they were dead. But just seeing the power of God to take care of His people, and to deliver them from their enemy. God has done that through the centuries. Yes, there was the diaspora where the Jews were scattered because of persecution, scattered across the world, literally. But then there was a place provided for them back in 1947, I believe it was, the land of Israel once again started up. and Jews coming back to the land of Israel, to that promised land, the land that God had promised to them. But everything wasn't all rosy as they arrived, right? They have some enemies around them. The Arabs, the Islamic Muslim population, they wanted to and still want to obliterate the land of Israel. But how did God provide for his people? Even though these people have rejected him as God, we know there is a future day where Israel will recognize God and recognize Jesus Christ. But they are still his chosen people. We as the church age are sort of a parenthesis here, and we've been grafted in as chosen people as well. But there is a future for Israel, and God continues to protect his people, his chosen people. We look back at the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, when massive air forces against the Israeli Air Force and the people of Israel, they should have been obliterated off of the face of the globe. But God protected them in a miraculous way, through clouds, through weather, and whatnot. But God, in His power, provided a way of escape for his people. He continues to protect his people. There is great power we see in the works of God. We see that power in the physical realm. My son and I were camping out the last couple of nights up in Wisconsin and We had some pretty severe thunderstorms both nights in the middle of the night really interrupted our sleep as we're sitting there With arms and legs holding up the tent as 70 mile an hour wind gusts pummeling the tent and rain and everything anyways You get the picture. That's pretty impressive power. And two nights ago it lasted for over an hour. We're just like, our arms and legs are killing us, God, please let this end soon. That's just a small portion of the power of God in a physical realm. We see the power of God in the spiritual realm as well. The power to change people's lives. Maybe you can reflect back on how you were before you came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Or maybe looking at somebody else that has placed their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that change that takes place, that's not something that they generate from within themselves, that's the Holy Spirit working, the power of God to transform from within through the power of the Word, the power of God's works. In verse seven, we see the righteousness of his works. The works of his hands are verity and judgment. All his commandments are sure. There's no little ways for God to work things out. We have a saying in Brazil, jeitinho brasileiro. Brazilians have a way, if there's a way, if something's broken, oh, we can find a way to fix it. I guess this phrase in America is jury rig or something like that. You know, wires put together in ways that you wouldn't imagine. Taking showers from electric shower heads with the wires exposed. Yeah, anyways, you get the picture. There's no little ways around things or fixing things with God. He is just and He is true in all of His works. You know, on this earth, there are unjust judges. We hear of situations of stories that take place, and we think, well, God is just. And sometimes we just have to rest on that fact, that justice will prevail in the end. In Huntsville, we have a situation. A police officer was called to help defend a situation. A guy had a gun in there, and he came in. The guy didn't put the gun down immediately, and the officer shot and killed the gentleman. Ended up being a fake gun, but you couldn't tell that at the time. The officer, actually he's a Pensacola Christian College graduate by the name of Ben Darby, and he was acquitted. The whole police force was behind him. The mayor of the city said he was just doing his job. But the attorney general reopened the case and then we were in 2020 and the whole woke culture that's going on and the violence here in America. and things kind of went south. And he was actually convicted by a jury to 25 years in prison. But there were some things that as believers there were praying for this gentleman. He actually, he and his family are part of a sister church in Somerville near Decatur, Alabama. And as people have been praying for him that God would do a work. There were some legal loopholes and some details that were overlooked in his case. And so he has since been released on bail, and they're going to actually do another trial. You know, reflecting back on that, we can look at judges on this earth and think, well, you know, there's unjust judges, but that's not the case with God. He is true and He is right in all of His judgments. What He has promised, He will fulfill. In verses 8 through 10, we're just going to quickly go through these and see the stability of his works. His works stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto his people. There's that word again that we were talking about earlier, the work of God, the work of redemption. He hath commanded his covenant forever. Holy and reverend is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. All of God's commandments are sure and unfailing. His word, His precepts will always remain. His works are done to bring sinful man to redemption. His covenants are eternal and His word and will shall never pass away. That's just a summary of those verses right there. As I look at a couple of things here in these verses, I look at verse 9. Interesting phrase there at the end of verse 9. Holy and reverend is his name. I have a pastor friend in Brazil. His name's Wesley. He's a national pastor. He actually took the work that we were working in in Porto Alegre, Brazil. And we stay in contact quite a bit together. But his nickname for me is Reverendo, which is reverend. And I absolutely hate being called reverend. I always say only God is reverend. And this is the verse right here, this is the proof. But he was like, oh, you always get letters from the United States and it says reverend or R-E-V period on it. And I said, yeah, well, that's a custom in America. I'm not a big fan of that. Only God is reverent. But then looking at verse 10, I stopped at this verse, and I don't know how many times I'd read it before, but looking at that first phrase there, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, I'm like, you know what? I think I've seen that phrase somewhere else in scripture. What other book of the Bible do we see that phrase? Proverbs, okay, well, who wrote Proverbs, the majority of the book? Solomon, okay, and who is Solomon? Who's the son of? Son of David, okay. Well, this is hypothetical, and my imagination wandering a little bit, but I can't help but thinking maybe Solomon heard David use this phrase first. David may have been the author of this psalm. And as the tradition of sharing and telling and talking about the works of God and passing it on from one generation to the next, David may have passed that along to Solomon. And what I thought was original with Solomon, well, actually it's original with God, right? He is the author of this book and all of the books of the Bible. But Solomon may have heard that from the mouth of his father, David. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This fear is a reverence for God that's expressed in a submission to his will. Are you submitted and committed to doing the will of God? As we reflect once again on the glorious works of God, and primarily that work of salvation, I trust that through the course of this message today that you will be uplifted to reflect on how God has worked in your life. Sometimes we can get down, we focus on situations and circumstances in our lives, and we take our focus off of the Lord Jesus Christ. The last time I was here, my primary purpose in coming up this direction was to visit my Lyme doctor up the road in Hebron. My Lyme numbers are back up again. The last three or four months I've been struggling again with Lyme. You know, that can get debilitating at times and we can get our focus off of the Lord and on the pain that I'm experiencing and on the difficulties and all of these things. But once again, stopping and reflecting on the works of God. and praising Him, having a heart that is full of gratitude, even in the difficult times, that helps sustain us as we go through life, the stability of the works of God. So may God help us as we reflect on these things, on the works of God, that we would desire to know Him better and more through His works, that we would reflect on the power of His works, that we would remember these things that He has done in our lives, that we would share these things, that we would continue to witness or observe these things in our lives so we can share with others as well and be an encouragement. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again for your love for us. Thank you for this opportunity to be here this morning to worship you. We worship you in spirit and in truth. And Father, we thank you for your word, which is forever settled in heaven, that we can base our lives upon it. Father, I pray that we, even in the midst of good times and difficult times in our lives, that we would reflect on your goodness, on your greatness, the greatness of your works, and primarily that work of salvation, that we have the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, because of your love for us in sending him to this earth. Father, I pray that we would be so full of hearts of gratitude that we would reflect this to others around us, that we would always have a reason to share the hope that is within us. We do it with meekness and fear, but also reflecting on your greatness that others would see you and not us. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.