WEBVTT 00:00:05.550 --> 00:00:10.349 Psalm 103. We looked at the first 12 verses last 00:00:10.349 --> 00:00:14.570 week. And today we're going to look at the rest 00:00:14.570 --> 00:00:19.910 of the psalm. Psalm 103, starting in verse 13. 00:00:24.390 --> 00:00:28.629 Last week we talked about the Lord's gracious 00:00:28.629 --> 00:00:33.670 compassion and His love for us, even though we 00:00:33.670 --> 00:00:36.740 were undeserving. That we rejoice in the fact 00:00:36.740 --> 00:00:38.920 that God is slow to anger and rich in faithful 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:42.619 love and that he gives us grace that we are undeserving 00:00:42.619 --> 00:00:46.500 of. And in this psalm, David is praising the 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:49.280 Lord. He starts the psalm off with praising the 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:52.640 Lord and he's going to conclude the psalm with 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:54.119 praising the Lord. And that's what we're going 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:55.719 to see in a few minutes. We're going to read 00:00:55.719 --> 00:00:58.859 from 13 through the end of the chapter, but we're 00:00:58.859 --> 00:01:01.179 only going to focus on kind of these first few 00:01:01.179 --> 00:01:05.650 verses tonight. 13 through 17, but let's read 00:01:05.650 --> 00:01:09.030 through these few verses and we'll pray and we'll 00:01:09.030 --> 00:01:15.849 get started. Psalm 103 verse 13. As a father 00:01:15.849 --> 00:01:19.569 has compassion on his children, so the Lord has 00:01:19.569 --> 00:01:23.489 compassion on those who fear him. For he knows 00:01:23.489 --> 00:01:26.790 what we are made of, remembering that we are 00:01:26.790 --> 00:01:31.540 dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He 00:01:31.540 --> 00:01:34.819 blooms like a flower of the field. When the wind 00:01:34.819 --> 00:01:39.000 passes over it, it vanishes and its place is 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:42.700 no longer known. But from eternity to eternity, 00:01:42.980 --> 00:01:45.719 the Lord's faithful love is toward those who 00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:50.099 fear him and his righteousness toward the grandchildren 00:01:50.099 --> 00:01:54.780 of those who keep his covenant, who remember 00:01:54.780 --> 00:01:58.560 to observe his precepts. The Lord has established 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:01.909 his throne in heaven. and his kingdom rules over 00:02:01.909 --> 00:02:06.230 all. Praise the Lord, all his angels of great 00:02:06.230 --> 00:02:09.469 strength, who do his word, obedient to his command. 00:02:10.129 --> 00:02:13.110 Praise the Lord, all his armies, his servants, 00:02:13.169 --> 00:02:17.289 who do his will. Praise the Lord, all his works, 00:02:17.389 --> 00:02:21.789 and all the places where he rules. My soul prays 00:02:21.789 --> 00:02:25.250 Yahweh. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this 00:02:25.250 --> 00:02:27.949 psalm of praise, dear Lord, and I pray. that 00:02:27.949 --> 00:02:30.009 we would be a people who would praise you tonight, 00:02:30.150 --> 00:02:34.050 that we would see that we are not a whole lot, 00:02:34.069 --> 00:02:36.050 dear Lord. We don't have a whole lot to offer. 00:02:36.189 --> 00:02:39.550 We are sinners, God. But we thank you that you 00:02:39.550 --> 00:02:42.909 love us anyway. And just as David had experienced 00:02:42.909 --> 00:02:46.590 your grace and love, so may we experience that 00:02:46.590 --> 00:02:50.030 grace and love and rejoice in it today. And I 00:02:50.030 --> 00:02:56.139 ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We talked 00:02:56.139 --> 00:02:58.680 last week about the fact that God is so full 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:01.340 of compassion and love and that he cast our sins 00:03:01.340 --> 00:03:05.340 as far as the east is from the west. And we left 00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:08.400 off on that thought. And then David picks up 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:10.939 right here in this verse we see in verse 13. 