Privileged People Psalm 27 — Hebrews 11

0:00 Hi. Hi, Greg. Hi. I just wanted to let you know my marital status. I married a grandmother.

0:17 And just thought I'd let you know that. J. C. And Kelly had a seven pound, nine ounce, twenty one inch long boy. That's really cool because he looked pretty good.

0:33 I I would tell you if he looked like a chicken or something like that. He looked pretty good. He really did. And he looked like a doll, actually. And when I was holding him, I thought he was faking it, you know, wake up.

0:49 So it was just really cool. I mean, we got a grandson. His name is Matthew John. So I just thought you'd like to know. But I guess Facebook lets you know faster than that, right?

1:03 So it's amazing. I was asked to speak on this passage, and I really appreciate it. It's one of my most favorite psalms. It's Psalm 27, and I appreciate our brother reading it very much so. It was said of a...

1:21 You know, it's just really interesting. A number of years ago, Billy Graham and T. Grady Wilson, his childhood friend, now co minister with Billy Graham, they were at a conference, I'm not sure if it was a crusade or anything. They were coming back to Montreat, North Carolina, and where they lived and where they had the ministry stationed at. And Billy Graham was not feeling so good.

1:54 He was feeling kind of poorly. And so he thought, well, I'm going to do this. T. Grady, you drive. I'll sleep in the back if that's okay.

2:05 And they said, sure, that'd be fine. So he slept, Billy Graham slept in the back, and T. Grady realized he had to get some gas, he stops, you know, after a few hours, he stops at a gas station in the middle of the night somewhere, and gets, starts getting gas, and pumps the gas, and decides that he has to go pay the bill and he goes pays the bill and he comes back and he drives away. Not knowing that Billy Graham had gotten out of the vehicle and went to the restroom and then came back and the car was gone And Tee Grady Wilson was gone. He just, he just, so Billy Graham went to the station attendant, it was in the middle of the night and he says, maybe you could help me, my ride just took off, I left and he says, my name is Billy Graham.

2:56 And he goes, right, right. And maybe he thought he was George Washington or something, I don't know. And I just thought to myself, you know, the privileges that we have as people, and his... You know, our privileged our privileges really don't come from anywhere, that this world could give us. Our privileges come from him.

3:20 And the title of our little message is called Privileged People, And our text is Psalm 27. I'd like us to look however, we're gonna turn with me to Psalm 27. But look first of all, go to the right a whole bunch. Keep your fingers in your, in Psalm 27. But look at Hebrews chapter 11 for just a moment.

3:45 Hebrews chapter 11. When we look at Hebrews chapter 11, we think about this passage in Psalm 27. Some people say that it's David fleeing. It's a Psalm of David. David is fleeing from Absalom and his rebellion.

4:05 Some people say that it was before he ever took the throne. It doesn't quite matter. We really wanted to have it applicable to us. And I'm thinking to myself in terms of our lives, in terms of who we are as human beings and I'd like us to look at, you know, Hebrews chapter 11 is that passage, it's called the hall of faith. It's the chapter of faith, isn't that right?

4:31 And so you have all these different individuals who trust God, who have trusted God. You got Noah, you got Abraham, you've got Moses' parents, you've got Moses. I mean, all these different individuals. And what I like, what I really enjoy is when it talks about, it says in verse 32, look at verse 32, and what shall I more say? For the time fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephth, of David, and of Samuel, and of the prophets.

5:03 So David is mentioned in here in terms of the hall of faith and trusting God, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness was made strong. Does that resonate with you? Out of weakness was made strong. Feel weak? Well, there's strength.

5:25 Out of weakness was made strong. Became valiant in fight. Turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting the deliverance that might obtain a better resurrection, and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourging, a moreover of bonds and imprisonment. You get the feeling these people, according to this world, are not so privileged, right?

6:00 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tested, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. And then here's the verse, or the phrase, actually, that I'd like us to hone in on. Of whom the world was not worthy. Of whom the world was not worthy.

