bit of a rerun. All right, Psalm 111 is where we're at. And actually, I do want to reminisce a wee bit as we get started here, kind of back to when I was a graduate student at Bob Jones, and I think you know our testimony that I was a I was a second year grad student, my wife was a senior in college when we got married, and praying about what God wanted us to do, and I'd always had a burden from my undergrad years about church planting, and it was my favorite class that I had in my undergrad days, and it was inspiring, you know, to go to that class and to hear about starting a church, and what you do as you start a church, and where you look to establish a ministry and things like that, and I love that class, and I love my preacher boy classes, those were the classes were by our year, whether freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, during the week and then on the Friday we would all meet together at Stratton Hall, a hall that would seat about 700. In my day, when I was a student there, it was pretty well filled towards the back, maybe 500, 600. students that were studying for the ministry so I had some sense of God's call upon their life and every Friday we'd have a preacher that would preach and this Friday the preacher was a church planter from Colorado, and a great state that I love. It's mountainous and beautiful. And I have said, if I chose where I'd live, I'd live in Colorado, but if I chose where I'd live, I'd live in Scotland, because I love it here as well. But it's just an awesome place. I'm listening to him talk about establishing a church. And if I remember right, maybe they've got a building, and they're getting into that building. He's got his office. And just listening to him, again, just focused in on, man, that would be really neat to go into an area and establish a church and start a church. And as I walked away from that class, I came out the front of the Stratton Hall. I had to walk around the building to go into the back of the hall because the snack shop was right next to Stratton Hall. And I worked there as a manager, and so I'd go in by the loading docks in the back of the building. And as I walked past those loading docks on that day, I was just praying in my heart, saying, God, is this just a burden or is this a call? And in step, the Lord anchored in my heart, this is a call to church planning. So much so that six years later, five years later, that's what we were praying about as we got ready to go from being in the pastorate as an assistant pastor into what we find out is missions, because God called us to church planning in Scotland. And so that made it missions for us. But I'm so thankful for that man that came and stirred us up about being in the Lord's work. And just how God worked in my heart about that, and I don't know if you know that term, the Lord's work, but as we think about that, and that's gonna be kind of the focus of what we're gonna consider this morning, the Lord's work is our church. It's the local body that we're talking about in Sunday school. The Lord's work is evangelism, the outreach of the local body. Our missions program that we got back there that we pray about and work in trying to support missionaries, that is the Lord's work. Our church building program and seeking to establish a church with a property, that is the Lord's work. Anytime we're impacting others for Jesus Christ, That's the Lord's work, all right? That is something that we're doing for God. Jesus said this, I must be about my Father's business. His life was about doing, as it were, the Lord's work. 1 Corinthians 3.9 says, for we are laborers together with God, okay, working with God, God's work. You're God's husbandry, you're God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. So what are we building? What is it all about? It's about God's work. It's about Jesus Christ. It's about establishing his work. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon for other foundation could no man lay that is laid which is Jesus Christ. So everything we do for God that is furthering his work, is the Lord's work. And I think that's comforting, isn't it? It's His work. And that's maybe even one aspect that we're going to consider this morning. And so we ought to be involved in the Lord's work. That ought to be something that is in our minds continually, that we desire to be involved in the Lord's work. And so Psalm 111, in our text today, kind of just like that Colorado church planter, I hope, all right, in the sense that just giving us truth about the Lord's work that ought to inspire us to say, man, that is something that I want to get involved in. And don't let this scare you this morning. But I've got 12 reasons why you need to get involved in the Lord's work. It's basically, we're just gonna go down through the passage. Obviously, we're not gonna spend a lengthy amount of time. And do not worry, there will not be a quiz afterwards. You don't have to be able to list these things. But I hope as we look at them this morning, it'll be like, you know what? Not so much I remember, but just that we walk away saying God's work is really important. We need to be involved in God's work. So are we involved in the Lord's work? What are we doing for the Lord? What are we doing to further what He desires to be accomplished? May God speak to our hearts about that today as we come to this text. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you for the grace that you give. Thank you, Father, that we are involved in the Lord's work right now as we come together to worship together on a Sunday morning. This is the Lord's work. And we praise you for that. And Father, the children's class, that's the Lord's work. And we pray for Mrs. Shore and the crash that you bless the kids and give them grace to listen and have their hearts opened. We praise you that you're God that does work in the lives of children. Father, I pray, may the Spirit of God give us a church that is all about the Lord's work. Father, that as best we can, day after day, week after week, month after month, we're going to be somebody that is involved, somebody that's getting God's work done for God's glory. And Father, as we hear, we can't hear without your help. We ask that you take out any noise that there might be, and Spirit of God, put quietness in our soul. We pray that the Word of God would have free course this morning. Father, I can't speak without your enablement. Our church knows that. I know that. You know that, and so I just pray that the Spirit of God give me liberty to express the truth of the Word of God in the way that you desire me to present this passage this morning. I pray that the amount of information would not be prohibitive to us in accomplishing the main point. And five, that is being reminded that there's nothing as vital as God's work. And so spirit of God, would you bless and guide as we come to the word of God. Now it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, so 12 reasons why you need to get involved in the Lord's work. So we're gonna jump in here. First of all, the Lord's work is wonderful. The Lord's work is wonderful. It says in verse one, praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great, okay? Some people wanna do great things with their life. They might say, you know, cancer is a big problem that the world has or some other infectious disease. And so I'm gonna give my life to the great cause of solving that need. Other people might think world hunger is the greatest need, poverty, you know, and trying to, make sure that these poor countries have the food resources that they need. That's important work and so that's a great cause. I'm going to give my life to that. Some might want to be a peacekeeper. We've got the war that's taking place in Ukraine and Russia. I want to be somebody that's politicians involved in helping protect and guard people from war in future wars and things like that. And we'd say about that, that's great, right? That's a wonderful work that you are doing. But let me ask the question, and I don't mean to belittle anything that somebody might do in any one of those spheres, but is that the greatest thing? that somebody could do with their life. We understand that what often appears great and wonderful pales in comparison when you see something else, all right? You might think that's great, but it may not be that great. I grew up in Wisconsin and as a child there I got into fishing and And we had some great places to fish. We'd jump on our bicycles and just within a half mile, mile of our house, we could be down either fishing on Lake Malaloo or fishing on the St. Croix River. And we'd often do that and enjoyed that. And we caught some neat fish. And I won't tell you all my fish stories, which I have many fish stories, but I remember catching one time through the ice, I caught a sturgeon. Okay, a sturgeon is a very awesome prehistoric fish. Another time I caught from the shore, I caught a sturgeon. My sturgeon were about that big, and you might think for a fish, that's a nice-sized fish, and they weighed about five pounds. And you might even say, hey, that's great. And it is great. I mean, it's a very cool fish. Evolutionists, again, I mean, they love this fish because it looks like it never evolved. It's a kind of interesting-looking type bony fish. And in my youth, that was great. But as you read online, you read about sturgeons, the biggest sturgeon ever caught was a beluga female captured in the Volga estuary. I have no idea where that is. In 1827. It measured 7.2 meters, 23 feet 7 inches long. It weighed in at 1,571 kilograms or 3,463 pounds. In my youth, I was like, man, this is great. Look at this fish. And you might have looked at that and said, that's great. But in comparison, with what was truly great of that species, it was very insignificant what I had caught. And we might look at our life, and there's great things that people could do in life. And we might, in the scope of men's vision and in the youthfulness of our humanity, we might look at that and say that's great, but in comparison, there's nothing greater that we could do with our life than to do the Lord's work with our life, no matter what our vocation is. And please understand that as we talk about this today, I'm not suggesting that all of us need to go into full-time ministry, but we can all be about our Father's business. And there's nothing more significant that we could do than have an impact in the Lord's work. And so the Lord's work is wonderful. It is truly great. Secondly, the Lord's work is desirable. It says, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. God's work is great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. So participating in the Lord's work is for those who delight in it. It's for somebody that has a desire for it. There's things in life that we look at and think, no way I would ever, not in a million years, not for a million pounds. It's not gonna happen. We were at the Helix Park over where the Kelpies are in Falkirk. And there's these huge power lines that go across there. If you've ever been there, you see them going across the little man-made lake that they have there. And we watched as guys climbed those in their gear, and they got the ropes and everything, and they walk out on these huge power lines and kind of got