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The River ChurchSermons

Established

Justin Dean · Sunday, 28 June 2026 · 43:41 · 6,439 words

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The sermon explores Psalm 112, showing how God establishes his people as firm, steady, and victorious when they trust him. It emphasizes that true establishment begins with faith in Christ, a healthy fear of God, and a heart that delights in his commandments. The speaker challenges listeners to examine whether they rely on the world or on God for stability, and to reorder their values to match God’s. He asks them to seek God’s help to live obediently and joyfully, trusting that he will root them deeply.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

establish 35 value 26 bless 36 steady 13 psalm 38 unmoving 9 establishment 8 rich 16 fear 20 idol 12 victorious 7 firm 11

Topics

Sin 3 Salvation 3 Prayer 2 Faith 2 Righteousness 2 Obedience 2 Sanctification 1 The Gospel 1 The Holy Spirit 1

Scripture referenced 27

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 112 1:37 Psalms 112 2:37 Psalms 90 3:03 Psalms 12 4:49 Psalms 112 12:25 Psalms 112 12:34 Psalms 112:1 12:34 Psalms 112:7 12:41 Romans 10:9 18:41 Psalms 112 21:41 Psalms 90 23:26 Psalms 90 23:35 Psalms 90 24:13 Psalms 90:3 24:13 Psalms 90:10 24:28 Psalms 112 25:13 Psalms 112 34:22 Psalms 112:1 34:22 Psalms 112 34:32 Psalms 112:1 34:32 Psalms 112:4 35:08 Psalms 112:9 35:25 Psalms 112:10 36:08 Psalms 100 38:11 Psalms 100 38:20 Psalms 100:2 38:20 Colossians 2:7 43:31

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

the psalms, and let me tell you, it seems like we're going at a super rapid pace, and that's

because there's a lot of psalms, right? And we would be here for multiple years if we were preaching

every single one, and so we've kind of picked some ones that we want to highlight. But let me say this,

if there's one that you, a particular psalm that you very much enjoy, or maybe that we have already

passed over, let me know. I would love to be able to maybe study it, talk with you about it, or maybe

even work it into a future series if you're like, hey, I really, really think that this is important.

Please feel free to let me know that, but I've been so enjoying this study in the psalms because

we look and through a multitude of different outlets that are happening in the psalms, we are

seeing this picture of the growth,

of God's people. And for us today, that's the growth of the church. As individuals and corporately

together, we look and we see poems, we see songs, we see prayers, we see things of praise, things of

sadness, and in each of these, it teaches us the character of God and the proper response to have

in the midst of those things. And so sometimes that looks like we're exhorting ourselves,

trying to help our hearts and our actions line up with the ways of scripture. In some of those,

it's a reminder of who God is and looking to align ourselves with that. And this morning,

I'm excited because we're taking a look at Psalm 112, and there's this picture of what it means

for us as people who follow God, the character that should be being produced in our lives,

and this praise of God.

of the Lord for him producing those things in our lives and reminding us of those things and us

looking to him and seeing these things as true. And so I'm super excited about this morning. It's

not a long psalm, but it is a very rich psalm. It's a very, I would say, helpful psalm. Not that

other psalms aren't helpful, but it's a very practical reminder of who we're called to be.

And so before we dive into God's word, let's pray and ask the Lord for wisdom this morning. Lord,

we turn to you. We ask that you would help us to

understand your word. We ask that you would teach us through your word who you are calling us to be,

who you are teaching us to be. And we ask all these things in your precious and holy name,

Jesus' name. Amen. And so if you take a look at Psalm 112, here, in a second, I'm going to read

it in its entirety. It's 10 verses, and we're going to kind of parcel it up. But one of the

things that I really like about the psalms is in some psalms, we are given,

the specific author, right? Last week, Pastor Roy talked to us about how there was this psalm that

was written, Psalm 90, was written by Moses. And he gave us the context behind what and why Moses

was writing this psalm. And it helps kind of illuminate what was going on, and this picture

of how it applies to our lives. And that context is super important. And we've talked about others

and others of David. But sometimes I enjoy when we look at the psalms, and there is no author that

is recorded. We don't know who the author is here. And the reason why I enjoy that is sometimes when

we look at context, we then try to look and say, well, my life isn't that context, so it doesn't

apply to me. Or I'm not walking through that exact thing that David or Moses was walking through.

So we kind of separate out what is being said and what they are going through from our lives.

