Meeting 1 – Praising and Thanking the Lord Resulting From Our Experience with Christ in Our Life
(Psalms 135-136) 

1.      The situations in the churches today

a.       We are on borrowed time

b.      The Lord’s desire to come back

c.       The firstfruits (Rev. 14:1-5)

2.      Our need today – capacity in the churches

a.       To build the church

b.      To shepherd the saints

c.       To testify to the world

3.      Praising the Lord as a result of our experiences with Him (Psalms 135-136)

a.       We were chosen by the Lord to praise Him and to serve Him before the foundation of the earth
(Ps. 135:1-4; Eph. 1:3-4)

b.      Praise Him, O you servants of the Lord (Ps. 135:1)

c.       Experience the greatness of our Lord
(Ps. 135:5; 136:1-4)

i.        He is the Creator of heaven and earth and is our creator (Ps. 135:6-7; 136: 5-9: Zech 12:1)

ii.      He saved us and is investing in us for full salvation (Ps. 135:8-12; 136:10-20)

1.      From the world (Egypt) through baptism (Red Sea)

2.      From the difficulties (giants) in our individual Christian and church life

iii.    Bringing us into the good land to give us an inheritance (Ps. 135:12; 136:21-22)

iv.    Experience and enjoy the Lord as our inheritance

d.      Appreciating God’s mercy and His lovingkindness (Ps. 136)

i.        We are not special – outcasts, brokenhearted and wounded (Ps. 136:23-25; 147:2-3)

ii.      His lovingkindness is what keeps us in the church today

e.       Praise cannot be taught

i.        When we see and experience the Lord, how can we not but praise Him

ii.      If we experience the Lord in our daily life, then our praises will be real and full of substance

4.      Our silence is from our lack of experience of our living God and our trust in idols (Ps. 135:15-18)

5.      The Lord will accomplish His purpose – with or without us (Num. 14:22-24)

a.       Do we want to remain the same? Not meeting in a routine way year after year.

b.      Following the Lord wherever He goes

Meeting 2 – Being Absolute for Zion
(Psalms 137 & 147)

1.      Our Priority

a.       Absolute for Zion

i.        What is the church life?

ii.      Our hearts must be for Zion – the church is the house of the living God

1.      Do not forget Jerusalem

2.      Our chief joy

3.      Top priority

b.      Babylon – the imitation harlot

i.        Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9)

1.      Man’s pride

2.      Division

ii.      Sons of Edom – our self, and the ones closest to us

1.      The descendants of Esau, Jacob’s twin brother.

2.      The persecution in the church comes from the believers acting in the flesh

3.      Christians today are divided because of the work of the flesh

iii.    Daughters of Babylon – the beautiful and attractive things

1.      Outwardly beautiful (Isa. 47:1; Rev. 17:4)

2.      Inwardly wicked (Rev. 14:9; 16:19; 17:4)

iv.    Synagogue of Satan (Rev. 3:9)

2.      Cannot compromise

a.       We cannot be in the flesh and in the Spirit at the same time (Gal. 5:17)

b.      Not living a double life between our daily life and church life

c.       The Lord’s warning to the kings with foreign wives

d.      Cannot receive everyone and everything

e.       God’s judgment

i.        Perfect hatred (Ps. 139:21-22)

ii.      Cut off before it can spread – “Nip it in the bud” (Ps. 137:8-9; Gal. 5:9)

3.      The Lord will build Jerusalem – His church (Ps. 147)

a.       The Lord builds (Ps. 147:2)

b.      He gathers outcasts, heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds (Ps. 147:2-3)

c.       The Lord doesn’t want us to use (Ps. 147:10)

i.        Worldly tools –horsepower

ii.      Our own strength – legs of a man

iii.    We should fear the Lord and hope in His loving-kindness (Ps. 147:11)

iv.    We must have confidence in the living God

Meeting 3 – Gaining confidence in God and Knowing the Thoughts of the Lord (Psalms 138-139)

1.      Gaining confidence in the living God (Ps. 138)

a.       In His presence, lovingkindness, truth, word, salvation, way and victory over the enemy in the daily Christian life and in the church life

b.      Knowing that He will answer (Ps. 138:3)

c.       Examples in the Bible

i.        Moses saw God’s plan and was able to lead God’s people

ii.      Joshua and Caleb had a strong spirit.

iii.    God delivered David when he cried out to Him

1.      Through his experiences of God’s deliverance, David gained confidence in the Lord

2.      Though he walked in the midst of trouble, the Lord revived him

3.      Because of David’s confidence in the Lord, he praised the Lord with his whole heart

d.      Teaching alone cannot give us confidence;  we need to experience the Lord’s victory (Ps. 137:2)

i.        Know the word and experience Him by calling on His name

1.      If we only have the word (recipe), we would only have teaching

2.      If we only have His name (essence), then our experience is limited

3.      The Lord is rich unto all who call upon Him. We need to call from the depth of our heart

4.      The Lord has magnified His word in accordance to His name – to call on His name we need to know His word

ii.      Having no confidence in the flesh

2.      Having the coming age in view (Ps. 138:4-7)

3.      Knowing the thoughts of the Lord
(Ps. 138:4; 139:17-18)

a.       God knows us better than we know ourselves
(Ps. 139:1-16)

i.        Search me, O God, and know my heart

ii.      We also should know the Lord as much as He knows us

1.      We should ask the Lord

2.      Know what He hates

b.      The Lord would not hide His innermost thoughts to us (Gen. 18:17-19)

i.        We are children in the light (1 Thess. 5:4-5)

ii.      God is righteous, and His judgments are righteous

iii.    The more we experience the Lord, the more we should have the urgency that His coming is near – The Lord is waiting for His Church

iv.    We must have faith in the living God

c.       The Lord must search our hearts today

i.        Try us and show us our anxieties

ii.      Expose any wicked way in us

iii.    Lead us in the way everlasting

Meeting 4 – Praying with Incense to Satisfy the Father  (Psalms 140-144)

1.      The prayer with incense to satisfy the Father (Ps. 141:2)

a.       Incense prayer (Rev. 5:8; 8:2-5)

i.        Golden bowls full of incense

ii.      Prayer of the saints

iii.    Ascend to God for His satisfaction

iv.    Cause God to open the seals to end the age

b.      Incense

i.        After the anointing oil for us to be filled

ii.      The incense to satisfy the Father

c.       Prayer should be our priestly service to God

i.        We can minister to the Lord through prayer (Acts 13:1-2)

ii.      All the furniture of the tabernacle is for us

iii.    Let our prayer be set before God as incense
(Ps. 141)

2.      The battle with God’s enemy never stops (Ps. 140)

a.       Recognizing that all our problems are part of the enemy’s strategy

b.      Proper complaining to the Lord – when the enemy attacks

c.       Complaint to the Lord about what God’s enemy is doing to us (Ps. 142)

d.      Trained for battle (Ps. 144:1-2)

3.      Rebuked by the righteous

a.       To be chastened by the Lord

b.      Do not be discouraged when we are rebuked by God (Ps. 141:5, 6; Heb. 12:5-7)

4.      When we pray we need to get an answer from the Lord (Ps. 143:1)

a.       The best way to care for the young people and new ones

i.        Ancient way – to cry out to the Lord

ii.      Not by man’s way or methods, or programs

iii.    Our young people should be as plants grown up, and our daughters may be as pillars (Ps. 144:12)

1.      Taking responsibility

2.      Normal way of the church life

b.      Happy are the people whose God is the Lord – this is a description of the proper church life
(Ps. 144:13-15)