themselves strapped to it, and they start to scrape the paint off of it. Then they got their paint can and they're starting to paint it. I just look at that and think, you know, the last thing that I'd ever desire is to fill their shoes. You know, it's not going to be me that's going to be up there. But in contrast, across from my house, I've said recently they've clear cut those trees. And I see that power. you know, whatever that thing is that with the claw on it and the gripper on it and ripping up trees and picking up a 30-foot tree and holding it in its fist. And I think every guy looks at that and says, give me a chance. You know, no guy is gonna look at that and say, no way, I don't wanna do that. That's something that we absolutely would desire to get involved in doing. You know, do you have any desire for God's work? See, is there anything in your heart that says, man, I want to get involved in that. I want to do something for God. It's sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. I believe Gideon was somebody like that. Even though when we see Gideon, Gideon's hiding, but Gideon's trying to do something for his nation. He's trying to do something for his family as he's threshing the wheat by the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. The Bible says in Judges 6 that the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And you get a kind of a glimpse into the heart of Gideon. And Gideon looked at it and he said, okay, and he was getting it from God. The Lord is with thee, the mighty man of valor. And he looks at it and says, but I've heard the stories. I've heard about what God has done in the past. And if God's with us, then where is that? You can almost see in his heart that the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that desire them. And you can see in the heart of Gideon something that says, man, I want to see that. I want to see God do something great, see God do something significant. And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go, in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? You know, is there anything again in your heart today that said, man, the works of the Lord are great. That's pinnacle, that's awesome what God is able to do. Is there anything in your heart that says, man, I want to see that? I want to see that. God's work, the Lord's work is desirable. It ought to be something that we look at with desire and say, man, I would like to do that. 1 Timothy 3, the first part of it, if a man desired the office of a bishop, he desired the good work. That's okay to have that desire to say, man, if God called me to do that, I'd be happy to do that. That's a great thing to do for God. And of course, there we are talking about a full-time ministry. But the Lord's work is desirable. And then third, The Lord's work is honorable, it's honorable. It says His work is honorable and glorious, and His righteousness endureth forever. Okay, you can say it like this. His work is full of grandeur and magnificence. It is eternally righteous. is something that we look at and say, that is absolutely honorable. Right now, our world is recoiling from the wickedness of what has taken place in Ukraine. And Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the lies that have been spread by Vladimir Putin trying to rewrite history with his essay and giving that big speech and giving that circus scripted performance with the Security Council as they all came together and all said exactly what he had told them to say regarding what was taking place in the Eastern Ukraine, little puppet kingdoms that they were trying to establish within Ukraine. Sadly, Russia's dishonored themselves, right? The whole world is looking with scorn at Russia, very sadly. And I feel bad for the Russian people that want nothing to do with this. I feel bad for the soldiers that don't want to fight, but are being forced into, I'm talking Russian soldiers to fight against the Ukrainians. And I feel badly for them, but their leader, Vladimir Putin. has absolutely dishonored the Russian people. In contrast, if you followed some of the stories, there's great pride in the hearts of the Ukrainians as they fight for their country. And nobody could probably help but admire President Zelensky and the courage and bravery that he's shown as he's remained there. The US offered him an evac flight out of there. He said, I don't need a ride, I need weapons. The fight is here. I mean, things like that. You see those 12 men on Snake Island and there's some question of did they die or did they not die? The Russians said, give up the island or we're going to bomb you. And they basically said no. And the bombs fell and they thought they had died. But Russia has recently said that they've been captured. You see MPs that were against President Zelensky, opposition member MPs joining with him and also taking up weapons. You've got the former president of Ukraine being videoed on the ground there in Kiev, also engaging with the enemy. You look at these guys and say, that is honorable. That is honorable. As we speak about the Lord's work and what God has called us to do, it's honorable. It's honorable. The world may mock, the world may scorn, the world may despise, the world may look down on it, but we understand this today, God's work is honorable. Gideon is in the hall of the history of faith. Hebrews 11, verse 32. What shall I more say, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms. righteousness, obtain promises. And there ought to be something in our hearts that says, are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? God's work is glorious. There is great honor for those that