8/25/19 - Psalm 30 - "Learning the Hard Way"

[0:00] Please join me in prayer. Father God in heaven, we're grateful to have the air in our lungs today, to be hearing the voices fill up this sanctuary with your truth of who you are and who we are.

[0:22] And Lord God, we are just encouraged up to this point. We pray that we are greatly encouraged even more so by the reading and the teaching of your word. And Father, I pray that your word comes to life in this place.

[0:37] Father, that the words and the points are communicated clearly and concisely. And Father, to transform our hearts. And if there's anybody who is far from you, who doesn't know you personally, who might be just kind of in a place where they're kind of investigating who Jesus is, I pray that you weigh upon their hearts this morning through your word and your word alone.

[1:03] We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Psalm 30. I gave you enough time to flip there, so we're going to just start right out.

[1:14] It says in verse 1, I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and I have not let my foes rejoice over me.

[1:27] O Lord, my God, I cry to you for help and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from shale. You restored me to life from among those who go down to the pits.

[1:40] Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

[1:55] As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved. By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong. You hid your face.

[2:06] I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord, I plead for mercy. What profit is there in my death if I go down to the pits?

[2:16] Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me. O Lord, be my helper. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing and have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.

[2:37] O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. This is the word of the Lord. Tell me if this verse sounds familiar to you.

[2:51] It goes like this. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Sound familiar?

[3:02] This verse is out of 1 Peter 5, 6. And it speaks about the deliberate will of the believer to recognize the need to be humbled.

[3:17] But what happens when the Lord brings about a life lesson in our lives almost in a stance where the Lord deals with us saying, I hate to say I told you so.

[3:28] When I was younger one of the one of the pivotal moments in my life was when those training wheels came off. Well, going into the training wheels coming off.

[3:42] Once they were off it was a different story. I would nag and plead with my father to, you know, I'm ready. I'm ready to take my training wheels off. I've practiced.

[3:53] I've rode my bike. I got, you know, I guess if technology was advanced back there I could probably like monitor how many miles I've ridden on my bike. That was back in the 90s so we weren't that advanced back then.

[4:08] But, you know, I'd be nagging. I'd think that I'm ready and that I have done this and I've done that. Dad, come on, please, just let my training wheels come off and it'll be fine.

[4:20] I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing. I'm ready for this. And then, sure enough, my father's like, okay. So, you know, the training wheels come off and with a little bit of guidance and help from him, you know, I've probably got four pedals in and they're flat on my face.

[4:35] I laid in the grass, thank God. Face full of grass. I learned the hard way. My father allowed me to learn the hard way and say, son, not so fast.

[4:49] the world has a natural tendency throughout the ages to stress the importance of who you are, the things that you have, and the people you know.

[5:01] And it creates a consumerist desire. It puffs up the prideful man and belittles those who don't fit into that mold of consumerism. And the Bible works in complete opposition to that valuation system.

[5:15] The biblical worldview stresses the importance of reminding us that who we are, the things that we have, and those people and things in our lives are due to God's provision and his provision alone, by God alone.

[5:31] With the battle of pride in the world constantly nagging us, we can sometimes lose focus of that valuation system, the biblical worldview. And we begin down a pathway of self-absorption, of self-confidence.

[5:45] And this is a dangerous place to be, and this is a place where David finds himself in this psalm of thanksgiving. And today, up to this point, we've talked a lot about Hebrew literature, and I'm not going to give you an institutionalized, you know, little lesson on, you know, poetry and things like that.

[6:04] However, when you see thanksgiving, you should also know that there's probably going to be spiced with a little bit of lament as well coming to this place of praise. And we're going to investigate that in this psalm because this is a psalm of thanksgiving, but there's also lament.

[6:21] They are close partners in crime. So the first point this morning is David's lament and thanksgiving. Look in your Bibles or up on the screen at verse 1.

[6:36] It says, I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cried to you for help and you have healed me.

[6:50] O Lord, you have brought me and brought up my soul from Sheol. You restored me to life from among those who go down to the pits. Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.

[7:04] Verse 1 starts out with, I will extol you, Lord. It's an interesting word, isn't it? It's in our current vocabulary or lack thereof in our current modern age. Extol.

