♪ The things that I love and hold dear to my heart ♪ Are just borrowed, they're not mine at all ♪ Jesus only let me use them to brighten my way ♪ So remind me, remind me dear Lord Roll back the curtain of memories now and then. Show me where you've brought me from and where I could have been. Remember, I'm human and humans forget. So remind me, remind me, Nothing good have I done to deserve God's own son. I'm not worthy of the scars in his hands. Yet he chose the road to Calvary to die in my stead. Why he loved me, I can't understand. Roll back the curtain of memories now and then. Show me where you've brought me from and where I could have been. Remember, I'm human, and humans forget. So remind me, remind me, dear Lord. So remind me, remind me, dear Lord. We're going to turn to the 103rd Psalm tonight. Psalm 103, if you would please. Psalm 103, we'll begin reading in the first verse, Psalm 103, and beginning in verse number one. And the Bible says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. "'who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, "'so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. "'The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment "'for all that are oppressed. "'He made known his ways unto Moses, "'his acts unto the children of Israel. "'The Lord is merciful and gracious, "'slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. "'He will not always chide, "'neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him." And let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing upon the preaching of the Word of God tonight. Father, we certainly know that we have gathered in vain this evening unless your Holy Spirit takes the eternal truths from the Word of God and adheres them to our minds and hearts. Father, may you make a difference in our life. Father, through the message tonight, may it impact us. May your Holy Spirit do your work. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. The 103rd Psalm is a song of pure praise to God. It's a gratitude song sung or written, rather, by David, humanly speaking, led by the Holy Spirit of God. And so David is writing a song of pure praise and gratitude. It seems to have come after a time of maybe a slight chastening, possibly, or at least a time of difficulty, and then when deliverance and rest had returned. as he mentions things about God being merciful and God taking care of us better than we deserve in a sense. It was likely written in David's later years as he seems to have a real appreciation through many battles of what it was like to have the blessing of God over the long haul. We don't know the circumstance surrounding the psalm, but it seems likely that it was after a time of difficulty, maybe even a time of chastening, when finally peace and prosperity were restored to Israel and to David's kingdom. And it could be maybe in a setting such as 1 Samuel 24. We won't turn there tonight for sake of time, but you probably remember the story of David being moved to number the children of Israel, even though he was not supposed to at that time. And it's really difficult to understand fully why David was not to number the people It's possible because of David's motive for numbering them was to kind of glory in the strength of Israel rather than glorying in God and trusting in him. Because at other times and places Israel was numbered, but for whatever reason, God did not want Israel numbered when David numbered them. And he actually used that as a time to, of course, judge Israel pretty harshly. And come on in, folks. And it is so good to see Ms. Scharr here tonight. And praise the Lord for that. And let's see, Jose, would you get up and see if there's any way we can help her? If she needs some helping with seating or anything like that. If you would, please, that would be wonderful. And we have been praying for her. For a long time, it's great to see her healthy enough to come to church, and that's a great blessing. All right. Amen. That's tremendous and we'll let them get settled there. Psalm 103 is where we're at. And so we see, as I mentioned, that this could be, the setting could be 1 Samuel 24. It might not be, but there's a possibility that after David numbered Israel and God sent a plague amongst the Israelites and 70,000 people were slain because not just David's sin, you read the passage and it's clear that it was also the sin of the people that moved David to number them against the will of God. And then at the end of the passage, of course, God instructed David on how to stay the plague by offering a sacrifice. And of course, then peace and prosperity came back to the kingdom. And it seems like this would be a good setting where David was seeing the big picture of his life, the many ups and downs and battles that had happened and seen the blessings and the battles and the blessings and the chastening and the blessings and all of those ups and downs in life and he was basically praising God taking care of him all through that, but I think also giving honor and glory to God for the bigger picture of God's provision, which of course is eternity. And so we see, I think, at least three things in our text. First, we see the praise of deserved, the praise deserved. Let's go to Psalm 103 and verse number one. And the Bible says, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. Now the word bless is an interesting word in the Bible because sometimes God blesses us and other times we bless God. And the idea of blessing, the word means literally to kneel before. And it's the idea to kneel before in order to serve. And so basically when I bless God, I'm trying to serve His purposes by magnifying His name and glorifying Him in the eyes of others. When He is blessing me, He is literally serving me or rewarding me for my trust in Him. And so that's the idea of the word blessing. In a sense, it means to help the cause of. And so David says, bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name. David is saying that he wants to put his efforts in magnifying the Lord and making sure that everyone knows how great it is to serve the Lord. You know, the Bible makes this a point cover to cover, really. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. And as a believer and as a Christian, as a servant of the true and living God, we are supposed to be glad that we're serving him. And we're supposed to do our best to make everyone know that serving him is the best life that you can possibly live. And no matter the ups and downs of life, no matter whether He leads us beside the still waters or through the valley of the shadow of death, there is no place we would rather be than in His service. And that's the idea of our Christian duty, is to praise and bless the Lord. After all, He saved our eternal soul. We literally are not going to spend eternity in hell because we've put our faith and trust in Christ. And let me just say, if that's all He ever did for me, that would be enough to praise Him the rest of my life. But He's done so much more. He daily loadeth us with benefits. He giveth us richly all things to enjoy. He provides family and friends around us, provides many of our wants, and provides our needs. And the truth of the matter is, God is good, and there's always reason to praise Him. And sometimes it gets difficult as a Christian to get the praise out of our mouth, but we should remember, of course, that no matter our trial on this earth, in the big picture, God is going to be good to us for all of eternity. And so the praise deserved. And David wants to make sure that he's praising God for the past, that he's making sure that everyone knows how good God is. And remember the Psalms were sung in the temple. So as people were coming into the temple to worship the Lord, this song was being sung and it was praising God and giving glory to his name. And that's so important. David is saying that he wants to put all of his efforts into magnifying the Lord. He wants to make sure that he never gets used to the benefits he gets from being in God's service. You know, it's funny. Sometimes when you look for a job, you know, or maybe you'll have a job and someone's looking for it, and they'll say to you, where do you work? And you'll say, such and such a place. And they'll say, what are the benefits, right? I mean, that's kind of what we do. What are the benefits they offer? And God, David says here, I want to make sure that my soul never undervalues the benefits of serving God in my life. never undervalues the benefits. Forget not all his benefits. He wants to make sure that he never gets used to the benefits he gets in the service of God. Let's go to Judges chapter number eight, Judges chapter number eight. And it's so easy for us as believers to get used to the blessings of God. to get used to having the word of God around us, and to get used to having access to the throne of God in prayer, to get used to God working in and around our family and friends, we sometimes get used to it so much that it loses its value in our life. And this is to our detriment, Judges 8 and verse 33. And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a-whoring after Balaam, and made Balbaroth their god. And the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side. And boy, that's the way we are as Christians. You know, it's so interesting, even believers who put their faith in Christ for salvation and trust Him with their greatest asset, their soul. When the Bible says, What shall a man have if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? It's our most valuable possession. And yet, He saves us from eternal damnation and we forget that and won't trust Him in the basic areas of our life. And so we would do well to remember the goodness of God. Psalm 103 and verse number 19. Psalm 103 and verse number 19. And the Bible says, the Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure, Bless the Lord, all his works and all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. And so David says, the glory of God and the power of God and the majesty of God is all around us. And it's our job to recognize its wonder and beauty and to praise him and thank him for it and do our best to tell everyone we know how good God is. You know, it's really this way in so many areas of our life. You know, as a husband, I'm supposed to honor my wife. And what that means is to realize she has significant value in my life. And God doesn't say to me to honor your valuable wife. It's already understood that a wife is valuable in your life. And you're supposed to find the value magnify it. That's what you're supposed to do. And let me just say, children, obey your parents. And then it says, honor your mother and father, which is the first commandment with promise. What does it mean? To value. It tells the wife to reverence her husband. which is to attach great value. And so really, this is what happens. And if you talk to someone who's maybe had a