Joining into God's Work Psalm 111- Jason Lock (August 14 2016)

Good morning, Harvest.

Morning.

My name is Jason Locke.

I'm very glad to be in for Pastor Mike today.

He's away and he asked me to come and open God's word to speak to you.

So I would invite you to open up your Bibles to Psalm 111.

And I know he's been speaking through the Psalms, and I believe that God himself has a message for you today from the Psalms, and I'm very glad to be able to preach it to you.

My wife and I are attend Harvest Bible Chapel in Markham.

I oversee the youth and young adult ministries over there.

And if you're wondering, man, I was really looking forward to taking notes today.

Why didn't I get a bulletin to take notes?

That's because I was so excited to come up here that I forgot to take one last stop to get those bulletins to take your notes.

So that's that's on me.

And if you have your your phone out and I see you tapping away, taking notes, hey, that's great, you can do that.

Like I said, we're in Psalm 111.

And today, we're gonna consider a compelling motivation to join into God's work.

Harvest New Market is a is a growing church.

It's a joy to be here with you today, to see many faces that I know that have worshiped with us in years past at the Markham campus, and many faces that uh I don't know who have come and have joined in here to worship God.

What is a compelling, what is the compelling motivation that we as a church have to join into God's work?

Well, in many ways and in many spheres, I've found, and maybe you would agree, that uh human beings are really motivated to do anything really by uh today's trends.

Uh, think maybe you're uh wanting to go to university or in university, and trends in the workforce might motivate you to choose a trade and go to a college rather than get a liberal arts degree from a university because maybe it's easier to get a job in the trades right now.

Or trends in the housing market tell us something, don't they?

Uh maybe you saw the trends in the housing market, even though you grew up in the city and you still work in the city, you're like, I'm gonna suck it up and move up north and take the commute in, because trends are saying it's not easy to buy a house right now in the city.

Trends motivate anything from what we wear to the car that we drive to the sports that we play to the friends that we have, to the church that we go to, maybe.

Trends affect the church.

And trends within Canada's moral climate have significantly affected the way that the people of God have chosen to or not to engage into the work of God.

Some people see the trends and they just sit back on the bench.

And we've um many of us have believed that it's easier to have my personal relationship with Jesus and neglect to live that personal relationship out in the public way that God has told us to.

Some people see the trends and they think, well, you know what, the church just needs to evolve with the culture.

I know it's not like it was when my parents were around or my grandparents were around, but you know what, if we're gonna have any influence, we should just make the gospel more palatable and more self-centered and more self-therapeutic, and maybe maybe then we'll really have an influence in the culture.

We want to know a compelling reason to join into God's work.

And church, I believe that God's word from Psalm 111 is gonna offer you a compelling reason, a compelling motivation to join into God's work, one which transcends today's trends.

Because regardless of how we may or may have not been engaged in the mission of God to make disciples in this world and of all nations, to see the kingdom of God established, regardless of how we may or may not have been involved, the Lord knows.

That was his message to the church in the book of Revelation.

He spoke to seven churches.

The first statement of each one, I know your works.

I know your works.

And be sure, friends, God knows the works.

But God knows what's happening here at Harvest New Market.

God knows the work that you're engaging.

And regardless of the trends in our moral climate and the trends in our culture and the way that we've been influenced by them, the Capital C Universal Church has a mandate to work.

This church, maybe the church that you came from or grew up in in Newmarket or another city, we have work to do.

And today I believe God is going to show you a compelling motivation to put your head down, put the plow in the field, and get to work.

This is why we're studying Psalm 111.

And here's the landscape.

Here's what I believe that the Lord wants to tell you today.

If the church is to join into God's work, then what must we do?

We must celebrate what God has done, and we must participate in what God is doing.

I hope that you will put your heart in a posture before the Lord now that wants to be motivated by a holy motivation and wants to be compelled to get to work.

So, uh, let's go to God's Word and see what the Lord has to say.

I'm gonna read from Psalm 111, and as we often do, please stand with me in honor of the reading of God's word.

I'm gonna read the whole Psalm, Psalm 111, verse 1 to verse 10.

Psalms 111:1

This is God's word.