6:28 The world treated them like the scourging of the earth. But in God's perspective, the world was not worthy of these folks because they trusted God. As I read the scriptures, as I go through the scriptures and I read the scriptures, I get one overarching, two overarching views of it. The first is redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ, and the second is trusting him. Purely trusting him, of whom the world was not worthy.

7:06 A. T. Robertson, the great Greek scholar, US Greek scholar, said this one time about this, of whom the world was not worthy. You see, he said it's a phrase to stir the blood of its readers. I think it's true.

7:24 Of whom the world was not worthy, they trusted God. See, when we trust God, as Paul said to Timothy, his son in the faith, they who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Not a maybe, not a whatever, it's shall suffer persecution. And the way the political climate is taking, which is influencing the cultural climate for sure. It's...

7:59 Well, let me put it this way, it's illegal to speak against homosexuality in Canada. Do you know that? Yep. It's illegal. I don't have a problem.

8:13 I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I have no problem prognosticating down the line that we as Christians would be considered hatemongers for speaking against sin. I don't have any problems with that. And then when we look at this psalm, when we look at this psalm, we realize what a privilege it is for us to be Christians. We're privileged people. What an incredible incredible privilege it is to have our sins forgiven.

9:14 You know, they say, you you Christians, you Christians are... You you lean on Jesus as a crutch. I said, you got it wrong. You have it totally wrong. He's not my crutch.

9:25 I'm a basket case. He has to carry me through. It's not what lameness, I'm gonna be totally dependent on him. Let's look at Psalm 27. Because when we look at this Psalm, it shows us four privileges that God has given to all Christians.

9:44 Four privileges that God has given to all Christians. And what are these privileges? Well this Psalm in verses one through three shows us the privilege of having confidence in him. Confidence in him. And then this psalm shows us the privilege of coming to him, verses four through six.

10:09 Then we'll look at Matthew 11 as well. And then this psalm shows us the privilege, and it is a privilege indeed. It is a privilege of crying to him. We see that in verses seven through 13 and verse 14. This psalm shows us the privilege of courage from him.

10:32 This psalm shows us the privilege of having confidence in him. Notice verse one through three. We see here the confidence in God as our provision, as our provision. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? His provision for you and for me is incredible.

10:58 More than we'll ever, well never, maybe right now, we'll maybe appreciate it better when we're with him. But right now I think sometimes, sometimes, sometimes we think that we can do this ourselves, that we are providing for ourselves, that we are doing things for ourselves and that we are self sufficient and that is a huge mistake by the believers. It's a huge mistake to give, to understand, or to think that we can do this ourselves. I'm talking about just living. I'm talking about making a living, you know, getting money and you know, jobs and all these different things.

11:44 We think that we're really good instead of understanding that it is from the hand of God. The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is my light and my salvation. And then also we look at this in verse one, the Lord is the strength of my life. I like it and I think we've shared this before, but I like it when somebody said to me, and it's a rebuke and it's cutesy and I like it.

12:14 And I want to use it. How you doing? Better than I deserve. We're saying God is his grace is sufficient. His grace is doing all that I need to do.

12:27 It's him that is really orchestrating things. Isn't that true? We're not that clever. We're not that smart. When we compare ourselves to him, we're pretty stupid.

12:39 The King James calls it brutish but the the reality of it is we're stupid. We really are. We we come before god and we just are we have nothing to offer. We have nothing. What can we offer?

12:54 What can we offer an all sufficient, all powerful, all knowing, everywhere at once, God? What can we offer him? The Lord is my light. One of the things that we want to look at in terms of by way of application of this psalm is to take it as if God is speaking to you. Would you do that?

13:24 As if God is speaking to you, the Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is my strength. The sooner we can do this and understand this and not be in our thinking self sufficient. If we think we're self sufficient, we're making a grave, grave mistake. And by the way, you'll find out one thing real quick.

13:55 You'll fail yourself. You'll feel like a huge failure because why? Because you are. We're we're... You know, somebody says, well, you know, why do I why do I feel like such a failure?

