I'm going to play a little bit. Let's stand together. Now, that's a funny name for a song, isn't it? Unbelievable. I mean, it obviously is believable, what God did for us in Christ, but pretty unbelievable at the same time, from a human perspective. So let's stand together and sing together. ♪ There's this thing ♪ ♪ Invincible ♪ ♪ And believe ♪ ♪ It's unbelievable ♪ ♪ God has come to tell you that ♪ God and Son, born into man on earth, promised one, both filling nature's earth. God has come to you. We'll never know the rest of the mystery of Your grace! Though our lives can't take it in, Lord, our hearts are filled with grace! We will hear, we can hear the Lord! He will save the unsaveable. God has come to help with love. God lift up, empty now, as He is lifted up. God has come to dwell with us. Though our minds can't take it in, Lord, our hearts are filled with grace. Born for love, in overwhelming love, at the thought of such amazing love. Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our King. Sing praises. For God is the King over all the earth. Praise Him with a psalm. God reigns above the nations, sitting on His holy throne. For all the kings of the earth belong to God. He is highly honored everywhere. Psalm 47, 6-9. In the darkness we were waiting without hope, without light. But the heaven you came on, there was mercy in your eyes. You fulfilled the law and promised to a virgin a new birth. From a throne of endless glory to a cradle in love. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, be one. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings. To be the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost To be the whole creation, you did not despise or cross For even in my suffering you saw to the other side Knowing this was my salvation, Jesus, for our sake Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit be one. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ Unto the Father, Lord, and the Son ♪ ♪ And the Church, Christ was born ♪ ♪ And the Spirit kept the flame ♪ ♪ God has cast it to the Lord ♪ ♪ And I'm healed and I'm free ♪ ♪ God is one and you can stay ♪ ♪ He is free and I am free ♪ ♪ For the love of Jesus Christ, who has blessed me ♪ ♪ Praise the Father, praise the Son ♪ ♪ Praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ God of glory, majesty ♪ ♪ Praise forever to the King, the King of kings ♪ forever to the King of Kings. He who made every living thing, behold Him. He who heard humanity's crying, let His throne to make as a child. He became like the leaves on a bus. Behold Him, Jesus, Son of God, Messiah, the Lamb, the roaring fire. Oh, be still, and behold Him. Unite with sinners and saints Build upon the lost and the lame Even now He is here in our midst Behold Him He who chose a criminal's end, aid with blood to settle our debt. Bury death as he rose to life, the only hope. ♪ The Lamb, the roaring Lion ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, and behold Him, Jesus ♪ ♪ Our God, the risen Savior ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, and behold Him, Jesus ♪ Worthy, worthy, worthy to receive all praise. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Worthy, worthy, worthy to receive all praise. of Zion, the land of glory and triumph. Oh, be still, and behold Him, Jesus, Alpha and Omega, our God, the risen Savior. Oh, be still. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for having us here today. Thank you for all the blessings you give us. Please help these funds to be distributed in your name. In your glory, in Jesus' name, amen. stand together and sing Come, Behold the Wondrous Mystery. Come, behold the wondrous mystery in the guarding of the King. Heed the theme of heaven's praises, open prayer, humanity. In our longing, in our darkness, now the light of life has come. Took to Christ who condescended, Took not flesh to ransom us. Come, behold the wondrous mystery, Be the perfect Son of Man. In his living, in his suffering, never trace or stain of sin. See the true and better Adam, how he saved the hell-bound man. Christ's afraid and sure fulfillment of the law in Him we stand. Come behold the wondrous mystery Christ the Lord upon the tree. In the stead of ruined sinners, hangs the Lamb in victory. See the price of our redemption, See the Father's plan unfold, Bringing many sons to glory, Grace unmeasured, love untold. Come, behold the wondrous mystery. Save my dad, the God of blood. But no praise could ever restrain him. Praise the Lord, he is alive. For days of deliverance, how unwavering our hope. Christ in power resurrected, as we will be when He comes. But a four days of deliverance How unwavering our hope Christ in power resurrected as we will be We haven't sung this one in a while. There's an interlude or the bridge in the middle of it. Just sing out as you remember it. We'll sing it more over the holiday season. Behold the Lamb of God. We walk in Godless feet, now still at night of morning. A mighty God, the Prince of Peace, such a child He was. Lord, we hold the Lamb of God, who takes away our sin. We hold the Lamb of God, the light and light of heaven. Behold the Lamb of God who died and rose again. Behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away our sin. Wanderers in the wilderness, now hear their voices crying. Prepare the waving strain upon your kingdom tonight. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away our sin. The life and light of man Behold the Lamb of God Who died and rose again Lamb of God, come to take away our sin. Son of God, Emmanuel, Son of man, we praise you in all your wonder. ♪ Behold the Lamb ♪ ♪ Behold the Lamb of God ♪ ♪ Who takes away our sin ♪ ♪ Behold the Lamb of God ♪ ♪ The life and life of our land ♪ Behold the Lamb of God who died and rose again. Behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away our sin. Today's scripture reading is going to come from Isaiah chapter 44, verses 1 through 23. Isaiah chapter 44. Let's pray. Almighty God, we thank you for the opportunity to open your word, to boldly read what you have to say for us. Lord, stir our hearts. Stir our hearts now as we read your word and stir our hearts as pastor leads us in the preaching of your word, change us. May we not remain the same when we come and worship you. We just thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name, amen. Isaiah 44, verses one through 23. So there's just gonna be a couple of different pause for breath here, so. Chapter 44. But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you. Do not fear, O Jacob, my servant, and you, Jasurin, whom I have chosen. For I will pour out water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. And they will spring up among the grass, like poplars by streams of water. This one will say, I am the Lord's, and that one will call on the name of Jacob. And another will write on his hand, belonging to the Lord, and will name Israel's name with honor. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last. and there is no God besides me. Who is like me? Let him proclaim and declare it. Yes, let him recount it to me in order. For the time that I established the ancient nation, and let them declare to them the things that are coming, and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid. Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any god besides me? Or is there any other rock? I know of none. Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit. Even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? Behold, All his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are men. Let them all assemble themselves. Let them stand up. Let them tremble. Let them together be put to shame. The man who shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm, he also gets hungry, and his strength fails. He drinks no water and becomes weary. Another shapes wood, extends a measuring line. He outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass and makes it like a form of a man, like the beauty of a man, so that it may sit in a house. Surely he cuts cedars for himself and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir and the rain makes it grow. Then it becomes something for a man to burn. So then he may take one of them and warms himself. He also makes fire to make bread. He also makes a god and worships it. He makes it a graven image and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over this half he eats meat, and he says, roast, oh, roast, and he is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, ah, I am warm. I have seen the fire. but the rest of it he makes into a God, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships, and he also prays to it and says, deliver me, for you are my God. They do not know, nor do they understand, for he has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, I have burned half of it in the fire, When also left baked over its coals, I roast meat over it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination. I fall down before a block of wood. He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside, and he cannot deliver himself, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant. I have formed you, you are my servant. O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud and your sins like a heavy mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it. Shout joyfully, you are lower parts of the earth. Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest and every tree in it, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and in Israel He shows forth His glory. Father in heaven, we come before you now and we acknowledge who you are as we've heard your word read. And now as we look into how that applies to us, help us to see that we do have a problem that needs a solution. And Lord, we know that that solution only comes in Jesus Christ and help us to remember that and recognize that. And that as we look at your word, may we exalt you and just thank you and praise you. May the spirit of God open our heart and our minds to the word of truth. In Christ's name we pray, amen. I don't know if you noticed, as Bill was reading, the problem wasn't in the idols and all the things being made, it was in the people who were doing it. You know, we've got all kinds of things that we have in our lives that I guess you might call them things we put on a pedestal. A lot of different things in our lives. We can put a family member, husband or wife, on a pedestal. We can put our children on a pedestal. We can put our successes and all of the things that we have in our life to to exalt them and praise them. And they're up there and we stand before them and we look at them and say, aha, look at what I've done. And we're satisfied and we find satisfaction in the things and the work of our own hands. Now the work of our own hands is not a bad thing. It's just that when we take the work of our hands and we replace the true God of heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. When we replace it with something else, well, that's a problem. And in this text, in chapter 44, and as I look at Isaiah, beginning in 42 all the way through maybe 46, there's a theme, a connected theme in there, and the theme is, there's none beside me. When God says there is none beside me, there is none beside him. He is unique. He's alone. He is our God. And so as I look at that, I see in this one particular verse, it says in chapter 44, verse six, thus says the Lord, the God of the King of Israel, his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and the last. You've heard that before? You heard that somewhere else before? I know I have. If I read my scriptures and if I jump way ahead to the last book of the Bible, who do I hear as proclaiming to be the first and the last? Jesus Christ. Reigning on high after having suffered, went to the cross, was buried and rose again, exalted in heaven, who's in heaven as we speak right now. Here we have our, the I am, the first and the last. And then he says, besides me, there is no other God. Besides me, there is no other God. So that's the kind of the controlling idea of this, when Isaiah is reminding the people of Israel and the nations around, you do all these things to try to exalt somebody and put something else on a pedestal and then sit and want to worship it, when all the time, I'm here. And you miss it. And you miss out. And you miss me. And so, as I look at that, it's like, is this the only place in the scriptures that we find that? No one's beside me? I mean, what does it mean to be beside me? There's no one beside me. You could say, well, no one beside me, no one next to me, right? Or you could say there's no one beside me in the sense of there's no one who compares with me. And so, yes, I would say that when it says there's no one beside me, what God is saying there is absolutely none other God, there's no other person, there's no other thing that compares with me. In comparison, everything else fails and falters. Isaiah 43, 11, I am Yahweh, there is none beside me ready to save. And so we see that this I am, where Jesus himself claims to be the I am, he's the Yahweh, it says there is none beside me, I'm unique. In the New Testament, the word unique, there's none like me, is the word monogamous. And that word means that there is none other. He's unique. Jesus Christ is unique. And so we see the exaltation of Christ in Isaiah 43. It's a forelook into the future of this savior who's going to come. I am Yahweh, the covenantal name for God to the nation of Israel. And to us, when we see the word Lord or Christ, and there is none beside me ready to save, Isaiah 43, Isaiah 45, 6, that they may know that from the rising of the sun and from the west and that there is none beside me, I am Jehovah and there is none else. So we hear here in these particular texts that God is claiming a unique position, a unique status that none compares with him. Isaiah 45 again, later on. Tell me, present the evidence. Let them consult with one another. Who predicted this in the past? Who announced it before him? Was it not I, the Lord? I'm the one that reveals things. I mean, we can, we just have this strong propensity to replace God with other things in our life. We do. We create these little idols and things. I mean, you could even take the Word of God and make it an idol. You know? You can do that. You can say, yeah, this is God's Word, but this has the same value, the same equivalence of God. No. It is His Word that He's given to us, but it's not God. And you can exalt that to a position that it has no place in being. Was it not I that revealed this? I have no peer. There is no God, but there is none besides Me. None but Me. None besides Me. A God who vindicates and delivers. how we're getting into this kind of a God and what he does. What kind of a God is he? He's a God who vindicates himself and delivers his people from their bondage and their sin. And we've been set free and we've just sang a song to talk about the freedom that we have and who God is because there is none beside him. Turn to me so you can be delivered, all of you who live in the earth's remote regions. So this is not just for the nation of Israel, it's for all the people of all places and all lands of all time. God wants for us to be worshipers of him, and not of the things that we have in our life. For, here's the reason why, I am God. Nothing more. Nothing more than that. I am God. A God who vindicates, a God who delivers, a God who reaches out to the remotest region of the world, for I am God and I have no peer. And I make this solemn oath, he says in Isaiah, what I say is true and reliable. What he tells us in his word is truthful. It can be depended on, it is reliable. You can count on it. Can you count on the things that you put on a pedestal? Here today, gone tomorrow. We're the champions. This year. What's gonna happen next year? Maybe the year after that. You see, everything we create and we wanna worship and idolize, go blue. Everything we do that, it's fleeting. And we can find some joy in those kind of things, and I'm not saying it's wrong to enjoy those kind of things, but don't elevate them to the place of where God is at. There is none beside me. Verse 24 of chapter 45, yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer. All who are angry with him will cower before him. Zephaniah chapter 2 verse 11. The Lord will terrify them. He will weaken all the gods of the earth. All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. And so God says that he's in control over the whole universe. And all the other gods who call themselves gods are not really gods. Because there is only one God, and it's the true God of heaven. Exodus 20, verse 3 says, You shall have no other gods before Me. Do we really listen to that? Do we? 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6, Paul writes and says, Yet for us there is one God, the Father, with whom are all things, and through whom we exist, and one Lord. Jesus Christ through whom all things and through whom we exist. The fact that Jesus is the cause that we exist and the fact that God the Father is the one who exists means that they are equal. That we believe and trust in a triune God. It's not heresy. Some people think that the belief in a triune God is heretical. Bob is dealing with some Jehovah's Witnesses right now. who consider him to be a heretic because he believes in a father and a son and a spirit, three persons in one. We can exalt a mono, a singular God who is not a son and who is not spirit. Place that on the pedestal. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 35 says to you it is shown that you may know that the Lord is God There is no other beside him There's not another beside him and that doesn't mean here's somebody next to him. There's nobody that compares with him Isaiah 43 St. Mary we're at and in Isaiah you are my witnesses declares the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me no God was formed, and there shall be none after me. I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior. So he's a deliverer, he's a savior, he's a God who saves. And the fact is, he saves us from what? He saves us from our idolatry, our propensity to want to create things that take place from him. Deuteronomy 32, see now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God beside me. I kill to make a life. I'm wounded healed and there's none that can deliver me, be delivered out of my hand. 1 Timothy 1, verse 17, to the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. Remember the old things of old for I am God and there is no other God. I'm God and there is none like me. Isaiah 46, absolutely unique. Nehemiah chapter nine, you are the Lord, you alone. You made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts and the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that are in them. And you preserve all of them and the host and the host of heaven worships you. is worthy of our worship what we value what we value the most Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 pointing us from the Godhead to Christ which says Jesus he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power after making purification for sins. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He is incomparable. There is none beside him. He has no equal. He's incomparable. And his place, there's none besides him. He stands alone. He stands alone. I was thinking that when I was a kid, I remember I used to enjoy going to the Detroit Zoo. When you walk into the main gate, you get in there and you get into this fountain. How many of you remember the fountain at the Detroit zoo? What's there? Bears. There's bears there. Okay. And we go there and they're on this pedestal and we look at that and then we got, and I could still, we'd still go there. You still see it now and they're on this pedestal and you can go all the way around, but you can't go across that water. You can't do that. But you know what people do? They throw coins in there. You know, why do people do that? Isn't that an act of worship? And I said, no, it'd probably help support the zoo. But you know, see, that's what we do. We kind of like throw tokens out to the God of heaven. We place him on a pedestal. You know, God doesn't want to be on a pedestal. We can place God on a pedestal and say, worship, okay, you're here. Okay, I'm gonna go over here and I'm gonna do this. But we leave him here on the pedestal. That's not what God wants. The earth is his what? His footstool. God doesn't want to be placed on a pedestal. He wants to have the number one place in your life. He wants to be prominent. He wants to be your priority. He wants to be preeminent in your life, in everything you do. We do a lot of things. That's the kind of God he really is, a God who saves, a God who's unique, a God who delivers, a God who redeems and draws people back to himself. What's this got to do with heaven? What's this all got to do with heaven? We go through this series on heaven. The question is, is Christ alone sufficient to meet all of our needs? If he's God, is he sufficient enough to meet all of our needs? Our answer to that is, well, of course he is. Then why would I want anything else? Why would I want anything else other than Christ? He created us that way. He wants us to enjoy the things of this earth. He wants us to enjoy His creation. He wants us to enjoy created relationships that we have with others. Genesis chapter 2 verse 18, God created us for human companionship. Somebody wrote one time, I think it was Jen Wilkins. I was maybe in a series that she's doing, Marianne, when she was there going through Genesis. She calls woman the indispensable ally. I like that. Indispensable ally. Adam wasn't enough. He looked and saw that Adam was like incomplete. He needs more. He needs an indispensable ally. He needs a suitable helper. God created us to be needy. He may create us that need him, but we need to look at the fact that he is the one who gives us things that we need. What are the things we need? I need air. I need air to breathe, to continue to finish for the next few minutes to speak. I need air. And I need food. Got food out there. In a little while, we're going to be enjoying a meal together. We need food. We need water. Gotta have water, you gotta drink water, you gotta have all kinds of things that he's given to us. Shelter! Remember when I was a policeman, I remember one time we got a call, somebody, there was some activity going on and neighbors were a little unsettled about something. We went there and there's this big box out in the field. We walk up to this box and all of a sudden we notice it's jostling a little bit, like there's something inside of that box. So we pull the cardboard off the top of the box and here's somebody laying in there. A homeless man, seeking shelter. He needs shelter. He needed food. He needed a bath. He needed a lot. He needed to be deliced. So we put him in the car and then I probably needed to be utilized after that. We took him down because he was needy. We're needy people. God created us to be needy people. And we have things that we... we want, that we need. We need relationships with one another. And when we leave this life, the question is, are we going to be needy anymore? If we're going to go to a new heaven and a new earth, are we going to be needy anymore? Are we going to need relationships beside our relationship with God? And I want to say, yes. Some people will say, that's heresy. You need more than God. No, God created me to be needy. That's not putting something else on a pedestal. It's honoring the God because of the God who created and made all things for us. As long as Christ is at the center. As long as He's primary. As long as He's the source of all of our joy. He's primary. Everything else is secondary. They work out from Him. They're being drawn to Him with greater and greater intensity, like a magnet. You take metal, and you put it near this magnet, what's gonna happen? And as you get closer, it gets stronger and stronger and stronger. So the closer we get to Christ, the stronger that magnetism is for Him, enjoying Him. And the thing is, we do this together, as long as you're ferrous metal. If you're aluminum, It don't work. You can keep touching it. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Illustration is that we need to be like ferrous metal, to be drawn to him because he's worthy of our worship and enjoy him and the wonders of creation that he's made, including the people that he's given us to in an increasing glory. I need only God. That sounds spiritual. I don't wanna need God. It's not biblical. What's biblical is that God, we need God for sure, but we also need the things that he made for us to enjoy. time with people, time together. We spent a lot of time this past week together with family, enjoying that time together, but remembering and giving thanks to the God who created and made it all. Yeah, we need God, but not to be separated from him. We don't divide his creation from who he is. He's given us this world. Eden, before the fall, was just a foretaste. of the new earth to come. We live in a world that's constantly drawing us away from him to see him for who he is. There's a new earth coming and we're going to live with bodies, physical bodies. We're not going to be floaters. You know what floaters are? Those little things in your eyes. I mean, if you're old enough, you probably know what I'm talking about. And you look out and you see these things floating, especially when you lay down in the sunshine and you look up and you watch them and you can just see them going across. You have your eyes, but they're just, they're in there and they're moving around these floaters. If you don't have them, you'll get them someday. You'll know what I'm talking about. They just happen. As you get, I don't know if it's an age thing or what. We're not floaters. We'll be living on this earth. We're going to be enjoying God forever, together. We're going to be a togetherness. Why? Because we're image bearers. Each and every one of us are image bearers. We bear the image of who God is. He created us that way. Someday we're going to pass on from this earth. We're not just going to cease to exist, we're going to exist in our humanity, in our life, and who we are with our identity and who we are. And the question is, will we know each other? Will we enjoy each other's company? I think so, I believe so. Back in March of 2019, I wrote a blog. And it was on my daughter's blog, Songs from the Cage. And we were missing her a lot. And so I needed to close out her blog. I wrote her last blog entry. And her last blog was, do you believe in providence? And then my response to that was, yes, we believe in providence. I'm not going to go through the whole thing. But just there's one portion of it that says this. This true story was no accident or random chance. It was providence planned before the foundation of the world. And though we, from our earthly perspective here now, see things dimly, the brightness of the glory of the resurrected Christ, her Savior, our Savior, will shine forth, forging our flight to a grand and glorious future. It is there with Him, with Christ, where sorrow-filled tears will be soft and tenderly wiped away by his loving, merciful fingers. We, too, who know Jesus and who also are lovingly called according to his eternal purpose, foreknown by him that through his electing love, we will see him as he really is, and seeing and being with him, well, that will be eternally sufficient. The God of grace, our resurrected deliverer, is what makes this life, this present life, and hope beyond our present traveling all worthwhile. But even more than the sufficiency of being in his glorious presence, in incomparable He gives to us even greater joy through the magnificent reuniting of souls dearly departed. This God-wrought joy will not be passing nods or mere facial recognition and inconsequential acknowledgements through happy smiles but a glorious uniting together in harmonious and thunderous praise of heartfelt gratitude directed to Jesus Christ. Christ at the center, we together someday exalting him and praising him in body and in spirit our Savior Jesus Christ, the sovereign Lord, our redeeming Savior, who gently wrapped his carrying arms around us and draws us to himself. I wondered when I wrote that, am I just writing this out of feelings? Is this just my feelings? Or does this have any biblical basis? And I think so, I believe so, and so did Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards wrote this. Every Christian friend that goes before us from this world