It speaks to us today, and this is what it says.

Praise the Lord.

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright in the congregation.

Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.

Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.

He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered.

The Lord is gracious and merciful.

He provides food for those who fear him, he remembers his covenant forever.

He has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the inheritance of the nations.

The works of his hand are faithful and just.

All his precepts are trustworthy.

They are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

He sent redemption to his people.

He has commanded his covenant forever.

Holy and awesome is his name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and all who practice it have a good understanding.

His praise endures forever.

Church, let's pray together again.

Father in heaven, I remember even now that Christ himself said that ye came to accomplish the Father's work, and his food, his nourishment, his sustenance was to do the will and accomplish the work of you who sent him.

And I remember that Jesus himself prayed to you are his Father, saying, As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

Father, I know what your word has said.

And I'm sure that many of us here today know what your word has told us.

Forgive us, Lord God, for sitting back on the bench rather than engaging in the game.

Lord, show us, compel us, motivate us by your word, through the power of your Holy Spirit, to engage and participate in what you are doing, that your name would be glorified amongst the nations here in this church and in this community.

Grant us this, please, we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Psalm 111.

If the church is to join into God's work, then what must we do?

First, if the church is to join into God's work, then we must celebrate what God has done.

Now, understand something about this passage.

This psalm is a call to worship.

It's actually a poem.

And this escapes us in our English translation, but Psalm 111 is actually kind of written in the way maybe you know that Psalm 119 is written.

Each line of this poem begins with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

It's an acrostic poem.

It's beautifully designed.

And it was written to be sung by an individual.

I'm not gonna do that, don't worry.

My Hebrew singing is not that good.

It was designed to be sung by an individual in a public setting amongst his peers.

And because we understand it's a poem, this should understand the way that we should respond to this.

Art has always merited a different response than like discourse, right?

So when I'm listening to 680 News or maybe watching CNN online, often, and maybe you have, you've heard this like preface that news reporters often start with.

There's like, a new study shows that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And usually our first response to hearing something like this, like discourse or a report, is we respond and think in an analytical way or a logical way, to consider is this is this study really is that an accurate way of what's happening in the world, and then what must I do?

And our response to discourse is generally like analytical or logical.

Now, something different happens though when you're listening to the radio and you you change the channel, and then unexpectedly your favorite song comes on.

Right?

You're not sitting back analytically, hmm, whenever the artist was trying to communicate, your foot starts tapping and you just start jamming out because it's your favorite song, and it makes you feel something.

If we're going to understand the meaning of this passage, then we need to properly understand what it says.

We need to analyze it.

But don't let this analytical understanding, this proper analytical understanding of God's word, distract you from the purpose of this poem.

Church, you are being invited to worship.

You are being invited to look upon God in his glory and in spirit and in truth to celebrate him for what he's done.

And I hope that as we read this psalm and understand it, that your mind will agree with the truths of the scripture, but that your heart will rejoice in who God is and what he's called us to do.

If we're going to join into God's work, then we must celebrate what God has done.

Well, then we need to ask ourselves, what has God done?

This is my good friend Katie here.

My wife and Janny, uh, my wife Janny and I uh know Katie because she attended our youth ministry back in the day.

Katie, I need your help.

You're in the sermon, okay?

All right.

I'm gonna read verse uh two to verse seven, okay?

And I need you to look and count how many times you see the word works show up, okay?

And the rest of you, please follow along also.

Verse two, okay?

It says, Great are the works of the Lord.

Okay, that's your first one.

I give you one, you find the rest.

Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.

Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.

He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered.

The Lord is gracious and merciful.

He provides food for those who fear him.

He remembers his covenant forever.

He has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the inheritance of the nations.

The works of his hands are faithful and just.

Okay, how many times did you get?

Five?

I got five.

Did you guys get five?

Okay, understand this.

Whenever you're reading scripture, when you see repetition, that generally means emphasis.

The author and God is trying to communicate something.

Now, what are the works that God is accomplishing?

Well, God has always been working to faithfully keep his covenants.

That was another word that showed up in the passage.

Now, I believe you're gonna learn something today.

I certainly did as I was studying this.

