Summer Playlist: Part 2
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Well, we are back with it again today, our summer playlist series. This has been a fun one to kind of collaborate with and put together and think about. But what would be Father's Day this morning without a couple of dad jokes to get us going, right? All right. Why can't dinosaurs clap their hands? They're extinct. Come on guys. But why did the computer get cold? It left its windows open. No, no? Okay, this is really gonna kill right here. What kind of birds stick together? Velcros. Yeah, Velcros. Wow, those were way better in my head when I wrote those down yesterday. Man, it's all right. We love our dad jokes here. We love our funny sign on the corner. We get so many people who comment about that and ask us for that. So we just kind of wanna have a fun, lighthearted kind of church. This is kind of how we are. I see God as joyful and playful and fun. And so I think church should be the same as well.
But our series here, Songs in the Bible, does anybody know how many songs are actually recorded in the Bible? There are upwards of 185 to 190 songs written in the Bible. There's a couple that scholars debate about whether it's a prayer or an actual song that was sung. But there are 80% of them are actually in the book of Psalms. And there are other song books in the Bible, two of which are the Song of Solomon, or the Songs of Psalms, which is an epic love song between a bride and a groom. And then you have Lamentations, which is actually a set of five dirges, which is a song mourning the fall of Jerusalem. How about this? The longest song in the Bible is 1,732 Hebrew words. Any idea where that's at? Psalms 119 is actually that long. It's unbelievable. And it's a psalm of Bible study anthem. And it talks about how important the word of God is. The shortest song, how many words do you think is the shortest song? Oh, that's close, five. Seven Hebrew words. And there's actually two of them you find in the book of 2 Chronicles 5 and 20. The first person to sing a song that's recorded in the Bible was Moses in Exodus 15, as he celebrated the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and finding their freedom out of slavery out of Egypt, he praised God for all that he had done. And then the last song in the Bible recorded in Revelation 15 is actually also the Song of Moses, which is pretty awesome. That John, the writer of Revelation, he writes this and he sees those who have overcome the beast in his vision. And he sings the song of Moses. The lyrics are slightly different, but the idea and the message is very, very similar. There are over 1,000 mentions and references in the Bibles to songs, music, instruments, singing. It's absolutely incredible.
And we know the power of music, right? Pastor Andre and Pastor Lauren, last couple of weeks, they've talked about this, how we can have a major connection between our memory and a song, a sound, especially music. And that it does something special inside of us, right? It's like when you hear a song, somehow it takes life in this moment and like this memory and like locks it down. But then later that song is like the key that unlocks that memory and all these emotions come flooding forward. There's something powerful about music. And actually live music especially, it can trigger profound emotions, more so than any vinyl or tape or CD or iPod or app you stream on your phone. There's something about live music that connects us with our emotions. And songs are shared from generation to generation. They're kind of passed down through the years. My parents passed down to me a love of Motown music and music from the 70s and 80s rock bands like Genesis, Phil Collins, Santana, Temptations, Earth Wind and Fire, to mention a few. Yeah, yeah, give them some love. That's some good stuff. I was raised on some good stuff. Of Chicago, of course. Who could forget Chicago, 25 or 6 to 24. But Lauren and I have, we have a speaker in our kitchen kind of living room area and we love playing music, especially music that we grew up on. And all of a sudden out of nowhere with no cue or nothing preemptively, we can just start singing off a song. And the faces that our kids have, it's just priceless. They look at us and they're like, who are you? What are you doing? You're the weirdest people in the world. I said, exactly, I'm doing my job as a parent. But songs that we loved growing up, maybe some Justin Timberlake, some Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, John Mayer, dare I say Usher. You guys are totally judging me now. But I have my Christian bands, okay? Okay, I had Switchfoot, Olivia, Sherwood, Jars of Clay, KJ52 and my favorite of all, Grits. My life be like, ooh, wah, ooh wah. No, no, anybody? Okay, there's a couple in here. You've heard that one before. You know it if it came on. But these songs that are passed down from generation to generation are incredibly powerful. We have a few songs that we actually sing to our own kids. One of them was passed down from my mother-in-law through my wife. And it has a song that we sing and we've put our kids to bed singing. Whoever is rocking them says, ♪ Daddy loves Laia ♪ And then we would literally go through the family. So mom, dad, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and we have a very large family. So we usually don't have to get through all of them before the kid's asleep. But we pass down these songs. My mom has an incredible song she sings with the kids. ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ A bushel and a peck ♪ You guys know that? ♪ A bushel and a peck ♪ ♪ And a hug around the neck ♪ They love singing those songs. I grew up, my mom singing a song to me of, ♪ You are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪ You guys, there's these songs that are passed down and they remind people of their identity and how they are loved.
