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The manger of Bethlehem cradles a king There's a tumult of joy for the wonderful birth For the virgin, sweet boy, is the Lord of the earth Hey, the star reigns as far while the beautiful sing For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king In the light of that star lie the ages in pearl And that song from afar has slipped over the world Every earth is aflame and the beautiful sing In the homes of the nations that Jesus is King We rejoice in the light and we echo the song That comes down through the night from the heavenly throng Hey, we shout to the lovely evangel they bring And we greet in his cradle our Savior and King Amen. Good seeing you all. Great singing at this time. Brother Alex, can you open us with a word of prayer? Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for our church here and the brothers and sisters that come. And we pray for those that were sick or they're traveling and bother to give them safe travels. And we ask you to bless our service here and to bless the preaching and that we can serve you and sing songs. And we love you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Page 273 will be our second song this evening. Page 273. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Page 273. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day on the first. I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old familiar carols play And wild and sweet the words repeat A peace on earth, good will to men I thought how as the day had come The belfries of all Christendom That rolled along the broken song A peace on earth, good will to men And in despair I bowed my head There is no peace on earth I said For hate is strong and mocks the song A peace on earth, good will to men Then pealed the bells more loud and deep God is not dead nor doth He sleep The wrong shall veil, the right prevail With peace on earth, good will to men Till ringing, singing on its way The world revolved from night to day A voice, a chime, a chant, sublime Of peace on earth, good will to men Alright, good Thursday evening to everybody. Let's go through our bulletin here real quick. If anybody needs a bulletin, just lift up your hand. Shauna, make sure you get one. Anybody need a bulletin? Alright, on the front cover we have our verse of the week. It says, Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah, Psalm 32 verse 7. In our inside page there, of course we have our service times. They haven't changed in many, many years, but I'll say them anyway. Sunday morning, 10.30 a.m. Sunday evening, 3.30 p.m. Thursday, 6.30 p.m. We'll have a special Christmas service this week. And we'll be preaching a Christmas themed sermon on Sunday morning. Sunday evening, I will be back in Joshua chapter number 6. But I'm really excited about preaching Joshua chapter 6, the Battle of Jericho. So it won't be necessarily a Christmas theme, but it's actually going to be a pretty exciting sermon. At least I'm hoping it will be for you too. But I'm excited about it. So Thursday Bible study, we're in that service tonight. We're in 1 Chronicles chapter number 16. And I am going to attempt to complete the whole chapter. So I'm going to need all the time I can get. So I've got to hurry up with these announcements. Let's see, so many times we had so many tonight. Do we have any salvations out there? We're in the darkest time of our year here coming up. Is today the 20th? Oh no, tomorrow is the 20th. That will be the darkest time of the year. Then after that it's going to start slowly getting lighter. We'll start getting our days back slowly but surely. So anyway, if you look down you can see the praise report, the salvations. And we need to add one. Brother Rylan, if you're listening, brother Eli got one saved at work. Or I mean this one guy got one saved at work. Sorry brother. Anyway, so plus one we had one from Sunday also. So let's see. And then Brother Sean Collins was supposed to baptize two guys up on Sunday. So his ministry is kicking off well. We've got a couple of new guys that are going to church up there. So they're supposed to get baptized this Sunday. So pray that everything goes well with the baptism. And then we have of course the children's choir. Practices are already done. We're going to run it and see how it goes. It's supposed to be 11 minutes run time. And we'll see how long the children can keep themselves together. But they sounded pretty good. I mean they sound better than we do when we're singing our hymns. So I'm really excited about hearing them have it all put together. So that will be this coming Sunday. So don't be late because we're going to do it before the actual preaching service. So I'll try to hold it off as long as I can. But try to be here on time. And then so that's this coming Sunday. We had Dr. Phil Stringer preach. If you weren't here and didn't get a chance to listen those sermons are up on our YouTube page. Both of our YouTube pages. And our rumble. And I see Pastor Anderson is preaching in Spokane this Friday. There will be a dinner at 4.30 p.m. It's Italian food. So if you're planning on being there go ahead and show up at the building at 4.30. And it will get a free meal there. And it's not just like Olive Garden or some cruddy Italian place. It's actually a really really good Italian restaurant. So at least I like it. So let's see. And then we have the 21st which is this Saturday. We have a Super Soul winning Saturday. But it's only going to be three hours. So Brother Sean is going to put the maps in the WhatsApp group. So he said he has. What did you say? How many places do you have Brother Sean? I've got seven apartments. Okay. So we have plenty of real estate to cover. And it is in Gresham. I think it's Gresham proper. So it's like 200 and something. And it's like right there. Basically right where Stark and Broadway come together. Okay. So Stark and Broadway way up in Gresham where they come together. So it's a ways out there. So give yourself some time. And then we're going to be having food at. Oh sorry. Burnside. Oh Burnside. Stark and Burnside where they come together. Okay. I was thinking Broadway. I didn't know Broadway went up that far. So anyway then we're going to have a meal afterwards at Buster's Barbecue. We post that in the group Brother Sean. Okay. And let's see. So yeah. So we've got a lot of big things going on this weekend. And of course we're also doing the potluck. Did everybody get signed up? Do we have sign ups done? Do we have plenty of people signed up for stuff? I hope. Otherwise it's going to be meat on the menu and not a lot else. It will be like David's celebration that he does in this chapter tonight. A hunk of flesh, a piece of bread and a flag and a wine. That will be the meal for the evening. But David was like on a no veggies deal there. So anyway. So yeah. If you haven't signed up, please sign up for something. Bring something if you can. And that will be between the services. We will have soul winning still. So we'll have to probably have a shortened soul winning time. But we'll still have soul winning. And whoever was – I brought the meat. There's three spiraled hams in the refrigerator. Is it sitting out there? Okay. And then the three prime ribs are in the refrigerator chilling. They're – I don't know. They're not that big, but they're big enough. So if you volunteered to make something, please grab those tonight. And let's see. We've got the men's preaching night coming up on the 29th. So if you've been itching to preach, then you'll have your opportunity. The 29th on the evening service. The 31st is going to be replacing our Thursday service the week after Christmas. So there will be no Thursday night service. There will be a 31st New Year's Eve service. And then we'll have some games and food and all that good stuff. So I think that's it for announcements. And let's go ahead and sing another song and we'll receive the offering. All right. Page 285 in your blue hymn books. Angels we have heard on high. Page 285. Angels we have heard on high. 285 on the first. Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plains and the mountains and reply, Echo back their joyous strains. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong? Say what may the tidings be? Which inspire your heavenly song. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Come to Bethlehem and see him whose birth the angels sing. Come adore on bended knee. Christ the Lord, the newborn King. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. On the last. See him in a manger laid. Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth. Mary Joseph, land your aid. With us sing our Savior's birth. Big breath. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Amen. Great singing this evening. At this time we're going to have our offering. And brother Sean Harrington, can you bless that offering for us? Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you, Lord, that when you come to your house, bless your work for each one. I pray that you would bless the offering, Lord, that you would bless both the gift and the giver. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, good evening everybody. If you would turn with me, please to the book of 1 Chronicles 16. 1 Chronicles 16. As is our custom, we will read the entire chapter beginning in verse 1. 1 Chronicles 16, please read along silently with me. And in 1 Chronicles chapter 16, the Bible reads, so they brought the ark of God and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it. And they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God. And when David had made an end of offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. And he dealt to every one of Israel, both man and woman, to every one a loaf of bread and a good piece of flesh and a flagon of wine. And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord and to record and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel. Asaph the chief, and next to him Zechariah, Jael, and Shemeromoth, and Jehiel, and Mattathiah, and Eliab, and Benaiah, and Obed-Adom, and Jael with psalteries and with harps, but Asaph made a sound with cymbals. Benaiah also, and Jehaziel the priest, with trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God. Then on that day, David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren. Give thanks unto the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him. Sing psalms unto him. Talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his face continually. Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth. Oh, ye seed of Israel, his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Be mindful always of his covenant, the word which he commanded to 1,000 generations, even of the covenant which he made with Abraham and of his oath unto Isaac, and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying unto thee will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance. When ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it, and when they went from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Show forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen, his marvelous works among all nations, for great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the people are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Glory and honor are in his presence. Strength and gladness are in his place. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him, all the earth. The world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let men say among the nations, the Lord reigneth. Let the sea roar in the fullness thereof. Let the fields rejoice in all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the woods sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And say ye, save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name and glory in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praise the Lord. So he left there before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, Asaph and his brethren, to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required. And Obed-Edom with their brethren, threescore and eight. Obed-Edom also the son of Jeduthun and Hosah to be porters, and Zadok the priest and his brethren the priests, before the tabernacle of the Lord in the high place that was at Gibeon. To offer burnt offerings unto the Lord upon the altar of the burnt offering, continually morning and evening, and to do according to all that is written in the law of the Lord, which he commanded Israel. And with them Haman and Jeduthun, and the rest that were chosen, who were expressed by name, to give thanks to the Lord, because his mercy endureth forever. And with them Haman and Juduthun, with trumpets and cymbals for those that should make a sound, and with musical instruments of God, and the sons of Jeduthun were porters. And all the people departed every man to his house, and David returned to bless his house. Brother Brandon, would you pray for us? Amen. Amen. All right, we're in First Chronicles 16. Two times in a row here, so we're on a streak here, so that's nice. So, last week, I just wanna kinda go back a little bit to where we were last week. So David had prepared and he had obviously read the Bible and brought the ark back according to the due order, if you remember, last week, and decided to make sure to do it right, and to have the Levites bring it back on their shoulders the way it was supposed to be done with the staves and the ark. And so he got it right, and then, so we're kind of continuing off the story from last week, and so the title of the sermon is Benevolence, Benedictions, Blessings, and Benefits. But my points are not gonna be all Bs, but the title is. But I didn't really title the sermon necessarily in our YouTube thing. So, but there's a lot of benevolence, blessings, and benedictions and benefits that go on in this chapter, so I thought it would be an appropriate title. The first point of the sermon here is that King David was a benevolent dictator. So look at verse one, it says, so they brought the ark and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God. So David has now brought, the ark has been brought back, all the people that he's commissioned to bring forth the ark and all the people he's, in the last chapter he'd set all these people in certain positions and made sure that there's people to minister before the Lord. He put all the singers and all the musicians in order, and well actually he instructed the Levites to do this, but here he does kinda make a little bit of a change. We'll see that here as we go along here, but David here, and the reason why I say that David was a benevolent dictator is because God usually just has one person that's fully in charge. All throughout the Bible, that's the way it is, and people don't really like that. In America, we're kind of under a different system, so it's hard for us to fathom that because even the president doesn't have ultimate power. The powers are kind of distributed, and I guess in some ways in the Bible, like the priest, the high priest did have some, had charge over the house of the Lord, so the king couldn't just come in and do some of the things that the priests were allowed to do, but David did set the priests in order. David did set the musicians in order, but he couldn't choose who the high priest was, but he could say that the high priest was no longer fit to be the high priest and fire them and make somebody else. Like later on, Zadok is made, that's the line where the high priest comes from because the other high priest, he was a traitor to David and his cause, and so he ended up being, I think Solomon's the one that actually made sure that he was no longer a priest, so they did have certain powers, and God was okay with that, obviously, because he's the one that said that Eli, as the priest, that his line would end, and so that was the fulfilling of that. So anyway, David here, he's not just doing this for himself where he's bringing the ark to Jerusalem, and really, why is he bringing the ark to Jerusalem? He's bringing the ark to Jerusalem because that's where his seat of power is. He's the king, he took the castle of Zion, that's where he lives. It's called the city of David now, and that's where he reigns from, and so it doesn't really make sense to not have the place of worship to be there where he's at, and so when Saul was in charge, where was that place? It was in the city of Nob, and that's where the priests were all killed by Saul. Remember, Saul killed, had all the priests slain by Doeg the Edomite, and that's why Abiathar the priest fled and went to David, and he has the vest of judgment on him. That's how David was able to inquire of the Lord, and so that's why he's bringing the ark to him, but he's not in the tabernacle anymore, which was kind of confusing to me. Has anybody actually wondered why the tabernacle's not there in Jerusalem? Why he hasn't moved the tabernacle there? I mean, I'm gonna try to explain to you why that is, because it was really kind of baffling me. I don't know if that bothered anybody else, or if you've even thought about that, but I'm gonna explain that at the very end of the sermon, but anyway, so David here, he is the benevolent dictator because he's the king. He's in absolute control of everything, and what he says goes. He might have counselors and people he bounces ideas off, but ultimately, the decisions that are made are 100% up to him, and basically, he's led by God. God is his, everybody does have a boss, except for God. God is the boss of everybody, but when it comes to the children of Israel, their ultimate ruler was the king, and before that, there was the system of judges, and who was the boss? The one judge. So Moses was ultimately the judge of all the children of Israel when they brought him out of Egypt, and then when people tried to mess around, what happened? God smoked those guys and let everybody know that Moses was the man that was in charge. When Moses died, he passed that power onto Joshua, and then the judges that ruled after that were the ones that were ultimately in charge. Of course, everybody has leadership that's underneath them, and so God would distribute, he had Moses distribute those things and those powers to other people, but ultimately, if there was a major decision that needed to be made, or something that was too hard for those leaders to handle, then that would go to the king, so the king would decide the harder matters, and so David here, he says he brought the ark in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it, so this is not the tabernacle, just so you know, and they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God, so they're not doing this at the high place where they normally would do it at. Remember, Shiloh was one of the places where they had it, and then they had it at Nob, and now it's at the place called Gibeah, but they're not doing it there right now, and altars could be made, like when Elijah made his altar, was that at Jerusalem? No, altars could be made as long as they were doing it the right way and all that stuff, so here's the definition of a benevolent dictatorship. It is a government in which an authoritarian king, or leader, exercises absolute political power over the state, but is perceived to do so with regard for the benefit of the population as a whole, so it's not like just for them to be, because there's a lot of wicked kings in the Bible. There's been a lot of wicked kings in history, and if they're just doing everything for themselves or the Caesars, how wicked they got, they're not supposed to be like that. They're supposed to be doing things for the benefit of everybody else, too, but that's what happens, that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but David wasn't like that. I mean, he did have moments where he did do stuff like that, but he would reel himself in. He would repent. He would do what's right, and when he didn't, when he messed up, God punished him, didn't he? Punished him very severely, but as a whole, David was a great leader and a great man of God, and he did exercise his power, but look what he did. They offered these burnt offerings, and I do believe, just to say this, I do believe that a king doesn't answer to anybody but God. King James believed this, and people disagreed with that. There's a