Sunday, August 3

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Good morning. We are glad to be here this morning, first Sunday in August. We're going to begin with the word of prayer, and then we're going to move into our Scripture reading and some songs as we talk about what it means to hope in God this morning, to see his greatness and his goodness, especially in the midst of despair and doubt from Isaiah, the 40th chapter. So that's where we're going. We're going to do our service just a little bit differently this morning. Instead of having communion before our message, we're going to move into that as we wrap up our message, sort of using our sermon as sort of maybe an extended communion devotion, leading us to our hope in God and the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. So we're going to pray, and then we'll read from the 33rd Psalm together.

Father in heaven, I thank you for Jesus and for grace and for the hope that you have bestowed into our lives. I just ask this morning as we gather to worship that you would encourage our weary hearts, that you would strengthen us for work in your kingdom, that you would help us to see both your greatness and your goodness and to be transformed. And so help us this morning as we gather to worship. May we fix our eyes on you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would be standing, we're going to start by reading from the 33rd Psalm together this morning. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in You.

This is God's Word. We're going to start by singing this morning, Our God Saves. In the name of the Father In the name of the Son In the name of the Spirit Lord, we come We are gathered together To lift up your name To call on our Savior To fall on your grace Hear the joyful sound of our offering As your saints bow down, as your people sing We will rise with you, lifted on your wings And the world will see that Our God saves Our God saves There is hope in your name Morning turns to songs of praise Our God saves, our God saves In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son In the name of the Spirit, Lord, we come We are gathered together to lift up your name

To call on our Savior, to fall on your grace Hear the joyful sound of our offering As your saints bow down, as your people sing We will rise with you, lifted on your wings And the world will see that Our God saves Our God saves There is hope In your name, morning turns to songs of praise. Our God saves, our God saves.

Bless the Lord, O my soul O my soul Worship His holy name Sing like never before, oh my soul, I'll worship your holy name. The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning. It's time to sing your song. Again, whatever may pass And whatever lies before me Let me be singing when the evening comes Bless the Lord, O my soul O my soul Worship His holy name Sing like never before Oh my soul I'll worship Your holy name You're rich in love And you're slow to end up. Your name is great and your heart is kind. For all your goodness I will keep on singing. Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul. Worship His holy name. Sin like never before, O my soul. I'll worship Your holy name.

and on that day when my strength is failing the end draws near and my time has come still my soul will sing your praise unending ten thousand years and then forevermore Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul Worship His holy name Sing like never before, oh my soul I'll worship your holy name Bless the Lord, O my soul O my soul Worship His holy name Sin like never before O my soul I'll worship your holy name. Yes, I will worship your holy name. Lord, I'll worship your holy name. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, in a moment, we're going to move into the 40th chapter of the book of Isaiah, moving into a passage that is probably familiar to us. In fact, maybe for some, the most familiar passage in Isaiah is certainly one of the most famous ones. It's made it on a lot of coffee cups. We'll talk about that next week. We're going to get a little bit of a precursor to that. But the heart of Isaiah 40 is that it is the beginning of comfort for God's people. And that comfort comes from seeing and beholding God's greatness, his eternal nature, his power, all of his goodness and greatness together. So before we go to Isaiah 40 and then end in a few moments with the Lord's Supper, sort of bringing that into perspective, we're going to start by singing Behold Our God.

Who has held the oceans in His hands? Who has numbered every grain of sand? Kings and nations tremble at His voice. All creation rises to rejoice.

Behold our God, seated on His throne, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Who has given counsel to the Lord? Who can question any of His words? Who can teach the one who knows all things? Who can do all His wondrous deeds? Behold our God, seated on His throne. Come, let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare. Come, let us adore Him.

