in a world that is very dangerous. Psalm 52 begins and it tells us about a time in David's life that was, in fact, if you look at David's life, most of it was very tumultuous. And so, and I realize that in your Bible, probably in really small letters, it says, to the choir director of Mishkal of David. That is actually part of the verse. That's part of the psalm. That's not a postscript. You know, the translators didn't just put that in there so you know what this was. That's actually in the psalm. And so the song is a song. If it's to the choir director, if it's if it's written to the choir director, its purpose is to be used in the worship of God's people. You don't write a choir, you know, a song to the choir director for him to go, oh, yeah, that was really nice. Stick it back in, you know, folder and say, you know, that was really nice. I enjoyed that. You know, that was fine. Its purpose is to be used in the worship of Israel. It was there to remind them that this is God's Word to God's people, a song for them to learn from, and to enjoy. In a Mishka, it means to learn wisdom. There's something to be learned from this psalm. And you'll find several mishkas that David writes, but in the Psalter, and this is one of them. And the goal is that you and I become wise from this, that we learn some kind of a lesson. Well, it gives us this historical setting in verse two. And it says, it was when Doag, the Edomite, had come to report to Saul and had told him that David had come into the house of Akimelech. What's going on? What in the world are we talking about? And so we turn to 1 Samuel and we turn in 1 Samuel to chapter 22. And as we look at 1 Samuel in historical context, Saul is very afraid of David. David's popularity is rising and his is diminishing. God's rejected Saul because Saul has preemptively offered a sacrifice that was not his place and his role. He tried to do something worshipful and very meaningful for the people to bring them together, to join them together. And, you know, does it really make any difference, you know, who makes the offering? But they were waiting on Samuel to come and to bring an offering before the Lord. And because Samuel was slow getting there, Saul decides he would do the job. Because, I mean, after all, how hard is it to cut up a lamb and put it on the altar and burn it? Why does it take a special person? And yet God had rejected him. And so there's this tension that was going on in Samuel or Saul because of that. And he saw the popularity of David in verse 11 of the previous chapter, chapter 21. It says Saul has killed his thousand. But pardon me, but David has killed his ten thousands. So if you got all the girls singing, you know, and the praises are going to David, then he begins to feel the pressure. And so in the process, Saul has tried to pin David to the wall with a spear on several occasions, and David's his son-in-law. And so David finally has to flee. And as he is fleeing, he comes to the house. He comes to the house of Abimelech. And we read in verse nine that when he had come there, it says, Now Doag, the Edomite, who was in charge of Saul's servants, answered, I saw Jesse, the son, Jesse's son, come to Akimelech, the son of Akitub at Nob and Akimelech Inquired of the lord for him and gave him provisions. He also gave him the sword of goliath the philistine And so this is the time. Well, what did what did um duag do? Well, it says the king's messenger summoned akim olec the priest the son of akitub And his father's household the whole family Who were the priest and knob and all of them came to the king and then saul said listen son of akitub Am I I'm at your service, my Lord, he said. So I'll ask him, why did you and Jesse's son conspire against me? You gave him bread and a sword and inquired of the Lord on his behalf so that he could rise up against me and wait an ambush, as is the case today. Akimolek replied to the king and said, well, who among all of your servants is as faithful as David? He is the king's son in law, the captain of your bodyguard and honored in your house. Was today the first time I inquired of God on his behalf? And of course not. Please do not let the king make the accusation against your servant or any of my father's household, for your servant didn't have any idea about all of this. But the king said, you will die, Aki-Melech, you and your father's whole family. And then the king ordered the guards standing by him turn and kill the priest of the Lord because they have sided with David. For they knew he was fleeing and they did not tell me. But the king's servants would not lift up their hand to execute the priest of the Lord. So the king said to do it, do it, go and execute the priest. So do it. The Edomite went and executed the priest for himself. And on that day, he killed eighty five men who wore the linen. He fought. He also struck down the whole town of Knob, the city of the priest with a sword, both men and women and children and infants, oxen and donkeys and sheep. This is a man of unfettered anger and violence. He has no moral compass and he has no moral guide. And there are people in this world that live very much like that. We live in a generation where God has come from the center and he has moved, if he's even present, he has moved to the peripheral. He's out on the edges. Instead of God being the focus of everything in life where we where we see God's hand in it Like for example the lightning that I mentioned with the kids. It has a purpose You know that things like corn, soybeans can't use the nitrogen that's in the ground without the lightning separating it and making it available to them. They have what's called nitrogen building or the little nodes that are on their root system that they need