Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you have a copy of God's word, I encourage you to turn to Psalm 60. Psalm chapter 60. Last night as I was looking over my sermon in the watch, praying for God's Holy Spirit to affect us with the preaching of the word and just looking over this sermon and feeling within myself that these are, this is a weak sermon. This is paltry words. This is just letters on a page. But by God's Holy Spirit, I believe even in my weakness now, that the Lord may do something utterly disproportionate to who I am and to what this sermon is, not only in my heart, but I pray in all of yours. So with that, turn to Psalm 60. Psalm 60. To the choir master, according to Shushan Edith, a mictum of David, for instruction when he strove with Aram Naharim and with Aram Zobah, and when Joab on his return struck down 12,000 of Edom in the Valley of Salt. Oh God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses. You have been angry. Oh, restore us. You have made the land to quake. You have torn it open. Repair its breaches, for it totters. You have made your people see hard things. You have given us wine to drink that made us stagger. You have set up a banner for those who fear you. For they may flee to it from the bow. That your beloved ones may be delivered. Give salvation by your right hand and answer us. God has spoken in his holiness. With exaltation, I will divide up Shechem and portion out the vale of Sukkoth. Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine, Ephraim is my helmet, Judah is my scepter, Moab is my washbasin. Upon Edom, I cast my shoe. Over Philistia, I shout in triumph. Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies. O, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man. With God we shall do valiantly. It is he who will tread down our foes. Beloved, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord stands forever. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Holy God, word made flesh, let us come to this word open to being surprised. Silence our agendas, banish our assumptions, cast out our casual detachments, confound our expectations, clear the cobwebs from our ears, penetrate the corners of our hearts with the word. We know that you can. We pray that you will. And we wait with eager anticipation. It's in his name we pray, who lives and reigns with you and with the Holy Spirit, one God forever praise. Amen. Psalm 60 is like so many of other David's lament psalms, yet it stands out with how it begins. So many times David begins his psalms with, How long, O Lord? Why, Lord? Yet this begins with an accusation. Look in the text, Lord, you have rejected us. Not why have you rejected us, not how long will you reject us, but simply, you have rejected us. Have you ever cried out to God? Have you ever pleaded your case before him? This psalm is exactly that. Perhaps you've noticed that our series in the psalms the past few months or so since Psalm 54 has highlighted enemies of David's. Psalm 60 is the last psalm in this succession of David's enemies and how the Lord will protect and care for Israel. This is a slow ascent to the climax at the very end in verse 12. The psalmist reaches the summit and he will say, with God we shall do valiantly. He will tread down our foes. Let me just ask you, beloved, what foes have you brought in this morning? Foes of gossip? Foes of lust? Foes of addiction? Foes of depression? foes of complacency, the salvation they offer is completely meaningless. The text says it's vain, that through Jesus Christ, our salvation, we will do valiantly. As we go verse by verse, we will see three truths about God. So if you're taking notes, three truths about God, the truths are God afflicts us, God is with us, and God will be triumphant. God afflicts us, is with us, and will be triumphant. And with each point, we will see a way we can pray in light of these truths. So, look at verse one, God afflicts us. This is verses one through five. David affirms here that his defenses, they're broken down. How many defenses did you bring this morning along with your foes? How many defenses were torn down in order for you to hear the good news for your soul? Some of you know the feeling of throwing your hands in the air saying, I don't know what to do. is David's feeling here. He says, you have been angry with us. We see here the reality that we often choose to ignore, and this is what our sins have done. It has angered a living God. God, you have spurned us, broken out upon us. You have been angry. God, will you turn to us again? Look, he piles up the verbs of what he is experiencing. God is doing spurning. God is breaking. And he ends David with a plea to restore them. The psalmist wants God to turn to them more than he wants the troops of Judah to be brave. God turning back to them is greater than 10 battalions. There's more safety there. An angry God is worse than an army of Philistines at their door. If God withdraws his presence, God, we will tremble at the fall of a leaf. That is the prayer of many people when they come to faith. Oh God, my sin is so great. My sin is so vile. All my excuses, all my defenses, you have shattered. Save me. Restore me. Wash me. You know the top lady hymn, nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to the cross I cling. Foul. Foul, I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. Oh, dear sinner, have