Are You Living On God's Benefits ?

This morning we're going to turn it our Bibles to God's Word.

We're turning to Psalm 103. We were singing from part of the

Psalm in our opening praise, and we're going to read together

from Psalm 103. Let's hear the Word of God for

those online. The words will come up on

screen. We pray the Lord will bless us

as we read together from the Holy Scriptures.

Now, normally after this reading, I would do a short

children's address, but I'm not going to do that today.

We'll leave that to the following Lord's Day and then

we'll start a little series on the Jelly baby family.

So you can pray about that. Think about it for next week,

the Jelly Baby family. I'll be starting next week in

the will of God, Psalm 103. Let's hear God's word reading of

course, from the King James Bible.

Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me.

Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and

forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,

who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from

destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender

mercies, who satisfy thy mouth with good things, so that thy

youth is renewed like the eagles.

The Lord executeth righteousness and judgement for all that are

oppressed. He made no one his ways unto

Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and

plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide,

neither will He keep his anger forever.

He have not dealt with us after our sins and rewarded us

according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above

the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him as far

as the east is from the West, so far as He removed our

transgressions from us. Like as a father pityeth his

children, so the Lord pityeth them that fear Him, for He

knoweth our freedom. He remembereth that we are dust.

As for man, His days are his grass.

As a flower of the fields, so we flourisheth, for the wind passes

over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it.

The war. But the mercy of the Lord is

from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his

righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep His

covenant, to those that remember His commandments to do them.

The Lord had prepared His throne in the heavens, and His Kingdom

ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye His angels

that excel in strength, that do His commandments heartening unto

the voice of His word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye His

hosts, ye ministers of His that do His pleasure.

Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion.

Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, Amen.

We know God will stamp with His own approval and blessing this

reading of His own precious infallible word.

Now my text this morning is taken from Psalm 103 and in the

verse 2 it reads as follows. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and

forget not all his benefits. Now, if entitled today's theme

in the form of a question, are you living on God's benefits?

Many throughout our province, through no fault of their own,

are living in state benefits, a meagre existence.

But my question is not about the state benefit system.

I'm asking the question, are you living on the Saviour's

benefits? You see, Psalm 103 is a

wonderful Psalm. It's well known and sung the

world over, especially within the reformed Protestant church

circles. In the Sam, you've got to think

of David being alone with God. Say he's in the palace, He's

maybe in his study or library, could be in his bedroom.

Remember, he is in a right relationship with God and here

he is in an attitude of prayer and praise.

He is meditating on God's being who he is.

Think of the words bless the Lord.

The definite article is employed here.

Think of the word Lord that's repeated throughout this song.

He's thinking of what God is like.

For example, verse 8. The Lord is merciful and

gracious, slow to anger and plenteous and mercy.

He will not always change, neither will he keep his anger

forever. But he also begins to focus in

this Psalm on the blessings of God in his life.

He's telling his soul. It's called in the English a

solouquy. In other words, he's talking to

himself and he's addressing God, and this is what he says.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.

Bless His holy name. Notice seven times in the space

of 22 verses these words, Bless the Lord.

Now if you read the Psalm carefully, it begins and ends

the same way, verses one and two.

Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me.

Bless His holy name, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not

all his benefits. In the space of 2 verses you've

got the words Bless the Lord three times.

And if you come to the end of the Psalm, verse 20, write down

to verse 22. You've got Bless the Lord, ye

his angels. There's the fourth one and the

5th. 121 Bless ye the Lord, O ye as hosts, ye ministers of His

that do us pleasure. And here's the 6th one, bless

the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion.

And then the 7th one, bless the Lord, O my soul.

The Psalm begins and starts the same way.

Seven in the Bible is the number of perfection.

And what a perfect Psalm of praise.

Psalm 103 is. Chapter Spurgeon likened it to a

mountain climber climbing the Alps mountains.

Now the Alps is the peak. It's the apex of the mountains

of the world that climbers climb.

And Psalm 103 stands like an apex of the sands, the highest

peak in the mountain range of praise and worship.

