I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 9. And as John mentioned, we are having communion. We'll do that at the end of the service. And communion is such an important moment in the church. that we don't come to it lightly. And so it's appropriate that you know that this is coming and you can spend the time while we're in God's word considering the grace that has been extended to you through the Lord Jesus Christ so that when we come to take communion, your heart is full of praise and adoration for what God has done for us at the cross. Psalm 9 is the psalm that we're in this morning. To the choir master, according to Muthleben, a psalm of David. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. For you have maintained my just cause. You have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. You have rebuked the nations. You have made the wicked perish. You have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins. Their cities you rooted out. The very memory of them has perished. But the Lord sits enthroned forever. He has established His throne for justice, and He judges the world with righteousness. He judges the peoples with uprightness. The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know Your name put their trust in You. For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. Sing praises to the Lord who sits enthroned in Zion. Tell among the peoples his deeds, for he who avenges blood is mindful of them. He does not forget the cry of the afflicted. Be gracious to me, O Lord. See my affliction from those who hate me. O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation. The nations have sunk in the pit that they have made, in the net that they hid. Their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made himself known. He has executed judgment. The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Hegeon, Selah. The wicked shall return to Sheol. All the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord. Let not man prevail. Let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O Lord. Let the nations know that they are but men. Selah. Let's pray together. Father, you deserve all praise. Not only do you deserve it, but from our hearts that have been touched by your grace, we want to give it to you. And I ask that you would help us through this psalm to long to praise you with the kind of affection that is fitting for your greatness and for your goodness to us. Father, help me to speak as I ought to speak. Help us all to hear your word as we ought to hear. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Psalm 9 is a psalm that is sung by someone who has a determined resolve to praise the Lord for his greatness as the righteous king and judge And the song that is being sung here is rooted in a confidence, a total confidence, in the character of the God to whom he sings. And this resolve and trust that the psalmist exhibits, who is King David, is enabling him to face enemies as large as nations. And he is praising God and singing this song with the expectation that God will ultimately triumph and his enemies will ultimately falter. And this psalm, although sung by a king of an ancient nation and sung about nations who are his enemies, is really a psalm for all of us. It's a psalm for you if you have determined in your heart to praise God with all your heart. This is a psalm for you if you have not determined in your heart to praise God with all your heart, because you need to be stirred up to make that determination. This is a psalm for you if you know it should be your determination to praise the Lord with all your heart, but you're not sure how to move forward. This is a psalm for you if you wonder how to survive in a mad world that is full of enemies to the truth and justice and righteousness. This is a psalm that is for you if you need to have your confidence recomposed and replaced on God Almighty. And this is a psalm that is for those who need a wonderful example of someone who is depending on the Lord in a world that is chaotic, but still has hope that remains that the world is heading somewhere. And it's heading somewhere because it is governed by someone. This psalm is full of choice morsels. And each of these morsels would be fitting of its own sermon or its own meditation by you and your own quietness before the Lord. It is full of powerful statements that should be stitched to your heart with thread of steel so that it becomes part of you. Statements like verse one, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart Or verse two, I will be glad and exult in you. Or verse four, you have maintained my just cause. Or verse seven, the Lord sits enthroned forever. Verse nine, the Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed. Or verse 10, those who know your name put their trust in you. Or again in verse 10, you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Or verse 20, let the nations know that they are but men. Each one of these verses in and of itself should stir up your heart to put your confidence in the Lord and to open your mouth in praise. And so this psalm is really rich. It's almost too rich for one morning. And so we'll only spend a few moments on some of the choice or portions of this psalm, spending particular time on the opening of it. But there's so much to learn here. And we see from this psalmist, first of all, a determination to praise. There is a determination to praise. You get the impression that this psalmist is not a passive observer of God. He doesn't look at God just in passing for a few brief moments. He doesn't go to church on Sundays with his hands in his pockets waiting for the hour and 15 minutes to pass. This is a man who