Summer of Psalms - Part 5

Psalm 27 - The Goodness of God

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Hi, I'm really excited to be with you guys today. As you know, we're in our Summer of Psalms series, and so we are continuing that through summer. And we're kind of just jumping around to different Psalms. And I like this series a lot because it allows us to dive into scripture and see what the Bible says and talk about that and study it and learn it. But it also allows us to talk about different topics. Because we're looking at different Psalms, we can hit different topics, and we can even dive into characteristics of God, of who God is and really just learn more about his character. And we are gonna focus on that today a lot. We're talking about the goodness of God and a variety of things, but that's really our focus today. Have you ever noticed the confidence level of most children? You know, they are unreasonably confident in a lot of things or in like one thing in particular, They are just so certain that they are the best, that they are so good. And I just wish we could bottle that confidence up, right? Because adults, we kind of lose some of that. We, maybe through experience or something someone says, or even just reality that we know that someone's better at it than us, or we could grow in that. And maybe we're confident in some areas, something we're an expert in or have developed a skill in, but we maybe don't quite have the confidence like a kid. Like when they come up and they're like, "I wanna show you my trick," right? And they are just so confident. And even when it's not executed technically correct, they just, they nailed it in their mind. And they are just so confident in that.

Well, in Psalm 27, we are seeing David in his confidence, but different than kids. His confidence is in God, not in himself. And so my hope today is that we will learn from David in this and develop our own confidence in the Lord. So again, we're gonna be on Psalm 27. This is a Psalm of David. You can go there, it'll be on the screens, but you can look it up, your phone, the Bible's under your seat, whatever works for you. But we are going to just break it down section by section. And we're gonna start with verses one through three. So if you would just read along with me. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besieged me, my heart will not fear. Though war break out against me, even then I will be confident." David knows that he can have confidence in God. He has this the sureness of who God is and that he can be confident in him. You can even see it in the way he's writing. It says, "The Lord is my light and salvation." The Lord is the stronghold of my life. He doesn't use wishy-washy language, well, sometimes or when this happens, he is, he is. There's no if, ands or buts. David experienced a lot of attack from enemies. He experienced a lot of hard times and darkness. I mean, he was the king of a nation. So you can imagine the difficult times that he experienced, but he also experienced God's faithfulness. He saw God come through again and again, whether it was saving him from bears and lions when he was a shepherd, or it was from King Saul when he was pursuing him, or from a variety of other enemies and nations coming against the nation of Israel. God was faithful. He fulfilled his promises. He did what he said he would, And David's trust and confidence in God grew. So he can say this with authority. He can say, "He is my light and my salvation. He is the stronghold of my life." And we noticed that David is calling God these three things, light, salvation, and stronghold. So I want us to take a little moment to look at that and what that might mean for us.

So what does light do? Well, it dispels darkness, right? when you have a dark room, even just a candle or a flashlight disperses the darkness around you. So David is saying, he, God is my light. He is the one who is dispelling the darkness in my life. The dark that surrounds me, the evil that is around me. Light also can show us a way, it can light our path. And so it is David saying, you light the way, You show me which way to go. You are my light. Then he says, you're my salvation. And I really think that David here is meaning both now and eternity. He's saying, God, you are my salvation in the immediate moment when I am in immediate danger and I need saving. And also you are the one who will save me for eternity. You're the one who's going to make a way for me to be with you in heaven. He is David's salvation. And then he calls him his stronghold. This is a place of safety, a refuge. It offers protection. I imagine almost like a castle or a fortress, something that is built well. It is built probably with some sort of stone or rock. It's fortified, it's got really thick walls and it is allowing this protection of whoever is in there. And David called God his stronghold. And David asked a couple of questions. He says, "Whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid?" And these are meant to be rhetorical because he knows that when he has light and a savior and protection, there is nothing to fear. There is no one he needs to be afraid of. the confidence is built again. Once again, he adds to that trust and that confidence in God. He goes on in the second two verses and says, talks about his enemies and the armies that come against him. And it says, "The wicked will fall." Again, that confident factual language, they will fall. Even though they come, my heart will not fail. David can speak like this because he's seen God show up. He knows that his confidence is not in himself, but that it's in God. And we learn from David that we can be confident in the Lord. When maybe, especially when we don't feel that confidence, when we are struggling, when we're unsure, we can lean in to him and what he's done and His protection, His light, His saving grace. The thing is, unlike David, we have the end of the story, right? We have the whole Bible. We know what happens. We know that revelation, we know how it works out.

So how much more confidence should we have than even David did? At the end of verse three, David says, "Even then I will be confident." I will be confident. This kind of struck me. It doesn't say, but it kind of felt a little bit like David was reminding himself of this. He was saying it factually, like I will be confident when this happens. And also I will be confident. I will be confident. I will be confident. He needed that reminder that he can be confident in the Lord. Years ago, my family went bowling. I remember nothing else about this bowling experience except for this one part. And we still, our family still talks about it to this day. We were getting set up. We were just getting our shoes on, getting our bowling balls. And all of a sudden I turn towards the back and I look, and this little boy, probably no more than five years old, is running from a lane back to the shoe counter. And he has this little pair of shoes And he's going, "12, 12, 12, 12, 12." And I just thought it was the cutest thing. And it was so funny to me. And he was just, his mom probably told him to go tell his dad at the shoe counter, "You need a size 12." And he didn't wanna forget. So he just kept repeating it over and over and over again. "12, 12, 12, 12." So whenever my family and I were talking about needing to remember something, we just say, "12, 12, 12." And I imagine this is kind of what David's doing here. I will be confident. I will be confident. I will be confident. Sometimes we just need to be reminded of the truth in God's word. We are a forgetful people. I think we make fun of the Israelites a lot for forgetting God's goodness, but we do too. We forget how he's come through. We forget his faithfulness, the promises he's fulfilled, the prayers that he has answered. We need to be reminded. We need to remember. And sometimes that just means preaching to ourselves and telling ourselves the truth of what the Bible says. So I think this is a reminder for David. And I think it's also a prayer, a recommitment to the Lord. I will be confident in you. He's reminding himself and he's committing to place his confidence in God. Maybe we today need to remind ourselves of that. We need to recommit to being confident in the Lord.

All right, going on to verse four. David, really this next session, he transitions from these statements of declaring, of declaration to more of a contemplative time. So read along with me in verse four through six. It says, "One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. For in the day of trouble, He will keep me safe in His dwelling. He will hide me in the shelter of His sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me. At His sacred tent, I will sacrifice with shouts of joy. I will sing and make music to the Lord." The one thing He would ask is to be in God's presence. This is a king we're talking about. He could pretty much ask for whatever he wants. And that is what he would ask for. How often is that our response? That if we were asked that question, if there was one thing you could have, what would it be? And we would think, be in the presence of God. I pray that God works on my heart so that that does become my response, but it's usually not. But David knew the value of being in God's presence. He talks in a variety of ways about being in the house of the Lord. He says, the house of the Lord, his temple, his dwelling, sacred tent. He was just describing a variety of words for God's house. You see, in David's time, The tabernacle was literally where God dwelled. God had the Israelites build him a tent. I guess it would be more erect a tent, construct a tent. He knew that the Israelites could do nothing to come to him. There was nothing that they could do. So he had to go to them. And the way he did it was he went to them in the way they existed. They lived in tents. When they were wandering in the desert, they lived in tents. So while his was bigger and grander and more ornate, he still dwelled in a tent with his people. He also had them craft the Ark of the Covenant. And this is essentially just an ornate box that had the tablets with the 10 commandments on it, as well as some other things in there. And the cover is also called the Mercy Seat. And that is where God dwelled in this tent. That is where they could go and encounter Him. He wanted to maintain His holiness while also being with His people. And this was His way of doing that. He had His home built and He invited them into it. See, the Holy Spirit had not been given to believers yet. That people were not in dwelled yet by the Holy Spirit. And so this was God's way of coming down. of stooping to their level, to our level. 'Cause the gospel is clear and David knew this too. Humanity could do nothing to get to God. They couldn't be enough, do enough, make themselves holy enough to get themselves to God. It was only by His goodness and kindness that He came to us.

We see in the Old Testament that He dwelled in the tabernacle on the Ark of the Covenant. And then in the New Testament, We see that he took up residence in the person of Jesus, in a physical body, met us where we were, in our shape and form. And then the Holy Spirit, after the death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit came and in dwell believers, he took up residence in a tabernacle, in the person of Jesus and in believers. David was confident in this. Even before half of that happened, he was confident that the best place to be was in the presence of God. We can have that confidence too. In the Lord's presence is the absolute best place to be. What did David do in the presence of the Lord? Well, he talks about, he said, he would gaze on his beauty and seek him. He would be kept safe in the Lord's shelter and he would worship. So gazing on his beauty. Well, God didn't have a physical body. So what did he mean by this? Well, I believe he was referring to his environment, his home, the tabernacle itself, the ark. I think he was also referring to his holiness. God's holiness and his goodness was beautiful to his people. David wanted to just experience who God was. His beauty, he wanted to be in awe of him. He wanted to seek him and be around him. How do you get to know someone? By spending time with them, right? He wanted to get to know who God was even better. He wanted to just be with him. Just spend time with his creator. He sought shelter and refuge in God's presence. Again, David had a lot of enemies. He had a lot of dark times, and he knew that in God's presence was the safest place to be. When we are in God's presence, when we are in His will, when we are following Him, that is the best place that we can be. Even if it's a little uncertain or scary, or we don't know the next steps, it's still the best place that we can be. And in his presence, David worshiped. The tabernacle of David's time is known as a place of worship. They danced and they sang and they played instruments. They worshiped God in new and creative ways. 'Cause what else are you gonna do when you're in the presence of the Almighty? And we get to do that too. We get to come here and worship and be with other believers and hear the word, but we also get to go out and worship with our lives. Paul talks about worshiping as a living sacrifice. We get to just worship by the way we live and act and move and breathe and interact with other people. That is our worship. This is great too. Like be here, I love that. Be, come and participate here. But we also get to worship in how we live. We get to experience God's beauty through His holiness and His goodness. And because of that, we will worship Him. Being in the Lord's presence is the best place we can be.

David goes on to cry out to the Lord. He moves into this time of really calling out to God and asking Him for help. Verse seven, "Hear my voice when I call, Lord, be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says, if you seek his face, hear face Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my savior. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. Teach me your way, Lord. Lead me in a straight path because of your oppressors. Do not turn or because of my oppressors. Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations." In these several verses, we see that, although David had a lot of confidence in God, it wasn't all easy. It wasn't all just smooth sailing, roses and daisies. There were times where he struggled. He had difficult seasons and he just cried out to God. I'm sure there's times for us, like for David, that it feels like God is silent. That you're praying and you're asking and you're seeking and it just feels like no one is listening. So in this section, David is actually reminding God of what he told his people. He's saying, "You told me to seek you. You told us, seek my face." He's like, "I'm doing it, I'm here, I'm seeking your face.”

Jeremiah 29:12-13, the Lord is saying, "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your hearts." David is begging God saying, "I am seeking you, please hear me." even kings and giants of the faith wavered in their confidence at times, not because God changed, but because maybe their circumstances changed. Fear got real big in their hearts and it wavered. We know though from other places in the Bible, like in Joshua, it says that he will never leave us or forsake us. And sometimes God's silence can feel like that. I can feel like being abandoned or forgotten, but God will never leave us. So he's asking, he's praying and reminding God of the promises he's given and also asking for more of him. He wants God to lead him and guide him, teach him his ways. He's reminding himself that God did it before, He can do it again. Seeking the Lord reminds us of His faithfulness. Not only do we need reminders of the confidence we have in God, sometimes we just need the reminders of His goodness and His faithfulness. And the way we do that is by getting with Him, by seeking Him, by pursuing Him, by allowing Him to work in our heart and lives. And that takes proximity. That's why we get in His presence. That's why we get in the Word. God is not playing some cosmic game of hide and seek. He wants to be found. Jeremiah says, "You will be found by me." We just have to be willing to show up and pursue that relationship with God, with our heavenly Father, to learn more about Him, about His character, about who He says He is. He's not, David here is not asking for the easy way. It says, later on it says that he asks for the straight path in verse 11. Straight here doesn't necessarily mean easy or without problems. It just means level. It's like a firm foundation that he will be firm. It also refers to uprightness, that he would be on a level ground so he can live in uprightness. And he knows that God is faithful to do that. He knows, David isn't stupid. He knows life won't be easy. He knows there's gonna be trouble, but he also know that God in his goodness can provide a way for him to live upright, live on level ground. So even when our confidence ravers, even when we are facing hard seasons, We can remember that when we seek the Lord, we will find Him and we will be reminded of who He is, of His goodness and His faithfulness.

The last two verses, probably my favorite in this chapter, it is a statement and then it is an encouragement from David. Let's read it together. I remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. This phrase land of the living can refer to a variety of things, some think David was referring to Jerusalem, that this is where the people of God were, this is where God dwelled. And so this was the land of the living as opposed to the pagan nation surrounding them where people were dead in their sin. It also something it's just David referring to heaven, that in the kingdom to come, that is the land of the living. And we get to be with God forever in that. And we will see His goodness when we get to heaven with Him. The third option is that David is referring to this world, the here and the now, that even in our broken and fallen world, he believes that he will see God's goodness even here. And honestly, it could be all of them, but I really do think that David is talking about this world, the here and the now, and here's why. First of all, the Hebrew word for land here, it literally means earth as opposed to heaven. It's literally talking about our world. He's saying that despite our troubles, despite our struggles, despite the sin in this world, we can still see God's goodness. The Bible is full of faithful people who had hard times. They struggled, they sinned, they fell, but they still experienced God's goodness. But how could he say, I will see the goodness of God?

How can we be so confident in that? Well, we've said it before, it's because he had seen it before. He had seen God's faithfulness and his goodness in his life before. He had seen God come and dwell among the people of Israel. He saw how God made a way for himself to be with his people and for the people to be near him, even despite his holiness, through sacrifices and rituals and atonement, he made a way and he had saved him. He had saved him from previous difficulties and seasons of hardship. He had seen God's goodness before. So how can we be confident? How can we stand with David and say, "I will be confident and I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living." Well, like David, we have seen the goodness of God. I guarantee you that everyone in this room has experienced the goodness of God, whether you've realized it or not. So maybe we need to take a moment and think back, look back, remind ourselves of the goodness that he has brought in our lives. But also unlike David, in the same way, we have the church. We have the body of Christ. And how many of us have experienced the goodness of God through someone else in the body of Christ? Whether it was through prayer or support, just a smile, accountability, reaching out to you, that God uses his people to show his goodness. So we know that we will see the goodness of God in the land of the living because the church in the year of our Lord 2024 is alive and well. We are alive.

Romans 6:11 says, "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Believers are alive, we are alive. We, the church is the literal land of the living. We get to be the land of the living. We get to experience life in Christ and be a light to other people of that truth. So despite the world around us, despite the culture that we are living in, that is full of darkness and celebrates death and calls evil good and good evil, despite all of that, we get to be the land of the living. We will see the goodness of God in the land of the living. I promise you. Now, I am sure that there is someone within this sound of my voice, whether here or online or podcast or whatever, that is thinking, how? I can't. Lauren, you talk about this land of the living, but I'm more in the valley of the shadow of death right now. Maybe it's depression or finances or relationships, you name it, but it feels dark and heavy and nothing like the goodness of God. You will see His goodness. Things may not work out the way we're praying for. They may not work out the way we hope. They may not even work out 'cause we live in a fallen world, but he is still good because his goodness is not determined by our circumstances or by our outcomes in life. He is good regardless. And we have to remember that the phrase, the valley of the shadow of the death is from Psalm 23 and it continues on. It says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me." So even if you are, even if you are walking or maybe you will in the future, maybe you are in that valley. It is dark, it is hard, but He is still with you even then. Even when He feels silent, even when it feels like you've been forsaken, He is with you and that His presence, Him being with you is His goodness. So if you can't believe it right now, hear me and hold on to the words that I'm saying and hold on to the words that God said in His word and ask Him, God, reveal yourself to me. Show me your love, show me your goodness. Walk me through this valley of death so that I can experience your goodness in the land of the living. (silence) We need to seek His face and that will help build our confidence because David goes on to encourage us and it says, "Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Waiting, the word wait here does not mean just sit around and hope something happens. It's an active participation. It means to look for, to hope, to expect. We're not doing nothing. We are actively waiting. We are expectantly hoping and trusting that God is gonna come through. That's through being in the word, coming to church, being a part of the body, participating in the land of the living, writing down all the ways that he has been faithful as just a reminder for yourself, sitting in his presence, just being still or worshiping him, seeking his face and whatever expression that looks like for you. 'Cause what David knew and encourage us to do is that when we wait for the Lord, we will see His goodness. Amen.

Let's pray. God, thank you. Thank you for your presence. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your church. You knew what you were doing when you established the body of Christ. And we are so grateful that we get to see your goodness in the land of the living. God, I pray for those who are in a valley right now where it just feels dark and heavy. God, I just pray that you will make your presence so palpable to them that they will know that they have not been forgotten or forsaken. Build their confidence, build their belief as they walk through this difficult season, God. Remind them that they will see your goodness. You are so good, God, and we are so grateful to you. We love you, Father. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Summer of Psalms - Part 4

Psalm 15 - Asking the Right Question

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I just got back from a trip. It took some time this week to go to visit some of my wife's family up in Washington State. It was a great time. I met some family that I hadn't spent a lot of time with on her side, which was really fun. Part of this trip was getting to her cousin, who works at Disney Studios in Vancouver, Canada. So, we got to take a little trip. She has one set of family that lives on the American border, and then the one set right on the other side and so we spent most of our time in Washington but then we took a day trip over to Canada and he gave us this private tour of the Disney animation studio there's only two there's one in LA and there's one in Vancouver and it was really cool I was overwhelmed with how much we had a sign something that says I won't share about what I saw so I can't do that but I will say I mean it was just so cool to walk around and I was just overwhelmed as everyone in their cubicles working on you just saw characters you're like oh "Oh my goodness, that's that character and you're working on that movie and you're working on that movie. This is so cool!" And it was a really quick tour, but all of it just made me... I just had so many questions at the end and we had to kind of go through and there was a couple moments to ask some questions and I didn't even know where to begin. I was talking with my father-in-law along the way and there's just so much. There's so much that I want to ask. There's so much things like, "How does this process work? How long does it take the animators to do one scene where the person throws their hands up in the air?" You know, that could take weeks. We also obviously wanted to ask, what are the new movies coming out? What are the new shows? And can you give us a sneak peek on any of that information? But that part of the trip really reminded me of how important it is to ask good questions, and how a good question can unlock a big answer or a deep answer. And depending on who you are and how you're wired, sometimes asking questions may be easy for you, and sometimes asking questions can be really hard. My daughter at this point finds it easy to ask a lot of questions. She's five years old, and on the hour-long drive from Washington to Vancouver, it was just one question, I'm sure you can guess it, it was, "Are we there yet?" Over and over again. I think on this trip, her two most frequent questions were, "Are we there yet?" and "I'm hungry, do you have a snack?" Which I think those are just her most frequent questions, regardless of being on vacation.