Israel passed down songs and prayers, reminding them of the love of God. And we're gonna be in Isaiah chapters 34, or 36 and 34 this morning. But during this time, it was the Babylonian exile. This was a horrific time for the Israelite people that the Babylonians had come in and overtaken, actually had destroyed Jerusalem around 587 BC. And the Israelites were ripped apart. Some stayed in Jerusalem, others were sent around the globe. They were sent to Babylonian captivity. And it was a time of despair and displacement. They questioned God's covenantal promises. And as the people, they felt just this abandonment. And yet they've been told their whole lives that they were God's chosen people. And so in Isaiah 63 and 64, it was written near the end of their captivity, probably somewhere around 540 BC. But Israel was so broken. Their temple was destroyed. It was in ruins, their identity, where they had seen God physically in front of them, did not exist anymore. And they began to sing this prayer in these chapters, calling God their father. A reminder of the truth that had been passed down to them from generation to generation. And after Cyrus of Persia, he conquered the Babylonians. He let the people return back to Jerusalem. We read about this in Ezra chapter one. But when they returned these early refugees, they found themselves with a city in desolation. There was economic hardship, spiritual delusion, disillusionment. The restoration wasn't happening the way they had hoped or what they had hoped to find when they came back. These chapters here remind Israel and the Hebrew people of who God is. Pointing to his eternal love, generation after generation after generation, reminding them of the character of God, despite the world that they saw all around them. So for us, I think of Father's Day, I find it fitting that we honor our dads in our lives and those around us. But we also lift up God as the ultimate heavenly father. Whose love endures forever like Pastor Andre shared with us. And is seen in this song and fulfilled ultimately in Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah. We get the big picture of not just like a moment in a few years in the Old Testament, where we see the fulfillment in Jesus Christ. And he embodies this perfect father-son relationship that ultimately he invites us into his family.
Before we keep going, I'd love to pray with us before we dive in. Jesus, thank you for this morning. God, we thank you for time of worship. God, we thank you for time of celebration. God, honoring those who have faithfully served you for many years. God, honoring those who are stepping up in new faithful service. And God, as we honor our dads here at Spring Valley, God, I pray that ultimately we would see you as our heavenly father, that we'd be reminded of your love and your compassion and your faithfulness, maybe despite our earthly relationships that we have. God, remind us of your truth today. We love you. Amen.
Isaiah 63:16 says this. For you are our father. Though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us, you, O Lord, are our father. Our redeemer from of old is your name. Israel is singing a song of identity. They're reminding and acknowledging God as their father. Even when human lineage of like Abraham and Jacob and Isaac and all those things that they read about these prophecies and these covenants and these commitments from God, even when that seems broken, they are reminded of who God is. I picture Israel maybe in captivity in Babylon, miles and miles and miles away from their homeland where they grew up, where their family used to live, singing of God as their true father, even in the midst of captivity. There's something about song, like I said, that locks in memory. And these people were reminded of who God was when they were a child through song so that they could carry that with them no matter where they were in life. No matter where they found themselves, whether free or slave, lost, home, wherever they were, they could sing a song and be reminded of the truth of God. I think of us like today, we sing hymns about God, how great thou art, great is thy faithfulness, amazing grace, awesome God. We sing these songs and sometimes out of nowhere, right, it just pops into our head and we just start singing it. That's the power of music, to take us back to a place and time where God was so evidently faithful right in front of our eyes, to be reminded maybe in a moment where it's like, oh, I'm really struggling here, God, I don't understand what's happening. We can be reminded of his faithfulness.