regular normal marriage with ups and downs and then ended up in divorce and so forth, this is what they'll tell you. Often the case, they'll say, basically, I didn't realize what I had in many cases, right? And that's our danger. There's many people that have things that they don't realize the value of. Maybe they live in a house and they decide that they don't want to sell and buy something new. And sometimes when they find something new, they realize they're missing what they had. you know, in life. And God is just saying, don't go through life undervaluing what you possess. You know, we have this natural thought process. It kind of works like this. What we have, we know all its flaws. What we don't have, we only see its good points. And so what happens in our life is we literally can't go around living our life always wanting something we don't have. And that's even true with the serving God. The Bible says that the Israelites themselves, when they came out of Egypt, and not realizing, I mean, remember, it was hard in the wilderness, but think about it. They watched the Red Sea part. Think about it. They seen the firstborn of all the Egyptians die, and the power of God bring the greatest nation on the face of the earth at the time to its knees. They watched the army of the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea. They watched manna be on the ground every morning. And eventually they got so tired of the angels' food that fell from heaven that they said, we want some meat. All we've got is this manna. It's just insanity, folks. And we've got to be careful that we don't get used to serving the Lord as well where we forget all his benefits and we only begin to look at the difficulties that we face. and the Israelites got so bad that they wanted to go back to Egypt. Now remember when they were in Egypt, it was their cry that came before the Lord because they were in such bondage. And so he brought them out with a strong hand and then they served him for a while and got so used to it and so focused on the difficulties that they wanted to go back. And let me just say, as believers here tonight, if you're a believer and have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, let me just say, you have a home in heaven one day. There ought to always be a song in your heart. There ought to always be praise on your lips. There ought to always be the desire to magnify the Lord, because you have to realize He can deliver us from the greatest peril, and there is none else For there is one name under heaven by which we can be saved, and that, of course, is Jesus Christ. He is worthy of all glory and honor and praise. He is the Lord of all the earth. He is the one who has all power, and no matter what, we should bring him honor and glory the best that we can. Revelation chapter number five. Sometimes we have to sit back and think that maybe If Christians were happier in the service of the king, maybe others would come to Christ at a higher rate. Revelation chapter number five and verse number 11. And I beheld and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And that's the reality of the world. His creation sees this reality, but the only creature that has a choice in this matter that doesn't just respond to God automatically and properly is man. We've been given a free will. We can glorify Him or not. We can praise Him or not. We can praise Him or we can slander His name. It's up to us. We can do it to ourselves, right? We can, in our own mind, we can talk about all the difficulties of serving God instead of all the blessings. And we can even do it to others. We can talk about God in a negative light. And let me just say, it makes a big impact. You know how it is. when you're talking to, say, well, I grew up in church, so I use church as the setting, right? I grew up in church and I knew lots of families in the church, and sometimes you would start to get to know some kids in the youth group, and their mom and dad, you liked them and you respected them, you've seen them at church all the time, and so you'd go maybe with their friends on a trip, a youth trip, get together and play basketball, or you do something together, and you'd say something about their parents, and they'd be like, oh, my mom and dad this, my mom and dad that, my mom and dad this, right? And you just couldn't help it, it diminished your view of their parents in your eyes. You just couldn't help it. It was impossible not to. And let me just say, when we, his people, don't glorify him, neither will anyone else. And so it's our job, of course, to bring honor and glory to his name. And it should be deliberate in our life. So we see the praise deserved, of course. Then we see the people delivered. Who are these people that get God's protection and provision? and gets God's promises. The people delivered, Psalm 103, in verse number 10. Psalm 103, in verse number 10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far he hath removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. And so the Bible says his people, those that fear him enough to go to him for salvation, those that fear him enough to enter into the covenant, those that fear him enough to be his people, there who have His promises, His provision, His protection on their life. And these are the people that should be praising Him. Down to verse 17. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. and his righteousness unto children's children to such as keep his covenant to those that remember his commandments to do them. And I just love the wording, to keep his covenant is to protect it as something that's valuable. And then it says that remember his commandments to do them. They're striving to do them. They literally keep them in their mind and keep them in the forefront of their attention so that they can attempt to do his commandments. And this, of course, is what we're supposed to do as his people. It is his people that receive his blessings, not because we are worthy or deserving, but because we are his. And we get illustrations of this all the time. Our own children are this way. I mean, why do we take care of our own children? They get what they need, and they also get, if we're able, what they want in life. Why do we care for them when they're hurting? Why do we minister to them? whenever there's a need in their life. Why? Because they're ours. Right? And it doesn't even matter. And they come into our home. They're just a little baby. They've done no good and they've done no bad. And they can't even respond to our love and affection, but we take care of them. And let me say, it's even greater than that. I mean, to be honest, we take care of our animals. We take care of our things. Why? Because they're ours, right? They're ours. And God also takes care of us because we're his. And let me just say, don't think being his is a bad thing. And remember that we are privileged to be his by his grace and mercy. It is his people that receive his blessing, not by worthiness or merit, but because we have chosen to enter into his covenant through Jesus Christ. Exodus chapter 20. Here's the 10 commandments in the Bible. And it's always so interesting how God precisely words things in scripture Exodus 20 and verse number one. And God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. And of course that's representing salvation. He's our God because he saved us. We're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are gods, the Bible says. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shall have no other gods before me. You shouldn't serve nothing but him. He should be your primary Lord. Not your desires, not your addictions, not your fleshly appetites, not mammon or money or material things, not the popularity of others. We have only one God. Verse number four. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation of them that hate me or work against God. Verse number six, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, work for and with God, and keep my commandments. And that doesn't mean that we're perfect. It doesn't mean we obey all his commandments. The word keep is to protect, is valuable. It means we greatly value what he says and we strive to do it. Of course. But notice that it's showing mercy unto us and yet visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. Do you know one day all those that are without Christ will see the wrath of God poured out without mixture unto them? And let me just say, if we could see hell tonight, if we could see those that have been there, even the rich man who's been there all the way since before the story that Jesus told about his life, and he's been burning in hell every single day since, we would no longer worry about the problems of serving God, we'd be glad we're His, right? We'd be glad we're His. We'd feel sorry for anyone, no matter how rich they are. Remember, He was the rich man. Remember, He was the rich man. He fared sumptuously every day. we would feel sorry for men like him who were not Christ and will not have eternity in heaven. If I am his and I am striving to do right, he will bless my life and that is a life worth living, no matter the difficulties, no matter the struggles, no matter the testing, no matter the chastening, no matter the problems in this life. It is good to be His, and that is the point of the psalm. Proverbs 10 and verse 22. Proverbs 10 and verse 22. Proverbs 10, 22, the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it. We've got to remember this is what we have in Christ. And you say, well, I'm in a time of trial right now. Well, I'm in a time of chastening right now. It's good to be chastened because that means I'm his. I'm His, and that means I have an eternal home in heaven, and one day all tears will be wiped away, and one day death and hell will be cast in the lake of fire, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. There'll be no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering, and I'll be with the one who loved me forever, the one who is altogether lovely. There's not even a spot or a blemish upon Him. I am His. and I am privileged to be his in life. And you know, that's the way we're supposed to feel. That's why the Bible says that we're supposed to honor our wives. We're supposed to feel privileged to be hers. The Bible says, let every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband. And that we're not even our own anymore, right? And every wife is supposed to feel privileged to be her husband's and every child is supposed to feel privileged to be in the home that God has placed them in. And of course, if I am his, as a Christian, then I'm supposed to feel especially privileged. You know, I'm supposed to value my spouse, and a child is supposed to value their parents, and a wife is supposed to value her husband, even though we're human and there's lots of reasons not to value us, right? And we're supposed to do that anyway. But