is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us in heaven. There will be the infant of days that we lost below through grace to be found above. There the father, the mother, the wife, and the child, and the friend with whom we shall renew the holy fellowship of the saints, which was interrupted by death here, but shall be commenced again in the upper sanctuary and then shall never end. There we shall have companionship with the patriarchs and father and saints of the old and new testaments and those of whom the world was not worthy and there above all we shall enjoy and dwell with God the father whom we have loved with all of our hearts on earth and with Jesus Christ our beloved Savior who has always been to us the chief among ten thousands and altogether lovely and with the Holy Spirit our sanctifier the guide and comforter shall be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead forever. Jonathan Edwards seemed to think that there's going to be a glorious future in the reuniting of souls. Is it wrong to want to see our family and our loved ones when we go? I think not. I think if we know Christ and we know him as our Lord and Savior, that we together someday will worship him and glorify him for who he really is, not a God who's been put on a pedestal, but the God of the universe, our Savior and our God, Jesus Christ. Serve Him. Worship Him. Everything you do, do it for His glory. Because in the end, that's all that matters. Trust Him and depend on Him all your life. Everything, your family, your friends, your successes and all of your work and your play and all of the things you do, give him the honor and give him the glory. The song I came across this past week, the words are this, within my heart is a melody that was not taught. In the darkest night, it still goes on. The anthem of my God within my heart is a treasure that cannot be bought. When all else is faded, it will not. the presence of my God. Oh, magnify the Lord. Let us exalt his name together. No one beside you, Lord. Honor and praise be yours forever. Before your throne in the mystery that cannot be known lives the majesty that yours is alone. How glorious you are. You are the one who redeems the wrongs that I have done, reigning over all the days to come. glorious you are oh magnify the Lord let us exalt his name forever no one besides you Lord it goes on but I'll quit there maybe we'll hear it sometime maybe we'll sing it sometime together maybe the title title the song is no one beside you there's no one beside him no one equal to him know that no one that compares with him, our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are grateful for the opportunity to know that within our own hearts there's a melody that is being sung and that song is reflecting the very presence of who you are in us, living within us, dwelling within us, because you've redeemed us and drawn us to yourself. And so, Lord, we want to magnify you. We want to lift you high. We want to exalt you in your name forever, together. Lord, we know there is none beside you. You are the mystery. that can't be known, but you're the mystery that's been revealed to us. And Jesus, thank you, Lord, for showing us the way, that you are the way, the truth, and the life, that we can come to you, and we can only come to you through our Savior Jesus. Help us to remember him, help us to exalt him, help us to praise him all the days of our life. all the things that get in the way and we just kind of lose sight of what we think is important. But Lord, we know that you need to be the center. You will be the center now and forever. So while we wait until that time, Lord, may you be preeminent in our life. May we live our life for you. And I ask that you would do that and convict our hearts to see you for who you are and live for you in all things. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Stand with me as we're saying, before you I kneel, before you I kneel my master For You I kneel, my Master and Maker, to offer the book of my hand. This is the day You will give in Your servant. I will be joyously glad, for the strength I have to live and breathe. For each skill your grace has given me, for the needs and opportunities that will glorify your name. For you I kneel and ask for your goodness, to cover the work of my hands, for patience and ease to do shame on my labors. Your grace, Lord, thorns in my path. Flow within me like a living stream. Wear away the stones of crime and greed. Till your wings are throbbing deep in me, And the harp of my life is blown. Before ye we kneel, our Master and Maidens, Establish the work of our hands, And order our steps to seek for sure Kingdom. May we live the gospel of your grace, serve your purpose in our fleeting days. Then our lives will bring eternal praise and glory to your name. Father, we thank you for your word this morning. The way you just moved and worked through Isaiah and showed yourself to him, to Moses, to Paul, to so many others who wrote your word. There is none beside you. We have an obligation to worship you. Father, just help us toward that. And I sing this song, and we ask that you flow within us like a living stream, a picture of water washing away, wearing away the stones of pride and greed. Our hearts aren't going to be changed unless you change us. Father, help us to be changed by your Spirit, to be molded more into the image of Jesus Christ, and to care for others. Father, I pray from the perspective of just being so focused on Cindy that I just... I'm not as caring as I could be about Mary Ann and the pain she's in, about Rob and the care for his dad and Brent and his mom and so many others. Father, help us to care for one another as we should. In Jesus' name, amen.