Our songs today echo Israel's exiled hope. I love what it says there, the redeemer from of old. See, this shows God's love is eternal, it's never ending, it's everlasting, and that it's rescuing his people from slavery and sin and exile, God's enduring love. I can envision Israel maybe in chains, clinging to God's redeeming love, crying out to him through song, that even when they might have felt abandoned, no home, no hope, they cried, you are our Father, trusting God's redeeming love, just as we too trust him today. I think of the story from Jesus of the prodigal son, but I think from the perspective of the father, the son goes off, squanders his inheritance, gets to the point where he is lower than low, he's fighting pigs for food with just like junk scraps, he's rummaging through garbage just to find something to eat to survive. And he thinks, my dad will never accept me when I come home, I left such a horrible way. And yet he goes, you know what, if I just go home, I just beg dad to just be one of his workers, I just beg dad to be his janitor. And yet he walks home and the father sees the son from afar, it says in scripture. And the dad just belts, just flies to him and embraces him. And his son's like, dad, I don't deserve this. But the love from the father, despite his son's rebellion, this is a picture, an image of the love that God has for his people, even in exile, and for you today. This mirrors God's steadfast love.
Today being Father's Day is really tough for some people, honestly. Earthly fathers have failed us. Maybe for you, your dad just wasn't the best example of a father, or maybe you didn't have a father growing up at all in your life. And in turn, because of that, it's hard to think of God as a father, right? I know people who have wrestled with this for a long time in their life. And I know some who still wrestle with it. And I know some, by the grace of God, have been able to overcome some of those preconceived emotions and thoughts and mindset, trying to overlay their earthly father with God, their heavenly father, it just doesn't add up. But even when our earthly fathers let us down, God never does. If you're walking away with one thing today, know that God will never let you down. You may go through some really, really hard stuff. You might find yourself exiled like the Israelites. I don't know. But God will never let you down. And I see this faith that Israel has in God's fatherhood, despite their circumstances. And if I can this morning, I wanna encourage all of us dads in the room, all of us dads who are listening, to reflect the love of God in your roles like a mirror. See, being a father is probably the hardest thing that I've ever done in my entire life. Every single day is filled with challenges, surprises, twists, turns, ups, downs. And that was just Tuesday. And in those times where I just feel so overwhelmed, I am so thankful that I don't have to have it figured out. I don't have to be the perfect dad. I know a perfect dad. And all I have to do of when I can't sometimes even feel like standing up, all I gotta do is hold a mirror of God's love and reflect that to my children and my wife. That's our calling. Rely on God for the strength, just like Israel relied on the hope, even while in Babylon, of the father that they knew that they can trust. See, and in this song, the people recall God's most like past mercies as their redeemer. They're reminded of God as their warrior, their fighter, their protector, and God their father. And then things shift a little bit in chapter 64. They start pleading for God to intervene dramatically where they are. They confess sin. They confess their wrongdoing. They plead with God to move like he's never moved before.
Isaiah 64:8 says, "But now, O Lord, you are our father. "We are the clay, you are our potter. "We are all the work of your hand." This now becomes a song of creation. Israel's prayer here likens God to a potter, shaping the people with care, sung to recall their dependence on him. I imagine this time in civilization, pottery was huge. It was the only way that you could find a bowl or a plate or a cup or anything made to hold food, sustenance, water, life, hydration. And they would probably see out in the markets, people working the pottery wheel and shaping the clay and doing all of that. This was a physical reminder of who God was in their lives. And this imagery of the potter passed down to teach the humility and the trust in God's creative fatherhood. I think of a potter making something to start with nothing but shapeless clay and to work it over and over and over again until it's made into something absolutely beautiful, something with an identity, something of value with worth, to go from nothing to artwork is an incredible image. See, this is God. He wants to shape us into who He wants us to be, something that's one of a kind, unique, special, His created. I think of the song, "Change my heart, oh God, "make it ever true, change my heart, oh God, "may I be like you. "You are the potter, I am the clay, mold me and make me, "this is what I pray, change my heart, oh God, "make it ever true, change my heart, oh God, "may I be like you." These are our prayer songs today that we pray and we work through.
