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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Okay, welcome to the afternoon service. Please grab your hymnals. And when you have them, please turn to hymn number 143. Hymn number 143 will begin by singing Blessed Assurance. You can stay seated. 143, Blessed Assurance. ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] ["Blessed Assurance"] Lord, we are grateful to be once again here for the afternoon service. I pray you'd bless us. And, Lord, it's received to know more of your word that you teach us and guide us into all truth. And, Lord, we just appreciate our first-time visitors that we've had to say, Lord, what a blessing. And, Lord, I just pray that you continue to add to this church, Lord, in due time. We thank you for being such a great God. We thank you for your salvation. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's do another Christmas carol. Four hundred and twenty-eight. Four hundred and twenty-eight. And I'm a little bit rusty on this one, but it came upon the midnight clear. Four hundred and twenty-eight. It came upon the midnight clear. Hopefully you guys know this one better than me. Four hundred and twenty-eight. It came upon the midnight clear. That glorious song of old. Of angels painted in the sky. It came upon the midnight clear. That glorious song of old. Of angels painted near the earth. To touch their halves of gold. Peace on the earth. Who will to reign from heaven's old gracious king. The war in solemn still will stay. To hear the angels sing. Still through the golden skies. They come with peaceful wings on board. And still their heavy music floats. For all the weary ones. Above in sad and lonely plains. They bend on offering wings. And ever o'er its fabled sounds. The blessed angels sing. And even in life's crushing load. Whose forms love ended long. Who toil upon the cloud we claim. With painful steps and smile. Look now for glad and glorious. Come swiftly on the wing. Oh rest beside the weary road. And hear the angels sing. For all the days are hasted on. By proper gods of old. And hear the emcees sing. Come round the age of old. To where they shall all roam. The earth its ancient splendors cling. And the whole world give back. The song which now the angels sing. Okay, one more hymn before the reading. Let's turn to hymn number 312. 312. Open my eyes that I may see. 312. Open my eyes that I may see. 23. Clincers of truth thou hast drew me. 24. Facing thy hands so wrong to believe. 25. That shall not pass, but set me free. 26. Silent me now, thy way for me. 27. Ready my love, I will to see. 28. Open my eyes, beloved me, sweetly. 29. Feel the divine. 30. Open my ears that I may hear. 31. The voices of truth now send us free. 32. And all the labels call on my ear. 33. Everything false shall disappear. 34. Silent me now, thy way for me. 35. Ready my love, I will to see. 36. Open my ears, beloved me, sweetly. 37. Open my heart and let me breathe. 38. Love with my children thus, to shed me high. 39. Open my mouth and let me breathe. 40. Love with my children thus, to shed me high. 41. Silent me now, thy way for me. 42. Ready my love, I will to see. 43. Open my heart, beloved me, sweetly. 44. Open mine. All right, it's time to take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 57. Psalm 57, Brother Jason's coming up for the reading. Psalm 57, the Bible reads, Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusts of thinly, yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpassed. I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. My soul is among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, let thy glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps, my soul is bowed down, they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise. I wake up, my glory awake, sultry and harp, I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people, I will sing unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, let thy glory be above all the earth. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the service this afternoon. I just pray, Lord, that you would be exalted and glorified in our midst and in our church this afternoon. Be with Pastor Kevin, fill him with your Holy Spirit, and give him unction and power, Lord, to preach your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, Psalm 57. Now, if you look at your Bibles, you probably have this title on this psalm. It says, to the chief musician, Altaicich, Mitchum of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave. Now, this is, Psalm 57 is pretty much a continuation of Psalm 56. In fact, all these psalms that we've been looking at the last few weeks has been about David's persecution. David being a fugitive, as it were, in different scenarios, but 57 is very much a follow-up to Psalm 56. And you may recall that in Psalm 56 last week, I taught how vengeance belongs to the Lord, and that David will not take vengeance against Saul, who was persecuting him. And we looked at the story of how David was hidden in the cave, and then Saul came to the cave to go to the toilet. And David had the chance to kill Saul right then, but he said, no, I'm not going to do this, and I'm going to leave vengeance to the Lord. And so, you can see that this psalm is actually written here, when he fled from Saul in the cave. So you can see, it's part of the same story, it's part of the same events. Again, it just brings us to understand where David is as an individual, a fugitive, having to hide in a cave, as, you know, he could potentially lose his life, you know, he's on the run from the most powerful man on the kingdom there. And so, let's see how it begins there in Psalm 57, verse number 1. In fact, actually, let's look at verse number 8 first. Verse number 8, it says, the first few words, I wake up. I wake up is the title of the sermon this afternoon. Wake up is the title of the sermon this afternoon. If you're starting to fall asleep because it's in the afternoon, getting a little tired from church, and in the morning, wake up! Alright, that's the message. Wake up is the title of the sermon this afternoon. Look at verse number 1. David says, be merciful unto me, O God. Be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee, yet in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpassed. And so, David is asking the Lord, look, can you show me mercy? Lord, I'm on the run, I'm hiding from Saul, I'm going to hide in this cave. Please show me mercy. And, you know, one of the most beautiful things about our God is that he's a merciful God. It's such, you know, when you consider this quality of mercy, you know, God is this, and in fact, you see that this mercy, this idea of mercy comes up time and time in this chapter. But God is asking, David is asking God for this mercy. Of course, when you think of mercy, it means compassion. It can mean forgiveness, like if you've done something wrong, you might say, God, please give me your mercy. Please forgive me for the wrong that I've done. But also, Lord, can you show me compassion? In this