lot of people that disagree with that, but in the Bible, just show me a time where even the wicked kings were overthrown, and they didn't get killed for that. You can't really find it unless God was overthrowing them. God would send them prophets. God would send them people to rebuke them, and then God would depose them or destroy them when he was ready to do that, but you don't see these overthrowing of kings, and God was okay with people doing that. You just don't see that in the kings of Israel, so yeah, I know we live in America, and I know that I'm raining on your 1776 parade right now, but I'm just telling you that that's not what God, that's not something that God is necessarily okay with, so by the grace of God, we are where we are. This is what country we live in. I mean, we do have a great, we probably have the greatest nation on the face of the planet, but at some point, it's probably gonna go bad just like every other nation, and we've already seen some of the things that have gone bad in this country, but overall, we're blessed above every nation, so I mean, I can't complain about that. I'm sitting here preaching against our government right now, and I can do that because we're free. We're free to say those things. If I was doing that in China, I'd already be hauled off and hung and killed or whatever, drawn and quartered, whatever they do, but I'm just saying that God's program is for one person to have the power, and it's who he picks, and he picked David. There's no doubt about that. All right, verse two says, and when David had made an end of offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. See, he's doing these things, and he's doing it for the benefit of the people, isn't he? He's offering burnt offerings. He's offering peace offerings, and he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. For what purpose are the burnt offerings and the peace offerings? What's the purpose for them? It's, well, they're for the atonement of sin, aren't they? The burnt offerings are to atone for sins, and the peace offerings are for peace between God and man. That's what peace offering is. Hey, let's have some peace. There are offerings also, so they were for spiritual benefits, and so when you're right with God, then what happens after that? God can bless you, but if you're not right with God, then God will not bless you. I mean, that's another theme that goes throughout the Bible. If you're not right with him and you do wrong and you do that which is evil in his sight, he's going to curse you. He's gonna chasten you and then make those chastenings come worse. The more you get out of his will, the worse you get, the more he's gonna chasten you. He'll chasten you seven times worse than the last chastening, and then at some point, he's just gonna destroy you. Of course, we don't want that, but what David's showing here is that he's offering offerings, burnt offerings, peace offerings, and then he blesses the people, and again, he represents the Lord Jesus Christ, so he's trying to step in for the people. He's trying to take care of the sins of the people. What's Jesus' job to do? To intercede for the people, right? He's the high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, so what's he do? He is a go-between. There's only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, so what does he do? He intercedes on our behalf. He makes peace between us and God, right? When he shed his blood for us, he became that propitiation, that appeasement of wrath for our place, and so that's what David's doing here. He's making those things happen, and then he's blessing the people, and then David's also doing things after the due order. You don't bless the people and then get the sin out of their life and then do the peace offerings. You see, he's following the pattern right now. He's starting to do things after the due order like he did in chapter number 15. So what are some spiritual blessings that you could get because it just says he blessed the people. Well, it doesn't necessarily say what he did to bless the people, but what are some blessings? Well, what are some spiritual blessings? Well, how about salvation? Salvation's a spiritual blessing, isn't it? And how about discernment? How about understanding the word of God? How about having a good church to go to? How about having good spiritual leadership? I mean, it's nice to live in a town where you have a good pastor or a good church you could go to. How about just being able to listen to good preaching? How about just having a good Bible translation in your own language? That's a blessing to have the King James Bible. You know, there's a lot of countries and the different tongues that don't have a great Bible. They don't have a perfect Bible. How about a saved spouse, saved children? How about just the blessing of being able to have children or to even have a spouse, period? It is a spiritual blessing, but it's also, you know, some of these can blur the lines of being carnal blessings too, but, you know, there's carnal blessings that are involved in our lives too. God doesn't just bless us with spiritual things. He blesses us with carnal things, things that we need. How about the typical roof over your head, food on the table? I mean, the Bible doesn't promise us a roof over the head, but it does, he does promise us food and raiment, which is food and clothing. And so, hey, a lot of us, we have, I think everybody in this building has a roof over their head. When you go home from here, you're not sleeping outside, are you? Nobody here's sleeping outside? Some people do. There's places in this world where people are living on the street. There's people in this country that live on the street. Most of those people buy their own design, but, you know, I mean, there's people that I'm sure hit a bad luck streak or whatever. They're just, something's going on in their life where they are homeless, but in America, we have the most blessed nation on the planet. There's really no reason, besides maybe mental issues, severe drug addiction, why they should be on the street. So, but anyway, there's other places where, you know, they're really poor. When we went to the Philippines, and there's little kids following you around, begging you for money, and you see just how poor they are, my wife just started crying. Like, she couldn't even, she was just like, should I give them this 20 bucks? I was like, yeah, if you wanna get them killed. I mean, as soon as you share a $20 bill and all those other kids see you, hand a $20 bill to some other kid, I mean, they'll kill you for it. $20 is a lot of money to them. So, you know, I mean, if you wanna give them some money on the sly or something, but like, there was a whole pack of kids there. I was like, yeah, don't do that. So, I mean, of course we wanna help people, but, I mean, I don't think it's a good idea to just be throwing out money to people. I mean, in some countries they'll kill you for a $20 bill. So, but we just don't realize how blessed we are sometimes and we should really be thankful to God for the things that we have because we don't really realize sometimes how good we have it. But that, you know, the carnal blessings we have in our life, the roof over our head, the food on the table, clothes on our back, steady work, a way to travel back and forth. Some of us have two chariots, or three, you know? Some of us have three that are broken down, but hey, we still got them. We can fix them up, you know? But, you know, I mean, I had car trouble last year, like all year long. It was just annoying. But, you know, I still had one running at least the whole time, so it wasn't that bad. I mean, I'm complaining. I could have nothing. I could be riding the bus, which is the worst thing ever. But I guess it's not worse than walking. So, I guess it's not the worst thing ever. It's not worse than probably riding a horse or whatever, but I don't like horses. But I'll learn to love them in heaven, I know that. Snowball will be my friend. Anyway, let's look at verse three. It says, and he dealt to every one of Israel, both man and woman, to every one a loaf of bread, a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine. So, everyone means everyone, Calvinists. It means everyone got something. I mean, that's a pretty hearty meal, right? But he says skip the veggies, let's just do the carnivore diet. But no, he didn't. He said bread too. And by the way, bread is okay, everybody. You're like, oh yeah, back then it was good. Back then it didn't have, you know, just stop. Bread is, I understand there's bad bread and good bread, but don't be ridiculous. All right, you're like, yeah, Pastor Thompson, you probably eat a lot of bread. Hey, I really don't, but I had some sourdough bread today. That's pretty good. But anyway, I'm not gonna get on that. But what's he doing? He's already blessed them spiritually. He's helped them get right with God and made peace with God. He helped them get right with their sins. And then now he's blessing them with something nutritious to eat. A good piece of flesh. I mean, in 1 Samuel, it's talking about how the alternative verses to this is saying every six steps they're sacrificing a beast. So there's probably a lot of meat to go around. They're just like chopping off pieces. Here you go, you want the ribeye? Yeah, sure. I mean, there's plenty of food that says a good piece of flesh. It's not like they're giving them the eyeballs, which some people would probably like that, but the tongue or whatever. But they're giving them good pieces. So they're basically giving them enough for at least a day's worth or a couple days. Some people could get maybe a week's worth out of all that. But a flagon of wine is about two liters. So it's like having a two liter of Coke or something. And this is not alcoholic wine. This is just grape juice or whatever. Wine, depending on its color, David's not gonna be like, here you guys go, here, let's all get wasted. Here's two liters of wine for each person. Get real, that's not what it is. But let's turn to Proverbs chapter 30, verse number eight. Proverbs chapter 30, verse number eight. We get a lot of blessings in this world, and