Our worship continues this image of Israel's trust in God. See, 'cause as the potter, God forms us with purpose and with love, knowing every single detail of our lives. We read that in Psalm 139. Picture God here shaping Israel, even in the midst of the exile ruins, that the returnees at this time were faced with a desolate land in opposition. They were leading to prayers for God to form them, to move as He did in the past, to shape them and to reshape their shattered nation. I feel their hope as they return to Jerusalem, even facing what they're looking at in just ruins and desolate land. See, when making pottery, there's no shortcuts. There's no quick way to do it. If you rush it, you will ruin it. And that it takes time, it takes focus, it takes energy. And there's nothing that the clay can do to hurry it up. The Israelites trusted God with His hand and they rested in the process and the design. One of the biggest roles as fathers we can have is as God shapes us, we in turn help shape our children. We shape them in love, we shape them in patience. We imitate God's careful, creative care with those at which He has entrusted us. I envision even in the exile, the fathers of the Israelite people teaching their children about God, about the days old, about the faithfulness, about the love, about the care, the deliverance for their family. And see, for all of us as believers, we are all God's handiwork. And we're called to trust God in His fatherly design for us.
Love the quote from Henry Nouwen, a modern spiritual writer. He says this to remind us of God's unconditional love as a father. The spiritual life starts at the place where you can hear God's voice saying, "You are my beloved." God is the father who loves us, not because of what we do as shapeless clay, but because of who He is. This imagery here in Isaiah 64 of the potter is profound. And as God shapes His loving children, we celebrate that this Father's Day. Fathers, love your children as God loves you. All of us trust His design for your life, no matter where you are in the shaping process. God is working. And so for the Hebrew people, God was continually working, not only before exile, not just during captivity, but also ultimately after exile, moving them towards the Messiah, the coming savior, the Jesus Christ.
We see this direct connection as we read in Isaiah, so many prophecies about Jesus, who's the son of God, would be revealed in the heavenly father in a perfect way. It says in John 14, nine, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father," Jesus says. Jesus reveals God the Father in so many incredible ways. Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's fatherly love here on earth, face to face. Israel's, or Isaiah's hope for a redeemer here is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who shows a father's heart. I love this. And makes us His children. Jesus shows us what fatherhood looks like. It's full of compassion. It's sacrificial. It never ends. Jesus, our savior, answers Israel's ancient cry. Jesus also shows us the father-son divine relationship. It says in John 10, 30, "I and the Father are one." Jesus and God share this incredible, perfect, eternal relationship of love and unity. And I can only imagine those who were Jews at the time of Jesus, who had heard the stories of old, and had hoped and had prayed with their grandparents and their great-grandparents and their great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents for a savior, for a Messiah to come. And the moment they met Jesus face to face and realized who this man in front of them was, mind blowing that they could see the fulfillment of God's love promised all the way back to Abraham. And this father-son relationship is a model for us as fathers with our children, showing how to build trust, how to grow in obedience, to grow in love.
I think of a father-son working in perfect unity and harmony. I've had the privilege to do a lot of projects with my father growing up. And it started with me, just a little kid, helping him build fences, to work on the cars, and to fix stuff around the house, to do so many projects and to be right by his side, to the point now that even just this last weekend, we were in my backyard working on sprinklers. And there's this somehow, and I've had people tell me, and I can't fully comprehend it, but there is a unspoken language and flow that my dad and I have with each other that we're just like in lock sync, just working on a project. And that didn't happen overnight. That took a lot of patience on his side with me as a kid getting in his way, messing things up, making the project last three times as long. I experienced that now with my son, Oakland. But to the point that it comes to now to where we can just think about, oh, hey, we're getting to this part of the project, I need this tool, okay, I'm gonna go grab this. Hey, what wrench do you want? Okay, I got it right here. Okay, screw it, okay, yeah, boom, got it. We're right here, back and forth, just boom, just flowing, just jiving. And I've had people tell me, be like, there's something between you and your dad, man. There's something going on there. And I know that's not perfect. I mess up, I still get in his way. I still destroy things, trying to fix them. But it's just this glimpse in the picture, I think, of the relationship that God the Father and Jesus have. Now, they have a God-like, supernatural, intellectual connection. I don't have my father. But these are the examples of what we see here on earth, where we can see God's love in Jesus Christ. But it doesn't stop there with us just looking in on the inside of God and Jesus together and their relationships.
