Sunday, August 28 - Power of Pictures 2022-08-28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOBHVNvucdc Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Okay, good morning. Good morning, everybody. It's good to be here with everyone. We're going to get started today by reading out of Psalm 107, so if we want to go ahead and stand, we will be reading verses 1 through 3 today together. And it begins, "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south." This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for the opportunity to gather here today. We thank you for those that are watching online, and we thank you for the encouragement and the excitement that we can feel here today as we just get together and fellowship and worship you. Be with our service today and allow it to glorify you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, we're going to start our service today by singing Raise a Hallelujah. I raise a Hallelujah In the presence of my enemies I raise a Hallelujah Louder than the unbelief I raise a Hallelujah My weapon is a melody I raise a Hallelujah Heaven comes to fight for me I'm gonna sing In the middle of the storm Louder and louder You're gonna hear my praises roar Up from the ashes Hope will arise Death is defeated The King is alive I raise a hallelujah With everything inside of me I raise a hallelujah I will watch the darkness flee I raise a hallelujah In the middle of the mystery I raise a hallelujah Fear you lost your hold on me I'm gonna sing In the middle of the storm Louder and louder You're gonna hear my praises roar Up from the ashes Hope will arise Death is defeated The King is alive Sing a little louder In the presence of my enemies Sing a little louder Louder than the unbelief Sing a little louder My weapon is a melody Sing a little louder Heaven comes to fight for me Sing a little louder In the presence of my enemies Sing a little louder Louder than the unbelief Sing a little louder My weapon is a melody Sing a little louder Heaven comes to fight for me I'm gonna sing In the middle of the storm Louder and louder You're gonna hear my praises roar Up from the ashes Hope will arise Death is defeated The king is alive All right, you can keep standing if you want or if you'd like to sit, that's fine, too. We're gonna be moving into our prayer and share time. So if you're watching online, there'll be a phone number to text. If you have anything you'd like to share with us, please do that. And then we'll be muted here during that time. So give us a few minutes and then we'll be back to continue on with the right. Continue on with the rest of our service. And we're going to be singing as we go into that time, "Your Grace is Enough." You wrestle with the sinner's restless heart. You lead us by still waters and to mercy. And nothing can keep us apart. So remember your people. Remember your children. Remember your promise of God. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough for me. Great is your love and justice, God of Jacob. You use the weak to lead the strong. You lead us in love. You lead us in the song of your salvation. And all your people sing along. So remember your people, remember your children, remember your children, remember your children. Remember your promise, O God. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough for me. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough for me. You can sit down. So, let's go. So, let's go. I want us to see what God is doing in this passage. I want us to see what God is doing in this passage. Jesus said, "I'm not going to leave you alone." Let's pray. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. God is doing this. I want us to be able to find out what God is doing in this passage. We're doing things in a little bit of a different order this morning. In just a few minutes, we're going to dive into the 107th Psalm. Then we will let this song of praise to God's rescue and redemption lead us to communion. Before we dive in to God's word this morning, we're going to sing "Break Every Chain." We've been trying to sing songs this morning that help us with the picture of God's power and God's rescue and God's help through all of these things. Let's go ahead and sing "Break Every Chain." There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain Oh, sufficient sacrifice, so free to be saved, and so free to be saved. Oh, sufficient sacrifice So freely given such a price For our redemption Heaven's gaze swing wide. There is power in the name of Jesus. There is power in the name of Jesus. There is power in the name of Jesus. To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain. There is power in the name of Jesus. in the name of Jesus. There is power in the name of Jesus. Break every chain, break every chain, break every chain. Break every chain, break every chain. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you so much that you have saved us, that you have rescued us, that you have redeemed us. I thank you for how you have loved us and how you have brought us from all different directions to be part of your family. I thank you so much for grace, and this morning, as we hear the words of this psalm, may you encourage our hearts to those who are hungry or lost or feel like they are imprisoned by sin, that you would help us to see that it's through your Son that all of those things that have been holding us captive are broken through him. So, help our hearts rejoice this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. One of the things that most of us have experienced is we've seen the power of pictures. And what I mean by that is that pictures for us can do a lot of different things. They can sort of portray information. So, for example, I was looking through some of the screenshots on my phone. Maybe. There we go. And, you know, found sort of some maps. Most of us have used a map or a GPS that helps us. And I can hear turn right in, you know, 800 feet. But looking at that picture helps me see that just a little better because, like, which 800 feet? I don't understand distance in that way. And then sometimes, right, pictures can sort of stir up our emotions or attitudes. They can make us laugh or make us sad. So I sent this to my wife and Cody and Holly this week with the heading that the first time you go camping as a family. And the headline is just, "Wife Stabs Husband with Squirrel." It turns out there's more to the story that makes it even funnier. It was a ceramic squirrel, and the reason she stabbed him was because he didn't bring home beer after work. And so it's kind of a rough story. Likely, I think it may have taken place in South Carolina, but it sounds like something that would have happened probably in Florida. And then there are pictures that kind of warm our heart and remind us of something that we had forgotten. What showed up in my memories this week was a picture of Luke as pretty close to being a newborn, just a few weeks old. And our dog, Rigby, who was amazing with our kids and who loved our kids very well. We have pictures of all of our kids either using Rigby as a pillow or Rigby kind of curled up around them. And you see that? And I'd totally forgotten about this moment, and it was heartwarming remembering Luke as a child when he couldn't run away. And remembering Rigby and how well she cared for our family. And so one of the things that pictures do for us is they help us sort of see and understand and feel things and recognize things maybe in a better way than what would normally happen. And one of the things that I have come to love about the Psalms is that the Psalms frequently use sort of word pictures to help us understand pictures that don't just address our mind by giving us facts, but they don't just address our hearts by giving us emotion, but they also address our actions. I'll give you a few examples. The very, very first Psalm. It's a Psalm probably a lot of us have read. If you've ever tried to read through the book of Psalms, you start at the first Psalm, and it talks about how the righteous is like a tree planted by streams of water. And in my mind, I have this picture of sort of an arid area, and through it flows a stream, and there is this tree, and it's not like the scraggly desert bushes that we see so frequently, but it's this big, tall tree that offers shade and refreshment. And this tree, even in the dry season, is strong and green and producing fruit because its roots go down deep to find the moisture, and the psalmist helps us picture this. And then he says this is like the man who meditates on the Word of God, right? And so it helps us understand strength in our mind. It calls to our emotion. If you've ever looked for shade on a hot day, it also calls us to action because the psalmist says if you want to be like that tree, here is the Word of God. Or one that we're all very familiar with in the 23rd Psalm, right? "The Lord is my shepherd," and there's this picture of a good shepherd who provides for us by bringing us to refreshment and nourishment, who walks with us through the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death, brings us to God's feast and in a rejoicing manner. And it's a picture that has encouraged Christians for forever, since it was written, right? All of those centuries have been encouraged by the picture of God being our shepherd. And so one of the things we find when we come to the Psalms are this beauty of these pictures that address our mind and our heart and our actions. And this is something that Jesus talks about in the Gospel of Mark. He'll say, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." And Jesus says, "We love God." It's not just one part of our being. Not just sort of intellectually saying, "Yes, I believe this." Not just sort of feeling it, and not just sort of acting, but all three of these things that we know, we feel, and we do. And the Psalms address all of us. And so this morning, as we dive into the 107th Psalm, one of the things that I love about this, and it's a long psalm, is that it presents, sort of between verse 4 down to verse 32, these four pictures that are ultimately God's rescue of us. And so I want to sort of walk through, just briefly this morning, these four pictures. And the first picture we find begins in verse 4 and 5. And I'm going to sort of give us the beginning of these pictures, and then we'll walk through them. It says, "So some wandered in the desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them." And so the very first picture are these who are lost in the desert, but they're not just lost, as they were heading to a destination, to a city, where there would be safety and shelter and refuge and refreshment. But instead of finding