So, so let's get our theology hats on and buckle in and keep our Bibles open and understand the works of God keep faithfully keeping his covenant together.

Because we must celebrate what God has done.

Okay, what is a covenant?

A covenant is an agreement between God and man that God initiates.

When God has determined to bless a people, he chooses, he would make a covenant with them.

It's kind of like a contractual agreement that God makes with man that defines the term of his relationship with his people.

When humanity has chosen to obey the terms of this of the covenants, they would receive God's blessing.

But when humanity would break the terms of the covenant, then instead of a blessing, they would be cursed.

We would be cursed.

Now understand this, church.

The Bible, this is this is non-fiction, true history.

And the Bible is the true historical recounting of God's engagement with humanity, and it's a story marked by covenants.

God made a covenant with Adam and Eve, and we see these contractual agreements with many people throughout human history, starting with Adam and Eve, and then also with Noah, and then also with Abraham, and then also the nation of Israel through Moses, and then also with King David.

And each of these covenants mark a new chapter in the story of human history that is moving the narrative towards its final resolution.

This is God's work.

This is what God is doing.

So we use that word narrative.

Do you remember, like in in high school English literature or maybe in university, you learn about something called the narrative arc?

Do you remember that?

Like every story has a beginning, a middle, and the end.

Remember, you remember you s or maybe you remember seeing that graph where it starts off with just like we're introduced into a new world, and then some kind of crisis happens, and then there's rising action.

Do you guys remember this?

And then the rising action immediately uh moves to some climactic event.

And then there's falling action, and it all leads to some resolution, what was where what was broken at the beginning of the story is then restored at the end of the story.

Think any Disney movie ever.

And this is the formula you'll see.

Katie, did you watch Disney movies like me growing up?

What was one of your favorites?

Ooh, that was my wife's favorite also.

Apparently, my mom says that was my favorite when I was a child.

I dispute this fact.

I really liked The Lion King a lot.

And, okay, I think all of you have seen The Lion King.

I'm gonna spoil it.

If you haven't, you'll get over it, don't worry.

This formula, you see this in Lion King, right?

We're introduced to this new world, the jungle, with the king of the jungle and the lion, and everything's perfect, and we celebrate a new king being born, and then the the jealous uncle Scar, yeah, whatever.

Okay, so he he kills the king, sends the true king Simba off into the jungle, and that's the climactic event.

What was good in the world is now broken because the wrong king is on the throne.

And then the rising action is like when's the true king gonna come back?

When's the true king gonna come back?

When's this world gonna be restored?

And the climactic event happens between Scar and Simba, and Simba wins, and then the jungle is restored, and we go to the final resolution where the true king is on the throne.

Okay, that's fiction, we know that, but this is non-fiction.

This is true history.

God has been at work since creation.

We cannot think, if we have any understanding of the scriptures, that the Lord is some blind watchmaker that wound it up, let it go, and it sat back to let humanity to its own devices.

That is not the God of Scripture.

God created a world and it was good.

And God determined to bless us.

But the climactic event that has caused all suffering and all pain and all brokenness was when humanity broke the terms of God's covenant.

And if you or I were there, we would have made the same decision that Adam and Eve made.

And as a result, now all of humanity is suffering under a curse.

But God has been intervening to remove the curse of sin, to reunite us with his good presence, and to bring us to the final resolution, which is the restoration of all things in Jesus Christ to the kingdom of God.

Now, the psalmist recognizes this work and he specifically uses language that demonstrates that he understands the point in human history that he is at.

We're a little farther down the story, but the psalmist in verse 4 to 6 writes in such a way that he's recalling God's work through the Mosaic covenant.

Do you remember this?

When God promised that he would bring Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and then he would bring them through the promised land.

Verse 5 says he provided food for those who fear him.

Yeah, that's right.

God gave our people quail and manna in the wilderness, and he gave them uh water from a rock, and he brought us through.

And yeah, that's right.

He gave us the inheritance of the nations by driving out the Canaanites and giving us a promised land.

And the psalmist celebrated what God has done.

And just like the psalmist had a reason to worship, we too, church, have a reason to worship.

We have a reason to worship because the narrative has extended.

God has made a new covenant so that all people from all nations can be a part of this story.

Do you know this new covenant?

Matthew 26, 26 to 29.

This is Jesus' words the night before his crucifixion.

Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it and broken it, he broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat.

This is my body.

And he took a cup, and we and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and he said, Drink of it all of you, for this is the blood of my covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine again until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

Now, all of human history failed in under every single covenant past.

Adam and Eve failed.

Abraham, he didn't see the fulfillment of the covenant.

Moses, Joshua, King David, none of them saw the fulfillment of the covenant because all of them failed.

But every one of those covenants was pointing towards one who would not fail.

One who would keep all of the terms of the covenant, and that's Jesus Christ.

Whereas we always fail and cannot do what God requires to receive his blessing, Jesus Christ did what we could not.

And now offers us the blessing that he earned because he lived a perfect life and suffered the curse that we deserved.

While the psalmist remembers God's covenant-keeping work through Moses, the church remembers and celebrates God's covenant-keeping work through the cross of Jesus Christ.

This is the greatest story.

Man, I wish we had a I wish we had a name for this story.

You know, it's like, you know, the thing about Singba and Scar, we call that Lion King.

And when someone says, you know, like, oh, you know that story about Scar, and someone's like, oh yeah, that's Lion King.

Everyone recognizes that.

I wish we had a title for this.

We could, let's call it, I know, the gospel of the kingdom.

Is that good?

This is what we believe that God is working to resolve all of the brokenness that we experience under the curse to reunite us back to God's presence through Jesus Christ.

Now, are you a part of this story?

Because just you because you're in a church, and just because you happen to be a human being that hears the story does not mean that you're a part of it.

Well, it does, but it does not mean that you have experienced God's blessing.

It could still mean that you are under God's curse.

If you're going to be a part of the kingdom of God, then you need to obey what Jesus said.

Repent and believe the good news of the kingdom.

Because if you see, church, if you have yet to believe that Jesus Christ suffered on your behalf because you have broken God's law, if you have yet to believe that Jesus suffered on your behalf, then you're still dead in your sins and you're still under a curse.

But if you repent, if you turn away from your lawlessness and turn towards Jesus and believe that he did suffer for you, in a moment, you will be forgiven, the curse will be removed, you will be reunited back to the presence of God, and he will begin his restoring work in your life so that you will experience the blessing of living the life that God designed and the hope of eternal life in God's kingdom.

Believe.

Repent, and you will have the hope of the kingdom.

And you can celebrate what God is doing.

And if we are going to join into God's work, not only must we celebrate what God is doing, but we must participate in what God is doing.

If the church is to join into God's work, we must celebrate what God has done and we must participate in what God is doing.

You see, church, this passage is not only a call to worship and celebrate what God has done, it's a call to action and to participate in what God is doing.

Let's look at verse 7 to verse 10 and see how the Lord includes us into his work.

Get your eyes back down with me in God's word, verse 7 to verse 10.

It says, The works of his hands are faithful and just.

All his precepts are trustworthy.

They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

He sent redemption to his people.

He commanded, has commanded his covenant forever.

Holy and awesome is his name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and all who practice it have good understanding.

His praise endures forever.

If we are to join into God's work, then we must participate in what God is doing.

This is a call to action.

Now, the psalmist expands to explain what God's work is, and he says that the works of his hands are faithful and just, all his precepts are trustworthy.

God's precepts are his commandments, and God's giving to us of his commandments that that is also his work.

And this is how we begin to join and participate in God's Word.

So we're not confused for the rest of the passage.

While Psalm 111 talks about precepts and commandments, I'm going to refer to all of those synonymously with the term God's Word.

Okay?

God's precepts, God's commandments, are God's word.

And in God's word, he has given us not only the revelation of who he is, but the comprehensive instruction of how to live the human experience.

God has given us comprehensive instruction for the human experience.

And it's obedience to the word of God that connects us to the work of God so that we can join into what God is doing.

The word of God connects us to the work of God in the same way that an umbilical cord connects an unborn child to its mother and to life.

Without it, there would be no life.

The word of God connects us to the work of God in the same way that a newborn infant needs its mother's milk.

It's nourished and sustained by it.

