Love

Good morning.

Happy New Year.

Today's text is Psalm 136.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever.

The sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever.

The moon and the stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, for his steadfast love endures forever, and brought Israel out from among them, for his steadfast love endures forever.

With a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who divided the Red Sea in two, for his steadfast love endures forever, and made Israel pass through the midst of it, for his steadfast love endures forever, but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who led his people through the wilderness, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who struck down the great kings, for his steadfast love endures forever, and killed mighty kings, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Sihon, the king of the Amorites, for his steadfast love endures forever, and Og, king of Basham, Bashan, for his steadfast love endures forever, and gave their land as a heritage, for his steadfast love endures forever.

A heritage to Israel, his servant, for his steadfast love endures forever.

It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever, and rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever.

He who gives food to all flesh for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to God in heaven for his steadfast love endures forever.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Good morning.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

Happy New Year.

My name is James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.

It's great to gather together with you all here staring down the barrel of a new year.

It's one way to put it.

Looking forward to 2026 is another way to put it.

We'll move into our text today shortly, but first, would you pray with me?

Holy Father, we don't know what comes next.

We don't know what the rest of today holds, let alone what the rest of the year holds.

But we know that your steadfast love endures forever.

Lord, I pray that you would shape our hearts to trust this truth.

We know that your word seeks to press this into our hearts, overwhelm us with it, say it over and over and over again.

That your steadfast love endures forever.

Lord, I pray that you would give us hearts that are able to receive this truth.

That as we look forward to the next year, Lord, as we consider our families and our relationships, Lord, that we would consider that they would be blessed with your steadfast love.

Lord, that with decisions that are to be brought up or life changes or life circumstances, Lord, that we would consider that all of those would be guided by your steadfast love.

Lord, that as we consider our children who are growing up, who are next door singing psalms and hymns and learning your word, Lord, that we know that their future is in your hands and that your steadfast love on their behalf will endure forever.

Lord, would you teach us in our hearts that the future is not to be feared because of your steadfast love which endures forever?

That all that we have to look forward to will be covered in and blessed by, supported by, equipped with your steadfast love.

Lord, would you work that into our hearts in Jesus' name?

Amen.

So here we are at the beginning of the year, and next week we're going to begin a long season moving through the book of Acts.

And that'll be fun, because that's a book with a lot of action in it.

As you can kind of hear in the name, there's shipwrecks and prison breaks, and it's all very Hollywood and edge of your seat type of things.

Fire from heaven, which is cool.

And we will uh uh begin that, but but before that, I wanted to take one more week before we move into that and uh sort of sort of help us frame the year.

I don't know how you guys feel about looking into the future.

I I often feel when I look into the future something like, ah, more of it.

You know?

Kind of like when you wake up and you're like, another one?

It's like you can't, you've done so many days and you can't believe there's another one that you staring you down in the face.

And the oftentimes we can we can have a sort of nostalgia for the past, uh a reticence of moving forward.

We know that there are more problems, more difficulties and challenges, seasons of life that we feel like we might have just settled into or suddenly disrupted.

We know that there's more disruption to come.

I promise you that over the course of 2026, there's more disruption in your life to come.

But the scriptures teach us to look to the future hopefully.

In fact, the scriptures teach us that we we need to love what's new.

We need to love new things.

And when we don't love what's new, that's loving death.

To love the past, to want things to stay right where they are, right as they've been, to love the way things are now is to love death.

It's to be on the edge of the promised land and to walk in and scope out the land on the other side of the river and say, the giants are just too big in there.

What if we just stayed here?

And the Lord says, no, to stay here is to love death.

Because what he has for us is new things.

He loves new things.

What the Lord loves is glory.

And he likes to take things from a state of glory and then move them in, and then move them into a state of more glory.

Because that's what he loves.

He loves glory.

So when there's a little bit of glory, he says, this is great.

And you know what would be even better than this?

More glory.

More glory would be better than this.

And so he makes things new.

He brings us into new times, into new seasons, through time that keeps pressing forward.

He's drawing us into something new.

And to be drawn into something new, we have to understand what is the thing that's doing the drawing?

You know, what's pulling us forward into this newness of life, this refreshment.

And we are in a season.

I think we're, I think we're in a season at as a church, and I mean our church, but I also mean like the church at large in the United States.