We'll be right back. Bearing all the guilt of sinful man God eternal, humble to the grave Jesus, Savior, is in mount to reign Behold our God, seated on His throne Come let us adore him Behold our King Nothing can compare Come let us adore him Behold our God Seated on His throne, come let us adorn Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare. Come let us adorn Him. Let's go ahead and pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your greatness and your goodness that has been poured out upon us. I just ask this morning as we look at your answer to what to do in the midst of despair, as maybe sometimes in the midst of difficulty it can be easy to doubt your goodness, may we see that, how it has been poured out upon us.

So help us this morning, help us with your word, help us with our hearts, may we fix our eyes on you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So there are things most of us understand that go very well together, sort of pairings that just sort of fit. For example, right, bacon and eggs works well together. Bacon, lettuce, and tomato works well together, right? Bacon covered in chocolate works well together. But the interesting thing about these things is if you separate them, they're still good. Eggs are good, bacon's good, lettuce, tomato, bacon all by themselves are pretty good, chocolate's good, bacon's good. Now there are some things, however, that when they are put together, you cannot separate them without catastrophic consequences. A quick easy example is the air in your tires. When you begin to separate the air that's inside your tires and it becomes the air outside your tires, there are catastrophic consequences.

I remember the very first time that I had, I mean, maybe not the first time, but the first time that I remember that I had had the wind knocked out of me. We were playing full contact tackle football with no protective gear at recess, and somebody just, like, it was probably a beautiful tackle just right in the middle. And the next thing I know, I'm laying on the ground, and I can't breathe. And, like, my sixth-grade life, as short as it is, seems to be flashing before my eyes, And no air in your lungs, not just that you're out of breath, but all the air is gone, right? For a moment, those 10 seconds that felt like eternity until the air returns into your lungs, it was a traumatizing experience, so much so that I can still remember exactly where and when and how all of that happened.

There are things that are not meant to be separated. There are things that together, they have to be essential. In our text, which we're going to read in just a moment, and we're going to divide it into two parts, deal with the first part this week, the second part next week, we're going to see two big essential truths about God. The first essential truth is that He is great, and the second essential truth is that He is good. And the problem becomes when we try to separate those from each other, right? If you separate God's greatness from His goodness and simply say, right, God is good, and you overlook his greatness, all you have is a buddy who is your friend and he may love you very much, but God without his greatness is ineffectual.

The second way in which some people separate or try to divide these characteristics of God is to say that God may be great, but maybe he's not necessarily good. And we all can think of examples and maybe have experienced them somebody with power and greatness, but without goodness and the hurt and heartbreak that they bring about on people. And so in this text this morning, we're first going to see God's greatness. Next week, we'll see his goodness. And the lovely thing about this is that in the midst of God's greatness, his goodness is underlaid throughout it. And in the midst of God's goodness, his greatness is underlaid and woven throughout it. But it's not just seeing God's greatness and his goodness, but it's seeing in relation to people who have nothing to offer, who are broken and who

are discouraged and who are in tears. And to those people in the midst of despair and doubt, God reminds them first of his identity. And then secondly, he's going to remind us of what he does for those who put their trust in him. And so I'm going to read through our text. You'll definitely recognize probably the last few verses of this. We're going to pick it up in Isaiah 40, 27. And you'll hear it sort of divided as God talks about who he is, and then we see what he has done. We see this picture of his greatness and goodness. So it begins like this in Isaiah 40, 27. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God. Have you not known, have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint. And so in this text, we see this clear division designed to answer questions, to deal with our despair and our doubt that focuses first on the identity of God, who He is, have you not known, have you not heard, And then we see his goodness poured out to the weak and struggling.

And I don't know if you've ever had to deal with a foundation issue. It's something that as a kid I probably never really thought of, right? When you go to look at a house, you want to check and make sure that the foundation of the house is solid. But I do remember, I was probably about five years old, another core memory, and I had decided, and it was in our house in Arizona, to build a Lego tower. I don't know if my parents remember this or not, but a Lego tower that, in my words, could only reach the heavens, right? So like Genesis, beginning of Genesis, I'm going to build a tower that reached the heavens. The problem was that as the tower got higher, right, I'm limited in the amount of Lego bricks I have.

