Thank you so much. Take your Bible, turn over to Psalms chapter number 9. Psalms chapter number 9. Can you all hear me okay? Can you? I feel like my voice is still weak. I don't know if you can tell that or not, but if you wouldn't mind to pray for me regarding that, but it still isn't where Normally, it won't take us long to recover, but anyhow, Psalms chapter number nine this evening, I appreciate Brother Flannery and several things that he said while praying, and I sure am glad I live in America. I really, really am. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful God's been so good, and we ought to tell Him we love Him. And tonight, we're gonna look at a couple verses that talk a little bit about that. Let's begin in Psalms chapter number nine. The Bible says in this superscription to the chief musician upon Muthlaban, I may have mispronounced it, but it says a Psalm of David. That word Muthlaban means a song that is to the tune of Psalms nine, which means to die for the son. At least that's what one rendering says of that particular phrase or word. Others say it's still a big question mark as to what that means. But if we look at this, this is the Psalm of David and he says in verse number one, I will praise Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will shew forth all Thy marvelous works. In other words, you and I ought to praise God. One of the ways you praise Him is in song. So you ought to sing to God, and you ought to show others about God, right? He says here, I will praise the Lord with my whole heart. We know it's Matthew 22, I believe, verse 37, where it talks about the greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind. And we ought to put our whole heart into that. We often tell our kids or tell people, you got to put your heart into something, right? And so in the same idea, we need to put our heart into living for God. Say, I'm going to enjoy the Christian life. I think too many Christians look like, act like they're sentenced to Christianity. Folks, you know, you ought to be able to smile. You ought to be able to laugh. You ought to be able to laugh at yourself. You know how many dumb things I do? You're not supposed to laugh. I thought for sure everyone was going to walk into that trap and say amen. But seriously, you know how many times we say the wrong thing? And what I mean by that is we misspeak or we just do dumb things. It's okay to laugh at yourself. And listen, it's good to laugh. The Bible says that a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. If you can't laugh in this world, you're miserable. You ought to be able to enjoy life. And that's what Jesus said. I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. And that's that theme for the year. But he says here, I will praise thee with my whole heart. I will shew forth all thy marvelous works. He says, I will be glad and rejoice in thee. You know what? We have reason to have joy tonight. We have reason to have gladness in our heart because we are in Thee. We're in God. Just think of the opposite. If you're not in God, you're in a world of hurt. because you better enjoy 70 years because that's all you got. But even if you have 70 years of plenty and success and all that stuff without God, listen, you're trying to live life and face cancer, tragedies or heartbreak or betrayal all by yourself. And the only friend you've got is Jim Beam or Jack Daniels. And it ain't gonna happen. It ain't gonna help you. And the whole world thinks they can live without God. I have, you know, they may make fun of Christianity and say, well, that's a religion for weak people. That's exactly right. Because God said to Paul, he said, look, my strength is made perfect in weakness. And Paul even went on to say, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, for when I am weak, then am I strong. Because our strength is not in my ingenuity or in my physical brawn. My strength is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, right? So we see that we ought to be glad, we ought to rejoice. And the end of verse number two says this, I will sing praise to thy name. I'll be honest with you, sometimes in life it's hard not to covet. And one of the things that I covet is a beautiful voice. Some of you folks have got amazing singing talent. You know, I just, to hear some people sing in our church, it's just amazing. It's just natural. They know music. They're also just talented. You know, some people can sit at that piano, never read a sheet of music. They could just simply listen to a tune and start picking it out and next thing you know, that's God given. That's just innate for some people. Now others have to work harder at it. Man, the best thing I can do if I sit at a piano is play chopsticks. But some people have that ability, or the list goes on and on and on, but you know what? The importance of singing praise to God. By the way, when you're happy, you sing, do you not? When the weather gets nice and the sun stays out later, you'll notice people are happy because they roll down their windows and they play their music. Boom, boom, boom. You know what I'm talking about. And you know what? I remember when my son Chase was a little bit younger, we would pull up to a light or something, and my girls did the same thing. We'd pull up to a light, and some guys got this loud music just blaring and booming, and I'd say, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, just hit the button and turn on a gospel song and turn it all the way up, and let's have a competition. And true story, my brother, my brother is deaf, right? He goes to Bible college in Oklahoma City, and while he's on campus, you know, he's learning