1. "They want to celebrate life without celebrating the giver of life. And in place of an eternally good God who we get to praise for all eternity, they choose to praise the fleeting moments of their lives."

2. "I think we see a pure and uninhibited joy displayed by God's people for all the world to see, and it's captured for us in print. It's a joy that overflows and it invades other people's space whether they like it or not. It's a joy that wants the world to know how great God is."

3. "As God's creatures, we're hardwired to worship our Creator. But if we reject the Creator, the wiring doesn't disappear. It's still firmly intact. It just doesn't work properly, like a flashlight with dead batteries. All the components are there, but it can't be used to help you see in the dark."

4. "Friends, we can't build our lives on a hunch. If you think of your life in these terms, you need to stop playing dice with God because you'll never be able to gamble your way into heaven."

5. "To love sin more than God is to reject God altogether. In fact, because you love your sin more than God, sin has now become your God."

6. "When it comes to protecting themselves, sheep are pretty pathetic. They can't fight, they don't have any claws, they don't have any fangs, they don't have any poison, they certainly don't have any scary sounds they can make. So that means the only self-defense strategy is essentially wait and hope that other sheep gets eaten."

7. "To say that God is our shepherd and we are sheep is to humble ourselves, admitting what is true about us, and to elevate God, declaring what is true of Him."

8. "To know God is good is to taste His goodness for ourselves. We need to experience God's goodness if we hope to praise Him as this Psalm implores us."

9. "If you are one of His sheep, you can be sure that if God is good, then everything that happens to you in this life is designed ultimately for your good."

10. "I only have to consider all the times in which I have been impatient with my children to realize how patient God is with me. I look back and He's always faithful. I'm the unfaithful one."

Observation Questions

1. According to Psalm 100:1-2, what three actions are all the earth commanded to do, and with what attitudes should these actions be performed?

2. In Psalm 100:3, what does the psalmist say we should "know," and what three identity statements does he make about God's people?

3. What specific locations are mentioned in Psalm 100:4, and what postures or attitudes should accompany entering these places?

4. In Psalm 100:5, what three attributes of God are given as the reason ("for") to praise Him, and what is said about the duration of these attributes?

5. Looking at the structure of Psalm 100, what word introduces the grounds for praise in verse 3, and what word introduces the grounds for praise in verse 5?

6. According to the psalm, who is addressed with the command to "make a joyful noise to the Lord" in verse 1—is it limited to Israel or does it extend further?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that the psalmist uses the imagery of "sheep" and "pasture" to describe God's people in verse 3? What does this metaphor reveal about our relationship to God and our own nature?

2. How does the phrase "It is He who made us, and we are His" (verse 3) establish both God's authority over us and His intimate relationship with us? Why are both aspects important for genuine praise?

3. The sermon contrasted the Sunday Assembly's celebration of "fleeting moments" with praising "the giver of life." How does Psalm 100:5's emphasis on God's steadfast love enduring "forever" and His faithfulness "to all generations" address this contrast?

4. Why does the psalmist ground the call to praise (verses 1-2, 4) in the knowledge of who God is and what He has done (verses 3, 5)? What does this structure teach us about the proper foundation for worship?

5. How does the sermon's retelling of Israel's history in Nehemiah 9 illustrate what Psalm 100:5 means when it says God's "steadfast love endures forever" and His "faithfulness to all generations"?

Application Questions

1. The sermon identified three types of superficial praise: seeking emotional highs, praising only when life is going well, and praising out of disengaged duty. Which of these tendencies do you most struggle with, and what specific step could you take this week to root your praise more deeply in who God is rather than in your circumstances or feelings?

2. Psalm 100:3 calls us to "know" that the Lord is God. What is one truth about God's character from this psalm that you need to meditate on more deeply this week, and how might you build that meditation into your daily routine?

3. The sermon emphasized that being called "sheep" is humbling because sheep are dependent, directionless, and defenseless on their own. In what area of your life are you currently resisting God's shepherding guidance or the leadership of godly elders, and how can you take a step toward willing submission this week?