is fully invested. He is all in in his praise to God. His life in totality is given over to the Lord. And he feels that way because God is a God who does not turn away from those who seek him. That's what it says in verse 10. Oh Lord, you have not forsaken those who seek you. So he's all in. And that's why he opens the psalm before he really describes anything that he is experiencing in his life. He is simply expressing a determination that he is going to be one who gives thanks and praise to his God. Well, how would you describe your own heart before the Lord? How would you describe it in relationship to your praise of him? Are you a person who is all in? Or are you a kind of in kind of person? Or are you an all out kind of person? All out being you are not experiencing praise in your life at all. Or are you an all in kind of person? And by all in I mean that you have given the whole of your life to God, no parts of it held back. I hope you know what that looks like. You know those parts of your life that you would rather the light of God's Word not shine on? The kind of parts of your life that you would rather not other people know about? The kinds of parts of your life where you try to push to the back when you come to worship God? Well, if you're an all-in kind of person, There are none of those dark corners. It doesn't mean you're sinless. It just means that you let the light of God's Word shine on all parts of your life. Nothing is hidden from Him. Nothing held back or reserved from Him. You recognize that God, by virtue of His sheer power, goodness, and authority, has rights to the whole of your life, no part of it left out at all. And as a result, you live your life to the glory of God. Your boast is in Him. And the best thing that anyone could ever say about you is that you are a man or a woman who knows God. That would be the highest compliment to you. It's not your house or your car or even your family. It's that you are a person who knows your God. And you are this way not because of some accomplishments in your life, not because you're better than the people around you. You know you are this way because God has known you first. You love God because God has loved you first. You are this way because God has met you in his grace. And in his grace, he has overcome your sin. He has shown there's something better than the sin that you've been clinging onto. You know that you never deserve his favor, his love, his kindness, or his goodness. You know that it's only by the grace of Christ on the cross, dying for you, cleansing you of your sins, giving you full reconciliation and redemption with this God, that you have a relationship with him in the first place. And you just want more. It's kind of all you are. Say, I'm here, Lord. I want more. That's an all-in kind of person. It's a person who has met the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. You've met God in Christ, and your life is given to Him. So are you an all-in kind of person, like this psalmist, where you resolve and determine, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart? Or are you a kind-of-in person? You have one foot in the door, and one foot out of the door. It's an uncomfortable position to be in, because you're never quite certain which way you're going. Are you going in or are you going out? Are you coming or are you going? In case you're not aware, doorways are not meant to be lived in. They're meant to be a point of access into or out of something. But if you have one foot in, one foot out, You feel perhaps a little justified because you feel a pull towards God, at least a little bit. Maybe like you have a pull towards vegetables. You know it's good for you, but you don't like it very much. And so you eat them here and there, but mostly you find excuses why you don't need them in this meal. Next one's gonna be better. You're a kind of in kind of person when it comes to vegetables. Well, you know God's good for you. You wouldn't reject that He's good and kind and gracious. You wouldn't deny that He's ultimately the way that you should go, but just not sure you want to step all the way into His house. Because if you do that, then you take your foot out of where all the fun is. where the refreshing sense of freedom of the world come, where you feel like you can live without restraint of God and His ways. Oh, you can still have Him because He's still there. You got one foot in, but you got one foot out, and so you can kind of take in the things that you still want. This was the position of Israel. for most of its existence. It liked the security of being called the people of God. They wanted some extra insurance, and so they kept incorporated into their ways the worship and the sacrifices and the rituals. But just because they weren't sure that God had everything that they needed, they incorporated Baal and Asherah as well. They incorporated the world. This is a position of partiality, part way in, part way out, and it's unsustainable. You cannot live that way. You need to go all the way in or you're going to end up going all the way out. Jesus speaks about the danger of this position. The partiality of your devotion ruins all of it. Jesus makes this plain when people are desiring to follow him. Jesus says in Luke 9, 57 through 62, as they're going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. To another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. There's no part way in and part way out in following Christ. Or maybe you think, well, neither of those describe me. I'm all the way out. You're here this morning, but you don't want to be. Being in this building is not a definitive answer about whether you're all the way in or all