you prayed that prayer? Turn to Christ this morning. The land quakes in verse two. The kingdom is shaken from political turmoil. If you wanna hear the context, go listen to Joel's sermon on this passage in 2 Samuel. It's likened to an earthquake. This is what's happening in the kingdom. The language may also bring to mind something like a landslide from a violent storm. The Psalm is saying that God has brought this upon them. In some, it is a complete collapse on catastrophic scales unless the living God intervenes. Some of you know, sadly, of churches who have been greatly shaken by sin, by controversy, by some sin from leaders you've trusted. Sadly, some of you know these experiences all too well. Our only prayer is what this psalm says, Lord, only you can repair its breaches. Only you can prepare and repair this. We move from earthquake to hardship in verse three. And David says, we have seen things that are hard. In the Hebrew, the word is kasha, but it is literally in the tense that it's in. You have caused your people to see severity. You have caused your people to see severity. They have seen hard things and severe things. And you guys know it does not take much in this life to see severity, to see hardship, to see the impact of our lostness in this world. One of the great character studies in our nation is Abraham Lincoln. At the height of the Civil War, a staggering death toll climbing, Lincoln, with his thoughts, was asked, What do you think of all this? And he said, I have seen a great deal of the backside of humanity. I think he was being funny, but we can very much resonate with what he meant in the midst of such hardship and severity. We see here the image of God putting wine in them. Now that's interesting, putting wine in them, causing them to stumble in the fall. The text is not saying that God made them drunk, per se. Rather, the image here is of wine that has gone bad. It's made them poisoned or sick. The language of drinking God's cup of severity is explicitly connected with the exile of the Jews. For reference, you can go look at Isaiah 51, 17 for that. But as we all know, and I know, affliction often brings delirium and confusion. It's kind of like we are drunk. We don't think right, we don't see things right. Our great physician gives us potent potions to purge out the deep-seated disease that lingers in us. We move from God afflicting through earthquake to hardship to fleeing here in verse four, a banner or a signal flag is given for God's people. The banner is given so that they can see it in the midst of the battle and run to it to escape the flying arrows. Your Bible might say you have set up, or maybe it says you have given a banner. It means the same thing. In battle, there were different flags hoisted that signaled various things. There was a flag for an advance of cavalry. There was a flag for a unit to flank around the side. There was a flag to push, a flag to retreat. But this flag is a different sort of flag, isn't it? It's revealing two truths. Number one, beloved, you are engaged in warfare. You are engaged in warfare. And number two, retreat to me and I will give you victory. Notice the irony there. Strength through weakness. In the midst of our battle Beloved, as you are engaged in the warfare against sin, against the devil, against the lusts of this world, against all the powers of earth and hell, look to the banner where your only hope is found. As you wield the sword, hold fast. Look to the banner that your king has hoisted for your comfort. When you feel besieged on all sides by your life or yourself, look to the banner and run. Beloved, if the Lord had meant to destroy you, he would not have given you the gospel. The fact that Christ has come assures us of victory. Look at verse five. Did you notice how these past three verses begin? You have, you have, you have, in verses two through four, explain what exactly verse one has referred to. But you must notice how verse five begins. Why has all this happened? The earthquake, the hardship, the fleeing, these all took place so that the beloved may be rescued. The beloved may be rescued. They will be saved by God's right hand. Why provide this banner for God's people? Have we, here we see it is so that there is deliverance for God's beloved ones. If you know Christ this morning, church, that is you. You are the one whom the Lord calls beloved, one loved by God. Verse five is a sort of climax to this section of Psalm 60. And notice the play of irony here. The hand that has been raised and afflicting the people needs to be raised to deliver them. Give salvation by your right hand. Our first point in the text is that God afflicts us. But praise God, we will not stop there this morning. The Psalm ends with an appeal to answer them. The prayer has an expectation of actions and not just words, and notice the detail here. Give salvation by your right hand. Is there any significance to that detail? Who is right now at the Father's right hand? Who is right now sitting on the throne with him? Who was slain for us, the Lord Jesus? From the right hand of the unchangeable Jehovah comes salvation in his Son. So I hope you have seen in this text the truth about God, that he afflicts us. Those hardships will come by his hand. And don't hear me say otherwise. I won't pretend, nor will I ever will, that I know why certain things happen the way they do to