4. The preacher encouraged believers to speak of God's goodness to encourage one another. Who is someone in your life—a family member, friend, or fellow church member—with whom you could share a specific example of God's faithfulness this week?

5. Psalm 100:4 instructs us to "enter His gates with thanksgiving." Before your next gathered worship service, what practical discipline could you adopt to prepare your heart to come with genuine thanksgiving rather than distraction or routine?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Nehemiah 9:16-31 — This passage recounts Israel's repeated rebellion and God's persistent mercy, illustrating the steadfast love and faithfulness to all generations that Psalm 100:5 celebrates.

2. Ezekiel 34:11-16 — Here God promises to be the true Shepherd who seeks, rescues, and tends His scattered sheep, expanding on the shepherd-sheep imagery of Psalm 100:3.

3. John 10:1-18 — Jesus declares Himself the Good Shepherd who knows His sheep and lays down His life for them, showing the ultimate fulfillment of the shepherd theme introduced in Psalm 100.

4. Romans 9:19-26 — Paul addresses God's sovereign right as Creator over His creatures and His mercy in calling a people for Himself, connecting to Psalm 100:3's declaration that "He made us, and we are His."

5. Hebrews 13:15-16 — This passage calls believers to continually offer a sacrifice of praise and to do good, echoing Psalm 100's call to thanksgiving and blessing God's name as the proper response to His goodness.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Sunday Assembly: Celebrating Life Without God

II. The Problem of Superficial Praise Among Believers

III. Overview of Psalm 100's Structure and Purpose

IV. We Praise God for Who He Has Made Us to Be (Psalm 100:3)

V. We Praise God for Who He Is (Psalm 100:5)

VI. A Call to Reflect on God's Goodness and Faithfulness

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Three years ago, in early 2013, two friends by the name of Pippa Evans and Sanderson Jones decided among themselves while they were working in London to start a church. And so they kicked off their first service. It was the realization for them of what they both hoped a living and loving community could look like. They wanted to live meaningful lives. So they try to make the services reflect just that.

They sing songs, they have readings, they listen to a message, they allow for moments of reflection, and they encourage people to stay afterwards and to mingle and to get to know each other better. During the week, they encourage small groups and they look for practical ways in which they can reach out to the local community. And so they make it their aim to be welcoming, accepting, and loving. Now, what I've just described could be ascribed to any number of churches today. However, this church is a little different.

They don't believe in God.

They call themselves the Sunday Assembly. They're an atheistic community on a mission to celebrate life together without God. Why? According to Jones, we come from nothing and we go to nothing. And in between we have these short, glazing moments of awareness and consciousness to love and sing and mess up and try again.

We should celebrate it.

Of course, the Sunday assembly is not a real church at all. But did you catch the irony in it? We come from nothing and we go to nothing. We should celebrate it. They want to celebrate life without celebrating the giver of life.

And in place of eternally good God who we get to praise for all eternity, they choose to praise the fleeting moments of their lives.

Now, for most of us here this morning, Sunday assembly sounds ridiculous. Their praise is so short-sighted, so lacking, so wanting, their praise lacks any foundation because they've removed God from the equation. Sad as that is, I wonder if some of us tend to think of praise in similarly frothy or superficial manner. It's subtle, but I think for some of us here, our praise may be mainly about the pursuit of an emotional experience, like some sort of emotional high.

Could it be then that for us, that this is merely a praise of our experience rather than a praise of our God? Some of us may even tend to praise God when our lives are going really well, but not when it's going bad. Are we then rooting our praise more in our circumstances than in our God?

Still, some of us may swerve into the neighborhood of praising God purely out of a disengaged duty. And so the words joy, celebration, and praise feel out of place in our conception of praise. And so it is the antidote to this frothy praise that Psalm 100 provides. It is a beautiful reminder of how to truly praise the God who is worthy of our praise. Turn with me to Psalm 100.

If you're using the pew Bibles provided, you can find that on page 500.