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:15.560 As a father has compassion on his children, so 00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:19.599 the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:22.400 Now that's a beautiful verse for us to think 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:27.479 about. Not all fathers in this world are good. 00:03:27.580 --> 00:03:29.919 There are many good fathers. There are some fathers 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:33.620 who perhaps don't have compassion on their children, 00:03:33.699 --> 00:03:36.580 but I believe, generally speaking, fathers do 00:03:36.580 --> 00:03:40.039 have compassion on their children. And when a 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:43.280 child comes into the world, that child cannot 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:46.960 offer you much, at least not in a physical sense. 00:03:47.379 --> 00:03:51.129 The child comes into the world and... It can't 00:03:51.129 --> 00:03:54.250 take the garbage out. It can't feed itself. It 00:03:54.250 --> 00:03:57.430 can't wash your car. Eventually, at like 13 years 00:03:57.430 --> 00:03:59.750 old, it can, and then you can get all kind of 00:03:59.750 --> 00:04:01.270 good stuff. You can get them to bring you a glass 00:04:01.270 --> 00:04:03.969 of water and anything else, and it's good. But 00:04:03.969 --> 00:04:07.449 when they first come into the world, they are 00:04:07.449 --> 00:04:10.430 really helpless, and they are hopeless apart 00:04:10.430 --> 00:04:13.370 from you. They have come into this world, and 00:04:13.370 --> 00:04:16.389 they can't offer nothing. Not only do they not 00:04:16.389 --> 00:04:18.550 offer you anything, they take from you. They 00:04:18.550 --> 00:04:21.910 take your sleep. You got to change stinky, dirty 00:04:21.910 --> 00:04:24.149 diapers. You got to feed them. You got to rock 00:04:24.149 --> 00:04:27.269 them. You got to buy clothes every other week 00:04:27.269 --> 00:04:28.410 because they're just growing and growing and 00:04:28.410 --> 00:04:30.930 growing and new shoes and new clothes. And it's 00:04:30.930 --> 00:04:34.509 a lot. And here's this life form that really 00:04:34.509 --> 00:04:39.230 can't give you anything in one sense, but it 00:04:39.230 --> 00:04:42.149 gives you everything in another sense. It gives 00:04:42.149 --> 00:04:44.529 you a blessing that is, I'm assuming, I'm not 00:04:44.529 --> 00:04:50.290 a parent, that is probably beyond measure. that 00:04:50.290 --> 00:04:53.410 is completely dependent on you. It can't offer 00:04:53.410 --> 00:04:57.110 you anything, but you get great joy from knowing 00:04:57.110 --> 00:05:00.730 that you brought this life into this world. And 00:05:00.730 --> 00:05:03.769 so you are compassionate toward that child. You 00:05:03.769 --> 00:05:06.370 say, I've got to feed this child. It's got an 00:05:06.370 --> 00:05:08.689 earache. I've got to take it to the doctor. I've 00:05:08.689 --> 00:05:10.689 got to make sure it gets medicine. I'm going 00:05:10.689 --> 00:05:13.110 to sacrifice my sleep. I'm going to go without 00:05:13.110 --> 00:05:16.360 things that I need. Because I'm not worried about 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:18.439 me, I'm worried about that child. And there's 00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:22.740 a compassion that comes for a father, for a mother, 00:05:22.779 --> 00:05:25.620 for a child. And this is the language that David 00:05:25.620 --> 00:05:28.000 uses here. He says, As a father has compassion 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:31.620 on his children, so the Lord has compassion on 00:05:31.620 --> 00:05:34.779 those who fear him. That's a phrase that we see 00:05:34.779 --> 00:05:38.920 a lot through this passage. Those who fear him. 00:05:39.699 --> 00:05:42.100 Now, those who don't fear the Lord don't seek 00:05:42.100 --> 00:05:44.180 the Lord. Those who don't seek the Lord don't 00:05:44.180 --> 00:05:46.480 follow His commands. They don't live according 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:49.319 to His will. They don't experience His blessing. 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:54.660 And fear is a powerful motivator. And we talked 00:05:54.660 --> 00:05:58.000 about that on some level Sunday morning. We talked 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:00.839 about discipline. You get a whipping when you're 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:02.980 a child. You get a paddling from your teacher 00:06:02.980 --> 00:06:05.740 or a whipping from your parents. And there's 00:06:05.740 --> 00:06:08.779 a certain fear that comes along with that. Not 00:06:08.779 --> 00:06:10.620 a fear that, oh, I never want to see him again. 