and growing. And one day he was out visiting on a Saturday, he drove his car back in on campus, and he thought, well, I'm curious what this Christian music sounds like. So he just hit the radio and he turned the dial or whatever it was to a certain station and he cranked it all the way up. He had his, you know, he had his windows down. He pulls in on the college property and the church property and it's blaring. Now he's deaf, he can't hear anything. Somebody comes up to him after he parks and they're signing to him. He said what are you doing. What are you doing. So I'm just curious. I'm curious what Christian music sounds like. He said that's not even a radio station. That's just static. Can I tell you what? You gotta learn to enjoy life, amen? Even if you're just singing to the static. All right, let's look at Psalm chapter number nine. We see as we go a little bit further, Paul, I'm sorry, David writes, he says, I've got enemies. Look at what he says in verse three. When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. You know what? The enemies of God will not stand in the presence of God, and they cannot stand God's presence. That's why when you represent God at work, if they're not interested in God, they don't like you. Because you make them feel bad. Now we're not trying to make anybody feel bad. But just the mere fact that you have a desire to do what is right bothers them. And don't back down off of that. Stand up for God. Speak up for God. We don't have to be unkind about it, but can I tell you, the world should know we're Christians. They should know we're Christians when they come into our place of work or whatever. They ought to see a Bible. They ought to see a Bible there. We shouldn't read it on the job because they pay us to do the job, but if there's free time, If there's a break time, if there's lunch time before work, they ought to see an open Bible. They ought to see, they ought to know, listen, when they make fun of God in their jokes, or when they tell those dirty jokes, and they know you're not laughing. They should feel uncomfortable by that. And by the way, when they do, the next time they tell another joke, they won't do it in your presence. But watch, it gets better. Because the day they find out that they've got marriage trouble, or they've got trouble with their son or their daughter, or they've got some type of disease, you're going to be the first one they find in private by the water cooler, because they know you are a Christian at work. And so they ought to be able to detect something different about us, but the enemies of God, and in this case David said, my enemies will fall and perish at thy presence. He goes on to say in verse number 4, he says, For thou hast maintained my right, my cause, thou saddest in the throne, judging right. He says there's going to be judgment. The Lord is right to judge, and when He judges, He judges in righteousness. And when God judges there is no laughing matter about the judgment of God. It might have been 21 or maybe 22 but my daughter and I It was Cindy who, it was not her fault, but she got a ticket in Garrard County and it was because I had failed to pay the registration on the vehicle by the deadline. I was like within maybe less than 30 days past the registration, whatever. And so she got a ticket for that. Well, it wasn't her fault. She's driving my vehicle. And so I said, listen, I'm sorry. I'll go with you to the courtroom. And so we get there early. We dress nice. We're trying to show all the respect we can for the office of the judge, for the courtroom. And we go into the courtroom. We sit down. And can I tell you, this is probably 30 minutes before the court was going to be in session. There is hardly any talking. Whatever talking was in a hushed tone. There was no joking and laughing during the courtroom. Everybody seemed to be very solemn. And then when the judge finally was introduced and walked in behind the bench, immediately everybody stood up. And then we sat down upon his direction. And when we sat down, we were still there paying attention, no one talking, no one goofing off. Matter of fact, the bailiff said, he said before the judge came in, he said, if any of you have a cell phone, He said, if it goes off, it will be confiscated. He said, I encourage you, turn it off, or turn off the ringer. He says, this is Judge So-and-So's courtroom. Can I tell you, everybody started hitting their button. I looked at my phone probably 10 times to make sure that the ringer was off. And when the judge came in, and they go one by one and say, Mr. So-and-So, Miss So-and-So, how do you plead? Everybody would come up. They'd go up to the podium, and they kind of have their head down. and they stand there in deference and they look up and say yes your honor, no your honor, guilty your honor, you name it. You can tell there's a complete difference in their attitude. Then they open the door and they bring in a line of people in orange jumpsuits with chains. And they come in with their head down. And my daughter and I are just sitting there just observing all of this. And I'm thinking, man, I tell you what. I thank God all I have is a registration that's expired. And that I'm not in that position. When it came time for her name to be called, I think the conversation was prior to, I said, you want me to go up with you? And she said, no, I've got it. And so she goes up, and they begin to talk about the ticket. And she said, well, here's the paid registration. Here's this and that. And the judge says, OK, case dismissed. You're good to go. We walked out of that courtroom. Can I tell you, there is something different about being in the