And if you're not familiar with the Bible, the book of Psalms is essentially Israel's hymnbook. There are 150 of them, and each of them serve their own purpose. Some are Psalms of lament, others are Psalms of wisdom, and the largest category is that of praise and thanksgiving, which is where this psalm fits, as the title states. It would probably have been sung as a celebration song while God's people worshiped Him. As they brought a thank offering to his temple.

And as verse 4 suggests, the worshipers would likely have sung the psalm as they entered through the gates into the courts of the temple sanctuary. And this psalm is loved by many. It's beautifully composed. It is brief and potent. It's compact and glorious.

Don't be fooled by its length. It's like a well-polished diamond. Though it is small in stature, the beauty is in its, sorry, its appeal is in its beauty, not in its size. When we hold it up to the light, we're able to behold its beauty as we see its precise cuts and its flawless nature. And that's the attitude I want you to have this morning as we stare at it from many different angles.

So let's pick up this diamond and let's stare at it firstly, from a distance. Let's read through it once. Psalm 100, a psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness.

Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

So the first thing that we see there, there are quite a few imperatives or commands. Look at verse 1, make a joyful noise. Verse 2, Serve the Lord, come into his presence. Verse 4, enter his gates and his courts, give thanks, bless his name. And all of these commands can be grouped into two main categories, that of thanking God and that of praising God.

Notice too, the structure of the psalm, much like a hymn is made up of separate parts or stanzas. So this psalm can be broken up into four stanzas. And they repeat, exactly as you can see them there in the ESV Bibles you have. Look at the text with me, 1st St. Anselm, verse 1 and 2: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth, serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing. That's the call to praise God.

Make a joyful noise, serve with gladness, come with singing. God rules over all the earth, and the whole earth is called upon to praise and serve Him. Second stanza, verse 3, Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who made us and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

That's the grounds for praise, which is introduced through the word know. We praise God because we know who He is. God is all powerful and He is loving. Third stanza, verse four, Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him; bless his name.

That's the second call to praise. Enter with thanksgiving, enter with praise, give thanks and bless. And then the final and fourth stanza in verse five, For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever. And His faithfulness to all generations. The grounds for His praise is introduced again in the word for.

They praise Him for His goodness, for His steadfast love, for His faithfulness. And so God is good, God is merciful, God is faithful. Notice too, the all-encompassing nature of the psalm. The people of Israel are raising their voices to God in praise, It's the whole earth who is exhorted to praise Him. That kind of exuberant praise reminds me of a Christmas morning a little while back in our house.

Before we had even put up the tree, our oldest daughter had her sight set on a particular toy doll. And she was not shy to mention it. Let's just say she talked about enough times for us to get the point. And come Christmas Day, we're assembled around the tree, I hand her the present and she makes short work of the wrapping paper and she sees the doll and that moment at which she lays her eyes on it, she's ecstatic. Mom, Dad, look what I have!

And she's laughing and she's jumping and she's acting like she's never had a present in her whole life before.

And throughout the next week, she carries on. She's carrying it around with her everywhere she goes. And no one's too busy for her to interrupt them. She's stopping neighbors on the street, she's pulling kids down in the playground, she's telling them all about how great her gift is. She doesn't miss any details either.

She's talking about the hair and the eyes and the makeup and the dress. And she does this because she's so caught up in the joy of what she has received. And as a parent, you just want to take those moments, you want to bottle them up and then just store them away for good use later.

I think that's what we're seeing here in the Psalm. I think we see a pure and uninhibited joy displayed by God's people for all the world to see, and it's captured for us in print. It's a joy that overflows and it invades in other people's space whether they like it or not. It's a joy that wants the world to know how great God is. It's a joy that wants to wants the world to know, look, look at this, this is amazing.

It's worship that celebrates the fact that the salvation of God's people is worthy of the praise of all of God's creation. It is a worship that is responsive to who God is and what he has done for us. And the whole earth is addressed, every nation and tongue and generation on the face of the earth, which makes sense considering how great God is. It's the same sentiment behind Matthew 28:19, when Jesus tells his disciples to go therefore and make disciples of all nations. So we've seen a basic layout of the psalm.