the way out, but you may know in your heart that you just have no appetite at all for God and His ways. You don't have a foot in the door. And you would admit as much if you were honest, I can't begin to cover the reasons for why you might feel that way, but as uncomfortable as that may be, there is a root reason that all have for being all the way out, and the root reason is because we're all born that way. Every last one of us is born all the way out. We were born in rebellion to God. David himself says that he was conceived in iniquity, not that his mother sinned in becoming pregnant with him, but his very composition is that of a human, and to be a human is to be a sinner now, because we entered the race of Adam. And so, by nature, We are all opposed to God, and our opposition is shown in our disregard for His ways. And that disregard is called different things in the Bible. It's called sin, it's called iniquity, it's called treachery, it's called trespass. But whatever you call it, all of it is breaking God, God's ways, and His standards. And in a quiet moment, if you will take the time to reflect in your own heart about what kind of person you are. If you strip away all the self-righteousness and all the accolades from other people, if you strip away all of the lies that would try to deceive you as to who you are and what you are, in the quietest of that moment, if your conscience is still working, you will be wracked with guilt of all of the ways you have broken God's law. You will know that you have lied. lusted and proud, stolen, blasphemed, exchanged God for lesser things in this world. You will see you do not stand up to the standards of God and His ways. In the quiet of that moment, if you're willing to take it and think honestly, read Matthew 5-7. That is Jesus' Sermon on the Mount where He lays out the ultimate ethic. And if you read that, you will find you do not measure up. You fall so short. But if you continue to go down that road and you see the poverty of your righteousness, meaning you lack it, you have none of it, if you keep on going, you will realize that you have nothing to offer God and that is the best place to be. Because once you're stripped of all of that, Now you can know the truth. And the truth is that you do not get to heaven by your own righteousness, you get to heaven by being forgiven of your unrighteousness. And the way you're forgiven is by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is righteous, and died for the unrighteous. He took the guilt of the guilty, although he was guiltless, so that the guilty could go free This is available to you even now. If you would call on the name of the Lord, and then you can very easily be all in, in a moment, laying down your life and receiving Christ. And your life turns from one of rebellion to one of praise. And that's the only acceptable position in this life, is to be all in. And so as David gives us the example of one who is all in, he shows us what that's like. He starts off with this praise, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. That's his whole being, it's all of who he is. It means that He is undivided in His praise. He is not simultaneously praising Asherah and Baal while He's praying Yahweh. He's not only partially thankful, He's fully thankful. He has this determinative language about it as well. I will give thanks. These are called cohortative verbs, which means they're volitional, they're of your will. David is determining in his heart of his own volition that he is going to praise the Lord. He is resolved, he is determined, he has a conviction on his heart that he is going to do this. He will give thanks. It says that, I will recount all your wonderful deeds. Part of thanksgiving is not just a generic thank you God, it is also going through the list of all of his wonderful deeds. Wonderful being in a sense of God has done things that no one else can do. Do you have a category for that in your life? Things in your life where you see in the history of the world that you recognize only God could have done this. Those are wonderful deeds and those are the things that we recount You can go through scripture. You can see how he parted the Red Sea. You can see how he provided for Israel in the wilderness. You can go to the New Testament and see how Jesus fed the 5,000, or how he healed the sick, raised the dead. But even more personally, you can say the wonderful deeds of Christ are forgiving my sin-sick soul, of giving me new life in this world, of giving me hope. Those are wonderful deeds as well. Do you recount those? If you do, you may find yourself more easily giving thanks with your whole heart. I will be glad and exult in you, he says in verse two. His whole heart is praising the Lord, not just the works of the Lord, as though he just uses God to get all the things that he wants. That's not the way praise goes. Praise goes deeper. He is glad and it exalts in God himself. Again, verse 2, I will be glad and exalt in what? Not your works, not all the good things that have come to me. David says, I will be glad and exalt in you, in God himself. That's the best part of it all. The best part of it all is getting to know God. This is the attitude of Psalm 84.10, where the psalmist says, a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in tents of wickedness. Why? Because he gets to be near the presence of the Lord. That's the greatest joy. And then he goes on, I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. Literally, I will psalm to your name. I will sing to your name. David is not afraid to put poetry and music to his heart's praise of God. He will sing about what he loves and what he loves is the Lord. I hope you