God’s Power for God’s People

Today we're actually going to be reading a Psalm.

I'm getting there. It is for 1:14.

It's on page 478 in your Bible under your seat.

If you don't have a Bible, that is our gift to you.

But if you'll turn to page 478 for Psalm 114.

Psalm 114 says this. When Israel went out from Egypt,

the House of Jacob, from a a people of strange language,

Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.

The sea looked and fled. Jordan turned back, the

mountains skipped like Rams, the hills like lambs.

What ails you, OC, that you flee, O Jordan, that you turn

back O mountains? That you skipped like Rams, O

hills, like lambs tremble O earth at the presence of the

Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock

into a pool of water, the Flint into a spring of water.

This is the word of the Lord. Good morning Port City Church

family and friends. How are we doing this morning?

Awesome, awesome. Thank you for bearing with us

and our our Psalm snafu. I appreciate it.

Before we jump in though, I want to give a shout out to my kids.

Where are my kids at this morning?

Y'all are quiet this morning. This is the time that you can

actually talk in church. So can I.

Can I hear we're here? Nothing.

You guys are killing me. We're here.

Are you ready to go back to school yet?

I doubted it. I thought I thought you'd be

loud about that. I want you guys to know that

you're a blessing and we are glad that you're here this

morning. I haven't done this in a while,

but if you keep up with me this morning, it sounds like you need

some motivation. OK.

If you can come to me this morning after the service with

the four sections of this passage.

I got some candy for you, OK? And I didn't pick it out.

My wife picked it out, but she gets the good stuff.

All right, y'all good thumbs up. We're good.

All right, get your pens ready, your pencils, your crayons,

whatever you're right with and, and we'll get started.

All right, let's jump in. So this morning I am excited to

continue in our Summer in the Psalm series as we look at Psalm

114. And if you weren't here last

week, I would really encourage you to go back and listen to

Pastor Tanner's sermon he preached on Psalm 113 last week.

He shared that Psalm 113 and 114 are considered to be part of

what is called the Egyptian Halal passages, which includes

actually Psalm 113 through 118. But these first two passages are

especially linked because they were read together before

Passover, and then Psalm 115 through 118 were read after

Passover. So when 114 is read, it's often

connected to Psalm 113. And I think I understand why

because there are a lot of connections between these two

passages. And as Pastor Tanner preached

last week, he talked about the difference between Thanksgiving

and praise and how Psalm 113 focuses on the isness of God.

And if you are new here, you haven't been here for a while.

Pastor Tanner likes to make up words sometimes, OK, But I get

what he was getting at, OK. The idea with Isness is that

Isness is talking about what something is, not what has been

done. Praise focuses on what something

is, and Thanksgiving focuses on what something does.

He also pointed out that when you are something, there are

certain things that flow from you, right?

For instance, Psalm 113 four says the Lord is high.

He is high above all nations and his glory is above the heavens.

So God is high. And then verse six goes on to

tell us that he is so high that he looks far down on the heavens

and the earth, something that I can't even imagine God looks

down on. Isn't that incredible?

So what flows out of a God that is that high?

What is it that flows out of him?

I mean, he could just sit up there right by himself and and

ask us to try to get to him, as futile as that might be.

But instead of that, we're told in verses 7 and 8 of Psalm 113,

he raises the poor from the dust, and he lifts the needy

from the ash heap to make them sit with Princess, with the

Princess of his people. We serve a God that is so high,

so great, so set apart, that even the heavens are below him.

But equally, we serve a God that Stoops far down below the

heavens, reaches down to the ash heap to lift up the humiliated

and pull them to the palace of the Princess.

Amen. I need a God like that.

Psalm 113 and 114 flow so well together because while Psalm 113

tells us who God is and what flows from Him, Psalm 114

reminds Israel that they were the needy, that they needed God,

and He did that very thing for them in the Exodus this morning.

It's my hope that you will see that nothing will stop God from

accomplishing His purpose in and through His people.

And in fact, the very things that we often think could stop

him, he wields in order to accomplish that purpose.

That's our God. This morning my sermon is

entitled God's Power for God's People, and we're going to break

this passage up into four sections.

Kids, listen and I hope that you are reminded, as I have been, of

the power and might of God, a God that is so powerful and so

mighty that even creation obeys him and that you will be blown

away, as I have been, that we have the opportunity to be

connected to this God. But before we jump in, I'm going

to start us off with a word of prayer.

God, I come to you this morning. Lord, I thank you for your word.