Let's take a closer look at this diamond as we zoom in to examine it. We'll begin to see the details emerge of what constitutes the foundation of our praise. It's not empty rejoicing or misguided attempts to celebrate life in and of itself. If we want to praise God in a way that matters to Him, we need to build our praise on this foundation. And the foundation is this.

First, we praise God for who He has made us to be. Second, we praise God for who He is.

First, we praise God for who He has made us to be. Second, we praise God for who He is. Let's look at who He has made us to be. Look down at verse 3. Know that the Lord, He is God.

It is He who made us and we are His, we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. So that word know introduces the ground of our praise. It shows a familiarity with God. The idea is that we're to recognize or acknowledge, confess that the Lord is God. And the title uses the address to God, which is His covenant name, Yahweh Elohim, the Lord is God.

It would be the same as saying, this God over here, his name is Yahweh. This is Israel's God, and he is the one true God. He is the God over all creation, over all humanity, over those who love him and serve him, and even over those who reject him. Friends, the God that we worship in the Bible is the one true God. There is none other like Him.

Perhaps you don't call yourself a follower of Christ this morning and we're thankful that you're here with us. We love that you get to listen with us. We hope you get caught up in our praise for Him. Feel free to stay afterwards, after the service and speak with us if you have any further questions about the gospel. Maybe you think to yourself as I used to, that the God of the Bible is It's just one of many options out there.

You know, just pick one that works for you, but, you know, essentially they're all the same. And the Bible, well, the Bible is just a bunch of stories meant to inspire us, show us how to live a good life, but it's not binding. Guidelines, if anything. Reminds me of a time a few years ago when I was having dinner with a relative, and our discussion turned to the matter of religion. He tells me that he's a theist.

So he believes in a God, but he doesn't have a personal relationship, he doesn't believe in any particular religion. So I ask him, Describe your God to me. Other than the fact that he's good and he's fair, he couldn't really provide any more details for me. So I press him on what his God will do when he dies. He says to me, Lyle, there's two kinds of people in the world.

People who wear black hats and people who wear white hats, figuratively speaking. So the black hats represent all the bad things you've done in your life, and the white hats represent all the good things you've done in your life. And as you live your life, the hat that you're wearing will change depending on how many good things you've done and how many bad things you've done. And then when it comes to the end of your life, you will die and God will judge you. And whichever hat you have left on your head, that'll determine your fate.

If it's a black hat, you go to a bad place. It's a white hat, you go to a good place. Now, as crazy as that sounds to us this morning, I think that's actually quite a common way people think. I think, you know, they might not use the same hat illustration as he used, but essentially it's the same. If I do enough good things in my lifetime, someone out there, I don't know who it is, but someone out there will see my good works and deal well with me.

Better not do too many bad works. So near the end of our dinner, I asked my relative, How can he be sure of anything he just told me? What does he have as a firm foundation? He had no answer other than, I just hope it is. I hope it's true.

And you know what? He's kind of right. As God's creatures, we're hardwired to worship our Creator. But if we reject the Creator, the wiring doesn't disappear. It's still firmly intact.

It just doesn't work properly, like a flashlight with dead batteries. All the components are there, but it can't be used to help you see in the dark. C.S. Lewis made a similar observation about this in his book, Mere Christianity. He says, Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists.

A baby feels hunger, well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim. Well, there is such a thing as water. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. Now, Lewis's point is not that all desires in and of themselves are slam-dunk argument for the existence of the God of the Bible, but he hears opening the door for us to realize that when these natural desires remain unfulfilled, it's because what we're trying to fulfill them with is simply not sufficient.

So you can meet plenty of people who have a sense of the divine, but no true relationship with God. Maybe they find their fulfillment in money or in sex, or even in work. Maybe they attempt a more obvious counterfeit of the real deal, like the Sunday assembly. Or maybe they wishfully hope, like my relative does, that their version of God is sufficient. Proverbs 14:12 is a good warning.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Friends, We can't build our lives on a hunch. If you think of your life in these terms, you need to stop playing dice with God because you'll never be able to gamble your way into heaven. The Bible provides a sure and firm foundation for our faith. It tells us clearly that the Lord is God, that He created the world and all that is in it, including you, including me, and He created it good.