But when we look and we see there is no recorded author, we're reminded that the true author of

God's word is God. That as we look, and whether it was written by David or Asaph or Moses, or it was

written by an unknown author, or it was written by Paul in New Testament, or whoever it was written

by, we look and we say the Holy Spirit gave them those words. And so they are of ultimate truth

in our lives. And so as we read this psalm, we can look and we say, though we don't know maybe

the life context of the author that was writing, we know that this is true in our lives regardless.

And so read Psalm 12 with me if you want to follow along. It says this,

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His offspring

will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches

are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness. For the

upright, he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and

lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be

remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart

is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversary. He has distributed

freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. The

wicked man sees it and is angry. He now is free. He has given to the poor. He has given to the

He gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked will perish. And so there's this short

psalm that is really a praise of the Lord, right? That's how it starts off. Praise the Lord. And

there is this distinction between this person who is following the Lord, who is in the Lord,

who is established in the Lord, and then the reality of the wicked person who is not. And so

we look and we praise God because of the Lord. And so we look and we praise God because of the

who he is and who he makes his people to be. And so the Lord makes us into these people, this type

of people that specifically we see really characterized in verse six through eight. Turn

back there. It says, for the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He is not

afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not

be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. And so there's this picture of this

unmoving, firm, unshaken, steady person. And this person is made this way through the work of the

Lord in their lives. And so when I look at the characteristics of this person and I look at how

the Lord is made, I see that he is not afraid of bad news. He is not afraid of bad news. He is not

the word that immediately comes to my mind is established, right? That idea of being established

is not only this one, this one of being placed in a certain spot or being put there, but of being

put there in confidence, being put there and not being able to be moved. It's beyond just the

placing. And it is the reality of creating deep roots, this establishment,

this is where this thing is. A lot of times my mind goes to a tree. There are trees in my yard

that I could work at for the whole year and it's just not moving, right? Like, and maybe

Mike Carver with his skid circuit come and take it out. But as for me, there's no way that I am

moving that thing on my own accord with the tools that I have, right? I could go at it for days with

an ax. It's not coming down. And if it does, it's probably going on my roof, right? There's

just this reality of that. When I look at a tree, I'm like, how could that be moved at times? And

it's because of these deep roots. It's been established. The Lord establishes us. And here

we see that what it means to be established by the Lord is being unmoving, being steady,

and being victorious people. I think a lot of us hear that and we're like, that

sounds really good, pastor, right? Like, I want to be an unmoving. I want to be a steady. I want

to be a victorious person. We look and we say, that is what we want. We want confidence and

faith in the midst of the unknown. We want to be unmoved by trials. When hard things show up or

when the unexpected shows up in our lives, we don't want to be these anxious, worried, fretful

people. We want to be firm in bad news. When we get bad news, we want to be the type of people

that respond in a way that we don't want to be. We want to be the type of people that respond in a

way that isn't crumbling. We don't want fear to rule our lives. We say all these things,

but when these type of things come, this unknown, these trials, these bad news, when fear comes,

we run to other places than the Lord. And so here, the writer of the psalm is praising the Lord

because he looks and he says, the only way in which I can exist in this way, the only way I can be

established, the only way I can be unmoving, the only way I can be steady and victorious,

the only way those things happen in my life is because of you, oh God. And so I praise you,

and I look to you. When I look at everything else in the world, that will not make me unmoving.

That will not keep me steady. It will not lead me to being victorious. It may for a time,

but not for eternity, not in the long run, not never ending. And so we look and we say,

why do we look to other places to establish us? Why do we look to other places to produce in us

this unmoving, firm, steady victory in our lives? And I really think it boils down to two main

issues. We, at our core, we actually don't think that the Lord can establish us. And throughout

the psalms, we've talked about this at length, the reality of who our God is, how in control he is,

his sovereignty, his power, and his power. And so we look to other places to establish us.

It's just this constant theme throughout the psalms. And so this morning, I'll look and I'll

give you a simple answer. He can and he will establish you if you seek him. But then there's

the second picture of why I think this happens. And this is the one I really want us to look at

this morning. Because I think that when we look at this passage, it addresses this. We don't know

how to be established by God. I think many of us in this room, we look and we say, I believe that

the Lord can establish me. And I'll just sit and twiddle my thumbs and go about my life as normal

and hope that he does. We look and we say, we want to be established by the Lord, but we have no idea

how that happens in our life or really what it even looks like. What does it look like? And how

do we seek out this establishment from the Lord? How do we become firm, unmoving, steady, victorious

people? And there's, I think, a very clear depiction of that. And I think that's what we're

of that in Psalm 112. The first is, we are established through our faith in the Lord. And

there are really two lines that point to this immediately. Turn to Psalm 112. Look at verse 1.