14:10 It's because you are a failure. It's God who does this. Now we've got a lot of guys of, you know, industry, captains of industry who think to themselves, we've done this and we've made the iPhone and we've got this and aren't we incredible and isn't this fantastic? But I mean, Stephen Jobs is in eternity somewhere. Gone the way of all flesh, which we will go that way too.

14:38 And so we name our lands, the psalmists later say, we name our lands, we do all these different things, we name cities after ourselves, and we we, you know, boast, but that's not how God looks at it. And a lot of folks are in darkness this very moment who have passed on, and they're not with the Lord, they're in hell. Great individuals who have done great things. And we, from our vantage point, from our vantage point, say wow, that was fantastic, that was stupendous, that is incredible. But it hasn't changed the human heart, it doesn't make the human tongue more civil, It doesn't do anything that really matters.

15:28 How many are sick and tired of the cell phone? Now, the smartphone. Even with some AI, know, artificial intelligence, know, I need some of that. It's God who does this. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

16:05 Scared? I mean, truly. You sit here and you're fearful. You're fearful of what's going to hold into the future. You're scared of what's going to take place.

16:16 You're fearful about a grandson. You're fearful about all these different things. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? I like it when Paul writes to the Romans, he says, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he also with him freely give us all things?

16:44 Isn't God mindful of us? Isn't God knowing all about us? Last time I was here, we talked about Psalm one thirty nine. Where do I go from your presence? Where can I leave?

16:59 And we talked about his omnipresence. And his omnipresence is here in totality. In other words, he's fully here, and he's fully in China, and he's fully in Japan, and he's fully, you know, he's not in Japan, he's not in the bush, that's pantheism. But he is there, he's ever present, in his totality. I like it, that guy who's...

17:24 Who wrote... Whoever wrote to him, what a friend we have in Jesus. We have a friend that will never leave us nor ever forsake us. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?

17:38 The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When I was a kid, my buddy John Gorman did something. I think I shared this with you. I don't know.

17:55 I can't remember. But Gorman came up to me, and John's the toughest kid I've ever known, and I never ever saw him in a fight. Nobody ever wanted to fight John Gorman because he was just tough. We had this kid at... I went to Immaculate Conception grade school in Willoughby, Ohio.

18:15 It's no longer in existence, but I went there as a child. And they had this kid in my grade, in my class, his name was Eddie Dubinsky. Do you know Eddie? Did I tell you about Eddie Dubinsky? I don't recall.

18:33 Oh okay. Do you remember Eddie Dubinsky? That's my cousin. No. Are you serious?

18:41 Eddie Dubinsky is your cousin? Okay, well. Is he safe? Not sure? Everybody was terrified of Eddie Dubinsky.

18:59 Are you serious? Is he my age? Oh my word, this is so weird. Oh man, everybody was terrified of Eddie Dubinsky. He was like the Tasmanian devil.

19:14 I am telling you right now, Eddie Dubinsky was sent home, he had to go home on a medical problem. He ate a leaded pencil. In those days, you had those big fat pencils, know, you'd try to do your name in them, you know, and all those big things. And he ate the whole thing. He just should have maybe had breakfast or something, I don't know.

19:36 Eddie, is he Greek Orthodox? He's Methodist. Maybe it's a different Eddie Dubinsky. I don't know. That's your...

19:48 You busted me. Okay. Anyway, this kid went home because I mean he just was a... I mean he... If he fought you, he'd bite you, he'd gouge your eyes, he'd do the big time wrestling type of stuff on you, he would do anything, I mean he'd gouge you, I mean people were terrified of him.

20:09 I mean the higher grades were terrified, one in the eighth grade, we were in sixth at the time. So I mean, that's Eddie I always knew Eddie Dibinski to be a terrifying individual, always stayed clear, Hi Eddie, how are you? You know, and get away from him. Because he just will look at you and you're going, So Gorman comes up to me, we're in sixth grade, in Sister Carmelita's class, and he comes up to me and he says, hey Chris, I thought John Gorman must have thought he must have been King. He said, I got you a fight.

20:44 I said, you did what? He said, I got you a fight. I said, what are you doing that for? He said, well I just thought you know, I think you need to fight. I said okay, who is it with?