God I, I wish that I was better at painting pictures, God, but

your glory, I can do no justice to it, God.

And so I pray that where I fall short, Lord, your word and your

spirit would lift those words up.

Lord, that that people would imagine who you are, the

greatness God that you deserve. God, I ask that you would do

that in us this morning. Father, I pray that if there are

some in here who who can hear about your power, but they

aren't your people, God, that they would become followers of

Jesus this morning. God, would you move?

Give me words to speak. God work with these meager words

that I have. Lord, I love you.

In your name we pray, Amen. All right, the first section

that we're going to talk about this morning is called a change

of status. Can somebody say change of

status? Awesome, I appreciate it.

The kids didn't help me at first.

So I was that was a bit me jumping out.

I appreciate you. Psalm 114, one says when Israel

went out from Egypt, the House of Jacob from a people of

strange language. You see, it's pretty clear here

that this passage is referring back to the Exodus.

And when you're talking about a change of status, it's really

important to understand where something started, right?

What was it before? How big of a jump of status are

we actually talking about here? Because the beauty of The thing

is directly connected to the contrast between what something

was and what it is, right? So let's look back to the story

of the Exodus. Let's see where Israel found

themselves while they were in Egypt.

And just forewarning, we're going to be flipping back and

forth between Exodus to recount the story of the Exodus.

We're going to look at last week's text a little bit.

And this week's text is Psalm 114 as we highlight some

different key elements from the story referenced here in this

Psalm this morning. So I'm going to move fast, but I

think it's necessary. So try to keep up.

I appreciate you guys. But as we look back to the story

of the Exodus, the Bible tells us that the people of Egypt have

been slave to Pharaoh for 430 years.

They've been there for 430 years.

Can you imagine? To put that into perspective,

America is less than 250 years old, right?

Think about how much has happened in that amount of time.

It's a long time, 430 years. So when we turn to Exodus, we

find that the conditions were terrible, Exodus 1, verses 13

Exodus 1:13–14

through 14 say so they ruthlessly made the people of

Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard

service and mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the

field and all their work. They ruthlessly made them work

as slaves. Did you catch that?

It was so bad? The word ruthlessly is used

twice in that one passage and then again in verse 22.

It says, then Pharaoh commanded all his people.

Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the

Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.

So in the land of Egypt we find the people of God enslaved to a

people of strange language. Their lives are described as

bitter and hard. Their captors are described as

ruthless times 2 and they display that ruthlessness by

killing every son born to the people of Israel.

They were not only enslaved, but they were aliens in a foreign

land. They didn't speak the language

serving a terrible Pharaoh, the very thing that was often

perceived as their hope, their their sons, who would you know,

how carry the family name and heritage were being killed.

I can imagine that that seemed like an incredibly hopeless

situation. And after hearing all of that,

understanding what their status was and then looking back at the

first verse of Psalm 114, it seems like it could have been

the end of the Psalm. And we would be like, God is

incredible. He brought these people out of

Egypt. After all of that that was going

on, he brought them out of Egypt, right?

Like that's amazing. Talk about a status change.

Enslaved for 430 years and they finally went out from Egypt from

a people of strange language. End of sermon, end of Psalm.

Thank you God, right? But it doesn't stop there.

It gets even better. And if we look back to Psalm

113, it said in verse 7, it didn't stop here either.

He raises the poor from the dust and he lifts the needy from the

ash heap. But it continued into verse 8

where it says to make them sit with Princess, with the Princess

of his people. And this story is no different.

God didn't just free Israel. God made them his.

He didn't just save them from something.

He had something for them as well.

And in verse and verse 2 and Psalm 114, it says Judah became

his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.

That God that we read about last week in Psalm 113 that is so

high that he has to look down on the heavens that we can't even

see or imagine this. God made Israel his sanctuary,

his dominion. They are the visible sign of

God's holiness and His rule. They didn't just become free

people, they became God's people.

That's incredible. Now let's jump back to our story

in the book of Exodus because a lot actually happened.

That was just summed up in that one verse, right?

We previously looked at the circumstances in Exodus one, but

when we pick up the story in Exodus 2, we find that God took

another from enslavement to the House of Pharaoh.

Moses was born during the time when the first born male was

supposed to be killed, but his mother hit him and put him in a

basket. And the daughter of Pharaoh

raised him, found him, and raised him as her own.

That's crazy, right? The very thing that Pharaoh

intended to keep the Israelites down was the thing that God

used. God had a Israelite snuck him

into Pharaoh's house. His daughter found him.

