SUNDAY SERMON - How To Wait Upon The Lord ｜ Psalm 33
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1 hour and 5 minutes
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Summary
Pastor Joel Webin delivers a sermon on why we must fear the Lord, and why we should obey His Word. The sermon was delivered at the 2019 Right Response Conference, which was held in Baltimore, MD.
Transcript
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Our next Right Response Conference is in the works.
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If you want to find out dates and location and registration and anything else, go and
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visit our website, rightresponseconference.com, rightresponseconference.com.
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One final time, our text for this Lord's Day is Psalm chapter 33.
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The Bible says this, Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous.
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Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts.
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For the word of the Lord is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness.
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The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
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Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
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The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.
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the people whom he has chosen as his heritage the lord looks down from heaven he sees all the
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children of man from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth
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he who fashioned the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds the king is not saved
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by his great army a warrior is not delivered by his great strength the war horse is a false hope
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for salvation and by its great might it cannot rescue behold the eye of the Lord is on those
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who fear him on those who hope in his steadfast love that he may deliver their soul from death
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and keep them alive in famine our soul waits for the Lord he is our help and our shield for our
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heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name let your steadfast love oh Lord be upon us
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All right, please be seated and join me as I pray once more.
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Father, we pray that indeed through the preaching of your word
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would arrive at a greater, more faithful, more accurate,
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and what it is that you require from us as a right response.
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but rather the necessary means propelling your people
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The heart cannot love what the mind does not know.
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And so today, Lord, we pray that you would fill our minds
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with the truth of your word, that we would know you rightly.
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But Lord, we pray that this knowledge would propel us
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to love you rightly, that our hearts would come
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to adore more greatly what we have come to know
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with our minds through the preaching of your word.
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And Father, we pray that this love would be demonstrated as you promised it would be through acts of obedience.
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Jesus Christ himself said, if you love me, you'll obey my commands.
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So help us through your preached word today and by the power of your spirit to know you with our minds.
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So that we might obey you with our hands and feet and mouths.
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We pray these things ultimately that you might be glorified in all the earth, but we also pray these things for the good of those people that you're saving across the globe, in our city, and perhaps if you would be so kind, even in this very room, especially among our children.
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We pray these things in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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All right, there are three primary portions of our text today that I believe perfectly
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capture the main theme, the predominant theme of Psalm 33.
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These three portions are as follows, verses 8 through 11, and verses 18 and 19, and then
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I've taken these three portions and broken them up into three sections of the text, three
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So the first thing that we'll see from verses 8 through 11 is this, the reason for fearing the Lord, the reason for fearing the Lord, why we must fear God.
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The next thing that we'll see from verses 18 and 19 are the benefits for fearing the Lord.
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Not only why the Lord is to be feared, but the benefits that we receive by fearing him.
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And then lastly, the third section that we'll investigate thoroughly is chapter 33, verses 20 through 22, where we'll see the manner of fearing the Lord, meaning the way in which we should fear God.
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So first we see the reason, the necessity, why we should fear the Lord.
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Secondly, the benefits that we receive by fearing the Lord.
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Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
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God is the only one in all the universe who creates ex nihilo.
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Because mankind was created by God in His image, we are creators.
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We create, we build, we cultivate, but not out of nothing.
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We create and build and multiply using what God has provided for us.
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We use resources, the things that God has generously provided.
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And not by the work of his hands, not by the sweat of his brow.
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It's the power of our triune God, the creator of all things.
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He commanded, and not only did it come to pass, but verse 9 finishes by saying, it stood firm.
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See, we create things, and don't they quickly dwindle?
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From time to time, mankind is able to achieve certain innovations, inventions, and creations that stand the test of time for a period.
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perhaps for a few decades perhaps for a century or even a few centuries but god creates and it
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stands firm what god makes he makes by the the mere breath of his mouth and it lasts it endures
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and it does not fade until he says that it fades uh colossians tells us that the son of god the
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second member of the eternal trinity that he upholds all things by the word of his power
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So God not only creates things by his word, he spoke and it came into being, but the son
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of God upholds these things by the word of his power.