the lightning to be able to use it. God has a purpose for everything. For every single thing, there is a purpose. so when we look and say in our life why in the world is this happening to me if we have the purpose and have the focus that God is there and he's not just a gin in a in a in a magic box or in a magic vase that we just rub and call out whenever we want him if we realize that God is and that God rewards those that seek after him then when we face things in life and it doesn't matter what it is that we face when we face those things in life we come and we say God you are truly in control you are there you're not just aware of it but God you know it and I am going through these things not on my own but I am going in them and through them and with you but there are those who live either as God does not exist at all or that if there is a God he's so far out on the perimeter edges that you just call him when you need him and then you put him back where he belongs out of the way. So that the only thing that ever focuses in life, what benefit did Doag have to kill any of these? No one else would raise their hand and as it says against the priest of the Lord. No one else would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But why would do it. But so that the value of your life or the value of my life has absolutely no value at all unless we see it in light of the God who created us and gave us and put in us God's own image. You and I bear the image of God, not just you and I, but everyone. Everyone that lives and breathes that has ever been created ever has ever been born Bears the image of God in them and it doesn't matter who they are where they're from They all do and therefore because they do bear God's image. They have value but not for dough egg and I dare say we live in a world that for the most part the majority people don't buy you anyone's human life Do they? They do not value human life. Virgie was telling in the prayer time, I guess about a month ago, that her son and daughter-in-law and her mother had gone to Spain and they were there about the same time Walter and Patsy were in Portugal. They were in Spain on a trip, and she began to have some heart problems and health issues. In Spain, because they have the nationalized, socialized medicine, at her age, they just stuck her in a place to allow her to. to die and So it took them with a necessity because you know, she's an old woman She's upper 80s That she has no value and therefore just let her die don't expend any energy or any medication or anything on her and so they were able to finally get her into a better health system and Pay for and then get her back to the United States and where now she's doing well She's improving and doing quite well, but if she'd have stayed over there just a few more weeks she would have died because she has no value. Does she? And the reality is, is that's the world that you and I, we didn't inherit. That's not the world we inherited. It's not the world that you, looking around in this room, other than a few kids that are sitting over here and a few that are sitting back there, it's not the world we inherited. It's not the world we got from our parents, was it? And yet it's the world that has become. And so we look around, we ask ourselves, and we find ourselves pretty much in David's shoes, asking the question, why? This happens here, and so we find this psalm, and we find the content of the psalm, and he says, and so why does the mighty man boast in his wickedness? God's faithfulness is all day long. He plans destruction with his tongue. He has sharpened it like a razor in order to do treachery. He loves wickedness rather than good and lying even against those who are speaking justice. You love everyone that speaks words that devour the tongue which is full of deceit. But surely you will be broken forever and snatched and torn away from your tent and uprooted from the land of the living. The righteous will see and they will fear. And yet they will laugh at scorn against him. Behold the man who has not made God his refuge. He trusted in the abundance of his own wealth. He trusted in his riches. But I, I am like a green olive tree within the household of God and I trust in the covenant faithfulness forever and ever of God. And I will thank you forever for the things that you have done, and I will wait upon your name for it is better in the presence of those who have come by covenant before God. I'm going to suggest to you that when we get in circumstances that are not favorable, then if we rely strictly upon our emotion, what we feel about God, About our emoting and uh, you know the happy happy joy joy It's I I like to be happy. I don't like to be sad. I don't like to be you know despondent or depressed or any of those things but if our knowledge of god is only based upon or is only built upon if god does something good for me and nothing bad happens then I will be joyful, but what if it doesn't What if it's not good What if something bad really does happen? Will you still rejoice in God? Does what you know in your head of God, will it carry you when your emotions won't? Will it take you through and hold you when everything seems to have just come unraveled in your life? David wants us, as we hear this song, he wants us to be reminded of the character of God. and assented against the blackness of the caricature of what men can do, of how bad men can really be. Back in 1979, I had a professor for missions at Criswell College that had just come, had been back in the States not all that long, and he had been in a country in Africa called Uganda. Jimmy Houghton was a Southern Baptist missionary in Uganda and he was there during the rain and I realize that you know you've slept and you won't