We are actually adopted, as it says, into God's family as God's children. It says in Romans 8:15, "So you have not received a spirit "that makes you fearful slaves. "Instead, you receive God's spirit "when He adopted you as His own children." And now we all can call Him Abba Father. Through Jesus, we cry Abba Father through the Holy Spirit, being adopted into God's family. You can feel the joy and just the relief from the Israelite people as they understand that they are God's children. Song in Isaiah reminds us of God as a Father and the full fulfillment of that in Christ, who makes us heirs with Him. We don't just get invited to the dinner table. We share in the inheritance. And this song comes to this epic crescendo. Some would say, "fortississimo," which is a fancy musical term in Italian that means crank that baby up as loud as you can, if you didn't know sheet music. And that we get to rejoice in Jesus's victory today, right now in this moment.
St. Augustine, a fourth century bishop, captures our longing for this relationship. He says, "You have made for us yourself, for yourself, "O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." God's fatherly love endures, shaping us through life's ups and downs, and it's all seen in Christ's redemptive work. Find rest today. That even if you don't have a earthly father or you don't have a relationship with them, you don't have a good one, you have been adopted into a family with God. You have been adopted into a family with a perfect father. And that is your true loving father. Timothy Keller has an incredible quote, and says, "The only love that won't disappoint you "is the one that can't change, that can't be lost, "that isn't based on ups and downs of life "or how well that you live. "It is something that not even death can take away from you. "God's love is the only thing like that." These songs of Isaiah 63 and 64 were sung through generations, proclaiming God's position as our heavenly father, our redeemer, our creator, whose love endures forever. And in Jesus our Messiah reveals the father perfectly, inviting us into his family. Dads, imitate God's love and patience and care in your family today. Like the fathers here in Isaiah, showing God's love to their children through this song. And for all of us, we need to trust God as our heavenly father, to sing his praises and to live as his children through faith in Jesus Christ. We join, I love this, we join in Israel's ancient song of trust today. We'll leave you with this verse, 1 John 3:1, it says this. "Consider this, the father has given us his love." Remember, his perfect, perfect love. And he loves us so much that we are actually called God's dear children. And that's what you are. You are God's children.
Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for your truth. We thank you for the reminder of your salvation. We thank you for the faith that the Israelite people had, that even in the midst of chaos and slavery and destruction and ruin and chaos and shattered hopes and shattered dreams, lost friends and family, that they could still call you their father. That's so powerful. And so, Jesus, I pray for us today that we would be reminded of this, that was even 2,500 years ago. Israel sang this song to you in their darkest hour. And today, God, we can sing in that same truth and the fulfillment in Jesus Christ as you, our father's greatest gift ever given to us. Isaiah 63 and 64, God, it calls us to you, our Redeemer, whose love endures forever. And God, this Father's Day, I pray that we would be able to sing maybe a little bit louder and live a little bit bolder in your love, trusting you as our heavenly Father. And maybe for some of us here this morning, we've never put our faith or our trust in you. And right now, hearing the faithfulness and the hope of the Israelite people in their worst moment, thinking about how they could still continue to trust you, that maybe that they need to put their trust in you this morning.
And so this morning, maybe you would say, "Hey, Chris, I need this Jesus. I need to know my heavenly Father. I need to know my Savior. I want that hope and that love and that salvation today." If maybe that's you this morning, I just ask you, just look up at me. I want to pray for you. You would say this morning that I need to make this decision. I want to trust you. I need you, Jesus. I need you, Jesus, in my life. Thank you. Jesus, I pray that those who are wrestling with this in their heart, God, that they may pray this prayer alongside of me. And I pray, honestly, God, that all of us, we would pray this prayer out loud together. I don't want anybody praying alone. So for all of us who have put our faith in Jesus before, God, I pray that we would pray this prayer aloud to be reminded of your love. Let's pray this together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your love. I thank you for your everlasting presence and compassion and that the care that you have for me as my Father. I'm sorry for the things that I've done that haven't honored you as my dad. I confess these to you today and I live in going forward in your salvation, in your hope, and in your love. Thank you for Jesus. May I live reflecting your love to all those around me. In Jesus' name, Amen.