David is spiritually excited. He has something to sing and

something to shout about, and here is reflecting not only in

who God is and what he's like and what he's done, but he also

thinks about the real experience of forgetting who God is and all

that he has done. I have no doubt his heart was

stirred when he sang and shouted Forget not all his benefits.

He knew it was a real problem. He knew that it was something

that we were all prone to do. He followed this by listing some

of the good things the Lord bestows.

And all who know and love him. He tells us there, who forgiveth

all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who

redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee

with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy

mouth with good things. So thy youth is renewed.

Like the eagles. The Lord executeth righteousness

and judgement for all that are oppressed.

He made his no way. He made known his ways unto

Moses, His acts unto the children of men.

Did you know the Apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2:9

chapter 2 verse 9? These words listen carefully.

First Corinthians 2 verse 9. But as it is written, I have not

1 Corinthians 2:9

seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man

the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.

What encouragement, what a tremendous verse.

See Psalm 103 is taken up with those good things.

David is reflecting on being in a right relationship with the

God of heaven, and he's rejoicing in all the benefits of

the Lord. And these benefits that he

mentions, they represent all the provision that the Lord provides

for his children, all the provisions physically and

mentally, emotionally and spiritually, all to do with our

well-being. And as we reflect in Psalm 103

today, especially focusing in on verse 2, asking the question, am

I living in God's benefits? I pray today this will be a word

of encouragement, a word of comfort, this will be a source

of help even on the journey. And I say that especially to all

who are struggling today and many are struggling.

So whatever your struggle is, if it be physical, if it be mental,

if it be emotional or spiritual, here's a word for you today.

Ask yourself this as you listen, Am I living on God's benefits?

I want you to think, first of all, the sword of God's

benefits. Notice the word benefits in

verse 2. It's the last word.

The word benefits is in the plural.

So that means there's more than one young people.

Notice the way it's spelled. This finishes with an S.

Did you know that the word benefits is only mentioned three

times in the Bible? 3 is the number of witnesses.

Here we have in Psalm 103 verse 2.

Psalms 103:2

Forget not all his benefits. David is saying that to his own

soul in the presence of the Lord.

And then in Psalm 68, verse 19, we read, blessed be the Lord,

Psalms 68:19

who dearly loaded us with benefits, even the God of our

salvation. And in Psalm 116, verse 12, the

Psalms 116:12

psalmist asked us, what shall I render unto the Lord for all his

benefits toward me? Now think of this, the sword of

God's benefits. Think about the benefit of God's

pardon. Verse 3 says, who forgiveth all

thine iniquities, the blessing of a full and free and forever

part, all sin, the thought, word and deed carried away, covered

over by the precious blood, cancelled out.

Isn't this what the psalmist said in Psalm 32 and in the

verse one and two he made this tremendous statement.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose

sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the

Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no

guile. It's a wonderful thing to know

that your sins are behind God's back.

They're in the sea of forgetfulness, and God makes a

promise. Hebrews 10 and 17.

Thy sins and iniquities. Well, I remember no more.

Didn't he testify through Isaiah the evangelical prophet?

I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine

own's sake, and will not remember thy sins.

And a member of the Guinness family.

Not recommending Guinness now, but OS Guinness.

He was a preacher. Not sure.

I think he perhaps belonged to the Gospel Hall assemblies, did

a tremendous ministry, and he preached A sermon one time about

sins been blotted out, blotted out of God's book.

So when you open the book with your name on it, there's nothing

there, nothing recorded, blotted out by God's own hand and

blotted out of God's mind. You see, see, forgiveness means

that God makes you a promise. Thy sins and iniquities, I will

remember no more. They're not only forgiven, but

they are forgotten. And you see, sadly we are prone

to forget we are sinners. The Lord Jesus sitting in

Matthew's house made the comment to the scribes and Pharisees.

Matthew 9 and 13. I have not come to call the

righteous, but sinners to repentance.

See, many of Northern Ireland have forgotten that for all have

sinned and come short of the glory of God.

They've heard it so many times it's like water for ducks back.

It hasn't impacted upon them. And remember where sin come

from, Romans 5 and 12 where for us by one man sin entered into

the world, and death by sin and death passed upon all men.