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Everything at the end of the day, if we were to break down, we have microscopes, high power
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that we can see, you know, that there aren't just molecules, but within those molecules
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there are atoms and within them there are protons and electrons and we break it down
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And if we were really able to see at the very bottom, because we always, we've come
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up through science we say this is the rudimentary you know building block this is the smallest
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particle this is what everything is built on no if we could get down to the very bottom of it we'd
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find it keeps going it keeps going and what's at the very bottom of everything that exists is the
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word of God not just an atom not just a molecule not some proton or what's at the very bottom
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sustaining and holding together all things is that God is speaking he's speaking I think of Aslan
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the great lion in the in the Narnia series of C.S. Lewis that he speaks he's breathing and actually
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the the illustration that C.S. Lewis uses is that he's singing and as he sings the world Narnia
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comes into existence and the reality is that our God he sang he spoke and all things came into
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existence and he is still speaking to this day and by the word of his power all things are being
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held together it's an amazing thought experiment just to imagine for a moment that the very cross
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and nails with the son of God Jesus Christ was hanging at Calvary when he was crucified that
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that every splinter and fiber in that wooden beam in that cross and every molecule of iron in these
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nails was actually being held together by the one who was hanging there if he stopped speaking
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if he ceased for a moment to be God it would all disintegrate it would all disappear it all fall
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apart so the very one who is being crucified is holding together the creation and the people who
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are crucifying him by the word of his power in him and through him and for him all things exist
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God is the creator, and he creates, and it stands firm.
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Verse 10, the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.
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The counsel of the Lord, see by contrast now, verse 11, but his counsel, another word for that would be his strategy, his plans.
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So the counsel or the plans, the strategies of the nations, the Lord brings to nothing.
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But the Lord's counsel, his plans, his strategies, by contrast, stand forever.
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Now notice his creation, it says, it stands firm.
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But his plans, not just galaxies, right, not just cosmos, but his plans endure forever.
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Now, the new heavens and the new earth, I'm not saying that this world would melt away,
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And that is scriptural, but that is analogical.
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That's why the Bible says that creation itself groans
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Now there are some two kingdom theologians today,
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the creation itself is groaning with great expectations
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meaning to cease to exist, to dissolve like snow,
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so that the sons of God might come into this consummation
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I don't believe that's what the Bible teaches.
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I don't believe that that is biblically faithful.
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Rather, the creation is groaning with great expectations for the sons of God to be revealed,
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not so that the creation can endure a mercy killing from the Lord,
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but rather because as the sons of God are revealed on that final day,
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Not done away with, not put out to pasture, but restored and renewed.
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And so the creation, the cosmos, there is a sense in which it endures forever, but it will change.
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But the plans of the Lord, however, his decrees, his determinative will last forever.
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the plans of his heart to all, not just the thousandth generation, but all generations.
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The will of God, the plans of God do not ever fail. The word of the Lord never returns void,
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but they also never change. God is not a man that he should change his mind, the scripture says,
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or that he should lie. What he has determined in eternity past, in the councils of eternity,
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The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has never altered.
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The plans of the peoples, the plans of nations,
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will be destroyed. Their opposition is futile. Therefore, let all the peoples of the earth
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fear the Lord. You can't oppose him. It's meaningless. It's pointless. It's futile.
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It's impossible. So if you can't oppose him, rather you should fear him. Let all the peoples
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of the earth fear the Lord rather than oppose him. Let them stand in awe. And here we get in our text
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a little bit, for a moment, a brief description of what it looks like to fear the Lord.
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To stand in awe of Him, rather than to stand against Him. There are at least two types of
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fear that I think we find in these few verses, verses 8 through 11, at least two types of fear
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in relation to God, in relation to fearing God. And I think we find these two types of fearing God
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See, what causes people to dread the sovereign power of God,
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to have the fear of dread rather than the fear of awe,
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But what causes people to stand in awe of the sovereign power of God
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See, so the fear of dread, another label that we could give to that category of fear
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as it relates to God would be the fear of judgment.
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There is no fear of judgment, the scripture says, for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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If you're in Christ, no longer will you fear God in the sense of the fear of dread,
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will always fear God in the sense of reverence and awe.
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Not to stand in dread of him, but to stand in awe of him.
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And what is the determinative factor between the two?
