Let's all stand and we'll start off with a word of prayer. Brother Steve, would you? Hey man, let's all take your hand. Let's put it on hand number 294. Alleluia, alleluia, sleep in peace. Sleep in the heart of God, rest on His shoulders. Alleluia, alleluia, sleep in peace. Alleluia, alleluia, sleep in peace. ♪ I have set my course into heaven ♪ ♪ And I'll stay here until I die ♪ ♪ And I'll be blessed in the hour of my death ♪ ♪ And I'll be blessed in the hour of my death ♪ ♪ And I'll be blessed in the hour of my death ♪ ♪ In the dark of night ♪ Amen. Let's turn to hymn number 323. ♪ The Lord is King and God is King ♪ ♪ God is love and life for me ♪ ♪ God sees my strife and my pain ♪ ♪ God is love and God is love ♪ ♪ He's made a man like me to be his story ♪ It's time. ♪ Lord of His fame and glory still ♪ ♪ Lord of His power and glory still ♪ ♪ Lord of His kingdom, Lord of His love ♪ ♪ Riches and glory all His own ♪ ♪ Lord of His kingdom, Lord of His love ♪ Amen, thank you, may we see you. Some glad morning when this life is o'er I'll fly away, fly away, fly away To a home on God's celestial shore I'll fly away I'll fly away, fly away in the morning When I die, hallelujah, bye and bye I'll fly away, fly away, fly away In the shadows of this open garden I'll fly away, fly away, fly away Like a bird from prison bars and flown I'll fly away, fly away, fly away I'll fly away, fly away, fly away I'll fly away, fly away in the morning When I die, hallelujah, bye oh bye, I'll fly away, fly away, fly away. Just a few more weary days and then I'll fly away, fly away, fly away to a land where joy shall never end. I'll fly away, fly away, fly away. I'll fly away, fly away, all glory. I'll fly away, fly away. in the morning. When I die, hallelujah, by and by, I'll fly away, fly away, fly away. I'll fly away, fly away, all glory. I'll fly away, fly away in the morning. When I die, hallelujah, by and by, I'll fly away, fly away, fly away. flying away. In case you didn't hear, there was an election yesterday. And Trump won. I just can't help but say that. It just makes me smile every time I say it. I've been saying it all day to everybody I meet. There was an election yesterday. And Trump won. So awesome. But you know what that means? That means we got four years. to make a difference as Christian. Now, if the other party would have got in, their whole demeanor, their stand against life and against the Bible and against godliness, we would be begging God for mercy right now. But now, we need to take advantage of where we're at. We need to proclaim the truth of the word of God. We need to witness. We talk about that a lot. We need to witness. We need to witness. We need to win people to the Lord. And it's time. And this may be the last time. We don't know. Jesus could still come. which would be great, I'd love to go tonight. I've got my ticket ready, I'm ready to go, I can't wait to go. But then again, he may give us eight years, and four was good and four bad, or who knows how God wants to do it. But while we have the opportunity, where there's no excuses, we need to be busy about the things of God. and proclaiming the truth of the word of God, inviting people to church. I tell you, the one thing that really bothered me about this election was how many evangelicals were for the Democratic party line. I don't get it. You gotta stand against this if you're gonna stand with that. And it's become very acceptable in churches for that to happen. I was talking to Brother James about a well-known church that we've known and how that, the preacher was all wishy-washy and wouldn't take a stand, wouldn't even just, I mean, all you have to do is just say, vote your Bible, you know? But churches won't do that, so. Anyhow, we've got four years, let's make it count, all right? Let's make it count for the Lord. And I would encourage you, pray every day for our leadership, every day. Because they've tried to kill him twice, I wouldn't be surprised if they try to kill him again, okay? So, we need to be praying, we need to pray. Anyhow, we just need to pray. What was really cool is Monday I sat down with Psalms 138. So let's go over there. Psalms 138. And I've been praying all this week. I prayed Monday, and then every time I had an opportunity to pray on Tuesday was praying, Lord, have your hand upon the election. And I picked Psalms 138 for the message tonight, wrote it all on Monday, and then I thought this morning, this is just perfect, because we're gonna talk about giving thanks to the Lord. giving thanks to the Lord. Psalms 138, verse number one, I will praise thee with my whole heart. Now that kind of sounds familiar because we're talking about loving God more. And there in Luke 10, 27, and he answering said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. And so we ought to praise the Lord with all our heart. Well, I'd be thankful. Hopefully, you've taken time, you know, at two o'clock in the morning, I was thanking God for the outcome of the election. It was really a cool time for me. I got bent up in Iowa, and Jeremiah in Topeka, and Noah in Oklahoma City, and we're all texting, you know, for a couple hours, just having a good time about what the Lord was doing. And I just stopped at the end and just thanked God that we still live in a country where we can hold an election and where checks had been put in place. I love the fact that they reported that Pennsylvania was going to quit counting. And they took a lawyer and went right into the judge, and the judge said, oh no, you're going to continue to count. So those things were a blessing. I just stopped and thanked the Lord for that. And if you haven't thanked the Lord and you were a Trump supporter, you ought to be thanking God for it. And you ought to be thanking him for four more years to be able to witness and talk to people about God without fear of persecution. We have so much to praise him for. And so I will praise him with my whole heart. Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship towards thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. In the day when I cried, thou answerest me, and strengthenest me with the strength in my soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thine own hands. Lord, we love you tonight. We thank you so much for your goodness to us. Thank you for the country you allow us to live in. Thank you for the elections we were able to witness. Thank you for the work that was done. And Lord, I pray that you would make our president now and the one coming into office, make them wiser than themselves. God, I pray that they would desire to be godly individuals. I know that we're not gonna set out and claim to be, you know, a God-run nation. I know that just hadn't happened, but God, you ought to be glorified. And so give us opportunities to glorify you and to lift you up and to exalt you. And Lord, while we have the freedom to do so, help us to do that. Lord, we pray that you'd meet with us tonight. Have your will done in our lives and our hearts. Might you be glorified in all that is said and done. We love you and we ask these things in your blessed and most holy name. Amen. By the way, as I get ready to start here, before I forget, I want to point out that they started putting the lower part of the sprinkler system in on Monday. And so they suggested that they would put everything that has a suspended ceiling in it will be plastic pipe with water. And so they've already done all of the fellowship hall. They've done this entry right here. They're down over by the nursery and the ladies bathroom. They're making really good progress. And you can see the new heads that have been installed in the fellowship hall. It looks really great. And so really excited about that. Hopefully in just a couple of weeks, they'll have this lower, the bottom part done. Then they'll begin to tear out the upstairs up in the attic. They were trying to get away from the heat so that they wouldn't have to battle heat exhaustion and get that all tore out in the new, work done up there. So it's in progress and we can thank the Lord for that and hopefully by or around the first year that'll all be wrapped up. So thank God for that. So my first point is the personal worship of God. the personal worship of God. We see that in verses one through three and verse seven and eight. Then we read, I will praise thee with my whole heart, before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. And so it's a personal worship with God. We ought to be thankful for his love. We ought to be thankful for his faithfulness. We ought to be praising him, exalting him, worshiping him, lifting him up. And we have so many ways to do that, right? As we examine our lives, we examine the things that God has done for us. the opportunities that he's given us to witness and testify of him, even down to the house that you live in, the car that you drive, the job that you have, the spouse that you have, the children or the family that God's blessed you with, and the grandchildren definitely. And so we have so much to praise God for, and he's talking about that we ought to praise God with our whole heart. Not like, you know, at the back of the bus going, thank you, God. Thank you for what you've done for me. Like, thank you, Lord. You're so good to me. You're so good to me. I don't deserve this, but God, you are so good to me. I wanna praise your name for all that you've done. with our whole heart. It ought to be a driving part of our life. Matter of fact, I think every time we pray, we ought to start off with thanksgiving, with praise. It ought to always be a part of our lives and ought to always be a part of something that's on our lips, thanking God for all that he has done for us. And I think it's a good way to end whatever prayer we offer, thanking God for hearing our prayer and answering it according to his will. And then, kind of interesting there, the second part of verse one, before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. Notice it's a small g, and it's gods, it's plural. At this time, We come from Psalms 137, which we'll probably be in next week, and we find that the nation of Israel is taken into captivity, and David writes this psalm here, and it's like David said, I don't care where I'm at, I'm gonna praise God. Whether it's around all the false gods, I'm still gonna lift my God up. I'm still gonna praise him. He's still gonna be lifted up. And it's so important that we recognize the importance of lifting our God up in the midst of the little g gods of this world, which can even include us and others, right? We can become those in our own lives. Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. In other words, just because people are there to worship like this God and that God doesn't mean I'm gonna be silent about the God I worship. I'm gonna step up and I'm gonna sing and praise my God. I'm gonna praise him. Verse two said, I'll worship towards thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. His very person and promises, God's promises are backed by the honor of his name. Who better to back up the promises that God has made than God himself? I mean what an awesome God he is. And there we see in verse number three, his answering a prayer, verse three says, in the day when I cried, thou answeredest me and strengthenedest me with strength in my soul. Man, I'm so glad when God would hear and answer our prayers. Many times I've turned to him in weakness, saying, God, I need you, I need you to work, I need you to do, I prayed yesterday. God, this can only come down to what you do for us. God, you. God, I give it to you. I lay it at your feet. I know you're the one to handle this, and how many times in my own personal life I've had to turn to God and say, God, I am not smart enough to figure this out. I'm not smart enough to order my steps, but you are, God. Go before me and lead me. Strengthen us, me. Answer me. Strengthen me. We see his manifold provisions in verses seven and eight. There we read his preservation in verse seven. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. He's saying God's power saves me from my enemies. God's power prevents them from doing great harm to me. God protects me, God preserves me, God provides for me, God takes care of me. And though I walk in the midst of trouble, by the way, it sounds just like every day we walk in the world, because we're walking in trouble. It's all around us, man, this world is in a mess. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, that will revive me. I think we're gonna be surprised when we get to heaven, and I don't know, I've got a very active imagination, that maybe there'll be some playback that we will observe just how much God protected us in times that we could have been very vulnerable, God protected us from the enemy, from enemies around us, from their power to overthrow us or the power to bring us down in weakness. God's the protector. And then for guidance, verse number eight, God works out the plan or his life, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. We can say, the Lord, Lord, I want you to perfect that that concerns me. Whatever it is you want me to do, perfect it in me. I wish the teens were in here, I'd like to preach this to them. They ought to be praying, God, perfect in me. Give me the right mate. Boy, I tell you, church, we need to pray for these kids. They're at such a dangerous time in life. You know how many kids grow up in church, marry the wrong person, end up divorced, and it's just like a downward spile? Or how many get ready to graduate and they walk away from all that they've been taught? I'm telling you, we need to pray for our young people. We need to encourage them. And it's not just for the parents to be praying for them. We as a church, it takes a church to raise godly kids, and we have that responsibility to be praying for them, that the Lord would perfect that which concerneth me. I still pray, God, I want you to do in my life what you want done. I submit myself to you. O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thine own hands. You know the great thing about God? is that President Trump's only gonna be for four years, but God's forever, amen? I'm thankful for the President, okay? But my hope is not in him. It wasn't in whoever got elected. My hope is in God. Let's never forget that. Our hope must be in God, and men will fail us. He's probably gonna do some bozo thing, you're gonna go, well, he's not much of a godly example. We're voting for a president, we weren't voting for, you know, like, sainthood, because I don't know if he'd ever qualify. Unless he has Jesus in his heart, that qualifies him as a saint, amen? Yeah. So God works the plan for our life. God, I want you to perfect me. I want you to work in me. God, teach me. Lead me. Guide me. Preacher, at what point do you think that you quit praying that prayer? About the time you take your last breath. I've watched too many men and ladies get to the latter part of their life and ruin it all. Years of a great testimony for God, and they get to that latter part of their life and they mess it up. I'm thinking of a well-known, a well-known preacher in his 70s that just did this with a 24-year-old woman. Claims there was never a physical encounter, but there was enough of an emotional encounter that the deacon said, you got to step down. I'm telling you, let's not think because I'm a certain age, I'm beyond that, okay? Bob, be good. Wanted to say that a long time. Yeah, me too. I got one at you and four at me. Yeah, Satan would love nothing better and to destroy a lifetime of service for the Lord, and all the people remember some dirty little thing that happened at the end of our life. Our second point, you're gonna be excited about this, there's only two points. There's only, what, eight verses, so we can't go far, right? Our second point, the universal worship of God. Universal worship of God. A is His glory, verses four and five. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee. I love this, I love this. When I think about the end time, the thing that puts a smile on my face, I get a bigger smile than the fact that we had an election yesterday and Trump won. I get a bigger smile to remember this, that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Man, we've had good Christian people martyred, still being martyred around the world, and the only consolation is God's got all that, God's taken care of that, and one day, everyone will kneel, and everyone will bow, and every tongue will confess that he is God. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Man, I was driving Monday night up to Topeka, and I've got this thing that I do with grandsons. When there's a certain football team that plays on Monday night or Thursday night, I'll drive up to Topeka, we'll meet at Buffalo Wild Wings, we yuck it up, we watch football. And I learned years ago, you never leave until it's over, okay? Monday night was a good example. And I just love. being there with my grandchildren, and I love being able to spend time with them, but I was headed up, and Ms. Kerr is always really good about her sunsets. I saw a sunset that topped all of hers. Because when I got up and I popped up in Lawrence, which hallelujah, that's God's country, amen, number one ranked basketball team in the nation, we won that night. I popped up on that little bit of a horizon as you're going downtown, and it was the prettiest. Yellow, orange, I mean, just spread out across there. And then it looked like smoke of a fire underneath it. It was kind of billowing along. I'm telling you, I tried to take pictures while I was driving 85. You know, you just can't capture it on film, right? Especially at 85. So I try God in a lot of ways, right? 85, camera, I'm going, shh, shh, shh. I'm telling you, our God is an awesome decorator of this world in which we live. If you can live in this world and not acknowledge that a power higher than two atoms colliding and accidentally making all this, you're missing it, man. Because the beauty of this earth in which we live, the beauty of a sunset, the beauty of a sunrise and a big buck come, anyhow. The beauty of going out to the Grand Canyon, the beauty of being in the rice paddies over in the Philippines, the beauty of traveling this world, the beauty of being out over an open ocean, 35,000 feet in the air at 800 miles an hour. I mean, God's beauty is everywhere. It's only right that we would praise him for the beauty that he's placed around us. It might be the spouse that you walk hand in hand with. It might be the children that God has blessed you with. It might be that you just look at the body that God's given you and go, this is amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing to think about. There's no animal that does this. That's pretty amazing. Can you imagine if they all went backwards? What a mess that would be. But God made them go like this. It's amazing. He's just an amazing God. And he deserves our great glory. We ought to just heap it on God all that we can. It says, all the kings of the earth shall praise thee. And you know what? I think every peon on the earth ought to praise him too. When they hear the words of thy mouth, when we read the word of God, when we hear the preaching of the word of God, when we listen to Bible on tape or whatever, we ought to be thankful. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord. Not the junk of this world, but in the ways of God. We're great. Well, I wish that that was like double underline, all giant letters. Great is the glory of the Lord. We don't even comprehend it, how great it is, his glory and his ways. Verse five and six. Yea, thou shalt sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off. The proud, God holds them at arm's length. If we think that we're gonna come to God on our terms, and we're gonna serve God on our terms, then God's more than likely got us out here like this. God's on high, God deserves to have our respect, God deserves to be elevated, God deserves to be lifted up, and we should come humbly into his presence, humbly seeking him. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off. Reminds me of the fact in the New Testament, God says he resists the proud. Oh, that we might humbly come into his presence and give thanks for the great God he is. Lord Jesus, I love you tonight. I thank you for the truth of your word. Lord, I pray that in the next couple of days, might we mull on these things, think on these things, and might we become better praisers and acknowledgers of the great God that you are to us. Thank you for our time together tonight. We love you and we ask these things in your blessed and most holy name. Amen. I'm gonna have Brother James come. I think we've got some prayer sheets. If you need one, you can lift your hand. Brother Charlie's got those. He'll be glad to get them to you.