I don't know what it's like elsewhere.

I barely know what it's like in the United States, but but where it seems like this, it seems like we're in something like a foundational time.

Where there's a lot of ordinary institutions that have that have sort of proven faulty and not worth returning to, there's a lot of old assumptions of what ministry looked like that don't seem to take anymore.

And there's a newness that we're being called into, and there's a reticence that we can feel towards that.

But the Lord is always calling us into something new.

He's always calling us into a new place.

So the question is if we're going to be laying foundations, if we're going to be building towards new things, if we're going to move into a new season as a church, a new season of hopefulness, a new season of groundedness.

Well, what are we going to build with?

You know, since 2020 and over those next several years, I became obsessed with the question of how does anything last?

How does anything last?

How does any institution last?

How does any family last?

How does any relationship last?

How is it how does any business be formed so that it could last?

And I don't want to, you know, it's not like I cracked the code, but I think part part of that, and and I think maybe the most essential part of that, and this at first, and when I first say this, uh like you're you don't I uh you don't even have to hide your eye roll when I say this.

Because the answer is love.

That's the answer.

Love.

Love is how this will last.

And you're like, okay, what is this like uh I don't know, bad song writing convention or something?

Like love is love is all you need.

That's one song that I have an idea for that I haven't totally worked out yet, but I think it's gonna things that last, things that are built with precious jewels and with stones, they're they're made with love.

They're made with love.

Businesses that last, it's because of love.

Institutions that last through difficult times, it's love.

Families and relationships that last, it's because of love.

Love is not it's the opposite of wood, hay, and straw that burns up over time.

Love is like the anti-entropy of the world.

It's love.

I wanna I want I wanna prove that today.

I I wanna I want us to be hit with that today.

Love is central among the Christian virtues, but I often think we're not using that word right.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul finishes that wonderful verse which you may have heard at weddings.

He says, Faith, hope, and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.

And in the command that we recite together each Sunday from Deuteronomy 6, we say together, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

We know that's the greatest commandment is love.

In John 13, 34, it says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you.

You also are to love one another.

How does a church last?

Love.

Also recorded by John in 1 John, he says this.

This is an insane statement on love.

Beloved, let us love one another.

For love is from God.

And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Whoa.

Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

You want to know God?

Anyone who does not love God, excuse me, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

It's a tight argument.

If you don't love, you don't know God.

Why?

Because God is love.

You know, I I I'm interested in this question of what makes things last because I I one of my longings for our church is that we're a church that serves this neighborhood for generations.

That's an incredibly rare thing.

You know, we we we won't get to see that.

None of us will get to know if that happens.

But but the way that we lay a foundation that that might happen, that this might continue on into the future for the sake of the name and glory of Christ is love.

Love is how we do that.

Now, colloquially, I looked up the definition of love in, you know, on the internet.

Do you guys ever use that?

And the the definition is a feeling of great affection for someone.

A feeling of great affection for someone.

Don't you hate speeches that start with the definition of love is.

Yeah.

Well, here we are.

You get what you get, you know.

A feeling of great affection for someone.

That now that seems that seems like part of it.

You know, but it doesn't it feel like we're doesn't it feel like we're missing something?

It feels like we're missing something.

If we if love is merely a feeling of great affection for someone, because it doesn't seem sufficient that the greatest commandment is a feeling, have feelings of great affection.

In fact, to love the Lord your God with all your might, you ever use all your might for something?

Sometimes I can't move something, and then I'm like, ah, I gotta use all my might, and then I use all my might, and then you can move it.

Do you ever have that experience?

So when you have all your, when you how do I love with all my might?

If it's just a feeling of great affection for someone, that doesn't seem how do I feel with my might?

It seems like we're missing something.

There's something, how's the how is how is it that God is feelings of great affection for someone?

It just doesn't seem sufficient.

But colloquially, that's what we mean.

And I think when our when our because it's just the ordinary use of this word, that our minds move into that sort of a place, that sort of an understanding when we're talking about love.

And and it's and then we hear a scripture like we heard read this morning, which is overwhelming, you know, in its repetition.

It's it's overwhelming in its its repetition, it's like a bach fugue, you know, which I hear are overwhelming in the repetition.

I that's what they say you're supposed to say about those.