[7:16] When's the last time you even said that in a sentence? Anyone? No? Nope. I think we can come to an agreement. So, you know, I could imagine that if you said it to your boss, you know, he might give you a raise or he might give you a random drug test.

[7:30] But extol. What does this even mean? Extol you, Lord. We read these pages like it's nothing. We just breeze over it. Oh, we kind of get what we're saying here.

[7:41] But what is he actually saying in this? Extol, church, is a verb. It not only means to praise. It's a certain type of praise.

[7:51] But it draws more attention onto the one whom is being praised. The substance of who's being praised. Or it can also be read, I will proclaim your greatness.

[8:03] I will extol you, Lord. I will proclaim your greatness. The source of this extolling is revealed that the Lord intervened in David's life in here.

[8:14] It says, He drew him up from the pit and have not let my foes rejoice over me. And this is a beautiful language which this usage of the verb, extol, as well as draw me up, is almost communicating that which is pulling water up out of a well, if you can imagine.

[8:38] And this is significant in this passage because David knows that he was in a past position. The tense in this verse are present. I will extol you, Lord, like present and future.

[8:50] But there's something that happened in the past where he was being left completely and utterly helpless to be drawn up, to not let his foes rejoice over him.

[9:04] Because you know, this is important because you know if water is drawn up from a well, the water has nothing to do with that drawing. It's the person pulling the rope.

[9:16] So in this passage where it's talking about being drawn up, when we understand it in light of a well, David's saying like, man, Lord, this is why I'm proclaiming your greatness, why I'm extolling you, because it is all glory and honor to you who pulled me up from this place and didn't let my foes rejoice over me.

[9:38] In fact, he was so helpless that his foes were doing that very thing. They were rejoicing over him in verse 1. As David was in this helpless condition, which we know little to nothing about at this point in the verse, his enemies were gloating over David's defeat.

[9:54] They were building his coffin. They were prepared for his death. They were getting the place ready. However, I'm going to ask you a question, church, often throughout this first point.

[10:08] What got David to this place? What got David to this place? Verse 2 highlights clearly David's response after getting into this place.

[10:19] David lamented, he cried to God for help in verse 2, and God responded and came through and healed him. We see that in verse 2, but healed him from what? Spiritual healing, physical healing, circumstantial healing.

[10:35] What specifically? Verse 3 provides an explicit analysis of what healing David had received. He said, look with me in verse 3, O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol.

[10:49] You restored me to life from among those who go down to the pits. It's a pretty broad agreement. Every theologian, every resource agrees that David was extremely sick, physically sick, nearly facing death.

[11:09] We see the use of Sheol here in a poetic, more of a poetic manner to indicate that of death. that which he was drawn up from in verse 1, and that which he was brought up from in verse 3.

[11:25] He was pulled out of this place, or also in this verse stating, in verse 3, God restored him to life from the pit. He was nearly facing death, Sheol.

[11:38] The praise, the glory, and the honor goes to God, the great physician. And David found himself in a place of crying out and lamenting, crying out to God and nearly facing death.

[11:52] David was on a tightrope, walking a tightrope, with death pulling at him. He felt it. But David returns to present tense in verse 4, with present praise, in which he invites others to join in with David, singing this praise of what God has done, similar to what we were all invited to do this morning, so beautifully.

[12:19] But I'm going to ask you again, church, what got David to this place? Verse 5 seems to get a little bit closer to how he got to this place.

[12:30] We see, look with me in verse 5, read with me. It says, for his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime.

[12:42] Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Wait a minute, David. I don't think he was diagnosed with ADD, but he mentions anger.

[12:53] Where does this come from? He's talking about being sick and the Lord healing him, and then all of a sudden, anger. What is happening here? What is he trying to communicate in this passage?

[13:04] Everything seems to be clear up to this point in the passage. We read 1-4, David cried out and lamented to God, and God came through. He saved him from death.

[13:15] But why the mention of anger here? It's such a descriptor of a holy and a just God through the word of anger, such a descriptor of why each drop of blood was shed from Christ's body on the cross for you.

[13:32] The literal weight of uttering the words of his anger should rattle all of our hearts because of how real his anger is and the implications that I had on Christ on the cross.

[13:47] Righteous, holy anger. But David unites his righteous anger to a timeline in this passage, and that timeline being understood in light of his mercy and steadfast love, which lasts for a lifetime in verse 5.