sing more than on Sunday mornings. I hope you sing because your heart is full of praise to the Lord. That you sing of His greatness. That you have songs that are on your heart that you want to lift up to God. That's part of being all in. Because you know how good He's been to you. You know what He has done for you. You know who He is and you love drawing near to Him. And what else can your heart do but overflow in praise to God? All of this is determined worship. We often take time in our days, maybe at the start of your day, to think for a moment about your priorities and the decisions that you have to do today. And you look at what you have to do in any given day, and you think, I've got to do A, B, C, and D, and you go through the alphabet a couple of times with all that you have to do, but you know you're not going to be able to do all of it. And so you have to eliminate some things. You come down to what are the essentials? What are the most important things? What am I going to do? And you say, well, I will do this today, and I'll do this today. And you even make a list of the things that you're going to do. And those show for you what the most important things are for you to do that day. You determine what you're going to do. Do you determine, like that, that you will praise the Lord? Do you decide, I am going to be one who praises God with my whole heart today? Does that show up on your list? This is someone who's all in and is determined to praise the Lord. Well, David then goes on to give a recital of the works of the Lord. He recites the works of the Lord. These are verses 3 through 10. And he has this rich section where he basically describes in bullet point fashion the things the Lord has done. And it shows that it's easy for David to give praise to the Lord because he has this very ready list of all the things that he knows God does. Notice the repetition in those verses of, you have done this, or you did this, or the Lord is this. For example, verse 3, the Lord overcomes David's enemies. Verse 4, The Lord maintains David's just cause. Again, verse 4, the Lord has sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. Verse 5, the Lord has rebuked the nations. The Lord has made the wicked perish. The Lord has blotted out their name forever. The Lord, in verse 6, has rooted out the cities of the enemies. Verse 7, the Lord is enthroned forever. Verse 7, the Lord has established His throne for justice. Verse 8, the Lord judges the world with righteousness. The Lord judges the people with uprightness. Verse 9, the Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed in times of trouble. And verse 10, the Lord has not forsaken those who seek Him. If you have a view of God like that, then it is much more likely that you will praise the Lord from a whole heart. For David, the cause of praise for him is that he is king of Israel, he's the king of a nation. And so he has enemies who are national enemies that are coming after him and coming after Israel. But even though he has these huge enemies, he has a bigger defender. Other nations want to destroy his nation, but he knows that the most high is the judge of the nations. And you think for David, he is a man of war. He's a man of military might, skill, excellent tactics. It would be very easy for him to look at national enemies and put all of his hope in his experience and military might. But the real hope that he has and the place of trust is not in those things. The real place of hope for David is in heaven. It is in what God does with David's enemies and how God rules the world and who God is. You probably, I don't know how you think about this, whether you think that you have national enemies or not, but nations probably haven't targeted you specifically as an individual. You may not like the things that nations are doing, and you could think very easily at this moment in world history about how things could develop into some sort of global war that would envelop you and touch your life in a dramatic way. And you could be tempted at this season of life to be terrified of the direction the world is going. You could long for the nations to be putting down their weapons. And you could put your hope in the military might of our nation. It would be very easy to do that. But this is a segment of Scripture that would call you back for a moment, to have you put your hope and your trust, confidence even, and the one who is the judge of the nations. David has confidence in verse three, he says, my enemies turn back. He has seen this happen before and he knows that they don't turn back because of his military skill. He says, when my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. He knows the downfall of his enemies comes not because David is so intimidating, it is because God is present That's where he sees victory, not from a humanistic perspective. He does not consider his strength, but he considers the very presence of his God, Yahweh, as the cause of the enemy's demise. Verse 4, his confidence in the fact that God is enthroned. You have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. That is a perspective that is needed in order to make sense of this world. If you lose that perspective, if you lose the perspective that God is on the throne, this world will instantly become a living hell. It will be so terrifying. You will have to do extraordinary things to mask the terror of this world if you do not have a confidence that a good God is on a throne in heaven and has not abdicated it. God is in a position of unrivaled authority. And the Lord rules the universe making decisions that are always right. That's why David says in verse 4, you have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. This