presence of the judge. And that will happen. They can laugh and mock now. They will change that quick when they walk into his courtroom. And by the way, it's not just the great white throne judgment. That applies to the judgment seat of Christ. Now, ours is not punitive, right? It's more, it's a reward. It's a judgment seat of Christ. But I don't want to go to the judgment seat of Christ and stand there and not have anything that I can then one day give back to the Lord and cast crowns at His feet. I want to hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant. I don't want to waste the time that God has given to me. Notice something else in Psalms chapter number 9. He goes on to say in, I believe it's in verse number 8. He shall judge the world in righteousness. He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed and a refuge in times of trouble. I know it's been five years, but do you remember when COVID first hit? Man, the whole world didn't know what was going on. We were all just, our mind was spinning. I'll never forget walking into Walmart and seeing empty shelves, seeing no meat, seeing no eggs, seeing empty shelves for the toilet paper and the paper towels. Y'all remember that? And I'm just thinking, what in the world has happened? I remember a few days later going back into Walmart and seeing a guy with a full mask, but the mask had like an air tube. It almost looked like he stepped out of Star Wars. And I'm just thinking, this is nuts. What's happening to my country? I remember that day going down looking for paper towels and toilet paper, and I remember going down the aisle and it was all empty, and around the corner came a Walmart employee with a pallet jack, with a brand new pallet of toilet paper. And I said, is that toilet paper or paper towels? He says, yes, it is. I said, how many can we get? He said, a limit of like two or three per person. I said, okay. So I grabbed two or three. I walked around the aisle. I went to the next aisle. I saw someone down that aisle. I said, hey, y'all need toilet paper? It's in aisle 10. I was going aisle to aisle spreading the good news about toilet paper. But I'll never forget thinking, what is happening to our country? Everything shut down. Can I be honest with you? That's probably one of the sweetest times in my life. I spent more time with the Lord, more time with my family. I really enjoyed church. When they shut church down, and I regret it to this day, and I've told, I've said this many times, I regret canceling church for about a five, six week period. But when we reopened, I'm telling you, church was so important, it was so valued, there's nothing like being in the house of God. I thank God for the live stream and the people who do the live stream, I thank God for the technology, but there is nothing like being in God's house. And I remember Andrew Cuomo, former governor of New York, who's now running for New York City mayor, I remember him being asked by a New York City reporter from the New York Times, asking, well, you've shut down churches, you know, why can't they meet? Some of the churches want to meet. He said, well, you know, they can still function as a church. They can feed the poor. They can do this or that. And they said, well, they want to meet. And I'm thinking he doesn't understand the purpose of the church. You can't baptize a convert virtually. You can't administer the Lord's Supper virtually. And while we can preach God's Word, listen, to follow the definition of the word church means a called out assembly. And I'm thankful for the technology. But I'm telling you, when COVID happened, I was so grateful for church, so grateful for my family, and so grateful for my walk with God. Because in times of trouble, he's our refuge. We go a little bit further. Notice what else he says in the rest of verse number 10. He says, and they that know thy name will put their trust in thee, for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. Man, I sure am glad the Bible tells me in Hebrews chapter 13, let your conversation be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have, for he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. because of time, we'll look at verse number 11. Verses 11 through 14. He says, Sing praises to the Lord which dwelleth in Zion. Declare among the people his doings. When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them. He forgetteth not to cry the humble. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Consider my trouble when I suffer of them that hate me. thou that liftest me up from the gates of death that I may show forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion I will rejoice in thy salvation see that phrase there where it says he maketh inquisition for blood He remembereth them. You know, I thought about that, and I thought, what is he talking about there? I don't know, but here's an interesting thought. Turn over to Psalms, chapter 72. Go to Psalms, chapter 72. Now, we do know this. We, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, are grateful for the blood that Jesus Christ shed for us. I can't remember the song. You may have to help me with it, but there's a song we sang that talks about He, um... He spilt His blood? What's that hymn? Grace, grace, God's grace? Does it say something like He spilt His blood? Greater than all our sin? It says something like spilt His blood, right? He didn't spill it, because that's not an accident. He shed it. Now you say we're splitting hairs. Yeah, I understand that. But... The Lord Jesus didn't do that on accident for us, brother. He did that on purpose to die on the cross and shed his precious blood for us. But now look