But asking questions is so important, and I think it's probably a learned skill that we develop in life to ask good, important questions, to be able to discern the context and the information that is known and unknown, and then asking a question to make a person think. In conversation, you probably know this, a good question makes someone pause, makes a person reflect for a while, and go deeper than just a surface-level answer. Maybe you've been asked a good question, You know that experience of like, "Oh my goodness, that's great. I don't know. Let me think about that for a second." Or maybe you've been on the receiving side and you've heard that, and you're like, "Oh yes, that was a good question. They had to think about it for a second." For me, someone who constantly asks good questions is my counselor, my pastoral counselor. Whenever I have coffee with him, I get frustrated because he asks questions and I say, "I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. Let me think for a second. I got to process." And oftentimes it means thinking about an experience in a whole new way or discovering some emotions I didn't know I felt about something. And so he just asked really good questions. But we need people in our lives that ask good questions to us, and we also want to be people that ask good questions to others. And not just with the people in our lives, but also in all of our relationships, including the most important relationship, which is with God. If we think about our relationship with God and our conversations with him, our prayers, I want us to do a little bit of a prayer inventory right now. So just in your own heads, you don't have to say anything that's out loud, but I want us to break down what our prayers look like. And so, if you were to give a percentage, maybe you have your pie chart, if you're a visual person, you have a pie chart in your mind, how much of your prayer time is praise to God? Come up with your percentage. Maybe it's 10%. Maybe it is 100, maybe all you do is praise, whatever that percentage is. All right, so you have praise. How much of it is confession and repentance? How much of that pie chart are you asking God for forgiveness? Coming before him and saying, "Hey, I did this wrong. I need... Please forgive me." And then how much of it, of your prayer time, is questions to God? I know for me, that is the largest portion of the pie chart there. And if we were to go further about those questions, How many of them are requests to God? Asking God for things, asking God to do something in my life, asking God whatever it is. How much of those questions that we have to God are more self-interested? And God, I need something. Can you do something for me? What are the quality of the questions that we ask Him? Are they the right questions? Are they self-serving? Do they bring us closer to Him? Or, like I just said, do these questions come from a heart that is more self-serving, self-interested, self-absorbed?

The questions that we ask God are important, and they reveal a lot about what is inside our hearts. You know, there can be this thought that asking questions is a sign of weakness or ignorance with this negative connotation, but I fully disagree with that. I think someone who asks a lot of questions is someone who wants to learn, who understands and has humility that they don't understand at all, and so they are seeking to understand more. We might feel that pressure as Christians to know as much as possible, or to come across as people who know everything about God and everything about the Bible. And while there is good and we should strive to know more, we don't always have to put up that front that we know everything. We often think of the Bible as a book that has a lot of answers, which is true, but do we also think of the Bible that asks a lot of questions? The Hebrew authors wanted readers and listeners to wrestle with the text, to ask more questions about who Yahweh is and what He does. Because they understood that wrestling with the text and asking questions was that invitation to a deeper understanding of God. It's just like in a relationship or a friendship, when you're getting to know someone, you ask a lot of questions. You find out who they are. You find out how they operate and what they do in this situation and how they feel about this. And even though the Bible tells us all those things, we also want to be asking God about who He is.

Many of the questions in the Bible are found in the book of Psalms. And as a reminder for our Psalm series, the first half of the book of Psalms skews more towards lament Psalms over praise Psalms. And today, our Psalm may be somewhere in between lament and praise. I think of it as a reflection Psalm. This psalm informs us of who God wants us to be, but it also holds up a mirror to our hearts to see if we are being the men and women of God that He wants us to be. So we're going to be in Psalm 15, and I'd love to read it for us today. You guys can turn in your Bibles, or you can follow along on the screen. This is a psalm of David, and he writes, "Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart, whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others, who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps an oath even when it hurts and does not change their mind, who lends money to the poor without interest, who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken." So there it is, right at the beginning.

David begins this psalm with a pair of questions, and really one question. "Who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?" And as we'll unpack this, we'll just see that this is such a good question. David was king, and so the temple is not around yet. We think of Israel and we think of the temple, but his son Solomon built the temple. And so for David, he's got the tabernacle. And this tent was with Israel for so long. It was from post-slavery in Egypt when God delivered them, and they brought them out into the wilderness, and God instructed them to have this tent, this dwelling place for him. They call it the tabernacle. And so this is the tent in verse 1. "Lord made, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?" And that now that they are in the Promised Land, that holy tent was on a mountain. And so he's really asking, the root of these two questions is, who can live in the presence of God? Or who can dwell with God in his presence? This is David asking the right question. And Christianity has a unique answer to this question. Other religions may have this similar question of who is worthy to be in the presence of their deity or their God. And oftentimes for other religions, it is all about what the person has done. What acts they have done, what are their actions, are they worthy to be in the presence of that deity? But God goes a step further and he looks at the heart, because he understands that someone could do technically the right thing, but be absolutely rotten inside. And so the Christian faith, God puts the utmost priority on the heart. And the answer to this question speaks to a person's heart and what's inside. Now a little bit more about this tent, this sacred tent. We know that God's presence is very powerful. No one has been in the full presence of God and lived. We know that from Moses on the mountain, and Moses was desperate to be in God's presence. He said, "God, I've been following you, we've got a good relationship, we've got a good thing going on. Can you please reveal yourself to me?" And God said, "You can handle it. If I show myself to you, if I reveal my full self to you, you will die." And so even in the temple, in this tabernacle, sorry, in the tabernacle, there was a section called the Holy of Holies, which is where the presence of God was. And only specific people who had done specific things to get ready could go into that Holy of Holies, and if they didn't, they would die. And this person, this priest, there was only one allowed at a certain time, the Bible tells all about these details, but even they would walk in with a rope around their leg, because if they died, they could pull the body out.

So again, the presence of God is powerful and it is mysterious. And this question that David is asking is a heavy question. Who can withstand, who could live, who could be in the presence of God? It's a loaded question and it's a great question because it's not a self-serving question. "God, can you do this for me? God, can you please give me this? Could you provide?" Whatever it is, those are not always bad prayers. I don't want to say that there's a time and place for that, but we got to be careful in how we approach God. We don't want to treat him like a genie or a vending machine. Just always asking God, I need this, God I need this, and I'm expecting this. David's question of who can dwell in the presence of God is such a great question because it addresses the accounts at the very beginning of our Bibles, the rebellion in the garden, and the rebellious heart of sin in all of humanity. And that rebellious thought is the thought that life can be lived for humanity apart from God. That humans could live a life that they know how to live a better life than what God had intended. It's the sin that Adam and Eve thought. They saw that fruit and they knew that God said don't do it, but they thought, "You know what? I think I know better than God. I'm going to take that fruit. I'm going to eat it. And so through that garden experience though, through the fall, we know clearly who is not worthy to be in the presence of God. And it's those who are marred by sin. Example, Adam and Eve. As soon as that happened, God kicked them out of the garden. So you can't be here anymore. So the question, who can dwell in the presence of God, who can be as close as possible with God, It's huge. And David mentions these two places, the holy tent and the mountain, to bring up certain things in the Israelites' minds. Now, we can't go back to life in Eden before the fall, before sin entered the world, but there are places where we are closer to God, and for Israel, physically closer to God. That's that tent, that holy mountain is exactly where God was. And those two places bring up a couple points. One, those are places where heaven meets earth. God, who is God of the heavens, is there on earth. And so that place is where his presence, where God is perfectly recognized as king, and where his reign is existing as it was meant to. And then secondly, that place is a place that stands in stark contrast to the world around it. You think of the tent and the tabernacle, and you think of that mountain, and you clearly see God's presence there. And then if you visualize with me old Israel, you just look around, and I think you would clearly see the effects of sin in the world, and the corruption and the injustice and the sin that would just run rampant. And so the temple or the tent and this mountain provide such a clear picture of life that God intended and the life that reality of sin around it. And so David, in this moment of clarity, asks a very important question, "Who's worthy to be in the perfect presence of God dwelling with Him?" And thankfully, we get the answer, which is the rest of the Psalm. What is God looking for in a person?

Well, verses 2 through 5 give us that. And we know through the teachings of Jesus and the mistake of the Pharisees that we need Jesus to be the person that He lists in 2 through 5. We can't do it on our own effort and our own strength. And so, with that foundation, let's look at what David informs us, what David tells us about who this person is. And so, first, it's a person, a woman, or a man of integrity. Verse 2 says, "Whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous." This is a phrase that is often used in the Old Testament to describe a person who followed God, and often in contrast to the people around them who didn't. So we think of someone like Noah, who at that time the whole world was evil, following sin, "Except for Noah who walked with God and did what is righteous." There's that phrase where we think of Abraham, and as God chose Abraham, it gives the example of the rest of the world who was living in sin, except for Abraham who is blameless, walking with God, doing what is righteous. And so this brings about this phrase here. This is the person whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, someone who is living out their faith in God. And then David writes, "Who speaks the truth from the heart." I love this. This is someone who speaks with conviction, someone who doesn't just say the right thing, but truly believes it. Truly believes it. And I think, I know that this happens within a person who is in the Word of God regularly. When you are reading God's Word, there is power, transforming power in His Word, and it changes us. It changes our hearts. And it has this effect on what we say. There's a prayer by George Herbert, and it's a beautiful prayer that I think we should all pray, and it says this, "Oh, make your word a swift word, passing from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip in conversation, that as the rain returns not empty, so neither may your word, but accomplish that which for what it was given." I love that prayer. In that prayer there's expectation and anticipation that God's word is going to change us. It's going to have an effect on our lives. We are transformed by his truth. Now through the work of the Spirit and through the reading of his word, a new heart is formed within us. And then And from that, we'll have a tongue that utters no slander, who speaks the truth from the heart. So, so far we have this person who is described as someone who's living a life of integrity. And then David writes, "It's a person who does no wrong to a neighbor and casts no slur on others." We might recognize this as part of the greatest commandment, to love God and to love others, to love our neighbor. It's a reminder that how we treat those around us is a reflection of what's inside of our hearts.

Another way of saying this might be a person who doesn't condescend to other people. Because someone who is constantly condescending others thinks of themselves as better. They speak from a place of higher status thinking, and they're literally, the word kind of, you're looking down on everyone around you. "I know better, I am better, let me tell you how you're wrong, how you could be doing it right." That's not the way that God intended us to speak to other people. It's not a way of speaking out of love. That would be evidence of a sinful heart, evidence of pride and of selfishness. David continues describing this person, "As someone who despises a vile person, but honors those who fear the Lord." Now, this isn't telling us to hate people or to judge other people, but to be forthright with our loyalty for God and his people. It's a declaration of where our loyalty and allegiance lie. And again, this is written to Israel, who had this habit, this bad habit, of being enamored and falling in love with the surrounding cultures and their deities and their gods and their ungodly practices. And Israel would just find a way to start incorporating those practices, even though God had given them strict rules. And so David is saying, "Israel, if you keep doing that, don't expect to be dwelling in the house of God. Don't expect to be in His presence." He continues again and he says, "Who keeps an oath even when it hurts." I love this one, because this is so hard. This is a very God-like attribute, to be keeping your word even when it is hurting you. I don't know if you've ever had to do that, but it's hard. It's really hard. And think of God who honors his covenant to Israel, even when they rebel against him, even when they break his heart over and over again. You think of the covenant that God made with Abraham. He said, "I'm going to give you lots of descendants. I'm going to make them into a great nation. I'm going to give you a land." And God, in that time, making that happen, endures all these rebellious acts. And Israel, again, commits time and time again just sin against God. Yet God remains faithful, just like He promised He would. And so David is saying that God honors a person who makes sacrifices in order to love other people. Someone who is faithful and steadfast, just like God is, that's a person who's going to dwell in the presence of God. And then he writes, "Someone who does not change their mind." So another way of saying this is sticking with the hard things. Not just taking the easy road, but sticking with it even when it gets hard, Even when it's painful, it hurts.

I think a great example of this was the youth last week, on Monday, went and did a high ropes course in Lake Tahoe. And I don't know if you've ever been 60, 70 feet high up in a tree, but it is terrifying. Some of the kids, some of the students were just like... I'm getting glared at right now by one of the students who was up there in the tree. Some of the students loved it, and they were just like... looked like they had been born in a tree, and they're just hopping around. They were in full harnesses, by the way, so don't... I don't take the students up and just they were in full harnesses. They were roped up it was all very safe and some of them were flying around just like you're going on skinny planks or things that Are just like on a wire going from tree to tree And again, some of them was amazing and then others including myself but others had a very hard time and they're facing fears of heights and balance and everything and They could have there was an option to get out of that tree if they really wanted to But I'm so proud to say, Lauren and I were so proud of them, that they all pushed through. They stuck with doing the hard thing. They faced their fears. They persevered. And they did it. And it was incredible to see them in that moment not change their mind. Take some time to take some deep breaths. And they just, one step at a time. They did a hard thing. And I think God, that's an example of the Christian life, right? There are some times where we can choose an easy way just to back out, to not be involved, but there God would desire that we not change our mind, that we stick with it, that we remain faithful to Him through difficult circumstances.

God wants that for His people. He doesn't want us to quit living the faithful life of integrity, to change our minds, and to start serving ourselves, start living for ourselves. The last couple are a little bit specific. He says, "Who lends money to the poor without interest?" This is like, "Okay, David, that's very specific, but what is that about?" Well, David is saying, "It speaks to a person who cares more about others and their prosperity than one's own gain." When someone who is in need, it's not saying, "How can I make a buck off of this? I can help them, and I can also help myself in this. God's saying, do we have a care for people purely for the sense of loving them, and giving them what they need in that moment, and not being selfish at all, and just saying, yes, let me be able to attend to your needs, and trust that God will take care of you, and He'll take care of me. It's evidence of a faithful heart, and one who is living in God's will. And then in that same verse, in verse 5, it says, "Who does not accept a bribe against the innocent?" And this is describing corruption that happens on all levels of life. We think of corruption and maybe we think of bigger corporations and businesses and politicians, but we can also, we can also live a life of corruption, of injustice. And God cares deeply about justice. If you were part of our community group this past spring, we went through a book of the Old Testament that spoke to how much God cares about justice and how upset he was with Israel, as Israel had let these practices creep into their everyday life that were unjust. God said, "You're going to face the consequences for that." And if God's own people are lying and cheating and being deceitful, What kind of reflection is that on God's character, on who He is? So this is not a character trait that God wants for His people who will be in His house. The person who dwells in the presence of God is someone who cares about justice, just as God does. So, there we have it. Easy enough, right? If you want to be in the presence of God, verses 2 through 5, go for it. As we said, we can't do this on our own. We do not have the capacity, the ability, without Jesus to live a life like this. As we take a step back and look at this list, we see a person who embodies the heart of God, someone who encapsulates a heart that cares for what God cares about and lives in a way that is pleasing and honoring to God. the way that God meant for humanity to live, and the way that Jesus did live years after this was written. I love that David asks a great question and we get the answer. In 15, the last part of this verse, David writes, "Whoever does these things will never be shaken." The Bible loves to use this analogy to describe someone who is protected by God, in whatever circumstances they go through. So in the New Testament you might think of Jesus' teachings in the parable of building the house upon the rock. Or Paul's teachings in Ephesians, where he's talking about a person who is not thrown around by the waves. Again, it's not saying that you won't go through difficult, challenging, painful experiences, because you will. But when you do, God will protect you, He will hold you fast, and keep you secure. And you will go through whatever it is in the presence of God. It also speaks to a consistency. You will not be shaken, but you will remain with God through it all. I think that's part of the Christian life, that we often start younger in our faith, and we have moments where we feel really close to God, and we have moments where we feel really far away. And hopefully the prayer is over life, that up and down becomes a little bit less and just consistent, and we just have a constant strong relationship with him. Whoever does these things will never be shaken.

David, the author, again, to his credit, was very self-aware of his heart, of his own shortcomings, and he had some pretty big shortcomings. And he prayed often to dwell in the house of God. And I think he realized it's because of the sin that he committed and those moments where he felt so far away from God, it stirred in him that hunger to be, "I want to be as close to God as possible. I want to be in the house of God, in the Holy of Holies. I don't want to be far away. I want to be as close to Him. I want to dwell with Him." We should have a similar heart. I said at the beginning that this psalm informs us of who can dwell in the presence of God, but it also holds up a mirror to our own hearts. And so now it's time to hold up that mirror. I want to ask a few questions of us, just some things that you can think about today and this week. First is, what kind of questions are you asking God? Are they questions that expect God to do something according to your will? Or are they questions that will bring you closer to His will? Just as David did, it might be a good exercise to ask those burning questions of faith that we have about who God is and what He does. We all have questions about that. And maybe it's a good exercise to write that down and try to answer them, and then go to the Bible and try to find those answers. Whatever those questions may be, "God, why am I going through this situation in life? God, why did you do this? God, why do you tend to..." Whatever it is, I don't know, why is there suffering? God, who's going to be with you in heaven? You can ask the biggest of questions, you can ask the smallest of questions, but ask them. Take time to figure out those answers, and I think that process, I know that process can bring you closer to Him. It will make you wrestle with hard truths and tensions in the faith, but it'll be so good. There's a lot that we're meant to wrestle with.

As I said in the beginning, God, the authors wanted us to be...there's just tension in the faith. There just is. My Hebrew professor told me that there are rabbis who study one psalm for their entire life. And so they'll have 50 years of study on one psalm, and they just continually learn. They never think that they have arrived, and they think that they know it all. They are saying, "Oh, in year 48, here's the new thing I learned from this same passage. And so we should have a similar heart. God, there is more to know about you. I need to ask these good questions to find out these answers." And then secondly, lastly, our last question, do we desire to live in God's presence? Are we taking moments in life to ask God, "How can I be in your presence right now?" And I would say, let's be specific. It may mean praying, "God, in my place of work, how do I work in your presence? God, in my family life, how do I be a father, a mother, a husband, a wife, a friend, son, daughter, whatever it is in your presence?" Are we trying to be with God, or are we trying to have God just be with us in what we're doing? And there's a difference. It's important to find out how we're living our lives. We may not have thought about it that way before, but we can, by default, just start to bring God along with us. "God, I'm going this way, please follow, come with me." When really, we need to be asking, "God, where do you want me to go? Where are you leading? Let me follow you." Are you trying to be with God? Are you trying to be this person who can dwell in the house of God, in the presence of God? Is this list of characteristics present in your life? In what areas of your life do you feel the Spirit calling your attention to, to submit and to undergo further transformation by the power of God and his Word? David, like us, didn't always get it right. But in this moment, I'm so thankful that he asked the right question. And so I want to encourage us to be like him and make a habit of asking the right questions to God.

Would you guys pray with me right now? God, we come before you thankful for your word, and the power of your truth to transform our hearts to be made more like you. And that is our desire, that is our prayer, that you would be purifying us, transforming us, taking the sinful habits away, and instantly putting in us godly desires, godly character. So I pray that this week through your Spirit you would help, you would speak to us about areas of our life that need to change, where we are being selfish and self-absorbed. And I pray that you would help us in our prayer life as we converse with you regularly. That I pray that we would take time to pause and think about what we're asking. And while we still may have requests for you, I pray that our hearts would also start to see how we can ask, "God, how can I be in your presence? How can I live a life where I am with you in everything that I do?" Go with us this week. Guide us this week. We trust you and we love you. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Summer of Psalms - Part 3

Psalm 122 - Our Approach to Worshipping God

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

All right, we are continuing in our series in Psalms. I want to start by bringing us back to, I think, a common experience that we've all had. I want you to think back maybe to your childhood at some point, and maybe around Christmas or birthday, and the excitement that you felt about something that you were going to get, that gift, whatever you had in mind, and maybe it's a specific Christmas or birthday for me. I loved Legos growing up, and I only got Legos at Christmas. And every Christmas, there was a new, like, big set, and I was like, oh, this is the best. So, you know, the weeks leading up, I just started getting excited like I know there's a big Lego set that is gonna be underneath that tree And that was my Lego set for the year, but there's a process that as you anticipate something first is this Anticipation right this excitement that's building as the days get closer to that thing happening. You just get more and more excited And then maybe it's Christmas or your birthday But when you actually get that thing whenever you got it just the excitement was at its peak you're like it is here I this is it. I finally I get to enjoy this thing and And then for the next couple days, maybe weeks, the excitement is still up there. You're waking up like, "Oh, I can't wait to play. I have this new thing. This is fantastic." And then weeks or months go by and the excitement starts to dwindle. Maybe the enjoyment is still there. You still love to play with... You used to play with that thing and it was there, but you don't wake up with the excitement anymore. It's just like, "Oh yeah, I have that. I love it. It's great." But the excitement is gone. I say that thinking back to it, kids, but I still have things in my life right now that make me feel that way.