we shouldn't get too crazy with trying to seek after riches. And as a Christian, one thing that I just never have cared about is being rich. And it's just never been something that drove me when my kids were little. I didn't work overtime. I didn't take big upgrades as boss. I had a chance to be a supervisor one time that would've required me to work nights. And I was just like, I turned it down because I didn't want to miss out on my kids' life growing up, and that's exactly what that would've done. That's exactly what would've happened. And to me, it's more important to spend time with my kids and watch them grow up instead of being at cats in the cradle and the silver spoon, dad, little boy, Lou and the man in the moon or whatever. When you're coming home, son, I don't know when, but we'll get together then, then you just never see your kids because you're always working nights or you're always working overtime. I refused overtime. I refused to work nights. I mean, unless I had to. Sometimes I had to, but most of the time I didn't. But the seeking after riches, the seeking after, if you have to work to make the ends meet, I understand that, but if we're just laboring to get rich and get ahead so we can buy our next quad or our next boat that's gonna sit in your yard and rust that you're gonna take out for a couple summers and you're gonna realize how expensive it is and how annoying it is to maintain and how expensive it is to keep at some dock on Garibaldi or whatever, it's expensive and annoying and you're paying all these thousands of dollars for something you're just gonna stop using. And yeah, you can say whatever you want, but you know you're gonna stop using it just like everybody else does and they have that boat sitting there. It looks like crap in their yard. Anyway, look at Proverbs 30 verse eight. It says, remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me. Lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain? What are these verses teaching? Well, give me neither poverty nor riches. You don't wanna be super poor, but you also don't wanna be super rich. What's that saying? Well, the middle income is probably something you should shoot for. And we were pretty poor when the kids were young. And we did a lot of hand-me-downs and we ate very frugally. We didn't have a lot of money, but we always had a roof over our head, food on the table, clothes on their back, and we went to church. And so that was just how we lived our life. I coached the kids' sports so I could avoid them playing on Wednesday nights, practicing on Wednesday nights, playing on Sundays, any games. So I just made sure that I was in control. I was the benevolent dictator of the sports teams. Every once in a while I'd have to skip a Wednesday because there are mandatory practices or something by the league, but that was very rare. And I really hated it. But most of the time I was in complete control, didn't have to do any of that stuff. And I coached them all the way till they went to high school. And then once the last one was in high school, then I couldn't coach them anymore. But there's ways you can live without, yeah, I'd rather be poor and happy than to have a whole bunch of money and never see my kids. That was just my philosophy. And that is a Christian way to think about things. I mean, yeah, it's tough, but obviously I could have had a better job, but I already screwed that up before. So I was kind of where I was at. But look at 1 Timothy chapter six, verse six. 1 Timothy chapter six, verse six. While you're turning there, I'm gonna read Hebrews 13 five. Hebrews 13 five says, Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And we should be, it says let your conversation, your lifestyle, the way you live your life be without covetousness. That should not be the way that we live our life as Christians where we're just always wanting the next best thing and thinking about the things that we don't have and coveting and just wanting things that we shouldn't want and wanting things that we don't need. It says, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. We got everything. If you have everything you need, then why are you wanting more? It just leads to a road of destruction. Look at 1 Timothy chapter six, verse six. It says, But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it's certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. The Bible warns us not to just be so big on trying to get all this great gain. As a matter of fact, it says we that will be rich will fall into temptations. You know, it's a snare unto us. It's gonna bring foolish and hurtful lust our way, and it's gonna bring us to a place where we're into destruction and perdition. And it says that we're erring from the faith when we have that mentality of wanting to be rich. And look, if you're rich, I'm not saying you're bad because you're rich. I'm just saying that to want to be rich, to just be driven by being rich, that's the mentality I'm talking about. Some people just get rich or they worked hard and just riches happen to them. God bless them. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, but this is talking about the mentality that I just have to be rich no matter what, no matter what happens. That's a bad mentality. Luke chapter 12, verse 15 says, And he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. The things that we have, Jesus said, take heed, beware of being covetous. Sometimes we don't necessarily realize that we're doing it when we're being that way, but we should beware of that because Jesus said to beware of it. He just told us to beware of covetousness. And look, Christmas is right around the corner and everybody's wanting presents. All the kids are wanting, I want this. And we even ask them, hey, what do you want for Christmas? He's like, I want this, I want this, I want whatever kids want these days. What do you want? Electronics, screens, scooters, bikes? I don't know, kids, what do you want? What do you want, Jack? What are you asking for for Christmas? Is it okay for him to answer? What do you want, Jack? I was gonna ask for more rector set. A rector set, I see, there's nothing wrong with that. What do you want, Paul? Camera. You want a camera? Yeah. Who wants a camera? My grandpa's already fixing mine. Oh, he's fixing it? Zeke? He doesn't wanna answer, Gabe? A puppy. That's a big ask. That's a big responsibility, buddy. Anybody else? I want a bike. A bike? With training wheels or without? Without? Wow, you're ready to go, huh? Are you just gonna have your dad just push you down the street and see if he can go? It's a rubber band glider. A rubber band glider. Is that what it is? Those are some good asks, those aren't too bad, except for the puppy. Yeah? I'm a milk control star that can go fast. Cool. I saw at Costco this remote control that the parents remote controlled, but it's a car that the kids can actually sit in. That would be fun for me. I would love to do that. I'd be taking you on some real fun rides. That's almost like a revenge toy. All the times you didn't listen to me, guess where you're going? We're gonna jump off this. But, look, there's nothing wrong with getting gifts, of course, and the whole, you know, people are like, is it wrong to give gifts on Jesus' birthday or whatever? It's like, no, I mean, he gave gifts to us. He gives us the gift of everlasting life. I don't think there's anything wrong with it at all. I just think that we should be careful about being covetous and being too, let's not get so wrapped up in what we're getting that we forget about what the whole reason for Christmas is. That's all. So, look, it's a blessing to get children. It's a blessing to find a wife. It's a blessing that God gives us all these things. So, David, as a, you know, he's a great leader. He knew that he needed to also install leaders into the music program. You know, and sometimes churches get too crazy with this, but David actually had it down to like a system that he put in place, which was really good. I wish I could just copy his system and figure out, you know, how to make it work, but there's some things in church that's just, sometimes it's just really difficult, and I'm sure that, this was like their full-time job. They had to do it. They didn't have a choice, or they'd get kicked out, or I don't know what would happen to them, but like, they'd probably just get replaced by someone that was actually willing to do the job. These guys got paid for it. You know, they're Levites. So, he just said, this is your job now, Levite. You're a good singer. Oh, okay, I'm gonna put you over here, and then they would just, that's how he organized them, though. Let's look at verse four. It says, and he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord and to record. So, what were they doing? Recording. Well, what does that mean? Well, somebody recorded this stuff in First Chronicles, so I don't know if it's talking about the fact that they're recording what's going on in, or if they're just recording what's going on in the day-to-day lives, or it seems to me it could be talking about the fact that they're recording what's going on in the Book of, you know, and recording it in the Book of Chronicles. They're picking up the pen where somebody else left off, or whatever, but it says, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel. Then it says, Asaph the chief. Asaph the chief, and next to him, Zechariah, and then notice that a little further down, we have Obed-Edom, and he's with the salt trees and harps, and Asaph made a sound with cymbals. But Asaph made a sound with cymbals, so he's organizing the music ministry to do what? They're supposed to minister before the ark of the Lord. And then, yeah, so the music leaders is a biblical thing. It's orderly, it's organized, and David selected the most talented and faithful people. You know, we've had people at this church that were really talented, but sometimes just weren't very faithful, and so they just couldn't really get into the music program as much as I really wanted them to. See, it's not just enough to be talented at something, but you also have to work on that talent and use it for the Lord. And what these guys did is they actually used the things for the Lord. Again, David appointed them, so when he's appointing them, I don't think they had much of a choice. But I mean, obviously, they probably love doing what they did and if you think about Asaph, what does Asaph remind you of? Like, how do you know Asaph from the Bible? He's in Psalms, isn't he? This is a psalm of Asaph, because he actually wrote, he wrote some of the biblical psalms that we have in the Bible. 