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:13.790 Let me run away from home. A fear that, man, 00:06:13.870 --> 00:06:15.589 I got in trouble at school and I know I'm going 00:06:15.589 --> 00:06:18.029 to get a whipping when I get home. And you just 00:06:18.029 --> 00:06:20.370 kind of dread that. There's a certain fear there, 00:06:20.470 --> 00:06:23.810 but that fear is a powerful motivator to say, 00:06:23.850 --> 00:06:26.930 okay, I better do what my father or mother says 00:06:26.930 --> 00:06:29.870 because there's a certain respect there. And 00:06:29.870 --> 00:06:32.269 there's a real fear there. It's not just a reverent 00:06:32.269 --> 00:06:34.470 fear. There's a real fear like, if I do this, 00:06:34.529 --> 00:06:38.610 I'm going to get in trouble. And the Lord shows 00:06:38.610 --> 00:06:40.790 us plenty of examples through Scripture of His 00:06:40.790 --> 00:06:45.360 people. not being obedient to him. And God kind 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:47.980 of hands them over to their enemies or lets them 00:06:47.980 --> 00:06:51.319 wander in the wilderness for a while. And that 00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:54.019 type of discipline has a way of getting our attention. 00:06:54.680 --> 00:06:57.459 And the point is, is that God wants us to know 00:06:57.459 --> 00:06:59.839 that, look, I love you. The reason I'm telling 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:02.139 you to do these things is because I love you. 00:07:02.379 --> 00:07:05.180 And when you don't do them, I allow these things 00:07:05.180 --> 00:07:07.579 to happen to you. I discipline you in this way 00:07:07.579 --> 00:07:10.399 so that you will fear me and think twice about 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:13.699 it and keep my commands. And that's the idea 00:07:13.699 --> 00:07:16.139 that we see David acknowledging through this 00:07:16.139 --> 00:07:19.800 psalm. God wants us to be people who fear him. 00:07:19.819 --> 00:07:21.680 Not that we walk around just scared to death 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:24.509 that God's going to strike us dead. But there 00:07:24.509 --> 00:07:26.930 is a certain fear there that one day we will 00:07:26.930 --> 00:07:30.870 have to answer to the Lord. And David says, the 00:07:30.870 --> 00:07:34.589 Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. Those 00:07:34.589 --> 00:07:39.129 who fear Him keep His commands. Wisdom comes 00:07:39.129 --> 00:07:46.009 from fear to some extent. And we see that echoed 00:07:46.009 --> 00:07:48.490 here throughout this psalm. Listen to what it 00:07:48.490 --> 00:07:52.560 says of us, though, in verse 14. For He knows 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:56.300 what we are made of, remembering that we are 00:07:56.300 --> 00:08:02.240 dust. We are dust. God made us out of dust. I 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:03.920 mean, there's really not a whole lot that we 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:07.240 can offer God. What in the world can we do for 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:09.300 God? Just like that baby we talked about. That 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:12.079 baby comes into the world, and there's really 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:15.360 not a whole lot that we can do for God. I mean, 00:08:15.420 --> 00:08:18.329 God created everything. He created everything 00:08:18.329 --> 00:08:20.810 that there is, and He can create anything He 00:08:20.810 --> 00:08:22.949 wants to create, things that we could not even 00:08:22.949 --> 00:08:27.470 comprehend or imagine God could create. And isn't 00:08:27.470 --> 00:08:30.730 it pretty phenomenal that of all the things that 00:08:30.730 --> 00:08:35.210 God could create, that He created us. He created 00:08:35.210 --> 00:08:38.730 humanity out of dust. He didn't make us out of 00:08:38.730 --> 00:08:41.110 gold and diamonds. Like, we think about these 00:08:41.110 --> 00:08:43.509 things as being valuable. Like, if we were going 00:08:43.509 --> 00:08:45.889 to make something valuable, what materials would 00:08:45.889 --> 00:08:49.210 we use? We would use the finest materials we 00:08:49.210 --> 00:08:53.129 could find. And yet God took the dust of the 00:08:53.129 --> 00:08:57.590 earth and look at you. Look at your grandchildren. 00:08:58.210 --> 00:09:01.570 Look at your children. Is there anything more 00:09:01.570 --> 00:09:04.250 beautiful in all of the world than that? Now 00:09:04.250 --> 00:09:06.870 there's some beautiful stuff in the world. Beautiful 00:09:06.870 --> 00:09:10.070 stuff. Trees and mountains and ocean and waterfalls. 