would stand for God. And so we ought to look at it today. Man, I want to get involved in that. That's something honorable that we can do with our life. There's nothing more honorable than joining the righteous cause of Christ. And then the Lord's work is memorable. It's memorable. It says verse four, he hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. Okay, much of life is forgotten. I would imagine that you don't remember what you ate this past week, maybe not yesterday, without really thinking about it. You may struggle to remember what you did this past week. You know, what did I accomplish? Where was I this past whatever day of the week? The Super Bowl was recently on a Sunday. You may not know, not that it matters over here, who won the Super Bowl. Who cares about who won the Super Bowl a year ago, right? It just fades into the abyss. But there are some things that we anchor in our memory. There's some things that are important that we say, you know what, this is something that is memorable and that we need to remember. You remember when 9-11 happened in New York City, the phrase was what? Never forget. Never forget. And so what do they do? They set up a 9-11 memorial. They set up a 9-11 Day of Remembrance where they take the time to remember the fallen, to remember the innocent lives that were lost, the heroes that went into those buildings, right? We set up memorials for things that are vital things, are important, of great significant things. You know, as we think about God, and God's done that, hasn't he, with his word? God's given memorials in his word. Obviously, his word is a memorial. Every generation understands from the word of God that God is creator, that God is lawgiver, that God is judge, that God is a savior, that God is all these things, right? because his work is memorable. As somebody gets saved, their life is a living testimony to the power of the gospel to save men from sin. As they get saved as well, we might baptize them, and as they're baptized, it's a memorial of our Savior, Romans 6.4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. And so we've got the word of God as a memorial. Somebody gets saved as a memorial. Their baptism is a testimony to the eternal work that Christ did when he died and he rose from the dead. Next week would normally be our observance of the Lord's table. We'll put that back one week because of our family being absent. But as we do that, what is it? It's a memorial. It's a memorial of our Savior's death. You just show the Lord's death till he come. Why do we do that? Because God's works are memorable. God is writing the history. God is keeping that in front of people. You know, it's a great thing to be involved in something that's memorable. We're participating in that. Even as we get together today, the Lord's work is memorable, and so it's something that will last. And so praise God for that. And then fifth, the Lord's work is merciful. The Lord's work is merciful. It says, the Lord is gracious. and full of compassion. Okay, men have incredible needs and God is willing to meet their needs because God is. Merciful. And so it's a mercy mission that our Lord came on. It's a mercy mission that is participated in by God's people. Again, as we watch the battle unfold, and I don't know how much time that you've spent watching the things that are taking place. I've had difficulty at times removing myself from it, just observing this war as it takes place. But you know, again, the Ukrainians are not running. As the war started, as the bombs started to fly, many of the Ukrainians, rather than running away, were actually running to it. I watched a man that was interviewed, and as the first bombs fell, and the man said to him, the interviewer, said, I just can't believe how calm you are. And he says, 10 minutes ago, I was just shaking. He said, but we're gonna go down, we're gonna meet together with my friends, we're gonna see what we can do to help. And when you have a plan, you're not afraid. And why? Because he's going to get involved. He's going to go on a mission of mercy to do something. Again, I mentioned the former president of Ukraine is out there being a voice and being a presence among the troops. The president himself is out there and it's a mission of mercy to the Ukrainians seeking to help their nation. You've got firefighters running in. to these bombed out buildings, and you see the images of them fighting fires in a war, the medics that are helping to try to treat the soldiers that are working 24-7 to try to meet their needs. And it's vital, why? Because it's a mission of mercy. You know, no mercy is greater needed by men today than the mercy of God for their soul. There's nothing greater than that. John 3.18 says, But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And because they're condemned already, meaning this, if they die, they'll spend eternity in hell. And so when you look at the Akha Indians back in 1950, and you've got Jim Elliott and those men, there's just 400 Indians that are a part of that tribal group that they're trying to reach, but they're passionate about getting to them. Why? Because they're on a mission of mercy. Because they care about men's souls. They care about these men that will die and spend eternity in a lake of fire. If you know the story, Jim Elliot and his four friends all perish at the end of the spear, right? They're killed by the Akka's, a cannibalistic tribal people that didn't understand what was happening. But it opened the door for the gospel to get in there to those people so that they could get saved. You know what, it was a mission of mercy. It was absolutely worth it. Sadly, right