us. But I do know the way we can pray from this text. The way we can pray. So three truths about God, three ways to pray. This is the first one, we can pray honestly. Notice how he prays in the Psalm. He prays honestly. This is the first way to pray from our text. Have you noticed the mixture of confused complaints and petitions? And this is often how our prayers sound, isn't it? Because God afflicts us. For our good and His glory, we can and should pray honestly. Here, the psalmist asked God to do the same thing, saying, God, you know what must be done. Answer me, deliver me. And the Lord does exactly that. Some of you have heard of the name Adoniram Judson. personal hero of mine. He was one of the first American missionaries and was a missionary to the Burmese Empire, now Myanmar. His life and especially his suffering for me and I know for some of you has been a sobering reminder to just how much missionaries have suffered for the cause of the gospel to evangelize a pagan world. I recommend every parent in this room And in the fellowship all to buy his biography to the Golden Shore read it to your children read it to your teenagers teenagers you should read it when I read it I kept calling Cassie into the room because I was crying so much. That's going to be you. It's an extraordinary book. They reach Burma in 1814. They had already lost their first baby in the womb, and it was delivered stillborn out at sea. As they made their months-long voyage in 1860, their second child, Roger, at two years old, got a fever and died. Judson's wife Anne, or Nancy as she was referred to, reflected on her loss as she stared at the fresh grave of her baby in the Burmese jungles in a mango grove. She wrote these words, listen to this. Our hearts were bound up with this child. We felt he was our earthly all. Our only source of innocent recreation in this heathen land. But God saw it was necessary to remind us of our error and to strip us of our only little all. Oh, may it not be vain that he has done it. May we so improve it that he will stay his hand and say, it is enough. Some of you may not find words like that, and that is completely okay. Maybe you will pray like the beginning of the song with so much doubt and fear. We do see often that the language of prayer has no words of all. Often the language of prayer is groaning too deep for words. There's not an exam at the end of your prayers. Did I say this right or this right? Pray honestly as a child would process with their father because even though God does send hardship and affliction, we are also reminded that God is with us. So that is our next point, God is with us. God speaks in verse six to remind us how big he is and that he is with us. It's rare you see a word from the Lord in a psalm. God's word always makes our problems seem so fickle. The brightness of his holiness outshines all. God's word to him is on national and worldwide proportions. In the holiness of God, he speaks. God speaks and decrees out of his perfect and holy will. And you will see verses six through nine, it may be more or less familiar to some of you, but these are not random places as we see. No, God is calling to mind the promise of Abraham in the land of Canaan. Notice David began with, you have rejected us, acclaimed. And God replies, rejected you? You belong to me. And this is what he says. This is one of those times when those maps, the back of your Bible, if you're ever wondering when you're gonna need those, it could be today. When you get home, those maps are helpful in this regard. He divides Shechem. and portions out of the veil of Succoth or the Valley of Succoth. In Joshua 8, Shechem is conquered and occupied by the tribe of Manasseh. In Joshua 13, the tribe of Gad is allocated the Valley of Succoth. These two places, Shechem and Succoth, represent the land east and west of the Jordan. So Shechem went to Manasseh, Succoth went to Gad. That's gonna be important here in a second, I promise. He then brings Gilead into view in verse seven. And maybe that name sounds more familiar to some of you. This is another region east of the Jordan River. And it was also occupied by Gad. So Gad also was given Gilead. But Gilead is not so much a place as much as it refers to just like a massive region. So God is saying that too is mine. He now goes westward and says, Manasseh is mine. Not just Shechem, but that whole tribe, Manasseh, is mine. You recognize Manasseh as being one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Now, we have mentioned Manasseh already, but verse seven is the first time they are named. Ephraim, he then goes on, a smaller tribe. What does he say? He says, Ephraim is my helmet. A smaller tribe is named as God's helmet. And then Judah, of course, is his scepter. So these are not just more tribes, but they represent the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. Ephraim is typically shorthand for the northern kingdom, and Judah is referenced to the southern kingdom, of course. So he has moved from a city, to a valley, to a region, to tribes, and now with the whole of Israel, He will conclude with the enemies in verse eight. Well, before we get to the enemies, Ephraim and Judah are described as being elements of God's warrior attributes, a helmet and a scepter. Remember, our point here is that God is with us. This is a claim on God's warrior-like sovereignty. Ephraim is the headgear