12, to be exact. He wrote 12 psalms. So, but, so obviously David realized that he had a lot of talent, and he even hands his psalm that he writes later on, he hands it to Asaph and has them all play it all out while he sings that psalm to everybody. They all play this psalm in front of the whole congregation of Israel later on. But you can have all the talent in the world, but if you're not faithful, then how's God gonna be able to use you with that talent? So, I think Brother Sean was saying a little bit about that on Sunday, that sometimes you just need to step up. If you have a talent, then use it. If you have a musical gift, then step up and use it, because music is really actually a pretty important part of church for the Lord. I'm thankful for the people that we have here that actually use their musical talents here, and they're people whose parents bring them here to play music. We've had a lot of musical talent here, but we've also had people that I knew were talented in music and didn't use it at all. I just always wondered, why don't they use it? And I don't know what the reason was, but some people just will not use their talent for the Lord, but it's just like I've talked about it before with sports. Some people have the most talented, they have the physical talents, and they just never use it. That's just, it's sad that people don't use the talents that they actually have. So, in, let's see. Turn back a page to 1 Chronicles 15, 17. Because He-Man was the one that's supposed to be the one that's mainly in charge, but David, so the Levites appoint He-Man to be over the music, because he was the master of the universe, no, I'm just kidding, but they put He-Man there, but David, remember, David is the one that appoints Asaph. He appointed the certain of the Levites, if you saw in verse four, but it says in verse 17, in chapter 15, it says, So the Levites appointed He-Man the son of Joel, and his brethren Asaph the son of Barachiah, and the sons of Merari their brethren Ethan, and the son of Cushiah. So, David specifically picks Asaph to be the chief, if you flip back to verse five, Asaph the chief. So, I mean, I think that He-Man was really kind of above him in position, but David picked Asaph to be the chief of the singers, and also he made a sound with the cymbals, and probably because he had more talent musically, is probably why he's doing this, and, you know, David's the king, so he's probably gonna pick the most talented person, and he obviously, as far as faithfulness, it seems like they both were faithful guys, but He-Man probably wasn't as good of a singer. That's just my guess at it, I don't understand why he did it, but obviously nobody's challenging him on it, and look at First Chronicles chapter six, First Chronicles chapter six. It says in First Chronicles chapter six, verse 31, it says, and these are they whom David set over the service of Song in the house of the Lord after the ark had rest, and they ministered before the dwelling place of the tabernacle of the congregation with singing until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and then they waited on their office according to their order. These are they that waited with their children of the sons of the Kohathites, He-Man a singer, the son of Joel, and the son of Shemuel. Skip down to verse 39, it says, and his brother Asaph who stood on his right hand, even Asaph the son of Barakiah, the son of Shemiiah. So, I mean, again, He-Man was over him, but when it comes to the chapter that we're in now, he says that Asaph is the chief. So, as far as like rank, he's the older brother, that's why he's at his right hand. But personal talent, again, is probably, and the fact that he, you know, obviously we don't know any Psalms of He-Man, there's no songs of He-Man written in the Bible, but there's 12 Psalms of Asaph, so that's probably why. And he wrote Psalm 50, Psalm 73 through 83, and that includes Psalm 81, which is a Psalm that we sing in our church from time to time. We need to get back to the Psalms, guys. Psalm 81, which is a really famous Psalm that we sing in our church. So, talent plus faithfulness equals success. Now, number two tonight, David writes a Psalms, David writes a Psalms, yeah, there's an S at the end, but it's just singular too. So, verse number seven, it says, then on that day David delivered first this Psalm, see how it's singular there? To thank the Lord at the hand of Asaph and his brethren. So, into the hand of Asaph and his brethren, excuse me. So, he first, so he delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and to his brethren. So, he gives him what he wrote up, and it says it's this Psalm. And David, of course, is known as the sweet Psalmist of Israel, writing many Psalms in the Bible, and probably many that did not make it into canon, just like Solomon wrote, I think it says in Proverbs that he wrote like 1,000 Psalms, or in 1 Kings, I think it says that he wrote 1,000 Psalms or something like that. He wrote a lot, but I don't know of any that made it into the Psalm book for sure, I'm not 100% sure about that. But it's really interesting, now it's gonna go through the Psalm that David sang to the church, the congregation here, and what's interesting about it is it's not, is that these, some of these are going to coincide with different Psalms that we have in our Bible. So, look at verse number seven, or excuse me, verse number eight. So, verses number eight through 22 here are found in Psalm 105, verses one through 15. So, verse, so is this one Psalm? It is, but he's going to use different Psalms from the Bible and make it into one Psalm, and he hands it to Asaph to sing at this special occasion. What is it for? To thank the Lord, that's what the Psalm is about. So, verse number eight says, give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people, sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name, let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually, remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth. So, he starts off with this, these first verses, and what is it about? Thanking the Lord, and singing unto him. It's important to him, to God, that we sing unto him, and sing Psalms, the Psalms are talking about the actual Psalms that are in this book. There's a song book in the Bible called Psalms, and these are inspired Psalms that are scripture that were written by various different men, David being one of them. And so, these songs are to be sung to the Lord, we're supposed to sing them in church, even in the New Testament, the Bible says this, and it says, talk ye of his wondrous works. The Bible repeats this, in Deuteronomy it says we're supposed to talk about it while we're in the way, when we wake up in the morning, when we go to bed at night, we're supposed to teach them to our children, we're supposed to talk about the great things that he's done, and it says, glory ye in his holy name. Do we do that though? Is that something that we do on a regular basis? Do we let our heart of them rejoice and seek the Lord? It says, seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually. I'm afraid that sometimes we probably seek our own strength and we seek the things that we wanna seek continually instead of seeking his face continually. See, when we're thinking about God, when we're meditating upon him, when we're trying to get our strength from him instead of our own strength, somehow from a gym or from some pill or some other source than God, then we're not gonna get that strength that we can get from God. God can give us strength that we can't even realize. The Holy Spirit gives us power. The power of the Holy Spirit is an actual thing, and a lot of times we try to tap into everything else around but we have the Holy Spirit of God in us where we can tap into whatever, we just say, God, fill us with your Holy Spirit, and he says that he will. He says, ask me for knowledge and he'll give it to us. Sometimes I just think that we forget these things. We forget that the Holy Spirit lives with us inside of us and that we can tap into him whenever we want, but we just fail to seek his face. We fail to ask him for strength. We fail to remember the marvelous works that he's done in our life and we act like it just didn't even happen sometimes, but he says, remember his marvelous works that he hath done. You know, he's done a lot of marvelous works in our life. How about salvation? How about all the blessings he's done in our lives? But just the marvelous works that he's done in this book, I mean, we act like it's just, you know, we've seen it so many times, oh yeah, yeah. All the prayer requests he's answered in our church, like it's just nothing. But what's it say? Remember. He wants us to remember them. Every year we do the Lord's Supper to remember the things that Jesus Christ did for us. He wants us to remember the marvelous works that he's done, the wonders and the judgment of his mouth. It says, oh ye seed of Israel, his servants, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Be mindful always of his covenant. The word which he commanded to a thousand generations. This is really interesting because his covenant that he's given, did the Old Testament go to a thousand generations, do you think? I don't think it did. Look what it says in verse 16. Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham and of his oath unto Isaac. Is that talking about the Old Testament? I don't think it is. This is, remember this is David. He put this song together. This is still from that first Psalm. It says, and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law and to Israel for an everlasting covenant. Was the Old Testament an everlasting covenant? No. It's not. Because the Old Testament is dead and buried. It's done. Like disco. It's out of style. It's gone. And I'm glad disco's out of style because it was really gay. But the bell bottoms, so glad that's out. It's never coming back. Not with me. It was still kind of, you know, I remember there's some pictures of me and I had some bell bottoms on. I don't know how those still survived in the 80s but they were still alive and kicking somehow. Can't believe my mom put me in them. I'm so upset about that. I still have like the, what's the Mikey from the cereal commercial? I had that kind of haircut. Good night. The mushroom haircut or whatever. Oh man. Did you have that too? Yeah, Alex? No? Eli? No, you didn't have the mushroom haircut? Okay. No, I'm gonna ask your mom for some pictures next time I see her. I don't know if I believe you. But, so, I mean, I don't think David's talking about the Old Testament here. I think he's talking about the everlasting covenant which is the covenant that will never end because it's the covenant that Jesus Christ put into place. Now, he confirmed the same to Jacob for a law and to Israel for an everlasting covenant. So, an everlasting covenant is talking about the covenant that's everlasting. That's the blood-bought covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Saying unto thee, while I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance, when you were but few, even a few and strangers in it, and when they went from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, he reproved kings for their sakes. So, this is talking about when Abraham, of course, went to the Philistine kings and he was pretending to be sisters with his wife Sarah and, of course, they were really brother and sister but they were halfs or whatever. So, he wasn't technically lying but he kinda was and then he got, you know, he tried to take Sarah and apparently even old, she was really beautiful or something, but, anyway, he took her and then God was like, you're a dead man, give back his wife and then he reproved, I mean, he did lightly reprove Sarah at the end but God was just like, you better be very careful how you proceed from here on out because you're gonna die. So, but he said, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. So, I mean, people tried to mess around with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but all those Philistines, they really never, like, they would try to do stuff and then God would reprove them, he would stop them from doing stuff. They were fighting with Isaac over his wells and then eventually they came and simped out and tried to make a deal with Isaac even though they'd fought with him over his wells many times and then same with Jacob, I mean, Jacob's sons killed a whole town of people, basically, and took all their women, their wives as slaves and all their children and took all their animals and then God, just to help Jacob out, didn't allow them to chase after them and kill them but it wasn't for the boys' sake necessarily but he didn't allow them to do that but he feels the same way today about us and anybody that does touch his anointed, I'm not saying that he's not gonna allow people, like Pharaoh did harm his people. There's been people down through time that have harmed his prophets and did his people harm because let me just tell you something today, if you're in the New Testament today, you're one of his anointed. We all have an unction from the Holy One. You know, we're all saved. We all have the Holy Spirit, we're all anointed and God does not want people touching his anointed and doing his prophets harm even today so when people do mess with God's people, they got judgment coming to them. Now, obviously, we want people to be saved that are doing these things out of ignorance and unbelief. Sometimes, an unbeliever will mess with a believer and that person can be saved. I don't want that person to be harmed. I don't want that person to have something done to them. I want that person to get saved but the evil, wicked sons of Belial, that's another story and they got judgment coming to them no matter what they do and maybe we won't see it in this lifetime but there's one day there's a recompense coming to them that they're not gonna be able to escape and that's why when the children of God that are up at the altar that were beheaded because of the antichrist and all these people that were beheaded, they're saying, how long, Lord, until you take vengeance for us? And they want vengeance because of the way that they were treated and the Bible doesn't say there's anything wrong with that but they're asking God how long till he takes vengeance. See, God's the one that's gonna take vengeance and he's not gonna allow people to get away with the things that they do to us on this earth but anyway, the covenant David's talking about here with Abraham, the oath to Isaac, talking about with Jacob, that was before the law was put into place. He's talking about the everlasting covenant with, the everlasting covenant is to, go ahead and turn to Genesis chapter 17, Genesis chapter 17. Because he does make an everlasting covenant with Abraham and you're like, well, how does that work? Well, it's because it's the covenant of faith. Abraham's the father of the faithful. Look at Genesis 17 verse six, it says, and I'll make thee exceeding fruitful and I'll make nations of thee and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and I will be their God and God said unto Abraham, thou shall keep my covenant, therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. Notice that it keeps saying thy, thou, those are singular terms, aren't they? And it says everlasting covenant, thy seed, seed is not a plural term, it's a singular term, isn't it? Now go over to Galatians chapter three, verse 16, Galatians chapter three, verse 16. I was like, why is David in the Old Testament talking about an everlasting covenant? Why is he talking about a covenant that they're not in right now? Because it's a better covenant, because David represents Christ, because David represents the Lord Jesus and he's talking about a better testament, a better covenant. Look at Galatians 3, 16, it says, now to Abraham and his seed, where the promise is made, he saith not unto seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. So in Genesis chapter 17, he's saying to thy seed, he's not talking about his children necessarily, is he? He's talking about Christ, isn't he? And so all these people, they're like, yeah, you just don't love the children of Israel and all this other stuff. It's not talking about the children of Israel. It's talking about the seed, which is Christ. Isn't that what it says? See, the New Testament sheds light on the Old Testament, all those verses I just read to you. The Bible's telling us, Paul is telling us, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that he was saying to Abraham and his seed. Remember how it kept saying, thou, thy? The promise was to Abraham and his seed, which is Christ. His descendant was Christ. Kings are gonna come out of him. All the nations of the earth will be blessed because of him and it's because one of his descendants is Christ, who's gonna bless all the world. And anybody that believes in him, look at verse 17. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God and Christ, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. See, the law came 430 years after he promised this to Abraham. Now look at verse 18. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more a promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore, then, serveth the law. What's the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions. Till the seed should come. The seed to whom the promise was made. And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Skip down to verse 29, it says, and if ye be Christ, so if you're Christ, if you belong to Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So we are Abraham's seed if we're in Christ. And that's what David is talking about in this passage. So he's not talking about the law, the Jews. We're the Jews, we're the chosen people. That's what it's saying, this is what Paul's talking about here. People are just so weird about this stuff. It's almost like they just have complete blinders on when they read the scriptures. They can't understand, they're like, yeah, but the Jews are still, what are you talking about? We're the chosen people. Anybody that's saved is the chosen people. If they're a Jew, then they're the chosen people if they believe in Christ. Whatever ethnicity you are, why does it have to come down to ethnicity? All this racist garbage. We're all one in Christ Jesus. Whether we're Jew or Greek, bond or free, male or female, we're all one in Christ Jesus. And no, it's not talking about we're all, yeah, anyway, I'm not getting into that. So verses 23 in our text through verses 29, or excuse me, verse 33, are found in Psalm chapter 96, 1B through 13A. So there's a couple things that David clipped out of Psalm chapter 96. He clipped out the first portion of the first verse in Psalm chapter 96, and then he clipped out the first portion of verse 13, and only added the last part of verse 13 in Psalm chapter 96. So you can check all this later if you want to, and see what I'm talking about. But then he's talking about singing unto the Lord. So it's like he's changing the melody of the song when he switches to this portion of his psalm that he hands to Asaph. It says, sing unto the Lord all the earth, show forth from day to day his salvation. So is it the whole earth's responsibility to sing unto the Lord? To show, that's what it says, right? Sing unto the Lord all the earth. But it's God's people's special designation to sing to, I mean, does all the earth sing to the Lord? No, they don't. But they're supposed to. It says, show forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen, his marvelous works among all nations. I mean, I think he's talking about soul-willing here, proclaiming the word of God, making sure that everybody knows that God is the one that gives salvation. It says, declare his glory among the heathen, his marvelous works among the