at how God looks at the blood of his servants. Look with me at Psalms, chapter 72, verse number 14. It says, He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in his sight. One of our missionaries, Brother Michael Gehrme, missionary from I'll just say the Middle East, a Muslim country. And I remember he had come and visited in New York where we were at the time and he shared a presentation of his ministry and he showed a picture of a young man that had just gotten saved. He was now just moments away from being put to death for his faith in Jesus Christ. And if I remember right, that man had a smile on his face right before he died. Can I tell you, when God's children serve Him, and the day they pass away, that's why the Bible says precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints. Now imagine if someone died for their faith. I'm sure that's precious in God's sight. Go back with me to Psalms chapter number 9. Not only does he talk about the inquisition for blood, and God remembers that, but he says in verse 11 of Psalms 9, his doings. I'm thankful for Pastor Muncy and his wife. One of the things I'm grateful for is I've been able to take over his Sunday school class at his permission and his desire. But the teenage young men and young ladies, every week I ask for a time of prayer, a time of praise. What has God done for you this week? And I love hearing these young men and young ladies speak up. I love hearing how Ruby Purdy said about a week ago, or maybe two weeks ago, she said, I'm thankful that God led us to a church when we were looking for about two years. I heard Eliana Svoboda say, I'm thankful for my job where the boss, the employer, the boss, the owner, told a manager, somebody, you don't use profanity in her presence. Caroline Ward saying I'm thankful for God taking care of my sister Ella relative to her health we can go on and on and on but man I sure am glad when God's people testify about the goodness of God in their life go back with me notice in Psalms chapter number 9 notice what else he says in verse number 15 he says the heathen are sunk down in the pit that they have made In the net which they hid is their own foot taken. In other words, you reap what you sow, is what the Bible is saying. He goes on, the Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth. The wicked is snared in the work of His own hands. Hygion. The word Hygion is a word that means a solemn sound. Hold your place here. Turn over to Psalms chapter number 92. Go to Psalms chapter 92 and I want you to look with me at verse number 3. And you'll notice, actually we'll begin in verse 1, Psalms 92, and you'll notice in Psalms 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, there's all these different Hebrew words that are transliterated into English, and one means a stringed instrument, a perforated wind instrument, another one means an eight-stringed lyre instrument, and the list goes on and on and on. But the word Higion is a Hebrew word that means a solemn sound. Look at Psalms 92 in verse number 1. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High. You know, one of the challenges that I've experienced lately is instead of always asking God for stuff, is just tell God, God, thank you so much. God, I love you. God, you've been so good. and not just so good, but God, you are good, you are amazing, you are magnificent, and just brag on the Lord. And that is a challenge I think we should all take to heart. He says here in verse number two of Psalms 92, to show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. Isn't God faithful to his children on a daily basis? In verse number three, upon an instrument of ten strings. Man, it's amazing the talent that we have in this church. whether it be a piano, whether it be a guitar, whether it be a mandolin, whether it be a violin, or whether it be a fiddle. Those are two different instruments, by the way. Whatever stringed instrument we're playing, he goes on in verse 3, upon an instrument of ten strings, upon the psaltery, upon the harp with a solemn sound. We live in a day and age where things are not as solemn as they used to be. And God says here that word, Hygion. Go back to Psalms chapter number 9, and as David writes here in Psalms 9, he says in verse 16, or verse 17, now this is a famous verse, but notice what he says, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. You know what's sad? The city of Nineveh had revival. The prophet Jonah doesn't want revival. He decides to run from God. God chases him down. He gets right. He goes back. And even while he preaches God's going to judge you in 40 days he doesn't want them to see revival. He could care less about it. In fact, we know that's true because after they had revival, he's complaining about it underneath a gourd or a tree or a shade tree. And then we see this revival takes place and God spares the wicked city of Nineveh because they broke. But about a hundred years later, they return to the same lifestyle and they were completely destroyed. Can I tell you what? The nations that forget God will go through that and have gone through that. And I fear that's where America has been headed for a long time. I'll give you a quick example. America is in trouble because we've turned our back on God in many areas. We've turned our back on God in our public schools. You can't teach God anymore. You can't pray. You can't even talk about Christianity except objectively, right? But we can talk about all the other religions. Not only that, we have turned our back on God in entertainment. We've come a long way from Andy Griffith and I Love Lucy, and we can go on and on, and I'm not saying those are all