that city, they're wandering through the desert. And in our lives, we've probably experienced lostness on sort of a varying scale, right? There's the lostness where we're not really sure where something is. So a few weeks ago, Rachel and I, kids went to my mom and dad's, and we were celebrating our 10th anniversary. And we were over toward D.C., and we were in a mall looking, and don't laugh too much at this, for a Lego store. And we walk in the mall, and it's like, "Where is this?" And we're wandering around trying to find it, and can't find it anywhere, right? And so we were lost, but it wasn't a big deal, right? Because you can find a map, and you can look around, you can ask somebody. And then there's times where maybe we're driving in an unfamiliar place, and we get turned around and lost, but it's not a big deal. So we can pull over and pull up directions on our phone, or we can ask somebody. But then there is a lost that is life-threatening, right? Where you're lost in the wilderness, or you're lost in the desert, and there's no food, and there's no water, and no shelter. And the picture that the psalmist is giving us here is not just sort of, "I can't find where I'm going," or "I got turned around, and I'm a little confused." This is a life-threatening lostness that he's talking about. And he's not just simply speaking of a physical lostness. But he's saying take that feeling of being almost dead in the middle of the desert, and understand that your soul is like that. It's crying out for something. Charles Spurgeon, one of my favorite preachers, says this: "Who can keep up his courage when he is ready to fall to the ground at every step through utter exhaustion?" He's talking about this verse: "The supply of food is all eaten, the water is spent in the bottles, and there are neither fields nor streams in the desert. The heart, therefore, sinks in dire despair. Such is the condition of the unwakened conscience before it knows the Lord Jesus. It is full of unsatisfied cravings, painful needs, and heavy fears. It is utterly spent and without strength, and there is nothing in the whole of creation that can minister to its refreshment. That you are lost and searching for something that will help your soul." And that's the very first picture the psalmist gives us. The second is one of the darkness of imprisonment. He'll say this, beginning in verse 10, "Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons. For they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So he bowed down their hearts with hard labor, and they fell down with none to help." Right? So there's some misery for us that isn't too bad, especially if we have companions in this misery. So, believe it or not, in my time in school, during my education, especially probably in my middle school years, I may have gotten in trouble a little bit. And there was two kinds of trouble to get into, right? There's the trouble where you're the only one in trouble, and it's lonely, and you're bearing the weight of the punishment all by yourself. And then there's the time you get in trouble with all of your friends, and yeah, you're punished, but, right, it's kind of a funny joke to you and your friends. The psalmist here is not picturing sort of that misery loves company. Yeah, we're going through something hard, but we're going through it together. The picture here is separation, isolation, darkness, and there's a monster in that darkness, which is death. And it says this picture of chains. And then the thing that makes this even worse is that, right, some people are imprisoned wrongly and falsely, but the ones that the psalmist talks about here are not imprisoned wrongly. They had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. That picture of spurning is to treat something wonderful with contempt. And so there's a lot of things, probably most of us have a lot of things that we like, that we own, but then there are some things that are sort of extra special to us. And I was thinking about my things, and one of those things for me is I have a Bible from a preacher in our family from three generations ago. Our family was a family of preachers on my mom's side who emigrated by decree of the king from Sweden, exiled, came to America and preached. And I have generation number three, both from the beginning and from me, in terms of, you know, preaching. And I have his Bible. It's in my office in a little box. And it's something I treasure, right? Because it's a picture of family. It's a picture of the goodness of God. It's a picture of the gospel. It's how God sustains not just one generation, but seven generations. And it's something that is precious to me. And if I was showing you this Bible, which is old and it's rickety and it's falling apart, and you just looked at it and threw it on the floor, right, I would become very angry. Because here's something that is precious to me, and you're treating it with contempt. Now take that thing that is precious to you, and imagine somebody treating it with contempt. And that's the picture of how these people who are in prison are treating the Creator of the universe, treating the good gifts, His Word that directs and protects and guides, and they treat it with contempt. And so justly they are imprisoned. But more than that, it says they're bowed down with hard labor. Hard work we find biblically is good