scenario, you know, David's fleeing, right? He's afraid for his life once again. Lord, be compassionate toward me. Please look after me, show me, give me your mercies, Lord. We serve a God of mercy, a God of mercy. And, you know, he gives us time, right? You know, could you imagine if God just wiped us out the moment we sinned against him? Right? Could you imagine, the Lord gives us time to realize where we are, spiritually speaking, you know. He gives us opportunities to hear the gospel and to be saved, and surely salvation is the mercy of the Lord. But even as Christians, as we work in his path, and we still make mistakes, and we still sin, you know, thank God he just doesn't judge me the moment I do something wrong. Like, thank God he doesn't destroy me the moment, you know, I think of something wicked, and he just passes down his judgment immediately. He gives us time. He gives us time to reflect. He gives us time to learn, right? He gives us time to learn from our mistakes. We see the mercy of God. God's a heavenly father, and, you know, as parents, you know, I strongly recommend parents that, you know, we discipline our children. Like, you know, when our children do that, which is wrong, you know, we see very clearly from the commandments of God that we are to discipline, right, our children, right? Take out that rod of correction if you have to, right? And sometimes you've got to apply that force on your child. But one thing that I also recommend parents is learn to show your children mercy as well, right? You don't want to always show mercy every single time they do something wrong. Or they'll learn, I'll just get away with it. Like, my parents are fine with it. But there are times that I do show my children mercy. And I'll tell you just briefly when those times are. Number one, when you can see, even before you have to say anything, if you just see on your child's face, and they say sorry, and they realize, man, they've done wrong, and they just own up to it, say, Dad, I'm messed up. Sorry. You know, usually those opportunities I show my children mercy, because they've learnt the lesson that they've realized, man, I stuffed up, and, you know, they make those mistakes. I might show them mercy in that situation. If my kids do something wrong, and they didn't really not realize at the time, maybe I did not instruct them properly. Maybe they did not understand that this was wrong. You know, I might show them mercy in that situation. And I think it's a good thing to demonstrate, because don't forget parents, many times, like, you know, God uses us as this sort of, this object, this demonstration of who God ultimately is. Like, children grow up with their parents, and, you know, parents, we're not always perfect ourselves, right? We're not always just, we're not always fair, when we make decisions, but, you know, we also demonstrate a little bit of our Heavenly Father to our children. You know, yes, that God will discipline, God will pass judgment when we do wrong, but many times we can go to our Father and say, God, please show me mercy. Lord, I'm in distress, I need help. Can you please be merciful? Can you show compassion toward me? And so all of these qualities are important when it comes to, you know, raising our children. We see this example from our Heavenly Father. And so he relies on the mercies of God. And of course we have this very famous passage in the Bible. I'm sure you're all very familiar with it, but Lamentations, Lamentations 3.22, I'll just read it to you. Lamentations 3.22, it says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. It's amazing. Like, God could consume us, destroy us. He goes, but it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassion fails not. So in that context, mercy is seeking the compassion of God, right? His compassion fails not. Then in verse number 23, it says, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Every morning, the mercies of God are new. It's amazing. Have you ever sinned? Have you ever been so ashamed where you can't even face God, you can't even go to God and say, hey, you know, I remember as a teenager, I said, man, God forgive me for this sin, all right. Next day, do it again. Next day, do it again. And I'm at a point where I'm thinking, God, you must just be sick and tired of me. Like, I don't even want to tell you sorry, God, because you know that I'm probably going to do it again tomorrow. Like, I don't even know how to go to God about these sins. Like, God, I'm just failing, I'm failing, I'm failing. I keep failing, Lord. And you get ashamed, you get embarrassed to go to the Lord. But when I learned this truth, that his mercies, his compassion are new every morning, brand new every morning. You know, God's got a new set of forgiveness and mercy and compassion for those that have sinned against him. And so don't take this attitude that I had, right. Like Adam and Eve, we saw, right, when they sinned against the Lord, they went to hide in the garden, they didn't want to face God. Okay, that's how you might feel, but no, God is merciful, okay. He was merciful to Adam and Eve, wasn't he? He gave him coats of skin, right. He opened the doors of salvation. You know, God is merciful to us, even as Christians when we sin against him. But we need to go to the Lord and say, Lord, please show me mercy, please show me compassion, please show me forgiveness. Let's keep going there, verse number two. David says, I will cry unto God most high, God that performeth all things for me. All right, so we see another great truth in this verse. That hey, when we need to go to the Lord, yes, let's cry unto him, let's go to him in prayer, remembering that it's God that performeth all things for me. See, God is a God that answers prayer. Do you believe that? I believe it. I believe God answers prayer. I've seen God do things that I just could not believe that he could accomplish. Sometimes prayer can be this thing that we just go through the motions, right. We just say the prayer at church, we say the prayer before we eat, we say prayer before, you know, before we go to bed potentially, right. But just remember that our God can truly answer our prayers. Like God can change the events of the world to give us an answer to prayer. But we need to go to him. It's God that performs these things for me. Another passage that you're familiar with, James chapter one, verse six. In fact, can you please turn there. Keep your finger there in Psalm 57. Come with me to the book of James in the New Testament. James chapter one and verse number six. James chapter one and verse number six. James chapter one and verse number six. Don't forget when you're praying, you're speaking to God and God hears you. Like we're not just hopeful that he hears us. Like we're not just hopeful, we're just saying a few words in this universe and somehow the laws of the universe are gonna hopefully capture our words and do something for us. We're speaking to a real person. We're speaking to our father who's given us spiritual birth. He's our loving father. He wants to hear from us. We ought to have a walk, a fellowship with our Lord God. He wants to speak to us. He wants to hear from us. That's what it says in James chapter one, verse six. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavering is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Reverend, we need to go to God and ask him in faith. When we go and pray, we ought to be believing that God can answer this prayer. Now, how God answered that prayer? That's up to God, okay? God might say, yes, that's a good request. I'm gonna give you that exact request that you're asking for. God might say, hey, you prayed for this, but I don't believe this is good for you. This is not going to do you well. So the answer is no. But God answers prayers. God might say, well, yes, I can see where you're coming from. I see what your need is, but it's not exactly what you think you need. And so God might answer it a different way. You know, answer it to what we truly need. God knows what we need, doesn't he? Our heavenly Father knows our every need. And he knows that there are some prayers that we ask that come from selfishness. They come from the lust of our heart. Oh, we're asking something that we think is good, but God knows that if we had it, it would not be good for us. But the truth is that God answers prayer. And when we speak to him, we need to speak to him in faith, right? Trust in that God will hear. Trust in that God will answer the best way he knows how to answer. It says in verse number seven, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. So if you're wavering, right? You go to God, I don't think God can answer this prayer. I don't think God will hear me. I don't think God is going to answer. Well, you're not going to receive anything of the Lord. You have to trust him, all right? It's like salvation. We put our trust in Jesus Christ. It's like, Jesus, you paid for it all. My full confidence is in you, Jesus. You died for me. You rose from the dead. You paid for my sins. But like, if you're trying to give the gospel to someone, they're like, I don't know. I don't think Jesus really died for me. I don't really believe Jesus was ever here on the earth. Maybe it's just a figment of imagination, a myth, or something like that. Well, that person's never going to get saved, right? Salvation is putting your faith and trust on Jesus. And many of you have done that. I hope all of you have done that. Well, you know what? Prayer is no different. You're putting your faith on a God that can answer prayer. You're saying, Lord, I believe you can hear me. Lord, I believe you love me. I believe you have mercies for me. I believe you have the best intentions for me, Lord. And I believe you can answer these prayers. So I'm going to just take this to you. And Lord, you answer it as best as you know how. That's faith. That's trust in the Lord. You see, if you waver in this, you're not going to receive anything of the Lord. Because it says in verse number eight, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. And we see in this Psalm, Psalm 57, that we'll soon see that David is asking, or is looking to be stable, is looking to be stabilized, even though he's fearful for his life. If you can come back to Psalm 57, Psalm 57 and verse number three. Psalm 57, verse number three. So he's just prayed to the Lord, right? He's taken his request. He goes, God's going to perform all things for me. God's going to take care of me, even though Saul is after me. He says in verse number three, he shall send from heaven. He goes, yep, God's going to answer it. God's going to send the answer from heaven, right? He shall send from heaven and save me. From the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Of course, King Saul, Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth, right? So he's asking for God's mercies. He goes, I know God's going to send from heaven, his mercy and his truth. You know, there are many times that the Bible speaks about mercy and truth, like together, or grace and truth. Sometimes it can be quite similar. Mercy and grace can have some similarities. But I want you to remember that God doesn't just give us mercy, he gives us his truth. And God doesn't just give us truth, he gives us his mercies. These things come together, all right? Now, we need both. Like, if we're contrary to the Lord, if we're just living in open sin, and we're just trying to justify ourselves, now, what we need, what God really wants us to receive is not just his mercy, but he wants us to hear the truth. He wants us to know the reality of the situation we find ourselves in. Like, if we're contrary to the Lord, if we're in sin, God wants to reveal that to us. That's where the truth comes in, okay? God wants to highlight that you are not right with me, you're not walking with me, and that is the truth. But at the same time, okay, instead of just getting discouraged and going, oh, Lord, then I'm hopeless, well, no, I've got mercies for you. I'm giving you time. I'm giving you time to walk in that truth. I'm giving you time to get right with me. Truth and mercy. We need them both, don't we? And look, as a pastor, one thing I've had to learn, like, I feel like I know a lot of truth of the Bible because I've been saved for a long time. And people sometimes come up to me and speak to me, call me, and they're in a tough situation. All right? And yeah, I can just dump the truth on them. I go, wow, brother, here you go. You're not right with the Lord. Here's what the Bible says. But I realized it's not just truth. I've got to be merciful with the way I present that truth because I want them to receive the truth. I want you to understand at certain times, hey, this is not right. And if at the same time, you know, brother, you're not right, but you know, I love you. I'm praying for you. I hope you get this right with the Lord. You know? Mercy and truth. It's so important. We are talking about our children, raising our children, making sure they receive mercy, but they also need to hear the truth, right? If they've been disobedient, they need to hear that they've been disobedient, all right? They need to hear when they've done wrong. At the same time, they also need to experience the mercies of their parents. But this is how God treats us, mercy and truth, okay? We do not worship a God of lies. He's not going to lie to you, okay? And you know, when I come and I preach God's word, my goal is to preach the truth. But I want to make sure that my speech is seasoned with salt so I can at least display the truth, explain the truth with mercy, okay? Because really, at the end of the day, I don't care if you get offended by the Bible because I hope you're here to get offended by the Bible. But at the same time, I hope you can understand that there is mercy. There is time, okay? God gives you time to get things right. To change certain things about that, okay? And again, you're not accountable to me. I just preach God's word. You guys are accountable to God directly. What do you decide to do? And God's going to be merciful to you as well. But you know what? If