this warrior wears, and Judah is the staff of the commander that the warrior wields. These two are complimenting each other. The helmet is protection. The scepter is aggression. Where do we see a scepter and Judah put together? You might be thinking maybe Genesis, and you'll be all right. In Genesis 49, when Jacob prophesied over what his sons and their descendants will be, hear what he says in Genesis 49. Jacob is talking to his son Judah. Judah, come here, my boy. Your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion and as a lioness. Who dares rouses him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah. Are you connecting with what Psalm 60 and Genesis 49 are pointing to? We get to the New Testament and one of the questions is, is that all Judah was going to be? A lame southern kingdom descended from David? Much grander and much mightier. We get to Matthew and we see right there in the text of the genealogy of Jesus, Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah. And where was Jesus born? Kids, where was Jesus born? Bethlehem, right? Bethlehem, ancestry, the land of Judah. King Herod, big bad King Herod hears of this as Matthew records and asks the priests. Hey guys, just curious, where is the Messiah prophesied to be born? And the priests, of course they knew without missing a beat, they quote the prophet Micah. And they say, for from you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. And of course, we know the life of Christ fulfills all this. And to go further with John in Revelation 5, 5, he is weeping. And there in his vision, there's no one worthy to open the scroll of eternal life. Listen, beloved, what John says in Revelation 5. And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll to look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered and is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals. That short verse of comfort to David, Judah is my scepter, is a small shadow of the coming Christ that will come and answer our prayers. The divine warrior from the tribe of Judah came to defeat our foes and bring peace forever. The New Testament says, why did Christ come? To destroy the works of the devil. And here we see the lion of the tribe of Judah doing this. We move from God's people to God's enemies to bring us back to Psalm 60 in verse eight. Moab, an enemy, is God's washbasin where the grime and grit from Thete goes. It's an insult, of course, and Edom gets a flying shoe. Does anyone remember what happened December 14th, 2008? Some of you are like, I wasn't even born then. Some of you are laughing because maybe you know. It was a day which will live in infamy on YouTube and in my young memory as the day Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at President Bush in Baghdad on live television. You can go watch it on YouTube later over lunch. It's pretty funny. Not the shoe throwing, but Bush ducks, and it's pretty cool. Al-Zaidi was sentenced to three years in prison for that. Did you know that? Three years in prison for throwing a shoe. And I only bring this up to say, even in the modern Middle East, it is a sign of deep disrespect and insult. I went ahead and researched other shoeing incidents in history. It happens more often than you would think, to my surprise. God is saying proverbially, Edom is the place where my shoe is cast. Edom is not worthy of any honor. The living God's shoe is cast upon them. In verse seven, God spoke of his land. Of course, he is sovereign over everything. Yet verse eight says more of contempt than anything else. Gilead is mine. But Moab, Edom, they're just places where the warrior cleans his dirty feet and throws his dusty shoes at the end of the day. His diatribe against his enemies ends with Philistia, which he says he shouts in triumph. It is a shouting one may give after defeating an enemy or being successful. This is what the Lord does for his people over his enemies. To help you remember, he has moved from a town to a valley to a mountain range to tribes and now to enemies. So kids, if you're totally lost and you've heard a lot of places you don't know, Think of it in this way. If God said, I will divide up Las Vegas, Nevada. I will portion out the Appalachians. You know, those big mountains. I will, the Rockies are mine. Texas is mine. Of course it is. Canada is my helmet. Mexico is my scepter. China is my wash basin. Upon Russia, I cast my shoe. Over Iran, I shout in triumph. Now, if we ever had a leader say that, we would all think he is out of his mind. However, God says it. So what does this verse demonstrate then? That God is absolutely in control. The point is, God is answering by moving in scale and sovereignty in the whole land. The tone turns back to questions in verse 9. Yet, interestingly, God is still speaking. God asks, who will lead me to the fortified city? And we need to ask, does God need to be led? Does God need to be led? Who needs to lead God anywhere? He just said all this land was His. Ephraim is not God's actual helmet, so he does not need to be actually led anywhere. His question is not one of despairing, but a challenge to them, a challenge to them. He is asking his armies to go about their work. This psalm, then, is a challenge to us in the church age to go about our work as a church in the world. In theology, we often speak of the church militant and the church triumphant. We are currently, in case