for us, but hard labor in prison is different because it's not work where you accomplish something. It's work you're doing on behalf of another, and it's discouraging, and you're despondent. And so the second picture, first picture is lost in the desert. The second picture is bowed down under the weight of captivity and imprisonment, but it's a just and righteous imprisonment. The third is, some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities, they suffered affliction. They loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. And so the second picture is similar to the first. Both people have spurned the Word of God, but these are the ones who are fools, right? And so it's not necessarily an intentional decision. I'm just going to spurn the Word of God. I'm going to treat it with contempt. I'm going to treat him with contempt. But rather, this is somebody who just simply follows their own desires no matter where they lead. You can read about the fool in Proverbs when the shady lady is calling to him, and he doesn't see the dangers and the snares. All he sees is somebody he wants to pursue, and so he just goes off following his own desires. It's still sin, and it's still brokenness, and it still has consequences. And what you find is this one who has struggled to follow his desires, who has not learned, you see them suffering with affliction that is bringing them near death. And what you find is when you and I rebel against God, it brings into our life, into our souls, hurt and suffering and discontentment to the center of our being. The fourth picture here in the 107th Psalm is a little bit different. It says this, "Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord and the wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to the heaven, and they went down to the depths, and their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunken men, and we're at our wits' end." So there's a change of pace, right? We've gone from the traveler who's wandering in the desert. We've moved to the person who intentionally spurns the Word of God. And then we've moved to the person who is spurting the Word of God, but in a different way. Not necessarily saying, "I hate God," but rather saying, "I'd rather follow the desires of my heart no matter where they lead me." And we've seen brokenness, lostness, and hurt so far. And then we come to these respectable merchants. It doesn't say anything about them being sinful, but I think the picture of these merchants as they set to see, to pursue their trade, is one of pride. Because they don't seem to think of God, right? And so God will send a storm to sort of introduce Himself. And so their issue here is not that they're necessarily running from God or trying to rebel against God. They just don't simply think about God at all. And this is oftentimes, I think, where maybe we find ourselves. As we face decisions in the world, we just sort of think, "Well, I'm going to do that," right? Without a second thought to what God has called us to do. And so God humbles the proud with a storm. Notice you see His hand. "For He commanded and raised the stormy winds." It's not an accident that they encounter this storm. And it's bigger than anything that they've ever seen. The waves went up to the heavens and down to the depths. And these men who had been experienced merchants, they couldn't keep their footing because of the rocking of the boat, and they're at their wits' end. Right? God humbles them with a storm. So these four pictures, as they began, none of them are very comforting, right? You've got the guy dying of thirst in the desert. You've got the person dying in prison. You've got the person dying on their sickbed as a result of their decision. You've got the person dying in the middle of the storm, and it just seems like it's a little bit depressing. You have the desert at its driest, the ocean sort of at its ocean-y, ocean-y-est. I just made that word up. And then you have, right, the prison and the hospital. Let's move to the response of these people. These might seem sort of similar. Psalm 107:6, "Those lost in the desert, they cried to the Lord in trouble, and He delivered them from their distress." Those in the darkness of jail, they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. Those suffering in the hospital, they cried to the Lord in their trouble. He delivered them from their distress. Those sailors and merchants in the storm, they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. I don't know if you see a pattern, but they're crying to the Lord. And what that simply means is that they're praying, but it's picturing a prayer of deep emotion, of deep urgency from the center of their being. They're not just sort of simply saying, "God, thank you for the food that you've provided for me today." They're crying out with the entirety of their being for rescue. And one of the things you find in the Bible is that prayer can be long, it can be short. It can happen in all kinds of different places, all kinds of different postures, from hands lifted high to face down on the ground before God. Prayer happens in so many different places and times and ways. But oftentimes in the darkest moments, our prayers are short and from the heart. In Jehoshaphat, in 2 Chronicles 20, as the enemies march toward the city, he prays and he asks God and he explains their