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What makes the difference in your fear in relation to God
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your desire? Do you have idolatrous desire or righteous desire? See, the people who dread God
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are the people who don't want what God does. Think of it like this. I mean, obviously this is
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an argument going from the greater all the way down to the lesser, infinitely so. But imagine
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Michael Jordan. I'm going to use Michael Jordan as an example, not LeBron James, because I don't
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like that guy. That guy has horrible cultural views. So we're going to go to Michael Jordan.
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All right. So imagine Michael Jordan. If you're a Bulls fan, you stand in awe, right? It's the
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fear of awe. You're watching a national, you know, final, final game. It's the national championship
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and Michael Jordan's on the court and you are just, I mean, he's putting 70, 78 points up on
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the board and you are just sitting there and there is this sense of like reverence. Now,
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obviously nothing compared to what we should have for God.
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It's an argument from the greater to the lesser.
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you're just watching what this guy is just born to do.
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and you've literally got like Space Jam going in your head.
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And you're just in awe watching him do what he does so well.
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if you are a fan of the other team that Jordan's playing you have the fear of dread you're not
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sitting back watching Jordan in awe you're watching him in dread you're like oh no right you know
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you like the famous game where when he had he had like the flu you're like finally thank goodness
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there's a God in heaven we've got a chance and then with the flu with like a blanket wrapped
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around him, you know, and sweating, and he's still just dominating, and there's just the fear of
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dread. Oh my gosh, he can't be stopped. He's invulnerable. He's invincible. What is, that's
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what it is with God. See, if you oppose him, if you're rooting for the other team, namely the
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autonomous team, namely the team of man, your team, then it's the fear of dread, because he can't be
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stopped. He can't be thwarted. He cannot be opposed. But if God is your champion, if you're
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on his team, then you sit back and there's still this fear and wonder, reverence and amazement
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and awe. But it's a positive sensation. It's this sense of he's fighting for me.
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right now he's upholding galaxies and planets for me he's orchestrating every thought and deed of
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man for me he's my champion this is my team he's my captain he's my god and i'm his people
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and so i watch his power with with the kind of fear of watching like a a giant thunderstorm
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like we've had recently, where the lightning, I mean, I've never seen anything like it in the
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last few months where, you know, it's one thing where you're like, you're waiting with anticipation
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for the lightning, right? And it takes a couple minutes each time. You're like, whoa, that was a
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big one. Whoa, that was cool. But we've had some storms lately where it's like every two or three
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seconds, just boom, boom, boom, boom. It's like, it's like the 4th of July. You know, it's like
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firework show. And it's just constant. And you're just amazed. And every now and then there's such
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And you're watching with this sense of awe, reverence, meaning I don't want to get too
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Again, the 1689 in Westminster, they say that God is the most pure spirit without body,
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parts, and passions, and he dwells in unapproachable light.
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I think of Hebrews, it says, without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
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This, this brilliance, the Westminster in 1689, they go further to say that, that Christ will
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destroy when he returns, he will destroy, completely destroy his enemies with what? It
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actually says what, what, what tool, what weapon he'll wield in order to accomplish the destruction
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of his foes. You know what it says? With the brilliance of his coming. Isn't that insane?
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It doesn't just say he's going to go ham, you know, like wielding a sword and do, I mean,
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I'm going back through the Lord of the Rings right now
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those moments where he's not even wielding a sword
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when he goes from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White.
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If you haven't gotten there by now, that's on you.
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You know, so anyways, but Gandalf is the brilliance,
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and there's a spell on him and he's like decrepit.
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And you know, in the movies, it gives this line of,
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you know you have no power here and it's like this mocking ridiculing laugh and scoff and then
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Gandalf throws out he's already transformed to Gandalf the white but nobody knows and he throws
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off his outer robe and it's the brilliance and all of a sudden the king who's basically like
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demonically possessed in that moment by Saruman the wicked wizard he's taken aback and Gandalf
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doesn't even touch him but it's the brilliance of Gandalf in that moment so too Jesus it's the
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brilliance of his coming that will dismantle and dominate every foe. And my point is this,
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like lightning in the distance, there's an awe, there's a reverence, but there's a fear.