21:03 Eddie Dubinsky. He said we're gonna... Well you know, you can box though. It's just boxing, you know. No gouging of the eyes, no chewing on the ear or anything like that.

21:15 It just... I'm I'm thinking, my word. Oh man. When is it tomorrow? Well, take a sixth grader, knowing he's got to fight Eddie Dobinski and his life might be over, and let him sleep on it.

21:33 Whom shall I fear? There are things that you go through in your life that just terrify you. Of whom shall I be afraid? The Lord is the light of my salvation. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

21:49 Whom shall I fear? The lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? I didn't know the lord. I would have turned the fight down.

22:00 I would have said, John, forget it. It's just, you know, not that I was a wimp or anything, but I am a wimp. But he, you know, when you look at that, I was terrified, absolutely terrified of what was going to take place. How many of us go through that same scenario with different, you know, the terrifying things that get to us? Understand that the Lord is our strength.

22:30 He's the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? So we have confidence in his provision and then also confidence in his protection. Notice verses two and three, so he's the great provider and he's the great protector and he is going to protect. The protection that he provides is absolute. When the wicked, even mine enemies and my phones, came up unto me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

23:03 The host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. I kind of favor the view that this is before he took the throne and maybe maybe Saul was chasing him. Maybe Saul was after him and it was for his life, it wasn't for, I mean you know, this king who is a rogue king going after the man who is going to be king, who has been anointed to be king, who is, you know, has that, he's hiding. He's on one side of the mountain and the encamped on the other side of the mountain.

23:45 You see the encampment, he's got his his scouts out, there was men with him, with David, and they've, they probably knew exactly where Saul was all the time, but it was close. It was close and to be scared that you're going to be impaled by a spear or your arm will be cut off or your head will be cut off by a sword or something like that, knowing that this is a possibility, I think that would have a tendency to make me nervous. How about you? Even if that happened today. I mean, we take the weapons of today, and you know, we say, wow, you know, some guy with a weapon stalking you and going after you, and you know that this is going to take place, and at any moment, your life isn't, you know, you could end, life could be over.

24:32 And what does the psalmist say? What does David say? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came up to eat up my flesh and they stumbled and fell. The host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war should be against me.

24:51 In this will I be confident. What's our confidence? That he could outsmart the enemy? That he was wiser, that he had better weaponry, that he had more men or less men or they were on the move and that they had the, you know, what was it? Some trust in horses and some trust in chariots, but safety is from the Lord.

25:16 So you get a new vehicle or you get something you think is more road worthy and you're going to place your confidence in that, don't do it. Trust in the Lord. So you're strong and you can do a lot of whole bunch of pushups and you're feeling pretty fit and you've got the right diet and everything's going really well and you're feeling strong and all that kind of stuff, don't trust it. Trust in the Lord. This will I be confident.

25:44 Whom shall I fear? He's the great protector. And you moms and dads out there that are worried about your children, don't worry. Trust the Lord. Do the right things.

25:59 Do the things that the scriptures tell us to do in terms of raising those children or even grandchildren. Trust in the Lord however. Let God have it and relax though. Just really relax in the Lord. You got it taken care of, you're taking care of it.

26:47 That's stupid, you know? But when you hold this child, he's all wrapped like the burrito baby, you know? He looked like a burrito, you know? And you got this little little thing like this, he's this big. He's so tiny, and he looks like a doll, you know.

27:04 And I didn't think he was faking sleeping too. And you you hold this kid and you go, he doesn't have a care in the world. Just feed me, change my diaper. Feed me, change my diaper. This is going to be that way until he's older.

27:22 Doesn't care. Doesn't care that... You know, who I am. He's just going to be taken care of. And it's really cool to see a child, to see a little a little baby, you know, even a toddler, you know, just trust in the Lord.

27:37 JC said one time to me when he was little, I still can't believe I even got a son. Now I can't believe he's married, now I can't believe he's got a kid. It's like amazing to me. When he was little, he wanted something, he wanted me to buy something for him. I said, I don't have the money.