There's more to love than just a feeling of great affection.

At least because love doesn't seem tied to any particular feeling or emotion.

It doesn't even seem tied necessarily to any particular action.

If we knew what love was, you know, love one another as Christ has loved you, well, how do we do that?

How do we what do I just do the things that Jesus did?

Do I walk on water and multiply loaves and fishes?

And what is it, how do I how do I do that?

In this psalm that we s that we heard read this morning and that we'll be moving through this morning, love it does things like it, it it sees you in your lowest.

It remembers you in your lowest, love does.

You know what else love does?

That seems like I get that.

That feels like a feeling of affection towards you know what uh you know what else love does?

It kills kings.

That feels pretty different from a feeling of great affection towards someone.

The king, at least, is like that doesn't feel like love to me.

You know.

But it is.

It is.

This psalm is a great hymn to love.

It's a hymn towards the love of God.

It's a praise, a song of praise to the love of God, but it's also an argument.

It's a case for what love is.

And as we move through and we see this case for what love is, I hope, like the psalm does, we become saturated by the depth of what the love of God means, that we have cultivated in our hearts a desire to love Him more completely, to love one another more deeply, more truthfully, to make our labors labors of love, so that they might be truly lasting, to true glory, so that they might, with the love of God, endure forever.

So it's a heavy lift for one sermon, but I hope that we catch this insight that this psalm has about what love is, how it could be this fundamental Christian virtue.

So in Psalm 136, verses one to three, it's it says, Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Now it's a repetition that feels in English a little clunky, but in Hebrew it's tight and punchy.

It sounds really good in Hebrew.

It says it's it sounds like kilalam kilom I'm not gonna be able to do it well.

The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.

Kilalam Hesed.

You can see how you can just kind of crank that out.

So in the in this when they're singing this together, it's like this tight, punchy sound that it would have as the congregation would respond with this song.

The opening of the psalm is uh a call to give thanks.

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.

And then this give thanks is implied throughout the rest of the psalm for every verse.

You could start it, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever, give thanks to the God of God all throughout the psalm.

It's this repetition of give thanks.

Now, give thanks is the it doesn't really have giving thanks is pressing it a little bit, is pressing the Hebrew a little bit.

It's it's something more like acknowledge the reality of.

It's like come face to face with and recognize the reality of this.

Come face to face with and recognize this reality.

The Lord is good.

You know, be be confronted by that and acknowledge it.

This is the truth.

The Lord is good.

And they're right to, the translators are right to recognize that the implication of that is thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving, but it's more of like a confrontation.

Give, acknowledge the Lord is good.

And then the phrase, for his steadfast love endures forever, it's translating just these three words, these three Hebrew words.

The first one is key, and that means uh that's translating that for.

And it's like the conclusion of an argument.

It's it's because of, yes indeed, his steadfast love endures forever.

So you should hear, you should hear the phrase that's given, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

And you could hear, like, because, yes indeed, his steadfast love endures forever.

So they're forcing an insight.

What is the goodness of the Lord?

Well, the goodness of the Lord is shown in this, his steadfast love endures forever.

How do you participate in or connect with and understand the goodness of the Lord?

It's in this, his steadfast love endures forever.

It's an argument that's being made over and over again.

An argument that's being made, an insight that is being forced upon us throughout this psalm.

The next word is lolam, which is something like into the ages.

Age after age.

Eternal, it's sometimes translated.

Forever, forever is a good one.

Forever.

Because forever.

Which is steadfast love.

Some Bibles translate it just love, some translate it steadfast love.

The NAS Translated loving kindnesses, loving kindness.

What's hitting here, this is a word that is used of the love of God for his covenant people.

That is the use of this word has said, which means this is a word of the Lord's love towards his particular people.

I don't want you to think of this.

This is part of what this is part of the insight of love.

The Lord's love is not generic.

It is not a generic love.

It is not like a love in principle.

He does not, in principle, love the world.

The Lord loves his people.

The Lord loves particularly.

The Lord does not love, like you might say, like, ah, I love, I love all people.

I have feelings of love towards all towards all living living creatures and towards all mankind.

This isn't this isn't hippie nonsense.

This is love like you love your children.

It's love like you love your spouse.

It's love like you love your parents.

