till he reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man. For he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul he fills with good things. Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor, and they fell down with no one to help, with none to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, out of the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man. For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two bars of iron. Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities, suffered affliction. They loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man. And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of his deeds in songs of joy. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, how many times have I read the history of Israel? They would obey and then fall into sin and you would punish. They cry out and deliver them. I would have thought what they saw at the Red Sea would have been enough to seal it for them, but they just wonder why don't they learn? But this is just like me, just like us. Times are good. We need you less, it seems. But then out of your kindness, you bring affliction. And we come back to you, and you're kind. Our sins are great, but your mercy is more, like we just sung. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for your salvation. And even right now in this split second, you are keeping us saved. It is not a work that we've done, and so God, just use this text this morning. Open our eyes and ears to it. Use Pastor Ryan to just speak clearly to us through this text this morning, and have your perfect way with us, Lord. Use it to discipline us. Use it to grow us, to sanctify us. Lord, use it to draw someone to Christ this morning, we pray. And please be honored and glorified in this next hour. In Christ we pray. Amen. Good morning, church family. You may wonder why we only did half of a psalm. That's because I only had less than half of a week to prepare. It kind of came back from vacation near the end of last week. And plus, before we had to make the change with Sunday school in the middle, I thought, you know, with timing, I would only be able to cover 22 verses instead of, what, 43. But so here we are this morning with Psalm 107. And I want to start off with this. If I asked you to take out a sheet of paper and write down five attributes of God, which one would be the first that you put on the list? Some of you may put down holy, or love, or good, or sovereign. Those are all really good attributes of God, and this isn't a right or wrong answer, but I do wanna direct us to Exodus 34, verse six, which is where God reveals himself to a rebellious, stiff-necked people. And this is how he reveals himself in Exodus 34, verse six. The Lord passed before him, Moses, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." This becomes sort of a confessional statement of Israel. This is repeated throughout the scripture. Whenever the Lord is identified, He's identified as the Lord, a God merciful. Notice that Mercy heads that list. And again, there's no right or wrong answer of what attribute heads your list, but when God reveals Himself to the nation of Israel, it's His mercy that is highlighted when the people deserve His wrath and punishment. Because before Exodus 34, you have the people committing idolatry, building the golden calf, doing the exact opposite of what the Lord told them to do. The psalm before us today, Psalm 107, is a psalm that highlights God's mercy towards His people. And if you use the King James Version or the New King James Version, verse 1 of Psalm 107 would read, O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. And that's the Hebrew word hesed. It's a pretty familiar Hebrew word in the Old Testament. And it can be translated a variety of ways. It could be mercy, or faithful love, or steadfast love. That's usually what you get in the ESV. And it kind of combines a lot of those ideas. There's not really one single word that works best all the time. In Psalm 23, verse 6, which most of you have that memorized, maybe in a King James, it's surely goodness and mercy. It's the same word. Chesed will follow me all the days of my life. And so it's the mercy of God that we see here in Psalm 107. And it's people who receive mercy that give him high praise. They give him this joyful praise that's called for. Now, for us this morning, what we want to look at is what kind of people are wired to praise and thank God? This is a psalm of thanksgiving. That's why it begins with, oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. It also begins book five in the book of Psalms. The Psalms are divided into five books. This is kind of the closer. It's the guy that's coming in and can throw the really fast pitches and the things that throw you out to win the game. This is the closing book of the Psalter. And we start with thanksgiving and praise for God's goodness and for his mercy, again, reflecting Psalm 34 6, that God is a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. So who are the people that are wired to praise God? It's not the people who think that they have it all together. It's not the people who think that they can manage life on their own, just a few life hacks and you got it. It's not the people who are successful and self-sufficient, the person who walks into the room and has all the answers. Those aren't the people that are wired to praise God for his mercy. The people who are wired to praise God for his mercy are the broken, the needy, and the helpless. That's what we see in this psalm. Again, this psalm is a call to celebrate God's mercy, God for his mercy, to see him and celebrate him for his mercy. It does not take the minor key that some of the psalms have, like the Psalms of Lament. This is a very celebratory psalm. And having a heart of thankfulness is so vital for our souls, especially when our environment is so negative, cynical, critical. We