And so while it may be really solid here, when you start getting down to one or two bricks up here, right, it becomes very, very shaky, so much so that just walking through the room, whether it was the air, would make my tower go back and forth, and the problem was maybe the structural engineering, but also with the foundation. And when the foundation begins to cause problems, it causes problems through the rest of the structure, and this is not simply true in buildings, whether brick or of Legos. It's true in our lives as well, and the entire purpose of this chapter has been to bring comfort to God's people by seeing God for who he is. That's why we've called it Behold God's Character and Our Confidence. Now underneath that comfort and that purpose of beholding God, sometimes to get there it requires some surgery. We have to

Remove the problem in order that we can become better. And so God begins to remind his people in this chapter the one place that is secure. In fact, one of my favorite verses is in verse 11 where he talks about how he is a shepherd who cradles the sheep. He doesn't leave the slow and the weak behind, but he is there with them and his presence protects them. But immediately after that, in verse 11, in verse 12, he begins to confront some faulty foundations for hope. He seeks to comfort them with his power and presence, but their response and their doubt might be something like this, right? Sure, you're going to be our shepherd. Sure, you're going to protect us. But are you strong enough? So, and I'm the one who weighs the mountains in a balance,

the one who can cup all the waters in my hand. And so to the one who says, can God really do this? Are you strong enough? God says, yes, I'm the one who measures the heavens, who weighs the mountains and measures the water. And the objection to that might be, well, do you really know what to do with the power you've given? Being strong is one thing, being wise is another. And in the next two verses, 13 and 14, God explains that he has all knowledge and all wisdom and justice and understanding. And so you see these two objections answered. Can you do this? Yes. Do you know? Do you understand? Are you wise and are you good? And the answer is yes. And then the next question is, well, what if it's a bunch of people together?

Yeah, you may be stronger than any one of us, but what about all of us? And then God begins to deal with the nations and their size and strength in comparison to his greatness. And in doing that, what God is doing is confronting the pride of our heart that seeks power, that seeks our own knowledge and wisdom, seeks the ability to gather together people to accomplish our own purposes. And God, in part of bringing comfort and beholding Him, has to remove the pride that is in our hearts. But now we're going to turn from sort of that pride to a place of comfort. And we're now going to seek to remove the obstacle that stands between God's people and comfort. In Isaiah 40, verse 27, here's the heartbreaking problem that we see. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel?

My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God. And the objection that God's people have to this comfort has two parts. And it corresponds to the two sections of this text. It corresponds to both doubt and despair. And the first objection is this, God can't see my path. My way is hidden from the Lord. Where I am walking and what I am going through in this moment, God can't see it. Now, the second objection is similar, but it's more despairing. It's this, that God doesn't care about what I'm going through. That's those words, my right is disregarded by my God, the place that I'm going, the injustice that I'm suffering, God's just glossing over it and ignoring it entirely. So if you were to translate this maybe into words we use more frequently,

it's that God can't see me, and even if he can, he doesn't care about me. And these questions are not ones of pride. We've seen that, these are questions of despair. Where I'm at, God can't see me, and it feels like if he did see me, he wouldn't care about what I'm going through. It's doubt, and it's despair. Despair because they think that God isn't great enough, and doubt because they don't think he is good enough. And this whole section, the one we just read, verses 27 through 31, it's an answer to both of these. the despair about God's greatness and the doubt about his goodness. And like I said, underneath the answer to doubt and despair, it's interwoven together in the goodness and the power of God. And I want to see just a glimpse of God's goodness here before we take a look at God's

greatness. How would you respond if someone came to you for help? Maybe this has happened, and probably has happened to most of us, somebody who came to us for help or protection, and we had to have a history maybe helping or protecting, or maybe we had the opportunity to, and they simply look at us and go, you don't know what I'm going through, and you don't care about what I'm going through. Especially if we had been trying to help and seeking to help, we might become a little frustrated with this. I remember a very specific situation. This is probably more than 10 years ago. We had a gentleman show up and he needed some specific help and there were some questions about his situation. But we had sort of got together and found out a way