00:09:10.169 --> 00:09:13.210 And it is so beautiful. But is there anything 00:09:13.210 --> 00:09:15.769 more beautiful than a child coming into the world? 00:09:16.779 --> 00:09:20.120 I suspect probably not. If you think of something, 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:21.840 you can tell me afterwards. You can pull me aside 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:23.139 and say, I'll tell you what's more beautiful. 00:09:23.340 --> 00:09:25.899 My new car I got. Well, I think you're wrong. 00:09:26.700 --> 00:09:28.720 I don't think there's anything more beautiful 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:32.100 than a life that's created. And God didn't create 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:37.639 us for any reason that He's going to call us 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:40.299 to do some work or enslave us or anything like 00:09:40.299 --> 00:09:44.019 that. God created us, or at least I believe God 00:09:44.019 --> 00:09:48.559 created us. Because God is a God of love. And 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:50.440 I don't think love is much good if you don't 00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:53.480 have anybody to share it with. And God created 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:56.879 us. And there is something unique and there is 00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:01.539 something special about humanity. Something special 00:10:01.539 --> 00:10:04.340 in that God created us, but not anything special 00:10:04.340 --> 00:10:06.740 in that we can do anything for God other than 00:10:06.740 --> 00:10:11.659 love Him. God wants to love us and He wants us 00:10:11.659 --> 00:10:15.549 to love Him. And that's a beautiful thing. And 00:10:15.549 --> 00:10:19.309 so there's nothing spectacular about us. There's 00:10:19.309 --> 00:10:21.529 nothing that we can go before God and say, God, 00:10:21.570 --> 00:10:24.509 I'm so awesome. I'm bringing this to you. I'm 00:10:24.509 --> 00:10:27.289 deserving of your forgiveness. David's already 00:10:27.289 --> 00:10:31.370 said we are undeserving of God's grace. Yet God 00:10:31.370 --> 00:10:34.190 bestows that on us through Jesus Christ because 00:10:34.190 --> 00:10:36.809 he loves us. Listen to what he says in the next 00:10:36.809 --> 00:10:40.970 verse. As for man, his days are like grass. He 00:10:40.970 --> 00:10:44.450 blooms like a flower of the field. When the wind 00:10:44.450 --> 00:10:48.789 passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is 00:10:48.789 --> 00:10:53.009 no longer known. What are we like in the grand 00:10:53.009 --> 00:10:54.789 scheme of things throughout the history of the 00:10:54.789 --> 00:10:59.370 world? We're like grass. It's unremembered by 00:10:59.370 --> 00:11:01.389 everybody that's come before us and will come 00:11:01.389 --> 00:11:04.669 after us. Nobody's going to remember who you 00:11:04.669 --> 00:11:07.909 are in 100 years, probably. Probably. Maybe somebody 00:11:07.909 --> 00:11:11.159 in your family will have a family tree. They'll 00:11:11.159 --> 00:11:13.600 see your name on a page somewhere or on a screen. 00:11:14.700 --> 00:11:16.860 But it's likely nobody's going to remember who 00:11:16.860 --> 00:11:20.779 a single one of us are. Lord willing, maybe Enterprise 00:11:20.779 --> 00:11:23.059 Baptist Church will still be here. A hundred 00:11:23.059 --> 00:11:26.019 years, it may not be. Nobody's going to remember 00:11:26.019 --> 00:11:29.299 us. We're like grass that's here today and going 00:11:29.299 --> 00:11:31.980 tomorrow. Guess what? It's springtime. If you 00:11:31.980 --> 00:11:34.120 hadn't already, you fitting out to cut your grass. 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:36.919 How many blades of grass have you chopped down 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:40.419 in your lifetime? How many of them do you remember? 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:43.080 I'm going to guess zero, unless maybe you got 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:44.740 a piece of grass in your eye or something that 00:11:44.740 --> 00:11:47.080 you had to dig out and it was painful. Like, 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:49.600 chances are, you don't remember any of it. You 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:52.240 chop it up, millions of blades of grass in a 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:53.840 lifetime. You don't remember it. It's here. It's 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:56.340 gone. It blows to and fro when the wind comes. 