27:55 He said, just give him that card, dad. Just give him the... What? What's the problem, pop? Give him the card and let's go.

28:06 You know? No no worries at all. Nothing like that. Just give him the card. And he's relaxed.

28:15 Know, we we say well the guy, you know, he slept like a baby. Well I hope you don't have colic, know. But no worries. No worries whatsoever. And this is exactly what we wanna do.

28:31 This is exactly what it is. The Lord is the the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came up to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise against me, and this will I be confident.

28:53 Do we realize that our confidence should be in him? Do we realize that? As you're preparing, there's two couples here that are preparing to get married, as far as I know. You've got a lot of concerns about the future, what's taking place. Know that he holds the future.

29:19 And you've got parents who are concerned about these couples for the future. Know that he holds the future, that the Lord holds the future. And we've got some elderly folks wondering about the future in terms of how long they're going to be alive. Am I going to beat the curve in terms of life or death or whatever? How am I going to...

29:42 How's this going to be? And what's it going to be like? Will I have enough funds and all that kind of stuff? He holds the future. He holds your purse strings.

29:53 He holds your strength. He's the strength of my life. This it. This is what we must do. This is what we really must do.

30:03 And then this psalm not only shows us the privilege of confidence in him, but also the privilege of coming to him. What an incredible privilege that we get to go and talk to a God who caused it to snow. Now we might say to the Lord, I wish you would just, you know, make an early spring. Make an early spring. But the Lord's provision, right?

30:33 The Lord's provision. Even Florida got snow. The Lord provides for us. The Lord does this and he gives us and we can come to him at any time. The one who said let there be light, we get to go to him and talk to him.

30:54 Face to face in the sense that we get to go into his presence. We have no mediator except the lord Jesus Christ. There's only one mediator between god and man, the man Christ Jesus. When I was raised as a child, though we we could not interpret the Bible apart from the priest, we could not get forgiveness apart from the priest. Well, we have a high priest in the heavens.

31:22 We don't have those priests anymore. They're they're just men. They're just men. They can't forgive my sins but Jesus Christ can. They don't give me, they don't usher me into the presence of god but Jesus Christ does.

31:37 And I come in his name. Boldly before the throne of grace And so I come to him. I have the privilege of coming to him. Look at verses four through six. One thing I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

31:54 To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle he shall hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. Now shall mine head be lifted above mine enemies round about me.

32:17 Therefore, I will offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto unto the Lord. You know, this is so weird. This is not a tabernacle, and this is no sanctuary. Sorry.

32:34 This is an auditorium. You could section this off and make a medical building out of it. You can do that, this is easy. So what is it talking about, we come into the tabernacle, we come into the sanctuary, we come boldly before, what does that mean? I mean, you think about Paul and Silas in a dungeon, the inner dungeon, the inner prison, no running water, probably some Skalag type, you know, dripping, leaky, smelly, I mean, know, they got no bathroom stuff, they don't have flushing stuff, they don't have, it's a bucket.

33:09 For all numbers. And that's exactly what they're doing. I mean, is, it smells bad, it's got the smell of human waste, the smell of human bodies and all that kind of stuff, right? This is it. And what are Paul and Silas doing?

33:27 They're praising God and singing. I would have been whining. Sorry. I would have been. I would have been going, oh man, this is so bad.

33:37 Oh, poor poor me, it smells so bad in here. And where's glade when you need it, you know? And I would have done that, but not them. They they they were singing, and God shook it. This is Acts 16, where we get the famous verse in sixteen thirty one.

33:56 What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Why? Because when they started to sing, all the other prisoners heard this. How can how can this be?

34:10 How can this have such a a joyfulness in their hearts? Because we have the ability as Christians to go boldly before the throne of grace, and it's not a building made with hands, it's right into his presence. At any time. Isn't that fantastic? I don't have to go someplace, I don't have to go and, you know, I don't even have to have body posture, I might, you know, in terms of our hearts, we might do that.