or found a way to be able to help him that was both compassionate, it met his needs, and it was wise and it removed the ability to sort of take advantage of the situation from the outside. And when myself and another guy from church went outside to explain to him, we said, here's how we can help you with the problem. We'll do this, this, and this. he looked at us and goes, that doesn't help me at all. All I need is money. And he goes, you call yourselves Christians. And we said, look, we offered to meet every one of your needs. And his response was, you don't love people, you don't love Jesus, because you won't give me what I want. And in that moment, trying to help wisely and in a way that benefited him

to the greatest way without leaving room for the brokenness of sin, to kind of creep in, I was like, all right, I'm done, and I just walked away, right? We get mad, right? We try to help somebody, and they begin to accuse us. It's easy for us to look at ourselves and go, man, I'm trying to help you. Why are you acting like this? Notice God's response to this, not really an accusation, but sort of a heartbreaking statement. God doesn't see me, and if he did, I don't think he would care about it. God doesn't yell. He doesn't give up. You know what God does? He answers their questions. He starts with their despair about the greatness or their smallness in the situation, then moves on to their doubts about his goodness. And we'll sort of see that overlap as we move into next

week. One more thing. These words were written between 140 and 150 years before these events secured. So not only does God care, God looks ahead and sees the struggles that they'll face in terms of their emotions and in their logic and in their thinking and in their hearts. And 140 to 150 years before that, God answers their question and reassures them with both his greatness and his goodness. And to take it a step farther, that if you were a student of the word of God and had heard this book read in the synagogue and in the temple, God had already been establishing this foundation in your life so that by the time you get and your family gets and the generations after you get to this place of brokenness, God had firmly established it. And so I love that picture that God doesn't just have power and goodness in the moment,

but he is working in advance, both with an answer and to prepare the hearts of those who seek him. So let's try to answer this despair that God cannot see me, and maybe even a little bit of the fact that maybe God can't help me. And the harder is this assertion that my way is hidden from the Lord, that God can't help me because he can't see me. And it is a doubt in the power of God. And I think there's four specific doubts, and I think that because there's four specific answers in the very next verse. The first doubt may be that God is limited by time. It's been too long. Or maybe another way of saying this is that God has gotten old. We're used to things, getting old and wearing out. Now, I know that milk has an expiration date.

And I don't care that if we bought it from the grocery store that day and the expiration date is like three years in the future, right? Before I pour that on my cereal or make a protein shake or drink that milk, I'm like, hey, Rachel, sniff this and tell me if it's good, right? Because I've been burned before, right? We're used to things expiring. We're used to things going bad. And the same is true for our physical bodies, right? There are days that as we get older, we wake up and we say, man, I'm not as good as I used to be. I'm not as strong, I'm not as flexible, I'm a whole lot more sore. I'm not as good as I once was. And the argument in the hearts and minds of these people might be

that God has been here for a long time, and we haven't heard much. And they overlook the fact that it may be because they're not listening, but that's what despair does, right? It lies to us. And they may be saying, sure, he parted the Red Sea, Sure, He brought His people through the wilderness. Sure, He has saved us and provided for us time after time, but we're far from home and we're hurting. And notice that this despair completely ignores the fact that the situation they are in is because of their own disobedience and rebellion against God. It's their own fault. And doesn't despair frequently do this? It lies to us about responsibility. lies to us about the greatness of our problems. It lies to us about the greatness of God. The second objection or problem that leads them into despair might be this, that God is limited by

territory. Or another way of saying this is that he's too far away. We've all experienced this. We've gone to a place where there's no cell service or limited cell service, and we're too far away from a tower, and we try to call up, and we have one bar, and all of a sudden it says no service, and God's people, far away, 900 miles from home, are going, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we're no longer in the territory of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We're too far away, and maybe we're out of range. And the third objection is this, that maybe God's limited in strength, or is too tired. Another way of saying this is that our problems are too big. We can always go to the place of failure. We can always make something for us that's so heavy we can no longer lift it.