means that every decision that the Lord makes is the right decision. It is righteous and it cannot be improved upon. In this case, the judgments that God is rendering for David are not generic. For David, they are very particular. As he faces national enemies, David considers his cause to be right because it agrees with God's standards. David was a sinner, no doubt. He's not saying that he's perfect, but he knows himself to be one who is generally following God's ways. And in this case, for whatever reason, the enemies are going after David and his nation David knows that he has not done wrong, and he looks to the king, greater than he is, he looks to him for justice. And he knows God will give it. It's very likely, probable, that this nation will not continue to tolerate Christian worship, true Christian worship. I have no idea how long that will wait. Obviously it's not tolerated in many ways now, but I mean for the consequences to become more severe. And in those moments, you may long for a restoration of the good old days of the United States when it was a time of freedom of worship. You may long for that. You may long for political leaders to come into power who will establish that. And you can pray for that and we can desire it, but know that there is a King in heaven who will not overlook injustices that happen in this world. And that's where your hope needs to ultimately lie. It is in the King who renders righteous judgments. That's where we turn to. And God's judgment against those who oppose him is severe and permanent. Many civilizations have built cities that they're proud of. Many of them have thought of them as wonders of the world. But in the end of all things, they're temporary, they're dust, and they will be forgotten. Verse six, the enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins. Their cities you rooted out, the very memory of them has perished. Daniel, the prophet, describes a sequence of world history that includes kingdom, human kingdom after human kingdom that looks more and more powerful. But he sees at the end of the vision that describes those kingdoms, a kingdom that comes not from a human origin, but comes from heaven above. And it strikes down all of those kingdoms. And it is established forever. When the angel comes to Mary in Luke chapter one to tell her that she will conceive and give birth to a son, The angel describes the kind of son that she is going to have and says in Luke chapter 1 verse 32, he will be great and will be called the son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There will be no end. The kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God, will go on and on forever. The memory of the enemies of God will perish, but it says in verse 7, but the Lord sits enthroned forever. He has established his throne for justice. This may be intimidating to think of God's kingdom with His almighty power coming to dominate this world with His justice, and that kingdom is coming. And it could look like this is a kingdom that will just eat everybody up. It certainly has the power to do that. But look at verse 9. The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed. a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you. For you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you." That kingdom, with all of its might, with all of its consuming power, with all of its judgment, with all of its righteousness and uprightness, will be an impenetrable fortress for those who put their trust in the Lord. For those who are in trouble and seek God, you will find God's kingdom to be one where you are invincible. You will find not only do you have a king who has all authority, and you put your trust in his name, but you know to you his name is Father. Where do children run when they get hurt? Have you ever been in a public space where a child scrapes their knee, gets hurt, and Swarmed by adults who want to help them, but who's that child looking for? Who's that child want? They want their mom or their dad, usually their mom. Why? Because, well, that's their mom. That's her name. To that child, that's her name. It's mom. That's what she does. She comforts me when I am hurt. When you are in trouble, or oppressed, or afflicted, or in a position of vulnerability, where do you look? Well, to your Heavenly Father, don't you? Why? Because you know His name. You know what He is like. That's what He's there for. And you have put your trust in Him. There are some things in your life that no one, no matter how much money, power, or influence, or wisdom they have, can touch the troubles you have. But there is a king in heaven. Not only do you know him as king, you know him as father. The king who rules the nations is your father. So those who know your name, put their trust in you. It's easy to praise the Lord when you know who He is and what He has done. And so David goes on in verse 11 then to shift gears once again back to praise. He then issues another call to praise. Verse 11, sing praises to the Lord who sits enthroned in Zion. Tell among the peoples His deeds. He is now not just describing what he will do, but he is issuing the call to anyone who would hear to praise the Lord, the one who sits enthroned. Even in verse 12, he explains why the praise is there, for he who avenges blood is mindful of them. He does not forget the cry of the afflicted. And he goes on in verse 13, he gives a prayer request. He says, be gracious to me, O Lord. See my affliction from those who hate me. O you who lift me up from the gates of death. He's asking for grace. He's in a moment of trouble. He's looking to the Lord for help. But why does he do this? He says the purpose for which he's