perfect, but can I tell you what? Those look like angels compared to what we see today. Our entertainment value today is off the charts wicked. it used to be entertainment now watch me it used to be entertainment was hey there's a revival this week there's a tent revival there's an evangelist people got together to hear the preaching of God's Word as part of their entertainment now that was obviously before television before internet before radio but it also allowed them to fellowship but I tell you what life was a lot simpler back then We were not as so busy in our life that we couldn't hear God. You know what the Bible says, be still and know that I am God. I think we've allowed technology to take away that quiet time in our hearts and our minds. Not only has it, we've turned our back on God in entertainment, our music is off the charts wicked. You just read the lyrics and then listen to the wicked beat that they have with the lyrics. And so we see that in our music, the same is true in our appearance. We see spring break is this week. And all you got to do is watch the news and you see another story of a young lady that's gone. Another lady that's gone. You know why? She got around a bunch of young people. Can I tell you, when you put two good people, two young good people together, they're probably going to get in trouble because they're all sinners. There needs to be supervision. There needs to be protocol. There needs to be rules. And you say, well, they're just young people. They're trying to find themselves. And then they find out there's a lot of heartache. If you don't, hey, the Bible says the wages of our sin is death. It also says the way of the transgressor is hard. And you say, well, I don't like all the rules. Well, how do you like disobeying the Word of God? And then you find out you got to bury somebody. That's harder. But spring break is ages go have fun and live it up. But our society is that way. Then by the way, here's the good thing, but here's not what I think is important for our country. And we see some positive steps towards biblical values that are often referred to as conservatism. And I'll give you an example. Roe versus Wade getting overturned on a federal level is an answer to prayer. but that's not the answer for the United States of America. Getting perverted men out of female sports is a good thing, but that's not gonna save our country. Getting our financial house in order as a country and spending less than what we bring in as a nation is a good thing. But that's not the answer. I fear that for the next four years, Christians are like, we can enjoy going out to eat, we can enjoy maybe the economy starting to come back a little bit. Can I tell you, listen, what we need more than any political movement or just a win here or a win there, America needs to get back to the church house, America needs to get back to the Bible, and America needs to get back on her knees again. And until we see that, we're gonna miss the whole boat. Take your Bible and turn over to Amos chapter 8, and let me end here because of time. I wish I could go a little bit further, but I'm done right here. Matthew chapter 4, Jesus said in verse number 4, Now with that being the backdrop, look at Amos chapter number 8, and we'll read verse 11 and 12 and we're done. The Bible says here, the prophet Amos writes this by saying, he says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing thee what? Yeah. He says you'll have plenty of bread and plenty of water. Have you ever noticed that America's biggest problem is not our food, it's the fact that we have too much food. You ever notice that we don't search for water, we bottle it. We have plenty of bread and plenty of water. Now, this is not referring to the United States of America. It was not written to America. I understand it was written to the Jewish people. But the application applies even right now. But we go on in verse number 12. And they shall wander from sea to sea. Have you ever noticed that our young people today, all they do is wander doing this? I mean, their life is wandering aimlessly in a virtual world. We go a little bit further, they wander from sea to sea. By the way, we got Atlantic and Pacific. We go on, it says they wander from sea to sea, from the north, even to the east. And you say, well, how come it didn't say the south? I don't know. But if you study the United States of America, the most Bible illiterate region of this country is the northeast. Albany New York at one time was the most Bible illiterate. Boston was most Bible illiterate. The list goes on that whole region. They used to have the Word of God. Today they've shunned God's Word. It is hard to be able to talk to people in that region of the country because they say I don't need God's Word. I'm speaking broadly here. But we go on in verse number 12, he says, Can I tell you, I think I read, and I could be wrong, and please forgive me if I am, but I think I read, there's like 900 English Bible versions. Man, that's confusing. Man, I just want the right one. And I believe I have it with the King James Bible. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Lord, I pray we would continue to be a church that loves your word, loves the bread of the word of God, loves prayer, loves church, loves service, loves missions and soul winning. And Lord, we certainly desire your blessings. We thank you for those blessings. But God, we want to honor you in these days ahead. Thank you for those that have worked hard, brought kids, taught classes. that are here in church, may you give us safety as we go home, it's in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you, have a safe.