now, life is coming into focus as far as what's important, what's not. You might have heard that they're canceling football tournaments with Russia. They're canceling races with Russia, and you almost wanna go, let's not even talk about this, let's not even think about this, don't even ask these questions because sports do not matter when people's lives are at stake. And it's a good refocus for us too. You know, what's my life about? My life ought to be about, I'm on a mission of mercy. If I don't go and carry the gospel to those people, who else is gonna go? What if everyone just sits around and says, I don't wanna be a fireman in a war zone. I don't wanna get involved in helping. If everybody did that, everybody's gonna perish. Somebody has to refocus and say, this is important. The Lord's work is merciful. And then the Lord's work is provisional, provisional. Remember the Lord's name, Jehovah Jireh. Verse five says, he hath given meat unto them that fear him. And again, the Psalm is to Israel and he's reflecting on God's goodness and for his people. And one thing that he notes is that whether the man in the wilderness or the quail that God brought in on the winds for the people to eat, but whatever the case, God had provided for them. that God was a provisional God. He's the one that meets man's needs. You know, we understand, we just talked about it, men need salvation. There's no doubt today that they need the gospel, but you know what? There's so much more that they need from God than just that. Today, we've got people that are struggling with other needs, mental, emotional, relational, physical, spiritual, developmental, right? We could list a lot of things that people are really struggling with, but the thing is, God has the ability to meet their need. In the news, in our day, mental health is a big thing. We've got famous people coming out, they're big on mental health. Let me ask you, when's the last time you read in the Bible something about mental health? And I understand it's in there, but it's not in that terminology. It's not in there, in that statement, because the idea that our world has about mental health is that it is outside of spiritual things. It's purely physical. But when you study the word of God, actually what you find out about mental health is it has a lot more to do with spiritual than with physical. And so when you look at the Bible, the Bible... has a lot to say about mental health, but it uses terms like this, worry, anxiety, depression, fear, double-mindedness, unbelief, doubt, right? And the list could go on of things that we could identify in the Word of God as mental health, but really what it is, it is a need in the heart of men for God. And so a society that rejects God, what do we expect? They're gonna have a lot of mental health needs. Why? Because God's not meeting their needs. Why? Because they push God away. And so our world has that need. We've got the message. The Lord's work is the answer to go to them and say, God stands ready to meet your need. Another big thing that's in the news is, have you heard the statements about leveling up after COVID? Basically, it's this idea of equality. Labor would be big on pushing it. We've got poverty that's here in the United Kingdom, and we want to level up. We want to bring these people up so that they don't have poverty. We want to make sure they've got food. We've got the huge economic crisis with the war. We've got the utility bills going up and whatnot. We want to make sure that people's needs are being met. What does the Bible say about that kind of need, food and raiment? Matthew 6.31 says, Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And so what does the Bible say? The Bible says God stands ready to meet your need. If we're involved in the Lord's work, then we're helping people to come to an understanding of who God is so that they can go to God and God is the one that can provide for them. God is the one who can supply for them. Jesus said, when you pray, how do you pray? Give us this day our daily bread. God's a God, again, a provision Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. You know the saying, give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. There's a social gospel that comes in to some areas and they say, we wanna start an orphanage, we wanna start a soup kitchen, we wanna start a clinic, we wanna start teaching sanitation to people because they're so focused on meeting that need. But the bigger thing would be this, to do the Lord's work of the gospel, introduce them to Jesus Christ as the Savior so that they can get from God themselves. Just meeting the need, that's not the answer. That's only gonna be a temporary thing, but if you teach a man to depend upon God, the Lord's work, then their need is met. And so the Lord's work is provisional. Then the Lord's work is mindful. It's mindful. It says in verse five, he will ever be mindful of his covenant. Okay, when we got saved, God knows we got saved. God's aware of that. God's never gonna forget that. As somebody who's involved in the Lord's work, he's gonna be aware of that. He's gonna be thinking about that. You know, Russia, as they got ready to invade, they did a cyber attack. They tried to take out communications. They tried to take down the military's websites and make sure that they were disorganized because they want the soldiers to feel isolated. They want the soldiers to feel cut off. Then they put in disinformation saying, Zelensky said, to lay down your arms and to give up, right? They try to spread misinformation again, why? So that that soldier feels completely isolated. He feels as if the commander's forgotten. You