situation. But the prayer at the very end of his big prayer is simply this: "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." Right? That's crying out to God, "I don't know how to face this storm. I don't know how to face the desert. I don't know how to face the imprisonment of my sin. I don't know how to face the brokenness of my heart for my foolish behavior, but my eyes are on you." Or Nehemiah chapter 2, as Nehemiah stands before the king, and the king has asked him why he's sad, and Nehemiah has explained to him why he's sad, and the king says, "What do you want to do?" And for Nehemiah, this is a pivotal moment, right? His life is on the line depending maybe on how he answers. We don't know his relationship or how close. And so Nehemiah in that moment will do this. He says, "I pray to the God of heaven." It wasn't a long extended prayer like he had prayed in chapter 1, but I think he simply says, "God, guide me and give me strength." You see, in their brokenness, God's people cry out to him and say, whether that's the brokenness of dissatisfaction in the desert, whether that's the brokenness of being imprisoned from our sin, whether that's the brokenness of finding the consequences of our foolish behavior, or the brokenness of our pride being humbled. And here's where we see the wonder: God delivered them. Now, I understand delivering the guy who's lost in the desert. I understand delivering the guy who has been in the storm. And I understand a little bit about delivering the foolish guy, right? He made a bad decision, you bail him out. But the guy who has intentionally rebelled and spurned the Word of God, you think, at least if it was me, I'd be like, "I don't know about him." But you see what God does? He rescues all of them, right? And there's not a precondition. They cry out to God, and He delivered them. And so I would just point to you to sort of the practical power of prayer. And if you're struggling with prayer, maybe how to pray, what to pray, you find that God hears your prayers. He wants to hear your prayers. He loves it when you pray. And Romans 8 tells us that He helps you when you pray. We also see that some people only turn to God when life is at its dark. So I would say to you this morning that if you're afraid to pray, understand that God cares, God listens, and God helps you pray. Next, you see not just that God rescues, but you see how God rescues. And what you find, and I love this, is that the vastness of the emptiness of the desert is no match for the power of God. And I would also say that the vastness of the emptiness of all those things that we've tried to satisfy our soul with are no match for the power of God. Listen to what God does to those in the desert. He led them by a straight way until they reached a city to dwell in. Or this, it should sound familiar. He satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul. He fills with good things. Mary sings that in the Gospel of Luke as she celebrates her pregnancy with Jesus. The second thing we see is that imprisonment is no match for the greatness of God. He brought them out of darkness in the shadow of death, and He burst their bonds apart, for He shatters the doors of bronze and cuts into the bars of iron. And you see that God doesn't halfway save, right? He doesn't come in and unlock everybody and say, "All right, you're free to go." But He bursts in and He shatters and breaks the bonds of these prisoners into and brings them to freedom, right? Your imprisonment from sin is no match for the greatness of God. You find that our brokenness is also no match for the greatness of God. Listen to Psalm 107:20. He sent out His Word and He healed them. He delivered them from their destruction, right? Those sick in the depths of their being, God heals and saves them from their destruction. And storms that we face in life are no match for the greatness of God. He made the storm to be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and He brought them to their desired haven. And so I hear things like this, how God has saved the struggling in the desert. He's greater than the vastness of our emptiness. And how God has saved and rescued those who are imprisoned by sin. How He saved those from their foolish decisions by healing. How He saved those in the midst of the storm by bringing calm and healing to that storm, and it quiets the waters. And our objection might be, "Well, that's great for them, but what about me?" Right? Because we live in a world where we have to earn everything. Right? Where we have to qualify for everything. You want to buy a car and you need a loan? You have to qualify. You want a credit card so you can get a loan on your car? You have to qualify. You want a mortgage? You have to qualify. You want a job? You have to be qualified. Right? You want to go to a good school? You have to qualify. We are so used to, in this world, having to earn our way and to qualify for the things that we want. And so we look at this and say, "Yeah, that's great for the people in the psalm that God saves them from their emptiness and from their sin and from their foolishness and from their pride in the midst of the storm. What about me?" Listen to how the psalmist begins, and we read this together at the beginning of our service. "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble and has gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south." Right? You see, our distance, our lostness, our imprisonment, our spiritual sickness and brokenness, our pride in the midst of the storm is no match for the reach of God. Notice how He begins this whole psalm, right? From the north, south, east and west, all of these people He brings in and has saved them. But more than that, you see God's love. For He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. Right? The first thing is that God's love doesn't run out. We're used to that all of the time. We have to grocery shop every week because our food runs out, it gets eaten, and we have to replenish it. We're also used to things expiring, right? Milk expires. Coupons expire. Learned this when I had kids that car seats expire, right? You have all of these things that expire, and we're used to this. Things running out and things expiring, and we look at the love of God and we say, "Yeah, the love of God, maybe it's enough for them, but not for me. I'm too far away." Or the love of God is great for them, and it's been great for me. But what about now, after I've made a shipwreck of my life, after originally following God? And the picture you find is that His love endures forever. No matter how north, south, east, or west, it doesn't expire, and it doesn't run out. I want you to hear the response of the saved. Let them thank God for His steadfast love. For His wondrous works to the children of man. For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love. For His wondrous works to the children of man. For He shatters the doors of bronze, and cuts in two the bars of iron. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love. For His wondrous works to the children of man. And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of His deeds in songs of joy. Let them thank God for His steadfast love. For His wondrous works to the children of man. Let them extol Him in the congregation of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders. First of all, you see thankfulness and acknowledgement of where our salvation comes from. You and I, when we do something good, we tend to like to take the credit. One of my favorite things to do, especially when I'm eating at somebody's house, and somebody gets done with the meal, and they say, "Oh man, that was so good." I like to just simply take credit and say, "Thank you. I worked very, very hard on this meal." Much to the annoyance of the person who has actually gone ahead and done that, right? We like to take credit. And so many times, we come to God in our brokenness, and He heals us, and He saves us. Man, I really did well at putting my life back together. And the psalmist says, "That's not how it works." That the response to joy, the response to salvation, is to come to God in thankfulness. That it wasn't me, and it wasn't my goodness, and it wasn't my strength. It was the goodness of God. But the second thing you see is that God's people are called to proclaim His good works. And for us, sometimes, especially when we think about sharing the gospel with people, this is a hard thing, right? That people can reject us. Maybe we don't know what to say. The psalmist says, "Proclaim what God has done for you." In Luke chapter 8, Jesus meets a guy who has been demon-possessed. And if you remember, he charges Jesus' boat naked and in chains and screaming. Jesus casts out the demons. This guy says, "I want to go home with you, Jesus. I want to follow you. I want to serve you and with you." And Jesus will say this to him, "Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you." And he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus has done for him, right? That's one of our calls, those of us who have been saved by God. It's a call not just to be thankful, but it's also a call to share the goodness of God in our life. We have in this text the wonder of redemption. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble, and has gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south. Redemption simply means buying back something that was yours. It can be translated in other places as ransomed. Something that you owned and has either left under its own will and you purchased it back, or that you have lost, it's come back under its own will. You see, you and I in our rebellion have run from God and he bought us back with the blood of his son. As the Israelites celebrate in Passover, one of the things they celebrate is the four promises of God that are found in Exodus 6 and 7. One of those promises is, "I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians." The second promise is, "I will deliver you from slavery to them." The third is, "I will redeem you with an outstretched arms and with great acts of judgment." And seven, "I will take you to be my people and I will be your God." And during the Passover in Jesus' day, as they would celebrate, they would remember these promises. And one of those promises would be remembered by taking a cup at different times in the service. And as Jesus prepares to go to the cross and He celebrates the Last Supper with the disciples, He will take the cup that's after supper. Paul makes a very specific point of that in 1 Corinthians. He takes the after supper cup, the cup that would have been the promise of redemption. That I will redeem you. And Jesus was about to do just that. To