This is why the Apostle Peter tells us to long for the pure and spiritual milk so that we might grow up into salvation.

The word of God is the link that connects us to the work of God so that we can participate in what He is doing.

And the psalmist tells us the approach that we should take towards God's Word.

If we're going to obey and be connected to God's word, the psalmist tells us three approaches that we need to have.

Three approaches that we need to have to God's word if we're going to join into God's work.

That's a tongue twister, man.

Verse 7, it says the works of his hands are faithful and just, all his precepts are trustworthy, they are established forever and ever.

Here's the first approach we need to take to God's word if we're going to join into his work.

Church, trust God's word.

Trust the scriptures.

Trust the scriptures because they are established forever and ever.

The same word that was sufficient for King David, the same commandments that Christ gave to his disciples, the same way that every generation has lived by, is sufficient and relevant and significant for us today.

And you can trust that it's for your good.

Approach God's word by trusting it.

Here's the second approach that we must take.

Obey God's word.

Trust his word and obey it.

Verse 8, second part says that they are to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

This seems pretty simple.

If I trust God's word and I'm told to perform, yeah, I should obey God's word.

Yet, as simple as it is, many of us just don't do it.

Jesus said something that should really motivate us towards obedience.

He said, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

The blessing of God's word is less in knowing it and more in doing it.

We must trust God's word.

We must obey God's word.

Then finally, and this is important, we must apply God's word.

Listen to verse 10.

It says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and all who practice it have good understanding.

His praise endures forever.

If we're going to apply God's word, we need wisdom.

Now, the scripture is very clear on everything that it teaches, on everything that it talks about.

For instance, when Ephesians 5.18 says, do not got drunk on wine, but be filled by the Holy Spirit, that sounds pretty clear, right?

What should I do?

Well, probably not get drunk on wine because it's debauchery and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Can we agree?

That's pretty clear, right?

Okay, while the scripture is clear on everything that is teaches, there are some things that we come across that the scripture does not directly address.

And if we're gonna understand how Christians must live in light of these things, we need wisdom to apply God's word.

For instance, within the next eight to twelve months, marijuana is gonna be decriminalized, if not completely legal in this country.

But I haven't read a lick in all of God's word, and I've read most of it that ever says the word marijuana.

What should Christians do with this narcotic?

We need to apply God's word.

We need wisdom that comes from the fear of God.

Maybe to remember that my life is not my own.

I've been bought with a price, so glorify God with my body.

The word of God is the link that connects us to the work of God so that we can join into what he's doing.

And if we're going to join into God's work, then we need to obey his word.

We need to trust his word, we need to apply his word.

So, Harvest New Market, let's be a church.

Let's be a people that are consumed by God's word.

If we're going to join into God's work, then we must participate in what God is doing.

Well, if the word of God is the link that connects us to the work of God, what is he doing through his covenants that we can participate in?

What work are we joining into?

We are joining into the work of God to bring humanity to its final resolution to see the establishment of the kingdom of God here on earth.

This is what Christ is accomplishing, and this is what the Father is accomplishing through his covenants and through Jesus Christ.

Isn't this what Jesus told us to pray?

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is God's work.

Ephesians chapter 1 says that the plan for the fullness of time is to unite all things, things in heaven and things on earth.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

God's plan is to restore all things in the entirety of the human experience, even the environment, back to its original good design.

This is the work that we're joining into.

We are called ambassadors for the kingdom.

And Jesus said in his prayer to the Father, as you have sent me, Christ, into the world, so I, Christ, have sent them us into the world.

We don't have a say in a matter.

This is our mandate, this is our work.

But many of us build walls to keep ourselves in from doing what we know we should be doing.

Many of us build walls in our own lives to intentionally keep ourselves from participating in God's work.

Maybe it's out of fear, maybe it's out of doubt, maybe it's out of insecurity.

So as an upper middle class white teen growing up in Stovell, somehow I found a lot of pleasure in high school through hip hop music.

Don't know how that came about.

Looking back though, I'm I'm really ashamed of a lot of the music that I that I chose to entertain myself with.

Um and while I was in high school, I learned that in hip-hop culture, um the word ghetto was used a lot to describe the lifestyle that people who ascribed to this culture uh would live.