It's a particular type of love where the Lord where this is the Lord's love for his covenant people.

Where to be receiving this love, you might say, this is the love of God towards me.

It's that type of love.

That type of covenantal love.

Those three words, yes indeed.

Acknowledge the reality of the Lord.

Yes, indeed, he is good, for indeed his love is everlasting.

And then look at how it's used.

It says, give thanks to the God of gods for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords for his steadfast love endures forever.

You see, this is no mere sweet refrain when we understand the particularity and the strength of these words that's being said, that this covenantal love of the Lord endures forever.

You know, it's grounding the argument that God is the God of gods, that there is no God above him.

The steadfast love of the Lord is the ground of the argument that God is the Lord of Lords, that there is no one above him in power and authority.

Now, I think if we were to make the argument, God is the God of gods, he is the Lord of Lords, and we were to try and ground that argument, the first place we would go would not be love.

It would not be the love of the Lord.

If I were to imagine God in a competition with other gods, the first things that would come to mind were strength, might, power, sovereignty, omnipotence.

These are the types of things that I would imagine.

When I imagined the battle between strong things, and we want to see who is the authority amongst the strong things, if it's King Kong versus Godzilla, I'm wondering who's stronger.

King Kong or Godzilla?

You know, if it's Baal versus Molech, I'm wondering who's the stronger of these?

You know, who has more power that they can use in the world?

My question isn't, which of them has more steadfast love that endures forever?

King Kong or Godzilla?

Are they the one who is above the other one?

That's because we're we we obviously don't know what we're talking about when we're talking about love.

We must not know what we're talking about because the scriptures are teaching us to think he is the God of gods, he is the Lord of lords.

Okay, state your case.

What's your proof?

His steadfast love for his covenant people endures forever.

That's why.

Because it is his love that can establish them forever.

His love will uphold them forever and for all time.

That's why I know he's stronger.

Why will he outwit, outplay, outlast all of the other gods?

Because his steadfast love endures forever.

I want this to be provoking our minds.

I want this to at first be raising the question: maybe I don't know what love is.

Because I would never think to ground that God is the God of gods and the Lord of Lords in this argument that his steadfast love endures forever.

And so the question that I want you to have in your minds right now is I want to know what love is.

Then you should look up at it to me as your pastor and say, I want you to show me in the next 20 minutes.

Now, when we're talking about the attributes of God, we have to do a little, we have to do a little classical theology.

When we're talking about the attributes of God, we understand that any attribute, anything that God does, he always does in the fullness of himself.

There is not the love part of God and the hate part of God.

God has no parts or passions.

He's not like us in that sense.

This is referred to as his simplicity, his divine simplicity means that he is fully at one with himself.

He's not driven away by little parts and little things that that uh he he he doesn't his anger doesn't run over and become the thing that's that's driving him, or his love doesn't run over and become the one little attribute that's driving him.

The one way that this is described is all that is in God is God.

When we're talking about the love of God, we're talking about his who he is, how he is God towards you.

And we use this language of diverse attributes, which are relaying to us our human experience of the oneness of God, is what's taking place when we're when we're describing the attributes of God.

It's like the Dark Side of the Moon album cover with the one light, the white light that goes into the prism, and then all the colors come out of it.

You know, those colors are the way that we experience the love of God, the wrath of God, all these different attributes of God that we experience.

But we recognize that what we're experiencing is God Himself.

So that when we're talking about this, the love of God, we're talking about what God is, who He is in His relating to us.

Now, with that said, this attribute of God, which is described as God is love, is a way in for people like us to understand the very nature of God Himself.

And that when we are called to love one another, to love him, then what we are being called into is to know who he is, what he is like.

And that's what's shown in his love.

The scriptures teach us to understand love in light of him.

That's the order that we are to do this, to understand love, what love is, in light of who God is.

Because all that he does, he does in covenantal love.

All that he does, he does in love.

The psalm takes us through this as it describes creation, redemption, conquest, and his care.

First in creation, in Psalm 136, verses 5 through 6, it says, To him who by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Psalms 136:5–6

To him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever.

So give thanks.

There's that implicit give thanks.

Give thanks to him who by understanding made the heavens.

Why are the heavens made?

Well, it's because of his steadfast covenantal love for his people.

That's why they're up there.