nations, for great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above all gods. And it's like, is there other gods then? No, because look at verse 26. For all the gods of the people are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. So there is no other gods, they're idols. Devils are attached to those, they're demons. Glory and honor in his presence, strength and gladness are in his place. Give unto the Lord, you kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord, glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Now, so we're supposed to give the Lord the glory due his name. And there's not enough that we could say about him, obviously, but it says to bring an offering. Well, obviously in the New Testament we don't bring offerings like that, but we're supposed to make our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. Of course, in Romans 12 one, our life is supposed to be a living sacrifice, basically. The way that we live our life is supposed to be in service to him. And it says, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. What does that mean? Well, God, it's basically like saying to worship him in his set apartness. God is set apart from us. God is holy. We're supposed to be holy because God is holy. He says, be holy, for I am holy. But can we ever attain to that on this earth? Not until we get our glorified bodies, but we should try. But it says, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. So, God is holy, though. God is worthy. And we're to worship him in the beauty of holiness, and he is set apart, he is holy, and we should just be in awe of that. And remember that he's just not some guy in the sky. He's not our bro. We should have some respect when we talk about God. We should have respect when we talk about him, when we talk to him. You know, there's people that just, it drives me crazy when people just talk about him nonchalantly and just act like he's their buddy that they just go and hang out with or something. He is our friend, I get that, but he still should have some respect. Don't talk about him like he's your surfing buddy or something. But verse 30 says, fear before him, all the earth. The world also shall be stable that it be not moved. Now, this is a famous Flat Earther verse. They love to use this verse to, see, it's stable, it shall not be moved. Like, in the context of all that's going on here, that's not what this verse is talking about. Like, oh yeah, by the way, the earth is flat. That's not what this is talking about, guys. So it says, let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let men say among the nations, the Lord reigneth. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the woods sing out in the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth. And obviously I think that that's talking about him literally coming to judge the earth, the wickedness of the earth, but he's talking about also that all the earth, the earth shall be stable that it be not moved, but fear before him all the earth. It's all the earth's responsibility to fear before God, but do all people fear before him? No, but it's their responsibility, isn't it? God wants all men everywhere to repent, and it's not talking about repenting of your sins, it's talking about getting saved. It's a commandment to get saved. Now just because it's a commandment to get saved, people still won't do it, though. If they don't do it, they're just gonna go to hell, but it's still a commandment nonetheless. But it says, let the heavens be glad. Let the earth rejoice. Let men say among the nations, the Lord reigneth. So, obviously, the whole earth is responsible for that, but we, as God's people, should be doing it. And it says, let the sea roar in the fullness thereof. What is it talking about? You know, not just the waves that crack on the rocks and the waves that roar, but all the things that are inside the ocean, right? Let the fields rejoice, and what's in the field? Animals, beasts of the field, right? And then the trees of the woods sing out in the presence of the Lord. What lives in trees? Animals, creatures, right? And it reminds me of Romans chapter eight. Go ahead and turn to Romans chapter eight real quick, because the Bible talks about this reckoning that's gonna happen. You know, when God, when we get our glorified bodies, things are gonna change for the whole earth. When the millennial reign of Christ happens, the earth is gonna change, not just for us, but for all the creatures that live on this earth, for all the plant life, for everything. This whole earth is gonna change completely, and it's gonna go and be restored to the former things. And there's still gonna be some sin left. There's still gonna be people that are born sinners until the thousand years is up, and then the devil's gonna come out of his, you know, and do one last trash collection, then God's gonna rain fire on them, and then everything's gonna be great for all eternity. But, Romans chapter eight, it says in verse 18, it says, for I reckon, see, Paul was from Texas, it says that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. What is that talking about? Well, we'll read on here. It says, for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. So once we get our bodies, our glorified bodies, and God comes back and makes everything right, the creature itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption. What, that animals die, that animals eat each other, that animals kill. I mean, most of the animal world is in fear of predators every single day. We have this cat that kills all the bunny rabbits in our neighborhood, and it's a horrific sound. It's just, it's horrible. And I hate that cat, just because the bunny has, like, these bunnies have refuge in our yard, they'll just be like back there, and then this cat from a couple doors down comes and eats them for no reason. Anyway, it's an evil cat. His name is, I don't know what his, Azazel or something, no. I just, I mean, it's not like I'm just some rabbit lover or something, but like the horrific noises they make when they die, it's just, it's bad. And it goes on for a long time. Anyway, let's move on. But it says, verse 22, sorry to leave that in your heads there, kid. But Romans 8, 22, for we know that the whole creature groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also. Yeah, I groan too. Sometimes I just want it to be over. Which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. Amen. The older you get, the more pain you get into, the more of a pain it is to live this life. I'm not saying I just want, don't, if I die, I didn't kill myself, okay? Just, somebody killed me. Somebody murdered me. Don't, remember that sermon he preached? He just wanted to die? See, that, no, that's, I'm not saying that. Just saying that sometimes it'd be easier to be in heaven. You know what I mean? But it just, but the Bible's saying here that everything in this world is waiting for that redemption. All the animals, all the creatures. And I feel like this is what David, he's like saying, hey, these creatures are, they want the Lord to come back. And David is basically saying here that let the heavens be glad. Let the earth rejoice. Let the seas roar. All this world is waiting for that same redemption that we are. And he's saying, hey, let the earth worship me also. Because, and it's kind of, it's our fault. It's Adam and Eve's fault that the whole world is like this. But one day, they know it's not God's fault. I don't know how they communicate with God, but they do. Jesus said even the rocks would cry out if they, on the day when he came in, and everybody's putting the branches in front of him, and everybody's saying Hosanna. And they said, master, make your disciples quit or whatever. And he's like, hey, if I had made them stop, even the rocks would cry out. How do you explain that? I don't even know what that means. Like the rocks would just be like, Hosanna! I don't know, I don't know how to explain that. But that's what the Bible says. They'd be like knocking against each other or something. I don't know. I don't know. That's what the Bible says, though. So, okay, let's move on. So verses 34 to 36 is found in Psalm chapter 106, verse 1, verse 47, and verse 48. So that Psalm is really long, but these three verses are only found in verse 1, verse 47, verse 48. So verses 34 through, so I hope I'm not confusing you here. Anyway, it says, oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever, and say he save us, O God, of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise. I kind of feel like he's alluding to the rapture here. I did look at a couple commentaries about what people thought, and they're like, yeah, they just had no clue what this is talking about. And I'm just like, well, to me, it just jumped out. You know, when we are gathered together, this is, I mean, I believe it's talking about the rapture. When it says save us, O God, of our salvation, gather us together, deliver us from the heathen. You know, I mean, obviously, it could be talking about modern time, but right now they're gathered together when they're all singing the song, right? So, anyway, it says bless be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever, and all the people said amen, and praise the Lord. So David writes this song, but we need to remember, you know, I think, to wake up thinking and thanking God, because it should be the first thing that we think about when we wake up, and it should be the last thing that we think about when we go to bed, and asking him to fill us with this spirit, praying for our brethren. You know, I'm sure it's safe to say, and I'm sure that we don't always do this, but the Bible says to trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. If we wake up thinking about that, and thinking that, hey, if we just think about the Lord, we trust the Lord. We don't lead to our own understandings. We don't make our decision based upon our own logic. We're like, hey, what will God want us to do here? And instead of trusting in our own selves, we trust in what God wants us to do. In all of our ways acknowledge him. Acknowledge him when you wake up. Acknowledge him before