For that all have sinned. We sinned in Adam inherited the

guilt of his first transgression, every additional

sin and hers additional guilt, and we have a bad record before

God. And we also inherited a bad

heart, a heart that loves sin. That's why Jeremiah said the

heart is deceitful and above all things desperately wicked.

Who can know it? And what's the result of sin?

Death passed upon all men. Why for that all have sinned

physical death. That's why we die spiritual

death. We're dead spiritually to God.

We need to be made alive in the new birth and and we're in

danger of dying eternally. Jesus said if you die of your

sins, where I am, there you cannot be.

And the great message of the Bible is this.

The God of the Bible is a pardoning God.

The God of the Bible is a God who pardons people.

And yet this reality is that even in Northern Ireland,

thousands will be in the House of God on the day of God.

They may even offer praise to God in their lips.

They'll hear the word of God and yet never have experienced God's

salvation. They know nothing of God and his

salvation. All need to be pardoned, all

need to be forgiven. The big question is why?

And you see often times, even in church by ministers, and I say

this sadly, God's salvation is not often explained properly.

It's not often explained scripturally.

Individuals can be traumatised. They end up having a low

estimate of their own sin or a false impression of it.

They have a false impression of who God is and what he's like,

and a low estimate of God. See, many have a little estimate

of what sin is. Sin is any want of conformity

unto your transgression of the law of God.

Sin is a transgression of the law.

Sin is serious. And how are we saved from it?

Well sometimes the preacher just says to you, let him in and

that's good. In the Book of Revelation we

read in Revelation chapter 3 and in the verse 20 where the Lord

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Jesus actually says, behold I stand at the door and knock.

And Revelation 3 and 20, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to

him and will Sup with him and he with me.

And it's easy to say let him in. But why?

It's only through the door of repentance, being sorry enough

to quit your sin and faith in Christ that receives and rests

upon him alone in salvation. The Lord Jesus came preaching

the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent. You see, it's not about turning

over a new leaf. It's not about making a

commitment to follow him. I remember a man in Coleraine,

He turned up at the church one time.

He started to attend a few weeks.

He got his haircut and he got a new suit and a tie and he

cleaned up his life. And he told me he was trying to

understand the Bible and he was exercised to read it, and he was

trying to obey the 10 commandments and he wanted to

love God and he wanted to love his neighbours herself.

And he was going to stop swearing.

And I said to him, Maynard, you're not going to be able to

do it. Why not?

It's just because you need a new heart, because you're not born

again of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said, marvel not that

I say unto thee, you must be born again.

And when you're born of the Spirit, you'll be given the gift

of repentance toward God and the gift of faith in Jesus Christ.

And in that context, in you'll acknowledge your sin, you'll

have a sense of how serious it is, and you'll be brought to

believe, rest on and receive Christ alone as salvation, and

you'll ask him to forgive you. Remember what sin is sins

against God, Psalm 51, verse four against thee they only have

I sinned and done this evil. And thy sight that thou mightest

be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

And once you turn from sin, having acknowledged it and

believed in Christ, then you'll confess Christ that you've

become a new creature. You'll confess him before men.

That is your Lord and Saviour. Do you know the blessedness of

God's pardon this morning? Can they your head in the pillow

and rejoice That's well with your soul.

You're in a right relationship with him.

He's the one who's forgiven all your iniquities.

Think about the blessedness of God's pleasure, which says in

our Psalm here, who crowneth thee with loving kindness.

Verse 4 See often times we forget the benefits of God's

love to us in Christ. John 3 and 16 For God so loved

the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever

believeth in him should perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:00 and 8:00 But God commended his love toward us,

and why we were yet sinners. Christ died for us.

Listen to what John says first. John 4:00 and 10:00 here in His

love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His

Son to be a propitiation for us. Whenever I was down at the open

air, just the other Friday, a young girl would come up and she

asked me this question. Could you tell me if God loves

me? I had the joy of sharing with

her. Jesus loves me.

This I know, for the Bible tells me so.

You see, God loves us everlastingly.

