psalm 123

I take I breathe in you.

Every step I take I take in you.

You are my way, Jesus.

Every breath I take I breathe in you.

Waves of mercy, waves of praise.

Everywhere I look, I see your face.

You're the best I should be.

Oh my God, it's love.

How happy.

Na na na na na.

Every breath I take I breathe in you.

You make me look, Jesus.

Every breath I take I breathe in you.

Every step I take I take in you.

You are my way, Jesus.

Every breath I take I breathe in you.

Waves of mercy, waves of praise.

Everywhere I look, I see your face.

You're the best I should be.

Oh my God, it's love.

How happy.

Na na na na na.

Okay, we're kind of in this together today because I did not make an answer sheet.

So my page has all the same blanks that your page has.

So we're going to be trusting my memory, which I think is tucked away somewhere right behind my migraine.

So we'll see if we can find it or not.

But I think we can figure it most of it out together.

Most of it follows the scripture.

And I did know that there were two words that were a little trickier than anything else.

And so, so as you can guess, we are in Psalms.

We're in the book of Psalms and it is a Psalm.

And you can finish that artistically if you want.

And it is Psalm 1, 2, 3.

1, 2, 3.

You can put that on there.

And Psalm 1, 2, 3 has, you know how many verses?

How many verses?

Four.

Four, that's correct.

So it's Psalm 1, 2, 3, four verses.

That was pretty easy to remember.

So if you think about that, you'll probably never forget that Psalm 1, 23 has four verses because it's 1, 2, 3, 4.

Pretty easy to remember.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Okay.

Now it's a certain kind of Psalm.

And so if you go right under that, you'll see it says S-O-A.

That does not stand for Sons of Anarchy.

Thank goodness.

So what do you think it stands for?

Song of?

A cent.

Yes.

A song of a cent.

It has an S on the end of it.

A-S-C-E-N-T-S.

Now, does anybody know what a song of a cent is?

I've taught them this, I think, one time in my 25 years.

Does anybody know?

Okay.

What does it mean?

What is an ascent?

Go up.

Just generically to go up, right?

Ascent, your ascent, like a plane takes off.

That's its ascent.

Right?

And so if people are singing this song while they're ascending,

and it comes, mind you, this is Old Testament, don't forget.

So where do you think they might be going?

Heaven.

No, not heaven.

It's good guess, though.

Jerusalem.

Right?

So basically this was a song that people sung on the way up to Jerusalem to go to the temple.

That's the song of a cent.

If you look through the Book of Psalms, you can see that there are several others, right?

Right over next to it on 121 is a song of a cent, and 120 is a song of a cent.

There are quite a few of them.

And basically as they were going up into the temple, now when they're going up into the temple,

what do they consider themselves to be doing?

Like we go to church, do we go to church to worship?

Kind of, yeah.

Do we go to church to pray?

Yeah.

So are those two things exactly the same thing?

No.

Okay, so what are we doing when we're worshiping and praying?

If we're doing both.

Who is the common denominator in those things?

Us and God, right?

So they consider themselves going to be God.

So this is a song that you might sing, and therefore you might not sing it,

because there's no notes or anything, right?

So you might not sing it, but you might think about it, meditate on it.

You might pronounce all the words as you are going to meet with God, right?

That's what a song of a sense is, okay?

All right, so I'll read the first verse, and then we'll fill in some of this top step up here.

So we're going down, I think we're going down to the left first.

So it says to, and then there is a Y, and it's a big Y, okay?

And it says to thee, or your translation might say to you,

I lift up my eyes, thou who art enthroned in the heavens.

And so, can you fill in the line?

To you I lift up my eyes.

Very good, Chris. No problem.

To you I lift up my eyes.

Notice that's a guy with just eyes going up the stairs there.

It struck me as funny, so that's why I did it.

If it's not funny to you, that's okay.

Okay, good, thank you, I appreciate that.

It struck me as funny, so.

All right, and then we follow that arrow over, and we also already have enough for this.

So, what do you got?

To you enthroned in the heavens.

That's correct.

So, as we are going to meet God, we lift up our eyes to God who is enthroned in heaven.

Now, here's the interesting thing, right?

So God is in charge, he's enthroned in heaven, and he's in charge of what goes on down here, right?

But where exactly would you look to see God in charge of the earth?

You could look in the Bible, you could look in your heart, right?

But if you really want to direct your eyes toward God, you would look toward where he is enthroned in heaven.

That's where he's enthroned.

And we'll spend eternity there if we have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

So they're headed up to Jerusalem, where as a temple on the earth, right?

There was a temple then.

They're going up to the temple, but they're not looking up to the temple.

They don't lift their eyes up to the temple where they're headed to meet with God.

They're saying we lift our eyes up to where you are enthroned in the heavens.

See that? It's interesting. It's different.

Because if I was a lost person in Toledo and I was looking for somewhere to learn about God,

I might look to New Heights or to some other church that I think is godly.

When I was not saved, and Sherry and I were in our mid-twenties, she was in her early twenties, I was in my mid-twenties,

we wanted to know more about God.

So we looked to the place where her grandmother went because she was the only person we knew who we thought acted like a Christian.

Literally the only person.

We later found out that she had not been baptized, she had not joined the church,

she was not a member of that church or whatever, but she was faithful in serving and talking about Jesus.

So that's why we went there.

But that's not where God is.

I mean, not enthroned, right?

God is on the throne of heaven, ruling all creation, even to this day.

He also rules in hearts, but it's hard to look into the heart of another person.

Okay, we're going to go a little further.

Right now I cannot remember what that B is.

Oh yes, I know what it is. Okay, so we're going to get it very quickly.

It says, yes, it is behold.

To thee I lift up my eyes, oh thou, or you who art enthroned in the heavens, behold.

The word is behold, B-E-H-O-L-D, behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master.

Okay, so if you look over there, you're going to find that under the stairs.

So the B is behold, and then the arrows go to the left for as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master.

So it's eyes, the whole is eyes.

It got chopped by the whole.

Of the servant look to hand of the master.

Okay, so now let's think about that for a second before we go any further.

So you've got a servant, or you could say a slave, probably the same word most likely.

And the servant looks to the master for sustenance, for protection, for direction, right?

All the same things that we look to God for.

But notice that it, where does the servant look?

It doesn't say in his face.

It looks to his hand. Now that's different.

So we look to God where he is enthroned in the heavens above as the servant looks to the hand of the master.

I want you to kind of think about that for a second.

We'll get back to it at the end, okay?

And then we go a little further.

So we read, behold, as the eyes of the servant look to the hand of their master,

as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress.

So a female servant or slave or could be an actual maid like takes care of the house.

And she looks to the hand of her mistress.

Okay.

And then I gave you across the middle, the dividing line, it says, so our eyes look to the Lord our God.

You see that? You can call her or whatever you want to do with it, but it's there.

So our eyes look to the Lord our God.

We're going to pause here for a thought.

Okay. So we were we are singing going up to where we're going to meet God.

And we're saying we turn our eyes upward to where God is enthroned in the heavens.

Okay. How do we turn our eyes upward to where God is enthroned in the heaven?

We do it as a servant looks to the hand of his master or a maid looks to the hand of her mistress.

So what does that mean?

Okay. So power, his activity, what he's actually doing.

Right. So that typically is true when it's when it's used as an analogy.

It's usually talking about your hand is what does things.

It's your hand is action, your hand is strength, your hand is effect.

Right.

So we look to the servant looks to the hand of his master because the hand of his master is actually where he gets protection, provision, direction.

Right. So if the master points, he goes.

If the master defends him, he's safe and so on.

So that makes sense. Same with the maid.

She looks to the hand of her mistress because that's where she actually gets her protection, her provision, her direction.

Right. So two things.

The first one is if you were going to say that there is a right hand or a hand of God and you're going to give that hand a name, what name would you give it?

Go ahead, Chris. That's right.

Right. So they are as a as a servant looks to the hand of his master or as a maid looks to the hand of her mistress.

That would be as us looking to Jesus.

Right. God sent Jesus to accomplish his will on the earth.

In fact, there is some some other we won't go there today, but there's some other reference where it talks about like that.

That he that Jesus will continue to do what he's doing until he places the entire world back under God's control.

And Jesus becomes the judge and all that kind of thing.

So that's the first thing is that I thought of symbolism is we would really look to Jesus.

But notice they're not talking about looking to the hand.

They're saying they look to him enthroned in the heavens as a servant or a mistress would look to their hand of their master or their maid.

Right. So that we look to him enthroned in heaven as a servant would look to the hand.

So we're not not looking to the hand. We're looking to him enthroned in heaven.

Does anybody understand why the significance might that that might be if Jesus is the hand, but we don't look to Jesus.

The human. Where is Jesus?

He's on the throne in heaven. He is enthroned in heaven.

Right. Now, technically, he's at the right hand of the father.

And you could say he has his own throne or whatever. But it says he sat down when he completed his work.

So he is enthroned in heaven.

So it's interesting that they could say we we will not look to the hand of the master.

We will look to God where he's enthroned in heaven.

So when Jesus was the hand of the master and he was on the earth, they were claiming well, they weren't actually doing it in my opinion.

Right. Again, we could say that another time.

They were claiming to be looking to God enthroned in heaven.

You follow. But the hand was right in front of them.

Jesus was right there then doing what it was that God was having him to do.

It's very interesting in that even while they were going up to meet God, they were looking at God in heaven.

Right. And then when Jesus is on earth, they continue to look to God in heaven.

In fact, you even could say they continue to look to God in heaven for what God would supply, even though God had already supplied it.

That make sense?

I submit to you, the Jewish people are doing that even to this day.

They are continuing to look to God in heaven to send the Messiah, even though he's already done that.

I was having fun with the text on the screen.

OK, I could have made a slide, but I was hard pressed to even get the worksheet done.

So I'm feeling pretty good. I got that done.

All right. So here we go.

So back on the text to thee, I lift up my eyes is what we've read so far.

O thou who art enthroned in the heavens, behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,

as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress.

So our eyes look to the Lord our God.

For we are. Oh, sorry, I'm sorry.

Until he shall be gracious to us.

Until he shall be gracious to us.

And so you probably figured out already that that's what that next one is.

The U is until he is is what I put gracious to us.

And gracious is spelled G.R.A.C.I.O.U.S.

Not like the one on the right, because I misspelled that one spelled correctly, spelled incorrectly.

OK. What's that? Sorry.

I just left out the O on the one on the right. OK.

So what do you think goes on the next to the L?

It says, oh, Lord, that's their prayer.

So, OK, when they start praying and say, oh, Lord, that's a prayer.

Be gracious to us. Be gracious. OK.

So notice they're crying out for what?

Grace. Right. They're crying out for grace.

And now we have this this kind of weird thing because God gives grace.

He sends his son. He comes in the flesh as Jesus.

They still look to heaven to send somebody.

But they've already said he's already sent Jesus. Right.

And so their situation is weird.

But if we look at it from our perspective, we look to the Lord.

He sent Jesus. Now we look to the Lord and we see Jesus.

We realize that Jesus is there with God. Right. OK.

And then we also see that they have a particular problem.

And I submit to you that if we are living for the Lord the way we're supposed to, we have the same problem.

OK. Verse three still. Be gracious to us, oh, Lord, be gracious to us.

For we are greatly filled with contempt.

Well, but I'm going to explain it.

So if you read it simply through, it sounds like they were saying that they're full of contempt.

We hold contempt. We have lots of contempt. Right.

And contempt is basically disrespect or looking down on others. Right.

And but the actual word there where it says we are greatly filled, it actually sort of means filled like overflowing.

You've had enough. You're full of it. You're done with it.

If you ever like you're a parent in the room and the kid comes and asks you for the seventh time to have something that you've already pulled them five times, six times, they can't have.

At that point, you've had enough. Right.

And that's what it really means. I'm fulled up. I'm done.

And so the big capital E there is the beginning of the word enough. Enough.

And I can't tell you how many times I've said that to my kids.

Back talking. They'll start. Cheryl tell one of the kids do something and they'll start back down and say, enough. Stop.

Stop right there. We're crossing the line. OK.

You've been told. Now you do.

When I ask questions later, that's fine. Be careful. Right.

Because I'm all full up of your shenanigans.

Had enough. And that's what this literally means in the Hebrew for we are greatly filled with contempt.

But notice the poeticness of it because the Jewish people had great contempt toward the Gentiles and anybody who wasn't a Jew.

They held great contempt.

So much so, like, for example, the Samaritans who had a history of being their bloodline was polluted by other races, other cultures.

They wouldn't even travel through that land.

They would go through the desert around Samaria so as not to go through there.

That's how much contempt they had.

So it's interesting that they there is another definition of that word that means exactly that filled word.

That means exactly what we would normally say if we say we're filled with something.

We say, well, that means we have a lot of it enough enough to share. Right.

But that's not what it originally meant. What it actually means is.

It has been heaped on us so much we can't take any more.

That's what it actually means.

So we received so much contempt toward us that we're filled up with it.

We've had enough. OK.

So the word the next word next word, I imagine, you know, the big C word contempt.

Yep. Contempt. C-O-N-T-E-M-P-T.

Con-tempt. Contempt.

OK. And then I gave you a little arrow up around to the right.

That has a D.

And I want to take a stab at what word might go there. Goes along with contempt.

Kind of a synonym. Disrespect is the word.

So contempt means disrespect.

And so do Christians get disrespected?

You tell your friends in school who claim to be atheist or tell your coworkers,

whatever, your follower, Jesus, have you ever run into somebody who disrespects that?

I have on many occasions.

I've been cussed at. I've been kicked off the property.

I've almost been arrested. Right.

The police had already been called by the security of the mall.

We were sharing Christ with somebody and they were on their way.

And they were going to insist that I would be arrested because I was delaying so we could share Christ with the guy.

And then we went out and talked by his car and they said, no, no, you have to leave the property.

You can't do that here at all.

And the police were pulling in.

And so the point is, it's a reality.

Sometimes if you stand up for Jesus the way you're supposed to, you will encounter disrespect.

Frankly, I've had enough disrespect.

I've had enough disrespect from non-Christians and Christians alike.

I consider it to be disrespect sometimes the way Christians behave when God is speaking,

when God is doing something, when worship is going on, all those kinds of things.

You have to realize that is contempt.

And you also have to realize that eventually the people around you get fed up with it.

They're not going to take anymore.

And that's what this Psalm is all about.

As they were going up, they're lifting up their eyes, they're begging God to be gracious toward them

because in the original writing what they were talking about was

they had had enough of people looking down on them.

They had had enough of the disrespect that was directed toward God's people and accordingly toward God.

That's what they were singing about.

When I go to meet and pray with God, sometimes I feel exactly like this.

God, I can't take anymore.

I've had enough.

I've had too many people saying too many nasty things, too many things breaking, too many things going wrong,

too many people have health issues.

Why is it like this in the world?

And I can't take anymore. I feel like I can't.

And so I can definitely resonate with the idea of praying to God to be gracious toward us

because we've had enough.

But we're not done yet.

We're in verse four.

Our soul is greatly filled with the scoffing or scornfulness or whatever of those who are at ease.

Do scoffing?

I did. Okay, scoffing.

The other translation I think says scornfulness.

And I don't have the answers.

Scoffing, S-C-O-F-F-I-N-G.

Yes, and it is up there if you can read it.

It's kind of small.

He may not be able to read it because he doesn't have his glasses.

S-C-O-F-F-I-N-G with the scoffing of those who are at ease.

And what is scoffing?

Say it again.

Yes, the next one is proud.

That is true.

Those who are doing the scoffing are prideful.

Yes, ridicule.

So basically what are people doing to Christians, to God's people?

When someone's scoffing or ridiculing you, what are they doing?

Could be bad mouthing.

Yeah, that's a good example.

Talking down on, laughing, belittling.

So they're getting away with it.

Notice that there are two arrows.

So the contempt arrow points down to P.

Let's just finish the line real quick.

It says our soul is greatly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease

and with the contempt of the proud.

So the contempt arrow points down to the P because who does the contempt?

The proud.

And the scoffing arrow points down to the E because who does the scoffing?

Say it again.

People at ease.

So it's E-A-S-E.

So this is what happens.

I'm sorry it's a reality.

I wish it weren't so.

But if you're a young person in this room and you haven't already encountered it,

you will eventually.

When people think they got their stuff all together,

they pretty much want nothing to do with God.

They don't want anything to do with God.

They don't want to do anything with Christianity.

They don't want to hear the gospel.

They don't want to know the truth.

And if you come bringing the truth and gospel and Jesus into a situation,

they're likely to scoff.

They're going to laugh.

They're going to say, I don't need that.

You say that's important.

You say it's true.

But I'm doing just fine.

I got money.

My bills are paid.

I got a roof over my head.

I get to eat.

I don't know that.

But I get to go out drinking every Friday night if I want to.

I get to do all the things that the world says is fun.

And I think they're fun.

And so I don't need your God.

Right?

That's scoffing.

And it can come a lot of other ways.

Now, if you run into somebody who's proud, meaning they think they're right.

So they might think they're right like what I just described.

But they also might think they're right like as in they know there is no God.

Or they think Allah is the correct God.

Or they think that you're just trying to get them to believe what you believe to influence them.

So that they'll do what you want them to do.

Or they just think that you're weak-minded.

And they're smart and strong in the mind.

And so on.

So they're proud.

Then they will treat you with contempt.

Notice there is a crossover between the two.

Those who are proud and at ease.

Now, interesting thing about that.

Because what does the Bible say about those who are proud, generally speaking?

Just generically.

Pride comes before a fall.

Right?

So typically those who are proud in conflict with God, they eventually run into trouble.

And their ease is gone.

But there is a period of time, right?

At which they could have both for a while.

And you might get both contempt and scoffing from the same person.

But there definitely is a difference.

Scoffing is I just don't acknowledge you.

I just don't care.

I mean what you're saying is not important.

They're laughing at your message.

Whatever.

Whereas contempt is they're looking down on you as a person because you believe what you believe.

Okay.

Alright.

If you look over in the cup on the left there next to the E, we didn't fill that out yet.

There is a cup.

And it is overflowing.

And there is a phrase inside it that is not in the verses.

But you might guess it.

What does it say?

What do you think?

We are full.

We are full.

So when we pray we cry out to God for his graciousness because we've had enough contempt.

We've had enough scoffing.

So right?

Because we are full.

It's overflowing in fact.

I think because we're full of it.

Full of contempt.

Full of scoffing.

We have to be careful not to treat people that way.

It's very easy.

When people look down on Christians for what we believe it's pretty easy for us to look down on atheists.

Or Muslims or whatever for what they believe.

Because they're wrong.

And so they're wrong and they won't hear it.

They might even be scoffing.

Or contemptful.

Or contemptuous.

I think that's actually a word.

They might be like that.

Right?

But we don't want to look down on them.

There's plenty of looking down on going on.

Plenty of scoffing.

Plenty of contemptful behavior.

So let's not do that.

Let's not be like them.

Let's be like Jesus was instead.

Okay?

So if you look in the box.

It says we know what we need.

God's grace.

That's what we need.

Now if you've accepted Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior.

Then you have a measure of God's grace that the world does not have.

You are saved.

You will go to heaven.

God is your Lord and your Father.

That is settled.

However, we still know we need more grace daily because we screw up.

Because things hurt.

We need his grace.

It is God's grace that he loves you.

That he is with you always once you're saved.

And no matter what you go through.

As bad as it gets.

He is still with you.

His presence is the ultimate grace.

It may not pay the bills.

When the bills have an exact dollar amount on it.

Right?

It may not heal your health.

We will all die.

Some of us from a heart attack.

Some of us from a violent action of some kind.

Right?

We will all die.

And God is not going to keep your body from physically dying.

When the time comes.

When it's time for you to go home.

You're going to physically die.

And so it's not a measure of God's grace that your body doesn't die.

If anything.

If God keeps you here longer and doesn't send you to heaven after your due.

That would be like a curse.

That's the opposite of grace.

Right?

So we stay here to be bearers of God's grace.

And we know that we need God's grace.

And we also know who the only supplier is.

And that is?

God by logical extension.

We feel like enough is enough.

But when is it actually enough?

It's on the paper.

When is it actually enough?

When is the scornfulness?

When is the contemptuousness?

When are the health issues?

When are the finance?

When are the struggles?

When are the suffering?

When is it actually enough?

When he says so.

When God says so.

That's it.

So we have to get our eyes back where they belong.

Right?

Because this is what happens.

Peter got out of the boat.

Alex, you know this story?

Jesus comes out of the water.

Peter got out of the boat.

And when Peter got out of the boat.

He said, if you really are the Lord.

Let me come walking to you.

He got out of the boat.

What happened?

He started walking on the water.

He started walking on the water.

And then what happened?

He took his eyes off the Lord.

He took his eyes off the Lord.

Put it on the storm.

And then what happened?

He started to drown.

We sing the song of the saints.

The actual one.

Not the one that became kind of like their thing.

Where they're contemptuous toward all other people.

Right?

But we realize we, this, there are going to be days.

We're going to feel like this.

I've had enough.

I've had enough of this life.

The things that I think were bringing me joy outside God.

They're not bringing me joy anymore.

The things that I think I need, I can't have.

Things that I want to do, I can't do.

The things that I don't want to do, I do.

Romans 7 25.

Right?

We think, man, I've had enough.

You've had enough when God says you've had enough.

Get your eyes off the things that are in your life.

Get your eyes off the problems you can't solve.

Get your eyes off the people that are bothering you.

The people that are scoffing at you.

The people that are laughing at you.

The people that have their ease, their pride.

Get your eyes off of all of that.

And get them back where they belong.

On the God of heaven, where he is enthroned.

And when we get back to that, that's when we'll see,

hey, wait, one went before me.