you eat food. Acknowledge him before you make a big decision. And he's gonna direct your paths. As long as you're living your life in those ways, he is gonna direct you. He's not gonna let you falter. He's not gonna let you ruin yourself. Jesus said in Matthew 6, 33, he said, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Why do we have to worry about anything in our lives really if we're seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? All the things that we fret and worry about all the time, they'll be already added unto us. We're not gonna have to worry about eating and having a place to live and having a job and having clothes and all these things that people just fret about. I don't know how we're gonna do this. Seek the kingdom of God first instead of fretting about everything. Because we are a fretting type of people. We worry about everything. Instead of just worrying about everything, we should just trust God with everything instead. And look, hey, I'm not immune to this. I get wrapped up sometimes and just stop. I don't think about things sometimes. I think about how I would logic things out. I'm not perfect. I don't claim to be. But to wake up in the morning and the first thing you think is like, good morning, Lord, thank you. Thank you for letting me live another day. Because you could die in the middle of the night. Don't get that chance to say good morning. Same. So why is the Psalm split up into different little sections? Well, again, I think my personal opinion is that it's gathered from all these multiple psalms as like a special event psalm drawn from the combination of the others. Have you, I'm sure you've probably seen music where somebody has their greatest hits or whatever at a concert or something when you were heathens. And they play their greatest songs but they play them back to back and they don't skip. You know what I'm talking about? They'll just play and then they'll just go right into the next song or whatever. Yeah, medley. And so I think that David is doing the same thing. He's just taking from, he probably just took some of those psalms and crammed them together from whatever and then he just handed that to Asaph as one psalm, as this special event. Because why else would it be chopped up in the Bible like that? It's probably because he had already written those psalms and he was just like, hey, I'm gonna take the best, the ones I like. And it's interesting, these psalms specifically are called orphan psalms because they're not attributed to anybody. You notice how you'll have in your Bible, I'll have a header and it'll say the psalm of David when he ran from Saul or whatever. Those aren't necessarily inspired, but they are really old in the Masoretic text. But you know what I'm talking about, the headers before the psalms? But these specific ones are called orphan psalms because they have no header. It doesn't say who wrote them, but we know who wrote them because it says David wrote them. And all you have to do is correspond to the psalms that they're taken from. And somebody else did the work for me. I just looked it up, I was like, oh, that's cool. I just looked it up and just put it all together for you. So that's how I feel. I don't feel like he wrote this psalm as one psalm and then broke it up. That doesn't really make sense to me. Just knowing how musicians think and how they, I'm not a musician myself, but I do realize how musicians do things. And like you said, medley, right? And that's basically what he did. So anyway, so last thing here. I know I gotta hurry up here. Verse 37, it says, so when they were, so when they worshiped before the ark, so I wanted to kinda just mention this thing about the two priests. Why are they separated? I told you I was gonna explain that. So it says, so they left, so he left there before the ark and the covenant of the Lord, Asaph and his brethren to minister before the ark continually as every day's works required. And Obed-Edom with their brethren. And then it says, Zadok the priest and his brethren the priest, verse 39, before the tabernacle of the Lord and the high place that was at Gibeon. So Gibeon is not Jerusalem, right? So just stay with me for just, I'm almost done, I promise. So Gibeon is not Jerusalem, but why is this ark of the covenant, why is it moved away from the tabernacle? I was like, why, why? I had to figure this out before I came to church. But the reason why is because David, again, he's making this his central place of worship. And Abiathar, doesn't mention Abiathar here, but he's the one that David inquires of. He's the one that has the special vestments with the erm and the thumen and all that stuff, and he inquires with the ephod, remember he's wearing the ephod when he comes up to the ark of the covenant in the last chapter, right? So he's there before the ark of the covenant. He cannot inquire of the ark of the, he can't inquire of the priest without the ark of the covenant being there. So he has to stay there, and then the sacrifices have to be done at the tabernacle at the high place in Gibeah. So it says, to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord, verse 40, upon the altar of the burnt offering, continually, morning and evening, to do according to all that's written in the law of the Lord, which he commanded Israel. So, why is David allowed to do this? Because isn't that where the ark of the covenant is supposed to be, in the tabernacle? Isn't that what the Bible says? Well, turn to Psalm chapter 78, this will be the last place to have you turn, and then we'll be done, okay? So, why was David allowed to do this? And this Psalm explains why David was able to do this, because I was just like, why is David allowed to just take the ark and take it to Jerusalem without any explanation why? Because I need to know why. I don't know if you're like that at all, but I need to know why he's allowed to do this, because it just doesn't make sense to me. Psalm 78, verse 58, it says, for they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel, so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men, talking about the tabernacle. Verse 61, and delivered the strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand. What's he talking about? He's talking about the ark. Remember, he delivered it into the hand of the Philistines. He gave his people over also unto the sword, and was wroth with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation. Then the Lord awakened out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine, he smote his enemies in the hinder parts. What does that mean? The emerods, remember, put the H in front of it? He put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and he chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of who? Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved. So where did he take the ark to? He took it to Jerusalem, to Mount Zion, right? And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he had established forever. He chose David also, his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds, from following the ewes. Great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance, so he fed them according to his integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. God allowed him to take the ark, and take it to Jerusalem, because he knew that that's exactly where he was gonna move everything anyway. So he allowed him to take the ark, and not the tabernacle, and then when he built, then what happened next? Well, it's a precursor to what happens next. After David dies, his son builds the temple there, in Jerusalem, because they're not roaming around anymore. God's preparing them to be established in Jerusalem. They're not roaming around in the wilderness with a tent anymore. They're now established in Jerusalem. That's where David's gonna reign from. That's where all of his successors are gonna reign from. God's keeping it there in Jerusalem, and that's where Mount Moriah is. That's where Abraham was gonna sacrifice Isaac. That's where David later on, when the angel of the Lord is killing everybody, he rests at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. That's where David sacrifices the cattle. He buys them from Ornan the Jebusite, and that's where the temple was built at Jerusalem, and that's where it still is today. So anyway, I know I went over time. Sorry about that. It's 40-something. I didn't even get to the last chapter, or the last verses, but we'll do that later. All right, let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this great chapter of the Bible and all that it teaches us, and I pray, Lord, that you would just bless us as we go our separate ways. Pray you'd bring us back to church on Sunday as we celebrate the birth of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray that you'd just bless us, and all those that are sick, and those that are traveling, and pray that you'd bless them and keep them. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen, last song this evening, page 278 in your green, or sorry, blue hymn books. 278 Angels from the Realms of Glory. Page 278. ["Angels from the Realms of Glory"] Angels from the realms of glory, sing out with me. On the first. Angels from the realms of glory, wing your flight o'er all the earth. Ye who sang creation's story now proclaim Messiah's birth. Come and worship, come and worship. Worship Christ, the newborn King. Shepherds in the fields abiding, watching o'er your flocks by night. God with men is now residing, yonder shines the infant light. Come and worship, come and worship. Worship Christ, the newborn King. Sages, leave your contemplations. Brighter visions beam afar. Seek the great desire of nations. Ye have seen his natal star. Come and worship, come and worship. Worship Christ, the newborn King. Saints before the altar bending, watching long in hope and fear. Suddenly the Lord descending in his temple shall appear. Come and worship, come and worship. Worship Christ, the newborn King. Great singing. Thank you for joining us this Thursday evening. Love to see you back here Sunday morning and afternoon. Brother Eli, can you end us with the word of prayer this evening? Thank you. Thank you.