remember this but Idi Amin was the president or the ruler of Uganda. Idi Amin, like many in the last century and the present, was committing genocide against his own people. It was an issue of Islamic against Christian culture, and that's still an issue in Africa, isn't it? Very much an issue. It doesn't matter if it's Ethiopia or Sudan or whether it's Chad or what country or Nigeria. It is still very much an issue. And so in the context, there was a military officer that was a Christian and he came to the village where Jimmy and his family, he had two sons where they were living with his wife and told him, he says, you've got to get out of the country tonight. If you wait till tomorrow, you will be dead. And so he took the advice of this officer in the military because the military had become Islamic. The leaders and the generals were all Muslim. And so he got his children and got his wife and they went to a neighboring village where there was an independent Baptist fellow. And they told him, they said, you know, we've gotten a warning. We need to get out of the country now. We're taking our safari van and we're going to go cross-country and see if we can't get out of the country into a neighboring country. And the man says, oh, no, I trust God in this. He said, I'll stay, which was fine. And he stayed. And the next morning when they came to the village, they took about a 20 penny nail and they nailed him through his head to a tree. And then they killed his wife and children, along with many other Christians that were in the village. And Jimmy and his wife went across country, and they came through villages, some that had just been ravaged, and some the military was coming into them right when they were in the process. And he told the story of pulling up and seeing a crowd of people come running through the village, coming through the town, and he and his wife and the boys are there parked. They got some kind of a safari vehicle, and the door opens, and a woman and her little girl jumps in the truck, and they're sitting there, and nobody says a word. And the crowd goes running by, and the military goes running by, and it's like nobody sees them at all. And as soon as the crowd goes by, and the military goes by, and they're shooting them, the girl, the lady and her child gets out, and they go running the other direction. And I'm sitting here thinking to myself, this sounds like Doeg, the Edomite, and his disregard for human life. But I could give you other stories. Rwanda. Cambodia. I mean, we could, It continues to multiply itself. These things are things that are very real, aren't they? And yet we find that the Christians who have at one time in the United States had a very favorable role have lost their place of favor in the community. We're not the favorite child anymore, are we? We don't have the place of favor among the brethren in this world, do we? And it's not the world that you grew up in, but it is the world that is here now. And it's a world that you and I and our children and grandchildren and some for you great-grandchildren are being raised in and living in. So what do we do in it? Well, David reminds us of the character of God. And he asked the question, he says, why in the world is this mighty man, this strong man, this man of power, why in the world does he boast in that which is wicked? And in the sense, boasting in the destruction, in the devastation, again, Ra is not just moral, but it looks at any kind of disaster. Here is a whole village, a whole town that has been annihilated when all the king said is kill the priest. He killed everybody. Remember I read to you women and children infants and every lifestyle. He killed everything He didn't leave anything alive. He took it to a greater degree We find that that's not uncommon you read in the first chapter of Zechariah and When God had intended to judge Israel It says that the nation had exceeded in their hostilities and had caused great hardship or greater hardship in the midst of it. So while wicked men are doing bad things and wicked things, David reminds us, he says, our God, his loving kindness, his covenant faithfulness, his chesed, it is all the day long. So what is this? Because he says it in verse three, and he'll remind us again down in verse 10, he says, I will trust in the covenant faithfulness of our God forever and ever. So in the midst of when things aren't going the way that we would like to, or the way we planned them, when things don't work out exactly how we had devised, and it's going badly for us, then we throw up our hands and say, well, where's God, and why didn't he make it work out for me? He made it work out for others, why am I having such a difficult time in all of this? And I've heard this, and we've all been there sometime, haven't we? Why didn't they get better? Why, you know, why am I, why did I lose my job? Why did my spouse walk off and leave me? Why, you know, why did my kids, why couldn't I have had kids? Why did my kids turn out like other people's kids? We've all struggled, and I can give 1,500 different illustrations just in this context. When the reality is, is every one of us have had some disappointment, haven't we? Every one of us, there's something that we have been disappointed in in life that we wish would have turned out and worked out a different way. But David reminds us that God's steadfast covenant love, God's covenant faithfulness is there all day long, every day. God's faithfulness, when we look at this word, if you remember in the book of Ruth, The one thing that Naomi understood is, is at the end of the day, God always kept his covenant. God was always faithful. God was reliable. And so when we think about Chesed, we think about this idea, covenant