And apart from the this lifestyle word ghetto, uh it also is used a lot in hip-hop culture to describe uh generally low-income neighborhoods that are often racially segregated and um that have a lot of uh gang violence.

But what I learned not too long ago is that this word ghetto actually has its roots and origins way beyond the 1980s, 90s in hip-hop culture.

Uh, an article that I found on npr.org considers the true origins of this word, and it says this.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, cities like Venice and Frankfurt and Prague and Rome forcibly segregated their Jewish populations, often walling them off and submitting them to onerous restrictions.

By the late 19th century, these ghettos had steadily been dismantled.

But instead of vanishing from history, ghettos reappeared with a purpose more ominous than segregation under Nazi Germany.

And Germans forced established ghettos in over thousands of cities across Europe.

The purpose of these ghettos, it wasn't a lifestyle and the jeans that I wear and the music that I was listening to.

The historical purpose of these segregated areas was to restrict a certain group of people from the normal way of life of the citizens to maintain a degree of control over them.

And whether we want to admit it or not, we do this.

I do this.

We create spiritual ghettos within our human experience that essentially tell God, nope, not here.

Okay, well, yes, here on Sunday, sure, I'll let I'll do your work here on Sunday, but nope, not Monday to Friday.

Okay, well, uh maybe at Monday to Friday at my home I'll obey your word and read your word and do your work.

But nope, not at work, not where I'm trying to climb the ladder, not at my school, not with my friends, not with my men's league, not in my recreation time.

What walls are you building in your life?

You know that feeling that you feel at work where you should show kindness and love your enemies, where you should pray for the people who persecute you, where you should tell people what you actually do on Sunday.

You know when you feel that urge to actually be an ambassador and witness Jesus Christ, but then you choose not to?

That's called quenching the spirit.

And the Lord has given us his Holy Spirit so that we would be agents and ambassadors in word and in deed to tell the good news of the kingdom in every area and every sphere of our life because God's plan for the kingdom is to restore every aspect of life.

There is not a thing that will be left untouched by the kingdom of God when the Father finally brings it from heaven to earth.

Why do we build up walls to segregate it from areas in our life?

We want to maintain a good degree of control.

But God has better things for this church.

The Lord is intent on using you as an agent and ambassador for his kingdom to see his restoring power in word and in deed flood through this community, through this nation, and through the whole world.

Let's tear down the walls.

Let's put our yes on the table.

If we're going to join into God's word, we need to be available and we need to be ready.

Like the prophet Isaiah, how he responded to the Father.

Do you remember this?

The Lord turned and said, Whom shall I send?

And whom will go for me?

Here I am, Lord.

Send me.

Let's tear the walls down.

Let's put our yes on the table.

And as we celebrate what God has done, Harvest New Market, God is inviting you to participate what God is doing.

He is building his church and the gates of hell will not stand against it.

He is faithful.

He who has called you will surely do it.

So with God on our side at Harvest New Market, let's get our hands on the plow and let's get to work.

Why don't you stand with me and we'll join in prayer together?

Father in heaven, thank you.

Thank you for showing us the glory of Jesus Christ.

That He Himself is the one who you sent to accomplish your work, and He did it.

He did it fully.

And now thank you that you have given your church, your Holy Spirit, to be your ambassadors, to make disciples, and to work with the restoring power of the kingdom in word and in deed here today.

Father, forgive us for fear.

Forgive us for our insecurity and focusing on our inability rather than your power.

Lord, Lord, thank you.

Thank you for what you've accomplished through Jesus Christ.

Give us a heart to celebrate more what you've done.

And give us the courage to have the faith to participate in what you are doing.

And I know, I know, I know that this isn't something that's up for debate still.

Is God gonna do it?

Can He get it done?

You have promised that you're gonna do it.

Jesus has said He will come back, and we believe it.

And we look for that day where our eyes will be in the sky and everyone will see, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And Father, we want to see more souls saved, more hearts adoring Jesus, and more adoration for more glory for Jesus Christ.

That you would restore us to your good design.

Thank you that you've done this work in us.

And thank you that you've called us to join into it.

We give thanks in Jesus' name.

Amen.