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I don't want to get too close. I mean, everyone who encountered God in the scripture, a theophany,
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like Moses in the burning bush, or let's just, again, argument from the greater to the lesser,
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everyone who encountered even a mere angel what is their immediate response it's to fall down
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prostrate on the ground in fear in trembling they have to be they have to be encouraged and affirmed
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by the angel take heart and angels would have to beg people even righteous people like Joshua
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don't worship me I'm not God I'm merely a messenger don't fall down don't worship me
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don't fear me stand up have courage right don't allow your knees to buckle take heart I have a
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message from God there's this reverence this fear this awe and so and these are for the people who
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love God these are instances of of the righteous who desire the things that God desires who want
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to see God's will come to pass and who are working for God's will in obedience to come to pass and
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even these individuals, there's a holy terror that comes upon them. But it's not dread. See,
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there's a difference in, oh my goodness, I'm terrified. I am terrified versus dread. Oh no.
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Please don't let this be. No, see the fear of the Lord, the fear of awe rather than the fear of
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dread, the fear of reverence rather than the fear of judgment. That fear, this fear of the Lord,
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the righteous fear of the Lord, it's, I think R.C. Sproul once said, it's like, it's like you come
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into the presence of God and you can't stand to be there, but you wouldn't ever dare to leave.
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It's, it's just, he's holy. There's no other word for it. I mean, that is the biblical, he's holy,
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holy holy and and this sensation just just engulfs you when you're in the presence of god he's holy
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and and it's like i i i can't bear to look at him like the sun it's blinding his brilliance
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but at the same time i can't bear to look away this sensation of of
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everything in me wants, wants this to stop. I can't take, I can't bear it. It's too much.
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And yet everything in me would never dare leave. That's the fear of awe. That's the proper
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righteous fear of the Lord. That's not the fear of dread. The fear of dread is, oh no.
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oh no I am confronted by the sheer sovereign power the efficacy of God and it is my doom
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because I know now that I cannot oppose him and win and I do not want what he wants
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see what makes God wonderful the determining factor between the two fear of dread fear of all
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and the final chapters of the book of Revelation,
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I long to be in your presence that's overwhelming,
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And again, the determining factor between dread and awe is desire.
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A heart full of idolatry is a heart full of dread.
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But a heart full of love for God above all things, above anything else,
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that heart still fears the Lord but with awe, not with dread.
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behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
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is that those who stand in awe of God's sovereign power
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it's not just that God is sovereign it is that God is sovereignly working for your good Romans
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chapter 8 verse 28 says this and we know that those who love God all things work together for
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good for those who are called according to his purpose back to the text verse 18 behold the eye
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of the Lord is on those who fear him on those who hope in his steadfast love his constant love his
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covenanting love they trust his character that he is faithful even when we're faithless he remains
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faithful for he cannot deny himself he is steadfast he is constant he is credible reliable he is
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worthy of our hope that he may do what his eye is on those who fear him he is steadfast in his love
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therefore worthy of our hope and what he does is delivers our soul from death and sustains us
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in famine that is trial tribulation and difficulty he delivers the soul from death he is the savior
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the deliverer and the eternal sense and he is the preserver the sustainer the protector even here
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in this life. Nothing can harm you that the Lord does not allow. And if he allows it, he works all
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things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. So if it hurts
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now, it's only because it's going to benefit you in the greatest possible way, eternally. In the
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same way that a father disciplines his children, Hebrews 12 says, discipline is not pleasant for
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the time but there's a long-term fruit there's a long-term reward and so too in God's providence
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he allows us to be to be refined like gold through trials tribulation difficulty disease
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death of a loved one all these things financial hardships the Lord at times allows us to be
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refined like gold but only for our good it's never for the people of god it is never judgment
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it is never ultimately condemnation it is merely discipline training refining for our ultimate good
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and and hear this because sometimes you just you hear these pithy you know theological biblical
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statements for our good when i say good think happiness happiness did you god is literally
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everything he's doing. It's first and foremost for his glory. But secondly, and these two are
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one and the same, God gains glory for himself by being faithful and good to his people.
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Among other things, God also glorifies himself by, in his justice, punishing the wicked.