[14:06] It says, for his anger is but for a moment. There is a timeline with that, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

[14:19] We can see clearly here the close relationship in this passage of lamenting and thanksgiving, just like I talked about. He talks about weeping may tarry at night, but joy comes in the morning, lamenting and thanksgiving, crying and rejoicing.

[14:34] We see that close relationship in this context, but specifically this is a context for God's children, for the righteous, for God's chosen holy ones.

[14:45] For them, the weeping may tarry, lamenting, but joy comes in the morning. For anybody who is distant from God, who has not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, the weeping is going to last eternity, and his anger will not be set to a timeline.

[15:03] This is something fundamental that all Christians experience one time or another of lamenting and thanksgiving. And David was experiencing this in real time.

[15:14] Think about this, real time, real history. This is a man in real history, and it is a real sickness. But I'm going to ask you one more time, what got David to this place?

[15:28] We don't need to look much further in the text as a reason for his great suffering, how he got to knocking on death's door.

[15:40] Look with me at verse 6 as we get into point 2, David's loss of vision. Look with me in verse 6.

[15:54] It says, Now we're getting somewhere.

[16:14] There it is. David talks about, he states in verse 6 and verse 7, he says, As for me, and then the next verse, By your favor.

[16:26] What it should have said was, By your favor, I said in prosperity. He said, As for me. As for me, I said, In my prosperity, I shall never be moved.

[16:40] Look at me, I'm the man. Look at this favor. King David, look at this army, no one can defeat us. Look at my kingdom, a dangerous place for David to be indeed.

[16:59] What got David to this place of extreme sickness and lamenting? David lost sight of the source of the blessings he was receiving, the favor he was receiving. The David going into this extreme physical illness was completely different than the David being drawn up from this illness.

[17:18] God is a God who gives favor and he raises all of us up. We must also know that he will also not hesitate to bring us low, to wake us up.

[17:34] Look at verse seven. It says, By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong. You hid your face. I was dismayed. What got David to this place?

[17:45] Again, David completely lost sight of the one whom all blessings flow from. God's favor turned into God's hiding. This is a Hebrew idiom, actually, in this passage, for the absence of divine favor.

[18:00] Completely lost that favor that he had, that made his mountain stand strong. It is as if God brought David to a place where he was shaking his head at David saying, I hate to do this, David, but I gotta get my servant back.

[18:16] I need to get you back. I need to get you back in focus. Just as I learned very quickly in riding my bike for the first time, having all this confidence, like, I can do it, it's me, you know, I am, I got this.

[18:36] Boom. Fail. Right on my face. A mouth full of grass. In David's case, he responded in lament and dismay at the time of God's hiding from him.

[18:49] And we see this dismay in the words used in this passage in verse 6 through 8, saying, I cry, I plead.

[19:01] These are words of lamenting at a time of being completely low and helpless. us. Church, what a calamity it takes at times to humble us under the mighty hand of God, to get a hold of our attention.

[19:22] How foolish we can be to receive anything in this life and take all the glory that was never meant for us to be the recipients of. We're not supposed to get any glory.

[19:32] church. God is a one who has given favor, given us a lot of favor in Christ. And raises us up, not only at times from like only illnesses, but the greatest illness of sin and death.

[19:52] However, we must also remember who God is and that he is just as a parent to us, just as I'm a parent to my son, and a parent disciplines their children.

[20:06] A righteous Father in heaven will not hesitate to bring us low for our own good. So looking at kind of like a micro-analysis of this passage up to this point, we see that sometimes we must examine, ask God in our lives, you know, during our suffering, ask him, what are you trying to teach me at this time, oh Lord?

[20:29] God uses illnesses all the time for that. I don't want to over-spiritualize the sufferings of this life, but we sure better not under-spiritualize them. You know, sometimes we need to ask God, what are you trying to teach me in this?

[20:44] Now, I don't want you to be scared every time you get the flu. Oh, I got the flu. What are you doing, Lord? You know, some things, you know, our bodies were meant to, you know, he's created all these things, you know, to help us.

[20:57] We don't need to over-spiritualize the sufferings of life, but we sure better not under-spiritualize them. Suffering as a Christian is suffering with a purpose. This is good news. This is why we see in this passage that weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

[21:13] This is the good news. We suffer with a purpose. So may your lament of this day, today, be used for tomorrow's praise.