faithfulness, kindness, loving kindness, all the different ways it's translated, it looks at doing something without a reward. It's the mom that stays up all night when the baby or the child has got, what's that, RPC? That respiratory thing, and they're throwing up, and they've got diarrhea, and they stay up all night, and they're sitting there, and they nurse them, and they try to hydrate them, and in the morning, when they've finally gotten over it, two or three or a week later, when they've finally gotten over it, the kid doesn't sit up and say, Mom, I sure really appreciate the fact that you have given a week. and you've been up every night with me, and you've been there when I've had fever and when I was whining and crying. Man, I am so thankful you're my mom. Do they do that? No. They're still bored, or they're tired of being, and they're still cranky because they want to get up and do something. They don't sit there and say, wow, mom, I'm glad you did that. But you do it anyway because it's the right thing to do, right? Well, God is there, and even when we don't say, God, I thank you that you're bringing me through this, God, I really do, you know, we like the part, all things work together for good. We like the good part, for those who love God are called according to his purpose. But sometimes the good thing doesn't work out immediately. There's a lot of bad stuff before we get to the good part. And so when we look at this, David's reminded, even in the midst where all of this, everything happened because of him. If he had not gone, then they would not have been culpable. They wouldn't have been guilty for any crime in Saul's eyes, right? They died because he came and he was afraid. And because they helped, then they became the recipients of such bitter anger and violence. Just for helping david and david didn't tell him he's ran away. Did he so in a real sense? It's david dealing with his own guilt You know, I feel responsible for this this this is my fault This would not have happened had I not gone there had I not asked for help had I not asked for bread if I had not taken Goliath's sword if all of these things and yet even in that god is still faithful every single day That's what david learned even when we're not God is. And even when I mess up, God doesn't. And even when I bring others in and they bear out my fault, God is still faithful, and God is still loyal, and God still keeps His covenants, and He still keeps His oath. He doesn't break it because you and I do. He doesn't quit because you and I give up. God will not quit, and His loving kindness lasts all the day long, every single day. So we look at this. They plan destruction. With their tongue, they tear apart. They do things that are treacherous. They love, in fact, twice, he says in verse five, verse six, they love wickedness more than good. They love the words that devour. They love that. Let's step back for a minute, because everything has to do with the tongue in here, doesn't it? How many of us find ourselves gravitating to things that are just really bad in conversation? Did you hear? Let me tell you about it. Did you hear about so-and-so? Man, you know, I heard someone talking just the other day. Would you believe? Our ears perk up, don't they? Even if we're not in the conversation, we sit in a waiting room at the hospital or at the doctor's office, or we're in line at the grocery store or Walmart, and, did you hear about so-and-so? Man, I just can't, I can't believe, you know, I can't believe they did that, or I can't believe he did that. Man, I don't know what she's gonna do. You know, he just, he, I can't believe. We gravitate, our ears just, you know, even if we're hard of hearing and everything else, we seem to kind of be able to catch that, don't we? Don't we like them? Don't we find the destruction of someone else more and more delightful than words of righteousness? Oh man, it was so great. Did you hear that their kids came to faith in Christ? Man, their husband's finally coming to church. Nobody's here to perk up over that. We want to hear the bad stuff. And that's what we find here. This desire, this love for something that's bad more than that which is good and any lying that goes against the righteous. Do you hear about what that church did? You know how many times I have had, even in this congregation, people say, well, did you hear about the church over in Bridge C? Did you hear about the church over here? And they give it and I won't. I said, what are you talking about? You know what? There's nothing going on over there. You know, why are you, well I heard, you know how many times I got phone calls? Well I hear y'all, I hear y'all closing your doors. Well I hear you got, I hear you struck oil. I mean, you know, I hear you're merging with someone. I even had a phone call and someone said, well I hear you resigned. No, I hadn't heard that one yet. You know, maybe somebody's hoping, but it hasn't happened yet. The reality is, is we again, in all of this, that's what they love. And even that which goes against the righteous. But God does respond. And it says that God himself will be the one that breaks them. that will break them forever. The consequences when we look at someone like Doag and again we can put a name and a face you know where's Idi Amin. He was executed. He's dead. And not only is he dead but he's also going to pay for all the other stuff that he did and everyone else has ever done any horrific crime. Ultimately they will pay for it. And it says and God has broken him forever. He snatched him out and tore him out of his tent. He's uprooted him from the land of living. So ultimately, when there are bad people that would like to do bad things towards us, or when things don't work out, we have to