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God gains glory for himself by his creation, by what he has made. He gains glory for himself by
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his angels and cherubim and seraphim. But one of the ways, and I would argue one of the chief ways
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that God gains glory for himself, that he garnishes his praise, is by his faithfulness,
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his steadfast goodness to his people, to those who love him and have been called according to
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his purpose. So God's goal is to gain glory for himself, but also do good to you. And what is it
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for God to do good to you? It is to do everything in his sovereign power to orchestrate your long
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term. And when I say long term, I mean eternal highest capacity of joy. Everything he's doing,
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think about that. The next time you're in a moment where you're suffering, where you're
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overwhelmed with anxiety or depression or dread, the next time that you're in pain and it's
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agonizing, remember this, that God is only allowing that so that you can be happier in the long run.
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Everything he's doing is so that you can be so incredibly, overwhelmingly happy forever.
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and fear of dread, the wicked fear of the Lord.
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who have idolatrous hearts, who oppose the Lord,
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He's the rock of ages, the cleft, the only hiding place.
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if you run to him you will be saved why do we fear the lord because there is no other alternative
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everything else is doom destruction and death everything else is an exercise of futility
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why do we fear the lord because he cannot be thwarted in any of his plans his counsel stands
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forever his plans endure eternally so we fear the lord in awe in loving trembling and how do we do
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that what's the difference in fearing the lord through awe versus dread aligning our hearts with
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his coming through sanctification and through faith which comes by hearing and hearing by the
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word of God, coming to desire more and more what he desires. Being able to say, as Jesus said in the
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garden of Gethsemane, not my will but yours be done. And coming to see the will of the Lord, not
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merely as right, but the rightness of his will being synonymous with its goodness. His will is
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not just right. We don't support the will of God merely because it's the right thing to do. It's
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good. It's good. It is our good. And if it's painful in the moment, that's only being allowed
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in the sovereign banner of God so that we might be happier forever. Forever. Why do we fear the
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Lord? For those reasons. What are the benefits of fearing the Lord? His eye is upon you.
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But see, there are other texts in the scripture that say that the Lord's eyes are on the wicked.
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Well, the text goes on, it says in verse 18 and 19,
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It is his benevolent eye, not his eye of judgment,
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not his eye of wrath, but it is his concerned eye.
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in the way that a mother's eye is on her children,
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and we've seen now the benefits of fearing the Lord,
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and in his benevolence and concern and attention
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and he sustains them through any trial in this life.
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See, that's the big picture, the 30,000 foot view.
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where we're terrified, but we're also rooting for him
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But in a practical sense, how does this play out?
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What does that look like in terms of what we say?
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What does the life of a person who fears the Lord look like?
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And Connor Hensley preached this beautifully a couple weeks ago.
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And so I just, I want to delve into this a little bit,
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if you want more on what it means to wait for the Lord,
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go and listen to Connor's sermon two weeks ago.
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So I'm going to address a few things that he addressed,
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A few aspects of what it means to wait on the Lord.
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But again, verses 20 through 22, it says, our soul waits for the Lord.
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Our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name.
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So even as we're waiting, even before it comes to pass, even before all the promises are consummated and actualized and experienced and received in full,
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our heart, notice it doesn't say our heart will be glad
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In the moment of waiting, in the process of waiting,
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And this is not hope in the way that our world uses the term hope.
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hope in the christian sense this is the way you can define hope
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as simply as possible in theological terms hope is future faith
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that's all it is so faith comes from the word confide it's it's confidence
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right it's not just this uh well i hope you don't know no i have faith in the lord jesus christ that
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he is the same yesterday today and forever behold i am the lord i changeth not he is the covenant
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keeping God, steadfast in his loving kindness, he will prove faithful in all that he has promises,
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all that he has promised. Faith. Hope is simply living in the moment what you trust will happen
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in the future. It's future faith. Hope is saying it's not just wishful. Hope, it has, my point is
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hope, Christian hope has the same strength as Christian faith. And I think a lot of times we
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may not verbalize it, but I think what we just kind of instinctively think is that in Christian
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terms, there's faith and there's hope, and that hope is like faith diluted. Like hope is something
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a little less than faith. Like we have faith when we really believe something's going to happen,
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and then we have hope when we kind of believe something's. That's not, that is not a Christian
1.00
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definition of hope or faith. No, faith is trusting, this is happening. And that doesn't mean that you
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Like the centurion man who said to Christ, I believe, help my unbelief, right?