And maybe that's it. The problem's just too big for God to lift. Or maybe it's this, that God is too tired. He's done so many things, and they're great things, but now He is worn out and He is tired. Do you see this despair? Our problems are too big. God's too far away, maybe He's gotten old, and the third is this. Maybe my problems are too complex. That God is limited in His understanding. We understand that there's always more to learn for us. No matter what subject you begin to dive into, we always find that there is more and more, and questions to be answered and things to be researched. And we look at our limitations, and maybe we put those on God, saying, my problems are too complex. And these problems come from this,

that they're looking and that we are looking in the wrong place for answers. We're looking at our strength versus our problems rather than the greatness of God versus our problems. Look at how God responds. He's going to answer each one of these objections. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, The creator of the ends of the earth, he does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. And first, before he begins to answer the objections, he gives them this reminder. And it's the same thing that we might do when somebody is scared or suffering. We say, hey, look at me, look at me, focus on me. And what God is doing with these people who are in the midst of doubt and despair, he looks at them and he goes, first of all, look at me.

He says, this is not new information, have you not known, have you not heard? And the answers to those doubts that we just talked about follow, right? God's limited by time, or it's been too long. What does he say? The Lord is an everlasting God. Maybe God is limited by territory, or we're too far away, right? God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. God is limited in strength or energy. My problems are too big. He does not faint or grow weary. My problems are too complex. God is limited in his understanding. It says, God in his understanding is unsearchable. Now, I want you to understand what is happening here. God is reminding. He's not defending. He's already defended these claims in the verses that come before. when he says, spread your hands out and measure the galaxy.

And weigh the mountains, pick up a measuring cup, and measure the waters. God's already defended these answers. Now here he is to his people, and he is reminding them that when we think we're too far away, he is the creator. When we think that our problems are too big, he does not faint or grow weary. when our problems are too complex, God's understanding is unsearchable. And when we think that it's been too long, God is the everlasting God. God here is reminding people in the midst of despair of His greatness. To behold His glory and to be comforted by the fact that God is eternal, that He is all-powerful, that He is all-knowing. That he does not get tired or weak. And the picture here for despair is this. Put your hope in God. Focus on Him.

Remember what He has said. Remember what He has done. And put your hope in Him. And now we'll see in the next verses, and we'll talk about those next week, that for those who doubt God's goodness, He has an answer for that as well. And so here we are. Maybe we feel like we've been struggling for as long as we can remember. Maybe we feel like we're far from home. Maybe we're faced with overwhelming problems that seem too big and too complex. And the question is, what do we do? And the answer is that God says, it is remember what you've seen, remember what you have heard, remember who I am. Put your hope in me. And the question is, well, how can we do that? I think there's a couple of simple answers to begin that process.

They're simple to say, not necessarily in their execution, but the first is this, bring your questions to the right place. These people, in their struggle and in their heartbreak, have been just sort of running these over and over in their mind. Or maybe in the depths of emotion to a close friend or to a spouse. it's the same thing we do sometimes we're not very good at finding the place to go for the right answers it would be like if i am looking for something in our house there's only one person who in the last 13 years actually 12 years 395 94 days has been able ever been able to find anything in our house and that's rachel and it would be like me going to the dog and going hey can you help me find where the chips went? Now, the dog would be very willing to try, but he's not

going to be very good at it, right? Because I've gone to the wrong place. And the same is true in life. We so many times go and we search and we ask the absolute wrong person. And we may be asking the right question in the midst of our despair, but we're asking the wrong person. And so the first way that we put our hope in God is we ask God, instead of muttering to ourselves or complaining to others, we go, God, it feels like you don't see me. It feels like I'm uncared for. And notice what God does. Even though they're not asking him, he answers them anyway. And he says, I do see you and I do care for you. Now next, this is key. You've got to listen to his answer. Have you ever read maybe a recipe online?