00:11:57.139 --> 00:11:59.059 We just had a little tornado come through here. 00:11:59.620 --> 00:12:02.740 Trees, big, big trees that have grown for decades. 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:05.480 Wind comes, boom. What does it say? It talks 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:08.019 about the wind. Blows them over. They're done. 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:10.700 There'll be firewood in somebody's stove and 00:12:10.700 --> 00:12:13.879 they'll burn up and that'll be the end. A tree 00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:15.559 that was here today that we knew that was there, 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:17.799 we say, man, I hate that big old tree fell. Five 00:12:17.799 --> 00:12:19.539 years from now, nobody will even remember that 00:12:19.539 --> 00:12:21.500 tree was there. It's here today and it's gone 00:12:21.500 --> 00:12:24.080 tomorrow. That's what humanity is. That's the 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:27.460 point that David is trying to make. When the 00:12:27.460 --> 00:12:30.360 wind passes over it, it vanishes. Its place is 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:36.379 no longer known. But yet God loves us. We look 00:12:36.379 --> 00:12:37.860 at a blade of grass, we don't think anything 00:12:37.860 --> 00:12:42.440 of it. To us, it's worthless. We are a people 00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:45.860 who are made of dust. We are a people who are 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:50.039 here today and gone tomorrow. But in the eyes 00:12:50.039 --> 00:12:53.059 of an eternal God, we are precious in His sight. 00:12:53.860 --> 00:12:57.200 So much so that He sent Jesus Christ to die on 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:01.000 a cross for us. That's pretty phenomenal. That's 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:03.019 pretty special that you'd send your only son 00:13:03.019 --> 00:13:07.950 to die. For a sinful people who, by all accounts 00:13:07.950 --> 00:13:10.250 that we would measure as humans, is pretty worthless. 00:13:11.490 --> 00:13:15.169 But we are not worthless to God. God created 00:13:15.169 --> 00:13:17.570 you. You were knit in your mother's womb. God 00:13:17.570 --> 00:13:20.090 knew who you were. He knew who you would be. 00:13:20.250 --> 00:13:23.029 He knows every hair on your head. He knows how 00:13:23.029 --> 00:13:26.389 many there are. For some of us, it ain't that 00:13:26.389 --> 00:13:29.009 hard for Him to keep count. But whether it's 00:13:29.009 --> 00:13:30.909 one or whether it's a thousand or whether it's 00:13:30.909 --> 00:13:34.509 a million, God knows everything about you. And 00:13:34.509 --> 00:13:37.669 you are special to God. And there are a lot of 00:13:37.669 --> 00:13:39.330 people in this world that are lost trying to 00:13:39.330 --> 00:13:43.750 find their way and they feel so worthless. And 00:13:43.750 --> 00:13:45.549 maybe there are some of them here tonight or 00:13:45.549 --> 00:13:46.830 maybe there are some of them listening online 00:13:46.830 --> 00:13:50.129 and they need to know, you need to know that 00:13:50.129 --> 00:13:52.250 God loves you and you are worth something in 00:13:52.250 --> 00:13:56.769 the eyes of God. That He created you. That He 00:13:56.769 --> 00:14:00.750 didn't just create you to go to and fro and fear 00:14:00.750 --> 00:14:04.669 of the world and stress. All these things, He 00:14:04.669 --> 00:14:06.490 created you so that He could love you and so 00:14:06.490 --> 00:14:08.169 that you could love Him and so that He could 00:14:08.169 --> 00:14:11.250 love you as a father loves his child and be compassionate 00:14:11.250 --> 00:14:14.250 towards you and give you strength and hope. And 00:14:14.250 --> 00:14:19.350 He does that through Jesus Christ. So even though 00:14:19.350 --> 00:14:22.289 we are here today and gone tomorrow, we were 00:14:22.289 --> 00:14:25.309 created by an eternal God who wants us to share 00:14:25.309 --> 00:14:30.250 in that eternity. We may have had a beginning, 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:35.440 God wants us to have an eternity through Jesus 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:39.440 Christ. It says in the next verse, but from eternity 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:43.240 to eternity, the Lord's faithful love is toward 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:47.440 those who fear Him. Boy, that's good to know. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:52.179 We are short -lived in this world. We come, we 00:14:52.179 --> 00:14:57.120 go. People here know us. A few years, we'll be 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:00.320 forgotten. But God says, I won't forget you because 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:04.679 I created you. And I want to spend an eternity 00:15:04.679 --> 00:15:08.700 with you. God loves us and we are worth something 00:15:08.700 --> 00:15:12.580 in the eyes of God. And the way that we fully 00:15:12.580 --> 00:15:15.500 understand God's love is through Jesus Christ. 00:15:16.659 --> 00:15:20.039 That if we would repent of our sins, if we would 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:22.840 realize that we have nothing to offer God but 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:26.700 that Jesus Christ offered his life for us, that's 00:15:26.700 --> 00:15:29.340 grace. There's nothing we have to offer God. 00:15:29.379 --> 00:15:32.379 God says, I want you just to come to me. I want 00:15:32.379 --> 00:15:35.080 you to accept the gift of grace in Jesus Christ. 00:15:36.840 --> 00:15:40.320 Have you done that? Have you asked the Lord to 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:43.340 forgive you? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ? 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:47.000 Have you realized that your life is worth something? 00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:51.899 No, we're not deserving of God's love, but that's 00:15:51.899 --> 00:15:57.039 why it's called grace. And David knew that. David 00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:59.279 was a godly man, but he was a man who sinned 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:02.700 greatly. And he knew he wasn't deserving of God's 00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:05.860 love, but he had experienced God's love. And 00:16:05.860 --> 00:16:08.639 David penned this psalm, and he starts it with 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:14.620 praise, and he ends it with praise. May we rejoice 00:16:14.620 --> 00:16:18.039 and praise the Lord tonight. Let's pray. God, 00:16:18.100 --> 00:16:20.080 we thank you for these good words. I pray, God, 00:16:20.200 --> 00:16:22.279 that you would help us to know that we are special 00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:27.210 in your sight. We may not feel special. Our life 00:16:27.210 --> 00:16:30.049 may be full of trouble and we may feel worthless 00:16:30.049 --> 00:16:34.269 at times, dear Lord, but if nobody else has ever 00:16:34.269 --> 00:16:36.909 showed us or told us or let us know that we are 00:16:36.909 --> 00:16:39.429 worth something, I pray, God, that everybody 00:16:39.429 --> 00:16:42.870 here tonight and everybody listening online will 00:16:42.870 --> 00:16:44.590 know that they are worth something in your sight, 00:16:44.669 --> 00:16:48.289 dear Lord, that your word speaks of the fact 00:16:48.289 --> 00:16:50.230 that you created us, that you love us, that you 00:16:50.230 --> 00:16:54.090 care for us. And so, God, I pray. that we would 00:16:54.090 --> 00:16:57.789 all find hope in Jesus Christ tonight, that we 00:16:57.789 --> 00:17:00.830 would know that we have value in your eyes, dear 00:17:00.830 --> 00:17:02.970 Lord, not because of anything we can do, God. 00:17:03.049 --> 00:17:06.369 We don't have a whole lot we can offer you. The 00:17:06.369 --> 00:17:08.289 only thing you want, dear Lord, is for us to 00:17:08.289 --> 00:17:11.029 love you, for us to love you and to seek you 00:17:11.029 --> 00:17:13.990 and just to follow your commands, dear Lord, 00:17:14.069 --> 00:17:18.150 so that you can bring about goodness in our life, 00:17:18.210 --> 00:17:21.170 dear Lord, to just walk in faith to you. And 00:17:21.170 --> 00:17:23.240 I pray, God, that if there are any... who do 00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:25.200 not know Jesus Christ, if they had put their 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:28.619 faith and trust in Him tonight, that we would 00:17:28.619 --> 00:17:31.619 all rejoice in You. And I ask these things in 00:17:31.619 --> 00:17:33.059 Jesus' name. Amen.