give it into the hand of God who is faithful towards us, who have made a covenant with Him. We know that God's faithfulness endures forever, and we leave it to that and allow God to do what God only can do, and God will take care of that. And if it doesn't get taken care of here, it ultimately is gonna get taken care of there, because it's appointed, Hebrew says, to man, to every man. wants to die and then there's a judgment to every man. So whether it's Doeg or whether it's Idi Amin or whether it's someone that would harass and bring accusation against you or whatever it may be that God's going to deal with it and he will deal with it in his way and in his time. So what's the righteous do? Then we step back and we see, we observe, we learn. Some people don't observe very well, don't pay attention. And not maybe because they don't want to, they just don't notice. They don't notice things. And I've used this a couple times at the prison when I go in, I'm in a big room. They've only got so many tables there and they got one bench. And so I have everybody close their eyes. a normal Baptist invitation, right? Everybody close your eyes and bow your head and you do the thing and raise your hand. No, that wasn't it. Bow your head. In fact, do it this way. For just a moment, close your eyes and bow your head. Everybody, don't look at me. Go ahead and bow your head, close your eyes. Not everybody's doing it yet. You can't do this if you don't bow your head and close your eyes. All right. How many people are sitting on the back row? OK. All right, some of you aren't even guessing. All right, so now with your eyes open, looking back there, we've got six on this side and two over here. So we've got eight. But we've got Mike and we've got Trey back there in the thing. So we've got 10 on the back row. And usually, it's about the same group that sits on the back row up against the wall, right? But if I were to ask you now how many chairs are on the back row, And we're here, or how many rows are there in the, we see it all the time, but it doesn't click. It doesn't stick to us. It's not something that we reflect about. But there's certain things, if we pay attention, if we look, and we see the outcome of certain behavior, then we can learn, we see it, and we learn to fear God in it. Because we do know what the outcome, and that's why he says, the righteous will see, and they will fear. Fear of what? Fear them? No, fear God. Because this is a wisdom psalm and the beginning of wisdom and understanding starts where? With the fear of the Lord. So we look and we see the outcome of behavior. There's a gentleman that I have on Thursday nights that's dying of liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. He's been incarcerated several times because of drunk driving. He's an alcoholic. And because he's an alcoholic, the alcoholism has made his liver as hard as a stone. And he's going to die from it. So do I need to see that regularly to say to myself, you know, I think I probably ought to leave liquor alone. It's probably not good for you. Do I have to see that, you know, would I have to repeat and see that often? I've seen it enough. But I know that I don't need that kind of a lifestyle because to have that kind of lifestyle, what is possible to happen? I'm liable to have the same problem at some point down the line. or to see someone that has esophagus cancer because of repeated smoking, or somebody that loses their lips because of dipping. That's a real positive thing. I don't have to do everything, I can see and I can learn. or see someone who's gone through multiple marriages because they can't make it work out, I don't have to go through multiple marriages to know that's probably a lousy situation. I can learn it from somebody else. I can look at my sister and say, you know what? It's been a tough and a very hard life living like that, a very difficult life. So I can look, and I can see, and I can learn. But for DOAG, And it seems kind of ironic that the righteous would look at him and they would laugh him to scorn. that they would laugh him to scorn, why? Because here is a man, again, his unbridled wickedness has allowed him to kill not only 85 priests but a whole city of people and every woman and every child and every infant and everything that lives. His unbridled bitterness and anger and violence allowed him to do all of that and no one would rejoice in this man being rescued or going through life without some kind of consequences if the person were to come to their end in some way to look and say they've gotten exactly what they deserve. Italianic kind of justice. There was a young man named Michael Caine, I'll never forget his name because he was in Singapore and he spray-painted, decided he liked to graffiti people's Mercedes-Benz and high-end class cars and scratch them. And in Singapore, they're not like America. They don't go and say, well, what was his psychological breakdown? Is this guy kind of hung up? That's what we do, isn't it? There's got to be a psychological reason. It can't be that he's just acted and behaved badly. Over there, you get in trouble. And the day you go in, what do you get? You get a caning. And then if you came in on the first day of the month, then the next month on the first day of the month, you get what? A caning. every month until you finally get out on the day you get out, guess what you get? A caning. Why? Because they want you to be convinced you don't want to do this again. And since his, what did he get? He got a caning and his last name's what? Cain? So Michael Cain's kind of easy to remember. And his mama, you know, cried, oh, my poor baby. You know what? Nobody over there was going, oh, that poor, you know, they look and they laughed him to scorn. You