with God, He is altogether lovely. Certainly, we can praise His name. As I already quoted Psalm 100 and verse 2 says, serve the Lord with gladness. That's a command of God. Serve Him with gladness. We had a professor at college who used to regularly say, he would say when we came into class that day, into his class, He'd say, boy, you should have a smile on your face. You're a believer. You're a Christian. He said, some of you look like you've been sentenced to Christianity. And he was right. We did. And to be honest, sometimes we felt like it while we were in college, you know, it was a little bit difficult. But in reality, he was right, we should have had a smile on our face because our sins are forgiven. Our name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life and we have eternal life. What did Jesus say? He sent out his disciples two by two and they went out and miracles happened. I mean, they prayed for the power of God, and unclean spirits were subject unto them. And they did healings and all kinds of things, miraculous events happened, and they came back rejoicing. And Jesus said, don't rejoice about that. Rejoice because your name is written in heaven. You say, why? Because it isn't always like that on this earth, right? You don't always pray and get the answers you want, but it's still good to be his because one day we'll have everything just right. And so we see, of course, the people here that are described. And then finally, the power displayed. Let's go to Psalm 103. The power that is being praised by David is quite insightful. He's understanding what's so great. What are the benefits? of serving God and being His. Psalm 103 and verse number 3, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. Now let me just say Let me just say, this is kind of a big picture thinking here, right? Our God is the only one who can forgive sins, of course, because He's who we sin against. And let me just say, if you're here today and you know Christ as your Savior, you serve the one who can forgive your sins. He can forgive your sins as far as eternity goes. And that, of course, is the most important. It means that we can have a home in heaven. But let me just say, He can also forgive your sins from earthly consequences. The Bible says that if we confess and forsake our sins, we shall have mercy, which means less than we deserve here on this earth. And so God can forgive our sins. And what a wonder it is to serve the one who can. In Mark chapter 2, let's go ahead and turn there. Mark chapter 2 and verse number 5. is the story of the man that was let down through the roof to see Jesus. In verse number five, it says, when Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But they were certain of the scribe sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why did this man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? But let me just say, they didn't know he was God, of course. He was God, and thank goodness we serve the God who can forgive our sins for all of eternity. Not only that, he healeth all our diseases. Now, sometimes he heals us by taking us to heaven, of course. but he heals all of our diseases. Why? Because one day we'll have a perfect body where no more disease will happen. And Ms. Schar's here tonight, no more cancer in heaven, no more sickness and no more disease and no more flu and no more coughing and no more death and no more watching our loved ones age and die, no more suffering and no more pain. Why? Because he rose from the dead He conquered death and hell, and He deserves our praise and glory and honor, and it is good to be His. It is so good to be His. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 talks about these things. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 53, for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The truth, the matter is, as a Christian, we are so blessed. no matter our circumstances, no matter our difficulties, no matter our heartaches, no matter our burdens that we bear, we are blessed because we serve the God who can forgive sins. We serve the God who even death does not scare, and death cannot harm us. We serve the God who heals all of our diseases. death cannot harm us. Psalm 103 and verse number four, you might keep your hand there, we'll be flipping back and forth a little bit. Psalm 103 and verse number four, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, only God can give us eternal meaning, a life that lasts beyond death. Not only can death not destroy our soul because we're saved, but death cannot destroy our works if we're laying up treasure in heaven through Christ. Death cannot destroy our works. Colossians chapter number three and verse number one reminds us that we can be heavenly minded and thereby our life can transcend death more than just living eternally, but actually laying up treasure. in heaven. Colossians 3 and verse number 1, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Only our God can give us a life of eternal value and meaning. Only our God can extend mercy to us, even here on this earth. I mean, think about it. You know, you can get in a situation so many times. I remember years ago, I was driving to pick up some young people before church and I was coming back, on the way back, and I had gotten my tabs, my stickers for my car in the mail, but when I got it in the mail, my car was in the shop. It had been in an accident. I won't tell you who wrecked it, but it wasn't me. I'll just tell