Pharaoh raises him, educates him, feeds him, and then God

calls him out of Pharaoh's house and back in again.

That's amazing to me. He is raised in Pharaoh's house,

ends up fleeing Pharaoh's house, but God sends an Angel of the

Lord to call him back to Egypt to rescue God's people.

And so when he comes back, Pharaoh ends up dismissing his

words. I'm going to fly through this

really quick. He sends them out of the palace.

We then have nine plagues where God through Moses shows his

power. But ultimately, each time

Pharaoh's heart is hardened. But the 10th plague was

different. God tells Pharaoh that every

first born child in the land of Egypt shall die.

God tells the people of Israel to take the blood of the lamb,

put it on their doorposts, and the Spirit of God will pass over

their household. That's where we get Passover

from. And then in Exodus 12/29 it

describes those events. It says at midnight, the Lord

struck down all the first born in the land of Egypt, from the

first born of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne to the first born

of the captive who was in the dungeon and all the first born

of the livestock. And in this, we find that no

one, no matter how powerful, is outside of the reach of God.

Not even Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the land, could

withstand God. He couldn't run from God.

And after the 10th plague, we read that Pharaoh finally tells

them to leave quickly. He's like, I don't want any part

of this. Just get out right?

And the story could have ended there.

They're sent out, right? Done.

Thank you. But we find in Exodus 14 this

really interesting story because while it could have ended there,

it doesn't just end there with God sending his people out.

And verses one through 4 and Exodus 14 tell us then the Lord

said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and

encamp in front of π Hai Roth, between Migdal and the sea in

front of Bel Zephan. You shall encamp facing it by

the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the

people of Israel. They are wandering in the land.

The wilderness has shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's

heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over

Pharaoh and over all his hosts. And the Egyptians shall know

that I am the Lord. And they did so, so God has this

plan. He didn't just send Israel out.

He wanted to get clear victory and glory over Pharaoh.

And so he sets up this trap, right?

And he says, you guys are going to encamp with the seat of your

back and, and the the the wilderness to your front.

Pharaoh's going to come and he's going to think I got him right.

He sets them up and sure enough, that's what happens.

Verse 5 tells us that when Pharaoh was told that the people

of Israel had fled, his mind was changed toward the people and he

pursued them. Israel was terrified.

On one side they see Pharaoh and his men coming, and on the other

they see the sea. Most of you probably know what

happens next. They looked at the sea and it

opens up why? The Bible describes the scene

and says that there was not a drip of water on the ground.

It was dry ground. The other day, I spilt a little

bit of water on my carpet and I got a towel, which is supposed

to be used to, like, dry stuff up, right?

And it took me forever to dry my carpet after dropping just like

a little bit of water. And God bless the Israelites.

He splits the ocean. Sand gets wet and it stays wet.

And they walk through on dry ground.

Like, don't miss that. That's incredible, absolutely

incredible. They walk right through the

middle of the sea and they don't even get wet.

Pharaoh's people, however, come running in and the water comes

crashing down on Pharaoh and his people, and they wash up on the

shore dead. The next section of of Psalm,

verses 3 through 4:00 this morning recounts that story.

And this passage is so interesting because so many

other passages focus on how God uses people to accomplish his

purposes. Think about Pharaoh, how God has

hardened his heart when he wanted to think about Moses and

how God saved Moses his his mother put him in a basket and

he ends up in Pharaoh's household.

Even think about Joseph and how God brought him it out of

slavery into the second of command in Egypt.

But this song is different. It's different because it opens

us up to a different perspective.

In the verses that follow, we begin to see the perspective of

creation and how God uses the world to accomplish His

purposes. This next section offers us a

unique perspective. Unique perspective.

My kids number two. One of my favorite movie

franchises is The Lion King series.

Any fans in here? Yes no, I remember being at my

grandmother's house after school and I would come, I would come

to her house. She didn't have a ton of stuff

for us to do there. She would pick us up, but they

had these things called VHS tapes.

Y'all remember the the Disney ones with like the big plastic,

you know, and I would go through and I would look and I'm like,

man, we got Aladdin, we got one. I'm like no bump that I want The

Lion King. Like that was my movie, right?

And so I found The Lion King. It's crazy too.

My kids don't even know that like movies came in packages

like that's crazy. So I open it up and I'll pop

that thing in there and I love that movie.

And one thing that Disney knows how to do is squeeze a penny out

of a movie franchise. Like if you're a Disney plus

just makes it worse because they just post that thing, right?

They don't even have to manufacture it.

And so even thinking about The Lion King, right, we got Lion

King one, we got Lion King two, we got the live action Lion

King. We got the new Mufasa Lion King,

which I love by the way. We got the Lion Guard.

If you're familiar and I skipped one, there's this interesting

movie, which is perhaps the most creative way to squeeze the last

penny out of a movie. And it's Lion King 1 1/2.

And if you don't know what Lion King 1 1/2 is, let me tell you,

it's Lion King one. That's what it is, is Lion King

one through the lens of Timon and Pumbaa, right?

But it's still a little different because when you look

at a story through the eyes of someone else, it changes because

there's things that you didn't see before, right?

They were behind them, right? And now it's in front of them,

it changes. And this is the same in the

Psalm. Similar to Lion King 1 1/2, this

Psalm is telling a familiar story, but from a different

character's eyes. This psalmist personifies

creation so that we can hear an often overlooked perspective on

the story of God and his people. Now we've heard this passage

from the lens of God's people looking out and seeing the

Egyptians pursuing, and on the other side they can only look

out and see the sea. But Psalm 114 three tells us the

story of God's sea looking out and seeing God's people and its

response. And it's different.

We're told that the sea looked and it fled.

It might just be me. Maybe it's not y'all.

It might just be me. But when I go to the beach, the

waves do not flee me. I flee them and they come

crashing down. And when I look out of the ocean

and it's massive and beautiful and powerful, it doesn't move

right. It's moving towards me, not away

from me. But something was different that

day. The sea saw something that

caused it to turn the other way, tuck tail and get out of the way

of God's people. And it's not the only time that

water has stood up and gotten out of the way of God's people,

right? If you read your Bible, the same

thing happened for Israel when they crossed the Jordan River in

the book of Joshua. Joshua 317 says now the priest

bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry

ground. Again, dry ground in the midst

of the Jordan River and all Israel was passing over on dry

ground until the nation finished passing over the Jordan.

The Bible also tells us that that time of year was during

harvest and the waters would often overflow when they were

high. Right?

It's not just water though that gets out of the way in response

to God working on behalf of His people.

Psalm 114 verse 4 tells us that the mountains do the same thing.

Psalms 114:4

114 four says the mountains skip like Rams, the hills like lambs.

I can't even imagine. It's referencing Exodus 1918 and

it says now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the

Lord had descended on it and fire, the smoke of it went up

like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

Can you imagine? Like have you ever seen a

mountain? I've never even seen like a

legit mountain. Like I just seen like the

mountains we have in North Carolina when I lived there.

Like, and those like, like a legitimate just mountain that's

just towering, right? Like absolutely stunning and

beautiful. Like people can't even get to

the top of them sometimes, right?

Like it's incredible. And this mountain is trembling

before God. Like, I wish I had better words

to describe this to you. It's amazing.

These things should be shocking to us, but then again, they

shouldn't, right? This isn't just in the Old

Testament. In the book of Matthew we find a

story in Matthew 8 where Jesus is in the boat with his

disciples. We see that there's a great

storm on the sea and the boat was being swamped by the waves,

but Jesus, he was asleep. The storm was so bad that these

experienced fishermen felt like they were going to die.

Like if I'm on a boat and it starts, you know, I might feel

like I'm going to die. But these men knew what they

were doing, right? They were legit.

And they're on this boat, and the waves are crashing, and

they're in this vast ocean, this beautiful, powerful, magnificent

ocean that they've been on many times before.

And something was different that day, and they were terrified.

But we're told that Jesus, in the midst of this vast sea, with

all of its power and all of its might, stands up and rebukes the

wind and the sea. And the Bible says that there

was great calm. What was once powerful and

crashing stood down. The Bible says that there was a

great calm. And his disciples responded by

saying, what sort of man is this, that even wind and sea

obey him? You see, what we learned from

Psalm 114 three through 4 is that all of creation knows why

it's there. The sea knows why it's there,

the wind knows why it's there, and the mountains know why they

are there. And throughout Scripture we see

sea, wind, mountains, rivers, responding to the God of the

universe. But that brings the psalmist to

the next question. Why did they respond in the way

that they did? What did the sea see that day

that caused it to flee? What did the mountains see that

caused them to tremble? And in verses 5 and 6, the

psalmist asks a rhetorical question.

My kids, a rhetorical question. There you go.