you realize that there's something major in my life that's not quite right, I'm not walking in truth, you know, then appeal to God's mercies. Ask God to give you time to get that fixed, okay? Ask God to give you that time. And so it's important that we have mercy and truth, not only from the Lord God, but also how we communicate one to another. If you can keep your finger there, come to me with the book of Proverbs. It's just the next book over. The book of Proverbs. Proverbs 14, please. Proverbs 14. David is asking for God's mercy and truth. We need God's mercy and truth. We need it, okay? But I want you to understand how is it that this gets given to us. In Proverbs 14 verse 22, Proverbs 14 verse 22, it says, Do they not err that devise evil? Look at this. But mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good. You see, God gives us more mercy as we seek to do that which is good. If we just seek to devise evil, to be wicked, then don't expect God's mercies to be very long. You can expect God's judgments on you pretty quickly. But if God sees you trying to do that which is right and good, trying to live that holy life that he wants us to live, then when we do mess up and we need God's mercies, he's more willing to give that mercy and truth to us together. Come with me to Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16 verse number six. Proverbs 16 and verse number six. Proverbs 16 verse six says, By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. You see that? We all have iniquity. We all have sin. You're going to purge that out of your system? You're going to find victory over your sin? Yeah, truth is good. Knowing that you've done wrong is good, all right? But the mercy is needed. God's given us compassion. He gives us forgiveness. He gives us time to get that which is right. Get it right. Mercy and truth. You know, if I'm a pastor that speaks to you about a situation that's sticky, that's sinful, that's wrong, again, I want you to get it fixed. I want you to hear the truth of God's word. Like, I don't want to sugarcoat if you're in sin. At the same time, I know you can only purge those iniquities out of you if I also give you some mercy. And I tell you about the mercy of God. I say, look, you've got time. You can't take your time. Just tell God you're trying to get this fixed, all right? Appeal to his mercy. Appeal to his compassion, all right? And God can extend that mercy and time before you fall in the hands of his judgment, okay? But yeah, we need to purge those iniquities out of us, don't we? It says, and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. All right, let's go back to Psalm 57. Psalm 57, verse number 4. Psalm 57, verse number 4. David says, my soul is among lions. And not literally, but you know, the soul and his armies. He refers to them as lions, all right? And I, even among them that are set on fire. So, you know, these people, they want to destroy David by fire, right? Even the sons of men. Now, this is quite interesting in the next part. Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. What is he saying? Their teeth are spears and arrows. Their tongue a sharp sword. Okay, so David's been persecuted, all right? And of course, he's on the run. He could physically lose his life. But you can see something that's really bothering him here. Because it's their teeth, it's their tongue, okay? In other words, they're persecuting him even by speech. We saw another Psalm that they're twisting the words. They're wrestling the words of David, okay? They're making false accusations about him. They're saying things that are not true about him. And it bothers David, all right? Now, there's this saying, and I like this saying, but this saying is not biblical, okay? The saying of course is, may break your bones, but words can never hurt you. Have you heard that before? Words can never hurt you. Sticks and stones, yeah, they can hurt my... Yeah, if you throw sticks and stones at me, that can... Ah, if you just say words, ah, who cares? Now, I like that saying. Like, you know, it helps you develop a thicker skin when you realise that they're just words, they're just empty words. But it's not exactly biblical. Because you can see that you can do a lot of damage by your words. You can do a lot of damage by your tongue. Yes, David's worried about his life, but he's also concerned about what people have said about him. All the nasty things, all the rumours, all the false reports, all the accusations that they're saying against David. And this is an issue on David, it's bothering him, right? And David's not some weak, limp-wristed sissy on him like this, right? David's a man of war. He's taken down Goliath. This guy knows how to fight. This guy knows how to defend himself, right? He can see, even words can hurt. Even words can hurt. So, you know, we have to be careful about what comes out of our mouth. We know that this tongue is, as it were, a fire. It can ignite literally the fires of hell, as it were. We read about the book of James. You know, it can be very damaging. And so, you know, if I guess when I'm raising my children, I usually encourage them, hey, you know what, everyone's got an opinion and people can say stupid things about you. You can just learn how to let it be, you know, water for duck's back sort of thing. And I hope, you know, that maturity, that development does come into play. But many times, even when I make it seem like, if people are saying things about me, I make it seem like it doesn't bother me. It does bother me a little bit, inside. Because we are all just flesh. Like, are you a greater warrior than David, really? It's going to bother you, even if you pretend it doesn't, okay? But you can see, even words. And so we need to be careful about the words we speak. You know, we've got to be careful about how we describe people, and look, here's the thing. If enemies of God, I'll tell you what doesn't bother me. If enemies of God say things against me, lie about me, or hate our church, apparently there's a negative review on our church, I didn't even know that, okay? When it comes to those things, truly, that doesn't bother me. I'll tell you now, okay? When it comes to enemies of God, whatever they have to say about us, I do not care. But don't forget, King Saul is David's father-in-law. King Saul is a saved man. King Saul is a brother in the Lord, okay? So of course this is going to hurt David, when it's people that he cares about. We know that David loves Saul, all right? We know David loves the kingdom. It's his father-in-law, and that's why it really bothers. That's why it hurts. We're brothers and sisters in the Lord here. We don't have the same background, we may not even have the same interests, but we are related. We are children, we are brothers and sisters in this church, okay? We have the blood of Jesus Christ that has covered us from our sins. Let's be careful about how we speak of one another. I'm not saying you have said something bad or negative, just be careful about how your words about another church member might be damaging. I'll be the first to say, Brevin, I have to learn this lesson. I've shared with you many times, I feel like I'm getting better, but I'm very sarcastic, and even in my sarcasm, I can say something that can offend people, okay? And I've had to say sorry many times, and if you're offended by me for something I've said, I'm sorry, I'll tell you now. Come and tell me, and I'll apologise, because I know that I can say stupid things, because sometimes I'm still, you know, immature, not thoughtful about how that can hurt people. But you know, I can just turn around and say, hey look, sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Grow up. Now what I realised is even a great man like David can be hurt by words, especially when it comes to the people that you care about, okay, the people that you think ought to be your friends, the people that you have been loyal to for many, many years. Okay, verse number five. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth. And I think the great thing we see here in David, even though he's been persecuted, the fear of his life, he stops for a moment and just glorifies God. And I think, you know, if you're in a sticky situation, probably the best thing you can do is just glorify God. You know, we're good at going to God in prayer for our requests. We're good at going to God in prayer when we have needs. God, please help me in this situation. Maybe we're not so good at just glorifying God in prayer. And even when we're going through problems and trials and just like, man, I can't wait to go to God and just get this off my chest and tell about all my problems, don't forget to pause for a moment and just glorify Him for who He is. Like, I think you're going to get a quicker, more effective, the best answer to prayer if God can see you just glorifying Him even in the midst of tribulations. You know, that you're not just focused on yourself and my needs. Let's say, God, yeah, I'm going through difficulties, but you're exalted above the heavens. You're the great God. You're the God that answers prayers. You're the God that can help me in this difficult situation. You know, we need to get into this habit of just learning how to glorify the great God that we love. So praise God in the midst of persecution. Verse number six, they have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. You know, it's stressed burdens, right? They have digged a pit before me. So they're trying to capture David. They're trying to ambush him. But then he says, into the midst whereof, they have fallen themselves, Selah. This is something we see always, like, constantly in the Bible and in the Psalms, how enemies can, you know, try to create a trap for you to fall into, and then they fall into it themselves. I mean, you see a lot, you see this a lot, especially in the Psalms. All right. All right. And this is, you know, it's kind of like the, what I've shared with you before, sometimes you need to give people enough rope to hang themselves. Like you give them enough rope, they think I can hang you, but they end up hanging themselves because of that rope. They fall in their own mischief. Okay. And I often think about this, when this happens, when you see people that are trying to actually target you and attack you, but then they fall in their own ditch and they look, you know, they get embarrassed or they, you know, they lose, you know, the support and the reputation or whatever they thought they were developing, you know, when their attack just turns blunt and they look like failures in doing so, you know, I can, that's what I realised, man, God, you've really stepped in there. Like, you've come in and you've made sure they fall on their own sword. That's what God does many times. He just lets the enemy do what they need to do. And at the 11th hour, when you think, man, I'm going to fall into that trap, they fall into that trap. Verse number seven, my heart is fixed. I was thinking of calling this type of sermon, my heart is fixed because my heart is fixed. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise. Again, it's just glorifying the Lord. He knows the Lord is going to come through and deliver him. He says, my heart is fixed for you, Lord. What words? They're much deeper words than you may realise because we know our hearts. We know the Bible says our hearts are desperately wicked. Who can know it? Okay. And we need to get to this point where we say, Lord, our heart is for you and you alone. Lord, fixed means established, stability. You know, David says, all right, I want stability, Lord, but I need to make sure that my heart is towards you. Lord, that I'm not fearful of man and what they can do unto me, but I'm fearful of you. Lord, I'm going to put you first in my heart. I need to love you with all my heart. That's how you fix yourself. You establish yourself. And he says, I will sing and give praise. Even though he's been persecuted. Again, he's just, I'm going to sing for you, Lord. I'm going to praise you because you are my priority. You are number one, even in the midst of my persecution. Please turn to Acts 16. Keep your finger there in Psalm 57. Acts 16, please. Acts 16. This kind of reminds me of this story with Paul and Silas. And when they went to Philippi, remember that story? When they went to Philippi, they started to preach. People seemingly looked like they received them for a little while. And then the multitudes attacked. Okay. And it says in Psalm 16 verse number 22. Psalm 16 verse 22. It says, and the multitude, that's the multitude of that city in Philippi, rose up together against them and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. Has that ever happened to you as a soul winner? Where you've gone to a door and the people have a reason and they start to beat you up. Hasn't happened yet. Has it happened to you, brother? No, not yet. All right. Look, soul winning in Australia is easy. It's a breeze. You know, I asked you, brother, how did soul winning go? I had many, many slam doors. At least you didn't get beaten up. And not only beaten up, it says in verse number 23. When they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. So I don't think anyone here has been thrown in jail for preaching the gospel yet. Okay. Verse number 24. Who haven't received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. So they can't even move, right? They're in these stocks. They can't walk. All right. This is real persecution. All right. Someone saying a cuss word to you at the door. It's not persecution. Someone's slamming the door. Who cares? We'll go to the next door. We'll go and find the person that wants to hear the gospel. But how are they going to respond to him? How would you respond to this? If you went out with a cart to win the lost, I want to see someone come to Jesus Christ and be saved and enter the kingdom and you go out there with a heart of loving the lost and they beat you up and throw you into prison. I reckon we'll be cast down. I think just naturally we're going to be a bit depressed about that. All right. Maybe some of us will go, God, why? Why don't you allow this to happen? But look how Paul and Silas respond. Verse number 25. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. And the prisoners heard them. Man, how good are these guys? I mean, they got reason to complain. All right. They got reasons to complain to God. But instead, no, let's just praise God. Let's just worship him. Let's just sing. All right. Let's let the whole prison hear the praises of our Lord God. Verse number 26. And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed. So God sets them free. Does a miracle. They've gone to God in prayer. All right. Nothing wavering. Trusting that the Lord can see them through. And the Lord does amazing miracle. Opens all the doors of the prison. And of course, you know the story of the Philippian jailer and his whole family, his whole house, end up getting saved. All right. Back to Psalm 57. Psalm 57. But the reason we read that is just to show you that even in the midst of tribulations, things that we've never experienced, hopefully we'll never experience it. You know, even then we ought to be people that glorify God, that exalt Him, that sing in praise in the midst of tribulation. Verse number 8. This is where we get the title for the sermon. Verse number 8. I'll wake up my glory. Awake, sultry and harp. I myself will awake early. So David's kind of like, get up! He says, my glory? He's like telling himself, wake up! Like we saw this morning in the service, right? There are two parts of us, brethren. The flesh, the selfishness, the sinfulness in us, then the new man, the spirit, which is our glory. You know, when David says, I'll wake up my glory, he's saying, look, I need to put on the new man. That's my glory, right? In my flesh, I'm fearful of soul. In my flesh, I feel persecuted and far from the Lord and afraid, right? And he goes, no, wake up my glory! Brethren, we have a glory within us. The inner man, that which is saved, that which is born of the spirit, that which is sinless. That inner man, that new man, I'm telling you, it's powerful. Okay, it loves the Lord. That new man can do great things for God, but we need to wake it up sometimes. Because I reckon I wake up in the morning and I'm in the flesh. I reckon when I wake up, I'm in that old man. It's there again. Stupid old man, what are you doing there? And you've got to wake up your glory. You know what, Lord, I'm going to decide to walk in your paths. I need to follow after the spirits. I need to walk in that new man, the new man that loves the Lord. And so David, he takes that sultry and harp, he takes that instrument. This is part of what he does to help him be in the new man. Hey, if you're not musical, you can take a hymn book home. Hey, open up the hymns, sing some praises to God. That's going to help you awake your glory. It's going to help you wake up that inner man, all right, to overcome that flesh. It says, I myself will awake early. Can you keep your finger there and come with me to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five, please. Ephesians chapter five and verse number 13. Ephesians chapter five and verse number 13. Now, what we're about to read is not salvation, because Paul is right into the Ephesian church. These people are saved already, all right. And maybe you're saved right now in church, but maybe you're asleep. And I'm not saying physically asleep, but maybe you're just here in the flesh. And like, you're like, I can't wait for church to finish. I can't wait to get home. And you're distracted, all right. Well, you need to wake up. I wake up, all right. Let the new man out. So the new man loves church. The inner man loves the Bible, loves singing hymns, loves singing praises. The new man loves to fellowship with the brethren. Look at Ephesians chapter five, verse 13. Ephesians chapter five, verse number 13. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. I kind of think about you sleeping comfortably at night, dark. And then light, you know, Jesus Christ walks into your room, turns on the light, turns on the spotlight, says, wake up. Wake up. That's what I kind of think. Sometimes I wake up Isabelle. Sorry, honey. She's like, Dad, I had the best dream. Wake up. It's time to get up. All right, darkness. I mean, look, brethren, this flesh is in darkness. This flesh just wants to sleep. Take it easy. You're saved now. Why serve God? Why preach the gospel? Ah, who cares about church today? You can go to church next week. Just go to sleep. Take it easy. And Jesus said, like, turn on the light. Wake up. Arise from the dead, because this body, this flesh is dead, all right? And Christ shall give thee light. Like, we're meant to crucify that flesh, right? We're meant to mortify that old man daily. Like, we need to look at that flesh as just dead, okay? And I need to live. I need to live in that new man. I need to wake up. Verse number 15. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Redeeming the time. Now, someone that just sleeps all day long. Say it's a sluggard person, a lazy person. They sleep their good eight hours, and they go back to sleep. They refuse to do anything in life. So you're not redeeming the time. You're not making use of your time, you know? You need to wake up and be productive and do something. Well, brethren, it's the same for us. Don't get comfortable where you are in your spiritual walk, okay? Redeem your time. Okay, use the time that God has given you to be walking after that new man. Please turn with me to Romans 13. Romans 13, verse 11. Romans 13, verse number 11. Again, these are instructions to Christians. Have you ever gone to a church and you said, man, it's like everyone's just asleep. It's like everyone's dead. Seems like we're spiritually dead. Well, I guess when you're sleeping, you're kind of dead, aren't you? Your body's not moving. You're not being productive. You say this church is lacking life. I don't want that for our church. I want our church to be awake. I want our church to be productive. I want our church to be walking in the light that Jesus Christ has given us. Romans 13, verse 11. And that, knowing the time, and now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Our salvation there is, we're closer to the coming of Christ. We know that one day this body is going to be saved. Every day we go by, we're a little bit closer to the coming of Christ. Every day that we go past is one day less for you to serve Christ. It's one day less for you to give the gospel. All right. One day less to earn rewards in heaven every day that goes by. So wake up. All right. I mean, if you've got a job, right, you've got to wake up on Monday to get a job. You know, you set an alarm, right? You want to be there like 10 minutes early at least. So you can be productive and, you know, you get your job done. You can be productive. You can get rewarded. The Christian life can be similar. We need to set that alarm. When you find yourself in the flesh of the old man, you say, hey, why am I sleeping? Why am I just giving to this flesh? Why am I just living for myself? No, I need to wake up. I need to walk for the Lord. I need to live for the Lord. Help me wake up, Lord. Verse number 12. The night is fast spent. You've been sleeping for too long. The day's at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day. Not in rioting and drunkenness. Not in chambering and wantonness. Not in strife and envy. Then look at verse 14. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Remember, when you sin, when you're fulfilling your lusts, whatever they are, you're asleep. You need to put on Jesus Christ. Okay? This is just a parallel to putting on that new man. Christ has given us access to this salvation. Christ is the one that wants to turn on the light. He is the light of the world and then he's told us that we're the light of the world. Christ has already woken us up the moment you got saved. We need to go and wake up other people too. Not just wake, we need to give them life. Okay? And many times, people are going to get saved. They get eternal life. But hey, they probably won't come to church. They probably won't live a Christian lifestyle. They'll be asleep. They'll be living in the flesh. You know, that's why it's so important that we get to church, that we get baptised, we read our Bibles. You know, none of this saves you, but we do these things to wake up that new man within us. Otherwise, it's so easy to fall asleep. So easy to fall asleep. Come with me to another passage. Proverbs chapter six. Proverbs chapter six, verse number nine. Proverbs chapter six and verse number nine. As a Christian, if you're asleep, and look, we all fall asleep as Christians. We all lose sight. We get distracted. We lose sight of eternity. You know, instead of having our eyes focused upon heaven and the eternity to come, sometimes our eyes get focused on the temporal, carnal things, all right? So we need to wake up. But, and look, what we're about to read here in Proverbs six is about a lazy, sluggard person in the flesh. Just someone that is just lazy, doesn't want to go to work, doesn't want to do anything in their life. But I believe we can take the principles and apply it to the spiritual life here, okay? In Proverbs six, verse nine, it says, how long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When will thou arise out of thy sleep? Sluggard means lazy, sluggard, like a slug. I can see a slug, they're so slow, they barely move. All right, have you ever touched a slug and they just curl up? Just, they don't do anything, seemingly, okay? You know, if we're asleep, and now let's, I'm not talking about here physically, like I'm not talking about here, a man being lazy and going to work, but taking the spiritual lesson here, because we have the old man, the new man, the old man's asleep, new man wants to wake up and do great things for God. But if we're not serving Christ, if we're not serving his kingdom, you're sluggard, okay? How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? Lazy. Okay, you're lazy if you're not serving Christ. Hey, there's the truth, okay? But we need mercies. Say, God, please help me wake up. Forgive me for being sluggard. Forgive me for being lazy. Help me to serve you in your kingdom. When will thou arise out of thy sleep? I'll give us number 10. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, just a little fold in my hands. I like sleep. I actually like sleep. I can sleep anywhere. Honestly, you know, I can just, man, when I'm tired, it's late, oh man, I'm asleep. But I don't want to sleep in my spiritual walk. I want to be awake, all right? They're so easy to fall asleep. Look at verse number 11. So shall thy poverty come as one that travaileth and thy want as an armed man. Okay, it says here, basically if you fall asleep, like someone is lazy, man, man, you need to go to work, okay? Man, you need to do something with your life. Be productive. If you just become lazy and sluggard, all right, you will tend to poverty. You won't have enough to meet your needs. You won't have what you need to take care of a family. You'll be lazy, okay, sluggard. Okay, you won't get what you become. You'll have poverty. You'll be poor. Okay, let's take the principle to our Christian walk. Reverend, God wants to give us maximum reward in heaven. Heaven is not the reward. Heaven's the gift paid for by Jesus. That's the minimum. You're saved. You're going to heaven. But are you laying up your treasures in heaven? We don't want to go to heaven and be poor because all we did was sleep. Yeah, we got saved. Praise God. Praise Jesus. The Lord, I did nothing for you. Yeah, you're sluggard. You're lazy, okay. Now look, at the end of the day, you know, we go to heaven. Praise God because the majority go into hell, unfortunately, okay. But we don't want to be just minimum Christians. We don't want to be just saved and that's it. Lay up your treasures in heaven. That requires you to go to work, spiritual work, doing the work of God, serving him, serving this church, winning souls, fixing your life, fixing your family, fixing your marriage, teaching your children the ways of the Lord, being a blessing, being a help to your brethren when they have a need, giving a cup of water to a little child, being generous with your time and your possessions. There are so many ways that we can get treasures, so many ways that we can get rewards, loving our enemies. We saw that last week. But you need to wake up. And if you've not been serving the Lord of your life, you've just been serving yourself, then brethren, you're sluggard. You're lazy, okay. That's the truth. But you need mercy. You need time. Say, Lord, help me wake up. Stir me. Lord, set the alarm. You know, Lord, help me to just wake. You know, and look, you know, when you start serving the Lord, it becomes easier. Have you ever had to wake up early, and that first time you would try to wake up early, it's like really hard for your body. But then when you start waking up early, that time again and again and again, eventually you don't even need the alarm. Many times your body just wakes up automatically, even before the alarm goes off. It becomes easier. See, when you wake up and you start serving the Lord, it becomes easier as time goes on. Easier, easier, easier. But then we get lazy sometimes, a little foam of hands, got to sleep, back in the flesh, back in that old man that doesn't want to serve the Lord. Just wants to serve itself. So we need to wake up. Okay, we need to rise up early. Okay, back to Psalm 57. Psalm 57, verse number nine. Psalm 57, verse number nine. David says, I will praise the Lord among the people. I will sing unto thee among the nations. Look at verse number 10. For thy mercy, there it is again. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. David's saying, look, we never run out. I can never run out of your mercy. You know, it's so high into the heavens. I can't even get to the end of it. They've realized, I've got your mercies. They're new every morning, Lord. He says, and the truth unto the clouds. Your truth never ends. So you get the mercy and the truth. The unending source of mercy and truth is our Lord God. Don't forget, we need to also pass mercy and truth to our, to the people that we come across, the people that we're trying to encourage, the people that we're trying to bless. You know, if you find yourself low on reserves, maybe you're full of truth, but you don't have much mercy. Maybe you got a lot of mercy, but you don't have much truth. Maybe you don't have much of both, okay? Maybe your reserves are low, or you need to go to the God whose mercies and truth never end. You can't even get to the highest. You can't even reach to the end of God's mercies and truth. So we need to use him as our source. And then verse 11. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth. So we're seeing that again. He's repeating the same words. Come with me to one more passage. 1 Samuel 24. Like I said to you, Psalm 57 is like a continuation of Psalm 56. And we saw in Psalm 56 how David had an opportunity to slay his enemy soul, but he did not. He let vengeance belong to the Lord. All right? But we didn't finish the story exactly. You know, we did have a look at how David, you know, showed Saul that he had the part of his garments, right? He cut off a part of the skirt of his garments, and he showed Saul that he had the opportunity to slay him. But let's look into the story a little bit further here. In 1 Samuel 24 verse 15. 1 Samuel 24 verse number 15. So David says these words to Saul when he came out of the cave. The Lord therefore be judged and judged between me and thee and see and plead my cause and deliver me out of thine hand. So David says to Saul, it's God that's done this. God has delivered me out of your hand. Verse number 16. And it came to pass when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul. Like Saul realizes, man, David had a chance to kill me, and he did not. Okay? And Saul said, is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. See, David gave Saul mercy, didn't he? Did not slay him. David showed Saul some truth. I could have killed you, but I showed you mercy. Okay? To his enemy. He says this to his enemy, Saul. And look, look what happens. Saul's full of guilt, man. He realizes, he breaks down and starts weeping. And Brethren, if we're going to break down barriers and we're going to be a blessing and help people and fix conflicts, truth and mercy, we need it. Both. We need it in abundance. It comes from God though. It comes from God. And then we can share that to other people. What David's done to Saul. Verse number 17. And he said to David, thou art more righteous than I, for thou has rewarded me good. Whereas I have rewarded thee evil. And thou has shewed this day, how that thou has dealt well with me. For as much as when the Lord had delivered me into thine hand, thou killest me not. For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? Wherefore the Lord reward thee good, for that thou has done unto me this day. And now behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king. And that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand. This is not easy for Saul to admit and to say. It's not just him and David, it's his armies hearing this. He says, I know you're going to be king, David. I know God has made you the king, even though he's full of envy, you know, bitterness about this. But just seeing how David's been so kind, so merciful toward him, it's just broken him. And he's got, he realises the truth. The truth has been, he's receiving the truth because of David's mercy. Verse number 20, sorry, verse number 21. Swear now therefore unto me by the Lord, that thou would not cut off my seed after me, and that thou would not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swear unto Saul, and Saul went home, but David and his men get them up unto the hold. All right, so there's a brief period of peace. Now, Saul, he's a wicked man, he's a wicked Christian. He ends up kind of going back on his words here, okay. But for a period, you can see that the mercies of David really softened his heart. To be able to receive the truth that David will be the next king. And so he kind of begs David, please don't wipe out my family when you become the king, okay. Saul returns back, you know, returns back from persecuting David, but David stays back with his men because they're not trusting Saul just yet. Okay, because Saul's been up and down like he's bipolar or something like that, right. He's not quite right in the head, King Saul. But I just want to show you the application to this truth. David asking God for mercy and truth, okay. And David being afraid and David being asleep as he were in the flesh. He says, no, my glory has to wake up. You know, I've got to put on the new man, I've got to put on Jesus Christ. I've got to show my enemy mercy and truth. And by doing that, you can see that he's able to win back his friend, win back his father-in-law, even though it's just for a brief period. So brethren, we need to wake up as well. We need to be in the new man. If there's any conflicts, any fears, you must wake up, put on that new man, mortify, crucify that old man, that flesh, because it's lazy, it's sluggard, okay. We need to make sure that, hey, we, what's the word, that we make use of our time, forget the Bible word right now, okay. We make use of our time because every day that goes by is one day less to serve our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, I just pray that you'd help us wake up. Lord, this flesh wants to sleep, this flesh is lazy, this flesh just wants to chase after its own lusts. And Lord, I just thank you that you've given us a new man that needs to be aroused sometimes, Lord. And Lord, I pray you'd set the alarm in our hearts to wake up, and we wake up early, Lord, that we will not sleep any further than we need to. Lord, please utilise us, Lord, in this day in 2022. Lord, the world is becoming more wicked as time goes on, but Lord, we're also thankful for the coming of Christ. Lord, help us not to waste our lives, help us to serve you, help us to serve your kingdom, help us to win souls, and Lord, just to live the life that you've caught us to live in accordance to your word. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, hymn number 216. Hymn number 216, please. Two, one, six. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. Two, one, six. Surely goodness and mercy. In the cold light of sin I did roll, and Jesus the fine shepherd found me, and now I am on my way home. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. I'm sure of my soul where I need me. In near-earth we strengthfully find Him. He leads me beside the snow waters. He guides me each step of the way. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. We'll walk through the dark, lonesome valley. My Savior will forgive me there, and save me in His great man will lead me to the mansions He's gone to again. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. And I shall go live the house of the Lord forever and I shall feast at the table spread fully. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. All the days, all the days of my life.