Like I go to try something new, and so you read through the recipe, and it says, well, here's the ingredients that you need. Here's the process for what you need to do, how to prepare, how to cook, the method, the time, and the temperature. And then if you ever make the mistake of going to the comments on any of these things, you'll always find one person who goes, looks at the recipe, goes, hey, you know what I did? I changed every ingredient. I didn't do any of the preparation. I cooked it with a different method to a different time to a different temperature, and it turned out terrible. What do you have to say for yourself? And you might go, maybe follow the recipe as it's written. right stop changing everything and then complaining about how it didn't work out for you

but then here you and i are and maybe we do the right thing we bring our questions and our heartbreak and our despair to God and he goes look and remember and see who i am and we go i don't want to do that so it's not just taking your questions the right place you've got to Listen to the answer. Here's God's answer to the despair in our heart. And the first thing He says is, Behold who I am and what I have done. And next, He's going to remind us of His goodness. And so many times here we say, I'm just going to do it my way. So here's the answer that we need to go to. It's looking to ourselves. I love in Psalm 42 because the psalmist, in his despair, he talks to himself and he goes to himself,

Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you at turmoil within me? And this man says to himself, Self, why are you in despair? Why is your heart like an ocean in the midst of a storm? And then he speaks to himself and he simply says this, Hope in God. For I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Take the cry of your heart to the goodness and the greatness of God and listen to what he says. And so here are people in Isaiah 40, and they're in captivity, and they're so far away from home. And they're struggling, as we sometimes do. And God's answer is, Behold my greatness. Behold my goodness and be comforted. And so here we are. We talked a little bit about this during our time of prayer this morning

is that sometimes, right, we're far from home. Maybe some days we feel closer to home than others. But the reality is that God's people are strangers and exiles, often in a land that's difficult and frequently hostile. And so we want to take this moment to put our hope in God. And so as we come to the Lord's table, as we come to this meal, this is a moment for us to bring our brokenheartedness to our Savior. To take our questions to the right place. To listen to what He has said to us. He's the one who knows your struggles. Your hurts, your sins, your grief, your sorrow, your insufficiencies. And He doesn't just know them in an intellectual fashion, but He has come near to you. God of flesh. And Jesus knows what it's like to be tired.

He knows what it's like to be tempted. He knows what it's like to struggle. He knows what it's like to have conflict within His family and without. Jesus knows. The one who created the world has come close to you. Not just in the information of what it's like to be you, but in the experience. He knows not just the facts about you, but He knows your heart. And He took all of your brokenness and all of your despair upon His shoulders, and He went to the cross. The sin that is so big and so complex, we despair of even trying to come up with a solution. Jesus takes it upon His shoulders and He dies for your sin. And three days later, He rises conquering death. Partaking of this meal that we're going to do in just a minute

is looking to the One who knows us, who loves us, who has taken our brokenness, who is both great and good. this meal in this moment is a little bit like verse 28 of Isaiah 40. To look to His greatness and goodness to answer the cry of our despairing heart. Have you not heard? And if you're a Christian, this is the moment of evaluation. It's the moment of being strengthened, of finding peace in the greatness and goodness and in the sacrifice of our Savior. And if you are not a Christian, this is a moment to, in quietness, take a good look at what it is you're hoping in and what it is you're hoping for and where it is you're living and what it is you're living for. So as we come to this table, this is our cry to ourselves, hope in God.

I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. We're going to pray, and then we will partake of the meal together. Father in heaven, I thank you for your grace. And I thank you for how you look ahead to what the future holds for us. And you have prepared and planned. And that in you there is hope. And in the midst of the darkness of our sin and our captivity to that sin, You sent Your Son who came to the cross and took our place. We ask that as we eat this meal, we would remember the love and the grace that was poured out. That we would remember the greatness of our Messiah and the humility and the brokenness of His death. That we would see the cost of our sin and we would feel the weight,

the wonderful weight of forgiveness, lifting that from our shoulders. That You would restore our hope. That You would restore our souls. I ask that You bless this bread and this cup that we would proclaim Your Son until He comes again. It's in His name we pray. Amen. If You would take the bread with me as Jesus, sitting with His disciples who are about to experience both doubt and despair, reminds them of who He is. He has shown them His love and He says, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. If you would, take the cup with me, this cup that is the new covenant in the blood of Jesus. Let's remember Jesus together.