34:41 But we can come boldly before the throne of grace. We can do this when we go home to this afternoon for lunch. We go home and we drive away, we drive away from this meeting, hopefully soon, and we can pray, and we can talk to the Lord. At any time, we can go right into his presence, and he hides us. God hides us.

35:09 So when we're fearful, and we're really upset, and we're really wondering how things are gonna turn out, and what is, you know, I'm scared of this, and I'm scared of that, we come boldly before the throne of grace, and he hides us, and he ministers to us, and he protects us with his wings. Isn't this fantastic? Who can beat this god? Nobody. Nobody can come close.

35:31 Nobody. Islam can't even come close to this. Buddhism can't even come close to this. Nothing. You know, sometimes when you preach in the open air, especially on college campuses, you wonder if somebody's going to be smarter than you and ask you a question that you can't answer.

35:52 Or you'll get some brilliant... Especially if you go, like, to Columbia University or New York University or some of these great schools like U of M or, you know, you're going to get some brilliant person that's going to outpoint you and out intellectualize you and all this kind of stuff. You know, it was really amazing. And that when I first started preaching in the open air, I would think that very thing and be kind of scared until I went. And until I realized how deficient people are in the knowledge of God.

36:28 Our God is a great God. He's far beyond anything else, and there's nobody that can even come close in terms of satisfaction, in terms of what it is. And so we come to him. We have a desire to come to him. We come to him and we say to him, Lord, I desire one thing I desire of the Lord.

37:17 This is not... We can't put stock in this world. You put stock in this world, you're in trouble. This world will fail you miserably. It always changes, isn't that true?

37:28 In fact, the only thing that doesn't change is the fact that everything changes. And then we have the opportunity to worship him, to praise him. I will offer in the tabernacle sacrifices of joy I will sing. And then he says, we have not only the privilege of confidence in him and coming to him and crying to him. Verses seven through 13, hear oh Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me.

38:07 When thou saidest seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face lord will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. I think to myself, you know, this is Old Testament for sure, I think to myself I was talking, I forget who I was speaking with, and we were talking about counseling people. And I've had the honor, I guess, if you could say it that way, of talking to some troubled people, people who are really in trouble, and they're feeling themselves that God has abandoned them and that God is not there, and they're really suffering, and this particular situation is really getting the best of them, etcetera, etcetera, and it's multiple.

38:57 It really starts to multiply. Did you ever talk to people like that? It's hard sometimes. It's hard to talk to them. Variably, I ask this question of those troubled people.

39:11 How's your quiet time? How's your personal quiet time? And invariably, I would say almost a 100%, for those people, nonexistent. They're not letting God speak to their hearts. They're not letting God minister to their hearts on a daily basis.

39:37 We don't do a quiet time folks because it's legalistic. We don't do a quiet time because that's what good Christians do. We do quiet time and we spend time alone with him with his word because we get to know who he is and we seek after him. That's the that's the reason we seek after him. Notice what he says, I I seek I seek you.

40:06 When thou said seek ye my face, he is telling us to seek his face, to behold him, to know him. You know, we talk about asking God for things, you know, when we pray. You ever ask God for things? I do all the time. Lord, can you do this?

40:24 Hey, how about this? I need this money. How about this, Lord? How about that? What do you think?

40:28 And everything by prayer and supplication. That's exactly what he tells us to do. But one of the greatest provisions that God has ever made is himself to us. He is the greatest provision. Do you ever name drop people?

40:49 I know so and so. Oh yeah? I know so and so. Oh yeah? I know this person.

40:58 Really? Well, when I got to meet so and so... Well, here's the ultimate Trump. I know God. He's a friend of mine.

41:10 Do you think that's true for you? Do you think god is a friend of yours? God. I'm not talking about Hulk Hogan or anybody. I'm talking about god.

41:22 Do you know god? Is he your friend? Do you know that he's your friend? He is your friend. Do you know that?

41:33 I love it with that song. What a friend we have in Jesus, right? All our griefs and sorrows share, right? I think that's the words. Did I butcher it?

41:45 Syncytics. Okay, well you got it. But I know him, I know him, I know this God, I know him and he tells me to seek his face. Can you imagine the god of the universe? Can you imagine the god of the universe asking me to come and seek his face?