do something like that, you devalue somebody else's property. You act disgracefully and badly someplace else. And nobody was saying, oh, that poor boy. Oh, we do. But over there, they weren't. They're saying he's getting exactly what he deserved. If his mama, kind of like Moses said, if your mama would have spit in your face, we wouldn't be having this conversation today. If you would have been humiliated, if you would have been taken care of and addressed when you were a child, this conversation wouldn't be happening right now. That's what Moses said to his sister. And so the reality is, is that we look and we understand that there is some kind of talionic justice. You sow one thing, you're going to reap that. You're not going to get something else. So behold the man who did not make God his refuge. Look at his outcome. Look at the result of somebody's life that does not put his life in the hands of a refuge, a place of shelter, a place that you seek. But I will trust, he trusted in abundance of his wealth and of his riches, but I Am growing like a green olive tree. I'm like the tree planted by the rivers of water In Psalm 1 and I'm in the household of God I am living with God and I trust in God's faithfulness and I trust in it and I will continue to trust in it today forever and I will thank God forever because of what he does because of what God does not that everything goes well and Not that I get everything that I want. I But I will trust God every day for his covenant faithfulness that I can trust God and I will become like that tree that is always green and always has its leaf. I will be that man that is blessed by God because I am trusting in God. And I will thank him forever for what he does. So you sit in a hospital room and you find out that the information is not what you want. Do you give God thanks? God, I thank you for your provision, even in this. We know we give thanks to him when we get the outcome we want, don't we? When we find out that we are cured or we're healed, do we thank God? Certainly we do. We give him a praise report. But what if it doesn't come back the way we wanted it? Do we still give him the praise and the glory and honor when the outcome isn't so good? He says, I will thank you forever for what you have done. God, for what you do, for your presence in my life, for what you have done, God, I will always give you thanks. And I will wait. I'll wait on your name. We remember seeing not long ago the video that Kirk Cameron did of the firefighter and waiting on his wife. In fact, I think the song that came off of that, While I'm Waiting, just waiting that God would do a work in his marriage, and certainly it's just a movie, but the reality behind it is we do wait. We wait on the name of the Lord. We wait for God to act. We wait for God. And in the presence of God's people, that is where we find God to be good. But most of us, when we are having trouble, we'll find ourselves scant from God's presence. And how do we know that? Because we find ourselves missing from God's people. Those who have entered into the godly, I think some of them translate it, but it's chesedim, those who have entered into God's covenant of faithfulness and God's steadfast love, they gather together. Not just in the Old Testament, we gather together. The church is called the ekklesia, the called out gathered people of God. When we sunagage, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, when we come together, a gathering of God's people, So in the presence of God's people, where we gather together, we find there that we wait upon the name of the Lord because God is good. And in that presence of God's people, that is where we find encouragement. That's where we find the mutual prayer and support. And we find that God's presence is there, unlike it is anywhere else. And like it is out at the golf course, or out in the woods hunting in a deer stand, or at a duck blind, or out in a fishing bass boat, or in a spa while your husband's doing all those other things, or down at the beach sunning, we find the presence and the peace of God in the presence of God's people when we come before God and we wait upon God's name. Not for the emotion. and not for the feel-good, so we hope that they do come for what we know of God, that our God's faithful. And God will bring all things together, and they will finally, ultimately, they will work out. And so I make God my refuge. not my things, not my not my wealth and not my health, not any of these things. I will make God my refuge. I will trust in him and not what I have and not in the in the blessings. I will trust in him and. And I will find myself happy in the house of God, meeting with God's people, because God's always faithful. So when things go the worst for us, the best place to be is not at home sulking about it, but meeting with God's people in prayer and praise and worship, reminding ourselves that God is going to see us through it, that God will be there and God will uphold us and God will demonstrate his goodness in each and every thing. It's easier to depart. to go away, isn't it? It's easier to feel sad by ourself than to come and to cry in the presence of others when it didn't happen the way we wanted it, isn't it? To cry alone, to not come back, to not be present. And I realize I'm talking to the choir, but we all know those. Someone whose son has died and they have not been back to church since then. Literally have not been back to church since then. Because. Their son's life didn't turn out the way that they had planned. You know what? We're not in control of that. Are we? Or when our baby dies. And to stay away and say, I will not come because it didn't turn out now, that's not where we find our comfort, our peace, our