need psalms that remind us to focus on the mercy of God and to be thankful for it. So there are three types of people who find mercy, since we're only covering half of the psalm, and that is the lost, the prisoner, and the fool. And that really reflects a lot of Israel's history, but it's also not detached from us. If we're really honest, we can identify spiritually with lostness, with being a prisoner, being in captivity, and being foolish. So we're going to look at how God's mercy meets those people in those places as we unpack the psalms this morning. Let's look first of all at Mercy for the Lost, verses four to nine. Some wandered in desert waste, in verse four, finding no way to a city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. This first group is the wandering group. They're the group that's wandering in the desert. Now, I've been lost driving in major cities, especially before GPSes. The only way I found my way around Pittsburgh growing up there is to get lost. By getting lost, you find your way. I've been lost on country roads, which terrify me. I'd rather be lost in a city than on country roads, where I have no idea. And your GPS doesn't always work on the country roads, so then you're really lost. I've been lost in the woods hiking before and I can't find my way back and try to get reoriented. I've never been lost in a desert before. Although after the first service, our youth minister, Andrew Pritchett, told me that he's been lost in the desert. So if you want to verify what that experience looks like, talk to him. But being lost in the desert, I'm sure it's pretty hard to get oriented. What do you look at? Just sand all around you. And there's another problem if you're lost in the desert, and that is either being dehydrated or starving to death. which is brought up here in verse five. Not only are they wandering, they're hungry and thirsty. Their soul fainted within them. They're in a desperate place. The desert is a desperate place to be in if you're lost. We know that Israel spends 40 years wandering in the desert, and the only way that they're able to survive that is by God miraculously providing food in the form of manna. which the New Testament picks up on, and Jesus becomes the bread of life. The only way that you're gonna ever get out of this desperate place is if God miraculously provides you with what you need to survive. The desert is a desperate place. And we also, when we think of this theme of lostness, what comes to our minds is the story of the prodigal son that Jesus told. Not only is the son far from home, it wasn't the fact that he was far from home and lost that prompts the son's heart to return. It's his hunger. It's a starvation. He's so desperate in need of food. Let's look at that quickly in Luke chapter 15, verses 15 to 17. So the son goes out and he hires himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into this fields to feed pigs. And that's a despicable job if you're a Jewish boy, feeding pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. So he's looking at the food that the pigs eat, and he's envious of it. He just wishes he could eat that. And no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, when he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger? And that prompts him to go back to his father's house. It's the starvation. That's when he hits rock bottom. That's when he finds himself in such a desperate place when he's starving. So it's this, not only are you lost, but you're starving. That brings you to this point of desperation. And what does that mean for us as we're reading this Psalm and trying to figure out how we apply it or we fit into it? Well, it's this, is that only those who are in situations of desperation are gonna cry out for mercy. When we think we have it together, when we think we're not starved, when we've not hit rock bottom, we're not gonna cry out in desperation. In other words, in order to get this Psalm, Psalm 107, we have to come to a place of desperation, knowing how desperately we need the Lord to extend his mercy to us. This isn't for people who are overly affluent and have everything that they can buy. This isn't for people that can, again, figure it out on their own. This is for people who are desperate and cry out to the Lord. Mercy only applies to people who are desperate. That's why we sing a song, hymn that we just sang, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me Wretch is a way to describe our desperation, how desperately we are in need of God's saving grace. So again, we have to come to God in desperation, just like we would if we were lost and starving. And notice that God's mercy doesn't just get people through. So there is a pattern here in this psalm. The people find themselves in trouble and desperation. They cry out to God for mercy. in their desperation. He hears them. He delivers them. And they praise Him and thank Him. But notice what God does here. He doesn't just get people through. He satisfies, He fills. Verse 9, for He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things. That's what God does out of His mercy to desperate people. He doesn't just say, oh, I'll get you out of here, but He's going to satisfy the longing soul. And that's the testimony of many here today who have come to Christ. You say, my soul has been satisfied. I'm not starved to death anymore. I'm satisfied as I've drunk deeply at the fountain of God's mercy. So there's mercy for the lost. There's also mercy for the prisoner, starting in verse 10 to verse 16. Some sat in darkness, in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons. So it describes the place, the pit, the dungeon, which before artificial lighting, whenever you were in a cell or confinement or captivity, it's a really dark place to be in. And so it describes not only the darkness, but also the bonds, being shackled to a wall, having no freedom of movement. The