you that. So it was in the shop and therefore I didn't think about it and so I set the tabs aside and you know how it works, they disappeared. And by the time the car got out of the shop, I didn't even realize I didn't have the tabs on them. And so I got pulled over and I remember the police officer, he came up to the car, and he said, hey, your tabs are expired. And I said, oh, I didn't realize that. I said, boy, I know I got them in the mail. I'm sure that I put them on there. You know, and I couldn't think of why they wouldn't be on there. And I didn't realize that I got them in the mail, but I never actually put them on the car because I didn't have it. And so he said to me, he goes, well, he said, I'm just going to give you a warning. He said, I'm just going to give you a warning and you can get this taken care of. And I said, OK. I said, I appreciate that, even though I always talk about how police officers should enforce the law and not do that. I still was grateful, hypocritically so. But anyway, so the bottom line is that I said, OK, that's fine. He went back to his car. And then he came back and he said, Oh, you know what? I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to not enforce this law. I didn't know we had any laws like that, but anyway. I'm not allowed to not enforce this law. I actually have to give you a ticket since I pulled you over for this. And I said, okay, fine. And so I got a ticket and it's a long story, but I ended up not having to pay it. But the point is that a technicality, it was a technicality. I won in court on a technicality, weirdly enough, but that isn't really a part of the story tonight. The story tonight is he wanted to extend mercy, but he couldn't. Right? And let me just say, when it's earthly, that's the way it is. You know, our parents might want to be merciful on us, but that doesn't mean the judge will be. You know, our friends might want to be merciful on us, but that doesn't mean the world will be. And so the thing about God is when he extends mercy, it's real mercy. And only he can give that because he is the highest authority. You know, you think about those who have went and fought a battle in court over something that they went all the way to the Supreme Court. And you can imagine if they lost every court below. And they thought, boy, there's no chance. I'll just keep losing and losing and losing. But they won at the Supreme Court. Can you imagine the feeling they'd have? There's nowhere higher to go. There's nowhere higher to go. That is the mercy that God has for us. It's good to be his. The Bible says in Psalm 21, you don't have to turn there, in verse 7, for the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High, he shall not be moved. It is the Most High's mercy that we have in Christ. Psalm 103, in verse number 5, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, right? Good means beneficial for, and so only God can bring true good into our life. Once again, we understand this. You know, there's a lot of things that can seem good in your life in a moment, but the problem is, it's like the Bible says, the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it. Just the other day, I read again, and it's not the first time, dozens of these, maybe more than that, someone won the lottery. Right? Won the lottery and it destroyed their life. They took their own life by suicide three years after winning millions of dollars in the lottery. It's crazy. You say why? Because they can't control whether good comes into you. Yet no one else can control it. Someone might give you all the money in the world thinking they're doing you good and they could be doing you great harm. But when God's blessing comes into your life, it is true good. Just as the New Testament tells us in James chapter 1 and verse 16, and we'll go ahead and turn there tonight. James 1 and verse 16, do not err, my beloved brethren. In other words, this is an area you can make a mistake pretty easy. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. You see, there's a lot of times in this world when wickedness seems to prosper, but James says, don't err. If the gift didn't come from God, it wasn't good. It wasn't good. You say, well, it just seems like this is good for me. It's not good for you if God wasn't in it. Whatsoever not of faith is sin, the Bible says. And so we have to understand these things. But the greatness is when I'm serving the Lord and striving to seek his face, whatever comes into my, it might not seem good. But whatever comes into my life that comes from him is good, beneficial for me. And what a great thing it is to be his, to be his. So that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Do you know only God controls our strength? I mean, do you realize any one of us here tonight in a moment of time could be so sickly we could never work another hour in our life? Do you realize any one of us here tonight at any moment could have a debilitating disease that just keeps us from doing anything productive for the rest of our life? It is only God that holds our strength in his hand. Only God that holds our strength. What a good thing it is to be his, to be his. Isaiah 40, of course, in verse 31 says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint. Years ago, I read a biography of D.L. Moody And D.O. Moody preached in a message and he said at one point in his life, he said he was kind of fearful in his early years of ministry and he was kind of