Father, we know with our heads, help us to see clearly with our hearts and to live it out in our actions, the reality of your greatness and goodness. That we would be humble before you, but we would also be fearless in your strength and in your power. That you would lift the weight of despair as we see the truth of your word. as we experience this meal together, reminding us and strengthening us in the truth of the good news of the gospel, that your Son came to save us, that he died for our sins, was buried, and on the third day rose again. Strengthen us in truth. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We've been singing a new song. We've sung it a few times leading up to this. It's a song called His Glory and Our Good, that as we see God's glory,

it is good for us in our hearts and in our souls, just like Isaiah 40 says, that comfort comes from beholding both the greatness and the goodness of God. So if you would be standing, we're going to go ahead and sing together.

I have seen my Father's glory Revealed in Jesus Christ And the more that I behold him The more he satisfies When I gaze upon his beauty When I see him as I should Then my eyes are lifted upward For His glory in my will There is hope in every trial For I can trust the Lord He will turn my heart towards Him And help me bear the thorn So in faith I follow Jesus on the road not understood For I know that he is working for his glory and my Lord To our God be the glory, to our God be the grace, he alone The name above all names I will boast ever only If the Lord my God For I know His glory is my good See the open arms of Jesus Upon the cross that day

What they understood as weakness Deserved by every praise For the charge that was against me It was never to the wood Yes, I know that He has saved me For His glory and my good To our God be the glory I will boast ever only in the Lord, my God, for I know His glory is my good.

Would I gladly be made nothing, that Christ would be made more? Would I seek the only King, that far away is them all? I will stand before my Father, where the faithful saints have stood. And with joy my heart shall praise Him For His glory and my good And with joy my heart shall praise Him For His glory and my good To our God be the glory To our God be the rest here on The name above all names I will boast ever only in the Lord my God For I know His glory is my good To our God be the glory To our God be grace He alone, the name above all ways And I will boast ever only in the Lord my God For I know His glory is my good Yes, I know His glory is my good

We are thankful that you are here with us this morning. Just a couple of announcements. First of all, there is this week. Next week, on the 13th, we are going to be having a Wednesday night cookout. We like to invite the neighborhood, invite some friends. Come and eat some food. That's 6 p.m. here at the church that Wednesday. You're welcome. You can bring a dish to share if you like. But we're going to have a Wednesday night cookout. It's been a while since we've done one of those. So invite a friend. If you're in the neighborhood, invite some neighbors. We'd love to share a meal and just be encouraged together. Secondly, coming up on Wednesdays in September, which is not as far away as it sounds, we're going to begin September 10th. We're going to begin a study. We're calling it Unearthed.

We're going to discover the truth and the treasure of God's Word, which many of us know, but many of us need to be reminded. And so part of what we're doing is we want to see both the truth of the Word of God and the truth that is in the Word of God. And so in part, we'll take a look at some of the history and the text, how that all fits together, but also in that taking a look at the transforming riches that the Word of God holds. We'll take a look at some history. We'll take a look at some theology. It's going to be, I think, a good and valuable and helpful thing for us. So that's beginning on September 10th. Both those announcements are in the back of the bulletin that is there on the table.

We're going to go ahead and have a word of prayer, and I'll read from the 33rd Psalm, and then we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, be with us. Watch over us. Give us strength. Help us to fix our eyes on you. Just be with us as we look forward to the future, whether that's in our personal plans or what we are doing as a church or as families. And may we always live for your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the verses that came just before what we read this morning, it says this, Behold, the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. above ye heavenly host Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost