Summer Playlist: Part 11

Summer Playlist: Part 11

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I want to introduce Phil Stevenson who's going to be wrapping up our series this morning. At this time our ushers are going to be coming around giving you a card. Phil, thanks for being here.

You're welcome. It's always a privilege and I feel very honored when your pastoral team invites me to share with you. When you hand out those cards, if you can make sure I get one, I'd appreciate that. In fact, I'll walk over here and just grab one. Thank you very much. We'll refer to this later, but I just want you to have it now. Several years ago, okay, a lot of years ago, I was a youth pastor down in Southern California. This was back in the day when in youth ministry you did a lot of competitions to try to get kids to come to church and the whole thing. So we did this big competition and we had teams, we had co-captains for those, and the award or the result if your team won was the two captains got to go on a hot air balloon ride. I had a friend who was a balloonist. This is back in the day when you used to go to North County, San Diego, an area called Temecula. If you went there now, you would say there's no way they flew balloons around here. You would have been right because there were lots and lots of housing. There is now, but then there was a lot of open field. So we got there early in the morning. Had to go early in the morning. So the basket wasn't that big, so there was enough room for my friend Paul, the balloonist, and one other person. So what he did with the kids is they did what they call box ballooning, I guess. And what it was was fascinating. They understood the currents and so they would get in the balloon, they'd go up to a certain height, and the current would take them over. I think they would take them north. And they'd go for a certain distance that way, then they'd let some air out, whatever they do, and they'd bring it down to another area, and then the balloon would come over to the way where we were waiting, and he would set that balloon right down where we were at. Interesting. So that's what the two kids got to do. And so when the second kid came back, Paul looked at me and he said, "Now, do you want to go on a real balloon ride?" And I said, "Absolutely." So no more of this box stuff. So we went up, and of course they had a car. I remember it was an El Camino. Is that the kind of car that looked like a truck when it was a car? Yeah, El Camino. And they had to track us. They had to follow us. So we went up and he said, "First, we're going to do what's called skimming." He said, "What that is is that we're going to go and try to stay" -- that word "try" was a little iffy at that time -- "but try to stay 10 to 15 feet above whatever the terrain is." So there were some rolling hills over those. Trees would come up, you'd pick that thing up, you'd go over the trees, and we would keep going. So we did that for quite a while. And then at some point, of course, we just sat down. He brought the balloon down. I don't know where. We were in the middle of nowhere. It was just crazy. But it was so fun.

So what I'm saying is that what we're going to do this morning, we're going to take a look at Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 17. If you have a Bible app with you or on your phone you have a Bible or it will be on the screen, I'm going to be using a new living translation. And what we're going to do in the first 15 verses, we're going to kind of do a flyover. We're going to skim over that to get ready to go into the last two verses, 16 and 17, and there we will set down and spend a little bit of time there. So if you have your Bibles or you see right there, first of all, I want us to know this. The big idea of Colossians 3, 1 through 17 is that we have a new identity in Christ. We have a new identity in Christ that we need to live that identity out. When we gather in community like this, we need to live that identity out. We go out into the world where in reality we spend most of our time in our work, in our school, in our playtime, our recreation, that kind of thing. We also need to live that identity out daily.

Now, verses 1 through 4, Paul talks to us about that if we're going to live out this new identity, we need to change our focus. He says in those first four verses, he says "since." Now, what that implies is that it's happened pretty soon, not when this happens. He says, "since right now you have been raised to new life with Christ." Then he says, "set your sights or change your focus from what it's been to something else." He goes on and talks about on the realities of heaven where Christ sits in the place of the honor of God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Now, when he uses that phrase, "hidden with Christ," he's referring to our security in Christ. He's referring to our identity that is in Christ. So he says, "if you want to live out this identity, change your focus." Focus on your identity in Christ. Focus on your security in Christ. Walk closely with him. And then he says, "change what matters." Verses 5 through 11, he says, "first of all," he says, "so put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you." Put that stuff to death, he says. Be done with that because you have a new area that matters more than that. So that's where you need to be living. He says, "have nothing to do with them." The old you, he says in verse 7, the old you, in other words, the things that used to be, you do not do those things any longer, but now is the time. The new you, put your new nature on, verse 10. That no longer matters what you were before. What matters is what Christ is doing in you as he lives in you and through you.

Now, right at the hill here, actually buried behind safe credit union, there is a, I know it's not really a fitness gym per se, but it's called plyometrics. And I got involved in this exercise method a year in September. And I got involved in it through my oldest grandson who plays football and he got recommended to that, so I took him on his first day, watched what they were doing and I said, "I think I'll give that a go." So I've been giving that a go for almost a year and here's what happens. Dave, who's the coach, drives me nuts. So we'll be doing some things and all of a sudden he'll say to me, "Phil, I want you," and he'll give me a certain amount of reps to do or a certain weight to use. And then I always say, "well, you know, Dave, the last time I did this," and I give him a lower weight and a lower number of reps. And then Dave says, "Oh, yeah, but that's the old Phil. This is the new Phil." And I said, "Well, a lot of times I just feel like the old Phil. If it's okay with you, I like to do this." And he never lets me do that.

But that's what we're talking about here. We have an old us and then we have a new us. And Paul is telling us that old stuff, that's gone. Don't live in that any longer. Be the new you that Jesus has formed and is making you into. Then he comes back and he talks about having to change your clothes. And he talks about the fact that when he talks about clothing, he's suggesting it's putting on our new identity. It's an intentional action. Usually when we put on our clothes or change our clothes, we do it intentionally. And he talks about what we should clothe ourselves with in verse 12. And then he tells us more about verse 13 and 14, how to clothe ourselves. I'm going to tell you a story. You're going to say, "That is not right." And I'm going to say, "It is and it's sick." I'm going to tell you. So again, before we had kids, our kids are all in their 40s, got grandkids, three teenagers. But before we had any of that, I had this buddy, and he had a new baby in his home. And his wife did the first trip away from home, like shopping or whatever, not like a long trip, but for a big chunk of the day, and left him in charge of their infant baby. And he was telling me this. He said, "Of course, what happens when you have an infant, sooner or later they poop." And they just poop. And he didn't want to change the diaper. You know what he did? He put a new diaper over the old diaper. "Thank you, yes." I said, "You're kidding me." He said, "No." He said, "Then they pooped again and I put another diaper." So he had his wife come home, and this baby's got like five diapers on her. And she said, "What are you doing?" And he tried to explain to her. By the way, that did not go over well. So we talk about having new clothing on.

We're not talking about taking new stuff and putting on the old stuff. It's disrobing, taking off the old clothes, and putting on new. When Christ rules in our hearts, we are at peace and thankful. It says in verse 15, "And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your heart." Now, Burger King--I don't go to Burger-- I don't go to Burger King very often, but they got this new little tagline. Maybe you've seen it on advertisement. Talk about Burger King, what they have, and they say, "You rule!" That's their thing. My oldest son was telling me about this before I ever heard an advertisement. He said, "You know that Burger King has a new tagline?" I said, "No." He said, "You rule." It's supposed to be like the response to Chick-fil-A. You go to Chick-fil-A, and you ask them for something, and they say, "My pleasure. My pleasure." And they do it for you. Evidently, I should go just to see if this happens. If you go to Burger King and you ask for something, they're supposed to say, "You rule." Now, wouldn't that be fun? Give you a little crown, you realize you rule? Well, you know, you and I, we may rule if we go to Burger King, but Christ rules in us. Christ rules in us, and we need to know that He's in charge of our life. So that's the flyover. We kind of skimmed over those first 15 verses to talk about our new identity in Christ and what that means for us.

Now we're going to just kind of set down, if you please, in verses 16 and 17. And take a look at this, because the name of the series is, I think, is--it hits? What? Ah, Summer Plays. Okay, good. And we're going to talk a little bit about that and how it applies to us. We're going to talk about inside out Christianity. And the first part is verse 15. It talks about the inside part of us as believers of Christ. What does it mean to come together, worship together, celebrate God together? And as we do that, what does that-- what should that do? Prepare us to live outside. As I already mentioned in the beginning of my sharing is that we actually spend more time not here than here. So as we're here, we need to be preparing for out there. And when we're out there, we begin to understand the need for us to gather together on a consistent, regular basis. And so we're going to take a look, first of all, about the inside part of it. Verse 16, it says, "Let the message about Christ in all of the richness fill your hearts. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom He gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts." Now, when Paul writes this phrase, "in all its richness," he's talking about the abundance, the depth, and the generosity of Christ. The gospel ought to saturate every aspect of our life, not just our church life, not just our community of faith as believers, but all of our life.

I have a friend, I've just gotten to know him the last, I'm going to say six months. His name's Roger. And I like Roger because he's older than me. That's kind of a commodity now for me, people older. He's in his mid-80s, so he's a lot older than me, frankly. But I love being around Roger because he is an encourager. He has got energy. He has the kind of appearance and energy that I hope tomorrow I'll have. But definitely when I'm in my mid-80s. And so we started this thing. You know, when you're younger, you might get to know somebody and you find out you have a common interest. And so you might go do that. Oh, we find out, oh, we like racquet ball. Go play racquet ball. Oh, we like to run. You go run. There's something like that. Or like cars. We go to car shows. You know what Roger and I have found that we like? Donuts. So we go get donuts together. And so when we were out -- actually, we went out this last week. Thursday we went to a donut shop out in Lincoln. And over there I said to Roger -- and I think some of you know this. I think I might have shared a little bit about this before here. I said, you know, Roger, when I was in college, one of my many jobs was to make donuts. I said, I was a donut maker. He said, really? And I said, absolutely. And I said, here's what's interesting. The guy who taught me how to make donuts was Vietnamese. And he did not have a lot of English skills, except for he knew two English words very, very well. And here's what they were. Not good. That was his primary English. And so I learned from him how to make donuts through negative reinforcement. He would show me something, and then I would try to do it, and he would either go -- or more often than not in the beginning -- not good. So I went through this whole process. So finally I got my first day making donuts. Now, this donut shop was not a 24-hour donut shop, and so I would go in 10 o'clock at night, make donuts all night, 5 o'clock in the morning, open the shop, handle any customers that might come in for that first hour while I'm cleaning up. 6 a.m., the morning lady would come in to deal with the rest of the morning. So this is my first evening alone making donuts. And somewhere in the not good conversations, I never picked up that when you make raised donuts, of course you have to put them in a heater area, it would kind of warm the -- so they'd rise a little bit. But if you leave them in there too long, I'm going to tell you what happens. They become a sponge. And therefore when you drop them in the grease to deep fry them, they just -- my first shift making donuts by myself was not good. These donuts were completely saturated with grease. They were terrible. I'm surprised I kept my job. But the analogy for that is that we, as followers of Jesus, need to be saturated. We need to absorb the gospel into our life so it impacts all of who we are and all of what we do. That's what we need to do.

And then we go on and let's break this down a little bit. He says to teach. That's not only understanding and hearing about truth, but it's instruction in truth. And then he says there are times that we need to have counsel and admonish one another, which is correction and exhortation when someone strays. Sometimes when, as followers of Christ in the community of faith, there are times that we have to confront one another in love about some of the lifestyle things that you might have seen or been aware of and help each other and encourage each other in those areas. Then he says with all wisdom. That's taking the idea of truth and applying it to our lives with grace and discernment. And then they talk about Psalms. A lot of the commentators will say this probably refers to the Hebrew Psalter, of course. And so I would put that in our parlance. That would be the traditional music of the church. So there needs to be some of that in the worship. And then they talk about hymns. And again, commentators would say this could be early Christian composition that's focused on Christ, person, and work. Or what we might say today, the contemporary worship. So you have traditional worship, contemporary worship. And then they talk about spiritual songs that suggest spontaneous praise and worship that begins to bubble up. So the up and coming things that we see, just trying to apply it to our day. So we have traditional music, contemporary music. We have new, new kind of music that's starting to come on the scene. And the thing is, worship should never be for us as entertainment, although it should be done with excellence. And that it should be word-centered, spirit-led response to the truth of God's gospel in our life. Singing as we sing together is not necessarily designed to elicit an overly emotional response, although it can result in emotions. Every time I hear the song, he has been faithful. I've sung that song for years. And usually I've just sung that song. But I've got to tell you, most cases now, because I'm in my 70th year, as I sing that song, I am reminded of the faithfulness of God throughout my life. It's almost like a near-death experience. You know, they say, "It's not even getting near-death yet." Your life flashes before your eyes. For me, when I sing that song, sometimes my history flashes before my eyes quickly, and God reminds me of his faithfulness throughout my life. It's incredible. All that he talks about there, hymns, psalms, spirit-led worship, is designed to have the community of Christ become a singing, worshiping, learning, loving family. I heard this pastor who pastors a church in the Scottsdale area. His name is Mark Driscoll. I don't know if you've ever heard of him. I don't agree with him on all things. But he said a statement that I think is wonderful. He says, "If anybody comes to their church and says, 'I don't like your worship,' and he's aware of it and he's able to talk to them, he simply says, 'That's okay, because we're not worshiping you.’"

And here's what I know about worship. All of us have preference, don't we? Some people love the hymns, older songs. Some people love contemporary music. And some people love a certain format and style of worship. We all have our preferences. But here's the thing. If you're in the celebrating of God, if you're together as a faith community, and on that particular Sunday, your preferences aren't being met. Here's what I would say to you. Your question should not be, "Why are we not doing fill in the blank?" Instead, the only question you should be asking is this glorifying God. And it may not be in your area of preference, but if it's glorifying God, you should participate and be with that. That's the inside stuff. And that inside stuff begins to, or hopefully should flow into the outside part of our life.

Inside, outside Christianity. And then they come back in the same passage in verse 17. It says, and I love this, "And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." And whatever, that's pretty wide girth, isn't it? "And whatever you do or say." Paul is breaking down sometimes the self-imposed barriers that you and I put up. The barrier between the sacred and the secular. We might say it that way. The church and the world. And Paul says, "No, that's gone. And whatever you do, whatever you say, do it all for the glory of God." When we say whatever, we live our life by His authority in alignment with His character. And we give, as a result of that, what we begin to do, we give thanks for all things. We give thanks for all things. We learn to live a grateful lifestyle. It says in Psalm 32:8, these words. The Lord says, "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you." Galatians 5:25. "Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives." See, the outside part of our Christianity, it's living in the whatever. Whatever we do, whatever we say, we do it all for the glory of God. And His Spirit will guide us in what that looks like. He will watch over us and teach us our pathway as we go forward. You know, in Ephesians 2:8-10, we begin to understand that whether it's our beginning point of our relationship with God, our walking point with our relationship with God, that sooner or later we understand it's all by grace. Ephesians 2:8-10. "God saved you by His grace when you believed." And you can't take credit for this. It's a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Verse 10, "For we are God's masterpiece." He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. It's by grace we have been saved. It's by grace we have entered into a relationship with God. It is by grace we live out that relationship with God. Grace cannot be earned. It cannot be repaid. The response to grace is to live a life of thankful obedience. That's what the response to grace is. Not how can I earn it, not how I can repay it fully to God, but can I live a life of thankful obedience to God, the grace of God. And I can't remember if we'll have these up on the screen or not, but I have a couple things about things to ponder or think about as you go into this week. How can I cultivate daily thankfulness to God for His grace? What can you do? What can I do this week to cultivate this thankfulness? How can I honor Jesus by my actions in words this week? What needs to change in my habits so my life better reflects His name?

Now, that card that was handed out just before I came up here, it's a prayer that was written by Susan Wesley. Susan Wesley was the mom of John Wesley. John Wesley was not the founder of the Methodist Church, but he was instrumental in the Methodist Church coming to light back in the day. This church, Spring Valley Church, is part of that history of the Methodist Church/Wesleyan Church. And what I have in this prayer, I want you to have this card, and I want to encourage you, actually I want to challenge you, that this next week you will put this someplace where you will literally see it every day. It may be someplace where you go to spend the time quietly reading Scripture. It may be just in your car because you're in your car regularly early in the morning on your way someplace. Maybe in the refrigerator. Maybe wherever you put it so you'll see it every day, and then I want you to not just see it. Ideally it can be done in the morning. It doesn't make any difference. Maybe at lunchtime, maybe in the evening, but ideally in the morning, that you will simply read this prayer. And as I wrap up, I want to take this prayer, and I'm going to frankly read it, but I'm going to make it more generalized and just specifically so you'll just take a moment and just pause, be quiet. “Help us, Lord, to remember that religion has to be confined to the church or closet, nor is exercise only in prayer and meditation, but that everywhere we are in Your presence. So make our every word and action have a moral content. May all the happenings of our life prove useful and beneficial to me. May all the things instructed us and afford us an opportunity of exercising some virtue and daily leaning and growing toward Your likeness." Amen.

Summer Playlist: Part 10

Summer Playlist: Part 10

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I am really excited today to jump in and talk through the very first song that was ever recorded in the Bible. This is pretty cool. And this was one that's kind of been on my heart this whole time in this series. And God led me other places. And then this week I was like, "Hey God, how about, how about can I do this one?" And he's like, "Yes, you may do this one." And so we're going to jump into the book of Exodus this morning. But I got a question for you. When you think of God, and I want to just audible response here. When you think of God, what do you imagine? Or how, how might you describe Him? What would be a word that you would use to describe Him? What was that? Glorious. That's awesome. That's good. That's good. What else? Powerful. What was that? An infinite. Yes. Everywhere. Always. Forever and ever. What was that? Loving. That's a good one. Any other words you might, maybe something, maybe personal to you. What was that? Genius. Yeah. Savior. Good one. There we go. Savior.

Have you ever thought about God as your warrior? Have you ever thought about God as a warrior-like figure with His warrior-like power? Well, we're going to come this morning to Exodus chapter 15. And before this, I'll give you a little recap, really short recap of what has happened. The Israelite people for so many generations have been enslaved in Egypt under Pharaoh's reign. And he has kept them oppressed. He's abused them. He's used them to build everything that he wants in his mighty name. They are being killed. They're being just absolutely destroyed as a nation. And God raises up a leader by the name of Moses. And he calls Moses, who actually grew up in Pharaoh's house through a whole other miracle, if you want to read about. And he calls up Moses to come in and to free his people, God's chosen people, from the power and the reign of Pharaoh. And Moses comes in and begins to have a series of 10 different plagues. There's locusts. The Nile River turns to blood. The livestock died. Just absolute chaos over these 10 plagues. And Pharaoh's like, "I'm not going to let him go." And Moses says, "Okay, here comes another plague. If you won't let God's people go, he's going to send another plague." And Moses finally gives up and he said, "Fine. Take you, the Israelite people, just get out of town. I'm sick and tired of all of this stuff happening that's centered around God being your God, being angry at me. Fine. Just go." So begins this journey of all of these millions of Israelites traveling east out of Egypt. And after a while of travel, Pharaoh goes, "It's too quiet around here. I don't got anybody to be building all my temples and pyramids and doing everything that like, I don't want to have to lift a finger. I need to go get those people." And so Moses sends his entire, or sorry, Pharaoh sends his entire army after Moses. It says in Scripture, he sent 600 of the best chariots and all the other chariots and every single person who was in the army, Pharaoh sends after Moses. And by this time, the people of Israel have kind of gathered along the Red Sea. And God has led them by day, by a cloud and a pier of fire by night. It's been this amazing moment for the, that God's deliverance. And then all of a sudden they realized, here comes Pharaoh's army. And they're kind of pinned in at this place with their heels on the waters with no way to escape, no place to go, and they start freaking out. They're crying out, they're screaming, they're yelling at Moses, "How could you lead us out here in the desert just to die? I wish I would have died in Egypt."

And God calls Moses. He says, "Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to split this Red Sea in half." And Moses is like, "Are you kidding me right now?" God's like, "Yeah. I'm going to split the sea and you and all of my people are going to walk on dry ground and cross the sea." Moses is like, "There ain't no way, dude. Bro, this isn't happening." God goes, "Yeah, watch." God splits the sea. Israelite people walk through on dry ground. Can you imagine? You're walking through and you're just like this wall of water. Like the original walk through aquarium is like right here that they're experiencing. Dry ground, they're not getting stuck in the mud. Just God makes this miracle and then they get to the other side, but then here comes Pharaoh's army. Keep saying that. Pharaoh's army. And they're like, "Sweet. Thanks, dude." And they start churning through and all of a sudden the dry ground ain't no dry no more. The chariots start getting stuck. Men start falling down. And as the Israelites make it through, God closes the water in on Pharaoh's army. Every single man in Pharaoh's army drowns in the Red Sea before the eyes of the Israelite people. Can you picture that? You're standing there on the side, the other side of the Red Sea, where you just came through and Pharaoh's army just disappears. And the Israelite people begin to realize who God is. In that moment, they realize what God has done for them on the banks of the Red Sea. A miraculous moment has happened right before their own eyes.

And then we come to this first song of Moses and the Israelite people here in Exodus chapter 15. The song itself is divided up into three sections. The first of which rejoices in who God is. And the second part goes into rejoicing in what God does for his foes. And then it finishes with jubilant celebration talking about what God does for his friends. The song of Moses reveals that God is a warrior who fights for his people and demonstrates his unmatched power, his justice, and his salvation. And calls for his people to respond in worship and to continue to trust him. This praise recorded here is just a beautiful picture. As the spirit of inspiration records this so happy song with elaborate care.

Before we jump in, would you pray with me one more time? Jesus, we thank you for this morning. God, thank you for our worship and praise that we already had. God, as we learn about the praise and worship that happened the first recorded in the Bible. God may our hearts join in unison and praise with your Israelite people. God, we thank you for the miraculous work that you did thousands of years ago. And that God, we too get to share in that same miracle today. And you saving our lives when all hope seemed to be lost. We love you, Jesus. Amen.

It says in Exodus 15, starting in verse 1, it says, "Then Moses and the Israelites sang the song to the Lord. I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my defense. He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him. My Father is God, and I will extol him. The Lord is a warrior. The Lord is his name. Pharaohs chariots in his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaohs officers he has drowned in the Red Sea. The deep waters have covered them. They sink to the depths like a stone.”

The Israelite people are celebrating with everything that they have for the victory that they had just received at the hand of God Almighty. The power of God's victory over the Egyptian army and the sea showcases his sovereignty, his strength in the day of battle and song and victory. In the ancient world, the sea symbolized chaos. The sea was untamed. The sea was wild. There was nothing that could control it, and anything that was on it or in it just fell to the will of the waves. Tossed to and fro. Nothing could control it. Nothing could have power over the sea. And yet God. And yet God parted the waters for Israel's salvation, and he used it to destroy Egypt. It's pretty impressive. That one singular moment, God changes the world's power in a moment. He is the God of our fathers and our own. The mighty champion of his people. This reminds me of the story that we would read just a few books later in 1 Samuel. Of a boy that would show up and face a Philistine giant. The Israelite people at that point were in battle against the Philistines, and the Philistines had this Goliath dude. Over nine feet tall, just a massive human being. And every day he would come out and he would taunt the Israelite army knowing that there was no chance that the Israelites were ever going to defeat him. And this kid, this boy by the name of David shows up. And God brings him onto the scene. And he, by the leading of God, say, "I am sending you out to defeat this giant." So David goes, he grabs a handful of small stones. He is a marksman when it comes to a slingshot. And he comes out and he says this to, "I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty." David whips his sling. God guides the stone. And he kills this giant. Chaos ensues. David cuts the head off of the giant. The Philistines go fleeing to the hills for their own lives. Knowing that all they had was this bro. And God just knocked him down like nothing. Pharaoh's best officers and warriors and fighters went after the Israelite people. And yet God goes. And they're gone. There's no match for our God. And this song sung by God's people reflects of this power of God's triumph. And reassures us that in our chaotic and threatening circumstances, that we can claim His strength as our own in the battles that you face. So church, today, claim the power of God in your life. Be reminded that when you might be facing the biggest battle of your life, your heels may be back against the wall. You might be stuck against the waters that are trying to take you down. I don't know what you're facing today or what you will face this afternoon or tomorrow or the day after that. But know that the power of God's triumph leads you to a declaration of His unique greatness.

Continue on. Verse 6. “Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power. Your right hand, Lord, shattered the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty, you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger. It consumed them like stubble. In the blast of your nostrils…" That is a sweet line right there. “In the blast of your nostrils, the waters piled up. Surging waters stood like a wall. The deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy boasted, "Ha ha ha! I will pursue! I will overtake them. I'll divide their spoils. I will gorge them. I will draw them. My sword and my hand will destroy them. But you blew your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you? Majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders. You stretch out your right hand, and the earth swallows your enemies.”

The power of God's unparalleled strength and majesty distinguishes him as salvation each and every single time, always and forever. And all the while, his foes are covered by the engulfing waters of destruction. The power of God's majesty for all to see. Everybody standing on the shore thinking, "I just made it through the water just to die on the other side of this sea." And God performs a miracle. This word or this phrase, "Yahweh is a man of war," emphasizes God's warrior-like power. His right hand shatters the enemy. His majesty is unmatched. All human efforts that oppose or resist God are ultimately futile. It highlights this overwhelming power and sovereignty of God. Think of another story from the Old Testament. This picture Elijah on Mount Carmel. He's standing against 450 prophets of Baal and first kings. He's remembering back to this moment for 10 generations. His great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents have passed down this story, this moment of God allowing them to cross the Red Sea and to deliver them from the hand of Pharaoh. And this nation of Israel is watching Elijah, and the King Ahab is looking at Elijah, who has challenged this false god Baal. And in these false prophets, they begin to shout, and they're dancing, and they're cutting themselves. They're trying to call for Baal to bring down fire from heaven and to light this altar of sacrifice on fire. And they're screaming, and they're shouting, and nothing is happening. And Elijah, when they finally get exhausted and fall over, it's Elijah's turn. He comes up, and I don't know if you know, but water isn't something you put on something you're about to try to catch on fire. And Elijah, by the direction of God, pours water all over the wood and the altar and everything. And in his unwavering faith, he prayed. And suddenly, fire from heaven came down, lit the wood, the wet wood, lit the sacrifice, burned the altar, and took out all the other water that was on the ground surrounding that. And the people fell down before God and worshiped, knowing that everything that they could have done in their perfect world with Baal had just been outshined by God Almighty. The people fell on their faces, these prophets of Baal, changed their tune. They realized, "Who's God?" And proclaimed, "The Lord, He is God." Baal's prophets were defeated, just as Egypt's army was swept away, providing that no one can stand against God's majesty. Church, trust in the power of God's majesty over your own strength. Sometimes we like to think that we got it all figured out, right? Right? No, I'm the only guy in the room who thinks we got it all figured out. No? We come up with these plans. We come up with these agendas. Five-year, 10-year, 12-year, 15, 20, 30-year plans. You got it all figured out. Trust in the power of God's majesty over your own strength. Recognize God's salvation in your life. And this foundational truth that will always shape how we respond in worship and how we live our lives in confidence of God's child. The power of God's majesty not only defeats enemies, but also secures His people's future.

Keep reading in verse 19, or excuse me, verse 13. "In your unfailing love, you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength, you will guide them to your holy dwelling. The nations will hear and tremble. Anguish will grip the people of Philistia. The chiefs of Edom, they will be terrified. The leaders of Moab, they will be seized with trembling. The people of Canaan will melt away. Terror and dread will fall on them. By the power of your arm, they will be as still as stone until your people pass by, Lord, until the people you have brought pass by. You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance, the place, Lord, you have made for your dwelling. The sanctuary, Lord, your hands established. The Lord reigns forever and ever.”

The power of God's warrior-like strength leads His people to safety. This wasn't a thing where it just happened and then God said, "Peace out, guys. Enjoy the other side of the Red Sea." No. This was the beginning of a journey. God was taking His people to what we call or know as the promised land or the land of Canaan. God was delivering them out of Egypt to take them to their home He had planned for them, guiding them, establishing them. God's steadfast love leads forth the people He has redeemed, guiding them in His strength to His holy abode. See, His victory causes other nations to tremble. Did you guys catch that in there? And that His reign is forever and ever. God had a place and a purpose for His people. They weren't to remain in Egypt. They weren't to remain under the slavery of Pharaoh. They weren't to remain on one side of the Red Sea. They weren't to remain on the other side of the Red Sea. They weren't to remain on the other side of the Red Sea. God had a plan and a purpose for them.

This journey to the promised land, I think, is awesome that it's kind of bracketed by crossing water. At that moment when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, little did they know that about 40 years later they would have to cross the Jordan River as well to enter into the land of Canaan. And after their journey, they came to this place where the Jordan River was at flood stage. There's no way you could pass it. There's no way you could go around it. They had to go through it. The enemies against them were coming after them, just like Pharaoh coming after them. And Joshua, who had walked through the Red Sea himself, was leading the Israelite people at the edge of the Jordan River. And the priests were at front, and the tabernacle, and the Ark of the Covenant was right at the front of the procession. And God told Joshua, the priests have to get into the water. And I can imagine Joshua going, "Hey God, could you just do like the whole like part of the Red Sea that we did with Moses? Can we do that one again? You mean my guys carrying the Ark of the Covenant have to get into the raging waters?" And God goes, "Yeah, that's how it's going to happen this time." Joshua goes, "Okay, you've never failed me. I trust you, God." And they step into the waters, and the waters part in dry ground, just like God did with Moses and the Israelite people years before. And as they crossed through the Jordan River, the Israelite people stepped into the land of Canaan, the promised land that God said, "This will be your home." I find it amazing that God shows up in such powerful ways when we are at our wits end. Right? I think there's something about being at the end of our rope that allows God to shine through even more. Right? Because if we're not there, then who can take credit? Right? We can take credit. We can say, "Oh yeah, God, you know, I was running out of some time, but you know, I still had that last plan. I had that last idea in my back pocket." But God sometimes leads us to a place where we ain't got nothing left. And He goes, "Watch me now." He says, "Watch what I'm going to do." I want to challenge you today that the same God who brought the Hebrew people out of their slavery in Egypt, brought them through the Red Sea, brought them through 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, brought them through the flooded Jordan River into the land of Canaan, is the same God that we serve today. Okay, I don't think everybody heard that. Let me say it one more time. The same God who brought the Hebrew people out of their Egypt and brought them into the promised land of Canaan is the same God that we serve today. Come on. Let's go. I love it. That's it. So I want to say, whatever you might be facing in your life right now, it's probably not a Red Sea. It's probably not a flooded Jordan River. I don't know. Maybe it is. But I know that I, the God that I serve, the God that cares for me, the God that loves me, has a promise to pull me through. It might not show up the way that you think it's going to show up, right? Joshua wanted the Red Sea parting of the Jordan River. And God said, "No, I'm gonna put a little twist on it. I'm gonna do water part in version 2.0 for you." But you can trust in that power, in His guidance, when we face uncertain times because He is a faithful God. Amen? He is a faithful God. And this power of the God's guidance calls us to respond with an unfiltered, unified worship and celebration. That's what the people did.

It says in verse 19, "Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and horses went into the sea. The Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them. But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron's sister, took a tremble in her hand, a tambourine. And all the women followed her, and the tremble and the dancing of Miriam, saying to them, 'Sing to the Lord, for He has highly exalted both horse and driver. He has hurled into the sea.'" They have an impromptu worship service break out on the banks of the Red Sea right after God performs His miracle. This is the only proper and true response when God moves in our lives. It should let out praise from our hearts. We should shout with celebration. We should worship our true God, both personally and corporately. It's not a coincidence that we gather once a week. We gather to celebrate. We gather to praise God for what He has done in our previous week. We gather to encourage one another for the raging waters that are coming for us this coming week to look back and to remember what God has done through our lives, through our hearts, time and time again so that we can face those raging waters that He is going to guide us through tomorrow. Amen? The celebration shows the importance of communal worship in response to God's victories. Miriam leads the people in this song recorded here in Scripture, the very first worship song recorded in Scripture. And we, too, in 2025, get to celebrate and worship with that very same song. I don't know how the song goes. Nobody has any music to it. You could probably write something yourself, come up with a melody line and some chorus.

But these milestone moments are times that we celebrate what God has done. In the Old Testament, you might read as you read through these times where people would have a milestone moment and they would build an altar to God, wherever it was. They would stack stones and they would create something to signify that something happened here. And I think it's twofold. I think it's one, for that person who would ever walk by again, they would see that stack of stones and they remember, "God did something here in my life." But two, it would also be a witness to others that as they would pass by, they would say, "God did something here. I may not know what it was, but God did something right here." A milestone moment, a milestone marker to show the world that God had moved. I remember back the times in my life growing up, maybe it was youth camp, maybe it was a youth conference. I remember times in college where there was hundreds of people gathered together, sometimes thousands, and we would break out in worship. And sometimes all the instruments in the band would just stop and you would just hear these voices being lifted up in praise to God. These incredible milestone markers in my life to remind me of the times when I feel all alone by myself and lost. God goes, "Remember that time? Remember that milestone where you stood with 2,000 other people and you praised God together and the Holy Spirit swirled in that room in such powerful ways? Lives were transformed. People were called into ministry. Lives were changed. Salvation happened. Rededication. People were healed. Amazing things happened." God says, "Don't forget those times." A professor in college, he had this great way of saying, you call them thin moments. A moment when the space between heaven and earth and God's throne and our hearts felt so thin. Because the reality is sometimes it can feel really far away, right? God can feel so far away, so distant, maybe like he doesn't even exist at times. But it's these milestone moments in response of worship that remind us of the power of God, his warrior-like strength in our lives, these thin moments where we feel like God is right there. God's always right there. We're the one that makes the space.

I want to give us some questions as we close out. First of which, just think through these, maybe write these down, and maybe this week just kind of talk with God about them. But how does the power of God's triumph, majesty, and guidance encourage you to claim his promises in your current battles? Maybe you can look back on a battle that you faced before and you think about how does God's triumph, majesty, and guidance build your trust in him? That you can look back, you can remember what God had just done to know that God's going to move here and now. That God isn't just going to disappear. He's not here one moment and gone the next. That he's there faithfully every single time.

And then two, what milestone moments of God's rescue and redemption can you celebrate through the power of worship just as Israel did? Or maybe say it another way, what moments of God's deliverance can you celebrate through worship? What can you maybe write down right now? You're thinking about what's God done in your life? How has he rescued you? How has he split waters in your life? How has he pulled you through? That you then can, this week I encourage you, take a moment and pause your life. Put on a worship song, maybe a song you know, maybe it's got words on the screen. And think about those times and just sing a song of praise to God. And then make this a habit going forward as you have those milestone moments where God comes through. And instead just going, "Hey, thanks God. Just going on with your life." But pause, worship God. Maybe write a song. I don't know. My daughter came into our room last night. She knows I was talking about this and she's like, "Hey, Daddy, have you ever written a song?" I said, "Yes, I've written one song in my life." And she goes, "No more?" I said, "Baby, songs are really hard to write. I just don't have the gift. I know people who can just like pop one out. I can't. The only song I ever wrote was to my wife when I proposed to her. That was it." Oh yeah, I know. But then she and her sister, they go into the garage, the only quiet space in our house, and she literally goes and writes a song. And she comes in and her and her daughter, it was just a precious moment. Her sister, sorry, there's daughter, my daughter, her sister. And they just start singing the song. And it's literally like two chords on the guitar. That's all she feels comfortable playing. But their heart of praise shine through. And I know how proud I was. I could only imagine how proud their Heavenly Father was. Looking down on them, seeing them give praise to God.

The power of God's triumph over chaos, His majesty, His salvation, always against His foes, guiding His people, bringing them home, call to corporate worship. Trust the power of God in your life today as your warrior. The one who fights for you, the one who stands tall, the one who has unmatched strength. And claim His promise to lead you to your promised land of Canaan. And to celebrate His victories through your worship. If you find an opportunity this week, share with somebody what God has done in your life. You don't have to sing to Him. That's okay. Maybe you would. Maybe we have some theater people in the room. Maybe you want to just do a little theater production and sing to somebody. But share. Maybe it's a family member, a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker. Don't keep inside what God has done in your life. Boast about this amazing God who deeply cares for you.

Let's pray. God, we thank you for how incredibly amazing you are. And I pray for us, God, today that we would recognize your power, your strength, your love. That we would trust you in our battles and that we would worship you wholeheartedly, Jesus. God, the reality is that maybe some of us, we kind of struggle with this warrior, God. We don't understand and we have questions that this side of heaven we just don't understand of why does a loving God allow so much bad in life and why doesn't God answer our prayers when we pray or questions about heaven or hell or evil or pain or suffering, God. I pray that your grace would overcome those. Not in the sense that you're not willing to wrestle or to answer them, God. But I pray that as they worship you, they spend time with you, they commune with you, they spend time in your word, they spend time through worship, they spend time in prayer, God, that you would begin to reveal those answers, you would begin to soften their hearts, you would open them up, God, for who you are in their lives. And Jesus, I pray for those of us who who need to invite you in as our warrior. For those of us who would say, God, I need you. I'm all alone, I'm by myself, I'm lost. I need you, Jesus. I need your strength, I need your triumph, I need your guidance. God, I don't have a heart of worship. I need you. I need you to put that worship into my heart, God. I'm backed up against the wall, my heels are in the water of the Red Sea. I don't know how I'm going to make it through. I don't know how I'm going to serve I've got God, I need you. I'm at the end of my rope. God, I pray that you would speak to their hearts, even right now. God, that you in this moment right here, right now, this is a divine appointment. We're not here by coincidence. We're not here by chance or happenstance. You're here, God, because you want to speak to their hearts. So if that's you today, you'd say, Chris, I need you to pray for me. I need Jesus in my heart. This is the first time I've done this. I've tried to figure this whole God thing out. I need you in my life. You just look at me and just make eye contact so I can pray for you. Thank you.

God, I pray for those who are needing you so deeply right now. God, I'm praying for those who are exhausted from trying to fight on their own. God, I also pray for those who are just celebrating in your victory. God, we're all at different seasons in life and that's okay. Sometimes we find victory and sometimes we feel like we're getting beat up. That's the amazing picture of a family. That we not only have you to encourage us, but we have one another who can pray for us and care for us and love for us. And so for those of you who would say you want Jesus this morning, just pray a simple prayer after me. And I would ask that nobody prays alone, that everybody who has accepted Christ in their lives, you would say this prayer out loud along with me. You would say, Jesus, thank you for your salvation. Thank you for your triumph and guidance. Thank you for your victory in my life. Jesus, I'm sorry for the sins that I've committed. I'm sorry for the way that I've chosen my own. God, I ask you, Christ, to come into my life. You would make me whole again. You would make me Lord or make you Lord and leader of my life. And I will live for you from this day forward in worship and celebration for the milestone moments where you delivered me. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Summer Playlist: Part 9

Summer Playlist: Part 9

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are in the end of our series, towards the end, not the very end, we're nearing the end. I wanted to shift gears this week a little bit. So far, we have talked a lot about music and songs, but mostly in the past, how God created it originally, what it's intended for, how Israel used songs to worship God, also for lament. And so, I want to look forward about music in the future. Not like, far future and like techno synth type of future music, but music in eternity, music in heaven. Have you ever wondered what role music plays when we get to heaven? We're going to take a look at that today. We're going to be in the book of Revelation. How many of you are intimidated or just like, Revelation's a little, yeah, I'm putting my hand up there. It's always kind of a book that's like, "What is going on? I'm a little intimidated." Well, we're going to break it down today a little bit. So hopefully that this chapter at least is just more palpable. You're easier to understand. That's the goal afterwards.

So, Revelation, a little bit of background, is written by John. He received divine visions and instruction from the Spirit, and he writes as an authoritative prophet, kind of like a prophet from the Old Testament, giving instruction and calling God's people to follow him in the midst of whatever's going on. The book's genre is a mashup of apocalyptic, prophetic, and an epistle. So it's got futuristic scenes. It's got John calling God's people back, and it's got instruction for the churches at the time. It's a book that helps us remain present in the midst of whatever circumstances we face because of the certainty that we have in Christ and the hope we have of the future with him. Outside of the teachings of Jesus, when Jesus is walking the earth and all the parables that he talks about, outside of that, this is the book that we get to learn most about heaven. So it's got a lot to offer, a lot that makes us think and ponder about what it's saying, but the picture and message are clear. It encourages and strengthens believers to hold fast in their testimony about Jesus, to steadfastly endure trials, and to resiliently hope in God's present and future reign. I want to repeat that because if you want to take anything away, if you're a note-taker, jot this down. Revelations, this is the point. To encourage and strengthen believers to hold fast to their testimony about Jesus, to steadfastly endure trials, and to resiliently hope in God's present and future reign.

Today we're going to look at one of these scenes about Jesus' reign. So we're going to be in Revelation 5. If you turn there, it'll be on the screen, but before we do that, would you pray with me one more time? God, thank you again for your word, for your truth, that we get to study it and learn it, and God, I pray that through your word today that we'd be drawn closer to you, that we'd have a deeper understanding of who you are and what you can do, and the future that we have to look forward to. God, I pray that we would be filled with hope and encouragement and joy. We pray this in your name. Amen. All right, so Revelation 5, this is John's second vision. We skipped all the first. You can read that if you want. Revelations 1, 2, 3, 4, and then we come to John's second vision, and I want to go verse by verse, and I want this to play out like a movie in your head. So if you guys want to, if it's helpful, you can close your eyes as I'm reading or if it helps you imagine, I guess we can say that you get a pass. If you're falling asleep, I won't know. I'm just going to be assuming that you're envisioning the movie of heaven playing out. I'm going to look at you and be like, "Oh my goodness, look at them. They're so into it right now as their head is down. They're complete." No. Just this one Sunday.

We'll start in verse 1. It says this. This is John's vision. It says, "Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals." We'll stop right there. We're going to literally go verse by verse to help us understand. All right, so the sealed scroll is God's plan. It's got seven seals on it. Seals on the scroll mean that it is an ancient document, authentic. It's been unaltered. There's no change to it. Once it was written, nothing compromised it. And then seven, if you see seven in the Bible, in the New Testament, Old Testament, that is the number of completion. So a lot of things that are described as being seven or have seven means it is whole. It is not lacking anything. And so if we're to translate this into words that help us understand, we see in your movie so far that you're envisioning, God sitting on the throne and in his right hand is a scroll that is perfect and it's a plan of judgment and redemption for humanity. Judgment of sin, redemption for humanity. So there he is. We got God sitting on the throne with the perfect plan. Verse two says this, "And I saw a mighty angel," this is John envisioning, "I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?'" So he makes this call out to everyone there, "Who's worthy?" Everyone is needed to open the scroll, to reveal and carry out God's plan. And it's assumed and implied that whoever can open the scroll is the one who will carry out God's plan. So we kind of have a sword in the stone moment. I don't know if you're familiar with sword in the stone. If you've been to Disneyland, there's that sword and you can, I've never been able to do it. I'm not worthy. But in the movie, you know, in all the land of England, you have all these nobles and knights and all these strong people trying to pull out the sword and no one can do it except for pure-hearted, in the movie it's a little boy, little Arthur. Well, we kind of have that. In our passage, there's a similar dilemma.

Verse three, it says, "But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it." So we're made aware of the problem now. No one is worthy to be the mediator of God's plan. And if you're, John, envisioning this of heaven, just imagine how disheartening this might be, getting to understand what's at stake. This is God's plan. And then comprehending that no one can do it. No one can open up this scroll, can carry out God's plan. No one on the earth or under the earth. So what does John do? He cries. Verse four, "I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or to look inside." The opportunity for redemption seemingly right there, but it's impossible in this moment to acquire it. He's weeping like an Old Testament prophet too. These Old Testament prophets oftentimes in their writing, they said, "I cried for Israel." Seeing the answer so close, seeing what had to be done, but then no answer there. It's for no one's doing it in the Old Testament. And here, no one's able to do it, it seems.

We get to verse five, "Then one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. See the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.'" The elder tells John to look up, to see that there is someone that can open the scrolls, that can do what God says needs to be done. And he references some prophecies from the Old Testament from Judah and David to help give context as to who this is. Now that word in verse five that says "see," there's other translations use "behold." And I like that a little bit better because I think it conveys what's really happening. But in Revelations, there's often a stark and meaningful difference between what John hears and then what he turns and sees. And so in this moment when the angel said, or the elder said, "Behold," we could also translate that to "hear." Hear the lion. He is able to open the scrolls.

But then when John turns and sees it's not a lion, verse six, "Then I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth." Now, maybe at this point we're starting to feel overwhelmed because this is getting weird. We have a weird-looking sheep. And let me break it down so it's not going to be so weird. So he turns, and at this point the slain lamb is the conquering lion. The lamb imagery relates to Jesus' death on the cross, the tradition of viewing his death as a sacrifice, like the sheep's sacrifice in the Old Testament. The early church applied the title "Lamb of God" to Jesus, understanding that his death was the substitute for their sin. So the victory spoken about in verse five, it says, "He has triumphed," was brought about, we know that that triumph was brought about through sacrifice. And so imagine being the persecuted church in the early church history, what hope that this would build, knowing that persecution might bring about more victory through sacrifice. Being like Jesus and what he went through would have brought hope to them. And so, okay, back to our movie, there's a lame, slain lamb who is the conquering lion standing at the center of the throne, encircled by four animals. All right, what are these four animals? Well, they are four animals that represent four things. One, the noblest animal, which is the lion, the strongest, which is the ox, the wisest, which is the owl, and the swiftest, which is the eagle. So the best of the best in their regards in this moment. You're saying, "Andre, how do you know that?" Well, I too had a vision last night. No, I'm just kidding. It says in chapter four. You read chapter four, it's there, it explains all the animals. So John's just carrying on saying, "The animals that I talked about earlier, they're there now." So four animals, and then we get to the weird lamb, right? The seven horns, seven eyes. So seven, again, do we know now? The number of completion. So horns, throughout the Bible, they mean power, they represent power. So we know that this is complete, whole, or all-powerful. And eyes represent wisdom. Being able to see everything is this imagery of being wise. And so we have this lamb who is all-powerful and all-wise. See, a lot less creepy. This lamb is not weird. It's just an all-powerful and all-wise lamb, who is Jesus, right? Makes sense. Now we have the seven spirits that are sent out. Well, at the beginning of Revelation, there are seven churches. Seven again, meaning complete. So some scholars believe that this is just another... There were seven specific churches, but it's also just a way of saying that this is all the churches in the area, Asia Minor, that this is written to. And so again, meaning complete, that this is John's way of saying that the spirit, God's spirit, is complete. It's enough for all the churches, for all the believers. All right. In our movie scene, you guys are following along, we have God on the throne with the seal scroll in his right hand, his perfect plan for redemption, and at first, no one on earth could open it. And then you kind of see, like, you can see this in the movie, like, the camera's panning through the crowd and there's no one and everyone's kind of downcast, it's like no one can do it. All of a sudden, there's like a spotlight and it's like working your way through the crowd and there is the lamb. The slain lamb, who sounded like a lion, surrounded by the four animals, and this lamb is special because it's the all-powerful and all-wise lamb.

Verse 7, "He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne." So the lamb approaches, takes it, verse 8, "And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God's people." So a harp is a common temple instrument, so that's kind of clueing us in that this is a very worshipful moment right now. And the incense, like it says, symbolizing the prayer from God's people. And so then the four living creatures and the 24 elders bowed down in worship, and now we get to the good part. It's so good, all right?

Verse 9, "And they sang a new song saying, 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.'" This is so good. This is like that hero scene where the hero has entered the movie now. We know that everything's going to be okay, because Jesus is here. Jesus steps forward ready to serve God, to carry out the plans, to open the scroll, and to do what needs to be done. Jesus is the only one who is worthy, the only one who could do it. The Lamb of God steps forward to the explosive praise of heaven, prepares to break the seal and carry out God's redemptive plan. By his sacrifice, with his blood shed on the cross, through Christ's death he redeems. He bought with his blood souls from every tribe, language, people, and nation. He sacrificed himself for us and for a purpose.

Says in verse 10, "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." Church, this is to you today. You have been made, you have been redeemed for a purpose, to be a kingdom and priests with God, to serve God. I was talking with a pastor friend of mine, and we were talking about this, our role as Christians. And he said, "The human task is one of partnership with God. We continue the work that God was doing back in the garden, Genesis 1 and 2. And that work is to bring order into the world and to bring life. God says to subdue the earth and to fill it. Subdue another way of saying that is to bring order and then to fill it, to bring life. So in our lives, as we are partnering with God, how are we bringing order to the situations we are in? How are we bringing life to the situations that we are in? And that task of doing this is a priestly task. We are doing what God intended us to do. This is the purpose that you have been redeemed for, to be a part of the work that humanity was originally made for, to reign with him. We're going to get to more of that in a little bit. But this is the song that is being sung to Jesus. Jesus is worthy. Jesus has made us to be a kingdom and priests. Can you feel the hope in this moment? Can you feel the joy, the relief, the newfound purpose, the awe and wonder of this heavenly scene? Well, it continues. It gets even better.

Verse 11, "Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands and ten thousands times ten thousand." That's the Bible's way of saying innumerable. "They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying, 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.'" So heaven is joining in. "Then all of earth joins in. Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb to be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever.' The four living creatures said, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshiped." Oh man, this is so good. If you're imagining this scene, I mean, it's filled with light, it's filled with the echoing praise of all of creation and all of the angels. It is a glorious, glorious scene. And I wish we could all have been there. I think this would have been the coolest thing for our faith and for our souls to have been present in this moment, to see Jesus step forward, do what he was made to do, give us hope and life. I hope this chapter makes better sense. I hope it's less intimidating. The creepy lamb is no longer creepy. That's Jesus you're talking about, so be careful there. But John directed our attention to God's heavenly throne room where the living creatures and elders declared Jesus the slain Lamb as worthy to execute God's plan of judgment and redemption and to the praise and glory of all of heaven and earth. It's a scene where Jesus is acknowledged and revered and praised and honored as he should be for who he is and what he's done and what he is still doing in our lives today. It's a scene that gives hope and is cause for the biggest rejoicing that we can offer. So now that we've covered this entire passage, I would, by the way, this scene continues if you want to in your week read chapter 6. It just keeps going. And it's, I mean, there's more that you might have questions on and that's okay. Feel free to ask. But hopefully this makes a little bit more sense as to what's happening in this vision. But now that we've covered this entire passage, I want to focus on just a few things, bring them back before us, especially about music and how songs play a role in our lives now and in the future.

So the first thing, first point, is that Jesus is him, as the youths say. Look at my youths in the room. Or for the generation below that, my generation, Jesus is the goat. Except he's a lamb. But he's the goat. He's the greatest of all time. Okay, some people are laughing. But for everyone, Jesus is the only one. That's the point. We should have had that on the slide. Jesus is the only one. In a scene that is a bit mystifying, kind of strange, I think even for John this would have been very different. It is so clear that Jesus is at the center of this scene. That Jesus is at the center of God's plan. That Jesus is the world's only hope. And therefore our only hope. And it reminds us that this plan of God is as good as done. Jesus who is all powerful and all wise is the only one who can carry this out and he does and he will. We don't have to wonder if this will actually happen, if he's going to figure it out. No, it's done. There's no mystery. We know that Jesus has defeated sin and death. Jesus is the only one who can carry out God's perfect plan. He's the only one who can save us from our sin. Jesus is the only one who can give us eternal life. Who can restore us into right relationship with God. Jesus is the only way to heaven. Jesus is him. It's a simple truth yet profoundly deep in its meaning and what it conveys. He's the only one worthy of our praise.

Secondly, is this reminder that you were made to partner with God. We're meant to partner, to be a priesthood. And you might have heard that before, but do you know what that means? To live it out in your everyday life. Do you know what it means to partner with God? This idea of priesthood is throughout Old Testament and New Testament. I think Peter says it best in 1 Peter 2, which says, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." Church, he called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light and for a purpose. Not just so that you can be out of darkness and be in the light, but so that you can work with him. I mentioned this earlier that our task is to continue the work of God, which again, he says is to bring order to the world, just as God did out of the chaos, he brought order and to bring life to those around us and in the situations that we find ourselves in. Again, just as God did, he brought life into the world. And this task, when we do it, it's always a priestly task. Priests are people who represent God to people and people to God. It's a two-way street there. And so how do we look at what's in front of us in our lives as a way to partner with God, to do one of those things, either to represent those that were around to God or to represent God to the people around us? So if you're a parent, you might be wondering, how do I fulfill my priestly task in bringing order to my life, to my family? Well, as you do that, in whatever way you do that, you are partnering with God. It might be simple as keeping a clean house. If I keep order in my living situation, some of that might be partnering with God. Think of your friendships, your relationships. How do I bring life? Maybe by pushing for peace and unity rather than gossip and division. By doing that, you're fulfilling the task of your priestly duty. The other part of that that Jesus talks about or that God instilled in Genesis is to fill the earth. That's part of our duty. And if you're parents, you're like, "I did my part. I filled the earth. I made more life." Good job. But how do you help them flourish? How do you continue to bring life to them? How do you continue to help and encourage them to have a good life? How do you encourage what God encourages, bringing joy, being a source of goodness and of truth? And again, this doesn't have to be the biggest things in life. It could just be whatever is in front of you that day, what's in front of you with that hour. How do you partner with God in that moment and bring order or bring life? Here at Spring Valley, you can ask the same thing. How do you continue the work of God? By representing God to others and others to God. Well, one way we do that is by praying for each other, bringing others before God, saying, "Hey, I know this person. I've been talking with them. I know what's going on in their life. And I want God on their behalf. I'm coming before you. Can you intervene in what they're going through?" Maybe it's by volunteering in kids' ministry. Thank you to everyone in the room who volunteered. I know there's so many of you who volunteer in kids' ministry. You are representing God to those kids. You are teaching them by the words you say, by the way you act. You are being God to them. I want to say this too. Our time as volunteers and serving the church is not about making the church a better experience for people. I think sometimes we think of, "Oh, we just want more volunteers so that the church can look really good to a newcomer." It's not what it's about. It's not at all what it's about. Everything here at this church is about, it's an opportunity to partner with God and to have spiritual formation take place inside of us, in our hearts, as we serve as Christ served. Again, if you're a note taker, maybe this is the second thing you're writing down. This is important. I want us to make sure that we're not have this jaded heart and thought about why people serve at the church. It's just so that Spring Valley looks really good. No, it's not what it's about. If that happens, that's great. We're very thankful for that. That's not the reason. The reason is we want to provide opportunities to partner with God so that you, the Holy Spirit, is forming within you a heart that is more like Christ's. Because as you serve, you are going to need God. We are going to run out of strength, of patience, of compassion, of grace, of love to have with other people, and so we rely on Him. And as we do that more and more, as we serve and as we rely on God, our hearts are being formed like Christ's. So we want those opportunities here. That's why we encourage. Get involved. Be serving so that you and God can start working together and partnering. You were made to partner with God. You don't have to wonder about what calling that might be, what grand thing that might be. You can just do it in your everyday life and the decisions that are right before you. And you can do it here at this church. So partner with Him and His kingdom work.

Thirdly, respond with worship. When confronted with the truth of Jesus and what He has done for us, we worship. When we feel like it and when we don't feel like it, but in the midst of a scene like this, where Jesus steps forward to carry out and fulfill God's plan, the only right answer, the only thing left to do is to worship Him. To sing our hearts out. To give Him all the praise that we have. A little aside here. I think it's really cool to know that there are going to be new songs in heaven. I think that's awesome. We've made a lot of songs. There are a lot of songs that have been written on earth. A lot that we don't sing anymore. But there's going to be new ones. I think that's just to know that there is opportunities for creativity and for newness in heaven is awesome. I think some of us have this idea that heaven is just like we sing like the one line over and over again for millennia. And it's like, that's kind of boring. But no, there are new songs. There are going to be cool new songs in heaven, new opportunities to be creative, new opportunities to worship God, new ways to respond in worship. And we're going to be in God's full presence like never before. We don't have that down here on earth. We get glimpses of it. We have moments of seeing part of His presence. But we will be in His full presence. And how much more are we going to worship Him? So respond with worship. It's natural and good. We're going to have a chance to do that in just a second.

But this week, you've had multiple encouragements throughout this series of what to do with music. I want to offer you another one. This week, I encourage you to respond in worship, specifically through song. You've already had the encouragement to listen to worship music on your way to work or on Saturday night and Sundays before church to listen to worship music. So let's, another one is when you see God work, when you feel His presence in your life, or when you just have a moment of recognizing Him and how worthy He is to be praised, give praise. Take a moment. Put a song on, sing a cappella, whatever you've got to do, but actually give praise back to God. And then continue to give your whole life as a means of worship to Him. That sound good to anyone in this room? Sound like possibility? Yeah? Okay. If you do it this week, do me a favor. Text the church. Chris and I are going to see this. We're going to praise with you. And we just want to, this is going to be awesome. We're going to rejoice with you. And whatever moment you have where you were like, "Hey, this happened and I just thought of God and I wanted to praise Him really quick and I was on my way home from work, I popped on this worship song and I was just singing." Like, we would love to know that. We'd love to know when God is having a moment with you, we want to share in that moment with you. If we get no text this week, we'll be a little sad, but we'll be okay. Chris and I will just text each other, like, "Hey, I'm worshiping again." Okay. We're going to chance to respond in music here as the team comes up to finish. But before, they're coming up, but before we actually worship, we're going to partake in communion together as a church. So you guys have the elements at your table. You can go ahead and start serving yourselves. I have to serve myself. I'm going to take with you. So go ahead and pour the cup. Make a cracker. You guys can listen as you're doing that. I want to say this, as we see how worthy Jesus is, it's natural to see how unworthy we are with all of our sin, with all of our rebellion, pride and selfishness. And that's humbling to be in the light of Jesus and to see how amazing He is and to see how short we fall. But it's humbling to know that God still loves us, that God still wants us, and there's no better way to come to the table of Jesus than with humility and gratitude. So let's humble our hearts as we recognize what Christ did on the cross for us, taking on our sin and the death that we deserved and shedding His blood to give us eternal life, that by His grace, we might be saved. And let's be grateful for the opportunity to be partners, co-heirs with Christ until He returns and for our lives that we're being redeemed now and we're going to be made perfect in heaven.

Summer Playlist: Part 8

Summer Playlist: Part 8

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

There are so many songs out there. It is wild to think about how many songs there are. Typically, at least for me, when I want to pick a song on a playlist or when I'm going through the radio, I want something that is uplifting, that makes me feel good, that maybe gives me energy to clean the house, or that we can have a little kitchen dance party too, or gets me out of a funk. We like the uplifting, the feel-good music. But sometimes, you're like, "That is not what I need right now. That is not what I'm feeling." And we have, at least what my generation calls emo music, right? We have the more emotional music that elicits these raw emotional responses that, you know, maybe it's depression or anxiety or grief even. And these, what the Bible would call, are laments. And so we have both. In music, we have both the upbeat, energetic, feel-good songs, and we have the hard, emotional, expressive songs. And so does the Bible. There's all different kinds of songs in the Bible.

Now, last week, Pastor Andre talked about a lament. He talked about Psalms 42. And we had it originally intended to do two laments back to back. We were like, "That's kind of a downer, right? Let's not do two laments back to back." But the more we talked about it, the more we realized that our sermons, although very different, were kind of a part one and part two on the topic of lament. Now, if you weren't here last week and you didn't hear his sermon, that's okay. You're not going to be lost today because it's very different. But it's really hitting on two important key things with lament. He touched more on this idea of lamenting when things are hard, when the world comes at you, when life is just hard and the circumstances are maybe even out of our control. And today, we are going to be talking about lamenting when it's our own fault, when we are the problem. Sounds a bit like a downer. I know. Okay. But hang with me. There is good news. There is hope. Okay. We'll get there. But I think this is a really valuable and important thing for us to talk about. There is hope, even in the lamenting. And there's hope because we don't grieve like the world grieves. First Thessalonians says that we don't grieve like those with no hope. We grieve with hope. And that's really what a lament is. It is a form of grief and we grieve because of our sin. We grieve because we sin against God. We grieve because it puts a rift in our relationship with God. Maybe because we hurt others in our sin. And because the things that grieve or break the heart of God should break our hearts too. But because we know the end of the story, we know Jesus came and is coming back again, we can grieve and lament with hope. So we're going to be in Lamentations today. It's only five chapters, but it is dense. It is a lot happening in that. And we will not be covering all of Lamentations today. Don't worry. We won't be here till 4 p.m. We are going to be really focused in on chapter three.

So the Book of Lamentations is made up of five poems or songs. And it's believed to be written by one author. And we think it's Jeremiah who wrote the Book of Jeremiah. It was written as a lament regarding the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. when they were attacked and the city was destroyed and the people were taken into captivity. So the first four of the poems are actually written in an acrostic, which is a cool literary way for the author to do it. But we don't actually see that in our English Bible because it was written in Hebrew. But if you look at the Hebrew of it, the first word of every line in the first four poems or songs is their Hebrew alphabet. So if it were English, the first line would be A. The second line would start with B. The third line would start with C. And so it's a really cool fact about this song. But one commentary mentioned this about it being in an acrostic. It said that the use of the alphabet symbolizes that the completeness, the A to Z of grief is being expressed. And I love this because lament is just not one thing. It's not just stating facts or it's not just complaining or crying out to God or it's not just praising Him and asking Him for rescue. It's all of those things. It's the completeness, the wholeness, the A to Z-ness of it. It was often sung by the Israelites, usually on a yearly basis as a remembrance for the destruction of their city. And to remind themselves of the sin and the choices that got them there, as well as God's faithfulness during that time. So Lamentations kind of builds a little bit. The first couple chapters are really just about the destruction of Jerusalem. The pain, the consequences of their actions. But in chapter three, it shifts a little bit. The narrator turns more to a personal voice, talks more individually, and speaks more of God's justice and His mercy in the hope that we find even in the darkness of it. Books of the Bible, like Lamentations, are really hard to read because we see the destruction. We see the pain. We see the reality of the ramifications of our sin. It is plain as day in black and white. We see that the destruction came on Israel because of their own choices. They chose to disobey God and live in their own way. And that brought consequences. Now for us, on this side of the cross, we have to remember that Jesus already paid the price. He paid the debt. Justice has already been served. Praise God. But this is not a reason or excuse for us to keep on sinning. We know that we're forgiven, so we should live in that forgiveness, not just think, "Oh, well, I can keep on doing what I'm doing because God will forgive me." We don't have the license to keep doing that. And we have to understand that while we are forgiven and we live in freedom, we're gonna mess up. We're gonna fail. We're gonna fall. And there will be ramifications to those sins. So Lamentations is brutal and it's beautiful. It's brutal. It's a tough one, guys. But there's hope. Paul David Tripp writes, "The Bible never denies reality. The Bible never plays it safe. The Bible never offers you a cosmetized view of the fallen world. The Bible never tricks you into thinking that things are better than they are. The Bible is straightforward and honest, but not void of hope. While it is very candid about the hardships of life in this broken world, the Bible is also gloriously hopeful. The honesty does not crush the hope, but neither does the hope negate the honesty." The Bible pulls no punches and we might step on some toes today, but we're gonna see the hope too. So instead of going verse by verse through chapter three, we're actually gonna kind of jump around and we're gonna go more topically through this. And we're gonna pull out what we can learn from this lament, from this song.

So first we're gonna talk about the ramifications of our sin. So turn with me to Lamentations 3. We're gonna start in verse 13 and pull it up on your phone or your Bible. It'll be on the screens as well. So verse 13, "He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. I became the laughing stock of all my people. They mocked me in song all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink. He has broken my teeth with gravel. He has trampled me in dust. I have been deprived of peace. I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, 'My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord. I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I will remember them and my soul is downcast within me.'" That can be really hard to read. And it may seem obvious, it probably is, but I think it's important for us to understand that our sin has consequences. The author here lists a few, that his heart was pierced, he had no peace, there was bitterness, his soul was downcast. And those are just personal, internal consequences. That doesn't even account for external consequences. Things like broken relationship, financial hardship, a variety of things that can cause consequences outside of ourselves, physical consequences. Our sin has consequences, even if we don't think it will. And the reality is that we don't sin in a vacuum. So our sin also has consequences for other people. It affects those around us. If you flip back to chapter 2, verse 19 says, "Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children who faint from hunger at every street corner." The kids of Jerusalem weren't the ones sinning. They weren't the ones going after other gods, but they still suffered the consequences of their parents' sin. That's hard to hear, but it's true. Because we don't sin in a vacuum, other people will experience consequences of our own sin. And I guarantee you, everyone in this room can think of a consequence they suffered because of someone else's sin. And vice versa. I bet you can think of a consequence someone else suffered because of your own. Sin has consequences and not just for ourselves. All the things that we think of in sin that maybe are the struggles we have, we think maybe are just personal. But it's not. There are far-reaching consequences. I think of extramarital affairs that they think, "Oh, it's just between me and this person." But what about your children? What about your friendships? What about your co-working relationships? I think about addictions, things like porn that it's done in secret, but it has ramifications beyond what maybe we can even fathom. Sin has consequences. Second ramification is that we become unfit for use. That's a tough one. Limitations three, we're gonna jump down to verse 44. It says, "You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through." He's talking to God here. "You have made a scum and refuse among the nations." When we are choosing to live in sin, our prayers become ineffective. Now, when we are crying out to God from our sin and asking God to restore us, that's different. But when we are actively choosing sinful behavior, our prayers will fall on deaf ears. They become ineffective. They can't get through because you're intentionally separating yourself from God. The Hebrew word here for the scum, he says, "You have made a scum and refuse." The Hebrew word here, it's a descriptive term that in context really denotes anything that is rejected as unfit for use. The Lord, hear me on this, the Lord can use anyone. And the reality is he wants to use people. That's how he designed it. He wants to use us as people and everyone is a sinner. So his only option is to use sinners. So he can use us. But it's our heart posture. When we are choosing to live in sin or ignore sinful behaviors, we become unfit for kingdom use. And when I say unfit for use, it's not that God can't use you, it's that you're making yourself unavailable. I said that intentionally that way. You're making yourself unavailable. It's a choice. Our sin puts a rift in the relationship. It hardens our hearts and makes us unavailable for kingdom work. It makes our prayers ineffective. So God can't use us for kingdom work.

So we must lament these things. We have to grieve them because they grieve the heart of God. And when we take the time to lament, we become aware of our sin and of God's justice. That's the next thing we're going to look at today. The reality is of God's justice. The first thing I want us to understand, though, is that God doesn't delight in punishing us, but wants to restore us back into right relationship with him. God is not some vengeful God maniacally laughing at our pain or circumstances or the consequences that we are suffering. He is a loving God who understands that the consequences of our sin can bring us back into right relationship with him if we allow them to. If we are open to that. Sometimes we go through the valley of the shadow of death. Pastor Chris talked about the Psalm 23 a couple of weeks ago, walking through the valley of the shadow of death. And Pastor Andre talked about last week walking through and lamenting when life is just hard. But sometimes we walk through the valley of the shadow of death at our own fault. Sometimes we go through that. We walk through the valley of the shadow of death because God led us there in order to bring us to repentance. Repentance is just a church word that means to turn. To turn away from your sin. Do a 180 and go the other direction. Sometimes we're too stubborn or stuck in our sin or too comfortable in our sin that we need to be led through that dark valley in order to be brought to repentance. Praise God we serve a God that goes through that with us. He doesn't leave us alone. He walks through it with us and he delivers us from it. But he doesn't delight in punishing us. He just allows justice to be served and for us to experience those consequences in order to restore us. The second thing about God's justice is that just the fact that God is a just God. And so it would be against his nature to leave sin unpunished. It would be against his nature to leave sin unpunished. This is why we see the punishment of Israel played out in these verses. God could not leave their sin unpunished. That would not be just and he cannot be anything but who he says he is. That's also why he sent Jesus. To take on our punishment for our sins that justice required. In order for God to be who he says he is justice had to be served. It had to be served by either by the person who sinned which would be us or by a perfect sacrifice which was Jesus. Thank God for his loving kindness that he chose his son to serve that sentence for us. But the penalty had to be paid in some shape or form. It had to be paid because he is a just God. And it's good news. That's good news that Jesus paid that price for us. This is hard stuff. It's heavy stuff to confront our sin, to confront our our natural human nature, to go against God. But like I said, there is hope. We're getting to the good part guys. Okay? We have the hope of God's mercy and restoration.

Read with me Lamentations 3:21-26. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope because of the Lord's great love. We are not consumed. Amen? For his compassion never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, the Lord is my portion. Therefore, I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those who hope whose hope is in him. To the one who seeks him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. First thing we can draw out here that gives us hope is humility. Humility brings hope. If you back up a little bit into verse 19 going into 21 it says, I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I will remember them and my soul is downcast within me. I am turned down. I am humbling. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. Jeremiah humbled himself in order to call to mind the things that were hopeful. We've talked about humility before and it is having a right view of ourselves and a right view of God. It is putting us in our proper places that he is God and we are not. But more than that, it positions our hearts in such a way that we can actually see the hope. When we are humble, we are not blinded by our pride. We are not blinded by our sin and we can actually see hope for the future. We are at the beach this week and I was hanging out with my mom and the kids were off in the water with Chris and my dad. We were just chatting and I took some pictures and I was looking at my phone and my mom says, "Sis, you're missing the sunset. Turn around." 37 years old and she's still telling me what to do. Okay? But she was right. I had taken some pictures and I was looking at them but the real thing was right there. The ocean wasn't different. It wasn't gone. It didn't change because I wasn't looking at it. The sunset was just as beautiful whether I was looking at it or not but I had to turn around and look at it to enjoy. And I did. And the sunset was beautiful and the light was like crystals on the water and I got to enjoy it. But I had to change my position to see the view. We have to change our hearts position to see the hope. We have to humble ourselves to see the hope. The second thing to give us hope is that God is merciful and compassionate.

Verse 22 says, "Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, although we should be." Romans 6 23 says, "For the wages of sin is death." That's the cost of our sin. We should be consumed. But it goes on to say, "But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." Because of his love, we are not consumed. One commentary said, "There was still a remnant." As in referring to the Israelites. There was a small group that was left in Jerusalem. Most were taken into captivity or killed. But there was a small remnant that was left in Jerusalem that eventually took part in rebuilding the city and rebuilding the temple. He says, "There was still a remnant and a remnant with a promise of restoration." Wherever God leaves life, he leaves hope. If we're not dead, he's not done. There is hope. So we are not consumed and his compassion never run out. Some translations say mercy, some say compassion, but they never run out. Verse 23 says, "They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." His mercies are new every morning because we need them to be. They don't change or expire every night at midnight. Like they don't run out. But because we are sinful and forgetful, we need his new mercies every single day. We need them to be freshly available to us. And they are. Because he is merciful, because he is compassionate. They are freshly available to us. The third thing that gives us hope is God's covenantal love compels him to redeem and restore. That's why he made a way for the Israelites to make things right through sacrifice. He gave them the law. He gave them the sacrifices that they could do in order to atone for their sin and get into right relationship with God.

It says in verse 22, "His steadfast love." This is a covenantal love. It's covenantal language because he made a covenant with his people back in the Old Testament. And because he did that, he was compelled to make a way to redeem and restore them. He did that personally through their sacrifices and atonement, but then he also did it corporately when he restored the city. But it's also why he sent Jesus to be the ultimate sacrifice for us. He brought in a new covenant. We are under a new covenant through Jesus' death and resurrection. His steadfast love, his covenantal love continues to redeem and restore to this day. That gives us hope. So we know this sin has consequences. We know that God is just and that he must serve justice in order to be who he says he is. And we know that there is hope. We see that through these verses that there is hope. So how do we move forward now? How do we walk in that freedom and walk in this truth and walk in that hope? Well, the first thing is we must reflect on our behavior, confess our sins and repent. We have to reflect and ask the Lord to search our hearts to identify where sin may be taking root. We have to be honest with ourselves about what's really going on in our hearts.

Verse 40 says, "Let us examine our ways and test them and let us return to the Lord." That's reflecting. That's confessing. That's repenting. That's turning away from our sin and back to him. We have to identify the sin and die to it in order to return to the Lord. See, sometimes sin is sneaky. We think that if we're not murdering someone or robbing a bank, we're good. We're not doing the big ones, right? We're okay. But the thing is, Satan knows that if we're trying to actively follow Christ, we're not going to do the really obvious illegal things. He's going to be more sneaky about it. Do you have anger, pride, selfishness in your heart? Do you covet what others have? Do you let your thoughts run wild instead of taking them captive and submitting them to the authority of Jesus? We have to reflect and allow the Lord to search our hearts, and then we have to confess and repent. But we can't just stay on the reflection piece, right? I heard one teacher, a preacher, talk about this. She said, "So often I would recognize the sin, the Lord would identify in my heart, and then I would learn all about it. I'd read the books and listen to the podcast and read the Bible about it, and I would know all about the sin. I would intellectualize the sin, but I wasn't putting it to death." We can intellectualize our sin. We can know all about it. We can know why it's there. We can know how to combat it. We can know all about it. But unless we are putting it at the foot of the cross and dying to it, we haven't done anything. We haven't truly repented. So reflect, confess, and repent. I fully believe that revival comes after confession and repentance. Not before. Revival in our own hearts, in our homes, in our church, in our communities. Revival won't come until we confess and repent. The second thing to move forward is remember that He is our portion.

Verse 24 says, "I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for Him.'" I think that the main reason we sin is to fill something in our lives. Either something we think we need that we're lacking or something we think we deserve. But when we operate from the truth that the Lord is our portion, that He fills us with what we need, then we won't have to go looking for those other things to fill that need. Those sinful behaviors, even the good things, the friendships, the relationships, the stuff. Those aren't necessarily sinful, but if we idolize them or we turn to them without turning to God, then they become a problem. He is our portion. He is enough. He is so good. He is our portion. And lastly, we must put our hope in Him and seek Him. Verse 25 and 26 says, "The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." We have to keep our eyes on Him. The Israelites took their eyes off Yahweh. They put them on the culture around them. They turned to the lesser man-made gods. They turned to the sinful practices of the nations around them. They didn't live in the law of the land that God had given them. They chose their own way. Scripture says over and over again that they were wise in their own eyes instead of keeping their eyes on God. So we put our hope in the Lord. We keep our eyes on Him. We lament the things that break God's heart. And then we move forward in the redemption and the freedom that we can only find in Him. Amen.

Let's pray. Jesus, thank you. Thank you for your covenantal love that compels you to redeem and restore. Thank you for your gift of salvation, for the hope of a future that we have with you. God, open our eyes to the reality of our sin. Convict our hearts and help us to move forward in repentance. God, we pray for revival in our hearts, in our homes, in our church, in our communities. But God, we have to go first in confessing and repenting of the things that go against you and your word, that break your heart, break those in us, Father. We thank you for your goodness, that your compassion and your mercies never run out or expire. They are new and freshly available to us every day. Help us live in those graces. Father, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Summer Playlist: Part 7

Summer Playlist: Part 7

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Let's get into our series. We are continuing in our summer playlist series. If you're new this morning, we've been enjoying covering different songs of the Bible. We've covered songs of praise, Hannah's song of surrender, a song from Isaiah about God the Father. We've talked about a song that reminded us of God's protection. And then last week we covered a classic song, Psalm 23, how God is our shepherd. So we've been enjoying the different songs that the Bible has, seeing how each can help us draw closer to Him, help us understand ourselves and give us instruction in how to live a life that is pleasing to God. And really that there's a biblical song for every experience in life. I know that we have playlists sometimes, if you're a musical person, you have a playlist for your mood and you, you know, if you're working out, you're going to put on that heavy stuff to get you pumped up. Or if you're more in a contemplative mood, you put on the slower music to help you meditate or be in that moment. So the Bible has songs that are also in the same vein.

Today is going to have a different tone. As I said, there are times in our lives of celebration and joy. There are times of quiet reflection and contemplation. There are times of focus and preparation, but there are also times of despair, distress and depression. Now on Sundays, as we gather as a church, we more often than not spend time talking about joy and for good reason. But today, if it's okay with you, I hope it's okay. We're going to spend some time together discussing moments in life when we feel agony and anguish. Talking about emotions that the human body wasn't created to handle, but that sin brought into the world and therefore we must deal with. We're talking about situations in life that bring us to the end of ourselves and in desperate need of divine help. It's an unfortunate belief that some people have that hold that the church or Christians are a one-track singular emotion people of joy. That like, if you're a Christian, you just got to be joyful all the time. And in reality, we sometimes go through seasons where joy is the farthest thing, the farthest emotion that we feel. Where darkness seems to me more closely surrounding us than anything else. And we need to know as believers what the Bible says about those times. Whether you're in it or not right now, it's still important that you know that the Bible addresses those darker human emotions. And looking around this room, I know that many of you through conversation, getting to know you have been through a lot in life, maybe even recently. I know that many of you have wounds, pains, deep sorrows that you are working through, are processing, or maybe haven't even yet begun to process. But when we were preparing for this series, as pastors, we knew that we wanted to cover a song of lament. We knew we needed to because we knew that you needed it. So is it okay this morning, we take a pause on the joy, and we enter into the grief and anguish together? Is that all right?

We're going to be in Psalm 42. If you have your Bibles with you, you can go ahead and turn there right now. We'll have it up on the screen as well. Psalm 42. You might recognize this song as we read it. It's often sung with a gentle tone. It's a very pleasing song. But it's a song that brings up some of life's hardest questions. Questions like, "Do I have what it takes to keep going in life?" "God, where are you? Are you even there? Why do I feel this way? Why can't I be normal like everyone else seems to be? Why don't I feel as happy as I once was? Why is whatever I'm going through, why is it happening?" If you've ever found yourself in a season of life where these questions are constantly running through your head, take some comfort in knowing that you're not alone. And not just with the people around you. That's a huge comfort too. But know that it's a question that's been asked since sin entered the world. There's a song about it in the Bible. And maybe it'll put words to some of the feelings that you've had. And I want to be honest with you up front. This song, this song, it doesn't answer any of those questions in full. But it does communicate to us that we're not alone in how we feel. And it's a song that shows us, just its existence in Scripture shows us that God cares. I believe he put this in the Bible because he knew that as long as we struggle with sin, as long as sin was a part of our world, that people would continue to suffer, continue to despair, and that they would need to know that they can and should turn to God.

So let me go ahead and read our psalm this morning, Psalm 42. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the mighty one, with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me, therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Herman from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls, all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, where is your God? Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Let's pray one more time. God, we know that you are there for us, even though sometimes it doesn't feel like it. So I pray for anyone who is in that moment right now, where they have some very serious questions about what's going on, the feelings that they're feeling, where you're at. God, I pray that you would meet them in this moment through your word, through Psalm 42, God, a Psalm that you included in scripture for a reason. I pray that it would speak to us today, that we would feel your presence, we would be comforted to know that you are there and feel your peace. Even if our situation and circumstance doesn't change, God, I pray that our hearts would change knowing that you are standing there with us in that moment. Be with us today. Amen. I want to go verse by verse. I also want to make... Oh, thank God. I was about to pray for some air. I'm warm. Are you guys okay? It's warm? It's warm. It's back on at like 65? Okay, good. I didn't know if I was that nervous or it was just the heat. It's the heat. It's totally the heat. A little... No, just the heat. Okay, there it goes. Okay. I want to go verse by verse to dive deeper into this... I'm trying to be like a somber picture of the psalm. Verse one talks about this deer panting for streams of water. And it's a desperate picture. This is death is at the doorstep for this deer. And you may know the song, "As the Deer Pants," that many of you are familiar if you've grown up in church or been around the church for a while. It has a very gentle tune. And when you YouTube that song, "As the Deer," it's always like a video of a deer next to a quiet stream in a forest. And it's just very serene and peaceful. We were just in Mendocino this past week on vacation and we saw a lot of deer. And it was very peaceful. And I was like, "If I'm a deer, this is where I would want to be. This is ultimate deer country." I don't know if they have any predators. I didn't see anything. Maybe there are. But just peaceful deer in meadows. You got the ocean. It was beautiful. There's mountain lions? All right. I didn't see anything. Thank God. But this is our deer in this Psalm is in a totally different situation. This is a more dire situation. This deer is fighting for its life. I got a talk with Bob and Kris Lindsey working at the fireworks booth and they witnessed literally what is happening in this Psalm in their backyard. They live out in Loomis, I believe. Yeah. And there's this creek that runs through their backyard. And one summer day, they came out to find what this is describing, which is a deer sprawled out in its sight. You can see the breathing, the heaving, and the tongue is out. And it is literally fighting for its life. It's trying to regain its energy and composure. It had maybe smelled the water or something, and it was trying to make it to the stream, and it didn't make it. Now they reported that the deer left at some point, so it did regain its energy in that story, and the deer lived. But it is a very serious-- this is not a deer. We think of a dog panting. Maybe we read this and it's like, "Oh, it's just hot. It went for a run, and it pants to cool." You know, no, this is-- it's on the ground. It's side, you can see it gasping for air. The tongue is out. It needs water to survive. This is what the Psalm is talking about. Instead of the picturesque deer in the middle of the forest with a babbling brook, it's more of a wilderness setting. The waters are hard to come by, and the terrain is of desolation. Life is hanging in the balance here.

Verse 2 continues, it says, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with Him?" Our souls long for things. That's what our soul does. Sometimes our souls long for sinful, worldly, fleshly pleasures, and our soul can have a terrible appetite. But there are also times when our souls long for God, for good, for our Maker, to be in the presence and to feel the goodness of God. And yet, sometimes when we're longing for Him, we know we need Him, it seems like He can be nowhere to be found, like He's just not there. The Psalmist writes, "Where can I go to meet with God?" We get a sense of wandering here, looking and searching and striving to find the source of renewal and restoration. And given what we know in the rest of the song, we know that they have experienced, the person writing this, who's living this terrible situation, has experienced being in God's presence before. And so the question is, "Where can I go to meet with God?" It seems like it's a place out of reach. I know what that's like, and it doesn't seem like it's possible right now. It doesn't seem like it's nearby.

Verse 3 says, "My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'" It's one of my favorite lines. It's just real and raw emotion. My tears have been my food day and night. The only liquid that the author has been able to consume are his own tears from crying about his situation. Have you ever been in a situation where the memory of what you need, the memory of a good thing, or just the thought of a good thing, is both food for your soul? It's not super nourishing, but it's just enough for your soul. And yet at the same time, the thought of that good thing is also the source of agony because you don't have it. I think tears that we cry sometimes serve two purposes. We can be mourning our lack, our loss, our pain, while also getting the smallest amount of maybe joy or relief or sustenance, just enough to keep us going, all from the thought of the thing that we're missing. It's a truly desperate and despairing place to be, to experience. But I know that many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. When we're in that stage of life, when we're in the midst of anguish and agony, it can be hard enough just to wake up and get through a day. And then sometimes we're even conscious of how our suffering seems like evidence that there is no God to other people around us. Again there are those who believe that a believer's life is exempt from hardship and pain, and it's just simply not true. It's how we deal with all that that shows people our faith in the everlasting God. But how others view us in our worst times, in our most deepest struggle, can be an extra burden on top of everything else that we're trying to manage. Verse four continues, "Where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One, with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng." Continues this thought of remembering God's presence. And the writer isn't currently there, he seems far from the presence of God, but he remembers how he used to frequent the temple with the protection of God, how safe and peaceful and sound that time in life was, how smooth everyday life seemed. And as their soul is heaving and crying and just trying to survive, they remember the joyous celebratory shouts and praises that they used to partake in. We just had a psalm a few weeks ago, Psalm 121 about the ascent to the temple, and how everyone would sing together as they entered the temple. And he's remembering that exact time of, "I used to be in the crowds, I used to sing praises to God." And again, there's both, it's causing both sorrow, because it's not a reality for them in that moment, but it's also giving the writer the slightest bit of hope and relief. Just the memory of it is anchoring them at this time in life.

Verse five says, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Now the author turns to reflective questions, to self-reflection, which if you've ever been to counseling or therapy, you know that that self-assessment, that time of looking within is essential to making any progress in processing what's happened in life. So I don't know if you've ever paused to ask yourself, "Why, soul, are you so downcast?" As an aside, I love the self-talk. I think we all do this, we talk to ourselves, right? We talk to, "Soul, why are you downcast?" Or, "Mind, why are you so anxious? Heart, why are you feeling so heavy? Why so disturbed within me?" And then comes the self-motivation, calling yourself up, or sometimes we say preaching to yourself. Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Now in my time of study this past couple weeks, I read this over and over again, and I think it can be read in a couple different ways. It can be read with this defeatist mentality or tone of kind of like an Eeyore. You guys remember Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, how he always talks like this, "Downward, hmm." And maybe the author is saying, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him." Maybe it's that, I don't know. Maybe it's this sudden champion spirit, he's been feeling depressed and down, and he's like, "All right, why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed? Put your hope in God, we got this. We're going to go forward, we're going to win the day." Maybe there's that sudden change of tone. Or maybe it's more like a coach in sports, he's like, "Hey, why are you down? We got this. We're going to be okay. Keep your head up. It's going to be fine.”

There's probably even more ways to read this, verse five. And I think it's got to do with maybe personality, however you read it, whatever type of personality you are. Maybe it's the opposite of what your personality is. Maybe you're the Eeyore and you're like, "I need the other personality. I need the coach. I need the champion spirit to get me through this time." Read it in whichever one relates to you. I don't know how the psalmist intended it. But I do know, and it's important, is that they know what should be done. They know what has to be done, and they know what they're going to do. And in times of such despair, when in reality our minds are a fog and we don't know what we're going to eat or remember if we've eaten, every decision we have seems to be overwhelming and the to-do list is mounting and the weight of the world is crushing. To know just one thing you're going to do is such a win. And the psalmist knows, "I'm going to hope in God, and I'm going to praise Him." I don't know the answers to the rest of my life's problems right now. They seem insurmountable, but I'm going to hope in God, and I'm going to praise Him. So we continue in verse 6. It says, "My soul is downcast within me. Therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, and the Mount Mizar." The perspective shifts again from talking to God to back to talking to Himself. Or sorry, the other way around. Talking to Himself, talking to God. And it seems like the writer is hitting another wave of sadness, another wave of depression. Why am I solely downcast? Therefore God, I'm going to remember you. And maybe there's frustration there. Maybe there's frustration that the pep talk didn't work. I don't know if you've ever been there, if you've had a moment of really being intentionally like, "Okay, we got this." And then an hour later you're like, "This is even worse. Nothing helped. I tried everything and I'm back down at the bottom again." And then it feels even worse than before. But it says, "I will remember you, God." The writer knows he can place his hope in God. It doesn't ease his despair, but it draws him closer to God. In fact, it's the very tribulations that drive him toward God, not away from Him. And I think that's ironic, right? It's the very tribulations that cause us such pain, such anguish, that can also bring us closer to God. Verse 6 ends with, "The land of Jordan, the heights of Hermon, the mount from Mount Mizar." Then verse 7 says, "Deep calls to deep and the roar of your waterfalls, all your waves and breakers have swept over me." So from the heights of the mountains to the depths of the sea, we get now more of a tumultuous picture from the deer at the beginning of the passage fighting to survive on the verge of death trying to get a drink. Now the psalmist paints this picture of the highest heights to the lowest lows and the chaos waters and the waves and breakers sweeping over him. It's a mental picture of wave after wave. There's no escape. There is no break. And the psalmist feels like drowning in the hardships is inevitable. The song of laments, it can be hard to read. Songs of lament can be hard. We can tend to skip over them because, again, we want the joy. We see God and we're like, "I know I should be," or we have this idea of like, "I should be joyful." But it's also necessary to bring all this heavy stuff that we're feeling, the pain, the loss, the sorrow that we carry, and bring that before God. For whatever reason, we may believe the lie that feeling those type of emotions makes us weak, that we would feel shame if people were to know the sorrow that we're carrying and the pain that we feel. We never really want to be vulnerable and share that with other people. But it's real and it's not meant to be suppressed. And of anyone on earth, God understands how you feel. Verse 8 continues, "By day the Lord directs his love at night, his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life." Again, we see further hope in Yahweh. By day and by night, this is the Bible's way of saying 24/7, "God is with me and he is protecting me, he's looking over me." And maybe we read this and we're thinking, "Oh, the author is feeling hopeful again, he's feeling positive.”

Well then comes verse 9, "I say to God my rock, why have you forgotten me?" Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning oppressed by the enemy? Again, even though the psalmist maybe had a moment of hope, despair is in full effect and now they are starting to question God's absence. He feels as though he's forgotten by God. I think we've all, at one point or another, felt forgotten by God. Maybe some of you are in that position right now, not sure where God is in your life, wondering why it's been so long since you've heard from him. Maybe you've had these nagging doubts, "Has God abandoned me?" Maybe in whatever hard situation you're going through or went through at one point, at first you knew that God was there. Your faith was strong, you're like, "God is with me, I know this is tough but God's with me." But as that difficult situation just kept going and going and going, maybe the longer it went on, maybe that whisper became louder of, "God, are you there? Have you forgotten me?" I appreciate that we can sit in this uncomfortable position for a bit. The psalmist doesn't immediately fix or address the truth that God has not left him, which God hasn't. God does not leave us, he doesn't abandon us. But the emotions that we feel are valid. And the writer continues, he says, "My bones suffer mortal agony, as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, 'Where is your God?' My bones suffer mortal agony." What a picture. I don't know if you've ever been in such a state of distress or depression or agony where the emotional and mental strain is actually having a physical toll on your body. Where the food that you eat doesn't taste like anything. Where you have no energy and sleep isn't actually refreshing, it's just a gap between feeling the pain. You can't really think and your head is maybe either throbbing or maybe it's just a fog. But living in agony is not what our bodies were made for. It hurts. It sucks. The writer here is writing a song about it just saying, "God, I don't know where you are. My soul is aching right now." Once again, the author is strengthened just a little bit by hoping in that which is unshakable. That's Yahweh, God.

And he ends in verse 11, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God." Anytime anything is repeated in Scripture, it's important. It means that we're supposed to pay extra special attention to it. And especially in something like a psalm where it's more poetic and there's more creativity, the placement of it means something. And I think we can maybe gather that if verse five was this pep talk that kind of failed as the verse is after it, he's back in despair. Maybe he comes around to verse 11 and maybe he's strengthened just a bit more. Maybe it's not a full-on, "I am so confident," but it's just a little bit more hope. It's a little bit more pep talk. He hasn't given up. That's our song. It's not the most uplifting song. And in fact, if I knew music and could write music, all of this would be in a minor key, something that's painful and doesn't sound great, but kind of conveys the pain and the sorrow that I'm feeling. Even though the joy of the Lord is the farthest emotion that this psalmist is relating to, he knows that God is there somewhere and that he's worth putting hope in. He's worth putting his trust in. And so I just want to reiterate the truth that God does care about us. He knows about our pain, our suffering, and he has not abandoned us. And again, even though the joy of the Lord is maybe the farthest thing that we feel, that love and grace is still for you and given to you daily by God. So continue to put your hope in him and praise him.

I want to ask a few questions for us to consider this morning. First is this, are you thirsting for God? Are you panting for God? Are you thirsting for him? In your most desperate despairing and in your anguish, are you thirsting for God? Like it says that deer does at the beginning. One thing we noticed in our psalm was that despite the agony the author is experiencing, the joy does not come from a better situation, but specifically from the presence of God. It can be easy in our difficult times in life to ask God just to make it better. God, can you just... You guys awake? Ask God, we tend to ask God, "God, can you just undo this? Can you make it? Can you reverse this? Can you make this better?" We just desire non-difficult times. Even I'm guilty of just praying, "God, can I go back to the season of life where it was good and enjoyable? God, can you take away the pain? God, can you make this whole situation better?" Those prayers aren't wrong. And in fact, we should pray some of those prayers. But it should be in addition to a prayer that asks for the presence of God, to be in the presence of God. We need to yearn for Him, to thirst for Him, recognizing that He is the only thing that will quench our heart's deepest desires. It's not the good times that we should want as the end-all be-all. It's being in His presence that is best for our souls. That may mean still dealing with life's difficulties, dealing with pain, but doing it in the presence of God. So are you thirsting for God? Are you praying for His presence in your hardships? And the second question is, are you intentional in your seasons of celebration and joy? There's a part of this psalm that really speaks to me, and it's that memory of the joy and celebration and the presence and protection of God. And sometimes those memories of a good time can stir bitterness. We're upset that we're not in that good time, that our situation isn't a better one.

But really, I think we need to view the good times, the good memories, the positive experiences and life situations as gifts from God, as anchors for our minds and hearts, as a future oasis in a future desert that we're going to be in. Don't let the bitterness rot your heart. Don't let the lack of good times close the door on God and distance you from Him. Rather, let it be one of the things that draws you closer to Him. You are sowing seeds for your life when you are intentional in your seasons of celebration and joy, when you make the most of your relationship with God, when you practice healthy spiritual rhythms, things like spending regular time with Him, praying and meditating on His Word, loving others and being generous with a heart of service, Sabbath-ing regularly, thinking of others like Jesus would, fellowshipping with the body of believers on a weekly basis. Just like the psalmist remembered doing, build up those memories. Store them up within your heart so that you can remember the preciousness and joy of being a part of God's family for moments when you feel so far from Him. So are you intentional in your seasons of joy and celebration? I want to close with this as the team comes back up. I know I said that this song doesn't resolve, but there is more. Scholars think that originally Psalm 43 was a part of Psalm 42 as one longer lament psalm. In Psalm 43, the writer continues looking to God for vindication and imagines his joy in the presence of God. One scholar writes, "Throughout Psalm 42, there has been a growing reliance on the things that cannot be shaken, although the storm of suffering has given no sign of relenting." And in 43, "Homewhere bound or not, the poet can praise God as his exceeding joy, not merely his help, but God's salvation is there. Outwardly nothing has changed, but he knows that God is with him." So my encouragement and my challenge to you is this week, read Psalm 43. Read it a couple times. Maybe you read Psalm 42 and 43 together, but see what the Spirit is helping you process and understand how you might draw nearer to Him in your seasons of life. I love that this week is a prayer Sunday. I think it's perfect. Whatever you're going through, whatever, maybe it's in the past, maybe it's months old, but we all have things that our hearts are heavy for. Sorrow, pain, loss. We would love to pray for you in that time. So we're going to enter this time of prayer. In this next song, you are invited, Bob and Chris are here as our prayer team, and they would love to pray for you. So you are welcome to come up, and they would pray with you in this next song. You can sit quietly and reflect and pray if you would like, but worship God freely, but know that you're not alone, that God is here for you, and therefore we as a body of believers and as a church, we are here for you too. So I'm going to go ahead and pray right now, and then we're going to sing this song and pray however you feel led.

God, thank you for your Word. Thank you for being there for us. Thank you for not leaving us, not abandoning us. And I pray for those who feel like you are so far from them, I pray that they would feel closer to you today. Even if it's just an inch closer, just a step. God, I pray that they would feel your presence even more and be reminded of the truth that you love them, that you are there for them, that you protect them. God, be with us in our sorrows and our hardship. May we remember that you are always there, ever-present, with your love and grace. Amen.

Summer Playlist: Part 6

Summer Playlist: Part 6

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing in our summer playlist series today and we're going to cover a really popular psalm. Have you guys heard of Psalm 23 before? Yeah, you've probably heard about it. Maybe here or there, maybe you saw it on a pillow somewhere, or an embroidery, a beautiful or a shawl or a throw or something. But Psalm 23 is such a unique song and psalm that I want to take some time to dive into it this morning. But first off, two things I want to say this morning, just real quick. Two things. I feel I need to say this. God loves you more than you think he does. If you hear anything this morning, I want you to hear that God loves you more than you think he does. And he is doing more in your life than you think he is. Let me say that again. He's doing more in your life than you think he is. So if you've come in this morning, maybe from a really tough week, maybe you're discouraged, maybe you're worried, maybe you're anxious, it's easier to say, but I want you to hear it. Don't be. Don't be. God's not for you. God, sorry, excuse me. Whoa. God is not against you. Now you're going to remember that this week, aren't you? God is for you and your future is bright. Okay? So if you would turn to Psalm 23, I want to pray real quick before we get started. Jesus, thank you for this morning. God, we thank you for another wonderful Sunday to gather together. God, we know that you're not against us. God, that you are for us. You love us more than we can imagine. You're doing more in our lives than we can see right now. And so Jesus, we thank you for our future that is in you. God, we trust you. We seek after you. We love you. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

Before we jump into Psalm 23, I want us to just really quick talk about Psalm 20, 21, and 22, because it kind of leads us into Psalm 23 of where David is. So it says here, coming to Psalm 23, the author, King David himself, he has been through it all. If you think you've had a crazy life, read about the life of David. He has, oh my gosh, he has, so start off here. He was picked to be king of Israel out of nowhere. Lots of political problems there, okay? He's been involved in more drama than anyone has ever experienced in both middle and high school combined. He's been hunted down. He was almost killed. He fled for his life. He's been hailed at the same time as a mighty warrior. He's been loved and hated. He's been everything in between, and God has taken him through highs and lows and twists and turns and surprises to the max. And we find David at this critical moment in Psalm 23. But if we look at Psalm 20, verses one and nine, it says this, it says, "May the Lord answer you when you are in distress. Lord, give victory to the king. Answer us when we call." This is David's heart right here. And then the next chapter, 21, it says, "The king rejoices in your strength, Lord. How great is his joy in the victories you give. Be exalted in your strength, Lord. We will sing and praise your might." David's on the high right here. He's like, "God, you are God. You are victorious. You are king. You are Lord of all. Everything is going great." You flip the page, Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In a matter of verses, I know this isn't chronological order, so this isn't 13 minutes later. It's like that's not how this stuff does when we flip through Psalms. But in a handful of minutes and verses, it feels like, David goes from, "You are the greatest Lord of all. You are king of all. Your victory is ours," to, "Where are you, God? Why have you left me all alone?" I know I've had moments and days and weeks like that before, where Monday and Tuesday, I am riding a high in Jesus, and it is just, "Let's go." And then Wednesday comes around, I'm like, "God, you've abandoned me. Maybe you've been like that.”

Here's Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for His name's sake, even though I walk through the darkest valley." Maybe you came in here today and you're in a valley. Maybe that's where you find yourself. Can I tell you? You don't have to stay in that valley. You don't got to set up camp. You don't got to build a fire. You don't got to start making s'mores. You don't have to invite people to come hang out with you. If you are a follower of Christ, you have Christ covering over you today, know that the truth of Psalm 23 is probably the thing you need to hold onto the most right now in your life. You know what it says there? "From where I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil. You are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup is barely full." My cup is half full. Is that what it says there? My cup. Okay, this is the part where you say the next word in the verse, okay? My cup. My cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. If you're taking notes this morning, you want to write something down, here's what I want you to write down. Psalm 23. Singing praises whether you like it or not.

Singing praise whether you like it or not. Why? Because I found as a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, sometimes you have to tell yourself the truth whether you like it or not. And you got to do it often. Sometimes when you can't see it, you say it. Sometimes when it's too hard to say it, you have to sing it. You sang some songs of victory in Jesus this morning together, by the way. I don't know if you picked up on that. Sometimes we have to sing it to remind ourselves of what is going on. Even if it's annoying. You ever have that Christian friend, like nothing is ever wrong in their life? How you doing? I'm so blessed, pastor. I'm so blessed. The Lord is leading me by still waters. My cup's overflowing. That's probably not true in their life, let's be honest. But even if it feels like a Christian cliche, sometimes we have to be the best worship leader and pastor in our own life. It's not me. It's not Pastor Lauren. It's not Pastor Andre. It's not some guy you saw on TV. It's not some podcast you're listening to. It's not some song you heard on Spotify or Apple Music. It's not a song you heard on K-Love or somebody you watch on YouTube. You have to be the best worship leader and pastor in your own life to remind yourself of the truth when you're in the darkest valley and remember the promises of God. David is singing to himself right here. He's trying to remember who God is as he finds himself in this valley. We saw as he progressed, Psalm 20, 21, 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" David is saying here, "The Lord is my shepherd." The hardest part in this is learning our role. This is the hardest part. So if God is our shepherd, what does that make us? Okay, okay. Say it louder for the people in the back. Yeah, there we go. Sheep. So if God is our shepherd, that makes us sheep. Without understanding that, this Psalm 23 is just a pretty little poem. It's something you'd find, like I said, embroidered on a throw or a pillow, maybe on a T-shirt or maybe scripty written on a wall somewhere. Unless we understand that God is our shepherd and we are sheep, this doesn't mean anything. But when we understand this, it changes everything forever. Changes everything forever. But I sit here and I wrestle with this because I was like, "God, why would you choose sheep of all the animals, God? Why sheep? Why can't we be an eagle, right, or a bear? Maybe a T-Rex. Jurassic Park just came out. Anybody seen it yet? Anybody see it? No? No? Okay. Maybe a lion. But why sheep? No one gets a tattoo of a sheep on them to go like, "Look how bad I am." Like, come on. Nobody answered, "What's your spirit animal?" Sheep. Like, nobody's saying that. They don't look cool. They don't smell cool. Sheep can't even walk backwards. Did you know that? Sheep can't even turn around. They don't have strength. They don't have horns. They don't have claws. They don't have anything. No one wants to be a sheep. They're lame. Let's just be honest. Right? They can't attack. They're not a strong animal. What's it going to do? Like, really? But they need a shepherd.

We need a shepherd. Yes, God is our friend. He's our comforter. He's our helper. But when we understand that God is our shepherd, it changes everything. Here's a question for you. Have you chosen in your life to have Jesus as your shepherd? Let it sink in for a little bit. See, there's a crisis in our society that says that we don't need a shepherd. I'm my own leader. I'm the one in charge. I'm making all the decisions. Where does that lead us? I know I've met a lot of wiser and more aged people, I'll say, in my life. I'm not going to say older or elder. But they've shared wisdom with me and said, "I've tried to lead myself and it didn't go well. This plan I had just went the wrong way. It didn't work out. I told myself I got this moments later. Nope, don't got this." Psalm 23 is a song of David that brings a reality check to us. Because if we're sheep and God is our shepherd, we no longer have to chase in the right direction, situation or things. We simply have to follow. This unlocks so many incredible things. Says in Matthew 633, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you." You don't have to make your own way or prove yourself. You just have to follow Jesus. Jesus has already done it all for you. The world tells us that we have to pursue, we have to chase, we have to buy, we have to own, we have to grab life by the horns, we have to climb the corporate ladder, we have to do all of these things. And Jesus comes in and He actually tells us the complete opposite of that. All we have to do every day is wake up and just say, "Jesus, I'm following you." You interview the richest people in the world and they're always chasing, right? More houses, more cars, more vacations, more stuff, more people under them to do their things, to cook their food, to clean their house, to drive them around. They're chasing, chasing, chasing, chasing, chasing. Jeff Bezos, former CEO of Amazon, he's one of the top richest people on the entire planet, billions of dollars. I mean billions with a capital B. He recently got married. He spent $50 million on his wedding, $50 million. I think collectively in this room, we would never see that in our entire lifetime. On a wedding. Always pursuing. He's into space travel. He's got this massive yacht. He's probably planning to build a new massive yacht that's even bigger that the little yacht would sit on top of. He's got yachts on yachts on yachts. It's crazy. And we get caught in that and we think, "I have to have that. I have to have that next thing. I gotta get... Jesus is telling us all we have to do is wake up every single day and follow our shepherd. That's it." He says, "Go." We go. He says, "Turn left." We turn left. He says, "Stop." We stop. That's it. All we have to do is rest in Him.

But why does this matter? Why am I talking about all of this today? The problem is when things don't go the way we want, we get antsy, right? We get anxious. And sometimes when God tells us to stop, it's the worst thing because we want to what? Keep going. We want to keep going. There are many times in my life when God has told me to stop and I was just like, "Nope, I know better." And I kept going. I'd like to tell you it went to a really good place. It did it. It never ended up in a really good place. I was outside of God's will and His timing. But when I slowed down and I listened to my shepherd and I followed in the way that he wanted me to go, he took me to places that I never could dream of, aka still quiet waters. Sheep don't strive for anything. I've never met a sheep in the third year of their doctorate program looking to graduate early with honors. Have you? No. Sheep aren't one-uppers. Everybody know the one-upper? You tell a story and someone's like, "Well, yeah. What about this?" And then they got to top your story. Sheep aren't doing that out in the pasture while we're sleeping, just to let you know. But we get caught up so many times trying to strive for God. I think our hearts are in a good place, but we have this messed up theology of we think we're on the show X Factor and God has just got His back to us and we're trying to impress Him with flowery language or praying in King James or singing the best worship song. Justin hopes that he hit that button and his chair would turn around and God would be like, "I love you." But we do that, right? We laugh at it, but then we find ourselves in some of these moments like David and we think, "God, I need you. Okay. I'm not praying hard enough," or "I'm not doing something good enough," or "I haven't accomplished this. I haven't received my Bible study badge yet from Jesus, so He's not going to listen to me yet." Newsflash, that's not how Jesus works.

So what if we could live a life free of striving? What if we could? What would it look like if we lived a life that we weren't trying to chase after stuff maybe in the world for ourselves or even in our own personal walk with God to try to prove something to Him or prove something to somebody here in our church family? What would that look like? Let's put up that photo of the sheep. Does that look like it's striving towards anything? Does that sheep look like it has a problem in this world? Does it look like it has plans this afternoon? No. That sheep has almost a stupid ridiculous bliss to its face, right? Why? Because that sheep has a shepherd. They don't have to worry about food, water, attacks from things that are going to harm it. Fill in the blank. The shepherd has the sheep covered. What if we lived our life with a mindset like that? Changes a lot of things, right? We would be free to be who God created us to be, nothing less, nothing more. We wouldn't have to be the perfect parent anymore. We wouldn't have to be the perfect spouse, the perfect boyfriend, the perfect girlfriend, the perfect boss, the perfect coworker, the perfect student, the perfect son, the perfect daughter, the perfect anything. We wouldn't even have to strive for a perfect life. There would be no problems. Why? Because we know God is God. We're back. Story was first with my oldest, Adelyn, but one of my kids every time has gone through something like this. We find out that the ice cream is all gone in the house. What I would think would be a crisis for my children. I remember specifically my oldest, I'm sorry, babe, we're out of ice cream. That's okay, daddy. I was like, oh, you're taking this really well. She goes, that's okay. I know you can drive to the store and go get some more and bring it home. But how beautiful is that picture, right? That hopefully as a parent, my children don't have to worry about anything. You as a sheep of Jesus who is your shepherd, you don't have to worry about anything. We think, well, you know what? I can't be generous or I can't tithe or I can't help my friend out because I don't know if I'll have enough. God, if maybe next week, God, if you fill my cup to overflowing, then the next week I'm in for your generosity. No. Or God, I will follow you as long as you give me the next 10 steps in front of me. God, as long as you bring me in on your plan, I'm in. It doesn't work.

We have to let go and we have to let God. That's what it's about. And when we want to take control of life, which newsflash, you're not in control of life. When we just hand over to God our worry, our anxiety, our stress, our unbelief, whatever it is, fill in the blank, you know what it's going through. And when we let God, we can truly, truly, truly rest easy. Because the Father is there. See, there's two qualities of a good shepherd, two qualities of God who is your shepherd. The first is our shepherd will always correct. Our shepherd will always correct. Here's a little thing, a little rhymey way to remember. When we're tempted to ponder, this is something to ponder. Hebrews 12, 5, and 6 says, "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline. Do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son." See, here's the thing, here, grace of God. Grace of God is amazing. Grace of God is so good that you can come to him just as you are, and he will accept you. You don't have to do any pre-work, pre-cleaning, pre-tightening up, buttoning up, whatever you want to do. You don't have to do any pre-work. You can come to God just as you are. That's how amazing God's grace is. But the other side of that is the grace of God is so great that he doesn't leave you as you came. Let me say that again. The grace of God is so great that you can come to him as you are, but the grace of God is also so great that he doesn't leave you the way that you showed up. You know, sometimes in life, things can get hard. And there's this thing called the shepherd's staff. See, we like the God that's just like, "Oh, hey, come here sheep. Come here little sheepy sheep. Oh, I love you sheep. Oh, don't go over there sheep. Come here sheep. I love you sheep." And David writes, "Your rod and your staff, they cover me.”

But there's two parts to this. There's two parts to this. The staff is the part that brings sheep in, that just lovingly cares for them and watches out for them. But there's the other side to the rod. And that is, there's times when the shepherd has to get after the sheep. And the shepherd will warn them. I did some studying on shepherding, by the way. So if you got any herds, I'm your man. No, just kidding. A shepherd will warn the sheep multiple times. "Hey, don't go over there. Come over here. Come on." Just kind of pulls them back. Just brings them back. Warn them again. "Hey, don't go over there. Come over here. That's dangerous. You got to stay with the pack. Don't go over there." But the third time is when the rod comes out. And the rod isn't so nice. The rod is a swift whack to the behind of the sheep. And it hurts the sheep. Sometimes to the point, you ever seen that cute drawing of like Jesus with the sheep on his shoulders? You guys know that one? Where he's just like, "Oh, Jesus is carrying the... Just snuggling with the sheep, carrying the sheep." No, Jesus just broke the sheep's feet. And legs. Because there'll come a time and a point where the sheep is too ornery and too wandering that the shepherd will have to break the sheep's legs. And then what happens is the shepherd then has to carry the sheep as its legs heal. Hand feed it. Hand water it. Talk it through its pain. But carry the sheep until its legs are fixed. And during that time, the sheep is so close to the shepherd that the sheep begins to learn the shepherd's voice so intimately. To where when that sheep is healed and good to go and can go and run around, when the shepherd calls for that sheep, who's the first one to the shepherd? Oh, that sheep is. See, sometimes there'll be times in our lives when we need to take correction from heaven. Not as a problem to be solved, but as promises from our Father who so deeply loves us. We might need to change some things in our life to get right with our shepherd. But you think, "Oh, pastor, that's so harsh. That's so mean. That's not who God is." Yeah, sometimes it is who God is. But the opposite would be even worse, right? What if that shepherd was just like, "You know what? Forget it. That sheep can just wander off." What's not going to happen to that sheep? It's going to get eaten. It's going to die. It's going to get killed. It's going to get stolen. There's nothing good that's going to happen to that sheep on its own. Have you ever heard that term, like when a coach or a teacher gives up on you, that's like the worst thing that could happen? Because when the coach is on you or the teacher says, "Hey, I believe in you. I know you can do more. I know you're smarter than this. I know you can do your stuff." That truly shows that that teacher and that coach loves you because they know the best for you. The worst part is when the coach goes, “Okay."

There's so many times in life that I've messed up and I was so thankful for a mentor to come alongside of me and call me on the carpet. There was a time, I remember, I was an intern at a church over a summer and I was supposed to help go lead worship at this other church who didn't have a worship leader. They're a really small church. I was dragging my feet and my boss, my superior, my reportee, I guess it would be, kept saying, "Hey, have you talked to that pastor yet? Hey, have you talked to that pastor?" And I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to go lead worship at this place. I didn't want to go to the church. I was going to miss all my friends at my church. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to do it. I kept dragging my feet, dragging my feet, thinking, "Maybe he'll find somebody else and I'll reach out and then he'll be like, 'Oh, I already got it covered.' Oh, cool. Thanks, sweetie." But I remember the boss, the executive pastor, called me in his office and sat me down. He said, "Okay, Chris, we have a problem." I said, "Oh, what's going on?" He's like, "You haven't talked to that pastor yet, have you?" I said, "Oh, no, I was going to get to it." He's like, "No, you weren't." I was like, "You in my head?" He's like, "I know you're dragging your feet. I know you don't want to be there." He goes, "But we're called to help other churches however we can." He said, "You're not on the worship team this week. You need to drive over there and you need to lead worship for that church because they need your help." I walked out of there and said, "Yes, sir." Went and called the pastor, went and led worship that Sunday. That executive pastor is now actually my boss. It's funny how things work like that, right? I was like, "I thought I was free." No, no, he's an awesome dude. But I sit there and I go, "Man, how many things have I missed in my own life from my earthly mentors? How much have I missed from my heavenly mentor?" And that remembering how much God loves me, that even when the ouch happens, to keep going knowing that He loves me so much that He doesn't want me to stay the person that I am. Just because it's uncomfortable doesn't mean it's unloving.

That's hard. That's hard for us to understand, right? You ever heard the, "Hey, we need to have a talk." No, no, no, I don't want to do it. But sometimes you have to have the hard conversation and it's stretching and it's growing and it's sanctifying and I don't like it, but so are growing pains. So are growing pains, but we couldn't get there without the growing pains to become the better person that we are. Exercise, working out hurts, but we know it's good for us. Eating healthy, sometimes it hurts. Vegetables. But we know it's good for us. If you're looking for a simple, easy life, it's not with God. I'm sorry. It's not. But I want to tell you today that you have a shepherd who's taking care of everything for you. The good shepherd corrects because he loves you. The second thing is our good shepherd always protects. Everywhere you go, everywhere you're at, you have God's hand of protection over you. Everywhere you go, Christian. Everywhere.

He says Psalm 23, 5 through 6, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." You anoint my head with oil. Something else the shepherds would do to their sheep is a good shepherd would cover the head of a sheep with oil. Why? Well, the sheep have no way to swat at flies that get in their face. And the oil discourages the flies to not come near. They don't like the smell of it. They want to be away from it. And so the sheep would get down in the face of the sheep and would just slather the sheep, their face with oil. Do you think the sheep liked it? No. The shepherd probably had to wrestle with that sheep. Maybe pin them to the ground to cover their head with oil. But what the shepherd was doing was it was protecting the sheep. Why? Because the shepherd who doesn't care about the sheep wouldn't put oil on the face of the sheep. And flies would come and land, would crawl into their nose, lay eggs, they would hatch, and sheep would literally go crazy because they literally had flies on their brain. You would see sheep that literally would just run and ram their head into trees and rocks and anything that would try to knock out the flies because they literally were going crazy. So when David here writes, "You anoint my head with oil," the shepherd is protecting them. And if you think about it, it's so, this is so cool, if you think about it, the sheep themselves hated the process. But God, the shepherd, was protecting them. This is our life. There are times God's going to do things in our lives that we are going to be just hate. We're going to be angry at God. We're going to go, "God, why didn't you give me that? Why didn't I get that job promotion? Why didn't I get this in my life? Why didn't I get that house? Why didn't I get this? Why didn't I get that? I needed that. I needed this over here. I needed this over here. Why are you doing to me?" And sometimes God in life holds things back from us to protect us.

Sometimes God in His grace and His mercy doesn't give us things in life so that we are safe. This one's a really hard one to get around because we want God just to open the heavens and just bless us. But sometimes those things were going to actually hurt us more than they were to help us. God's hand, His protection, His anointing is over you to protect you. Sometimes we just need to take a moment and to praise God for the things that He protected us from that we had no idea. That sheep getting its head covered in oil has no idea what flies are. It has no idea. It doesn't know that if they don't let the shepherd do that to them that they are going to lose their minds. And it's uncomfortable and they don't like it and it's annoying and it's frustrating and the sheep doesn't want anything to do with it. But that's God's protection on them. Sometimes we need to praise God for the things that He didn't give us because we would have been dead but we are alive today because of it. You ever pause and just kind of took note of your life? Like, "How did I get here? How did I end up at this place? Look at my life. How did we get here?" Just take inventory. It's by the grace of God. It's by the grace of God. And then if we would have known how good God was, maybe we would not have cried that night. Maybe we would not have fought that fight. Maybe we would not have run away. But the difference is when we know our ship and we know who God is, we know that even when we fail, He doesn't. Even when we're wrong, He's not. Even when we fall flat on our face, He is still standing. It's a perspective shift that we have when we understand that Jesus is our shepherd.

See, there's a story of a teacher in New York City who was teaching a public speaking class or a speech class. Did you know that's the number one fear of most everybody is public speaking? Followed by sharks and then clowns. I don't understand that because I public speak for a living. That's my life. So sometimes it's hard when I hear people who are like, "Oh, I can't talk in front of people." I'm like, "Just get up and talk." But the speech class, the teacher found this dusty old book and brought it out and said, "Okay, someone is going to read from this today." And he opens it up and he calls the quiet kid from the back of the class that, "Come up here. You're going to read in front of people today. You don't have to have a speech prepared. You're just going to read." So the kid sheepishly comes up and opens it up and it's the Bible. And it's Psalm 23. And the student begins to read, "The Lord is my shepherd." And then just burst into tears. Class waits. He composes himself. He gets back to it. For the next 15 minutes, he struggles to fight through Psalm 23. But he finishes out the Psalm incredibly strong. He gets to the end. And to see where he came from the beginning to the end of that Psalm, the teacher gets up and goes, "Wow." He says, "I know Psalm 23. That kid knows the shepherd. That kid knows the shepherd." There's more to just coming to church and reading the Bible and knowing some facts or a couple of worship songs. My question for you today, do you know the shepherd? Do you know your shepherd? Jesus is Lord of all. And if Jesus is Lord of your all, then you can sing praise like David did in worship with a smile on your face. That even if the world is 100% against you, like it was at David when he wrote this song, you can sleep easy at night knowing that the Lord is for you. Even when all that seems completely lost, everything seems completely lost. Maybe you're in a financial mess. Life's upside down. It's in shambles. Do not give up hope. Know that God, your wonderful shepherd, has got your back. I pray for those of you this morning who would say, "I don't know my shepherd." Maybe you need to have a conversation with your shepherd. He's right there. Because if Jesus isn't Lord of all, he's not Lord at all. And just as much of coming to church you think makes you a Christian, walking into Krispy Kreme, it doesn't make you a donut. I'm sorry. That's the reality. So is the Lord your shepherd? If you would say yes, then how's your sheep-ness going? Because the reality is the Lord is our shepherd and we are the sheep, just like that stupid photo of a sheep. We no longer have to chase in the right direction, to the right situation. Whatever the world says, we have to have. No, we simply have to follow the shepherd. Because our shepherd will always correct, our shepherd will always protect. All we have to do is worship by following our shepherd today. Amen?

And let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for who you are. Thank you, Jesus, for being our shepherd. Thank you, Jesus, for being our caretaker. Thank you, Jesus, for being everything that we need in life. God, I pray that we would lay down our own agenda and our own desires in life, that we would pick up the plan that you have for us. The reality is that we can't even truly comprehend how loving that you, the shepherd, are. And as King David wrote this song about being our shepherd and following you, God, I pray that that would echo in our hearts today and in this week. And Jesus, we would rejoice in the beauty that we don't have to have it all figured out. We simply have to run to you as our shepherd and our father and follow you. So Jesus, I pray that we would daily choose you, Jesus, as our shepherd, every day, again and again and again and again. God, when you anoint our head with oil, God, may our cup overflow and may we dwell in your house, your house, Lord, forever. Amen.

Summer Playlist: Part 5

Summer Playlist: Part 5

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Good morning. We are in a part five of our summer playlist series. We have been just navigating through the different songs in Scripture. I'm just kind of jumping around all over the place. It's been so good. I really appreciated seeing how many songs are actually in Scripture. I knew there were songs, but I don't think I realized how many songs there actually were, especially outside of the Psalms as well. So first week we looked at Psalm 139, a really popular Psalm. We went to 1 Samuel 2 and talked about Hannah's song. Isaiah 63 and 64 were next and dove into one of the songs that the Israelites sang. Last week we had Psalm 121, that was a Psalm of ascent that they sang on their way to the temple. This series does not build on itself, so you're not behind if you miss a week, but I really do encourage you, if you have missed a Sunday, go back and listen. We have them on our podcast, or if you prefer to watch, you can watch on our YouTube channel, but go back and listen or watch those so that you can experience all of the songs that we're talking about in this series.

Well, today we are in Psalm 46. I actually had planned on doing another Psalm, but the Lord brought Psalm 46 to my attention this week, and I couldn't get it off my mind. So we're going to dive into that. I guess that's where we're supposed to be today. So you can go ahead and turn there in your Bibles or on your phones. It'll be on the screens as well, but before we dive into the actual passage, I wanted to talk a little bit more about music. Throughout this series, we've kind of touched on it. We've talked about the importance of music or the effects of it, but this series has just made me so curious about the effects of music on the brain and the body. So I did some research for us this week, all right? There are many reasons that God included songs in his scripture, and science kind of helps support that, right? The Bible, science is proving what we already know from the Bible. So one study found that music activates multiple brain regions, auditory cortex, motor areas, limbic system, which is our emotion, and prefrontal cortex, so judgment and planning. So essentially what this study is saying is that music is one of the only human activities that light up nearly every part of the brain at once. That is so cool to me because it is engaging the whole brain. We talk about, "Oh, I'm really right-brained, and I'm left-brained." Brain-did? That's not a word. Right-brained or left-brained. And maybe someone's more mathematically inclined or logical thinking. Someone else might be more emotional or creative, artistic thinking. But music encompasses all of it, and it lights up the whole brain. We know that music releases dopamine, which is the chemical involved in reward and pleasure. Things like love and food and relationships. That dopamine is getting released when we listen to music. Other studies have shown that it reduces stress and cortisol levels. Can I get an amen to that? All right, we love music for that. Also, music has been found to, when used in treatment for depression, it's found to lower symptoms of depression, both in conjunction with other treatment options, but also on its own. It lowers symptoms of depression. It improves sleep quality. It stimulates memory. It builds emotional understanding in children. And so when we listen to music or participate and experience it, especially calming and worship music, it has huge effects on our brains and our bodies. And it does matter what music you listen to, the content, and even some of the actual music itself. But that's a whole other conversation, so we won't get into all of that.

But music is so good for us. And God knew that. God knew what he was doing when he made music for us to enjoy. So then knowing that, knowing what we can see from science about the effects of music, I went a little bit deeper. And I was like, "Okay, there's music all around us." And I wanted to know why companies and brands use music so much in their advertising. And you hear jingles or you hear different things online, and we know brands because of the music that they use. So when I looked into this, there are several reasons, and we won't get into all the nitty-gritty of that. But three things really stood out to me about it. The first one was memory encoding, which we talked about that. We talked about in the past of how it helps with memory. But specifically, it creates better recall. They call it sticky. Music is sticky because it sticks in your brain, and you're better able to recall what you heard because it was set to music. The second thing was emotional triggering. Often music bypasses logic. As I said, the whole brain is lit up. So when music is present, it often can bypass some of the logical thinking and elicits an emotional response. And then the third thing is brand recognition. You associate that song, that lyric, that jingle with a particular brand, and it builds trust because you're familiar with it. Right? Okay. I'm gonna give you some examples. All right. When I say, "Ba-da-ba-ba-ba," what do you think of? McDonald's, right? I don't care if you haven't eaten there in 20 years. You know that jingle is McDonald's, all right? Okay. I have a couple more for us. I'm gonna get a little older. Okay. So hang with me here. I'm gonna start it, and I want you to finish it. Okay? Double the pleasure, double the fun. It's the statement of the great mitten. Double make go. All right. Good job. How about this one? Give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece of that. There you go. Okay. Good job. See, we know these things. We haven't... Listen, you don't even know it, do you? Right? Because you're too young. You're too old. Okay? But we remember it because it was set to music. Things like rhyming and certain words and visuals also helped it out. But it was set to music. There's this one that I think the commercial was when I was in middle school, maybe. It was the canine advantage commercial. It was a puppy who was off at camp, and he wrote a letter. Anybody remember that? He goes, "Hello, mother. Hello, father. Please take some mosquitoes. Really, father? Thanks for the package. That's why I'm writing. I'm writing. Okay, so he goes, "The canine advantage quickly stopped all the biting." I won't put you through the rest of it. But I guess I don't remember what I had for lunch three days ago, but I remember every lyric to that commercial, and I wasn't even the target audience. Okay, I was in middle school. I was in biting flea intake medication. I don't even know if we had a dog at the time. But I remember it because it was set to music. If that same exact commercial, if that dog had written a letter home and read it in the commercial, I guarantee you I wouldn't be able to repeat it all these years later. But because it was set to music, I can remember it. So it gave me memory recall, right? It triggered emotions. Because, like, oh, it's so cute. A little dog writing home to his mom. And then you remember, you have the brand recognition. I remember it was canine advantage. So the brand and the marketing works because it was set to music.

But here's the thing. Christians are just capitalizing on what God already made. They're capitalizing on what God made music to do and how he made us to respond to music. So since this is not just a TED Talk on marketing or on music psychology, we're going to dive into scripture. And I'm going to connect the dots first, I promise. So let's get into it. We're going to get into Psalm 46 right off the bat. If you look, especially in a Bible, but it should be on the phone as well, there's a title. And it says, for the director of music of the sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song. So the sons of Korah were a family in the tribe of Levi. So the Levites, when we're talking about the ancient Israelites, the Levites were the priests. And the sons of Korah were often in charge of the music. They were considered musical masters. They wrote worship songs. They led the people in worship. And they even wrote many worship songs under the reign of King David. So there are multiple Psalms that were written as songs by the sons of Korah. And then according to Alamoth, this word Alamoth, we're not entirely sure what it means, but we believe it's a musical term. Like it's some sort of direction on how to sing it, maybe in like what range to sing it in, like a falsetto or soprano, singing it in a type of way. But it is a song and it was meant to be sung.

Pray with me before we dive into this word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for music. We thank you for your creativity. Speak to us through your word today in your name. Amen.

Psalm 46. I'm just going to read the whole thing for us and then we'll kind of look at different parts. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah, another term often used to mean to pause and reflect. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the most high. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice. The earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah, come behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah. This song is full of word pictures to help us better understand who God is. And truly that is what the entire Bible is about. It's about learning who God is. It's about learning about his character, his love, his plan of redemption for his people. So often we look at scripture and we try to find ourselves in it. We try to find where we fit or how we can apply it. And that's not necessarily all bad, but really when we look at scripture and look for God in it, we will then better understand ourselves because our identity should be in him.

And this song in particular helps us to understand better God's power, his providence, and his presence. Love some alliteration. All right. His power, his providence, and his presence. So first, his power. God is our refuge. He's a safe place because he is powerful. You think of a kid who maybe is being picked on at school. They're not going to go looking for their toddler sibling. They're going to go look for their older brother or sister, right? They want the more powerful sibling to come help defend them. They want the big kid on the playground to protect them. God is so powerful that he is our fortress. The world is wild and it is crazy, but we know that God is more powerful than all of it. So here in this passage, it's talking about creation being in an uproar. Things like mountains and waves and the earth giving way. Now, this can be taken literally. Things like natural disasters or other things of that nature. It very much can mean literally and God is powerful even over that. We saw Jesus calm the storm, right? We know he is powerful in that. But it's also metaphorical in that it represents the upheaval in our culture, in politics, in foreign affairs, in just the world stage. There's so much going on that can feel like a storm. It can feel scary. But we know that because we serve an all powerful God, we have nothing to fear. He is our fortress. He is our refuge. Now I feel like this caveat goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyways. This doesn't mean we won't have hard things. This doesn't mean we won't face tough situations. We will have storms, but we have a fortress in the storm. God will carry us through it because he is all powerful. This can be, again, physical things like physical ailments or financial or relational things, maybe political or world issues. I mean, Middle East, right? Like there's so much. It can also be things more in the spiritual or unseen realm. Maybe it's mental health, emotional issues. Maybe it's a sin struggle that you have been struggling with it no one else knows about. Maybe it's spiritual warfare that feels like it just won't relent. These things elicit fear. And from a human perspective, it's understandable. It makes logical sense for it to elicit fear.

But remember what we said about music is that it often bypasses the logic and we can lean on that emotion of trusting in God, of knowing that even though it doesn't make necessarily logical sense, that God is all powerful. He is our fortress. He's our safe place. And ultimately, all of these things that we are facing, all of these storms in our life, they must submit to the power of God. So we don't have to fear. We can run to him. Second Corinthians 12, nine. And here Paul says of God, he says that my grace is sufficient for you for my, my as in God's power is made perfect in weakness. God is powerful when we are weak. And frankly, we are weak in every sense of that term. And we're powerless over so much. But God is all powerful. I know, I know that there are people in this room who are struggling with feeling powerless over something. Maybe it's just a tough circumstance. Maybe it's a relational thing. Maybe it's just something that is just really annoying that you can't change. But I also believe there are, there is someone in this room that is struggling with feeling powerless over a sin issue. That there is some sin or struggle that perhaps you've been struggling with for years and you feel powerless to change it. I'm here to tell you that we serve a God who is powerful enough even for that sin issue. He is big enough and strong enough to deal with it. And he is kind enough and safe enough to be our safe refuge as we navigate through that. Verse nine says, "He makes wars cease and breaks the bow and shatters the spear." I believe in this context, this was talking about Israel literally and the wars that they were up against. But again, it applies to us in that God fights our spiritual battles. He can make the war cease in our own hearts. He's powerful enough to break the chains of sin and protect you from the enemy of our souls. But we must submit to him. We must submit to that power and go to him as our refuge and our fortress.

Number two, his providence. God cares for his people. He is sovereign over all that takes place. Now this really does go in hand with his power, right? His providence and his power are really connected because he is all powerful and we don't need to fear it because he is powerful. And also he is in control. He's not surprised when bad things happen. He's not shocked when we get the life-altering diagnosis or when someone we love dies or when countries go to war. He is not shocked by any of that. He is sovereign and he is in control. He cares and he's always working and moving in the world and in our lives. Verse eight says, "Come behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth." This refers to his actions that he brought against the enemies of Israel. He brought desolation on the earth to protect his people. He cares for them. His providence is supreme and he cares for us too. Just a few verses to reiterate that. Matthew 10 30 says, "He knows the number of hairs on your head." Exodus 14 14 says, "The Lord will fight for us." Isaiah 41 10 says, "Don't be afraid for I am with you. Don't be discouraged for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand." He is powerful and he is provident. He cares for his people. That's why he allows himself to be our fortress. In his providence, he cares for us and provides for us. And his providence reaches across the whole world and into our own individual hearts.

Third, his presence. While he is powerful and he is provident, he is also present. God was present in the Old Testament when he dwelt in the tabernacle and later the temple among his people. Then Jesus was present literally in human form. We see that played out in the New Testament when he was literally Emmanuel, God with us. And now the Holy Spirit in every heart of a believer, the Holy Spirit dwells in us and is present with us. We don't serve a God who is distant or far off or uncaring. He is right here with us. Verse one says he is an ever present help. Deuteronomy 31 says he will never leave us or forsake us. He is always present with us. Here in verse four, it mentions a river. Now something that I found interesting about this is that there wasn't a large rushing river in Jerusalem because it talks about the city of God and Jerusalem was the city of God. Really, what many think that this was referring to was a calm river called Salome. It was small, it wasn't rushing or rapid, but it would just go softly by. And we know from this passage that it says that it makes glad the city of God. Just like this river, God isn't just present in the big, loud, emotional, rushing moment. We also know from scripture that he's in the quiet, he's in the whisper, he's in the still small voice. One commentator wrote, "The spiritual comforts which are conveyed to the saints by soft, silent whispers and which come not with observation are sufficient to counterbalance the most loud and noisy threatenings of an angry and malicious world." His silent whispers are sufficient to counterbalance what we hear from the world. Verse 10 says, "Be still and know that I am God." There's this call to not necessarily literal still, like be still, that's part of it, but it's this sense of peace, this calm, this peace of, and while you're waiting to hear from God. If you're running around like a chicken with your head caught up, it's gonna be real hard to hear a still, small voice. He may be present, but if you're loud, you can't hear him. I am speaking from experience. We have to be still to hear that still, small voice. Sometimes that literally means getting your body still, and sometimes that means getting your heart still and open to hear what he is having to say. He is present with his people. Verses seven and 11 in this chapter are identical. Here's what they say. It says, oh, sorry, I didn't even have it. One second. It says, "The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress." The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. This is twofold. The Lord of hosts, right? That is the God of many, the God of people. He is the God of peoples, of nations, of groups, the corporate. He is the God of us, plural. So when we come together, we worship a God together, and he is our God. But it also says that he is the God of Jacob, the God of one, the God of the individual. He's my God. And here it's referencing Jacob, which references the covenant that he made with his people, with Jacob specifically.

And that covenant carries through generations, is renewed by Jesus and made new for all of us. So we no longer have to be of Jewish descent or one of his Israelite people in order to be his. He adopted us and granted us in to that covenant. He is present. He is with us corporately and with us individually. He has always been, always is, and always will be present with us. So what does this have to do with the psychology of music that we talked about earlier? Well, I mentioned the impact of music when it comes to marketing, the memory encoding, the emotional triggering, and the brand recognition. And while God does not need help branding himself, I think these apply to him and his word as well. Because when the people sang these songs, they were being reminded of who God is, of the truths that we find in scripture. So when we memorize scripture, when we read and meditate on it and study it, when we sing worship songs that have scripture woven into them, it does the same for our hearts. It helps us have a better recall of what God's word says. That's just science. When you memorize something, when you set it to music, you have better recall. You know when you are in a situation, it just comes to mind because you have hidden it in your heart. It bypasses some of our logical brain in order to trigger the emotions and allows us to open our hearts and minds to God. Some of us are very logical thinkers. We see the process, we know how it should work, how it should go, and sometimes that can actually limit us from understanding who God is, from responding to him in a real and authentic and even emotional way.

So memorizing scripture and hiding it in our heart can help trigger some of those emotions. And then when we are familiar with God through his word, it builds up that recognition of who God is. We can call back and be like, "Oh yeah, he was faithful in this situation. He's going to be faithful again. I don't know how it's going to work out. I don't know how I'm going to get through this storm, but he's done it before and he'll do it again." It helps build that deeper trust because we're familiar with him. We're familiar with what his word says. And we know that he is powerful, he is provident, and he is present. The world is crazy. The enemy of our souls wants to destroy us, but God, but God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in his providence goes before us and fights our battles. By his power, he made a way to save us and conquer our sins so we can find a safe refuge in him. And because of his saving grace and the sacrifice of Jesus's death and resurrection, we are able to enjoy God's presence for all eternity. Amen.

Summer Playlist: Part 4

Summer Playlist: Part 4

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Are you guys enjoying this series? I hope you are so far. We are going through different songs in the Bible. If you haven't been here yet, we are for the summer. Every week we're going to choose a different song in Scripture and just going to learn about it and what it teaches us about God. We started this whole series off by talking about the importance of music and how important music is. God created music. One of the things that we've been doing too is we've been sending out emails to you guys the last two weeks with suggested Christian artists or bands. I don't know if you guys have listened. Anyone listen to any of those so far? Yeah, sweet! Awesome! We just want to encourage you to listen to music that will point you to God. So whatever mood or occasion that you have, we understand the reality that whatever goes in our ears goes directly to our hearts. It's so important to be vigilant to feed our hearts truth, music that reflects God's heart. We want to be listening to that, soaking that in. So we hope you enjoy those emails and encourage you if you haven't to try some of those bands and artists out. So far in our series, we started in Psalm 136 talking about how we need to give thanks to God because His love endures forever. And then Pastor Lauren brought us to 1 Samuel 2 with Hannah's song, a powerful biblical song that encouraged believers to focus their praise on God, to embrace humility and to surrender to His sovereignty. And then last week, Pastor Chris taught from Isaiah 64 talking about how God is the potter and forms us who are the clay. And just as God reshaped Israel from the ruins of Jerusalem, Jesus is shaping our lives today to be more like Him. So again, our hope each week is that we are reminded of the importance of the relationship of song and scripture and how important that is for our faith. It's what God intended and we pray that you are encouraged to sing.

I know some of us in here love to sing. It's easy. We sing all the time. Others of us never sing. We think our voices are terrible. That's not true. God loves your voice, however it may sound. And so we're encouraging you guys to sing and whether it's praises to God or songs of lament, whether you're smiling, the biggest smile you've ever smiled as you're praising God or whether you're praising God through tears. We pray that song, singing is a part of your worship and relationship with God. I also want to mention in our kids ministry today, if you have kids that are here in the class, they are singing this morning. We have Rachel Dolan who is here once a month. We love that she's doing this. She volunteers to teach the kids how to worship through song. So they're playing instruments. They're singing songs. And so our whole entire church is focused this Sunday on singing to God. So we're going to start today in the big church here. If you have your Bibles, you can turn with me or you can pay attention to the screen. We're going to be in Psalm 121. A different kind of song today. I'm going to go ahead and read for us and then we'll dive in.

Psalm 121, it says, "I lift up my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."

Would you guys pray with me? Lord, we come before you thankful to be gathered together this morning. Thankful for the people in this room that we're sitting next to, that we get to worship with. Thankful that we have your word to teach us truth, God. And I pray that these next 20 minutes that we would be encouraged and empowered and equipped to serve you in new ways. We'd be drawn closer to who you are, have a deeper understanding of you and therefore a deeper understanding of what we're supposed to do in life, how we're supposed to live. So God, I pray that you would bless our time. We give this to you. We pray this in your name. Amen.

A little background on Psalm 121. It's a psalm that has been sung for thousands of years. Some psalms that we read are meant to be sung, but we don't really sing them anymore. They just kind of fell out of popularity. Still important we read them, but we don't sing them. But this psalm, an ancient song of Israel, has been sung in many different tunes over centuries. Maybe as we were reading, you might have picked up on some of these words or some of these lyrics might have sounded familiar from worship songs that you have sung growing up or even more recently. This psalm, 121, is an ancient song of ascent for Israel. We'll get to that in a little bit. But some of the songs that have stemmed from this psalm, 1846, I don't know how many of you know your 1846 music really well. Felix Mendelsohn wrote "He Watching Over Israel" based off of this. More recently, "Casting Crowns" has a couple songs. "Praise You in the Storm" is one of them that uses Psalm 121. "Cutlass" - anyone remember "Cutlass" back in the day? They have a worship album and they wrote "I Lift My Eyes", a worship song using Psalm 121. Bebo Norman? Yeah, some Bebo Norman fans out there? Another Christian artist from the 90s. Yes, Bebo Norman. He wrote "I Will Lift My Eyes". Ellie Holcomb is a more recent artist nowadays. She has a song that literally sings Psalm 121 verbatim. It's called "I Lift My Eyes". I grew up in a church that sang many, many old hymns. So when I read this psalm, I was brought to the hymn written by Timothy Dudley Smith in 1979, "I Lift My Eyes to the Quiet Hills". I don't know if any of you know that one. But it's a psalm that has resonated with believers for centuries. No matter what tune you know this psalm by, the truth remains the same. Like I said, it's a song of ascent.

And so there's a few songs of ascent. If you read your psalms in the Bible and it says underneath whatever chapter, "Song of Ascent", what that means is that this was sung. Israel would sing this on their way to Jerusalem or the Zion, the temple mount. So they would go up a hill. They would literally have to ascend to the temple and they would sing this song as they're climbing up to worship God. Traditionally it was sung during the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles in autumn. But really it was also sung during any pilgrimage in general to Jerusalem to worship God. And again, they would sing on their way. We can probably imagine this, right? People just on their way with their families, maybe with their mules behind them, whatever they're bringing. They're on their way to the temple and they're singing the song maybe as a family, maybe as a large group, caravaning together to go to the temple. But they're preparing their hearts for the place that they are going to to worship God. And this sounds familiar to us, right? Preparing our hearts for something, preparing our minds for something. So if you're working out, for those who work out, you probably listen to music that helps you work out. You may not be listening to the slow classical during your squats or something like that. You're probably listening to something like something hardcore that's going to pump you up, get your blood flowing, get you going. Or maybe if you're cooking a romantic dinner, you change the music, you're preparing the music, maybe it's some jazz. Maybe you play some jazz in the room and get ready for that mood and that atmosphere. If you're studying, maybe you play some classical music, some Beethoven, some Bach, help your mind to focus on the words that you're reading or studying information. And we do this every week, right? At church, we sing before we hear the message as a way to prepare our hearts. Those songs that we sing are kind of our songs of a sense. As we get ready to worship God, we prepare our minds and hearts. We get centered on Him as we enter a space and a moment to hear God's word for our lives.

So now that we know what this psalm was meant to do, let's take a closer look, verse by verse, of what the psalm is saying. Verses 1 through 2 say, "I lift my eyes up to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." This idea of looking up for hope and for help is almost innate in human nature. We all do this. We can't help it. When we're frustrated and overwhelmed and angry, we reach that point where our bodies are reflecting what's inside of us. So maybe at a certain point of frustration, we look down. We're like, "Let me just stay centered. Let me stay calm. I'm really frustrated." And maybe if we get pushed past that in a place of desperation, then we look up. We're like, "Oh my goodness. I cannot handle. The kids are going crazy. Dinner's not ready." We start looking up for help. I don't know how many of you have done this. It's just me at home on some days. We're just looking at God. Someone help me right now. Well, you know the feeling. Our bodies start to literally, physically reflect what's going on inside of us.

It's also, again, I'm a movie watcher. I like movies. I like books. This happens a lot. It's very telling when it happens in a movie or a book. When the main character, the hero, is looking up in desperation, you know that either that's the end of them. They looked up and nothing happened. Or you know that help is on the way and they're like, "Oh, he's looking up. Hope." And someone's going to come to the rescue. And I think of my favorite, I'm a Lord of the Rings nerd, Two Towers, Helms Deep. If you guys know, you know. And the good guys are being overwhelmed. And they remember. They said Gandalf, who's the wizard, the really good guy, he left them. And they were like, "Why'd you leave?" But he's like, "Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day at dawn. Look to the east." And in the movie version, they look up on the fifth day, up to the mountain, to the top of the hill, and he's up there with hundreds of horsemen. And he comes and he rescues them and he saves the day. If you're more of like a superhero person, the Avengers, the help is always coming from up above. Someone's flying in, right? Or you have that one character who always says, "On your left." And they hear that in their little... They all have earpieces. I don't know how they all sync up with earpieces when they're superheroes. But they all can hear each other. It's like, "On your left," and you know that that one superhero is coming in to save the day. Maybe in real life, depicted in movies like Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers from World War II, the way that soldiers on the ground cheered when they were so relieved to see the Air Force come in. And, you know, whatever that was, whether that was dropping supplies or freeing them up from being pinned down. But looking up has typically, we know, is a sign of looking for help and looking for hope. It's innate. We're looking for something beyond ourselves to help us. Why do we do this? Well, typically looking up to the sky or heavens is where a divine power, a deity, would come from. They're up above. When we are at our end and we recognize that we need something beyond, we look up. Our psalmist tells us that we lift our eyes to the mountains. Again, in ancient culture, gods dwelled on the highest point on earth. So they dwelled on the mountaintop. That's why the Parthenon in Greece is on top of a hill, the highest point. The psalmist says, "I lift my eyes. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth." We look up to Yahweh, to God, the creator of everything. That's who we hope in. As believers, as Christians, we hope and know that that's where our help comes from.

So we continue, verse 3 and 4 says, "He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." The psalmist now directs the psalm to be about God as a protector. He will not let your foot slip, which is a phrase in ancient culture which depicts stability. If you're on a journey and you are sure-footed, that is a good thing. And if you slip, that equals disaster. Something bad is happening. Disaster is happening. And so I know, I'm sure some of you have been hiking, backpacking in your time, and maybe you've been on those trails where you have to watch every single step. I was in Yosemite many years ago, and I do not like heights. Get me on this roof and I'm scared to death. Even just this ladder. I don't like ladders. But I was on Yosemite. We were hiking up and we were on top of Yosemite Falls. And the group I was with was very adventurous and they had no problem. They were like, "Let's get a picture on the edge." And I was like, "What?" And they're like, "Yeah, yeah, we're all here." And so they're just walking like they're on the ground. They're just like, "Yeah, yeah." And they're literally like, behind me is the cliff. And I was on all fours. And I was like, "I'll join you." I'm crawling out to the edge with them because my legs, I couldn't even stand up. And I knew that even as like, then I had to turn my back to the edge. And I was like, "Oh my goodness, it's right behind me." If I misstep, it's the end of me. And it's been a good life. But I was so scared. And so I imagine that when I read this verse of one misstep and it's disaster. And he's saying, "God is watching you. He will not let your foot slip." God will not let... It's not to say that there won't be challenges because we know that those are pretty much guaranteed in life, in the human life and in the Christian life. But he's watching over you. He's guiding you down the narrow path of righteousness and life. It says, "He who watches over you will not slumber. He will neither slumber nor sleep.”

This thought of being watched over today is pretty normal for us in our era. You know, whether we have our ring cameras or our phones that track us or CCTV around, we just know that to exist today probably means that there's a recording of us somewhere. And we're not that... Maybe we're uncomfortable with it, we don't like it, but we just accept it. That's part of being in this time. In ancient world, to be alone was to really be alone. There was no text message, "I'll just let my parents know where I am," or "I'll text my friend," or "I'm going on a hike, but I got my phone satellite, I got that special sat phone that even regular cell phones, I'll be safe out there." There's nothing. To be alone in the wilderness. Think of Israel alone in the desert in their history, that they had to wander for 40 years. They were alone. There was no like, "Hey, we're passing town after town after..." No, they were alone. And even individually, you think of in that ancient time, being alone was to truly be alone, but to know that God is watching over you, always, always on watch, never asleep, never dozing off, never like, "Man, I've been watching you for a long time, I'm going to take a break, I hope you're okay for the next couple hours on earth." No, he is always watching. What a comfort and a peace. And what an amazing God, that He's doing that individually for every single one of us. We still need that comfort today and that peace to know that even in our most remote moments, when we think that no one can see us, no one knows the struggling, the suffering that we're going through, that God does. That He sees you and He knows what you're dealing with, what you're thinking, what's in your heart. He doesn't get tired, He doesn't get bored. He's vigilant. He loves us. And He cares for us beyond comprehension in a way that we cannot fully understand. He is so intent on looking after you.

Verses 5 and 6 say, "The Lord watches over you, the Lord is your shade at your right hand, the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night." Again, how blessed are we in this day and age to live in a world with vast amounts of comfort that we have, to not have to face the reality that the sun might be the end of us. That's a reality in the ancient world that if you were outside too long, if you were exposed to the sun, death was a real probability. We have some hot days ahead, thankfully, not triple digits. But we still have to be careful. However dangerous it is for us today, it was that much more dangerous in the ancient world. And again, Israel, in their history, has the wandering of 40 years in the desert. And God, in that time, was their protection. By day, He was a pillar of cloud, a cloud over them, casting shade on them, giving them life. And at night, He was a pillar of fire. So whatever dangers the night has, in an ancient world, again, night brought all sorts of dangers, whether it was wild animals, bandits, whatever it is, night was a dangerous time. And God was this pillar of fire to protect them. And so He's drawing on that imagery here, saying, "I will watch over you." Again, in the ancient Near East, shade could be the difference between life and death. And God is that difference for us. Having Him protect us, watch over us, guard us, is the difference between life, eternal life, and death. There's a line in here that says, "Being on the right hand." And that means it's a position of favor. There's another piece in this line that is addressing that it wasn't uncommon in the ancient world for gods to descend at nighttime, like they kind of went to sleep. And God is saying, "No, no, no. I am constantly available. I am vigilant to watch over you. Night or day, I am here.”

The chapter wraps up in verses 7 and 8. It says, "The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore." I love that it's just saying that God is not a stationary protection. It's not like, "Hey, as long as you're at church, as long as you're at home, as long as you're in the safest place that you can think of, that's where I'll protect you." No. Wherever you go, wherever you are, He is with you and He's protecting you for your entire life. God is watching over you now. He's been watching over you since you were born, and He will continue to watch over you for the rest of your life. And He's going to be watching you as you end your time on earth and join Him in heaven as you walk into those gates. He's going to be watching you the entire time with a smile on His face, eager for you to join Him. The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore. I pray that that is a blessing for us to hear today, that He's with you and that He knows what you're going through. Stuff isn't happening in your life that's taking Him by surprise that is like, "Oh, I didn't see that. I'm sorry. I missed that." That's not anything that God would say. This song, Psalm 121, it's a rather simple song, but I love the picture of Israel and the pilgrims from all over the area journeying to the temple to offer sacrifices to God, to worship Him. And they're singing about Him being their protection, that comfort or the reminder that would have been for them to hear and sing those words about their God. And maybe they're drawn from experience. They're coming to the temple being like, "God, I know that you protected me. I know that I just came from something that your hand was at work." And maybe that's true for us. When you come to church on a Sunday, maybe there's days where you are singing extra loud because you know, "God, I saw you this week. I know that you were doing something in my life. I want to praise you for that.”

I want us to reflect for a bit on a couple things. And really, the big question that I want to ask today is, "Are you looking up?" Are you looking up? This implies a couple of things. First, are you looking for help? Oftentimes, in the midst of hardship, we keep our heads down. You've heard that phrase, "Keep your head down and power through." And the world today gives honor to that. They like that. They're like, "Man, yeah, do that. If you have a hard time, you need to keep your head down and just push through it." But I like what Scripture says a little bit better. It says, "Look up." I lift my eyes with hope and anticipation, expecting God to do something. Looking up requires a heart of surrender, a posture of humility, and a faith and trust in God. To look up means, "God, I can't do this on my own. I need help." So it's a heart of surrender. A posture of humility saying, "God, as much as I want to be able to do this, I know that I'm at the end of myself. I'm humble enough to recognize that I can't do it." And then we have to believe that God can. It takes a faith and a trust in Him. One of those songs that I mentioned earlier, Bebo Norman, he writes this, this is his lyrics, "I will lift my eyes to the maker of the mountains I can't climb. I will lift my eyes to the calmer of the oceans raging wild. I will lift my eyes to the healer of the hurt I hold inside. I will lift my eyes to God." I love that. I think that perfectly encapsulates what this psalm is saying. God is the one who is in control of everything, who can handle every chaotic moment, every stress, every anxiety, every hurt. God is the one that can help. So again, are you looking for help? Do you have that heart, that posture, that faith and trust? Second part of looking up is, where are you looking for help? If you get to the point of needing help, sometimes we're guilty of looking in the wrong direction. Instead of looking up, we look around. Sometimes it's to bad things, maybe substances to help us cope, something that sounds like it'd make us feel better, improve the situation, but really those things often just lead to more pain and suffering that end up hurting us even more. Sometimes we look around to good things, maybe peers, maybe influences, influencers that seem to have life figured out. And again, sometimes God does speak through people, often he does, but we have to look to him first, and then we can look around. Are we looking up to God for our hope and rescuing? Again, sometimes we tend to put our head down, we isolate ourselves in times of need. We're too embarrassed to reach out, not wanting to be a burden to someone else, but Jesus tells us to bear one another's burdens. We need to look up first to God for help, then we can look around to others that we love, that we trust, the church, as a way to say, "Hey, maybe the help is coming from those who love me." And so, circle back around, are you looking up to God? Where does your heart and mind go when you are in need? Is God the first thing? You may be saying, "Yeah, I look to God at some point," but really what you may be doing, and I say this as someone who's been guilty of this too, is God's the last thing. I've looked around, I've done this, I've tried all this on my own, I've put my head down, I've tried powering through, and now when I'm absolutely at the end of myself, then I will look up to God. And I want to encourage you, look to him first. Maybe you're someone who says, "It's hard to trust God. I don't know if I trust that he is protecting me all the time, that he's watching over me, he's guarding me 24/7." And I want to say this, there's a prayer that you can pray to help you in those situations, if that's you, if you have a thought of doubt. It's a scary prayer, sometimes praying scary things helps us, but it is scary. It's this prayer, "God, show me more ways in which you are working in my life so that I can give you praise. Show me more ways in which you are at work.”

The truth is, he is at work in your life, whether you see it or not. And if you're not seeing God, then ask to see how he's working in your life. It's a simple prayer. But I think we're going to get to heaven, and it's going to be revealed to us, and I think he's going to be, it's going to be a lot of joy for him to do this. He's going to show us things in our life. He's like, "By the way, I want to show you what I've been doing in your life." And it's going to be all these things that we never knew, all these things that he protected us from, that he guarded us from, that he steered us away from. And so we can pray, "God, can I have a piece of that now? Can I just see a way in which you're working? I want to praise you. I want to know that you're a part of my life." So are you looking up to God? Where are you looking first? Hopefully it's him. I want to end with this. Each week we've encouraged you to do something specific, engaging with music. Music is powerful. Pastor Lauren and I were just at a conference this week. We took the high school students to a youth conference, and we were reminded of how powerful music is, and it embeds in our hearts and minds. It can change our moods. If we're listening to some angry, aggressive music, we might start coming across really short with the people that we're talking to. If we listen to slower instrumental music, it might help our minds focus and study.

So music is powerful. If we listen to worship music, we might be more likely to have a heart that loves and has grace and reflects God's heart. And so the challenge this week is to incorporate a song of scent in your life. What does this look like? Well, maybe on your way to work, to meeting a friend, to an appointment you have, put on a worship song to help your heart prepare for what is to come. It can be from the Psalms, really any worship song, but the idea is on your way to something, listen to something that will bring you closer to God so that when you get there, you have a heart that reflects God's heart. We often have things that stress us out, whether it's work, maybe work is stressful, maybe we have a coffee with someone and it's like their drama is stressing me out, I don't know if I can handle, I'm supposed to talk, I'm supposed to be there for them. Maybe it's just going home after work and you're like, "Home is stressful right now. Got all this stuff going on." And so in that place, have a song of ascent. Prepare your mind and your heart to be there and when you get there, to be a reflection of God. If that's all too overwhelming, I'm going to simplify it down to just this. If you can remember, and maybe we'll send out a text to remind you, a week from today, before church, come to church listening to worship music. On your drive, turn on whatever it is, the radio, K-Love, your iPhone, listen to worship music on the way. And if you want to take a little bonus step, let me say this for you extra achievers out there in this room, listen to worship music Saturday night. Prepare your heart. The way you go to bed on Saturday has an immediate effect on how you go to church on Sunday. So I would say go to bed listening to worship music and have your heart and mind be prepared to say, "When I wake up, I am ready. I'm in a posture to worship God."