I've loved you with an everlasting love.

He loves us freely, as without money and without price.

He loved just sacrificially the Son of God.

He loved me and gave Himself for me.

Got to think of Christ's death in the cross, His once and for

all sacrifice for sin. He loves you personally.

Take out the word world in John 3 and 16 and put your own name

in. He loves you continually.

Having loved His own, He loved them unto the end.

See, the love of God is not influenced by events, not

influenced by circumstances. God's love is spontaneous.

Maybe you feel down this morning and you're discouraged and

you're disheartened. Story told about see a Spurgeon

visiting a farmer and he noticed a weather vien up in the

farmer's barn and it had the words God is love.

There's a bit of discussion about that weather vien and

whether it was right to put those words up on a weather

vien. And Spurgeon says it was because

no matter what way the wind was blowing north-south, east or

West, God's love doesn't change. And no matter what you're facing

today, the death of a loved one, maybe you're facing a financial

crisis, maybe there's a sickness in your body or in the body of a

loved one. Maybe you're just lonely.

And how many people are lonely. Maybe you feel you're

persecuted. Fill your heart and mind with

this truth. God's love doesn't change the

benefit of the Lord's pleasure. He crowns you with loving

kindness and with tender mercy. Very quickly, the blessedness of

the Lord's provision. Do you know one of the most

beautiful things that the psalmist taught us?

The Lord is my helper. There's three 7300 promises in

the book according to Herbert Lockyer, and here's some of the

most wonderful ones that is found in the Scriptures over

there in the book of Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 41, and in the

Isaiah 41 · chapter mention

verse 10. It was the evangelical prophet

that made this tremendous announcement.

Listen to the word of God. Fear thou not, for I am with

thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy

God. I will strengthen thee.

Yeah, I will help thee. Yeah, I will uphold thee with

the right hand of my righteousness, he says in

chapter 43. But now thus saith the Lord that

created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear

not, for I every deem thee. I've called thee by thy name,

the word mine. When thy passes through the

waters, I'll be with thee, and through the rivers they shall

not overflow thee. When they walk us through the

fire, they shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle

upon thee. Why?

Because the Lord is my helper. There's help available, even if

you're at the point of despair and in the depths of

discouragement, and you need someone to help you.

The psalmist said the Lord is my helper.

You can say by faith my help cometh from the Lord, which

maketh heaven and earth. See, often times we're too proud

to ask for help, aren't we? But when we pray, help me.

Help is available not only the Lord's provision regarding help

but the supply of our need. Philippians 419 says, but my God

should supply all your need according to his riches and

glory by Christ Jesus. What do we need all their needs

physically, mentally mostly and spiritually.

Her being that it's not tremendous.

You think of what we already have the gift of homes and

clothing, food, job, clean water, health and strength.

Even when we're sick, we can go to a hospital, we have doctors

and nurses to care for us. We have dentists, we have money

in our bank, we have mum and dad to look after the children and

the young people. We've got Bibles, we have a

House of God to come to see. All of these are blessings and

the Lord has given them to us even though we haven't really

fully deserved them. He has given them to us in

grace. As the psalmist said, blessed be

the Lord who daily loaded us with benefits.

Every day, physical and material and mental and emotional and

spiritual blessings are streaming toward us.

I often think about those in Africa.

We mentioned them last Lord's Day evening.

Nigeria, Sudan, Mali, Jamaica, the destruction there in the

wake of the hurricane. We should be thinking of these

places. Our hearts should go out to

them, and yet we should do so with thankful remembrance of the

blessings of God upon us, even if we need guidance.

I said this to Brother Ryan and I emphasise to him a little

Psalm that was shared with me a long, long time ago in Psalm 32,

and says in the verse 8, I will instruct thee and teach thee in

the way in which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye.

We were singing, Count your blessings.

Name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has

done. Think of the blessing of the

Lord's presence. The Lord is with us, He says,

fear not, for I am with thee. We face 1001 enemies, the world,

the flesh and the devil, but we're not on our own.

Sometimes we cry out, where are you Lord?

And he comes and says, I am with you in the pain.

I am with you in the hospital bed.