know, Zelensky has done so well so far to be continually out there saying, I'm here, I'm with you, we're fighting. And you know, Satan would love for us to think that we're cut off. Satan would love for us to think, you know, God's forgotten about you. You're trying to do the Lord's work. God has forgotten about that, but God absolutely will not forget about that. God is absolutely aware of that. The psalmist Asaph, he felt that way. And it says in Psalm 77, verse nine, hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? And I said, this is my infirmity, I feel like this. But I'm gonna remember the years of the right hand and the most high. I'm gonna remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy doings. Because the point is this, God isn't forgotten. God is aware, God is thinking right now, even about us, about our church. Psalm 139, 17, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I'm still with thee. God is mindful. God's mindful. If we're doing God's work, God's mindful. If you give a cup of cold water in the name of the Lord, guess what? There's a reward. How does God know? God knows because God is aware of every single thing that is taking place. He is ever mindful of his covenant. And then hastening on this morning, the Lord's work is powerful. The Lord's work is powerful. Verse six, it says, he hath showed his people the power of his works. See, Gideon was right to look back and say, God, I don't see it. I desire to see it. I'm not seeing it. Why is he right? Because God's work is powerful. God is able to do great things in his power. Evangelist D.L. Moody, in his early days, R.E. Torrey, who knew him very well, worked with Moody, said about Moody, he was a great hustler. In other words, he had a lot of energy, and he'd get in there, he would do things very energetically, but it was more, as he would say, in the flesh than in the spirit. But there were two humble free Methodist women that Torrey speaks about who used to come over to Moody's meetings in the YMCA. One was Auntie Cook and the other Mrs. Snow. These two women would come to Mr. Moody at the close of the meeting and say, we're praying for you. Finally, Mr. Moody became somewhat nettled and said to them one night, why are you praying for me? Why don't you pray for the unsaved? They replied, we're praying that you may get the power. Mr. Moody did not know what that meant, but he got to thinking about it. And he went to the women and said, I wish you would tell me what you mean. And they told him about the definite baptism with the Holy Ghost, that he asked that he might pray with them and not they merely. Then he asked that he might pray with them and not that they merely pray for him. And you can read Acts yourself, you can read about the enablement that came with the giving of the Holy Spirit and whatever that's called, whatever that is, we need. And they looked at Moody and they said, man, we're just praying for you to have the power of the Spirit of God. You know, praise God, the gospel, when it went forth in the New Testament in Acts, it didn't just go forth in word, it also went forth in power. God was behind it. and say, praise God today that the Lord's work is powerful, it's not like a hand tool, it's like a power tool because it's enabled by God. Matthew 28, 18. Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth, right? Go ye into all the world, all power is given unto me. Acts 1.8, but ye shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And we understand later on when they lacked boldness, they prayed to God and said, God, we need boldness. And he filled them with his spirit. And they went out and they preached the word of God with boldness. You know, do we understand today anything of the power of God in our life to do the Lord's word? There ought to be in our hearts something that says, God, I need that power. The Bible speaks about it here. We just read this text here in the Old Testament. He hath showed his people the power of his works. We ought to cry out with men of old and say, God, show us thy power. Show us thy power. The Lord's work is powerful. Then the Lord's work is triumphal. The Lord's work is triumphal. It says, it's powerful that he may give them the heritage of the heathen. Obviously, again, it's the Old Testament. He's speaking about the promised land. Obviously, he's speaking about the coming out of Egypt and the spoiling of their goods and the triumphing over Egypt and the triumphing over the Canaanites. I think in our day, a lot of times, we can feel like we're losing the battle. What's the point? We can't win. We look at it and think, you know, Lord, I mean, here we desire to see the church grow. It's not growing. In fact, it kind of feels like sometimes it goes back a little bit. Trying to reach people with the gospel, nobody wants it. People don't pat me on the back and say, hey, that's great. I'm so glad you're out telling people about Jesus. Nobody's encouraging us. It's so tough. We're not seeing souls saved. We're not seeing people baptized and there's this sense like it's not happening. But God's Word teaches us that God's work is triumphal, that God is gonna win it, that God's got it, God's gonna, the victory is gonna come. 1 Corinthians 15, 24 says, then come at the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. I look at Ukraine and in my heart I just say, man, I want Ukraine to win. I want them to win. I don't want them to be put out by Vladimir Putin. But that might not happen. I mean, I look at it, I desire it, I hope it, I pray it, but it might not happen. But one thing I know, Jesus Christ is gonna reign. And this battle that we're in as believers, as we