I'm spoon feeding you. Verses 5 and 6 say what ails

you. O see that you flee, oh, Jordan,

that you turn back. O mountains that you skip like

Rams, O hills like lambs. I love the boldness of this

question. It's asked in a way that's

almost boastful, right? It's a question, though, that

really doesn't get answered. It's just asked in the text.

But something that stands out in this is the attitude that the

question carries. It's almost joking or or poking

fun at creation. The same sea that terrified

Israel and even terrified the disciples as they were on that

boat with Jesus. But the tables have now turned

and the psalmist says, oh, look who's scared now, right?

So I ask you, what gives the psalmist A boldness to be able

to speak like that to something as powerful as the sea?

This weekend my kids and I were watching a movie called The

Secret Life of Pets. And full transparency, I fell

asleep. So I only called the first part.

There may be more to it than this.

So this is from memory, but the idea behind the movie, or at

least the part that I saw was that there is this small dog,

right? I don't remember his name, I

fell asleep. But he had this perfect life.

He and his owner, they had, they were just jiving, right?

Like his owner did whatever he needed, like he was just living

the perfect life until one day something happened.

His owner came home and brought another stray dog, right?

And this stray dog was much bigger than the little dog.

And he begins to bully the little dog in his face.

It starts off kind of joking at first.

The dog is a little eager and he's like, man, I want to sleep

with you in your bed. And then the big dog, like just

lays on top of the little dog. And the little dog stands his

ground a little bit, 'cause he's, he's not taking the big

dog seriously. And then the the big dog kind of

hits him with the ground. He's like, I'm not playing like,

don't make me go to this level and puts him in his place.

And so the little dog eventually is walking around on egg shells,

right? Because the other dog is much

bigger than he is. And he finds himself in a

conundrum because he can't protect himself.

He's much smaller than this other dog.

Until one day the big dog accidentally knocks over

something in the house and the little dog has an idea.

The little dog realizes that he own holds a special place in his

owner's heart. He's been with the owner for a

long time and he's built trust with the owner.

The little dog starts walking around the apartment and just

starts knocking things over. He's like like there's one point

he's just like, bam, he just knocked something over.

And he's just kind of going back and forth and and the big dog is

a bit confused at first. He's like, what are you doing?

Until the small dog explains. He's like, the owner would never

believe I did these things. We've been together.

I've never done this before, but maybe the stray that came into

the house did do this. Those crazy stray dogs, right?

And so the big dog realizes that the little dog really has the

owner's heart, and that the owner would have the little

dog's back when it really came down to it because they had

history. So even though the big dog can

defeat the little dog, the big dog knows that the little dog

really holds the owner's affections and trust.

In the next scene, the big dog is rocking around on a leash,

carried by the little dog. They're strolling through the

town, going to the park, and the little dog is bossing him around

left and right, speaking very much in the same way that the

psalmist does. At one point, I think the little

dog tells the big dog he's like, hey, yo, give me that stick over

there, you know, and you're and you're like bold, right?

But when the little, what the little dog figured out is how to

appeal to the authority that was over both of them.

Similarly here, the psalmist is appealing to the authority of

God. And while the question is not

explicitly answered, the answer is clear.

And we find in verse 7 that there is only one appropriate

response to the presence of God. The last section is an

appropriate response. My kids, you're home free candy.

Psalm 114, verse 7 says this. Tremble O earth at the presence

Psalms 114:7

of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the

presence of the God of Jacob. What's striking here is that it

doesn't just start and stop with the presence of the Lord, of the

presence of God, right? That would be enough.

Tremble at the presence of the Lord, tremble at the presence of

God, right? It connects God to his people.

So the relationship of God to the, to the people of Israel

comes full circle. It says at the, excuse me, it

says at the presence of the God of Jacob.

It wasn't just trembling at God, but the God of Jacob, a God who

had a plan for the people of Israel, and nothing was going to

get in His way of accomplishing His plan.

Everything was at His disposal, all of creation.

He had a plan and there was nothing that could or would stop

him. Think about the things that are

being told to tremble at the presence of the Lord.

Imagine the greatest things this world has to offer.

The largest, most terrifying seas, the highest mountains, the

lowest valleys, the coldest temperatures, the hottest

deserts. All of them have the same

command to tremble at the God of Jacob.

Nothing is exempt. It gives a greater picture to

Jesus's words in Luke 1940 when it says He answered.