asking in verse 14. That I may recount all your praises. That in the gates of the daughter of Zion, I may rejoice in your salvation. Do you pray like that? Do you pray for deliverance and for help in time of need so that you can praise God? Not as manipulation. It's not like bargaining with God. Okay, God, you deliver me and I will praise you for, you know, a couple of minutes. Hopefully that will satisfy you. No, David wants to be delivered so he has more experiences of God's goodness and grace so that he can return praise to his great God. This is not manipulation at all. This is a heart that loves God and wants to praise Him. So do you pray like that? Do I pray like that? Do you pray for deliverance and grace so that you may praise Him? Don't our prayers often fall much shorter? God, deliver me so I won't be uncomfortable anymore. Help me because I just really don't like this situation. Help me because I need to eat and I need some money next month. Help me because this person just bugs me no end. David says, be gracious to me, see my affliction. Why? That I may recount all your praises. That in the gates of the daughter of Zion, I may rejoice in your salvation. David issues this call to all of us to partake in praise of the Lord. He concludes this psalm by focusing, again, on the judgment of God. He concludes on a note of judgment. Kind of seems like a downer. In verse 15, he says, He's talking about the just retribution that they're experiencing. The Lord, in verse 16, has made himself known. He has executed judgment. The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. He's describing the judgment But remember, David is singing this song from the point of view of one who has national enemies, and his enemies are really and ultimately God's enemies. They are intentionally and perpetually opposing the kingdom of God. Have you ever prayed, your kingdom come? If you've ever prayed that, and that prayer has probably been recited by billions of people in multitudes of language, have you ever considered what you're asking for? When you ask for God's kingdom to come, for it to come and be present, do you know what will happen when God's kingdom comes fully? When God's kingdom comes fully, all of the enemies of God's kingdom will be finally and completely judged. Certainly, when you pray for God's kingdom to come, you are praying also for God's grace to come to sinners so that they may be saved. But for those who do not repent, when you pray for God's kingdom to come, you are praying that God's justice will be administered on this earth and that the wicked will be put down. All those who oppose perpetually and unrepentantly God's kingdom will be judged when it comes in all of its fullness. If you ask for God's kingdom to come, you are asking for the kingdom of man not to continue. Nations, literal nations, will be judged. Nations, literal nations, will fall. Nations will rise as dust in the scales. Military arsenals will be dismantled. Capitals will be raised. And I'm not speaking about a human revolution. I'm not calling us to take up arms by any stretch. But when you pray for God's kingdom to come, when it ultimately and finally does, the nation of men may not continue. Rebellion will stop. Why? Verse 18, for the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. Remember when Jesus gives the Beatitudes, Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the poor in spirit, and the meek shall inherit the earth. Verse 19 concludes with this prayer. Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail. Let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O Lord. Let the nations know that they are but men. They often think that they're gods, but that prayer will be answered and the nations will know that they are men. Are you all in with God? Have you determined in your heart that you will praise Him completely? Do you know Him well enough that you can recount His deeds, all His wonderful deeds, that should ease you into praise? Do you take refuge in Him? Do you hope in His name? If you do, you will find Him to be a King who will protect you forever. But if you are on the outside, Jesus describes that as the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. But he still offers, today is the day of salvation. Mercy is available. The whole world is now being called to repent, because God has appointed a man who He has raised from the dead to judge the world. But put your hope in Him, and you will find He is your protector, and you will find great reasons for praise every single day. Let's pray. Father, Your might is unfathomable to us. You are the God who has put the stars in place. You keep this universe running. And we are but dust. The nations are but dust. Father, let the nations know they are but men. While there is time to repent, we pray, Father, let your church be faithful to the Great Commission to let the world know that there is a King in heaven And he welcomes sinners. Father, help us as a church to be faithful and praying for and supporting our missionaries who will bring the message of the gospel to the nations before it's too late. Father, I pray that personally as your people, you would make us a people who praise you, who find it easy to praise you because we know what you have done for us. Lord, help us to determine in our hearts that we would praise you, for you're worthy of it, and help us to draw near to you. Thank you, Father, that you have revealed to us the Lord Jesus Christ, and we know him, and he is good. And Lord, as we now take this communion together, we ask that you would bless it and fill us with joy as we remember what Christ has done for us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.