Why is it that the earth is spread out above the waters?

What is the answer to that question?

It's because of his steadfast covenantal love to his people.

Why is there a sun to rule over the day?

Why is there a moon?

It was a beautiful moon left over this morning from last night, still hanging in the sky, working overtime early in the year.

I don't know what it's like to be the moon.

But it was a beautiful moon this morning.

Why?

The answer to that question, the scriptures teach us, is because of the steadfast love of the Lord.

Are you catching this?

Do you see the insight that this psalm is forcing us into?

Look at the depth of questions that are being answered here.

Here's a big one in like, you know, physics circles.

Do you guys roll in those?

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Well, it's because the steadfast love of the Lord is everlasting.

That's why.

Why is the earth right here, you know, in this place?

It's hard to tell from here, you'd have to zoom out a long ways.

But it could be, I don't know, a hundred miles that way in space.

Why is it here?

Just some arbitrary happenstance?

Just some, this is just the way things happen to be.

No, I can tell you why.

It's actually not arbitrary at all.

It's the least arbitrary thing imaginable.

Why is it here?

It is why do why does the ocean come up and stop right there?

And it doesn't go any further?

It's because of the steadfast love of the Lord.

That's why it's there.

You see, the steadfast love of the Lord is upholding creation.

What is beneath all things?

What is the foundation?

What is holding it all together?

What is create, what is keeping it from collapsing in on itself or expanding out into some terrible infinity?

The steadfast love of the Lord.

That's what's doing that.

The steadfast love of the Lord is the type of thing that holds creation together.

You know what?

We have an odd uh closet in our attic.

This odd little closet without a door.

Our house didn't, it was like our house was made before doors for some reason.

And it has no door, and it's a little space, there's nothing you can really do with it.

And my wife had this idea.

What if it was like a cozy little like hideout reading nook for our kids?

That never would have occurred to me.

And so that's what she did for Christmas.

So it was one of her one of the gifts that she planned for the kids.

And it's got these little lights strung in it, and these beanbag chairs, and these bookshelves, and you can go in there and it's just magic.

It's this magic place that was made.

You know why that place looks like that?

Why it's this magic place.

It's because of the steadfast love of my wife for her children.

And so when our kids go in there, what they think is this act, this actually, this was given to me for me.

This is perfectly attuned to the type of thing that I am.

Because regular humans, you gotta crouch a little bit when you walk in.

But it's perfectly attuned to them.

It's just made, made right for them.

And do you know what that demands when you recognize that?

When you recognize, see the moon up there, how it's just so?

And see the stars, how that one's there and that one's there, and the sun, how it comes up, and it's it's way far south right now, but it'll it'll start marching north as the rest of the year goes on.

You know why all those things are there?

It's because of the love of the Lord for his people.

And that demands thanksgiving.

You see, the world is not arbitrary.

These are not arbitrary things.

This is the creation itself is evidence of his steadfast love to you.

That's why, don't you hear it now?

Don't you hear it?

To him who give thanks to the Lord, to him who by understanding made the heavens.

This is why when you walk out and you see the stars and you see the heavens, you see the glory of the mountains, you think, oh, I should give thanks for this.

Why should you give thanks to that?

Because it was out of love for you that those things were made in just that way, in just that place.

What grounds that?

Why is there that call?

It's a strange thing to explain that call towards thanksgiving in your heart when you see that glory, but it it makes perfect sense when you understand, oh, that was given out of love to me.

So, what is the right response to that?

It is thanksgiving.

It is to give thanks to the Lord.

But it's not just in creation that the steadfast love of the Lord is demonstrated.

And in verses 10 through 11, it says, To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, for his steadfast love endures forever, and brought Israel out from among them, for his steadfast love endures forever.

What is the what it was the thing that would that by it or that that that motivated the striking down of the firstborn of Egypt at the Passover?

It was the love of God for his people.

The love of God for his people is what motivated the striking down of the firstborn of Egypt.

Why does he make a war happen overnight in one night against Egypt and accomplish the victory of salvation for his people?

Why does he do that?

It was because of his love.

Do you see how dynamic love is?

Do you see how we haven't been thinking about love right?

That feelings like generic feelings of affection, that's not what we're talking about.

God's love can say, I'm going to kill them, that you might be saved.

Such is the love of God.

Why does he part the Red Sea as he brings them out from among them?

What is it that separates the waters from each other so that there's dry ground for the Israelites to walk out across?

What type of thing does that?

The steadfast love of the Lord.

It endures forever.

So that means when they came up against a way where there was no way, the Lord made a way.

How could they be confident that he would do that?

How could they trust that that would happen on their behalf?

Well, because they could know something like this: the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.

How could you be confident looking towards this next year?

Let me sharpen it a bit.

I'll sharpen it as most as I can.

How could you be confident looking forward to this next year?

Well, because the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.

So where there is no way, well, he'll make a way.

Because the steadfast love of the Lord has been set upon me.

It's unending.

It's inexhaustible.

It's the very thing that upholds the world so that I receive my life like a gift.

And what else do I receive as a gift?

My redemption from sin, from him.

Because that's what the Exodus is.

That's what it is.

It is a picture of.

It is his work of redemption.

God's love is shown when he draws out his people and he says to his people, you are mine.

You belong to me, and I will purchase you at great cost.

His love causes him to commit incredible violence on behalf of his people.

And they are received out by his love.

Now, of course, you know that's the case.

Of course, we know that that is that is the way that love can be demonstrated.

You know, I I talked with another pastor friend, and he was uh uh fought in Afghanistan, and he said, you know, the I I always liked it when I had guys with me that had families back home because I knew they'd fight.

Because they they were gonna get back.

That's I haven't experienced anything like that.

I just ate my barbecue and said, wow.

You know.

But we but we immediately understand that.

Well, love.

Love is why.

Love is what would accomplish the victory of that platoon.

We understand that, of course, but uh, but we we have to remember, we have to be taught what love is by God.

Why does he, it is in verses 17 and 21, it says, To him who struck down great kings for his steadfast love endures forever, and gave their land as a heritage, for his steadfast love endures forever.

He strikes down great kings.

Why?

Because of his love.

Because of his steadfast love for his people.

He sees his people under the oppression of terrible kings.

And he says, not on my watch.

You may be under the oppression of a great king right now.

You know, some boss or it might even be a circumstance.

And the Lord says, I can strike that down.

Why could you have confidence that he would?

Because have you heard?

His steadfast love endures forever.

His steadfast love endures forever.

He'll give the land of those kings as a heritage to his people.

You know, there is great spiritual oppression all over the whole world.

There's great spiritual oppression in our own city.

And we have this proclamation: Christ is king.

Come under his care.

Come under his steadfast love.

When we're brought under his care, under his steadfast love, the oppression of that sin and the binding of those spiritual powers, it is accomplished.

They are bound.

They're destroyed.

Why?

Because of the steadfast love of the Lord.

It endures forever.

These final verses, verses 23 to 26, says, It is he who remembered us in our low estate.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

And rescued us from our foes.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

He who gives food to all flesh for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of heaven for his steadfast love.

Love endures forever.

How can you know that the Lord remembers you in your low estate?

Well, you can know this.

His steadfast love endures forever.

He remembered his people in their low estate.

How much more do we know this than even the psalmist knew this who was writing it?

Here on this side of Christ.

Now it is it is one thing, and it's not nothing.

It's not nothing to destroy all the firstborn of Egypt, to bring to catastrophe Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea and walk your people through on the other side.

I'd say that's not nothing.

But how much more?

That the Lord Himself would take on flesh, and for us in our low estate, that he would treat himself like one of the Egyptians, that he would be the firstborn son who was put to death, so that our sins might be atoned for.

What type of steadfast love is that?

What type of steadfast love is it that the Lord shows to his people if he would take on the punishment for their sins, the sins that they committed, so that they might be brought into freedom?

So that the world might be their heritage, that they might be co-heirs with Christ, that it might be distributed.

The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.

How forever?

How far?

To what depths?

To what end?

To the very death of Jesus Christ Himself.

You see, that is not generic feelings of affection.

Oh, it's it's it's so beyond that.

That the one who by his love upheld upholds the world by his love.

Like, why is it?

I have a dog.

Her name's Hadley.

She's old for a dog, not for a person.

And she she's this great little dog, you know?

Uh she minds and she obeys and she's friendly and she's out of the way when you don't want her.

That's one of the best attributes a dog can have, where it's just kind of quiet and likes lounging around.