So maybe you do too. It's a feeling that we have, and it is, you know what it's like to have that excitement at one point, and then that initial infatuation or excitement just tapers off. And I think that happens not just with things in our lives, but also in our Christian life. Maybe you've experienced something similar in your walk with Jesus, where if you think back to when you were saved, and there's this initial excitement and just obvious joy that you feel, it's almost tangible. As you come to know and accept Jesus and this initial life change is invigorating, you have new habits, new rhythms that you are just welcoming into your life. And it's almost effortless of like, what else is there? I want to do it all, this is great, being a Christian. And then after a time, maybe it's months or years, the aspects of the Christian life can become routine and maybe not in the best way. You know, reading your Bible, you're attending church, but you're just kind of going through the motions. You're just doing it and it's there, it's good, but you're not excited. You're not excited about it anymore. Why does that happen? If you've experienced that, maybe you can think back to when that is, or maybe you're in the midst of it right now. Why does that happen? Well, I believe it's a heart issue. Initially, our hearts are being reoriented and they're being devoted and we're committed to God. And there's a desire and a commitment to worship God with our everything. But eventually, the heart begins to lean away from God, to stray and to get distracted, begins yearning for other things. Another way of saying this is that our hearts want to worship something else or someone else. It's really a matter of the heart. Our hearts are initially so focused on God, straining towards God, being transformed, but sin is still a reality. It's still present in our lives. It's still present in the world around us. And initially what was so effortless and so easy to be devoted, to be committed to God now takes more effort and more intentionality.

So how do we get that excitement and that joy back as we walk with Jesus? How should we approach a life of following and worshiping God? That's our question for today. You may be encouraged to know that it's not a new issue. This is not something that just the local church in the last couple of hundred years has been experiencing. No, this was a reality for the Israelites in the Old Testament too. Back then, for the Israelites, their life looked different than ours, but they also had spiritual practices of worshiping God, and some of those could become routine. And so David writes this Psalm as a reminder to help paint the picture of the ideal heart, the ideal approach for the Israelites as they come to worship God. We're gonna be in Psalm 122 today, and this is a Psalm of ascent, which means this is a Psalm that was meant to be sung as Israelites made their way to Jerusalem to worship God. Jerusalem was the center of worship. It's where the tabernacle was until they built the temple and then the temple was there. And so this Psalm has a lot of Jerusalem descriptions and language. It's a Psalm that if you can kind of picture this on a day where, you know, maybe some kind of feast where everyone had to go to the temple, you could just see everyone from outside the city to inside the city making their way, getting outside their homes, closing their doors and joining in the streets and walking to the temple. And they're all doing it together. And they could sing this song out loud as a chorus. And it would help them as they approached where God's presence was in the tabernacle, help their hearts get in the right place. So I think it can do the same for us today.

Let's go ahead and read. You guys can follow along on the screen. It says, "I rejoiced with those who said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to praise the name of the Lord according to the statute given to Israel. There stand the thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels. For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, Peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity." So this psalm, and I think it helps us, reminds us about our approach and where our hearts should be as we worship together. And that first reminder comes from the first couple verses. And it's that worship comes from joy. It's like that kid on Christmas who's excited about their gift, anticipation about what they're receiving, we should have this similar excitement, anticipation about worshiping God, about going to the place of worship. Now I know in other series we've talked about how worship is a more general term, and it means like all of our lives, Paul writes about this in the New Testament, that all of our lives are worshiped to God. But today I just wanna use that term like David is intending it, the place of worship, the house of worship. So we're talking about the temple or the tabernacle, or today we're talking about church.

And so that joy of going to church or going to this house of worship, and it first and foremost comes from recognizing who God is and what He has done. And for the Israelites, they praise God for being their savior, saving them from slavery in Egypt. And they recognize the grace that God had given them as He protected them and sustained them in the desert and helped them get into the promised land. They have all this in the back of their heads as they come to God, they say, "We couldn't have any of this. They were in the promised land with the tabernacle and the temple. We wouldn't be here without God." So many times Israel rebelled against God and yet He remained steadfast and faithful to them. The Israelites who were selfish and prideful, hard-headed, naturally bent towards serving themselves and who often got it wrong, they have been saved. And for a moment when they were at the tabernacle, they were accepted into God's presence. And that moment, as they approached, just thinking of that moment of being in God's presence, brought them so much joy. Now, today, for us, how much more joy do we have, knowing that we don't have to go to the tabernacle or to the temple, that we have the Spirit within us, God with us all the time. And that we, Jesus, gave us salvation and the grace that He gives us daily. He saved us from eternity in hell, gives us everlasting life. And we who are selfish and prideful and hard-headed and often bent towards serving ourselves, we were saved. And God loves us. And the Spirit is with us always. Just that, just that reality is enough for the believer to feel joy. Joy from God for what He has done for us. That reason, that joy comes from the truth. It's an act of redemption that Jesus has done for us so great that we will be rejoicing in heaven for eternity for what he has done. And so we believers, we can walk through anything. We can go through anything in life. A hard day at work, losing a loved one, shattered dreams, and we can stand firm, maybe even with tears in our eyes, and just say, "But I am saved. But I am a child of God loves me and I still feel joy.” We need to be reminded of that because as soon as we grow callous to the grace of God our hearts will begin to wander. Pastor and author Paul David Tripp says, "What a tragedy when we grow used to that grace. What a tragedy when it no longer has value to us. What a tragedy when we we begin to think that we actually deserve acceptance with God. And how important it is to remember that I will never have any other standing with God, but the standing I am given by means of His grace.”

As we approach church, as we approach God at any point, I hope that we feel this sense of joy as we remember what God has done for us. And the fact that we are even believers in the first place is owed to him, we owe him that glory. So we have joy because of God. David begins this Psalm with this all time important reminder that as we approach the place of worship, let us be filled with joy. And this is, all these points are kind of a chain reaction. So first we begin with joy, and then secondly, Our second reminder comes in verses three through four, and it's that we worship out of obedience. The Israelites were given a structure and a routine for them to obey. It says in verse four, "That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, "to praise the name of the Lord "according to the statute given to Israel." This is referring back to in the desert, in Exodus and Deuteronomy, Jesus, or God, sorry, gave them instruction of how to be a nation, And part of that was how to worship Him. Israel had this history of being in Egypt. So they had seen how other nations had done. They'd seen how Egypt had worshiped. They've been in the desert, they've seen shins and how they worship their gods. And God is saying, "I don't want any of that. Do not worship Me in that way. I will tell you how to worship Me. And you will worship Me at this place and in this way." So Israel worships out of duty and out of obedience and responsibility, and it's because it's what is due God's name for what he has done for them. And at the root of this law is the command to love and worship the Lord their God and to keep his commandments. But as God gave this law to Israel about worshiping him, this isn't a new idea for the people of Israel, this idea of worship. Again, Paul David Tripp says, "Worship is your identity before it is ever an activity. You are by very nature a worshiper." See, God created humanity to worship Him. That's what He intended. Adam and Eve, He intended for them to worship Him, but then sin comes in, as we know this story, sin comes into the world and changes everything. And now, humanity can now, starts to worship the creation and start of the, instead of the creator. And whether we think about it or not, we, as worshipers, we are worshiping something or someone. And from that worship, we are drawing our purpose, our identity, and our security.

Those things are meant to come from God. God intended that you find your purpose, your identity, and your security in Him. But people who start to worship other things, that's where they draw their identity from. Oh, I'm really about this and I want you to know that. And so I'm gonna share this all about you. Everything about me revolves around this other thing. And I only feel secure if I'm good at this thing or if that is a success in my life and my purpose is to serve this other thing. That's how the heart naturally works. God intended that he would be that focus, that he would be that for our life and that we would find our purpose, our identity and the security in him. The Bible calls this having other gods, having idols in our lives. And we naturally, we're just good at making idols. You may not have heard that before, but you're good at it. And it's not a good thing to be good at. Pastor said this about John Calvin, theologian, says, "John Calvin saw that the human heart is relentlessly efficient, is a relentlessly," oh my goodness, sorry, let me start over. "John Calvin saw the human heart as a relentlessly efficient factory for producing idols. People want things to work better. They want a life that is more interesting. They want help through difficult times. They want meaning and significance in their ventures. They want a God in a way, but certainly not a jealous God, not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mostly they want it their way. They want to stay in control, but have ancillary divine assistance for the hard parts. I read that and I mean, spirit started convicting right away. We want God, but we have these other idols that we still want to be attached to. These other things in our life that are drawing, we're giving our attention, we're giving ourselves too, but when life gets hard, we want God to intervene. God, now I need your help. I've been doing this other stuff and I kind of got myself into a pickle here. Can you please, can you help me out? We tend to make idols out of things in our lives, sometimes even good things. Idols don't have to be bad. We can make idols out of family, out of providing for our family. We can make idol, whatever it is, we can make an idol out of it. But a great way to avoid that is to be obedient, to remain consistent in our regular worship of God.

And so we do that out of obedience. And it's not a begrudging obedience. I don't like this. we think of obedience as contrasted to something we want to do. We can want to be obedient. We can find something good and just, I don't think there's people out there like, "I don't steal because I'm begrudgingly following the rule that says I can't steal." No, we just don't steal and there's joy in that. It's like, "Yeah, that's not something I should do and I don't want to do that and I'm happy to not do that." And we can obey God in worshiping and have joy as we worship Him. And again, this is a chain reaction. So first there's joy, and out of that joy comes obedience. Thirdly, the next thing, so we have joy, we obey, and then in verses five through seven, we see that worship of God leads to a caring heart. If our hearts are filled with love for God, if our hearts are aligned with God's heart, then we will care about what God cares about, His people, His kingdom, and to see His perfect will carried out here on earth. Israel was meant to be a nation that carried out God's love and truth. And first and foremost, people would see that in how they loved God and also how they loved each other. As that was happening, other people would notice, man, this Israel is different. and this God that they worship is different than any other gods that we have. And it would be a distinct reflection of who Yahweh is. And the church today is meant to have a similar role. As we love each other and care for each other and worship God, people will take notice and be like, this is different. But how do we do that if our hearts are naturally selfish and there's this focus on our own lives, our own success, our own advancement or comfort, our own peace. Well, David says elsewhere in the Psalms, in Psalm 51, he says, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."

So we know that it's the work of the Spirit within us. It's the work of Christ within us to lift up our heads from our own lives, from our own circle, to look up and to see others in the way that God sees them. How are we caring for those around us? Do we pray for them? Do you pray for the people in your life, not just your loved ones, which hopefully you're praying for the loved ones, but your neighbor who maybe is a cranky neighbor? Are you praying for your coworkers who you may not enjoy working with all the time? Are you praying just for the people in your life that need God? Do you meet their needs? Do you walk alongside them through whatever hardships they face? Do you pray for their peace and their prosperity that God would bless them? I know for me sometimes I prayed for them, but in a way that benefits me. God, can you help them be nice to me? Can you help them? Like my life is hard, God, so just help other people to make my life better. But that's not the prayers that David's talking about here. saying, "I want them. God, just bless them. Give them peace. Give them what they need to be closer to you." And so as we approach the place of worship, we should be reminded of those in our lives who we need to care for. Or for those as we are literally maybe even driving to church, as those who are passing. Those people need prayer too. Do we care for them? When we think about attending church on a Sunday, do you think about the people you are attending with? Do you kind of lift up your head from your, sometimes what we can do, just go to church by myself, I'm gonna say hi to people and do the small talk, but I'm just gonna go in, gonna worship, gonna listen, I'm gonna leave. We kind of keep our head down the whole time. Or maybe we should lift our heads up and interact with the people and care for them and pray for them and take an interest in their lives and want God to be a part of their lives. So maybe the prayer needs to start with, God, soften my heart towards other people, create in me a desire to care for your children, God. And this care for others also wonderfully fights against the consumer mentality that we have. Again, just slipping into church or these thoughts that are like, I just need to hear the sermon and the worship, just get the necessities and I'm gonna head out, I'm gonna be on my way. Got a busy week, I got a lot of stuff to do, so I know I need to do this, but it's about me. The church, if we're at the center of our church experience, we have a problem.

Part of true worship means seeing others. First we look at God and we recognize God, that's the joy, then we're doing this out of obedience, and then we're looking at others. God's people caring for them. And for the record, I think this church does a great job of that and I say this as encouragement of keep doing this. Let this be a strength of Spring Valley that people who visit would know that we genuinely care about each other. Not just in a, hey, I'm glad to know what's going on, but we are a part of each other's lives. So worship starts with joy. We do it out of obedience and it leads to a care for others. And lastly, worship of God creates community. Hopefully you see these dots connecting here. It says in verses eight through nine, "For the sake of my family and friends, "I will say, 'Peace be within you.' "For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, "I will seek your prosperity." David ends this psalm with the hope Jerusalem will prosper, that his people will prosper, and not for Jerusalem's sake, not for their sake, but for God's glory. And that can be our prayer too. There is unity and commonality found as we share our love for God. We all have this love for God. We are all being obedient to God. And if we all care for each other, we naturally are just, we're together now. We are a family. There's a community that's been formed. For Israel, that was the entire nation, the nation, all the people were heading to the temple. And as they look around, you can just imagine a very crowded space with smiles on their face as they get to be near the presence of God. This is a very unifying experience for them. Again, this is the reminder of what God has done for them from slavery to freedom. God has brought them blessing and fortune. God had given them the blueprint for how to live righteously together as a nation. And today we have the church, we have this family of believers from all different backgrounds, united in our love for God. And there is a deep sense of belonging, of family, of having a place and having a people. Some of you have a great support system outside the church. You have amazing family and friends, and that is truly a blessing.

For others, this church, this room, this is your biggest opportunity for community, for family, for connection. And this is why we love having moments like Morning Blend and Family Meals or the Popcorn Bar, just other opportunities for us to interact. But really, our desire is that it's beyond Sunday. It's beyond Midweek Group. We want you guys, we want all of us to be a family together that's interacting throughout the week, texting each other, grabbing coffees, grabbing meals, inviting people over for houses just to talk, going on walks around the neighborhood together, share life together, be a community together. And I guarantee you, people don't care if your house is messy 'cause of the kids, or if you have a dog that barks at every car that goes by. Welcome them in, bring them in, have people over. Be a community, be a family together. We wanna be a part of each other's life. as we worship God together. And it's not for our sake, it's not for selfish reasons, but it's for God's glory. So as we think about church and the Sundays and belonging to this church family, it's more than just one weekly occurrence. So much more than that. It's about a joy that comes from God's salvation and love for us. about being obedient to the life that God has called us to live. It's about caring for others as God cares for them. It's about living in community as a family.

I wanna paint this scene again. If it's helpful to close your eyes, close your eyes. Just imagine Old Testament Jerusalem and people from outside the city and there's a family waking up early and they're all excited because today they're going to the tabernacle. They get to go be near the presence of God. And as they leave their tent or their house, they see everyone else doing the same thing. And all of a sudden there's just this huge crowd. Every street is filled with people heading to the tabernacle. And there's a buzz around the city. And they start to sing this song. I rejoice with those who said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to praise the name of the Lord according to the statute given to Israel. There stand the thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. And as they're walking up, they're seeing these people, all of them, together, and they care for each other. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you be secure. secure him, or there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels. For the sake of my family and friends, I will say peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity. They can't help but smile because they know that God has saved them, that he loves them, and so it's out of their obedience, not a chore, but just a joyful obedience that they come to the presence of God. And they worship him. And now we today don't have that same scene. We're not walking, if you walk today, that's fantastic, but we don't often walk to church, we're driving, we have a busy life, but it can be similar. And so I wanna paint this scene for you.

Maybe this is helpful. This is simply just an exercise that helps you in your walk with God great. But what if our weekly routine was this, Saturday night, and yes, it's important that church starts the night before, Saturday night, you start to think about the next day and what you're doing and attending church. And that gets you thinking about God and about what He's done for you. And all of a sudden that joy starts to grow within you. And as you're going to bed or waking up in the morning and you're thinking about church, you start to think about the people that you attend church with, the people in this room. You start to wonder, how's this person doing? I remember that person said this, and all of a sudden we just find ourselves praying for them now. We're caring for them. And then we're thinking of people who aren't here. The empty seats, the people who need to be here, who haven't gone to church yet. We start praying for them and we care for them. I pray that my coworker, man, I've been having those conversations about Jesus. I hope that he shows up. I invited him, I hope he's here. God, my neighbor, they need Jesus a lot right now. They're going through a hard time. So we're caring for people together. And then as we're here and out of joyful obedience, we praise God. And these songs that we sing, I mean, this is why we sing these songs, is to praise Him for what He has done for us, for the salvation that He brings. And we can have a deep joy, even if we've had a hard week, I think it's rare to come here and the week has gone just pure good. I mean, life is complicated, it's a mess, it's chaotic. So we can come here just as we are with all of those feelings and emotions, but within we have a joy, of a deep joy that comes from God. That's our prayer. That's what David desired for Israel and that's what God desires of us.

Summer of Psalms - Part 2

Psalm 19 - The Heavens, The Word & the Glory of God

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I have the pleasure today to continue in our Summer of Psalms series. We kicked it off last week, Pastor Andra did, and we're gonna be in Psalm chapter 19. So if you guys wanna flip, tap, click over to that this morning, we're gonna be in Psalm 19, but I love Psalms. And there's been a couple seasons now, I think we're in our third season of, in a rotation of summers of doing summer in Psalms. And what I love about the summer in Psalms is it's just, this is time to kinda take a little bit of a step back. I know we got a lot of people traveling, we got a lot of graduations, we got people going here and there. And I love about the Psalms is it's still kind of a giant overarching series, but at the same time, we just kind of dive into one chapter at a time and there's 150 of them. So it'll probably take us a couple summers to go through all of them alone. We could do a summer in Psalm 119 by itself if we wanted to one year. But the book of Psalms is so much different than any other book in the Bible. And what I mean by that is there are 150 chapters of Psalms. and divide it up into five different parts, or maybe you could call five different subgroups. And that they are over 40 to a dozen in each of these sub books in the Psalms. And there are so many different authors. That's what I love about this. There's so many different people's perspectives. There's so many different people's hearts and experiences they're having with God Almighty, from Moses to King David, King Solomon, to Asaph, to the sons of Korah, to Ethan, to Herman. And there's actually over 50 Psalms that there is no author attributed as well. And this time of this book actually spans about a thousand years, which when you think about that, you think, man, that's pretty incredible to have a book to cover over a thousand years of life. Big themes of praise, God's power, forgiveness, and it all sums up in a perfect little bow that I just absolutely my type A personality love. In Psalm 150 verse six, last verse in the entire book of Psalms, it says, "Let everything that breathes sing praise to the Lord." Praise the Lord.

That's what it's about. That's what life in itself, if you were to boil down everything that we in our life would just breathe praise to God almighty. That our life, how we live, how we love one another, how we care for each other, how we serve one another, how we go to our job, how we do school, how we go from places, how we grocery shop, how we go to Costco and deal with that parking lot, how we do everything would just bring honor and praise to God. There is this level of raw emotion in the Psalms that I just absolutely, sometimes we think maybe we have to pray a certain way. We're talking to big G God, right? I get asked all the time as a pastor, how do you pray? Teach me how to pray. And I was like, you're having a conversation with me, right? They're like, yeah, teach me how to pray. I was like, have a conversation with God. And they're like, well, you know, if I don't have like, if I don't speak in those right words, if I don't speak in King James, sayeth, loveth, shalleth, Lord blesseth, meeth, pleaseth. Like if we don't talk in King James and God doesn't hear me and I go, no, no, no, no, no, that's not how it is. You're having a conversation with a relational, loving, caring God who deeply knows you in the ways that even your closest confidant doesn't even know you. And we're gonna see that today in the book of Psalm 19, but this raw emotion, sometimes unpolished, sometimes not polite, sometimes not even PC. We see these Psalms in this book and I want us to remember and to be reminded that God's not afraid of our real life. God's not afraid of what we're going through that we can't get real with Him. He's a big God. He can take it. He can take it. And when we might find ourselves in life, and I've been there before when I just wanted to just punch God, 'cause I don't understand why He's doing what He's doing. He's just right there just to wrap you up in the midst that He loves us. And we see that in Psalms and specifically songs of men that we'll get to later in this series, but this honest, true, personal conversation that we get to kind of peek behind the curtain of people's personal relationship with God is such an incredible, incredible guide for our life in how we can have this relationship with God ourselves.

Last week, Pastor Andre kicked us off with Psalm 29. And he talked about this idea of reminding us to listen for the voice of God. And that we might find ourselves with people in our life that are trying to tell us that they are God and that they know the best for our lives. And they wanna either with hopefully good intentions, maybe not steer us in the right way, but that we know that there's people with bad intentions that try to pull us away, especially it talks about the enemy being one of great disguise, trying to pull us away from the truth of God's voice. In the Psalmist in 29, King David, he says, "Listen for the voice of God." Push in, fight with everything you have to hear that voice from him because only in him can we find the true voice of God, which brings strength and peace. And this kind of peace that we've said before that just is beyond understanding. This peace that we can only have when we rest in the truth of God.

And so today Psalm 19, this is a really unique Psalm. It's unique in the way that it's written in three different parts from three different authors spanning three different time periods. And yet has the same cohesive thought and theological truth drawing us in to the character of God. These three sections in verse one through six talk about creation and how creation speaks and gives praise to God. And then verse seven through 10 talk about this idea of the instruction for life, the speech of God and His word. The original Hebrew word here would be the Torah, the original Hebrew scriptures and how that speaks to God's truth for our lives. And then verses 11, 14, there is the shift that the author itself then becomes the reader servant in finding speech in a prayer to God on our behalf. And what I love about this is this big theme of this entire Psalm is on creation and God being the creator. This first part of the Psalm describes creation in praise to God. And it talks about this idea of joy that comes when we look at the created world around us. And then it pulls us in to the joy that is found in God's word. And then ultimately into the joy that is found in a deep personal relationship with God himself. And it talks about this word of God being our rock, kind of coming full circle of this idea of nature being revealing who God is himself. And we can understand God in so many facets in life. I think sometimes we think of this big dude upstairs, this God of heavens that is disconnected or as far from us, or is so impersonal to who our life is here today.

But the Psalmist here wants to remind us that that's not who God is. That God is not a hidden God, but he is more a revealed God in so many ways, whether it's the created world around us, whether it's his scriptures that he gives us in the Bible to read, and in this deep, honest, personal relationship that we have with him. And that is in this personal relationship that we find communion and relationship and intimacy through prayer. I wanna jump in this first section of Psalms. So you wanna turn Psalm 19, starting in verse one, it says this, it says, "The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech. Night after night they reveal knowledge. Yet they have no speech. They use no words. No sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens, God has pitched a tent for the sun. This first section here is so interesting because it takes us to this place where there's this beautiful duality and back and forth play between artistry and theology. and theological truth. The heavens is being the subject declare or are resounding being a verb, the glory of God who is the object of this entire Psalm. The work of his hands being God's hands, the object proclaim or is declaring verb, the skies, the subject of this. There's this theological balance and these two colas of this opening verse that go back and forth about how God dwells in the heavens and yet the heavens praise God glory. And at the same time, the skies, the created, the lower firmament, as you might know, or the level beneath the heavens, the sky, the moon, the stars, actually in turn praise the work of God's hands. So it's like this beautiful dance back and forth, all resounding on the glory of God. And then in verse two and three, there's the beginning to be this continued statement of repetition day after day, night after night, emphasizing that creation speaks a message about God and passes on this knowledge of God forever and ever and ever and ever, amen. It's only then in verse three that we shift to state that though this message is sent back and forth for all eternity, it cannot be interpreted in the traditional understanding.

What do I mean by that? Well, I mean, it's this fundamental paradox of God's creation actually resounds with a speech, but it is in a way that human beings can neither hear nor understand. There is no speech, there are no words, There is no voice particularly heard. And yet this knowledge of who God is in creation is personified and expressed. But not just any type of knowledge, it's knowledge specifically of the Lord God Almighty. I struggled to understand that at first. I was studying, I was like, how does this all this work? And I was reminded of that feeling you have maybe when you just sit on the beach and you just stare into the waves. To sit there and just to look out into complete total abyss. Or maybe you prefer when you find yourself sitting by the lake and the cool waters lapping on the shore and being surrounded in the shadow of tall, tall trees. There's just something there that speaks to our soul. There's something there that says we're not alone. That there's something else out there that put this together and put this on earth and made it happen in such a unique, intricate, specific, orderly, not a happenstance fashion. And there's just this peace that comes over us. My wife and I had the opportunity to sneak away for a few days, thanks to Papa and Mimi, to watch the kids for us for our 16 year anniversary. And we got to go up to Lake Tahoe. And we were able to be out there for two nights, but I remember the morning of the first day after we'd been up there. And I just got this chance to sit on the little deck outside of our hotel and just to be in the presence of just God in his creation and the cool breeze and the shadow of the trees and just the peace of God was in that space. And yet it spoke words to me and yet there were no words. You could just feel something there. And as the Psalmist said, we'll read a little bit, it refreshed my soul to just sit in that place with a cup of coffee and just talk to God. And honestly, not much was said. It was just a moment that I was able to have in that space that God knew my soul was growing weary and I needed His refreshment in me. And I just found myself sitting in this space without words, without verbal communication, just something that I knew He was there. And this is what the Psalmist is saying, that in space we can find something that is felt, that is experienced, that is heard deep within us. This is actually a little bit in contrast to the culture of the day when the Psalm first section was written because Israel's neighbors actually worshiped the sun, the moon, the stars as divine beings themselves. And the poem here of the Psalter is stressing that the created things that are the sky are not God, but they are merely something, a phenomenon of the creator God Almighty Himself, whose true end is to praise God, the one true God. and this voice and this tongue of nature as it may speak, not in the words that human beings that we can discern, it is something deep down in our soul that connects us to God himself.

The psalm continues in verse five. It is like a bride coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and it makes it circuit all the way to the other. Nothing is deprived of its warmth. The second stanza takes a little bit of a shift, even though still part of the first section brings us a narrow focus to the sun specifically. This idea of rising and going is this measure of the day and the night. In Hebrew culture, it is said that the sun was to have its tent in the heavens, that the sun was to rise and it was the sun was to go down and it was to have its tent in the presence of the heavens of God almighty. This going out and running its course or its circuit and to return home. In the ancient near East, the sun was worse, the God of justice. And the Psalmist here is playing on this cultural idea that a Sumerian hymn calls the sun god a hero, a strong man or a warrior, and that it goes out and it conquers all, and it returns home victorious to his wife. The writer here is playing off of these cultural polytheistic ideas that these gods or the sun being a god himself, but it isn't polytheism that the Psalmist is talking about, but rather reminding us, the reader, that the sun is not a God, but something created by God. And it is God who sets the sun in the heavens, not the sun itself. The sun runs a circuit, not for itself, as the ancient Near East would believe, but runs the circuit that God has appointed to it. And that the sun is said to rejoice as it runs its circuit in the songs of praise directed towards God himself. The son or the created is giving worship to its big C, creator. Verse six says that nothing is deprived from its warmth. I think this word warmth here is a little bit deceiving. It's the original Hebrew is actually talking about this idea of heat or wrath. If you're thinking the terms of the sun and the culture, that the sun god would be this god of justice, one that just tears through everything and it kills and it conquers, it consumes with fire, everything set before it. I felt that this week when the sun, anybody else? The wrath of a hundred degrees is upon us. This idea or imagery of extreme judgment, devouring thirst that nothing, even the ends of the earth as it says, can escape it. But there's a subtle message wrapped here in this stanza. The writer wants to remind us that God being above and over all of creation, including the Son, who the surrounding cultures see as a God, is actually declaring that God is in God's glory. And that God's glory comes to His holiness, sometimes seen as themes in the Old Testament of Hebrew scripture as a fire. We see that in the Israelites when they're first out of Egypt, that God is a pillar of fire by night. that this fire as seen by most cultures as this horrific, terrible thing that wants to kill and destroy you is actually seen as something that is holy, is refining, is a light guiding us darkness. And that sometimes even in the church, it's been misrepresented as the God of fire and brimstone. Repent or go to hell, preachers yelling at you. But there's this duality of this fire that yet, yes, it is burning and hot and consuming, but also at the same time, I think of a warm fire on a cold night that warms, that sustains life, that helps us, that cooks food for us, that sustains us, brings nourishment. And this idea of, yes, God is both judge, judge in his permanent, hard, there's no compromise. But at the same time, he is caring, he is loving, he is guiding, he is life sustaining. And the Psalmist here is playing on as we see a verse and we think, man, that's so harsh. How can God be so hard? I thought God was supposed to be loving. And yet there is judgment. He calls us out on the carpet at times, but it's only because He loves us and He cares for us and He wants the best for our lives. I see this in the fact that the sun doesn't change. God doesn't. Rather we, in our circumstances, our choices, Our decisions, our moments in life change. But God is there day after day after day, always coming back around.

The Psalmist continues, verse 7 through 10, “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The three steps of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. the commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold. They are more than much pure gold. They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.” This is where we shift into the second section of the Psalm, and the tone here changes, right? We just go from the sun being consuming and harsh, and just burning to this idea of then the scripture, the word of the Lord is refreshing to our soul. Like a drink of cool water on a hot day, just that ah moment. This is the word of God. There's also a change in the original word for God here. It goes from a generic L, meaning God of nature, to this more personal relational God that the Hebrew people did as Yahweh. To go from a God of just nature that is around us to a personal God who loves us. The word of God is said in these first six lines full of synonyms. Did you catch those? It talked about the law, the statute, the precepts, the commands, the fear, the decrees. Each of these in reference to the word of God better knows we had today the Bible and these verses and words and chapters and books are all instructions for us for right living. There is this connection now between the law or the nature of God and his created order into the law of God, His Word, the Torah, the Scriptures for our lives. There's connections here between talking about rejoicing as it circles the earth and at the same time the precepts of the Lord. The Scriptures are right giving joy to our heart. Joy is seen in created order and joy is seen in His Word for lives. The Sun shines over all creation, talking about light, and the commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to our eyes. The light from the Sun continues throughout all a universe. It doesn't just shine past earth and then just fade off, but light continues on through the vast expanse of the universe, and so do the fear of the Lord is pure and during forever. This beautiful imagery of the created order and and particular set emotion details isn't just creation but we find ourselves too in that creation being created in the image of God ourselves and God giving us his word to know who he is not just from a generic knowledge of the created order around us, but a more head knowledge of who God is in his character. Verse 10 closes this section. It says, "They are more precious than gold, much more pure gold. They are sweeter than honey than honey from a honeycomb." This verse continues to echo God's creation in the first six verses, affirming that the word of the Lord is more desired than anything in creation. Playing off of this imagery of the sun becoming both gold and honey, sharing this golden hue of the sun. It's beautiful picture here of this, but speaking more so of gold and honey as status in that day. If you had gold, you You were set. You were wealthy. You were beyond ready to eat on a regular basis. You were first class. You were top of the top. And the Psalmist here is reminding us that even the word of the Lord is greater than the greatest desired of life itself. Not just gold, but absolutely pure gold with no imperfections, which I don't even know if they were able to refine it that pure in that day. But talking about honey being something that does not spoil, does not fade, does not go bad, it lasts almost forever. And to have that to be consumed in sweetness and to have this joy and pleasure in eating that the word of God is even greater than any of all of that. Anything that you would want to pursue as the thing in life, God's word rises and sets above it all.

The Psalmist finished in verses 11 to 14. "By them, your servant is warned, in keeping them there is a great reward. But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins that they may not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.” The shift in poetic style as well. And that here the Psalmist himself becomes our servant to the reader in praying for us in his words and in his speech towards God. this beautiful shift and this idea of this coming from abstract speech from nature into the speech of God's word for our lives, into the speech of the scene for us in the way that we live out our life. Verses 11 and 12 there discuss the rewards. What does it say there? It says, "Great reward is found in the instruction of God." This isn't talking about this cause and effect of, "Okay, if I obey everything in the word of God, then there will be great reward for me. I will prosper. I will have everything perfect in my life. Nothing bad will happen to me." No. Talking about the fact of the opposite of that, when we follow the instruction of God, there is great reward in the life of God that is given to our soul. I think sometimes in life, we want God to bless us and then we'll be obedient. But God doesn't work like that. God asks and calls for our obedience and then his intimacy comes on to our life. That's how God works. And the Psalmist here is reminding us and saying this way that protect us in your salvation, God. See, we have on the backside of this, the great reward of knowing the story of God after this, Jesus coming to earth, dying for our sins, rising again, ascending to heaven and sending upon us, those who have accepted him, believe in him, the gift and leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the greatest thing that we ever asked for. The Psalmist here is praying for something like that, but not knowing what that thing is like. And yet we have that. So for us to see the revelation of God in this unspoken knowledge of God, to then see His word given to us to revealing who He is, God's character, His nature, His son, the Holy Spirit is then infused into our lives how we go about our daily life, living the way that God has called us to in ways that we know we need to make a right decision, talking about the willful choices, the willful wrongdoing, the willful right doing, but also as it says in here, these hidden places, these hidden spots where we might not know the details of God in this moment, we know because of who God has revealed himself in nature, who his scripture is and the truth and the word that he's given us, we know how we are to act and live and fulfill the life and calling that he has for each of us.

This author's prayer, I kind of rewrote it in my own words. And it would be, God, let your word of your truth speak over not just me, but also the reader. Let your holy light illuminate our errors as the sun, both hidden and unknown, willful and known. Let your freedom be found in the almighty God and not our sinful nature, in the desire to be blameless, removed from innocence of any transgression, to be holy God as you are holy, bringing you Father, Lord almighty, into our entire being through our words of our mouth, our souls, our hearts, thoughts, even before they become words. May we all do in our speech, finding revelation in the unspoken speech in your creation and your word become pleasing, something that you God would find full of rejoicing that my life would be a pleasing sacrifice, bringing glory, honor, and praise to you God, acknowledging that you God truly, The one and only is this character and this nature that you Lord are my rock. One where I can find refuge, safety, security, and freedom. And even the greater is the character of God, my Redeemer. The only one by which we are saved from being lost, gone, tossed out without any value. God picks us up, dust us off, even brings us back into value. we are called a child of Him. He is given our name. We have an inheritance in Him. We become a child of His. And when all hope seemed to be lost, God shows again and again and again and rescues us.

That's Psalm 19. In creation, the Creator that was once hidden is seen in plain sight. And in God's word, the Lord Yahweh comes to us in a personal way. We meet God in this gracious and merciful who is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, showing faithfulness to the thousandth generation. The heavens, the Word, the glory of God. So the question for us is what do we do with this newfound knowledge? Will we pursue God as as more precious than the greatest desires of our heart, more than gold, more than honey. God's not a hidden God, as some believe. God is a very revealed God in everything that is around us. We can know God in a vague, impersonal nature connection, but the good news is it doesn't stop there. We can have a personal knowledge of God in deep, deep intimate relationship. That's the God that I want. That's the God that I need. That's the God that I serve. Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you for Psalm 19. God, I'm so grateful for the sermons who wrote this Psalm for us to be reminded today that you, God, are revealed all around us. There isn't a place on this earth that we can go where we do not see or experience or see who you are. But it doesn't just stop there, God. You've given us the knowledge of your word, your scripture, your holy, holy instructions to show us how to live our lives, to show us how to worship you. God, I pray that we would be reminded today of who you are. You're not just the big guy upstairs, you're not some impersonal God looking to strike us down when we first mess up or to just have smash us because you can just for your own pleasure. God, you desire deep relationship with us. God, I pray for those who today might not have made that choice, that they would say yes to you, to say yes to God, come into my life. Forgive me of the things that I've done wrong and that I've messed up. Remove my sin, go in my place, redeem me, make me whole. Have your spirit come upon me, have your new life pour into my heart. and God that I would live in the calling and the purpose that you have for my life today and forevermore. Jesus we thank you for today. God we worship you, we praise you, and give you all the honor and glory that nature does as you being our great creator. We thank you Jesus. Amen.

Summer of Psalms - Part 1

Psalm 29 - Listen for God’s Voice

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Going to introduce a new series. One of the values here at Spring Valley Church is we have this goal of covering the entire Bible over several years. And primarily, we do that on Sunday mornings through covering different books of the Bible and also in our community groups. But we cover-- we want to cover the entire Bible. And one of those rhythms that we have is to cover the Psalms over the summer. And so we'll be doing this for many summers because there's 150 Psalms. So we've done it the past few summers. We're going to keep doing it. but we love this goal of just we want to cover all of God's Word and so summers in Psalm are great it's such a joy to be here in this book as we begin this series I just want to give a general overview again of the book of Psalms and I would encourage you if you want to know more go home YouTube Bible project Psalms and there is a great video it's like seven eight minutes long just summarizing the entire book and they do a far better job than I can do and There's cool animations so you can kind of see what they're talking about. But I'm going to do my best to kind of share what they say.

So Psalms, like I said, 150 ancient Hebrew poems, songs, and prayers that come from all different eras of Israel's history. And there's many different types of poems in these collections, but generally they can be sorted into two categories. Those of lament and those of praise. Poems of lament in psalms are poems that express—or songs or prayers— express pain and confusion and even anger of the poets, of horrible things that are happening to them or horrible things that are happening around them. And they draw attention to what's wrong in the world and ask God to do something about it. And there are a lot of lament poems in the Psalms, which shows, and shows us today, that it's an appropriate response to the evil and the darkness that we see in our world today. An appropriate response is lament, and to take that lament to God. So, lamentation can play an important role in prayer. Now, lament poems make up most of books one through three, which, by the way, in Psalms there are five books. It's kind of separated into five sections, and the first three are heavily, there's praise and lament, but they're mostly laments. But in books four and five, towards the end of the Psalms, you can see that the praise poems are more frequent. And these poems of joy and celebration draw attention to what's good in the world. And they retell stories of what God has done in the lives of his people, and they thank him for all his works and who he is. And so books four and five, praise poems outnumber the lament poems. And it culminates at the very end of Psalms in this five-part Hallelujah to God. And the shift from books 1 through 3 and 4 and 5 in Psalms, they show something about the nature of prayer according to what God wanted the people to go through and what they went through. So there were a lot of hard times, but in the end there should be this praise to God, and there should be this peace that God has worked, and his work is coming to a culmination of good in the world. So, hoping for the Messianic Kingdom, as the book teaches us to do, creates a lot of tension as we live in a world of tragedy, but we know that God is at work and there's a future of hope. And I'll quote this directly. This is from this video, this Bible project. They're very amazing scholars. It says, "The Psalms teach us to neither ignore pain, nor let it determine the meaning of our lives. Biblical faith and prayers is always forward-looking, anticipating the day when God will fulfill His promises and praise Him for the things that are to come. The Torah and Messiah lament and praise faith and hope. This is what the book of Psalms is all about. And so today, I know that we hold a lot of tension in our lives of things that are very hard, things that are hurtful or painful, or we're just around a lot of darkness, And yet we have Christ, who is a light and who is a hope. And there is a future that we look forward to that is hopeful. And so the Psalms really helps us to manage that tension and gives us instruction on how to walk through our day-to-day lives, holding both things as realities.

I want to go ahead and pray before we get into our Psalm. I just think we need - there's never too much prayer. I need prayer. Let's pray one more time. God, if we come before you, We come before you with all that we have, and sometimes that's not a lot. But we know that you accept us just as we are. And so I pray that in this time, through your word, God, that you would fill us up with your spirit, with your joy, your love, your compassion, your grace. And God, that you would give us what we need for this moment, for this day, and we'll just take one day at a time. We don't need to worry about the days to come and all that, all the details and chaos that may lay ahead, but just for this day, we pray that you would provide us with what we need. And in this moment, as we're gathered to hear your truth, that it would be empowering and encouraging for us. Give this time to you. in your name. Amen.

All right, there is tension. I talked about tension. There's tension of the sin in our lives, the sin in the world, and there's tension even in the voices that we hear. So when God created Adam and Eve in the garden, there was no tension. It was Adam, Eve, and God, and it was just a beautiful relationship, and it was perfect. It's what God intended. And as sin entered the world, then there there became all these sorts of tension. Tension in the human heart of what to follow. To follow sin and to follow selfishness and pride or to follow God. We can put that in another way of what voices to listen to. Do we listen to the voice of God? And when sin entered the world, now there are other voices, the enemy, and other things of the world that are vying for our attention and for our hearts. So the voices of the world, even for us today, can be very loud. things like money, success, worldly values, keeping up with appearances, social media, all these things that are speaking to us, whether we realize it or not, they want our hearts. It may not be a specific voice, as if Satan is just talking to you all the time, but really, Satan, the enemy, is content with any voice that is talking to you that is not God. Any voice that is grabbing your heart, getting your attention, He's fine with that as long as it means that you're not hearing God's voice. Whether it's something neutral or really evil, or maybe even something that in and of itself is actually good, but if we have too much of that good thing that keeps us away from God, Satan is saying, "That's fine. I don't have to work that hard. There's so much noise in your life, you're not able to hear God." In our community groups, we've been covering different spiritual practices, And in all of them, there's this focus of hearing God's voice. So whether through prayer, or silence and solitude, or fasting, or even Sabbath-ing, they are all providing more opportunity to hear the voice of God, to lessen or turn down the volume of all the noise and all the other voices in the world, so that we can hear God’s.

Another way of thinking about this, about the voice of God and the voices of this world, or are we taking time to hear God's voice? Do you hear the voice of God? Now, this is not to guilt trip anyone, and I think it's rare to actually hear the audible voice of God in our daily lives. But if we just think about our day and our routine and our week, do we leave intentional times of quiet where we are just listening for God? Or do we kind of just believe and think that if it's important enough, God will interrupt my schedule. He'll get my attention somehow, and He'll make it clear to me. But I'm just going to go about my day. I got a lot of things to do. And so God, if it's really important, just, you know, make it amazing and make it, you know, I can't ignore it. Which, by all means, He can do, and He does. But shouldn't we, if our relationship with God is just that, a relationship where we speak with God, but we also want to hear from God, do we leave time in our day to hear His voice? Would we even recognize the voice of God in the midst of all the other voices that we hear? In the midst of all the other noise that we have in our day. You know, from getting up in the morning, to going to work, to getting kids to school, to checking emails, social media, to reading the news, keeping up with family and friends, texting, and all those conversations that happen, to getting dinner ready, to getting the kids to bed, to watching the shows that you got to keep up with. Do we leave time in all that day to just say, "I listened for God"? Or is it we look back at the end of the day and we're just kind of saying, "Good night, prayer to God, God, great time today, that was fantastic. Hope you had a good one too, good night." I'm guilty of that sometimes. I'm just like, "God, I should connect with you," but I'm literally falling asleep right now. Like I said, it may not be commonplace to hear the voice of God, but the Bible lets us know about the voice of God, of who God is, and how He speaks so that we can recognize God. We can have this relationship. We can know who we are in a relationship with. And it's so important. The Bible, God wants us to recognize Him and how He might speak to us.

And so that's our Psalm this morning. We're going to be in Psalm 29. You guys can turn there. It'll be on the screen. I'm just going to go ahead and read our entire psalm first, and then we're going to go verse by verse and break it down. So Psalm 29 says, "Ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. Or the God of glory thunders. The Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon leap like a calf, Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning, the voice of the Lord shakes the desert, the Lord shakes the desert of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forest bare, and in his temple all cry glory. The Lord sits enthroned over the flood, The Lord is enthroned as King forever, and the Lord gives strength to His people. The Lord blesses His people with peace. This psalm is divided into three sections. In the first section is a call to praise God. This is written by David. Like I said at the beginning, there are many different authors of different psalms. David, I think, is a third of the book of Psalms is written by him. And so this is one of His. And He wants us, He wants the readers, He wants Israel to approach God with a certain heart, a proper view of the Lord, which is praise. We should come to the Lord praising Him. And again, just more questions for us today. How often do we praise God? I know we praised Him this morning. We were singing songs of praise to Him. We probably praise God when things are going well in our lives. Something great has happened. We're blessed and it's good. We should have this reaction of praising God. But how often do we praise God unrelated to the good things that happen to us? And maybe a different way of asking that is, is our praise to God transactional? "God, because you've done this, now I offer my praises to you." And again, we should be offering praise to Him when good things happen, but not only when good things happen. Do we live with the belief that God is good all the time? Unrelated to what state we may be in or how we may be feeling, do we still believe in praising God? This is a lesson that David learned over and over and over again in his life, as he had the craziest stories of hiding in a cave from someone who's trying to kill him, or being on the run from the king trying to kill him, or being in enemy territory, surrounded, completely surrounded, and just trying to survive to being king, and having very bad days in the office as king, and still having to come before God with praise, even when things were terrible. And so the point of these verses is to show us that the Lord is deserving of our praise. Even the angels owe their praise and worship to God, the Creator of all, the Lord over all. All the time. And are we able to, no matter how our day went, no matter how tired we are, or how frustrated or angry or hurt or grieving, we may feel or maybe be going through, can we still see God as Lord of all? And have a moment of praising Him? It should be one of the main starting points as we approach God in that conversation with Him. Now, He accepts us, He wants us. If we're hurting, He wants us to just express that hurt. But in there somewhere, are we still praising Him for who He is and what He does? So, in these first verses, David invites us to praise God, and then he goes on to describe just how powerful God is, reminding us of who Yahweh is. Again, the hope, His hope is spurring greater relationship with the one true God.

Psalms 29:3 says, "The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord thunders over the mighty waters." I love this. Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm sorry. Hold on. Keep that in mind. Keep those verses in mind. What we're about to read, what I just read, is in comparison, David, the people of Israel, He writes this this song because he knows that his people are starting to hear other voices around them, the other false gods that are in the surrounding nations, and their hearts are starting to be pulled to especially this false god named Baal, or Baal, of other surrounding countries. And Israel just has this tendency, you'll see it over and over again in the Old Testament, where they just, they're there, they're with God, they're following God, it's going great, and all of a sudden, just slowly, they just start drifting, and they're like, "God's great," but also this other God could be awesome. And they start bringing that God into their lives. And so David sees this and he writes this psalm about the voice of God so that he can tell them, "This our God, Yahweh, is greater than any of the other gods that are out there. You need to remember this voice, this voice of God." So that's why some of these descriptions of God over the thunder, we'll get to this, is trying to help the people contrast. Like, you think that God is great, that God of the sky, or that God of this land, or the God of the waters. You think that they have power, but they have nothing compared to Yahweh. All right, now I read the verse about God. "Of glory thunders over the mighty waters." And again, in Hebrew, in the Hebrew mind, all these verses, we read this in English, and it is beautiful in English, but in Hebrew, the beauty of it is more complex, and it's very deep, and it would challenge the listeners, the Israelites, to recall certain things in their history. So it may just seem very poetic, and it's like, "Oh, God is the God of nature to us. He's in control of everything.”

But in all these examples, David is recalling very specific situations that the Israelites would know and recognize. And so we hear the God over the waters, thunder, and a couple things would come to mind. First is creation. And in Hebrew, we have the Spirit hovering over the waters at the very beginning of time. And so we see that God, David wants the people to see that God has power over creation, as the Creator. Not just power over creation because He's that powerful, but because He is the Creator. He created everything. And then as thunder, the God of glory thunders, thunders over the mighty waters. This idea of thunder would bring the Israelites to God's voice in the desert with Moses. And in Exodus 19, 19, you won't turn there right now, you can go back and check out this whole scene where the Israelites were gathered at the base of Mount Sinai, and God called Moses up to the top of the mountain to give Moses the law. This whole scene in Exodus is Israel becoming a nation. They had no really law, they had no distinction to make them, besides they were all of the same family and their family was huge. But in this moment, at the base of Mount Sinai, God is giving them their identity. He says, "You are mine, here is my law, which if you follow this, it means that you are living rightly. You are living in the way that I intended you to live." And so he's hearkening back to that moment as Moses went up to the mountain, and as God was speaking to Moses, it says that the thunder grew louder and louder as God spoke. And so the people at the base, Moses is up on the top and the people are all gathered. And it's a very scary moment for Israel. They've never seen this before as God. Just the thunder on that mountain is like trumpets, loud, loud trumpets. And it's the voice of God. So as David writes this, they're recalling this. And so it's a voice that has authority. And it's a voice that demands obedience. And instead of just saying that, they're like, "Hey, God's voice demands this." He recalls this whole moment so that Israel is thinking of, "Oh yeah, God gave us a lot. God gave us, instructed us on how to live, and that was a terrifying moment. This God, Yahweh, was up on that mountain, and his voice was thunder." God's voice has authority and demands obedience.

Next, verse 4, it says, "The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic." So again, continuing to draw on God's power, but also this word "majestic" makes us think of the royalty of God. To the people of Israel who desperately wanted a king, there was a time, there in the desert, through the judges, that God was effectively Israel's king. They had no earthly... Moses was their leader, Joshua was their leader, but God was their king. And then, as we know in the Bible, the Israelites grew tired of not having a king. And they looked at all the other nations, they're like, "Hey, they have human kings, we want a human king." And God's like, "I am the king, and I'm better than any human king." They're like, "That's not good enough. We want a human king." And he's like, "Fine." And he tells them, "It's not going to be good. You are going to suffer. You're going to go through pain. These kings will not make good decisions. I am perfect. They are not." And they're like, "Yeah, we get it. We still want that human king."

And so David had a beautiful heart, and this is why David is one after God's own heart. He recognized his own failures as a king, and God was perfect, and he knew his shortcomings. And so He's reminding the people of God's royalty that He is the King. And first, how awesome God is. I don't mean that in like the surfer way, like, "Oh, so awesome." Like, it makes us full of awe towards God. His voice has a reaction in us as He is King. And we don't really get this, I don't think, in our Western culture, and definitely not, I wouldn't say, in America, but think like medieval times or even before that. The king's word was law. Whatever he said was truth. And that's the language that David is using here, that when God speaks, it is truth, it is law. It is something that we are to live by, and it is good. Unlike the earthly kings who, it could have been terrible, but because it was law that you had to follow it, God's word is true, it is good. And so that's all wrapped up in this word "majestic". And 5 and 6 say, "The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon leap like a calf, Syrian like a young wild ox." Now I read this, and I'm like, I don't know what's happening. What are we talking about here? Cedars making Lebanon leap like a calf. But we dive further in. It's again just referencing God's power, His power as Creator over creation. The cedars of Lebanon are trees that maybe we can think of the redwoods that we have in California. Just known for standing the test of time. They're huge. They're strong. Cedars of Lebanon are the same thing. Whenever the Bible says it was like something was made from cedars of Lebanon, it's supposed to help us be like, "Oh, that thing is like finest quality. That is up there." And so it points to God's power as Creator that He has power over His creation. that even the strongest thing on earth that we can think of, these trees, God has power over them. It's nothing for him. Or he makes Lebanon leap like a calf, searing like a wild ox. Again, just things that humans have no control of. No human could make that happen. God could make that happen. That is how powerful he is.

In verses 7 and 9, read, "The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert. The Lord shakes the desert of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forest bare, and His temple all cry holy." David, again, is thinking of that foundational moment in Israel's history, of being in the desert of Mount Sinai, in that pivotal moment of Israel getting to know God. And he's reminding the people, again, of just how much higher and more powerful Yahweh is than any of the other gods that the surrounding nations worshipped. Then he brings in this place of Kadesh. And this is the place where the report of the Promised Land came back. Moses had come to the edge of the Promised Land, and he sent spies in to say, "Hey, are we able to go in? What does it look like? Let's see this land that God has promised. Let's see what it looks like." And the report came back, and you may know 12 spies went in, and only two said that God would give them the victory. The other said it's not possible. Too much. The people are too big. The fortresses are huge and they didn't believe. And so this moment of God shakes the desert of Kadesh, I think can be interpreted in a couple different ways. But I like that it's just bringing back this moment where God's voice wasn't listened to. God spoke to two of them strongly and said, "No, tell Moses that we can do this. That God will provide whatever is needed to go and conquer the Promised Land." But ten didn't believe and kind of ignored the voice of God. And then Israel's future was changed. They had to go wander in the desert for 40 years. And so we have this contrast of it's a voice that demands authority, or demands obedience and has authority. But we also have a moment of seeing the consequence of when it's not listened to, there are consequences. If God's voice is instruction, if you don't believe in who He is and what He can do, your life is going to be worse. And it brings to mind the wandering of the desert for 40 years. It's also a voice that brings judgment. And so as they wandered the desert for 40 years, and that was a punishment, God continued to sustain them. He didn't just leave them out there to die and say, "Now you got to go wander, and if you make it great, but if not too bad." No, He sustained them. He started bringing manna and quail, and He helped them in those 40 years.

And so it's a voice that, yes, brings judgment, but it's also a voice that sustains and provides and saves. Verse 9, there's a couple different translations here. Some say, "In the strips the forest bear, and in this temple all cry holy." And other versions that say, "The Lord makes the deer give birth." And this is a reference to Job. And God is just trying, David is trying to say that God has control, again, in ways that humanity does not have control. God has power over His creation in a way that as humans can become such experts in things, and especially today where we have a lot of control over things, and science is amazing, and does so many things. God is far beyond that. God has the Creator. This can't be stated enough, and I think Israel, this is why David just keeps harping on it. As Creator, God has control, complete control, and it's effortless. It's of such ease over all of creation. Nothing stresses Him out. Nothing gives Him like, "Oh, this was a really hard one for me." No, God has complete control. And all those who are in the temple, all those who are living in right standing with God, can recognize this, can see this, and the response is glory. Glory to God. Once you see God at work, once you see what He's doing, the response is one of praise. Glory to God. And so after describing God's power and the power that His voice has, now David describes Yahweh as King.

And in verses 10 through 11, "The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord is enthroned as King forever. The Lord gives strength to His people. The Lord blesses His people with peace. David puts in the reader's mind, in the listener's mind, Yahweh on the throne as King. And he says, "King over the flood." And now this word is only used in the Bible one other time. In the flood, back in Genesis, with Noah. And that flood experience, that flood story for the Israelites, is a mix of God's terrifying judgment and also his plan of salvation. The power that God had to flood the entire earth is scary. The fact that everyone could die and that God had control over that is, I mean rightfully so, that's a lot to take in. And at the same time, in that same story, we see God's rescue plan, his salvation plan at work by saving the family of Noah. And so He is, again in the Hebrews mind, they're saying, God has control over the most, like one of the most terrifying judgment experiences the earth has ever experienced. One of the most destructive forces, God has control over that. And yet He also works salvation through anything. And unlike earthly kings, David writes that the Lord is enthroned forever. Every earthly king has an end, has a beginning and an end. And David's writing this as a good king. He had a time of flourishing. His kingdom was a good one. And he even recognized that, well, this is going to come to an end. But God is king forever. We see David say that God gives people what they need. He gives them strength. and He gives them peace. So even though He brought up this flood, which would bring up maybe some anxiety for Israel, so like, "God, is God going to judge us? What kind of judgment are we going to face?" God also gave peace to Noah, and God gives peace to His people. It brings to our attention that God causes us to look towards God. It causes us to look heavenward, with awe. It helps us to look forward with faith, as we know that God is good and He'll give us everything that we need. And it reminds us of who God is, so that as we go about our day, hopefully we can recognize the voice of God. Whether it's through what He does, or things that are happening around us, all of that can be God speaking to us.

So I just want to remind us as we close, that Psalms is a prayer book for the people of Israel and for us today. And sometimes the point of prayer or a psalm Is simply to draw our minds back to God just to draw us closer to Him as life Really pushes us away from God and we feel that tension of I feel distant from God. I've been so busy And so the point of psalms and a prayer is just to simply bring us back to Him And so today and this week my encouragement would be for all of us to listen for God's voice For our minds to be drawn towards him and for us to praise god for who he is. So if there's a couple things It's can we approach god with praise despite how our day is gone when we've had the worst day the worst week Can we still praise god? And then are we making time to listen for god's voice? We want to be able to recognize it we may not hear an audible voice of god if you do Amen, praise god, please share. I would love to hear that Truly, that'd be amazing. But we will probably hear God's voice in other ways. Maybe through other people, through the reading of His Word, in the silence, just the nudging of the Spirit within us. We want to be attuned to that. We want to be ready for that so we can follow God with everything that we have. Let's go ahead and pray. God, thank you again for your Word that guides us, that is true, that is steadfast and faithful and never changes. And God, I pray that this week truly that you would speak to us. And really we know that it's really on us. We need to make time to listen. So I pray that you would help us to do that. That you would make that a conviction, a priority in our hearts. That there would truly be desire. And that we would make time, whether that's quiet time in the morning, or on our drive, or just a moment where we're just silent and listening. God, I pray that we would all hear how you are leading us and guiding us, calling us to live for you, to love others. Maybe it's just a voice that provides comfort as we're going through hard situations and difficult times. But God, I pray that we would feel closer to you, that we would feel in your presence, and the love and the peace that you provide in that time. Sustain us God, carry us this week. We trust you and we love you. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Philippians: Part 8

Philippians: Part 8 - A Caring & Content Heart

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are wrapping up our series in Philippians today and I'm so thankful for the Spirit's leading through this series as he's provided us with truths that we needed to hear, and reminders that guide us through life and guide us to endure. And clearly, God knew what he was doing as he gave us. He led us to this series and led us to these words that I think we need more now, yeah, more than ever. And so it's a series that has, through it all, through the four chapters, has encouraged us to rely on Christ in every situation, to see the joy in all things, which means trying to see things from God's perspective. It's helped us to recognize the need we have for spiritual examples and spiritual role models in our lives, while also at the same time recognizing that we may be that for other people. It's encouraged us to shift our perspective to see the positive, to see the good, to see the work that that God might be doing. And it's a series that has called us to be honest with God and to lay before him our desires. As Paul wrote to the church in Philippi from his prison cell, we can be thankful that God gave him the clarity and the words to encourage the church that needed to hear the truth and the fact that we need to hear that truth today. So as we mourn through these times of sorrow, I think the words of Paul will help us in grieving and offer a glimpse of Jesus in the darkness.

Paul is wrapping up this letter, giving his final encouragement, signing off. As we know from the Apostle Paul from this series and really also from Romans, he likes to talk. He is a talker. He's a bit of a rambler. I learned in my marriage that when leaving some kind of function, my wife and I had different approaches. And at one point, it caused a bit of tension. We're very much now on the same page. But if we were to be somewhere and she said, "I'm ready to go," she could be in the car in five minutes. And what I didn't know is that she had already done all the prep to leave at that point. I would hear that and say, "Great!" And I would talk for another hour, and be there and be there and talking and wrapping up and all this stuff. And so I would linger, I would say goodbye, because I hadn't done that prep work. I would just--and even if I were to say, "Hey, I'm ready to go," I wouldn't mean right then. I would mean later on, I'd be ready to go. So I think Paul is kind of like me. I think he says something earlier. He's like, "Hey, we're coming to the end of this letter," but he just keeps going. He just keeps writing and he's getting more thoughts. And so we--even though we're wrapping up this letter, there are some new ideas, even in this conclusion that we're gonna dive into today. And so just pray with me one more time as we focus here on God's word. God, again, we come before you, Lord, and our desire is to know you and know your truth. So be with us as we read your word, give us insight and understanding. And God, I pray that you would help us to see how this truth right now is needed for our lives, for our church, but also for where we are individually. So God, we give this to you. Amen.

Alright, we are going to be going verse by verse through the rest of this chapter. We're starting in verse 10. You guys can follow along. I'm going to go ahead and read just this first verse. It says, "I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it." Pause right there. "Some of us are great at being ready. We leave the house and we are prepared for anything." I was a Boy Scout for one year, so always be prepared. So I'm kind of ready. I'm not super ready. I didn't go all the way, Eagle Scout or whatever. But some of you guys know you're ready. And so Paul is saying, you know, it is important to be ready as we walk by faith with Christ in our lives, to be ready to respond to God in any way that He may bring before us. And he's encouraging the church who was ready, who had the desire to help Paul, there just was no opportunity. So as we think again about this scripture and applying it to our lives, do you have desire? The first question is, do you have that desire to help? If God were to put an opportunity in front of you, do you have the desire to step up and meet that need? He says, "Now after desire, you still need that opportunity, right?" The church in Philippi didn't have that. Eventually they did, we'll get to that. But as you think about your life, again, just do a quick survey. Are there opportunities in your life that you're passing by, that God is bringing before you, to say, "Hey, you have the opportunity to help someone, to provide for someone, to be there for someone." And then when the opportunity did arrive, and we'll get to this in a little bit, the church did act, and they did step up. And as Pastor Chris said today, I want to encourage you, you have done this. You have done exactly this. And if Paul were writing about you, he would be full of praise, that this week you stepped up immensely for the Morgan family. Be encouraged. Feel the appreciation. And I also want to say with all grace and love, don't become complacent. Stay ready. When that next opportunity comes about, be just as ready as you were this time to give in whatever way that would mean. Don't become so callous that we no longer want to provide when God brings about that opportunity. Don't think, "Last time I did something, so someone else has turned to be God to those people, to be Jesus." Or, "Don't think, 'God, I'm dealing with so much stuff right now, so I just can't do that.' Can you have someone else provide for those people in need?" Again, we'll get some more of what that looks like, but I just want to encourage you to be ready. Stay concerned with God's people and caring for others, and be ready to step up when the time is right.

Paul continues in verse 11, he says, "I'm not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. Paul shares some of what God has taught him through his own life, which is to be content in all situations. This is back to back weeks now of really difficult positions of the heart that Paul is calling us to have as believers. A couple things about being content in all situations. One, it is learned. I want you to have grace with yourself. I think oftentimes we can beat ourselves up when we say, I'm just, I'm not content and therefore I'm a failure and therefore I'm not doing what God is calling me to do. But Paul says that he had to learn how to be content in all situations. This means going through experiences that will leave us feeling unfulfilled, empty, broken, confused, desiring more, and it is a process. Just as Paul talked about last week, as we lay our desires at the feet of Jesus, and we learn to surrender, and we walk with Him with those feelings, then we can learn to be content. But it's a process, it is learned. Secondly, he says, "Whatever the circumstances." This is an all-encompassing list. These could be the hard times, the bad situations that we face, like financial issues, mental health, poor friendships, loneliness, tough work situations, persecution, faith issues, loss of loved ones. And Paul's writing from experience, I mean, to his credit, in his time of following Jesus, He has experienced so much of this. But it's also in the good times, in the good experiences, in all situations. So this could be a better work situation where you got to raise a promotion, a better living situation, successful friendships, a new car, a vacation, a growing family, or a growing faith. And you may be wondering why would we need to be content or to learn to be content in the good times. Well, sometimes the good times grow that desire for more. And we're never content. We're never thankful. We're never praising God for what we have, but we're just continuing to reach and say, "This isn't good enough. And I want more of this." See, whether dealing with a lot or a little, the temptation of discontentment can be present, can be very real. And it can start so subtly, but it grows and grows quite rapidly. Paul knows this. He grew up in affluence and abundance, and after coming to saving faith, his life changed, but he still had moments of having a lot, but also having very little. And he learned to be content because he knew that God was everything that he needed, and would give him everything that he needed. be it physical food or spiritual guidance or mental fortitude or just provisions that he needed, Paul had experienced the love and the compassion, the provision of God, and had come to such a deep-rooted faith and trust in Christ.

To the point where he writes verse 13, which says, "I can do all this through him who gives me strength." You probably heard that verse before. It is well referenced, sometimes out of context. But we understand now reading this passage that that context is through all things, especially the hard times and especially in times when you have to endure. Paul lives with this assurance that he will get through anything because of Christ in him. the Creator of all, the King of kings, the giver of life, God the Father, Holy Spirit, the Comforter. Like it says in verse 9, "The God of peace is with him." God is with him through all those situations and has taught him to be content. But again, to reach this place of contentment, Paul had to endure some of the most difficult situations here on earth. And so it's just such a good reminder for us that as we strive to be content in Christ, one, we need Christ. We can't do it without Him. We need Christ to be content. And it will mean going through some of the hardest things we will ever face. And our goal at the end is, as we walk with Jesus, to become content. So as He endured, there was more and more opportunity for God to provide for Paul.

Let's continue in verse 14. He writes, "Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles." This can be so hard, because for Paul, he first had to share his troubles with the church. In order for the church to then respond and provide, Paul had to share, "Here's what's going on with me." And this is really hard, because, as you know, I know you have shared what's on your heart before, it can take a lot. There are often reasons why we don't want to share. And those voices can be really loud and sometimes we wait too long to share before we really enable others to reach us. But it requires us to be vulnerable, to be honest, and to trust with those whom we share. Because in our minds, there can be this fear, there can be this risk of being judged, of being ridiculed, of being condemned, of losing face or losing a friendship. And oftentimes, those things where we feel the affliction or the struggle are just things that we don't often talk about. Maybe it's finances or maybe it's relationships. It's usually some area of weakness or insecurity within us, where we don't want to appear weak. We don't want to appear in a certain way, and so we just hold it within. We say, "God, you and I can deal with this. I don't want anyone else to help me deal with this." And yet Paul recognized the need to share his troubles. So as we talked about earlier in the passage, by doing that, it provides an opportunity for God to work and to provide through other people. There can be miracles where just out of nowhere God will give something, but oftentimes He works through other people. And part of that may mean that we have to share. He continues to praise the church and Philippi that they had a desire to help. And as the opportunity came about, then they acted. And it was so good for them to practice being in a church in that way.

And so in verses 15, let's read about Paul's testimony of what happened. It says, "Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, "Except you only. For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need. Not that I desired your gifts. What I desire is that more be credited to your account. I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied now that I have received from "Paphroditus, the gifts you sent, they are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God." So Paul shares that he's so thankful for the gifts that the church provided. He's being careful not to infer more. We read this and we were like, "Great, he doesn't need anything." In other cultures, once you compliment someone, they may have the response of just giving it to you, because maybe you would only compliment by saying, "I actually want that." And so Paul's just being careful to say, "Hey, thank you so much for the gifts. I don't need anymore. Don't send me anymore." But he's just trying to encourage them in the evidence of their growing faith. The fact that they did this shows evidence that the gospel took root in their lives and that God was working through them to provide for Paul. And at the end of verse 18, Paul describes all this support, all this provision, as a fragrant offering and acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God. And this language is pulled from the Old Testament in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Ezekiel, of moments of sacrifice. Moments in the Old Testament where they would have to slaughter an animal, put it on the altar, and burn it. It's a moment where the people in the Old Testament were making a sacrifice for their sins, coming before God to follow Him. And those sacrifices are an act of obedience and worship. And that smell of a burning carcass, which may not have been pleasant to anyone around, was so pleasing to God because of what it symbolized and what it meant. That His people, who were meant to love Him, who had gone away and sinned, we're coming back to Him and wanting to make right their relationship with Him. Obedience and worship to God. It's something so pleasing to God. It brings Him such joy. So Paul is reminding us that sincere Christian service, which at times means sacrifice for us or self-denial, not only spreads the gospel, but it strengthens those who serve. It's an act of worship to God. It's this picture of a moment where everything is right, where we are in God's will, doing just as Jesus did. Loving others, sometimes at the sacrifice of ourselves. It's accepting that partnership with Jesus on earth, and loving for God's kingdom.

Paul wrote something similar in Romans 12:1 which says, "Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship." And so we no longer are in the Old Testament. We don't have to go to a temple and bring an animal and sacrifice it on the altar. But the way that we live our lives, the way that we love other people, the way that we sacrifice and serve others and serve God is our way of worshiping and our way of making an aroma that is pleasing to God. So we should strive. We want to live a life that as we go about our day to day in our work, in our families, in our neighborhoods, the way that we're talking, the way that we're interacting, All of it is just a rising scent to God, an aroma that He's looking down saying, "Yes, that is pleasing to me. That is a life that is sacrificing for the gospel, for me, for my kingdom.”

Verse 19, Paul writes, "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus." I love this because Paul gives the assurance that what God has done for him, God will do for the church in Philippi. We read this today and we know that God will do the same for us. Even if it means continuing to give, when we don't have a lot to give. It doesn't say that explicitly in our passage, but referencing other passages in the Old Testament, we come to know that the church in Philippi wasn't well off. They weren't giving from this like storehouse of excess saying, "Well, we got a lot. Just go ahead and take whatever you need." They were also struggling and yet they continued to give. It's that part of sacrifice. It took sacrifice on their part. And Paul is saying that God will meet your needs. I think we often struggle with that today. That we want to give from a place of security. We want to give when it doesn't mean a lot to give. We have a lot. We have extra. Yeah, it's easy. I got some extra things to give for the food pantry. the food pantry, that's fine, I'm not using that anyways. That's not the kind of giving that God talks about. There's no verse in the Bible that you'll find that says, "Hey, once you have extra, then I want you to start caring for others." He says, "Give, I will bring opportunities in front of you. I need you to step up. And as you do that, and as you trust me, I will also provide for you. You will give and you will still have need. Let me provide for you." Trust me that I will provide for you. That's hard. That means that we're not in control anymore and we often wanna be in control. I know that if I don't give, I will have enough, so God, I'm not gonna give. And maybe we can even justify it with some spirituality of saying, God, you wanted me to be a wise steward of what I had. So that means saying no to someone in need because I gotta take care of myself. I think Chris, Pastor Chris used this analogy earlier in the series of being on a flight, and I just flew this week, and I heard the safety protocols, and they say, you know, in case of when the mask drops, and you have someone that you take care of yourself first, and then put the mask on the person next to you, the child. You don't put it on a stranger, but the child. And I think that's how we go about our spiritual life. "God, let me make sure I'm good first, and then as I see need, I will then take care of other people." And that may work on a plane, but it does not work for the Christian life. Give. Be generous. Step up when God provides the opportunity. And watch God provide for you. I'm sure you know this or maybe have experienced this. I think some of the most generous people in life are those who have very little. I was talking with Becky this week and she brought up the point that it's probably because once you're in that place of having little, you know what it means to have very little. And so when you have anything to give, you know what it means to receive. And what a blessing that is. And you're just more likely to say, "Yes, I know that you need this right now." And what a blessing this will be for you. And I know that I'll be taken care of. will somehow provide for me. I think of a family at a previous church I worked at who just always lived within their means, but their means were very small. But whenever an opportunity at church arose, whether it be a meal train or someone was in need and we collected something to give, they were first. And they didn't necessarily give a lot, but they were so faithful to give. And it was just such an example to me that I knew that they had worries. We were praying for God to provide for them on the prayer team that we had for that church. And they were concerned about rent or whatever. And yet, whenever the call came in, they would be first to give. And it just exemplified a trust, a deep rooted faith, just like Paul, that God will provide. God is their biggest need. They need Him, and by their need in Him, they'll experience and witness God providing for them.

So this is what Paul wants us, this is how he wants us to live. To be generous no matter what we do or don't have, and as we give, that we can trust God and trust that He'll meet our needs. According to the riches of His glory. Because we know that He is sovereign, and He knows what we need and when we need it. There's this common thread through Philippians that as we go through our own hardship, we have to learn to trust God. And as we go through our own hardship, we are also still called to care for others. And if we're all doing that, despite what we're going through, we're still reaching out in whatever capacity we have. It may be very little, it may be a lot, but as we continue to rely on Him, love others, That is a beautiful picture of the church. That we're coming together, gathering on a Sunday, knowing that everyone here in this room is going through their own things. And yet we're receiving love from people, and we're giving love to others. And Christ is in the midst of all of it. And as we each, we have to each rely on Christ, because our tanks are finite. We'll run out of energy. We'll run out of love. We'll run out of just whatever to give. We'll just say, "I don't have anything to give." But if we are all relying on Christ as we walk, we can continue to support each other, to be there for each other, to encourage each other, and to just be the church for each other. I think that's happening here, and I love being a part of it.

As we end today, and as we end our series, I just want to ask a few questions. From verse 11, "What situation are you going through that you need to learn to be content in? I'm not saying you can't voice your frustration to God or to others, you can't share your discontentment with God, but are you continuing to work on surrendering and trusting Him? I shared about this last week that this is my situation, I'm learning to be content. And once we learn to be content in one situation, Sure enough, there's another situation where we're going to have to learn it all over again. But hopefully as we learn and more and more it becomes easier, and maybe we reach that place of surrender quicker. So what situation are you in where you are needing to learn to be content? Secondly, from verse 14, what trouble are you facing that you might need to share? Maybe you need to share with the church. Maybe you need to share with your spouse. You haven't even shared it with them yet. Maybe you need to share with that close, trusted group of friends. Maybe you need to share with some pastors. But it's going to require you to be vulnerable. It's going to require you to be honest and to trust. But then by doing that, you'll be opening yourself to seeing how God can work through others in your life. So what do you need to share with someone? Maybe this week your spirit is prompting you to say, "You've been keeping this in. You've been thinking that you can handle it. You didn't want to share. You don't want to be embarrassed. But now it's time. It's time to let other people know and let other people by the work of God come to support you." And lastly, from verse 19, where has God met your needs lately? It is so important to take time to pause and reflect and thank God for what He has done. The needs will be never-ending in life. We will always be in need, and so we'll always be praying, "God, I need this. God, there's another thing." But if we don't ever pause, if we don't ever just look back for a second and reflect, "God, I have seen how You have done so many things," those prayers become heavy and there can be doubt that works its way in and say, and say, "God, I don't know if you're working." But if we pause just for a moment and say, "God, I still have a lot of things that are concerning me, "but I have seen, I do recognize that you met this need, "that you loved me in this way, "that you met me in this place," it's so good for our hearts. It brings us closer to Him, and we're more likely to recognize the work of God in our day-to-day lives. Those mercies that are new every morning. I mean, that can be a prayer, just, "God, let me see you work today. Let me recognize something today, just one thing that is of you, and I can give you praise for it, as evidence for the faith that I have. That can be an encouragement, that can be an affirmation of following you. So as you reflect back on your week, on this month, on this last year, where has God met you? Where has He provided for you? And give Him praise.

Our goal in this series, as we just finished Philippians, was by the end of it, that we'd be able to connect and reinforce in our minds that being a Christian means in some way participating in the life of Jesus. Through every aspect of our lives, whether joy or sacrifice, that it could all be used for God's kingdom. And in that, that God would use whatever we go through, enduring hard times or the best of times, there's joy that we are a part of God's plan. That as we serve, as we give, as we're generous, that we are deeply transformed by the work of the Spirit. And so even though we're done with this series, there is an ongoing invitation to us to participate in the life of Christ, to partner with God and the work that He's doing. And so we started this series with a question, and we'll end with this question. Will you accept that invitation from Jesus to partner with Him in the work that He's doing in your life and in the lives of those around you? And that way we can endure with joy. Let's pray. God, Again, we come before you with probably a lot racing through our minds. And I pray that you would cut through all the noise to make clearly your voice and your truth. And God, through your spirit, you would put on our hearts so clearly the truth that we that we need to focus on, that we need to remember, that we need to grow, that we need to be more like You, or maybe that we need to implement this week.

God, I pray that You would make it clear to us the work that You've done in our lives. We do want to praise You. We want to see the things that are of You, so that we can recognize that You are at work. And God, I pray that you would help those here who are feeling alone, struggling with bearing the weight of their life all by themselves. It's not what you meant. That's not what you intended. So I pray that you would, through your Spirit again, that you would encourage them to share that burden with someone this week. Give them the confidence, the courage to share, knowing that they won't be judged, that they won't be condemned, that they won't lose face, but that they will be met with love. That they will be embraced and say, "Yes, I'm so glad that you said that. I would love to help you." And maybe we're on the other end of that, God, and maybe we're going to hear someone say that they need something. I pray that you would encourage us to step up and to provide. Granted, we have our own needs, and we may not know how those are going to be met. But as we serve others, as we meet others, God, I pray that you would encourage us and give us a peace, a deep, deep peace, that it will all be okay, that you will provide for us. God, we want to be your church. For each other, for those who are not yet believers, for those who are not yet in this church, we want to be Christ to others. So help us, guide us this week to do so. We love you and we give you all the praise and glory because you are deserving. Amen.

Philippians: Part 7

Philippians: Part 7 - Learning to Ask and Trust God

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Welcome this morning. Glad that you're with us. My name is Andre, I'm one of the pastors here, and excited to be together. Missing everyone who's streaming from home. I know there's a few of you, so welcome from afar. I want to begin today by going back in history for a second. November 22nd, 1873. Would anyone randomly know why that date would mean anything to anyone? I don't expect to. I didn't know this before this week. So it's a date that, on this date, a steamship was heading across the Atlantic, and on it, this man, Horatio Gates Spafford, had his family besides him, his wife and four daughters on this steamship. And tragically, another vessel, an iron vessel, collided with this steamship, and 226 people perished, including all four of Horatio's daughters. A couple weeks later, he finds out because his wife sends a telegram when she arrives at her destination across the Atlantic, sends a telegram back to Horatio that says, "Saved alone." He goes to fix another ship a couple weeks later, and he goes out to meet his grieving wife. And while he's on his journey, his ship crosses the point where his four daughters perished. And he was inspired in that moment to write the hymn, It is Well with My Soul. I wanna read the second verse of that hymn. It says, "When sorrows like sea billows roll, "though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, "let this blessed assurance control "that Christ has regarded my helpless estate "and has shed his own blood for my soul. "It is well with my soul." How could someone enduring such grief write the words, "It is well with my soul"? I believe it's only possible for Spafford to have written those words because of his deep, deep trust and faith in God. A faith that endured one of the most challenging moments of his life up to that point. And I'm sure Spafford had to ask God to sustain him daily, to carry him through each moment as he was grieving the loss of his children. I don't know if you've ever had to do that. If you've ever been in a place in life where you have to ask God daily just to get you through that day because of what you're going through, because of how little you feel you you have of your own energy, strength, confidence, whatever it may be, and you are depending on God saying, "I don't feel like doing anything, "so God, I need you to get me through the next minute, "the next hour." Have you ever, think of a time in your life when you've had to ask Him for that and then trust Him. You've had to ask and then wait in that trust that He will provide. Paul definitely has, the apostle Paul, who has written the book of Philippians, I think has gone through that multiple times in his life. We're getting to the end of our letter in Philippians, and he's wrapping things up. And as a reminder, our series is called "A Joy That Endures." Paul knows what that's all about from experience. He's in prison, unsure of his future, whether he's going to die soon, or if he's just gonna be kept in prison alive. But he's writing to the church of Philippi, persevering through his difficulties to continue the work of the gospel.

And I began with the story of Spafford, it is in this hymn, "It is well with my soul," because I wanted to preface this morning with the uncomfortable truth that for many of us, at some point, there is tension in our lives as we are devoted to following Jesus, and how that interplays between the realities that we face and what it means to follow Jesus. There can be tension in different seasons. Or maybe there's just, you're thinking like, I felt tension ever since I've been conscious and I just feel this tension of following Jesus and the world around me all the time. We are people who tend not to like tension. I don't know about you, I avoid it at all costs. I am very uncomfortable when it comes to tension, whether it's between another person or a situation is making, I feel the tension, I have to resolve it, or I have to do my part to get away from it, remove myself, or whatever it may be, but I don't like tension. Sometimes tension is good because it informs us that something's off and something needs to be addressed. But the uncomfortable truth is that other times, God wants us to just sit in tension. I think of the Psalms, and so many of the Psalmists have tension in those passages. There's deep despair and anguish, and yet they're also praising God. We'll get to more of that in a bit. If I'm being honest, one of the most frustrating parts of following Jesus in the day-to-day life is dealing with this tension. By the way, Jesus felt tension throughout his life, being fully man, fully God. There's a moment that I'm sure we recognize of when that tension becomes unbearable. It's in the Garden of Gethsemane. when he's praying to God, if there be any other way than what has to happen tomorrow or that morning, please let that happen. Jesus felt the tension. The tension in our Christian life too, doesn't have to be between just a bad thing and a good thing that's probably less tension. We just know that there's a clear cut right answer. There's a direction that God wants us to go. But sometimes the tension comes in two good things and trying to discern, God, What do you want me to do? Maybe you've been in situations where you're wondering, "God, is this a moment to humbly suffer for your kingdom, or do I stand up for justice here?" Or maybe it's, "God, are you calling me to my dream job across the country, or do I stay put in my community with my family?" Those are two good things. What is God calling you to do? There's tension in that. "God, do I continue in my friendship with a person who's not a believer, and I know that I am the only Christian friend they have, or do I distance myself because it's unhealthy for me?" "God, what do you want me to do?" Or maybe it's more focused on what we want to happen, like Paul might have prayed as he's sitting in prison. I think God had - or Paul had many prayers to God, thinking, "God, can you just either - can I join you in heaven? I'd rather be dead, can you just have them kill me so I can be with you in heaven, or have them release me so I can go about fulfilling my gospel mission. I don't like being here in prison. But sometimes the tension means sitting in silence, waiting to hear from God.

And although we feel the absence of clarity or direction, we can know that He is in the waiting with us. Oftentimes, our hearts experience the most transformation, the act of being molded by God in the midst of tension. So as we'll find out today, even in the midst of tension, of having to endure things, there is a call on our hearts to rejoice. What does that mean? Let me go ahead and pray. We're gonna dive into Philippians 4, and we're gonna find out what Paul's talking about. So would you guys pray with me again? God, thank you for our time this morning, And as we come before you, we pray that your word would illuminate our hearts to your truth and that we would understand better the life that you are calling us to. Speak to us through these words in Philippians, God, and I pray that we be encouraged and empowered to follow you with everything that we have. We pray this in your son's name. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Philippians 4. We're going to start in verse 2, or you can pay attention to the screen. I'm going to read the first couple of verses here. Paul writes, "I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the Gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the Book of Life." Paul is here admonishing them to seek and strive for unity. Again, this has been present throughout the entire book, But he wants the church, again, to understand that the biggest threat to God's church is divisiveness that comes from within. And one of the best ways to unify people is to get them together around a common cause. To unify them, have them have the same target in mind and say, "Hey, I need you to all to focus on this because you understand how good this is for the church." And so Paul tells them to have the same mind, there's unity, and then to help the women who have helped him. There's also a beautiful reminder here and request by Paul for the church to work out conflict as a community. And I love that picture and that idea.

The modern church for the past several decades has really emphasized an individual faith in Jesus, which is good. But sometimes they've emphasized it at the point of losing this communal aspect of our faith. And there are things that need to be done as a church, as a community. We just finished our community group about fasting, and in there we had a beautiful reminder too of the need to fast together as a church, and how that's different than just fasting alone. Jesus meant for the Christian life to be done in community, and so that includes conflict resolution sometimes. This is a part of bearing each other's burdens, of exercising love and compassion and understanding and forgiveness. So I want to remind us today that we at Spring Valley believe that, that if the situation were to arise and it was needed, we would be a church that would want to resolve whatever conflict together as a church. So that's Paul's little snippet there. And then we go into another final encouragement, summarizing the point of this whole entire and it's a lesson that is easier said than done. Let's go ahead and go to verse four. It says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. "I will say it again, rejoice." Guys, we could have a whole sermon on just this verse. I can't, I have to go through more verses, but this is, there's a lot to unpack here. This is easier said in the good times, right? Rejoice in the Lord. If you're in a good place in life, you're like, amen. I can do that. God's been blessing me, I'm in a great place, I'm feeling his provision, life is good, I'm gonna praise him. And you should, we should be praising God in the good times. But the reality is, the good times, I think, are one of the smallest percentages of our life. Pure, just great, a great time where there's nothing else that's going on in your life that's bringing you down, that's a very small percentage of your life.

The reality is, for many of us, it's not often - I would venture to say it's not often - that we just feel like rejoicing and praising God. More often, I think more likely, life is complex, full of difficult-to-parse situations where there is good, but there's also something else going on. All of our lives are connected, And so, when you feel stress, anxiety, disorder, or chaos in one area of life, it often affects the other areas of life too. So the question becomes, what does it look like to rejoice always in those times? How do I rejoice when maybe there's seemingly nothing to rejoice over? Hence the tension that I was talking about at the beginning. Well, I want to restate what we've talked about earlier in the series that rejoicing is not just being happy, having a smile on your face, though that may be what happens sometimes, but that's not what Paul is talking about here. Paul is saying to rejoice always and not in everything. He's not sitting there in prison saying, "Man, I'm a rejoicing guard. Can you give me another lashing? This is great. Love it here in prison." It's not what Paul is saying. He's saying, "Rejoice always." So what does that mean? And before you may quickly have this answer of like, "This is what it means," and that's good, hold that answer. I want to throw some scenarios at you, and I just want you to wrestle with maybe how you would answer. If this is someone you knew, and they were saying, "This is my situation. How should I rejoice?" So what does it mean to rejoice always when someone you love is slowly dying? What would it mean to rejoice always when a relationship in your life continues to cause you pain and hurt over and over again? What does it mean to rejoice always when your job is no longer feeling fulfilling and you're starting to feel the sense of loss? And just what am I supposed to be doing? What's my purpose? How do you rejoice always when you look at your budget and you're wondering how you're going to afford the necessities of life or how to provide for your family? What does it look like to rejoice when your faith in God starts to feel full of doubt and questions? I'm sure you have your own situations that you can fill in the blank there. How am I supposed to rejoice always, whatever you're going through or have gone through? Can I confess something to you? I'm still figuring this out. I mentioned tension in the Christian life earlier, and this is one of those areas that I feel tension. I don't always know what it means to rejoice always. There are situations we face where we may know we're supposed to rejoice, but as much as we want to muster it out of our own strength, there's just not, there's nothing there. Sometimes we may ask, "How do I bring myself to do that?" We may feel like we have conflicting emotions or desires within us. I do think we often think of emotions as all or nothing, in the sense of, "If I'm feeling happy, then I shouldn't be feeling sad. If I'm feeling this, then I can't be feeling this other thing." But you may already know this. I did some research this week. We, our human bodies, God created us to feel multiple emotions at the same time, hence more tension in our life.

For me, one of these situations where I feel this tension, People will ask how my dad, who has Alzheimer's, how he's doing and how I'm doing with it. And I love, I always appreciate people caring for me, but that is one of the hardest questions to answer. Because it's a mess inside for me. While I'm feeling so sad and grieving the loss of someone who's slowly dying and forgetting everything, I am also so happy and grateful to be getting time with Him, for that my family, my daughter, can be getting time with Him and making memories with Him. So the sadness I feel does not mean that there isn't any happiness, and the times that I am happy doesn't mean that I'm not deeply grieving. It's just both, and there's tension there as far as what I'm supposed to be feeling, and what I feel the most, and what I want God to do about it. I think rejoicing often means sitting in the tension of multiple emotions or desires and realizing that we aren't in control, that God is, and that the outcome that we may want, we can express to God, but ultimately we'll have to surrender it to God. most basic level, I think it means trying to see things from God's perspective and resting in His sovereignty. That's a working definition for me, so in a year I may have a different definition.

But there's so much and there's so much more we don't have time for. There are people, amazing pastors and theologians who write books on this about rejoicing always. So this is a very condensed version, but again down to its essence, I think a part of rejoicing always means rejoicing in the fact that we're trying to see God's perspective and we're resting in his sovereignty and the fact that he's in control. I think that could include praising him in that moment for who he is and what he's doing in our lives. It could mean rejoicing in the sacrifice that Christ made for us and the provision and the and the salvation that he offers us. It could mean rejoicing. Rejoicing could look like, well, we cannot see and understand everything. We serve a God who does see everything and understands everything. Rejoicing always could mean rejoicing in the temporary duration of this life and knowing that eternity is spent with God. Or rejoicing always just may mean thanking God for this day and that we're looking forward to the very next day. And that's it. And I understand that some of these things during the hardest times, if you were to say this to someone, it might sound cliche. It might sound like lip service. But at the very least, when someone hears this, hopefully, and even the mere attempt to do any of these things, to look at God's perspective, to try to see what God is doing, to try to rejoice, The mere attempt of this is turning our eyes and our hearts to Jesus. Even if we aren't successful in the sense that we don't start singing, maybe we don't start singing, maybe we don't become very happy in that situation, but we're at least looking in the right direction towards Christ. And we may not be bounding to Jesus, running to him, being, "Praise you, God, love you, everything's great." We may just be crawling. But even a slow crawl is us heading toward the Almighty. The implication of this verse, when Paul writes, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice," the implication is that we will be suffering in this life. He knows, that's why I think he says it twice, right? He's, "Rejoice always." They're like, "Yeah, yeah, good times, we're gonna rejoice." Again, I say, "Rejoice." See, your life as a Christian means suffering. Another pastor spoke on Matthew 16:24, where Jesus tells his followers to take up their cross and follow him. And the pastor pointed out that people don't often think about what that really means. If we were to pause and think about the journey that Jesus took with the cross, after being tortured, beaten, then he had to carry his own cross to the hill that he would die on. And Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me.”

That's not life is gonna be great, we're gonna be Christians, it's gonna be so happy. He's inviting us into suffering. He's inviting us into trials, difficult times. 1 Peter 4:12 says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange was happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed." It's encouraging to know that both Peter and Paul are on the same page here. always, no matter what you are going through. Alright, we're not even close to halfway done. That was just one verse. The rest will go quickly, I think. Verse 5 says, "Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." Paul is instructing the church in Philippi to continue in their compassion and love towards other people. It's one of the markings of the church, it should be something that stands out about a Christian, a follower of Jesus, is that they are prone to gentleness, to caring for other people, extending grace and mercy, as opposed to maybe the chaotic spirit as one who is prone to selfishness and stirring up strife and is all about their own pride and their own gain. Paul says, "Continue in gentleness. Be compassionate. Have a godly approach, a Christ-like approach. And he says the Lord is near trying to spur on urgency saying this is so important. We don't know when Jesus is coming back but you need to, he's coming back soon, so you need to live your life, this Christian life, with urgency. Don't slack off on this. Don't think you can push this off until like let me get some stuff figured and then I'll start being gentle and compassionate and gracious.

I think we need that reminder today. That this is, that life that we are called to live needs to be lived right away. All right, the next two verses bring us right back into the tension that we can feel as we walk with Jesus in the midst of difficult situations. It says, "Do not be anxious about anything, "but in every situation, by prayer and petition, "With thanksgiving, present your requests to God, "and the peace of God which transcends all understanding "will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." I hear this verse, and it makes sense to me on a head level. Like up here, I understand. I even have a piece of art over my desk that has Matthew 6:26, says, "Look at the birds of the air. "They do not sow or reap or store away any barns, and yet the Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Meaning God will provide. There's no need to worry because God will provide for you. God is in control. Do not be anxious about anything. That's what Paul says. That is so tough. That is really tough. Paul is writing this from prison. So it's not like I can say Paul you don't understand. He's in prison. He's got a lot going on. I think he's battling anxiety. Our series is about a joy that endures through all things. Oh man, Paul is writing this and he's well aware of the hardships that the church of Philippi is going through, just like God is very much aware of the things that we are going through. And yet, we are to trust and depend on Him daily. Another plug for the practice of fasting is part of the growth that I experience, I think others experience too, is in this practice of fasting, you're learning to trust God with something small. You skip a meal or a couple meals, and you are trusting that when you're hungry, when you're feeling low energy, He will provide for you. He will give you what you need. And by doing that, if you do that over and over again, it's like a muscle, right? It's easier for us to depend and trust in God so that when something difficult in life happens, We are ready, we are more prone to trust and depend on Him in that situation. So I think it's kind of what Paul's talking about here. Don't be anxious about anything. Trust in Him. As you do this more, it's going to get easier to not be anxious because you're going to realize all that you can trust Him with, which is everything.

The end of verse 6 instructs us to present our requests before God. Now, this is, again, I'm confessing a lot to you. I start to have trouble here. This is hard for me. I grew up learning to trust in God's sovereignty, like that Matthew verse, trust. God knows everything that I need, so why do I need to tell him? Why do I need to err? Like, "Hey, God, you know, you see me, "and you are gonna look out for me. "You say you're gonna provide for me. "I don't really need to tell you what I want "or what I need because you know. "So God, please just give me what I need." But recently in the last six months, in the last month a lot, I've been challenged with the thought of being specific with God in our prayers. Let your requests be made known to God. Now I know that God answers specific prayer. There's so many examples. I love being a part of the prayer chain here at this church because we see God answer prayer. I mean, just this morning we were talking about Arthur's housing situation. How God provided a place for him. Shelley, who's not here with us, but prayer came in that she was given notice for 90 days that they were going to have to move. And within five days of that notice, they found a new place, a better situation. Amazing! I know that God answers specific prayer. I even think of, we go back in church history, George Mueller in England who ran an orphanage And he started this orphanage and he didn't have anything. And daily he would pray, he's like, "I have no food for all these kids tomorrow. God, we're going to pray right now that you would provide a meal." And over and over again, the next day, someone would show up who had no relation, he had no idea, but there would be money or food to provide for these children. countless stories of God answering specific prayer. Even in the Bible, and this is a passage that I've just been dwelling on for a month now, it seems, Matthew 20:29, Jesus and the crowd are leaving Jericho, and he's walking along the path, and there's two blind men, and they cry out, "Jesus, have mercy on us!" And the crowd hushes them, says, "Hey, can you stop, knock it off? We're trying to listen to Jesus here." and they cry out even louder, "Jesus have mercy on us!" And Jesus says, "What do you want me to do?" And they answered, "We want our sight." And the verse says, "Jesus had compassion on them and healed them." Now I read that, and I say, "Why?" Jesus, you of all people would know what two blind people want. They probably want to see. Why are you asking them what do you want? And it starts to become clear to me, even though I'm wrestling with it, that it's a heart issue. God cares about our hearts and getting us to this place of trust and surrender. See, but putting all this is difficult for me.

We're not supposed have any anxiety and yet we naturally have expectations of what we want for life and what we want God to do for us. We hope that God will provide certain things. We are to pray for what we want and yet we are to trust that and surrender that He will just whatever God sees best. And mixing that all together is so difficult. God I'm supposed to pray specifically what I want and yet at the end of this prayer I'm supposed to come to a place where I just surrender if that happens or not I'm going to praise you?" I think the answer is yes. And some days I'm okay with that, and other days that's really frustrating to me. So how do we surrender our will and our desires to God? Trying to exercise trust and yet present requests before Him. Well, He says in verse 7, When you do this, when you present your request to God, it's like Paul knew what people are going to be wrestling with, then the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts. I love that phrase "transcends all understanding." I think that's a really fancy way of saying you're not going to understand. You're not going to get it. It's not going to make any sense to you. God's going to work in a way that you will not comprehend. I like to comprehend. I want things to make sense. This is challenging for me. But it is true that the peace of God will guard our hearts. See, I'm just formulaic. I want 2+2 to equal 4, and that's not how prayer works. It's not, "God, if I pray this, then I will receive this." If I present this request, and I surrender, then God will give me ultimately what I wanted. I think of Solomon and I'm like, "God, can I just have that? You offered him money, you offered him power, you offered him wisdom. He was supposed to choose wisdom and he got everything else. God, can I do the same thing? Can I get the wisdom and everything else if I got to that?" No. It's about this process of learning to trust God with our hearts, of surrendering our wills and saying, "God, your will be done," just as Jesus prayed. And as we voice our hearts when we're vulnerable with God, and we trust him that he'll provide however he sees fit, whether it's what we wanted originally or not, the peace of God will guard our hearts. Paul is bringing the imagery of a soldier guarding our hearts against fear, anxiety, and doubt. So when we pray, petition, we reach this place of surrender, then we trust Him, and then we can praise Him. Because we know that only He is in control, and we know God's character. And there is no one better to be in control of everything than God. And in there, there is room to praise Him. There is reason to praise Him. All right, I hope and pray that that made sense. Because that was a lot and it is still stuff that I am processing in life right now. as I wrestle with this passage. But we have this pattern developing here. Don't be worried, rejoice in all things. Don't be anxious, God will give you peace.

And then to help remain in Christ, Paul says do the following and we come to verse 8. "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you." Oh, we don't have enough time. There's so much good in here. Okay, this list, "True, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy." This is a good list. it has been proven that the most successful way to stop doing something that you don't want to do is to set yourself a new target, to focus on something new. For example, if you were to eat a donut every morning, and you want to stop eating a donut every morning, you couldn't just not eat anything. You need to replace that with something else and say, "I'm no longer going to do this. I'm instead, I'm going to do this." That's this list right here for Paul. He's giving us something new to focus on. If when you are living like Christ, if you need something, you're going to stop, you're going to refrain from doing these other things, here's what you want to try to do now. And he's also saying, "Look at how I have followed Jesus. Do as I do." Not in a boastful way. He's not saying, "Look, I'm really great at this. I'm kind of awesome at following Jesus." He's just saying, "I know it's helpful to have someone to model it for you." Jesus is ascended, He's in heaven. Look at me as an example of what it means to follow Christ, to live like Christ. And then it says, the most amazing part is that He assures us that God will be with you. Did you notice this? That earlier in our passage, it mentions that the peace of God, the peace of God will be with you. And now He assures you that God Himself will be with you, who we know to be the Holy Spirit. How amazing is that? Now we can have comfort and peace in our hearts knowing the Holy Spirit God is with us in everything we go through. Even more reason to not be anxious. God knows what we need and what we need is Him and He gives Himself to us. So in the midst of this tension we have the God of peace with us and as we wrap up I want I want us to reflect on what God is calling you to do and what areas of your life need to be re-centered around Christ.

And so I just have a couple of questions I'm gonna ask you. Just think of these things this week. Number one, what situation are you in right now that you need to rejoice in? Whether it's a good one and you need to praise God for what God is doing or whether it is one of the most challenging situations in your life. What is that situation? And what does it look like to rejoice always in that situation? Second question, what requests do you have that God needs to hear? Are you being specific with God? I'm asking myself that question every day. How can I be more specific with God? And then as you ask that, Are you trusting and surrendering your will to His? Saying, God, this is what my heart desires. I hope that this desire comes from you, that this is a godly desire, but ultimately your will be done, God. Third question is, who is your model? Paul was talking about him being a model. And I love that last week, Pastor Lauren brought up this idea of spiritual godfather God and mother, that we are an example to other people. I'm gonna flip it this week and say, who's your example? Who is your model of the Christian faith? If you don't have one, this week, this is your specific prayer, ask for one. God, give me someone I can follow in life. God, give me someone who has walked with you longer than I have, that will help encourage me, that I can go to in times of trouble, of anxiety, that I can lean on and depend on. And if you have one, I would encourage you to connect with them this week. If it's been a while, just ask them out to coffee. Text them, thank God for them. But who is your model? And then lastly, which one of this list from verse eight, the whole list of just good things to focus on, which one do you need to focus on in life this next week? Right, our hearts are prone to wander. And so we need to focus our hearts on something good, excellent, praiseworthy, noble, true, whatever that list. Pick one, pray about God, which one do you want me to focus on? Our prayer as a church, as a staff, as pastors, knowing that so many of you are going through difficult situations, is that you walk with Jesus in that tension, whatever tension you're feeling, and that you are trying to see things from God's perspective, and that you're able to rest in His sovereignty, and the fact that He is in control, and that ultimately that you can rejoice.

Let's go ahead and pray. God, we are so thankful for who you are, what you've done, and how gracious and patient you are with us. So much of this Christian life of trying to live like you, we don't do perfectly, we're trying to figure it out. We're wrestling with things of, what does this mean? How do I do this? And yet, I think that you love that we are trying our best to live like Jesus. And so as you empower us through your Holy Spirit to live like you, I just pray that you would also encourage us, God. There are so many things that are happening in this world, in our lives, that easily just bring us down, that bring discouragement, that bring discontentment. And God, we pray that as we surrender our expectations, that we lay our desires before You, that You would give us a peace that surpasses all understanding. and that You, God, that we would feel You with us. God, be with us this week in every situation. We love You and we trust You. We pray this in Your name, amen.

Philippians: Part 6

Philippians: Part 6 - Our righteousness only comes through Jesus

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas. I know that today can be difficult for some people for a variety of reasons, but I do want to make sure that we celebrate the moms and the grandmas and those that have children in their care. You all are amazing. And to those of the moms that aren't here, maybe you're streaming with us this morning, welcome, happy Mother's Day, or you're catching up later. We're just so glad you're here, and we hope you feel loved and honored and celebrated today. I got chosen to preach on Mother's Day as the resident mom here, I guess. I'm just kidding. It was, I volunteered. But I'm excited to be with us, be with you all today. It's not gonna be a traditional Mother's Day sermon. We are back in our Philippians series. So that is gonna be our focus, but I'll try to wrap in some mom stuff for us today.

So, Philippians, our series, The Joy That Endures. we're talking about, through this whole book, about how we can have joy in Christ and what that looks like. What does that look like for our everyday lives? The book, or Paul specifically, talks a lot about this throughout, how we can live this out, how we can find joy in Jesus, regardless of our circumstances. So we've covered chapters one and two. We're gonna be in chapter three today. So if you wanna get ahead and pull that up on your phones or your Bibles, There's Bibles underneath your seats. We'll also have it on this screen. And you can go to Philippians 3. But our buddy Paul here, the early church leader who wrote Philippians and much of the New Testament, packs a punch in this book. All right, we have only covered two chapters in the five weeks that we have been in this series. And we have already gone over partnering with God to spread the gospel, choosing joy and positive attitudes despite difficult circumstances, falling after Jesus, becoming more like him, pointing other people to Jesus, being an influence to those in our lives, and more that I'm sure that I miss. And that's just the first two chapters, all right? There's only four chapters in this book, but it is a lot.

Paul has a way of doing that. He just kinda just packs it in, has a lot of run-on sentences, if you've ever noticed, lots of therefores. He wants to get his point across. In chapter three, we're gonna cover the whole chapter today. We won't read it all, but we will cover it. And so just a little synopsis of the beginning verses. He is calling out legalism in this early church. Now, I'm a rule follower by nature. I don't know if it's just personality or being a firstborn or maybe a combination, but I am a rule follower. I like to police people. I like to know what is what, where I'm supposed to be. I want to do it the best. I want to be the best at it. And usually that requires following the rules. But I will say there is one particular area where I do not follow the rules. And that is my driving. I get it from my father. Completely honestly. But I like driving in the left lane. And if you are not going at least five over, please get out of the left lane. Can I get an amen? Okay, all right. Now here's the thing. The people in the left lane, we got places to go, right? I'm usually late, all right? So that's probably why I'm driving in the left lane. And I'm still a people pleaser, so I don't wanna be that late. So I'm trying to get there as least late as possible. Okay, so that's why I'm in the left lane. I'm just trying to get there quickly. People in the far right lane, I think you're holier than the rest of us, because you're following the rules, you're practicing road safety, we love you, we need you, do you? The people in the Middle East, I'm not sure what you're doing. I don't know. That's fine. I just don't understand it. But I just struggle to follow the rules. I haven't got a speeding ticket, though, so praise Jesus for that. (Laughter) Maybe I need one to learn my lesson. I don't know. The problem is not following rules. That's not a problem. That can actually be really beneficial when it comes to learning how to live rightly. There is a right and wrong way to live in a lot of issues that we see in the Bible. And so being a rule follower can be really helpful with that. The problem comes when we fall into legalism. Legalism is essentially where we are trying We need to follow the rules so closely that we lose sight of the end goal. It's to the detriment of the end goal. And the end goal as believers is to have a relationship with Jesus. And so if we are so caught up in legalism and following the rules that it is at the expense of our relationship with Jesus, we're missing the point. Paul here is addressing an issue where Jews at the time, Christian Jews, were telling Gentiles, these new Christian believers, that they had to become circumcised in order to be a Christ follower. They weren't truly a Christian if they weren't circumcised. And essentially they were saying, "You have to become a Jew before you can become a Christian."

They were adding to scripture, if you will. Now here's the thing, God used, in the Old Testament, when he was developing this nation of Israel, he chose circumcision as a way, as a sign, that the people would be set apart. Why he chose this particular sign, I am not really sure, but this was the sign, that they were a set apart people. They were different than the nations around them. So there was nothing wrong with the Jews choosing to follow that and be circumcised. The problem came when they were saying that it was required to be a Christ follower. were falling into this legalism. And Paul is flipping the script here and saying that those who follow Jesus who are Christians are the circumcision. They don't have to be circumcised, they are the circumcision. They are the ones set apart. They are set apart to God, Jew or Gentile. If they are a professing follower of Jesus, they are the circumcision. They are the set apart ones. See, what Paul knew is that if anyone could claim that following the rules would save you, it was him. He was like the best Jew. He grew up this good Jewish boy. He was a Pharisee, which was like the cream of the crop of the Jews, and they knew scripture inside and out. They followed all of the rules. They told everyone else how to follow all the rules. He was so passionate about following the law that he persecuted Christians in the early church because he believed they were going against the law. went to their homes and pulled them out to the street to be stoned, persecuted them. That's how passionate he was. That's how in line with the law he was. So he's saying, "If that doesn't earn me my salvation, if that doesn't earn me my righteousness, you have to understand that that's not it. No amount of legalism or keeping the law will justify us. We're not made right with God by anything we do, but only by the blood of Jesus. And that's just the first six verses of this chapter. Okay, three to jump into verse seven.

All right, so follow along with me. We'll have it on the screen. Verse seven of chapter three. "But whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith." Our righteousness, our right standing with God comes from God by Jesus, by the sacrifice of Jesus. Paul knows that everything else, compared to being in Christ, everything else is trash. And that's the kind word, the kind version of that word. He uses a much stronger word in the Greek, but it's garbage. It means nothing compared to being in Christ. He's not trying to make rule followers out to be the bad guy, 'cause that's not the issue. The issue is not following the rules, it's when it's the only thing that's important. That's when it becomes a problem. We miss the mark when we are so focused on following the rules that we miss the relationship with Jesus. Romans 5:9 says, "Since we have now been justified by His blood, "how much more shall we be saved "from God's wrath through Him?" It doesn't say been justified by our works, been justified by circumcision, been justified by how good we follow the law, by how closely we follow all the rules, by how good of a Christian we look like, it says, "By his blood." Friends, that is good news, 'cause it's not on us. The thing is, if we believe that we can save ourselves, if we believe that legalism and following the rules to a T can save ourselves, we're gonna be in a world of hurt, 'cause one, we're gonna fail miserably and still not be reconciled to God. And two, we are in effect denying the sacrificial work of the cross of Christ. If we, we may not say we believe that, we may not actually even think we believe that, but our actions speak loud. And if we are living in such a way that we are saying that we believe that we can earn our justification, we can earn our salvation, we're saying that what Christ did on the cross isn't enough. I don't think we want either of those options in the Christian life. That's not what we're looking for. So how do we do this? How do we move away from legalism into the freedom that is found in Christ?

Well, Paul goes into this in verse 10. I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His and suffering, becoming like him in his death. And so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Paul's whole goal was to know and love Jesus, full stop. Nothing else mattered, nothing else compared to knowing Jesus. As Christians, we can be a Christian, we can say we follow Jesus and say we can know a lot about him without knowing him. We can look like a good Christian. We can go through the motions and follow all the rules and do all the right things and still not have a relationship with Jesus. Paul had his priorities straight. He knew that becoming more like Jesus was more important than just checking a box and following the rules. He knew his calling. He knew where he was going, and he understood the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here's the thing about this power. This resurrection power is what justifies us. The debt has been paid. The sentence that we are supposed to, that is put on us for our sins has been served. It's done. Can I get an amen? That is some good news, people. Thank you. Okay, we're awake. The sentence has been served. We are justified by His blood. That resurrection power has been given to us. The same power that rose Jesus from the dead is in us because if we profess Jesus as Lord and Savior, we have Holy Spirit in us. And so no amount of legalism, no amount of doing what we think is right will justify us because the work's already finished, friends.

Have you ever tried to give directions to someone who just took things a little too literally, maybe didn't quite understand, maybe it was a child, maybe it was a coworker, maybe it was your spouse, no judgment, I don't know. I think of my kids sometimes, I try to give directions, and it just doesn't quite go the way I hoped. Imagine you're giving directions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To someone who's never made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before. So you say, "Okay, put the peanut butter on the bread." So they put the peanut butter on the bread. And then you realize, okay, you're gonna need to back up a little bit. So then you say, "Okay, no, take the bread out of the bag." So they take the bread out of the bag. Didn't actually tell them how to open it. Well, so next time maybe give the instruction to open at the seal, but it's fine. They follow the rule, right? So then you say, "Okay, put the knife in the peanut butter." Doesn't work so well this way. So you gotta tell them to take the lid off, and then they can put the knife in the peanut butter. And then you tell them to spread the peanut butter on the bread. And then you say, "Okay, now it's time for the jelly. "Put the jelly on the bread." So they do the same thing, 'cause you didn't give the explicit directions to take the lid off the jelly. "Yeah, will they make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? "Maybe eventually, but it's gonna be messy. "It's gonna be harder than it probably should be." But here's the thing, they followed all the directions. You said, "Put the peanut butter on the bread." They put the peanut butter on the bread. Now, okay, every analogy falls apart at some point. So, you know, God is much better at giving us directions than we are. But the point is that if we are following the directions to a T, but losing the forest for the trees, it doesn't do us any good. It's gonna be messy, it's not gonna be perfect, and there's no freedom, and the end result isn't what we thought it would be. 'Cause when we follow the rules, we live a good life. We live a right life. But at what cost? Are we getting the end result that we hoped we would? Might look a little messier than we thought.

The reality is that we are sinners and that sin separates us from God. God is holy. He is perfect. And so in order to be in relationship with him, we must also be made righteous. And we can't do that on our own. but thankfully we serve a God who loves us enough to send that sacrifice for us. And he sent Jesus to be that sacrifice. He was sinless, so he could pay the price. He served our sentence. The sacrifice has been made so that we could be reconciled back to God. Legalism can actually, contrary to what we may think, Legalism can actually keep us in bondage. But Jesus offers us freedom. Legalism is not freedom. Legalism is an obligation. It puts the work of salvation on us, which is a heavy load to bear. We can't handle it. We may think we can. We may try sometimes, but we cannot handle it. In fact, legalism can create so much bondage because it leads to other sins. It can lead to pride, thinking that we got this, we can handle it. It can lead to idolatry, that we are putting the rules up on this pedestal, or we are putting ourselves, we're making ourselves these little gods, if you will, that we are the one doing the work. Now, this doesn't mean we do whatever we want. This doesn't mean we just have free reign, forget the rules, throw them out the window. That's not what I'm trying to say here. And that's not what Paul's saying. But it means that our relationship with Jesus, out of that love for Him, we naturally start following the rules, because we want to, because we love Him so much that we want to live the way He tells us. We want to live the way that He commands us to. It's not out of obligation, but out of love and out of freedom. The joy, our joy is not found in following the rules or being the best Christian. There's no award for best Christian. Sorry. But our joy is in our relationship with Jesus. That's where we find our joy. And let's be clear, we get to live abundantly.

We get to live in freedom and abundance within the boundaries that we have been given. There's so much freedom there. God gives us a lot of free reign. And it's wonderful, we are promised an abundant life, not an easy life, not a carefree life, not one without hardship, but abundant, full, full of joy, full of peace, full of Him and His presence within those boundaries that He has given us. And when we walk in freedom, when we are walking in this abundant life within those boundaries, we look different naturally. We naturally look different and we point people to Jesus. Paul talks about this. So let's go on to verse 15. He says, "All of us then who are mature "should take such a view of things, "and if on some point you think differently, "that too God will make clear to you. "Only let us live up to what we have already attained. "Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, "and just as you have us as a model, "keep your eyes on those who live as we do. "For as I have often told you before, "and now tell you again, even with tears, "many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their God is in their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. And then he ends with chapter four, verse one, saying, "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, "You whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, "stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends." We get to be examples of Jesus to the world. And that may seem a little scary sometimes. I say we get to, some of you are like, "Do I have to? "Is that a requirement?" Yes, it is. We are all called to be ministers of the gospel. We are all called to be examples of Jesus to others. And Paul is saying here, I'm following Jesus and I've had some experience, I've had some real encounters with Him, so follow me as I follow Jesus. Let's figure this out together. Naturally with today, I think of mothers. Mothers are a great example of this. Christian moms disciple their children, they raise them up to follow Jesus. Their children model after them, for good or for bad. Sometimes it doesn't always work out the way we hoped, but we are modeling Jesus to our kids. I'm very blessed to have a mom that loved Jesus and taught us to love Jesus. I learned what it looked like to walk with Jesus from my parents. I was homeschooled, so I was with my mom more, but with both of them, Both of them love Jesus and modeled that for me. But whether you're a mom or not, whether you have biological children or not, you can still model that for others too.

Author and speaker Lisa Bevere calls these people godmothers or godfathers, these spiritual parents. Now, the idea of godparents is not unusual in our culture. many through the Catholic faith tradition or even just in close relationship with people, choose godparents for their kids. They identify them as someone that they want to pour into their children's lives or be there if something happens. But we can be spiritual godmothers and godfathers. We can model our faith to those who are maybe not as far along in their faith. Maybe they're not actually younger than us, but maybe they just are newer to their faith. And if you are newer to your faith journey, may I encourage you to find a godmother or a godfather. Ask them to lunch, buy them a coffee, spend some time with them, ask them questions. Watch them live their life. Watch them parent, watch them interact with their spouse. Watch how they talk to people, do life with them, and model after them. You're not worshiping them, you're not idolizing them, you're not putting them up on a pedestal because you and I both know they're not perfect and they know they're not perfect. But they've had some more life experiences, they've had some more encounters with Jesus. And sometimes as we're navigating life and learning to walk in faith the way Jesus did, it's helpful to have someone who's practically living that out, so we can learn how to do that ourselves. Paul wraps up this section of Philippians by acknowledging that there are enemies of Jesus. We know this. There are enemies of God. Take five minutes on social media and you will see it too. There are those that want to lead Christians astray or push their agenda. There are evildoers, as Paul called them earlier on in the chapter. They're ones that, maybe it's as simple as encouraging legalism, like the Jews were around circumcision, or maybe it's something more extreme, like things we're seeing in the Middle East. but there are enemies of Jesus. So he tells his people to stand firm. Stand firm.

Going back to the very end, chapter four, verse one. "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, In what way? In the way He just laid out for them in the whole chapter. Choose freedom over legalism. Walk in the power of the resurrection and model a biblical and faith-filled lifestyle. That's how we stand firm. It doesn't have to be complicated. It's not always easy, but it doesn't have to be complicated. We have been given the word of God. We have been given a fellowship of other believers. We have been given everything we need for a godly life. And we just have to choose to stand firm in that. So this is how we stand firm. We won't do it perfectly, but we will do it out of freedom. Amen? Amen.

Pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for the way you have given us everything we need for life and godliness, your word, your people, your spirit. God, we are so grateful for the sacrificial blood of Jesus that has justified us, that has saved us, that has taken the burden off of us so that we can be reconciled to you, not out of anything we do, not of our own strengths, not of our own efforts to earn, but simply by accepting your gift. God help us to walk in that freedom, help us to live in this abundant life that you have given us, and help us to model that for others. Lord, we thank you for moms. We thank you for those who have gone before us and who love us so deeply. May they be honored today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.