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The reason why you sin is because you don't perfectly believe.
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Every time I've sinned, it's because I was not fully believing what God says.
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What is disobedience but something that stems from our unbelief?
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So when I say faith, I do believe, in the Christian sense, it is confidence.
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But that doesn't mean that there's no part of your heart that doubts.
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Rather than weak faith, think in terms of little faith.
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So rather than weak and strong, think in terms of small and big.
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I think of Pilgrim's Progress, one of the characters, Little Faith.
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The company had to slow down in order for him to make it,
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Because there's a difference in little faith and no faith.
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Those who will not inherit the kingdom of heaven
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the enemy of God whose counsel is brought to nothing,
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that's not the person who has some faith in God,
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because you cannot have faith but by God's grace.
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It is given to those whom God chooses as a gift, as a grace,
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God gives the gift of faith to those whom he has determined to save.
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As we immerse ourselves in the word of God, our faith grows.
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But it's not so much weak versus strong, it's little and much.
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Because whatever faith you have, even if it's little, it's pure.
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If it's not pure, if it's not real, if it's not strong, it's not faith.
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Think of, rather than like gold that's, you know, 30% gold, 30% pure, right?
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Rather than thinking of it like that, think of 50 pounds of gold versus an ounce.
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See, the person who is a Christian, if you're a Christian, you have gold.
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But there's this other part of me that doesn't.
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Let your steadfast love be upon us, even as we hope in you.
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Again, all that back to the beginning of verse 21.
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You're waiting, but you know it's already in the bag.
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whatever we pray in his name, if we pray in his name,
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we know that we have already received what we have asked,
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Now, to pray in Jesus' name, it's not like a Harry Potter spell.
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and according to 1 John, it's not in my driveway yet,
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but it's on its way because I said specifically
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and so to pray in jesus name is to pray in accordance with jesus will and to pray in
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accordance with jesus will is a guarantee that the prayer will be answered so we can trust that
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we already have what we've asked even if it has not yet arrived so too that's the same kind of
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principle that we see in verses 20 through 22 our soul is waiting for the lord waiting for deliverance
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waiting for salvation there's something that we're waiting for all of us are waiting for that ultimate
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that ultimate consummation, to see him as he is, to be with the Lord and commune with him
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forever. But in this life, there are even situational moments that we're waiting upon
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the Lord through a trial, through a difficulty, for vindication, right? For whatever it might be,
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we're waiting for the Lord, for provision. Our soul waits for the Lord because he is our shield.
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There's nothing else that ultimately we answer.
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Remember, this is coming on the heels of the text
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where it says horses, a war horse is a false hope.
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The kings and all their strength, it's not enough.
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help being he can provide, shield he can protect.
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The only true provision and protection is the Lord.
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No one who hopes in the Lord will ever be embarrassed.
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because we've all experienced as sinners unrighteous hope,
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I really think this is going to happen, right?
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But if you're a Christian and you're humble,
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I was hoping in something that did not come to pass.
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It didn't just let you down, but it shamed you.
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And he's the only true shield, the true protection.
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We have to wait for some things to come to pass.
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You don't have to wait for your heart to be glad.
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the provision that you're waiting upon the Lord,
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Your heart can be glad as you wait upon the Lord.
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that we are strengthened as we wait upon the Lord.
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But Christian hope, those whose souls wait upon the Lord for his help, his shield, that is his provision, his protection,
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in the ultimate sense of salvation, but even in this life, those who wait upon the Lord, who hope in him,
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that hope doesn't disappoint, it doesn't put you to shame, and as you wait, you're getting stronger.
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Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but Christian hope, as you hope, as you wait, you're strengthened.
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Our only responsibility is to wait upon the Lord.
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So what we've seen, three parts in our text is this.
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With dread, all their plans are made to be nothing.
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Their opposition is futile, and ultimately, their end is destruction
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But for those who fear the Lord with awe and reverence,
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The benefit is the eye of the Lord is upon you,
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and that is his benevolent, caring, paternal eye.