If the if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

It gives greater imagery to the parable Jesus tells in Matthew

1720 where he says if you have the faith of a mustard seed you

could move a mountain. Or the similar parable in Luke

17, six where he tells the disciples you could tell a tree

to be moved to the sea. These are not new things.

These things have happened. 1 commentator said in the passage

that this passage is about a world made to serve God's

people, and I think he was on to something.

The beauty in this passage is not just that we serve a

powerful God that's there, but I don't want you to miss it.

We serve a powerful God that is connected to His people and

everything in this world. Everything this passage tells

us, everything knows why it's here.

Over and over again in Scripture we have examples of the earth

going out of its way to make way for the people of God.

Everything in the world knows why it's there.

The question is, do you know why you are here?

As I conclude this morning, I want to talk to a couple of

different people in the room. Have you ever had a moment where

you trembled before God? If you never had a moment where

you recognized the isness of God, even if that wasn't a word

when it happened, Tanner just created it.

If you haven't recognized the isness of God described in Psalm

113, then chances are you might not be one of God's people yet.

One thing I see so frequently is that people think if they're

cool with God, then God is cool with them.

Like they and God coexist, his roommates, as if to say, I don't

do the things that offend him, that really offend him, right?

Like I don't leave the clothes on the floor.

I don't eat the eat his food in the fridge.

We are good, right? But one thing that you should

know, friend, this morning is that being cool with God on your

own terms doesn't exist. You see, if you have never had a

moment of trembling at the presence of presence of God and

recognizing His otherliness and our brokenness, then you

probably are still an enemy of God.

There's no being cool with God apart from repentance from all

that separates us from God. And trusting in Jesus is the

only way to salvation. And I'm convinced that there are

some people here this morning that need to stop and think,

have I ever really made Jesus Lord this powerful God didn't

come to gain our approval. And the problem is that we are

incapable of gaining his approval on our own.

But just like Psalm 113 tells us, this God that is so high,

that is so utterly, that is so set apart, so high that he's

even looking down on the heavens, things that we can't

even see, that we can't even imagine.

Just like Psalm 113 tells us he is in the business of raising

the poor from the dust and making them sit with Princess.

You see, the gospel is not about you being cool with God.

The gospel is about you being an enemy of God, completely in need

of him, never able to meet the standard that he set.

And yet this God came down to the dust in the form of human

flesh, as Jesus lived the life that we should live but never

could, earned it on our behalf, and then bestowed what He earned

to us on our behalf, and He took the penalty of what we earned on

the cross. Friend, my prayer is that today

you would stop pretending Either Jesus is the Lord of your life

or He is not. There's not a category for being

a roommate with God. Today is the day to be in awe

and tremble at the otherliness and the holiness, His Highness,

and ask the only one worthy of being Lord to be Lord of your

life. If that's you this morning,

please come and talk to me or any of our pastors here.

We would love to celebrate with you, to pray with you, to talk

to you. Others of us in here have had a

moment of repentance and you are a part of the body of Christ and

like so many others, you have been taken from the ash heap and

brought into the family of God, not because of anything that you

have done, but because of Christ's death on your behalf

this morning. This passage should fill you

with the same confidence as the psalmist.

It should give us a whole new confidence when we read passages

like Matthew 1618 where Jesus, where he says, and on this rock

I will build my church in the gates of hell shall not prevail

against it. Because we serve a God that is

so big and so great, He does not fail.

And when we turn around and it looks as if there's a sea

between US and where God is calling us, that sea is never an

obstacle for our God. The sea knows its place in this

world. The mountains know their place

in this world. The sun even knows its place in

this world. He stopped that too.

We should not walk in fear, but in confidence that if God wants

to move something, he'll move it and he won't fail.

You see, God has already won. He's already won.

And as believers this morning, we should walk out of here in

confidence, remembering that we walk that all of creation

trembles at the God our creator. Let's pray.

God, we come to you this morning and we thank you, God.

We thank you that that that you are so powerful, Lord, that

there's nothing that stands to you.

Lord, nothing can stand against you.

Lord, you are magnificent beyond that.

God, we thank you that that you are so loving that you came

down. God, you are high, but you came

down to us in the form of Jesus. God, you have made us your

people, God, and we thank you for connecting yourself to us in

that way that we are not worthy of, Lord, but you've made us

worthy through the cross. God, I pray for anyone in here,

Lord, who doesn't know you. God, would your spirit draw them

to you? Lord, would you reveal your

greatness to them, your isness to them, God, and reveal to them

their need for a Savior. Lord, we love you and thank you,

God, and we pray. Amen.