I am with you in the funeral parlour.

Here's my promise. I will never leave you nor

forsake you. Oh, we deserve to be forsaken.

We deserve to be left alone. But his promise is true.

Think of the little story of the footprints walking along the

sand. Two sets and then one.

Where are you, Lord? Why did you leave me?

I'm walking along this alone. And the Lord just says I don't

leave you, my child. I'm the one that's carrying you,

and at times He does that. He puts us strong arms around

it, about us when we have no strength to carry on because

underneath are the everlasting arms.

Heaven is real, Earth is real. And here's our hope, the

blessing of the Lord's presence with us on the journey.

The blessing of the Lord's protection.

He's a son and shield for us. Things happen in this life that

we can't understand. All happens in His will.

He's a plan, a plan and he has a purpose.

Remember, As for God, His way is perfect and we have to bow the

knee to his sovereignty, to his Providence, and we have to

remember that all things work together for good.

That's what Paul says and we know that all things work

together for good to them that love God and to them here the

called according to his purpose. What about the benefits of God's

peace? In John 14 and verse 27, the

Lord Jesus said this to His disciples in the upper room.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.

Not as the world giveth, give unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

See, Christ is the Prince of peace.

We'll be celebrating that shortly at Christmas.

And He came to purchase peace, peace through the blood of His

cross, Peace with God, the peace of God.

But He also promises His peace. My peace I give unto you and

this piece is about safety, certainty and enjoyment because

he's concerned about your well-being and this perfect

piece that will keep him in perfect peace.

His mind to stay to thee because he trusteth and they see all

kinds of benefits begin to flow when they meditate.

Do you know if I was to go out around the doors I could meet

many people with horrible stories.

The news is sad. I meet so many women who tell me

they've ended up having to divorce their husband.

Various reasons. Or my husband's in hospital

dying. A few years ago, a woman told me

that her husband was in the hospital dying.

She was a young woman. He was a young man.

You could think of the stress and strain of that in her face.

And then she added, you know, a few years ago I buried my only

daughter and at the present time a granddaughter, 17.

She's in a mental institution. Would you say we prayer for Mr

McLaughlin and the sun will he's badly his nerves.

He can't leave the house. See illustration after

illustration. We could bring them up.

This is real life because this is life on earth.

And they need God's benefits to cope.

And benefits are there to help us.

The greatest benefit of all is the benefit of God's pardon,

God's pleasure, God's provision, God's presence, God's

protection, and God's peace. Even in the midst of the stress

and strain of a husband dying in the hospital, a daughter being

in the mental institution and or a daughter dead and a

granddaughter in the mental institution and a son Bad

reasoner. In that context, God would say

forget not all his benefits. Very quickly our time has gone.

The seriousness of God's benefits and forget not

underline the word forget, forget not.

What does that mean? It means to lose your memory.

It means fail to remember. It also means to ignore, to

cease to care about. David is telling us here, don't

lose your memory. Don't fail to remember God's

benefits. Don't choose to ignore or cease

to care about the God's benefits.

You see, we're often guilty of forgetting what we should

remember, and we're often guilty of thinking upon and remembering

what we should forget. We fail to remember.

And when we fail to remember, we're not only watered down in

the subject of praise, but it reveals A deeper heart problem.

Once we fail to remember, choose to ignore, cease to care, we

fall into the sin of apathy, indifference based in gratitude.

Remember the story. Of the 10 lepers, 10 were

healed. Many come back to thank the Lord

Jesus. Just one.

And that was a Samaritan. The Jews, the religious, the

respectable people, they didn't bother.

Did you ever hear the story of a young man by the name of Edward

Spencer? He was a Bible college student.

He was training for the ministry.

It's September. It's 1860.

It's the summertime. There's a Steamboat out in Lake

MI in the state of Illinois. The alarm is raised that the

Steamboat is getting into trouble.

People are in the water. They're in danger of draining.

I can't swim, so I would drown. I'd go like a stone to the

bottom. The students raced to help.

Edward Spencer was the first to hit the water.

He rescued 17 people. It was not a tremendous feat.