redeem, not just those sitting at the table, but all those who would come here. He was about to redeem you and He was about to redeem me. And so, this morning, as we consider God's redemption, how He brings us out of the desert. How He brings us out of the prison of sin. How He brings us out of the sickness and brokenness of sin. How He brings us out of His pride. I want to remind you that we are redeemed. And not with something like gold or silver, Peter says this: "Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited with your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but that with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish and spot." And so as we break this bread and we drink this cup, we're reminded of the fact that we are redeemed. We're redeemed by Jesus out of the darkness and brokenness of our sin and of our hurt and of our lostness. So we're going to go to God in prayer, and we'll read just a little bit from Corinthians, and we will partake together. Father in heaven, we hear the words and see these pictures of those who are lost and those who are imprisoned, those who are suffering and those who are in the midst of the storm. Remind us in this moment that you, you are the one who has redeemed us. You are the one who has saved us. And the cost of that salvation was your son on the cross. That through the cross and the resurrection, he has defeated sin and brought victory on our behalf. I thank you for grace. Help us to be a people who are thankful for the good that you have done to us. Help us to be a people who proclaim these good things. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Paul writes this, and it's a very familiar passage to us. "For what I received from the Lord, I delivered to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it. And he said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." Just as we have talked about thankfulness and proclaiming the good of what God has done, Paul ends this sort of paragraph by saying this, "For as often as you eat the bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." We're going to stand and sing your great name. Lost are saved, find their way At the sound of your great name All condemned, feel no shame At the sound of your great name Every fear has no place At the sound of your great name The enemy he has to relieve At the sound of your great name Jesus, worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us Son of God and man, who are high and lifted up That all the world will praise your great name All the weak Find their strength At the sound Of your great name Hungry souls Receive praise At the sound Of your great name The fatherless They find their rest At the sound Of your great name Sick are healed And the dead are raised At the sound Of your great name Jesus Worthy is the lamb That was slain For us Son of God And man Who are high And lifted up And all the world Will praise Your great name Redeemer My healer Lord Almighty My savior Defender You are my king Redeemer My healer Lord Almighty My savior Defender You are my king Jesus Worthy is the lamb that was slave for us Son of God and man Who are high and lifted up And all the world will praise your great name Your great name Your great name Your great name I am glad that you are here with us this morning. Also thankful for those of you who are joining us online. Just a few announcements before we pray, read a verse, and sing one last song. Coming up next Wednesday night, not this Wednesday night, next Wednesday night, we are going to begin our study in the book of James. So I would encourage you to come and join us for that. There will be no Wednesday evening service this week, but we begin James, and it's I think 13 weeks beginning the first Wednesday in September, which is September 7th. Also, ladies' class is this week, Thursday at 1:00 p.m. Am I right? Okay. What? Oh, go ahead. You can announce it. Who's tall? All right. And then, additionally, starting first Sunday in September, which is next week, we've been announcing this through the month of August, we are doing the Bible Memory Project. So, it's four verses for four weeks during each month. The theme this coming month is the theme of self-control. So, for example, one of the verses is, you know, be quick to listen and slow to speak, thinking about how we speak. And so, one of the things, I know several people have signed up, and we've got a big portion of the pieces in, but depending on, I think most of the kids will take a size medium. Rachel will be in the back, and she has some different sizes, so you can kind of see which fits better. We can send some of those home with you today. So, that's where we're at and what we're doing. So, I'm going to pray, and we'll read the very last verse, the 107th Psalm, and then we will sing the doxology. Father in heaven, I thank you for grace and for hope, and I thank you for your church and your people, and how they encourage and help us. Just be with us as we seek to proclaim your goodness and your greatness to the world that is around us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The 107th Psalm says this, "Let whoever is wise attend to these things," to listen about how God has saved us. Then he says, "Let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord." Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Let's pray.