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We have hope, Christian hope, faith, confidence,
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I said the last thing we want to do is the manner of fearing the Lord.
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Those who fear him are the ones whose souls wait for him.
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the plans of the nations, the plans of the people.
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and makes all these councils and all these things
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He doesn't believe the Lord is worth waiting for.
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Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verse 13 through 14 says this,
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consider God has made the one as well as the other
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Who can make straight what he has made crooked?
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who can make crooked what he has made straight?
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And the scripture speaks to that principle elsewhere.
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But in Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verse 13 and 14,
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it says, who can make straight what he has made crooked?
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We try to make straight the things that God has decided
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It's not really crooked in the sense of God's design,
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something is not as it should be, according to us.
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something's off it's not this wasn't supposed to happen this wasn't supposed to be like this
00:54:50.540
or this other thing was supposed to come to pass why hasn't it my life was supposed to be like
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this this is broken it's off it's crooked it's crooked but ecclesiastes 7 13 says consider
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the work of God. Who can make straight what he has made crooked? Now, that doesn't mean that we
00:55:13.540
don't even try. That doesn't mean that we just succumb to not even having any effort in life,
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just being, you know, lazy and apathetic and nihilist. That's not what it's saying. But what
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it is saying is that there's a humility. There's a humility. It says, at the end of the day, God is
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sovereign over all things. I see this as being crooked, but at the end of the day, nothing is
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that God has not done. And whatever he has done at the end of the day, I can't change it. I can't.
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And so I'm going to, I'm going to seek to ultimately not fix my life, but be obedient to
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God's words, which lends towards blessing. And I'm going to trust that the blessing will come,
00:55:55.420
that the crooked path will straighten if the Lord intends, but he's going to do it.
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God is the one who makes crooked lines straight.
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God's the one, ultimately, who will bring about the victory.
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I'm going to fight in the battle, but the battle belongs to the Lord.
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And recognizing that the Lord, his ways are higher than our ways.
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Psalm chapter 46, verse one through three says this,
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Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
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What it means to wait quietly is to wait, really, you wouldn't think this.
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It almost sounds ironic, but I believe it's true in a faithful exegesis.
00:57:55.120
that causes us to run over a problem again and again and again.
00:57:59.200
Our head, our wheels in our head constantly turning,
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You see, the quiet heart to wait on the Lord in silence
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Like a lamb led before the slaughter, he was silent before his accusers.
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See, courageous people, courageous people can be silent.
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What would a fearful person do if they're led before the slaughter?
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Well, what does a fearful person do in the presence of their accusers?
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and excuse that and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
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It doesn't need to be the first thing on my mind
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There's a stillness that comes with courageous trust.
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When we really trust, when we really have courage
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We can't make straight what he has made crooked.
01:00:00.060
That is with a stillness that comes not from weakness,
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So this goes back to, it doesn't just mean apathetic.
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So it's not like as you're waiting for deliverance
01:00:18.120
or waiting for provision that you can't do anything.
01:00:19.920
It doesn't mean like the only way to wait on the Lord
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But those which he has revealed belong to us and our children forever.
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So yeah, you don't know every tenant of his plan as far as what vocation or what person to marry.
01:01:13.280
And trust that as we obey his commands, that he will bring about our deliverance.
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And that's what we've already seen in verses 20 through 22.
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I can wait expectantly believing that this will come to pass
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but it's also because of God's steadfast covenant with himself.
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No one gets away with offending me without God punishing them.
01:02:30.580
And any offense towards you, anyone who's oppressing you or hurting you or wronged you or betrayed you,
01:02:38.580
that you're crying out to the Lord for vindication, deliver me from those who wronged me.
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And if the person does actually get away with it,
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So the point is this, God will set everything right.
01:04:28.120
But more than all that, he's committed to his own self,
01:04:39.960
but he will not allow these things to happen indefinitely.
01:04:43.820
And if he does, it's because it wasn't actually sin.
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You were the one who sinned in taking up a wrong offense.
01:05:32.840
Thank you for the blessing and the gift that it is to us.
01:05:35.960
And Father, we pray that you would empower us now
01:05:43.960
But real quick, before you go, do us a small favor,
01:05:53.500
that you can help us get this biblically faithful content