Young people, 17 people, such a breathing swimmer and put the

result impacted upon them. It impacted upon his own health.

He had to quit the college, didn't finish his ministerial

student days got worse and eventually he died sometime

later. You think of it, this young man

gave his life for 17 people. They were facing death. 17

people who lived who could enjoy their family, their friends,

could enjoy Christmases, enjoy birthdays, enjoy things.

This young man lost his life. Do you know when his funeral

took place? There wasn't one sympathy card

from any of those 17 people. There wasn't a card ever to say

thank you. There wasn't a gift.

There wasn't even one of them turned up at the funeral.

Isn't that awful? You would say, Well, that's

shotgun. Shame on them, but that's an

indication of human nature. We can be thoughtless, we can be

cruel, the psalmist said. Forget not all his benefits.

Why? Because we can be like that.

Once we feel to remember, once we choose to ignore, once we

cease to care, then we drift into apathy and peace and

gratitude. A king one time and mediaeval

times had a number of page boys in the palace.

He was told that they were eating their meals in the palace

without prayer and saying thank you to God.

He thought well they need a lesson.

So at meal time he prepared the sumptuous banquet fight at them

all along. He brought in a smelly old

Trump. They'd given them some money to

come. His dirty hands, he smelt like a

rotten bin. He was in rags, tattered hair

and he come in and sat at the table and he just started

grabbing everything he could see, stumbled it into his mouth

and was falling all over the place.

He burped and slapped, drank. The king didn't say a word.

Then after he'd eaten his fell he got up and he had a big burp

bite of him and he walked out. The boys were whispering,

couldn't understand it, and the king said, boys, you've behaved

exactly the same way as as Trump.

You need to be happy in my palace, but you also need to be

humble. And humility is connected with

giving thanks to God. Because of him, you move on a

living of being and he's the one that's provided.

It's come from my hand, but it's come through him.

Don't be like the mean Trump. Don't be caught up with things.

Negative things are positive things.

Forget not all his benefits, the king told the page boys, One

last thing. Our time is gone.

The subject of God's benefits, not just the sort and not just

the seriousness of God's benefits, but the subject of

God's benefits. They're set in the context of a

Psalm of praise to God. The psalmist has taken up with

God's person. He's the God of our salvation.

The psalmist has taken up with God's power what God is able to

do in the life, and the psalmist has taken up with God's praise.

Our words, our walk, our worship, our work, our warfare

has to be connected with this command.

Forget not all His benefits. Maybe your life this morning as

I finish is full of trouble. You haven't yet come to Christ.

You don't know the Lord. You can't praise Him for the

benefits of His salvation. Can I point you to this morning

to one who can set you free? The psalmist said.

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction?

The word redeem has to do with paying a price, and the one who

paid the ultimate price was the Lord Jesus Christ, His once and

for all selfless sacrifice in the cross.

Galatians 2 and 20. What did he tell us?

The Son of God who loved me, gave himself for me.

He came and shed his blood, and the ground of that blood you can

have a right relationship with God.

In the ground of that blood, you can know God's forgiveness in

the ground of that blood, you can know the Lord with you In

the ground of that blood, you can know the Lord's peace,

protection, provision, and every other blessing because every

blessing is connected to the precious redemption.

That's fine. In the Lord Jesus Christ Christ

came, our sins were laid in His own body.

He was nailed to the tree. He wore the crown of thorns for

me. And you can have this life in

Christ, and even though you feel your life's helpless, you can

have hope and the hope is in Christ.

And you can come from a state of death, spiritual death, and the

newness of life and that life's in Christ.

You can come from a place of despair and disappointment to

delight, and you can delight in the things of God.

You can come from darkness to light.

You can have home and a hope in heaven.

Not all will be in heaven. Only those in Christ that may

ask you this. Will you enjoy heaven because

you know Christ? He's your Lord and He's your

Saviour. The subject of God's benefits is

connected to God's person and power and praise.

May the Lord take these few thoughts and bless them to you

today. Thank you for coming and for

those who are visiting with us for the first time.

We're really delighted to have you pray you'll come back again

in the Lord's will.