seek to do the Lord's work, let's stay confident, let's stay faithful, let's stay trusting. Why? Because it is triumphal work. We don't have to be afraid today and say, ah, we're on the losing side. No, we're on the winning side. God has this thing in the bag. Jesus Christ has won, 1 John 4, for a year of God's little children and have overcome them, speaking about sin, because greater is he that is in you than he that's in the world. We ought to look at it today and say, man, I'm so glad I'm involved in something that I'm on God's side. You know, I'm just fighting with God. Who am I? I'm nothing, but God is everything. And God's got it. The Lord's work is triumphal. The Lord's work is eternal. Eternal. It says in verse seven. The works of his hands are verity and judgment. All his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. God's work is 100% righteous. It is gonna last. It's gonna last. Again, as we think about that, will you care in eternity who won that football tournament? I'm not saying somebody should never be interested in sports or should always be disinterested in sports, but I mean, does that really matter? It doesn't. It's not eternal. Will we care in eternity about the shopping deals that we got? Shopping on the Lord's Day, getting out there, finding some good deals, gotta provide for my family, right? Is anybody gonna really care about that when they stand in eternity? Does my job really matter in eternity? Does my family, in the sense of living my life for my family, does my family really matter in eternity? Not if I don't draw them to Christ, not if I don't set the example before them that I ought to about honoring God and being what I ought to be for Christ so that their life's impacted. But if I set them up as a God instead of God, does it matter? No. But does door-to-door matter? Does family devotions matter? Do tithes and offerings matter? Does godliness matter? As we look at those things, we say, yes, that matters. Why? Because those are eternal things. Those are things that matter. There's a missionary friend of ours, Pat Delaney, that he's doing the same thing Steve Anderson does, but with Asia. But he used to be himself in Singapore and then Taiwan. And I think it was in Taiwan that he was preaching and he had a man come up afterwards and he said this to his pastor. He said, pastor, my greatest fear is living my life for something that will not count in eternity. Yeah. Imagine living our whole life for something that does not matter. Are we living our life for something that will not count in eternity? C.T. Studd was a professional cricketer, as I think most people here know. He was very wealthy, but he walked away from the fame and the fortune and invested that, rather, in God's work as he invested his life in God's work. But he said this, only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. See, when we stand before God, all those things that so many people live their life for, they're gonna be nothing. But some of that is about the Lord's work. Maybe not vocationally, full-time, but living their life for God, faithfully for God, investing for God. I'll tell you this, my grandparents were not involved in the Lord's work, but they raised four kids that went into full-time ministry. They were a godly couple that honored God as a farmer, as a county worker, a council worker, as it were. They were godly, and they had a huge impact for God. The Lord's work. Matthew 6, 19, lay not for yourselves treasures upon earth, but lay it for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, and I'm skipping ahead, there will your heart be also. See, somebody that lives their life for God, there's no regrets there, right? But somebody that does not, lives their life for vanity, gets to end their life and it's just worthless. The Lord's work is eternal. Then two more very quickly, the Lord's work is faithful. The Lord's work is faithful. You know, if Putin offered me a place in his cabinet, I wouldn't take it. I wouldn't want to be a spy chief. I don't know if you saw the dialogue between him and his spy chief in that circus security council meeting that they had as he's on the stand testifying to what he'd like to see done. Putin is tapping his fingers like this, looking annoyed, and saying to him, speak up, man, speak up, man, stop mumbling. And I'm just looking at that man thinking, I feel so badly for that man if he is not wanting to say what Putin wants him to say. He's got an unfaithful man that he's having to work for. I say praise God today, God is faithful. God is faithful and God's work is faithful. The Lord's work of redemption is his plan. Verse nine, he sent redemption unto his people to save them from their sin. The Lord's eternal covenant is his plan. He hath commanded his covenant, what? Forever. The Lord's work and covenant are guaranteed by who? Let's look at the end of the verse. Holy and reverent is his name. God's plan of salvation for men that we're offering to them, we're trying to broker salvation for them, is absolutely strong. It's solid. I love sharing the gospel with somebody that's about ready to get saved. They come to me and say, you know, can you show me? I want to get saved. And you sit down with a Bible, you open it up, and you go to Romans chapter 10 in verse nine, where it says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And I say to them, can God lie? And they say, no. And I say, so if you ask him by faith, believing in the death of his son and the resurrection of his son for your salvation, if you pray in faith and say, dear Jesus, will you please forgive me of my sin and save me, will God save them? And the answer, yes. Why? Because God's faithful. And so what we're doing, I mean, we are brokering salvation with people with a faithful God. What a privilege to be involved in the Lord's work. And I want to end with this this morning. The Lord's work is experiential. It's experiential. It says in verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments, his praise, endureth forever. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's kind of like this. Somebody gets saved and they say something like this. Why didn't I see that before? It's like the light went on us and they get it, they understand it, it's real to them because they put their faith in Jesus. A good understanding have all they that do His commandments. And see what happens, we're dealing with the Lord's work and as we introduce people to it, we're dealing with something that they can enter into and experience and you and I are experiencing it. From the moment we got saved, it started, right? Charles Grandison Finney was a attorney back in the 1800s. His mind was very troubled about the state of his soul. He tried to pray, but he could only kind of whisper, and even then, he just felt ineffective. He was afraid for people to see him praying, even though he got out in the woods and he was kind of afraid of, you know, somebody's gonna see me out here, and what will they think of me seeking God? But the story goes just at that point, this passage of scripture seemed to drop into his mind with a flood of light. Then shall you go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you. Then shall you seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. I instantly seized hold of this truth in my heart. I had intellectually believed the Bible before. but never had the truth been in my mind that faith was a voluntary trust instead of an intellectual state. In other words, it's not about what I know, it's about what I believe. And as soon as he believed it, all of a sudden, the faith that he had heard about and he had knowledge about, it became an experience so that in his testimony, he says, I walked toward the village so perfectly quiet was my mind that it seemed as if all nature listened. He'd entered into Christ. He had peace, where before he had turmoil and anxiety and the peace had come. Hours had passed in prayer in the woods, yet he had been wholly unconscious of the time that had passed. Why? Because the Lord's work is experiential. And again, there's no quiz today. I'm not gonna ask you to go back through this list of 12 things that we looked at, but the point is this, every point that we've looked at, if that was the point, then we ought to look at that and say, you know what, I just want to live my life for God. I just want to get involved in the Lord's work. And so today, maybe the Spirit of God, I mean, vocationally, it may just be, I mean, we're vocationally working in whatever environment, but we ought to say, you know, God, by your grace, I've got to be involved in the Lord's work. It's so important. And maybe I haven't been as involved as I need to be, you know, in my local church, in missions, in evangelism, in whatever God's working my heart about, in obeying God and making my life right with God so I'm the right kind of testimony, in raising my kids godly, or whatever it is in the Lord's work, the Spirit of God speaking about, I mean, we could just say, God, please help me be more involved. But it could be somebody's, in their heart, the Spirit of God speaking to them about full-time ministry. Those of us that are in full-time ministry, at some point, God spoke to our heart and we had to ask the question that I asked after walking away from the church planting class, God, is this a burden or is this a call? And I'll tell you, the Spirit of God can make it very clear. And if it's a call, what we need to do is say, man, there's nothing more important that I can live my life for, so I surrender. I surrender to that call. Obviously, if somebody's not saved, they can't do the Lord's work. And so if anybody needs to accept Christ as their Savior, they need to do what that verse says in Romans 8, 13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. because until they do that, they're living their life for nothing, but they can live their life for God. May the Spirit of God bless the Word of God to our hearts. Let's pray and ask him to do that. Father, we thank you for the Word of God this morning. And Father, I know that there were a lot of points this morning, but it's not for our memory's sake. It's for us to understand that these 12 reasons and many, many more are reasons why our life ought to be about the Lord's work. We ought to be able to say with Jesus, I must be about my Father's business. And Father, I pray the Spirit of God would right now search our hearts. Lord, we could go day after day without doing anything for the cause of Christ. Or we could go day after day, living our life, doing the Lord's work. Even on a secular basis, Lord, being the best person we can be in business, with a clear testimony for Christ, identifying with Jesus, leading godly families. But Father, there's more to be done. Even on a secular level, our church has to do evangelism. Father, we need to do organized evangelism. We need to do door to door. We need to get flyers out. Father, we need to make sure that we're furthering the cause of Christ. We need to be investing in missions. Our missions program needs to grow. Our church needs to be established. It's the Lord's work. And Father, we pray that you'd be glorified to bless it. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, let's stand please and sing. Work for the night is coming. Work for the night.