She does that, nails it.

And it's like, why is why did why was God like, we'll have one of these.

We'll have one of these out here.

It's steadfast love, is why.

And you think of the, she's just one little part of creation.

There's dozens of parts of creation.

And then that creator who has this overflowing steadfast love so that it would instantiate this world flooded with glory beyond number, flooded with glory beyond imagination because of his steadfast love.

And then he places us in it to be received and enjoyed by him, perfectly made for us.

You know, he walks us up into the attic and he says, See, I put the the these beanbags are here for you, and they're just your size.

And I hung these little fairy lights in here, so it feels magical, and they're dancing, and I got these books that I know you like to read.

And JT reads Garfield.

He's reading Garfield like crazy.

It's unbelievable.

How much Garfield, JT, right?

Just loving reading Garfield for some reason.

He's gonna have the sense of humor of like 1970s Middle America.

And so a Garfield book was placed in there just for you, and it's walked up.

And then here's the way that the story goes.

So what's the what does that require?

What is that it's just a gift.

It was just received, just a product of love.

And then in our sin, what we say is not from you, not with you.

I deny it, and in fact, I'm not even going to receive this as for me.

I'm going to come up with stories and say it's just arbitrary.

And it's it doesn't mean anything.

In fact, it means what does it mean that the moon was beautiful this morning?

One thing to say is it doesn't mean anything.

And in that state of rebellion against the Lord, which obviously demands death, because it is a denial of the gift of life.

The Lord says, How steadfast is his love, how enduring is his love?

How does anything hold together with a people like that?

He took the death for us so that we might be raised to new life in him.

How steadfast, how steadfast is that love?

It has no limit, it has no bound.

Give thanks to the God of heaven for his steadfast love that endures forever.

That maybe I'll read.

He says this to put the matter in language not easy for moderns, which is us, but then if you get it, then you can say, well, I think you know, you can do that.

To put the matter in language not easy for moderns, Christianity is at its center, concerned with grace.

Follow this.

Christianity is at its center, concerned with grace.

If that word is given its literal meaning, grace simply means that the great things of our existing are given us, not made by us, and finally, not to be understood as arbitrary accidents.

Our making takes place within an ultimate givenness.

However difficult it is for all of us to affirm that life is a gift, it is an assertion primal to Christianity.

I want to hit this.

Grace simply means that the great things of our existing are given us, not made by us, and finally not to be understood as arbitrary accidents.

Why is it not to be understood as an arbitrary accident?

Why is your life not to be understood as an arbitrary accident any more than the location of the stars or the particularity of God's love towards his people in Jesus Christ?

How could that not be understood as an arbitrary accident?

It's not arbitrary because it's all given by the love of God to his people.

That is the foundation of it all.

Now, when the scriptures force that into us and we start to see it, and then we we think it by creation itself, we've plumbed the depths of it.

And then our eyes lift towards the cross.

And then we see that the endurance of the steadfast love of the Lord, it's overwhelming, it's a completely overwhelming thing.

But don't you see how utterly sensible it is that all of the law and the prophets, that all of the law and the prophets would hang on this: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

This is the response to this world that we have been given.

It is a world made by love.

We participate in it by love for one another.

What does love look like?

Look at Christ.

Look at how he lays his life down for his friends.

Look at how he considers the wrong that's done.

Look at how he conquers enemies on their behalf.

Look at how he distributes the wealth of what he has accomplished by his conquering.

Look at how he creates the world for you to inhabit and enjoy.

Look at how you do those things.

You do all of those things.

You want those things to last.

They can only last when they are done in love.

They can only be done in love when you recognize that it is all, from creation to your redemption, a gift of the love of Jesus Christ, which is steadfast and endures forever.

Let's pray.

The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.

Lord, would you expand our minds so that we might understand what your love is?

To see that it is by your love that creation is upheld, it is by your love that we are redeemed, that you place your love upon us because you consider our low estate.

How low is our estate, us creatures from the dirt, that are here for a little while and then we go away.

How could we endure forever?

Only if you placed your steadfast love upon us.

You have shown in the life, death, and resurrection of your son, given as a gift to us, of course, because it's all been a gift the whole time.

Lord, let us be lovers of you, lovers of one another.

That we might know you.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.