[21:24] The purpose of our lament is to praise. As we get into the third point, we see David's attitude shift.

[21:36] There's a rededication to the call in verse 9. Look with me. It says, what profit is there in my death if I go down to the pit?

[21:46] Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me. O Lord, my helper. See a little tone shift.

[22:00] David pleads for mercy on the basis of almost like bartering with God. His reasoning is rooted in his heart's humble desire to praise him. That's all he cares about.

[22:11] He doesn't want to take anything for his own glory. David's concern was to continue to declare the glory of God on earth. And you can almost feel in this passage the desperation in his voice.

[22:26] What profit is there in death if I shall go down to the pits? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me. O God, my helper. Like, man, he's desperate.

[22:42] David's physical ailment has successfully realigned David and God has achieved his humbling process in David's life through his illness. David would now return to God the glory due to his name.

[22:56] His concern of going down to the pit in verse 9 is no longer out of self-preservation but out of God exaltation. His perspective has completely shifted.

[23:07] David is reminded of the mission God has for him, remembering being called as being a lonely young shepherd out in the field and being called to be king.

[23:19] He remembered at this point God's call in his life. And in one last section of final thanksgiving, we get a last glimpse of David's heart of praise.

[23:30] Look with me at 11 and 12 as we come to the end of the passage. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.

[23:49] O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. Similar to the opening four verses, David extols the Lord for his intervention in one last set of contrasts.

[24:01] God turned David's lamenting into thanksgiving, into dancing in this passage. He turned his mourning, his lamenting into thanksgiving, which turned into dancing. But also, God also loosed David's sackcloth, a cultural term which means that he refined him.

[24:20] The sackcloth was often worn to show someone demonstrating repentance in that culture. And it's loosed. He's not demonstrating repentance. He's fully restored. God has closed him with complete gladness.

[24:33] He restored David's praise and his call. Due to God's steadfast love and mercy and his kindness in dealing with such disobedient human beings, God dealt kindly with David despite his error.

[24:51] Think about that. David left his disobedience and sin through repentance and he was clothed with mercy, an ending which should have led to David's demise.

[25:04] Like, you're going to steal the eternal God's glory? Do you know who he is? That should have led to David's demise. But church, there was grace.

[25:19] Sounds an awful lot like the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They should have not left that garden. But God closed them. And lastly, David's response in this passage is far from silence.

[25:34] You can almost see in this passage, he was making a lot of noise. He was praising God. After giving the 150th chance from God, because as you know, David's history is really rocky, he made a lot of bad choices just as we make a lot of bad choices and we fall short of the glory of God.

[25:58] David's glory would sing God's praise and it would not be silence. God's steadfast love produced within David steadfast praise. The steadfast love of God produced within David steadfast praise.

[26:14] So I asked the question earlier of what got David to this place? It was God's love for him. Being near death was God showing his utter, complete love for David.

[26:33] God's steadfast love that deals with our disobedience and our craziness that we often continue in this life and we often fall short. But God loved David enough to discipline him and David felt the father's love through his anger which resulted in the sickness.

[26:52] David repented and he came back. Now, you know, we're not supposed to continue in our sin. There's a passage where, you know, in Romans which explicitly, you know, refutes that.

[27:06] Let's just keep sinning so grace may abound, you know. Just shower that grace, God. No rules. Notice, David repented. There is a lot of repentance in this passage.

[27:17] David repented. And we need to as well. What a glorious grace our God has given to us. To the Christian, you've been drawn up like that water from a well.

[27:32] And it's not anything of your glory, but God is the one pulling. He's doing all the work. He's the one who was fixed on the cross. He's the one that lived a life that we can't live.

[27:43] Jesus Christ on this earth died a death that we deserve and was raised. And by that, church, we have this promise that we will also be raised with him on one day, whenever the Lord wills that.

[27:59] However, this is an extreme warning. I can't put it plainly enough. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you're in here kind of just teeter-tottering, you know, well, you know, I'll come to church and we'll just see what happens.

[28:15] We're not promised tomorrow. If you are not trusting in Christ, you are not promised tomorrow. There is no drawing up for you.

[28:28] There is only death. And there is only anger. There is only separation from God. But there is good news, because if you are far from Jesus Christ, if you want to know this Jesus Christ, that's what I'm standing here for, that's why we have Brad, that's why we have Rick, and that's why we have our fellow congregation.