you're wondering, the church militant, engaged in warfare with seen and mostly unseen forces. Every sinner that repents and comes to faith is ground gained on the battlefield. We are the church militant, but we believe when a brother or sister dies in the Lord, they join the church triumphant. We in this life are the church militant. When they die or when Christ comes back, we will be the church triumphant. We are soldiers of Christ, beloved, with real threatening enemies. So if we have specific enemies, should we not then have specific prayers? So God afflicts us, God is with us. We can pray honestly, we can pray specifically. Do not just pray vague or general prayers. Notice he says Moab, Edom, Philistia, they're called out by name. This Psalm is a Psalm that reminds us that we have specific enemies. I know each of you have specific enemies. I have specific enemies. And notice he does not pray in vague terms for a vague enemy. He says in verse 12, 11 and 12, rescue by man is worthless, through God we will do valiantly. What lesson is there for us? Some of you may pray, Lord, my foe is pornography. Vain is the salvation of man, but through God, I shall do valiantly. Through you, I shall do valiantly. Another may say, Father, my enemy, my foe, is crippling anxiety. Vain is the salvation of man, but through you, through God, I shall do valiantly. God, my foe, is gossip. You are my only hope. Vain is the salvation of man, but through God, I shall do valiantly. Whatever sin may plague you, whatever your temptation that it is may haunt you, whatever addiction, whatever foe you may be facing down, I urge you to be specific in your prayers. Vain is the salvation of man, but salvation through Jesus Christ we shall do valiantly. Scottish pastor in the 19th century, Robert Murray McShane said, If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Christ prays for you now. Go to him. Go to him. Go to Him. Maybe you confess, I haven't prayed. I haven't prayed in a week. I don't know how to pray. Where you are now, you can go to Him. He is interceding for you. When we pray in this manner of the Psalms, we will be supplied with strength, and I believe we may catch a thrill of the heavenly warfare. God afflicts us, we'll be with us. And the last point, God will be triumphant. Those last two, three verses. Verse 10 marks a change of speaker. The psalmist is now responding to the Lord. A repeat of his first question, though framed slightly different. God, have you not rejected us? Have you not rejected us? The declaration shows something is left undone. Will God answer? Will something be done? This verse does not instill confidence that God's people got the message, which is I am with you. God may be there, but the experience of David and of the people is that he is not there. Even though the reality is that God has not left them, he has not abandoned them, they feel and think as though he has. Some of you know this feeling. Maybe you teenagers and kids, have you ever felt like you were the only one? Have you ever thought if I share this or confess this or open up to this about somebody, then no one will understand or no one will believe me? You think you are totally alone. The reality is, God is with you. You are not alone, even when you don't realize it. It was raining a lot last week. The sun was veiled for a few days. Did you ever doubt that the sun wasn't in the sky? Did you ever doubt that the sun was not up there? Of course you didn't. It's only veiled by gloomy weather. When the downcast soul sighs for God, they are indeed not cast off at all. The clouds of hardship, the clouds of grief, the clouds of depression, anxiety, or sadness, the clouds of anger, the clouds of longing, beloved, these may be over you this morning. But you must trust that the Son of God still shines on you if you belong to Him, if you have believed and repented of your sin. He has not left you. He has not abandoned you. Though you may feel that way, it is a lie from hell. In hardship, He bears your load with you. In the grief, he weeps with you. In the depression, anxiety, and sadness, he knows how you feel and promises better days. In the anger, he does not leave you. In the longing, he reminds you of a world you cannot begin to imagine. Turn from your sin and turn to a God who is there. We move to verse 11, and the psalm now prays for help against his foes. He has moved, like the beginning of this psalm, from protest to plea. He knows he needs help because without God intervening, salvation is vain. He says salvation is meaningless. It doesn't mean anything, it's worthless. It's a false salvation, a temporary relief. It's nothing. The deliverance of the world is empty, beloved. God, it does not work. Help us, is what he's saying. I once saw a slogan for a multinational pharmaceutical company that I found striking. Do more, feel better, live longer. I double checked. Brandon doesn't work for them, by the way. Not bad, huh? Do more, feel better, live longer. Who doesn't want that? Beloved, that is a lie from the beast of hell. Do more, feel better, live longer. You will never do enough. You won't always feel good. And your longevity, it's not guaranteed. This is the vain salvation man offers. What's another one? In the next couple of months, we will all be subjected to the political climate, whether we want to or not, and we will hear the vain salvation of our