And then He gave us the freedom to love Him and obey Him. But along with that freedom, we've inherited a nature from the first of our kind, from Adam. It is a sinful nature and it muddies our perception of who God is.

And so we naturally choose to love our sin more than our God. And to love sin more than God is to reject God altogether. In fact, Because you love your sin more than God, sin has now become your God. What is the first of the Ten Commandments? You shall have no other gods before me.

Right there, we've broken the first of God's laws. We are therefore guilty before the very God who created us. He is a good God. And because he is good, he is also just, and he will deal rightly with our sins. And before him we stand condemned, facing eternal punishments.

So if you don't follow Christ this morning, I want you to know that while God would be perfectly just in punishing you for your sin, he is also a compassionate God.

He will one day return to judge, and He will destroy the ungodly. But here now in 2 Peter 39, God is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And so the Lord who made us, whom we were born rejecting, holds out to us this morning a hope and His patience. And His loving kindness that is rock solid. He provides us a way to be forgiven for our sins.

And He's done this at great cost Himself. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, from heaven to earth, who took on flesh just like us. He lived a blameless life, not like us. And He never sinned. And He did this so that He could present Himself as the perfect sacrifice to His Father in heaven, He did this willingly on our behalf.

He was crucified on a real cross. He died a real death. He was buried in a real tomb. And three days later, God raised his body from the grave. And by his death and his resurrection, he's defeated death and sin so that not only can we be forgiven for our sins, but we can be freed from our slavery to sin.

No longer do we have to fumble around in the dark trying to figure out how to become right with our Creator. This forgiveness is available today if you would repent and follow Christ. Seek His forgiveness this day.

What does this forgiveness lead us to? It leads to a sweet relationship with the Lord. Look again at verse 3. The Psalm continues, It is He who made us, and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

So the idea here is that God is not only a God over creation, but also over salvation. He both makes and chooses to redeem his people. And those whom he redeems, he calls his people, his sheep.

Now, For the original singers of the psalm, the nation of Israel, the image of sheep would have been a familiar one. But we have to work a little harder altogether in order to appreciate this with our modern ears. The word sheep is not really complementary in our culture. We prefer something a little more tough, a little more independent. There's a reason why we mostly give our favorite sports teams tough-sounding names, like the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks and the Minnesota Vikings.

But no one's starting a new franchise called the Chicago Sheep. Why? Well, because sheep are meek, they're easily scared, and frankly, they're quite stupid.

And that's the point. That's a far more truthful description of who we are before God. In Isaiah 53:6, the prophet Isaiah describes those who don't follow the Lord as sheep who have gone astray. In Ezekiel 34:31, God calls Israel the human sheep of his pasture. And in Luke 15, Jesus referring to the spiritually lost, tells the parable of the lost sheep, which the shepherd goes in search of.

Friend, if we're sheep, then we need a shepherd. Think about what a shepherd does. His main job description is to tend the flock. He's making sure they have clean drinking water. He's ensuring they move from pasture to pasture so they're well fed.

He's making sure to shear them and keep them free of pests. He's also protecting them, which is probably his most important job. When it comes to protecting themselves, sheep are pretty pathetic. They can't fight, they don't have any claws, they don't have any fangs, they don't have any poison, they certainly don't have any scary sounds they can make.

They're actually fairly slow, especially when they're thick wool is wet and heavy. And so about the only thing that they do well is they huddle together in danger. So that means the only self-defense strategy is essentially wait and hope that other sheep gets eaten.

So that's why we need a watchful shepherd. I appreciate Tim Chellie's observation on this point. He says, Sheep are dumb. And directionless and defenseless. So I guess when God says that we are sheep who need a shepherd, He doesn't mean it as a compliment to us.

It is just a very realistic assessment of who we are and what we need. We are sheep who are completely dependent upon a shepherd. To say that God is our shepherd and we are sheep is to humble ourselves, admitting what is true about us, and to elevate God, declare what is true of Him. Friends, when God is our Shepherd, we have the best Shepherd looking after us. I wonder, what kind of sheep are you?

