Our Awesome God - Part 4

...for the people to worship God, but David shared how that he had gathered together an abundance of gold and silver and other metals and how that he had gathered the stones and all for the building of this temple. God didn't say he couldn't do that, he just was prohibited from building it itself, but he drew the plans and he gathered the materials. And we read, the people rejoiced and they offered willingly because with a perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord.

And David the king also rejoiced with great joy. Wherefore David blessed the Lord before the congregation and David said, Blessed be Jehovah God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. For with Jehovah is greatness and power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in the earth is yours.

Both riches and honor come from you and you reign over all and in your hand is power and might and in your hand is the power to make great and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank you and we praise your glorious name, but who am I and what are these people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things have come from you and what is your own we have given to you. In other words, it all belonged to you anyhow and what we have given is something that was yours already.

But David here again sees that it is of him, all things, that they are through him and they are for him or to him. Paul wrote to the Colossians saying, Giving thanks to the Father who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who has delivered us from the power of darkness, translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in the earth, visible and invisible, whether there are thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. All things are of him, Paul is saying, and he is before all things and by him all things consist or are held together, all things are through him.

And then he goes on to say, And he is the head of the body of the church, the beginning of the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. So all things are for him, it pleased the Father. All things are of him, you were created by him.

All things are through him, you've been born again through the grace of God and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ and you exist for him. In the book of Revelation, we are taken into the heavenly scene and there John beholds the worship of God by the cherubim as he sits there on the throne. And as they worship God, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which is, which was, which is to come.

He said that the 24 elders respond to the worship and say, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor, for thou hast created all things and for your good pleasure they are and were created. All things are of him, all things are through him, and all things are for him. And he closes out, to God be the glory forever, amen.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. Father, we thank you how totally bounded our lives are by you.

You've created us, you sustain us, and one day, Lord, we will be with you forever, giving praise and thanksgiving for your love for us. Lord, we pray especially today for those who may be going through some dark chapter of their life. They're confused.

They can't understand the pressure that they are experiencing and why it should be that things look so desperate and there doesn't seem to be any answer or way out for them. Lord, we just come to you today and we ask, Lord, that you would help them and sustain them. And Lord, we pray that you would bring them out of the darkness and the despair of the present circumstances and into the light of the understanding of your wisdom and of your knowledge as you are working in their lives, your eternal purposes for their eternal benefit and good.

And so, Lord, we pray that this might be the day. They'll turn the corner. They'll enter into the new chapter and they'll begin to see the reasons and the purpose that you had in your mind for allowing this difficult circumstance that they might learn to trust in you fully and completely.

We thank you, Lord, that you do bound our lives before us, around us, and ahead of us in the future. May we walk, Lord, with you. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Shall we stand? The pastors are down here at the front to pray with you and to pray for you. So we would encourage you as we're dismissed, come on down.

It may be that the Lord is wanting to just really this day begin a new work in your life and giving you understanding of his ways and his knowledge which are beyond our finding out. But as we live, we begin to discover them as the clock turns and as the world rotates. We come out of the darkness again into the sun and into the light of his presence and glory.

So take advantage of the fact that they're here to pray for you and come and let God do a work in your life today. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee and be gracious unto thee.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.