politics. As important as it is, as much as I care about it, Christians, we must see beyond the pale. We must see as ones who are exiles in this world. And we know no matter who is elected, Jesus Christ still reigns as king. What of man's salvation have you? believed in this morning. Look at the subject of the verbs in verse 12. Though we will do valiantly, it is God who treads down our foes. He's ascribing the victory to us even though we didn't do anything. This should instill so much confidence in us as we approach the future. Charles Spurgeon says, faith is never happier than when it falls back on the promises of God. Where are those promises found? Where are they found? They are found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Fall back on these truths. Who is the one who has been rejected for us? Who is the one that being broken and torn has restored us? Who is the one in dying for his people the land quaked and the veil was torn open? Who is the one who was given sour wine after crying, my God, my God? Why have you forsaken me? Who is the one whose banner we flee to? Who is the one who has delivered his beloved ones? Who with his right hand executes salvation for his people and sits at the right hand of his Father? Who has brought us to the fortified city? Who is the one who has done valiantly? Beloved, it is none other than Jesus Christ, our savior, born of a virgin, begotten by God as his eternal son, he lived a perfect life. We have all failed in doing. He is the one who carried our griefs and sorrows. He is the one that has carried us through the valley of the shadow of death. He took his enemies, his Moab, his Edom, his Philistias, and he has made them his beloved friends. Praise be to God, church. If you want to be saved this morning, you must look from yourself to another. Look to the banner of Christ. Flee to it. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Nothing of your own character or performance. Totally away from yourself to another. We are not going to ask you to write out a catalog of sins. We are not going to give you a catalog of spiritual exercises of penance. This many Hail Marys and this many Hail Fathers, we are not going to give you a list of this and that and the other. Beloved, we don't know how high your mountain of sin is. We do not know all the rocks of particular sins that constructed it. But this much we know, Jesus Christ is righteousness, forgiveness, love, and mercy. Look away from yourself and to him, and you will be saved here and now. God is triumphant for you, church. He is triumphant for you, sister, dear mother, dear grandmother. He is triumphant for you. And with that truth, we should pray expectantly. We should pray honestly, we should pray specifically, and we should pray expectantly that our prayers reach the ears of the King. Because of this, we should throw all of our lives to serving and loving Him. To pray expectantly is to pray knowing, number one, that God hears you. Do you know that He hears you? I know that's a simple truth, but we often think He doesn't. Do you know that He hears you? His cosmic ears are turned to your voice. And number two, no matter what happens, God has done valiantly on your behalf. Because this is true, you can serve and walk in this world with a sure confidence in your Savior. We pray with the expectation that the Lord of heaven will receive all the burdens we cast upon Him, and ultimately the victory is His. There is the expectation in our sovereign God. We wait for Him to answer. Bar none, the best book in the Chronicles of Narnia series is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Some of you probably hate me now. It's not Prince Caspian, it's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The little mouse character, Reepcheep, an exemplar of valor and honor, has a monologue that stirs the heart. I love it. He says near the end of the book, quote, My own plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the dawn treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan's country or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise. Some of you go, amen, even though it's fiction. Brothers and sisters in Jesus, the Christian life is that right there. No matter what happens to us physically, our noses are to the sunrise. As we walk in this world with our tears and joys marking our paths, our noses are to the sun. Be reminded this morning that God is with you in your affliction. He does not abandon you to the terrors of the night. Be reminded that in Christ, our salvation, we are triumphant. Do not be ashamed in the raising of the colors. Do not fear your foes. Christ is triumphant over them. Under his feet, he treads them down. He has done all this for you in love, love for you, love to which our Savior and King laid down His life on a wooden cross in Jerusalem. Through Jesus and His cross, He did this for us so that we may say, God alone is my salvation. Sinner, the armies and banners of the world have failed you. Turn to the living God today and draw strength in your faith, or be saved. Let's go to him in prayer. Living God, help us to hear your holy word, that we may truly understand more deeply, that understanding we may believe more wholly, and believing we may follow more sweetly, seeking your honor and glory in all that we do, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior of the world, Amen.