second desperate situation we see people in is bondage and captivity. In the Bible, people find themselves in captivity, sometimes due to an injustice, nothing that they did to deserve it. So for example, Joseph, we know that Joseph, he's sold into Egyptian slavery. Even when he does the right thing, whenever he flees that tempting situation with Potiphar's wife, Joseph finds himself where? In captivity, in bondage. Or we think of Jeremiah the prophet. Whenever Jeremiah is doing the will of the Lord, he's speaking God's word like he should. We see him shackled. We see him in the stocks. Or we think of the New Testament of Paul, the apostle, who's doing what Jesus commanded him to do, to go into the world, preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And Paul is in chains. He writes letters to the church at Philippi, in chains, in captivity. So some people face bonds, face captivity due to no fault of their own. But others, like this group here, deserve to be there. Which again, is a picture of the history of Israel, their exile, their captivity. In verse 11, for they had rebelled against God, against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. They're rebels. That's why they're sitting in darkness. That's why they're in the shadow of death. That's why they're in prison. That's why they're facing affliction. That's why they have no freedom. Ah, we get a good picture here of what sin does to us, too. The lie that we think when we sin, we're gonna have the most pleasure and fun, but here's the reality. Whenever we sin, we find ourselves a slave. We're shackled to that sin. We're a prisoner to it. It describes, if we're looking at the storyline of the Bible, it describes Adam, it describes the nation of Israel, and it describes us. Jesus was having a debate or a conversation with some religious leaders in his day, in John chapter eight. And they say to him, we've never been enslaved. We've never been a slave. We're certainly not a slave to these Romans. And Jesus says, anyone who sins is a slave to sin. You're slaves and you don't even know it. But the gospel also says that Jesus' very mission, the reason he came to this earth, is to set captives free. What good news is that? Luke 4, 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. But in order for us to get this, again, we need to see our desperation. We can't say, we're not slaves, we're free. And we're Americans, right? We value that. It's in our constitution. It's in our declaration. We want to be independent. But if we're thinking that way in terms spiritually, we're really deceived. when we don't realize what sin does to us. So again, in order to appreciate and understand and praise God for the deliverance that he gives us through Christ, we need to understand our desperate situation without his grace and without his mercy, is that this is where we're at, sitting in darkness, in the shadow of death. We're in captivity. We're slaves to our own sin. And we need to understand at that point it is only the power of Jesus Christ that can set us free. Imagine this if you look at the end of this section. This is how I picture verse 16. For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts into the bars of iron. That's the work of Jesus Christ. What he did on the cross and through his resurrection He shatters the doors of bronze and cuts into the bars of iron and says, come out. That's what he does. He proclaims liberty to the captives. He says, come out from your sin. Or as in John 8 36, if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed. That's a massive gospel promise, isn't it? If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Jesus shattering the doors of the bronze, cutting into the bars of iron, saying, come out of your captivity. You're no longer a slave. It's just a beautiful picture of the power of Jesus Christ, him saying to you, come out and be free. What does that mean? that your past sin no longer defines you. It is not your core identity. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 6, 9. It lists a bunch of sins. But then it says, and such were some of you. If you go on in those sins, you won't inherit the kingdom of God. But if you've listened to what Jesus says, come out, be free, that past sin no longer defines you. It's not your identity. You are in Christ. You have his righteousness. It also means that we're free from the present control and reign of sin. It doesn't mean we're gonna have sinless perfection, but it does mean that sin no longer has dominion over you. Why? Because you are not under law, but under grace. And that word of grace, again, is when Jesus says, come out and be free. Sin is no longer gonna reign over you. It's not gonna have the last word. It's not gonna have the word of victory in your life. It also means this, that our eternal future that we hope for is going to be a state of sinless existence in paradise with Jesus. What do you hope for most in your hope of heaven? Is it to be free of all the sickness in your bodies? To not have to be trapped by anxieties and the things that worry you. To maybe reunite with a loved believer in Christ. Those are all good hopes, but the main hope that we should be setting our heart and our affection on is to know that one day, I'm gonna have a sinless existence in paradise with God. Because there's so many days I look at the darkness of my own heart and I just hate it. I wish I could be set free from it all in this life, on this earth now. But again, it all comes because Jesus has said, come out, be free. Because he's shattered the doors of bronze and cut into the bars of iron. And what do free people do? They sing. They sing, they praise, they give thanks to God. So we see God has mercy for the lost, God has mercy for the prisoner, the power of the gospel brings people out of their captivity, but God also has mercy for the fool, starting in verse 17. Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction. It's one thing to admit that we're lost and need help, It's not a thing to say we were a prisoner. And prisoners can be really tough. One of our elders does prison ministry, and you talk to those guys, they're pretty tough. Some of you may have spent time in prison. Prison can be tough. But to admit that you're a fool, that takes a certain level of humility, doesn't it? To be called a fool, that's humiliating. To say, I'm a fool. And notice this folly, it's through their sinful ways. In verse 43, if we would've went through this whole psalm, verse 43 says, whoever's wise, let him attend these things, let him consider the steadfast love of the Lord. So not only is this a psalm of thanksgiving, it's also a psalm that's directing our hearts to wisdom. And it's saying there's a wise way to live, to come out of your foolishness, but guess what? It's God, out of his mercy, that brings you out of your foolishness. Now, there's different categories of fool in the Bible. And this fool, one commentator says this. How do you know if you're a fool? Well, one commentator helps us by saying this variety of the fool is called the fathead. Typically, he treats everything as a joke, and he's flippant. He thinks whenever, very often, that he knows just a bit better than everyone else present. Ouch. How do we know if we're fools? When we just take a joking posture towards life. When we see life as just comedy. When we're always trying to make everything into a joke. And I love a good sense of humor. I love the laugh. I appreciate some sarcasm. But life is not a joke. If we're just going on with life as a joke, we are a fool. When we indulge our time in flippant, trivial things or an utter waste of time. When our screen time is just total triviality and we spend hours, days, years of our lives being entertained by things that are so flippant that it's such a waste, because we're trying to fill some empty void of the heart, which we can remember what Augustine said, the heart is restless until it finds rest in God. So when we're just trying to make life a comedy and just trying to pass our time in flippant, trivial ways, we're just trying to cover up that void in our heart that can only be filled by God. Or when we think we know better than most, when we think that we are a bit better than everyone else present, when we walk into the room and think that our opinion is the one that matters the most, or what we put on social media, everyone needs to bow before. Again, marks of foolishness. In Proverbs, we see that the fool is often punished, and he suffers and is brought to the point of death, is desperate, But here's the hope, fools can cry out to God. Again, the pattern remains the same. You recognize your error, your ways, you cry out to God for mercy, and he hears you, and he meets you. But notice how God meets the fool. This is interesting in verse 20. In verse 19, actually, let's start there. They cried out to the Lord in their trouble. He delivered them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them. We're healed by the means of God's Word. And notice it's also healing, which means there is a sickness there. It's when we're cut or we're sick that we need healing. In other words, that our sinful ways make us really sick, really sick. I was working with a couple once who had a lot of marriage problems, and one spouse shared about the other spouse, their interpretation, and they said that that spouse was sick in the head. But in reality, in our sin and our depravity, we're all sick in the head. There's this thing in theology, it's called the noetic effects of the fall, which means that whenever Adam fell and we all fell in him, that it really damaged the way that we think. So that's why we get in these categories of being foolish, ignorant, stupid. And Romans describes it in Romans 1, when it says, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. Notice the connection there. When people don't give thanks to God, that's why we need psalms like Psalm 107, to put our heart in the right place. Because if not, we're gonna be fools. If we're not giving constant thanks to God for everything that he has done for us, we are fools. But here it says, but they became futile in their thinking. That's the noetic effects of the fall. And their foolish hearts were darkened. And that's why you read the rest of Romans one, it talks about all the sins that flow out of this type of thinking. But here's the beauty, and this is where we see God's mercy come in. One of the gospel reversals, the thing that the gospel does, it reverses our thinking, it transforms, it renews the foolish mind that we once had. So in between Romans 1 and Romans 12 is Romans 3, justification by grace through faith is the work that God does. Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. All the other good gospel juice is in the middle of these two chapters. that I'm quoting here, but look at Romans 12. Look at what comes from the great mercy of God. Look at the great call from God in his mercy. I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. So that's what the gospel does. When God reaches us in his mercy, he says, I'm gonna give you grace so that your mind can be renewed. And how's that mind gonna be renewed? How are you gonna be healed? Again, God sends out his word and heals you. It's as we soak in the scripture, as we get more of the gospel in our heart, in our thinking, it transforms the way we see all things so that we move from being fools to those who are wise worshipers. So we see the God of mercy, he leads lost people. He releases prisoners and heals sick sinners, heals their thinking. That sounds like everything that Jesus Christ came to this earth to do, doesn't it? Jesus came to do what? Seek and save the lost. Jesus redeems the captives, Luke chapter four. Jesus showers mercy on the fool. So Psalm 107 is really, as we look at it as Christians, is a psalm