Do you buck at authority? Do you follow the Lord's lead? As he shepherds you? Do you willingly submit to his will and to his word?

Members of this congregation, as one sheep to another, when the elders who are under shepherds of our great shepherd seek to lead you and to teach you and to admonish you, Do you willingly and joyfully submit to them, realizing that one of the evidences of grace is that God chooses to bless you by giving you godly elders? Do you feel His loving care, or does it feel restrictive? Perhaps over lunch today, you can talk to each other about how you're a sheep. And how God is a good shepherd to us. So we've seen that the first foundation of our praise is that we praise God for what he has made us to be.

And now as we turn that diamond again, you'll see another reason we praise God, and that is for who he is. Look at verse 5.

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. The Lord is good, His steadfast love endures, His faithfulness endures to all generations.

God is good. Seems like such a throwaway line. After all, we tend to call everything from last week's game to ice cream to our pets, maybe even our bosses, Good. The word has become diluted because it's so common. What does it mean to say that God is good?

Because our praise depends on knowing this to be true. Can't be limited to a dictionary definition, I don't think. So I could stand up here, I could open up a thesaurus, and I could give you all the synonyms for the word good, and we would be none the wiser.

To know God is good is to taste His goodness for ourselves. We need to experience God's goodness if we hope to praise Him as this Psalm implores us. God's goodness is an essential attribute of who He is. There's no point at which He ceases to be good. So if you are one of His sheep, You can be sure that if God is good, then everything that happens to you in this life is designed ultimately for your good.

If you're one of His sheep, then you can be sure that if God is good, then everything that happens to you in your life is designed ultimately for your good. God is concerned for the welfare of those whom He loves. He supplies us with undeserved favours. He is full of mercy. He is tenderhearted and He has loving compassion for His people.

He is a Father to His children beyond the greatest of all earthly fathers combined. He loves His children and He loves them unwaveringly and it never fades, it never wanes, His goodness is continual. It is ever present. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks for Him. Lamentations 325.

And those who take refuge in Him taste and see that He is good. Psalm 348. So how was God good to the original singers of this psalm, to Israel? In what ways was his love steadfast and enduring? And why could they call him faithful?

In other words, what has God done that would cause them to praise him so? I think knowing that is instructive for us this morning. And not only Israel, just take the time this week to read through Hebrews chapter 11, the so-called hall of faith. Pick out a name or two and just read and study about their story and God's work in their lives. And be refreshed in your own faith.

Back to Israel. Consider God's kindness toward them. Starting with Abraham, God chose him and he promised him. He promised to make a great nation from him. Even though he was well past retirement age, his wife was barren, and God kept his promise by giving him a son, Isaac.

Isaac and his offspring, a few generations later, eventually formed the nation of Israel, and God fulfilled his promise there to multiply them. Consider the steadfast love of God, again, toward this people, a people without a ruler, a people without a home, a people who were in slavery in Egypt for over 400 years in Egypt. Had God forgotten his promise to Abraham? Did God not love them?

They cry out to him and he hears their cries and he leads them out of Egypt. Think about what he does. He rescues them, he takes them through the Red Sea safely away from an army of chariots. Then he provides them on the other side literally with bread from heaven. He provides water to drink that was originally bitter, and he guides them through the wilderness with a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night so they can see their way.

And then he gives them his law.

But the the stiff-necked people that they were, they refused to obey this God. They made instead a golden calf and worshiped that, and said, this is our God.

And through this all, how does God respond to them? How does He deal with them? Nehemiah 9 is instructed for us in verse 17. Recounting all these things, it says, But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Even when they made for themselves a golden calf and said, this is your God who brought you up out of Egypt.

And had committed great blasphemies, you, in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst. 40 years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Would God's mercy toward Israel there cause them to see the error of their ways to repent and then turn back to Him?

For a time, yes. An entire generation was forbidden to enter the Promised Land and a new generation entered on a clean slate. So to speak. But it would be long before, it would not be long before, they turned away from their Lord again. Picking up again in Nehemiah 926 it says, Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemy.

Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering, they cried out to you, and you heard them from heaven. And according to your great mercies, you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies.

But after they had rest, they did evil again before you. And you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies, and you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them. And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey.

Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, In your great mercies, you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. God is good, His steadfast love endures and His faithfulness to all generations.

Many years later, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to another faithless generation. And through Christ, God's goodness continues even to us. And during his earthly ministry, Jesus traveled from village to village, and he was healing people, and he was teaching them of the coming kingdom. And at one point, he stops to look at the multitudes. In Matthew, chapter 9, verse 36, we read, when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus is a good shepherd, is he not?

How has God shown his goodness to you?

How has his steadfast love and his faithfulness been present to you even this week.

One of the greatest works that we can do as Christians is to encourage each other. And you can do that by speaking of God's goodness in your lives. When others hear you, do your lips grumble or do they sound the praises of your Savior?

So one of the unusual things you would notice about this church sanctuary architecturally, the seating arrangement swings about 270 degrees, which makes it fun for me because I've got to try to see all of you. But it makes it unique because when you stand up to sing in the singing portion of the service, instead of looking at the back of the person's head in front of you, you can actually see from that side of the room to this side of the room and you can see the faces of the people that you're singing along with. And there's some noticeable positives about that. A brother shared with me this week how when he comes into the sanctuary and he's able to see others sing with such evident joy, just that itself is an encouragement to him. And I've often found myself thinking the same thing.

As I stand here to sing and I look around at the faces, of the saints who are here praising the Lord, I can't help but think, I'm going to be able to be doing this in glory with you forever.

How faithful has God been even to this church as we celebrate just yesterday marked 138 years since CHBC was constituted. And the Lord has preserved it and allowed it to continue to be a faithful gospel witness for multiple generations, not just one.

This goodness of God first became apparent to me about 13 years ago. In fact, 13 years ago next week, a friend of mine shared the love of Christ with me and upon hearing it, I instantly spurned him. I thought to myself, who is stupid enough to believe this stuff? He has completely wasted his time with me. I will never believe this.

And yet, in his kindness, the Lord gave that brother a great stubbornness in pursuing me.

And I could see he was both gentle and firm. I could see that he was carrying for my soul, but he didn't let me off the hook. So I did something after hearing the earnestness in his voice for a while. I did something that was out of character. I just listened to him and I heard him out and he began to share with me about how this guy that he talked about in the Bible is a good God.

He began to share with me about how good God is in his own life. And then I began to meet some of his friends and they started sharing with me the goodness of God in their own life and how faithful he is. And there was almost this tangible quality. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it was attractive.

And so as I began to read the Bible and ask good questions, I saw my own sin. And it was ugly. And then I saw Christ. And Christ is pure and good. And I believe God used that time to help me to see how much I needed Him.

He helped me to see that I was in fact a lost sheep. I was wondering before God stopped me in my tracks, caused me to go to my knees and repent and follow Him. Now, it would be completely wrong of me to speak of every day since that as being a fairy tale. Nothing has ever gone wrong since. I've got God on my side.

No. There have been many hardships, many tough times, and yet each year the Lord has been kind to show me how gracious He is toward me. I only have to consider all the times in which I have been impatient with my children to realize how patient God is with me. I only have to think of those moments when I've slandered someone or spoken out of anger and realize that God is, when God is willing to put up with me, that's staggering. And even on those moments of doubt and despair when I've struggled to trust the Lord and figure out what in the world is He doing with my life, He's always been faithful.

I look back and He's always faithful. I'm the unfaithful one. He is faithful and He is faithful from generation to generation. Have you seen this in your own experience?

Let's pray.

Father, you, know our hearts. You know that we are not faithful. And youd know our need. You know our need of youf, and we thank youk that yout are ever present. That yout have not disappeared.

You are not going about minding your own business, but yout are our Father. You are our Shepherd, and we praise youe for that. Help us to be good sheep before you. Help us to trust yout work. Help us to trust in youn guidance in our lives.

We pray these things in Christ's name, our great Shepherd. Amen.