In God creating man, we are responsible to God ultimately. We are created below the angels to have dominion over the animals. We are made in the image of God. We had body and soul as spiritual beings before the fall and after the fall a separation.-Man was made as a steward to take care of the animals and things on the earth. God made man holy, but man chose to walk away from God. We do not want to destroy God's gospel. God has not called us to selfishness, but to holiness. -No man comes unto the Father but by me.- Jesus love and patience is long-suffering.-Jude 17-22- -But you beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.--Walk with the Lord.

What is Worship and why it matters.

David tells us to forget not not all of Gods benefits -verse 3-. He forgives all of our iniquities. Our focus needs to be on Jesus and His-faithfulness and steadfastness. We must never forget.

This psalm was written by David while hiding in a cave from Saul who was seeking to kill the newly appointed king. Saul had already killed many , including priests, for helping David.. David is hiding, but his hope in God and who He is has changed his outlook from despair, to one of faith and hope.-Jesus is our refuge, he claims us for His own and looks out for us.-God will cover us with his wings-

Isaiah describes a suffering servant. This is Jesus who has borne our sin and griefs. He can identify with us. We have help with our sorrow from a Man of Sorrows. Our suffering is or can be wide spread, we live in a fallen world.-Remember we have a God who takes care of us.

David misses public worship as he is on the run from Saul. God dwells with his people in and during public worship. God gives us a heart to be with His people. As we gather we in a sense become the temple of God. Paul longs for this in a similar way as David did.-Three of the primary aspects for worship are presence of the Word and sacraments, the presence of Heaven, Christ joins us in worship.

Sometimes we bring our own cultural influences with us when we come to Christ and into the Church. Conflict is often present.-Paul suffered greatly through out his ministry. God always uses the things we go through to strengthen us. God is always present in our lives. We will get through this pandemic with and only with the presence of the Lord. We need to identify with the sufferings of Christ. We grow closer to the Lord with our suffering.

The Gospel goes forward in all circumstances. We see here in Acts, it is now moving to Judea and Sumeria. Steven is stoned, but the Gospel is preached. The Gospel moves forward in times a severe difficulty. We can see that much good comes out of times of difficulty.-The Lord has ways of bringing us back to Him.-Jesus warns us that we will face great difficulty.

Dealing with adverse events in our lives or living in a post Covid-19 world. We need to be humble and prayerful.

Things do not always work out as planned. We live in a fallen world and things go wrong. Our hope is in Christ. Trouble always calls us back to Christ. Here in Philippians, Paul is consumed with the gospel and it's proclamation, knowing that this is the source of all our hope.