It says, praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. And then verse 7, he is not afraid

of bad news. His heart is firm. How is his heart firm? How is he not afraid of bad news? Trusting

in the Lord. We are established, first and foremost, through our faith in God, our faith

in our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the beginning of this establishment in our lives,

right, the planting of the seed, if we want to continue of the tree analogy, it comes from

the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are dead in our trespasses.

Before we know Jesus Christ, when we are just living our lives as normal, from the moment we're

born into this world, we are corrupted by sin. We are dead in our transgression. We fall

short of the glory of God. There is no hope for us to be established. Why? Because we are

dead. We're tumbleweed. Of course we can't be firm. Of course we can't stand true. Of course

we aren't unmoving. Why? Because the things of the world that moves us here

and there. Because we have no establishment. We're not rooted in anything. But that establishment

first comes through the Lord working in our life in the producing of faith. Salvation. We see it

first in the fear of the Lord. There is this reality when we look and we see God,

the majority of people, when you talk to them about God, lost people, there is no concern for

God, let alone a healthy fear of God. They don't care. Whether that's because they don't think

that he exists or is real at all. Whether that's because they don't think that he is all-powerful

and sovereign. Whether that's because they don't think that he's good. Whatever the reason is,

there is no fear of the Lord. But the Lord establishes that reality in our lives.

And it comes through an understanding of our sin and our need for a Savior. When we look and we

start to see the reality of what it means to fall short of God,

when we look and we see what our disobedience does and we understand who God is, we look and we say,

oh no. Right? Like, oh no, I am in such deep trouble. I have brought myself to a place through

my own sin, through my own responsibility that is so distant from God. I have made myself an

enemy of God on high. And I look at him and I know I am on the losing side.

And so there is this fear of the Lord, this reality of sin, and that pushing

us to a place where we look and we say, I need a Savior. There is no hope for me without someone

intervening. So often people will come to me and they'll be like, Justin, I have this lost person

in my life and I've been trying to talk to him about Jesus over and over and over and over again.

And they just don't care. They don't want to know God. Or they just brush it off or it's not of any

importance to them or they, whatever. What should I do? And they just don't care. And they just don't

care. And their expectation is that I am this great argumentative debater. And they think that

I'm going to give them the one-liner that's going to save their friends or that's going to save

these people. And many times I can see the frustration in their eyes after I say what I say

to them. I say, the best way that you can reach them is to pray that the Lord would produce in

them a healthy fear of him and an understanding of their sin and need for a Savior. And they're

like, I wanted the one-liner. Like, I wanted to be the one that did it. And I look and say, you can be

the most persuasive person in the world. But until someone understands their depth of their sin and

their need for Jesus Christ, they don't care. They don't care. That doesn't mean we shouldn't preach

the gospel. That doesn't mean we shouldn't talk to people about who Jesus is because we don't know

who the Lord is working on their heart. But the reality is that fear of the Lord has to be established

in their heart. And that fear of the Lord has to be established in their heart. And that fear of

the Lord has to be established in their heart from God. As we look, we see, blessed is the man who fears

from the Lord. That's the very first blessing that a person receives in this establishment process.

We should have a healthy fear of the Lord. When we sin, we should look and be like, man, that was a

bad decision. Why? Because I want to honor God. And that was anything but honoring the Creator

Almighty. Not that we think he's just going to zap us, but that we look and we say, man, my heart is to

please this God. Why? Because I respect him. Because there's a sincerity behind my belief

and my love for him. And so that moves into that salvation, right? Christ came. He died on the cross.

He provided this way of salvation. He lived a perfect life. He went to the cross. He died in

our place, took the wrath of God that was destined for us upon himself. He descended into hell. And on

the third day, he rose again from the grave, conquering that which would condemn us. Romans 10, 9,

if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that he has risen

from the dead, you will be saved. That's this salvation process. And so we pray for this

recognition of a need for a Savior, the reality of sin, and then we preach the good news of the

gospel. Yes, preach the good news of the gospel. It's not just the preacher's duty. I know that's

kind of in my title, but that's our responsibility. We proclaim the good news of Jesus, and then some

want to say, hopefully you in this room have received that salvation. If you haven't received

that salvation, I want you to know my prayer for you is that you see your need for a Savior,

because I had a desperate need for a Savior. You have a desperate need for a Savior. You are

sunk without Jesus Christ. But then what happens is as we are saved through the work of Christ

Jesus, as we are saved from God showing up in our lives and blessing us with the fear of the

Lord, it then produces in us this deeper faith that shows itself in this trust in the Lord.

This trust in the Lord that we look and we say, God, we know that you love us because you saved

us. God, we know that your ways are true because you've saved us. We know that you are mighty and

that your character is perfect and that you are good because you've done these things and you've

done these things. And so we trust in the ways of the Lord. We look and say, if you, if we have this

healthy fear of you and this real understanding of who you are and who we are, in light of that,

we look and we say, we trust you, God. I trust you, God, with my life. I trust you, God, with my

family. I trust you, God, with my finances. I trust you, God, with all these aspects of my life

that previously I trusted me with. And so we begin to become established on moving and stepping

steady. Why? Because we are first established in this faith of the Lord. And then that trust in

the Lord begins to step by step by step by step play out in our lives. But it comes from this

initial establishment through faith and salvation. And as we come to know him and as we trust in him,

we begin to look and see his values. And he produces in us this new understanding,

understanding, and this new value system. And that's where we look and we see, check out verses

two and three of Psalm 112. It says this, his offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation

of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house and he will, and his righteousness

endures forever. Some of us look and we say, now that is what I came to church to hear, right? Like

I'm having a hard time. Wealth and riches could fix a lot of what I'm dealing with right now,

right? Like that's the reality of what many of us fall into the trap of. That we look and we see

blessing and wealth. And we immediately see that as a monetary thing that applies to these 80,

give or a few, some years, years of life here. We can say, well, this is what I'm going to do. And

oh, he must be talking about like me now, like my bank account, right? Like my, my physical blessings.

And a lot of pastors, unfortunately, not pastors, false teachers will take that and they will

twist it to what we want to hear. What the flesh wants to tell us. It is about these 80 years on

earth, give or take. That it is this monetary financial blessing. It is this blessing of health.

It is this blessing of just happiness. You'll just be a more happy person. But one of the things as I

dove into this passage, I was reminded of Pastor Roy's sermon last week. He took a look at Psalm

90. Turn back to Psalm 90 for a second. He called us to this eternal perspective. And he did that

through Psalm 90, where he talks about, really, it's a pretty bleak Psalm if you read it at face

value. That's why I had Roy read it. He's bleak.

No, I'm just kidding. He made fun of me. I had to get in my, my jab. All right. But he looked in

and Roy, he helped us to see beyond just the surface level, even though it is kind of this

morose or depressing Psalm, how actually we're given this confidence and this joy

in the midst of it all. But it comes from this eternal perspective that the things of this world

are temporary. Look at Psalm 90. Look at verse three. You return man to dust.

And say, return, O children of man. So this reminder that we are going to go back to dust.

Verse 10. The years of our life are 70, or even by the reason of strength, 80. Yet their span

is but toil and trouble. There's this reality that this life on earth, and I love how he says

that, right? Our lives are 70. And if we're especially strong, 80. And if we're especially

strong, 80. But he looks and he says, there is nothing there. Even in that multitude of years,

it's dust. It's dust. I love what Charles Spurgeon had to say. He preached this message specifically

on Psalm 112, seven. And he says this, and the dude was around a while ago. So he's a little

bit wordy. So just, just understand that. This is what he says. What are earth's treasures,

but vapor? Will you heap up for yourself,

haze and fog? Cloud and mist will pass away. And if these be your riches,

how poverty stricken will you be when you can carry none of these airy riches into the land

of solid wealth? I wish I was as eloquent as that, right? He looks and he says, the reality of this

life is this vapor. It's dust. And so will we look and say, okay, got 80 years. I'm going to be the

dust collector, right? Like I am going to collect just heaps and heaps and heaps and mound of dust.

And Spurgeon looks and he says, so are you going to walk into heaven, this place where the streets

are gold, where we're proclaiming the riches of the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and look and

say, look at all this dust I have, right? There is this monetary wealth, this worldly blessing that

so often when we think of, it shows us that our value system is a mess because those monetary

wealth there, that worldly blessing is such a waste. It's less than pocket change to our God.

And so when he looks and he says, I will bless you, I will give you riches. You know that that's

something more, right? If, and regardless of your feelings of him, if Elon Musk says,

he's going to bless you and give you riches and he shows up with a hundred dollars, you're going to

be like, thanks. But like, I thought your version of riches were very different, right? Like you got

a lot of cash, right? Like, but our God is a God who is infinitely more wealthy and of the right

stuff and is a generous God. And so when he says, I'll give you blessings, I will produce riches in your life. You will

be wealthy. Do not degrade that wealth by thinking that it's monetary because really what it shows.

And when I said that value system gets messed up, I think it shows the idols that we make of

temporary things in our lives. And so when it comes to blessings, we settle for dust rather

than eternal because we look and those things are what we worship in our lives. And so when it

comes to blessings, we settle for that. And so when it comes to blessings, we settle for the shrines that we have created in our lives, the shrine of finances, right? We want the blessing of the lottery, the shrine of our jobs or the idol of our jobs. We want to be blessed with a promotion, maybe an easier workload, more influence, being heard at our jobs, making more and working less, or the idol of health in our life. This blessing, we want this blessing of being healthy or physical healing. We want this, we have this idol of health in our life. We want this blessing of being healthy or physical healing. We want this, we have this idol of health in our life. We want this blessing of being healthy or physical healing. We want this, we have this idol of health in our life. We want this blessing of being healthy or physical healing. We want this, we have this idol

of our happiness in our lives. And so we want this blessing that everything will be easygoing. Everything will be simple. Maybe it's the idol of time in our life where we look and we say, we want this blessing of the absolution of responsibility. I want less responsibilities and I want more time to do what I want. Or maybe we have created an idol of family in our lives. Yes, your family can become an idol in your life. That's not to say that

the things on this list are bad, but when they take the chief spot in our lives over creator

almighty, they're in the wrong spot. They are an idol. And some, for many of us, sometimes family

becomes that idol. We want the blessing of just everyone doing what they're supposed to do, of our

kids behaving, of this perfect relationship between our spouse and I, right? We just want everything to be good. But our Lord

is Christ. Christ is our Lord. God almighty is who we serve. He holds that chief place. And so when we

look at and we see this blessing of wealth, riches in our lives, we look and we say, there is one more

valuable. There is a blessing more valuable than any of the things that I just listed on that list.

And it is this heavenly blessing from God. And it shows itself in a multitude of ways. Blessing in the fruits

of the spirit. I think if I look to say, you know, I did the whole Oprah, right? Everyone in here gets

a blank, right? Some of you are hoping a car, some cash. I say everyone in here gets patience this

week. Does that make you really excited? Or is that a letdown? Because when we value things, we

look and we say, this eternal fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives, where he is nourishing our soul and providing us with

with this fruit of the spirit, which is patience in our hearts, that is worth more than a new car.

That is worth more than a house payment. That's simply the value. We have to begin to see it that

way. We become established. We become firm. We become these people who are victorious in our

lives. When we look at, we say the thing that matters in my life is demonstrating the characteristics

of creator almighty. When peace shows up in my life, that's winning the lottery. When self-control

shows up in my life, that's a new car. When I handle things in the way in which God calls me

to handle things in my life, that is everything I need. That's riches. It's this blessing comes

from the producing of the character of God in our lives. When we look more like Jesus Christ in our

lives, we win. That's riches. That's wealth beyond anything that 70, 80, 90, a hundred plus years

could be. It's this riches in heaven. And so we look and we say, we must place value on that,

which is really valuable, eternally valuable. And if we, and we find ourselves when those things

are producing our lives, made steady, established, rooted, grounded, unmoving,

able to take bad news, able to sit and be satisfied in fear. And we look and we say,

okay, then how does that play out? How does that value system begin to look like in our lives? Well,

we act according to what we value. And I can give you a multitude of analogies on this.

I think it's pretty safe to say, if you value something, you'll do it. You'll get it done.

If it's really, if it holds weight for you, you'll do it. And so we see

that this established person is one who values what God values and then acts accordingly.

Look at the rest of this passage, back to Psalm 112, verse one, the way that the whole way that

this Psalm is characterized is this praise to the Lord, right? He starts off Psalm 112, verse one,

praise the Lord, blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his

commandments. That's the characteristic. That's the actions of someone who values what God values.

Why? Because we look and we say, if God values his commandments so much that he determined that's

what he's going to communicate to us, then that brings me great joy. Those things are of chief

importance. Those are my riches is his commandments. Jump down to verse four, light dawns in the darkness for the upright.

He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lens who

conducts his affairs with justice. Jump down to verse nine. He has distributed freely. He has given

to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horns, his horn is exalted in honor. There's this

picture of this person who looks and says, I value what God values. And that produces this love and

grace. And the things that he's called me to, it shows out in the characteristics of that person.

Look at, look at how this happens. This person is dealing with people around him, is, is interacting

with the world around him. And there's a fundamental difference. And you see that characterized in

verse 10, right? Just in case you forgot, the wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his

teeth and melts away. There's this reality of the rest look on. It doesn't make sense. And it honestly

makes them frustrated because they look and say, that doesn't compute. Why do you value those

things over money? Why do you value those things over fame, over influence, over power, over all

these different things? Why is that what's important to you? You could tear it all down.

And the reality is that's why we have victory because our Lord will destroy it all. But we are

established through our dedication to God's ways. This description of this person who is not moved

who is steady, who is victorious is a person who acts in a way that is consistent with the values

of God and those values playing out in their lives as well. They live in obedience to the Lord. They

delight in his ways, in his characteristics. They demonstrate him. This is not what saves. We're

saved all the way back from that fear of the Lord, from that salvation that comes through Jesus Christ

alone. But this picture is, it's a demonstration of a person who is established. If you are not

living out the ways of God, I fear for the establishment of his ways in your life. Because

we're called to be rooted in Christ. And I love the way to that, that picture, that word that he

uses in verse one, where he says, who greatly delights in his commandments. It reminds me of

Psalm 100, one that we skipped over. Hope we'll get to it next year or in the next couple of years.

Psalm 100 verse two says, to serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing.

I am glad to serve the Lord. It brings me joy to live the ways that he calls me. That's what we

should say. I'm not the best at saying that. I'll be honest. In this fleshly world, I think there is

tug of war in our hearts. This is what we want to obey God. And we really struggle with wanting to

obey God. That's what Paul talks about a lot, actually. But I think we have to check our hearts

and say, not only do we obey God, do we find great delight in obeying God? In those moments where

our patience is being tested, do we look and say, I have to be patient right now. It stinks. We're

going to fruit of the spirit here. That makes me smile. I'm excited to demonstrate patience in

traffic all the time. Not really, but that's what our heart should be. Am I glad to demonstrate

self-control and temptation? Am I glad to be kind when someone is not being kind to me? Am I glad

to demonstrate love to a world that has such a false picture of what love is? You go through this,

love, joy, peace, patience.

Kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Am I glad looking to obey God? Am I glad when God's

word, when I find something in God's word that's incongruent in my life, am I excited? Am I

delighting in fixing that? Lord, I'm so thankful that now my life looks more honorable to you.

There's a heart there. And so I'll leave you with this question this week. What does it look like

to be established by God? This week, for you, what does it look like for you

to be greater established by God? Because he is looking to establish his people. Maybe for you

in this room, it's salvation. There's a need for you to turn to Jesus Christ. Maybe for you in this

room, it's a submission of your value system to God. God, I am valuing all the wrong things. Lord,

produce in me this value of what you value, that I would prioritize what your priorities,

maybe for you this week, it's being obedient or being glad in your obedience. Lord, I got some

things I got to change or I got some things I got to work on because I want to honor you. Give me a

joy to do that. Give me an excitement to do that. Help me to be excited to transform my life to

follow you. Whatever it looks like to be established by God this week. Let's pray. Lord, we're so

thankful that you establish us. Lord, that this work is not our own, but it is the way that you

establish us. Lord, I pray that we would be excited to be established, that we would look to

be steady, firm people, and that we can know that we have those things because of you, your character

and your work in our lives. Lord, I pray that we would be transformed by your word. We would be

encouraged by your word. We would be exhorted by your word. We'd be motivated and that we would

be made glad, that we would delight in your word. Lord, that we wouldn't hear this as a list

of things that discourage us or a list of do's and don'ts, but that this morning as we hear your

word proclaimed, that we wouldn't be resistant, but that we would be delighted to be transformed,

that we'd be delighted to submit, that we'd be delighted to be obedient. Lord, because we look

to honor you as God Almighty, Creator and Savior. Christ in the holy name, Jesus' mighty name,

Jesus' wonderful name. Help us to trust in you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Church, as we close the gathering,

I was inspired by Justin's message this morning. Colossians 2.7, let your roots grow down into him

and let your lives be built on him.

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