satisfaction, we find it. Knowing God's loyal love, we find it in the presence of God waiting for him. And you'll never find it outside of that. Ever. You'll never find what God is offering to us unless we find that good waiting on God. In the presence of God's people. There's an amazing thing that happens when you and I gather. I recall, and I probably have used this before, but it's a good illustration. Several of us went to a home in Nederland after Labor Day, because the house got struck by lightning and burnt, and the people didn't have enough insurance to get the home and to restore the house. and so they were looking at what can we do because we don't have enough money to rebuild our home and so they had a dumpster out there and people from our church came over and we completely gutted the inside of their house and I'm looking around that a lot of you are here that helped in that enterprise and the neighbors come over some friends of theirs and they go do y'all do this for a is this something you do for business or no we just did it because they had a need and they just kind of overwhelmed. It's kind of amazing that Christian people will do something like that. And I know the same thing with Ike going over to Bridge City. Just the overwhelming sense that they weren't by themselves and it was churches. You know, it wasn't organizations, it was churches that gathered to go to Bridge City. And most of us met on Sunday morning and then for an early service and went straight over there and spent the time. And many of us spent some other time over there doing things. And it was just so uplifting because the people of God gathered and the people of God went to do something to minister to needs that were there. Where else it would have seemed overwhelming and beyond imagination. How in the world are we going to work through this? yet God was there and everything so we find it though God's unchanging we find the covenant faithfulness of God when we were where God has called us to be and the presence of others who have joined into that covenant faithfulness and steadfast love of the Lord God in the presence of the struggles and difficulties that we may face in life God, help us remember who you are. And not to forget. God, you have called us to know you, not just emotionally, but to know you in our head. To have our mind convinced, renewing our mind, to have our mind convinced that what we feel, God, is justified by what we know. Our feelings will lead us astray. They will take us to places that we should not go and cause us to depend upon things that we should not depend upon. But God, what we know of you, what you have made yourself known to us through and by, God, we know that is steadfast, even as your character, and it's unchanging. And so we stand before you, God, and we ask, For the needs that are here, and there are many, that God, you will minister your grace. And the mutual encouragement from all of us, that as we gather, that Lord, there is strength in each and every one of us, in the numbers as we have gathered together to worship and to praise your name. We thank you, God, for calling us in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand. Pass me not, O gentle Savior, Here I humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Savior, Savior, Let me at the throne of mercy find the sweet relief, healing there in deep retreation. held by unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Just a reminder, this afternoon at 4.30, we have a renewing of wedding vows, so come and join us here in the sanctuary. There'll be a reception to follow in the dining room, and then our regular worship service this evening at 6 o'clock. And so come and join us, and I know the Lord will bless you. He blesses us every time we gather together. And as we think about this week ahead, June Travis has gone to Harbor Hospice. She's in a coma, and so that's where she is at, up on Major Drive. Jerry Hardy is looking at the possibility of having his gallbladder removed on Monday at St. Luke's. And so we want to remember him. And then Jane Fisher is at home recovering from her surgery this last week. So we want to remember her as well. There are many others. We want to remember Jean and her family at this time and just pray God's blessing upon them and then the blessing of the grandbaby. And we just want to pray that he continues to grow and that he'll be able to go home this summer. He's two pounds now. So we want to praise the Lord for that. So there's good and bad that come together. So as we close in a word of prayer, I'm going to ask Walter, would you close this? Father, we just thank you again for this day. We thank you for the message of this hour. We thank you for our pastor that has shared with us the words that you laid on his heart. And Lord, we realize that there is a judgment. We realize, Lord, that there is going to be a time when we have to answer. And I pray, Lord, that we might just look at our lives, look at our hearts, Lord, and just seek you every day. so that when that time comes that you can say a good and faithful servant. Lord, we know that there are many things to be done in your kingdom. We ask, Lord, that you might direct us each day as we serve you. We're thankful for this hour. I pray, Lord, that those here that have a decision to make, Lord, that this day might not pass without that happening. Lord, we just gave you praise. We thank you for your love. We bless your holy night. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Get all excited. Get all excited, go tell everybody that Jesus Christ is King. Get all excited, go tell everybody that Jesus Christ is King. Get all excited, go tell everybody that Jesus Christ is King. Jesus Christ is still the King of Kings. you