We are going to leave our study in the book of Acts this week to look at this psalm. This is a psalm of ascents, which means it was likely sung by Israelites as they neared Jerusalem on their way up to worship the Lord at an annual feast, such as Passover.

PERS is in trouble again. The PERS board jacked up the employer contribution rate again. And everybody lived happily ever after. 

Please turn in your Bibles with me to Matthew 19:16-26. Jesus is teaching that those of us who enter into the kingdom and remain in the kingdom have to recognize their need, and have to manifest a childlike trust and a childlike humility as being members of that kingdom.

The Bible is a story of redemption, an appeal to sinful mankind to consider the glory and righteousness of the one, true living God and to turn from sin to the salvation He offers in Christ Jesus, the Savior appointed and given by God to us.

If you’re a parent with kids in public school, you are doubtless aware of the roiling controversies about the teaching of critical race theory and about policies governing the participation of trans athletes in sports.

Build the pyres! Raise the gallows! Pound the stakes into the ground! Gather tinder! And someone brings the sulfur matches! 

Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 19:13-15, where the Lord Jesus instructs us about the nature of the kingdom, the character of the kingdom that He is preaching and bringing in, and He focuses especially on three subjects, marriage, children and possessions. 

Psalm 131 depicts the repose of a soul humble and content before the living God. It quite naturally follows the wonder of forgiveness of sins we see in Psalm 130. Forgiveness of sin and the tranquility of the soul go together.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Matthew 19:1-12.  Jesus has been speaking to his disciples, in an extended series of lessons in Matthew, chapter 18. Now, in Matthew 19, He’s left Galilee, He’s in the border regions of Judea just on the other side of the Jordan ministering to multitudes.

Psalm 130 teaches us how great and amazing salvation is. The wages of sin is death. That truth alone is a constant reminder of how terrible sin is.

America is a force for peace and prosperity in the world. We use our military strength to promote peace. Our economy is driven by innovation, competition, and hard work that leads the world in gross domestic product (GDP). Importantly, we are the face of modern democracy and a beacon to the world for liberty and freedom.

After Republicans clinched their narrower-than-expected new House majority in November’s midterm elections, the only relevant questions for Congress-watchers seemed to pertain to what Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) impending House speakership would look like. 

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Matthew 18:21-35. Jesus’ disciples must have been stunned by this discourse having started with the less than innocent question as to who was greatest, wanting to know who had primacy, who had priority amongst His disciples.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

In one of the most famous editorials ever written, “Is There a Santa Claus?,” a little girl from New York was given the definitive answer to the question.

The Ridgeland Public Library is at it again openly promoting homosexuality in prominent book displays, this time a children’s book about gay Santa and his equally jolly husband.

In recent years, left-wing ideologues seem to have been elected to office in states like California, Oregon, New York and Illinois. There they have raised taxes, imposed radical curriculums in the classroom, and in some cases even attempted to defund the police.

Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 18:1-6. In this passage, Jesus is going to direct the disciples’s attention precisely to the issue of their own humility.