42:04 Your face, lord, will I seek? Seeking my face. Your face, lord, I want to seek. I don't want to just come in blase. I want to run to him.

42:15 I want to, when I have the idea of seeking something, I think it's pretty aggressive. Hey, how you doing? Excuse me, pardon me. Excuse me, oh man, wait a second, pardon me, oh man. If it was money, you'd be really seeking it.

42:28 If it was a diamond ring, you'd be really seeking it, right? If it was some gold medallion or something, you can go, oh man, wait a second, I just lost. We're doing that with a favorite pen. Right? Where's my pen?

42:44 My favorite pen, right? I gotta find it. Or ladies, earrings. Have you seen that earring? It was a gift on Valentine's Day.

42:55 Well, I tell you what, we seek it. How about the lord? Seeking my face, thy face lord will I seek. I will seek it and you can only really seek it in the word of god. Hide not thy face far from me.

43:32 I will not fear what man shall do unto me. I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Why? Because he said he will never leave me nor ever forsake me and he's talking to you. He's talking to me.

43:50 He is. He's talking to you. So I can cry to him. It's a cry of expectancy, it's a cry of obedience and deliverance, and it's a cry of faith. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

44:10 We don't go and bow before idol. Eddie Dubinsky and I in first grade got in a fight. That's before his reputation was really nasty. I'm in first grade, Neddy Dubinsky and I are fighting. We're in the third story of immaculate conception in Willoughby, Ohio, and he took my shoe off and threw it out the window.

44:35 All the nuns, man. They grabbed me, and I had to kneel for an hour in front of a statue of Mary. True. Mary wasn't there. It was plaster.

44:57 I remember looking at it and thought, there's a chip there. I mean, it's like right here, you know, and this is in the principal's office. This is immaculate conception. If you know anything about Roman Catholic theology, you know that they're going to have a statue of Mary there. And I'm thinking to myself, oh man, no, we go after a God.

45:20 We have a God who is not stone, not anything. I had fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Going after those idols, whatever they are, whether it's stone or mortar or plaster or a car or metal or any going after anything but him will sadly disappoint it. It'll disappoint you like crazy. Even Christians can do this.

45:53 The idols of education, the idols of all these different idols that we seek after instead of seeking him. It's a mistake. Huge mistake. And this is the last psalm, the last verse of this psalm is just one of the, it's one of the beautiful beautiful conclusions of this Psalm, wait on the Lord. It's an exhortation really, it's a source of courage.

46:20 Wait on the Lord, how, where do I get my courage? Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the lord. Wait on the lord. Be of good courage.

46:35 Why? Because we got a great god who can do anything, who is all powerful, all knowing, ever present. Wait on him. Wait on him. Wait on the lord.

46:48 Be of good courage. Why? Because our god can answer the prayer. Our god can work on our behalf when we trust him. And he shall strengthen your heart.

47:04 Wait, I say, on the Lord. We're privileged people, we have confidence. Confidence in him coming to him, crying to him, and courage from him. I want you to do something with me. Okay, I know we're a little tad over time.

47:32 The late Chris Schroeder. What else? Right? Did we sing this song? Here...

47:57 Judges like to see originality, White idolatry. Here it goes. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord Would you sing with me?

48:24 Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Now if you haven't sung that, I double dog dare you to sing it. You might think it's, oh, that's silly.

48:50 Oh yeah. Sing it. I double dog dare you to sing it with me. Ready? Wait on the Lord.

49:00 Be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. One more time, okey doke. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart.

49:33 Wait, I say, on the Lord. Father, help us to do that. When you say to us, seek ye my face, Lord, our hearts say to you, thy face we seek. We thank you for your ever presence, for you being there with us, that we can come boldly before the throne of grace, that we can find help and grace in time of need. And if anything has been taught to us, we understand that we're very needy, and thank you for meeting our need with yourself.

50:09 Lord, we thank you, and we turn everything over to you as we wait on you. Help us to be of good courage, and you'll strengthen our hearts. We thank you for this, and we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.