[28:47] You can ask anybody here who Jesus is. You want to take those steps and know who Jesus is, guess what? You came in the right place. Take those steps of faith and just say, you know, I'm going to give this a chance.

[29:01] I've been on the fence for a while. I'm going to trust in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I'm going to do this, and I'm going to ask God. One thing, when you ask prayers of God in your sinfulness, one thing that God will respond to is for Him to reveal Himself to you.

[29:17] He will. There's a prayer He always responds to. As we come to a close, there's one section in this psalm that I failed to mention up to this point.

[29:34] I want you to take a look. Somebody look in the Pew Bible and give me a thumbs up if there's a subtitle to this psalm. Look just at the beginning of the psalm.

[29:47] Yeah? Yep, that's what I got too. Hopefully your Bible says, a psalm of David, a song at the dedication of the temple.

[30:04] What's that all about? Where's this temple coming in? I thought we were talking about like healing illnesses and like, you know, dedication to the temple. Fascinating.

[30:16] This was used as a song of dedication to the temple. A great reminder of an important perspective shift. For that any fruit produced within that temple, any gathering, anything that happens in that temple, through that temple, all glory belongs to God.

[30:39] Well, from a micro-analysis, remember, we see the importance of trusting God with our illness and our health to bring glory to Him. And at times, our illnesses may be a hard lesson for God that He's trying to teach us.

[30:52] Not every time, but we don't want to over-spiritualize, you know, getting the flu or getting a cough. But sometimes He teaches us. However, from a macro-analysis, as we stand back from this, and we look at what David is trying to communicate to us today and to that culture at the time, David wants no man to make the same mistake that he did.

[31:14] to look at the massive structure and say, look at us. Look at what we're doing.

[31:25] Look at all these people gathered. Look at the things we're doing. Look at the abundance of things. All is futile if we absorb the glory for ourselves.

[31:39] It is not because of us. We have very little to do with any of that. They had little to do with that temple. We have little to do with the church, even today.

[31:50] It is all bringing glory to God. Now, we must be careful not to handle ourselves with fatalism. You know, like a hyper-Calvinism, which kind of, like, states, like, in the most extreme sense, like, you know, like, God doesn't, like, need us for anything.

[32:09] He's going to work it out. You know, we could just sit here, and it almost promotes, like, a laziness, like, yeah, I have a reason to be lazy because God's sovereign. He's going to work this out. Well, that is actually true.

[32:20] It is true. He's going to work it out. But that's only half the truth. Those statements, those things are only half truths. Think about it. David was a man used by God.

[32:32] The problem was David's heart. It was not his calling or his purposes. The Lord called David for a specific purpose and often had to deal with the things that are going on in his heart, just as he deals with any of us.

[32:50] It is just as much of an error to fail to act when God is calling you to act. It's sin. What sin it would have been for David to idly sit back and assure God in his prayer time as he's sitting on the throne, if you can imagine, and saying, you got it.

[33:07] You don't need me. You got it, God. Go ahead and do your thing, and I'm just going to take my hands. You're sovereign. You don't need me. You notice how that's, the perspective is only a half truth.

[33:19] My wife has spent the last nine days in the hospital out in Pittsburgh, you know, going through pregnancy stuff, nothing like crazy. So she's getting monitored, but we had some complications, and thank God her doctors and the medical team didn't have that personality.

[33:37] I'd be like, are you guys crazy? You guys are doctors. You are here for this purpose. You're here to help, to use your wisdom, your knowledge, all those years of schooling, and to help at this point.

[33:50] And if this is for the medical, secular realm, how much more greater is this perspective in God's house, of staying focused on the call, not being lazy, and saying, God's sovereign.

[34:02] He doesn't need me. Yes, He does. He needs all of us. He's given us gifts. He's given us talents to use and to bring glory to Him.

[34:16] When God calls you, the fulfillment of those purposes are your top desire, because the God of this universe has equipped and bestowed the gifts for you to use to give Him glory back.

[34:30] And that does not make it about you at the least bit. It actually deflects the glory back to Him by you fulfilling His purposes. If we fail to do this and not operate within our calling, we become silent.