You think Jesus ever felt, you think Jesus had enough suffering?

He sure did, didn't he?

He had enough.

Literally killed his body.

He died from it.

Do you think that he saw enough?

He wept.

John 11 35.

Jesus wept.

Right?

Was that necessary?

I mean, he knew this life's only temporary.

He's going to go to heaven one day, whatever.

But while he was here, he felt it.

He saw what people were suffering through.

It was a terrible suffering that he endured.

We have to remember that Jesus saw heaven before he saw earth.

Unlike you and I, we've never seen heaven.

But he was there before he was here.

He left and gave all that up to come here.

And by the time he was done, 33, four, five years old, whatever,

because we don't know if he was 33, 34, or 35 for sure when he was crucified.

But when he was crucified, he had seen enough.

And what is actually the Lord's prayer, when Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane,

he prayed for peace amongst believers, prayed for unity so we'd all be together.

He prayed that God would take the cup of wrath away from him so he wouldn't have to experience it.

And God did not grant the prayer to take the cup of wrath away from him.

And Jesus ended and said, but your will not my will be done.

And then the next day he went to the cross.

He had had enough.

But he also understood that when he had actually had enough,

God would say, you've had enough.

And so the next time you start thinking, I've had enough.

I'm going to do something. I'm going to be mean.

I'm going to be temptuous. I'm going to be loud.

I'm going to hurt somebody. I'm going to break something.

Whatever, because I've had enough.

Remember, your eyes are in the wrong place.

Go back to put your eyes on God and realize you've had enough when God says you've had enough.

And what you really need is grace.

In fact, as soon as you put your eyes back on God, you'll say,

God, forgive me for taking my eyes off of you and putting them on the things of this world.

Help me now put my eyes back. That's called repentance.

And every time you repent, God is gracious again.

Good stuff. You won't lose your salvation by being stupid or making mistakes,

but you can lose your peace for sure.

And you can feel like you've had enough when God has not yet said you've had enough.

In Genesis 10 where he says, there is no temptation as that, which is common to man.

So, because let's back the truck up a little bit.

People say that a lot, right?

But can you name somebody that lived, that was given something that they couldn't handle?

For sure?

Well, eleven of the twelve apostles were martyred.

Now, they went to be with Jesus, but do you think they were martyred in their own strength?

Do you think that they managed to, while they were having their skin flayed or they were burned alive or crucified,

to not renounce Christ in their own strength?

I'm telling you right now, if somebody takes my skin off piece by piece,

I'm going to say whatever they want me to say, unless God helps me not.

Because I know my tolerance for pain, and that's well beyond it.

So, the point is, God does indeed give us often what we cannot handle.

That's the reality of it.

That's the key.

Yeah, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

But in that, you're really bringing home my point, because we need that grace.

The next time you're in the middle, I mean, you might get out of bed tomorrow.

Let's say you face a problem, some simple problem, like you don't have any clean socks.

And you're like, no big deal, I'll just wash some socks.

Where did the socks come from?

Where did the washer come from?

Where did the detergent come from?

Where does your knowledge that you need clean socks come from?

It all came from God, right? At least Holly thinks so.

Do we all agree? It all came from God.

And so, we think we can handle the little problems that come up without God,

but the reality is, what did Jesus say in John 15?

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

His literal words, apart from me, you can do nothing.

And the end of the world is literally being held off by His grace.

Everybody that's in this room is only saved because last generation before we were born,

or a few generations back, God didn't end it all.

That's the only reason we can be saved.

And so, if He ever brings it to an end, then it will truly be to an end.

And I'm being a little philosophical when I say, when God determines He's had enough,

you'll know it, right? There will be a trumpet.

The angels that sing, Holy, Holy, Holy, it says, will retreat away from the throne,

and God's wrath will pour out on the world like we have never seen it.

And the good news is, we probably won't see it, because we'll be taken away by that.

Father, I want to thank you for today. Thank you for the lesson.

God, I pray that we all learn that we all need grace.

We all need you to look down on us and keep us safe.

Yes, God.

Most of us need you to keep us in mind, to put us in check when we find ourselves

acting out in pride or arrogance, so that we can be a good light for you

and show people what it means to be a great human, not what it means to be mean or nasty.

God, I pray for our country, our world, that eventually either Jesus is going to come first

or there's going to be some things, but God, whatever happens, I guess happens.

Again, I just pray for everyone here that we remain faithful in Jesus' name, Amen.

Thank you very much.