thanking and praising Jesus for everything he's done. That's why we have songs of joys, because we know the fullness of this in the gospel. And you know what? When Jesus meets us in his mercy, it's totally unaided. He doesn't ask us for our help or our participation. Jesus doesn't say when we're lost, here's a map. I'm kind, I'm giving you a map. Now you find your way out. Whenever we're in bondage and captivity, Jesus doesn't say, here's the hacksaw. Start sawing through the bars. He's the one who does it. Whenever we are fools, Jesus doesn't say, here's a stack of books. Here's a bunch of websites I'm going to push you to. Go read it, research it, come back to me, and then I'll fix you up. That's not grace, is it? That's not how mercy works. Mercy works when we cry out, have mercy on me. I'm the sinner. Just like that parable, the Pharisee and the tax collector. So again, Jesus' mercy comes to us and it's totally unaided. He does not ask for our help. He does not need our help. He picks us up. He does this work. Do dead people ever help anybody? Ephesians 2, verses 4 and 5, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. In other words, the way that we respond is simply by receiving and praising. That's what the psalm calls us to do. But as we close it out, there are a few responses, ways that we can respond to this psalm in thanksgiving and praise. First, you can respond by actually totally rejecting this. And that's so sad. I mean, I really pity someone who would just totally reject a God who is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. That's so sad that you would not know a father of mercy who would hold out his hand and extend the saving help that you so desperately need. But some will. And again, it just agrees me that some just blow it off. But this, most importantly, gives us assurance that no one is ever too far gone. No one is ever too far beyond the reach of God's mercy. I mean, if you look at these conditions, lost, prisoner, full. None of them are beyond the reach of God's mercy and his grace, are they? That may be you today. The spirit may be prompting in your heart right now that you are lost, that you are a prisoner, you're a slave to your sin. That's why you can't get out of it. That's why you feel the overwhelming guilt of it. And you know it's turned you into a fool and your mind is held captive. You know your thinking is not right. But guess what? You're not too far gone. You're not beyond hope. The psalm gives you language of faith and repentance to cry out to the Lord, acknowledge your troubled soul, cast yourself at the mercy of Christ. Or it may be someone you love. Someone that your heart is deeply troubled for because of their lost condition. Because you know they're lost, they're a prisoner. You know how foolish they are. And your heart is broken over their lostness. Guess what? This Psalm teaches us that no one is too far gone. And some of the powerful testimonies that I've heard of, people who, I mean, they're so far gone. But God reaches out in his sovereign mercy and grace and rescues them and redeems them. If you would have known me in the years of 1994 and 1995, before I became a Christian, you may have even said, that young man is too far gone. But God's mercy reached me. And I know there are people praying for me. So don't stop praying, don't stop loving, don't stop sharing the good news of God's mercy with those who are still in this condition. But finally, for those of us who are vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory, that's what Romans says about us who have received God's mercy. Then what do we do? We join in the song of the redeemed. We join the song of the redeemed. Notice that this Psalm in verse two, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. People who have experienced the sweet mercy of God through the gospel of Christ need to be outspoken about it. It's not something we just say, oh, in my heart, I'm just going to praise God. No, we sing and we tell people how God has been so merciful to us. We never outgrow our need to give thanks to the Lord for His redeeming grace. Over the last few years, I've just been trying to be an observer of Three Rivers Baptist Church culture. So I'm trying to pick up on a lot of things. And I knew when I candidated that this was a mature church. and spiritually mature, and even the last few years has proven that to be even more true. How do I know this is a spiritually mature church? Well, it's not because there's a bunch of real great theology books that sit on your bookshelves at your home, although that's true for a lot of you. Whenever I visit your home, I'll try to sneak and check and see what's on the bookshelf, just see what you guys read. But that's not the main indication of spiritual maturity. It's not that when we have teachers teach that they're quoting Greek and Hebrew, although a lot of our teachers have Master of Divinity degrees and can handle the word really well. And they do talk about biblical languages, but that's not the sign of spiritual maturity that I was looking for. Here's how I've discerned the spiritual maturity of Three Rivers Baptist Church, is that so many of you are so thankful about so much. That's a sign of spiritual maturity. Whenever you look at all the minutia of life, when I'm around the elder table, and the elders constantly give thanks for these small things that sometimes I don't even think of, spiritual maturity is found in constant giving thanks to the Lord for all things. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. If His mercy endures forever, so must our thanks and praise. And because of the tone of the psalm, we're actually going to sing two songs as we close. And the way we sing them is with joy. Notice the last verse of our text. Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of his deeds in songs of joy. And so as we enter in this time, let's do so in a Christ-honoring, joyful way. Will you pray with me? Father, as we close out this time in your word this morning, first of all, thank you that you give us the book of Psalms to see you in a variety of ways. We praise you that you are the God of mercy, that you have drawn us out of the pit, that you've taken us from our lost condition. When we've been in captivity to sin, when we are fools, you extend a deep mercy to us. Lord, for any who don't know you're saving grace and saving mercy, would you be pleased to open up their eyes, to direct their hearts to you, to bow before Christ and do so joyfully? Let us, the redeemed, sing these songs, Lord, giving you thanks and praise for all that you've done for us. And let us live lives of increasing gratitude. All the days that you give us, by your grace and for your glory, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I invite you to stand and let's sing these songs of praise. Thankful hearts in response to who he is. You found these words on the overhead. ♪ There's a treasure great in beauty ♪ ♪ Far surpassing earth's great wealth ♪ ♪ He is Jesus, Prince of glory ♪ ♪ A source of all grace, peace, and health ♪ ♪ There's a fountain ever flowing ♪ Satisfying all who dream He is Jesus, the spring of joy To all who hail Him as their King There's a power, a holy power, breaking bonds of captive men. He is Jesus, mighty Jesus, holy warrior and sinner's friend. There's a Savior rich in mercy, quick to pardon all our sins. He is Jesus, our great Redeemer, reconciling There's a glorious Lord returning, and all will bow to Him alone. He is Jesus, the King of nations, reigning from His gracious throne. There is one to whom our praises will through every age ascend. He is Jesus, the King forever, whose wondrous rule will On a hill called Calvary Stands an endless mercy tree Every broke and weary soul Find your rest and be made whole Shed to wash away our shame From the scars pure love released Salvation brought the mercy tree In the sky between two thieves hung the blameless of peace. Bruised and battered, scarred and scorned, sacred hands pierced by our thorn. In His finish was His cry, the perfect Lamb was crucified. A sacrifice, our victory, our Savior chose the mercy tree. Hope went dark that violent day The whole earth quaked at love's display Three days' silence in the ground His body born for heaven's crown On that bright and glorious day, heaven opened up the grave. He's alive and risen indeed. Praise Him for the mercy tree. Death has died, love has won. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Jesus Christ has overcome. He has risen from the dead. One day soon we'll see His face And every tear He'll wipe away No more pain or suffering Oh, praise Him for the mercy tree has won. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Jesus Christ has overcome. He has risen from the dead. He has risen from the dead. Hallelujah indeed. You may be seated. The final climactic part of our worship this morning is coming to the table and celebrating the Lord's Supper together. And we just sang about the mercy tree and the way that we see God's mercy so clearly. And the age that we live in, this gospel age, is through the cross, when we see the mercy of God through Jesus in His broken body, His shed blood for us. So it's a special time as a church family to be together. Let me say a few things before we partake of the bread and the cup. First of all, This is a, the Lord's Supper is for those who have come to that point of faith and repentance, who you have come to that point of desperation and you have cried out to the Lord to save you from your sins, your hope is firmly fixed on Jesus Christ. This is also, it's a table for sinners. It's a table where sinners come and remember what Jesus did. And so it's a time where we confess. We're just going to take a brief moment of silent, private confession. But if your heart is not in the right place, if, first of all, you're not trusting in Christ, or if you are still in your rebellion and foolishness and really don't care, then let the Let's say, let the cup pass. We don't pass it right now. Just please don't partake of it, because the scripture actually says you'll be eating and drinking judgment on yourself. But let's just take a moment where you silently pray, either confess or just confess thanksgiving to God for His goodness during this time. Lord, every time I do this, I think collectively of everything that people just confessed in this small sanctuary, the small group of people. The blood of Christ is sufficient to atone for all of that. Let alone for all the redeemed who confessed their sins today. And throughout salvation history, all those who've trusted in Christ, Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your saving grace. Thank you for laying down your life to purchase a bride who is not clean, who is not able to present herself purely to you without your saving mercy. So we come as those who need help. This reminds us of how helpless we are, and our only hope comes crying out to you, help us. It's just like the tax collector, have mercy on us sinners. But we thank you that the blood of Christ is sufficient. As far as east is from the west, so far our transgressions have been removed from us, and that is your work, Lord, which we give you praise for. And through your son in his name, amen. On the night that the Lord was betrayed, he took the bread and broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is for you. Take it. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's remember the body of Christ broken for us. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And the church says, come, Lord Jesus. Amen. I invite you to stand, hear this last benediction before you are dismissed. This comes from the book of Jude. To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ, mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. Amen, you are dismissed.