constantly afraid and worried and anxious about a lot of things and trying to get everything done himself in his own power. And there's nothing wrong with being a hard worker and laboring and putting a lot of effort in, that's a good thing. But he wasn't trusting the Lord enough. He said finally it hit him one day as he was serving and working for the Lord, and he said he was crossing, I think, I don't remember the exact story, but I think he was crossing a street, and a vehicle came by and just missed him, and he realized, you know, that somehow he could end up killed in just a moment of time, and then it was like God said to him, You know, until I'm finished with you, nothing can happen to you here on this earth. And he said, wow, he finally realized all of his life was in the hands of God. And until God was finished with him, he said, I realized I was immortal. And he said, once he realized that, it brought him great comfort. And so it's just this idea that we should always be aware that being his is the greatest life. Yes, there's trials. Yes, there's difficulties. Yes, there's heartbreaks and heartaches. Yes, there's burdens to carry. Yes, there's walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Yes, there's the den of lions. Yes, there's the fiery furnace. Yes, there's Goliath, the face. Yes, there are. but serving him, being his is the greatest life a human being could ever live. As someone once said, seeking the will of God is the greatest human endeavor. Finding the will of God is the greatest human discovery and doing the will of God is the greatest human achievement, Psalm 103. One last time tonight, Psalm 103, and beginning in verse number eight. The Bible says, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. In other words, he's working in our lives as his children. And so David is giving illustration. And let me just say, in David's life, you know, we kind of get this idea you know, on a surface reading of scripture that, you know, David as a boy was just, you know, just serving the Lord and loving Him, which he was, and then he faced Goliath and everything was going well, and everything went well, and everything went well, and then he became the king of Israel. That's not what happened, folks. You know, David was serving the Lord, and all the way through Goliath, and then through the persecution of Saul to a certain extent, but then David started struggling with his faith. And he tells the story in some of the Psalms, and we see as he was in the land of the Philistines, and he was in the cave of Adullam, that basically he got to points in his life where he was all alone and thought his life was in peril, even though he had been anointed king of Israel. And in the Psalms, he seems to indicate that God was taking care of some problems in David's heart and mind that needed solving. And he began to trust in the Lord, and then God began to bring him out. And so we see that understanding probably of a mature David who had been through so many battles. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. He was thinking of his lack of faith at times, certainly. He was thinking of Bathsheba, certainly, probably at times. He was thinking of his failures in the situation with Uriah. He was thinking of Joab and his struggle with leading Joab. who was almost unleadable. He was thinking of all of these problems that he dealt with in life, probably his dealings with Absalom and how he, in some ways, failed as a father. And he was thinking of all these things, I imagine, and he was saying how gracious the Lord had been through them all. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. David said, one thing I've always done is I've always known that I am his and he's in charge of me. And he said that is why he continued to be merciful unto me. Verse number 12. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. I love that. I love that. Because he separated. Another place, the Bible says, he buried them in the deepest sea. And the whole idea is that when God saved us, He, because He separated us from our sinful flesh, He literally cut around our soul and spirit and then united it with Christ and sealed it with the Spirit of God so that there's a separation between the sinful self, that is the flesh. Romans 7, in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Right? But of course my soul and spirit remains righteous in the eyes of God no matter what. Why? Because blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Sin in the Christian life can only penetrate through the flesh. It cannot enter into the soul of spirit and taint it or we would be lost forever. And so God has separated us from our sins. That little dividing line inside of us between our soul and spirit and flesh, because the Spirit of God sealed it, it might as well be as far as the east is from the west. And that is a wonderful blessing. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and verse number 31. What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Boy, it's good to be His. It's just good to be His, the one with all power. It's good to be His, the one with all knowledge. It's good to be His, the one with all authority. It's good to be his, to know the one who has supreme power. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. It's like if God says I'm just in his sight through Jesus Christ, no lower court can condemn me. No lower court can condemn me. It is so good to be His. Let's have a word of prayer.