[34:46] The complete opposite of verse 12 is saying how David responded to this. So if a church is silent, what purpose does that church serve?

[34:59] Think about it. If a church is silent, what purpose does that church serve? How would the community of Northside, businesses, local residents, if we ask them, how would they respond if we asked, is Youngstown Metro silent?

[35:21] If we asked YSU's university staff, maybe some faculty, maybe some students, how would they respond if we asked if Youngstown Metro Church is silent?

[35:34] How would the local homeless shelters respond if we asked is Youngstown Metro silent? Now it takes a unified, a united church utilizing their bestowed gifts that God has given us to be raised up, to use them, to make noise, church.

[35:58] And God is calling for us to dedicate this temple, this building, if this building has any meaning, you know, He has dedicated this temple, this meeting place for that very thing as well, just as the temple that was dedicated in David's time.

[36:11] Not merely a building to meet, you know, it's great, you know, meeting, but if that's all it is, we're missing something. This is an equipping center. This is where we hear from God's Word and we take God's Word out.

[36:25] And it's not just for the pastors to do. When we do things together as a church, we do them together. We make a noise in this community. Now, we do a good job.

[36:39] I don't want to be so harsh on us today. We do a good job. If you ask a lot of, like, the denominations association if we're loud, they will say yes. We are not silent. There are a lot of things that we do well, but there's a lot of things that we can do better, church.

[36:55] How much more serious it gets when we recognize our individual responsibility, you know, this is a dedication of the temple, the psalm of this. We dedicate this temple, this building, to God.

[37:08] How much more serious is it when you realize that you are a living temple of the Holy Spirit? How are you dedicating that temple?

[37:19] Because a silent church usually contains an awful lot of silent people. How are you dedicating your temple to the Lord to extol Him to the Lord?

[37:32] The purposes of God are attained through His people. And while we can idly stand by and say, God, you're in control, you don't need me, yeah, that's true, but He has called you for a purpose, He has gifted you for a purpose, and to not respond and use that for His glory, you are in sin.

[37:49] If this type of people are unwilling, you are in sin. What glory would be attained to His name if we responded like that? Just silent people in this church. And this also stretches outside of these walls.

[38:03] This goes to your homes, dedicating your home to the glory of God. All your possessions, every penny in your bank accounts, all your careers, any advancements, anything going on in your life are dedications to God.

[38:23] God, let this be your challenge, church. Whether you're a guest here, welcome, I'm sorry you had such a heavy message today, but we teach God's Word, and this is what it says.

[38:42] Church, friends, family, guests, sinners, saints, I challenge you with this. This is also a challenge to me, too.

[38:55] I don't want you to think I'm standing up above, like two steps up from you. That's not the case. This is a challenge to me, and trust me, I wrestled a lot with this passage over the weeks of preparation.

[39:07] Let our church not be silent. Let this church, you know, the reverberation waves, I pray that this church reverberates after Sunday mornings.

[39:21] That as we come together, as we gather as God's people to oversee the ordinances, to teach His Word, to pray for one another, to sing God's praise, that this reverberates, and we take this out of these walls together, not just the pastors, not just a couple straggling members, well, I don't got nothing better to do tonight, so I'm just going to go out to this event that they planned.

[39:41] No, this is an active pursuit. Let this be your challenge. Let this church not be silent, but let this church reverberate in this community.

[39:55] Let us not look at ourselves, but let us all look at ourselves and examine our hearts and see how we are dedicating this temple to the Lord, how we're dedicating our personal temples, how we're fulfilling our purposes and our calling that we may be reserving all the glory to God here at Youngstown Metro.

[40:13] And don't just take your opinion for it. Like, I'm doing actually pretty good. What would your brothers and sisters in this church, they are gathered with you who have been here consistently, what would they say about your church attendance?

[40:29] What would they say about the activity that we're doing together as a church? You know, are you off and on? Are you here and there? It takes accountability. Let this church make noise, or else these walls will cry out the glory of God.

[40:45] If we don't, the walls will. We are His church. I say it often. I'm going to say it until the day I die. We are His church.

[40:57] It's time to get off of the sideline. The staff of this church, the pastors, are not just His church. We, collective, even the people who aren't here right now, are His church.

[41:09] Let us take this calling serious and dedicate these temples to God. And let us humble ourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time, He may exalt you.

[41:25] Let's pray.